The month of June

It's been some time since I've written here, however, I have not been living under a rock. Well, sorta, I did fall on a rock at one point in June... And that rock pretty much has had a large impact on June. So that's where this blog post will begin. One Sunday run, I tripped on a rock, and slammed my right knee in to the rock. It hurt, I screamed, swore, and cried a little bit, but thankfully nobody was watching and I carried on my run. There was definitely an impact in my overall weight distribution given that my right knee was bruised and not feeling great, so my left leg took a majority of the impact from my steps. You can probably see where this is going...

The next week, my left quad was a bit sore, probably from the added impact of running without a ton of weight on the right leg. I had signed up for the Colorado Tri that weekend though, and Yoni (team EMJ) was racing, so there was going to be no slacking off. We decided to not wear socks on the run. By the time Saturday rolled around, my right knee was doing much better, and the soreness in my quad was gone. I came off the bike about 90 seconds behind Yoni, and instantly regretted not putting socks in transition. Within 5 steps of entering the run course, there was already a rock embedded in the bottom of my shoe. It ended up cutting a hole, leaving me with a gnarly blister. My right foot may or may not have fallen asleep during the last mile of the run too... I finished in 2nd, about 90 seconds behind Yoni.So yeah, bring socks to your next local olympic distance race.

The CO Tri Boyz - Todd, Yoni, me

The next Monday I had an easy 30 min run. The blister was still gnarly, but I toughed through it, again, loading up my left leg. This time though, the leg was much more sore. I didn't think too much of it, other than I can't run until this blister is healed so that I can actually put weight on my right leg... Don't run with a gnarly blister especially if it's definitely impacting your form and you know it and you're just trying to be hardcore.

The following week my leg began to feel slightly better, and although it was still a bit to annoying me, it would need to fall off before I even thought about skipping 70.3 CDA in a few weeks. I raced a time trial that weekend, mostly because there was a prize purse, and came in 2nd place to Alex Arman by 7 seconds - he had also raced the CO triathlon the weekend before, and had outbiked me by about 25 seconds there. It stung, because those 7 seconds happened to be worth $50. Nonetheless, I still was stoked to be a cat 5 hero and exercise fast. and have $75 extra - that's nice too. stalk the strava here

Obligatory bike pic

The next weekend was the CO State time trial championships. Alex, my new rival from the previous two weekends was slotted to start 30 seconds behind me. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, he came down with food poisoning the day before, and was unable to start. At the end of the day I was stoked to break 53 mins in the 40k and to become a state champion. While it's not quite as glorious as being a state champ at the MN high school hockey tournament, I can still cross "state champ" off my bucket list from high school, and put it in my tinder profile.

The week leading into CDA, I was lucky to not have any work, allowing me to sit around, eat, and watch trailer park boys. My coach Elliot from Mountain Endurance was coming to watch, and had managed to get us a homestay not far from the race. The house was beautiful, and I can't thank Nid and David Moody enough for letting us stay there. Additionally, their dogs were adorable and they made the stay that much better. We were also staying with Chris Stock, a pro from the east coast, who was another big help throughout the weekend. After bumming a ride in from the airport on Friday from Tim on Moxie Multisport (huge thanks dude!), I settled in and began reading Phil Gaimon's book - Pro Cycling on $10 a Day.  he has some really cool insight on what it's like to ride the struggle bus. It takes under 24 hours to read if you're interested in what he's got to say...

The only tattoo I will ever consider getting - a bar of soap that says "CLEAN"

We hung out, got groceries, went for a warm up swim, picked up my bike (thanks David for driving it up from Fort Collins!), and went on a short course preview ride. The roads aren't as fast as colorado roads, but there were minimal turns and gorgeous views, so I knew it would still be a fun bike ride. As for the water, well, it was wet. We also did a transition practice, where Elliot probably managed to help me cut off about 1 min in total race time with little tricks on how to be faster. I guess you can put your shoes and socks on in one swoop. It's way easier than it looks.

Race morning began very early, since Chris went off at 6, and us AGers began the rolling start at 6:15. After getting all my gear sorted, it was go time. No stopping till the end. My left leg was still slightly nagging me, but had began to feel much better with some rest, and I figured I'd be good to go come race day. I wasn't feeling bad, and knew I could get through everything (probably). I lined up in the "under 25 minute" category (lol - no age groupers broke 25) with the homies Paul, Evan, Devin, and Kyle. The 18-24 age group was really strong at this race, and it was nice to mix it up with them over a longer distance. I wish I had pictures with all the guys to post, and if any of you do please send them to me lol.

Once the gun went, they sent us into the water single file. Dylan Gillespie, who I already knew was a very strong swimmer, smashed all of us in, swimming just 30 seconds behind the fastest pro males swim time (Andy Potts barely broke 25). While we did sort of swim into the sun on the way back in, we also did a decent job sighting, and managed to stay somewhat straight. The rolling start made it so there was less of a sprint at the beginning, and I felt like settling into a pace with people of similar swimming abilities around was very nice. We emerged as a very scattered group about 15 seconds apart, and 2 minutes behind Dylan. I was right next to Kyle Simmons, an EMJ teammate, and was pretty excited because I know he's strong on the bike and run.

Didn't drown, thanks to Roka!

Immediately on the bike, I set a hard pace through the neighborhood. I had previewed it several times before, so I knew every turn and where I could press a bit. I managed to get rid of Evan quickly, and up the road I could see Paul Stevenson, a former ASU teammate. We had road within a minute of each other at boulder 70.3 last year, so I figured working together wouldn't (would) hurt. We were riding very aggressively, and I could see Kyle trying to close the gap behind us. On the first hill, Elliot told us we were ~90 seconds down to Dylan, but not to rush it. We had put significant amounts of time into most people within the first 8 miles, so I knew we weren't going slow...

I had a penalty scare as we went through the first aid station. I threw my bottle before the garbage zone began with a ref directly next to me. LOL. I will say, though, it was AWESOME having moto's on the course policing us. They actually stayed out of the draft zone, too, unlike the Challenge media motorcycles.

Brownlee moto drafting

Just behind Paul, moto in the background :) - cred: James Haycraft

Fortunately, I didn't see them write anything down. whew. Managed to stay penalty free. Elliot was at the mid point on the bike here, and threw some words of encouragement our way. Eventually, Kyle closed the gap to Paul and I as we headed up the first major climb. He began pushing the pace pretty hard, and was definitely making us question our pacing. On the flats and downhills, though, we managed to close the gaps. I tried not to be too aggressive with any surges, because a half ironman is a long race when you implode. We eventually caught Dylan, the leader, just before the 2nd U turn. I took the U turn in first, then proceeded to just ride the exact same watts we had been doing before. I saw Brad and Thad from EMJ, and David from Fort Collins, and we yelled encouragement at each other. 5 minutes later, I looked back and saw nobody... Ok, that's cool. I focused on getting in calories so that the run didn't turn into a complete disaster. With about 7 miles to go, Dylan motored past me while I was going uphill. After looking down at my power meter I decided that it was not going to be the best move for me to go with. I rolled into T2 in second place, feeling relatively decent. Here is the bike file from the race

yay

After probably the smoothest T2 of my life, I headed out on to the run course. When you get off a 2.5 hour ride and begin running, everything feels super slow. Elliot was at about mile 1 with a split down from Dylan, and told me I was closing. I tried not to push the pace too hard in the opening miles, but I felt good, and caught Dylan by mile 3. From here, the race was mine to lose. The spectators were super encouraging. There was a battle for women's 1st place going on directly behind me, and the crowds were going crazy for them. There was so much support out on the run course, and it was a beautiful day to go exercise for a few hours. At mile 7, my left leg began to hurt a fair bit, but I knew that it was just a 10k to go, and that I could probably get through it. At mile 10 my leg felt the same, but I completely blew up. My form fell apart by mile 11, and I walked the aid station- pounding redbull, gatorade, and water. I saw Elliot about half a mile later and he could see that I was falling apart. I was limping at this point, my leg freaking hurt, but I was still in first place, so yolo. I yolo'd hard to the finish, probably in the most pain I've ever been in ever. As I crossed, the announcer goes "first amateur across the line" - then 20 seconds later, Andy Drobeck - who started 2 minutes after me, crossed the line. He is a class act, who just broke the world record for the mile in fire equipment. He also ran sub 1:17, which is very fast.

hurting

hurting cred: James H.

still hurting

After they realized that I couldn't really stand up, or walk, they put me in a wheelchair and took me over to the medical tent. I was joined shortly by Kyle and Evan, who had just gotten in an epic sprint finish (with a pro card on the line... pretty cool). My left leg was having random spasms in the groin area, and my IT band hurt, and quad hurt, and I just couldn't stand. Eventually, they delivered me in a wheelchair to our car, and Elliot carried me into the house. an hour later, I still couldn't move, and realized that awards probably wasn't going to happen. Somehow, Elliot went to bat for me, and I got a slot to 70.3 worlds despite not being there. It was incredibly frustrating.

Kyle, Brad, and Thad (EMJ teammates) had great races, and I wanted to be down hanging out with them. I also wanted to hang out with the other kids my age, and have a good time. Not being able to hang out with the boyz post race honestly sucks. I wish I could have been there and gotten some pictures with them, trolling around, etc. It is the one thing I'm still salty about missing. Instead, I was almost in tears just laying in bed from the pain. At least the bed was comfortable haha. I crawled to the kitchen table and ate dinner, and crawled to the freezer and got some ice cream. Happy 22nd Birthday :)

Step 1: pause garmin

step 2: don't walk for a week

The next day was a huge struggle. I could hardly motivate myself to get out of bed. I called Southwest to get a wheelchair to the airport, since my main mode of transportation was still crawling. After a struggle day of traveling, I managed to get back to Fort Collins, where I was delivered a Mary's Mountain Cookies s'mores ice cream sandwich from David. It was amazing.

lit

The next day David (huge help) took me to get X-rays of my legs. there was a chance I had a stress fracture that had turned into a break (or something like that), but the results came back and nothing was broken. They say "quad strain and hip flexor tendonitis" - that's all good and fun, but my leg still hurt, so a lot of it was probably them blowing smoke at me. They handed me a pair of crutches and threw me out into the snow (just kidding).

After driving around the grocery store in a wheelchair cart, I was convinced I needed to see a doctor. The Banner neighborhood clinic is right across the street from our apartment, so I got an appointment with a doctor, hoping to get an MRI referral. After explaining my pain to him, he said that I needed to suck it up, and just do some "non weight bearing activities". BRUH. I CAN'T EVEN WALK STILL. IT'S BEEN TWO WEEKS. I somehow convinced him to order an MRI for me, and after threatening me with the lofty price tag (even though my insurance has an auto approval with $50 copay setup) he said he was looking forward to seeing me again. Haha, right. Whatever you do, don't see Dr. Grant Taylor at Banner. Complete amateur.

On Monday evening, Matt Britton, a local triathlete texted me saying he was the dude who would be doing the MRI the next day. Matt was awesome, and I was glad it wasn't someone who would half ass it. Another reason I was glad it was Matt is because the MRI had been ordered for my hip, even though it was my thigh that hurt. I convinced him to scan my thigh as well. That would have been more difficult with anyone else...

Today I found out that I have a stress fracture in my left femur. Yes, being injured and not getting to train sucks, but at least I have a good excuse for it. There are plenty of worse things out there, like head injuries, crashing out of the Tour de France (Mark Cavendish, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas, etc.), or breaking your collarbone just before the olympics (Javier Gomez). Life could definitely be worse :)

In the next few weeks, you can catch me eating an ice cream sandwich at Mary's Mountain Cookies for lunch, and hopefully I'll be back in action for some late season exercising competitions!

editors note: Thank your parents for everything. I want to give a special shout out to my mom and dad who completely went to bat for me with Banner over the poor service I had been receiving. Without them, I would have had to wait another week before being seen for an MRI, and they would have billed me instead of our insurance, since they're clueless and don't understand how that stuff works I guess... So yeah, thanks Mom and Dad for all of your help this weekend, there is no way I would be alive without you :)