Am I Becoming a One Trick Poney?

This week I've been back pedaling a little trying to figure out why my run and swim seem to be going backwards even though my training times are getting faster. On Tuesday I had a revelation. Lately I have adjusted my diet to attempt to keep my weight down. Every now and again I get hit by the hunger beast and have an uncontrollable urge to stuff as much as I can in my pie hole. Tuesday night was such a night. After eating a less than satisfying dinner I hit up some ice cream. I finished what I would call a sample size serving (others would call it a meal) and made my way to the next tub and couldn't put it down. After that I ate a few other things to include a bowl of cereal, some peanuts and a few things I have since forgotten. Wednesday morning I went for my usual bike ride and felt awesome. In fact I felt awesome all day. I even had an awesome swim session. Last night the same. I was not as hungry but I did not hold back only to have one of the best sprint sessions this morning.

I'm hoping that this will help me get back into the form I was in at Buffalo, Liberty and Minnetonka. To be honest, as great of a race as I had at Minnetonka I was starting to feel fatigued and felt I could have run a faster race. Waconia and Lifetime though were both disappointments. Especially because they were my two races where I faced some of the best competition in Minnesota if not the country. Hopefully I can have a strong showing at Chisago, dominate Detroit lakes and place well at Wisconsin. All of which will be tough knowing that the competition will not be week at any of those races.

On Board!

Well, once again Lifetime lives up to it's reputation for being a tough race for me. The water temp was at 82 degrees which made it a non legal wet suit swim. This killed me right off the bat. I am not a very good swimmer and the wet suit helps me more than it does the swimmers. This caused me about a minute gap on the field. To go along with the lack of wet suit I just didn't swim like I was hoping to. Once out of the water I noticed that I had one of the last bikes left in transition. All I could do is hope that I wasn't far behind and pedal like hell. At about mile 5 I started passing guys who were just a bit slower than me. I did open up a gap but they seemed to be forming a pack and in what I could tell was a somewhat legal draft pack they caught up to me. I towed the pack till about mile 18 were it started to become a battle. Guys kept passing me and each other to try to break free, myself included. The course is narrow and is quite technical making it difficult to really be able to make a break for it. In the end I got off the bike with about 8 other guys. Most of whom should by me a beer for pulling the load for most of the way. I don't know if it helped or hurt my time as I felt impeded at points while other times the pack I'm sure helped me. As a consolation I did manage to take the fastest bike split from Patrick Parish by less than three seconds.

Once off the bike I once again never seemed to get a good rhythm. I think the heat played a huge factor and looking back I need to adjust my race nutrition plan as well as my day prior intake plan. I did chase down a few guys while a couple passed me. Overall I was satisfied with the performance more or less only because of the bike split. It did give me a second gut check in as many races. The good take away was I seem to have figured out my lack of power on the bike at Waconia only to have a lack luster run. I guess it's back to the drawing board.

Next race is going to be Chisago Half IM. I need to take away the lessons learned from the warm race conditions and implement a better nutrition plan. Chisago will be a great test to see where I am in the IM training plan. My bike and swim volume is right where I want them but I need to work on my run big time. I've started adding some more mileage the last few weeks so we'll see how that works out.

Not Lifetime Again!

Yes, I am determined to nail this course. However, this has eluded me know two out of three times. The third/first time it was my fourth ever triathlon and surviving the 95 deg heat was the goal that day. Now I am in a whole other caliber of field.

Last year I made a disastrous rookie mistake in moving my seat forward the night before the race. This caused me to have a bad bike split and wore out my hip flexors resulting in a terrible run. That was by far the worst race I have had to date and I did not get my seat positioned corrected until I took it to Jeremy Sartain after Waseca. The year prior to that I raced in the age groups and had a terrible swim and not so good run. Will this year be any different?

Waconia was a great race for me as I now know what I need to focus on. I also had a lesson with Duane Dobko who helped straighten out my stroke the best he could in one lesson. I have been shaving pretty significant times in the water since. I also have focused on my bike power since Waconia. All this while being able to increase my running mileage since my calf seems to be healed. Problem is, with all that said Lifetime just seems to have it out for me. Last year I believe if I had my best race I could I would have placed around 12th or 13th. This year I am hoping for top ten. Funny thing is it could go either way on that. At this point all I can do is show up and find out.

My prediction. Swim between 21:30 and 22:30. Bike around 58-59 and run around 37-38. If I can hit two of those three numbers and not be less than a minute off the other I will consider it a huge race for me.

Not there....Yet

While I wouldn't call Waconia a bad race I certainly wouldn't call it my best either. The field was stacked and I was hoping to come in 8th and that is exactly where I came in. I started off with a decent swim but got caught behind some slower swimmers in the beginning and did not get to let loose until about 300 yards in. I came out of the water with Josh Blankenheim and Brooks Gossinger but felt I could've shaved at least 15 seconds off the swim. As I hit the bike I new I had a lot of time to make up but for some reason I just never felt like I could get in the groove and get any power. I don't know if it was the heat or if just wasn't my day but I had to settle for a mediocre bike split.

The surprise was my run. I had been battling a calf strain for about two weeks. I rested it for Minnetonka only to re injure it at the end of the race and the compounded it by doing a cool down run. I needed to get in some mileage last week and a good speed session in as I felt like I don't yet have my top gear like I did last year. While I did get in a speed session it was done very gingerly and at a lower intensity and I decided to keep the mileage down for one more week just to be sure. I wasn't expecting a good run because of this only to have one of the better feeling runs I've had this year. I came off the bike a good minute behind the next guy and as I got off the bike the legs actually felt pretty good. I started turning them over and chewing into the gap. I ended up passing Rhett Bonner, John Shelp, Curt Wood and Brett Lovaas was not far off. My split was slow but so was everyone else's. I felt great at the finish and felt as if I could've kept that pace for a 10k if not even faster. Monday the calf was fine, I wasn't even soar from the race and was able to run 7.5 that morning.

Brett Lovaas did get a little redemption from Minnetonka by beating me this week by about 18 seconds. I feel like there may be a little bit of a friendly rivalry brewing. Brett is a serious competitor and has been one of the guys I've thought of as one of the best. I look forward to racing with him again. I did exact a little redemption myself on Rhett Boner. Rhett is one of the nicest guys I've met yet in this sport. We shared an epic battle at Square Lake last year where Rhett came out the victor in a death race battle in miserably hot conditions. Rhett is not in as good of shape as he was last year and I caught him just past the turn around at mile two. After the race I went up to him and gave a friendly fist pump in the air to say I got this one. I believe I am now 1-2 against Rhett. I look forward to racing with Rhett every time as there is definitely a friendly rivalry between us.

As always I need to learn from this race. I didn't feel like I got 100% out of me and I need to adjust somethings in order to be ready for Lifetime. It was my fourth race in as many weeks to include a Half Ironman. I don't think this had a huge effect as I did have a great race at Minnetonka last week but you have to wonder. Regardless I need to work on my power on the bike and being able to push myself to the next level like I did at Buffalo. I also need to take lessons learned on the run and implement what went right.

Swimming has always been my achilles heal and I have not felt like my stroke has been right for some time. I took some lessons from Duane Dobke over the winter and was swimming like a champ but somewhere along the line my stroke fell apart. Monday night I got in a session with Duane and he confirmed what I had feared. My stroke was awful again. Duane got me to raise my elbows more and Tuesday morning I shaved 5-6 seconds off each set of 200s. Hopefully I can even improve on my form more in the next two weeks.

Waconia Triathlon

Last year I place fifth here and if it wasn't for a chain slip on the bike I would have nabbed 4th. This year is going to be a bit different though. There are at least 13 serious Elites this year in one of the most stacked races I have ever seen. I am racing good right now but I'm coming off of a very heavy month with Buffalo Olympic, Liberty Half (still pissed about the penalty) and somehow managed to win at Minnetonka Sprint. While the legs feel good I have been battling an achilles injury and have not gotten in the volume of running I would like at this point. Still I have managed to turn in decent run splits.

This weekend I will need something special or lucky to happen for me to place better than 9th. On the start list is Devon P, Matt P, Patrick P, Alex H, Bian B, Kevin O, Dan C, Curt W, Brett L, Rhett B, Josh B and Brooks G that I can think of. I guess I am hoping to beat out at least one person that I have yet to beat out. I would be ecstatic to beat out Brian, Kevin, Dan, or Curt. All four are guys who I have looked up to and thought of as unbeatable since I started this sport in 2005. Not that I don't want to beat Matt, Patrick or Alex but the odds are they are the front runners and the four fore mentioned are hopefully not in peak form. We'll see what happens come Sunday.

Minnetonka Recap

Saturday was exactly what I was hoping for. I knew last year I suffered from some sloppy transitions, especially T2. This year I practiced my transitions with more focus the day before. I also did a lot of visualization on how I wanted the the transitions to go so when they came up I could mentally prepare myself on the way to the zone. My first transition was only slightly faster than last year but I got my race number belt on and left my shoes in the clips. The mount went good and I had a slight bit of trouble getting into the shoes but all in all I was satisfied. Brett had some trouble with his mount missing his saddle twice and ejecting his water bottle and having to go back for it. I don't know if it made the difference in the race but it would have mad for a very exciting finish if he nails it. My second Transition was only 1 second slower than Brett and felt very smooth. It was a full 18 seconds faster than last year and was time that could have made the difference if Brett lands on his saddle on the first try.

I was also extremely pleased with my swim. It was slower than last year but so was everyone else's. I came out third behind a supersonic swimmer Thad Ingersoll and Brett. Erik Henderson passed me on the bike for a few seconds while I was getting on my shoes but as soon as I got them on I started hammering. I saw Brett passing Thad at about mile 5 and did not gain much ground until about mile nine when I started to real Brett in. I made the pass for first with about 3-4 miles left in the bike and came into transition with about a 15 sec lead. I knew I could outrun Brett as long as didn't burn out in the first half mile. Last year I paced of of Michael Williams for the first quarter mile and it proved to work rather well. This year I was on my own and felt good but not great. At the turn I had about a 30 sec lead and for some reason the back half felt a lot easier than the front. I definitely did not have much in the tank at the finish but enough to have a great race and take first by 49 sec.

This is one of my favorite races as it short and close to the cities allowing more of my friends and family to cheer me on. This year my old roommates and close friends Mike and Andrea Moonen came with their son Asher along with my new step father in law, sister in law, her fiance and my ever supportive mother. It was great that they got to see me get a win.

After the race Josh Blankenheim, Tony Schiller and I went on a recovery run together. Tony Schiller is a former pro who has been around forever. He was one of the top distance pros in the world in the late 80s and early 90s not to mention his incredible resume as an AG athlete. Tony won this race two years ago as a young 50 year old and went on to win Worlds that year in his age division. I never turn down a chance to rub shoulders with someone like Tony. Tony's experience and tips are some of the best training tools you can put in your tool box. I asked Tony if he saw anything I could improve on and he told me that I looked like I was bouncing a bit when I was running and showed me how I can correct it Great tip! To go along with being a star in the sport he has to be one of the most approachable guys I've met in the sport. As soon as he crossed the finish line at Minnetonka last year he asked who I was. Always a great compliment when someone you look up to wants to know who you are. Tony and I also shared some stories and even got to talk military for a time. Tony's brother is in the Navy and close to getting his own ship. A very impressive feat. I look forward to racing with Tony in the future and will try to put his tips into practice.

Next Level?

This weekend will be another great test to see how much I've improved and how far I've come. The Minnetonka triathlon has been dominated by Brett Lovaas for a number of years. There is no doubt he has this course dialed in every time. Although Brett has not been putting up the numbers he used to and I am racing fantastic right now. This could be a good shot to move up to the next level.

I remember just a few years ago looking at results and seeing big names like Brett and Dan Cohen, amazed at how fast they were/are. Saturday I have my best shot so far at proving that I belong amongst these super studs. The question is will I be able to put out another great race? Because that is exactly what it will take. Not to put out excuses but Liberty Half took a lot out of me last weekend and I ended up pushing it too soon and tweaking my Achilles earlier in the week. I expect it should be good to race on by Saturday but will it keep me from performing at my best. The time off may even help. We'll have to wait and see.

Last year I was held up by some sloppy transitions and ended up getting legged out for second by Josh Blankenheim by 1 lousy second. This year Josh will be back and so will Brett. Josh really put on a great race a few weeks ago at Buffalo and seems to be improving as much as I am. I'm not going to make any overall predictions but I'm guessing it's going to be Josh, Brett and myself battling it out for the podium spots.