IRONMANCONA - Ironman Triathlete Matthew Ancona (aka mancona)

2011 Ironman 70.3 Austin Race Report – It’s not the result that matters

2011-10-25T20:31:00.000-05:00

I was starting to write my standard (i.e. long/boring) race report for this race but I learned a few other things that I wanted to share instead.
In 2005 I started racing triathlons to lose weight. The more I trained and raced the faster I got. It was pretty easy and rewarding. I was pretty spoiled as I made some pretty big fitness gains quickly and had a few perfect races where everything just feel into place.

About two years ago things started to change. Suddenly I was a decently competitive age grouper and I was no longer seeing huge gains in fitness. Now I that I had many more people following and supporting me (family, friends, and sponsors) I put a lot of pressure on myself to continue to improve.

Somehow during that time it got into my head that I need to have everything go perfect at every race. Over the last two years, I've been so focused on doing everything so perfectly that I think it harmed me more than helped. When training did not go right, I would push harder instead of stopping to evaluate what I needed to change. In races, I would get upset or fired up if things weren't going my way and then make decisions that were not always the best becasue I was trying to chase the perfect day goals I set for myself.

I raced Austin 70.3 last weekend. It was a pretty last minute (for me) decision to do this after my disappointing day at IMWI. I did Austin because I wanted to finish my year on a good note and get a slot to Vegas (Ironman 70.3 World Championship). I had no idea how my body would do trying to peak for a 4^th time this season and 6 weeks after IMWI.

The swim went fine and I did my now standard 31:xx 70.3 swim. On the bike, I felt ok but not good. Nothing was wrong but I could tell my body wasn't 100%. So, I backed down, something I am usually unwilling to do in a 70.3. Half way through the bike, a rider infront of me slide out on a turn and I went off the road and had a minor crash to avoid him. I was not injured and was able to get moving again pretty quickly. In the past I let small things like not feeling right and this minor crash get into my head, for example when I got the flat in Kona and mentally checked out after. This time around, I tried to forget about it as quickly as possible and just move on like nothing happened.
When I got to T2 I had another surprise, my T2 bag is gone. Ends up that the wind blew it to another rack since all I had in it were shoes and a visor and it was not tied. My T2 took 4:39 and I watched a handful of guys pass me as I searched for the bag in nearby racks. A great volunteer ended up finding it for me. In the past something like this would have also got to me and I would have either taken off to make up time or mentally checked out and figured my race was over as I couldn't achieve my goals. This time I didn't, I left T2, put my visor down ignored everyone and just ran.

When I started the run I could imediately tell this was going to be a tough one. My stride just didn't feel right and I didn't have any kick in my legs. I made the decision to ignore my watch and just run by feel. I tried not to think about the fact that I probably was not going to get a Vegas slot and not have a good race, and instead just did the best I could on the day. I ended up running almost an even split and while it was slower than I wanted I'm very pleased that I just got it done and never gain in or slowed down.

I was quite disappointed after the race. I was bummed because I felt like I had a bunch of bad luck in this race. I started doing all the what if math in my head and figuring out what my time "should" have been if I didn't get cut off on the bike or if my bag was in T2.

After I calmed down, I realized that this was probably my best race ever. I had two incidents that slowed me down and my body just wasn't feeling right but I just put my head down and got it done.

I truly believe that I had the absolute best race that I could have on that day given the situation and I am very pleased that every single thing that was under my direct control (i.e. my attitude during the race, pacing, nutrition) went completely perfect.

This race was a turning point for me as I learned things don't have to always be perfect and there is more to this sport then the time on the clock or where my name shows up on the results list.

I also realized that everyone has challenges on race day. I was fortunate that early in my racing career, I had a few perfect days where everything went exactly how I wanted, but that is not reality and I can't expect that at every race.

My luck turned around later in the day as I got the one and only roll down slot in my AG for Vegas.

My 2011 season is really over now. I feel like I have made significant improvements in both my training and racing. I still have a lot to learn but I'm really enjoy the process and I love a good challenge. I'm fired up and ready for 2012.

Thank you to the Corso family for being wonderful hosts in Austin. I enjoyed spending the weekend with you and really appreciate everything you did for me. Also, thank you to Jake and Molly for all the support from Zoot and hanging around with me in the 90 degree sun waiting to see if I would get a roll down spot.

Powerman Muncie Olympic Triathlon Race Report

2011-10-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

After Ironman Wisconsin I took almost a full week off from structured workouts and just let my body (and mind) heal. I jumped right back into training the next week and I felt pretty good. The third week I started to feel really strong again and had the urge to race.

A training partner was already registered to race the Powerman Muncie Decathlon and it was easy and cheap for me to give the Olympic distance triathlon a go at the same event. I went in with no expectations and just wanted to see what my legs had.

The race was supposed to be a 1.5k swim, 41k bike, 10k run, however due to the very cold weather, strong wind, and rough water conditions they made a last minute call of have us only swim out to the first buoy and then swim parallel to shore to the swim exit, making the swim only 400M. Being a weak swimmer and strong cyclist/run I was ok with this!

The weather when we got to the race was 37 degrees with a 15-25mph wind from the north, making the wind chill 32! To make it more fun there were some strong wind gusts as well. On a positive note the 61 degree water felt better than the air.

Swim

Ironically I swam probably 500 or 600m to warm up and felt great. I was swimming close to the shore and the water was fine. Then they announced the new much shorter swim and we did a beach start. I took a solid kick to the face about 50m in, then got a mouth full of water the next two times I tried to breath. Then we made the first turn at 100m and the water got really rough really quick. At that point I was thrilled with the fact that this was the shortest swim I’ve ever done. I decided just to relax, catch my breath and swim in easy. I came out of the water in around 5th or 6th place.

T1

The combination of a decently long run, numb feet, and putting a bike jersey on for some extra warmth make for a really long transition.

Bike

The bike was two 12.7 mile loops with about 3 miles each loop straight into the strong head wind. Of course we got the headwind straight out of transition. It was cold, so I just rode as hard as I could to warm up. The extra benefit of this was that within the first two miles I had moved into first place in the Olympic race, with only one person from the sprint race in front of me. My Zoot ThermalRx Arm Warmers were awesome, and wish I would have worn some Xotherm socks! The Ridley Dean RS and Zipp wheels helped me to have the highest average speed on the bike out of any pro or amateur in all of the different distance races.

T2

This was a cluster, I went to pull my feet out my shoes and realized they were frozen and had trouble getting them on top of the shoes. I did a very ungraceful dismount at what I thought was the dismount line only to find out I was a bit early. Running barefoot on freezing concrete with feet that are already frozen is not fun.

Run

Most of my body felt great leaving T2. Maybe it was just that we had a tail wind, the sun was starting to come out and I was happy to be off the bike so I could warm up. The only problem is my feet felt horrible and every foot step hurt as they were still numb. After a slow first mile the feet had feeling back in them and I got to work. The next few miles felt ok but I didn’t have any snap in my legs and couldn't really get going fast. I hit the half way turn around and took a split to see how much of a lead I had. I was thrilled when I saw that I had over 5 minutes on second place because my body just wanted to be done and I didn’t want to have to dig deep.

Summary

Sure it would have been nice to have warmer weather but now I can say I did a tri in under 40 degree weather. I did this race on a whim to “get back on the horse” after Ironman Wisconsin and for that it turned out to be perfect. I’m feeling good again now and ready to start planning next year out.

Good luck to all of my friends, training partners and team mates racing in Kona later this week. Remember to enjoy the full experience of race week while you are there. I'm looking forward to tracking all of you on Saturday.

2011 Ironman Wisconsin Race Report aka Post Mortem ;-)

2011-09-18T20:11:00.000-05:00

Like usual this is going to get long, so read at your own risk. The good news is I'm in much better spirits then I was after Kona last year. In a weird way, I am actually ok with the way my race turned out, it just wasn’t my day.

The executive summary is I was dehydrated. The odd part is I adjusted and took in more salt, more water, and eased up my effort. My heart rate never decoupled, I was never once thirsty and I even peed during the race, but I just slowly faded and ran into issue after issue (all of which are classic effects of dehydration).

I raced under my targets all day but my nutrition plan, the conditions, and fighting off a sinus infection just did not work together. First issue was chills and a headache on the bike, I adjusted and thought I recovered by the end of the ride. Then both GI issues and a side stitch hit early in the run. I adjusted again, thought I recovered and was smiling ear to ear as I felt great that I had beat the side stitch that plagued me in 2009. I was still 9^th overall amateur with only 13.1 miles to go. Then the final straw was leg cramps that brought me to a dead stop more times than I can count. These were the cramps and spasams like when you push off the wall in the pool and your entire legsfreezes up and you think you are going to drownd.

Before I get into the details, thank you to everyone for the support. My wife and daughter continue to be amazing supporters and spectators and once again spent a long weekend at an Ironman. They not only deal with my training all year, they encourage and support me through all of it and without them I could not do this. They keep me sane and some what balanced. I enjoy being with them so much and am glad I have a few weeks off now to spend more time with them.

Thank you to my all of my sponsors and especially the Zoot team. Not only do they make awesome gear, Jake always makes sure I have everything I need. Thank you to my friends and family that were on the course to cheer me on all day. I appreciate you being there for the highs and the lows of my race, you really kept me going. I continue to learn more about myself in every race and will use this as one more lesson learned and come back even stronger.

Thank you to Theresa, Ali Engin (www.aliengin.us), and Jonnie Diederich I at least have some good pictures from the day.

Even though it wasn’t anywhere near the result I was looking for many good things came out of this race:

· I did not give up. I told myself after Kona last year I would never quit. I may have walked, but I finished and at one point I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to take another step much less walk most of the last 13 miles.

· I finished safely without assistance and actually felt ok at the end, I just couldn’t run without my legs cramping and locking up

· My training and taper this year both felt perfect

· I reacted to the first two major issues I experienced during the race and recovered and moved on from both. Both of which could have ruined my race earlier in the day and in past years have gotten the better of me.

· I set a PR in the swim by almost 5 minutes and felt the best I ever felt coming out of the water

· I rode 4% under my target watts and still went 5:05 on the bike.

· I was 8^th overall amateur after T2, compared to 30^th in 2009

· I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m even more fired up now and REALLY want to execute a good ironman. Sure I may never have a perfect day, but I KNOW I will have a much better race in me then I have been able to show.

· This race was a wake up call. I will not just keep showing up to IM races and expecting to get better. In the next few weeks I will be analyzing every part of my training and racing to re-evaluate everything.

Here comes the boring details...

Swim – Goal 1:05 – Actual 1:04:45

I tried to keep my effort in check and had the cleanest IM swim ever. I had almost zero contact for the first 800M and then of course the two turns were a mess. From that point on I just swam comfortably. I didn’t go out of my way to find feet, but when there were feet close by I got behind them. I just focused on holding my form the best I could. Not only did I meet my goal, I came out of the water feeling amazing.

T1 – Goal 5:00 – Actual 4:57

I just moved quickly, never sprinted or rushed. I stopped for sunblock and also stopped to put on my shoes at the bike rack. Ended up only 1 second slower than 2009, but my heart rate felt lower as I didn’t sprint.

Bike – Goal 5:05 – Actual 5:05:16

I instantly felt great on the bike and could tell my legs were ready to go. I had to really focus to hold back, but I did and was right at my target watts for the first 3.5 hours. I also was very diligent about my nutrition and took everything exactly to plan, except for one launched water bottle. I grabbed two at the next aid station to make up for it though. I was passing people that I didn’t expect to see for a while and only one person total went by me on the bike. Basically, everything was going perfect and I was smiling ear to ear.

Around about mile 65 on the bike (on G/92), I went from perfect to getting goose bumps, chills, and a headache. I backed my power down, took a salt pill and made sure to get a full bottle of water in at every aid station for the rest of the bike. Within about 15 minutes I felt ok again, but not right. The chills and goose bumps went away but a slight headache stuck around. I felt ok going over the climbs but in the flats I just didn’t feel quite right so I rode easier than planned for the rest of the ride. I kicked up my water and salt intake to what worked for me in Kona last year. In the last 30 minutes, I tried to pick it back up but I could tell my legs just didn’t feel right so I decided just to spin easy and get ready for the run. I actually started to feel significantly better in the last 10-15 minutes but maybe that was just because I knew I was getting off the bike.

Here I am taking my time up the hill into Mt. Horeb and sitting up to finish one of the 8 full bottles of water I took in (in addition to sports drink and salt).

I ended up averaging around 10 watts under my target for the ride and my heart rate was about 10 bpm higher than normal. Taking that into consideration I'm pretty pleased with a 5:05 split, even though I know I should have gone right about 5 hours and still had a good run.

Here are a few good pictures Ali Engin (www.aliengin.us) got out on the bike course.

Flying down Timber Lane at close to 50 and starting to brake for the turn.

Getting real close to the motorcycle through the turn.

Congrats to Get A Grip Teammate Ryan Lingor for a great race

and passing me on most of the climbs.

Having some fun with the spectators on the Mid Town Climb.

And back to work.

T2 – Goal 2:00 – Actual 2:17

Again, I didn’t rush or sprint but just moved quickly. I made decide to put arm coolers on and this took at least the 17seconds I was over my goal, but I thought it was worth it due to the heat. I also took a bottle of Gatorade with me out of T1 and carried it for the first part of the run, so I would always have something to drink.

Run – Goal 3:10 – Actual 4:36:46

The day was shaping up to be just like 2009 and I could tell it was going to get hotter than expected and people would blow up on the run. Ironically, this is what I had been wishing for all week.

My plan was to run around 7:10 pace for the majority of the marathon, but because of the issue on the bike and the heat I backed way down. I left T2 at 8:00 pace, a full 50” slower than my planned pace. I figured I had plenty of time to pick it up but I was worried about the heat. My legs felt great leaving T2 but my stomach was uneasy. I felt like I was walking I was going so slow but still did the first mile in 7:30. Then a slight uncomfortable feeling required an urgent stop at the next porta pottie and within a minute I was off running again. I peed a significant amount at this stop as well so I assumed that I wasn’t too severely dehydrated. I probably only lost a minute and felt so much better.

Less than a minute after the pit stop, the same exact side stitch I got in 2009 started. I immediately slowed down, started to focus on my breathing and started to take in Cola, Sports Drink , and Water at each aid stations. I was determined to beat the side stitch this time around and I did. By mile 6 it was completely gone, my stomach had settled and I felt great. I was still worried though and really keep my effort in check and made sure not to speed up.

The next 6 miles I was pretty much smiling ear to ear. I wasn’t making up any ground but I also wasn’t losing any and was just thinking about staying steady and getting ready to push hard on the last 6 miles. The only problem was I started to notice that on sharp turns or running up hill I my quads and arches were starting to cramp. Kind of like when I push off the wall to hard swimming in a long workout. I took another salt pill and ran through them just fine. As long as I made sure to have a very short stride on the turns and hills I was fine.

Just before mile marker 13 on the capital square a slight cramp in my right arch got really bad and locked up all the muscles in my leg. I came to a complete stop as I couldn't move my leg at all. This was the first time this ever happened to me running. I quickly put my foot on the curb to get the arch and calf to relax and release. Then I rubbed the other muscles, stretched a bit and was on my way. I had a few more small cramps like that in the next few minutes but the excitement near the finish and turn around keep me going.

Around mile 14 my left leg locked up just like the right had before. I came to a complete stop again, stretched but couldn’t start to run again so I walked for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and then started to do a shuffle. I was able to get back to running as long as I keep a very short stride and keep my legs as stiff and straight as possible.

I made it about a half mile of running before the next cramp hit. From that point until mile 18 the pattern continued and the amount of time I could run got shorter and shorter while it took longer and longer to walk off the cramp.

I tried but couldn’t run more than a few steps up the hills on observatory and the downhill hurt even more. I tried so hard to run through it though and actually fell over and into the wall on the side of observatory when my leg completely locked again. After picking myself up off the ground I decide to just walk (more like a hobble) for a few minutes.

With the excitement on State Street I was able to pull together some sort of an 11:00 min/mile jog for about a half mile and then I could feel the muscle in my legs starting to lock up again and it was back to walking again. Rich from EN came by me at that point and offered to walk with me to get me going again. I really appreciated his willingness to do that during his race but I told him just to go on and finish strong.

Once I had walked to the trail next to the lake I gave running one more shot, this time my leg locked up, I lost my footing, fell off the side of path and into the grass next to the lake. I got myself up again and decided it was time to just walk for a bit.

I was an emotional and physical mess at this point and it was probably the darkest place I have ever been in a race. With every ironman I do I find higher highs and lower lows. I wanted to just quit as I knew my goal was out the window and I had no interest in just finishing another ironman. Then I thought back to how I felt when I gave up in Kona and I decided there was no way I was quitting and even if it took 17 hours I was finishing. This was at about mile 21 of the race and it was still well under 10 hours, so you can tell my math skills were not quite up to par at that moment.

It was a good thing that I had set my mind on finishing because literally within a few minutes a golf cart came by. They said I wasn’t looking so good and asked if I needed help or a ride to the medical tent. If that cart would have come by 5 minutes earlier I may have had my first DNF.

There isn’t much more to say. I walked for the vast majority of the remaining 5 miles from that point on. I did manage to figure out a way to sort of run while swinging my legs and shuffling my feet instead of bending my knees and with that I was able to at least very slowly jog about the last mile to someone keep my dignity in front of the crowd.

Finish – Goal 9:25 – Actual 10:54:01

I will say that every time I race an ironman I get more and more respect for the people that are out there for 15, 16, 17 hours. 11 hours felt like a lifetime, I am truly impressed by the people that can push their bodies for so long. I’m spoiled by being fast and not having to suffer for nearly as long.

Post Race

I was actually in ok shape physically as long as I took very short and slow steps. I went through the finish shoot as quickly as possible and just wanted to be out of there (thanks Beth for helping me, I bet I had the best finish shoot split of the day!). I drank just one bottle of water, we got my bike and bags and then made the long walk back to the car. On the way to the hotel we picked up dinner. I ate without a problem and then felt ok the rest of the night. I even peed within an hour of the race so I don’t think I was that severely dehydrated, my muscles seemed to think otherwise though.

Monday

I felt surprisingly good. I slept the best I had ever slept. My legs were tight and I could feel exactly where the worst cramps had been. In fact it hurt to touch those spots (inside of my quads right above the knees and my calves). However I was able to walk just fine and was not in any pain at all. I didn’t feel quite as good as the day after Kona 2010 when I was ready to run, but I didn’t feel like I did much the day before.

Abigail and Theresa were not feeling so good though. Abigail had been congested all weekend so we took her to the doctor and turns out she had an ear infection and cold. Theresa also went to the doctor and had a sinus infection, which I was likely fighting off as well as I had a ton of sinus pressure and congestion, which I'm sure did not help my day either.

Up Next

Well, a little bit of down time to let my body and mind heal from this one. I've got a ton of thoughts on what I want to do next and just need a few weeks to sort through them. I'll get another post up soon once I have decided what is next.

Finally, one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Abigail helping with "Dada bike".

Training Update

2011-08-28T20:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while for a few reasons. First, between training, work, and wanting to spend time with my wife and daughter I really don't have much time, so this blog has been neglected. Secondly, I haven't really had anything interesting to say as training has just been consistent. In past years, I had tons of ups and downs. When I had the ups or the epic training camps/experiences I would blog or be more active online.
This year has been different though. My workouts are structured a little differently and I now focus on not going to hard and just hitting the targets. I use to look at every workout as an opportunity to test myself and go faster than the one before. Now I just get the right amount of work done and then shut it down to get ready for the next workout. The result is that since February 1^st I have only cut 2 workouts short and every single other workout I have done and hit the target intensity. The huge difference is that I don't have to dig nearly as deep in training and I'm never shelled after a long ride or long run. In a way it is almost boring as I get up every day and I know I will hit my watts or pace targets exactly and then be done. I still have my occasional slip and go a little too hard, but I'm significantly better at catching myself and backing off before I do any damage.

As far as my training for Wisconsin, well it's been going great. I have nailed all my long rides, hit my target watts in every single one and been able to run very well off the bike. I've been on the course enough that I'm pretty sure I know where every crack in the pavement is and I've had some great rides up there. On the run, I haven't done any epic 2.5 hour 23 mile runs like last year, however I just hit my target paces day in and day out without any trouble. The swim is a little different for me. Some days I can feel the water and my stroke feels great and other days I just feel like I'm fighting the water. The good news is bad days are few and far between and I'm learned how to back off and relax instead of fighting and wearing myself out.

Only two weeks left now and these are by far the hardest weeks of the year for me. My ego wants to continue to train hard, but my brain needs to over power that urge and keep me in check. Just 14 days of holding back now and letting my body get to ready to race.

2011 Ironman 70.3 Muncie

2011-07-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

Swim – 35:54

I must have got lost out there. I was expecting to go about 33-34 minutes based results over the last year and hoping for a little bit faster as I’m setting PRs in the pool right now. In past races I always seemed to go out a little too fast and end up at a pace I know I can’t hold the entire swim only to have to slow down. I figured this time I would just go out at a comfortable pace and try to hold that for the entire swim to see what happened.

Well it was the most comfortable swim I ever had, but based on my time it was a bit too comfortable though. I just focused on swimming with good form and found a set of feet that seemed to be going straight. When we hit about half way I looked at my watch and it was already 19 minutes, opps. On the way back I went around feet I was drafting behind and swam a bit harder but thanks to the sun directly in front of us I was having trouble sighting and swimming straight into people from earlier waves. The good news was I came out of the water well rested and ready for the bike…. but I was 26^th in my age group after the swim.

Bike – 2:09:57 – 25.86 mph

Within about a mile of transition I could tell it was going to be a good day on the bike. My legs felt great, I was holding back and still above my target watts. It was tough, but I managed to hold back and stay right at my target watts the entire race. The best part was once we hit about mile 35 we had a tailwind and most people seemed to slow down, I stayed exactly at my watts and averaged 28.9 mph for 31 minutes, making up a ton of ground. This was by far my best ride ever in a race. I took in all of my nutrition exactly as planned, and my average power was exactly what I had in my race plan, thanks to a VI of 1.01!

The hardest part of the ride was getting passed. Local fast guys, Adam Zucco and Scott Iott both blew by me early in the ride. Since my legs felt so good I really wanted to try and hang with them. I’m glad I stuck with my plan as they both had an awesome day and I may have been in for a very tough run if I would have tried to go with them.

The great ride was able to move me up to 4^th in AG by T2.

Run – 1:25:16 – 6:30 min/mile

All that I read and heard about this race was fast bike but hot and hilly run. That combined with a forecast of 88, high humidity and an 8:50 AM start time got in my head and I was worried about the run. For those reasons I forced myself to really hold back in the first few miles and focus on getting nutrition in. My plan was to hold 6:30 pace for the first half and then pick it up if I could. Well, even though it didn’t feel all that hot or humid, my legs didn’t have any kick and I couldn’t speed up. I did manage to run almost an exactly even split though and hold a 6:30 average pace. I’m a little disappointed as I went a full 5 minutes faster in Oceanside. I ended up passing 2 people in my AG and came in second.

Summary – 4:13:48 – 2^nd Ag – 5^th Amateur – 26^th Overall

Overall, I had a good day and am pleased with my race. I do think I could have done a little better on the run but it was good for me to prove I can stick to my plan exactly as I will need to do that at Ironman Wisconsin. I also now feel I really have my 70.3 distance nutrition dialed in and have a pretty good idea on how I can and should pace myself.

Thank you to everyone that is following me and of course, Theresa, Abigail, Jake from Zoot and Dr. Phil from PhysFarm.

Sorry no pictures this time as I was at the race on my own.

Leon’s Tri 2011

2011-06-06T13:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't done an Olympic distance race in a few years and have wanted to, so when I heard Zoot was sponsoring Leon's Triathlon I decide to give it a shot. My last race this distance was at Chicago 3 years ago and I had a perfect race and went 2:15. I figured even with issues I could set a PR and it would be nice to see how much I improved. I was actually most "concerned" with the swim as I have put a TON of effort into improving my swim over the last two years and have made slow and steady improvements.

Swim 1.5K - 21:30
I went out hard for the first few minutes to try and hang with the fast guys and got dropped. Luckily there were enough other people around that I was never totally on my own but I also wasn't really able to get on any feet. I'm thrilled with 21:30 as my last OD race was more like a 28 minute swim. I believe I was about 15^th out of water from what I could tell at the first turn around on the bike.

Bike - 1:04:39 for a 27.81 mile course
Leon's has a flat course with closed roads which is awesome, however it feels like there are a million turns and the roads are not in the best shape. I heard the course was a good bit short last year and it appears they tried to make up for it this year by adding the extra distance on. Within the first 5 miles of the ride I nailed a pothole and lost my water bottle and nutrition. At the time I was just happy I didn't crash as it was a really hard hit and only thought for a split second about stopping to get the bottles. I decided to keep going. My logic was, I have done a 1:11 sprint on zero nutrition before, the weather was good (overcast and 70s) and there would be an aid station where I could at least get something. Well, I was wrong… more on that later.

The bike went really well and I was holding the power I wanted to and steadily moving up. I was getting really tired of the constant 180 degree turns however I decided to make the best out of it and was taking splits on the leader every time I could. It was encouraging to see that I continued to close the gap every time I took a split.

I was told I was the 4^th person coming into T2 but later found out number 3 skipped a loop on the course. I know all races are different but because I like having comparable data, assuming I held the same mph (25.81) for 40k it would have been a 57:46 bike.

Run 10k – 38:00
Luckily I had left one gel in my transition area so I took it during T2 and then was out on the run. I knew I was in trouble by a quarter mile in as I got some serious cramping in my side and stomach. The first aid station was at 1.5 miles and I took a glass of water and Gatorade but even with slowing down to a walk I could not really get them down as I was nauseous and just wanted to spit it back out. I did get about half of each down and about 5 minutes later the cramps started to let up and I was able to start running instead of the horrible shuffle thing I was doing. To make a long story short, just repeat that again at 3 miles and 4.5 at the other aid stations. I was able to keep moving but it was ugly. I'm just really glad it was overcast and cloudy or I would have been in a much worse position and probably had to stop and walk it in. I ended up running slower for 6.2 miles than I did in my last 13.1 run at the end of a 70.3 race, but at least I finished running and was able to walk away safetly (after 10 minutes of sitting on the ground trying to take in whatever the awesome volunteers handed me).

Overall I finished in 2:06:30 and 6^th overall.
My nutritional mishap is another good lesson learned (or reminder) and I'm glad it happened in a short local race. I was able to fake my way through a sprint on nothing last year but I couldn't pull it off for an Olympic. I already knew I couldn't do that in 70.3/IM but it reminded me of the importance of making sure I get my water/nutrition in as planned as by the time I got to water in the run it was too late and my body didn't want to take it in. I'm also just not sure if aero bottles are worth it any more as this is the second time I've lost one during a race. The 10 seconds it may save me probably cost me a few minutes in this race.

I'm really pleased with my improvement in the swim and my bike is coming along quite well and showing some improvement from last year as well.

As usual thank you to Theresa and Abigail for getting up early and spending their Sunday morning cheering me on. I'm so lucky to have the two best spectators in the world. Zoot not only keeps me training and racing in the best gear but also helped out and sponsored this race. Also, congrats to Rick Lapinski as he had a great race and finished with an impressive run, all while doing normal training right up to the race. Local IM studs Adam Zucco and Scott Iott had a great showing as well.

A rough day at the Chicago Spring Half Marathon

2011-05-16T21:34:00.000-05:00

Well that was the toughest half marathon I have ever done. I'm not thrilled with my performance but I'm a strong believer that you learn more from a bad day than a good day.

Last year, I had probably the best day of my racing career at this race. I went out front in the first quarter mile just to get a good picture and then never looked back and won my first large race. I also set a half marathon PR by 2 minutes. Additionally, the weather was near perfect, I had two months of very solid run focused training in my legs, and I was coming off of a PR marathon in Boston.

This year was different in just about every way.

The weather was less than ideal with a feels like temp of 35, rain, and steady wind of 25mph from the North East. The course is a straight out and back along the lake so this ment 6.5 miles of running straight into the wind.

Off the start we pretty quickly separated into a small lead pack. I actually lead the way for most of the first mile and a half, but then a guy passed me. I kicked it up and went a little faster than I should have to hang with him for a bit and then dropped back into the pack of about 5. Until about mile 4 that guy lead the race and the small pack I was in pretty much stayed together. We caught up to the first guy and then the pace picked up and there were a few changes in the leader. At this point I knew I was going just a little too fast, maybe 5 sec/mile, but there was going to be a really bad headwind on the way back so I wanted to be in a group. Around mile 5, the two guys leading the race pulled off and stopped, they didn't have numbers and were just bandits that were talking to two of the guys in the pack. I don't know the rules in running races but I know in triathlons outside assistance and having people pace you is definitely against the rules. Not that it mattered in the outcome of the race but it was the principle of it that bugged me.

Anyway, the 4 of us stayed in a pack until the turn around at mile 6.5 and we met the wall of wind we would have to fight all the way back. I held on for about a half mile and then we split into two groups of two. The guy that dropped back with me and I slowly lost ground on the leaders but we stayed right next to each other until about mile 11. At that point he picked it up and I had nothing and couldn't answer.

In the end, I was dropped by 3 better runners and came in 4^th. Congrats to each of those guys for staying strong into the worst headwind I have ever raced into, especially Kevin who put 4 minutes into me in the last 6 miles. As far as time goes, I was over 5 minutes slower than last year, which I'm sure a few minutes of was due to the conditions and I believe the others were a combination of a different training focus, no taper, and poor execution (i.e. I went out too fast).

So, what did I learn?

This year Phil is training me to be a long course triathlete, this worked very well in Oceanside where I had a great run and actually ran a faster 13.1 off the bike than I ran open today. In the past I trained myself like a runner, had great running race results, but had trouble running off the bike in a tri.
Don't get over confident. Since I won this race last year, I thought I could hang out up front. I ran at least 5 seconds too fast (maybe 10) per mile for the first 6 miles. Because of this I had nothing left when we turned into the wind and fell apart at the end.
Don't chase guys that don't have bibs on. I was being naive and figured it was under his long sleeve shirt when we went by me and I chased… nope.
Don't underestimate the impact of the weather. It was tough out there and I went out and tried to run the same as I would have in perfect conditions, which obviously didn't work so well.
The Zoot Ultra Speeds are awesome for running in soaking wet conditions as they were light and didn't hold any water. They are going to be my race shoes for the rest of the year.

As usual Theresa and Abigail where there to cheer me on, but luckily they were able to hang out instead for most of the race and avoid the weather. Here is Abigail and me getting ready to go to the race.

2011 California 70.3 Race Report

2011-04-05T22:17:00.002-05:00

I signed up for this race with two goals in mind, test my ability to race in the early season on indoor training only and get a spot to Clearwater. The plan for the year was Oceanside 70.3 , Muncie 70.3, Ironman Wisconsin for a Kona slot, and Clearwater 70.3. However after I paid WTC for Oceanside 70.3 and Wisconsin they went and moved the 70.3 World Championship to Vegas and on the same weekend as IMWI…. so my plans went out the window.

My new goals became just to test my early season racing and finally break my 2 year streak of bad runs off the bike.

It’s not often that I say this but I’m actually pleased with how this race went for me. My nutrition was perfect and I had a great run off the bike. As I shared in my goals posts, this year I’m much more focused on performing to my ability in races than gaining fitness like I focused on in the past.

Here is the summary of my results and the long boring details are below.

Swim 31:47 (37th AG)

T1 2:42

Bike 2:30:19 (6th AG)

T2 1:18

Run 1:20:03 (2nd AG)

Overall 4:26:09 (4th AG)

Before I get into the details, as usual I could have never raced this well without the support of my family, friends and sponsors. There are too many to mention but Theresa and Abigail once again were there to support me every minute before, during, and after the race. I couldn’t imagine doing this without them. Having the best wetsuit, clothes, shoes, and recovery gear from Zoot Sports is awesome. Also having my coach, Dr. Phil Skiba, craft my workouts, taper, and race plan to work for me was a huge help.

Theresa was busy with Abigail so she wasn't able to take as many pictures as usual but still got a few. Mark Harms was also on course and took a few as well.

Pre-Race

I followed my taper exactly and felt awesome all week. On Thursday I got my bike from TBT and did an easy spin on the coast highway just to make sure the bike worked. I have to say I was a bit nervous about using TBT after Kona, but they took care of me to make up for the mishap and their service was great this time around.

My confidence was pretty high as my fitness was better than I expected and I also felt strong, rested, and ready to race.

On Friday morning that confidence quickly disappeared. I did a quick swim in to try out the new Zoot Prophet wetsuit. The suit was awesome but I got crushed by some waves that beat me up pretty good. After that I went for a bike ride and had a pretty big descent right after leaving the hotel. The road went over a valley and when I hit the bridge I was easily over 40mph, hit a bump while getting hit with a cross wind and then had a crazy speed wobble. It took a few hundred feet to slow down enough for the bike to stop shaking but when I came to a complete stop I was still shaking and not so confident anymore. I was starting to think racing on only indoor riding might not be the best idea but it was too late to change that now.

The rest of the day was uneventful and consisted of my normal pre ironman meals and getting to bed early. Of course I didn’t sleep well thanks to getting beat up by both the waves and the wind and it took forever to get to 4AM.

Setting up transition went quick and then I spent some time with Theresa and Abigail.

Swim 31:47

With all the hype about how cold the water is I was pleasantly surprised to get in and not be cold at all. We had maybe a 200-300 yard swim from the boat launch to the in water start. I was looking to swim 30 minute and lined up front and center as it was not crowded right in the middle. I just keep my head down and swam hard for the first few minutes. I’m used to always being in a crowd and having feet to draft off of so I just wanted to not get swam over too much. This race went much different than ever before as I had open water for a bit. It was a great feeling to have open water and not be getting passed. Only problem was when I started to sight I was off to the right and a group had formed a bit in front of me and behind me and I was solo. I tried to catch up to the first group but wasn’t able to and didn’t want to swim too hard to I just swam solo until catching up with people in the next wave. Then the fun began of trying to go around people. I really feel I have the fitness to go just under 30 but need to work a little more on my sighting, drafting, and swimming straight.

When I came out of the water my watch just said 11:37 and battery low. I messed with it while running to the bike and got it to restart and it wouldn’t do anything except show a battery low message which was interesting as it was 100% charged before the race.

Bike 2:30:19

As usual, I was thrilled to be done swimming and now the race could actually start for me. For the first few miles I was messing with my watch while just settling in to just under my target watts. I was never able to get the watch to start working again and it went into an endless loop of restarting every few minutes for the rest of the race.

I was flying and under my target watts so I knew something was up. I checked and at 1 hour in I was already just over 25 miles into the ride. When finally turned east the cross wind hit me… yep, it was going to be a long way back into a head wind. The next 25+ miles were pretty much a consistent head/cross wind. The climbs were no big deal and I was able to spin up them and even pass some folks that were out of the saddle, however due to the death wobble ride on Friday I was a bit nervous on the descents that I had never seen before. I definitely used the brakes more than I ever have before in a race and for the first time ever people were actually passing me on the down hills. I doubt I lost all that much time but I didn’t really enjoy the ride (the bike is usually my favorite part).

When we turned by the airport there was about 12 miles left and all into a head wind. I decided my legs felt pretty good and I took the first part of the ride pretty easy so I pushed the pace a bit and rode the a bit harder the rest of the way in.

I came in right about 2:30 and I felt I should have been under 2:25 so I was a bit disappointed however when I got to my rack it was empty so I guess I didn’t do too bad. I quickly took my bike computer off so I at least at some sort of timing device on the run.

Run 1:20:03 (New PR)

As I’ve shared before, the run used to be my strength but over the last two years I haven’t been able to nail a good run off the bike. I held back a good bit on the first mile and then stopped at the toilet (something I usually won’t waste time with during a race). After that I felt much better and slightly picked up the pace, then around mile 2 a guy in my age group flew by me. He had an all green tri suit on that said "dream crusher" on his back. His number was a few hundred higher than mine so I assumed he was in a later wave and therefore a good bit ahead of me. After the race I found out it was a local stud, James Walsh.

Even knowing that he likely had 3-6 minutes on me, I’m a pretty competitive guy and after James passed me I really wanted to throw my plan out the window and go after him but I didn’t. I tried to force myself to run no faster than a 6:00 mile but also keep James in sight. This was pretty hard to do as James was flying and continuing to pull away. By the time we hit the strand on the way back I lost sight of James but I still wanted to have a good run and stuck to my plan.

Once I hit mile 9 I put the bike computer in my pocket and just ran hard. At the final turnaround I was shocked to see I made up some ground on James and thought I was in a position to catch him. By about mile 11 I was only 25 feet back and I saw James look over his shoulder at me. I immediately thought, oh shit this one is gonna hurt. We were shoulder to shoulder on the strand and being local there were quite a few folks cheering James on which gave me a pretty good boast. When we made the turn at the harbor I went for it and ran as hard as I could. My calf and arch of my foot both cramped and my stride felt horrible. I had no idea where James was but I wasn’t stopping until I hit the finish. Of course as I crossed the line in a full out sprint they had a bunch of volunteers right there and I plowed right into them and then proceed to fall over while my legs twitched from the cramps. Once I was on my feet again James was there. We talked for a minute and confirmed that he was in the third wave for our age group and I was in the first. I congratulated him and then got my free ride to the medical tent as I guess they didn’t like my graceful finish and the fact that I could barely stand up. After some help stretch my calves to get the cramps out and some ice, I was able to get my results.

Thanks to the motivation of catching and running with James, I achieved my goal of running well off the bike again and set a new 70.3 run PR by 2 minutes.

Congrats to James on a great race. Check out his blog and watch out for him in Kona this year.

Lessons Learned

• 30-34 is tough. There were twice as many people in my age group as ever before and a lot of fast guys. I’ve got to be on top of my game to place well.

• I’ve made huge gains on the swim in the last two years and now I need to learn how to race in the water. I’m still nowhere near FOP in the swim but I need to at least be able to get into the second (or third) pack of people and not just swim on my own the whole time.

• I can run! The combination of small changes to my bike setup, nutrition changes and working with a coach on my training and tapering added up to setting a 70.3 run PR of 2 minutes. (All this off of LESS running than ever before)

• I’m still a competitive type A person, even though Kona is not in the plans this year, I’m disappointed I missed a slot by about 2 minutes.

• I was able to keep my fitness and was in great shape for this race on only indoor training, but my confidence in both the water and on the bike suffered due to being a little rusty. Next time I need to make sure to ride outside a little bit more.

2011 Races

2011-02-27T20:21:00.002-06:00

I meant to put this up right after my goals post but forgot about it for a while.

2011 Races

I'm pretty sure that I over did it last year when I raced 6 out of 8 weeks and did two training camps around that time as well. This year I'm going to back off on all the racing and focus a little more again.
No surprise here but my A race is Ironman Wisconsin once again and I WILL finally have a good run on that course.

Building up to Wisconsin, I'm planning to do Muncie 70.3 and Oceanside 70.3. Muncie will be a B race and Oceanside is just a test to see how I do with an early season race and pretty much indoor only training.

Other than those, I'll probably just do the normal shorter and local races that I enjoy each year. I'm also considering doing some swim meets or open water swims to push myself even more in the water.

Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon

I decided earlier this week to once again do the indoor triathlon at a local Lifetime Fitness to kick off my early season races. I did my normal week of training leading up to it included a long ride on Saturday and just did the race instead of my normal Sunday training.

Swim: I went 50M further this year and felt great. This got me 2nd on the swim (26.5 laps to 27 laps). The best part is I was very steady, held 1:30 per 100 M exactly the entire swim, and finished feeling good and not winded at all. Masters is paying off.

Bike: My legs just didn't have it today. Maybe it was the fatigue from the longer rides this week, or maybe I just suck at spinning at an extremely high cadence on a spin bike. I felt like I was barely working but I just couldn't get my legs to spin any faster. I ended up going 1.5 miles less than last year and was 10th on the bike.

Run: The run felt great. I started conservatively as I didn't know what I could do, but by 5 minutes in I was holding a 5:27 per mile pace and felt great. I ended up speeding up for the last few minutes and cover 3.66 miles in the 20 minutes to average 5:27 for the full run. I'm pleased with the improvement over last years 3.53 miles. This was good enough to get me the fastest run of the day.

In the overall standings I ended up tying for first... I guess that sort of counts as defending my win from last year.

Eitherway, I did this race just for fun and to see where I'm at. I'm very pleased that both my swim and run are better than last year. I know my FTP is higher than last year a this time, even though I didn't have a good bike ride in me today.

Up next is Oceanside 70.3 in just over a month. So far I can count the times I have run outside since Jan 1st on one hand and I haven't been on a bike outside since Hawaii. I'm hoping we get a week of decent weather in before I have to pack up my bike and send it to Oceanside.

2011 Goals

2011-02-02T19:16:00.000-06:00

While reviewing how 2010 and previous years went I noticed a few patterns:

My best performances of the year are during training or early season races that I don't taper for
When I try to taper it doesn't go well. I either add more workouts in or show up to the race feeling de-trained and like I just took a month off
I gain the most "fitness" during the out season and then see very little gains in the actual season
I have yet to run well in an Ironman
I can't do this just for fun, as for me the fun part is setting a goal and achieving it
I tend to have higher goals for myself then I share

After a ton of thought and many discussion with friends and mentors I've decided to make two changes this year.

The easy one: I have written down all of my goals including the ones I usually wouldn't share and the long term ones. Now I have one set of goals and there is no hiding or changing things.

The hard one: To meet my goals, I will be starting with a one on one coach.

I know most people are thinking what's so hard about starting with a coach; well for a control freak like me it is pretty hard. It took me a long time to be able to commit to this as I have enjoyed coaching myself and working with Endurance Nation for training plans and advice. However I feel in many ways I have become my own biggest limiter. I'll share more on about this soon, but in the meantime here are my goals.

2011 Goals:

Taper well and peak at the right times (i.e. PR in key races not training or C events)
Run well off the bike with an IM run IF of at least 0.78. I have yet to go over 0.75.
Follow my plan/coach and do not overachieve in training when I'm feeling strong
Continue to improve my swim and do a 1000 M TT in under 15:00
Qualify for a USAT Elite Card
Qualify for a Age Group Kona Slot

Long Term Goals:

Race as an Elite triathlete
9:00 Ironman
4:00 70.3
2:30 Marathon
1:10 Half Marathon

2010 Wrap Up

2011-01-04T12:39:00.001-06:00

For a long time now I have understood the value of writing down goals. It was simply a way to keep myself accountable and motivated to achieve what I set out to do. For the first 5 years that I have been participating in endurance sports I have met or exceed the goals I set every year and then there was 2010.

2010 started out great and I had some very exciting race results, however when it came around to October I was disappointed with my performance in Hawaii and even more with the choices I made during the race. This brought me down for a while and it took a while for me to accept and understand what happened. Now that I have done that I can move on and become even stronger as I have learned more about myself.

About 2 weeks ago an EN teammate started a thread asking how everyone did with their resolutions or goals for 2010. This made me look back in the file where I keep all my goals and review them. What I realized is even with the disappointing race in Kona I still met every one of my goals.

So here are what my 2010 goals were and my results:

Enjoy the year with my wife and baby - Theresa, Abigail and I had a great year and while my training and racing is time consuming we still had many great times together as a family

Have fun and not be stressed out over calories, numbers, training and racing like last year - I raced a few pounds heavier and missed a few workouts but in the end my mood was MUCH better, I had more fun, and I still had some great results

Enjoy a vacation in Hawaii (and execute well at a race while there) - The week before the race and the week after were great. We had an awesome family vacation and as usual loved being together and in Hawaii. The race is a slightly different story, but I do believe I could have handled the situation much worse and in hindsight I made the best out of it

Fix my swim - Thanks to some private lessons with Fitz I had big improvements in my swim. My 70.3 swim went from 37' to 31'. My ironman swim is not as telling, but I went 1:12 at IMWI 2009 in a wetsuit and 1:08 in Kona without a wetsuit so I will consider that another big improvement. I definitely have more work to do but made good progress for a year

Be ready for 2011 when I get focused again - Originally this meant to relax and enjoy 2010 so that I could get very serious again in 2011. My race in Kona may have just been the best thing that happened to me on this front. After that race I spend a lot of time reflecting on all of my training and racing, I learned a ton about myself. The most important thing I learned is for me the "fun" part of racing triathlons is being competitive with myself and improving (racing others is fun to but I focus on myself as my competition). For this reason I now have a burning desire to continue to improve in 2011 and have my best year yet.

2010 Result Highlights

Survived my first true injury that forced me not to run or swim for 2 months
1^st overall at the Life Time Fitness Indoor Tri
2:49:39 Boston Marathon – I'm thrilled with this as I only had about 6 weeks of real run training before the race
1^st overall at the Chicago Spring Half Marathon (1:15:25)
4^th overall at High Cliff Half Distance Tri
1^st overall at the Twin Lakes Triathlon
18^th overall at Ironman 70.3 Racine (3^rd AG and 8^th Amateur)
10:08:11 Ironman World Championship – two stops for mechanical and a change in plans on the run, see my race report for details

All of that aside, the single most important athletic achievement for me of 2010 was what I learned about myself. I learned so much about what drives me throughout the injury, my race in Kona, and the long process of reviewing all of my past training and racing data and reports. It's almost like I needed to have a race that I was disappointed with to force me to really sit down and think through a lot. The outcome of all of this will be some changes in 2011. That post will be coming soon.

Catching up...

2010-12-08T15:31:00.000-06:00

I've always been pretty bad at keeping in touch with friends and family. Last weekend I saw a few old friends that I have not kept in touch with and they both know about my races and Kona because of my blog. That reminded me that even though I don't always have anything particular great to say I really should keep up with this blog a little better.

I'm going to attempt to make more frequent (but shorter) updates going forward....

First off, thanks to everyone that contact me about my Kona race report and experience. I really value your advice and thoughts.

Since Kona, I took some downtime from serious training and then I once again lead a pace group at the NYC Marathon. It's amazing how enjoyable running a marathon can be when there is no pressure, no goals and all I have to do is have fun and talk to people. I was able to train without a plan for a few weeks and just do what I wanted when I wanted. I even showed up to a 5k untrained and just ran for fun to see what would happen.

I loved all of it and for a bit I even started to think about stepping back and just doing endurance sports for the enjoyment of them. However after only a few weeks of down time, I already had the itch to get back to real training and I knew I wasn't going to be able to take it easy.

I then spend a while review all of my past training data and race reports and realized that I am great at training and not so good at racing. Other than a few random b-races, I have yet to perform to my potential or to how I perform in training during a race. Although I have been pretty successful over the last few years I'm now looking into a few ways I can restructure my season and training to hopefully allow myself to perform better at races.

My next few post will be a recap of the 2010 season, my goals for 2011 and hopefully by then I will have figured out my plan for next year and can share that as well.

In the meantime I am back to following the Endurance Nation Off Season Plan. In only 5 weeks I've got my FTP back to within 2 watts of where I finished the OS last year. My running is taking a little longer to come back but I'm continuing to make good progress.

If you didn't already see from my facebook status, I was nominated for Chicago Magazine - Athlete of the Year after being selected as athlete of the month earlier this year. Voting is still open but I believe it closes very soon. If you do decide to vote for me, I recommend you pick Jean Marinangeli as well.

Vote here: http://j.mp/cpUNxF

Kona 2010 Race Report

2010-10-26T20:24:00.015-05:00

[Based on great feedback from my friends and teammates, I have a slighlty different take my performance and have adjusted this report accordingly. Thank you to those of you that reached out to me with your thoughts.]

I had to let the dust settle a little before writing this one. After most races I'm fired up about something and need to cool off a bit. This time was different though as it was the first time I have been disappointed in myself and emotional.

Before I share the details, I am incredibly honored and grateful that I had this experience. Please understand that this is my honest assessment of what I did on this day. I write it to share my journey with others, but also for my reference later on. Overall it was a very positive experience and the whole week was just amazing. I am very thankful to Theresa, my family, friends and sponsors for supporting me and giving me this opportunity. All that said, I am disappointed in myself, I am driven by always trying to do my best and I did not do my best on this day. Mechanical issues happen and I am not upset about that. I made a choice during the race that I regret. Anyway, here's what happened:

Swim – 1:08:58
I started with a teammate that has done this race 10 times and we were going to start off to the left (but inside the floating Ford Edge as the previous year they did not let people go to the left of the car). However, it was really crowded where we wanted to be, we moved a little more to the right and before we knew it we had pretty much drifted to the center. The cannon went off and I took a deep breath and the beating began. It was by far the roughest start I have ever been in and there where people everywhere. I found some good feet and stayed on them for about 5 minutes, the beating became more of bumping and nudging so I thought things were good. A few minutes later I realized that I was working way too hard and hadn't sighted yet. I looked up and I could still see the lead paddlers…crap I know I'm not that fast. I was swimming way too hard and knew I needed to slow down. Well slowing down when you are swimming with 1800 people who all swim about the same speed is not fun. In hindsight I may have just been better swimming way too hard as the underwater beating then continued for the rest of the swim probably exhausted me more than the actual swim. I even got hit in the head about 100 meters from the stairs while we were next to the pier.

It was pretty cool to see divers below with camera, helicopters above, and the mountains while sighting. There really is no other swim like it and as much being stuck in a crowd the whole time sucked, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Based on two race simulation swims of 1:04 I expected I would swim between 1:05 to 1:10 at this race due to current/swells that I'm not used to. Looks like I was pretty close as I came out in 1:08 and felt really good considering the beating I took. I still have some work to do in the swim but I am continuing to make steady progress.

Lessons learned for next time:

People were not kidding when they said everyone is swims the same speed at this race and it is a pack the entire time
Next time I either need to start on the left like planned or go to the right, but I'm not trying the center again
I really think I would have been better off starting even further up and going a little too hard as I would have preferred to put the extra energy into forward progress then survival of a beating
Once you are moving forward and have settled into a group, don't try to slow down or move over… it's not worth it
My swim is still my weakest discipline and I will continue to work on it

T1 – 2:58
Coming out of the water, I was relieved that the beating was over and actually pleased with my swim. Sure I want to be a 1:00 IM swimmer but 1:08 is good progress. I took my time in T1 and headed out. The change tent was literally packed and there was barely room to get through it. All I had to do was drop my cap/goggles, and grab my arm coolers which I put on while running to the bike.

Bike – 5:17:57 (Actual ride time ~5:03)
I knew the beginning of the bike was going to be crowded so I took all the riding around Kona super easy. In fact I think half of the people racing passed me up the Kuakini climb as I was just spinning my way up. Once we hit the Queen K I started to settle in and I was slowly passing people. I was surprised as I was expecting more drafting but most people were riding very clean and there were three officials that were around quite a bit.

When I passed the airport I decided it was time to start working a little and kicked it up to my goal watts. The ride from there and through the first 56 miles was pretty uneventful. There was a strong head/crosswind going into Hawi and I just hoped I would make in time to get the tail wind back. I felt great, was well hydrated (peed twice already), under my watt and HR target and had completed the first 56 miles in 2:28.
A little after 58 miles the crosswinds were crazy and people were getting blown around as we were just pulling into Hawi. I was trying to pass on the left but it was starting to be a challenge. To avoid getting hit by a cyclist I had to make a sharp turn and I hit one of the reflectors in the road. I had hit a few of these before and while not comfortable it was no big deal. This time was different though, I felt the impact all the way up my arms and into my body, and about 2 seconds later I was riding on a flat tire. It was probably the hardest impact I ever had on my tri bike and the tire blew out instantly.

I pulled off the road a little before special needs (on the other side of the road). I could not see the turnaround but knew I was close as I could see the town. To make a long story short, I thought it was a simple pinch flat, tried fix a flat and that worked about 30 seconds before white goo was coming out of a cut in the tire. On the second repair I spent much more time inspecting and found a decent size cut in the tire and put an inner tube patch on the inside to keep it together. Then I found a dent/crack in the brake track that had a sharp edge going into the bead of the tire, so I used the remaining patches to cover that, probably about 4 of them. While it was not ideal I just hoped it would keep the sharp edge from puncturing the tire/tube. I got everything mounted again, crossed my fingers and slowly inflated the tire with CO2 to make sure it held. It held up fine but I had to open my rear brake up as the patches were hitting the brake pad every revolution of the wheel.

Luckily this happened before special needs so I was able to get my bag and another tube before leaving. Also, I was fortunate to be near two wonderful spectators that had both done the race before and kept me calm. Unfortunately while I was standing there for about 12 minutes the weather changed. There was a light rain and the wind appeared to die, then a few minutes later the rain stopped and the wind came back.
When I jumped back on the bike I was determined to make up time (hey Chrissie won the race with a flat once). I figured I got a short break to stretch and rest and was going to fly down hill and back to Kona. Less than 5 minutes later I was riding out of Hawi and as soon as I went over 30 mph I would get a horrible wobble in my back wheel. I tried to slow down but realized my rear brake had no stopping power now (since I opened it up), so I tried to suck it up and just go full speed like I did earlier in the week. That lasted maybe 1 minute and the wobbling and thumping of my rear wheel at high speed combined with the crazy crosswind had me more scared than I have ever been on a bike, and I use to ride BMW Freestyle. The rest of the descent I rode sitting up with the front brake on, just praying I didn't crash. In my practice ride earlier in the week, I was flying in this descent (averaged 36 mph) but this time I was getting passed continuously.

Quick Side Note: Funny how during the race the dent/crack looked huge but after the race it really isn't that bad. My lesson learned here is to relax as things always seem worse during a race then they really are. The real problem was the speed wobble it created which probably has something to do with the 6 inner tube patches that went on the tire and rim. Even with those, the sharp end wore through them and put a second hole in the tire, right next to the bead.

Next came the mind games and the thoughts of quitting or pulling over and waiting for tech support to get a different rear wheel. I then realized two good friends of mine from Endurance Nation would give anything to be in Kona doing this race right now. Both should have been here but due to situations out of their control they were not able to race. Trent and Al would never quit or give up, so there was no way I was going to quit. I came to an internal agreement that I would keep going until I saw tech support and finish the race no matter what. I pushed the rest of the descent and was thrilled when I was back to Kawaihae.

I finally saw a support vehicle but it was behind another car and as we passed each other probably doing 20mph in opposite directions. So I decide it just wasn't meant to be and I was going to ride this one in myself.

After some more ups and downs on the emotional roller coaster, I stopped as my rear wheel felt weird again; the wobble had gone away a little but the thumping got worse. My tire felt low as I could squeeze it pretty far so I filled the back tire, probably lost about 2 minutes here, but more importantly I mentally reset. At that point I decided I was going to just enjoy the rest of the day and the experience. Next time I race an ironman my time and placing will matter, but today it does not matter if I am 10^th or 100^th in my AG, so I might as well enjoy the experience. I felt like the weight got lifted off my back and was relieved, as I am always so driven to perform to my potential.

When I started riding again I noticed my head was getting warm and realized that I had not peed since before the turn around. Crap, in the whole survival ride out of Hawi I didn't take in nearly enough water or nutrition. For the rest of the bike I focused on getting water, nutrition and salt in.

After reviewing my power file, my actual moving time was 5:03 and that includes running in transition with the bike. My power was about 10 watts lower than targeted and my heart rate was lower as well. My goal was to ride just under 5 hours and I think I could have easily done that if I didn't have the issues coming out of Hawi or if I would have hit my power target instead of taking it easy.

Lessons Learned:

Don't hit reflectors in the road J
Riding with people all day makes it much harder to keep a low VI. I was 1.02 in my two race sims and 1.05 in the race. I've been spoiled over the last two years as I could ride away from the packs
Things always seem worse during a race then they really are. I need to relax, just keep going and not get worried or worked up. For example, after sitting on the side of the road for about 14 minutes total and going slow out of Hawi, I was convinced my race was over as I no longer had a chance to place well or hit the time I wanted.
Don't at anytime stop taking in fluid/nutrition there is no room for error in the hot/humid conditions

T2 – 4:31
I did a very easy jog through T2 and for the first time actually stopped to pee in transition. Unfortunately, I was dehydrated as I barely peed and it was bright yellow. I guess the 45 minutes or so of not drinking much and the hotter conditions on the way back on the bike took their toll. I felt like I spent an hour in T2 as I sat down in a chair and put my shoes on, let a volunteer help me with sun block and then put all my other stuff on and in pockets before leaving the tent. It was kind of nice to not be so rushed for once J

Run – 3:33:47
I felt great. It was probably because I didn't have any pressure on myself to make a time and I was just enjoying myself. I didn't even look at my watch and went as slow as I could in the first mile. After that I just kept jogging. I saw Carrie, the Zoot Crew, Theresa, Abigail and my Mom all within the first two miles.

Usually I just run by and barely acknowledge people due to my focus but this time I actually stopped to talk for a second and even gave Abigail and Theresa hugs. It was nice to be able to do this and not try to squeeze every second out of my race. It was kind of fun just to be enjoying the run and I was getting tons of compliments from the spectators on how good I looked.

My original plan was to jog easy for the first 10 miles then pick it up on the Queen K. I actually ended up
running all 10 miles effortlessly and ran up Palani strong. I was never warm or uncomfortable and having a great time.

After making the turn onto the Queen K, I once again thought about racing. I figured since I ran the first 10 miles basically per my plan anyway that maybe I could pull of a great marathon. I dropped my pace to my target and made it about a mile. In that mile the slightly warm jog I was on became hot and my perceived effort when up significantly to only see my pace drop by 30 seconds. With 15 miles left to go, I made a very tough decision, a decision that I have thought about and in many ways regretted every day since the race.

For the first time ever in a race, it got tough and instead of pushing through it, I gave in and backed off. My body was hot, I wasn't feeling it after the one mile of picking the pace up, and my mind gave in. I convinced myself that my race was over because of the bike mechanicals, I had no chance in placing, and I should just enjoy the day.

[In hindsight and after a few great conversations with friends, I realize I did not quit or give up. I did however give up on racing and instead became just a participate or finisher for the first time. Although a small difference to most people this is a big difference and a big deal to me.]

The remaining 15 miles were one heck of a roller coaster. For the about 6 miles to the energy lab, I basically did nothing but try to convince myself that I had made the right decision. Seeing the pros going the other way that looked horrible or were walking, it was easy to justify what I did. My pace slowed to about 8:00 min/miles and I felt fine physical so I just keep slowly moving forward.

I hit the energy lab and found out they were not kidding at it gets hot down there. Even my ultra relaxed pace (which was continuing to slow mile after mile) was tough to hold and I was getting warm again. So I slowed down a little more and started to walk the aid stations. At least I made it to the energy lab without walking. Since I had already given in when it got tough, it was easy to do it again and I went really slow the whole time in the energy lab.

At the end of the Energy Lab I had a little less than 7 miles left and crossed the motivational mile sign. It said "m.ancona what's your one thing". It then hit me, for the first time I didn't have a one thing for this race.

I had tried to convince myself for the last year that I was doing this race just for fun, but inside I was still competitive and had goals. They were not aggressive goals that I was committed too, but I was definitely there to do more then just finish.

I thought once more about trying to pick up the pace, but I didn't have the desire to and within a minute I slowed again. I continued to walk the aid stations and jog around 8:00 min/miles in between. I was now being passed by people and my mood had changed significantly. I was upset about the flat and in a world of pity and at the same time I was even more upset at myself for giving up for the first time. I felt sorry for myself but also incredibly disappointed in myself. I was embarrassed as people spend years and years trying to earn the opportunity to do this race and I had just given in when it got tough. I was even more upset that I didn't have a clear goal in my mind and didn't even know what my one biggest reason for being out there was.

Once I hit Palani all those thoughts disappeared as there were more spectators and I could see the finish area. I continued to jog and took it all in with a big smile on my face. For that last 5 minutes or so, I completely forgot about everything that happened and for the first time since my first race (2004 Chicago Marathon), I just enjoyed finishing and the finish line. It was truly an amazing experience to cross that finish line on Ali'i.

I ended up finishing in 10:08:11, 54th in my age group and 524th overall.

Post Race
The post race high that usually lasts at least a few days only lasted about 10 minutes this time around. By the time I made it out of finish area and found Theresa, I was an emotional mess. I am a pretty thick skinned person and usually do not let things get to me, but this did. It was one of the only times in my life that I was truly disappointed in something I did.

After eating and drinking a ton we went back to the condo and I weight myself. I was more than 6 pounds (4.5%) lighter than before the race. I felt fine and never had an issue during the race but obviously I was not nearly as on top of my hydration as I though. Lesson learned I still have to take in even more water. I guess the silver lining to jogging the marathon is that I don't push myself enough to expose the dehydration and I was lucky for that.

I tried very hard that evening and the next week to convince myself that it was ok to give up and just enjoy the day. I told so many people that I was still happy with my race and tried to convince myself I was. Three weeks later, I have accepted what happened and moved on, however I will likely always be disappointed that I allowed myself to give in when it got tough.

Some closing thoughts

I'm impressed if anyone actually read this far … thank you to anyone that spent the time reading all of this.
As usual I will not even pretend that I could do this on my own. I appreciate the amazing continued support from my wife, daughter, family, friends and sponsors as you are all very important to me.
Kona is different and unique, sure the Boston Marathon and Clearwater are amazing events, but Kona is in a whole different league. Even if you never get the chance to race there, I really recommend going race week, in fact I want to go back sometime and not race just so I can enjoy being there and not have to worry about the race.
Ironman racing is a roller coast of emotions, I hit more highs and lows in one day than I do in many weeks or months
Shit happens on race day, but I'm proud of how I handled the mechanicals and that I made the best of it
I know I should have performed much better but at least my first Kona experience was still positive and a decent time
I've finished three ironman and I have still not run well or executed well …. Looks like I know what to work on next year!
I will never again race an ironman without first knowing what my one thing is BEFORE the race. Never give up has new meaning to me now.
Finishing MOP (525^th OA/54^th AG) earned me a finisher's photo with 9 people in it all within about 20 feet. Sure was humbling when I saw that.
Somehow I thought making it to Kona was going to be satisfying and end this quest, instead I'm now even more motivated to get back and have the race I know I am capable of having.
While I have fun participating in this sport, fun or enjoyment is not why I participate. I am driven to improve and perform to my potential. I've tried a few time to just go out and race for fun and it hardly ever works. My type-A personality is what drives me and I cannot hide from that no matter how hard I try to convince myself that I can. No matter what happens with anyone else out there I am always competing with myself and this was the first time I lost.

Race Week In Kona

2010-10-26T14:45:00.000-05:00

I'm really late to post this but hope you still enjoy. Here is the quick day by day summary of week leading up to the race in Kona. It was by far one of the best experiences of my life. In fact, now I want to go to Kona race week and not race just so I have time to do everything.

Sunday

Travel Day. We left our house around 11 Central and got to our Condo in Kona at about 9 PM (2AM at home). It was a long and actually uneventful day. Abigail did not have much interest in sleeping on the flights, but she did an amazing job and was awesome the whole time. The first flight (ORD-LAX) had a few athletes on it but was mostly the normal travelers. However when we got to LAX things started to look different. The number of Mdot logos went up drastically and almost as much as the average body size decreased. On the plane, it looked like every other person was an athlete and we saw bags and shirts from Ironman races all over the world. Sitting behind us were two men from the NBC crew that were talking about the last few years for the race. It started to sink in that this was going to be a different experience.

The Kona airport made this even more apparent as the baggage claim was packed with people, who now had less clothes on and looked more fit. Not to mention tri bag and tri bag and many different languages being spoken.

Monday
We ran into Matt Samojeden at LAX and we decided to go for a Monday morning swim. So about 6:45 we pull out of our Condo and drove to the pier. In the 1.5 mile drive we had to have seen literally hundreds of people running and riding on Ali'i. As expected, Lava Java was packed and parking was already hard to find on Monday.

Matt and I wanted to just swim easy and do the whole course so we swam buoy to buoy and then would re-group and enjoy the sights. I hate swimming, but was loving every minute of this as we could see so much in every direction. The mountains looked awesome when I would breath and the sea life below the water was even cooler to watch. Not to mention the incredible swimmers everywhere. The only issue was the buoys only went about half way and then there was a kayak at the turn around another 1/2 mile away. The water was calm but there were still swells that prevented us from keeping our eye on the kayak, but we decided to swim the full course anyway. We swam for a while, and I swear the kayak was moving, but we keep going. When we finally caught the kayak the guy asked if we were going to Maui and then pointed to where the turnaround kayak was. We had just experienced the current that pushes you out to sea and the guy we found was out to make sure no one keep going. We ended up swimming about 1:20 and definitely well over 2.4 miles, but it was fun and a very good lesson learned about the current.

The rest of the morning Theresa, Abigail and I spend together exploring and shopping. We visited the Zoot store on Ali'i and Dave pointed out that there was a picture of me on the Zoot history wall… very cool!

The whole town really embraces the race as we quickly found out at Walmart:

After lunch I went for a 2 PM run from our Condo. I wanted hot and sunny, instead I got cloudy and cool. I ended up doing 6.5 miles through town, up Palini, and back

Tuesday
I wanted to swim at 7 again, but this time I did the 1.5 mile run to the pier, which took significantly less time than driving there. I swam just over 1.3 miles – out was very easily and comfortable at 18', back started easy then Macca was right next to me so I tried to hang on to his feet as long as I could. Made it back in just under 15' for 32' total. Much more in line with what I was expecting compared to yesterday's 1:20 swim. However I was killing myself staying on Macca's feet and I'm pretty sure he was just messing around. I finished up with another easy run back to the condo.

For Abigail's 8 month birthday we took pictures of her by the ocean and then headed to the race registration.

We wandered around town a little and then I went to Tri Bike Transport to pick up my bike…

I have a bike box and fully planned to pack and bring my own bike with us on our flights. However about a month before the race we found out TBT was going to Kona this year and I had such a good experience with them last year that I decided it was worth it to do that instead. The cost was about the same and this way I did not have to worry about my bike after the race when we went on vacation. The downside was that we got to Kona on Sunday and my bike didn't make it until Tuesday afternoon, but I figured that was still worth it.

So I get to TBT to pick up my bike at about 1:30 on Tuesday and there is a long line (20+ people) waiting for bikes. I stand around for a while, finally get to the front of line and they can't find my bike. They have me come back and walk all the racks with them. Sure enough there are at least 4 other Orbea Ordus in the same color, but not mine. There is still one other bike that came from EndureIT assembled and on rack but mine is not. So the guy helping me gets one of the guys in charge and he asks which shop and when I said EndureIT, he says "Oh, follow me". We get back to the large freight containers and in the corner is a bike bag that he opens up and there is my frame. Yeah, I paid to have my bike shipped to Kona in one piece so I could hop right on and ride it and instead I get a bag of parts. The worst part is it was not taken apart by me and TBT did not have anyone to assemble it. The TBT guys were helpful and tried to help me put it together but they were busy and he was doing a number of other things, so I sat there and re-assembled my bike myself in a parking lot in Kona with a multi tool. Everything went together ok other then the fit being not quite right and the shifter and brake cables needing some tuning as I had them routed a certain way with zip ties but that was all messed up now. At least there was no damage and I am able to assemble my bike myself. TBT and EndureIT have both appologized for the mix up.

Anyway, I got back to the condo, did another once over on the entire bike and went for a ride. The fit and shifting were a little off, but a nothing a few stops and a multi tool couldn't fix. About 4 in the afternoon I was off for my 1:30 ride and now I missed the keiki race and being able to cheer on a friends daugther…but all in all it could have went much worse. I did, however, make it back in time to see the Parade of Nations

Maybe it was because I was frustrated or maybe because the wind was calm, but I hammered from the condo to the airport and back. I was actually over 30 mph almost the entire way to the airport and still stayed over 26 the way back.

To finish the day up I went and met Brooke from Gu and she hooked me up with everything I needed for the week and the race. It sure was nice not to have to bring nutrition with me.

Wednesday
I originally wanted to swim every morning but decided that I was probably better off just getting to Hawi early on as that was my main goal for the day. I drove out to Kawaihae and parked, set up my bike and right about the time I estimated I would ride. I was a little worried for the first 10 miles as there was not much wind at all. Then I started to get confident as the wind picked up but I still thought it was no big deal. The wind was a about 15 mph wind from the left (ocean) and I was just cruising along comfortably when out of no where a huge gust hit me from the right and pushed me into the road. WTF… the wind was coming from the left, nailed me from the right and then went back to the right. I instantly understood why everyone said to go ride Hawi. The remaining 8-10 miles up hill continued to get more windy and provided even worst gusts. To make it even more fun, as I turned towards Hawi the last 5 miles was into a head wind with the crazy gusts and cross winds. It took about 32 minutes to climb up and 11 minutes to get back down with a tail wind. As annoying as the cross winds were on the way up at 12-15 mph riding speed, they scared the crap out of me at 36+ mph riding speed back down. All I can say is I'm REALLY glad I got out there and road to/from Hawi and experienced the wind first hand before race day.
The rest of the day was one social event after another starting with a TeamEN Lunch, SpiderTech gathering in the afternoon, and Zoot dinner in the evening. The SpiderTech gathering was particularly interesting as Chris from SpiderTech did an assessment of my legs and showed me how I had limited range of motion in my big toe on the foot/calf that I have been having issues with. He went over multiple ways to stretch it and completely explained why it causes the issues with my foot/calf.

Thursday
We drove into town so that Theresa and Abigail could join me for the underwear run, but first I did another quick easy swim and stopped for coffee at the Coffee of Hawaii boat.

By the time we got to the underwear run it was getting ready to start and so I decided to just watch the fun with Theresa and Abigail.

We then visited the expo area. Chris from SpiderTech treated my foot and calf some more while Abigail and Theresa wandered around. Chris from Team Sports did a quick tune up on my bike as I knocked my chain off while calibrating my Quarq during Wednesday's ride. I showed him what was happening and the nice thing about being in Kona is within minutes we were able to go talk to someone at SRAM. It ends up that the open glide tooth design in the RED cassette does not allow you to backpedal with the chain and large angles. In other words the chain line has to be straight when you backpedal with a SRAM RED cassette. Once I knew this I could not get the chain to fall off no matter how hard I tried, but if I went to an extreme gear combination and back pedaled, sure enough it would come off within a few revolutions. We also ran into Jake from Zoot and he took care of getting Theresa and I Zoot Kona 2010 visors, shirts, and compression socks to match our Ali'i shoes.

That afternoon I drove out to and ran in the Energy Lab. Every run I did so far in Kona was overcast and cool, but at least this time the weather gave me what I wanted for a portion of the run. I went about 5 miles and 3 of them were sunny. It sure did get hot quick and gave me a good idea what I could expect on race day. The Athlete meeting was pretty uneventfully and standard. I'm glad that we skipped the dinner and I only went to catch the meeting.

Friday
My plan was to do a few very short workouts but my body was feeling really tired so I decided to do nothing at all and just sit around with my feet up. Poor Abigail had her first cold and was coughing, sneezing and was congested. Luckily, our Endurance Nation extended family got word of this and we found out Lynn (a pediatrician from EN) was volunteering at the medical tent.

That afternoon when I checked my bike in Lynn checked out Abigail and confirmed it was just a head cold and not in her chest which at least made Theresa feel better. Bike check in was fast and easy. While I was on the way in Chrissie was on the way out so the entire crowd went the other way and I was able to walk right in and take care of everything. One of the joys of being number 1731 was my bike was basically all the way out to sea and at the far end of the pier.

The last stop of the day was to get my Jamba Juice dinner and take a picture for Al!

Quick Kona Recap

2010-10-10T12:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was an eventful day and I learned more about myself than I ever have before. I also learned that Kona is legit and was earned the reputation for being the hardest single day race in the world.

The swim was about an hour of underwater boxing. I had a great start, got on fast feet and was maybe 10 people back from the lead SUP, but about 5 minutes in I realized I was going way to hard and would not be able to hold that pace for the entire time so I backed off and got swam over and on top of for the next hour. It's true that everyone swims fast and the pack never broke up at all. I was literally still getting kicked and hit 50 meters from the finish.

Bike started out great. I came out of the water pleased with my swim and got on the bike happy and was going to execute to plan. I hit 56 miles in about 2:28 and was under my power and HR targets feeling awesome and passed a ton of people. I was actually averaging 23.1 mph until the Hawi climb into a cross/head wind but I was ok with the head wind thinking I was earlier enough to get a tail wind on the way back.

At around mile 58, the crazy gusts and other cyclist caused me to hit the reflectors in the middle of the road. My back tire blew out and went flat instantly even though it didn't feel like that hard of an impact. To make a long story short the tire had a good sized hole in it were it hit the reflector and the brake track was dented and now hard a sharp edge. A combination of a new tube, fix a flat, a bunch of patches on the tube/rim and CO2 got me back on the road. Thank You to the wonderful spectators that came to keep me clam and help me out.

So only about 16 to 18 minutes of down time as the tire was really low again and I had to make a second stop to refill it, but that's not the worse part. While I was there a quick rain storm moved in and the winds shifted directions. This meant that I missed the tail wind out of Hawi that I go earlier in the week and had a cross/head wind again. The even worse part was my wheel was thumping with every rotation thanks to the dented wheel, multiple patches, and my rear brakes barely worked because of the patches...and bike tech was no where to be found. I was the most scared I have ever been on a bike going down hill out of Hawi. With a head/crosswind pushing me all over the road, basically no rear brake, the thumping and a wonderful speed wobble if I went over 30 mph. So I sat up with a death grip on the bars and my front brake on the entire way down. It was the slowest I have even gone down hill but I was just in survival mode. I made it and the rest of the ride was just hot and windy.
I felt great on the run, probably because I was finally off the bike and didn't crash. However after the bike mess and all the time I lost I decide I just wanted to enjoy the day and not suffer on the run. I jogged the entire marathon, stopped to hug and talk to Theresa, Abigail, and my Mom twice. Thanked every volunteer, and smiled about 22 miles of the marathon. The energy lab was direct sun and really hot, so it got hard there and I just slowed down and took it easy. After that I just didn't have the desire to push myself and jogged it in on the Queen K and back to town.

I have mixed emotions and need to think a few things through over the next few days before I share my thoughts and a full report. That said, it could have been so much worse and I am thankful I was not injured and enjoyed most of the day. The finish was truly magical and I am glad I was able to smile and enjoy it.
The good news is once again I didn't actually run the marathon so my legs feel fine and I can now enjoy a week of vacation without limping around. Some day I will actually run an ironman marathon.

Thank you for following me and for your support throughout the year!

Pre-Kona Update

2010-10-02T18:05:00.001-05:00

As usual, I've checked out of many things over the last few weeks to focus on what I needed to. I apologize if I have been distant, it's not you, it's me. It's just who I am and what I have to do before a big race. More on that in a minute, but first I wanted to check in with a quick update to all my family, friends, sponsors and supporters.

I'm Ready!!!
The training is done, my race plan is done, my gear perfect and I'm ready to go. All I have left to do now is get to Kona, enjoy the week before the race. As I have said before this is an off year for me and I am going to Kona to enjoy the experience. I will be attending as many events as I can, and there are so many, thanks to my great sponsors. Of course I have trained hard but I do not have performance expectations or goals.

For the tri-athletes reading even with less focus than last year, I may have just had my best build up ever. I pretty much nailed every single workout in my Endurance Nation 12 week ironman training plan. I set PRs on my long run, long bike, and even in the pool! I also had my two best race simulations ever. Both including the full swim in a pool in 1:04, 4:58 112 miles rides, and 8 miles in ~55 minutes on both brick runs. The first was sunny and hot, I felt great but lost too much weight. Lesson learned and I did much better hydrating the 2^nd one even though it was cooler.

New to me this year was heat acclimation which is a challenge when the fall weather quickly moved into Chicago in August. For the last two weeks every one of my key workouts has been inside with zero air movement, this sure has simulated some heat and forced me to sweat more than I ever have before. Next time you are looking for a challenge try riding for 3 hours at an IF of .84 inside on a trainer with no fan or air movement. It was significantly harder than I expected, but I did it and ran after. Additionally, I have gotten to know the steam room and sauna at my gym very well. It's pretty crazy that 15 minutes in the sauna feels like nothing now and is relaxing. This morning I went for 36' at 182 degrees and only got out because all of my water bottles were empty and my key to my locker was so hot I had to pick it up with a towel.

For the data geeks, here is how the year has looked for me. I was so concerned about not running Dec-Feb because of the foot injury, but in hindsight it seems to have worked out just fine.

Click to Enlarge

The Taper
For the non-athletes reading this, I progressively build my fitness over about 10 months of the year with a goal of arriving at my A-race in peak shape. This means that about 2-3 weeks before the race I have to taper or reduce the volume of my workouts. I know this is critical as my body needs time to recover from the 10 months of stress I put it through, however this is by far the worst part of the year for me.

Prior to last year, I pretty much never tapered and if I did I ended up doing extra ad hoc workouts. Last year, based on the advice of EN I actually tapered prior to Ironman Wisconsin and did not do extra work. It worked and on race day my body felt great and had my easiest bike ride of the year (also my fastest ever). The two weeks I was tapering was hell. I absolutely hated every minute of it. I guess it has something to do with my type-A personality but after years of building my fitness and enjoying working out every single day, the last thing I want to do is stop. That combined with my body feeling weird while recovering and other pre-race anxiety makes me pretty high strung and not fun to be around.

So far this year my taper has gone significantly better and it's actually a longer taper. So what's changed?
Well, I doubt I will ever like to taper, but I have learned it is needed and therefore instead of fighting it this year, I decided to make the best of it. Therefore I shifted my focus to swimming and heat acclimation for the last three weeks of my build. This does two things, first and foremost it helps me with two of my weaknesses, but secondly it gives me something to focus my thought and time on (i.e. obsess over) so that I don't mind cycling and running less (my normal obsessions). This is working really well as I have found my body reacts very well to more frequent shorter swims. Therefore I have been in the pool and steam/room or sauna just about every day for at least two weeks now.

My swim is feeling great as I am focusing on my form and feeling the water instead of swimming long. The heat acclimation is going well as I used to make it 10-15' in the sauna, now I go over 30 most days and am pretty much always cold if I am not in the sauna.

Thank You
Of course none of this would be possible without the never ending support and encouragement from Theresa and Abigail. I'm so fortunate to have them embrace my hobby. Right after Kona we are taking a week to vacation and just enjoy each other and NOT talk triathlon for once. In addition to Theresa and Abigail I want to thank all of my sponsors that have helped me this year.

Jake at Zoot has continued to make sure I have everything I need for Kona including multiple pairs the exact shoes I wanted to race in and other shoes/clothes for the week. BTW, the new Thermal compression stuff is awesome and just what I need now that it is fall.

Orbea, Zipp, Fuel Belt, ALCIS, and Gu have all provided awesome gear for training and racing. If you are in Kona, make sure to find the Gu house on Ali'I just south of town as they will be giving out special edition Hawaii flavored products.

The guys at Get a Grip Cycle have ensured that my bike fit is right and I have all the gear I needed.

My newest sponsor, SpiderTech Taping, came along at the perfect time. Early in my IM build I started to have arch and achilles issues, the SpiderTech team has provided me with Calf and Arch spiders that have dramatically reduce any pain and allowed me to continue my training with no further issues.

Road ID hooked me up so I have an ID for all occasions and even multiple colors. With all of the unfortunate cycling accidents this year I never leave home without a Road ID them. If you don't have one (or want another), use the coupon ThanksMatthew844172 .

The Endurance Nation team continues to motivate me and provide invaluable advice on my training and racing. More importantly, Theresa and I have so many great triathlon friends now because of EN and triathlon has become part of our live.

Checking In...

2010-08-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

Well it has been a while, so I figured I should check in. Life has been a little busy. I've been off in my own little world getting my Kona training in, while also taking on a large new project at work and of course trying to spend time with my wife and daughter. That doesn't leave much time for blogging.

Training Updates:

Training is going really well. We have been fortunate to have a hot and humid summer which is just what I needed.
I've been able to do a number of great rides with a friend that is getting ready for IMWI (Jim Hansen). It has been awesome to have the company.
I finally found a master group that works with my schedule and is a good group with a good coach. I've been setting PRs in the pool and they even taught me Fly and how to start on the blocks. Who knows maybe they will convince me to compete in a swim meet.
Swim, Bike and Run fitness are all right on track. My weight is up compared to last year but I'm ok with that. First, I believe the swimming as put some upper body muscle on and second I'm not willing to be super strict with my diet this year to force my body to a low weight. I'm just focusing on eating well.

Race Rehearsal 1:
I did my first of 2 race rehearsals for Kona. It went awesome and was by far the best RR I have ever had.

Swim - I started with a 3850 M swim and just tried to stay relaxed and comfortable. I ended up coming in at 1:04:15 which I'll take. Sure I would like to be quicker and could be if I swam hard but I don't think it is worth killing myself for just a few minutes.

Bike - the weather turned out just how I wanted and I got hot, direct sun, and wind all day! 116.1 miles in 5:10 and stayed under my goal watts. Felt awesome in the last hour and pushed pretty hard towards the end. I definitely could have pushed much harder but I think this is exactly how I should ride.

Run - I ticked off the first three miles effortlessly and nailed my three target paces for the day. I felt great so I went 5 more at under 6:55 pace. Ended up doing 8.1 miles in 56 minutes.

I could not have asked for more and am ready and excited for Kona!

Other Updates:

CAF - Now that I'm down racing (other then Kona) and even gave you the results of my RR, that is all the information you are getting. PLEASE help me support CAF. You can make a guess at my Kona time and win something, or just donate. I'm trying to avoid emailing everyone I know to ask for donations as I know most of you read this!
SpiderTech - I now part of the SpiderTech Quest to Kona test team and testing out some of their products during my training for Kona. More on that soon.
Zoot - As usual the guys at Zoot are awesome. I've tested the 2011 Tempo 4.0s and the Energy 3.0s, both are awesome shoes with some nice improvements. I was pleasantly surprised by both. Jake hooked me up with some Red Race 3.0s for Kona training and racing and they are by far my favorite shoe ever.

In case you missed it above... HELP ME SUPPORT CAF.

Racine 70.3 Race Report

2010-07-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

I continue to enjoy racing because I learn something at every race I do. My biggest lesson learned this time is to reflect on my race and keep my mouth shut for 24 hours. Yesterday as soon as Theresa and Jim Hansen were congratulating me, I was already making negative comments about what went wrong. I really don't do this to complain, it is how I analyze my race and learn, but it often comes across the wrong way.

I share this for two reasons: First, I truly appreciate everyone that supports me and I couldn't do this without you. Please don't take anything I do or say right after a race seriously. I'm usually a very relaxed person that doesn't get worked up, but for some reason racing gets me fired up. I'm working on this but it still takes me a little bit to cool off. Second, I know my race reports can be critical and not come across as intended, and I hope they are not taken too negatively. There is nothing to be learned by saying I had a great day and went fast, but if I pick apart the details of my race I can learn from it and hopefully others can as well.
So, now that it is 24 hours later, all things considered, I had a GREAT race especially after my 2 months of racing or training camps every week and only 5 days after the most cycling I have ever done.

Swim - 31:20 – 9^th in AG
Yes, the guy that swam 37' in Kansas dropped 6 minutes from my swim time in a year. Thank You John Fitzpatrick! I've beat myself up in the pool for 5 years playing wall tag for hours on end and improved very little. However, after a number of private lessons, video analysis, and LOTS of drill work to refine my technique I'm finally swimming much better. This was my 5^th time at Racine and the swim course was a good bit longer than ever before, with the buoys further from shore and the exit south past transition. FWIW, Crowie swam 24:59 and my watch had the swim at 1.23 miles, so I'm pretty sure this was the most accurate swim I have ever seen at Racine.

T1 – 2:14
Could have been faster, but I was too busy looking around and in shock at how all the other bikes were still in T1. It's a lot harder to find your bike when you get out of the water up front. I've never had this issue before J

Bike – 2:16:38 – 3^rd AG
I'm disappointed with this. Last year my FTP was 15 watts lower and I went 2:13. Sure I did the aqua bike and didn't have to run after, but I did a 6 mile run anyway and felt great. Either way, the first 30 minutes felt fine, I was constantly holding myself back but slowly passing people. In fact entire ride I was only passed by one person, who I really wanted to chase but I let him go and did my race as I knew he was a stronger cyclist. After that first 30 minutes I went to kick it up a bit but my legs disagreed. I would get the watts up for a few minutes and then slip right back down. The next hour was pretty uneventful as in I think I saw one person and my power was just flat. With about 30 minutes left I caught a few of the female pros and just having other people around gave me enough energy to rally a little bit and finish up without fading anymore. I honestly think I saw less than 10 people on the bike (other than people going the opposite direction), this makes for a long, boring ride.

My nutrition was dead on, drank it as planned, full bottle of water from each aid station and had to pee, so all I can think of is my legs were not recovered from the BBW last weekend as my power was 27 watts lower than in my race simulation workout and other recent 2.5 to 3 hour rides.

T2 - 0:59
Not much eventful happened here, shoes went on and out I ran.

Run – 1:27:38 – 4^th AG
Ouch, my worse 13.1 run in 2 years and a more than 12 minutes slower than I ran in an open HM in May. I even went 2 minutes faster at Clearwater when I was taking it easy and untrained. I don't know what the deal was, my legs felt ok and PE was fine, they just had zero kick. At first I was pretty pissed off with myself, but after thinking about for a day or so I've relaxed and figured a few things out:

I found out the heat index was over 90 and I was in the sun almost the entire run
Only one person in the race went under 1:20 (Crowie @ 1:15)
The fastest in my AG was 1:24
Again, I hate to make excuses for a choice I made, but maybe the BBW last weekend was not the best idea
It could have been so much worse ... For the third time in my life, I got a horrible side stitch during the run. This time I was determined to beat this; I slowed down, focused on breathing and other techniques to release it and didn't start running again until it was gone. As it started to ease up, I continued to go slow and get in water and gel, while keeping pressure on it. It worked and within about a mile I was back to jogging and by 2 miles later I was starting to pick up the pace to my IM run pace. Luckily from then on I was able to keep dropping a few seconds per mile.

In hindsight, I am actually glad I got the side stitch as I have tried my hardest to get during brick workouts or race simulations and I just can't emulate it outside of a race. At least now I know I can deal with it and get rid of it during a race. Sure it would have been nice to run faster and not have been in pain, but I needed that to happen so I could overcome it and still have a good race.
BTW, this was another negative split (45:00/42:38) – thank you side stitch J

Total - 4:18:49 - 3^rd in Age Group, 18^th Overall, 8^th AGer

I really felt I should have gone under 4:15 at this race even with the hot conditions, but it is what it is. On the positive side, my AG was stacked again and I still placed well. There are some fast guys around and I just need to keep working hard to keep up. I'm glad that I'm starting to see the same few fast local guys at the races as it is good motivation to keep pushing.

The good:

My swim – the lessons and focus on form and drills is really working. I was only 6:30 behind the fastest swimmers of the day. Thank You Fitz!
Side Stitch – ok this one is good and bad. The good, I got the same side stitch as IMWI and High Cliff but this time I got rid of it and was able to starting running again. The Bad – I got the side stitch again.
Bike – All of the short races this year have turned me into Ricky Racer recently. Until this race I have not been passed on the bike yet this year but when one guy went by me at this race, I just let him go. It was hard to do, but the right decision as he was a stronger rider
Heat – I really never noticed the heat which is a good thing as Kona is most likely going to be a little warm J
I was 30 minutes behind Crowie, and within 5 minutes of my next goal

Things I can improve:

Bike pacing – I have to get the first 30 minutes easy thing right. I've done this in IM, but for HIM I just can't do it. I leave T1 and am just going to hard. This time I really was only a few watts over my target, but when you look at the full ride it was my peak 30' since I fell apart later.
Bike cadence – I held 90 for the race, but in training I've been slipping closer to 80. I will focus on getting this up in training
Run cadence – I'm consistently at 94 in training off the bike and over 95 open, but I struggle to keep cadence up in races.
BBW right before a race – again, my own stupidity here. Not sure why I ever thought crushing myself 5 days in a row, then racing 5 days later would be a good idea. Riding with Coach Rich sounded like and was fun, so was the 3 loops of IMWI the next day, and hill repeats on HHH the following, but not the best time to do this.
Recovery – I really suck at this one (even worse than I used to suck at swimming). Once again I can count the number of days I have taken off this year on one hand. I actually was up at 4 AM the morning after the race and REALLY wanted to go out for a run but I forced myself to stay in bed and stare at the ceiling instead.
The side stitch – so now I know I can deal with it but I still need to figure out the root cause and get rid of it all together. Last year at Kansas I had my best HIM run and no side stitch at all. My nutrition is identical and my bike fit is almost the exact same was well, plus I went harder on the bike at Kansas … go figure. It was also hot and sunny there as well. Although that was the only HIM I have ever tapered for. I'm really going to work on emulating this in training by making my bricks as race like as possible, no more 5 minute transitions in training, bike to run in 1 minute from now on. I'm also going to get better at using my race day nutrition more in training.

This game gotten a lot harder this year. The last 6 years have been pretty easy. I got faster in training and went to races and raced faster. The faster I went the more motivated I was to go even faster. It was easy as I just trained hard and raced hard and nothing else mattered. Well that game is slowly coming to an end and now my fitness gains are getting smaller and smaller. The decisions I make on how a train, recover, and execute on race day are now the difference setting a PR verses a subpar performance. Sure I'm going to keep working on getting faster but it is unlikely I will pick up another 50 watts at FTP in one year again and therefore I know I have to really get into the details and work for improvement in every part of my training and racing.

Up Next
TRAINING (what I do best) – 12 weeks of no racing, no camps, just training for Kona. I had a ton of fun messing around for the last 2 months but I'm definitely ready to go back to structured training. I'm still approaching Kona as a fun experience and not going to race, but I'm going to show up as fit as I can be.

EN Camp and Big Bike Week

2010-07-21T15:57:00.002-05:00

[Just realized I typed this up almost a week ago and forgot to post it, so it is a little late]

Once again I decided to do a big training week after the Fourth of July weekend. Last year I did a solo big tri week, but after discussing it with Coach Patrick, it made more sense to do a bike bike week this year as my A race is 4 weeks later. Plus the timing of EN Tri Rally in Madison worked well and I would have people to ride with.

Prior to the BBW, I did my normal week including Tuesday long run and then took Wednesday as an easy day with just a swim.

Thursday – Rode 30 minutes, 11 miles, 38 TSS, basically flat – Brick Run 1 hour 9.2 miles
My plan was to ride 3 hours easy to kick of 5 days of riding, but Mother Nature disagreed and provided some thunderstorms all morning. It did clear up in the afternoon and got hot and sunny so instead I did 30 minutes hard on my road bike and then ran an hour.

Friday – Rode 5:10, 105 miles, 303 TSS, 5167 ft climbing
I rode most of the IMWI course with Coach Rich and Johnny. It quickly became apparent that I'm still a triathlete and not a cyclist (not that anyone thought otherwise). I may be able to sit at 80% in my aerobars all day, but once we hit climbs, descents, or anything technical I fell off the back and had to work hard to get back on Rich's wheel. Overall the first 4 hours went well and I did my fair share of pulling, but the last hour Rich pulled pretty much the whole time and I was working just to keep up.

Saturday – Rode 6:50, 123 miles, 247 TSS, 6535 ft climbing – Brick Run 32 minutes 4 miles
Jim Hansen and I did 3 loops of the IMWI course, nice and steady how I like to ride. We finished with an easy brick and an attempt to swim but the lifeguard stopped us from going in. Jim is getting strong this year and was on this Tri bike so I did a good bit of work to hang on and take some pulls. We also had some fun at stops with our EN campers to make it a pretty enjoyable day.

Sunday – Rode 4:45, 76 miles, 187 TSS, 5525 ft climbing
While the rest of the camp was going for a run, Hayes and Karin invited me to ride with them. We did Hayes' version of the IMWI loop which I like much more (it has more climbing and skips the flat parts). When Hayes and Karin were ready to head back to the car I needed about 7 more miles to hit 300 miles for the 3 days, so I finished up with a lap on Observatory and two laps on Barlow (the steepest climbs in the area). I was pretty shocked but I crossed the 300 mile mark whil climbing a 20% grade at well over FTP and my legs actually felt pretty good.

Monday – Rode 2:40, 50 miles, 109 TSS, 1300 ft climbing
This was a solo ride back at home. My legs felt surprisingly good, but I was pretty fried mentally. I just didn't have the desire to go any further on my own and was getting lazy so I called it quits right at 50 miles before I did something dumb.

Bike Totals: 19:55 moving time, 365 Miles, 884 TSS, 18,527 ft climbing
Run Totals: 1:32 moving time, 13.2 Miles

That makes this weekend the most riding I have ever done in 5 days and the least running I have done in 5 days J .

As usual, spending the weekend with Team EN was fun and entertaining. I can't wait to see everyone again at IMWI.

Up next is Racine 70.3 in just a few days. The plan is to keep up my normal workouts but drop the intensities down to HIM race watts and run pace. Probably not the best timing for a race but we'll see what happens.

2010 High Cliff & Twin Lakes Race Reports

2010-06-27T14:06:00.001-05:00

I got a little lazy and forgot to put up a High Cliff Race Report so this one is going to get long with two race reports and then some thoughts on something new I tried this year … racing my way into shape.

2010 High Cliff Half Iron Distance
I tried to organize a Team EN Midwest HIM but the plans kind of fell through as people decided to do other races. Since a few folks were doing this I decided it would be fun and something different. I went into this race as a C race training right through the race (including the day before and after) but of course I still wanted to do well.

The swim was short but rough water made it hard to sight. I was really pleased with my 24:23 time which I figure would have been just under 30 minutes on the correct length course. I'm even more pleased that I was comfortable in the water the entire time which wasn't even the case last year.

The bike had a few decent but short climbs and otherwise was generally rolling hills, however the wind (that was causing the rough water) was brutal. It was pretty much a head or cross wind about 85% of the time and the tail wind was going up a hill. Anyway, the first 45 minutes was right on target. I was exactly on my goal watts and had passed the majority of the people in front of me and had open road. My plan was to now kick it up a little, but my legs disagreed and didn't have anything. I tried to push and never got into a groove so I just rode comfortable and tried to stay as aero as possible. I ended up only averaging just over my IM watts, but had a solid ride at 2:18:37 (the bike course was accurate at 56.1 miles on my computer).

Heading out on the run there was a half mile climb to start things out and then it was almost all trail running. This was only the second time I've run on a trail in the last 2 years…oops. At first I tried to just settle into a pace that felt right and was able to do that for the first 6 or so miles. I was way slower than my normal pace but now I realize that was due to the trail running. Starting the second loop I now had people to run with and someone yelled that I was in third place, so I kicked it up and really tried to push. That was dumb and ended up doing nothing more than rewarding me with a horrible side stitch around mile 10. I ended up walking a portion of mile 11 and 12 and then just barely holding it together to jog across the line. 1:24:53 on the run but it was almost a half mile short.

Overall, I had a great result though that I am very proud of 4:09:53 which earned me 4^th overall and 2^nd in age group. Jim Hansen from EN and local fast guy Rick Lapinski both also had also great races. Knowing I can't slack off one bit or these guys are going to catch me helps keep me motivated.

High Cliff Pictures

2010 Twin Lakes Triathlon
This is a local race I just found out about this year so I figured being 30 minutes from my house I had to try it once. After signing up a friend mentioned it was draft legal on the bike which I found hard to believe for safety reasons.

I had high expectations going into this race as it was a 700m swim, 14.5 mile bike and 4.5 mile run… which for a sprint suited me well (longer bike and run than most). I had a great run the morning after High Cliff and nailed every workout during the week including an FTP test (setting the highest FTP I've ever had in the aerobars). Then Saturday I just died on my bike ride. The plan was to do 2:30 at around 85% and then run 30 minutes easy off the bike. I was on target for about 1:10 and then just blew up and could barely put any power out. I cut it short and got home in just under 2 hours struggling to hold onto an IF of .82. I decided to skip the run and instead went to the pool where I had a great swim (go figure). This got me pretty worried about the race today. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise as I showed up to this racing thinking I was overstrained and needing a day off… therefore throwing my goals out the window and deciding just to race by feel.

Swim 9:54 for 700m (1:24/100M)
The water was 78 and felt great so I decided to without a wetsuit again even after knowing I lost time because of it at LITH. Knowing I have to swim an Ironman without one this year has me focused on my swim. That focus and lots and lots of drills is paying off though. I started wide and just wanted to have a clear and good swim. I was working really hard in the water, but it felt good so I stuck with it. About ¾ of the way through I starting passing people from the first wave (I was in the second wave, 2 minutes back). That gave me a good boost and went hard the rest of the way in, coming out of the water and seeing under 10 minutes on my watch got me even more fired up (my original goal was to go under 11:00).

Bike 33:32 for 14.5 miles (26 MPH)
Starting the bike excited about my great swim was pretty cool and put me in a much better mood than usual. There was a mile or so of admin paths on the bike and once I got through that I just got as aero as I could settle in at my FTP and went. 8-9 miles in a saw a pack of about 6 guys riding basically in a pace line … now I'm starting to realize this really was draft legal and my slower swimming and second wave start may put me at a disadvantage. I held steady and slowly caught the group and then went hard for about 2 minutes to get around them and away from them. This worked and I could see two more guys up in the distance. A few minutes later I caught them went around and they stuck with me. I was kind of a jerk and moved around a lot as I didn't like having someone right on my wheel in his aerobars. After a few turns I looked back and said I guess this really is draft legal he said yes and had had a few pleasant comments. I was getting ready to hammer again and try and take off but I decided since he was moving along well and seemed like a nice guy it might benefit us both to work together a little. I still rode at my target watts the majority of the last few miles, but I did get a few nice short breaks when he went up front and we came into T2 together. All in all, I think it was a great decision as I came into T2 feeling strong instead of crushing myself on the last few miles to get away and try and catch the next guy. The course was nice and flat, but had so many turns that it was really hard to keep the speed up so I was shocked that my average MPH was so high.

Run 26:40 for 4.5 miles (5:55 min/mile)
Running through T2 I only saw one bike in the transition which gave me a great boost knowing that I started in the second wave and hoping the guys in front started in the first. Right out of T2 I felt the spot where I had the side stitch last week start to tighten so I slowed down focused on my form and breathing. I decided to just get everything under control and then worry about pace later. It worked as the stitch went away in about 4 minutes and I ended up running the first mile at 5:58. From then on I just tried to run steady and run my race. At just before mile 3 started I could see the lead vehicle way in a distance I really wanted to run hard to catch it but I know I had to just stick with my pace. I was steadily making up just a little bit of time and just after the 4 mile marker I passed first place, but he quickly went in front of me. We ended up running shoulder to shoulder for a minute or two and then when I knew we were within about a quarter mile I went hard to the finish and ended up crossing first.

Total 1:11:43 - 1^st Overall!!!

Lesson Learned – I need to relax more on race day and just let things happen instead of getting mad or forcing myself to hit targets.

Twin Lakes Pictures

Thank You
As usual none of this would be possible without the great support crew I have. Theresa and Abigail continue to be amazing; they put up with all my training and make it to every race. Abigail has turned into quite the little good luck charm for me and Theresa has become an awesome photographer. I really wouldn't be nearly as successful without them.

The Zoot Sports team makes awesome products for me to race in and more importantly recover in. Plus Jake is on top of everything and always makes sure I have what I need. My teammates on the Zoot Ultra Team continue to inspire me and push me to do my best and are a great group. I'm really glad I've had to opportunity to work with them this year.

Rich, Patrick and all of Team Endurance Nation provide the best virtual training team anywhere, with plans that work and a great community to help me continue to learn how to improve.

Kevin and his team at Get a Grip Cycles is there for for whatever I need to make sure my bike is in top
shape.

Additionaly, John Fitzpatrick from the Chicago Blue Dolphins has been helping me out with my swim stroke. I've seen great improvements thanks to his assessments.

Racing my way into shape
Last year I was focused on one thing and one thing only for over 12 months, Ironman Wisconsin. Every single thing I did was to prepare for IMWI and for that reason I raced very little so I could get optimal training in. It worked very well and I showed up in the best shape of my life and ready to race. The year before was similar but focused on Boston Qualifying, so this year I decided to do things different and have some fun.

To have some fun, I decided to run Boston and also do a bunch of other races that I've wanted to do but skipped in the past so I could focus on my training. The plan this year was to do a few of those races but some how a few turned into 5 races and a training camp in 6 weeks. I didn't really realize that I did this until after I had signed up for everything and paid all the entry fees. Since I never turn down a challenge I decided to try and train straight through all of this and see how I could do… race my way into shape.

Now that I did that I have mixed thoughts. I had a ton of fun at most of the races and some awesome results with 3 overall wins and many PRs. But I also had a few races I would consider sub-par as my legs were trashed before I even started. All in all, I think it was very successful though as I only skipped one scheduled long run and got every other planned workout in except for the days I was actually racing.
In hindsight, like usual I do everything a little too extreme. Barely racing and focusing on training only last year was a little much, but 5 races in 6 weeks (plus a mini cycling camp) this year was also a little much. Next year I'm just going to go for the middle of the road approach and spread things out a little more.

Up next
A weekend off from racing! Followed by the EN Madison Camp and then Ironman 70.3 Racine. After that I'm going back to my own little training world to do 12 weeks of ironman training.

2010 Lake in the Hills Triathlon

2010-06-13T19:23:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I prefer long distance events. I would rather do a half ironman distance race or run a marathon/half marathon any day then do anything shorter. My body is just more comfortable going long than going fast and my results show this. Both on the bike and run I am much stronger at long events than short events. Plus, I have much more time to catch up after my poor swim. Therefore I decided that this year I was going to do some shorter distance work to get out of my comfort zone so I signed up for some sprint distance triathlons.

Lake in the Hills Triathlon is only the second sprint I have ever done and the first was 5 years ago. All I can say is going 100% for over an hour hurts much differently than ironman.

The official results are not posted online yet, but my watch data was really close to the print out at the race, so I'm using those numbers here:

Swim 750 Meter – 13:48 (1:50/100M)
T1 – 0:46
Bike 15.4 Miles – 36:18 (25.4 mph)
T2 – 0:56
Run 4 Miles – 23:38 (5:55 min/mil)

Total 1:15:08 – 1^st in Age Group but 4^th overall. I was within 30 seconds of 2^nd an 3^rd, but about 2 minutes behind the winner. Well 20 minutes total since my wave started 18 minutes later than theirs did J

What went well:

The new Orbea Ordu and Zipp Wheels combined with the Endurance Nation training sure worked out well. From what I could see of the results posted at the race I had the fastest bike split of the day.
I continue to love the Zoot Ultra Race 2.0s. They slipped on fast in T2 and I was off. My feet were comfortable sockless and the shoes are nice and light. It looked like I had the second fastest run split of the day as well.
I was a little rusty on the transitions but overall they went well and were decently quick. From what I could tell they were on par with the fastest times of the day.
Considering I hate short stuff, getting first in my Age Group was nice.

Lessons Learned:

When a Tri is named Lake in the Hills… the bike and run are probably hilly. Not sure why but I was not expecting it to be nearly as hilly of a ride as it was.
Sign up early. I signed up just last week for this race and they had already seeded everyone in waves by finish time so I was just put into one of the last waves. Not that I'm that fast swimmer but I had to swim around a TON of people.
Wear a wetsuit if you can. I have to race Hawaii without a wetsuit this year so I decided I should try racing without one sometime, the water was 71 so I left the wetsuit behind. I'm pretty sure I should have just worn it as it would have helped my swim. I was over 3 minutes behind the FOP guys.
Even though it was cool, the 90%+ humidity slowed me down a little on the run. I need to acclimate and learn how to handle the humidity better before October.

Triathlon is definitely not an individual sport for me and without the support of many people I would not be successful or able to enjoy this sport as much as I do.

Thank you to Theresa, Abigail, my parents, aunt and uncle, and cousin for coming out to the race.
Of course thanks to Zoot, Orbea, Zipp and Get A Grip for hooking me up with awesome equipment to race on.
Thanks to Endurance Nation and the Fast Tracks Racing Team for continuing to push me to train hard

New TT Bike!!!

2010-06-11T15:28:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the Zoot, Orbea, Zipp, and Get A Grip Cycles I have an awesome new bike to race on this year.

If you are in the market for a new Road, TT, or Mountain bike, check out Orbea's Made to Order program. It allows you to customize your bike to include the components (frame, bars, stem, group, crank, seat post, seat and wheels) you want instead of having to settle for standard build package. Then you print out a list of exactly what you want and take it to a local bike shop (like Get A Grip Cylces) and then order it from Orbea. For people like me (i.e. very picky) this is a great option. Trek also has a similar but even more customizable program (you can request custom paint jobs, bar tape and cable housing colors). More bike companies need to get the hint and make programs like this and offer them on multiple levels of bikes.

Chris from Team Sports was awesome at helping to get exactly what I needed from Orbea and Zipp and once I got the bike, Kevin at Get A Grip offered to have it built up for me. I really appreciated the offer but it was going to be a few days before I could make it to the store, so being inpatient I just built it myself.

A few months ago I did a very detailed fit on a fit cycle/computrainer with Ken. Ken basically started over and figured out what my "ideal" fit would be and then we made adjustments to my current bike. We really only made minor adjustments such as saddle height and fore/aft position but the same adjustments made a difference pretty quick as I picked up a few more watts at FTP within the next two weeks.

After getting the Ordu built up and riding for a week or two I did go into Get A Grip again to have them double check everything and check my fit. Adam did the fit check on the Ordu and made some additional adjustments to my cleat position to again help me produce a little more power.

In the past I have mostly self fit myself with videos and help from teammates. Even though my position still looks the same It's amazing what a difference a CM adjustment here or there can make. The one thing I have learned over the last few years is the fit is what makes a bike. The best TT bike in the world is useless if you can't stay in the aerobars or put out power on it. Also, make sure your fitter knows your goals as the fit will change. GAG takes time to take your measurements including flexibility and then discuss your goals with you, prior to starting the fitting process on a fit cycle.

The bikes not 100% dialed in yet, but close and it's time to start the tri season now so I figured I would share a few pictures.

And a picture of the road bike since I cleaned it up a little this year as well.

Random Updates

2010-06-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

Training:
Last year I blogged quite a bit more about my training mainly because I was trying something new by following Endurance Nation Plans for an entire year. This year I haven't really mentioned training much because last year worked out quit well so I'm sticking with it. Here is a quick summary for those that are interested:

Last Year: 20 weeks of Out Season – 1 week vacation – 12 weeks HIM Plan – 2 week transition - 12 weeks IM Plan – time off until next season

This Year: 26 weeks OS – 1 week off (with a Marathon thrown in for fun) – 6 weeks OS/Basic Month – 6 weeks HIM – 12 weeks IM – time off

Basically the same schedule just slightly adjusted since my biggest race is in October instead of September this year.

I'm again going to do a Big Bike Weekend and Big Tri Weekend this year. I would love to be able to do a full week, but life just doesn't allow that so I make the best with what I can do.

Big Bike Weekend:
Last weekend about 10 other EN members joined me in the Madison area for a quick camp. I covered 320 miles (with 14,000 feet of climbing) in a little over 17 hours spread across 4 days. This felt like the right amount of work, I trained like normal up until the weekend, and then only took one day off after. Thanks to Rich and Patrick we had a great team dinner as well.

Here are a few pictures:

Thanks to Jake from Zoot, I had everything I could

possibly need for a weekend of riding

and a great bag to carry it all.

My Big Tri Weekend will be in July in Madison again, but instead of being alone like last year EN is hosting a Free Training Camp. Come join us.

Racing:
I also divide my racing season up into a few phases: Out Season with no races that I care about, Running Season from March to May, HIM Season from June to July, and IM Season from August to October.
On the racing front, two weeks ago an old friend let me know about a small 5k about a mile from my house. I decided to run it for fun and ended up winning. I was going to start conservatively but a few people took off so I went hard right off the start. Not a PR but it was a good workout and I won a free massage!

Other News:
The win at the Chicago Spring Half Marathon has got me a fair bit of attention, so much that I was selected as the Cliff Bar Male Athlete of the Month in Chicago Athlete Magazine. If you are in Chicago, pickup a free copy from your favorite cycling, running or tri shop… I recommend Get A Grip Cycles. Otherwise you can find the full issue online at http://www.mychicagoathlete.com/ .

Up next:
June marks the transition out of pretending to be a runner and means it is now time to start racing triathlons again. I have 2 Half Ironman distance races and at least one shorter race in the next 6 weeks, then I will start to think about Kona in late July. I'm kind of excited about doing a shorter race or two. I realized this winter I have only done one sprint ever and the last time I did a race shorter then a HIM was 3 years ago.

Thanks for following along.

A Day of “Firsts” – Chicago Spring Half Marathon 2010

2010-05-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

What a great day with a number of "Firsts" for me:

Abigail's first race (she is 3 1/2 months now)
First time I've ever been in the lead at the start of a race
First time I've ever been in the lead at end of the race
First time I've led a race the entire time J
First time racing without socks (and I won a pair of socks … go figure)
First VDOT improvement in a year

The Race

I had a race plan in my head, but I really just kind of felt like racing and seeing what I could do. Like usual I started a few people back and let the lead pack go, but to my surprise no one really pushed the pace off the line. So after we made the first turn and started up the one and only hill, I slowly moved up to the front of the pack and was even with the leaders. I then saw Theresa and Abigail and decided it would be cool to have a picture of me leading a race (since I never have before). So I picked it up to get in front and Theresa was there to get a few great pictures and Abigail was calm and let her take pictures of me.

All I thought about next was how soon until the pack goes by me and did I just blow my race to get a good picture. Last year I did this race and was in about 20^th place most for the first half and then moved up to 3^rd on the back half. I felt great though and it was pretty cool having an escort on a bike in front of me so I just settled in and figured I would go with it for a while and see what happens. I actually did pretty well holding myself back and staying within a few seconds of my goal pace. It was really cool having the few spectators on the course cheering for me as they cheer a lot more when you are in the front. Every time I passed a mile marker I wanted to look back but wouldn't let myself and just kept running until I hit the turnaround. Second place was about 20 seconds back and looked really strong, so I had to get back to work. After seeing him, mile 7 was my fastest of the race.

Well, things usually get tough for me in a half marathon around mile 10, but this time it was 7 and I got worried. There was enough of a head wind on the last 6 miles that it messed with my mind, but I don't think it actually slowed me down at all.

Up until mile 9 every one of my splits were within 3 seconds of my goal pace, then at mile 10 I was 10 seconds slow and hurting. I got really worried about being passed and sucked it up and started to push hard. This was the same point in the race that the half marathon course re-joined the 10k course. Having the 10k runners there was good and bad. It gave me the motivation to have people to catch and push myself harder, because of this mile 11 was back exactly on my pace.

However, I was getting really sick of weaving around the 10k runners and actually ran into a few that cut me off or were not paying attention. There was an awesome volunteer riding a bike about 25 feet or so in front of me yelling for people to move over, but with two way traffic on a bike path and most people wearing iPods, people still got in his way and in mine.

IF YOU INSIST ON RACING WITH YOUR IPOD, TURN THE DAMN VOLUME DOWN ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN HEAR THE VOLUNTEER AND ME SCREAMING IN YOUR EAR!!! I do not enjoy listening to other peoples music blasting as I have to go off the path to get around them because they can't hear me. Yes, I'm being a self centered jerk, but come on, people should at least have the volume low enough they can hear what is going on 1 foot away from them.

Now that my rant is over, mile 12 was 12 seconds slow because I was exhausted at this point and had literally ran around a ton of people. Since we were on a long straight away by the lake I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder for the first time in the race.

I saw that second place was not in sight and I was relieved and excited that I could actually win my first race. The problem was now that I knew I was likely going to win, I just couldn't dig deep enough to push the last mile and finished with another mile that was 12 seconds off pace.

My goal was to run 1:14:59 this year and I went 1:15:25.

Some Thoughts
Obviously, I'm thrilled with getting 1^st overall as I have really wanted to win a race for a while now, but I'm bothered by my performance. I am convinced I had a 1:14:59 in me but I just didn't do it. The combination of going out just a little faster than I should have, getting caught up in being first and then not digging deep enough when it mattered most in the last 4 miles, cost me at least half of the 26 seconds. I'm guessing the fact that I did over 2 hours on the bike at almost HIM intensity the day before the race probably cost me the other 13 seconds. My plan for this race was not to taper and not to have to recover… both of which I stuck with as I already worked out today (Monday). Maybe I should have tapered, but hindsight is 20/20 and all I can do is move on.

The Year So Far
Well, the year started out a little slow with a foot injury, but I was able to recover quickly and my body probably liked the break. I've had a bunch of fun doing new races such as an Indoor Tri, the Boston Marathon and a Team Time Trial, all with results that I am very proud of. I also managed to set new Half Marathon and Marathon PRs with only following the Endurance Nation Out Season triathlon training plan and adding 3 long runs for each race.

After being so focused for IMWI last year, It's been fun to just kind of do whatever I want and not worry much about any of my performance for the last few months. It's working for me as I seem to be getting stronger so I'm going to stick with it and keep having fun for a little while longer. I'm thinking this year I will only truly focus and train for a race for 12 weeks and see how it goes, so that I can be recharged and ready for next year.

Thank You
I can't even begin to say how much more I enjoy racing when Theresa and Abigail are there. They help me so much and mean the world to me … plus it looks like Abigail brought some good luck and Theresa is becoming a great photographer.

Jake and everyone at Zoot are awesome and keep sending great products so I have whatever I need to race. I ran in the Race 2.0's this time and they were awesome, light and fast but with enough support that I didn't have any foot problems at all. Plus I went sockless with no issues what so ever and haven't worn socks in weeks.

Thanks to GU Energy I have enough nutrition to last me all season. For this race one Roctane Gel right before the start was all I needed.

Of course my training partners at Endurance Nation, Marathon Nation and Fast Tracks Racing Team always motivate me to do my best and I continue to improve because of all of them.

Two Person Time Trial Race Report

2010-05-11T11:45:00.000-05:00

I while ago I decided I wanted to just have fun this year, so when Jim Uemura asked me if I wanted to do a team time trial with him in a week and a half I said yes and signed up.

After signing up I relazed a few things .... I have not riden in my aerobars since November, I was still waiting to get my new TT bike, my old TT bike was setup on the trainer and not ready to ride outside.

I decided that I needed to at least get a ride or two in before the TT, so I scrambled to fix up the old bike and I was able to get two rides in before the race. I felt decent in the aerobars for the first hour or so of each but after that my neck was definitely not used to the position.

Of course, a few days before the even, my new TT bike shows up at my door so I start to build it up to. I decided I was better off not rushing though and just racing on the old bike.

The morning of the race was well, not ideal. It had poured over night, was under 40 degress and there was a really cold 25mph+ wind. At least the road was dry and the rain had stopped.

Not only had I never riden a TTT before, I had never done a TT that didn't involve swiming before or running after. Plus I have not rode with Jim since last May, so we talked on the phone for about 20 minutes on the drive to the race to figure out our plan.

At the race we warmed up for a about 15 minutes practice switching postions for a few minutes and I attemped to get used to my Zipp 808 front and Disc. Figures first time I'm on these wheels there are 25mph winds (and I'm not exactly a big guy).

Before I know it we are in line and starting in about 2 minutes. The first 20 minutes was pretty uneventful. I had a side/tail wind and we quickly caught up to the few teams that started in front of us, then we did the first u-turn and had a direct cross wind. I was pretty much riding leaning as far into the wind as I could (like pictures on the Queen K). At least is was a steady wind so I was able to control the bike and still ride decently stong. We did however hit a pretty big bump which was not cool as my bike left the ground, the wind pushed it even more out from under me and it was not exactly a smooth landing and recovery. After a big swere and a few choice words I was just glad I was still on bike and put my head back down and keep pushing.

We then turned and got the tailwind again for just a few minutes before the final u-turn and then riding into a headwind all the way back to the finish. We ended up coming in at 57:53 for a 40k TT. I really figured we should have been faster, but the wind was pretty bad and it was the first time we route together. To my surprise we did end up with the fastest Cat4/5 time, however there were a number of teams that went faster in other division.

After reviewing my power file, I made a classic time trialing mistake and went out too hard. I was a good bit over my FTP for most of my pulls early on and I think I also pulled for too long at first. Plus, when I dropped back I was not good at getting into Jim's draft quick enough as I oftern drifted a few feet behind him and had to work really hard to catch back up and get on his wheel. Because of this I really suffered on the way back in and Jim did much more pulling than I did in the last 15 minutes.

The power numbers were pretty disapointing as well. I ended up with only an IF of .85, not sure if my legs just didn't have anything that day or what the deal was. Since then I have done an 2:15 ABP ride at .82 (in the aerobars) and also a 1:10 ride with 50 minutes at FTP (inside on new bike).

Eitherway, I really enjoyed the experience and my competitive side says that I know I personally could have rode better. Also, I think if Jim and I rode together a few more times we (meaning mainly I) could learn to be more effiecent at our chagnes and ride better overall as a team.

On a side note, the new bike is all built and I just did a first workout on it. As soon as I get it dialed in and it looks presentable I'll share some pictures.

Here is the bike setup for this race with my Argon18 from last year:

2010 Boston Marathon Race Report

2010-04-22T14:06:00.001-05:00

As usual, I would not have the opportunities that I do without the support of many people. I may be the only one out running on race day, but the help and support of many people enable me to do this.

As everyone already knows I have one of the best support crews in the world, my wife Theresa. Not only does she encourage my crazy training and racing, she makes it to almost every race. Now she is even teaching Abigail how it's done at an early age. Unfortunately because Abigail is only 10 weeks old we decided it was better if Theresa and her stayed home for this one. This was the first big race I have ever done without Theresa there.

Luckily for me I have made some wonderful friends through Endurance Nation. Coach Patrick knew I was coming in alone for the weekend and offered for me to stay with him and his family. Patrick, Maura, Megan and Emma were outstanding hosts (and photographers) before, during and after the race. This alone made the marathon such an amazing experience. Speaking of Endurance Nation, I finally got to meet Linda and she made an awesome sign for me and was at mile 10, and Hayes was definitely watching as he did a play by play of my splits on twitter.

I've only been working with Zoot Sports for a few months now, but everyone has been awesome. Jake made sure that I had everything I needed well before the race so I could try everything out. Dave and Aaron helped me figure out which shoes I should be running in and have some new shoes they are working on that I'm really excited about. ALCiS and GU are also new sponsors this year and had me more than prepared for the race.

New for me this year as well is the Dick Pond's Fast Track Racing Team. Even though I can't race all of their races as part of the team they have taken me in and encouraged me during track workouts and long runs, particularly Dave, Matt T, and Matt J. On top of weekly workouts it was great to have some guys to hang out with at the athlete village prior to the race.

Finally, my boss Lola, continues to be so supportive of my new family and my racing. She continues to allow me to benefit from flexible work arrangements that are so helpful.

Injury, Training, and the Plan
As I've mentioned many times already I was injured and didn't run for half of December and all of January. February I started to get back into a routine and then March starting training hard and joined the Fast Track Racing Team for some track workouts and a long run. I'm so glad those guys were around as I needed the motivation to get back into the game after my foot injury.

With about 8 weeks of actual training after 6 weeks of zero running I really didn't know how the race was going to go but after 3 long runs and a half marathon I felt strong and confident. I continued to do all of my normal bike and swim workouts leading up to the Saturday prior to the race. As usual I decided to follow Coach Patrick's pacing guidelines that he shares at Endurance Nation and now Marathon Nation to make sure I did not go out too fast. This time it was particularly important because I was still concerned with the limited training I did, plus I had to remember this was just meant to be a fun race as my big race is later in the year.

My race plan was simply to run the first 6 miles very easy, settle into a decent pace for the next 12, and then run last 8 as hard as I possibly could to see what I could do. This way if anything didn't feel right I could just hold the easy pace and enjoy the experience instead of suffering after going out too hard.

Sunday
My flight got in late do to a mechanical issue (like usual when I'm on an AA S80 that is older than I am), so I got to the Team EN lunch late. Even thought I was only around for a little while it was great to meet a number of members that I have talked to for the past two years but never met. After that Coach P and I went to the expo, got my stuff and stopped by the Zoot booth for a few minutes. It was great to see Dave again and talk about shoes for a few minutes and I also got to meet Chris. Dave's always working on something new and exciting. Per Dave's advice I decided to run in the Zoot TT 3.0s because I wanted the extra cushioning for all of the downhill running, which was a great choice as the shoes worked perfect with no issues at all.

The rest of the day I got to hang out with P and his family, which was so much better than sitting in a hotel by myself.

Monday
Patrick offered to drive me to start which allowed me to sleep about two hours longer which was great. The only downside was the closest he could get was over two miles from the start and about three miles from the village. No big deal though as I walked a mile and then jogged a mile to warmup and I was at the start. The start area was surprisingly empty and there were literally a 100 porta potties and no one around, so I visited one and was the first customer. I think it was a great trade off for an extra 2 hours of sleep.

I then headed to the athlete village to meet up with Matt T and the Fast Track Racing Team. When I got to the village, less than a mile away there were thousands of people and long lines for the porta potties there.
At about 9:15 we decided to head to the start, I was seeded in the second corral, but actually moved back to start with someone running around a 3:00 pace. I really wanted to start with the guys that were going to run faster but I knew I needed to stick with my plan.

Mile 1-6: Starting back a few corals worked well as it forced me to stay at an easier pace for me for the first 6 miles. Of course I noticed right away that the course was straight downhill but I was shocked at how narrow the road was. Again this was not big deal as I wanted to start out slow and I had no choice as there were 4,000 people in front of me.

Mile 7 to 16: Here I just slowly picked up my pace as planned. The course was still mostly downhill and I felt awesome so I did end up running a little quicker than I should have, but I couldn't help it. Good thing Linda was there to help out.

Mile 17: the road started to go up, but I stayed steady (although I was now working to run not trying to hold back) as my plan was to start running hard at 18. I started to really pace people at this point as everyone else seemed to slow down pretty quickly.

Mile 18: came and I tried to run fast, but I didn't have any kick. I guess the downhill running affected me more than I thought it would. I did a few fast pickups and recoveries to try and get things going but I really didn't have much. I did try to run as hard as I could at the time and all I had was made a 6:15ish pace. About a mile and a half later all I could think of is man I am so screwed when heartbreak hill comes and if I can't hold this pace now what's going to happen when I hit the real hills. Well, next thing I knew I was running downhill, my legs were burning and a guy on a megaphone was congratulating us for going over heartbreak hill. Two thoughts instantly came to mind 1) Awesome, it's all downhill from here 2) oh shoot, I just ran crushed myself and ran hard all the way up the toughest hill of the course and didn't have anything left.

Miles 22 to 26.2: My legs were DONE and I now had zero kick left. Interestingly the rest of my body felt just fine. My breathing and heart rate were under control and I was well fueled thanks to the two GU Roctane gels. My quads pretty much felt like they were on fire and my legs just did not want to move. Either way I just kept pushing as hard as I could I knew the sooner I made it to the finish the sooner I could stop running.

Thanks to the downhill I was able somewhat hold on for the last 4.2 miles and still managed to negative split the race overall.

I ended up finishing in 2:49:39 which I've very pleased with everything considered. I knew I could go around 3:00 but I was hoping to break 2:50 and I did. It was only good enough to get me 504^th place overall. I'm really glad there were that many faster runners there as I always had other people close by to work with and try to pass which I prefer over local races where I can't even see anyone else at times.

The official numbers:
5k – 0:20:42 (0:20:42)
10k – 0:41:11 (0:20:39)
15k – 1:01:24 (0:20:13)
20k – 1:21:11 (0:19:47)
25k – 1:41:03 (0:19:52)
30k – 2:01:10 (0:20:07)
35k – 2:21:02 (0:19:58)
40k – 2:40:49 (0:19:47)
26.2 – 2:49:39 (6:28 minute/mile pace)

First 13.1 – 1:25:28
Second 13.1 – 1:24:11 --- still managed to pull off a negative split!

Marathon Photo Pictures – I can't afford to keep buying race pictures so here is a link to look at themJ
http://www.marathonfoto.com/order_my_photos.cfm?RaceOID=12902010S1&LastName=ANCONA&BibNumber=2454&Language=en&Mailing=24300&BFI=f9xpl4x01n&Frames=true&Flash=true&FlashVersion=8&Height=800&Width=1280&Index2Home=true

In summary, for what I wanted to do my race plan worked ok and it was a great test of my discipline which will be critical at my big race this year. That said, I still believe negative splitting the effort is the best way to go, but pace and effort are not always the same thing especially on a course like Boston. If I ever return to Boston to race I will have to spend some time figuring out how to negative split the effort, but not the actual pace as there is probably a good bit of free speed to be had in the first 16 miles. It would be interesting to run this race a few different times with slightly different strategies to see how it goes.

Post Race
After most marathons my legs actually feel ok but the rest of my body is done. This time was different, my body felt fine but my quads were still on fire and getting stiff quick. I made it through the finish area as quickly as possible got my stuff and headed out to meet Patrick and call Theresa.
After a quick shower, some ALCiS on my quads and putting on my Zoot Recovery Compression Tights my legs felt much better. So the next mission was to get some food.

Up next
Last week was my last week of 24 weeks of Endurance Nation Out Season training and next week I'm going to start building up a little for a June HIM. In the meantime I'm taking the week after the marathon as a transition week. This means no scheduled workouts and I can eat whatever I want. So far I took Tuesday off altogether and Wednesday was only a 45 minute bike ride.
I am planning one more open half marathon this year as I think I can get another minute or two off my PR and then I switch to full triathlon training and racing. I will say that I did get the marathon bug again though and I really like the way sub 2:40 sounds (but on a flat course). My 2011 season is already planned, but maybe 2012 will be running year.

Thanks for reading and following me on my journey. If you like data I have one more section below with my splits from the race.

The Geeky Details
Here is a summary of my mile splits and Normalized Graded Pace. NGP basically attempts to account for elevation changes, in other words when I'm running on flat ground at 6:30 pace my body is working at an effort level of a 6:30 pace and the lap split and NGP would both be 6:30. However, mile 17 is a great example of how I was running at a 6:33 pace, but it was uphill and therefore I was really working like a 5:58 pace (opps).

I recently ran 1:17:42 at the March Madness Half Marathon (which is very hilly) which puts my vdot just under 61. According to that, if I was properly trained for a marathon I should have been able to run a 2:41 (6:08 pace). Therefore I was about 8 minutes off which doesn't surprise me considering the limited training and how hard I have been working on the bike during the Endurance Nation Out Season plan.

Miles 1 -6
Plan: run very easy
Actual: I did good on the first 4 and then I went a little fast in mile 5 &6:
Lap 1:    6:52    NGP:    7:36
Lap 2:     6:33    NGP:    6:43
Lap 3:    6:34    NGP:    7:02
Lap 4:     6:25    NGP:    6:46
Lap 5:     6:39    NGP:    6:13
Lap 6:     6:25    NGP:    6:18

Miles 7 – 17
Plan: Run Steady and easy
Actual: I felt great and felt like I was going easy, but the numbers show I started to speed up around mile 10 (8 miles earlier than I should have) I let the excitement and the fact that I felt good get the best of me. Rookie mistake and I should have known better
Lap 7:     6:28    NGP:    6:29
Lap 8:    6:44    NGP:    6:21
Lap 9:     6:14    NGP:    6:15
Lap 10:     6:21    NGP:    6:04     ß- Got a little carried away for the next 6 miles
Lap 11:     6:20    NGP:    6:06
Lap 12:     6:12    NGP:    6:00
Lap 13:     6:16    NGP:    6:02
Lap 14:     6:17    NGP:    6:21
Lap 15:     6:29    NGP:    6:04
Lap 16:     6:12    NGP:    6:30    ß- Hills start here
Lap 17:    6:33    NGP:    5:58    ß- Went way to hard

Miles 18 – 26.2
Plan: Run hard and leave it all on the course
Actual: I still felt good but now I was working and it was becoming challenging. From mile 16 to 21 is pretty much almost all uphill. I thought it I could just hammer the hills I would be able to coast in after. It actually sort of worked, except my legs were pretty trashed and did not enjoy the last 5 miles one bit.
Lap 18:     6:30    NGP:    6:09
Lap 19:     6:15    NGP:    6:23
Lap 20:     6:23    NGP:    6:12
Lap 21:    6:34    NGP:    6:06    ß- Heartbreak Hill
Lap 22:    6:10    NGP:    6:23
Lap 23:     6:21    NGP:    6:45
Lap 24:    6:20    NGP:    6:22
Lap 25:    6:14    NGP:    6:27
Lap 26:     6:21    NGP:    6:02
Lap 27:     3:02    NGP:    5:54

Entire workout (180 bpm):
    Duration:     2:49:46
    Work:     n/a
    rTSS:     263.4 (0.905)
    NGP:    6:21 (253.3 m/min)
    VI:     n/a
    Pw:HR:     n/a
    Pa:HR:     4.63%
    Distance:     26.467 mi
    Elevation Gain:     1081 ft
    Elevation Loss:     1542 ft
    Grade:     -0.3 % (-462 ft)
        Min    Max    Avg
    Heart Rate:     123    193    180     bpm
    Speed:     0    20.3    9.4     mph
    Pace     2:58    0:00    6:25     min/mi
    Altitude:     21    508    177     ft

As a quick reminder, I am raising money for Challenged Athletes Foundation this year and you could win money or a prize if you guess my time in Kona. http://ironmancona.blogspot.com/2010/04/giving-back-guess-my-kona-time-to.html

Zoot ULTRA Team Camp 2010

2010-04-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

When I first heard that I was invited to the Zoot ULTRA Team Camp, I assumed it was a training camp and an opportunity to meet the team. I also assumed we would hear about all the things that Zoot and the other sponsors expected from us, but I figured I should go since I was new to this sponsorship thing. Well, we all know what happens when we assume something. I was only correct on 1 of the 3 things, we didn't really do any training and we didn't once hear about what we had to do... I did get to me a bunch of great people though.

Thanks to Jake and Molly at Zoot and Tom from Team sports it was a great experience and here is my quick summary. Like usual I had a camera in my pocket all weekend and took a total of about 12 pictures. I'll get better at that someday.

Saturday
I decided to fly in as late as possible and leave as early as possible because with a 7 week out baby at home, I really didn't want to be away any longer than I had to. I knew I didn't have to go to camp, but I wanted to check it out and get to know some of the team. I ended up flying in Saturday morning and heading to Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside. I went straight to the race and made it in time to watch about 2 hours of the run. Endurance Nation team members started to show up after they finished the race and we ended up getting pizza and hanging out most of the afternoon. It was great to meet a few more team members and see Rich again. Plus, any time I can eat pizza outside in 75 degree weather in March is just awesome.

I headed to the hotel to check before our Zoot team dinner. The hotel was up on a hill with a great view of the ocean, a lap pool, and an In-n-Out burger close by … It doesn't get much better than that.

After taking a quick shower and unpacking the few things I brought, I went to meet up with the team before dinner. I walked in and Jake from Zoot recognized me and came over to introduce himself. Not only does Jake respond to every email quickly, we had never met and he knew who I was. I then talked with him and a few of the pros on the team that had raced that morning for a while and Jake gave me a box with all my race gear for the year.

We then went and had a great dinner sitting outside and I ended up sitting next to Brian who had been on the team for a few years already. We had a great conversation and he was able to answer a few questions I had. Sam McGlone also decided to stop by and join us for a while.

Sunday
We started the day with a easy run as a team. It was about 60 and the weather was prefect so Jake lead us over to the beach were we stopped to enjoy the view of the dolphins, surfers, and sun rising over the mountains behind us. After the run a few of use decided to go a little further and others went to swim. I ran further and Bryan and Clara agreed to run again with me on Monday.

Our schedule for the day was pretty much back to back presentations and then dinner. Brandt started off with talking us through the history of Zoot and shared some interesting stories. He then talked about all of the current Zoot clothing, compression gear and a little on wetsuits. Of course everything Brandt shared was very informative, but the coolest thing I learned was how to quickly and easily get a compression sock on.

The day continued with a number of other presentations including Brian from ALCiS, Sam McGlone, Sonia from Zipp, and Aaron from Zoot to talk through the entire line of Zoot shoes. I went to talk to Aaron afterwards and shared some of my feedback on the shoes I had been running in. Aaron offered for me to stop by the Zoot office tomorrow so we could talk some more and I could try on some other shoes.

We finished up the day doing individual and team photos and then heading to another great dinner. I always hated picture day in school and it wasn't much better when I was wearing nothing but spandex, however Larry Rosa was a great photographer to work.

Monday
I was really glad that Bryan and Clara agreed to join me for at least some of my run on Monday as it was nice to have the motivation to get up and get out. Mark and his wife also decided to join us and we ran about 11 miles. We tried to run by the coast, but ended up a little inland and on a shoulder of the road most of the way. It was another perfect morning and great to get to know everyone a little better. Clara has a 1 year old so it was great to learn a ton about what Theresa and I have to look forward to from her.
The route we took was pretty flat and with some rolling hills, and after they went back to the hotel I decided to take advantage of the real hills. I turned east and ran straight up for 5 miles. I attempted to hold my threshold pace, but that didn't last long. I did however average a pace faster than I'm planning on running in Boston. Then I turned around and the fun started, the 5 miles downhill was pretty much at my threshold pace, but was very easy, in fact I was slowing myself down most of the way. It was a great pre-Boston workout though as we don't have hills like that in Illinois.

I was worried the downhill at the end killed my legs so I figured with was the perfect chance to test my new Zoot Compression gear and ALCiS. After a quick shower, I rubbed on the ALCiS on and put the compression socks on.

After checking out I headed to the Zoot office and meet with Aaron and Dave. I showed the TT 2.0s I have been running in and shared some feedback. They then showed me what changed in the TT 3.0 that would resolve the minor issues I was having and they suggestion I try giving the 3.0s a go for Boston. We talked a little more about what I liked and their current line of shoes and then they shared a few prototypes that will be some great shoes.

On the way to the airport I had to stop and In-n-Out burger to refuel after my long run. It was good, but not as great as I remembered. My tastes really have changed over the last two years of watching what I eat.
My legs never got sore from the long run and downhill running. I assumed that this just meant I really thrashed them and was going to be in a world of pain tomorrow.

My recovery meal:

Tuesday
When I got up I could tell that I did a hard workout yesterday, but my legs really felt ok. I decided to go swim instead of doing my normal Tuesday morning bike interval workout. The swim felt great and my legs were still fine at lunch, so I jumped on my trainer and nailed 2 x 20' at FTP. Needless to say I was quickly sold on the compression socks and ALCiS. I'm even convinced enough I may wear them during a run for the first time.

Up Next: Boston
Well, that was my second long run for Boston and another great result with little to know soreness after. Those runs combined with a 2'30" PR at the March Madness half marathon are giving me a bunch of confidence for Boston! I'm going to do one more long run and then consider my Boston training complete. I'm pretty confident I could set a big PR, but I'm still worried because of how few miles I have in my legs right now. I think I am going to take a conservative approach and then see what happens in the last 6-8 miles.

Giving Back – Guess My Kona Time to Support CAF

2010-04-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Many of my friends and co-workers have raised money for charity through fundraising efforts. I have always helped out and donated to others, but I have never taken on fundraising myself. I thought about it many times, but I didn't want to do something just to do it and put it off until I came up with something that was important to me.

Over the last 6 years I have been inspired by Challenged Athletes and recently I met an individual that used to be an avid runner but after a car accident can no longer run. This made me really think about what it would be like if I could not participate in athletics and therefore I want to give back by helping raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

Theresa and I had a great time watching people guess when Abigail was going to be born along with her gender, height and weight. I decided to do something similar while fundraising for CAF.

For every $10 you donate to my CAF fundraising effort, you can send me one guess at what you think my finishing time and overall place will be in the Ironman World Championship this October. The person with the closest guess to my actual time gets some money from me and the more I raise for CAF, the more I pay the winner.

For full details including why I want to support CAF and to play the game take a look at this page: http://ironmancona.blogspot.com/p/race-for-reason-guess-my-time-in-kona.html

If you just want to donate quickly and get on with your day, check out: http://raceforareason.kintera.org/mancona

March Madness Half Marathon Race Report

2010-03-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

This one may get a little long winded so if you just want the results, scroll down to the Results section J

I was a little nervous about this race. It is the hilliest race in Illinois that I know of and March weather can be pretty unpredictable. Plus it sells out in only a few hours and I was on bed rest and cortisone when registration started. I figured I would sign up anyway and it would at least be a good long run.

My foot healed faster than I expected and although the first few weeks back running were pretty tough my run fitness seemed to come back after about a month. Then I decided to try and join a local running club (Fast Tracks Racing) and see if doing some track workouts with them would help. I did a track workout one week and did 5 mile repeats all at or under my tempo pace and even set a mile PR on the last one. The next week I did a 22 mile long run with them including 8 miles at close to TP. I'm definitely planning on joining them some more.

The combination of a few great workouts and the weather had me excited to race this half marathon. My goal was just to beat my time at this race last year 1:20:06 as I have only been running hard for about 6 weeks now. Thanks to Jake at Zoot, I also had a few new pairs of shoes to choose from. I decided to race in the TT as have been training in them for a little while and they are nice and light but still have a bit of cushioning.

Yesterday Theresa and I had a wedding to go to and this was the first time we left Abigail (our 6 week old daughter) with anyone. My parents did a great job watching her, but by the time we picked he up and got home Theresa and I just wanted to go to sleep. Abigail on the other hand was ready to get up for the day and decided she wanted to be up most of the night. Theresa tried her hardest to comfort Abigail and let me sleep (and did a great job), but when 6 AM came around we were all exhausted. Considering it was windy, 30 and there were light snow flurries in the air, Theresa and Abigail decided to stay home and try to get some sleep instead of going to watch a race.

Fortunately, I had friends from Endurance Nation and Get A Grip that were also racing so I had people to hang out with, but it wasn't quite the same not having Theresa there. Plus since she wasn't there I don't have any pictures to post.

The Race

Luckily at race time the weather was great. Maybe mid 30s, a little windy but not bad, and no rain or snow, just wet pavement. As usual, the first mile flew by, felt way too easy and was faster than it should have been. I forced myself to hold back and try to stick to my target paces. With the first 3 miles being downhill it was tough, but I think I limited the damage. Unfortunately I found myself in no man's land during mile 4. The lead pack and chase pack were pulling away and I wasn't confident I could hang with them (or close the gap) and there wasn't really anyone close to me. So I decided just to chill and take it easy with mile 4 being my slowest of the day. Two guys caught me during mile 5 and we had turned into a headwind. I was tucked behind the guys but they were going a little faster than I wanted to. I felt good though and decided it was time to hang with them and see what I could do. The next few miles were not to exciting until mile 8 when I decided I was going to go hard and see what I could do. I tried to catch at least one person every mile and I did. Mile 12 came around and I could see two guys about half way through but I couldn't catch the next two that were about 200 yards in front of me. I'm happy though because I finished strong.

The Results

I ended up coming in at 1:17:43 which is a 5:56 pace. Not bad at all considering how hilly this course is. Last year I went 1:20:06 on this course and then ran a 1:17:34 on a flat course a few weeks later.
Today's 1:17:43 was good enough to get me 7^th overall and 4^th in my Age Group. Considering how competitive this race is I'm pretty excited with that result.

Up Next

Now I just have to figure out what to do in Boston. Two months ago I was planning to just go and take it easy, but now that I feel I'm in good enough shape to set a PR, I might have to run a little harder. I'm thinking I will try and set a small PR, but not all out race, so that I can get right back into training that week as I have bigger goals on my mind.

But first, I have the opportunity to go to a Zoot Camp in Oceanside next week. Let me know if you are racing Oceanside 70.3 as I will be there watching.

Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon

2010-02-28T14:31:00.000-06:00

As my followers know I always focus on long course events, in fact I have only done one triathlon shorter than a half ironman in the last 3 years and I've only done one sprint in my life. The reason … my swim sucks and in the short races I don't have enough time to catch up. I have been working on my swim for a while now (well over a year) and it is continuing to get better, so I decided to give a short race a try.

I signed up for a Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon and figured I would be competitive on the bike and run, and just hoped my new swim skills would keep me from losing too much ground on the swim.
When I got to the race I was expecting it to be really low key with a few people that look like serious competitors and mostly people trying to get in shape. Well, I was wrong. I pulled into the parking lot and saw multiple Ironman license plates and stickers. While registering, I found out that there were a bunch of guys from the Northern Illinois University Triathlon Team there, and on the way to the pool, two guys were putting on speed suits.

I quickly realized this was not just going to be an easy workout.

On a side note, I felt like a tri geek wearing my race kit to a small local race, but I felt better after seeing the speed suits and compression socks others had on. Triathletes (myself included) sure are an interesting bunch.

Swim (637.5 M in 10' – 1:34 / 100 M – 2^nd OA)
I started the swim comfortably hard and the women in the lane next to me put about 5 meters on my in the first length. I quickly realized again it was time to push, so I did and finally caught her about 3 laps later. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful, I just focused on my technique the whole time. Looks like all the drills and swim lessons are paying off.

Bike (18.5 Miles in 30' – 3^rd OA)
The bike was on a spin cycle with a computer that measured the speed of the flywheel. Therefore the higher your cadence the more points you get. I settled in at about 125 rpm and just stayed there for 30'. I tried to go faster but I would start to bounce and since this was my first time on a spin bike I was really nervous about hurting a knee because of the fixed gear/flywheel I wasn't used to.

Run (3.53 Miles in 20' – 1^st OA)
My goal was to set the treadmill to my 5k PR pace and see what happens. I found out what happens at 15 minutes in when I started to feel like I was going to throw up and couldn't keep my eyes open. To save myself from completely blowing up I brought it down to 10 mph for two minute and then tried to start working back up. I'm disappointed I couldn't hold 11 mph the entire time, but I'm still pleased with holding a 5:40 pace for 20 minutes off the bike and after just returning to running about 6 weeks ago (from a 6 week break due to injury). This was also the first race I've used my Zoot Ultra TT shoes in, and they were awesome, very light and felt great. I can't wait to get a pair on the new Zoot Ultra Speeds to try seeing as they are over 2 ounces lighter!

Summary
I ended up with 201 points and 1^st overall, my first overall win ever! I've had a number of age group wins but never been able to crack first overall. Hopefully this is a sign of good things this season. I had a ton of fun at the race and think I might even do another one (who knows maybe I'll even race something shorter than a half ironman this year.
It was interesting that my bike was the weakest split, last year I always did the best on the bike. I'm thrilled with the improvement in my swim though.

Exciting Announcement

2010-02-27T15:12:00.001-06:00

I am very excited to announce the sponsors I will be working with in 2010.

I will be a member of the 2010 Zoot Ultra Triathlon Team and sponsored by Zoot Sports, Orbea USA, Zipp Speed Weaponry, Gu Energy, View Goggles, Fuel Belt, and ALCiS.

Additionally, I will be sponsored by the Get A Grip Cycles Elite Tri Team and continue to be supported by Endurance Nation.

Over the next few weeks I will be updating this website and providing more information, but I had to share the great news now.

In even more exciting news, my first child, Abigail Marie Ancona was born 2/05/10 at 9:45 AM. Mother and Baby are doing great!

Thank You to everyone that supported me in 2009, without you I would not have this great opportunity.

Of course the biggest thank you goes to Theresa who continues to support my triathlon hobby and never ending talk about triathlon all the way up until the day Abigail was born.

2009 Summary

2010-01-03T19:47:00.001-06:00

Before I get to the 2009 Summary, just a quick update on the foot injury…

The good news is my foot is feeling better and better every day. It's been about 2.5 weeks since it was the worst and I went to the doctor. I'm now walking normal with no limp and no pain at all. On a side note, I've had a nice bump in my FTP since I have only been about to ride the bike and I also started a 6 week push-up and pull-up challenge and can already tell I'm getting stronger and only two weeks in.

The bad news is not running is starting to really bug me and isn't helping my weight since I love to eat. I'm disappointed I missed the EN run challenge and I also missed the Slowtwitch 100/100 challenge. I know not running is the right thing to do and I'm forcing myself not to run for a few more days to make sure I don't set myself back.

If my foot continues to be pain free for the next few days I'm going to begin to do some very short and easy runs on the treadmill later this week and see how it holds up.

2009 Summary– A Great Year

I set a PRs at every distance I raced, earned a Kona spot, a Clearwater Spot, an Age Group win at IMWI, and a bunch of podium finishes. A few key things happened to enable this year to be so great, first off I changed jobs so I was no longer traveling, second I started to train with Endurance Nation, and third I was very focused on my training and body composition for an entire year.

2009 Race Results

Ironman Wisconsin - 9:49:30 - 1st AG, 29th OA
Spirit of Racine AquaBike - 2:42:46, 2nd OA
Ironman 70.3 Kansas - 4:25:40 - 24th OA, 8th AG
Chicago Spring Half Marathon - 1:17:34, 3rd OA
Bunny Dash 5k - 16:59, 3rd OA, 1st AG
March Madness Half Marathon - 1:20:06, 21st OA, 6th AG
New York City Marathon – Pace Leader for 4:00
Ironman 70.3 World Championship – 4:24

2009 Training Totals

Well, I swam almost twice as much as previous years an only got 5 seconds per hundred faster, hmm maybe Coach Rich is on to something J I road about the same hours as the last time I did an ironman, but I worked significantly harder and got significantly faster as a result. I ran less then I have the last two years (40 hours less than last year) and continued to get faster.

Swim – 460,219.20 yards in 130 hours, 43 minutes - 1:42 / 100 yd
Bike – 6566.08 miles in 296 hours, 39 minutes – 22.13 mph
Run – 2299.20 miles in 266 hours, 37 minutes – 6:58 minute mile
Total Hours: 694 Hours or 1.90 hours a day average

2010 Goals

As I said in a previous post, 2010 is going to be a little different. I'm still competitive as it is just my personality, but I'm going to take a year to have fun. Two of my dreams have come true as I get to race Boston and Kona this year. I'm going to train hard, have fun and enjoy the events I have the privilege to compete in this year, and recharge so I can come back even stronger in 2011. I'm also very excited for the birth of my first child and plan to spend a ton of time with baby mancona.

7 Days…

2009-12-25T06:33:00.001-06:00

A little over a week ago the small nagging pain in the top of my foot deciding to rapidly escalate to severe pain that prevented me from walking. After a trip to the Podiatrist, I was prescribed a week of zero physical activity, as little walking as possible (basically bed rest), a week of cortisone pills, and a follow up exam. The diagnosis was that I had tendonitis in the extensor digitorum longus and brevis that once again was caused by swimming with fins and then running on it just made it worse.

Those 7 days ended up being pretty tough for me, but in a much different way than I expected. Those who know me or follow my blog know that I haven't once taken 7 days off in a row since I started running over 5 years ago. In fact I took less than 7 days off from running in the entire last year (maybe even in 2 years). I was pretty bummed when I found out I couldn't run for at least a week a minimum. Not only was I going to miss the EN Holiday Challenge, I was also signed up for the Slowtwitch 100/100 challenge this year.

The first few days were pretty uneventful, it was still very painful to even attempt to walk so I limped around the house and didn't do much else. Surprisingly, I didn't miss running all that much since every time I tried to go from the couch to the bathroom it was a 5 minute ordeal and quite painful. The fun started about the 2 or 3 day when the cortisone kicked it. No, the foot didn't get better, but I was all of a sudden on a 24 hour sugar high, and still couldn't move.

After the 7 days of almost zero sleep and no physical activity besides for a few pull-ups I returned to the doctor. I was now able to limp at a decent pace and the pain was going down day by day. He confirmed again that it was Tendonitis and all I could do now was let it heal. However he did clear me to do non-impact exercise and then ease back into running the following week when I felt I was ready. He also suggested I take at least a month off of swimming and never again swim with fins as this is the third time I've messed myself up with them. It appears that no matter how much I stretch my ankles and feet are just not designed to swim.

The next morning I did a very easy bike ride on my trainer just to test things out. After 30 minutes, the foot still felt fine and I was thrilled, but I stopped and called it a day. Since it was still getting better the next day I decided to try an actual bike workout the next morning.

I started out with 15 minutes of easy spinning and then kicked it up to my FTP and figured I would see how long could hold it. 5 minutes in I felt great so I went about 5 watts harder, 10 minutes and I go another 5 watts harder, 15 minutes… ok now it was getting tough but I felt strong so I held to do a full 20 minutes. I had been scheduled to do an FTP test this week anyway so now I decided this ad hoc workout was going to become a 2 x 20. So I spun easy for 2 minutes had some water and then kicked it back up. The second 20 minutes was like any other FTP test... painful. My foot was still fine and didn't hurt at all though, so I pushed through to find that my FTP is up 14 watts! I don't think I have ever seen a 14 watt FTP increase in one block of training.

This only happened about 22 hours ago, but since I've been awake 21 of those 22 hours (thanks cortisone) I've been thinking about it a lot. I've always understood that the body needs rest and recovery. I follow a training plan, there is a ton of thought that goes into how I structure my weeks, months and seasons, but I always push myself as hard as I can for as long as I can, and I never truly rest.

For the 7 days I couldn't do anything, I sat and watched my teams all get stronger and kept worrying that I was going to fall behind and now I come back after my longest break ever and have a great FTP increase … hmmm.

Talk about a lesson learned… as I said before, until this injury I pretty much ran every single day for at least the last two years. I had hard weeks and easy weeks so I felt I was recovering, but I never took anytime off. I'm driven by accomplishments and I like to see my CTL go up on the PMC and my average pace to get faster, but I'm so driven that I'm afraid to rest. I was finally forced to rest and look what happens… my hard earned CTL line drops, but I see an awesome (and measureable) gain in my fitness.

Speaking of being driven, I started this whole endurance sports thing 5 years ago to lose weight and continued because it was fun and I truly enjoyed it. About two years ago my type A personality took over, I decided I wanted to go to Kona, and therefore I had to focus and give it 100%. Somewhere along the way this hobby stopped being about fun and all I cared about was hitting my fitness goals and my performance at races. I was enjoying it because of the results I was seeing not because I was participating in the events that I used to enjoy.

The NYC Marathon and Clearwater reminded me that I don't have to be on the podium or even close to have a great time. NYC was the best marathon I ever ran as I truly enjoyed every step even though I finished well over an hour slower than I could have. Sure there were things that I got upset about at Clearwater, but now that I look back, how cool was it that I was able to compete in a World Championship, visit my family, and have a great vacation with my wife to finish off the year.

For the last two years I've stressed out over every little detail of my training and daily life. I don't regret it for a minute because I got my Kona spot, but it's time to have fun again and this year is going to be different. I'm going to enjoy running in the Boston Marathon and I'm going to enjoy my dream coming true when I get to race with the best in the world in Kona. After that, who knows, maybe I'll want to get back into the competitive mindset, maybe I'll keep doing it for fun, or maybe I'll try something new.

I guess you can't lose (or gain) much fitness in 7 days, but you sure can learn a lot. It will probably be another 7 days before I can start running again. Maybe I will come back stronger, maybe not, but I will get the fitness back and great stronger over time.

By the way, it's 5 AM on Christmas morning and thanks to the cortisone that is still in my system I slept a total of 1 hour in the form of 3 20 minute naps. I guess this is my body getting ready for the baby!

Quarq Cinqo, Garmin Edge 500 and TrainingPeaks WKO+

2009-12-15T14:25:00.001-06:00

I've trained and raced with a wired PowerTap SL and used TraningPeaks WKO+ for about 2 years now. To be honest, the first year was more like I just recorded data and learned what it meant, however I feel the second year I really learned how to both train and race with the power meter and use WKO to analyze not only my workouts and races, but overall training load. In fact, I would say a power meter and watch that can record pace the now the two most important pieces of equipment I own.

There is nothing wrong with my PowerTap, I've just gotten tired of some limitations and am ready for something new. Therefore after years of reading reviews on all the different power meters out there, I've know I wanted a Quarq Cinqo and I just had to wait until the compact version came out.

The challenge has been figuring what computer I wanted to go with. The main things I was looking for was a small, wireless, reliable computer that I allowed me customize what data showed on the screen and of course I wanted to spend as little as possible. The catch is it has to work with TraningPeaks WKO+. I thought the Garmin Forerunner 310XT was the perfect solution for a triathlete, but it doesn't work with WKO so it's not an option until a new version of WKO or new firmware comes out. The Garmin Edge 500 appears to fit all of my requirements; however I had to wait for it to be released and am nervous it will have the same issues as the 310XT.

That's enough rambling for now… on to the review.

Quarq Cinqo

When I received the Cinqo I got exactly what I expected, a crank and a magnet. Installation took at most 10 minutes as I took off the existing crank/bottom bracket, put the new one with the magnet ring in, and then installed the crank. I'm not going to go into much detail about the Cinqo has they have been reviewed by tons of people. The Cinqo appears to be very solid and only moving piece on it is the cap that unscrews to replace the battery.

I also have a second bottom bracket and magnet which make allow me to switch it to from my road bike to tri bike in just a few minutes and with only one allen wrench, almost as fast as moving switching rear wheels.

Garmin Edge 500

I took it out of the box and turned it on by a window to let the GPS acquire a signal. This took a few minutes, but it allowed me to do the quick setup and I than spun my crank and by the second revolution, the Edge beeped that it detected the power meter and both Cadence and Power were now showing on the display.

The mount was very nice and easy to use; it simply uses 2 rubber bands to hold it any tube. I choose to put it on the stem for now. You could actually move the mount to another bike pretty easily, but they include 2 mounts in the box so you are already covered for two bikes.

I played with the interface a little and setup the data screen how I thought I would like them. As expected, there at 3 screens and each can be configured to show between 1 to 8 data fields. I setup the first screen as a totals screen to show data about the overall ride (Time, Avg Pwr, Distance, etc). The second screen as a lap screen that I can have both average power and current power showing at the same time which is great for hitting interval targets along with the interval time. The last screen I just picked a bunch of other fields such as temp, grade, time of day, kJ, etc.

Total I probably spend 10 minutes setting it up… not to bad to have a power meter installed and ready to use in 20 minutes or less…and with no wires.

TrainingPeaks WKO+ Compatibility

So far so good as I love the Cinqo and I'm also very impressed with the Edge 500, however now the moment of truth, does it work with TrainingPeaks WKO+.

I know there are other options out there now, but I have been using WKO for two years now and am happy with it. Plus my entire team uses it, along with most cyclists I know that have a power meter.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough equipment to do a perfect test as the edge 500 is the only computer I have that will read data from the Cinqo. However, I do have a Computrainer and my Wired PowerTap so I can make some comparisons. Also, I have read a bunch on the issues with the 310XT smart recording such not recording all data every second as well as some reporting issues with different data in Garmin Training Center and WKO+

I have now done three workouts inside on the Computrainer with both the PT and Edge/Cinqo. I also made it outside for a quick ride to test with the GPS as well.

Getting the data into WKO+

There is no way to directly download data from the edge 500 to WKO, so I figured I could drag and drop the file like with an edge 705…wrong. The edge 500 uses .fit files, which I have read allow smaller file sizes.

Next I tried to download the data into Garmin Training Center. GTC found the edge right away but would not download the data. Sure enough there was just a new version of GTC realized for the edge 500, after the update, GTC found the edge and downloaded the file with no problem. Form their I could export the activity to a file and then import it into WKO+. This sounds complicated, but it really isn't bad, just takes a few minutes.

After I complained about this on Twitter, TrainingPeaks was quick to respond and they now have a new version of the device agent that supports the edge 500. The device agent is simple and works pretty quickly. It simply downloads all of the files from the edge 500 and then saves them either directly to TrainingPeaks on line or as a file on your PC. All I had to do then is drag the file into WKO+ and I was set.

The data

I expected the data between the 3 power measuring devices to be slightly different as they are measuring at different points on the bike and using different technologies. For the last two years my PowerTap has almost always been about 5-10 watts higher then my Computrainer and like usual in these tests it is as well.

First Test – I calibrated the Computrainer after 10 minutes of warming up and got an RCC of 2.07. At this time I also coasted and back pedaled to calibrate the PT and CInqo. About every 15 minutes I re-calibrated the Computrainer and it slowly went down by about 0.01 each time. As I expected the PT came in higher than the CT, and the Cinqo also came in slightly higher than the PT, which I assume is due to power being measured directly at the crank instead of the rear hub. However I was not very concerned with the actual numbers instead I jumped right into the detail and compared the intervals and looked at the data line by line.

From what I could tell everything looked good. The edge 500 had recorded data every second for each data field in the file. The recorded data and calculated data (i.e. TSS/IF/NP) also seemed very consistent when compared to the other meters. Additionally, I looked at the edge 500 data in Garmin Training Center (GTC), Garmin Connect(GC), WKO+ and on the device and it matched in each place.

Next Three Tests on the Computrainer – Each of these times I did the same thing, however each time I recalibrated the comptrainer (~15 minutes) I also backpedaled and coasted to trigger the auto-calibration on the PT and Cinqo. Both of these times I got the same overall results, however now the PT was only a few watts higher than the comptrainer and the Cinqo very close to the PT every time. Again all of the data matched across GTC, GC, and WKO+

Outdoor test – this time around I just took a quick ride around my block with the PT and edge 500/cinqo. At first review everything looked great still, but then I noticed one of the issues folks were complaining of with the 310XT. The average power was showing differently in GTC than in WKO. This appears to be because on the trainer I almost never coasted during a 60 minute workout, however during the 5 minute ride around my block, I coasted a few times. I messed with the settings on the edge 500 and noticed it was set to non-zero averaging for power. The average power on the edge 500 and GTC matched, but WKO was lower (and I know it includes zeros in the average). So I changed the setting to include zeros and tried again… this time the average power in GTC and WKO matched. I personally like to look at the non-zero averaging so I switched it back to the default setting and it doesn't bother me that GTC shows the average without zeros and WKO includes zeros because I only care about TSS which is based on NP anyway.

Summary

While I have only done a hand full of tests so far and can't do a true test with only one variable (i.e. use a edge 705 or joule and edge 500 with the same Cinqo at the same time), I still feel the edge 500 is working correctly with WKO+.

Therefore, I'm very pleased with the Cinqo and Edge 500 combo and think it is a great option for an affordable crank based power meter setup.

Edge 500 Pros

About the same size as the PowerTap Little Yellow Computer
Setup was quick and easy and it found the Cinqo on its own
3 data screens that can each have between 1 – 8 data elements displayed
Very easy to use and straight forward menus (don't have to memorize how to find things)
The mount is very simple and solid, plus two are included in the box
Barometric altimeter for more accurate elevation readings
No speed and cadence sensor required (it's available as an option but I prefer to have as little as possible on the bike and don't see a need for it since the Cinqo provides cadence)
Courses can be programmed to provide turn-by-turn direction if desired
Works with my collection of Garmin and CycleOps heart rate straps so I don't need to by another
Great price point at $250 MSRP

Edge 500 Cons

Uses new .fit files that cannot be directly imported to WKO+
No direct download to WKO+, but the new TrainingPeaks Device Agent 3.0 makes the process pretty easy (easier and faster than using Garmin Training Center)
Workout feature is not included
USB port cover doesn't always stay closed

Now I just have to figure out what wheels I want to race on this year!

It’s been a while

2009-12-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

My friends all know that I'm really bad (ok… horrible) at keeping in touch with people. I don't do it on purpose and I really hope it doesn't offend anyone; it's just the way I am. I get really focused on a few things and other things just slip, not that they are less important.

For the last year (ok, closer to two years) I have been focus on one day and one race. This consumed a ton of time and as a result I ignored many other things. After the race was over I have to get back to a few other things in my life and therefore this blog was neglected for a while as well. So here is a long post on what I have been up to since Ironman Wisconsin:

Post Ironman Wisconsin

My plan was to take about 2 weeks completely off after IMWI, get away from everything triathlon, then come back and hit the training hard until Clearwater to wrap up my season. Well things didn't really happen that way at all.

Usually have a big race I get a post race high that last for a few days, just like the post race soreness and then I'm back to normal both mentally and physically by the next weekend. This year was a little different. First off I never got sore, each day I woke up expecting to be sore and I was fine. I felt so good on Tuesday after the race I started working out again and felt great. The post race high, well that lasted a lot long than usually, more like 3-4 weeks instead of the normal few days. Pretty much every single day something about the race came up, or someone else contacted me to talk about it. It was really cool, but almost a little overwhelming. I have to say one of the highlights though was being Age Grouper of the Week on the IM Talk podcast (thanks Nemo!).

After all the attention went away, I pretty quickly burned out mentally on training and racing. It was weird because my body was fine and when I wanted to push myself I could hit all my workout targets, but I just didn't have any desire to work out or push myself. I was pretty much just done with Triathlon. At the same time a few other things happened as work got really busy and demanding, I wanted to spend more time with Theresa, see friends I haven't seen as much as I would like, and just get away for a little. So that's what I did, I stopped following any sort of a training plan and just did what I felt like when I felt like it. BTW, I also ate what I wanted when I wanted for about 2 months as well and the pounds sure add up quickly.

So I was about a 3-4 weeks away from Clearwater, getting more out of shape by the day, little to no desire to work out, and oh yeah, I had a unplanned Marathon to run in as well.

New York City Marathon

I can pretty much thank (or blame) my endurance sports addiction on two friends. Katie, the one that convinced me I could go from feeling like I was going to die on a 5 mile jog to doing a marathon in 5 months, has been running marathons for years and has done more marathons than I have done total races combined. A few years ago she got into running as a pace leader and always talked about how great it is and how much she enjoyed it. So I said I was interested in doing it sometime and to let me know if there was every an opportunity.

Sure enough when I was on post IMWI high still, I got an email from Katie with an offer to run the NYC Marathon as a pace leader for the 4:00 group. Of course I thought this was an awesome opportunity and wanted to do it, but I actually did the smart thing and reached out to Rich and Patrick first. I was pretty convince they would tell me I was crazy to consider running a marathon 6 weeks after IMWI and 2 weeks before Clearwater… but they said to go for it, so I did.

The problem came when I was burnt out on training, and now not only had about a month until Clearwater, I also had to be able to run NYC two weeks before I lead a bunch of people that were relying on me. I managed to motivate myself to do a few long runs, the good news was that since I wasn't training all that much in general the long runs felt pretty easy. I actually managed to pull of two 22 milers both under 2:30…not bad since I was almost 15 lobs heavier than IMWI!

The NYC marathon was an awesome experience though. I loved every minute of the race and had an awesome time talking to people and just enjoying the race, something I haven't done in a long time. I even carried a camera the whole race and took pictures and movies. I felt awesome after the race, in fact I even jogged to the subway (to stay warm), and then got on a flight home.

The next morning, well that was a different story. I went to get out of bed and almost feel over. I was as sore as my first marathon 5 years ago. It was different though, my muscles were totally fine, my hips and knees were killing me though. The soreness actually lasted almost the full week and I wasn't walking normal again until Friday. How in the world could I go under 10 hours in Ironman Wisconsin, never get sore, and start running again less than 48 hours later but after running a 4 hour marathon I could move for 5 days?

I thought about this for a little bit and discussed with a few teammates, the conclusion I have come to is that in the last 2 years, I have only run longer than 2:30 twice. Even though I have done countless 22 and 23 mile runs, they have all been around 2:30 or less, so my body was just not ready for 4:00 of pounding. Also, I ran NYC 13 lbs heavier than I was in Madison. I guess that weight makes a big difference.

Even with the 5 days of pain afterwards I still had such a good time in NYC helping others to meet their goal and just enjoying a race instead of racing, that I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Clearwater

After IMWI I was fired up and ready to crush it at Clearwater, but after the multiple week mental burnout and physical disaster after NYC marathon, my body had other thoughts. Clearwater quickly went from a race, to an event to enjoy. There has been a lot said about Clearwater so I'm not going to go into it, but the race lives up to it's reputation.

I'm very glad I did the race and I'm even more glad that I just did it for fun. I had a few choice words to during the race and right afterwards, but after I settled down I realized I really did have a good time. Theresa and I had a fun trip, got to visit family and it was just fun to race in a world championship. Plus it was awesome to know that untrained, overweight and racing at my IM target watts / pace, I could still pull off a 4:24 70.3 distance race…. It sure is one fast course.

Up Next

Now that all that is done with and the 2009 season is over, I'm back working with Endurance Nation and in the Out Season again.

I have a ton of goals I thought about for next year, plus a bunch have people have shared with me what they think I can do next year. However after my experience at NYC Marathon and Clearwater, and considering that Theresa and I are expecting our first Child this winter, I've decided 2010 is an "off" year. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to train hard and race, but not like I did in 2008 and 2009.

In 2010, I will be running the Boston Marathon and racing the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. No matter what I am going to enjoy both experiences and make the most out of them. If I feel great on race day and I want to race, then so be it. If not, who cares, I'm not getting paid for results, I'm going to enjoy the day and vacation.

Of course, since I don't have any major goals for 2010, I've already got a list for 2011 J

Also, I recently picked up a Garmin Edge 500 to do some testing with. Hopefully I will get around to putting a quick review up in a few days. Stay tuned if you are interested in reading more about it.

Ironman Wisconsin 2009 Race Report

2009-09-20T18:59:00.004-05:00

If you haven’t already seen my Thank You Post, please read that prior to this race report as there is no way I would have had such a successful race without my many supporters. Also, check out the picture post as well.

Readers Digest Version

Overall, I had an amazing racing and feel like it was a dream come true. I can’t even begin to describe my feelings as I finished the race and found out I had won my age group and was going to Kona. I didn’t really believe it until Monday at the awards ceremony.

Swim: 1:12:05 – 1:53/100m –79th AG – 724th OA
T1: 4:56 – 1st AG
Bike: 5:07:58 – 21.82 mph – 1st AG – 32nd OA
T2: 1:55 – 2nd AG
Run: 3:22:36 – 4th AG – 31st OA

Total: 9:49:30 – 1st AG – 29th OA – 14th Amateur OA

Overall, I am very excited with how my race went and couldn't ask for more. However, like every other race there are always things that I can improve on next time around. The most interesting thing about this race for me was that for the first time it was my bike that made my race, not the run.

Details

Before I give the long boring play by play, I always like to focus on what I learned:
- My swim still sucks but I have already started masters to hopefully help with this
- I was so worried about the heat, that I think I ate and drank too much even though I never really got hot
- I learned the value in racing my race and not getting caught up in what others were doing. There were times I watched multiple guys in my AG fly by me up a hill or on the run and I easily could have gone after them but I just stuck to my plan and watched them come back to me later now
- Rick and Patrick know what they are talking about … pretty much everything they said at the 4 keys talk happened exactly as they said it would, starting at the first small hill on Walen all the way to the finsih line
- Having a team and supports at various places all over the course (and watching online) really helps
- Be prepared for the unexpected. I spends months focusing on every detail I could think off, planned and tried everything, but the one thing I didn't think of happened. I have not had a side stitch in years, but I got one in this race and had to throw my plan, that I had obsessed over for month, out the window and run by feel only

Pre-Race

I actually had probably my busiest weeks of the year at work for the two weeks prior to the race, with calls starting at 6 AM or earlier and working late most days. In hindsight I think this was actually a good thing as I had very little time to obsess over the race and weather.

This was also the first time I actually followed a plan and really tapered. It was tough, probably the hardest thing I did all year, but it seems to have paid off. I actually think I may have over tapered with a TSB of over 50 and a CTL drop of over 20 the day before the race. I've posted my PMC to the EN forum and we'll see what the Wicked Smart Members think about that.

Race morning I followed my nutrition plan, showed up early and then hung out with the EN crew by the swim start for a while. Josh and I got in about 15 minutes before the start and got all the way up front about 25 feet outside the ski ramp. About 5 minutes later Adam came up by us as well, so we sat and talked and enjoyed the morning. Next thing you know it was time to go, thanks to Josh and Adam, I never had time to get nervous.

Swim – 1:12:05

As usual the start was brutal. I got kicked, hit, swam over, around, everything you can think of. Luckily nothing really hurt and I just kept going. However I did get a goggle full of water and was never able to get rid of it. The beating then continued at pretty much every turn.

I know I was capable of swimming 1:05 as I did it in practice in the pool, but that was swimming as hard as I could. For the race I just swam comfortable and stayed relaxed. I came out of the water feeling like I had just stretched out and was ready to start the day… too bad I was in 724th place and 79th in my age group.

T1 – 4:56

I ran at a pretty good pace throughout the entire transition, the only problem was there were so many people in the way on the helix and changing room. Even with the people in the way I still had the fastest T1 in my AG. I guess if I fix my swim, I might not have to deal with the all the people.

Bike – 5:07:58

Even after a great bike split at Ironman 70.3 Kansas and Spirit of Racine, I still didn’t think of the bike as my strength, but I guess it is now. The bike was actually really uneventful. I pretty much starred at my power meter the entire time and drank every 15 minutes.

The first few hours I went back and forth with the same people for the most part and they slowly dropped off one by one. I hit the 56 mile mark at almost exactly 2:30 and couldn’t believe I quick I was going. It worried me a little but I was still hitting my targets. Things started to thin out pretty quickly then and the majority of the last 56 miles I was just doing my own thing and slowly passing people. About 4 hours in is where I usually pick it up, but because I was so much faster than I expected and I was worried about the heat, I just spun the last hour or so easy and enjoyed the ride back in.

Overall, I came in 5 watts under my goal and therefore my IF was .015 low and my TSS was 30 low.

Entire workout (181 watts):
Duration: 5:08:58
Work: 3358 kJ
TSS: 255.6 (intensity factor 0.705)
Norm Power: 190
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 0.96%
Pa:HR: 4.75%
Distance: 112.677 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 521 181 watts
Heart Rate: 131 188 164 bpm
Cadence: 29 244 85 rpm
Speed: 2.7 47.7 21.9 mph
Pace 1:15 22:27 2:44 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 298 64 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 867 184 lb-in

Hour by Hour:

Hour TSS IF NP VI Speed HR
1 47.5 0.69 186 1.05 21.9 162
2 48.8 0.7 189 1.04 22.4 163
3 53.6 0.733 198 1.04 22.9 167
4 53.4 0.731 197 1.04 20.9 167
5 45.4 0.674 182 1.05 21.9 162
6 6 0.637 172 1.2 18.9 163

In hindsight, I pushed a little too hard in hours 3 and 4, but because I shut it down and road the last hour each I was able to get away with it. My second race rehearsal was a much better ride and I let the adrenalin of passing a ton of people get the best of me.

I followed my nutrition plan exactly, however I had about 5:30 – 6:00 worth of infinit with me and I took it all down in 4:30…Oopps. Plus I drank a ton of water, one bottle from every single aid station as I was worried it was going to get hot. This caused quite a few pee breaks, but I thought it was worth it. I also took 3 Succeed S Caps to make sure I had enough salt.

On the positive side though, I felt awesome the entire time and pretty much smiled the whole way through as it was my easiest long ride of the year.

At the end of the bike I was in 61st overall and 3rd in AG.

T2 – 1:55

In the last 10 miles of the bike I had passed about 4 or 5 guys and they all pretty much stuck right behind me(legally from what I could tell) all the way in. However, I know they were there, so I dismount the bike and sprinted through T2. There was no one to get bags, so I grabbed my own, started to slip and crashed right into the wall in the bag room. Got to the changing room, slipped again, slid across a few chairs while dumping the back out and took off running again. I did stop for sun block though and because of the stop… I just missed having the fastest T2. I ended up with the 2nd fastest in my AG.

Run – 3:22:36

I was sprinting out of T2 at probably sub 6 minute mile pace and then crossed the mat and came to almost a walk… it was great to see the faces of everyone watching. But my plan was to take the first few miles easy and I was going to do it. The problem was my Garmin wasn’t working, so I just went as slow as I could, but still hit the first mile marker too fast even after walking the first aid station. Mile 2 started fine, but about half way through I felt a side stitch starting. I didn’t know what to do as I haven’t had one of those in years…I never cramp.

First the panic set in. I had no idea what place I was in, but I was pretty sure I was at least in contention for 5th or 6th. All season I had relied on my run to get me through the race, and in every other race of my life, it was always my run that I excelled at and passed people. After about a mile of getting myself worked up, pissed off and the cramp was just getting worse I had a reality check and decided it was time to go into survival mode.

Ironically enough, my Garmin had just started working and I was running about a 7:45 pace, but I changed the screen so I couldn’t see my pace and just ran by feel. I decided that I wanted to run the entire marathon even if it meant I was going to run slower than I have in the last two years.

I tried everything I could think of to shake the cramp, forceful exhaling, different breathing patterns, water, Gatorade, banana, pretzels … you name it I tried it. Nothing worked, so I just counted footsteps and stayed at a pace where the pain was someone manageable. It is a good thing that I had a ton of One Things in my mind or there is no way I would have made it.

It was even more painful to watch guys in my AG passing me, but I knew if I went after them I would blow up, so I just starred at the group 10 feet in front of me, counted steps and breaths.

I had tons of friends, teammates, and family on the course and they yelled all kinds of things to me, but I didn’t hear or don’t remember most of it. However I greatly appreciate every single one of you, as just seeing you keep me moving.

Between miles 7 and 13, I started to see everyone else around me slowing down and started to very slowly pass people that had passed me earlier in the run. This gave me just enough motivation to pick it up on the way back to the turn around. At the turn around I got a huge boost from the fans and also pasted a few male pros that had blown up, and I checked and had ran my fastest mile, and then the cramp got significantly worse. So I slowed back down and took it easy again.

From 13 to the turn at State Street (maybe mile 19ish), I really just focused on getting it done and running through the pain. Each time I passed someone I got a little boost and went faster, then the cramp got worse and the next mile I had to slow down.

I really can’t remember much of the last 10 miles of the marathon, except one thing that I remember clear as day. Coming up to one of the aid stations, I see Coach P and he is telling me slow down, take it easy, just relax, no need to go fast. Less than 200 feet later I see Coach Rich and he is yelling to suck it up and run, push through the pain, and it is my race to lose if I don’t push it.

The cramp finally went away about three steps after the finish line when I landed in the arms of a few volunteers. However, I could actually still feel the exact spot of the cramp for the next two days.

Here is the run data. Although I didn’t hit my run goal, I think the cramp was a good thing as it forced me to take the first half of the marathon really easy and then allowed me to negative split while others were falling apart.

Forerunner305 [Run]:
Duration: 3:22:59
Work: n/a
rTSS: 252.3 (0.814)
NGP: 7:13 (223.2 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: 1.89%
Distance: 25.895 mi
Elevation Gain: 8091 ft
Elevation Loss: 8080 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (11 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 150 180 166 bpm
Speed: 0 51 7.7 mph
Pace 1:11 0:00 7:50 min/mi
Altitude: 803 1117 886 ft
Note: The GPS altitude correction would not work, so my NGP is NOT CORRECT.

FIRST RUN SEGMENT 6.35 mi. (49:46) 7:50/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 13 mi. (51:32) 7:44/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 19.23 mi. (48:04) 7:42/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 26.2 mi. (53:14) 7:38/mile

Post Race

The night after the race and next day were just amazing. I was on cloud 9 the entire time and enjoyed talking to so many athletes and TeamEN members. I had the chance to meet Robert Ferris who was 2nd in my Age Group and was chasing me down. If the marathon was a mile longer he probably would have caught me. Robert also gave me some great advice for the trip to Kona and I look forward to seeing him in a year. I also found out the guy in my age group with the second fastest bike split lives only a few towns away from me. Rick, we should really ride together sometime and push each other so we both get stronger.

As far as receover goes ... I guess the good thing about getting a cramp and having to slow down on the run is I never got sore. I forced myself to do nothing Monday and Tuesday, but I felt like I could have picked up normal training. I’m still easing back into things just to be safe, but my body feels great and I'm really enjoying just working out with no schedule or intervals to do. It's amazing how much more I see on a ride when I'm not aero and starring at a power meter.

Summary

As I mentioned I’m thrilled with my performance and how the day worked out and wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of my friends and family.

It’s very interesting to me how I fell apart on the run that I have relied on for years, but had a significantly stronger bike than I expected (and stayed under my targets). I mentioned some of my lessons learned and this race gave me a lot to think about and work on for next year.

It’s now time to take a little while off from serious training and have fun with my fitness. Up next ,the New York Marathon (Thanks Katie!) and then the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater...both for fun only and with no goals.

In the mean time I’m going to start documenting my goals for next year and then coming up with a race plan. Lots of ideas floating around in my head now and need some time to sort them out. I definitely did not achieve my run goal for this year and therefore will have to go for it again next year, however I did get within 16 minutes of another goal that I didn’t think would happen for another few years….more to come on that later.

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

Some IMWI Photos

2009-09-14T20:56:00.004-05:00

Kona Bound!

2009-09-14T07:01:00.000-05:00

Full race report to come later this week, but here are the results:

SWIM 1:12:05
BIKE 5:07:58
RUN 3:22:36
TOTAL 9:49:30

OVERALL PLACE 29
DIVISION PLACE 1

TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:12:05) 1:53/100m 723 79

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 40 mi. (1:47:45) 22.27 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 83 mi. (1:55:11) 22.40 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 112 mi. (1:25:02) 20.46 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:07:58) 21.82 mph 61 3

FIRST RUN SEGMENT 6.35 mi. (49:46) 7:50/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 13 mi. (51:32) 7:44/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 19.23 mi. (48:04) 7:42/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 26.2 mi. (53:14) 7:38/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (3:22:36) 7:43/mile 29 1

TRANSITION
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 4:56
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 1:55

Thank You!

2009-09-14T06:19:00.002-05:00

It's going to be a few days before I can pull together an Ironman Wisconsin Race Report, however I wanted to thank my ever expanding support crew. Two years ago when I first attempted IMWI I had a few supports, this year I had more than I could count and it made all the difference in the world when I needed most...the ENTIRE run!

My wife Theresa - Not ony has Theresa supported my crazy hobby for 5 years now, she has embraced it and made it a way of life for both of us. Dealing with my crazy workout schedues, diet, traveling to races, and race week nerves is quite a task and she does it over and over ... with a smile. She is also the best spectator in the world! I love you Theresa and couldn't do it without you!

Mom, Dad and Chris - thanks for coming to Madison and spending a long day outside chasing me around.

Coach Rich and Coach Patrick @ Endurance Nation - You training plans had me more physically prepared for this race than I have ever been for anything in my life. Your race execution resources and 4 keys talk had me mentally prepared and seeing you guys and the team on the course throughout the day helped me through some very dark times.

Team EN Racers - It was awesome seeing everyone on the course throughout the day. Everyone looked great and encouraged me every time they saw me. I wish I looked as good as you guys did!

Team EN Spectators - You guys rock for making the trip out to volunteer and support us. It really helped to see Jim, Larry, and Trent at varrious parts of the course ... along with Matt in T1 and Mike at the swim start.

Team EN (Online) - Everytime I crossed a timing mat I knew the team was watching from around the world and it helped to me keep me going. Not to meant the motivation and great advice all season long.

Cheryl and Tony - Thanks for all the great weekend rides and dealing with my intervals at times :-) Can't wait to see you guys cross Lake Placid next year.

Coach Keith @ Well Fit - Thanks to your help I came out of the water very relaxed, feeling great, and ready for a good day.

Thanks again to everyone I mention above and everyone else that has helped along the way, I really couldn't have done it without each of you!

Spirit of Racine Race Report and Flipping the Switch

2009-07-21T12:22:00.005-05:00

Spirit of Racine

New HIM Bike Split PR 2:14:05 (25.1 mph)
2nd Fastest Bike Split out of over 1200 people
2nd Place in the AquaBike
No taper and resumed normal training the next day

That pretty much sums of the race for me. I'm not sure if it is fair that I claim the 2nd fastest bike split since I only did the AquaBike and didn't have to run 13.1 after, however I did run afterwards anyway and I also crushed myself with a 3 hour bike workout including FTP intervals less then 24 hours before the race.

Either way, I've very proud of the split and it was a great way to finish off my racing before I put my head down and focus on the big race in 8 weeks.

Even though the run is my strength and usually where I make up time, I decided to do just the aquabike to allow me to focus on my weakness (swimming) and get a final race in without interrupting my training.

Swim: 26:57 (it was short)

The swim was actually really brutal, by far the worse swim I have been in for a while. The first couple hundred yards I just got kicked and hit over and over. Plus it didn't help that the water was 3 feet deep and guys were dolphin diving and running. Finally I had enough, gave up on looking for a draft and swam to the outside. I got into my grove and had a strong second half of the swim. I was a little wide and was passing people pretty much the entire second half until the guys from the wave after me came through.

T1: 1:45

Not much to say other then the only thing worse then a long run in the sand after a swim is when you drop your swim cap and have to go back and get it.

Bike: 2:14:05

My goal for the bike was to start on easy and just keep pushing harder until I didn't have anything left. First half hour went exactly as planned, relatively easy effort and cruised along at 24.2 mph, placing a ton of people that were better swimmers then me and even quite a few people from the elite wave that started 3 minutes earlier.

The next hour was much different. I went from passing someone every minute or so, to only seeing people every 5 minutes. I also noticed quite a few more motorcycles and officials around. I kind of got into a lull and my power dropped a little and I wasn't feeling to strong, but I just decided to practice being smooth and riding by feel. Ends up the "middle hour" as I'm call it was pretty good for me as my power was lower, but my VI was 1.01 and speed was 24.8.

The last 45 minutes was different again, I started to see a few more people on the course, but these were all guys in the elite wave with low race numbers. The combination of taking the middle hour easy and then getting a little excited that I could be catching up to some of the pros motivated me and I hammered the last 45 minutes averaging over 25 mph.

The coolest part of the day had to be when I was leaving T2 and the announcer said the 10th place overall male just entered T2, meaning I was in 9th place at the moment and I started 3 minutes back.

I really really wanted to keep running as I felt great and knew I could pull of a decent run, but the plan was to do the aqua bike. So I found the finish shoot and was the first person to cross the finish line of the day...and then went for an easy run.

All in all it was a great day and I learned a few more lessons to keep in mind and re-enforce things I already knew but don't always do.

I also have a new found respect for the guys at the front of the pack ... it's hard, much harder then I thought. Back in the middle of the pack, you have lots of other people to feed off of and you can legally ride behind someone and benefit from it. It's really lonely up front and a lot harder to just push on your own constantly. Plus, I had no idea where I was going half the time and had to slow down and look for arrows on the ground or yell to the volunteer at the corner which didn't see me coming.

Flipping the Switch

Since November I have been training to get fast. I have obsessed over my FTP, VDOT and Weight. Tracked them constantly and worked hard to improve them. Overall it has been very successful as I am over my FTP goal, under my weight goal, and very confident that I am at my VDOT goal or maybe a little over. Plus I've had some great races and even qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, but it's time for a change.

I'm now 8 weeks out from my A race of the year, therefore I celebrated my success at Racine and throughout the year with some ice cream on Sunday night, but was back to work with a new focus at 6 AM on Monday.

From now until September I am solely focused on getting to my A race prepared and in great mental and physical shape. No more switching workouts, testing myself or any other of the things I have done. The FTP, W/KG, VDOT, and weight are what they are now and it's time to train myself to get the most of them.

It's all about consistently doing the workouts as planned, focusing on recovery every single day, and eating right every single meal.

I'm the strongest I have ever been and feel great but I have to wait until September to see if it is good enough.

Big Tri Week

2009-07-06T20:07:00.002-05:00

Based on Rich and Patrick’s advice on the benefit of doing a big tri week over at Endurance Nation, I took advantage of the holiday weekend and put together 6 days of swimming, cycling and running.

Life got in the way a little bit between a night out with friends, a day on the boat and family parties, but I’m pleased with how much I was able to get in.

Totals for 6 days:
Swim: 2:14 – 8000 yards
Bike: 18:40 – 346 miles
Run: 6:20 – 52 miles
Sleep: Not Enough

Total: 27:17 and just over 400 miles

I’m pretty shocked at how well my body handled all of it, at no point during the week where my legs the limiter… just my neck, back, and lack of sleep or nutrition. I actually think it was much more challenging mentally then physically.

The details:

Day 1:
Swim: 0:50 swim lesson with lots of hard intervals and I set new 50, 100, and 200 PRs
Run: 1:50 15.7 miles – long run at zone 1 pace (very easy) so I wouldn’t be shelled for the weekend.

Day 2:
Bike: 6:50 130.5 miles - 3 loops on IMWI course (Aero the entire time except the climbs)
Brick Run: 0:45 6 miles

Day 3:
Less then 3 hours sleep and the long day before left me tired
Bike: 2:15 41 miles (rolling hills like IMWI course)
Brick Run: 0:45 5.7 miles (very hilly)
Wake Boarding in the afternoon
Meant to swim, but it didn’t happen

Day 4:
Back and neck were really tight, but after some icy hot and time on the foam roller I got out the door
Bike: 3:30 63 miles in Barrington Hills
Brick Run: 1:00 8.1 miles

Day 5:
Swim: 0:32 2000 yards mostly easy with one set of 5 x 100 hard
Bike: 6:00 112 miles in Barrington Hills (Thanks to Cheryl, Tony, Guy, Keith from Well-fit, and Hayes I had different people to ride with for most of the 6 hours)
Brick Run: 0:30 4 miles

Day 6:
Swim: 0:50 3000 yards, some drills with 5 x 100 and 5 x 50 hard
Run: 1:30 12.4 miles – easy long run to wrap of the week.

As of now, I’m feeling strong and ready to keep going, however I am going to give my legs a rest tomorrow and just swim to be safe.

For the rest of the week I will be doing a ton of swimming and then it's back to focusing on Ironman Wisconsin which is now less then 10 weeks away. I can't wait...

Ironman 70.3 Kansas Race Report

2009-06-17T08:12:00.002-05:00

Overall I had a great day and accomplished another goal by receiving a spot to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida.

Before I go into the results and talk more about myself I first have to say thank you to Theresa for not only putting up with my training and triathlon obsession on a daily basis, but for also being the best support crew anyone could ask for. Not many people could handle being with me for 4 days straight around a race, then manage to take pictures and update twitter while running all over the course trying to find me.

Also, there is no way I would have improved this much or gone into the race with so much confidence if it was not for the Endurance Nation team. Thank you to Rich, Patrick, the November Out Season Group, Jim and everyone else that. Knowing that the team was tracking me online was very motivating during the race.

Now back to the race report, there are two different ways to look at my performance at Ironman 70.3 Kansas, either…

I did not do a good job at estimating my ability and therefore my race plan was too conservative.

Or

I did not execute all that well but got lucky and I was able to hold it together and have a great race.
Anyway, here are the results and the details:

Swim 37:30 70th AG / ~650 OA
T1 2:22
Bike 2:22:50 4th AG / 39th OA
T2 0:54
RUN 1:22:04 1st AG / 27th OA

Total 4:25:40 8th AG / 24th OA

Swim:
Leading up to this race I felt pretty good about my swim. I had been swimming the strongest I ever have in the pool and very consistently been hitting my 100 yard intervals around 1:35 or slightly faster. I did a 2100 yard swim in 37:00 in the pool and figured the wetsuit, race day, and a draft would easily get me a 35 minute or slightly faster swim no problem.

I lined up about 2-3 rows back and a little to the side and the swim seemed to go really well. I just swam, counted my strokes, focused on my form and sighted every once in a while. The water was pretty murky and I couldn’t see in my own hand much less feet in front of me so I never really got a draft. However, it felt like one of my best swims ever, as I felt strong and kept passing people from the waves in front of me, then I got out of the water and saw my time was 37:30. I guess I just took it too easy or under estimated the importance of getting on someone’s feet.

Bike:
On Saturday we drove the entire course and rode on the hilly sections. It was a really good thing I did this as the course was much more challenging then I expected. I would say this course may actually be tougher then doing 56 miles of the IMWI course. It is constant hills, so I picked few of the biggest ones and climbed them a few times.

I felt really good getting on the bike and I thought I was taking it really easy, but every time I looked down my power was over my goal watts. I kept trying to take it easy but kept putting down slightly higher power numbers then I wanted.

I was really worried as I was flying by people , but I felt strong and kept going. I really took it easy on the up hills, but didn’t really lose much ground and then on the down hills I made up a ton of time on most others. The last mile I really eased off to make sure my legs would be ready to run.

Run:
After seeing my bike time and still feeling great, I was fired up and ready for the run. I managed my fastest transition ever at :54 sec and was then off and running. I tried to follow my placing plan, but I could not slow myself down. I even slowed down to almost a walk through the first few aid stations but my splits were faster then I planned. Therefore in the middle 7 miles I actually ran a little easier then planned just to make sure I wouldn’t blow up. When mile 10 came around I was still feeling good, so I throw my plan out the window and just ran. I ended up with the last 3 miles at just over 6:00 min/mile and my garmin has my final .1 sprint at a 4:45 average pace.

The highlight of the run was that I basically ran within about 20 feet of Chrissie Wellington for the first 5 miles of the run until she turned off for the finish and I had another lap to do. She was smiling as usual and very friendly to everyone. For the entire run she was the only person that passed me which was a really cool feeling, of course the faster men were already done before I started the run.

I don’t have the exact run splits handy, but they were all over the place between 6:00 and 6:30, which is by far the worse pacing I have done in a while.

Post Race:
After about 20 minutes in the medical tent to ice my legs, I wandered over to eat and check the results. I was really excited about my time and was sure I would be in the top 5 of my age group, so I was a little disappointed when I saw I was 8th. Everyone is getting really fast as there were 12 guys in my AG that went under 4:30, and 11 of us were within about 9 minutes of each other.

Anyway we went back to the hotel, showered, got some more food and then went back for awards and roll down. Roll down was not supposed to start until after awards, but we got back early anyway and luckily Theresa heard the announcer from the parking area say they were doing roll down. So I sprinted over to the expo area, literally as they were giving away the 2nd to last roll down spot for my age group, which I got.

Lessons Learned:
- Time to learn to swim, it’s pretty pathetic that I was 4th on the bike, 1st on the run, and 70th on the swim in my age group.
- For me less is definitely more as far as nutrition goes. I had one bagel with PB for breakfast, one gel pre-race, 500 calories of infinit on the bike, one gel on the run, and water whenever I felt like it. That’s pretty much it and it was more then enough.
- I either under estimated my ability, or went to hard and got really lucky on the bike. IMWI will not be so forgiving and I need to really focus on getting the pacing right and not going too hard for the first 30 minutes to hour.
- Same thing on the run, I could fake my way through crappy pacing during a 70.3, but I need to get my act together for IMWI.
- Even if there are people walking and blocking the run course, don’t go around a cone to pass them. I was stopped by an official and had to stand and wait for about 15 seconds after she lectured me about passing “off the course”.
- Always stay around the race site during awards and roll down as I found out the schedule is subject to change and if we waited until after the awards to go back I would have missed getting a Clearwater spot.
- Did I mention, I have a lot of work to do on the swim

I'm also very proud to say that I took two days completely off after the race and just swam this morning as my first workout since the race. A few more days of taking it easy and then it is time to get serious about IMWI.

Ready to Race

2009-06-07T19:39:00.003-05:00

I have not done an "A-Race" triathlon since Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 and now that I'm a week out from Ironman 70.3 Kansas, I'm ready to go.

My training has been about as good as it can get, with no injuries and every key workout done. I've PR'ed in every race I have done so far this year, and I'm already almost at my goal FTP, VDOT, and weight that I want to reach by September of this season.

More importantly though, I have a great plan for race day, that I have practiced with sucess, twice.

My goal is simply to execute my plan and race my race.

The only thing left is the hardest part of training for me, the taper.

Here are a few pictures of my bike all dressed up to race.

Chicago Spring Half Marathon - New PR and 3rd Overall!

2009-05-18T09:41:00.005-05:00

Summary

I would say this was a B race for me, I really felt I could do better then I did in the Cary Half-Marathon earlier this year and I wanted to “prove” my vDot in a half-marathon before fully shifting my focus to Ironman training. I built up for this a little more then Cary, but I was still not focused on it or really training for it.

My plan was to average exactly what my vDot based on a recent 5k predicted (5:58) and either get a new PR or blow up trying.

I ended up feeling great the entire race, even during mile 12 and 13, and went 1:17:34 for any average of 5:55 min/miles. This got me 3rd overall out of close to 1500 finishers.

For all of the long boring details, look below the pictures....

Matt Sullivan and I getting our awards... two more podiums for Endurance Nation.

Top 3 finishers picture for the race website

Training

I did build up more for this then Cary in March, however I was still doing a very bike focused training plan with 4 quality rides a week, and then fitting in runs around those and typically having 2 quality runs a week. Those two runs were one semi-long run 90 minutes or less and one set of tempo intervals. I was pretty nervous going into this race because I was having trouble holding my target training paces during the semi-long runs and I was pretty worn out from all the hard work on the bike. Not to mention, running sub 6:00 min/miles for a half marathon just sounded crazy and was not something I ever thought I would do.

The taper (or lack of a taper)

The week leading into the race I did all of my bike workouts and swims as planned, plus I continue to run almost everyday. I did make two changes, I did not do my planned long run and instead did a second tempo run with 3 x 1 mi at my goal half marathon pace. Also, I did my long ride on Saturday before the race, but I cut it short. I still got all the hard work in and ftp intervals, but I called it a day after that and road for only 2 hours but got 45 miles in.

The Plan

I used CoachP’s 3-7-3 half marathon pacing guidance to create my plan. Run the first 3 miles at 10 seconds per mile slower then my goal pace (6:08), miles 4-10 at goal pace (5:58), and then give it all I had for the last 3 (5:48 or better) to hopefully average my goal pace overall and have a nice negative split.

Race Morning

I was oddly calm and nervous at the same time on race morning. The weather was perfect at about 40 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and mild winds. I was calm because I had run so many half marathons, and already set a PR 2 months ago. However I was nervous, because I was really second guessing myself. Prior to races I usually do at least 1 or 2 predictor or race rehearsal type workouts that give me a really good idea if my paces are achievable. This time around I tried that twice and both times in training I missed my goal paces. Therefore I really thought I would make it to about mile 10 or 11 and then just blow up.

Anyway, did the normal bagel for breakfast before leaving the house. Had a gel about 30 minutes before the start, then went for an easy jog with MattSull to warmup, and finally a few strides about 5 minutes before the start.

The Race

I ended up starting further back then I have in a while, because I lined up a little late but it was good as it forced me to slow down for the first quarter mile and just let the leaders take of. This is the first race in a while where I lost sight of the leaders so soon.

I really had to keep watching my watch to slow myself down for the first 3 miles, but I got close with a 6:03, 6:06, 6:03.

Mile marker 3 was right before the first turn around (it was a double out and back), and I could see the leaders coming back in. I counted and I was around number 19 or 20 at that time. Once I passed mile 3, this is when the race started. I dropped my pace down to 5:58 and tried to just hold it as close as I could with out going to hard to pass people.

Miles 3 to 7 were pretty uneventful, just kind of slowly passed one person at a time.

At mile 7 I was feeling really strong and still breathing really easy. I think I was in about 5th or 6th at this time so I decided to take a risk and run at little harder to try and catch up to the next person in front of me. I did and caught up in about 3 minutes, looked at my watch and I had average 5:30 for the last half mile, opps. So when I got next to him I slowed down and talked with him for a minute to keep myself under control. After a few sentences back and forth, my breathing was under control again and my pace was back around 5:58 so I slowly pulled away from him.

That seemed to work well, so I repeated it when I saw the next guy up the road. Worked again, so I tried it again. The last time was going into the final turn around at mile ten. I was still kind of nervous that I was pushing to hard as I was 5-10 seconds per mile fast, but I felt strong and in control, so I gave a final push to catch 3rd place. I got next to him and slowed down again.

I don’t think he heard me coming because he was kind of caught by surprise and I said nice job and a few other normal comments and all he said was… thanks, where the hell did you come from? I responded that I just started really easy and a little back at the start and have just been slowly speeding up each mile. He looked at me like I was crazy. We shared a few more comments back and forth and then I just said have a great rest of the race and stay strong, I’m either going to blow up really soon or set a PR.

The last 2 miles were pretty boring as the 1st and 2nd were not even in sight. I asked some race officials how far back I was and one guy said 100 yards, and then other said really far. Since I was pretty sure it wasn’t 100 yards, I just kind of settled into my pace and finished strong and comfortable.

The Results

I ended up with an official time of 1:17:34 which was about 40 seconds or close to 3 seconds per mile faster then my goal. This was good enough to get 3rd place overall out of about 1500 finishers. 1st and 2nd were also in my age group so I can’t claim an age group win.

The Data

Entire workout (184 bpm):
Duration: 1:17:58
Work: n/a
rTSS: 156.3 (1.04)
NGP: 5:41 (283.6 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: -0.4%
Distance: 13.17 mi
Elevation Gain: 529 ft
Elevation Loss: 544 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-15 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 106 191 184 bpm
Speed: 0 78 10.1 mph
Pace 0:46 0:00 5:55 min/mi
Altitude: 575 604 585 ft

Actual Splits:
6:03
6:06
6:03
5:55
5:57
5:58
5:59
5:47
5:47
5:52
5:49
5:44
5:44
5:45 (average pace for the last .1 since I didn't stop my watch for a while)

Big Bike Week

2009-04-26T14:53:00.009-05:00

Through out the off-season I followed the guidance of Endurance Nation and focused on getting fast before going far and therefore all my workouts were intense, but short. To help get a jump start on building up some endurance Rich and Patrick recommend doing a big bike week during the spring. If you check out the Endurance Nation blog you will find 3 detailed post about how to plan a bike bike week and the benefits of it.

To fit the bike bike week into my life, I took advantage of our EN Wisconsin Camp and added a few more days before and after of riding. I would preferred to do 4-5 days of longer rides, but work and the weather both significantly constrained me so I did the best I could. I also continued to run, but did all easy running during this time and reduced my running volume to let me recover from the bike workouts.

Workout Summary:

Thursday: 1 hour on trainer with 3 x 10 @ FTP - 81.3 TSS / 0.91 IF / 232 NP / 23 miles - 30 minute easy run

Friday: 5:15 EN group ride - 296.4 / 0.75 / 193 / 90 miles - 30 min brick run

Saturday: 2:00 EN group ride - 98 / 0.72 / 185 / 31 miles - 60 min easy run

Sunday: 2:00 on trainer - 146.5 / 0.86 / 220 / 46 miles - 50 min swim

Monday: 1:00 on trainer with 3 x 10 @ FTP - 81.2 / 0.91 / 231 / 25 miles - 30 min easy run

Tuesday: 1:00 on hotel bike - Estimated 55 / 0.75 / 190 / 18 miles - 60 min easy run

Wednesday: 1:00 on hotel bike - Estimated 55 / 0.75 / 190 / 18 miles - 60 min easy run

Totals:

Bike: 13:15 / 813 TSS / 251 Miles

Run: 4:30 / 36.9 Miles

The Results are still to be determined, but initially I can say I'm shocked how well my body handled all the hours in the saddle. In fact I felt pretty strong throughout most of the 7 days. The only time I was really struggling was on the Saturday ride in the cold rain when I was freezing and my legs were a little tired from the 5 hour ride the day before. I did already see a nice CTL bump in my PMC chart, assuming I hold onto that fitness I should be in a good place by June for IM 70.3 Kansas.

Time to recover from the big bike week and shift my focus to running for two weeks and prepare for a half marathon.

Endurance Nation Wisconsin Camp

2009-04-26T14:45:00.006-05:00

Thanks to Endurance Nation and a few of the members in the midwest, I had the opportunity to attend a training camp in Madison this weekend. The idea of this camp came up late last year and through the EN forums a few of us figured out a date and decided to do it. Jim and Hayes then took the lead, organized the group, found a cabin to stay at and before we knew it we had 20 people from around the midwest training together for a weekend. Rich Strauss, one of the coaches and founders of Endurance Nation, even flew in from LA to ride with us and support us at a free camp. How cool is that?

I went to this camp with the intention to ride as much as possible for three days and no other goals. Thanks to the weather, that goal was limited a little but I left with a lot more then I expected. Instead of writing another novel, here are some thoughts...

I met a few more EN members that I only knew from the forums and had some great discussions with them. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the races this year and reading all of the great race reports.
This weekend was a humbling experience. At a little over 4 w/kg I was starting to consider myself a strong cyclist and I quickly learned I still have a way to go. My small size gives me a high w/kg and gets me up hills quick, but on the flats and downhills I can't hang with some of the guys with FTPs around 300. Just more fuel for the fire to keep me focused on raising my FTP.
Rich spent some time teaching us the rules of roadie rides and how to draft and pace line. For a guy like me that always trained on my own this was a great experience. At first I was pretty nervous and wouldn't get too close to others, but as the weekend went on I continued to get more relaxed and was even staying on someone's wheel in pouring rain at high speeds. I now have the confidence to give a roadie ride a try and more confidence in bike handing skills.
I already knew the weather in the midwest can change pretty quick, but Friday was over 80 degrees with 20 mph winds and some crazy gusts that would move we a few feet over. Saturday was in the 40s and 50s and pouring rain. The good news is I got comfortable riding in both conditions on parts of the actual ironman course. Another big confidence booster.
The first day I road for 5:15 at a little over my target watts and IF for the ironman and I was still able to finish strong and go for an easy brick run right after. That's a pretty great workout in April if you ask me... can't wait to see how much stronger I can get by August.
You can never have enough inter tubes, CO2 and practice changing flats. I ordered a few more tubes today (with long value stems) and if I don't flat enough this year in training, I will actually stop during a few rides to make sure I'm ready for race day.
I rode all weekend in only tri-shorts and had no discomfort at all, which is great because this year I want to race in tri-shorts from start to finish. The only problem was I lost about 10 pounds since last year and my tri-shorts were a little lose, so I heard about it all weekend from the guys. Rich, I ordered two pairs of smaller shorts today, but I'm still not shaving my legs.
I made the mistake of saying I had 3 more pounds to loose by IMWI to be at my goal race weight, and I never heard the end of it. Either way, the guys can continue to give me crap as much as they want, but I'm still going to try and drop the three pounds and start IMWI at the weight I think I need to be at to have a shot at a Kona slot. However, right after the race I'm looking for Noodle and will join him to eat as much as we can to put the 3 pounds and a few extra back on.
@Hayes - Thanks again for organizing the weekend and booking the place, you did an awesome job.

@Rich - Thanks for making the trip from LA to ride with us in the pouring rain and then answer questions for hours when we were stuck in a cabin because of the storms.

I can't wait to do this camp again next year and I think I might actually try to join a roadie ride now. This camp is just one more example of how EN is a good fit for me. If you are looking for the benefits of having a coach, plus the benefits of being on a team and are interested learning about your training and the science and methods behind it, check out endurance nation.

I'll include details about the rides I did when I post later this week on my Big Bike Week.

Surprise in the mail ...

2009-04-09T19:45:00.004-05:00

So last night we got the mail and there was a thick and heavy normal sized envelope addressed to me. I opened it up and inside there was a third place medal and a letter from the March Madness Half Marathon.

Turns out that even though the results at the end of the race showed me finishing 6th in my age group, the first three placed overall and therefore I got 3rd in the age group. I think it's pretty cool the race director took the time to type up a letter explaining the situation and sent me the medal.

After the race I just wanted to get out of there so I could fit in a bike ride that day also, and I never even realized that on the printed results after the race the overall winners were still included in the age group standings...duh.

Some Recent Photos

2009-04-08T10:54:00.004-05:00

It seems I have been writing a lot recently and not posting many pictures, so I figured it was time to upload a few recent ones.

A few miles into the March Madness Half Marathon. It's really hard to go slow for the first few miles, but it sure does pay off.

Trying to make up 6 more seconds in the last .1 miles of the half marathon and not pass out. My Garmin has me at a 5:15 pace right there. Finished at 1:20:06.

The sprint to the finish of the Bunny Dash 5k, this time I made it under my goal and finished at 16:59. Both Theresa and Jim took almost the exact same picture, but Jim managed to catch me with both feet in the air.

The Argon E-112 is all built and ready to go.

Final Run Test

2009-04-05T16:29:00.004-05:00

I'm really glad I decided to skip the Shamrock Shuffle last week as I doubt it would have been a good final run test with the weather conditions.

Race Results

Instead I raced the Bunny Dash 5k yesterday morning with a few other local Endurance Nation members. This was the inaugural year for this race and it went over pretty well, I will likely head back next year if it fits in my schedule.

The weather was about ideal, upper 30s, only a slight wind and sunny. There were about 400 people registered for the race and the field didn't look nearly as competitive as the half marathon from last month.

I started out in the second row back and with in the first quarter mile there was a pack of 5 of us running in the lead. The first two guys were quickly increasing their lead and I looked at my watch and realized I was around 5:10 min/mile pace, so I backed off and let everyone go a little. I really wanted to try and hang with them, but my goal was 5:28 miles so I knew I had to hold back.

Well, it paid off as, I caught the 4th place guy right before mile marker one, and then passed 3rd place around 1.5 miles. The problem now was the leaders were long gone and I was alone for the rest of the race. Both first and second place came in close to 15:30...that is around a 5:00 mile pace.

I held my pace though and finished 3rd overall and 1st in my age group with a 16:59 at exactly my goal pace of 5:28 min/mile.

Therefore my vdot at the end of the Endurance Nation Out Season is just over 60. Looks like I have until September to pick up about one more vdot point and build up my endurance.

First Long Ride on the New Bike

After the race I went home and took my new tri-bike out for my first long ride of the year. Thanks to some great feedback from Rich, Patrick and Jim over at Endurance Nation the fit felt great. In fact I road 3:07 and I was in the aero bars for over 3 hours of it easily with no discomfort, other then my butt and neck which is normal this time of year.

I was able to get in some FTP intervals and then hold close to 85% of my ftp for the rest of the ride. I have my power tap set up now so I cannot see my speed while I ride to force me to only pace myself on power.

I got home and checked the totals... 210 TSS, .82 IF and I covered a little over 62 miles in 3:07 all after a 5k PR. Last year in peak shape right before a 2:29 half ironman split I was riding the same loop for 3 hours and typically covering 57-59 miles.

Upcoming Training

I have about 11 weeks until Ironman 70.3 Kansas and will losely be following the Endurance Nation Basic Week plan with the addition of a few more runs. As the weather permits I'm going to start getting out on Saturdays and Sundays for more 3+ hour rides in to start building up my endurance, but I'm also going to continue to focus on getting a few quality bike and run workouts in during the week. Ideally I would like to meet my ftp and vdot goals for the year by June, therefore allowing me to really shift my focus from June to August on endurance and execution.

EN Out Season Results

2009-03-28T19:30:00.007-05:00

For the last 3 years the winter was all about building a base to get ready to start training hard in the Spring. I never used a coach, or had a plan; I just set some volume and frequency goals for myself and figured it out as I went. This year was a little different, 21 weeks ago I drank the EN kool-aid and changed the way I train.

This is probably going to end up being another really long post, so I'll put a summary up front and you can decide if you want to keep reading after that.

Results Summary

Bike

First FTP test on 11/4 - 209 watts and 3.3 w/kg
Final test on 3/28 - 251 watts and 4.07 w/kg
20% FTP increase

Run

First run test on 11/5 - 5k for a vdot of 56.3
Week 16 test - 5k for a vdot of 59.5
Final test on 3/29 - snow and 30+ mph so I skipped it, I'll do a 5k next weekend and post again
3.2 vdot point increase over the first 16 weeks

The Plan

My goal for this out season was to get stronger on the bike and at least maintain my run fitness. Therefore I selected the Endurance Nation Out Season Advanced Bike Focus Plan.

The plan was a 16 week plan including:

4 days a week on the bike, under an hour each day, but lots of time at FTP or harder
4 days a week running, under an hour each day, but tons of intervals at tempo pace or interval pace
No swimming in the plan

I did a total of 21 weeks of the Out Season, weeks 1-16, then took a week vacation to recover, and then repeated weeks 13-16.

Actual Workouts

First off, I have to say that the plan was great, but the EN forum was even more helpful. I was routinely checking in with a group of other members that started the same plan on the same day as me. This was a great source of motivation and accountability. I am very proud that I can say I completed every scheduled workout for the entire OS, and never skipped one. I was sick twice and also had a conflicts with work that required 4 AM workouts, but I got every one done because I knew my November OS team was out there getting the work done also.

Bike

I did every single workout in the plan exactly as it was described for the first 16 weeks. I accomplished this by creating ERG files for my computrainer and using the coaching software that forced me to either push the watts or quit. There were many many times I wanted to quit but I never did...and I only puked once.

When I repeated weeks 13-16 after vacation, I began to add some extra volume in and gradually worked up to an extra hour at 85% of my ftp at the end of one of the weekend workouts.

Overall, I am very pleased with the bike workouts and wouldn't change a thing. They did exactly what they were supposed to...ROI. I put in less time on the bike then ever before and my ftp went up more then I was hoping for. It was really great not to have to find two or three movies to watch each weekend for the countless hours on the trainer that I have done in past years.

Run

The feedback I kept hearing form other EN members was that the out season plan will seam easy at first and then get really tough and therefore everyone said not to do any extra workouts. Even though I was coming off of a huge running year and in great shape, I decided to listen.

For weeks 1-8 I did exactly as the plan said, however the running seemed really easy and I felt I wasn't making any progress. Then the week between Christmas and New Years Day, EN did a running challenge where we earned points for running every day. Since I was focusing on getting strong on the bike this year, I decided to do the run challenge but not let it impact my bike workouts. I ended up running an hour or more for 10 days in a row and didn't miss a bike workout. After that I decided to gradually start adding more runs in.

I started by adding easy runs on Monday. After a few weeks of that, I also started doing a 30 minute run after the bike on Thursdays. Finally weeks 13-16 (both the first time and when I repeated them) I added a semi long run on Sundays, starting at an hour and getting up to an hour and a half once or twice.

I really think the EN plan is great for the majority of people the way it is written. However, I had just spent the last year running 7 days a week and averaging about 70 miles a week so I had a really strong base and was able to do more running. Plus in some sick way, I just really enjoy running and the days off were killing me in the EN plan.

Swim

Well, the EN advice is not to swim in the out season. I completely understand why they take the approach, but I couldn't do it. Swimming is by far my weakest area and I was not comfortable completely giving it up. However, I did greatly reduce my swimming for a while though and I always made sure my bike and run workouts got priority by swimming on days off or at night if I had the time and motivation.

Weeks 1-8 I only swam when I felt like it which ended up being about once a week on Monday when I was not doing a bike or run. Weeks 9-12 I started to slowly ramp back up and swam on Mondays and Fridays. Finally I got to swimming 3 times a weeks for the last 8 or 9 weeks.

In the end, I made some progress in my swimming by really focusing on my form and drills. Since my life allowed me the time to swim, I'm glad I did it. However, if I was to do it again and didn't have as much time available, I would seriously consider taking some time off from swimming.

Body Comp

The one other area I focused on was my body composition and eating. Not that I have much weight to lose, but I could improve here and have some goals for my race season.

I said swimming was my weakness, but easting habits may be even worse. I can't help it, I love to eat. I actually have significantly changed my diet over the last two years and now I eat much healthier foods overall, however I still like to eat a lot, as in really large portions and all day long.

The first 8 weeks of the out season were a roller coaster for my weight, just keep going up and down but always ended up right back at the same place. During January and February I did great and dropped about 3 or 4 pounds, but I managed to put about 8 back on a 10 day vacation.

Since vacation, I have been really focused and I got rid of the extra 8 pounds I put on during vacation and am within a pound of my goal for racing this year. Now all I have to do is stay right around this weight.

The Data

For those of you that really want to see the details, here are my PMC charts from Training Peaks WKO+ for the Out Season.

Bike Only:

Run Only:

What a Great Day

2009-03-15T16:13:00.005-05:00

Today was one of those days were everything just seemed to go right:

It was in the 50s with clear skies and no wind
I PR'ed at a half marathon, that I had not trained or tappered for
I had a great bike ride OUTSIDE
Did I mention is was in the 50s in Chicago in March

March Madness Half Marathon

I did this race becuase a few of the guys I train with over at Endurance Nation were going to be there and I thought it would be fun. I had no real goals or plan, I was just going to start off at a pace I thought I could easily hold for the whole race and see what happened.

Leading up to the race, I did not tapper at all, in fact yesterday I did 1:45 on the trainer with a brick run right afterwards and I pushed really hard. Warming up for the race this morning my legs were a little heavy and I could feel the fatigue in my quads from the hard bike ride yesterday, but overall I felt good.

The race was by far the hilliest race I have ever done, and the timing of the hills is what makes it really difficult because from mile 9 to 13 is mostly uphill and rolling hills. As usual I went out too fast for the first mile, but I quickly setteled down and was pretty close to my target pace 6:15 for miles 2-8. From mile 8 to 13 I gave it everything I had and had a few miles at around 5:50 pace, coming into the finish shoot I could see the clock at 19:55 and I sprinted as hard as could. I put it all out there and came in at 1:20:06.

It sure would have been nice to break 1:20, but I'm really happy with my results, a negative split, and I was 1:44 faster then my previous PR which was set at a very flat and fast race last year.

Here is the data for anyone that is interested, check out the total elevation changes even though the biggest single hill was about 200 ft and yes this file's altitude was corrected in WKO:

Forerunner305 [Run]:

Duration: 1:20:06

Work: n/a

rTSS: 150.8 (1.006)

NGP: 5:57 (270.6 m/min)

VI: n/a

Pw:HR: n/a

Pa:HR: 1.83%

Distance: 13.141 mi

Elevation Gain: 2105 ft

Elevation Loss: 2092 ft

Grade: 0.0 % (12 ft)

Min Max Avg

Heart Rate: 100 198 187 bpm

Speed: 1.2 16.2 9.8 mph

Pace 3:42 50:49 6:06 min/mi

Altitude: 696 910 816 ft

Bike Workout

Since I was only doing the race for fun, I wanted to also get my scheduled 2 x 20' at FTP bike ride in today. So after we got home, I dusted off my road bike which hasn't been out of the house since November and went for a ride outside.

My current FTP on the computrainer is 245 watts and I was really hoping that I would still be able to hold the watts after racing this morning. My legs were pretty sore warming up, but I was so thrilled to be outside I didn't care and went on anyway. I ended up holding 255w for the first interval and I figured I went out too hard and would fall apart, but on the way back I came up with 256w and finished stronger.

Here is the some bike data:

First Interval:

Duration: 20:01

Work: 294 kJ

TSS: 36.1 (intensity factor 1.04)

Norm Power: 255

VI: 1.04

Pw:HR: 1.11%

Pa:HR: 1.6%

Distance: 7.156 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 538 245 watts

Heart Rate: 127 187 179 bpm

Cadence: 32 163 97 rpm

Speed: 0 30 21.5 mph

Pace 2:00 0:00 2:48 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 277 77 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 921 222 lb-in

Second Interval:

Duration: 20:01

Work: 301 kJ

TSS: 36.3 (intensity factor 1.043)

Norm Power: 256

VI: 1.02

Pw:HR: 5.46%

Pa:HR: 2.82%

Distance: 6.642 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 503 250 watts

Heart Rate: 150 188 180 bpm

Cadence: 40 166 92 rpm

Speed: 0 28.1 19.9 mph

Pace 2:08 0:00 3:01 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 220 84 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 771 235 lb-in

Entire workout (213 watts):

Duration: 1:21:12

Work: 1039 kJ

TSS: 120.6 (intensity factor 0.944)

Norm Power: 231

VI: 1.08

Pw:HR: 0.6%

Pa:HR: 9.28%

Distance: 26.094 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 538 213 watts

Heart Rate: 93 219 171 bpm

Cadence: 29 209 92 rpm

Speed: 0 30 19.3 mph

Pace 2:00 0:00 3:07 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 277 73 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 921 202 lb-in

I have 2 more weeks left of the Endurance Nation Out Season plan and then I am doing an 8k run as my final test and will post a summary.

Transition Week = Vacation

2009-03-02T18:53:00.007-06:00

I finished up the first 16 weeks of the Out Season plan and next on the schedule was a 1 - 2 week recovery or transition period. I have been very pleased with the progress I made on my cycling power over the 16 weeks, and I think my run has improved a little also, but I haven't really tested it yet. Due to the weather conditions I am going to repeat the last 4 weeks of the OS plan again and then I will post my final results and thoughts on the 20 weeks of OS training.

Anyway, back to the point of this post, during this downtime for the training plan my wife and I went to Hawaii. I had no training goals at all, other then to run when I felt like it.

Well, I ended up feeling like it just about every day. Maybe it is because it has been so cold in Chicago and I enjoyed the prefect weather in Maui and Oahu, or just because I like exploring, but what ever the reason was a really enjoyed every one of the runs I did. I saw the sun rise a few days on both islands and even had a whale come up to breath close to the shore where I was running in Maui. For the most part I just took it easy and ran for 30-45 minutes, but a few times I would sprint up a hill or to the next intersection just for fun.

I did one actual swim in the ocean for exercise, I didn't go very far, but it felt good and helped build some confidence.

The other adventure on this trip was learning to surf. On our honeymoon in Kauai I tried surf for the first time. It went ok, I was able to stand up and catch a wave when the instructure told me when to start, however I was pretty much just along for the ride and had no control of what was happening.

This time I did a lesson at Waikiki beach with Aloha Surf and had a great experience. I started on their standard beginner board which was a 12' longboard with a padded top. I got up on the first try and after a few rides I was feeling pretty comfortable. By the end of the lesson I was able to time the waves on my own and paddle and get up on every wave I went for. I was also riding all the way in until the wave flattened out and then would sit back down on the board.

I enjoyed it so much and wanted to continue so I went back the next day and this time got a standard 10' long board that was not nearly as wide as the beginner board. I could tell right away this was going to be a little more challenging when I was paddling out the board almost tipped over a few times. In fact the first time I hit a wave (on the way out paddling) I fell off the side of the board.

It took about 30 minutes or so to get use to the shorter board, as I keep standing up too far forward and falling over the front of the board. It was amazing how much of a difference the 2 feet made. However, once I got the hang of it the shorter board was a lot more fun because I could actually turn it and had some control where I was going. It felt like I was actually surfing and not just along for the ride on a big floating board.

Here are some pictures from the first day when I started with really long beginner board.

2009 Plan

2009-02-06T17:44:00.001-06:00

So I've laid out my goals and my A races, now it is time to figure out how to get there.

For the last 5 years I have been entirely self-coached. I've read a bunch of books and followed portions of some training plans, but I have never followed a training plan as it was written or had a coach.

I thought long and hard last year about hiring a coach, but at the end of the day I couldn't do it. I like learning and planning my training, but I really want to have a break through season, so I think I found a solution that will work for me.

Endurance Nation is an online triathlon team lead by two coaches. Last year at IMWI I met Rich and Patrick and a few athletes and I thought it might be a good fit for me. What appeals to me most is that the focus is education and having a team. I did buy a training plan from them and it is the first time I have every followed a plan, but I really like being able to talk with others in the forums and learn from each other. I'm going to try and follow the plan as close as possible, but I don't think it will last long before I start making adjustments.

Anyway, I have divided my year up into a few portions:

Out Season -- Nov through Feb

Half Ironman Prep -- Mar through May

Ironman Prep -- Jun through Aug

For each of these three periods I am going to follow a gradual build up of intesity and/or volume, and then take a week or two off after each to recover and recharge before starting the next.

During the Out Season and Half Ironman Prep, I will be doing other races allong the way to test my progress, but this year I am not racing at all during the Ironman Prep this year. Instead I am going to speed the full 12 weeks prior to IMWI focusing on excuting my training and recovering.

Bike Build

2009-02-02T18:11:00.001-06:00

Well, I have never been good with patience, so my plan to build up the new race bike over a few months has happened quickly. Here are some pictures of the current build up. I'm probably going to swap a few components out still and I still have a few things to add (like a front brake).

I have messed with the fit for about a week now and it is getting pretty close but not quite right yet. I think I just need some decent weather so I can get outside and try it out on something besides the computrainer.

What It Takes

2009-01-18T13:53:00.000-06:00

So I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing but I decided to read up a little on how the Kona slots are actually divided up at each of the qualifing races. Here is what I found...

IMWI has 72 slots
10% go to Pros - I'll round up to 8
Each of the 12 AGs get one slot for Men and Women as long as there is someone racing in that AG - 24 slots
That leaves 40 more slots which are divided based on number of people in each AG
There are 210 registered in my AG and 2,691 total - 7.8% in my AG
7.8% of 40 means my AG gets another 3.12 slots, plus the 1 that all AGs get

Therefore, if everyone takes their slot, I will have to be top 4 to qualify for Kona, or in the top 1.9% of my AG.

I see why it can take years for most people to qualify. I have a long way to go in a short time if I have any chance at making it this year. Based on last years results, I probably have to drop another half hour off my goal time to make it this year.

All I can do is keep training, race my race and see what happens. It's a good thing I like a challenge and can stay focued for more then a year because it may take a few more.

New Bike

2009-01-15T19:44:00.000-06:00

Back in junior high when I was into BMX I decide to build up my own bike. I picked each part individually, ordered them over a few months and built the bike up. In fact, I may have enjoyed the process of building the bike almost as much as riding and I am still proud of that bike today.

Now that I have been doing triathlons for a few years, I decided I wanted to build up a new race bike. There is nothing wrong with my current tri bike (a 2005 Felt S22). It has been good to me and still works well, but I've decided I would like a full carbon bike and to built it from scratch on my own. Plus I figure since I put more miles on my bike in a year then my car I should have something I'm proud of.

I've started by buying a 2008 Argon 18 e-112 frameset and now I am in the process of picking out all of the other parts. I went back and forth between the e-112 and a Cervelo P2C. The Cervelo is known for being one of the best bikes for the money and there are always hundreds of them at every race. I was really close to gettin a P2C, but I have always really liked the Argon bikes and was able to get an 2008 model which brough the price down to around the same as the P2C so I went for it.

So far I have the frame and fork, and I also have a base bar and aero bars. I will probably just take all of the dura-ace components off of my current bike, clean them up and move them over to this bike instead of spending money on new components.

2009 Goals

2009-01-12T17:45:00.001-06:00

At work I have always hated setting goals and objectives, creating a plan and then having to perform against it all year. I would rather just get my job done. However after years of setting goals setting and measuring results, I have seen the value of it. While I still don't like spending time doing it for work, I have had great success using a similar process for my running and triathlon training.

Each year I set my goals pretty early in the season, however I never share them with others until summer when I have a good idea of how my training has gone (and sometimes I then adjust the goals). This year I figured I would use my new blog to get my goals out there early and see what happens.

I'm only going to focus on 2 races this year, but I'll do a few others for training or fun.

Ironman 70.3 Kansas - 4:40 (0:35, 2:30, 1:30) - I have never seen this course before and I hear it is pretty hilly. However, last year I went 4:40 on a flat course with a 4 minute penalty, so I'm hoping I can still go under 4:40 on a more challenging course.

Ironman Wisconsin - 10:15 (1:10, 5:30, 3:20) - If I hit all of my training, continue to see similar improvements as last year, and stay injury free, I think this is an aggressive but realistic goal.

Here is what I think I need to do to achieve those results

Bike FTP of 265 Watts or 4.2 watts per kilogram (Currently 227 W, 3.5 w/kg)

Run VDOT of 61 (Current 58.2)

Race at 135 pounds (Current 140 on most days)

Stay injury free

Focus on good race execution (i.e. pacing and race day nutrition)

Swim more frequently and faster, no more long easy sets

Summary of 2008

2009-01-01T09:09:00.001-06:00

2008 was a great year for me. As I have mentioned before I spent the year focused on running and qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I achieved that goal at the Chicago Marathon and also qualified for guaranteed entry into the New York Marathon. All of the running really helped my triathlons also. I just rode and swam as recovery from the run workouts and did two tris and PR'ed at both. Additionally, I changed my eating habits early in the year and was able to drop about 15 pounds which greatly helped my running.

Race Results:

Marathon: 2:58:15 @ Chicago Marathon - 342nd out of over 30,000
Half Marathon: 1:21:50 @ Chicago Half Marathon - 53rd out of 10,483
Half Marathon: 1:23:10 @ Rockford Half Marathon - 8th out of 692 - 1st in Age Group
5k: 17:15 @ Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot - 12th overall
5k: 17:51 @ Schaumburg 5k - 7th overall
Half Ironman (70.3): 4:40:24 @ Spirit of Racine - 116th out of 1921 - 7th in Age Group
Olympic Tri: 2:15:19 @ Chicago Triathlon - 35th out of 4089 - 7th in Age Group

Training Totals:

Swim - 293,230 yards in 87 hours, 4 minutes - 1:47 / 100 yd
Bike - 4472.2 miles in 244 hours, 45 minutes - 18.27 mph
Run - 2402.33 miles in 310 hours, 9 minutes - 7:45 minute mile
Total Hours: 642 Hours or 1.75 hours a day average

About Me

2008-12-21T11:00:00.000-06:00

I am a weekend warrior age group runner and triathlete with the dream of qualifying and racing the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI.

Prior to 2004, I had never run more then required in gym class and could only swim well enough to keep my head above water.

In 2004, I was working on a project that required me to travel Monday-Thursday every week. I decided that I wanted to start getting in shape again and began to run on the treadmill in the hotel gym. After a few weeks of running and talking to other co-workers staying there also, they convinced me to sign up for the Chicago Marathon.

My first race ever was the 2004 Chicago Marathon, I finished in 4:10:23 and couldn't walk right for the better part of a week after, but I loved the experience and wanted to do it again.

2005, the same two friends and I, decided we would all learn to swim and sign up for the Chicago Triathlon. Until now swimming for me was trying to keep my head above water so there was a significant learning curve. My first triathlon was a 500 yard swim in lake Michigan and it look me almost 15 minutes, but the bike and run went well. Later that summer I also did the Olympic distance Chicago Triathlon.

2006 - first HIM in 5:30 and second marathon in 3:28, decided I was ready to try an ironman

2007 - first IM in 12:02, I loved every minute of it, even the last 8 miles when I thought I wanted to die. Decided I really wanted to make it to Kona one day.

2008 - took the year off from ironman and focused on running. PR'ed at every distance, including a HIM and 2:58 marathon

2009 - changed jobs so I no longer travel every week and I am going back to Ironman Wisconsin, this time to race