IRONDAYS

Branson or Redman 2011

2011-06-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time and I didn't even write a race report for IMCDA 2011. Didn't race the way I wanted, but it was a PR for that course so I will take it. Ever since then, I have been on a downhill slide. Training went down, motivation went down and weight went up. . . Well, about two months ago, I started to get the "itch" to train seriously and things seem to be firing on all cylinders. Bike mileage is way down for the year, swim is down a little and run is about the same.
In order to motivate myself even more, I am signing up for either IM Branson 70.3 or Redman 70.3. They are both in September, which should give me plenty of time to get ready. I did KC Corp Challenge Tri this past weekend and was only about a minute slower overall from last year. Got 2nd place overall out of about 210 guys.

Well, stay tuned, because I am back and will be better than ever. This is a secret, but right now the plan is Ironman Wisconsin 2012. Trying to get a solid group of guys together to race with. . .I know Tim Freeland is in so far. . Anyone else?

Team Endurance Corner

2010-03-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

The 2010 racing season is fast approaching and I am pleased to announce that I have singed on with Team Endurance Corner in Boulder, CO. Head coach Gordo Byrn is a wealth of knowledge and has countless years of experience. Check them out and learn as much as you can on their website. They offer free info for pretty much every aspect of the sport. Looks like coaching services are at capacity right now, but there is a waiting list. Also, think long and hard about attending one of their camps if you can. I did the Boulder Summer camp last year and had a great time and tired legs! :)

http://www.endurancecorner.com/

No Excuses . . .

2009-12-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-04T15:18:00.001-07:00

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 . . .

2009-09-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!

2009-08-24T12:06:00.001-07:00

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. . .

2009-08-17T13:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-13T18:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Kansas City Corporate Challenge

2009-06-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Quick summary here of KC Corp Challenge. Basically the race is the Shawnee Mission short course triathlon. This was held on June 7th exactly one week after KC Tri and I had a much better and felt better showing at this race. My bike felt together and the run (although still my weak point) was solid for me. I ended up getting 3rd overall and 2nd in my age group. Other notables were Chris Fugate in 1st, Sandy Cohen in 2nd, and Barry Ogden in 4th. If you have heard those guys names before, that is because they are always near the top. Each of them are awesome triathletes and good friends.

Here are some pics. . . . if you want times and splits, then go here http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10893

The Kansas City Triathlon

2009-06-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

This is a race that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Last fall, I heard that some local friends and triathletes were going to put on a Triathlon. They were going to do it first rate and with the athelte in mind, which cannot be said for other triathlons in this area. So. . . all I had to do now was wait.

Saturday (day before race day) came and I decided to go ride the course and run the course. Troy and I did 3 loops of the bike course and then ran 1 loop of the run course. I could tell right away that I was not fully recovered from the previous weekend's 100/20/100 endeavor. My heart rate shot up to over 170 on the run very quickly when normally it should be high 150's or low 160's. Oh, well, not much I could do now. The rest of the day was spent looking at used mini-vans. . .something I would not wish on anyone. :)

For some reason my mind was not focused on the race on Saturday. Normally that is all I can think about, but I just had other stuff on my mind. Plus this race started the first of three races in a row for me. And my main focus for 2009 is of course Ironman Louisville. Not sure what my deal was, but even though I was looking forward to this race, I wasn't mentally preparing for the race. . .

Sunday morning rolled around and I set the alarm for a little later than normal, because I heard (got a text) the day before that we would have assigned transition spots. As I drove to the lake, I noticed that the ground was wet and the sky looked dark and stormy. I figured this would make for an interesting bike if the streets didn't dry up. I drove the long way around the lake to avoid the LONG line of cars that come in from the north. As I got to the entrance I noticed that about 95% of the people were already there and parked, I was a little late to the game, but hey. . no worries . . .assigned transition areas! :)

As I got up to transition to set up, I quickly could see that we did NOT have assigned transition areas. Oh well, life goes on. . . so I set up at a decent spot and got everything ready to go. Saw some friends and chatted for a while, then Troy, Tim and I went for a warmup run.

Not long after we were done, it was time to head to the lake. Got the wetsuit on and did a quick swim to try and warmup, but didn't have much time. It was a mass start (which I love) and everyone lined up and was ready to go. My first 200 meters or so were decent, and I was in the lead. I was sighting ok at this point and figured that Riley would be close by. As I looked up again I noticed that I was a bit off course. I tend to pull to my left when I open water swim, as I can't see the lane lines on the bottom of the lake. :) I got back on course and got off course throughout the swim. I lost a lot of time to Riley as he tends to stay on course better than me. I made a mental note to get on his feet and stay there, but by the time I was back on course and could see him, he was too far ahead.

Extiting the water, I figured I was 3rd or 4th out of the water and would have some people to catch on the bike. I had a little trouble getting my wetsuit off and fumbled with that for a bit. Finally got everything together and grabbed the bike and headed out of transition. Coming out of transition I could see that I was the second one out. Riley was ahead of me by about 50 yards or so. I tried to catch him, but seemed to be making very little ground. As we came to the back side of the park, a guy came by me on the bike. . I was trying to figure out who it could be. I know most of the fast swimmers and good bikers and I didn't recognize this guy. After he passed me, I passed him and then he said "Hey, Jared, how is it going". Now I recognized him, it was Mark Carey. Didn't remember that he was racing but he has a very good swim, awesome bike and blazing fast run. Yes, he was the overall winner of the race. Anyway, we chatted for a second and then he finally got ahead of me for good. I saw him catch Riley on the big hill at mile 10 or so.

My legs during the first loop of the bike were dead. . I didn't have that normal pop that I have and was not able to climb that well, which usually I don't have a problem with. Again I caught my mind wandering thinking about other stuff and my body just didn't want to do anything. I finally started feeling better at mile 13 or so and caught Riley soon after that. My legs did start to feel better and I believe that I probably did the second loop faster than the first. Overall, I wasn't happy with my bike, but not much I could do about it going into Transition for the run.

I was second person in (after Mark) and he yelled at me when I was in transition. Something along the lines of "let's go!". Mark is a great guy and likes competition. . I probably would have said, sit there and take your time. :)

Coming out onto the run course I could see some of the other guys coming in off the bike. . I saw Bob Schloegel and Ben Schloegel and I knew at that point that second place was going to quickly turn into 5th place before long. The first 200 yards or so felt ok on the run, but my body just didn't want to go. I was running semi ok, but it felt as though I was going nowhere. Some Bike Stop guys/gals were there cheering me on which is always nice, but i just didn't have anything in the legs at all.

My first mile was around the 7:15 or so range, which wasn't too bad. I wanted to be 7:30 or faster as an average. Shortly after mile 1, Ben Schloegel comes flying past me, yelling something about 1 hour of sleep in 48 hours. He was wearing a speedo and talking crazy, so I figured he wasn't all right in the head. :) But, I wish I could run like that at any mental state. (he ended up getting second).

At about mile 2 or maybe a little sooner, her come Bob Schloegel. .. I can tell it was him by his breathing (he sound like a horse). I gave him a time check on how much he was down by. He wanted to know who was in the lead and so on, so I told him. Quickly he was out of sight.

To make a longer story short, I got passed by 17 people in all (well, 18, but one was a team runner). Chris Yows caught me after the first loop and he looked strong. I could see Tim Freeland and Hugh Ryan as I headed out on the second loop and figured that they would soon be on the train to run Jared down (seems like everyone else was).

I have never been so glad to be at the finish line. . . . I really had no idea what place I was in or really cared. . I was just happy to be done. Something about the Olympic Distance Triathlon. It is just long enough to make you suffer and short enough to make you go faster to have pain set in.

I finished 18th overall (1 team beat me, which put me at 19th, but they have 3 people so they shouldn't be counted in overall results). Time was 2 hours 16 minutes 22 seconds. I improved upon my Olympic time of last year by just over 10 minutes.

With the big training weekend I had prior to this race and the lack of mental awareness, I was happy with the overall result. Now I get to focus on KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon and then Ironman Kansas 70.3

After that, I am not sure what is on tap till Ironman Louisville, but I am sure I will do one more race as a tune up.

This race was an awesome one! It was well run, organized, marked, staffed, etc. If you are only going to do one Triathlon a year, then make this one it. Very well done!!!!!

2009 BikeSource (Heritage Park) Triathlon

2009-05-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people get talked into doing something and this is one of those times. This race wasn't originally on my 2009 race schedule. Since I did Trizou a couple of weeks before, I didn't see any reason to add another sprint race in May. Well Thursday before the race ended with a normal master's swim practice. . .in the locker room the peer pressure started. Bob Schloegel decided to call me out for not racing. Something to the effect that I can talk about racing and being fast but unless I show up and do something, it is just all talk. Also, if I want to be one of the fater triathletes in the area, then I need to do races where other fast triathlets are at. . .

FINE!!!! I made it to work, filled out an application and was entered within a hour of the verbal lashing that was handed out. I didn't announce I was racing to anyone, figured a sneak attack was in order. :)

Well, watching the weather on Friday and Saturday, I started to rethink my decision to race. The weather report was calling for 39 degrees Sunday morning. . . Wonderful! :)

Well, the weather people were right, when we (Amy, Kloden, Jenny and I) rolled out of Independence, it was 40 degrees on the car temp reading. Ahhh. . I am sure the water will be warm though. . right?

When we got to the race, I saw a long time friend Chris Fugate (a fellow swimmer) and he promptly informed me that the water temp was 52 degrees. Huh!?!? 52? Well Couer D'Alene was 52 last summer and I almost panicked when I got in that water. . .. .so this should be fun.

In the following picture you can see the fog from the lake. . so that meant that at least the water temp was warmer than the 40 degree air temp. Oh yeah!!!

The talk in transition before the race started was what to wear on the bike and how much. I figured that once the race got going, that I wouldn't care too much about what is cold and what is not, since the pain from racing would be setting in. . .. so I just went with normal tri wear.

The swim is a 587 yard (500 meter) swim. It is basically in a very small lake (duck pond). The feeling on the bottom of the lake on my feet is well. . .not the most pleasant experience. I didn't really do much of a warmup so just got in did a few splashes and lined up.

The first half of the race went great, I was in the lead and pulling a group of about 6 (including myself along). There were some fast swimmers, such as John Riley,Fugate and Sandy Cohen there, so I knew as long as I stayed close to them I would be fine. I made it to the turn buouy and just kept swimming, only to be stopped by a lifeguard who told me I had gone too far. I look back and see the pack of 5 making the turn. . .GREAT! . what a rookie mistake.

I jumped on to the last guys feet and just settled in. I figured that any extra push here wouldn't be worth it and as long as I can keep them within 10 seconds I would be ok.

I was 6th overall out of the water and didn't really have a great swim. . . . but I was in contention at that point and that is what matters.

Swim time: 7 minutes 2 seconds

Transition 1: I ran up to transition, trying to get my wetsuit off (this is always a task by itself). By the time I got to my bike I had it 90% off and finished pulling it off my legs. I tried to put my socks/shoes on but my balance was not the best, so I sat down and got ready. I noticed that there were about 5 of us right there together. Coming out of T1 I was about 4-5th place.

Time: 1 minute 32 seconds

The bike was where I would have to put time on people if I had a chance to win this thing (little did I know that Rozencranz who is an ex-pro was just in front of me and catching/beating him was not going to happen). Out of transition and on the bike I noticed that Sandy Cohen and Chris Fugate were right in front of me. I just went as hard as I could to pass them and put some distance on them right away, knowing that either one of them had the run to chase me down.

There was the ex-pro in front of me by about 15 seconds that I could see the entire time, but never did catch. He was a good rabbit though for me. The first lap hurt as the legs make the transition to the bike. The first hill is a killer and then the climb to the back of the park finishes the legs off before the descent back to the park and across the dam. The first lap done, now it was time to contend with the traffic of other racers. . .the second lap is easier on the legs, but now one has to be on their toes to be sure to pass the slower riders without putting anyone in danager. I think I counted 2 loose waterbottles on the road. The second lap was a good build into the third and I could tell my average was picking up.

The third lap I gave it all I had and just started to prepare my mind for the run.

Bike Time: 27 minutes 47 seconds for 11.5 miles: Average of 24.84 mph

Transition 2: Not much of an event. . .I was second coming into T2 and the guy that was 5-10 seconds in front at that point, looked back gave me a smile and was gone.

Time: 42 seconds

Actually I will say that I had a good run overall. . I know I am not at sub 6 min miles yet, but my overall run time was 2 minutes faster than last year so improvements have been made. The first out and back (small loop) I could see a pack of about 4-5 guys just behind. I believe the pack consisted of Chris Fugate, Sandy Cohen, Chris Yows, and Barry Odgen. I knew all of those guys were very strong and all capable of running me down. I just tried to get into a good rythm and think about what was coming up. I knew a incline was waiting as we came off the trail and onto the main road. At that point the lead guy gave me a thumbs up and I could see the others coming on strong. At the far turnaround, they were even closer, with Fugate and Cohen making the most ground on me. Right after mile 2 Sandy comes past, I try to pace off of him, but he was just too strong. Next came Fugate and he shortly passed Sandy too. . both were running very fast. Coming across the dam, I tried to not look back to see who else was coming. I knew Chris Yows and Barry Ogden would be close. As I gave a glance back Yows was right there. I tried to surge a little to see what he had left, but I think we both knew that he was the stronger runner and had the advantage at that point. He went past me with about 150 yards to go. . I tried to keep pace and picked up the pace to a mild sprint, but he answered and held off any attempt I made. . ..I crossed line feeling like I could heave. . so I knew I gave it my all, and that is all I could ask for. . . Here is a shot of Yows and me battling it out for the coveted 4th place spot :)

Overall, I am very happy with the race. ..

Run time: 19 minutes 22 seconds 6:28 min/mile pace

Overall time: 56 minutes 22 seconds (over 3 minutes faster than last year)

Overall place: 5th

Overall age group: 3rd

Kloden and his daddy. . LOVE MY BABY BOY!!!!

Triathlon friends: Left to right: Jared, Brian, Chris, Bob Schloegel, Barry, Tim Odonnell

Trizou Triathlon Race Report

2009-05-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Trizou Triathlon took place in Columbia, MO at the University of Missouri campus. The swim was unique in that it was actually in the university pool. Distances were 500 meter swim, 14 mile bike, 3.1(or maybe just 3) mile run. Grab something to drink. . here we go!!!

All 660 competitors had to line up (sit down) in designated swim time areas. It was up to each competitor to line up. I made my way over to the fastest swim area at 5 minute 15 seconds. They then announced that if anyone was going to swim 4 minutes or faster to come over to the elite wave (they are the "pros"). Well, I didn't go over but I should have. . . We lined up for the swim and I was about the 6th guy to start. The swimmers went off every 10 seconds apart. They made us jump in (not dive) which made it awkward, but I managed and off I went. In about 100 meters I caught my first guy and then another and then another. I ended up passing 3 guys. Total Swim time: 6 minutes 23 seconds. (actual time was 5:15, but they counted some of our run time to transition).

Transition: This is where I lost about a minute. I had a tough time getting on my cycling shoes. . after doing that, I was off. Time: 1 minute 16 seconds.

My biggest mistake here, was that I didn't drive the bike course ahead of time, so I really had no idea what the course was like. To put it mildly, there were a ton of sharp turns in the course. Normally triathlons are not that technical, but this had some very nasty turns. I am surprised someone didn't get seriously injured. There were also two good sized hills in the race. The first one caught me offguard and in the wrong gear, but I managed to get up it and passed a guy in my age group. I wanted to do the bike course in 35 minutes and as I was coming to the last hill back up to campus, I knew I would be hard pressed to do that. Coming into the 2nd lap area, they didn't really have it marked, so I had to slow down and basically have the volunteer tell me what to do (when I was done with the second lap, I noticed they put a sign up that explained what to do, would have been nice to have that a little earlier). The second time around, I was more comfortable with what to expect and was ready for the first hill. I spun up it and just tried to go as fast as possible. Coming down the hill (right before the last hill up to campus) I remembered a nasty bump in the road that on the first lap I was surprised didn't destroy my wheel. I managed to jump that this time and just went for broke up the hill. Coming into the finish is a 80 degree turn that almost ended it for me (the volunteer really wasn't pointing where to go), but I managed to stay upright and headed for the transition area.

Bike Time: 37 minutes 8 seconds 22.62 mph avg

Transition 2: Bad . I think that sums it up. If I would of had good transitions, I probably would have been top 10 overall. . . . Triathlons are really a 4 leg sport.

Time: 1 minute 7 seconds

The run is what I was really looking forward to. I have been working my run and I was anxious to see how I would do. I started off feeling a little sluggish, but after about a half mile, this passed and I just tried to keep my turnover high. I noticed some duathletes out on the course, but no other triathetes. At the 1 mile marker I saw an elite female athlete and decided I would try and chase her down. I also saw a guy in my age group behind me, and knew I had to keep him there. I caught the elite female at mile 2 and never did see that guy in my age group again. The course was pretty windy/curvy, but finally I made it back to the pool area and just kept up the pace till the finish. I reallly did feel good during the run and felt like I could have kept it up for a while longer if necessary.

Run Time: 19 minutes 46 seconds 6 min 35 second per mile

I was happy with the race and figured I would be right around there this time of year. I was happy with the run time, especially after the hard bike. I saw Amy right at the finish and Kloden was still in the pool area with Melissa. . we went in there and I talked with Troy and Kris (they had yet to start) and gave them a heads up about the bike course.

Overall Place: 19 out of 660

Age Group: 3 out of 52

Well. . that is all. . I hope you enjoyed it! I did!!!

Kloden and me inside the MU Natatorium. Maybe he will swim there someday?!!! :)

Trizou and 42?

2009-05-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

My first triathlon of the season is this weekend in Columbia, MO. Distances are 440 yard swim, 14 mile bike, 3 mile run. Doesn't sound bad. .. but it is suppose to be 42 degrees at start time. . . NOT FUN! Oh well. .that is one thing we can't control. . . the weather.

Here is the website: http://www.ultramaxtri.com/races/rfs/index.php

Race report on Monday. . I promise! :)

Spring Fling Wrap Up

2009-04-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well the last Spring Fling Crit race was last weekend (4-11-09). Long story short, is I ended up in 2nd place overall for the series. Not too bad for a triathlete in his first season of bike racing. Randy Booth finished 3rd and Dave Corwin finished in the top 10. Not a bad showing for Bike Stop first race series. I think a lot of us are planning on doing the Velotek Grand Prix next weekend. It is a stage race which means that you have a Time Trial, Crit and Road Race. The individual with the lowest time overall wins. Should be fun!

Training is going well, right on target for where I want to be. First Triathlon race is in 2 weeks in Columbia, MO. It is just a sprint, but should be a good test. . . I am actually looking forward to it.

Well, enough chit chat. Here are the pics from last weekend.

Top 3 overall. .left to right.
Dave laying the HAMMER DOWN! Monster Pull Dave. . . that is his name.
Randy (thunder) Booth. . .

Quick update

2009-04-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

View from my morning runs in Corbett, Oregon. Beautiful country. My Blackberry phone doesn't do it justice.

Oregon was great, I have some pics to post, but no time right now, but I will get those up soon. I ran everyday I was there and it is a beautiful place to run. . .very scenic and somewhat hilly too. :)

Spring Fling was this past weekend and I blew it. No excuses, I just blew it. I got 8th place and now I share the overall lead with a Bike Shack rider. This weekend will determine the winner, so we will see what happens.

That is all for now, this post is very boring, I know. . .but I will update later.

Spring Fling #3. . 5 start and 4 finish. . uh oh!

2009-03-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Spring Fling #3 was shaping up to be a great day. . . It was about 70 degrees with light wind and sun. We had 5 guys from the team there including myself and we were ready to defend the Yellow Jersey. We welcomed Dale to his first race ever and tried to give him some pointers on staying upright and finishing. . . things don't always work out like you mean for them to.

Picture of all of us waiting for the 34 and younger CAT 5 guys to get done. . .. From left to right.
Me, Eric, Dale, Dave, Randy

The race started off as normal, it seems the warmer weather brings out more guys, but not too many. . . I sat in the middle to watch any attacks that might come with teammates behind me ready to help out if they had to. You will notice that two guys back from me is Dale. I think he crashed shortly after this picture. I guess a guy from Bike Shack came across and hit his wheel. . Dale went down pretty hard and had some road rash and pretty good cut on his elbow that needed stitches. I hear he is doing good, but probably a little sore and stiff.

The sprint lap on the race was number 6. . . man. . that almost threw off my entire day. It took me 2 weeks to understand that the first sprint points were on lap 5 and now they are telling me lap 6!!!! I figured I would just listen for the bell this time. The next picture is after the sprint lap. . I am leading the front group. . I wanted to put a little extra hurt on some of the guys. I might not have the raw power that some of the bigger guys have, but I can sustain what I do have for a longer period of time. I got 3rd or 4th on the first sprint points. Randy got First!!

Here I am looking to see who has come with me. .shortly after I pull over and let someone else do the work. . .

With the sprint lap being on lap 6 and the final lap being lap 10, it didn't leave much time in between till we had to rev up and sprint for the line. . ..

Here I am trying to chase down the two guys in front of me on the final lap. . . Dave got me to this point and the rest was up to me. Eric and Randy helped me out earlier in the race by pulling and taking sprint points away from the other teams.

Coming off the final turn, I knew that I wouldn't catch the two that were in front of me. With about 30 yards to go I caught the second place guy and had my eye on the guy in first, but again I ran out of real estate and ended up getting second on the final lap and Second overall for the day. I do retain the overall lead thoug for the series. . but since I can't race this upcoming weekend, I need my team to all place so they eat up points so the other teams can't get them. . . .

Kloden at the Spring Fling. . in 10 years he will be able to race juniors. . . :)

What lap are we on? Spring Fling Series

2009-03-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Oh it looks fast, but it is just a bike and needs someone to make it go. .. am I worthy? Saturday morning started off well enough. It was 35 degrees and I had a Time Trial at 9:50 in the morning. I needed to place well in the time trial in order to be in the running for the overall series, since I will not be able to race on the 28th. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up getting first in the Time Trial, with Randy Booth (from Team Bike Stop) getting second and Dave Corwin (another Bike Stop temmate) getting 5th. Not bad for a new team.

After the Time Trial I went home to get the road bike and then headed back out for the Criterium in the afternoon. The Crit went well for the most part, but someone forgot to tell me (actually I forgot what lap we were on) that the sprint lap was lap 5 for points. Sure enough when we were coming into lap 4, I took off as fast as I could and was pleased that I placed FIRST!! But what did that get me? You guessed it a BIG ZERO POINTS!!! Hey, Jared. . the sprint lap is LAP FIVE!!!! Oh well, I was tired, pretty much out of it after that and then Randy came rolling around after the second turn and said, "get on my wheel". I picked myself up and gave it everything I had to get up to speed with him and hang on to his wheel. For those that don't know cycling, he was being a GREAT Teammate! He could have just took off and went for the points himself, but instead he sacrificed his own sprint to pull me up to have a shot for points. As we came to the finish line I barely squeeked out second place. . .thanks to Randy. Eric, Max and Dave each took turns pulling for the next 4 laps and just being good teammates all around. It is amazing how nice it is to have 4 other guys out there with you when you are racing, just made me feel more calm all around.

Going into the last lap, the guy who won the week before took, off, it was basically a repeat of the week before for me, except this week I got 4th on the final lap, which ended up putting me 3rd for the race.

So a first place in the Prologue (Time Trial) and a 3rd place in the Crit. . not bad but I need to do better in the Crits.

Not a lot of pics this week. . . why you ask? Because the Team Photographer (Amy) was busy. :)

Dave and Randy warming up.

Spring Fling

2009-03-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

The weather was beautiful on Friday (March 6th). . . so much so that I actually ran outside in shorts and a tshirt for my morning run. . . this was going to be a great weekend, I could feel it.

Friday night I decided to switch up the normal group ride and head over to Lakewood to meet up with some other triathletes who in turn would head out to Longview lake to meet up with some other triathletes. Eric came along from the normal group, so I met him on my way up to Lakewood. Now I knew Friday night that I should errrr take it easy Saturday morning, because there was a good chance that I may race that afternoon at the Spring Fling series at Clinton Lake, Kansas.

When I took off from my house at 6:45 am, I knew right away I probably should have left a few minutes earlier. There was a very strong wind out of the south and my 10 mile ride DUE SOUTH was going to be a tough one if I was going to meet up with the guys to head out to Longview Lake. I think my average was around 15mph on the way up to Lakewood. . . and just so you know, the economy is alive and well, because Corner Cafe was PACKED!!! at 7:00 AM and yes on my return trip home the parking lot and surrounding countryside was filled with cars at 10:30. . .so obviously people aren't hurting that bad.

To make a long story short, I made it to Lakewood, met up with Eric along the way, then met Hugh and Tim at the Lakewood clubhouse and headed out to Longview via Rhineheart Road (Big ole hill). The wind was even stronger now and it took all of our might and a lot of Hugh pulling to get us to Longview by 8:00AM.

I think we rolled in a few minutes late and my odometer already read, 22 miles. .. great, so if I turn around now, I get 44 for the day, but I knew that in the end it would be much more, which would make for tired legs for the Spring Fling race later that afternoon.

We headed around Longview clockwise and Hugh pulled most of the way until I decided to attack coming off his wheel for KOM. I shouldn't have done that and later apologized for having him pull the whole way and then I jumped for the top (he said to not apologize because he would have done the same thing to me). :) You have to love cycling. . .

After we came down the hill and headed north on Raytown road, I had put a bit of space on the main group, but I knew with the winds at their backs, that the train would be coming by shortly. . and come by it did. . they came rolling past me at probably around 28mph and then I jumped on. Hugh was the engine pulling the train and Chris Yows and Wheaties guy was right behind him with me and then some others behind me. Hugh picked it up and then pulled off and Chris took off like a rocket, Wheaties guy couldn't hang and fell off pretty fast, I bridged the gap and was giving it all I had to try and catch Yow's wheel. I looked down at my speedometer at one point and it said 38 mph!!! This is on flats with a small incline mind you. . ..

We ended up waiting for everyone at the dam and tried to keep it together from there on out. I guess everyone had their fun for the day. All in all I ended up doing 68 miles for the morning ride. . . and my legs felt every mile of it. . .

Are you up for a Spring Fling???? The Spring Fling Criterium series is basically a series of bike races throughout March and into April.
Saturday afternoon we loaded Kloden into the Sable with his stroller and my bike and Amy and all of the bike gear and Kloden's gear. .. we were full and ready to go!!!

We arrived at Clinton Lake and after a brief sight seeing tour, found where we were suppose to be. I had about 45 minutes till the race, so I got setup, registered and headed out for a warmup. When the race was finally ready to go, they told us we would have 10 laps total with a "Sprint Lap" on the 5th lap, meaning that you can pick up extra points if you are one of the top 4 to cross the line.

When the gun went off, everyone jumped to get going and we were off. The pace quickly picked up and I felt the 68 miles from earlier in my legs right away. Randy and Dave (the other two Bike Stop guys) seemed to have no problem staying in the front. They both said before the race that they would help me out as much as possible, all the time I was thinking, don't worry about me, I will probably get lapped at some point. :)

I found myself at the back of the pack pretty quick. I was trying to negotiate the corners since they can get tight, fast and scary. I honestly thought after the first lap that I was probably not going to make it with the main group. After about the 3rd lap I started to feel a little better as my legs were convinced that I they needed to pitch in and help out. Going into the 4th lap, I knew that lap 5 was coming up and that was the sprint lap. My legs were back and I moved up to be closer to the front of the pack. Coming around the last corner to the finish I was probably about 7th or so and just turned on the gas on the inside. I knew I would catch most of them and had a shot at 2nd place, but I ran out of realestate and ended up getting 3rd for the sprint points. I wasn't too upset since I was having fun and my legs still felt good. I will admit though that the sprint did take a little out of me. Thankfully most of the other guys were tired too and the pace backed off a little.

About lap 7, Dave come flying past me and says "Relax" . . . I knew that he and Randy had something up their sleeves. Randy comes up too and takes about 3 guys with them and pushes the pace a little. I know they were trying to tire the guys out by pushing the pace while letting me rest a little in the pack. They were being good teammates is what that comes down to. Not to mention the fact, that I think I asked Dave twice which lap we were on during the race. :)
Coming onto lap 8 the pack slowed down and it seemed as though no one wanted to be out front. I got close to the front, but never wanted to pull at this stage of the game. Going into the final lap I just wanted to be close to the front and wanted to make sure that I was able to get out of the pack when I needed to. With about halfway to go in the final lap, a guy takes off and I figure I can't wait anymore, I need to go too. I jumped and took off after him, as I came off the second to last corner I caught a glimpse behind me and could see the pack was coming to. The first place guy wasn't going to be caught by me, this much I knew, and here I was out in no man's land. I spent energy trying to catch the guy and now I thought for sure that I would get passed by the pack and end up 10th or so.

Coming off the last corner, I hadn't been passed by anyone and just put my head down and took off, I could see the finish getting closer and closer, and I was just trying to hold off as many as I could. One Cycle City racer caught me and passed me by about 1/2 a bike length and then the race was over. I got 3rd overall (although I haven't seen the official results)!!!! I am happy with the result, I learned a lot and I think I am hooked a little now. :) Enjoy the pics.

Colorado fun

2009-03-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Colorado was a lot of fun. I always have mixed emotions about going on vacation. It is such a chore to pack and get everything ready and then to travel to get there. . . I always think to myself that it would be much easier to stay at home, save the time from packing and not miss any workouts.

We left for Colorado at 4:30AM Monday morning (2-16-09) and I wasn't really looking forward to the trip. . I don't mind car trips, but this would be Kloden's first real trip in the car and I think we were anxious to see how he would do. Plus, Amy woke up sick with the flu. . . luckily it was gone the next day, but it came back later in the week to visit the rest of us.

We arrived in Grand Lake at around 4:30 PM mountain time and got everything unpacked. Amy hit bead to try and recover from the flu and the long trip. Now I have to confess my secret, I took my bike and trainer and set them up in the garage. It was cold in the garage (probably about 40 degrees or so) but I had to do something since I had been cooped up in the SUV all day long. My legs were very tired and stiff from the 19 mile run that I did the day before, but when I was done, it felt good to get at least something in.

Tuesday: I slept horrible Monday night, probably just from being in a new place and I was worried about Amy and Kloden, hoping they were doing all right. Woke up early at about 5:30 am and decided to go out in to the living room and see if we had any additional snow. There was a few snow flakes, but nothing major. A couple of hours later I put on the running gear and decided to get in a run. Running at 9500 to 10,000 feet is a challenge to say the least, plus throw in some cold and snow and you have yourself a good ole time. I decided to run up the mountain to the trailhead and then turn around. It was basically 3 miles up and 3 miles back down. . . Here are some pics of the trek.

Tuesday night I hit the trainer again, no pictures, plus, pics of me sitting on a trainer in a cold, dark garage isn't that exciting.

Wednesday: I hit the road again, this time I decided to run around the "block" and then up the highway to the next condo complex to see what was up there. . . no snow showers this day, but cold and altitude help to keep the ego in check. At least the sun was out today. While running I had the idea (for the next day) to run into town. Town is about 5.5 miles from the house and basically all uphill. Plus you have to watch out for snowplows on the highway. . . they can be tricky at times. We also went down to Sol Vista ski resort on Wednesday. Jen, Lisa and Ashley all went and we had a great day on the slopes. We actually had about a foot or two of fresh powder on some of the ungroomed trails.

Here is a pic of Lisa and I trying to teach Ashley how to ski.

Thursday: Run to town/coffee shop. Thursday, the plan was for me to run along the highway into town. This is basically a 6 mile uphill run that takes me along the shores of Grand Lake and then into town. I would meet my brother and sister in law at Grand Lake Coffee shop (see very first picture). A great little coffee shop that I love. They have a ton of cycling stuff there and come to find out the guy working is an avid cyclist, so I spent some time after my run talking with him about cycling in the area. I feel a fall training camp coming on . . . It was a great run and great just sitting in the shop drinking the hot chocolate and looking at the internet. Grabbed the bike and hit the trainer again. . . no pics. . .sorry.

Friday: A run and then some X-Country skiing fun. I hit the road knowing this would be my last run, so I decided to hed down the highway in the opposite direction of town. I noticed right away it was a tad cooler than normal. Come to find out the actual temperature out was -10 degrees. .. no wonder my eyelids froze over and I had ice all over on the outside of my clothing.

Amy and I headed to the local X-Country ski park and decided to try it for the first time. I really enjoyed the sport and while it does take some getting use to, it is a great workout and a great way to be outdoors. At one point it seemed as though we were out in the wilderness all by ourselves. Although I knew there was a house just on the other side of the hill. Here are some pics. . .

Saturday: Starbucks and Chinese then the great escape. . . After a trainer bike ride in the am we headed down to Winter Park to get some Starbucks from the lodge and then do some shopping in town. We ended up eating lunch at a great Chinese place and then did a little more shopping. This was our last full day, so we headed back to Grand Lake to pack up. We were planning on leaving Sunday morning, but when we got back to the house, we found out that Brian, Ashley and then Jacob got sick with the Flu that afternoon. Andrew had been sick on Thursday so it was apparent that it was spreading. After Jacob got sick (their smallest one) we decided at the point to vacate the house and head back to KC. At least get away from the sickness. Well, the car couldn't travel that fast, we got to Limon, Colorado and in the morning after staying at the beautiful resort hotel Econolodge, Andy (my father in law) and Stephanie (my mother in law) were sick. This left me with the driving duties, so we loaded everyone up and headed east. They seemed to get better as the day went on, but as we got closer to KC, I could feel my own sickness coming on. By the time we hit our house, I was really bad. I basically walked in, upstairs and got into bed with the worst case of chills I have ever had. .. .luckily it was only a 24-36 hour flu thing.

AHH, it is good to be home. :)
Here are some more random pics.

Leaving on a Jet Plane. .. . well in an Excursion

2009-02-15T16:20:00.001-08:00

Heading out to Colorado tomorrow for some snow and food. I will take the whole week off from training and do nothing but eat. Sounds like a plan!!!!

Quick post for this weekends adventures. Earlier in the week, I had the wonderful idea to see if we could ride in Coach Greg's garage and suffer through whatever workout he thought of. He sent out a 3 hour workout to see what I thought. . Sufferfest was the word that came to mind.

We had a solid group, though not a lot of people showed up. . as you see in the picture, the dark, humid, smelly garage just doesn't seem that appealing to that many people. :) Those who mad it were, Scott, Pepper, Pepper's daughter, Dave Corwin and Coach Greg.

Looks fun doesn't it!!?!?!?!? Pic is from my Blackberry. .. so sorry for the quality. We spent 3 hours sweating like pigs and watching American Flyer. . .

Saturday night we had all the family over and Amy's friend Shannon was here from Portland on her way to Spain. We had a great dinner and a good time together.

Sunday morning I wasn't feeling like doing much running, and thought about doing 10 and calling it a day. I am just getting over a cold and it was cold out and blah blah blah. .. I started off slow and just didn't have what I did the week before. . . but we all have days like that, right?!?!?

At the 14 mile mark I decided to suck it up and finish, because it is always easy to quit, and I am not taking the easy way out anymore.

Got 19 miles in and "loved" every minute of it. I strongly believe that the days where we don't feel great and don't want to be there, are the days that we need to keep pushing, even if it isn't our best day. 19 miles is a long way no matter how you look at it. . and I got it in. Can't take that away. . .

Well, we are off in the morning. . so everyone take care this week, train hard/race hard. . while I am eating donuts and drinking Dr Pepper.

Later!

February????

2009-02-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

I need to start taking pictures at some point. .. I know. .. :)

WOW! I must say, that heading out for a ride Saturday morning, it didn't feel like the normal February day. . . No, the temperature was 55 degrees at 7:15 AM and it only got better from there. I rode up and met the guys at White Oak Plaza in Blue Springs. There were 5 of us all together, apparently no one else go the memo that we were going to get a taste of April in February. We headed south on 7 Highway but were shortly stopped because someone (either on purpose or accident) left about 40 framing nails in the median. 5 bikes and 40 nails and you no something has to give. . . Randy got a flat and while he was fixing that Dave and I went back to the nail deposit and threw them all in the ditch, so the next group (I am positive there would have been more) didn't ride through them and experience what we did.

After fixing the flat we headed down 7 to Colbern and then wandered through Lees Summit till we hit Todd George road that took us south to Greenwood. We took a right on 150 Highway (we need to find an alternate route) and then headed over to Ward Road that took us up to our pit stop Lees Summit Bike Stop. Curt was there and nice enough to open the doors for the team at 9:00 so Randy could restock on tubes/cartridges and get some air in the tire. Curt even did a wheel truing of my back wheel and we were off again. We headed north through Lees Summit and took the outer road off of 291 till we hit Woods Chapel and then headed the long way around Lakewood. At Lake Jacomo I took off down the outer road to head home and the rest went through the park back to White Oak. It was a great day of cycling all around with some surges, good hill climbs and basically good moods all around. I think everyone was loving the weather and just being outside again!!!

Sunday, I met up with the normal run group, but this time we had the honor of having the Lees Summit/Blue Springs Tri/Run group meet up with us. I think we had 12 guys in all and that was without about 3-4 of the other regulars. . . it made for a great run and the time flew by as we got to chat with some new people and just talk about the upcoming season. Everyone got in between 12 and 20 miles and even though it wasn't as warm as it was on Saturday, the 40 degree weather was a nice change from the 12 degree weather that we were accustomed too!!!!

2 Gears, 3 hours with baby and then 16.4 to cap it off

2009-02-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a little recap of the weekend . . .

Decided late Friday night that I needed to ride early Saturday morning instead of with the whole crew Saturday afternoon. I am the type of person that likes to get the workouts for the day started in the morning, not at 1:30 PM. So I sent Dave C. a text to verify he was riding in the early morning and to get the ok to tag along. Saturday morning I took off from home at about 7:15 AM with 32 degrees, wind and a little frost/ice on the pavement. I could tell right away that the route we had selected would put us in the wind's furry on the return trip. .. but Dave's only response to that, was "yeah, it will be tough". Understatement of the year. . . . On our way out to Buckner, I heard a snap come from Dave's bike and shortly after the statement "my cable snapped, I only have two gears". So from there on out, Dave had his 50/34 in front and the 12 cog in the back. For a normal rider that would have meant just doing their best to get through the day, but to Dave it meant . .I will ride harder and faster and show you how much better I am than you (in a good way of course).

After our turn at Buckner to head back to Independence/Blue Springs we were met with the onslaught of the West/Southwest wind. . . Speeds quickly dropped to around 17 mph (if we were lucky) and the brutal pedaling began. We finally made the turn off where I would head home and Dave would return to Blue Springs and I asked if he wanted a ride home, he said he would be fina and turned off to head up Crenshaw, which is one of the steepest hardest hills that we have. . . with of course only two gears. Dave is a cycling champion.

Saturday I volunteered to watch Kloden for about 3 hours so Amy could go with her sister and friends to see a movie and out to lunch. Kloden and I had a good time together and he slept for about half of the time in 30 minute segments and ate for about 20 minutes. All in all we had a good afternoon together.

Sunday morning's run was slated for the Blue River (probably one of the least nice places to run in the city) and I decided that 16 miles was the order of the day. Long story short, I got 16.4 in and averaged just under 8 minute miles. I am happy to see my run getting stronger, just hope i tall pays off come summer. :)

Bandit and the Groundhog

2009-01-27T07:04:00.001-08:00

Saturday I was compelled to ride in the garage on the trainer with coach Troy. He had me do Spinnerval 14.0 Aero Base Builder. . Got in about an hour and half with 25+ miles. Good time was had by all. Although, there is one fellow on the DVD that I am not fond of and actually find myself competing against. . .I might have a problem.

Sunday was the GroundHog run. The World's only total underground run. Troy (Smith) came over around 8:00 and we headed up to the caves to meet up with Bob and Matt Schloegel and some other guys we run with. We decided to do the 5K as a warmup (well I guess all of us besides Troy, because he took off like angry badger). 5K was a good run . . not too hard, but not too easy either. Seriously. . running with Bob and Matt at easypace is my semi-fast, but a 7:19 average per mile felt good and relaxed.

After the 5K we did a couple miles cooldown to get ready for the real race. . . . the 10K. Long story short, the 10K was great, I set a PR of 43 minutes 21 seconds and that averages out to under 7 minutes per mile (6:59 :) ) Picture at top is me and Matt talking going into the finish while those around us prepare for their full on sprint finish. I am farthest on the right with black shirt on.

We finished up with 1.6 mile cooldown. All in all 12 miles for the morning. . and tired legs to show for it the rest of the day . . and into the next. :)

OH!!! Bandit. . I didn't explain. A bandit is someone who shows up for a races but doesn't pay. . .but I would never do that. . . .

How much longer???

2009-01-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

Till summer gets here??? I enjoy winter, I enjoy it up until Dec 25th and then I am ready for summer. Winter helps to set the mood for Christmas and the holidays, but after that, I have very little use for winter and snow and ice and all the mess associated with it. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow and a good snowfall, but I think I like it more in places such as Colorado, Idaho, etc. In my ideal world, it would winter there all the time and I could drive there enjoy it and then return to my 75 degree and sunny world. :)

Saturday morning, I picked up Troy and we headed down to Longview lake to hit the road with some other guys on a 12 mile run. 80% of the roads were snow/ice covered and made for an interesting run to say the least. No one got injured, but running shoes and ice/snow don't mix real well. Oh, and you would be surprised by the number of cars on the road at 7:00AM on a Saturday morning. Don't people sleep in anymore???!!!! The best part of the long run? Being finished. :) No pics this time. . sorry.

Sunday I chose to sleep in and spend some quality time with Amy and Kloden. It is amazing to see him grow and become aware of his surroundings. He is starting to smile at you and that is the most amazing thing I have seen in a long long time. The first smile of a baby, has to be one of the most precious things ever.

After church I hit the road solo for a bike ride out to Buckner and back. My average speed to Buckner was 21 mph. . my average coming home was about 16 mph. Oh, how I love the winter wind from the west northwest on a Sunday afternoon!!! I hit some hills on the return trip, since my speed was slow anyway. Figured I might as well throw in some hills to add a little more pain to the fun.

Got home, watched Football, went to church in the evening and looked forward to sleeping in on MLK day!

Winter Trail Run and BB Ride

2009-01-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning started at 6:20 AM. . I went and picked up Troy to meet some other guys out at Lake Jacomo to run the trails. The car temp gauge said 21 degrees out and the wind was pretty strong out of the Northwest. When we got to Jacomo it had started to snow and any moisture on the trail/ground at that point was frozen. I hadn't run the trails before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Tim (a friend and triathlete) said it was just like the Little Blue Trace Trail. Well, it is nothing like Little Blue Trace Trail, that trail is flat and smooth, this trail is hilly, rocky and technical, especially after 4 miles when we hit the singletrack trail where I managed to twist my left ankle twice and my right ankle once and one false step either meant slamming your head into a rock or dropping off the ledge down into the lake. . . I will say though, that I haven't had that much fun in a long long time. It was neat to run with some new guys and to try some new terrain. Next time I am getting some trail running shoes for better traction and taking a fuel belt for water. All in all. . it was AWESOME!!! 10.6 rocky miles. . .

Sunday was a group ride. We started at White Oak Plaza and went to Buckner and Back (hence the title BB Ride). 6 of us showed up as the first (un)offical Bike Stop training ride of the new year. The pace was pretty mild, with a few stretches of some people getting after it, but normally kept everyone together and were just thankful for the 42 degree weather and the sunshine. About 37 miles when all was said and done. Not bad for January.

New Baby. . New Year

2009-01-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

Wow! December was a great month!!! Amy and I had the pleasure to see Kloden Tell Kuntz come into the world on December 12, 2008 at 3:03 AM. He wanted to make sure that we didn't get any sleep so that is why he waited till early morning! Amy's parents and my parents and Amy's sister were all at the hospital since about 5:00 PM the previous night. . so everyone was quite tired the next day.

Amy did great through labor and I must truly say that she is an Ironman too!!!! She was basically up since 1:00 AM Thursday morning and was without sleep for well over 24 hours when Kloden finally came.

2009 is set to be a great year. . I didn't really make any new years resolutions, but do have some goals.
1) To get out of debt (we don't have much right now, but if we could get the car paid off then we would be doing good).
2) To stay in shape and continue on 2008 Triathlon season success.
3) To break 11 hours at Ironman Louisville at the end of August.
4) To be the best husband and father I can be through everything else going on.
5) Be more involved with church, try to go to more services and functions.

I guess those are the major ones. . . maybe some smaller ones in there, but those will only help me reach the above 5.

Happy 2009!!!

Still waiting . . .

2008-12-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

Kloden Tell hasn't come yet, and that is really all we are focused on for now. Hopefully he comes soon and is a healthy baby boy. . that would be the best Christmas present ever. Amy is very uncomfortable and I think she is ready to have him. . Me? oh I am fine, thanks for asking. :)

Training is going well, I have cut back on swimming and somewhat on biking to focus more on running. I need to get in a swim or two a week, but it just seems hard to hit the pool for some reason. Biking indoors has its limits. . I did well for a while, but need to get back at it. December of 2007 I biked a total of 10 miles, so hopefully I can up that this year.

I started to type up a blog about the whole season and thoughts and stuff, but got bored writing it so let me sum it up real quick.

2008 was a great year. I made huge improvements and hope to carry those over to 2009. I like the year 2009. . just something about those numbers that I like. Anyway, Kloden will be a welcome addition to the Ironman world and I am mapping out his first race for him. .
Ironman Couer D' Alene in 2035. I project him to finish first in his age group. :) Training starts the day after he gets here. . I hope he is ready.

Waddell and Reed Half Marathon Results

2008-10-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

COLD!!!! It was cold Sunday morning. . . that was the first thing that hit my mind when I left my house to ride to the race with Troy and Melissa Smith. Troy asked me what I was wearing when we knew it would be cold, and I said, "oh, shorts and a long sleeve technical t-shirt". .I am not a details person, so I left out the gloves and head/ear warmers. . sorry Troy and Melissa. (They looked colder than me). :)

Got to the race and parked in a dungeon of a parking that would prove to take us longer to get out of after the race than the race itself. Anyway, we walked over to the start line, saw quite a few people that we know and just chatted with everyone till it was time to line up.

My goal for this race was to break 1:49:58, which was my previous personal record for a half marathon. So I lined up about 15 feet back from the 1:40 half marathon pace runner (some races have pacers, that hold the pace time up, so you know how face to run, if you wish). Secretly, I wanted to break 1:40, but I was going to be happy with anything faster than 1:45.

The gun goes off and the normal accordian of human bodies starts. .people want to run when the gun goes off but when you have 600 people in front of you and 4000+ behind you that causes for an accordian effect, where you run then walk, run then walk, etc. . .

I cross the official starting line and hit my watch. The first mile went by pretty quick, but my watch showed 8:15 and I knew that I would have to be much faster than that on the next 12.1 miles if I wanted to break1:45. .

I missed the mile two marker, not sure what I was doing to miss it .. oh wait, I know. . I was worried about the huge hill that was up next. . needless to say, I missed the mile 2 marker so didn't really know how fast I was running at that point. . so up the hill and then on to mile 3, at mile 3 I could see that mile 2 and 3 were around the 7:45 pace, and that was much better. . . I tend to speed up as the miles go by, so I was happy with those two miles.

The course takes you basically from Crown Center northa little and then you head back south towards the Plaza. After Liberty Memorial hill, it was either gradual uphills or downhills. .with a big section through westport and to the plaza that was down hill. . .

My legs felt tired from the training that I had been doing the week prior, but I knew that my aerobic base was big enough and that I was in shape, just needed my legs to hold together.

At the mile 6 point, I could see the 1:40 half marathon pacer ahead by about 200 feet, two girls running right in front of me were talking about the pacer and how he was running faster than the splits he was suppose to be running. They said that we were right on the 1:40 pace, so that felt good to know.

After running behind them for a mile or so, I picked up the pace to see if I could catch the 1:40 pace guy (he actually holds up a little sign that says 1:40). Anyway, the miles clicked by and I started to pass a lot more than were passing me.

Coming back to the Crown Center area, I knew the finish couldn't be far. . mile 11 came by and my time were picking up. At mile 12, I started to kick it up a notch and somewhere in that mile I caught the 1:40 pace guy, so I knew that I had every chance of breaking 1:40. At mile 13 I could see that I was going to do it and my mile 12 to 13 mile was at 6:58 pace.

I came running down towards the finish line and could see the clock and knew officially that I would break 1:40... 1:39:09!!!!!!!!! PERSONAL RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I promised Tory and Melissa that I would get photos, so I had to find/run my way back to the car and grab the camera to get back finish line. This was Melissa's first half marathon and Troy said they (he was running with her for support) would finish around 2:25 or so. . Well, they finished in 2:10!!!!!!!!!! So I missed the photos of them running, but hopefully the official photographer of the race got some good ones for them. Congrats Melissa! Oh congrats Troy too. :)

End of a season? Not quite yet!!!

2008-10-16T08:26:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know (all 4 people who read my blog that I see at least 3 times a week) that I am still alive. I have decided (as of this past Monday) to run in the Kansas City Half Marathon. For a second. . a split second, the thought of running the Full Marathon crossed my mind, but then reality set in and I hit the button for the Half Marathon. My goal is to beat my previous PR of 1:49:52 at Lawrence Kansas this past April. So we will see how it goes.

After this race, I will do a post with results and thoughts and then a wrap up post to the season. . and then. . . . . . get ready for next season!!!!!!!!!

Redman Results

2008-09-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

What a day. . what a race. . .

Redman (Half Ironman: 1.2 mile swim, 58 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) took place on September 20, 2008 in Oklahoma City, OK.

Amy, Jenny and I arrived Thursday night to find the elevators in the Marriot all broken. . .we had to use the service elevator which meant we had to walk through some not so "nice" parts of the hotel. When we got to our room, the rollaway bed was not there and the room seemed small. What now? Call the Country Inn and Suites next door and book a room.

We ended up staying next door in a King non-smoking suite for $10 less a night, plus free breakfast and internet. . we were set. It wasn't the nicest room in the world, but it worked for us.

Friday morning (9/19/08) we woke up and I went on a short 25 minute run. Apparently they don't believe in sidewalks in OKC, so I found myself dodging the morning commute and speeding parents trying to get their kids to school. After the run, we all had breakfast and headed down to the race site to check out the area. After that we drove the bike course, which is good and bad all at the same time. I came to find out that it was not a FLAT course like they promoted and 28 miles out of town always seems really far. . . We costed into 7-eleven after the car showing ZERO miles till empty on the dash and Amy and Jenny telling me to pull over at every gas station. . (7-11 had the cheapest gas and we were making it there if that meant getting out to push).

After driving the course I took my bike on the run course so I could see what that looked like. . it looked long to me, as 13.1 miles should. The run is not my favorite part. :)

Lunch was next at Panera and then back to the race site to check-in and leave the bikes in transition area. Getting my bike out of the car and riding it my front derailluer cable came loose, so I had to have the onsite mechanics fix it for me, which they did and they did a great job too.

We had dinner that night with Troy Smith and family and also with Tim Freeland. We were all down to race the next morning and I think all 3 of us were ready to go. After dinner it was back to the hotel for res and get ready for the next day.

RACE DAY!!! It always seems I wake up before the alarm on race day. . . So we all got up and I met Troy down in the lobby and we headed out to the race to get setup. . wives and family were going to come a little later after breakfast.

Got transition set up and talked with friends from KC that were doing the race. . . got down to the water to see the Full Ironman competitors take off.. then it was time for my heat. .

SWIM:

Got in the water and did a quick warmup. Lined up all the way against the buoy and waited for the countdown. . .

The gun went off and I sprinted for the first 100 meters or so. . to try and get out in the front. I was successful and found a comfortable pace. Finally made it to the turn around spot where I started to catch some of the Ironman swimmers (they had a 15 minute head start). I navigated through the swimmers on the back half of the swim course and really ran into a lot of them at the final buouy turn towards home. I was first out of the water. .

TIME: 26 minutes 43 seconds. 1st in Age Group, 1st Overall

Transition 1:

My goal is to get in and get out. . mission accomplished.

Time: 1 minute 17 seconds

Bike:

Well, if I was going to do well, I needed a fast swim and a fast bike. So my goal was to just go as fast as I could. I did watch my heart rate to make sure that it didn't go crazy, it was higher than normal, but i felt good. My hamstrings and back were tight, but pain is part of it and I just kept giong. Going out of town on the bike route and being in first meant that I was the official start to the race for traffic control, they saw me coming and were quick or sometimes slow to get the intersection shut down so I could pass. It was neat being in first though, I have been first out of the water before but am normally passed on the bike within the first 10 miles or so. Not this time. My goal was to not get passed on the bike and if I did, then I was to keep the guy (or gal) in site the entire time. It was mentally tough all the way out to the turnaround point (28 miles) and being all by myself was also a different feeling, I only looked back once at the only turn around mile 14 and didn't see anyone. From mile 14 to 28 seemed like one big long gradual hill o false flat.

The halfway point (mile 28 turnaround) finally arrived and I knew that I could get a look at my competition. I also saw I was out in 1 hour 13 minutes and 11 seconds and unless I just shutdown, I should be able to break 2 hour 30 minutes on the bike. I actually challenged myself to go back faster than coming out, but that didn't happen.

After the halfway point I kept looking for the next biker to come, but it took longer than I expected. I think at around mile 31 or so, I saw the next biker and then a bunch of them. I got to see all of my competition coming and this made me go faster. I wasn't going to let anyone catch me, plus I had at least a 3 mile lead on them.

Being in first was cool, because a lot of other racers, were telling me "good job" "look strong" "keep going", so for a brief instance I got to feel what it was like to be "fast". I know. . I am not fast. . :)

Coming back the finish seemed like it took forever on the last part on the dam. It was one very very very long dam. . .Finally I made it back, I was first overall still and ready to get after the run.

BIKE TIME: 2 hours 27 minutes 34 seconds 22.8 MPH AVG

3rd fastest bike overall, 1st in age group

T2: I was in and out as fast as I could. The announcer was calling out my name saying I was the first competitor and I was flying. . oh if he only knew how I ran!!! :) 1 minute 11 seconds

RUN:

I took off on the run feeling good, I wanted to average around 8:30 per mile for the first 5K. I noticed that it was starting to get hot and I better start to drink. I grabbed a little bit of water/gatorade at the first aid station. My first mile time was 7:58 Perfect! I could even slow down a little on the next two miles and then just try to build into the run. Well at the 1.5 mile mark it happened. . I noticed a twinge in my left hamstring, and all I could think was, oh no, not now!!!! Then it cramped! IT WAS BAD AND PAINFUL!!!!

I came to a complete stop trying to stretch it out. . eventually I fell to the ground beause of the pain and tried to stretch it out. . I thought for an instant about just hiking it back to the start (I was only 1.5 miles out) and calling it a day. . but no, I could never quit or Do Not Finish (DNF) a race. That wasn't my style.

I got back up and the hamstring cramped again. . I fell to the ground and started to stretch it out. I figured at this point, my first place wouldn't last for long and that if anything I just needed to get up and start moving. I got up and started a slow walk/hobble. . then a right legged run (very disturbing to watch) and then just started to jog slowly.

I could feel the remains of the cramp in my hamstring but I was able to jog/shuffle for the next mile or so. My mile 2 split was 10 minutes, so I knew that any shot of holding off the other athletes was not in the works. I hit the next aid station(s) just taking in as much gatorade and water that I could.

After leaving each one, I could hear shortly after them cheering the next competitor. . . that is a strange feeling, knowing that they are coming (you can't see them, but you can hear it).

At about mile 5 to 5.5 it happend, I got passed. Really I didn't think I would hold them off for that long, but the first guy to pass was a Team Athlete, meaning he was just doing the run part since two different guys did the swim and then bike for that team.

Shortly after he passed the next guy to pass me was just moving a little faster than me. .I told him congratulations, he is now in first place and he said "not for long, they are coming, I am not a good runner". I paced off him the best I could and just waited for the others to come. One other guy passed me right before the turnaround and then on the way back to the finish I could see them all coming. My goal at this point was to limit the damage. I was looking for ages on the back of legs so I could see what other 30-34 year olds were passing me.

I saw friends on the course, two Bike Stop Teammates, Tim Freeland who was looking strong and Troy Smith who was looking very strong (bike faste next time). Tim had a personal best and did an awesome job by getting 2nd in his age group. Troy had a personal record and broke 6 hours! (not bad for his first triathlon season)

To make a long story short. . .I was only passed by two 30-34 year olds, which meant I got 3rd in my age group. My main goal was to break 5 hours. . . I was coming down the final stretch, I saw. . 4:59:55 . . 56. . . 57. . . 58 . . 59 . . .5 hours .. flash before my eyes . I was not going to make it.

RUN TIME: 2 hours 3 minutes 23 seconds
I am not going to even say what place it was overall or my age group. :)

I was tired. . that was all I could think of. :) Well that and Dr. Pepper.

Overall time: 5 hours 6 seconds

Overall Place: 14th out of 314

Age Group: 3rd out of 37

Taper and Redman

2008-09-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well. . . the season is winding down to an end. The benefit and disadvantage of doing an Ironman in June is that you have a big base of fitness to draw on for the rest of summer, but at the same time all the other races after Ironman just don't seem as important. Luckily this year, my attitude and training has been much better than last and I am ready to get the last race of the season over and done.

Racing a Half Ironman Distance race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) can be tricky at best. It is long enough that you can't go all out from the beginning and hammer the bike and then hang on for the run and it isn't long enough (like a full Ironman) that you are always pacing yourself and watching the heartrate to make sure it stays around 70%. No, a Half Ironman is somewhere along the lines of suffering and pain with a little bit of mental anguish thrown in.

I have only done one other Half Ironman and that was in September of 2005. I attempted to do two others, but both were cancelled (long story). So, my experience with this distance of a race is not that great. I have a game plan, but executing the plan is the trick.

So the taper started this past weekend. Basically a Taper is a way to decrease the volume of training while maintaing a higher intensity for a shorter period. So instead of a 3 hour bike ride, you would do a 1.5 hour bike ride but at a slightly faster pace. Get the picture? This allows your body to repair itself and for muscles to rebuild and strengthen. While the body enjoys this time, the mind is second guessing itself. It says to do more, go harder, run faster, swim longer. . .

Oh, and don't get me started on the stomach, it still wants the same amount of food that you were eating all along the 5 hour rides and 2.5 hour runs that you were doing before. . . it says fill me up. . . even though you really don't need it. :)

Yes, the taper is a tricky thing. Luckily I am feeling great. . swimming fast in practice, biking really well and actually had a decent and fast (for me) run this morning. Now we just need to see what happens on race day.

Here is a link for the race. Of course I will post results after it is all over and give my race report. Just 3 more days to keep the mind in check and the stomach convinced that it doesn't need any more food. :)

http://www.redmantriathlon.com/

Tour of Missouri

2008-09-08T18:34:00.001-07:00

Tour of Missouri 2008:

For those that don't know what the Tour of Missouri is, in short is it a stage race across Missouri by the world's best professional cyclists. It is a great opportunity to see a world class race close up. Basically it would be like going to a playoff game or baseball or football and being able to be on the field.

Here are some photos from the event. Pics of bikes. To be exact Prince bikes, some of the best and most expensive in the world. I think I enjoyed walking by the team cars and checking out all of the equipment as much as the race. .. .well, almost as much.

Giant bikes: This is Mark Cavendish's bike, he won the stage and he is regarded as one of the top sprinters in the world.

Here is the final push to the finish. . these guys are moving. . smokin fast. This is at the end of 90 miles and I am sure their legs are burning, but they are pushing close to 40 mph. . . WOW!!!

These two Rock Racing guys fell off the back and were just helping each other to the finish. I think one of them crashed earlier in the day and the other is actually helping him to cross the finish line.

This is my new best friend, George Hincapie. If you don't know who George is, then Google his name. It should return with about a million hits. He helped Lance Armstrong to all 7 of his Tour De France victories. George is one of the greatest American cyclists of all times. When I saw him, he was about to get back into the team bus, but I called out "George, it's me!!!" and he came right over. Well, actually I called out "George, just one more picture" and he was nice enough to come over. Then a reporter got a hold of him so he took pics with me and was answering the reporter's questions. Anyway, I like the picture.

Jackson County Triathlon

2008-08-24T12:48:00.001-07:00

Ok, first let me tell you how wonderful it is to have the wife I do. It is not every woman who would get up at 4:45AM on a Sunday morning, drive 25 minutes to wait another 2.5 hours to watch her husband "do a hobby" for approximately an hour and then wait around for him to receive his 3rd place award, which is basically about $100 worth of free stuff. So THANK YOU AMY!!! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!! Oh, and did you know that she takes great pictures too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The race started at 8:05 for me, I was the second heat (they had us start by age group) to go, so I had to make up 5 minutes on the first heat and hold off the other heats behind me, that was my goal. Longview lake is a great venue for a triathlon, although today the wind was kicking up some strong waves that made for an interesting swim. Not to mention that I as I the swim went on, I had to navigate through the heat that went ahead of mine. I had a good swim and was first overall out of the water both in age group and everyone that competed.

Swim Time: 8 minutes 13 seconds (.3 mile swim)
After the swim to bike transition, I could see that I was right beside Chris Fugate, a friend and competitor. We actually swam together in High School, so I expected him to be with me on the swim. I know he is a very good athelete and can run very very well, so I needed to put some time on him on the bike and that is what I did. I passed him quickly out of transition and never looked back, I just put my head down and hammered the whole way. 11.75 miles was the 1 loop course.

Bike Time: 30 minutes 46 seconds. 22.9 MPH Average (11.75 mile bike, although I think it is actually longer than that).

This is me going out on the bike, you can't see in this picture, but Chris is about 5 feet in front of me.

This is me coming in to the finish on the bike.

Coming off the bike, I knew I was in the lead. I passed about 20-25 people from the first heat and no one had passed me at all. So I felt like I had a good bike leg. But I knew that the run was going to be tough.

I got off the bike, threw on the run shoes and took off as fast as I can. This was a different feeling for me, I was the only one out there, I figured someone had to be in front of me from the first heat, but I didn't see anyone at all. I figured if I had a 3 minute lead on anyone in my heat (Chris) then I should be able to hold them off, if I could run 7 minute miles. At mile 1 I was right at 7 minutes, the guy at the water station said I was the second one through, at first I didn't know what he meant, but then I realized that only one person was ahead of me. I knew I would see this guy at the turnaround (at mile 1.5) and then I could see who was behind me. At the turn around, the guy in front was about 30 seconds ahead and I could see that he was a guy that started in the first heat, so actually I was ahead of him by 4 minutes 30 seconds or so. No need to worry about running him down. Also, I could see that Chris (the other guy from my heat) was about 2 minutes behind me, he looked like he was moving fast, so I just kept up my pace. Coming home, I got a quick glance back at the final turn and knew that no one was going to catch me.

This is the first race, where I have not been physically passed by anyone. That is a good feeling!!!

Run Time: 21 minutes 02 seconds. 7:01 minute miles. 3 miles (I really wanted to break 7 for an average, but I think that is my fastest 3 mile run ever).

Final Time: 1 hour 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Overall Place: 3rd out of 448 people.

Age Group Place: 1st out of 42 people

Tour of Kansas City Criterium Bike Race

2008-08-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

First let me explain what a Criterium is. Basically it is a bike race on a closed short circuit (3 mile loop) with a lot of twists and turns which make for a very technical race.

This was my first bike race ever. Yes I have done triathlons and duathlons, but this is the first time for just doing a bike race. I started the day driving to some friends house so we could ride to the race start together. This gave us about 13 miles to warm-up in. They live in the south part of Kansas City off of 83rd and Holmes and we had to ride up to North Kansas City to Cliff Drive and Prospect. This was great in that it also allowed me to do my first Urban ride. . . I saw parts of Kansas City that I have never seen before (maybe never want to again too). It was actually fun riding through downtown Kansas City.

We made it to the race start to see the first race of the day go off (8:30 Master's 40+ Men). It was great to see the race, it was a lot of fun to watch and it reminded me of the Tour of Missouri and watching cycling on TV. About 3/4 of the way into their race it started to rain. . RAIN plus Pavement plus BIKES makes for very dangerous conditions. Criteriums are known for being dangerous without the rain and now throw in the rain and who knows what is going to happend. Within 5 minutes of the rain, the announcer let us all know that there was already a crash. . .It wouldn't be the last. . .

The Category 5 men (beginners) started at 9:30 AM. We all lined up and they had more than one announcement on how to be careful on the first part of the course and to be really careful on the turns and decents. They also said we may want to start letting air pressure out of our tires to be able to create more surface area to grip the road better.

The gun went off and we all started up (our race was 4 laps of the 3 mile course). . within the first 50 yards, two guys go down hard and slide across the road. Right then I knew that staying upright on the bike for the whole race would be a win in my book. The crash let some of the guys in front to open up a lead and with the conditions the way they were, I wasn't anxious to chase on the turns that were coming up.

On the big hill before the finish I was able to catch the main group and pass a couple of people, but going down hill after the starting line onto the second lap was where things got sketchy again. The whole Bike Shack race team pretty much went down, 3 guys went down hard and then the next thing I know a guy behind me went down and clipped my back wheel. I managed to stay upright, but I made an executive decision right there, that I wasn't going to ease off and stay away from other riders and out of danger. Afterall, this was just a 12 mile bike race, and I didn't spend all year training for Triathlons and Ironman to give it all up for a broken bone in a bike race.

The last 2 laps consisted of me riding in no man's land, passing a group of 2-3 riders from time to time and just wanting the race to be over. I could see the main chase group, but the rain and turns and mud that was splashing up on me from the nearby construction, just had me peddaling hard but not pushing on the turns or cutbacks.

When I finished, I was all by myself, I really thought I had come in second to last or very close to it. After I finished, I saw that the main chase group in front or me (which had about 7 guys in it) just finished about 10 seconds before me.

After the race, I was talking with the two guys that I rode up to the race with and they each thought they got 5th or 7th place, which meant I probably got around 14th place or so. .

Final Place: 12th out of 49 riders.

I was happy with my finish and had a good time riding to the race and back, it was just the race that I could of done without. :)

I climbed the big hill for the last time, catching a guy that fell off the main chase pack

Miles. . .

2008-08-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

I am going to start posting ride reports from the Saturday morning group. . ..

Good job to everyone on Saturday. We had a good crew and thank you for
hanging back to make sure everyone made it to Lotawana ok. . .

Saturday's Theme: Miles. .. ..

Some commentary for your reading pleasure (from the 7:30 ride). . ..
(starting after Lotawana). NOTE: IT seems Charlie lost the Yellow Jersey
from the previous week, but we are happy to report he was wearing King of
the Mountain colors. . so we didn't do a good enough job of protecting him
the week before. .

I always enjoy riding with a big group of people down Colbern. Everyone seems
a little antsy to get the ride going and test out their legs for the day.
We had a big group hit the big climb and it quickly revealed who was
ready to ride and who was not. Next . . .

Randy got us going on E Colbern Road coming off the hills towards
Stillhouse. . Dave organized us into a semi decent paceline on Stillhouse
till one of us (who I will not name TROY!!!!, had a flat and it took the
expertise of Dave to get him back on the road). Randy, Dave, I (Jared) and
Max helped to get Troy back up to catch the stragglers and then onto QT
where it looked like most of the guys were done for the day. . .(Eric must
have killed them heading to QT).

After QT, we got a good group (around 8-9) guys heading to Buckner on F
Highway. Eric took the first pull and did an excellent job of getting us
close to Pink Hill where "THE MACHINE" Dave Corwin took over and got us
past Pink Hill and up to a good pace. Steve took over till we got to
Truman Road and held his own really well. I pulled up Truman and onto H highway for a bit. . . . we had about 4-6 guys by the time we hit Bone Hill with Randy and Dave attacking halfway up and I believe Randy won King of the Mountain points there. . .

Heading onto 24 highway into Buckner we had the wind at our backs and Randy
on the front (could anyone ask for anything more?). We stopped at Shell
station for some water/ice/gatorade and started the paceline back up.
Headed down Lake City Buckner Road up to Bundschu where Dave or Troy won
King of the Mountain. . Or maybe it was Randy??? :)
I can't remember . . . I was too tired.

After Bundschu, the executive decision was made to head south on 7 Highway
to 23rd street instead of the Bundschu Hills heading East. .. We had a
good paceline heading down 23rd and everyone seemed to riding strong.

We hit church hill off of 23rd and it never seemed so steep, I can't
remember who took KOM points. .but we were all tired that was for sure. We
did have the pleasure of having a motorist yell (tell on Eric) for not
using hand signals. . .Eric. .please use hand signals and not the one finger
kind.

We came down to RD Mize where apparently much to my surprise the
intersection was not clear which caused me to hit Randy's wheel and almost
end my day. Luckily I was able to "right" myself and after stopping to
check things over was on my way while giving everyone about a 100 yard head
start. . Dave and Randy dueled it out up RD Mize hill to Caseys with Troy
and Eric behind. . I was able to catch Eric and then Troy but had to go
into Time Trial mode to catch Dave and Randy. I finally did at I-70 and
Woods Chapel with the help of a Red Light. ..

Dave, Randy and I ended up first back to Bike Stop with others shortly to
follow. . .

All in all it was a good ride with some new faces. . . Good job to
everyone. .. .

FOLLOW UP: It appears that Steve helped Charlie salvage his KOM jersey by pulling him back from Crenshaw. . . Those two do a great job. . I hope to be riding that well when I am a few more years down the road (no pun intended.

Midwest Mayhem Olympic Distance Triathlon

2008-07-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a race report for the race I just did. It was in Clinton Lake south of Lawrence, KS There will not be any pictures because my personal photographer had the day off. :)

The funny thing about doing an Ironman is that other races just don't seem as important. So much goes into training, planning and executing an Ironman that when other races come up on the calendar, they just sneak up on you and I find myself scrambling at the last minute to get everything together. I guess mentally after an Ironman you feel as though you should be done for the year.

Woke up at 4:45 to meet Ben Schloegel at his Fire Station by the old Bannister Mall. Headed out to Lawrence ready to get the race going and head back home.

The swim portion is a 1.5 Kilometer swim in Lake Clinton, it is a small lake so there was not any chop or waves to speak of. I was placed in the second heat (heats were based on age group) and there was 5 minutes that separated each heat. The swim went off well and I felt I had a decent performance.
Swim Time: 22 minutes 48 seconds

I headed out of the swim into Transition 1 and felt as though I am actually getting faster in getting my bike stuff on quickly.
Transition 1 time: 1 minute 8 seconds

The bike leg was a 40K or 24.8 miles. It was a hilly course with a nice strong wind out of the west/southwest. I had decided going into the race that I would need to have a strong bike and try to just hang onto the run. I was only passed by 1 person and actually passed about 4 guys on the bike. I knew that I was first out of the water in my heat, so the guys I passed were actually from the first heat (they had a 5 minute head start). Coming out of the lake was hilly and then out onto the main course, with the wind at our backs for the first 4-5 miles was nice, but then it was time to pay. We headed west and then eventually southwest and had to fight the wind the entire time while riding up some fairly long uphills. It was definately a mental struggle. Coming home, was more of the same wind. . .but just put my head down and kept hammering.
Bike Time: 1 hour 8 minutes 5 seconds Average mph: 21.9

Transition 2: I came into the transition tired, but got my bike helmet and sunglasses off quick and socks and shoes on. .
Time: 1 minute 3 seconds.

The run was a 10K or 6.2 miles and I knew that it was going to be tough. The course was hilly and even involved some off-road sections through the woods and rocky trails around the lake. I wasn't moving really fast at first and my first time check at mile 1 was around 8 minutes 20 seconds. I was hoping I would be able to hold 7:30 per mile, but the course and the heat/humidity didn't allow for that. I suffered through the run and really have never felt so tired during a race since my first Half Ironman when the temps were a comparable 92-95 degrees.
Coming to the finish, I was just happy to be done. I got passed by 1 guy with about 1/4 mile to go, but I had no response.
Run Time: 53minutes 58 seconds 8:43 per mile

Overall Time: 2 hours 26 minutes 59 seconds

Overall Place: 9th out of 132 people
Age Group Place: 1st out of 16 people

Upcoming Races

2008-07-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

I have 3 races left this year for the sport of Triathlon. I may try and do a bike race in early August, but that will be a pure learning experience since I have never technically done an official bike race before. . we will see. Here are my next traithlons.

July 20th: Midwest Mayhem Olympic Distance Triathlon. http://www.midwestmayhemtriathlon.com/

August 24th: Jackson County Triathlon. Short Course.
http://www.jacksoncountytriathlon.com/

September 20th: Redman Half Ironman.
http://www.redmantriathlon.com/

If I do a bike Race it will be the Tour of Kansas City. . I believe the weekend of August 1-3. We will see though.

Oh yeah. . WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!!!!!!!!! Due December 5th. . .
Name: Kloden Tell Kuntz

:)

2008 Ironman CDA

2008-07-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

I will start from the beginning. . . January 1st, 2008. I was 220 lbs and had signed up for Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) in
July of 2007. I was now faced with the fact that in order do the best that I know I could do, I would have to loose anywhere from 30-35 lbs. Well, to make a long story short. . 31 lbs was lost. . . and the final time showed that when I crossed the finish at 6:27.05 PM on Sunday June 22,2008. So here we go. . . .

Wed June 18th, Amy and I left at 6:30AM for Sokane, WA and then a 20 minute drive to Coeur D'Alene (CDA), Idaho. We met a fellow athlete from Kansas City on the plane, her name is Dawn McPherson and it was her first, we sat next to her from Denver to Seattle and from Seattle to Portland, which seemed to make the time go faster since we were able to talk about triathlons and the people that we both knew. Once we landed in Spokane, it was total chaos and waiting for the next 3+ hours. I had Amy get our bags while got in line for the rental car. To make a really long story short, we had to wait 3+ hours for our rental car before we could head to CDA. Plus. .Amy was getting physically sick, head cold and aches.
Got into town and I went on a 30 minute run down to the race start and back. .I felt good and the weather was great. Although, I started to feel a little head cold coming on too.

Thursday June 19th: I woke up at 5:00 AM (remember they are two hours behind us here) and got some things togther and headed down to the lake for a 7:00 AM practice swim. Amy stayed in bed to get some sleep (which she needed. I got to the lake and met up with some BeginnerTriathlete.com friends. We all got ready and headed down to the lake. I went in the lake and the water was COLD!!!! It was 56 degrees and I started to swim and my face was freezing, my brain was cold and even though I am VERY comfortable in water, I started to have my doubts. I pushed through the cold and finally started to settle down and swam 1.2 miles in 32 minutes, which I was very happy about. I wasn't going for a specific time, but I was happy that even though I would stop and sight and just recover from the cold, my time was still really close to 30 minutes. . . The rest of the day I just hung around the house and took it easy. Amy's parents got in later in the afternoon and my parents were already in town but staying over close to Spokane. Amy's parents and us went to eat at Mongolian BBQ. . . which would come back to haunt me in about 24 hours.

Friday June 20th: This was a planned rest day, so all I had to do today was to go register and get my packet and race stuff. Amy was starting to feel a little better, but still not 100%, my head cold was a little better too. . . I just didn't want to get really sick. After we ran around town and got some stuff and I registered, we sat down to eat dinner. . shortly after my stomach got cramps and pains and suffering etc. . to make a disgusting story short, I was up all night on the toilet. . .the whole time thinking, I have an Ironman race in about 36 hours. . that was really tough on me physically but emotionally I was having a tough time. I had spend the past 6 months training day and night, watching what I eat, taking care of myself, spending money (oh yeah, this is not a cheap sport) just to get ready for this moment. AND here I was sick. . . very sick. . .I drank a whole bottle of Pepto Bismol that night. :)

Saturday June 21st: Amy and I woke up early (she was feeling better by now) and we went to the grocery store and I got some more Pepto Bismol. . took a few more swigs and then we all went to the Coffee shop. We tookd my bike and gear bags down at around 11 or so and we went through the merchandise tent so NA sports can get some more of our money. I didn't eat anything till 12:00 that day when I had some crackers and chicken noodle soup and applesauce. I had been drinking water and gatorade, to try and get fluids into my system. I started to feel somewhat better by the afternoon and things seemed to have "stopped" happening. I continued to eat just applesauce, chicken noodle and crackers (I think I ate a half a box of crackers). By the evening I was feeling better still with just some grumblings. . . but there was at least hope. I do want to mention that I prayed about every 2 hours that the Lord would make me better. . .as always he answered my prayers. NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT MY HEAVENLY FATHER.

GOAL TIME: BREAK 12 hours

SUNDAY June 22: RACE DAY. . . I woke up at 4:30 and felt great. I didn't have any more stomach pain/feelings and was able to eat a GU, Accelerade, piece of bread and banana. Actually I felt the best this morning than I did any other day of the week. We loaded up the car and headed down to the transition area/start. I checked over my bike and put air (not too much) in the tires (110 psi). Went to the my transition bags to put my orthotics in the bag and then check on my swim to bike bag. Everything seemed good to go. It had rained the night before, but I waterproofed my bike and bags, so all was dry.

I hung out with Amy and her mom while Andy was off to get Coffee for everyone (besides me). My parents showed up a little later. It was great to have my mom there. .she wasn't able to be there last year because of her monther (which I 100% understand) but I am glad she was able to experience the whole experience with us this year. I put my wetsuit on and gave Amy a kiss and headed down to the swim start. I saw Dawn on the way and we walked onto the beach and then I told her good luck and I headed to the far left to get out of the main crowd and as far to the front as I could.

We stood on the beach and watched the pros come in from their first loop. Standing there getting ready to start is perhaps one of the most nervous and greatest feelings in the world. Everyone is ready to go, the crowd is pumped up and then a helicopter comes buzzing overhead. . .the whole experience is like no other.

Shortly after the pros went on their second lap it was our turn to start. We played the Star Spangled Banner and then the announcer got us ready to go.
BANG!!!!!!! The cannon goes off and before you know what is happening your legs and arms start going and you have begun an Ironman race with 2100+ people.

THE SWIM: I had a good first lap, although my sighting was bit off, I am a much better pool swimmer than open water swimmmer, but I do hold my own in the lake. I didn't get hit or hit anyone on the first lap, and the whole time I am just thinking this seems to be taking forever. I made the far turn and started back towards the beach. Before long I exited the swim, ran on the beach and then was back in the water for lap 2. My watch said 27 minutes, so I figured I was about righ on track and wanted to pick up the second loop a little quicker. The second loop went quicker and on the final leg coming back to the beach the group I was with started to catch some of the slower swimmers who were still on their first lap. I was just thinking that I was glad I was not them. . and I was almost done with the swim. I finished the swim and ran over the timing mat. 56 minutes and 36 seconds

Transition 1: I made it to the wetsuit stripper and the wetsuit was off in a second, the only thing is my goggles and cap got caught in the sleeve, but at least I was out of the wetsuit. I ran and grabbed my bag, was in the tent and changed into my bike gear. Time was 5 minutes 49 seconds.

Bike: I started on the bike easy but my heart rate was up high around 179 or so. . I worked on getting it back down during the first 10 to 20 miles and it finally setteled down to 155 or so. I did notice that my lower back and hamstrings were really really tight and sore. I tried to stretch them out as much as possible on the first 56 miles, I knew that if they didn't get loose then it could be a long long day. The first lap wasn't too bad, I was averaging around 20+ mph on the first 30 miles and that was with some big climbs. The wind was picking up out of the south, which meant heading back into town to start the second loop would be met with winds of around 20-30 mph. I just tried to stay as aero as possible and conserve as much energy as I could. I made it back into town just in time to hear the announcer say that the group that was going by now was among the top age group women. . .that made me smile. There are some fast women out there, no doubt about that. At mile 63 is the special needs bag stop, so I stopped for about 30 seconds to get some essentials and then headed back out for the final 39 miles. The second loop seemed a lot more difficult than last year, although that is because last year I was on the side of the road for an hour and half waiting for tech support, so this year I got to experience the real pain of the bike. Some of those hills on the second loop killed a lot of people. Going 8mph up the hill was a good thing at that point. On the way back into town the wind was gusing up to 30+ mph, but I just tried to stay areo and back off a little, because I realized that I still had 26.2 miles to run.
I also realized that I needed to be off the bike and on the run in under 7 hours in order to guarantee myself a sub 12 hour finish.
Time: 5 hours 46 minutes 23 seconds Avg speed: 19.4 mph.

Transtition 2: I was off the bike quick, to my bag and to the tent. .helmet off, shorts changed, shoes on and I was off. 2 minutes 26 seconds. I knew that 12 hours was doable. . . I was on the run in under 7 hours.

RUN: Well, never been much of a quick runner, but I just telling myself that I need to run no matter what. . I would only walk through the aid stations about every mile apart. So I started running, and the thing is, I felt really good. I was clicking off 9 minute miles through mile 6 and then with the walking of aid stations, went to around 10 minutes till mile 13 or so. Here is where I knew I would have to push through the pain. Each time I run long, when it starts to get to mile 15-18, the pain really starts to set in. I also know if I can get through this 3-4 mile stretch then I will be ok, because my body settles down and realizes that we still have more to go so don't get so stressed out. Well, mile 14-18 was the hardest, I just kept running and focusing on making it to the next aid station. Somewhere around mile 20 I started feeling good again and knew that I would make my 12 hour time no problem. . but then I realized something else that would make me realize more pain. .. If I pushed a little, I could possibly break 11hours and 30 minutes, which if you would of asked me if that was possible a week or even a day before I would have said NO!!! Well, it was possible, and I started to pick the run up. The final 2 miles were pure pain, I saw Travis and Bonnie (BT friends) on the course and each gave me encouragement. .. the last .2 miles are perhaps the best thing. Turning down the final street you can see the finish and the place is just packed with people. .I knew I was going to break 11 hours and 30 minutes and I started to look for my family. . they were about 3/4 way down towars the finish and I saw them and gave it a fist pump. . I was very excited. RUN TIME: 4 hours 35 minutes 51 seconds.

FINISH:
I had planned out my finish in my head and had to remind myself to not look down at my watch as I finished the race. . instead throw the arms up and enjoy the moment. . . .I got the crowd going when I was nearing the finish and made sure that I was all alone so not to get in anyone's way as I crossed the finish line. . I finished in 11 hours 27 minutes 5 seconds. I was very excited. . and also very tired. I pushed myself on the run, something that yes has to be done, but does not feel good. . .

After: I say my whole family and it was great having everyone there. Mom, Dad, Andy, Stephanie, Amy and Aunt Janet and I got to talk to my Aunt Connie on the phone. I tried to eat some pizza, but spit it out. . because my body couldn't handle food. . I drank some water, walked around and then got my bike and bags. walking was very hard after the race, but I was so happy to be done and with the time I had.

Thoughts: The only problem with going 11:27 is now, I wonder how much faster can I go??? If I could take a half hour off, then that would be a sub 11 hour. . which is very respectable. Then if I could take another 45 minutes that would be 10:15, which puts me in World Championship qualifaction territory. . . who knows. . .

We will see. . . I am already thinking of doing Ironman Wisconsin in 2009. . .then maybe back to CDA in 2010.

It is coming. . . .

2008-06-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

I am sorry, I will post a new blog very soon about Ironman. In short I had a great time and was happy with my time. . .

Stay tuned. .. more to come. . .

Kansas City Corporate Challenge Time Trial

2008-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

On May 28th, I competed for JPMorgan Chase in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge. Basically this is a series of sporting events that area companies compete in.

I was one of the 30-34 age group guys from our company to compete. I went into it thinking that if I could go top 10 in my age group, that would be great. .

I warmed up for about 2 miles and felt ok, but tire from running in the morning and lifting weights. . I lined up for the start and hit the gas.

I felt good through the ride, there was a slight tailwind at first and then a gradual downhill, I passed about 4 guys up to this point and every once in a while I was checking my mph. . somewhere around 26-30 depending on where I was on the course. My legs were tight and I could feel the lactic acid building up, but I just kept telling myself to hammer as hard as I could and the pain would go away.

Coming into the back half there is a slight uphill, but I felt good and stayed in my aero bars and pushed through it till the final straight into the finish. I decided to stay aero instead of standing up to crank on the pedals and finished in a time of what I thought was 5 minutes 18 seconds for 2.5 miles.

After the race, I waited for Amy to do her time trial (she did great, especially since she is riding for two) and talked with some friends. . I said, I thought my time was 5:18 and they both said, I should place pretty high. . but I still figured I was 5th or 6th. . .

I made my over to the final results and looked at my name. . . FIRST PLACE!!! I was pretty surprised. First place in my age group (gold medal)and 6th out of 544 people that competed.

I guess all the training does pay off. :)

2008 Bikesource Triathlon

2008-05-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

I know. I am really bad at this whole blog thing. I don't think that many people read it anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter too much. Without further delay. . a little update.

Weight wise, I am down to 196 pounds now. I am happy about this accomplishment even though my goal was to weigh less, but I need to face the fact that I have put on muscle at the same time, so a better guage would have been body fat percentage. . but 196 is better than last year and I still feel as though I can loose another 5-10 pounds by Ironman. If I could be 188 or so. . that would be awesome.

So much for that now on with the race. This is the first time I have done the Bikesource Triathlon as an individual. I have as a team before, but this was way more fun. So the triathlon is a sprint triathlon, consisting of 600 meter swim, 11.5 mile bike and 3 mile run.

The swim is done in Heritage Park Lake (Duck Pond) and water temp was 70 degrees. Really it wasn't that bad at all. . . but my feet did touch the bottom a couple of times while we were waiting to start and they sank into about a foot of mud/yuck/etc. . That stuff really grosses me out.

I had a decent swim. .I was second out of the water, the guy that beat me, only did by a few seconds and the third place guy Sandy Cohen (a friend) was right on my heels and we basically had the same time. I got passed by about 3 people in transition and then hit the bike as hard as I could. All week leading up to the race, I kept telling myself to just HAMMER the bike. . just go as fast as I can till all 11.5 miles were done, and that is what I did.

Normally in the bike part of the triathlon is where I get passed a lot. . well I am happy to report that I passed 3 people and only got passed by 2 people. Individuals that I expected to pass me never did, so to say I am happy with my bike portion is an understatement. The bike leg was 3 loops and had a couple of hills in it that kept everyone honest. I am a decent climber, so even though hills hurt, they can help at the same time. Oh, and I got to use my Giro Advantage 2 Aero Helmet for the first time, and I love it!!!!!

In transition I got passed by about 3 people and then on the run another 5-6 people passed me. I am not a good runner, in fact, I am just plain slow. So, my first mile was 6:48. . and that is acutally very fast for me. .. .the next two miles must have been around 7:30 or so, but I can see that I am becoming a faster runner, but just not fast enough.

Oh, and thank you to Bike Stop (http://www.bikestoponline.com/) for their help and support. Notice the jersey?

My overall time: 59 minutes 50 seconds

Swim Time: 6 minutes 37 seconds (2nd Place in the swim)

Transition 1 Time: 1 minute 38 seconds

Bike Time: 29.09 (6th place in the bike)

Transition 2 Time: 1 minute 6 seconds

Run Time: 21 minutes 22 seconds (83rd place on the run)

Overall Place: 14 out of 206

Age Group: 3 out of 39

Lawrence 1/2 Marathon and 2 months out

2008-04-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning (42 degrees, rainy, cold) I went to the typical meeting spot to ride with the White Oaks group, but no one was there. . so I reluctantly went down the road to the Dog ride and Bike Shack crew and rode (tried to) with them a ways. . . Let me just say this, from time to time it is good to ride with people way better than you. 1 is humbles you and 2 it shows you how far you still need to go. So thank you Bike Shack race team for doing both of those for me.

I ran the Lawrence 1/2 Marathon on Sunday April 20th. I did this run last year and had to do it again this year as it is a great run to get in during Ironman training. If you get a chance to do this run, it is worthwhile. It is an awesome time running through the town of Lawrence up to KU campus and then back to Haskill College. My unofficial time (my watch time) was 1:49.41 . . . I wanted to beat 1:50, but the last 1/2 mile was basically a full on sprint. . It hurt . . A LOT!!!

Later in the afternoon I did a 35 mile bike ride in the afternoon with some of my cycling friends. . . it was good to test the legs a little more and to see what type of response I could get from them. . overall I am happy.

TWO MONTHS out from Ironman CDA!!!! I feel great, weight is down to 198 (from 220 on Jan 1st) and I get more excited with each week as the weather gets nicer and the time get closer. I have a goal time to beat 12 hours. Last year I was 13:35 and some change but was on the side of the road for an hour and half waiting for a new tire. . . So 12 HOURS is what I want to beat. That is the great thing about individual races. . . you can set personal goals and even though you come in 900 out of 2500 people you can still feel as though you won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. :)

Speaking of Olympics. . . this should be an awesome summer. . I can't wait to watch swimming and triathlon and cycling in August. . .

I am not good at this.

2008-04-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am not good at posting a whole bunch. . but a quick update. Training is going well. Here are my totals for March.

March's totals:
Bike:
23h 31m 30s - 392.96 Mi
Run:
13h 35m 32s - 86.96 Mi
Swim:
6h 20m - 19300 Yd
Strength:
5h 10m

I was out for a funeral one weekend and sick a couple of other days. .. but all in all a good month. It was the same as last year (or close to it). For April I am going to really get after it.

As far as weight goes, I am down to 201 now, so that is a total of 19lbs lost since January 1. I am happy with that and want to be 195 by the end of April. 190 by the end of May and 185 June 22, 2008 for Ironman CDA.

So that is 5lbs a month. I should be able to do that. The problem with Ironman training and trying to loose a bunch of weight is that one is hungry most of the time. . take food to fuel the 70+ mile bike ride and the 15+ mile run. . .not to mention the other swimming, biking and running and weights during the week. Just need to eat the right kind of foods.
That is all for now.

If anyone can guess where this picture is taken I will take you there and pay. :)

Aero Power and Hemi Power

2008-03-01T19:42:00.001-08:00

I got my new toy today. . . Amy was not happy because she said I didn't discuss it with her first or let her know. . I think I told her sometime that I was going to get one. :)

Anyway, here is the new helmet with a little props to The Bike Stop (team I ride for).

And a pic of Amy's new toy (Dodge Charger). . which one costs more?!?!?!?!?!?!

Bad Jared

2008-02-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am not great about updating my blog. . I will try and be better. But what can I really share? I ride on a trainer 3 times a week, run on a treadmill 3 times a week and swim in a pool 2 times a week (sometimes 3). . oh and lift weights twice a week. It has been cold and snowy here since the beginning of December so not much nice weather to get outside and take pics. .

Although there is good news. . I am down to 205 now. . this time last year I was 215, so I am about 2 months ahead of last year at this time. Be then end of March (hopefully we get some warm weekends) I can be down around 195. . 10lbs is a lot in a month especially with the weights and strength building that I am doing, but I need to get lighter. . if I am 185 by Ironman, I will be very very happy.

I have "before" photos that were taken on January 1 and I look at those from time to time. . I can tell my body has changed, but won't post the final pictures till the week before Ironman. . . .

All for now. Here is shot at Ironman last year of me and some friends from http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/ (from left to right) Doug, Andy, Bonnie, Me. . .this was taken two days before the start in front of the beach where it all began.

Oh, and I am not tracking what I eat anymore. .so if you were wondering. . but I basically eat the same thing as when I was tracking and still just one day to splurge on whatever I want.

Snow and Cold, Cold and Snow

2008-02-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems as thought I will spend the rest of my training days inside. Either on a bike trainer or on the treadmill. During the week it is hard to get in a ride or run outside due to it being dark in the evening when we get home from work and on the weekends when it is light out at 7:00 AM, it is usually 20 degrees with a strong north wind or snow/ice/rain. So I have done my past long runs on the treadmill. At one time I could barely stand to run for 20 minutes on the treadmill and the past two sundays I have done a 1 hour 50 minute run and a 1 hour 40 minute run on the treadmill. The same can be said for the bike trainer too, although on Monday and Thursday evenings I have the great opportunity to be part of a cycling class (KMA) run by Greg Goodman in Blue Springs, MO. It makes the time go by so much quicker when I am suffering with 30+ people. :)

We got about 3-4 inches of snow this morning and the forecast calls for 30 degree weather the rest of the week. March is right around the corner, so I am praying for some warm (60+ degree) weather in March.

As far as Ironman goes, I am about 2 months ahead of where I was last year. I am down to 207 lbs now (compared to around 215 lbs in February of 2007) and am on target for my goal weight of around 185 for Ironman in June. When I get to 185 I may cry. I haven't been that weight since 2001. Hm??? What happened in 2001??? Oh, I got married!!! :) Just kidding, gaining weight is a choice and I let it happen to me, Amy is a wonderful wife and supports me in all of my training and races. She loves me no matter if I am 220 or 185. :)

All right, not too much else to report. I am hitting my long runs and rides each week and feeling good about everything. One thing I wish I would of had measure in the first of Jan was my body fat percentage.. I am curious to see how much muscle I have put on while fat is going away. . .

All for now. . . till next time. . .

2008-02-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

I figured this would happen. . I would be off to a good start and then nothing. So let me catch everyone up. Training is going really well and the weight is starting to come off. I am now down to 209 from 220, which makes me very happy. But the main thing is I can tell the difference physically, I just feel better all around.

We wen't to Colorado last week for a total length trip of 5 days and I had 3 splurge days and 4 rest days (besides skiing, tubing, snowmobiling), so I was "off" of the nutrition and workout plan for a while. I expected to gain about 2-3 lbs, but actually I lost about a pound of weight and it seems to be just going down from there.

It was nice to have the rest days, but my body was starting to miss the workouts and I feel so much better getting back into the swing of things. I am exactly 20 weeks out from Ironman CDA and I am about 1 month ahead of where I was last year at this time. I weighed 197 for Ironam CDA in 2007 and I am already down to 209, so that is only 12 more pounds to lose and my goal is to have that gone and more by the end of March. I would LOVE to be at 180 for Irornman this year. Weight is the single biggest hinderance when it comes to running and cycling. . so I hope to help myself in those areas this year.

If you want to see some Colorado pictures go to http://www.amyandjared.com/ and you can view some samples and then Amy has a link for more pics on her website.

Pain=Worthwhile

2008-01-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

I have thought about this topic for a while, and I now know it is true. I often hear from people when they talk about eating good, or when I tell them how much I exercise, they say things like,

"I could never get up that early", "I could never ride my bike that far", I couldn't go a whole week without eating ________ (fill in the blank)."

Some people just don't get it, or if they do, then they just don't care. . . I am like that at times, I will admit it. . that is why I put on 23 lbs since June 24th of 2007. Because I didn't like the pain of working out as hard or eating as good. . . so now I have to deal with the choices I made.

Anything that is easy to do, is not worth doing. Seriously, think about that for a second. If something is easy to do, then it is not worth doing.

Some examples:

Lunch: Going to McDonald's and ordering a double cheeseburger, fries and large Dr.Pepper is very easy. All I have to do is get in my car, drive, pay and then eat.

Free Time: Laying on the couch and watching TV (I struggle with this myself), is very easy and it brings about nothing good.

I am not saying to never watch TV or to never eat at McDonald's (that is what splurge day is for), I am just saying that nothing good comes from those things.

Now, here is what I believe. In order for something to be worthwhile and to bring about true happiness, there has to be struggle and pain involved. Don't believe me. . .? Think about it some.

Examples:

A new baby takes pain and anguish during labor on the part of the mother. . . but in the end, is there anything more worthwhile?

Training for a marathon or Ironman or 5K road race, or bike race takes time and pain when you train for it. Believe me, I find very little pleasure in getting up in the morning and going for a 2-3 hour bike ride in 20 degree weather. Or swimming at 6:00 AM in the morning when I would rather be sleeping.

It is not easy to eat right all the time (except splurge day), it takes work and at times, yes it is painful. . there are times, when it would just be easier to get some tacos at Taco Bell, or a Pizza from Papa Johns. BUT. .the time and pain involved in eating right pays off in the end.

So those are my thoughts on that subject. PAIN=GOOD EASY=BAD

New Look

2008-01-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

Big thanks to my wife Amy for making this blog look way better than it was. I am laking in the aesthetic region.

Well, I am not sure how often I am going to post, but just wanted to share some quick thoughts on weighing yourself (myself). I have heard two different schools of thought.

1) Weigh yourself once a week, no more because weight can vary from day to day, due to a number of reasons.

2) Weigh yourself every day, so that way you stay on track and see any fluctuations.

Well, I kindof do in between. I try to follow these rules.

1) Always weigh in the AM. (I haven't eaten so I am bound to weigh less, right? :)
2) Always weigh before eating anything.
3) Don't eat anything until I workout.
4) I only weigh myself on 1 scale that is at the gym where Amy and I go to workout. We have a scale at home, but scales can vary . . . so to keep it consistent, I only use one scale.

I think that is it. I just try and tell myself, that even though I may see a fluctuation in weight from one day to the next either up or down. . it is a slow and steady race. Just keep eating right and exercising and it will all come off. . . just takes work and time. Like anything worth doing. . . work and time.

Pic of my bike before Ironman CDA 2007

Weight Gain and Loss

2008-01-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

As a point of reference, I wanted to share what my weight was last year in training for Ironman and after.

January 2007, I was right at 220 lbs. I was training for a marathon throughout Oct, Nov, Dec, or 2006 which took place on January 14th in Phoenix, AZ. I would have expected the weight to come off during those months before and leading up to the marathon, since I was running around 15-20 miles for my long runs on the weekend. But the reality is my nutrition didn't really change at all. So while I was able to "run" (I actually walked a lot) the marathon, my body was in pain and my knees hurt from the extra weight. I believe that I actually hurt more after my marathon than my Ironman. . .

Anyway, the point here is, I started my serious training for my 2007 Ironman on Feb 5th, 2007 I followed a workout schedule and sortof watched what I ate. The end result was that I weighed 197 lbs for my Ironman. I had lost 23 lbs since January 2007 till June 24th 2007.

Losing this weight made it a lot easier to do and finish the Ironman, but I still feel (and felt at the time), that if I had lost another 17 lbs. . I would have been lean and mean for the race.

So that is my goal this year. .. to weigh 180 lbs for Ironman CDA on June 22, 2008.

Currently I weight 213.8 (give or take a 1/2 lb). So that means I have 33.8 lbs to lose.

I WILL DO IT!!!!!!!!! I may have to stop eating at some point (just kidding), I don't recommend to ever stop eating. . . But cutting back a lot can and will help.

From Fat to Fit

2008-01-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

I am a little late in getting this started. . (hmm, that seems to be a theme of mine) but I wanted to provide a snapshot into my training and nutrition in preparing for Ironman Coeur d'Alene Triathlon on June 22, 2008. I am tracking what I eat and how I train on two different websites and I will provide the links to each.

Another reason, is I want to hold myself accountable for getting into shape and sharing a little more about me. Which is part of my resolutions for 2008. Also, not to do anything half way. I have decided, if I am going to do something, then I am going all the way. . no more half effort for me. If a workout calls for 1 hour 50 minute bike ride, then I will do that or more. . . nothing less.

I took photos of my disgusting fat body on Jan 1st and will post those (not that anyone wants to see them), but I want a point of reference for when I get leaner and "fit".

That is all for now. . I will post the pics later. . oh and I will attempt to post pics of races/training and such during my journey to Ironman CDA 2008.

Oh here are some pics from my 2007 Ironman CDA.