Best of the US, on 5.5 weeks of training

Wow...I have been slacking the last few months.  Life has been pretty busy, but I guess that is expected for 2nd year of medical school.  I am in the middle of cardiology right now and had my first test this morning.  The rest of the week will have more focus on resting (which will be hard with school...) since I am racing this weekend in Arizona as the Nebraska representative at Best of the US triathlon.  You may be wondering, "I didn't know you were racing still?"  Well, neither did I.  In fact, I haven't raced since mid July, and spent the following 2 months being fairly lazy (and only touched the pool once).  Jerry MacNeil contacted me in mid September and asked if I would represent NE.  Deciding that I couldn't turn this down, I decided to give it a shot.  I hit the pool the following day, and began doing 3-4 two a days per week.  My training plan was simple; do some hard stuff on the bike 1-2 times per week, and hope that the legs respond.  Essentially, I completely skipped the base training phase and went into 4 weeks of the build phase.  I am not an obsessive volume guy compared to most and planned to hit 9-12 hours of training during this time.  The breakdown was about 5-7ish hours of cycling, 2-2.5 hours of swimming, 1.5-2 hours of running per week.  After this build phase, I gave myself 1.5ish weeks to 'peak' and recover.

 My swimming speed jumped back very fast, and within a few weeks I was actually swimming faster than I did all summer.  Granted, I never felt like I swam well this summer.  Likewise, cycling has been going pretty well, although the off time at the end of summer will definitely hurt me; my concern is the length of the bike (about 29 miles), which will be longer than any race I did this summer.  Lastly, the run... I always bank on my run, but that may not go well.  I always race myself into running shape (literally) each summer as I don't usually have the extra energy/time to throw in a running workout (since I am more focused on improving cycling and swimming).  So the first few races are more of a distant muscle memory on the run.  However, I don't have room for error this weekend, and the last time that I ran fast (even close to race pace) was in mid July.  Ignorance is bliss, as it allows me to pretend that I can run faster right now than I really can. It was my mindset going into Apple Du, and I still ran well even though I ran a 'conservative' race. That being said, I absolutely need to run well if I want to have a good race.  The longer bike will put me even farther behind, and if I don't pass alot of guys on the run, I will not place well.

I can't expect too much given the shortened training period, but based on where my fitness was when I peaked in mid July, I know what I am capable of.  My injury after Annandale tri shortened my peak racing season, and if I can get close to that level, things will go very well.  

Feeling ready

Lets hope that this taper week goes better than last!

Lifetime Fitness - some days you have it, some days you don't

I've seen better days than yesterday's race, but that is how it goes.  It was probably the most important race of my summer but I managed to mess it up pretty badly.  I planned my taper for last week and this coming week.  While I was pretty pissed about it yesterday, I am trying to stay optimistic as I have another big race in 7 days.  The last thing I need is a lack of confidence next week.  

The morning started out nice and early, as my alarm went off at 4 am.  After a quick breakfast, I left Waconia with my parents at 4:30.  The drive went quicker than expected, and I was in the transition area by 5:15.  A race official went by our rack and told us that the elite amateurs would not be able to wear wetsuits!  This was not good news since it means I will lose even more time on the swim.  Fortunately the guy had no idea what he was talking about and we were allowed to wear wetsuits.  I did a 15 min bike warmup, some strides, and got out of transition before they closed it at 6:30.  The pro men started at 7:00 am followed shortly after by the pro women and corporate challenge relay.  The next wave was the elite amateur field, consisting of about 50 men from all over the country, and it was fun to have a running beach start.  My first step in the water was rough as I stepped on a sharp rock and sliced my foot.  We quickly caught some guys in the wave ahead of us, and it was very annoying that we started so close behind them.  I got out of the water alot slower than I expected, just behind Eric and Hauck, but the swim was probably a little long.

Onto the bike, I didn't know what to expect.  I have heard that the course is technically challenging and slow.  But it seemed to be going well right off the bat.  Most of the guys in the race aren't from MN so it was hard to know how well I was doing.  I didn't really know if I was biking well (speedometer was broken) and kept expecting to catch Dennis Dane and Eric on the bike.  It never happened, and in fact, I got torched on the bike.  It really couldn't have gone much worse, and with my first week of taper, I expected to see big results on the bike.  In retrospect, I probably didn't train very smart two weeks ago.  By next weekend, I'm hoping the bike comes around as I've focused most on that all year.  

By the run, I was just trying to do damage control, but it didn't go very well.  the 10k consists of two loops around lake nakomis and a little out and back section.  I managed to catch a few guys, but I was out of any race up front by this point.  The last two miles I slowed and finally finished.  All around, it was an upsetting day on the race course.  And it would have been a good day to bring my A game since there were 10 different states represented in the top 20!  An unbelievable field in our own backyard.  My good buddy Sam Hauck had a phenomenal race, snagging the 5th spot today.  Top 5 get a free trip to the US Open triathlon in Texas this fall.  Dennis Dane was right on his tail, taking 6th place, and Eric was 10th.  I was somewhere in the 'teens...

I'll have to redeem myself next weekend.

Big Week

I am racing the Lifetime Fitness triathlon this Saturday in Minneapolis and am hoping I can put together a complete race.  I can't afford to have a sub-par swim, or transitions as it will be a very tight race.  There is alot of out of state talent coming in for the elite amateur race, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, as well as guys from the west and east coast states.  I have never done this race but watched it last year.  It was alot of fun and a ton of spectators lined the course.

The pro race will be another exciting one!  The field is completely stacked with world class athletes, including 23 men and 16 women working for the first place 60,000 dollar prize purse.  Guys are here from Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc... and include the 70.3 world champion, an olympic gold medalist, 2 of the 3 representatives from the US triathlon olympic team.  You have to be a touch notch pro to get into this race and it is unfortunate that I will not be able to watch as my wave starts directly after these guys.  Should be a fun weekend.  Now I just gotta make sure I train smart this week.

Swimming Olympic Trials!

I drove down to Omaha on Monday to work with the medical team at the swimming olympic trials this week.  The homecoming was bittersweet, as the power went out last week in a huge storm, and my apartment still has no power.  Unfortunately, all of the meat in my freezer had to be thrown and I am staying at a friends place for a few days.  The atmosphere at Qwest Center is quite an experience; 12,000 fans poured into the stands last night to watch the finals.  They built 2 pools in this facility, the 50 meter competitive pool and another warmup pool adjacent to this.  It is fun to see some of the top guys, like Micheal Phelps and Katie Hoff, and how they handle the pressure.  Phelps looked calm, but I guess that is expected for a guy who basically has to screw up big time to not make the team in all of his events.  But it is interesting seeing what these guys have available for them.  I heard of a few swimmers say they have 3 massages a day for the most part!  They have massage trainers on hand for free massages to all the swimmers which is pretty cool, and the top swimmers probably brought their own masseuse to do this for them.  I think massages are some of the best training/recovery tools that an athlete can use; unfortunately, most do not have the opportunity or money to get one on a regular basis.  But self massage comes in handy, or convincing a friend to tear into your calf and hamstrings for you.  The other interesting thing I saw was that the athletes utilized lactate meters.  While it is not very surprising, it is just another useful tool many swimmers use to monitor their levels after a race and during their cooldown.  I read somewhere that Phelps lactate level after a 200 meter race (cant remember which race) is around 5 mmol while most will be at 10-15 mmol.  His level of clearance is far superior to most and just shows why he can do so many races and recover so quickly.  And I noticed after one of his races, that he warmed down for probably half the time as alot of the other swimmers.  

Another thing that is mind boggling about swimmers is their volume of training.  There was one teenager girl that was in getting some ultrasound; she was telling me about her training and said she is in the pool from 6-8am and 3-5pm.  I have always known about the ridiculous volume of training swimmers do, but just thinking about middle school and high schoolers training 4 hours a day seems absurd.  I could barely get myself to go on 3 mile runs max in high school, and I was lucky to do 5  18-20 min runs a week (which I called 3 miles...).  My focus was to just get it done, and I hated getting out the door.  Granted I had absolutely no idea about training in high school, and it was only until college that I realized most people ran 3-5 times as much as me.  I remember meeting a high schooler once who said he ran 70 miles a week, and I didn't believe him!  I was thinking, I barely run your daily volume in one week!  I guess that is what you get for small town sports.  The other reason I never thought about running more was because I was always getting injured anyways due to my high arches (and probably lack of any base training).  Needless to say, it took me two years of collegiate running until I finally put in consistent training, and my first time over 50 miles a week was the summer before junior year of college.  Cross country in the subsequent fall was my breakout season, after which I basically spent the remaining year and a half of college injured and never got back into consistent training.  I finally realized the importance of consistent training and volume, although it would have been nice to start this in high school!  Better late than never.

All in all, it has been fun being surrounded by so many athletes who have dedicated their lives to training at a high level, day in and day out.  

Waconia Tri Race Summary-Bring the Waves

I finally will start posting a few pics from races.  I'll eventually get some pics up from the training trip in May up at my cabin.

Starting the run

Getting off the bike

The Waconia tri is always a fun race since it is in my hometown and the competition is so fierce.  This race is the MN qualifier for the Best of the US Amateur Championships.  The top amateur triathlete will represent MN at nationals in September.  We just got our new racing uniforms and it was nice to wear those for the first time.  And Jeremy Sartain was nice enough to lend me his aero racing helmet for the weekend since mine is still backordered...For the fourth straight year, Brian Bich has grabbed the victory, but the race was a close one.  

After sleeping in until 6, I grabbed some breakfast and coffee and biked 2 miles from my house to the race start.  I love not having to travel on race morning!  I got there at around 6:45 and the transition area was already packed...what is up with triathletes getting to the races at the earliest possible hour?  Luckily I picked up my race packet last night so the prerace was less hectic than at Manitou tri.  The water started to show some whitecaps, indicative of the incredibly windy morning.  Eric and I put in a quick warmup including a few minutes at threshold pace, and the wind was kicking my ass!  My bike was having some issues shifting, but Kevin from Gear West fixed it for me.  They always provide great race support at the local races.  I threw my flats on and did a few 50 meter strides and then headed down to the water.  The waves didn't seem 'too' bad from shore, but once I was in the water, I could tell it would be a brutal swim.  Since I have yet to really swim well this year, I was a little pissed that I definately wouldn't be swimming well today. (I wanted to prove to myself that I really have improved this year, but this stuff basically throws my form into the garbage.  I put in my first open water swim outside of a race this week, and I felt like I finally found my pool form).  In these conditions, it really favors the strong swimmers and you have to know how to tackle the waves.  

The swim started out with very little contact with other racers, which I thought was going to be an issue.  I still have not bought a fullsleeve wetsuit, but the water temps have risen so the cold wouldn't be an issue.  Sighting and breathing turned out to be very challenging and I basically did not even try to sight the course.  You have to do it on top of a swell; most of the time when I'd attempt to look, there would be a 3 foot wave covering the view and I would get slammed in it.  So I went to the next method: trust the guys next to you, maybe they have an idea what is going on.  They must not have because I weaved my way back and forth on the course.  Coming back should have been easier, and a few times I could feel myself riding the wave.  But it is hard to get in a groove and swim straight to shore.  The great open water swimmers probably have it timed out to hit the stroke right with the wave.  But it is a whole different type of swimming then in the pool or even the 'open water' stuff that I have done in the past; it was like trying out a new sport, attempting to find the right technique and how to manage the waves.   Getting out was a blessing and the swim taxed my energy much more than usual.  Surprisingly, I didn't swim as bad as I thought, and was out of the water in around 9th place.  Instead of focusing on the race, I found my mind wandering and wondering if the water was safe for the rest of the race.  I couldn't imagine some of the individuals attempting their first triathlon or the weaker swimmers who might be afraid of the water when it is calm.  Fortunately, there were no incidents in the water, and the volunteers did a great job on the lake.

The bike started out slowly, with an uphill climb 800 meters in.  After cruising down the subsequent downhill, we went through downtown Waconia and out towards Mayer.  The wind was strong but wasn't a direct headwind.  It was enough to make me feel the burn as I cranked the pedals.  The first 11 miles, I was just focused on getting to the turn and finally hitting a tailwind.  I was passed a few miles in by Dan Cohen who wasted no time in working his way to the front of the race.  The bike course didn't see too much action on my end, as I only passed one guy.  I did manage to gain on Dennis Dane and Micheal Williams for the first 5 miles, but the distance stayed near 100 meters for the last 20 miles and I couldn't get much closer due to the windy conditions.  Tony Schiller went by me at mile 15 and I used it as motivation to pick my pace up.  With 4 miles to go, I noticed what looked to be Eric 20 seconds back.  The bike ended by going back through downtown Waconia and I was able to see the first runners getting out of transition.  I got caught up in that and forgot to take my feet out of the shoes before transition!  I had to go back to the old school method and run in my bike shoes to the rack.  My average speed was 24.6 mph for the 24 mile bike, which I was pretty happy with considering the conditions.  (After analyzing the results, I apparently didn't bike that well, and guys that I have been biking near out-cycled me today.  Maybe I am not very 'aero' in these windy conditions; regardless, the top guys put a larger gap on me in the bike leg than I would have expected.)

Unfortunately, they lengthened the bike course to 24 miles this year yet kept the run at 4 miles.  Since I make up the most time on the run, it left me farther back from the really strong cyclists and not enough run time to do much damage control.  It should be an olympic distance event anyways, although a 1500 meter swim would have been brutal today.  Anyways, I passed Schiller and Williams in the first 400-800 meters of the 4 mile run, then made my way up to Dennis Dane by 3/4 of a mile.  At this point I was sitting in 7th/8th place and the next guys were not in sight.  In what was a replay of the Manitou tri, Dane and I were running neck and neck, with Rhett Bonner just ahead.  I hit the 2 mile turnaround in 10:40, which I was surprised at.  I didn't feel like I was running fast and the first 2 miles has harder hills than the last 2.  Dane and I ran side by side for the remainder of the race, little surges here and there, but he laid one on in the last 20 meters and I couldn't respond.  Again I had the fastest run split, but got outkicked and ended up in 8th (6th amateur).  Dane is a good competitor and props to him on the run.

While I was hoping to place a little higher today, I can't complain too much.  It was a tough race and when amateur stud Curt Wood takes 4th, you know the competition is strong.  The surprise of the day has to be Devon Palmer who biked as fast as Curt Wood, put in the fastest run I have ever seen him do, and narrowly missed winning the race.

Top five were Brian Bich, Devon Palmer, Dan Cohen, Curt Wood, John Shelp.

Motivation and Grandma's marathon

The Waconia triathlon is tomorrow, and the forecast isn't looking too great.  Rain is off and on all day today and it looks like there will be strong winds at the race in the morning.  I'm hoping for the best.  I have had the last three weeks off racing, and while it was nice (really nice actually), I didn't put in the training that I was expecting.  While I was feeling lethargic for about a week, it was mostly motivational, probably because I rarely train with anyone.  Eric is still up in Duluth finishing out the school year and Hauck lives over an hour away from me so its easier to go at it alone (or not at all).  On the positive side, I managed to get back into running a little bit (finally...), and have been doing 10-20 miles a week, mostly in bricks.  Nothing fast yet, but next week I am hoping to get in a solid tempo or track workout.  Hopefully I will be ready to run fast by Lifetime.

Last weekend I was up in Duluth watching Grandma's marathon/half marathon.  It was great to catch up with all the guys I haven't seen for awhile.  I drove up with some Luther guys (where Eric went to college) and we squeezed 7 additional people in Eric's small apartment for the weekend.  Eric and I were the only ones not racing, but we still got up with the other guys at 4:15 on Saturday morning.  The racers had to get to the shuttle at 5 and the half marathon started at 6:30.  We decided it was best to get a bike ride in before the race and then cruise around during the races.  We were out the door at around 5:15 and got in a 20ish mile ride before stopping at the 4 mile mark of the race.  I cheered on the Olaf and Luther guys and then we biked farther up the course, 3 miles from the finish.  I was hoping to get to the finish before my former teammates Malcolm Richards and Peder Arneson finished, but got a flat 2 miles out.  Both had impressive races, running nearly 68 min flat and 69 min flat respectively.  Watching those guys race really made me miss running.  I biked back up the course to watch some of the marathon.  A guy ran by at around 10:30am and said to us, "you guys are still biking? you went by my house at 5 this morning!"  I probably only biked 30-35 miles over the course of the morning, but it was still pretty funny.  We bbq'ed in the afternoon with some more Olaf alums and had some fun at the after-party that night.  

Manitou Tri

5:30am...buzz.  @#$&%.  Cant say I was too happy to get up this morning after sleeping 5 hours on the floor.  And then I looked outside to see gloomy, rainy weather.  Eric and I took awhile to actually get on the road, and to make it worse, I didn't get any coffee.  So I guess you could say I didn't start the day on a good note.  We arrived in White Bear Lake a few minutes before 7 (race starts at 8) and we still needed to check in.  There is always alot to do before a triathlon starts and I like to do a bike warmup an hour before the race.  Luckily they have specific bike racks based on wave number, but the elite wave racks were already overflowing.  I got a spot at the end of the row and Eric stuck his bike in the wave 2 rack.  The rain stopped by about 7 and the air  temperature was great!  After a quick bike warmup and a few running strides, they closed the transition area for race start.  

The swim start included some water running due to 1-2 foot water depth.  Today's swim felt much colder than at Buffalo, and I heard it was 58 degrees!  I could tell that I was swimming next to Eric since we are about the only people in our wave with a shortsleeve wetsuit.  It was another frustrating swim as I did not feel like I was pushing myself aerobically, yet I couldn't seem to go faster or find my form.  Based on the two triathlons I have done so far, I do not appear to be any faster than last year in the swim, but I can probably swim about a minute faster 800 in the pool.  Its gotta be the cold water or adjusting to open water swimming again.  And I think I better just get a full-sleeve wetsuit.  

After ditching the wetsuit, I headed out on the bike.  It is a good thing I have these next two weekends off racing because I can tell my body is tired from racing three weeks in a row.  I couldn't push the pedals that well compared to Buffalo tri; fortunately, the bike was only 13.5 miles.  I made up some ground on a few guys, but the top three guys put even more distance on me.  The transition to the run was very slow.  I again got beat out of transition, and Dennis Dane put 10 seconds on me in the transition alone.  My running legs didn't feel like going, but I pushed it to stay on Dennis's pace.  I passed 3 guys within the first few minutes of the run and was about 5 seconds back from Dennis at the turnaround (1.5 miles).  At this point, I was in 6th place, and there is prize money for the top 5.  We were about 45 seconds behind Rhett at this point, and I figured we could probably catch him.  I passed Dennis with a mile to go but he held on and then we caught Rhett in the last 800 meters.  Dennis put on a hard surge with 400 to go and I couldn't match it.  All in all, it wasn't that great of a day, except for getting some prize money.  I didn't swim, bike, or run well and racing three weekends in a row is probably a bad idea for me.  Early season racing is now done, and I have a few weeks before starting the more important races of the season.

Buffalo Olympic Tri Race Recap

So just got back from Buffalo tri, and while it was my first olympic distance, things didn't go nearly as well as I hoped.  I guess training wasn't great last week with being sick and getting over this bug,  but I just didn't put anything together today.  I am mainly pissed about the run and swim.  The water was cold, but didn't feel too bad once I got going.  A few fingers in my left hand must have got shocked by the cold because they sort of stopped working halfway through the 1500 meter swim; I couldn't really control my hand during the pull phase of the stroke and I imagine my triceps and deltoids weren't happy with my sleeveless wetsuit.  Regardless, I got out too slow for what I should be doing, and ended up swimming solo instead of drafting on some better swimmers.  T1 went alright; its always a shock to get out of the water and start running.  Initially, the bike leg didn't feel as good as at Apple Du, but I finished strong and ended up biking 24.5 mph for the 40km (60:50) so it wasn't too bad.  Even more encouraging was that there were only 3 guys that out-biked me by more than 30 seconds and I was able to match or even put distance on other guys who have been much stronger than me in the past.  I ended up passing about 6 riders within the first quarter of the race and settled into 8th place.  I got annoyed with some logistics on the course and would not be surprised if there were numerous accidents: they let a semitrailer make a right turn as I was approaching.  I had to stop to let him get through, which is not something I should have to do in a race.  There was also an out and back section on the bike, which was a nightmare at the intersection.  They had bikers going both ways and criss-crossing in the intersection.  I stopped because the crossing traffic had no intent on letting me by.  Fortunately another guy let me through.  Lastly, the olympic course meets up with the sprint course (there are 1500 racers in these two races) in the last 5 or so miles.  In most races, people do a good job of riding over to the far right in the road to allow others to pass, and you shouldn't be riding in the middle anyways.  This race was so congested (even worse on the run as it was an out and back with runners going both ways on the same shoulder! Trying to run by with 4 people across the path does not work).  Anyways, on the bike, I had to tell people to move over from the middle of the road when they had plenty of space on their right, and even had to pass just over the yellow line a few times to avoid the maze of athletes.  Very frustrating!  

Off the bike and onto the run, my legs still aren't feeling recovered from Apple Du last Saturday! (sad, I know).  And while a 5k is short enough to run fast off bike training, the 10k is probably too long right now.  While I was hoping to run a decent time, I knew right off the bike that the run would be a struggle.   My legs, especially my calves, were really tight and I couldn't get that 'pop' in my stride.  The heat started to take a toll on me a few miles in and my pace slowed even more (first real hot day, got up to 80).    I need to start doing a better job replacing fluids and carbs during these longer races as I was apparently looking very pale at the finish line. Eventually I caught up to Lovaas and then tried to run steady as I didn't think I was within reach of anyone else.  The unfortunate thing is a guy finished 10 seconds ahead of me and I didn't even know it because of all the congestion from the sprint race!  Damn.  I ended up in 7th place, in a time of 2:00:20.  

About the only good thing I took away from today was that I need to analyze the bike finish better...I took my feet out of the shoes a few miles before the end because I thought I was rounding the corner to the transition area.  It is amazing how much power you lose when you aren't clipped in!

Sam Hauck, a former college teammate (who is heading to Omaha for med school next year as well) had a great race.  He pulled out a 2nd place finish and earned some prize money.  Curt Wood put in an amazing swim and bike, struggled the last few miles on the run and collapsed before the finish from heat exhaustion.  He eventually took 3rd behind Sam by rolling across the finish.  Hopefully he has a quick recovery.  My brother Eric won the sprint course today and lowered the course record by 2 minutes.  

hyvee

I waited to sign up for Hy-vee triathlon until I new I could actually run.  But I waited a little too long and unfortunately it has filled up.  That is what I get for waiting, which is not something you can do in the triathlon world, where races sometimes fill up 6 months in advance (Its not as bad as Ironman races, which cost nearly 500 dollars and you have to sign up a year in advance!  Hell, I don't even know what I'll be doing in a year).  Since I am a poor graduate student, I don't like forking over mounds of money only to end up injured/miss the entire season.  

The last few days have been rather gloomy; the cold, windy, and rainy days have drained my motivation, and this damn sickness that has lingered on all week isn't helping.  The Buffalo triathlon is on Sunday morning which I am really excited about.  It will be the longest swim I have done in a tri and the first real olympic distance that I have raced.  The water is going to be freezing so I'm a little concerned about having a shortsleeve wetsuit.