The Goal is the Journey.

C + C Triathlete Factory 2013!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:51:00 +0000

So my good buddy Chris Daniels and I have partnered together a number of times to put on this triathlon camp near Peoria, IL. Our target audience for the first two earlier iterations was beginners looking to improve at the sprint and olympic distance. This year we switched things up a bit and are targeting beginner and intermediate athletes looking to either race their first half or full Ironman or to improve at those distances.

Triathlete Factory Camp information can be found here

Basic camp need to know:

· When: June 28-30

· Where: Camp Wokonda (Near Peoria)

· Who: Organized by USAT Certified Coach Chris Sweet and long-time elite age group triathlete Chris Daniels

· This weekend camp is for novice and intermediate triathletes who want to either finish their first 1/2 Ironman or Ironman or to improve at those distances.

· Cost $300 (includes camp, all meals and lodging!)

Favorite workouts

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:42:00 +0000

My favorite sets (as opposed to more general workouts) are always done in groups. I have always thrived athletically when part of a strong team. For years my primary training strategy has been to seek out the strongest athletes in each discipline and train with them as often as possible. Although I am not actively coaching triathletes now, I dug into my workout sets for a few of my favorites.

Swim
For a main set I really like this classic sprinters set from my high school days. Attribution goes to Jim Runkle who coached the Peoria Woodruff High School team and the C.I.A. club team I swam on.

The basic block for this main set is:
75yd rest 10 sec
50yd rest 5 sec
25yd rest 45 sec

This doesn’t look too bad on paper, but it is meant to be done all-out. Each block totals 150 yards. If you can string 10 of these together without yakking, you’ll come out the other side a better triathlete!

Bike
OK, switching gears to long course training for this one. Over time this workout has become a key benchmark during my Ironman training. This is not a base-phase workout. In fact, the only time you are likely to successfully complete it is during your build or peak phases. Again, I think this looks quite manageable on paper. It is the last hour (and specifically the last 30 minutes of that hour) at 80-85% of Functional Threshold Power (FTP) that always gets me. I’ve probably done this workout 10 times and successfully completed the whole thing twice. A word to the wise is to stay within the ranges early on! Credit for the basic structure of this workout goes to coach Mike Ricci from D3 Multisport.

20 minute easy warm up
1 hour at 65%
1 hour at 70-75%
10 min easy at 50%
1 hour at 75-80%
5 min easy at 50%
1 hour at 80-85%
15 min at 90%

Cool down.

Run
With run workouts I am a big believer in teaching your body to run fast when you are tired. Much of what I do is designed to be faster at the end than the beginning. I try to negative split all of my long runs and tempo runs. I also incorporate some harder efforts into all of my long runs. The track workout below uses decreasing distances to help teach your legs to turnover when fatigued.

15 minute easy warm-up
1600m @5K pace
400 very easy jog
1200m @3K pace
400 very easy jog
2X800 @2 mile pace
200m jog between the 800s
4X400m @ mile pace

1 minute recovery between quarters10 minute cool-down

What's your motivation?

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000

It's sometimes disheartening to me that most people don't "get" great literature and poetry. I don't mean "get" in the cold, analytical, academic-sense. We academics have done more harm than good in terms of helping society as a whole gain a better appreciation for a poem or a play or a novel. Many academics that study literature -as opposed to those who create it- focus on ever-narrower ways of interpreting and dissecting poetry and prose. Yes, knowing how to do a post-modern, feminist analysis of a piece of literature can increase appreciation among a certain literati-geek subset of people, but that sort of thing is only further off-putting for the average Joe.

The real, deep, value of literature and poetry lies in its unique ability to help us to make sense of ourselves and our interactions with others. Being human is a singular experience- we can never really know what is like to be someone else, but a poem, song, or novel can help bridge that gap to the "other".

I often turn to literature and poetry to help me understand the big questions in life. Understanding what motivates me to participate in endurance sports month after month and year after year and now decade after decade is certainly one of those big questions. Anyone that has followed my blog for a few years will have noticed a pattern that my more philosophical posts that try to get at the concept of "The Goal is the Journey" usually lead with (or contain) a quote from outside the sporting world. That is the sense-making ability of literature in action. The question at hand: "What motivates you?" is fundamental to both success and longevity in sport. I have many thoughtful answers to this question, but for today I will turn first to a poem I recently discovered and then share one of my own.

Advice to Myself

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

-Louise Erdrich

When a friend (Thanks Erica Charis!) first shared this poem, I left it open as a tab on my browser for a about two weeks. I would re-read it every day or so and it is quickly becoming one of my favorites. This is an outstanding example of a poem that is accessible to anyone. Erdrich is writing about a fundamental human problem: cutting through the clutter of daily life to find the authentic. She writes:

Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.

This is the first part of the poem that made me stop and reflect on sport and the question of "What motivates you?" There is something about sport -and endurance sport in particular- that can strip away all the problems, distractions, and excuses that fill up our days like nothing else can. This sentiment is echoed later in the poem:

Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

If you replace the word "read" with "do" (academics, reader-response theory says I'm entitled to make this mental substitution!) then this could darn-well be a simple recipe for prioritizing your life, or discovering your real motivations. Endurance-based exercise, and in particular, really long and really hard endurance exercise strips away the insulation (read: crap) of daily life and returns me to the most basic of human needs: eating, drinking, breathing. I've never appreciated a drink of water more than when I've been 8+ hours into an Ironman race on a hot day. Sitting down after 9 or 10 hours of continual movement is a singular, exquisite, experience.

So that's a big part of what motivates me. A desire, a need, for truly authentic experiences.

I will leave off with a poem of my own that I wrote in college and dedicated to my XC/Track Coach, Paul Olsen. It pales in comparison to Erdrich's but does say a little bit more about what motivates me.

A Runner

I kill myself

Everyday

Really though, I am only trying to live

Holding my body to the turning grindstone

I search

for the edge

for something greater

for me

Sometimes

I wish it would stop

I can’t. It won’t

The body craves the pain

Sparks shower from the stone

and I know

the edge

will never be sharp enough

-for Ols’

A week in the life

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:17:00 +0000

Recently my EvoTri team put together a series of posts about what an average day or week in the life of an age group triathlete trying to manage training, work and family looks like. This was my contribution.

I hate, loathe and detest short workouts. Over the course of 20+ years of competitive endurance activities this notion has become ingrained in my being. High school swim workouts often ran 2.5 hours including a short weight session. College track and xc workouts were usually at least 1.5 hours (not all of it running, though). As I began competing in Ironman distance events, this resistance to short workouts only got worse. When you start thinking about long rides as only those over 5 hours you can be assured that your exercise worldview has become terribly skewed!

Finding these large blocks of time for long workouts is just not a part of my reality anymore. I have two kids that I want to spend as much time as possible with when they are awake, a wife that it is in my best interests to keep sane, and a really demanding tenure-track university job. In the past if I couldn't devote at least an hour to a workout I just ended up skipping it. In recent years this would lead to many days back-to-back without any workouts. Thus it was, that this year I've decided to try and cast aside my silly notions of only doing long workouts and better utilize the 30 and 45 minute holes in my weekly schedule. In addition to the above-mentioned reasons for being resistant to short workouts is the issue of efficiency. I am incredibly efficient in everything I do to make the most out of my very limited time. Even a 30 minute workout requires at least 10 minutes each for prep and clean-up so the real time cost is 50 minutes. That is why in general, I'd much rather do a single 1.5 hour workout than 2 x 30 minutes.

Over time I have become completely and utterly reliant on my Google calendars. If something is not on my Google calendar it simply doesn't exist. Meetings, sure there are gobs of them. But birthdays and anniversaries too. My system consists of multiple, overlapping calendars. I'll start by showing you my "workout calendar":

This looks pretty awesome- enviable- even, right? Well it is not actually a traditional workout calendar in any sense. What this represents is all my possible training blocks in some sort of ideal week that never happens. As my life has gotten more hectic I've found it better not to schedule workouts ahead of time because I just get depressed when I can't fit them in. Even so, this looks pretty good. There are around 20 hours per week of workout possiblities. Keep in mind that these blocks generally include prep and clean-up. So, if I do manage to get a lunch hour workout in, I usually spend around 20 minutes total getting ready and cleaning up (I told you I am efficient). I fear I need to remove all the 8-9pm workout blocks from this calendar as well. I have never been able to work them in regularly because I am falling asleep around this time whenever I put the kids to bed. There go 4 potential hours per week.....

Here's where things get interesting. My calendar has multiple layers. The layer that interferes with workouts the most is the work calendar layer shown in blue below. Any of those boxes that overlap with the brown boxes usually mean that workout is a no-go (the exception is some of my lunch workouts where I've inserted place holders in my work calendar). The work week pictured below is fairly typical.

But, that's not all folks! My third calendar layer is our family calendar. The family calendar doesn't have all the routine, daily things on it, but rather things like kid's swimming lessons, potential weekend races or other events. Oh, and a note for me to take the garbage out on Wednesday night, because if its not on the calendar, it doesn't get done!

So at this point all my nice little brown workout blocks have been shot to hell. So what does an actual, average, pre-season workout week look like for me? Something along these lines:

Mon morn: Bike at home 45 minutes with some quality VO2 intervals
Mon noon: 45 minutes of swimming. About 2000 yds, lots of quality, short intervals.

Tues morn: 45 min swim. Some quality here, but I find it harder to really get after it early in the morning, by myself in a cold pool!
Tues noon: 1:00 bike. Spin class with other IWU faculty and staff members. These lunch spin sessions usually involve some quality intervals.
Tues night: Jonah wakes up with bad dream about Midnight. Go to lay with him in his bed and promptly fall asleep. Cara doesn't wake me up at 5:45am which I need to do if there is any hope of having an hour's worth of morning workout time.

Weds morning: Due to above, I opt for a quick 30 mins core work
Weds afternoon: This was my first track workout with the Illinois Wesleyan track team. In-season I try hard to make it once a week to their hard interval sessions. This workout was a long warm-up followed by 20 minutes of tempo for the team, probably 5K race pace for me (5:30 ish). I finished in the middle of my group for the tempo and then we hit 4X400M hard hill repeats. My legs were toast after my first hard intervals of the season.

Thurs morn: 45 minute morning swim about 2000yds
Thurs afternoon: Meeting interferes with first 15 minutes of spin class. 45 mins mostly easy spin to start clearing yesterday's track workout from my legs.
Additional meetings push lunch back to 3PM!
Thurs night: Lorien wakes up at about 1AM. To quiet her down we bring her into our bed then she squirms and keeps us up until about 4am. For you non-parents out there that think it might be nice to sleep with a sweet, cuddly baby girl, DON'T BELIEVE IT! The diagrams below are incredibly accurate. Lorien has a particular fondness for "H is for Hell."

After restless night, skip morning workout and "sleep in" until 6:30am

Fri: cannot fit in a either a morning or afternoon workout. Leave work early to get a 1.5 hour, very cold outside ride in.

Sat: 1:20 long run then head into town to see teammate Simply Stu doing bodpod and threshold testing at the ISU Exercise Physiology Lab with Laura Wheatley

Sun: 1.5 hour trainer ride with quite a bit of quality work.

So without a day off, all of my here and there workouts actually add up to around 11 hours of workouts! That is a really big week for me. This is where consistency in working out easily triumphs overall volume. You'll notice a lot of quality in my workout schedule. As I gain fitness almost every one of my workouts will have some sort of quality/intensity involved. I no longer have the luxury of easy days or so-called "recovery workouts." Rather than doing a recovery workout, I simply take that time completely off to play with my kids or sleep an extra 30 or 45 minutes.

I'm coming into my 20th year of triathlons with a really high level of motivation. My bike power is currently quite good due to my cyclocross training and racing. Bike endurance will come back over time (particularly when there is enough daylight to get back to bike commuting). If I can continue to utilize all these small blocks of time in my schedule then my 2013 racing outlook should be quite good!

Adventures in Race Directing and Cyclocross Nationals

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Adventures in Race Directing

Well, this weekend I'm packing up the family Griswald-style into the family truckster (aka Subaru Forester) and heading down to Louisville to spectheckle (spectate and heckle) at Cyclocross Worlds. Having a cyclocross World Championship in the U.S. is a huge deal! Cross has deep European roots. For the entire history of the sport the World Championship race has never left Europe. U.S. cyclocross racing has been absolutely exploding in the last 10 years. It is far and away the fastest growing form of bike racing. The fact that a World Championship race will be held on U.S. soil is a huge testament to the growth and popularity of the sport here. 5+ years ago when I started racing in some actual sanctioned events I could probably count on my hands the number of people in Bloomington-Normal (combined population of about 130,000) who had ever done a cross race. This year the Bloomington Cycle and Fitness team often had more than 10 people racing in a given weekend.

Cyclocross in Illinois has been almost completely defined by the highly successful Chicago Cross Cup (CCC). The CCC series extends from September through December with one or more races almost every weekend. These races bring in huge (for cross) fields. There are frequently two Cat 4 races with nearly 100 riders in each. Cat 1, 2, 3 races usually see 50 or more riders. If you are in the Chicago area these races are super-convenient with a decent amount of variety across courses. I love getting up there to race, but driving 4-6 hours round trip for a 45 minute race gets to be challenging both in terms of time away from the family and in terms of travel costs.

I've wanted to see more downstate races for a long time, but in recent years there have only been 1 or 2 races outside of the Chicago area. You can't just plop down a new cross course anywhere. Great cross courses usually have all the following elements: hills, sand pit, some pavement, a run-up where you have to carry your bike, and lots of corners. Outside of assisting with putting on some of our local triathlons I didn't have any race directing experience. What I did know was that if I was going to commit all the time it takes to put on a race that I wanted it to be in a venue that I loved and believed in. That venue is Miller and Forest Parks in Bloomington. The two parks combined create what I think is just a classic cyclocross course. We've got the hills, the long beach section and best of all an old-world style stone bridge with a flyover (that means stairs up, ramp down for you non-crossers!). After slashing through more city red tape than I ever imagined I got the new Miller Chill CX race approved for last December.

Great logo courtesy of Ryan Bertrand!

Race week and race day were drizzly and rainy, so we ended up with the sort of iconic muddy cross conditions that make for lots of good pictures and videos. By all accounts the race was a success. 50 riders would have been around the break-even point and a good turnout would have been 75. We ended up with about 120 which is certainly the largest-ever downstate cross race. Even more important to me is that we had around 30 first-time cross racers! I love that we introduced so many people to the sport during a single race!

Teammates Bill Perry and Nick Ramirez playing in the mud

Huge props to Bloomington Cycle and Fitness for believing in and sponsoring the race and the BCF team for all the volunteer hours before, during and after the event! Special shout-out to my buddy Chris Daniels who designed, built and then disassembled a huge flyover ramp. It was a ton of work making the race happen and I have even higher levels of respect for all the race directors out there. Fortunately the event has been reapproved by the Park District for 2013 and I'm anticipating an easier go of it from a directing standpoint the second time around!

Cyclocross Nationals- Verona, WI 1/12/2013

This past fall I did not swim a single lap after finishing the Rev3 Cedar Point Ironman in September. I also cut my running back to just one or two easy maintenance-style runs per week. The idea was to take my triathlon bike fitness and build on it to have a big cross season. This sorta worked. Fall and early winter is still my off-season. It's just unrealistic for me to try and maintain my highest levels of fitness year-round. Fall is also my busiest time at the university. I can say that I managed to put together a solid cross season, but the actual training was usually 2 or 3 rides per week. I really struggled early on as I started converting my steady-state sub-threshold triathlon fitness into the super intense threshold and VO2 efforts required by cross. By late November my legs were finally starting to come around. I had a pair of top-20 finishes in the Cat 3 races at the very competitive Jingle Cross Rock races. I followed that up with another good showing at the Illinois State Cyclocross race placing 18th out of about 80 riders.

One of my goals for this season was to race in my first cyclocross masters nationals. To outsiders this may sound a little more prestigious than it is. In triathlon and other sports you have to meet certain qualification standards to race. For the masters events you just need to have your category 3 license (Cat 1 is the highest, 4 the lowest). In any case, the race was just outside of Madison, WI so a pretty short drive and a chance to get in a mid-winter visit with Evotri teammates, Stu and Rob. Given the location and time of year I was hoping for some snowy conditions that would limit the ability of the top riders to use all their power. My #1 goal for nationals was not to get lapped and pulled from the course. For an event like this if it looks like you might get lapped and interfere with the leaders, then the officials will pull you off the course (this is a good rule for big events).

This video gives you a good sense of the course conditions during the week!

The same course is raced on for almost a full week at nationals. The week started out with a bunch of snow on the ground, but then a warm snap hit. The course deteriorated (read became a mud pit) from day-to-day. My 30-34 race was the last one on Saturday. When I arrived the windchills were already below freezing, but the course was still mucky. There are no provisions for pre-riding the course unless you were there super-early. I scouted most of the course on foot with my buddy and IWU colleague Rick Lindquist. The course was not technical (in order to accommodate big fields). The muddy and icy conditions made it much more technical than it would have been dry or completely frozen. As my race got closer the temps just kept plummeting. I put on all my warmest cycling gear and stuffed those chemical handwarmers every place I could. Watching recaps of the races earlier in the week I knew that I would need a pit bike for this race. In cross you can swap out your bike or twice per lap due to mechanical problems, or in this case mud. I couldn't find anyone to loan me another medium-sized cross bike, so I did what I could to make Cara's extra-small frame make due. This bike actually deserves a few words. Her black bike has pink decals that say "Punisher." The frame is actually a hand-me-down from my sister-in-law Heather. To make the story even better, my mom raced this bike at Miller Chill (her first-ever cross race)! To put this in perspective for you, riders were bringing matching high-zoot team issue carbon cross bikes with carbon wheels into the pit and I was bringing an extra-small pink Punisher...bring it on!

THE PUNISHER!

I was happy that my ranking points did not have me staged all the way in the back row. Close to it, but not the back row! When the race started, temps had dropped under freezing. The first quarter mile as all pavement and insane speeds. We hadn't strung out much when we moved into the mud and first corners. The course was super-muddy, but actually beginning to freeze as we raced. Frozen ruts are one of the trickiest conditions to handle. They suck your wheel in and then out from under you if you're not careful. The Madison course had one smallish hill that was rideable earlier in the week and then again for the elite races when the ground froze solid on Sunday. Not for our race. I don't think anyone was riding the hill- which is good for me since it meant more running! There was a second longer forced run-up with railroad ties midway through the course. My plan was to go pretty close to all-out early on in order to accomplish my goal of not getting pulled. I picked some good lines and stayed upright as people wiped out around me. I went down hard once in a frozen corner and had a few spots where I had to unclip and save myself from going down. The pace was pretty intense and the field started to string out pretty quickly. Since the Punisher didn't fit me and also uses Shimano instead of SRAM shifting my plan was to wait until the second lap to switch bikes. Ideally, I think I would have swapped every lap and kept Rick, my pitman, hopping back and forth to the power washers to clean off all the mud. Heckling is a big part of cross culture and wow did the crowd pick up on the Punisher. I got way more heckles -and some cheers- on the lap where I rode the Punisher. The super-small frame really wasn't all that bad, but SRAM and Shimano shift in opposite directions so I kept screwing that up. I don't know if it was from adrenaline or from learning the better lines on the course, but my Punisher lap was my second fastest of the day. On my last lap I could sense there weren't many people behind me, which confused me because I was pretty sure that I was ahead of a decent amount of riders. Only later when oxygen returned to my brain did I realize that most of the riders behind me had been pulled- so I succeeded in riding all my laps and not getting yanked! I ended up finishing 23rd. I was also the highest-placed category 3 rider which I was pretty happy about.

Looks like mud on my bike, but it was frozen solid by this point!

Race conditions were just plain brutal. Windchills were down near the single digits. During and after the race there was this weird phenomenon that I have not encountered very frequently during all my winter riding. The mud on the ground was still warm enough to get picked up and lodge on our forks, frames and brakes. After it left the ground though, it started to freeze solid on the bikes. The water coming out of the pressure washers was probably near freezing itself so you actually had to forcibly chip iced mud off the bikes. The race was a good experience all around. Huge props to my Augustana Cross Country teammate Lauren "Shorty" Habenicht for braving the elements and cheering me on! Glad I went and I made some mental notes about course design that I can apply back to my Miller Chill race.

CX magazine covered my race here. I actually made it into their photo gallery:

A great example of my mad "riding" skillz!

If you look back at my post from the beginning of last year I had hoped to race both Nationals and the Masters World event. I really hoped to make this work, but the logistics just sucked. In order to race in the official Masters World race for my age category I would have had to go down to Louisville on Wednesday for a qualifying heat. If I managed to place in the top 80 then I would get to race again, but not until Friday. Seeing no good way to take 1/2 a week off work and away from the family I decided I would be happy enough to just go down, meet up with my brother and his family, drink some beers and cheer on the USA!

The Gambler: Rev3 Cedar Point Ironman Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:28:00 +0000

If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.

-Kenny Rogers, The Gambler

"Know when to hold 'em"

Racing two ironman races, two weeks apart, after a 4 year hiatus from long course racing was a huge gamble. This was not some haphazard, macho, lookee-what-I-can-do endeavor, though. Instead, it was a series of carefully calculated risks. The first gamble was that I felt I was in far better shape than my performance at the Michigan Titanium showed. Cedar Point was a slightly easier course and race conditions would almost surely be better than the heat I had to deal with in Grand Rapids. If things went right I thought I could race faster than 2 weeks earlier and potentially set a lifetime best (9:53 currently). That was gamble #1.

In discussing the race with my wife there was also a double-down on gamble #1. The double-down was this: if I managed to place in the top 3 amateurs at Cedar Point I would automatically qualify for my pro card. This was somewhat of a revelation to me because I have never actively pursued a pro card. For most of the last decade I have been content to fight my way up the amateur triathlete ranks. As it now stands though, I have done most of the amateur races I wanted to do (Kona, 70.3 Worlds, ITU Off-Road Worlds). Next May I will race in the Best of the US amateur race and that will be one the last big amateur races that I wanted to do.

I am under no misconceptions that I would be anything but at the very bottom of the current U.S. pro field. It is actually more about finances than it is about real (or more likely imagined) prestige that might come with a pro card. Financially, the only way I can really keep racing a lot -and in particular larger events- is if I can drastically reduce the costs of racing. Related breaking news story: kids are not cheap and librarians don't make big bucks- who knew?! Going pro is about the only option I have for reducing racing costs since pros can do most races (except WTC races) for free.

So looking at past Cedar Point amateur results and assessing my fitness and recovery, I knew top three was not out of the question on a good day. A gamble, yes, beyond my current abilities, no. The $500 I made at the Michigan race made that race nearly a wash financially, so I was willing to pull out the credit card again and gamble on another race.

Two other things helped finalize my decision. My Evotri teammate and Rev3 media guru, Simply Stu, had a room that I could crash in for free. I was also able to convince good friend and training partner Laura Wheatley to drive over with me and chauffeur my worn-out butt back home after the race. So I actually didn't decide until Thursday morning before the race whether I was going or not. This is nuts compared to signing up for a WTC Ironman a year in advance. I'll admit that it felt rather luxurious to see what the weather would be like on race day and then decide whether I was going to race! It was a whirlwind trip since both Laura and I had to work Friday and again Monday morning after the race. We drove over (7 hours) on Saturday morning. I raced Sunday and we jumped back in the car and got home after midnight. Craziness.

Storms were brewing race morning, but mostly stayed away!

This race has gotten a lot bigger in the last year or two!

Swim

The Cedar Point swim is held in Lake Erie. The days before saw the remnants of Hurricane Issac blow through the midwest and cause some good swells and currents in Lake Erie. Race morning had a light breeze and some small rollers in the lake. The race has grown to around 400 participants. It was a shallow in-water start and I lined up near the front and inside (most aggressive position). I got out hard (which involved lots of dolphin dives in the shallow water). I settled into IM swim pace pretty quickly. I had a decent draft for awhile, but keep getting stuck alone which is a problem in smaller events. Having just raced two weeks ago I was really dialed into what I could do for a 2.4 mile swim and I wanted to try and know a few minutes off. No issues in the swim. I paced the race nicely and worked a bit harder than the previous race to overcome the waves in Lake Erie. My swim ended up being 1:00:28 (3 minutes faster than Michigan). That was good for 12th overall and in-line with my previous IM swims which have all been around that 1 hour mark.

Bike

I had very clear goals in mind for the bike. My last two long training rides prior to the MI Titanium were in the 190-200w range. The Michigan race was super-solid at about 190w. The temps were far better for Cedar Point (60s-70s most of the day) so I wanted to be right in that same range again. I took off and was just reveling in the cool temps. I immediately started racing my own race based off what the PowerTap was telling me and not worrying about anyone else. The Cedar Point bike course is probably one of the fastest in the country behind Florida and Arizona. There are no real hills to speak of and the little rollers aren't bad. Being that close to Great Lake, though there is often wind. More on that later. Nutrition seemed spot on again since I had it dialed in two weeks earlier. Sitting around 200w average felt very easy in terms of perceived exertion which should always trump all other measures. I don't know exactly what place I was riding in, but somewhere around top 5 overall. I hit 56 miles right around 200w and 2.5 hours (about 22.5 mph). Splits from the race tell me I was actually in 4th overall at the halfway point. This was exactly the ride that I thought I could do and the kind of split I needed. As it turned out I did not even come close to maintaining this power or speed.

"Know when to fold 'em?"

Somewhere around 3 hours my average power started to decrease slowly. I was expecting a little fall-off as that is common in IM racing. Perceived exertion seemed a little harder but still similar to all my other IM races. I kept the calories coming in since I didn't want to dig the impending hole any deeper than need be. Around 4 hours I was just falling way off pace. My legs were just wasted and I couldn't put any power behind the pedals. I would stand briefly and spike the power back up, but I couldn't maintain it. I was surprised to be struggling this much on the bike. I had thought that if my two week turnaround was going to get me it would be on the second half of the run. Some nasty combination of low overall training volume, short recovery between big races and a pretty strong headwind the last hour or so just completely wasted my legs. This is not a dramatic exaggeration. I later looked at my power file and the last hour was around 130 watts- I literally had nothing. I had it in my head that my goal bike split was 5 flat. The upper end of my range was 5:15. I thought that if I didn't go 5:15 there wasn't any point in starting the run since gamble #1 (PR) and gamble #2 (top 3) would be pretty much out of the question. It seemed like tons of people were passing me, but I later figured out that I had to have been higher overall than I realized. Cedar Point is tough because you can see the amusement park from the bike course almost 10 miles out and damn if those weren't the longest 10 miles of my life! I did the math and didn't think I could hit my 5:15 benchmark. I saw 5:15 click by on my computer, but shortly after that point I hit the edge of the parking lot that T2 was in. Decision time.

"Know when to run"

I have no idea what sort of incredibly deep, primal instinct got me out on that run. My body was telling me that I was done and that absolutely no good could come out of attempting a marathon in that state of pain and fatigue. This logic was sound- if I fell apart that badly on the bike, then heading out for a marathon would surely be a recipe for disaster. In retrospect this was an incredible example of mind over body. I knew that fellow triathletes would probably understand a decision to bail and race again another day. One thing I didn't want to do was try to explain to Jonah why I went away for a whole weekend and then quit in the middle of my race. A 4 year old's understanding of triathlon race strategies and time goals is pretty limited. There is also a quote from the great German triathlete Thomas Helreigel that goes something like: "Never drop out, because if you finish your legs will hurt for a week, but if you drop out your head will hurt for months." In more than 2 decades worth of competing in sports the only race I've dropped out of is the Desoto Triple-T when I broke my collarbone. Even if it was the smart thing to do, I didn't really want to open that door. Lastly, I was kinda, sorta, a whiney bitch about the heat at my last race and here it was gorgeous race day conditions and I was thinking about dropping out.

Nut up.

Time to run.

I pulled on my now trusty retro red and white striped tube socks and sweatband and headed out onto the run. If I was going to go down in flames, at least I would look good/obnoxious doing it! Interesting side note: no blisters at all with the cotton tube socks: whodda thunk? Temps were around 70, but it was crystal clear with the sun beating down so it felt hotter than it was (see there I go again!). I was immediately surprised at how, not exactly good.......but acceptable, my legs felt. For someone who could barely turn the cranks over the last hour I headed out for a marathon doing mid-7 minute miles and feeling not all that bad. The Cedar Point run is almost completely flat, but terribly, horribly convoluted. It just has way, way, too many turns and out and backs. A big portion of the run course is running a mile down a city block, turning around running back, then going up a block and doing the same thing again and again. It is flat, but all the turns will do a number on your knees during an Ironman marathon.

This is one loop, just try to add up the number of turns in two loops!

The first few miles I was still telling myself that I could bail at the halfway point if I needed to, but pretty soon I was in the groove and running sooo much better than I had two weeks ago. I knew I was in much better running shape than my 3:50 something death march in Michigan indicated. I didn't try to push the pace at Cedar Point, but I tried to settle into a solid pace that would get me through the race and maybe still sneak me under 10 hours which became my revised on-the-fly goal. At both of these races my stomach has done quite well on the run. I did a great job of taking in some form of calories almost every mile which really helps keep things going in those last hours.

I saw Jeff Paul, my college xc and track teammate, and now professional triathlete twice during the run. He was moving along at a far better clip than I. It was looking like he'd end up somewhere around the 9 flat mark (he ended up at 9:17 and 15th in what turned out to be a surprisingly deep pro field).

I went through the halfway point still feeling decent. I wasn't tearing it up like some of my previous IM marathons, but all things considered I was running tolerably well. Frustratingly, I wasn't making up very many places. I actually got passed twice in the first mile of the run, which rarely happens to me. I got one of those places back pretty quickly, but the other guy was long gone and turned in a nearly 3 flat marathon. My marathon ended up being a 3:37 (8:16 pace). Not one of my better times, but almost 20 minutes better than the 3:56 from two weeks prior. I'll take that.

Overall I went 10:02:54. On paper that was 13 minutes faster than two weeks prior. The Michigan race had a long bike, so my adjusted time would have been around 10:07. A few observations here. #1 the Cedar Point bike course was a little easier than the Michigan Titanium bike course. I fell apart at Cedar Point, but still turned in a 5:19 split. #2 I was happy to mostly redeem myself on the run. I knew that I was in pretty good run shape and shaving 20 minutes from my marathon only two weeks after the last race certainly proved that. #3 As for my ambitious goal of top 3 and potential pro card, this turned out to be a reasonable gamble for me. I finished 8th overall in the amateur race, but only about 16 minutes from 3rd. If I had been able to maintain pace on the bike and have roughly the same run, I would have been there. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, right? The point is 16 minutes faster is well within my abilities- particularly if I had targeted this race and done more IM-specific training. Here's another fun fact. I took 8th overall, but 7th in my age group! So even after they pulled out the top 3 overall, I still didn't place in my age group with a 10:02!

That's not a happy face.... (Clock time was for the pro race)

I've always needed big, ambitious goals to keep me both motivated and improving in triathlon. Targeting races in 2013 that might get me to that professional level could be the new kick in the butt that I need to take my triathlon game up another notch. The 2012 tri season started out great with my best-ever finish in an amateur world championship and ended with 2 good overall finishes in ironman races that I wasn't planning on doing. Along the way I shared a podium with some big name pros, made a little money racing and qualified for the 2013 Best of the US amateur race. Not too shabby.

Now it is on to cyclocross season! I'm putting on a new hat as race promoter for a local cyclocross event: check out the new Miller Chill Cyclocross Race!

Michigan Titanium Ironman Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Yeah, that's right I went there. I had the audacity to call an iron-distance race an Ironman. The MI Titanium race organizers -like most race organizers- judiciously avoided use of the name Ironman in all media related to this inaugural race. For those completely unfamiliar with the legal underpinnings here, the WTC (World Triathlon Corporation) has trademarked the Ironman name and Ironman logo. These trademarks are tightly controlled and policed. For example, a few years ago a race director near me in Springfield, Illinois created a new race called IronAbe that was actually an olympic distance race. Not long after advertising this race he received the inevitable cease and desist letter from WTC for trademark infringement (which is a stretch since he only used the word iron). Fortunately, he held his ground and the race is still called IronAbe. This policing of the Ironman name brings to mind a classic letter from Groucho Marx to Warner Brothers Studios in regards to the Marx Brother's film: "A Night in Casablanca." It is well worth a read.

This background actually helps to provide some big-picture context for this race report. I want to contend that the term "Ironman" should be owned by the athletes- the one's that are out there putting their hearts and souls into 140.6 miles of racing. Anyone that covers the distance in a single day by rights is an Ironman no matter which corporation owns the race. Let's face it, "Chris Sweet, you are an iron distance finisher" just doesn't have the same ring to it!

On to the race report. Astute readers of this blog will recall that there was absolutely no mention in my season preview post of my attempting an ironman race this season. The general outline was the off-road tri world champs in the spring, a few sprints and olympics during the summer and then a fall cyclocross focus. So what strange string of events found me again at the start of an ironman after a four year hiatus from long course racing? (Kona 08 was my last Ironman). Basically, I was having a better-than-anticipated triathlon season, then I saw and opportunity and seized it. Two weeks prior to the MI Titanium I raced the new Rev 3 Wisconsin Dells Half Ironman (oops, there I go again!). My teammate Michelle asked me why I thought I was racing better this summer than my last few years and my answer was immediate: I finally strung together a bunch of consistent months of training. Consistency is huge in triathlon. In recent years due to pressing family and work constraints, I just couldn't string together consistent weeks of training. This is not to be confused with high-volume consistency which would have been even better. Basically for about the last 6 months I was able to work out 5 or 6 days a week, but only for 1 or 2 hours a day on average. Still, this consistency helped and I found myself sharing the podium at the Decatur Lakeside Triathlon with pros Daniel Bretscher and Bryan Rhodes. At the great new Rev3 Dells course I turned in a solid 4:37 on a course that is on par with Wildflower in terms of difficulty.

Very good podium company in Decautr!

So it was that no more than 2 months before the Michigan Titanium that I got a message from Amy Bowden, a college XC teammate, and one of my most recent triathlon recruits asking me what I knew about the Michigan Titanium. I was very surprised that a new Midwest Ironman race had somehow gotten under my radar. As I poked around the website, I liked what I saw and started forming the seeds of a rather crazy idea. The race was only 4.5 hours away. I had family in Grand Rapids. The race offered good prize money for top 3 overall. It was a chance to support a non-WTC event. A thought in the back of my mind is that a huge item on my personal bucket list is to have an overall win at every triathlon distance- and Ironman was surely going to be the trickiest. Still, I didn't see any pros on the start list and thought I would have a shot at the win. It seemed ill-advised to do an Ironman crash course training block and then taper all within two months (not to mention a tough half two weeks before). I talked it over with my wife and pointed out that all my IM training would be compressed into two months and would primarily consist of only six key long workouts: 3 long rides and 3 long runs. The great thing about a small race like this was that I could wait until the week before to decide whether or not I wanted to race. If my training block didn't go well, or if I developed an injury I could just decide not to race.

Long story short, my training block went quite well. I did two of my 100 mile long rides completely solo and one of them was at the same power that I put out for Kona. I kept my long runs around 2 hours and those went great as well. So it was that I found myself toeing the line for the first-ever iron distance race in Michigan.

Nice, flat water for race morning!

Swim

The Michigan Titanium swim and transition area were located in Versluis Park which is a bit northeast of downtown Grand Rapids. For the swim start I staged myself right at the front and got out hard which as a former 50yd freestyle specialist is not a problem. I led probably the first quarter mile until a better distance swimmer caught me. I held his feet for awhile, but knew it wasn't a pace I could sustain for 2.4 miles due to my usual 3000yds, once a week, swim training strategy! A second swimmer also went around me, but I held onto third for the rest of the swim. The lake was super clear and clean. The organizers did an excellent job setting up the buoys in nice straight lines. The course was two loops. I felt awesome swimming alone without any interference and even thought I might turn in a time around an hour flat. Turns out I saw just under 1:04 which is my worst IM swim buy a couple minutes, but that was probably due to not having people to draft off of.

Coming out of the swim!

Bike

My goal power range for the bike was 190-200 watts. I had hit this range in each of my training rides and it is similar to where I've raced in the past. I took it out harder than that because I wanted to see how far up the road first place was. Within the first two miles I had caught second place, but couldn't see first. I was feeling very good on the bike and holding about 210 watts and just cruising the rolling hills without spiking my power. Around 15 miles I finally saw first place. I stayed steady and kept getting close to him, but he would put more effort into each uphill and pull away. Somewhere around 20 miles I put in a hard effort and moved into the lead. After that I led the next 90 miles! Fortunately, there was a lead motorcycle which I was very thankful for. Leading a race without anything or anyone up the road to look at is super-difficult. Nutrition was right on- I started with a bottle of Infinit up front and had enough concentrate for 4 more. I had about 5 espresso gels in a flask. Bike aid stations were about every 20 miles and once the temps started climbing I wished they were every 15 or less. Near the half-way point some jr. high kids forgot to direct us to an aid station and we blew by it until we hit a busy intersection and had to pull a U-turn. I don't think it added or subtracted any distance, but I did have to go 40 miles without a water bottle refill. I hit 56 right about 2.5 hours which is one of my best splits. Lots of people have asked about the course. The whole course is one big out-and-back. It has rolling hills almost constantly, but none of them are very long and none of them are very steep. The course profile listed 1500ft of climbing. My Joule said 4300ft! I think the truth is somewhere between the two. It is easier than Wisconsin or Couer D'lene, but not as flat and fast as a Florida or Arizona. With the out and backs I could keep an eye on the rest of the field. Just eyeballing it, I was putting time on everybody except for one rider who kept moving up. We had moderate winds 10-15ish, but the temps just kept climbing. Somewhere around 3.5 to 4 hours my power started dropping off. Some of it was intentional on my part because of the heat and how my quads felt. The last hour was just plain awful. Temps were near 90 and most of the last hour was headwind- fortunately there was also a net downhill. Nutrition was still fine, but by the end of the ride my average power had dropped down to 191 watts (199 normalized). According to my Powertap, the course was actually long: 113.8 miles. This was actually good news to me because if I look at my time and ave speed at 112 miles, it would finally eclipse my 2003 Ironman Florida bike PR. At 112 miles I was 5:07 and 21.9mph! Just a great ride for me. Coming into transition, my pursuer finally caught up with me- which surely gave the spectators a good show. He blitzed through transition while I took time to put on socks and sunscreen- a good decision for me based on past racing experiences!

Killing it on the QR! Loving this bike.

Leading the bike into transition, but second place caught up right after this pic.

Run

First place came blazing out of T2. If I had to guess, he looked to be running sub-7s (and yes that is blazing for an IM). I on the other hand, was struggling and not at all in a chasing mood. The first three miles of that run were the worst in my Ironman racing career. The heat was the main thing that was getting to me, but my quads were also aching horribly. If I hadn't been in second overall it probably would have been easy to drop- and if things didn't turn around I would have dropped. After the first 3 miles I just maintained a slow, shuffle-pace that I was pretty sure I could maintain for 26 miles. For the first time in my life (in training or racing) I wore a GPS watch (my wife's). Going in I thought under good conditions that I could run 3:15-3:20 (I was 3:18 in Wisconsin, so within my abilities). The stupid watch showed me mile times in the 8 minute range which was hugely depressing so I never looked at the thing again! The run course was a double out-and-back loop. Like the bike it has lots of rolling hills, but again nothing steep and nothing very long. It was partially shaded, but with temps in the low 90's I just couldn't bring my core temp down with any amount of ice and water. I could see first putting a bunch of time on me, but I held out hope that since he had to ride harder than I did and was running the first half so quickly that he could implode and I could still pull off a win (not that hard to delude yourself 7 hours into a hot race!). Nutrition continued to go well. I listened to my body and took some sort of calories at almost every aid station along with what had to be gallons of fluid over the course of the day. Consistently taking in calories eventually helped me to run a decent second half- probably a negative split. In fact it started to cloud over on my second lap. The last 6 miles actually felt pretty good and I started to pull back some time, but it wasn't nearly enough. Just to spite me it finally started sprinkling during my final mile (after that it actually rained pretty hard and got relatively cold). Jonah was waiting for me about 100 yards from the finish line and was able to run in with me (Cara handed Lorien off, right before the finish line). One of the great things about non-WTC events is that they encourage family participation at the finish line unlike WTC who have banned the practice at their races (to be fair this was in response to type A triathletes bitching about people's families ruining their precious finisher photos). So the run ended up my slowest by a long shot: 3:56.

My overall time was 10:16 (only my first ever IM was slower). I'm mentally subtracting about 7 minutes for the extra two miles on the bike which puts me closer to 10 flat. Lee Sauegling maintained a good run pace to take the win in 9:57 (all that difference occurred during the run). Strange to have my run be my weakness when usually it is my best event. I ran a 1:26 two weeks prior on a tough course at Rev3 Dells, so my running was where it should be. What happened I think can be attributed to two things: #1 I hate the heat and never race very well when the temps climb over 85. #2 my overall lack of volume most impacted my run.

Podium!

At the end of the day, I'm glad I took this risk and raced an Ironman under-prepared. The frustrating thing is that I am in 9:45 shape, on the right day. Second place yielded my biggest payday in the sport so far at $500. The cost of ironman racing is one thing that has kept me away from doing more races. There is almost never an extra $500 just sitting in our checking account. For this race I put the entry fee on my credit card about a week before the race then paid it off right after with the race winnings. I applaud the organizers for providing prize money for a smaller race- it really helps racers like me who are struggling with ever-increasing entry fees (see failed $1200 per athlete entry fee for WTC's cancelled NYC event).

I would definitely recommend this race to someone looking to do an ironman. On paper the course should be pretty quick. I'd love to see it moved back a few weeks to avoid the chance of more crazy-hot temperatures. It was well-organized for a first-year event with only a few small hiccups. Volunteers were awesome as always! If you register early for next year's race (August 25, 2013) you'll pay far less than some of the other big name races out there and the experience will still be very good. As for me, I'm glad to know I can still turn in a quick Ironman time. Where I go next -particularly next season- is completely up in the air.

2012 ITU Cross Tri World Championship Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:49:00 +0000

OK, first things first, let's get this "Cross Triathlon" thing straightened out. This has absolutely nothing to do with cyclocross and everything to do with Xterra off-road triathlons, except it can't be called an Xterra because it is sanctioned by the ITU (International Triathlon Union). To make things even more fun, consider that this race was both the ITU World Championship and also the Xterra Southeast Regional Championship, but it was not the Xterra World Championship (that race is always in Maui in October). This race could qualify you for the Xterra World Championships, though! Confused yet?

In essence, the ITU wants to better promote off-road triathlon and they created a separate world championship to do this. The ITU is particularly interested in developing off-road triathlon as a possible new olympic sport since triathlon has been so successful. Last year the ITU race was in Spain and something that I didn't consider at all. Fortunately, I had a few decent Xterra finishes in 2011 so I received an invitation from USAT to race this year's ITU World Championship in Pelham, Alabama (the race was by invite only). For reasons that are even more complex than my first paragraph, this year's race, which was held on May 16, wasn't even announced until the beginning of February. As I described in my 2012 Season Preview, 2.5 months is no where near enough time to get into peak condition for a world championship. Still, this was a rare opportunity to be able to drive (read: cheaper) to a major world championship. One of the coolest things about doing an ITU race is that all athletes have to race in their countries' uniforms. So for this race, I put away the Evotri gear for the first time in years and raced in a US uniform with my name across the butt! This is the same uniform that the U.S. pros were wearing so that was a pretty cool feature of this race!

"Dude, what's mine say? Sweet!"

There's not much to tell about my preparation for this race other than it was minimal compared to other big events I've done. The biggest change I made was swapping out my hardtail 29er to a new full-suspension Specialized Epic from Bloomington Cycle and Fitness. I knew the Pelham course had a lot of rocks and a few technical sections, so this bike switch ended up being a great move- more on that later. I had really hoped to get at least one mountain bike race in prior to the world champs, but it occurred so early in the year most of the midwest mtb races had not happened yet and I had conflicts with the few within reasonable driving distance. On the plus side, I did get in a couple trail races that were part of a local series. I took third overall at a trail half-marathon and then won a trail 10k- so running was going well at least!

I was able to make the trip down with the awesome Bev Enslow from Metamora, IL (my hometown, about 1 hour from Bloomington). Bev is a long-time Xterra racer and has many Xterra age group world and national titles on her race resume. We had gobs of time to talk shop on the 10 hour drive to Pelham and back! Bottom line: I want to race the Xterra World Championship in Maui more than ever and am bummed to have missed the old bike course with lots of climbing and sketchy descents. As always, travel costs are the big barrier for getting to this race! Bev also had a great story about last year's ITU Cross Tri World Champs where she racked up another world title. At the race, longtime pro and multi-time world champion Melanie McQuaid's bike got hung up somewhere along the way to Spain. Rather last minute, Bev offered to loan Mel the Trek she was racing on right after her race was over (age groupers went first). Melanie was racing for another brand at the time, but managed to notch another world championship on Bev's borrowed bike! This season Mel is racing on a Trek- coincidence? I think not! Bev seems to know everyone that regularly races on the U.S. Xterra circuit and I got meet lots of her friends including the 2008 Mr. and Mrs. Xterra Circ and Cindi Toepel.

Bev and I were able to pre-ride the course the day before the race, which wasn't ideal for me but we would have had to take another day away from family and work to have done it a day earlier. We took it very easy, but unlike road triathlons a course preview is almost a necessity if you want to race both fast and (relatively) safe. Fortunately the majority of the course is shaded so I made it through the pre-ride without any crashes and without expending tons of energy.

Anytime I travel to the deep south in the spring I am worried about heat. Coming from Illinois in mid-May to Alabama (or New Orleans like my Evotri did a few years ago for the 70.3) can be a challenge. Race day did get up into the 80's but since both the bike and run courses had quite a bit of shade the high temps didn't take much out of me. The pros who raced much later in the day could probably tell a different story!

Swim

Thankfully the ITU has adopted a much more sane wetsuit cut-off temperature of 72 degrees. The lake was probably upper 70s so no wetsuits which I always prefer. The swim start area was rather congested and probably not big enough for the men's age group wave (we all started together). Since it was crowded I got out fast to escape the chaos and get on some fast feet. I hadn't been swimming a lot so I kept the pace pretty comfortable and just tried to maintain good form and swim straight lines between buoys. I swam a 25:06 for 1500m which was an ok swim for me and only put me 3-4 minutes down on the fastest swimmers.

Men's Age Group Swim Start

Bike

I knew the bike was going to make or break this race for me. Among Xterra age group triathletes in general I have a strong bike leg. Among the very best age groupers from the US and a sprinkling of internationals, I wasn't so sure how I would fare. The bike course was a little short compared to other Xterra regionals. Somewhere around 16-17 miles. Oak Mountain State Park has some stellar trails! There was good mix of everything: tight, twisty singletrack like home, long climbs, both fast and technical descents (although not together). There were actually far fewer technical sections than I had imagined. Blood Rock is the one everyone talks about and I'll get to that. I went hard out of the gates to move up a few places before hitting the first single track. The first couple miles of these races are always sketchy before everyone settles in and spreads out a bit. I was almost immediately in a tight group with people yelling from behind and things packing up. I saw lots of dumb, risky moves in the first 3 miles that worked for some, but not so well for others. Initially I kept trying to go with the faster riders that went around me. This turned out to be a sketchy strategy for me as well because they could just plain handle the bike better than me. I blew a corner once and slid out a couple times before I backed off a notch just so I could finish in one piece. About 4-5 miles in the single track opens up to a long, 2+ mile climb on doubletrack. No part of this climb is what I would call steep, but it was a consistent grade with no breaks and quite a bit was loose rock. I knew this is where I could make up time on the technical riders and I was right. I just hunkered down on this climb and started making up places. No one passed me on the climb and I most have picked up at least 10-15 places. Following the long climb there were some fast descents with lots of loose rock. I really started appreciating the full-suspension 29er at this point! Next up was the famed Blood Rock section (it has that name for a reason). When people talk about Oak Mountain this is the section that always comes up. It is far shorter than it looked in the videos and I shorter than I had built up in my head. On the other hand, it is the most technical section I've ever encountered in a race situation. I've messed around on lots of technical stuff, but that is different than racing. Blood Rock must only be around 200 meters long. It is a series of big rock steps with a turn and some water in the middle section. The drops were pretty steep- some of them were more than 2 ft I would guess (check out the videos!). Also note that this is part of the course is used for a Super-D mountain bike race later in the year! I rode this section clean twice during my warm-up and got applause for doing so! It is one thing to do it under control when you are not fatigued and another altogether when racing at lactate threshold pace. So on race day I wanted to try it if it was clear, otherwise I was pushing down. As it ended up I rode 1/2 of it and executed a rather tricky dismount because there were riders up ahead having problems and pushing. I learned later that the guy who was leading the age group race misjudged something on Blood Rock, went down hard and dislocated a finger in the rocks. He managed to finish the bike and still took 2nd overall!

Then race leader Bryce Phinney going down on Blood Rock

Non-race video of Blood Rock

I wanted to add my two cents to the ongoing debate around 29 inch wheels. For lots of years I raced a nice full-suspension 26er (Titus Racer-X). I liked the bike, it felt quick in most situations and I didn't feel I was loosing a whole lot to those on 29 inch wheels. Eventually I wanted to experiment with a 29er and picked up a relatively cheap Felt Carbon hardtail which I raced all last season. Even with a season on the 29er I was still somewhat ambivalent. As you can read anywhere the 29er was absolutely better at riding over obstacles- log piles, rocks, etc. It was also very stable and predictable during long, fast descents. I did not find it as good in tight singletrack or on steep climbs. The Specialized Epic on the Oak Mountain Trails finally made me a full convert. The Epic is just a great all-around race bike. It has the "Brain" shock so it locks out the suspension most of the way when you are climbing or on hardpack. I think the geometry on this bike is also superior to the Felt. The steering did not feel sluggish on the tight singletrack. Moreover, I don't think I would have even attempted to ride something like Blood Rock on a 26er. The big wheels were just more forgiving in the technical stuff. I also had lots of low back problems mountain biking last year. My back is still hurting (tight hamstrings and weak core I think) but things were definitely better on the full suspension. In short, this is a great do-it-all bike. I'm not even missing the lighter carbon hardtail.

My new Specialized Epic- Thanks BCF!

Finishing Blood Rock was a nice load off. There were a few more technical sections that I had to stay sharp for, but I was starting to feel good about my prospects for finishing the bike in one piece. For the second half of the bike I mostly held my own. A few people passed me and I caught a few. The closer I got to the end, the more cautious I started riding because I really wanted to finish this race (I saw tons of different mechanicals and crash-outs in this race). I nearly wiped out on the asphalt coming back into transition because some coolio ahead of me was getting out of his cycling shoes on the bike for a fast transition and lost a shoe right in front of me which I ran over while getting out of my own shoes.

In the end I had a much better ride than I would have predicted. I only lost around 7 minutes to the fastest rider (and the top riders are all accomplished, expert-level mountain bikers). My time was 1:19:23

Run

I was super-excited to have survived the bike and was pretty confident in my ability to turn in a fast run split. The run course was a two-loop affair around the lake we swam in. This was the flattest, easiest Xterra run that I have ever done. It had long sections of pavement each loop which are usually avoided in these races. The course has some singletrack and small hills, but none of the long climbs that I was hoping for where I could have made up even more ground. Since the run was only a 10K I took off pretty fast. I started reeling in people right away, but none of them were from my age group. When I hit the flat, fast sections I really strided out and was surely running sub-6 minute pace. I was hoping to really lay it all out on the run, but my quads took a big hit (fatigue-wise) during the bike and started acting like they would cramp whenever I really pushed it. I kept the pace pretty high and picked up quite a few places, but only 2 or 3 from my age group. I finished the run in 41:22 which is 6:39/mile. That time tells you two things: #1 I was moving along pretty good and #2 the course was not very difficult.

Overall Results

My overall time was 2:25:51. That was good for 8th in my age group but more importantly 21st overall! It's hard to compare to the other world champs that I've raced because they are far larger and have more international representation, but this is probably the best finish of my triathlon career. Moreover, if I actually focused on mountain biking for any significant period of time, I'm sure I could have knocked 5 minutes off this course, which would have put me into the top 10. There were only a couple of Illinois racers at the event, but I have to give huge props to Chris Scott from Morrison, IL. Chris completely dominates all the midwest Xterras and this race showed why as he won the ultra-competitive 40-44 age group and took 4th overall! Huge race for Chris- congrats!

We're now mid-way through tri season and I have yet to race another Xterra. I love to do it, but most of the midwest races are a really long drive. Peoria (about 1.5 hours away) has an event in August, but right now I've got another scheme going and may have to skip that race....more on this later!

Age Group Video Recap

Video of the Pro Race (they rode the easy bike course!)

Quick And Easy Common Foods For Training, Racing And Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Below is a compilation of "real" foods that can be used for training, racing and recovery. Many people prefer to use these sorts of foods instead of the commercial sports drinks, gels and recovery products. Give it a try, let me know what works for you!

Before Training

	Serving	Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat
Frozen Pretzels	1 med	160	34g	5g	1g
Eggo Nutri Grain Waffles	1	90	14g	2.5g	3g
Sliced bread/toast (whole wheat)	1 pc	100	21g	4g	1.5g
Bagels (plain, white)	1	146	29g	6g	1g
Pop Tarts	1	210	37g	2g	6g
bananas	1 med	105	27g	1g	0g
non-acidic fruit juices (apple)	8 oz	117	29g	0g	0g

Racing / Training

	Serving	Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat
Gel (Power Gel, vanilla)	1 pkg	110	29g	0g	0g
Fruit Snacks / fruit strips	1 pkg	90	20g	0g	0g
Saltines	15 oz (5)	60	11g	1g	1.5g
Beef Jerky	1 pc.	82	2g	7g	2g
Bagels (plain, white)	1	146	29g	6g	1g
Bananas	1 med	105	27g	1g	0g
Fig Newtons	2 cookies	112	22g	2g	2g
Casey's Doughnuts! (glazed)	1 large	229	38g	5g	14g

Recovery

	Serving	Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat
Slimfast (w/out sucralose)	1 can	220	40g	10g	3g
Carnation Instant Breakfast	1 pkg	130	26g	6g	0.5g
Chocolate Milk	8 oz	157	26g	8g	3g
Yogurt	1 cont.	240	47g	9g	2.5g
Drinkable Yogurt Smoothie	7 oz	70	12g	6g	0g
Protein powder (Whey)	31 g	130	5g	20g	2.5g
Peanut Butter (Jif regular)	2 tbsp	190	7g	8g	16g
Watermelon (for hydration)	1 pc. (286g)	86	22g	2g	0g
Eggs	1 large	70	<1g	6g	4.5g

Ironman Wisconsin Course Overview and Racing Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:29:00 +0000

In 2002, I raced my first Ironman in Wisconsin. I was a year removed from a collegiate swimming and running career and overly confident about my Ironman prospects. I had an ok debut race, but in hindsight made many rookie mistakes. Fast forward 5 years and 3 more Ironman finishes and I came back to Wisconsin a much more experienced triathlete. This time around, I raced a very smart race, went sub-10, got on the podium and qualified for Kona. The strategies below also draw on my experiences as a USAT certified coach.

Bottom line is that after a good deal of trial and error, I learned how to race the Ironman distance. Ironman race strategy is quite similar for any course. Many of the recommendations below could be successfully applied to any Ironman. I’ve tried to make note of a few things that are specific to Ironman Wisconsin. These notes and strategies are geared more towards first-timers than podium chasers.

RACE MORNING

7am start
Eat a solid breakfast bet. 4:30-5:30am
Ballpark 500-800 calories (some solid, some liquid, some protein, some fat, little to no fiber). Ideas: bagel with PB and honey, oatmeal with PB, plain white rice and a scrambled egg
Speaking from experience: don’t forget your bike nutrition in the fridge!
Continue sipping on sports drink until you enter the water
Drop off special needs bags near capitol building on main street
Check over your bike
Sit down, relax, until time to head to water (about 20-30 minutes prior to start)
Transition closes at 6:30am.
IM WI is an in-water start and it takes awhile to get everyone in. Expect to be treading/floating for quite awhile prior to the start.

SWIM START

Googles: I keep both a clear and tinted pair for either cloudy or sunny conditions. Anti-fog sprays can help, but letting a little lake water into your goggles and keeping it there is the only sure-fire way to beat goggle fogging.
If you are a slower swimmer, start wide (to the right) and towards the back.
Faster swimmers should consider swimming to the inside of the buoy line until hitting the first required turn buoy.
Don’t get carried away at the start. It is a very long day. Steady pace with even breathing.
Always draft off others and sight as little as possible.
There is a long straightaway before the first left turn. The first turn will be congested. Do not take the inside line, stay wide!
Beginning with 2012 IM WI will only be a 1 loop swim.
As you near the swim finish, increase your kicking for the last 5 minutes to get the blood moving in your legs again.

Soon after the swim exit there will be wetsuit strippers to help you get your wetsuit off. Try to have the top unzipped and then sit down in front of the volunteers and they will strip your suit for you.
Helix- jog up if you are trying to qualify for Kona. Consider walking or a slow jog otherwise. This is not the place to try and make up time.
Inside the terrace for T1. Don’t forget to have volunteers apply sunscreen before you get onto your bike!

BIKE

Ride carefully down helix: not the place to pass. You’ll have plenty of road for that.
If you use behind-the-saddle bottle cages make sure they won’t launch your carefully planned nutrition. Carbon cages may be light and pretty, but almost all will launch bottles- particularly if it rains. I highly recommend Elite Ciussi Gel Aluminum Cages as seen here on George Hincapie’s Paris Roubaix bike.
The bike leg of an IM is all about proper pacing. Knowing and sticking to proper IM HR or Power zones is critical.
Nutrition: nothing but fluids first 15-20 minutes out of water. After that, begin race nutrition plan. In general most athletes can take in 200-400 calories per hour.
Know what works for you and also what is on course. Be willing to listen to your body and deviate from nutrition plan.
Weather: w/in last 5 years people have dropped out of IM WI for both dehydration/heat stroke and hypothermia! Be prepared!
Gearing- you must be able to spin up most of the hills without standing. This course is ideal for a compact crank. A compact crank has 50 and 34 tooth chainrings as opposed to a traditional 53-39. Your rear cassette (using either crank) should ideally be: 11-26 or 11-28 (again referring to teeth on the smallest and largest cogs).

Course:

First 15 miles or so heading out of town are relatively flat and hopefully have low winds. People always start out too fast in IM. Maintain a steady pace, they will come back later!
After you pass through Verona the first time you begin some of the hillier sections.
First long climb is coming into town at Mount Horeb. There is an aid station at top. For the majority of the hills you want to stay seated and spin up. It’s ok to stand to stretch out your legs and back, but not to mash the pedals.
Going down Garfoot is really the only slightly technical descent on the course. If you’ve pre-ridden the course you know it is coming and how fast you can make the turns.
Old Sauk is the longest climb on the course and is shortly followed by one of the steepest climbs on Timber Lane. Spin up most of Old Sauk, then you will probably need to stand for some of the Timber Lane climb.
Midtown has the last (4^th) significant hill. After that, it is less than 10 miles before coming into Verona to complete the first loop.
Special needs will be after Fireman’s Park around the ½ way mark.
What goes in Special Needs?

Consider:
rain jacket
spare tube
extra CO2 cartridges
spare tire?, extra nutrition
“reward” food like a Snickers bar.
Taking your special needs bag on race day is optional.

2^nd loop stick to your pacing and nutrition plan
If you are feeling good at mile 75, you probably paced it right and then you can ramp it up a little and start reeling people in!
Remember that a properly-paced IM bike leg should never be harder than your training long rides and in most cases would be a little easier.
Heading back into town –hopefully without a headwind! Taper off nutrition, (and definitely stop solid foods), and switch back to mostly water about 20-30 minutes from end of bike course.
Easy up the helix. A volunteer will take your bike and you will head into the terrace for T2

Back inside the terrace
Can do a full clothes change if you want.
Don’t forget more sunscreen!

Run

The run is –you guessed it- all about pacing and nutrition.
Give yourself two or three easy miles to settle in and get used to running.
Have a run-specific nutrition plan. Generally about ½ the calories you take per hour on the bike.
A structured walk/run strategy is very effective for many age groupers.
As IM run courses go, Wisconsin is not that difficult. One big hill (Observatory Dr) each loop. You should probably walk this unless you plan to run under 3:30. Even then you probably wouldn’t lose time walking the hill.
Heat is more of a concern on this course than hills. Wear a hat. Stay hydrated. Dump ice and water everywhere.
Special needs is at the end of the first loop near the capitol. What is in a run special needs bag?

More of your planned/favorite nutrition
Rain gear
Long sleeve shirt or arm warmers
Reward food?
Change of shoes/socks?
Something inspirational to get you through?

Steady pace through about mile 15-16. Reassess at this point. If you are feeling decent –congratulations on proper pacing- and now it is time to really ratchet up the suffering and pick up the last 8-10 miles. People will come back to you in droves which is a nice mental boost.
Take your time and enjoy the finish line!

General Thoughts

Thank volunteers and spectators throughout the race. Draw on their energy.
Race your own race all day.
Don’t stay in a funk. There will always be low points in every IM race. Figure out how to deal with it and move forward. Know and tap into your personal motivations for being out there.
Have fun! You don’t have to do this, you get to do this!
Smile!

Smiling my way through IM WI in 2007!

If you are interested, my 2007 Ironman Wisconsin race report is linked here.

Man with a (2012) Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:53:00 +0000

"The goal is the journey" was one of the guiding philosophies of my Augustana Track and Cross Country coach (and English Professor) Paul Olsen. Ols has been one of the most influential figures in my life, but I had embraced this particular philosophy for a couple years even b.c. [Before Coach Ols]. Focusing on the journey is one way to practice the Buddhist concept of mindfulness. In Buddhism mindfulness is part of the Noble Eightfold path that leads to enlightenment. The Roman poet, Horace, was also thinking along these same lines when he penned the Latin phrase: carpe diem. To swing the literary pendulum all the way to the other side, pulp western novelist Louis L'Amour once wrote: “The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.” 'Ols and Buddha, Horace and L'Amour- these guys are all on to something here.

The goal is the journey is both a life philosophy and by association, a racing philosophy. Being mindful, seizing the day and savoring the journey are all excellent prescriptions for living. They should all work just as well for racing, but as I have been discovering the life journey frequently trumps the racing journey. I only rarely workout in the evenings anymore since that is generally family time. I skip lots of mid-day workouts to meet the demands of my job. Granted, these are all important journey things. I get that, and I'm ok with that. When it comes to training and racing at this stage in my life I've found that I need to have racing goals (and the bigger, the better). In a way, this runs contrary to the philosophy of the goal is the journey. If you're truly focused on the journey, on the day-to-day, then having a big goal or a big race shouldn't matter that much. What I've found is that if I don't have that big goal race looming, I tend to just give in to all the competing time pressures and workout irregularly or not at all. Someday I will be content with that state of affairs- probably when I stop racing competitively and just train for the sheer enjoyment of it. Another facet of these internal tensions is that I realistically don't have that many years left where I can compete well overall in races. I can compete well within a given age group for the rest of my life, but there is definitely a point where it is harder and harder to compete well overall. This is due partially to age, but also to shifting priorities towards my kid's activities and away from my own. Triathlon training -in particular, long course training- can be a very selfish endeavor for anyone, let alone a parent. My 2011 preseason post also covered some of these same musings.

So after that lengthy preamble, I have two big race announcements for my 2012 journey. At the beginning of last year I had grand visions of an Xterra-focused year culminating in the Xterra World Champs in Maui. I had a blast at the Xterra West Championship in Las Vegas and later in the year took second at the Xterra Wilds in Peoria, but with the birth of our daughter in June I couldn't really justify all the travel to Xterra races or the cost of a Maui trip. The Maui Xterra World Championship is still at the top of my bucket list, but a great alternative recently presented itself and I chose to follow Horace's advice and seize it. Last year, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) hosted their own off-road triathlon world championship in Spain. This world championship was organized in part to help better the chances for off-road triathlon to become a future Olympic event. Some last-minute, behind-the-scenes wrangling is bringing this world championship to Pelham, Alabama on May 16th and I'm gonna be there in the mix! My past race results were good enough to qualify me to race for Team USA. The race will be a long drive, but at least I don't need to pay for a plane ticket and outrageous bike fees.

This announcement was made really late (like February). I had been out of the pool for about 5 months and took pretty much all of Dec/Jan off to work on a bathroom remodeling project. Needless to say, I won't be in peak form for Worlds, but I'm making good progress from week to week. Part of my new training strategy is to bike commute to work 2 or 3 times a week. The ride is 40 miles roundtrip and since I have to drive it anyway it is not cutting into family time as much as driving to work and then sticking around to workout in the evening. Not ideal, but at least it is some regular mileage. The Pelham course is a true MOUNTAIN bike course and so I decided to swap bikes around in an effort to be safer -and hopefully faster- on this technical, rocky course. I do all my mountain and cyclocross racing for the Bloomington Cycle and Fitness Team and the shop helped me with a good deal on a new Specialized Epic 29er. The Epic is the best full-suspension design out there for XC racing.

New Specialized Epic 29er from Bloomington Cycle and Fitness

I'm counting on the big wheels and rear suspension (my old bike was a hardtail) to help get me through the Blood Rock section of the Pelham trails!

My second big race announcement for 2012 will actually occur at the beginning of 2013! I've been doing more and more cyclocross racing in the fall. While I am not nearly as good at cross as triathlon, I really enjoy it and it has been helping the cycling leg of my triathlon races. 2012/13 is an absolutely huge year for cyclocross in the Midwest with two premier events: U.S. Nationals in Madison in January, 2013. A week or so later the UCI Cyclocross World Championships leave European soil for the FIRST TIME EVER and will be held in Louisville, Kentucky! This is a huge deal and officially acknowledges the tremendous growth of cyclocross in the US over the past 5 years.

Now, the only thing I will be doing for the big UCI World Championship is spectating, heckling and drinking, BUT earlier in the week there are a series of World Championship races for old (Masters) guys. As of now, my plan is to throw my hat in the ring for both Nationals and the Masters World Champs. The way the Masters World Champs works is that there will be a series of preliminary races early in the week. The best 80 riders from these prelim heats get to race in the official Masters World Championship race. Performance under pressure. I love it! I don't know if I am good enough to make that top 80 cut or not. My season plan is to stop tri training mid-season and just focus on cycling all fall/winter. I've never focused just on cycling in my career, so I know I've got room to improve.

Wickwerks Chainring Review

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:20:00 +0000

With the explosion of the Chicago Cross Cup, I've had lots more opportunities to race cyclocross in recent years. 2011 was my biggest season thus far and I have some big cross ambitions for 2012 (more on that in a later post!). Cross is super-fun and super-intense so it has been a great way for me to maintain some of my cycling fitness through the fall and early winter. Thanks to my brother and his shop (Hub Endurance, Chattanooga, TN) I was finally able to replace my very well-used aluminum Giant TCX with a new carbon Blue Norcross EX. The frame deserves its own review, but just by swapping frames I shed some weight, gained some stiffness and improved braking performance.

What did not improve originally was front shifting performance. In fact, for reasons I haven't been able to pinpoint it probably went from barely tolerable on the Giant to lousy on the Blue. Keep in mind that this evaluation is by my personal standards- I'm guessing most riders would be perfectly fine with the front shifting on either bike. I'm a tinkerer by nature and it bugs me to no end when things aren't working like they should. Compounding matters is the fact that at the beginning of last year I finally converted from a triple mountain bike front chainring setup to Sram's new XX 2X10. The 2X10 front shifting has to be one of the single greatest cycling innovations ever. It is right up there with moving from rim brakes to disc brakes on mountain bikes. Tons of engineering went into designing Sram's XX front derailleur and chainrings. The shifting is nothing short of amazing. It is lightning quick and simply works in all situations- even under high pedaling pressure which is generally a recipe for an ugly, grinding shift. I'm going into all this detail about Sram's 2X10 system because it has raised the bar so high, I now want that kind of shifting on all my bikes and I was nowhere close on the new cross bike. It's worth noting that even as good as XX shifting is, lots of racers including Team Kenda-Felt, swap out XX chainrings for Wickwerks chainrings and report even better shifting!

As far as front shifting here's what I moved over from my old CX frame: Sram Force shift levers, Sram Force front derailleur, Sram Force compact crankset with FSA 46/34 chainrings. Upshifting (from small to big chainring) was both sluggish and unreliable. Sometimes I would want to accelerate and try to upshift and it would miss the shift altogether. I've been assembling and maintaining bikes for 15 years, so this was not a set-up or adjustment problem. It worked, but again it was below my personal standards and way below XX 2X10 shifting. Since I liked Sram stuff so much the first thing I looked at was whether I couldn't just put a Sram 2X10 mountain crank and front derailleur on the bike. This would have worked, but the current gearing options are all wrong for cross. The closest thing they have is 45/30. That small chainring is just geared too low for most cross courses. The next thing I looked at was upgrading the old FSA rings. Keep in mind these are not cheap chainrings. They are ramped (referring to the grooves machined into the back of the big ring that help the chain transfer) and pinned (chainring pins are generally made of steel for durability and work in conjunction with ramps to improve front shifting). I've been cycling long enough that some of my first bikes had front chainrings with no ramps or pins. Riding those old bikes really helped to teach me proper front shifting technique. What new cyclists don't realize is that there should actually be a very slight pause in your pedal stroke as you shift up to the big ring or down to the small ring. If you didn't do this on an upshift on an old bike it would just grind away and not catch. Improved rings/derailleurs have made technique less critical, but I see many new riders just crushing the pedals without any pause at all between up-front shifts- a little technique goes a long way people.....


This is the backside of my old FSA big chainring. You can see the ramps and pins, but nothing even close to the Wickwerks rings!

Backside of the Wickwerks rings. Take note of the hefty ramps!

I had heard about Wickwerks chainrings and read a few really positive reviews. I also learned that multi-time World and National champion Katie Compton has been using Wickwerks chainrings for years, which is a pretty solid endorsement! Currently Wickwerks is strictly a chainring company and as such they have a really refined product. Wickwerks chainrings actually came out well before Sram's new XX group. The backside of the big chainring is heavily machined and does not use pins. Instead it uses a series of improved ramps and Wickwerks' "Bridge" technology. For a full explanation of the Bridge technology and how it works read this section of the Wickwerks site. Chris Wickliffe owner/founder of Wickwerks was good enough to send me a set of 44/34 rings to ride and then review.

I've now been riding the chainrings for about 4 months, so this is not one of those "I raced them once and then wrote a review" things. The back half of my cross season included the always challenging Jingle Cross Rock in Iowa, the Illinois State Cross Championships with lots of training and few smaller races in between. Swapping rings over was a simple 15 minute job. I was super-excited to get out and put these things through the paces. My initial test ride in a local park was somewhat disappointing (keep reading!). Shifting was a little better, but still not that crisp moving up to the big ring. I loved the looks of the ramps on these things and knew the shifting should be better than it was.

Back to the drawing board. On paper this set-up should be awesome. New rings, newish chain, Force derailleur and shifters. Here we need a bit of cyclocross history and cycling component economics! Cross has been around for decades, but only recently has it exploded in popularity. That means for most of its history it was a fringe sport and not really taken into consideration by the big component companies (Shimnao, Sram, Campagnolo). So here's the problem. Cyclocross tends to be a messy sport so the long-time tradition is to run shift and brake cables along the top tube for two reasons: #1 to keep them more out of the mud than on the downtube and #2 you often need to grab the downtube when carrying the bike and this is easier without cables. This all makes perfect sense. Where the system breaks down is the front derailleur. Up until last year ALL front road derailleurs used what is called a bottom pull orientation (meaning the shift cable comes up from the bottom). Since cross bikes have the cables on the top tube this created a problem that was sort of fixed with the stop-gap measure of putting a pulley on the seat tube of cross bikes to reverse the direction of pull. This is a pet peeve of mine and a bad idea for all kinds of reasons. Reason #1 is that if a race is muddy in the least all this mud inevitably piles up right on top of this pulley with predictable results on front shifting. Reason #2 even without mud this system adds in unnecessary friction and weight. Reason #3 this adds to the overall length of the front cable run which degrades shifting just a bit more.

The pulley I am talking about is shown on the bottom right picture above.

I turned my attention to getting rid of this pulley to finish fixing my front shifting performance. A German company produces a little adapter called an Umlenker that changes a bottom-pull derailleur to a top-pull. I didn't test one of these mainly because it is another stop-gap measure and adds unnecessary complexity to the front derailleur. My next solution was to try a Sram XX front derailleur since I like it so much on my mtb bike. Many mtbs use a top-pull orientation, so it eliminated the pulley from the system. Sram uses the same pull ratios on the road and mtb stuff, so on paper this should have worked just fine. In practice, I ran into another problem. I could not stop the front derailleur from over-shifting and falling off the outside of the big ring. I even went so far as to put in a longer stop screw into the derailleur with no luck. I'm pretty certain (but would like confirmation from someone) that the issue is with the crank spacing. I believe a Sram 2X10 crank sits further out from the bottom bracket than a standard road crank and hence the over-shifting. If I had paired with a 2X10 crank it would have worked fine, but, as above good cross gearing does not exist in a 2X10 crank. All of this ended up pushing me over to the dark side (Shimano). Sram has been a longtime sponsor of my Evotri team, but beyond that their headquarters is up in Chicago and I just plain like what they've done component-wise in the last decade. BUT Shimano finally caught wind of this exploding cross phenomenon and created a cyclocross group that finally included....drumroll please... a top-pull front road/cross derailleur, the CX 70.

So I realize that this is way more background than anyone except the most geeky of bike geeks and/or bike mechanics would care about, but I think it is critical when reviewing something to look at all the pieces involved in a system. In this case that includes: pedaling technique, front shifter, front derailleur, chainrings, cable routing and whether or not you are using a pulley to change cable pull. If these pieces aren't working in unison, then you won't get the performance Wikwerk rings are capable of. With the new Shimano derailleur everything finally clicked. To get back to the Wickwerks chainrings, they definitely began working as advertised. Upshifts are super-quick and positive with almost no grinding. It is not quite as good as my XX set-up but I think that is due to the nature of sti-style road shifters, not the chainrings or derailleur. I bet if I mounted a Sram thumb shifter on my cross bike instead of the regular road shifter performance would be almost identical. It is worth noting that Chris Wickliffe has a teaser on his website for a completely re-designed front derailleur that looks quite promising. If it goes into production and works as well as the chainrings, it will make for a killer combo!

Prototype of the Wickwerks front derailleur.

Durability of the rings appears to be as good or better than everything else that is out there. My rings have been ridden in super muddy races (Jingle Cross) and races with lots of sand (Illinois CX championships).

Diligent chainring testing and Jingle Cross!

Cross is a growing market and I would expect we'll soon see some of Sram's XX chainring technology filter down to compact cross chainrings soon like it did with the new Red road rings this year. Hopefully we'll also see a top-pull road derailleur from them as well.

A set of Wickwerks cyclocross chainrings cost about $130. Certainly more pricey than a standard set of chainrings, but I think the performance benefits make it worth it for many racers- particularly if you need to replace a set of worn rings.

Why not run a single chainring?

With all my griping about simplicity I'm sure a bunch of people are wondering why I didn't just go with a single ring set-up which has been gaining popularity. For a long time you were limited in your gear combinations with a single ring. Now though, you can put a Sram 11-36 cassette on with a mtb rear derailleur and a middle-of-the road front chainring (around 42t) and get as wide a gear range as a double set-up. Single-ring set-ups save a little -but not much- weight because you still need to add a chain guide. Simplicity is the strongest argument and one I like. Cyclocross magazine ran an in-depth article on double vs single ring cross setups a few years back. At the time all the pros that provided comments for the article were using double set-ups. The argument that is most convincing to me is that when races get muddy (quite common in the midwest) then you often lose your lowest gears (which you really need in the mud) when mud packs up on the rear derailleur. If you are in your lowest gear and everything is packed with mud sometimes the derailleur gets pulled into the rear spokes (this has happened to me once in addition to some close calls). With a single-ring set-up you really need to count on being able to use every gear combination. With a double, you can do without your couple of lowest gears and still be geared low enough for the mud. Single ring set-ups also have chainline issues, but I don't think that is a make-or-break issue. I should probably try it before I knock it, but right now with the Wickwerks rings and shimano derailleur I am really happy with my shifting and can think about tinkering with other things....like hopefully hydraulic disc brakes for cross bikes!

Upcoming Cycling / Community Service Opportunities in Bloomington!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:35:00 +0000

Walk In, Bike Out.

April 21^st, 9-11:30am

This project is part of Global Youth Service Day. The program is an annual campaign that celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day of the year through service and service-learning. http://www.gysd.org/about

http://www.westbloomington.org/wordpress/2012/02/global-youth-service-day-2012/

The idea is simple. We are collecting and repairing donated used bikes that we will put into the hands of needy children & adults on Bloomington's west side. On April 21^st, we will need quite a few people to help out at the Abraham Lincoln Parking deck next to the Law & Justice Center.

I helped out with this last year, and it was an awesome to be able to give away bikes to so many kids and some adults as well.

Here are some of the things we’ll be doing:

Help people pick out bikes that are appropriate to their size and use

Get helmets and locks to the people who have new bikes

Get the bikes registered - this year we will be registering the bikes with the BLM Police Department

Make sure people know how to use their bikes - esp. the kids

Reassure people who come for bikes - esp. the adults - that these bikes really are for them if they need them; sometimes the adults wonder if they qualify - everybody qualifies! we recognize that sometimes a bike is how people get to work, it's not something that is fluff-extra.

If any of the volunteers can fix bikes, or help with things like making sure tires are inflated, we can always use that help too

Before this event happens there is a lot of grunt work to be done. We need to collect and repair the donated bikes. Here’s a chance for all you local wrenches to put those skills to some good use. See below for info on bike work days. Contact one of the coordinators (Rick Heiser or Greg Shaw) prior to showing up to make sure a work night / weekend is on.

Location: Abraham Lincoln Parking deck next to the Law & Justice Center. The entrance, through the metal double doors, is on the south side of the parking deck. Bring tools so that we have enough to be efficient and productive.

We still need to publicize this to churches and other interested community members to request donations of bikes to be fixed up for the event.
Proposed work dates at the parking deck: Sat March 3- 9:00 to 1:00, Tues March 6- 6:00 to 8:00, Wed March 7- 6:00 to 8:00, Thur March 8- 6:00 to 8:00, Sat March 10- 9:00 to 1:00, Tues March 13- 6:00 to 8:00, Wed March 14- 6:00 to 8:00, Thur March 15- 6:00 to 8:00, Sat March 17- 9:00 to 1:00, Tues March 20- 6:00 to 8:00, Wed March 21- 6:00 to 8:00, Thur March 22- 6:00 to 8:00.
Greg or Rick will be there on these dates.

Thanks,

Rick Heiser

rrheiser at aol.com

H 828-250

C 217-380-8078

Greg Shaw

gshaw at iwu.edu

The Illinois Sustainable Living & Wellness Expo welcomes Bikes, Bikes & more Bikes!

Saturday, April 14 — 9:00 am-4:00 pm

Illinois Wesleyan University, Shirk Center

Ride your Bike to the Event!

No worries about leaving your bike unattended or even locking it up, you can enjoy the Expo with free Valet Bicycle Parking provided by WGLT Good To Go and Friends of the Trail. Bike riders will get premium parking spots.

Maintenance/Repair/ Tune-up

Getting your bike ready for riding season… members of West Bloomington Revitalization Project want to help. They will be available from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. to make primary repairs to your bike!

They will inflate tires to proper level for optimum riding, adjust brakes, oil chains, and replace tires/tubes. If someone has training wheels to install they can do that too! There is no charge for these services, and will be provided on a first come first serve basis.

Don’t know what to do with bikes you no longer want? Put them to good use, donate them at the Expo!

Working Bike Cooperative will be collecting bikes at the Expo that need a new home. These bikes do not need to be in working condition. This organization collects and ships over 6000 used bicycles a year to non-profit projects in developing countries.

So… ride your bike, park your bike, service your bike, and get rid of bikes that no longer provide a service for you or your family, in one location…The Illinois Sustainable Living and Wellness Expo.

For more information on this dynamic event go to www.islwe.org

Evotri: Origins

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:54:00 +0000

This post is my contribution to an "Origins" series on my Evotri team website.

One of my early 90's triathlon efforts with my brother.

My earliest triathlon memories are fuzzy. I recall awaking in a secret Canadian laboratory where my skeleton had just been replaced by Zipp carbon fiber and adamantium. My blood was transfused with Espresso flavored Gu. I had super powers such as the ability to relieve myself at race pace without breaking stride….

Actually, when I signed up for my first sprint triathlon in 1992 I knew exactly zero other people who had ever done one. The sport was much smaller back then and I was in the summer between Jr. High and High School.


Metamora Summer Swim Team circa 1990? In later years I would coach this team of 100+ swimmers.

I had been on a summer swim team since age 9 and had started running track in 5^th grade. In track, I was quickly pegged as a distance runner, but since we were a very small school I volunteered to do a little bit of everything including sprints and throwing shot put. I still contend that they should handicap gradeshool shotput by weight since I only weighed like 3 times more than the shot put.

My shot put career was short-lived.

Due largely to the abilities of my teammates, I actually ran the 4X100m relay in the grade school state track meet. I started Cross Country in 7^th grade and was immediately one of the better runners (albeit on another small team). For a time I held the 7^th and 8^th grade cross country 2 mile records, but those are long gone. I ran in the state xc meet in 8^th grade finishing with a high 11 minute 2 mile I think.


St. Mary's Grade School Cross Country. Old. School.

Back in the pre-internet days people always learned about races at the local running store. In my case this was the awesome and still thriving Running Central in Peoria, IL. They had a huge row of paper entry forms that I always picked up when I went in. In the summer of ’92 I picked up entry forms for two “sprint” triathlons: Tri-Tremont and Canton Bi-Tri Classic.

Tri-Tremont was first and there was no kids division so I did the same distances as everyone else 400m pool swim, 13 mile bike, 5k run. I don’t recall if I won my age group, but I definitely placed. Moreover I was hooked on this concept of doing 3 really fun sports as part of one race. Later that summer I raced the Canton Bi-Tri Classic and this race did offer a shorter distance kids race. I had lots of success over the years at Canton. I think I won the kids race every –or almost every- year that I did it. As far as I know my record for the kids distance still stands. This past year was the 20^th anniversary for Canton. One of the triathlon accomplishments I am quite proud of was winning this event (2010 and 2011) that helped get me started. This coming summer will be the 20^th anniversary of my first race at Tremont. The event went away for a few years, but has been brought back. One of my goals for 2012 will be to go back to this race that got me started and try to win it 20 years later.

For the first half of my triathlon career, I literally never trained for the bike leg. I biked some as a means of transportation, but never really for fitness. I mostly relied on my swim/run fitness to carry me through all my early triathlons. I ran and swam competitively in High School (Metamora High School) and in college (Augustana College). During this time I never raced more than 1 or 2 triathlons a summer and never longer than sprint distance. It wasn't until I finished undergrad that I stepped up to longer races and began focusing on triathlons, but that is more recent history and fodder for a later post.

Making the Team: 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:12:00 +0000

Now entering its sixth year, the members of Team Evotri continue to challenge themselves and others to live a healthy and active lifestyle through endurance sports. They have been given an extraordinary opportunity to train and race with the same equipment and coaching as the pros. They continue to dedicate themselves to maximizing their potential, to sharing what they learn from their experiences, and to making a positive contribution to the endurance sport community.

Team Evotri is again ready to welcome a new member to the family. For 2012, Team Evotri and its sponsors have pulled together a one-of-a-kind package to provide an age group athlete the opportunity to train and race like a PRO, while giving back to the triathlon and endurance community. The current team members will be looking for an individual who embraces the spirit of triathlon: a positive attitude, enthusiasm for the sport, desire to improve, and dedication to give back to the endurance community. Years of triathlon experience and good race results are not deciding factors in choosing a winner, but passion is.

The next team member will benefit by receiving an excellent package courtesy of the team's sponsors:

QuintanaRoo will provide a top-of-the-line CD0.1 frameset with innovative shift technology that will undoubtedly take your bike splits to a new level.

Zipp Speed Weaponry knows just how to outfit a frame like the CD0.1 with a 404 front and 808 rear wheel set.

SRAM will add to the bike with its latest cockpit and drivetrain components.

CycleOps finishes the bike off with its cutting edge SL+ wireless PowerTap hub and Joule 2.0 computer.

HUB Endurance puts it all together providing a full year of expert triathlon coaching to deliver the newest Evotri athlete to the top of their potential in 2012.

Here's how you can be the next Team Evotri member:

Create a video that's no longer than three (3) minutes. The video should answer the following three questions:

Why Evotri?
Why You?
Can you Evotri?

Guidelines:

Videos must be posted to Team Evotri's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/evotri.
Videos must be posted by December 31, 2011, at 11:59 PM CST.
Videos not within the time constraints will not be considered.

Process:

The current team members will select finalists from the video submissions.
The finalists will be notified by January 15, 2012 and will be invited to be interviewed via teleconference by current team members.
The winner will be announced on February 1, 2012.

Important Notes:

By posting a video to Evotri's Facebook page, candidates grant contest affiliates permission to use said video for promotional purposes affiliated with Team Evotri and the 2012 contest.
The winner of the team slot forfeits all awards if he/she is unable to continue as a team member for any reason for a period within two years of joining the team.
The winner of the team slot agrees to contribute to the Team Evotri web site for as long as he/she is a member of Team Evotri.
The winner agrees to race in an Evotri team uniform for all multisport events. Winner to purchase choice of uniform apparel upon final selection.
The winner of the team slot must participate in the yearly Team Evotri event. The 2012 event is a training camp in Chattanooga, TN from April 12-15, 2012. You must be present for the entire time.
No reimbursement will be made by Team Evotri or its sponsors for the creation, submission or any other expenses associated with the video entry.
No reimbursement will be made by Team Evotri or its sponsors for any travel, lodging, race entry fees, or other associated expenses in attending Team Evotri activities.

Announcing Evotri - Hub Endurance Sponsorship!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Madison, WI
11/17/11

Team Evotri is excited to announce a new sponsorship collaboration with Hub Endurance, Chattanooga, TN. Hub Endurance is Chattanooga's premier multisport shop and also offers a full range of custom multisport coaching options. "The Hub" is the only bike shop in Tennessee to offer professional bike fits utilizing the state of the art Guru Dynamic Fit Unit. Hub Endurance also carries Evotri's favorite line of tri bikes: Quintana Roo! Hub Endurance will provide a year of custom coaching and a professional bike fit to all new Evotri members. In addition, Hub will offer discounted coaching services and products to the full Evotri team.

Team Evotri's tagline has always been "Synergistic Multisport" and that concept is something we take seriously. Synergistic Multisport means that we are always looking for new and innovative ways to interact with our sponsors and supporters. We don't just expect to be given great equipment, but also to dialogue with sponsors about how that equipment actually performs from month to month and year to year. In the past we have had sponsor representatives train and race alongside the team. Evotri's yearly WIBA training weekend is a free event to anyone who wants to show up. So when Andy Sweet (brother of Evotri member Chris Sweet) started a coaching company and multisport shop this new synergy was a no-brainer.

Below is a Q&A with Hub Endurance owners Jamie Ingalls and Andy Sweet.

Tell us a little bit about your athletic backgrounds.

Jamie Ingalls - Former division 1 ski racer, and semi-pro cyclist. Been racing bicycles since 1988 (age 13).

Andy Sweet - 5-time IM finisher, UMCA RAAM qualifier, competitive swimmer since age 6.

Hub Endurance originally started out as a physical location for your coaching business where you could do bike fits and indoor group rides. Pretty quickly you guys realized that people wanted a lot more. Tell us about that transition from a coaching home base to multisport shop. How has it benefited the coaching side of your business?

The biggest benefit is that it allows us to better care for and equip our athletes for optimal performances. Upon the growth of our coaching business, we quickly realized that most of our athletes were riding improper equipment and were getting frustrated with the process of trying to find/buy the right products. We started bridging that gap with information and recommendations... then eventually clients started asking us to 'just get me what I need!" In addition, Chattanooga never had a retail location dedicated to the multisport athlete (no swim shops, few bike shops with tri bikes, etc); so we decided that with our bike and retail knowledge, we could attempt to fill that gap.

10 years ago there were literally only a handful of serious triathlon coaches in the country, now USAT certifies big classes of new coaches every few months. How does Hub stand out? What are your coaching philosophies?

Our coaching philosophies are rather simple and effective:

We focus on forming and maintaining very open lines of communication with all of our clients. We encourage our clients to call/email/visit with us as often as they can, because the more direct interaction we have with them, the better we are able to assess their fitness, their health, their motivation, etc.
We believe coaching is much more than providing workout schedules. We feel that we have a responsibility to our athletes to help them progress in all aspects of their fitness, which includes important (and often ignored) aspects, such as form, technique, mental preparation, and stress management, in addition to strength and endurance.
We believe in helping our athletes balance their schedules to optimize fitness gains in a realistic amount of time. We realize that most people have full-time jobs, families, and other commitments outside of athletics, so we constantly strive to help our clients maximize the time that they have available, rather than asking them to sacrifice other aspects of their life.

Your "Advanced" and "Professional" levels of custom coaching offer quite a few perks you don't usually see from other coaching companies. What are some of those "extras" that you've built into your coaching packages?

We offer features like regular power/HR reviews, which generally other coaching groups charge extra for, because we feel these are essentials for athlete progression. We love going through files with clients, because the more that they understand their performances (strengths/weaknesses), the better athlete they will become. As a full service bike shop, we are also able to offer some other perks, such as discounted bike service/camps/clinics.

Hub made a substantial investment in a Guru Dynamic Fit Cycle (DFU). Tell us about what the DFU does and why you chose it over other fit cycles / systems that are out there.

The GURU Dynamic Fit Unit is far and away the greatest fit tool designed to date. We researched all the different offerings in the fit world, and were simply blown away by the DFU's capabilities. It allows us to adjust rider position in real-time (no gettting off and on the bike, swapping components, etc), while providing detailed feedback on the riders performance. It allows us to measure aspects such as power output, efficiency, spinscan, right/left leg balance, and even torque angle. After a DFU fit, we are able to provide customers with their optimal position, bike geometry, and component choices.

What is one thing that absolutely drives you nuts about triathletes?

We find that triathletes are very involved in researching their sport, however, they are not always the best at finding factual, supported information. They love internet forums!

Outside of the family relationship, what made you want to sponsor the Evotri team? Was it the across-the-board good looks that would enable any Evotri team member to be a Hub Endurance poster child and drive gobs of business to the shop?

Looks are everything! But, in all actuality, we are really looking forward to working with the Evotri team to help us announce HUB Endurance to the nationwide public. We have been extremely successful in growing our business locally and regionally, but feel that our coaching structure and talent will be able to help athletes all of the country. Through Team Evotri's large online presence and nationwide following, our partnership will highlight our remote coaching abilities.

Evotri plans to visit Chattanooga next spring for a team training camp. What local ride/run routes will you be sending them on? Will anyone cry?

They will all have the opportunity to train in the mountains and valleys around Chattanooga... the number of classic ride and run routes are endless. But, the infamous 3-State 3-Mountain ride will likely be featured... some will cry.

A Bicycle Built for Two (Huffy Daisy Daisy Restoration Project)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Daisy Bell
By: Harry Dacre (1892)

There is a flower within my heart,
Daisy, Daisy,
Planted one day by a glancing dart,
Planted by Daisy Bell.
Whether she loves me or loves me not
Sometimes it's hard to tell,
And yet I am longing to share the lot
Of beautiful Daisy Bell.

Chorus:

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do,
I'm half crazy all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage -
I can't afford a carriage,
But you'd look sweet on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.

We will go tandem as man and wife,
Daisy, Daisy,
Ped'ling away down the road of life,
I and my Daisy Bell.
When the road's dark, we can both despise
P'licemen and lamps as well.
There are bright lights in the dazzling eyes
Of beautiful Daisy Bell.

(Chorus)

I will stand by you in wheel or woe
Daisy, Daisy,
You'll be the bell which I'll ring you know
Sweet little Daisy Bell
You'll take the lead on each trip we take
Then if I don't do well
I will permit you to use the brake
beautiful Daisy Bell

(Chorus)

History was one of my undergraduate majors (literature was the other) and continues to be one of my abiding passions. Naturally, anytime that I can bring my passion for history together with my passion for cycling I'm like a little kid on Christmas morning. This tandem restoration project has been quite a few years in the making, but before I get to that there is another bit of historical trivia that relates to the inspiration behind the original Daisy Bell song. As the story goes, when Dacre (an English popular composer) first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged duty. His friend joked, 'It's lucky you didn't bring a bicycle built for two, otherwise you'd have to pay double duty.' Dacre was so taken with the phrase 'bicycle built for two' that he decided to use it in a song.

I haven't been able to pin down a date on the bike itself. It is definitely late 50's or early 60's. The first time I saw a picture of one of these I fell in love with it. To me, it is just so iconic of that era. The cars and bikes from that time period both had gorgeous curves with barely a hard angle anywhere. So obviously the bike is good old American steel and quite heavy. I had saved searches set up on Ebay for years before I finally found this one within a couple hours of home. Actually I bought two bikes, neither of which was actually in working order. Both had been stored outside for some period of time, been repainted with probably a can of spray paint and were just generally abused all-around.

Since I knew I didn't have time to jump right into the stripping and painting (I had just started a new job and was in the process of buying a new house and selling the old one) I took parts from both bikes to make a franken tandem that sort of worked. It was lots of fun to cruise around on, but the handling is complete crap and the gearing was too high.

This is one of the only pics I took of the "original" frame.

Fast forward a couple of years and a friend had found me an original chainguard in excellent condition to repaint. I thought this was as good an excuse to buy a sandblaster as any, so I picked up one of those and started the hard labor of removing multiple layers of paint and rust. There were so many problems that I just took everything back down to the bare metal.

Originally I was going to dredge up my rusty and dated automotive painting skills, but decided if I was going to put this much time and effort into the project that I wanted a professional paint job with modern paints. Enter Mike's Collision Center. Mike Mavec is a local triathlete and owner of Mike's Collision. He had just begun dabbling in bike painting and I approached him with the tandem project. We made a deal to swap a paint job for some coaching-related services.

The pinstripes I am adding in these pics were not original, but one of my personal enhancements!

Don Fogler of Fogler Signs did a great job helping me re-create the original decals that all went under the clearcoat.

After painting, decals and clearcoating it was time for rebuilding. I was only able to salvage a few of the original parts. The chainrings and seatposts are original but that's about it! I was amazed at how cheap heavy steel parts are! The new wheelset cost $45 and the fenders were like $20. Refreshing since a single tire for my triathlon bike runs about $75! Getting everything to work took some tinkering. The fenders and tires are both wider than the originals, but I love the look! I still need to do some tinkering with the idler pulley that maintains chain tension.

The new bike's maiden voyage was a trip of a couple miles around Lexington. We live right off old Route 66 and Cara and I did a portion of the ride on the old road that is now a bike path. It seemed so iconic to be riding a classic 1950's American steel frame on the classic highway from the same era! Really looking forward to having this bike to cruise around Lexington on!

Maiden Voyage! No parts fell off!

So the bike basically handles like crap. It has a flimsy front fork that has to provide direction for a 50+ pound bike plus two riders. Little spooky, but the thing isn't meant to go fast! The only brake is a coaster brake which is pretty effective actually. I haven't had a bike with a coaster brake in probably 20 years, but it was amazing how natural that braking motion is if you grew up riding old school bmx!

Those of you with short cycling memories probably only associate Huffy bikes with their current line of garbage department store bikes. In the 1980's Huffy invested heavily in supporting professional U.S. cycling and developing cutting-edge race bikes. The 7-Eleven cycling team rode Huffys for a few years that were actually re-branded Serottas (Huffy made their own copies for the average racer). In the 1984 and 1988 Olympics athletes aboard Huffys took home gold and silver medals. Huffy even got into developing time trial bikes and eventually triathlon bikes. Mark Allen's 1991 win the Ironman World Championships in Kona was aboard a Huffy Triton (pictured below).

Early Huffy Time Trial Bike

Greg Lemond Raced on a Huffy for a time.

Even "The Donald" likes Huffys! Backstory here.

Mark Allen won Kona in 1991 aboard one of these!

So what's the next project, you might ask? Well I've got something at least equally as cool as the Daisy Daisy in the works: an Evel Knievel 10 speed! As far as I have been able to determine this is one of the first production bikes to be equipped with a disc brake! Check out the video of the man selling these bikes! Mine is currently in considerably worse shape. When I have this thing done and find a stars and stripes jumpsuit to match, I am going to be so badass!

As easy as 1,2,3?

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:36:00 +0000

8/5/11
Canton Triathlon
1st Overall

8/20/11
Xterra Illinois Wilds
2nd Overall

9/3/11
Great Illini Half Ironman
3rd Overall

Well this has certainly been a roller coaster season! My attempt to race well at a big Xterra event in April didn't really go as planned. I enjoyed the challenge but the results were lacking. I knew that our new baby girl in early June was going to entail a significant break from training. The rest of the summer was one long struggle to get back into competitive form. My strategy was to race a lot and hit just about every workout pretty hard since I was on a low-volume training program. I didn't feel like I came into short course racing form until August. By sheer coincidence early August was also when my Evotri team all got new Quintana Roo bikes. The bike has been really good to me so far! I literally put it together on a Friday and then raced to an overall win the next morning! I think I've won 3 out of 4 of our local Tuesday Night Time Trials on the new bike.

Suffering on the new QR during a time trial.

I'm going to give condensed race reports for my last 3 races.

8/5/11
Canton Triathlon
1st Overall

This is a local-ish sprint race and one of my all-time favorites because I have been racing there for so long. This year was the race's 20th anniversary and I actually participated in the kids race there 19 years ago! This is a real roots race for me and being the 20th anniversary, I was gunning for a win. It was also Cara's first triathlon back since having Lorien in June.

Chris Camp, a good friend from my grade school and high school swimming days has shown up as part of a relay the last two years. We were both sprinters, but he ended up a big Division 1 school where he did quite well. The week before Canton he pulled out a 47 sec 100 yard freestyle, so he's still got some speed! In the swim, I jumped on his feet right away and hung on for dear life. Fortunately for me, he doesn't have much open water experience and I held his feet for about 75% of the race. I blitzed through transition and jumped on my new Quintana Roo CD0.1. About 3 or 4 miles into the bike leg I had taken over the lead including the relay teams. I usually feel terrible on the bike during sprint tris, but my legs finally felt good for this race. Temps were good, winds were low. I averaged 23.5mph for a somewhat rolling course and still had a lot left in the tank. I hadn't been happy with my runs all season and wanted to turn in a fast 3 mile split. I took off with that intention, but it is really hard to push deep into the pain cave when you aren't chasing anyone. I ended up running a 17:36 for the somewhat hilly run. My time was about 2 or 3 seconds slower than when I won the year before, so that at least showed my race form was finally coming around. Cara managed a win in her age group and good friend and fellow Tri-Shark Aimee Dziekan took the overall win for the women.

8/20/11
Xterra Illinois Wilds
2nd Overall

If you are one of the few that actually read everything I put up on my blog, you will recall that originally 2011 was going to be my big Xterra year, hopefully culminating with the World Championships in Maui. A variety of factors -chiefly financial- derailed this plan this year. I love racing Xterra, but the midwest races mostly require long drives and overnight trips which is hard with an infant and 3 year old! Anyway, this is the second year for Xterra Illinois Wilds which is held near Peoria, IL (about 1.5 hours away from home). This swim was 800 yards. I knew that Chris Scott who won last year would be near the front as well as my friend and local masters swimmer, John Pratt. This was a 1-wave start, so I really got out hard so that I wouldn't get caught up. I was near the lead for a bit, then caught John's feet for a few hundred yards until he dropped me. I think I came out of the swim in around 4th? I had done two mountain bike races this season, but really didn't get out to train much on my mountain bike. This bike course is actually quite technical and doesn't give you much opportunity to just open up and use your general cycling fitness. I was pushing pretty hard and taking some risks until I got into second place. Then I washed out on a loose corner and later went down really hard when I caught a handlebar on a tree. Some spectators saw my wipeout and just stood there with open jaws, so it must have looked pretty spectacular. Those two crashes caused me to slow up a bit and take less risks.

I'm riding a hardtail 29er this year, coming off a full-suspension 26er. The carbon hardtail is fun, but I think I will eventually want to get back to a full-suspension bike for Xterra. As for the 29er vs. 26er debate, I don't think it is nearly as big a difference as people (and manufacturers!) make it out to be. The 29er is definitely better over obstacles and for high-speed descents. The 26er is better in tight terrain. I can't tell that the 29er has better tire contact, which is a common claim.

As for the rest of the race, Chris Scott had first place locked up after the ride. I lost much less time to him this year than last which I was happy about since they added a couple miles to the bike course. For the rest of this race I ran hard, but really just hard enough to defend second place. Chris Scott cruised to the win about 6 minutes in front of me. I'll take that since I don't think he has lost an Xterra race in the midwest the past few seasons!

Only other thing worth noting about the race is that Ryan Sutter of "The Bacherlotte" fame showed up at the race with a full camera crew. As I understand it he was chasing Xterra points for either nationals or worlds and was in Illinois for the Chicago Triathlon. As I recall, he raced Kona by actually qualifying rather than taking a celebrity slot. He is a Colarado native, so I had no idea what his off-road skill might be like. He ended up 5th about 6 minutes back from me, so a pretty solid showing- particularly since I believe he did the Leadville 100, one or two weeks earlier! Minus the camera crew, he pretty much just blended right in with all of us. Nice guy from what I could tell.

Post-race at the Xterra. Note the birdhouse award and recovery drink!

9/3/11
Great Illini Half Ironman
3rd Overall

Like lots of things this season, choosing the Great Illini Half Ironman was a compromise. I wanted to finish the season with at least one half Ironman to see where my long course fitness was at. I also had my eyes on Branson 70.3 and Rev3 Cedar Point, but eventually defaulted to Great Illini because #1 it had the cheapest entry fee, #2 it was the closest and #3 I thought I had an outside chance at winning prize money. I've actually won this small half twice before, but it didn't have prize money back then. I didn't have time to do much volume this year, so I wasn't sure how I would hold up for a half. On the right day Great Illini can be quite quick and I thought I could turn in a time somewhere in the 4:20s.

We did not have the right day. We had a downright sucky day. The race was the beginning of September, but summer temps decided to hang around for another week.

I traveled down to the race with good Tri-Shark friends Laura Wheatley and Aimee Dziekan. My go-to pre-race restaurant when I am racing in Matoon has been the Amishland Red Barn Buffet and this trip certainly didn't disappoint! It's also Jonah's favorite because they have 4 colors of jello. A Dos Equis Amber at a little Mexican place by the hotel topped off my pre-race nutrition preparation.

Pre-Race Buffet Goodness!

Who shows up at this event is a big toss-up. The prize money has pulled in a few pros and top age groupers in the past. This year the only one I knew for sure that was coming down was good friend Andrew Starykowicz. There went first place (but I think having Andrew race actually helped me. More on this later). Water was really warm and well above the wetsuit cut-off. I don't like swimming in a wetsuit if it is above 75, but I also don't like racing in bathwater even without a wetsuit. I ended up in second behind Starykowicz for most of the first lap of two. Second lap my lack of swim training showed itself and I lost a little time to a group of about 3 athletes. I hit transition in 31 minutes and change which isn't great for me, but not bad for a non-wetsuit swim.

The temps at the start of the bike weren't too bad yet. My long bike training consisted of 3, 3 hour rides where I pretty much figured out what sort of power I could currently maintain for 56 miles. I was targeting 225-230 ave and ended up just a little under 225. Out on the bike I actually felt really good and started picking places back up. I think it took me about 15 miles to move back into 2nd. The course is mostly flat, but has a bunch of turns including 5, 180 degree turnarounds. The course had to be re-routed over some pretty rough roads that beat all of us up as well. One the second lap some of the olympic distance riders began to mix in with us. One guy went around me so fast I just assumed he was racing the olympic. For the record, when racing for prize money, it is really not a good idea to ASSume! It wasn't until an out-and back around 45 miles that I realized I was now in 3rd and down by quite a bit. I put some extra effort into the pedals, but was pretty fatigued at that point. My ride was 2:26 or about 23 mph. Not my best, but ok for this season.

By the end of the ride it was pretty hot and humid. Having done the race a few times before I knew it was completely open with no shade. It was scarily similar to the terrible conditions the day I won the Effinham Half Ironman a couple years ago. Starting the run I knew getting close to my PR was out of the question. Instead I just wanted to keep myself in the prize money and maybe move up to second overall. I started out at a pretty conservative pace that I knew I could maintain in the heat. I felt ok given the conditions and put some effort into the middle miles to see if I could close the gap on second, but he was running really well, so I went back to my strategy of defending third and not blowing up. The aid stations each mile couldn't come soon enough. The temps were in the 90s with clear skies and heat index around triple digits. I utilized one of heat management strategies of dumping iced down my jersey and pants....and then eating that ice between aid stations! It is a beautiful, I just recycle all my electrolytes! Run was one of my worst ever times (1:40) which contributed largely to my 4:40 finish time. For comparison I've ran under 1:25 and finished under 4:25 on this course in better conditions. In any case, that time was still good for 3rd overall and my biggest triathlon pay day to date. I'm pretty certain that having Starky show up actually kept me in the money because it kept away some other racers who knew they wouldn't win overall, so didn't show up. Thanks man! Seems like the hot race didn't phase Andrew much since he went on to win the Rev3 full the following weekend! 8:28 for his first full seems like a good debut!

I think all of that leaves me conflicted over the season. I knew it would be really tough having a new baby in June, but it was REALLY tough! For a long time (see Lifetime Fitness race report!) it didn't seem like I was going to be able to get back into shape. I don't think I ever did get into very good long course shape, but I've got to be happy with these results from my last 3 races. Even if they were smaller regional races all of them had some good competition.

I had lots of friends and teammates racing IM Wisconsin and Rev3 Full and it really made me want to step back up to that distance. I just don't see it happening soon though. When I go back to Ironman racing I want to do it right. Sabbatical in a couple of years (assuming I get tenured) might be my next legitimate opportunity. Until then I am looking forward to getting better at cyclocross this fall and then racing Triple-T with my Evotri team next spring! That sorta counts like an Ironman, right?!

Strategies for Training and Racing in the Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Chris Sweet
USAT Certified Triathlon Coach

(This is an outline of a longer presentation I gave to the Tri-Shark Triathlon Club. If something is unclear from these notes shoot me an e-mail or comment and I can elaborate.)

About 75% of your energy expenditure during exercise results in heat!

Before

Proper heat management starts with your last workout
High SPF/ Waterproof sunscreen. Can do 1^st application night before
Keep the hydration up all day long. At night you should be up to pee at least once.
Urine should be light yellow, but multivitamins can make it darker
When possible train in off-peak hours: early morning and evening
During high heat consider the bike trainer or treadmill as more effective alternative to racing outside

Swim

Don’t forget to hydrate during swim workouts
Racing- can cut holes in the top of your swim cap
Hot, but wetsuit legal swims. Put ice inside your wetsuit.

Bike

White or light-colored clothing.
White helmet
Consider wearing a camelback pack with iced fluids to keep up with hydration
Desoto arm coolers (white arm sleeves designed to keep you cooler)
Racing: put extra water into your helmet vents and over your torso for extra cooling
Monitor your peeing. Should be about every 1.5 hours.

Run

White hat (not visor). Can douse with water/put ice under
Racing: put ice from aid stations in your singlet and down your shorts (femoral artery)
Racing: latex gloves filled with ice
Racing: Reapply sunscreen if needed

Hot weather nutrition

Take in electrolytes, but research shows they don’t help with cramping.
Use water, but with gels/electrolyte drinks. Too much water can cause hyponatermia
If your drink has electrolytes additional salt tablets are usually not needed

Recovery

Begin rehydrating immediately. Key components are carbohydrate plus a little protein and a little electrolytes
Foods for hydration: watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, smoothies, slimfast shakes
For serious dehydration first recourse is an I.V. Pedialyte is an effective home treatment for moderate dehydration

Know your sweat rate.

This involves working out in a given temperature for a fixed amount of time and determining the rate at which you lose fluids. Powerbar.com has a simple calculator to assist you with this: http://www.powerbar.com/calculators/sweat.aspx

Heat acclimation training

The concept here is to regularly submit your body to training in the heat prior to an expected hot race. Research shows this can be an effective strategy. Training in heat increases blood plasma volume over time and promotes other positive physiological adaptations to exercising in the heat. It is not a “quick fix.” Training in the heat the week before a race won’t help. Adaptation occur over a 3-4 week time period. Sessions need not be longer than 100 minutes. Acclimation must be maintained otherwise the positive effects begin to diminish.

What is sun poisoning?

Not real poisoning. Just a severe sunburn.
Symptoms include: blisters, fever/chills, headache, nausea
Treatment: cool bath/shower, ibuprofen or acetaminophen for pain, aloe gel, increased fluid intake for a few days following.

What is heat stroke?

Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition that occurs when your body temperature reaches 104 F (40 C) or higher. Heatstroke can be brought on by high environmental temperatures, by strenuous physical activity or by other conditions that raise your body temperature.
Symptoms: 104+ body temperature (measured rectally when heat stroke is expected), bright red skin, abnormally high heart rate, light-headed, nauseous, extreme fatigue, headache, cramping, dark urine
Treatment: Immersion in an ice water tub or coverage with ice water-soaked towels or evaporative cooling with cool mist and fans.

Additional Resources:

Tobjorn Sinballe on racing in the heat: http://triathlon.competitor.com/2011/05/training/inside-triathlon-archives-heat-training_29149

Collection of Runners World articles on training and racing in the heat: http://www.runnersworld.com/subtopic/0,7123,s6-238-267-269-0,00.html

Exertional Heat Illness during Training and Competition. Position stand from American College of Sports Medicine. Authoritative, but technical: http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2007&issue=03000&article=00020&type=fulltext

Announcing Evotri - Quintana Roo Sponsorship!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:31:00 +0000

Evotri Age Group Triathlon Team Partners with Quintana Roo

Chattanooga, Tenn. – August 17, 2011 – For the 2012 season, Quintana Roo is excited to partner with Team Evotri to provide each of the team members with the bike that Triathlete Magazine has called "the most innovative in the past decade from any brand," the CD0.1. The QR Shift Series is the only line of aerodynamic bikes designed specifically to minimize the substantial drag created by the drivetrain. QR's exclusive 18 millimeter offset downtube SHIFT Technology diverts concentrated airflow away from the drive side to produce a true, measureable bike-course advantage for every athlete at every level.

“We are very much looking forward to the partnership with Team EVOTRI for the upcoming season,” said Peter Hurley, QR CEO. “Having active social networking athletes on the CD0.1 for 2012 and beyond is an exciting direction Quintana Roo is heading.”

Team Evotri was conceived in 2007 based around the idea of finding out what happens when age group triathletes of all ability levels are provided with top coaching, technology and precision equipment. The team currently has eight members who share their journey via blogs, podcasts and social networking.

Evotri’s team model has been proven successful since 3 of the 8 age group athletes have qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii for the first time after joining the team. Other team members have also seen substantial improvements resulting from the team sponsorship package. The Evotri team also focuses on giving back to the triathlon community through organizing one of the fastest growing training camps for the Ironman distance. Held every summer, the Wisconsin Ironman Brick Adventure (WIBA) is a completely free weekend full of solid training, good sportsmanship and a wealth of knowledge.

Evotri Team Manager, Stu Joannes ("Simply Stu") states, "When I walked my rickety old bike into my first triathlon years ago, I remember seeing an incredible bike with a cool name - Quintana Roo. I told myself that one day I would ride one. Well, that day has finally come, and I couldn't be happier. The new CD0.1 is just an incredible ride that is packed with technology. I have come a long way since that first triathlon, and so has bike technology. My passion for the sport is only matched by the passion that Quintana Roo puts into bikes!"

Quintana Roo: http://www.quintanarootri.com/
Team Evotri: http://www.evotri.com/

Enroute to a Tuesday Night Time Trial Victory on board my new QR CD.01!

Racing Into Shape!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:45:00 +0000

When I was doing my library science graduate degree at the University of Illinois, we had a really solid group of avid triathletes that came together and formed the Fighting Illini Tri Club. Far and away the most successful in our group was a German native by the name of Patrick Bless. Patrick was a German triathlete formed in the classic mold of Jurgen Zach, Thomas Hellriegel and Norman Stadler: an uber-biker paired with a solid swim and run. Since our college days he has gone pro, but even back then, we were always listening closely and picking his brain for training and racing tips that would magically make us win lots of races. I distinctly recall this gem about rest and recovery: "I took a few months off before Collegiate Nationals and then just trained really hard for a couple of weeks before the race" (he happened to win that year). Patrick on nutrition during a training ride: "Hey guys I stopped at Panera and got a bag of bagels for the ride, want one?" (they were stashed down the front of his jersey in very Euro fashion). The last bit of knowledge wasn't something I remember Patrick saying explicitly, but it was more of an observation in retrospect. Whenever he really started ramping up for a big event (he did Kona 4 or 5 times as an amateur) he raced.....a lot. From a coaching standpoint this strategy is what I would call high-risk, high-reward. If you can hold up without getting injured, racing your way into shape can be a very effective strategy. Specificity is a training term that is tossed around a lot and the reason racing is such effective training is because it is absolutely specific to race day.

A sufficiently goofy picture of Patrick that I swiped from the internet!

All of that long exposition was just a way to provide some context for my early season racing. This year I am considering the two months post-baby (June 3rd) my early season. If things work out right I might actually be able to get into decent shape over the summer and peak for a fall race. I know just about every trick in the book to get the most out of very little training time. I really haven't had the luxury of doing an easy ride or easy run for the last two years or so. In general I try to go hard or long every workout. Since I don't really have time for long rides, that pretty much means I go hard whenever I am on the bike or in the pool. This is mentally challenging, but quite effective. If I race on the weekend, time trial on Tuesday and run hard intervals on Thursday and then need to take some days completely off during the week it is not a huge deal. So basically that's my plan: do race-like efforts as frequently as possible. I may target a half-ironman in the fall, in which case I will need to do some longer rides eventually.

So far my "early" races have included:

6/18 Lexington (hometown!) 5K: 17:54 (5:46 pace)
7/4 Park to Park 5 mile 29:52 (5:58 pace)
7/9 Lifetime Fitness Olympic: 2:13 (bike was 1 mile long)
7/16 Evergreen Olympic: 2:06

The Evergreen Tri had near perfect conditions this year, but I think it also shows that the racing my way into shape thing is starting to work. I've also been doing our local time trial almost every Tuesday night. The Tuesday night before Evergreen we also had great conditions and I rode about 25.5 mph ave for a rolling 20K course. Evergreen later in the week was one of my best olympic bike splits since I came in right at an hour.

In two weeks I will race a local sprint that I won last year. Hopefully I will be able to defend and turn in a similar time to last year's race. Unfortunately the Xterra World Championships are financially out of the picture for this year. Instead, I'm looking at the ITU Long Course World Championship in Vegas (haven't qualified yet) or possibly Branson 70.3 followed by more of a fall cyclocross focus. One way or other, I'll be out there racing!

Lastly, me and the rest of the Evotri team will soon be tearing it up on some top-of-the-line bikes from a new sponsor.....stay tuned!

A few pic from Lifetime Fitness:

Lorien Dawn Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:56:00 +0000

Lorien Dawn Sweet

June, 3 2011

7 lbs, 13oz.

And here blogland is the root cause of my recent lack of blogginess! Much of my winter and spring was spent completely rennovating a room to move Jonah into and then finishing Lorien's. Post-new baby has been marked by our lame attempts to figure out how to manage two kids and a dog.

Lorien was full-term unlike Jonah and that has been a different experience. First off, I did not have to rush home from the hospital to finish the electrical wiring in Lorien's room like I did when Jonah was born. Second, we were in and out of the hospital quicker and Lorien was quickly around the middle height and weight percentiles for her age (it took Jonah most of a year to catch-up).

Anyway if you want to keep up on the Sweet kids side of things, Cara will surely do a better job over at her blog: http://carainolvidable.blogspot.com/

Here are some of my favorite Lorien pictures so far:

You Feeling Lucky, Punk? (Xterra Las Vegas West Championship Race Report)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:40:00 +0000

I find it very amusing that the biggest gamble of my racing career just happened to be in Las Vegas. This race was a little like roulette with my body put up as collateral. High risk for potential high reward.

As I explained in an earlier post, I really want 2011 to be my big Xterra (off-road triathlons) year. This goal is complicated by the fact that we are expecting our second baby (girl this time to give us a complete collection) in early June. It just so happens that the majority of Xterra Championship races -races that could qualify me for the World Championships- fall way too close to Cara's due date for me to be just jettisoning off to a race many states away. This situation presented a very interesting dilemma: either A) don't do a Championship race, or B) do a very early Championship race such as Las Vegas (April 10). For those either not familiar with triathlon training or not familiar with weather patterns in the midwest, racing well this early in the year is definitely a gamble. In general you want to build up to an "A" race by doing a series of preparation events. In this case, I was unable to do any triathlons leading up to the Championship and only one mountain bike race. Lots of late snow meant that I logged a grand total of 4 mountain bike rides prior to easily the most difficult mountain bike course I have ever done. My training was very low volume, but I kept hoping the shorter overall duration of the race would work in my favor....a sort of triathlon poker face if you will!

So here's how things played out.

Jonah and I went out to Vegas to stay with his grandparents (my inlaws). Cara had to stay home because she had grad school and was probably too close to baby time to be allowed on a plane! I had shipped my bike out via Fedex to try and save on airline costs. Apparently my bike box doesn't work so well with a mtb as I bent the heck out of my derailleur hanger. I'm not sure, but it may have had something to do with standing one the bike case in order to smash it down and make everything fit. Fortunately for me, great friend and former Bloomington Native Chris Tuma works for McGhies Bike Outpost near Red Rocks. Tuma manages a small one-man shop that mostly provides mountain bike rentals. It is an awesome little place right on the trailhead and bike rentals start at only $40 per day. Anyway I hung out at the shop for a couple hours and Tuma got my derailleur hanger re-aligned without breaking it!

Race Day

The morning of the race I went outside and scraped ice off my windshield. After months of midwest winter this was an automatic action. It was really only later as I was driving with the heater blasting did I realize that I was driving to a race where I was going to swim. Outside. Crap. Never in almost 20 years of racing triathlons can I recall a race morning with freezing temperatures.

Swim (1500m)

The race took place around the Lake Las Vegas resort, about 20 minutes east of the strip. I was dreading the swim because the water was going to be so cold. I read reports from previous year's races talking about how they weren't sure that wetsuits would be allowed (because the water was too warm) so I only shipped out my sleeveless wetsuit (which I greatly prefer unless the water is below 65). Well, the water was well below 65. In fact, the water was below 60. More like upper 50s. The body's natural reaction in that cold of water is to hyperventilate. Add a fast race start to the mix and it is a recipe for disaster. Oddly enough just the week before I was talking with a group of new triathletes about strategies for overcoming racing in cold water. I'll reiterate the strategies I told them here to incorporate a bit of triathlon education into this race report.

#1 Get a wetsuit. Full sleeves are better in really cold water <65.

#2 Get in a full warmup. It is going to suck, but you have to get used to the water and get your body ready to swim.
#3 Focus on the exhale and don't breathe every stroke at the start. Cold water forces you to inhale- you need to counter that.
#4 Start out considerably slower than usual
#5 use lots of antifog in your goggles

#6 Ear plugs can help prevent dizziness caused by cold water hitting the inner ear

One of the big successes of this race is that I actually did all of these things and it probably saved my swim from being a total disaster. This was the coldest water I had ever been in and I knew if I wasn't careful I would hyperventilate at the start. I started much slower than usual and kept my breathing mostly under control. It was still a spooky experience. I was less concerned about my pace than with just keeping my breathing under control. Too bad it was so cold, because it was a gorgeous swim. At times there were excellent views of the mountains and we swam through this gorgeous arched Italianate-style bridge.

Usually I bake in my wetsuit even in cold water. This was not the case. I was cold the entire swim no matter how hard I went. Many swimmers -maybe even most swimmers- had at least mild hypothermia coming out of the swim. My swim time was 30:40 which is usually what I swim 1.2 miles in. Shonny Vanlandinham- last year's World Champion swam 29:46 and had this to say about the swim: "That’s the coldest water I’ve ever been in. I was hypothermic, came out of the water in a total daze and just couldn’t get it together.” These times aren't accurate because the race wasn't chip timed and so I think this includes all of the first transition. My T1 was terribly slow because my hands and feet were frozen and not cooperating- I had no dexterity whatsoever.

Bike (30K)

My first mountain bike race was way back in 1996. I've not raced alot over the years, but I have always dabbled in mountain biking and more recently in cyclocross. I've also dabbled in off-road tris and even did another Xterra Regional Championship in Milwaukee back in 2005. Going into this event I would have said that my off-road skills were passable amongst competitive mountain bikers and cross racers and pretty good compared against off-road triathletes. Following this event I may need to re-evaluate my skills compared to other off-road triathletes. I think Xterra has really gained in popularity and competitiveness in the last 5 years. Heading out on the bike I was freezing and miserable. I love racing and particularly love racing in awesome venues, but there is really nothing fun about shivering from mild hypothermia. On the bike it is a Catch-22 because the faster you go, the colder you get. The bike course had about 1 mile of uphill pavement before dumping you out in the desert. The terrain is unreal. Absolutely wide-open desert with lots of steep climbs. Past participants have described it as "racing on the moon."

I've mountain-biked in Vegas a few times before and realized it is a whole other world from midwest mountain biking. First of all, there are real mountains. Second, there is lots of very loose sand and rock which means you have to be comfortable with your tires breaking traction and sliding through every fast corner. When you break traction on a fast corner in the midwest that essentially means you are going to meet terra firma up close and personal. All of the climbs on this course were very loose (more so than other areas of Vegas). What this meant in practice is that you had to stay seated for the steepest sections. If you stood up to use your body weight as leverage you invariably spun out. It was a two-loop course and there were parts of two mountains that I had to push up every lap. A few people were able to ride them, but they weren't going any faster than me push/walking.

This long video has some great helmet cam shots from the bike if you skip to the middle!

I think I stopped shivering after about 45 minutes and started enjoying the race more. I was definitely getting passed more than I was passing which didn't bode well for my overall placing. I was overly cautious on some of the descents because I really didn't want a bad crash to take me out of the race. I lost some more time there, but on the plus side I made it through without any epic wipeouts. For about two miles of each loop the course flattened out and ran some single track right along the lake. I really felt at home there and tried to rail the corners like I was racing cyclocross. I definitely got passed less on the flats. In the end, it was definitely the hardest mountain bike course I have ever raced on. Time: 1:41:10

Run (10K)

This "hill" was kinda hard.

...but, not as bad as this one. In this pic eventual winner Josiah Middaugh overtakes Conrad Stoltz.

My run fitness was ok going into this race. I was only able to run 2 times most weeks, but I did get in some speed work with the Wesleyan track team and I got a few 1.5 hour long runs in. I knew I had a lot of guys to reel in after the swim and the bike. I tried to take off hard, but my quads were really destroyed from all the long seated climbs and all-around pounding on the bike. I pushed the best pace I could with hopes that things would come around. The run followed the same pattern as the bike- about 1.5 miles uphill with a mix of trail and pavement until we were dumped into the desert again. The run also had a couple insanely steep, loose hills. There were at least 2, maybe 3 that I had to walk up. When I say walk, it wasn't any sort of break. It was a near max heart rate effort. In order to make up time on the downhills, you had to absolutely fly down steep, loose terrain. This was really sacrificing the body. Lots of times I went from probably 8 or 9 minute mile pace to 5 minute pace on the downhills- ouch.

Again the scenery was absolutely stunning, particularly if you could ignore the black spots from oxygen deprivation at the top of climbs to look around. Most of the second half of the course was downhill and my legs did sort of come around. I imagine I was probably around 5:30-5:40 pace for the last two miles. I think I was only passed by one runner and I did pull back quite a few spots, just not as many from my age group as I had hoped. Run time was 48:35. Most of the top professionals came in around the 40 minute mark for perspective. Again, I think this included our bike-to-run transition time as well.

Race Analysis

This was by far the hardest short-course race I have ever done. It was way harder than the Milwaukee Championship and that was no cake walk. I finished in 3:00:25. That netted me 10th in my age group and 40-something overall among the amateur racers. Gamble failed. House wins. The overall placing was not all that bad, but I don't think I have finished that low in my age group except for World and National championship races. For most of my Ironman races (which have at least 10X more participants) I have been in the top 10 of my age group. This may sound whiney, but I am not actually discouraged at all. It has been a long, long, time since I got it handed to me this bad in a race. I lost the most ground on the bike and fortunately that is where I have the most room to improve. One season focused on off-road tris plus some mountain biking should erase a big portion of that deficit. Also, this was a great reminder that this sport is supposed to be hard. I can click off a 4:30 half ironman on low training volume and place pretty well (see Rev 3 last fall). I like the challenge of off-road racing and look forward to improving this season. Also on the positive side is that when I raced the Milwaukee Xterra many years ago I was 12 minutes slower on an easier course. Lastly, it was very ambitious to go up against the best racers in the west, coming off peak training time. In the Southwest fall and winter are the best training times since the heat is lower. Many of the racers would have been in peak condition compared to my measley 4 outdoor rides!

As I stated earlier, one of my big season goals was to qualify for the Xterra World Championships in Maui. Only the top 3 in my age group automatically qualify. From what the series director told me, I can still apply for a roll-down slot and have a good chance of getting in. I'm really evaluating whether Worlds will even be feasible for us this year. Airfares are all going up and we would be doing a long flight with a 4 month old. Xterra Nationals in Utah may end up being the only really viable option this fall- I'll keep you posted!

Decent overview video from this year's race

Good video from a couple years ago showing lots of bike crashes!

Tour de Groundhog

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Tour de Groundhog is a cyclocross oddity. It is held in February which is well past the traditional cross season in the US (but it does synch more closely with the end of cross season in Europe!).

The race always features terrible weather and course conditions. This year a spring thaw melted away most of the snow, but left behind lots of mud. I tend to race well at this event because there is a nasty, muddy run-up each lap (10 laps of about 1.3 miles each). There is also a fast, somewhat technical downhill each lap that I have gotten better at over the years.

This year I finished 3rd overall in the open (all categories) race. The guys above me on the podium are some pretty serious cross racers, so I was quite happy with this race as my season opener.

Nasty, muddy run-up....it keeps going from here!

The Springfield State Journal Register has a few more pics of the race: http://www.sj-r.com/photo_galleries/x1568450970/24th-Annual-Bill-Jensen-Memorial-Tour-de-Groundhog?page=0

"And not to yield" (2011 Xterra Campaign!)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:45:00 +0000

How dull it is to pause, to make an end. To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life! . . .

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are---
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Ulysses, 1833
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Portions of this great Tennyson poem have been lodged in my brain during workouts the last few weeks. In the full poem (linked above) Tennyson is imagining a Ulysses many years after Homer finishes with him in the Odyssey. As Homer leaves things, Ulysses returns home to his kingdom in Ithaca after a world tour that includes fighting lots of epic battles and slaying monsters. He finds his palace overun with would-be suitors for his wife's hand in marriage and he dispatches with them in fine style. We are left to assume that he goes on to live happily ever after. In the 19th Century, Tennyson's poem envisions an older, restless Ulyssess. You can almost imagine Ulysses as the poster child for A.D.D. After kicking butt in the Trojan war and hob-nobbing with the gods, sitting around the palace eating gyros and drinking wine can get real boring real fast!

One characteristic of great literature is univeral appeal. Certain themes (love, death, heroism, betrayal, good vs. evil, etc.) can be understood by anyone at anytime. So it is that hardly a year goes by without a major Hollywood re-make of a Shakespeare play. Therefore, I feel it is perfectly appropriate to use a 19th century poem about a 700 B.C. epic to help understand my own athletic endeavors in the 21st century!

The restlessness is the main thing that draws me to this poem. Last season was the first in a very long time that I did not have a big goal race on the horizon. I raced ok, but mostly I just went through the motions. My family and my job are very legitimate priorities that I continue to juggle along with training. This winter, I took a hard look at returning to Ironman racing but it just wasn't in the cards with my current commitments and a new addition to the family on the way in June.

Me and Xterra/MTB buddy Sean Hyser after a particularly muddy race!

Enter Xterra! Xterra off-road triathlons are something I have dabbled in over the years and have really enjoyed every time I've done one. I've often said that if I lived near actual mountains I would probably only mountain bike and race off-road tris. Two years ago before Jonah broke his leg, I was all set to make a run at the Xterra Series, but had to put that on hold. The Xterra Series has really been growing the past few years, but there is still only 1 race in Illinois and about a half-dozen in the midwest. Having raced the Ironman and Half Ironman World Championships, I am really drawn to taking a stab at the Xterra World Champs in Maui. Planning a racing season around a new baby in June is quite tricky, but that is another reason that I am looking to Xterra in 2011. I have put together a rather ambitious, but logical plan for the year. Essentially, my plan has me doing some crash course training to get into peak fitness by the Xterra West Championship race in Las Vegas on April 10. Cara's parents live out in Vegas, so travel should be cheap with free lodging! Assuming this plan of action works and I mangage to qualify for the World Championships, that gives me the flexibility to take some time away from training before and after our new arrival. The Worlds aren't until the end of October, so I can start re-building mid-summer to peak in late fall! Like I said, ambitious....

Outside of the bold 3 month time frame, the other major hurdle is that there are essentially no midwest mountain bike races prior to the Championship race in April. I'm going to rely heavily here on my fall cyclocross racing for maintaining some handling skills and try to supplement this with a little mountain biking while our local trails are still frozen (they are unridable during the spring thaw). Toss in a couple trail races and (in theory) I will be ready to rock it in April! Below is my ideal 2011 race schedule that is heavy on Xterra and MTB racing. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, though...

2011 Race Schedule
2/20 Tour De Groundhog Cyclocross (Petersburg, IL)
3/6 Central Illinois Masters Swim Meet (Bloomington, IL)
3/13 Park Hills MTB Race (Near St. Louis, MO)
3/19 Rock Cut 20k Trail Race (Rockford, IL)
4/10 Xterra West Championship (Henderson, NV)
5/22 Black Partridge MTB Race (Metamora, IL)
6/4 Tri-Shark Triathlon (Hudson, IL) Baby Dependent!
7/10 Lifetime Fitness Triathlon (MN) Evotri Team Race!
7/23 Dino Xterra (IN)
7/31 Xterra Sugar Bottom (IA)
8/20 Xterra Illinois Wilds (Hanna City, IL)
9/4 5150 Hyvee US Championships (Des Moines, IA)
9/11 Comlara MTB Race (Hudson, IL)
10/23 Xterra World Championship (Maui, HI)
1/4/12 Cyclocross Nationals (Madison, WI)
2/12 Masters Cyclocross World Championship (Louisville, KY)

My 2011 goals are clear-cut:

#1 Qualify for Xterra World Championships in April
#2 Race Xterra World Championship and place in top 5 in age group (this would put me near top 50 overall including the pro field)
#3 Finish 1st in Age Group for Xterra Midwest Regional Series