Race Day is here

Yup, it's official. All my hard work and training have lead up to this day. The forecast calls for a little rain but I think that is kinda cool. I must say I am pretty nervous here just because I haven't done this distance before. But I know that I am trained for this and will do well. The butterflies in your stomach are totally normal. 2 PM start today which is a little crazy because I get to hang out for most of the day. It's a little weird because the sun doesn't go down till about 9:30 here. By about 7:30 tonight, I will be done with the race and I can only hope that I am happy and that I have a lot more experience under my belt. Race report to come.

On the road to boise...its super long. Still pumped for the race! I think its going to rain and thunder storm and believe it or not I would actually enjoy that

Bonelli Sprint Race Report

Alright so right now I am like 4 days out from Boise 70.3 and I am pretty excited! As a few know, I raced the Bonelli Sprint distance race to get ready for Boise. It went well, I got 2nd overall again and felt good. So down to the report, no pictures as Lindsey was out of town so sorry about that. It was a very quick race so I am not gonna say too much here. The focus right now is Boise and preparations for it.

Ok, so I woke up and drove to the place, did my cool trainer warmup in the parking lot for everyone to see and then put my gear on and headed down to the water in my wetsuit to warm up. The water was nice, and I just waited to start. They were about 15 minutes late starting our race but that's the way it goes.

Swim 300 meters (3:27) 4th out of the water

The swim was as short as it gets, it was like hey I am swimming ok now I'm not. I got out fast and made sure everyone stayed a healthy distance from me by flailing my arms a little more than I had to at the start. But basically, I followed the 1st guy out and it was a group of about 4 and I just drafted them and that was it. Pretty quick swim.

T1 (1:04)

Yes! A good transition this time. Lots better than the last one.

Bike (No idea, timing chip didn't work)

The bike went well I passed a bunch of dudes doing the Olympic race. No one passed me. I think that is a good sign. The bike was up and down a lot with a few baby climbs. I tried to go as hard as I could and it was one loop and I was done.

T2 (1:17) Not a bad transition, the run out was a little long but I found everything ok.

Run (19:36) 3rd overall run

The run was tough. A lot of climbs where your heart would feel like it was about to explode. I was 3rd coming out of transition and the 2 guys ahead of me were booking it. Eventually, I caught up to the 2nd guy who struggled on the hills and passed him ad set my sights on 1st place. However, I never really closed in on the guy and I have to give him credit for holding me off because I was sprinting the last half mile.

The race went well and I am ready for Boise. I can't wait to race the half-iron distance and see what I can do!

Encinitas Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Hey everyone that reads this. This last Sunday I raced in the the Encinitas Sprint Tri and things went pretty well. I finished 1st in my age group M 25-29 and was 2nd overall amateur. It was a super short race and I had fun.
So here is the report:
Got down to the race site pretty early and had to set my trainer up on the sidewalk and do a 20 minute warmup. I was so one of those guys who looks like they are taking it way too seriously and felt like a tool but hey, it really warmed up and I was sweating big time 10 minutes in so it was actually a pretty solid warmup. Got to the transition area and racked my bike, put my wetsuit on and headed down to the beach. Problem was, I didn't have any goggles! I gave my bag to Lindsey and didn't know my goggles were in it and she put it in the car. Crap. Oh well, looks like I just had to do the swim without goggles. Did the warmup swim and surprisingly, I actually liked it better without goggles. Go figure. Watched the elites go and it was time for me to line up. Gave Lindsey a kiss for good luck and it was go time.

Swim (750k) 10:35

I ran out quick and got in the water and there were very little waves. I love how everyone just sprints their ass off in the first few hundred meters of the swim and then totally dies. I fought a little with some dude in a blue seventy suit and finally got free of him and found myself in about 4th. I felt I was swimming well but I could never get in the front pack so I swam alone the whole time but that was ok because I kept the little pack in sight and it didn't really look likr they put much time on me. Ran up to transition, had trouble buckling my helmet and was off to the bike.

Bike (20k) 33:24

I started riding and got my feet into my shoes and was off. I started passing a bunch of people and felt pretty good. I was a little unsure at what watts to go at because Janda told me to take it easy for the first few miles. I got bored and then decided to push it to about 280 watts and try to hold that as much as possible. It;s a little hard to figure what watts you are going at because the powermeter jumps around a lot and I had to pay attention to the race as well. Looking back on it now, I definitely could have pushed a lot harder but oh well. It was a 2 loop course and coming in to start the 2nd loop, I think the volunteers thought I was an elite and told me to go to the bike finish. Oops. Well this detour probably cost me a minute or so and I had to repass everyone I passed before but oh well, I just gotta learn. Finished the 2nd loop and felt good and ready to run. Got into transition and could not find my rack for the life of me. Spent over a minute trying to find it, oops. Found it, quickly got my shoes on and ran out.

Run (5k) 18:40
I ran. That was pretty much it. I did fun things with the water they gave me like pour it over my head and throw it down. I felt cool. People looked like they hadn't seen it before. It was a 2 loop run and I felt like I was in 1st in my age group with no one at my heels so I guess I just cruised it. Looking back on it now, I could have run way harder. Don't know why I didn't do that, I was just chilling. Did the whole water over the head routine thing again on the start of the 2nd loop and felt cool once more. I started saying clever things to people as I went by like to the guy in the totally small Speedo, "SPEEDO!!!!!!!!!!!" and to the girl wearing pink shoes, "YEAH PINKY!!!!!!!". Saw the finish line and acted like I was Usain Bolt and sprinted to it. Game over. Woo. Yay.

The race was fun and even with all the mistakes, I still got 2nd overall amateur. I think this might be an end to me racing Age Group in local events because I would like the challenge of being in the Elite waves if they will let me. Lindsey got some great pictures so she gets an A for the day.

For anyone that cares, the swim was super flat, barely any waves and you just rounded one buoy. he bike was also super flat and was 2 loops and really no climbs. The run was 2 loops and was flat with exception with a small hill at the turnaround. A very straight forward course of which I somehow took a wrong turn on.

well that's it. Boise is very close to now. I have a big volume week in training right now and I am going to some solid swim workouts with some pro triathletes and they are coached by a national open water champion so my improving swim hopefully will improve much more. I have a warmup race at Bonelli Park and then the weekend after that is the Boise 70.3, which will be my first crack at the half-ironman distance. I have a lot of secret goals for that race which will remain secret now. Until next time.

Racing tomorrow

hey sorry its been a long time since i last posted but i swear i will be better at blogging in the next month. tomorrow i am racing in the encinitas sprint triathlon tomorrow. Training has been going very well and I am ready to roll for the upcoming races. I hope I do well tomorrow but I will let everyone know how it went with a full report after.

Oops its been awhile since I posted

Wow. It's been over a month since I last posted. Dang I shouldn't let that happen again. Honestly, I feel like I really haven't had a lot of time to post as Janda has been throwing down some tough weeks at me and this April will be nothing smaller. Looking back on my race in Arizona, I guess it was a pretty good result and my age group was a very national field with some studs and I was right in there with them. I actually was offered a slot to Duathlon Worlds and that was pretty cool because that's a big deal but I had to decline it because it's really not in the plan of this year. But anyways, training has been going really really well. My bike continues to improve even to the point that it is starting to astound me. No way in hell would I ever be able to push this many watts if I didn't have a coach who knew exactly what he was doing. So thanks Janda. The run goes well, my ITB gets funky some here and there and sometimes I don't love running an hour at extensive pace but I still feel like it's my strength. I did a progressive run today and did 20 minutes at 6:00/6:10 mile pace and it felt easy breezy with me not even breathing very heavy. So we will see what it can be when I get off the bike in Boise after 56 miles, but I am hoping I can lay something down pretty solid on the run. The swim actually has gotten a lot better in the last month, I discovered that I can actually pull water now and not just rely on my kick and as a result my times have dropped and I am feeling much better in the water. There is still much much more room for improvement as I really want to become a good swimmer, enough to be one of the first out of the water in my age group. Looking at the results of Oceanside have really motivated me and left me chomping at the bit to race in June. I just want to know how i will do! All this training leaves me with a lot of time to daydream while swimming, biking, and running. I would say 85% of my daydreams is of me racing in Boise and just crushing it. Now that would be awesome. But until then, there is much more training to be done and much more hard work. Until I post again.

Arizona Videos!

Hey so I finally posted all my videos from the Arizona trip. Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/tchdwnboy There are a bunch but they are short. They could be funny or not, they just were my thoughts leading up to and after the race.