Pacific Grove Triathlon 2013

If you were looking for a destination race in a sleepy beautiful costal town, Pacific Grove is that race. Even though it is close by, I don't make it down there very often and every year when I travel there for TriCalifornia's event I am always enchanted by the location. This year we had particularly nice weather which, coupled with the natural beauty of the bay and the cozy character of the town, made for a wonderful day. With the race being relatively local my family, friends, and teammates were all in attendance which always makes for a great day of catching up, laughs and great spirits.

This late in the year I always feel pretty tired so I have been doing my best to balance training and rest to make it to race day somewhat fresh without loosing too much fitness. It is always a challenge but I felt ok the day before and my pre-race routine went smoothly so I was feeling confident. I knew a lot of guys in the field and it looked like it was going to be fast and competitive.

I got down to the swim area early to get in and recon the course and sight lines. Being a draft-legal event, your position coming out of the swim makes a huge difference so I was going to need every advantage I could get. The kelp was not as bad as past years which was a relief and with the warm weather, the sometimes chilly water of Lovers Cove felt almost refreshing! I got out and gave a hug and kiss to my family before the start, then got into position early to guarantee a good entry at the start. When the gun went off I got a good jump on the beach and a good entry. The start is always chaotic and fast and I made it to the first buoy with the front of the group which may have been too fast and when we hit the first bit of kelp I felt pretty tired. The leaders pulled away just like I knew they would...Tommy, Dustin, John and another guy started to build a gap together but we all know we cant keep up with them in the water. Half way through the first lap a group of three guys came by me and I was glad to have a group to work with.

I think the exertion of the first few hundred meters caught up with me and as we were finishing the first lap I had let a little space open up between myself and the three guys I was with. I was hurting and swimming hard so on the second lap I just tried to avoid as much kelp as I could and get back up to them. I put a huge dig in for the last stretch and once I got into transition I was just behind them. I got out of transition less than twenty seconds behind them and hit the gas as hard as possible to try and close the gap quickly. Even with my best effort the gap had grown to thirty seconds by the first turn around. I was really frustrated because I knew my best chance of getting back to the leaders was to be in that group and there was no way I was going to pull them back alone. After the turn around I saw that Nicholas Thompson and another strong guy were less than half a minute behind me and I knew that they would eventually catch me so I sat up. The three of us got together before the end of the first lap and started working hard to make up some time. We set a strong tempo and kept it fairly steady, those two are strong on the bike and we made up a ton of time on the second group. Up the road John had lost touch with the leaders and by the end of the third lap our group had almost caught the group of four.

On the fourth lap our group of three caught the four chasers and at that point there were only three up the road. The leaders had a substantial gap so the rest of us were racing for fourth place so the pace on the last lap eased up substantially. I was relieved about that because my legs and lungs needed a break. We flew into the second transition with a strong tailwind and I had one of my fastest transitions ever! I left T2 in the lead from my group but my stomach felt a little heavy and it took me a little time to get going. Two guys passed me and slowly started pulling away in the first mile and one passed me in the second mile. By then I finally felt like I was getting into a rhythm and knowing how fast the guys up the road were I was just trying to hang on. I knew I was in seventh and I was happy with that so I just tried to keep my turnover up and my breathing under control. Everyone's positions held from there on out and I enjoyed the two loops back through the crowd with cheers from my family and high-fives from my teammates.

I finished as strong as I could although I was really worked by the finish and I know I slowed down pretty significantly in the last few miles. It was a tough race but it was fun to actually be racing with and against people instead of out on my own like most events. By the numbers it wasn't a great performance for me but it was a fun competition and I enjoyed the challenge. In the future I would love to get into one of the lead groups and actually be able to race for the podium but I am going to have to do some serious swimming to make that happen.

It was an unbelievably beautiful day and Pacific Grove is such a special place. The physical challenge definitely feels secondary on a day like that and that is why I love this event so much.

8/19 - 8/25/2013

It was a beautiful week on the coast. The awesome late summer weather we get in Santa Cruz is starting to roll in and it was so nice to be out and about. I took a moderate week this week...pushing hard when I felt good and taking it easy when I needed to. Nothing too crazy but some good efforts and some great views.

Pleasure Point looking east toward Rio Del Mar

The view from San Andreas with Monterey in the distance.

Swim 12,200 yds
Bike   8.75 hrs
Run    24 mi

Santa Cruz International

This was a tough week. I had to work more than usual and was tired from the previous weeks training so I felt pretty run down all week. I forced myself to stick to the plan though and I am glad I did because my body finally came around by race day on sunday. If I am not feeling well the week prior to a race I always try to tell myself that another nights sleep might be all I need and not to worry and if I am not feeling good during a race I always remind myself that things might come around later on and to not let up. This race was a good example of why that is a good piece of positive self talk to have in my repertoire.

I felt good race morning and with warm coffee in my belly I headed off in the fog to ride down to transition. I was the first one there which was nice because I know so man people at this event that it is nice to have time to chat with everyone and catch up. There were a lot of people coming into town for the race and a strong field had been assembled including two strong veterans of the sport, both with Ironman victories under their belts and I knew it would be a battle. Spirits were high in transition and I was glad to be enjoying the day after a couple of weeks of uncertainty.

I lined up for the start next to John Dahlz who is a long time figure on the NorCal triathlon circuit and a beast of a swimmer...if one thing was certain we would all be chasing him once the swim was over. My goal for the swim was to be aggressive and minimize the damage John could do and gain time on some of the other guys in the field that I knew were Monsters on the bike. I got a good start and great angle into the water, after a strong entry and aggressive first couple of minutes I actually reached the first turn buoy with John which was a huge boost in confidence. I knew it would not last and slowly but surely he started building a gap on me as we went through the first lap. I saw him exit to run up for the second lap and I figured the gap to be inside thirty seconds which I was really happy with. I was not feeling great but sometimes you can perform well anyway so I just told myself to keep it up. The second lap was tough but I didn't loose much more time and exiting the water it looked like the gap was inside of a minute. I ran up the beach and slowly accelerated as I caught my breath.

I transitioned smoothly and headed out with my bike. The mount line is on a slight slope and I didn't get a good foot hold on the first go so I jumped off and ran up the hill remounting at the top. I gave myself a couple of miles to get into my shoes, catch my breath and get up to speed. There is a 180 degree turn on each lap so after a couple of minutes I got a good look at the gaps. John was about a minute up and the guy chasing me was about a minute behind. I put my head down and kept on top of my gears pushing as much pain into my pedals as my lungs could manage. On the second lap I saw that I had made up time on John and put time into the guy chasing me which is always a big boost and kept me very motivated. On lap three I saw that Matt Russell had made up a lot of time and was within two minutes which I expected but I couldn't believe now that I was watching it happen. I kept the pace up and by the fourth lap I could see John disappearing around turns up the road which helped me stay focused and helped me push myself.

I came into the second transition just as John was leaving and I knew that if I had a good run that was a gap I could get back. I fumbled with my shoes some because my hands were cold and I knew those seconds counted so when I got my feet into them and they were not quite straight I just let it be and took off.

There is a short hill right at the start of the run and John was at the top as I hit the bottom. Up the hill and onto the flats I eased my way up to the lung searing maximum effort I knew it was going to take to reel him in and just held on for dear life. I could see the gap and for the first two miles I thought it might be shrinking but very slowly and at the turn around we exchanged encouragement to each other with a gap of close to 45 seconds. I made the turn and on the way back saw that I had a good gap on the two closest chasers, I thought that would hold so I pushed on in the hopes that John might fade in the closing miles. With around two miles to go I saw that the gap had come down significantly and was shrinking noticeably. With each stride I pushed harder and got back a little time and just held on to the hope that I would not run out of road. With a mile to go the gap was fifteen seconds and I could see John looking over his shoulder. I was so close but already running at my absolute maximum there was nothing I could do about closing the gap. It kept coming down slowly and with a half mile to go it was within ten seconds. In the home stretch it was so close and we both kicked hard, absolutely exhausted, and my best effort fell just a bit short as I came in just behind him.

I was so worked and John turned around at the finish line to welcome me in. It was a great battle and I am so thankful to have had him out there pushing me to do well. It was a good race and I am glad to have done well. The home town races are the best and every year this event reminds me why I love triathlon and all the things that are great about our sport's community.

Swim 14000 yds
Bike   6.75 hrs
Run    20 mi

7/29 - 8/4/2012

After some time off I got back into some training this week but kept it under control. I was just trying to get back into the swing of things. Some sessions came easy and some sessions were a struggle but the week was pretty good overall. I am trying to decide what to do with the rest of the season at this point. There are a couple of fun local events in the next two months, I don't have another big event planned but some friends are talking about Austin 70.3 or Rev3 SC so I may get on board with one of those to take the season out a little longer. I am feeling good and I would like to get one or two more good results in this year.

Swim 16,500 yds
Bike   8 hrs
Run    27 mi

7/14/2013

I probably will not do a race report for Vineman 70.3 and there was not much training to speak of this week as I was resting, and I had planned on taking a break at this point in the year anyway so I will probably be away from the blog for a while.

It is hard to express what I am feeling right now but I should say that I will be re-evaluating some things in the coming weeks as the way things have panned out are not how I had hoped.

Thank you for all you support and encouragement...it has meant more than you will ever know.