Tritonman & Desert International Race Recap

I love my disc.. people hear you coming a mile away.

Tritonman (500m – 20k – 5k)

 Feb 19

1st off, I have to thank the UCSD triathlon team for putting on a great little race. It was a good early season “shake off the rust” race (even thought there was little “racing” I did). I rode down to Fiesta Island around an hour before the start (I love living a mile away from Fiesta).  Got in a quick 1 loop spin around the island with Bill Jones and got the wetsuit on.  

Unfortunately I didn’t get a warm up swim in, so when the gun went off I felt poopy for the 1^st 300-400 yards. I got stuck behind a big pack and by the time my arms came around I was rounding the buoy to head in. I then realized how slow I’d been swimming and probably passed 10+ people in the last 50 yards. Time-wise, I guess it wasn’t too bad of a swim (5:50-something)

Glad this was my 1^st race because I probably had one of the worst T1 & bike mounts ever. I, straight up, fell over while taking my wetsuit off, then, for some reason, lacked the capability of getting on my bike. I ended up running a solid 50 feet past the bike mount line before coming to a complete stop, stepping over my top tube, and very slowly/carefully sat upon my bike seat like an old lady... I wish someone caught that on video. Started charging on the bike and felt like I had a tough pace going. I noticed after the 1^st 4-mile loop that my back wheel had some close company. “Whatever” I thought, “I’ll just go harder and loose these guys”. Turns out…. that doesn’t work when there are 500ish people riding around Fiesta Island.  I’m going to stop right now and end any further whining about drafting. I should just expect it on flat courses by now; packs are unavoidable on the flats. Got off the bike in 3^rd place and noticed that Bill, and some other dude I didn’t recognize, had somewhere around 30 seconds to a minute on me. 

I slipped my shoes on and jumped out onto the run course. It was in the sand/dirt along the water’s edge on the island. I somehow misheard one of the run course directors at the 1^st U-turn and kept running up the beach. When I turned around, a dude had passed me and another caught up to me. I got in a pissy mood and stopped running hard. I “easy ran” the rest of the 5k. Realizing there wasn’t much room to catch people on this sand & dirt run course, my childish racing attitude got the better of me. I got over it pretty quick after the race and realized that my season wasn’t at all hinged on this race (& I guess 5^th place isn’t the end of the world anyways). Congrats to one of my besties, Bill Jones, for having a monster bile split and (from what I heard) towing the eventual winner around for 12 miles on the bike.

It was great to see all of my collegiate friends! I wish them all the best of luck this season & I hope the WCCTC dominates at Nationals this year. I don’t want to see the Colorado kids gloating about how good they are again ;-)

Desert International Triathlon (3/4 mile swim – 24 mile bike – 6 mile run)

March 4

Wait, isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Finishing as the 1^st overall Male, I was actually 2^nd place overall. Let’s get it out there right away… Yes, I got chicked. I don’t have too much shame about it either. Heather Jackson had a good race and a mega fast run. Props to her for beating up everyone last Sunday.

I woke up in my own bed race morning (San Diego) at 3AM and drove out to Palm Desert instead of staying out there. A part of me hated getting up that early, but I enjoyed the time to wake up and move around before the race…. and jamming thru empty mountain roads in a sports car, blasting my new Every Time I Die cd, was fairly epic. I went on a little warm up run with Beth Walsh (who had a great 1^st race as a pro) and scouted out the first part of the run course. I made sure to get in a bit of a warm up swim this time.

The swim was a little odd. You can’t really see the 1^st buoy, it’s almost directly into the sunrise and the glare on the water makes it damn near impossible to see anything at all. When the race started, the initial swim chaos was far more chaotic than it needed to be. I didn’t need to sight on the initial 500ish meters en rout to the 1^st buoy. I was sitting comfortably in the front pack when all of a sudden everyone turned sharply right. Apparently we were swimming off course, to the left, and made a last second turn to round the buoy and make a U-turn. There was a slight break in the pack and, unfortunately, I missed the boat. I ended up swimming the rest of the course on my own, in no-man’s-land. After the U-turn at the 1^st buoy I actually started swimming back into head-on traffic. However, I fear I lead a couple people astray as well.. haha. I wasn’t having too good of a time sighting on my own for the remainder of the swim (foggy goggles). I’d have to stop completely and find where I was swimming. I don’t know exactly how long the swim was, somewhere between 1200-1300 meters I’m assuming. I exited the swim around a minute+/- behind the front guys in 17:01.

Don't know why I'm out of the saddle..

I’m glad I had such a bad transition at Tritonman, because I freaking NAILED both of my transitions. I flawlessly jumped on my bike and started cruising. I had mentioned that I was going to change my racing strategy for this race and I did. It’s textbook Keith Butsko racing to hammer the bike and see if you have anything left for the run. Today it was my goal to only go around 80-90% on the bike and save something for the run. When I caught the leader after 15-20 minutes, I had the initial “Holy crap I’m in the lead.. let’s blow the lid off this thing!!” feeling for a little bit, but in the middle of the second lap I decided to back off a bit and Alex Begg, who’s quite a strong cyclist, took over the lead and held a 10 second gap for a while. Alex and I had this piece of crap wheel sucker (who I don’t feel the least bit bad for calling out) wearing an American Interbanc kit, who shamelessly ITU-style drafted off us the whole time. I took back over the lead with 2 or 3 miles to go and got to T2 1^st feeling pretty good, with a 40k time of 57:10. It was the 1^st time I left something in the tank for the run; I definitely feel I could’ve hammered a lot more on that ultra flat bike course and it’s still kind of eating at me a bit.

I left T2 by myself and met a guy on a mountain bike to lead the run. It took a while to get my legs going.. They felt pretty heavy and didn’t have any pop. I ran at a comfortable pace until I could start pushing hard and get my heart rate up. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that way until mile 4. Right around the start of the 2^nd lap I heard a super fast cadence approaching. I looked back and it was Heather Jackson. I thought to myself “ok, just stay calm and match her pace”. That didn’t happen, she was really booking it. I felt like I was jogging compared to her and i just couldn't get my legs to open up. Looking at my run time, it’s not like I was really running “that slow” either. She finished around a minute ahead of me. I felt pretty demoralized when I finished. It was kind of funny because there were some confused people. I finished the 6 mile run in 34:41, which is better than expected, considering my extreme lack of speed work. The next elite guys came in around 2 minutes later so I felt a bit better, but 2^nd place overall still kind of feels like 20^th place for some reason..

All in all, it was a great tune-up race for Oceanside and nothing to hang my head about or hang my hat on either.

Feeling much better after a $9 quesadilla & a couple beers

I have to say, the post-race party at the La Quinta resort was flawless. Good times were had and the Bocce Ball competition was heated. Congrats to all my friends who raced as well, a lot of them were up on their respective podiums, which was awesome!

Apparently these orange things are for dancing..

Excited to start adding some speed work into my workouts soon. SuperSEAL is next on the race schedule, and from the looks of it, should be jam packed with local fast guys. This race is always a good fitness checkpoint. I would recommend it if you haven’t done it before.

Thank you to all of those who help support me: B+L Bikes, Rutley Chiropractic, SPY Optics, and all of my family and friends!

Cherry Pop-Tarts are the Best

I also won the whitest legs division.

Let’s start this one off with the standard apologies for a lack of updating after events and races. In the last month or so, I’ve done 4 “race/events”; but to be completely honest, I’ve had no intention of actually “racing” any of them. They’ve all been incorporated as speed work into some jam-packed weeks of heavy swim/bike/running. This has been the 1^st time I’ve ever participated in single sport races (with the exception of being hungover and doing the St. Patrick’s day 10k last year). So without further ramblage, I’ll give a little recap of each race starting with my favorite one:

Parker taking some swings at me.

Petco 5k9

Seriously, I was really looking forward to doing this one. It’s no secret I love my dog like Ron Burgundy loves Baxter in Anchorman, so this race seemed to be a perfect fit. I typically run once a week with Parker; The problem is, he’s a massive Weimeraner and loves to take off at a sub- 5 minute pace, then promptly dies after 2 miles.  Stamina is not his best card. But I was confident we could pull it together on race day. Race morning, Parker was AMPED UP.. I would be too if I were a dog surrounded by 600 other dogs on leaches about to run. There were 2 categories at this race, which took place at the Del Mar Racetrack; Runners with dogs & runners without dogs. They started the runners with dogs behind the runners w/o. I don’t think they’ll do that again. When the horn went off I noticed 3 other faster runners make a break to the outside and slip around the runners w/o dogs. Parker & I didn’t have such a brilliant strategy. We got caught behind what seemed like endless packs of old ladies speedwalking. Parker was so excited to run but he/we were engulfed in the crowd and ended up completely knocking over two or three old ladies and tripping up countless others. I stopped to help one angry lady up who only yelled and swore at me. What do you expect?? You’re running in a race with 600 dogs, how angry can you get? At this point I was content with just finishing the race via jogging. However, when we got outside of the race grounds and onto the road Parker wanted to bolt. I’ve never been so proud, honestly, he wanted to be in the front. So we wound up essentially running a ridiculous & unsustainable pace to catch up to the front 3 guys. I overheard people murmuring to others as we sprinted past, things like “come on, really?” or “that’s just stupid”. I had a smile on my face the whole time. 

Deep in the heart of the pack at the start...

We eventually caught the lead guys a bit before the 1^st mile & I’ll never forget the confused looks on their faces as if to say: “where did you come from?” One of the runners faded out shortly after that as the pace picked up slightly. A man with a cocker-spaniel mix (yes, really), another dude with a German Shepherd and Parker and I were all taking turns leading for the next mile. As we hit a downhill back towards the racetrack I wanted to make a move but Parker started to fade a bit, so we held back. The other two guys put a 5 second gap on us on that downhill and unfortunately it stuck the rest of the run. Parker actually wanted to go faster in the last half mile but I didn’t have the legs. I feel like I let my dog down (I’m serious, he wanted to be in the front). We ended up finishing 3^rd overall in 16:49 (10 seconds back from the winner). Not a bad 5k time considering how much time we wasted at the beginning of the race- and a 5:26 pace is nothing to be upset about this early in the season. My mom took video of us tripping over people and trying to meander thru the masses of speed walkers. My dog was the happiest I’ve ever seen him during and after that race J

TCSD Duathlon 1-28

I won’t say a ton about this but the TCSD race series is quite possibly the greatest race series ever.... 1. They’re free 2. All the local fast guys/girls come out to race these 3. They’re close by & convenient 4. Mega breakfast/buffet after 5. They have electronic timing 6. They’re free.

I probably work harder in these races than I do in races that I pay a ton of money to do. It’s fun to race your friends, It brings out the better athlete inside of you.

Not going to give a huge recap of this race but, like most people that do this, it wasn’t tapered for, so most have tired legs, which makes it all the more challenging. This was the 1^st TCSD Duathlon of the year and it was out next to the Olympic Training Center. It consisted of a 2 mile run on a dirt path, 12 mile bike and the 2 mile run again. Loved this rolling bike course and it was clear that the cyclists owned the day here. Daniel Heineck, Matthew Dixon and myself basically pulled away (clean & no drafting) and put around 3 minutes on everyone else and ran away with the race. I ended up having a decent run and took 1^st with Matt in 2^nd and Daniel in 3^rd. Oh ya, our times were in the low 50 minute range.. do the math on that one.. #fast. It was a fun morning and afterwards we had a nice little group together for a ride out to Honey Springs in some gnarley headwind. I’m eager to see my finishing video as I did my best karate kick/ hi-ya thru the finish line.

Fiesta Island Time Trial 20k

I was really stoked for this, I’ve never really done a pure solo TT before. I did take the day off of running and cycling the day before and only swam. Race day, I needed to make sure I had a huge warm up in beforehand, as most of my cycling buddies will attest, I’m a definite 2^nd half performer in cycling and take a ridiculously long time to get warmed up. So I started riding well over an hour before the race to make sure my legs were good and ready. Rolled up to the start line barely on time and let her rip. It was 3 big loops around Fiesta Island (4.1 mile loops). As I figured I would do, I took out the 1^st lap much too hard, spent the 2^nd lap worried and being way to conservative and probably made up everything I’d lost on the 2^nd lap in the final lap. I was never really in the “hurt locker” & I couldn’t get myself to that level for some reason; I was just pushing a hard pace. The moment I finished, I sat up and thought: “damn, I could do that again right now, probably faster”, which isn’t the feeling you want to have in such a short hard effort. I was probably saving energy, subconsciously, for the run ;-) Finish time of 27:29, which was good enough to win the 19+ open division and a Personal Record for me. I was fairly happy with this time; and to me it means I’m slowly getting better in the flats and not just in climbing. Now I've got the hunger to do this again soon and break 27 minutes. 

It's dirt not a cat-5'er

Coronado Valentine’s Day 10k

Winter Tan

I was NOT stoked for this race. On the morning, I woke up feeling pretty crummy & with heavy legs, having been sick and over-trained all last week. I would’ve gone back to bed and ditched this, but I would’ve never heard the end of it from Mike Clinch. When I arrived, my warm up was the run from my car to pick up my timing chip and number. That was a bad call. I was blown away with how many fast dudes came out for this one!! If anything, I learned more about how to run a 10k (or how not to run a 10k) rather than having a “good race”. I didn’t really know how to seed myself with all of these fast guys on the start line. I figured I’d just go out with the front group. That was all ‘well and good’ until we hit 2 miles and I wanted to die. Somewhere, maybe a minute or two before the 5k timing mat, I hit the wall and wanted to call it quits on this stupid thing. I then ran into my good buddy Mitch Hall crusin around on his bike and he gave me a bit of motivation to get moving again. My pacing goal was to stay somewhere around Lesely Paterson. She had been running in a little group 30+ seconds ahead of me for the last couple of minutes. My legs finally came back around somewhere between mile 3-4 and I found a suitable pace. Caught back up to Lesely and a few others and felt “alright enough”. I’d have had a really strong last ½ mile finish but I took a wrong turn and started running down a rain gutter path on the wrong side of a fence. Looking kind of embarrassed I turned around and ran back. I finished with a much slower time than expected in 35:18. I came in 25^th place overall. Ya, wow, that’s demoralizing. I know it’s a PR and still really early in the season, but for some reason 25^th place doesn’t sit too well with me. Lessons Learned, 10ks are hard, don’t go out blazing a fast 5k and leave nothing for the way home, don’t run the wrong way, there’s no “cheating” a 10k (like you can with a 5k).

My first Triathlon of the season is Tritonman, next Sunday. I’m always excited for this little Collegiate race, since it was the 1^st race I ever took part in back in 2009. Also really looking forward to the Desert International and SUPERSEAL in early March before Oceanside! Eager to add the swim... Fun times ahoy.

I promise updates soon!

Time to get faster. 

Turn the Party Up - 2012 Race Schedule

Sorry for the delay in blogging, though, I doubt anyone was fiending for any of my written nonsense. Nonetheless, I feel like throwing out a little update on my sporting life after a brief blogging hiatus. After my last race in October, I had every intention of “shutting it down” for a solid couple of weeks and slowly building back up (as if my body is like an old car or something). Well, I think I made it four or five days without doing much other than surfing and hustling to class late; then I couldn’t help myself but to start doing what I love again. I traded in my old road bike and got a shiny (or matt-black) new Specialized sl4, which has only fueled my desire to ride as much as I possibly can without falling over. Instead of doing 4 or 5 smaller runs in a week I’ve been really enjoying piling all my mileage into 3 longer runs every week. I’m loving long trail runs at the moment; it keeps me engaged in what I’m doing, kind of like riding hills when cycling. It’s quite a bit more fun to me. Actually, looking back at all of November and the bulk of December, thus far, I’ve been training significantly more than when I was “in season” and racing. I haven’t been doing much speed work, which is lovely. I’m positive it’s completely mental, really. I don’t love training (or doing anything for that matter) when I have to do it or am forced to, but if I’m free to do whatever I’d like, then I’ll do the exact same thing just as long as it’s my choice. A great example of this is reading. A lot of kids don’t want to read in school because it’s considered homework. I despised reading growing up, purely because it was forced in school. But in 5^th grade I decided to read (yes…) Harry Potter, on my own, and all of a sudden, reading was awesome. By the time High School rolled around, I’d already read most of what we would be reading in our English and Lit classes anyways. It’s not my intention to brag about reading. I'm very aware that there are serious readers and then people who read periodically for fun- I’m definitely the latter of the two.

The Speedy Bill Jones & I doing some work at the cliffs. 

School metaphors aside (pretty sure this is the second I’ve used in my race blog now. Time to pick a different example), I’ve recently discovered the benefits of going to bed a little early and not feeling the need to sleep in till noon. It’s mind blowing to me how much time I have in my day when I wake up at 6:45am feeling fresh and go ride for 3-4 hours, then come home and encounter the realization that I still have the entire day to be productive (or work). This may be the biggest correlating factor to why my training volume has shot thru the roof.. more available time. It’s important to note that I’m in no way claiming to be faster right now; Maybe I can claim that after I throw down some decent results in races next year tho.. ;-) Speaking of which, this is my tentative race schedule for next year (as of now, I’m sure I’ll be sprinkling in smaller local races here and there)

1/29/12 – Dirt Devil Trail ½ Marathon

2/20/12 – Tritonman

3/4/12 – Desert International Triathlon

3/18/12 – Superseal Olympic Triathlon

3/31/12 – Oceanside 70.3

5/6/12 – Wildflower Olympic

6/2/12 – Honu 70.3

7/15/12 – Lake Stevens 70.3

9/2/12 – Hy-Vee 5150 World Championship

9/9/12 – Ironman 70.3 World Championship Las Vegas*

After an extremely disappointing collegiate season last year, a big part of me wants to take enough units off campus and race collegiately again this year. I definitely want to race Wildflower again, and as much as I want a “do-over” at Collegiate Nationals in Alabama …say, maybe when I haven’t raced a miserable 70.3 six days prior, I really don’t like the CNC bike course, so I’m debating whether or not it’s worth it to go thru all of the WCCTC jazz by myself again.

However, I’m definitely looking forward to aging up into the 25-29AG. It should be a fun filled year racing against the faster guys in 70.3’s.

I applaud anyone who takes this picture seriously.

As for now, I’m going to keep having fun, work hard as long as I can, and continue getting ready for next year. I’m excited, to say the least, and feel the itch to race more everyday. On a side note, I feel a sense of satisfaction in the “weed-like” growth of my hair this month; I’m making serious progress in growing back the bushy wig, so that’s definitely something to look forward to.

Last Races of 2011

I look so stoked.

Thank God this year of racing is over. I’ve learned a lot, that’s for sure; but most of what I’ve learned has been how to deal with disappointment and frustration. There was certainly a lot of that this year. However, I was lucky enough to have a few good races before I called it quits for the year, and had some good times with friends while doing so.

Playa Del Rey Triathlon

This was a fun little race up in LA a week or so ago on the 16^th. I stayed with my buddy David Quiros and had the chance to catch up with all my friends on the UCLA tri team. My plan was to treat it as a solid training day (quick brick session) and not get too crazy out there. It was kind of cool because the UCLA and USC tri teams were the volunteers on the course. It was entertaining to see someone I knew at every corner yelling something encouraging at me.

It was a rad location, being on the backside of LAX, all of the planes flew right over us as they landed. As far as the race went: I had a decent swim and sat on the feet of the lead pack throughout the 600meter swim. I caught a little roller on the way in and hit the beach in front of everyone. I thought I was the 1^st in but apparently some dude was 30+ seconds ahead. I had no idea there was someone ahead until my buddy Henry told me. Quickly hopped on my whip and set off to chase this dude down. I caught him after a couple of miles and realized that there weren’t too many dudes close behind me. I settled into a nice pace and cruised the rest of the course. I believe I had a high 28 minute 20k bike split. After I left T2, it took me a while to get my running legs going.. feeling a little tired from all the training that week (didn’t really tapper for this one). We ran an ‘out and back’ down a road paralleling the beach. I felt poopy until the last mile when I finally started to get my legs under me. I noticed that I had a sizable lead as I headed down the back stretch and cruised in to a 1^st place overall victory. Run split was a 16:56 5k. The next guy came in around 3ish minutes later so it was nice to have a good race at an effort that wasn’t too pressing.

I took a lovely nap after the race and then headed out with some of the UCLA guys to do some solid climbing in the Santa Monica Mountains. I’m really envious of all the awesome climbing out there, being so close to everything! Note: don’t do big climbs with Zipp 808 tubular carbon rim wheels. Made for a long and annoying decent, having to stop 3x to make sure my rims weren’t going to blow up.  Everyone probably thought I’d overshot a turn and flew off the mountain when they reached the bottom and sat around waiting a good 5-10 minutes for me.

Unfortunately my training week only escalated into the next couple of days with some taxing run workouts and rides. This would inevitably lead to an “ahh, shoot.. didn’t think about recovery” moment, a few days before:

Chewin on the best of Texas

Galveston, TX 5150

I essentially knew when I signed up for this race that I wasn’t going to be “king of the mountain” after all was said and done. This course is dead flat the entire time with a lot of wind. So pretty much everything I suck at. (If you’ve ever talked to me about the wind, you know we’re unsmiling enemies). That being said, I would be ok with a sucky overall place as long as I knew I gave it a solid effort.

Charlie Karstrom basically talked me into doing this race. He had it all picked out and scouted and was determined to make this race his bitch (which he did). I’m glad he did talk me into it though.. we had a lot of fun out it there in Texas. I knew it was going to be a good trip when we were randomly “forced” into a 2+ hour (or never ending) card game with a complete stranger on the plane over. Our Texas experience started off right: with a trip to the local grocery store, where we loaded up on mass quantities of cookies, some fig-newtons, bananas, and loads of trail mix. What we should’ve been loading up on was bug spray (at least Charlie should’ve). On our walk back from packet-pickup/expo, we were walking past a grassy stretch of sidewalk and we looked down and noticed a small country of mosquitoes firmly taking up residence upon our legs. We initially started yelling profanities and swatting away, but it was like the mythological creature - where you kill one and two appear. In unison we started sprinting as if a lion were chasing us down. Needless to say, we ran the 2 miles all the way back to the room at a slightly faster than intended pace.

Race Day:

Swim

Our wave (Elite) started 10 minutes behind the pros. There weren’t a ton of people in the Elite wave, so the swim start was oddly spread out and comfortable. After the gun went off I sprinted to Charlie’s feet and sat behind him for 100 meters or so but quickly moved away; sitting behind Charlie is like sitting behind a dual motor speedboat with all the water he kicks and churns up, it doesn’t make for easy breathing conditions. I watched as he sped off and I knew he was going to bridge up and do his own thing. I sat with the three other guys at the front and chilled for a bit in this group. After turning the 1^st buoy one guy broke off the front of the pack and I decided to join him. The group ended up splitting apart and we all basically swam the rest of the swim solo. I wasn’t feeling too hot but I wasn’t lollygagging. After I exited, I couldn’t help but feel that the swim was long for a 1500 meter swim. I exited in 23ish minutes, which is a little high for me (also considering I’ve been having some decent swim sessions lately). I think I was 4^th out in our wave. (The long swim was confirmed by everyone’s slow swim times that day).

Bike

Despite the long swim, I hopped on the Shiveroo and took off into the wind.. and holy crap it was a wind. The bike course paralleled the beach and there was a serious crosswind happening. Knowing that my body is a wind-sail –being 150lbs and 6 foot with a huge torso- I decided I had to go balls out on the way out to the turnaround and pray for some sort of a tailwind to carry me back if I wanted any chance in staying in the race. My plan worked (somewhat) and I ended up catching everyone but Charlie before the turnaround. To my luck we had a slight tailwind on the way home and I hit T2 with a 1:00:50 time. Again, talking to some peeps after the race, it was concurred that the bike course was slightly long as well (being measured at 25.2 miles).

Run

It was definitely one of “those days” out there. Legs just felt mega heavy and tired. I know it was from overtraining that week. My heart rate wasn’t very high (which isn’t optimal in an Olympic distance race) but my legs were maxed. It felt like trying to run hard the day after a huge ride. I just couldn’t get it going. To make things worse, I took a wrong turn and ran down the wrong street. That was a fun wasted 45 seconds. I was passed by a speedy Latino kid and basically easy-ran the next 2 miles in (I didn’t see anyone close behind). Ended the day getting 4^th place in the elite division with a 2:05 time. Props to Charlie for crushing the swim and keeping the lead intact the rest of the day.

At the awards we not only found out that we qualified for the Hy-Vee US Championship next year, but the top 5 received free spots! So looks like I’ll have two Championship races within the same week next year (Vegas 70.3 is a week later). Fun times ahead!

I’m looking forward to some relaxation in the next couple weeks and not doing much other than surfing and casual coffee rides. As usual, I’d like to thank my parents, family & friends for all the support throughout the ups and downs this year. B+L Bikes for being San Diego’s best tri shop and supporting me, Specialized for making the worlds greatest bikes, and Clint Eastwood. And last but not least, God for saving me and giving me a passion to strive for the best. 

LA Triathlon (2011)

After taking absolutely no time to think about my race in Vegas, I felt it was best to immediately get back on the pain-train and put the pedal down in some workouts. It’s been nice to not feel the need to run 2-3 long runs or head out on two 3-4 hour long rides every week. I’m all about quality over quantity (in almost every aspect of life). I never understood length requirements on papers in school. I enjoy writing, so I typically never griped too badly about this, but I always found it unnecessary/dumb to write an 8 page paper and say everything precise and quaintly in five pages and have to bullshit out three more pages of redundancy. I always loved the teachers that graded on the quality of ideas you’ve presented and not how long and wordy an essay is. That being said, I take the same approach in my workouts. I feel it’s almost a waste of time (for myself; not being an “iron-distance” athlete (yet) to spend more than 4 hours on my bike. At that point, I’m not doing any quality work; I’m just bearing the pain of sitting on a harmonica-sized seat and keeping my legs spinning and staying upright.

All of that to say, I welcomed back Olympic-distance racing last weekend with open arms. It was “fun” to turn up the speed/pain, and go fast again. I was telling everyone before the race “all I want to do is blow up the bike”. I didn’t even care about the run, I could’ve run a 45 and been satisfied as long as I went under an hour on the bike. It’s funny how I almost always go into a race having a “plan” and it almost always never works out the way you imagined it.

Standard Butsko bewildered swim exit look

Swim: Having put some time in the pool since Vegas, I was hopeful that the ‘old Keith’ would come back last Sunday. Nope.. It’s getting better, but my swim is still nowhere near what it should be. As I watched the pros take off, I saw my buddy Kenny Rakestraw took the best line out to the first buoy by running on the north side. I decided to take that same line and it worked out pretty well. I reached the 1^st buoy simultaneously along with one other dude before the rest of the collegiate/ 29 & under wave. As soon as we turned south, I had no idea where to go. The only other buoy was like 700 meters south near the pier. It was slightly choppy and I came to a complete stop 3 or 4 times and talked with this other guy I was swimming with. We were just confused at where we were swimming. It really wasn’t racing, more like getting lost and making the best of the situation. I came out somewhere in the 24 minute range. Kind of stinky.

Bike: After a quick exchange of pleasantries with the guy I was swimming with while changing in T1, I was off. I went out way too hard the first 10 miles, after that I felt dead. My legs just didn’t have any life in them. I wasn’t wearing a watch but I knew my bike split wasn’t near what I had hoped for. The course is a false flat for the first 10ish miles towards downtown LA; then it’s an alternating (very slight) up and downslope 2 lap-7 mile loop. Overall it’s a pretty flat course, no real challenging hills, so it not advantageous for me at all.  I finished with a 1:02 low bike split. At least it’s a minute better than last year right?

 

Run: As I headed out onto the run course, I felt I had a nice and quick pace ½ mile into it and started to settle in. I then turned a corner and saw Greg Bennett bolting towards the finish line; probably running a 4:45 mile pace. He ran by me so fast that my pace looked like a relaxing jog. I almost quit endurance sports straight up when I saw that. However, I didn’t and decided to just keep at it. Not feeling too inspired I trudged on, getting distracted every so often by the bouncing pony tail of Magali Tisseyre… After chatting with a few people about PLNU (as I got the usual comments about my green hat) and noticing that I probably had a lock on the Collegiate and 29 & under win, I rolled into the finish feeling good. I saw the results and noticed I ran a 36:24, which is a 10k PR in a triathlon for me and nearly 5 minutes faster than what I ran here last year…

2:06:19 overall

Ended up wining the collegiate division and the overall Age Group win (However, I wasn’t credited as the overall AG champ at the awards because apparently the Collegiate division wasn’t included for whatever reason). No matter, it was a fun day racing and hanging out with friends. Shout out to Kosuke, who had a huge day and was 3^rd in the elite division, and to my dogs: Bill Gleason and Jonathan Lopez, who were high on the podium in their respective divisions. Huge day for TCSD (and PLNU triathlon.. kind of).

I’d like to say a special thanks to Sonja Johnson and Zoot for getting me in a super fast wetsuit for this race! B+L Bikes for being THE BEST tri shop in SD. My fam for being awesome and my friends for all the support. And last but certainly not least, Nic Cage for making some of the worst(=best) movies of all time.

Sure, Cheers.

 Fast happens..

Las Vegas - Ironman 70.3 World Championship

If there's one thing that I take away from this experience, it's that triathletes are dorks.. It's the guys that are pushing out a 25 minute tempo run a day or two prior to the race, in their full race ready tri-suit, wearing their timing chip and bib/# as if they are actually in the middle of a race. No.. just, no. You would be surprised at the amount of people I witnessed (mostly European dudes, thankfully) doing all three sports in this fashion. If I ever see you doing this, we're no longer friends. It's completely inexcusable.

Chances are if you're reading this, you probably already know how my race went.. Pretty lackluster and drab. However, having probably the unluckiest/injury prone year of my short endurance sports career thus far, I feel a small sense of satisfaction. Right from the start of my season, it was one after another... IT band syndrome, bad burritos, pointless penalty, IT band/hip flexor, sickness/lung congestion, seat post sinkage, sting ray encounter.

(SIDE NOTE: I don't think I ever blogged about my sting ray encounter. It was pretty fun. 5 Minutes prior to the Solana Beach Triathlon, I stepped on a sting ray while warming up in Fletcher cove. It stung me under the front of my foot. I was pretty pissed and decided to race anyways (after the lifeguards basically told me "it's just going to hurt, a lot"). And to their prediction, it hurt.. a lot. So I made it a mile into the run and couldn't take the pounding anymore and bailed.)

Sting rays aside, I had a pretty solid month and a half of training to get myself ready for the 70.3WC. A lot of riding out east county in the middle of the day to get used to the heat. I actually concentrated much more on running than cycling, and barely touched swimming (which was my biggest mistake). To be honest, I didn't feel to nervous about this race. I really had nothing to prove, I've been hurt all year.

Race Day


Swim
I'm not even going to talk about it.

Bike
After hearing my uncharacteristically bad swim time, I got on my bike pretty upset. Lets just say I "burnt a lot of matches" in the first 30 minutes of the bike course. I set out on an Olympic distance pace and was rolling over people. Once I settled down and found a sustainable pace, I started feeling good. I loved that bike course. It's no doubt my favorite course so far. There is a constant uphill or downhill and it kept me engaged in the course. When we hit the turnaround around mile 25 I felt great and was feeling better the longer I rode. I know I was owning the hills because I'd be 15+ seconds a head of the guys I was pacing with then they'd catch back up to me as the course flattened out. I had a really good pace and was out in front leading the way for a few guys until around mile 40-45 when we hit these stupid false flats that take you back into Henderson. There was a slight headwind and for some reason, my legs didn't want to cooperate one bit. I couldn't keep the pace that I had been pushing and started fading. When we entered the city of Henderson, the course just gets flat and boring. My legs had blown up pretty bad and I went into survival mode. I just wanted to get off my bike and sit down. I'd have rather been riding uphill than trying to push roasted legs thru the flats. I entered T2 with a 2:29:03 bike split. Bummed, cause I was probably on pace to hit 2:26ish before I blew up. Somewhat satisfied considering this course is not the easiest of courses, but it suits my riding style fairly well and I want to really bag it next year.

Berg and I heading out on the run course

Run
I took my time in the T2 tent. I chilled and ate some shot blocks for a minute. I saw my buddy Chris Berg enter the tent while I was cold chillin and waited a second for him before I set out on the run course. I know Chris is a good half distance runner, so I figured it would be smart to pace with him. We ran out together for the 1st half mile, but my itchy legs wanted to bolt. Chris played it much smarter and ran steady, for the 1st lap and took it almost as a warm up. The run course is essentially a 3 lap course: 2 miles up hill and 2 miles down hill. As I started running up hill I noticed something funny going on in my left shoe. Oh, wait.. two of my toes were poking out the left side. It had ripped somehow and my insole started to come out. Cool. I stopped to try and fix my insole but it was clear it wasn't going to cooperate. Towards the end of the descent around mile 3, Chris flew past me. I was surprised at how fast he was moving. I tried to copy his pace but he had a nice gap on me. At this point, it was a good struggle to run with that damn insole all scrunched up at the end of my shoe and my toes poking out. I stopped next to my good friend Kosuke (who was dressed up as a beer bottle, mind you), and we assessed my shoe. After a little discussion, decided it was best to just rip out the insole and grin and bear it. I took off again and felt better, but weird running with a half retarded shoe. Pace wise, I felt good. Probably ran the 1st 8 or 9 miles around a 6:30-6:45 pace. Then in standard Keith Butsko style, started to fade hard on the last 5k. The heat wasn't necessarily getting to me (even though it was 94ish and sunny), I was just tired.

If you look closely at my left shoe, the insole and a toe are coming out of the left side. .

I finished with a 1:33 half marathon and 4:38 on the day. Not too happy with that.. Just wanted to make sure I have a lot of room for improvement next year;-) There was a much better field of athletes this year.  This course is a true World Championship course and I'm glad I had the opportunity to race it in it's inaugural year.
I'm having fun again and really in love with each sport.

Right now, I feel it would be a waste to just pull the plug on my year. Since I've been hurt for 3/4ths of my season so far, I'm gonna keep training hard and bang out some Olympic distance races this month and next. I've got the LA Triathlon this month, still debating if I want to go back and race the 5150 Las Vegas next month, then Charlie Karstrom and I are going to kill the Galveston 5150 towards the end of October.

Thank you to everyone for all your support! It means a lot. A special thanks to my family and friends for taking time out of their lives to come watch me race; and to B+L Bikes for continuing to support me. Time to Speed it up!
 

Carlsbad & Vineman 70.3 (2011)

Ran the first 10 miles solidly. The last 5k... not so much.

The biggest goal of last Sunday was just to have a solid day and not die. I knew I wasn’t going to have a breakout race. I’ve only done a handful of workouts in the last 2 weeks while fighting a cold and nothing previous to that since May 1^st sans some swimming. I knew I wasn’t going to PR in any sport. If I get a Vegas spot then I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do 5 months ago; if I don’t, then I focus on something else for the remainder of the season.  I did what I set out to do (at least until mile 10 of the run).  It was the first big step in getting back to where I was before my train got derailed.

But honestly, the day wasn’t really about me. It was definitely about Charles Karstrom. That guy blew everyone away yesterday (including most of the pros). Seeing that was a huge inspiration.. He went 4:08 on the day. This was his breakout race. Just makes me want to have a race like Charles did.

Carlsbad

Last weekend I raced the Carlsbad Sprint Triathlon and had a disgusting race. I haven’t been able to take a full breath since June 25^th. Lung congestion sucks, but it sucks even worse when it sticks around for 3 weeks. I thought I was going to drown on that swim; I just couldn’t get any air in my lungs. Same with the bike, and the run was just an embracement. Thank God my timing chip wasn’t working and my race wasn’t even recorded. Phewww. Just put that one away -deep in the hart of the weak-sauce trash bin.

The next week leading up to Vineman felt like I was cramming for an exam; trying to fit in two or three long workouts to build up my endurance again. On Saturday, the day before the race, I felt much better on my little 15 min workouts and most of my congestion had miraculously disappeared. I was honestly just excited to be healthy, injury free and in wine country this weekend.

Vineman 70.3

The Race:

The Swim

This swim course is kind of goofy. It was literally 2-3 feet deep for half of the course. After talking with people after the race, I clearly should’ve been dolphin diving thru the shallow sections much more.

When the horn went off I had a decent sprint but quickly started struggling to catch my breath after only 50 yards. When I reached the 1^st buoy 100 yards out, I noticed someone was already 25-50 yards ahead of me and the three guys I was swimming with. It turned out to be Charles Karstrom, starting off on his tear. Having no ambition of trying to keep up with his pace, I tried to find a rhythm but failed and sat on someone’s feet for the next 5-10 min. It started to get extremely shallow as we approached the turnaround. I noticed people walking and dolphin diving. I did one or two and thought, “nah, I should just swim.. this is cheap”. In hindsight, I should’ve done a significant amount more dolphin diving, as most of the faster guys dolphin dove till their feet hurt. It wasn’t until the turnaround that I finally felt comfortable and found my stroke. I quickly caught up and passed a group of 3 and eventually one other guy 200 yards away from the finish. Why couldn’t I have been swimming like that the whole time? I came out 3^rd in the 29 and under wave with a high 26 min swim.

Bike

My wave’s transition racks were in the furthest nook (and most inconvenient spot) in the transition area. After grabbing my bike and setting off, I passed a guy in my age group a mile in. I was by myself and settling in on a nice and pressing pace for a while before a bigger guy, who was clearly “a cyclist”, joined me. I’d pass him going up the hills and he’d pass me on the flats and downhills. Unfortunately, there are more flats and rollers than steep climbs, so he slowly pulled away.

However, during this time, I hit a sizable pothole and heard an odd noise from under me. I thought a rock must have hit off the side of my wheels and thought nothing of it. Turns out, as I was packing up my bike this morning, I noticed my seat post had been well over an inch and a half lower than where it should’ve been.  This would explain why my lower back started cramping up around mile 15 and why I couldn’t seem to put any power into my pedaling. I must not have tightened my seat-post in enough when building up my bike the day before.. Lessons learned.

The rest of the bike course, I was completely alone (until the last 6 miles). I would ride hard for 4-5 minutes then have to stand up, push my hips forward, and stretch/relax my back for 10-20 seconds, losing all momentum, then doing it over and over and over again. I felt crappy every second I was on my bike. I finished in 2:30… over 5 minutes slower than what I did last year, and I wasn’t nearly as good of a cyclist last year as I am this year (not that I’m such a great cyclist now).

Run

Stoked to get off my bike (rare), I left transition feeling great (also rare). I think I nailed my nutrition on the bike for the first time ever. I didn’t have that “dead leg” feeling during the first couple miles. I got in to a rhythm immediately and found a nice pace. I forgot my watch (convenient I know, but it didn’t really change the way I did anything) so I was running on effort alone. I felt like I was running at a solid pace and wasn’t out of breath or hurting like I usually do. The course goes out to a winery 5-6 miles away and does a mile loop around their vineyard then heads back. (At this time I knew 1^st place was out of the question, as I saw Charles heading out of the winery a mile or so ahead of me, and looking really strong). They didn’t have anyone signaling which way you should enter the loop around the vineyard, so I turned left. It wasn’t until the 4^th person running towards me in an opposite direction with a confused look on their face that I started to get the impression something was wrong. When I finally saw a guy I knew I had been 1-2 minutes up on heading in my direction I stopped, looked around and saw a chalk arrow on the ground pointing in the opposite direction. I kind of stood there for a while thinking about what I should do before I came to the conclusion that I should just keep running the wrong way cause I’d eventually come out having done the same distance anyways.

After a confusing mile, I regained my pace again and started pushing. I wasn’t wearing a watch, but I could tell I had been running the exact same pace from mile one till mile 10 which according to the 6.6 mile split I received was around a 6:25 pace. When mile 10 rolled along, it was like someone turned out the lights. This wasn’t nutrition, it was a lack of endurance. I wasn’t breathing hard, my heart rate probably wasn’t even above 140.. my legs were just out of strength. I struggled to get up those hills. My jog turned into a shuffle, which turned into a walk, turned into a shuffle, turned into a walk, turned into a run for the last ½ mile.

Whatever disappointment I had after the race was quickly forgotten as I proceeded to the Russian River brewery & enjoyed some tasty beer and met and hung out with awesome people.

Charles and I getting some podium wine

So no, it wasn’t even near my best day or what I should be capable of, but it was essentially what I wanted (with the exception of the seat-post being ridiculously low, but that’s racing…). It was a C+ race to get me back on track. I did qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas, which I’m stoked about! I’m looking forward to the training leading into this. The bike course was built for light guys… Lots of climbing;-) So if anyone would like a training partner in the next couple of months, let me know. I’ll be working my ass off... or what I have of one at least.

Thanks to all my friends and family for their support, I really appreciate it! Also, thanks to B+L Bikes for continuing to support me. And props to all of the San Diego hot shots that tore it up yesterday. There were some smoking fast times.. Some were even going so fast, they did the winery loop twice…

Post race wine tasting

TIME TO GET MY FAST ON.