Dare2Tri – Page 3 – No Crappy Excuses

The 3rd Child (Erik) – 10/29/16

Over the last 6 weeks, I’ve kept posts to a minimum because we were in the final stages and I didn’t want to let the cat out of bag before it was done. This project started in March, and Erik finally came home today!

The extreme generosity of Art Black and Oswego Cyclery made practice possible over the past two years. Having it locally now means the hour plus commute times round trip to practice will be cut down to about 2 – 3 minutes. There’s a path by me that through a couple of connections goes into the Great American Trail if you go North, and a long set of trails if you go South.

And the practice part is just one of the many huge benefits I’ll get from having my own tandem. I am looking forward to getting in a few practices before winter hits and an amazing 2017 with it! And as soon as the pilot’s pedals come in (most common type so they were out of stock), we’ll do just that.

I would not have my tandem without the help of Dare2Tri and the generous support of the Evanston Bike Club. I am extremely grateful to both of them!

No word in English – 9/2/16

On a daily basis, we use all types of language. Whether it’s in our native tongue or a foreign language, there are always words that we’re searching for. But there’s no word in English for ‘season break’; although I’ve heard the Eskimos have a lot of words for ice.

Yes, the Triathlon season is over for me. But that doesn’t mean I can or will just sit around until next spring when the season resumes. That would be a bad idea for far too many reasons to mention (including coaches yelling at me… 😉 :P). So in addition to several training opportunities between then and now, I’ve got a 50 mile bike ride and a Half Marathon scheduled before year’s end.

While it would be nice to take a chunk of time off, I know that doing so will derail my progress. I have several goals set for 2017, and the only way to reach them is to keep pushing forward. I realize it won’t always be perfect, but I will keep pushing forward. Nothing good ever comes easy.

And while I’m looking forward, I still wanted to reflect back on the season. During 2016, I did a total of 12 triathlons (6 indoor and 6 outdoor). I was able to cut significant time off of my swim and improve on the bike/run. I had to push through some obstacles, including 3 flats during 2 races, and work through some of the mental pieces (see 8/26 blog). All in all, I consider it a successful 1st full season, and a starting point to improve from for 2017.

Even though it was a success, I wouldn’t have made it this far without support from my coaches and Dare2Tri. The amount of support on so many different levels has helped to push me, to motivate me and to help make races possible. As well, because of their support, I will soon have a tandem to use. That will make a HUGE difference as we practice for / during the 2017 season. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that I am extremely grateful to both my coaches and Dare2Tri. If you would like to help support Dare2Tri, please click here It will take you to my fundraising page.

Leave it all on the course – 8/28/16

With the Chicago Triathlon being the last triathlon of my season, as well as PT Mid-East Regionals, I had a lot I wanted to accomplish. One set of goals was related to the time ahead; the other set was to a final show of the 2016 effort. I’ll have more to say on both of these in the future. For now, I want to just focus on the event.

After arriving and getting transition set up, we all made the long walk to the starting area. I am glad that Luke convinced me to keep my shoes on instead of going barefoot, and I now see why they give you a swim check bag. Trying to do about 1/2 mile in bare feet would be a VERY bad decision. We did a team photo and then got into line for the start.

Lake Michigan was very calm and with a 70 degree water temperature, I went without my wet suit. We were the second Sprint group into the water, and it went very well. I’m still slower in Lake Michigan than I am anywhere else; not sure why. After about 28 minutes in the water, I had a little bit of trouble getting up the stairs (swim exit). But Luke and others at the exit helped steady me and we made it towards transition.

As I mentioned earlier, swim out to transition was a LONG way away. We made it back and headed out on the bike after about 12 minutes (swim out to bike out). With the exception of the second turnaround, the bike went great. On that turn, we ended up hitting the curb and having to do a quick dismount to avoid falling.

Up to this point, things had gone extremely well. Perhaps not as fast as I had wanted, but a good swim followed by a good bike. Then things unraveled a bit.

Whether the sun had been behind clouds or the breeze had masked it, it got extremely humid on the run. To the point where I was struggling to run for even a full minute. I had some tighthness a couple of times, but managed to stretch it out. So after crossing the finish line, I was surprised when I could barely stand. Long story short is that I was dehydrated and didn’t realize it. Enough fluids fixed that pretty quickly.

If you would like to see photos and full result information, please click here

While it didn’t go exactly as planned, there were still a lot of good things that came out of the day. As well as some benchmarks to push forward from for 2017. I also learned a very valuable lesson about hydration, which I will have a chance to put to use during the remainder of my 2016 events.

Odd Man Out – 8/23/16

Last Sunday, a large group of my teammates competed at PT Nationals in Santa Cruz. Of the 23 total team members, 19 competed. Two of the remaining four are on their way to Rio shortly, so they may have opted out of Nationals to keep training for Rio. All of this means that I was literally the odd man out of Nationals from the Dare2Tri teams.

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know of the struggles I’ve had this year. A short synopsis for those of you who haven’t is 2 races with flats, equipment delays and challenges while training. It hasn’t been the year that I had envisioned or hoped it would be. So knowing that I hadn’t qualified for Nationals, I could look at the situation from the normal glass half empty or glass half full scenario.

Instead I choose to look at it from a glass present scenario. What I mean by that is the opportunity to do triathlons in general, and Nationals (and beyond) might not even be there. If it weren’t for the tremendous support of Dare2Tri and my coaches, none of what I have done, do or will do, would be possible.

So even though I wasn’t at Nationals this year, I know it will happen very soon. My goal is to be there in 2017, and I’ve started to build a pencil schedule around that goal. Once I know where a few Tetris pieces will fall, I’ll work on a final one. And I know that I’ve got the coaches and support system to help me reach that goal for 2017, as well as a VERY strong desire not to be the odd man out again.

While I wasn’t there, my teammates did an AMAZING job. IIRC, 5 National Champions and a lot of total hardware!

And while I’m starting to think about 2017, my focus is on the PT Mid-East Regionals this coming Sunday. The event is the Chicago Triathlon, where Lake Michigan kicked my ass last September. I’m looking for redemption in the water and a strong showing overall! For those of you who want to follow me through the Race App, my bib is 4055.

Naperville Sprint – 8/7/16

(Photo courtesy of Diane Gilliard)

This is truly one of my favorite races Not just because it’s put on by an amazing Race Organizer (RO) and Race Director (RD), but also because it gives me an opportunity to thank those who have and continue to support me. Between the Tri kit, hat, body marking and race belt, all of them got a shout out.

As with last year, I suspected that I would be the only ParatTriathlete (PT). I was surprised to see two of my Dare2Tri teammates that are headed to Rio soon and the Executive Director of Dare2Tri show up! Very nice surprise, and I found out that they all did it last minute.

The swim played out pretty much like last year. We entered the water right after the Elite athletes, had assholes trying to swim over us and through the tether, and having to fight said assholes off. I understand competitive drive, and it’s a race. But FCTFOL, you have decent vision; USE IT and observe the fact that we’re tethered.Even with getting tied up twice in the water because of these ‘lovely’ people, we still made it out in about 12 minutes (4:15 decrease from 2015).

T1 and the bike mount went well, and we were off for 12 miles. While I still don’t have clips, I was trying to consciously pedal the way I would if I was clipped in. It seemed to work a bit better than bike has in the past. While everything went well for us, we did see someone completely total out on the course.

Back to transition and then out on the run. We walked for about 3-4 minutes before starting to run so I could get the legs stretched out. And when we started to run, instead of doing the 5/1 interval, Terri did it with a distance interval. The run still wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to go a lot better. During it, I had a lot of people encouraging me on, and even had a few people recognize me from last year. One of them commented that I was looking better than last year.

We finished about 20 minutes faster than 2015, including a sprint of the last 100 yards. Great to see this improvement, but still much more to do. I would like to shave a few more minutes off of that before Chicago at the end of August.

This was an amazing day and only possible because of the help and support of so many. Thanks to those who came out to cheer us on, and expecially to Terri Hayes of Artistic Creations Salon for guiding me along with everything else she does, and Art Black of Oswego Cyclery for letting us use his tandem.

And while my focus is on Chicago Tri for now, I will also be stalking 2017 Naperville Tri registration. Yeah, it’s that damn good of an event…

Amazing, Simply Amazing – 7/26 – 7/27/16

Having seen and met a few of the younger Dare2Tri athletes at the May/June PT camps, I had some idea of what I was in for at the Kids PT Camp. But what I saw and experienced while volunteering was even more amazing.

At the beginning of camp, several of the attendees were nervous — whether from being in an unfamiliar environment, from not knowing how to do one of the disciplines, from being uncertain of the adaptive equipment, or something else. But before long, that nervousness seemed to disappear and they got into it. We had several that had never swam before out in Lake Michigan as part of our first group, and they seemed to be doing well with it. And after lunch, they seemed to be getting into the run/push and bike with adaptive equipment.

During the 2nd day, the kids had a chance to demo the course in the AM before racing it in the afternoon. As a ‘human cone’ on the run/push course, I got to see and encourage on many of them. And during the race, I could tell that a few first timers were really pushing themselves. All of the photos from camp are available here.

Truly an amazing couple of days, and an event I plan to volunteer at in 2017! For more information on Dare2Tri and to see how you can help, visit their web site.

Lake Michigan Brick – 7/26/16

After Day 1 of the Kids PT Camp (more on that later), a group of us gathered at Ohio Street Beach for the weekly Open Water Swim (OWS). As with the last OWS I made it for, we had the Life Time Fitness training groups (about 500 people) with us as well.

Two weeks ago, we had more time for swimming, and we were out in the water for about 45 minutes. But since it seemed a storm was close, we only had time to do a 1/2 mile. Once we got out of the water, I thought my evening workout was done. However, I was told by my Coach that it was time to go for a run.

So an Achilles runner and I set off down the beach path for a run. I almost forgot to do the new routine that my Coach had asked me to do, which helps with endurance. But I remembered before we had gone too far, and it really helped. We got in 1.5mi after a 1/2 mile swim and then headed home.

Dr. Seuss Meets Triathlon – 7.24.16

Growing up, one of the things I heard a lot of was Dr. Seuss books. I specifically remember The Sneeches, The Sleep Book and Horton Hatches the Egg. As a nod to the last, I think the following pretty much sums up my Wauconda experience. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.”

For those of you who haven’t been reading my blog in the past, what that refers to is no DNFs. I’ve said it, and I meant it. And unless I’m physically injured, I’ll stil finish even if means walking the bike back (see Pleant Prairie blog).

Peter and his wife Carol were very kind to let me stay at their house so I didn’t have to mess with Chicago transportation fun. So I was thinking Wauconda would be a great race for me, especially since I’d have a full night’s rest going into it. However, at about midnight, I woke up sick. What immediately went through my head was ‘how do I get back to passable so I can race?’ 3 hours of ‘fun’ in the bathroom later, I was feeling better. We headed off to the race, and Todd and I set up transition. This included adding a flat kit to the bike after Pleasant Prairie.

While the walk over loose gravel in bare feet wasn’t fun, I thought we were all set for a great race once we got to the start area. And the swim went really well – out in about 20 min range. We moved to T1, then the bike without issue. That is until we were about a mile out. At that point, the rear tire went flat. As we had a flat kit, I thought we’d only lose a couple of minutes. But when Todd looked in the saddlebag, the tool that the CO2 cartridge goes into wasn’t there. So we lost at least 15 minutes waiting for the support vehicle to come along with a bike pump.

We got back on the bike course to finish the last 13+ miles, and I know I pushed it too hard. We had lost a good deal of time from the flat, and I wanted to try and make it up. But by doing so, I overstretched/pulled something in my lower back. This made it hard to run throughout the run portion overall, and near impossible at times.

We did finish, and while I don’t see official results yet, there was still improvement from Leon’s (subtracting out the flat time). And as frustrating as yesterday was (especially to have flats 2 races in a row), there were still several learning points.

1) Always check and triple check everything in your gear. And once you’ve done that, check it again.

2) While you may gain a little back by overexerting yourself, you’re going to lose 2-3 times as much in a later discipline. Nothing wrong with pushing it, but if you go too far, you can ruin a day.

3) That there are always going to be some challenge during a race. Whether it’s wather, a course change or something else. Deal with it, find a way to move forward and keep racing.

And while it’s frustrating to have a flat issue two races in a row, it’s just that. I’m not upset or disappointed. I am grateful that I’ve had great guides to help get things back on track and support me. The support of my teammates also helps greatly when these things happen. And yes, I would have walked the bike another 13 miles to finish if the support vehicle hadn’t had a pump.

Even though things didn’t go as planned, I am grateful to everyone who helped to make this race possible. Especially the person who provided the sponsorship so I could race.

Back to training and back to focusing on the next race. Naperville on 8/7 is the next Tri on my schedule.

More Media Coverage – 7.15.16

Last week, I was asked to do an interview as part of the Chicago Triathlon race. As one of my goals is to get more AWD/PT competitors out to races, I immediately agreed. The article by Bill Bird of the Naperville Sun is below.

Naperville Sun – 7.15.16 (Bill Bird)

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Back in the Lake – 7.12.16

It’s been about 9 months since I’ve been in Lake Michigan. And with the Chicago Triathlon in less than 2 months, it was time to get back in it. Dare2Tri hold Open Water Swim (OWS) sessions in it, so I went downtown to take part Tuesday night. What I didn’t know was that Life Time was also doing one of their five training sessions at the same time.

So instead of it being the handful of us in the lake, we had several hundred people along with us. Even with those crowds of people, the swim still went well. With Eric Robb guiding me, we made it through a 1/2 mile swim. The time was about 2 minutes faster than my ITU time, so something to build on / from.

I’ll have a couple more chances for OWS practices before the Triathlon.