What's this? Two posts in the same week? Yes it's true, boredom has led me to provide another update on my training chronicles and any other matters of interest in my life. Well if it's a training update your looking for I am sorry to disappoint you, for I haven't been training much at all this week. Essentially I've just done "what I feel like." Which, on some occasions, has been nothing at all. However here is a quick outline of what I've done since the race last Saturday.
Sunday- Easy 1.5 hr bike ride with Travis and Hunter. We were fortunate enough to meet the wife of the president of USA Cycling. Here husband was in Beijing already and she was leaving to join him in a few days. Lay around the rest of the day then a :40 easy run that evening.
Monday- 1 hr run with 3xhill repeats each at 3:20-3:30 long. This was with Hunter and we were sucking wind at about 7500 ft.
Tuesday- Back home and I did nothing but lay around the house, make donuts, eat donuts and numerous other food items that left me completely disgusted with myself by the end of the day.
Wednesday- 2.5 hrs on the bike with a :30 run in the middle there. I was planning to run more but felt really lousy when I tried to pick up the intensity so I cut it short.
Thursday- Another 2 hrs easy on the bike.
:50 swim with the old masters group I used to teach.
Its definitely taking me a little bit of time to get used to this Texas heat again. And this week has been mild so far. I think racing at altitude is taking me some time to recover as well. I've just felt kind of tired and slow all week.
Today (Friday)- 90 min run at white rock lake. Felt alright and a thunderstorm kept the temps down so that was nice.
Essentially I've been sleeping a lot, training a little, and watching the Olympics for about 4-5hrs every night. This week alone I think I've watched more TV then in the last 2 yrs combined. Theoretically I should be packing and getting ready to move out Monday but... there's always time for that kind of thing later...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Colorado Rocky Mountain High
A race report from Junior Triathlon National Championships in Colorado Springs Colorado.
I was staying at our Icon One Multisport team house which had been rented by an awesome father on the team who's 11 year old son was competing in the youth 11-12 race. The house was in an awesome spot in Monument, CO but about 35min from the race site which was the only bad part. At the house was Mason(11 year old), 2 youth elites- Daniel and Hunter, and 2 Junior elites- me and Travis. Friday afternoon we went to the Olympic Training Center for our packet pick-up and pre-race meeting. It was a pretty decent goody bag with a nice shirt and a pretty cool hat.
Race morning did not dawn so early as the Junior mens race wasn't until 2pm. However check in was from 8-9:30 for everyone so Hunter, Daniel, Travis and I headed down early to check in. After we checked in we weren't allowed back in transition until during the actual race so we had to make sure everything was right the first time. Travis and I then headed back to the house to relax and watch the Olympics before our race.
In the meantime the youth elite raced and Icon One represented well. We put 2 guys in the top 10 and our next 2 were top 20!
Travis and I arrived back at race site just as the Junior elite females were going off. We had 3 girls representing Icon One and all of them did awesome! Kate won the National Championships with a killer run split, Alex was 6th, and Kailand was 15th. Wat to go girls!
Ok now on to our race. I did a warm up run with Travis and was absolutely shocked at how good my legs felt. They were loose and ready to go! A quick spin on the trainer and then I jumped in the lake for a wim warm up. About 200m into my warm up they called all the athletes out of the water because of lightening. About 1:40 we started lining up for the start in order of our number. I was #36 out of about 50. No sooner were we lined up, primed and ready, set to go, then they notified us that the race was being delayed because of the lightening. Their best guess was 30-45min.
Everyone crowded into the beach house and sat around stretching, listening to music, drinking, eating, or just thinking. I put some sweats on to stay warm and wandered outside where it was a little less crowded. Around 2:45 they told everyone we could get in and get a swim warm-up in and I quickly got my cap and goggles and headed to the water. The water was a bit chillier the second time around but still non-wetsuit legal at about 70 degrees. Lined up again they announced the top 15 in the country by name then quickly called off the rest of us as we ran to grab a spot on the line. I was about in the middle and when the whistle went off ran and dove into the water.
I didn't get beat up too bad and thought my swim was going ok until I came out of the water for the second loop and saw a LOT of people ahead of me. The second lap was pure survival as I was definitely feeling the altitude (6000ft) and lack of swim fitness. I did have a couple guys to draft off of the second lap and that helped. Out of the water I heard people yell that we were 3min down which was not good. T1 was also very empty of bikes which was not a good sign either. Oh well, I knew I wasn't a great swimmer and just had to put my head down and pedal now. Out on the bike I formed a group with 2 other guys and we began to HAUL. There were a few other riders who were with us for a while and most of them didn't know a thing about pacelining. Me and a guy named Stephen, who I knew from Hamburg last year where trying to get people organized and it worked ok. Stephen, me, and this 3rd guy were by far the most experienced cyclists and we were making up some good time on the rest of the field.
The bike course was 4 loops and technical with 10 corners per lap including a 180 degree turn. Our group of 3 was riding through the field, picking up riders, then dropping them when they couldn't hang on. I came off the bike in the top 15 with one of the fastest bike splits of the day.
I blasted through T2 and out onto the run were I began reeling in a few other runners. Some people were definitely feeling the effects of altitude and though I didn't feel stellar I was still running strong. Travis was about 15-20 seconds ahead of me and I was gaining on him a little bit at a time even as we both caught and passed other runners. Going into lap 2 I had moved myself into 7th spot and that was where I was destined to stay. I closed to within about 8 seconds of Travis but couldn't get closer and he pulled away some more on the 2nd lap. I held on strong to cross the line in 7th spot!
All in all I am super happy with my race. I came out of the water in 37th and scratched and clawed my way into 7th! Racing at altitude was tough as I never could kick it into that extra gear both on the swim and run. I was stuck in just trying to hold my pace as I got more and more tired. Though I'm happy with my performance I now am fully resigned to the fact that I HAVE to get my swim down. There's no other option. If I could have been 1-2min faster on the swim I would have been contending for a podium spot. And next year if I want to do any U23 racing I won't be able to bike my way through everyone like I did. It was a great race, I'm super stoked about next year, and now I get to focus all my energy on cross country before going into a hardcore swim block this fall.
Thanks to Talbot for these pictures.
I was staying at our Icon One Multisport team house which had been rented by an awesome father on the team who's 11 year old son was competing in the youth 11-12 race. The house was in an awesome spot in Monument, CO but about 35min from the race site which was the only bad part. At the house was Mason(11 year old), 2 youth elites- Daniel and Hunter, and 2 Junior elites- me and Travis. Friday afternoon we went to the Olympic Training Center for our packet pick-up and pre-race meeting. It was a pretty decent goody bag with a nice shirt and a pretty cool hat.
Race morning did not dawn so early as the Junior mens race wasn't until 2pm. However check in was from 8-9:30 for everyone so Hunter, Daniel, Travis and I headed down early to check in. After we checked in we weren't allowed back in transition until during the actual race so we had to make sure everything was right the first time. Travis and I then headed back to the house to relax and watch the Olympics before our race.
In the meantime the youth elite raced and Icon One represented well. We put 2 guys in the top 10 and our next 2 were top 20!
Travis and I arrived back at race site just as the Junior elite females were going off. We had 3 girls representing Icon One and all of them did awesome! Kate won the National Championships with a killer run split, Alex was 6th, and Kailand was 15th. Wat to go girls!
Ok now on to our race. I did a warm up run with Travis and was absolutely shocked at how good my legs felt. They were loose and ready to go! A quick spin on the trainer and then I jumped in the lake for a wim warm up. About 200m into my warm up they called all the athletes out of the water because of lightening. About 1:40 we started lining up for the start in order of our number. I was #36 out of about 50. No sooner were we lined up, primed and ready, set to go, then they notified us that the race was being delayed because of the lightening. Their best guess was 30-45min.
Everyone crowded into the beach house and sat around stretching, listening to music, drinking, eating, or just thinking. I put some sweats on to stay warm and wandered outside where it was a little less crowded. Around 2:45 they told everyone we could get in and get a swim warm-up in and I quickly got my cap and goggles and headed to the water. The water was a bit chillier the second time around but still non-wetsuit legal at about 70 degrees. Lined up again they announced the top 15 in the country by name then quickly called off the rest of us as we ran to grab a spot on the line. I was about in the middle and when the whistle went off ran and dove into the water.
I didn't get beat up too bad and thought my swim was going ok until I came out of the water for the second loop and saw a LOT of people ahead of me. The second lap was pure survival as I was definitely feeling the altitude (6000ft) and lack of swim fitness. I did have a couple guys to draft off of the second lap and that helped. Out of the water I heard people yell that we were 3min down which was not good. T1 was also very empty of bikes which was not a good sign either. Oh well, I knew I wasn't a great swimmer and just had to put my head down and pedal now. Out on the bike I formed a group with 2 other guys and we began to HAUL. There were a few other riders who were with us for a while and most of them didn't know a thing about pacelining. Me and a guy named Stephen, who I knew from Hamburg last year where trying to get people organized and it worked ok. Stephen, me, and this 3rd guy were by far the most experienced cyclists and we were making up some good time on the rest of the field.
The bike course was 4 loops and technical with 10 corners per lap including a 180 degree turn. Our group of 3 was riding through the field, picking up riders, then dropping them when they couldn't hang on. I came off the bike in the top 15 with one of the fastest bike splits of the day.
I blasted through T2 and out onto the run were I began reeling in a few other runners. Some people were definitely feeling the effects of altitude and though I didn't feel stellar I was still running strong. Travis was about 15-20 seconds ahead of me and I was gaining on him a little bit at a time even as we both caught and passed other runners. Going into lap 2 I had moved myself into 7th spot and that was where I was destined to stay. I closed to within about 8 seconds of Travis but couldn't get closer and he pulled away some more on the 2nd lap. I held on strong to cross the line in 7th spot!
All in all I am super happy with my race. I came out of the water in 37th and scratched and clawed my way into 7th! Racing at altitude was tough as I never could kick it into that extra gear both on the swim and run. I was stuck in just trying to hold my pace as I got more and more tired. Though I'm happy with my performance I now am fully resigned to the fact that I HAVE to get my swim down. There's no other option. If I could have been 1-2min faster on the swim I would have been contending for a podium spot. And next year if I want to do any U23 racing I won't be able to bike my way through everyone like I did. It was a great race, I'm super stoked about next year, and now I get to focus all my energy on cross country before going into a hardcore swim block this fall.
Thanks to Talbot for these pictures.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Back Home, Briefly
Well here I am back from my trip to Maine and in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex for approximately 28 hours before I fly out to Colorado Springs. The Maine trip was an awesome experience. It was a mixture of training camp + outdoor adventure trip and I had a lot of fun getting to do some activities I've never done, or hadn't done in a while. The trip included:
-a 3 day canoeing trip on the St. Croix river. I have quite a bit of canoeing experience but this was little different because we were on a river with quite a few small rapids. This broke up the paddling and made it a lot of fun. We were officially "camping" but it was the laziest camping I've ever done. The guides did everything for us including building fires, cooking meals, clean up, setting up rainfly's, and hauling our gear from camp to camp. About the only thing I did was paddle the canoe and spoon the food into my mouth. We did run everymorning on the trip and I had some fun swimming upstream in the river. It was cool how you could be moving up and then shift over slightly into a stronger current and all of a sudden you were getting pushed downstream. Very cool.
-Sea kayaking and kayak relay races. These were on 2 seperate days but were both a lot of fun.
-Whale watching. This was a little lame but we did see a whale!
-6 mile hike. It was nice not having 60lbs on my back for once during a hike!
-Lighthouse tour and standing at most easternly point of the U.S.
-Lobster boat cruise.
We did some other stuff too but those were the main events. Training was pretty solid as well and I enjoyed getting to run with the team. I hung in there pretty well for a triathlete! 5 other guys had their bikes with them so we did quite a few rides as well including a brutal 4hr, 70+ ride that left me pretty wiped for days. This was the 2nd longest ride of my life and did I mention that Maine has HILLS?! Nice, big rolling hills. Great for training and suffering.
Another memorable ride was on Sunday where me and another guy did a mountain climb in the fog. Visibility was about 20ft the whole 30min up and we were talking about how careful we were going to have to be on the way down. What do you know but as soon as we turn around at the top it starts to rain!! So we got to descend a mountain in pouring, freezing, stinging rain, and fog. We cut that ride short at about 2 hrs.
Swimming was good though not as consistent as I would have liked. Oh well. The temperatures were beautiful. Generally mid 60's was the high and early mornings were much cooler. The large, black moose fly's were probably the most annoying part of the trip.
This Saturday at 4pm E.T. I'll be racing my last race as a junior at the National Championships in Colorado Springs. I feel like I'm in great shape but I haven't raced or even done workouts to confirm that in about a month. I'm trying to go with the mindset just to have fun and race as hard and as smart as I can. I'm going to try to enjoy the experience as much as possible then get back to the miserable Texas heat were I can focus on Cross Country for the fall. Sub 27min 8k is the goal!!
-a 3 day canoeing trip on the St. Croix river. I have quite a bit of canoeing experience but this was little different because we were on a river with quite a few small rapids. This broke up the paddling and made it a lot of fun. We were officially "camping" but it was the laziest camping I've ever done. The guides did everything for us including building fires, cooking meals, clean up, setting up rainfly's, and hauling our gear from camp to camp. About the only thing I did was paddle the canoe and spoon the food into my mouth. We did run everymorning on the trip and I had some fun swimming upstream in the river. It was cool how you could be moving up and then shift over slightly into a stronger current and all of a sudden you were getting pushed downstream. Very cool.
-Sea kayaking and kayak relay races. These were on 2 seperate days but were both a lot of fun.
-Whale watching. This was a little lame but we did see a whale!
-6 mile hike. It was nice not having 60lbs on my back for once during a hike!
-Lighthouse tour and standing at most easternly point of the U.S.
-Lobster boat cruise.
We did some other stuff too but those were the main events. Training was pretty solid as well and I enjoyed getting to run with the team. I hung in there pretty well for a triathlete! 5 other guys had their bikes with them so we did quite a few rides as well including a brutal 4hr, 70+ ride that left me pretty wiped for days. This was the 2nd longest ride of my life and did I mention that Maine has HILLS?! Nice, big rolling hills. Great for training and suffering.
Another memorable ride was on Sunday where me and another guy did a mountain climb in the fog. Visibility was about 20ft the whole 30min up and we were talking about how careful we were going to have to be on the way down. What do you know but as soon as we turn around at the top it starts to rain!! So we got to descend a mountain in pouring, freezing, stinging rain, and fog. We cut that ride short at about 2 hrs.
Swimming was good though not as consistent as I would have liked. Oh well. The temperatures were beautiful. Generally mid 60's was the high and early mornings were much cooler. The large, black moose fly's were probably the most annoying part of the trip.
This Saturday at 4pm E.T. I'll be racing my last race as a junior at the National Championships in Colorado Springs. I feel like I'm in great shape but I haven't raced or even done workouts to confirm that in about a month. I'm trying to go with the mindset just to have fun and race as hard and as smart as I can. I'm going to try to enjoy the experience as much as possible then get back to the miserable Texas heat were I can focus on Cross Country for the fall. Sub 27min 8k is the goal!!
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