This was my 4th race of the season and second 70.3 (Half Ironman) of the year and 6 weeks after my last 70.3 (Oceanside on 1 April 2017).  I was sick for the last 2 weeks with a hacking cough and general malaise (maybe Bronchitis, we’ll see) so I had a very good taper and came into this race very fresh.  I managed to PR but I still need a lot of work for the fall season.

Game Plan – here’s the original plan we put together (I made some updates for everything I highlighted in yellow, but the rest is the same).  Here are the goals:

Santa Rosa 70.3 – 2112 yard swim / 56 mile bike / 13.1 mile run

i. “A” Goal – Swim 34:30, Bike 2:22-2:28, Run 1:28-1:31: <=4:30-4:35

ii. “B” Goal – Swim 35:30, Bike 2:29-2:35, Run 1:32-1:35: <=4:36-4:45

iii. “C” Goal – Swim 36:30, Bike 2:36-2:45, Run 1:35-1:38: <=4:46-5:00

I had set up a Best Bike Split (BBS) profile for this race.  I used 82% of FTP based on 270 – link to BBS here

Pre-Race – I got sick on Sunday, April 30 and I’ve been racked with hacking coughs and an overall malaise.  I’ve been on a constant stream of Dayquil and Nyquil and things have gotten better, but there’s still an annoying cough so I’ll need to deal with that this week with the doctor.  I’m unsure how I picked up this phlegm-filled mess, but it felt like a combination of starting my taper and some shift in the weather here in South Bay all colluding to ruin me.  I eased off of training during this period and just did some short workouts to keep up intensity, but otherwise just rested for almost 2 weeks.

This screenshot is based off of today (1 day after race) so I can’t display my ramp rates and fitness leading up to this (it’s on another weird chart) but here are the stats as of Friday night (May 12):

ATL – 40.7

CTL – 74.9

TSB – 32.4

What does all this nerdery mean?  It means I was rested up quite nicely going into Santa Rosa 70.3 but that I had lost a little fitness (on paper) compared to my Oceanside 70.3 taper.

Thursday, May 11 – I picked up a friend (Rebecca) from South Bay at 0400L and started the drive up north.  We made a quick stop in LA then kept going and made it to Santa Rosa by 1130L, so I was quite happy with the time.  We then hit the expo and we managed to get in line by ~1150 so we had about 10 minutes to stand around before registration opened.  Once we got through that madhouse, we roamed around for a bit then made a hotel stop, then I hit up the rental house.  I bummed around for a bit then went to downtown Santa Rosa to meet the South Bay Triathlon Club for a pre-race dinner at “Lococo’s Cucino” Italian Restaurant – it was good.  After dinner I popped smoke to Safeway to get some groceries then headed back to rack out by ~2200.

Friday, May 12 – I was up by 0730L (thanks to someone at work who called me) and started prep.  My housemates (Julie and Liz) had started to cook and made coffee so I joined them.  We then all split off to do our own prep.  I did my bike and run by the house just to make sure everything was moving right, so I got in about 8 minutes on the bike (checked out shifting, aero positioning, helmet, etc) and did a quick 15 minute run (threw in some surges to test legs).  I then went downtown to drop off my run gear bag at T2 (point-to-point race) then had lunch at “La Rosa Taquiera” which was a good spot.  I synced up with my other housemates (Courtney and Mike) and we floated around for a bit at expo.

We made our way to T1 which was way up at Lake Sonoma (roughly 35 minute drive from downtown) to rack our bikes.  The drive gave a decent indication of the initial bike descent so this was something worth noting.  The venue itself was quite scenic and here are some pictures:

Once we racked our bikes, we went down to the water to scope out the swim.  It wasn’t too cold (61-62 degrees) with some slight chop but nothing too bad.

Of note, the run up the boat ramp from the swim to the bike transition area looked somewhat steep.  Some folks had heard that there would be carpet going the entire way up, but I laughed and said that wasn’t going to happen (ended up being right).  I also dismissed the difficulty of transition because I had done Escape from Alcatraz in the past and survived that cold, miserable transition in bare feet so I figured I would be alright here (ended up being dead wrong – I would later rue this decision).

Once we got out of transition, Courtney, Mike and I went to “Bear Republic Brewing Company” in Healdsburg and had an alright dinner.  We then went back to the pad and crashed and I was asleep by roughly 930-10pm.

Saturday, May 13 – I set the alarm for 230am then got up to use the restroom and make coffee.  I started cooking around 245am and everyone was up and moving by 3am.  I had my customary pre-race meal for a 70.3 – 2x eggs, 1x slice of bread with almond butter and honey, and a decent amount of coffee.

We geared up and rolled out and was out of the house by roughly 340am.  We parked downtown and headed to the expo to board the buses to take us to Lake Sonoma.  We boarded by 415am and all of the housemates (Julie, Liz, Mike, Courtney, and I) were on the same bus.  We got to T1 at roughly 510am and I ran directly to the porta potty line before going into transition (rookie mistake to not hit the bathrooms first…always go as soon as you get to a race to avoid the massive lines).

Once I got into transition, I set everything up and was done fairly quickly.  However, I left my pre-made Gatorade at the house so I used water on my BTA bottle instead and had to adjust nutrition (took a gu immediately on bike) until I could make it to the first aid station (speaking of rookie mistakes…).  I had brought my bike pump with me and made sure Julie, Mike, and Courtney were squared away.  I checked on my friend Emily from Master’s Swimming and made sure she was alright, then we dropped off morning clothes bags and headed down to the swim.  I downed 1x gu (heavy caffeine), 1x salt pill, and a water bottle on the way.  I had no time to warm up with bands before I dropped off my morning clothes bag so I was preparing to go swim cold.  I took Emily and met up with Courtney and Mike at the “33-35 minute” swim seed (a person literally holding a sign that says 33-35 minutes) and we waited.  I did about 30-40 pushups just to get everything moving.  We started moving towards the swim start line by 630am and ran into the water as a 4-person draft group.

Swim – I wanted to push the pace a decent bit up to the first buoy to bypass the straphangers then start settling.  I gunned it a bit hard and fought through a melee at the first right turn.  I just held and focused on cadence, breathing, and form while sighting and fending off the slower folks that we started to drop.  I couldn’t keep track of whether everyone was still with me but I felt some slight contact on my sides and legs so figured someone was still sticking with me.  The sun was directly in our eyes by this point so trying to sight big yellow buoys was more difficult than anticipated and I actually ran into some.  I held the line well and kept pushing through the turns.  After the third turn, I hugged the shoreline (we watched the professionals finish their swim and it looked like a good idea) and kept up the pace.  We lost a good group of draft packs in front of us since we chose the shoreline, but I felt like it was a better idea.  The buoys were held way out wide, so those packs that stuck to those buoys after the third turn were creating an extra gap back to shore and I didn’t want a part of it.  Hugging the shore was a good move as I hit the plastic barriers and slingshotted around those with a direct line into the swim exit.  I started putting my energy into the kick to get my legs moving as I learned long ago to kick hard the last ~200m to get blood back into your legs for the upcoming run into transition, otherwise you get out of the water wobbly and dizzy.  I made it out of the water, hit the watch, then started running up the boat ramp.

I learned later that we lost Mike and Emily at the first turn due to the crazy melee but Courtney stayed with me for the swim until the end, where she found another swimmer and stayed with him and she finished 30-40 seconds ahead of me.  Overall, this was the best swim I’ve done considering the pacing, fitness, tactical maneuvers and the fact that I wasn’t tired at all when I finished.  I credit Coach Mike, Coach Dana, and Bryan for helping me get my swim squared away.  Between all the swims, Master’s sessions, and ocean training, things are finally coming together here.

Final Swim – 35:11 – link here

**Note – My garmin times are different than the official times.  I stopped my watch as soon as I hit ground, but I think the timing chip portion was a little bit north of the swim exit.  The “official” times on the IM website stand, but these are what I have based on what I hit on my watch.**

T1 – Utter and complete nightmare.  The run back to the bikes was miserable because the ground was so cold and hard that my feet felt like concrete cinderblocks trying to move.  I hustled as fast as I could and passed a bunch of folks, but moving at any run was almost impossible in bare feet.  Next time, I’m bringing some beater sandals to run in and leave them by the swim exit (may tie a balloon to them for identification).  I made it to my bike and put my wetsuit/swim cap/goggles in the bike bag along with my bike pump.  I then tied everything up, put on my shoes and helmet, grabbed the bike, and escaped.  This was the worst T1 I’ve ever done.

Final T1 – 6:53

Bike – I had done Vineman 70.3 in the past and some of the bike course was the same, so I expected this bike to be relatively easy compared to Oceanside 70.3.  We had a slight climb out of T1 and then went over a bridge.  Once we got over the bridge, we started a multi-mile descent with some turns and switchbacks.  There were signs that said “No Aerobars” so everyone was upright.  The descent looked gnarly on the drive up, but it wasn’t hard.  The issue for many folks was the cold but I was unfazed.  I just focused on pushing the pace to get warmed up and making sure I didn’t crash on the descent and I didn’t have any troubles here.  We finally stabilized on some calmer terrain and I got into aero to start doing some work.  I looked at my numbers and they were far higher than what I had done in training or expected to hit, so I just went with it and focused on RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) and just going by feel and Heart Rate.  I took my gu, water, and salt pills until the first aid station, then chugged a gatorade and put another gatorade on the back.  I went about 3-4 miles then filled up my BTA bottle with my backup gatorade and pressed forward.

Once I hit mile 40, I coughed so hard my stomach actually cramped up, so I had to get out of aero and stretch for a bit.  It went away 2-3 miles later but it was annoying enough to wound me in the middle of a race.  For the last 15-16 miles, I started to pee so frequently on the bike (6-8 times in 10 miles) that it interrupted my riding and it was harder to hold consistent power, so I just kept everything moving forward as best as I could.

We started to hit the outskirts of town so I made sure to get all my salt pills and gatorade in preparation for the upcoming run.  It took a minute to finally get to T2 and the bike course was slightly longer than expected, so I lost some time in the final miles as we all had to slow down to make it in.

Overall, this bike course was alright.  Some of the road conditions are sub-optimal and some road bumps were not marked, but otherwise the police support, volunteers, and overall venue were superb.  The only issue I noted that affected race performance was the wind – we had some gusts and headwinds that added enough variability into the mix that it affected my power and pacing.  I’m glad I’ve been getting more “aero” as it seemed to help get through the wind.

Final Bike – 2:29:27 – link here

T2 – This wasn’t as bad as T1.  The race officials had blocked off multiple parts of an entire street which served as our transition.  I had to run down most of the transition to make it to my rack.  Some goon had racked his bike next to mine the opposite way so I had to push his bike out of the way and get into my T2 bag.  I racked the bike, took off my helmet, then put on socks and shoes.  I grabbed my race belt, hat, and water bottle and started running and put those on while moving.  I fled the scene to get out of the madness.

Final T2 – 2:53

Run – I felt strong on the run so I knew that my nutrition on the bike went well.  I had put de-fizzed coke in my run water bottle the night before so I drank this constantly during the run.  I learned from Oceanside that the volunteers may hand out pitiful amounts of coke so I wanted to make sure I didn’t fade again because of that.  I kept the pace and effort even throughout the run and just focused on holding an even RPE.  The course undulated quite a bit and we hit some stairs and turnarounds (run was in a park) so the run pace would change even though RPE remained constant.  I had planned to take more salt pills according to my nutrition plan, but the salt pills actually got stick in the salt container and wouldn’t move so I abandoned that plan.  I took in my gu at 60 minutes and kept moving.  I ran out of coke in my run bottle around mile 9-10, so I took in more cokes and gatorades at the aid stations.  I felt strong throughout the run and managed to get more energy as the race progressed.  I picked up the pace on the last 2 miles and once I hit mile 12, I started my kick.  I kept the kick going until I hit the main street and then I started the sprint.  I sprinted the final corner past the turn-around and down the entire straightaway.  I crossed the finish line and almost hacked up a lung with my death cough but got some coke and pizza and was alright.

Of note, this was the strongest I’ve felt on a 70.3 run to date.  I never walked or stopped the entire time and actually got faster and felt stronger towards the end.  I looked at the data later and saw that the run was a bit short (12.9) and other runners seemed to confirm this.

Final Run – 1:33:36 – link here

Overall Time – 4:48:15 – link here

Results – 26th AG, 140th OA – link here

Based on my goals going into this, here’s the breakdown:

Actual Swim – 35:36 – Solid “B”

Actual Bike – 2:30:18 – Solid “B”

Actual Run – 1:33:35 – Solid “B”

Actual Total – 4:48:15 – Solid “C”

I give this race an overall “C” ranking my actual times vs. predicted.  I achieved a new PR at this distance (old was 4:50 at Galveston 70.3 in 2015) and felt strong throughout.  However, T1 cost me some time and I can still do better on all 3 legs.

Here are some key takeaways and actions for the upcoming season:

1. Aero – I swapped out my butyl tubes with Latex (thanks to Shift Cycles here) and I’m sure it helped me as my ride seemed a bit smoother.  Barring my new long-sleeved kit and a few adjustments on the rear cages, I’m probably as aero as I can get on this bike barring an aero test at a wind tunnel or velodrome.  I’ll head back into ERO Sports at some point this year to see if we can make anymore tweaks, but I feel pretty locked in and solid in the aero position.

2. Weight – I’ve slimmed down to 160 pounds so I’ve lost 12 pounds since January.  However, I’m still carrying around a decent amount of body fat so improving my body composition and strength to weight ratio will be a top priority for the summer season.

3. Bike Power – The numbers I put out during this race were far higher than anything I’ve done in training so there are two possibilities:

• Possibility One – I need to re-calibrate my power meter and see what my watts look like since the weather up north was colder (more likely)
• Possibility Two – The extended rest helped me achieve a breakthrough and allowed me to push higher watts which means an increased FTP (less likely)
• I’ll need to do an FTP test in the next few weeks to verify.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with this race.  I’m at my highest level of fitness as of this writing and back on par with how I felt in 2015.  I have a lot of work to do over the summer but I am enjoying the process of training and I’m looking forward to the fall races.

I had a great time seeing all my D3 teammates and South Bay Tri teammates do well in their races and achieve their goals.  Keep up the hard work!

This was my 3rd race of the season and first 70.3 (Half Ironman) of the year, and the first since Superfrog 70.3 in September.  I tapered quite well and came in fresh, but I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked, so I have considerable room for improvement both at this course and at this distance.

Game Plan – Here’s the original plan we put together.  Based on conversation with Coach Mike I changed up my goals to these:

Goal: Oceanside 70.3 – 2112 yard swim / 56 mile bike / 13.1 mile run

i. “A” Goal – Swim 33:30 (1:35/100y), Bike 2:34-2:37, Run 1:32-1:34: <=4:40-4:45

ii. “B” Goal – Swim 35:30 (1:41/100y), Bike 2:40-2:45, Run 1:35-1:37: <=4:50-4:57

iii. “C” Goal – Swim 36:30 (1:44/100y), Bike 2:50-2:55, Run 1:37-1:40:  <=5:00-5:10

I had set up a Best Bike Split (BBS) profile for this race.  I used 85% of FTP based on 270 here.

Link to BBS here

Pre-Race – I tapered quite well for this race and came in pretty fresh after the Solvang Tri Camp and my previous race at Superseal.  So well in fact that this has been the most rested I’ve been in quite awhile.  The attachment below is from Training Peaks and it’s after the race today, so the fitness and fatigue are higher, but the form is what I had going in today…which means I was pretty rested.

Thursday – I drove down early in the morning to pick up my friend Julia from San Antonio at the San Diego airport.  We grabbed some quick grub in Oceanside then headed into the expo to check in.  The check-in process wasn’t too bad and we got through pretty quick, then bounced and got some Thai food.  After that, we checked into the house and just relaxed and rested the remainder of the night.

Here’s some stuff from the expo:

Friday – We got up early and hit IHOP to start fueling up.  After that, we went to the expo to get Julia’s SMASH Kit gear, then met up with some D3 Teammates (Julie and Kelly) for lunch.

We then went back to the pad to get in a bike and run to test everything out.  We then went back to the expo to drop bikes off and dealt with that madness – what a mess.

We then hit up the Olive Garden for the Soup and Salad combo (pre-race ritual) and that usually does the trick.

**Update**  – We saw Lionel Sanders (he ended up winning this race) at the OG when we left.  It seems we’re doing something right if he’s also eating there 🙂

We then headed home and packed up the rest of the gear.  Courtney and Mike (SB Tri Friends) showed up after dinner to crash so they could sherpa and cheer for the race.  I managed to rack out around 2200.

Saturday – We got up around 0300L and started cooking (2x eggs, english muffin, almond butter, honey, almond milk, coffee) and gear up.  We were out the door by 0430L and got to the parking site pretty early, then took a shuttle and walked to transition.  We got there around 0520L and did all the prep-work.  I met up with some other SB Tri Friends (Yasi & Alanna) then dropped our gear off with Courtney and Mike while Julia and I ran into the line.  This was the first time this race has done a self-seeded swim instead of age wave groups so we had to worm our way up front.  I ran into Ivan, Samantha, and Christin (SB Tri folks) and self-seeded in the 35-40 minute wave.  I did a fast pre-swim just to shake things out and then I was ready to roll.

Swim – We jumped into the maelstom and got rolling right away.  The first part was a big battle as we had to round a buoy right away and make a sharp left turn.  I had to battle some congestion then managed to peel off solo.  I then worked to get back into a draft pack and keep the buoys close.  After the last set of turns, we started coming in to the finish.  The sun was in our eyes so sighting was hard but we managed to make it through.  As a side note, there are many folks who falsely self-seed and start up front to give them more time before swim cutoff-  there were a bunch of slow folks who didn’t belong in the faster wave groups so we had to battle them.  Additionally, a lot of swimmers can’t sight worth shit and snake all over the place, so that is always frustrating when doing a triathlon. I pushed hard on this swim but my overall time wasn’t too spectacular.  I wasn’t tired when I got out but I still need work on this swim.

Final Swim – 36:54 – Link here

**Note – My garmin times are different than the official times.  I stopped my watch as soon as I hit ground, but I think the timing chip portion was a little bit north of the swim exit.  My transition times and bike times throughout are the same, so the “official” times always stand.

T1 – This was a big goat-rope.  We have to run down a giant chute and go around transition then run back through to get to our stuff.  I managed to get my swim cap, goggles, and suit off quickly (Thanks Megan Tobin!) then squeezed on my shoes, helmet, and belt with bib and finally escaped with a bike.  This wasn’t technically hard, just annoying.

Final T1 – 4:18

Bike – This bike has always given me trouble in the past so I wanted to see what I could do here to improve.  We started off quite slow to get out of transition and away from the swim area.  We got onto Camp Pendleton pretty fast and I was able to start some work.  I managed to get around 22-23 miles in the first hour and I was quite pleased – I just focused on staying aero, tucking, and getting my nutrition.  After the first hour, we started to hit the hills and I slowed down considerably.  There are three hills that slow you down, and one which made me actually climb out of saddle.  I ride an 11×28  for races but I wasn’t too gassed by the hills (thanks to Camp and Zwift here).  Once you get to mile 38, you have to keep your speed under 25mph down a steep hill or you’ll be disqualified, so that was a boondoggle.  After mile 46, it’s a 10 mile flat TT all the way back, so I decided to hammer what I had left.  I got in all my nutrition and felt good, and managed to improve my bike split at this race by 20 minutes.

Final Bike – 2:44:14 – link here

T2 – this wasn’t as bad as T1, but the chute into bike dismount was god awful.  You have to snake in this long corridor and do sharp turns at a slow pace, then get to the dismount line and run in quite a ways to the racks.  Once I racked, I got shoes/socks on pretty fast and bolted out with my hat, glasses, and water bottle in hand.  On the way out, I stopped at the sunscreen station and had the helpers lather me up so much I looked like a ghost.

Final T2 – 2:07

Run – I felt pretty good starting out but my heart rate monitor wasn’t working, so I wasn’t too pleased.  I saw my D3 teammate Greg on the run right out of the gate and he was hustling.  We chatted for a bit then he dropped me and continued to push it hard (he ended up winning our AG).  I kept things going at a 7 min/mile for the first 5 miles, then I started to dip in the 7:10s.  At mile 8-9, the wheels started to come off and I faded pretty hard.  I had been taking in everything according to my nutrition plan, but the cokes the volunteers were handing out were barely filling the cup, so I was losing energy pretty quick (I need lots of caffeine and sugar on race runs or I eat it).  I started to take 3-4 cups of coke per aid station (swiped them off the tables) just to keep fueled.  I managed to rally and push it decently hard on the final straightaway.  I managed to get my fastest run at this course so far (barely) but I felt like I could have gone faster if i hadn’t crumbled due to the nutrition.  In the future, I’ll fill my hand water bottle with coke and just take in water/gatorade from the aid stations.

Final Run – 1:35:28 – link here

Overall Time – 5:03:01 – link here

Results – 36th AG, 229th OA – link here

Based on my goals going into this, here’s the breakdown:

Actual Swim – 36:54 – Lower than a C by a bit, so I give it a “C-”

Actual Bike – 2:44:14 – Solid “B”

Actual Run – 1:35:28 – Solid “B”

Actual Total – 5:03:01 – Solid “C”

I give this race an overall “C” ranking my actual times vs. predicted.  I improved my time at this course by around 17 minutes (previous best here was a 5:20) and improved my bike here by ~20 minutes. However, I failed the swim pretty hard and crumbled on the run, so I didn’t do too well on my objectives considering I was tapered up for this one as an “A” race.  I’ve had a “sub-5 hour 70.3 streak” going for the last 2 years, but that ended today, so I will have my revenge at this race in 2018.

Here are some takeaways and actions for the upcoming season:

1. Pre-Race Nutrition – I talked to Coach Mike for a bit after the race and I need to clean this up.  He commented that “Need to put Super Ultra in the Lambo, not 85 grade fuel.”  He’s right so I’ll work to square this away for Santa Rosa.

2. Aero – I purchased the Giro Aerohead after Superseal and it worked quite well today.  The face shield let me have a wider field of view in aero and the tail is less noticeable when I have to pop my head up to scan the road ahead.  I replaced the sponge on my XLAB with a pop-on lid and it was both more aero and easier to pour liquids into.  I also shaved my legs.  I used to laugh at all the aero crap but I’ve learned that it does have a substantial savings to time if done right and conjunction with the proper training.

3.  Weight – Still coming down, but needs work.  I’m around ~162 right now but I need to be in the low 150s by September.

4.  Run Nutrition for 70.3s – I’ll be putting coke in my run bottle from now on, I need the caffeine and sugar that bad.

5. Swim – I have the fitness but I find that on races my cadence slows down towards the end, so it may be back to the metronome.  Using the metronome in the past has gassed me cardio-wise, however, I’ve usually had some of my fastest swim splits with the device.  I have good endurance but I just didn’t have the “oomph” I needed today.  My swimming has come along nicely but there’s always room for improvement.

 

This was my first Olympic of 2017.  I came into this race with considerable fatigue from the Solvang Tri Camp (March 4-10) and a week of good training.  I managed to PR, and considering this was a non-tapered “B” race, I’ll take it.

Game Plan – I had made some cursory goals in January regarding this race and coach approved so here they are:

Superseal Olympic – 1640 yard swim / 24.8 mile bike / 6.2 mile run – 19 March 2017

i. “A” Goal – Swim 26 minutes (1:35/100y), Bike 1:03, Run 39 minutes: <=2:10

ii. “B” Goal – Swim 27:15 minutes (1:40/100y), Bike 1:06, Run 41 minutes: <= 2:16

iii. “C” Goal – Swim 28:15 (1:43/100y), Bike 1:09, Run 43 minutes: <=2:21

I had also loaded in the bike to Best Bike Split.  I used about 90% of FTP based on 260, so the watts were supposed to be in the mid-230s.

BBS link here

Pre-Race – I swam hard on Friday and biked about 30 miles on Saturday, so I was coming in already tired.  Work has been stressful this week so my sleep wasn’t perfect either.  I got up pretty early Saturday morning to head to ERO Sports to tweak up the fit after a snafu at Solvang, so I needed to re-adjust the aerobars slightly.

Friday’s swim here

Saturday’s bike here

Pre-race nutrition wasn’t ideal either.  I had McDonalds for breakfast and lunch, then a big pizza and Root Beer for Dinner – not great, but I needed fuel and was too busy running around.

I also stayed on one of the Navy bases in San Diego, and navigating that was a pain, so that added additional stress and time.  I managed to get to bed at 10pm Saturday night with a 0330 wakeup.  I had coffee and 2 bananas then left and arrived at the race venue around 0520.  Setup was smooth and I was racked and ready pretty quick.  After setup, I warmed up with bands for awhile then headed over to swim start on the beach, and managed to swim around for a good 5-8 minutes to loosen up.

Swim – Nothing too special here.  Tactically, I think I did well – I let the masses go then started picking apart draft packs and hopping forward.  Sighting was on point here and I never had any issues.  In terms of fitness, I was pretty tired.  My lats, shoulders, and forearms were pretty tired from training so I just cruised the whole time.  I can usually negative split the latter half of the swim and start picking things up, but this was just a relaxed jaunt today.  I’m not too thrilled but it’s about what I expected for swimming with fatigue.

Final Swim – 27:51 – link here

**Note** – My Garmin time is a bit different than the official time on the website.  I hit my watch as soon as I touched the sand and began running, but it looks like the timing chip portion was a little further ahead.

T1 – T1 at this swim is a big pain.  We have to run through a tunnel under the highway.  Compounding this misery was the fact that my bike was all the way towards bike out, so it took me a minute to get there.  I managed to get the wetsuit off pretty quick (liberal use of body glide beforehand), then get helmet/sunglasses/shoes on very quick and go.  The mount line was a decent way ahead of bike out so that added more time.

Final T1 – 3:13 – link here

**Note** – My Garmin time is a bit different than the official time, see note above.

Bike – My legs were on fire as soon as I started.  I just focused on staying in aero and “tucking” as much as I could until my legs started to come around.  It took me about 15 miles until my body decided to finally wake up.  I started to throw down a little bit and keep the head low for tucking.  On the last stretch in, it’s a single road with both inbound and outbound bikers, so I had to slow down while getting my feet out of my shoes, so that cost me about a minute until I hit dismount.  I wasn’t too pleased with this time but it’s about what I figured I’d be considering how I felt.

Final Bike – 1:04:17 – link here

T2 – This was pretty quick since I was racked right next to bike out / bike in.  No real issues here, very smooth.

Final T2 – 1:24 – link here

Run – I started the run and my legs had a little snap left in them, so I figured this would be a good one.  I kept the pace even and started hunting down everyone in front of me.  I took in gatorades and waters, but started to get side stitches so I just stuck to waters after that.  I managed to drop about 7-8 guys then laid the hammer down towards the end.  The run is pancake flat but the end has 2 left turns and a decently long straightaway to the finish line.  I turned it up for the last bit to make sure no one surged, but I was good.  I had checked my watch on the way in and saw I was close to a possible sub-40 minute 10K, so I surged pretty hard but was unable to close the time gap, so I need more work here…but I’ll have my revenge!  I felt quite strong throughout and I could have held that pace for awhile, so I’m quite pleased with this run.

I had 2 guys come up to me after the race and they said they tried to keep pace but couldn’t hang, so I was quite pleased with how I tactically executed.  There’s an old saying in triathlon – “Bike for show, run for dough.”  These guys started with me on the swim and bike and put some good time into me, but you always have to save some gas in the tank for the run and know when to push and when to cruise.

Final Run – 40:27 – link here

Overall Time – 2:17:12 – link here

Results – 16th AG, 47th OA – link here

Conclusions

Based on my goals going into this, here’s the breakdown:

Actual Swim – 27:51 – Between B and C, so I give it a “B-”

Actual Bike – 1:04 – Between  A and B, so I give it a “A”

Actual Run – 40:27 – Between A and B, so I give it an “A-”

Actual Total – 2:17:12 – Between B and C, so I give it a “B”

I’d give this race an overall “B” ranking my actual times vs. predicted.  I managed to PR my Olympic time by roughly 3 minutes, so I’ll it considering this was a non-tapered “B” race coming off a triathlon camp with heavy cycling.

Here are some takeaways and actions for upcoming season:

1. Weight – this still needs to come down, so it’s back to cooking very soon.

2. Recovery – My quads are still loaded with heavy fatigue and I haven’t been getting as much sleep as I need and my physio / mobility work has gone downhill, so those are the focus until Oceanside.  I need to shed all the residual fatigue or I will break down and not improve.

3. Aero – I think my tucking and positioning is good, but it’s time for a new helmet.  I’m using an original Giro Advantage that I bought in 2010.  It has been a good helmet, but I find that when I need to slightly pop out of tuck to sight the road, the tail pops up, and I think I need a different style of helmet vice the long-tailed version.

I also use an XLAB Torpedo BTA bottle.  It’s good, but I still use a sponge to not get any water in my face, but they’ve come out with an upgraded lid that negates the splash, so it’s time to invest.

I’m tempted to get some type of aero testing done this year.  It’s a significant investment, but I think it will be useful while I still ride my current setup.  It’s hard to turn down free speed on the bike.

February update – broke in the tri season with a cold opener, work is sending me to an early grave, and gaming is coming back with a vengeance.

February 2017

I started my new job on 1 February 2017 and it’s been an interesting ride so far.  It’s more stressful, has longer hours, and my ability to control my schedule is wiped, so I’ve had to keep a very tight training regimen with few deviations.  This has the side effect of annihilating most of my social life, which is somewhat of a buzzkill, but I’m still able to train consistently, so it’s pretty much just work and training.

By the numbers:
Swim – 34,035 yards // 10:04:39 // 14 swims
Bike – 285 miles // 16:32:08 // 13 bikes
Run – 84.1 miles // 10:50:12 // 15 runs
Strength – 3:45 // 5 sessions
Total – ~41:12

 

Here’s a better summary of the nerdy info:

Of note, I averaged close to 700 TSS/week on roughly 10-11 hours of training.  This is sustainable week in, week out and this is where you grow real fitness.  In my 20s, I was all about throwing down big smokefests on the weekends with long building blocks to races, etc.  However, over time and with Coach Mike’s guidance, the key thing I’ve learned over the last few years is that sustaining a consistent regiment that you can repeat day after day and week after week is where you make real gains.  Here are some good articles that explain more in depth:

Article 1 – Slowtwitch Read

Article 2 – Slowtwitch Read

The chart above is a screenshot of something in Training Peaks called the “Performance Management Chart” or PMC.  I’m not going to go in-depth as this is covered here.  Suffice to say, my fitness as of this writing is almost the highest it’s ever been, and I’m pretty much in the best shape I’ve ever been in…right now.  This means that 2017 will be a great year!

Other happenings in February

“Tri”cation in Atlanta

I took a short notice trip to Atlanta in mid-February to visit my friends Ed and Michelle as well as a few other friends in the Atlanta Triathlon Club (ATC).  One of my other reasons for traveling on this particular weekend (Feb 10) was to see John Wick 2.  Seeing everyone and catching up was great, and I also got in a really good block of training (13.1 mile run on Saturday, 2x back to back indoor bikes at Energy Lab on Sunday).  Ed and I also rifted really hard, which leads me to my next February update.

Diablo 3 – Back to Rifting

For those reading this who have no clue what any of this nerdery means, check this out.  I hadn’t touched Diablo 3 since the end of one of the seasons in April 2016, but we hit it hard.   We powerleveled a barb on my end but we decided that wasn’t optimal and went Witch Doctor instead.  The most viable and fun build I’ve tried is the Heltooth / Gargantuan build.  This build has proven quite effective in high end Greater Rifts, but right now as of this writing we’re stuck in 71 and can’t proceed.    I’ll keep grinding out this WD until the end of the season or when Mass Effect Andromeda comes out…we’ll see what’s first.

Television – fun times while Foam Rolling

I’ve been stuck on two shows this month, and I’ll shamelessly describe them here.

The Bachelor

Those who know me well know of my affinity for “trash” tv but I have no shame here.  I’m not going to get in the weeds as there’s plenty of other info out there, but suffice to say I’m still #TeamCorinne and her time will come.

Taboo

Taboo is probably one of the best shows I’ve seen in recent memory, and I think it will end up ranking up there with my favorites like GoT (some of the actors are familiar to my fellow GoT watchers).  I won’t spoil anything, but for those reading this and wanting to find a new show, I highly recommend checking out Taboo.

Future Planning

With this new job, my free time and ability to flex is severely limited, so I’ll most likely curb any travel races and only travel for weddings and special events while keeping the rest of the races local until next spring when I fulfill my year-long commitment at work.  The next few months will be filled with hard training to gear up for the late fall races.  The struggle now is to find the balance so I can keep up with my mobility, meditation, and healthy eating.

Triathlon season is underway so I figured I’d dust off the gear and sign up at the last minute for a random sprint triathlon.  I like racing sprints first in the season so I can iron out any issues before jumping right into any Olympics.

Pre-Race – I didn’t get to bed until about midnight-ish the night before, then got up around 4am, so this was a light-sleep race.  I had a banana then grabbed gear and rolled out.  It was in the 40s/50s, dark, and raining the entire time to the race, and once I got there, I just followed the crowds and shivered in the packet-pick up line while getting soaked.

This was a point-to-point race, which means that T1 and T2 are separate.  We left our bags by the sign-up (T2) then walked over with our bikes to T1 which was right next to the swimming pool.  I was in the 3rd heat so didn’t start until 0740L, so I had time to get some good band work in and use the warmup pool on the side to get ready.

Swim – This was a 400m swim in a 50m pool, so we would swim down one lane, go under the lane lines, then swim down another lane for a total of 8 times.  I got lapped by a bunch of folks within the first 50-100, so I just focused on hugging the right lane while everyone passed on the left.  I pushed as hard as I could but my swim still needs work.  I lost a bit of time trying to sneak under the lines and push off, and my legs were just dangling the entire way…still a lot of work to do here.

Final Swim – 07:50 – link here

T1 – I felt pretty good coming out since I didn’t use my legs.  We had to leave a plastic bag with our stuff next to the bikes so I took a bit to try and tie it up since it was raining but no luck.  Threw on shoes, helmet, glasses, and ran out.  I actually had to stop and wipe off my glasses since the rain was coming down and they were fogging up.

Final T1 – 2:00

Bike – This was probably one of the gnarliest bikes I’ve done in recent memory.  I haven’t actually rode outside since December, so coupled with the crowds, rain, and riding rust, this was going to be fun.  As soon as I started, the rain was coming down thick and it was pretty cold.  All I had on were a pair of shorts so everything was numb.  Luckily, I have plenty of winter “insulation” left so I fared better than some other folks.

The bike course was altered on race morning so we were now doing 5 loops and turning into transition on the beginning of the 6th.  After the second loop, I could not longer shift any gears as I found out the hard way my battery died.  I had charged it up last night but evidently the flashing light from my charger meant that the charge wasn’t good, and it’s looking like the wall outlet is bad.  I ended up having to soft-pedal a lot of the latter part of the bike then surge hard up the hills as I was stuck in just one gear.  I was pretty pissed as I was putting out acceptable wattage and keeping up with the young kids.  I opted to keep most of the ride conservative with turns, etc due to the rain, slick roads, and other new riders all over the place.

Final Bike – 44:09 – link here

Considering the surges, rain, roads, other folks, soft-pedaling, and lack of shifting, I’m alright with this bike.  Not my best but it’s more power than I’ve been able to due for awhile and I thank the fit, Zwift, and Coach Mike for getting this more squared away.

T2 – This was kind of a boondoggle.  The dismount wasn’t properly marked so it was kind of slow down and ask people where to go.  This was so sudden I still had my shoes on like a newb and ran into transition.  I dropped the bike off, and like most newbs, didn’t put speed laces into my new shoes, so I had pre-laced them up before and slipped in with socks, then took off.

Final T2 – 1:13

Run – I felt pretty good on the run.  We hit some decent hills not far into the run so this wasn’t an even pacing effort – it was more push the hills and then just get into a rhythm as best as you could.  I started putting the hammer down and dropping the young college kids, but otherwise just focused on doing my own thing and working on form and technique.  I felt like I could have pushed harder if the run was longer but this is what I was able to pull off today.

Final Run – 19:35 – link here

Overall Time – 1:14:46 – link here

They haven’t posted the results online but they posted the sheets before I left.  It looked like I had gotten 2nd in my AG…but out of only 2 open males that registered for 30-34, so 2/2 – haha!  I’ll update this when I found out the official results but here’s the race link.

**Update as of 1 March 2017**

38th overall, 2/2 in M30-34 open division…meh

Conclusions

Overall, this wasn’t the best or worst race I’ve had.  I feel my fitness is alright after all the training but I hit my objectives in doing this race – clearing off race rust, seeing if there are any technical or medical issues that flare up while racing, and trying out a new venue.  Here are some key lessons learned for the next few races:

1. Double check battery charge on the bike.  After the race, I actually hooked my bike up to my laptop to do a diagnostic and make sure everything was working, but all it looks like was the bike was in sore need of a charge, which I did via the USB Cord.

2. Get triathlon shoes for the bike.  I’ve been using my normal training shoes for awhile, but I need to invest in a dedicated pair of shoes just for racing.  They are easier to get on/off (rubber band them and hop on) and I won’t have a soggy pair of bike shoes for any easy rides I need to do post-race.

3. Weight – I’m still about 10 pounds too heavy from goal race weight and I could feel it today.  I think I’m in the best physical shape I’ve been in, but need to keep moving forward.

 

 

 

I can’t remember the last time I did a double 5k and 10k on the same day (this may be the first) so I figured it was worthy of a race report for posterity.

5k

I had a picky bar before hand then got in a mile warmup, preceded by band work and followed by drills and strides.  I managed to work my way up to the front of the corral and had a few minutes to spare before the start.

Once we started, it was decently aggressive from the get-go.  I let a lot of folks go ahead as I figured most of them would burn out.  I started to turn up the volume and get to work after the first mile. The second mile had some rollers and my pace dropped a bit – glutes felt like they shut down and quads took over, so my stride length and pace dropped a bit.  Once we hit a downhill and another uphill, the glutes came back to life and the pace returned.  We hit the final downhill but I was running out of steam.  I had paced with another girl and we went back and forth the whole time, but she managed to outkick me the last half mile and I couldn’t get her.  I crossed the finish line and I was pretty toast.

Official Time – 18:39 – 1st in AG, 8th overall

Official finish here

Training Peaks here

Strava here

10K

I had roughly 42 minutes from the end of the 5k until the beginning of the 10k.  I just hydrated and made sure I stayed loose, but spent most of the time talking with friends.  I went with my friend Jim to the corrals and we were a bit back from the front.

When the gun went off, it took a bit to get through the crowds and seed myself in a decent group.  The front started thinning out and I was able to get to work.  I had swapped shoes from my Newton racing flats to the new Altras and my glute activation felt much better here.  I just focused on keeping good form and technique.  Our game plan going in was to rest and relax on the first 3 miles, then start throwing down on the last 3 miles.  I think I executed pretty well here and I felt stronger towards the finish.  My running form felt great and I had a decent kick at the end.

Official Time – 41:52 – 9th in AG, 62nd Overall

Official finish here

Training Peaks here

Strava here

Overall

I’m pleased with my performance – I managed to hit my pacing marks about where I thought they’d be and was able to get in some decent running form when the glutes came alive.  Here are my takeaways:

1. I did a strength session Friday night where I focused on my glutes (one legged squats with TRX, single leg press, one legged hinges, etc).  Yesterday, I did a 90 minute trainer session with some decent intervals and my glutes also got a good workout.  When I got up this morning, my glutes were already sore but I knew this was good, because when my glutes are sore, they are firing the right way.  I felt this on the run, so I need to habituate this feeling to make sure my runs are all this good.
2. My 10K pace is probably comparable to what I can run off the bike in an Olympic distance, so I’m somewhat pleased with this, especially the negative splits.  We’ll see if I can go sub-40 in March at Superseal.

I’m starting to post monthly training updates for posterity so I can check back over time and reflect on my training blocks.  These posts will be pretty dry but I’m leaning towards keeping these very objective so emotion doesn’t cloud my narrative.  That being said, here’s a look at December and January.

December 2016

I resumed training and started my 2017 season on Monday, 5 December 2016.  This date gives me 117 days until Oceanside 70.3, so I figured that would be adequate.  December started off with a heavy swim campaign as that’s been a continual weakness of mine.  I started swimming with an Equinox Master’s Group on Wednesday/Friday/Sunday mornings and it’s helped.  Dana is a great instructor and the swim videos help tremendously.  I also swam with Bryan Mineo’s Monday Mechanic Group and continued to refine my technique.  Bryan is awesome and my stroke has improved quite nicely.  I took a 12 day trip back home to San Antonio and got fat and nasty, so training took somewhat of a dive, but the mental break was nice.

By the numbers:

Swim – 33,745 yards // 10:10:37 // 12 swims
Bike – 80.3 miles // 9:13:06 // 11 bikes
Run – 24.4 miles // 3:36:48 // 7 runs

January 2017

I came back from San Antonio and was pretty disgusting – I hadn’t trained in about a week and I had put on about 5 pounds in 12 days…not my greatest athletic accomplishment.  I hit training with a fury and January went well.  We pushed a decent bit but nothing too crazy.  Both the SMOG Squads and the Equinox Master’s Group started back up so I’ve been hitting both regularly and my swim technique is finally starting to improve.  The TSS per week was decent and I’ve enjoyed getting back into the mix.  We haven’t piled on any crazy volume and everything is just right.

By the numbers:

Swim – 35,498 yards // 10:41 // 13 swims
Bike – 190.3 miles // 11:28 // 11 bikes
Run – 97.2 miles // 13:43 // 19 runs

Here’s a better summary of the real meat:

Pain Cave

I finally got around to setting up the pain cave.  I ordered a Wahoo Desk (thanks Ed!), set up my KICKR, and ordered a beastly floor fan.  I’ve been using Zwift habitually since early January and everything is smooth.  The quality (TSS, intervals, etc) of the bike rides are superb using Zwift and importing custom built workouts or creating your own sessions.  Indoor training on a smart trainer is the way to go, and I wish I had made this investment 2 years ago instead of waiting.  I would post photos but my pad needs a little more work…

New Bike Fit

I went back to Jim Manton at ERO Sports on Saturday, January 7th to update my fit.  We had talked in September about dropping the front end lower, but we wanted to wait until after IMAZ.  We dropped 5cm off the front right away and the entire front end went as low as this bike can handle.  I rode around for about 20-25 minutes and I could handle the position.  I’ll need to put in some outdoor work in February and March to make sure I can sustain the position and run well off the bike, but it just feels better overall.

Transcendental Meditation Course

Meditation has been on my agenda for several years but I always blew it off.  However, based on last year’s training, I’ve found that my limiter is more mental than physical, so I decided to take care of this once and for all.  I was reading a new book called “Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferriss (thanks Vinge!) and there were a few mentions of TM.  I went to the website and had remembered researching this years ago when I was a young Lt.  I contacted the local instructor and met her then decided to start the course.  I spent 4 days meeting the instructor and some other students to learn the technique, and now I meditate twice a day for roughly 25 minutes, so this comes out to close to an hour a day.  It’s an investment, but I feel better when I meditate, so I’m sticking with this for the long haul.

New Job

I started a new position today at work.  This was unexpected and a complete surprise for me and my boss, so we’ve had to rapidly adjust.  I’ll give a more thorough update after I’ve spent a decent amount of time at this position, but suffice to say, this will be an interesting next few months…

I’m starting to write race reports for every race I do.  This lets me look back and analyze what went well and what I need to work on.  Half Marathons are usually just for fun and to test my “roll out of bed and run a half marathon” fitness, but seeing the nutrition going in, pacing, and race strategy should be useful for posterity.

Day Prior – I did a quick 30 minute spin session at ~170 watts on Zwift just to loosen up.  Once I got to San Diego, I went to the expo and got my packet as well as a new pair of shorts (last pair got trashed from San Antonio’s bike class, whoops).  There was a massage tent next to the expo so I checked it out and decided to get a 20 minute session just to loosen up my left quad/hamstring/IT band.  My left glute doesn’t fire so my hamstring is doing all the work and my left side is feeling the pain.  My therapist, Erynne, worked for Rehab United and she did a superb job for only a light, 20 minute session.  She seemed to hit the right areas and she explained that her company works with several triathletes and she is also a competitor, she knew the right areas to hit.  I’ll look to book a session there at some point in the future.  After I left the expo, I hit the YMCA in Encinitas and got a free guest pass to swim.  Evidently, you can use this pass twice a year without paying, so this was a good deal.  Easy 2k for me (35 minutes) so I was quite pleased with that.

Bike here

Swim here

Pre-Race – I had dinner the night before with my friend Julie and  John.  We had baked chicken, salad with dressing and avacados, and some baked yams – this was an ideal pre-race dinner.  We got up around 0530 the next morning and I had 2 bananas – I’ve found this is all I need to eat before running races and even Olympic triathlons. We made it to the expo but didn’t start until 0745L so we had some time to spare.  I brought my bands with me and did some warmups in the parking lot, then some high knees and butt kickers.

We went to the giant port-a-potty line and waited a bit, then split off and headed to the corrals.  I did some short efforts and continued to loosen up.  I seeded myself next to the 1:35 pacer as I figured this would be a good pace to settle into – I would have been happy breaking 1:40 since I’m not in prime running shape right now.

Weather – Textbook perfect run weather – 40s/50s, overcast and gray, no rain and a slight headwind going out.

Run – I’ll break this up by miles:

Mile 1-3:  I started off easy since I didn’t get as much of a warmup as I wanted.  Everyone around me took off like a bat out of hell, including the pacers.  I just settled in a rhythm and focused on keeping my heart rate in Z3 and not spiking too early.  However, my shoddy warmup was giving me some high numbers, so I just focused on breathing and cadence.  I wasn’t really tired, but knew that if I pushed too hard too soon, it would come back to bite me.  We started to hit some inclines and short hills, so I knew this race would take more work than I thought.

Mile 4-6:  We got out of the hill madness and started getting to the flats on the coast.  I started to finally get warmed up so I could test out the legs and engine.  Short note on the 1:35 pacers – these guys were probably the worst pacers I had seen.  At this point, I was running a sub-1:30 effort and the 1:35 guys were way in front of me, so those folks who had trained and planned for a 1:35 and ran with the pacers got ground into oblivion and left by the wayside – that’s a fucking shame.  We hit the turnaround and I was feeling good, but my legs were starting to get tired.

Mile 7-10: We had hit the turnaround by this point and I started to pick it up.  Legs were getting fatigued but my engine was firing on all cylinders.  My HR was high but I knew I could sustain it until the end, so I continued to push.

Mile 11-13:  The wheels started to come off around mile 11.  We hit a hill and my HR spiked and I couldn’t get it back down, so I was holding 180+ for the last 2 miles.  My legs were pretty trashed by this point – right calf was eating it and my left hamstring was smoked.   I just focused on the metronome and breathing, but pace had fallen off.  I started surging the last 2-3 minutes and sprinted into the finish line.

Final Time – 1:32:02

Race file is here

Strava is here

Official race result is here

Conclusions – Overall, I was surprised I could still run this quick considering I haven’t done many runs since IMAZ.  Therefore, I’m quite pleased with this effort as a quasi-baseline pace as I exit the off-season and continue to get into the “real” training.  I need to continue to work on my physio list and strengthen my kinetic chain as I’m all jacked up and weak – my limiter here wasn’t engine, but chassis…my legs are imbalanced and they were crushed after the race.  I also need to get back down to race weight – I raced around 172 pounds and I could feel all my fat jiggling the entire time.

Since 2014, I’ve posted my yearly totals on Facebook.  However, since I have a blog now, I figured I’d go more in depth.  I also shamelessly copied some of Lionel Sanders blog format for my use.

Here’s the direct gouge from FB – I used Strava to get these numbers, and these come directly from Garmin and flow into Training Peaks as well – I would consider these numbers harmonized across all platforms.  I also only counted SBR totals, not strength/yoga/etc.

2016 Totals:
Swim – 317,679 yards –> 180.5 miles // 102 Hours // 159 Swims
Bike – 1830 miles // 159 Hours // 148 Rides
Run – 908.6 miles // 127 Hours // 179 Runs
Races – 17 (11 triathlons–> 1x HIM, 1x IM, 6x Olympic, 3x sprint)
Total – 2919.1 miles
Total Time – 388 hours

For comparison, I’ve put the 2015 figures below:

2015 Totals:
Swim – 320,710 yards –> 182.22 miles
Bike – 2418.8 miles
Run – 909.6 miles
Races – 13 (10 triathlons–> 3x HIM, 1x IM, 1 OWS, 2 bike TTs)
Total – 3510.62 miles
Total Time – 442 hours

My 2016 volume is a little less than 2015.  My lack of consistency in training is the big culprit, but I did improve my full IM time so I am pleased with that.  As I noted in an earlier blog post, 2017 will be getting back to basics – consistency, enjoying the process, and having fun.

Here’s some more of the “nerdy” info for those who like to crunch the numbers like me:

Strava Log is here

Looking at 2016’s PMC always gives a good idea of what happened during the year.  My fitness steadily progressed even though I raced heavily during the spring and summer.  I started burning out in August after USAT Nationals, so coach and I decided to take a slight break.  This coincidentally happened the same time as the new World of Warcraft Expansion came out on 31 August (whoops).

After a bit of a slump, I completed Superfrog 70.3 on fumes and went sub-5 (by 9 seconds…but it still counts).  I started gearing back up for full IM training in mid-August and started to rally until IMAZ.  Suffice to say, my fitness was not even close to my potential for IMAZ, so I need to work on holding it together better in the future. Kudos to Coach Mike for keeping me on track, I’m a big pain in the ass to coach sometimes but he has faith in me and it helps.

Overall, 2016 was a good year, and I’ll be learning from my mistakes to make 2017 a better year!

I finalized the first half of my 2017 race schedule until May.  I’ll use Oceanside 70.3 to shake things out and then Santa Rosa 70.3 as my first real test to see what I can do.  After May, we’ll see what happens.  If I do well enough to qualify for 70.3 WC, then I’ll race Chattanooga in September.  If I don’t qualify by May, then I plan on doing Santa Cruz 70.3 and Superfrog 70.3.  After triathlon season ends in September, I plan on a running campaign for the fall to murder a half marathon in late November or early December.  I sprinkled in a few other races here and there, so we’ll see how the summer and fall look after May.

2017 Focus – Racing less this year to focus on consistent training, improving top end, less tapering/recovery and more quality

1.15.17 – Carlsbad Half Marathon

2.7.17 – Redondo Beach 5k/10k Superbowl

3.4 – 3.10.17 – Solvang Triathlon Camp

3.20.17 – Superseal (104 days from 12.5.2016)

4.1.17 – Oceanside 70.3 (117 days from 12.5.2016)

5.13.17 – Santa Rosa 70.3

———————————–

After Vineman 70.3, I haven’t committed to anything yet…the rest of the season is up in the air

7.9.17 – Boilermaker 15k in New York (for friends)

8.12.17 – USAT Nationals (?)

9.9.17 – 70.3 WC??? (Ha – I’d like to!) (Travel Race #2 or #3 if lucky)

9.10.17 – Santa Cruz 70.3 (if I don’t qualify for WC)

9.17.17 – Nautica Malibu Olympic Triathlon

9.24.17 – Superfrog 70.3

Post Superfrog – Run a half marathon very fast, aim for late November or early December