Sunday, June 13, 2010

Sub-2 Adieu

I first had the notion that I wanted to break 2 hours back in 2005. I hired my coach Matt Eagan, and about a year later I started this blog to help keep me focused and motivated. Training through college in Boulder Colorado was an absolute dream. Beautiful roads, mountains and trails, perfect weather and best friends. I was getting fitter every month. Despite believing that I was fit enough to break 2 hours, the performance never materialized. On a grueling course at Age Group National Championships in 2007 I came painfully close to the mark, and afterwards I vowed that I would come back stronger to have even better races in the future. I was going to break 2 hours.

For the next two years, graduating school, broken bones, moving cross country and a new job kept me from really training much at all. I was no longer in Boulder and my coach Matt was no longer a coach - he was now a horse trainer. Spring of 2009 I was in pretty poor fitness, but I called up my old coach and asked if he wanted a side project. I told him I was gunning hard for the 2hr mark again; I needed help. May 26th, 2009 we officially started working together again. Exactly 52 weeks later I had the fastest race of my life - a 1:56:18 finish at an Olympic distance triathlon. I did it! After thousands of hours of training, thousands of dollars, and great personal sacrifices I finally broke 2 hours on an Olympic distance triathlon.

What next? While I love triathlon and I will never leave the sport for good, I have decided to put my efforts towards another challenge. The complexity of having to train for three different sports is a strain on personal time and pocketbook. I am going to take a sabbatical of sorts from triathlon for several years and pursue road and track cycling while I live in a city with a velodrome. I'm guessing that in a few years I'll get bitten by the triathlon bug again, and I'll be back.

This concludes a 4-year story. I will likely post nothing else here for some time, if at all. Thanks for reading!

2 comments:

MGM said...

Oh, Dave! Say it ain't so! Your posts, with photos and updates of your goals and designs will be missed.
Those new bike parts are looking like they could get some patents attached to them. Maybe there's a track racing blog in your future...

Dana said...

Well, that figures...I just found your blog today following a Google search for Active Imprints. I've spend the last hour or so skim/reading about your life the last 3 years....only to find out you're not going to post again for a while?? WHAT? NO, you can't do that. It's been good reading about your journey...and gives me some hope for improvement I'm hoping to make (although on a very different level). Good luck to you in the future. I hope you do post again soon. :D