Ok, so it’s been a long time coming and I’ve
had a lot on my mind since my last post. Since I have three races to talk about
and a few other things, I’m just making one BIG post. So buckle up.
A lot has happened and all of it has been
the exact opposite of what I wanted and expected. NOLA was supposed to be my
big coming out party to show I can go fast. No lie, I wanted and expected 4:30.
I still think it’s in me somewhere. However, I went to that race so naive about
nutrition. I hit the swim a bit slower than I wanted but with the chop and
weird course I didn't consider it a miss. I nailed the bike 100% according to
plan. I mean the most spot on execution ever. However, I only took in about 600-700
calories in the 2 and ½ hours I was out there. So I was in the town of
bonksville 1 mile into the run. At the time I kicked myself and thought I rode
too hard. Since then, and with the help of my friend Robert Flannigan, I have
learned that I was running on fumes coming off the bike. I've changed my
nutrition since, taking in roughly 400-500 calories an hour now. My bike has literally
improved by minutes at all distances. Funny how well your body operates when it’s
fueled.
On top of learning my nutrition needs I
also introduced crossfit into my routine. Now I know most of my tri friends
want to hang me for this. Honestly I've been met with borderline hostility over
it which is quite sad really. The saying “don’t knock it til you try it”
actually makes sense to me now. It seems we as humans hate one thing or another
out of pure ignorance. So for those that have attacked. I’m sorry you feel that
way. But look at the top in just about any sport. They lift weights. Why? To get
stronger, more fit, and balanced. I need challenges and crossfit has provided
that. It’s something new and different every workout. I get bored easily so tri
training is often hard for me to stay focused on. My main goal was to get core
strength. I have a bad back and need the core strength to keep it strong. But
it has turned out to be so much more. My bike gains have been impacted by the
strength in my legs. I’m having a blast on my bike right now actually. I've got
my nutrition dialed, I have a better fit on my new bike, my legs are much
stronger, and I feel strong even after the hardest rides. My back is doing
better and gets irritated less and less on my runs. Which I will gladly take.
Anytime my foot isn't going numb it’s a good day.
This month I had three races, Rev3
Knoxville Olympic, Cedars of Lebanon Sprint, and Memphis in May Olympic. I have
had a rough go the last two years in Knoxville and this year I finally felt
like I was in the right spot to actually compete. But this lovely season just
kept getting worse. Knoxville was a complete wash, literally. All week the
forecast said rain and temps in the 50s. Each day the chance of rain went up.
By the time the weekend arrived the forecast had a 100% chance of rain. To add
to the excitement I got sick the night before the race. Something I ate did not sit well. I ended up throwing up until my abs were sore and went to bed
still not filling right. I was either going to wake up and be sick or wake up
and have to deal with the weather. When I woke up I felt ok so I stayed the
course. The water temp was 52 degrees and the air was about 55. We had a torrential
downpour the entire time. Knoxville’s bike course is hilly and has several
technical descents. I knew in this weather there was just no way to attack the
bike. I threw podium and race goals out. I decided to just stay calm in the
water, survive the bike, and then just make the best of the run. The swim went
well. I swam my typical time but was frozen. When I mounted my bike I kicked my
rear bottle and snapped the zip ties on the cage. I couldn't afford to lose the
bottle so I had to pull a Faris and stuff it in my shorts. I tried to not get
discouraged but within a mile or two I was miserable. When I reached the 10
mile mark I was devastated. I still had roughly 15 miles left and I had already
been on the bike for 30 minutes. By the time the bike was over my knees were
blue, I could barely operate the breaks any longer, and my feet were long gone.
I didn't even bother with a flying dismount. I was afraid I would just fall. Once
on the run, I was finally able to relax and let the stress go. I couldn't feel
my feet at all. I could feel the shock go up my legs but nothing from mid shin
and down. Very strange sensation, or lack thereof. I ended up running a PR
which was no shock. I had taken the bike so easy that it was basically a warm up
for the run.
So now I had missed my goal to qualify for
Vegas and I hadn't done much to put myself in a good position for Rev3’s
championship race. It was at this point that a lot of doubt began to creep in.
It was a reality check. At the beginning of May I finally let go of the last
thought that I could be a pro one day. I then let go of the thought that I’m
elite. It was tough to swallow. The last two years I've told myself I was both.
Kind of naive though. My results are far from both. Once I let those go things
got better. But at the same time I kind of let go of wanting to train. I had no
clear goal now, and sense I didn't consider myself elite anymore I didn't feel
the need to prove myself to anyone either. Which is probably why I never wrote
race reports. Who cares what a random age grouper has to say about their race
anyway. This was all three weeks ago.
Last weekend I raced twice. I wanted to
defend my title at the Cedars of Lebanon sprint tri, which sounds better than
it actually is. It’s a beginner tri. But I figured it would be fun and I wanted
to see what I could do on the bike. Well as the race approached sure enough it
was rainy again. More bad luck. It’s a super short race so no problem. Race
morning arrived and luckily the rain had passed. I rode the course before the
race to check the corners since the roads were slick. It was sketchy in one
spot so I knew I could push the bike as planned. This swim is in a pool which
usually means traffic problems for those in the back. I was 13th
into the water. Lucky 13 right? Wrong? On the third lap of 4 I ran into a three
wide traffic jam. They were swimming so slow that I stood up and walked a few
steps behind them trying to figure out if I could jump over them or swim under
them. I couldn’t do either so I just breast stroked and waited for the wall 25
meters away. That cost me a lot time, and the win, we’ll get to that later. Once
I got around the sandbaggers (sandbagger = someone who lies about their swim
time to get to the front, just to get run over by those that do not lie about
their times) I pushed the last 50 meters to try and make up for the lost time. I
passed a few there. Then passed a handful of others in transition. I came out
on the bike in third. The first person crashed on the first sketchy turn. So I was
the second person on the course now. I rode like a maniac to catch the guy in
front. It took me 4 miles of the 4.7 mile loop to catch him. I think my first
lap was an avg of 290 watts which is about 15 watts above threshold. I wanted
to win so there was no waiting. I had to lay it out there. The bad thing was my
legs were fried but I kept pushing. He ended up catching me 2 miles later. I re
passed him another 2 miles later about .3 from transition. I came into transition
and had one of my best dismounts ever. Unfortunately, I guess it was too fast.
I got penalized for dismounting too fast or something stupid like that. I’m not
actually sure of the correct terminology. I got onto the run and my calves were
twitching like crazy. The result of riding above threshold for 10 miles. The
guy caught me and stayed about 20 seconds in front of me the rest of the run.
In the end he beat me for the overall win by….2 SECONDS!! Thanks to the
sandbaggers I knew where those two seconds were. I raced as hard as I could so I
100% blame them for the 2 seconds. At awards, expecting to be called for 2nd
overall, I was surprised with the 3rd place spot and the penalty. It
was confusing for everyone at the moment because none of us knew about it.
Disappointed in Team Magic for that. If a penalty affects your overall podium
how about you let them know ahead of time? Well needless to say I was
embarrassed and wanted to be off the podium ASAP. I tried to talk to the ref
but she talked to me like a 5 year old and since there was no need to lose my
cool. I just left.
Kayla and I headed to Tunica that afternoon
since I was racing Memphis in May the next day. I had let the penalty fiasco go
a few hours after luckily. We got o Tunica got my bike checked in and met some
friends for dinner. By now it was 7pm and I hadn’t relaxed yet. Unfortunately
my awesome luck continued. Kayla’s class had given her a cold that week and it
finally caught up to me. I can’t resist my wife. So will gladly kiss her even
if I know it will get me sick. I probably could have fended it off until after
the weekend had I not exerted so much at the race that morning. So I spent
Saturday night tossing and turning with cold sweats and body aches. When I woke
up for the race I did not feel right. I really didn’t want to race. I knew it
was going to be hot and I was not fresh so I knew my run would be awful. I also
had the strangest feeling like something bad was going to happen. Like a final
destination type feeling. It was very strange and kept me in a funk right until
I jumped in the water. I was so distracted that I never even stretched or
warmed up. I jumped in the water completely tight and cold. Well 25 minutes
later, my slowest swim yet, I exited the water and surprisingly felt much
better. I jumped on the bike and went to town. I had been told that the first
half would be into headwind and the second half would be all tailwind. No
problem. I had also planned to ride 230 watts. But for whatever reason 240 felt
better. I figured why not, my run is doomed no matter what I do. Well sure
enough I got to the tailwind section and it was like being shot out of a
cannon. I was number 577 and I was catching people with numbers in the 100s and
even a few under 100. We started with number 1 and sent one person every 3
seconds. So I started the swim with 576 people ahead of me. I averaged 27.xx mph
the last half of the bike and came off in 1:03 which was a 6 minute PR for me.
Then it was time to “run”. Somehow I screwed my watch up right out of
transition and ended multisport. So when I restarted it all it would tell me
was my HR and pace. No distance, no lap splits, nothing lol. I made it the
first mile before the walks started. At about mile 2 a guy caught me and said I
should just run with him because he was catching me every time I stopped. Made sense
to me and my goal of 2:10 was long gone. I decided it had been a solid weekend
and I would help him out now. I broke the wind when I could and pushed him when
he wanted to stop. It actually made mile 2 to 5.5 much easier than my method
would have been. At ½ a mile to go I noticed number 576 creep by me and decided
I would have to dump my running partner to fight for an AG spot. 576 looked
strong so I pulled my top back down, zipped up, and got in race mode. I dropped
the hammer for about .2 of mile and looked over my shoulder. 576 hadn’t decided
to run with me and I had about a 30 second lead on him and wasn’t far from the
finish so I just stayed on the gas to finish strong. Overall I was happy. My overall
time was a PR and I was still excited about my bike split even though my swim
was awful and my run was a typical easy run on any other day. Thanks my last ½ mile
I found myself in 5th in my AG and they were giving awards 5 deep.
Cool. Two races, two podiums, two paper weight awards. Not being sarcastic or
ungrateful. Both awards that weekend for paper weights lol.
I spent last week trying to figure out
where to go from here. Ironman Vegas is out and I’m not even going to waste my
time chasing it. I had to be honest with myself. My only option to try and
qualify was Muncie in the middle of July and I have not raced well in the heat
the last three seasons. What about a full at Cedar point and half at
Charleston? Not enough time to recover for a race after my first full. Scratch that
too. So I finally decided to do Cedar Point half and Charleston half. I figure
I have to be top 5 at both for a chance at the Rev3 championship race in 2014.
These set up well for me since they are later in the year and will be cooler
than June July and August races. Might as well aim towards my strength instead
of kidding myself. I’ll race a local race in July and two in August as tune ups
then hope to finally get that elusive sub 5 hr 70.3. The three months gives me
time to sort out things in my head and get back on track. Plus go to Jamaica
for our anniversary which is far more exciting than any races!!
The only thing I have to do now is figure
out how to train and race for me and only me. I can’t stay motivated when I
feel like I’m doing it to appease people. For that reason I decided to go
without coaching. I was getting too stressed and was running just because I had
a coach and not because I wanted to. I know some runs suck and you just have to
do it regardless. But every run shouldn’t cause stress. So I’m going to do my
own thing the rest of the season and try to get back the joy of it. I’m very
thankful for my coach and all he did for me and I know I’ve learned a lot. I
see that in the results that Kayla has had. I “coach” her and I use what I’ve
learned from Scott. So I’m hopeful I can fend for myself for the rest of the
season.
I’ve said a lot and maybe it means
something to you, maybe it doesn’t. For me things didn’t go as planned. So I’ve
had to drop back, refocus and draw a new road map. We’ll see if it gets me to
where I want to go. Who knows. I’m not too worried about it anymore. For me it’s
a new season. Call it 2013 v2.0 I guess.