RunPD

“It Makes It Really Fun”

I’m a little late here (about one week), but my teammate David McNeill deserves some massive congratulations for winning his second 5000m NCAA title this year! After running away from NCAA cross country champion Sam Chalenga in the indoor 5000 back in March, McNeill put himself in a familiar position in Saturday’s final with 500m to go. Watch below as the final ~800m unfolds.

A tremendous effort. I was watching the race live on TV at my brother’s house in Davis, CA with my family. We cheered Dave on — clapping and yelling at the TV. Honestly, I think I will remember this moment for a long time. Now that my siblings and I are “all grown up,” opportunities to have the whole family together have become few and far between.  So a big thanks, as well as congratulations, to my friend and teammate David McNeill for putting on a great performance for me and my family to share.

The second video is a rather long one (9 minutes) of an interview after winning his race. He is always very well spoken and often includes a few gems. A couple minutes in he talks about how much fun competing at that level is. A good reminder to keep things in perspective.

Admirals Cup

Yesterday was my first race of any kind since the Lasse Viren 20k on December 13th, and three months post knee surgery to remove Plica. I finished 2nd out of 91 athletes at the Admirals Cup sprint triathlon at Pt. Mugu behind UPENN runner and former high school competitor from Agoura, Chris Baird. Needless to say I am very happy with the performance and had a great time competing again.

The Swim

5th in 5:20, :14 behind the fastest (4th male)

The swim was advertised as 400m, but was likely a little bit short. I got into the water near the front of the pack and made my way to the first buoy. I thought that most of the swim I was in a pack, but as I emerged from the water I was surprised to see just a few athletes ahead, and no one near me. As I entered T1, the announcer said I was in 4th place. Awesome! I have been working really hard on my swim and I am very happy that I am going in the right direction. I have always thought that my only limitation in triathlon will be my swim.

T1

13th in 1:25, :38 behind the fastest

Unfortunately all the work I put into the swim was negated by my first transition. I had no trouble finding my bike or removing my wetsuit. As I bent over and put one foot in my shoe I seemed to get kind of dizzy and couldn’t balance very well. I guess if there is a spot to be weak in it is the transitions. With some practice and more race experience I am sure I can improve a lot.

The Bike

5th in 28:33, 1:20 behind the fastest

The swim was supposedly 12 miles, but my GPS said 11.3 miles at 23.7 mph. Before the race I thought 23 mph average would be pretty good, so I am happy with my performance. I felt like I had a bit of power missing and my lack of time in the saddle showed. I do take some comfort in the fact that I was the only guy in probably the top 10 that wasn’t on a carbon fiber bike with carbon fiber wheels. All the guys ahead of me also had aerodynamic helmets. With some more time on the bike and some equipment upgrades (which probably won’t happen until next year), I think I could be up near the top cyclists.

T2

19th in :53, :23 behind the fastest

The second transition was less notable than the first. Clearly it wasn’t spectacular, but I didn’t fumble around or anything.

The Run

2nd in 14:56, :3 behind the fastest

I had originally planned to just tempo the run if I didn’t think I could win the race. After seeing how far ahead Chris was, I decided to go hard anyway and just see how I feel. Like the bike course it was flat and fast. My first mile was 5:05 and I passed two of the 5 guys ahead of me. I passed two more over mile 2 in 5:03. Chris was clearly just too far ahead and as I found out at the end of the race, he was moving at a pretty quick clip anyway. I averaged 5:04 for 2.95 miles which was much faster than I thought I was capable of doing right now. The best part is my knee didn’t hurt at all!

Results

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Next up is the Breath of Life Olympic distance triathlon in Ventura on June 27th. Until then, it is back to training!

The Graduate

My Farfar ("father's father" in Danish) and me after my graduation

Since I last updated this blog quite a lot has happened. Perhaps most notably is that I am a college graduate now. I earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics with a final GPA of 3.48. I think I’m going to round up to 3.5. That’s legit, right?

I have taken my semiannual pilgrimage back home to Simi Valley where I will spend the summer training, eating my Mom’s delicious food, sleeping on my super comfortable bed, seeing best friends and working an internship three days a week. Sounds like the life, doesn’t it?

Today I had my first race since the Lasse Viren 20k I did back in December and will have a race report on that tomorrow!

What a great sport

Being an Optimist, Jack Daniels Way

The great collection of running videos that is Flotrack has a series called “Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels.” Of course Jack Daniels isn’t their drink of choice on a lonely Thursday; Jack Daniels is one of the most famous American distance running coaches (Daniels’ Running Formula). Each Thursday, more or less, an interview with Daniels is posted with him commentating on various subjects. Yesterday’s subject was about being optimistic.

When coming out of an injury, being optimistic is easy. There is no doubt in my mind that tomorrow will be better than today, that next week I will be able to handle 5 more miles than last week, that I’ll be back racing in a matter of months. It is when the tough training begins and the biggest races loom that being optimistic is most important, but also difficult.

Daniels, and his infinite wisdom on all that is distance running, has a little more to share… (broadcasting from a common training location in Flagstaff, Buffalo Park. Notice the beautiful peaks in the background!)

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

You can view the rest of “Thirsty Thursday” videos here.

Recommended Read

Real quickly I want to direct your attention to Jordan Rapp’s most recent blog post, “Mementous.” I met Jordan at the Lasse Viren 20k in December and he seemed like a great guy. Unfortunately, he was injured while on a training ride about five weeks ago which left him full of screws and some plates in his face. Apparently he is doing much better now, even starting to exercise again, but is suffering from a bit of insomnia. If you read the post, you will see his lack of sleep is our gain. Brilliant writer with a great perspective of things. I highly recommend checking it out.

First Ride to Snowbowl

Humphreys Peak (12,637 feet)

Today was a brilliantly sunny, warm Spring day in Flagstaff. Conveniently, this was the first weekend of the year that Arizona Snowbowl was closed for skiing. There is still quite a bit of snow on the trails, however, so this means that car traffic is light and bicycle traffic is heavy.

Shortly after waking up and enjoying a banana and bowl of cereal (I love that you can eat before/during a bike ride, as opposed to swimming and running where you have to really watch what/when you eat), I headed out to meet up with Jared Threw, a member of NAU’s TriJack team that placed 29th at last week’s Collegiate National Championships (he was 58th and 1st for the team).

The view from 9,300 feet

We headed north on Highway 180 until we reached the road to Snowbowl, where the ascent began. This was probably the longest climb I have ever done (about 6 miles and ~2,000 feet of elevation gain) and I loved it! I will definitely be seeking out more climbs in the future. I need to work on my descending though, as Jared dropped me within the first few minutes.

I brought along my new JVC HD Memory camera that I got from my cousins Hanna and Dina as an early graduation gift. I took a few shots while riding and put it in a video (with some Weezer in the background, of course).

Weekly totals

This week I wasn’t able to put in quite as many hours as last week because of the heavy school load. I still managed 13 hours and 20 minutes with 5:27 running (45 miles), 5:02 swimming (14.15 km) and 2:50 biking (50.6 miles). With reading week ahead, I am hoping to get back over the 2 hours/day mark and continue to improve my fitness. I want to hit 50 miles of running, 20 km of swimming, and a couple of bike rides.

Our Cure to Cancer

The semester is winding down and for senior engineering students that means you better have your capstone project complete. Yesterday was NAU’s UGRAD Symposium. Undergraduate students doing research or projects do a 1.5 hour poster session answering questions from judges and then a 20 minute presentation.

My group’s project was the build an automated Petri dish filling machine for the Adams Cancer lab on campus. We have successfully built a device that will fill 60 Petri dishes in under 15 minutes, allowing the lab to conduct more experiments and while spending less money on wages for students to fill the dishes. Everyone that got a chance to see it at UGRAD seemed to be thoroughly impressed, especially the Bio and Chem students. Little do they know our device is cutting down their hours of being paid in the lab. Suckers.

Below is a 5 minute video we made for our team’s website.

Automated Petri Dish Filler from ACL, NAU’s Senior Capstone Team from zach on Vimeo.

On top of all of this, I had three other projects due last week — one each in Aerodynamics, Finite Elements Analysis and Discrete Math. It feels really good to be done with the week. Now I can enjoy the weather on the trails and in the saddle and just worry about finals, like the rest of college students. Scary to think that grad school will likely be more intense than this.

Weekly Updates

In my effort to turn all those I am acquainted with into runners, Tina has begun reading Once A Runner, hands down the best novel ever written about running. Naturally I have picked it back up and have read a few of the early chapters. While describing Bruce Denton’s prowess, the idea of a secret to running is introduced. Basically, there is no secret. The Secret is that you must run and run over years to reach your full potential. I have certainly followed this principle in my running career and have seen the rewards, especially over the last year.

Since I have been unable to run my usual volume I have taken to the pool, and more recently to the bicycle, with this same principle in mind. As Jordan Rapp, Ironman champion, put it on Twitter, “it’s the same ’secret’ as running – swim a lot, swim regularly, & swim fast.” Hopefully the work I put in now, in addition to what I did before my surgery, will pay dividends when I begin to pursue triathlons full-time.

Weekly Updates

Since my surgery I have slowly been building my mileage. As a reference, my first week after surgery I did 20 minutes on an elliptical machine. Subsequent weeks had ~4, 5, 8, and 11 hours total of exercise. This last week I was able to get in 14 hours and 14 minutes of exercise, including 2:50 biking (2x’s, 59.68 miles), 4:53 running (6x’s, 40.85 miles) and 6:21 swimming (6x’s, 18km).

As the semester winds down I will be able to offer more detail into my weekly training.

“Only a fifth of what you normally do”

A month ago today I had surgery to remove Plica in my left knee. I am happy to say that I am now swimming, biking and running with some consistency. I have been doing a lot of rehab, nearly everyday since the day after my surgery, and I have to thank our team trainer Cherise for all of her help. She has so many athletes to care for and she always finds time to help me with exercises, ultrasound, and reassuring me that I’ll be back out there soon while I watch my teammates run workouts on the track.

Earlier this week I told Tim Freriks (Nicknamed “Rube” because he is our lone ranger freshman. You should hear his jokes.) that I was hoping to run about 20 to 25 miles this week. He responded with a chuckle and, “That’s like what? Only a fifth of what you normally do?” While my mileage is much lower right now, I am simply happy to be out there again, improving everyday, and not worrying about if/when my knee will hurt again. As of now I am still very glad that I decided to get the surgery. I have an appointment to see the doctor on Thursday so I should have a better idea of how my recovery is coming along.

One of the views from one of my favorite runs

Since my last post I have been home for Spring break, back to school for 4 days, then home again to see my great aunt and uncle from Denmark. It is always nice spending time at home, especially this time of year when the hills of Simi Valley are all green. The little running I was able to do was truly a pleasure. I am so glad that I already have the perspective to realize “how good we had it” running as a youth and in high school. I feel like I have written this countless times over the last year on this blog: those trails are rich with memories.

Going home has a new perk this semester: Tina. My girlfriend Tina graduated from NAU in December, graduating with a double major in just 3.5 years. What a stud. Unfortunately this means that she isn’t in Flagstaff anymore. Long distance relationships aren’t my idea of fun, but this is just a passing thing.

Speaking of graduation, I have just over a month left of my undergraduate career! What’s even more exciting is that last weekend I received an acceptance letter to NAU’s Master of Engineering program. I still have at least an entire year of eligibility left and doing grad school seemed like the best way to make the most of my time here in Flagstaff.

Now that I am running more I should have more material. In the coming days I am hoping to have a good idea of what my goals will be for the next 6 months or so. (It’s crazy to think that cross country nationals were 5 months ago.)

Happy Spring!