Friday, September 20, 2013

ITU Para-Triathlon World Championships, London, England

As many of you know, I had an incredible opportunity to guide visually impaired triathlete Aaron Sheidies at the ITU Para-Triathlon World Championships held in London, England. I met Aaron a few years back at a handful of races (Hy-Vee, Steelhead 70.3). Earlier this year, after the news that triathlon would become an event at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Aaron started looking around for guides that would be able to keep up with him in the shorter distances. I expressed interest and a few months later it became official that I would be his guide for the world championships in London. I had never done any guiding before so before going to London, I went out to Seattle to train with Aaron for a few days. Here is the day-by-day of the trip.

Thursday: I left from Cincinnati early Thursday morning and was out to Seattle by mid-late morning. This was my first trip out to the Northwest and I took in the new scenery as I took the train toward downtown from the airport. I met up with Aaron, made it back to his place, and we got ready for our first ride on the tandem. We were out on the bike for about 2 hours but a good part of the ride was me getting used to the tandem and practicing some of the technical stuff such as getting started together. That night I ended up making some cheese tortellini with pesto, shrimp, and spinach which really hit the spot after the long day of traveling and the 2 hour ride. I called it a night early having been up since 4 am eastern time.


Dinner Thursday Night: Delicious!

Friday: Aaron had to work so we got up early for a 45 minute run with a couple 800's on the track at race pace. The rest of the day I relaxed at his place getting a few odds and ends done and walked to the grocery store to grab a few things. After Aaron got off work, we ran down to a near by lake for our first swim. The water was a bit chilly (~high 60's if I had to guess) especially without wetsuits but wasn't too bad after we got going. We swam for about 15 minutes, allowing me to get the feel for swimming next to him with the tether at our hips and learning how to become more in sync with each other. By the end of the swim, we had found a good rhythm. That night we met up with some of Aaron and Brittney's (Aaron's girlfriend) friends for some pizza. I devoured a delicious mushroom and garlic pizza on a wheat crust!

Saturday: We had planned to wake up, have breakfast and get in a little brick workout followed by a another short open water swim. Aaron has 2 tandems and we wanted to ride the one we were going to use in London. He had gotten a new cassette on his back racing wheel and the the gears weren't adjusting quite right so we decided we needed to take it into a shop before really doing any riding. The shop didn't open till 10 though so we changed up our original plan and decided to swim first. We ran over to the lake, this time with wetsuits, and did another 15 min swim with a few race pace starts and efforts mixed in. We ran back from the lake and got the bike ready to go. We rode down to the shop and Aaron explained the situation. They were kind enough to work on it right away. While we waited, we decided to go grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks (you can't come to Seattle and not get a cup of coffee from Starbucks!).


Starbucks coffee break mid-ride

We rode around Green Lake getting in some good efforts. We rode back to the house and made a quick change for the run. We ran a hard 2+ miles right from the start and did an easy 5+ minutes to cool down. The rest of the day was spent running a few errands, packing up the bike, and making sure everything was ready to go. We had a nice salmon, sweet potato, and asparagus dinner (all on the grill) and called it a night. 

Sunday: We decided to get up early and go for a short easy 30 minute run before the long travel day to London. We got to the airport and through security with no problems, grabbed some Starbucks, and waited for our first flight to Chicago. In Chicago we met up with Amanda B. I got a global rental phone since my iPhone 4 wasn't compatible in London but I hadn't gotten a chance to get it before I left for Seattle. As they started boarding the plain, I frantically started figuring out what I needed to do to activate the rental phone. I ended up getting it done but would definitely recommend doing that before you're about to board your plane. It ended up not even mattering though as when we got to London and I tried to charge it, the charger wouldn't work. Oh well. I was never in a situation where I needed a phone. On the plane, we got a pretty decent vegetarian dinner that was a curry rice dish with a mini salad, a roll, and a little dessert. Not too shabby for airline food. After eating I attempted to sleep but didn't have much luck. I was in and out a few times but I don't thing I ever truly fell asleep. The crying baby didn't help either. 

Monday: Before arriving in London, we got a little croissant and a dish of fruit along with a cup of coffee. Again, not too shabby for an airline. We arrived in London at 5:50 AM local time when I probably would have been going to bed in Seattle (9:50 Pacific time). We made it through customs without any issues and grabbed our luggage. The girls took the cheaper train into London while Aaron and I took the bus service recommended to him. There were a bunch of triathletes from the US and Australia that were taking the bus too. Luckily we really didn't have anywhere to be as we ended up being on the bus for about 2.5 hours while the bus driver maneuvered the enormous coach bus up and down the tiny London streets. At first it was rather entertaining but eventually it became a little irritating as they literally didn't know where they were going. We went by the same spot multiple times and the passengers started telling the bus driver way to go; never a good sign. 

We eventually made it to the hotel we would be staying at Tuesday-Sunday but were only there to drop off the bike before heading for Salisbury. We made our way over to the tube (the underground train system) and each got a 1 week pass which ended up being the deal of the week. London is not cheap! But we were able to hop on and off the tube and get around pretty easily with our Oyster card/tube pass. We made it to Waterloo train station and took the train up to the small city of Salisbury. We dropped off our luggage at the small bar/restaurant/hotel and found a little something to eat and a little coffee to keep us going through the day. 

My macchiato, a nice strong espresso with a little milk, from Costa, the Starbucks of London


Mushroom pizza for me, ham and pineapple for Aaron from the local bakery in Salisbury

We got on our Stonehenge tour bus that took us over to the ancient site. Here are some pics!




Me and Aaron at Stonehenge


Amanda and me at Stonehenge


 Headstand at Stonehenge, why not :)


Amanda and me in Salisbury


Huge cathedral in Salisbury - home of the Magna Carta too

Aaron, Amanda, and I went and got a bite to eat at a local restaurant. I had a tasty falafel burger with some tomato and avocado. We went back to our little Inn and called it a night. Although there were a few times throughout the day where I wanted to fall asleep, I fought it hard in hopes of re-setting my time clock. It worked pretty well as the rest of the week I was good to go! 

Tuesday: After a good night sleep, we got up and went into the "downtown" area of Salisbury where we had some breakfast and coffee. I had my first English breakfast (vegetarian) which included an egg frittata with spinach and feta, baked beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes with an Americano (most places don't really brew coffee, which is interesting). The breakfast was definitely different, but tasty and filling. We took the train back in to London and checked in at our hotel. We met up with some of the team and went for a little run through Hyde Park. We checked out some of the race course and ran on part of the run course. That night we went and checked out Harrods, the giant multi-level, ridiculously expensive store in London that carries pretty much anything you could think of. We found a pub near there and grabbed a bite to eat. I had some sort of vegetable risotto dish that was pretty tasty. 

Wednesday: We got up and had breakfast down at the hotel. They had a make your own muesli which for me included uncooked oats, apricots, banana chips, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds and some "semi-skimmed" milk as they like to call it (aka reduced fat or 2% milk). We headed out for a ride which was rather interesting. A lot of Hyde park is no biking allowed and with signs posted saying there was a 50 pound (~80 dollar) fine for biking where your not supposed to, so I was a little cautious. So we decided we would try the main streets to get over to the race course. Bikers in London are crazy! They do whatever they want, weave in and out of cars, going to the front of the lane. We were a little more cautious than that. We eventually made it over to the course area where we were able to ride on part of the course. We were only about 15 minutes in and getting ready to practice a U-turn when I shifted down and all of a sudden there was a loud noise and something was definitely wrong. The derailleur had been placed on wrong and ended up breaking and causing the chain to go into the wheel, breaking 5 spokes. We walked the bike back to the hotel, talked with the team mechanic, and made our way around the city to 2 different bike shops finding a new derailleur and some new spokes. We dropped that stuff off with the mechanic and headed back down to the race site to get in a short swim in the Serpentine, where the race would be held. The water was a very brisk 61 degrees! After our swim, we walked over to Imperial College where we had an anti-doping seminar. That night we found a nice Italian restaurant near by to get some dinner. I had a "fungi pizza" aka, mushroom pizza (I guess this is the 3rd time I've talked about eating a mushroom pizza on this trip...). 


Aaron, Brittney, Amanda, and Me

Thursday: The derailleur had gotten fixed but there was still an issue with the back wheel as the spokes we had gotten at one of the shops were too short. After scrambling around Thursday morning, including a short run down to the race site to see if any of the bike shops at the expo would be able to help, we decided to borrow one of the coaches wheels and just stick with that through the race. We went out for a ride, practiced a bunch of technical stuff including 180 turn-arounds and getting in and out of our bike shoes in sync. After the ride we had a couple hours before a team meeting so we went and did a short river boat tour on the River Thames. Here are some pics!


Me and Aaron in our "C Different with Aaron" shirts


Me and Amanda at Big Ben!

After our meeting, we took a short nap. After all of the running around we had done the past day or two with the bike and with the race coming up on Friday, it was good to let the legs rest a little extra. After our nap, we headed down to the race site for our pre-race briefing and packet pickup. After that, there was a swim course familiarization where we could swim on the exact swim course with the buoys   set up. We did 2 laps of the course (1500m) with a good race pace start effort at the beginning of the 2nd lap. 


Walking over to the swim - Don't forget a swim cap when the water is 61 degrees!!

That night we met up with some of Brittney's friends that live in London at another Italian restaurant. You can't go wrong with pizza or pasta before a race! I got a penne pasta with marinara and pesto sauce, delicious! We took the tube back to our hotel, and called it a night. 

Friday (Race Day): Our race didn't start until 2:05 which meant we had plenty of time to sleep in, eat some breakfast, and get over to the race site. We ate down in the hotel. I had some oatmeal with a little milk, some peanut butter, some banana chips, and some dried apricots. I wanted to eat something that would sit well but would hold me over through the race. After breakfast, we went out for a little ride to get warmed up and practice a few more turnarounds. Our ability to be as efficient as possible on the turns and turn-arounds would be important for us to have a strong bike. We gathered our stuff and walked over to the race site with the girls.


We arrived at the race site and had to go through the ITU check in. They verified our uniforms (including size of name, country, and other logos!), measured the tethers for the swim and the run, and checked the bike. I had my usual Cookies n' Creme Powerbar about 2 hours before the start of the race and snacked on a few cola gel blasts during the final hour before the race. We took the bike over to transition and got our stuff set up while we tried to figure out the movement of the the transition area. The Sprint World Championships were going on so they didn't have our portion of the transition area completely set up yet. We eventually figured that out and made our way back to the athlete lounge to do some last minute race preparation. We went for a ~1 mile run warm up, got our wetsuits on, and made our way over to the starting area.

Going into the race, Aaron knew he was going to have some competition that he had never faced before. A guy from England, David Ellis, that was formerly a Paralympic swimmer. Here is how the race unfolded:

Swim: 10:38 - 36 seconds down from Ellis
The swim went well. We got out quick with no issues. About 100-200m in, Ellis and his guide were right in front of us. We were on their feet for a few strokes before they took off and we lost contact. The rest of the swim was smooth.

T1: 2:18 - 15 sec slower than Ellis
There was a long run out of the water that was technically part of the swim before we actually entered the transition area. On our way to the bike, we both wiped out on the grass/mud and fell to our backs (probably lost about 10 seconds). We got up quickly and got through T1.

Bike: 34:02 - 19 seconds faster than Ellis
The bike course was 3 laps and VERY technical with five 180 degree turnarounds and multiple other turns and S-curves. Needless to say, it was hard to ever really get going other than this one long straight away that we had in each direction on all 3 laps. The ground was also wet which resulted in me as the one steering the bike, a little more cautious. That morning when we went out to ride and check out the course, we saw at least three people go down at various points on the course. And countless others had the same result throughout the weekend. To me, its not worth going down and I'm going to ride a little more cautious that risk going down. During the bike, there was one British team in front of us and one behind us and although people were trying to tell us where we sat in the 6b category, it was hard to tell if we were in fact in 2nd like we were or possibly in 1st. The 6a (full blind) individuals started 5 minutes before us so they were mixed in on the course with us along with some of the other para-athletes.



T2: 1:34 - 10 sec slower than Ellis
As we entered T2, I looked over my shoulder and could see Ellis and his guide heading out of transition. I knew with a good run we were within striking distance.

Run: 16:27 - same time as Ellis
As we started the run we quickly found a good rhythm. The course was 2 loops and flat and FAST! About a half mile in, we had a long stretch to go down and I could see them in the distance. I couldn't tell how fast they were going but thought we had a chance to get them if we kept up the pace we were going. I saw them make a turn and timed it to see how far back we were. It was about 40 seconds. A good amount but still seemed possible to catch them. We made our way through the blue carpet and the announcer said something along the lines of "The Americans are looking strong, will they be able to close the distance on the Brits?". On the 2nd lap, I could see they were still pretty far ahead and knew it was going to be tough to close them. We stayed strong the rest of the way, made the turn for the finish, and coasted in to a 2nd place finish.



Finish: 1:04:57 - 2nd place in the 6b category

After the race we went back and showered before coming back to the race site for the category 1 and 2 para-athletes which includes those that are an above knee amputee or those that are wheel-chair bound. Talk about inspiration! That night we went to a nearby pub and had some fish 'n chips!


Dinner at a local pub - Me, Amanda, Brittney, and Aaron

Saturday: We had breakfast down in the hotel and unlike the other days earlier in the week where I made my own muesli, today I had eggs, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, along with a big slice of fresh baked bread with some jam and honey. Pretty tasty hotel breakfast! Aaron and Brittney had some laundry to do for the rest of their trip so Me and Amanda went to a nearby Costa to grab some coffee. 


 Saturday morning coffee date at Costa - A cappuccino for me and an Americano for Amanda

After that, we were going to go check out the Olympic Park, but after reading some poor reviews, we decided to go check out the London Tower. We took a tour through the tower and looked around the giant ancient fortress. We also got to a see a changing of the guard while at the tower which was pretty neat. After the tower, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Pret a Manger, a little coffee shop with a huge selection of different hot and cold sandwiches. After eating, we walked across the street to the awards ceremony which was being held in Trafalgar square.  


Awards Ceremony - Me and Aaron with the Brits who took 1st and 3rd

After the awards, we ate at this Mexican restaurant. I had some veggie fajitas that were pretty good. We made our way back to the hotel, Aaron and I disassembled the bike and we called a it a night. 

On Sunday we traveled back to the states. We flew through Washington DC which was a little crazy as we had to go through customs, claim our baggage (including the huge bike box), exit customs, drop off our luggage, and go back through security. I'm 100% for keeping airports safe but it seems like a very disorganized and slow process that could somehow be more efficient. Especially when you have multiple international flights arriving at the same time. Our flight ended up getting delayed out of DC but had it not, we would have been running to catch our flight to Dayton. 

I had an incredible time guiding Aaron and am very thankful for the experience. I can definitely see myself guiding Aaron again in the future (if he wants me to :) ) with two ITU races in North America next year including the Chicago race in June and the World Championships in Edmonton as Aaron prepares for qualifying and racing in the Paralympic Triathlon in 2016. 

As for me, my season is over. I'm having a hard time accepting my season being over as I feel very fit and would love to continue training and racing. At this point though, there aren't too many other races that I can just hop in and do. I'm taking some easy down time though and will soon begin preparations for next year. I have no idea what my plan will be for next year. I would love to get in a 70.3 or two. Now that I am working, hopefully money will become less of an issue and I can dabble in the half-iron distance next year. It has been a great year of racing for me. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Hy-Vee Triathlon: 5150 US Championships

It's been a busy few days since the Hy-Vee Triathlon this past Sunday. From traveling back to Chicago and Cincinnati after the race and then getting ready for my trip to Seattle and London, there hasn't been much free time to sit down and write a race report. Last week Amanda and I left for Chicago on Thursday after I got in my brick workout. We went and visited with my sister, niece, and nephew when we got in to town. On Friday, we spent some more time with them before my mom got off work and we could leave for Des Moines. We have some good family/friends that live near Des Moines and they were nice enough to let us (Me, Amanda, my mom, and George) stay at their house for the race. We got into Des Moines around 9:30 and called it a night shortly after.

After getting a good night sleep, I got up, had my  usual pre-workout breakfast (banana, Powerbar, and cup of coffee) and got in my usual pre-race workout. I rode for about 25 minutes with some race pace pickups, ran a mile with some light pickups, and hopped in the nearby Copper Creek Lake for a few minutes. Overall, I felt good and ready to race! We stopped at Hy-Vee to grab a few things for dinner before heading to the mandatory race briefing. After the meeting we dropped off the bike and went back to the house and got dinner going. I had some pasta and marinara sauce with some sautéed kale and spinach that the girls were having with their pizza. After dinner, I got everything organized and ready to go for the morning including putting on my race numbers.

Earlier in the week, I had been checking the weather and it was looking like the race could potentially be much hotter than some of the other races I've done this year (Best of the US was in the 50's and Age group Nationals was in the 60's-70's) so I began developing some strategies that would help keep me cool. The really hot weather ended up not being an issue and instead there was a 30% chance of rain/storms all morning. I woke up race morning and checked the radar to see a pretty big front moving through the area with some possible storms mixed in too. I began thinking, will the race be delayed, changed to a sprint (like it was a few years ago), or cancelled all together! It was looking like there would be some storms from 5-7 but then it would clear up. I had a feeling there would be a delay and had a little extra breakfast to hold me over. With bikes being in transition the night before and athletes not allowed to bring them out on race morning and also no trainers allowed in transition, I decided to bring an extra bike (unfortunately I personally don't have a road bike so I brought a mountain bike my mom had). I had planned to hop on the bike for at least 10 minutes just to get in some biking before heading over to the race. I find I race best after a good solid bike warm-up and when I don't get a bike warm-up in, I come up a little flat on the bike. I only ended up biking on it for about 5 minutes as it was raining and we were ready to head to the race.

On our way over we were checking Facebook/twitter and the weather and found out the race was delayed 45 minutes and it looked like it was clearing up and the rain was going to stay south of the race. We got parked around 5:30 and transition was now open until 7:20 so I had plenty of time and decided to wait in the car for about 10 minutes before heading over to transition. I got everything set up in transition and eventually made my way over to the other side of the lake where the swim start was. I got in the water for about 5 minutes to warm-up. The pro men and women started and then we had about 10-15 minutes before our wave started. I hopped in the water for another minute or two and lined up for the start.

Male Age Group Elite: Right before heading down to the water

Swim: 20:24 - 11th in division
The swim wasn't neither good nor bad. I new there were a couple of guys that would be out in front and that I just needed to swim as hard I could to minimize the distance between us. I found some feet early and ended up just sitting in on a couple guys. In years past I have gotten out with the lead guys only to fall off after a few hundred yards and end up leading a 2nd pack. The top few guys swam in the 18:40's so I was about 1:40 down from them and only about 20 seconds back from the next main group that trickled in. I came in 11th out of the water and made my way up to transition. 

T1: 1:37

Bike: 58:34 - 25.4 mph - 7th in division
My bike has been very strong this year so I new I needed to get to work and try and close the gap on the guys ahead of me and try and put some distance on the good runners. Coming out of the park, there were a bunch of volunteers telling us to slow down so I listened to them as I made the turn out of the park and saw 2 guys had gone down. The course was slick with the rain from a few hours earlier. I pushed hard and made my way to the 1st turn-around and could see I was in 8th place or so. I passed a couple guys and was sitting in 6th. We made our way into the windy part of the course. I made a right hand turn and felt my back tire almost skid out. From that point on, I took most of the turns pretty cautious. I'm sure I lost some time on the turns by taking them overly cautious but to me it wasn't worth going down. There was another sharp turn coming up and more volunteers telling us to slow down. As I made the turn, there was another guy down on the ground. Apparently 8 or so guys and gals, including some of the pros in front of us, had gone down on that turn. I was now in 5th place and new the 4 guys in front of me. We got out to some more open roads and I was hoping I could not worry about the turns and just focus on riding hard and close the gap on the guys in front of me. I pushed hard but just couldn't seem to close the gap on Justin, Brian, Davide, and Adam who all out rode me. I made my way into transition and knew I had some work to do to hold onto a top 5 finish. 

T2: 1:07

Heading out on the run

Run: 35:18 - 9th in Division
I came out of T2 and headed toward downtown. I could see Justin in front of me and knew that there were at least two guys behind me that could out-run me and were coming. I passed the 1st aid-station and grabbed a bottle of water, took a few sips, and poured the rest of it on me to stay cool. It wasn't that hot but I still wanted to stay cool. I kept plugging away and made my way to the 2.5 mile turnaround mark. I could see I was still in 5th place but the good runners behind me were closing in. About mile 4, I was passed by Steve Mantell, who finished 2nd at Age Group Nationals, 8 seconds behind me. I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay with him but was going to try the best I could. He passed me and I hopped right on his heals. We were definitely running faster that I was alone but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I felt smooth and relatively comfortable as we slowly made up some ground on Justin. We made it to mile 5 and I was still feeling good. We passed near the finish area which meant we had about a half mile to go, a short out and back on the bike path/road. We made it to mile 6 and I felt good and decided to make a move. I put in a big surge, passed Steve, and shortly after passed Justin. At this point I was in 4th and just needed to hold on. At one point I thought I maybe had gone too early but I made my way to the blue carpet and held on to 4th place! 

Finish: 1:56:59


From left to right: Me (4th), Brian Duffy (2nd), Adam Webber (1st), Davide Giardini (3rd), and Justin Metzler (5th)

Overall, I'm happy to finish top 5. This is no doubt one of the, if not the most competitive olympic distance age group race in the country. 

I'm currently in Seattle, WA training with visually impaired para-triathlete Aaron Sheidies for a few days. We rode yesterday for a couple hours on the tandem bike which took some getting used to. This morning we ran about 6 miles with a couple 800's on the track at race pace. I'll definitely be documenting the rest of my trip here and our trip to London for the Paratriathlon World Championships! Stay tuned for a full recap from our trip in a couple weeks! 

Thanks for reading! 


Wednesday, August 14, 2013

USA Triathlon Age Group National Champion!!

This race report is coming a few days late as I have spent the past few days doing some final studying for the Registered Dietitian exam which I just took, and can thankfully say I passed! Rewinding to a week ago, I was doing some final race preparations and getting ready for the trip up to Milwaukee, WI for the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships. When I found out this race was going to be in Milwaukee this year, I knew I wanted to be there as it would be within driving distance of Cincinnati or Chicago.

Thursday, Amanda and I headed to Chicago after she got off work to stay with my mom for the night. Friday morning came and I got in my usual pre-race bike/run workout before heading up to Milwaukee. We went straight to the race site to get in a short swim in the lake. The water felt great, nice and cold, but not too cold. I tried out my new Orca 3.8 wetsuit for the 1st time and it felt great! We went and got our race packets, went back to the car to get the bikes, and took them back over to transition before heading back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner.


Amanda and I the day before the race

We went to Carrabbas for dinner where we met up with my family. I had a good whole wheat spaghetti  dish with marinara sauce that had some spinach, mushrooms, and artichokes in it too. This capped off my usual 3 day carbohydrate load which I have found to be quite successful over the past few years. Back at the hotel, we got things together for the race, went down to the pool hotel to watch my almost 4 year old niece play in the water, and called it a night shortly thereafter.

Race morning rolled around with a wake-up call around 5:15 am. The first wave was going off at 7:30 but my wave wasn't scheduled to go off until 9:08 am. This meant we had plenty of time before the race but also meant that I needed to adjust my usual nutrition plan as I wouldn't be getting done until after 11. So I had my usual banana, then had a Oatmeal Raisin Harvest PowerBar during the car ride over to the race site. The harvest bars have about 5 grams of fiber in them which was just enough to hold me over for the morning. We found a good place to park not too far away from the transition area and headed over. With the bikes being checked in the night before and not being allowed to be brought out for a morning warm-up before the race, I deeded for the first time, to bring a trainer into transition with me. There's something about getting in a bike warm-up that just seems to help me have a better race, especially when it comes to Olympics (and sprints) where you're going hard right from the get-go. Tommy and I set up the trainer at the end of our rack. He hopped on for 10 minutes and then I got on for 10 minutes, riding mostly easy with a couple short pickups. Transition closed at 7:30, we walked back to the car to put the trainer and a few other odds and ends back in the car, and I grabbed my coffee that I hadn't had a chance to drink before. The race was delayed about 15 minutes which pushed my start time back to about 9:23. Amanda, Tommy, and I found a place to sit in the shade for a while and I drank my coffee and had my usual Cookies N Creme PowerBar.

45 minutes before the start of the race, I went for a short 5 minute run warm-up with Tommy just to get the legs loosened back up after sitting for a while. We checked our bags and got our wetsuits on and headed over to the start area. I ate a pack of PowerBar Cola gel blasts just to get a little something else in during the hour before the start. They sent us down the ramp which meant we had about 10 minutes or so before the start. We were able to get in the water for a short swim warm-up. The time had come and it was ready to race!

My plan going in was to give it everything I had and not leave anything on the course (seems like an obvious strategy, I know). But, with the format of starting with your age group versus going head-to-head with the other age-group elites like most other races I do, you have no idea where you are amongst the other racers so all you can do is go hard and leave it all on the course.

Swim: 19:49 - 67th Overall
The swim went pretty well. I had pretty clean water right out of the start but saw a couple guys from the right and left getting out ahead. I didn't worry about that too much and stayed close to a couple guys most of the way. There was a slight head current coming back but nothing too bad. Overall the swim was pretty uneventful. I exited up the steep ramp and made my way to T1.

T1: 1:46 

Bike: 55:13 - 1st Overall - 27 mph
My bike has been strong lately and I knew that's where I needed to really get to work and go for it. Right out of transition I started riding hard and quickly found a nice rhythm. I made my way up the first little hill and enjoyed the fast descent back down. The bike course was pretty well spread out and only a few times were there ever a group of people near each other. I continued riding strong, going through my aero bottle of Powerbar Perform relatively quickly and glad I had another half bottle on my frame that I ended up going through before the end of the bike. I came down the bridge and got ready to head into T2.

T2: 0:55 - coming up on my bike rack, there was only 1 other bike on my rack so it looked like I was sitting in 2nd place in my age division as I started the run.

Run: 35:09 - 19th Overall - 5:39/mi
I felt pretty good at the start of the run but wasn't sure how I would respond after the bike split. I started getting a slight cramp in my medial quad and decided to take a PowerBar gel before getting to the first aid station, a little before 1 mile into the run. This is something that I have incorporated into my racing this year that seems to really be helping. The run course was gorgeous, right along the lake for the first 1.5 miles before heading up to the main road, which was still right along the water. I found a nice rhythm and kept plugging away. I finally made my way to the final turnaround which was right around mile 4 and knew it was a straight shot all the way in. I wasn't sure if I had passed the guy in my age group or not until I came up on a guy and saw his race number around mile 4.5. At that point, I was pretty sure I was sitting 1st in my age group and started picking up the pace. I hit the 5 mile mark and just told myself to get to the last aid station, and then mile 6 and at that point I was still feeling good and through in another surge. I could finally see the finish and pickup up the pace even more to finish strong.


Finishing Strong! 

Finish: 1:52:54 - 1st Overall! 


All smiles after the race!

When I crossed the line, it appeared I had the fastest time thus far but there were still the 30-34's and 20-24's (along with the 17-19's) that started behind me. There wasn't anything that I could do about them though and I had raced hard and just had to wait and see what happened with them. I talked with my family and Tommy after he finished, and went and cheered on Amanda as she finished to a new PR! The guys that finished 2nd and 3rd OA came from the 20-24 and 17-19 age groups and were just seconds behind me (8 sec and 14 sec, respectively), they both have bright futures ahead of them!

Me and my family after the race!

We went back to the hotel, showered, and relaxed for a bit before heading to the awards ceremony.


1st place overall! 
Thanks Compex, Rudy Project, JayBird, and Body Glide for the SWAG!

After the awards, Amanda and I headed back to Chicago and decided to get a Lou Malnatis Deep Dish Pizza for a post race celebration! 

Thank you so much to my family for being there to support me, to my coach Alex McDonald with Fast Forward Triathlon for helping me get prepared for this season and this race, my individual sponsors PowerBar for keeping me properly fueled all season long during training and on the race course and Brooks for the great running shoes and gear, as well as FFT sponsors Computrainer, Rudy Project, and TrainingPeaks. Also thanks to Bob Duncan's Go Fast Multisport for getting my bike ready to go for the race! Thanks USA Triathlon for putting on a spectacular event. The race course was perfect and the race venue was very well set-up and organized. I would definitely recommend this race to anyone for next year! 

I'm letting my body recover for a few days this week before picking things back up for a week or so before tapering back down for the Hy-Vee Triathlon over Labor Day weekend in Des Moines. It will no doubt be another great test and I'm already looking forward to it! And after that, I'm excited to announce I will be guiding visually impaired triathlete Aaron Scheidies at the Paratriathlon World Championships being held in London in conjunction with the age-group and elite world championships being held there. 

It was great seeing so many of you this past weekend at Age Group Nationals!

Thanks for reading!

Colin Riley, MS, RD (only because I can officially use it effective today!) 


Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Evergreen Lake Triathlon Race Report

This past Saturday I raced in the Evergreen Lake Triathlon near Bloomington, IL. I decided to do this race last minute (registered on Wednesday night!) after talking with my coach, Alex McDonald. This race is always really competitive for being a relatively small race in the middle of Illinois usually drawing a handful of pros and top age groupers. The race does have a nice $3500 prize purse to the top 3 males and females which makes for an exciting race. I have done this race multiple times before with my best finish coming in 2011 (5th place overall). After a great race at Leon's Triathlon, I felt confident going in and thought I at least had a chance at the podium.

I left Cincinnati Friday after doing my usual swim, bike, run pre-race workout and made it to the race site in good time. I picked up my packet, called Olive Garden to place a to-go order, picked up my order, ran into the grocery store to grab some bananas and a few other snacks for the night, and headed to the hotel. The rest of the night I relaxed and waited for my mom and George to get to the hotel so I could get to bed. It's always nice having my family at races to cheer me on.

Race morning rolled around, I had my typical Banana, Cookies 'n Creme PowerBar, and a cup of coffee and headed to the race site. I got set up in transition, took the bike out for a nice 15 minute warm-up with a few pickups to race pace and made sure everything was good to go in transition. There was apparently a swim warm-up that I missed while out doing my bike warm-up so I did a few arm swings to try and get loose. It was a non-wetsuit swim so I had on my Xterra Speed Suit that I got a few years back.

Just before the start of the swim

Swim: 21:21 - 5th OA
Pros Brian Rhodes, Brooks Cowan, and Thomas Gerlach were racing as well as Adam Zucco and Fast Forward Triathlon teammate Mike Pelechaty. I knew Rhodes, Brooks, and Mike were all good swimmers and Adam and Thomas had similar swim abilities. We were all lined up and took off at the start. I was behind Adam and Thomas initially before making a move to try and swim with the other 3 guys. Unfortunately, they got out too quick and I wasn't able to close the gap and hold on to their feet. This is something that has happened multiple times before. If I can just get my top end speed a little quicker and be able to hold on with these top swimmers, I would be in an even better position coming out of the water! I'm definitely making progress though as I didn't lose too much ground on them compared to previous years. About 1/4th of the way through the swim, I got passed by collegiate champ Michelle Mehnert so I tried hopping on her feet only to get dropper after a few strokes. I held my position the rest of the way and came out of the water in 5th overall (4th male). 

Coming out of the water, headed to T1

T1: 0:52 - Pretty quick transition, had to get my speedsuit off which cost a few seconds but definitely worth wearing it! 

In T1 getting the helmet on

Bike: 55:31 - 1st OA
I knew I was going to need to bike hard to try and close the gap from the swim and maybe even get some time going into the run. I passed Mike and Michelle pretty quickly, and closed in on Thomas. I passed him and could see the other 2 out in the distance. I stayed calm, rode hard, and slowly closed in on them over the course of the next 5-10 miles. I eventually passed Brooks and then Rhodes. Thomas was close behind me and he, Rhodes, and myself went back and forth a few times over the final 5-10 miles and came into T2 all together. Thomas got out of T1 ahead of me so I out split him on the bike by 2 seconds to claim the fastest bike split. 

T2: 0:39 - Quick transition and ready to pop out of T2 in 1st until I dropped my gel and decided to turn around and grab it. 

Run: 35:26 - 3rd OA
I came out of T2 right behind Rhodes and Gerlach and quickly passed both of them. I knew I needed to get going as Brooks and another competitor, Justin Roeder, could likely out run me. I felt good early on and tried to stay relaxed while keeping up a good solid pace. I grabbed a cup of water going through the 1st aid station took a small sip and poured the rest of me. It wasn't overly hot out but it was sunny and beginning to warm up so I knew keeping the water on me would help me stay cool. I took my gel shortly after that, around 1.5 miles in, and shortly after got passed by Brooks. I tried to stay with him but he opened up a nice lead over me. The course features 2 out and backs so you are able to see where you are and where the other guys behind you are. I made the first turn of the 1st out and back and could see Gerlach not too far behind me along with Rhodes, Roeder, and Zucco. It's always hard to tell how much time you have on them and how hard those guys behind you are running. I knew I needed to keep running hard to hold off the attack behind me. I trucked along and started feeling some fatigue around mile 5. I knew I was close so I just kept up the pace, getting water at the aid stations and pouring it on me to keep cool. I was starting to close in on Brooks a little bit but I think he was starting to let up as he had another race the next day and knew he had it wrapped up. I held onto 2nd place and a very solid performance. 

Nearing the finish! 

Finish: 1:53:51 - 2nd OA

Right after the race

Adam Zucco and I chatting after the race

FFT Teammate Mike Pelechaty and Me after the race

Top 3: Thomas Gerlach (3rd), Brooks Cowan (1st), and Myself (2nd)

I've got about 3.5 weeks until USAT age-group nationals which means about 2.5 weeks of good solid training before tapering down the week of the race. I haven't raced nationals for a few years so I'm definitely looking forward to it. 

Thanks for reading and happy training! 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Best of the US Championship/Leon's Triathlon

This past Sunday, June 2nd, I competed in the Best of the US Amateur Championship race which was held in conjunction with Leon's Triathlon in Hammond, IN. I have raced in the Best of the US Championship race three times before, finishing 9th in 2008, 8th in 2009, and 3rd in 2011. I hadn't raced Leon's Triathlon before though so I was excited to race what is dubbed the "Worlds Fastest Triathlon". I was also excited to race coming off of the American Triple-T and not having any other races planned until August.

With the race being in Hammond, IN (right next to Chicago), I was able to stay with my mom. Race morning rolled around and I headed to the race with my mom and sister. The drive into Chicago isn't all that bad on a Sunday morning at 6 am when there isn't any traffic. I had my usual banana and Cookie Dough PowerBar along with about 10 oz of coffee on the drive to the race. We got to the race site in good time and I decided to hop on the bike for a quick warm-up before taking the bike into transition. The forecast called for temps in the low 60's with dropping temps into the 50's. While I was warming up and setting up transition, the temperature was cool but not too bad (low-mid 60's). I ate a few PowerBar Cola Gel Blasts and sipped on some PowerBar Perform drink while setting things up in transition. Shortly after exiting transition, there was a big gust of wind and with it came much colder air, and the temperature had to have dropped 5 degrees almost instantly!

Pre-race photo, right before the temps dropped! 
Sporting the new FFT 2XU Distance Tri-Suit

I headed over to the stage where they were having an opening ceremony with the National Anthem and  a few other things. We headed over to the start of the swim and were able to hop in the water for a short swim warm-up. The swim wave included all of the Best of the US athletes along with all of the Leon's Amateur All-Stars which made for a pretty big swim wave and what would be some competitive head-to-head racing! Luckily we had quite a bit of room for the in-water start so it wasn't too chaotic. 

The gun went off and a few guys got out pretty fast and I wasn't able to hang with them. I ended up leading one of two groups. The water was a little choppy, but I felt good. I came out of the water in 6th or so, which was about what I expected. Toward the end of the swim, I could feel my feet were pretty cold and going a little numb. But that didn't stop me from a quick transition as I exited the water, made my way to T1, and grabbed my bike. 

I passed a few guys pretty quickly and then a few miles in, made my way to 2nd place. Adam Zucco was in 1st place at this point and I knew he was strong on the bike. I tried to keep him in sight and not let him get too far ahead of me. I continued to ride strong throughout the 2 lap bike course. It was a little chilly on the bike but really not too bad. The wind was pretty strong though and at times I would get blown side-to-side. With a few miles to go, I got passed by Matt Payne, who had previously won the Best of the US race in 2011 when I took 3rd. I knew he could bike and run strong so I just tried to stay near him the final couple miles. I entered T2 just behind him. 


Coming in off the bike, headed into T2 - in 3rd place

We came out of T2 together and made the move on Adam who was just a little ahead of us. I sat on Matt for a few strides, I felt good, and decided to make the pass and go for it. I came up on Adam and took the lead of the race. At this point, I was feeling great, but knew there were a handful of guys behind me that could run me down. My medial quads started to cramp a little bit before the 1st mile so when I got to the mile mark and there wasn't an aid station, I decided to take a PowerBar Orange Dreamsicle gel. I washed it down with some water when I got to the first aid station about a half mile later. I was feeling good and kept up the good pace to the turn-around. I made the turn and saw Matt, Adam, and Dan Stubleski all not too far behind. I picked up the effort slightly as I knew they were all trying to run me down. I made it to mile 5 still in the lead and still feeling pretty good. I wasn't really sure how far back the other guys were so I picked up the pace a little more. I made it to the final turn before heading into the park and through in another final surge to finish strong.


Right before the finish - Brooks T7 on the run!

Swim: 18:31 - 10th OA
T1: 1:20
Bike: 57:48 - 4th OA
T2: 0:57
Run: 33:27 - 2nd OA

Finish: 1:52:05 - 1st OA


Breaking the tape at the finish! 


Overall, it was probably the best race I've ever had! I handled the cold and wind to ride strong and run even stronger. Thanks to my coach Alex McDonald with Fast Forward Triathlon! It's great to see all of the hard work I've been putting in over the past several months (and years) come together at this race. Congrats to Matt Payne, Dan Stubleski, Adam Zucco, Mark Harms, and the other guys that were out there racing! 

A few articles from the race:




There is also going to be a televised broadcast on Comcast Sports Net over the 4th of July weekend. I was interviewed before the race and they were filming the entire race. Should be fun to watch!

The next race I have planned is USA Triathlon Age-group Nationals August 10th in Milwaukee, WI. I may try to hop in a race before then but I'm not 100% sure yet. 

American Triple-T Ohio Race Report

The American Triple-T Ohio is a very unique triathlon experience. The "race" consists of 4 triathlons over 3 days. There is an option to race as a 2 person team, which I did, with Jared Milam.

Race 1: Super Sprint Triathlon - Friday Evening
The first race is a very short 250m swim, 6k bike, 1 mile run. It's a fun little race to kick off the weekend. I like to push the pace a little but not get carried away as there is a lot of racing the rest of the weekend. The splits for all of the races didn't get recorded unfortunately as their was a malfunction with the timing system. This is supposed to be fixed for next year.

Finish: 21:00 - 2nd OA

Race 2: Olympic Triathlon #1 - Saturday morning
The 2nd race is an Olympic distance triathlon with a slightly longer run (6.55 miles verses 6.2 miles). The race features a 2 lap swim, a tough bike course with the famous and dreaded Thompson Hill, and the same challenging rolling hill, rocky, trail course that we run all weekend long.

Finish: 2:08:03 - 3rd OA

Race 3: Olympic Triathlon #2 - Saturday afternoon (about 5 hours after finishing the first Olympic)
This race is unique in that the order is switched up from the traditional swim/bike/run and instead is bike/swim/run. This is the first race where if your doing it as a team, you get to draft on the bike together and have to finish together too.

Finish: 2:13:33 - 1st OA with teammate Jared



Race 4: Half Ironman - Sunday Morning
This is a challenging half ironman course with many hills and 2 loops on the tough run course from Saturday. Jared and I had a pretty good lead going into the male team competition, but anything can happen. I ended up getting a flat somewhere on the 2nd loop. Luckily, it wasn't an entire tire blow-out like I have had happen twice before during this same half-ironman race. I was able to fix it in about 5 or 10 minutes. I had a new Co2 adapter that I had never used before and didn't know how it released the Co2 into the tube. That cost me a few minutes until I finally figured it out (lesson learned).

Finish: 5:04:19 - 11th OA with teammate Jared



We held on for 1st place team, despite the flat on the bike. A great weekend of racing/training. If you are looking for a challenge or just a great weekend of training, I highly recommend the American Triple-T Ohio! Thanks Shannon Kurek and HFP for putting on a great event! Thanks to Bob Duncan for the quick break fix prior to the race and Tom Swallow and Swallow Bike Works for the quick tune-up right before the race!

St. Anthony's Triathlon Race Recap

It's a little late but I wanted to write a brief recap about my first 2 races of the season. After finishing my dietetic internship from Western Kentucky University on Friday April 26th, Amanda and I began the drive down to Florida. We stopped in Atlanta Friday night and stayed with my Aunt Kim. Saturday morning we got up early and met Lauren for some coffee and a local Starbucks before getting back on the road for Florida.

We went right to the race venue, picked up our packets, got in a quick swim, bike, run workout, and headed to our friend John's house who let us stay with him for the weekend. Race morning rolled around, we headed to the race site, and got set up in transition. Bikes had to be in transition the night before which makes for an easy race morning, however, I also prefer getting a bike warm-up in when possible. There's something about spinning the legs on the bike before the race starts that seems to help me have a better race. No bike warm-up though, so I got in an easy 10 min run with some light pick-ups. I headed over to the swim start, got in a short swim warm-up and was ready to go. The pros went off and we were getting ready to start when the race director came up to us and said the swim was going to be shortened. I wasn't totally surprised as it had been really windy all morning and some of the waves were pretty big out in the bay. So the swim was shortened to a 750m swim or so with a long run over to T1 (this is also what happened 2 years ago when I raced St. Anthony's). The swim went well and I came out in probably 5th or 6th. I passed a few guys early in the bike and was able to see that I was sitting in 3rd behind Adam Webber and Jake Ryner, 2 guys I have raced before. A handful of guys came up behind me on the bike around half way through. I came into T2 in 5th and was hoping I could put together a good run. Unfortunately, the run didn't go so well and I came up pretty flat coming off the bike. I got passed by a few guys out of T2 and then a few more along the way. Around mile 2 or 2.5, things started feeling a little better and I thought I was going to be able to close in the handful of guys that were not too far ahead of me. I felt good for about a mile before I things started to unfold again. At that point I was sitting in 10th place or so. I did what I could over the final 2 miles and came across the line, happy to be done. (no pics from the race)

Swim: 9:59 (~750m)
T1: 3:16 (long run to T1 included)
Bike: 58:57
T2: 0:52
Run: 37:30
Finish: 1:50:32 - 11th OA Elite Amateur

This was not where I wanted to be and thought going in I should have been right near the top 3. It was good to get one race under the belt though and move forward on to the rest of the season. 

After the race, Amanda and I got some Starbucks iced coffees and went and walked along the beach and then went to Crabby Bills (Amanda's go to restaurant in St. Pete from when she lived there) for dinner!


American Triple-T Ohio and Leon's Triathlon Race reports to follow soon!