USAT Nationals – Race Report
So Long Alabama…
USAT has a practice of holding their Age Group National Championship races at the same location two years in row. This year was my second trip to Tuscaloosa, AL for this race. I’ve learned to never say never, but I CAN say with reasonable certainty it will be a cold day in Tuscaloosa before I go back. I’m sure AL is a sweet home and all (tip my hat to some incredible college football tradition), but it aint my home. In fact, I’m amazed that literally millions of people choose to call the oppressive heat and humidity of the american southeast home. They do know its a choice right?
Describing this year’s race is kind of complex. There was a lot of crap swimming around in my head leading up to the race so if all my thoughts aren’t complete I apologize. I’ll try to tie things together as best I can. I wasn’t feeling all that great physically or mentally coming into this race and it was really weighing on my mind. I really had no idea what type of performance to expect. All season, I’ve wanted to knock this one out of the park, similar to two years ago in Portland. But coming in I knew that wasn’t going to happen. What I didn’t know was how far from that I would be??
Michele and I flew in Friday morning
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Categories: Athletes, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Boulder 70.3 – Race Report
I’m not exactly comfortable saying this, but I’ve been having a pretty good year, so far. I’ve been very happy with my results in nearly very race. So why mess with a good thing, right? Well, coach kind a wanted to experiment a little with this years Boulder 70.3. The idea was if you’re always trying to push to your limits, sometimes you need to go over them just to be sure where they are.
In the past, I’ve felt like I’ve never been able to bike hard enough to damage my run. Well, we’ve been working on my cycling quite a bit this year and I feel like I’ve made some significant improvements. So, it was time to see if I could do some damage…
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! If the picture above were taken about four hours later you’d see a giant mushroom cloud just left of center, ‘cause thats precisely where I blew up. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming either. I just didn’t feel real great all week and it carried over to race morning. Neither my warmup jog nor swim felt good at all. It might have been a bit of a hangover from racing in Omaha the weekend prior. Or I might have been just dreading the long HOT run course that Boulder always brings.
Regardless, things got off to a fine start. I was pretty happy with my swim. It didn’t seem
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Categories: Athletes, Events, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Omaha Triathlon – Race Report
Home Alone
If you read my Loveland race report you got an idea of how fun it is to part of the tri community around here and how much I appreciate and enjoy it. Well, Omaha Triathlon was pretty much the bizzaro Loveland. I knew my wife and not a single other competitor, weird! It was like being a stranger in your own home town. I started thinking about it and I haven’t had that feeling in a LONG time! Since my first two tris and I even recruited my friend Kutch for the second one. It was weird not to recognize faces on the out and back run. Maybe it was a little easier to focus, but it just didn’t quite feel right without at least some of the ol’ crew. I’ll certainly be looking forward to that aspect of my next few races.
So, a month or so before Omaha my coach, Steve, encouraged me to really go after this one, as in try to actually win. Don’t get me wrong, I always give it my all and do the best I can. This was more about mentally preparing to be in the situation of racing to win. Be prepared for some racing ‘tactics’, ditch the ‘time trial’ mentality of racing the clock and actually race the people around you, but most of all just being prepared to turn myself inside out if the race
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Categories: Athletes, Family & Friends, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Tags: Omaha Tri
My First Peak
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well this profile is all you need to say about the Boulder Peak Triathlon course. Yes, the swim is flat and the run even flatter. But Old Stage Road is anything but flat. Despite the climbing, its a pretty fast bike course and I managed to have a pretty good first Boulder Peak.
Somehow, I’ve missed this race every year. I’ve race the boulder half three times, but never the Peak. Most of my friends have done it so many times, they’re sick of it. Relative to the Lake 2 Lake turnout, it showed. It probably didn’t help that the race sold to the evil cash register that is WTC.
Michele and I drove up the morning of the race, 3:30am wake up. Arrived in time to get a great spot in transition, RDs gave us a pretty great rack. I had plenty of time to go back to the truck and close my eyes for 30 mins before starting my warm-up. I like the Boulder races because they let you warm up in the water. Obviously, I’m not a swimmer and not being able to warm-up swimming only makes matters worse. So I took full advantage and got in a solid 10 mins of paddling around.
My new age group is getting a little rediculous. We had over 250 guys registered for the race. They had to split us…
Categories: Athletes, Events, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Loveland Lake 2 Lake – Race Report
Lake to Lake has been one of my favorite races since I started this sport. It just has a really cool small race feel, with some good competition, a fair course, and the perfect type of swag; no shirts or visors, just really good food. The details…
T1 – 1:08
Bike – 1:15:05, 23.9 mph
T2 – 1:14
Run – 38:38, 6:13/mile
Total 2:23:51 – 2nd place M35-39
The Swim
Lucky me, all the 35-39 year olds got to start in the first wave with the elite men and women. This is especially nice because all of the elites take off like a bat out of hell, then you pretty much have the place to yourself. Yes, I still get caught by people from the wave behind me, but they never make life difficult like catching waves in front of you.
My swim got off to the usual start. Smooth sailing for the first 400 meters or so, then I drifted left a bit, got back on course, cursed a bit, tried to draft, started to fade, cursed some more… The good news was, I could see! No fogging, this stuff from SBR really works. It seemed like a long swim, but they always seem long to me. This one may have actually been a bit long. When some of the faster swimmers are 2-3 minutes slower than usual, I don’t mind being 5…
Categories: Events, Race Reports
Home to Mt. Eva…
Yup, you read it right, Mt. Eva… not a typo. It was supposed to be Mt. Evans, but I didn’t quite make it. My buddy Kim and I set out to ride from home to the top of Mt. Evans and back home. I don’t even know how far or how much climbing it is, but I’ve been thinking about it for some time. A few years ago, a group of us rode from Evergreen to the top and then back home, at the time it was the farthest I’d ever ridden. Now one of our regular loops goes from home to Evergreen and we ride right by the turn to Squaw Pass which leads to Mt. Evans. I’ve been thinking about trying it for years.
Well, I’ll wonder a little longer. I’m a bit embarrassed, we pulled the plug because I had a minor mechanical with my bike. My right cleat to be specific. I’d been having a harder and harder time clipping in over the past few weeks. Then as we were leaving Summit Lake, I couldn’t get clipped in at all. We stopped and spend a solid ten minutes trying just about everything short of duct tapping my foot to the pedal al a’ the Cutters.
Its a lot like the time my car was starting kind of sluggishly. I didn’t do anything about it until the starter completely shot craps and left me stranded at a…
Categories: Biking, Family & Friends, Training
Come race with us!
Well, Quassy was my second consecutive Rev 3 race with all of my Trakkers teammates. All I can say is that I’m thoroughly impressed. Impressed with Rev 3’s family friendly atmosphere, the big event feel, the pro field, the courses, and of course the swag. I’m also impressed with the quality of athletes and quality of people that comprise our Trakkers team. Their friendliness, enthusiasm and attitude have made my last two races incredibly fun experiences.
I am really glad I made the effort to get to them both and I’m having serious second thoughts about skipping the final Rev 3 race of the year at Cedar Point. It really doesn’t fit into my schedule very well and its more traveling, but I know it will be a complete blast. Maybe I’ll go watch, cheer and volunteer.
This weekend also gave Michele and I a new perspective on that end of a race. We (Michele, me, Robert from Terrier Tri, and a bunch of Trakkers teammates) manned an aid station at mile 1.5 of the run for Saturday’s Olympic Rev. We had a lot of fun and I don’t think it affected my race on Sunday at all. If you compete in triathlons and you’ve never volunteered at a race, give it a try. It will give you a new respect for all those people helping at your next race and I think you’ll find it extremely satisfying as well.…
Categories: Athletes, Events, Team, Triathlons
Great Gobs of Green
My first real trip ‘back east’. I guess I’ve been to Boston a couple of times, but we never really got to see the country side. To some degree all cities look the same. Well, I can say I’ve seen Connecticut now. Roughly 70.3 miles of it. Its green! and hilly! and this weekend was exceptionally damp.
Race mornings are getting petty routine, but I always mange to forget something. This time it was rubber bands. I use them to hold my shoes in place on the big as I run out of T1. I also couldn’t get my Trakkers device to turn on before the race. Sorry to everyone who logged on and tried to follow me. We’ll get it right soon.
My swim got off to an excellent start. I was in the second wave, started near the front, right on the buoy line (on my right). I was a little leery of getting roughed up on the inside line, but for whatever reason, all the dudes in my wave drifted off to the left. It was smooth sailing along the first two or three buoys until we caught up to the first wave. Wave one was all the young guys, 34 and under. I’d have thought they’d be a little harder to catch.
The rest of the swim was more normal. It got tougher to swim straight and stay in rhythm as I moved through…
Categories: Athletes, Events, Race Reports, Team, Triathlons
Hugo Road Race
Another bike race, what are you thinking? Believe me, this was running through my head for a good portion of the first 35 miles of our 78 mile race outside of Hugo, CO. Its 15 miles south of Limon, if you’ve never been there. 78 miles of of rolling hills without a hint of civilization. Our course was a P shape. Out into a headwind. Over with a cross wind, from the left. Back with a tail wind. Over with a cross wind, from the right. Back with a tailwind. Oh an it was hot, roughly 85 by the finish.
Out into a headwind
A 25-30 mph wind, gusting to 40 mph, dead on. When we first started it was slow but a few guys tried to get something started. I tried to stay near the front in case anything happened. But no one wanted to be too close to the front for very long. We all wanted to be behind one rider, but no one wanted to be that rider.
I was right in that position everyone wanted about 15 miles in when I screwed up. I rode up on a guy, he moved right, my weight went left. And down I went. Crash. Boom. Bang. It was totally my fault. I’m just glad I didn’t take anyone out with me. Nothing hurt that bad, so I hopped up. I skinned up my right hand, and hip
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Categories: Biking, Race Reports, Race Results
Deer Trail Road Race
My first bike race! Deer Trail, CO its 2/3rd of the way to Limon on I70. Yes the middle of nowhere. The course is an L-shaped 42 miles, out and back on the short part + out and back on the long part + out and back on the short part, mostly rolling hills and windy. I raced in the men’s cat 4 35+ group, there were 80 of us including my buddy Tyler and me.
Bike racing logistics are totally new to Tyler and I, so by the time we got everything squared away, we didn’t have much time to warm up. The entire field had already assembled, so we were pretty much stuck at the back.
Within the first 5 minutes of my bike racing career some poor guy crashed behind me. There couldn’t have been more than 6 guys behind me, so I don’t know what could have happened. Tyler did an awesome job of working up through the field, which made me a bit anxious to get up there too. Patience paid off though and 5 or so miles in a opening presented itself. I got right to the front. I rode in the first 10 or so to the first U-turn.
Yes, 80 of us did 3 U-turns on a two lane road. This idea kind of freaked me out, so I made sure to be in the first two or three riders at
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Categories: Biking, Race Reports, Race Results
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