Knuckle up Triathlon

Savage Triathlon Camp Announcement!

2011-11-30T10:34:00.001-05:00

I am happy to announce that I will be joining close friends, training partners, and fellow Pittsburgh-area based coaches, Chad Holderbaum, Kim Schwabenbauer, and Matt Mauclair for the inaugural Savage Triathlon Camp in Deep Creek Maryland over Memorial Day weekend of 2012! As far as I know, this camp will be the first of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic region and more specifically in the beautiful mountains and pristine training grounds of Western Maryland, and the camp will be hosted by some of the the region's most elite long distance triathletes and coaches. We have been heading to the Deep Creek region for personal training camps for years and have found it to be an ideal training venue during the summer months - we have covered many miles of Garrett County Maryland by stroke, pedal, and stride, and know that this will present a great challenge and incredible training/learning experience for all lucky athletes in attendance!

The camp will be run by USAT and ITCA certified triathlon coaches with decades of cumulative coaching and racing experience, and is sure to be a key component to a successful 2012 build toward your racing goals, while also an invaluable learning experience for new and established triathletes alike. Please take a look at the camp's homepage for a tentative itinerary and pricing structure. Camp cost includes swim video analysis, pool access to the Community Aquatic and Recreation Center, bike fit assessment, and running gait video analysis. In addition to the individual attention received, you will attend coaching lectures on nutrition and training as well as participate in group swim, bike, and run sessions with fellow campers of comparable skill/fitness levels. The cost for the camp does not include food, lodging, or transportation. Savage Tri Camp is a USA Triathlon sanctioned camp, therefore athletes must either have a USAT annual membership or purchase a one day USAT license membership for $10.00.

I hope all of you will consider joining us for this ultimate, Savage training experience next June in Deep Creek, but act soon as camp attendance will be capped at 30 athletes! Please comment or contact me for additional details. Happy training and preparation for 2012!

-Jeremy

Reflections on Kona

2011-10-28T21:33:00.000-04:00

After about 3 weeks to reflect on the race in Kona, some main points and thoughts have come into focus.

SWIM:
I started the swim in a pretty aggressive position, but if I am going to start there, I need to be more aggressive with my preparation as well and start the race more like its an olympic or sprint. I started 10-20 yards left of the pier and while I think I belong in that general spot, starting 2 or 3 rows deep as I did will not cut it. Immediately I was hemmed in and getting the crap beat out of me, and I didn't have anywhere to go. In the future, I need to be in the front row, being reigned in by the paddleboard volunteers, and start HARD and use some of my old swimming sprint speed to get out in front. I can stay out there with my improved open water navigating abilities and by focusing on an ever improving, rapid and powerful armstroke. More pullups, paddle work, and back to my sprinting roots. Short of graduating into the pro ranks and having that luxurious 6:30am start with only 80 athletes, I need to attack the swim more than I have if I am to use my swim as a weapon and swim a split that I am more than capable of.

BIKE:
My bike was much improved over the last two years, but this is the area where I still need the most improvement. Obviously this will require more miles and more focused strength and threshold work, but also I need to be better strategically as well, as I also mentioned for the swim. To the former point, I need to bring my FTP numbers up and corresponding muscular endurance to really advance my strength to weight ratio and to be able to apply this over the course of 112 miles. This year, I rode at about 3.2-3.4 watts per kilo (AP vs NP) output for the IMWC bike leg; I read somewhere that Michael Weiss rode at about a 317 watt average (4 watts per kilo) in Kona this year, so while this is almost the pinnacle of biking ability in IM, this is a target to continue working towards. For a more intermediate target, I heard on a podcast that Justin Daerr did about 4500 kilojoules of work on the IM Louisville bike course (at about my size) compared to my 3900 kj in Kona (and 5029 kj for Weiss), so there is definitely some additional power and intensity on the bike that I will continue building.

To the latter point, from my race report I referenced letting some competitors ride by in the early stages of the bike and sitting up to avoid getting mixed up in sticky (potential drafting) situations. In the future, I need to be willing to burn a couple extra matches to stay near the front of these "packs", keying off of other strong riders, and still getting a legal "draft" at 10 meters back that I know some of my other competitors were capitalizing on much more. Towards the end of the bike, it became clear that I was not necessarily in the relative position that I should have been based off of how many guys I was catching and passing. This also could only be helped by coming out of the water a good 5 minutes earlier based on my swim goals. Finally, I need to do a better job of optimizing my bike position and improvements in gear selection and placement to take advantage of free speed that is available for gain.

RUN:
For my run, I think I could probably be helped most just in terms of better training and increased run mileage to build efficiency and durability. Strategically speaking, I don't think there is too much room for improvement for me at this time because basically by the time you are on the run, the chips have fallen after 5-6 hours of racing the swim & bike, and the run is all about running to your potential with the position you have put yourself in. Obviously, the faster you get and the higher your relative position coming off the bike, the more important strategy becomes. We're talking top-5-10 AG here, or if you're Crowie, Andi, Macca, etc. I feel like I could train my stomach a little better on race-simulation bricks throughout the year to better handle the nutrition required to fuel a whole day in the heat, and absorb all of this without intestinal dispute for the latter stages of the marathon. Also, I think continued improvements in running economy and durability through increased overall mileage and longer/tougher brick sessions will allow me to keep the average pace high and steady throughout the whole IM marathon. "They" say that a good decouple between open running races and triathlon run legs is about 8% - based on my runs from shorter distances and standalone running races, I have the current potential to run the IM marathon leg about 12-15 minutes faster. Of course there are many factors that can contribute to the ability to realize this appropriate decouple, but pure running toughness can't hurt. Obviously, the stronger and more efficient I become on the bike, the easier it will be to realize this potential on the run. In Ironman (and life, and triathlon, etc, etc), everything is interconnected and improvements in one discipline can and should certainly lead to improvements in the others. My run has been my strength in the last couple years, but it can and must become stronger.

Overall, I was very pleased with my race this year and while it was a tough start to the season, I felt like I redeemed myself from some bad races and finished on a strong note with IM Lake Placid and Kona. As satisfying as my race in Hawaii was, I have some areas that I can definitely improve on and some aspects that I am not happy about and that I will rectify for 2012. The brutal Pittsburgh winter is about to begin, but I am more motivated than ever and am ready for some hard work to build into a successful 2012 season. I hope that everyone else has had a successful year in 2011, and that either way, whether you did or you didn't, that you have evaluated your year and are motivated to improve and work hard toward your goals in the new year. Cheers.

Kona 2011 race report

2011-10-15T00:19:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, October 8th 2011, I competed in and finished my third Ironman World Championships in as many years. This race has become the goal and focus of each year of my triathlon life, and I was feeling really good heading into this one and really gunning to keep shaving off time in my IM finish times. My first year out in 2009 I finished in a 10:28:19 and then followed that up with 55 minute improvement in 2010. Could I shave another 55 minutes off my time this year? HAHAHA, I would guess most likely not, but I knew that my improvement had continued from last year and despite some disappointing races earlier this year, I had learned some valuable lessons and had worked harder than ever. I was ready.

Race morning started at about 4am at the condo and Jocelyn and I were up and starting to bring in the nutrition (read: CARBS!). Over the course of the next couple hours, I drank 3 bottles of Ensure, ate a large banana, guzzled some organic apple sauce straight out of the jar (sorry honey!), and had one package of uncaffeinated GU Chomps and one uncaffeinated GU. This was all supplemented by some Gatorade, but who knows how much and I was feeling pretty fueled up and hydrated. Jocelyn and I had planned on catching the shuttle down Ali'i Drive but after being passed up once, we decided to thumb it and were thankfully picked up by a family in a Jeep from the same condo complex who were in from Arizona and Alaska to cheer on their family member Greg. After getting down to the King Kam and the pier, getting body marked and wandering around for a while in the wrong direction and wrong order of activities, I finally got my special needs dropped off and then we got into transition to set everything up.

Jocelyn and I left transition and I headed over towards Ali'i' and the seawall to try to meet up with my family, Ty and Ryan, and Chad, Beth, Chris, Eric, and Joe if possible. After successfully seeing almost everyone over at the seawall and the flurry of good luck wishes, it was time to head back over to transition again. It was getting close now!

A little bit before the pros went off at 6:30, Chad, Beth, and I walked over and back into transition to get ready to head into the water once the gates were opened up for the age groupers. I had not seen Jocelyn since we parted ways for a bathroom stop and then the meetup over by the seawall, and I was looking at every pink cap that was wearing a pz3tx swim skin to try to track her down before the swim start to wish her luck and score the pre-race kiss, but alas, I did not locate her. Thankfully she tracked down Joe and Kim before the start and went into the water with them. I got out towards the front with maybe 15 minutes to go to the start but a little bit left of where I was last year, within 10 or so yards of the edge of the pier. I was hoping to avoid being pummelled like I was for a little bit last year and especially like I was at Lake Placid this year.

After a little bit of treading, visualization, and a lot of fighting for position, the canon blasted at 7am and we were off!

The first 1000 meters were insane, and much more of a cluster-F than I remember from years past. I was literally out of the water at times, buoyed up by human bodies to my left, right, and underneath me, when you would have the inevitable people shift directions or drift into you, and you would get "pinched". Twice I got my favorite move, where a guy will put his hand on your shoulder and push off and in the process, push you back. Real cool man, for almost everyone out here it's going to be a race of 9+ hours, but I know you're in a terrible hurry. I just tried to stay as calm as possible and not let my heart rate (HR) skyrocket, burning up valuable fuel and setting off a negative cascade of stress hormones into my blood stream. For the most part I think I was successful and things spread out a little bit into the second kilometer of the swim and to the first turn at the boat. It got a little hectic again at the far turns, but nothing like the start. I tried my best to swim a straight line and keep on someone's feet and was largely successful with this for the last 3/4 of the swim. I was also trying to keep my turnover up and really focus on fast, powerful strokes, and not gliding too much, but I felt a little ineffective in the water and my bottom half was also completely disjointed from my top half with my hips and kick feeling very uncoordinated. As I approached the pier again, I expected a time north of an hour, but was pleasantly surprised to see the clock approaching 59 minutes as I ran up the steps and onto the pier. Based on how I felt in the water, and the more sizable ocean swell than what we had last year, I feel like I can almost 100% attribute my swim split to good drafting. This is probably a little dramatic, but I did not feel nearly half as good as I had in the water in the two weeks leading up to the race. In the end, my swim was a :59:12, 45 seconds faster than last year and a 1:31/100m (1:24 yards) average pace.

T1= 2:54, not too bad, although probably should have been 30-60 seconds faster. My helmet sucks and I should probably attach more of my nutrition to my bike, and stuff less into my singlet pockets!

Off and onto the bike, and heading up the first little part of Palani towards the "Hot Corner", looking strangely rigid and out of sorts. Who knows.

Starting the bike, I was certain to get into my shoes quickly and also make sure that I didn't loose any valuable nutrition when heading north onto the rough part of Kuakini like I did in '09. I tried to take it easy through town and not get too excited; you would pay for it later in the day if your HR remained jacked for too long at the start of the bike. Chad caught me on the out and back section of Kuakini and while I thought for a moment about going with him and working together, he was clearly on a mission and knew I had to ride my own race. I planned on seeing him again. Up and out of town and onto the Queen K, I tried to settled into a somewhat hard, but relaxed rhythm. My plan was to ride the first 40k or so pretty steady to try to get some separation on some of my competitors and also get out of town quickly, before the trade winds picked up along the coast. Then the plan was to take it "easy" for the middle 90k up to and back down from Hawi, and then really build into it and ride hard the last 40-50k back into town to finish strong. The last two years I have faded badly on this last stretch when facing the headwinds, and I was determined to ride this section better as my training has been more intense and strength oriented this year, but I also wanted to make the right decisions on the race course (i.e. pacing and fueling) to make this easier to accomplish. The first 45k I rode at an average power (AP) of 222 watts, normalized power (NP) of 236 watts, with an average HR of 153 bpm, cadence of 95 rpm, and an average speed of 23.7 mph. I was moving along pretty good, but it felt very controlled and sustainable. Between the airport and the Mauna Lani Resort area, there were TONS of guys coming through, riding what I would expect to be WAY too hard, and a couple times it almost looked like packs were starting to form or the rotating pass lines were getting too complex and risky, so I took the opportunity every so often to sit up, ride clean, get in some more calories, and not burn myself digging too deep to pass a line of 10 guys. For the first two hours or so I was getting in about 3 bottle of Infinit per hour plus GUs, salt tablets, and water, so I definitely felt like I was banking some good calories and hydrating myself well. I didn't dramatically slow once I made the turn in Kawaihae, but just kept things comfortable and kept rolling along. The winds got pretty bad in the final 5-10 miles prior to the turnaround in Hawi, but I don't know, they just didn't feel as bad to me this year, maybe due to increased strength/fitness, but possibly also due to experience and better race management decisions. 2nd quarter, 218 AP/231 NP/148 HR/89 RPM/21.7 MPH. I went through the turnaround in Hawi and had to stop at special needs as they did not have my bag ready for me with the hand off, but I took the opportunity to inhale a Powerbar and take a couple deep breaths to marshal my strength for the ride back into town.

Heading back down the hill from Hawi is always a ripping good time, and I was definitely enjoying myself and didn't feel like a bonk or heat stroke was imminent, like it had been in years past. I keep trying to really force the fluids as best that I could, but it was in this section that my stomach started feeling a little unsettled so I backed off a little with the Infinit, as I had been doing a very god job up until this point. For a couple miles, I just did water, caffeinated GUs, and salt, and this seemed to heal my stomach somewhat and pep me up even more. 3rd quarter (net downhill), 204 AP/220 NP/149 HR/88 RPM/22.3 MPH. Making the turn from Kawaihae back onto the Queen K, now it was time to work! This is where I had faded terribly in past years and where the notorious winds would always beat me into submission! Not this year my friends! While it was still tough and my avg speed was still the lowest that it had been for any other section, it was not nearly as bad as years past (sub 20 mph), but even better than this, when usually this was the section where I was getting passed by an endless stream of my competitors, this year I was doing the passing! And maybe even better than that, although surely a function of my relative race position, was that my attitude was also much more positive. I wasn't muttering expletives and incoherency's under my breath, and I was feeling strong! Final quarter, 214 AP/221 NP/151 HR/89 RPM/21.0 MPH. Over the course of the 5+ hours I took in about 2300 calories and probably drank about 180 ounces of fluids.

Final bike time = 5:04:25, a 8:36 min improvement from last year in very comparable conditions, and an IM bike PR. Total bike stats = 214 AP (3.19 watts per kilo)/227 NP (3.39 watts per kilo/150 HR/90 RPM/22.1 MPH. I felt very good on the bike today - I felt in control and was able to push to the level I felt appropriate for my fitness - really this was the first time this happened for me racing all year. Let's get ready to run.

T2= 3:01, again, a little slow but I've had worse. For some reason I was having a little trouble with my lace locks, maybe it was my brain's last ditch attempt to keep me in the chair a little longer and out of the heat!

Starting out on the run, my plan was similar to last year - start the run at a pace that almost seems ridiculously easy, keep the HR below 150, and let the body settle down a little bit and adapt to the heat and humidity along Ali'i' Drive. Your cardiovascular system is so warmed up right now and this is also where your running economy can really carry you for a little while if you have built it well, so you can get by for a little bit by running "easy" - if you took off running by HR or at some speeds you hit back home in cooler, less humid climates, you could easily cook yourself in Kona. This worked out well, as my stomach was a little upset anyway from pounding the calories and sugar on the bike, so I was just taking in some Perform and water at the early aid stations, but not every one as I apparently was having some issues with gastric emptying. What served to keep my energy levels up on the bike, was now kind of creating problems for me in the early stages of the run. Quite the double edged sword. One thing however that I was surely getting at every aid station was cold water, ice, and wet sponges. Core temperature regulation is essential at this stage of the race, and even if these practices only have minimal effect, at least you can fool your brain into thinking that you are cool for a quarter mile at a time! I ran the opening 5 miles in only about 7:25 pace, but kept my avg HR at 149. My stomach was starting to settle down a little bit by this point and I started in with the gels, perform and coke. I was starting to feel more comfortable now and I ran the next 5 miles or 6:50 pace with an avg HR of 152 as I came back through town, saw Ty out on Ali'i Drive cheering on the Ballou Skies squad, and got ready to tackle the kicker that is Palani Drive and head out onto the never ending stretch of highway on the Queen K.

Heading up onto the Queen K, this became the roughest patch of the run for me, as the 35 minutes of minimal to non-existent fueling started to catch up with me. This is also where the previous gut discomfort evolved into intestinal discomfort. As I was running along, the building pressure was becoming too much to ignore. After stopping briefly at one porta-pottie and discovering accidentally that it was in use (whoops, but door was not locked and red!), I made the decision to head into the bushes (tall grass) on the side of the road before things got ugly. As fearful as I was that this would continue for the rest of the run if I continued to take in the gels, perform, and coke, I knew I needed these calories to make it through the final half marathon. The quick pit-stop wasn't too time consuming and was probably my fastest "transition" of the day. This bought me some temporary relief as I pushed along and headed down into the Energy Lab for the turnaround. I was only feeling so-so at this point and the fatigue (or hypoglycemia) was really starting to build, but historically whenever I make the turn in the Energy Lab, a switch flips in my head and I always get an immediate boost in energy as I know that I am heading into the home stretch. The last 7 miles out to the far turn was my slowest stretch of the marathon, with the two slowdowns/stops I ran 8:01 pace with a HR of 150. Coming back out, I was slightly energized and the stretch on the Queen K usually goes a little faster, maybe because you know the landmarks better by now and also partly because you are that much more delusional as you dig deeper into the pain cave? I required one more stop in the bushes around the 21 mile mark, but once again I was pretty quick and I was really starting to pick up the pace now as I knew I was pushing towards an IM PR and my third finish in Kona. I ran the final 9 mile stretch back into town and the finish in my fastest segment of all even with the stop, at 6:48 pace with an avg HR of 149. The final mile to half mile I ramped it up as much as I could and got the speed up to about HIM pace, but my worked heart/brain/CNS could only manage 161 bpm at this point! The marathon would end up taking me 3:10:07 for an IM marathon PR, at 7:15 pace and an avg HR of 150bpm. All in all I would say an ok run - I never really felt like I had that extra gear or the turnover like I did at IMHI'10 or IMLP'11, but I guess you really can't argue with a PR.

Running down Hualalai again to Ali'i' Drive, I began to reflect again on another long year of hard work and hard racing, and how fortunate I was to be healthy enough to compete at this level and also to be part of such a wonderful triathlon team and community of triathletes in Pittsburgh. I thought of how great and meaningful it was that Ty and Ryan were in Kona to watch the 6 members of our Ballou Skies Tri Team crush it, and to see what it is that drives us so much as we strive to better ourselves and the charity through our efforts. Coming across the line in 9:19:39 was a dream come true and a new Ironman PR - what better place to get it than in Kona!

Many thanks to go out to my wonderful wife of two years, Jocelyn, who keeps me working hard throughout the whole year and shows me such unwavering love, my parents for once again joining us in Kona with their wonderful presence and support, Ty and Ryan and the Ballou Skies Charity and Tri Team, and all others who support what I (we) do on the path to excellence. I will be sure to Ko Aloha La Ea (Keep your Love, 2011 race motto) for next season and keep this year's race in my heart always. Thanks for reading and everyone have a great offseason!

You gotta want it

2011-09-30T00:23:00.000-04:00

In triathlon, you gotta want it. You have got to want to succeed, and that means putting in the work. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. They know they have to Do the work. And that Miles Make Champions. Sometimes you just have to shut up, and then HTFU. When in doubt, Stop Whining and Knuckle Up. I could throw endless cliches at you (and I have!), but at the end of the day, or rather the beginning, that means getting out the door, dragging your ass out of bed when you'd rather just sleep for like 24 more hours. Over my 12 years in the sport I have come to learn (the hard/slow way!) what is required for success and what it takes to keep moving forward, and hopefully, to have success of some measure more often than not. And since I started coaching in the last year, this intangible quality of inner motivation, that fire, wanting it, can easily be seen in some and is noticeably absent in others.

Wanting it is heading out for a 6 hour ride when the weather forecast calls for a 92' day with high humidity and a code orange air alert. Wanting it is heading out for the umpteenth century ride this month, this year, these past couple years with a case of never ending saddle sores. Wanting it is keeping your ironman training up between your 5th sinus infection of the year, that you just learned has been primarily caused by a deviated septum. Wanting it is heading out on the bike for an 'easy' 72 mile spin when you have a quadricep tendon rupture because that is the only activity that feels good, and because you have the biggest race of your life scheduled in 6 weeks. Wanting it is counting down the days to getting back to your end of season build after a sudden diagnosis of, and then excision, of skin cancer. To many, these examples may just seem to be proof of obsessive or unhealthy training practices. To others though, and to those of us that have lived through these cases of adversity, we know this is what it will take to reach our goals. The seeming "madness" of it all, and those daily decisions to keep pushing on is balanced with a keen knowledge of our bodies and what they can handle.

Some live their whole lives and never know what is possible and how much they can push themselves. Others come to discover this maybe after a major life shift or scare and the realization can come like a lightning bolt. My dad recently ran in his very first 5K at the age of 63. If you asked him 5 minutes before the start of the race if he was adequately prepared, I think it is safe to say that the answer would have been a resounding no. If he was certain that he would finish, still, quite possibly no. He didn't know that he wanted it, but somewhere over the course of the 3.1 miles he started to push himself more than he ever has before, and learned that he too wanted it.

Ryan Ballou was born with DMD and has not had the opportunity to push himself in the athletic sense that I am writing about here, but has pushed himself more emotionally and in a physical sense than most of us will ever know in our lifetimes. Because Ryan wants it. Every day he faces struggles and extreme adversity, just taking on some of the daily tasks that most take for granted. But Ryan has an infectious optimism and drive of which I could only hope to possess a fraction of. Ryan wants it, he wants to live his life to the fullest and to help others with DMD to have the same hope and the same incredible quality of life.

Wanting it is a state of mind more than anything else, and while some people have that capacity to drive forward and persevere, others sadly have not or cannot tap into this ability. One week from Saturday, myself and five of my Ballou Skies teammates will be competing with 1700+ of the world's best triathletes in Kona, pushing ourselves to levels we never before thought possible. You have to want it. You have to try before you can hope to succeed. We do, and we will. Join us.

Dunkirk Tri race report

2011-08-28T21:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Jocelyn and I raced in part of the inaugural TriDunkirk race weekend, opting to break up the ironman training and suffer through the olympic distance option. Jocelyn had decided about a week prior to do the race, but I wasn't sure that I was ready for such a hard effort yet as I have been trying to strike the proper balance between recovery from Placid and the "build" for Kona. There was no rest week or taper going into this and my legs felt flat, but I said what the hell on Thursday and committed to it mentally. So off I went to register, but alas, the online registration had closed so my only option (but cool that it even is one so close to the race!) was to register the night before at packet pickup. So our original plan of staying the night in Erie was scrapped and off we went to Dunkirk, NY for registration and a night of camping at Lake Erie State Park!
After a quick snooze in the tent, we were up and off to a 24 hr Tim Horton's for a quick breakfast and then to transition to setup. After the Columbia Tri this year, I learned my lesson that I need to warmup for not only sprint distance tris, but also for olympics. I guess I have gotten to used to the long stuff. We probably did not leave enough time for this after setting up and before transition closed so my shoes were out, but not to worry as there was a nice grassy softball field nearby and I went and did a nice barefoot jog with some striders in the dewey morning grass. Jocelyn and I got suited up in our BlueSeventy Helix suits as the water in Lake Erie was a surprising 72', and I started with some warmup calisthenics on the beach. There were a number of different formats being held all on the same day, with two sprint waves going off at 7, but I was in the fourth overall wave to go off at 7:34, 4 minutes behind the F1 format race (1.5k/40/10/repeat > .75/40/10) which seemed to be the bigger draw for the day.

At 7:34 I was off from an in-water (knee deep) in a relatively small wave compared to which I am accustomed. I set off right for the first turn buoy and set a hard tempo out to the turn, prob 200-250m. The warmup run and vigorous arm exercises seemed to help and before I knew it I was into the lead and feeling good. I made the first turn and still did not have any contact with a single person, something very foreign to me at least as of late! I kept the kick up and tried to keep my arms churning as I all too often fall into my lackadaisical, pool-swimmer's efficient glide, and kept reminding myself that this was meant to be a fast, painful race! I could not see the second buoy once I made the turn as I was now swimming towards the rising sun and sighting through my older, foggy goggles, but I lucked out and picked the correct angle and the next buoy soon came into view. I made note of a reference point on the shore behind the buoy as this was to be a two lap swim and I wanted to make sure that I stayed on course for the second lap. Out and onto the beach for a brief run, and back in for another go round. I continued to feel smooth and strong during the second lap, sighting very well, and exited the water in a fast (for me) 18:33, probably too fast honestly and I would estimate about a minute or so short.

I was up the beach and into transition pretty quick, but still had a little difficulty getting my wetsuit off over my calves. The bodyglide I tried helped a little I think, but I may still need to trim/shorten the leg openings. I once again had a hard time getting my Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet on again (maybe I have Dumbo ears??) and am thinking I should try a different brand. Has anybody else had problems with this and found a good aero helmet that is big-ear friendly? Otherwise T1 went pretty well (small zones help!) and I was out in 1:12.

I started out on the bike course and started killing the pedals, trying to redeem myself from my last olympic distance bike effort, and keep the pressure on, and HR and watts way up. As I headed out I was fairly pleased with how I was feeling so far, with HR where I wanted it and watts pretty respectable. The course was and out and back with small loop in the middle for the turnaround, and while I was expecting an eagleman-like bike course, it had surprisingly more undulations than I anticipated being right next to the lake! Still, I would have to consider it a flat to rolling bike course, and has the potential to be quite fast. There was a little bit of a cross-wind, but nothing too bad for being a lakefront strip. Some of those little risers stung the legs though, that's for sure! In the second half of the bike, my HR and power dropped a little, but not too bad considering the way back was the "downhill" trend and my lack of training tailored to holding this kind of effort for extended periods of time. Bike split of 1:02:25, avg speed of 24.0 mph. While it was a considerably different course than my last olympic bike effort, I am much more satisfied with this ride.
T2 = 0:58 seconds. I was off onto the run along the beautiful lakefront. I was getting a little recon from an F1 competitor that I had caught towards the end of the bike, who exited transition with me and was filling me in on the guy in second who was trying to chase me down. This helped as I initially had no idea that this guy in the olympic race was slowly reeling me in on the merit of faster transitions and a slightly faster bike, and was only confused because there was the sprint/olympic/F1/duathlon all going on at the same time. I set off, picking up the cadence, weaving in and out along the beach, marina, pier, and numerous parks that the run course navigated. The run was a 2 lap affair, like the swim had been. I started getting chances now to see my competition at the few out and backs, and to begin taking time splits. I was putting a little time on my primary chaser, but the race was long from over. My form started falling off a little in the second 5k and I sensed the overall fatigue from the week and the intense racing of the day - Pretty uncharacteristic cardiac drift for me, but then again this is an olympic and not an ironman (!), and I managed to keep it together and crossed the finish line in first overall for the olympic race, getting a great BallouSkies shout out from Mary Eggers, the Score-This! (event promoter/director) announcer! Run time was 39:01 for a 6.45 mi run per my garmin, for a 6:05 pace avg. Take a little (swim), give a little (run), it all works out in the end! Total finish time of 2:02:09. I was hoping to go under 2 hours for this event, but given where my total training picture/focus is at, I'll take it and I feel pretty much normal again today. Jocelyn took home the win in the women's race in 2:17:56 and was 6th overall - tremendous day for Team Cornman and Team BallouSkies!

After the race and a random, broken recovery run that caused us to miss the awards ceremony (d'oh!), Jocelyn and I went about getting to know some of our fellow racers, the Score-This team, and finally met Mary, who writes for Xtri in addition to her own amazing blog. Mary has also profiled some of our BallouSkies teammates and I am told is planning a piece on the whole charity coming up very soon! All in all, Jocelyn and I had a great time in Dunkirk and this was a great first year event. This event is bound to flourish with this venue and with such friendly local residents and racers from that region. Jocelyn and I met so many great people and had such enjoyable conversations, I didn't think we were ever going to get back home! Long story short - great fitness stimulus, great race, great people - great day!

IMLP 2011 Race Report

2011-08-08T17:33:00.001-04:00

About two weeks ago, on 7/24/2011, I competed in my third consecutive Ironman Lake Placid in beautiful upstate NY. In 2009 I had a great race and went sub-10 for the first time, and then last year was a weird one, using the race as a workout and pulling out intentionally after the two-mile mark of the run, for my first, and only, yet bittersweet DNF. I had a good race this year with a very positive outcome, ending up on the podium and qualifying for Kona again, so another 140.6 miles covered and valuable lessons and experience earned.

The leadup to the race was pretty typical and very similar to the past two years, departing Wednesday evening from Pittsburgh, driving part of the way that night, staying over in central NY state, and then finishing the drive Thursday and getting into Lake Placid that afternoon. Jocelyn and I rode up again with my parents and stayed at Golden Arrow again as we did in 2009. Some of last years friends and Pittsburgh racers were not present in town this year, however as usual there was a strong Steeltown contingent including IMLP stalwarts Mark, Billy (Boomer), and Bill, and some new competitors in Kim, Steve, Eric, and Chris. Throw in some good friends up to volunteer, train, spectate, and support, and it had all the makings of another great time in Lake Placid. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday included the standard short workouts, packet pickup, bike/gear check, and great meals, and before we knew it race day was upon us once again. A photo from Saturday night's pre-race gathering and better than your average "pasta-dinner."

Race morning started at 4:45 and Jocelyn and I started choking/slugging down our breakfast and getting suited up for the big day. We walked down to the oval and got body-marked, tires pumped and the remaining prep done, special needs bags dropped off, and then back to the hotel by 6am to hit the bathroom one last time before heading down to the race start.

Jocelyn and I took the walk down with fellow BallouSkies teammates Kim and Steve, and got down to the Mirror Lake beach and continued our race visualization amid the building excitement. At about 6:40 we headed down onto the beach proper and got ready to enter the water at about the time that that pros were sent off at 6:50. Kim, myself, Steve, and Jocelyn all zipped up in the BlueSeventy skins and ready to go!

The big talk/buzz/controversy of the morning and even the day proceeding, was the possibility and then the eventual proclamation that the water temp was 77', over the 76.1 deg cutoff where wetsuits would be permitted to be used in Mirror Lake and still be eligible for awards and Kona slots. This had a lot of people upset and nervous about the swim, but for myself, having a swimming background, I was not bothered by this and figured it would be more comfortable (cooler) and benefit me more this way. Just for a little historical perspective, this was the first time in IMLP's 13 years that wetsuits could not be used without consequence.

At 7am, about 2800 starters were underway, of which we learned later included about 1,100 first time Ironpeople, and about 1,800 of the 2,800 starters (65%) that chose to use wetsuits. These sub-distictions of athletes would prove to be pivotal for many on the day in how the race got underway in the swim, the resulting distribution and groupings of athletes, and how AG awards and Kona slots would be distributed.

The start was as insane as usual, however after about 50 yards of fighting and scrapping with people, I angled over sharply to the left and got on the inside track of the buoys and the famous Lake Placid "(underwater)line". Billy and I must have been on the same page and had the same strategy as I did as I saw him and swam on his left hip for about 600 meters towards the first turn buoy. Most of the first lap was pretty uneventful with the exception of battling a Boston Tri Club guy for position for a considerable ways, but I was very comfortable in the water, cruising to about a 29 min first lap split. Up and out over the beach, and back into the water for lap 2. This second 2k or so in the water unfolded very similarly to the first, battling a couple more guys for prime position, trying to find the occasional feet or hip to draft off of, and even ending up right beside Billy again for a couple hundred meters on the homestretch back into the beach. I came out of the water in :59:32, just about even splitting the two swim legs when you take the beach run up and dolphin diving around the dock into account, which broke down to 1:34 pace per 100 meters and putting me in 13th position in my AG. After the long run up to and through transition, I was ready to go and heading out onto the bike after a 4:07 T1. I didn't lose any placement in T1 according to Slowtwitch's enhanced results (pretty cool, check it out), which was a victory in and of itself as I am known for taking my sweet-ass time in transition!

Starting out on the bike, my goal was to keep the intensity down on the bike until I started the climbing out of Jay towards Wilmington on the first lap, and be sure to get in plenty of calories via my standard fueling plan with Infinit and Gu gels, and also drink a little more than is typical for me. I felt like I did a pretty good job doing this, and felt pretty strong and relaxed the first lap. I remember passing most, if not all of the 8 guys in my AG that I started the run before, on the first lap of the bike, and knew that I was moving up into prime striking territory for the Kona slot I was gunning for. The only hope was that I would be able to hold this position/pace during the second lap of the bike! Coming back into town, finishing the first loop:For the first lap, my watts and average HR were right about where I wanted them, and the perceived exertion seemed just right, so I had reason to believe that I would be able to even split my bike leg just as I had in the swim. My aerobic endurance and fitness are at all time highs, so despite some disappointing bike legs this year, I knew that with my strong AE foundation and added focus on strength and intensity this year, I should be in good shape for a Placid bike PR, if not an even split. Alas, it apparently wasn't meant to be on this day, because after I made the descent down into Keene for the second time and I started the long straightaway next to the Ausable River between Keene and Jay, I knew something was off as my HR and watts were both dropping and my mood was starting to go south. I didn't understand how this could be happening as I thought that I had paced appropriately in the first lap and my nutrition was right on, but after seeing these tell-tale signs I knew I had to start taking in more calories and fluids.
The day was also starting to heat up as well and it was getting a little windier to boot, so my increasing difficulty would only be exacerbated by the developing conditions. For everyone that was claiming that we had ideal weather for this years race, I would have gladly traded these in for last year's overcast and cooler conditions! Regardless of my building discomfort, I tried to turn my outlook around and try to get in as much calories as I could stomach and do all that I could for the remainder of the bike leg. I was pushing hard but knew my even split was gone as I was watching my watts and speed steadily drop, and I was just in damage control now and didn't want to relinquish any more positions to guys in my AG. Struggling coming up the rolling hills between Jay and Wilmington, starting to cook!:

Luckily, of the handful of guys that came by me in the last 20-30 miles, they were all in different age groups. I used them as best that I could to pace off of and keep me honest, trying not to let anyone get too far up the road or more than 50-100m in front of me. This worked pretty well, and before I knew it I was back into town to start the run. Another disappointing bike leg for me this year, but I was in good position coming off the bike so it was time to knuckle up and run hard! Bike split of 5:24:04 with an average speed of 20.74 mph and 5th in my AG coming off the bike.

After a relatively smooth T2 in 2:10, I was off onto the run and immediately tried to establish a quick, effortless cadence, but not go too nutso running on the net downhill trend out of town and trash my legs early. I have a lot of confidence in my run and feel much better about my ability to pace an Ironman run leg than the bike, and I started clipping off about 6:45-7:00 min miles. After a quick bathroom stop at about mile 1 of the run, I was back at it and looking up the road to start reeling people in. I felt very strong and in control for the first 6 miles or so of the run, and thought if this segment was any indication of how I would feel, I knew I'd be in for one of my fastest runs. Gone were the heat and humidity of places like Kona and Louisville, and although it had been unseasonably warm in LP that whole week and even this day, I thought no problem. I should know better than that though, because while LP does not necessarily have the difficult climatic conditions, it certainly has the difficult terrain and elevation profile. Much has been made about the difficulty of the Lake Placid course and while I am safe at home in the middle of a training block/riding in Deep Creek, I poo-poo IMLP's inclines and reputation; once you have 120-125 miles of racing in your legs, it is a different story! Somewhere between miles 6-9 I started getting a little tired and feeling a little low again, and immediately I thought I need to start working the nutrition again. I started to take in more Gu's, salt, and Coke, and probably not a moment too soon as the hills were quickly approaching as I was nearing the end of the River Rd out and back and also an AG competitor of mine, Lucas, came up on me quickly from behind. He made the pass initially and while I first thought that I couldn't go with him or that maybe I would just try to keep him in sight, after about a half mile where he didn't get more than 20yds on me, I remembered some of the past tempo runs I had done and that 7:10 pace wasn't so bad afterall and closed the gap to him. We started running side by side at about the 9 mile mark, and wouldn't separate again for almost the entire rest of the race. Maybe about a mile later we came up on another quick guy from the 25-29 AG, Greg, and he joined our little party and we began working together. Up and over the two kickers back into town, out and back on Mirror Lake Drive to the halfway point, and it was now a race and we were picking up the pace! So far, the three of us hadn't ever been more than about 5 feet from one another, and weren't willing to concede much more than a step or two.
I came through the halfway point in about 1:34, and I thought, with these guys pushing me on, an IM marathon PR was definitely possible and it wasn't likely anyone else was going to catch us - except maybe Eric, whom I would see at the turnarounds and could tell he was having an excellent run.

Down the hills and back down onto River Rd for the meat of the 2nd lap, it started heating up even more and then it was on to the heat management game, dumping ice cold water over my head, ice down the jersey and shorts, and taking cold sponges whenever they were available. Of course these stops or handoffs were only undertaken after first checking on my running companions, and more importantly Lucas, to make sure that they weren't going to make a Macca-type move through an aid station. The pace was getting a little more difficult and I felt the beginnings of some cramps, but we keep it rolling anyway and continued to pick more people off. I wasn't even aware so much of anyone else's age or AG position that we may have come upon in those last 16-17 miles of the race, but I was just intent on continuing to work with these guys and blow by everyone that we could. It's funny looking back, at times in the early stages of the running "partnership" we were talking ever so slightly and even sharing salt tablets and handing off cups of water and ice to each other. Also that Greg and I, and then Lucas and Greg, spoke more with one another, than Lucas and myself. Hahaha, keep it outside of the AG. But as each successive mile clicked off and we were suffering that much more, by about the 21-22 mile mark, almost all communication had ceased. It it was getting serious now. We took the first hill, just past River Rd and now back onto Rt 73 together, sizing one another up. Then on the second kicker right before the junction with Rt 86, I went to make my move and lose these guys. Not that there was much in my legs at this point and I couldn't dig really deep at all, I felt like I got a little separation on them and held it coming up the hill towards the exit from transition and run start, and that I had them. Up and onto the out and back on Mirror Lake Drive, I was feeling really trashed from the surge up the hill and was getting light headed and woozy, and even felt a little wobbling laterally and thought, "Oh crap, don't fall over now, you have less than two miles to go!" At the turnaround on Mirror Lake Dr I saw Greg closest behind me and then Lucas a little further back. In my late stage of the race mental haze, I don't know why I didn't size Greg up a little more accurately and was only concerned about Lucas, but I guess it is just that AG thing again and figured my position was secure. Because about a half mile later Greg came by me like I was standing still and I didn't have the energy to make a counter move at all. I just tried my best to keep the pressure on and stay upright as I made my way back to transition, onto and around the oval, and over the finish line. Coming down the finishing chute (!), I felt like complete garbage, but that magic that is the finish line can always overcome the worst possible feeling and I was coming across the line knowing that I couldn't have given any more and I had a race to be very proud of. My marathon split ended up as a 3:12:36, or 7:21/mile.

Immediately after crossing the finish line, I thought that I was going to keel over and a couple kind volunteers grabbed me and escorted me into the medical tent. There I got some wonderful attention and good ol' intravenous recovery, not to mention a little time off of my feet to reflect and let the preceding 9 hours and 42 minutes sink in.

I would really like to thank my wonderful wife Jocelyn, my parents for making the trip up to support us and cheer for us once again, the rest of our great and loving family, wonderful network of friends and training partners, teammates on BallouSkies and Ryan for giving me the inspiration to keep going when the going gets tough, all sponsors, supporters, and the growing community of great triathletes in the city of Pittsburgh - all of you for your support and encouragement to keep pushing ahead and striving for excellence. Also, many congrats to Kim and Steve for great races of their own and helping to represent Ballou Skies in Lake Placid! Many congrats as well to all other friends and Pittsburgh finishers out there who had great days and got it done!

In the end, my final time was 9:42:29, good for 2nd place in my AG, 4th overall amateur, and 16th place OA. It was also good enough for a Kona slot so I will be heading to the Big Island in October for my third consecutive year, and even better... I am heading back to race alongside Jocelyn again!!! My girl also got herself a Kona slot and is going back for round two!!! Go Team Cornman and Go BallouSkies!!!

Thanks everyone for reading this never ending RR - although maybe you don't mind too much as I haven't made you suffer through any blog posts of mine in what seems like eons! ;-) Seriously, thank you, and best of luck to you all for the rest of your seasons and in all your endeavors. See you at the races!

CMC partnering with Infinit Nutrition

2011-03-11T11:20:00.001-05:00

Today I am proud to announce that Cornman Multisport Coaching, LLC is partnering with Infinit Nutrition. I have used Infinit's Ultra Distance Fluid Energizer for a little over a year now on the bike for my caloric needs in training and racing, and I will never go back to what I was using before, nor could I envision ever changing from this drink. This is the best nutrition option in my mind for long course triathlon racing and it powered me to my best year on record in 2010, and it will certainly be a part of my arsenal in 2011. Each bottle is mixed to contain close to 300 tasty calories with 69 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of protein, and 400 mg of sodium. Check them out and give their products a try - your racing and training will never be the same again! Tell them Cornman Multisport Coaching (enter discount code "cornmanmultisport" at checkout) sent you!

INFINIT Nutrition is proud to announce their affiliation with

Cornman Multisport Coaching

Here is what we do: INFINIT's end game is to create the perfect blend that will eliminate the need for ANY gels, food or salt pills for 2 hour rides up to 24 hour racing and Full Ironman distance races and to have it taste just how YOU want.

INFINIT is an all in one custom-blended nutrition solution that allows you to:

Adjust the flavor level to taste great all day long
Change the calories to match your body size and for the type of racing/training that you are doing
Adjust the level of electrolyte to your sweat rate and history of muscle cramping
Add protein or even caffeine
A 100% satisfaction guarantee, if you are not happy we will re-make for no charge. Still not happy, you get your money back.

We are offering a free phone consultation to all of Cornman Multisport Coaching’s Clients.

In about 10 minutes, we will help you to determine how many calories you should target per hour, how much salt you need, add protein or caffeine and set up a custom formula made just for you. All you need to do is log onto http://www.infinitnutrition.us/, create an account and click on a request for a phone consultation.

Through Cornman Multisport Coaching, you can save 10% off your order by using the discount code Cornmanmultisport. Enter the discount code at checkout and make sure to click on recalculate so that the code registers. It is that simple to save on the best nutrition an athlete can get.

We look forward to helping you race and train better in 2011.

Laurie Walter
Chief Nut Gatherer
INFINIT Nutrition
Custom-Blended Nutrition Solutions
513-791-3500

Don’t forget to become an Infinit Fan on Facebook.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2534261470

sickness

2011-02-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

Over the last week now, I have been enjoying getting back into my routine of training, and trying to get back to full compliance with my training plan after nearly the whole predecing week battling sickness. It seems like nearly everyone is sick these days. Jocelyn has been battling different bugs and infections, a few of the athletes I coach have bad sicknesses, and a lot of my coworkers are sick as well. I came down with a moderate intensity stomach flu the night of 2/3, it seemed right in the middle of my bike workout for the day. I was churning it out, doing some low-cadence intervals and I could just see my power numbers dropping as the workout went on, my stomach became more and more unsettled, and I also was becoming increasingly lightheaded and woozy. Friday through Super Bowl weekend was pretty bad with hardly any appetite to speak of, and just general stomach discomfort, nausea and malaise. I thought I was better by the following Monday, but then it came back with a vengeance. Luckily all along I wasn't actually getting sick and vomiting at all, but there was a fair amount of option #2, the Big D. Sorry for the gory details, but you all should know by now that I don't pull any punches with my blog writeups! So in anycase, just about a week later I was just getting over the never ending stomach flu, just in time for a three day stretch of scheduled trainer rides for last weekend! I did three solid rides in about 40 hours time from Friday night through Sunday morning, and really got some good work in for the legs, but my nether regions were definitely being tested as well!
All in all though I have fallen back into the routine of training and it hasn't been too difficult to
get back on track. I am really hoping that this will be it for significant sicknesses for this winter season and am really going to make more of a concerted effort than usual to stay healthy and avoid ambient germs.

Good read on EC's website that seems particularly applicable to me right now, entitled Close that Window: Infection Risk Following Strenuous Exercise by Bob Albright, D.O.

There are some really good points in there, and while some are totally obvious and ones any serious endurance athlete should already be doing, like get adequate sleep and hydration, the one big one that I am extremely guilty of is touching my face way too often. It's a bad habit that as a teenager would give you zits, but now I am more concerned about all of the nasty bacteria and viruses that I am likely transferring too close to my mucous membranes. Not good! So I will try my best to cut this bad practice out and then do all of the other good things to stay healthy and moving forward. Then of course there is the old guideline that if you do get sick and it is of the cold variety, use the neck test. Symptoms above the neck, ok to do light exercise, but if it's below your neck and you can feel mucous seated in your chest, it's best to sit it out until that clears up. It's better to sacrifice some workouts in the short-term and get better sooner, rather than dig yourself a deeper hole and compromise long-term health and training consistency.

Here's hoping that everyone stays healthy and is getting in some quality training. Spring is just around the corner!

2011 Race Schedule

2011-01-28T18:24:00.001-05:00

And without further ado, my preliminary 2011 race schedule.

Spring Thaw 10 miler - February 26, 2011
Oceanside 70.3 - April 2, 2011
Columbia Triathlon - May 22, 2011
New Brighton Memorial Weekend Triathlon - May 28, 2011
Eagleman 70.3 - June 12, 2011
Ironman Lake Placid - July 24, 2011
Portage Lakes Tri - September 18, 2011
October/November - TBD

2011 looks to be another good year racing for the Ballou Skies tri team, with a few new races thrown into the mix and some old favorites. And then of course the hope and goal to be racing late in the season at some championship events. Let's get it on!

Great thoughts on the future of triathlon and our state of the union

2011-01-26T17:04:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple links and quotes to two great interviews I read recently. It was really interesting to me as a serious age grouper, one that doesn't really live the life that these two men do as a working stiff, but certainly dreams of and aspires to. I feel that they are both dead-on in what they are saying about the sport as it currently exists, and what needs to change to bring the sport to the high level and even footing that it deserves to be on in my opinion. While triathlon may never equal football in popularity here in the US, there is no reason why it could not and should not exceed "sports" like auto racing and golf. My $0.02.

"Well, the main thing is I believe that the sport belongs in the top echelons of sport. I don't believe for a second it hasn't got there because of the way the sport is. I think it is the premier endurance sport; it mimics our life - 8 hrs of hard toil in a day. This is a sport where for 8 or 9 hours you can go full bore. Who can produce the best performance over a good mix of sports for a working day? I think every working person can relate to that. We just need to explain that and advertise it better, and the masses will get interested." - Brett Sutton, from an interview with Herbert Krabel of Slowtwitch.

Interview with Dirk Bockel on Competitor Europe's site.

New Year, news, and big changes

2011-01-16T15:26:00.004-05:00

Well it's been two months since my last post, and a lot of things have transpired in that window, but instead of trying to catch you up on everything that I have been up to, I will just leave it that things have been good and busy. Not so busy in November, things accelerated into December, and now life is as busy as ever! The holiday season was very nice and Thanksgiving and Christmas very happy and joyous as they should be, training was very spotty throughout Nov/Dec, but then mid-way through December I got off my butt and started getting serious again. This probably all kicked off around December 18th, a busy triathlon themed day where first I (and just about every other triathlete in Pittsburgh!) attended a swim clinic with Sheila Taormina that was hosted by Team Pittsburgh Masters and Coach Jennifer at CMU. This clinic (old news by now in the blogosphere) was very informative and helpful, even for a "lifelong" swimmer such as myself. Sheila was teaching her style of swimming, which in my opinion is the best adult targeted and taught swimming method out there, which is characterized by a high stroke rate with a high elbow and protracted catch, and is more propulsive than gliding in nature. I picked up some good instruction and mental cues, and from this video that was taken of me, shows I need some work. Next up on the day was a tempo run with Chad afterward, and finally went out to a sportsbar in the North Hills and watched NBC's Kona Coverage. This day very effectively served to jumpstart my motivation and flip the switch in my head for 2011. After a longish two month offseason/transition period, it was time to get back to work.

The following Monday, I ventured out into the unknown and decided to take the leap and start out with a coach for the first time in my triathlon career. After much research, emailing, and interviewing potential coaches, I decided to go with Justin Trolle of Vanguard Triathlon, the coach of my good friend and teammate Kim. Kim had nothing but great things to say about Justin, his knowledge, teaching/training style, and of course results since working with him. In the previous 11 years of triathlon, I was self coached and self directed and while I am totally pleased with my results and progression, and never really had a setback to speak of, I just thought that if I was ever going to get a coach, now would be the time. Call it greed for speed, maybe an early mid-life crisis, who knows, but as I am knocking on the door of really taking it to the next level within triathlon, I thought I would entrust my development for the next year to someone more knowledgable than myself and perhaps more importantly, take me out of my comfort zone. So far things have been going very well and my fitness is coming back and progressing very rapidly. Look out, I have a feeling this is going to be another fun year!

Last Saturday (1/8) kicked off the season with indoor group trainer rides at TopGear, our local Pittsburgh area tri shop.
In attendance was of course Jocey, myself, Burrito Bill,
Matty Mo, and Lisa.
We got in a solid 2.5 hours on the CompuTrainers and the time just flew by. This past week there was more hard running and cycling, but the recovery was still where it needed to be and each session was still high quality. The one drawback was this darn cold that I have been fighting for the past few weeks, but it is somewhat manageable and it isn't really affecting my sessions at this time. Saturday (1/15) we were back at the Holderbaum's for the first time this seasom with Chad, Jen, Whitney, Lisa, Jocelyn, and myself, for a good strength focused 2:20 and then a great brunch, some laughs, and then an afternoon swim.

Today I woke up and did a tough 1.5 hour run with some quality and my legs are feeling a little trashed right now. Thank goodness I have nothing to do but relax for the rest of the day and an active recovery day tomorrow, so it can all begin once again for the new week. The year begins anew and the cycle of work, rest, repeat starts up in full effect!

In other big news, Team Ballou Skies has expanded its roster for 2011 and have added good friends and local rockstars Matt Mauclair, Jason Jacobs, Chad Holderbaum, and Beth Shutt. If you thought the Ballou Skies team was impressive last year, look out once again - 2011 is going to be a banner year for the charity and the team with a record amount of funds raised for the Ross Heart Clinic at OSU and amazing race results out on the triathlon circuit. Here's to a great 2011 for everyone out there and I hope you all are off to a great, consistent start with your training!

Transition

2010-11-15T23:40:00.005-05:00

The title of this post encompasses my mental and physical state at this stage of the year, plus my current location in the yearly training cycle that shares the name of those descriptive attributes. This is always a difficult time of the year for a dedicated and competitive triathlete to navigate, but also an important one. I am a little more than 5 weeks past my final and marquis race of the season, my "off-season" and time away from training is over, and now I am into what can best be described as the transition phase of the macrocycle. This is often a time when you are tempted to start training hard right out of the gate, and start laying down some serious volume in anticipation of the year to come - however this is the last thing that should be done and in the end patience is key. This is the time to recharge the batteries while getting active again and getting back into something of a routine. Now make no mistake, this is not the same sort of routine as what one would find in June or even February for that matter, but it is a routine nonetheless and important to get back into the daily habit while having some fun. Fun has consisted of some masters swim meets, crazy swim relays for charity at practice....., trail running, mountain biking, cold morning barefootin'....., impromptu interval running, and even some crossfit. The crossfit has been the most notable addition to my routine, and this has been due in large part to my brother Chris' suggestion and also my desire to work on my all around strength for next season. I have yet to get too crazy with the olympic powerlifting component, but have been doing some rowing, wall pushups, pullups, pushups, jump roping, and my new favorite full body move, the thruster. I hope to learn some different routines and get into it a bit more to help build some full body strength and explosiveness that I hope will add some speed and enhance my power for next year. In the meantime though, I am trying to get back into the habit of frequent morning runs, evening swim and bike sessions followed by lifting, and then weekend adventures and even another swim meet this coming Sunday. That and some Dirty Dozen recon with (for) Jocey this coming weekend, as the Thanksgiving weekend tradition of the Turkey Trot + DD is just around the corner! In any case, the fitness is returning and I am having some fun starting to push the limits again, so the transition is in full effect and just what the doctor ordered. If all goes as planned, I will head into the start of my base training very shortly with more strength and motivation than ever. That first race of 2011 will be here before we know it! Good evening all-

recent media coverage

2010-11-08T10:31:00.016-05:00

Over the past month or so, Jocelyn, myself, and Ballou Skies have been featured quite a bit in local, and even national (October issue of Triathlete magazine), media. This media blitz was setup to help promote the charity and to coincide with our racing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships on October 9th. While both Jocelyn and I have found it a little novel and strange at times because we are both pretty humble, down to earth people, the response has been tremendous and I think this has only be viewed very positively amongst our friends, family, teammates, coworkers, and peers and fellow athletes. Most importantly, it has generated a lot of good publicity for BallouSkies. I suppose everything really got kicked off in the leadup to Kona on Pittsburgh's PCNC network's NightTalk on August 31st, but I don't have anything in terms of pictures or links to share in regard to that visit. Suffice it to say that that was an enjoyable visit and we had a good talk and a lot of fun with the host Ellis Cannon, and it definitely served as a warmup for the months to come!

One of the first pieces that we were featured in was an article written by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review's Karen Price. This writeup was in October 1st's newspaper and featured myself, Jocelyn, Beth Shutt, Chad Holderbaum, and Matt Mauclair. This was a cool experience for the five of us to get together with Karen and a photographer maybe a week prior at Schenley Park and to do an interview with her about our collective training experiences, road to Kona, and what we expected for our upcoming trip as five friends traveling to and racing together in Kona. This article can be found here.

The next "stop" on the world tour was an early morning call-in by Jocelyn and myself from Kona on 10/3 to KDKA radio's Black and Gold Sunday show, hosted by Rob Pratte. The podcast from the segment of that show can be found below, by clicking the play button on the embedded audio player.

Our next appearance came on a wonderfully produced video by our friend (and great friend of the charity) Ward Hobbs, that was a work in progress for many weeks as we tried to coordinate our schedules, plus with the interviewer and narrator, WPXI's Gordon Loesch. The video aired as part of WPXI's news broadcast I believe both on the night of 10/8 and then again the morning of the race, 10/9. This one probably generated the most excitement amongst our extended family and friends, whom weren't necessarily aware that this was going to be airing, but in some cases were surprised as they were going about their lives and just watching the news as always, and there it was! A link to the video can be found here.

The next bit of coverage was not really about Jocelyn and I, but we were mentioned, along with the rest of the "Pittsburgh Five", on the sidebar that ran adjacent to this article about another Pittsburgh area athlete and recounted our finishing statistics from the Big Dance in Kona. This article was published in October 29th's Pittsburgh Tribune Review and was written again by Karen Price.

The most recent bit of media attention came in a very nice article written by Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in the November 1st edition. This piece very nicely illustrated Jocelyn's efforts in Kona and the incredible adversity she overcame, all while finding perspective about why we both do this sport and how fortunate we are, and also to be able to support BallouSkies. This article can be found here.

The last (or at least for now!) stop on the media tour will be tonight, when Jocelyn and I will again be guests on PCNC's NightTalk at around 8:30. If you live in the Pittsburgh television market area, tune in to hear about our race in Hawaii, BallouSkies, and what is new with us! Thanks for reading and for tolerating my condensed version of the last couple months of excitement!

Announcing Cornman Multisport Coaching

2010-10-22T15:19:00.001-04:00

Today I proudly announce the launch of my coaching business, Cornman Multisport Coaching. I have been thinking of starting my own coaching business for some time now as I have become something of an informal coach and sounding board for many of my triathlete and endurance athlete friends and acquaintances, but now is the time that I make it official to the world! I have been involved in the sport for 11 years, progressing from an injury-prone beginner that suffered from lack of motivation, to an elite amateur competitor that dreams of going pro, completely as a self coached athlete. I have lived and breathed both failure and success, so I know what works in training and racing, and what doesn't. Since I have been self-coached and guided, it was necessary that I become an ardent student of training theory and practice. As a result of this learning process, I have experienced all of the resulting highs and lows that one would expect - from broken bones and overuse injuries, to overtraining syndrome; and then conversely, long periods of health corresponding with satisfying race outcomes and strings of personal bests.

I offer monthly coaching plans, catering to triathletes and single sport athletes (swimmers, cyclists, runners) alike, from true beginners to advanced competitors, with a minimum of a three month commitment. Payment for the first 1 month block of training must be received before the training plan is sent to the athlete. Once purchased and setup, individual training plans and details of the program will be delivered and workout interaction made via TrainingPeaks. Yearly plans are available upon request and at a discount.

My coaching plans are unique and customized to each client, reflecting your unique needs as both an athlete and also a working individual with your own demanding life. I will work with both local (metro Pittsburgh area) athletes, and also out of area clients over email and the phone.

Check out my website and let me know what you think! And if you have been looking for your first, or a next triathlon or multisport coach, drop me a line and we'll talk!

Best-

Jeremy Cornman

2010 Kona Race Report

2010-10-15T22:30:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday, October 9th, I raced in my second Ironman World Championships, and while it and the preceding week retained every bit of emotion, fulfillment, and mystique that last year's race held, this one was every bit its own race and an evolution of last year's experience. The addition of my wonderful wife Jocelyn, racing by my side in Hawaii almost one year to the day that we were married in Hawaii, plus close friends and training partners Chad, Matt, and Beth, this experience was more complex, but for that reason additionally rewarding. While Ironman generally is a very individual pursuit, and this race would be no different when "down in the trenches", racing at The Big Show with those that are so close to me and so loved and respected, made this event very dynamic, communal, and just plain incredible.

Saturday morning started out early as detailed in my update post, getting down onto the beach by 6:35 or so due to the earlier pro start (6:30) than last year's cattle call at 6:55. I got into the water much earlier this year as a result, so had some time to swim back and forth to warmup, and also to visualize the day and soak up the atmosphere that was crescendoing with the drumbeat. I found myself a little closer to the front this year, and more to the right than last year. The cannon went off @7am and we were off! The first 500-600 meters I estimate were pretty hectic as usual, but only had one or two really close encounters with others. I went out pretty hard and was swimming a straight line for once(!), so I didn't seem to be playing bumper cars as much as I usually do. The swim is always tough to analyze and be objective about because you have no visual cues, reference points, or any type of feedback or metrics at all, so ultimately the objectivity is limited to swim time and the rest is all feeling and whether you found the rhythm or not. I didn't feel as though I had while I was swimming, and felt like I was very average in the middle third, but when I excited the water I was pleasantly surprised to see a sub hour in 59:57 as I raced up the astro-turfed steps to beat that landmark. The new BlueSeventy PZ3TX must be as fast as everyone says it is!
After navigating the zoo of transition, I was out and on the road after a reasonable 3:16.

The first 8 miles of the bike course loops you through town a couple times, going up and down both Kuakini Hwy and Palani Rd before you are deposited out on the Queen K where things really get underway. The first 25 miles of the bike course felt super fast and easy, and I didn't feel any of the elements of Kona...yet. At around the 25 mile mark, I remember first noticing the wind and the heat, although relative to what was to come, this was pretty insignificant. I kept cruising along, trying to keep the avg speed above 23 mph if possible, but most importantly keeping the HR steady and around 150 or above while taking in as much nutrition as I could stomach. I had had some questionably fueled rides in the last couple of months where I kinda fell asleep with my nutrition, so I wanted to avoid that today for sure. At around mile 40 I made the turn at Kawaihae and started to get a little bit more variety in the terrain and scenery. I started the long gradual climb up to Hawi and just tried to keep the pressure on, and the cadence high. The crosswinds really started in earnest maybe somewhere between miles 45 and 50, and the cycling at an angle (leaning into the wind!) began. It was up and over the top of the hill in Hawi and then grabbed the special needs bag for the extra Infinit bottles. They actually had my bag ready for me so I grabbed it on the fly and emptied the contents with it hanging from my teeth for the first time, so I was proud that I still had the coordination to pull this off! Then it was time to bomb back down the hill to Kawaihae and accept some of that free speed, while always keeping alert because now the crosswinds had a little but more speed to play with and your surprise gusts would take you just that much further across the road. I was continuing to take in the nutrition, but around this time my stomach started to get a little gassy and upset and I think this was the beginning of some trouble. As the Infinit and GUs were not sitting that well, I instinctively backed off a little bit on frequency of ingestion, but of course this would bring other problems. Somewhere around mile 90-95 (Waikoloa to Puako) I started noticing declining power and focus, and watching my HR and speed start to drop off. I started drinking Coke at all of the aid stations and trying to take in more salt in an attempt to settle my stomach and simultaneously get in the necessary calories. Once I got up over the hill by the airport and began seeing signs of civilization again, my mood rebounded and I started mentally preparing for the run. I came into town, got out of my shoes and sat up about a mile out in one final attempt to let the stomach settle and to prepare for the marathon. I came in for the bike leg at 5:13:01 for a 21.47 mph average, with a 147 average HR that had declined steadily throughout the bike. Would I have anything for the run I wondered?

I was in and out of transition pretty quick, although my time of 3:55 was inflated by a stop in the porta potty before heading out to Ali'i Dr.
I started out the run thankfully feeling pretty great and fresh, despite a still partially upset stomach and presumed calorie deficit. Aside from a good deal of burping and farting in the first three miles, I felt amazingly comfortable and energized, but I wasn't going to make the mistake that I did last year by running opening 6:30 miles. I was going to ease into this a little, and hold back until I knew my systems had stabilized a little bit. I was running along at about 7 minute pace or a touch under, and my HR was only about 150, so I was confident that I could keep this up for the length of the marathon, anf hopefully build on it as well. Seeing my parents out on Ali'i, as well as Jen, Kristen, Carrie, Chad, Matt, and Beth gave me a nice boost and a welcome distraction from the enormity of the task at hand. The out and back on Ali'i came and went, and I was feeling great and starting to pick it up starting to run 6:45s to 6:50s pretty consistently.
Looping back through town and up Palani Dr, I was reminded of how my family surprised me with a quick spectating shift last year and busted me walking up Palani hill, and also how my friend Joe told me that I better HTFU and not walk it this year, so I laughed and just shuffled up, keeping my HR under 160 bpm. Then it was up onto the Queen K again, but it was much more mentally challenging this time around, with an additional 114 miles in the legs. Now this stretch of the Queen K just DRAGS on. When Jocelyn was asking me for pointers on how to break down the course, I told her this segment was only about 4 miles, but it turns out that its nearly 6, and so isolated. The throngs of cheering fans and supporters from Ali'i, Kuakini, and Palani are gone, and its just you, your competitors, your thoughts, and the HEAT. I was still running strong along this stretch and doing pretty well, but suddenly after an unexpected burp and subsequent acid reflux taste around mile 16, my stomach turned and I had to stop, double over, and projectile vomit 5 consecutive times. I felt like such a chump, doing this right after I passed Ironman legend Ken Glah. Who knows though, maybe he was impressed to see me Puke n Rally, standing back up and resuming running right away. But probably not! So I quickly resumed my pace and got down to business doing the out and back in the Energy Lab section of the course, easily the hottest place I have ever been on Earth. I took three aid stations off from any drinking or eating, and once back up on the Queen K, took two full cups of Coke and even some pretzels washed down with more Coke. This seemed to do the trick, and not a minute too soon as I was starting to get a little dizzy. The rest of the way down the Queen K the mental strategy was to remind myself that every step brought me closer to the finish, and that the quicker I could go would give me an even greater PR once I did the math. Turning right onto Palani I felt an instant surge of power, and remembered the ecstatic final mile from last year and my energy was easily doubled. Three turns later, I was coming onto Ali'i Dr for the finishing stretch of another dream come true on this storied road. I kicked it up a notch in the finishing stretch, but not quite as fast as last year as I wanted to take in the moment and drink it in a bit more, as last year I remember being a little too cooked and not as present in the moment. Coming across the line, I put my hands up in the Helping Hearts sign, showing my love for Ballou Skies and the team, and then pumped my arms and fists for the gift of such a wonderful day. I ran the marathon in 3:13:05 to finish the race in a PR of 9:33:14.

As the night wore on, I regrouped with Jocelyn, Chad, Matt, and family, and recounted the great days everyone had and the powerful experiences that were now etched into our legs, arms, hearts, memories and consciousness. Jocelyn overcame a terrible set of circumstances after being hit by a truck on the preceding Wednesday that ruined her bike and ballooned her knee and elbow. Chad realized his dream to return to the Big Island after tireless work and commitment to his goal and passion for the sport. Matt raced here in Kona for the first time as bad luck had conspired against him on too many occasions, finally fulfilling his dream. Beth did her first Ironman after not quite being sure that she wanted to, but ended up loving it, I think it is safe to say, as we all do. Ironman starts out as this external accomplishment, but becomes a part of who you are, I think in large part due to the goals you set, dreams you pursue, and the people you meet along the way. It is not the destination, it is the journey. Although Kona is certainly a worthy destination! Many thanks go out to Jocelyn, my family, friends, Ryan and Ty, our great team, great charity, coworkers, and to all who cheered, supported, tracked, or showed interest or gave energy in any way - you are the best, and I am incredibly grateful.

Mahalo nui loa!

Jocelyn's Kona Recap

2010-10-14T13:17:00.008-04:00

**********************************************************
Jocey's Kona Recap, as posted on Facebook. I am reposting here, for all to see, as I imagine FB's security settings would not allow me to link to it, and I am so PROUD of her I just have to let the world know. Maybe, I can convince her to start her own blog. ;-)
**********************************************************

I am going to start the recap of my Kona adventure on Wednesday before the race. I was about 7 minutes into an easy ride when a red pick-up truck made a right hand turn into me. Without going into every detail of the accident – the result is that I ended up with bruises on my knee/elbow/hip and a broken bike. Needless to say, I was so shaken and upset that I could not stop crying. I just kept thinking that I am so sore, I don’t have a bike, and I have to do an Ironman in THREE days. Jeremy came up with the idea of taking my bike to the Quintana Roo tent at the expo to see if they had any idea on what we could do. We carried my bike to the tent, and with tears running down my face – told them what had happened. Immediately Brad, Mac, and Chris from Quintana Roo said not to worry – they were going to set me up on a CD0.1. Now my only worry is my physical and mental state.

Thursday morning I woke up feeling like a truck had hit me. My right ribs/abs/hips/knees and shoulder were all very sore and swollen. I dressed up in my banana underwear that Nate provided me, and went down to the underwear run. Only instead of participating, I became a spectator because there was no way I was able to run a mile. This is when I felt the lowest. I was thinking that all of these people are in tip top shape and so healthy that a mile is NOTHING to them, and I couldn’t even walk a 100 yards. How in the world am I going to run a marathon in TWO days? Depressed and feeling so negative – I went to pick up my new bike. When I walked into the Quintana Roo tent, Brad had done some research and found out that I was a part of the Ballou Skies Charity Team. He asked me about Ryan Ballou. I sat down and told him all about Ryan and the charity that I race for. Somewhere in that conversation, I gained perspective. I am racing for a young man who has to fight muscular dystrophy every day of his life, and who never gives up. Ryan overcomes challenges that I cannot even begin to imagine. Thinking about Ryan inspired me to take this little itty bitty challenge and overcome it, without giving up, without taking one step for granted. So that was my new plan!

SWIM: Wading out into the crystal blue ocean waters with 1800 athletes, spectators as far as the eye can see, hearing the drums beating in the background is a very cool experience! When the canon went off, the craziness began and lasted until the turn around buoy. I was a little bit surprised at how sandwiched I was getting, but I guess that is what happens when everyone in this race is a somewhat decent swimmer. I must say that it was a little bit difficult to not look at the amazing fish right beneath me!

BIKE: I felt stomach cramping immediately when I got on the bike, but I was hoping that it was going to settle in a few minutes. I was wrong! The first time I took a drink, I threw up in my mouth and felt stomach pains. 45 minutes into my ride, I tried to take a gel, which I threw up right away. This has never happened to me before, so I just tried to continue with my nutrition plan hoping that it would go away. It never did and I ended up throwing up every single gel/block I tried to take on the bike. At 4 hours I stopped taking in any type of calorie, and I watched as my heart rate continuously went down. My average heart rate was about 15-20 beats lower than it normally is, which I attribute to a lack of calories. In the midst of this, the thought of Ryan constantly crossed my mind, and I continued to fight through the bad and enjoy the day. I was, after all, experiencing the famous Queen K, the Hawi crosswinds, the sun beating on my back, and I couldn’t help but smile through it all, thinking how lucky I am to be out there!

RUN: With pretty much zero calories in my body, and my stomach cramping like crazy, I had no clue what to expect on this run. I planned on just running as long as I could possibly run. My run turned into a port-o-potty to port-o-potty run. At this point, I don’t even know what was coming out of me, because I still was only taking in sips of cola and water. At 10 miles into the run, my knee pain caught up to me pretty bad. I know that I changed my stride, but I kept to my run as long as I possibly could run plan which took me to the next potty (I stopped in at least 5). I hung in there for the rest of the run. At the top of Palani Rd. at mile 25 I could hear the cheering and music. I was overcome with so much emotion that I almost couldn’t breathe. Running down Ali’i drive I know that I left every last piece of me (and my stomach) out on the course.

In the medical tent, I was given an IV and told that the copious amounts of Ibuprofen that I had been taking for my swollen knee/body is definitely what was causing my stomach pains. Luckily I don’t think I did lasting damage to my knee despite it being swollen to almost twice its size. Needless to say, it wasn’t the race that I had planned, but I learned that things don’t always work out as planned. But if you take these challenges as they come, the results can be just as sweet!

Thanks to all of the wishes, thoughts, and prayers that I received through text/email/calls/conversation. Every single word gave me strength. Thank you to Jeremy and my ever supportive family! Thank you to Quintana Roo’s Brad, Mac & Chris who made this race possible! I wholeheartedly know that they did not have to help me, yet they went out of their way to get me up on a bike. They kept saying “it is all about the athlete” and I cannot even express how grateful I am! Finally, thanks to Ryan Ballou for being my inspiration to do everything in my power to overcome adversity and be the absolute best that I can be!

Ironman Hawaii 2010 update

2010-10-11T06:47:00.006-04:00

Yesterday Jocelyn and I competed in the 2010 Ironman World Championship in Kona, HI. This was my second trip out to the Big Island to compete in the "Super Bowl of Triathlon", earning the opportunity to compete the first time last year, and Jocey's first attempt but only her third Ironman ever. We had arrived in Kona a week prior on Oct 2nd to adjust to the time difference and acclimate, and for the most part had a very enjoyable and relaxing week leading up to the race. The one low point was when Jocey was hit by a truck when cycling on Ali'i Drive on Wednesday, right in front of the triathlete people watching epicenter of Lava Java, which rendered her bike useless and bruised and battered the whole right side of her body. Not the sort of thing that you want to happen three days before the most challenging physical event on earth. The circumstances of this accident are even more surprising and disappointing, but this post will not devolve into a negative rant on that subject. On the contrary, this unfortunate incident led us down another path that we would not have otherwise gone down, and as a result met some incredibly helpful, compassionate, and great people here in Kona. Mad props go out to Brad, Mac, and Chris of Quintana Roo for stepping up completely unbidden and saving the day (race, week, sanity, etc.) for both of us. In addition to these lifesavers, there were a number of others who were so sympathetic and supportive, and we both are so thankful for this at this tough time. Jocelyn was going to make it to this race come hell or high water, and it would live up to all of our expectations.

Saturday morning started early as usual and we were down at the Kailua Pier by about 5am to setup in transition and meet up with the rest of our Pittsburgh crew out for the race, Chad, Matt, and Beth. My parents were there to cheer us on, in addition to husbands, wives, and parents of some of the others. The race was underway at 7am and then it was on for the next 9+ hours. At times the conditions were the challenge, and others my body, but sometimes you just have to bear down, knuckle up, and as Jens Voigt has said, "Shut up legs!" Or perhaps, "Puke and Rally!" It was very tough at times to keep the pressure on and to continue pushing so hard when quite often my body was in revolt, but that's when you learn the most about yourself, when the chips are down and as I constantly reminded myself, that this was the world championship, you are here to do your absolute best and to suffer mightily in the process. As hard as I thought I had it, my tough as nails wife was pushing through the 140.6 mile race with a bum knee, which was probably swollen to almost twice its normal size. Seeing her out on the course in addition to my close friends and also the sport's top talents gave me so much inspiration to draw upon, to allow me to reach deep within myself for every ounce of effort I could. Hearing people shout, "Go Jeremy" and "Go Ballou Skies" at every turn was so powerful and I couldn't help but smile and do as they asked. I came across the line at about 4:30 HST for an Ironman PR with the following splits on this most competitive, fulfilling, and magical of days.

0:59:57

05:13:01

03:13:05

09:33:14

My official race report is soon to follow, but I just wanted to put something out there before I undergo radio silence during the long journey back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Thanks everyone for reading and for all of your support leading up to and during the race! Mahalo.

Portage Lakes Race Report

2010-09-30T22:08:00.001-04:00

On September 19th, I raced in the Portage Lakes Olympic Tri outside of Akron OH. I decided only the day before to do the race, thinking that it would be a good change of pace from my typical weekend routine of long ride/long run, and a good tune-up opportunity with some speed three weeks prior to Kona. This would also be my first olympic distance race since 2007, so I was excited to once again try this distance and suffer in a little different manner than usual.

Jocelyn wasn't going to be making the trip with me for the race, but Ty and Kevin from the BallouSkies Team were both going to be doing the race so there would be some teammate company and friends to support. I drove up late Saturday afternoon and met up with Ty and Kevin at the Olde Harbor Inn for a drink, some stories, and some pre-race grub. After that it was off to the hotel to settle in for the night and to get some rest before the event. After some laughs, it was time for bed.

The next morning started with a modified race morning breakfast, maybe only taking in about half of the total calories I have become accustomed to eating before half and full ironmans. It was a short 15 minute drive to the race site where we picked up our packets, chips, and racked our bikes, all the morning of the race! It had been a while since I had done such a low key race, and it felt good to just go through the motions roaming freely in and out of transition with bags and gear strewn everywhere, mountain bikes, hybrids and road bike almost numbering triathlon bikes equally. I got out for a 15 minute or so warmup ride with some spin ups and tempo efforts, and then I was back to transition to grab the wetsuit and head down to the lake.

I signed up for the elite open category and started the race at the luxuriously late hour of 8:25am, after all of the sprint tri waves went off. I got in about a five minute warmup swim, some arm circles and pushups and then it was to the line. When the horn went off I ran through the shallows, dolphined out and was near the front and jockeyed a little for position. As usual the first 500 or so really hurt and I was sucking wind, but I made the first buoy in about 4th and that's where I stayed the rest of the swim. I found a decent rhythm and swam a pretty good course, only going a little offline once as I didn't spot one buoy early enough and zig-zagged a little. I came out of the water in 22:20 and was off to transition.

I was out of transition fast and did my 2nd ever flying mount with the shoes clipped in, and executed this flawlessly save for the slightly bunched up insole in my right shoe. I just pushed on, knowing that the ride should take less than an hour and I didn't have time to waste on comfort. Within the first two or three miles I caught and passed who I thought might be my main competition, while trying to strike that perfect balance between a high cadence, powerful pedal stroke, and a sustainable yet uncomfortable intensity. As the bike continued on I passed the remaining two athletes I figured were ahead of me from my wave and tried my best to keep the effort up. I found as the bike went on I really struggled to keep my HR at or above 170 as I was aiming, and saw it steadily dropping down toward my more well known HIM intensity. The bike still went well though on a fair and rolling, though short course where I biked a 55:30 for the fastest bike split.

T2 went fast and I was out onto the two lap run, just as both the swim and bike before were two laps as well. Each lap consisted of two out and back sections, giving you a great opportunity to get splits on your competitors. I started out with about a 30 second lead on the guy chasing me and went about trying to build on that throughout the run. My main goal for the race was to build throughout to a hard, nearly sprint tri, lactate type effort by the end. My HR was the highest it had been the whole race by the end and I had steadily built my lead over the 10k, keeping good form and quick feet throughout to run to a 35:46 and a 1:55:44 overall.
Coming across the line for the suspected, but uncertain win (no results whatsoever were available until two days later!)

Kevin finishing up strong.

Our fearless leader Ty coming in, proudly wearing the colors of BallouSkies.

In the end, it was a fun small town race, and a great tuneup for the big dance that gets underway now in 8 days time. It was fast and furious and I surely won't be reaching the same run speeds out in HI, but I know I will be racing with the same level of confidence and emotional intensity. Olympics hurt, but in a good way! Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone else is ready to rock their own end of season races as I am!

Ironman Louisville weekend and mini-camp

2010-08-27T23:14:00.003-04:00

Today Jocelyn and I are headed west with the Holderbaums to Kentuckiana, site of Sunday's Ironman Louisville , where we have friends racing in the 140.6 mile event. We packed up Chad's car in WashPa this evening and set out with our bikes and all of our training gear.

Tomorrow morning we are going to get up and do a fairly long swim (1.5hrs) in the mighty Ohio River and the will be followed up by a long ride of th IM bike course and a short transition run.

Sunday morning will start quite early, almost as if we were racing ourselves, cheering on friends Steve, Matt, and Jason, as well as so me other Pittsburgh area triathlete we have gotten to know and become friendly with. The TT style swim starts at 7am and then everyone will start their individual 140.6 mile battles with the currents, heat, and humidity. After the guys head out on the bike we will do a long-run on the run course and then settle in for some serious spectating and support. Let's go Steve, MattyMo, and Jason!

Cooking with the Cornmans!

2010-08-26T21:54:00.007-04:00

Earlier tonight, Jocelyn and I joined Gretchen McKay of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for her backyard and home-based cooking show, Cooking with Gretchen, that is to run online in the next couple of weeks. Jocelyn and I were her guests for this piece highlighting healthy, summertime meals, and we got to show off our non-existent cooking skills while talking about Ballouskies and Kona.

Gretchen, Jocelyn, and myself cooked up some Summer Salmon Pasta and some Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs, while Gretchen's associate Steve Mellon filmed it all and provided some creative direction.

This is the beginning of something of a media blitz that Ty setup in advance of Kona, whereby Jocelyn and I will be out promoting Ballouskies and our efforts at the Ironman World Championships! Next stop, NightTalk!

ups and downs in the NC heat

2010-08-19T15:40:00.003-04:00

Training has been pretty good so far in Topsail, however there have been some ups and downs between individual sessions when dealing with the heat and my acclimation (or lack thereof) to it. The beginning of the week started off strongly, there was a slight fade in workout frequency in the middle due to dealing with some disruptive weather, but I plan to close out the week well with another long ride and a couple runs.

Sunday I got in my long ride for last week, doing a Kona-esque 114 mile ride in the heat and the wind. Starting out at 7am the air temps were already at about 78' (the typical low down here!) with the winds out of the ENE. While the terrain is quite flat, if the winds are kicking up, it can make for some difficult riding, and even to the point of hoping for some hills to break things up! With the lack of the hills as well there is no hiding from the wind and not much variation in gearing or body position. This necessitates getting out of the saddle more often than usual and doing some variable gear sets to mix things up and use the muscles to create force in different ways. I had hoped to ride out to and through Camp Lejeune, to continue on towards Cape Lookout and the southern point of the Outer Banks, but I was shot down by the young Marine sentry at the south gate to the base. I was hopeful that I would be granted entry as I was permitted to ride all through Camp Pendleton out in California two years ago, but it wasn't meant to be I guess. Starting out on the ride, I was dealing with a cross shifting over to a tailwind out to my revised turnaround point at the Duplin County line, but then of course on the return I was now dealing with about 23 miles back into the wind and it was certainly heating up now as I was approaching 10am. Hello Queen K flashbacks.

The highlight of the return trip was stopping at a very rurally located gas station, and trying to convince the incredulous clerk that I was actually in the middle of a ~110 mile bike ride. A close second was on my third water stop (I was drinking about 30% more on this ride than a typical training ride), where I filled up two of my empty water bottles with ice water, making the last 20 miles home the most comfortable of all, despite the now 87' heat.

Monday I attempted an eight mile run with my brother Chris, but made the mistake of waiting to start the run at 10am, and then the secondary mistake of getting caught up in a fraternally charged, running ego dynamic, starting at sub seven minute mile pace right out of the gate. Towards the end of the run, at 5 miles, when we were about to pull the plug, the paces were slipping drastically and the heartrates were completely out of control. Not good things at all. So the rest of the day I hydrated as much as possible and then had a surprisingly solid swim with Jocey that evening at a local gym that provided a bizarrely distanced pool of 24.5 meters.
Tuesday morning I did my long run for last weekend, or to start this week I suppose (Sunday is the long run day), and I started at 7am to avoid making the same mistake as the day prior. I also made it a point to start slow for the first couple miles, observing a HR cap of 145-150 bpm to let my body settle into the rhythm and adapt to the heat. This appeared to work and allowed me to accelerate through about 14 miles to average close to my goal IMHI marathon pace, however in my last two miles again the heat played the spoiler and the cadiac drift set in again. In the end though, I finished with 16 miles and the overall experience was much more satisfying and promising than Monday's run.

Wednesday evening the storms rolled in and ruined an attempted swim, but I got in an upper body strength session and worked some wall pushups and pullups so it wasn't a total loss. Today the storms again foiled mine and Jocey's long ride (for this coming weekend?) plans, but we snuck in a quick swim on tired arms for the first session of the day. Hopefully I can get in a run tonight if the storm stops and before dinner, but so far it has showed no signs of abating. At least this gives me an opportunity to do some blogging though! We will try again for the long ride tomorrow before leaving Saturday morning to start the long drive back to da Burgh. Next weekend is Ironman Louisville spectathloning and training camp, and the countdown to Kona continues! Cheers from Topsail (Top-suhl)!

beach week (#1!) 2010

2010-08-14T07:25:00.003-04:00

This week Jocelyn, my family, four large dogs, two bikes and myself are headed south for a week's vacation in Topsail Island NC. This will be a perfect opportunity to de-stress and unwind, while catching up on some reading and catching some rays. And while I may be de-stressing in a general life/work sense, I am certainly planning on increasing the physical stress as Kona is now only 8 weeks away. Topsail training camp - shhh, don't tell the family! I have been slacking pretty bad on the blog posts recently and so I am going to make a concerted effort to get back on track this week and beyond. Updates to follow throughout the week from Topsail!

Ironman Lake Placid

2010-07-29T17:26:00.043-04:00

This past weekend I competed in the Ford Ironman Lake Placid. Over the last year, I had big plans formulated for this race, especially to make another run at qualifying for Kona. Having taking care of this earlier in the year at Eagleman, I was left with a predicament - race Lake Placid to my fullest as I did last year (despite already having a Kona slot) and then race again 10 weeks later in Hawaii, or drop out of Lake Placid to focus on my build to Hawaii. Many wise long-course athletes advised me of the latter for last year, and while respecting their opinions, I decided to try the former and race both anyway, thinking that I was strong enough to do both to my upmost potential. I was wrong. Or, I may not have been that far off, but my recovery might not have been ideal and compromised by some ill-advised training choices in the leadup to Kona in 2009. Either way, this year I made the tough decision to sacrifice Lake Placid for a better build and hopefully performance in Kona. The idea of a DNS seemed like a waste to me, especially since the entry fee was paid long ago, so one idea was to just race a portion of the event and draw off of the competitive energies and closed course to get in a great workout, pulling out of the race before I did too much damage to my legs. This of course would result in the dreaded DNF. I had never not finished a race I had started in, and the idea of this did not sit that well with me, but ultimately the desire to perform really well at the World Championships prevailed.

So last Wednesday evening Jocelyn and I were off to start the long drive up with my parents, who were coming to watch us (or now just her!) race. We drove part way, stayed over in Batavia NY, and then finished the long drive Thursday, getting in late that afternoon. Immediately we started unpacking the car and trying to get in some vital pre-race workouts. I did about a 30 mile ride with my teammate Steve, who was up to volunteer and train for his upcoming Ironman Louisville, riding the long descent into Keene and then returning up the hill. When I got back I had some excellent food that my housemates (Jocelyn, Chad, Jen, Matt, Kristen, Nate, Bill, Steve, and Mark) had prepared and this was just to be the beginning of many wonderful meals and laughs we would all share from Thursday through the following Tuesday morning on this Lake Placid getaway.Thursday was also Jocelyn's birthday, and the housemates got her a cute and modified IM-themed card:

Friday morning, Matt Mo and I went out for another typical smashfest bike ride. He too was training for IM Louisville, and I was trying to trash my legs as one should in any good training camp, and also to try to ensure that I would not be tempted to do anything stupid like changing my mind to finish the race on no taper. Matt and I (we started with a few others who we would ride with for varying lengths before they were dropped) rode one lap of the bike course in normal, counter-clockwise direction, and then the 2nd lap in reverse direction. We got in about 114 miles, and split the 112 in 5:19. Would I have any legs left for Sunday?

Later that night we had a pasta dinner, and had all of the Pittsburgh area triathletes and families in town over for dinner, along with some additional friends and contacts.

Here is a pic of pretty much the whole group after a great meal-
And the Sunday race crew-

Saturday morning we were up and at-'em early to start all of the final, pre-race workouts, bike preps, and gear drop-offs at transition. Most of us went out for a swim in Mirror Lake first thing, swimming anywhere from 15-45 minutes (depending on how seriously you were or were not going to be taking the next day's race!), with yours truly doing one, 1.2 mile lap in about 30:30.

Jocey and I pre-swim.

Later that afternoon, degreasing my chain for the first time in a long while.... :-/
Chad and I, with Bill and Jocey in the background, after dropping our bikes and gear bags off at transition-
The staging area....
Jocey and I back at the house, working on our Infinit and salt concoctions-

Later that night we all relaxed around the house and had a nice, simple and safe pasta/chicken/salad meal and got ready for the next day. Kristen was working on this awesome sign, to wave with pride on race day and support all the housemates doing the event. Thanks Kristen!

Sunday morning started at 4am and we all did our own breakfast routine, whether fruit, cereal, oatmeal, bars, Ensure, coffee, etc., as I opted for the now standard Ensure/banana/bar combo with a little java thrown in for the hell of it. At 4:50 we were off, packing into Matty Mo's Element, clown-car style-
Getting body-marked:
Sharing some laughs pre-race-
Rocking out to Thunderstruck, getting pumped for the swim-
Almost go time-

At 7am me and 2,639 of my closest friends were underway. I went out hard for this swim, harder than usual and in keeping with my "experimental" themed training day, swimming maybe the first 400 meters or so at a pretty strong pace. I found myself in a decent position a little right of the line after about 5 minutes, however there was some stiff competition to get right on the close side, so I angled over between two guys to the near left side of the line to some open water. I would occasionally draft a faster passerby, and one guy and I took turns swimming on each other's hip for nearly 1000 meters. The turns were hectic as usual, but generally the first lap felt very strong and the arms productive. I came out of the water after the first 1.2 mile lap in about 27:30, and then made the run up and over the beach, and then dolphined back into the lake for lap 2. The 2nd lap didn't feel as strong and my approx split reflected this, swimming about a 29:47 for a total swim of 57:17. I bypassed the wetsuit strippers and ran hard up the beach, across Parkside and Mirror Lake Drives, and into transition. As I was running out of transition with my bike, I saw Chad as usual, on almost the exact same pacing schedule. Including the run, I was out and onto the bike in 4:24.

I started the bike and tried to settle into a steady but aggressive rhythm. The legs felt average, like they do on most standard long bike rides, but certainly not as good as I would have liked. The plan was to keep the HR aerobic on the rolling climbs out of town, and then hammer the long downhill into Keene and then to Jay and Ausable Forks along the river. The first lap felt very good and I was even catching and passing a few pro men and most women, and after a decent climb up through Wilmington Notch alongside Whiteface mountain, I came back into town in 2:35:40, averaging a HR of 149.
I started back out on the 2nd lap and continued to feel pretty good for the next 15 miles or so, but I also managed to have nearly my entire flat changing system (x-nut, inflater head, and two CO2 catridges) loosen and fall out the back of my x-wing on the big descent into Keene. That's another story though, and I decided to push on and not worry about this considering my non-race strategy. Once heading out of Keene, I noticed the first traces of the fatigue in my legs. It was beginning to get hard to keep my heart rate up when pushing, but luckily a couple fast guys caught up with me and that provided some motivation and opportunity for pacing. I was feeling ok but things were starting to go downhill. The last 20 miles of rolling and the climbing trend back to Placid really took it out of me, and I just struggled to try to keep the pace up high the rest of the way. I was really starting to feel it now, and did the 2nd lap in 2:44:06, about 8.5 minutes slower than the first lap with an average HR of 143. The entire bike split was 5:19:46, good for an avg speed of 21.02 mph at an avg HR of 146. The legs were pretty much trashed at this point, but I was pleased that I rode two separate 112 mile rides untapered in 5:19, spread over three days, and both of which were about 5 minutes faster than my tapered race split from last year!

I headed back into transition and as I was putting my running shoes on, I saw the familiar face of Chad run into the changing tent behind me to get ready to go on the run. I set out on the run after a 2:00 transition, unsure as to how long I would be out there. Spotting Matt, Kristen, and Jen, and making a cheeseball face for the camera-
Starting the short-lived run in 5th place in my AG-

I ran out of transition and starting running down the hill, getting about a mile before Chad came up behind me. I ran a little bit with him, told him that we were currently running about 6:50 to 7 minute pace, and then wished him well as he continued on ahead. I ran about another half mile to the two mile point and the top of the hill just past the airport and before the descent down towards the turn onto River Rd, and decided that this was the stopping point. I had thought about running a total of 4 miles and originally envisioned this as a two mile out, two mile back format, but I thought this could look weird as a random age-grouper was suddenly running ahead of the professional race leader, so I stopped running altogether and walked back into town. I took off my timing chip and held this in my hand, as I pulled down the top of my kit and turned my race number around. This was a very strange moment, and I felt a little ashamed for doing this, but I reminded myself why and thought about the big picture and the Big Dance in October and knew I was making the right call. I walked the two miles back into town and met up with my parents and the rest of the non-racing housemates to join in on the wonderful support and cheering on of our friends and family. I got some food to hold me over and then screamed my lungs out for Chad, Jocelyn, Bill, and Nate as they all raced to very strong finishes. Chad and Jocelyn raced their way to Kona slots, Bill to his first IM finish, and Nate to his second IM finish in about 10 weeks time!

Jocey racing towards the end of her first run lap, with a malfunctioning race belt number, and also looking tough, mean, and determined...
Jocey finishing strong for third place in the women's 30-34 age group, and a whopping 45 minutes faster that she did last year!!!
The women's 30-34AG results, with Jocey making the cut!!! (don't care much for the registered last name though!)
The next day, signing up for KONA!!!
Chad, Jocey, and I celebrating all of our upcoming races in Hawaii-

Jocey at the awards ceremony on Monday, representing BallouSkies on the podium with her incredible 3rd place finish!

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing and celebrating, closing out another successful race weekend and year in Lake Placid. I really love this town and the Adirondack region, and am really stoked to be racing there again next year! Next year I plan to be stronger and HTFU and do this race regardless of my race scheduling position. In the meantime, there is going to be plenty of additional hardcore training, a couple training camps, maybe an olympic thrown in, and then the IM World Champs on October 9th! Thanks for reading!

Eagleman 70.3 Race Report

2010-06-23T20:44:00.019-04:00

Ok, well more than a month later, I will get this long overdue rr done. On Sunday, June 13th I raced in my 7th Eagleman half ironman [70.3] race in Cambridge Maryland. This race has become an early season staple of my triathlon season, and a great test of early season training and strength. It has also become a first opportunity for World Championship qualification once that became a goal to pursue. Jocelyn and I were down in Cambridge with fellow BallouSkies teammates Joe and Steve, and there were also many other Pittsburgh area triathletes such as Chad, Jen, Matt, Rich, Ryan, Beth, Lisa, Megan, Janine, plus previous AG competitors of mine from earlier races in the season. The race was shaping up to be a fun and familiar event with everyone out there, and the weather to be hot, humid, windy, and sunny for race day. On Saturday I did a short swim and ride and everything was clicking, and aside from a bee sting on my tuneup ride, the pre-event warmup seemed to bode well for the following day.

Sunday morning started early at 4:30 with a breakfast of Ensure, bananas, and Clif bars, and then a short drive from Salisbury to Cambridge to start the day. On our walk from our parking spot to transition, Jocelyn and I caught word of the buzz that supposedly wetsuits would not be permitted today. We raced back to the car quickly and grabbed our speedsuits that we fortunately brought with us this weekend. When we got to transition, the rumors were confirmed about the wetsuits and then we set about preparing for the race.
We went through all of the typical transition preps and I was guzzling G2 from my half gallon bottle as it was already quite warm and humid, and also because an announcement came over the loudspeakers that the race start would be delayed by 15min. Not sure what that was all about, but I just tried to look at it as more time to hydrate, warmup, and wait in line @ the porta-johns. I am glad we had the extra time, as I stood in line for the aformentioned porta-johns for a good 40 minutes. Once that was taken care of, I actually found I had time for a proper swim warmup, ~20 minutes with some surges, which is a rarity for me. That is something I need to work on. Once I was nice and warm, I got out and over to the boat dock to queue up for the start.
My swim wave went off at 8:07, 52 minutes after the pros, and it was now on. The warmup definitely seemed to help find a quick rhythm and a more powerful stroke, but the heart rate was still high as always and the arms heavy, but that is something that I imagine will never change and has to be attributed to the adrenaline of the quick start on a big day. My sighting was pretty good and I swam a very good course on the longest, upriver leg of the swim course. I drafted for a little off a fairly strong guy on the short, cross-current leg, and managed to stay with him for part of the final, down-river leg before I lost him as we were both navigating through some slower earlier wave swimmers. I turned on the kick heading into shore to open up the hips and get the blood flowing to the pistons, and run up the beach to see a.......1:25:52...?... on the race clock. I quickly did the math and came up with a 33:5X swim split? I briefly put it out of my mind as I ran into transition, thinking that felt more like a 27-28, but I couldn't be sure as I wasn't wearing a watch yet and I didn't have my ghetto style, plastic wrapped 305 on my wrist like at Kinetic. Turned out my eyes did not deceive, I swam a stinking 34:04.
I moved through transition pretty quick, until I had a little difficulty getting my aero helmet over my ears. I had to take it back off and take another go at it, but then I was off. As I got out on the bike and I was settling into my HR zone and cadence range, I started thinking more about that swim and wondering where my key rivals were and what the major players were doing. I got pissed thinking about that 34 min split, about what that might do to my chances at a high placing, my intended goal finish time, and I did all I could do at that point - move on, and crush the bike. I was feeling pretty good and I liked what my Garmin was telling me with my mph vs HR relationship, despite a slight headwind from miles 1-4 and 10-22, so I let my swim induced rage propel me to faster and faster riding, and more and more confidence. I thought I spotted Chad up ahead around mile 13-14 during a long straight-away, and set out trying to reel whoever it was in. At about mile 17 or so, I came up along side him, and sure enough it was Chad. I made the pass but I knew with absolute certainty he wasn't going away and this wasn't going to be the last time I saw him. Sure enough for the next ~25 miles we would yo-yo back and forth, keying off of each other for a strong and honest ride. As I was cranking along through the middle miles of the bike course I was dreaming about the expected but rare tailwinds on Egypt Rd, but sure enough when we got there, the winds had shifted and we had the well known, ubiquitous Egypt Rd headwind. I just tried to up the cadence and not let the avg speed fall too low. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful and I held my not-passed status on the bike until within the last 2 or 3 miles when Lucas and an unknown guy who turned out to be Daniel from my AG came by me, but I stayed in contact right up to transition. Bike time 2:16:47, avg speed 24.56mph. Much better than last year, and from what Beth's husband Oscar said, I was in 4th or 5th in my AG. That I could work with.
I had a decent T2 and I was out and running pretty quick, although not quick enough as Chad out-transitioned me again as I saw him exit just before me. I set about bringing him back quickly and also Lucas, who was just up the road from Chad. I caught Chad at about the half mile mark, and then set my sights on the next AG competitor Lucas. I was obeying my HR plan and running a good pace initially at about 6:15/mile, but then the shock of the heat and exposed conditions in the sun started to affect me and I watched the pace slip a little. I wasn't losing any ground as a result of this slowing, but I wasn't making the progress that I would like either. I just tried to get down some fluids and also cool my skin temps as much as possible, hoping this would transfer to my circulatory system and the ol' engine. I caught Lucas at around the 2.5 mile mark and we both wished each other good luck and he told me the next guy was just about 30 seconds up the road. This I believed to be the guy that went by me with him towards the end of the bike, but could have been 1 or 2 of the other unknown leaders. Minutes came and went, and no sign of the next guy. I just tried to keep the pressure on and in the right frame of mind. I knew I had to run into the top two places in my AG at least to have a safe shot at locking down a Kona slot.
Around mile 5.5, I came up on a guy in yellow with a '33' on his calf and settled in to stride by strongly. He gave me props, told me 2nd place AG was just 30 seconds up the road, and we both wished each other well as members of this fraternity of those baking in the heat. Heading to the turnaround point (6.55 miles, out and back course), I saw my buddy Joe and busted him walking, and also the man ahead (Daniel) who was in fact about 30-40 seconds up the road. This gave me new motivation and the pace started inching down again. He was not going easy and I did not seem to be making up any ground on him, but I noticed from a distance that he slowed and stopped briefly at the next aid station to take on some fluids, ice, and/or fuel. I surged, got a little closer. I held steady at the new gap up the road to him until the next aid station where he paused again. I surged harder and came up right on his heels as he was departing the aid station. I went right by him on the right and he immediately matched my pace. Now he wasn't planning on going anywhere, presumably seeing my age. He was right on my heels for the next mile or so, as I began to hatch my plan. His footfalls sounded heavy and a little slower than mine, and I knew a slight (slight!) incline was coming up shortly. I hit the base of this tiny grade and dropped it down to about 5:30 pace. It hurt like hell, but I heard him fall off and I knew he was gone. This gave me a new boost of energy and I just had to keep it up for 4 more miles. After I recovered (somewhat) from the surge, I just tried to keep the pressure on and run in strong to the finish. I was able to do so, bringing my first half pace of 6:33 down to 6:18. In the final mile I was pretty confident that I had 2nd place in my AG sealed up, and just kept the pressure on, and also stealing some looks behind at the last couple 90' turns. I came across the line with a 1:24:19 run for a 4:19:07 finish time.
Shortly after the race and after talking to a couple people, the possibility emerged that I may have won the age group, and not finished 2nd in it. I hung out and greeted friends and competitors after the finish, and went about cooling down and rehydrating as best I could. It seems anymore that any race I do usually ends up with temperatures above the upper 80's or 90! Jocelyn and I post-race, representing for BallouSkies.
Once the prelim results were posted, I saw in fact that I had won the age group and pending any unforeseen issues or problems, I would be offered another slot to Kona! This I suppose was my 4th AG win for the year in as many races, and my 2nd at 70.3 races with strong national or intn'l level fields. This was pretty exciting, but was somewhat overshadowed by punching the ticket again to the big dance, hanging out with friends post-race on this beautiful and kick-ass raceday, and also learning that I was the 2nd overall amateur! Beth got a slot as well, racing to 3rd in her AG, with Jocelyn not very far behind in 6th in that tough women's 30-34 AG. All other friends raced very strongly as well and had some very impressive performances on another tough, tough day in Cambridge. I have come to expect nothing else at Eagleman! The rest of the day was spent packing up the car, scrambling to find a place to clean up and shower afterwards (thanks Megan and Lisa!), grabbing a bite to eat, and then hitting the road to drive the 6 hours back to the Burgh, getting in in the middle of the night.
Ok, that was tough trying to recall the details from about 4.5 weeks ago - I promise next time I will post more promptly, but thanks for reading the old news. Congrats again to all that raced at Eagleman, many other races in the interim, and good luck to all competing in the big one in Lake Placid next weekend. I'm fired up for that trip and race!*

a good day in MD

2010-06-14T22:08:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I raced in my 7th [Blackwater] Eagleman half ironman [70.3!] race in Cambridge Maryland. It was another hot and windy affair on the Delmarva peninsula, but the day couldn't have gone better as I raced to a 1st place age group finish, 2nd overall amateur, and arguably the most important distinction, another Kona qualification.
It was a great day pushing my limits amongst friends and competitors, and in a striking natural setting. Eagleman is one of my all-time favorite races and likely will continue to be for as long as I am a triathlete. I just wanted to check in and share the good news in blogland, and mention that a proper race report will follow shortly. Good night!

Kinetic Half race report

2010-05-19T23:33:00.005-04:00

On May 8th, Jocelyn and I competed in the Kinetic Half Iron in Spotsylvania Virginia. This was to be my second half of the year, three weeks removed from the New Orleans 70.3. I was a little concerned about my recovery from NOLA coming into this one, as my legs had felt pretty flat for at least 1.5-2 weeks afterward, but things started getting better with about a week to go. Jocelyn and I started the drive down to southern VA pretty late on Friday afternoon, and after the 6 or so hour drive, we got into Lake Anna State Park at about 10pm. We were staying in an extra country cabin that triathlete/swimmer friends from Erie had offered us, so we quickly laid out our gear and food for the morning and hit the hay for short night's sleep. We got up pretty early as we still had to pick up our packets and race chips, and also rack our bikes in transition. This would be the start of an interesting day for me, full of highs and lows. Jocelyn and I started with this process, and then waited in line for bathroom needs (no porta-potties?!), and then the final race preps including number affixation, tire pumping, etc. Jocelyn left my slow-ass at the car as she made her way to transition (with about 35 minutes till race start) and I proceeded to pump up my tires. Or attempt to. The front wheel went without a fight, but the rear was acting up. I had to pull my brand new (and tight!) tire off the rim with my lame tire levers, yank out the tube, loosen the nut at the top of the valve stem to then put the extender back on, to remount the tire, and then successful pumping finally with about 15 minutes till race start. I still had to get body marked, pick up an extra cap as I left mine at the car during the tire trauma, and then do everything else in transition. Luckily once I finally made it into trans, I went through my preps incredibly quick and raced down to the beach with my wetsuit in hand as I already heard them going over last minute instructions on the PA. There I briefly met up with Jocelyn and a good number of the Pittsburgh contingent down for the race, Chad, Jen, and Matt. Chad, Matt, and I exchanged hellos and pre-race pleasantries, and then it was into the water for a quick dip and a few strokes before they called us back out in advance of the start. We were going off in the race's first wave as there were no pros doing this race and all men under 35 started at 7am. At the gun we were off, and again I was using my solid bash technique and dolphin diving to get out in front. I took a wide left line to the first turn buoy as the intermediate ones did not seem to be aligned with that one, and found myself swimming all alone as I often do. There were some guys swimming out in front from what I could see, but my effort was good and I felt like I was swimming fairly fast so I just did my own thing. The rest of the swim leg my course was pretty good and I kept it steady into the finish, turning the kick on for maybe the last 200-300 meters. Getting out of the water I wasn't sure of my time, which later turned out to be a "too good to be true" 23:30 (short course), but as I was running up the beach, I heard the announcer mention both Matt and Chad's names so I new this was going to shape up to be the duel we all anticipated. We all passed closely by one another in T1 and Chad was out first, then Matt, and then myself. There was supposedly only 1 or 2 guys up the road, and then a pack of all of the aforementioned Pittsburghers plus about 7 more starting the bike all within sight of each other. There was a short out and back in the park before leaving and beginning the first of two clockwise loops around the northern half of Lake Anna. I saw Matt just behind me on the short out and back, and Chad was a little up the road, and immediately my goal was to keep him in sight because I knew that he would set a solid yet even pace, and waste no time getting down to it. I started off again with a slightly elevated HR with the swim/transition effects lingering and also the adrenaline of the start of the bike battles, but found a good rhythm with a small pack of guys that would continue to jockey for position cleanly over the next 50 miles. I passed Chad somewhere around the ten mile mark, but I would certainly see him again on the bike leg as I did another strong fellow, Iain, who was riding a Kestrel and kitted out in their gear as well. It was hard to keep a constant speed as the wind was a steady 20mph at least, gusting higher at times, and as we did the clockwise loop, it was always having different effects on us. I did keep a fairly constant effort though, with an even higher cadence than in N.O., and came much closer to nailing my hydration and nutrition perfectly. I rolled into T2 after about 2:23:15, good for a 23.5mph avg for some rolling and windy conditions.
After a ridiculously disoriented and slow transition, I was out for the run. Having not had really any spare time in transition in the morning, I didn't have a chance to rehearse my entrances and exits, and couldn't find my spot right away. Never happened to me before, and I even found myself wondering and laughing out loud at my own confusion. Chad was back out ahead and yet again my plan was to mark him and keep him in sight. The run course consisted of three loops through the park after a short out and back just out of transition, and was characterized by an uphill at the start of each lap, rolling to flat through the middle, and then a downhill section through the woods as you finished up and made your way back towards the lake. A spectator told us about a half mile in that we were running 3-4 after passing another competitor on the way up the hill, so that was definitely some ample fuel for the motivational fire. Chad and I hit the 1st mile marker at about 6:40, we ran pretty close for the next mile, and then I pulled a little ahead to move into 3rd place on the road. I was running between 6 and 6:30 pace depending on the grade, and really tried to stay present in the moment as I attempted to cruise away from my pursuers and try to catch sight of the 2nd place guy up the road. Early on my second lap, I caught sight of him up the road and went about trying to close the gap over the next 1.5 miles. Finally I caught 2nd place, Iain, at about the midway point of the lap and used a slight uphill grade to put some space between us. I got about a 10 second gap pretty quick and then just kept the pressure on. Heading into the 2nd half of this 2nd loop, I was now seeing Rob, Matt, Jocelyn, Lauren, and Mimi out on the course and this was a nice feature to be able to step outside of your own suffering for a minute, and to offer some encouragement to your friends to get through theirs.
Once starting the third lap, I was kinda racing in no man's land. From checking behind I felt like I had a pretty good grip on 2nd place, but 1st place dude was nowhere to be seen. Heading through an intersection at the mid-point of the lap, I spotted some Setup race officials on mountain bikes with radios and I asked if they had a split to the leader, and the disappointing news to come back was about 3 minutes. At that point I pretty much resigned myself to 2nd place with only 2.5 miles to go, but I took at look at my watch with 2 miles to go and when I saw 4 hours, I thought to myself that at least I could possibly PR if I could keep my pace going. So over the next 2 miles I went about eking out as much speed as I could and getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. I came across the line after a 1:22:40 run in 4:11:53 for what I thought was a clear 2nd place.
Almost immediately after crossing the line, the race director approached me and asked how I started the bike course, if I just rode right up State Park road to exit onto Lawyers Rd and I told him, "No, I first turned onto the out and back that is on the run course, turned the cones and then rode back to State Park and then out to Lawyers." I asked if some people missed that and he responded with something to the effect of "Yeah, we'll take care of it." I didn't really know what to make of that and just started talking to the winner and other competitors to come in after me, cheered Jocelyn and all of my other friends into the line, and started rehydrating and resting up, enjoying the windy but beautiful day.

As the afternoon went on and the results were posted, people started telling me that I was listed in 1st place and not 2nd. I wasn't sure what to make of this and began to think that it might have something to do with what the race director had said, but I was going to wait and see until the awards ceremony. To my surprise though, when the overall awards were announced, I was the men's winner!
It turns out that the guy that I thought had won, Mike (wearing red in the above picture, Iain in blue), had been directed right out of the park by some volunteers at the start of the bike and he thus missed the out and back segment. The race apparently penalized him for the mile he missed by adding the time (2:36) based on his average speed for the other 55 miles and that was enough to put me into first. That and my final two miles when I thought I was pushing only for a PR, but by doing so took 1:16 out of Mike's lead which was enough to put me over the top after the results adjustment. Either way, Mike was very cool about it all and showed a great deal of sportsmanship on the podium, when I probably would have been fuming about the mixup with the volunteers. This was just further example of the quality of character of most every triathlete, and is a big part of what makes this sport so great. It was a surprising but great end to a hard fought race and taught me a little bit more about my fitness and my competitors. Jocelyn ended up taking second overall for the women, taking an astounding 10 minutes out of the leading girl on the run, and just running out of real estate to take 2nd by 1:18. I know if Jocey had seen that girl at all on that third lap, it would have been over and the podium would have been rearranged for a double Ballou Skies win. Soon enough. Chad took 4th overall and 1st men's 30-34 AG, Matt took 12th overall, Mimi and Lauren 4th and 5th respectively and AG wins to go along, and Jen and Ryan also had strong races and placed very well in the W30-34 and clydesdale categories, respectively. It was a very strong showing for Pittsburgh area triathletes that day in VA and I know this bodes well for the rest of the season to come. Thanks for reading!

Clinic presentation, Pittsburgh Marathon relay, and PCNC Night Talk appearance

2010-05-07T12:00:00.008-04:00

Since I raced in New Orleans about three weeks ago, it has been all about recovery and getting back into the groove, while still trying to prepare for my next race, which is happening manana. Along the way, I have had some unique and novel experiences for me as I continue on my journey as a triathlete. On Sunday Apr 25th, I spoke at the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club's clinic at the Over The Bar Bicycle Cafe on the southside, and presented a talk geared towards beginner triathletes. The talk went very well and it wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as I was expecting, and I got a lot of good feedback and questions from the audience. Also presenting were Chad and Brodie, and it was very interesting to listen to them speak about their topics as well. Here I am, talking about forgoing socks for a sprint distance tri, or flying dismounts, or some other beginner friendly technique...

Then last weekend, I raced on a relay with some fellow runners from the Hounds at the Pittsburgh Marathon. Initial reports were that we had won the relay category in 2:33:40, although strangely some other team has magically appeared ahead of us just this week in an improbably fast time of 2:17:10. We'll be sure to look into that, but overall I was surprised at the legs that I had in my leg, a 5.9 miler, which I covered at about 32 minutes flat officially, which worked out to 5:25 pace. Had I been running either an open 5k or 10k, I would have had huge PRs! Here I am, suffering on the road with my HR through the roof somewhere in Homewood or East Liberty.
Here is our anchor leg, Mark, one week removed from running the Boston marathon, finishing strong for what should be the relay division win.

Last night I had my television debut, appearing on WPXI's Night Talk on the PCNC channel with Ryan and Kim, to talk about Ballou Skies, the peanut butter sales, and all things related to the the charity and the tri-team. Here are the three of us with the host Mike Romigh towards the start of the segment.
Ryan spoke very knowledgeably and with a great sense of pride about the charity, what they are doing at Ohio State with the research, and generally about all of the big picture stuff.
I spoke about what it means to me to race under the Ballou Skies banner, and what it takes to keep going in a tough race. Thoughts always come back to the sacrifices made, the charity and Ryan, and how fortunate am I to be out there, using my body and triathlon as a platform to raise awareness for Ballou Skies and DMD.
Kim spoke about our marketing efforts, about the website, blogs, Facebook cause, etc., and also echoed what it takes to get to and race in some of these events.

It was an amazing experience and hopefully some of you out there in the Pittsburgh television market got a chance to see some if it during that dismal third period of the Pen's game.

Today is a busy day and then we are off to beautiful Lake Anna Virginia for the Kinetic Half, starting tomorrow morning at 7AM. Race report and updates to follow shortly!

New Orleans 70.3 Race Report

2010-05-04T00:06:00.004-04:00

Two weeks ago on April 18th, I raced in my kickoff tri of the year, the Ochsner Ironman New Orleans 70.3. Training had been going very well before the event and I was very eager to test out my early season fitness. Race morning started early at about 4:15am and I started getting ready and ingesting some calories for the long day to come. After a short walk down towards the river and the host hotel Hilton, I hopped on the first shuttle bus of the morning up to transition at the UNO Research and Technology Park on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. After quickly getting body marked, grabbing my chip, and setting up transition with the remains of my morning gear, it was down to the lakeshore to await my start. They made everyone vacate transition at a ridiculously early time of 6:45 when the pros didn't even start until 7am, and I wasn't until the 16th wave that left at 8. I had plenty of time to sit on the beach and continue to visualize my race, continue hydrating, and to watch the winds increase as well as the chop on the lake. I watched both pro waves start and finish before I even got my chance to go, but the race appeared to be setting up to be very competitive among the pros with some big names coming into transition clustered together. At 8 I finally got to start, and got off in front, making good use of my old beach patrol surf bash skills and dolphin diving to make my way out through the long stretch of shallow water. Shortly after starting swimming though, I encountered the first of many waves and swells to hit me that morning. The swim was surprisingly rough, and I definitely found myself struggling to find a rhythm in the first half. My course wasn't bad in the first half, but sighting was certainly more difficult than usual and my breathing pattern was often interrupted by the incoming swells from the north/northeast. I made the turn and immediately started having some new problems because now I was sighting into the sun. I just put my head down and worked in towards the beach while trying to not to get any more flustered than necessary. I hit the beach in a disappointing 31:01 but charged up and over the hill into transition.
After a fairly quick transition in 2:10, I was out on the bike leg. This was my first race on the new ride, the Felt B2 Pro, and I let it rip immediately. She wouldn't disappoint. The first couple miles of the bike were routed through a residential neighborhood with some rough roads, and hundreds of of other athletes from the earlier heats. These early miles fighting through some slower riders who were taking up most of the road, and my frustration from the swim set the tone for the rest the bike. I was hammering along at the top of my heart rate zone, legs whirling at a high cadence, and blowing by people as I was on a mission. The majority of the first half of the bike was into the 10-15 mph headwind, but I was still averaging 23 mph. I hit the first turnaround of the three out and back legs on the bike, and suddenly I had the tailwind and I was effortlessly pushing 26 mph+. Things were going very smoothly and I had calmed down from the tough swim, when I passed a fellow 30-34 division competitor who apparently decided to jump on my wheel for a free ride. Every time I went to pass someone in front of me and I glanced over my shoulder to check the traffic behind before pulling left, I caught a glimpse of this blatant cheater out of the corner of my eye. No joke he sat within one bike length of my rear wheel for the next 8-10 miles. Despite my yelling at him to get off my wheel, trying to get the attention of draft marshals going the opposite direction, and varying my pace, he wouldn't go anywhere. Finally after making another turn to head back out with the wind at my back, I got out of the saddle and put in a large surge and finally ditched him. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful and I rolled back into T2 feeling strong and with a bike split of 2:17:29 for an average speed of 24.4 mph.
I transitioned in 1:50 and was off and running. I felt incredibly good for the first couple miles and was clipping along at sub 6 minute pace for the first three miles. After that my pace would stabilize around 6:30 miles as I would begin the battle with my gut, cramps, and the heat in the midday sun. As I entered the City Park around the 4th or 5th mile, I felt my first signs of cramps in my quads and some rumbling in my gut. I tried to keep everything loose with my stride and I stopped drinking gatorade, and went solely to water and cola. I started feeling a little better by the 7th mile or so and started picking up my pace again, and started trying to hit around 6:15 pace per the forerunner. I soon spotted a fellow 30-34 competitor and passed him shortly before leaving the park. I had no idea where I stood at this point in my AG, but knew that I was probably in the top five at least within my wave, although there were two waves of guys for my age group. As I left the park and started towards the French Quarter, I was starting to struggle again with my digestion, but as I was progressing further and further along on Esplanade Ave, I caught a glimpse of a guy that I had seen early on in the bike leg who could possibly be in my AG as well. I ratcheted up the pace and started reeling him in, little by little, and as I was about to make the turn onto Decatur Ave, I had the mystery man in my sights and just a block ahead. I surged and came up on his right and tried to blow by him, hopefully demoralizing him in the process and rendering him unable to go with me. I thought I was going to yak, and I wasn't sure if I could keep it up and hold him off, but it seemed to work and I held on to cross the finish line strong with a 1:23:55 run, and for a 4:16:23 overall. Here I am coming across the line, proudly displaying the Ballou Skies "Helping Hearts" hand sign.
I got my finishers medal, some drink and grub, and kicked my feet up for some rest in the shade. It wasn't until about an hour later when I saw the provisional results and learned that I had won my age group! The two guys I had passed over the last 5 miles ended up taking 2nd and 3rd so I ran my way to the win. This was my first AG win at a major national level race, and I also took 22nd overall and 7th amateur.

Here I am on the podium out of order, with the 2nd place finisher, Dirk, to my left, and the 3rd place finisher, Lucas, on the far left end. Thanks to Lucas and his stepmother for sharing this photo from the awards ceremony as I was unprepared at the finish line.
Overall, I was very pleased with my race and couldn't think of a better way to kick off my 2010 season. Hopefully faster splits and even more complete races are to come this year. Next up is the Kinetic Half on May 8th where I will continue building the foundation for the larger races to come later in the summer. Thanks for reading, and my next race report will be here hopefully in less than a week!

Ballou Skies video feature

2010-04-21T22:22:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday (4/15), Jocelyn, myself, Kim, Steve, and the Ballou family met in a local park to get some video footage for Ballou Skies video feature that would run online at WPXI and in a condensed version during local television broadcasts. The resulting video and a related article can be found here. Check out the BallouSkies website, get involved online through Facebook, buy some peanut butter here or in your local Giant Eagle if you're a Western Pennsylvanian, and help us in the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy! 100% of the proceeds of the sale of the peanut butter go to the charity and the vital research that is being done at the Ohio State University Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute, as well as direct donations made to the charity. Help us in our race to extend lives and find a cure!

March into April, centuries and a swim meet

2010-04-15T00:44:00.006-04:00

The last 3+ weeks have been very busy training and getting ready for the quickly approaching start of the 2010 season. With the exception of last weekend, the previous three weekends included a minimum of a century ride and then at least a sixteen mile run, with Easter weekend as the biggest of them all with a ~111 mile ride followed up with a 20+ miler. All of the rides and runs have been extremely solid for me, with HR's at a good IM to HIM intensity level, with high average speeds and paces considering the time of year. Not surprising though, considering the typical company. Three and a half weekends ago, the meeting place was at North Park on the day of the Just a Short Run races. Here I met up with Chad, Matty Mo, [Cousin] Nate, and Joe V. Here are the IM ladies, getting ready to start their own ride.
This Saturday started first with a 3000 yd swim, and then the guys and gals headed out separately, and in the end Chad and I got in about 101 rolling miles with a speedy transition run on Lake Shore Drive. This capped nearly a 7 hr training day. Below, Chad, Matt, and Nate cruising up a short climb just north of Evans City.
About a mile or so later, stopping to fix Nate's slow leak flat before bombing down 528 into Evans City.
Sunday we had about a 16.5 mile run with some solid ironman effort intervals at the Schenley Park oval, doing 5 X 5k descending with Joe and Chad. We started these at 7:20 pace and finished up at 6:40 pace, trying to force the legs to run long on tired legs as this is the name of the game. The following week saw a little mountain biking on my local trails in addition to normal training sessions, and here I am showing off my cycling affiliations of Sewickley and Ballou Skies as I am slowly covered in mud.
The next weekend (4/3) I met up with Joe on his 40th birthday for a speedy century into Ohio, West Virginia, and back into WPa.
Joe cruising down Quicksilver Rd in the Midway region,
And yours truly a couple miles later on North Branch Rd.
Stopping at the 100 mile mark for visual confirmation that Joe's ultimatum of 20mph or faster had been observed for his bday ride.
Checking in in my driveway, noticing that the avg speed appears correct, but that I missed some miles when navigating my way across the Sewickley Bridge and through all of the lights and traffic in town.
Map of the tri-state century, which was my fastest ever in training, and maybe even including races, to date. I can't wait to try that with the Zipps...
Easter Sunday started off with congregation at the Church of the Sunday Morning Long Run, doing 20+ miles on the Montour Trail and finishing off with a dip in the creek (Run).
Natural ice bath = free. Not paying for party ice = priceless. Creek slime/stink = I could have done without.
Joe suffering through the last couple minutes of his 20 minute soak.
Once I got home on Easter, finding my basket left by the Jocey bunny.
Crosstraining, walking my family's horses, or rather them walking us around the neighborhood.
From left to right, Jack (jiggy), Oakley (oaktown), and Nessie (brown-ass).

Last weekend was the first break in the Ironman base/build routine, for the annual AMYMSA League Championships. This was held at Clarion University and the Sewickley Y Masters had 9 swimmers attending, 8 men and 1 woman. This was the first time I think since I started swimming for the team that we had enough guys to field two relays. Here we are on Saturday (4/10), smoking the field and setting a new AMYMSA Top Ten record in the 200 Medley relay, 140-179 age group. Mark led off with back, then Bill did breast, I did fly, and Jimbo swam free to finish in 1:44.19. Video of the race, we're in lane 3 -

For the rest of Saturday I did the 100 Free (:54.18), 50 Free (:24.52), and 200 I.M. (2:14.60). My freestyle events were less than stellar, but I was pretty happy with my I.M. Here are all of the guys with the exception of Mark H, at the banquet dinner later that night. Bottom, l to r: Bill W, Bill G, Mark C; back: Jim, Dan, Ben, and me. Photo courtesy of Janine.
On Sunday, here is the same relay team but in the 200 Free relay, led off by Bill, me, Jim, and then Mark. We couldn't quite beat the old SEWY team of yore from 2003, but we posted the 2nd fastest time ever in the league's age group with a 1:33.56. Video below, once again in lane 3.

For the rest of the meet, I swam the 100 I.M. (1:00.30), 50 Fly (:26.43), 25 Free (:11.07), and the 100 Fly (:59.27). Very happy with the 100's, not so with the 50, and indifferent with the time in the 25. Here is video from my 100 Fly. I am in lane 5 with the yellow cap and Orca speedsuit. Bill and some of the other studs beat me pretty handily :(

Last weekend was great and the SEWY men came in 2nd in the team competition to the Cranberry Wave. Though with only 8 swimmers to their 11, winning was a mathematical impossibility, despite our noticeable dominance. We like to think that we were the true winners, if the meet were being scored with a points per swimmer or per capita scoring system. Next year. The weekend was a lot of fun though and the beginning of a taper for the triathlon race season to come. See you at the races!

rainy weekend and Ballou Skies photo shoot

2010-03-17T23:45:00.003-04:00

Last weekend started off on Friday night with Jocelyn and I hosting Kim at our master's practice. We had a longer than usual sprint night and then afterward we went with some teammates and family members to Pizza Roma for some carbs and brews. As usual, the service was insanely slow and we didn't get home terribly early to prep for next morning's workouts. I was holding out hope that maybe the rain wouldn't come in the overwhelming quantities that they were calling for, but after seeing about 10 straight hours forecasted with a 100% chance, I was preparing for another long indoor ride. Saturday morning came and Jocelyn and I took a drive out to Irwin to meet up with Chad, Jen, and Co. Kim and Matt were also in attendance, and a 4-4.25 hr ride was queued up. Matt, Jocelyn, Kim, Jen, and Chad (lt>rt) getting started below.
Kim, Jen, and Chad a couple hours in I think.
After the ride, the girls were the only ones to head out for a transition run as the rest of us grabbed a bite to eat and prepared for the afternoon swim. Emerging from Chad's, it looked as if it hadn't rained at all in Irwin during our whole 4 hour+ ride. Just our luck! We shot on over to the Greensburg Y and did 4000 yds, with a 30 x 100 main set. I felt surprisingly good for this, and came in under 1:20 for almost all of the 100's (only over for a handful that I did I.M.). Lovely ladies and Chad, pre-swim.
After the swim, a relaxing soak in the hot tub. Some would argue that this is not the best post-workout choice (inflammation), but I don't think its too bad after a bike and a swim. You wouldn't catch me in here after a long run though.
The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing at home with some sushi and wine despite some appeals from friends to go out for St Patty's Day. No thanks to lots of standing, smoky bars, and overpriced drinks. Sunday morning started with a long run with Joe, running a bit more than 16 miles as a progression run, building to a pretty solid clip by the end as I tried to crack my cyclist turned runner companion. He hung tough though and we rewarded ourselves with a breakfast buffet at Montecello's. I gorged for about a half hour, and then after a quick turnaround at home, Jocey and I were off to the South Side for a Pittsburgh Tri Club meeting at the Over the Bar Cafe. More Chad, Jen, and Kim, who was presenting on nutrition at the meeting, plus plenty of other friends like Ryan, Lisa, and Garvin, and then some new ones that were made. After a couple Fat Tire Ale's and East End Snow Melt's, it was up the hill for a BallouSkies photo shoot on top of Mt Washington. The whole team was there, and all together for the first time I believe, to take some team photos and promotional shots. We had race bikes, race kits, jerseys, Peanut Butter, everything on hand for a great photo shoot but the weather. The rain held off though and a great time was had by all, until we were too cold to stick around any longer in the sharkskin one pieces in damp, 50 degree conditions! Below, the team, from lt>rt: moi, Kevin, Ty, Kim, Ryan (foreground), Merett, Troy, Jocey, Joe, and Steve.
That pretty much wrapped up the weekend, and then a new week was underway, albeit one that was much darker in the morning and lighter in the evenings thanks to Daylight Savings Time. More typical training ensued, with sights set hopefully on better weather to come this weekend! Thanks for reading my hyperlink heavy post - I hope you enjoyed it, but now get ready for some more! Its time for action, check out BallouSkies online, join the group or cause on Facebook, and get involved in the fight against DMD!

sunny weekend and slow swim meet

2010-03-11T22:00:00.003-05:00

Last weekend brought the rides and weather I had been waiting for since late November/early December of last year. Saturday morning (3/6) dawned cold, but brilliantly sunny. The day had promise. I waited for the temps to warm up a little before I ventured out solo at about 1pm. Some typical training partners had other events on the schedule or were out of town, but I was stoked and wasn't going to let the lack of company bring me down. Plus I had a new gadget to try out in my cadence sensor that was to be compatible with my Garmin Forerunner 305 and also a new water bottle cage that I was going to try out torpedo style between my aerobars. My steed pictured below, just pre-ride.
I set out on the surprisingly clear roads in about 34' sunny temps on a familiar route, starting first into Beaver county, then Butler, and finally back into good ol' Allegheny for a solid 4 hour, clockwise loop over some favorite roads (except route 68) that were just waiting to be cruised on again. Northbound on Spang Rd...
Self portrait on Spang, prior to the incredulous senior-citizens who pass me about 10 seconds later...
Cool view looking west out over some glistening farm plots abutting the PA Turnpike alongside Glen Eden Rd...
When it was all said and done I got in a very solid ride and sufficiently toasted my legs in preparation for the following day's swim meet. Sunday started with a radio interview with Ty, Ryan, and myself, speaking with Rob Pratte and Ted Arneault of KDKA Radio's Black and Gold Sunday. We gave them a great update on the work of Ballou Skies and the upcoming season for the tri team, and other projects that are in store. I did the interview from the parking lot of Cornell High School, and then in was inside for warmups for this last regular season AMYMSA swim meet. After getting in about 1000yds for warmup, it was time to prepare for my first event, the 100 free. Teammates Katherine, Bill, Bill (& coach), and Mark below...
Video from my 50 freestyle - I'm second from the right wearing the yellow cap and getting left in the dust coming out of the turn...

Teammates Bill (closest) and Ben (2nd from left) getting ready to start the 200 back...
Teammates Bill and Jim....
For the day, I did a 54.29 in the 100 free, 24.36 in the 50 free, a 2:18.66 in the 200 I.M., and a 12.01 in the 25 fly. Not too pleased with my sprint freestyle events, but I'm ok with the 200 IM. Training for ironman and sprint swim events is a difficult balance :)
Sunday afternoon I snuck back out on the bike for another 2 hours and brought the weekend to a close. Hypoglycemic here and acting goofy, Jocelyn said I looked like an elf...
This week has been going pretty well on the training front, getting up every morning to run before work and then swimming and cycling in the evenings. The weather has been awesome, but of course it had to be while trapped indoors and now the rains are supposed to come in earnest this weekend. Maybe that will melt away the last of this winter's snow. Train safe and I'll be back blogging soon, god willing and if the cricks don't rise...

bowie knives, beards, and stones!

2010-03-05T14:16:00.002-05:00

This is what I'm talking about! I came across a very amusing and inspiring article yesterday on Xtri, but unfortunately it came about a month too late for me. This would have certainly helped with keeping me in the right frame of mind had I read it when it was published, about three days prior to the Blizzard of 2010, Snowpocalypse, etc. Still, I think I did ok even without it.This article captures the essence of ironman training through a Pittsburgh winter, when you just have to knuckle up, HTFU, or embrace the Winter of the caveman ala Duncan Larkin, and just get out in the cold and suck it up. Less time spent in the presence of this kind of crap....
And more time spent doing things that leave you looking like this....
Hopefully now this mentality may be stored away until next December, as the spirit of this post is certainly at odds with my last, but if not, I will be sure to reach into my shorts to see what I can find.

the final push?

2010-03-02T18:42:00.001-05:00

Could we now be in the final throes of winter here in Pittsburgh? Dare I say it, or would the mere utterance of this miraculous possibility jinx us all? Maybe there is reason to hope, after all spring is officially only about three weeks away, daylight savings time less than two weeks away, and according to Accuweather, my neighborhood has some temps forecasted in the FIFTIES within the next week.Maybe I should shut-up, lest I curse us all. My earlier, optimistic blog forecasting for the winter didn't turn out so well...

At the start of what I hope becomes the final push through winter, last week around the time of my last posts, I was quickly getting over my cold by way of massive ingestion of vitamin c, vitamin d, zinc, airborne, echinacea, green tea - anything I could get my hands on. You see I had planned on racing on Saturday (2/27) in the Spring Thaw to kick off my racing season and I wasn't going to sit this one out. Last Thursday night I did my "long ride" of the week by myself, as circumstance was conspiring against me to have any company for the ride. I built in intensity through three hours and by the last 30 min I was hanging on for dear life, suffering to Coach Troy and the Spinervals video he was dragging me through. I had planned to run then Friday morning as my running frequency was a little low last week, but with how my legs were feeling I decided to skip it and try to rest my legs for Saturday. I took Friday night's sprint swim workout easy and pulled and paddled quite a bit to rest the legs.

Saturday morning dawned, but not to as much snow as the weathermen were calling for. It seemed like the majority of the snow came earlier on Friday and hopefully the park staff at North Park could get the roads reasonably clear for the race. According to Elite's website the race was on and I set out with all of my gear, breakfast on the go, and Ballou Skies paraphernalia. I got to North Park and didn't have too much difficulty finding a reasonable place to park, met up with Joe, and proceeded to run a scattered two mile warmup between pre-race venues, even getting in about a quarter of a mile at open-marathon/~HIM run pace. Joe and I got our packets, timing chips, and met up with our other Ballou Skies teammate Kim, and recent/regular training partner Heidi. We had just about enough time to greet one another, pose for this picture, and then take our marks for the start.
I started the race a little too fast, as I seem to be prone to in pure running races, running the first mile in 5:50. I wasn't sure at all what I might be able to hold for this race, and I told myself that I would be happy with anything under 6:15 pace, but secretly I was hoping that it might be somewhere around my half-marathon pace (5:55). Time would tell where I was at and how well I might hold up, as I have really only run aerobically since Eagleman last June. This race would be a reintroduction to pain. The first three miles or so were pretty uncomfortable until I settled into my groove and started to adapt to the tempo effort. This would equate to about 5:53 pace and my heart rate was roaming through the mid-170's. This felt about right and I just tried to stay steady and run the tangents of the course while staying light on my forefeet with a quick turnover.
I came through the halfway point in 29:50. The second half of the race didn't seem that much more difficult, although I did remember a bit of a painful patch between miles 7-9 as I really tried to buckle down and surge away from a nearby runner. I think this picture was taken during this stretch. It looks worse than it felt, I promise.
I managed to come out of my funk as began to listen closely for the call of the finish line, and powered up the final hill on Pearce Mill road and let my heart rate climb over 180 for the first time of the day. I pushed down to the finish line and crossed in 9th place overall and 1st in the men's 30-34 division, for a second half of 30:08 and finishing time of 59:57 in the 10 miler. I liked what my garmin was telling me more than the official race timing, supposedly running 10.12 miles @ 5:55 pace.
All in all I was very satisfied with my performance, surprised that I ran so well with no speed or tempo running of any kind, but I guess this is just even more proof of the value of a good base and high volumes of aerobic training. Looking more closely, I think I still need to get tougher mentally and should have been running closer to HR 180 or above, but then again the capacity to do this only comes from more speed, tempo, and racing agonizingly short distances, rapidly. What to do? Do the Just a Short Run half marathon on March 27th, that's what.

Team Ballou Skies was represented very well in this first race of the 2010 campaign, with my aforementioned result, then Kim took 2nd overall woman just by a hair in a finishing sprint, and Joe taking 3rd in his age group in his leadup to Boston. Here is a shot of the team and most of our hardware (before Joe was awarded his medal)-
Heidi also did very well in the race, coming in third in her age group for the ten miler. After the race Kim, Joe, and I handed out some Ballou Skies bracelets and some informational cards, spreading the word about the charity, how to get involved and donate, and just making ourselves and the team known. Look for us again at future races and to be a major presence and player in events to come!

The rest of Saturday was all about relaxation, plus a little bike and gear shopping at the annual Trek of Pittsburgh V.I.P. warehouse sale. I got some sweet new tires for my mountain bike and I look forward to testing them in the slop this spring. And it's pretty much guaranteed that there will be plenty of that once all of this snow melts. Saturday evening Jocelyn and I decided to join Chad, Jen, and Co again at their place on Sunday for another long trainer workout. Having run the race the day before, I capped the day at a mere 3:15, but it was another good spin and definitely a challenge on tired and tight legs.From l to r: Chad (partial), Jen, Lisa, Ryan, Heidi (hidden behind my arm), and me. Jocelyn is shooting. Jocelyn, Jen, and Chad were going long again, and I just sat aside and watched the USA/Canada hockey match. Thanks for hosting once again guys, but hopefully that will be one of the last times and we will all be meeting up outdoors very shortly!

After the previous rough four days on the legs, yesterday's morning run and evening swim didn't feel so hot, so I just took it easy and then did the same this morning. Next up is another trainer ride this evening and then some much needed zzz's. The plan is to get through this week and hopefully to head outside Saturday for a long ride! As it stands now the forecast shows the weekend's temps approaching the historical averages for this time of year, and then even exceeding those averages next Monday and Tuesday. We're talking low to mid fifties! Keep hope alive, we're pushin' through.

DETAILS magazine triathlon quote

2010-02-24T17:45:00.002-05:00

A couple months back, I was interviewed by a writer for Details magazine for an upcoming piece on triathlon. I wasn't sure at the time what form this article would take, and to what degree my contribution would be included, but last Friday I got the answer when the March issue was released. I had a nice quote towards the end of the article that I don't think make me look like too much of a fool, although I'm probably biased. The piece is entitled How the Triathlon Became the New Status Symbol and was written by Simon Dumenco. Behold, some scanned magazine pages from the mag -

Here is what the article looks like in print.

If you want to check out the whole article, it can be found here. Or, support the magazine and go pick up a copy at your closest newsstand or bookstore!

blog update, training, and peanut butter, 02.23.10

2010-02-23T23:00:00.003-05:00

Well after a couple of failed attempts at posting a new entry, as Redman said, tonight's the night baby, so read up on these. Two weekends ago (2/6), the trainer party was at Jen and Chad's again, and that time we managed to fit 7 of us in their basement, up from the previous high of 5, and a good time was had by all for 3.5-4 hours of spinning bliss.
All of the usual suspects were there, plus Matty Mo, Kim, and the famous Heidi that I finally got a chance to meet and train with. This was long overdue, but great to finally make her acquaintance! After 3.5 hours, all of the non-injured runners went out for transition runs of varying lengths and one tough little cookie - - kept spinning right on up to 4 hours for what I think at the time was a trainer record, at least for this winter, among this group. Afterward, J & C had another wonderful snack/brunch ready and waiting, replete with numerous fruits, nuts, smoothies, and the guilty post-spin pleasure: the muffins. I think even a caveman would love a muffin after a 4 hour hunt!
We all chowed down as we told some fun yet controversial stories and then we all parted ways and Jocelyn and I headed to our home pool for a quick swim. Later that night Jocey and I joined my brother Chris and his bride-to-be Alyson for some shopping and dinner in the dreaded, and rarely navigated South Hills. Sunday it was on for another sub-freezing long run, and this time we were on Joe V's turf, mainly to run a downhill 5 kilos or so at his goal Boston Marathon pace. We got in about 14 miles and put a major hurt on our respective calf muscles in the process. Meanwhile Jocey was at the Y doing a 2-hr water run because of her foot, and as you can see was not a happy camper. She did however have some tunes, thanks to a Jen H inspired ipod setup.
The following week of training was standard fare, nothing too wild, just getting in the usual volume. On the real world front, Jocelyn was sick and was having foot issues, and both of us were having some vehicular issues and getting tired of the snowy driveway behind our house. Jocey was getting stuck, I was lamely pushing her in clogs and straining my neck (the 3rd way you can hurt your neck), my battery was dying and car overheating, basically, a reality bites kinda week. However the overwhelming highlight of the week and major bright spot was definitely the Team BallouSkies meeting at Sharp Edge Sewickley on Wednesday night. There the braintrust of BallouSkies was in attendance, represented by Ryan, Ty, Merrett, Melissa, Ward, and then tri team members Kevin, Steve, Kim, Jocelyn, and myself. We had a wonderful meeting, came up with a tentative plan of action for the team's efforts in 2010, revealed some new gear, products, and crescendo-ed with some incredible energy that we will bring to the charity and the fight against DMD! Below are the BallouSkies bracelets that you will soon see at a race, fundraiser, heck, everywhere near you!
Then Ty brought out a bottle of the new BallouSkies Peanut Butter that is now available online and soon in a large number of Western Pa's Giant Eagle supermarkets. 100% of the profits of this All Natural peanut butter are donated to BallouSkies and go towards research to help boys afflicted with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. On the cap is a likeness of Ryan and yours truly!
Get online and buy yourself some extremely tasty peanut butter to spread on those bagels, english muffins, celery stalks, put in your smoothies, etc!

The rest of the week started going a little more smoothly after the high point of Wednesday's meeting and also getting my car's battery replaced, and then it was time to prep for another focused weekend of training. Last weekend's trainer dance was at Kim's house, and we four (Kim, Heidi, Jocey, me) triathletes kept it rolling. Kim and I before the ride, in our sweet BallouSkies gear.
We got in the now predictable pattern of 3.75-4 hours followed up by a ~30 minute transition run. Then Kim treated us to a post-workout meal of some excellent grub, dietitian style, which we all very much enjoyed in our depleted state. Many fruits and nuts, and even some chocolate milk! But maybe the centerpiece of this meal, the savory looking BallouSkies Peanut Butter shown below, and my equally impressive spokesmodeling abilities!

As we talked and rested afterward, we all had a good laugh about some strange locals and some very awkward situations we all have endured. Jocey and I then took off and did a quick swim, and then relaxed the rest of the night. Sunday morning I was supposed to do a swim meet at the Cranberry Y, but between the league officials who never got SEWY's entries and therefore never got us seeded, my so-so neck, and an oncoming cold, I pulled the plug on the meet and decided to do a solo 15 mile run and shovel snow off of our deck. Which pretty much brought on the cold instantaneously and, surprisingly, didn't much help my neck situation either. Now I just gotta get myself better so I can lay it on even more next weekend! As my friend and teammate Steve commented recently, No Rest for the Wicked!

training triumphs and tribulations

2010-02-08T21:27:00.026-05:00

The last 10 days or so of training have been marked by some distinct highs and lows, but I guess that is all part of the process and what makes you stronger in the end. Almost two weeks ago now, I spoke of the beginnings of a potential sickness of some kind, and sure enough, this progressed a little bit further down the road than I had hoped. Coming up on the end of January and heading into another big weekend of training, my gut really started acting up and providing me and those around me with all sorts of discomfort and disruptions. I thought at one point it may have been due to the internet acquired almonds that I had been eating en masse and I feared tainted, but in retrospect it was probably the initially suspected bug. This did not keep me from my training however, and not this past weekend but the last, Jocelyn and I joined the IM crew again for another big session. Lisa, myself, and Jocey pictured below in Jen and Chad's basement.
We did a 3.5 hr trainer ride followed by a 30 minute transition run on the cold streets of Irwin, and then after a nice recovery brunch at Casa de Holderbaum, it was off to the Greensburg YMCA for perhaps the most ridiculous training leg of all, a 1650 time trial. As former pool swimmers, Jen and I lead off in the 1st heat and got things warmed up for Chad and Jocelyn. Strangely, this swim was the portion of the day that I feared the most for both stomach related troubles and performance shortcomings, but was pleasantly the most solid of all. I swam a 21:45 for the 1650, which works out to be about a 1:19 pace per 100y. I'll take it, after 4 hrs of earlier workouts and some tight hamstrings on those late flipturns.
Chad, Jen, Jocelyn, and myself.
The following (last) week went pretty well, I starting coming around health wise by Monday or Tuesday and didn't really miss any planned workouts due to The Bug. I did have a couple shorter bike sessions on T/TH than I would have liked, but I was also at work a little later than ideal and this made for late starts. Swimming continued to flow pretty well, running was average with no foot discomfort, however some of those aforementioned bike sessions left me feeling a little bit more flat than they should have. I read an article Thursday night about racing weight and coupled with a surprisingly low scale reading Friday morning, this got me paranoid about the pitfalls of my Paleo ways. I will reserve judgment and blame The Bug for now. And with Super Bowl Sunday coming up, my bottom line was sure to be padded just a little.

This past Saturday we had another trainer session planned at another friend's house and of course I was really keyed up for this again, when the infamous Blizzard of 2010/Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse hit overnight Friday. When Jocelyn and I woke up to no power and 20 inches of new, wet snow, we knew the group trainer streak was going to come to an end. While initially this was very upsetting in a tri-myopic sort of way, once we ventured outdoors, we soon found alternative activities to keep up entertained. We briefly considered doing our 3 hr trainer ride, just the two of us, by headlamps or candlelight, with a portable battery powered dvd player, but quickly called an audible for snow shoveling cross-training and then a cross country ski trek into Sewickley and to a warmer shelter. And now, as the skies previously dumped snow on the mid-Atlantic region, I shall dump my photos on the blogger-nets.
Jocey striding through an idyllic Ponterfract Park.

Me crossing over LSC.

As the crow flies or the train goes by to Sewick-town.

Nice.

After a relaxing rest of the day Saturday, Sunday dawned and it was time for the weekly long run. Chris, Joe, and Steve joined Jocelyn and I for a planned 10 miler through the snowy, 8 degree countryside. A shot of all of the runners synchronizing our swatch....er...Forerunners before the run. We'll have to send this one into Garmin, and yes, we know we're dorks. Fast dorks.

Jocey, Chris, Joe, and Steve heading out away from town.

Steve, me, and Jocey about a mile further down the road.

Joe, Chris, Steve, and Jocey heading past the first of many downed trees on a usually moderately traveled country road.

Steve, Chris, Jocelyn (foreground, pushing the pace!), and Joe passing under a big one. This was amazing, we had this whole road to ourselves, and yes, this is a road! This looks a lot like the trails that are on top of the adjacent ridges!

Chris and I post-run, we got in an unexpected 13 miles, but the time just flew by and I felt like I could have run 30 that day. Maybe my most enjoyable run of all-time.

After the run, we then came home to our 41 degree house. Our power was still out (nearly 37 hours later) but even this could not bring me down after that epic snowscape run.
About an hour later the power was finally restored and the rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and preparing for the Super Bowl. Jocey and I went over to the Filauri's and met back up with Steve and Joe, along with Joyce and Fay among others, for some football fun and the promised padding of the bottom line. This was an excellent and more normal end to a strange, but very memorable weekend. I learned that things might not always go to plan with the training schedule, but you just have to make the most of what the conditions give you, have fun, and knuckle up!

2010 Race Schedule

2010-02-01T17:24:00.008-05:00

Below is my ideal race schedule for 2010. Race names with an asterisk preceding them are ones still under consideration or pending qualification. Registration is complete for those without, or it is a near certainty that I will race them. Again I will be racing for BallouSkies, but I am excited to be starting the year with the burgeoning BallouSkies team and already established and fantastic charity.

Feb 27, 2010 *Spring Thaw
Mar 27, 2010 *Just A Short Run
Apr 10-11, 2010 AMYMSA League Championships
May 08, 2010 *Kinetic Half Iron
May 16, 2010 *Cleveland Half Marathon
May 29, 2010 New Brighton Triathlon
Jun 13, 2010 Eagleman 70.3
Jul 25, 2010 Ironman Lake Placid
Oct 09, 2010 *Ironman World Championship

In all honesty, the schedule definitely looks a little top-heavy for the first half of the season, but all the better to hone the racing skills and pursue the ultimate goal....

2009 in numbers

2010-02-01T12:04:00.017-05:00

My year of swim, bike, and run, in numbers. This is for all of my training and racing, and no extracurricular (cross-training/lifting) activities are included in these totals.

Swimming - 412,717.16 yards (234.50 miles)
Biking - 4,888.26 miles
Running - 1,234.54 miles
Total Training and Racing hours - 597:01:40 hours
Total hours sleeping - 2,826:30:00 hours
Days without S/B/R (Zeroes) - 49.00

My weekly averages are-

Swimming - 7,787.12 yards (4.42 miles)
Biking - 92.23 miles
Running - 23.29 miles
Total Training and Racing hours - 11:15:53 hours
Total hours sleeping - 53:19:49 hours
Days without S/B/R (Zeroes) - 0.92

These weekly averages represent a 24.54% improvement over 2008 numbers for swimming, 6.17% for biking, 4.39% for running, 11.31% for weekly hours of work, -1.93% in hours slept per week, and 16.67% more days taken off. Looking more closely at the percentage changes, obviously the swimming improvement is a welcome jump up in yardage, and both the biking and running could stand to increase in 2010, as well as the amount of sleep I give myself. Initially, seeing the increase in number of days off in 2009 compared to 2008 was a little troubling, however looking at the weekly training logs I see that the majority of these days off occurred in either October or November, and after a two-Ironman year (my first), I probably needed this time for mental and physical recuperation. 2009 was really a tale of two seasons, the first being pre-Lake Placid, and then the second post-Placid:

It is always nice to see improvement though and I will be looking to train and race with even more consistency in 2010 and I will use the numbers as a motivator and for feedback. Miles make champions!

Indoor winter training at its finest

2010-01-28T18:46:00.001-05:00

The ten pound bag of almonds arrived last Friday to start my weekend off right.
It continued with the sprint masters practice that night and then a long day of training on Saturday. Saturday morning Jocelyn and I drove up north a little to Mark’s house to meet up with what is becoming a pretty regular group of Pittsburgh area Ironman nut jobs. Mark had us all setup in his very spacious basement for a three hour trainer ride to kick things off for the day. We managed to go through one Spinervals video, a Universal Sports broadcast of the 2009 Ironman Louisville race that two of the morning's riders raced, and then finished up with a little bit more of Coach Troy with an "On the Road" of Lake Placid. After the trainer ride we transitioned to a quick (and I mean quick) ~4 mi run from Mark’s house out to a turnaround in Troy Polamalu’s neighborhood. After the run Mark and his wife Jenene had a wonderful brunch prepared for us and we got in some much need calories and continued the stimulating conversation of the morning and good times. After leaving Mark’s place, Jocey, the Holderbaums and myself made the drive up a little further north to the closest YMCA available, Cranberry (vs Baierl), that would admit scurrilous Sewickley Y travelers, and got in the third and final workout of the day. This was finished up with some obligatory underwater camera fun, waterslide action, and of course my beloved tradition of post-swim steambathing.
Saturday night Jocelyn and I just relaxed at home and watched a movie while letting our legs begin to recover. Sunday morning dawned with more rainy conditions, and while Jocelyn went out to North Park to meet up with a friend for her 12 mi run, I slept in a little bit longer and then ventured over to the Montour Trail for my own slopfest twelve on a nasty, muddy, icy/crusty rail trail. I made fellow Pharaoh Hounds runner sightings out in the miserable conditions, seeing Eric and Jo toughing it out as well. Sunday closed out with some NFL viewing, a trainer ride, and a nice family dinner where we got the latest on my brother and fiance’s wedding deliberations. Finishing the training week out on Saturday, I jumped up over 13 hours for the week so things are continuing to build on the ever present numbers chase and fitness enhancement.

This week started very well on the training front, with a tough masters distance workout on Monday, doing such fun sets as 200s on the 2:30 and 100s leaving on 1:15, and then a solid aerobic bike effort on Tuesday night followed by getting back out on the road to run yesterday morning and this one. Here's a shot from my run this morning - I had a so so swim last night, as I was kinda playing it cool as I had been feeling a little “off” since Tuesday night. Had nothing to do with the bike effort, but probably an encroaching bug of some kind that Jocelyn likely transported home from her elementary school. So far so good though, and I hope to fight that off as well as the niggling right foot discomfort I had been feeling off and on since last week. This probably resulted in running too hard, on the too far left portion of some of the highly cambered local roads. I shouldn’t complain too much though, as I’ve been relatively problem free (knock on wood) since I went minimal on the running shoes. Caveman style is good for more than just eating! Good information on minimalistic running can be found here.

So tonight I will do another moderately long trainer ride and plan to run tomorrow AM and then swim in the evening. And then Saturday morning it is back with the Ironman crew for another marathon training session. This time I heard there is even a waiting list for the session! Happy training and eating everyone! Caveman up!

Paleo living

2010-01-20T23:40:00.004-05:00

The New York Times online edition recently ran an interesting article on the "urban caveman." It just so happened that I was already boning up on the subject when I caught scent of this piece. I had been reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes for a couple days and had begun implementing some of the diet recommendations. The plate shown above is my daily mid morning snack now. Throw a hardboiled egg in there too. I thought I'd give Paleo a try now that its resolution time and also because my current training volume is relatively low. If it doesn't get the job done once I'm hammering myself week in and week out, I can always drift back towards the typical triathlete's style of nutrition, that of the all out Carb-Fest. At a minimum I suppose I have committed to sticking with the almonds at least because I just ordered ten pounds of them yesterday online! So far though its going very smoothly and I am noticing that I am getting a little leaner around the midsection, and my energy levels are good as well. A plus about the body comp since the epic bike rides have yet to start, although those will surely take care of any extra energy I might hope to have. :)

With all of that said however, training has been going well and I am slowly building things up. The first two weeks of the year I have been up around 11-12 hours and the frequency and quality of sessions are good. Last weekend alone I hit 6.5 hours of training which was a great feeling, although it makes me laugh to read that now because in a couple months that won't even be a complete Saturday. Our friends Chad and Jen came out our way last Saturday and joined us for some s/b/r. That definitely helped to get a longer bike in and was good to catch up and talk shop. Since Chad's 30th birthday was also the next day, later that night we joined up with them again and a group of triathlete friends for dinner at the Yokoso Japanese Steakhouse at the Waterfront. Below, from l to r: Jen, Chad, Lisa, Ryan, Cari, and Nick. This was our first time meeting Ryan, Cari, and Nick, and it was definitely a pleasure. Good peoples. Not pictured: Kim, Garvin, Jocelyn, and yours truly. Dinner was followed up by a Shuffleboard tournament at Dave and Busters. We endurance athletes know how to party!
Well, I think its time to turn in and get some of that all important rest, but this weekend will bring more group training sessions and good blog material. I hope everyone out there is off to as good a start as I am this year and is getting the work done, for that first race of the season can't be that far away! For tonight I will leave you with an amusing video, SlowTwitch: The Movie, created (I think) by Chuckie V.

return to the blogosphere, 01.12.10

2010-01-12T23:25:00.004-05:00

Back by popular demand, Knuckle Up Triathlon returns to the blogosphere for the "tens" (2010)! I suppose a lot has happened since my last blog post, which was an inexcusable 6+ weeks(!) ago, but really not too much has happened in the way of significant training or anything on the racing front. I'll mention some of the things that stand out to me, but really just start fresh with the New Year.

Definitely the most tri-applicable news is that I am now on a new tri bike for 2010, a 2009 Felt B2 Pro. After five great years of training and racing on the trusty Cervelo steed, I have retired this bike to the pastures and I am stoked to be on the full carbon rig for the new season. The Felt is super comfortable (I think I have a nearly identical fit to my P3 dialed in now on the B2), and I can't wait to see what it can do on the open roads. It just looks incredibly aero and sharp with the Zipp wheels and DA drivetrain. Hopefully some of this snow will melt soon and we'll get one of the unseasonably warm winter days that I've been telling everyone we're bound to get and I am so desperately hoping for.The biggest non-tri news without a doubt is that my younger brother Chris got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Alyson. CONGRATS guys! They are planning a summer wedding of this year and I can't wait for that and for them, they are a great couple and this is going to be huge! Christmas and New Year's came and went, and I enjoyed the time off from work and as always had some nice time with my family and my newly minted inlaws. Wonderful gifts, wishes, and holiday love and cheer was spread far and wide. New Year's Day Jocelyn and I went to the Y for one of our traditional New Years Day workouts, and once we were done swimming, took some fun underwater pictures and also a few practical ones and video for some stroke analysis.
Friends Jim, Leslie, and Bill. Jim is our masters swim team's self-appointed "spiritual leader", Leslie a northern VA swimmer visiting her USMS buddies, and Bill is our masters coach and resident super-swimmer at the SEWY Y. Note the swedes on Bill as proof of his speed.
Unfortunately I have yet to find my groove with the indoor cycling this winter and have been struggling to get in real long sessions on the weekend. So in place of some of the volume that my sanity is not currently allowing for, I have been supplementing with a little more intensity than usual and am getting in some focused, steady to mod-hard sessions. Not having the group CompuTrainer sessions like we have the last two winters has definitely made a difference, but some talks are in the works to put together some basement sufferfests with friends! In the meantime though, Jocelyn and I are trying to make the most of this old school, snowy Pittsburgh winter with a little cross country skiing. Last Saturday the wife and I went up to Sewickley Heights Park and did some xc on trails we had previously only run or biked on.
Saturday night we had dinner at our friends' Joe and Fay, where they made some awesome homemade Chinese, with some mongolian beef and coconut curry vegetables and rice. There was also a case of Hofbrau House Dunkel on hand, as well as some sake and the night was definitely full of great tastes and indulgence. Below is the tasty wedding cake made for us by Fay's mother, which all of us made quick work of after the Chinese feast!
Pictured from l to r: Judy, Jocelyn, Steve, Fay, and Joyce. (not pictured: me, Joe, and Russell)
Sunday morning was a little rough seeing as I am now a lightweight, but Joe and I met for an 11 mile progression run in the 8 degree temps. It was a struggle to get going, but after 5 miles or so I found my legs and we started clipping along around 7min pace and below. JV and I post-run trying to warmup and let hats and beards thaw.
Sunday afternoon Jocelyn and I saw Avatar which we thoroughly enjoyed - I must admit, I'm a sucker for visually astounding, reality bending, consciousness questioning sci-fi flicks. I had the same sort of feeling after seeing the original Matrix for the first time. Sunday evening we had dinner at my rents' house, and afterwards my mom pulled out my old swimming warmup jacket that she found while cleaning some unseen corner of the house. This was a huge blast from my AG swimming past with the Sea Dragons, and probably from about when I was eight or nine years old, judging by the progressive swim lesson patches and the size of the thing. It would be so cool to sport this relic from my first days as an endurance athlete to a current masters swim meet, but I doubt I could get this tiny hoody around my shoulders or zipped at all!
So until the weather warms considerably, I'm going to have to stay motivated by watching the upcoming winter games, and following along with the ongoing Epic Camp in NZL for the next 5 days. I better start getting into that champion mindset myself though, because the first race of the year is only about three months away! Happy training-

DD tomorrow!

2009-11-27T17:23:00.007-05:00

It's that time of year again, and by that I mean it's time for more cycling madness tomorrow morning.

Come on out and take a gander if you're so inclined, or if you're a sicko like me and the couple hundred other cycling sadists that will attempt this, we'll see you at the Washington Oval at 10am for the start!

Here is map of the course and hills.

post Ironman fun

2009-11-18T23:21:00.001-05:00

Well it has been a while since I posted any thoughts of my own or substance, so I will do a quick catchup post of the past few weeks. Jocelyn and I had some Steelers tickets for the Vikings game back on October 25th thanks to her age group win at the Steeler's 5k earlier in the year. I'm thankful we were at that one and not this most recent bungle against the Bengals.The following weekend included some fun and Halloween partying, most notably at Chraly's (Chris & Alyson) house in Crapopolis where Jocey and I were dressed as the Cornwoman and a hippie, respectively. Check out those tight jeans.
I was good about not running at all for the first week after the Ironman and generally did very little for the first two weeks post race. I eased back into some activity with swimming and mountain biking, and the main goal has been to have fun these past 5.5 weeks while staying active. That means no trainer rides and very limited Forerunner watching, keeping all runs at least of the MAF intensity. I have been doing quite a bit of mountain biking though, and while the heart rate probably does spike more often than it should powering up some steep kickers, and mainly from chasing this guy, I have been having a ton of fun at Bavington, North Park, and the Sewickley Heights trails.Last Friday afternoon our marriage certificate came from the State of Hawaii, officially making Jocelyn a Cornman, or cornwoman, as was previously shown. That was exciting, and then it was off for a busy weekend of activity.
Friday night my family met Alyson's for the first time at Willow and had a very nice evening discussing family stories, nuances, places lived, and drinking a fair amount of BYOB wine, and then a little extra that the Brantley women smuggled in. The triathletes pictured below had legs that were too tired, or wine filled, to hold them upright.
Over the last few weekends I have also been staying entertained with my virtual spectating experiences of IM Florida and Clearwater 70.3 Worlds, the latter totally blowing my mind with the times that were thrown down by the winners. Michael Raelert of Germany won the men's race in 3:34:04, running his way to victory with a 1:09:06 half marathon to close, breaking the previous world record and last year's winning time by 6 minutes. Insane, although maybe not so much since that race seems to have evolved into some sort of ITU-70.3 hybrid.

This week has been back to the grind, but last night I had my virgin night mountain biking experience with Pop. This dark mtbing was a wicked good time, and think my winter sanity may very well be pulled back from the evil clutches of indoor training riding. Unless of course Jocey and I get the desired CompuTrainer. A self portrait from last night taken at the top of the Y trail before descending back down into town to call it a night.
So that's it for now, off to bed so I can hopefully get up before work and get a run in, but stayed tuned for upcoming posts with some big news and good pictures!

IM Hawaii video

2009-11-08T16:33:00.003-05:00

Just watched this and it gave me goosebumps and also got me insanely fired up for next year. Can someone please remind me that it's only November??

young man's impression of Ironman

2009-10-30T08:08:00.008-04:00

This was written by my 14 year old nephew Robert, about the Ironman World Championship that he witnessed on October 10^th. Robert came out with his mother Rochelle (Jocelyn’s older sister) for our wedding, and got a chance to take in the race the day before. Robert just started running cross-country for his middle school team and I wondered what kind of effect this race would have on him, if any. Read below for the answer.

**********************************************************

The Ironman World Championship

The Ironman is a major event that only occurs once a year. This triathlon only accepts qualifiers who have trained arduously and that will compete in three athletic events. The Ironman is held in Kailua Kona and consists of a 2.4-mile swim in choppy waters, 112 breath taking mile bike riding, and a humid 26.2 mile run with a light breeze cooling the competitors. The Ironman only accepts accepted 2,000 people this year on October 10. My Uncle, Jeremy Cornman, is a tremendous and energetic athlete that is now considered an “Ironman” himself. I am proud to say he is my uncle and he has influenced me ever since he crossed that finish line at 10hrs, 28 min, and 19 seconds. To think that people like this can finish such a race is incredible while dealing with a temperature of 87 and a humidity of 74 makes me speechless! The way those people swam, biked, and ran influenced me in everyday life and only to become something great like them. The people who qualify and are accepted into a once a year world event that only accepts a few thousand people is incredible in every thinkable way. It showed me how I should work arduously and make it to the top. Even if I fail, I am not considered a quitter for working hard on something that I have not yet ended, this should be said throughout anyone who has not yet finished something they have yet to end.

**********************************************************

Thanks Robert, I too am proud, that of my new nephew! Keep running and the sky’s the limit!

media coverage - links

2009-10-28T17:56:00.004-04:00

PG North/West: Leetsdale man will compete for a cause in Hawaii
Thursday, October 08, 2009

Sewickley Car Store and The Ironman

Sewickley native ready to race for the title of Ironman this fall

One week ago today...

2009-10-18T19:03:00.012-04:00

One week ago today in Hawaii, my girlfriend of over 4 years, Jocelyn Ann Smith, became my wife. At 2:00 PM HST at Holoholokai Beach Park in Hawaii, at a ceremony presided over by Pastor BJ Kailimai of Imiola Congregational Church, we took our marriage vows and...
Jocelyn and I became man and wife shortly after 2pm on 10/11/2009.

Meet the Cornmans!
Wedding party @ Holoholokai.
The rings worn together for the first time, symbolizing our union.
Starting our life together.
I love you Jocey.