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!