Clash Daytona- A new PR

It's been a week now since I finished the Clash Daytona half iron triathlon down in Florida, and in the last 2-3 days I've finally started walking normally again.  But the extreme soreness and hobbling around for days afterwards was worth it to do something I wasn't sure I'd be able to do again after such a long break from higher level training and racing- setting a new personal best time in a triathlon. 4 hours and 19 minutes for the 70.3 distance.

This race wasn't an Ironman branded race, but it was every bit as well organized and produced.  There were even fireworks just before the start, that's a new one for me!  And for the entire 56 mile bike course we had a lane to ourselves, totally coned off and separate from car traffic.  That doesn't always happen in an Ironman 70.3 race. 

The course was centered around the Daytona 500 race track- I've never been to a Nascar stadium, car racing just isn't my thing, but I must admit this was pretty cool.  I had no idea how big those tracks are- one lap of the track was ~2.5 miles around, and the 1.2 mile swim portion of the race was held in a rectangular manmade lake entirely contained within the infield of the track.  Logistically, everything was really close together which was nice.  I stayed at a hotel across the street, so it was an easy 5 minute drive to park, and then the parking lot was basically a few minutes walk from the swim, transition area, expo, registration, and finish line.  For the pro race on Friday they did laps on the track for the whole bike and run portions of the race, so it's very spectator friendly and a very fast course.  There are too many age groupers to bike on the track the whole time, so we did one lap and then left the track to do a double out and back on a nearby road.  Aside from the u-turns which slow things down, our course was also very quick- it was almost totally flat and being Florida, the pavement was super smooth.  For the run, we did a couple laps on the track, which they extended to get the full 13.1 distance by also looping us around the infield and under the grandstands, which was the only shaded portion of the run.  This is definitely a race I will consider doing again in the future and would recommend to others.

As for my training leading into the race, it's been pretty good but not great.  I took a few weeks off after the Chicago Tri in August to recover from the season, and have been back at it now for about 3 months leading into this race.  My training this fall was not quite as good or consistent as it was through last winter, spring and summer due to work and other things, but it has still been pretty good overall and the main training goal for the fall was accomplished- improve my run.  In my summer races this year, the run was the weak point every time.  It's the one discipline that hasn't returned to the form I had in my late 20s.  So, that's been my main focus of the past few months... even if the swim and bike training were to fall off a little bit, I was fine with that as long as the run was improving, which it did.  By race day, I had shown recently in training that I can run an open half marathon now in around 1:22-1:23, which I wasn't anywhere close to this summer, or at any time in the past 6 years.  But, what remained to be seen was how close to that I could run after a swim and 56 mile bike ride- triathlon running is not just about running fitness, but also about bike fitness and race execution- pacing, nutrition and hydration over a 4+ hour race.

My run started off great- the first three miles went by quickly and somewhat easily at a ~6:20/mile pace.  Stride was feeling smooth and I had just moved into 3rd AG, 10th overall so motivation was high to continue at the pace, which I felt like I could, at least aerobically.  But then a bit after mile 3 I started feeling a twitching in my quads which got more frequent over the next couple minutes.  Knowing this is a pre-cramp warning sign, I decided to slow down my pace so that I could at least continue running, rather than be forced to walk most of the last 10 miles.  Ultimately, I never fully cramped but my legs were tightening up and getting heavier through the middle of the run. When I was running, it was at ~7:15/mi through the middle miles, plus there were some walk breaks through aid stations during that time, and then I brought it down to ~7:00/mi for the last couple miles.  I was passed by 4 athletes during that time and got bumped off the age group podium, and finished with a run split of 1:33.  While this split didn't quite reflect the running gains I've made this fall, it was a big improvement from the 1:42 I ran in a half iron in 2019, and because the swim (27, 1:15/100yd) and bike (2:14, 25.0 mph) were as good as they were, I was still able to set an overall PR of 4:19, down from my previous best of 4:21. 

So, despite a rough middle few miles of the run, I came away from this race very pleased with how it went and how I've been able to get my fitness back in the past year.  And that didn't come easy... I've had to be very disciplined, consistent, and time-efficient (because coaching and my athletes come first before my own training), not to mention willing to push myself to the limit many times over in workouts, while at the same time being smart about recovering adequately and not over-working myself. (easy=easy, hard=hard) But in the end, about a year and a quarter out from being in the worst shape of my life, I was able to put together the best long course race I've ever done, with clear potential for improvement.  Still a ways to go to match my best short course performance (20/59/35), which in my 20s I was always more competitive at than long course, and who knows if I'll ever get back there, but Daytona showed me that moving forward into the future, if I continue training consistently and am smart about it, there's still a lot of potential for fast racing and PRs.  But more importantly than that, I'm feeling healthier again in the past year, I'm fitter and stronger that I've been in awhile, and I'm having fun doing it.  It was also nice to hear from many of my athletes and other friends before and after the race that were following along- that's a good motivation to keep pushing throughout the race, and I hope that my efforts can help inspire others to work hard and accomplish their goals!

In the past month I've been asked by many "what's next?"  I wanted to wait until after this race to think much about that.  The one thing that I knew beforehand was that I planned to continue training and build on the progress I made this year- I don't want to lose all my fitness again by taking another extended break.  So I'll take a couple easy weeks and then start working again.  But now that this race is in the books, next season's plans are starting to come together.  Because Nationals is coming back to Milwaukee, I'm going to plan for that as my A race for the summer.  I'd also like to race another half iron or two, and attempt to lower my new PR even more.  But if I try to race both short and long course next summer at a high level, one or both will end up compromised, since the training should be different for the two.  So what I'm planning to do at this point is to focus the spring and summer on short course training and racing.  Then after Nationals, I'll shift my training to a long course focus and hit one or two 70.3s in the fall.  Maybe I'll be back to Daytona, but there are also a few other good options I could do.  So in terms of specific races, things are still pretty up in the air other than Nationals, but the big picture season structure seems to be coming together.  So if you're following my Strava, you'll probably see workouts pick back up in a few weeks.  Otherwise, I'll probably check back here with a training update sometime in the spring.  Thanks for reading, and happy training!

One Year Back In It- Age Group Nationals

Well, it's now been about one full year since I abruptly ended my 2 year long off-season and tried to get fit again with a goal of training for Age Group Nationals.  This past weekend was the race, so I thought this would be a good time to check in with an update.

As my last post mentioned, starting back up again after so much time off and fitness lost was a bumpy ride and a humbling experience at first to say the least.  But throughout this past year my training has been more consistent than it's ever been over the course of a year.  I'm happy to report that even since my last post in the spring, that trajectory has mostly continued.  And along with the long term consistency in training has come a gradual, steady improvement in training paces, fitness markers, test sets and race results.

My first triathlon since Ironman 2019 was the Pigman olympic distance race in Cedar Rapids in early June of this year (2022).  I was trying to think back to when my last true olympic distance race was where I raced hard, and couldn't exactly remember.  2019 was all long course, so I probably did one in 2018 but I was not very fit that year so it's not the same kind of effort... I suppose the last time I really raced an olympic distance triathlon when I was fit enough to push hard- close to threshold the whole way- must've been 2016.  So while training had gone well this year, Pigman was a shock to the system... I hadn't done something like that- staying at ~85-95% threshold for around 2 hours- in over 5 years.  But although it felt really hard, it was a good race and I felt strong!  1st 35-39 AG and 5th overall.  My swim was strong, I stayed close to the front group until I lost contact when we rejoined with the sprint athletes toward the end and it got crowded.  On the bike something got stuck to my tire and kept hitting my bike frame every revolution so that was more annoying than anything, maybe a few watts of drag, but the bike was good and I enjoyed the course. Mid 23mph average, was expecting ~24 but that's ok. On the run I was really feeling the length of the race and didn't perform quite as well as I had hoped or thought I would, but it wasn't bad and was good enough to stay in the top 5 overall.

My second race was an olympic distance called the Manitou tri in the Twin Cities area.  This was a small, local, non sanctioned race that I probably wouldn't have known about except that my brother lives in the area so I was looking for what races were around there so I could visit for the weekend, too.  The race started and I was out in front in the swim right away and feeling strong.  It was a really windy day though and the buoys weren't staying in place.  Buoy drift combined with the sun in my face combined with overconfidence resulted in me swimming toward the wrong buoy, thinking it was the turn buoy.  When I got there, I saw the actual turn buoy to my left, ~50-100m away.  So I had to detour over there, go around the buoy, and then swim back to where I had just been, which in all added 100-200m to my swim.  During that time I was passed but I re-caught him soon after.  On the way back in there was more difficulty with figuring out where to go and I came out of the water in 2nd, pretty annoyed with myself for the rookie mistakes.  But practicing transitions pays off, as I passed the race leader in T1 and started the bike in first.  On the bike I was fighting 20mph winds the whole way while riding a disc wheel and 60mm front.  Terrain was mostly open field and sometimes we were riding alongside lakes.  So in other words, there was not much to block the wind and I was getting hammered trying to stay in the aerobars. My upper body has never been so tense on the bike in a race. There were a few times I had to back off the gas just so that I wouldn't get blown off the road.  I suppose I could've just gotten out of the aero position at times to have more stability like I do on windy training days, but that would've been slower, so not going to happen unless I really felt like I would crash otherwise.  Despite the hard conditions I finished the bike with a 24.0mph average, which I was very happy about.  On the run, I went out strong and pushed it to the turnaround and a little bit afterward.  On the way back I saw that I had a ~10 minute lead on 2nd place, so realizing that he would need to run under 4 minute miles the rest of the way to catch me, I decided to jog in the last 2.5 miles back to the finish.  After this race, confidence was high going into July and my final training push toward Nationals.

My brother and his family came out to watch the race, which added some extra fun to the weekend :)

Early in July I had my first and only real training hiccup of the season.  Long story short, I strained my calf muscle during/after a track workout.  Over the past year I had gradually built my running mileage up, and for the prior two months I had been sustaining it at ~20-25 miles per week on non-recovery weeks.  But, after this, July's weekly running mileage had to stay around 3-4 (after one week of zero running) in order to allow the calf to heal up to be ready for Nationals.  Definitely a bummer, but the important thing with stuff like this is that you don't panic, don't get down on yourself, and make the necessary adjustments to make the best of a less than ideal situation.  Dwelling on the negative will do nothing good for you, it'll just make things worse, you can't change what happened, so focus on what you can do from here and move forward. For me, besides dropping the running mileage out of necessity, this also meant a lot of muscle work such as massage, dry needling and A.R.T (active release technique).  While the running mileage was down I increased my biking mileage to keep my overall workload similar.  After a few weeks of all this, it was go time for Nationals and it felt as if my leg would probably hold up for the race.  As long as it did and I didn't end up walking on the run, I was confident that I could perform well and push myself from start to finish.  So that was the goal going into the race.  Before the injury I was aiming for a top-10 age group finish and thought it would be doable if nothing went wrong and I didn't make any mistakes.  Now I was a little less confident but still considered that it could be possible on a good day.  It was only a 5km run after all, as I was going to be doing the sprint distance.

Race weekend came and I did some spectating in the morning of the olympic distance race, as a number of my SBR athletes and other friends were competing.  My athletes did great, and this was an exciting boost going into my race the next day.  Though, there was a lot of uncertainty about the weather forecast.  It looked like Milwaukee was going to get hit by storms overnight and for much of the next day.  I went to sleep the night before not knowing if we were going to have a race at all the next day, but ready to make do with whatever the day brought.  I woke up at 5am and it was raining but not bad.  USAT had just announced that the sprint triathlon would be changed to a "Super Sprint" meaning the already short distances were being cut in about half.  This was done so that we would be done before the big storms rolled in, as it looked like we were going to get a window of decent weather.  The race would be a 385m swim, 6.7 or 6.8 mile bike (depending on which gps mapping app you ask, USAT's app was way off), and a 2.5km run.  I've never raced a triathlon this short, though my collegiate athletes have done even shorter ones as part of the mixed team relay at collegiate Nationals.  So theoretically I had a good idea of what I needed to do and how to adjust, but I haven't experienced it before myself as an athlete.  I'm a bit better suited to the full sprint or olympic distance, the super sprint is a little short for me, but I was still excited to go for it and see what I could do.  Ultimately, I ended up having a really good race! 34 minutes of red-lining and it was all over.

The swim went really well and I couldn't believe how quickly it went by.  It felt like we had just started and I was already getting out of the water.  I was 2nd out of the water in my age group which is way above anything I've ever been able to do at Nationals.  I was quickly introduced to the intensity of the super sprint though, and as I was trying to get my heart rate settled and body ready to bike as I went methodically through the transition area, many of my competitors blew by me in what looked like a full sprint.  That was a wake up call, there was going to be no letting up on the gas the rest of the way, no reprieves in the effort except for the one brief downhill after the turnaround on the bike.  The bike course was flat, fast, smooth roads and really fun.  Wish I could've been on it longer.  I loved the completely closed course with two lanes in each direction.  It was under 7 miles so of course it was going to be quick, but I've never ridden that fast before.  My average speed was right about 26.0mph, a full 1mph faster than I've ever done for an average speed in a triathlon.  By the turnaround on the bike I had moved back into 2nd 35-39, but on the way back is when I realized that I had gone out harder than I was able to sustain.  I still kept a good pace on the way back, but was passed by 3 riders I had gone by earlier, and came into transition in 5th.  In T2 another two sprinted by me, and I started the run in 7th, though only about a minute behind 2nd (to give you an idea of how tight and competitive this race was) and I had a few more hot on my heels.  It was going to be a painful 2.5km run, but I was ready to give it what I had and push through to the end.  The run started off really well and for the first half I was keeping a strong, sub-6 minute mile pace.  Most importantly, my calf felt great, I didn't notice it at all so very early into the run I was confident that it wasn't going to be a problem.  After the turnaround I did start having some side stitch and lower back tightness, and the effort was getting to me... my heart rate and breathing couldn't have been higher, so my second half run pace dropped off a bit.  The guys in front of me were all running too fast to catch, but at the turnaround I saw a number of guys behind me driving hard and that kept me motived to keep pushing through the discomfort to try to hold them off.  In the end, one of them caught me but I was able to hang on to 8th place 35-39!  This was my first top-10 finish at Nationals, which was an exciting way to end the weekend at the awards ceremony.

It's been a nice few days of recovering since the race.  I have one more race this summer, the Chicago Triathlon, so the next two weeks are going to be back to the grindstone, and then I'll be able to relax for a few weeks and recover from the season.  But I don't intend to take another massive break or lose the fitness I've gained over the past year.  I don't yet know exactly what next season will look like, but my intention is to build on the gains I've made this past year.  I'm very happy with the progress I've made and would rather not lose it again...  This spring and summer in the pool I've set lifetime personal best times in the 500, 1500, 1.2 and 2.4 distances.  My open water swimming is now at or better than it's ever been (when I don't go the wrong way, ha), and same with cycling.  This summer I put down the best FTP test of my life at 310w (4.5w/kg).  I'm still working on improving my aero position so there's speed to be gained there as well.  Running is still ~20-30 seconds/mile off my all time bests from ~8-10 years ago, but it has progressed a lot over the past year and is stronger than it's been in a long time. So all in all, a year out from being in the worst shape of my adult life, I'd say I'm very pleased with the progress I've made.  For those newer to the sport who are reading this- the only reason I was able to go from (relatively) out of shape to top 10 Nationals AG in one year is because I've been at this level before, which took me over a decade of work to get to the first time around.  So I don't want anyone to read this and think "what am I doing wrong? I'm not improving that quickly" If you're seeing improvement over time (or if you're an older athlete, maintenance over time is relative improvement vs your age group) then that's great!  You're doing something right.  You can't jump from point A to Z without going to B, then C, then D, etc.  Fitness improvement takes time and patience and often from one day or week to the next you may not notice much change, but good, smart training done consistently over time will almost always yield good results provided you're giving your body what it needs to adapt (good nutrition, sleep, adequate recovery, not overly stressed, etc).  And don't forget to have fun along the way and enjoy the process!  Regardless of race results, I'm blessed to be able to do something I enjoy, can do alongside friends and keeps me healthy. 

I guess that's it for now.  Thanks for reading.  Next update on here will likely be sometime this fall or winter. Good luck to everyone with their end of season races coming up!

Hello again

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.

Winter Wonderland, glass half full

This past Sunday was the final day of the Winter Wonderland Triathlon, now in it's second year.  This is an event that kept me very busy for the last couple months as I was race directing, coaching many participating athletes, and racing myself to see where my fitness and speed are going into the season.  It's really a series of races, as it's impossible to hold a continuous triathlon in Wisconsin in February, but it's gotten pretty popular.  It's a unique way to break up the winter training for many athletes.

Since you can't race bikes outside in February, we used computrainers for the bike portion.

Most of the participants are collegiate athletes from around the midwest who are preparing for Nationals in April, but it is also an age group race.  From a race director standpoint the event went very well.  The athletes seemed to have a good time and things ran smoothly.  From a coaching perspective it went well too.  Lots of my athletes competed between the UW Team and SBR.  Many also raced last year and it was a great chance to see the work they've put in turn out a faster time this year. (One in particular cut an absurd amount of time, and I will talk more about him later in this post.)  As an athlete, how I feel about it really depends on what context I put it in.  If I look at my result compared to my triathlon career and my goals, it was a pretty lousy performance.  However, it was better than I expected given the previous year.  If I look at it compared to my 2014 season it was actually a pretty good race.

The last year just wasn't a good year for me as a triathlete... I don't regret it though, it was a good year otherwise and I did learn a lot through it. And some of my athletes had fantastic years, which was more of a focus in 2014. I just wasn't able to put in any significant time training.  The only thing that went well, athletically, in 2014 was my strength training.  It was a little embarrassing to admit when I was talking with someone about signing up for this race or that race, but there were stretches of weeks on end during last season where my combined weekly swim/bike/run training volume was only about 2 hours.  Pretty pathetic for someone with an elite license.  But that's life.  And the elite license is good for three years, thankfully.  Because I do need to step it up in 2015 if I'm going to retain that status.

Coming out of the weekend, I could easily be discouraged about my performance, but I'm looking at it as a "glass half full" type thing.  The way the past year has gone I easily could've gone over an hour. (The winning time was 53 minutes for collegiate and 55 minutes for age group) but I finished in 58 minutes.  Last August in Chicago, my swimming hit a career low point and I came out of the water almost 6 minutes behind the fastest athletes in a 1500m.  This was half the distance and in a pool, but I cut the time gap per 750m from 3min to about 1.5min against that caliber swimmer.  My bike ride on Sunday may have been 40 watts lower than I've ridden that course in the past but it was 20 watts higher than I could do it the last time I rode it in the fall.  A couple months ago my legs would itch like crazy after a run because it had been so long since I'd done any running, and Sunday I ran a 17:30-45-ish 5k. It's unrealistic to expect to bounce back in no time so I'm happy to focus on the process of getting back into racing shape.

God willing, I should be able to stay on track in 2015 and we'll see where things go.

Not just a blow dry

Earlier this year at the ITU World Championships we saw both race winners reach the finish line first in what many would consider unusual ways.  First, in the women's race, American Gwen Jorgensen came off the bike over a minute behind the lead pack of 18 athletes but nonetheless proceeded to run her way to first place.  It also might not have been possible without help on the bike from teammate Sarah Haskins.  Then in the men's race Alistair Brownlee, defending Olympic champion, broke away with two other riders toward the end of the bike leg and built a lead of over a minute to start the run that he held on to despite faster runs by his brother Jonathan and the two Spaniards, Gomez and Mola.  Both of these results challenge the stereotype of draft legal racing, which says that in order to win you need to get in the lead pack out of the water, simply stay in it on the bike and then be the fastest runner in that lead pack.  Lance Armstrong once called draft legal triathlon a "shampoo, blow dry and a 10k".... others have called them wet 10ks and claim that the bike leg is meaningless.

This is a topic that I've considered writing about for awhile, but now that ITU has announced that it will soon be converting the AGE-GROUP Sprint World Championships to the draft-legal format, it's an issue that suddenly affects a much larger portion of the people who might be reading my blog.  The point of this post is to discuss draft legal triathlon and how it fits into the sport as a whole.

To be clear, I'm not trying to make one type of racing out to be better or worse than another, or to argue that one type of racing is more of a "true" triathlon.  Personally, I enjoy racing, coaching and  following both formats.  The point I want to make is that the different distances and formats are simply different and fans of triathlon should appreciate them for what they are rather than argue about which is better or more of a "true" triathlon.

The first issue I want to address is the idea of what constitutes a "true" triathlon.  Many people who use this term watch an ITU race and don't like the fact that the outcome of the bike leg is not solely based on an individual's ability to produce power in a time trial. (which is very true).  Because of this, and the fact that the swim becomes relatively more important in determining who an athlete starts the ride with, they decide that the three disciplines aren't equally weighted and conclude that non-drafting triathlons are the "true" triathlons.  But here's the problem with that.... please show me a non-drafting triathlon where the three disciplines are equally weighted.  I don't know of one.

Let's use the (non-drafting) 2013 Ironman 70.3 World Championship race as an example.  We'll look at two big names in triathlon: Andy Potts and Sebastian Kienle.  Looking at their split times, Andy swam 8.6% faster than Sebastian.  Sebastian then proceeded to bike 3.7% faster than Andy and then run less than 1% faster than Andy.  So if that's all I told you, who would you think won?  If you said Andy, you'd be wrong.  Sebastian Kienle was crowned World Champion and Andy Potts finished 4th; off the podium. Why? Because the swim only accounted for ~10% of the race by total time.  Not exactly equally weighted.  Does that mean that Andy is actually a better triathlete or that he somehow got cheated?  Some might argue yes but I will point out that both athletes knowingly signed up to race a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run event.  The approach in training and the approach on race day are going to be different for that race vs a 1.5k swim, 40k draft legal bike and 10k run.  To succeed, you have to race these two events differently and you have to train for these events differently.  Also some athletes are going to be naturally better at one or the other depending on their skill sets.  Sebastian was a faster triathlete that day at the 70.3 distance and format, and Andy would very likely be a faster draft legal triathlete.  (In fact he used to race that format very well)

The second issue I want to discuss is the importance of the bike leg in a draft legal triathlon.  Is it important? How is it different?  Sometimes, when watching an elite WTS event, the bike is neutralized by a large pack that forms soon after the swim which contains most of the field, resulting in everyone deciding not to try until the run.  However this is actually becoming more rare due to the tactics of some of the riders (the Brownlees changed the game when they showed up and made everyone else work on the bike), and seems to only ever happen at the very highest levels of triathlon.  That's because the athletes are all so good there's not much of a spread in the swim, even over 1500m, so it's harder to get separation.  Personally, I'd love to see hillier, more technical courses for the pros but at the collegiate and junior elite level, that is never really an issue.  In fact, the bike has been a very important factor in the outcome of the race at every collegiate and junior elite race that I've participated in or coached.  Instead of the enormous, 30+ person packs that many think of when they imagine draft-legal triathlon, in reality, when you're not at the absolute highest level of the sport the packs are usually between a handful of riders to groups of 10-20 at most.

The cycling leg often relies less on sustainable power, but more on technical riding ability.

What results is an exciting chase where the bike leg is very important in determining how an athlete does.  It's just not the same as a solo time trial.  Instead of individual riders making their way through the field and opening or closing gaps, you have motivated packs moving up and down through the field as a group, popping people off the back, swallowing up individual or small groups of riders and small group breakaways throughout the bike.  Where threshold power is at a premium in non-drafting triathlon, the skill set of a successful draft legal triathlete involves bike handling and technical skills, tactical skills, teamwork and/or communication skills with the other riders in your group, VO2 and anaerobic power and the ability to recover quickly from hard efforts.

At the Girl’s Junior Nationals race this year, the four top swimmers worked together to increase their lead from 15-30 seconds out of the water to 2 minutes ahead of the next pack (of 8) by the end of the bike.  It took someone from the second pack running a sub-18 minute 5k in order to catch the slowest runner in the lead pack, and those 4 girls finished 1, 2, 3 and 5.  The top 3 runners were untouchable to the rest of the field because of how they used the bike leg to their advantage.

In Richmond this year, one of my athletes, Sofi Nehring, came out of the water in a group of 6.  Over the 20k ride, her well organized group spit a couple riders off the back, swallowed a couple more individual riders who were caught between packs, and on the final lap bridged up to combine with the group of 10 or so that started the ride ~45 seconds earlier.  I use both of these examples to show how the bike can be a very important, even a race defining, part of the event.  It's just not in the same way as a non-drafting event.

You also get to dive in.

Of course, it isn't always that way.  I used the example of Sofi's very organized group in Richmond, but she had a couple other races where the other girls in her group simply didn't want to work or weren't strong riders, which resulted in a frustrated ride where no time was made up or time was lost vs other groups.  That's one of the variables with draft legal racing... who is on the start line, as well as how the athletes approach the race can drastically change how the race turns out.  For some people, that's a terrible thing because they like to fully control their own destiny, but others like the unpredictability of sport.  Of course, both formats have a degree of unpredictability... we don't race on paper by comparing our fitness markers... but that degree is much higher in draft legal racing.

Think about cycling for a minute... there are 3 formats: road racing, criterium and time trial.  All are different, all require different skill sets, all are exciting in their own ways and some riders will naturally be better suited to one vs another.  But it would be laughable to claim that one is real cycling and the others aren't.  I think that as triathletes, we should look at our sport, with its variety of distances and formats, in the same way.

As draft legal racing becomes more popular, age groupers will probably have more opportunities to race if they desire.  Hopefully this will help athletes decide if draft legal racing is for them.  It's not going to be for everyone, but I also hope that more people will drop the negative attitude towards it and learn to appreciate it for what it is... a different, exciting format of triathlon that is not better or worse than any others.

Mid season/early season Update

On one hand, the season seems to be flying by.  On the other hand it's just getting started.  For most triathletes who have been racing since June or earlier it's the middle of the season and I'm starting to prepare many of my personal athletes for their "A" races and the end of the season.  For me, I just had my first triathlon of the year a couple days ago.  

It's been great to see my athletes in action so far this year.  Lots of hard work has been paying off on their part.  One athlete was selected to represent her home county of Brazil at the Pan American Junior championships and qualified for Junior Nationals.  Another is currently ranked #1 in the state in his age group.  Another just finished her first half Ironman triathlon, making huge progress from one year ago.  Another just won her age group in a 5 mile open water swim!  I could keep going, but long story short my athletes are a constant source of motivation and excitement for me and it's an honor to help them work toward their goals.

It was a proud coaching moment when Robbie won the overall at Rev3 Dells

I love coaching and it keeps me busy, and for most of this year I've done a good job of making sure that my own training was balanced in well.  By that I don't just mean getting in the workouts.  I often tell my athletes that the best way to get the most out of your training, if you had to sum it up in three points, would be this:

1. Do your sessions as written, when they're written*

2. Eat well

3. Sleep enough

*Given constant communication/feedback with your coach, not blindly following a plan written far in advance

In my experience coaching, the athletes who do these three things consistently are, practically without exception, the ones who see the biggest and quickest improvements.  In my experience as an athlete, I have improved most when doing these things, and have stagnated when I have neglected one or more of them.

Fairly simple concept, but I also realize and tell my athletes that life happens while you're going through a training plan.  Everyone needs to decide where their training falls in their list of priorities.  That's something I can't decide for someone. What is going on outside of training effects what goes on with training.  Sometimes we control those things and sometimes we don't.  I just had an athlete have an unexpected two weeks off leading into a half iron this past week.  Was it ideal for her race prep?  No.  But it was for more important things than triathlon so I don't fault her at all.  My job is then to work to try to make any adjustments as smooth as possible and re-adjust race plans if necessary.  That's what we did and she had a great race day.

That's kind of how my recent chunk of the season has gone.  As of my last post things were looking good.  My threshold power was at an all time high and climbing.  I finally felt good in the water again.  Running legs were almost back.  Then mid June rolled around and from that time till now, one thing after another pulled me away from my well-oiled system.  First sleep went, and when that went I wasn't recovering enough to handle the workouts I was doing so they had to be cut back.  The past month has actually seen very minimal work on my part and I was feeling it.  In the past this would've bothered me a lot.  Especially having taken my elite card with the intent of opening up the season better than ever.  I think a big difference the past two years that is a big part of why I was able to have a good season last year and start my training off so well this year is that I put triathlon into a little bit different perspective.  I feel more secure about what I'm doing and why.  I want to be the best I can be.  I'm just not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it and it doesn't define me personally so if I have a bad race I don't feel bad about myself.  I put my training above all trivial things and have learned to say no when I feel pulled in too many directions at once.  At the same time when truly important things are going on in life I no longer have qualms about dropping workouts or sacrificing my own training.

So knowing that my fitness was substantially down going into this past weekend's half iron race, instead of being flustered by it I changed my race plan and was ok with not contending for the top 5 spots.  I knew my original time goals I set earlier in the season were out the window, but with a different approach I thought I might still be able to PR.  Going hard for over 4 hours was not going to work this time without a self destruct on the run, so instead I decided to swim easy, bike somewhat conservatively and then run hard.  I felt I could at least work hard for an hour and a half.  

Basically it seemed like things were going to plan up until mile 45 or so on the bike.  The swim was easy and although I was pushing a higher power than I have before for this distance it felt in control and smooth.  Then the road quality changed and regular jarring bumps for the next 10 miles had my lower back absolutely killing me by the time I rolled into transition.  I felt like I couldn't run and my back didn't let up until I was 10 miles in.  At that point I didn't really care any more and jogged it in.  Now I do realize that everyone rode the same course and not everyone had this problem.  I think my lack of fitness was a part of it, that and I have traditionally struggled with that on flat courses of that length when I'm trying to hold aero for so long.  I was actually doing better with it this time until the road changed, probably due to improved strength from my work at FIT this year.  Unfortunately it just meant that I finished the race never breathing hard and 10 min off of my PR.  Legs were shot though. 

So I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it's the race I wanted to have, but there were some good takeaways from the race.  I rode better for that distance than I have before and did it at below my usual half IM heart rate.  That tells me that the strength gains I've worked hard for this year have paid off despite a lower current fitness level.  It's different for everyone, but for me it takes a lot of work to gain strength and speed but relatively less work to develop endurance.  I think it's partly just how my body is made up and partly due to almost 10 years of aerobic training which has built an enormous base.  It will take much less time to get my fitness back than it would to get stronger or faster so I feel that bouncing back, while it will take significant work, is something that is definitely possible this season.  And for me at least, the season is just starting.

Exciting Triathlon Things!

I should be getting back to Madison right about now.  It's been a little over 30 hours since we left Tempe and the Collegiate National Championships, but unfortunately some car trouble (not my car) has left me temporarily stranded in Meade, KS for another day or two.  If you have no idea where that is, I don't either. I'm writing this at the "Moon Mist Motel" which features a goat chilling out on the front lawn.  That's probably the highlight of Meade.

Anyway, at least the internet has made it out to this tiny town so I can get some work done and write this blog.  Although not my ideal way to end it, the race weekend was fantastic and I am really proud of the Wisconsin Triathlon Team for their performance at Nationals.  I've been coaching the team for the past two years and with the support and organization of the team officers and the hard work of the athletes, the team has been steadily and kind of quickly rising through the ranks on the National stage. In 2012 our combined (mens/womens) team rank was 27th, in 2013 we were 16th and this past weekend we finished 12th.  This has happened at the same time the sport itself has gotten faster.  For example, last year a 1:55 in the mens race was 30th place.  This year it was 52nd place on the same course.  The super sprint mixed relay, which was just introduced last year for the first time, is not included in the overall team score but in 2013 the team's relay finished 26th.  This weekend our relay got 5th in a very tight sprint finish (which we won!).  Needless to say I'm really excited and couldn't be happier for the team.  They've worked really hard this whole year.  Team improvements like that wouldn't be possible without it.

Andrew to Katy at exchange #2 of the mixed relay.  This is a very exciting new event in triathlon, and I hope that ITU can get it added into the olympic program. (I'd also like to see a longer course, non drafting event as triathlon grows more popular)

Some of the team with me in Tempe after the olympic race.

Coaching at SBR has also been going well.  My personal athletes are gearing up for the racing season to start and the swimming group that I've been leading has been looking better and better.  The annual Winter Cycling Relay Challenge raised a lot of money for the new exhibit at the Zoo and SBR held the first annual Winter Wonderland Triathlon, primarily a collegiate race but also open to the public.  I'm excited for all of the athletes that I'm working with and also looking to pick up a few more for the summer season.

The Winter Wonderland Triathlon at SBR.  750m indoor pool swim, 20k computrainer ride, 5k outdoor run

As for my own racing, I officially received my USAT Elite/Pro license in mid-January!  At that time my off season came to a screeching halt and for the last 2.5 months I've been hard at work getting back into shape.  I didn't let myself get as out of shape as I did prior to the 2013 season, and as of right now I'm happy with how things are going.  This past week at Nationals has been less training and more unhealthy eating with the long road trips, but with the exception of this week I have been eating much better, sleeping better and incorporating a good strength program consistently, something that has always fallen by the wayside as things have gotten busy in past years.  The result is that I feel better in general, I've gained almost 5lbs of muscle (I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life, and that is a good thing!) and my FTP is already 5% higher than my previous lifetime best despite starting the season down 20%.  Chasing Andrew Nielsen for a week around the foothills in South Carolina a few weeks ago also certainly helped get my cycling fitness back.  I'm also setting PR's in the pool like crazy on kick sets, which means it won't be long before I'm swimming better than ever.  If things continue to move forward as they have been so far I should be in a good position to kick off my rookie pro season in June or July.

Training camp in South Carolina with the tri team.  It was spring break for them and a (fun) business trip for me.