Rev3 Knoxville

This past weekend I had the opportunity to start of the 2013 Rev3 series in Knoxville.  Last year, this was my first ever Rev3 race and since then I have loved being able to participate at their races.  The Rev3 series is the main focus for my season so I was very excited to get it started.

We were greeted with some solid rain in Knoxville and Rev3 did a great job of putting the race on as planned in some pretty inclement weather.  I had some experience racing in the rain and cold after Rev3 Maryland last year (where I finished 2nd), so I was actually excited to race in the rain.  However, another side of me was pretty sick of bad weather.  After what seemed like snow every day for the whole month of April and the rain storm in Kemah the week before, I was looking forward to racing in the sun.  But the rain didn't let up in Knoxville for about 3 days so it was going to be a wet race...

The water temperature was in the high 50s so it was a very cold swim.  Not Alcatraz cold, but still very cold nonetheless.  I didn't have a great swim by my standards and came out of the water about 30 seconds down from one of my training partners and eventual race winner Cameron Dye.  Once on the bike, I rode hard to try to make up the time I lost in the swim and rode solo for about 30min or so.  I didn't see anyone in front of me or behind so I thought worst case scenario was that I was maintaining time to the group behind me and Cameron in front.  However, at the turn around point I was disappointed to see that I had been caught by a group of about 5.  I spent the remainder of the ride with them before getting to T2.  Once out on to the run I felt like I was running on stumps because my feet were so numb.  I knew that everyone else was dealing with the same problems so I just tried to focus on my form and see if I could pick up any of the athletes ahead of me.  I just felt like I was running in slow motion the whole time and flat like I did on the bike.  David Thompson was about 50meters ahead of me for 4 miles and I just couldn't close the gap.  With about a mile to go I finally caught up to him and then had to start planning on how I was going to beat him to the finish.  He wouldn't let me just run right by him when I caught him so it took a couple of surges towards the end and fortunately for me one finally stuck and I got a gap.  I didn't have much more in my so I was running out of options.  I ended up finishing 7th on the day.

My overall placing wasn't what I thought I could produce on the day; but, I was just off the whole day.  Since the race I have had a good meeting with my coach and I am ready and excited to start preparing for my next race at Rev3 Quassy.

I want to point out something that most people might not know about from this race.  On Friday night Rev3 put on fun 5k Glow Run for a local charity.  There had to be over a thousand people there running at night, with glow sticks, and anything else that would light up.  The event was amazing to watch and just shows how great of an organization Rev3 is for endurance sport.  They put on events like this and the adventure race the following day, that no other triathlon company is producing.  I feel very honored to hopefully be a small part of what they are doing for triathlon.

I also want to thank the companies and people who have helped get me to this part of the season.  I feel like now that the first Rev3 race is underway my season is just getting started.  But I've had a lot of help the last few months to get to this beginning.  My coach Grant Holicky of Apex Coaching, Davis Wheelworks, Clif Bar, Rudy Project, Reno Running Company, Champion System, Boardman Bikes, and Blue 70.  

Kemah triathlon-aquathlon world champs

Last weekend I headed to Kemah, TX for an Olympic distance triathlon. This was my first time not competing at the St Anthony's triathlon since I turned pro. While it was a tough choice to not go to St Pete, mainly because of staying with my awesome homestay and friend Todd, Kemah fit a little better with my preparation for the beginning of the Rev3 series.

I've spent the last month since Oceanside 70.3 doing some solid training and some single event races. I did a TT in Boulder on my new Boardman AiR TT/9.8 which was awesome. And a 5k running race in absurdly windy conditions.

With the solid training I was very excited to get in a race at Kemah and see where I was going into the longer part of my racing season. Unfortunately, a big storm came in the night before the race. There was torrential rain throughout the night and the race organization had to cut out the bike portion of the race; thus making this my first aquathon and what we deemed the aquathon world championships! We did a swim/run only. I was 2nd out of the water and had a solid run but wasn't enough to compete for the win and ended up 4th.

I am now getting ready for my first Rev3 race of the 2013 season in Knoxville!

Oceanside 70.3

In 2010 I raced my first 70.3 in Oceanside.  I didn't even have a year of professional racing and had only about 18 months of any triathlon training under my belt.  I made a joke/deal with my friend John Dahlz that if I finished in the top 10, I would quit work.  I somehow managed to finish 8th that year in what I thought was a really stacked field.  At the time I had no intention of quitting work regardless of my finish.  Little did I know that the next time I raced at Oceanside I would be training full time.

That brings me to the 2013 Oceanside 70.3.  Oceanside is typically the first big hit out race for the North American racing season and this year was no exception.  In fact one could argue that this was the deepest field ever at Oceanside.  Since getting back from South Africa, my training has been going very well and I was really excited to test myself at this race and hopefully pick up some points for Hy-Vee.  And I was extremely excited to be back racing in California with the chance to see my family and spend a few days post race with my brother. I was able to spend a few days eating great Mexican food, surfing, going to the beach, and visiting Stone Brewing with Chad which was awesome.

The race started well with a fast and solid swim.  I swam in the front group and we were able to keep Andy from getting away.  I think I was about 4th out of the water and was anxious to get on the bike and start riding hard.  This field was not only stacked but also really large in numbers.  I wasn't sure what would happen on the bike with so many athletes and my main goal was to ride hard to stay out of trouble.  I had a couple of penalties last year and really wanted to have a clean race.  I was amazed at how tactical the bike leg was for this race.  I made some mistakes with my positioning in what was a huge group of athletes and that cost me later in the bike when I ended up getting dropped from the group.  I ended up getting into T2 about 4min down from the lead group.  I ran as hard as I could and had a decent run.  Made some nutritional mistakes towards the end of the run but put together what I thought was a solid effort.

This race was my first experience in what was a World Championship level field.  The race was very different from other half distance races that I have done and although I am not really happy with my 14th overall place, I did learn a lot of valuable things from this race.  I am fortunate enough to have power data from my SRM; which, is really important for me at this point.  With that information my coach, Grant Holicky, and I are able to get a more objective view of what happened on the bike leg of the race and what we need to work on.  I am really looking forward to some more quality training as the season is still very early.  I definitely think I am making progress but have a lot of work to do to start getting closer to the guys like Jesse Thomas and Andy Potts who are dominating these races.