Branson or Redman 2011

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

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 . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ironman Louisville Kentucky Race Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is nice to feel welcomed. :)

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

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

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


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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Picture of me heading out on the bike. . .

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

T2: 4minutes, 6 seconds. .

Heading out on the run . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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


TOTAL TIME: 10 hours 36 minutes 59 seconds

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


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

Picture of me and Barry Ogden. . .

Picture of Me and Troy Smith . . .

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

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

The Quest is half the battle . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just into Illinois and on our way!

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

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

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

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

Picture of Steele and Kloden at Churchill Downs

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

RACE WEEK!!!!!!

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



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



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



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



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

Taper Time. . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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