Short Version
Ironman Los Cabos, 17th March 2013
My 3rd attempt at Kona qualification, this time nothing went wrong!
Total time 9:42
2nd in M35-39 AG, 5th amateur, 26th overall
Swim 1:09 (9 mins slower than planned)
Bike 5:07 243 watts normalized power, avg HR 140 bpm link to TP file http://tpks.ws/Lfmg
Run 3:19, avg HR 147 bpm

I swam easy/relaxed, biked like an animal and ran comfortably. I was super happy to qualify for Kona. Although obviously the highest achievement was receiving IMTalk’s Age Grouper of the Week award  see http://bit.ly/AGOW2013

I nailed my nutrition in this race. Here is a link to my nutrition report.

Long version
On November 25th 2012, when I pulled into T2 after 112 miles of biking without being able to keep down food or liquid, I quit Ironman Cozumel without even attempting the run, and returning to Mexico was the very last thing on my mind. I’d had a very long season, with pretty much no break since my first Ironman (Switzerland in July 2011). I had planned on qualifying for Kona at IMCdA in 2012, but was hit by a car 5 weeks before, breaking 2 ribs. I still gave it a shot but I was just not in good enough shape to make the cut, missing a slot by 15 mins. Ironman Cozumel was meant to be my redemption race. I flew to Mexico in the best shape of my life, but I got slammed by a virus the night before. I still gave the race a go, but the GI bug resulted in 5 porta potty stops during the bike and my subsequent withdrawal from that race. I never wanted to return to Mexico, but within a few days, I found myself online, booking my spot at the inaugural Ironman Los Cabos. I vowed to return fitter than ever and christened this race my “Mexican Revenge”…

Right athlete- wrong race. Rob at Oceanside 70.3 (pretend it’s Mexico)

I decided that this time, I would spend as little time in Mexico as possible, to reduce the chances of contracting a bug before the race. I took all my own food, drank only bottled water, and lived like a hermit in our condo, briefly venturing out only to collect my bike and my race packet, and to buy more bottled water. In retrospect this was all overkill. San Jose del Cabo is much more “first world” than Cozumel – it’s basically just an extension of California including the familiar comforts of starbucks and McDonalds, not to mention a large grocery store called “Mega” which is larger and better stocked than most US supermarkets.

Leading up to the race, there was much speculation on the unofficial Facebook page, a fantastic resource that brought more than 400 of us together in anticipation of this “never-done-before” race that nobody knew much about. There were debates about the bike course elevation – some said it was 3900ft, some said it was 7400ft… and boy am I  glad that I trained for 7400 

People wanted to know if it would be windy, if there would be sharks, whether wetsuits were allowed, were disc wheels allowed? What cassette size to use etc.

First of all let me say this was the toughest IM course I’ve ever done (this was my 6th). It’s very similar to Ironman Coeur d’Alene, except the swim is warmer, with less contact and better visibility (and only one loop). The bike is a bit tougher and slower. The run is about the same. The weather is a lot hotter and there was more wind in Cabo this year.

We stayed in a condo in a complex called “Alegranza” which is just above the golf course, on a hill. It’s about ½ mile from the finish, and about 1 mile from the Grand Faro hotel, which is where the expo / registration happens. I slept pretty well on Thursday night. Friday night was different. I was nervous. I’ve never been nervous before an Ironman, not even on race day. I was definitely feeling the pressure to perform here. I had invested so much time and effort in my past 2 Ironman races, made so many sacrifices and put so much on the line to achieve my goal, that I couldn’t face a 3rd “unlucky day”. That night I dreamed that someone stole my running shoes from T2 and that I had to run the marathon barefoot. I duly instructed Michelle to take my extra pair of running shoes and leave them in the stroller on race day in case that happened!

After setting 4 alarms for 3:30am, I went to sleep at about 9pm Saturday night.  I slept ok, woke up 30 mins early at 3am and ate my signature rice pudding breakfast, consisting of white rice mixed with 1 x EFS Liquid shot (Kona Mocha flavor). I got dressed, picked up my bags, made a double espresso and headed out the door. I was feeling really good, and calm yet excited. I walked down the road to the Best Western (one of the host hotels) and just missed the bus. I waited in the lobby for about 30 mins with some fellow athletes for the next one to arrive. After a 15 min journey we were dropped at the top of the road, and walked about 10 mins in the dark down to the swim start. I quickly put my nutrition on the bike, then took it over to the mechanics to get my tires pumped. They inflated them higher than normal (115 PSI) which I’d be grateful for later. Time flies when you’re having fun, and before I knew it was already 6:15. I put on my wetsuit then headed down to the warm up area, a small bay adjacent to the starting bay, the same area where we would finish. I only had time for about a 5 min warm up then walked over to the start. We watched the pros go off and then 15-20 mins later we lined up and the siren sounded! Our long day had finally begun!

This was one of the most pleasant swims I’ve had in an Ironman start. I started in the front, 3 rows back to the right of the beach. I had zero contact over the first 500m to the first buoy, before we turned parallel to the beach for the long 1500m back straight. At some point in the middle of this it got a bit congested. A guy was coming from my right, pushing me to the left, where there was another guy. So I was making contact with both of them (unavoidable). The guy on my left then got fed up with me, stopped swimming, turned around and physically pushed my head under the water. Having played water polo in school, my first reaction was to pull his leg back and punch him in the face, but I calmly just let it go – you don’t want to get agro about some idiot so soon in the day! Secretly I do hope he had a really tough day… The rest of the swim was uneventful. I could feel a bit of current on the way back to shore, but it didn’t seem too bad. I was shocked when I got out of the water and saw the clock reading 1:09. I was expecting a swim time of an hour, maybe 1:05 if something went wrong. But 1:09 was ridiculous for me. To give you an idea, I do my slow “cool down” set in the pool, without a wetsuit, faster than that!

Fortunately for me, the swim is the shortest part of the day, and I had plenty of time to make it back. I took off my wetsuit as I got out of the water, making it easier to run up the hill to T1. I grabbed my bag, ran into the changing tent, put my wetsuit in the bag and ran to the bike. My shoes were already clipped in, and my helmet was waiting on my bike, so I put it on, grabbed my bike and headed out the transition area. I jumped on the bike, and then headed up a steep little hill with intermittent cobble sections until we hit the main highway. As I hit the highway I put my feet in my shoes and eased into the long part of the day.. In the past I’ve experienced severe glute cramps if I don’t ease into it, so I kept it steady / easy for about 5 mins before building up to my race effort. The good thing about a slower swim is you pass a lot of people on the bike! I came out of the swim in 223rd place so I had some catching up to do…

You start with an out and back section from Palmilla to San Lucas where you turn around. The road is continually rolling (with some short steep sections too), and there is no flat part at all. Before long the pros started coming back towards us, and I started counting. Kevin (my coach) had said that I should aim to be top 100 at the first turnaround, top 50 on the 2nd lap and then work my way up until the end of the bike. At the first turn I had worked my way up to place 103. I passed another 20 more people and then was alone for a long time, until we hit the long toll road hill going up to the airport close to the end of lap 1. When you look at the elevation map, this looks like it’s going to be the worst hill but it’s actually one of the mildest, even though it’s about 4 miles long. I passed a lot more people on this hill and on the exposed section in the desert out n back section. There is a very exposed bridge where I nearly got blown off my bike by the gusts of wind, but I managed to hold on for dear life. Then it’s back down the long hill and on to lap 2. I went through half way in around 2:34, so at that stage I thought I was on track for a sub 5 bike split. I had averaged 241 watts, and I was planning on riding lap 2 just above 250 watts, which I thought would get me back a fair amount of time. Onto lap 2 and I put down the gas. Again I was alone for about 20 mins, before I started hitting the small packs of female pros. I was now flying, tucked into a very aero position and cranking out 260-275 watts on most of the short hills. There was a headwind on the way to San Lucas but it didn’t really bother me. The turnaround came in no time, and then I was riding back to San Jose with a nice tailwind/ rear crosswind. The wind picked up quite a bit on the 2nd lap. The long toll road hill was tougher this time around, and I stayed out of aero on the exposed section, which cost me some time but prevented a possible crash! At the far turn around, I almost came to a complete stop because the wind was so strong. I had to get out of the saddle and really stomp just to get going. I saw a few backmarkers still on lap 1 drafting each other here. To be honest I don’t think it was malicious, just a case of survival! There was one short hill (10% grade) and then a long downhill between me and the final ride into town. At this stage I could see that a sub 5 was not going to happen, but it was clear that I had still had a decent ride.

When I arrived in T2 it was like a ghost town. There was nobody in the change tent and the run bag racks were full. So I knew that I must have made up some good time. Unfortunately, the volunteers couldn’t find my run gear bag. I thought my Friday night dream was coming true and that I’d have to run the marathon barefoot! I was grateful for that one day when I did a 15 miler in my Vibrams… at least that was some preparation. After about 1.5 mins, the “manager” came and eventually they found my bag. Into the change tent, I made up some of the lost time with 7 little mexican kids helping me put my shoes on, take my helmet, pass me sunblock, give me my water bottle. I still made it out in 2.5 mins which is not bad, but without the delay I would have had a super fast T2 time.

This is the first time I’ve started the IM run quite high up the field (I was now top 30, although at the time I had no idea what place I was in my AG). It’s kind of a strange experience; the road is empty, and the crowd + volunteers have all this pent up excitement that gets unleashed on you. The crowd support really amped me and found it pretty difficult to hold back at first. I glanced down at my garmin to see my pace, and it was showing “00:00”. I use my avg pace view a lot in Ironman racing because my pace somehow feels different than it does in training. At the start of the run I often go out too fast, so I use the pace to hold myself back. And then from half way I use the pace to push myself harder (I often think I’m running faster than I am). This non-working Garmin was a distraction I didn’t need right now. I tried resetting it but that didn’t help. I still had heart rate and lap time, so I decided to just run according to feel, and manually hit the lap button at the odd mile marker to check my pace. I used heart rate as a very rough indicator of effort. I was at around 156 bmp which is 6 bpm higher than my target cap. But it was very hot so I gave myself the 6bpm “credit” since I was feeling very comfortable and relaxed.

My target pace was just over 07:00 per mile, so I was a bit surprised when I went through 3 miles averaging 6:40 / mile. I knew this would not be sustainable so I immediately slowed down, aiming to get my HR back down to around 150 which I knew would be closer to my intended pace. After 6 miles I passed a guy who I thought was in my AG who was now walking. Soon after a guy in 30-34 flew past me – he must have been doing close to 6 min/mile! Soon after I saw Michelle and she told me I came off the bike 2nd in my AG. Since I had just passed that other guy I thought I was now in the lead, but I wasn’t sure. Either way, I knew that I was 1st or 2nd, and since my goal was to get the Kona slot, I was assured of achieving my goal as long as I didn’t screw it up! My strategy changed immediately – I eased up to a steady pace and stopped “pushing”. The only thing now standing between me and my slot would be cramping, seizing quads, or something else that could result from running too hard. I focused on steady intake of fluids (I drank only Pepsi the whole run), a little salt, and keeping myself cool. The aid stations at this race were PHENOMENAL. By far the best Ironman aid stations I’ve ever seen (yes, even better than the super-organized IM Switzerland). They were placed every km, and were fully stocked with ice, ice-cold water, pepsi, gatorade, gels, bananas and lots more stuff. I took 2 waters at every station and drenched myself to keep cool. I must have thrown about 5 buckets of ice down my tri suit in total. And it was easy to keep my bike bottle topped up with fluids without having to stop once.

The run is 3 loops of over 8 miles, it’s flat and rolling with a few easy hills that break it up nicely. Some people said the run was boring but I thought it was great. On each lap, you run half way down the finisher chute, which is packed with spectators. It’s a huge boost to get the cheers of the crowd to keep you going, and is something to look forward to each lap. I was still feeling good as I went on to my 3rd lap. I just kept running, refilling my bottle with pepsi and keeping cool with water and ice. At this stage I still thought I was winning my age group, but nobody had passed me yet so I was still just running comfortably. About 1 mile from the end, a guy in my age group came past me. This woke me up out of my daze and I put my foot on the gas. I accelerated past him and did the last mile in about 6:40. He must have been on a different lap, because when I checked the results, 3rd place was more than 10 mins behind me, but at least I had a strong finish! I was elated to have finally nailed my Kona slot, and to have had my best race ever, with a PR on the toughest course I’ve done.

The finish area was great. I skipped the food, had a quick ice bath and then headed to the massage tent which was empty except for a few pro women and a lot of bored massage therapists. I offered to help them out with their boredom, and I had 2 of them working on me for about 40 minutes! They were really good and I’m sure that helped alot with my recovery.

There were some mexican kids who obviously mistook me for someone else because they all wanted my autograph, and to have their picture taken with me 

Another possibility is that they had already heard the rumour that I would become Age Grouper of the Week on IMTalk, the world’s premier Ironman podcast!

All in all this was a great race, but a very tough race. It was very well organized and the crowd + volunteer support was amazing. The swim was really great although too long (many of us measured over 4.2km on our GPS watches). The bike is tough, which is fine as long as you expect that (there was no official guidance on the course prior to race day, just speculation). The run is awesome. Nice and rolling which breaks it up a bit compared to a pancake flat course. The only improvements that come to mind are to fix the speed bumps and potholes on those few sections of the bike course. Besides that, the road conditions were very good.

Lastly, the awards ceremony on the Monday evening was the best that I’ve ever been to. It’s in an outdoor waterfront area in Cabo San Lucas, with loads of restaurants, bars etc. around it. There was a great buzz with cool music and just generally a great atmosphere.

In closing, I’d highly recommend this event, as long as you don’t underestimate the difficulty of it. If you want an easy Ironman, this isn’t the right one for you. But if you want a challenging race in a great location with amazing support, do it!

See you in Kona!

Just a little change of tempo in recent race reports for you all.  If you have time, this is a link to the report of one of the girls I was racing against and finished second behind me, http://karalapoint.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/getting-it-started-lets-do-this-2013/ - it’s interesting to hear that things from her perspective were very similar to what I was also experiencing throughout the race.

Xterra Real is one of the first Xterra’s in the US each season and happens to be just up the road at Folsom lake; it is a points series race (you gather points to get a qualifying slot for US nationals) vs. a regional championship where you can get a world champs slot, so it’s generally a small-ish, low key event and only locals who show up to it vs. anyone travelling too far to get there.  That said, this region has a lot of fast Xterra athletes and this race is so well organized, and while the course is short it is really fun and a great start to the season.  Xterra is a small world and especially on the women’s side you generally know who is racing and therefore who is going to be vying for the top spots (there were just 30 women total in this whole race).  I raced this race in 2010 (3^rd overall female) and 2011 (4^th overall female) so I knew the course fairly well but trail conditions were pretty different this year (dry and sandy) vs. the previous 2 times I’ve raced where it was just plain muddy.  I knew I had a shot at the win but I also knew that both Kara and Debby were racing;  I’d always been close-ish to them in races last season but never really been that close to Debby on the bike or to Kara on the run or swim.  Debby also lives right by these trails now knowing the trail conditions and lines was going to add to her biking advantage.

For the first time in years, the water was over 50 degrees; I like cold water so this was great for me, the last few years it’s been scary cold somewhere in the mid to high 40s so it was nice to be able to feel all appendages after exiting!  It is only a 0.5mile swim and I think it measured pretty accurately so for me getting out in 13:30 was a great result and amazingly put me right in contention from the start rather than chasing like a mad thing on the bike to try and close a gap.  I made a conscious decision before the race to race without my garmin and HR strap and even to bail on putting gloves and glasses on in T1 – I had a feeling that every second I could eek out was going to count if I wanted to try and be at the front.  ‘No messing around’ was my main plan for the day and also to just go hard from the start, it was a 2hour race and if I missed out on a top of the field position I would make sure it wasn’t because I didn’t put 100% in 100% of the time.  I had one bottle of water/calories (about 300) on the bike which was going to be enough for the whole race if I got the majority down me – most of this race was going to be about how much you could deal with hurting!

My T1 was fast and pretty soon I found Debby just in front of me – we were moving at the same speed but not quite all out so I had to decide whether to stick on her tail or overtake; I went for the overtake and rode in front for a short time but some of the back section of the course tripped me up technically with other people screwing up around me so I was off and running my bike for a short section before I could remount; Debby navigated past me and gained some ground but I kept her in sight.  I thought Kara was in front of us at this point as she’s a great swimmer so I was a little confused when she came up behind me; again a technical section screwed me up just for a second and Kara got in front which put me in third, but I got back to Kara’s wheel and sat there for a while – we got glimpses of Debby ahead of us, she was making time but we hoped we were pushing hard enough to make sure the gap didn’t get too big.  It’s a 2 lap bike course (2^nd lap was way better for me as I’d found the right/wrong lines first time around so rode much smoother) and going into the second lap Kara and I rode together – we were moving at a good pace; just as I was calculating where I could try and make a move to see if I could make a gap on Kara before hitting the run (I know she can run!), she made the smallest of mistakes on a sandy corner and went down in front of me.  We’re friends, sure, but on the trail we all compete to our abilities on the day, so I had to take my chance and I knew she’d have done the same if it was the other way around and we both understand what that’s about – I quickly checked she was not hurt, then had to get my head down and make as much time as I could in the next 5 or 6 miles before hitting the run.  I didn’t look back, had no idea what gap I had and turned my focus to seeing if I could close the gap to Debby a bit as well as staying clear of the chasing Kara.  I have to say, I think this is the most fun I’ve ever had at a race – most often I’m racing against myself for the most part rather than being right in the mix of such a close race where really it was any of ours to win or lose; the tactics involved were also going to make a difference so a bad decision was going to change things as well.

At the end of the bike Debby had over a minute on me and I’d no idea where Kara was, for all I knew she was right behind me and I was going to have to find something major on the run to stay clear.  I’d not held anything back on the bike but I was very much hoping that I had the fitness to MTB somewhere at threshold for an hour and 16mins and still be able to push my poor legs for a threshold 4mile trail run.  The first mile or so of the run is flat, I went hard and after about 5mins could see Debby and see that I was gaining on her, I made the pass by the halfway point just before we hit some good hills; again, yes we’re friends but we can race as competitors and be happy for whoever has the best on the day – I may have said a quick ‘hi’ as I passed but I was too busy hurting and breathing so hard it was likely more of a grunt!  I was now running scared as I still had no clue where Kara was and I still had 2 miles of hills to get up and down to the finish – that’s a long way when the hill just gets steeper and reduces many legs to power walking.  At the top of the hill someone (who I thought at the time was and now know for sure was Kara’s boyfriend) was kind enough to tell me I had a bout a minute’s lead; I half believed it but half didn’t and got my head down and kept running – I’ve been run down late in runs before and it’s no fun; every bit of remaining energy was going to go into making sure it didn’t happen now!  I got to the mostly flat last mile wondering if I was going to have to muster a sprint finish; I dared myself to look back a couple of times and kept not seeing Kara.  There is a finishing straight of about 200yards or so and once I got there and still couldn’t see her I was pretty sure I had the win; good job as my quads I think would have cramped up at any sign of a sprint finish!

Kara came in about a minute later with an almost identical run split to me (30:49 for the 4 miles), and Debby (fastest bike split) about a minute after her.  It was anyone’s on the day and we will all meet again many times this season, along with a multitude of other usual (and fast!) suspects on the Xterra scene; having this race under our belts to get some cobwebs out feels awesome and as Kara points out in her report, ‘strong competition is what makes us grow as athletes’.

I’ve definitely had a different level of commitment to my training since sometime in December; even though since then I have travelled plenty for work (England, boston, las vegas, England again, Colorado and las vegas again this weekend) and had a week out with tonsillitis, the training I have done in between times has been consistent, much higher volume than anything last year (I’ve had a couple 15hour weeks, along with a couple of 30mile run weeks, with 10-12 hour training weeks now feeling very manageable).  This has made a huge difference and I hope this race was the first of many where I see these training results pay off.  A couple of other minor tweaks I have made which I think add to the picture include really making an effort to get to bed at 9 or 10pm (I rarely sleep past 6am naturally so getting to bed early is the only way to get enough sleep), I’ve also (even though I generally ate very healthy anyway) cut out a large % of the bread, pasta, pizza I did eat, upped my veg, fruit, nuts and salad intake even more and rely mostly on rice, potatoes/sweet potatoes and oats for starchy/carbs; my engine seems to run better this way.  I’m not 100% strict by any means and don’t stick to wheat/gluten free  the whole time (I prob will leading up to races now though) but I just know that if I do indulge in a pizza (and I do every so often, I like food too much not too J), I will just feel a bit sluggish the next day.

With my main training focus being on HIM this year (wildflower then vineman 70.3) I’m quite surprised at the fitness seemingly transferring pretty well to xterra.  Next race is on dirt again – xterra west champs in vegas In less than two weeks – it’s at the end of a long week in vegas for work so it’s going to be interesting to see how antisocial I can be for a whole week staying on the strip!

TriForce wins the division 5 clubs division by 11,000 points! (To give you an idea… I’m pretty sure you get 3500 points by winning your AG!)

Mike Reilly- honorary TriForcer!

Coach Coady 4:23  (PR!)  Super happy w/the result given my current fitness.

getting my “game face” on pre-race

maintaining game face

Rob went 4:38 just 2 weeks after qualifying for Kona at IM Los Cabos.

Mike Coughlan 4:45 (PR!)

John “Snickers” Nickerson 4:48 in his first ever HIM!  (PR!) 

TEAM MVP: Alex “The Moose from Belarus” 5:49 (45 MINUTE PR!)

Andrew “Mankini” Sellergren 5:02 (PR!)

Jake “The Majestic Horse” Bailey 5:22 (PR)

Nicki “Altitude” Hemenes 5:37 (PR!)

Michael “Dark Helmet” Feldman 5:06 (almost PR)

Greg “G Funk” Funk 5:58 (PR!  Finally breaking 6 hours!)

Kyle “The Flying Scottsman” 6:27 in his first HIM (PR!)

Kyle “Incognito” Brockman 5:40 (almost PR)

(no pics!  must have been so fast Caroline missed him!  Sorry Kyle- next time wear a TF top!)

TriForce Alum Mike “Angry Rooster” Schuster 4:58 (PR!)

TriForce Alum Guillaume DeZwirek 4:41 (3rd in AG)

And some pics from out pre & post race partying (warning: disturbing images).

Pic from Lava Magazine Article Serious Recovery: Why Triathletes Need More Sleep.

Although many great athletes can barely sleep the night before a race, getting a decent  night of sleep before a race is a nice advantage.  2 of my strongest attributes as an athlete are my ability to eat like a pig (on the bike & run) and sleep like a baby before a race.  My gluttony and sloth are my virtues!

Here’s how I fall asleep before a race:

1. I study my race plan on race week then don’t think about it the day before the race

2. DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE RACE! Especially after 3 pm. But don’t OVERLY STRESS about not thinking about the race. (meditate on that…)

3. Only one cup of coffee in the AM- just enough to ward off the shakes no caffeine later in the day

4. Focus on all the stupid logistics: mixing drinks, laying out clothes, double checking my lists. Maybe it’s just my personality, but this stuff bores me to death and makes me feel sleepy.

5. Make the room cool & dark early. Close the blinds, use minimum light. Even wear dark sunglasses.

6. Eating a big meal, while not necessarily optimal nutrition-wise, knocks me out.

7. No TV.

8. Read something BORING. Any continuing education reading you need to get through for work?

9. Ear plugs: I use these every night. (eye mask as well).

10. White noise android app: in case the hotel is noisy, this + ear plugs should be able to drown out just about anything.

11. RELAX: there are certain things you should do the day before the race (eating, staying off your feet, final workouts) but don’t stress about them. In fact, if you spend all day worrying about doing things right, the stress is probably doing you more harm than doing all the other right things is helping you. Almost all my very best races have been in races where I didn’t stress out about details going into the race. All my worst races have come when I’ve been stressed out about doing everything perfectly.  Enjoy yourself!

12. Sleep Reverse Psychology.  Instead of telling myself “relax and fall asleep” I say to myself in my most drowsy mental voice “I … just … want … to … stay … awake … a … little … longer. But… it’s … so … hard. Maybe … I’ll … just … let … myself… doze … off … for … a … little … bit. …  but… I … want.. to … stay … awake…”

1.   Training must be short and hard before you can go long and hard. Training must be long and slow before you can go long and fast.  So, your workouts early in the season can be short & intense or long and relatively mild.  Never long & hard.  If you are riding long with friends early in the season ride with people a bit SLOWER than you.

2.  Track your key numbers. If you are training more but your performance is declining, it means you need to rest.  If you are training less and your performance is declining, that’s to be expected.

3.   During your early base training, we want to do the least possible to keep your key numbers improving.    If you see eye-popping improvements, it’s a sign to keep your training where it is or to only increase it gradually, NOT  a sign that  you should start training like a madman now that you are stronger.

4. At some point early in your training you are going to feel like you are invincible. You are not. Early in the season most of us are  more fragile than we think,  and it’s easy to injure yourself or to overreach and put yourself into a hole for a couple weeks.

5.  Resist the urge to test yourself too often (except for our benchmark workouts).    Just look to train in (or near) the training zone we are targeting for the workout and don’t try to push your numbers higher every workout. Just because you did your last set of threshold reps at 290 W doesn’t mean the next set can’t be at 280 if that’s what feels right.

6. Sleep. Make sleep a huge priority. I put sleep on par with training in importance.   If you are not sleeping enough you are not recovering, and you are probably going to get sick.

7.  Step up to the time management challenge. Triathlon training for a busy person is a constant test of your motivation, organization, and willpower.   If you catch yourself saying “I can’t…”, that’s a signal to plan ahead, get creative and maybe to harden up.  Even 30 minutes on the trainer (set up before you go to bed) or 30 minutes running can keep the ball rolling.   No one knows if you’re doing your best except for you.  Are you?

8.   We have  two basic tools for getting you fit: (1) volume (hours, miles, yards) & (2)  intensity and main sets (e.g. 3×10 minutes threshold) .   When time is limited, focus on the quality of your main sets.  When time is abundant, do the full volume in your plan.

9.  Running.  Ramp up gradually no matter how good you feel.  Spread your miles out over the week.  Mix in short walks and run on soft &  varied terrain when you can.  We typically run a bit faster one day a week (Thursdays on most schedules), but keep it under control.  We do most of our running in our “long runs” / steady zone, which is 1 min / mile “wide.”  (e.g. 8:00/ mile to 9:00 / mile).  Go with the flow and run at the slow end of  the range on days when you feel tired.

10.   Rule number ten (#1 in importance!) is consistency. Don’t overdo it and get hurt or sick.  Avoid having poor weeks of training.  My best athletes might have one or two “poor” weeks of training over the course of the season (and they are busy people!)  Make what would usually be poor weeks for you (busy time at work, travel, vacation) mediocre instead of poor and you’ve gone a long way toward improving.

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray  has to relive the same day over and over again until he finally does it right. Are you repeating the same triathlon season and mistakes over and over again?

* The same early-season injuries from ramping up too quickly?

* Hitting the wall again at mile 13 or 16 of the Ironman?

* The same inconsistency in your training early in the season followed by cramming as you get close to race day?

*  Or constantly pushing and racing in practice then underachieving on race day?

* Going out too hard at the beginning of the swim/ bike/run legs  followed by a weak  race finish?

*  Finishing the season with a feeling of regret, wondering what could have been if you would have trained correctly all year?

Here’s a crazy idea:  just do it right this season.

My schedule at the end of the week NEVER ends up looking like how Kevin
sets it up at the start of the week but somehow most stuff ends up
getting done! And like Kevin says I’d much rather have some form of
consistency than try and be anywhere close to perfect – too many
external factors tend to appear for me however hard I try to make
training a priority. Travelling for work also screws up any fixed plans
as well so I find I juggle things around as much as I need to make the
best of the time I have.

- Sian “The Afterburner” Turner, Xterra Maui Qualifier and first woman overall at the Marin Olympic Triathlon

The suggested schedule in most TriForce training plans is a balance between what is doable for most  busy age groupers and what I have found is the most effective way to lay out your training week.   But I encourage athletes to make changes in their Traininpeaks calendar to help their plans to fit their lives.  Don’t let perfectionism interfere with your consistency. Even though the below options are not “ideal”, they  will keep you quite fit:

*  With your trainingpeaks premium account  you can drag and drop workouts to whatever days of the week work best for you.  Something came up on Tuesday?  Drag your swim to Wednesday.  Just avoid doing back-to-back challenging workouts in the same sport  if possible.  And  try not to make a habit of dragging your entire schedule to the weekend (also known as the Guillaume scheduling method)

* cut your weekday rides down to one hour each but then ride longer on the weekend (e.g. 1 hour, 1 hour, 5 hours instead of a scheduled 1.5 hours, 2 hours, 4 hours.

* If you don’t have much time for biking, leave your bike on the trainer and do a short workout such as 2×20 minutes at a sweet spot effort with three minutes recovery,  45 minutes nonstop zone three, or 60 minutes nonstop upper zone two.

*  spread your run miles out over the week in a way that works best for you, e.g.: three medium long runs, lots of short runs plus one long run, or some other combination that fits your schedule (just don’t make your long run too much longer than suggested)

*If you can only get to the pool twice, do your threshold swim and your distance swim.  And if you have time add a bit of extra pulling to those workouts to get in some extra yards. Try to add one or two days of stretch cords pulls (high elbow pulls)  to supplement your swimming.

Don’t be a perfectionist- be flexible.  Flexibility leads to consistency.  Consistency leads to speed!

Without further ado, here are the 2012 Forcie Awards (in no particular order):

• The Fast Adapter Award:  Chaitanya.  For getting ridiculously fast after 2 months of training.

• The Best Dressed Baby Award: Luke.  For being the youngest person ever to don The Red F.

• Coolest Name: A Tie!  Between Funk & Koul.

• Most Improved: Kyle M.  For his outrageous weight loss and speed increases in 2012.

• Most Wiley Marathoner: Monzy.  For wind cheating performance at CIM.

• Lava Forcie:  Guillaume. For not passing out until AFTER the Kona finish line.

• Most Likely To Obey A Ridiculous Typo in His Training Plan: Rob Gray.  For always making me nervous I’ll accidentally add a zero somewhere.

• Most Likely to Win Most Improved in 2013.  Eric.  For showing all the traits of a  successful TriForcer in his first months on the team.

• The Optimist Award: Theo.  For believing against all evidence that road triathletes can become good MTBers and for believing that training to become fast doesn’t have to be boring.

• The Donner Award: Sian.  For pressing onward in her workouts in the deep Tahoe snow (but hopefully never having to eat Dennis).

• The “Real Kyle” Award:  Kyle B.  For out-attending Kyle M. in December.

• The Canuck Award: Alex.  For embracing his Canadian heritage by planning to race IMCh with poutine in his bento box.

• The Rolex Award: Jake.  For perfectly timing his morning workouts to catch the train just in time.

• The Vaseline Award: Mike Coughlan. For being the most chafed TriForcer in 2012.

• The Bike Run Swim Run Swim Run Swim Run Award: Chad.  For his outstanding performance in the epic Survival of the Shawangunks race.

• The Alarm Clock Award: Justin.  For outstanding service to the team by motivating his coach to get out of bed Friday mornings for bike rides.

• The Neil Armstrong Award: Norman.  For pursuing his goal of accumulating enough vertical elevation on his bike to reach the moon.

• The “Norman of the Water” Award: Derrick.  For completing 100*100 swim on New Year’s Day on a ridiculous interval (1:25s & 1:20s)

• The Ambassador Award: Ioan.  For distinguished service as the TriForce Wales team captain.

• The Innovator Award.   Dan P.  For his breakthrough training program “Sub 12 Ironman in 20 hours per week of salsa” which allowed him to go 11:42 in IMCOZ.

• Most Likely to Succeed By 2 Seconds Award.  Scott “Under the Wire” Sambucci. For always achieving his IM goal (by a minute or two!)

• The Rocky Award.  Jason.  For regularly time trialing up the steps at his work.

• The Epictitus Award.  Curtis. For Stoic resolve in facing the east coast winters.

• The Make My Job Easy Award.  Warren.  For giving me a year to just shave a couple of minutes off his Wildflower Olympic Distance time.

• Golden Stroller Award.  Ken.  For dominating the stroller division at the Palo Alto Moonlight Run.

• The Smiling Rookie Award: David.  For always being in a good mood at bike intervals, no matter how hard the threshold intervals get.

• The Double Sombrero Award: Wil.  For targeting IM Cozumel & IM Cabo back to back.

• The Badass Award: Caroline.  For running 26.2 miles in Central Park by herself after they cancelled the NYC marathon.

• The Fresh Air Award: Pedro.  For getting 40 extra watts of power when he switches from indoor to outdoor riding.

• The Natural Swimmer Award: Andre.   For being able to swim fast without practicing.

• The Queen K Award: Dean.  For qualifying for Kona for the first time this year at IMLV.

• The Calorie Creator Award: Kent.  His farm is trying to produce calories quicker than the team can burn them.

• The 10 Hours Per Week Award: Elmar.  For his outstanding performance at IMAZ on the 10 hour plan.

• The Positive Attitude Award: Nicki. For smiling throughout her first Ironman at IMCDA.

• The Manscaping Award: Andrew.  For outstanding male grooming before he had to run in the mankini.

• Most Likely to Win the Manscaping Award in 2013:  John “Snickers” Nickerson.  He’ll find that he’s about 10 seconds / 100 faster in the water and about 1 mph faster on the bike if he shaves off just some of his body hair.

- Triforcer Andrew “Mankini” Sellergren sporting a “stellar grin” after his 12 mile TT result.

Rob pulls out all the aero stops to go for pass me for the win.

The challenge:

• do a 400 yard TT in the pool (alone, start in the water)
• do a 12 mile bike TT (alone, start & end at the same spot)
• do a 5k run (start and end at the same spot)
• do them separately over the course of a couple weeks
• enter them in the spreadsheet & beat your fellow TriForcers

Triathlon Results:

Sian wins the women’s division.  Rob wins the men’s.

Aquabike Results:

Duathlon Results

Aquathlon Results

Swim Results:

Bike Results:

Run Results: