2022 Season Recap

Do people still blog? Well, here we go.

2022 was the first year I dedicated my entire training to triathlon.  I did my first triathlon (Olympic distance) in the fall of 2020 & won my Age Group! I had no idea what I was doing but I had a lot of fun with the training and was excited to try my first 70.3 in the summer of 2021. But I was still convinced that I was a runner. I scaled back the swim & bike training and set out to run a spring marathon in 2021. I got injured in the build up, ran the race, and ran my worst marathon since the fall of 2016. I was so disappointed and hopped in a duathlon on limited training the following decision. It was a reckless decision but I finished 3rd. It was here that I decided to go all-in on triathlon. I qualified for the 70.3 World Champs in my debut 70.3. I raced as many triathlons as I could & gained invaluable experience in a sport where I'm still learning new things each day. The governing body for the sport, USAT, gives you a score rating every time you race. At the end of 2021, my best mark was a 99 and 104 was what you needed to turn professional. I had my heart set on a new goal in 2022 -- see how close you can get to the pro standard -- and went to work.

I kicked off the year with an olympic triathlon (St. Anthony's) in Florida in May. The winter months were tough, after a bout with COVID, but I ended up running a 1:13 half marathon personal best in March. My swimming & biking was coming along nicely. St. Anthony's is a big spring race. They have an elite field, which I was able to register for. I ended up finishing 8th in the elite field -- a very good season opener. I swam about as well as I could have. My bike showed me that I have more work to do in that discipline (theme in 2022). My run leveled up from the year before. I had the 3rd fastest run & broke 35:00 for 10k in the heat. I received a 101 score rating, my best to this point, but USAT moved the goalposts in 2022. You now need a 105.9 to become professional. I thought my result would score higher but the scores are based on how well the middle of a race does from one year to the next. So if weather is more favorable from one year to the next then it's hard to score high. If you travel from the northeast where it's 40 degrees and then race in 80 degrees when that's spring for everyone else then that can factor in too. I was starting to understand how the scoring worked but my season schedule was set. I just had to go out and do my best at the races I had already picked out.

My first big goal race of the season was 70.3 Oregon in early July. I finished 2nd overall at a local Olympic and 1st overall at a local sprint. The latter gave me my first overall win in a multi-sport event. It also gave me a 104.4 score rating. Why the jump from 101 to 104.4 in one month? Was I a different athlete? I don't think so. The race I won was on one of the first really warm days of summer close to where I live. I did well in those conditions relative to the field. It was also a sprint triathlon, which suits me better than an olympic because the swim/bike are proportionally less of the race distance. As someone newer to those disciplines, the olympic harder for me to score higher in. I really like that distance but a 104 is different from a 101. When you need to score a 106, details matter. I went into Oregon with a lot of confidence and I had a great race. The swim was downriver & I went 18:34 (10th AG). I biked 2:28 (11th AG). I ran 1:19 (1st AG). All of that adds up to a 4th place AG finish & 14th OA. The year before that sort of placing got you very close to the elite standard. This year? A 101. It was frustrating after putting together such a good race. The reason for the low score was tied to the swim not really mattering (short for everyone), the bike mattering a lot, and racing in cool conditions. I finished in 4:12. That's fast even with the downriver swim! I missed 3rd AG by 10 seconds but, because of the time trial start, I finished in front of 3rd. If we started together, I would have seen them on the run. My bike simply is not elite. I feel like I'm pushing good power but not getting the fast split because of handling skills & maybe not weighing more. Outside of the 1st & last 5k, I rode @ 2:25 pace. I didn't get up to speed fast enough with some technical parts getting out of transition & I slowed down too much on my way in. I did myself no favors because I rode hard enough to get a better bike split but left time out there. It wasn't like I was more fresh heading out onto the run. I was as tired as I would have been if I had biked a little faster. I had kind of an uncharacteristic run. I had the fastest run but I went out too fast. I tried to run 1:15 & ran 1:19-flat. I probably had 1:17 in me on the day. So I was ~5:00 off of a more complete race. That would have gotten me a 103 score rating, 2nd in the AG, and top-5 overall. I was 1% away from having a much better day. I gave it my all but small mistakes prevented a slightly better outcome.

I had already signed up for Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee so flew there just 4 weeks after Oregon. I took some time off after Oregon and knew I wasn't going to be sharp. It was very warm for the Olympic race. I went 2:07, good for 16th AG. I did the Super Sprint the next day and finished 8th AG. AG Nationals is one of the most competitive races in the US. It was tough being there without full fitness but, get this, I ended up getting a 102 score rating from the Olympic -- higher than 70.3 Oregon. I had a better day in Oregon but, compared to the field, I did better in Milwaukee. Go figure. I had trained pretty hard in the two weeks before Milwaukee, trying to cram in some workouts. I came off of the race motivated for 70.3 Worlds at the end of October. I started to overtrain and felt horrible for several weeks. I raced and won a sprint triathlon but got a mechanical on the bike. I got a 99 score rating but lost more than 2:00. It probably would have been a 104-105. The race finished with a 3.6 mile run and I ran 5:20 pace on a warm day. I felt horrible before and after the race and had nothing to show for it. I finally got my energy back in the last month before 70.3 Worlds.

Having done 70.3 Worlds the year before in Utah, I was excited to go back. With the race being a month later than the previous year, we were greeted by cool temps on race morning. I executed a really solid race. I swam a PB of 30:35 (let's get under 30:00 in 2023!). I biked a 2:31 on a hilly course. I ran 1:21 on an equally hilly run course. I measured my effort better on the run here versus Oregon. I had my fastest miles of the race in the last 5k and ended up with the 25th fastest run in a very competitive age group. I ended up with a 104.9 score rating!! That would have been an elite mark in 2021... 

With one race left on the calendar, I thought I had a reasonable chance at the pro standard in 2022. My last race of the season would be a big one -- my full distance Ironman debut. Similar to Oregon 70.3, I came so close to having a much better day. I swam 1:04 which was right on target and then had the fastest transition 1 in the age group field. I was in position to be in position. I biked 5:26. The effort was right but the split just wasn't fast. I came out of T2 at ~6:39:00 total time. I trained for a sub-3:00 marathon and went after it. That's elite territory in an Ironman. I went to AZ to test my limits. I set out at a strong pace and went through halfway in 1:28. I was on 2:56 marathon pace. It ended up being ~9:35:00 to get the pro standard. I was on pace for 9:36 and then fell off. It wasn't a pacing/fitness issue. It was a stomach issue. I haven't mentioned it but I've been having stomach issues for more than a year. I think it's some combo of the swimming/biking & amount of calories I need to eat each day in training (possibly under-fueling). My stomach hurt so much over the second half of the race. My legs felt great but I was force to stop multiple times from mile 15-23 or so. My last 5k ended up back on pace. Like I said, it wasn't a fitness issue. I broke 10 hours in my debut and finished in 9:51 -- good for a 103 score rating.

2023 Goals: I talked about score ratings a lot throughout this recap. It's a little boring but that's what's on my mind heading into the 2023 season. I scored 104 twice. I'm ~1 point away from the elite rating. It's doable. My swimming/biking should naturally get better the further I get into the sport. At 70.3 Worlds & at IM AZ nobody in front of me had a slower bike split. I repeat: Nobody had a slower bike split. My swimming is approaching passable. It's actually the bike that needs the most work just because of how much time you spend there in a race. I've got 70.3 Worlds in Finland in August. That's a big race but also my only travel race in 2023. I'm racing as many local races as I can. I think local travel and weather conditions I'm used to is my best path to the elite standard. I've got a mix of sprint triathlons & 70.3s -- no olympic distance races. I need to play to my strengths and pick race distances that match that. The blueprint is there for 2023. Elite standard or bust. I know that I'm going after an ambitious goal but it's all I want. I want to be a professional triathlete and compete in pro fields against the best. I'm likely going to get smoked if/when I get there but I'm going to give it my 100% & work to get better each day. I have never been a talented athlete. Fast times never came naturally to me but the effort has always been there. I feel like triathlon rewards that more than pure running ever did. I can reach a level in this sport I couldn't sniff in running. This year is all about pushing my limits. For someone who was overweight as a kid, never broke 20:00 for 5k in high school, had a blood clot at 24, and is 30 now, I never thought I would get to this point in any endurance sport. I don't think I'm supposed to be here. I think plenty of people would have much better results with my training but this is my path. I'm enjoying the journey and am committed to seeing where we can take this. Let's see where we get to by the end of August -- maybe we can get in a pro race or two at the end of the year.

Ironman 70.3 World Champs to a 2:45 at the 125th Boston Marathon (fall edition)

Triathlete takes on marathon or marathoner takes on triathlon?

When I signed up for the 125th Boston Marathon, I had no idea that I would have just come off of the Ironman 70.3 World Championships 3 weeks earlier. I had no idea that I would have gotten into a bike crash 4 weeks before that. I had no idea I would only do 1 run over 20 miles in the months leading up to the race. I also did not know I would feel stronger than ever.

I have considered myself a runner for more than a decade. I absolutely love it. I love being able to see the results of what I put into training. I started off in the sport the same way many of us do -- I wanted to lose some weight & make some friends. I did cross country my junior and senior years of high school. My times were nothing special. I probably should have fallen into the camp of never running another step after that but for some reason wanted to tackle long distances in college. I ran a half marathon. Then I ran another one. Then I tried a marathon. Eventually, I was able to qualify for Boston. I got my half marathon down to 1:15 and my marathon best down to 2:42. I have tried 100 mile weeks with big marathon workouts. I feel like I still have a lot more to give at those distances but running got frustrating at the end of 2019.

That's when I got a stress reaction in my left foot. I ran my 2:42 personal best at the Berlin Marathon two weeks after that diagnosis. I didn't run a step from then until the few days before the race. I missed training and was fighting through a lot of pain. Without some fueling mistakes, I could have run under 2:40 even with the missed training. I was on 2:39 pace through 35km. I recovered from the injury but, when I came back to running, my left achilles was still painful. I didn't realize the achilles was as bad as the foot. It did not heal in the ~8 weeks I took off after Berlin. I was able to run through the achilles pain and ran a 1:15 half marathon in January 2020. We all know what happened next. The world stopped. Races couldn't happen but weren't important anymore. I kept training and kept training hard. I ran myself into the ground. My workouts got worse and worse. My pain increased to a point where I could barely walk. I had to stop running. It wasn't working for the first time in my life. I needed something to fill the void so I bought a bike.

In the summer of 2020, I bought a 2012 used Cervelo P2. I started riding it every day. I used flat pedals and did not know clip pedals were a thing. I rode hard and started to ride longer and longer. That's where the idea of doing triathlons started. I joined a pool and started swimming. I didn't know how to breathe properly but I was having fun and the body was feeling good. I signed up for an Olympic Triathlon and won my age group after less than 2 months of swimming/biking training. I only did some light running in the last 3 weeks before the race and still had the 2nd fastest run split.

While I had fun at that race, I wasn't a triathlete. I was still a runner. I wanted to try a 70.3 so I signed up for one in the summer of 2021. I would train similarly to the Olympic one and ramp up the swimming/biking as I got closer. I was still a runner and had some running goals left to accomplish. I signed up for a spring marathon but got injured in the couple of weeks before the race. The achilles was, yet again, the culprit. I ran the race and it went horribly. I was devastated. I didn't feel like a runner. So I went all in on triathlon. I hammered out big training weeks. The nice thing was that the achilles pain was manageable because I had to balance all 3 disciplines. 70-80+ miles/week was too much for the achilles but 40 miles a week, with a ton of swimming/biking, felt great. I nailed my debut. I finished 15th at Musselman 70.3 in 4:25. I turned in a 1:19-flat half marathon run split, which was the 2nd fastest out of the entire field. I had never felt stronger running. 

I quickly shifted focus to the 70.3 World Champs. I had qualified and I simply had to go. Boston became an afterthought. I signed up for Timberman in between to give myself another shot at the 70.3 distance. In the back of my mind, I wanted to see how close I could get to an elite qualifying time for triathlon. After a strong swim (for me), I had bike trouble and ended up crashing. The pain was awful. It hurt to breathe. I had X-rays done and, luckily, my ribs were just bruised. I couldn't swim or run. The pain was too much so I hammered the bike but missed some valuable training time before Worlds. After that experience, I went into Worlds a lot less confident. My racing showed. I had a sub-par swim. My bike started strong but then it started to rain and hail. The wind picked up and we saw 50mph gusts. I was terrified, after falling just 4 weeks prior. I was still having rib pain. I slowed down to a crawl on the bike. My anxiety was heightened. I wanted nothing more than to get off the bike. I had an average run and finished a lot higher up than I had thought I could. Some people didn't back off during the bad weather. I was on the extreme end of the spectrum and did what I thought I needed to do. After that adventure, I still had the Boston Marathon on the calendar in 3 weeks...

After not running more than 40-50 miles/week in months, I crammed hard for the race. I ran as many miles as I could fit in. I ran a 22 mile long run. I did an 8 mile tempo in the 5:50s. I was as ready as I was going to be. We were greeted on race day with temperatures in the 60s, a dew point close to 60, and a slight headwind. It wasn't horrible but those also aren't PR conditions. I just want one marathon where I stay healthy, get in the training, and catch a 40 degree day on race day. Boston 2021 had other plans. Triathlon has taught me how to pace and how to fuel. I wanted to run 6:00/mile but adjusted to 6:15 based on the forecast. I took an extra gel with me and planned to drink more than I normally would.

When the gun went off, a lot of people naturally hit it hard. Good marathons don't happen with fast opening miles. Good marathons happen with even pacing or negative splits. I started off at 6:20 pace and ran that pace through 10k. After that, I started running 6:10-6:15. I maintained that pace through 16 miles, when the hills started. Although I didn't have the traditional long runs in my legs and tempo runs, my body felt strong. I did have a lot of long rides in my legs and threshold work. I felt in control. I attacked the hills. I ran slightly stronger there than in 2018. I split a 6-flat mile 22 and held it together the best I could. I went from running 6:10s to 6:20s for mile 24 & 25, before getting it back in the last mile. Given my lack of specific marathon training, I would say the marathon went as good as it could have. I positive split by less than 1:00. The Boston course is a bit tougher in the back half imo. I ran 2:45 on a day that wasn't meant for peak marathon running. That is a testament to all of the training I have put in over the last year. I was as strong as ever and had a PR in me on a better weather day. I think my history of running marathons & having several big marathon training blocks helped me run well on Marathon Monday. I also think triathlon training made me strong and taught me a lot about managing fatigue.

I do not think triathlon training has gotten me faster for anything under 10k. I am naturally losing any speed I might have had but triathlon training is getting me really strong from threshold to marathon pace. Now all I want to do is run a marathon on a cool day. I, however, do not know when that will happen. The shift has already begun. I am passing on Boston in 2022 to focus on triathlon. I flirted with the idea of a late season or winter marathon but that is counter-productive to improving at triathlon. It is hard to keep up with swimming/biking when you are trying to run your best. Not being able to do it all is something I am grappling with. Triathlon has had its challenges but it is still new and exciting. I dropped a quality 70.3 debut with less than a year of swimming/biking under my belt. I do not think it is outrageous to go after my elite triathlon card. I have already qualified as an elite duathlete (running/biking) but that doesn't open as many doors. There aren't a ton of pro races available and there aren't great sponsorship dollars available. I don't think I would ever get to the point of being able to quit my day job but racing as an elite for Ironman races is a dream that doesn't seem so far away. I'm a lot closer than I ever was when my only focus was running. I need to swim and bike as much as I can. I run as well as a mid-level professional. If I can close the gap in the other two areas, I think I have what it takes to join the elite ranks. As I write this, it is becoming more clear. I need to go all in on triathlon and give this a shot. If I miss, I'll be content in knowing that I tried. It stings that my running PBs are soft in my eyes when I committed so much time to the sport. I feel like I overtrained a lot and never raced as well as I did in practice. This new chapter is about flipping that script. I'm going to train as hard as ever. Triathlon requires more hours than running. I'm also going to race as hard as ever. I'll still hit some big workouts along the way but I want my racing to do the talking. I believe I can get to the elite side of the sport. That's pretty cool for someone who couldn't fathom breaking 20:00 for 5k a decade ago.

Friar 5k -- 1st win since 2019

Came into today with 4th, 3rd, & 2nd place performances at triathlons through the spring & summer. Just finished the 70.3 World Champs two weeks ago. Focused my training on that event & now the goals have changed. I'm running the Boston Marathon on October 11th. I signed up before I even considered myself a triathlete. Oh how things have changed. There are just three weeks between St. George & Boston. As I write this, we're just nine days out. I haven't done your classic marathon workouts or long runs. I have been training a ton, and hitting a variety of swim/bike/run workouts. I knew my timeline was tight between races. Part of me believes running a good marathon is doable. I made the switch from triathlete to runner and gave a short race a go this morning.

I recovered as well as I could after the World Champs. I took some down time, did some hiking, and got back to the east coast. I ran 22 miles 8 days after crossing the finish line in downtown St. George. I averaged 6:50s and felt exhausted by the time I finished. How would I feel 16 days later?

I then attacked the next week of training. I ran 13+ miles on Tuesday of this past week with a 12k progression at 5:58 pace. I followed that up with a 15 mile medium long run on Wednesday, averaging in the 6:40s. I ran a super easy 10 miles on Thursday and then 7 on Friday with a small amount of fast stuff thrown in. My wife signed us up for the Friar 5k so how could I say no?

I was able to warm up over to campus from my doorstep. I got to the start line a couple minutes before the gun went off & everyone around me was astonished that I thought sub-17 would be good on the day. The race started & I quickly found myself in 20th place (lol). So many people sprinted out. We got about a half mile in, passed Big Tony's, and I had worked my way back up into a share of 1st/2nd. I started run stride for stride with maybe a PC student?

I hope they're not mad at me. My triathlon & marathon legs didn't have another gear. I locked into 5:20s and they seemed content to half step me instead of work with me & run side by side. I did my best to run to the side of them & not be in their slip stream. The course was super hilly but my effort was even. Every time I would pull even with them, they seemed to put in a surge. I thought I was done around mile 2 when they gapped me by a couple seconds but I closed the gap and then moved to the front. I put in a hard effort at 2.5 miles and went for it. I think a lot about want and need. I didn't just want to get a Dub but Needed to. I was hurting but made the choice to hurt even more. My 5th kilometer was 3:04 (sub-5:00 mile pace). I hammered the uphill, got onto the track, and won the dang thing. I put some considerable time on second in the last half mile. My guy deserves a ton of credit. If I had done this race solo, I probably would have run a lot slower. I ran 16:55, which seems pretty good 2 weeks after 70.3 Worlds & 9 days out from Boston. I'm far from peak 5k shape but I've only ever run 16:20 in a race (flat 5k in Chicago in 2019). Today's race climbed 200 feet -- pretty hilly for a 5k. I think the effort isn't too far off of my PB. I closed faster than 3k pace on an uphill stretch of road. I want to run a flat 5k post-Boston & see if we can scare 16:00.

Immediately following the race, I did a 5k tempo in 18:35. I don't know what any of this means but I feel strong rn. I think I can run well in Boston. Depending on the weather, I want to give 2:40 a go. I feel like a broken record. That time feels so important to me. I want, no I need, to break that time barrier. I feel ready even though I've been training like a triathlete. I'm going to enjoy this win and then back off of training and freshen up for Boston. Fingers crossed for a good day. I have some fitness somewhere in these triathlon legs. It's time to see what we're made of over 26.2. 

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.

2021 Goal Setting

Now that it's 2021, I need to publish my annual goal setting piece. I usually stick to putting up some arbitrary times at key distances, but as I started to write down some of my goals for the New Year I noticed that I was writing down goals in other areas of my life. I do not usually publish those things on here, but I also do not usually give those things too much thought. I know that I take running too seriously. I know that my self worth is tied to a lot more than whatever running time I achieve. I know that I've been writing out the same goals for years that remain just out of reach. I am going to practice and preach balance in 2021. Running went really well in the tail end of 2020. I was also running less than I usually do, but with a healthy dose of swimming and biking. I think there is something to learn in this as we plunge into the New Year. I know I need to up the mileage to reach my full potential. To get there, however, I am going to aim for finding better balance in all aspects of life -- work, relationships, and athletics.

Here's what I came up with in order:

- Spend more intentional time with my wife. Have more dinners, watch movies, go on walks, play games, whatever.

- Hang out with your family, hang out with your nephew, hang out with your wife's family.

- Find structure at work.

- Eat healthier (+ less drinking). See if that leads to a few less pounds. Do more core work.

- Learn how to flip turn in the pool.

- Learn how to ride with clip pedals. Learn the flying mount.

- Break 2:40 in the marathon.

- Run a good beer mile.

I wrote all of those out and only one time goal came in at the end. Here are times that I still want to work towards: 

mile- sub-4:40

3k- sub-9:20

5k- sub-16:20, sub-16:00

10k- sub-34:00, as close to 33:00 as you can go

half marathon- sub-1:15:00, as close to 73:xx as you can go

marathon- sub-2:40, reassess in the fall

triathlon- approach 4:00:00 at the half iron, break 2:00 at the Olympic distance

beer mile- sub-7:00, threaten 6:00

trail/ultra- look for debut races & see if anything fits

2020 was a strange year to say the least. My goal setting is usually ambitious. It's almost demoralizing to go back over the last several years and see the same, recycled, time barriers that have eluded me. A sub-16:00 5k and sub-2:40 marathon come immediately to mind. I've been putting those down as goals for years. To some extent, I don't always get the opportunities to go for fast times at each distance. For example, a fast marathon time was pointless last year because I could not run one. I ran a half marathon in January and then did not have a chance to go for another because, you know, COVID. I tried to be realistic with my 2021 time goals. Even though I came up short on time goals over the last few years, the races that I ran in 2018, 2019, and 2020 went well:

2018:

Boston Marathon- 2:44 in trash conditions, top-300 overall

2019:

4:44 road mile, 16:20 5k, 2:42 marathon on a stress reaction after being on 2:39 pace through 23 miles

2020:

January- Austin 3M Half Marathon- 1:15:03 coming off of an injury and short build

((March/April- 34:53 10k & 4:47 road mile))

September- Mt Sunapee Triathlon- 2:02:39, debut, 1st place AG

November- Lil Rhody Runaround 8 Miler- 50:16, 7th OA, 1st place AG

November- 5km TT- 16:23 (3 seconds off of my PB)

2021:

1/1- 8k time trial in 26:55

Running is not easy and it can be frustrating to work so hard at something and feel like you're not getting the results you know that you are capable of. I ran a 1:15 half marathon early in 2020. That shows sub-2:40 marathon potential. My 5k & 8k time trials at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 show this potential as well. The harsh reality in this sport is that it does not owe you a thing. You can do great training and then catch an injury like I did in 2019. You can do great training and come up flat on race day. I do reasonably well because I put in the work week after week. I put in the work because I like training and I have fun doing it. As long as those things continue to hold true, I'm going to keep at it. The times will come. I just have to keep showing up.

Trail Running Debut: Lil Rhody Runaround 8 miler -- 7th overall, 1st age group

In just my third real race of 2020, it seems that I have learned very little in my decade plus at this sport. I didn't have the legs to run the race that I wanted and it was entirely my fault. 

2020 has been a forgetful year to say the least. I kicked things off with a bang with a 1:15:03 half marathon in January. After that, COVID hit, I spent a lot of time injured, and I ventured out into the triathlon world. With ongoing achilles struggles through the spring and with no chance of racing due to COVID, I took A LOT of time off from running. I hit the bike hard and did my best in the pool to become passable for the swim portion of a triathlon. I debuted at a hilly Olympic Triathlon in September and won my age group. Following that performance, I have started a training plan focused on the 5k distance set to conclude with a time trial at the end of the month. I have continued to swim and bike. I have slowly built my running mileage back up. This past weekend I had an 8 mile tempo at marathon pace on the calendar. I decided to sign up for the Lil Rhody Runaround 8 mile trail race since it was going to happen and is a local staple. I have, somehow, never run an actual trail race. I ran on trails all the time in Oregon and was supposed to run a trail 50k but that race got cancelled back in 2017. I have not trained on technical trails since those days.

I put in my biggest week in terms of training volume from 2 weeks to 1 week out from the trail race. I hit 60 miles for the first time in a long time and still incorporated a steady dose of swimming and biking. The week of the race I simply did too much quality to have fresh legs for the race. I did 4 x 1600 on the track. I did a hard swim set of 50 yard repeats. I did a hard bike workout. I ran a 3k in 9:43, after foolishly going out in 5:05 the Thursday before the Sunday race. Looking at my competition for this race, I figured anywhere from 4th-6th might be right. There were a couple of studs up front but my road PRs probably would have had me pegged at 3rd or 4th going into the race. One caveat is that I'm in decent 5k shape right now and got in a good 8k tempo on the roads but I haven't done a workout with 5 miles or more of volume in several months. That's why I had the 8 mile tempo on the schedule to begin with. I needed a strength session and I went to this race to get one in.

The race was super well run, given the complications of COVID. They read our temperatures pre race, masks were to be worn until you started running, waves of 10 runners would go off at 30 second intervals. I was in the first ten to go off and was excited to see how things would play out.

We set off at a relatively calm clip from the gun. I have seen some splits from previous editions of the race and the first two miles or so are decently runnable. Sometimes you see splits in the 5:20s/5:30s, which would have been a stretch for me -- going out at road 10k pace in a trail 8 miler was not in my best interests. We, however, stayed in a big pack for the first mile and went through in 5:50ish. A group of 3 quickly split off and covered mile 2 in the 5:30s. I stayed in a chase pack of 4 and we hit another mile in the 5:50s. Someone from our group (I think the eventual 6th place finisher) took off in between miles 1 & 2 & tried to regain contact with the leaders. So we entered into the more technical part of the race in the classic 3-1-3 formation in the top-7.

At around 3 miles, we started navigating some narrow and slick wooden bridges. I took them really cautiously and a gap started to open up in front of me. I fell behind 5th and 6th by ~ 100m but the gap stayed there for a bit. After another mile or two 5th had gapped 6th and I was still hanging in there by about the same distance. We hit a road segment at maybe 4.5 miles and I could see three or four runners in front of me, with everyone spaced out by small margins. My legs felt heavy but it looked as though I was gaining on 6th on the road stretch. We got back to the trail after maybe just a quarter of a mile and I worked hard over the next 10:00 or so to real 6th back in. I passed them right around 6 miles. That felt good but it was short lived. Someone rolled up on me not even a minute later who had seemingly really fresh legs. I might as well have been standing still when they went by. I tried to go with their surge but, again, didn't have that extra gear.

I stayed in 7th from there to the finish line. The last kilometer or so is a downhill stretch of road leading to the finish line. I thought I was pushing well but I was more/less maintaining. I finished ~ 5 seconds behind the person that passed me but they actually started in the 2nd wave so they had me by 35 seconds and finished 5th. I did close that gap down from maybe 20-30 seconds down to 5 but they already had some time banked. 6th place had me by just 15 seconds. 4th was 45 seconds in front of me, and 3rd had me by a minute.

I really think that I could have challenged anywhere from 3rd through 6th with fresher legs and more aggressive running. I underperformed a bit based on my PRs. I definitely worked hard and left everything out there. I just needed that extra 1% from a taper and I'm running neck and neck with the 4th place runner, trying to close on 3rd, instead of battling it out for 6th/7th. Overall, I'm happy to finally get a trail race under my belt. Some of the folks in front of me were course veterans and it probably helped to know the course a little better than I did. They also all ran great races. Most people ran pretty even efforts and calculated their effort right. I did this to myself. I have a habit of not backing off of training, racing reasonably well, but being disappointed about not running to my potential. It stings a little more with so few racing opportunities to know that you should have done a little bit better but were training through the race. I have another opportunity coming up this weekend at the USATF-NE 5km XC Championships, which is why I didn't back off the past two weeks. The fields look good, albeit not as strong as years past. It looks like there might be 50ish runners toeing the line and my PR will be somewhere in the 15-20 range. I'm going to back off training this week and give myself a fighting chance for a strong result. This is most likely my last race of 2020 minus a 5k time trial coming at the end of the month. There is no reason not to go for a fast time. I haven't run cross country since 2017. I should be due for a PR just from a lack of racing XC.

I am excited to give it another go this weekend!

Debut Triathlon -- 1st Place Age Group!!!

I did not think that I would be able to call myself a triathlete in the fall of 2020, but here we are. I feel more like a triathlete than a runner these days. The transformation certainly was not easy but I found my way into a new sport and made a splash in my first race.

I have been struggling with injuries since the fall of 2019. I ran a 2:42 marathon after not running for ~ 10 days with a stress reaction in my left foot. My left achilles had been bothering me at the time too. I ran a gutsy race and know I could have done so much better if I hadn't been forced to stop training. I then took off a ton of time to let the foot completely heal. I started running again in late November of 2019. The foot was fine but the achilles was still bothering me. I did not expect that but it felt as though I could train through the pain. I was signed up for the Austin 3M Half Marathon in January so I decided to get back to a normal training volume and give it a go.

Austin 3M went exceptionally well. On limited training, I ran 1:15:03. I did not think I would run a 1:00 PR. I figured that I would be 1-2+ minutes slower. I took it easy after the race and then started looking towards the spring. I mapped out shorter distanced races and put a half marathon on the calendar for the fall. Training was going well enough in February and March. I started nailing workouts in the "best workout of my life" territory. I was as fit as ever. That's when COVID entered the scene. I went from being in the shape of my life to having no races on the calendar. My spirits were deflated. I tried to time trial a 3200m on the track and ran 10:24. I did a 10k the following week in 34:53. They weren't A+ performances but allowed me to try to find some structure in my training. I decided that I was going to time trial a half marathon the same day as my original spring goal race. The only problem was that workouts in April were not going as well as they had gone in February and March. I started to run slow. My achilles began to hurt more and more. I convinced myself that it was all mental -- my attitude was sour with the race cancellations and I wasn't as motivated as I had been previously. That could not have been further than the truth. I wanted to run fast. I wanted to PR even if it meant a solo effort. When the achilles pain heightened, I doubled down and tried to train harder. I eventually moved my half marathon time trial in May to a 10k on the roads. I ran 1 mile at an ok clip before rolling through mile 2 slower than half marathon pace. I cut the effort short and turned it into a workout day. Instead of realizing what was going on, I moved away from the longer distances and started to go to the track 3 days a week to train for the 800/mile. I put even more stress on the achilles, sprinting and running faster than I had in years. It got to a point where I could barely walk. The pain was bad and workouts kept getting slower and slower. I was injured and needed to switch something up.

My wife and I moved to the east coast and I stopped running for two weeks. The pain was still there when I tried to run after that time off. I saw an orthopedist who did not want me to get surgery. I met with a physical therapist who said to stop running altogether and strengthen the affected area to maintain the stress I put on it from running. This was early July. I decided to listen to the PT, who had also said that I could cross train by biking or swimming. I bought a bike on July 11th. I purchased a swim membership on July 24th.

I was pretty nervous to start riding on the roads. I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a kid. I bought a Triathlon bike, which made me even more nervous but I had the thought that I might want to do one in the future. My first ride was maybe 5 miles in 30:00. I kept with it and rode every single day from then through August. I built my long ride to 20 and 30 miles. From there I topped 40 and then made 50 & 60 mile rides routine. I was already covering the half iron distance. I was also doing intervals twice a week, hitting well over 20 mph during the hard portions. Swimming was hard from the onset. I was doing tempo work over 2:00/100 yards. Threshold work was done a little bit faster. I was riding 7 days a week and swimming 3. I felt like I was getting really fit on the bike and found an Olympic Triathlon in New Hampshire. I signed up and it brought my training to a whole new level. I watched every YouTube video Global Triathlon Network has ever produced. I Googled how to change gears, how to swim with better form, and how transitions worked. My swim paces creeped into the 1:40s/100 yards for tempo work and into the 1:20s for speed work and 1:30s for threshold work. I felt strong on the bike and passable on the swim. But what about running?

I really did follow the advice of my PT. I gradually started to run a couple of days a week on an Alter-G treadmill with my body weight lowered. I finally got back to some low mileage and light workouts in the last three weeks of training. I peaked at 19 training hours a week. I averaged more than 18 over the last 4 weeks of training. I finished my first century ride. I did some brick workouts where I tried to run fast after some steady riding. I knew the triathlon would not be easy but I felt well prepared and thought that I could do pretty well.

The Race: The morning of September 19th was cool in the New Hampshire mountains. It was in the low-40s when the race started. We were set to do a 1500m swim, a 36km bike, and a 5.1 mile run. The standard Olympic Distance is a 1500m swim, a 40km bike, and a 10k run. With the elevation, however, I am sure that we put in the effort to cover the missing distance. Masks had to be worn except when on the race course. The start was a time trial format, with the fastest swimmers getting into the water first, with competitors taking off every 5 seconds. It felt safe and it felt fun to be at a race again. I never thought my next race after Austin would be a triathlon but my attitude was the same on race day -- leave everything out there and see where you stack up.

Swim: I was seeded 40th for the swim start out of 500 or so competitors. It looks like there were 342 finishers in my race. I sprinted into the water when my name was called and started following the person in front of me. Everyone told me that open water swimming is a different beast than pool swimming. I swam just once in open water in training and that was the day before the race to get a feel for the water and for my wetsuit. I still don't know how to flip turn in the pool so maybe it was naive of me but I thought that I might be about the same or a little faster in open water with a wetsuit on and drafting off of the people around me. I think that I ended up being right. My 1500m tempos in the pool had gotten into the 1:40s. I think that I was in the 1:30s/40s for this swim based on the Garmin data I saw of the people I swam with. I did make a time costing mistake. One person passed me in the first 5:00 of the swim. They didn't seem to be moving too much faster than me so I decided to stick to them and see if I might get dragged out of the water a little faster. I stopped trying to sight, relaxed, and stayed right on them. After another 5:00 or so, I looked up and we had drifted towards the middle of the lake. The current was moving from left to right so we had also been fighting the current when we did not have to. We had to swim back across to get to the buoy before making a left turn to start swimming back to where we had gone off course. Now we were fighting the current, with the added distance and effort. I stayed with this person until the end and my split was 23:39. It ranked 86/342. The 31st fastest swimmer was listed at 21:10. Number 85 did it in 23:36. I wish my detour didn't happen. I expect that I would have been somewhere in the 40s or 50s. 22:30 was good enough for 58th. We also definitely did not swim 1500m. Most Garmin data I saw put the swim in the 1400 yard range. I got in some extra distance but 23:39 for 1400 yards comes out to 1:41/100 yards. This feels right. Had I not drifted off course I would have been in the 1:30s but I was likely in the 1:30s with the distance that I raced. 

T1: I'm raw at triathlon. I never put clip pedals on my bike because I wanted to adjust to riding a bike again before clipping in. The hardest part was running from the point where you couldn't swim anymore but were still in the water. My legs felt like bricks, trying to run out of the water with my wetsuit on. I got into the transition zone and had already unzipped and taken my arms out. I got to my bike rack and tried to stomp out of my suit but had to drop to my knees and use my hands. I then put on socks and changed into my racing flats. My total time is listed as 2:24 (19/342). I lost time here to the eventual winners who were in the 1:00-1:15 range.

Bike: It was cold at the start of the bike and I tried to warm up into the ride. One person moved past me and looked to be hammering and I thought to myself -- I'll let them go, they'll come back to me. But cycling isn't like running. I probably should have chased them since I was feeling good. I sat behind someone who was going slower than I wanted and I passed around 5k or so. The first 8k has some net downhill and I really missed an opportunity to put some time in the bank. You can't really bank time in running but I think you can on the bike. The course included 1500+ feet of elevation gain. It was a single loop so I wasn't going to see that nice downhill stretch again. I got passed by the rider I had passed and another rider on a downhill around the 8k mark. I realized that I wasn't in a low enough gear. I was pedaling a little too easy. Around 10k the two riders were going too slow for my liking so I passed again. I did not understand why they passed only to go slow but it made sense with how I was riding the downhills. I passed on a huge uphill where they couldn't come close to keeping up when I was out of the saddle. I caught up to another rider and we more or less worked together the rest of the way, passing a few more riders. I did the same thing a couple of times where I would pass on the uphills and he would pass on the downhills. It allowed us to share the work a bit even though there was no drafting. It was nice to have someone to chase. I cannot have been riding technically right because I would think that the stronger uphill rider should be able to get well clear of someone not keeping up on the climbs. Whatever the case, the course did its damage and my bike split was only a little faster than 20 mph. I was hoping for something in the 21-23 range. My split was 27th out of 342. It was hard to tell how I was doing overall because I started in 40th. I hadn't gotten passed much on either leg so I figured I might be in the 30-40 range or so heading into the run.

T2: With my shoes already on, I dropped my bike off and ran out of transition. The race gave me 1:05:53 for the bike and 1:18 for T2. I got 1:06:20ish on my watch for the bike so I think :30-40 should come off of T2. I gained probably on most of the field but still was around 3:00 total time versus 2:00-2:30 for a lot of the elite field.

Run: I had a lot of fun on the run. I fueled really well on the bike. I took a Maurten gel right at the start and in the middle of the bike. I sipped 320 drink mix during the ride and finished the entire bottle by the end. I know fueling has hindered me in the marathon so I am trying to consume more calories and drink more liquids in distance races. My legs felt good when I hit the run course and I took a caffeinated Maurten gel right at the start to carry me through. I spent the entire run leg catching people. I knew everyone I caught had started in front of me so I knew I would be moving up in the overall results. The run course featured more than 400 feet of climbing. I did two key brick sessions where I did 3-4 mile tempo runs with faster k repeats after to simulate effort on this course. Most of the climbing comes in the first 5k. I kept my effort even in the opening k's, knowing that I could do some damage once the course got more favorable. I went 3:39-3:43-3:45-4:06-3:45 for the first 5k. The course climbed 100+ feet on that 4:06. I was a little under 19:00 for 5k. The course markers put me ~ 20 seconds faster, as I was clicking off splits after their signage. I ended up with 5 miles & they measured it as 5.1. It was tree covered so they could be right but either way I finished off a really, really good run with some faster splits. The course finally started to work in our favor shortly after 5k. I split a 3:17 k & followed that up with a 3:30 & 3:32. My last 3k on my watch was in 10:19. My run was good enough for 2nd out of everyone. & I did that on just 3 weeks of training! I would have liked another 2k to try to move up a little bit more, although I'm sure everyone else was good with stopping where we did.

I crossed the line in 2:02:39. When I finally saw the results, I had finished in 14th place overall and 1st in my Age Group (25-29). 9 elites and 4 age groupers finished in front of me. I beat one elite athlete, albeit someone 50+ years old but they swam and biked faster than me. The winner did 1:48. I was 14:00 back of them. I think that, if I cleaned up some of the minor mistakes (swimming off course, transitions, clip pedals, etc.), that I could have finished a little higher up. My swim and bike need some work but there was a pretty big gap from the first 3 overall to everyone in front of me. 3rd place was 1:51. 4th place was 1:54-mid. I think that I already have the potential to have finished about there or at least a little higher with some of that aforementioned clean up. I cannot be too disappointed with this one. I write all of this to express optimism. I have only been swimming and biking for two months. I did not run at a normal training volume this entire build up. There is nothing but improvement in my future.

In the days that followed the race, I have already been trying to line up my next triathlon. There probably won't be anything until the spring or summer. This race qualified me for Age Group Nationals. I would like to try to qualify for the World Championships and represent Team USA at a low level in international competition. I would also like to build towards elite status and start to tackle the longer distances. I think my best triathlon distances will be the 70.3 and 140.6. I think that I can ascend to the elite level in this sport and do quite well. And I have absolutely nothing to lose. Things could have gone much much worse when I had my blood clot 4 years ago. I overcame that and am now venturing into a new sport. I made some noise in my triathlon debut and cannot wait to line up for another.

I am thinking that I will do a couple Sprint/Olympic races before Age Group Nationals next August. I might try to put a 70.3 before that or time on a month or two after. I want nothing more than to sign up for a 140.6 but I think I can wait a year or two and build my lifetime bike/swim volume. I also am not done in the running world and still feel like a lot of my PRs are soft for where my fitness has been at various points over the last several years. I looked at marathons and ultra marathons this fall but the right thing to do is recover, build up some running miles again, and maintain a swim/bike base. I'm probably going to run 4-5 times/week, swim 2-3 times/week, and bike 2-3 times/week, from now until the spring when I can *hopefully* target some races. There might be some short distance running races locally over the next few months. I'll hop in some of those if I think I'm fit or ready. That's the plan for now. I want to do it all but I want to be smart about how I approach whatever comes next. I'll build a base during the winter and get ready for my first real triathlon season next spring/summer. I might even be able to throw in a fast half marathon or marathon too. We'll just have to wait & see what things will look like.

Hope everyone out there is finding happiness during these trying times & finding ways to get after it with most races not happening. Keep at it. Things will get better.

Austin 3M Half Marathon Recap: from blood clot to hospital stay to stress reaction to a 1:15:03 PR

The last few years have been anything but easy. I got a blood clot in late 2016. It turns out that I have really bad genes. I’m healthy. I run marathons. It was bizarre when I started to feel chest pain in November of 2016. It took me about a week until I thought I should go get checked out. Had I waited any longer, things could have been much worse. I stayed two full days at the hospital and was put on blood thinners for life. I didn’t know if I would be able to run and race at the same level. I started to get anxiety and panic attacks for the first time. I went back to urgent care and to the ER, telling doctors that I had another clot. I didn’t. I slowly was able to get back into running again. That gave me confidence to get my life back together.

I ended up running a 1:16:40 half marathon PR 6 months after the clot. I ran a 2:46 marathon PR another month after that. I was back. I ran 2:47 at the 2017 NYC Marathon. I ran 2:44 at CIM a month later. I then ran 2:44:51 at the infamous 2018 Boston Marathon. On a day that was not supposed to be good for running due to the rain, wind, and cold temperatures, I knocked it out of the park. I finished in the top-300 and ran pretty dang close to my PR on a trash day for it. I then focused training on the 2018 Chicago Marathon. I ran the race but it went really poorly. A couple weeks later, I found myself in the hospital again. My troponin levels were elevated, which usually indicates something is wrong with the heart, possibly even a heart attack. The doctor kept me for two days and ran a bunch of tests. They said I had viral myocarditis, or a virus that went to the heart. I kept going back to the doctor to retest my troponin levels. They remained elevated in December of 2018 and January 2019. I wasn’t allowed to run. I got a second opinion from a cardiologist in mid-January. She ruled out myocarditis, told me I looked good in the moment after more testing, and cleared me to run. I was confused. Whatever I thought I had, I might not have. I just had to move on not knowing what had happened. I got back into running and ended up with a 1:16:03 PR at the Indy Half Marathon in May of 2019.

I then focused my energies on the Berlin Marathon. I ramped up mileage higher than I had ever gone before. I was hitting triple digits. My workouts and long runs were the best I had ever done. I ran 22 miles with 16 of them at 5:59 pace. I was ready to run 2:36–2:38, until my foot started hurting two weeks out. I started to get a sharp pain on the top of my left foot and went straight to a podiatrist. We had an MRI done. It was a stress reaction. My podiatrist actually didn’t fight me too hard on my desire to still race. She put me in a walking boot. We did laser therapy. I didn’t run for 10 days. I flew to Berlin and did three short shakeout runs. I knew the 10 days off set me back. I knew I was still in pain, but I thought I could finish the race. I was a bit less ambitious than I had originally planned to be. I had wanted to go through halfway in 1:18. I hit halfway in 1:19:30. I was still on that pace through 23 miles. I then had some really bad cramping and got to the finish in 2:42. I wanted so much more but was happy given the circumstances.

I was supposed to run the Austin 3M Half Marathon in 2019 but the hospital stay caused me to defer to 2020. Because of my decision to run Berlin, I couldn’t run and had to wear a walking boot through all of October and into mid-November. I trained for 8 weeks before 3M. It wasn’t enough time for me to get back to pre-Berlin shape but I felt good enough about my progress to give it a go. I hit a few decent workouts- 3 x 2 miles in a 16 mile long run in the 5:50s, 12 x 1km on 1:00 rest at a 3:32 avg., 5 x 1200m at a 4:10 avg. I thought I could probably run 1:16 or 1:17. Something amazing happened in the days before the race. The weather Gods finally came through for me. Temperatures were to be in the low-40s, with low humidity, with the wind slightly helping, on a fast course. I put together a race plan that I thought could help me threaten my 1:16:03 PR. 3M is an, overall, downhill course. There are some climbs in the first two miles and then from 8.7–9.2 and 10.4–10.7. The last two miles are the fastest on the course. I planned to run really conservatively through the first 5k and then open it up from 3–8, navigate the two hills, and then finish strong. That’s exactly what I did.

I lined up towards the front of the race and when the gun went off a lot of people went flying past me. I told myself to let them go and to run my own race. I went through mile 1 in a little over 6:00. Marathon pace. I did an internal check and I felt good. I ran a little harder miles 2–4 and settled into high 5:40s/low 5:50s. I still felt good at 4 so decided to press on. I was slowly reeling in other runners the entire way. I was in 38th place at 5k. I would go on to finish a little bit better. I ran my next 5 miles at approximately 5:40 pace. I maintained my effort through the hills and came through 10 miles in 57:50. I did some quick math and knew that I was looking at a PR with some good miles left to run. Could I possibly break 1:15? I needed to run under 17:10 for the last 5k. Once I got over that last little rise from 10.4–10.7, I started to go for it. I ran a 5:35 mile to get me to 11. I knew I needed to run a little faster to get me out of the mid-1:15s and closer to 1:14:59. I ran a 5:30 mile 12, my fastest of the race. I was hammering for the finish line now. The last mile is super fast but there was still one more little incline that caught me off guard right around 20k. I got to the top of that climb and knew I had lost a little ground. I used the downhill on the other side to try to make some time back up. I made the final right hand turn and could see the finish line about 400m down the road. My watch read 1:13-high. I put my head down and tried to go. For a very forgiving course, the finish is on a slight uphill grade. I needed to run a 30 second last .1. I put my head down and didn’t look at my watch or the clock until I finished. I ran 1:15:03. I finished in 17th place overall.

I told myself that I’m not allowed to be hard on myself after this race. Would I like to have run 4 seconds faster? Of course. But I ran a PR by 1:00 on the nose. I only trained for 8 weeks and went from being out of shape to feeling strong in the last 5k of a half marathon. I executed my race plan to a T. My first 5k was at 5:58 pace. I averaged 5:43 pace for the entire thing, which means I only got faster and faster. My 5k splits went 18:31, 17:48, 17:43, 21:01 (15k to the finish, 17:14 5k pace). I’m really proud of the way that I ran. I ran the way that I wanted to. My first mile was over 6:00. My last mile was 5:30. This race is a testament to the work I put into training last fall. I knew I was capable of something like this but finally caught the right day for it. I wish I had had just a few more weeks to have gained more fitness prior to raceday. I think I could have possibly threatened 74:00 with just another couple weeks of preparation. But that was not the hand that I was dealt. With where I was 8 weeks ago and with my pre-race goals, I really delivered here. I would grade this an Exceeds Expectations for sure.

I ran my first half marathon in 2011 in 1:45. I’ve knocked 30 minutes off of that in the last 9 years. It has been some sort of ride for sure.

Next up is… nothing for a while. I’m going to really focus on recovery and then start training for some spring races. I need to navigate Chicago winter, which won’t be easy. My first spring race will be the Shamrock Shuffle 8k at the end of March. This is a big race in town. I would like to be fit for it and try to run south of 26:30. I then have the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and BAA 5k, before heading back to the Indy Half Marathon. I think 2020 is going to be my year. I’m still riding the high of 3M but am continuing to dream big. I have 15 weeks until Indy. My fitness is good now, but I have plenty of time to build upon it. I really think I can break 74:00. I am even thinking that 73:00 might be in play depending on how training goes. I would love to give 72:59 a go in early May. I’m not going to set any limits on myself and will just try to get better each day. Today, I’m a 1:15:03 guy. I’m really proud of that but I am also going to prepare to knock some serious time off of that come May.

Onwards!

#3MHalfMarathon #DownhillToDowntown #StopTheClot

2020 Goal Setting

Time:

5k- sub-16:30, sub-16:15, sub-16:00

10k- sub-35:00, sub-34:30, sub-34:00

half- sub-1:16:40, sub-1:16:00, sub-1:15

marathon- sub-2:40

Goal Races:

5/11 US 25k Champs

9/29 Berlin Marathon

Fun:

Run a beer mile

Run a cross country race

Run an ultra marathon

Complete a triathlon (any distance)

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This is what I put up at the start of 2019. I came pretty close to my goals. I ran 16:20 for 5k, didn't run a 10k, ran 1:16:03 for the half (chose Indy 1/2 over the 25k Champs), and ran a 2:42 marathon with a pretty close to broken bone in my foot after not running for basically two weeks before the race. I forgot to have fun apparently. I did not cross off any of those goals but, to be honest, going for the bottom two at least would have meant very different training.

Here are my 2020 goals:

Mile- sub-Kipchoge's MP (4:33.8)
5k- sub-16:00
10k- sub-34:00, as close to 33 as you can go
half-  sub-1:15, sub-1:14, as low as you can go
marathon- sub-2:40, as close to 2:35 as you can go

Goal Races:

Winter: Austin 3M Half Marathon
Spring: Shamrock 8k, Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, BAA 5k, Indy Mini 1/2
Summer: 1 5k (tbd), 1 10k (tbd), Fulton St. Mile
Fall: Run Mag Mile 10k, Chicago Marathon
Winter: Club XC

Not a ton more to say. I'm usually too ambitious with goals. I've been recycling a lot of the same goal times for years. I will say that this year should be a bit different. I always say sub-16 but then train for marathons and wonder why I can't run fast over 5k. I popped a 16:20 off of half marathon training and then a month of mile/5k work. With focus on the shorter stuff this year, I think I might be able to finally give 16:00 a go. I'll have a really good opportunity at the BAA 5k. If I don't get it there, I'll take another crack at it in June.

I'm also going to try to focus less on time to better focus on time. I coached college cross country last fall and I learned from the head coach that time isn't everything. We divided races into four parts as a team: getting off the line, finding your rhythm, maintaining, and finishing strong. There is an optional 5th part we dubbed "catching bodies" to explain your finishing kick. I used this framework in Berlin after I thought all hope was lost and ended up putting a decent race together on the day. By focusing on my rhythm and maintaining in the second half of the race, I got to 23 miles at sub-2:40 pace. I came really close to that barrier when I hadn't run in two weeks and was fighting through an injury. I hope to get fit this spring, relax more in races, and let the times come naturally. With that said, I am going to train for the above times and try to improve as much as I can in 2020.

US Olympic Marathon Trials Preview

Most casual running fans, or fans of the Olympics, are probably vaguely aware that each country gets to send three athletes to compete for a chance at world glory in a given event. The Olympic Marathon can be unpredictable and, with it being run in the dead of summer, gives almost anyone who lines up a chance to compete for a medal. For whatever reason, World Athletics (T&F’s governing body) is reducing the field size for the 2020 Olympic Marathon to about 80 runners for both the men and women. For reference, that basically cuts the field in half from previous years. There are some at the top of the sport that think making events like this more exclusive will somehow grow the sport. We have traditionally selected Team USA in a pretty straightforward way. Line up anybody who has run a really fast marathon at the same race. Finish in the top-3 and you get to represent the US in the Olympic Marathon. Until a couple months ago, World Athletics had said individual governing bodies could send who they wanted to for the marathon but that those athletes needed to have run under their Olympic Marathon standard. World Athletics set their marathon standard at 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women. A top-10 finish at a World Marathon Major (think of the biggest marathons out there like Boston and New York) or a top-5 at an IAAF Gold Label Race (pretty well established races) would also count. With this wrinkle, you could theoretically have finished in the top-3 at the US Olympic Marathon Trials and would not go to the Olympics if you did not have the standard. Maybe the 8th place finisher gets to go to the Olympics because runners placing in front of them did not have the standard but they do. Confused yet? We did, however, receive some good news on this front. The United States was given an exemption and will get to send its top-3 finishers to the Olympic games. The United States Olympic Marathon Trials is now considered a Gold Label race which means the top-3 will get to go to the Olympics and that the next two finishers can serve as alternates if anybody gets hurt prior to the games. Hundreds will get to line up at the US Olympic Trials. The beauty of our sport is that everyone has a chance to finish in the top-3 and become an Olympian. Let’s take a closer look at some of the main contenders.

The Women:

If you asked me, even just one year ago, I would have said that Shalane Flanagan, Amy Cragg, and Des Linden, looked poised to reclaim their spots on the 2016 Olympic Team. You might remember Cragg and Flanagan, Bowerman Track Club teammates, working together at the 2016 Trials in the LA heat. Cragg was handling the conditions better and was encouraging Flanagan to stay with her in the later stages of the race but eventually had to push forward and took the win. Des finished second, while Flanagan held onto third before collapsing at the finish. Flanagan, Cragg, and Des, all went on to finish in the top-10 at the Rio Games. Shalane went on to win the NYC Marathon in 2017 and placed 3rd there in 2018. Since then, however, she had surgery on her knee and announced her retirement from the sport. Cragg went on to take 3rd at the 2017 World Championships and then ran 2:21 at the Tokyo Marathon in 2018. Amy has been battling injuries since those terrific performances, having only managed a 1:13 half marathon and 34 minute 10k in recent months. Des, well Des, won the 2018 Boston Marathon in the rain, cold, and wind. She most recently finished as the top American at the NYC Marathon, placing 6th overall. She ran fearlessly in the race and briefly had the lead right before the halfway mark. Des has been America’s most consistent marathoner inthe last decade but seems to be leaving things up in the air as to if she wants to chase another Olympic berth. At this point, we do not know if Des will be on the start line in February. All three of the aforementioned women could have been seen as locks for the 2020 team at different times over the last couple of years. Could we see a 2020 Olympic Team without any of them on it?

One of the reasons that marathon team spots are not safe is that talent in female marathoning in the United States is getting better and better. There are more than 300 individual female Trials qualifiers. I’ll say it differently — more than 300 women have run under 2:45:00 (6:17 pace) for the 26.2 mile distance since September 1, 2017. There are more than a dozen women you can make a serious case for to finish in the top-3. Jordan Hasay burst onto the marathon scene with a 2:23 debut at Boston in 2017. She then dropped a 2:20-high at Chicago the following October. She battled some injuries but got back on track with a 3rd place finish at Boston last April. After talking about going for the American Record (Deena Kastor’s 2:19:36- 5:19/mile) at Chicago this fall, she made it only 5km before pulling off the course. Indications from her camp is that recovery is going well. Hasay is now being advised by Paula Radcliffe after the disbandment of the Nike Oregon Project. You have to wonder how this affects Jordan and her chances of making this team. Molly Huddle is perhaps the most decorated (multiple national titles & national records) female runner in American history. Based on her prowess at distances up to the half marathon, you would expect her marathon PR to be faster than the 2:26 she ran at London this past spring. London was her first attempt at a marathon on a truly fast course. There is not a ton of money in pro running. For a US marathoner, the bigger payday is going to come at domestic races like New York, Chicago and Boston, versus a faster European race. Huddle debuted in the marathon in NYC in 2:28 and ran 2:26 there last fall to finish just behind Shalane Flanagan. I would never count Molly out. On paper, she has faster PRs than everyone lining up at the Trials at half marathon and under. She had a strong spring and summer, returning to the 10k. Molly’s training partner, Emily Sisson, might be the one to stop Huddle from making this team. Sisson ran 2:23 to finish ahead of Huddle in London and beat Huddle at the Stanford 10k in April, where both women ran under-31:00. Huddle got the better of Sisson at the US 10k Champs and at Worlds. There are several more women knocking, if not trying to tear down the door to get on this team. We’re talking about the likes of Sara Hall, Sally Kipyego, Kellyn Taylor, Aliphine Tuliamuk, Nell Rojas, Allie Kieffer, Emma Bates, Roberta Groner, Stephanie Bruce, Sam Bluske, Lindsay Flanagan, Sam Roecker, Michele Lee, and Carrie Dimoff. All of these women have run under 2:31. From this list, I certainly would not count out anyone from NAZ Elite. Taylor has shown that she is fearless at the marathon, and at any distance for that matter. She almost beat Sisson at the US 10k Champs and then almost caught Des in NYC. Bruce grabbed a new PR in Chicago and can certainly hang with the top women. Tuliamuk popped a 2:26 in Rotterdam last spring and was the third American in NYC. Emma Bates and Sara Hall have been trading blows on the US road racing scene all year and both ran really strong fall races. Bates was 4th at Chicago in 2:25, while Hall ran 2:22 in Berlin. Hall tried to run NYC just a few weeks later but dropped out. 2:25 or so is probably the kind of fitness you are going to need to be in coming into this race to make the team. Times will likely be slower than that on the hilly Atlanta course but you will need to be in better shape to compete here. The course design may give good hill runners and runners who do their homework an advantage. I am very interested to see if team spots go to household names in US Women’s Marathoning or if we will see any first time Olympians emerge.

The men:

The top-4 entrants, Galen Rupp, Leonard Korir, Scott Fauble, and Jared Ward, are sitting atop US men’s marathoning. They are the only men to go under the 2:10 barrier during the qualifying time frame. Sub-2:10 is not what is used to be when World Marathon Majors are often won in 2:05 or better, or by someone who has that kind of potential in a more tactical race. American men are often criticized for running in the 2:10–2:14 range. I will say a few things on this. The first is that only 14 American men have run under 2:10 on record eligible courses according to data from World Athletics. That number does not include Fauble or Ward who both ran 2:09 at Boston this past spring. If you allow all courses to count, this number jumps up to 21. What I am trying to say is that very few American men have run that kind of a time. Sub-2:10 is still a very big deal. Yes, runners like Eluid Kipchoge are raising the bar in global marathoning, but a sub-2:10 American is still going to be very competitive at a World Marathon Major and at the Olympics. One other reason for a lack of sub-2:10 men is the decision for many US runners to run US majors. I mentioned this while talking about the women. The US Majors can be very unpredictable. While a course like Boston is deemed to be too downhill to be record eligible, you almost never catch a perfect weather day like in 2011 when Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:03 and Ryan Hall ran 2:04. It seems like it is more likely that you catch a hot/cold/windy day instead. There is still plenty of uphill in the second half of the race to keep things honest. New York City usually gets decent weather but can be a tough course. You have hills. You have bridges. You have an uphill finish in Central Park. The course record at New York is just a shade over 2:05 for men. That should tell you something about its difficulty. Chicago fits the flat and fast mold but, in early October, you know there is a good chance it will be too hot and/or humid for fast times. All of this is to say that I think American men are right where they should be. At the 2016 Olympics, Rupp took bronze and Ward took 6th. Ward had “only” a 2:12 personal best heading into the race. He beat a lot of people who had faster PRs. So instead of complaining about our runners and the financial choices they might need to make to stay home and run US majors, I’m going to highlight a number of guys who can threaten for a top-3 spot if any of the Big 4 fall off.

There are currently 63 men who have run sub-2:15 in the qualifying window. As previously mentioned, the hilly configuration of the Atlanta course might allow for more runners to stay in the race longer or runners who are good hill runners to stick around longer. Nobody is just going to go out and time trial a fast time on their own. There are a lot of guys to like in the sub-2:13 range. Remember, Ward was a 2:14 guy before the 2016 Trials. He ran 2:12 in the heat to make the team and then ran 2:11 in Rio. I can see anybody I mention below following a similar trajectory. The American men went HAM in Chicago this year! We saw a slew of guys run 2:10–2:11: Jacob Riley, Jerrell Mock, Parker Stinson, Andrew Bumbalough, Matthew McDonald, Scott Smith, Brendan Gregg, Noah Droddy, Wilkerson Given, Diego Estrada. Chicago finally had good weather and look what happened! Stinson put together a strong race after setting the US 25k record this past May. Droddy is the people’s champ and will have his fair share of fans lining the Atlanta streets. He is a Division 3 legend, has great hair, seems to really be working hard, and is one of the more relatable runners out there. Your guess is as good as mine as to who beats who from this list in Atlanta. I think any of these guys could wind up in the top-3. Other contenders include Elkaneh Kibet, who ran 2:11 in Chicago in 2015. A string of somewhat disappointing results followed but he regained form with another 2:11 in Boston this past spring. Tim Ritchie appears to be on the lower end of the mileage spectrum for elite runners, having been quoted as saying he trained in the 80–85 mile range before CIM in 2017. What happened at that race? He ran 2:11 and won after not leading for much of the race due to heroic front running by Matt Llano (who got his 2:11 in Berlin this year). After CIM, Ritchie fell victim at Boston, 2018, as many others did. He bounced back with a 15th place finish at NYC last fall but finished behind guys he needs to beat in order to make this team. I’m still not counting him out. His sweet spot seems to be the half marathon. He dropped a 1:01:23 in 2015 and has put together solid performances at the US 20k Champs, Half Marathon Champs, and 25k Champs, over the years.

Let’s talk about the master’s division: Abdi Abdirahman vs Bernard Lagat. You knew this was coming. Lagat is 44 years old and does not seem to be aging. He struggled in his first marathon attempt, but ran 2:12 this summer. In 2016, he won the Olympic Trials 5k at age 41, outkicking the likes of Hassan Mead, Paul Chelimo, Eric Jenkins, Ben True, and Ryan Hill. Abdi knocked out a 2:11 in NYC this year!!! You have got to be kidding me! Either man could run 2:12 and make this team or finish in 2:20 after going out with the leaders. Either way, they’re going to be in the thick of things and that is something I am definitely here for. Who do you like to claim the top Master’s spot?

Conner McMillan, Andrew Colley, Augustus Maiyo, and Tyler McCandless, are all 2:12 performers. McMillan ran his 2:12 most recently in NYC. That’s pretty dang impressive to say the least. Maiyo and Colley ran their 2:12s at the Pan American Games and at the Grandma’s marathon, respectively. McCandless’ 2:12 comes from CIM back in 2017. Brogan Austin won CIM in 2:12 in 2018 but has been struggling with some recent injuries. I refuse to count out veteran guys like Ryan Vail, Chris Derrick, Shadrack Biwott, and Kiya Dandena. They have all shown the kind of fitness or potential at some point in the past to be considered a contender for this team. A few more names that I just want to throw out in no particular order are Haron Lagat, Brian Shrader, Craig Leon, Martin Hehir, Fernando Cabada, and Tyler Pennel. Please do not @ me if I passed over someone. The point is, I think US marathoning is very strong right now and that so many people have the opportunity to make some noise at the Trials. You might remember Pennel from the huge move he made at the 2016 Trials to break up the lead pack. He wound up a hard fought 5th place. He was the 4th American in NYC in November. One more name to get people talking: Ritz. Ritz ran a somewhat under the radar 1:01 at the RNR New Orleans Half Marathon this past spring. Not many people I’ve written about can run that fast. Yes, he hasn’t put together a great or even a good marathon in a hot minute but it would be foolish to count someone with his talent out. He ran a 1:04 half marathon in Chicago in late July. Nobody sets a half marathon PR in Chicago in July — it was hot and humid for the race and it was supposed to be a Chicago tune-up. We, unfortunately, did not get to see him toe the line in Chicago. He was a DNS. Plenty of people made a hard move from more of a dark horse to being a legitimate contender after the fall marathon season. Now let’s see who can back it up.

One more thing to note is that Galen Rupp shook things up at the 2016 Trials by debuting in the marathon and winning the race. You can qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials without running a marathon, but by running under the half marathon standard. There are some interesting names who have the half marathon standard. This is purely speculative, but anybody mentioned below should be watched closely if they choose to run. Paul Chelimo and Stanley Kebenei are the first two that jump out right towards the top of the half marathon list. Paul Chelimo is likely all in on the 5k/10k Olympic double but he does have the half standard. He makes any race he is in objectively more entertaining. I am 100% here for him treating the Marathon Trials like a fartlek workout and playing games with the entire field. It won’t happen but it would be amazing. Kebenei is a shade under 1:02 in the half which makes him a contender is he chooses to run. Reed Fischer has run 1:02-low but did not get to run his debut marathon in Chicago this fall after suffering an injury. Ben True has been a staple on the 5k and 10k racing circuit for years. He won his debut half marathon in NYC in 2018. He, however, finished 10th there last year. Last but not least, I will stoke the fire once more. Jim Walmsley, perhaps more of a hot button topic in the running world than a political conversation at the Thanksgiving dinner table, ran 1:04 on the nose to secure the half marathon standard. He is probably running over a mountain as you read this. Again, the course in Atlanta favors the strong. Jim is certainly that. I’m not saying he will finish top-3, or even top-10 or top-25, but you cannot tell me you aren’t a little curious where one of the best ultra marathoner/trail runners stacks up in a race like this with a field like this. Wherever you fall on this or on anything else that I’ve said, just try to relax and have some fun. I’m looking forward to the races and hope you are too!

***BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SHOES***

If you’ve made it this far, Strava kudos to you. I purposefully wanted to have a conversation about how good these runners are without focusing on shoes. I’ll say a couple of things on the Vaporfly’s. The first is that Nike is very good at marketing. Everybody is rocking the Vaporfly’s but nobody can say, with certainty, how much they really help. They probably do help but Nike loves how much their shoes are being talked about. Nike exists to make money. The shoes are good but we still don’t have any sort of ruling from World Athletics. There are some studies out there, but not enough. Molly Huddle expressed uncertainty about the shoes. My hope is that other companies have their version of the Vaporfly’s (which first debuted in May of 2017) ready to go or let their athletes wear the Vaporfly’s just so we can avoid the what-if games (which could be valid, I just don’t know). I don’t know if the non-Vaporfly 4th place runner that finished 30 seconds back of a Vaporfly runner got snubbed. This field is super talented and super deep. I want the runners to decide things. I’m in for anything that allows that to happen.