Orbea

I’m really excited to announce that I will be riding Orbea bikes in 2010!

The 2010 Orca.

I know what you’re thinking - you’re thinking, “Hey, didn’t you ride Orbea bikes last year and also the year before?” Yes I did, but this year I will be on brand new Orbeas since I am now officially a sponsored Orbea athlete! So instead of riding my 2008 Orca with its storied past (sold as a used bike on eBay by my local bike shop, shipped to the buyer, carbon frame pierced by a sharp piece of metal during shipment, shipped back to local bike shop, frame repaired by Calfee and given to local professional triathlete - me!), I will be on a brand new 2010 Orca and also a new 2010 Ordu for St. Anthony’s and Ironman 70.3 Worlds.

My 2008 Orca…it has quite the history.

Coaching

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that my coach and I scrambled to make alternate race schedules as it appeared my start spots at the first World Championship Series races of 2010 were in jeopardy. Since that post I received a few questions about my coaching situation and I realized I have failed to mention that I made a coaching change after last season. My coach is now Bobby McGee out of Boulder, CO. For those who don’t know Bobby he is almost entirely a running coach and usually only works with triathletes to improve their running skills. Most notably he works with the USAT National Teams, USAT coaching clinics, as well as the ITU Sport Development program. I first met him at a USAT development camp in Chula Vista, California in 2007 and worked with him sporadically at various USAT camps since then. Although he is primarily a running coach he does have extensive knowledge of triathlon through his experiences with USAT and the ITU. He is definitely the most brilliant coach I know and I’m excited to work with him full time. The system we have set up for coaching is a bit more complicated than I make it sound here but I will save those details for another post.

Bobby (left) working with USAT athletes Matt Chrabot, Sarah Haskins, Mark Fretta and Sarah Groff in Colorado Springs.

That being said I definitely have to thank the person who got me this far. Jennifer Hutchison ‘discovered’ me back in 2006 at a Junior Elite Development race in St. Leo, Florida, and even though she thought I was a girl while I was racing (she had no idea who I was and apparently my Speedo Fast Skin wasn’t very manly looking), she took a chance on coaching me. She basically took me from nothing (and I mean nothing) and turned me into a Collegiate National Champion and a world class triathlete. She was my coach, my nutritionist, my agent, and my number three supporter (behind my parents and her cat Pea the Devon Rex). What’s more, she was and is a great friend and I can’t thank her enough for all she did for me in my athletic career and my life. So if you’re reading this Jennifer, thanks and I’ll see you at St. Anthony’s!

Jennifer and me after St. Anthony’s last year.

Always Cool

It’s always cool to see the ‘zero’ on the Olympic countdown signs here at the OTC. Although I hope I don’t see it in 2012!

All That Worry Was For Nothing!

As I mentioned in my last post I decided not to race in South America in the early season for the first time since 2007. What I didn’t mention, however, was the fact that my start positions for the first few races of the year were in imminent danger - several athletes were in range of passing me on the ITU points list, therefore taking my start spot (if they want it). My coach and I worked hard to come up with alternate race schedules so that I could still have a successful season and be racing World Cups and World Championship Series races by the time the Olympic qualifying period came around. However, I didn’t get passed so we are back to the original plan!

In other news it looks like the ITU points race in Salinas, Ecuador this past weekend didn’t disappoint in terms of South American tomfoolery. A few of my friends have race reports up. Check them out!

Barrett Brandon’s blog

Nick Vandam’s blog

South America Is Nice (But I’m Glad I’m Not Going Back)

This weekend a lot of my friends are heading down to Salinas, Ecuador to race in the ITU Pan American Cup there. The race in Salinas combined with the races last month in La Paz, Argentina, and Viña Del Mar, Chile, constitute the super-early season ITU race schedule in the Americas. I realized last night that this is the first year since 2007 that I am not racing in the early season. As a result, this is the first year since 2007 that I completed a full, uninterrupted base training block! I’m probably the only person who is excited about that. Anyways, there are a lot of things I will miss about South American racing. On the other hand there are even more things that I definitely WON’T miss:

Things I will miss about racing in South America:

1.) The adventure. There is nothing quite so adventurous as going to a third world/developing country to race a triathlon. In stark contrast to the organization of World Championship Series and World Cup races, racing in South America is not only a battle of who can swim, bike, and run the fastest, but also a contest to see who can show up on the start line in the best condition. At the time this can be stressful, but looking back on my South American races it seems like a lot of fun.

2.) Crazy South American race directors. Starting from the first time you email an RD in South America about their race it becomes obvious that things don’t happen in a logical manner south of the border. Pre-race meetings usually turn into a debate on how the ITU rules will be enforced. If you don’t like how the course is set up you can usually argue and get it changed. This is kind of fun and would never happen at a World Cup or World Champs race.

3.) The tropical locales. I’ll admit it - Colorado Springs in the winter is not the most temperate place in the world (it could be worse, though). I would love to get out of here and go somewhere warmer if only for a few days. When I went to Nevis in 2008 it was basically the spring break I never had. That is something I will miss.

Things I definitely won’t miss about racing in South America:

1.) The adventure. Sure, I like a good adventure every now and again, but on the other hand it sure will be nice to NOT have to deal with everything that can go wrong in South America for once. I am fortunate that all of my bad luck occurred after my races in South America - in 2008 I crashed and broke my bike on a training ride after the race in Viña Del Mar, Chile, and last year in Ecuador I ended up in the emergency room after returning to the states due to some sort of viral infection. My good luck (in the sense that I have been able to complete my races in South America before disaster strikes) may well be running out and I don’t want to test that.

2.) Crazy South American race directors. Again, the same things I will miss are the same things I won’t miss. If a South American RD tells you he is arranging an airport transfer for you then you can count on the transfer happening maybe 20% of the time. Everything else is similarly disorganized. It’s nice to be able to race in modern countries and just focus on racing rather than trying to figure out how to survive while also preparing for the race.

3.) Interrupting base training. I love a good early season base phase - it seems to serve me well. This is my tenth and final week of my base training phase. I also have on my schedule the most miles of running in one week EVER for me and I definitely don’t want to sacrifice that. Also, I would have missed the Super Bowl and that wouldn’t be cool.

4.) In no particular order: Dogs chasing me around the race course, pedestrians crossing the course during the race, poorly designed race courses, and preparing for the possibility of getting mugged at any time. Not fun!

Here are some pictures from my South American racing days:

In Chile in 2008. No taxi needed - we’ll just take the luggage cart down this main boulevard to get to the hotel!

Goats wandering the grounds of the airport in Nevis in 2008.

A dog that somebody spray painted purple in Ecuador last year.