Rev3 Knoxville Race Report

Okay, so we’ve established that is was cold (58-deg water 55-deg air) and rainy.   I’m not going to beat that horse anymore. The forecast offered no glimmer of hope, so I had adjusted my outlook to some blend of ‘it is what it is’ ‘embrace the suck’ ‘let the weather affect everyone else’ and ‘just keep the rubber side down’.

Coming into the race I’d been feeling really good about my fitness.  I’d seen some real improvements in my pool swimming and was looking to see if it would translate to open water.  I’d been feeling great about my cycling all winter and recently did an FTP test that confirmed what I’d been feeling.  Quick aside; I love my Quarq power meter, but really just love training with power.  I wish I’d made that investment much sooner.  Its made me realize how little I was getting out of my trainer rides pre-Quarq.  Along with some great power-based coaching from Hard Yards, I’m convinced that’s why I feel so much further along this year than previously.

I raced the Olympic here last year and was looking forward to comparing splits, etc.  I’m trying not to do that now, or a least splash some ice water on my face before I do.

I only remember a couple things about the swim.  The water didn’t feel that cold.  I’m assuming its because I didn’t have any blood in my hands, feet, or face by the time we got in.  The current seemed stronger because of all the rain, but I’m really not qualified to judge such things.  The course is basically 400m upstream, right turn, 50m, right turn, 1000m downstream.  After the second turn I had a really hard time staying on line.  I immediately chalked it up to my notoriously crooked swimming.  But after the race two people asked me if I thought he current was pulling us toward the middle of the river.  I’m going with that.

Anyway, after a couple of buoys I was back on track and finished pretty strong.  It felt like there were A LOT of dudes in front of me.  Actually, there were, but somehow my 21:33 was good for 3rd in our AG.  That’s definitely a record for me, regarding position, but I had no clue at the time.  I felt behind.  I guess that’s part of starting in a wave with all men 39 and under.

I had all kinds of warmer clothing laid out in transition, but when I got there I didn’t really feel that cold AND the bike next to me was already gone.  I remember thinking he looked legit when we were setting up that morning, so I put on socks, helmet and took off.  I immediately regretted that decision.

All in all the riding wasn’t that bad.  I looked forward to the uphills and took plenty of extra caution on the downhills.  I definitely left a few minutes out there on the descents and one 4-5 min stretch where I got caught behind a car who didn’t want to pass another racer.  I definitely wanted to pass that other racer!  I pulled into T2 with almost an identical time to last year.  Not too shabby given the conditions.

T2 was a bit of a challenge.  When I get cold, my thumbs kinda stop working.  They really just loose all strength.  I was using my palms to shift late on the bike, but could not unbuckle my helmet to save my life.  I even tried pulling it off with the chinstrap still buckled.  Ultimately, I had to ask a volunteer for help.  She was maybe 13 yo, with a friend, and clearly thought that soaking wet chinstraps were gross.

The run felt really good.  Except for a few ankle deep puddles, the conditions were great.  I left T2 with another pretty fast 34 yo.  I stopped hearing his footsteps around the first mile marker, but he definitely kept the pressure on for the whole 10k.  I think he finished 30sec behind me.  I did a little better job pacing this year and finished much stronger.  Just ran out of course before getting this guy.  Almost exactly the same run time as last year too.

Total time almost a minute faster than last year, nearly all on the swim.  Weird, I know.  Regardless, I was very happy to win our AG and place 18th amateur overall.  I’ve always said I want to be more than just a runner trying to catch people in a triathlon.  I’d love to be in the top 10% of each discipline, so having 3rd, 1st, 1st AG splits makes me really happy.

It was a great day to be dressed in Pearl Izumi!  Just wish I’d have been sporting more of it on the bike.  I really loved my brand new Tri N1′s, absolutely no blisters, hot spots, or other discomfort on pretty challenging day for such things.  Our new kits are pretty cool too.  Big thanks to Powerbar for fueling my race and recovery as always!  Happy to report very little soreness afterward and what there was was quickly dispatched by the Compex and NormaTec combo.  Thanks everyone for all the support!

Volunteer Weekend

Rev3 Knoxville – The weekend report.

To say the weather dominated the race weekend, would be selling mother nature short.  You should watch the pro race recap, but I don’t think it does it justice.  My recollection is that it started raining Saturday around noon and didn’t stop until Monday early morning.  Mostly a nice light rain without any lightning or thunder, the kind that rarely ever happens here in CO.  I remember this rain from my years in St. Louis, it can be quite pleasant when its 80-degrees outside.  It was not 80-degrees in Knoxville, TN last weekend.  More like upper 50′s, mayyyybe 60?  and the river was 58-degrees as well.  At least it wasn’t windy.

Its been a strangely snowy spring in CO and with every Wednesday that it snowed 6 inches, I began to get more and more excited about racing Rev3 Knoxville.  I had last year burned into my brain, sunny and low to mid 80′s.  Too warm for a halfRev, but just right for an olympic.  Get some sun on my face, race hard, and get away from work for a while.  Apparently, I was a little too invested in my idea of what this weekend could have been.  I still had a blast with all my Rev3 teammates, but we’d have had even more fun if we were warm and dry.

Before I go any further, conditions like these warrant extra special thanks and heaps of admiration for all the non-racers who endured the elements.  I’ve gotten to know a lot of Rev3 staff, friends, and teammates who work these events when not racing.  I was truly amazed by the fact that I don’t recall hearing a single complaint from any of them.  I’m pretty sure that I complained a few times and I was out there about 1/10th of the time that they were.  Big thanks to all the police, EMTs, and other service people who keep us safe out there!  More of us needed you than ever.  I realize the call it the Volunteer State for a reason, but I didn’t think standing in the rain all day so I can race other middle-aged men for a box of powerbars was really what they meant.  I know free t-shirts are nice, but I also know the THANK YOUs were too few.  It was mostly because my lips were frozen, I couldn’t take my eyes off the road, and I was too afraid to take my hands off the bars to even wave thanks.

My weekend got off to a rather interesting start.  At the rental car counter in Nashville I was approached by a man needing a ride to Knoxville for the race.  He had clearly identified me and the woman with the bike box standing next to me as triathletes.  After I explained that we were NOT together, she looked at us both like we were from Mars and went about her business.  His drivers license had expired and no one would let him rent a car.  The urgency and embarrassment in his voice made it pretty clear that he wasn’t just some wierdo trying to get into a car with a stranger and that he really had exhausted all his options.  He was now down to pleading with complete strangers.  Somewhere in there he dropped the ‘I’m a pro’ card.  I’m not sure why, but it made me more sympathetic to his situation, eventhough I had to apologize for not recognizing him.

So, Chris Foster and I each gathered our things and set off on a 3hr drive with complete strangers.  No surprise, but Chris turned out to be a pretty regular guy, humble and gracious.  He just makes a living by racing really fast.  We talked most of the trip, a little triathlon stuff, a lot of life stuff, education, jobs, wives, kids (or lack thereof), pets, travel and his current travel conundrum which was only half over.

When it was all said and done he certainly had a new fan.  I offered to help him get back to Nashville after the race, but our flights were significantly different.  He thanked me for the 1,000th time.  I told him about sitting next to Greg Bennett on my flight to Knoxville last year and that Greg won the race.  “No pressure,” I said.  I’m not sure it was received the way it was intended.  Anyway, Chris had a great race and got second.  I’m very happy for him and glad I could help.

I think Chris is happy with his race too.

Some of my Team Rev3 mates.

The weather was still nice Friday evening when I arrived.  It was great to catch up with some of the team over a quick dinner, then we were off to the inaugural Rev3 Glow Run.   I’m not sure if 5K’s are just that appealing or if Knoxville is just really supportive of its UT alumni.  If you hadn’t heard, Rev3 chose to donate all the profits from the glow run to Nicole Gross and her husband Michael, both former UT swimmers who were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings.  Either way, they raised $25,000, and my friend Matt got to run in his speedo.

My teammate Heather is so proud of her hubby.

I also got to spend some time with one of our newest sponsors.  Doug from Biotta Naturals needed a little relief on Saturday afternoon, so Andy and I held down the tent for a while.  Biotta makes beet juice along with several other vegetable, fruit, and juice blends.  If you haven’t read anything about the performance benefits of beet juice recently, (or if you’re really wondering what Jesse Thomas was talking about in his Wildflower race report) check some of these out.  Studies indicate up to a 16% increase in endurance performance.  Performance or not, its been a treat to experiment with their juices this winter.  I also got a huge kick out of watching people give it a try.  They’re reactions to the taste, weren’t nearly as entertaining as their reactions to the idea of drinking beet juice.  A lot of people had seen the literature and were eager to try it, but there were plenty of scrunched up noses too.  Maybe I’m just ornery, but it got to be kinda fun to talk the skeptics into a shot.  Either way, keep an eye out for Beet Performer this race season.

Real race report to follow….

Scheduling

Okay, so I’ve had most of 2013 planned out for some time now. But just in my head.  I imagine I’m like most triathletes in that I started planning out 2013 last October, or earlier.  Scheduling races isn’t easy, there’s rarely time to do all the things I’d like to do.  Some just don’t fit well with others.  Some don’t fit well with other things in life, weddings, reunions, conferences, things I have no control over scheduling, and some are just bad ideas.  After that, you compare your list to your spouse’s list and however you resolve that, please let me know.  Then its time to balance THE list against the budget and allotted vacation days.  Oh, and don’t forget to start this process early enough so you can register before the races sell out.

If you’re like me, this process usually starts with that ‘A-race’.  The PR you want, the race you want to qualify for, or the hard to get entry that finally came through.  For me, its Ironman Canada again this year.  Yes, I’m still chasing a KQ performance, for this year at least.  I made the decision based on two things; a late August race maximizes the training season here, and  all the turmoil between IMCanada, Penticton, and Challenge resulted in a some uncertainty over the location so WTC sweetened the pot by offering 100 KQ spots at this years race instead of the normal 50.  Then they decided on Whistler, BC, a place we’ve always wanted to visit, it seemed like a good fit.

My next most important goal for 2013 is performing well enough in the 2013 Revolution 3 Triathlon series to earn a spot in their age group championship race.  If you haven’t heard about it, check this out.  That means doing well at a couple of early season Olympic distance events at Knoxville and Williamsburg.

I’ve raced Rev3 Knoxville three years in a row now, and love the timing (itching to race by early May), the venue (challenging but fair couse), and the logistics (travel was so easy last year and there is so much so close to the race site).  This year it will be great chance to preview the series championship course.

I’m also really excited about the first year for Rev3 Williamsburg.  My wife and I like visiting new places and neither of us have ever been to northern Virgina.  We’ll definitely spend a few extra days doing tourist-y things.  My mom’s cousin and great friend lives a few hours away, so they’re planning a vacation around the race too.  They did the same thing at the 2011 Rev3 South Carolina race and had a great time.

From there, the schedule gets filled in with ‘training event’ races that aren’t as significant.  Last year I didn’t do a single triathlon in the state of Colorado and it kind of bothered me.  We have a lot of great events here that don’t require flights or vacation days, so this year I’m doing a half in Boulder that schedules well with Canada, and an early season Olympic in Grand Junction.

We have several friends racing in GJ and it seemed like a great chance to just have some fun.  It also happens that the race is the weekend preceding an awesome volunteer opportunity/work commitment.  Two of my best clients sponsor a ‘Children’s Water Festival’ at the local University for roughly 15oo local 5th grade students.  Last year some co-workers and I did a series of demonstrations on how temperature and salinity affect density and ocean currents.  I’m looking forward to it already.

Amazingly, Michele and I had one event in common on our list this year, the Buena Vista Bike Fest.  It amounts to great supported training ride with beer and bluegrass at the finish.  We did it last year and had a great time seeing some new parts of Colorado and spending the weekend with friends.

Obviously, there’s a couple of months at the end of the season that aren’t scheduled yet.  We’ll see how I feel, what opportunities are available, and what the budget will allow.  Rev3 has another new race in Branson that I’m eye balling and I almost pulled the trigger on a last minute trip to Rev3 Florida last year.  Maybe a relay this year, finishing on a warm beach sounds like a nice idea.

Butt Fumble

I take it all back.  All that stuff about welcoming new people to the gym… not anymore!  One of you went and screwed it all up for everyone.  I’m now suspicious of you all.

Why the change of heart?  Oh, let me tell you about a simple, but egregious, breach of locker room etiquette, that changed everything….

So there I was, headed into my local 24hr Fitness a couple weeks ago (probably less than a week since that last post).   I had a doozy of a run on my schedule, just over an hour but, the kind with hill efforts and specific paces.  The one where you know you’re going to need at least one water bottle and probably two towels.  It was cold and dark after work, but it really didn’t matter.  I fully expected the place to be packed, but I was headed to the treadmill anyway.

The locker room was busy, but I lucked out and found an empty one on the end of a row.  As I’m changing, I’m using the bench for several things, because, well, the floor is just to risky.  I don’t even like putting my feet on it at times.  I don’t consider myself a germ-a-phobe either.  I’ll do what I can to stay healthy and maintain a strong immune system so I don’t have to avoid those environments.  But some risks are just unnecessary, right?

Anyway, as I’m changing some older guy comes out of the steam room and gets into his locker two doors down.  I didn’t really think about out it because were the only two on our row so their ought to be plenty of room.  The next thing I remember is hearing my water bottle hit the floor.  I look up immediately to see this guy’s mushy white butt right where my bottle used to be!  Now, I wasn’t staring at my water bottle, nor at his ass, but from the orientation of things it was clear that he bent over to get something off the bottom of his locker and there was no way anything other than his buttocks could have contacted my water bottle (the top 1/4 to 1/3, no less) causing it to roll across previously discussed floor.

It kind of looked like this…  Only imagine Mark Sanchez is my water bottle and 325lb Vince Wilfork isn’t causing the whole thing….

I can’t imagine that he didn’t realize what had happened.  But he certainly chose to ignore that it happened.  As I stood there partially terrified and completely flummoxed, he grabbed his towel and proceeded to try two wrong doors before finding the showers.  Clearly, it was his first day.

I was so astonished at the event, that it took me longer than it should have to realize that they sell bottled water at the front desk.  After that, I began to realize the humor in the situation.  A $3 bottle of Dasani never tasted so good!

To the best of my knowledge, most gyms don’t teach etiquette, self awareness, or just plain common sense in their orientation sessions.  But they should.  Perhaps even test for it.  Particularly if new members are over a certain age, or able to bench press more than 1.75 times their body weight.  In my experience, most awkward sights, sounds, smells, and attire arise from these two demographics. Profiling, yes!  It wouldn’t surprise me if the entire concept of profiling was conceived at a health club.

My good friend Scotty and I used to joke all the time about the old guys (and really strong guys) at our gym in St. Louis.  Usually, after a while, the jokes always ended with, “I can’t wait until I’m that age and just don’t give a crap anymore.”  (Clearly, neither of us was going to be strong enough to not give a crap…)  I still hope to achieve this someday, but even then I think I’ll keep my ass away from water bottles.

Resolutions

Well, timing has never been my strong suit, so Happy New Year!  I hope yours is off to a great start.  If you’ve made resolutions for your health and fitness, I hope they are still intact!  I’ve never been a big resolution person.  Oh, I’ve made plenty and probably been as successful and the average American.  But I’ve pretty much given up on them and before I start rambling off reasons why, let me say a few things:

Whatever you believe will make you happy and healthy, go for it!  I’ll wait for a treadmill, share a lane, or heaven forbid walk the extra 50yds to my car.  I’m not going to be an elitist who grumbles all the way to Valentines Day wishing you would get the hell out of my way and let me do a real workout.  I may appear grouchy at times, having to wait my turn.  But, I’m just impatient.  I’m probably just wishing I’d left work an hour earlier; not wishing you out of the gym and back to your couch.  I know a few of you will stick, so good on ya!

However, there are a few reasons that I chose not to make resolutions.  The first is really as simple as; I’m just not that motivated by the new year.  Certainly, my motivation ebbs and flows throughout the year, but I honestly never remember feeling a surge in ‘want to’ with the turning of the calendar.

Perhaps this is the same idea, but if something occurs to me as a way to improve my life, why wait until a new year to implement it?  Anyone who ‘saves’ a good resolution until the new year is just sandbagging.  If I have a good idea once a year, rarely are they that timely.  Yes, at the end of the year we are generally reminded of dozens of inspiring stories from the preceding year and I enjoy it as much as anyone.  But if it didn’t make me want to change when it happened, it probably isn’t going to at 11:50pm on 12/31.

A short aside; this pretty much sums up my feelings towards birthdays, anniversaries, and a lot of holidays.  If things (or people) are really important to you, you’ll celebrate them throughout the year and the day on the calendar becomes a lot less important.  Otherwise, the calendar is just for reminders.  Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that deserve our collective remembrance.  But if you need a reminder, doesn’t it mean that you’ve forgotten?  And if you haven’t forgotten, who needs a reminder (a date).  I’m pretty sure this drives my wife NUTS, btw.

My other issue with resolutions is that I always seemed to be resolving to do something.  Doing things that are worth while usually takes time.  Time is something I seem to run out of quite frequently.  I tried resolving to train my body to function with less sleep, and that failed miserably.

Lately (the last 2-3 years), I’ve been focusing on trying to do SOMETHING productive with ALL of my time.   I have a lot of lists, some mental, some written, some significant tasks, some mindless ones, some only take minutes, but they all take time.  So I’m constantly asking myself, what can I be doing right now?  I kind of like it.  Even doing the mundane things like laundry when you really don’t feel like doing anything, helps free up time for things you really want to do later, right?  I guess it provides a sense of accomplishment, mostly because they’re things I genuinely want to do.  The problem is (surprise!) the list never ends.

Another side note:  I’ve also recently come to believe things like this article.  So instead of ALL the time, its become MOST of the time.  My ‘breaks’, down time, veg-out stuff, either come from the list of mindless activities, or I convince my self that I need them.  Then they become purposeful, and I’m back to ALL the time, right?

Anyway, if you’re still reading, my point is: for me resolving TO DO something is pointless unless I resolve NOT to do something else.

I’ve given it a fair amount of thought actually.  There are plenty of things I do that result in wasted time: enjoying beer and watching college football are the first things that come to mind.

I’ve given up LIVE college football before.  Fast forwarding through the commercials, instant replay reviews, and half time can actually saves an hour or more from a 3-1/2 hour broadcast.  But the communal aspect of live sports really does add to the experience.  Watching or texting/tweeting with friends, fans, and random random strangers, as things happen makes it SOOOOO much more fun than intentionally avoiding your phone, the radio, and every TV that might show a scoreboard, highlight, ticker, or update.

That leaves beer.  Well, I’m not going to stop enjoying beer, I’m just going to try harder to contain it.  There may come a day, but not today.  I really enjoying tasting a wide variety of beers and sharing them with friends who enjoy the same.  This is a fantastic place and time for beer enthusiasts and I happen to have some very unique opportunities to enjoy it all.  I’ll be happy if I’m unproductive while enjoying a beer or two.  Its the ones after that, the ones I’m not really ‘enjoying’ in the same way.  They’re the ones that lead to unproductive mornings-after.  They’re the ones that can afford me the time to resolve to do things.

I may have just talked myself into a resolution after all?  Cheers!

Rev3 Wisconsin Dell – Race Report

Going into this race my focus was divided between training right through the race with my eye on the fullRev race at Cedar Point and having fun and enjoying the time with my family.  I wouldn’t say the race wasn’t important to me.  I figure I’m always going to compete hard, I just might not be as prepared as I could be.  If you like analogies; I’m going to empty the bag, I just might not have packed it as effectively as I could have.

The Swim

The Tommy Bartlett water ski stadium proved to be a very neat venue for the swim start! Not many tris start with stadium seating for spectators and staging racers.  Concessions were even open, if you forgot you PowerGel and wanted a funnel cake instead.  The cove was a bit tight, we swam about 50m before making a 90 left, which dictated a TT start.  I actually like TT starts.  I’m not the strongest swimmer and a bit navigationally challenged, so the less clutter the better.  Its pretty much the only time I line up on the buoy line.  The downside: it makes racing for a podium spot mental agony.

We were still assigned to ‘waves’ and given cap colors according to age, and asked to ‘seed ourselves’ according to swim ability.  I figured this would be a complete disaster.  Asking triathletes to accurately assess their own ability relative to a bunch of complete strangers is… well, asking a lot.  I didn’t even have to ask Coach’s take on this, I could hear his voice in my head loud and clear.  So I muscled my way to the front, figuring there would be a dozen other guys there just like me; over stating their ability.  But I was surprised to find a lot of guys very happy to let anyone go first.  I cracked a joke about wanting to go first because I had to pee the worst, but no one laughed.  I ended up being the 4^th green cap into the water.

The swim itself was pretty uneventful.  Not too crowded, very calm, overcast, easy sighting.  I felt like I had a pretty good swim, maybe a bit off course towards the last 10 mins, but it seemed like the bouy line might not be the most direct line.  I also think I started pressing a bit when I saw a few other green caps toward the end, which probably didn’t help.

T1 was rough.  Normally, I’d say the more running the better, especially if it counts toward your swim time.  But this time there was a very steep hill leaving the Tommy Bartlett stadium.  Think slopes similar to stadium seating, and it wasn’t short either!  Once again, I’d forgotten rubber bands for my bike shoes.  So rather than losing a shoe like Knoxvile, I decided to put my shoes on at my bike.  Clearly I haven’t practiced this in a while and ended up SITTING DOWN to put my shoes and socks on.  It was pretty embarrassing and slow.

The Bike

The ride proved to be a tale of two halves.  For the first half, I rode pretty conservatively.   I didn’t know the course and had been warned about the hills.  I generally try to be respectful of other people’s opinions when it comes to ‘hills’ and ‘climbs’, but I don’t worry much until they talk about ‘passes’.  Did I just sound like a climbing snob from Colorado?  As it turns out, there were some substantial hills on the course.  I was glad I rode the first half pretty easy because I rode the hills well and made up some ground on people that had passed me earlier.

I have no cause to be a climbing snob (too big, too heavy), but I may embrace being called a descending snob (yay big, yay heavy).  About half way through the bike on a long ‘technical descent’ I couldn’t help but notice that everyone was sitting up, coasting, keeping their hands on the brakes, and taking preposterously conservative lines.  Not knowing the road, I got sucked into this behavior.  For about five minutes.  When it dawned on me that there really weren’t going to be any ‘technical’ portions to these descents, I got in my aerobars and started peddling.  I had to ‘ask’ for room a few times, but I started passing all kinds of people.

Just as one long downhill was ending with a pretty sharp left, I came upon a group of 8-10 guys in a pack, four abreast at the front, three behind them, and some stragglers behind them.  Before I could even think about what I was doing, I passed them all.  They were starting to get out of the saddle for a short steep hill but I had a lot of momentum (yay big, yay heavy), so I didn’t take much effort.   Just as I was completing the pass, it occurred to me that now I would have to stay ahead of these guys or be caught up in whatever the hell was going on back there.

That’s exactly when my race changed.  I wish I had hit lap on my garmin just to see how the stats changed.  I rode my ass off after that.  Generally, without regard for my legs or the pending half-marathon.  You see, I hate racing in packs.  When this happens, worrying about the rules dominates my thoughts, totally stresses me out, and prevents me from riding with the consistent effort that I need.  I know it shouldn’t, but I can’t let it go.

It didn’t help that most of the guys on my tail were considerably younger and lighter than me.  Several times one or two of them would come around me near the top of a hill only to coast down the other side.  Now if there is one rule my mind has gotten over, it’s the Overtaken rule.  Especially when there are six more guys behind you (even if they are the allowable distance behind).  I’m not riding my brakes on a downhill to go to the back of the group when the guy in front of me is sitting up to eat or coasting.

So I rode harder than I have in a long time (since bike racing), to try and stay in front of these guys.  For the most part, it worked.  It pushed me much harder and propelled me to a better bike split than I would have otherwise had.  But that’s what racing is all about, isn’t it?

T2 was much more respectable and I began the run with about 10-15 meters on most of the guys I finished the bike with.  By the end of the first two miles though, many of them (did I mention they were 22, 23, 25, 29, 31 years old) had passed me and formed a pack roughly 20 meters up the road.  One of them asked me on the way by if I though we all would get drafting penalties.  He said it would be BS if we did.  I’m pretty sure any penalties would have been well earned.  Actually, I would have been upset about a drafting penalty.  An overtaken penalty, I’m sure I earned.

The Run

I never really thought of trying to mix it up with these guys as they went by.  It was too early.  I was a bit worried about the course (hadn’t driven it, dumb), and really didn’t know what to expect from my legs after that ride.  After the first two miles, no one else went past me.  I could see the group in front break up and disappear one or two at a time.  It made me feel slow, so I just refused to look at my watch.

At the turn around there didn’t appear to be anyone behind me my age, or making up much ground.  I was great to see some teammates doing really well on the way back in.  But other than that, it was kind of a boring slog.  I kept myself entertained by looking at all the people sitting in traffic, which was substantially affected by the run course.  I was actually surprised at how few irate people there were, but I won’t be surprised if the run course is a little different next year.

I was really happy when I checked my watch for splits.  The ho-hum run turned out to be one of my fastest ever.  Only 65 seconds from a PR run split on a course that was much more challenging than the PR course.  Maybe I should have checked my watch more than once and not given away the last mile.

The Stats

4:37:41 – good for 13th OA and 2nd AG.  swim 32:07 (1:40/100m)  T1 2:39 (hanging head)  Bike 2:36 (21.5 mph)  T2 0:40  Run 1:26:04.  While we’re here, I’ve been training with an awesome Quarq Cinco power meter since January.  I don’t think the prolonged switch from tri bike to road bike (February) then back to tri bike (June) did me any favors, but things are starting to come around.  The stats also told me that my average power output over the 56 mile race was just about identical to what I was putting out in 20 FTP tests this spring.  I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that, but I’m going with good.

The best part of the run came at the finisher chute.  The whole family was there to cheer me in, but my niece, Anna, and nephew Logan were there to run across the finish line with me.  It was pretty fun to see the smiles on their faces and see them get finisher medals.  We got some great finisher photos.

It won’t be long and Eli will be running across the finish line too.

In addition to my family, I had all kinds of great Rev3 team support.  It was great to see lots of other teammates on the course and just as many working and volunteering.  Thanks for all of your support!  Also thanks to all of our great team sponsors;  it was another great day fueled by Powerbar, gels and blasts specifically.  I felt great all day in head to toe Pearl Izumi, kit, Tri-Fly IV carbon, and IsoTransitions spoiled my feet along with Swiftwick socks.

Oh, I almost forgot what a treat it was to meet and race with Aaron Scheidies.  Aaron is a visually impaired triathlete who competes with C-Different.  We met the day before the race and talked some more afterward in the NormaTec recovery tent.  He’s a really cool guy doing inspiring things.  Aaron has won multiple world championship titles, including blistering PRs of 4:09 (70.3) and 1:57 (Oly).  I hope to see Aaron at more Rev3 races in the future.

Rev3 Wisconsin Dells – Vacation

This is my 3rd season racing for the Rev3 team.  I’ve been to 8 or 10 Rev3 races and its always obvious how much emphasis they place on making their events family friendly.  I shouldn’t say its lost on me because I recognize and appreciate it, but its not something of which I take full advantage.  My wife has been to a few races, several of our tri friends have come along, my mom and cousin have even come out to watch and cheer.  But we’ve never been in a single jump castle, or done an adventure race, and I’ve always run across the finish line by myself.  Clearly, I’ve been missing out.

So I recruited some family help for our trip to the Rev3 race in the Wisconsin Dells.  Maybe I was feeling a bit nostalgic.  I remember taking a family vacation there when I was 7 or 8 years old.  (Mostly I remember riding the Duck Boats and NOT being allowed to ride the bumper boats.)  This time we brought the whole crew, wife, mom, dad, sister, brother in law, two nephews (Logan, almost 4 and Eli, almost 1), and niece (Anna, 6).  My aunt and uncle (mom’s brother) even drove up for the day to watch the race.

We’ve been gifting our niece and nephew swimming lessons since they were born, well almost.  So they are VERY comfortable in water and if you haven’t been to the Dells, its all about water!  Parks, pools, slides, cannons, lazy rivers, ski shows, you name it, they have it.

Fortunately, Anna and Logan are still young enough that they don’t want to do it all.  They were more than happy with the two pools, slides, whirlpool, water cannons, lily pads and dump buckets at our condo.  (Highly recommend Wilderness on the Lake!) We ventured out to one of the other water parks included in the Wilderness complex for an afternoon.  But left the other 7 water parks, mini-golf, real golf, zip line, and wagon ride for the next trip (and that’s just at Wilderness, we hardly left the complex).

I’m pretty sure I had the only one close call at the water park.  A black and blue big toe.  Surprise, those mats you ride down the water slide are slippery.  Don’t walk on them, ever, not just the day before your race.  Regardless, I had a great time.  If we do it again, I’m staying a day or two afterward and taking full advantage of the water parks!

There’s something for everyone

Eli, starting early!

Uncle Tony, aka the zero meter springboard.

Anna’s on the right, she won in a photo finish.

Who can say no to go-carts?

I think both of us were having fun, but I KNOW one of us was.

Running to the finish. Rev3 at its finest!

Faster!

The Finishers!

Yup, there’s something for everyone!

Home, Bittersweet Home

Holy crap, August is 2/3 gone and I’m still trying to figure out where July went.  Who am I kidding, I know exactly where it went.  10228 Ridgegate Circle is where it went.  Yes, back in May we decided to buy a new townhome.  I’m not entirely sure why, but it was mostly my idea.  In retrospect, the timing was just about as good as you could get, but I’d never recommend moving in between June 24th and September 9th IMs.

It seemed like we got home from IMCDA, unpacked, did laundry and then started packing up the whole house.  We spent the entire 4th of July inside stuffing boxes.  There were no fireworks because half the state was on fire, but we were particularly un-festive.  Our place wasn’t huge, but we’re pretty big on using space efficiently, so it sure seemed like a lot of crap to pack up.  Moving was also very disruptive to my Tour de France viewing.  Too many other ‘more important’ things to do… like setting up DTV service at the new house. Which we had in time for the Olympics, but were too busy unpacking, reorganizing, rearranging, and hanging, to actually sit down and watch anything other than whatever NBC chose for prime time.  I caught some swimming and track and field which are always great, and PLENTY of gymnastics, but missed both marathons, both triathlons, open water swimming, and all the bike racing.  An Olympic fail at the new Beeson house.

Ah yes, the new place.  Buying a new home, especially new construction, is supposed to be a fun and exciting experience right?  I mean once you get over that tiny little fact about taking on a tremendous amount of debt… its good debt right?  After that is supposed to be fun!  You’re getting it just the way you want it.

Wrong!  This has been the worst buying experience of my life.  I’ll try not to bore you with the details.  Its nothing even close to what my Rev3 teammate Ryan went through.  I also keep hearing that our neighbors have even more serious issues than we do.  But its had me absolutely tied in knots for weeks.  I blame the builder for everything.  I like to think of myself as pretty a pretty even keel kind of guy.  I don’t loose my temper very often, but I got into two yelling/screaming matches with our superintendent and his subcontractors in roughly 10 days.  Not only would I adamantly dissuade someone from buying a home from Century Communities, I will consider it a personal insult if anyone I know buys from them after talking with us.  Yes, its an all out smear campaign.

Throw in a bit of stress over finding a suitable renter for our old place, accommodating their schedule, touching up paint, cleaning, investigating insurance, rental contracts, etc. and July was not exactly recovery season.  As it turns out, everything with our new renter has been absolutely lovely.  We haven’t had to worry about a thing, and it didn’t even take that long to find the perfect person.  Knocking wood.

People keep asking me if I like our new house and my standard answer has been, “I’ll like it when they’re done building it.”  We’ve lived here for 5 weeks now.  But there are definitely things to like about it.

• I can ride my bike to work in about 7 minutes and not even break a sweat.  (I haven’t yet, because I have to keep making trips home to let repair people in.  But someday this will be over and I’ll ride to work.)
• Its very similar to our old home’s floor layout, which we always loved.  We don’t even eat at the coffee table anymore b/c you can see the TV from the dining room!  No more rearranging the furniture for poker night!
• We have a finished basement/flex space.  The one thing that was lacking at the old place.  This is where we’re putting the rollers, trainer, TRX, pull-up bar, yoga mat, ab ball, foam roller, NormaTecPants, and then some!  It just needs a TV/DVD player.  Yes! another round of TV shopping!
  

  It needs a little work, but I don’t even want to think about training indoors right now…

• The garage is huge!  Probably an extra two feet all the way around, but feels even bigger.  There’s probably room for 3-4 more bikes…
• We have a new rec center across the street and half a block down.  Realistically, its a two minute walk.  Only 3 lap lanes, but its not big enough for a swim team, so I’m hoping it open most of the time.  Also an outdoor lap pool about 5 minutes away.
  

  That’s the new rec center. I’m standing at my front door. Yes!

• New riding and running routes, trails etc.  It’ll be tough to beat the old neighborhood, but for now new is kind of exciting and that’s good enough.

Somehow I’ve managed to stay really on top of my training through all of this house crap and am feeling really good about the full IM distance at Rev3 Cedar Point.  I’m hopeful that all the house crap will be done in a few weeks and then I can actually relax and enjoy the place a bit.  It’ll be time for a party if nothing else.

IM Coeur D’Alene – Race Report

Well, its been a week and I still can’t string together any coherent thoughts about this race.   So I’m not going to try.  I keep remembering things, my friends remind me of things, I’m continually reflecting on the results, the training, the trip, etc.  A lot happens in 10hrs.  So this is the best collection of thoughts that I can muster…

Results – Total time 10:10:17.  66th overall, 52nd amateur, 14th AG.  2314 started the race.  2139 official finishers.

• I’m really pleased with my race as a whole.  Its a PR by 11 minutes or so, never complain about that.
• I needed another 20 minutes to get a Kona spot.  Believe it or not, that wasn’t my primary goal.  First and foremost I wanted to fix my nutrition (relative to IM Canada last year).  Second, set myself up for a good run.  Check and check.  I still think I can do it.  But it won’t be the only measure of my race, now or any time in the future.

Swim – 1:07:39 (1:51/100m)

• The wind kicked up on the second lap and made things kinda miserable.  Rough water, rough swimmers, directionally challenged, etc.  I was okay with 31:51 for the first lap, but 35:48 for the second was a little disheartening.  I hung my head a bit, but after looking at my peers times, many of us were 3-4 minutes slower the second time around. I’ve since convinced myself the time wasn’t that bad.
• I may have been the one and only hour-plus swimmer to have a pleasant start to the race.  Somehow I managed to luck into clear water for the first 500 yds or so.  The pictures looked pretty wild afterward and everyone I talked to felt it was some degree of crazy, rough, brutal, and cold…
• Lots of angst leading up to race about water temperature.  I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t feel that bad to me.  Practice swims Thursday and Friday helped me decide that two caps and ear plugs were all I needed.  Thanks to the guys at BlueSeventy for saving me a thermal cap and booties, but I decided against em.

T1 – 5:30

• I remembered having my own personal assistant the last two IM T1′s, but nary a helpful hand this time.  It took a few extra minutes sorting through what to take and what to leave behind.  Bagged up my own swim stuff too.  This should have been about 2 minutes faster.
• Okay, maybe it was a bit cold.  My fingers didn’t quite work like normal.  Took the time to put on my Swiftwick arm warmers, which required a bit of drying and some watch manipulation, but were well worth it!
• Wetsuit strippers are always a treat!

Bike – 5:44:08 (19.53mph)

• My Garmin struggles continue… man I’m an idiot!  Tried using ‘auto multisport’ mode this time.  Should be as simple as hitting lap, four times, then stop.  Somehow, (maybe the arm warmers) I hit it a few extra times.  A few minutes into the bike I realized that it thought I was running already.  Which means it won’t show me power, which simply won’t do.  After a few minutes of fiddling, I concluded there was no way out of auto multisport mode without, stop, reset, change mode, start over.  I did NOT ride back to the mount line…
• There was a fair amount of climbing (6600′ according to women’s champ Meridith Kessler) and a head wind on the way out (more up than down).  It was hard, but apparently harder on me than lots of others.  The bike is definitely where I lost the 20 minutes I would have needed.  I’m still not sure why, but I have a few ideas…
• I felt my nutrition plan worked really well.  A bento box full of Powebar Energy Blasts, half a dozen Powerbar Gels, a boat load of water, some Nuun tablets and a little bit of on-course nutrition (Bonk Breaker Bars) to keep my stomach full, did the trick.  No need for the special needs bag even though I dropped my one and only Powerbar.
• One of my big nutrition revelations has been consuming water for calorie absorption rather than just hydration.  The important part, it takes a lot more to absorb the calories than it does to stay hydrated.  Where does the extra water go?  I’m not even gunna make you guess.  I peed on my new Blue and in my new awesome Pearl Izumi tri shoes.  A LOT.  Like 7 times!  It was all I could do to keep it out of my bento box.

T2 – 1:55

• The first step was a doozy!  I came pretty darn close to face planting 3 feet from my bike.  After that, things came around pretty quick.
• My time includes a stop at the trough (urinal) in the men’s changing tent.  Now that’s more like it.

Run – 3:11:05 (7:17/mi)

• This run saved my day!  I couldn’t be happier and it’ll be tough to top.  But I’ve got a few ideas about that too.
• I couldn’t be happier to be running in Pearl Izumi again this year, but this race gave me a bit of a dilema.  I’ve found the the IsoTransition and the Streak II to be great for 10Ks, but a bit light on cushioning for a marathon.  Conversely, the Synchro Fuel has been great for long training runs, but a bit heavy for racing.  Yes, the Goldilocks problem…  Ultimately, I added a bit of padding to the Streak II and went light.
• I took 2-3 miles for my right calf to get with the program.  About that time I caught up to Sonja.  She gave me a nice pep talk.  I forget what she said, but I came away with the message ‘you’re not going to injure anything, its just going to hurt’.
• ‘Well, its just going to hurt…’ became my mantra for the next 3 hours.  By mile 4 both feet had gone completely numb.  At 6.5 the feeling had come back.  By mile 8 I was wishing they would go numb again.
• My first ever trip to the Med Tent.  I still don’t know what happened, but in the last 2-3 miles my hands and lips started to go numb.  Luckily, I was too out of it to worry much about it.  But it didn’t go away when I stopped so I went to the med tent and drank some coke, some chicken broth, got out of most of my wet clothes, had a nice chat with Sister Madonna Buder.  After an hour or so, things were starting to get better and I was getting HUNGRY, so I left without further incident.
• Two out and backs on the run is a great set up when you feel like you know a third of the people racing.  We traveled with a great group of friends from CO, our local Rocky Mountain Tri Club brought a couple dozen folks, I saw a bunch of Bike Source and Runner’s Roost kits, Sonja’s athletes, Michelle’s athletes and of course our Rev 3 team was well represented.  I heard there were 140 racers from Colorado.  Of course they all brought great support teams which meant the cheering was almost non stop.  The greatest thing about it, nearly everyone was pleased with their performance.  Congrats all!

Final Thoughts

• So many people to thank!  Races of this distance don’t just happen alone.
• Thanks to all the residents of the Coeur D’Alene area for being such gracious hosts and enthusiastic volunteers.  Especially to the lady we ate with on Monday who’s daughter missed volunteering for the race because she was in CO fighting wild fires.
• Thanks to all our wonderful Team Rev3 sponsors and supporters, BlueSeventy, Powerbar, Pearl Izumi, Swiftwick, and TriSwim/TriSlide.
• Congratulations to our tri-friends, Keith, John VS, Sonja, Michelle, Peter, and esp our first time Ironmen, Bill, Tyler, Beth, and John M.  Thanks to all of your respective support crews!  Having great travel companions is such an advantage.
• There’s no way to say it enough but thanks to my wife Michele for all the support, encouragement, patience, tolerance, and understanding.  I certainly couldn’t do it without you.
• There’s still improvement to be made, now I just have to find the next race.

IM Coeur D’Alene – in Pictures

I’m not sure if these are worth thousands of words, but the pictures are my favorite part of any race.  Thanks to my wife, Troy Wieck, Margaret Tennant, and Rev3 teammate Erin Holmes for sharing these…

Group practice swims really helped with the water temp.

Nicole says the water is cold…

Our house, off to bike check in.

Couldn’t do it without ya!

Boom! We’re off!

I’m tempted to say this looks worse than it is, but some of my friends might sock me in the mouth.

Okay, I’m obsessed with how crazy the swim start looks!

I appreciate ALL of the volunteers, but it shouldn’t be this much fun…

Maybe I enjoyed my new bike too much?

Time to get serious!

Nearing the finish!

Ta-Done!