2010 in Review

11 Feb 11- Osan AB, South Korea-

Well it has been over a month now since the new year and I have put this off far too long. So with the new year well underway I figured I better do a quick review of 2010. It was an interesting year which had its ups and downs, but mostly ups.

Well the start of 2010 was interesting, in Turkey, the land of NO racing. I believe 2010 was a year that I had little motivation in the beginning of the year due to knowing there was not a lot of racing to look forward to. I mean I had Wildflower to look forward to and that was a good way to start the year, but the middle of the year was dull in the sense of racing. I took that time to really focus and train for marathon #3 and the return to Korea. I knew coming back to Korea would offer me the option to race A LOT. That was probably the one thing that hurt going into the marathon was that I raced a lot leading into it. I needed those races though to feel fulfilled for the year, I just didn't get enough in early in the year and enjoy racing and being able to compete more than anything.

A few things I learned through 2010 was that if I dedicated myself to something I can achieve my goals. Going Sub 3 at the Chuncheon Marathon was the big goal of the year, after not being able to attend AF Marathon. I put in the miles and had a good plan going in, thanks to Elissa. Training in Turkey went great for the marathon due to having a consistent training partner who was able to push me on a daily/weekly basis. I concentrated on getting the work done and actually focused on going sub-3. My other marathons were more less spur of the moment, under trained lets see what I can do races. Chuncheon I had a purpose going there, I wanted to show that I had put in the work and I proved to myself that hard work pays off.

So with accomplishing that I wanted to reach for something bigger in 2011. I wanted to step up and go the full distance in Triathlon and attempt my first IRONMAN. I am a little young and under experienced in the sport overall, so I knew some things would have to be done to make this a successful attempt. I have signed up with Team TBB Online Coaching and am now being coached by Scott Defilippis. This all started in December of 2010, and what a difference having a coach makes. I will write a seprate blog about having an online coach soon. So at the end of 2010 I started focusing on 2011. Below are some goals for 2011, in order of importance athletically:

-Arrive to IM China in good health to compete in my first IM
-Finish my first IM
-Finish in the top 10 in all races entered throughout Korea
-Win an Overall Olympic Distance Race in Korea
-Qualify for Kona (not by rolldown)
-Go Sub 10 at IM China

This year the focus is obviously on IM China(and hopefully Kona). A lot of people have said just concentrate on finishing your first IM, well I am going full steam ahead and wanting more than to just finish. I have set high goals and hope to achieve my goals by being prepared for anything that the year throws at me. Staying focused throughout this year and managing my time will be the key to success this year. I am trying to juggle a full time military job (which in Korea can mean working 7-20 days straight at times, 12 hour days), completing 8 college classes this year, and training 12-20 hours a week. So to say the least I have a full plate.

Here is a brief review on some stats from 2010:

2010 Race Statistics 1 Jan-31 Dec

23 Races Entered

8 Overall 1^st Place Wins

5 Age Group Wins

14 Top 5’s

Races Entered Breakdown

1 Track Meet

2 5K’s

4 10K’s

3 ½ Marathons

1 8 Mile Time Trials (Bike)

1 20K Hill Climb (Bike)

2 Sprint Duathlons

2 Sprint Triathlons

3 Olympic Distance Triathlons

1 Half IM’s

1 Full Marathon

Training Stats 1Jan10-31Dec10

Swim- 58.8 Miles/94.6KM’s/34h43m

Bike- 2,629 Miles/4,231KM’s/151h34m

Run- 1,116.8 Miles/1,797KM’s/142h03m

Total-3,805.6 Miles/6,124KM’s/328h20m/13d16h19m

Some interesting things about the above data: I decreased my bike mileage quite a bit and did not feel like I lost a lot of fitness on the bike. My run mileage increased by quite a bit and I gained a lot of speed and fitness on the run. My swim mileage is more of something like what a kid in elementary school swims on his/her club team. In the first 42 days of this year I have already swam half of what I did last year, so I know where my weakness is and I am now putting in the work to improve my swim.

Overall I believe 2010 was a great year considering how it started and where I was. Coming back to Korea was something that I really appreciated and knowing that I am in a place that I can succeed surrounded by some great people. I can't wait for the 2011 race season to start and get things rolling.

Thanks again to all of the support from family, friends and fellow competitors. As long as I can inspire people to be active and live a healthy lifestyle I feel that I have accomplished something. Thanks again for all of the support!

Below are some pictures from throughout the year:

At UVAS OLY Tri getting the bike ready with my Dad.

Probably the highlight of my year. Seeing my 7 year old little sister run a 9 minute mile and win her race!

The family post Wildflower. Was glad that my Aunt, Uncle and cousins finally were able to see me race.

First race back in Korea. Awesome Triathlon monument as well, my name should now be on the back of the monument with my AG win there.

Chuncheon around mile 10.

Wildflower......What a Race!

1 May 2010- Lake San Antonio CA-

For those of you that have not been able to enjoy the Wildflower experience, I highly recommend it. Even if you are not an athlete or tri person just going and hanging out is quite an experience. This is not a typical race, it is a week long festival, AKA "The Woodstock" of Triathlon. Last year was a great time and we camped but only stayed for a few days. This year my parents decided to get an RV and we decided to go from Wednesday-Sunday, which was a very wise decision. With us staying so long and having an RV I sent out a mass invite to everyone I know that races. I had 2 takers on the deal and my buddy Gary from Wisconsin flew out for the race. We had met at IM 70.3 Germany and then both raced Clearwater. His wife and my mom spent race day together in FL cheering us on and they really enjoyed each others company. Amy who we camped with last year also decided to come out but wasn't to into the camping thing so she stayed at a hotel Friday night about 45mins from the race, forgot to mention WF is in the middle of nowhere. This will be a little more than a race report and more of a Wildflower Report.

Wednesday morning we left and headed out for WF about 530am in hopes of getting a full hook up RV spot. The GPS that we were using decided to take us a "short" way and we ended up taking a twisty back road, which would of been fine in a car, but not in the RV. The best part was this is right when I had took over to start driving. No longer than 20 minutes later down the road Madyson (my little sis) decided that I was a horrible driver and decided to throw up. We pulled of to the side of the road and let her get it all out. Since it was all my fault and not the twisty roads fault Mom took back over driving and I caught a much needed nap. We ended up arriving around 10 and found a full hook up spot right on the run course of the Half IM course. We were very close to our campsite that we had last year so it was nice to already know the area.

Once we set up camp I headed out for a 5 mile run on the run course which was from miles 7-12. It was a nice run and I was able to enjoy the scenery and see some wildlife, Deer, dead rattle snake, turkey, squirrels and some quail. I came back and told Gary that it was going to be a brutal run on Saturday, little did I know how brutal it would be.

Thursday morning I got in a nice morning swim and biked mid day with some new friends. Our next door neighbors at the camp ended up being a group from Canada. They had 2 RV's and 8 people total and were some cool people. I hung out with them quite a bit after our run and we hung around a camp fire and had a few beers and even some Margaritas, blended ones at that. Just so happened that some of the other neighbors had packed a blender for the trip, like I have said WF is one of a kind. "Team Trevor" was the camp that had brought the blender and in exchange for margaritas we had promised to go down and sign up for the bone marrow registry. It was a simple process and I stopped in and did this post race on Saturday.

Friday was the normal pre race day routine that I always go through. Get a good short morning swim in, try and bike around the same time I would be on the course and get a good short 10-15min run in. Once all of that in it was time to relax and stay hydrated. They always say to stay out of the sun, but I had to work on the tan a little bit so I just made sure to have a bottle of water around at all times. Mom made a good meal and I made sure to eat enough to make sure I could take care of the morning ritual on race morning.

Race morning came as usual other than waking up in an RV at 0500 and trying not to wake everyone else up was a little rough. I made it over to the showers and it seemed everyone else was still asleep and I was able to get a good wake up by the low 40 temps and a decently warm shower. Once back to the RV I was able to get my 2 instant oatmeal packets ready with the touch of a button on the microwave and 2 minutes later breakfast was served along with a banana. Breakfast went down as usual and I even had the race morning cup of coffee. The lucky morning routine streak is still on a roll and I have been lucky enough to go 4 for 4 over the past 4 HIM's with taking care of business (knock on wood).

The nice thing about Wildflower is that you do not have to pre check in race bags or your bike. However you do get to ride down lynch hill which tends to be really chilly in the morning AM. Once everything was all settled at camp I headed down to transition area to get setup as well as watch the pros head out. I was lucky enough to be the 3rd wave that started so we were going off at 8:10, as where Gary and Amy were starting over an hour behind. Mom, Steve, and Maddy all met me down there and it was nice to see them before the swim start. Steve was down there getting ready as well as his first Tri, the Mountain Bike Sprint Tri started after all the Long Course athletes went off. I think his start was just before 10.

Swim-

I was hoping to have a good swim after having a great swim 2 weeks ago at UVAS Reservoir. I felt good in the water and with it being a good size wave start of around 100-150 athletes it was a little rough for the first 200M and I couldn't find clear water or get into a good draft until about 400M. That is where I got in what I thought was a good grove but did not turn out so well. The swim course is a little difficult with the first half of the swim being into the sun. I just stayed on the guys feet in front of me and well he was spotting off the opposite buoys on the course. We ended up in the middle of the course and had to navigate back on course which had cost me some time. Once we mad it past the half way point it was a easy swim and I just found some feet that were swimming straight and hung on till the end of the swim. By far not a great swim but I was able to save some energy by staying on some feet most of the time.

T1-

Went really smooth and I was able to get in and right out. The boat ramp just makes for a long run to transition but other than that it was fine.

Bike-

Coming into this race I knew I would need to be conservative on the bike since it was so hilly. I made sure to pace myself wisely and make sure I was taking in enough calories and liquid. For the bike I went with one bottle on the down tube that had 2X Hammer Perpetum Servings w/ 4 Servings of Hammer vanilla gel mixed in; it was quite concentrated. For my upper bottle on the aero bars I just used on course Gatorade and opted for the orange flavor, since the perpetum is orange vanilla. That made it a little easier to wash down than with lime. I had a few problems on the bike mechanically; one being on a decent at about 45mph I hit a hole in the road and a loud sound came from the front wheel. This was my second time racing on this wheels so I am still no comfortable on them at high speeds, so I stopped to check and everything was fine. Then at mile 45 after nasty grade I dropped my chain going from the small ring to big ring, luckily it was right at an aid station so I got off fixed the chain and grabbed a water bottle. With those 2 mechanical problems I fell behind the group that I had been riding with and had to ride solo for a majority of the ride catching a rider here and there and then being caught by some of the "older" fast guys. Overall I was happy with my bike split and felt that I had conserved some more energy for the run course which was going to be brutal.

T2-

Went really smooth and I was in and out with no problems.

Run-

Felt really good right off the bat and the legs felt decent for just riding 56 miles. I made sure to put down some salt pills as I had started to get some small cramps in my quads. I knew with the big hills and down hills the quads were going to take a beating so I took more salt in than normal, and I was sweating pretty bad as well. The first 3 miles went by and I was feeling really good by that point but then came mile 4 and 5 which included a lot of walking. The hills were more like climbs and were better suited for hiking than trying to run up. Well what goes up must come down so at the end of mile 5 it was straight down to what I was hoping would be the motivational water stop. It is known that at Wildflower the college kids get a little crazy out at this so called water stop and are normally topless, offering beer/liquor to hydrate with and even offering to make out with the athletes. Well to everyone's disappointment the water stop was out of order for the third year in a row :( On with the run I went and at mile 6 one of the female pro's I had caught on the bike caught me on the run, so that was some motivation to run a little faster. The next water stop we came across a somewhat crazy water stop. I was attempting to intake gel and salt pills at the same time as drinking water, which was a task that was hard. Then to make matters worse, well actually better one of the college girls say's "Free motorboat, guaranteed to take a minute off your time". The pro girls was still in the vicinity and started laughing and told me "well you better do it and take a minute of your time", so sure enough it happened and I believe that was what made my run time a little bit faster. Back onto the run with a little motivation I started talking to the pro chick and was pacing with her as we got to talking she was talking about how it was a rough day and how she was in last and what not. I reminded her that she was not in last and that other people had quit or had mechanical problems and that just finishing was an accomplishment, she was still not happy with being "last". Well not even 200M down the trail I see another female ahead and I look over and tell her "Looks like you aren't going to be last for long". She took off and ran down that girl and sure enough ended up not being the last girl. I felt strong towards the end of the run thanks to a 39 year old guy telling me to run with him and well he got me going really strong and I was able to run down a guy ahead of me. Thanks to that guy I was able to pick up that one spot and hold off the guy till the finish. Going down lynch hill was painful on the quads and I was hoping the guy behind me wasn't going to want to sprint it out because I wasn't sure how much I had left in me, luckily he was out of energy as well and finished 5 seconds back. Making it to the podium can be decided by mere seconds, which I learned the hard way in my first tri missing top 3 by 1 second (it was a wave start and that guy that finished 3rd wasn't in my wave), but I ran hard in hopes of that podium spot (WF podiums Top 5 since it is a big race).

Splits-

Swim-34:46 (1:48/100M)- 417th OA- 29th AG

T1-2:15 6th AG

Bike-2:51:41 (19.5mph Avg)- 165th OA- 8th AG

T2-1:33 11th AG

Run-1:41:47 (7:44/mil Avg)- 104th OA- 7th AG

Overall Time-5:12:02-113th OA/1860 Athletes- 5th AG/54 AG Athletes

Overall I was very happy with my race. I was proud to have family their cheering me on and also to have met some incredible people over the weekend. Thanks to Gary from coming out from California and being able to experience WF! The whole Canadian clan was an awesome group of people both prerace and especially with the after party (*disclaimer* bad idea to party with Canadians, you end up hungover for at a minimum 2 days). Jay from ST for settling into the campsite and enjoying the WF atmosphere for the first time. Great weekend and great trip, hopefully I can find a way to make it back next year for WF!

SPECIAL THANKS: MOM/STEVE/MADDY for coming the whole week and getting the RV. Mom did a great job cooking and taking care of us athletes for the days leading up to the race. Aunt Chrissy/Uncle Jr/Mayson/Mikalyn/Oscar for making the long trip out just to see me run by a few times.

Someone told me a couple weeks ago that I was "to into my hobby", which I find quite funny. My response was simple and the honest truth "Triathlon is not my hobby it is a lifestyle". I think that sums up most tri people, it is more than a hobby to us it is a lifestyle we choose to live. So I think it is quite clear where my focus is right now and I am perfectly happy with that, I work, I eat, I sleep, I train, and I continue to take college classes, I would say that is enough to keep me busy............

Myself and Gary on the way up from packet pickup.

Rasmus Henning and myself, he won IM China the year I raced there.

The 4 racers on race morning.

Maddy and myself right before the swim.

Coming out of the water from my half crap swim.

During the beginning of the bike.

Coming down the finishing chute feeling strong.

Amy and myself both were top 5 in the 20-24 Age Group

The family came and supported me :)

Top 5!

The other guys in camp lost a bet at beer pong so I joined in the non sense, and then redeemed ourselves by beating the girls!

The great thing about triathlon is the 74 year old lady still racing and having fun!

After a long weekend a much needed nap, we had just packed up and were headed out so that is where the bike went for the trip home.

Wildflower Pre Race

27 April 2010-

Well it is that time of year again to kick off the year with a big race. All packed and ready to head out for Wildflower. The family stepped it up this year and got an RV for the trip and we will be heading out tomorrow morning, well actually here in 5 hours to hopefully get a full hook up spot. A buddy of mine that I have raced with in Germany and Florida came out from Wisconsin for the race and got into town today. It is always nice to have someone else to experience race week with and get in a few last minute workouts and prep for the race with. So Thanks to Gary for coming out and getting to experience the greatest race on the west coast.

The past 11 days home have been fun filled with all kinds of craziness keeping me busy. Was able to see a lot of old friends and catch up with a lot of them as well as family. Managed to squeeze in 2 family BBQ's and even some family pictures. Was also able to play volleyball a couple times and even travel up to Chico to watch some DII College softball and then stop in Davis and play some 2v2 Grass Volleyball. This trip has turned into a huge adventure and it is only half way over. Still have Wildflower to tackle and then 6 days in Germany with a good friend that I trained with in Korea.

As for how I am feeling and what I am expecting for Widflower, well that is up in the air. Legs are feeling really good and fresh, for the run that is. I think I have lost a little strength on the bike but have made it up in the run so not to worried there. My swim has come around over the winter and I am feeling really good in the water. I was able to swim with the local masters group here in town and was pushed for some good workouts. I think I put in my biggest swim week last week ever with 10K in 3 days, not sure it was at the best time but it felt great being pushed hard by some fast swimmers. I even managed to complete a few 100IM sets and not drowned, well it may have looked like I was a fish out of water, but I completed the sets just not in fashion!

For Wildflower I will be really happy with the following splits and outcome:

Swim-32min-34min
Bike- 2:40-2:50
Run- 1:38-1:45
Top 5- Age Group
Overall- Top 10%

If I can accomplish those times and placings I will be very happy with the race, if not I guess Saturday night will truly be a great night with the case of Shiner Bock I have to celebrate with or drink in shame of a crappy race ;) Whatever the outcome is of the race it does not matter because Wildflower is truly a great race and great atmosphere, so in the end great friends will be made and current friendships will grow stronger! Best of Luck to everyone racing!

Wildflower, Wildflower, Wildflower!!!!!!

3May09- Avia Wildflower Olympic Distance-

Once again I dont know where to start. It all started off with a 4 hour drive with my buddy OC that was stationed in Korea with me. He is now in Idaho and made the trip out for the race. So once we arrived at the race site we had to set up camp. Luckily I had made some friends in China that were going to be at the race as well so they already had a camp site picked out for us. So we got the camp all set up before the Friday afternoon rain rolled in and just hung out on Friday. Once we decided to go to bed the rain stopped.

So OC was racing Long Course on Saturday so that meant an early wake up. I got up and cooked some oatmeal and had a good breakfast myself. 515 was quite early but it didnt really matter because at 615 some garbage truck came into our area and woke up the whole damn city dumping the garbage. So I headed down to the race around 730 and was able to watch OC start his swim at 815. For the rest of the day I just hung out and got a light swim in and got a feel for the water. Later on in the day I went back up to camp to catch a nap and ended up sleeping in the tent which turned out to be like a sauna. Well about an hour into my nap I was woken up to someone telling me OC had just ran by so I figured well I havent road the bike yet so I hoped on the bike and caught up to OC and cheered him on for a little while. After that I grubbed out on the Carb load party and then had a 2nd dinner with the family up at camp. So with a full stomach and having nothing to do we just hung out at camp and told stories until it was bed time. Got a decent amount of sleep and was wide awake at 0600 the following morning.

Well I stuck with the same eating plan as I had in China and woke up and ate some oatmeal and banana's. Sipped on some Gatorade and water and made sure to take care of the morning "business". So once all of that was taken care of and I got everything ready I headed down to transition area and set things up.

I started the swim in the 3rd Wave behind the College Men and Women. I started 10 minutes back from the official race clock and had 2 waves of people ahead of me. So by the 1/4 way mark I started catching people and the course got a little more congested. When I hit the last turn and headed home for the home stretch I felt really good and picked it up a bit. When I hit the boat ramp I looked over at the clock and it read "36:14", so that meant I had completed the swim in 26mins which was about a 2min personal record for me. So I came out of the water feeling really good and was pleased with having such a great swim. I had a decent transition from the swim to bike and did not have any problems getting the wetsuit off.

Onto the bike. Well let me tell you what..........A 1 MILE climb after just swimming .93 miles is not fun at ALL!!!! Known as "lynch hill" this thing was a beast and made me appreciate the hill work I had done in Korea. So this course was by far the hilliest course I have ever raced on and I thought it was going to take a lot out of me. I did not push extremely hard on the bike but kept a constant pace and really watched my cadence and tried to keep it up above 90 the whole time. I did not want to exert all of my energy on the bike and not be able to run on the hilly run course. I was only passed by 2 people on the bike which made me feel really good. I did a lot of passing but since there were so many people on the course I did not know if I was passing people in my Age Group or just the college people. So overall I was really pleased with the bike.

Now to the run......Well just like the bike course this was the hilliest thing I have ever raced on. I was tired of seeing hills on the bike let alone the run. So I just went out there and ran. I tried to find my legs early and they actually came to right off the bike and felt good. So I had a great run in my opinion and was very thankful for all of the college students out there at the aid stations especially the one at mile 3 that handed me a Coors Light which I happened to take a swig of. It was refreshing and I think it was the extra kick in my step from there on out...hint hint COORS LIGHT SPONSOR ME ;)!!!! At the other aid stations they were very willing to hose you down with cool water and had all kinds of gatorade and water. Sadly enough the mile 4 aid station was "closed" and I did not get to see what I had heard so much about. Overall the run was great and getting to come down lynch hill on the run course was great. A complete mile decent that I was able to fly down and have a nice last mile split.

So overall it was a great race and I had an awesome time and weekend. I was able to PR my OLY course record on one of the hardest courses out there which just showed me how much all the training for China helped out. Below are the split times and stats for the weekend along with some pictures.

Swim-26:17 (526th Overall)

T1- 2:32

Bike-1:13:01 (50th Overall)

T2-2:00

Run- 41:09 (60th Overall)

2:24:17** The official results are posted wrong and are in the process of being corrected. My official time shows 2:26:17 but is off by 2 minutes. This moves my overall finish up, but not my age group placing.

4th Place Age Group out of 54

67th Place Overall out of 2,603

I would like to give a big THANKS to my family for coming out and supporting me at this race. Mom, Steve, Madyson, Mamma Weez, Aunt Vicki, Aunt Debbie, Cousin Blake, OC and then the people from "Camp WONGSTAR". Also big shout outs to Amy Chow and Jocelyn Wong from our camp for Amy taking 3rd in her AG and the Wongstar winning her AG.

Our Camps Bike Stable

Madyson with her "GO BUBBA" sign

Getting ready in transition area Coming up the boat ramp...
Out on the bike.....

Out for the Run...
The final kick down the finishing chute
Checking some numbers post race
Mom and Me

Myself, Amy, Jocelyn, and OC