Activation Energy.

Some days I wake up and all I want to do is spend 6 hours riding outside in the sun, and other days it's a struggle to do an easy 3,000 yards at the pool. I think this is the case for most serious athletes, and despite having what I consider a dream job at the moment, it's not always a cakewalk. With the recent block of training for Ironman Lake Placid, I've entered that state where even simple recovery runs can seem a bit daunting. I certainly don't believe that I'm overtrained, but instead properly tired from a very solid amount of training. That said, it's a fine line, and definitely requires constant monitoring.

On these occasions, when getting the hay in the barn while the sun is shining is essential, I think of my old science friend, activation energy. How many times have you woken up feeling a bit sore from that long run, or just plain tired from a big week? You know that it's just a couple more weeks until you really get to rest, but you still have to keep the ball rolling during that time... Enter: activation energy. It's a simple concept really, and when it comes to training, I think of it as the minimum amount of energy needed to initiate a workout. You could even say that the "chemical reaction" is the endorphin rush that will inevitably occur if you just get out the door. And honestly, taking a nasty tumble or getting hit by a car aside, when have you ever regretted a run, bike, or swim? I always end up feeling better, so it's all about overcoming that initial hump and making it happen. Activation energy can come in many forms, including music, watching the Tour de France, thinking of the physically challenged athletes, or just focusing on the goals you might have for race day. Use that spark to get you out the door and on your way...

As I wind down these next 20 days or so, I know that the hard work will be done, and I will arrive at the start line ready to race my best. All it takes is a little activation energy. What is your inspiration?

3rd Place Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3

It was another tough day on the the 70.3 circuit, this time in Lubbock, Texas. I have raced at Buffalo Springs twice now, and in the words of race director Mike Greer, "this is old-school triathlon." With a challenging course, plenty of "varmint roadkill," and the potential for a lot of heat and wind, it's certainly not easy.

I don't know what this is, but I think I saw one or two of them on the bike leg...

I opted to drive down from Durango with a couple triathlete friends, leaving Friday and arriving in the evening with plenty of time to register and get settled before dinner. The only downside to the drive was that our AC broke right as we rolled into the heat of southeastern New Mexico and then Texas. The last 2 hours were quite the sufferfest. Of course if I had known what we were in for that night at the hotel, I wouldn't have complained much about feeling a little dehydrated in the car...

We booked the room a little late, and being a major destination for age-groupers with its Kona slots, Lubbock didn't have many rooms left. We ended up at the Red Roof Inn, which was quite entertaining. Our first sign of impending doom was how difficult it was to reach, despite being right next to two major highways. The next bit of fun came in the form of a small "hallway party" taking place outside our room on Friday night/Saturday morning, replete with cigarette smoke wafting under our door. The only real blessing of the place was that it had AC, so we spent a fair amount of time avoiding the oppressive weather in our room. Saturday night we had a low rider car convention/wedding that took over the hotel, and another small party where the theme seemed to be leaving as much trash as possible in the hallway. This time I put a towel by the crack in the door to keep out the cigs.

Enough said.

Despite not getting the greatest rest or tapering much, I felt okay going into the race. Not chomping at the bit like I would prefer, but decent. Water temps were high, around 81 degrees, so definitely a non-wetsuit event for the pros. Miraculously, the water temp dropped 4 full degrees overnight, so amateurs were permitted wetsuits if they felt like wrapping themselves in a plastic bag and jumping in steaming water was a good idea before riding their bikes and running. After nearly breaking my leg in a gopher hole in the dirt parking lot, I walked down, set up the transition, and got in a little warm-up swim.

Once the gun sounded, I got out well with most of the leaders. Consciously trying not to go too deep early, I monitored the heartrate and tried to stay comfortable and relaxed. As much as I know a wetsuit helps me, it felt good to be swimming without one. After about 500m, a strong swimmer came around me and pushed hard toward the leaders. I jumped right on his feet and stayed there the rest of the swim, coming out a little over a minute behind. Quite a good swim for me.

I could see TJ in transition, so I tried to get out as smooth as possible, knowing that he is riding well right now. I caught up to and passed him on the second hill about 2 miles in, and pushed towards the leading group of Terenzo, Lieto, Hackett and Cotter. It didn't take too long to catch Hackett and Cotter who had popped from Lieto and Terenzo, but I barely caught onto the leaders before I came off again. I used a lot up getting near them, and I had to settle back into my own pace. I ended up riding about thirty seconds to a minute behind Terenzo for the remainder of the ride, coming off the bike in 4th. 3rd fastest split.

It was another race where I could tell that the run would be a test of guts after a hard bike, so I just made sure to get my legs rolling without going to fast out of the gate. By 3 miles I had TJ in my sights, and I made the catch for 3rd place around 5 miles. I pushed into the headwind until the turnaround, and then gave one hard push to distance myself from the pursuers until about mile 9. The last few miles were just hanging on, but I got some nice encouragement from Crowie with a mile left, and I kept it together to the finish. 3rd place in 3:58:32, about 3 minutes back of Lieto, and 1:30 or so down on Terenzo.

Afterwards, I had a nice stay in the doping control tent trying to build up a pee, and then Jesse and Molly and I hit the awards ceremony, where by virtue of the top 2 being gone, I made a small speech. We capped the night off with a couple Red Roofy's (yes, I'm serious.... sweet tea vodka and cranberry juice), and enjoyed the only night of relative quiet at our hotel. By 5 we were up and out of Texas, on our way home to beautiful Durango.

Now it's a little more dedicated Ironman training for Lake Placid, some tubing on the Animas river, and resting up for the big event. Check back for some more updates soon...

2nd Place Ironman Boise 70.3

I entered the race in Boise this year hoping the old adage, "third time is a charm" would ring true. The past two years I had come within ten seconds of the place in front of me, finishing 6th and 4th. My prep for the race was pretty spot on, but a little different than normal. I rested well after Ironman, and then got to work, racing my bike during the Iron Horse, and an doing an Xterra the week before Boise. I kept the volume high with an eye on Lake Placid in July, and didn't do much of a taper for the race. Sometimes I think that it takes some pressure off to know you are a bit tired going into a race. Not an excuse, but also not a full-on goal race taper that can add serious stress.

I must say that I really love Boise. I've only ever been for the race, but every time I go, it's a reminder of how much I like the atmosphere there. A beautiful, clean city of agreeable size, with all the essentials: college, river, mountains, high desert landscape. If I wasn't so happy with Colorado, Boise would make the list for potential places to move. The race is also fast becoming one of my favorites. With the afternoon start, you can sleep in a bit and approach the race with a more relaxed attitude, and the course is super scenic and challenging. This year we had quite a crew from Durango making the trip up, and my parents drove over as my dad was racing his second 70.3 of the year, so I felt well-supported. Add to it that many of my Montana friends were joining the fray, and it was a real reunion in Idaho.

The swim start was the usual bit of chaos, as I got pummeled a little more than normal and even got a nice shiner on my right eye. After a few hundred yards, it settled out and I was swimming comfortably on some feet. At about halfway, I could tell we really weren't swimming terribly fast as a group, and I moved forward to try and push the pace some. I knew we were losing time to the top swimmers like O'Grady, Fleischman, and Rhodsey, and I didn't want to see it turn into a race where the lead "pack" pulls time out of the chasers. I exited in 9th, a few minutes down on the leaders. An average swim.

Coach Elliot told me that I should race with reckless abandon, so I had a smooth T1 and immediately took off on the bike. I didn't want anyone to latch on early, so I rode over tempo to get some distance. As it turns out, my efforts were enough to reel in Chris Lieto around 5 or 6 miles, and needless to say, I was quite thrilled to be riding in his company. I stayed about 20-30m back of Chris for a good number of miles, but he ramped things up a bit in the heavy winds, and I simply couldn't match his power. I had a nice time catching other athletes, picking off some of the lead swimmers around 35 miles. The winds were pretty wild, and with the Zipp disc and 1080 front on the S-Works transition, I knew I was as fast as I could be, but it was dicey as we weaved through the coned sections in a head/crosswind. The last 10 miles were some of the hardest in recent memory, straight into a headwind and the legs were starting to feel heavy.

Into T2 I had closed the gap to the leaders (Crowie and Lieto) to less than a minute, so I started out very conservatively. I knew the run was going to be tough for everyone after a very challenging bike, so I hammered out a couple miles and tried to settle into a rhythm. After 3 miles or so, Lieto had stopped running with abductor cramps, so I kept things rolling in case he came good again. At the halfway point of the run, I was around 2 minutes down, but had a good gap to third, and the legs started to come around. Apparently Craig had started to suffer a little from a stellar bike split (and racing the previous weekend), so I began to pull back quite a bit of time. With around 4 miles left, I had cut the lead in half, and by 10.5 miles, I was close enough to believe I had a real chance. I laid it all on the line, pulling within 8-10 seconds, and had Crowie glancing over his shoulder. He finally put in one more acceleration with a little over a mile to go, and I was totally empty. Still, I pressed it as hard as I could, finishing a mere 10 seconds behind the reigning world champ.

It goes without saying that I was excited with my race. Coming so close to catching the gold standard in our sport was beyond my highest expectations for the day. Still, I was in a similar spot to the previous two years, coming so close to the next position, but falling just short. I'm not sure I could have raced much better than I did, and hats off to Craig who demonstrated yet again how good he is in the clutch. A big thanks to all my great sponsors, family, friends, race organizers, and Sue Hutter for some great photos from the event. Buffalo Springs in a little over a week...

1st Place Xterra Four Corners.

This past weekend marked my return to off-road triathlon racing. By return, I mean that it was my second time racing an Xterra event, and it had been over two years since the last one. I would honestly like to make more time for racing these events, as I really like the atmosphere and the change of pace, but it rarely works out with my on-road schedule. This past weekend was an exception, and after pre-riding the course on Friday, I got up super early Saturday to drive down with fellow Durango triathlete, Dave Rakita.

We got our transitions set up quickly, but it was hard for me to wrap my head around the reversal of events. This Xterra was a swim, run, bike, and had separate transition areas, so it was definitely something new. The permitting for the race only allows 150 people to compete on the legendary Road Apple trail systems, so it was a relatively small event with quite a few first timers. This made the swim start pretty manageable, so I got out clear with a few other swimmers, and settled into a comfortable pace. The plan was to put as much time into my pursuers as possible during the swim and run, and then be able to take the bike conservatively and avoid crashes.

I came out in 4th position, with the swim leader about a minute up on our group. I wouldn't say that I felt great, but after some big training in the week leading up, and no taper, I was happy with the effort. By the one mile mark I was running in first position, and I kept on the gas for the full distance to put it out of reach. The first lap of the bike I took out pretty fast, and then put it on cruise control and made sure not to go down for the last 7-8 miles.

It was nice to switch things up a little and race on the trails, and if I can fit it in, I'd like to do a cup race later in the year, perhaps the US Champs in Ogden. Before that though, it's a taper week, Boise 70.3, some hard training with Buffalo Springs 70.3 thrown in, and then Ironman Lake Placid in late July. Weather has turned perfect in Durango, so I'm looking forward to this big block of work. Full gas!

Link to the Farmington newspaper article:

http://www.daily-times.com/farmington-sports/ci_15237968?source=email

Iron Horse Weekend

It was a big weekend of racing in my hometown over Memorial Day, and I'm happy to say I came out the other side with some great race fitness and a new course record in the Narrow Horse Triathlon.

Things kicked off with my parents coming down for Grand Junction. They visit every year now to ride in the tour portion of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, and it was great to have them. We played a little golf between my training sessions, shuttled a car to Silverton for post-race, and then took it easy in anticipation of the 50 mile road race on Saturday. I'm always impressed when they rattle off another 50 miles of riding at high altitude.

I was up early to get in some "warm-up" riding, in case there was an early break that I could be part of. It was chilly, but I still got in some miles before our 7:20 start. Just as I thought, there were attacks immediately after the neutral section through town. I must have gone with 4 moves and initiated 2 of my own before I finally got free with 5 or 6 other guys. It was my plan to hit the first climbs with a little lead over the peloton so I could ride my own tempo. I held steady on the first climbs, latched on with the chase group led by Ned Overend, and then got shelled on the later climbs. Still, I rode 5 minutes faster than last year, and I felt like I gave it everything.

Sunday was the local ten mile running race, and I jumped in with heavy legs. The run has one big climb, and being at altitude, it's never easy to go under an hour. Last year I was close, so it was my goal to improve on my time and hopefully break an hour. I took it out a bit too fast, but eventually got the heart rate under control. I pushed hard on the climb, and then started to feel good again around mile 7. The last mile was straight downhill, and I came in at 58:42, so I was content with the effort.

Monday was the pool swim 1500m time trial, where I cruised to a 19:58 clocking. I dropped my course record in the Narrow Horse stage race triathlon by around 7 minutes, and topped everything off by racing the 14 mile time trial right after. I came 6th in the pro men, happy to be done with the stabbing pain of the open tt.

A big weekend of racing, and now I feel like I am finally back from the post-Ironman funk. The body is tuned up and ready for the sharp effort of Xterra Four Corners on June 5th, and then Boise 70.3 a week later. Check back for reports from both races...

I am Specialized.

I got my very first road bike in 2001, a Specialized Allez Elite. I still have the green machine in my garage, converted to a fixed gear for commuting and winter training. The bike was a gift from my parents, specifically my dad, who helped locate the bike and get me started on it. Initially, I got it for doing some weeklong bicycle tours in the high country of Colorado, and would ride it for fun in the summers. After moving to Missoula for college, I joined the triathlon club team and got some clip-on aerobars. Fast forward to last week, when I got to come full-circle and visit Specialized headquarters in Morgan Hill, California.

I was invited to join the other sponsored triathletes, Melanie McQuaid, Conrad "Caveman" Stoltz, Chris "Macca" McCormack, Phillip "The Shiv" Graves, Desiree Ficker, Rasmus Henning, Jordan "Rappstar" Rapp, Kristen Peterson, and Jimmy Archer, as part of an effort to better educate us on the product line, meet the masterminds in all areas of the company, train a little bit, and socialize. Coming straight off Ironman, I was in rough shape when I showed up, but the first day was mostly about sitting and listening. We were led through a comprehensive rundown of product by Chris Riekert, called SBCU, or Specialized Bicycle Components University. I have to say that I was pretty impressed. I know Specialized makes the best stuff, but to see how and why is pretty amazing.

After our back to school day, the crew went to dinner. Many of the athletes had just raced Alcatraz or Wildflower, so we all chowed down. In fact, Macca and I hit the In and Out burger right next door for our first dinner before going out for round two. There was much talk of racing, and plenty of Bryan Rhodes stories. The second day was more product talk, but with more hands on, and input from the athletes about what we want for the future. Keep an eye out... there are going to be some great triathlon specific developments coming soon. I didn't participate in the lunch ride, but I heard it was quite the gun show, and the ageless Ned Overend put most of the riders to shame, yet again.

To meet with everyone and gain a new perspective on just how committed Specialized is to developing a culture of winning was amazing. I feel blessed to be part of this community and energy moving forward, to participate and grow within the framework of such a devoted company. I. Am. Specialized.

2nd Place Ironman St. George

This post is a little late in coming, as it's been over a week since I raced Ironman St. George, but I needed time to absorb my accomplishment and then decide what I wanted to say about it. Outside the bikes, wheels, and other equipment I use to race, it's not rocket science: I worked extremely hard in training, and had a very clear plan of how I wanted to race in order to be competitive on the one day it mattered. I did that. It wasn't a major surprise to me, or really even some kind of breakthrough race. I outlined a very clear plan of wanting to podium at an Ironman this year, and then went to work to accomplish just that. It meant that I spent a around 5 weeks training in Tucson over the winter, raced at the right times to get the top end, listened to my body, ate well, slept a lot, and then tapered properly beforehand. I read a great quote in Running Times a few weeks ago where bronze medalist Deena Kastor talked about her commitment to training. Instead of viewing everything as some kind of sacrifice, like giving up her other interests, she said that it's just what you do to accomplish your goal. This is what I do to make this happen. I will say that having done it in my first go, and so early in the year, has been interesting. Perhaps I feel a little letdown having achieved the initial goal quickly. The upside is that my next goal is much clearer now, and I better understand what I need to do.

I don't want to spend a lot of time rehashing every detail, but each Ironman race deserves a little discussion. Every time you decide to do a race like this, it's a risk. Major time commitments on the front end which can limit the ability to race at the level you'd like, and then serious recovery after. It's a bit of the "all your eggs in one basket" mentality, but no risk, no reward, right?

I had a very solid swim, coming out in 6th, a little less than 2 minutes back of Luke Bell, who was clear on his own. This was right where I should have been, and I knew I was capable of this swim after doing more work over the winter than ever before. This put me in an excellent position right away, chasing hard with McDonald, Kotsegarov, Amey, Lieto, and Coenens. We eventually caught Luke at around mile 32, and then he latched on as McDonald, Lieto, Coenens, and myself set pace up front. I tried on a few occasions to get away, but stayed calm when it wasn't happening. Still, our pace was solid, shedding an ailing Lieto and Amey. I rode conservatively in anticipation of the hilly marathon, and broke away just slightly at the end of the ride.

The marathon was mostly about survival. The hills were just brutal, both up and down, and I tried to stay on top of nutrition and maintain a solid lead over my chasers. Weiss was gone, so I concentrated on myself, used my great crowd support, and dug deep. My running has come to another level as well, so I was confident that I could up it a bit more if the time came. I crossed the line in second, with raised arms and let out a couple yells. After a quick interview with Greg Welch, I was escorted to doping control, and then was free to go enjoy my evening with family, friends, and other athletes.

I was blessed to have a wonderful homestay with my friends, the Cobbs, and to have incredible backing throughout the day. This would not have been possible without so much help, and I am deeply indebted to my supporters. One more step up next time around...