Boulder you got good stuff.

Well my first week in Boulder is in the books.

So far training is going well. I have been busy soaking it all in, the sights, the sounds, the grasshoppers.

I decided to cough up the dough for privileges at the Flatirons athletic club, mainly because pool hours basically become a non-issue. There are some solid swim groups at the Flatirons as well and getting to jump into one of those every once in a while is good. Good for a solid thrashing.

Running here has been "an experience" but one I have enjoyed, for the most part. Elevation can be a tricky nut to crack, and I have felt it's wrath this week. Tempo runs have been, well, less than tempo and I had to check a couple times to make sure my new heart rate strap was working properly. Numbers that high are something I am not entirely accustomed to.

While the above described activities have, on the whole, gone well, things on the cycling front have been stellar. Riding here, elevation notwithstanding, has been fantastic. Some incredible views, challenging climbs and great weather have combined to make for quite the cycling experience. I have actually found myself reminiscing on the scenes of Lake Placid. With towering mountains, lakes, and rushing rivers round nearly every corner, one can easily see the similarity between the two. The two are equally beautiful. Boulder however, in my humble opinion gets the nod due to the variety of routes, the climbs and the quality of the roads. The only detractor may be the aforementioned grasshoppers and the colonies of which we encounter out here. Its a brutal scene at times.

All in all, Boulder is proving to be a spectacular place. Even if its only been a week.

Past, Present, and Future

In all the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks I haven't gotten around to updating this here Blog for a bit. So here is a little run down on the Past, Present and Future.

The Past: Following Lake Placid I took a trip down Connecticut way to visit my friends Tommy and Katie in their new digs. I had never been to Connecticut before, and was impressed with Stamford and the surrounding area. One day was too short of a trip, but I am hoping to get back this winter.

I had been in Lake Placid since July 3rd, and before that, had spent the previous 7.5 weeks between Hawaii and Utah. In reality, I had been home for about 36hrs since January 9th, so to finally be heading home felt a little strange and more than a little exciting. In all I got to spend 10 days at home, visiting with friends and family I had missed dearly. The highlights of my trip included getting to spend time with my 93yr old grandma, my parents, brother, friends, and attending the wedding of a long time dear friend. 2 days after said wedding I was back on the road. 

Which brings me to the present: 
I am writing this from a couch in Boulder, Colorado after having spent 3 days in Salida, Colorado with my good friend Maiki. I have been in Boulder for 4 days as of this posting, and have to admit, this place is pretty awesome. Boulder takes some heat in the triathlon world as it has become "Triathlon Mecca" or "Tri-Geek Central" but after just a few short days I can see why so many people like it, and why so many of the top professionals in our sport train here. Plain and simple, the place has a great deal to offer when it comes to training for triathlon, and very few mitigating factors.

I am knocking on wood as I write this, but I haven't found the adjustment to altitude to be all so terrible as of yet. While I'd like to think that is due to my outstanding physiological capacities, I am sure it has much more to do with the training plan my coach has built. So far, so good.

Finally, the Future:
I plan on staying in Boulder for the next several weeks and am fortunate that friend and fellow Specialized and Zoot athlete, Ben Hoffman is allowing me to crash at his place at the mere cost of $2,000.00 a month, and all laundry, cooking, dish, car and S-Works Ruckus washing duties. A steal if you ask me ;-)

On the racing front, I will be putting in a good block here before I head on down to Branson, Missouri on September 18th for a 70.3 that I hear is top notch. I wanted to race Rev3 Cedar Pt. and was fired up all season to do so, but with my race at, and recovery from Lake Placid not going as desired, it was just too much too soon.

However, occupying the biggest and most (only?) important news of this post, I am happy to say that I accepted a slot to race the Ironman World Championships and thus will be heading back to the Big Island and the town of Kona for a second time this season. I am stoked and humbled to have qualified, albeit due to roll downs under the new Kona Points Rankings system, and cannot wait to be floating in the harbor waiting for the cannon to fire and racing as a professional triathlete on the most hallowed of triathlon grounds. If you had asked me 5 years ago if there was even a glimmer of hope that such circumstances could arise, I would not have hesitated even a fraction of a second in saying "NO!" I have had heard some friends and my former coach describe the feeling of starting and racing in Kona as a pro, and I am thrilled and honored to get the opportunity to experience the same myself come October 8th.  GAME ON!!

Riding Downhill - Race Report, IM Lake Placid

Last year some of you may recall that I raced Ironman Lake Placid and had a decent day until about mile 21 of the run when I lost 5th place and proceeded to get passed by 2 more guys in the 24th & 25th miles.

Soon after the race I mentally put IMLP on my schedule for this year, intent on doing much better.

Yesterday the cannon went off and it seemed that I was on the right track. But soon, things went down hill, rather abruptly. Despite some serious doubts and mental battles, I rode it out in the hopes of learning from the experience and coming out better for it. The following is my report on that downhill ride.

Swim: The water was 77f so we were without wetsuits. I haven't swam in a wetsuit yet this year, and after training in St. George and my swimming in a suit feeling strong, I was looking forward to rocking my new Zoot Prophet for the 1st time this year. That was not to be, but I wasn't really bothered by it as I was very concerned about overheating if somehow they had found a 76.0f spot. 

The cannon went off and I had a good start and was swimming after about 200m finally lost the feet of TJ Tollakson and Luke Bell. From there I was swimming next to Specialized and Zoot teammate Ben Hoffman. I swam next to Ben until the 2nd turn buoy when I hitched a ride on his feet back to the beach. Onto lap 2, I stayed on Ben's feet for the first few hundred meters then in a bit of spontaneous teamwork, I took the lead and pulled for the remainder of the swim. After fighting through some of the age groupers (sorry to those I swam over) I got out and was pleased to see 52:xx on the clock. Official time after crossing the mat was 53:06.  I was happy with this, felt great, and thought my day was looking good.

Bike:
Getting on the bike I felt good and Ben was just a bit in front of me. On the first climb I got out of the saddle and my rear brake started rubbing, and rubbing bad.  I was pushing ~340w and barely moving. I stopped, tried to adjust it, got back on, rode with it rubbing for a while, stopped again to adjust... repeat that 3x. The final time I even managed to fall. My brake was rubbing so bad that as soon as I quit pedaling I stopped dead in my tracks and wasn't able to unclip fast enough. Fun times. I was passed by a few guys and was pissed to lose Ben, and give up spots when my legs felt good and I had swam so well. I finally managed to fix my brake and was able to ride on my watts for the rest of the 1st lap, regain the spots I dropped and only be passed by a charging Eduardo Sturla.

I began the 2nd lap feeling good but quite suddenly, that changed. I began feeling very flat. I pounded down some extra nutrition and tried to rally, but the body was not responding. In the past I have put a 12oz Red Bull in my special needs bag. But with my friend missing his bag here last year, and me missing mine at IM AZ I decided not to rely on special needs this race and skipped the Red Bull. Not sure if this was a good call in hindsight. From there on out, I went into damage control mode and just tried to ride as steady and strong as I could. I was hoping to ride 2:50 or below and after a 2:25 1st lap, I was on pace to do so. So I was obviously bummed with a 5:04 bike split. No excuses, I just fell apart and didn't cut the mustard.

Run:
With how terrible I felt the last 2hours of the ride, I was actually concerned that my legs were just not going to hold out for the run. Thoughts of my 1st DNF began to enter my mind. I just figured I would go until my legs just quit. I went out and tried to down as much fuel as I could before having to climb back into town. The 1st lap was pretty much a struggle every step of the way. Not Fun. But I put faith in the power of the Red Bull waiting for me at Special Needs and just endeavored to make it there as fast as possible. I was cramping a fair bit on the uphills and again, hindsight being 20/20 salts may have been a good idea.

After the Red Bull I got a bit of a second wind and just tried to focus on the next aid station, and staying up on nutrition. At the bottom turn around, I saw I had about a minute on 7th place. After getting caught in the final few miles, I was determined not to let it happen again. Given that I was in the money I didn't really want to give it up, but I made the decision to go for broke. If I fell on my face and DNFed I figured I would feel better bout that than I would if I played it safe, gave up a spot in the final miles and made a small amount of money. So I went for it. Coming in the last mile, I was in a bad way, but made I made it and held my spot. I had a goal of running sub 3, obviously 3:10 is a far cry and again, no excuse, I just failed to perform.

I have never felt as bad after a race as I did yesterday. A big thanks to the medical team for helping me out.

Also a Big thanks to my sponsors. As always, I had the best equipment and support I could ever ask for from Zoot, Specialized, Reynolds Wheels, TriSports.com, Palos Verdes Bicycle Center, and PowerBar. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in my lack luster performance can be blamed on my equipment or fuel. I had the best possible equipment to carry me to my goal, just lacked the motor.

Also a HUGE thanks for the humbling support from one of my long time best friends and his beautiful fiance, Tommy n Katie for making the long trek from Connecticut to watch me race.

Long Time...

I know. I have been slacking on blog updates. Big. Time.  I am sure I have disappointed you greatly (*sarcasm).

Quite simply, after racing Honu, the quick-bang travel home and then hours later to St. George, and the immediate jump into camp put me behind the 8 ball. Before I knew it, I was too far behind.

So here is a quick recap:

I raced Honu 70.3 and while it wasn't a great race for me, quite similar to Florida 70.3 in fact, poor swim, lackluster bike, and a run to redeem myself.  I finished in 4th, making up 2 spots late in the run, but unable to work up to the brothers Lieto. It was a good trip though, and spent some great time with some great people on the Big Island.

The camp in St. George went well. Again, a good amount of hard and consistent work. I was on my own a good bit as my long course prep called for a different workout schedule than most. St. George is a great place, although we got hit with some heat that made running outside after about 10am nearly impossible.  So unfortunately this meant a fair bit of treadmill running, which I hate and really isn't the best preparation for IM Lake Placid. The treadmill was especially difficult to stomach in light of the great trail running St. George has to offer.  Still, I did manage to get in the work and the heat forced me up into the mountains on all my rides so hopefully I benefited from all the climbing. If you are looking for a good place to train, St. George is awesome, but I would say you need to do it in late May to early June. Mid June through August / early September it is just way too hot.

I have been in Lake Placid since the end of the Squad camp on July 3rd. I have an incredible homestay here in Placid and things have been going well. The weather has really been awesome, with rain only coming once during training and it was while I was swimming. I am a huge fan of this area for both what it offers for training, and for pure aesthetic enjoyment.

So it is now Wednesday, 4 days to Go Time! I am excited to get a crack out at the Ironman Distance again. Workouts have been going pretty good, but I have been brutally reminded of just how challenging this course is. With the depth of the field lined up here and the challenge the course will present, its gonna be a tough day. But I am excited to cut my teeth at the distance. Lets go!

Race Report: Florida 70.3

Well the my first race of 2011 is FINALLY in the books.  It was not the race I wanted, but it was the first race, and the "ring rust" has been knocked off.  Here's a short recap of how the day unfolded. 

Swim: We were greeted race morning with lightning, thunder and some pretty heavy rain. When I got to transition, everyone was huddled under any shelter they could find.  There definitely was some question in my mind as to whether we would be swimming.  It was pretty cold with the wind and rain, and since they had told us we wouldn't be allowed to warm up in the water, a warm up run seemed a little pointless as I would then be standing around after and get cold again.  But I did manage a short jog, some strides and skips before heading tot he water. The storm passed as we waited and we started 40 minutes late.  Which from the picture below, you can see was probably a good thing since it was taken right about the original time we were to start. 

 

I used to love beach starts after growing up surfing and doing Jr. Lifeguards, but in the pro ranks, they are not exactly my favorite.  This is particularly so when the water is roughly shin-knee deep for a good 50 meters before you can swim.  Not being the tallest bloke in the world, I wasn't able to get my feet out and over the water like the taller guys were and I fell back a bit from those who would form the front pack chasing Potts and Kahn. 

Unfortunately this left me about 20 meters behind this pack for the majority of the swim. On the home leg however, I did my usual head on run in with a buoy, pushed it to the side and swam on.  A few strokes later I realized some Disney lifeguards on a boat were yelling at me.  I realized they were telling me I had to go back.  Reluctantly, and with a few words to them that they were wrong, I swam back to the buoy and went around it with it on my left shoulder.  To be clear, this was not a turn buoy, it was like the 3rd to last buoy, and I was gaining no advantage by passing it on my right, certainly not after running dead into it.  Almost every race I have been to has said we could swim on either side of the buoys and only had to round the corner buoys on a certain shoulder.  Either way, my 20m gap to the pack was gone, and I swam the rest of the way solo... and pissed.

Bike:  Here is where things went from "not so great" to "pretty pathetic."  Once out on the course I tried to settle into my pace and develop a rhythm to move along, and gain some spots back from my poor swim.  For some reason however, I just couldn't get my legs going for the first 25 miles or so.  I was passed by a few guys and they simply rode away from me.  It pains me to do so, but I will readily admit, that I had a little bit of a mental breakdown and pity party for myself from miles 15-20.  This is probably the thing I am most upset with about my race.  Plain and simple that cannot happen. Mental toughness has always been "there" for me and frankly, I was not "in the race" for those miles.  A huge and unacceptable error on my part.  Finally, when fellow Specialized US Tri Team member Jimmy Archer caught me, I told myself to stick with him if it killed me. It didn't and a few miles later my legs began to come good.  I thought I may be able to salvage a descent ride on the day, but it was too little too late.  I averaged some disgustingly low watts for the ride, actually the lowest I have averaged for any half ironman distance since I began racing and training with power. Not a good day.

Run:  Going into this race only running for half of the last three months, I was unsure how I would be able to manage on the run.  After the Las Cruces camp, I knew I could get through it, I just didn't know how fast, or if it would devolve into an ugly slow jog/walk.  The heat, humidity and the reputation of this being a tough run course with 3 miles of uneven grass running,  I was even less confidant. Surprisingly, the run turned out to be the lone somewhat bright spot on the day.  I was passed early on by Andrew Hodges who I know can run, and I just did my best to keep him as close as possible.  I made my way through the run, feeling strong for most of it and picked up a few spots along the way.

End of Lap 1

Heading out for the 3rd and final lap

 Again however, it was too little too late, and while I picked up one more spot a little after the mile 12 marker, try as I might I couldn't catch the last guy for a top 10 finish.  I brought it home as hard as I could, but he was able to stay a few seconds ahead of me going into the shoots and when I knew it was a lost cause, I relaxed.

 

 I ended up running a mid 1:21, which might not sound that great, but was right there with the bulk of the guys times ahead of me. The fastest runs on the day were by Kriat

So It was not a great day, but on the first race of the season, I understand it is tough to put a blinder together. So I will lick my wounds, get back to work, and focus on the next one, Hawaii 70.3.

A huge THANK YOU to all my sponsors, Zoot, Specialized, Reynolds, TriSports.com, PVBC, PowerBar, and Mikelson & Mikelson, LLP. Without your support, fantastic products, getting my bike tuned and all my gear ready for race day, this would certainly not be possible for me.  A big thank you also goes out to all those who read this blog, follow along on my dream chasing, and offer support and encouragement along the way.  It is greatly humbling and appreciated.

2011

Yesterday I arrived safely and without incident in Orlando, Florida, as did my support crew (a.k.a. Mom).  I got in a quick shake out run with a little thunder, lightning, and rain for company.  It was actually quite nice given the obscenely dry conditions I have been in for the past five months living in the deserts of the American Southwest.  The thick and steamy air instantly reminded me of Kona. Oh, how I miss Kona. But I digress.

Tomorrow morning I finally get to kick off my 2011 season.  Excited, nervous, anxious, uncertain, etc... all the emotions and feelings are pulsing through me right now.  I'll feel better when the canon fires.

Thanks to all of you who have followed along, read this blog, offered advice, suggestions, or just support and encouragement as I battled my achilies injury and the lack of fitness that resulted. It meant a great deal to me.

Cheers,

Ian

3rd Times a charm

The third camp with The Triathlon Squad has come to and end and my main goals for the camp were accomplished successfully. Namely, to make it all the way through camp; a) without injury and b) without missing a workout.  I knew coming off injury that these goals were important to the progression of my season, and also knew that I could not cling to them too tightly and risk falling back into the denial that lead to the aggravation of my achilies injury in the first place.  As much as I wanted to accomplish both (a) & (b) above, I made a deal with myself that if something felt "off," at any point in time, I would immediately let Paulo know about it, and take a break if need be. A "better safe than sorry" approach if you will.

I am happy to report that any resurgence of my achilies injury or the emergence of any other injury never came to pass.  The four weeks in Las Cruces flew by and I got the work, all the work, done.  That is not to say there weren't some "failed" workouts, where the numbers, splits, or paces called for were not hit, but the workouts were "completed" to the best of my ability.

Going into the camp, I knew my most difficult, and also the most important task, was to get my "running legs" back under me.  After a six week break off my feet, this was a primary objective in my mind.  Fortunately, when I first arrived at camp, Paulo confirmed that we were like-minded in this goal.

As far as the running goes, I did get in some good mileage.  Some of the bigger weeks I have logged.  As in the first camp, there were no "crazy" workouts, no epic runs to recount the details of to you here.  Plain and simple it was just a solid four weeks of consistency.  At times I was drained to the point I thought I had nothing left to give.  Then the next workout would come off without a hitch.  The first time this happened I knew my body was responding. That I had reason to trust the method and the consistency thereof.  Just keep plugging along, getting the work done, and not looking towards the next workout, or the one after, but focusing on the now. Concentrating on the task immediately at hand, living in the moment.

If I had to point to only one element of training camp as being the singular aspect that makes them so effective, it would be just that.  A training camp, with a coach present, allows you to simply focus on what is immediately before you.  You need not worry about what is next, when, where or whatever else.  You simply show up, do the work prescribed, go home, eat, sleep and repeat the next day.  You simply trust the coach to handle the logistics of planning the time, location, duration, etc... of each workout.  It might not seem like much, but trust me, not having to concern yourself with, and not having to spend the mental energy thinking about the details and logistics of the next session makes things MUCH easier.

So the third camp is in the books and I am beyond happy to report that it was a complete success.

I am now in Tucson, and thanks to the hospitality of friends Chris and Marilyn Mcdonald, enjoying the first few days of my taper week here on training grounds I know fairly well.   I will fly out of Phoenix on Friday to Orlando Florida where I will finally kick off my 2011 season at Ironman 70.3 Florida on Sunday.  To say I am excited would be a drastic understatement.