No Excuses . . .

I haven't posted since Louisville, maybe because not too much exciting has happened. So instead of going over the past 2-3 months. .. here is what has been on my mind over the past 2-3 weeks.

I am sure we all go through a time, spell, period, where we lose motivation. . .well, I have hit that point somewhat over the past couple of weeks. I know, I know. . .no excuses. . .but I think the past year of swimming, riding and running 9 days a week has finally caught up with me. To make things a little worse, I have Ironman Coeur D'Alene (IMCDA) coming up in June and 30 weeks till race day was 2 days ago. I have actually found myself saying . . "what if"

What if, I cancelled my registration from IMCDA, what if I just focused on a Half Ironman, what if I didn't do any races in 2010 and just ran/biked/swam when I felt like it?

I will admit that having a1 year old (well on 12-12 he will be 1) changes my perspective on a lot of things. . .mainly, what is all of this Triathlon stuff for? What is the real motivation behind me doing all of this?

I can say that in 2005, when I started to train for Triathlon, the main focus was just to be in shape. From there it evolved into a challenge to see if I could complete a Half Ironman, which I did in September of 2005 and then basically took a year and a half off while signing up in June 2006 for IMCDA in 2007. IMCDA in 2007 was one of the best experiences of my life. Even though I had a major mechanical on the bike I still loved every minute of that race. 2008 IMCDA was more of a, "ok, let's see what I can do without problems race". I had a nearly perfect race and posted a time that I didn't think I was actually capable of. 2008 was a somewhat of a breakthrough year. . .and helped to motivate me for a great 2009 season. Which leads me to December of 2009 and me asking myself. . "now what?".

Triathlon gets expensive, while I have all of the equipment that I need, there is race fees, travel costs, basic maintenance costs that add up to replace tires, tubes, nutrition, etc. . . In the end, it gets expensive. It is also time consuming, especially Ironman and while Amy has been very supportive over the years, things do change. Priorities change, focus change and in the end lifestyles change. The term "Baby changes everything" is true. .. no doubt about that. But it is the best change to have ever happened to me and our family. I am truly blessed and I know this. I have had the change to accomplish what less than 5% (I think I just made up that stat) of the population has achieved in doing and Ironman, I have a beautiful wife and baby boy, and two smelly dogs. What more could one possibly want?

So where does this self-pity, self-evaluation and lack of motivation leave me? Not sure. . but wanted to get it out there. I know, suck it up and get back in the saddle, on the road, or in the pool. . . Don't worry, I will and I will be fine.. but maybe this is the beginning of end? or the Beginning of something not defined. . either way, I have way more than what I deserve.

Ironman Louisville Kentucky Race Report

FIRST: Praise to My Heavenly Father for all the safe training and the strength to continue.

Big Thank You to the following people . . .Amy (wife), Kloden, Mom/Dad, Aunt Janet (from Seatttle who has been to all of my Ironman races), Family in general.

Gordo Byrn (Coach), Greg Goodman (cyling coach KMA),Bob Schloegel (Mentor), Ben Schloegel (Resident Pro/Expert), Ken Welsh (Friend/Boulder Training Partner), Training buddies that includes: Randy Booth, Eric Ervin, Dave Corwin, Dale Anderson, Brian Howell, Hugh Ryan, Chris Yows, Tim Freeland, Troy Smith, Eric Kratz, David Seay, Jason Taylor, Barry Ogden, Brian Evans, Sandy Cohen, Pepper Stokes, Thursday night Casey's ride group, the whole KMA class, Jewish Master's swim team, Prairie Life Master's swim crew. .Tim O'Donnell, Pat Beasley. . . The Bike Stop Bicycle Stores . . .and anyone/everyone else I might have forgotten. The Fugate Family. . . .anyone else? Sorry if I forgot anyone, shoot me a message and I will put you on here. .

As you can see, triathlon has brought a lot of people into my life and I am thankful for that. . ok, group hug. . . .

OK . . .. sit back, grab something to eat/drink and block about 20 minutes out of your day. . .this is a long one. For the short version. . here you go. PR!! 10:36.59 ok, leave a comment.

For the rest of you . . . read on. . . .

It is nice to feel welcomed. :)

Seriously, I was very serious this time around. The past two Ironmen I had trained for, I basically started training about 5.5 months out and spent a good amount of that time getting 35 lbs of fat off of my body that seemed to always find me during the winter months. Well this time around. . I was serious . . . seriously!. Training officially started on December 5th, 2008 for the August 30th, 2009 date and in short. . . things went exactly to plan. Probably a little better actually, which kindof scares me.

If you read the my previous post then you are well aware of the stressful events that led up to us arriving in Lousiville and also the good amount of time and stress that was spent on that little problem. . . to say that I completley blocked it out of my mind and it didn't have an impact at all on me would be telling something other than the complete truth. Although, with things being fixed and returned to normal the day before, everything was falling into place for race day.
BUT FIRST! . . . days leading up to Race day. . .

This picture is from Friday morning practice swim. . all friends from Kansas City or previously lived in KC.
from left to right. .. Tim Freeland, Me, Troy Smith, Bryan Fugate, Mark Carey


Getting all the gear on for the swim. . ..

My first time in the Ohio river. .I am a little concerned about the 15 foot catfish that have been known to swallow men whole. . . .


Almost done with the practice swim and see how happy I am to be alive!!!!


Saturday before bike check-in. . I am lucky to have my own bike mechanic there helping me out. Ready to turn the "Steed of Speed" in for the race. . .once you check it in, you can't get it back till after the race. . . See the stupid placement of my number on my bike? Yeah, that didn't work out to well come race day when my legs kept hitting it. On the seatpost stupid!!!
Race morning: Woke up at 4:30 am and downed a pb & jelly sandwich, some acclerade and a banana. . .went back to bed for a bit and then woke up again at 5:15AM. . . and then headed out with Dad and Amy. We met Troy on the way out and walked down to the Transition area about .5 mile away. The logistics of this race (in my humble opinion) are not the best. The swim start is approx. .75 miles away from the swim finish and transition area and then the run finish is about 1 mile away from the transition areas too. So in reality you have 3 different areas that you will be in all to start, change gear and then finish. Sorry. . got off on a little tangent there.

So we made it down to transition, got everything set up, tried to get to my transition bags, but apparently those are on high security lockdown, so that was a no go. Went back to my bike and put my HR strap on my handlebars and then headed down to the swim start. . about half way down, I remember that I am wearing my orthotics and will NEED those on the run. Great, this means that I HAVE to get to my Transition bags as I need my orthotics in my run gear bag. So I go down to the area and there are two girls standing guard over the bags. The first girl I take out using a bike pump to the back of the head and the second girl I gas with a CO2 cartridge. . just kidding. . :) I ask the girl very politely if she can put my orthotics in my bag, since I require them for a medical condition (half-truth). She looks at me and says, so "You need these for a medical reason?". Yup! She says ok, that is the only reason why they are allowed to put stuff in the bags. So she does so and comes back and verifies my info to make sure she put them in the right bag and I am all ready to go!

I start the .75 mile walk to the swim start over again and find Troy, Amy and Dad all waiting for me. Now keep in mind this swim start is a time trial start and not a mass start so in reality we still have plenty of time to get down to the start. ..in fact we just fall in line with everyone else making their way over. We make it over and get bodymarked (see half naked picture below) and then make our way over to get in line. I see Jason Taylor there (triathlete friend from KC that has come to spectate and cheer us on). .he gives us the lowdown on what is going on and where to go, shows us the special T-Shirt he and Brian Evans made for the KC crew and then wishes us luck.

We walk down the line (which seemed to go on for miles) and finally meet up with Barry Ogden, Jason Wolfe. Also there (as spectators) are Brian Evans, Barry's girlfriend, and a couple others. Hope no one behind us minded Troy and I cutting in line. It was nice to have some friends to talk to and it made the waiting go faster. We heard the pros start and then 10 minutes later it was time for the rest of us to go.

Once the line started moving it wasn't too fast till you entered the "Point of No Return" and then it seemed as though we jogged down to the boat docks and jumped in.

Heading down on race morning to transition. . ...
Body marking at the swim start. . . . and yes, I have band-aids on my nipples. . no one said this is a manly sport!
The swim plan was to stay nice and relaxed and not push anything. . well, I had to push about 50 people out of my way, but once I made the turn into the main part of the river, I just put it in cruise control and started thinking about T1 (Transition to bike) and the bike portion. At what I thought was half way for the swim I looked at my watch and it said 33 minutes. . great, this was suppose to be one of the fastest swims in the Ironman circuit and here I was posting my slowest Ironman swim ever. . well, it turned out that mush have been more than halfway, because when I came out of the water and was about half way to T1, my watch said 55.XX, so I knew my acutal swim time was 53 minutes or so.

My official swim time was 55 minutes and 15 seconds.
Age Group:
1/453
Overall (including pros):
20/2435

T1: The run from the water to T1 was quite a trek, they didn't record your actual swim time till you were about half way to T1 (running out of the water) so that is why T1 time is lower and swim time is a little longer. Not much to report here, changed into bike shorts, got the shoes on and race belt and then headed out of the tent. . . 4 minutes 21 seconds.

Bike: My goal on the bike was to keep HR at 150 Avg and not to push (spike) any hills. I knew that going in, I would have to hold back when others passed and just race my own race which can be very hard to do. I had a secret goal to go 5:30 on the bike and after driving the course the day before, that goal turned into 6 hours. .. . It was a HILLY course and truth be told, it psyched me out a little. . .oh well, no time for that now. . I had a 112 mile ride to do. The first 10 miles of the bike, the main focus was to bring the Heart Rate back down from the jog during T1. . note to self is to walk T1 next time so don't have to work for 10 miles to bring HR back down. I would say more people passed me in the first 28 to 35 miles than I passed, but I could tell by my Garmin 705 that I was right where I wanted to be. I made it to La Grange (a town where spectators could drive to, to watch the race) and I expected to see my family there, but I guess they were being a little slow on getting out there and missed me. I had the Fugate family there cheering Bryan on and me when I rolled through, so that was nice and also had Jason Taylor and Brian Evans there with the Air Horn scaring the crap out of me. Thanks Guys!

The next 36-80 miles was right where I wanted it to be and the HR kept coming down and each 28 mile "lap" was faster than the first (mentally I break the race into 4 x 28 mile laps to get the 112 total). Here is the data. .
Miles 1-28.7 Miles: 1 hour 26 minutes 4 seconds AVG 20mph
Miles 28.8-56.01: 1 hour 20 minutes 40 seconds AVG 20.3mph
Miles 56.02-84.01: 1 hour 23 minutes 15 seconds AVG 20.2 mph
Miles 84.02-112: 1 hour 16 minutes 26 seconds AVG 21.7 mph

The last 10-12 miles were death. . Coming back down to the river valley is fun and then you know it is flat back to Transition, but flat is a good and bad thing all at once. . flat seems to go on forever with no break and when you have hit 102 miles on the bike, you are ready to be off as soon as possible. The last 5 miles seemed to drag on forever, and I was excited to get off and see how my body would react since I held back on the bike. I had paced/raced the bike exactly as I planned and while the HR was a little higher than I would like, I knew that I had left plenty in the tank for the 26.2 mile run to come. . .

Official Bike Time: 5 hours 26 minutes 52 seconds 20.56 Avg Speed MPH
Age Group:
40/453
Overall (including pros):
194/2435

Picture of me heading out on the bike. . .

READY TO GET OFF THIS THING!!!!!!
Making way to Transition. Getting ready mentally to run. . ..

T2: 4minutes, 6 seconds. .

Heading out on the run . . .

Run: All year was focused on this. . . .to RUN. . . .
I knew I had to hold back on the bike to have a decent run. . so we wil see. . ..

I came out of Transition feeling pretty good. . the plan was to hold a 9:13 per mile pace for the first 4 miles and then come down from there. . well the excitement of the day, me not thinking and well, just plain being in the moment caused the first 4 miles to look like this:

Mile 1: :8:36
Mile 2: 6:59
Mile 3: 8:14
Mile 4: 9:22

Hey, I got mile 4 about right! :) My other plan was to walk the aid stations starting with Mile 1 and well, that didn't happen till Mile 4. I was feeling good, but I knew that if I didn't walk now, then I would be walking A LOT later on. . So starting at Mile 4, I walked every aid station which as probably around 30 seconds on average.

I was anxious to get to the turn around part on the south end of Louisville, so I could see others that I knew and so I could see how far behind me they were. . .the only person I wasn't 100% sure on as to starting position was Tim Freeland. I didn't know if he started in front of me or behind me. . He was the only one I saw on the bike though. . .
I hit the turnaround and looked at my watch to get the time till when I saw the next person I knew. . Josh Wolfe has passed me on the bike at mile 100 or so and I knew there was no catching him. I was looking for Barry and knew he would be the first one that I saw. . sure enough about 6 minutes back when I saw him and he was looking strong. . .I figured it was only a matter of time at that point. Next I saw Jeff Whitecotton (better known as Whitey) and he was about 10 minutes back. . ..then I saw Tim, he was about 12 minutes back, but I figured he had started way behind me and he was on pace to crush 11 hours. . .. Not that I am competitive or anything, but seeing those guys gave me a little boost and the per min mile average dropped for the next 2-3 miles. . .

Coming back into downtown is rewarding yet cruel at the same time. . .the race organization basically brings you to the footsteps of the finish chute and then WHAM!!! You make a turn to head back out on your second loop. .

Normally at this distance of running I seem to feel good at mile 8 and then things start getting hard at around at around mile 14-16. . . at the far turnaround (last one till finish) I wanted to get a time check on everyone else again. . I could see that Barry and I were still about the same time distance apart and I put a little more time on Whitey and Tim. I saw Troy this time too and he was looking good for his first.

Miles 23-25 was the darkest point by far and I could see my pace dropping into the 10 min mile range. . As everyone, I told myself to keep going and I had run 2-4 miles a thousand times over the past 9 months and this was nothing. .. .
Coming back into downtown Louisville was the greatest feeling. . .knowing that I had about 1 miles to go and my family and friends would be waiting to see the finish. I knew I was going to set a PR of around 10:3X something and while I would have loved to have broken 10:30 minutes, I knew at about mile 18 that, that was not going to happen, but I knew breaking 11 hours was done and breaking 10:45 was probably going to happen too. . .

Running down the finish chute is one of the greatest feelings one can have. . .all pain leaves the body, what was once a tired and decayed spirit, comes alive and for a brief moment, you are the only racer in the world and as far as everyone cheering is concerned, you are the winner.

Then you cross the finish line and reality sets in. . for at least the next 2-3 days. :)



Run Time: 4 hours 6 minutes 25 seconds. . .. 9 minute 25 second Per Mile Average. .

Age Group:
95/453
Overall (including pros):
504/2435


TOTAL TIME: 10 hours 36 minutes 59 seconds

Overall Rank = 182/2435
35-39 MaleAge Group Rank = 34/453


BIG THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU to Amy for all of her support and putting up with my 5 hour training rides/runs/swims. . ..

Picture of me and Barry Ogden. . .

Picture of Me and Troy Smith . . .

IRONBABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you made it this far. . then leave a comment below. .at least let me know that my mom and wife are not the only ones that read this stuff. :)

The Quest is half the battle . . .

The race report is on its way, but in the meantime, here are some of the events leading up to the race. (I will try and keep this short)

Wednesday 8-26-09: Amy, Kloden and I headed to Wendy's to grab some food before returning home to pack and then load the Nissan Quest (see my play on words in the title . . .I am very sneaky). Well, after we ate we got back in the Quest it would not start. . .great!! Call my dad and he goes to our house and grabs the Excursion (yes that is right, we own a 2000 Ford Excursion V10 4x4 and it did not even qualify for the Clunker program) to come pick us up. .. well before he gets there, the Quest starts and we head for home. When we get back, we pop the hood and see that the battery terminal is all corroded and needs replaced, my dad and I replaced the terminal and that seemed to fix the problem. . . or at least we thought.

Thursday 8-27-09: Woke up, went and swam and then headed home to get the family and head out at around 7:15 AM for Louisville, KY. My parents followed us on the trip which turned out to save the day. . . Everything was going smoothly and we were about 60 miles outside of Louisville when I took the Quest out of cruise control and hit the gas. . NOTHING. . .so I pushed again. . NOTHING. . again. . it went this time. Ok, I had no idea what that was about, but I needed at least 58 more miles out of the Quest. Well with about 15 miles to go it died. . and I mean pull over to the side of the road, light the road flares, put out the cones, we were done. My parents pulled up behind us and we called a tow truck. . Amy, Mom, Kloden and Aunt went in parent's car to Hotel so they wouldn't have to wait on the side of the road. I waited with my dad in the Quest with my bike and all the gear. In about 20 minutes the tow truck was there and we were on our way to Louisville. He towed us to the Nissan dealership, where I rented a minivan for a day and then we switched all the gear over to the rental and went to the hotel. AH. . exhausting and stressful, but we were at least in Louisville.

Friday 8-28-09: Got a call from the Nissan dealer saying that it needs a new battery and they would go from there. Ended up it needed a new alternator too, but they said they didn't have that in stock(yup, I am at a NISSAN DEALERSHIP and they DO NOT have an alternator for a 2007 vehicle, way to go Nissan Dealer!) and it would be Monday maybe Tuesday before they could get that in. Well, I wanted to leave Monday and staying an extra night would add to the overall cost with the extra hotel room so my Dad and I got on the phone and found a AAA Repair Shop. I called Bill Etscorn and Sons Auto Repair http://etscorns.com/warranty.htm#collision_center shop and they said they had one in stock and to get it to them right away. Dad and I dropped off the Quest and waited for the call. At about 4:45 or I called and told them I was headed over and they said they were almost done. Well, longer story short, the alternator they put in was bad so they had to redo it. BUT. . . they were closed on Saturdays. Robert (the service manager) told us to hang on a second and he came back 5 minutes later and said, he and his mechanic would come in on Saturday and get the new one put in. I was very thankful and floored. . here we are, Kansas Citians in Louisville and they could have just said too bad, soo sad, but instead decided to help us out and come in on their day off.

Saturday 8-29-09: Got a call around 1:30 PM that the Quest was ready to go. Troy and Melissa Smith drove us over and we got our van back. BACK IN BUISNESS!!!!

Sunday 8-30-09: RACE DAY (to be continued in the next post). . . .

Some pics of our trip to Louisville and the sights around Louisville. . .

The St. Louis Arch, but I guess you already knew that. .. .

Just into Illinois and on our way!

Some cool buildings in Louisiville . ... Lousivlle has a more (New Orleans, southern feel to it)

Amy outside the Gault House . . they had horse statue everywhere downtown.

The family after eating at Jimmy John's . . .
Louisville Slugger Museum. . Kloden got two bats. . .

The Gault House (the host hotel. . we didn't stay there)

Picture of Steele and Kloden at Churchill Downs

Barbaro's Grave and Statue. . .Amy and Kloden
Churchill Downs

RACE WEEK!!!!!!

So it is Race Week!!! Ironman Louisville is this Sunday and everyone is ready to go!! So. . why do I post a picture of a trail covered in snow in the middle of nowhere? Because this is where it all began. It began last winter with getting up at 5:55AM on a Saturday morning and wanting more than anything to go back to bed, but knowing that getting outside in the 15 degree weather, with snow/ice on the ground and 30 mph winds would only make August 30th that much better.



I got asked a question today about my swimming in the winter time and how much I have to swim to maintain. . that sent my mind into think mode (scary, I know). Well, to give that question a straight answer, I probably need to swim 1-2 days a week in the winter time to maintain. BUT!!!! I have 20 years of swimming under me, where the usual triathlete does not. .



I think the offseason training is different for everyone. I know for me last year (winter) was about keeping the weight OFF!!! That might seem funny, but my method of operation the previous two seasons heading into January weighing in at 220 lbs and then spending the next 5-6 months trying to get down to 190 or below. Well, this past winter, my goal was to put no more than 10 lbs on, so when I hit November/December the weight went up to 194, but nothing above that. It was easy for me to get it back down to below 190 for the early spring months and I believe this more than anything has allowed me to have a great 2009 season so far. (although it isn't quite over yet). 185 as of right now. . .



So, I guess the answer, how much to maintain. . is different for everyone. Focus on your limiters, what are you NOT good at? Do you need to swim better? Do you need to have more strength? Run better? Bike better? Keep the weight off? I think most of us would answer yes to all of that. . although be honest and pick 1-2 of those things that are your GREATEST WEAKNESS and work on those.



For me. . . I will tell you after Ironman. . till then, my mind needs to focus on that and the BIG BREAKFAST the day after. :)

Taper Time. . .

I was told to put an update on my blog so some people will have something to do when they get bored, so here are some thoughts.

For those that don't know, Taper is a word used by athletes (or people who call themselves athletes, like me) to describe a period of time that you reduce your volume and mileage in order to rest the body for the A race. This time around that race is Ironman Louisville, scheduled to take place on August 30th.

For a lot of people, they love Taper time. . it is a time to kick back, relax, stress out, relax and then stress some more, all before the big race. As for me, I don't really enjoy Taper that much, oh, I do enjoy the extra time to be with Amy and Kloden and being able to get some extra stuff done, but I always feel like I should be working out, or like I am skipping a training session.

I am the type of person, that LOVES to train. I have a secret too. . I could really do without the races. Now don't get me wrong, I do love to race and test the mind and body, but there is just something about getting outside and training or getting a good session in. It is hard to describe, but it is one of the best feelings in the world.

Like 2 weeekends ago, when I met up with a bunch of guys and we hammered out a 1 hour swim, 6 hour bike and then a 1 hour (cough. .. .45 min) run.
BUT. . for now I am in taper mode, where the longest workout left is 3 hours for later this week and most days this week only have 1 workout per day. .. or if they are two workouts then they are shorter sessions. Yes, for me, Taper is a love/hate relationship.

Oh yes. . I also signed up for Ironman Coeur D'Alene in 2010, it will probably be my last Ironman for a while, so I figured might as well go back to where it all started in 2007. Although in 2007 it was suppose to be a 1 and done type of event. . and there I will be in 2010 for Ironman #4.

Focus after that will be qualifying for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Florida. Either for 2010 or 2011. . .still in negotiations with Amy with that one. :)

EnduranceCorner Summer Boulder Triathlon Camp

This post is not about a race, but it does involve Triathlon. :)

For a couple of years now, I have always wanted to go to Colorado and do some training, such as ride in the mountains and put in some quality training time with other triathletes. So. . the chance to go to Gordo Byrn's (http://www.endurancecorner.com/) camp came up and after getting the ok from Amy to do it and for the whole family to go, I made our reservations.

The camp took place in Boulder, CO and the surrounding countryside/mountains. The camp is a full 7 days long, but Gordo mentioned that if people could only come for certain days then he would pro-rate it. GREAT! This is exactly what I was looking for. . .so I booked 4 days and on July 7th Amy, Kloden and I loaded up the Minivan and headed west. If you want details of the family portion of the trip then go to our family blog and Amy does a great job of telling about it http://www.amyandjaredblog.blogspot.com/

My tentative schedule for the camp was something like this (with the biggest worry on my part being the Wednsday ride).
Wednesday: Boulder to Wiggins Colorado. 160 mile bike ride
Thursday: Boulder Reservoir Swim and Bobby McGee Run clinic (Afternoon open)
Friday: Mount Evans Climb (56 miles) with 28 miles all up the mountain to 14,100 feet!!
Saturday: Big Day Training: Master's swim in the morning with bike ride after and short run if wanted.

So we roll into town on Tuesday, get unpacked and hop back in the Quest to drive 8 miles to Boulder, so I could see where I was suppose to meet everyone for the ride on Wednesday at 5:45 AM. We were staying in Louisville, CO (which turns out to be Money's #1 place to live in America) since the hotels were cheaper and the drive was still doable each day. We found the launch site (Gordo's house) and then headed to Pearl Street for some shopping and family time.

Wednesday: Well, I arrive at Gordo's at 5:15 AM, get all of my gear ready, get the bike out, pump up the tires, get everything arranged, check my watch, fiddle with something else, worry a bit, check my watch, look around and then about 5:40 AM Gordo comes strolling out of his house. I tell him I am Jared and am here for the ride, "oh. . well they are meeting someplace else, but no worries we can roll-up on them. So we hop in the car and he calls the others and we find them at some intersection that I have no idea where it is or how to get back.. . Gordo says he will take the van back to his house and I can just ride back to there. . .Great! :) That is a worry smile.

Long story short: I meet up with Justin Daerr (http://www.justindaerr.com/index.html), Tony an elite camper, and Todd. Well, I have no idea who is who, but Justin stops the group after 5 miles and gives us all a talking to. Basically saying, this is a 160 mile ride, it is fast and if you are not sure of have self doubts, then you might want to turn around now. :) Of course no one does.

So. . we head out. Below is a shot of where we were and we got so far out that you couldn't even see the mountains. Even though we headed East we were still at 5000 feet or so.




Just got a flat at about mile 25 or so. We did a quick swap and were back on our way. Long long story short, Todd (the guy in the red/white Jersey) turned around at mile marker 50 because he was toast. At mile 56 Justin made the decision that we would all (3 of us at that point) turn around and head back. The head/cross winds were just too much for just 3 of us.
I ended up getting in 123.1 miles with an average of 21.14 mph. It was a good ride, but I was toast by the end. The travel day before and the elevation made my heart rate a little higher than desired, oh and their hills are about 10x as long as the ones here. . not as steep, but longer.

Day 2 (thursday) was the Bobby McGee run clinic. We all met at a local Junior High and did about 2 hours of lecture and running drills. I learned a lot. This was suppose to be a "recovery" day for the camp since Sun-Wed was pretty hard for them.

Picture of: Left to right: Alan, Gordo, me


Bobby McGee in green (below pic) doing his thing. Awesome run coach. . .the thing is he gives a free clinic every Wednsday morning. . hmm. . 9 hour drive. . ..so if I left at 10:00 PM. . . :)



Friday: Friday was the day that I was waiting for. The Mount Evans climb!!!! We were to start in Idaho Spring, CO (7000 feet) and ride up to the top of Mount Evans (14,100 feet) which is basically 28 miles all up"hill". The half way point is echo lake at mile 14, where we would get some more food/liquids and hit the road again.

Here is a picture of the Sportsmobile and everyone getting ready.

Picture of Todd and I at Echo Lake (halfway point). Note that there are still trees here. . but in about 2000 feet, the trees go away. :)
Ken Welsh and I at Echo Lake. Ken is a Triathlete Coach based in Kansas City. http://www.midwesttriathloncoaching.com/index.html



Climbing up Mount Evans (or any mountain for that matter) is completly different than a hill in Kansas City. Keeping the heart rate in check and staying mentally sane is the top priority. You have to tell yourself that you will be climbing for 3 hours, so just take it easy.

With about 5 miles to go and at 12,000 feet you start to really feel the affects of less oxygen. You can see the top (about 8 switchbacks up) but you know you still have a ways to go.. maybe another 45 minutes of climbing. Oh and it gets colder the higher you go and windy. .very windy. The temperature at the top was 40 degrees. You basically stand long enough to get some pics, put the cold weather gear on (jacket, beanie, etc) and head back down. (Notice that there are not any trees to be seen!!). Oh, I saw a family of Mountain Goats, a Mormot, and a Fox on the way up.


My Garmin has never been that high before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bottom right hand corner 14,068 feet
Ride time: 3 hours 25 minutes My heart rate is low though! :)
Picture of my 2008 Specialized Tarmac SL2 at the top . . .she is a good bike. Got me all the way up and down safely.

Picture of Gordo Byrn and myself at the top. You can tell who the rookie is. . the guy with no head protection of jacket on. Once Gordo got to the top he put on his gear and said see you guys at the bottom. We were like, why so fast? You will see, he said. Well, you cold very very fast just standing around . . .and on the way down.



Starbucks at the bottom at Idaho Springs, CO. It was nice to be back in civilization! Funny thing is that every year we go out to Colorado for Snowmobile and usually stop in Idaho Springs and everyone wants to go to Starbucks, but we never do. .. so I made a point to stop there. Hung out there with Laura and Ken till Amy came and got me and Gordo got the other two. It was nice just relaxing after a hard day in the saddle.

Saturday was the last day of the camp, and the only day that I had NO idea what we are doing. When I got there, I asked Gordo what we were doing. . his response in typical Gordo fashion "Swim, Bike, Run". :) Great! That cleared everything up. So the first thing on tap was Master's swim with the Boulder Master's swim club. Great, this shouldn't be too bad. . well 5200 meters later in 1 hours 5 minutes and I was worn out. The best part is that after, Gordo says to me. . "do you know who you were leading in your lane?" Nope, I say ..well, that was Tim DeBoom. I couldn't believe it, I even talked with him for a bit and had no idea. Tim DeBoom is a two time Ironman World Champion (yes the one you see on NBC every fall).

After the swim we hit the bikes. The initial plan was to do a 2-3 hour ride and then run for an hour or so. . well 4.5 hours later of 4 hours of climbing through the mountains and I was done. I was happy though, because I wanted to ride in the mountains and see the countryside from a bike and that is what I did. Also, we went places that were waaaayyy out of the way and I had to take a picture of the name of the town so I would remember.

Riverside, Colorado. Stopped here and waited for Ken so I took some pics of the river and bridge.

We ended up stopping again in about 5 miles at a one man grocery store. Seriously it was about the size of a large cubicle, but it had all the necessities. Pop and candy. :)

All in all it was a great time and a great camp! I learned a lot and can't wait to go back to hit the mountains again.

Ironman Kansas 70.3

It is hard to sum up the whole experience, but here is the short version: It was a great day and a horrible day all in one. Read on. . .

My triathlon career (hobby) has been going strong since 2007. I started to get back into them in 2005, took 2006 basically off and then signed up for Ironman CDA in 2007. So I would consider this my third year or Triathlon training. While I have done numerous sprints, couple of Olympics and even Two Ironman races, I have only completed 2 half Ironman races before coming into Kansas Half Ironman race. And one of those was during the 2005 season as the last race to see how far I could push myself. My time in that race was 5 hours 48 minutes and some change.

So coming into this race, I had high expectations for myself. It seems that my sprint races came together well, my Olympic distance race at the KC Tri, proved to be not what I thought I could do and seemed to play a little with my confidence. So this race was a chance to redeem some of my confidence and to show myself what I was capable of. . .for me. . .it would always come down to the run.

My race strategy was to float the swim, just not go out real hard and then to allow my body to get into a natural rhythm. This would allow me to keep the HR low and to glide through the water. The bike strategy was to keep the heart rate in check no matter how much I could push the bike and then to have plenty in the tanks to run a 1:50 half marathon. . . at least that was my goal.

Let me begin the actual report by saying this. If you have never been to a sactioned IRONMAN event, then you need to go. There is truly something magical about them and there is a buzz in the air the days leading up to the race in the registration and expo areas. Don't belive me? Then ask anyone who has gone and they will confirm. This race was a sactioned Ironman race (meaning that World Triathlon Corp is putting it on) and it was done beautifully.

Saturday I headed over to check in and immediatley felt the excitement. I saw Hugh Ryan and Tim Freeland, so after checking in I met up with them at the bike check in and ended up even eating lunch with them back in Lawrence at Jason's Deli. It is good to have friends that you can chat with and laugh with, it makes the nerves go away.

Ok, I have typed a lot already and we aren't even to the race, so let me get going here.

Sunday started early at 3:45 AM. I checked the radar and it showed massive rain/storms that were going to roll through Lawrence at about race time or shortly after. Amy and I made the executive decision that she would just stay home and avoid the hassle of rain. Well, long story short it turned out to be a beautiful day. Little cool in the morning but warmed up nicely and the sun even came out.

I was to meet Hugh and Tim off of 470 and we would caravan over together. Well, I was a little late so I caught them on the on/off ramp as I was coming in, they were leaving, so I just hit the gas and brought up the rear. Note to self, don't be 1 minute late when dealing with Hugh. :)

We drove to Lawrence then sat in a traffic jam getting into the lake of about 1-2 miles long. I expected this, so all you can do is sit there and watch the skies.

We made it to T2 (Bike to Run transition) and got everything set up. Most everyone wrapped their stuff in plastic bags as everyone fully expected it to rain. Then we walked down to T1 (Swim to Bike transition) and got things set up there. It was a half mile walk to T1 and someone didn't bring flip flops or extra shoes, so someone had to walk barefoot. . oops!

As I was walking into T2, they announced that T2 will be closing in 3 minutes. Great! That gives me zero time to get water bottles/nutrition set up and everything laid out and then to get wetsuit on and out of T2. Oh well, there were about 200 other people in the same boat as me.

We watched the pros go off and the age groups before me, then it was time to go.

I lined up to the left side of the start and at the front. The gun went off and we were on our way. I grabbed the feet of one guy in front of me and held that for about 500 meters. Then we started to run into the heats that went before us and I soon lost him. I also had a little problem navigating around the other swimmers and swim buoys. For the most part the swim was uneventful besides me running over or hitting a couple of slower swimmers. I did feel bad about that especially since I know the female heats were mixed in there somewhere. I don't mind drowning a guy but a girl is a different story.

Swim Time: 26 minutes 27 seconds

Coming out out of the water, the strategy was to be about 2 minutes or less in transition. T1 was huge and not a lot of room, so just getting out alive would be win/win situation

T1: 2 minutes 15 seconds

The strategy for the bike was to keep the HR in check and to come off of it feeling like I had plenty for the run. I forgot my bike computer so I had no idea how fast I was going during the race, but in reality that is not a bad thing. The speed is what it is and the HR is what really matters at this distance. I knew that I would be passing a ton of people on the bike since our age group was second to last to go on the swim. At one point I looked up and saw about a mile in front of me and the road was covered with cyclists. . .This should be fun! I took it easy coming out of the lake and tried to get my HR to settle down a little and just spin up the hills and take advantage of downhills for the next uphill.

Out on the course, I knew I would see some that started in front of me and thought I could catch some of them and others I would not. I just kept my HR in check and tried to keep a steady cadence throughout the bike. Right before the first turnaround I saw Tim Freeland and he was looking good. I tried to gauge how far back I was but that was hard to do. I was able to guesstimate my speed because they had mile markers every 10 miles or so, so some quick math, told me I was right on pace for my goal bike time of 2 hours 30 minutes.

At the last turnaround, I knew that there were a couple of more good hills to go and then we would go down to the flat section before climbing back up to the lake. I passed Tim right before that turnaround and told him, that when he caught back up with me on the run, I was going to pace off him. . or at least that was my plan. I was starting to get out in front of the main field and was out with the leaders for each respective age group at this point. The last major hill up to the dam was tough, but wasn't bad. I was definatly ready to get off the bike and get the run going. At mile 55 they have a mile marker and I could do without that, because that last mile seemed to take forever. Coming into T2, I could hear friends shouting my name and knew that I went sub 2:30 on the bike and still felt great. . now to hold the run together.

Bike Split: 2 hours 26 minutes 27 seconds

T2: I got in and out pretty quick. 1 minute 20 seconds

Time to RUN!!!! I felt really good coming off the bike and tried to keep my pace at around 8 minutes. With little effort, I was able to hold around 7:45 or so and was happy with the way I was feeling all around. The sun was coming out, so I knew that it would get hot/humid really fast, but just running along knocking the miles off 1 by 1. I was able to see some others at this point who started about 16 minutes in front of me and they looked good. I was hoping that Sandy Cohen was going strong and able to get that Clearwater (World Championship) slot that he wanted. Barry Ogden looked really strong on the run and I knew he had a strong chance at qualifying for Clearwater.

Long story short is that I held the run together, I did get passed by Tim at about mile 10 and tried to stay with him, but he was just moving to fast for that. My pace had slowed, but overall I knew that I would break 5 hours (my goal) and at the point, thought I had a shot at breaking 4:45. Now the only question was how many guys in my age group had passed me? I wanted to go to Clearwater too. . ..

Coming into the finish, I got some high fives from some friends and took in the moment. It was a great race and I executed exactly (actually a little better) as I had planned.

Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes 45 seconds

Overall Time: 4 hours 40 minutes 14 seconds

Ahh, nothing better than being finish and grabbing a DR THUNDER (generic Dr Pepper). I was pumped. . as you can tell by my finish picture.

I checked the results shortly after and saw I was 15th in my age group and there were 5 slots to Clearwater (World Championships), no way was I getting a slot for rolldown. . .well, what do you know. .. I did get a slot, but the thing is, is that you HAVE TO BE THERE to get it. . and of course I decided to go home instead. . . Dumb mistake on my part. . BUT, I had a PR and no one can take that away. . and I am right on track for Louisville. AND. . .after that, maybe a shot at the Half Distance one more time this year to try and get to Clearwater for 2010.