ITU LD World Duathlon Championships

I had qualified for this race way back at the beginning of my season at the Long Course 3Sports Duathlon. In terms of preparation, I was a little shaky.... a couple weeks were weak after IM Louisville, and then two weeks before this race I got really sick for about 4 days, so training for that week was pretty much shot.
I was confident that I could still compete well though. The morning of, it was COLD (well at least colder than it had been all year). The race workers didn't let athletes into the transition area until 630 for a 730 race, so I was already put behind schedule. By the time I got my bike ready, it was 650, and I had to rush my warm up and preparation.
At the start I was in the second row, which was fine with me because I wasn't preparing to sprint right out of the blocks. It was going to be a long morning, and I would have plenty of time to get in the position I needed to get in. The race started, and immediately I felt like I was in a xc race..it was a great feeling with so many guys around me. It sorted out pretty quickly, and after a K I found myself in about 15th position. I stayed very relaxed, running side by side with Corey Scott. Around 3 k, a runner from Great Britain made a strong move and strung everyone out quite a bit. Jeff Miller also made a strong move to the front,and the pace quickened a little bit. I was still in no rush to get to the front, so I stayed steady and kept relative contact with the leaders. Lap one was very relaxed and I came through in around 8th place. Not too much changed for the first half of the second lap, but right around halfway, Ryan Rau made a strong move to the front, and I was able to pick off about half the field as they faded just a bit. I came into T1 in third position with a 52:02 split (5:35 pace for 15k), a great run, especially considering how I felt.

My T1 was awful. I had left mt sunglasses on my helmet because it wasn't that sunny at the start. Turns out there was a ton of dew all over them, and it was very difficult for me to clear them up. Then I fumbled around with my helmet..ahhhh! It was just a mess. T1 was 1:19.

I got out In about 7th or 8th place from T1, and immediately lost my aero bottle sponge. Great. Drink is spilling all over the place and I'm just getting started. Now I also notice that my gel flask holder is a little loose, and the gel flask is slipping to the left side of my top tube. Double great. I tried to fix it up, but I couldn't get t while riding. I figure it will just stay there, so I let it go. The first loop was good, I got passed by a couple guys,but then what do I notice? No gel flask anymore! Crap. There go 4 gels that I was planning on. At last I still have 2 taped to my top tube and some gatorade. On the second loop I finish my aero bottle of gatorade, and try to keep steady. Corey put about 3:00 into me on the first loop, but he seemed to be staying there on the 2nd loop. At the end of the loop I look down to get some gatorade from my down tube and what? It's popped out! Geez. That is NOT good. I ration out my last gel and get some water from the bike aid station. On the third and fourth loops I pick it up a bit and re-pass some of the guys that had passed me earlier on. Of course by this time I had no idea what place I was in because we were lapping tons of cyclists. As I finish, I catch the guy who took the lead on the first run. My bike was 2:09:35, 21.9 mph for 76k

We dismount at the same time, and his bike rams right into my left leg and cuts it up pretty bad. We raced through T2, and he got out 3 sec faster than me. He was zooming on, but I stopped at the aid station because I knew I need some serious nutrition if I was going to thrive in the final run. I down a cup of gatorde and 2 gels, and took another gel on the run, eating that before the 2nd mile. Rau had gained about 50 m on me in that time, and I was not feeling great for the first mile. As I kept going thoug, I started feeling better and better. I had a good rhythm and kept the turnover high. Right around 3k, I noticed I was coming back on Rau hard. Before we got to the canal I caught him and passed him hard. There were two more guys up ahead, one from the US and one from GB. It took me another K to catch both of them, but eventually I got them, pounded another gel, and started thinking about finishing strong. There was no one too close once I passed the guy from the US, so I kept it steady and tried to put a little time between myself and the uS guy. As I was coming up to the finish, I was rolling up on another US guy, but I ran out of room before we reached the finish. My final run was 27:47, top amateur run split. I won my age group and finished 9th overall for amateurs. 33rd overall for pros and amateurs, which I was also happy with.

It feels cool to be able to say that I am a world champion!

This was an unbelievable way to end a spectacular season. Now time for some rest and then on to 2008....

IM Louisville

So I’ve had two days to think about my race, and encapsulate a year-long journey and a day-long experience in a couple paragraphs for your reading enjoyment.

Louisville is a wonderful city, one of the best I’ve ever been to, and I would highly recommend this race to anyone, partly because of the city, and partly because it really was a great course.

I traveled across to Louisville on Friday with Matt Wolak, and we were able to split the driving and keep each other company on the 8 hour trip. Once we got there, I was overwhelmed at how many incredibly fit people there were in one spot. For 6 months I trained with an awesome Master’s group at the JCC rec center three times a week, ran with the Colonial Road Runners group Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and biked with the Bikes Unlimited group Wednesdays and whenever I could with the 3Sports guys up in Richmond. Other than that I was pretty much training solo. It’s cool to think that there are so many people that are going through this journey across the world and they’re all converging on one place at one time!

A huge thank you to everyone that pushed me day in and day out and provided encouragement along the way. Without you, this would not have been possible.

Swim: 1:03:48

The swim took place in the Ohio River, and due to stonger-than-expected currents, they had to change the course at the last minute from an up and back to a J hook. Since the starting spot was only about 30 yards wide, they could not start everyone at once. Instead, they implemented a time trial start (for the first time in IM history I believe), where the pros started at 6:50am, and then at 7:00am, they started the age groupers, one per second. They said it would be first come first serve in terms of where people would start in the swim, and by the time I got to the start line at 6:15am, just about everyone was staked out in line. So I started the race right around 7:31am and had roughly 2000 competitors strung out in the water ahead of me. The first .8 mi. of the swim was against the current at about .4-.5 knots, so it took a while to get to the turn around, but once I turned the corner, it was all downhill from there. I decided to swim a little bit further out into the middle of the Ohio to catch a stronger current, and every once in a while I would pass someone, but there weren’t too many people out where I was swimming. I’m still not sure if that was the best idea, because I don’t know how much stronger the current was out there, but my finishing time was 63:48, less than 20:00 after the first swimmer, so I was REALLY excited about that split. I figure the current helped some, but there were no wetsuits because the water temp was 85 degrees, so I figure they cancelled each other out. I was 217^th after the swim.

T1: 4:19

Not too exciting, just got my bag and my bike, and headed out. There was close to 200 m of running with the bike from the racks to the mount line, so times for T1 were pretty slow all around. Plus I’m an idiot when it comes to running with my bike, so I took my time so I wouldn’t spill any of my food, drink, or God forbid, fall in front of the hundreds of spectators lining the transition area.

Bike: 5:14:17

Well I had a mishap right when I tried getting on my bike. The T1 area was muddy from the T-storm that hit the day before, and I got mud stuck up all in my cleats. When I tried clicking in, I couldn’t so I had to dismount about 50 yds later, pick all the mud out of my shoes, then get back on. The course was extremely honest, with a flat 20 mile section into a slight headwind to start, then a couple decent climbs, then 2 30 mile loops of almost all rolling hills, then a 30 mile flat to downhill to finish. I took it very easy for the first 20 miles, avg just under 20mph. The second (and thankfully last) mishap was a dropped chain when I got to the top of the hardest climb on the course right around 27 miles. It took me a minute or so to get it back on, and then I was rolling again. Did I mention I started out behind about 2000 people? I was passing people nonstop the entire way, and it really did a good job of building my confidence. I felt great on my Orbea. At around mile 50 I started having stomach issues, and I realized my body was not digesting some of the solid bars I had eaten earlier on the course, so I threw the rest of those away and started taking in only gels. That helped my stomach out a lot.

Other than that, the bike provided me with a wonderful continuous line of competitors to hunt down and catch. With 30 miles to go I was feeling great, so I threw the hammer down a little and finished the bike strong. I was 55^th after the bike.

T2: 5:08

Again, long ways to run with bike, and then I had to visit the restrooms. At least I was hydrated.

RUN: 3:20:33

I was really excited about the run. Obviously this has been my bread and butter, and I was hoping to take some good chunks of time out of the guys in front of me. I started off so strong that I had to calm down after the first mile in 5:58. It was starting to really get hot outside, and during that time of the day, there was little shade along 3^rd street where the run course went up and back on twice. I coveted every little piece of shade I could run under, and at every aid station started packing ice in my hat, down my back, in my shorts, sponges everywhere, it didn’t really matter. It was hot. I lucked out on my first loop, as I caught up to Craig McKenzie, the second place overall. He was already on his second loop, but he and I were able to work together from about mile 6 to mile 11. Once he started getting closer to the finish he took off and I let him go. I continued to run about 6:50-7:30ish pace depending on the terrain until mile 16 or 17, then I started having some problems, the biggest being that I didn’t eat nearly as much as I needed to earlier on the run. I was still passing loads of people, but now my pace had slowed to a meager 8:30ish, and I was in a world of pain. I caught Nina Kraft who was also on her second loop, and worked with her from about mile 17-23, but it was about mile 23 when the wheels just fell completely off, and I was reduced to a disgusting realization that I was bonking and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it but try to keep moving from aid station to aid station. So Nina took off en route to finishing second overall and I started walk jogging the rest of the way in.

It was about this time that a couple of the aid stations ran out of ice, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so upset at people I didn’t even know. Besides the fact that the last 5k of my run seemed infinitely harder than the previous 137 miles of the race, I persevered and finally made it to 4^th street live, which was an awesome finishing area. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have accomplished something in my entire life. I know why people do these IM races every year, because that last 100 yards is unbelievable.

I finished and was ok enough where I was able to stagger over to the side where my parents were waiting for me. Because of the TT start I wasn’t quite sure how I had done, even though I knew I had passed just about the entire field throughout the course of the day.

As it turned out, I finished in 25^th place overall, 8^th amateur, and 2^nd in my age group with a finishing time of 9:48:03. I earned a slot for the 2007 Kona IM, but decided to let my slot rolldown to the 3^rd place finisher for a couple reasons. First, I am excited to compete in my hometown in the World Long Course Duathlon Championships in October. Secondly, I’m not sure if I can recover and put forth another great IM in 6 weeks. I certainly want to race in Kona, but I need to schedule my races so that I can qualify and then peak to have my best race in Hawaii. I just didn’t think that would be possible after how my race went on Sunday.

I was extremely happy with how the day went for my first IM, and now I have a gauge for future races. I know what things I need to do differently and I know things that worked well for me. Obviously if I had eaten more on the bike and the beginning of the run, I wouldn’t have bonked quite so hard and may have saved myself upwards of 15-20:00 on my run split. I also was too conservative on the bike I think, and I took the run out too hard in the first 4 miles, which may have cost me several minutes in the last couple miles.

I’m looking forward to representing the USA well in Richmond on October 22^nd.

3Sports Sprint

I did this race more like a workout than anything too serious, just to get some speed in. Obviously I wanted to do well, but I know the bigger picture lies in performing well in IM Louisville and at Worlds in October.
The race was a 300m pool swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. I was starting 8th, and I knew the guy starting behind me in 9th was a faster swimmer than me, so I was a little nervous to get out well for the first 100-150m. As it turned out, I got out very well and caught the guy ahead of me after 75 m. Then the guy behind me caught me right before 125 m, and the initial guy I passed was still relatively close. Other than that, the swim was smooth and fast(well for me at least). I got out at 4:41, which was 1 second faster than I've ever swam 300m, so I was pumped about that. I rolled to T1, hopped on my bike, had a decent time getting my shoes on. Once I was set, I started rolling. My goal was to ride avg 26.4-26.5 mph, as I had done the same course in wet conditions 2 months earlier avg 26.1mph. So I was really pushing it, and I caught everyone besides one person who had started in front of me. I knew the guy ahead was a decent cyclist, but I still figured that I would be able to see him on some of the long stretches of road on the course. However, he had a great ride (and fantastic swim to set it up) and I didn't see him on the road until the last half mile of the ride. I ended up coming in at 28:27, avg 26.05mph, which is ok, but I was still disappointed with that. The run was a very similar story, as I felt good, but just lacked a little of the sharpness I had back in June. I ended up running 16:08 for the win in 51:05. Second was 53:03, third 53:38, so it was an easy win for me, but I still thin I'm in shape to go close to 50:00 (hopefully slightly under!) perhaps next June.

Now it's time to put in a couple more big weeks before my taper begins for IM Louisville.

My First 112

Well, actually it was my first 100 as well. I went out intending to do 100 in around 5 hours, but I felt unbelievable and the course I plotted turned out to be a little long, so it worked out well. Ended up hitting the ride in 5:16 and change, avg 21.2 mph. Very happy with that. I can definitely bike under 5 hours in Louisville comfortably with aero stuff and by actually racing. Nutrition was good too, although it was freaking hot outside and I probably didn't have enough to drink in order to run a marathon afterwards.

The Tour de France started today, which is very exciting for me. A lot f people aren't paying attention to the race because of the absence of Lance, the doping scandals, etc etc, but I like it for the day to day drama. Of course I don't like the fact that most of the peleton is doping, but watching a race unfold is a beautiful thing...like a piece of art.
I'm rooting for Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer this year, and I'm also hoping big George wins a stage. If those two are on the podium and George gets his stage win, I'll be a happy camper!

First Post

I've finally decided to make a blog, so hopefully I'll be able to maintain it regularly just in case anyone wants to read it.

Last Sunday, I traveled to Morgantown, WV with my friend Chris to race the Mountaineer Half Distance Triathlon. I was expecting there to be a little more to Morgantown, considering it's the home of WVU, but honestly there wasn't too much there. We checked in at the Waterfront Place Hotel, which was the host hotel, then drove the bike course. The course consisted of 2 28 mile loops. I was very disappointed int he quality of the roads that they decided to use on the course. Very bumpy, filled with holes and cracks...not suitable for a race course in my opinion.

We then checked in at our hotel, a Comfort Inn, I went for a short easy run around the hotel, and then we went to Applebee's for dinner.

Being my first Half Ironman, I was a little apprehensive about what I should be eating, not just the night before, but the morning of and during the race. I figured pasta would be a safe bet, and I stuck with what I usually eat the morning of...powerbar, banana, pop tarts, and gatorade. Yeah, I'm kinda a head case when it comes to that kind of thing. I think I've eaten the same thing since high school. Hey, whatever works I guess.

Speaking of routines, I've always done the same warm up... 20:00 run an hour before the race start. With these triathlons, that whole schedule has changed. I ended up running about 15:00 before this race, which seemed adequate, and then got int he water and got a feel for the water.

The pros started 6:00 ahead of my wave, which was the elite open and elite masters. There were about 20 total in my wave, so the start wasn't too hectic. I got in a smooth rhythm, got on the heels of another dude in my heat, and tried to stay with him for as long as i could. He gapped me about halfway, and i was going solo until the final turn where the swimmers from the heat 3:00 behind me started catching me. I knew this would happen, so it didn't startle me. I just tried to stay with the passing swimmers as long as i could. The last stretch seemed like it lasted forever. When I got out I was about 15th out of the 20 in my heat. I had also expected that, but the time I came out with was much faster than I had expected. I was thinking 31-32 minutes would have been solid, and my swim split was 28:56, much better than I imagined was possible. So I was pleased, even though I had a lot of guys to catch on the bike and the run.

The transition included about a 250 m run on asphalt to the parking garage where the bikes were. I passed about 5 guys who swam faster than me just on that run.

My goal for the bike was to take the first lap very controlled, then if I was feeling good I would negative split the second loop. I ate a powerbar and got some fluid as I headed out, and noticed there was a guy from the heat behind me tat was cruising around 22-22.5 mph. So I decided to key off him for about 10 miles. He was a little weaker on the hills, so I passed him on the first big climb, and stayed in front for the remainder of the first lap. With about 5 miles to go til the end of the first lap I hit a nasty stretch of road and all three, yes all three, of my bottles popped out. grrrrrrr So at the turnaround I had to spend a little time grabbing some bottles at the aid stations. The guy I was keying off of passed me here, and got a sizable gap on me at the start of the second loop. He was probably up about :30 on me at points, but again, at the start of the first climb of the loop, I got back close to him again, and then passed him and put about a minute into him to finish off the bike. I went 2:26:30, avg 22.9 mph, which I was pretty happy about, although I played it very conservative and had a lot left for the run.

I wanted to try to avg in the low 6:10's for the half mary, and I took the run out at what seemed a very conservative pace. My split? 5:52. Yeah, this is gonna be a good one. So I stayed with that rhythm pretty much the entire way, falling off pace only in the last 1.5 miles of each loop where there was a formidable climb. It was really kinda ridiculous, and there was someone dressed like a devil cheering everyone on. On both loops, I was the only one runnign up the hill. Everyone else I was passing was walking. So I ended up running a 1:18:30, avg 6:00, and I had the second fastest run split of the day. I finished 6th overall with a 4:17:28, and I was the first non-pro finisher, which i was pumped about. Just need to be more aggressive on my bike, and I'm sitting right in the middle of the pros. Definitely doable.