Ocean like Conditions.....

So, for those that follow this blog, which is few, because most of you have other things to do; we had Waconia this weekend. I am not sure how to describe the thoughts and emotions going through my head prior to the swim. For those that were there, it was a little choppy on the water front. Katie, if your reading this post, I hope you can find photos and see the ocean like conditions that we were able to swim in. As Dan said, "Jezzzz, Alcatraz wasn't even this bad" I was happy to have survived my first fresh water ocean swim, although a boogie board and fins would have made it more enjoyable. Plus the additional length of the board shorts could have hidden the sweet bike short tan lines I am getting again.

So exiting the water I was in my usual spot, near the end. But I knew going into this season stepping up to the elite level I would have a year of chasing the faster folks and hope to see improvements; which I have so I am totally fine with my season so far. Get into T1, winds still just gusting from the north off of the lake. Take of on the bike at a 45 degree angle into the wind to stay upright and off we go for 24 miles of fun. My bike was considerable faster than I had figured it would be based on the wind. We were able to head south for a section of road; sweeeet tail wind!!! It was a little odd, when we made the turn it became silent. Just you, the bike and the hum of the race wheels. For those with Zipps you know the sound I am attempting to describe. I covered the bike course in a little over an hour. My left foot, remember the last post, was little bit of a bother on the bike so I was unsure how the run was going to go. I took off like molasses in January on the 4 mile pancake flat course. Okay thats a lie, the 1st mile is a death march; no lie. At the top of the hill is a cemetery!!! My foot loosened up after the 1st quarter to half mile, but I was a little nervous to push it and risk ending my season early again due to injury again. So I settled into what I thought was a rather easy pace and had fun. I was thanking the many wonderful volunteers for helping out and allowing all of us to partake in another morning of racing. I even thanked a group of high school aged kids for coming out and cheering just for me; that was so nice of them. I finished 25th overall and got beat by a few age groupers, but I think if I would have raced the run I might have cracked the top 20. All in all it was a good race for me, exactly what I needed after last weekends debacle in Des Monies.

Speaking of Des Monies, my newest fan base made the drive to MN to spend time with their real son and cheer on their new adopted son, ME. Thanks for coming and cheering us on Bill and Annette, you guys ROCK!!!

I have to give credit to everyone that made it through the swim. From the people I talked to pre/post race, the last one they can think of that was even close to being that bad was the BOUS when it was at Lake Minnetonka 2 years ago. Ooooh how we all learned to love white caps on Sunday.

What a Week....

Well, mid last week I was turned up sided down at work. It was totally unexpected and untrue...but I am not going to dive into it on an Internet site and be like the lady that bitched about her husband on You Tube as they were going through a divorce. So, the unneeded and unwanted stress didn't really set the stage well for the Hy Vee triathlon in Des Moines.

I traveled to IA with Dennis and his wife Shannon; had a great house stay at Casa del Dane in Urbandale and was treated like family. The home stay and Dennis' parents couldn't have made the trip any better. Thanks a million Bill and Annette, see you '09!!!

This highly anticipated race was changed from a triathlon to a duathlon and back to a triathlon on Wednesday of last week. Here's a race director, their staff and hundreds of volunteers that put together not only a tri in 4 days, but a world class and last Team USA Olympic qualifier just 104 short hours from race day. World Class all the way!!!

My race was less than stellar. The swim start; me and 158 of my closest friends charged into the murky muddy waters of what was a normally small lake, but with the rain and rather large body of water. I was able to cover the 0.9mi swim in under 23 minutes, very happy with my time. I was thinking the entire swim how bad I was swimming and was not looking forward to seeing the clock when I got out of the water. But I was happy to see that my time, for me, was not bad. Now, with the change of venue, came some other changes as well. Like the garbage bags every racer was handed to put there T1 stuff into in order to get it to the finish. That's right, all of the stuff you wore race morning, your wet suit and the rest of you swim stuff needed to be placed into a Hefty sack for transport by the volunteers to the finish area.

Off on the bike I went. I left good the first mile and a half. Yep, the rest was a really struggle. Both physically and mentally. I didn't have any legs to push the gear I needed to on the bike. I stayed the course and continued at a rather slow pace. A pace that was slower than some races last year. I know that I have done much much more training and I should have been faster than what I did. More than once I thought about stopping my race after I finished the bike; totally foregoing the 10km run. I climbed one of the last big hills and rounded a corner to a sea of people. Spectators were lined on both sides of the street 3 and 4 deep cheering, yelling and ringing the cow bell....that's right "I gotta fever, and the only cure is more cow bell!!!" At that point I knew there was no way I wasn't finishing this race. Not only had I been talking all off season and up to this race about being able to finish on the blue carpet, Dennis had told me the finish line chute was awesome; so bring on T2 and the run

Now, similar to T1, we had to set up T2 on Saturday as well, only in different part of town, 2.6 miles away from T1. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so finding my shoes was a little tough. After standing around for about 10 seconds with my thumb in my butt I found my stuff, changed out of the bike stuff and into my run gear and headed out. I felt slow, again legs didn't seem to have much. But I was able to run sub 7 minute miles and finish the race in 2:18 and change. I am pleased that I stuck it out and finished. I would have been really upset with myself for not finishing just because I didn't bring my A game to this race. Can't race 'em all well can we?

I would like to congratulate Dennis for a strong 11th place finish overall and 2nd in the tough 25-29 age group. I would also like to congratulate Cathy for besting the entire female amateur field by 5 minutes, nice job!!!

Next up is Waconia this weekend. I have been side lined for the last few days with a left foot injury. The x-ray shows that at some point in my short life time I broke the foot, but didn't know it, damn drunken bar league softball days! It feels much better today and I am going to rest it for Sunday and hopefully have a much better showing than I did last week.

Epic Battle (while, at least in my mind)

Yesterday I was suppose to have the day off of training, sleep in and just relax. Sleeping in didn't happen, Rach got back from a "trip" at 5 am and need a ride home from the airport, so alas I was on the road with Jackster about 4:45 to get her. My day off of training consisted of an 11 mile bike time trial in Medina followed by a 15 minute run with Jmac. As the title of post would suggest, something big happens. Okay its not that big. A buddy, lets call him Dennis had mentioned that he was doing the TNT (Tuesday Night Time Trial) in Medina. The weather looked good when I was leaving work, sunny and little to no wind. So I decided to loaded up the bike and go "ride" the course, but take it easy. By the time I got started on my 11 mile journey, the clouds had rolled in and the humidity had increased; but still no wind. I took almost a minute off of my time from 2 weeks ago and added almost 1 mph to my average. I am seeing some great improvements in my riding and am really happy about it. Dennis, remember him, he beat me 2 weeks ago by 8 seconds; this week 9. What!!!! Here I am feeling good about myself for improving and I am losing ground when I need to be gaining it. Such is racing.
I got word today that my race in Des Moines next weekend has turned from an Olympic distance triathlon (1.5K swim, 40 k bike and 10k run) to a duathlon (10k run, 40k bike and 5k run) I am not overly excited about that changed format, but with the flooding and weather related issues that part of the country is dealing with right now, I am happy that Hy Vee is still able to put on a race. The pros that are trying to qualify for the last remaining Team USA spot will be fun to watch; and from what I hear this run/bike/run format will be much better to spectate.
So far I have had a good week of training, feel good coming off of a great race last Sunday and looking forward to Hy Vee. I need to stay focused on improving my run and continue to improve in the water. From the last post I had, if it wasn't real clear, the elites in this area are really good in the water; all over actually. But I need to be able to keep them in sight coming out of the water to feel like I have a chance. Kind of that out of sight out of mind mentality.

Holy ....!!

This morning, again we woke to an early morning (4:30 am) rain. I am starting to see a pattern develop for race weekends. As always I loaded the truck, went to pick up a buddy and head to J Bates' casa to load the VW and head to the Manitou Sprint in White Bear Lake. Last night I was a little unsure of what to expect at the race this season. After last year's disappointing run, a ton of side cramping, I was hoping to perform much better. Also this was my first Elite wave start. In the past racing age group some competitors are a little more serious so it pushes you to be better. Well the elite wave, whole new game of competitiveness. When the gun went off it was chaos for the next 12mins and 25 secs. The swim was the common U shape,keep buoys on your right side. We decided to swim down the center of the course and at the last moment head left to make a right hand turn and head back to the beach. At one point I am pretty sure that I had someone swim perpendicular across my back; that's some great sighting!! I was able to find a set of feet and hang onto them. Swam without a doubt my fastest 1/2 mile time thus far. Mounted the bike and started off on rain soaked roads and a nice head wind to greet us. The bike went well. I played cat and mouse with Mike Waataja, which made me happy. Last year I struggled to stay with him on a few training rides we were both at. Dismounted the bike and I was off on the 5k run course. Now this is the point that I blew up last year. I had to stop a number of different times and try to work the cramping out of my sides and mentally keep going. The entire GW team was there for moral support as well. No it really wasn't as embarrassing as you'd think. Alas, the run went much better this year. I was able to run 6:20's and finish in a time of 1:07.14. That's about 5 minutes faster than last season. I am very happy with my results and am now looking forward to Hy-Vee in 2 weeks with my Iowan buddy Dennis.
Other than my highlights for the day....84 year old Bob Powers won the Zipp 808 wheel set. This guy is great. He shows up to just about every race I'm at and has a smile on his face every time he crosses the finish line. If my health is half is good as his at that age I will consider myself lucky, let alone still be healthy enough to race. And fellow SCS team member Jen "Psycho Sally" Lenarz, won a brand spanking new QR Lucero carbon frame!!!! I would blog more tonight, but Ice Road Truckers new season is starting on the History Channel...gotta run.

2nd at Buffalo Tri

Well, we gave it our best...literally. Team 2 Tri's and a Guy had big days in Buffalo, but came up a little short. The day s was picture perfect, couldn't have been a better day for my first relay triathlon. Jim Drew, I swim with him at masters, started the relay with, you guessed it the swim. He had the 4th fastest overall swim time; fastest relay swim, covering the 1.5km distance in a blazing 18:59. I had him run a short distance through transition to meet me near the bike out, avoiding the rest of the relay teams and transition congestion. I was off on what was my 1st 40km time trial. Now I've raced Olympic distance events in the past but, usual have to run once I am done biking. Not today. I took of as hard as I could, and in the words of fellow tri friend Jason Bates, met the Hurt Locker. I opened the door, let myself in and turned out the lights. The next 1:00.54 was going to be a snot-fest for the record books. I had the fastest bike time for the relays and looking at the overall times, I think 11th. I am super happy with that. I've worked my butt off this off season to improve on my swim and bike. With my FL bike and swim times I am super happy with my improvements thus far. I came into T2 at what felt like 100mph; hopped of the bike, past the chip to Jen Lenarz, aka Psycho Sally, and she was off like a bullet. I felt good at this point. I had been passed by no one on the bike route and I knew Jim smoked the swim. Jen ran like the wind; however the winning team's runner ran 5:33's, are you kidding me!?!? I'm not even sure if I bikes miles that fast. Needless to say, the winning team, all men, us, co-ed. Jen PR'd her 10km time and was super happy with her results. I had a blast with this new team of mine and am looking forward to a late season relay as well. I am waiting for photos from Jen and will have them posted as soon as I get them.

I would like to congratulate Dennis Dane on yet another great race at the Pigman Sprint in Iowa. Dennis, continuing his stellar season finished 4th. Looking forward to racing Hy-Vee with you in a few weeks buddy!!