Taper to Nat's

Nationals is in 5 days and I've started my taper. I'm feeling strong, especially on the run. My goal for the next few days is to stay rested and relaxed. I'm looking forward to having my strongest performance to date! It's a really great feeling, knowing that each day I'm the fittest I've ever been in my life. I feel pretty mean and lean right now.

Thursday afternoon I fly out to Portland, OR. Saturday I race, Sunday I fly back. You'll be hearing how it goes for sure.


Hagg Lake, OR. Transition is on the tan part of the shoreline jutting out on the top left side of the lake. The bike course is two laps around the lake, and the run is an out-and-back along the bike course.

5430 Sprint

Yesterday was the 5430 Sprint Triathlon, the first of the three-race series in Boulder. The race was a "dress-rehearsal" for Age Group Nationals in 2 weeks, and just about everything went according to plan. My goals for the race were to place in the top 15 overall, break my previous stand alone bike TT time on the bike course (see my previous post on March 8th), and run faster than 6min/mile pace. I almost achieved every one of those goals, and I am very satisfied with the performance.

I finished 10th overall, my bike split was more than 3 minutes faster than what I did in March, and I ran 5 seconds off of a 6min/mile pace. I finished 3:28 behind the overall winner, but was 1:40 back from 2nd place. I blew up in the last kilometer of the run, but I still pulled off a solid run split (for my standards, at least).

10:37 800m swim + 150m run to transition
40:02 27.7km bike
18:41 5km run
_____________________
1:10:59

The only things that went wrong during this race;
-I really fumbled around getting into my bike shoes, and my shoe strap came completely undone so I had to wait until a downhill before I could "re-lace" the velcro.
-I started getting asthma on the run...I bet I sounded like a dying animal to the people around me.
-I blew up on the last bit of the run, and I had no kick whatsoever at the finish.
...otherwise I couldn't have asked for a better race.

The kid who won it this year raced a 1:10:50 in 2006. Does that mean there is a chance in hell that I, too, can take over 3 minutes off my time in one year? I sure as hell will try...



Exiting T1

Exiting T2

Yep, it hurt. At least I look cool with a sweet mullet.

I like the foot strike. I like the mullet.

Thanks for the photos, Matt!

Orthotics by Active Imprints

I went in to Active Imprints today for an appointment to get some custom running orthotics made. Owner Danny Abshire is one of the two co-founders of the Newton running shoe company. I have a set of orthotics already, but they give me very painful arch blisters when I run without socks, they are heavy, and they provide no forefoot correction. This is a problem because the goal with these spiffy new Newton running shoes is to get the runner to land on their forefoot, which would potentially negate any need for heel correction and increase need for forefoot correction.

I went in and was the only customer in the shop. After taking my foot imprint, the guy working in the shop that day, R.L., invited me in the back to watch him make the orthotics. Normally you have to wait a week or so for cutsom orthotics to come full circle, but at Active Imprints the whole thing took a whopping 30 minutes from start to finish! The new orthotics feel great and they weigh about half as much as my old ones. On top of this, the surface of the insole is made of a very smooth leather-like material that I'm guessing will cure my blister problems. I have a brick track workout tomorrow which should be a good test for the new orthotics.


Imprints of my feet were used as molds.


The molded material being glued up.


RL shaping the bottom and edges of the orthotics.


The finished product!


Damn, sucka! Look at that correction.

5k Run PR!

The Stroke N' Stride was cancelled today due to high winds. I went out to the Boulder Reservoir anyway to meet my coach and training buddies so we could still get in a hard workout. We decided to run the 5k course at race pace. This would be the first legitimate open 5k for me, as the previous open 5k I did in February was actually 4.6k. The course at "the res" is an out-and-back, so the stiff winds gave us a killer headwind on the way out and a nice tailwind on the way back.

I felt great running into the wind, really comfortable with the effort. On the way back I concentrated on landing with a forefoot strike and with as little time contacting the ground as possible. I kept my hips under me and my core tall, and let 'er rip! I finished in 17:46; 5:43-mile pace.

On Saturday I have an appointment to get new custom running orthotics. I can't wait!


I like this 5k course.

Holy Crap! Wind!

Taken from Weather.com:
"HIGH WIND WARNING: WEST WINDS OF 30 TO 50 MPH WILL DEVELOP IN THE FOOTHILLS AND OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN EAST OF THE DIVIDE LATER THIS EVENING WITH GUSTS UP TO 90 MPH WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS ON THURSDAY. A FEW GUSTS COULD REACH 100 MPH OR MORE IN A FEW LOCATIONS."

I did the Lyons-Boulder TT tonight, starting at 7pm. The course goes directly North-to-South... coincidentally, the wind always comes from the West. I almost died about 20 times. By far, these were the worst wind conditions I have ever ridden in...and I had my 808s on the TT bike. Bad, bad recipe. I was surprised my pedals weren't clipping the road because I was leaning over so hard. I was afraid my wheels were going to loose traction, my helmet threatened to get sucked off my head, and my cheeks were becoming inflated just like you see in skydiving videos. Hitting little cracks in the road bounced my front wheel up just enough that at times it got picked up by the crosswind and thrown over a few inches.

The last time I did this TT I had no TT goodies (helmet, wheels, suit, booties, etc) and it was cold and raining. This time around I pulled out all the stops and went full aero; my time was about 1.5 minutes slower!

I passed a friend during the TT and he said I was leaning so far over that I looked like a downhill racer going into a banked corner.

I'm glad that's over. Whew!