Florida double to start 2013

Hey all!

Been a few weeks since my last update as I've been busy training, working at the motor control/biomechanics lab at Univ of Delaware, and TA'ing a few undergraduate classes! It's been a busy time, but I was excited to go down to Clermont and Sarasota, Fl to start the 2013 race season. I flew down Thursday, March 7th before Clermont continental cup.  I had a fantastic "home stay" at the AAA triathlon camp run by John and Jodi Hoovis. This place located just 20 minutes from the national training center in Clermont is a triathlon haven! They have all the facilities you could wish for as a triathlete, and a bunch of us were staying there between the races. After Clermont, I went to a home stay for one night, then stayed in a very shady $40/night hotel for one night as I went back to Delaware to speak at the Salesianum Sports Banquet. That was a really fun experience, and they flew me home for one day to speak there; what an honor! After that, I flew back down to Florida on Wednesday, stayed at the AAA tri camp that night, then down to Sarasota on Thursday. This trip was quite the whirlwind.

I also must say I've met some great friends over this trip. Others with me at the AAA tri camp were Connor Murphy, Lawrence Fanous, Andrew McCartney, Jonathan Rodriguez, and Graham Leitch, as well as the Portuguese National Team, and a few others for a day or two. So many nationalities staying under one roof made for a really fun time. 

Clermont:

I landed feeling fairly sick and honestly lacking the competitive edge to race my best. I had a headache and just felt drained in the two days leading up to the race. Once the gun went off for the swim, I was immediately behind Sam Holmes, who had a great start.  I tried to keep composure and swim my heart out! This year, the swim was an actual swim and felt on the long side (as if the swim legs aren't already long enough!). I exited the swim in okay position, but it was only my third swim in a wetsuit in the previous 9 months, so I was not as prepared as I should have been (my fault!).
10:20 was my official split and I was a few seconds down to the chase pack, but still ahead of the third pack.
The bike went well. My group caught Andrew Starkowytz and I was certainly hoping being an uber biker, he could TT us up to the front. He was not feeling well, so we were eventually caught by the third pack.  I can say there was some shady riding by one person in our pack who almost caused a crash, but thankfully the rubber stayed down!

The run was very "meh." I was happy to finish the slightly long 5.3k in 17:13 (or about 5:14 pace). I was just happy to have the first race out of the way.  A few people that I know I am better than beat me, but I can only use it as motivation for the future.

After a few days, I flew home to speak at my high school (Salesianum) for their senior sports banquet.  I was super honored they wanted to hear my story and it was great to be home for one night.

I wore a different kind of "suit" for this! No lycra.

The next day, I was back in Florida and rejuvenated and ready to race Sarasota.

Sarasota:
The swim was a pontoon start with some fast swimmers including my fellow home stayer Andrew McCartney, Tommy Z, Joe Maloy, and Lucas F.  In essence, they broke off the front, a solid pack of swimmers was about 20 seconds behind them, and then about 40 seconds back to a pack of runners.  I came out of the water just in front of Nicholas S and Kaleb VanOrt, who I knew were strong cyclists and good runners as well.  I figured we could work together nicely

We had begun to suck packs up in front of us and we were really flying. We caught three or four small packs and eventually became the main chase pack about 1:45 down on the leaders! Looking at my garmin, we were averaging over 26 mph for the first 15 miles.

I am the one with the green lid in second position.  I found I was able to hit the tangents really well and keep my speed up, which definitely made others hurt a bit if they tapped the breaks coming into the turns as they needed to sprint to get out. Thanks to my mom for getting the vid!

Then disaster struck, as I was coming through transition, just past the wheel station, I pinch flatted my rear tire. After not causing a crash, I had to figure out what to do. 2 laps to go, and I figured I'd ride as hard as I could go. Riding a clincher with 19mm tires that are flat doesn't work well.  All the hard work and awesome positioning I had done came to nothing.  It's super frustrating for something like this to happen, but it is part of this sport, and I can take a few things away from it.  I am biking strong, and I was right in the mix to put together a top 15 finish.  I definitely could have secured a spot for U23 worlds but I was not able to run after a long 10K with no air in the tires. I should have done a few things in retrospect such as putting caffelatex in the tires or putting training wheels in the wheel stop (although I had passed it and would still have ridden 5k before being able to access it).

Onward and upward! After this dissapointment, I want to show that I am in shape and am a world class athlete.  I head to Barbados next month for the Bridgetown continental cup to make up for lost chances here- and I will remember this to fuel the fire.  That's all for now!

Kiwami

Today I will be giving a review of the Kiwami Amphibian 008 triathlon suit.  Kiwami was nice enough to partner with me for the 2012 season, and hopefully beyond.  I wore the Amphibian 008 with ITU customization on there.  Above is the uniform I wore in the Clermont Continental Cup.  Some of the features of the Amphibian 008 include:
           Being the lightest speedsuit on the markey (weighing about 100 grams).
           Having a flat zipper and cord that are easy to pull down if it is warm, but will not come off in the combative ITU style open water swim.
          It just FEELS FAST.

I have worn suits by other companies when I began dabbling in triathlon, and I have always preferred a one piece suit.   The Amphibian is the fastest feeling suit i have worn, and it has never felt too hot when racing in the hot conditions such as Texas or Florida.

There are other suits by Kiwami if you are not looking for a back-zip single piece suit.

The Kiaman is a front zipper suit that still provides all the comfort and speedy feel of the amphibian, but also a pad for longer races.

Also, the Prima Top and Bottom combination provide a great two piece suit to keep cool in a long course style event.

Lastly, here is a shot of the suit I wore for the majority of the 2012 season including the 2012 USAT Elite Nationals in Buffalo, NY.

Power Bar review

As a neo- professional triathlete, I want to find things that I can do for companies that help both of us in a symbiotic manor. Now, many athletes say this, but I intend to help my sponsors to try and do as much for them as they have for me.

Because of this, I am going to start a performance review of sponsor (and non sponsor) products that should occur biweekly.

The first edition will be today consisting of some of the PowerBar products that I have raced with this year. 

As a member of the PowerBar Team Elite, I have been graciously allotted product from this awesome company.  Some of the kit I have received is incredible, including bike clothing, bags, and more, but really the most helpful has been all the nutritional aid from pre workout, during workout, and post workout recovery.

My before workout depends on the time of day, but for a morning workout, I like to try and have a regular PowerBar or some PowerBar Blasts.  This gives me the calories (and caffeine in the case of the Cola Blasts) to get through the workout, but not too much so I have to fight my stomach.  When digesting food, blood has to rush to your gut to digest, so the more complex the foods, the more blood needs to go there. If you add in working out, then there is a competition for blood between your muscles and your gut, thus creating the stomach ache.

I have found either of these with some PowerBar Perform during the workout are enough to get me through any workout that is 2-hours or less.  The workouts lasting longer than 2 hours require additional calories and simple sugars to sustain a good intensity.  I choose the PowerBar Double latte gels to get me through a higher intensity workout, or simply some more bars or blasts if I am doing a long and lower intensity bike ride.



 After a workout, it's important to combine carbohydrates and protein within 15 minutes of completion to maximize fuel absorption. 
I am a big fan of PowerBar restore drink mix as well as the cookies and cream recovery bars (something that I had not seen until I was sponsored by PowerBar,
but now everybody I know has tried them and loves them.

 

I look foward to another year of racing with PowerBar products and hope you have enjoyed the ones that I use daily in training and recovery.  Happy Training.

 

World Duathlon Champs/ Start of a new Season

First off, let me say that I initially had this post titled as the end of my first season as a pro, but decided that had too much of a negative connotation.  World Duathlon champs did not go as well as I would have liked, I ended up being hypernaturemic and cramping all over my legs and passing out. I was predictable disappointed and was quite honestly pissed off. I felt like I was robbed of an opportunity to perform well, but I was not robbed, I was the cause of my cramps- lack of planning on my part for international travel.  Instead of being super down on myself, I am taking this as a learning experience. Anywho, here's about the race.

View from the hotel

One of the tight 90 degree turns near transition to hit every lap

It was pretty sweet traveling to France to race, but at the same time, was TOUGH.  Adjusting to the time zone wasn't so bad, but being in a completely foreign country trying to get proper food, and talking to people was tough. Luckily, I had great teammates from team USA to hang out, ride, and run with.
Onto the race:
The first 10K went out hard, and because I was number 54, I started in the 5th or 6th row back of the start line, which was on cobblestones!  This plus the 5-10 thousand people cheering along the course (I have heard figured from both 5 to 10, thus the broad range!) Somebody spilled early in the race, but then around half mile in, I found myself next to Tim Don! I was pretty stoked, but I was also feeling a little in debt.  It was not so much the hard pace, but the 8 sharp 90 degree turns on the run that took away momentum and required hard accelerations that made me a hurtin' pup.  I ended up having a good last two laps and leading the group of  Mexican and two Belgians into T1.  We were only 13 seconds down of a huge pack, and with two strong Belgians, I figured that would be no problem.

First run

Bike pack shortly after transition before the hill.

The start of the race, compliments of ITU photography

We started out the bike hard, and got through the technical section near transition well and were already bridging the gap once we got to the first of two 180 degree turns. This is where my cramping started. I got a charlie horse in my calf and made it stuck in a plantar flexed position.  I forced my knee down but the muscle still was firing.  After drinking and coasting, the muscle chilled out enough, but then the cramps came back in all muscle groups on both legs.  All I remember is getting to the side of the road and then black.  Honestly, not much else to say on the subject, just a learning experience.  Other members of Team USA felt rough with cramps too, but these were much worse than the standard cramps you get in training.


Onto training for next season after a few weeks of just training how I feel and doing some things I wouldn't normally do such as mountain biking, basketball, football, etc. Would like to really thank all sponsors such as Powerbar, USAT Collegiate Recruitment Program, Bifferato Gentiloatti, and Delaware Orthopaedics as well as my coach, Brooks Doughty Until later!

Lastly I would like to thank my incredible family and friends for the support! Couldn't do it without my Mom, Grandparents, Aunt, who all helped me to get to France and all my incredible friends and girlfriend who encourage me when I'm out racing or training. 

USAT Elite Nationals/ Buffalo Pan American Cup 2012

My first elite national championship race!!! Needless to say, I was pretty stoked and a little bit jittery to get on the stage and race for a national title (and U23 title as it was a race within a race). Unfortunately, my day did not go as well as I hoped, but I learned a lot about myself during this race that I can take away.

Pre race strategy with Barb Lindquist, go USA!

I had an absolutely terrible swim, and my goggles were kicked off nearly immediately as I slipped on the pontoon.  I managed to make the pack to the first bouy, but then in the scrum was on the back end, but the choppy water thrashed me around, and I ended up just off the back of the fourth pack getting onto the bike. I swam 20:43, which was about 45 seconds slower than the people I swam with in Magog.  I know this isn't a good indication of my swimming ability, this was just not a great swim. I hadn't been feeling great leading up to the race in the water, then the immediate loss of goggles didn't help the matter. I know I need to continue swimming with a group this winter if I want to close that gap to the front pack.

During the bike, I rode the entire race solo, I caught 5 or 6 guys on the bike, but they weren't able to work with me, so I got some work TT'ing my way for 41.5 km (slightly long bike) with 15-20 mph winds. This was tough, but I know that even 6 months ago, I wouldn't have been strong enough on the bike to do this. I would have been lapped out most likely if I was solo on the bike, but I am a lot more confident with my biking ability (which is good as duathlon World Championships are in 1 week in France!!) Rode 66 minutes for the slightly long course with wind, on a road bike, so a very very hard effort.  In this video above, you can hear the announcer say that I was really working hard, and I really really appreciated this plus the crowd support that cheered hard for me every lap.

Getting off the bike, I knew I needed to run fast to try and make contact with some people.  I didn't bike that hard to have a completely slow run, but I also had never rode that hard for an hour, so my legs were trashed. I just tried to keep a solid cadence and pick off people.  I ran with fellow collegiate recruit, Sam Holmes for a little, then was really just picking other guys off. The run was very windy again, and my split of 36:40 is not fast by any stretch, but coming off such a hard bike, I am happy. I didn't give up today, and I pushed through a really rough situation. I finished up my first elite national championship as 15th American, 27th overall, and 5th U23 athlete. Not what I wanted, but it's a start and a motivation for the future!

I am off to France on Tuesday for World Duathlon Championships on Saturday.  I am super excited to be racing a world championship race, with the likes of Tim Don and other very notable athletes.  I'll be looking to help the USA team do as well as possible, and with many former collegiate runners on our team, we should fair pretty well!

Magog Pan American Continental Cup

Last weekend (July 22nd), I raced the Magog Continental Cup in Quebec, Canada.  This was my first race in an area where the general public did not speak English readily! The motel I stayed in was also a bit of a surprise with a very euro feel and a chicken coup outside!!

View from my room!

 I got to Canada Thursday evening around 6:30 pm, and did a short bike ride to preview the course.
 Although I ended up not riding the actual course, it was nice to spin the legs out after a 8 hour car ride!

Here is the swim venue- very nice 1500 meter course

The course was really awesome, a 5- loop, 40 kilometer bike ride on rolling hills with a 180 and a short, steep hill for the other turn around. I thought it suited me pretty well.

About the race:

Split was 19:29. Race best was 18:40. Race was a beach start with some water running, about 15" of physical dolphin diving and then swim. Got out really well, especially considering I don't particularly care for beach front starts with my short legs. About 400 meters in, I realized I was next to Dan Theleen, who I knew made the front pack in Dallas, so I figured I was in good position. Rounding the first turn bouy, there was a huge jostle where fists, feet, bows, everything was flying, and I think this is where the front 10-12 guys got away into clean water and opened up about 40 seconds on the chase group, which I was in. I was stoked to get out of the water with Dan T  as well as Alex Hinton, who just got third in Edmonton World Cup.

Love the "Sydney Bike racks"

Race was 25 miles, and I split 59:29 for it. Pretty solid for 5 loops of 5 miles with one very hard hill and the rest rolling. Got out of transition in second of my group, got in my shoes and we immediately started HAMMERING. I mean 28-30 mph pulls on the flats, and I was thinking this was pretty hard. We only made up about 10 seconds on the front pack after two laps of hammering, so we settled into a more manageable pace. I could kill the short steep hill as well as the rollers, but the 180 turn and subsequent sprints out of it were where I was feeling scared of getting dropped. Just thought "pain is temporary, and it is better to be in a group then off the back." We popped two guys off during the ride, and It finished as me, one guy from Mexico and 5 Canadians. We worked well together as a group pace lining the entire time.

Got off the bike and felt pretty tight. Tried to grab a water at each aid station, and at bare minimum pour it over my head. Was drinking some of it, but realized I was only worsening a side stitch if I drank any of it. Anyway, Three guys from my group took the 10K out hard, and I thought it was way too early to be red lining, and two of them came back to me. I neg. split the run pretty well. Could have run better, but my running training has been on the lower end due to the need to improve swimming and biking. This race was a step in the correct direction. 3rd American behind two solid guys, 13th overall beating numerous World Cup winners, and a top 10 U23 athlete from last year. Very happy with this starting to go in the correct direction and first ITU points!

Finishing up the run 13th overall, 3rd American

Philly Tri 2012

I finally had a triathlon where I was not going into it injured, with a broken bike, etc. etc.  I was extremely excited to race the Philly Triathlon as a pro this year because it's so close to where I live, I had a lot of friends and family come out to support my race.  I knew going into the race it would be a really really fast field, especially in the swim. There were the usual studs in the race such as returning champion, Andy Potts, as well as Cam Dye, Matty Reed, and more.  Just to have the opportunity to race alongside these guys is incredible for me. 


I ended up finishing 12th for male pros in the race- a result that is good, but I know I have to keep improving if I really want to pursue this sport.  It is encouraging that I am still young, but that is not an excuse I want to use.  I want to get to the point where I can win races like this, so I have a tough road ahead, but I am excited about my progress. 



To the race:
Got up at 3:30 AM, did a 10 miute run shake out, had coffee, bagel with peanutbutter and a banana. Drive the 35 minutes to race course and got to transition around 5:00 AM. Did a 15 minute bike to make sure everything was in order gear wise, etc. Got on a bus to the start at 5:30 (bus driver subsequently got lost but still got to the start by 6:00 AM for a 6:30 start. Did another 5 minute run plus drills before the short swim warm up we were given. Felt ready to go. Had a Power Bar double latte caffeine gel about 90 minutes before the start.

Swim:
My first thought in the swim was oh Jeez Andy Potts will fly out of the gate- not true. This was the nicest swim start I've encountered in awhile. I would contribute this to both the fact that I have been swimming in excess of 24KM/week long course and it not being an ITU race. I was very comfortable in the swim. Unfortunately, I followed the wrong person's feet and ended up to the far right in a slower swim pack. I ended up leading that pack out of the water with Australian Pellow and Nick Early. I think I could have easily swam 30 seconds faster if I had stayed in the group to the left. This was more of a sighting error. Spit was 18:18 with less of a current than last year plus leading a group comfortably. 

Bike:

 The bike was tough as I knew I had ground to make up, and the Philly course is twisty, you can't really see how close the others are to you. I felt great on the climbs and would make up considerable ground on Nick during the climbs. The descents, I lost some ground, and pretty much was even on the flats where we would be hammering 27-29 mph to make up for the slow uphills. Actually misunderstood the stagger rule. I thought you always had to be BOTH 10 meters behind and 2 meters to the side, so there were times I would drop back while biking because I did not think I could just ride 2 meters beside them. I learned that lesson now and won't forget. There are definitely differences between ITU racing, which is akin to track intervals, and non drafting- more similar to a hard 1- hour tempo run. Overally, my 1:02 split was OK at best.  I know my bike strength still has a way to come, but I was pretty happy with the result.

Courtesy of Mark Hannagan

Run:
I started out the run hard to make up ground. I quickly caught up to some stragglers and focused on Dan Eckel and Nick Early. I think I tried to make up too much ground the first 2 miles, because I slowed the second two miles with some leg cramping. Nothing major, but I was digging deep. Overall, all the run splits were slower than last year's because (I assume) the heat. I felt like I fought the whole way, and am happy with it, but not content.
35:07 for 10K split- only the top 4 pros out split me, but still was not as tough (cough cough pansie) in the middle 2 miles a little bit.  

I have to thank my incredible sponsors as well as friends and family for supporting me.  Power Bar, Kiwami, Trigger Point Therapy, Middletown Bike Line, Delaware Orthopaedics, Bifferato Gentiloatti for helping me get to races prepared.

Courtesy of Frankie Feitzman

Thanks for the picture Mom