Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end

And so ends my summer. It is hard to believe that it is already time to go back to school. Ive got to say, the entire summer I feel like Ive spent a good deal of time complaining about how Ive missed school and such, but now that the school year approaches, I have to admit I am a tad nostalgic for the area of which i am from. Even harder to believe is that this is my last year at the College of William and Mary (assuming I pass haha).
Haven't written for a while. I guess I missed the Page County race report big time. It was fun though, nothing like racing through some good ol' hills for 3 hours, it definitely plays to my aerobic advantage. I won't bother writing the details of the race, however I feel it is somewhat noteworthy that before the start of the last 11 mile lap some dudes spokes sliced the top and major buckle on my shoes, making the last lap a tad more difficult. Kind of sucks that my 300 dollar Mavics are probably ruined now, but thats bike racing I guess...better than my bike or my wheels. So ended my 2010 cycling season. Id like to pronounce it a success. I got my Cat 3 upgrade, and proved to MABRA that the guy riding more or less unattached can indeed hammer out some decent finishes in Cat 3 races. Im definitely excited next year to race with Team Bike Doctor though, it will be fun to have some teamates.
The reason i didnt write a report for Page County was because the following week the family and i took our yearly vacation to Lake Anna. It was fun times. Found a good 40 mile loop to ride that encircled the lake, and got in one open water swim in water that nearly cooked me (this stuff was 96 degrees and getting out of the water I promptly hammered 3 bottles) thanks to my mom for kayaking along side me so that I did not end up in some boats engine. The hardest workout of all however was probably going fishing out on the boat with my two cousins, Collin and Stephanie, ages 10 and 7. Unfortunately the stupid fish would not stop biting, which meant constant unhooking, worming, untangling and so on. Largest catch of the day ME.
Got an email today from Team USA about DuWorlds. Im not going to lie, although Im looking forward to the race and being over there, i am undoubtedly more nervous about this race than i have ever been about any. I know that I have been putting in the hours of training, but the whole concept kinda gets me a little worked up. Oh well, I do what I can I guess right? Special thanks to Mark, my moms bf, for sitting at Burke Lake the other day to act as a transition area for my bike and my shoes as i did a mini Du. The legs felt great, got a loop around the 4.7ish mile lake in 2720, then hammered out an hour on the bike and did another 2.2ish mile run in 12 minutes. The money is in the bank, now to play the waiting game for September 4th. Anyway, Saturday I leave for the Burg. Definitely excited, as SemiSonic says "every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end."

Culpeper Sprint Tri

This weekend was my second time racing the Culpeper Sprint Triathlon. That officially means that I have been racing triathlon/multisport for over a year! The weeks leading up to the race I really focused on my swimming. I mentioned briefly last week that I was now training under Debi Bernardes, owner of Ucandoit multisport coaching out of Fredericksburg. Debi has been great thus far, she has got me doing things that I wasn't doing on my own, such as speed work and things to work my anaerobic system in addition to getting me in the water 3-4x a week. The water part made a huge difference. Last year I swam a high 13, this year I swam 3 minutes faster! First 1/3 of the race, monster success.

T1 went alright, the insole in my shoe came up and clumped under my foot, which sucked, but in the first mile of the bike I passed probably about 10+ other cyclists. I love swimmers, especially when they cant ride bikes. It brings me great joy to go by these fish as they are weirded out by the fact that they can breath whenever they want while exercising. Unfortunately for them, I am now joining their breed by trying to grow a pair of my own gills, 2 points for me!

The bike portion went well, the course was hilly. I passed the 15 mile mark at 37 minutes, somehow the next mile took me 7 minutes? Im not really sure about the distance. I did have the 6th fastest bike there, which pleased me. I want a TT bike, I also want about $20k of other bike stuff, a big house in Colorado, and a beautiful wife, I guess lifes just rough sometimes. That said, I love my Zipps, they are fantastic, its also fantastic to fly by people while they have to listen to the beatiful noise of my carbon wheels, poor bastards =)

T2 went about as well as T1. I didnt wear socks and could barely get my left shoe around my heal. Some fish that I gained time on in the bike beat me out of the transition. Unfortunately he could run pretty fast and gained even more time on me in the run. Luckily he caught 2 other people in the run and I caught them too.

I finished the race in 4th. My goal was top 3, but its hard to set goals like that before you know the competion. Props to the dude who won by beating Robbies time last year by 3 minutes. Not to mention hes only 19, I cant wait to see where he is in 4 years, and hopefully Im not up against him. Also props to my buddy Ben for a great race finishing in second, and Nate Martins for finishing his first tri, 2nd in our age group and 28th overall!

After the race Nate and I went to Skyline for some camping and relaxing. We enjoyed some delicious beverages while relaxing in the wilderness. We feasted and zonked out pretty early. Monday morning we woke up early for a beatiful foggy and cool run on the Appalachian trail. Nate was able to show off his Army ranger skills by avoiding the slippery rocks and warning me to be careful every time Id nearly roll an ankle or slip on a rock. After we came back to the campsite where we ate some delicious smores oatmeal and packed up the campsite. All in all a great weekend with some great people. Thanks for reading!

Easiest 5k ever.

The past few days have been about the hottest temperatures I have ever dealt with. Saturday, as I discussed last week was supposed to be the big day. I was all set to run my PR for a 5k. The week started out hard, and got easier 2 days before the race. Thursday I rode at Wakefield and it was the first time all year that I was not constantly attacking every time my heart rate dropped to a point where I felt like I could put a good hurting on my compatriots. Friday i did an easy ride and a short run and Saturday I felt good. The weather however, did not.

Sometime on Friday the weather decided to politely give me and my PR chances the finger and that was all she wrote. Saturday when I woke up at 8am after closing the deli the night before the temperature was already in the upper 80's, this is bad. It got worse when the family, including my little sister Lauren, went to DC and the walk between the air and space museum and the museum of natural history felt like I had bonked at the end of a half marathon. The heat was the kind that got inside of you and zaps you of all energy. Upon arriving back at my house i called my coach Debbie B. of Youcandoit out of Fredericksburg and we decided that a swim this afternoon was a better idea than killing myself in the brutal heat. The swim was my 3rd swim of the week, a feat I havent accomplished since school at sWiM club, when I got injured and couldnt run for 2 weeks. The swim went well and then after Nate, Charlie, and I (2 of my friends at USNA, and USMA) went to see Inception in an air conditioned theater, that beats a 5k any day!

Next week up is Culpeper Sprint Tri. This was my second ever tri last year. Im definitely stoked and looking to put together a much better overall performance in all 3 components than I did last year. The fact that i dont have to worry about an untied shoe lace 1 minute into the run should help! ;) Thanks for reading!

Keeping the eye on the prize

Less than a month and a half left until Duathlon Worlds. Got my jersey this week. Sweet jesus it is sick. Excited? God Yes. Ready for it to be over? Also yes. I owe a HUGE thanks to my family and friends for giving me so much support with this. My grandparents for helping my mom and I with travel expenses and my friends for training with me and giving me travel advice, and also listen to me bitch and complain on the days when I have to do my second or sometimes even my first workout of the day and I dont want to do it. I guess training goes through ups and downs though, very much like a roller coaster. There are days when you want to go out and kill it, and more power to you on these days. There are also days when you feel like your body is going to kill you, and these are the days that test our will. I certainly have had my fair share of both over the past few months.

Races are good not only to serve as tune-ups and gages to see "where you are at" but they also make things fresh and interesting and give you short term goals if your goal race is possibly a while down the road. This weekend I raced at Giro Di Coppi, a 3/4 bike race in Maryland. It was HOT and the course way HILLY. Fortunately, both of these are great news for me. Being smaller helps me stay cool and climb hills, this was my kind of race. The roads were also narrow and the on and off pace of the field gave many of the riders an uneasy feeling and was the result of alot of nerves among the riders. By the last lap the heat and climbing had taken its toll on many of the riders and the field had been reduced to less than half.

The sprint was an uphill finish, another positive for me. Unfortunately, I managed to get stuck behind and Evo rider whom the uphill finish did not benefit. Seeing riders go by me I wiggled my way past him on the outside and gunned it for the line. I got two riders right before the line and finished in 7th, my first top 10 finish in a Cat 3 race. Solid finish? Yes. Satisfied? Not really. Thats bike racing though. You've got to pick a wheel or be at the front, and pick the wrong wheel and your hosed. Such is life, live and learn. Overall result of the day, a good 50+ miles of riding with alot of climbing and some points towards my Cat 2, Ill take that.

Thats enough for tonight, work has drained me. Next weekend is the Crystal City Twilight 5k in Arlington. Should be a fun race. Big names, fast times, post race beer...enough said. My goal? Hell yes I have one, that said though... HELL NO, im not telling, don't want to jinx it. As always, thanks for reading.

Mid week ramblings

So I normally struggle to keep this thing updated even one time a week but I have the time this week so why not go wild?

Anyway, Le Tour certainly has been interesting thus far. Although I admit to being a tad disappointed with the disappearance of Lance so early on, I do think that it has in fact made the Tour more interesting in general. Instead of hearing people constantly talking about how Lance did today and how far back Lance is we get to hear about the younger cyclists, who may not have won seven Tours, but they most certainly are exciting to watch.

For example, watching Cav and Renshaw work together in a sprint is absolutely incredible. Today in Stage 11, Renshaw was HEADBUTTING and slamming into the guy next to him at speeds near 40mph with 400m to go in order to give Cav the leadout he knew would lead him to his 13th victory in Le Tour! I was amused as soon as Renshaw pulled off the announcers gave Cav the victory well before he even crossed the line. The dude is a freak of nature and the Columbia HTC leadout train certainly is one of the strongest the sport has ever seen! As for the competition for the maillot de jaune, Im definitely happy with it resting on Schlek's shoulders for now. I would love nothing more than to see him take it from Contador and Astana. Schlek certainly is lucky to have riders like Voigt and Cancellara on his team. After Stage 9 in the mountains and Voigt's incredible effort to propel Contador and Schlek up the mountain to catch the break I would seriously not be surprised if Voigt would sacrifice his life for Schlek, what a beast!

As for my training this week it has been pretty good. The effects of the Colonial Tri, definitely affected me on Monday and Tuesday a little bit, but now I feel in general pretty recovered from the effort. Heres what the week has looked like for me thus far:

Monday- Easy 20 mile recovery spin to flush out the legs from the Colonial Tri on Sunday
Tuesday- 2 loops around Burke Lake (Both around 29). 9.5 miles
Wakefield bike ride- lots of guys up in the A group, felt strong and was able to throw in a few good surges, including a hard effort that dropped all but 3 of us (Dockins, myself, and some rider from WWVC)In total approx 30 miles
Wednesday- Hard ride in Clifton with Dockins 2 hours 15 min for 47 miles
Thursday- 3150m swim in the morning (Main set 100,200,300,400,1 min rest, 400,300,200,100) 10 sec rest between intervals
Burke Lake Loop at tempo effort, ran 2830, was deadly hot (upper 90s) approx 6 min pace

Racing at Giro di Coppi 3/4 this weekend. Should be fun race, lots of up and down which could definitely benefit me! Finally get to race against ex-Tribe cycling team member Owen Hassig! Thanks for reading and hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

Fuck ya.

I love to race, and thankfully, this summer has been full of alot of it. There have been a few weekends where I have raced multiple weekends in a row. I have traveled to places like Atlanta, northern Maryland, and all around the state of Virginia to test my Running and Biking fitness against other athletes. Last weekend, the weekend of the 4th of July, I decided that it was time for a rest weekend. It certainly was nice to not have to worry about any long car rides or race fees, although i did have to buy a new tubular due to the puncture that mine unfortunately got while racing the Mens 3/4 Criterium at Reston Town Center 2 weeks ago. Last weekend was definitely awesome. After a morning of training in Clifton and Burke I went to the zoo with Natasha and Kyle and then feasted some dankkkk Lebanese food before the fireworks. Sunday I worked a little before going for the hottest 60 mile ride of my life at 1pm, during which I drank 8 water bottles and then polished off 2 more upon my arrival home.

After this weekend my father and I traveled to Chicago where my dad went to school at Northwestern. We had a blast going to a White Sox game (Go SOX!) and feasting deep dish pizza. The morning was filled with hour long runs along the 18mile trail on Lakeshore Drive. I would just like to say that the people of Chicago are fuckin awesome. During these hour long runs I saw more bikes than you would see in D.C. in an ENTIRE DAY! People ranged from commuters with leg warmers to guys pacelining in SRAM jerseys with shaved legs and skin pulled tight across their cheekbones, a result of many hours of training as they got their morning training session in, i say morning because Im pretty sure there would be more punishment as the day aged for these men. The runners were in full force as well. After taking an off day Monday, Tues and Wed morning I was out the door at around 7 for my hour of running before the tour came on at 8:30. One thing that I definitely noticed was that I sure was not running around Burke Lake anymore, this flat fast boardwalk trail definitely was conducive for some FAST running. Both my runs totaled approximately 10 miles in the hour I was running at my normal distance run pace, which is only approx 6:20 pace back here! After runs, my dad and I would hit the city and be sure to be in the Bars to have a few brews and watch the World cup games. Thanks pops, this sure was a great break!

Upon returning from our Chicago fantasy-land of running and drinking beer and watching soccer I made my way out to the Wakefield ride on Thursday. It was good times except alot of the riders only rode half of the ride due to the heat and the many races this weekend. It felt good to be back on the bike though.

Yesterday was the Colonial Triathlon in Colonial Beach VA, my second Olympic Tri of the summer and a good tune up race for DuWorlds, working on transitions and bike/run. I knew that I was in good shape going into it but I was not prepared at all for what happened. The race was a water start and being me, I tend to like to joke about my lousy swimming with the other racers before the start of the race. It tends to loosen up the mood and nerves of the racers and makes us feel better so I frequently joke about the ridiculousness that we paid to put ourselves through this pain, it was 100% voluntary! The swim was two loops and amazingly after the first loop i was in 4th, my jaw dropped and as I ran across the beach for the second loop I think I muttered something like "Oh my god." This was not me, I was in 4th place in the sWiM, UN-FUCKIN REAL!

After the second loop I was still in the same place, and passed one of my competitors in T1. On the bike I was breathing hard but feeling good. I could tell I was flying. Before the turn around I caught another guy and went by him easily. I love catching people with the Zipps because I know how bad it sucks when someone blows by me with theirs, poor mother fuckers. The guy in first was 2min up at the turn around and 50 sec at T2. I noticed I was gaining on him on the run and caught him and picked up the pace as I did at a little past the 1.5 mark. I was leading the race and gaining on the second place man. I tried not to let the fact that I was likely about to WIN creep in my head to much on the run, trying to stay focused on the next 5 miles at hand. My splits were all around 5:45, until my last 2 miles were I dropped 10 seconds a mile. As i crossed the line in 2:04, 3 minutes ahead of the second place guy I did the Contador gun shot into the air, i decided a 2 finger Mark Cavendish salute, was NOT the best of victory celebrations. God it felt good, my legs still ache, and they did all last night, but with the help of my good friend beer I was able to ease the pain and get to sleep.

Congrats to Chuck Feerick for finishing 2nd in his age group (20-24), and Emily Anthony for winning the Womens Aqua/velo race. As always, thanks for reading!

This weeks goal, make sure I keep getting to the pool, and as always, eat alot of ice cream =)

To infinity and beyond!

Training certainly has had its ups and downs the past few weeks. I feel like this happens to all of us. One day I'll be blasting a workout, whether it be running 6 minute miles at what feels leisurely or riding away from riders at the Wakefield Tues/Thurs ride, and yet the next day a feeling of total lethargy sweeps across my body. Last Wednesday i went for a run at Burke Lake at approx. 8 in the morning. After my first loop of the lake (approx 4.65 miles) in 29 minutes I rolled my ankle. Stopping for about a minute to shake it out I was able to resume my run with little pain. About halfway through my second loop my legs began getting heavy and I began to notice my pace slowing. My half mile splits slowly increased from 3 minutes on the first lap all the way up to 3:20's after a few of these I stopped watching the splits, intent on making it back to the car and drinking the equivalent to the entire lake in water. Less than a half mile from the end I had to stop running to splash water on my face. My body was dehydrated and my legs were dead from the weeks previous training.

After a couple of days off and a solid race for me at the Reston Town Center GP 3/4 race on Sunday in which I finished 15th I decided it was time for a rematch. Monday morning I woke up to find it hot and muggy as hell but I was intent on breaking the lake. I ventured out to the lake in the 80+ degree morning and ran 2 loops in 58 minutes, learning from the previous week, I stashed a water bottle to snag on my second loop. Its amazing how much of a difference a few days off and proper hydration can make. This summer I have definitely increased the duration and intensity of my training, but I am learning to do it in an intelligent manner. I have begun to realize when my body needs an easier day and when it needs say, a day off from running, or a day of swimming to stretch things out. Listening to our bodies certainly can be frustrating at times, and is not ALWAYS the right thing to do, but more often than not, its right.

Training for tri's for almost a year know I have made some gains in every discipline of my training. My swimming has made the biggest improvements, and I no longer look like a fish out of water in the pool. Amazingly, running less and biking and swimming more have made me a stronger runner as well. I am most proud however of the gains that I have made in my biking. A year ago I would get shelled by the A riders at Wakefield 15 minutes in. Now I can ride off of the front of this group and am one of the stronger riders at this ride. Some people ask me what my goals are, do I plan on doing an ironman or what? To be honest I dont really know what to tell them. I guess constant improvement is the goal. I want to be the best i can, to infinity and beyond! I find people who are better than me and make it my goal to be able to stay with them. Next year at the Wakefield ride there is one rider who goes off the front every ride. It may or may not be my goal to stay with him, I'd venture to say it is. It reminds me of this great DMB song:


Anyway, its been a solid week of training and Im looking forward to my next triathlon, that is the Colonial Beach Tri, July 11th. I will be going to Chicago with my dad Monday the 5th and getting back the 8th, so that will mean some good running for me. It is important I be cautious though and not put in to many mile so that I do not tire myself or injure myself for the race next Sunday. It sure is great to run along the river in Chicago though! Heres how my training has looks thus far this week:
Monday- 9.3ish mi run, 2 burke lake loops in 58 minutes
Tuesday- 10 mi run in the a.m.
Wakefield ride at night for 30 mi on the bike
Wednesday- 2.5 hour, approx. 50 mile ride in Clifton, my legs felt terrible but i didn't kill it.
Thursday- 3300 swim in the a.m. set of 2 10x100's first set on 140, second on 135
Wakefield ride at night for 30 HARD mi chasing after Harymarkets Bryan Vaughn, ironic that Vaughn and gone rhyme? i think not.
Friday- Easy day, 4 mile shake out run to prepare for a long brick tomorrow with Chucky Feerick

Hope you all are having a good week, and everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July. Thanks for reading.