As I sit here on a flight out to Las Vegas (heading out to watch the 70.3 World Championships and attend Interbike) I can’t help but look back over the past season fondly. This season saw some highs, a very early low and a lot of great new experiences and relationships. One of the biggest new experiences this season would have to be coaching my first Team In Training triathlon team. I was fortunate to have a wonderful group of new and returning athletes who had committed themselves to an aggressive fundraising goal and a demanding physical test that is Rev3 Knoxville. I entered this arrangement with a bit of apprehension. That apprehension was probably equally matched with excitement. As the season got under way and I learned more about my athletes that scale tipped heavily towards excitement and pride. It was a wonderful experience and one I hope to repeat in the years to come. Racing has rewards but coaching new athletes and helping introduce them to this sport is something different entirely.
The season started very early for me with my first race in Costa Rica in February. I choose to start the season with an early race because I was motivated by the end of my 2010 season and ready to get 2011 started. I have been impressed with Rev3 and wanted to be one of the first to race their first international race. Well, as my blog on that race reported, it didn’t turn out quite like I had planned. It certainly was tough to start the season on such a low note. The swim was long, the bike was punishing and then a wreck to keep me off the run course. Fortunate for me it happened in one of the most beautiful places in the world and the trip had already been phenomenal.
We packed up, headed back to Tennessee and I refocused my season at that point. The one thing that Rev3 taught me was that I need to decide what races I was ready to race for the balance of the season. Not complete but race. I have enjoyed the experience of finishing races before and proving to myself that I have the legs to get through the test, but that wasn’t what I wanted for 2011. I wanted to race this year. I wanted to try and be competitive in my division in the races I entered. This was a departure from 2010 where I was still interested in getting through races. So, I analyzed Costa Rica and decided that I didn’t have the run at this point to compete at the 70.3 distance. I decided that I wanted to pick an end of season Olympic and make that my primary focus for the season. To get me to that point I had to develop a faster run off the bike to remain in the mix at the end. So, what is the best way to pick up your run pace in our sport – sprints. I knew that sprints were going to be the key to me developing some run speed.
So, now to plan the season. I started with Memphis In May to be the test race for where my speed was at the Olympic distance. I tagged this as the season starter and had penciled in Fall Creek Falls as the end (which ended up getting cancelled due to storms – that would have been a disappointing end). I choose Chattanooga Waterfront as my mid-season Olympic race to re-assess my progress. Between those races I knew I was going to pack in as many sprints as I could (and as my fiancée would let me).
Memphis in May was a very unique race due to the fact that the whole town of Tunica, MS was shut down following flooding. That left a northern Mississippi town inhabited exclusively by triathletes for a weekend. The weather that led to the flooding re-appeared race morning and stayed with us the rest of the day. It was the worst weather I have ever raced in. However, something came together on that day and I found myself on the podium in 2nd place with a qualifier slot to the Hy-Vee 5150 Age Group Championships in Des Moines over Labor Day. That quickly replaced Fall Creeks as my end of the season A race.
The experience at MIM gave me a boost and got me excited to keep the season going. So I kept the momentum going through June and into July. I raced a sprint distance race every weekend for the next month. These all proved to be positive races with three 1st place finishes and one 2nd place finish (by :20 seconds – which only served as a lesson to me – keep pushing the pace on the run). This series of races led me into Chattanooga.
This was the first time I raced Chattanooga. I knew it was going to be a challenge for me due to the heat and the hills. The swim was in the river, the bike was a 42k very “rolling” course and the run was going to be in the heat of the day. Well, needless to say Chattanooga didn’t go as planned at any phase. The swim felt slow and forced, the bike fell apart due losing my nutrition at mile two which required me to hold back in an effort to save the run. This reserved effort proved pointless because the run was more of a shuffle/walk. The heat and no fluids for over an hour on the bike just proved insurmountable for me. We packed up our gear, checked out of the hotel and headed back to Nashville. As I laid on the couch that night I pulled up the race results and much to my surprise my disappointing time still earned me a 3rd place podium spot. As silly as it sounds this helped me mentally. I knew I had put up a poor time. I knew that the race didn’t go as planned and I thought I had rounded out the bottom of the list. When I looked at my times and saw my competitors times I realized that I had made progress since MIM. It didn’t get me on the top of the podium but I was able to keep myself in the mix.
Following MIM I took a few weeks off of racing for some much needed rest. Nashville Music City was on the books for the end of July and I wanted to redeem myself from the 2010 sufferfest that was Music City Olympic. I choose to race the sprint this season because I wanted to keep the confidence up and I knew that the Olympic course was not one that favored my type of racing (heat and hills = slow and painful for big boys like me). I knew the sprint would still be a challenge for me at this point in the season but I also felt confident that I could put in a good race. Well, I am glad I made the decision that I did because it all came together for me that day. The break from racing over the previous weeks left me feeling strong and ready to race. It was nice to be on top of the podium back in my home town that day. (As an aside, I reviewed the Olympic times later that night and the top finisher in the Clydesdale division was close to 3:00. So, my suspicion that it would have been a repeat of 2010 seems to have been right on also – the heat was punishing).
Moving on from Music City I entered into August a month away from Hy-Vee. I raced one more sprint in August and put in another great performance (1st at Mountain Lakes). I also had a very unique experience at Cedars of Lebanon. I wanted to participate in this race as I had done all of the races of our local race company – Team Magic. However this race was one week before Hy-Vee so I didn’t want to race it, just participate in some way. Team Magic has a very unique structure to their races – they always have a designated last place finisher. This is a local triathlete who will sacrifice his race to ensure that no other racer has to see his or her name at the bottom of the finishers list rounding out the race in last. So, I volunteered to be the designated last place finisher for Cedars. I have to admit that it was a wonderful experience and I am very glad I was able to give back to those people in the back. I also have to admit that those in the back have a new found respect from me. We often perceive these people as slow because they aren’t pushing it. I have to say that this isn’t the case. These people were working the whole way. Clearly they haven’t tuned the engine like the front of the pack racers have but they are still mashing that pedal.
Hy-Vee. The name just leads to image of the blue carpet and blazing fast racers. I was excited. I had worked hard for this race and I was ready to prove it on the course. My coach and I talked strategy, pacing, splits and I felt ready. The weather appeared that it was going to cooperate and it looked like it was shaping up to be a perfect day to go out and race fast. I knew that I was going to have some heavy competition at this race as I had scoped out my competitors’ finishing times from their qualifying races. The day came, the gun went off and I tried desperately to stay on the pace talked through with my coach. The swim felt okay but a bit frantic. Out of the water one minute behind pace. Transition run was long but it was long for everyone. Bike course was where I messed up my pacing. I pulled back way too much early on and didn’t have time to make it up over the middle section. I was proud of myself for accepting that this time was lost and not trying to reclaim it at the expense of my run. Got off the bike and hit the run feeling good. Here is where my lesson of 2011 became clear. I had raced so many sprints that I felt rock solid through the 5k. I felt strong through 7.5K. I felt myself fading in the last 2.5k. My legs just weren’t used to running that pace with that fatigue in them. Race was over, I was whipped and I hit my goal of getting on the podium at the championships.
2011 was an awesome year for me. I found myself on the podium 10 times this season. The only podium finishes I missed were Costa Rica and the designated last place finish at Cedars. So, the question is what is the plan for 2012. I have entertained the idea of heading back down to Costa Rica in an effort to redeem myself. I think that would be a poor decision at this point. If I go it will be a pleasure trip and not a race. I just don’t have the legs to race this distance that early in the season. So as of now my plans for 2012 are going to build off my 2011 season. I am going to re-focus my distances for next year. I feel like sprints still have a place in my schedule, but more as tempo sessions. I don’t think I can sacrifice training weekends to race these races anymore. I will use them as hard tempo days and get back to training the following day with no taper leading into them. I will also make Olympics my focus distance for 2012 with a 70.3 tacked on near the end (maybe Augusta) along with a repeat visit to Hy-Vee.
I believe my body has to build to these distances. I fell prey to attempting to emulate racers around me with longer racing careers and more miles in the legs. That is a big lesson learned for me. This sport demands patience and dedication. I have accepted that to excel at these races I have to present myself with a long term path of improvement and progress.
Heading into 2012 I am also excited about furthering my relationships with my corporate sponsors. I have been blessed to be affiliated with Powerbar, Cycleops/Powertap and nuun for two seasons now. They each represent the professionalism, dedication and creativity that I try to bring to the sport. I am excited about the new product line developments that will be rolling out this week at Interbike and hopeful that I can continue to race under their flags. I was also very happy to partner with SLS3 this season. Their race gear and compression gear has been a blessing. With so much racing I was constantly fighting the compounding fatigue of a full race season. Their gear was top notch and helped me stay in the races and progress through 2011 injury free. 2012 will certainly be a great year for SLS3 and I am glad to be connected with the team.
So, stay tuned….the blog posts will continue through the base building of the fall and winter as we lead into 2012.
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