Naperville Sprint Triathlon Race Report

 No matter the season, I try to make it a priority to get back to the Naperville Sprint Triathlon.  It is a great event and a race that I have enjoyed with my Dad for 4 years straight.  Below is the race report from my 3^rd place overall effort!

Naperville is about 45 minutes away from my house, which makes for an easy morning drive up 294.  The alarm was set for 3:45am and I had devoured my usual rice cake/ peanut butter and jelly breakfast by 4:15am.  I got my bottles together and we were on the road by 4:30am.   Parking is really easy and it took all of about 2 minutes to walk down to the transition area to rack my bike. 

I set my things down and made a quick B-line straight to the port-o-potty before the lines got long (I usually get too impatient to wait in line which ends in a tantrum and inability to “relax” before the race start). After a successful trip, I was able to take my bike out of the transition area and warm up with a quick spin on the course. I started off pretty easy and out of my aero bars but built in some speed towards the end and added a few accelerations.  My bike and legs were feeling good as I rolled back in the transition area to get things set up.

I put my transition area together and then went for a short run on the course once again. I like to warm up on the race routes to avoid any repeats of my Tri Indy disaster-extravaganza. (See here, it was no fun). I came back from my run and then quickly made my way down to the swim start. Once I got there, I had plenty of time to do a full loop of the swim course to get the arms nice and loose (and re-familiarize myself with the sharp turns). After the swim, I met up with my extended family that had come out to see the race.  They proceeded to give me a multitude of air-fives and blown kisses, which made me feel great heading down to the swim start. Nothing like a grandma’s kisses.

The short 400-meter swim is in a pool-beach-contraption and has three FULL turns following an M shape route. The turns make it tough to get up to speed without having to slow down to go around the buoys. I went off with the first group of 4 and was able to hold their feet for the first 100m.  They really picked it up for the later portions of the swim and I was not able to hold on.  One of the swimmers from the second group (4 seconds back) came up and passed me. I was able to latch onto his feet and get through the rest of the swim with no problems. I exited the water in a respectable 5^th place in a time of 6:32.

My bike was racked in the far right corner, which made for a pretty long run through transition.  I quickly made it over to my bike while passing 2 people in the process. I put the helmet on and was out on the road in a stealthy 1:23.

The 22k bike course is 2 loops and sets up to be very fast.  I usually race with a speedometer and watch but opted to not wear either for this race.  My strategy was simple; GO HARD from start to finish. I passed one of the faster swimmers within the first minute of the bike ride and then settled into a good threshold pace.  I battled back and forth with one guy but held my position pretty steady until the 20k mark.  Right at the end, the guy I was battling with and 1 other guy, who came out of nowhere, blazed past me.  I did not panic; I picked it up a little but did not go over the line.  I quickly reeled in one of them and the other was not too far ahead coming into T2. I finished the ride in a time of 32:24.

I had no problems in T2; I got the shoes on and headed out for the 5k run in 1:17. 

Now… I knew I had some good run training under my belt but I also was aware that I pretty much went into this race with no taper at all.  I ran out onto the course in fourth place and was not too far behind the 3^rd place guy.  I took the first half-mile steady, matching the pace of the guy ahead of me. Right around the 0.75-mile mark, I came up on the racer ahead of me and went into what I like to call super-turbo-worrier mode. The goal was to make him feel bad and drop him quickly, which I was successful in doing. But the super-turbo-worrier mode did not fade, I just stuck with the pace all the way through.  I was feeling great and pushed it hard through the last 2 miles, knowing I had to be close to a 5k PR. I crossed the line in 58:38 with a new 5k personal best time of 17:05.  I had run my way onto the podium, improved my time from last year by nearly 2:00 and had done it in front of 2-sets of out-of-town grandparents who could not have been more ecstatic.

C'mon finish line! 

That is not a smile, that is my grimacing face. Get with the program. 

I was really happy with my result but did realized that the Naperville Sprint Triathlon was not the focus of my training as of late. The real goal lies roughly 4 weeks away at the 5150 National Championship at the HyVee Triathlon on September 2^nd. I will also race the Revolution 3 Wisconsin Dells Olympic triathlon next Sunday and I am preparing for a fast race.

I would like to thank my Mom for being the mastermind behind all Team Metzler operations, she is really the best! And a big shout out to my grandparents who made their way from New Jersey to Chicago to watch the race, having your support is always amazing.

Super-mom

Poppop and Grammy

Grandma Shirley (Papa Joe not pictured) 

Thank Craig Strong from Precision Multisport for some kick-ass coaching and Cycleops power for letting me nerd-out over wattage improvements and personal best training stress scores (both of which I have been doing a lot of lately J).  Consider checking out the Eleonore Rocks Foundation, any donation is much appreciated, great things are coming from out of this organization. 

And to all of my other supports, I would not be able to improve at the rate I have throughout my 2012 season campaign without each and every one of you!

I am off for a nice little 40 mile ride to shake out the legs, like I said, HyVee is right around the corner! 

When stretching turns into a party. 

Lifetime Minneapolis Race Report

Another city, another new race and another long road trip came together for the 7^th race of my 2012 season at Lifetime Minneapolis. Below is a race report of the whole trip and some of the events that took place in the days leading up to it. Enjoy!

After finishing the Lifetime Philadelphia race on June 24^th, I came back to Chicago with some serious focus and dedication.  I wanted to go into Minneapolis as fit as I have ever been with the intention of getting top three and qualifying for the Toyota Cup race in Dallas, Texas.  If I were to get top three in Minneapolis, I would receive a free entry to the Dallas race in addition to a $500 travel stipend (a pretty sweet deal).  So that Tuesday after Philly, I got back on the horse and simply trained harder, ate better and focused on my recovery. I had my best two weeks of training and I was feeling great 1 week out from the race, more confident in my swimming, biking and running than ever before.

Saturday July 7^th was exactly one week away from the race and I had my last hard session planned before the pre-race taper phase of my training schedule.  I planned to ride for roughly 3 hours with 2x 20:00 efforts and 1x 45:00 effort. I got out there early that morning to beat the heat and felt great from the start. I hit the first 20:00 interval right on and got ready for the next. I got about 15:00 into the second interval and then BAM…. CRASH.

Hello Body, Meet Pavement. 

I was going downhill at roughly 30 MPH and in the process of dropping into my aero bars, I hit a pothole and flipped right over the bars, skidding 20 feet in the process. I had no broken bones and no concussion but I was pretty beat up and had some nasty road rash. All I could think about was Minneapolis, a mere 7 days away.

Sunday morning I woke up pretty sore and just took it easy.  I took it easy on Monday as well and was able to finally start some shorter tune up workouts on Tuesday.  Still, the road rash was pretty nasty and I simply could not swim.  I pretty much had the “it will be fine” method on this whole crash and just crossed my fingers it would actually be fine in the end.

I made sure to get in with my miracle-healing chiropractor Monday and Thursday last week to get everything properly adjusted.  We left on Thursday afternoon to make the 6-hour drive and I was still feeling sore from the crash but surprisingly, my legs felt rested and fresh. 

We got in Thursday night around 7pm, hit up the Whole Foods right away for dinner/ groceries and then settled into the hotel.  I hit the hay pretty early on Thursday night (sleeping on the awful pull out couch in the hotel room).

The trip was served a dual purpose for the Metzler family, my sister, Jillian, is currently in the process of college searching so the three of them toured the University of Minnesota campus on Friday morning. This left me to take down the shake down, course preview and packet pickup on my own.  It was not a problem at all except for not having the ability to drive the course and pay attention to what was going on at the same time (while also messing with my Garmin to get a rough estimate of the elevation on course). Lets just say I got a little lost out there and after about an hour of driving the same road back and forth, curse words were yelled and maps were thrown out the window in anger! (Not really though, I didn’t want to litter)

After struggling to figure out the course, I swam a loop of the course (the first time I had swum in 8 days), biked around on the course and then ran for a bit. I had a light stretch, hit up Whole Foods one more time to get some dinner essentials and then went to packet pickup to get my race numbers. After that, I got back to my hotel, organized my things and then put my feet up before my 8:45pm bedtime.  

I did not sleep very well the night before; I could not stop thinking about the race.  I was actually pleased when my alarm finally rang at 4am (really not that bad considering the 3:20 wake up call for Philly). I switched it up from my normal pre-race oatmeal and had some rice cakes with peanut butter/jelly/banana (rice cakes being my new addiction).

We got to the race site around 5:30; I set up my transition area, walked through the entrances/ exits and then jogged around for 10:00 to warm up.  I had a light stretch and then got down to the beach to swim for a little and warm up the arms. I mentally prepared to race hard all day and got focused before the 7:14 gun went off.  

The swim is a simple triangle shape going clockwise around the buoys. Before the Elite Males, the Professional Men and Women went off and 1 oddly placed charity relay wave. The gun went off, arms were flung and punches were thrown as usual and then within maybe 100m we got caught up in the charity relay wave participants. I got stuck behind 1 or two of them and missed a group of 3 faster swimmers who pulled out in front. The rest of the swim I tried to bridge the gap between these 3 swimmers and myself but just could not pull them in. I worked hard on the swim but was all-alone out there. I exited the water in 4^th position in a time of 21:31 (a pretty slow time to be out of the water 4^th overall, only: 60 behind the fastest swim time). Overall, I was still happy to be in this position after only swimming once in the past 9 days.  (Also a bonus confidence booster was the fact that my entire road rash was still in tact after the swim!)

Transition 1 went pretty smoothly and I got out on the bike in 1:14.

I got on the bike and passed one of the three guys in the lead swim bunch right away.  The first half of the bike course is flat but still technical and bumpy.  I let my heart rate come down a little bit after the swim and took it easy the first 2 miles, just getting some fuel back in and getting some blood back into my legs.  Still, I was moving pretty quick and bridging the gap on another one of the racers from that lead swim group.  I ended up catching and passing him somewhere around mile 4 and started to pick up some serious speed on this section of the course. I was hammering and was feeling good but riding right at my Olympic distance threshold pace, not over it. Around the 8-mile mark, I was riding along at a steady/ hard pace with 1 guy on my tail.  All of the sudden a group of 3 guys BLAZE by me at what seemed to be around 35 MPH. I tried to keep pace but then realized their pace was jus too strong and I backed off.  As they disappeared into the distance, another 2 guys went past and they too were holding a crazy pace.  I didn’t event try to go with them and let them just pull away once again.  Around the half waypoint, a group of 2 guys bridged up to me and the three of us traded spots for the rest of the ride. Around the 20 mile mark, two guys who had gone off with the group that went past earlier in the ride fell back into the group I was around. The 5 of us came into transition at the same time. With a bike time of 1:02:10, I was pretty pleased especially because I clocked the course on my cycling computer to be about .50 to .75 miles long. I was also happy with this time because there were points on the bike course where it was so bumpy that I was simply holding on for dear life. I think this caution to not go down may have had something to do with going down HARD just one-week prior.

I ran into T2 with two other guys and we made our way over to our racks.  There was one guy ahead of me and one to my left. The one to my left went to the first rack in the row and the one ahead of me proceeded straight to the rack I was in.  Then out of nowhere, the guy on the left knocks down the bike rack, going directly into the guy ahead of me and blocking me out from my transition area.  I channeled my inner hurdler and hopped over the rack/ racer/ bike conundrum that lay ahead. I got my shoes on and hit the run course with more ease than expected given the roadblock that just presented itself. I was in and out in 1:13.

The run course is two 5k loops around the lake and is 100% flat.  Out of the group of 5 I came into transition with, I was in third position. I also realized that I was probably somewhere between 9^th and 12^th place overall, well off the goal of top 3.  At this point I just wanted to put my head down and run hard.  I had swam at my threshold and biked at my threshold and I just wanted to polish it off with a gut wrenching run. I passed one of the guys from the 5-man group within the first half-mile and watched the other guy pull ahead who decided it would be cool to run with Sarah Haskins who was on her second loop of the run course.  I let the two of them go ahead and just stuck to my plan.  I hit the first 2 miles steady but hard enough to keep the pace honest in 12:35. I was feeling good and started to push at this point. I was at 3 miles in 18:30, 4 miles in 24:30.  I really started to bury myself miles 4-6.  I saw a few guys up the road and went into warrior-attack mode on them.  I passed 3 guys in the final 2 miles and came into the finish completely depleted in 37:13.

My finish time was 2:03:23 and I was 6^th place overall in the Elite Male field. Even though it was not a top 3, the competition was much more challenging than I had expected given last years results.  I raced as hard as I could the whole day and was very pleased with my effort, especially with what I think was a slightly longer swim and bike courses. I was also super pleased with my ability to come back from a rather inconveniently timed wreck just one-week prior.  I did not let it distract my mental focus and I did not use it as an excuse, all qualities that I am happy to see myself show in times that it would be very easy to get distracted and make up BS excuses.

After the race, it took me about an hour to come back around to even half function.  I was able to cool down with a 20:00 easy jog and stretched out some very tight legs. I also made 3-6 trips to the Zico cart and stocked up on some coconut water. That counts as a cool down too, right?

I may or may have not taken 15 of them....

I lugged my bag with the Zico’s in it to the car and we got some breakfast at this crazy good diner in downtown Minneapolis.  It was also great to see my best friend and roommate, also named Justin, from Iowa who lives in Minneapolis and came out for the race (even though he was feeling… under the weather? Lets just say the hungry man’s breakfast from the diner did the trick to make him feel better!)

This dude thinks he's strong or something. 

My post-race breakfast choice. Vegetable/egg white/ avocado scrambler, fruit and sweet potato tater tots. 

After heading back to the hotel for a quick shower, we loaded up the car and hit the road towards home! 

I am getting pretty pro at in-car-post-race-delicoius snacks. 

And one more...... 

Next up are a few weeks of solid training and then a local sprint race in Naperville, IL.  I placed second there last year and I am gunning for the win this year! The following weekend I am doing Rev3 Wisconsin Dells to validate my qualification for the 2013 Collegiate National Championship.  After that, the season is not set in stone.  I am doing the 5150 National Championship HyVee Triathlon but I am going to listen to my body and decide whether or not to add another race or two.  I will be sure to keep everyone updated! 

I want to give a quick thanks to my coach, Craig Strong, at Precision Multisport who put together the pre-race/ post-crash plan to get me to as close to full form as possible on race day. Thank you to Cycleops Power supplying the data that allows me to improve my bike power every training session and Running Away Multisport for hooking me up with a disc wheel for the race! Also consider checking out Eleonore Rocks, any donation is much appreciated! 

Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon Race Report

Below is the breakdown of the Olympic distance race in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

The day started off with my earliest wake up call yet… 3:20am! I did not sleep very well the night before the race and I had a hard time getting my heart rate to calm down. All I could think about was the race. 

After getting up pretty easily out of my semi-asleep state, I had my regular breakfast of oatmeal and peanut butter, a bit of coffee and we hit the road.  We flew downtown from where we were staying about 20 minutes away and after getting a little lost, somehow managed to get to the race site parking. We got our things together, pumped the tires and rode our bikes down to the transition area. 

After getting organized and ready to go, Alex and I took the bus down to the swim start at St. Joe’s boathouse down the river. I hit up the port-o-potty and then the two of us went for our warm up.  We jogged along the river path for about 15:00 and I was able to add a few shorter pickups and felt very fluid.  After a light stretch, I put my Kiwami on and went down to the dock where we jumped in.

Water temperature was 81.3 degrees, which meant no wetsuit.  I was pretty happy with the call because I think that I actually benefit from a non-wetsuit swim. The course is a straight shot down the river (with the stream behind us) before a quick right turn to the swim exit.  The pro men went off at 6:30am, the women at 6:31 and I was off at 6:33.

Right from the start there was a pack of about 10 guys who went out front. I was on the back of that pack and swimming comfortably.  I was happy to make the front group, which had been a bit of a struggle the past few races. I hammered along for about 100m and then realized this group was easily 50 meters away from the line of bouys in the middle of the river.  I had two choices, either stay with this group and be what I thought was off course, or break off from this group and join 3 or 4 others who were swimming right along the bouy line. I quickly realized that swimming out of the way was not the best decision and broke off from this group to grab onto the other swimmers feet who were swimming along the correct line.  And this was….. the wrong move! I went over to those guys and then after a few strokes realized I was either swimming much faster than them or they were fading hard. All I could do was watch the group to the left gain distance on me as I stayed along the bouy line by myself.

I exited the swim in 20:19.  A pretty strong swim time alone but I had planned to go a lot faster and I believe that if I was part of that group, I could have gone faster. Either way, they gained about :50 seconds on me total. :50 seconds I would have liked to have but I had to just deal with the decision I had made.

T1 was pretty smooth without a wetsuit. I got out of the water, made my way to my bike and headed out on the course after running through the long transition area.

We had driven the bike course twice on Friday evening and I had a pretty good idea of what was ahead of me. It is two loops, each with four major climbs. There is 850 feet of climbing per lap for a total of 1700 feet. It was not as hilly as the Pat Griskus race last weekend but still very challenging with a number of technical turns and bombing descents. I got on the bike and rolled up to the first hill, less than a mile out of transition. I may have taken this one too hard from the start because I got over this first hill and was pretty shot. Maybe I didn’t give myself enough time for my heart rate to come down after the swim but I really did not feel right until mile 8 on the bike.  The following climbs were pretty much what I expected and I really worked to gain speed on the down hills. After mile 8, I was able to push the pace a little bit and put some good power down on the pedals. I put my head down, worked hard and pushed through the course. I started to feel it again around mile 20 but managed to come into T2 with a 1:03:13 bike time. Not blazing fast and not really what I had planned but still pretty solid for the course.

T2 went great, I dropped my bike off and hit the run course with no problems at all.

The run course is pretty simple and flat. There is an out and back to the right of the transition area, a .4 mile run on the grass behind the transition and then another out and back on the other side before coming into the finish. I started conservative as usual and missed the fist mile marker, missing my first mile split time.  I felt like I was pushing and told myself to just calm down a couple of times. My legs felt like they were rolling and I thought I was doing pretty well. The two mile came up and I checked my watch for the first time to see 13:00.  About 30 seconds slower than what is usually pretty conservative pace for me. From that point on I started to push harder.  I just put my head down and gritted the last 4 miles out.  I may have gone a little too hard on miles 3-4 because I was hurting pretty bad towards the end.  I was reeling in a few of the pro women but only caught a few Elite males. Right at the 6 mile mark, I saw an elite male up the road and tried to catch him.  I put in a surge and left it all out there. I missed him by :02 seconds in the end, coming in with a run time of 37:55.

My total finish time was 2:04:24.  I would have really liked to be somewhere around 2:00:00 for this race but the bike course was challenging and I made a wrong decision in the swim. I pushed hard from start to finish and was content with my result. I finished 9^th overall in the Elite Male division, keeping my top-ten streak alive. I was also 23^rd overall out of 1589 competitors. It was a solid day and I am traveling back to Illinois a happy racer.

I also want to give a huge shout out to Alex Libin who took 1st place in the Male Elite field.  He is one seriously fast dude and an awesome friend to be with throughout the whole east coast trip. 

Sorry for no pictures this time, no personal photographer for this one! You can check out the professional pictures (and even some videos from the finish and the swim exit) from Brightroom here http://www2.brightroom.com/98163/143

I would also like to point out that I am currently ranked 1^st in the nation in the 18-19 division on the USAT Rankings. You can see it for yourself at www.usatrankings.com.

A huge thanks to Coach Craig at Precision Multisport, Eleonore Rocks Triathlon Team and  CycleOps Power. Also thank you so much to my family who came out to watch me race. Love you guys!

Words from the rest day

With all of this racing, my Monday morning coffee feels lonely without being accompanied by the writing of a short novel length race report. So, I figured I would give you all a little update on what has happened the last week and what is coming up the next few days!

I was actually able to recovery very quickly from my best performance of the year at Leon's Triathlon (10th overall elite with a time of 2:00:45).  I got right back on the horse Tuesday morning and put in another training block that will hopefully carry me through the next few races and set me up well for a late season push. A lot of my effort was aerobic and endurance based but I still had a few sessions that ramped up my speed to keep the engine fresh. I ended up swimming 9500 meters, biking 185 miles and running 50 miles with my biggest session coming on Saturday morning in the form of a strong double-brick workout where I biked 1 hour at aerobic pace, ran 45 min at aerobic pace, biked 45 min at threshold and ran 30 min at threshold (with Dad on the bike for pacing, encouragement and bottles!)

Tuesday night run on my new favorite trail.
The DPRT is legit! (30 miles of awesome hard packed gravel along the Des Plaines River) 

I biked 2 hours, ran 45 minutes and swam 30 minutes open water yesterday all recovery pace which paid off because I actually feel pretty good (a bit surprising because I slept in and didn't start until it was about 90 degrees outside).  I will take the customary day off today, work a few hours and then pay a visit to my chiropractor to get some treatments.

As for what is next, I am traveling out to the east coast for a set of two races with my friend Alex Libin.  We are driving all the way out there to race the Pat Griskus Triathlon in Middlebury, CT on June 16th and then driving out to Philly to race the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon on June 24th. I have a ton of family who lives in CT, NJ and NY and I am looking forward to seeing all of them. I do not think we will have to worry about roughing it out there, I am predicting we will be treated like royalty!

That is all for now.  I will try to document as much of our adventure as possible to keep everyone in tuned to the trip. I am looking forward to a great experience and some fast racing.

Leon's Triathlon Race Report

The 2012 Leon’s World’s Fastest Triathlon took place on Sunday, June 3^rd this year which just happened to be my 19^th birthday.  I went to Hammond, Indiana with the intention to give myself a deserving birthday present and that is exactly what I did! Enjoy the recap from the weekend of racing and birthday festivities.

Hammond is only about 45 minutes away from my house so I did not have to worry about travel, crappy smoke-filled hotel rooms and unusual foods the days leading up to the race.  I woke up early on Saturday morning after a good nights sleep to some steel cut oats and a nice cup of coffee. I met up with my friend Chase at the Park Center parking lot at 7:30am to do a little pre race warm up workout.  We started off practicing a few flying mounts and then went out for two loops on the Glenview Park District Triathlon bike course. We got in about 10 miles with a few building efforts on the flat sections. After rolling back to the cars, I put the run shoes on and went for a run around the lake again, with a few building efforts to tune up for the next day.  After a light stretch, we were off to Hammond to pick up packets and swim the course.

We got there around 10:30am, checked out the swim course, got our packets and hung out with some friends for a little bit. We then went down to the swim course and swam about 1000m.  The water was a nice temperature and there was a little chop but nothing to worry about.  Then again, it is Gary, Indiana and the water quality was not the best. I heard that they pulled a dead guy out of the lake after the race last year….

Around 12pm we got back in the car and hit up Whole Foods on the way home for some lunch.  I got home, finished packing for the race and then put the feet up and relaxed. I had my usual pre race meal of salad, grilled chicken and sweet potatoes. I was in bed and asleep by 9:30pm before the 4:00am wake up call the next morning.

The alarm went off (way to freaking early) and I laid there for a minute wondering who’s idea it was to make races start at 8:00am instead of a much preferable 10:00 or 11:00.  I eventually hopped out of bed and got downstairs to make some breakfast. After getting my stuff together I headed off to Chase’s where we were meeting up to drive out to the race. 

We got there at 6:00am, right when transition opened. They had designated wave rows in the transition area but where you slotted your bike was done on a first come first serve basis. I got a PRIME spot right next to the bike in/out and then went straight to take down the port-o-potty conundrum (10 port-o-johns for 1000 people does not work out well). After waiting in line, even at 6:15am, I got back to transition and set up my gear. I took the bike out for a little spin to make sure everything was good to go and then got in a little run warm up.  I had a little stretch and then went down to the waterfront to put the wetsuit on and get ready to go.

The sweet bike racks made my super-high saddle a non issue when racking (6'2''& up friends, back me up on this). 

I was racing in the Elite wave at this race (formally known as “Amateur All Stars” which made me feel like less of an elite for the ridiculous name) and there was actually some serious competition at this race. Pro racers Reevan Nathan and Jared Milam.  Extremely fast amateurs Adam Zucco, Ryan Frederickson, Dave Fix and Chase Baraczek. Not to mention the 40 other elite men who I did not know personally but I had seen around racing very well this season.  I was not intimidated, I was actually excited to get out there and race these guys.

Me getting owned in the face by elbows, fists and feet at the start. 

The swim is a diamond shape and you go out with the current into your face, hang a left and then swim back to shore with the current at your back. The start of the swim was a free-for-all and I was pretty much pummeled by every guy in the wave. The swim stringed out and once again, I had just missed the front pack of about 5 elite swimmers. I was out there on my own, trying to bridge the gap but I just could not reel them in.  I swam the entire 1500m on my own with some guy on my toes. I eventually caught one of the guys from the group (not wearing a wetsuit?) right at the end.  I stumbled out of the water, disoriented as always, and looked down to see a new swim PR, 19:17.

Almost went down coming out, may have swallowed too much dead-guy water.  

I ran over to T1 with my head spinning from the chop in the water and made my way over to my bike.  I struggled a bit with my chinstrap but made it out onto the bike with a sweet flying mount in 1:24.

2-3 curse words may have been uttered here. 

The bike is actually pretty interesting.  Two loops, mostly on a closed down highway that is filled with bumps and potholes. The race is known as the “Fastest in the World” and I think it gets its name from the literal zero feet of elevation.  It was flat as a pancake. I took a similar plan to Kansas City in that I was going to go conservative on the bike, possibly loose 1-2 minutes from what I could probably ride and in turn, save my legs for a fast run.  I was not passed at all on the first loop and I was taking it relatively “easy.” I just settled into a pace that I though was right below my threshold and kept it there.  It was not until the second loop where I was passed by a number of guys towards the end.  They looked like they were hurting pretty hard to stay together and I felt like I was biking hard but never out of control.  Their effort to pass me maybe gave them :15-:30 seconds over me, a loss I was willing to take before the run that was soon approaching.  I got off the bike in 1:02:56. Not blazing fast but my legs felt pretty fresh for the run.

Chase had actually passed me in the last mile or so on the bike and we practically came into T2 side by side.  I had a great second transition and was out of there in 0:42.

The run is a straight out and back on an uncovered section that is primarily on parts of the bike course. A group of about 4 or 5 guys (including myself) left T2 together and they all started gunning it out of transition.  I instantly channeled my inner cheetah mode, picking it up to bridge the gap. I then felt a little twinge in my adductor that reminded me to run my own race.  I pulled it back, settled down and let them burn it off into the distance. I remember saying to myself, “they are going out way too hard, they are going to come back.” I came through the 2 mile around 12:30 (exact same 2 mile time as KC). I took these first two miles conservatively, just focusing on my cadence and form.  Miles 3-4 has a little separate out and back that gave me the opportunity to pick it up a little bit and bridge the gap on the other guys.  I hit the 3-mile turn around in 18:30.  As I started to grit my teeth and buckle down, I saw the group of guys coming back.  I hit the 4-mile in 24:00, I was cruising and felt pretty good.  It was around this point that this race started to HURT.  I saw the guys up ahead and I was putting the pressure on.  I started to really get after it and came through the 5 mile in 30:00 flat. I was not worried about splits at this point, all I was thinking was “kick it in turbo mode and out sprint those guys at the end.” I started to put in a few surges to try and bridge the gap even further but every time I really opened it up, I got a few muscle twinges in my VMO. I just kept to my hard pace and they started to come back.  I got to the final dogleg turn and had caught two of the guys.  I put in a final kick and passed them at the finish, collapsing at the finish line.  Final run time was 36:25, 5:52 min/mi pace. A new 10k PR.

This final sprint HURT!!!!!!

I looked at my time, 2:00:45.  Wow, a 3:58 Olympic distance personal record, a 10^th elite male finish and a 12^th overall finish. I had finally put the pieces of an entire race together and had my fourth consecutive personal best time.  This was the best birthday present I could have ever asked for!

After letting my body recover for about an hour after the race, cooling down in the nasty-ass lake and drinking about 4 bottles of water, I finally got the energy back to put in a painfully slow 20:00 cool down jog around the beautiful river trail of Hammond, Indiana (closest I have ever personally been to getting shot, maybe short shorts where not the best option?). I stretched out and got in the car with the fam and we went to get my new post-race craving food, Einstein bagels. We got back home and Mom gave me pretty much free range to do whatever I wanted on my birthday.  Hmmmm, well I did need to do a 1hr recovery ride later in the day and Dad had not worked out yet, so we headed out to Buffalo creek to ride together, something we had not done in a very long time. It was perfect weather and I was doing exactly what I would have ever wanted on my birthday. After Dad ran a little bit (heck to the yeah after battling back from a bad calf injury), we picked Mom up and went to Whole Foods to get some goodies to make for dinner. I finally decided on this, yup it was freaking amazing.

Bow tie pasta, sauteed vegetables, steamed brussel sprouts, marinara sauce, grilled talapia and mango salsa with a mixed green salad, cornbread and a real cola. Birthday meal = success. 

After an episode of Game of Thrones and an episode of 24/7 Pacquiao v. Bradley, I treated myself to a birthday brownie/granola/frozen yogurt beast creation that was well deserved.

Overall it was a great day, I had a lot of fun and did what I love to do.  I actually feel pretty good today (taking into account the usual post-race soreness). Hard training is on tap for this upcoming week to put in another surge for the rest of the season. A big thanks to Precision Multisport and CycleOps Power.  Please consider donating to the Eleonore Rocks Foundation at www.eleonorerocks.org. Next up is Lifetime Philadelphia on June 24^th!

Official Results:

Clock Time	02:00:45
Overall Place	12 / 563
Gender Place	12 / 394
Division Place	10 / 40
Swim	00:19:17
Trans1	00:01:24
Bike	01:02:56
Trans2	00:00:42
Run	00:36:25
Swimrank	17
Bikerank	23
Mph	23.6
Runrank	13
Pace	00:05:52