The Day I Became an Ironman

Intro

Well, I suppose I have to change the name of this blog now.  Last weekend was a culmination of a lot of work and sacrifices. I’m super stoked just to say that I am an Ironman. 

Madison is an amazing city and it really came out in droves to support the race.  For those thinking of doing an IM in the US, this is definitely the place to go.  There were 3,000 plus volunteers and at least that many fans along all parts of the course.  There wasn’t a one-mile stretch throughout the 140.6 miles covered that day which did not have some sort of cheering support.  

Here is the Ironman distance:  Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles, Run 26.2 miles

Cliff Notes Version //  8th Age-Group, 28th Overall (2,881 total participants)

Swim 1:02

Bike 5:18

Run 3:37

Overall 10:06

All of these efforts are PRs since this is my first...

Swim 

Wisconsin is one of the final mass starts in the IM circuit. That means all ~3,000 people were floating in the water like bobbers before the cannon went off.  I decided to position myself closer to the inner buoys as I knew I would be fast enough off the line to get some clear water.  The swim only really condensed at two points for me over the 2.4 miles.  The first was about 300 meters in when the wide mass line start consolidates into more of a swimming conga line.  The second point was at the first turn buoy, where in traditional IM WI fashion people stop to Moo…yes, it really happens.  

About 1/2 of the swim start line

I got in a nice groove on the long back stretch of the course and came out of the water feeling strong.  I had watch issues again, so I didn’t know my time until I started doing math on the bike based on the time of day.

Overall placing: 132nd

T1

I decided to run right by the wetsuit strippers as I needed to pull up my speed suit and couldn’t do that carrying the wetsuit.  This helped me fly by a large group of the 132 faster swimmers.  The “fun” part of T1 in Madison is that you have to run up a four story parking helix to get to the top of the Monona Terrace.  The helix was packed with fans which made running straight uphill less miserable.  Made first contact with my support team as I was on the top of the Terrace which was a nice boost.  Once inside, I made quick work of the wetsuit, threw my helmet on, grabbed my shoes, and scurried out as I saw an awesome volunteer scooping up all my gear from the swim. 

Just a sneak peek at the support

Bike

I jumped on the bike and immediately started going to work on my nutrition.  I scarfed down over 500 calories within the first 5 miles of the bike which really helped my body start to recoup some of the energy lost on the swim.  I had ridden about 80% of the bike course several times, so I was intimately familiar with what was around each bend.  I settled into a nice rhythm very early on and traded off flats and climbs with a lighter rider.  It was nice having a rabbit on the climbs to keep in eye-sight.  

Family High-fives around mile 75

The course consists of two loops that are connected to Madison by an out-and-back stick.  About 29 miles into the bike there is a pronounced climb to the city of Verona where I had my second cheering section encounter.   The 20% of the course I had not ridden before consisted of Barlow hill that I had been well warned about.  It is two rolling hills followed by a steep pitch of 19%.  I managed to ride up the hill comfortably without spiking my power too bad.

As I started in on my second loop, I remembered something that MJ told me once and it stuck with me the rest of the ride.  She would always say that the bike doesn’t really start until mile 80.  Given that and the fact that the final big climb of the course came at mile 90, I held a nice consistent power output for the remainder of the ride.

Two funny fan interactions came in the middle of the bike, which I feel are worth commenting on.

1. Around mile 35, I rode up a steady incline by a guy in a lawn chair.  He had a little counter in his hand and let me know that I was in 43rd place. To which I replied, “holy shit”. The math there is that 35 miles in, I had already passed 89 people on the bike.
2. Around mile 45, I was again riding up a steady incline (WI is hilly-by-the-way) when a lady stated pretty matter of factly that “you’re looking strong….for now”.  That comment really put me in check given that she was indeed quite right.  I was barely a 1/3 into the ride and I still had a marathon to run after this.

Overall Placing: 28th

For my #AllWattsMatter data nerds:

[Assuming a 288 as my FTP]

Normalized Power: 236

Intensity Factor (NP/bFTP) =  82%

VI  = 1.10

Cadence Fade = 12%

Avg Power Fade = 11%

T2

I rode into T2 feeling really good.  I had managed my power nicely on the bike and felt fresh.  I pulled in and even went with the flying dismount as I passed my bike off to a terrified looking bike catcher.  Apparently he didn’t trust my dismount skills.  I made quick work of T2 (2:22) and was out the door on the marathon.

Run

I knew that I was in a good spot on the run as I was never passed on the bike after mile 35 and knew that I had passed several other people on the course.  I ran the first few miles of the marathon quicker than I had planned.  I was secretly disappointed in my head and I knew this could potentially come back and bite me later on. 

Somehow managed to stay zipped up all day

The run course weaves around downtown Madison and the UW campus.  It was beautiful scenery and great weather (mid-70s), which would help me get through my first ever marathon.  I ran on and off with a half dozen different people throughout the day.  This was nice from a pacing perspective, but also kept the competitive juices flowing late in the game.  I got a nice boost of energy from my cheering section about 7 different times on the run.  I had some cramping in my left hamstring every mile from 15 all the way in, but other than that I felt great.

Taking a loop through Camp Randall

As I rounded a corner and headed towards the State Capital for the last time, I finally had some emotion come to the surface.  All the training and effort was finally becoming a reality.  Putting the Capital to my back and the finish line in my eye sight I couldn’t have been happier.  Running with a smile, I came across the finish line with Mike Reilly saying, “Dan, you are an Ironman”.  

As I said from the start, I couldn’t be happier with my result.  The reality is that I finished better than I expected to and had an error-free day for the most part.  

Nutrition

I’ve had nice success in the 70.3s this year going all liquid, so coming into IM I was planning on that being my base.  The below is a breakdown of what I consumed.

Pre-Swim: 1 serving 3FU3L w/ GQ-6

Bike: 3 Glukos bars (miles 5, 60,100), 5 servings 3FU3L w/ GQ-6 + 1/2 tube BASE salt (I wish I finished the whole tube - may have avoided cramping the final 11 miles on the run)

Run: 7 Cliffbar Gels + Gigantic handful of potato chips at mile 23 + 1 tube BASE salt

Thank You

A huge thank you goes out to all of the friends and family out on the course.  Your guys love and support through the lead-up and during the race was phenomenal.  Not only were you one of the biggest cheering sections, you were also the best dressed!  I’d like to give a big shoutout to my coach Michellie Jones who has had me extremely prepared for every race this year. She was also busy winning the Paralympic Gold Medal in Triathlon the morning of the race (Read more about that here).  Finally, thank you to the RIDE Tri Team family and sponsors.  You all have been great training partners and motivators throughout the year.  

Up Next

I can’t believe it’s only been 15 months of this crazy triathlon journey!  I’ll most likely race one more Olympic distance race before the end of the year.  I’ll spend the rest of my time traveling, visiting friends/family, and getting back in the groove of having my weekends.  I am already planning next year and I’ll definitely have some lofty goals, but more on that later! 

Playing Catch Up Part 2: Gaining Perspective in Omaha

Racing in Omaha was not on my radar at the start of this year.  This is pretty much due to my lack of familiarity with the annual races associated with the sport.  Given my finish earlier in the year in the desert and then again in Hawaii, I secured a spot to race in the Age Group National Championships in Omaha, NE in August.  Since I have been putting off a visit to see my brother who lives in Lincoln, I thought this would be the perfect chance to see him and try and secure a spot to the World Championships.

Leading into the race, my sole focus was on IM Wisconsin that I would tackle about a month later. Since the Olympic distance only takes around 2 hours and I was training for a 10 hour race, I had to put my expectations in check.  Knowing I could still put together a strong race, the only goal going in was to secure a spot to the ITU Wold Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands which will occur in September of 2017.  This would mean me taking 18th or better in my age-group.

Just a quick note, the Olympic distance consists of a 1500m swim, 40km bike, and 10km run.

Highlights
Swim 26:42
Bike 1:03
Run 40:26
Overall 2:13

Swim
Hands down, the worst triathlon swim of my very short career.  It was a non-wetsuit swim in a lake that was measured at 84 degrees F prior to the race.  Needless to say, I had a bad swim and was extremely hot while doing it.  This was another race where I was fortunate to be in the first wave, which ended up paying off later on.  I forgot to start my watch for the start of the race, so I came out of the water without really knowing what the damage was at this point.  Coming up the chute into T1, my brother yelled something to the effect of "a lot of people are in front of you".  All of these people were in my age group, I had some work to do.

Thanks for the pic ma

Bike
The bike course was a fairly flat course with two pronounced climbs.  I was planning on riding hard, but given my lackluster swim I really had to kick it into gear.  It was an out and back course, so at the turnaround I had somehow managed to bike myself into 20th place, meaning I passed a good 20 people on just the first 12ish miles.  I essentially held my position there, holding off a few attempts by people trying to pull away.  I hustled into T2 and was able to pass a few more people as I head out on the run.

Multitasking

Run
The run course was also an out and back, which included a turnaround in the TD Ameritrade Stadium (Home of the College World Series).  I had situated myself  nicely into 18th place on the run.  Given how the day had gone and Ironman being my focus, I was happy to sit in comfortably on the run.  At the turnaround, I found myself in no-man's land. I had a healthy lead on the few runners behind me, but I was a bit back from the runners in front of me.  I looked around coming down the red carpet and was pretty confident that I did what I needed to do.

Running the track at TD Ameritrade

Results and Roll-down
Well, my assumption was wrong...initially.  Due to the way the age-groups are broken out, USAT does some shuffling to account for people aging up over the next year.  This left me sitting in the uncomfortable 19th position on Sunday night.  I was outside of an automatic slot, but within the top 25 which would allow me to receive a roll-down.

It took until Tuesday of the following week to receive my invite from USAT to be a part of Team USA for the 2017 Grand Final.  Needless to say, I was and am pretty pumped.  I've represented the US in a different capacity before, but this will be the first opportunity to do so in sport.

Omaha was a great chance for me to be humbled by the sport again.  There were so many fast people out there and it was a nice reminder that I still have lots of work to do.

Playing Catch Up Part 1: Big Island Surprise

This is one of two race reports that I have been putting off.  Why put them up now?  I'm a little too OCD and these need to be posted prior to me putting up my Ironman write-up.

70.3 Hawaii
I flew over to the Big Island in June to race 70.3 Hawaii.  For those not familiar with the race, it's held about 20 minutes north of downtown Kailua-Kona (where the Ironman World Championship takes place).  The whole reason I signed up for this race was to get a little relaxation on the island before my big build up for Ironman Wisconsin.

Highlights
Swim  33:22
Bike  2:29 (PR)
Run  1:44
Overall  4:51

Coming into the race I was extremely relaxed and had some good friends flying in for the weekend. My body was in good shape, but you never know what is going to happen with the weather out there.

Swim
This is a non-pro race, so I was fortunate to be in the first wave of the non-wetsuit (ugh) swim start.  I say fortunate because this is the first race I actually ended up counting people to know where I stood in the mix.  The water was warm, smooth, and unbelievably clear.  While swimming, you were able to look down about 50 ft and see beautiful reef and marine life.  I came out of the swim feeling pretty fresh and charged up the hill to transition passing a bunch of people along the way.

Who wouldn't want to swim in that?

Bike
I jumped on the bike and immediately got into a comfortable rhythm.  After about 10 miles in there is a turnaround where I was able to see that I was in 30th position overall.  This definitely boosted my spirits as I knew I could make up time from my slower swim.  The bike course follows the norther half of the WC course, so it was cool to know that you're riding where history happens. The bike was really uneventful other than a short downpour on the climb to Hawi.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I put up my fastest bike split of the year on what can be a difficult course.  I rolled into T2 to find very sparse bike racks which was a good sign of things to come.

Showing off the deep V

Run
As I was getting off the bike, the sun had already come out and was baking down on the course. About 8 miles of the run course is on the grass at a nice golf course.  This sounds nice in theory, soft grass, no huge hills; however, the heat and humidity are nearly suffocating when you were on the grass.  I had been told by several people that this would be a tough run and the course didn't disappoint there.  While I never felt dominant on the run, I was able to manage my pace and nutrition. As MJ said, this race was all about "management".

Final trot to the finish line

As I came across the finish line into the chute my buddy commented that there weren't a whole lot of people that had finished before me.  He pulled out his phone and lo and behold I had just earned my first M-dot podium.  I finished 5th in my Age Group which was good enough for 42nd Overall.

Shoes are overrated

Gaining Wisdom at Wildflower

Some of this blog can be found in a write-up I did for the RIDE Tri Team, so apologies to those reading both.

Wildflower Long | 5:09:17 | 12th - Age Group, 35th Gender

Well it has been about a week since Wildflower, so it is about time I get something down on “paper”.  For those unfamiliar (as I was up until about 6 months ago) with Wildflower, it offers quite a unique racing experience.  The Wildflower Triathlon has been dubbed the “Woodstock of Triathlon”.  It’s the “one and only” Wildflower and the 34th running of the event did not disappoint.  The weekend consists of a few different races ranging from Long Course (70.3 distance) to Sprint, on and off-road.  Due to an ill-timed dam drainage and 100-year drought conditions, the race has taken on a new flavor which turns the triathlon into a swim-run-bike-run.  The Long Course breaks down by 1.2 Mile Swim - ~2.3 Mile Run - 56 Mile Bike - ~9.8 Mile Run.  The Long bike course is a challenging one with over 3,800ft of gain and a climb named “Nasty Grade”.  The run course is a mix of trail and road that with several tough sections.

Quick Side Bar  To me Wildflower represented a “B” or “C” race for the year [You can find general definitions here for those interested].  Now this is a familiar concept for those in the racing community, but something completely foreign to me.  My days of competitive sports and exercising consisted of every event being an “A” event.  It took a day or so after the race to accept the outcome for what it was and my general placing overall.  I am happy with the training benefit and experience that I gained from the race.  

The true Wildflower experience involves spending the weekend camping or for some glamping in RV’s.  In my case, I was part of the former.  I carpooled up with a teammate on Friday morning and got into the campsite around noon.  The day was spent getting the campsite set up, checking in for the race, doing a short training ride and run, then just hanging out with the team.  My usual pre-race resting and eating habits were pretty much out the window, but I guess that is all part of the experience.  

Josh (right) showed off some serious camping culinary skills throughout the weekend

Swim | 0:34:49

I was hoping to have a stronger swim than Oceanside, but ended up with about the same performance.  Harris Creek presented a nice calm lake with an out and back course.  Other than foggy goggles and tired arms, I came out where expected.

Finally a decent photo of the custom Blueseventy Helix wetsuit

The “fun” of the races starts right away as you exit the swim, you have to deal with a quick transition into running shoes and a punishing climb from the water, up a boat ramp, and onto the trail for the T1A --> T1B 2 mile run. And as if the first boat ramp wasn’t bad enough, you end the transition run with another boat ramp of near equal distance and elevation gain to come into T1B. 

Bike | 2:49:03

Knowing that the course had a challenging, hilly bike course, I knew that this wouldn’t be a fast course for me.  And as if a hilly bike course wasn’t going to present enough of a challenge for me, it just so happened to be a windy day.  Wind was pretty consistent around 10mph, but did gust throughout the ride at 20+mph.  Needless to say, I did not have a crackin day on the bike.  Watt-wise, I was off my target and ended up with an Intensity factor of 83% (I utilized an updated bFTP for this race).  The bike was certainly taxing on me physically, but the wind, rough roads, and huge descents were a drain on me mentally.  I was battling a lot of negative self-talk throughout the bike which ultimately spilled over into my run.

Run | 1:40:28

Since we covered a little over 2 miles of the run on the transition from swim to bike, you are left to deal with less than a half marathon off the bike.  I had been warned about the run by some of my team members and looked over the course files.  Unfortunately, nothing prepares you for the ups and downs of this run like being on the actual course.  I ran strong for the first 2 miles, but then hit the first of two tough sections and went into preservation mode.  I think on another day with an “A” race mentality, I would have sucked up my concern and self-doubt to power on.  However, this day turned into just accepting the run and my effort for what it was.  I was generally running alone for most of the race.  I picked off a fair amount of people that were in the wave preceding mine and even a few of the pro women.  The Cal Poly students manning the aid stations on the run course offered a nice distraction with antics that you would expect and admire from college students without supervision.  The only real memorable portion of the run was a half-chug of a Coors Light I was handed around mile 11.  It only took about 5 minutes for me to regret the decision after a few burps came with a wonderful after taste.
 

Pre-Coors Light, Post-Tough Sections

Coming down the finish chute at Wildflower is pretty cool and I can just imagine how crazy it must have been during the races heydays.  The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out in the festival atmosphere that is Wildflower.  There was live-music throughout the day, oversized board games, or for me, lots of beer to drink and food to eat.  The night was capped off with dinner, drinking, and good times around the campfire.

This was a good race to test the legs and put me in check after a nice showing in Oceanside.  Next up I’ll be racing another tough course on the Big Island when I participate in 70.3 Honu on 4 June.   

70.3 Redemption in Oceanside

Although this is very early in the season, this race was definitely about redemption for me at the 70.3 distance.  It’s been about 5 months since Cabo (you can read up here), but as stated in my previous post, lots has changed.  I came into the race with a plan to finish in about 5 hours (+/- 15min).  A considerable amount of hard work has been put in and progress made since I started following MJ’s programming and joined the RIDE Tri Team.  I had seen solid results in the Desert last month and knew that I was coming into this race well prepared.  For lack of a better phrase, I had drank the Kool-Aid.

70.3 Oceanside | 4:44:30 | 21 - Age Group, 106 Overall

Jamming in my BlueSeventy Helix

Swim | Goal 31:10 | Actual 32:08 | Cabo 37:53

The swim went off in waves, so being in wave 8 I knew there’d be a fair amount of people littered around the course.  Now I’m not the fastest swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, but do well enough where I knew I’d have to navigate through a lot of bodies.  My plan was to try and stay with my wave’s lead pack, but that plan feel apart as we approached the first buoy and started intermixing with the previous wave.  I settled into a steady pace, but then ended up getting into a traffic jam about 800m into the race.  I came out of the water slightly off pace, but feeling really fresh. Saw my neighbor from WI at the swim exit which was a nice pick-me-up and ran towards the endless transition area to find my bike.

Bike | Goal 2:44 | Actual 2:34 |  Cabo 2:46

Hydration (SpeedFill) + Hammering (Felt)

I had a conservative plan on the bike that would keep me within my power goal and how the course was laid out.  MJ and I agreed on going out nice and smooth for the first half of the bike course as it is rather flat, but can result in you blowing up on the second half of the course which is much hillier.  I felt really smooth on the bike and was able to come across a few of the RIDE Tri Team members.  I had lots of temptations on the course when I was passed by some people, but ultimately stuck with the plan.  This allowed me to have a strong second half of the bike and resulted in me not being past after about 35 miles in.  I don’t have a whole lot of superlatives to discuss about the bike as it went almost exactly as I planned.  For my data geeks/Training Peak users, you can take a look at the below data.

Intensity Factor (NP/bFTP) = 96%

VI (NP/Actual Power) = 1.08 (As to be expected with a hillier course)

Cadence Fade = 1.01%

Avg Power Fade = 99% (Actually rode the second half with slightly more power)

At the end of the day, my actual average power on the bike was 1 watt above my targeted watt output.

Run | Goal 1:33 | Actual 1:30 | Cabo 2:01

So this was really the moment of truth for me.  I knew coming into T2 that my legs felt really good, but I was still sitting on my bike.  The second I dismounted my bike and started jogging to my run gear, I knew I was going to be able to clip off a nice run.  It felt just like all of the t-runs that I had been doing for the last few months.  I ran the first two miles at a 6:55 pace, which had me a concerned as it was definitely a little faster than planned.  Mentally, I was worried that this would come bike to bite me in the butt later on.  It was about this time that I ran into one of my teammates.  I pulled back a little and ran alongside Jason for about 3/4 of a mile, which really helped me mentally regroup and think through what I needed to do.  At the next aid station, I took off. Now I didn’t say anything at the time, but I knew it was time to get after it. We had a laugh about it over beers a few hours later.  The next few miles went off without much thought.  I had a dark moment from about mile 9 to 11 where I let my pace slide over 7:00/mile.  I was honestly in really good spirits the whole run except for those ~15minutes.  I suppose it was easy to be in good spirits because there were SO many teammates, friends and family out on course cheering me on - this definitely made for a nice “home field” advantage.

Loop 1 Dan, slight V

Loop 2 Dan judging Loop 1 Dan's V

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better race.  This is definitely a great way to start my season.  I’m excited for all the races to come, but I know I’ve got lots of work to put in to get there.  So for those of you wondering or doing the math, this was a 47 minute PR over Cabo.  

Now it's time to put both the good and bad results behind me and go put more money in the bank.  My next withdrawal from the bank will be at Wildflower later this month.

Part of the team hanging at the Felt booth the day prior.

Finding the Pedals [Desert Triathlon Race Report]

Lead up
Last weekend marked the first triathlon of the year for me.  This was only my 5th ever triathlon, so still lots of learning to be had.  Although, I don't think you ever stop learning in this sport.  This was definitely not an "A" race on my calendar, more of a nice training check prior to the season really kicking off.  Since this was just a training race, I didn't have a whole lot of expectations leading up.  I knew that I could put in a strong performance for me in all three sports, just didn't know how that would have me stack up against the rest of the field.  When MJ told me to "just go out there and go hard" on Wednesday, I figured I would do just that.

Pre-Race
It was a windy, but warm morning on race day.  Apparently there were 50mph wind gusts overnight which had put the race in jeopardy.  The race director finally made the call to hold the race, but it looked like we'd start about an hour later than originally planned.  This really only had an impact on my pre-race nutrition plan, which essentially was thrown out the window at this point.  
Morning Eats: 1 banana, 2 cups coffee, 1 GQ-6 bottle, 1 cup Oats, 1 large spoonful of peanut butter

Thankfully I had a bottle with 3FU3L in it, which bridged the gap from breakfast around 5am to the race start around 8:30am.

Race
Although I didn't have much expectation going into the race, I did have some basic pacing goals/guidelines I was planning on working with.
Swim:  1:30/100yd
Bike: 285-300 watts
Run: sub-7:00 miles

Swim:  I was in the second wave due to the age-group breakdown.  I told myself to just stay on the lead swimmers through the initial chaos and then draft the rest of the race.  Thankfully, I was able to do just that.  I spent the 24min or so in the water tickling the bottom of the lead swimmers feet.  I'm sure it was annoying, but I honestly didn't care as I knew I'd be coming out of the water in a good spot.  I had finally attacked the swim portion of a race and not just gone out to survive potential drowning.  The swim was a bit longer than listed on paper, I had it at 1,660yards.  I ended up clocking a 24:03, which comes out to around 1:27 pace.
Swim goal: Accomplished

Bike:  I came out of the water feeling pretty fresh thanks to my drafting. I knew I exited the water with a group of 3 other guys, but completely lost track of them when I came into T1.  I suppose lesson learned for me here on keeping tabs.  Comic relief came when I tried to do a flying mount with my new shoes already clipped in.  I've never had issues in the past with this, but the new shoes proved to be quite a challenge.  Of course this occurred right in front of our big sponsor Sean Watkins from Wattie Ink, who I'm sure has some nice photos of me attempting to get my feet secured.

Flying around the course on my new IA...with my feet clipped in.

After I finally got clipped in, I took down a quick Stinger gel and was on my way.  The bike course was fast and flat.  There were some headwinds and gusts at times during the bike portion, but no real different from riding next to the ocean everyday.  I held onto my watt goal for the first 2/3 of the ride, but then pulled back a little towards the later half of the bike portion.  Unfortunately I spent the bike in no-mans-land for the most part.  By this point I realized I was either out of eyesight of the group I came out of the swim with or I had dropped them.  Turns out it was the latter. Spent the majority of the bike picking off the middle and slower first wave athletes.  Ran out of water with about 10 miles left in the bike and missed the one spot they were handing out water, that's what I get for being stingy and not brining an extra water bottle on the bike.  I guess the dry desert air made me a little more thirsty than usual.  I finished the bike leg having not been passed on the course, so I knew I was going to be in a good spot leaving T2.  Put in a 1:00:16 on the bike split for 24 miles, easily under 60min if not for my shoe gaff. I was a bit off my watt goal, only averaging 266 watts.
Bike goal:  Not accomplished - probably a tad aggressive

Run:  Jumping off my bike, I definitely had an "Oh, no" moment.  Although my Cabo run didn't pop up in my mind at the time, I could definitely tell my legs weren't ready to move.  I didn't know this at the time, but my abductors were fried from the effort I gave on the bike.  I had mentally been blaming the new bike seat I am trying out.  Flat course=lots of constant pedaling.  Another new learning for me.  It took about a half mile to shake of the feeling in my legs and really get a good stride going.  Right as I exited T2, I was passed by a guy who would eventually win my age group (spoiler alert).  I made a mental note and planned on keeping him within 50 or so meters to make an attack later in the race.  Unfortunately, I just didn't have the legs to go.  I had some segments of 6:20 pace, but wasn't able to sustain without fear of running the engine too hot.  I spent the race watching the guy slowly pull a little further ahead each mile or so.  I really can't complain for me as I put in a 41:10 10K, pace comes out around 6:37/mile - although I had 6:49 on my watch.
Run Goal:  Accomplished

This V got even deeper about 2 minutes after this shot. Check out those awesome Newtons!

Overall, I am happy with the race.  My effort landed me my first podium in the sport as I took 2nd place in my age group and 18th overall (amateur).  It was awesome to be on course with the rest of my teammates and of course Heather Jackson out there hammering away.  It was definitely some great motivation.  All things considered, I accomplished two of the three goals and got the training benefit I wanted out of the race.

Next Up
Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside, CA on April 2nd.  I'll be looking for some redemption at that distance.

Slow Build

So I’ve finally found a little time to put some thoughts down on paper.  There are lots of changes that I’ve made going into this year from when I started my triathlon adventures last May.  Something I’ll be adding this year are entertaining, hopefully, race recaps where I'll share how the race went from my perspective.
So here are some of the biggest changes and updates for 2016 and my pursuit of the M-Dot.

Physical

To those that have seen me lately, it should go without saying that I’ve dropped a fair amount of mass.  I was walking around in my CrossFit days last year around 205-208# and am now fluctuating within a pound or so of 190#.  Yes, I’ve lost some strength in the gym, but I feel great out there running and still powerful on the bike.  The plan is to get down to around 185#, maybe even 180# just to see what that does with everything.  

Other than the change in figure, I’m pretty healthy overall.  As Brian McKenzie says, being “unscared” is the key for this year. 

Method

One of the biggest changes for 2016 is coming under the tutelage of Michellie Jones. Just google her name, she’s pretty legit. Insert Olympic Silver Medal and Ironman World Champion Title Here.  Quick backstory, I met MJ at the World Special Olympic Games in Los Angeles last August.  I had no idea who see was, but after chatting with her for awhile I decided to google her name and was blown away.  

So, needless to say, she has stepped my training game up and is really pushing me to perform at levels beyond what I thought I’d be able to do right now.

Most of you have seen lots of posts on Instagram and Facebook about the RIDE Triathlon Team that I was selected to be a part of.  It is made up of some great folks ranging from professional triathlete to top age-group athletes.  This has meant a lot of group training which presents a nice supportive environment to push yourself in.  I’d be remised if I didn’t mention the amazing sponsors, as they have really made a lot of this progress possible through their continued support of the team and its athletes.

Superlatives

I suppose the best way to show my evolution would be to present some data (and you know I love data).  Here are some shots of my efforts and training sessions.

Swimming Volume Perspective

Total Yards May-October 2015:  57,930
Total Yards January 2016:  45,548

Half Marathon Comparison

August 2015 -  America's Finest City Half Marathon (471ft elevation gain):  1h38m (Avg Pace 7:26/mile)
[I was resting up for the race in the week preceding]
February 2016 - San Dieguito Half Marathon (715ft elevation gain):  1h29m (Avg Pace 6:50/mile) 
[Training week as normal, completed a 65mile bike ride and 20min T-run the day prior]

Average Percentage per week per sport (January 2016)
January average weekly training time:  11h26m
Swim/Bike/Run

So what’s next

Well the race season is right around the corner for me.  I actually just knocked out a tough little half marathon this weekend in which I ran a sub 1:30, which was good enough for Top 5 in my age group.  Although I have a fair amount of big races this year, the season for me really boils down to Ironman Wisconsin in September.  Well, September 11th to be exact.  As most of you know, I joined the Marine Corps a few years after 9/11/01, ultimately tracing that decision back to this fateful day during my senior year in high school.  

For those that have been asking, the below is a snapshot of my race “plan”.  Some races are planned as of right now and I'll probably be tweaking this the next few weeks to finalize it.

So, that’s it.  Lots of change, but also lots of progress so far. Here’s to a great 2016.