Guatape
Who knew that doing climbing repeats of El Peñón before the race would ruin my taper?! Kidding…I just had a horrific race. Let’s not talk about it. Time to look forward to 2012. El Peñón did provide for a nice post-race cool down workout, though:
Oh Yeah I Raced This Past Weekend
The race this past weekend blended so well into my normal routine that I almost forgot to post about it! Other than acting as a homestay for Barrett Brandon and his wife Lauren, as well as Greg “the Future of Triathlon” Billington, I didn’t stray too far from the norm.
Anyways, the race took place in Lake Louisa State Park. It was a sprint distance Pan American Cup with ITU ranking points on the line so it attracted quite a talented field from all over the world. I do almost all of my cycling workouts inside the park so I definitely knew the course quite well. Lake Louisa itself is so shallow that the swim was a non-factor – I probably only swam 300 meters total, spending the rest of the time either running or dolphin diving. A huge front pack formed up halfway through the first of four laps on the bike and this was how we entered T2. I came out of T2 right in the middle of the field and immediately ran straight to the front of the race. My run fitness seemed to be quite good entering the race so my confidence was high but after about four minutes of running right behind the leaders I blew up fantastically. I faded hard to 16th. This was not at all the result I thought myself capable of. Hopefully I can make up for it in Mooloolaba!
Here is a video of the finish starting with the third place finisher Kaleb Van Ort:
After the race USAT hosted a cycling skills camp. This is exactly what I needed. We Americans are not known for our bike handling skills (with the exception of a few skilled athletes). Let’s just say that it would take more than my fingers and toes to count the number of times American World Championship Series ‘regulars’ hit the pavement last year in races, and I contributed one to that number! Michael Heitz was our instructor and he was awesome!
The highlight of the weekend was a spirited game of three-on-three ‘trashball,’ a game played on a grass field where the objective is to pick up a small foam ball and score it into a trash can, all while riding bikes. Additional rules state that all three members of the team must possess the ball before scoring, and no single rider can possess the ball for more than three seconds. It turns out that Greg Billington is pretty much the Lebron James of trashball (Sidney Crosby for my Canadian readers). I specialized in defense and definitely stacked pretty hard a couple of times to prevent others from scoring. Thankfully I didn’t break my bike (or myself) so it’s all good.
European Adventure
It’s time to race again! I’m off to Europe today for three races in as many weeks.
It all starts this weekend at the FISU World University Championship in Erdek, Turkey. Both our men’s and women’s teams are very strong and were recently described as the ”strongest team we have ever taken to the FISU race” by FISU coach Andy Schmitz. Here is the roster:
Men
Greg Billington (Spokane, Wash.) – 2007 USAT Junior Elite Athlete of the Year, 2007 USAT Junior National Champion, 2006, 2007 and 2008 USAT Junior Worlds Team Member, 2006 Junior Aquathlon World Champion
Barrett Brandon (Fort Worth, Texas) – 2004 USAT U23 Worlds Team Member, 2004 USAT Collegiate National Champion, 2004 FISU Worlds Team Member
Ethan Brown (Lowell, Mass.) – 2007 USAT U23 National Champion, 2008 USAT U23 Worlds Team Member, 2006 FISU Worlds Team Member
Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) – Kind of a big deal
Steve Sexton (Davis, Calif.) – 2008 USAT Collegiate National Champion, 2006 FISU Worlds Team Member
Women
Amanda Felder (Houston, Texas) – 2005 and 2008 USAT Collegiate National Champion, 2006 FISU Worlds Team Member
Lauren Goldstein-Kral (Shaker Heights, Ohio) – 2007 USAT Junior Elite Athlete of the Year, 2007-2008 USAT Junior Worlds Team Member
Jennifer Spieldenner (Findlay, Ohio) – 2005 USAT Junior National Champion, 2006 and 2007 USAT U23 Worlds Team Member
Justine Whipple (Duxbury, Mass.) – 2007 USAT U23 National Champion, 2006 and 2007 Collegiate National Champion, 2007 and 2008 U23 Worlds Team Member, 2007 and 2008 U.S. Armed Forces National Champion
Most of us get into Istanbul on Wednesday at which point we get on a ferry to take us across this Sea of Marmara to the city of Erdek, Turkey. Erdek is a popular tourist destination for Turkish citizens and is located on a peninsula in the southern part of the Sea of Marmara.
After the race in Erdek, Steve, Ethan and I are continuing on to Hamburg to race in the Hamburg World Cup the following weekend. The Hamburg World Cup is a pretty big event in Germany as more than 300,000 people usually line the streets on race day. Last year I raced here when it was the U23 World Championship.
Javier Gomez leading the run in last year’s Triathlon World Championship in Hamburg
The following weekend Steve and I are continuing on yet again to race in the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary. I’m not quite sure what to expect here but I do know that the event is a very big deal in the small town of Tiszaujvaros. Looks like a fun race to me.
