May 14 - May 20
S: 10,282 yds - 2hr 35min
B: 75.49 mi - 3hr 35min
R: 27.19 mi - 3hr 21min
Good Races: 1
Bad Races : 1
Lessons Learned: a couple
Total: 9hr 31min
It was a light-ish week, mainly due to the Memphis in May Triathlon weekend. Just like last year, I planned on doing the sprint on Saturday and the olympic on Sunday, with hopes of making a little bit of cash in this so called "Amateur Challenge" to pay for gas or something. In short, the Good was my Sunday olympic distance race. I had a sweet 57:xx bike and a 39:xx run in super hot/no shade conditions, which I was happy about. It was solid execution and I was pleased. Although the race was good, the Bad was my swim in the olympic race. Swimming 25:xx is not going to cut it. Now we did have to swim through a ton of swimmers in older age groups that started before us, but that is no excuse. The Ugly was my sprint race on Saturday. I pretty much blew it, and was totally embarrassed considering how my running has been going and the couple of 5k's that I've ran recently. I got my butt handed to me, and that's about it. People that I should normally crush beat me by 2 minutes, which in a sprint race is a beat down. I got owned. Anyways, here's a short recap.
Sprint Tri
Swim - 8:08
T1 - 0:47
Bike - 30:49
T2 - 0:57
Run - 20:34
Total - 1:01:14
The swim felt ok, but then I got on the bike and it felt WAY too hard given the wattage I was putting out. I backed off towards the end because things weren't feeling good, but the run was still awful. I haven't felt that bad in quite some time. I'm not really sure what happened, but it resulted in a beat down and it was not very fun!
Olympic Tri
Swim - 25:08
T1 - 0:55
Bike - 57:28
T2 - 0:52
Run - 39:55
Total - 2:04:18
I didn't feel bad on the swim, but the results speak otherwise. Clearly, the bike was a lot of fun. Stiff headwinds greeted us for the first 20k, but the last 20k saw a tailwind and a 28 mph average speed. The run started off slow for the first mile but I found my legs and stayed cooled for a good performance.
Overall, the competition in both races was pretty stiff and the weather was HOT!!! I ended up 20th in the sprint and 22nd in the olympic, giving me 12th out of 65 in the Amateur Challenge competition for a $75 payout. The sprint could have gone a little better but I learned some stuff, moved on, recovered, and had a good race the next day. The olympic race was pretty stacked. Any time a 2:04 is good for only 22nd, you know it was a tough field. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season, I think I've knocked off most of the rust on the racing legs, so we'll see how the summer goes!
5.13.2012
Some Training and Some Racing
May 7 - May 13
S: 11,448 yds - 2hr 52min
B: 111.03 mi - 6hr 12min
R: 30.84 mi - 3hr 53min
Total: 12hr 58min
Low-ish hours due to a Sunday race and an off/light Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday was back to work and Saturday was some more fast racing and a win at the Clay House 5k. Straight from the gun, I jumped out to he front with 2 other guys. They quickly passed me and I opted to sit right on their hip and wait to see what would happen. We hit the first mile in 5:38 and soon after one of the other guys dropped back, leaving me and one other guy. I continued to sit on his hip and let him set the pace. Mile 2 was a little slower at 5:52. The 3rd mile included a slight incline for around a half mile. At 2.25 miles and at the start of the incline, I heard the guy starting to breathe loud and hard, so I figured now was as good a time as any to make a move. I moved to the side and went for it, glancing back once after 20 seconds to survey the gap and then it was all out to the finish for an overall time of 17:53. All in all, it was a fun race for a good cause.
S: 11,448 yds - 2hr 52min
B: 111.03 mi - 6hr 12min
R: 30.84 mi - 3hr 53min
Total: 12hr 58min
Low-ish hours due to a Sunday race and an off/light Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday was back to work and Saturday was some more fast racing and a win at the Clay House 5k. Straight from the gun, I jumped out to he front with 2 other guys. They quickly passed me and I opted to sit right on their hip and wait to see what would happen. We hit the first mile in 5:38 and soon after one of the other guys dropped back, leaving me and one other guy. I continued to sit on his hip and let him set the pace. Mile 2 was a little slower at 5:52. The 3rd mile included a slight incline for around a half mile. At 2.25 miles and at the start of the incline, I heard the guy starting to breathe loud and hard, so I figured now was as good a time as any to make a move. I moved to the side and went for it, glancing back once after 20 seconds to survey the gap and then it was all out to the finish for an overall time of 17:53. All in all, it was a fun race for a good cause.
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| Clay House 5k |
5.07.2012
Rev3 Knoxville Race Report
Apr 30 - May 6
S: 10,063 yds - 2hr 31min
B: 95.66 mi - 5hr 5min
R: 25.97 mi - 3hr 13min
Total: 10hr 48min
On Saturday morning, I headed up to Knoxville, TN for my first triathlon of 2012: Rev3 Knoxville Oly. The race site was based around Neyland Stadium and the University of Tennessee Women's Rowing boathouse...which was kind of cool because I was a rower myself in college. After checking out the boathouse, I went for a quick swim in the river and an easy bike and run to make sure everything was working properly. Next was packet pick-up and then I met up with the University of Alabama Triathletes for dinner and lodging for the night. As for the race itself, the short story is a 14th place overall amateur finish with a consolation prize of winning the male 25-29 age group, which is fine because they gave out a case of power bars and a free race entry. Now on to the details:
Swim - 22:46
The water temperature was probably upper 60's, which felt pretty good considering temperatures were going to get hot. I started out on the far right right behind local Birmingham hotshot Aaron Ainsworth, knowing he'd probably swim ~20...maybe I could grab his feet for a little while. The swim was pretty uneventful. I never ventured off course and felt like I was working pretty hard. Most of the top 10 swam between 20-21 minutes, so I didn't lose too much time.
T1 - 3:46
I know what you're thinking...why on earth is this so long? Basically T1 was at least 600 meters or so. First we ran all the way down the super long dock at the boathouse, then through the lobby of the boathouse, then a good 400 meters to the parking deck where transition was, then to the OTHER side of the parking deck, then into transition to do normal transition activities. Whew!
Bike - 1:02:20
The good news is that my power output was pretty good...and it felt really good. The course was definitely a little on the slower side due to 2 nice climbs (by triathlon standards), and a ton of sketchy intersections, railroad tracks, and horrible road quality that involved hitting the brakes. There was only 1 amateur that went under 60 minutes and only 5 guys that beat me (that I can see), so I feel slightly ok with a slower than expected bike split. If only I were as aero as James, I probably could have turned that wattage into another couple mph!
T2 - 1:28
Uneventful, except that someone had put my wetsuit on top of my bike rack so I had to move it out of the way in order to rack my bike. To whoever did that, thanks.
Run - 40:12
Right out of transition, I knew I was sitting in around 9th place in my wave. The one wave that started behind us had the male < 24 year olds, so I figured some of them might be close...so the goal was to just run as fast as I could and try not to blow up. Right out of the gate, I could see a guy about 30 seconds up the road. After 1-1.5 miles I had reeled him in and was all by myself. The weather was starting to get hot, but it was manageable. My Garmin was having difficulties so I didn't know exactly how fast I was running, but it felt decent. THEN, I had my only falter of the race...at around mile 4.5 or so, it felt like someone just "flipped a switch" on me. I got kind of lightheaded, my legs just felt like they "shut down", and I noticed that my heart rate felt unusually rapid. This prompted me to look down at my Garmin and notice that my heart rate that was around 180 bpm a couple minutes earlier was now floating around 230. I've known Garmin to be real finicky with heart rate, but what scared me was that my body was feeling very weird...something I've never felt in 1000's of hours of training over the last 5 years. For a minute, I actually remember thinking to myself "at least I'm close to transition so if I pass out they'll find me quickly". After a couple minutes of some slow running, I started to feel semi-normal again, just in time for a 3/4 mile slight uphill to the finish line. Below are the splits from the results. The first half (or maybe even slightly longer) was painful but good. The second part was due to be slower anyways because of the hill, but it also included my half mile meltdown.
Results here, search for #277
All in all, I'm pleased with the race. No major screw ups and the only part where I think I really lost time was that couple minute stretch on the run. I definitely knocked a little bit of rust off the racing legs...it's funny, but no matter how hard the training is, almost nothing compares to racing flat out for 2 hours. I'm a huge proponent in racing A LOT, because I feel like there's some things that a race gives you that you just can't do in training. Also, huge props to Stephen Hammond and Alex Kamman for solid race results...here we are with our spoils!
S: 10,063 yds - 2hr 31min
B: 95.66 mi - 5hr 5min
R: 25.97 mi - 3hr 13min
Total: 10hr 48min
On Saturday morning, I headed up to Knoxville, TN for my first triathlon of 2012: Rev3 Knoxville Oly. The race site was based around Neyland Stadium and the University of Tennessee Women's Rowing boathouse...which was kind of cool because I was a rower myself in college. After checking out the boathouse, I went for a quick swim in the river and an easy bike and run to make sure everything was working properly. Next was packet pick-up and then I met up with the University of Alabama Triathletes for dinner and lodging for the night. As for the race itself, the short story is a 14th place overall amateur finish with a consolation prize of winning the male 25-29 age group, which is fine because they gave out a case of power bars and a free race entry. Now on to the details:
Swim - 22:46
The water temperature was probably upper 60's, which felt pretty good considering temperatures were going to get hot. I started out on the far right right behind local Birmingham hotshot Aaron Ainsworth, knowing he'd probably swim ~20...maybe I could grab his feet for a little while. The swim was pretty uneventful. I never ventured off course and felt like I was working pretty hard. Most of the top 10 swam between 20-21 minutes, so I didn't lose too much time.
T1 - 3:46
I know what you're thinking...why on earth is this so long? Basically T1 was at least 600 meters or so. First we ran all the way down the super long dock at the boathouse, then through the lobby of the boathouse, then a good 400 meters to the parking deck where transition was, then to the OTHER side of the parking deck, then into transition to do normal transition activities. Whew!
Bike - 1:02:20
The good news is that my power output was pretty good...and it felt really good. The course was definitely a little on the slower side due to 2 nice climbs (by triathlon standards), and a ton of sketchy intersections, railroad tracks, and horrible road quality that involved hitting the brakes. There was only 1 amateur that went under 60 minutes and only 5 guys that beat me (that I can see), so I feel slightly ok with a slower than expected bike split. If only I were as aero as James, I probably could have turned that wattage into another couple mph!
 |
| "the race machine" |
T2 - 1:28
Uneventful, except that someone had put my wetsuit on top of my bike rack so I had to move it out of the way in order to rack my bike. To whoever did that, thanks.
Run - 40:12
Right out of transition, I knew I was sitting in around 9th place in my wave. The one wave that started behind us had the male < 24 year olds, so I figured some of them might be close...so the goal was to just run as fast as I could and try not to blow up. Right out of the gate, I could see a guy about 30 seconds up the road. After 1-1.5 miles I had reeled him in and was all by myself. The weather was starting to get hot, but it was manageable. My Garmin was having difficulties so I didn't know exactly how fast I was running, but it felt decent. THEN, I had my only falter of the race...at around mile 4.5 or so, it felt like someone just "flipped a switch" on me. I got kind of lightheaded, my legs just felt like they "shut down", and I noticed that my heart rate felt unusually rapid. This prompted me to look down at my Garmin and notice that my heart rate that was around 180 bpm a couple minutes earlier was now floating around 230. I've known Garmin to be real finicky with heart rate, but what scared me was that my body was feeling very weird...something I've never felt in 1000's of hours of training over the last 5 years. For a minute, I actually remember thinking to myself "at least I'm close to transition so if I pass out they'll find me quickly". After a couple minutes of some slow running, I started to feel semi-normal again, just in time for a 3/4 mile slight uphill to the finish line. Below are the splits from the results. The first half (or maybe even slightly longer) was painful but good. The second part was due to be slower anyways because of the hill, but it also included my half mile meltdown.
- split 1 - 2.74 m - 17:14 - 6:17/mi
- split 2 - 3.46 mi - 22:58 - 6:38/mi
Results here, search for #277
All in all, I'm pleased with the race. No major screw ups and the only part where I think I really lost time was that couple minute stretch on the run. I definitely knocked a little bit of rust off the racing legs...it's funny, but no matter how hard the training is, almost nothing compares to racing flat out for 2 hours. I'm a huge proponent in racing A LOT, because I feel like there's some things that a race gives you that you just can't do in training. Also, huge props to Stephen Hammond and Alex Kamman for solid race results...here we are with our spoils!
 |
| Alabama Tri and alumni (me) with spoils! |
4.30.2012
1 More Week
Apr 23 - Apr 29
S: 15,348 yds - 3hr 55min
B: 170.19 mi - 9hr 31min
R: 42.93 mi - 5hr 20min
Total: 18hr 46min
Whew! It was a good week of a more-than-generous amount of intensity on the bike and my normal dose of swimming and running. Part of me thinks that Brian was trying to see how much threshold riding I could handle on the bike in one weekend before cracking. Saturday was quite rough, mainly due to temperatures in the high 80's and running out of fluids, but Sunday felt a lot better...probably because I had a good early birthday steak lunch to fuel up before the ride! What makes this all worth it is that I'm one week away from my 2012 triathlon debut at Rev 3 Knoxville (olympic), and I'm pretty excited to see how it goes. This year has been a pretty drastic change in training structure; and after racing a half marathon, a duathlon, a 5k, and tracking progress through daily workouts, it's pretty clear that it has been a good change!
S: 15,348 yds - 3hr 55min
B: 170.19 mi - 9hr 31min
R: 42.93 mi - 5hr 20min
Total: 18hr 46min
Whew! It was a good week of a more-than-generous amount of intensity on the bike and my normal dose of swimming and running. Part of me thinks that Brian was trying to see how much threshold riding I could handle on the bike in one weekend before cracking. Saturday was quite rough, mainly due to temperatures in the high 80's and running out of fluids, but Sunday felt a lot better...probably because I had a good early birthday steak lunch to fuel up before the ride! What makes this all worth it is that I'm one week away from my 2012 triathlon debut at Rev 3 Knoxville (olympic), and I'm pretty excited to see how it goes. This year has been a pretty drastic change in training structure; and after racing a half marathon, a duathlon, a 5k, and tracking progress through daily workouts, it's pretty clear that it has been a good change!
4.22.2012
"Get the work done"
Apr 16 - Apr 22
S: 15,398 yds - 3hr 51min
B: 140.05 mi - 7hr 33min
R: 44.43 mi - 5hr 47min
Total: 17hr 12min
Probably one of the best weekends I've had in awhile, mainly because I got to see all my favorite people! I headed down to Tuscaloosa on Friday to watch the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship that would take place the next day. The race was pretty fun to watch because instead of just mindlessly watching athletes fall all over themselves while they try to mount their bikes coming out of transition (which is actually pretty entertaining), I was tasked with calling out splits for Jay McCurdy as he balled his way to an 8th place overall finish. Birmingham's own Hallie Blunck took 3rd overall in the female race, and Sara Phelps BEAT DOWN the entire field in the female open race for a 2:30 margin of victory. Also, Marcus Farris and Kendrick Gibson took 2nd and 6th in the men's open race. I'm proud to say that my friends straight up dominated this weekend!
I really enjoyed hanging out and watching some racing this weekend...but like it says, that's no excuse to start slacking. One of the highlights of the weekend was a double run day on Saturday, culminating in a "trip down memory lane" run through campus and around the quad, stopping briefly at Denny Chimes to stretch and soak it in. Sunday was of course a long ride with K and S through Lake Lurleen State Park and surrounding areas. And as tradition would have it, the trip ended with a stop at Chipotle for a monster steak burrito...yum!
S: 15,398 yds - 3hr 51min
B: 140.05 mi - 7hr 33min
R: 44.43 mi - 5hr 47min
Total: 17hr 12min
Probably one of the best weekends I've had in awhile, mainly because I got to see all my favorite people! I headed down to Tuscaloosa on Friday to watch the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship that would take place the next day. The race was pretty fun to watch because instead of just mindlessly watching athletes fall all over themselves while they try to mount their bikes coming out of transition (which is actually pretty entertaining), I was tasked with calling out splits for Jay McCurdy as he balled his way to an 8th place overall finish. Birmingham's own Hallie Blunck took 3rd overall in the female race, and Sara Phelps BEAT DOWN the entire field in the female open race for a 2:30 margin of victory. Also, Marcus Farris and Kendrick Gibson took 2nd and 6th in the men's open race. I'm proud to say that my friends straight up dominated this weekend!
 |
| Denny Chimes |
4.16.2012
Asheville!
Apr 9 - Apr 15
S: 9,957 yds - 2hr 30min
B: 168.47 mi - 10hr 18min (17,073 ft of climbing)
R: 42.15 mi - 5hr 25min
Total: 18hr 13min
On Thursday afternoon I headed up to Asheville, NC for a weekend of epic cycling and trail running in the mountains. Luckily, I was joined by 2 solid riders (Oliver and Lancaster), although all the running was solo. Friday and Saturday pretty much followed this schedule:
S: 9,957 yds - 2hr 30min
B: 168.47 mi - 10hr 18min (17,073 ft of climbing)
R: 42.15 mi - 5hr 25min
Total: 18hr 13min
On Thursday afternoon I headed up to Asheville, NC for a weekend of epic cycling and trail running in the mountains. Luckily, I was joined by 2 solid riders (Oliver and Lancaster), although all the running was solo. Friday and Saturday pretty much followed this schedule:
- wake up, huge breakfast, coffee
- kit up
- 3.5-4 hour ride, climb as many mountains as possible
- post ride meal and lounge around
- head to the forest for a 50-60' trail run
- shower and clean up
- steak dinner/local beer
- sleep
 |
| Rolling out on day 1 |
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| The day's agenda: Mt. Mitchell and 7400 ft of climbing |
 |
| Bikes in a row at Craggy Gardens |
 |
| Photo shoot at Craggy |
 |
| Mt. Mitchell: the day's first hard effort |
 |
| KOM attempt on Mt. Mitchell...BOOM!! |
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| Starting off day 2 with a nice Cat 1 climb |
 |
| Devil's Courthouse |
 |
| Another view from Devil's Courthouse |
 |
| Refueling after day 2 at a bed and braekfast |
 |
| Nice view of Mt. Pisgah while we ate |
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| View from the daily evening trail run |
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| Ending the week right: "Death by Hops" |
4.08.2012
Another Biggest Week
Apr 2 - Apr 8
S: 15,438 yds - 3hr 52min
B: 168.62 mi - 9hr 30min
R: 40.88 mi - 5hr 10min
Total: 18hr 32min
Like it says, another biggest volume week ever. And if you are wondering why I swam such an odd number of yards, it's because 3/4 of my weekly swims are now long course meters!! The major highlight from the training week was actually having spring weather for once, which made everything more enjoyable. Saturday was a great 4 hour ride with some awesome friends. Sunday was another great day of celebrating Easter with fellow believers at church and then with my family.
All in all, fitness is coming around quite nicely. The first triathlon of the season (Rev 3 Knoxville Olympic) is a month away, and I'm pumped to see how things go. The duathlon a couple weeks ago was a good sneak preview as to what is to come...but based on how things are progressing, I don't even think that was the tip of the iceberg...which is clearly a good thing.
S: 15,438 yds - 3hr 52min
B: 168.62 mi - 9hr 30min
R: 40.88 mi - 5hr 10min
Total: 18hr 32min
Like it says, another biggest volume week ever. And if you are wondering why I swam such an odd number of yards, it's because 3/4 of my weekly swims are now long course meters!! The major highlight from the training week was actually having spring weather for once, which made everything more enjoyable. Saturday was a great 4 hour ride with some awesome friends. Sunday was another great day of celebrating Easter with fellow believers at church and then with my family.
All in all, fitness is coming around quite nicely. The first triathlon of the season (Rev 3 Knoxville Olympic) is a month away, and I'm pumped to see how things go. The duathlon a couple weeks ago was a good sneak preview as to what is to come...but based on how things are progressing, I don't even think that was the tip of the iceberg...which is clearly a good thing.
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