Alabama and Collegiate Nationals

Gotta knock this one out before the homework really gets piled on and this becomes irrelevant.

I have to say..... I had a blast staying with the UCLA Tri team and am truly thankful for time I got to spend with them. It just makes me wish we had a legitimate tri team at Loma. It makes these trips much more bearable when you have friends going through it with you. Not only was hanging out with the UCLA tri team sweet, but all of the schools from the West Coast Collegiate Triathlon Conference. I love all those guys. It honestly didn't feel like separate teams from the WCCTC competing with the rest of the Collegiate teams, but the WCCTC vs. the rest of the schools (or maybe just Boulder). It was pretty awesome. I don't think any other conferences have that sort of camaraderie. 

Alabama was ... Alabama. Hot, humid, and rednecks. Our first night, a couple of the UCLA guys and I went for a little exploratory run around the hotel area. I somehow forgot my running shorts so I decided my retro 80's speedo would have to suffice. After circling the Lowe's parking an upwards of 6 times and running to the highway and back I told the guys I was going to call it a night & head to the hotel. They decided to head in as well. Right as we exited the Lowe's parking lot, I noticed something hit me in the back, followed by a sticky substance creepin on my arm. Everyone was bewildered at what had just happened, but apparently some rednecks in a big ol truck, threw their leftover hooters at us while driving off. I'm guessing it was aimed at me because of my flamboyant speedo and retro headband. Luckily for myself, the others took the brunt of this drive-by fooding because they were on the outside while running.. It was awesome after we realized what had happened. "welcome to alabama". Josh Reyes and Nick Handel were smothered in thousand island dressing. It was hilarious. We decided to go to a nearby waffle house shortly after and were recognized as "those guys running around" by the WH employees. Apparently we threw a huge wrench in the Alabama system. I was just waiting for some big guy to come up to me and say something like "We don't take too kindly to yer kind around here, boy..." I immediately regretted the decision to bring only highly fluorescent V necks on this trip. 

Speaks for itself

The Race:

Brady, 30 seconds till the gun.. Me in the right corner ;-)

Alright.. I knew it was a bad decision to race 6 days after racing Oceanside 70.3. I knew deep down inside that: A. There's no way I could be competitive with these guys at this level, being as sore and tired as I was. B. There's no way I could be competitive with these guys at this level anyways. The guys in the Top 5 have been doing this for a long time and put in way more work than I do at shorter distance stuff. That being said, I'm neither happy with my result or upset by it. 

Having raced AG Nats only 8 months ago, I had some idea how this course would be going. So when I saw that dock, I wasn't going to fall victim to getting a crappy swim spot 5 seconds before the start again.  When we jumped in and everyone swam out to do another little warmup, I quickly grabbed a protruding chain on the dock to get a solid start spot. As the officials told everyone they had to be touching the dock and the gun would be going off in 30 seconds, I had the biggest smile on my face. I had my feet planted on the dock while holding the chain as almost everyone else was floating in water touching the dock. I'm pretty sure the CBS camera man had his camera right on me. The gun went off and I swear, no one.. no one touched me for the first 200 meters. It was the best start to a race I'd ever had. For the lack of swim training that I've been doing, I'd say I had a pretty dang good swim. I exited the water just in front of a few strong WCCTC swimmers including Henry Szeto and Tim Black. The fairly long run up to transition was really fun. 

I'm in the red goggles clutching the chain on the right still.. 

Bike:

I don't want to throw down a massive rant about the bike section of this race just because I don't want to be "that guy", but I'm not happy about it. Essentially, with the course being two loops and the lanes were only 1 car lane wide, there was some nice drafting going on. Whatever.. this happens, I have to learn to deal with it. I was hammering out a pretty good pace by myself for 45 minutes before a pack of 15+ dudes came up to join me in the last 4-5 miles. Lame sauce. I know half of these guys were sitting up drinking coffee and eating doughnuts for the majority of this ride. It's not fair, but that's life. The bike course had no legitimacy whatsoever. There was a good sized pack a minute in front of me the whole time as well. I did see a lot of penalties being issued by the officials, which is good, but why did it even come to that? Come on USAT, get your shit together. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out what's going to happen with 700 fast 20something year olds all crammed together on a fast bike course. 

Run:

I may have not PR'ed in any sport on Saturday, but shoot.. I PR'ed both of those transitions. I have a notorious T1 time. I flew through both of those transitions like I had Tiger's Blood in my veins. The run was pretty funny to watch, not funny to partake in. The first 2 miles are mostly uphill and it was really funny to see guys take off at too hard of a pace, only to get gnarly side stitches a mile or so into it and pull off to the side. (I was pretty close to being on of those guys). I'm glad Henry and I left transition at the same time. It really helped to pace with him in the beginning when we each were going through ups and downs. Right around the second mile I noticed my run legs start to open up and I felt good so I took a chance and pushed out of this group of guys I had been running with. I hit the only downhill hard and put some time on everyone. When I hit the flats I really pushed hard and opened up a nice gap on the group. I was feeling really good and probably could've been running faster but held back a bit. I hit mile 4 in a low 22:10-something, so relatively fast. But then, out of no where, I hit the wall. My legs suddenly had no energy left and I couldn't go any harder. My pace slowed dramatically and I heard footsteps advancing in my direction rapidly. Within 30+ seconds Henry and Noah Beyeler caught me and ran past me with ease. I tried to hang on to Henry's feet but I had nothing inside me. Oceanside finally caught up to me, and to be honest I was surprised I made it that far, that fast. I'm really bummed because there was a pack of 10 guys, less than a minute in front of me, all running fairly slow. Noah held the same pace I had been holding earlier and caught all but one of them. So I jogged in to finish 21st overall at a 37:40something 10k, which isn't terribly bad.. but I know I'm capable of running much, much faster. 

Still proud of my effort at least, knowing I battled, took some chances and ran a clean race. Just bummed seeing the results and knowing the guys in the Top 10 weren't too much faster and the next 10 guys in front of me were only a minute faster. Pretty stoked for Henry and Brady O'ryan though.. they both had great races and Brady took 3rd overall. Also stoked for my buddy Bill Jones at UCSD (also a B+L athlete), who was second out of the water and held thru that run to finish in the top 15. 

Oceanside 70.3 Recap (2011)

I had to wait a day to write this. Writing a race report the day of the race is always bad news.. It's like that email you write when you're angry and you send it, then look back the next day and go "woops, that was a little harsh". Anyways, I had plenty of time to think about my race while sitting in traffic today on my drive up to USC to drop off my bike for Collegiate Nationals (next Saturday in Alabama).

Don't worry.. more pics to come G.buts with the photo cred.

Race Morning:
I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited for this race. I woke up feeling fresh and easy; took a nice little shower at 4:10 to get my body awake. Pumped up my tires and I oiled my chain (I didn't actually oil my chain, that's just how the song goes) and rode from the pier to the transition area in the Harbor. I had everything pretty much ready to go so it was quick setting up and taking off for a little warm up jog. Now, I had already taken care of the bathroom business well before the crowds started forming, but as soon as I saw the pros take off I suddenly had to go again. I ran back to the bathrooms to find a Disneyland feature ride queue formed. Well, I had a good 30 minutes till my wave went off so this was fine.. until 23 minutes had gone by and I was still waiting in that line. With 5 minutes to go I bolted out of that portpotty and sprinted towards my group. I ran into Lindsey who was curious as to what I had been doing, and fought my way up the age group waves to my wave which was "on deck". As the group before us took off, they let us swim from the loading dock to the deep water start in the middle of the harbor. I always love this because you can tell from that 25-50 meter swim, who the better swimmers will be cause it's pretty much a warmup sprint for position for the start. Of course I get out there and who else is right next to me but Brian Duffy. Now we don't speak of his name in my house so I will refer to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named. He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named is quite a good swimmer (& cyclist and runner for that matter), so I knew going into this race I'd pretty much be racing him unless someone else in my age group had a killer day (which you can never rule out!)

The Race:
Well, in typical Keith Butsko style, I bolted from the swim start when the gun went off and had a nice gap between me and everyone else. In fact, it was too nice of a gap; so I poked my head up and noticed I was swimming off course (yes, within the first 50 meters) into the boats along the side of the harbor. Quickly corrected myself and found the lead pack. There were 4 others swimming at the front with me and one dude (who I later found out was He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named) that broke off the front after the 3rd buoy and started blazing a trail of his own. This group of 3 and I swam for a while together until we started encountering the slower age groupers clogging up the course. I don't blame them, they can only swim as fast as possible.. However I'm pretty unhappy about how the WTC (or IRONMAN) seeds the waves. I never understood why they put the older age groups and the challenged athletes at the front. I probably ran over 7-10 people during my swim and got kicked in the face a good number of times because there were people just floating around in the water. It was pretty choppy and wavy towards the turning point on the swim course. A lot of people were struggling but I used my surfing knowledge to use the waves to my benefit and get a little push from them. The group I swam with had long been separated, so I really didn't have anyone to gauge my effort with. When I exited the swim I looked at my watch and it said 27:xx. I was not very happy to see that and angrily grabbed my bike and headed out.

note: looking at everyone's swim times, I now feel much better :-p

The Bike:
Fueled by anger, I pushed hard in the 1st 24.4 miles & went thru in 59:00. That's a bit faster than I'd have typically gone in an olympic distance race (not to mention how windy and hilly the course was). Partly pleased with myself/ partly scarred of wondering if I was going to have enough energy to make it thru the remainder of this course, I settled down a bit and found a good pace. As soon as we hit the back side of Camp Pendleton I hit the wall (or maybe it was just the false-flats into a headwind). I felt drained of energy and couldn't push myself thru the winds. That wind sucked. The more I tucked into an aero position, the more my lower back would cramp. Finally, I saw the bright green suit of Jim Walsh ride past me right when I felt the worst. He was going a bit faster than I but not too much. So I copied his speed and tied an imaginary 75 foot rope to him and hung on (& no I wasn't drafting). That got me thru the back side of that course. I only felt worse the longer I rode. My lower back cramps turned into nausea and that increased the more I exerted myself. When we turned west and headed back into Oceanside, it didn't get any easier. I looked at my watch and saw my bike split was 2:03 and only had 11 miles to go. How many times have I TT'ed 20k on Fiesta Island in heavy wind and clocked 30 minutes? Too many to list. So I gathered myself up and fought into the wind (again) and pushed on. I thought I had a grueling pace but it must've not been (as my bike split ended up being 2:35).

Thanks to Karen Hardy for the Pic!

The Run:
Angry again, I ran into T2 feeling pretty sick. I saw my dad while putting my shoes on and he yelled to me that I was only 3 minutes back. I knew he had to have been exaggerating because there's no way He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named had given up that much time to me on the bike. The 1st couple of miles weren't actually too bad. I still felt sick but I didn't have the back cramps paining me anymore. I saw a man dressed as a seagull running around and felt better. But.... towards the end of the 1st lap I started feeling worse. My legs actually felt fine and I had the "running feel", but my stomach just felt horrible. The harder I tried to push myself the worse I felt.

The Walk:
I hit the turnaround and honestly couldn't run another step without throwing up. I didn't care about my time at this point.. I was only concerned with my well being. I walked back up the hill towards my family who gave me encouragement but I only wobbled by. I continued my saunter on down the hill past my friends and felt so defeated. As I passed the TCSD aid station I tried drinking a bit of coke and eating a banana (you ask why I was eating when I felt nauseous? My stomach felt bloated with water and empty at the same time.. weird, I know). I continued walking till I passed Jim Vance trying to help me out. I started jogging sometime around the pier and tried to pull myself together. I jogged till Wisconsin Street and as soon as I hit that hill I bonked big time. I walked up the hill and sat on the curb next to a dumpster, took my shoes off, cracked my toes, and laid back into some dirt. A little girl came and gave me two cookies from a nearby aid station. I ate them and put my shoes back on. Started walking again. I thought to myself "I have to finish.. no matter what or I'll never forgive myself".

The 2nd Run:
I started jogging, which turned into a run sometime after I saw Matt Reed walking around drinking a coke (I guess he dropped out, it only gave me inspiration to keep going). I still felt horrible but I continued on knowing that I could be finished with this race.


Conclusion
Finally finishing felt fantastic (like that alliteration?). I ended up with a 1:35 run split (amazingly). I'm perplexed because I had to have walked 1-2 miles at a snails pace and who knows how long I was sitting with my shoes off eating cookies for. So I'm actually quite encouraged to have run that fast while feeling as bad as I did. --Just taking what I can from this race. As my friend Kosuke Amano told me after the race: "It's those hard challenging days that make you a better athlete (person). It defines who you are. The days when you feel amazing are boring." On a side note: I did love/appreciate Jim Vance's encouragement and pep talking during the run. Every time I went past him, he had something insightful to say to me. (not to say my family and friends didn't). And every time I ran past my girlfriend Lindsey, she gave me this look as to say "you better get your ass moving dude.. I put up with a lot of your crap for this" ..but in the most loving way.

I still feel disappointed in my performance (even though I finished 2nd in my age group.. don't know how that happened), I am proud of myself for finishing. I really want to thank all of my family and friends, especially those who came out to support me at the race. Seriously, spectating at these events can be brutal. I really appreciate it.

Yesterday only made me 10x more motivated for the Collegiate National Championship this weekend. Roll Sealions.. (or whatever the heck PLNU's theme is. Probably "PLNU: We're Straight Up Average" Actually I think it's "Forward"; somewhat fitting)

Here It Goes Again

Wow… I haven’t updated my race blog since early November. I am sorry to keep all of my eager readers in the dark for so long ;-) Although, if anyone is upset by my lack of blog posts, there’s been plenty of action along the twitter front in it’s stead.

Quick recap of my “off-season”; it wasn’t an off-season at all. I think I took a few days of after Clearwater and started building up again. That race left such a bad taste in my mouth I’ve been determined to become a better runner. I know it’s in me; I just had to go find it (I’ll probably be finding “it” for a long time). The first step to accomplishing this was to put my trust in someone that not only knows how to run fast, but putting it into an equation alongside two other sports. So I got serious about running and asked Mike Clinch to help me out and coach me. Mike is one of the most consistent and competitive athletes in any endurance sport and has been involved in triathlon for a long time, so I really value his knowledge and advice (not to mention that the dude makes you feel stupid on the track).

 

Anyways, I had a tough break in early December on a run when my IT band decided to act a fool. I basically took all of December off running. That sucked because I was just starting to get comfortable. It might have been a blessing in disguise, as I got well acquainted with my new ride this year. B+L Bike & Sport has so graciously decided to let me ride a Shiv by Specialized (which very well might be the best bike on earth.. seriously). My ITB was ridiculously slow to heal but sometime in early February, I eased back into running. After a few weeks I was back, fresher and way more amped about running than I’ve ever been. Mike was careful about scheduling too much, too soon, but had me running consistently and adding something new to my repertoire: speed work. I’ve never really done any speed work before, so I immediately noticed a big surge in my speed. Now, I should say I haven’t been diving head first into speed work like an 800m runner --since I’m still geared towards the 70.3 distance-- but I’ve been doing a fair amount of it. One thing about doing this much running, along with keeping my biking and swimming the same, is the ability to be hungry at every moment in the day. I’m really glad I have a meal plan this semester at the Caf on campus. I’m pretty much going into that place and emptying out the salad bar, pasta station and sandwich meats area (and pray they don’t have bananas, or I’m taking enough for a small family of monkeys) every time.

The Season So Far:

It’s only been a few months of really small races, but I’ve had a few good races so far. The 1^st Collegiate race of the season, the CSUSM Sprint Triathlon at Fiesta I got 1^st overall; which was nice to start the year off with a win. The TCSD March Duathlon was a good sign of progress in the run department. I ran with the runners during the 1^st 2 mile loop, had the fastest bike split of the day, and hung on to finish 2^nd behind Mike. I drove out to race the Palm Desert International Triathlon and had a decent swim, a decent bike and had to drop out on the run because of stomach cramps. And last weekend I did the first TCSD Triathlon of the year; raced well and finished 2nd overall behind my friend Kosuke Amano (who’s run is out of control fast right now).

What to look forward to:

This will be my third season in endurance sports. Excited. I’ve got some awesome races planned this year and I know I’ll be racing with a lot of my good friends. There should be some quality twitter/facebook updates on my trips across the country to these races.

The big races that I have scheduled:

·      California 70.3 - April 2^nd

·      Collegiate National Championship – April 9^th

·      Wildflower – May 1^st

·      Hawaii 70.3 June 4^th

·      Vineman 70.3 – July 17^th

·      Solana Beach Triathlon – July 24^th

·       Lake Stevens 70.3, or Age Group Nationals, or Alcatraz – Late August

·      Ironman 70.3 World Championship Las Vegas – September 11

Out of Gas (IM 70.3 World Championship Race Report)

Now that I'm back home and have had plenty of time to reflect on my race last Saturday in Clearwater, I've concluded what went well and what went really wrong. First off, before I start dogging myself, I'd like to thank my family and friends for supporting me and God for providing the ability to compete in such a huge race and to even do this crazy sport.

Ok.. Race day, I woke up before my alarm went off (rare) feeling excited and ready to get this day started. I had such a good feeling leading up to Saturday, almost like nothing could go wrong. I ate a somewhat small breakfast (still being full from the pizza I downed the night before) and headed out to the transition. Luckily some dude with a golf cart gave me a ride down to the start (roughly little over a half mile away), which was nice because I didn't need to be on my feet anymore than necessary. After the usual pre race bike check, I chilled out for 2+ hours on the beach listening to my ipod. My start wave, 29 and under, started last at 8:00am, an hour and 25 minutes after the pros. So by the time we got underway, the wind had started to pick up, which meant, with it being an ocean swim, it had started to get pretty choppy and rocky a half mile out to sea. The chop, along with the buoys drifting apart slightly, along with weaving in and out of slower age groupers made for a tough swim. Miraculously, I navigated the course pretty well (if I do say so myself) and exited in 26:57, which I thought was pretty good considering the lead pack of pros did it around 24 minutes in much more ideal conditions. I believe I was in 10th place at the time of my exit.

I jumped on my bike and took off at an olympic distance pace, knowing that I needed to go hard and find some faster guys to pace and work with so I didn't get caught in a fat pack of 50 people sucking each others wheels. Somewhere around mile 4 I hit a pile of concrete and heard something "clink" under me. I looked down and sliding on the ground directly under my right foot was my aero water bottle filled with perpetuem.. my only nutrition for the day. Hmm, I could stop and loose time to pick it up or go on and pick up powerbar drinks at the aid stations. I decided to just keep going (probably because I felt good at the time) which would be a big mistake. I never found anyone to pace with the entire ride. I began to hate this bike course the longer I rode. I would just see massive pack upon massive pack flying in the opposite direction. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hypocritically claiming that I had a "clean" race by any means. I was in the slip stream of the slower riders I passed in front of me, but I never sat in a pack and got the benefit of a "draft"the entire time. Not to mention it was windy. It felt like a constant head wind for the first 25 miles and in various places on the back half of the course. I remember specifically, at mile 50 my legs started to really hurt. I hadn't had anything but water for the first 25 miles, then only powerbar drinks, passing by aid stations after that. So being a little under 3 hours into this race, I was already bonking.

The Run (or jog)

I got off my bike feeling encouraged though. I've been doing so much running lately, that I was sure I could overcome my nutrition deficit to finish this race in my goal time. I felt great for the first 3-4 miles, averaging low 6 minute miles. I purposefully held back a bit, knowing that this was not an olympic distance race (like my body had been use to in the past month), I'd have to pace myself correctly in order to conserve energy. I hit the 6 mile marker in 39 minute exactly. I started to slow after I went up and over the bridge again, the legs were starting to feel heavy. It must have been funny for my family to watch this next portion of the race unfold. They were standing about a quarter of a mile away from the turnaround of the second lap. So they saw me go by feeling pretty good, running around a mid 6 minute mile. Then as soon as I hit the turn around, I lost my momentum and rhythm and went into survival mode. As I ran past my family, literally just 3-4 minutes later, I was a completely different person. I looked like I was about to fall over. All I could think about was how hungry I was. My stomach was eating itself and my muscles were on fire. I ran past someone cooking cheeseburgers and I would've paid $100 to have just a bite of one. I staggered thru an aid station and grabbed a handful of pretzels. The second they entered my mouth, it dried up like a desert. Coke, and more coke was all I drank for the remainder of the race. It was the only thing that I wanted... sugar, carbonation and calories, and immediately. I ran miles 7-10 at a snail's pace. People were trying to encourage me but nothing was working. I was out of energy. It sucked because my heart rate probably wasn't even above 120. My muscles were just so exhausted. I didn't even feel like I was working aerobically, I was watching the ground moving slowly under me, thinking to myself "dang I'm really going slow.. my mom could probably outrun me right now". After I crossed up and over the bridge for a 3rd time, I dove into the coke at an aid station. Three cups. About a minute later, it was like my legs turned on. I could move them again. I started to cautiously pick up the pace and stretch out my strides. After crossing the last timing mat, I knew I only had three+ miles to go. Looked at my watch and said "I don't care how tired I am.. I have to break 1:30 today". Just like that, I started running low 6's again. Ran past 4 guys in my age group going up the bridge one last time and didn't look back going down it. I flew past one more guy in my age group in the last mile and knew I was home free. Just happy to be done with this race, I crossed the finish line with an underachieving 1:28 half marathon and 4:12 overall on the day. Ended the day in 14th place in my division and 110th overall. Compared to 19th in my division last year and 202 overall.

I improved my time by 4 minutes on a tougher course, in tougher conditions, with no nutrition other thank coke and water. I know I could've run well under a 1:25 which makes me upset, but you learn from your mistakes. Am I happy with 14th place?... not at all. However, the positives of this race outweigh the negatives by a good amount. I've got to remember too that this isn't a local sprint tri, it's a world championship, so the level of competitiveness is much higher. It has been a good year, and the races that have been my "A" races, I've done well in. (California 70.3 3rd, Hawaii 70.3 2nd, Vineman 70.3 1st, Alcatraz 1st).

So yet again, I just have more motivation to work harder this next year and keep improving. I'm going have my good friend, the speedy Mike Clinch, help coach and work with me this offseason to achieve some major improvements in my running, which is feeling stronger every day.

I'd like to thank family, friends, and B+L bike and sport for all of your support.. my girlfriend Lindsey Addie for putting up with all of my training and ridiculousness, and Jesus for saving such an unworthy person. I couldn't be where I am with out you!!!!

Clearwater - IM 70.3 World Championship (Pre Race)

Well, it's been an interesting last month or so. Came out of my last 4 races feeling horrible. I've been sick ever since my race in Alabama and finally went to the doctor and got rid of it last week. I've managed to get in some decent training in the presence of me feeling like crap but it hasn't been too solid. Nonetheless, I'm feeling really strong going into this race. Mentally, I'm probably the strongest I've ever been right now. I want this race more than any other I've competed in. I experienced everything about this course last year and I know what to expect, it's just a matter of doing in on Saturday. Last weekend, I had a little moment of relief when I blew out of my "slow" running rut, that I've been in the last 4 months. I won the November SDTC triathlon with a nicely paced 21:56 4 mile run. Not only did I finally start running fast, but it was a pace that I felt I could sustain for much longer. It doesn't matter this week though, all that matters is what I do on race day.

This is going to be a really competitive field like last year, where the winners of my division were running 1:15 and 1:16 half marathon splits. I definitely don't have that kind of capability right now but I know I can put up a strong run. I've never broken a 1:30 half (in a 70.3) before, so anything under that will be a success. I'm also feeling quite strong swimming as well. I've hit 26:00 on the dot three times this year in a 2k swim, but never gone under that. I feel like I can break it right now if we're given somewhat clean conditions. Who really knows what is going to happen in the bike. This bike course is flat and narrow and packs forming are unavoidable. So I could end up going 2:30 or 2:00.. you never know. My goal is to race to the capability to which I know I can. I don't expect to be throwing down 5:45 miles but I know I can run a lot faster than 1:30. My body may be lagging a bit from being sick right now but mentally I'm way fired up. I just pray that God gives my body the strength to do what I know I can do.

Part II: The beginning of the end (of the season)

Finally.. I thought this day would never come. Four weeks ago, I kicked off my first of what would be an extremely painful series of Olympic distance races. I was unpleasantly surprised in my first race (the San Diego Classic) that I had actually gotten worse at running. Didn't think that was actually possible. However, I saw a major improvement in my cycling. In my first year of racing, I would just go as hard as possible in all three sports and it would all kind of equal out. But as I improved at each discipline, I was able to put in a greater effort and use up much more energy in one sport, resulting in a lack of energy (that I expected to be present) in the next sport. So while I'm racing and going as hard as I can on the bike leg of a race, I pay for it in the run. I'm coming to find out triathlon is all about balance, and as evidence of the Ironman World Championship last weekend, it's easy to see the guys who go balls out on the bike, end up dead on the run and fade out. It was great to watch Chris McCormack's race, because he pushed it in the bike, but only to a point, then when the run came he was in a decent position, with plenty of energy left to put out a strong run. He didn't have the fastest bike split of the day, and he didn't have the fastest run, but they were balanced perfectly. It's harder than it sounds, but pacing is one of the biggest parts of long course racing.

AG National Championship (ALABAMA)

I was pretty excited about this trip for a few reasons; I've never spent time in the South before, and I've always wanted to, the race is the same course for Collegiate Nationals this year, and lastly, it was a National Championship. It was awesome to have the city of Tuscaloosa host the event (which is basically just The University of Alabama), they were really supportive of the race and everyone was friendly and helpful. As the raced approached, I was feeling really good physically and mentally. I went for a little ride/run the day before the race and felt amazing. Race day, I was surprisingly calm and confident.

As the 29 and under wave lined up in the river along the dock, I got an odd spot, right in the middle of everyone. Not too stoked, because my strategy was to all out sprint to the first buoy to make sure I could be in position in the lead pack. I hate battling a big crowd to get out in front. Sure enough they didn't announce the the gun going off so I missed my usual quick jump on the pack to sprint past everyone. I fell victim to the chaos of the crowd. I've only gotten stuck in the pack at the beginning of a race a few times (my first race, Hawaii 70.3 both years, and this race). Each time I haven't gotten past everyone, I've had a horrible swim. Needless to say, I had a horrible swim. I couldn't get past these big doofy guys taking up space, splashing around like they knew what they were doing. By the time I worked my way out of the pack of "non-swimmers", I poked my head up and saw that the lead pack was a good minute ahead of me. There was no chance of catching up to them so I put my head down and pushed the hardest

sustainable pace I could. Unfortunately, the swim was a complete solo effort. There was no one around me swimming my pace, I was constantly passing guys that somehow got in front of me.

When I exited the swim, I didn't get down about it and knew if I was going to do anything great today, I'd have to push the bike pretty hard. I seemed to only get faster the longer I went on the bike, and to my advantage, it was hilly! I was passing dudes left and right and felt great. I decided to really put down the hammer on the second lap and floored it. I caught a big pack of guys in my age group all drafting off each other at the bottom of a hill. As I passed all of them going up the hill I shouted "nice peleton guys" (referring to draft-legal cycling) and three of them jumped on my tail and started drafting off me! Two of these losers actually hung with me until the end of the bike. When I dismounted I checked my watch and saw my split was 58:45 (which I later found out was a little off due to me hitting my watch a minute late). So it gave me a little confidence that I had just biked under an hour on a hilly course in a National event.

I threw on my shoes and booked it out of transition. I flew past a dude that was drafting off me, within 20 feet after I ran out of T2 and wanted yell "Man's Game Bitch!" (Jim Rome reference) in his face but restrained and smiled at him. God was probably getting me back... after running a blazing 5:20 first mile, my stomach cramped up and forced me to stop. After standing on the side of the road for a good 30-45 seconds, I started running again, determined to push through it. My legs just felt way too good for my stomach to ruin my day. I hit the first hill and recognized the guy that got 4th last year in Collegiate Nationals 20 seconds ahead of me. I got really amped and charged up. My day ended seconds later, when I threw up. The pain of my side stitch was out of control and I knew this run was not going to happen. I tried to walk for a bit to see if it would subside.. Nope. So I sat in the shade (did I mention that it was 90+ with heavy dirty south humidity?) with my head between my legs throwing up disappointment. I won the DNF group handily through.

My trip got a lot brighter when I watched the elite race later that day. It was awesome to see those guys go at it in a fast paced ITU (draft-legal) style race. I rarely get to see races, as I'm in most of them, so it's great to watch the best and learn from them. The next morning in the airport heading home, I was on the phone with my dad and sat down at my gate in seats on the opposite side of the only other two people in the terminal. As I hung up the phone, I glanced over my shoulder and noticed I was sitting next to Greg and Laura Bennett (two of the best Triathletes in the world, who had not only raced in the elite race the day before, but Laura won the female elite race by a dominate margin). I introduced myself to them and they were two of the nicest people I've ever met. I learned that Greg had to drop out of his race because of the same problem, stomach cramps around the first mile. I talked with them for over 45 minutes and they were really inspirational and encouraging, to say the least. So I came back from Alabama with a disappointing race but a lot more motivation to keep improving.

LA Triathlon & OC Triathlon

I realize this post is getting long, so I'll wrap it up. With great timing, I got sick the day I got back from Bama. I guess something has been going around :-/ So I couldn't train all week and was forced to lay around with a lingering flu. Had it not been for my good friend David's hospitality, I probably wouldn't have gone up to race. I didn't have a great race, performance wise. It wasn't pretty (snotty and mucusy) but I was proud of myself for pushing through it. I ended up taking first in the Collegiate Division, but the good/elite collegiate guys weren't out there so...

OC was basically a really good training day. I had an ok swim (kinda hard being the last wave, pushing people out of your way), a really easy bike, I didn't push it too hard knowing the run was all hills, and a decent run, running a hard & hilly course a minute 30 faster than I did the previous year. I won the 20-24 division and I believe came in 2nd in the amateur field.

Now the real fun begins as I start my build for Clearwater. I feel my running legs are finally coming up to speed and I'll be able to get my endurance stronger. Thanks to all my family and friends for supporting me! I'll keep you updated

Alcatraz & 4 Races in 4 Weeks: Part I

Been a little while since my last update.. I apologize, but I promise to make up for the lack of info with a sweet little two-part post. I believe I last talked about Hawaii on the blog. This race had much more of an affect on me that I realized. After analyzing that race, came to the conclusion that my cycling was weak sauce. I flat out got beat on the bike and had been concentrating so much on my run that I'd forgotten about cycling. I ran a 1:30 on an extremely tough course where Luke Bell (one of the best iron-distance pros today) ran a 1:23. So when I got home,I basically put my running on the back burner and worked on cycling. By the time the Vineman 70.3 rolled around in late July, I had gained around 5lbs of muscle in my legs (which doesn't sound like much, but when you take into account I've weighed 148lbs for the last 4-5 years, it's a pretty big thing). My swim and bike were really strong and they had improved a lot, which was evident in racing Vineman. I ended up winning the 20-24 division by just over a mintue, but only after having one of the worst half-marathon runs of my life. I'll never forget going for a run the day before the race and realizing that I hadn't actually ran in over a week. It felt awkward and I actually forgot my form completely.

Alcatraz

After Vineman, I continued to train my strengths of Cycling and Swimming and ignore running more. This was a really smart decision... but not really. I had the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz coming up at the end of August and really wanted to show off my swim in this race. The race course was catered to my strengths (somewhat). Tough swim (1.2 miles from the

island), hilly and technical bike course (25 miles), and tough/hilly off-road 7 mile run. Aside from the run, I thought I could really put down some time on people in the swim and bike. For the most part, that's how the race unfolded. Race morning, I woke up early, biked to the transition, set up and shuttled over to the docks to board the boat and head out to Alcatraz.

The race started off by jumping off the ferry and swimming to the shore. The problem was.... I had no freaking idea to where we were supposed to be swimming to. There were no markers and they told us on the boat to swim towards the Ghirardelli's sign (which, I knew was nowhere near our target destination). The pros got a 15 second head start on the AGs. So I quickly devised a plan that I could be the first off the boat, dive and catch up to the back of the pack of pros and hang on to that pack and be in ok shape. Cause lets face it, you really cant trust swimming in a pack of age groupers, who knows where you'll end up, especially swimming blind in the middle of the SF bay. My plan actually worked and when I jumped off the boat, I sprinted to latch on to the back of the pro group.

I swam with this group for probably 10-12 minutes (maybe 800/900 meeters). I didn't even look where we were heading towards, to be honest, I was just concerned with staying on someone's feet.

Right around then I felt a side current come out of no-where and split the group up into two. I "pulled a Keith" and stopped swimming for a second to check out my position, do some quick sight seeing, have a chat with God, then decided to start swimming again. After my little 2 second break, noticed that I had fallen off the pack. Once you fall off the pro pack, unless your name is Andy Potts or Kosuke, your not catching back up. So the second half of this adventure was a solo effort, trying to figure out where I was actually swimming to. I still managed to have one of the better swims of the day, getting to shore in 30 minutes. The bike course was tough... I really took delight in catching up to the big powerful cyclists on the steep climbs, then getting smoked on the descents and turns and feeling depressed. I had a decent ride but was running out of gas around mile 20, just using all of my matches by powering up all the climbs. Got to the run and felt really good for the 1st 2 miles. In fact, I hit the 2 mile mark in 11:25. Then the hills start. That's where I threw in the towel and decided to go into survival mode.

I couldn't run up these hills to save my life. I just hadn't done much running to have any significant speed. Then right as I got into a rhythm, we hit the deep sand on the beach and had to climb the dreaded "sand ladder", which is basically a vertical climb up a, yes, sand ladder. I think I ended up running a 7:10 pace when all said and done. Anyways, I hung on to win the Collegiate division by 3-4 minutes.

Four Races

Now comes a pretty significant 4 weeks out of my year. I have 4 Olympic distance races (well, 3 after last week) in 4 weeks. All of them are pretty big races. Last week I raced the San Diego Classic at Liberty Station in Point Loma. I feel like I had a big advantage on the bike course, because it goes through my standard training rout to the point and back. The race went alright. I raced in the Pro division (with Chris McCormack) and again fell off the lead pack on the swim near the last 800 meters. Luckily, I only came out 50 seconds behind the leaders. I had great bike ride, considering I repetitively pulled an "Andy Schleck" and my chain came off on three seperate occasions while downshifing into the small ring. I lost a good amount of time getting off and fixing the problem. Still managed to have a decent ride though. I had, and I quote, the WORST 10k run of my life. I don't know what I was doing. It was disgraceful.

Luckily, I've asked my good friend Mike Clinch (a great runner(/triathlete) himself), to help coach my running. As of right now, I'm trying to find my leg speed again. I have the AG National Championship in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this Saturday, so we'll see how this race goes.. There are a lot of really good guys racing this weekend, so I'll have to bring my "A game" to be competitive. I'm feeling really motivated to do well. My parents and grandparents are helping me out quite a bit to get over there and race, so I have a lot of drive. It'll also be fun to watch the Elite race right after mine. A lot of the best Pros in the world will be competing for quite a bit of cash, so that'll be fun to watch. This will be a fun experience and I'm excited about it. I have no doubt in my mind that these 4 Olympic distance races will get my running legs up to decent speed before the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater this November.