How is it July Already?
It is crazy how quickly time goes by. Since the last time I posted, I've raced twice, attended a training camp, attended two conferences, and published two journal papers to say the least. With my next 70.3 a little less than a week away, I thought I would post a quick update on training, racing and life. I have distinct section for Oceanside 70.3, Quassy Olympic, and Muncie 70.3 prep.
Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
Heading into Oceanside I felt pretty good. It's an early season race and I had put in a pretty good base over the winter. My goal had been to "do more, by doing less," aka more time going EASY, but also more time going HARD. I definitely felt like I had done a pretty good job doing this on the bike, but running not as much. Regardless, I was excited because this was my first time racing as a member of Team Wattie Ink! I arrived in LA Wednesday evening before the race and headed down to Oceanside on Thursday where I was staying with new teammates. I spent Thursday and Friday getting to know my new teammates, checking all my equipment, and bumping Jessse Thomas' kids in the head with my elbow at dinners.
Race morning was hectic with a lot of traffic. My teammate Alan and I didn't realize how early people were lining up for the swim start and we had about 1/4mi of people to squeeze through to get to the front of the pack. This served as "warm up." The swim was ok. As I expected, the sun was in my eyes on the way back and I got off course slightly. I swam a 26' high, slower than when I did this race in 2016, but pretty good for how much swimming I had been doing. The bike was crowded and I spent the first half mostly avoiding any drafting penalties, but there was an annoying amount of people on my wheel and a lot of people passing in the "no pass" zone. There are three distinct climbs on the OS course. I set myself a hard 320W limit on these climbs. Finally the packs started to spread apart and I found myself in the middle. After the last climb, I used the descent to let the legs recover and fuel. There was some headwind on the final flat stretch, but I think my power cap on the climbs helped because I was passing nearly everyone who got away from me on the climbs! My final time was 2:29, ~3min slower than 2016 and 20W lower. I didn't find out this last piece until after the race, but overall the bike felt more controlled than two years ago and my legs felt a lot better during the run.
The run was just as energetic as I remember! Only this time, I had a bunch of new teammate cheering me on the entire time. I started out conservatively at just around 7min pace. During the second lap, I slowed to 7:15 at one point and felt the fatigue and negative thoughts start to come. I knew this meant I needed to fuel, so I took in a GU and red bull at the next aid station. The last 5k I got a second wind and felt incredible! It was the fastest part of the race! My run split was 1:31, about 7min faster than 2016 for a final time of 4:34 (course PR by about 5min, the rest of the time was probably made up during transition). Proud of this effort for an early season effort and huge improvement (both in fitness and race strategy) compared to Austin 70.3 5months prior!
Overall, a fun race and huge improvement over Lobsterman in 2016. It also revealed to me that I really needed to do some more quality running. That would become the focus for Muncie 70.3 prep.
Prepping for Muncie
I knew this season that I needed to spend more time going easy followed equally by more time smashing. I knew I hadn't done enough hard running prior to Quassy and for about two weeks after Quassy I still had not done a good job of correcting this mistake. I traveled a bit to visit family, and while I had some time to train, it was always easier to just go "easy." Inevitably, my 7:20-7:45min/mile runs became known as #ChardPace by Greg Grosicki and Corey Robinson on my Strava. Eventually, the hard time these two gave me led to a shift and I have been able to add some more high quality running, cycling and swimming to my training over the past 3-4weeks, henceforth known as #AntiChardRunning. It is most certainly going to be hot in Muncie, but with some heat waves hitting the northeast, I am ready and excited to take it all on! I also recently got a new bike fit by Dave Ripley at 51Speedshop and got my bike completely overhauled: new cranks, new extensions, new seat post, and more! I will be making a separate post on my thoughts on bike fit with personally and as a biomechanics PhD and my experience at 51Speedshop, but essentially I got lengthened out to hopefully avoid some SI joint issues I've had in the past. Needless to say, I have made quiet a few changes to both some of my gear and training between Quassy and Muncie and I am excited to test it all out; I don't think I have ever been this excited to race in a long time! Stay tuned for a prompt race report afterwards.
Thank You
Just wanted to take some time to thank everyone who has supported me along the way! Big thank you to my girlfriend and Wattie teammate, Taylor Ellis, for all your support, bringing your Kickr to Indianapolis so I could still train while at a conference, traveling with me a lot this year, and being patient with me. Thanks to Team Wattie Ink and all of our sponsors (linked below) for giving me a chance and all your continued support! My Boston training buddies (aka Team #SmashSunday) Greg Grosicki, Corey Robinson, and Mike Hoffman for the pulls, the emergency water and the #ChardPace motivation.
Sponsors
Wattie Ink
Herbalife 24
Hoka One One
Blueseventy
Pioneer Electronics
Knight Composites
Eternal Water
ISM Seat
Speedfill
Zealios
Stryd
SLF Motion
Race Day Wheels
Powerbreather
51 Speedshop
Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
Heading into Oceanside I felt pretty good. It's an early season race and I had put in a pretty good base over the winter. My goal had been to "do more, by doing less," aka more time going EASY, but also more time going HARD. I definitely felt like I had done a pretty good job doing this on the bike, but running not as much. Regardless, I was excited because this was my first time racing as a member of Team Wattie Ink! I arrived in LA Wednesday evening before the race and headed down to Oceanside on Thursday where I was staying with new teammates. I spent Thursday and Friday getting to know my new teammates, checking all my equipment, and bumping Jessse Thomas' kids in the head with my elbow at dinners.
Race morning was hectic with a lot of traffic. My teammate Alan and I didn't realize how early people were lining up for the swim start and we had about 1/4mi of people to squeeze through to get to the front of the pack. This served as "warm up." The swim was ok. As I expected, the sun was in my eyes on the way back and I got off course slightly. I swam a 26' high, slower than when I did this race in 2016, but pretty good for how much swimming I had been doing. The bike was crowded and I spent the first half mostly avoiding any drafting penalties, but there was an annoying amount of people on my wheel and a lot of people passing in the "no pass" zone. There are three distinct climbs on the OS course. I set myself a hard 320W limit on these climbs. Finally the packs started to spread apart and I found myself in the middle. After the last climb, I used the descent to let the legs recover and fuel. There was some headwind on the final flat stretch, but I think my power cap on the climbs helped because I was passing nearly everyone who got away from me on the climbs! My final time was 2:29, ~3min slower than 2016 and 20W lower. I didn't find out this last piece until after the race, but overall the bike felt more controlled than two years ago and my legs felt a lot better during the run.
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| Shout out to Greg Grosicki for lending me his wheels and helmet for this race! |
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| Full send down to the finish line |
Quassy Olympic Race Report
Coming into Quassy I was just excited to race! I had been focusing on swimming and running more (but as I would soon find out it wasn't the right kind of running). I had come off some travel for two conferences, but I thought I had maintained my training fairly well. Greg was racing too, so we drove up the day before the race on Saturday. We got to the place we were staying to briefly drop some things off, and then headed to the race cite for check in, bike drop off, and a shake out swim. I felt incredible during this swim, averaging ~1:12/100yrd, but maybe I was being overly optimistic. Quick nap back at our mansion, shaved my legs, and got a pasta dinner.
I really wanted to try and get a little bit of a warm up before this race, so ran and did some dynamic stretching in the parking lot. It was another time trial start and positioned myself about 2-3 people behind Greg so I could catch him and he could draft me. I got in the water and took off! I unfortunately did not see GG the entire time. I got on someone's feet who essentially swam the course just the two of us. I didn't see anyone else. I screwed up getting out because I spotted the wrong buoy, but still swam a 19:49, one of my best Olympic swims! I was the only one in transition and made my way onto the bike course. I saw two people ahead of my and quickly passed them and was riding solo nearly the entire time. It was a hilly challenging course, but it kept it really interesting and fun! At around mile 15, I looked back and saw GG had caught up to me and was within 7-10 bike lengths from me. I stayed focused on my race and kept thinking he would pass me but he didn't. Around mile 25.5, I heard Greg yell, "You're riding like a horse!" but what he really said was "How long is this course?!?" The course was just over 26mi and we both rolled into transition together. He just beat me out of T2 and we both made a wrong turn out of there. We thought we were 1-2, but about 1/4mi in a volunteer told me I was in 3rd? Regardless, I felt good running. it was slightly downhill and was holding about 6:20-6:30 pace. Around mile 2.2, I hit the first hill and it crushed me. It was steep and long and completely drained me. The next 2mi were about 7:15mi/mile and I felt like I was fading. I popped a GU and started to speed up again. Three people passed me between mile 4 and 5, but I kept the last two in sight as we ran uphill towards the finish line. In the last stretch I managed to run one guy down and ended up finishing 1st AG and 5OA.
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| Very glamorous finish line pic |
Prepping for Muncie
I knew this season that I needed to spend more time going easy followed equally by more time smashing. I knew I hadn't done enough hard running prior to Quassy and for about two weeks after Quassy I still had not done a good job of correcting this mistake. I traveled a bit to visit family, and while I had some time to train, it was always easier to just go "easy." Inevitably, my 7:20-7:45min/mile runs became known as #ChardPace by Greg Grosicki and Corey Robinson on my Strava. Eventually, the hard time these two gave me led to a shift and I have been able to add some more high quality running, cycling and swimming to my training over the past 3-4weeks, henceforth known as #AntiChardRunning. It is most certainly going to be hot in Muncie, but with some heat waves hitting the northeast, I am ready and excited to take it all on! I also recently got a new bike fit by Dave Ripley at 51Speedshop and got my bike completely overhauled: new cranks, new extensions, new seat post, and more! I will be making a separate post on my thoughts on bike fit with personally and as a biomechanics PhD and my experience at 51Speedshop, but essentially I got lengthened out to hopefully avoid some SI joint issues I've had in the past. Needless to say, I have made quiet a few changes to both some of my gear and training between Quassy and Muncie and I am excited to test it all out; I don't think I have ever been this excited to race in a long time! Stay tuned for a prompt race report afterwards.
Thank You
Just wanted to take some time to thank everyone who has supported me along the way! Big thank you to my girlfriend and Wattie teammate, Taylor Ellis, for all your support, bringing your Kickr to Indianapolis so I could still train while at a conference, traveling with me a lot this year, and being patient with me. Thanks to Team Wattie Ink and all of our sponsors (linked below) for giving me a chance and all your continued support! My Boston training buddies (aka Team #SmashSunday) Greg Grosicki, Corey Robinson, and Mike Hoffman for the pulls, the emergency water and the #ChardPace motivation.
Sponsors
Wattie Ink
Herbalife 24
Hoka One One
Blueseventy
Pioneer Electronics
Knight Composites
Eternal Water
ISM Seat
Speedfill
Zealios
Stryd
SLF Motion
Race Day Wheels
Powerbreather
51 Speedshop
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