Race day.  I felt loose and ready to go.  There’s much less pressure in a sprint.  You suffer more intensely but it’s over before you know it.  Not much soul searching in one of these, it’s start, hit it hard, and you’re done before you know it.  My swim wasn’t what I hoped for but once I got on the bike I felt excellent.  I moved from about 8th to 3rd in the first 10 minutes of the bike.  The bike course was incredibly hard with fairly long and hills that were certainly steep.  The legs felt great but I know that Ben Collins and Cam Dye would lead out of the swim together and then push each other on the bike.  I was hoping they’d at least be in sight but they were crushing it.  I felt fantastic on the bike and they still outrode me by about 1:30.  On one of the 180’s I timed them at 3:00 up and when I got to T2 and was told that they were still up by that margin I knew it would take an absolute miracle to hunt them down.

They both ran very well and I had the best run split on the day but didn’t make much headway into their lead.  A bit of a bummer that I hit the running hard the last few weeks but didn’t get to put it to use.  I want to win a race like this next year but I’m still happy with my 3rd place finish for now.

Amy and I got ourselves a nice dinner and marg at Old Town Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale to celebrate the completed season.

On Monday we purposefully got the last flight of the night so we could go exploring.  With our wedding this fall and work and training being incredibly busy we haven’t had time for a leisurely drive.  Apache Trail.  That sounds cool.  We drove east of Phoenix and were impressed with the Superstition Mountains.  We drove past where the Lost Dutchmen mine is reputed to lie.  The Lost Dutchmen is supposed to be a lost mine and is said to contain bountiful gold but we decided to pass on the treasure and drive on into the Tonto National Forest.

Tonto National Forest

We quickly came across the first of many lakes we’d see, Canyon Lake.

Canyon Lake near Tortilla Flats

We drove through Tortilla Flat, population 6 then across a cool one lane bridge.

I like this bridge

We then hit the steep famous downhill on the Apache Trail.  The road was built in the early 1900’s for mules to transport materials to build dams.

Apche Trail downhill

Amy was on snake patrol and she failed miserably.  5 hours through the friggin desert and she couldn’t locate a single snake.  When we finally came across this critter, she misidentified it as a “scorpion” while telling me to stop the car.

Tarantula, aka a Scorpion

Near the turn around, we came across the nicest spot on our journey.  This beach is at the end of a sand wash that you can drive down from the road.  The camping use limit is 14 days, I’d like to hit that mark someday.

Wash at Apache Lake

Trash talk

With a long racing break between Westchester and Amica Phoenix 19.7 on November 7th I decided to hop in the Metro State XC Invite a couple of weekends ago.  With the end of the season nearing, I’ve been popping more speed into my runs and running workouts at a higher intensity.  I even broke 3 for a K for the first time since 1972, despite getting crushed by Kempton on the interval.  Evidently, with college runners going faster and faster as of late, the current college crowd was unimpressed and we were kicked off the track when they showed up to the track to workout.

The last time I ran a cross country race was in Ireland back in 2005 with my buddy Paul Ryan.  It was on ankle high grass and a bunch of loops around a field.  The race last weekend wasn’t much different.  It took place at Wash Park, the Central Park of Denver and consisted of three zigzagging loops in grass that I cursed for not being freshly cut.

I got 8th with a 26:12 for the 8k (essentially 5 miles).  What surprised me was how fast the young ‘uns went out and how hard they closed.  I ran 5:06 for the 1st mile but was in about 100th out of 120 at the half mile.  I crushed the teeny boppers midrace but then all of the sudden they got back to 5 minute pace for the finish which I wasn’t about to do.

Here’s some pictures that Matt Gallagher took.  It was pretty heroic of him to come watch and take pictures considering that he was resting for his 3rd place 2:42 run at the Denver Marathon the next day.  Thanks Matt!

Start Line

2010 Jarden Westchester Triathlon Finish

With some precise planning and with everything going smoothly I got second at the Jarden Westchester Triathlon in Rye, New York yesterday.

I was signed up for the USAT Nationals in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and had my hotel and flight booked but some things made me change my plans.  The big reason is that Amy and I are getting married on Friday in Vail so I wasn’t keen on a four day trip the weekend before along with wearing myself down in the heat.  The pro meeting for Tuscaloosa was Thursday, despite it being a Saturday race, and flights options are limited so I couldn’t fly home until Sunday.  That made the race difficult enough and the weather made it all the worse.  The water in Tuscaloosa was 85 degrees, the forecast was for 93 degrees, and the race started at 2pm.

After some serious consideration I decided that Westchester would be a better race for me.  I could suck it up, fly out at 6am on Saturday and be back at 10pm on Sunday night.  The race would also likely be cool and it was non-drafting which I vastly prefer.  Plus I also had to avenge last years dismal race there!

After an easier than expected flight Saturday, I flew into Westchester Airport at mile 16 on the bike course, my buddy Pete Mallett picked me up, and we were at the pro meeting within 45 minutes.

With that it was 7am Sunday and I was running into the 70 degree water of Long Island Sound with temperatures just below 60 degrees.  A perfect day for racing.  I swam well and got out of the water 1:25 off of the lead group of Starykowicz, Limkemann, and Kenny.  I wanted to win this race and I knew that Stark was the guy to beat.  If I could stay within 2 minutes of him off the bike then I’d have a shot to pull out the win right at the end.

I had some trouble in T1.  My swim skin zipper caught some fabric and wouldn’t zip down!  After only a 25 second delay that felt like 25 minutes it was down.  This is where you have to be focused and concentrate and what you’re doing now, not what just happened a minute ago.  I rolled the bike well and by halfway I was already in 2nd.  The only problem was that Stark was laying it down and when I got a split he was 3 minutes ahead!

The bike course at Westchester is a fun one.  There’s some sections where your power is limited by the pavement and turns but there’s also vast stretches through beautiful country roads amongst the mansions of Westchester County.  Think over the river and through the woods.  All in all it makes for a varied and challenging course.  As you can see from the bike splits below the bike at Westchester is where finishing places are staked out.

I hit the run hard but after the first out and back section and no sight of Stark I was rational and realized that it would take a miracle to win with him being over 3 minutes ahead.  I had 2 minutes on 2nd place so I was in the novel position of not really HAVING to run hard.  My philosophy though is that if you’re racing then you’re going all in.  I race for place but also to test myself and see where I’m at fitness wise.  I like the challenge of racing others but also testing myself and seeing what I got.  So I kept the pressure on and went hard, earning the fastest run of the day by a decent portion.  I finished in 2nd, not the win that I wanted but still a result I can take pride in.

Jarden sponsors the race and I got to talk with their CEO, Martin Franklin at the awards.  This was fun since my shop, Powder7.com carries Line Skis, a Jarden brand.  After that it was onto a great brunch with my friend Sarah B’s parents in Irvington, along with Pete, Kevin (won his age group WHILE getting his MBA at MIT Sloan and WHILE riding what Pete called the sail aero position), and Jocelyn (4th place in the women’s race).

I got back home at 11pm Sunday night, too late for a celebratory glass of Coppola red with Amy, but early enough us to wake up for coffee at the Windy Saddle in downtown Golden in the morning.

Rye Patch race article

2010 Jarden Westchester Triathlon Top 10 Pro Results

1     Andrew Starykowicz      16 17:18    3    0:46 4     55:55  1    0:49 9     36:30  6   1:51:15
2     Jordan Jones            17 18:53    10   1:10 12    58:28  2    0:44 5     34:35  1   1:53:47
3     John Kenny               1 17:15    1    0:45 2   1:02:20  5    0:49 8     35:36  2   1:56:43
4     Jared Woodford          10 18:41    7    0:45 1   1:01:33  4    0:37 1     35:51  3   1:57:25
5     Eric Limkemann           7 17:16    2    0:54 9   1:02:53  7    0:38 2     37:12  8   1:58:52
6     Jamie Stephenson         8 17:32    5    0:46 5   1:04:38  9    0:38 3     36:45  7   2:00:17
7     Jimmy Archer            15 19:58    12   0:55 10  1:02:26  6    0:57 14    36:09  5   2:00:23
8     Ryan Grant               5 22:45    14   1:20 15    59:55  3    0:55 13    36:05  4   2:01:00
9     Peter Mallett           21 18:43    8    0:50 8   1:05:15  10   0:49 10    37:18  9   2:02:53
10    Greg Reznich            20 18:34    6    0:45 3   1:06:26  11   0:41 4     39:23  13  2:05:47

A calm section of Clear Creek, away from the crowds.

Yesterday temperatures were nearing 100 degrees and we spent several hours wading in the chilly water.  Jordan is racing next weekend, so I was tubing solo.  I took a couple runs, flipping twice and realizing  how deep the water is under the whitewater.  After my second run we decided we were hungry so we packed up and headed home.  Walking to the car we saw a few guys jumping off rocks and into the whitewater.  Something that had always made me nervous, but for about 90 seconds seemed like a totally rational thing to do.  So, I handed my stuff to Jordan and made my way to the rocks.  Jordan stood up on the bike path, an ideal vantage point really, holding my clothes, towel, water bottle, and the reigns of two dogs.

I consulted briefly with the surly men on the rocks.  Then I jumped.  Jordan says I didn’t jump out far enough, that I kind of missed the whitewater.  It happened so fast, I only remember my foot hitting a rock really hard, then not being able to use my foot at all.  I couldn’t swim.  The creek was pulling me down stream, toward the next rapid.  I couldn’t stop myself by standing because I couldn’t put my left foot down.  I would put my right foot down, then immediately get swept away because I couldn’t balance against the current.  I yelled for help, but  no one could hear me in the rush of the water.  Everyone flails when they are in the creek, so my waving arms meant nothing.  The shore was lined with people and I thought I was going to drown!  A professional triathlete drowning in 3 feet of water.

Eventually a guy asked me if I was serious and yanked me out and plopped me up on a rock.  Then from afar Jordan realized something was up.  My friend Abbey waited with me while Jordan pulled the car around (the only reason we had driven was because we’re dogsitting Cyrus’ puppy and we didn’t think she could handle the mile walk in the heat.).  As if I weren’t embarrassed enough, Jordan had to carry me to the car.  I spent the remainder of Sunday on the couch watching horrible TV.

Today I went up to Boulder and got an X-Ray.  I was nervous because no injury has ever hurt this bad.  I couldn’t (can’t) walk at all  and I was positive I broke something.  Which, since I’m out for the season anyway wouldn’t be horrible, except that Jordan and I are getting married in 6 weeks.  All I could imagine was my Dad walking me down the aisle with me on crutches.  Maybe we could paint them white?

Fortunately, the X-Ray came back fine.  It’s a sprain and the ligaments and tendons are stretched out and messed up.  I’ll be on crutches for a week, maybe less, and then things should be back to normal in a couple weeks.

Bottom line: don’t partake in the same activities as surly men.

riptide multisports - training blog

Here’s a great blog from Jordan Jones from Riptide Multisports with some tips on balancing work and high level triathlon training.

The precarious balance between work and high level triathlon training: I left the Denver Police District 6 station at 7am Friday morning, having just completed a busy 10 hour red-eye shift. The night had been filled with the standard assortment of drunk drivers, arguing couples, and rowdy bar-goers. Forget what you think about sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts, wearing the navy blue in downtown Denver was hectic, and I was constantly moving from one call to the next. Fortunately, the night concluded without incident and I would have the opportunity to race for my USA Triathlon Elite License in Miami, Florida 48 hours later.  If I placed in the top-3 at the Escape to Miami Triathlon, then not only would I be a police officer, but I’d also be a professional triathlete. I went to the airport, caught my flight, and mere hours later I finished 2nd and was back at work on Monday.

Author Jordan Jones (center) walks down California Street in Downtown Denver in 2007.

In the summer of 2007 I made the life-changing decision to leave the Denver Police Department and pursue training and building a ski business.

Check out the Mix1 blog to continue reading

After Pyramid I switched my focus to mostly cycling in preparation for this past weekend’s Nevada Cup MTB race, the Sep 4th Regional Road Racing Champs, and the final race in the Nevada Cup MTB to determine the state champion.  Last weekends MTB was at Sky Tavern ski resort; I moved up to Cat1 on the MTB and was still able to pull out a 2nd place despite a crash in the final mile which did a little number on my face.  I wish I had garmin data for this race but my watch freaked out with about 2 miles to go and I can’t seem to retrieve the data.  I can say there was a ton of climbing and every time I looked at my HR it was over 170 for the two hours.

My good buddy and Riptide Teammate, Tate Behning, came out to visit me for about 4 days last week and we got in some good training before my race.  We rode the breathtaking Tahoe Rim trail (pictures attached).  Tate’s GF Paula also came out, which made my Aimee happy so we also spent a good amount of time eating at Reno’s all you can eat sushi restaurants.

Tomorrow is the start of the 3 day Reno Twilight Stage Race, where the overall winner gets cash and doesn’t have to pay for a single race next year so hopefully I will bring my A game.

After that it is off to Chicago to see my good buddy Jack get married, and watch Jordan tear it up at the Chicago Triathlon.

This past weekend I competed in the Diamond Valley Road Race held in NE California.  This was a USA Cycling event and I raced CAT 3,4,5 which included four 11 mile loops with back to back climbs.

I recently purchased a Garmin 405 from Boulder Running Company in the Denver Tech Center, and I have fallen in love with training again for all the cool data it provides.  You can find a summary of the race here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41691273 and now for the play by play.

I started the watch about 1min before the race start, if I leave it until the last second I always forget, and I stopped the watch a couple of minutes after the race ended; I wasn’t thinking straight after discovering a new max heart rate, 197bpm! 

The race started with about 45-50 guys on a neutral start and then long gradual down hill.  Riding at 38mph with 50 dudes in a 3,4,5 race will make your hands cramp really quick from all the breaking.  About half way through the loop we started two back to back climbs, and on the first lap I would say we dropped about 1/4 of the field.  As the loops went on, with the 101 degree temps, we continued dropping riders until 11 of us remained after the second climb on the 3rd lap.

Going through the neutral water zone starting the final lap I was liking my chances as I had been one of the best climbers in our group soI was thinking of making a move on the first climb.  The first climb on each loop starts immediately after a sharp, downhill, right hander, and coming off that turn someone else in the group beat me to the punch.  I stood up to chase and my left quad turned to rocks; between the heat and the longer race distance I was cramping and it was all I could do to survive the two climbs with the group.  Two riders got away, but thankfully we pulled them back on the long approach to the finish.  During this time I drank a ton of water and shook out my quad a bit, thankfully the cramp didn’t make a return.

Now it was time to turn my attention to the sprint that would determine the finish.  I was a little frustrated that I couldn’t get away on the climbs, especially looking at the size of some of the legs that were with me for the finish.  These guys were bigger and heavier so the climbs were definitely harder on them but they would have the advantage in the sprint.  We hit 100m to go and our pace line turned into a frantic dash for the line.  It seemed like guys were all over the place and there were only 11 of us, I can’t imagine what this is like during a tour stage with 100 strong.  I had enough fire in me to nab a 5th place finish, I can live with that.

My favorite part of the Garmin data is the finish, a long, straight road, very slightly up hill and just a touch of head wind.  You can see I hit 38ish mph, they guy who won may have been 39.  It is amazing to me that under similar conditions after 150 miles of riding tour sprinters can get into the high 40mph range.

Another cool piece of data is that my average HR kept increasing each lap.  Aside from the finish sprint no lap was really faster or more difficult than any other.  I’m not sure what this means; my best guess is that it is just fitness related and that with more time on the bike and better fitness my heart rate would become more consistent.  Please chime in if you agree or know otherwise.

This weekend is the Pyramid Lake triathlon so I’ll try to get similar data on the bike and run legs, and next weekend is the big Mt Rose TT which should provide a pretty mean average heart, 13ish miles at 5.6-7 average grade.

Best Regards,

Matt

Tim O'Donnell Running In For The Win

Joanna Zeiger getting out of the water

Yesterday I got 7th at the Boulder Peak Triathlon, 1 spot better than my 2008 finish which was my best race that season.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do this race until Thursday when I was able to run 5 miles without too much achilles tightness.  Three weeks ago I did the Thursday night Stroke n Stride then the 5430 Sprint on Sunday and that put my slightly sore right achilles over the edge.  I only ran 3 miles the following week then raced the Coteau Du Lac ITU race Sunday where my achilles totally blew up and I had to limp home the last 3 miles.  When I woke up the next morning I thought that racing the Peak, two weeks away at that point, was impossible.  I couldn’t flex my foot in any direction my achilles was so sore.  I didn’t run a step that week but then it improved and I got in three slow short runs this past week.  The Peak is probably my favorite race so once it felt decent Thursday I figured I’d race and hope that it would feel alright.

The race started off well, I finally got out well in the swim and made a good pack.  For the first time I raced in my Rocket Science Sports Rocket 2Skin SwimSkin and it felt awesome.  Nearly all the pros swam in a skin but I was still able to swim better than I have in the past.  The first half was pretty tough but then it settled down the back half and I was swimming very comfortably.  I got out with Tim DeBoom, Josh Rix, and Tim Reed.  We were 1 minute down from Tim O’Donnell, Matt Reed, and Stephen Hackett and a bit more down from Bryan Rhodes.

I was pumped to be rolling so well and went for it hard from the get go on the bike.  I moved ahead of the guys I swam with heading off Jay Rd. and was feeling good.  This race is always hot and our team’s new white color Rocket Science Sports 20BPM suit felt awesome in the hot Boulder summer sun.  I didn’t even unzip at all, the more skin it covers the better it feels like.  I got by Bryan Rhodes going up Stagecoach ( a crazy hill/small mtn climb if you don’t know the race) putting me in 4th.  Unfortunately I couldn’t stay there.  Tim Reed flew by at the top of the hill then DeBoom came back and Rhodes pushed hard on the downhill.  I was tired the last half of the bike but looking back I’m happy that I made a go of it in early on.  I got off the bike in 8th.

I ran the first lap slighly slower than normal to give my achilles some time to loosen up.  It was a bit tight but nothing too bad.  Ultimately I think my lack of running the past few weeks (21 miles in 3 weeks) hit me more than the achilles during the race itselt.  I couldn’t muster much at all, running 35:36, about 2 minutes slower than my run there on a hotter day 2 years ago.  I got by Rhodes to get into 7th.  Still a good place for this competitive race but my goal was to finish top 5.  Big shout out to all the supportive fans out there on the race course.  The fellas, Matt and Ofer along with Emily for driving up from Denver to watch the race.  Mat Steinmetz from Retul for splits out on the bike course and Amy who I managed to pump up with my swim.

Now I’ve got the New York City Triathlon on Sunday then I’ll take a short mid summer break to freshen up for the last half of the season.  My achilles feels ok after the Peak, I was able to do a run cooldown on it, so with a couple runs this week I should snap back into my run fitness and be ready for  a good one.  Surely with some Dunkin’ Donuts in me my fitness will get a boost before NYC.

Monday: 30′ bike on trainer (high cadence)

Tuesday: 2500m long course swim (mostly easy, felt terrible)

Wednesday: 37.5′ bike on trainer (high cadence)

Thursday: 3200m long course swim (better than Tuesday, but still so slow and sloppy)

Friday: 52′ bike outside (avoiding hills, maintaining high cadence)

Saturday: 2000m short course swim (careful to not push hard off walls)

Sunday: 60′ bike outside (avoiding hills, maintaining high cadence)

In the past I’ve become overzealous as soon as I start training again and it has always set me back, so this time around I am setting definitive markers and max’s for my workouts so I don’t go over them.  So far, so good.

Any injury I’ve had before had a clear rehabilitation timeline.  Not so with chondral softening.  It can take anywhere from 6 months to over a year for the cartilage to form again and get smoothed so it doesn’t feel crunchy.  Therefore, I’m on my own to devise a training plan with adequate rest, but also enough activity to provide the buffing-action the cartilage needs.

I’m approaching the end of my 9th week of recovery/rehabilitation and the end of my first week of my second attempt at training.  This one seems to be going much better than my first attempt.

I make a lot of promises regarding blog posts that I don’t keep, but I’m going to really try to chronicle my weeks of returning to training after injury.  In my experience, this is one of the most difficult situations competitive athletes face, as they are forced to hold back their own reigns.  More often than not, we’ll think we’re good to go long before we actually are, and are forced to train at less than optimal intensity and volume for longer than would normally be necessary.  Hopefully this series of posts will culminate with a race at the end of August or in October at the latest.

So I suppose I should catch up with a quick summary of the first 8 weeks, and then I’ll write a good update once I make it through Sunday.  Fingers crossed!

Week 1: Nothing nothing nothing.  When I say nothing, I mean it.  No swimming, biking, running, nor lifting.  Hardly any unnecessary walking.

Week 2: More nothing.

Week 3: Start back with some easy swimming (1500 SCY - 2000 SCY a couple days).  Also some light lifting.

Week 4: Swam 37,400 SCY and some light lifting.

Week 5: Eased back on the swimming, started easy short rides.

Week 6: Light swimming, 1 day of open water in NJ.  A couple short (<1 hr) bike rides in CO.  Attempted running 5′ on Saturday.

Week 7:  Running was a disaster.  Trouble walking the next 2 days, and I’m back to nothing.

Week 8: Nothing most days, but on Thursday swam 800 LCM at a beautiful pool in Montreal.  Felt terrible.  Also rode around 30′ on a Bixi bike Thursday and Friday.

This is a Bixi bike, in case you're wondering.