Pleased, But Not Satisfied

Well I am currently sitting at home preparing for the first workout of the day. As I reflect back over this years World Championships I am pleased with my performance. I had a solid race and did much better than last year. Pleased, but not satisfied. No, I don't think I'm ever satisfied with my results. I always see a way I could have gone faster and look at how I can improve in the next race. The Hy-Vee Junior ITU race is in less than two weeks, and I want to go faster.

The morning of the World Championships Travis and I woke up bright and early at 5:30. Actually it felt more like 7:30 for us as we hadn't fully adjusted to the time change yet, in this case though I think it was a good thing. We walked down to a local coffee shop to grab some coffee and a scone then met up with Shelly and another kid from California that was hanging out with us, Rudy. We had dropped our bikes off the night before so we walked to transition to set our stuff up, then walked back the half mile to the race start. It was cold and rainy. Perfectly miserable weather for racing.

In the Athletes lounge we put on our wetsuits, lubed up with vaseline and attached our "squid lids" to the top of our noggins.

These were specially designed neoprene caps we'd bought the day before to keep some heat in. We payed $50 for them and after our race we sold them for $60. The expo vendors didn't order enough and people were desperate to get their hands on them. We lined up on the beach, all 52 16-19 and 20-24 year olds and when the horn went off ran and dove into the 52 degree water.

I had a decent enough swim. It was hard to really push hard because you couldn't feel much and the swim ended up being over 1000m instead of the 750m it was supposed to be. I did find a guy to draft off of and used him until the last 100m or so when I sprinted around him to beat him out of the water. Not exactly the most gentlemanly thing to do but hey, that's racing. I was 19th out of the water in my age group of 27 competitors and 13th out of T1. The cold coupled with my quick transitioning skills helped me pass a bunch of people that beat me out of the water. Transition itself was an absolute slip-N-slide. My coach was videoing and she has footage of people falling all over the place, with their bikes, without their bikes, arms still in their wetsuit flopping around like a beached seal, you name it. Because every ones feet were numb and the grass was wet and muddy it made it very difficult for sure.

I made it out of transition without incident and was soon on the bike cranking away. Same as I described earlier the bike course is not and easy one. I felt good on the uphills and the downhill were just flat out scary. It was still raining lightly so everything was slick and the road itself was poor quality with lots of bumps and holes that are very difficult to see when your screaming downhill at 35+mph with cold rain blowing into your eyes. I was 1:15 back of Travis when I got on my bike and after two laps I heard my coach yell that he was only 10 seconds up the road. I caught him a couple minutes later and blew by him at close to warp speed. A minute later here he comes chugging past me up the hill and we switched back and forth like this all the way to the top. Then as we turned for the descent into T2 I passed him again, this time for good. I wanted to put some time into him so I took as many risks as I dared going around the wet turns, maintaining a death grip on my bull horns, no aero bars for this descent. I'd already found the really bad holes on the first 2 laps so I had a good idea of what line to take and put 15 seconds on Travis entering T2.

Right as I came off the bike I saw another USA guy ahead of me, Jack St. Marie who I had out sprinted for 2nd place at our qualifier in Tuscaloosa. This concerned me because at that race he ran 16:28 off the bike and I was at least a minute slower then that. I passed him as we ran towards our racks, threw my bike on and carefully and methodically pulled my shoes on. My hands and feet were numb so I had to go by site rather then feel. Travis ran by as I unclipped my helmet and I grabbed my race belt and took off. As I headed out I saw Jack taking his bike off one rack desperately looking around for his own rack. "This is good," I thought. (Later I discovered that Jack had also sliced his foot open on the swim, he had been bleeding the whole race and would require stitches afterwards.)

As I started the run I felt surprisingly good and I quickly passed a British guy in my age group. The whole rest of the run I just ran strong. At a couple of the turn arounds I could see Travis and Jack but they didn't look like they were gaining much. There was another guy from the U.S. about 20-30 seconds ahead of me but I couldn't catch him no matter how hard I tried. I had worn an underarmour shirt underneath my race suit as well as armwarmers underneath the wetsuit and those definitely helped keep my core temperature warm. I ran hard the whole way and crossed the line 8th overall and 3rd American. My 5.1k time was 17:53 with an adjusted time of 17:32 for a 5k. A new PR for me. Off the bike, in 55 degree rainy weather, on a course that wasn't flat, at the World Championships. Travis came in 30 seconds later after getting passed by a Canadian in the last few hundred meters.

RESULTS! - Just click on "sprint distance" and "16-19 M."

Im very happy with my performance. I finally figured out cold weather racing in the 3rd cold race I've had this year, and in the biggest. 19th out of the water, 13 on the bike, 10th off the bike, 9th out of T2, 8th at the line. Once again it was a blast representing my country and racing against International competition. I'm stoked about how well I did. Stoked, but not satisfied.

I'm in Vancouver!

Travis, Shelly and I flew into Vancouver yesterday with no incident and were soon at our hotel which is right on the race site. We can literally look at our window and see the finish as well as most of the swim course. After putting our bikes together we did a pre-ride of the bike course which is a 7km loop we do 3 times. Theres a nice little 0.6mi climb we do on each loop followed by a 1-2 mi fast and somewhat scary downhill section.

The biggest news hear is the weather. Its in the mid 50's today and raining, raining, raining. We watched the junior elite races today and it was a blast to watch the super fast action without the crowds we experienced in Germany.

The water is an absolutely frigid 55 degrees. I thought Germany was cold last year at 61 or so but this takes cold to a whole new level. We did a swim today for about 5-10 minutes and though it is cold and your feet, hands, and face go numb in about 30 seconds- it is doable. My biggest problem was waiting for my face to numb because it hurts and stings intensely when you first put it in. 2XU brought in 40 neoprene caps to wear and thanks to Travis we got on the wait list about 20th or so before they came in. I just got back from picking it up and I think it will help keep me warm as well as some other tricks we plan on employing such as pouring warm water down the wetsuit and holding our pee until just before we go. Hey, anything to keep from going hypothermic.

Our race start is at 7:40 tomorrow pacific time and you should be able to track us live at triathlon.org. Send warm thoughts my way!!

Further Update

Ok here is an additional update to my weekend down in Austin for the Captex triathlon.

After the race it was nice to just relax with some friends up from San Antonio and not think about triathlons for a little while. We went to my grandparents lakehouse, then to eat, then back to the main house to watch a movie. If you wanted to know what the movie Sweeney Todd is about I could only give you a very brief summary as I slept through most of it. Monday morning (Memorial day) was another relaxing day. I seem to have trouble sleeping in these days and was up at 7:30, a couple hours before anyone else. I ate breakfast then did a 30min run where I discovered a neat trail 1/4 mile from the house. Someday I'm gonna go back and do all 14 miles of the out and back.

Later I drove down to San Antonio where I was staying with my friend and her Sister and brother-in-law. We played some volleyball and swam before I left to go pick up my NEW ROAD BIKE!!!

Yes indeed. The bike was getting built by my coach's husband who is an awesome mechanic and bike fitter. The Giant frame was given to me and I got a build kit for it with Sram Rival components. Its awesome and weighs in at just under 17.5 lbs.

Tuesday I was up early to make it back to Dallas for noon swim practice then I raced the Tuesday night crit on my new bike where I got 2nd. A fellow triathlete named Mark who also raced Captex chased me down on the last lap after I broke away with 3 to go. If I hadn't been trashed from the weekend I know I could have stayed off the front but oh well. They said it was one of the fastest cat 5 races they've done but it felt super slow to me.

A couple more hard days of training and I started my taper for worlds on Saturday. I leave Wednesday morning at 6:40am and race Friday at 7:30am. Its getting close....

Capitol of Texas Race Report

My friend Jess and I left around 8:30 Friday morning to head down to Austin for the Capitol of Texas Triathlon. We arrived a little before 1, found a place with free parking and unhooked our bikes from the back of our little Toyota Echo. The lines at the expo were enormous! Typically I don't arrive until later in the evening and I'll be one of the last ones to check in. Today though we showed up right about the time all the 2500 other competitors did and the result was a 20-30min wait in line. It wasn't too bad as we ended up in line with my coach Shelly, and another family on our team that were all competing the next day.

After collecting our packets, and checking our bikes in Jess and I headed to my grandparents house about 20min from the race site for some R&R. My grandparents were actually up at MY house over the weekend so we had the whole place to ourselves. Dinner with the team that night, and an early bedtime meant I was pumped to race the next day.

I love Captex because the sprint doesn't start until 9 am which allows for some serious sleeping in. At the race site it was already getting hot and humid and I decided not to wear my wetsuit even though the water was wetsuit legal at 75 degrees. My other reason other then to avoid overheating was that my teammate Travis, and youth elite Hunter, were both not wearing a wetsuit. Their both faster swimmers than I am and I wanted to be able to compare myself with no other variables.

I felt strong on the swim but wasn't happy with my time back from Hunter and Travis. I once again got to watch the lead pack slip off just out of my reach as I tried in vain to latch onto the back. Out on the bike it was super crowded and I believe this actually played to my advantage as I have pretty good bike handling skills. I felt awesome on the bike and was absolutely hammering, weaving in and out of people, diving inside on the corners, riding the middle line as cyclists coming the other way whizzed at me. I tried my best to always pass on the left but it wasn't always possible. Coming off the bike I was suprised to see that Travis' bike wasn't racked yet and this gave me hope as well as some cause for worry as I wasn't sure whether he had crashed or what had happened.

Out on the run I felt horrible but just found a pace I could hold and tried to hang on. At a turn-around 3/4's of a mile in I could see that I had a solid lead, at least in my wave and that Travis was back in 3rd a good 2-3 minutes down. Towards the end of the LONG run my legs started to really feel good but I was so hot and overheating I still felt like crap. I kept looking at my watch and saw my run time creep up over 19 minutes at which point I knew for sure that the course was not quite accurate.

For awhile it looked like I might have won the race but in the end a 30-34 guy any another wave got me by a good bit. I took 2nd out of almost 800 competitors and was pleased with my overall effort. Travis had 2 major mishaps on the bike including coming into T2 after only 1 lap then after going out to do a 2nd lap his seatpost slid down and he was left to peddle the remaining 5-6 miles out of the saddle. In doing so he injured his knee somewhat but it looks like he'll be alright.

This report been a little long so I'll post again later with some of what we did the rest of the weekend and how my firs crit went on my new road bike. (Which is SWEET by the way!!)

Full results and splits are here- www.run-far.com

Back on Track

So time for a little update maybe.

As the title suggests I am indeed back on track as far as training is concerned. Starting last week and all this week I've been putting in some pretty solid hours. can tell I still have the fitness there from all the work I did earlier in the spring and now I just need to take the next step.

Fundraising for my trip to the World Championships is going well. A lot of different people have donated and I want to give a huge thanks to everyone thats helped me out. I had a garage sale last weekend that made some pretty good money as well. I still have a little more to raise and then I also have to pay for my trips to Des Moines, Iowa, and nationals in Colorado Springs but I'm confident that I'm going to be able to make it work.

Racing this weekend in the Capitol of Texas Triathlon. I'm basically training through it so I'm not going to be expecting any sort of spectacular results but it's a fun race and I'll go out there and give it my all.

I will also be getting a new road bike built this weekend which I'm totally psyched about!! I was given a Giant Composite 1 road .frame and purchased the build kit for it through my team. The stuff arrived wednesday so when I'm in Austin this weekend I will make an extra trip to San Antonio to get the bike built up with full SRAM Rival components. Those of you who know that Rival is SRAM's 3rd tier component group I'll have you know that it is still 3 grams lighter then Dura-Ace. I have an excel spreadsheet showing all those calculations, so there!

Update

I'm finally done with school,thank God!! And I really mean that with all my heart.

I one B and five A's so I am fairly satisfied with that. I hate B's though but oh well.

I'm not too confident about my training right now as none of the workouts have been going well. I feel horrible and my arms hurt when I'm in the pool and when running or biking anytime I am supposed to up the intensity I'll feel good for about 20-30 seconds then this wave of like exhaustion will come over me and I'll have to fight to stay on pace. I think it may have to do with my allergies still being bad which in turn gives me asthma problems. I probably wouldn't notice it if I wasn't trying to train at a high level and be competitive as a triathlete but if my body isn't getting enough oxygen I feel every bit of it. All I can do is stay on my allergy medicine and hope this season passes quickly. I'm trying to keep my confidence up there but it is tough.

I am excited to announce that I'm officially enrolled as a student at the University of Texas at Tyler.


I went out Friday with my mom and we got registration, transfer scholarship, and housing all taken care of. I'll be living in a 4-bedroom on-campus apartment. I get a bedroom to myself and share a bathroom with one other guy. I'm excited and it should be a lot of fun. Especially getting to run cross country with the team there. They have some super fast guys that will really help push me and the coach is a 7 time Ironman Hawaii finisher with quite a few overall wins at the sprint and olympic distance level so he is totally cool with triathlon training.

Actually one of the guys who goes there already beat me at Athens this year so they have some pretty good triathletes on the team.

Worlds is 4 weeks away and its time to get down to business.

A Weekend to Remember

Had a great trip to Austin this last weekend to go Scuba diving. I've been taking the class since mid February and wasn't enjoying it much at all. The pool work, though necessary, was boring and the gear was uncomfortable. I'm not accustomed to swimming with 30 some odd pounds on my back and it wasn't a lot of fun. The dive trip however was awesome.

We did our dive in Lake Travis and I was signed up for the Saturday/Sunday dive with our first dive being at 1 pm on Saturday. Friday night Michael, and Ian (two good buddies) picked me up from work and we drove down to my grandparents ranch outside Dripping Springs a little west of Austin. The next morning it was a 45 minute drive to the dive site at Windy Point where where we arrived about 10 am. This was so we could do some good riding before hand in the Texas hill country. I swear we found some of the biggest hills in Texas.

The first two dives went well and it was a lot of fun doing it in a real environment with rocks and fish and murky water.

The next day we did some more skill work and then a deep dive to 60ft which was cool. I actually got to go to 60ft twice because my group was the last one and the instructor needed a buddy to go down and untie the rope the buoy was attached to. Its pretty cool how you can be down 60ft underwater, hooked up to all this gear but still perform tasks and maneuver around.

I tried to bike again after that and made it up one big hill with a super nasty grade but I was wiped and had to turn around.


In other news it looks like I'll be working with a group based in the Rockwall area to help prepare for Worlds. It's a team called Tri-ProSoap and though their real small they look like a bunch of guys. The guy who started the team actually has has my bio and stuff up on the website already and even created a neat little paypal link you can click on to donate funds. The amount is set at $60, or basically the registration cost for a sprint tri. Check out the site here

Tri-ProSoap

I'm still desperately trying to raise funds to go to Worlds on June 6th so I appreciate any and every little bit