Last week the ASU Tri team headed to Clemson, South Carolina for Collegiate Nationals. This is our teams main event for the year, and by far the most fun/competitive race out there. Special thanks to our Sponsor Tri Scottsdale for their generous donation. It's not cheap or easy to take a decent sized group of people across the country for 5 days, and we really appreciate you helping lift some of the financial stress off of our team!
Lake house = amazing
We left PHX on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in South Carolina Just after midnight. After a quick run to walmart to grab the essentials....
We finally arrived to our prestigious rental house. It was about a 10 minute drive from the airport. We had 11 people staying in our house, and there was more than enough room. It was significantly less stressful than staying in a hotel. We could all sit around in the living room, on the porch, at the dock, ect. and just hang out. Another major benefit of renting was that we got to cook dinner and save some money.
Just one of a billion bedrooms... 4 bunk beds and two bathrooms
Yeah, we were stoked to be there
It wouldn't be a normal race if I didn't have a bike crash leading into it. Two weeks prior to the race, I was making a very shallow turn into a parking lot on campus to meet our team for a brick workout, and my wheels slid out from underneath me. My derailleur hanger was bent, and ego was bruised...
As if one bike incident wasn't enough, I figured I should probably borrow some race wheels. After some brake compatibility issues, I decided to order the new tririg omega x brake. After a Facebook message and some google searching I concluded that it would indeed fit my bike and leave me with enough room for the massive 808 rear I was borrowing. The brake was shipped to Clemson so that it could be put on the bike by the Raceday Transport mechanics when we arrived in Clemson.
After a lot of fiddling and trouble, we concluded that the 808 was simply too wide to fit within the tririg brake, and that the center of the tire would still rub against the middle of the brake. Luckily, my teammate Andrew has an 11 speed p2, so we switched wheels and brakepads so that he would have the rear 808 and I would have his shimano training wheel. I wasn't exactly stoked to find out that the brake still didn't close on the right spot of the rim. We decided to file down the pad to ensure that there would be no rub on the tire, which took about two hours.
Pretty #aero
As you might be able to tell, I've got #bikeprobs
Before we knew it, it was friday, and the draft legal race was going on. There were some really impressive performances, but I thought that Josh Fowler from U of A had a great race. He was really agressive on the bike and really made sure he put himself in a position to run well (and did just that).
On Friday I also picked up my packet and found out that I would be starting in wave 2. USAT had allocated slots based on team standings, and since ASU wasn't ranked in the top three teams in the conference we had been given no slot in wave 1. This wasn't ideal, since I would have no idea where people actually were, and wouldn't be able to work with some of the strong bikers (or so I thought).
These guys came through big time
After we finished fridays open water swim and run, we went back to the house for dinner and to check out our competition in the Jaybird Journey to Nationals video contest. UVA had an awesome video this year, as did SDSU. Sadly, we didn't take home the cake for the #3peat, but there were some great videos this year!
Saturday morning came around, and everything felt like it was in place. I was pretty nervous and tense, but Steve's coach Mace came over and got me pumped up and ready to go. Seeing Erica from U of A win the women's race was so awesome. She is incredibly strong on the bike, and has no problem keeping up with the dudes.
Erica smashed it
I lined up at the start next to Willie from CSU, just like at Havasu, and prepared mentally to be smashed 1/3 the way through the swim. We took it out hard, and by the turn buoy there was a solid string of people. A group of two was pacing about the same as me, so I hopped over to a hip and grabbed a draft for the rest of the swim. With about 200 to go I started to push to try and get around some people who might be fading and get a clear line out of the water up to t1. I got out of the water with David from U of A, who I have exited the water with at literally every single race this season now.
After Mace got me pumped up for the race
Just before heading out onto the bike I looked over and saw Jack Toland from CU in hot pursuit. After getting on my bike and putting on my shoes I immediately put the hammer down. I wanted to make riding with me seem like a suicide mission. After around 7 or 8 minutes Jack caught up to me and made a pass. We road through wave two, and by 15 minutes in, we had already established around a 1 minute gap on the rest of our wave. The pace didn't feel too crazy, and I took the lead again while going up one of the climbs. This years bike course was significantly different than last year. There were two pretty significant climbs on it that forced me out of the aerobars and way up the cassette.
Chasing Jack
As we made our way to the top, the leaders were just beginning their descent. It looked like a Sunday group ride on TT bikes, and everyone was yelling at each other to stop drafting. In some ways it was expected, but still upset me because earlier I had talked to Jimmy Richatello (head IM ref) and he said that the 3 bike lengths rule is pretty much a joke. he explained that you can still save 30 watts by sitting 3 bike lengths back. For those of you who aren't familiar with that, 30 watts is about equal to 1.5-2.5 mins, or ~1mph. In the team captains meeting the day before we had been told there would be 7 motos out on the course. I saw zero.
Throughout the second lap I faded a bit. Jack put about additional 7 seconds on me at each turnaround, and by the time we got off the bike he was ~20-30 seconds up. Half of my fade was probably due to the effort during our first lap. We had hammered pretty hard. The other half was me trying to not completely cook myself before taking one step of the run.
Out onto the run I took a minute or two to settle in. I knew that the leaders would likely be starting their second lap while I was going onto my first lap, so it would be a good chance to try and hang on to some feet and make up time with a pacer. Right as I came down the hill onto the main road, Dan Feeney from CU (who runs very fast) hit the turnaround to my right. At Havasu he went by me like I was standing still. On this Saturday, I decided to leave my brain at home and go for it. I ran shoulder to shoulder with Dan for the entire first lap, passing a bunch of people who were riding the struggle bus. Looking back, though, that's how I would like my second lap of the run to feel, because shortly thereafter.....
Holding Dan's feet
Smiling, because now there is photo evidence
I was feeling good and feeding off the crowd all the way until mile four, and then I started going up the hill and my legs started to completely unhinge themselves. Was it nutrition? No, I wasn't cramping or anything. And I took a gel and BASE Salt. It must have been pacing. The speed of the first lap combined with the heat meant that I was either going to pay the price of slowing way down or die trying to maintain that pace. Long story short, I chose the second option (trying to keep going the same pace) and pushed my body farther than it's ever been before to the point where I actually fainted at mile 5. Thankfully, there was an aid station near this spot, and a volunteer quickly got over there and got me to the med tent safely.
Looking back at it, I am brutal not a very smart racer when it comes to run pacing. I tend to start well beyond my limit and then fade hard as opposed to start at something that feels comfortable and will eventually become hard and let my perceived effort build. As one of my old goalie coaches JJ would say "You're in a hurry to be horses**t". I want to feel the pain of the 10k right away, and it always ends up coming back to haunt me at around mile 4 like clockwork. I also need to increase my run volume if I want to be able to maintain that speed throughout the course. The last true "long" run I did was in March, and before then it was in August. We've really been focused on speed, and while I've proved that I can run a 5k at a decent pace, at the end of the day it's still a 10k run. I haven't done the volume to warrant running Tim Don-like #dirtyfast speeds for the entire run.
#TheDon
Even though not finishing is a hard pill to swallow, I am still happy with how my race went up until implosion happened during the run. Special thanks to: Sammy, our swim coach, and Danny our bike/run coach. Without you guys I wouldn't have any idea what to do, ever. The ASU Tri team for being great training partners and teammates. It has been awesome bonding with everyone this year, and I'm looking forward to next year already! My parents and brother for listening to me complain about my #bikeprobs and being my personal consultant on what I should do for pretty much every situation and keeping me in check. Erin, our president for all of her hard work this year. Our team has grown exponentially because of you, and you nailed it this weekend with our nationals planning. Dmitry, thanks for coming with us, looking forward to doing Lemmon with you this weekend!
Candid shot by the lake
BOULDER 70.3
Going into Boulder 70.3, having enough volume in all three sports, fueling properly, and following a smart, negative split effort pacing strategy are going to be the critical elements in focus.
Last weekend was our first conference race of 2016, and (hopefully) a good indicator of what the competition at collegiate nationals will be like. It's especially great to race the guys from CU ahead of time, because they tend to dominate everyone when April rolls around.
Team pic - and we had a cheer too!
As everyone knows, Havasu is a prime spring break destination. Nothing says "I'm going to make my parents proud" like telling them you're going to Lake Havasu, so obviously there is a unique environment at the race. It tends to be more laid back, and there is much more interaction among teams, since most of us are on spring break. ASU, however, had class the week leading up into the race, so we had to drive up Friday.
I was a bit grumpy in the car (because I hadn't gotten to swim yet), but once we got in everything was great. We stayed at the state park for a campground, and the site(s) we're awesome! It was also about a 30 second bike ride to the race course. We spent the night before the race getting equipment set up and bags packed. Shoutout to Andrew for letting me use his S-Works Turbo tires - those things were #dirtyfast
Great view from the campsite
Race morning Started early - a symphony of 4:15 am alarms went off in my tent. After waking up the entire campground, I went for a quick run. It was COLD outside. Like real cold. I was questioning if we were even in Arizona at this point...
swim prep
They gave us more than enough time to get a swim warm up in, a nice change from a lot of races. I lined up next to Willie from CSU because he can take it out really hard for a couple hundred meters. I just sat on his hip/feet for that whole time, and by the time we got to the first buoy I could see open water. There was a group of three slightly ahead of us, but otherwise I was in a big group at the front. Being able to actually see a majority of the people who beat me out of the water at Pumpkinman was a relief, mostly because I knew I wouldn't have to do the ride alone. After the second turn, we swam directly into the sun, the Roka goggles allowed me to see pretty much everything, and I sited off the lighthouses on either side of the canal. There was a little contact and fighting over feet but at the end of the day the pace wasn't too suicidal. The U-turn buoy took forever to come, but once it did, it was much easier to site because the sun was directly behind us right now.
How it feels when you come out of the water after wearing a ROKA wetsuit
Coming out of the water I probably had a massive smile because of the amount of CU kits I saw. I made up my race plan for the bike immediately: Stay with Whatever CU guys at the front are as long as possible. I took my sweet time in transition, and opted for a traditional mount over a flying mount partially because Zach from CSU had just broken his wrist the day before doing one, I had fallen once this year doing one, and I usually put my shoes on at the worst possible times anyways once I get on the bike. Right away The CU guys were pushing the pace. I was about 10-15 seconds behind them after putting my shoes on, and took my time to catch up to them. After about 4-5 minutes I had bridged up steadily, and the pace subsided a bit. The first neighborhood was a smashfest. Bike file here.
The group really pushed it on the uphills, and not so much on the downhills, but by the time we exited the first neighborhood a group of four had been established and it was clear to me that someone in this group was going to come off the bike in first place, and I was going to do everything I could to either be that guy or be within 30 seconds of him. The rest of the bike felt pretty strong. There were a number of times where the pace dropped, but most of the time it was a steady effort (other than the second neighborhood, where it was really intense up the hills again). I felt the pace drop coming down over the last 4 miles and decided to move up to the top 2 again. Coming off the bike, I realized I was in second place and tried not to pee myself with excitement.
Heading into T2
Onto the run I made a pass within the first mile, and moved into 1st place. Less than 2 minutes later Dan Feeney (eventual winner) ran by me like I was standing still. I felt pretty steady, but still struggled to get the turnover that I normally practice with. Zach from CSU was at a lonely part of the run course, and he started yelling at me, which was pretty encouraging. I just put my head down and focused on the white line directly in front of me and tried to keep moving as strong as possible. By the turnaround I had a 30 second gap on everyone behind me, but Josh Fowler from U of A was closing in fast and looked strong. At around mile 5, just before the big stair set, I got dizzy. A CU coach yelled "2-3-4 are all within 40 seconds" and I thought OH S#(T HURRY UP. As i was going down the staircase I heard Josh close in behind me. He passed right at the bottom, and I tried not to cry a little bit. My top 3 buffer was gone, I noodle legged it all the way to the finish before locking up and requiring some ice.
This was the first time in a few races I've actually been able to do a cool down, and it was great to get back on the course and cheer on all the athletes finishing up.
I want to say thanks to my friend Evan for coming down from Minnesota to experience Arizona for a few days, it was great to see you again! Thanks Erin, for making my helmet look SICK, you've got some serious skillz... our coaches Danny and Sammy for the training structure and practices they have provided over the past few months. Lastly, thanks to the ASU Triathlon Team - as Herb Brooks said, "the name on the front of the jersey is a hell of a lot more important than the name on the back" - Even though we don't have individual names on our kits... Seeing everyone out on the race course is the highlight of racing. Also, congrats to all our girls who raced Tri for the Cure this weekend!
Next up on the calendar is Collegiate Nationals, followed by a summer in Fort Collins Colorado!
My training since January had been interesting. I was sidelined from running for a few weeks because of an injury that I got while playing in the alumni hockey game, so I focused a lot on swimming, biking, and doing strength workouts. I also bought a new bike, which has newly replaced di2 components since the first set were trash - if you want to ask more questions about details regarding the bike I'd be happy to talk about it... just not here because this post isn't about my bike.
training camp was awesome again
Sammy Scott, an ex ASU swimmer has taken over our swim coaching, and he has been cranking up the volume on us. It's been much nicer having someone who you can relate to as your coach, and he is going to be a massive part of our teams journey to becoming better triathletes.
After being injured, I did my best to ease back into running. Even after a week completely away from it, I still didn't feel like I was running 100% pain free for another 3-4 weeks. That was probably good, though, because it gave me some time to work on my biking and getting stronger. There is no point in being a ridiculously fast runner in February anyways (what I told myself to help me sleep at night).
Team bonding
TRITONMAN: Draft legal
Tritonman consists of a two day races series on a ridiculously fast course. the first day is a draft legal race that attracts some extremely high level pros (Joe Maloy, Eric Lagerstrom, Ben Kanute) and the second day is a non draft legal race. It's very similar to collegiate nationals, except both races are sprint distance.
Race morning started with some rice cakes and pb/banana. I had no problems emptying out my system, if you catch my drift. I got a ride down to transition with some teammates and checked in. The nerves weren't too bad, and as I walked into transition there were a bunch of stud athletes. The field was stacked by amateur standards... Like 5 dudes who race WTS events on a regular basis and ~20 total pros. I borrowed Julia's (another teammates) road bike for the race in order to save room in cars and not be that guy who brings two bikes. Plus it's a really nice bike.
I want to thank the UCSD Tri club for giving us a legitimate 30 minutes to warm up in the water. I lined myself in the second row directly behind a group of pros. I figured maybe I could catch a little bit of a draft for the first 100 or so and just try to get in a group after that. Overall that plan actually worked well! I was out of the water right in the middle of the pack, exactly where I expected to be. This was my first ITU Style race where you actually had to get all your stuff in a bucket, and I am proud to say that I didn't screw any of that up! I got a split from Sammy as I headed out onto the bike.
I decided I would put my shoes on right away and then try to bridge up to the group that was only a few seconds ahead of me. It wasn't my best idea, as a 5 second gap quickly turned into 20 when I put the shoes on. Look at pictures, I was able to determine that most people didn't put on their shoes until ~2 miles into the ride. I spent 6-7 minutes going balls out, and eventually was able to bridge up with another guy to the group that had some really fast runners. I took my turn at the front, feeling not as great as I thought I would on the bike, and then pulled off. The next person behind me must have put in some ridiculous surge, because I found myself off the back just trying to hang on for dear life.
Trying to bridge up
The next 3 minutes were spent in no-mans-land. Instead of resting once I bridged up I immediately went for it and paid the price of not being able to cover any sort of move. I was caught by a pretty fast group on the second lap, and worked with them for the rest of the bike. The support form our team out on the bike course was amazing and they kept me going hard the whole time by positioning themselves all over the course and they were awesome.
Throwing in a few surges
For the most part everyone took their turns and we ended up not losing any time after lap 1 to the group directly ahead of us. Heading into transition a UCSB guy attacked and I covered it, but I brought the entire rest of the pack with me when I bridged up. Then while everyone was taking their shoes off I moved up, which was another dumb move because when I took mine off I got passed by one or two guys.
The run went way better than I expected it to. The first lap was pretty rough, and it felt like my shoes were only half on my feet. After that, I thought I only had one lap to go, so I started to open up. By the time I got to the finishing straight I was ready to sprint and be done with it. But then someone yelled "OK NICE JOB ONE MORE LAP KEEP IT UP". Crap... I opened up more and was able to pick a few more people off in the final lap. Our team had somehow managed to all get over to the run course to yell at me which was awesome. It's so much easier to crush yourself with 20 teammates yelling at you.
After the race I ate a lot, then went for another ride, this time on my 53x15 TT bike... More on that later.
Non draft:
After a big night of chipotle, pasta, and a bunch of yogurt pretzels I was ready to race again. My legs felt better than they did on Saturday, although that isn't really saying much...
Swim:
They had our swim separated into waves based on when you signed up, so I started in the 2nd collegiate wave. I lined up at the front this time, and knew that I could have a legit chance of being out of the water in a good position. I focused on just going as hard as I could for a while before settling in. I found myself in a chase group before it got strung out along the way in. I got out and was within one minute of the leader from our wave.
Onto the bike I put my shoes on right away, but this was so that I could just step on the power and race my own race. I saw Andrew from CSU right there with me and we were going about the same speed. Eventually I took the lead and he was pretty much right behind me.
Background on why i'm riding 53x15: Last weekend I had a flying mount "incident" during practice that resulted in a smashed rear derailleur. I ended up having to buy an entirely new di2 groupset because they don't make 7970 compatible with any of the new di2 components. After the first lap I had settled in and was feeling pretty good. I knew I would finish the bike with a solid amount of energy left for the run if all kept going as planned. I made a pass and looked back only to see another athlete sitting on my wheel. Being the level-headed, calm person I am, I started freaking out. I swore at him, screamed at him, told him to get the f**k off my f**king wheel, but it didn't work. he just laughed. I threw in major watt bombs, and started trying to shake him but nothing was working.
What I'd like to do to cheaters
Looking back I would have been better off waiting until we went by a photographer and then attacking. He would have had to let up his draft for a bit so they didn't get it on camera, and then I could have distanced myself. I am not happy about his cheating, but I am also not happy about the way I handled it; I could have very easily ended up with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. In the end, I tried to make him run over a pile of sticks, and got myself a flat tire in my rear wheel. I couldn't change it because I had no way of downshifting to take my wheel out.
What I will do in the future
I saw our entire team out there and just tried to be as positive as I could. I was bummed, but they still had a race to finish and I figured that mine was over so I might as well just yell as loud as I could for them.
Random thoughts on drafting:
In hockey, no matter how many times you blocker someone in the back it will still never be as effective as a cup check. Instead of showing roos how pissed I was, I should have just taken it as a compliment and kept racing my own race and disposed of him at a more appropriate time (like doing a cup check when they're not expecting it).
Next up we're heading to Henderson, NV for spring training camp, and then making our way up to Havasu again on March 19th for MCTC Championships!
