Catching Up: Update Part 2

9 October-

Update Part 1 can be found HERE.

I left off with the departure from Ft Worth and heading up to Boulder.  Hila was in from Japan for a month, so we packed up what I had left that the movers didn't take, and put it into the car.  Pretty tough packing for 4 months and only being able to jam it in the car.  We made it up to Boulder in 2 days, after making a quick stop in Colorado Springs to visit with Hila's mother.

With Atlantic City going poorly due to being sick I talked with my coach about a back up plan to try and qualify for my pro card again.  I found Challenge New Albany and decided that was going to be the race to do.  After a few weeks in Boulder we headed out for New Albany, via car.  Driving from Colorado to Ohio wasn't all that bad.  I had already planned on driving out to Milwaukee for Age Group Nationals so it was just a week ahead of schedule.  I was going to spend 10 days in Milwaukee and fly in and out of there for New York City to guide Aaron again.

I ended up having a really good race at New Albany and won the overall amateur race and placed 15th Overall.  So mission accomplished and no pressure the rest of the year worrying about where to qualify.  We drove up from New Albany to Milwaukee and luckily were able to meet up with some friends and family along the way.  Always great to catch up with people while out on the road traveling.  After getting up to Milwaukee the month with Hila came to an end and she got on a plane back to Japan.  Luckily, this would be the last time we would be apart for more than a few weeks at a time, as she was getting ready to depart from the Air Force as well.

A few days after Hila left I headed over to New York for a short 2 day trip, I think I was actually there less than 48 hours.  I went out there to guide Aaron in the NYC Triathlon, and it was a great event.  We set a course record in his category by 5 minutes, well we actually just broke his course record.  It was a pretty humbling experience for me, my ultimate fear with guiding happened.  Aaron was in top shape since Paratriathlon Worlds was right around the corner, and he was dragging me around the run course, yet we still ran 37 flat 10K, on a really hilly course.  I never want to slow Aaron down so this was really hard for me, but luckily he still won so in the end it was alright.

Once back from NYC I stayed in Milwaukee and raced AG Nationals.  The day went pretty much like I expected, came out way behind in the swim, biked through the field to the top 5 and then was run down by a few guys.  When it was all said and done I was 25th Overall and 8th in the Age Group, until I was given a 2 minute penalty for dropping my swim cap on the transition run, yep you read that right, dropping my swim cap, along with about 50 other people.  I ended up 40th and 12th in my Age Group after that.  Still a great day and put down the 3rd fastest bike split, which I was really happy with.

After the race I loaded up the car and headed back to Boulder the following day.  Made the drive straight through which made for a long day.  Once back in Boulder I spent 28 days there training for 70.3 worlds, and put in a really solid block of training.  Hila left Japan for good and met me in Boulder for a few days before we headed off to Canada.

I will do a race report for 70.3 worlds, so that will be the next post.  Once back from 70.3 worlds we drove from Boulder to California, making a quick stop at Interbike for a few hours.  Although we were really rushed while there it was still a great experience and I look forward to going back in the future.  Once back in California we had a few days to getting our wedding ceremony final preparation done, and once all of that was good we had the big party!  One of the most memorable nights of my life, and I was glad we had all of our family and close friends there to celebrate with us.

After the wedding we spent some time in Tahoe and in San Francisco.  Hila then departed for England to get started on her DPhil (PhD for those of us in the US) at Oxford.  I had a week left in California to train before I departed for Hawaii.  No problems at all traveling out to Hawaii.

So here we are, 6 months later, on the big island of Hawaii, and in 2 short blog posts you are all caught up on what has been a busy and hectic 6 months.

Post race at Challenge New Albany with Hila, and Ryan

 

Guiding Aaron at NYC, we broke 2 hours and broke his old course record.

 At Interbike with Hila

 And we got married again :)

Team RWB Tri Camp / Selection to AF Tri Team / USAT Military Sports Award

15 May 13-

A little on the late side for this blog, well at least for the Team RWB Tri Camp.  After returning back to Texas from South Beach Miami back in April I didn't even have time to unpack and I was headed out the door again.  I headed down to Austin to help out and volunteer at the Team Red, White, and Blue Triathlon Camp.  I was really looking forward to this opportunity to be able to give back to our Veterans and current military members that are wounded not just physically but mentally.  The mission statement of Team Red, White, and Blue is to "enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity".  Back in 2011 the morning after the IM World Championships I woke up with an email from Mike Erwin, the founder of Team RWB.  He asked that I consider getting involved with the organization and becoming an athlete ambassador.

I did a lot of research before committing to the organization.  I wanted to make sure it was something I was passionate about and something I believed in.  I talked to a few friends that were involved and I sent Mike an email back letting him know I wanted to get involved and help out anyway I could.  So here we are about 18 months later and I have been back in the states for about 6 months.  When I was in Korea I did as much as I could but it was more less just reaching out to people and trying to spread the word about the organization.  Now that I am back in the states I have got involved with our local chapter and I am seeing first hand how big of a difference this organization can make in peoples lives.

Now back to camp.  So I arrived down in Austin early morning on Thursday and linked up with David Wenger of Durata Training for a bike fit (blog to come on that soon).  Spent about 3 hours tweaking both the P3 and S5, and then went out and met up with Jeremy Brown for a ride on MOPAC Loop.  That afternoon there was a BBQ and introductions with everyone that had already arrived.

Friday morning the camp officially started and each day was about the same.  We had Jess Jacobs, Jess Meyers, Timothy O'Donnell, and Logan Franks there who are all pro triathletes.  They would lead small groups of athletes.  We had a few introductory clinics for each sport and then did some small amounts of training.  The main focus of the camp was focusing on the little things as we had a lot of first time triathletes there and I think overall everyone enjoyed the clinics.  There was not a lot of volume in terms of training but a lot of great bonding and sharing of knowledge going on.

I lucked out and was able to spend a good amount of time with Tim.  We had to drive quite a bit from place to place and basically I was his  personal taxi, no worries though just a small fee of having me pick his brain for knowledge the whole time.  It was great to get his opinion about the whole going pro thing since South Beach was the weekend prior.

I had an amazing time down at camp and was glad to be able to help out some of our nations finest veterans.  It was great to see first hand how effective sports and social activities are for those that are struggling with physical wounds and PTSD.  An AMAZING experience that made me realize I am involved in an organization that has a great mission and is something I am even more passionate about now.

Shifting gears........................A few weeks back Air Force Sports made the announcement for the 2013 Triathlon Team.  Looking at the list of guys and girls we are taking this year, I am excited to see what kind of damage we can do this year.  Last year we were unable to defend the mens title, however our girls pulled off the 4th title in a row.  With 2 "new" guys on the team, they are actually veterans of the team, but were not there last year, we are looking to have a solid team.  I am excited to be on the team again this year and looking forward to Armed Forces Championships on June 1st in Pt Mugu, California.  Going to be a busy 7 days, with CapTex on Memorial day down in Austin.  Driving back up to Ft Worth, work on Tuesday, fly out to Cali on Wednesday and race Armed Forces on Saturday.  Really looking forward to it and seeing how my body reacts to racing back to back like that.

Back in April I was notified that I received the USAT Military Sports Award and was an honorable mention.  Robert Hilton from the Marine Corps won, congrats man on a great honor.  Rob has beat me the last 2 years in Hawaii, and I am hoping he makes it back this year, hopefully the third time is a charm ;)  I did not race 3 races that were USAT races last year so was not eligible for Age Group All American or Honorable Mention, looking to take a shot at All American honors this year.

As always thanks to everyone for all of the support.  I couldn't do it without the amazing family and friends I am surrounded by and the great support of my sponsors.  THANK YOU!

Here are some pictures from Camp:

 Mike Durner (The US Paracycling Team Coach) and myself

 Bike Skills Clinic out in a huge park

 Logan, Scott, Jess, and myself at lunch

 Carloline thought I was modeling and snapped a photo ;)

 Practicing swim starts.  We swam all weekend at Austin Pure Quarry, and it was awesome!

 Austin Veolway for some loops

 Jess and myself before my near death experience on the Austin Veloway, those corners can sneak up on you there.

A picture from last weekend, not at camp just out on a training ride.  #WEARTHEEAGLE #ITSOURTURN #DRINKFRS ;)

Hongseong OLY Tri

3 June-

The first triathlon of the season popped up on the calendar by surprise.  5 short weeks after the Tour de Korea I was getting ready to get back after it.  I hadn't really let up since the Tour de Korea, I took the first weekend off after the race and then have been racing every weekend since.  I made the switch back to my triathlon coach, with the hopes of getting selected to the Air Force team, which did happen.  Like I have mentioned before Scott (my tri coach) doesn't like me racing all the time, but I just happen to love racing.  We have an agreement that I don't get to rest/taper into these races so I just train through them.  It keeps the training consistent and since I am not targeting these past races it is all fine by me.  I got up early on Saturday and got out for a long ride and then headed down to Hongseong with my buddy Robbie, who was also racing on Sunday.  In Korea you have to show up the day prior to pick up your race packet and get your bike checked.

Once getting the registration sorted out we headed to the transition area and I got in the water for a short 30 minute easy swim.  The water was quite warm and I was happy about that.  It was going to be a 2 lap swim, but unfortunately they didn't have the course marked yet.  I just got out there and got use to swimming in the wetsuit again.  After that we managed to go find a hotel, it ended up being about 1.5K from the race start, so it made it nice for the morning of the race to just wake up and ride over.  The next task became quite difficult.  Dinner.............Being out on the coast in a coastal town we couldn't find anything other than seafood.  I mean I am all about trying new things, but when it comes to the night before a race, not the best idea.  We drove around for a bit until we found a meat restaurant that had some chicken soup thing and then we think we were served duck meat, but it might of been pork, or possibly dog, who knows either way it was decent and filling.

I ended up getting to bed quite early and was asleep by 9, which was probably the earliest I have been asleep in a while.  I was up by 0530, which kind of sucked as race start wasn't until 9.  I slowly got up and got breakfast and headed out to the shoreline to just enjoy the morning and eat.  After that I just went and lounged around the hotel until about 7 before heading to the race start.

Breakfast- (I forgot to get my go to meal of Instant Oatmeal)
3 hours before race
1- Honey Stinger 20g Protein Bar
1- FRS 20g Protein Shake
1- Chocolate Muffin
1- Pastry

1 hour before race
1- FRS Can
3- FRS Soft Chews

30mins before race
1- Honey Stinger Gel w/ Caffeine

Swim- 24:01

The swim has never been my strong suit, however it seems the races here in Korea  there are not a lot of strong swimmers.  We started in waves, and we had a pretty small wave with Male 18-34.  We started 2mins after the Pro Males and 1 minute after the Pro Females.  It was 2 loops, but you never had to exit the water.  I started on the outside as the rope kind of swung out and formed a C instead of a straight line.  So the shortest route to the first buoy was to start from the outside.  I went out pretty hard for the first 200m and found myself side by side with another swimmer.  About another 100m I found myself solo out front.  I just tried to keep my pace and slowly started building up a lead.  After the first lap I looked back and had a pretty solid lead and just focused on swimming the second lap strong.  I ended up coming out of the water first for the amateurs and then had a long T1, about a 300-400m run.

 

Probably one of the few times you will ever see me leading a swim by that much, or I should say at all!

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T1-
Ahhh the dreaded wetsuit stripping, didn't use any body glide or lotion so it took me a bit to get it off.  After trying to stand on the leg with one foot and pull up with the other and it didn't work I just went it to turtle mode and flipped on my back.  Sooner than later it was off and I was running out of T1 with my bike.

Bike- 57:50 (not including T1/T2) 1:00:33 Including T1/T2

Well I wanted to make sure the off season cycling focus didn't go to waste.  Luckily the pros were out in front so I had something to chase.  I slowly started picking off a few of the girls on the first loop and then a few of the guys on the second loop.  It was a 2 loop course with a small hill right out of transition, which you only hit once due to the turn around being down the road a little ways.  Then right before the far turn around there was another gradual uphill that was about 400m long.  Other than that it was a slight tailwind out and slight headwind back, with 4 180 degree turns.  It made for a pretty fast course.  The Pro's were ITU draft legal and they combined our T1 time with our bike time so not sure exactly how my "bike" time measured up to theirs, but below is the Top 10 splits.

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Run- 38:01 for 10K, but unfortunately the run was 7 miles.......so 43:16

The one area I was concerned about 5 weeks ago when I came back to the tri training.  I had been running once to twice a week during the cycling focus, but my last race was Kona and I left there with a solid run.  I was concerned I was going to have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was.  Well the last 5 weeks went really well and I came back in my opinion stronger than when I left Kona.  I am not sure exactly what it was but these 5 weeks I have been running really well.  Scott has me hitting some great workouts and they are working wonders.

I came off the bike still in the lead and luckily I had some pros to chase down.  I figured since there was no amateurs ahead of me I would just focus on the pros and see what I could do.  The run course was 4 laps, so I was able to see how big of a lead I had off the bike.  Well when it came down to it I had almost a full lap.  I think I ended up lapping all but 1 guy by the end of the run, and I managed to run my way into the pro field.  I was very happy with my run and am anxious to build on this performance and hopefully put down a solid run at Pt Mugu.

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Overall I am very happy with how the first race of the season went, disappointed the run course wasn't accurate, but that is out of my control.  I look forward to building off of this race and seeing how things go in Pt Mugu at Armed Forces.

Official Times based on Timing Chip (T1/T2 included in Bike Split)
Swim- 24:01
Bike- 1:00:33- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/rides/9992618
Run- 43:16- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/runs/9992919
Overall- 2:07:49

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Below are some photos from the race: