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!
“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!
“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!
For those of you who may be new to the blog, I am night blind, which makes night activities a challenge. But as I’ve said in the past, I refuse to be a prisoner of the dark. To that end, I planned 3 5Ks in the dark for 2019. The G.L.O.W. 5K was the first of these races.
As I can see very, very little during these night races, I rely heavily on my guides. It’s about complete faith and trust that they’re going to keep me safe. Not just from cracks and poles, but also small children…
As with any race, there was a bottleneck at the start. However, it was worse that other races because of all the small children around us. Many would run ahead of their parents and stop suddenly. Some would stop with their parents without warning to take pictures. In both cases, it created extra obstacles. Thankfully both Chris and Erjon helped to guide, and to guide me around these two-legged obstacles.
Even though I couldn’t see much, I was still able to keep a decent pace. And it was another 5K where the only walking that I did was through the aid station (at about 1.75mi). I was able to set a new dark PR by about 3 minutes!
“{We’re] not here to fuck spiders.” – Australian saying
After seeing photos and hearing stories from friends last year, I slated the USABA bike camp into my 2019 schedule. I believed that it would be extremely beneficial — not just for improving my cycling skills, but also because it would push me outside my comfort zone.
But before any of that could happen, I had to confirm my pilot. With the Velodrome, mountain climbining and some other things that I knew would be scary the first time, it was a short list. Thankfully, Danny was able to do it and I was able to move forward with the application.
The first day of camp included the bike build and a skills ride. It was a short ride out to the crit course and then several laps around it. It was easier to do the crit course / drills clockwise than it was counter-clockwise. At some point during the first day, one of the coaches noticed the seat was too low, so we raised it prior to day 2.
Day 2 of camp started with skills and ended with a 20mi+ ride. Some of the skills (especially the hip steering ones) were a little unnerving; but we made it through them. The afternoon ride included climbing, a rolling pace line and a couple of dicey stop sign crossings on the way back.
I think the biggest challenge of day 2 was with height. With the higher seat height, I was having problems getting clipped in consistently. As it became more of an issue during the afternoon ride, we decided to try other cleats. Unfortunately, my shoes wouldn’t take the cleats that we planned to use. So we went to plan C — borrowing cleats and using pedals that I had had problems clipping into.
Day 3 was spent entirely at the Velodrome. Because I was having so many issues with clipping in, people had to physically help get my feet into them and I had to stay clipped in at stops. After going through the intro / overview of the Velodrome, it was time to conquer my fear of it. And after the first few laps, it got easier. That changed when we went high and another tandem was underneath us. The ‘people look like ants’ viewpoint was the issue I believe.
The afternoon presented even more stressful moments. We spent it doing standing starts, during which I felt so incredibly unstable and flying starts. The standing starts got a little easier as we kept doing them, but I was never fully comfortable with them. Thankfully, we only did one flying start — that was the worst for me.
Day 4 was ‘race day’ at the Velodrome. It started with pursuits (4K for men and 3K for women), followed by kilos. While we succeeded in not being caught during our pursuit, I didn’t have ‘track hack’ afterwards. That did happen after our kilo though. That and chain ring issues that caused the bike to throw the drive chain. Thankfully the mechanic was able to bend the teeth back.
During the afternoon ride, the pedal issue finally caught up with me. Because of the clipping issues, I was having to hold a position during red lights. This was usually at least 30 seconds, and sometimes longer. So as we rode, my hands continually became more numb. At about 20 miles both my hands and arms were numb enough that I no longer felt safe. I ended up in the van, extremely disappointed that I had dropped Danny.
Day 5 started with climbing and ended with TT recon. Because of the issues the prior day, I was in the van on the way to the base of the mountain. After the first climb up and photos at the top, we came down extremely fast. It was quite a thrill and a little bit nervewracking at the end. After the second climb up, we did group photos and came down at a much more controlled pace.
During the afternoon TT recon, the numbness was back in spades. The TT course had only one small downhill at the very beginning, which meant very little time to get pressue off of them. I wasn’t going to drop Danny again, so I did everything possible to get blood flow back during the last 3-4 miles.
Day 6 was just the TT, and it wasn’t in the best of weather. The out wasn’t that bad, but the back was. There were a couple of points where my struggles on hills made things hard for Danny. I did what I could, finishing the last couple hills with the ‘track hack’.
It was an amazing camp, and I learned a lot during it. I am grateful to all of the staff/coaches for their help during it and to Danny for being such an amazing pilot.
“Now you tell me, if I have a day off during the baseball season, where do you think I’ll spend it? The ballpark. I still love it. Always have; always will.” – Harry Carey
While Harry never got a chance to see the Cubs win it all, he had the right idea. Wrigley is magical. Always has been; always will be. So when Race to Wrigley fit into my schedule, it was an immediate YES.
As we were hanging out at the tent pre-race, I was glad to hear my ‘stalker’ appear. I had thought we had all lost him in the Florida triangle until Mother Nature stopped throwing ‘spring temper tantrums’. While waiting, we were able to get a pre-race photo in front of the marquee and do all the other pre-race stuff.
We were supposed to start 5 minutes ahead of the Elite group. However, that didn’t happen. So we ended up being at the very front of the pack (see above photo). This meant not just trying to run normal, but also trying NOT to get run over by people that can do 6-7 minute miles as their ‘easy’ pace.
After the first main pack cleared us, it calmed down and we were able to settle in. And then the main 2nd corral showed up. As a result of all this, the first mile was at about 11 min (1 min faster than intended). Things went as normal until we made the turn into Wrigley.
While running in the dark is always a challenge, this part of the 5K was moreso than usual. Normally, I’ll be going under a bridge or parking structure. In either case, it’ll be a straight line and I won’t be worried about obstacles. However, in this run, we had poles and other obstacles to contend with. So I had to slow down a bit and have my hand on Matt’s shoulder during this part.
Once we made it back into daylight, it was a short (400yd?) stretch to the finish. As soon as we turned the last corner, I went all out and sprinted to the finish. While I haven’t gone through all my past results, I do believe that it was a 5K PR.
Thanks to Achilles Chicago for their support and for Eva and Matt for guiding for me! #GoAchilles
Full Disclosure: BibBobards has not provided any sponsorship and has not asked me to write this. They have no advance knowledge of this, and will see it at the same point that all of you do. And they’re free to use it for any marketing, promotional or other purposes without any compensation or sponsorship.
Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen a LOT of infomercials and bumps. Whether it’s been on YouTube feeds or because I’m up at 3AM, 99%+ of them are just not worth the money. IMHO, if you’re having to resort to ‘skip marketing’ to sell your product, it’s probably not worth it.
So when I caught the BibBoards bump in a YouTube video in late 2018, I went into it with that mentality. I had $20 to burn, and I was willing to take a chance on the pinless technology. I figured if it worked once, I’d come out ahead by having one less set of holes in my athletic clothing.
While there were issues with one of the BibBoards during/after the first race, they rectified it. And to this point, I’ve used them for 5 races. They’ve worked so well that I will continue to use them in ALL of my running races and any Tri where I need to toss a shirt over my Tri Top.
The bottom line here is that BibBoards ARE well worth the money. You won’t put holes into your expensive/nice athletic gear and you most likely will show up in more photos (as their ad states). While it may not be typical, since using them, I’ve gone from 4-5 photos in a 5K (prior) to 15-25 (when using them).
While ‘Chicago Spring’ hasn’t arrived yet (roughly May 1st), it’s at least getting nicer out. Nice enough that the outdoor running season is in full swing! This was my 2nd Chicago race of the spring.
To this point, every race that I’ve done at Montrose Harbor has started from the same place. So that’s where I went when I first showed up. Thankfully, there was plenty of time to get over to where the start actually was.
Once Rob and I met up and did all of the pre-race stuff, we headed over to the starting grid. Apparently someone didn’t get the memo that 2000 – 2500 people running in the street means that you DO NOT drive your car down it. Instead, you wait a couple minutes for people to pass. But since they didn’t, we had to contend with that hazard within the first 100-200 feet.
After we had cleared that, the first mile was still a challenge. This was because I unintentionally kept going far too fast. Even with Rob having to pull me back several times, it was still about an 11 min mile.
From the start of the second mile through the hill, things went well and standard. Mt. Roosevelt is absolutely, positively no fun; but at least it’s on pavement. The hill that was at about 2.6mi was very similar, except entirely on grass. I made it about 1/2-2/3rds of the way up before I had to stop. Rob’s encouragement helped me to re-start the run after 10-15 seconds instead of truly walking.
Once we were over the hill, it was a decent downhill and a lap around the track to finish. Even with the hill challenge, it was still a solid race.
Thanks to Achilles Chicago for their support and Rob for guiding for me!
For those who know me, or even just quasi-stalk me, you know that I end up doing a lot of ‘crazy’ things. Okay, maybe not as crazy as skydiving or going around a NASCAR track on a ride-along (both on my bucket list), but crazy in the sense that someone would look at me and say ‘you can’t do that’. I’ve ignored that thought, and 95% of the time, things have worked out really well. And my condo walls are covered with memories from those attempts.
So when I saw Catapult ask for people to fill their Texas Indepence Relay (TIR) teams, my immediate thought was ‘okay, let’s go do something else crazy.’ But since it was a team event, I neded to make sure that things would work before I said yes. Several back-and-forth e-mails later, everything was set.
On Friday, we met up as a full group and received gear / packed everything in. And after a stop at Buc-ee’s, we made it to Gonzales. Now if I had known how amazing Buc-ee’s would be, I would have skipped breakfast and waited. Oh well, lesson learned for 2020. 🙂
In Gonzales, we did packet pickup and then the team dinner. Giant Jenga/bags + good people = great fun! And after an appearance at the PJ party/lobby gathering, we called it a reasonably early night.
With teams of 12, the layout for TIR was that we’d all run the Prologue (1.15 mi), 3 legs and the Conclusion (.05 mi). The Prologue and Conclusion were run as a team, and the 3 legs were run individually (or with a guide for VIs). Claudio was my guide throughout all 5 of the legs that I ran.
The story throughout TIR was the weather. Going in, I knew that there was a chance of TStorms throughout both days. As one of my legs was on a dirt road, my biggest concern was getting through that leg before it rained and turned it into mud. In retrospect, I should have been more concerned about 25mph+ headwinds… But more on that later.
After gathering for full team photos in the park, we were off on the Prologue leg. Even in the dark, it was humid enough that I was drenched in sweat after just 1.15 miles. We had about an hour rest before our first individual leg.
As a bit of background, during each of the day legs (1-6 and 12-18) that our van had, the runner would say where they wanted to first ‘aid station’ at. The van would go to that point and wait, provide hydration and then move to the next ‘aid station’. When the runner said they were good to go to the end, we’d go to the exchange point and cheer them in as a team. Once it got dark, we did similar things — just no getting out of the van in full.
So for my first leg, we had (a) an unpacked dirt/stone road, (b) humidity and (c) hills over (a) for a big chunk of 4.68mi. The worst part was the first 1.5mi as sweat kept dropping into my eyes. So it was great to see the van at the first aid station. And while it wasn’t exactly ‘fun’, it was a lot more fun than sitting behind a desk! After about 50 minutes out in the Texas sun, we made the exchange — giving us about 6 hours before the next leg.
Once everyone had run, we took a lunch break and stumbled about the TIR movie location. Even though we didn’t have the greatest team idea, I’ll be interested to see the finished product with all the teams that did stop We also accidentally muffed the exchange point. For 2020, the reference point needs to be meeting at the fainting goats (that wouldn’t faint for us).
Going into the second leg, I knew it would be hills, hills and more hills. Somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2 miles, I started having problems swallowing. Getting hydration helped — but only for a little bit. Thankfully, I was able to make it through and back to the van without a major incident. And after getting a couple of Gatorades in, I was OK.
Remember those TStorms I mentioned earlier? As we were waiting to do our 4th swap, it started pouring. This made it a miserable 5+ mile leg 23 for that runner, and no fun for the rest of the night legs For me, this meant 2.7 miles in the dark with 25mph+ headwinds. Claudio helped immensely with this leg, as all I could see until we hit the exchange was the while line / oncoming headlights.
Once we hit leg 30, we drove back to Houston and waited for the other half of the team to finish their portion. Once they got close, we all went to the park and finished as a team.
I am extremely grateful to Catapult. Not just for everything the did for me the whole time I was in Houston, but also for this opportunity. Doing the TIR pushed me way outside of my comfort zone on several different levels.
As just one CIP, if I had been doing a run on my own, leg 27 would never have happened. The mindset would have been ‘it’s crappy out and I can’t see a thing; I’ll run tomorrow’. But as part of a team, you have others relying on you. It’s not always easy; but it always works out. And with Claudio as my guide, I knew I was in good hands. So leg 27 happened.
Also a huge thank you to all of the sponsors and supporters of Team Catapult whom made this weekend possible. I appreciate everything you did to make this weekend happen, and look forward to being back in 2020!
“But if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow.” – Bill Withers
Growing up, I attended Camp Saugatuck several times. It was a Presbyterian Church camp on Lake Michigan, and it was located near Saugatuck, MI. It’s been gone for several years — the Presbytery of Chicago sold the land and a developer has put / is putting mega houses where it once was.
During the summer camp about 30 years ago, none of us were allowed into the dining hall as normal. Instead, they divided us up into 3 groups and let us in for the ‘grain lesson’. One group was given 7 grains, one group was given 3 and the last was given none. You had to trade your grain for food items, and IIRC the lesson was about showing compassion and help for those that were in need (from the group that had more than enough (7) to the other two).
I ended up in the group that got zero grain. I remember being temporarily worried about how I was going to eat, as I had nothing to trade for my food. But within short order, others gave and helped me, and I was able to get dinner.
If you’ve read through all of that, you may be wondering — what’s the point? What does this have to do with Triathlon? Keep reading — I’ll explain.
During the first two full years, I relied extremely heavily on others since I simply didn’t have the resources. I had lost hours and benefits shortly before the 2016 season started, and would have been in a bad spot without that help. As I start my 2019 season, I’m now faced with having to find a new job.
If I hadn’t had that lesson 30 years ago, and the support throughout the challenges of the first 3 full seasons, I would have been MUCH more upset about all these changes and their potential effects. But since I have, I’m able to find ways to make sure I’m ‘salvaging’ workouts during the chaos and trying to stay on the path. I have a tremendously long list of goals, races and camps for 2019. So taking more than a day or two to be upset/feel sorry for myself isn’t going to do anyone any good…
The bottom line, and moral of the story is that you’re NEVER alone. No matter how hard the journey may look or may be, there are always others to help you along it. And there’s always tomorrow…
