Pumpkinman

Pre race lead up:

This past week has been pretty crazy. My homie Jesse Thomas had to drop out of the Island House Triathlon last minute, but since I interned for Picky Bars two summers ago he thought it might be a good experience for me to go down and learn about how the Island House is operated! Just kidding. School this semester has focused heavily on group projects, and I've steadily been using Picky Bars as my company to analyze for the past few years. As the ancient Chinese proverb says - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Interview with Bob!

Pic. from summer 2015 #inbend

I applied that same concept to my training leading into Pumpkinman as well. With a solid amount of fitness built up over the course of the spring and summer, it wasn't really feasible to make any crazy gains in the month following Tempe Tri. I just wanted to back up solid performances at AG Nationals and Tempe with another good race at Pumpkinman. The competition was going to be stiff with CU there, and I knew that it would likely come down to a foot race. My main focus in training was on getting in plenty of volume and varying the intensity across all three sports. I didn't do any epic weeks, my main goal was to just have my training be as consistent as possible. Training in a fatigued state has proved to be very beneficial for me. I tried to keep my volume at the upper end of sustainable, and take easy days only as needed. It's a bold approach, but I found that when hitting a ton of different intensities my body was able to respond and learned to recover quickly.

The week of the race was actually pretty nerve wracking. I was scared that I was over trained, my legs didn't feel awesome by any means. But then I remembered that nobody feels good during rest, so I just accepted that whether or not I felt good during the race my legs would still have what they needed to do in them, vs. not resting enough and feeling good, but having no strength at all. I also want to give a shout out to Nancy Dickinson and Max Jones who live in Boulder City. They let Andrew, Erin and I crash at their couch on Thursday night which saved a lot of stress. We were able to get all workouts done by noon on Friday, which is a major stress reliever for any athlete on the day before a race. My brother Steve was also coaching CSU for the weekend, so we swam together in Lake Mead the day before the race. I'm just glad he didn't wear his Maverick X, because I would have probably gotten dropped really bad. We got some food, relaxed, and welcomed the 30+ members of our team to the Hoover Dam lodge. Erin (former prez) saved the day MULTIPLE times during this past weekend, and I can't thank her enough for everything she's done over the past year that helped this team grow.

Boulder Beach

Race morning we biked down to the site in the dark. It was really, really sketchy, but everyone made it alive. We set up T1 and did our team chant. It was super loud, and the first time I've ever actually gotten pumped up from one of those. It's like there is a switch that happens when you go from having 15 to 30 people on your team. Suddenly everything is louder, cooler, and more purposeful.

Big squad pre race

Swim

I lined up on the right side, just behind Dan Feeney, mentally preparing for the shitstorm that was about to unfold. I figured that I wouldn't have the top end speed to hang with him and Dmitry to start, but might be able to hold on to some feet and get out of the water near the front. I made it to the first buoy towards the front end, before somehow getting kidnapped by a the bremuda triangle. I found myself 50 yards to the right of the buoys (and everyone else in the race), and had no idea how I got there. I tried to get back on track, but it was hard. Thankfully, my Maverick pro did it's job, and I managed to exit the water within 30 seconds of Timmy Winslow and Nick Noone - two key cyclists that I knew I couldn't let get away. We were about 1:40 down on Dmitry and Dan, which meant that there would be some serious chasing.

Bike

I felt pretty crappy initially, but my legs were definitely there. For whatever reason, my front brake would rub every time I went out of the saddle, so I unclipped and stopped to adjust the brake slightly on the hill out of T1. I was just thankful that it didn't rub for the entire rest of the race after that. Thank you based god. Once out on the main road, the watts went up on my main garmin screen and I tried to hold anywhere from 320+ and make up the time as steadily as possible. I caught Dmitry just before the turnaround, and had Dan, Nick, and Timmy about 15 seconds up the road. It took me another 15 minutes before I finally pulled them back in. After legally sitting at the back of the train and watching my watts still drop to like 250, I got mad and decided that I didn't want to play legal drafting games. Being at the front, especially on the hill, would mean that I would get to set whatever pace I wanted, and hopefully drop them.

Throwback pic - no bike pics from race :(

I put in a 4 minute surge, but nobody got dropped. At this point I decided to just ignore the group and go my own pace. I settled in, and tried to keep the power as smooth as possible, even using the little ring occasionally ;). the hill went by pretty quickly, and was spent mostly not in aero. Occasionally I would peak back, hoping that they had popped off the back, but all of them were spaced out cleanly. Even though there were no draft marshals out on the course, I was glad to see that everyone road cleanly here. By the end of the ride we had ridden a lot of time into everyone else. Coming into T2 first is pretty cool, but I almost crashed when trying to dismount and pause my garmin (#strava) at the same time. STRAVA LINK HERE

New stem w/ negative drop ;)

The entire bike leg didn't feel great, but my power didn't fade, I kept on top of my nutrition (2 bottles + gel), and was able to lead for the entire last half after bridging up. The only thing that could make it better would be a great run. I reminded myself to stay calm, and that 99% of run workouts start out feeling like S&%T then progressively get better.

Run

After getting passed by Nick and Timmy in T2, I came out with a 5-10 second lead on Dan. Would that be enough? Within the first mile, he passed me. My gps wasn't working, and I had no idea how fast we were moving. Nick and Timmy were running pretty good, and I felt like I was working harder than I should be at this point, given that the entire back half of the run is a false flat uphill.

When we got to the turnaround, Nick was about 10 seconds up the road, and Dan was ~20. Staying calm was difficult. The whole way down my gps wasn't working, I didn't have any idea how fast we had run it, and I wasn't sure how fast I could run back uphill. My legs didn't feel any worse, so I just went with it and started trying to reel Nick and Dan back in. I caught Nick after a few minutes on a relatively steep hill. At this point, I wanted to stop racing. 2nd to Dan Feeney is a good race, especially with this margin. Teammates in ASU kits (which look FRE$H) saw what was unfolding and began screaming at me to catch him. It was a super unique experience, because this was one of the first times I was actually conscious at this point of a race and had a carrot to chase.

I didn't think I was going to catch Dan until a downhill with about a mile to go, and then I pulled up beside him. Mentally, I was cooked, trying to figure out how I even ended up in this situation. I managed to drop him on the downhill, with Steve at the bottom cheering for me. On the uphill into the finishing chute I tried to sprint because I thought Dan was right behind me but my legs were jello. I checked the time and had just split a 17:10 back from the turnaround, which I was really stoked about. Dan crossed a few seconds later, with Nick and Timmy following shortly thereafter. Dan had an injury that prevented him from doing any running until about three weeks ago, so there is a major **** next to this result. Last year he crushed the course record, running a 32:56 10k in the process... This year he ran a 34:09, so I'm sure that at full run fitness Dan would have crushed me. Nevertheless, a race is a race, and we both raced hard. We all do triathlon to get the most out of our bodies, and competition is one way of doing that. Nick, Dan, Timmy, and everyone else on the course really motivated me to get the most out of these few hours, and that means more to me than any result.

Tired.

After the race, I ran around, cheering on teammates, hung out with Steve, and took some gopro pictures. It was very satisfying to have a solid year of training result in a great swim bike run performance. I owe massive thanks to:

My family: They put up with me, and have been very supportive of me when it comes to sports. This doesn't mean that they buy any of my equipment or fund everything I do, but it does mean that they are willing to listen when I'm frustrated with something and suggest ideas. Steve has been an important training partner, and getting that Estes Park 1-2 on Strava means more to me than any race result. He works really hard, and has shown me that if you can find out what works well for you, and it's sustainable, you'll get better at sports.

ASU Triathlon: Even though I only talk about sports, having people who care about other things in their life is crucial, and helps put everything into perspective. It's going to be amazing to watch the team grow even more over these next few years!
Team sponsors: TriScottsdale, One Multisport, Yoga Nirvana, Trainerroad, DK, Roka, Rudy, Kind Snacks

The NoCo tri community: I'm looking forward to ripping it around FoCo with you guys again soon!

Rocky Mtn. Multisport: Patrick is the man! you don't need a superbike with ceramic speed to go fast. Just get a Cervelo P2, a wahoo kickr, and you're good to go.

Nancy and Max: Congrats on your engagement! Thank you guys so much for letting me crash at your house. Running the hills on the course before the race really made a difference on race day, and I hope that Luke is feeling better.

Everyone who has coached me this year: Mace, Eric, JT, Tess, Danny, and Malcolm - I question everything you guys make us do because I care. Having your support as mentors makes a big difference and I am a firm believer that it's our consistent, smart training and racing over time that resulted in some great improvements across the board. There is certainly tons of room for improvement and I'm excited to see what we can make progress on in years to come.

What's next:

After the Island house tri this weekend (again, just kidding), I'm going to take some time to chill out. This part of the year is pretty school dense, and it's not important for me to be in amazing shape. That doesn't mean i'll be getting slurpees from 7-11 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and neglecting all types of exercise, but I will not be posting on strava, using a garmin, or pace clock for a while.

After graduation, I have several options living options: The first being living in a friend's living room (for sure could be fun), the second would be finding a roommate here in AZ to let me pay rent, and the third would be to move into Steve's house in Fort Collins with a bunch of other tri geeks. I'm planning on racing Havasu and Collegiate Nationals in April no matter what (I took 12 credits this semester literally just for this reason). Hopefully I've managed to earn a wave 1 spot for this year... My plan for the next few years is to continue focusing on the olympic distance. I have a lot of room for improvement in my swim, bike, and run (and transitions), and will looking to just keep getting better next year!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers

peace out girlscout

Tempe Tri

Last weekend was our first Collegiate Conference race of the 2016-17 season! We were lucky enough to host it in our own, recently cleaned, backyard pool (Tempe Town Lake). Over the past two years our team here at ASU has really grown. I think we had 25+ athletes racing, and we easily outnumbered every other collegiate team there!

After a rough night of sleep, (for some reason my upstairs neighbor thinks 3 am is a great time to walk around and slam doors) I made sure to drink some coffee. We rolled down to the Lake and got situated. We made sure to take tons of pictures, and our Coach Danny was on his mountain bike getting ready to give encouragement out on the course.

When bae asks how much coffee you've had this morning

I saw a few familiar faces and bikes in transition that I would need to look out for. The first was Paul Stevenson’s, who is an ASU alumni and one of the most solid cyclists in triathlon. Another other was Pedro Gomes, who is a local pro. He had a tough race in Santa Cruz the previous weekend where he flatted on a tubular and had to get a wheel change, losing significant time, so I knew he’d be gunning for us. A third player was going to be Josh Fowler from U of A. Last year at Havasu he ran me down even though I had a three minute lead coming off the bike on him. The dude is an absolute animal on the run. Some other people I was looking out for were Collin Reisenauer and Conrad Sanders, both TriCats that I know have been working hard all summer.

Conrad photobombing

Swim:

I lined up on the far right side, opting to stay close to the wall on the way out in search of clear water. We were going to be swimming directly into the sun, and I knew that seeing the buoys on the way out was going to be nearly impossible even with goggles that are more tinted than a cholo’s car. It was a non wetsuit swim, which made me both happy and sad: Happy because I could wear my ROKA swimskin, sad because I couldn’t wear my maverick. I wonder what would happen if I wore my swimskin under my wetsuit at pumpkinman… Would it be twice as fast?

since we're talking about cars...

Anyways, with Paul, Pedro, and a teammate Douglas, all relatively strong swimmers, all within arms reach, I felt confident that I was in the rgiht place at the start. We took it out, and within a few hundred yards I had taken the lead of a pack that was chasing two. One was Pedro, and the other was from Air Force. I could see Paul and Douglas still with me up until the turnaround buoy, and then I took a backstroke and noticed I had a small but promising gap. I kept pushing, and felt that it was going to get a bit wavy on the way back in. I flailed my arms as fast as I could, and made it back to land (whew) in 3rd, about 45 seconds down from the leaders and 30ish up on the rest of the group. I smiled entering T1, and there was tons of crowd support lining the swim out.

Bike

Having space to myself when starting the bike portion was an ideal situation for me. I don’t like feeling the pressure of others while flying mounting or putting my shoes on. The quarter mile of the bike is usually “me time” where I get settled and let my legs build into the effort. I tried to stay relaxed, and reeled in the Air Force athlete within a few minutes. From there it was head down, trying to not kill myself on any of the 16 (yes, 16) turns each lap. It’s no secret that I’m not a very strong technical rider, and I knew that Paul/probably everyone on the course that doesn’t turn like a grandma would be making time up to me on every turn (especially the U turns… I am working on those). I could see Pedro off in the distance about 45 seconds up still, and it took everything i had to not try to sprint up to him. He would end up out biking me by well over a minute, so it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t chase → blow up trying.

Paul went by me about 25 minutes in, and I already knew he would try to get rid of me immediately. In some ways, I wish I had tried harder to stay with him, but at the same time I knew I had a good run up my sleeve, and he was not biking at a pace that would be sustainable for me. I checked my average speed to make sure I wasn’t getting dunked on too hard, and was by no means sandbagging it, which was slightly reassuring. Towards the end of the bike leg I was nearly involved in a crash when somehow a vehicle ended up in the “closed” bike course and blocked the entire lane. After an agonizing 3-5 seconds (felt like 30-50 minutes), the car moved, and I was on my way. I tried to keep myself in check and focus on the run ahead, but in the back of my mind I was very frustrated with that. If someone had been staring at their bike computer they could have easily ran head on into this person. The Tempe course is already sketchy enough, with 3 U turns each lap, the last thing we need is an SUV stopped in the middle of the road mixed in. I came into transition with two full bottles of SKRATCH in my system and about 80 seconds down on Paul. Also, huge shoutout to Matt Skelton for letting me borrow his race wheels. They were #dirtyfast.

Run:

I threw on my sweet, blacked out OnClouds, grabbed my gel flask, (which was actually just filled with water so I didn’t have to get cups at aid stations) watch, and hat on my way out of T2. After hearing a split of about 1:20 down, I got to work. The first steps felt meh, and I just did my best to keep my feet moving quickly and stay under control as opposed to sprinting too hard. This course got the best of me last year, and I really did not want to end up needing medical attention again. I began to build the pace a few minutes in, and tried to focus on keeping my head down and a high turnover. By 2 miles in I took a split for myself and I had already made up 50 seconds to Paul. My legs wanted to go really fast, but I told myself to save it for the back half in case I see Josh coming or still have to chase down Paul. knew at this point I would most likely catch him unless he threw down some crazy negative split. We linked up just after the 5k point, and I was still feeling pretty good. I let my legs do what they wanted to do on the back half. It hurt, a lot, but at the same time I still felt in control, and was nowhere near the bonk point. I still had my lead on Josh, and was debating cruising the last mile in, but instead decided that the mental factor of finishing strong mattered more to me, especially after practically walking over the bridge last year.

Beginning lap 2

Heading in the finish

Overall, I had a great time being up early and exercising with ~1000 of my best friends on a beautiful Sunday morning in Tempe. The number of ASU kits out on the course was really cool, and everyone seemed to enjoy it ;) Watching the team grow steadily over the past two years has been incredible, and we actually have people showing up to practice every day and they are excited to be there. There were tons of first times out on the course, and lots of our new returning members raced their first olympic, qualifying them for collegiate nationals!

Thanks to Danny and Malcolm for taking on coaching a bunch of college kids. Having you guys as mentors really helps a lot, we value your experience and appreciate you spectating our exercise parties on a daily basis.

Everyone who bought an asu triathlon shirt! We <3 U

Steve from SteveBay - tons of good ideas, looking forward to growing our community with you!

My family - for non-financially supporting my ridiculous habits :)

Matt Skelton - for the #dirtyfast race wheels, and Bryan for your love of driving

Everyone I tutor - for dealing with me when I’m super tired. Just discovered that there’s a coffee machine in the lounge, so I’ll be wired from now on.

The ASU tri team (And especially our prez Julia bc she makes it all happen) - for making triathlon fun and being the “most chill” team out there.

Next up is Pumpkinman in Las Vegas! I know that the boys from Colorado will bring their “A” game, and I’m looking forward to throwing down with some of those mountain goats. I’m also looking forward to enjoying Vegas as a 21 year old and halloweekend at ASU as a 21 year old as well!

Age Group Nationals

This past weekend I raced age group nationals in Omaha, Nebraska. One of my goals for the 2016 season has been to do well in races with competitive fields, and after DNFing at collegiate nationals, I really wanted to do well at another national championship race. Training leading into the race had been going well given that I was #funemployed for the summer and had all day, every day, to do as I pleased J

A few weeks before AG nationals, I decided to hop into a local race (TriBoulder) and managed to scratch my cornea during the swim portion which caused me to go blind in my right eye. Three miles into the bike I went over the handlebars as a result of hitting a sign in the bike lane that I didn’t see. Another not-so-pretty DNF, but at the same time I was just glad to have my collarbone and brain in tact so I could jump on the horse and start training again!

just a few of the ASU Tri people!

The plan for Omaha was to stay at my friend Julia’s house (also the ASU team president). We arrived on Thursday afternoon, where I went for a quick run with Andrew (teammate who also raced) before chilling out the rest of the evening. I can’t thank the Jankuski’s enough for letting us stay at their home! It was an amazing house and they were very accommodating to our weird habits/bikes.

After a short bike course preview that resulted in getting lost several times and a quick jump in the hot tub lake Andrew and I headed back to the house to put our feet up.

When people on a boat start yelling at you that swim practice is over...

We ended up getting a pretty sweet tour of West Omaha, which is actually quite beautiful compared to the area near the race site that looked like a gang war zone… Random comment, but not being around only triathletes for the weekend can make racing much less stressful. People who aren’t racing tend to be much more relaxed, and if they have dogs that’s a nice bonus! We closed out Friday by watching the movie Warrior – which is pretty epic. I may or may not have been crying by the end.

If this movie doesn't make you want to race then I can't help you.

Swim:

The swim was a counter-clockwise, non-wetsuit swim. My two least favorite things in the entire world; I only know how to breath to my left side, and wasn’t born with webbed feet/hands/good body positioning. I played it safe and started off on the right side so that I could clearly see everyone and avoid getting chewed up and spit out by the people who had been swimming since birth. I didn’t drown, or get my cornea scratched, or make the front pack. Overall it was pretty uneventful, other than watching someone else mixing in some IM, which was pretty entertaining. I felt pretty good, but there were still many more people ahead of me and it was pretty humbling to get out of the water about 2:30 down from the leaders (and some more were ahead of them), but I was next to Dan Meehan, national champion Mike Meehan’s younger brother! I followed that up with the slowest transition out of anyone in the top 10 J.

 

Bike:

For the bike I was borrowing Tori’s race wheels – a disc/trispoke tubular combo. I was a bit nervous about flatting on tubulars, but at the same time I knew that these wheels wouldn’t lose me any time, and that gave me confidence that I didn’t need to change my effort for a lack of aerodynamics/equipment disadvantages.

check the tri spoke ;)  

My main focus for the first half of the bike was to stay conservative, aero, keep a high cadence, and drink a full bottle. It was really hard to not smash the first 20k, but I knew that it would pay off on the run, and I’d probably only bike about 30-40 seconds faster if I did that. After passing a few trains within the first 10-15 minutes I let myself settle in, and tried to not kill myself going up the (one) hill on the bike course.  A lot of people from earlier age groups were pedaling at 50 rpms, swerving all over. This was my first time ever using the little ring during a triathlon! On the descent I tried to increase my gap, stayed in aero, and spun as fast as I could in order to carry as much momentum into the upcoming flat section as possible. One major advantages of a disc wheel is once you’re going fast, you keep going fast for a very long time.

The chase starting the bike

At the turnaround I spotted Jack Toland about a minute up the road from me. He wasn’t crushing me too hard on the bike, which gave me another confidence boost. He ended up throwing down the second fastest bike split of the day. After the turnaround I assessed the damage I had done to those behind me and they were closer than I would have liked. I reminded myself to switch bottles out, and began my second bottle. In previous races I’ve gotten dehydrated and ended up not being able to run as fast as I would like. I kept the power nice and steady, and just focused on being in control and in aero. Sure, I could have pushed it a bit harder, but at the same time I knew I was going fast and was confident that I would still throw down a pretty fast split if I just stayed aero and steady as opposed to spiking all over and killing myself. The run was going to be hot and burning all my matches on the bike wasn’t a card I was interested in playing. This is the first time I’ve ever actually felt strong all the way until the end of the bike, and I credit that to smart pacing and actually taking in liquids. I reeled in a few more guys and came off the bike somewhere in the top 10.

AG Nationals power file

Havasu power file

Collegiate Nationals power file

Run:

Onto the run the focus was to maintain a high turnover and negative split. Almost immediately I was passed by Spencer Ralston and Justin Keefe. I maintained the gap to Ralston for the first mile or so before closing in and making the pass, but Keefe was seriously moving. When he went by I got really scared… it looked like he was running a 1 mile time trial. I kept it steady, and decided to race my own race. Before the race I decided to fill a gel flask with skratch and drink it on the run instead of getting water from aid stations. It was pretty humid out, but I seemed to be cracking/trying a lot less than everyone else ahead of me.

didn't die

At mile 2 I felt the urge to go faster, but kept myself in check. There were some cheerleaders near the run turnaround, and tons of people lining the course. Everyone was cheering and at this point I still was conscious, which made me happy! We ran a lap inside the college world series baseball stadium before turning around and heading back to Carter Lake. At mile 4, where I usually blow up completely/pass out/black out, I still felt good, and decided to push it a bit more. I reeled Keefe back in, and kept moving. The last mile was spent convincing myself that everyone ahead of me was in my age group in order to keep moving fast, and singing the new Katy Perry song. This is the first time where I’ve felt like I wasn’t going to collapse at the end, and it felt pretty satisfying to finish without obviously needing medical attention.

thanks for telling me my hat was crooked guys...

After the race I was informed that I was in 4^th in the 20-24 age group. I was pretty disappointed to hear that, until I found out that it was good enough for 8^th overall. Our AG was stacked, and at the end of the day, I was only about 3 minutes behind the overall winner. I opted to skip the awards ceremony because the Jankuski’s were making us a Steak Dinner, and I’d rather not spend an hour driving to and from downtown Omaha just to stand on a stage for 30 seconds and receive a medal. The Jankuski’s were nice enough to host us and feed us and let us eat all the banana bread/cookies, so I’m glad I spent it hanging out with them instead. We took a tour of west Omaha houses again, which are seriously amazing, got froyo at Orange Leaf, and watched another movie.

The race went as well as I could have asked for it to go! I can’t thank everyone who has supported and trained with me this whole summer, the #funemployed life in Fort Collins has been epic.

Thanks to:

FAST Masters – letting me jump in and giving us a discounts for being triathletes. Some seriously good swim practices and a lot of fun!

MP Multisport – Mace, JT, Tess, Frosty – Great workouts and great people! These guys know how to blend training and fun! NoCo Endurance center is going to be a hit come this winter.

Patrick/Rocky Mountain Multisport – best bike mechanic out there by a longshot! Really appreciate everything you do for us!

Green Events – Giving me something to do every Wednesday night! Awesome events, and good practice getting my butt kicked by 14 year olds who can swim really fast.

Training partners – Steve, Rachael, Andrew Brossiere, Andrew Truswell Erik Peterson, Erik Nau, Keith Jackson, Tori, Conrad, and the rest of the CSU team/TNT crew – thanks for pushing me every practice and dropping the hammer when necessary. The main difference between this summer and last summer was you guys. Having training partners was so much fun, and I learned so much from all of you, especially how to take cool GoPro pics ;)

The Jankuski’s – letting Andrew and I stay at your house was super nice, and we really appreciate it. The banana bread was amazing (and so was the baked ziti, steak, snacks, dogs, ect.)

My parents - Your support is amazing, and I appreciate everything you guys do (like help fix the air conditioning in my apartment, harassing me to get a real job, ect.)

Boulder 70.3 - All Streaks Must Come to an End

Triathletes all know that ending up in the med tent means you pushed yourself a little bit, way too hard. Every race for the past year, I have gotten dehydrated, and ending up laying in some sort of mini hospital while doctors try to figure out what is going on with my body. I've puked, passed out, and everything between during races. Turns out, triathlon isn't about killing yourself as fast as you possibly can when the gun goes off...

Riding with Erik Nau and Rachael #instagramfamous Norfleet

One of my goals for 2016 is to be competitive in races where there are a lot of fast people. Boulder 70.3 seemed like a good place to start after blowing up at Collegiate Nationals. Leading up to the race, longer bikes/runs were becoming a part of my regular routine, and I felt confident that I would be able to push through the first half of the run. During a half, the last 10k is pretty much up to how well you hydrated and ate.

We did very little "race specific" training, and a lot of hills. #Fitness was the main focus. It was tiring, and the first 30 minutes of most sessions were spent waking up and feeling sorry for my legs. Eventually, they would come around and get moving. Having a lot of training partners in addition to Steve has been a great change from last Summer. 99% of my training in Bend was done alone. It's much more enjoyable to train with other people.

Rist...

New bike is awesome :)

After a hard hill run w/ Steve

Estes Park is always fun

After a swim/sauna at the rec in the morning, we headed to Boulder for a quick ride with Conrad and Scott (U of A TriCats), before checking in my new bike and headed back to Erik Nau's house. Erik is a friend of ours who let us stay with him the night before the race. He was very hospitable and was so laid back you wouldn't have known he was racing if it weren't for his disc wheel and tri-spoke set up on his bike.

not peeing.

Race day:

We got a ride over to the race site pretty early to avoid the traffic. My transition area was right next to a Dimond, so I figured it'd be pretty easy to find my bike coming out of the water. After dropping bags off with my parents and hitting up the porta-potties, it was go-time.




Swim: I ran into Paul Stevenson, a former ASU teammate who now races for Team EMJ just before the swim start and we wished each other luck. I started out on the far left, hoping to avoid some of the chaos. After sprinting the first hundred or so, I couldn't see any other pink caps. Either I had gotten dropped really really hard (which has totally happened before) or I was in the lead, which has never happened before. Several times during the swim, I felt tired and wanted to stop but then I would realize that I would still had to swim back to the shore, and that I was already halfway done. I honestly felt like my heart was going to explode more than 5 times. Out of the water I asked if I was ahead of Paul (an extremely strong cyclist) but wasn't really able to get any sort of split or lead time. Since this isn't a pro race, and my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my wetsuit, I majorly chilled in transition.

Just thankful that part of the race is done

Bike: On the bike my legs felt good (for about 10 minutes), so I started to push. The Cervelo P2 was #dirtyfast. I can't thank Patrick at Rocky Mountain Multisport enough for getting it ready to go in less than 2 weeks! After a few minutes, I was able to calm myself down and keep the effort under control. I didn't have any specific target heart rate, power number, or anything to target. My goal was to just race by feel, stay conservative early, then if I felt good on the second half I would pick it up. Hydration has been a major issue in the past. The forecast was in the upper 80s at the time I would be running, so I made sure to stay topped off. For the most part, I kept myself under control for the whole ride. I was still racing, but knew that my body was probably working harder than it felt. Focusing on nutrition and hydration was key, so I let my body go however hard it felt like going.

"I only do it for the bike sick pics" - Julia Jankuski

Giving Mark Bowstead a tow - Just kidding

My legs felt worse at mile 10 than they did at mile 50, so I pushed the final few miles into transition. The bike course was awesome. I went through 4 water bottles (one of them for cooling purposes) and a few packs of Clif Bloks. Rolling up the hill into transition, I finished up a water bottle and took in a few extra bloks. Somehow my shoe went flying off backwards before the dismount line, but a quick thinking volunteer grabbed it and threw it to me... Clutch. T2 was spent pounding the rest of my water and taking my sweet time, because I knew I had a hot run ahead of me...

I started the run with a few female pros and just tried to stay in control of my breathing and have good form . I kept looking down and seeing a pace that was a little too fast to be sustainable and slowed down a bit. I told myself to settle in by the first aid station. During long runs, I tested out running with a bottle in hand and holding a gel flask. As someone who sucks at drinking out of cups on the run course and hates slowing down at aid stations, this turned out to be a great idea. Being able to drink whenever I wanted was great. The gel flask worked great and tasted terrible. Every aid station consisted of a pace check to make sure I wasn't going too fast (for the first lap), 2 cups of ice down my top, and a few cubes in my mouth. I would take the cubes, suck on them for a bit, then move them to both of my hands. Around mile 3, Steve came strolling up by me. He was looking solid, and I knew he could see Mark Bowstead up the road in 7th place. We ran up a hill together before he went on his way. About 10 seconds later, another pro came rolling by, absolutely crushing the run. He ended up catching Steve, and putting him in 9th, just out of the money :(. Steve had a great race, though, and most importantly, didn't implode like he has in previous years. Seeing some legendary pros out on the run course supporting the people racing was super cool. Callum Millward, Tim Don, and Ben Hoffman were super encouraging out there.

Beginning lap 2!

Seeing Patrick (with the chicken-head hat), my parents, Coach Mace, and the rest of the Noco/CSU people as we rolled through on the second lap was awesome. After going by, I felt recharged and ready to go. During the first lap I told myself that if I felt good, I could go hard starting at mile 9. Mile 7 I started to feel pretty good, so I picked it up a bit. By the time mile 9 came around I was beginning to struggle and was scared of blowing up, so I chilled out a bit and told myself to wait till mile 11 to run really fast. By mile 11, I felt crappy again. There were a lot of ups and downs during the second half of the run, but I was ready for them and confident in my pacing that I would be able to crush the last two miles. I chilled through the aid station at mile 11, thanked some volunteers, and managed to negative split the run with a strong last couple miles. Running down the finishing stretch was special. It was all downhill, and I smiled and made sure to stop my garmin BY MYSELF for the first time this year. I had finally not blown up during a race (even though there were lots of times I thought I would) and didn't need to go to the medical tent.

Sorry finisherpix, but I'm not paying $59.99 for these.

I got some pizza and just sat there smiling, clinging to my finishers medal and redbull. We didn't check results until we got back to Erik's place, and we realized that I had won the overall amateur race. It's funny, because this is the first time I didn't even think about time or placement goals going into and during a race. I just swam the swim course, biked the bike course, ran the run course, and trusted my body to do it fast. Sugar, maltodextrin, and ice played a major role in me being able to do this. It's a great result, and I'm pumped about it, but I am still humbled that I was beat by the top male pro by over 20 minutes... Everyone in the top 10 (Jake Montgomery had a 5 min. penalty) biked under 2 hours, and crushed me on the run by a few minutes. Nonetheless, I'm still happy and feel like we're on the right track!

Awesome sunburn line post race

We've jumped into Lake to Lake prep pretty quick with a training camp this week.I'm excited to race for the NoCo Tri club on my birthday in Loveland! After that, I'll be doing the swim leg (lol) in a relay team at Boulder Peak where we're competing for $25,000 in prize money - you read that right - against some of the best pros out there.

Thanks to everyone who made this race possible!

Erik Nau - thanks for letting us crash at your place, and great job out there!
Steve - Thanks for letting me train with you all the time, eat your food, and annoy you! Congrats on a great race!
Mom and Dad - It's always special to race in front of you guys, thanks for coming down! I know you're having fun on your bike trip right now :)
Patrick - Thanks for setting that bike up, and your on course support is amazing! You've got the best tri shop out there too. Now go drink a beer.
FAST Masters and...
Everyone I've trained with over the past month here in Fort Collins
Volunteers -Having ice on the course is clutch

If anyone wants to buy this bike it's $1800!