Sydney
Well I’m back from Australia and after a whirlwind of jet lag, taxes, and trying to organize all of the new gear I got from Shimano, Orbea and Rudy Project I finally have some time to blog! If nothing else the races in Mooloolaba and Sydney gave me a big list of things to work on before my next race in Seoul in three weeks – open water swimming, bike handling, and lots of other stuff. So that’s what I’ll be doing for a few more weeks in sunny Florida.
As always here are some pics!
I watched most of the women’s race from my 20th floor hotel room
iPhone pic of Barbara about to win.
The opera house at night.
Moo
Finally – internet in Australia! Despite being a fully modern country getting on the interwebs has been a huge issue.
I am very happy with my ninth place finish, although I would describe my swim, bike and T2 as ‘technically unsound.’ Getting ninth with the sixth fastest run isn’t a great statistic! Felt good on the run – there is nowhere to hide on the run course in Mooloolaba.
Anyways, here are some pics:
I thought this was cool – the Mooloolaba Surf Lifesaving club.
Me on the run – photo courtesy Brandon Bailey.
Waiting for the women to come out of the water.
Sarah Groff (in red) using my sweet 24mm Dura Ace wheels.
The lead women’s run pack on lap one.
2010 is Here!
The 2010 season is here! I know this because I just got back to Florida after a 70 day altitude training block and I’m now doing RACE PREP TRAINING!! My first race is in 15 days in Mooloolaba, Australia. I can’t wait to get back down under and hopefully have a better showing than I did last year.
To get everyone excited about the 2010 season the ITU released a promo video today. Unfortunately all this video did was make me exceedingly nervous. However, I’m definitely going to try to star in the 2011 version of this. That means I’m either going to have to be a complete bad ass this year or get in some sort of horrific bike crash. I’m hoping for the former…
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.
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.
French Grand Prix
I just confirmed that I will be racing a few French Grand Prix races next year for the French club Poissy. For those who don’t know what a French Grand Prix race entails, it is a sprint distance draft legal race. A few Americans have raced in the FGP over the years and report that the racing is really, really fast (I guess that is what happens when you put the world’s best ITU racers in a race that is half the distance of a normal ITU race). For those who are familiar with the FGP, well, you know what I have gotten myself into!
2010 Schedule
I finally put together a race schedule for next year! Not that it was that hard – the focus is on the World Championship Series and starting out the 2012 Olympic qualifying process. Starting June 1st any World Championship, World Cup, or Continental Championship (and maybe a few other events as well) will score Olympic ranking points. When the Olympics come around in 2012 I will have to be ranked high enough in this ranking to be eligible to go to the Olympics.
I’m excited about next year simply because I don’t have to race as much. My first half of 2009 was spent collecting ranking points so that I could get a start in the World Championship Series. Now my ranking is high enough that I don’t have to do that in 2010 (as long as I don’t mess up). Last year I raced 17 times whereas this year I only have 12 on the schedule:
Sprint Finish Pictures
It turns out my sprint finish with Luke Bell was fairly well documented by the race photo company. My favorites are when I fall on the finish line photographers because they decided that 10 feet past the finish line was a safe place to be.
http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=47952&BIB=79
Wrapping up 2009
The 2009 racing season is finally over and I definitely ended it on a high note. Things went better than I ever expected during my October altitude training block – I definitely learned a lot about training and how to get myself ready to race. Here are some pics.
My primary November race was the Huatulco World Cup in Mexico. The course has a 16% grade hill on it so I often went out to Cave of the Winds (pictured here) to do some hill repeats in preparation for some tough climbing.
However, October in Colorado Springs isn’t always great for outdoor training.
I didn’t feel very comfortable on my TT bike at the Augusta 70.3 so I drove up to Denver to get fit by Todd Carver in his Retul bike fit studio.
I was lucky enough to be able to attend the International Altitude Training Symposium at the end of October. It was pretty cool to learn about how to train at altitude – it turns out I could be doing a lot of things better.
Alicia Kaye (Jarrod’s wife) and Jarrod in Phoenix. We did a little sprint triathlon as a tune up for Huatulco (and for me, Clearwater).
The Huatulco World Cup is easily the most difficult ITU course I have ever raced on. With temperatures averaging around 100 degrees F, high humidity, and a ~16% grade hill on the eight lap bike course, there’s really nowhere to hide. This year the front bike pack started with around 35 men in it and by lap eight there were only 12 left.
My Colorado Springs room mate Matt Chrabot won it with a daring bike breakaway. I finished eighth – my highest World Cup finish ever! I DNF’d on this course last year so it was nice to redeem myself.
Next up was the Clearwater 70.3 World Champs. As my third race in as many weeks and being that it was only my second 70.3 distance race ever, I wasn’t really expecting much from myself.
Michael Raelert won it! I met him at the Hy-Vee triathlon in June and he’s a great guy. I was happy to see him take the victory. He also gave the funniest awards speech I have heard in awhile!
I started the run in 21st place but ended up in a fight with Luke Bell for sixth! I’m still in disbelief at this result. What a way to end the season!
70.3s are kind of painful.
I’m not gonna lie – it was pretty sweet to stand up on stage at this awards ceremony. I never expected to even be close to the top ten!
2010 World Champs Series
In case you haven’t already seen it, check out the 2010 World Championship Series schedule. With Sydney, Seoul and Budapest being added for 2010 it should be pretty awesome. Not awesome, though, is the complete lack of races in North America. Looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time in Europe next summer!
End of the Season Break – Ironman 70.3 Style
A few days after returning from Australia I flew back to Florida to visit home. It was a great way to unwind after all the traveling and racing of late! While I was down there I helped out at the Kids4Kids youth triathlon clinic in Gainesville, FL (in conjunction with the Kids4Kids Triathlon that happened one week later). I got to watch the Gators play Tennessee (with skybox tickets thanks to the kind folks at the First Coast Kid’s Triathlon!). Lastly, I raced my first half-ironman at the Augusta Ironman 70.3. I know, that’s not generally considered a “post-season relaxation” type of activity, but I wanted to try a 70.3 and this seemed like a good time to do it.
Helping out at the Kids4Kids Triathlon Clinic with Jeff from the UF Sports Performance Center.
Watching the Gators play Tennessee in style!
The pontoon start at Augusta 70.3 felt very much like an ITU race, and with so many short course guys on the start line like Eric Limkemann, Brian Fleischmann and Greg Bennett I kept reminding myself that I was about to race for twice as long as I am used to!
13 miles to go. I’m in ninth at this point, I ended up in seventh.
It turns out seventh place is the last person to get paid. Sweet! I also got a spot at the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater next month.
The Grand Final
I arrived home from Gold Coast on Monday and as I write this I feel like falling asleep for the next eight hours. It’s 12 PM. I woke up at 2:30 AM again this morning and that’s the third time this week. And I might be coming down with a cold or something. Yes, jet lag is tons of fun! It was completely worth it, though. Racing in my first World Championship was an amazing experience.
I arrived fully a week before the race (I wanted to adapt to the time zone before race day as I think that was a problem for me in Hamburg and London). We got into a pretty relaxed routine of running in the morning, biking at mid-day and swimming in the early afternoon at the Southport pool, all with breaks in between to cook some delicious food in our rooms (despite our hotel being generally backwards and disorganized, they did provide cooking supplies which made cooking in the rooms the best option).
Race day came quickly and I went down to the start with Cam and Jarrod around 1:30 PM. The sun sets in Gold Coast around 5:30pm this time of year so our 3:15pm start meant we would be racing in the late afternoon twilight near the end of the run. After a good swim warmup (the first time I have ever swam in a pool for warm up), it was time to race! The water was 20.5 celsius (cold and non-wetsuit!) but the air was warm so I was happy. I chose start spot #29 next to my room mate Matt Chrabot and after a couple of tense minutes the gun went off. I am happy to report that this was the least violent WCS swim of the year for me (although everyone else would have you believe that it was the most violent!). Near the end of the swim an athlete right ahead of me let a small gap open up – that was unfortunate because myself and a small group of 10 or so athletes spent the first two laps of the bike closing that gap down. With Tim Don, Brad Kahlefeldt, Bruno Pais and Matt Chrabot in my group we had enough fire power to get back up to the lead group. The rest of the bike went according to plan – I stayed near the front and out of trouble. I tried to maintain my position into T2 but everyone swarmed around me and after a near crash I maintained my position near the middle.
Just for the record: The pace everyone took that run out in was absolutely ridiculous. My first lap (2.5K) was 7:23 (that’s sub-30 minute 10k pace) and I WAS IN 38th PLACE!!!! After the first lap I was completely red lined so I dropped out of the group I was in and ran my own race. I expected people to start blowing up ahead of me but no such thing happened. My second lap was 8:25 (33:40 10k pace). I caught onto a group of two runners and recovered a bit, putting my third lap at 8:21. I picked it up on the last lap, running 8:15, and caught caught a couple of guys up the road. I ended up in 37th, running a 32:20 on a 10K course that was probably 200 to 300 meters short.
That’s about it – I went down to watch the women’s race the next day. It was nice to be done and only have to watch other people race! The USA had some good performances lead by Sarah Haskin’s fourth place in the women’s race, Kevin McDowell’s fourth place in the junior men’s race (the highest junior men’s finish since 2005), Jarrod’s 10th place in the overall World Championship series, Greg Billington’s 13th in the U23 men, Lauren Goldstein-Kral’s really fast run to finish 12th in the U23 women, and Jessica Broderick and Jen Howland finishing 16th and 17th in the junior girls race in the highest junior girls finishes for the USA for as long as I can remember!
Taking it out WAY too fast on the first lap of the run! Photo by Jayme Ramson.
Short Race Report/Pics from Elite Nats
This past weekend marked my fourth time racing in the US Elite National Championship and also my third year in a row racing in Tuscaloosa, AL. I have lots of good memories from Tuscaloosa including winning the Collegiate National Championship in 2007. This year was a bit different in that I got to race on the draft legal course similar to the one used for last year’s Olympic Trials race.
I raced decently but wouldn’t call it an amazing performance by any means. I certainly redeemed myself for coming out of the swim in fourth to last place in the London WCS the weekend prior. In fact, I came out in the second group, 25 seconds down on former University of Florida swimmer (also fellow graduate of UF c/o 2008) Dustin McLarty. I was in great position.
Out onto the bike a small problem arose when my shoe strap came undone and I couldn’t strap my shoe on my left foot. It was very bad timing and I was summarily dropped by Matt Chrabot and Tim O’Donnell on our first time up the major hill on the course. After fixing my shoe I hopped onto the Matt Reed/Mark Fretta train and quickly found myself back in the front group. Chrabot and Brian Fleischmann attacked on the last lap and got a 25 second lead going into the run. I figured that 25 seconds was not going to be too much to make up on Chrabot on the run…but I was wrong.
Out onto the run I realized after 2.5K that I my running legs weren’t all there. I held onto 5th place, my highest finish ever at an Elite Nationals. Also, I got third in USAT’s 2012 Race Series. Anyways, here are some pics:
Heading down to the swim start.
A lot of fast swimmers choosing the wrong side of the pontoon! We were on the other side – closer to the shore with less current.
We got out to a fast start from the right side. Dustin McLarty is at the top of the picture and Kyle Leto, Nick Vandam, Chrabot and me are at the bottom. Dustin tried to lead people out into the current but nobody followed him. So he cut over closer to the shore – pretty much swimming circles around us.
Exiting the water: O’Donnell, Brown, Leto, Me and Chrabot.
The lead group of 8 on the bike.
Onto the run…
Quick Update
I raced in London last weekend. It was somewhat of a catastrophe. In retrospect I chose a very bad start position on the pontoon and got beat up pretty bad on the swim. My goal for the swim was to stay very alert and pay attention to closing down gaps so as to stay in good position the whole time. Unfortunately it is hard to close gaps when somebody swims over the top of me or punches me in the back of the head every time I try to make a move.
I exited the water fourth to last and knew my day was over. I worked with an Australian for a lap but then he hit a pothole and crashed. So I was all by myself. Knowing the US National Championship was coming up seven days later I decided to do a bit of a workout out on the course until I got lapped out. Oh, and at some point during the swim or T1 I broke a toe. Not sure how that happened, but it doesn’t hurt too bad and I can still swim, bike and run so it’s all good.
Anyways, I’m back home now and heading out to Tuscaloosa tomorrow to race at US Nationals this weekend. I will be good and fresh for the race since I didn’t finish London and the weather is playing into my favor – hot and humid! I have some pics from London, I’ll post those ASAP.
Some Pics from Hamburg
My first World Championship Series race was a success this past weekend in Hamburg. I struggled a bit in the swim but felt strong on the bike and the whole race came together into one big ~40 man pack. My run was solid, too, and I ended up in 23rd place. Also, I came away with a few things I can improve on for my next WCS race which should be in London in a few weeks. Here are a few pics from the weekend:
Jarrod is the man! He won in convincing fashion and that’s the first World Cup/World Champs level victory by an American in a long time. Awesome.
The weather was pretty bad for the women’s race but that didn’t stop the huge Hamburg crowds from coming out.
The women swimming under the bridge.
Struggling to take pictures from the grandstands.
These things are delicious. I know that these are available in the United States but the writing isn’t in German so that’s not as fun.
I am slightly obsessed with Nutella.
I finally went to the Birkenstock store and got some sandals. I have meant to do that for the past three years.
San Fran (In July)
On the podium in San Fran with (left to right) Tenille Hoogland, myself, Simon Whitfield, Alexis Smith, Lindsey Jerdonek, Andrew McCartney, and a whole lot of sparkling apple cider!
I feel like I just posted about this race not too long ago. Oh wait, I did – this race is usually in November. This year, though, the race was moved to July and things were a bit different – the water was warmer, it was sunny during the race, and I showed up a lot fitter!
Dustin McLarty destroyed the swim (he came out of the water over one minute ahead of me apparently swimming ‘warm up speed’). I bungled T1 – as I exited the water I took off both my wetsuit AND race suit (not all the way, just to my waist thankfully!). I only lost a few seconds, though. Out onto the bike I found myself in the chase pack and rode 40K at a leisurely Sunday stroll pace except for a couple of unsuccessful attacks (frustrating). I came into T2 2:40 down and ran the fastest 10K of the day (Simon shut it down with a 2+ minute lead) to end up in third place. Not bad!
Overall it was a good weekend. San Fran was fun, it was great to meet Simon Whitfield, my homestay was awesome (thanks John and Lindsay!), and of course the annual Cal Berkeley tri team post race festivities were entertaining to say the least.
Now it’s time to go practice taking my wetsuit off.
Hy-vee
I just finished watching last weekend’s race on NBC – wow, what a sprint finish! Brad Kahlefeldt always seems to fall in sprint finishes, or maybe he is diving for the line? Either way he must get some serious road rash. It was also interesting to see the crash on the second lap of the bike on film. I didn’t think they had cameras around at the time. Yes, that was me doing some serious crash avoidance (I was the guy who squeezed through the middle of the two crash victims). To quote my coach: Nothing good ever happens at the back of the pack! I’m pretty lucky that I didn’t go down myself. Anyways, watching the race reminded me that I still need to post my race report! I wrote this earlier in the week but never posted it. My bad. Here it is:
Race day started out as most days do in Iowa in late June – hot and humid! I was pretty excited because I seem to do well in hot races. I should, I’m from Florida! Much to my disappointment, however, rainstorms rolled in right before the men’s race, cooling the air down by a good 15 degrees. In the end it didn’t matter – I was ready to go no matter what the conditions so I went about my warm up and soon the introductions for the men’s race started.
With race # 48 on my arm I didn’t have many good choices for start position on the pontoon. I chose a start position next to fellow Americans Ethan Brown and Brian Fleischmann, both very good swimmers, and hoped for the best. The horn went off and the race for the $200,000 winner’s check was on! The first 300 meters to the first buoy were relatively calm and fast, but the first buoy ended that abruptly. I arrived at the first buoy at the same time as about 20 other guys and got completely pummeled and found myself dunked underwater, unable to breath for what seemed like an eternity (but it was probably only about five seconds). I finally made it around, caught my breath, regained my composure and kept swimming. Despite my troubles at the first buoy I still exited the water on the first lap in the middle of the front group. I thought I was much farther back! The second lap was mostly smooth sailing and I finished the swim 15 seconds behind the leader. After sprinting to transition I solidified myself into the front bike pack in the first quarter mile of the bike.
With $200,000 on the line I knew the attacks would soon commence so I did my best to rest and get ready to respond to the accelerations. The pace remained very high in the front pack as we tried to hold off two packs behind us with some serious running firepower (Jarrod Shoemaker and Will Clarke for example). I tried to move up in the pack but with the whole pack strung out into a long line it was nearly impossible. Being at the back is very dangerous and my fears were soon realized: Two guys crashed right in front of me. A Korean athlete’s wheel slipped into a groove in the pavement and he freaked out and went down, taking out fellow American Tim O’Donnell at 30+ mph. As the Korean athlete slid to the left, Tim slid to the right and I somehow managed to squeeze through the middle without going down as water bottles and other miscellaneous bike parts flew everywhere. I spent the next quarter mile chasing back onto the front pack, eventually succeeding but not without completely red lining for several minutes. I was unsure how much of an effect that effort would have on my run, but I was still in the front pack and that was all that mattered. Eventually the second and third chase packs caught us. The pace remained high the whole bike as Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot launched attack after attack off the front. Matt Reed eventually escaped with Stuart Hayes of Great Britain, and a second successful break came from Tim Don and Danylo Sapunov of the Ukraine. I came into T2 still near the back of our enormous 44-man pack.
The little run group that formed: Halverson, Clarke, me, Ellice.
The first few steps of the run confirmed what I had hoped – I was going to have a great run. I moved up from around 40th place to 15th in the first mile. Knowing my initial pace was unsustainable for 10K I settled on the shoulders of Will Clarke of Great Britain. We were eventually joined by Gareth Halverson of Australia and the three of us paced off of each other for the next 5 kilometers. Around the 8K mark Will launched an attack and I followed. Gareth did not. Then Will launched again, this time dropping me. At this point I was paying dearly for my efforts from earlier in the run. With 1K to go Gareth passed me again and I had no response. Running in 13th place as the second American was so far and above my expectations for this race that I think I was also suffering from a bit of complacency. I should have given Gareth and Will a better run for their money (literally)! I finished up in 13th place, my highest World Cup finish ever. I also made a bit of money! And by ‘a bit’ I mean I made more than I have ever made in one day, ever! More importantly, though, I showed I could race at the highest level in the sport, and that means more to me than anything else.
I’m back to training now with two more races coming up soon: The San Francisco Triathlon on July 11 and my first World Championship Series start in Hamburg on July 26.
I never knew how good I had it in my Kiwami suit until I had to wear my old Speedo to match my World Team Champs team on Sunday! Not comfortable.
Coach said she would make me cookies for a top 10 but I guess 13th was OK, too.
Hy-vee Highlights
Well the Hy-vee triathlon weekend is officially over and things went pretty well for me! The race was epic so I’m going to write a full race report later. In the mean time here are a few highlights from the weekend:
1) 1:08
That was the time gap from me to the race winner Simon Whitfield – 1 minute 8 seconds. The podium at yesterday’s race contained two Olympic gold medals and one silver so I am without a doubt excited about my finish. That indicates some serious improvements not only in my overall running speed but also my tactical awareness on the run and my ability to match accelerations. Underlying that was a solid swim and bike that put me in the front pack from the start. Sweet.
2) Simon Whitfield actually talked to me
That’s right, not only did I get to race against the Canadian Olympic Gold (Sydney) and Silver (Beijing) medalist, but he actually acknowledged my existence before the race! He told me to “stop running into people with my bike.” At the time I wasn’t aware that I was running into people with my bike, but it was sound advice nonetheless and I made sure to not run into anybody else with my bike from that point on. It’s pretty awesome to be able to race against guys like Simon. It would be even sweeter if I could just run 3 or 4 seconds per kilometer faster…
3) Our relay team didn’t get last
I’m happy to report that our relay team did not get last place – we beat Mexico Team II and USA Team IV. We’re awesome.
4) ITU racing is where it’s at
As Paulo Sousa recently reported in his June 23 post, ITU racing is definitely where it’s at. The new ITU World Championship Series is bringing the sport to new levels in terms of athletic ability, epic venues for racing, and live coverage around the world. Thus far in the first year of the series three races were decided by a sprint finish and a review of the finish line photo-finish camera. A few other races featured daring bike breakaways that decided the race winners. Paulo is right, Ironman can’t come close to providing the same amount of excitement or professionalism that ITU racing has. The rest of the world has known this for awhile. Hopefully these past two weekends of epic ITU style racing in Washington D.C. and West Des Moines changed the minds of a few iron-centric folks in the United States. Here are some great pics from this past weekend’s race from the ITU website:
Mark Fretta making a flying leap into the water for the second lap of the swim.
T2 chaos.
Simon Whitfield is pumped! I would be excited too if I just won $140,000 after taxes.
One Weekend, Two Races
I’m currently sitting in West Des Moines, Iowa, awaiting a weekend full of big races. The first is the Hy-vee Elite Cup on Saturday. It is actually a World Cup in terms of ranking points but it gets the special designation of “Elite Cup” because it has such a huge prize purse ($1,000,000). With $200,000 to the winner and a 75 deep payout the field is pretty stacked. Then, on Sunday, the ITU is putting on the ITU Triathlon Team World Championship – a mixed triathlon relay that the ITU hopes will make it into the 2012 Olympics in London. As for me, I’m coming off a big four week altitude training block and fully five weeks of not racing. I’m definitely in racing withdrawal so I can’t wait to toe the line twice in one weekend!
The Hy-vee Triathlon race committee really went all out for this weekend’s races. It’s so easy to focus on my race when things are taken care of as professionally as they are at this race! Every athlete racing in the World Cup has free accommodation for the weekend at hotels near the race site in West Des Moines. I arrived at my hotel and was immediately given some ‘arrival gifts’ from the Hy-Vee Triathlon – a race bag full of everything I could possibly need for the weekend from cereal to sun screen, as well as a few other items (see picture below). A few minutes later a knock at the door signaled the arrival of two full crates of bottled water (48 16oz bottles) and an equal amount of grape Gatorade Propel. That’s enough water/Propel to hydrate a small army. Although it was almost 100 degrees F today, maybe I will drink it.
Free stuff!
As for the race, I think I can do quite well. Training at altitude in Colorado Springs over the past month went fairly well. OK, it went really well. But good training doesn’t always carry over to great race results so I’m just going to head out there on race day and line up in the most competitive field since the Olympics and see where I end up. Hopefully it goes well!
The second race of the weekend, the ITU Triathlon Team World Championship, consists of teams of two men and two women racing in a relay format. Each person on the team has to complete a 250 meter swim, 7K bike, and a 1.8K run before handing off to the next relay team member. Obviously the team who gets their last athlete across the line first is World Champion! There is currently a lot of speculation as to who is going to be fielded from each country. Well, as the self-elected team captain (running unopposed since nobody else is aware of the position) of USA Team III I’m going to release our roster. I know, everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting for this! Here it is:
Mary Beth Ellis (2009 Pan American Champion, 2009 Escape from Alcatraz Champion)
Kevin Collington (kind of a big deal/ridiculously fit/Olympic Training Center napping champion)
Kate Ross (2008 USA Junior National Champion)
Greg Billington (12th 2007 Junior Worlds)
So there it is. We should do pretty well. We definitely won’t get last (I hope).
Austin Pan Am Cup…Second Place!
I’m excited to report I placed second in yesterday’s Austin Pan American Cup! Despite a poor swim, I was able to stay in contention on the bike and battled it out for the win with New Zealand’s Callum Millward on the run. It came down to a drag race style sprint in the last 100 meters and he got me. Here are a few pics from the race (courtesy of Ashish Patel):
I got beat up quite a bit at the start of the swim and found myself pretty far back in this long, strung out men’s field.
Cameron Dye and Mark Van Akkeren set a blistering pace in the swim.
Onto the bike I found myself in the fourth pack on the road. We had a lot of good cyclists and we caught the two packs in front of us. A group of three stayed away (Brian Fleischmann, Cameron Dye, and Mark Van Akkeren) and had a gap of a little over one minute heading out onto the run.
The men’s podium: Me (second), Callum Millward of New Zealand (first), and Martin Van Barneveld also of New Zealand (third)
The women’s podium: Hayley Peirsol (USA – second), Kate McIlroy (NZL – first), Jenna Shoemaker (USA – third).
Champagne!
The water was 1000 times cleaner than last weekend in Oklahoma City. This was a turtle swimming around in the swim venue.
Pics From Pan Am Champs
Swim start.
Exiting the swim about 20 seconds off the lead.
Just crossed the finish line for ninth.
Photos courtesy Rocky Chen.
Mexico – Next Right… and Pan Am Champs
It was about a week ago today that I finally piled all of my earthly belongings into my car and departed the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center. It was definitely a bittersweet departure – I will miss training in Chula for sure. On the other hand it was starting to get ridiculously hot there (I think it capped out at 103 one day before I left, causing some serious bonking to occur on a training run). Also, I was headed out to two weekends of racing in the midwest so I was pretty excited about that. I left Chula at 8:45 AM last Monday and arrived in my final destination of Ft. Worth, TX at 7:00 PM on Tuesday. That’s 22 hours of driving with a one night rest stop in Las Cruces, NM. In sharp contrast to my two days of travel, Ethan left Chula Vista three hours after me and arrived in Ft. Worth that same night (flying). I definitely don’t suggest driving long distances to races if you don’t have to – it’s just too much sitting.
Anyways, after 1200 miles of driving along I-8, I-10, and I-20 and countless signs saying “Mexico – next right” (and one confused sign that said “Mexico – next left”), I finally arrived in Ft. Worth at my friend Barrett’s house and it wasn’t long before we departed for the Pan American Championship in Oklahoma City. The entire Chula crew was racing here and we were excited to see how we would fare in what would be the biggest race of the season thus far for most of us. For me the race didn’t pan out exactly as I hoped but I did manage a top ten finish. I haven’t done a real race report in a long time so I figure I will do one now. Read on!
The swim was a one lap swim in the Oklahoma River and I’m just going to spare the niceties right now: that was the dirtiest place I have ever swam in a triathlon. I can’t even think of anywhere that comes close. In the end it didn’t matter because it is a race and I race where I’m told to race and that’s that. Maybe it was the rain from the night before that made the river exceptionally dirty on race day, but dang! Dirty. Anyways, the swim started and I got out relatively clean for the first 300 meters only to see a ten meter gap open up around the first two turn buoys. I spent the next 1000 meters death flogging myself to close this gap and I eventually succeeded. Knowing my track record of making front packs after exiting the water on the very back of a swim pack, I made a serious attempt to move up a bit which I was also successful in doing. In the end I exited the water near the tail end of the front swim pack but with five or six guys behind me.
Onto the bike a series of unfortunate events happened right in front of me. First, Brian Fleischmann had a bit of trouble mounting his bike and lost control, crashing into Steve Sexton. Steve didn’t go down, but he did lose his shoe in the middle of the road, and as I passed he was going back to fetch it. I roomed with Steve for the past four months in Chula Vista so I have seen Steve get stressed out on almost a daily basis. However, the look on Steve’s face as I passed was a completely different level of panic and stress that I have never seen before, and rightfully so! He didn’t finish the race. Back to my race, though. After I passed Steve I looked up and saw a pretty big gap had opened up between myself and the next guy – about 20 seconds.
So a second pack formed that included myself, Ethan, Barrett, Brian Fleischmann, Matt Seymour, two Brasilians, an Argentinian rider, Andrew Russell from Canada, and Javier Cuevas from the Dominican Republic. Dispensing with the niceties again, this pack was completely useless. In retrospect it was probably Ethan and my responsibility to organize this pack in to a pace line, but honestly we were both looking to Brian Fleischmann to take some initiative. Brian wasn’t doing anything, though – he was either demoralized because he should have been in the front pack or he was saving his legs for the run. Either way, our pack held a 20 to 30 second gap for 15 kilometers and then started to hemorrhage massive amounts time to the front pack. The gap ballooned up to three minutes by the end of the bike and we were caught by a HUGE third pack of 30+ guys 3 kilometers from the bike finish. So that made T2 a huge mess.
Out onto the run our pack was effectively running for at best a seventh place finish (the front pack that was three minutes up had six guys in it). I never really found a rhythm on the run and at one point I faded as far back as 13th place. I had a strong second half and managed to finish up in ninth. It was definitely not the breakout performance that I know I’m capable of at this point, but I did manage to pick up some ITU points and a little bit of money.
Anyways, I’m racing again this weekend at the CapTexTri so maybe I can redeem myself there! If I happen to find any pictures from this past weekend I’ll post those later.
St. Anthony’s v. 4.0
This past weekend I raced St. Anthony’s for the fourth year in a row. St. A’s is definitely my favorite race – it’s one of the biggest triathlons in the world, the field is always stacked, the course is flat and fast, and it’s right in my home state! It’s also a great way to evaluate fitness in the early season. The course never changes so I can make direct comparisons year-over year.
So how did it go? Well, the swim was rough – so rough, in fact, that the entire swim for the age group race was canceled! The professionals still got to swim but I definitely felt sorry for all of the amateurs. Duathlons suck! But I agree with the decision made by race director Philip Lahaye – that water was harsh! I got knocked around quite a bit. Once out of the water, though, I think I put together a pretty good race. My 57:30 on the bike was the best 40K I’ve ever ridden in a non-draft race (yes, I rode a 56:22 in 2008, but so many guys came together into a legal non-draft stagger that I don’t really consider that a solo ride). I ran up into the top 10 with a 32:14 10K that definitely exceeded expectations, fully 58 seconds faster than last year.
Having a trainer in transition is sweet when they make you put bikes in transition the day before.
Into T2.
Second fastest run of the day!
It’s funny because the age groupers got these as awards, too.
Carlsbad 5000 – What Makes It So Fast?
The Carlsbad 5000 claims to be the “world’s fastest 5K,” and having raced this 5K road race yesterday I can say that it is very fast. I ran a PR of 15:12, more than a half minute faster than my previous best road time of 15:51. During the race I think I also set a PR in every distance from the 40 yard dash all the way to 5K – the race started in a dead sprint for the first turn, I ran through the mile in the front group in 4:42, hit two miles at 9:40, and three miles around 14:42. In retrospect it was a lot of fun to run the race in that manner (red lining from the gun), but during the race it kind of sucked. The winner of the pro men’s race ran a 13:19, 19 seconds away from the road 5K world record of 13:00 set at Carlsbad in 2000. Jarrod Shoemaker ran a blistering 14:13 to take 14th in the men’s pro race. In the end, though, the Carlsbad 5000 is just another road 5K – so what makes this course so fast?
Ethan made a good point that the course is actually slightly undulating and this makes it faster. As you run the course you work different muscles going up the slight uphill portions than on the slight downhill portions. Consequently certain muscles are “resting” while others are working, making the runners fatigue less quickly. Another reason is the quality of field – there were over 8,000 runners at the race divided over five races. My race alone (men & women 29 and under) had over 1,700 runners. My time of 15:12 would win 99% of local road races in my home town of Orlando but only got me fifth in my race (13th overall in the age group catagories). I had a group of runners to run with all the way up to around 4K, and this pacing definitely helped me go faster. However, I think that the biggest reason everyone runs fast on this course is that everyone just thinks that the course is fast. Carlsbad is just a normal road 5K course (in fact it has two u-turns that definitely are not fast), but almost everyone goes into the race thinking they are going to run fast and in turn almost everyone does just that!
Mark Fretta leading the men’s 29 and under race in 2006.
Steve, Ethan and I went to hand out awards at the Carlsbad kiddie’s races on Saturday.
