• Have a blast
• Soak in every second of the whole race

Based on my training and fitness levels, I have expectations of what I know I’m capable of, but that isn’t what is motivating me to get to the finish line.

Although I’m not COMPLETELY without time goals. I do have a time goal I want to finish under, but that is top secret. Even if I’m over it by a minute or an hour, I don’t think I’ll be all that upset unless I missed it because I didn’t give it my all.

If I nail the primary race goals, I’ll be posting a ton of race pictures of me with gigantic goofy smiles sometime next week.

In the words of the all wise HolisticGuru:  “Enjoy every second on race day. The ups and downs. Because you’ll never do your first IM again.”

My gear is all organized and my nutrition plan is solid. I have a little notebook with mini plans for the day before, pre-race morning, swim, bike and run on their own pages. Between now and Sunday I’ll carry that notebook with me wherever I go and re-read each page whenever I feel the nerves spike or need a reminder that I’ve got this all locked down.

Until 7 am on Sunday morning, it is just short workouts with a little intensity to keep my body loose and mind straight. Then the last part of my ironman journey can begin. The 140.6 mile long part.

It has even started to influence how I physically organize my apartment so I can spend less time getting ready for training and more time actually out there getting ready to race.

I’ve quarantined a bottle of special bottle of EFS and Liquid Shot to make sure I have enough nutrition goodies for race day and don’t go through it all before I roll into Sandusky.

I’ve made separate swim, bike and run boxes for the cabinet in my triathlon cave for all the random goodies and nick nacks. I also keep all the nutrition bars, GUs and other random stuff in a shoe box so I have everything all in one place.

Can’t find that pair of shoes I need? Nah. They are all hanging on the back of my closet door.

My road bike is neatly hanging on the wall out of the way.

The TT bike is always propped up on the bike trainer, ready for a century ride or 2 hour trainer session at the drop of a hat.

My random assortment of recovery stuff and supplements is all stacked together.

I have a whole shelf dedicated to water bottles.

I’ve been good (usually) about diligently recording every single one of my workouts in Training Peaks.

But no matter how organized everything else is, my drawer dedicated to workout clothes WILL NOT SHUT.

I don’t think that thing has closed in over 6 months. It just won’t happen… Nothing is folded or organized. Thankfully it is at least all clean, but I’m thinking I need to head over to Goodwill to donate gear to some needy triathletes.

Yeah. I’m a huge nerd.

Who the heck gets geeked out about a new hydration system?! I’ll tell you who.

The same guy who is sitting at work dreaming about how aero it looks, fitting neatly against the down tube and seat tube and how he can’t wait to drink out of it on my ride tomorrow.

A big freaking triathlon nerd.

Enter the Speedfil. 42 oz of hydration goodness straight into my face without leaving the aero position. I’ve seen a ton of people battle with aero bar-mounted bottles and was really hesitant to go that route. The Speedfil seemed like a perfect solution, especially after I did the math and realized that with my nutrition plan, 3 standard bottles just wasn’t going to cut it. ESPECIALLY if it is hot on the day of Rev3 Cedar Point. I got the new hook up from All3Sports.com and some new hydration goodness showed up at my door a few days later.

My stomach is going to be nice and happy all the way into T2.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think that people examine their entire environment deeply enough when trying to change their body to loose weight or gain fitness.  Ultimately, your body is the way that it is at this moment because of the decisions that you make on a daily basis.

You are fit because you have made frequent choices to stay physically active.

-or-

You are soft around the middle because you have made frequent choices to eat unhealthy food.

Over my adult life, I’ve had distinct different body types that directly correlated to the choices that I made every day and the environment that I created for my body. This ‘ol bag of bones has shown a crazy ability to adapt to whatever it is that I throw at it. I’m constantly amazed and I love seeing how my body reacts to new stimuli on a daily basis. My body is like my own science experiment that I carry around with me every day.

	High School: By the end if HS I was about 130 pounds, running 6-7 days per week and was as fit as f*ck. Sure, I wasn’t the first person you’d call if you needed some help moving some furniture, but I was lean and fast. I ate like crap, but I exercised often enough and hard enough to more than burn it all off. You could count all of my ribs. On my back.
	College: I rocketed to 195 pounds and drank Keystone Light and ate pizza at 2am like it was going out of style. And my body looked like it. I spent zero time running and any athletic activity was spent in the gym pushing weights back and forth. It was the first time in my life where I actually had distinguishable pectoral muscles instead of just the etheopian-like skeleton look I was rocking in high school.
	Post-College: I got hooked on triathlon, which led ultimately to where I am today. I am a soon-to-be iron distance triathlete. I’m not all that fast, but won’t bat an eye at a 7 or 8 hour training session any day. I’ve plateaued at 165 pounds, look at food more as fuel and nutrition than I do a solution to my hunger and I’m probably just as lean as I was in HS with the muscle to avoid looking like some sad cancer patient when I get out of the shower.

What I’m really getting at here is that I don’t think people think holistically about the type of environment that they create for their own bodies when setting up their fitness and weight loss goals. My body adapted to three completely different lives over the past 10 years as a direct result of the physical and nutritional environment that I created for myself. But it isn’t just what I eat and how often I excersize. It is how often I’m sitting in front of this computer every day, walking around outside, riding my bike to the grocery store and cooking my own meals vs. eating out. Whatever it was, my body adapted to it.

I ran as fast as I could and tried to carry as little weight as I could along the way for 3.1 miles. My body adapted.

I abused my body with booze and cheese. My body adapted.

I abused my new weapon – ironman training. My body adapted.

While mental focus and dedication is a huge part of overall wellbeing, you can’t simply wish yourself into the body that you want. Create an environment where no other version of your body can survive except for the one that you want and you’ll find your body adapting closer and closer to your ultimate fitness goal.

This weekend was another long lonely set or workouts. Saturday was a solid 110 mile bike and 2 mile BRick run. Today was a hilly 4.5 hour hilly hike.

I’m feeling strong and ready for race day. Actually, I’m feeling sorta invincible. It has become a common occurance for me to come home from a workout and start flexing and grunting for Sam in the middle of the living room. She just rolls her eyes, but I think it is hilarious. I think I’m looking all fit and glistening in sweat, but in reality I’m just stinking up the whole living room.

But now all the major workouts are in the books. There is nothing left to do but slowly taper for race day. No cramming, just slowly dialing back the length and bumping up the intensity of my workouts, but keeping the frequency. I even got some sweet new race day kicks from Saucony. Check ‘em out. Super comfortable and they are going to keep my feet nice and comfortable to rock the marathon.

Here are the 5 things that I’m going to focus on over the next month:

1. Sleep – I’ve been doing a lot of early morning workouts so that I can actually see Sam between when work gets out and when I go to sleep. I can’t remember the last time that I didn’t have the alarm set to 5:xx am.
2. Eat Right – I’ve been pretty good about keeping my diet in check, but that is going to be extra important over the next month. I’ve gotten pretty lean over the last month or two. I’m hoping to keep that going so that I don’t have any muffin top peeking out under my tri shorts in my race pictures.
3. Race Visualization – This will be a biggie. I have to hone my top secret attack plan for race day and go over it until I can recite it forwards and backwards at 145 bpm.
4. Get my man cave in order – I’m the most organized when all my gear is in order. Plus, it will help me make sure everything is right where it needs to be come race day. Not to mention that the downtube on my bike apparently has dried worms or some crap stuck to it. That needs to get taken care of ASAP. Plus, a good chain degresing and lubing wouldn’t hurt either.
5. Stretch, Yoga and Massage – I’ve beaten up my body lately, especially over the last three weeks. With that comes a lot of knots, kinks and tweaks. Especially in my left hamstring, so you better believe that sucker is going to get some extra TLC. My new favorite massage therapist, Sam Peck, should be expecting a call. Any Boston friends in need of some poking and prodding, definitely hit up www.soarbody.com, but not until I make my appointment!

Anything I’m missing here?

The biking routes are pretty sweet too. Just about all the country roads are framed with TONS of these blue and yellow wildflowers. I’ve gotta snap some good pics of some of the wildflower fields up here later this week to post here. I’ve been having too much fun riding to stop and take too many pictures, but there will be plenty of time for lollygagging later on.

See those mountains WAAAAAAAY off in the distance there? They are calling my name. I want to go ride over there later this week and conquer a few.

But enough rambling, lets get to the story behind the title to this blog post.

Yesterday a bunch of my friends I’m vacationing with went off to play 18 holes of golf, so I figured it was a perfect time to knock off one of my epic adventures for the week: head North to the Canadian border. I didn’t have my passport so I couldn’t go too far into Canada, but even if I could just roll across the border and turn around to head back home, I’d be a happy camper.

I loaded up my water bottles, pointed North and started pedaling. It was hot, but most of the route followed the lake shore so the breeze coming off the water was a huge gift.

Half way to the border. Stopped for 2L of water and inhaled a chocolate chip muffin at the Hero, VT general store.

As I started to get closer to the border, my phone started buzzing. I got a message from AT&T warning me about extra charges for international data rates, I knew I was close! I rolled past the “Vermont Welcome Center” building and there she was, the ultimate destination of the ride. Welcome to Canada: the land of maple syrup, hockey, God knows whatever else those crazy Canucks do up there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The border patrol was about a quarter mile past the border sign. I didn’t bother trying to go through since I didn’t have my passport and the map didn’t seem to show anything worthwhile across the border for at least another 10 or 15 miles. Not wanting to deal with over zealous border patrol or adding another 20-30 miles to an already 80- or 90 mile ride, I did an about face and headed home.

On my way back, I was riding along and kept hearing this crow squacking right over my head. I didn’t think anything of it until I realized he was following me. Actually, it was more like he was chasing after me and dive bombing me, as if he was trying to shoo me out of his territory. This went on for a solid mile or two, no joke. Once I realized that he wasn’t going to stop, I just yelled “SHUT UP BIRD!” and he disappeared off into the distance. Pretty bizarre. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

And did I mention that it was hella hot?! This thermometer was in the SHADE at the VT welcome center. 90 degrees and barely any shade for the entire 88 miles. It was a really good test of my Rev3 Cedar Point hydration plan though. Nutritionally, everything went really well. I couldn’t have been happier.

Next up: exploring Burlington, running and whatever other adventures I can manage to think up while floating out in the lake and staring at the clouds…

By 5:45, me and about a dozen other endurance freaks gathered at the Boston Common, mounted our bikes, pointed South and started pedaling.

Destination: Provincetown. The very end of Cape Cod. 135 miles away.

We knew we had to get there by 7 pm or we’d miss the ferry bringing us back to Boston and we’d be stuck there for the night.

You’ve gotta love it when you can do such an epic ride with a group of awesome athletes and friends. Having great company for +8 hours in the saddle makes all the difference in the world.

The sun was out, my legs were feeling strong and the smiles just kept coming. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

At the half way point, we stopped at the Sagamore Friendly’s for some refeuling. They delivered my pancakes before I got my silverware. I was so starving that I just dug in and started tearing apart the pancakes and dipping them in strawberry syrup and eating it with my hands. Note to waitresses everywhere: don’t get between a triathlete and his food. Oh, and keep bringing over that big pitcher of water.

The P’Town Crew chowing down

Back on the road and we kept cranking along. We still had another 60ish miles to go.

Thankfully the second half had much nicer roads as we officially entered Cape Cod and rode up and down the dunes and through some gorgeous neighborhoods.

At about 70 miles in, I hear someone  yell out “TRAKKERS?!”

I didn’t recognize the voice as belonging to anyone in our group, and all of a sudden Trakkers Pro, Dede Griesbauer pulls up alongside and starts chatting. Too cool. We chatted about race plans, I oogled over her sick Shimano Di2 setup and before I know it she blew past our entire group and faded off into the distance. Gotta love surprise team meetups.

The biggest surprise of the ride came at around mile 90. I ended up leading the paceline for a solid 10 miles or so and felt really strong. We had some pretty fast riders with us and I kept expecting them to come up and make me either their dust. It never happened. I didn’t even realize that the tight paceline had formed right behind me until we stopped at the next major turn to make sure everyone had caught up to us and I got a few compliments about leading the group and keeping a fast even pace. Gotta love surprise compliments on skills I didn’t even know I had! Warms my heart. It also helps when we are at mile 90 and everyone’s legs are sufficiently drained and no one’s egos are threatened by sucking the wheels of slower riders.

Once I rolled through the 112 mile mark, I did a mental check. At this point at Rev3, I’d be getting off the bike and starting the marathon.

My legs? They actually didn’t feel too bad. The idea of running didn’t make me want to punch someone in the face, it actually seemed pretty pleasant after all day in the saddle! Could I run the whole 26.2 miles? Maybe only with a miracle, but I have two more months to squeeze out some extra run fitness. More than a training ride, this adventure was more of a confidence booster than anything else.

Nutritionally, I felt like I really nailed it too. While my effort level was way less than the bike course at Quassy and there won’t be a breakfast stop for strawberry pancakes, potato chips or beer at Cedar Point, I think I have a nutrition plan that I can trust. I started off the day drinking a TON (2 liters) of First Endurance EFS. Since it is less concentrated than liquid shot, starting with something that was easier on my stomach didn’t give me the GI issues that I had at Quassy. For the second half of the ride, I survived on straight water from my camelbak and a water bottle full of First Endurance liquid shot on my bike frame. I still have to work on the frequency of sipping on the liquid shot, but that detail shouldn’t be too hard to nail down and test.

Cruising down the Cape Cod bike trail

At around mile 120, we made our last stop of the day in Wellfleet. The Beachcomber.

Seriously, how could you ride past this place and NOT stop for a beer?

Pretty awesome views, right?

People were apparently very surprised to see a bunch of cyclists stroll up to the bar and grab a few beers and corn on the cob. I thought there was a good chance that because of the hot stink that we were laying down from 7 hours of sweating out in the sun, we would be ostracized.

Surprisingly, it was the exact opposite. Several groups of cute girls approached us and asked what the heck we were doing, how the hell we got there from Boston and were sufficiently impressed with our bad-assness. If I was a single guy, apparently strolling into a bar smelling like BO and wearing a cycling kit and leg stubble (I haven’t shaved since Rev3 Quassy) is apparently an AMAZING way to pick up chicks. Like fish in a barrel.

We stuck around for the last few minutes of the USA vs Ghana game. We lost. Got eliminated. The whole bar was silent, slowly dispersed and we jumped back in the saddle to finish the last 15 miles to Provincetown.

These were definitely the hardest miles of the whole route, probably simply because I knew we were getting close, but I wasn’t getting there nearly as fast as I wanted. I was eager to get off the bike, venture around P’town and toss back some ice cold beers. The last few miles were straight, flat and lined with beach cottage after beach cottage. The whole road smelled like beer, lighter fluid, charcoal and seaweed. It doesn’t sound like it would smell amazing, but it had me grinning from ear to ear.

Once we pulled up to the Provincetown pier, I rewarded myself with a pulled pork sandwich, onion rings and a root beer. EVERYTHING tastes better after 135 miles on the bike. My face was covered in ketchup and BBQ sauce like I was a 2 year old trying to eat spaghetti, but I didn’t care. I was just happy to have made the journey with an awesome crew.

The one last reward of the day, a bright orange sunset off the bow of the ferry as we ventured home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now I’ve gotta plan some more epic adventures. Time to get creative…

Before and during the race, I felt great. I hit everything right on target and my stomach felt good. I could have used a little more EFS for a few spots on the run where I felt a little drained, but I was able to cross the finish line knowing that not only did I hit my plan, but it worked pretty well for me. I hydrated perfectly, peed on the run and avoided any major bonking. A happy day.

That was at least until I got in the car and started to drive home. My stomach started gurgling something angry. In the middle of nowhere, there isn’t anywhere to make a pit stop so I had to just grab onto the steering wheel tight and kept on driving.

Let’s just say that once I got home, it was clear that all the water I was taking in didn’t make it into my system and went right through me. Apparently there is such a thing as Runner’s Diarrhea. Who knew? Google it…

This was a major red flag since I want to figure out what is going on in my stomach so I don’t have to rush to the port-o-john mid-marathon (or bike) at the FullRev in September at Sandusky.

Normally I have never had ANY GI issues when training/racing, (except for some similar issues after my HIM race simulation workout) and I needed some more advice from smart people. And what better way than to go directly to the guy that designed every calorie that I took in both days, the co-founder of First Endurance, Robert Kunz. I love that FE has its own nutrition focused social network with people posting questions and tips. It is a great resource for not only info on FE products, but any endurance nutrition tips.  Definitely hit up http://team.firstendurance.com/ if you ever need some nutrition advice.
I posted some info on the nutrition I took on during the day and here is the response I got from Robert:

Thanks for taking the time to seek some help here at team.firstendurance.com. At first glance, I suspect its just a matter of just a bit high on the concentration. Take note that your ability to absorb nutrients changes throughout the race. Right out of T1 your body is transitioning from blood to the upper body, to shifting to your legs. At this point its a good idea to go light on the nutrition and fluids and consider just some light sips of water. Typically 20-30 minutes into the bike athletes start to feel much more efficient, the breathing becomes more rhythmic and you settle into your bike. At this point and throughout the rest of your bike is the best time to consume your calories, though try not to go more than about 10% solution.

Out of T2 its the same story..your body movements change from cycling to running, so for about 20 minutes focus on your form and trying to get comfortable and don’t force the calories in. During the run consume about 25% less calories per hour than on your bike at it is more difficult to absorb calories while running than while biking.

For your full Ironman your pacing should be slower than HIM, so the consumption of calories on the bike should be easier.

Ease into your nutrition just like you would your pace on each portion. I know Pro Michael Lovato likes to have water the first 45 minutes of his bike during Ironman since its super light but does tell his stomach that it needs to keep blood in the digestive system so nutrients can get absorbed. Small, frequent sips following T1 and T2 until you find that easy rhythm may help considerably.

So that is the new plan. Instead of starting out of T1 with my concentrated 400 calorie bottle of Liquid Shot, I’m going to switch it out and have either water or diluted EFS. Back to the drawing board.

I have no problem with little mini failures like this as long as I can learn something from it. It just means that I’m THAT much closer to knowing enough to nail every last mile of the Cedar Point FullRev…

See that red pin to the left? That is where the race was.

See that massive blog of angry just west of the red pin? That is what made me poop myself. Twice. Needless to say was mentally preparing myself for a pretty epic race. During the drive to the race site, I eventually tricked myself into looking forward to hydroplaning the entire bike and splashing through puddles for 13 miles.

Swim

Pre race chat with Toby

I’m not going to lie. I was looking forward to a little bit of a PR on the swim. I usually crawl out of the water at around 37 minutes, but have been doing a lot more swimming this season and would have been psyched if I didn’t have to push it too hard and could come out sub 35:00. Those hopes quickly went in the garbage within the first 400 meters of the swim.

I’ve had some pretty aggressive swim starts before, but this was just insane. I positioned myself just like I usually do, in the back(ish) of the middle but found myself at the center of a huge pack still at around 500 meters. Forearms were crashing down across my back. Multiple sets of feet were splashing right in front of my face. I was doing my best just to keep from getting punched and decided to play it safe and head to the outside of the course. It was going to be a long day and I had no reason to spend my competitive juices on so early in the swim.

I felt like I was holding a pretty decent pace. My shoulders were a little tight, but I was staying just left of a pretty decent sized group and was drafting off of some safe feet when I could, but the aggressiveness just never let up, especially as some of the super speedy guys in later waves caught up to my wave (we were the first to go after the pros).

At just about the halfway point, I’m convinced that I firmly planted my heel directly into some dude’s forehead. Feeling the echo of some guy’s scull reverberate through your leg is not a cool feeling, but it has to be better than what he felt. No joke, I felt like I seriously clobbered that guy directly with my heel, full force. This is my way of saying “my b.” I was swimming straight and had a normal kick, he must have just been so speedy coming up behind me that his head caught up to me before his hands did. But the race goes on…

I ended up exiting the water at 38:52 (2:01 min/100m).

I wasn’t too happy about it, but considering how I took a pretty conservative line around the swim course (and I ended up drifting more than usual…), I’m sure my pace was a little faster since I traveled a little more than the 1.2 miles that were marked off.

Bike

T1 was uneventful and relatively quick. I had cut off the last two inches of my wetsuit and lubed up plenty with TriSlide so my heels slipped right out and I was good to go.

I stuck to the nutrition plan that I laid out in my last post and started sucking down on my first bottle of EFS Liquid Shot mixed into a water bottle.

The roads were all pretty wet, but somehow the mega storm of the century was still holding off. Except for a few sprinkles, it was pretty decent weather. Humid, but otherwise cool and great for racing.

The hills hurt just as much as I expected and I was feeling really strong. Besides letting my upper body bounce around above the handlebars like I was rocking out to some sick beats while climbing up one of the major hill (thanks again Sonja for calling me out on my totally lame form), I had a pretty nice groove going and was having a blast. A perfect example of a bad habit that I’ve been working very hard to break all season, but when my mind goes into “race mode” all that goes out the window and I climb up hills like I’m pedaling a moon bounce… ::sigh::

Rolling through mile 29 we passed the Trakkers aid station with all of my teammates and friends who had raced the Oly the day before. They were hootin’ and hollerin’ and it was awesome to suck in all their energy. I even got flashed by Ryan and for some reason I instantly decided to squirt him with some extra water in the bottle I just picked up. I’m not exactly sure why. Strange unexplainable reaction, but I thought it was funny.

Ryan, I hope I didn’t get you too wet buddy. Thanks for the laugh.

Unlike Knoxville where I was just smiling and having a blast the whole time, Quassy was all about getting down to business. Immediately after the Trakkers aid station I hunkered back down and kept on cranking.

I eased up the pace a little during the last five miles and focused on taking in some extra water (to avoid a repeat of the dehydration issues I had on the run last year). Meg went flying past me and I was SO tempted to go chasing after her. I decided to use my better judgment (knowing that she is a super speedy runner and trying to chase her out of T2 would be dangerous) and let her disappear in the distance in front of me.

I knew I was capable of hitting around 3:00 from riding the course two weeks ago, but knew that the run was going to really challenge me so I was aiming for somewhere between 3:05-3:10 so I could get ready to unleash whatever I had left once I got on the run. I felt like I handled the run pretty well. Strong enough pace without having to worry about not saving enough for the run.

Time: 3:11:46 (17.58 mph)

This was definitely on the slow end of my predictions, but I was happy with it. For such a challenging course, it followed my plan to the letter and felt strong coming into T2.

Run

I rushed through transition, packed two fuel belt bottles and an EFS Liquid Shot flask into my pockets and started the last part of my trek to the finish line.

While I normally struggle to find my legs after the run, apparently all the BRick workouts this year paid off. I didn’t feel super speedy (which would have been a great surprise) but I was able to get a nice rhythm going. I started checking the time at every mile to keep my pace under control until at least mile 4 or 5 where I planned to reassess how I felt.

I was only looking at the minutes and seconds, so it took me four miles to realize that my watch had frozen half way through the bike and I wasn’t actually doing perfect 10:00 min/mile pace over and over. Crap. It wouldn’t even let me tell the time. I’ve gotta replace that thing ASAP. For a $25 garage sale purchase five years ago, my Polar HRM was a steal but I need to invest in some new goodies that are more reliable.

The run hurt, but I was doing a LOT better than last year. I had to walk up some hills (and even some flats) but I mostly focused on listening to my body and making smart decisions.

Example: I have this theory that whenever I’m dehydrated and working out, I can feel my pulse in my head. When that thump came back to my skull. I stopped, tossed down a little water from my fuel belt bottle and walked for a minute or two to help it absorb instead of just sitting in my stomach.

While the hills were relentless and were tearing everyone apart, the humidity only made things more insane. I just couldn’t cool my body off. Any water that the kick-ass volunteers splashed on me or that I dumped on my head just sat there. Nothing was evaporating. I felt like I was a giant running sponge. Thankfully I decided to run with my Fastwitchs. This was my first time testing out the drain holes in the bottom. Unlike my old Asics trainers, these things didn’t soak up all that much water and were WAY more comfortable to run in while wet.

The last half mile of the run course was just some sick joke. A giant, straight hill just out of earshot of the finish line. As you come up to the base you can look up and see all the athletes ahead of you practically crying as they go up.

Every single person I saw in front of me on the hill was walking at some point, but I refused. I knew how close we were to the finish and was going to take them down. Slow and steady I increased my pace and knocked down four guys until I reached the top and let loose. I could hear their pace quicken behind me as they tried to hold on, but I must have had too much ground on them to respond. It was awesome having those rabbits to chase and take down on my way to the finish.

Granted I was only really competing with myself for the first 70 miles, but throwing a little mano-a-mano (x4) action for the last .3 miles is always exciting.

Run: 2:21:09 (10:47 min/mile)

The clock stopped for me at 6:15:44

That is a full 13 minutes faster than last year!

The End

I couldn’t be happier with my race. Of course there are things I’d go back and tweak (including doing more tempo run workouts), but that will always be the case for any 70 mile race. Ultimately, I had a plan, I nailed it and had a blast the whole time.

Great event. Killer course. Awesome teammates. I can’t think of any better way to spend a weekend.

I’m nowhere near speedy enough to bringing home age group hardware, but check out all my fast teammates.

And more importantly, a great weekend spent showing Momma Bull what her son is capable of. Major thanks to my mom and my girlfriend Sam for coming out to spectate and take pictures. Knowing that they would be there screaming my name each time I came through transition was more motivation than they’ll ever know.

Up next: Reevaluating my FullRev Cedar Point training plan. Stay Tuned!

Last year I came unprepared and suffered. The short story is that while my training was pretty solid, I started off the race drained and with not nearly enough water in me. Starting a race already in the red is a great way to spend the day in a 70.3 mile suffer fest.

This year, everything is different. Ditched the coach, got a whole new ironman plan, a fancy new carbon bike, a whole new race nutrition setup and I have a whole mess of lessons learned from painful race mistakes to hopefully get me to the finish line a little faster and a whole lot happier on Sunday.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the plan.

The Day Before:

• Bring my full Camelbak with me while I volunteer at the Oly run course aid station with two scoops of EFS. Slurp away slowly all day to have plenty of water in my system at all times.

Morning:

• Glass of juice
• Cereal
• Fruit
• Bottle of EFS when I wake up
• Bottle of EFS while hanging out in transition
• First Endurance MultiV
• First Endurance OptygenHP

Swim:

• Avoid getting kicked in the face and chomping on people’s toenails
• Suck down cup of water on my way to T1

Bike:

• Drink one bottle of Liquid Shot mixed with water in the first 40 minutes (400 Cal)
• Drink two more bottles of a weak EFS mix (~100 calories) every 40-45 minutes after that
• Continually suck from another 400 calorie Liquid Shot flask throughout the rest of the bike.
• Grab another water bottle from an aid station and polish that off 10-15 minutes before rolling in to T2

Run:

• Slurp down water at every aid station
• Mix it with a sip from a new EFS flask (400 Cal total)that I’ll pick up in T2

Post-Race:

• I’ll have a bottle with two scoops of cappuccino Ultragen recovery goodness waiting for me back at transition. I’m leaving it without water, so that I can just grab the bottle, fill it up with water somewhere at the expo and suck it down and hope that it helps me be able to walk normally on Monday morning. I love that stuff and it hasn’t let me down yet.

That is the plan that I’ve tested and seems to work pretty well in training. I’m pretty confident that it will work on race day, but there is only one way to find out.

Training wise? I think my bike is a LOT stronger than my run lately, but as long as I can get to mile 5 of the run feeling good, I should be able to bring it all home feeling good.

I want to get some final tweaks in my half iron nutrition/pacing/hydration before Rev3 Quassy next month. What better way to test out your fitness than to replicate a 56 mile bike and 13 mile run back to back?

If you like shaky videos with lots of wind noise, this explains my whole day.

If not, here is the quick synopsis.

The bike went great. I was rocking it. The best long bike ride of my life, then I cramped up at around mile 40. My legs still felt pretty good, but my stomach was all bloated and unhappy.

56 miles later, I rolled back to my car, downed some water in hopes that it would help reset my gut and jetted off on the first of five loops for the run.

I pushed it hard for the first 5 or 6 miles of the run. I got into a rhythm pretty quick and was feeling good, but then totally bonked. I kept on  pushing through, tossing water over my head and alternated sucking down EFS and straight water. Nothing was really doing the trick, but I eventually made it through.

Once I got home, I realized what the problem was on the run. All that water I sucked down went right through my system and didn’t get absorbed at all. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but at least it helped me figure out what was happening to me.

So here are the lessons from today’s epic race simulation.

I have a lot juice on the bike than I thought.

Sucking down tons of sports drink is great, but I’ve gotta mix that with plenty of water to keep things flowing.

“Emptying the tank” before a race and pre-hydrating is just as important as hydrating durring the race.

The more I learn about how my body works at race pace, the better I’ll be able to rock it once Ironman race day comes around. I’m slowly getting there…

Friday morning I got up, packed a few last minute things into the car, and hit the road pointed South starting at 4:30 am. 950 miles, 2.5 tanks of gas, five bottles of water and countless bathroom breaks later I rolled in to Knoxville, TN. I pulled in just in time to meet up with my team for dinner and a beer before calling it a night.

The road trip was uneventful, which I guess was all I could ask for.

The Day Before

Saturday morning I woke up again with the sun and headed down to the expo to help run the tent and hang out with all of my Trakkers teammates who had rolled into town.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

We had a friendly rivalry going on with the Terrier Tri team and it didn’t take long for antics to ensue. We hijacked their banner from their tent and had some fun with it.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Me practicing winding up and punting their little dog mascot, er… I mean “stretching…”

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

But then we got down to business and had to take some serious team pics.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

We roll deep.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Proudly rocking Saucony all the way down the line.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

My legs were KILLING me all day from the long drive into town, so most of the day involved stretching, hydrating with a full camelbak full of EFS, massaging and warming up with a little SwimBikeRun.

After a quick run around the ‘hood, Sonja and Michelle took me out on the bike course to show me some of the technical parts so I knew exactly what to expect and there weren’t any surprises.

I have officially made it into one of Sonja’s over the shoulder bike pics. I feel like my triathlon blogger street cred just tripled.

Notice the Camelbak still on my firmly strapped to my shoulders. That thing didn’t leave my side all day. The theme of the day was all about hydration and stretching out my aching legs from the long drive.

Next stop, swim course!

We went out and loosened up, all while having a blast. I met up with some of Sonja and Michelle’s CO crew and they are good people. You could spot them anywhere from the random shouts of laughter that echoed down the river banks.

After doing some last minute race prep and meeting up with Megan, Sonja and her adorable daughter Annie for some late night ice cream, I called it a night and got some sleep.

Race Day

Morning rolled around once again, and I was up and out the door just as the sun was rising and on my way to the transition area.

Michael Lovato hand delivered some special EFS Liquid Shot prototypes to us the day before. I stowed it away in my bento box and was going to use it as my secret weapon.

As I started to set up my transition area, I look up and realize that Tara Costa from Biggest Loser was racked right next to me. Sam and I watch BL all the time, so I texted her a picture immediately. I knew she would be pretty jealous.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Not only that, but Heather Gollnick ends up strolling over and asks me to do a short little video interview with her. Pretty sick, right?! If i see it get posted, I’ll share it here. I have no idea what I rambled about. I forgot where I was from and it was probably pretty awkward, but still cool.

Swim

The awesomely fun vibe continued in the swim too. As each swim wave jumped from the shore into the water, people were doing back flips and cartwheels off of the docks and splashing everyone still up on shore. I’ve never seen so many people pre-race with so few butterflies and just out there having a good time.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

I have no idea why, but I started off in the back(ish) of my swim wave. The swim is my weakest of the three sports, but I know I can be more competitive than just hanging out in the back of the group. I paid the price for it too. After the first stoke I took a heel right to the eye. I poked my head up, let the guy in front of me get some distance, and kept on trucking.

My time wasn’t expecting anything spectacular. I’m still stuck in that 1:40-1:45 pace, a rut that I need to figure out how to get out of soon.

Bike

An uneventful T1 and I was off on the bike course. I made it a goal to suck down as much water as I could (without letting my stomach blow up like a water balloon) and grabbed water at every aid station just to slurp down and spray the rest over my helmet and down my back.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Here is Meredith and I rocking the first section of the bike course.

The course was a blast. It had everything. Some flat sections, beautiful scenery, short steep climbs, technical winding descents. LOVED it. Super challenging, low traffic and a ton of fun.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Bull Horn Pose Credit: Kim Kaltreider

If anything, I probably got distracted by how much fun I was having and could have pushed it a little harder out there. Can you tell from the stupid faces I was making every time I saw Sonja’s dad, Eric Willis, snapping pictures of me and all our teammates. I definitely could have pushed it a little harder looking at my time, but at least now I have some better insight into my pacing…

Time: 1:22:07

Avg Speed: 18.12 mph

Run

Blasting through T2 and I was off on the run. I always falter a little bit on the beginning of the run, but by mile 1.5 when I still felt good, I really cranked it up. It was the best I had ever felt on the run by FAR. A confusing feeling, but a very welcome one.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Again, still having a one man roving party on the whole course, shouting at all my teammates and tossing out high fives along the course.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Coming through the home stretch before the finish line, I laid down the last high five on Carole Sharpless before gunning it to the finish.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

I re-passed a few guys (not in my age group unfortunately) that took me earlier in the course as I neared the finish. I heard some grumbles as they spotted the age on my calf. “He is young, that isn’t fair.”

I huffed “It is just a number, come with me!” as I blasted by some more old guys, but no one could hold on.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

It was great having such a strong push to the finish because it shows that my run fitness is way beyond where it has been for the past few years. My pace wasn’t anything spectacular, but knowing that I still had some juice in me says a lot. Better understanding my pacing will come before Rev3 Quassy next month and I’m hoping to totally rock it there.

Run Pace: 7:42

Finishing Time: 2:41:33

The End

Overall I wasn’t totally happy with my finish time, but had a BLAST during the race otherwise. My plan was to leave everything out there on the course. I left everything that I THOUGHT that I had out there, but it turns out my tank holds a lot more speed than I thought. It is dissapointing to not hit anywhere close to what I think my potential is, but I’m totally psyched to realize that my new training plan is bringing me places that my old plan from last year could have never done.

All in all, it was a great day.

A major thanks has to be laid out to Team Trakkers’ Momma Bear, Carole Sharpless. Managing of team of +30 athletes all across the country is no easy feat, and she was a blast to hang around with all weekend. She makes me proud to be part of such an amazing group. I won’t even try to attempt naming all of the awesome teammates and blogger friends that I met in person for the first time last weekend. You know who you are. You all rock and I can’t wait to race with you again very soon.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Until next time folks! The next race on the plan is to seek revenge on the Rev3 Quassy course and annihilate last year’s time. Only a few more weeks until race day comes again. At Quassy I’ll have to race a little more seriously and not make stupid faces for the photographers every time.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Celebrating a great day with some of Trakkers’ speediest ladies, Sonja and Michelle.

Lastly, a huge OBVIOUS thanks for Sonja’s dad, Eric Willis for taking a million awesome pictures for the team. He is the one with his name plastered in the photo credits all over this post. If you liked all the pictures in this post, he is the guy to thank.