Well, it's been awhile. It looks like my last post on here was back in early 2015 as a 29 year old. Now I'm 36, so re-reading all of these posts a couple weeks ago was pretty entertaining to say the least. Sometimes I laughed, other times I cringed, and a few times times I felt pretty impressed with some of my younger self's insights into triathlon training and racing (my break away from and splitting up of the bike pack at the non-drafting Miami 70.3 was tactical genius, can't believe I actually thought of that and then pulled it off).
I "found" this blog again when I was bored during a zone 2 trainer ride a couple weeks ago, and since I'm training again this year, and at the nudging of some of you, I'm resurrecting it.
So it's been seven years... where to begin? I guess I'll start where I left off- my last post was made at the beginning of my second year as a pro card carrying triathlete. My first pro year had some ups and downs, but due to lack of consistency in my training, I didn't quite match the level of performance that I had achieved in 2013, the year I qualified for elite status. As my last post indicated, I was making improvements early on in 2015, and although my times weren't where I wanted them to be or where they had been, I was trending upward and improving, and mentally I was optimistic about where the season might go. The last sentence of my final post was:
"God willing, I should be able to stay on track in 2015 and we'll see where things go."
Well, God may or may not have been willing, but I wasn't. Plans soon changed- 2015 and 2016 were big years outside of my athletic life. I had just bought a house, and a few months after writing my last post on here, I got engaged. I married Sharon in November 2015 and in February of 2016 I purchased the majority share of SBR Coaching (now SBR Endurance Performance Center) and became a small business owner. These were all great things that I was very happy about! The business purchase especially was an opportunity that had not been on my radar prior to that time. I had been coaching part-time for a number of years as some of my old posts chronicle, and was really enjoying it. I was also starting to see more of a future as a coach than as an athlete. I didn't want to give up training and racing as a triathlete, but I was seeing that if I was going to continue to improve as an elite triathlete and continue to move up in the ranks, it was going to take a commitment level that I was no longer sure I was willing to make. On one hand, I could totally dedicate myself as an athlete and maybe I would have the potential to eventually become a middle of the pack pro triathlete. Maybe. And honestly, that would be pretty awesome, but it would also come at a cost in terms of time, energy and giving up other things that were becoming more important to me than they had been through most of my 20s. About to turn 30, being newly engaged, and looking at a potential business purchase, I wasn't sure exactly what degree of commitment to triathlon training I was willing to continue to make. Long story short, I chose to prioritize family and my coaching career, and looking back on that decision now, I'm glad that's the decision I made. I'm also glad that I didn't quit training and racing, either (I thought about it a couple times). I had two more years left of elite eligibility before I had to either meet re-qualification or give up pro status. My approach to racing those two years was to train as best I could without sacrificing other important areas in my life and to have fun racing, even if the difference between a good day and bad day was either second to last or dead last pro finisher. I have to say it was fun to tread water next to Hunter Kemper and Greg Bennett before the gun went off to start the Chicago triathlon, even if I only stayed with them for the first 50 yards of the swim.
As the last few months of my third year of elite eligibility in 2016 were coming around, I made one last training push to see if I could sneak in a re-qualification at the Austin 70.3 (I had to finish within 8% of the winning pro's time). A couple weeks before the race, fitness testing indicated that I was probably at my highest level in the previous three years, and second only to my last season as an age grouper when I had initially qualified. It was a long shot, but I was feeling a little bit optimistic with training having gone really well the prior couple months. But then a few days before I was scheduled to travel to Austin, I got sick. I've only been sick a total of 3 times in the past 10 years, so this was not great timing. Or maybe it was... I was in no shape to race so I stayed in Madison and followed the race online. Turns out the swim got cancelled because of heavy fog... no chance I would've re-qualified without the swim. Getting sick saved me significant money as I was able to get a portion of my travel expenses refunded. But not racing meant that as of the end of 2016 my elite status expired.
A quick summary of the years between then and now:
2017- The first year of my second round as an age group triathlete. I might have done one or two sprint races for fun, I can't remember. I didn't really train at all that year. I was much more focused on growing SBR and helping my athletes achieve their goals. In the coaching arena, this was a very successful year.
2018- After taking pretty much a full year off of training, I thought it was time to make a return to some racing, but knowing full well it was going to be different than before. Fitness was at an all time low to start the season, especially running. I ran so infrequently that every time I did actually run a couple easy miles my legs would start itching after 10 minutes. As the 2018 season went on, I actually started feeling pretty good on the swim and bike. I really didn't have time to train well in all three disciplines, and I just didn't feel like running that year, so I put time into the swim and bike and just didn't run, and didn't care. I signed up for the Door County half iron that year because it's a fun race and I like the course (minus the bluff hill, but we can't always have everything we want in life). I think the run that day doubled my total running miles that entire season up to that point. My results reflected the relative effort I put into my training each of the disciplines. Splits were a 29:04 swim, 2:21:19 bike, and a 1:58:50 run. I came off the bike ~10th and finished 24th, which was honestly better than I thought I'd do, and my final time was about 30 minutes slower than I had raced this course years before. But aside from the last 5km when I was dying up on the bluff, I really enjoyed racing again. And I surprised myself with the level I was able to bring my swim and bike back to after taking a year off in 2017. I think I raced a few other times that year, but Door County sticks out as both the highlight and turning point, when my joy of racing started to re-emerge, and my belief that if I trained properly I still had the ability to race at the level I had in the past.
2019- One of the best parts about getting involved at SBR is the community that's been built there. Yes they are my athletes but I consider many of them my friends as well. At the convincing of some of my athletes I signed up for Ironman Wisconsin, and training started that February. This would be the second Ironman of my life- my first one had been as a 20 year old college junior in 2006. That first Ironman I finished in 11:39. While Ironman was the big race looming over everything in 2019, I raced a full season that year and tried to (and I did) appreciate each one. Wisconsin 70.3, Door County half iron, the Loop Pursuit Triathlon, and then Ironman in September. Performance-wise, each race got better than the one before it. The season started like 2018- pretty strong swim and bike followed by a sub-par run. But with each race the run got better. My Door County overall time in 2019 was ~20 minutes better than I did it in 2018 (27/2:22/1:42), and I took my first race win in many years at the Loop Pursuit, finishing on SBR's front lawn in front of a "home crowd". Then came Ironman Wisconsin... I could write a whole post about this race alone, but long story short I had a fantastic day, likely my best long course race ever, and finished in 9:53. In one of my blog posts here from years ago I wrote about how when I PR I sometimes imagine what I would have the time to do while waiting for my former self to finish. At the time I joked that I was going to bring a book to my next Ironman... well with an almost 2 hour time drop between 2006 and 2019, that turned out to be a pretty accurate statement. I also loved doing the race in Madison and seeing family and friends throughout the entire day. Lastly I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to my friend Garrett Nelson for training and racing with me throughout the whole 2019 season. Garrett is one of my new friends I've met through SBR and was a big part of my success that year as we did much of our training together, and he kept me motivated. (Garrett is a great athlete who has had strong results already and has quite a bit of potential in both long distance triathlon and ultra endurance running- I look forward to following his race at Kona this upcoming year) Honestly, the 2019 season was probably the most I'd ever enjoyed the sport as an athlete, both the training and racing. Not that I hadn't in prior years, I loved the training and racing, but with the SBR community and training partners that year, this was a year of training and racing that I won't ever forget.
2020- Covid
2021- An intentional 6 month off-season following Ironman turned into almost two full years off due to covid related reasons. Races were returning in 2021 but I didn't do any of them. Literally my only exercise in the first half of 2021 was a 300yd lifeguard recertification test-out swim in February, and riding the warmup and cool down twice a week with my group cycling class at SBR in the summer. Aside from that zero swimming, biking or running was done up until July 2021 when I hopped in the pool a couple times. I had started doing some strength training twice a week back in the spring of 2021 because after over a year of not exercising I was starting to actually feel somewhat unhealthy for the first time in my life in day to day life. But other than that, nothing. I can't explain why, but in August 2021 a switch flipped inside of me. I decided I was going to do Age Group Nationals 2022 which is happening in Milwaukee, and with a year to prepare I started training again. If I thought my fitness was poor at the start of 2018 after taking a year off, this was a whole other level entirely. When I jumped in the pool the first time last July I swam 100 yards in 1:30 but needed 2 minutes of rest to repeat it. After 5x100, each one getting slower than the prior one, I had to get out. FTP on the bike had dropped 100 watts from 2019 Ironman, from just over 300 to just barely over 200. I had to walk multiple times on my first casual 3 mile run, which was done at a slower pace than I had averaged in the 2019 Ironman run. Re-starting training in August was rough, but gradually things started to feel better. Last September I got a Strava account and have been logging every workout there, so if you want to know how my training has gone since then, you can follow me on Strava. After a few re-starting related hiccups, training has been going extremely well- I've been steadily improving and the past 7 months have been the most consistent and well executed training months of my life. I had perhaps my best single week of training of my triathlon career this past January with the UW Tri team in Destin. I'm not at personal best levels yet with my workouts but to my surprise I'm actually starting to close in on some of them. Now that I am a more experienced business owner and coach I am better able to split my time between work and training, where as earlier as a coach I would not have been as good at time management between the two. So we'll see where this year goes. I want to enjoy the process, enjoy the training and racing, and do my best but at the end of the day I'm blessed to be able to do this. I think that's all for now- I'll update the pictures etc on here soon, and I'll probably check in again with another post, hopefully it won't take another 7 years before my next one.
