Kansas 70.3

Kansas 70.3

After the week of weather that we had in Chicago, and the entire Midwest for the most part, I was happy to see that the forecasted high for the day was only going to be 80 or so which for Kansas in June is pretty tolerable. What I wasn’t happy to see was the 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms for pretty much the entire day from 2-3 AM and on. My biggest fear was that the race might be shortened or worse yet, cancelled. It would be a long way to travel for a no go. Either way, it was only a “forecast”, more specifically a weather forecast. Essentially it was nothing I could control. I hit the alarm button at 4:00 and thus the day began.

Got to the race site just after 5 and made my way to T2 which was separate from T1. Got my stuff set up and into a plastic bag should the rains actually come. Always nice putting on dry shoes if you’re soaked coming off the bike. Headed down to the swim start and finished setting up my bike and got out of T1. Considering I was the absolute last wave of the day, I had almost an hour after watching the pro men go off to hang out and talk, relax, and settle the typical race day nerves in attempt to get ready to race. Met a fellow Zooter Rick Lapinski and realized that he lives less than 30 minutes from me in the Chicago burbs, hey the day was off to a good start from the getgo.

As a few of the first waves went off and we watched from an elevated position, I realized how calm the swim looks as a spectator, even when the gun initially goes off. Everyone seems to be swimming at their own pace, unhindered by anyone in the world. I can see how the swim portion of a triathlon “looks” like the best part of the race if you’re far enough away from the action because it truly looks orderly. Got ready to hit the water and the gun was off.

Swim – 32:58

Swim was a skinny rectangle that pretty much took us out, over a tad, and back to the beach. Got to the first of 2 red turn buoys in what felt like a pretty short period of time. The one thing I noticed on my way out was that the water seemed to be getting choppier with every minute. Luckily the lake seemed to be somewhat clean because the water I swallowed a few times really didn’t have much of a bad taste to it. Hit the first buoy and then the chop turned into what felt like intermittent swells. Having talked with several competitors afterwards, I don’t think I was alone in my description of the swim. The 2nd leg of the swim seemed to take what felt like forever. One of the buoys became detached and of course, I bellied back into the course to follow it before realizing I was not heading towards the 2nd of the turn buoys. Probably lost a bit of time there but with the chop being as bad as it was, this wasn’t bound to be a PR swim anyway. Finally hit the beach and was pretty discouraged when I looked at my watch. Got to my bike rack and didn’t notice a whole lot of bikes gone so I knew I wasn’t the only one who struggled with the first leg of the race. Shoes and helmet on and off we went.

Bike – 2:19:30

Knew right from the start that the wind was going to be a factor as we rode straight into it before leaving Clinton State Park. Headed over the dam and also realized that with my disc/1080 setup, crosswinds were also going to be a factor. Hit the gas anyway and figured that I may as well ride the horse until she bucks me. First 20 miles or so of the bike seemed to go by pretty well and I felt surprisingly strong considering my bike fitness is somewhat lacking at this stage of the year. Then from about mile 30-45 or so I really started to feel my legs weaken. Much of this stage of the bike leg seemed to be impacted by the wind and there were a few times going downhill that I had to grab the bars and get out of the aero position for fear of going all over the road. I knew going into the race that the last 5 or so miles would have a tailwind so my focus was just to get through the miles up until that point and then hope for the best. Hit T2 in just under 2:20, not spectacular by any stretch but I was satisfied all things considered.

Run – 1:21-25

After checking out the run course the day before and talking with my coach, I knew that the course was pretty much pancake flat with the exception of a hill on each lap. Right from the start I felt solid. Through mile 5 each of my splits were between 6:00 and 6:08 or so. Again I tried not to get ahead of myself but I wasn’t laboring to run that speed and so I just ran by feel. By mile 9 or so I was starting to feel the race take its toll and I just tried not to slow down too much. I went through mile 11 in 6:25 and as much as I wanted to just stroll in the final 2 miles, I really wasn’t in the mood to look back on the race and kick myself because of it. On top of that, I wasn’t sure where I stood in my age group at that point and I wanted to turn in a solid result at this race. Kept from falling off any more than I already had from my initial pace and hit the line about 1:30 slower than my pre-race goal of 4:15.

Race Time – 4:16:33, 1st 30-34, 5th Amateur.

Talked with Rick at the massage line and met a few more of the Zoot racers, Diana and Adrienne who all had impressive races. Was nice to also hang out with all of them as we all stuck it out and stayed for the awards, despite some lengthy traveling afterwards, for me anyway! Thanks to everyone at Zoot, Ridley, Zipp, GU, Garmin, Fuel Belt, and all other contributing sponsors, we couldn’t do it without you! Also a special shout out to my number one fan Julie, no words can express my gratitude for all that you did to make this weekend better, easier, less stressful, etc!!! Best of luck to everyone the rest of the season and hope to see some of you at Muncie 70.3 in about a month!

~Dana

Boulder Sunrise Olympic Report (Evan Macfarlane)

This was my first race since IM Louisville 9 months ago. I was curious to see how rusty I'd be and how pushing myself would feel.


Swim:
Blah. A cold and uneventful 25 minutes. I was far enough back from the good swimmers that I passed a Team Timex lady a few miles into the bike, which wouldn't be all that bad but for the fact that the women's wave started several minutes after the guys'. On the plus side, this race was my first swim in the new Zoot Prophet wetsuit. This was the first race where I haven't noticed any increased shoulder fatigue from swimming in a wetsuit.


Bike:
My cycling metrics have been good lately, so I was optimistic about putting up a good time "in the field" instead of on the trainer. I know the course pretty well, and I know that the first few miles are the toughest because they're gradually uphill. My plan was to go really, really hard until the first downhill section on Hwy 36 (about 10-15 minutes into the ride), then push every uphill and flat section really hard until Nelson. At Nelson, the course is pretty much flat or downhill until returning back to the reservoir. I expected to be going ~26-27 mph or faster most of the way after turning onto Nelson, and therefore I figured pushing the effort there offers marginal benefits.

My plan seemed to go well, as I passed everyone in sight on the bike. The course offers a handful of vantage points that allow racers to see far up the road, and the course ahead of me looked clear. I was optimistic that there'd be no bikes in T2 when I returned, but unfortunately 4-5 guys beat me to the run.

My strategy is evident in the graph below, as my HR is highest initially, low along the Nelson decent, and then back up to normal Olympic effort around 75th Ave.


(Data from a power meter paired with my Garmin Edge 500.)
Normalized power appears to be ~270 W. Average HR was 158 bpm. Speed was 25.5 mph, which is a bit slower than expected.

Run:
The big question mark. I took a lot of time off running due to a still not completely healed Achilles injury. Would my speed still be there? Well, the good news is that I had the fastest run split at 5:54/mile at an average HR of 167 bpm. The bad news is that my run isn't good enough to overcome my swim.

Takeaways:
3rd overall, 1st in 25-29 AG
Positives -- I am fit heading into IM CdA. My running is strong and near or back to my former level. My bike is also a strength.

Negatives -- My swim prevents me from actually "racing" anyone. It'd be more accurate to say I do an individual time trial every race, and then see where I end up. If I came out of the water near the front, I could gauge how hard I need to ride based on the power needed to stay at the front of the race. I have no doubt in my mind that I could have rode harder. Yes, a harder ride may have slowed my run, but if I started out with a good swim at least I'd be in contention. Better to die trying, as they say. I'm considering basing my entire training and racing schedule next year around improving my swim.

Finally, congrats to the winner, Drew Scott. He smoked me by 7 minutes. I had to look back at last year's 70.3 results and noticed I beat him by 20 minutes. (I remember his name from that race because at the awards ceremony the announcer made a point to mention Drew's father, Dave Scott, who did a race or two in his day.). He's a young guy but appears to have taken a giant leap forward.

Deuces Wild Half IM

Pre-race routine:

"You're five minutes behind first, you have your work cut out for you, get going!!!" yelled my wife. This was the first thing I heard as I exited Fools Hollow Lake.

We arrived in Show Low the day before and were greeted with the wonderful cool temps, cozy cabin nestled among the Ponderosa pines, a steady wind blowing 25-30mph, and a raging forest fire about 30 miles due east in Pine. First thing I want to acknowledge is how awful this Wallow Fire has been in terms of acreage burned and the potential for so many to loose their homes. Also, I want to praise the brave men and women who are up their trying to save lives and property. As we arrived in Show Low, we could clearly see the smoke. There had been some concern that the Deuces Wild Triathlon festival might be cancelled but the prevailing south/south west winds were pushing the flames and smoke away from Show Low. And man, it was and still is windy. So windy that I had made the decision to not use my rear disc wheel and run my 808/808 set up instead. This proved to be a wise descison. So Jamie and I were back for the third year to race this event. I was there to defend my 2010 overall win in the Half and Jamie to finish Sunday's XTERRA which she had to DNF last year due to illness.

We ariived right at noon in time for packet pick up and to allow Jamie to do the XTERRA course pre-ride. I used that time to hit the local Safeway and stock up the house with porvisions and get all my race gear ready. Jamie's friend Amanda, who was racing the Olympic, joined us at our cabin and we had a satifying and early diner. I hit the bed around 8pm and for the first time in three years prior to this race, i actually slept. For some reason, I had not been able to sleep in '09 and '10, like not at all. Might have been due to the altitude of 6300+ feet but this night, I slept well.

Event warmup:

I woke up just before 4 am and had some coffee and a Cliff Bar. I felt good and rested. It was pretty chilly outside, high 40's, but I knew it would warm up quickly. Jamie drove me down to Transition for my 6:30 start and then went home to bring Amanda back as her race didn't start until 8.

Transition was very relaxed this year as they had assigned spots on the rack, so there was no mad rush to try and score good spots, although my buddy Brian Folts didn't realize this and had been in Transition since about 4:30 am! I set up my meager little spot: shoe's, socks, a gel flask, a visor, race belt, and a towel for it all to sit on. I spent a few moments catching up with my local friends as well as last years 2nd place finisher Ryan. I knew Ryan and Brian would be very competitive and I would need to be aware of them on the course. And then there's that great adage you never know who is going to show up on race day. Man, would that prove to be the truth!

Very quickly it was time to squeeze into my ZOOT Prophet wet suit (LOVE this suit) and get in the water for a few minutes of easy swimming. I lined up int the front, a little to the right, with a good bead on the first turn buoy. My swimming has bee very good this year and I was looking forward to trying to better my 28:52 from last year. I knew if I could get a few minutes lead starting off the bike, I could put enough time on my known competition to hold them, especially Brian, off on the run.

Swim- 31:36
WTF.
I started towrads the first marker swimming pretty hard just to get clear, which I did within the first 200 yards or so. My breathing was a bit labored as it always is at first swimming at altitude but I knew I would settle down. There was only one other swimmer near by me in a sleevless suit and a woman who was part of a relay team. On the lond side of the course, I dropped the woman and the guy on my left was a few feet away. I flet great, smooth, nice fast turnover, everything felt like it was clicking. As I rounded the last marker I could see a few people ahead and was sure I must be well within the top 10, maybe top 5. WRONG! I hit the boat ramp, looked at my watch and was literally astonished. And then I heard Jamie....

T1- 1:39
To say I was feeling a little bit discouraged would not put too fine a point on it. Brian and Ryan were both right in front of me whereas I had almost 2min on them last year coming out of the water. I needed to have a good transition and strat to do damage control on the bike. They had wet suit strippers, so by the time I reached my bike all I had to do was put on my helmet and glasses and go. I reached the mount line which is on a slight hill, swung my right foot over and into my clipped in shoe, pushed off, went to get into the left and totally missed. Worse, my new Specialized shoes don't like to flip over as easy as my prvious LG's. So now I am trying to turn the cranks but my left foot is the bottom of my left shoe and I can't get it flipped over!
WTF.
By now, I was so FUBAR, my right shoe unclipped and i was at a standstill. I got off the bike over to the side to allow the more intelligent athletes to get by, and put my damn shoe's on. This did little to alter my mood, needless to say and put my another 30+ seconds in arrears.

Bike- 2:28:53
I would be hard pressed to recall another time I was beginning a 56 mile bike race feeling so discouraged. The first few miles were dominated by an internal battle between negativity and trying to settle down and continue to compete. I very quickly was moving up through the field and the cross wind was very much evident. The first positive thought came into my mind, man, I am glad I left the disc at home. OK, so one decision made correctly, what else could I work on in a more positive manner? My HR was 150-152, so early in the race that was a good sign. I just went flying by Brian, my young nemesis. Better start up on my nutrition and hydration (I had about 5 gels and a pieces of a Cliff Bar in my Fuel Box) plan even though it was stil cool.OK, we are doing a bit better now.

The course initially runs due west on SR 260, so I knew the south/ southwest wind would continue to pick up and be a tail wind between miles 15-25 as you head north towards SR 277. Up the road, I could see another cyclist and by the time we turned to head north, he wasn't too far ahead and seemed to be coasting some on the downhills, so I kept up the pace. At the mile 20 Aid Station I was getting very close to overtaking him but decided I would try and grab a bottle of sport drink even though I still had water. The tail wind was so strong, I came into the aid station at what must have been almost 25+mph and as this poor kid stuck out his hand with the bottle, I was going way to fast to grab it. I hope I didn't hurt the poor little guy!

Now it was time to make the pass and I went by and kept up the pace as to prevent him from jumping on me. My HR was now in the 148 raange and I knew the elevation and wind would start to slowly start to bring it down. I made the right on SR 277 and was greeted by a steady cross/head wind. Fortunatley this section is sort of net downhill, but it's open and exposed. I wasn't entirely clear what position I was in but i knew it wasn't 1st as there was no lead car in front of me like last year. Eventually I could see yet another rider way up the road with no lead car infront of him, so I concluded I must be 3rd.

Then came the turn I was dreading. Right on AZ 77 and heading due south back to Show Low, where the majority of climbing and a viscous headwind awaited the riders, 15 miles of misery. This is always the most challenging party of the course, where fatigue and the long, slow climbs can just knock the stuffing out of you. Add in 25-30mph head winds and I was being forced into my small chain ring for the first time in this race. It's discouraging, makes it a challenge to hold any pace or keep my HR up, which was now camping ut around 142. My new friend negativity started to creep back in..You're going to get caught. I never look back on the course until the very end and refused to do so yet. I very much expected to hear the labored efforts of the chase group swallowing me up and spitting me out the back. I could still see 2nd but the gap was too far to bridge. And then something quite obvious occured to me. These conditions palyed to my strengths as a cyclist. I am small and strong, so te wnd and hills that were giving me fits was likely blowing up the field behind me. I took comfort in that though and tucked as low and small as I could on the aerobars when it wasn't too steep. Think small, keep spinning. Up ahead I could see the spot where the Olympic race would join up with us and knew this would be the only opportunity to chack my 6 and see if anyone was close to me. I looked back and saw nothing but a vast stretch of empty road. I was well away and needed to stay there.

I rode past the mile 50 marker and recalled how last year, nit too far from this spot, I flatted my front tire. It was a nice moment to pass by that point without incident. Now out of the headwind, it was a fast shot back to T2. I was till 3+ mile sout as my split from last year rolled by!

T2- 1:30
The run splits include T2, so I'll just figure I was about the same as last year although the Transition was on the opposite side of the parking lot. I had a good T2 and as I ran to the course I was told i was 10min down on first and 4min behind second. 10min!! Who was that guy?!

Run- 1:36:24
The initial 2 miles are alnog a trail by the lake and I felt pretty beat. I ran past Jamie who once again gave me a "GET GOING"! I love my wife. :) I tried to find some sense of form and pace but, once again, began to feel you know what creep into my thoughts. I'm running too slow, I'm going to get shuffled back in the pack. It's hard to admit, but this was the point where I stopped racing to catch second and likely started racing to not loose 3rd. It's a very different mind set and in retrospect, it was paramount in my thoughts. Back onto the road and heading to the long dirt road out and back, I started to feel a little better, grabbing a shot of gel from my flask and some ice cold water at an aid station.

Just as i reached the dirt road, I was slammed by the headwind. It was getting worse and this rolling stretch with poor footing would be a struggle. At this point, and Olympic athlete caught up to me and I could see my friend Cam Hill coming the othe way, leading the Olympic race. I gave him a high five as we passed. Then I had my firts chance to see 1st in the Half. As he passed, he said something to me about the bike course record, one which I had set last year with a 2:20. I still don't know what he said and I actually assumed he had bested it but it turned out he went 2:23, an amazing split considering the conditions. Now 2 more guys came by but I wasn't sure who was in what race. As I made the turn, a group of guys were coming and I had a moment of panic until i could see they were all Olympic men. I needed to keep an eye out for Ryan and Brian, who was easy to spot in his speedo. I was well past the turn and nearing the road when I saw Ryan first. We also high fived and he said "Just like last year!" where he had chased me to the end and missed catching me by about 10 seconds. As Brian and I passed he said I must have had a great bike and again I realized how much the conditions had played to my strength. A valuable lesson learned, one of many good and bad on this day so far.

As I looped around the lake side road towards the second out and back, I knew I would have a better chance to see where 2nd place was and in turn, how fast Ryan and Brian were running. As i came down past Transition, 2nd was just coming up to make the turn for the final lap. We wished eachother well and I knew I was still about 4min or so down on him. Now i really wanted to get out and back and into transition to start the last lap before Ryan got to the same spot. It gave me a boost of extra motivation when I hit Transition and Ryan and Brian still hadn't come down the road, so I knew I was at least 4min ahead. that felt good and I continued to run and run well, and hold pace. I think I was moving much better now.

Once more to the long out and back and the wind had shifted to more of a cross, so the last few miles would be into the wind. I hit the turn and started coming back. Now Ryan was in about the same spot but Mr. Folts was running like a man possesed. He was flying and we still had 2 miles to go. yet a little more motivation for me to get this done. Once back on the road, I pushed into the wind but I felt slow despite the effort. Finally coming past mile 12, I knew I could hang on and i afforded myself a look back as I climbed the last hill. No speedo to be seen. I came across the line a good 9min slower then last year, pleased to be on the podium, but with a lot of things to think about.

Final Time- 4:40:02, 3rd out of 156.

Lake Geneva Half Marathon

Woke up around 4:30 or so which is a little earlier than I would normally rise for an 8:00 start but considering I had a 90 minute drive up to the race, I had to plan accordingly. The weather called for a pretty fair chance of rain but considering it was strictly a running event, I didn't have to modify things too much other than to pack some warm and dry gear for after the race.

Having driven the course about a month and a half prior, albeit backwards, I knew that the first half of the race would be pretty hilly with the last 6 miles or so being pretty flat with a few tough downhills inside the final 2 miles. The course is a point-to-point starting at the eastern shore of the lake running to Fontana which is located on the western shore. As luck would have it, their was a gentle easterly wind which was good considering the temp hovered just above 45.

My plan was to run an aggressive first half of the race until the flat section and then hang on from there. I hoped that there would be several runners of my ability and better but with another race being held about 30 minutes away in Kenosha, I knew that the field might be a little slim. Either way, I wasn't there to compete for placing, rather I wanted to turn in an honest effort and shoot for a PR despite the hilly course.

We toed the line right on time were off with the classic cap gun start. The course essentially went straight for about 200 meters and took a sharp left hand turn up a fairly steep hill about 100-200 meters long before turning right onto what would be the main road for the remainder of the run. I had four guys with me before we hit the hill and by the time I got to the top of the hill, I was alone and would stay that way for the rest of the race. The first 2 miles followed a definite uphill trend and I went through in 11:26 which was pretty much right where I had hoped to be at this point. I had to glance at my watch a few times throughout the race to keep from settling into a lull being that I was alone. This particular race only had 4 aid stations so missing a stop would have been a bummer so I had no choice but to take something at each of them. This normally is not an issue but each time I came up on an aid station, the people working it were off socializing and had to literally run to the table to get there in time before I went through. I actually had to grab my own fluids at 2 of the 4 stations because no one was there, strange?! By the time I went through the 11 mile marker, my watch only read 10.75 miles which meant either the last 3 miles were going to be long, or I'd turn in a PR that really wasn't a true PR. This problem got ironed out during the final 1.1 miles that was actually 1.4.

After driving the course prior to the race, I thought for sure my back and quads would be screaming while going down the 2 substantial downhills inside the last 2 miles but much to my amazement, they actually felt pretty good. I attribute this to the new Zoot Ultra COMPRESSRX shorts that I wore for the race along with the new Zoot Ultra Team top which I must say is a really quality top! The new Ultra TT 4.0 really felt great other than the blister that formed on my left achilles after about 3 miles because the skin between the chip strap and the top of the back loophole got pinched each time my left ankle dorsiflexed before heel strike. Other than that, I can't think of any gear related complaints.

As I neared what sounded like the finish line, I noticed that there really was no actual finish line or finishing chute set up. As I got closer to the final turn a guy standing at the corner of the final right hand bend shouted "run towards the guy holding the rope over there"! I had to hold back laughter as this is the first time I really had no idea where to go at the end of a race. Naturally I took his advice and when I shouted to "the guy holding the rope" asking him where to go, he essentially said, "this is the end of the course". There you have it, my finish line dialect, again strange!

Overall I was happy with my race on an honest good course and I was especially proud for not sacking it in halfway through the race. Total time 1:15:45, only :19 slower than my half marathon time from last season that was on a much flatter course. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for this season. Time to put in some serious time on the bike, Kansas 70.3 is just over a month away!

Special thanks to Jake at Zoot for all his help and to some of the other sponsors including Garmin, and GU. Considering my new Ridley is still in the box at home, I can't give any props for performance just yet but going on looks alone, it's pretty impressive! Good luck to everyone this season, hope to see you out on the course!

~Dana

Tempe International Race Report

Pre-Race:
Woke up a little after 4AM to go through the usual motions. The weather was great, very little wind, and clear skies just beginning to be painted with a hint of dawn. I felt good but a bit restless. This was the first time I was racing a triathlon back to back weekends and although I found the week between very relaxing, now I was feeling some anxiety. I knew who wasn't going to be racing, a lot of the most competitive local AG'ers were taking a pass after Rio Salado last weekend, but I was unsure who would actually show up. I had such a great race at Rio could I do it again? I wanted to, I wanted to be on the podium again. Also, this was my 6th year anniversary of my first triathlon, Tempe International 2006. And for the first time since 2006, the race was being held on the north shore of the lake.

I arrived in Transition around 5:30 or so and was amazed how crowded it was. I was thinking the race would be diminished in size due to the close proximity to the Rio race but the racks were pretty full. My wave was scheduled to go off at 7:03, but at 6:30 they announced a delay in the start because the bike course wasn't set yet. Great, now we would be running deeper into the heat of the morning.I went down to the beach and waited with my DURAPULSE friends. And waited....and waited...The one bright spot, as I was fussing with my swim cap, a lovely note from my wife fell out from where she had hid it. Finally at 7:00 they got the Sprint race started and by 7:30, I was in the water on the line.

Swim- 22:30
When the horn sounded, I went hard for the first 200 yards, pretty much until i reached the Sprint race turn marker. Once past that, I settled into a great rhythm and pace with a nice high turnover. My Prophet wet suit is just a complete joy to swim in. I caught the back of the previous waves but didn't have too much difficulty picking my way through. I knew their would be a turn marker coming up I would keep to my right but i couldn't see it due to the glare of the sun, so I just followed the splashing line ahead of me. Suddenly I was at the marker and a good 10 yards to it's right, so I had to quickly swim over to it to make the turn properly. It seems that a lot of people swam down the middle of the course and based on some swim splits, I think many missed this marker entirely.

Once around, the next right hand turn marker was close by and I was on the way back. I kept wanting to swim more towards the shore as the last right hand turn into the beach was very close to shore. When i sighted the Sprint marker, I made sure I kept it to my right although I'm not sure if that was required. Better safe then DQ'ed. I came back under the Mill Ave. bridges and was still swimming great. I swam until my hand on my pull hit the sand and I popped up and ran to the mat which was right at the shore. That was great as it provided a very accurate swim time. And it was so nice to have a beach finish as opposed to the stairs used on the south side of the lake.

T1- 1:23
It was a long way to get to Transition. You had to run up the beach, across a road, and then up a big flight of concrete stairs. I was tired by the time i finally reached my bike! I had my wet suit partially stripped and almost had it off clean but my heels got stuck, so I had to reach down and peel it off. My rack spot was right on the end and maybe 30 feet from the mount line so I made the decision before the race to put my bike shoes on instead of having them on the pedals.

Bike- 58:56
The bike course was similar to Rio's but we had to go up and over Curry and do the out and back up College Ave, so i figured it would run a bit slower and was concerned it would be really crowded. I was wrong on both counts. Although it had two full on 180's, the 95 degree turns were very wide and often allowed for an aggressive, fast approach. After the first lap, I was really able to attack the corners i would normally have to be much more conservative on. I brought my HR up into my target zone of 157-160 and felt great. I had my one water bottle on the bike filled with 3 gels mixed in water. I was very comfortable and powering down the road feeling great, passing everyone. I attacked the climbs on Curry, jumping out of the saddle every time. I wish I could make the story of the bike more interesting, but it went right to plan and I rolled into T2 knowing I had broken an hour again this week.

T2- :37
I got to my rack ad was about to rrack my bike but realized it would be facing the wrong way, with my front wheel on the ground opposite my gear. I wasn't sure if a USAT official would be wandering around handing out that penalty, so to be safe, again, I re-racked it from the other side. Also had trouble with my right shoe. It's not the shoe's or my technique, it's I am a little stiff getting off the bike, especially in my right leg.

Run- 41:13
Well, whereas the bike was uneventful, the run had it's fair share of drama! I'm not sure if the course was long, but we did have to run down stairs three and all the run times are slow. Only one guy went in the 37's and even Lewis ran a 39. So I ran down the same stairs we ran up from the swim and almost went the wrong way at the bottom, the first of many wrong turns I would make. Now it's always the athletes responsibility to know the course and I had reviewed the course map before the race and it all seemed to make sense and was similar to the Rio course and the last time they ran the race from this side of the lake. Well, there were some last min. changes I was unaware. Read on...

So I ran down the north rec path, feeling good and really hitting a good stride. There was a Tri-Scottsdale guy ahead and I slowly began to gain on him. By the time we were crossing the Scottsdale Rd. bridge, I passed him...until I totally missed the turn. He was a good sport and yelled to me and I realized I had passed the area where we also turn coming the other way somehow. I was looking down the road and thought we had to run almost to Rio Salado. Dumb mistake. So I caught back up just after the aid station and thanked him for the heads up. Running the south shore rec path, up ahead i could see a woman in a one piece moving at a good clip. I caught her just before the turn to climb up to the Mill Ave. bridge. I came over the bridge and there was a great crowd of DURAPULSE supporters at the stairs going down. They all gave me a big boost of encouragement and coach Nick said I was looking great. As I started down the stairs, I heard Nick tell me to stay to the right. I wondered what he meant...

So I get to the bottom of the stair and turn right. Well, Nick must have meant that. So I run on the short sidewalk back onto the road under the 202 and an aid station. One of the kids there also said stay right which I assumed meant to the right of the aid station. Once passed it, I turned left to run back up to the rec path for the second loop, feeling great, having fun...Yeah, not so fast there, tiger.

"BRYAN!!!" Hey, it's Nick yelling some encouragement to me from up on the bridge! I gave a wave with my left hand to acknowledge him. "BRYAN!!!" Yeah, Nick I heard you, thanks! "BRYAN!!!!" Something is wrong. I look back and see Nick waving. I was going the wrong way. I run back towards the bridge and Brian Folts, having already won the Sprint race, came running down the stairs to show me where to go. Very class act. Turns out 'keep right" meant run back under Mill and do a short out and back by the beach. Thank God they were there to see me, I would have had to DQ myself otherwise. This addition was not any any course maps and I think the communication from the RD to the athletes was poor regarding this. I figure I gave up about 40 seconds of time and I hoped I hadn't given up any position.

I was very frustrated, even more so as now both that woman and Tri-Scottsdale guy were back ahead of me. So I made the turn and ran back through the aid station again and out onto the north path. When I caught the Tri-Scottsdale guy I said I hoped third times the charm! I ran hard to try and get some time back. Coming back across Mill Ave., I thanked Nick for saving my race. Down the stairs and now I knew the way to go. Instead of the turn, I ran up the road and under the 202 to the finish. Brian and Adam Folts were there and based on their estimate, I was 2nd OA behind Lewis. Hard fought and hard won, it was very sweet indeed.

Rio Salado Olympic Triathlon Race Report

Pre- Race
Woke up around 4:00am after a pretty decent nights sleep. Jamie was going MTB riding and was sleeping in and I made some coffee and had a Cliff Bar while I surfed the morning net. I had all my gear packed and didn't have too much to do. I went outside to check the weather and it was calm and warm. And a funny thing happened. I felt utterly at peace.

It had been over 6 months since my last triathlon. Kona didn't go as well as I had hoped and ended what was my best season of racing ever on a bit of a down note. I had a great run winter racing season, winning a few OA 15K trail races and setting a PR of 1:19 in the half. But I am a triathlete at heart and felt I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to perfrom well at my first race especially since I DNS'ed the Marquis race due to illness. I suffer from the same pre-race fears and anxiety that effect all AG'ers. Be it to podium an AG, set a PR, or for some just to finish the race, it's all the same and we all need to manage our expectations, those we put on ourseleves and those we feel others put upon us. I wanted to do well not only for myself but also for my great ZOOT Ultra team and all our terrific sponsors. In that quiet moment out in the pre dawn dark, I was able to let that go. I was going to have a great day, I decided, regardless of the outcome. I was going to race in a triathlon.

I arrived in Tempe around 5:30am. Transition was the usual bussle of nervous energy which I realy enjoy. It makes me calm to see other people anxious for some reason. I had a chance to catch up with pro's Lewis Elliot and Kevin Taddonio and all my firends from DURAPULSE, ONE Multisport, and Tri-Scottsdale. It was a really fun pre-race environment and by 6:15, I was with my friends Matt and Joan squeezing into our wet suits. Whne I pulled my amazingly awesome ZOOT Pophet suit out of my bag, a little piece of paper fell to the ground. It was a not from jamie she his in there the night before with some wonderful words of encouragement. It just made my day complete and it was only dawn.

Swim- 24:24
I jumped into the warm embrace of Temepe Town Lake ;) and swam easy to the start line. The Pro and 39 and under wave started 3 min ahead of M40+. All the Sprint athletes were already started, so we were pretty much at the back. I lined up to the left and noticed peter Ney, a top swimmer near by, so I knew I was in the right spot. The horn sounded and I went hard for the first 100 yards until I got under the Mill Ave. Bridge and then settled into what felt like a good tunrover. I have really been trying to make improvements in my stoke and focused on the things I have been working on adopting. Shallow left hand entry, fingers down earlier in the catch, better reach. All felt very smooth and comfortable and I really love the new ZOOT Prophet wet suit.

As always, the sun was directly ahead and made sighting a challenge as did the speed inwhich I ran into the back ot the wave ahead. I made the turn bouys and continued to feel great. I made a sighting error early after the second buoy and found myself too far out to the right of the markers. I quickly came back in but lost a bit of time. I tried to pick up the tempo as I neared the final turn into the stairs and for the most part swam in clear water. I hit the starirs with a 23:xx on my watch which was about what I had been hoping for.

T1- :52
Strippers! It's been a while since a local Tempe race had strippers but I always enfoy the convenience so I took the time to stop and have my wet suit peeled. You then have to run the length of Transition to the timimg mat and enter at the back. As I ran towards my rack, I saw my firend Trevor Sher just beginning to leave. He's gunning for my bike course record at DueceMan this year and is going to be very competitive in general. I was happy to have put 3 min into him on the swim, I would likely need it.

I had my shoe's clipped into the pedals and ran fast to the mount line. I was able to get my right foot into my shoe as I mounted and took off with my left foot on top of the other shoe. Afetr negotiating the "S" curve on Rio Salado, I went to slip my foot in and the strap came free of the metal holder. That's the second time that's happened, I need to get different shoes. So I had to dick around with it to put it back through and two guys went by. Stupid mistake which cost a bit of time. I had the 4th fastest T1 regardless.

Bike- 59:01
Once I had myself sorted out, I settled into a good cadence. I was going to target a HR of 157-160 and hoped that my training would support that effort for 40K. The first lap was pretty uneventful, I felt great, and began to work on my hydration/nutrition which consisted of a single bottle of water with 4 Cherry GU Roctanes mixed in. Calories and water all in one. Trevor had gotten away from me leaving T1 and besides him, there were a few other guys in the wave ahead I needed to put time into on the bike if I was going to win. The course provided a few out and backs where i could catch sight of my quarry, but somehow i kept missing them. I passed the enterance to Transition to start my seconfd lap in 29min, so iknew I was riding great and could be a bit more conservative towards the end of the ride and still be sub 1 hour.

About half way throught he second loop, I saw Trevor ahead of me. I was suprised to see him, he should have been off the front. As I caught him I could see why. He had crashed at one of the corners and had some decent road rash on his rigt leg. I asked if he was OK and could tell he was but obvioulsy had backed off the pace a bit. He and I rode within 30 feet for the remainder of the race, switching back and forth and having some trouble with traffic. At one point a few Tri-Scottsdale guys were really cloging the road and I yelled up to Trevor to get around them ASAP and we both dropped the little pack.

As we came down Mill towards the end, I finally saw Erik Svans and Brian Folts. Everyone was here! The three guys I needed to be most concerned about and me with a 3 min cushion heading into T2. We were all laughing and trash talking as we entered the parking lot. I was so preoccupied teasing Brian I wasn't paying attention to my dismount and managed to drop a shoe as I came off the bike! What was with me and shoes today?! I had to stop and wait as a nice volunteer picked it up and brough it to me. By now, the boys were gone and I ran in alone.

T2- 1:06
T2 was a disaster. I had a hell of a time getting my right shoe on. Again with the shoes!!! Then I realized I had meant to unhook my Garmin from the bike quick release before T2 and put it in my pocket but forgot as I caught the gang, so now I had to take that off and put it on my wrist strap. When i fially got out to the run course I had given up anywhere from 15-30 seconds on Brian, Trevor, and Erik.

Run- 38:50
I headed out the south side rec path and fell into what felt like a good early pace. I needed to try and keep the group ahead from opening up too much time but they were spaced out and it was impossible for me to keep track of the splits ahead. So I decided to run my race and letr the results be what they would be. I cam around the north side and up ahead saw a Brian Stover, a coach from Tuscon and DesertDude on ST. He had a 40 on his calf! I had no idea he was there or that he had aged up into my AG. I ran up alongside him and said;"Hey B!" He looked at me and said he was done and I was now in the AG lead. I told him I though I already was!

Passing Brian gave me some additional motrivation to try and push the pace and in front of me was another sub 40 year old guy who turned out to be Russ Brandt, a friend of a friend and a guy I had beaten at a few of the winter run races. I didn't realize it was him and as we began the second loop, I found myself closing down on him. As we came across the Sctossdale Rd. bridge, I passed him. Although he relaized I was from the wave behind, he decided it was a point of pride and he hung with me and overtook me on the north shore rec path. I should have gone with him and had i known it was Russ, i would have ben very motivated but I didn't. That was a mistake, I was running too easy by just a bit and can't allow myself to fall into that zone. My HR was low 160's where it should have been high 160's. As I came across the Mill Ave. bridge I could hear the MC announcing the first 5 male olympic men were in. Not so fast there, buddy! I picked up the pace on the downhill and came into the finsihing chute.

Final Time- 2:04:14, 3rd OA, 1st Amateur, two of our local pro's, Lewis Elliot and Kevin Taddonio had a pro wave finished in front of me.

All my best to my fellow ZOOT athletes, race hard, be safe, WIN!

-Bryan D.

Update from Tucson

Well, time has flown by at The Cycling House! The Cycling House has already hosted 8 camps and we have 2 more before we pack up in Tucson and head for Montana. Eighty degree temperatures have become the norm recently providing some awesome riding weather. A couple brief breaks between camps allowed the TCH staff to catch their breath and get in some training with some friends from Montana. Most recently we finished up with the Jeff Cuddeback, Triple Fitness Triathlon camp. We have some fun upcoming camps in Spain, France, and California!
My personal training has been going pretty well. I just finished up my biggest week leading into California 70.3. I'm excited to race and see exactly how my fitness is after a couple months of hard training pays off. My first race of the season was the Rock and Roll Marathon in Phoenix. I posted a 2:38 marathon and rocked the Zoot Ultra Kalini shoes, Zoot Ultra shorts, Zoot Ultra Shirt, and Zoot compression socks. I felt great and had a great race despite logging 250 miles on the bike, 20 miles of running, and 10k of swimming in the week leading into the race. My last race was the Desert Classic Duathlon in Phoenix, AZ. I was able to test myself against a strong field and ended up 9th place. The new course was tough, and better conditions this year made the race much more enjoyable.

I'm also excited to be racing with the Zoot Ultra triathlon team in 2011! Zoot provided some excellent support in 2010 and I'm happy to be able to continue growing that relationship. Adam Jensen and Jen Luebke will be joining me on the team roster to represent Montana.

Jen and I also had the opportunity to represent Zoot at Zappos.com. We were the models for some online videos highlighting the features of some of the 2011 spring Zoot apparel line clothing. It was a really fun to see on of the largest distributors of Zoot apparel, footwear, and wetsuits. Zappos is a huge company that made it’s niche among other online giants with their dedication to customer service. The office itself was an amazing, huge, fun atmosphere! Office decorations and theme conference rooms made for a not so typical office setting. Employees seemed to enjoy their freedom in the non-traditional office setting yet still were very productive. Jen and I made a quick trip down to the strip before flying home. It was a short 12 hour trip to Las Vegas but was really fun!

Check out more of my blog posts @ TriBrendan