Triathlon SZN

I don't think anyone reads this (7,715 views all-time but are blogs still a thing?) anymore but it's still helpful for me to jot down some thoughts as I continue to explore the world of endurance sports. If you're somehow still here I hope you're healthy, training hard, and that some of these thoughts/ramblings help you along your way.

2020 was obviously a strange year for a lot of reasons. The effects of a global pandemic seeped into all facets of life, including athletics. I ran a 1:15 half marathon in January of 2020. That came a few months after a 2:42 marathon on a stress reaction in my left foot. My mileage wasn't that high for the 1:15. The workouts didn't have me convinced I would run the way I did. The result was surprising to say the least. I lined up road races throughout the spring/summer and figured I would be setting PRs at every distance. Then the pandemic came, and I didn't get to race. On top of that, my achilles was a mess. It still isn't 100% if we're being honest. I decided to take some down time from running. I couldn't run on it, saw doctors, and started physical therapy. I was given the green light to cross train so I bought a bike -- not just any bike but a used Cervelo P2 that I knew would work for a triathlon if I ever did one. I began to bike every day. I started swimming too. I signed up for an Olympic Triathlon in September, 2020. It went great -- I won my age group! I ran just in the 3 weeks before the event and still had the 2nd fastest run split in the whole field. I signed up for a 70.3 in July but thought that would be something to do in between a spring and fall marathon. I still thought I was a runner.

I spent the rest of 2020 ramping up the running mileage and cutting back on the swimming/biking. I ran a 16:23 5k time trial at Thanksgiving. Then I ran 26:55 for 8k. I ran 16:02 for a Garmin-measured road 5k in February. My mileage was up. I was feeling healthy. The marathon workouts looked great. Then I had some ankle problems, missed a little bit of time, went for the marathon & missed. I ran a horrible marathon. There's no other way to put it. I had some of my best long runs ever in the build up. I did 23 miles @ 6:20 pace, bouncing miles @ 5:48 & miles @ 6:46, ten times through. I pivoted quickly to triathlon training, which I had neglected while trying to be a runner.

I ran a duathlon 1 week after the marathon. With very little bike training in recent months and with the marathon still on my legs, I finished 3rd overall. I had the best run splits and knew I could have contended for the win if I had done any real bike training over the winter and spring. The race gave me confidence to go after triathlon training and see how far we could get by July.

I did an Olympic Triathlon in June and finished 4th. My swim had improved from my 1st triathlon and my bike got a lot better. I had the 2nd fastest run to a former D1 runner. Not too shabby. I kept training, logged some huge weeks, and was ready to give Ironman 70.3 Musselman my best.

I had myself a day in my 1st 70.3. This was the first big 70.3 in the northeast since before the pandemic started. The field was pretty loaded and I ended up 15th overall, 4th in my age group, and qualified for the World Championships. I swam hard but within myself. 33:26 for 1.2 miles. That's 1:34/100 yards. For reference, I did somewhere in the mid-1:40s at my 1st triathlon 10 months earlier for a shorter distance. I broke 2:30 on the bike, with a 2:29:20 split for 56 miles. It was good enough for the 48th fastest time. I honestly never felt great on the bike. I would catch and pass people on the uphills but would get crushed going downhill. I was unsure how my body would respond over 13.1 miles but I had the run of my life. I ran 1:19-flat at the end of a 70.3. It was the 2nd fastest of the day & moved me up to 15th. To be more competitive, I knew I just needed to keep plugging away at the swim and the bike. It didn't help that I only started back up with those two disciplines, in earnest, in mid-April. I now had another triathlon to add to the calendar -- the 70.3 World Championships in September.

I thought that Musselman might be good enough to earn an elite rating. Get two scores from two separate triathlons over the elite mark and you can turn professional. I ended up with a 98, almost a 99, and you need a 104. Musselman didn't have an elite field which sometimes drags scores down. I figured I was very close to the mark and added another race to the calendar -- Timberman 70.3.

I trained hard in the pool and on the bike to make the gains I needed to make for Timberman. I also upgraded my bike and went into the race with more fitness and a faster setup. I forgot my wetsuit and the race was barely wetsuit legal. Despite that, I swam nearly the exact same time that I did at Musselman. I would have been faster in a wetsuit and knew that my swim had improved. I grabbed my bike and set out to tackle the next 56 miles. The only problem? I couldn't clip my feet in. I'm nowhere near a bike expert. Clipping in is not seamless for me but I've always been able to do it. I had changed my cleats the night before the race and the pedal tension (new pedals on the new bike) was too tight for me to clip in. I pulled off to the side and couldn't even get the shoes in with my hands. I was frustrated. I had had a good swim. The body felt great and something I didn't really understand was preventing me from competing. I made a dangerous choice to ride without being clipped in. I ended up getting into a decent groove and thought, if I can just get to the run, I can still have a good day. I, however, didn't make it to the run. I lost control of the bike on a U-turn and went down hard. My body was in so much pain. I landed on the left side of my body on my ribs. My chain came off. I was bleeding and had road rash. I was crushed after being in such a great place physically and mentally coming off of Musselman. I rode another 15 or so miles before calling it. The pain was too much and I was scared I was going to fall off again, without having good control on some pretty steep downhills. I got some tests done at the race and things seemed fine minus the pain. I had some X-Rays done that night & the verdict was bruised ribs. It luckily wasn't anything worse but I'm still in pain today as I write this almost 5 weeks later.

I still had the World Championships on the calendar. I had booked a 10 day trip to Utah to train there before the race. I wasn't able to swim for 1.5 weeks or run for 2 weeks. I biked every day, and biked hard. When I was finally able to swim and run, I realized I hadn't completely lost all of my fitness but I was still in a lot of pain. I went to Utah the week before the race and uncertain is the best word I can use to describe how I was feeling. I had ramped up from 2 weeks to 1 week out to more/less try to make up for lost training. My taper week still had decent volume and workouts. It was great living the full-time triathlete life but my body didn't freshen up in the way I had hoped it would before the race. The mileage and climate (heat, elevation, altitude, etc) didn't leave me in the best physical conditions. I hadn't been sleeping great with the time change and went into the race tired. I still wanted to try to get an elite result and was ready to put whatever my body had left out there.

I had a pretty mediocre swim. I swam slower than Timberman in another non-wetsuit legal race even though I should have been more fit. I had been apprehensive in training on the bike all week which was understandable after the crash but I finally took the training wheels off and let it rip once I got on the bike. I was having a strong ride and then the weather came. It started to rain. Then hail. Then lightning. Then wind gusts of up to 40mph. I thought I was going to be thrown right off. I put the bike in its hardest gear, slowed down, and went into survival mode. It was an ~15km stretch where I was affected by those conditions. I had an 11:00 5k & 13:00 5k that should have both been in the 8:00 range. I probably lost 10 minutes or so. I got passed a lot, as some but kept riding hard through those conditions. I didn't feel comfortable doing that, took the time loss, but stayed in one piece. By the time I was able to ride normal again, I reached the toughest point on the course -- Snow Canyon. I'm a strong climber so I was actually able to make up some time on the field. I passed people the entire climb and didn't get passed back a ton on the descent (read: rode with confidence). Despite a slow 2:50 bike split, the legs didn't feel fresh going into the run.

While the bike gained 3,600 feet in 56 miles, the run was equally as cruel, climbing 1200 feet in 13.1 miles. I put my head down, got to work, and picked people off. With the age group start, the run course was lined with people the entire way. It was nice to pass people the entire time but I had no idea who I was even competing with. I finished off the race with a 1:27 half marathon. That doesn't look strong on paper but the effort was similar enough to my 1:19 at Musselman. The course was slow and the downhills came in small, steep, sections that weren't altogether runnable.

I ended up finishing in 5:00:17. The course was hard. The weather was horrible. The transitions were long. I want to be closer to the 4:00:00 mark but I had to fight and scrape to a 5-flat finish on that course on the day. I'm in desperate need of a break. I have the Boston Marathon coming up in a little more than 2 weeks. I'm not expecting anything from the race and will just try to run within myself. Then I'll have some time to get ready for 70.3 Florida in mid-December. I'm still chasing the elite qualifying standard and believe that I can get really close to it at that race. Then I'll actually hit the reset button, get into some base training, and begin to target spring and summer races. The plan is set. It's a good one. I'm a little tired as I write this but I'm as motivated as ever. I believe I have a bright future in triathlon. I need to keep that belief, learn some more about this sport, and practice some self care.

Onwards & upwards.