The Pig Gig

I just did Pigman Triathlon. It is an awesome race. It is reasonably priced, very well organized, tons of volunteers and aid stations, and even has an Elite wave that age groupers can do, as well as a time trial start for all others.

I am in the middle of my Ironman training right now as well as playing a bit of catch up with my knee as I had suffered an injury which just started to feel better a couple weeks ago.

Even though I felt a but off it was awesome to race for the main reason I looked up the last time I did the race which was 2000. My swim was about the same my bike was 2:31ish and my run was 1:43 for a 4:43 total time. That was 2000. This year I went sameish on the swim, 2:16 on the bike in a massive rain storm, and 1:32 on the run for a total time of 4:20.

It was fun to compete and remember vividly the last time I was on the course, who I used to look up to, where I was with my fitness, what I felt were good performances for me, etc. All of those things have changed but I can remember I felt I was pretty good back then and very close to my peak performances I would ever achieve. This is exactly what I try to enforce in my athletes.

What you think now is not what you will be thinking later. ANYONE can get faster do better, reach further, and set new goals. Please note in the example it was 9 years ago! You have to be patient I invested in good coaching, and have started to reap the rewards it has brought.

Pigman this years was insane. When we started it was raining and it was getting progressively more and more windier.

I took the swim out very quick knowing David Thompson would be the guy to watch. After a couple minutes I felt I was still in the lead. I saw Thompson start to come around me on the right hand side but about 10 yards away. I was sprinting as hard as I could to try to get on his feet. I worked myself into some bubbles but was not quite on yet. To my left I say a couple more swimmers. When I sighted I noticed David and I were pretty far off course. I decided to head back to course and gave up chase. That was a mistake as from that point on he just got further and further ahead. I was able to stay very comfortable in the chase pack and we came out about 90 seconds behind.

The bike was the single most insane bike ride I have ever done. It was raining so hard I wasn’t sure if the glasses would work so I left them behind. The rain was coming down so hard though and the wind was blowing so hard it HRURT to look forward. I caught an edge a couple times because I couldn’t see where I was going.

I had two riders in front of me that were riding pretty strong. I usually like to average about 300 watts for my half races and I was well over that trying to keep pace. After a few miles I was able to drop into second place but was clearly even matched with that athlete. We were able to maintain a pretty good average trading leads which was mentally helpful as at times I had to go 450 watts just to go 15 mph into the wind and quickly ran out of gears and was going 46 mph with wind at our back!

Coming into T2 I was 3rd, felt solid but no “snap”. Did the best I could to run solid but it simply was not happening that day. That is Ok too as I have to keep building up fitness on my knee.

Camps down under

Thinking forward to 2010 is a hard thing to do when 2009 is not finished. Unfortunately most of us have to as we are forced to do early registration on so many of our races.

One of the things I like to do is a camp with athletes in Feb-March time of year. Most of us cannot train all year outside and it is a nice thing to get out of the bad weather and off the trainer.

This year I have been talking t Ben Gathercole. Ben was the Australian Coach of the year for Olympic distance TWICE. He and I are looking to put a camp together in the February time frame in Australia!

Check back for more details as we draw closer and finalize details.

Southern Living

I have spent the last week at my parent’s house in North Georgia. The riding here has been awesome. Here is a picture of the top of my climb today, on this descent I hit 50mph feathering brakes! Some of the kids I run into in the gas stations look at me in my outfits as if I were from another planet! It has been so funny.

This would be such an awesome place for a TBC camp.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Simon Thompson

For those of you who havent met Simon yet, here is a brief interview:

Tooth-less

Was going to do a race report until BREAKING NEWS occurred today. My daughter lost her first front tooth. Does a race report stand up to news like this? No way! J

Phelps

Looks like Phelps is trying out a new technique for his stroke. http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090515/charlotte_men_s_200m_free_a_final-16541.html

St. Croix

St. Croix was everything I was told it would be. There was not a cloud in the sky, it was close to 90 degrees, and of course windy. Let’s be honest though, that what we came for right!? I mean how upset would we all be (and internally relieved) if they had to circumvent the Beast because of road construction?

Last month I qualified for Hawaii. I knew I wanted to do that this year but was very surprised and extremely excited it came to me in California. Since then I wanted to skip St. Croix, yet was excited to come down with clients. All the way till the gun went off I was having trouble getting mentally “up” for the event. Please understand this is in NO WAY an excuse. In fact there is a lesson there. Mental outlook is so over looked, and clearly plays a large roll in how we approach the training and race itself. There is no doubt it has a tremendous impact on the event. I am going to start talking with Cheryl Hart again to make sure I have my “Game face” leading into my next big race.

My swim was so-so. I was near the front but felt like I was having the race dictated to me from the beginning. I got caught in a pack, which is nice, but they were just fast enough it was a ton of work to get around them, yet not quite fast enough to keep us in touch with what I felt was the front of the group. I literally could not swim up and through the group. Good for them for holding ground, bad for me to not be able to close the deal.

I exited the swim and for some reason felt like my achilles were going to snap. Never had that happened, and it made me lose focus and before I knew it I had ran to the wrong area on transition. My transitions were both lackadaisical. Again I attribute this to motivation and focus. Got my bike here we go.

On the bike, I was doing OK, but never felt “great”. I had one guy I kept trying to go around, and would get in front, but never be able to hold the position which is odd. On the Beast he rode away from me and it took me the better part of 15 min to TT to get back up to him. I felt he was moving well and if I could stay with him, I would at least be OK. My average watts were about 20 lower then California, confirming I just was not “on” for the day.

I came into T2 next to another guy. He was trying to qualify and had forgotten his salt tabs, etc. I rifled through my bag, gave him all of mine and wished him luck. I told him I was going for a jog, I was not a threat. I was SO RELEIVED I had already qualified, but at the same time was questioning what I was going back to Hawaii for with the same conditions.

The run was steady. I was looking for clients walking aide stations, etc. Nothing to report on this.

I had no stomach issues, I had no cramping, I didn’t even feel as if I was “bonking” too badly, just could not get the body to go today. I think the fact my bike and running shoes were lost for almost 3 days and I was not able to workout did not help me as I proved in California a moderate taper works so much better for me. That being said, I have no excuses. Others were just better then me today. I will also tell you this; my hat is off to everyone who had solid efforts today. There is nowhere to hide on this course. I think Wildflower bike might be a bit easier, but I think Wildflower’s run is harder.

On another note, My 15 year old athlete Jenn Holland won the overall women’s title at Trizou this weekend. Lindsay won the overall Rockford Duathlon! My client Debbie got 5th in her AG out here in St. Croix for her second half IM EVER!!! Russell suffered a flat so his result is a bit misleading.

About are from my Garmin from today’s race.