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Rev3 Staff Runs Across America For Cancer

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

One of the reasons I love being part of Team Rev3 is because they just do awesome stuff. And it makes it insanely easy to support them.

Apparently at HQ a few weeks ago, there was a conversation that went down something like this:

“With all the buzz that we’ve gotten over the last few years, I really think we need to up our game and look for new ways to give back.”

“How so? You mean like offering complimentary back waxing to help hairy male athletes swim faster at our races?”

“No. Like doing something big for the Ulman Cancer Fund. We’ve supported them in a lot of ways in the past, but I’m thinking about something BIG.”

“Like what?”

“What if we tried to raise $100,000 for them? That could do a lot of good for people with cancer, right?”

“Heck yeah, but how are we going to do that?”

“Let’s run across the country. And invite others to join us along the route or run with us ‘virtually’ and tally up their own miles.”

“Shiver me timbers! That idea it the cat’s pajamas. Let’s start planning.”

Okay, well I’m pretty sure that no one said the last part. But the rest of it was pretty accurate. Even the back waxing part.

Starting Monday, March 26, a bunch of Rev3 staff and a few members of the AG team will start off running from Oceanside, California and won’t stop for 21 days when they reach Washington D.C. And they will be working on raising $100,000 in donations to the Ulman Cancer Fund all along the way.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to join them in person, but especially since my family had to start battling cancer head on last year with my dad’s lung cancer diagnosis, their mission really hits home for me. Me and the rest of the Rev3 AG team will be tallying up our training miles with hopes of at least matching the Run Across America team’s +3,000 miles over the same 3 weeks.

There will be more details on how you can help support the crew on their journey physically, emotionally and financially over the next few weeks. So stay tuned. Until then, if you have it in your heart to donate anything to help the team, please do. See the link on my blog’s sidebar or go directly to http://rev3tri.com/america/donate/

I’m fortunate enough to be able to plan my triathlon schedule 9 months out from now. Others have doctors telling them that they won’t be around by in 9 months. This is for them.

Tags: rev3, run across america, ulman cancer fund | Posted in Life, Running, Triathlon | 2 Comments »

Competing Goals

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

No, not COMPETITION goals. Let’s talk about competing athletic goals.

Like goals of going really fast verus going really far. For me, that means goals of a sub 2:15 olympic triathlon or 100 mile trail race. Two things that I can’t logistically accomplish in the same year, but both are things completely TERRIFY me and I REALLY want to do both of them someday soon. But where to start? I’ve got no clue.

Last season, I tried to go sub 2:30 and qualify for age group nationls nationals. I did that and managed to go 2:25 and still feel like I have a ton of untapped potential to unleash on the olympic distance. I think I can cut another 10 minutes off my PR if I really focus on it and give it the energy and focus that it deserves.

On the other hand, I’ve kind of gotten obsessed with the Hardrock 100 trail race and REALLY want to do some crazy rocky mountain endurance adventure. Obsessed as in watching this video over and over.

Obviously, this would be a multi-year journey since I have to build up my endurance enough to not only handle 100 miles of climbing through crazy elevation changes, but to qualify by doing another 100 mile trail race just to get in.

So what does 2012 bring? Go fast or go long? I have no idea…. Time will tell, but I’ll have to just pick one. For now…

| Posted in Running, Triathlon | 6 Comments »

2011 Season Review

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Let’s do a quick recap of the 2011 season. My two main goals were to find ways to give back to the triathlon community and qualify for USAT Age Group Nationals.

Giving back? I think I did pretty well. I loaned out my old trainer to a friend training for Rev3 Cedar Point, volunteered at Quassy and another local sprint. Gotta think of some more creative ways to give back for next season.

Nationals? Done. I went, had a blast and improved my olympic-distance PR by about 15 minutes! It was a lot of fun, and I hope to make it back. The one thing that I didn’t like was the whole qualifying process. The qualifying criteria was fair, but it was just a big psychology change for me to be competing against the top guys in my age group instead of just myself and the clock.

I’m very competitive, but I’ve never cared about what anyone else in my age group was doing while I raced. I rarely ever looked down at people’s calves to see if they were in my AG. I just stuck to my own race and tried to meet or beat the standards that I set or myself. My competition used to be all internal. This year, it was all about competing with other M25-29ers. I wasn’t used to it at all. I ended up turning into “that guy” walking around transition before a tiny local sprint, nervously stalking the competition. Even at a tiny local sprint triathlon. Not awesome.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just different. And I wasn’t used to it at all. If I continue down the route of being more competitive within my age group, I’ve gotta get my head straight so I don’t let that get away from me and ruin my chances before the gun even goes off.

Other accomplishments this year? I trained hard enough to be FAST on the bike and had a ton of fun.

I got a sweet new wetsuit that I lovelovelove. Plus it makes my ass look hot.

I went swimming outside a lot, made stupid faces underwater in front of my camera, and found a secret outdoor pool.

I did post-race cool downs in the ocean.

Oh, and I got to interview Natalie Coughlin.

I think I’ll chalk up the 2011 season as a win. Now I need to sit down and do some serious goal setting for 2012.

What are your big goals for next year?

| Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training Log, Triathlon | 6 Comments »

USAT Nationals Race Week

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

The countdown to my biggest race of the year is getting to some pretty small numbers lately! 3 more days and the gun goes off at USAT Age Group Nationals in Vermont!

This is the race that I built my whole season around and picked my rache schedule just so I could qualify and earn my entry. All that work paid off and my work with Coach Hirsch has me feeling strong. Needless to say I’m VERY excited to race and VERY ready to taper.

I just got a new aero helmet that I can’t wait to rock this weekend too! I love it.

Last weekend I had two more days of hard workouts before starting my taper. It was raining so I took my 2 hour bike onto the trainer. Once I warmed up, no matter how hard I pushed I couldn’t get my HR above 135 or the life of me. It was just stalled. That is completely not normal for me. I don’t think that has EVER happened to me before. Or at least I’ve never noticed it before. I cut the workout short and focused on stretching, massage, some time in my Recovery Pump boots and some good nutrition. I immediately booked a massage with Soar Body to get my muscles rubbed down and refreshed.

I talked to Coach and he said that my decision to back off was a smart one. My body was cooked and that is why my HR wouldn’t rise. Looks like my taper is starting early this time around!

Now I’ve got some easy swimbikerun sessions to keep the muscles fresh and loose, but I also need to make sure I don’t go stir crazy.

I felt a little scratch in my throat and started freaking out that I was getting a cold. I’m also relentlessly checking the Burlington weather forecast for this weekend. What looked like it could have been a really wet race, looks like it might be pretty sunny. Still, it is one more thing that I can stress out about forever, but don’t have any control over. I’ve gotta focus on preparing and not waste any mental energy on all that other crap.

So time to go have some under water fun! I can ALWAYS have fun taking stupid pictures of myself in the pool.