Summer Road Trip Part 2- Training Camp

19 August-

I showed up to Mountain City, Tennessee late on Sunday night.  This is where teamTBB is looking to set up there USA based Camp.  My coach (Scott DeFilippis) and his girlfriend Carrie Lester were the only athletes there the week I was there and they had already been there for a few months.  I knew the next week was going to be good when I walked in and Carrie was on the treadmill for her third run of the day at 9pm!

I was really excited to get in some solid training throughout the week and luckily was able to train beside the both of them throughout the week.   We did 90% of the workouts together with Scott running circles around us on the track and Carrie swimming circles around us in the pool.  We rode almost all of the rides together and put in a lot of climbing.  It worked out quite well being able to get different workouts in with each of them.

As for how the day to day lifestyle was, well it was quite amazing.  I have put in some big weeks before at Cycling Camp, but we had a lot of "other" stuff going on there.  This was going to be a great time to just focus on training and then recovering.  I had nothing to worry about but just to focus on each workout and put in my best effort.

A typical day at camp consisted of a 730-8am wakeup and then out the door no later than 10am.  We would get a morning session in and then come back for a quick snack.  The one downside was having to drive 30 minutes to the pool each day, however on some days it provided for a quick nap.  After our swim we would grab groceries in town for dinner and then either come back for one last session or start dinner.  We would try to get to bed by 10pm, but there were a few nights where I stayed up later.  Looking back this is the one area where I did not focus, and that was getting 9-10 hours of sleep, where I was getting 8 hours of sleep.  By day 4 it had caught up with me and I passed out hard on the drive to the pool, see picture below.

Overall I was really pleased with how the week went.  I got in some amazing training and had a lot of good conversations with Scott and "Babs", yeah I had to give Carrie a nickname by about day 3.  Scott goes around calling her "Babes" (pronounced Baaaaeeeebbbsss), and since she is not my "babe" I decided to call her "Babs".  Ahh good times of camp ;)

The area was actually really good and I was impressed with how good the riding was.  Once a pool gets built at the camp location it is going to be a special place to spend the summers for training camp.  Looking forward to what they have in the works for Red Tail!

I can't thank Scott and Carrie enough for allowing me to train beside them and taking me into their "home" at camp for a week.  It was an awesome experience and took my fitness to a whole new level.  I look forward to carrying this week of training into the next and bring all of the great work into Vegas!
 --Side Note: Carrie and Scott just had amazing races at Challenge Penticton this past weekend (25 August) by winning and taking 2nd.  You can read about it here: http://www.teamtbb.com/race-recaps/item/361-animals-rule-carrie-1st-scottie-2nd

Here are the numbers from camp:

Training Stats:
Swim- 21.1k / 6hrs
Bike- 288 miles / 16.2hrs
Run- 48 miles / 6hrs
Total- 28.2hrs / 1,650 TSS
CTL Start- 109.1
CTL End- 128.5

A few pictures and a video from camp:

 Passed out on the way to the pool.

 At Lees McRae track for a big day of running!

Out on our long ride w/ Carrie leading the way!

Summer Road Trip Part 1

16 August-

I decided to take a little time off from work this summer and travel around the mid west to get in a big training block and some racing.  I am hoping to be racing in Kona come October, but nothing is official yet.  I will at least be racing Vegas 70.3, so this block of training is great for that as well.  I started the trip heading to Milwaukee for USAT Age Group Nationals.

I got in a short swim Wednesday morning before departing for St Louis, Missouri.  I was on track to make it up there in time and have dinner with my buddy Jay, who I was staying with.  Jay and his wife own a Thai restaurant and I was really looking forward to eating there.  Unfortunately mother nature had dumped a bunch of rain over the few days prior and one of the roads was flooded.  The "detour" ended up taking 2.5 hours longer than planned and I didn't arrive till 10pm.  Just in time for a cold beer and time to catch up on everything.

I woke up the next morning and headed to Mount Vernon, Illinois to pick up my buddy Aaron.  Aaron lives in Korea, where he is a school teacher.  We had spent a lot of time riding out there and training together so when he found out about my road trip he was up for joining.  He was home for the summer break and decided to join along for a few days.  Once picking him up we were headed north to Racine, Wisconsin where I had setup a home stay with Tim Carls of Vernon Graphix.

Tim has been a huge help to the US Military Cycling Team over the past 2 years and is now starting to help out with Team RWB as well.  We arrived there mid afternoon on Thursday to his son and daughter welcoming us into their home aka "Fort Carls".  One of the coolest home stays I have had to date.  They had signs made for our arrival, snacks setup in the guest area in the basement, and a lot of room for all of our stuff.  After unpacking and getting settled in we headed out for a 1.5 hour ride and Aaron wanted to see a light house.  So we went searching out this light house and once going through downtown Racine we ended up finding the light house and some great riding along Lake Michigan.  I then had a short run off of the bike upon returning, followed by an amazing home cooked barbeque cheeseburger.

The weather was really amazing considering it was the beginning of August.  Friday was a pretty busy day with a 2 hour ride and a big swim set.  I headed to the pool to find out that senior citizens water aerobics were going on.  The older ladies were all about having me join in as I came walking out of the locker room in my speedo ready to swim laps and was quite surprised seeing a pool fool of aqua dancing people.  Back to the house after the failed swim attempt and headed out for a ride.  Got a nice and easy 2 hours through the country side of Wisconsin, saw lots of corn, and that was about it.

Back to the pool after the ride and then we headed into Milwaukee for packet pickup and bike drop off.  No issues there, browsed the expo area and checked out the new Garmin Vector Pedals.  They had brought 5 sets to the expo, and had already sold 4 sets by the time we stopped by.  After accomplishing packet pickup and bike drop we headed over to the Cheese Cake Factory to have dinner with a group of Team Red, White, and Blue athletes that were racing.  We ended up with about 25 people attending the dinner and it was good to catch up with old friends and meet some new friends as well.

Race morning came and went, you can read about it here: http://aftriathlonguy.blogspot.com/2013/08/usat-ag-olympic-distance-nationals.html

Post race we headed for Santa Claus, Indiana, which is where Aaron lives.  We ended up making good time and arriving back there around 10pm.  After a few beers and some stories with his wife about the weekend we called it a night.  The next morning I slept in a bit and then we headed out for a ride with some of Aarons friends and local Pro Triathlete Nick Waninger.  It was a fun ride out in Indiana with very little traffic on it.

Huge thanks to Jay and his wife, Tim and his family, and Aaron and Michelle for the hospitality and offering up a place to stay along this portion of the trip.

After the ride I started my journey to Mountain City, Tennessee where I am planning on spending 7 days to train with my coach and his girlfriend from 12-18 August.  I will cover that part of the trip in another blog.

Training Stats:
Swim- 10k / 2.75hrs
Bike- 228 miles / 11.4hrs
Run- 19 miles / 2.25hrs
Total- 16.4hrs / 1,001 TSS
CTL Start- 106.2
CTL End- 109.1

 The light house that we searched for during our ride.

 Aaron enjoyed the home stay at Fort Carls a little too much.  He found a light saber and was attacking the cat.

Santa Claus, Indiana.........You thought I was joking earlier ;)

 

The local Santa Claus, Indiana group ride!

USAT AG Olympic Distance Nationals

10 Aug-

USAT Age Group Olympic Distance Nationals was the start of a 19 day "vacation" for me.  That is if you consider driving over 3,300 miles and training and racing for 19 days vacation.  I will cover each portion of the trip in a separate blog.  So this blog will just be about the race.

Swim (1.5K)-22:28

The swim was from a dock, but was an in water start.  We had a big age group with 151 finishers.  I thought it would make for a pretty congested swim but it wasn't actually all that bad.  After the first buoy, about 300m in the swim calmed down and I got into a rhythm.  I thought I was having a pretty decent swim, but upon exiting the water and running into transition, Aaron (who traveled to Milwaukee with me, more on that in Part I of my "Vacation" blog series) told me I was in 49th.  So, I guess it wasn't all that great of a swim.......

T1- 1:53

Bike (40K)- 55:53

Once out on the bike I just put my head down and rode hard.  I knew I could make up some ground on the bike, but wasn't sure how far I could ride through the field.  The bike course was a little crowded, and I saw a few blatant drafters out there, but for the most part I thought it was a pretty clean race.  I knew I had a good ride as I approached T2 around 56 minutes on my Garmin, but the official time was 55:53.

T2-0:58

Run (10K)- 39:21

I came off the bike in around 6th place and was running good.  I put in 2 solid miles and at a small out and back section knew some guys were hot on my tail.  Around mile 2 my upper stomach started acting up and it felt like a In N Out Double Cheeseburger Animal Style was sitting there.  I started to slow, felt like crap and at mile 4 at the furthest turn around I stopped and started puking.  I started to run again but had to stop and puke.  Then after one last puke session I started running.  I ended up running 5:54 for the 6th mile, and finished the last .2 at 5:29 pace.  I almost think I should have stopped at mile 2 and puked and then kept trucking on.  Looking back on it, that is what I should have done, but I guess you learn and you live.

Swim (1.5K)- 22:28 / 47th out of 151 in AG / (http://www.strava.com/activities/73847780)

Bike (40K)- 55:53 / 3rd out of 151 in AG / 4th Overall Bike Split (http://www.strava.com/activities/73851010)

Run (10K)- 39:21 / 45th out of 151 in AG / (http://www.strava.com/activities/73847792 )

Total- 2:00:36 / 15th out of 151 in AG / 55th out of 2,371 Overall
Results: http://m.racetecresults.com/MyResult.aspx?R=379&EId=1&AId=39009

Overall I was happy with how the race went considering the circumstances.  It is the first time that I have got sick during a race or felt miserable on the run.  I learned that it is better to just throw up and keep going rather than trying to run in discomfort.  I am not sure exactly what caused the problem but it was one of two things, the lake water or the race course nutrition.

This race was not an A race so I am not disappointed or upset with the outcome.  This was just a part of the "vacation" which is focused on prepping for 70.3 Worlds in Vegas on September 8th.  I am now out in Tennessee training with my coach and his girlfriend, more to come on that next week in a blog.

Thanks to everyone for all of the support and for all of my sponsors/supporters for the continued help and support.

 The only way to enter the water pre race is having a little fun.  If you aren't having fun then why even do all of this crazy training and racing ;)

 Coming out of the water and into T1 and hearing Aaron tell me I was in 49th......Uhhhhh

 Coming into T2

 

Hanging out with Ryan post race.  He will also be down in Vegas racing in a few weeks!