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!!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Happenings
I'm finally home from my awesome 2 week trip to San Antonio. Both camps went great. The select camp was a lot of fun getting to meet athletes from other countries including Barbados, Antigua, Mexico, Guatamala, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. We did a lot of testing and I wasn't too pleased with my results but oh well. The second week was also fun as it was a camp for kids 11-18 from all over the SouthMidWest region. I was rooming with a little 11 year old boy who was basicaly the coolest kid ever. He rode the smallest road bike I've ever seen, 40cm!
My IconOne teammates Travis, and Kate Ross(Also on the junior national team) were staying the 2nd week to help as well and so we did a lot of our own workouts together. Well, at least Kate and I did and Travis jumped in when he felt like it. It's definitely a lot more fun doing tough workouts with other people next to you, pushing you and I learned a lot about sometimes just sucking it up and getting the training done even when your completely exhausted. After the second camp I stayed at Jeff and Shelly's house for the weekend to do some more training and spent all my free time in front of their TV watching the tour and doing all sorts of wacky things to my legs to help them recover.
I'm sure I still have some lingering fatigue from the last 2 weeks of training along with the fact that I've done some sort of race (bike or tri) every weekend for about the last 2 months but things haven't slowed down much. This week I'm trying to get some decent running mileage in before I leave for Maine for a 2 week trip with the UT Tyler cross country team. There I will for sure get in running shape but I'm looking forward to bringing my bike and swim stuff as well and getting to train with some of the triathletes at the school.
My next race will be USAT Junior Nationals in Colorado Springs, CO on August 9th. It will actually be my first draft legal race of the year and my last draft legal as a junior. I think I'm in good enough shape to do well there as long as I can keep improving my swim and not come out of the water too far down from the leaders. Then it's full on into my first ever cross country season were hopefully I can come out of the fall with a wicked run to throw down.
My IconOne teammates Travis, and Kate Ross(Also on the junior national team) were staying the 2nd week to help as well and so we did a lot of our own workouts together. Well, at least Kate and I did and Travis jumped in when he felt like it. It's definitely a lot more fun doing tough workouts with other people next to you, pushing you and I learned a lot about sometimes just sucking it up and getting the training done even when your completely exhausted. After the second camp I stayed at Jeff and Shelly's house for the weekend to do some more training and spent all my free time in front of their TV watching the tour and doing all sorts of wacky things to my legs to help them recover.
I'm sure I still have some lingering fatigue from the last 2 weeks of training along with the fact that I've done some sort of race (bike or tri) every weekend for about the last 2 months but things haven't slowed down much. This week I'm trying to get some decent running mileage in before I leave for Maine for a 2 week trip with the UT Tyler cross country team. There I will for sure get in running shape but I'm looking forward to bringing my bike and swim stuff as well and getting to train with some of the triathletes at the school.
My next race will be USAT Junior Nationals in Colorado Springs, CO on August 9th. It will actually be my first draft legal race of the year and my last draft legal as a junior. I think I'm in good enough shape to do well there as long as I can keep improving my swim and not come out of the water too far down from the leaders. Then it's full on into my first ever cross country season were hopefully I can come out of the fall with a wicked run to throw down.
Friday, June 27, 2008
I'm Off!
Yup I'm just finishing the last stages of packing before I leave for San Antonio in less than an hour. I will be there for about 2 weeks attending the Pan Am Junior Select camp next week and then staying the following week to help out at a USAT Skills camp. Both of these camps are run by my coach and I'm looking forward to getting absolutely destroyed next week as I attempt to hang with some of the top
juniors on our continent.
After worlds I was planning on going to the Des Moines, Iowa junior elite race but about two weeks out they announced that the race had been changed to a duathlon because of flooding. Travis and I decided that it wasn't worth it to drive up their now because they had also taken away most of the points that it was going to be worth. Well about 4 days before the race they announced again that now the swim was back! Grrr... Travis and I had already made plans to do some crit racing in Austin that weekend so we were forced to miss out. Congrats to Kate Ross though who took the junior female title.
The crits in Austin were a blast even though I didn't do great. The weekend before on June 14h and 15th I'd done some crits in Dallas and placed 2nd and 1st but in Austin I was racing 4/5's instead of just 5's and the fields were much larger at 75-80 cyclist. I'm still not comfortable enough in large packs yet but it was a lot of fun and I gained some good experience. There was a pro crit Saturday night that was AWESOME to watch as they had a bunch of top teams like Rock Racing, Toyota United, Jelly Belly, Colavita, and even a guy from Slipstream(now Garmin) Chipotle.
Happy training.
juniors on our continent.
After worlds I was planning on going to the Des Moines, Iowa junior elite race but about two weeks out they announced that the race had been changed to a duathlon because of flooding. Travis and I decided that it wasn't worth it to drive up their now because they had also taken away most of the points that it was going to be worth. Well about 4 days before the race they announced again that now the swim was back! Grrr... Travis and I had already made plans to do some crit racing in Austin that weekend so we were forced to miss out. Congrats to Kate Ross though who took the junior female title.
The crits in Austin were a blast even though I didn't do great. The weekend before on June 14h and 15th I'd done some crits in Dallas and placed 2nd and 1st but in Austin I was racing 4/5's instead of just 5's and the fields were much larger at 75-80 cyclist. I'm still not comfortable enough in large packs yet but it was a lot of fun and I gained some good experience. There was a pro crit Saturday night that was AWESOME to watch as they had a bunch of top teams like Rock Racing, Toyota United, Jelly Belly, Colavita, and even a guy from Slipstream(now Garmin) Chipotle.
Happy training.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
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!!
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!!
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