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