It's good to be back!

After taking a break from the blogging world I am now back and ready for 2012. The 2011 season ended early due to a stress fracture in my foot, and shortly after that school started back up. During that time I took the longest break from training that I have ever taken. This gave me the opportunity to work much more than I normally do. The Goal this fall has been to save up as much money as I can, allowing me to have a race budget for the 2012 season.

Although a long break was not on the schedule, it has been very good for me. It has mentally and physically given me a refresher. Taking time off of something you love makes you realize how much you truly like doing it, and has caused me to take a step back and reflect on why I do this sport. It gave me a moment to look at where I am as an athlete and where I want to be in 2012.

My 2012 Racing Schedule is up and posted on my website.

2012 Goals

Every year I write goals. I feel they are very important in keeping me working towards a larger picture. Something I never do though is tell many people what my goals are. This year I have decided to something different. Here are my athletic goals for 2012.

Running

● Break 14:45 in a 5k on the track

● Break 1:08:00 in a half marathon

Triathlon

● Break 27:00min in a half iron swim

● Ride within 5% of the fastest bike split at a race

● Have the fastest run split at every race I enter

● Break into the top 5 at a larger race (Rev3, Ironman, wildflower)

● Finish within 3% of winner

● Race and Complete 5 half Ironmans

The only thing left now is lots of hard work, and no excuses.

Demand More From your Sport

If you race triathlons for any time at all there is something you will quickly notice. Triathlon races are a product, and just like any product you can buy at the store some companies make a great product while others struggle. With companies like Challenge, Ironman, Revolution 3, Tri-star driving the price of our sport up. It is up to us as athletes to maintain the quality in the products we buy.

It really is simple. If you don't buy a product, the smart companies will realize they need to improve. If you keep paying for a horrible product companies won't change and take your money happily. This year more than ever I have raced in and noticed races that are cutting corners left and right. They are putting out a horrible product that we as athletes are paying way to much for. As much as I hate the price of the larger events like Ironman, for the most part their product has a high quality and this is reflected in the very large price tag (yes there is still some large names that put on bad events). What I have seen though is smaller races that jack up their prices because Ironman is doing it, while they deliver no where near the product that someone like Ironman or Rev3 does.

If I sign up for an Olympic distance triathlon, I want to swim a 1500, Ride a 40k, and run a 10k. Yes I understand if things are slightly off, but a swim that is 600 meters short I feel is plain lazy on the race directors part. Recently I watched a half Ironman In my home town that had a swim that was well over distance and a bike that was 4 miles to far. This race also had athletes riding through intersections with a 50mph speed limit that were not protected (I hope you look both ways before you cross). This is exactly what bugs me. Race directors who cut corners and throw together a weak product hoping people will still show up and fill their pockets. Weak products weaken our sport, and get rid of any validity we might ever have.

Triathlons are hard events to compare with one another. Most of the time you are racing for placement in the field and not shooting for a certain time. This is due to a dependence on conditions like wind and temperature. These conditions should really be the only variance we see in races. When a race is 4 miles to long one year than 3 miles to short the next, you can never have things like course records. When an athlete records a fast amazing time people will immediately question the course and call it short. Thus our sport has lost its validity. Can Ironman call the record breaking time in their Austrian race a record when the bike for years has been and was 3 miles short? They really shouldn't, but they did.

I am writing this post to encourage my fellow athletes to hold onto the quality of our sport. If you race an event that is a poor quality event for the price being charged, let the race director know. If a race director still does not change, don't support the event. You wouldn't pay full price for for a remodel job on your house that was not complete or horribly done, so don't support race directors that do the same.

Timeline

Due to a stress fracture in my right foot the rest of my season has been put on hold. This is what I have been up to since Rev3 Portland.

Rev3 Portland- I raced in Rev 3 Portland. (can't wait to race more Rev 3 events) This is where I first noticed something was wrong in my foot.
Road trip- Immediately after the race I hopped on a plane and flew to Denver. My Girlfriend just recently moved from Denver to Spokane. So We took a pretty cool (fast) 18 hour road trip driving her car and some belongings up to Spokane. There were some places along the route that I defiantly want to go back and visit some day.
Work Trip- Two days after getting home from my road trip, I had an amazing opportunity through work to go and attend the inaugural Dendoshi Brand development even't that Mizuno running North America put on. The conference was held on the Lake Lanier Island resort in Georgia, and was a beautiful location. It was 3 days packed full of meetings but I learned a lot of things at this event and am very glad I went. You also can't beat a Free trip (thank you Mizuno). Mizuno is a company that is very passionate about what they do. They are also deeply tied and loyal to their history as a company(mizuno is 106 years old by the way). They are always learning from successes and failures they have had as a company to continue to improve their products.


The Lake- Shortly after the Mizuno trip I headed up to our family lake Cabin at Priest lake to really just enjoy the summer, and also enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with my family. Most Summers I skip family trips and vacations because I can't miss the training time. But since an injury was forcing some time off I loved the opportunity to hang out at the lake.
Painting the house- My parents started a project this summer of painting their house, and we all were wondering how to paint the high parts. After some thought I came up with a plan and it worked. Luckily OSHA did not drive by :) .

New on the North side!- Most people already know this but a new Runners Soul has opened on the north side of Spokane. When I wasn't painting the house the other place I could be found was setting up and working at the new store. If you have not stopped by come check out or new location (10208 N. Division). It is going to be pretty sweet!

Watching some races- Spokane has some pretty cool events. Two recent ones that I watched/worked at are the Troika half iron(we will call it a 74.6 :) ), and the hot summer nights 5k series. Troika rocked this year! There was a stacked field of local athletes that really raced hard and created a great race to watch. It was fun to follow the race all day on my bike and watch things unfold. Congrats to Troy Nelson for running away with the win.

The next race I worked at was the Hot summer nights 5k series. If you are looking for a race that is cheap ($5 you can't get much cheaper), and a blast you really should come out for the last race of the series this next Wednesday. Did I mention the insane amount of prizes that are given away. Robyn wanted to do something a little more than just standing on the corner and telling people which way to turn, So we decided to add a little sound to our corner with some Kriss Kross and salt and pepper pumping people along. It took me awhile to figure out how to mount a 90's boom box to the back of my tandem, but I got it and we had fun.

Mt. Spokane Hill climb- I wanted to do this race after I knew I couldn't run. But as the summer unfolded I rode a lot less than planned. It was the night before this race and I had mentally backed out due to the fact that I had not ridden a bike for two weeks. Luckily my neighbor called me and talked me back into it (I owe him one). All I can say is that hill climbs Hurt!! I had fun though. I have never held my heart rate that high for that long. My average heart rate was 193BPM for 53min. I added some data from the day. If you want the direct link here it is. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106656494




Whats next?- Although this season did not go as planned, I still feel very blessed to live the life I do and have the opportunities that I have. I will be continuing school here in September. So for now the plan is to work as much as I can and save up money for next season. I also want to find a coach. Every year at this time I set out on the hunt for a coach and end up deciding to coach myself again. I don't want that to happen again. So for now the goal is to find the right coach at the right price. The rest of the summer will be filled with mainly work and starting structured training again. This time off has made me anxious to get back at it.


**If you own a business (or now anyone who does), and would like to know how sponsoring a professional athlete can benefit your company, don't hesitate to contact me. I am looking for a sponsor who can help cover part of the cost of coaching.

Rev 3 Portland

When I heard Rev3 was posting a race in the Northwest I knew I wanted to be racing at their event. I was excited to race a tough hard course that featured downtown Portland. When I was notified that the course was changed to a flatter course I originally was not excited. But this disappointment soon changed. I realized that I have never raced a fast course like this and it would be something new, offering a great test for me. I am going to keep this blog short.

The swim-31:41

• My swim skin from blue seventy was great!
  
• The water felt awesome and I was not cold at all.
  
• Ok yes my swim was a disaster :)
• I better get back into the pool.
  

The bike- 2:15:10

• Due to my slow swim I spent the majority of the bike alone.
  
• The first lap of the course felt great, but half way through the second lap I was ready to get off the bike and start running.
  
• I tried to ride within myself, and set myself up for a solid run.
  
• I actually liked how you could always see your competition at every turn around.
• 
  

The run-1:11:59

• Yes I know what you are thinking, How short was that course? I asked other pro's who wore Garmin watches and most had exactly 13 miles, so we were about .1 short.
• I ran with my Garmin watch for the first time ever in a race to pace myself, and yes I will probably be doing this in the future :).
• I have never felt so relaxed and happy while running in a triathlon.
  
• I am thrilled with this effort and I feel like I have now started to run at a level I feel I am capable of.

Total Time- 4:03:00

I would like to give a huge thanks to Mike and the crew and Blue Seventy for helping me get a swim skin for the race, Gu Energy supplied me with all my nutrition for the race and all I can say is I didn't feel anywhere close to bonking. I would also like to thanks Manny and the crew at Fitness Finatics for letting me borrow a disk wheel for the race.


Here are some photos from race day

Some New Photos

Recently one of my friends and old Co-workers from Safeway asked me if I wanted to take some photo's with him. He recently started his own photography business and does some great work. You can check out his website at www.ArelM.com.

Change of Plans (Moses Lake Triathlon)

After being sick for two and half weeks, I decided at the last minute to pull the plug on Boise 70.3. I was kind of disappointed to not show up, but I knew my lack of training the last 2.5 weeks had left me a little unprepared to race a half iron distance race. I still wanted to race something on that weekend though, so I decided to find something local. This found me at the Moses Lake Olympic triathlon.

Really my goal for the race was to just have fun. The distances tend to be off at this event, so I knew goal times would not matter. Overall I am happy with the race. At the awards ceremony the race director announced that I had the new course record, but I know the swim was short again this year like it had been in previous years, so I don't think they can ever really claim course records on that course. For now it is back to training and getting in shape for Rev 3 Portland which is only 3 weeks away.

Official Results








Here is short video from the race