One Hour Swim

My mission to “swim like a swimmer” took a big step forward yesterday. I competed in my first swimming national championship, the 2012 USMS Speedo One Hour Postal National Championship. Any national championship with that long of a name can’t be a legit national championship. And you are right. Sorta. Let’s break this down.

• USMS as in US Masters Swimming. Basically if you aren’t competing as a swimmer as an age grouper, high schooler, collegiate or elite, you are probably swimming Masters.
• Speedo as in the brand, not necessarily the brief-style swimsuit.
• One Hour as in swim as far as you can in one hour.
• Postal National Championship as in mail in your results to USMS and see where you and your swim club stack up (hence the “sorta”).

Anyway, like I said, I made my attempt at swimming an hour straight yesterday. While I frequently swim 90 minute workouts, rarely do we do more than a few minutes at a time (and never more than about 15 minutes). From a runner’s perspective, this seems strange, since very little of our training is done in small increments. Since this is how the rest of the swimming world trains, I don’t question and blindly accept it as truth (as every good athlete should).

After a short warm up, I got going at 6:35 am at NAU’s Wall Aquatic Center (which sits at ~7,000 feet and seems to be perpetually set up as Long Course Meters). I was sharing the lane with two other guys that were also doing the one hour swim, and they started just behind me. I knew I could hold 1:30′s, which would come out to 4km, so I thought I should start there and progress. I came through the first couple hundred just under that pace. I felt comfortable so I just let it flow. My first 1km split was 14:20 (1:26 average), which surprised me. I got a little excited and sped up the next 1km with a 14:12 split (1:25.2 average).

The old question “is the glass half full or half empty” rules every endurance athletes psyche during a race or hard effort. I am sure of it. If you are feeling good, the glass is half full; I’m already halfway! If you are feeling bad, or perhaps you are running a 10k on the track (in which case you are doomed before the gun goes off), the glass is almost always half empty; there’s no way I can hang on that much longer! Yesterday was a glass half full kind of day. As I passed the 30 minute mark I pressed a little harder. 3rd split in 14:10 (1:25 average). Right around 2 miles in, ~3200m, I started to feel the burn. My shoulders were getting tired of course, but more than anything, my forearms were hurting. With each length of the pool it was getting harder to keep a good catch going. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 4th split at 13:58 (<1:24 average). From there it was everything I had left. I tried to swim the final 250m in 3:20 (1:20 pace) but came up just a bit short.

I finished up with 4240m which equals 4637 yards. (For my nonswimmer readers: If I had actually swam in a short course yards pool, I probably would have been even further as there would have been more than twice as many turns, which are almost always faster.)

I’m really happy with where I finished up. A one hour Ironman swim is a benchmark for a decent swimmer, and I beat that by almost 400m (3862m). Swimming continues to go in the right direction, which is all I can ask for. I know I won’t be putting the hurt on anyone this season in the swim, but with all the work I have been doing in the pool, I think I will be able to swim well enough that I will be around later in the race to put the hurt on during the run.

Overcoming my barrier to success

Once again the end of the semester has come between me, my blog, and my countless fans. You would think that taking six credits, just two classes, would leave me with plenty of free time to spend writing about myself…

Well it doesn’t. Mixed with all the other things I have on my plate these days, studying for two classes has become quite difficult actually. You may be concerned that I have had to cut down my training time to accommodate. Not to worry, I have my priorities straight.

After my race at Myrtle Beach it became more clear than ever that I can be a great triathlete, if I can swim faster. I like to think of the swim as a barrier to entry. No one ever wins the race with a superior swim, but it can be lost with an inferior one. It won’t matter how fast I bike or run in the draft-legal world if I can’t swim with the pack. Winter ’11-’12 is dedicate to conquering this barrier.

When I am not on the road traveling with the NAU Lumberjack cross country team, I am getting in the pool. I have been trying to get in the pool nine times a week, with doubles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also try to get in with the Masters swim team as often as possible, requiring to swim on my own only three to four times a week. Last week this routine led me to my first 40,000+ yard week ever! (It was actually 36,700 meters, all swam in a long course pool at 7,000 feet)

On the bike the focus right now is to build bike endurance and “bike specific muscles” (in the words of my coach Ian Murray). I just bought a PowerTap, which is a fancy (and pricey) piece of equipment that tells me what my power output is. Power is a much more reliable way to quantify workouts on the bike than using speed or even heart rate. Because the weather has been pretty cold in Flagstaff I have been confined to the trainer mostly. When I get home for winter break however, I plan to put in a lot of hours on the saddle.

I have really let go of my running recently. I have only been averaging about 25 miles a week for the last few weeks. That run volume is extremely low for me and is something I only would have done if I were recovering from an injury in my past days as a single sport athlete. As I said earlier it is all about the swim for me right now, and in order for me to get the quality and quantity I want in the pool, I need to take it easy running for a little bit. The plan is to have some run focused weeks probably in February. I will have extremely good fitness by that point, and hopefully with a few key run workouts I will be ready to run near the front of the pack.

In the future I would love to be in a situation where I need to work on my run again to be competitive at the top. This would mean that I have overcome that barrier to entry and my results are no longer being capped to the back half of the field before I even get on the bike.

Family weekend at sea level

On Friday I went home for some family action. My Great Uncle Niller had flown all the way in from Copenhagen, Denmark, which doesn’t happen very often. I spent the majority of the weekend at my aunt’s beautiful home in Northridge with my cousins, brother, sister, mom, dad, sister-in-law, Farfar (father’s father in Danish)…

Those that know me well know that I’m a family guy. I love it in Flagstaff, but I do miss my family a lot while I’m here. I’m lucky enough to have my own travel agent (mom) that gets me home once or twice a semester. Guess who is the favorite child?

Another perk to going home is sea level! I took this opportunity to do a little swim marker to see where I am at. USA Triathlon has a swim test that they use to evaluate potential Collegiate Recruits: 200 all out, 1 minute rest, 800 all out. Last year I did the test several times, putting up my best time in July. On that occasion I swam 2:13 and 10:10 for short course yards. At the time I was ecstatic with the result, especially the 200. I had rested up for the test and it was my last hard swim before turning my focus 100% on the cross country season.

Swimming has been going very well up here in Flagstaff. I hit 30,000m in one week for the first time a couple of weeks in anticipation of my first ITU triathlon coming up. I didn’t taper at all for the test, but I knew with my new swim fitness and a little extra oxygen I was ready to swim a good time.

Coach Ian did some filming of the swim. My form has improved, but I need to bring my arm underneath my body to really get the most out of my stroke.

My triathlon coach Ian Murray met me at CLU and took me through a good warm up. I got myself pumped up and dove head first into the 200. I swam a 2:10, which was a little bittersweet because I thought I was ready to break 2:10. I tried to enjoy all the extra oxygen during that short one minute rest, and then set off on the 800. I hit 9:41 — a 29 second improvement!

While the 200 wasn’t quite as fast as I was hoping, I surprised myself in the 800 and I can see that all the hours I am spending at the pool are paying off. I spoke with Barb Lindquist yesterday and we agreed that if I can keep this regimen up, I will be an entirely different swimmer come next Spring.

My swim will really be put to the test this weekend at the Myrtle Beach ITU Continental Cup. Lots more to come before and after that race.

Officially a pro!

I qualified for my elite license (or “pro card”) in my second triathlon of the year by winning the San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island. Since I already had USAT Age Group Nationals on my race schedule, I didn’t want to go pro right away as that would leave me ineligible to race AG Nationals (just like if Prefontaine had raced Viren and Vaatinen in Oulu instead of those less qualified guys in Helsinski). After another strong race in Burlington I decided now was the time to stick my nose in the professional ranks. I sent in all the appropriate paper work and paid the required fee a few weeks ago, and now… I’m officially a pro!

I have signed up for my first pro race, the ITU Pan American Cup in Myrtle Beach, SC on October 9th. This will be a draft legal race, so I have my work cut out for me in the swim. I have put a lot of time and energy into my swim and I am hoping it pays off.

For such a late season race, the field is looking very competitive. At first glance, there are two Olympians in the race and several other World Cup caliber athletes. View the start list here. What better way to learn to race than from the best, right?

There will be a few other Collegiate Recruits competing in that race (Jeff Helmer, Kalen Darling, Brianna Blanchard and Natalie Kirchoff) and it will be nice to catch up with them. While most of them have other ITU racing experience, we are all in very similar situations and it is going to be fun “racing the circuit” with them in the coming months and years.

I am truly living a dream.

Coach PD

After a long travel back from USAT Age Group Nationals, Mo and I made it back to Flagstaff safe and sound. Flagstaff is absolutely gorgeous this time of year, and it is great to be back to the familiar sights and smells.

Starting this new semester has been full of change for me. As all my loyal followers know, I am no longer competing for NAU’s cross country team; I AM COACHING IT! Coach Heins asked me last year if I would be interested in taking a graduate assistant position with the team. I have always been interested in coaching and this is a great opportunity to see if this is something I want to pursue in the future. My coaching duties include helping out at practices, recruiting, and getting some more publicity for the team via a blog (imagine that?). The blog is NAUTrack.com and I will probably include several more shameless plugs throughout the year.

"CoMo" and I working hard at George Kyte

The team has had one meet thus far, the George Kyte Classic at Buffalo Park here in Flagstaff. Both teams are showing lots of new talent and I am looking forward to seeing them reach their goals this year.

Training has been going pretty well these last couple of weeks. I have been getting my feet wet with the masters swim team. I try to swim with them every chance that I get. I am able to do a bit of running with the team, which has reminded me why I ran 100 mile weeks in college instead of my current 40. I have also gone on a few great rides with Joe Withers and have found a great group ride on Saturday’s as well. (…which deserves its own blog post. It is that much fun!)

Back home and back to work

Just over a week ago I returned home from an eight day adventure at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. The camp was a great experience for me, and I am very fortunate to have been chosen among twelve other athletes to learn what it takes to reach the top of USA Triathlon. Most of the sessions were focused around skill building, including swim form taping, bike paceline work, bike handling skills, running form, and transition skills. There were also various meetings to help prepare us for what we will face in our futures as professional triathletes (e.g. USADA drug testing, ITU points list, etc.). The OTC’s campus had some top notch facilities and the best food from an all-you-can-eat buffet I have ever had (sorry NAU, the Dub has nothing on the OTC cafeteria).

Using Trigger Point Performance Therapy products we were each given at the camp. Recovery is the name of the game!

While I got some good training in while I was there, the real benefit of this camp was the relationships I created and the knowledge I gained. As I said there were twelve other athletes there, each of us coming from similar NCAA athletic backgrounds and looking to turn pro in our new sport. It was great to meet so many like-minded individuals that I will be competing alongside and against in the coming months and years. In addition to the athletes, there were several legendary coaches (and former athletes) giving us the best advice money can buy — and we didn’t have to pay for a dime!

Since returning home, Coach Ian has really put me to work. I logged 21 hours of fairly high intensity training last week. I was exhausted all week, with the unofficial nap count ending at five! I took rest and recovery seriously and was able to make each session quality. I have since taken a couple easy days before I head into another tough five-seven day training block. Only 18 more days until Age Group Nationals and there is lots of work to be done!

No promises of coming blog posts. I hope that I can get a few more up before Nationals, but I will be honest: if I have to choose between blogging and taking a nap, nap will win every time. It’s a sad truth, but living like a professional athlete is hard work.

Am I wrong?

In 2010, professional triathlete Jordan Rapp was on a bike ride in Oxnard when a car pulled out in front of him. Jordan didn’t have time to react to the car and ended up smashing into the windshield, cutting his throat, and nearly bleeding to death. The car fled the scene, and was later found to be owned by an illegal immigrant. Basically a cyclists worst nightmare.

Fast forward to last week. I’m riding some hill intervals on Santa Susana Pass. As I crest the top of the hill heading back toward Simi Valley, huffing and puffing from the effort, a jeep turns right in front of me. I wasn’t going too quick, maybe 15 mph or so, and I was able to brake/swerve out of the way. Unbelievable. Scary.

“Thanks Asshole!” I yell at the driver. I look back at the jeep in disgust, and astonishingly, it has stopped and began to make a u-turn. What could this jerk possibly have to say to me? He cut ME off!

The jeep catches up to me on the descent and rolls down the window. He looks to be in his mid 30s, blond and had a surfboard in the car. “Hey I just wanted to apologize for cutting you off back there.” Huh, I guess he just didn’t see me. Nice of him to apologize. But then he continued, “But could you apologize to my daughter for the profanity?” You have got to be kidding me! What a backhanded apology.

“Yeah. Sorry. Just watch out for bikers.”

I had some inner conflict. If I hadn’t said anything he probably never would have seen me. I guess a little girl doesn’t need to hear bad language, but is “asshole” really such a bad word? I was upset. My word choice could have been a lot worse.

Am I wrong here? Has anyone had a similar situation?

After thinking about who was right and who was wrong, I started to wonder what could have been done to avoid the situation. This little altercation was a bit eye opening for me — I was on a wide road with fairly light traffic and I was still almost hit. Drivers clearly do not look out for cyclists. So what can we do besides wearing a helmet and being aware of what is going on around us?

Jordan found himself in a similar predicament once his wounds had healed…

Before getting back on the road, I thought about what options I had to make myself more visible. Neon helmets, jerseys, etc. all crossed my mine. But ultimately, I wanted something that dramatically caught the eye, and the obvious thought was a flashing light. On cars, the presence of daytime running lights contributes to a greatly reduced risk of a head-on collision. Add in a flash, and I figured that drivers would pay even greater attention.

The above excerpt is from a series Jordan began writing for Slowtwitch called “Stay Safe. Be Seen.” He has reviewed several different lights intended for daytime use so that cyclists can be seen and stay safe. I intend to go through the reviews and purchase a set of lights so I can try to avoid an accident like Jordan had, or another awkward apology for my “profanity.” I will post which one I decide to go with, hopefully in the coming weeks.

Thanks for your help, Jordan.

Go-Bo-Ro

My first race is on Sunday at the Breath of Life Triathlon in Ventura. I was recently given a beautiful Blue Seventy full sleeve wetsuit to borrow from my sister’s fiancee, Dan. My buddy Spencer suggested that I get some practice putting the suit on and off, so I went to his house to do a little T1 practice. Hudson came along to document…

Collegiate Recruit

The eerie feeling of no longer being a collegiate athlete has worn off, and I am in full swing with my next pursuit. Thanks to USA Triathlon’s (USAT) Collegiate Recruit Program, I have hit the ground running.

The Collegiate Recruitment Program was created in 2009 to find the next Olympic athletes for team USA. All but one of the US Olympians from the last three Olympics have come from a Division I swimming or running background, and this is a trend that USAT believes will continue. Barb Lindquist, who swam for Stanford and competed for USA in Athens, is the program’s coordinator. She contacted Coach Eric Heins in the Fall of 2009 asking if any of his athletes would be interested in a career in triathlons after finishing their collegiate eligibility. Heins forwarded me her contact, and we kept in touch as I dabbled in triathlon last summer.

With the end of my running career on the horizon, Barb and I discussed becoming a “full blown” recruit. What this means is that Barb and USAT help me progress from a novice triathlete — getting me a coach, equipment, training camps — to a 2016 Olympic hopeful.

Coach

The first step in getting me prepared for a future in triathlon was finding me a coach. I won one race and took second in two races last year without a coach, but those were small fish. There are much better athletes out there, and I need someone with experience to bring me up to their level.

Barb began by contacting some of the best triathletes in the world,  Jordan Rapp (previous Ironman Canada and Arizona winner) and his wife Jill Savege (2004 Olympian). Eventually she found Ian Murray, a Level 3 Certified coach, and asked if he knew of any coaches in the area that would be willing to work with me. Surprisingly, he was interested.

Triathlon Training Series

I am very lucky to have Ian as a coach and I am confident that he will help me accomplish my goals. He has great experience, serving as a team USA coach at several ITU continental cup races and coaching other ITU professionals. He has a series of triathlon training videos called TTS, and he hooked me up with some swag.

Equipment

Quintana Roo CD0.1 "TT" Bike

Next up was equipment, i.e. bike. I had been riding on a Trek 1500 from 2007 that has served me well, but was putting me at a pretty big disadvantage at the level of racing I am now at. For non-draft racing, I found a sweet deal over at the Slowtwitch classifieds on a Quintana Roo CD 0.1. The bike has SRAM Red components that work like a dream. For the majority of the races I do this season, I will be on this time trial bike.

But moving forward, I want to do draft legal racing. The point of the Collegiate Recruitment Program is to prepare athletes for the Olympics, which is draft legal. I needed to upgrade my road bike from a Trek 1500 so I am not missing out on “free speed.”

Thanks to USAT and Blue Bicycles, I am now riding a beautiful Blue RC6. Ian helped me build up the bike with a mix of Shimano Dura Ace and Ultegra components. We slapped some beefy training wheels on there (for now), and what I am left with is an amazing ride. It is so much more responsive than the Trek, and I am really excited to put in the mileage in the saddle on it.

New Blue RC6 Bike

Shimano Dura Ace and Ultegra components

Training Camp

Barb didn’t stop there. I have been invited to come to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for 8 days in July for a triathlon camp with other collegiate recruits, including friend and recent pro Brianna Blanchard. I am so thrilled for this opportunity to learn from the very best in America and to meet some triathletes that share my goals.

I am beginning to train more intensely, focusing on my swim and bike while my Achilles continues to heal. I plan to continue with updates on the road toward living my dream as a professional athlete, so please continue to follow.

Track is a different sport

Welcome to February. Most of the country is being bombarded with subzero temps and, in a few places, massive snow storms. Luckily for Flagstaff, we only have the former. In fact, while the last two days have been painfully cold, this is hands down the best winter that Flagstaff has had since I have been here. Of course, this is coming from a distance runner who thinks there is no such thing as a bad day if you get to run on dirt trails under blue skies. I have a feeling the ski/snowboard enthusiasts in town don’t agree.

This mild winter couldn’t come at a better time for us. NAU’s Skydome, where our 300m indoor track is located, is being renovated. We’ve been promised it is going to be real nice when it is all done, but in the meantime we are stuck doing workouts at 7pm. Certainly not ideal, so we try to do most workouts outside, weather permitting. But it could be worse. And besides, the cold weather makes us tough, right? It will better prepare us for those tough, cold races… oh wait, it isn’t cross country season anymore! Track is a different sport. There is no “leveling the playing field” in track — there is just a lot of left turns on a flat battlefield with nothing to hide behind. “I’ll start rolling down that hill at halfway” doesn’t exist here. This is where lactic acid thrives and speed trumps all.

Success on the track has been tough to come by for me. As a freshman I ran 3:59 for 1500 and 9:15 in the steeplechase. The next year I ran my first 5k in 14:50 and just missed qualifying for Regionals with a 9:09 in the steeple. Sadly, 3:59/14:50/9:09 are still my PRs three years later. Since then I have ran at nationals in cross country three times, placing 194th, 95th and 87th and scoring for two top-10 teams. Amongst the team there is a bit of a joke about the “studs” little-old-14:50-me has beaten on the cross country course (I get extra points for the sub-4:00 milers I have outkicked). There is no doubt I’m a better runner now then when I ran those times, but I have nothing to show for it on the track. I have some great excuses — red shirting 2009 and knee surgery in 2010 — but I don’t want to be one of those guys people talk about and say “he was a pretty good runner, but he never put it together on the track.” I have finished up my cross country eligibility satisfied with what I accomplished, but track is a different sport, and 2011 will be my final opportunity to put it all together.

Now I was a little banged up over winter break, but I would be foolish to think my last collegiate season would come without some adversity. Every time I go out on the track PRs aren’t going to happen just because I’m convinced I’m a better runner now than I was a few years ago. The work needs to be put in and I need to be ready for battle every race. If I do that I know I will be competing at Hayward Field at the end of May, satisfied.

Here’s to making the next four months count.