Oceanside 70.3 Race Report

Racing for me, most often, means meeting up with good friends. I often choose a race venue dependent on where my buddies live. San Diego was no different. My best friend, Greg aka "GP", from PA school at Wake Forest lives there with his wife Emily (who happens to also be a classmate of mine from PA school) and their 2 twin boys that are 3 months old. When Oceanside 70.3 opened up last year, it was a perfect marriage for a trip.
1.) Got to catch up with GP and his fam
2.) Great place to start the triathlon season in sunny SD and it wasn’t a full IM (I raced IM St. George IM last year and it was a bit much too early to chew)
3.) San Diego is a great place for Heather and I to visit and enjoy the warm weather, HJ is a beach bum! ;-)

I arrived on Wednesday evening and was super excited as I haven't met the boys yet, only saw tons of pics.

Once there, I awoke Thursday AM for a nice little bike/run and got it out of the way. GP had plans to go to the shooting range, so I obliged and off we went. What an experience! Growing up around a farm I have shot various guns for fun, but never been to a shooting range. GP has a few himself so we "tested" them out. A doc buddy of his came along and we decided to have a marksman competition. Needless to say, I am not a sharp shooter. I passed on the semi-automatic 12 gauge as I figured I didn't need a sore shoulder for the race.

Friday AM I slept in. Typically my sleep 2 days out is the most important and this one wasn't any different. I got my pre-race workout completed of a quick little S/B/R session with a few quick pick ups to prime the body. For the swim, Greg had this grand idea to take me to La Jolla Cove where many swims leave from. However today, I would head out on my own. We picked a buoy that was about 800 meters from shore and the idea was to swim out and back. Now mind you, I haven't been in the Pacific before and I knew it was going to be cold, but I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. Afterall, in 2009, Jeff and I raced at Otillo, which is a race in Sweden and the water was like 48-49 degrees farenheit, so I figured I could handle it. Besides, last year St. George was like 58 degrees and this was similiar. So I threw on my new BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit ang goggles, but didn't bring a swim cap.

Now to start things off, I am not too keen to swim in the ocean alone, so my anxiety was a bit higher than normal. Secondly, there were 100+ seals on the rocks and playing in the water near the shore. Again, not too thrilled. Don't sharks like to eat seals....yeah I'm pretty sure. So off I went and BAM....the water was SHOCKING!! But I thought, no worries, it will get better. I got pass the break, finally, and I am swimming with my head out of the water for 3 strokes, face in the water 1-2 strokes, then head out of the water for 3 strokes, etc because my head is freezing. I do this for a bit of time and the water on my face/head is not getting better. I began having a shreaking headache at this point and now I am out in the middle of the ocean, frolicking like a wounded seal 400 meters from shore. Yeah...lets just say that "warm up" swim ended a bit quicker than planned. The good news is it reminded me what I needed to do for the race the next day. Double swim cap and use my silicone ear plugs.

Peter and I Post race

I rode and ran post swim and got checked in at the race expo. There athlete check-in process was nice. They were very expeditious in getting everyone in and out without too much hassle. At the same time, I bumped into 3 other Wattie Elites and it was good to finally meet them.

Race morning was a bit different than normal. I was in the last swim wave, of which I have never been. This meant that I went off an hour and eight minutes after the pro's went. It was kind of weird watching people come into transition and I hadn't even put my wetsuit on.

Once I got my wetsuit on and got into my corral, it wasn't long before the gun went off. The water was quite shocking, but with the silicone ear plugs and double swim cap, it was bearable.

I lined up on the buoy line....BOOM, the gun went off. I sprinted out for about 200 meters to steer clear of the folks behind me. I sighted and saw 3 swimmers up the way. I was happy where I was so I decided to stay on my plan. Not long after, we began coalescing with the previous waves. I felt descent in the swim. About half out, we made our turn to head back which was basically at the mouth of the bay and swells kicked up.. I stayed tucked, next to the buoy line and really didn't get bothered too much. Finally made it to the boat ramp, and made it into T1. I briefly looked at the clock and I knew I had swam 30:XX. Slightly disappointed, I ran steadily to my bike.

Upon arriving at the racks, all the bike were still there and there were only 2 other guys standing their getting ready. Maybe my swim wasn’t so bad after all. I was able to make it out of transition fairly quickly and out on the bike course. The weather was quite misty as the marine layer was in full effect.

As you can imagine going off in the last wave, there were a ton of people out on the bike course. The bike course was much more difficult than one would think. There was one steep hill on the back half of the ride that was 39/28 gear worthy. IT was tough. I finished pretty strong and hit T2 ready to run.

Out on the run, I was able to settle into my pace pretty quickly, but I didn't dare look at what pace I was running.

For me, pace doesn't really matter in a race, I run as hard as I can at a pace that will get me to the finish line the fastest. Ultimately, regardless of my pace, the pace work is already done during the previous weeks training. After 5K, I looked down for the first time as this was when I really felt settled in. Upon looking at my watch, I was running faster than I had ever in a half.

Thanks to fellow wattie Bill Risch taking this awesome grit pic
Not long after, I was passed by someone in my age group. This guy was running a pace that I couldn't even respond to, so I kept at my game plan. Around mile 6, I was passed by another guy, this time not so handedly. I kept his pace over the next mile, however, I was getting quite uncomfortable and I questioned whether or not it was a pace I could for the remaining 6 miles, so I settled and returned to my previous pace which was well faster than anything I had done before. Not much changed over the ensuing miles. With 2 miles to go, the first guy that passed was walking and I made sure to pass with authority. Not long after, I passed another person that I had never seen. The 2nd guy that passed me was still up the road, I could see him. I kept pace, but so did he.

I finished strong and ended up on the podium. This was my first podium at an Ironman event, a nice "notch" in my belt buckle. It was great racing with so many fellow Wattie Ink Elite Team Members, I would have never thought how much it really makes a difference. It's incredible to have great support putting us in the best gear that triathlon has to offer. Thanks again to all of our sponsors (look to the right of the page).


Up next for me is another half-distance race in North Carolina. I'll be racing the White Lake Half on May 5th back in my ole stomping grounds. Should be fun. THEN, the real training begins for IM Coeur d'Alene which takes place June 24th.

Last but not least, I have to thank my wonderful better half, Heather for traveling with me and ultimately supporting this crazy addiction callled triathlon, I couldn't be any luckier. And to my boy GeePeeZee, thanks for the hauling me around and cheering on race day, was awesome! Laura, Walter and the boys, it was awesome seeing you guys out there on the uphill corner! Thanks again!!

Rockin' the "dub",
Crazy J

First Race of the Year already...Oceanside 70.3

WOw....can't believe the first race of the season is already here. Made it here to San Diego a few days ago and have had a chance to swim, bike and run on the course. First off, man is that water cold!! I made the mistake of taking a dip in the fresh 58 degree water without any ear plugs and cap....yeah I didn't last long. My buddy Greg had a little laugh seeing me splash around like a wounded seal out there with my head out of the water. Needless to say, I was happy to have done it, I now will be prepared for tomorrow morning. I did IM St. George last year and was quite reminiscent.

Overall feeling descent, we'll see what that means tomorrow. Heather will be on my twitter posting updates when she can. It is a 1 loop swim, 1 loop bike and 2 loop run, so probably not much info early on. Apparently there is an iPhone app called IronTrac that you can track athletes easy, I think its like $.99.

Looking forward to a fun day, the backdrop here in Oceanside is awesome! Additionally, I really am looking forward to racing with the Wattie Ink Elite Team. Sean Watkins has done an awesome job organizing it and the support from the sponsors has been "big league."

Rockin' the 'dub',
Crazy J

EC Tucson Camp - Day 3 & 4

Its been a couple of days since I blogged, crazy how time can slip by you with a bit of a fatigue “on board.” Motivation to do the small things like blogging quickly goes out the door. Thankfully, today is a re-group day with just a swim and run this morning.

Wednesday was also a bit of a re-group day. We rode out and back over Gates Pass, but the morning started out with a hefty 1.5hr swim session that concluded with 5K. Afterwards, we popped out for a run/drill session which was nice. We got video of it so we’ll once we get it edited, we’ll try and post it and I’ll put the link up here as well. Doing the drills allows you to get into your run session much quicker than just running as a warm up and you actually get more run quality time for that session. Really good info.

Day 3 Totals
Swim: 1:30
Bike: 1:40
Run: :30

Yesterday was a tough ride up Mount Lemmon. We “commuted” to the base of the climb. The climb is 20.5 miles up. We all started as a group, but as you can imagine, it splits quickly. My personal goal was to ride sustainable steady up to the 10 mile marker, then once at 10 miles, raise my effort by ~5% and be able to hold it to the top. Climbing is something that I don’t really enjoy and usually I am a “head case” with sustained climbs. Over the last 2 seasons, I have tried to embrace climbing since it is quite a weakness of mine, I think I'm getting better. To overcome my "issues," I ride most long climbs on my own where I can dictate pace and effort. So yesterday, I did just that and as it has in the past, it worked well for me. I rode strong the whole way raising my effort the entire 2 hour climb. Good start to the year for climbing. Ride took us a bit under 5 hours.

Later that afternoon, Chris, Jeff, Tom and I went to the University of Arizona rec pool for a nice hour session. Given the days earlier session up Mt Lemmon, the main set was kept short, multiple 50’s.

Day 4 Totals
Bike: 4:40
Swim: :60
Run: :00

All in all, I’m feeling ok this late in camp. Legs are sore, but to be expected. I have been using recovery pumps daily which has been helpful. If there is one, simple, easy thing that aids in recovery, pneumatic legs pumps are well worth the investment. Nearly as important as a nice pair of race wheels.

Additionally, camps seem to revitalize my motivation to begin capturing my “numbers” again. I tend to get lazy downloading my devices to training peaks, especially after I start getting error messages attempting to download my device. After talks by Alan, it doesn’t make sense not to keep logs. Having the ability to track TSS (training stress score) which is a composite number that takes into account the duration and intensity of a workout to arrive at a single estimate of the overall training load and physiological stress created by that training session, gives you the visualization and capability to appropriately predict necessary recovery periods in a training block. A long story short, I’ll be using a more of a number approach this season, should be interesting.

Off to the morning swim and 1.5hr run this AM.

JFT’in,
Crazy J

EC - Tucson Day 2

As always at the Endurance Corner camps, early AM coffee is fresh in Gordo's room. And in typical fashion, it was this morning as well. It seems to be quite a popular routine during camps.

agggggggghhhh...man it was a tough day, probably mostly self inflicted. Started the day off with a 10K run around 'A' Mountain from the hotel. The proper name is Sentinel Peak but features a large, painted, man-made rock formation in the shape of the letter "A" that was built by University of Arizona students.
Awesome run route. The route circumnavigates the "hill." If ever in Tucson, it is a must do run route.

After a small break, it was "go time" for the first long ride of camp. We had Madera Canyon which is a ride south of Tucson to the Coronado National Forest.
We broke up into 2 groups - Friendly and....Not so friendly! I was delegated to the "Not So Friendly" ride group and we rolled at 10:30. The pace was moderate until we hit the base of the climb which is about 10 miles to the base of the REAL climb which is 2.3 miles long. At the "first" base, the tempo became quite high leading into the base of the 2.3 mile climb whittling the gruop to 3. This might have been my first mistake. I haven't ridden that hard in quite sometime, maybe in a criterium bike race once. So, just before the start of the steep 2.3 mile climb, I stopped in for a rest and quick refuel, very much needed. I nabbed a Coke. After recovering, started the short climb. Took me 18:23 to get to the top, whipped it around and regrouped at the bottom.

Now by this point, we were literally at the half way point of a 96 mile ride and doubt began to creep in if I was going to be able to stay with the "Not So Friendly" group, unfortunately not by choice. So back at the rest stop, I drank another Coke and 2 gels with caffeine. We hit the road and I was feeling ok, but constantly wiery of when the bonk was gonna hit. Starting my 11th season in triathlon, I've learned a few things about bonking, mostly through personal experience. I was nearing toward survival mode and I realized as long as I kept Coke and gels in me, I'd be ok. So thats exactly what I did. We had another rest stop about 15 miles or so after climbing Madera and as you can guess, I went for my 3rd coke of the ride, and really my 3rd in the last 75 minutes. That with another gel and I was set for the last hour ride home. On our way out, Tom grabbed another Coke for the road and about 15 minutes later, rolled up next to me with a half filled Coke and offered the rest to me.....and you know what!?!?!....I drank that too!!!

By this time, we had finished most of the climbing and we where on the home stretch. Ya know, it was kinda wierd and all the sudden, the pace began to get a bit faster and I found myself at the front with Tom, hammering away. Funny how easy it is to go hard when you have a mate. :) Next thing you know, we are running full on paceline, single file, back to the hotel for the last 45'ish minutes. To be honest, I had tons of fun given'er everything I had. I haven't done that in quite a while. To be honest, I did have some permission to go hard, my coach Marilyn told me it was ok to get a little tired this week, so I'm workin' on it. We'll see how tomorrow goes, those long, hard efforts can be tough...we'll see how tomorrow's ride goes!

Day 4 Totals:
Run: :50
BIke: 5:05
Swim: 0:00

Our speaker this evening was a local legend here in Tucson, Paul Thomas. He is 43y.o. and it quite the endurance athlete. He is still riding with the Pro, Cat 1 riders here. The dude can crush it! He went 7:13 at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race and took 23rd overall, pretty impressive for a guy that has never ridden a mountain bike.

Tomorrow is an easier day, we open with 1.5 hour swim set followed by another 10k run. I think we only have a 2 hour ride of which I have a feeling that I won't have a choice in the matter but to keep it easy. Stil have a lot of riding left in camp.

Until tomorrow,
Crazy J

Endurance Corner Camp Tucson Day 1

The first day of camp was mild, which was good. It gave everyone an oppurtunity to get their bikes sorted, the mechanic to take a look and get everyone warmed up for the "road" ahead. Started out with a 8AM swim at Oro Valley which is a pretty nice pool. Had 7 lanes to ourselves.

Notice the flags, super windy

For today's swim, Justin had implanted a 1K time trial for time. I ended up helping with timing and then afterwards, JD and I did ours together...kinda together....well, we started at the same time anyways. I have spent most of the winter and the last 2 months keeping my swim consistency high, swimming most weeks 6 times/week, nothing less than 5. That being said, I haven't worked on any high end fitness and it showed today. I swam 12:28 for the 1,000yd TT. I would have liked to swim a bit faster, however I am happy with it for now. Its early season. My mid season best last year was 11:45.

After the swim, we had a small snack and headed out on a nice, quick 7.2K run with Heath and Justin. It was pretty uneventful, but always good to get to socialize with other campers.

Headed back to hotel and took a 2 hour nap, well that would probably be considered a "sleep." After a little lunch, got our kits on, were briefed and out the door for our ride.

On the docket, was a 2 hour ride with a 5.5 mile individual time trial half way out. The course is a false flat up the entire way, probably 1-2% grade the whole way.

Today, the wind was quite mighty and was "whippin" pretty good. Justin said he was about 3-4 minutes slower than normal. IT-WAS-WINDY!!! All in all, its always good to test and this was going to be a perfect CP20(all out effort for 20 minutes measuring avg power over that time to calculate functional threshold power FTP) test to see where my fitness CURRENTLY is. I ended sliding in a bit under 24 minutes, averaging 290 watts. Again, considering its early season and I haven't done much high end training, not too shabby, was hoping to average over 300. One of the campers Tom, had the fastest time of 21:30. Tom is from Salt Lake City and quite a good triathlete.

So overall, a good day at EC Tucson Camp.

Day 3 Totals
Swim: 45 min
Run: 35 min
Bike: 2 hrs

After dinner, Alan Couzens gave a brief talk on intepreting training test and how to use them functionally in your current training. If you ever get a chance to read Alan's blog, you will learn alot. Super intelligent guy with a lot of good information on how to guide your training and understanding "the numbers."

Tomorrow is the first big ride. We are riding to Madera Canyon which I think will be around 80 miles round trip. Madera Canyon is a 10 mile climb, should be a good one. 2600 feet of climbing in the last 10 miles. But before that, we are heading out for a nice 10K run. I'll try and swim after our ride to keep my swimming streak alive, but no promises.

Still bronzin'
Crazy J

Endurance Corner Camp & "Bronzin' " in the dirty "T"

So my plan of writing a daily blog was kiboshed from day one. After 5.5 hours of training the first day, I was in bed by 7:30PM!! I flew into Tucson, late Friday PM and got to bed by midnight. I tried to sleep in, but my typical 4:30 internal clock tends to get in the way, but I managed to get a little extra sleep and was up at 6:15. I laid there and did actually get back to sleep until 7:45. First workout was a ride with Chris and we rolled out a bit after 9AM. 4 hours was on the docket and we ended up with 3:45. (I guess that is what happens when you ride with a sub 4:30 Ironman bike split)
This is the norm here in Tucson, there are alot of open ranges

I have to say, after being on the trainer all winter, man it was a treat to be out on the road. For some reason, I had better power numbers on the road that I have had all winter on the trainer. Now this could be from a number of things, rested, excited to be outside, or riding with the "big man." All in all, it was a good ride and ended up the back side of Gates Pass (GP). If you haven't ridden GP, it is fairly short climb, about 10 mins, but man does it kick up at the end.

The beginning of Gates Pass

So the "REAL" reason I came to Tucson is to get a good tan. I mean, heck, there isn't much better of place to get to train and have awesome weather. Just kidding, but really, I am working on it. I forgot to put some suntan lotion on before the ride and this is what I got. I guess I need to work on those lines throughout the week.

After the ride, Chris and I headed out for a nice little 40 min jog. Shortly after, Marilyn, Chris and I headed to the University of Arizona pool for an hour session. Needless to say, it was a pull bouy and paddles day. My legs to say the least weren't cooperating. Its been a long time since I have had my legs cramp kicking off the wall. That being said, it is hands down one of the best pools I have swam in.

Dinner shortly followed and then an early bedtime. One thing here in Tucson that you notice right away is how dry it is. My throat and lungs were burning by days end of the workouts. The other thing, is you can get dehydrated quickly. My lips are a feeling quite chapped.

Day 1 Totals
Bike: 3:45
Run: :40
Swim: :60
Total: 5:25

Today wasn't much different. This time Marilyn and I rolled out for 2:15 ride. However, this time I learnt my lesson and applied the "red head" sun block...SPF 55!!!

Once again, we ended up the back side of GP and.... IT DIDN't GET ANY EASIER!!! After a short break, I ran down to Jeff's hotel and Gordo, Jeff and I took off for a 45 min stroll on the river path. Keeping the theme of "Bronzin'," I of course ran in just shorts, I'm gonna have that tan evened out before I leave!!! At the last minute, G, Jeff and I eneded up swimming 2K in the hotel pool which happen to be 25m long, a nice little treat.

As a part of the training week, I will be help with the Endurance Corner training camp that Gordo and Justin Daerr put on. We had dinner this evening with all the campers. As always with triathlon, one of the reason it is such a great sport is all the people you get to meet from across the country, camp will be no different. There are athletes from coast to coast, all different abilities, all different backgrounds, coalesced in the dirty "T" for one week of training. Its gonna be a fun week.

Day 2 Totals
Bike: 2:15
Run: :45
Swim: :30
Total: 3:30
Tomorrow, camp starts off with a 1000 meter time trial in the pool, followed by a run and then a couple hour ride with a 5 mile all out effort time trial again.

Livin' the dream!
Crazy J

Tucson Training Camp

It's that time of year when fitness is beginning to peak its little rearing head out and inside training sessions begin to get a little old. For me in Boise, going outside for a ride at this time really isn’t an option in my “playbook.” The trick for me during this part of the year is increasing my riding consistency as opposed to my ride single session volume. Consistent riding isn’t necessarily a choice because the sad truth is that I just can’t sit my arse on the saddle in front of the TV for more than about 2.5 hours at any one time. So my early season fitness is dependent on getting consistent training sessions on the bike 4-5 days per week between 1.5-2.5 hours per session.

However, this year I am heading to Tucson for a week to play in the sun. I haven’t done many big training camps as a triathlete over the past 11 years, so I am looking forward to this time. My first big training camp that I ever attended was Epic Camp with Gordo Byrn and Scott Molina in Australia, that was in 2005. That camp was defined by ignorance…..ignorance in the sense that I just really didn’t know how much one could train, but I found out afterwards the body has the ability to train a lot, more than you think. I don’t remember the numbers exactly, but I think we in the range of 45 hrs in a week, it could have been more. It was pretty crazy, nearly excessive, but I learned a lot…..a lot about BONKING and a lot about recovery!!!! Oh and that drink in a red aluminum can called Coke. I had never trained with coke, nor caffeine for that matter. I learned the benefits during that camp. I’ll have to save that story for another time. Molina introduced me to Coke on a training ride one day and man was that a funny day. But in any case, I don’t think I will be hitting those volume numbers this week and I hope that I won’t be bonking as much neither.

My second camp was in 2007 and my brother and I headed to Tucson with some buddies. This was the last “bigger” camp that did. We definitely had a much more moderate schedule, but never less good in terms of boosting fitness. As I head back to Tucson in 2012, I am excited to get back to living like a “pro” for a week. With Oceanside 70.3 in 5 weeks, it was almost a necessity so that I could get some road riding in. This weeks camp maybe the only rode riding I will get in prior to the race, so I’ll be taking advantage of it. I’ll be posting through out the week, it should be a good time.

Did I mention the weather is supposed to be in mid 70’s the whole week. Stoked!!

Livin’ the dream,
Crazy J