1st Place Lavaman Keaohou Triathlon

Yesterday was the inaugural Lavaman Keaohou olympic distance triathlon just south of Kailua-Kona. I wasn't originally planning on this race when I came to the big island, but after discussing it with my coach, it seemed like a good plan to get a hard effort in the heat and some more speed training to get ready for Ironman. It's only a month now until the biggest race of my life, so it was nice to coordinate one more event to keep me sharp.

The race took place just south on Alii drive at the Keaohou Outrigger resort, with a nice ocean swim, a bike that covers a section of the Ironman course, and a run that drops into the "Pit," where the old Ironman run used to go. My mental prep was good for this one because I had zero expectations outside of going my hardest for a good workout. I always race hard, and I always try to win, but I had tired legs coming in with significant volume since arriving on Sept. 4th. It was nice to do a local race without major pressure, and just focus on staying strong in the heat.

I had been doing some swim sets with the Masters group at Kona Aquatics, so I knew I would be good to hang near Bree Wee on the swim. We took it out chasing the swim leader Nick Garrett, coming in with a little gap on some of the other contenders. I felt comfortable and in control most of the way, with the exception being a slight miscalculation we made after rounding the boat halfway through. My trusty steed laid in waiting for me as I exited the water, and I got right to work powering up the steep 1.5 mile hill out of T1 on the S-Works Transition. On the fast descent I did my best to hold watts, and near the turnaround at the Energy Lab I was in the lead and building a good gap to the other racers. I stayed at my goal power the rest of the way in on Alii, had a bit of a junkshow in T2, and then fired out to the run with a comfortable cushion to second, riding 57 minutes for the 40k.
Out on the run, volunteers were scrambling to get to their positions, and I blew through the first turn area going the wrong way out on the golf course. After a couple minutes of running, I was turned around and set straight, thinking "this can't be happening again after Lake Stevens!" Fortunately I had built a strong enough lead on the bike leg to remain in first place, and after motoring for a few miles, I coasted in the last bit for a course record and a good win on the island.

Thanks to all the race staff, volunteers, and other athletes. Post race food was excellent, with rocking music and great awards, and the crowd support was truly amazing. It's nice to be an out of towner and still get the royal treatment at a race like this. It was a classy event that I will be sure to race again next time I am in Kona.

Next up are the hardest weeks of training so far to top off the Ironman build, and then it's mostly resting until the big day. Legs feel good and the mind is in a good space. Time to make it all happen.... after a little bit of surfing today. Aloha!

Aloha!

It's nearing the end of my first full week in Kona, so I thought I would give an update on the training and the conditions out here on the Big Island.

I arrived on Friday, stepping off the plane to a nice warm blanket of humid pacific sea air being wrapped around my body. First stop? The restroom to remove my compression socks and jeans, donning the shorts and flip flops that are requisite for island life. Next up was a stop at the Costco with Linsey Corbin and her mother, Betty. This was no ordinary stop, as we needed to get our shelves stocked for Ironman training. I won't give specifics on cost, but it was the most I have ever spent in one stop at a grocery.

After getting settled in my condo on Alii drive, I splashed around for a bit to stretch the body out, and crashed hard for a good night's rest. Next day was a full taste of Kona, with some open water swimming on the course from the pier. We were lucky to have a group of dolphins swim past, a sea turtle show itself briefly, and schools of tropical fish with every color under the sun drifting in the currents. This place is truly magical, an island paradise with phenomenal scenery. Did a moderate ride of about 53 miles to Waikoloa and back, and a short run on the early stages of the run course near town.

The rest of the week was more hard training, with highlights of riding a 124 mile loop in the Kohala hills and running out in the energy lab with Specialized teammates Terenzo Bozzone and Chris McCormack. These guys are going well right now, so it's perfect training for me. The body is acclimating well, and with the occasional sushi dinner for fuel, I'm getting stronger and better each day. I'll be posting more pictures and updates from the island as the training continues.... Mahalo!

13th Place Lake Stevens 78.3

I apologize for the delay in my post, but life has been a little more hectic than usual with the end of my part-time job, and the prep for moving out of my place here in Durango before Hawaii. Additionally, it's taken me a little longer to absorb and process the tremendous disappointment of the race in Washington.



I got back from the trip to Seattle/Lake Stevens on Monday, spending the weekend staying at the home of ace blind triathlete Aaron Scheidies. If you haven't already seen this guy at the races or know his story, check out his site: http://www.cdifferentwithaaron.com/AaronScheidies/Home.html

Aaron was busy taking names in London, so I had nice accommodations just north of the city. I didn't feel great coming into the race after Calgary's result, but I figured I would be able to race fast on residual fitness and intelligence. At least half of that ended up being true...


Lake Stevens is a challenging race, with seemingly continuous rolling hills on the 58 mile bike course, and a couple good climbs on the run too. Race morning was standard, with a 6:30 start. I gave myself the usual hour to get set up and warm up in the water before the gun went off. Everything was on target as I started to the right hand side and settled into a solid group of swimmers immediately. I don't know if it was being at sea level or something else entirely, but I felt smooth and not strained in the least as I found good feet and traced the underwater buoy line. Our group consisted of Gambles, Tremonte, Symonds, Whyte, and Park leading a good chunk of the way. I stayed comfortable and came out with one of my better swims ever at the half-iron distance.

Transition wasn't stellar, but I got out okay and immediately began blasting the bike to stay with Gambles, who was setting a furious pace to chase down swim leaders Linkemann and Flanagan. I did my best to stay with him, managing to stay about 50 meters back and match his pace through 15 or 16 miles, at which point I decided that I couldn't sustain the effort and backed off to my normal wattage. The good thing was that we had already pulled out significant time on our chasers, and nobody could see us with the rolling and turning terrain. Onto the second loop I still felt surprisingly strong on the bike, and was pulling out more time on the following group, but losing a little more time to Gambles. I knew with a run like his, this race was going to be for 2nd, so I stayed focused on riding my ride and getting ready for the run.

Even though I had raced the same course the year before, and pre-rode some of the course the day before, when it came time to make the left hand turn on the beginning and finishing out and back section, I turned about a half mile early on a road that looked very similar. I didn't realize my mistake until I had ridden almost 3 1/2 miles up the road to another intersection where an officer directed me back to the course. Not sure how much time I had lost, I still raced the bike back in, but when I was on the run and got a feel for my position, I cashed it in and jogged the remainder with Kirk Nelson, who was suffering from foot pain.

I have gone off course one other time, but this was far more painful. Being 4 minutes clear of 3rd place, 2 minutes down from 1st, and ready to podium at my second consecutive 70.3 made this a tough pill to swallow. That said, I'm the only one to blame for the error, and it will add fuel to my fire as I train for the most important race of the year in Kona. Additionally, it's clear that my fitness is good, and the extra swim focus is paying dividends. With another hard block on the big island in September, I'll be ready to make my mark again at the Ironman distance against the best in the world.

2nd Place Ironman Calgary 70.3, Montana/Canada Roadtrip

After a long break from posts, I'm back with some good news. I just completed the inaugural Ironman Calgary 70.3 in 2nd place. Of course there's a back story here, so I am going to take my time and build to the finish from the beginning. Hope you are sitting somewhere comfortable...



After a couple weeks easy and back to back trips to the mountains for some space to clear my head, I got back into structured training. I still maintained some fitness, running and riding when I felt like it, and covering portions of the Iomgene pass run on a weekend trip to visit my family, but I dropped a little bit of the top end. Fortunately, it started coming back quickly, so I just put my head down and got through 3 fairly hard weeks before racing up north. It has been pleno verano in Durango, so getting out on the bike and running on the trails has been as natural as breathing.



Starting a week and a half ago, I hit the road for a trip to see friends in Montana for two separate weddings in one week, and the race immediately following the last wedding. It was an ambitious plan with an approach to race day that I had not executed in several years, but with my focus on the long-term with Hawai'i, I couldn't allow myself to be stressed.



Wedding round one was my good friend Jeff (my first swim coach) up in Ryegate, Montana. If you haven't heard of this place, it's because nobody has. In the middle of nowhere rolling wheatfields, with the Musselshell river flowing through town and a sandstone cliff band to break the monotony of the terrain. To be honest, I was quite charmed by the place, and after watching Jeff get hitched, dancing into the wee hours, and doing a naked slip and slide when the rains poured down that evening, I have nothing but good memories.



I did log a hard long run the day of the wedding, got very little sleep (awoken 30 min earlier than I wanted by a crowing rooster), and drove 2 hours at 6 am to Bozeman for a 70 mile road race with about 4,000 ft. of climbing. Despite back to back nights of less than 5 hours of sleep, I helped pull back the main break and stayed with the leaders until the final climb, finishing 4th. On the drive back to Missoula for a week of training with friends before the second wedding, I was reduced to pulling over and sleeping from exhaustion. Also of note, a SNOWstorm blew through 30 miles outside of Missoula, coating the ground and hillsides with a half-inch of the white stuff in late July. Love this place.



So, 4 more days of hard work in Missoula, including some good long sets at the 50m outdoor pool (Splash Montana), where change rooms are indicated by pictures of bucks and does. Catching up with friends, eating Taco del Sol burritos, and training hard were the order of business for my stay, and I came into the second wedding and Calgary feeling ready to race fast.



I had another early morning departure from Bozeman after attending friend Tyler's wedding ceremony on Friday night, and drove the 8 hours to Calgary to drop my bike off before 5 and see a little bit of the course. As I said, this was a unique approach to race day, but I felt relaxed in the chaos, and indicator workouts were spot on for a good performance.



Race Day: Early to rise for a 45 minute drive from town to the race site, set-up transition, get in an okay warm-up, and then full gas from the start in the waters of Ghost Lake. I felt pretty smooth and in control, knowing that Hackett and O'Donnell would probably go well clear. I stayed in the main chase pack and prepped for the bike in my mind.



I had a poor first transition, but immediately went to work on the bike and started passing the swimmers from my group. I bridged to a group that had Whyte, Hadley, and Cotter, and we rolled along for about 20 miles before I went up ahead with Whyte. We pushed the pace and almost caught up to Hackett, but still entered T2 almost 2 minutes down. I went out hard on the run, pulling back time right away, but didn't make the catch until almost halfway. After that, I put in one hard surge at 14k and dropped the closest pursuers for good. The last hill and loop of the run were pretty ugly, but I had time to enjoy my best finish yet at a 70.3, and even got to spray the champagne in celebration afterwards. Tim was far and away the strongest that day, but I raced my race and stayed focused. It was an excellent result for my first race in a month, and if the bike wasn't 59 miles, I would have split one of my faster times ever on a course with plenty of hills.



Now it's a little downtime in Calgary with plans to go tubing and sushi for dinner tonight. After that, about 1600 miles of driving back home to Durango, and then off to Lake Stevens on the 14th. Until then, try harder.



Also, check the link to an article in the local paper that covers our budding triathlete scene in Durango:



http://durangoherald.com/sections/Sports/2009/08/01/Triing_a_new_wave/

Mountains!

Well, it was time for a little break from the training and racing schedule. Counting all triathlon, running, and cycling events, I was up to 12 after Buffalo Springs. The solution? Climbing mountains!

I am fortunate to live close the largest and possibly least traveled wilderness area in Colorado: The Weminuche Wilderness. I have spent a good deal of time here in the past, but never in the Chicago Basin area. This is where the major peaks of the San Juans are located, so a lot of people set up a basecamp in the valley and then climb the fourteeners. Sarah and I had planned to get in Friday afternoon, climb a mountain or two on Saturday, and then pack it out on Sunday. After using some vouchers I had for the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, we boarded the train Friday morning and set out for the drop-off at Needleton (Needle Creek trailhead). The train winds its way along the Animas river, along steep granite cliffs before arriving in Silverton.

We made good time, covering the uphill seven miles into our camp at treeline in about 4 hours (including a bushwhacking section through thick willows, skunk cabbage, and about 6 stream crossings). Even though the weather forecast for the area included a 40% chance of rain for each of the 3 days, we had mostly clear skies the whole time. There was a surprising amount of snow left on the peaks, so the water was still pouring down the cliff faces and feeding the creeks.

Saturday morning was a nice easy wake-up, oatmeal with walnuts and cranberries, and then some serious uphill. We decided to climb Windom first, wanting to get a nice view of the Vallecito creek drainage, so we powered up past Twin Lakes and several snowfields, summitting around noon.

On the descent from Windom, we even got a little 4th of July snow, but not enough to make things too treacherous. When we got back to the Twin Lakes basin, we decided that the weather looked good enough to try one more, so we headed towards the ridge between Eolus and North Eolus. Once we had gained the ridge line, things still looked good, so we climbed North Eolus, and then I came back down and did Eolus alone. All the mountains had considerable exposure, but it felt great to be back up high, even being able to see into New Mexico from atop the highest peaks.

With 3 big mountains climbed in a day, we headed back to camp, watched some local wildlife cruise by, ate dinner, and promptly passed out. Back down and out the same way Sunday, and now the batteries are recharged and ready for some quality training before Ironman Calgary 70.3 on August 2nd.

6th Place Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3

I'm back in Durango after an epic day of riding in the car on Monday. For some reason the return trip always feels longer, but that was a true sufferfest. Having what I consider a mediocre race and a few shots of Patron post-race probably didn't help either. The only solace came from a stop at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico to break up the drive and get a refreshing swim.

Although I have been hearing about the Buffalo Springs event since I began racing triathlon, this was my first trip to race in Lubbock, Texas. The race has a rich history, and it's conditions often mimic Kona's, so I thought it would be appropriate to give it a go. Lubbock is essentially flat as a pancake, but it does have a couple canyonesque features on the bike and run courses, so it ends up being a pretty challenging circuit.

Race morning was extremely windy, with a good amount of chop on the lake surface. This year the swim was more regulated (no beach running), and even though I got a good start to the extreme right side with Leon Griffin, I lost contact before the first turn buoy and had a poor swim. I never swim as well in the non-wetsuit events, but I shouldn't have lost as much time as I did. Still, I chased hard on the bike, and although I never felt like I found a good rythym, I was able to pass several pros and move into sixth off the bike. The winds and rain on the bike made the turns and downhills particularly challenging, and I dropped my gel flask about halfway through, but I kept the bike upright and focused on having a good run. Coming into T2, everything was soaked from the rain, and after making a quick attempt to put on a wet sock, I opted to run without them. This made for a painful run after about 6 miles, but I gutted through the blisters and bleeding sores that had formed, and ran solidly on a challenging course, holding off Cam Brown who had flatted about 3o miles into the bike. It's always tough to miss the selection out of the water and on the bike, as the group tends to gain an advantage even if they are riding "legal," so I would rate this race as less-than-stellar. The positive was that I kept my head in the race better than Florida 70.3, and still finished in the money. Mike and Marti Greer put on an excellent race, and I plan to return to Buffalo Springs in the future, hopefully with a little better swim.

Now it's time for a little break, and some refreshing in the San Juan mountains. I'm leaving for a 3 day backpacking trip in the Chicago Basin area, and I'll be trying to get in at least one fourteener. Enjoy your fourth of July weekend, whatever form it takes.

4th Place Ironman Boise 70.3

Back in Durango after a few nice days in Boise. This weekend was one of the busier for the triathlon world, with 70.3's in Boise, Kansas, Maryland, the UK, and Escape from Alcatraz in California. I had been planning on making Boise one of my major early season goals since March when I put together my race schedule. With cool waters necessitating a wetsuit swim, a good, challenging bike with rolling hills and wind, and a shaded flat and fast run, it is a course that suits me well. To add a little more emphasis, coach Elliot reminded me that having a poor race like I did in Orlando can mean only one thing: it was time for a break-out race.

I flew in with no delays on Thursday afternoon, met my friends from Durango who had knuckled down and driven the 12 hours, and got settled in. We did a little swimming to test the water temps (much better than last year), and spun around for a little over an hour on sections of the bike course.

A little digression: Boise is a great city. It's got a clean, modern downtown, plenty of young people with BSU, lots of recreation opportunities, and some great parks right along the river in town. It's a got a decent population while still remaining manageable, and as everyone knows, famous potatoes. Check it out if you've never been...

Friday was race registration, pro meeting, a nice 4 mile run with strides and a short ride with some effort on the bike. Weather had been brewing all day, and it looked like the weekend would hold more of the same. I don't mind racing in adverse conditions, as long as it's safe for the athletes, so I just hoped that it wouldn't turn into a modified duathlon. My Durango friends and I got together with Linsey Corbin and her support crew for some dinner, and we went to bed after some final adjustments to bikes and gear.

This year Boise had moved the start back to 2 pm, so we were all afforded a little extra sleep and time to get ready beforehand. We rolled out the reservoir at about 12:30, hiked up the dam, set up our transitions, and then jumped in for a little warm-up swim. When the gun went off, I was feeling pretty smooth, staying with the lead group through 400m before I lost contact with Joe Gambles and couldn't quite bridge as the leaders steadily rolled up ahead. I could see Jordan Rapp stuck in no man's land between our group of 3 and the leaders, about 30 seconds up, but I couldn't close it down. I came out a couple minutes down in what was unquestionably a long swim, had a decent transition, and got to work on the bike. I had logged good mileage last week, did plenty of intervals, and then rested well leading up, so I knew that I had a good bike leg in me. I went after Jordan right away, but wasn't able to catch him until about mile 20 after the Birds of Prey climb. He didn't go with me when I went around, but I knew I was within my power range, so I kept chasing alone.

By mile 35 I had caught Craig Alexander and Brian Lavelle (giving Lavelle the one-handed "Hey Macarena" dance salute). I dropped them shortly after, and began reeling in Joe Gambles, who I caught and passed near mile 52. It was a great feeling to put together the kind of ride I know I am capable of, and to come of the bike 2nd behind Chris Lieto. Add in that we were riding through serious downpours and wind for a good amount of the bike, and I'm satisfied with the effort.

Out onto the run, I felt good after digging pretty deep on the bike. I kept the pace even, just under 6 minutes per mile, but it didn't take long before Gambles came around, and then Crowie. They both gapped me significantly, but I saw Joe fall off Crowie's pace, and I started reeling him in. We were dead even at the halfway point, running side by side for a couple miles before he surged and got a gap again. I dug in, pulled him back, and then gapped him. He came back one more time, hit the gas a little after 10 miles, and I was empty. He got about 50m on me and it stayed that way until the finish, where we both collapsed (see picture above).

It's always tough to have a close finish and not be on top, and it's the second year in Boise where I have been 10 seconds or less out of the next best spot, but I put together one of my best races to date, and improved my overall position by two places. I crushed the bike, put together a solid run afterward, had another sub 4hour effort, and found myself at the pointy end of the race against some of the very fastest guys around. Another solid week of training, a little rest, and then Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon on the 28th. Thanks to all my sponsors, supporters, and followers.