Carry water, chop wood.

S - 17,000 yards
B - 271.1 miles
R - 45.4 miles

Time - 23.58 hours

Here's a sampling of what got me through this week of awesome:

I have a thing for female vocalists.  Especially attractive blonde ones like Ellie Goulding.

Add in a little not-too-over-the-top (ie Skrillex) dub step remix and voila, you have a great mixture.  This song is best listened to with a decent subwoofer (or subwoofers).  I would say that this song is best listened to in my man-van but unfortunately I have yet to re-install my subwoofer and supporting amp.  That being said, it still sounds awesome in the van because, let's face it, everything sounds better in a van.

Here's another song that mixes a little bit of the right stuff (Calvin Harris vocals) with a little bit of the oh-so-wrong stuff (dub step).  I almost hesitate to call this dub-step but with the mix of noise and strange synthetic, designed sound I'm sure most would call it such.  Nero does some pretty good stuff but can, at times, drift a little too far towards over-the-top.

Let's change tangents completely for this one.  Young the Giant has a couple of cool songs, this being my most recent favorite (check out "Apartment").  This song isn't quite the workout pump up do awesome stuff right now kind of song that the other two are, but it still satisfies the (sometimes) more important urge of actually listening to good music.

This next song got me through a 5600 LCM workout on Thursday (note: unfortunately not actually playing during the workout as the Aquatic Center has yet to install an underwater sound system; lame!).

Unfortunately, I really only know the refrain to this song so my laps would go something like:

Push off
"sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?"
"travelled the world and the seven seas, everybody's looking for somethin"

Push off
"sweet dreams are made of these..."

You get the picture...

Needless to say, the workout was a little boring at times.  That being said, I swam well.  But not THIS well

In my head I was certainly spitting out a wake behind me that washed all the way into the warm pool in the next room but as we all know, there CAN BE a discrepancy between what's going on in your head and what's actually going on...

I'm just happy that I don't have as much armpit hair as this guy

Because despite having a great, smooth stroke that is very enviable, that's just gross.

When people do dumb stuff...stuff happens

5/7 to 5/13

S - 12000 yards
B - 255.8 miles
R - 27.5 miles

Time - 20.23 hours

5/14 to 5/20

S - 8000 yards
B - 262.3 miles
R - 42.8 miles

Time - 20.82 hours

Unfortunately for myself and all thirteen thousand of my blog readers I completely forgot to write anything at all last week!  Oh the horror.  Forgive me, for I am ashamed.  My words render most readers senseless and are enthralling glimpses into the workings of a genius.  My writing is a gift to you.

Anywayyyy, let me get a bit more realistic.  Last week (first week up at the top) was pretty solid and included a full day off after the weekend's festivities at White Lake.  I had some good workouts in there but my week ended on a pretty sore note (pun intended; very intended) when I was involved in a collision while near the end of my bike ride on Sunday morning.  Long story short, I was 90% ok but discovered upon arriving at home and showering that the injury to my chin needed some stitches.  So, I went and got some.

This picture doesn't really quite do the wound justice, but upon discovering the gaping (exaggeration) wound in my chin I quickly realized I couldn't just let this one lie.  What it meant was that I didn't run later that day (run totals a bit low that week) and that I didn't swim until Thursday of this most recent week.

I'm pleased to be getting in some good, consistent training and hopefully this next week will put together three solid sports' worth of training.

I've hammered out my upcoming schedule pretty well and I'm pretty excited about it:

June 2 - NC Open Water swim Champs (possibly the 3k but most likely the 5k)

June 9 - Tri Latta (IOS NCTS) sprint (even though I think this course sucks; the convenience is too good to pass)


June 17th - SC TT state champs


July 8th - NC TT state champs

July 14th - Triangle Triathlon (IOS NCTS) sprint (maybe, maybe not)

July 29th - Giant Eagle (5150 series) olympic (first BIG race.  Meaning "pro" race.  Meaning I'm gonna get my ass kicked race).

White Lake Weekend

Swam ~18000 yards
Biked ~ 130 miles
Ran ~ 31 miles

Time ~15 hrs

This week was really all about the weekend.  There were some good run and bike workouts from Monday to Friday but the anticipation was really set for the ICE Racing relay beatdown scheduled for Saturday and the White Lake Sprint for Sunday.  I actually managed to get in some great swims as well, which is awesome and surprising.  It's almost as though something just "clicked" last week.  It's hard to describe the feeling as I've been somewhat sucking for months with regard to swimming. I had a few good weeks here and there (most notably in Arizona, but I had to impress Moose) but for the most part I lacked motivation, consistency and consequently really lacked volume.  It's sad because I really loved swimming.  It's so much fun, it's a great workout, I like getting better, and girls in swim suits is never a bad thing.  So finally here I am; excited again about swimming and making big leaps in the pool.  Boom goes the dynamite.

On Friday afternoon Jenny, Ashley and I loaded up the man-van and headed to the bustling metropolis known as White Lake.  Jenny and I had no desire to do a complete half early in the year and Ashley had just completed Charleston two weeks earlier so we figured a relay was the best way to go.  Ashley agreed to run (thusly getting the short end of the proverbial stick ha!), Jenny would swim and I'd do my best on the bike.  We picked up our packet and arrived at the house generously offered to our group by Heath Dotson, Adam and Jamie.  The ICE team went for a little evening swim before heading into town for some mexican food and calling it an evening.

The relay was great fun and I biked a lot faster than I expected beforehand.  I'll leave the full recap of that day's performances to the ICE Racing blog when we can assemble our three separate experiences but suffice it to say that the relay was a lot more fun than doing the full thang on that very warm day...

Sunday dawned bright and relatively early with the prospect of another race.  I was a bit tight (mainly in my butt area) from the ride on Saturday but other than that felt pretty normal.  I had seen Matt Wistoff's name on the participant last earlier in the week and was hopeful of being able to give him a good race.  I set up my transition area then went for a warmup run before making a neoprene burrito out of myself with my wetsuit and heading to the water for a bit of a frolic in the lake, which was extremely choppy this morning (and warm, despite being "wetsuit legal").

Swim 750m in 10:25 (6th)

I lined up on the front row along with Matt Wistoff and Dan Young waiting for the start and upon the signal began swimming into the chop at a pretty quick rate.  So quick, in fact, that I found myself on Matt's feet.  Unfortunately, Matt kicks a heck of a lot so that plus the chop was like riding out a hurricane in the water.  Sighting was made difficult, as well as breathing.  Luckily Matt quickly decided to drop me (despite not wearing a wetsuit) less than halfway to the first turn buoy.  Dan pulled up alongside me and gradually moved in front.  Once we turned right it got a little easier and it was somehow more predictable in between the chop.  I plowed on and felt like I made up some ground on Dan but once we turned right again it was hard to see where he was.  The waves were pushing us left so I aimed fairly far right of the dock, which ended up being a good decision.  About 50 yards from the ladder another swimmer sprinted past me to get there first, which really pissed me off.  It was the first girl and she was sitting on my feet the whole time, letting me do the sighting and pacing work then sprinted around me in the last 10s of the race.  I was annoyed. I exited the water and ran down the dock behind her while taking off my wetsuit.

T1 in 1:18 (20th)

It's a long run in a wetsuit and I had a bit of trouble getting mine all the way off then headed out onto the bike.

Bike 14(ish) miles in 33:06 (2nd)

I headed out just behind Dan and gradually made my way up to him before passing him somewhere in the back half of the first loop.  Once past I couldn't see any indication of Matt ahead of us so I continued onward.  At the end of the first loop I felt pretty good and decided to keep feeling good on the second loop.  So that was my mission the rest of the bike.  There were a lot more racers on the course but I just kept on feeling good right around the lake.  It was a good decision on my part.  I wasn't putting out a ton of power, I wasn't going crazy fast but man, I sure did feel good.  I came to the end of the bike knowing Matt was probably beyond catching but still resolved to give it a fair college try.

T2 in :51 (4th)

I ran into my spot, took off my helmet and put on one shoe but as I put on the second shoe I pushed the insole up to the front of the shoe which forced me to take a bit more time and adjust before heading out of T2.  Thus, my time suffered.

Run 5k in 18:17 (4th)

I ran out of transition pretty expeditiously in an attempt to look good for the fans.  Once they were gone, however, and I was in the neighborhood my pace became much more pedestrian.  There's really not a whole lot to say about the run; it was pretty flat and boring.  About 1/4mi from the turnaround (maybe a bit more) I saw Matt heading the other way and knew he was too far ahead to even think about catching and I think my pace slowed further with the realization.  Coming back I just kept turning the legs over knowing I had second place well in hand.  Crossed the finish line and that was that.

Fast out of T2

Slow into finish! Perfect

1:03:54 2nd OA

Overall I was pretty happy with this race.  I was definitely a little fatigued from my hard effort on the bike the day before but a second place today was a good result.  If Matt had not signed up late in the game I would have won by a decent amount, which is small (but not too small) consolation.  I think I'm getting close to being able to give it the full gas in these short races on the bike, but only time will tell.  I hadn't been planning on it, but I'm tempted to sign up and do Latta.  I don't like that race and think the course is crappy but I know that doing more of these sprint distance races will help me in the long run.

Huntersville Tri

S - 1 great workout, some others not so much, one race
B - 2 great workouts, one race
R - 1 great workout, 1 race

Time - roughly 18 hours

On a (relatively) last minute whim (and keeping the desire to cherry-pick a race in mind) I signed up for the Huntersville Sprint Triathlon early in the week.  After doing Cool Breeze each of the past two years (one month earlier, swim is half as long) and hating every single minute of it I had sworn off that race altogether.  That being said, Huntersville is usually much more pleasant.  The weather did not dissapoint, as the day dawned bright and early (but not all that early, I got up just before 6am - I love local races!!) and mostly warm-ish.  I arrived at the race site, picked up my packet and did a little warming up on the run and in the pool to get ready.

My start time was 8:00:30am and I was the third to go off behind a masters guy and Derek Kidwell.  Donny started two spots behind me I think and I figured (if he showed up) Donny and Derek would be the main competition.  I knew Derek was a very fast swimmer so I figured he'd be very competitive at this distance...

Swim 500 yards (plus run to mat) in 6:07 - 2nd

I pushed off the wall wearing my brand new ICE Racing top and B70 PZ3TX and tried to keep it nice and easy.  Unfortunately (as usual) while it *felt* easy I was actually crushing the first 100.  I didn't look at splits but I'm fairly confident I went out a bit quick.  Anyway, I used Derek and the other guy as a gauge by seeing where they were each lap and trying to make up ground (or at least not give too much away).  The swim went by pretty quickly and I can for once say that I didn't go off track at all and I'm sure that the distance was correct (another first for Setup Events and triathlons in general!).  I slowed down a bit the second half as I went out a bit hard but wasn't worried about it as I could tell I was holding position with the two guys in front of me and putting significant distance on those behind.  Plus, I wanted to exit the swim and be able to breathe; not like a 500yd TT where I get to the wall and throw up into the side thingies.  No thanks.  I finished the swim off strong, climbed onto the deck cleanly and ran out of the pool and across the mat.

T1 in 00:59 - 41st

I might as well have put "T1 in 'effing forever' - 41st" because that's about how long my T1 took.  I lost good chunks of time to almost everyone.  I had a bit of trouble flipping open my swim skin's zipper but had managed to get it to my waist by the time I got to my bike.  I put on my helmet, stripped off the rest of the skin and put on my shoes before heading out under the arch.  Somewhere in there I sucked big time but I can't put it on any one thing.  Oh well.

Bike 12.5 miles in 30:40 - 1st


I headed out onto the bike feeling ok; the fastest seeded guy was close in front so up that first hill I passed him.  Well, actually, I sign-posted him. That doesn't often happen so I feel the need to point it out.  I also don't understand why people seed themselves so fast that finish 10 minutes back.  Whatever.  I could see Derek in the distance although he was much further ahead than I expected him to be.  My :15s later start and slightly slower swim plus my dreadful T1 meant that he had roughly a minute lead on me out on the roads.  I settled in to attempt to close the gap.  I've discovered that I'm much better at reeling people in on flats and downhills than I am on uphills.  In fact, I usually lose ground going uphill.  It took me a while, but I eventually caught Derek although I wasn't going that much faster.  I *should* have floored it for a bit to lose him completely (or try to anyway) but I didn't think about it.  I figured I was a faster runner and really just didn't think about putting the pedal to the metal (I have yet to figure out how to do that in short races).  We cruised back onto Verhoeff road and I actually split my fastest time on this particular bike course.

Only one person (I believe) has ever gone under 30 minutes on this course and that was Donny back several years ago (course has remained the same, although if I remember that day was fairly windy and the run course was extremely short).  I took my feet out of my shoes and headed into T2.

T2 in 00:35 - 1st


Luckily I was quick here and had the fastest overall time.  I love my new racing flats and laces.  They are the bee's knees.  Plus they match my kit.  Boo-yah.  You decide which I think is more important...

Run 5k in 16:40 - 3rd

I came out of transition like there was a crashed mountain dew truck 100 yards down the road.  I was pretty much sprinting.  I didn't want Derek to get a sniff of my heels and have something to pace off so I absolutely smashed it the first 8-10 minutes (hence my time to the turnaround of 7:50...).  Once I had opened up an appreciable gap and reached the back half of the run (net downhill on the way in as opposed to slight incline all the way out) I parked it in cruise control for the rest of the run.  I tried to look fast though, as I wanted to make sure everyone was like wow, that guy looks fast.  Because that's what matters.  I had the fastest run time out of the "contenders" group by a long shot so I'm happy with that.

OA - 54:59 - 1st

FULL RESULTS HERE

That's two good races in a row for me.  Nothing crazy, nothing spectacular (the 5k time from Sunday was fast but people said the course was short) but two good, solid performances.  I was EXTREMELY surprised with my swim time.  My turns were pretty good and I had my slick speed suit but wow, that was fast.  I haven't had a good full week of swim workouts this entire year.  It makes me excited now that I *think* I've finally found a groove and am going to be putting in some consistent, hard work in the pool.  LOOK OUT WORLD!!!!


note: I don't feel too bad about posting these images b/c tricycle puts almost no effort into taking good pictures and charges way, WAY too much for the ones they take.  still, if you don't like it, don't look at it.  Edit to add: TriCycle made me take the pictures down because I did not want to pay for them.  Given that they didn't read THIS ARTICLE I'm not sure why I'd want to pay for them anyway.

Collegiate Nationals 2012

This week was a bit of a wash in terms of training for me.  I had a great early week's workouts, most notably the IOS ride on Tuesday in which I managed to crush myself on some pulls and not get crushed too much by other people's pulls.  Other than that, my travel to Tuscaloosa, AL took precedence over working out for me.  I haven't been as consistent this year as last year (entirely my own fault) but the big weeks have certainly been much bigger and I'm certainly in better shape than this time last year.  So I don't feel TOO bad about missing out on a weekend.  Last year I crashed and took basically 2 weeks off so I just gots to stay rubber-side down this year!  Anyway, I digress...

I headed down to Atlanta on Wednesday night to cut my drive in half and get some bonus time with Jeremy.  When I got there we spent a significant amount of time reminiscing on our college years before going to sleep.  We both woke up early before Jeremy headed off to do lawyer-ish things at work (such as watching movies, apparently!) and I hopped in the man-van to complete my drive to Alabama.

I arrived at the Warren abode before noon and for the next two days proceeded to cart Moose all over the place for race prep. I did my job well and we experienced little to no hiccups before race day.

The race was a successful one for all FFT members, whether they really feel that way or not.  To get 5 spots in the top 10 between men and women is pretty impressive, although FFT's recruiting methods certainly help in that respect.  It was great for me to see the talent that is on show at Collegiate Nationals.  Top 10 all being under 2 hours on that course (for men) is really impressive.

For me, it's time to get back into a rhythm of working, sleeping and training.  It's time to get back to my consistent ways that have made me a (relatively) fast triathlete.  There is a lot of racing coming up in the next two weekends so I am excited to go fast!

Belews International + NODA GPX

Number of races: 3
Calories expended: a great many
Mountain Dew weekend consumption: 150oz (appx)
Fun had: Yes

Since my last report/blog/whatever I've experienced some more racing.   Some more hard racing.  Some tough racing.  A little fast racing.  Anyway, herein lies its tale.

I'm sitting here on Sunday evening pretty exhausted.  My Thursday and Friday were pretty low key in preparation for the weekend's festivities, which began extremely early on Saturday morning when I hopped in my man van to head to Jenny's house so we could carpool up to Stokesdale NC for the Belews Lake "International" Triathlon (I insert the quotes there because Setup likes to call races International despite courses that are varying lengths, admittedly only with the bike; which is usually longer).

We arrived at the race site with plenty of time to prepare and began our preparation for race day.  Water temperature was apparently 66 degrees.  I think that's cold.  There are some who shall remain nameless that live in a small but well known city on the west coast that is about two hours north of LA who would disagree but my opinion is actually fact.  A fact as indisputable as the fact that minivans are awesome.  Blah blah blah, it got to be 7:55 am and I was excited to test out the new Blue Seventy Helix (easily the most expensive, nicest wetsuit I have yet to wear) in the TT start at Belews.  I was seeded 30th (self seeding based on submitted swim time) so had 2:20 to wait after the first starters (Matt Wistoff and Jenny).  I was excited and anxious.

Swim 1.5k - 21:53 (13th)

I started next to a guy named Keith and immediately set a smooth tempo towards the first buoy.  The water was a bit chilly but not overly so; I had double capped so felt comfortable.  The shoulder flexibility made this my most favoritest wetsuit legal swim ever.  Last year I was absolutely HATING wetsuit swims (AG Nats, BOUS, Augusta, B2B) but maybe this year I'll actually learn to enjoy them.  Anyway, I started out strong and knew Mark Carey was starting just behind me so I was hoping to see him pass and latch on to his pace.  Unfortunately, I breathe to my left and he passed me on the right; it's not likely I could have stuck to his feet anyway as his swim was a good bit faster than mine. Beyond that, I passed a fair number of people seeded ahead of me and had a generally uneventful swim.  I sighted well, made no mistakes and came out of the water just ahead of some racers that had started way in front.  I exited the water and made my way into transition.

T1 - 1:22 (27th)

I got to my bike with my wetsuit halfway off and put on my helmet but had some trouble getting the wetsuit all the way off the ol' legs.  Once done, I put on my shoes and headed out of T2

Bike 27mi - 1:06:56 (5th)

Heading out on the bike there was a steep hill and I had trouble clipping in (noob!) so it took a bit to get going.  I quickly passed a couple of people with better transitions than myself and settled in on the machine.  It seemed as though the first half of the course was generally uphill with a headwind and the back half net downhill with a tailwind (2 loop course).  This may or may not be true, but those were my impressions. After a while I passed another and from then on I didn't see anyone for quite some time.  It took until almost the end of the first loop before I saw another group ahead.  There may have been one racer or another in there that I can't remember specifically but eventually I got to the second loop and other participants that had started later were now in the mix.  This was somewhat annoying because many of them were riding all over the road and they also obscured the people I had seen up ahead.

Regardless, I kept making my way up the road and eventually FINALLY passed Jenny at mile 17 or so (finally making up for her 4.5 minute lead after the swim) and then soon thereafter saw Sebastien, gutting it out on his road bike.  I was a little jealous because I sort of wished I had been on my S5, but not jealous enough to actually be on mine.  As we got to the turn off for the bike finish I saw Mark Carey up ahead and I knew he had started 10s behind me so I knew I'd have to run him down and put some time on him to actually beat him.

T2 - :44 (3rd)

I had a good T2 and didn't waste any time putting on my shoes (trying out new shoes and new laces, Asics Hyperspeeds and XTENEX laces, both of which were amazing), grabbing my sunglasses and number and heading out just behind Mark who had been a bit slower in T2.

Run 10k - 36:11 (4th)

The run headed out of the middle of transition and back around then up the big hill we had also passed twice on the bike. I had caught up to Mark at this point and jumped in front of him to push the pace up the fairly steep and surprisingly long hill.  I could tell he was working hard so knew that this was the time to press my advantage and hope he stayed with me just long enough to really hurt.  I got some separation and reached the top of the hill to turn left and head downhill for the next mile (maybe?), passing aid stations manned with cheerful and a little forceful volunteers.  No, I do not want any water thank you! I saw Matt at the second and knew that he was too far ahead to catch so I tried to focus on pushing the pace and catching whoever I could.  We eventually hit an uphill then a steep uphill followed by a gradual uphill to the turnaround.  Before turning around I had seen Doug Van Wie a bit in front and Greg Thompson a little closer so after turning around and grabbing my bracelet I chugged along after them.

Mark Carey and Sebastien weren't too far behind so I worried about them catching me if I blew up but I felt comfortable and knew that wasn't going to happen (soon anyway...).  I continued to press on the net uphill all the way back to the turnaround and after grabbing my second bracelet I focused on catching Greg who was only a short ways in front of me at this point.  It took until about mile 5 to do so but once there I pressed again to make sure that he couldn't stick on my pace.  Eventually I made my way to the right turn which marked the last 2/3 mile downhill to the finish and I tried to push the pace all the way down to make sure I didn't give up any free time and crossed the line fairly sure I was still stuck in 3rd place behind Matt and Doug.

OA - 2:07:04 (3rd)

Overall I was very pleased with this race.  I didn't make any mistakes and the only downside was my rather poor bike ride.  Mah watts were lower than I'd want but I managed to have a very good run time.  No one else in the top 10 ran faster except Matt Wistoff and he seems to be in great shape right now so I'm definitely pleased with that.  Hopefully this race galvanizes me to be more diligent about my swimming as it's obvious I'm not in quite as far behind as I thought I was...

That wrapped up the Saturday morning festivities so Jenny and I hopped in the man-van and made our way back to Charlotte where I sat around, drank a lot of water while compressing then went downtown to watch the Presby Crit for a while.  I crashed pretty hard into bed and woke up nice and late on Sunday to set up my S5 for the bike race(s, although I only did one I signed up for 2) that afternoon in NODA.

NODA Grand Prix Cat 3/4 2:30pm

I rode to the Booty Loop around 12:30 to get in a nice long, easy warm up before heading further north into the "hipster" area of Charlotte.  While warming up I almost got destroyed by a car so that was a nice way to get the HR up a bit... I got to the race site around 2:00 and got my number and then sat around waiting for the race to start.  As the field began to line up I realized how big it was.  90 starters for a crit course is ridiculous on the relatively narrow roads we would be on; it was certainly the biggest race I've ever done.  I was in the back and at the gun the leaders basically sprinted to the first corner, meaning that the field strung out immediately.  I spent the first 15-20 minutes of the race basically playing catch up as people around me were getting dropped left and right.  Eventually I got into a more coalesced group and the race got a little "easier" until with about 5 laps to go a group of four got off the front and stayed away.  They were always within sight and as the laps left dwindled I kept thinking we'd catch them but I didn't have the horsepower left to do it myself and nobody else seemed to want to either soo...we didn't! On the last lap I moved up into the top 10 on the back stretch and coming into the corner I tried to sprint but just didn't have any matches left in my legs.  I came across the line 11th OA, 7th in the field sprint. It turns out a former masters world champion was in the break and ended up winning so that's small consolation.



I decided not to do the second race as it would have been a bit much I think; thus ended my week! Whew.

Lowe's TT

My first experience with this 10 mile everything-you've-got-in-the-legs-before-they-seize-up-entirely-and-vomit-commences time trial was back in June of 2009.  I was fresh off a bout of thinking I was awesome and a severely sprained ankle (my first of three right ankle sprains in 1.5 yrs) so decided a crack at the TT was right up my alley.  I drove up to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord (~25min drive), warmed up, and gave it my best effort to come in at 22 minutes and 14 seconds, which works out to 26.97 mph.  I was happy on one hand and not on the other.  I felt like I paced poorly and could have done better.

The next month I had another go and improved my time massively with a 21:28, or 27.94 mph.  I was pleased and thought that time was a good indication of what my head said I should be doing.  Actually, I take that back.  The beauty of a training log is that it can produce little nuggets such as this one:

Traffic sucked getting up to the speedway and I got myself lost so I had very little warm up compared to what I wanted. I still need to figure out how to really redline it because I still think I'm faster than this. Ashley was almost a minute ahead of me, that guy is fast.

I guess I thought I was better than I was...what can I say; it happens.  To a certain extent it's good to be tough to satisfy but if you take it too far it can show you the other edge of it's double-edged swordness.  

My next attempt was not until September 2010, fresh off the disappointment of a DNF at Ironman Louisville and in (what I thought was) very good shape.  It was not proven at the TT as my time was somewhere around a 21:40ish.  Again, slower than I expected... Theme? I think yes.

Finally that brings us to last year.  Fresh (well, not really) off a big training camp with a certain someone in Santa Barbara and a double race weekend at Stumpy Creek I made an attempt to retake my course record for the 25-29 dudes.  My time was my fastest so far at ~21:22 or so but I was still getting beat by people I felt had no business being faster (everybody).  (just kidding).  (but not really).  Conditions were incredibly hot, humid and windy so it was less than ideal.  This was also my first time on the course with power and my watts were a not so impressive 4.23 watts/kg.  For 20 minutes that is significantly lower than I wanted.  

That brings us to this year.  My power numbers have been better than I ever could've imagined.  Maybe Brian expected it, but I've been producing numbers in training that I didn't expect to see until after a full summer of training.  My FTP has increased to a hair under 4.5 watts/kg, which is a fairly impressive figure.  I'm certainly happy with it! So needless to say, despite some recent panicking over my fit, I was hoping to ride fast.  With cool temps in the forecast for Wednesday night I was even more hopeful.  I was excited.  

Jenny and I drove up after work and both warmed up appropriately.  It was extremely windy.  Like, B2B 2011 windy.  We both had 808/disc setups so it was slightly worrisome (more me worrying about her than me worrying about myself since I had set up her bike...).  My legs felt fairly normal (tired, a little sore, but cautiously optimistic) and I continued warming up as Jenny headed out for her start.  After a bit, she came back as I was getting ready to ride over for my start and immediately exclaimed that the wind was AWFUL, especially in turn 3.  

I headed over to the start line, wondering whether I would still be alive in 20 minutes, and took my place.  My goal was to average about 4.5-4.6 watts/kg and consequently produce a time under 21 minutes.  Priority number 1 was power, priority number 2 was speed.  Unfortunately, I achieved neither of those goals.  

Started out on target and slowed down immediately.  I had no "oomph" that evening.  I too easily drifted into "not-so-hard" effort level.  After several laps I just stopped looking at my computer.  I was freezing cold.  I was, like at B2B, not into it.  I do not like being cold.  

I averaged under 4 watts/kg.  That is not good.  But you know what? One twenty-ish effort does not change or negate all the good workouts I've had this year.  It doesn't affect the race on Saturday.  It was fun (to talk about afterwards).  It was a good learning experience.  

I will be back Lowes.  And next time, you will be my bitch.  Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Shot from last year, courtesy of the Honey Badger