Phoenix Get-away

We caught this right as Jamie broke her arm

After last week's race, Amy and I planned a trip out to Phoenix with some friends for some World Baseball Classic and Spring Training games sans kids. It's rare that we leave for the weekend without the kids so this was a much needed get-away for us (and probably them! ha). For those of you that are parents, you'll understand when I say that it was super weird. We had long, un-interrupted conversations and kind of lost track of time while we were out there. The funny thing is, we talked about our kids a lot and by the time it was time to go, we missed them to death. 2-3 days is probably the max for us. I got in some decent training but it was definitely more of a mental-refreshing, fun vacation where training was at the bottom of the list of my priorities which it rarely is. We drank well, ate well, danced (kinda well) and lived like college students for a few days and it ended up being a great time. Thanks Eric, Kim, Irving, Jamie!!!
Now it's all about Oceanside build-up. Even though my entire off season training plan has been geared towards St. George which is my "A race" I still want to do really well for Oceanside. Although I will be kinda training through it, I won't lie when I say I dug a little extra deep these past few weeks to reap some benefits for Oceanside. Last year I went into this race as my only second HIM. I was very inexperienced (still am) and had high expectations. Dangerous for the mind. My ridiculous decision of rubber banding my spare tube to my saddle instead of using a saddle bag cost me a lot of time and the fact I couldn't pee off of the bike cost me a ton of time You can read all about it HERE. When I look back on this race I was more prepared to go fast more than any other race last year - I just made so many rookie mistakes - which everyone makes so I'm OK and glad most of the big mistakes are behind me (hopefully).

I forget what blog it was that I was reading but it was talking about how each year as you get more miles and time in all three sports your body starts adapting. Those 4 hour rides that used to crush you, leave you on the couch, taking naps and worthless for the day are now no big deal. Those big training days that took a toll both mentally and physically are no longer an issue. Last year it seemed like I was always TIRED and so far this year I always want to just SMASH! So I definitely validate what I wrote about months ago about how you should respect the process cause it's not gonna happen overnight. I still feel like I have a long ways to go but at least I realize that where last year I did not.

Here's a bunch of pictures from the fun weekend-

Embracing the crazy hail storm we got

Jumbo-tron Photo-bomb!

About to board the trolley in our really hot "coffee"

World Baseball Classic USA vs. Mexico - crazy sold out!

Later that night...

So proud my friend Irving became a USA citizen. His English
is still poor but he loves this country! Kidding, his
sweet new pad before we headed out to the game

Next day, first spring training game! Very intimate setting
enjoyed watching all the players close up (and heckling).

Another tender shot with baseball field in the background

Craft beer is-a-growing in AZ

Later that night, Greasewood Flats in Scottsdale - such a cool place!

Serious about tossing shoes

More tenderness. In all seriousness though, I had sooo much
fun with Amy this weekend.

And of course drinking great beer with great friends!

CHEERS!!!

2013 Desert International Triathlon Race Report

First race of the year is in the books and it couldn't have gone better. I have no idea why every triathlete in soCal doesn't do this race. Palm Springs (La Quinta) is so beautiful this time of year and the field is always ultra competitive. This is the second year in a row I've done this race and the conditions are absolutely perfect. Perfect weather, flat/fast course and very little wind. Ideal to give you some good early season confidence; which is exactly what it did for me. The weekend prior both or our kids were throwing up, two days later Amy was. I was just patiently waiting my turn. Although I managed to dodge throwing up I came down with what seems like everyone has-this nasty congested cough. Every morning and evening for the past week or so I've been wheezing and coughing up crap - which was not ideal going into this race. If this was a 70.3, there's no doubt I would have skipped the race - but since it was just short of an Olympic race, I took my chances and our sick family made our way out to the desert Saturday to check in, get in a little pre race ride/run and then back to the hotel to rest up for Sunday's race.

We arrived to the course with this sunrise. No filter, no man -made creation could match what we saw. It was jaw-dropping. I took some time to take in the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. It would have been worth it just to drive out there to see that. Over the past year or so I've really grown to love the desert and it's beauty. Amazing. I racked my bike, chatted with some friends, went on a little run warm up. I can always tell with just a mile run whether or not I had my running legs for the day - they were very bouncy, I knew I was in for a good day. I also felt extremely relaxed - the race just has that vibe. Everyone is just in high spirits, friendly and smiles everywhere you look - the pre race atmosphere of a triathlon is so unique like that. The positive energy that floats around from person to person is incredible and just writing about it makes me smile. Love this sport.

 

 

Swim (1360 yds): 20:09 (1:29 pace) -15th out of the water in AG

Of all the three sports, I was most curious to see how I'd swim. As I've mentioned all winter in this blog, it's the sport I've dumped a lot time, energy and focus into. It's my limiter. I know I can ride and run but it doesn't matter if I'm out of the race come T1. I started in the 2nd row behind the fish, got knocked around a bit after the first sprint to the buoy then found some feet all the way to the turn around. This is where I am still questioning my decision making. My plan was to just hug the buoys both out and back but for some reason when we made the turn around everyone started swimming wide right of the buoys. I just stuck to my plan but ended up swimming completely solo all the way home. Not sure if that hurt me because I wasn't drafting or if it helped me because it seemed like I took the shortest way home. It was the first time in a wetsuit since last year so after about 800 meters my shoulders were screaming, but as far as swimming straight and sighting- I did really well, which has always been an issue for me in the past. I guess all that work has paid off. I finally swam decent for the first time. I told my swim coach that I owe her a bottle of vino. Since I didn't wear my Garmin I had no idea where I stood when I got out of the water but after seeing a lot of bikes still racked around me for the first time - I actually thought I did well.

T1: 2:02
I was definitely slow here. Usually I keep my shoes on my pedals but in the past I've had cramping issues putting my shoes on while riding - which brings another point I'd like to mention - in T1 I also slammed two Recovery e21's - also took two before the swim. And bingo. FINALLY zero cramping issues in this race!I'll blog more about this product in another post, great stuff....Back to T1, tack on fondling with my Garmin and you now have a 2 minute transition on your hands. Just rusty and needs some work.

Bike (40k): 58:24 (24.6 mph)



Thanks Dusty for loaning me these sick
wheels and sorry about the photo lol.

I have been cycling well lately. I haven't put in a TON of mileage but have just found the right balance of volume vs. intensity. Really listening to my body and climbing...A lot. This course was flat and fast - basically zero reason to get out of the aero bars - something I'm not used to. My strength on the bike is climbing so I felt pretty uncomfortable the entire ride. My sore hip flexors, psoas and butt was a reminder the next day on how rare it is for me to be hammering in the aero bars that long with that much intensity. My plan was to really just ride hard from the get-go. No pacing or holding back, just let it rip. After the first lap we ran into the later waves of traffic which became quite sketchy at times. Lots of wobbly riders blocking which made me serve and get our of the bars often. About half way through the second lap I decided to just go "all out." I just wanted to see how my body would respond for the run. I was in heaven because I wasn't cramping. For the first time the only thing that was holding me back was the pain, no stinking cramps! So I made some good ground coming home and rode hard all the way to T2. My garmin read 57:5x which I was pleased with (no idea how I was 30 seconds off). Either way it was over a minute improvement over last years bike split. I'll take it!

T2: 1:17

As I was rolling in, I saw fellow buddy/Wattie teammate Dusty Nabor rolling out (he had a killer race-first tri back, placing 2nd in his AG). He started three minutes behind me and passed me on the swim. I was a bit shocked to see him - the pic kinda captures it because I just then started to think that maybe my swim wasn't as bad as I thought.



Run (10k): 32:10  (5:21 pace)



Credit: Tyler Olson

The run course is simple, 2 loops around the lake. It ended up being a little short but I feel like the fact that it's an 80% dirt course that it makes up for it pretty close. I can't stress enough how free it felt to start this run without any cramping issues. I took advantage of it and literally hit the ground running HARD. As I mentioned last week, I've been really neglecting the run to focus on the swim so I wasn't quite sure where my running fitness was. After a 5:25 first mile I knew I was going to have a good day. My heart rate (although I didn't wear a heart rate monitor) was sky high. I was breathing really hard and loud. It kills me when I'm running and people I pass say with a clear voice, "good job" or I over hear them having conversations with whoever they are running against. This is a race, race! In my opinion for a 10k and under you should be in the hurt box the entire time. HR sky - high, unable to talk or barely think. Hammer! That's what I did and I ended up passing a ton of people. Just worked on perfect form, mentally overcoming the pain and a seek and destroy attitude. With about a mile to go I thought I had my AG win in the bag. I hadn't passed anyone from my AG in a long time and then with about a 1/2 mile to go I pass a guy that seemed to be going pretty slow (sorry if you're reading this Daniel!) from my AG so I figured he was on his first lap. Then as soon as I passed him, he came right up on me and we started running stride for stride. Holy crap! This has got to be for the win! I instantly went into full on competitive track mode like my glory days in running. There's no way this dude is going to out sprint a miler. I calmed my face (which relaxes the whole body), controlled my breathing and started getting ready to pounce just like the last 200 of a mile.  I planned to make my move with about 200 to go but we never got to 200. He fell off after about a minute lol. Oh well - I still went with 200 to go and as I was sprinting past another guy, he started sprinting too - damn - is this guy in my AG too! I barely held him off, found out he was 25-29 and we joked afterwards - "Why did we just do that!"


No place I'd rather be to start the year!

1st AG, 11th? 14th? Overall: 1:54:02
Needless to say, I was pleased to open up with such a good day. I wasn't expecting a whole lot since I haven't touched racing since last October. It felt sooo good to race and I'm now chomping at the bit to race Oceanside. With the cramping issues solved (hopefully) I feel like I can actually RACE all three sports instead of worrying about pacing and cramping up like I have in the past.

I want to thank Wattie Ink for making me look good and giving me great sponsors like, Powerbar; Perform was my only fuel on the day (1 bottle) and it settled great. Dusty Nabor for loaning me some fast wheels. KASK helmets for my fast aero Krono helmet-FREE SPEED! ISM saddles for keeping me numb free the entire ride, my Blueseventy Element goggles - white, and I love them. KSWISS Kwicky's - my favorite all time racing flat and of course. Fuelbelt for my sweet tri belt and bottles. The Bike Shop for dialing in my bike, Sportmulti for keeping me healthy and X-1 Audio for pumping me my tunes rain or shine. And a big shout out to Recovery e21 for proving me for the first time cramp-free racing!

Time to take a mini vacation to the World Baseball Classic and Spring training games this weekend with the wife and friends before I put in another few solid weeks of training leading up to Oceanside. BRING IT!

Thanks for reading - here's a few more pics from the weekend.

All of the race day essentials

 Perfect pre-race water conditions

Kids were loving the water too!

Another sweet sunrise shot before the race

Pre-race vibe always makes me happy

Sprinting it in

Close finish

My lil fans. Love.

My #1 supporter/fan. Love! Thank you for all you
do so that I can do this :)

Podium shot

And of course, post race beer line-up: Pliney

Firestone - Scuba. 12.5%. This took all the pain away. Cheers!!!

www.sportmulti.com

BLOG!

Late, inconsistent posting these days. Busy like everyone else. I still have a lot of blogging in me and I even have some plans for the future of a face lift of the site with more meat and potatoes of my training & mentality towards triathlon with some personal life sprinkled in. You could probably say one of the single biggest pushes I received when just starting in the sport was the motivation I received from a lot of the blogs I read. I learned a lot from others blogs and it motivated me like no other magazine, article or pep talk did. I'm hoping to maybe motivate and/or inspire others to do the same. The reward is not the weight loss or the metal at the finish....I've discovered that when you get the most out of yourself mentally and physically in this sport you discover a lot about yourself in the process. You've probably heard that before but take a second and really think about it. If you're not discovering anything about yourself you're probably not training hard enough.

First race of 2013 is this Sunday at the Desert Tri in Palm Springs. It's a 1200 meter swim, 40k bike, 10k run. I haven't raced a single race since I came limping across that finish line at SOMA last year. I'm a different swimmer now, I've sacrificed my run for it, something that I've been fighting like a demon for two years now; finally giving in. We'll see how it pans out. Cycling....Well, I'm not much of a Queen fan but I constantly have this in my head so I've been doing my fair share of riding...



I just love riding my bike. I've been feeling a lot of those special days where your legs feel so good that you want to mash and rip the cranks off.

Running continues to be a question mark but I'm not worried about it this year. My outlook has completely changed. I've always been so concerned about running well in a triathlon but I haven't even got to the run where I could showcase my fitness. My focus has been too heavy on it so I've backed way off from running and put it into swimming and biking and I am really seeing a payoff. It's kind of like those experienced competitive swimmers that barely swim but still do damage come race day. I'm in the same boat as a runner and I know I can tough it out with the best of them if I can just get there in one piece. I'll get a little taste of where I'm at this weekend. Take it in, make necessary adjustments and get ready to damage at Oceanside and even more at St. George...

Showcasing a mustache at our Wine/Food Pairing party

We may have done a little beer/food pairing too

Plenty of good coffee

And the Powerbar hook up

Mini Training Camp



One of the many canyons we went through -Mulholland Dr.

So last week was a huge volume/intensity week for me. I was all set to go out to St. George for the weekend to go over the course and get some good training in but when that fell through I had some training days planned that I needed to fill. The wife and kids were all set to go out of town and the last thing I wanted to do was stay at home. So I asked around to see if anyone wanted to do a little mini-training camp. My team mate Dusty Nabor jumped on board and even invited me up to his palace to train for the weekend up in Westlake Village. I've only traveled through that part of CA, but I quickly realized this was a very wealthy area with a lot of celebrities as the first lunch we went to we saw Jamie Fox- dude has a big huge tribal tatoo on the side of his forehead ---don't see that in the movies...haha. It also ended up being one of the most beautiful places I've ever ridden in and thoroughly enjoyed the views, weather and company.


Beautiful pools...

The first masters swim session I went to was nothing out of the ordinary from what I've been doing. I was a little nervous to see how my swim stacked up to this larger group but I ended up leading the 2nd fastest lane and felt good/easy by the time it was over. However, the next day was a different story. A bigger group comes out, including former Olympic Champion/World record holder Matt Biondi with a 5k swim on tap. I've put in 4500-4700 days pretty frequently now but not outside of the comfort of my masters group. After warm up, the coach gets us out of the water for a 100 meter TT off the blocks. I just laughed, what the hell!?? I've never started off the blocks in my life! She said for the wimps (myself) to just dive in off the deck instead which I was happy to do. The first wave goes which includes Biondi and Dusty. Biondi swims a freaking .46 at 47 years old! Don't know if I was more impressed with that or Dusty's .55. He learned as an adult and has quickly become a force in the swim. Before I took off, Dusty told me to tuck my head when I dive in to avoid my goggles slipping off. Well I thought I did that but as soon as I dive in, one goggle lens is in my mouth...Great. Gonna be a long 100! I ended up swimming 1:10 which is 3 seconds slower than my PR but I was still happy with it considering the bad start, open turns and no goggles! The rest of the swim ended up being pretty brutal - especially since they moved me into Dusty's lane...It's the first swim workout I've ever done where I cracked. Like, completely fell apart. I barely dragged myself up onto the deck when it was all said and done and left there with a whole new outlook on swimming. I've been swimming my ass off these past 6 months and have noticeably become faster but that workout kind of made me realized that I haven't been swimming hard enough. That's gonna change, along with my times.

BIG day

I was curious how I was going to respond to the rest of the days training after a really hard swim like that. After getting a bite to eat the next thing I know we are off for a 4 hour ride that ended up being absolutely brutal. About a year ago I found this workout in Pro Cycling magazine that I have always wanted to try. It was never really the right timing until recently. With St. George in the near future I've been focusing a lot on climbing while tired. Too often we do hill repeats when we're fresh. Well in a race you're not going to be fresh, so this is what we did:

2 hours of hilly/rolling terrain with a few TT efforts (arriving to the hill repeats tired)
4x2:30 min max hill repeats with last 30 secs out of the saddle ALL OUT (recovery is the trip down)
20 minute continuous steady climb
4x2:30 all over again
Cool down to 4 hours.

We destroyed this workout. I was really happy with how I climbed and am very excited to see how St. George pans out. Once we got back we threw in a 20 min transition run for good measure and called it a day. The next day we had another 3 hour ride and 30 min run to cap off a great weekend of training, goofing off and great food/company. Oh ya, Dusty bought a Range Rover and looked at a $1M home to buy - found out how that dude rolls. Different zip code!

Well, next week it's time to race! Desert Tri will be a good tune up for Oceanside which I'll train straight through and then prob an Olympic distance in April then my A race St. George first weekend of May! Pumped to race alongside my team mates this year with a huge breakthrough in the near horizon.

First time in recovery boots...Ya, I was still sore/hurting the next day...

Cheers to 2013!

RockTape Review

SmackMedia is doing big things in the world of triathlon. They are blowing up the twittersphere/social media and really getting the name of good companies out there. They threw a roll of RockTape my way for me to check out. It couldn't have been better timing as I've been hampered with Plantar Fasciitis pain in my right foot for a good 8 months now. Besides massage, icing, and beer drinking I really haven't done anything else to address it. I can't figure out if it's derived from cycling or running (probably both)! Well the RockTape arrived and I was stoked to see flying skulls covering the tape. Immediately I threw on some Whitesnake and started cutting some tape!





Once the Whitesnake was over I went over to RockTape's website where they have "how to" videos on taping all the different ailments you may have. It ended up being very easy and before I knew it I was ready to put it to the test through swim, bike, run and a lot of showers (triathletes are dirty).

Easy PF Taping

I was pleasantly surprised how well the tape held up. I only had to re-tape once over the course of a week that included dozens of workouts and showers. However. The biggest thing I was impressed with is by Wednesday I had my first pain-free run in 8 months. I really thought of the tape as more of a masking agent then I did a cure. But I feel it really is making a difference. It doesn't happen overnight, but I've found with the taping, icing, massaging and beer drinking - the pain is slowly going away! My reviews are always straight up, tell it like it is - no BS. If you have PF, get some RockTape - your heel will be very happy! Physical therapists and doctors are catching on to the magic of RockTape so you can actually find a "Roc-Doc" near you or buy it yourself at the nearest retailer. Both can be found here: http://rocktape.com/rocktape-near-you/

Held up even to the harsh chlorine

I also found it very helpful in permanently strapping a beer you
don't want to share to your hand for easy no spill, frills!

Off Season's Over

Well TRI season is almost upon us. Off season is over and now it's time to finally put some fun into all of the training I've been logging over the off season. I kind of went with a different approach this off season. Instead of going after that magic 18-20 hour/week threshold that I always thought was so important, I'm just let my body decide how long/how hard I go each day and each week. Let me tell you something, it is WORKING. I highly recommend this approach, even if you are coached and he/she has a set amount of time on the schedule -don't do whatever it takes to make the hours. It's the quality that counts in my opinion. Listening to your body - have conversations with it - be good to it and it will reward you for it. My training in all three sports has me wondering how far I can take it this year. Like I've said in the past, numbers don't mean a damn thing in this sport but it sure can give you confidence. Right now, after just two weeks of introducing some speed work/intervals (z4-5) stuff - here's where I stand. If you could care less about workouts and numbers, I suggest you stop reading cause that's all I got this week. Here's some workouts that stand out to me over the past few weeks:

Been logging 16-20k/week lately

Swim: Yesterday I did a workout that I like to call 45's: 500 wup, 10x50 (on the min). Main set: 3x 400,500. 30" rest after 400, 1 min rest in between sets. I hit the 400's in 5:30-35 (1:23 pace) and 500's in 6:45-50 (1:21 pace). 300 c/d = 4000 yds. My last 100 on my last 500 was a 1:15. So anyone that reads this blog knows that the swim has been my demise. Each race it's left me cramping before I even get on the bike and just dead legged/tired for the remainder of each race. I'm hoping all of the yards I've put in this off season is going to change that this year. I understand open water is a different story from what kind of times I put in the pool but regardless, I'm very pleased with my progress.

Bike: For the most part I've just been logging in some good miles, lots of climbing and a few efforts here and there. Lots of Joe Friel specific workouts mixed in with some Walsh trainer sessions I did from last year. This was a ride I did a week or two ago and was surprised to see how quickly my bike has progressed over the last year. I could never figure out why I couldn't throw down a decent bike split in races and the answer is, I just haven't given myself enough time to progress. This ride is nothing to brag about to my competitors but it's a good indicator to me what kind of shape I'm in for the effort I put in.

Run: I'm still trying to figure out why I'm running so fast right now. I just started doing some speed work/intervals on the track a few weeks ago and have been really surprised to see how fast I'm running with just base miles under me. The answer is this. I used to run really fast in college/post college. I'm finally running more then 15-20 miles a week and my running talent is actually going to show this year I think. Amongst a bunch of other little stuff I did in this workout, I had 2x2 mile repeats. It was all HR specific stuff so my first 2 mile was 10:22. I was like - WTF? Zone 3? I still felt it was a bit fast for January so I toned it down the next one but still went 10:50 hitting zone 4. The biggest thing I've noticed is my speed is coming back. All of the drills/speed specific work I did in the off season is paying off and I feel like a kid again out running.

Remember, this is in a way my training log - so the reason why I post workouts is for me to be able to look back on them in the future to see where I was, what dumb things I said and who knows, maybe it helps motivate one of you out there. If you read my blog back when I first started, I could barely make it across the pool! Good things can happen if you put A LOT of work into what you're doing. Reading blogs over the years has always opened up my eyes to how much is A LOT. I used to think swimming 2000 yards was a lot or that riding 35 miles was a lot....Running...that's a different story.

Here's my cheesy pep talk: Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. Show them. That's what I plan on doing this year.

Cheers!

I Got In.

Back in 2011 when I signed up for my first Ironman 70.3 it was this race and I signed up 3 months after registration opened. This year I made a point to save up and register early because I knew it would sell out quickly. The week I had finally saved up I went online and found this:

To say I was bummed is a huge understatement. I was pretty devastated. It's the only big local race in town and I had unfinished business from last year's mishaps.

Well I got in. I thought when an Ironman race sells out, it's done, over, finished. A fellow Wattie gave me a heads up of a way in (thanks Hague) - I made the contact and bam - I'm registered as of today! So I'm super excited to give this race another go. Last year I was faced with a poor swim, lack of experience and just naive about what a 70.3 is all about. Granted, I only got two more 70.3's in (and Santa Barbara long course) for 2012, but I learned sooo much from them and I definitely feel more prepared and confident about long course in 2013.

Now St. George is still my "A" race and all my cards will be in that basket for early 2013 but I still want to do well even though I'll be in my "build" phase of my training. I plan on training right through this race and it'll give me a chance to experiment with my taper strategy as well. I have a slight feeling that I do better with little or no taper coming into a race as opposed to a taking a full on low volume, little intensity/sharpening type of taper.

All I know is my swimming has made a tremendous leap from where it was even a month ago, my cycling is on point and my running has just been a ridiculous college-esq type of shape. You can count on me bringing it at Oceanside and it's just the beginning.