2012 Boulder Peak 5150 Report

Last Sunday was my second attempt at a 5150 Olympic Distance triathlon. It was the Boulder Peak Triathlon, one of the hardest Olympic distance triathlons in the nation, and I have heard the hardest Olympic bike course. I was stoked going into the race, as I had a great time in Kansas City back in May for the brother race. My swim, bike, and running have been coming along well, and I was eager to test out my fitness against a much more quality field in the 20-24 age group. I have already qualified for my Elite Amateur status, and HyVee as well, but have decided to probably spend the whole year as an age group in order to gain experience. And as the race played out, there is still much running progression to be made.
The race started bright and early, at 7am, so that meant a 4:40am wake up. Thank you coach Grant Holicky for having 5am swim practices. This made the wake up much more tolerable. I was up, already packed, and fueled up the body with my typical oats, almond butter, banana, cinnamon, and a mixture of berries. Add a couple cups of coffee, and it was off to the Boulder Reservoir. Upon arriving, I got the body marked and transition set up in a decent spot. Close to T1 entrance from the swim, and also T2 exit for the run. A quick run warm-up and it was off to the water for the start. My wave didn't go off until 7:30, so it was cool to watch the Elites take off. Soon enough, however, it was go time!

I lined up in the front, and waited for the air-horn. It came, and off we went. It was much more manageable during the 1 mile swim. There was not near the washing machine effect that happened during the sprint, but it is also twice as long. I settled into a group of about 5 guys and we took off. Soon enough, we caught up to 2 or 3 different waves of swimmers. Running over other people in the water isn't very nice, I wouldn't like it, but there isn't much to do. So I am sorry for the people who were pummeled in the head, body by my hands and feet, it wasn't personal. Heading into the finish, I came out of the water with another guy, and heard we were 3rd and 4th out of the water, in a time of 20:41 (1:23 100/yd), and 24th overall swimmer. Not too shabby!

Made it to T1, but had some trouble getting the wetsuit off, which probably cost a good 20seconds. I was off and onto the bike. This course is about 5miles of uphill right off the bat, with the first 3.5miles or so at a 2% gradient, and then a 1.5 mile section of anywhere from 8-12% with most at around 10%. I posted a YouTube video in the last post of the Old Stage Road climb. It is an awesome climb so close to home, but man, it never gets any easier. I made my way up the climb, and didn't get passed by a single rider, and picked off probably a good 20 or so (None from my age group). Heading down the decent, the roads were a bit slick, and the race organization strictly enforces a 35mph speed limit on the upper portions of the decent. A police offer with a radar gun, and pad and paper sat about half-way down. I was close to probably getting popped and kicked out of the race, but gladly got slowed down enough to where I should have been. It is a good safety measure, as an athlete has crashed and died before, but it should just be mentioned in the race waiver about the high speeds. Don't hold back speed on a decent. After the steep part of the decent, it is a ripping 30mph section of slightly downhill for a good 10-15miles. After this, a small gradual 1% slog back to the reservoir greets riders who may have gone a bit too hard. Still feeling good, by the time I had reached T2, I had ridden myself into first place in the age group, but with 3-4 guys within 1 minute, at an average speed of 23.1mph which ended up being 2nd in my age group, and 49th overall. A much faster T2, had me out on the run course in 2nd place.

I am not a fast runner, and over the course of the run, I was passed by 6 more guys in my age group. I still passed more people on the run, then I was passed by, but unfortunately, 90% of the guys who passed me were in my age group. It was rough running my first 10k up at altitude, but kept going the best I could and finished with a time of 43:49 (7:05min/mile) average. Pretty bummed about that time, as I ran 6:50's in Kansas City, but that was a good 4500ft lower in altitude. And for every 1000ft of altitude, you lose 2-3% of your threshold ability. So when you do the math, it's not too bad, and would have been faster had I been in KC again (roughly around 6:40's). That bodes well for HyVee!

Strava Files:
Swim
Bike
Run

It was great seeing a lot of friends and training partners at the end, and one of the actually won the whole event (Cam Dye). I hope to follow in his footsteps someday, as he was a collegiate swimmer and also a great cyclist. But it took him about 6 years of development to run where he is now! Gives me something to shoot for.

So now, it's back to the salt mines of training getting ready for HyVee in September. I am stoked to have my grandparents and aunt/uncle out here this weekend. We are going to catch a Rockies game and hang out and about! Then, I believe the next race will be the HITS Series later this month. I was scheduled to come home in August for the Peregrine Charities race, but due to unfortunate happenings recently, the race was cancelled. Looks like the next time I'll be home is over Labor Day for HyVee and my birthday!

Also, pretty cool lately as I had my first coaching article published by Velonews!!! Check it out.

Boulder Sprint Triathlon Recap

Sunday was my first triathlon while being up at altitude, and I was a bit nervous to say the least. It is only a sprint triathlon, but I didn't know how my body would cope being expose to above threshold activity for the duration of the race. But I was also excited, as it was my 2nd race of the year. Boulder doesn't have a lack of competitiveness if you didn't know that already!

Up at 5am, coffee, standard oatmeal, nut butter, banana and fruit breakie and I was off to the Boulder Reservoir for the race. The nice thing about a race 3 miles from home, was I rode there, and didn't have to worry with traffic. Thanks to coach Grant Holicky, I was set up with a sweet rig for the race, and ready to go fast.

Got to the race site by 6:10 or so, and got body marked, and transition set up. With the bike ride over there, I opted out of a bike warmup and proceeded to get some time in the legs with a quick run before heading back to transition to finalize everything. All locked and loaded and I was ready to rumble, grabbing my wetsuit and heading off to the swim start. Race started at 7:30 and I was in the 4th wave (29U) group. Had a bit of a swim warm-up while the first 3 waves were off.

RACE TIME! I was able to get into the water with the first line of guys, and readied myself for the thrashing that was about to begin. Announcments were made, and the gun went off. I started my 310XT and began to sprint off the line, just missing out on this picture, I am probably just a bit to the left. I believe "Washing machine" is the correct term, as you are being thrashed/kicked/punched/grabbed/violated in every way possible. I need to work on this, because I was soon behind the first few waves of guys.

I was soon able to get into my own rhythm and settle in. But it wasn't long before we started mauling the wave ahead of us. Running over bodies left and right, before finally heading out of the 750m swim. BAD NEWS STRIKES!!! I went to touch the lap button on my Garmin 310XT and realized it was no longer on my wrist....OOPS. It now lies in a watery tomb at the bottom of the Boulder Reservoir.  I heard reviews of this happening quite a bit, and will acknowledge the fact that the strap isn't the best. Swim time of 10:53, 8th in my AG and 35th overall...Not too bad, but needs improvement.

Into T1, I grabbed my helmet, race belt, sunglasses, and was off on to the 16.5mile bike. The bike course is second nature, but also very deceptive as the first 4miles are on about a 2% gradient. I tried to settle into a nice constant pedal stroke and started picking off riders 1 by 1. By the time 5miles came around it was time to rip it. For the next 8-9miles, it is pretty much downhill by 2%, and I was able to get it up to speed and tear down the rode, again, just blowing by riders. Now, in doing this, it makes you seem like your going 55mph, but you really aren't. The last 2 miles are that gradual 1.5-2% uphill, but I was happy to pick off all but 3 of the guys in my group ahead of me. Ended up with a time of 41:22 and a 25.0mph avg. Ended up 3rd in my age group and 18th overall for the bike!!!!

Out of T2, it was time for the part false flat/descent 5k run. This area of the res is extremely open and exposed and the sun didn't let up, even at 8:30am in the morning. It was HOT to say the least, and I settled into an unknown rhythm without my Garmin on the wrist. I feel as though I went out a bit hot int he first mile, and lost 1 position to the top runner in the field (again, from my AG). At the turn around, I saw 2 other guys in my age group, and sure enough, both would catch me by the finish line. DOH! But I can't complain to much, I have only been running since January, and I am way ahead of where I ever thought I would be. Finished in a time of 20:53 (6:45min/mile avg). Faster than I have ever run a 5k before.

So overall, I finished 7th in my age group, but 24th overall/700 competitors with a finish time of 1:16:17. A very good position, and just shows the depth of my age group in the race (20-24). 7 of us were in the top 24. The winner of the whole race was Drew Scott (22years old), son of the infamous Dave Scott (7x Ironman World Champ). A couple CU Boulder National Champion members also finished ahead of me. There is no regret to my placing, I did everything I could, and know with more run training, that time will keep coming down! I can't wait for the Olympic Distance in a few weeks, and will hopefully crush some souls with a longer swim, and longer bike heading over the dreaded Old Stage Climb! Coach says I am very consistent over all three right now, which is better for long distance stuff (as what happened in KC). Going to be a fun race for sure! Check out the video of last years racers heading up Old Stage.



Here are a link to the results if you're interested. I'll re-post pictures if there are any once posted on the website.

Race Week Again

Time to get ready for another race this upcoming weekend, #2 of the season, in the form of the Boulder 5430 Sprint Triathlon this weekend at the Boulder Reservoir. Looking forward to this, as I'll be able to wake up in my own bed, fix my own breakfast and head to the Res which is about 10min away on my bike, no car to prevent the need to park a car. The race is a 550yd swim, 17mile bike, and 3.1mile run, all on roads/areas that I know like the back of my hand. Looking for another top 3, and if possible, going for the Big W this weekend. The training is there, now I just have to use it.

Training has picked up again the past couple weeks from the KC 5150, and my legs are really starting to feel it. Haven't had the greatest swim, bike, or run workouts in the past week, but also nothing that would really cause an alarm. The one thing as a triathlete you have to cope with, is that for the most part, you will always have some residual fatigue in the legs.

Last week was 20.5hours
     Swim = 12.53miles
     Run = 28.15
     Bike = 162

Work has been great as of late, many of my athletes are hitting some great form and have produced some good results and quite a few W's! Always makes you feel good to see that! Actually even have an athlete from the Iowa City area who took the W in his category at the Barry Carter ICCC TT on Sunday. So cool that I can help him with routes/races/ back in the "homeland"

Summer has started early here in Boulder, with all of last week near the 90's and even above 100 on Saturday. With this, I have learned fires can start just like that. You may have heard about the High Park fire that has recently started West of Ft. Collins. It is 0% contained, and is spreading faster than a flash flood. Horrible news for the residents, wildlife and scenery. We really need some rain to help out that brave men and women fighting to save all they can. It's good to see all the Sheriff's out on the weekend making sure that "fire bans" are respected.

Hoping for a good race this weekend! Race report to come after

Back to Work

Not much has been going on since Kansas City a couple weekends ago. Took a few days to recover. Never thought at 2 hour triathlon could hurt so bad, but I guess threshold of each sport will take that out of you! Took a few days to feel alright doing any sort of high intensity work, but with good coaches, they know that, and take it easy. So I was out of track practice the following Tuesday in order to recover.

This weekend the hours start to come back, as I build back up towards the Boulder Sprint in mid-June. Weather has been amazing out here, in the 70-80's everyday with a minimal amount of wind. Good ol sunshine and a perfect tan...Well almost perfect. I have 3 distinct tan lines on my legs if anyone cares. Drag suit, run shorts, and bike shorts. So my legs have a good 4 different shades of skin. Beats the pasty whiteness most of you know me to have outside of normal cycling tan while back home in Iowa.

Anyway....moving on. It was a great last weekend for FasCat coaching on Sunday as one of our athletes (Timmy Duggan) rode his way with pure heart and some amazing power-weight ratio to win the United States Professional Cycling Championships in Greenville, SC!  Timmy has overcome some amazing obstacles in his career including a terrible crash at the Tour of Georgia where he suffered broken bones and a serious head injury. He has massive determination and obviously from his performance, true heart and passion for this sport. He has been in a couple times this week to download power files, chat, and already did some more high intensity intervals on the O2 gas. No rest for the weary! Best of luck as he heads back to Europe in his new national champions jersey and hopefully he get's a spot on a grand tour team this summer!!!



Here are a couple pictures and articles from our analysis of his performance. Pretty amazing to average over 6.0watts/kg. If you are aspiring to be a professional cyclist, you better be able to hit this mark.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/05/news/analyzing-timmy-duggans-national-championship-power_221907    <----- Power File Analysis!!!! Check this out!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/05/news/duggan-wins-u-s-road-title-with-solo-attack_221670

Until next time, train hard and remember "impossible" is NOT a word.

Kansas City 5150 Race Report

Writing this blog from my spot on the couch wearing the NormaTec Space Boots for some serious recovery today. Woke up and felt like my body had been run over by an 18-wheeler! I guess racing for 2 hours and then driving 10hours isn't the best for recovery ehh?  But here comes the lengthy race report of my first Olympic distance triathlon that took place in Kansas City this last weekend.

Loaded up and left after a quick swim Friday with Rebecca Much and Kristen Peterson. We pointed Kristen's boyfriend Nick Legan's white Subaru to I-70 and the 8+ hour drive to Kansas City. We became very good friends with I-70 and Kansas!!! A total of 17 hours of driving and probably 20hours or so in 3 days! I can say everyone's description of Kansas were correct! None-the-less, we arrive in Kansas City on Friday evening and got ready for a fun weekend! We located the Super8 hotel in Lee's Summit, and were impressed to see it was fairly new and in decent shape. The race wasn't til Sunday, and so it was great having a whole day to relax, do some pre-race shakedown workouts and then head to packet pick-up.

Saturday, we slept in a bit, and then got ready for the race with a little shakedown run/ride and then went to Panera for a good breakfast. After that, it was back to the hotel for some rest/napping, followed by a trip to Longview Lake for packet pickup, course recon and Kristen's pro race meeting. The nerves were settling in fast, and I was getting both anxious and scared for the race! After the meeting we found a great Thai place in Lee's Summit, with some amazing Massamun curry! Then it was to the hotel to put on numbers, and get everything locked and loaded for race! We were in bed pretty early, all dreaming of glory on Sunday!

Alarm went off at 5am on Sunday, and we were soon up scrounging around and eating breakfast. Had some oatmeal with a banana, mango and a Breeze Bar. Loaded up and headed for Longview Lake by 5:45, we were in plenty of time to get parked, everything put away and set up in transition, timing chips picked up and off to the beach for the start at 7:30.

Kristen was off in the pro women's field at 7:30, and Rebecca and I  didn't go off til 8:04 and 8:07.

Overall result from the weekend:
23:33 Swim (1:35yd/min)
2:04 T1
1:04:30 Bike (23.1mph)
1:20 T2
42:12 Run (6:49min/mile)

2:13:36.56

Swim: started and I got in behind Lincoln Eppard (Z3 Triathlon) out of Des Moines, who I have known. We quickly were able to distance ourselves from the pack! I had a bit of trouble sighting in the early morning, with some fog, but the BlueSeventy Element goggles did a great job, more of a personal error. We caught the prior waves fairly fast, and were rolling through them. I was able to come out of the water first. Got into T1 but this is where my lack of experience starts!

T1: Wetsuit off and leaving transition, took me a while to get into my shoes, which actually involved stopping for 30-45sec to put on my right shoe, that I couldn't get on ***More baby powder***. Got clipped in finally and was out

Bike: Settled into a nice rhythm and started picking off people left and right. Made me wonder if I was going that fast, or they were going that slow. A bit of both. I had lost Lincoln and another guy from CU with my shoe debacle. Tried to catch them, but only did catch the CU Boulder guy in my age group towards the end. Overall a solid bike, Cannondale Slice felt amazingly smooth and fast and the Carrol 85mm wheels did great! Thanks Grant for the help.

T2: Another rough transition, got feet out of the shoes and dismounted, but a shoe caught the ground and decided to come out of the pedals. So I had to stop and go back to pick up my shoe, losing another 10sec or so. Got the Pearl Izumi Isotransitions on and headed out for the run, 2/3 done!

Run: Started out on the 2 lap 3.1mile loop. First mile went by in 6:50, right where I thought I wanted to be. Was actually going by more people than I was getting passed by. By mile 2 I had hit 6:39 on a slightly downhill mile. Coming back towards transition for the second loop, I was starting to hit the hurt box a bit, probably a bit fast going out. On the second loop, I was really hurting by mile 5, and with this mile as slightly uphill and into a headwind, I was really hurting. Pulled out a decent last 1.2miles and finished with a sub 7min/mile average. Exactly where I wanted to be. Something crazy happened to me right before the finish though.....50yards out, I was trying to catch a few sprint racers, and as I was rounding the last curve a 70year old guy walks right out in front of me. I had no reaction ability and ran over him.....oops. But really, look where you're going and don't cross the course dude! I hope he is alright.....

The Mix1 Protein Shake I had post-race was probably the most tasty thing ever!! Awesome to have them onboard!

Anyway, so that is my first race!!! I ended up 2nd overall in my age group to the CU Boulder dude, who flew on the run and took 20th/1000 overall!!! Very happy with that, have a lot I can work on to shave some time, but it was an amazing experience, and I am glad to have started this quest. With my 2nd place finish and sub-2:15 time, I am now eligible to compete in the Elite Amateur waves in future races, and my 2nd place finish got me free entry into the 2012 HyVee US. Championship in Des Moines!!! Going to be coming on on Sept 2 to celebrate my birthday and hopefully with the M20-24 Age Group Championship. That is going to be the big goal for the rest of the year!



Rebecca, Kristen and I got back to the hotel, showered quickly, went back to Panera for some food and then pointed due west on I-70 back to Boulder, arriving around 11pm. A long day, a long trip, but so much fun! Going to hopefully sit down with Grant here and find out whats going to occur before Boulder 5150, to make me faster!!!

Next race I believe is the Boulder Sprint on June 8th!! Until the next post!!

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." Tommy Lasorda

Tis the Week!

Has been a little while since I last posted, but training really picked up in the last couple weeks as I have been getting ready for the Kansas City 5150 this weekend!! Can't believe it has finally come, and I am ready to rock and roll!

As for training itself, a lot of speed work and quality stuff has been the key to the previous couple weeks, but the mileage was still up there as well. My body was really feeling it this past weekend. I had reached my limit for training (coming from Jan 1), and it was time to take a taper block and rest. Overall my body has handled everything extremely well, and other than a homeless guy causing me to crash and getting some serious road rash, no injuries!!!! Thank you coach Grant Holicky for being spot on with workouts/rest/recovery!

Below is a picture of my PMC (Performance Manager Chart) showing my progress during the huge building period before this week.  Never had my CTL this high in my life. A recent TrainingPeaks Webinar suggests you have to be at a CTL of 120 in order to complete an Ironman. Maybe I should just sign up and finish one of those??


But now onto taper week, the CTL will fall, meaning that I actually will lose "fitness? but my TSB(Form) will increase and I'll be ready to rock on Sunday! Tapering is a special training period immediately preceding the major competition during which the training stimulus is reduced in a systematic non-linear fashion to achieve a peak in performance. Volume is reduced, while keeping some intensity in order to maintain an edge. 

Helping me get onto the top step of the podium this weekend include some seriously fast stuff from some great companies:  Thanks BlueSeventy, Pearl Izumi, Breeze Bars, and Cannondale!  Below is a picture of my BlueSeventy Reaction Wetsuit, Pearl Izumi TriFly Carbon and IsoTransition Shoes! Excited to fly in these aboard my Cannondale Slice TT rig!



Heading out to Kansas City with Rebecca Much and Kristen Peterson on Friday morning, and hope to really enjoy my first triathlon. Not really going in with any expectations other than sticking to my zones and putting out the best effort I can. The ultimate goal of the weekend is to produce a sub 2:15 Olympic which seems very do-able in order to qualify for HyVee later in the season. Have to trust my training and go out and make it happen!

First Race of the Season

Had the first race of the season this past weekend. The Koppenberg road race, headed back to my roots of road racing. The course was a 5.5mile loop with half on gravel/dirt, 300ft of climbing per lap, with most on a 17% 45sec climb where the race gets it's name. Here is a video from 2010. I broke my trusty Madone 5.2 frame while reconing earlier in the week, and was able to borrow fellow Luther alum Karl "Moose" Larson's ride for the race. On to the race...... Right away, I was glad I had downgraded to a Cat 3 since moving out to Boulder. The Cat 3 race I did was harder than any race I had done back in Iowa. The fields are deeper and the competition greater. Didn't feel to bad as the race was going on, but can tell since training for triathlon, I have no top end as I would have had if solely focusing on road cycling. This came into affect the last time up the climb when I was cross-eyed on my stem, and fell off the pace about 1.5miles from the finish on a 3-tier climb towards the finish. Overall, a great training day and it was fun to get back on the road bike for a race. Will do a few more here and there, and then some cross in the fall.  Finished the day off with a good brick run and tried to recover the best I could for Sunday.

 Waiting for a few team kits to come in, so still rocking the Midwest kit.

Sunday was the longest training run prescribed yet since I have started. I remember when 60min was hard, but when I saw 2 hours on the schedule, I was ready for the challenge, even though a bit nervous. It ended up being great and can't believe how good it felt! 2 hours and 14.5miles later, I had accomplished something I never thought would occur. Strava file above.

So overall, the training is going awesome. And got a new frame this weekend Cannondale CAAD10, and also just received my Blue Seventy Reaction wetsuit!

Kansas City is a little over 3 weeks away and I am anxious to test out the 4months of training I have put in to triathlon since moving to Boulder.

Training for previous week:

18 hours
Bike: 120miles
Run: 32 miles
Swim:  12.33 (20,345yds)