Month: June 2019

1st Half in Review

[Mr. Miles, aka Feline psychologist extrodinare.]

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

When I planned my 2019 season, I had such great hopes and strong goals for it. However, things have not gone as planned.

The year started out with not-so-fun medical and personal issues. But by mid-March, those were mostly resolved. And then the next shoe dropped — with me getting laid off (downsizing) from a company that I’d been with for almost 14 yeara. That threw a wrench into some plans, but I was able to regroup and tried to focus on qualifying for Nationals. After losing race opportunities to being unable to find guides / an unexpected monsoon, I found myself staring at a very short time frame to qualify for Nationals.

So headed into June, I knew what the score was and what I needed to do. And while I did everything I could to make a NQ time happen, it just didn’t come together.

After the DNF this past weekend, I was extremely disappointed. I lost both of my A races for the 2019 season because of if. Sure, I could have gone and raced PC Open. But after talking with my coach, that just didn’t make sense. What made more sense was to pull back, focus on fixing the issues and on moving forward. Even though these were two imiportant races, there is stilla HUGE chunk on my 2019 schedule. I am also working on trying to add a ‘replacement’ A race (Chicago) to it.

I’ve been able to make it through this frustraing first half of the year because of all of the people and organizations that support me. I am truly grateful to ALL of them, and their support has meant so much during these trying times.

To that point, the ‘pity party’ on Sunday post-race was short-lived (about an hour). What brought me out of it so quickly was realizing these several things (in order):

1) Yes, I lost both A races, but the season is not over.

2) The remainder of the season is an opportunity to fix these issues, and build towards the 2020 season.

3) I owe far too much to everyone who has, does and continues to support me to not push on. Short-term losses for long-term gains.

4) There are always going to be struggles and setbacks. It’s how you deal with them that will define you. And if you can’t deal with something ‘minor’ like this, HTF will you move forward?

The net result of all these conversations (some with the help of Mr. Miles) was that I refocused on the 2nd half of 2019 and did 2020 planning.

A Rocky Weekend (Train2Race / Pleasant Prairie) – 6/21-23/19

[Photo credit – Claudia Ani]

“Send lawyers, guns and money. The shit has hit the fan.” – Warren Zevon

This year, Dare2Tri split the PT Training Camp into two, a beginner and an advanced camp. With all of the racing that I’ve done to this point, I was at the advanced camp.

Day 1 started with triple bricks (3 mi bike/1 mi run/rest x3). The bike felt really good, and more importantly so did the runs. While GPS wasn’t great because of all the trees, I was able to be at and under pace for the first 2 runs and at for the 3rd. The pace that I set for myself for these runs was 30 seconds faster than my current normal run pace. Not just to get faster, but also to get a measuring stick towards the <35 5K I need to hit before summer’s end. After lunch, we were in the water for skills and drills. The day finished up with recovery, during which I had a chance to try an amazing product.

Over the last couple years, I’ve had intermittent pain in my upper right arm. The only thing that’s really helped prior was getting worked on by a PT. But after about 5 minutes in the arm sleeve that’s made by Rapid Reboot and things felt great. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to use their products more in the future.

Day 2 started with swimming the course, and continued with a course overview. After some bike handling skills, the day finished with a breathing session and an ice bath experience. Last year, I had had an opportunity to do the contrast bath course (cold/hot/cold/hot). The cold sessions were in about 40 degree water for a total of 10 minutes, so I thought this 1:15 would be just fine. And outsize of the first 5-10 seconds, it wasn’t that bad. Meditation in 30 degree water is interesting to say the least…

There’s nothing fun about 3A wakeup calls, but that’s what was required for race day. After meeting up with Dave and getting transition set up, I felt really good. We poisitioned ourselves far enough back in the wave to avoid getting run over by people like Jack and Owen, and had a great start. Then at about 175-200, I started to feel the carbon dioxide start to build up. Using a drill that Stacee had taught me the day prior, I was able to get rid of a bit. At about 225 though, it came back and we had to head to the floating podium so I could try and clear it. At about 275, it was back and severe enough that I had to go to the boat. They gave me some water and it felt like the throat cleared. However, less than 10 strokes later, I had to tap out of the water. I felt true distress between when I told Dave I needed to and as we were swimming to the boat.

Because of HIPAA, I won’t go into much of what happened between when I was pulled from the water and when we walked to the finish line to cheer teammates in. All I will say is that too much fluid in the lungs was the culprit behind this. Post-race, I’ve had a chance to talk through this more with coaches and teammates that I trust. As a result of those conversations, I’ve got a few different things to try to help minimize this going forward.

As many of you know, I don’t believe in DNFs. In fact, Pleasant Prairie (2016) was the race where we walked the bike back 3+ miles so that I wouldn’t have to tap out. But this one was unavoidable for safety reasons.

While this was a disappointing day — not just in the water, but also having to scratch both of my A races — it wasn’t all bad. I know that as I continue to move forward, there are going to be bumps and setbacks. While I don’t ever want something like this to happen again, I’m glad it happened at a local race.

I still have a huge chunk of my season left, and I will find ways to work this out. I will also find a ‘replacement’ A race to focus on. And while this is a setback, it will NOT be a permanent one. I WILL find a way to fix all of this prior to the start of 2020’s seaons. And I WILL be in CA next summer.

Catapulted!

I am extremely grateful to Catapult. Not just because of the 2019 grant that they approved, but also for the opportunities that have / will continue to push me outside of my comfort zone. Ultimately, these help me grow as an athlete — even though there may be some crazy / ‘oh shit’ moments along the way.

As I’ve mentioned throughout the blogs this year, the swim has been my weakest discipline. While I’ve been able to improve on the bike and run, the swim has drug me down. The grant they approved will enable me to work with a swim-specific coach. I am confident that their assistance will pay dividends both short and long-term!

I had an amazing time with them at TIR in March, and will start my 2020 season with them in Houston. I had given up doing Half Marathons after the challenges I had. But after how well TIR went, I decided to try another comfortably uncomfortable experience with them. It will be a 5K Saturday and a Half Sunday.

THANK YOU CATAPULT for everything! I look forward to the successes from your support in 2019 and to starting the 2020 season in Houston!

Double Dip (ET Batavia Tri) – 6/9/19

“Let’s play two.” – Ernie Banks

When I planned out my 2019 schedule, I tried extremely hard to give myself a break between Triathlons. However, Indy’s unplanned addition threw a wrench into that.

I had wanted to do Batavia for the past couple years. But the Dare2Tri camp was the same weekend in the past. With it being split into two camps this year, I was finally able to do it.

Having done the Naperville ET race a few times, I have become used to the ‘quarry madness’. Because of this, we seeded ourselves back far enough to minize it. The swim went better than I had hoped, even though it was a little odd. I say that because one side of the rectangle was in water so shallow that it made more sense to get up and walk than it did to try and ‘shallow swim’.

Headed out on the bike, I knew we’d be able to make up time and that it would go well. To that point, I believe we had a net pass of zero. Even after we had to stop and retrieve a dropped water bottle. Sure, people did pass us, but we were able to retake them before T2. It also felt like we were at 30+ several times during the course. And while I’m still not fully comfortable going/being aero for long periods of time, there were a couple of stretches that it paid off in.

Headed into the run, I knew it was going to be a long one. Almost all of the sanctioned Tris I do are a 5K run. This one was a 4.1mi run, which was the longest I had ever done in a Tri. Even though it was a longer run, the shade/overcast weather made it go really well. I was able to keep the normal run -> walk through aid stations that I wanted. The only other time I had to walk was at about mile 3 for another 20-30 seconds to catch my breath.

Also during the run, I misheard Michael. At the time, there was an older gentleman in front of us running at a much slower pace. We were at a point of getting ready to pass him when I heard Michael say ‘watch out for the turtle’. What heard was ‘watch out for the slow runner as we pass him’. What he really meant was to watch out for the snapping turtle that was by the side of the path — and not happy that we (all of us) had woken them up!

Thanks to Michael for guiding for me and to Coach Joe, Suzy and the rest of ET for putting on a great race as always!

Take 2 (Indy Sprint Tri) – 6/8/19

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” – Elbert Hubbard

As I had mentioned in the Leon’s blog post, I had lost all of my spring short course plans. To give myself another NQ opportunity, I added the Indy Sprint to my calendar. Even though this race had been a trying one two years ago (with us doing the bike with just the hardest 4-5 gears), I was still excited to do it again. I was able to find a guide through Tri Loco (Indy) and everything else fell into line.

When I met up with Zach on Friday evening, we had a chance to do a decent amount of bike practice. After riding for about an hours and having a chance to talk through the rest of the signals (swim/run), I felt good. I also was confident that I’d be coming back from Indy qualified for Nationals.

However, the swim did not go as needed. At about 150-200 in, I got something caught in my throat and just couldn’t get it out. So for the rest of the swim, I was surfacing every 50-75 to try and cough it out. It made for a draining, long 500m swim…

But having done a lot of bike practice with him and knowing my run had imiproved, I thought there was still a chance to salvage a NQ time. Even moreso since we had the full 30 gear set to work with.

The bike did go well, even with uneven surfaces in places. These were apparently potholes that hadn’t been properly smoothed. So instead of having a flat path, you’d have stretches akin to highway rumble dots. We were able to pick up some time in the downhills, where I’d estimate we were at 30+.

As I was trying to make up time, I headed out onto the run without remembering to grab my visor. The Indy run course is much more shaded on the way out than on the way back. This meant that the first half (not much sun) went much better than the run back. During the hot sun parts, I had to go down to a run/walk method. And even though Zach told me I was more than 10 minutes behind goal going into the run, I still wanted to give it everything I had on the run.

After finishing, Tri Loco provided great hospitality. Thanks to them for that and Zach for guiding for me! And thanks to Tuxedo Borthers for all their help on race day!

Leon’s Tri – 6/2/19

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns

I had such great plans for the spring Tri season. I’d have at least two, possibly three opportunities to qualify for Nationals at short races. Then in June, Leon’s and Pleasant Prairie could be ‘tune up’ full Sprint races. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. I couldn’t find a guide for either IN race and Monsoon Houston killed the other one. I did manage to find a June short course race — more on that in a future blog.

So going into Leon’s, there was a bit more pressure than usual. But I still felt good knowing what my times had been in 2018 and knowing the work I had put in in 2019. Hootie even mentioned that the swim was only 500 during the Athlete Briefing, which made me feel even better.

Heading into the water, I felt confident that I would get close to a NQ time. And then things fell apart… We had a group of 60 for our wave, all with different swim levels. So combine traffic with my normal swerving, along with the swim being 750-800 instead of 500, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster for me.

Even though the swim was not the best, I tried to regroup in T1. During it, my sunglasses fell out of my helmet and I accidentally crashed them with my cleats. Thankfully it was overcast, so I was okay without them. The bike itself went decently — nothing could be done about 15mph headwinds in the worst possible places (uphills/inclines).

This year, they changed the run so that we headed the other way on the lakefront path. I clearly went out too fast in mile #1, as I felt it at about the turnaround. The rest of it ended up being a run/walk pace on this > 5K run.

While it wasn’t the day I had planned or needed, I did still come home with a 2nd (Mideast Regionals) and 3rd (PC Open) for VI Male.

Thank you to Dare2Tri for all of their help and support and to Lee Dunbar for guiding for me!