Going to bat for the swimmers

Alright, it's time to vent.  Lay it all out there.  Put it on record.  Get it off my chest. Go for broke. Tell it like it is.  You get my drift.

I couldn't count using my two hands plus the hands of several of my friends how many times I've heard a triathlete say - not exactly like this but close - "Swimmers have it so easy." Even, "swimmers are so LUCKY."  Or some other form of excusing their own lack of swimmerness.

There is so much wrong with that thought process.  It's SUCH a cop out.

While I don't have personal experience, I'm pretty confident in saying that in terms of sports, swimmers have it the hardest.  I'm not speaking to the "big 3" sports that dominate American athletics (football, baseball, basketball), those are irrelevant in this discussion.  Top level high school and collegiate age swimmers can hit 80,000 yards (or more?) per WEEK of training.  Maybe not every week, maybe not more than once or twice a month during a big build you can bet your boots that many swimmers are hitting double workouts each day and totaling well over 10k a day.  Just think about that for a second.  10k a week is a fairly big number for most triathletes.

Collegiate runners may hit 100 miles a week or more but they get to go out and explore trails, paths, roads, etc and run and converse with their skinny buddies.  I'm not discounting how much work they do, they're just limited by the fact that running is so high impact.  100 miles a week for a good runner is, at most, ~15hrs a week of actual running.  They fake their way through strength training and other such non-running activities but the bulk of their work is probably in the 12-18hr a week range.  100k a week of swimming is probably double that. Then add in dry-land.  Then add in strength.  It's ridiculous how much work swimmers do in their ''careers.''

So to say something like "oh they have it so easy" is preposterous.  They worked HARD for that strength. I do not feel sorry for myself in any way that someone like Doug Van Wie can put 2+ minutes into me in a sprint triathlon.  I admire the work ethic, dedication, and athleticism that put him in that position.  It took him extremely far in his prior sport (to the Trials and a world-record if I'm not mistaken?) and will take him extremely far in triathlon.  It's impossible to begrudge him (or anyone like him) that kind of "advantage." To even call it an "advantage" is frustrating.  Everyone else had the same opportunity to get in the pool at a young age.  Everyone could have started down that path a long time ago, but few chose to do so.  I know I toyed with the idea of joining the swim team in high school but didn't because they had to wake up early.

Think swimmer's "don't know how easy they have it?"  Why don't you go and try to do a workout with a real swimmer.  They don't have it easy.  In a triathlon, they don't have it easy.  It doesn't get "easier," you just go faster.

Too many triathletes putz their way through swimming thinking they'll get better with their pathetic swim workouts.  It's not going to happen.  You don't just "get better." It's a long, patience-driven and sometimes frustrating path of years and yards.

Triathletes seem to understand that to get better at running you have to run more and sometimes harder.  They also understand that to get better on the bike you have to...umm...ride more and more harder.  Yet somehow that knowledge and understanding is lost when it comes to swimming.

Take a look at this list and what stands out:

Kenneth Svendsen
Sebastian Binneman
Scott Woodbury
Ashley Ackerman
Mark Carey
Nick _____
James Haycraft
Donny Forsyth

Every one of these guys (and I'm sure some I'm forgetting, sorry) will be at or near the front at a local race (some even near the front on a bigger scale).  As far as I know, none of them grew up a "swimmer."  All of them put in year after year of hard work in the pool to get where they are.

Speaking from personal experience, 4 years ago I did my first ever open water swim at the Lake Norman YMCA sponsored swims.  It was the longest 1500m of my life and took me a little bit over 30 minutes.  I had started lap swimming (for the first time in my life, I might add) in June of that year.  So four years ago I would have swum 30-32 minutes in an olympic distance triathlon.  Now I would expect to swim under 22 minutes and come up within a minute or two of the fastest swimmer (unless Doug, Matt, or Duff show up to race) at any local race.  Anyone can look at my training logs.  I had never stepped foot (or dipped a toe I should say) into a pool with the intention of becoming a faster swimmer until the summer of 2008.  And now I expect to emerge from the swim and get on the bike in the top 5.  Progress. 

And all these swimmers didn't get better by busting out weak-ass swims of 5x100 pull on [insert low effort interval here].  They did it by hammering over and over and over, day after day, month after month, year after year.  Swimming all out 100s until your arms and legs tingle so much and you start seeing stars.  Gut-wrenching sets of 500+ yards at an effort level similar to a 20 minute power test.  Over, over, and over again.  

Triathletes can (and should) swim hard at almost every swim session they attend.  The standard formula should be: wu of 500-1000, main set of 2.5-3.5k, warm down.  2,000 yards + of hard swimming 3, 4, or 5 times a week.  When I hear or read about triathletes who really feel like they are "putting in the work," my initial thought is to never believe them.  No, your pathetic swim workouts are not enough to make you get to the level that you think you are capable of.  When you swim 15+ minutes in a race and *think* you should be at 13 (or some analogous time difference), there's a big discrepancy.  No, it's not because the course is 2+ minutes long.  It's because you're not as good as you think you are.

So, in short:

1) Stop complaining
2) Work harder to get better
3) Come into T1 closer to the front than the back
4) Problem solved

It's simple.  Just that step 2 takes a while...

Triangle Triathlon

Triangle Triathlon 7/14/12
750m - 17.5mi - 5k

I drove up to Cary, NC to drop off some bikes at Inside Out (unfortunately I had brought the wrong ones with me; further, I would forget to bring one back that I had said I would...alas) and register for the race (since I had forgotten online registration) on Friday afternoon.  Besides me being out of whack, mentally, everything went fine and I headed to Mark Carey's house in Chapel Hill to spend the night.  We made a trip to the ol' Harris Teeter where I made the fateful decision to purchase a pint of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ben and Jerry's (well, I suppose the fateful decision would be eating the entire thing in ~10 minutes, not necessarily purchasing it).  Needless to say, it was delicious.

We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the race site at 5:30am.  I was a little nervous because I felt as though something...wrong...was happening inside me.  We made it to the race, loaded up and rode that bikes to the transition area where I set up on my rack pretty quickly (I was a high # since I registered at packet pickup, unfortunately not in the same place as the other opens in whose wave I was racing) before realizing that I needed to hit a porto.  I needed to to hit it stat.  Unfortunately, the stop did little to clear away my issues.  Having never dealt with something like this before; I didn't think that much of it.  I figured I could get away with a lot in a sprint.  Any maybe I could have, but not this time.  Oh well.

Swim - 12:27 (7th)

I lined up to the far left next to Mark and Doug and as the gun sounded took off at an extremely ambitious pace.  Almost immediately I felt hands slapping my feet nice and gently and I looked up to see only (who I assumed was) Doug ahead of me.  Only a minute into the swim he already had what appeared to be a 50 yard lead.  Ridiculous.

I made it to the first buoy ahead of everyone but Doug and pressed on until at about halfway Mark, Chris (Tommerdahl) and Greg took a different path.  I thought my line was straight so continued on directly towards the second, and final turn buoy.  I saw them off to my left the whole time and they weren't gaining any ground so I was content to remain where I was.  At the second buoy our paths naturally merged and I found myself on Chris' feet, with Greg off to the left and Mark ahead of her.  A little ways onward Mark let Chris take the lead and got on her feet while I stayed behind him; it was like being in a jacuzzi staring straight at a couple of the water jets. There was a lot of noise in the water, so I was content to sit there and enjoy the draft as my arms and legs tingled from the effort level.  I exited the water close behind Mark and Chris and a little further back from Greg (and we were all 2+ minutes down on Doug).

T1 - 1:37 (27th)

The run up to transition was a long one and I didn't push it for fear of dying.  I got to my rack space (which was close to the swim exit but far from the bike start/finish) and had a not-perfect transition before heading out onto the bike course.

Bike - 41:34 (2nd)

Once out on the bike we had to negotiate some fairly narrow bends marked by cones and I pulled ahead of Chris as she was doing up her shoes and kept pace with Mark.  After the cones were gone I concentrated on not doing anything stupid.  A little ways onward I passed Mark with Greg only a bit up the road.  Once I caught Greg and passed him I looked back to see Greg pacing with me and Mark a little ways back, which surprised me as I expected him to be right there as well.

Regardless, I pressed onwards but without my watts I was unsure of my effort level.  I mean that in the sense that I don't care if I'm OVER my target, I care if I'm UNDER my target.  I'm a slave to the numbers and, for the most part, I think it's a good thing.  I think I should have ridden this course harder, but with Greg being a constant presence it became "easy" to use his pace as opposed to setting my own.  Oh well, tangential word vomit.

Greg and I swapped the pace setting duties a few times as we tried to catch Doug.  As the course continued it became clear that it would take almost the whole bike to do so (hopefully, anyway).  It was exceptionally humid and my visor was fogged over completely so I kept trying to push it up but it didn't want to.  I kept expecting my legs to warm to the effort but unfortunately they never did, and Greg and I continued onwards until we caught a glimpse of Doug a ways up the road.

Unfortunately, we didn't catch him until literally T2.  I hopped off my bike with expeditiousness, hoping to run my way into the lead.

T2 - 00:45 (3rd)

I had a long run with my bike but had a quick transition.  My T2s do not appear to be a problem.  It is T1s that need some work...

Run - 22:21 (69th)

I went out and over the mats only a couple of feet behind Doug, but could tell almost immediately that my stomach was going to have none of this fast running.  I managed to hold him in my sights (that doesn't mean I was close to him sadly) until we turned onto the trails but after that I slowed dramatically.  My stomach felt very knotted and/or riled up and running fast made the sensations extremely unpleasant.  So I basically resigned myself to a nice trail run and tried to cheer (lamely, because I suck at cheering) everyone I saw.  Anyway, I ran slowly (very slowly) to the finish.  A bit disappointed, but happy to still finish 5th OA.

I was not happy with the outcome of the race, but since it was my first bad race of the year and it's July, I can't take too much away from it.  I made a bad pre-race decision and paid the price.  That's the way the cookie (dough ice cream...bang!) crumbles sometimes.

Next up is a good week of training, then a little more training, then Giant Eagle 5150! I'm excited to see how fast I can do a true olympic distance and still get my butt handed to me by some legit professionals.  Hopefully I don't slip up and ask for any autographs!

And so it begins...

6.25 - 7.1
S - 12000 yards
B - 181.5 miles
R - 34 miles
Time - 16.87 hours


7.2 - 7.8
S - 9,100 yards
B - 170.6 miles
R -  50.1 miles
Time - 17.36 hours


My title would lead one to believe that something epic ensues.  The title would be mis-leading.  I have, unfortunately, done nothing brutal and/or epic as required by the triathlete's creedo.  I did not have an "epic" 6 mile run or a "brutal 2k swim."  Most of the brutality these past two weeks was a result of my lack of sleeping.

Sleep is a glorious thing and something I cherish.  It's frustrating to get into that vicious cycle of laying there in bed, not falling asleep, then worrying about not falling asleep, then thinking about why you're worrying about not falling asleep, and not falling asleep.  It's terrible.

On June 30th I cracked like an egg during the Taco Ride.  It was so hot. I was miserable.  I rallied for a good week last week, concluding with the NC State TT championships near High Point, NC.  To summarize the race:

Drove up to High Point after leaving at 5:30am.  It's already muggy.  I got to see the sunrise, which is always both cool and mildly depressing.  I'm not really an early morning person.  I'm trying to be, but it's a long, patience-driven road of grogginess.

Got to the race site, picked up my number, warmed up for a while and set off at 8:35.  The first 15k or so of the course was pretty rolling; the course had a total ascent of ~1200' according to the ol' Garmin.  Several climbs with (one in particular) resulting descents (hit 48mph in the aerobars, which was interesting).  My power was high and I caught my minute man in the first 10 minutes.  My two minute man was not far away and I shortly caught him.  

The middle third of my TT was not very impressive.  It was very, very humid so I was sweating a good bit, although I don't think I slowed b/c of the heat.  It's hard to maintain focus for an effort like this.  In a triathlon it's somehow easier because the bike is just a way to get to the run and out of the swim.  It's bookended quite nicely.  A TT feels so finite that it's hard to really crush it.  I definitely didn't ride any harder than I do in an olympic distance triathlon.  I think a lot of people feel like they need to not ride hard in an olympic.  I do not feel that way.  I ride as hard as I can.

Anyway, My 20-30k portion kinda sucked but during that I caught my three minute man who, despite looking fit and wearing pink socks, was not going very fast.  Pink socks are only acceptable if you are very fast.  Yes, I wear pink socks.  You do the math.

Last 10k I pressed decently and crossed the line a hair under 55:40.  I was pleased with the result, although the course was a bit short so the times/mph are slightly misleading.  My time put me as second Cat 3 and 8th overall.  The winner, Ryan Jenkins, was one of only two guys to go under 53 minutes (52:11) so to be a little over 3 minutes down on a cyclist of his caliber was definitely awesome.

Full Results

Next up is a little sprinting on Saturday at the Triangle Triathlon so I'm definitely moderately excited about that!

2 weeks of pictures and awesome

6/11 - 6/17
S - 12,900 yds
B - 136 mi
R - 48.4 mi
Time - 16.58 hrs

6/18 - 6/24
S - 5,700 yds
B - 272.2 mi
R - 16.2 mi
Time - 19.27 hrs

Well these have been two interesting weeks for sure.  I'll tell the story mostly with pictures.  I headed out to Santa Barbara on the 13th for a week-ish of Moose-time, who graduated that Saturday, got back on the 21st and headed to the mountains this past Saturday and Sunday.  While in SB, I sprained my ankle pretty severely on the 19th and didn't run again until this weekend.  Hence the low running miles.  

Hope Ranch, getting dropped (seriously)

First ever horseback ride

Great living quarters for the weekend

Coolest movie theater ever

No comment

Beautiful sunset on the Pacific

On to the mountains of NC

So true

Fixing a flat 

There may or may not be peeing involved in this photo

A couple of gravel roads for our ''enjoyment'' Saturday!

Tee hee

The best kind of barrel

The ride left a mark on some...

A ginormous log of fudge

Scott is lucky we tolerate his alternative lifestyle

Tri Latta

S - 6750 yds
B - 174 mi
R - 39.6 mi

Time - 15.39 hours

This week I finally managed to get some go-go juice in my legs.  From feeling pretty dead most of the week before to feeling very, very strong this week I experienced quite the swing.  On Tuesday night I had some new power number bests to brag about (to myself).  On Wednesday night I set a new personal best at the Lowe's Speedway 10mi TT series of 20:45.30 (not sure on overall placing, but only 18s off Ryan Jenkins' winning time), which was very pleasing.  I'm definitely learning to put the pedal to the medal a little bit more this year.  Riding by yourself is hard.  Riding all out by yourself is very hard.  It's a mental exercise in pushing the envelope.  I was hoping that these efforts would result in a good race at Tri Latta on Saturday.  For the most part, it did! Hooray!

Tri Latta - 6.09.12 - 750m/17mi/5k

Tri Latta has always been one of the most competitive races in the IOS NC series.  It has traditionally boasted a very strong field of both open and masters open athletes.  Last year I was finishing my first real week of normal training after my bad crash and actually had a fairly bad infection in my hand on race day.  So needless to say I was hoping to improve a little bit on last year's performance.  I was hoping and expecting to win.  I knew that if I executed the race properly then my race would go as hoped.

Swim - 11:12 (5th)

I lined up on the left side for the simple rectangular course (with two left turns).  When the gun sounded I took off at a fairly quick pace, but as I breathe exclusively to my left I couldn't tell who else was with me.  I knew I was beside Zack Capets as we rubbed shoulders occasionally during the first minute or two.  As I came closer to the first left turn I could tell that I was behind a girl in a Blue Seventy speed suit and a guy.  I couldn't tell enough to know whether it was Melissa or Jenny but as we turned left I COULD tell that they were in the lead.  On the way back a swimmer came up on my left who swam the worst lines I've ever seen in a triathlon.  He was obviously a very fast swimmer as he would pass me but then he'd swim off in the wrong direction before correcting and getting back on course.  This was mildly annoying.  Another swimmer was also on my right and as we emerged from the water I recognized Mike.  Much to my surprise (and excitement!), Jenny and Derek were not more than 15-20 yards ahead of me and I crossed the mat very pleased with my swim, despite feeling a little mediocre about it during the swim itself.

It's also interesting to note that the part of the course I was looking forward to the very least was probably the most important part of my race.  I've been having issues in the pool lately with anxiety "attacks," especially at MAC masters practice which have forced me (or at least, my mind has forced me) to get out of the pool and collect myself.  Consequently, I've been feeling very apprehensive about my swimming of late.  It was good to not have this happen to me during a race as that would have been bad from a race standpoint but also anyone swimming behind me might have been frustrated with me suddenly sitting up in the middle of the swim...  Sometimes it's best to turn the brain completely off and I've yet to figure out how to do that...

Thanks to Sarah for the pic, and myself for the facial hair!

T1 - 1:49 (10th)

On the way up the long hill to transition I passed Mike, the UNCW guy and then later Jenny, who I had made a small bet with that I would beat her out of T1.  Much to her annoyance, I actually beat her INTO T1 at this race; a feat I'm sure she will not let me repeat.  I got to my bike, put on my shoes and helmet before heading out on the road.

Also, I've got to say here that I LOVE racing in a one piece.  The problem with one pieces is two-fold:

1) They're not always the most flattering of attire
2) The less expensive ones (the ones that most people buy) are ill-suited for their perceived purpose (of being faster in the water) as they all have pockets and aren't made out of anything special.

That being said, the Blue Seventy TX3000 I wore for this race was super sweet.  My T1 time was significantly faster than last year and I looked pretty good doing it, if I may say so myself...

Bike - 40:03 (1st)

I headed out on the bike just behind Derek and passed him about halfway down Sample Rd.  I knew this course was rolling but fast so I resolved to push hard and (try to) not look back.  It was fun knowing I had the race lead to myself.  Last year Donny caught me on the bike and we rode together so while my time was a bit faster in 2011 it wasn't quite as steady as it was this year.  I did a pretty good job of pushing throughout the course while keeping it in check on the uphills and full bore on the downhills, creating a pretty even power profile.  I did look back occasionally and sometimes could see someone off in the distance but whoever it was did not appear to be closing the gap so I cruised back onto Sample Rd and to transition feeling confident the race was mine as long as nothing crazy happened.

T2 - 1:12 (1st)

I cruised into T2, took off the helmet and put on my running shoes then grabbed my race belt and sunglasses before heading out onto the run course.  No mistakes here...

Run - 18:19 (4th)

I set a fairly torrid pace on the run in the beggining, despite strongly disliking this run course.  The run course, in fact, sucks.  It's easily the worst part about the Latta Tri.  I can find no redeeming qualities to describe it.  It's all on the trail systems of the park and much of it is channeled quite deeply due to water run off, the gravel is not packed well and is relatively large so sliding is an issue, it's just not awesome.  That being said, I knew that those behind me wouldn't meander slowly along the trails so I tried to hammer to the first turnaround, which I mostly succeeded in doing. I got a chance to see where everyone was after the turnaround and it looked like Donny was running very fast with Zack relatively close behind him and Selle bringing up the 4th spot.  There was a relatively long uphill slog so maintaining pace was tough but after the second turnaround I saw that no one was any closer to me so I grew less worried and pushed the final flat section pretty well before crossing the finish line in first.

Final - 1:12:33 (1st) Full Results Here

All in all I was quite happy with my performance.  Brad Perry had bet me a case of beer (which would've lasted me all year) on whether or not I could go 1:10:00 or better and unfortunately I was not particularly close.  That would take a very, very fast race.  That kind of time is out of reach for me this year on this course.  It's tough to run fast at Latta; the two fastest runs of the day (17:10 and 17:40ish?) are both from runners who are capable of 16:low on the roads.  I honestly felt as though I was at my limit in terms of not falling on Saturday.  Maybe next year I will be able to sniff at a 1:09:59...

This was the largest representation ICE Racing has had at an IOS NC Series event and we did not dissapoint, with Jenny and I claiming first place for men and women and Melissa grabbing 2nd Open and 4th  OA.  Not too shabby at all!

A few of my favorite things, music-wise

I've probably mentioned this once or twice, but I go through phases a lot in terms of my music selection.  Right now I'm going through a heavy, "dirtier" electronic music phase.  Maybe because of the current trends that have dub-step becoming a little more mainstream it's been playing a lot more on Pandora and Sirius so my ears have become more attuned to the tunes.

Carry water, chop wood...sleep.

S - 13,100 yards (appx)
B - 217 miles
R - 23.1 miles

18.07 hours

This week started off with a big bang on the bike in the mountains, which I won't try to recap here.  That being said, I will send you to ICE Racing's blog so you can read up on the epic, brutal experience there...

http://iceracingteam.blogspot.com/2012/06/magnificent-memorial-mountain-massacre.html

Unfortunately, however, this ride put me in a bit of a hole.  It wasn't so much this PARTICULAR ride, but more the fact that it was the culmination of three days' of tough riding.  250 miles and 700+ TSS in 3 days (in the first hot weekend it felt like) left my legs feeling a bit smoked.  My workouts and volume during the week suffered as a consequence.

Was it worth it? YES.  It was a gorgeous day, a gorgeous ride, great training stress, tons of epic, good friends, awesome descents, great mountain dew (but that's taken for granted), snickers, views, etc.  What more could a guy ask for?? Don't answer that...because I know the answer.  Unfortunately, she's currently about to graduate! Alas.

I tried to get excited for the NC 5k OWS championships, but it was tough.  Luckily, I had good company on the drive and in the race (albeit not IN the race as they were too far ahead to play chatty cathy with).  Jenny ended up as the overall female winner (and second overall) just one second ahead of Bill (second male, third overall since Jenny out sprinted him to the timing mat!)  My race recap would be very simple and it would include lots of repeated elements of "stroke, stroke, sight, breathe, stroke, etc" for 5 laps.  The course was apparently 200m long per lap (according to available sources, unfortunately I didn't wear my Garmin in my cap as Bill made fun of that prospect) so with 5 laps that meant a roughly 6000m swim.  Yuck.  Jenny told me later: "Don't take this the wrong way, but I was definitely thinking you'd quit."

So I was happy to have proven her wrong.  AND only be 9 minutes behind her after 6k.  Looks like 25 years of swimming versus 4 years of swimming IS quantifiable.