5150 Kansas City Triathlon Race Report

I am really happy with how this race turned out and I was especially happy to get another PR under my belt. It was my third personal best time in a row and I have been making great progress every race of the season.  I had no nutritional issues, no cramps and I feel like I executed my race plan effectively for the first time in my amateur elite career.  Below is a recap of my weekend traveling and racing in Kansas City, Missouri. Enjoy!

First I want to say thank you to my Dad who managed to serve a number of these roles (but not limited to) while we were en route to Kansas City and back: personal driver, food purchaser, confidence booster, spider-killer, snoring machine?, gear holder/watcher, photographer, split giver, laugh counter-on-er and overall awesome father. Thanks Dad, you’re the best!

The myth, the man, the legend.  Now that is how you rock a pair of compression socks.

We started the trip on Friday morning with a little breakfast at home and then got on the road around 7AM. Dad started the drive and we made it straight through to Des Moines, Iowa where we stopped for a little lunch at the ever-dependable Panera Bread.  Of course, some of Mom’s banana bread was added on in addition. After lunch, we were back on the road, Dad driving again, and we made it straight through to Kansas City and our Extended Stay America suite.

We checked in and made our way down to our room, walked in the door and were hit with the ever-refreshing smell of cigarettes.  I called the front desk and asked if we could switch rooms, she said they were all booked but she could hook me up with some frabreeze. Lets just say a few sprays of Fresh Flowers scent was not going to cut it!

After dropping the bags I decided to go for a little jog around the hotel to loosen up the legs.  I felt pretty good but kept it very easy for 30:00. After a light stretch and a quick change, Dad and I headed to Whole Foods to pick up some dinner and groceries.

I was actually able to get to bed pretty early on Friday night and sleep in relatively late on Saturday morning (surprising with the smoke cloud hovering over, Dad snoring in the background and the odd sound of water dripping/ flushing/ draining somewhere in every direction.  Not to mention they were out of extra blankets, pillows and towels). After rolling out of bed, we got some coffee and I made my usual oatmeal breakfast.  Even though the room was practically an ashtray, it was convenient to have a kitchen to prepare some of my own food. We got our things organized and then decided to head down to the race site around 10AM. 

After watching a little bit of the IronKids finish and driving the bike course, we went down to the beach to see if we could get a swim in on the course.  The lifeguards said the beach was not even open yet and they were not letting anybody warm up on the course the day before.  I usually like to get in the water and get a feel for the temperature but it was not that big of a deal. Instead, I just headed out on the bike for one loop of the course and came back in for a short 15:00 jog and a short stretch.  I felt strong on the bike and was able to get right into it on the few shorter efforts I put in. My legs felt loose on the run and I was feeling good. After the bike/ run, Dad and I actually went over to the college to get a short swim in in the pool. It was a 25y but got the job done and I was able to stretch out and put in a few faster cycles.  I was feeling great and ready to race.

The rest of the day Saturday was pretty general and relaxing.  I picked up my packet, went back to the hotel, got the bike and my gear ready for the morning and just relaxed for a few hours. I was surprisingly more nervous on Saturday than I was for Collegiate Nationals or St. Anthony’s. I think just having time to think about the race and not having to run around like crazy the day before gave me a chance to build up some nervous energy. I got to bed pretty early and slept like a brick. 

Wake up was at 4:15 the next morning.  I hopped out of bed and had my traditional breakfast.  I got my things together and we were out of the door around 5:00. After getting to the race site and parking the car, we walked over to transition area and I set everything up.  I was numbered 76 and placed right next to my good friend, Alex Libin who was numbered 77. This made for a light atmosphere before the race but I was still able to get in the zone when I needed too.  After a number of visits to the port-o-john, Alex and I went for a jog around the run course to warm up.  I added a few shorter efforts and felt solid.  I got back to transition with just a few minutes to spare before they closed it down at 7:00.  I put my Kiwami on, grabbed my wetsuit and goggles and went down to the swim start.

Catching up on my tweets always puts me in a good mood race morning.
Delicious oatmeal and hot coffee = serious bonus. 

I was able to get a short swim in the lake to warm up before my wave went off. I once again raced in the Elite division and was slotted to go off in the third wave at 7:40.  Around 7:30 I took my GU gel and was ready to go. 

Alex and I waiting for the start. 

I saw a group of 2-3 guys bolt out after the start and I was unable to get with them. I found myself in the second group but figured it was a pretty good place to be. I was working hard with one other guy and felt like the pace was honest but not out of control. As I was coming down the final stretch, I noticed a guy on his own and it was Alex.  We ended up coming in right with each other and ran into T1. My swim time was 21:16, right on pace.

May have gotten up too early, some dolphin dives would have looked really pro. 

Transition 1 went perfectly, even though there was a little bit of a jog around the area before getting to my stuff.  Time was 1:39.

I had a plan to take the bike conservative from the start.  I was able to find the power in my legs right after the first few miles but the bike course was much hillier than I had expected.  There were a number of points where you had to come out of aero and one or two spots where you had to come out of the saddle.  It is two loops so that gave me the ability to pace myself accordingly.  Even though I felt like I was racing smart, I may have burned a few matches on the bike that I would have liked to keep in my pocket but I believe this was just a product of the course being straight up tough. To put it in perspective, I have to say it was almost identical in set up and elevation to the Collegiate National course in Tuscaloosa.  I knew my bike time was not blazing fast, but I also knew it was solid for the difficulty of the course and it was going to put me in a good position going into the run.  I got off the bike in 1:03:06. 

My ER bottle was awesome! 

No problems in T2, time of 0:54.

After the cramping issues I had in Florida 3 weeks ago, I really did not want to blow up on this run.  It is two loops, the first half of which is on pavement and the second half on hard-packed gravel. I really wanted to at least break 38:00 for the run and obviously not have to stop for cramps at any point.  I got into the first mile and kept it super easy.  My hamstrings were a little tight and I had a few twinges in my adductors but I think that was simply a product of the bit of climbing on the bike. I decided to take the run in three parts. The first two miles I was going to take it easy, focus on form and hydration.  I came into the two mile at 12:30. The next two miles I was going to pick it up but not go out of control at any point, still focusing on my turnover. I think I hit the 4-mile somewhere around 24:45. After that point, I let it rip.  I started to feel good and was ready to dig deep.  My goal was a PR for the day and I knew it was going to be close. I came into mile 5 at 30:40.  I think I had somewhere around 7:00 for the last 1.2 miles to break my previous best time from St. Anthony’s.  I put it into high gear and made it HURT.  I hit the 6-mile mark and then sprinted all out into the finish.  Right as I crossed the line my hamstrings cramped but I was done and was happy with my finish. Run time was 37:16.

My overall finish time was 2:04:08. I was 8^th in the Elite division and 10^th overall. This beat my previous best time by 0:25 seconds (from St. Anthony’s).

That one hurt pretty bad! 

After picking up my 5150 HyVee Triathlon Elite Qualification packet, Dad and I hit up the smoke-room one more time for quick showers. After checking out, we got some Einstein’s and hit the road. 5 hours to Iowa City, a quick stop for dinner at the Bread Garden Market and then back on the road for another 3 to make it home.  The hamstrings are a little tight now just sitting in the car but I will be very happy to sleep in my own bed tonight.  It was a really fun weekend and racing well always makes the trip worth it on the way there and relatively easy on the way home.

I want to thank Eleonore Rocks for the sweet 20oz bottle, the awesome visor and the pink CEP compression socks I am currently rocking in the car (high fashion is critical in recovery).

The hammy's were in some serious pain going right from the race to a 8 hour drive home,
 but the calves are feeling good! 

Thanks to Craig at Precision Multisport for my awesome training program and great race strategy advice.

Also a big thanks to GU for supplying my nutrition and CycleOps for giving me the power numbers to be able to crush the bike. 

Delicious chocolate smoothie flavored recovery brew right after the race. 

I also got to meet 2012 Olympic Team member Laura Bennett. She was super friendly and easy to talk to. I'll be rooting for her in London! 

Next up is Leon’s World Fastest Triathlon on my birthday, June 3^rd!

See you out there

St. Anthony's Triathlon Race Report

I am happy with another PR and really pleased with my swim/ bike time. Cramps killed my run again for the second year in a row.  I am disappointed that I am still dealing with racing cramps even after trying out so many different methods to prevent them. Full recap of the weekend below.

I drove home to Glenview late on Wednesday night and was able to sleep in my own bed which was really nice.  I woke up Thursday, relaxed for a bit at home, got in a swim, had lunch, biked and then ran. Right after the workout I saw my chiropractor and got a pre race tune up and adjustment.  I went to bed early on Thursday and got plenty of sleep after packing up the bikes. I had been having a few nosebleeds throughout the week after Tuscaloosa and my mom started to worry when I got one during the end of my run on Thursday.  Friday morning I actually went and got my nose cauterized to prevent any problems during the race.  After rushing a bit to get that taken care of, Chase (a friend of mine who was doing the race with me) and I headed out to Midway Airport.  We went from Midway to Atlanta and then to Orlando.  We rented a car and then drove half way to Whole Foods for dinner (heck yes), which was awesome. We finally got to the house we were staying at around 12:00am.  It was a long day and night but we were able to sleep in which was good. Woke up on Saturday and had some breakfast right away.  Put the bikes together and then headed down to the expo/ transition area around 11am.  First, we put our bikes in transition and then went for a swim.  I felt great in the water and really fresh.  After the swim we went to get our bikes but they wouldn’t let us out.  I guess the rule is, no matter what, once the bikes are in the transition area (even the day before at noon), they cannot be taken out. We had a big fight with this prick that was guarding the area.  We had to wait 2.5 hours to find the race director and get him to let us out with our bikes. I needed to make sure that everything was working properly after putting it back together out of the box. So within these 2.5 hours, I went for a small jog, right around 15:00 with 5x: 20 sec build to race pace efforts. My form and cadence felt good and I was getting up to speed with very little effort. Finally, I got my bike out and hit a 20:00 ride with a few: 20 sec efforts. Again, I felt very smooth and fresh and I was able to find a comfortable position right away.  Eventually, around 4:30 we made it back to the house (long day before the race in the heat). We cooked dinner ourselves on Saturday night and went to bed early before a 3:45 wake up call.

Morning came and I had breakfast right around 4:00am (1 package instant oatmeal, peanut butter with flaxseed, banana, few blueberries and raspberries, 1 small coffee, some water). We got our things together and headed down to transition. Got there around 5:15, set up the area and I went for my warm up around 5:45. Got in a 10:00 run with a few efforts and felt pretty loose. After final prep, got my gear and headed down to the swim start around 6:20. Wet suit on took a Roctane gel and I was ready to go. Male elite was 3^rd wave, (first of non pro’s).  They corralled us in a start and then had us walk out to the middle of the ocean before the gun went off.

The swim course is a long straight away paralleling the beach, a slight left turn, a right turn and then another right towards the transition area.  I was able to get out in front right away and get into a small group.  I did a bit of the pulling for maybe the first 400m but then put in a pretty strong surge to catch the group up ahead.  I was able to hold onto the feet of 2 guys in this group for the remainder of the swim and I was feeling super fast without going out of control.  I made the final turn and started to really work my kick to get some blood back in my lower body and prevent the small twinges I get sometimes when exiting the water. This worked perfectly and I was flying into transition.  I looked down at my watch and saw I was just over 20:00. A perfect spot to be and I was pumped with a new swim PR.

Perfect transition 1 (and great flying mount).

I got out on the bike and focused on getting into a rhythm right away.  My nutrition plan was slightly different this weekend rather than last weekend.  I took 1 roctane gel before the start of the swim, I took 1 gel right at the start of the bike and I took 1 gel right at the end of the bike before the run start. I took 2 bottles rather than 1 bottle.  I had nuun in my main bottle and just water in the bottle on my down tube. I mostly took the second bottle to wash out the salt water after the swim.  Right from the start of the bike my legs just felt great. Powerful and smooth.  I was able to find my optimal cadence and power right away.  I just simply put my head down and hammered. The course has a lot of turns but there are literally no hills. It is fast and flat and I was crushing it.  I had a small battle with two other guys which made me push pretty hard and I was passing a pretty good amount of pro women who started 5 min before us which gave me confidence.  I came in from the bike, great flying dismount and headed into T2.

Perfect transition 2, no problems at all.

After exiting T2, I looked down at my watch to see where I was.  I saw 1:23 for total time.  That gave me 37:00 for 10k to break 2 hours. I was stoked.  I knew I had to just relax, keep my cool and click off the miles. I know I can run a sub 37:00.  Mile 1 was 5:40, came through 2 mile at 11:40, mile 3 at 17:48. I was flying and felt great. I was taking in a bit of water at the aid stations but mostly just putting it over my head. Still, pumped as hell to be close to 2 hours if I could just keep it together.  Also, the run is an out and back so I saw the pro men coming back the other way.  They were flying and that put some lift in my step.  Shortly after them, I started to see the other amateur elite men and counted. I only counted 8 guys ahead of me.  I was sitting in 9^h place at the 3 mile.  In the whole freaking race! (Except the pros).  Ahh, my mind was feeling great and I started to think I had the best race of my life wrapped up. Then, I felt my hamstring a little bit. Right at the 5k turn around.  I shortened my stride to be cautious and then it just went.  My hamstring went completely straight, I couldn’t even bend it.  I had to stop, stretch, walk a little bit, stretch and just watch my position and time dwindle away. I downed like 10 salt tablets and the cramp went away.  I started to run again, got maybe 1200m and then my left hamstring went. Same thing, completely straight. Same routine afterwards: down the rest of my salt tablets, maybe 5 of them, (I kept 2 just in case it happened again), stop, stretch it, walk a little bit, hobble, get passed by a pack of guys and lose time. I eventually got going again and was very cautious. I ran miles 4-5 super slow, if I had to guess, somewhere around a 7:00 pace. I started to get passed while I was running and I was not going to let that happen. I took a risk and just went for it.  I wanted to break 2:05 at this point and just get a PR. I had I think somewhere around 7:30 for the last 1.2mi to do it.  I just started to work and if I cramped, then I cramped. Thankfully, I didn’t cramp again and was able to re-pass 3 people in the process. I was disappointed when I crossed the finish line because I was not 100% gassed. I still had some fuel left in the tank.  My body felt great, my mind was in the right spot but the hamstrings just wouldn’t let me go.

Still, this was a PR and it gave me confidence that I am in the right spot on the swim and the bike. I was a little worried last weekend because my swim/ bike combo was not as strong as I thought it would be. I know that if I put a St. Anthony’s swim/ bike with a Tuscaloosa type run, I will be right on 2:00. 

I am gaining experience and working hard.  I will get there. I still need to experiment with what causes the cramps.  I seem to get them much more frequently than other people and only when I race; so it is very hard to figure out what works because I don’t get them in training. Because the cramps subsided after the salt tablets, it leads me to believe it has something to do with salt but I really do not know. I am hoping that it is just a simple fact of coming from Iowa to Florida. It was a hot, humid and sunny day and it may have just been the climate.

I learned a lot and I keep gaining experience in racing which is what the goal is for the season.  Fast times and good places are just a byproduct of the hard work. I am happy this two-week crazy travel block is over with even though it was really fun and a great experience.  I am ready to recovery and then get back to work over the next 3 weeks and prep for Kansas City 5150 on May 20^th. I want to say thank you to my coach, Craig Strong, from Precision Multisport who helped get me ready for these two races and has put together the training program that has led me to such great improvement so quickly. I also want to thank CycleOps Power and GU for getting me through training and racing with the best products on the market.  


Please consider donating to the Eleonore Rocks foundation.  It is a great cause and any donation will be appreciated. 


That is all for now! Splits from the race are below. 

Official results:

Swim- 20:58

Transition 1- 0:58

Bike- 1:00:25

Transition 2- 0:50

Run- 41:24

Time- 2:04:33

Overall place- 82^nd out of 2689

Division place (amateur elite)- 28^th out of 65

Collegiate National Championship Race Report

Sorry for the delay, it has almost been a month since the race but with school finishing up and moving home, I am just now catching up on things. After the race, I had a 13 hour drive from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Iowa City, Iowa and that gave me an opportunity to really think about how the weekend went down.  Below is my race report. Enjoy!

We got in Thursday night around 6:00pm. I was able to go for a 30:00 easy jog and have a stretch. We made dinner in the hotel, organized a little bit, I foam rolled and took a shower. We were in bed around 10:30 and I was pretty beat.

I woke up around 8:00 on Friday morning. Had some breakfast, hung out for a bit and then we went for a ride around 10:00. We did a slow ride around the campus and then made our way over to the run course to ride around the whole 10k loop. We did the entire thing and I was able to get a pretty good feel for the turns and elevation. On the way back we rode some of the bike course and did a few building efforts. I didn’t feel great on the efforts, just not overly powerful for some reason.  I got back to the hotel, put the run shoes on and went for a 15:00 jog around with a few pickups to loosen up the legs. I felt good on the run, very fast and smooth.  I grabbed a quick lunch and then we went to packet pickup, swam the course for about 20:00 and had a mixed relay meeting at 3:30. We went back to the hotel and got bags/ numbers together for the morning. There was a pasta party that night which I went to but did not eat there. I waited until we got back to eat back at the hotel (we had a kitchen). It was about 8:00 by the time we got eating but I felt good and ready to go for the morning.

Wakeup was at 4:00am even though my race did not start until 10:30.  I woke up, changed and had some breakfast (2 packages of oatmeal, peanut butter, banana, blueberries, 1 clif kids zbar, 1 small cup of coffee and some water). I headed down to the race site, set up my transition area and then went to hang out at the team tent. From about 7:45-9:00 I snacked on another clif kids z bar, a banana and a few shot blocks. We watched a bit of the girl’s race and pretty much just hung out for a few hours. At 9:00, Alex and I went for our warm up which was a 15:00 jog with a few building efforts to open up the hips. I felt pretty good on these and was able to really open up. We went back to the team tent, stretched out a bit and grabbed our things to head down to the swim start around 9:45.

We got down to the entrance to the swim start and put the wetsuits on.  I was in the water around 10:05 and the men had until 10:20 to warm up.  I started swimming and getting mentally prepared. I lined up, entered the water and held onto the side of the dock with everyone else to wait for the gun to go off.

Wave 1 was obviously all of the fast guys looking to get a good position at the start of the swim. The race started and it was a serious free for all. I got totally beaten down.  I missed the first group and was left with the second group, which I was much faster than.  I worked on just picking people off but I was without a doubt doing the work on my own. It was not until about the last 600m that I caught up to a group and was able to draft a little bit. I came to the last buoy and swam towards the exit. Then, AGAIN, I felt the small twinges and cramps in my feet and hamstrings. Same thing as Hy-Vee last year but not as serious or debilitating. I got out of the water and just worked on getting my feet under me, there was a 300m run from the swim exit to the transition area, which actually helped in getting my feet back.  No problems in transition.

It was not hot and it was not sunny at all. Really good conditions to be able to hammer. There was about a 15-20mph wind that was annoying and something that everyone had to deal with. I got on the bike and just worked on spinning out the legs for the first mile to get rid of any of the little cramps I had coming out of the swim. It didn’t take long for me to bounce back and I started to get to work.  I felt good but not great on the bike. I couldn’t ever really get into a rhythm on the first lap but I still came in the 20k around 31:00. I went out on the second lap and that is where I got the penalty.  I was riding up a hill where I had to get out of my bars. Some dude comes up on me starting his first lap, passed me up the hill and then died.  I stopped pedaling to let him go ahead but we were going uphill so if I were to slow down anymore, I would have practically lost all speed and eventually stopped moving. Right as he cut in front of me and died, the official pulled up next to me and I got dinged. After that, my mental got a little off, I just had the feeling that I had gotten the penalty. I had a hard time getting back into it on the bike after that. I ended up hurting a little bit on the last 1/3 and was about 2:00+ on the second lap compared to the first. On the bike I got through a whole bottle of GU Roctane drink. 

I hit T2 and got my legs underneath me. There is a huge hill about 400m out of transition and I planned on taking that first 400 conservatively.  I made it up with no problems. I was feeling good and took a GU Chocolate Raspberry Roctane gel here. My legs were rolling and I was focusing on cadence.  Right from mile 1 I started to get stomach cramps. I just pushed through and suffered the pain.  Some were really painful and I just worked on relaxing to recover and then bounce back.  I was able to pick off about 8 people on the run, which was pretty good. I suffered the last 2 miles and came in strong.

I crossed the line and was hurting but happy with my finish. 2:05 is actually a PR for me in a true Olympic distance event (even though this was supposedly a little long). I found out that I got the penalty and started to bum out pretty hard. I was angry because my finish was 37^th place, right within my goal of top 50. I wanted to break 2:05 but it was a little long so I was happy with that too.  I was pretty stoked originally and then getting the penalty moved me back to 70^th place and that pissed me off. 70^th place was really not anywhere where I thought I would end up finishing.  I know I should think about the race as a 2:05 but it is hard to ignore what is on the paper and what everyone else sees. I was also disappointed because I feel like I could have biked better. I think my swim was right on point even though I missed the group. But I think that on a solid day I am a 1:00-1:02 biker, not 1:03:45. Obviously with the long runs to the transition area, my transition times are usually faster and that takes off about 1:30-2:00 on a different course. Still, I was happy with my run form and I think that if it was actually long, I can run right on 37:00 on any given day. 

Official results:

Division Place (male undergraduate)- 49^th

Overall place- 68^th

Swim- 21:23

T1- 2:23

Bike- 1:03:51

T2- 0:47:00

Run- 37:25

Time- 2:07:47

Penalty- 2:00

For the first race of the season, it was not a bad opener! It was a fun weekend and a great experience. I was also happy to represent my team and my school! On to the next one, in just 8 days, St. Anthony’s Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida.