7/1 - 7/7/2013

This was a very melo week having just raced last Sunday and with Vineman 70.3 only another week away my only focus this week was to be rested and recovered. These weeks are always hard for me because I have to constantly remind myself that it is ok to take it easy. My brain always wants to train harder and when I am tired I always forget that I fell sluggish because I am recovering and not because I am out of shape. I felt really run down for most of the week but by the weekend I started feeling better and more rested.

I got to do another fun photo-shoot with Maximum Impact Design for ETON at some beautiful locations, with delicious food from The Picnic Basket! It was a beautiful day and even though I am still  kind of embarrassed doing it they always make sure it is a fun time :)

I also got to spend some time with good friends, have some barbecue, sip some wine and play with some really cute pets!

It was a good week :)

Swim 10,000 yds
Bike   4 hrs
Run    12 mi

California International Triathlon 2013

This was another race that I was doing for the first time this year, I was excited because it is on my old home turf and I would be able to spend the weekend with my family close to the event. Being able to stay in a comfortable place, have home cooked meals and sleep comfortably makes all the difference when being rested and fresh is key for racing well. This was especially important for me because I have had a really rough couple of weeks and I have not been feeling all that well. I got a good nights sleep the night before the race and was feeling refreshed and charged up in the morning.

I made it to the event fairly early and got a good spot to set up. The weather had let up some from the day before which was a relief because the heat had been unbearable for a couple of days. I had consumed close to 10 quarts of water the day before to combat the heat and be fully hydrated race morning. There were lots of people from my team and old friends around so I spent a lot of time chatting and catching up before heading out for a little warm up jog. I got in some stretching, accelerations and recon on the back section of the course which I was excited to find was all on soft surfaces. The water was warm from the past weeks weather and I opted for a very thin speedsuit instead of a wetsuit because I have had problems in the past overheating durring the swim. I jumped in the water with enough time to check out the finish approach and the course's sighting lines before the start. The water was the perfect temperature for a speedsuit swim and I was glad I chose it.

We lined up for the swim wit a big group and I was expecting there to be some really strong swimmers in the group as the east bay is an aquatics hotbed. I started to the far left of the chute so I could see the whole spread of the group at the start and after 100 meters there was no one that was pulling away from the rest of the group so I turned away and set my own pace. I felt good in the water and with my arms free of the wetsuit I felt like I was swimming well so I actually picked it up to a stronger pace than usual in hopes that I might put some time into the faster guys that I knew were in the field. I spent the whole swim out front on my own but there was at least one swimmer just touching my toes from time to time. The finish gets shallow a little early so I put in a couple of good dolphin dives and gapped the few people I knew were close behind.


I didn't have that great of position in the transition area so two or three guys came into transition with me but I got out just ahead of them. The moment I got on my bike and made my first pedal stroke my chain came off, I tried to pedal it back on but it jammed and I came to a stop. I jumped off with one cycling shoe half on and tried to spin it on manually but it jammed again. I set the bike down and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. The chain had gotten sucked up between the frame and the rings but the space between was so small that it would not slide back out easily. I tried setting it on the rail and using the cranks to pull it free but it would not budge. I was starting to panic because minutes were passing and more people were leaving transition to start the bike. Eventually I just grabbed the chain and rings and started yanking on it until I forced it out of the space it was caught in. I got it back on the gears and spun it around to set it and finally got on my bike. In my head I knew that at least two minutes had passed and looking at the times it turned out to be more than THREE! I was livid and as soon as I got onto flat roads I put the bike into my biggest gear and just started pounding on the pedals as hard as I could. My approach this year has been to stay within myself and control my efforts but at this point I was so far back that I knew that I had to go as deep as I was capable and hold nothing back if I was going to claw my way back to the front of the race.

The first six miles of the course has several out and back sections which worked really well for me because I got a good look at how many people had passed me and how far ahead the leaders were. I had lost about 15 places and the leaders were three minutes up but at this point that all became irrelevant because I was so angry I had the throttle all the way open and that was all I could do. I was so far back that even my best might not have gotten them back so it didn't matter if I over did it. By mile eight I had caught all but three of the guys up the road and I had one guy in sight. I caught him a few miles later and then it was just two up the road. There was one more out and back about two thirds of the way through and I was disappointed to see that I had barely taken any time out of them. My hope was that they were putting out so much effort that they might crack on the run and I could real them in there. I hit every turn as hot as I could and kept my effort at my max the whole way back to transition so as not to give up any time.

I got through T2 quickly and left shaking my head knowing that it was still around two minutes to the leaders and it was going to take a great run by me in addition to poor runs by them for that gap to close down. I went hard from the beginning and brought myself up to my absolute limit. The run course is absolutely perfect for me, two loops with lots of twisty up and down sections and all on soft pack trails, a fair amount of which are shaded! I like a course that changes regularly because it keeps my mind occupied and the time passes faster. At the first out and back I figured it was just shy of three minutes to the leader and the guy in second place was less than a minute back from him. They both looked tired and a lot can happen in ten kilometers so I was motivated to chase. I took the short lines through all the turns and pushed all the hills imagining the seconds I was gaining with each passing mile. When I got close to the end of the first lap I could see the guy in second and that gave me an extra boost but when I passed him at the beginning of the second lap I could see that he was fading pretty badly and that meant that there was probably still a long way to go to the leader. At the second out and back section I realized that I had put time into the leader but that he was not fading badly and was still over a minute and a half ahead of me. With less than two miles to go I knew that this was an insurmountable gap so I backed off a bit and ran steady to the finish to consolidate the work I had already done.

I finished second on the day and although it is disappointing to lose so much time because of a mechanical, the time that I spent moving was very strong and the numbers I put up were great for me. I loved the course and I am already looking forward to taking an honest crack at it next year to see what I can do there. It was great to hang with my family and see all my teammates racing well! 

This was my last hard effort before Vineman 70.3, which is my big focus this year. I am very happy with where my fitness is at and I am looking forward to putting it to the test against the best in the world!

6/14 - 6/23/2013 Vineman 70.3 Training Camp

The past ten days were one of the few periods in the middle of this season when I will have freedom to train as much and as hard as I want. I have had this marked off on the calendar for a while and had planned a schedule of solid training out. I gathered all of my favorite rides, runs and workouts and planned them into this period in a way that I knew I could get the most out of this period of training. It was a really tough regimen and there were times where I was cracking multiple times in a day but I could feel my fitness really responding. Obviously it is hard to be objective but I feel fitter than I have ever been and I am excited to get some rest in and test the limits of my ability.

Swim 24,050 yards
Bike   17 hours
Run    52 miles

Folsom International Race Report

This was my first time racing Folsom International but I have raced many events with USA Productions and I went over all the info they provide on the event several times to be prepared. They put on great events and the courses are always marked and marshaled well. The one bummer about this race was that I had a lot of other stuff planed for the weekend and the amount of travel, with summer traffic, and other stuff I had to do it ended up being a really long and exhausting ordeal. I should have planned ahead to not have so many other things to do on a race weekend but there is much more to life than just triathlon.

Despite all of the stuff going on aside from the race I made it to the event with enough time to get in a jog and some easy swimming to warm up and recon the course. The park where the event is staged is a beautiful area just above a huge dam and along the american river...there are lots of trees and the water is cool and clean. We lucked out and the weather had cooled down as the day before it had been 107 degrees in Folsom. The sun was rising directly above the far end of the swim course which made seeing the far turn buoy a little tough so I floated around a bit and strategised some cues to get a good line. I had been talking with Joel Wilson, one of the foremost experts in the world on open water swimming, earlier in the week about moderating my effort in the swim portion as I have been feeling like my heart and lungs are always so strained after exiting the water and my plan was to set more of a controlled pace throughout the swim regardless of what everyone else was doing.

At the start everyone was spread really wide so I got to get up to speed in open water which was really nice and there were some underwater lines that ran paralel to the course so for a little while sighting wasn't really necessary. There was a group of people that were staying much closer to shore than I but I kept faith in my strategy and line, which ended up being a good plan because those people ended up swinging really wide to the first turn and lost a good amount of time in the extra distance. I spent the entire swim alone and out front which is always a good feeling and even though I was tired it is always a boost to be leading an event. The water was the perfect temperature and the swim was fairly long which made for a great test of my pacing and it was nice to be alone.

I exited the water and peeked back to see if anyone was right on my heals but it looked like I had a good gap. Through transition smoothly and with a bit of a lead I kept myself calm and allowed myself to build into a rhythm on the bike; I have a tendency to really hit the gas hard right away and since I was feeling tired I wanted to make sure I was keep my energy expenditure steady. The roads used for the course were in great condition and I set my mind to using the first few miles to build up to a strong  but smooth pace. The first third of the bike course has a rolling uphill tendency so the speed was not all that high but I let things play out and got my effort up to what felt like a good solid pace. The wind was beginning to pick up and as we got out to the moe exposed and remote roads there was a steady head and cross wind for much of the middle section of the bike course. Around mile eight or so an unfamiliar figure passed me who I later found out was local athlete and coach Mike White of Folsom Lake Multisport. At the time I was blown away because I knew that he had already put at least a minute if not two into me and I thought I might not be riding all that well. It turns out Mike is a beast on the bike and crushed everyone.

Sometimes it is really nice to have someone ahead of you on the bike, especially if that person is faster than you are, because you can keep an eye on them and you know if you are holding pace with them then you are doing well. This was my strategy for the rest of the bike to just keep Mike from pulling away and it was a challenge to say the least...at times I was grinding my hardest gear and at others spinning it out just to keep pace with him. No one else caught us but on the out-and-back section of the course there were plenty of strong guys within a few minutes of us so there was no letting up. Mike kept the pace high all the way back to transition and we went through together...I told him that he had put in a great ride and he said something to the effect of not being able to hang for the run. This was a bit of a relief but you never really know what people are capable of and there were fast runners back in the field so I did not hesitate to punch it from the start.

I had a great run several weeks ago and I tried to channel the feeling I experienced that day as I accelerated up to pace. The American River Trail on which the run was held is beautiful and snakes along the shoreline through trees and bushes remaining well sheltered from the sun and the cool breeze of the day made for perfect running conditions.The course undulated more than I had expected with a few rises in the road along the way. I backed way off on the hills to ensure I did not pop myself and then let my legs accelerate down the other side. I felt like I was running well and after the turn around it was more than a minute to the first chaser. It is always a good feeling to have a cushion and for some reason it makes it easier for me to perform my best when there is less pressure.

I kept as hard and steady a pace as I possibly could going and just kept counting down distane and time as I went to keep myself motivated. I was really wrecked when I finished and thankfully there was a nice resting area just past the finish with cold towels and lounge-chairs to flop on. Many of my teammates finished in the top ten and came in not long after me. It was great to see them all performing so well, especially since I get so few opportunities to race or train with them.

It was a good, tough race and I was glad to do so well under less than optimal conditions. It was great to have all the super strong guys out there on course keeping me motivated. As always USA Productions put on a great event and even though the travel was such a nightmare I am glad I made the trip. I am pumped that the venue was so nice and I definitely plan on returning here for races in the future. Thanks to all the volunteers and other athletes for being a part of such a fun and inspiring community!

5/27 - 6/2/2013

This was one of the few weeks in the middle of the season that I had to train freely and as much as I wanted. I told myself that it was a 'no excuses' week and although I was not feeling all that well I pushed through it day after day and put in some great training. I will only get one more week like this before Vineman 70.3 and my training this week was a really good indication of fitness and progress. I got in some really had sessions and I am looking forward to racing again.

I also got in some relaxation with my girlfriend and family in the last week which was really nice and helped rejuvenate my energy and spirits.

Apéritif and Appetizer @ Claremont Resort and Spa

Swim 17,500 yds

Bike   10.5 hrs

Run    40 mi