The Blog of Tony White

FF - Championship weekend

2011-12-21T10:01:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately I am not apart of it. Both of my teams were denied the finals in Fantasy Football and it was upsetting, especially in my "work" league. Eli Manning's pass to a wide open Hakeem Nicks and then Nicks dropping the ball cost me my shot in the championship. I only lost by 4 points and Eli only scored me 6 points when his average is well above 20 in our league. If he would have had the one TD, that would have given him at least 6 more points. My other league I just got destroyed as the opposing team had 3 players score 30+ (Matt Stafford, CJ Spiller, and Aaron Hernandez).

Pick ups of the week:

Bear's RB - Kahlil Bell. He filled in for a Marion Barber who was not playing well and managed to score 19 points in my league and is still available. He will most likely get the start for week 16 against the Packers.

Donald Brown - Colts RB: I happened to be in attendance when the Colts got their first win of the season and Brown looked really good even if Addai got the start. Brown popped off a few long runs, and had the big 80 yard TD run to seal the deal against the Titans.

Side Note: I was really impressed with Jake Locker as I'm a Titan's fan. Hasselbeck did not have a good game and I hated to see him stay in as long as he did. When Locker came in, he drove the offense down the field and scored a TD. Hopefully the Titans have a future star in Locker.

It is the last week of the season in most leagues so most owners have stopped caring since they aren't in the finals (including myself). But if you are fortunate enough to have made the finals, good luck and look into players that are filling in for injured players if you really need to fill a hole in your line up. Pretty much the same advice I gave last week.

Tony

Christmas Movies - My Top 5

2011-12-19T18:21:00.003-05:00

Since it is the week of Christmas, I will rank my top 5 Christmas movies with a few honorable mentions.

#5: Home Alone & Home Alone #2
These are classic movies with all kinds of quotes whether it is Kevin calling out in an empty house, "mom? dad? buzz? where are you guys?" or its the gangster movie quote "I'm going to give you to the count of 3...". Or when he is running from Rob Schneider in the Plaza Hotel, these are both classic Christmas time movies. It is every boy's dream to do whatever he wants whether he is getting room service in a hotel or just has the house to himself.

Honorable Mention: The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. I have loved this movie ever since it came out and I'm not sure why. Every time I watch it, someone gives me grief for watching a terrible movie. I don't care. I was a huge fan of "Home Improvement" when I was young so maybe I just secretly have a man crush on Tim Allen or maybe I'm just hoping to become Santa Clause one day. Then I guess I'll have to change the main topic of my blog from Pro Triathlete to Christmas posts and updates on toy making from the North Pole.

#4: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon and Jim Carrey version)
This is a classic Christmas movie so it is a must watch during the holiday season.

Honorable Mention: The Polar Express. I may have been a little old when this movie was released to really enjoy it, but it is a great Christmas film.

#3: Elf
Will Farrell is fantastic in this film (I'm not a huge fan of his). He's so naive about everything in NYC and he reaction to everything is great. And having Zooey Deschanel in it doesn't hurt. The movie helps reverse the myth about Parents actually putting out presents instead of Santa. He clearly states, "They (parents) can't do all of that in just one night. I suppose they eat Santa's cookies as well?"

Honorable mention: Die Hard. One of the greatest action films of all time with Bruce Willis. I may or may not have secretly watched this at a very young age and learned a few words I shouldn't have. Unfortunately for the terrorists that take over this large company in LA on Christmas Eve, John McClane just happened to be at the Christmas party with his wife/ex-wife.

#2: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Chevy Chase plays a father who wants to have the perfect Christmas which turns to hell as all of the family shows up early along with his crazy brother. This movie is a timeless classic and is full of laughs. It is always a movie I watch with my family during the holidays.

Honorable Mention: The Muppets' Christmas Carol. How can you not love the Muppets?

#1: The Christmas Story
One of my basketball teammates in the 7th grade informed me of the movie and all of its glory. He asked if I was going to watch the 24 hour marathon on TBS on Christmas Eve/day. I asked what he was refering to and he just told me to watch the movie and I would understand. Ever since that first viewing, I understand. This is the best Christmas movie and clearly worth at least 4 viewings during the 24 hour marathon. I try to watch it at least 6 times and the only time my TV leaves TBS during that marathon is when a sibling/family member changes it. Now I am out and about during this time, so I don't actually watch it 12 (sleep, meals, exercise, travel, etc.) but I try to watch it as much as possible. Whether I'm googling at the leg lamp, laughing at his little brother pretending to be a pig, watching him beat up the bully, or ironically seeing him shoot his eye out, it is definitely worth watching. But that stupid rabbit suit always gets a laugh out of me.

Honorable Mention: Scrooged. A fantastic take on the classic A Christmas Carol. I believe A Chrismtas Carol also needs to be listed as it is a great movie, but I guess watching 3 movies with the exact same plot is a little overkill, even if one has Bill Murray, the other has the Muppets, and the last has George C. Scott.

Need to See: Bad Santa. I have heard it's hilarious but have never actually seen it all the way through.

I guess that's my list. I recommend watch at least 5 if not all of the movies that I've listed this week to put you in a great mood and help give you the holiday spirit.

FF update: On to Round #2

2011-12-13T08:38:00.003-05:00

Whew. I barely made it past the first round in my playoffs, but I did successfully in both of my FF leagues. This is the 3rd year in a row for making the Final Four in my "college buddies" league, and then this is the first year of my other league so obviously its my first as well.

In the work league, I was going against my roommate who had some very solid players such as Matt Ryan, who threw for 4 td's this past weekend, Lesean McCoy, Antonio Gates, Steve Smith, and Desean Jackson. He actually had Kevin Walter go for almost 20 points as well. Fortunately for me, I had Eli Manning, Ray Rice, Marion Barber, and Rob Gronkowski all have fantastic games. Barber really stepped up for me against the Broncos' defense. But I believe what won me the game was the fact that my roommate didn't start Antonio Gates which boggles my mind. I have no idea why he did this, but he told me his other TE was projected to score more (which I question since he has a TE from the Browns). But I also had Nate Washington and Miles Austin on my bench and started Damien Williams and Anquan Bolden instead (which did not help my score). Anyways, I went into the Sunday night game losing by 12 but confident that Eli could score 12+ points as he was the only player left to play out of both of our teams. Barber was the surprise player on my team and turned out to be a great pick up since Forte is now out for a few weeks. I have another player that I'm looking at picking up this week but will not mention him until after players are cleared to be picked up from my league's waiver wire.

In the other league, we were even just about all day on Sunday but fortunately for me, he always had a few more players playing (or finished playing) than I did and I had a few player playing Sunday evening with only 1 of his WR's to play in the Monday night game. I had a solid 38 point lead going into the Rams/Seahawk's game last night and his WR definitely surprised me by putting up 23 points and making it a close game but I was able to hold on for Victory. Doug Baldwin was his WR which has played well as of late so I would recommend to pick him up if he's available in your league and need a good WR for your team. Marshawn Lynch is just amazing as he's leading the NFL in rushing over the past 5 - 6 weeks. He wasn't on either of our teams, but is definitely worth a fantasy shout out this Tuesday morning.

I had Carson Palmer throw 4 Int's for me which was terrible, but had a new member to my team score 2 td's and rush/receive a lot of yards for a total of 24 fantasy points for me. This was Ryan Grant from the Packers who is stepping in for the injured James Starks. Laurant Robinson and Hakeem Nicks both had huge games as well which really carried my team. Steve Smith from the Panthers had a good game but was overshadowed by my other WR's since he ONLY scored 19 points, ha. There are weeks that I wish I had 1 WR put up 15, haha. David Akers from the 49er's kicked his way to 13 points which I am loving. Him and the 49er's D (which I also own) have had a great year. I was just lucky that Cam Newton didn't have one of his huge scoring games as that would have been the end of my fantasy season.

I have some hard matchups this coming weekend but we'll see how it all plays out.

Ryan Grant, Marion Barber, TJ Yates, Jabar Gaffney, Toby Gerhart were definitely worth picking up this past weekend as they had fantastic games (if they weren't already owned).

Joe Webb stepped in at QB for the Vikings and put up some solid points so he's definitely worth looking at for week 15 along with Jake Locker for the Titans if you need a QB. Or it is always helpful to find the backup player for the big name guy that you just lost to an injury such as the Matt Forte / Marion Barber situation. Or James Starks / Ryan Grant. Or Adrian Peterson / Toby Gerhart. Or Arian Foster / Ben Tate. Do you get my point?????? (This works best with RB's and not necessarily with WR's and TE's but is still worth looking at if you're in dire need)

Tony

It's Here

2011-12-08T08:44:00.002-05:00

I may not be a Fantasy Football expert but now that I've played for several years, each year with a growing passion for it, I feel that I have a pretty good amount of knowledge about the topic. Today is the first day of the Playoff's. I have Mike Wallace from the Steelers playing tonight in my "work" league and I feel that my team is ready to go. The loss of Matt Forte killed me in my other league, but I was able to pick up Marion Barber in my "work" league so I may have found a decent replacement RB #2 if he is able to pick up a little slack. I know the Bears' offense is in trouble right now with what-ever-his-name-is at QB. The rest of the slots on my team, I feel really good about, other than the Flex position in which I can play 1 of 2 WR's from the Titans, which tend to be hit or miss. I have both Damien Williams and Nate Washington and I'm not sure who I should play. If I play one, the other has a good game, so hopefully I get lucky this week.

In my "college buddies" league, my QB spot is hurting me. I have Palmer, Matt Moore, and Matt Hasslebeck, but am not sure who I should start. They are all playing defenses' this week that aren't the best at stopping the pass. Hasslebeck hasn't had a good game in almost 4 weeks, Palmer has played decent, and Moore is hit and miss with several BIG games. I have Ryan Grant as one of my RB's and that is because of the loss of Matt Forte. Starks tweaked his ankle for the Packers last weekend so Grant may get the start which may be great news for me. I tried to pick up Toby Gerhart who's filling in for Adrian Peterson on the Vikings, but someone beat me to it.

In other news, I had a run last night that was my best run since I got this stupid injury. I went out the door at around 6:45pm (which almost never happens) and decided to jog easy for at least 30 minutes. Turns out, I felt great and my HR stayed pretty low while I was running sub 7 minute miles for 5 miles. Just 2 weeks ago, I was running 7:30 - 7:45 pace with average HR of high 140's. Last night my average HR was 140. I still have some work to do in the pool as I struggled on a set yesterday that had a few 1:10 base 100's which normally I don't have too much trouble making the send off as long as there aren't more than 5 or 6 in a row.

Off to the pool. On a side note, I got super excited last night when National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on TV. Easily, one of my favorite Christmas movies.

And my fiance and I are currently looking at where we should have our wedding here in Lexington. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to comment or shoot me an email. twhite_4@yahoo.com

Tony

MIA again

2011-12-05T15:22:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know, it has been a month since I last posted (again) but to repeat what I said previously, not much has been going on. I am actually training again which is nice, but frustrating considering my HR is much higher doing much easier bike rides and runs. I put in a solid week last week in which I was very consistent about cycling, swimming, and running for the first time since September.

There have been some big updates in my life though. I missed my family's Thanksgiving get together for the first time in my life because I traveled with my girlfriend to visit her family. I met all of her extended family and had a great time. The family football game definitely got my competitive juices flowing and made me realize that I haven't lost much from middle school football, haha. During this weekend, I was able to have a serious talk with Casey's dad, and as of this past Friday, Casey is now my fiance. So I am now engaged and have another event to plan in 2012. That is the big news for me in the previous month. Other than that, I have just been working, and working out occasionally.

Also, I'm ready to get focused for both of my fantasy football playoffs. In my "College buddies" FF league, I have a pretty solid team, but just took a HUGE loss with the knee injury of Matt Forte. I don't have a solid backup RB, but hopefully Chris Johnson, and my 3 WR's will carry my team. I have been struggling with the TE and QB position all year. I made a STUPID move early in the year by dropping Ben Roethlisberger. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I had just lost in a close match and he was only averaging 14 points a game at the time, so I got rid of him and picked up Josh Freeman. STUPID!!!! Freeman is now hurt and I have started either Carson Palmer or Matt Hasselbeck. MH hasn't played well at all, but Palmer is putting up decent numbers so he may have to carry my team through the Playoffs. And my TE was Dallas Clark, but thanks to Peyton Manning's injury, Clark has had a terrible year and I was forced to pick up a TE off of waivers.

In my "work" league, I lost my #2 RB (Jahvid Best) a long time ago, so I have been battling to find a 2nd RB. Donald Brown was able to have a decent game this past weekend and he scored 12 points for me which is the most points that position has scored for me in a few weeks. Ray Rice and Rob Gronkowski really carried my team with the help of Eli Manning and Mike Wallace. I was able to defeat the #1 team in the league, but all of the teams are so even, it doesn't really matter. There are a few games that still have to be decided tonight to finalize how the playoffs will lay out. I'm really hoping to avoid playing my brother in the 1st round as he lost a few games early in the season due to injuries, but he is definitely the best team in the league right now as he has put up 184 points this weekend with MJD still to play tonight. He is on a winning streak of around 3 - 4 games and seems to win by alot when he does win. When he loses, it's because his team does average, and the other team manages to outscore him by 5 points or less.

So this week, Casey and I are going to do a little research into our wedding plans and I'm going to do a little research of how to fix my RB problem for FF. And also to have another consistent week of training.

I'll try to post more this month. Maybe a post about my favorite Christmas movies, or favorite Christmas foods, who knows.

Tony

Where have you been?

2011-11-03T14:56:00.002-04:00

It has been exactly 1 month since I posted last and there is one simple reason for this...

nothing has happened lately, ha.

In the middle of September, I suffered an injury to my foot that made me stop running. I managed to run 3 - 4 times a week after I suffered the injury with the hoped that I could still compete in the Rev3 South Carolina race but I wasn't able to hold it together that long. Tri for Sight was on Labor Day weekend and I felt I had a decent race without much foot pain. I did run in some very minimalist shoes to race in which probably didn't help, but at the time, it didn't hurt. The following two weeks consisted of some pretty solid training. Then on a Wednesday, I did a track workout in some racing flats, and that night I was barely able to walk. I talked it over with Casey, who's in her last year of PT school, and she told me it sounded like Plantar Fasciatis. Many people have told me horror stories about this injury, but I've never had any problem with it at all. I have been lucky with the health of my feet but it finally hit me late this summer. My training this summer has mostly been in racing flats and I increased my mileage late this summer, so I believe these both had the effect that it did on my foot. The RJ Corman Duathlon was my last race, and I barely made it through that race. My second 5k was extremely painful. That 5k is the reason that I pulled the plug on the remainder of my season and decided to get healthy.

I am now running again, but noting like I used to yet. I ran a total of 11 miles last week, and am sitting on 9 miles this week. Swimming has been my focus as of late while I continue to take time off of the bike. My bike training will probably resume in the following weeks.

The month of October has been pretty laid back and relaxing. If I wanted to workout, I would. If I didn't, then I wouldn't. It feels great to do this sometimes. I went to Keeneland, stayed up late some nights, caught up on some of my favorite tv shows, and have been reading some interesting books.

On the weekend of October 15th, I was able to reverse my usual roll and play support for my brother and Casey who competed in the Columbus marathon. I made sure to go out of my way and do whatever I could for them as this was their big race. They both finished their first marathon and finished right around their goal times. Ben ran a 2:56 and Casey was 3:49.

Back to the book subject, I more recently finished "Wheat Belly" which was very interesting. The author proposes the idea that today's version of "wheat," that is in almost every triathlete's/runner's favorite dishes, isn't able to be processed by our body. He claims that wheat in 2011 is some genetically modified strain of wheat that has hundreds of chromosomes that our body can't break down, thus causing all kinds of negative effects to our body such as weight gain, memory loss, acne, increase blood pressure, increased cholesterol, the onset of Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes, and much more. He proposes the idea of eating a "hunter/gather diet" meaning to eat only what a cave man would have eaten. A cave man would eat only what he could kill or gather, such as meat, nuts, fruit, and veggies. Now you can also eat things such as rice and potatoes but he warns to do these in limited quantities because they can spike your blood sugar just like a wheat product would thus causing the negative effects in your body, #1 being the storage of visceral fat. They say that 2 slices of whole grain bread can spike your blood sugar higher than a spoonful of white sugar because the Glycemic index is higher.

It is very thought provoking, but is heavily intended for someone with Celiac Disease. Most of his arguments against wheat products are all supported by studies that have been done with people who suffer from Celiac Disease. I'm sure that there are some negative effects on someone who doesn't have this disease, but not nearly as lethal. I know that I'm definitely cutting back my intake of Gluten and wheat products, but I don't know if I'm able to completely cut it out just yet. Mostly just getting rid of the "extra" calories at meals such as bread and desserts (I'll still eat some ice cream).

I'm now reading "The Shining" which is a good read so far. I've never read it before and it's a classic so I figured it would be a good read.

I have nothing planned for the rest of the year, except for getting healthy and getting back into a routine, but until then I will continue to enjoy my time off.

Tony

2nd Annual RJ Corman Duathlon

2011-10-03T18:34:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was the 2nd annual RJ Corman Duathlon & 5k. I was competing in the Duathlon as I knew I had a much better chance of winning that race than the open 5k which usually has some ex-collegiate runners show up and go pretty fast. I woke up to 45ish degree weather and some wind and clouds. Nothing crazy, but a little warmer than it was last year. Well, by the time I made it to the race sight at around 7 am, the temperature had dropped a few degrees and the wind was picking up. By the time we started at 8:30, it was about 41 degrees and pretty windy. Before the race, I made sure to get in a good warmup to get my body ready to go. I ran the 5k loop that Mr. Corman has on his property to warmup (which was also the 5k loop we were racing on). I set up my transition and waited until the start.

At 8:30, the gun went off (or I guess it was actually a train horn). I knew Jeff Buhr was racing which came in 3rd place last year, and I also knew Mike Hermanson would be racing which he focuses more on Ironman distance racing. I wasn't sure what kind of shape he was in and whether running or cycling was his strength, but I made sure to keep an eye on him (and he is racing at Kona on Saturday so I figured he was in pretty good shape). Mike immediately took off and I just made sure to keep him close. I ran behind him for the first mile or so and then opened up a small gap on him once we hit the first hill. It stayed about the same until we hit T1. I had a fast transition and was out on the bike. I managed to put more time on him in T1 than I did in the first 5k and I really pushed the pace for the first 5 miles or so of the bike to make sure I had opened up a good gap. I fought the cold, windy weather on the bike and then came into T2 with a nice lead on 2nd place. I've had a little foot pain recently and sometimes it hurts much worse than others. My first step off of the bike, was not a pain free step, ha. I limped into T2, struggled to get my shoes on since my hands were numb, and then took off for the 2nd 5k. It didn't help my foot that the first 100 - 150 meters were downhill, so my foot was taking quite a beating. I set a good pace for that 2nd 5k and just held it there. At about the 2nd kilometer, I saw I had 1.5 - 2 minutes on 2nd place which was nice considering the pain in my foot. I held it together and crossed the finish line in 1st for the 2nd year in a row. Mike had a fantastic 2nd 5k and made up about 1:15 on me.

After the race, I cooled down, stretched my foot, and put on some warm clothes as I was freezing. Mr. Corman had some fantastic food for lunch and then he always has a good time passing out the cash prizes to the overall winners.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the race, and thanks to Mr. Corman for opening up his private property to a bunch of crazy runners/duathletes who wanted to compete on a cold, windy Saturday morning.

Rev 3 S. Carolina this coming weekend and then I'm done for the season.

T-Bird

3 in a Row

2011-09-15T09:54:00.004-04:00

I know this is a little past due, but on Labor Day weekend I competed in the Susan Bradley-Cox Tri for Sight here in Lexington, KY. This was the first triathlon that I was ever involved with as I volunteered for this race back in 2004 before I got into the sport. The following year was my first year competing as a triathlete. Anyways, I have done this race every year (except 2007) since I got started in the sport and it's always a fun race. I have had some close races with ex-pro David Kuendig (also lives in Lexington, and is a good friend) and there have also been years when I wasn't pushed as much to bring home the big W. Last year my brother came up and we took home the top 2 spots.

This year I was competing against my roommate who had recently finished 8th overall at AG Nationals and also against a fellow Pro and good friend Nick Waninger. Nick drove down from Indiana Saturday night and stayed with me but unfortunately didn't get into town until around 12:30AM and the race started at 7am that morning. So I didn't get much sleep the night before and the pizza that I had for dinner Saturday night wasn't settling well in my stomach. I felt terrible Sunday morning, but didn't want to let anyone know. I made my way over to the transition area, got everything set up, went for a little warmup jog and realized how terrible my stomach felt. I made my way over to the swim start and just sat down hoping my stomach would settle. It did a little but at 7:15, we were off. Kevin was 1st in the water (as it was a time trial start for the 800 meter pool swim) and I was 10 seconds back. I felt ok, but had no speed. The guy who started behind me caught me around 250 meters and this couldn't have worked better for me. I sat on his feet for the rest of the swim and came out in a pretty decent time and had kept my HR pretty low the whole time. I had a good T1 and was off on the bike, chasing after Kevin. I caught him around mile 7 or so but couldn't get away from him so we basically came into T2 together. I took off on the run with a purpose. Because Nick W. had signed up late, the best starting position he could get was #16. So I knew I had roughly a 2 - 2.5 minute lead on him at the start so I would need to finish about that same amount of time in front of him if I wanted to beat him. The only time I had seen him on the course was after the bike turnaround.

My stomach had felt ok up until about mile 1 or so on the run. Then it really started to bug me. I dug deep and tried to maintain my pace. I got to the turnaround on the run (2 miles out, 2 miles back) and couldn't see anyone. I knew I had opened up a good gap on Kevin and an even bigger gap on Nick as I didn't see him for roughly 2 or 2.5 minutes (and he still had at least 2 minutes of running to get to the turn around so I knew I was about 4 minutes up). I didn't back off much, but was able to hold a decent pace all the way to the finish with out throwing up. I crossed the finish line in 1st for the 3rd year in a row and the 4th time in my career here at this race.

I was happy with the effort level considering how terrible I felt and I actually went about 2 minutes faster than last year and the bike and run courses were slightly longer this year (by a few tenths of a mile). Thanks to Beth Atnip who always puts on a fantastic race, and to all of the volunteers who help out with the race. The Delta Gammas were out all over the bike/run course screaming at us and that is always helpful so thank you girls.

I am putting in a little block of training before my last 2 multisport events and a marathon. I have the RJ Corman Duathlon on the 1st of October, Rev 3 South Carolina Half Ironman on the 9th of October, and the Columbus Marathon on the 16th of October.

Tony

Another 69.1 RR

2011-08-17T09:26:00.002-04:00

Steelhead, which is one of my favorite races, was unfortunately turned into a TT start on the bike just like New Orleans 70.3 was this year.

I arrived on Friday afternoon to make sure I would be able to hop in Lake Michigan to get in a little open water swim in my wetsuit. I did a nice and easy 25 minute swim and then met up with my homestay before heading to down town St. Joseph to grab some dinner with Nick Waninger and his friend. The swim seemed a little choppy, but nothing that seemed to hint at the fact that the swim might be cancelled.

Saturday morning, Nick gave me a call and we met up to go for a little bike/run warmup before going to grab some lunch with Eric, Beth, and Jamie at Panera. We heard a little talk going around that there were rip current warnings for Lake Michigan and that the swim was looking very doubtful for Sunday's race. Later in the day at the Pro meeting, they told us more of the same and that if the swim was cancelled, we would start in TT order on the bike in reverse order of our race numbers. After the meeting, I hit up a blueberry farm with my dad and brother, who were in Michigan for work and just stuck around to watch me race, and bought 5 pounds of blueberries and one of the best blueberry scones I've ever eaten.

After a good dinner at Chili's with Dad, Ben, Jamie, Eric, and Beth, I went to my homestay's, got everything set out for the morning, and was off to bed.

Sunday morning actually seemed kind of calm when I woke up but I guess it was the calm before the storm. When I arrived at the transition area, the Lake looked like a washing machine and the winds were howling. They had already cancelled the swim when I got there at 5:30. So, instead of setting up my transition area and then walking 1 mile down the beach to the race start, I just hung out with the other pros that arrived WAY too early for the TT start from the transition area. At 7:15, the first pro was off. Since I was #12, I had a little while before I was to start since there were 39 guys on the start list.

Somewhere around 7:25, I was sent off. I had a few guys up the road that I was aiming to catch pretty fast, but with the wind direction, I knew I shouldn't push too hard too early because we had a head wind for the first 10 or so miles. But I knew this meant we would have a tail wind for the last 15 miles of the ride. About 12 miles into the ride, Daniel Bretscher caught me who started 30 seconds behind me. When he passed, I bumped my wattage up 5 - 10 watts and kept him close without drafting. I passed him back and shortly afterwards Chris Legh and Zack Ruble both passed me. Again, I bumped up my effort to keep them close, which I was able to do. We passed a few guys over the next 10 - 20 miles and a few of those guys jumped in and started to ride "a little close." Before we knew it, we were in a group of 8 or so guys. Chris Legh was the strongest cyclist in the group and was pushing the pace up until 35 miles or so. He actually gapped the group several times, only to have one guy chase him down and bring the rest of the group with him. I made sure to ride at a legal distance behind the guy in front of me, and I would pass them when I felt they were slowing so that I could push the pace. I never knew when an official was going to ride by us so I made sure to keep my distance. After catching some more guys, and having a group of almost 15 or so coming into T2. I was off my bike, had a good transition, and was off on the run. Here is my Garmin file for the bike.

Once on the run, I came out just behind Chris Legh and I was wearing my Garmin 310Xt for the first time in a 70.3 race so I made sure to pace myself instead of going out too hard. I was also wearing my HR monitor so I made sure to keep that in check on the hills. I ran a good pace for the first few miles but let Legh get a little up the road. I was running with Bretscher and Jeff Paul for a few miles before Paul fell off. Bretscher and I ran side by side and really pushed each other. It took us a few miles before we were able to reel in Legh but we held about the same pace for most of the run. Right around the 9.5 - 10 mile mark, Bretscher put a little gap on me and I wasn't able to answer. Legh then pulled away a little but nothing significant. It stayed that way for the rest of the run and that is how we crossed the finish line. Unfortunately, they both started behind me so I knew they had beaten me by more than just that small distance between us at the finish. And there were also some guys that started minutes behind me that crossed the line within seconds of me, so I was just hoping to finish inside the top 8. Here is the Garmin file from the run.

My dad and brother weren't far from the finish and my bro had his iphone with the results pulled up. I quickly saw that I biked a 2:06 and change and ran a 1:15 and change, but that only got me 12th place. I was extremely happy with the effort as I averaged over 300 watts for the first time in a 70.3 and also ran my best 13.1 miles off the bike. There were some fantastic finishes by some of the guys that beat me and congrats to all who participated. Beth, Eric, Jamie, and our Master's swim coach Meagan all had fabulous races and no doubt would have finished even better if there were a swim.

Now I'm back to training and working on my normal schedule. My next "big" race is the Rev3 South Carolina race and I'm not exactly sure what is next up. Thanks for reading.

Tony

Giant Eagle Tri RR

2011-08-02T11:19:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was the inaugural Giant Eagle Tri in Columbus, OH. They offered 30k prize money to the Pro's which was paid out to the top 7 athletes. I was excited to race an Olympic distance race which I haven't done since Rev3 Knoxville in May. I also decided to make it a short travel weekend like I did for Muncie 70.3 since this race is so close to Lexington.
I just chilled out Friday here in Lex instead of driving up 2 days early. Saturday I woke up and did a little shake out run before hitting the road to Columbus. I practiced my aero position on the way up and made it to Columbus in record time.

Once at the park, I picked up my packet, chatted with our team director, then hopped in the water for a little swim. It was crazy warm and super shallow but no big deal. I grabbed a little lunch at Panera, came back for the Pro meeting, then headed to my homestay's house. I stayed with Dan Wesley who just opened up a Retul bike fit shop in Columbus and he and his wife were super nice and helpful and I was very grateful to be able to stay at their house. If you life in that area and need a bike fit, check it out. www.triformancesbr.com

After some light conversations and a little dinner, I was off to bed. Unfortunately, it didn't mean I was going to sleep. I had one of those nights where you are wide awake and you can't do anything about. It may have been the 3 large teas I had at Panera for lunch, but I just could not fall asleep. After managing a few hours of sleep, I woke up at 4 to get my usual pre race breakfast down. With the unique set up of a point-to-point triathlon, I had to drive to the finish line/T2 area to park and then take the shuttle up to T1 which was roughly 15 miles away. After a late departure and a very slow drive, the shuttle made it to T1 at about 6:15 only leaving me 45 minutes to do ALL of my usual pre race stuff including bathroom, prep bike/nutrition, body marking, pick up chip, pump up tires, check in swim bag gear, swim warmup, etc, etc, etc.

Anyways, I made it and at 7am we were off. They had to change the swim to a 2 loop swim due to the small swim area in the lake. We only had about a 50 yard swim to the first turn buoy but there were only 20 - 25 of us so I figured it wouldn't be too horrible. When we hit that buoy, it was nothing like an ITU swim and I didn't have anyone grab my head and push me under which was nice. The bad part was I was on the feet of several super swimmers and I didn't need to be there. After swimming a 200 yard PR (I'm guessing), I maxed out and was in trouble. The next turn buoy was roughly 250 - 300 meters into the swim and I had already lost contact of the lead pack. Luckily, when we made our 3rd left turn, it was in about 2.5 - 3.5 ft of water so I started to dolphin dive to try and catch back up. I did 10 - 20 dolphin dives and caught back up to the group as they were all still swimming. Unfortunately, all of those dives spiked my HR once again and I did not stay in that pack for long. The 2nd lap was just about the same and I came out of the water just over 18 minutes with several guys in my sights. I had a good T1 and was off on my bike.

It took a few miles for me to get my HR down from the swim and for my legs to come around, but after about 5 miles I felt fine. I pushed roughly 320 watts and tried to keep it in that range. I figured I would be able to go a little harder but that just wasn't in the cards. I focused on staying in the aero position and not wasting too much energy by spiking my wattage out of turns or by pushing a little too hard on hills. I believe this helped as I caught 4 guys in the first 10 miles and then another guy at around the 20th mile. I wasn't sure what place I was in or how far back I was but I just kept pushing. Here is the Garmin file for my ride.

I came off the bike, had a great T2 (missed the fastest T2 by 1 second) and took off on the run. I heard the announcer say that I was rounding out the top 5 so I figured there had to be a few guys close, but I wasn't sure.

I was wearing my Garmin 310XT for the first time in a race so that I would "pace" myself a little better as opposed to just taking off and then holding on for dear life like I usually do. I could see someone up the road but there was also a 2k walk / 5k run going on at the same time and when I caught that person, it was someone who was doing the 5k run (walk). So as I saw more people, I just figured it was all people in the 5k, but I did see 1 guy who looked like he was wearing a tri suit and I was barely gaining ground on him so I pushed to catch him. I was right, and right at about the 5k mark, I caught him. I was now in 4th and could actually see 3rd just up the road. I kept pushing and gained a few seconds per kilometer on him but the wheels started to fall off with about a mile to go. My HR jumped up a few beats higher and I was slowing down. I never got that close to 3rd place and I crossed the finish line in 4th. This was equal to my best placing at a Pro race and I was very pleased with my effort. Here's my Garmin file for the run.

After the race, I got my award then headed back to my homestay's to clean up then hit the road. Once I was ready to leave, I figured it had been too good of a day so I figured I would back into a sewage drain and give myself a flat tire. I have never changed a flat before (on my car) and this happened to be right in front of my homestay's house. Dan came out and happily gave me a hand. Luckily, this happened where it did as I did not have a jack and he did. We put my spare on and I was on my way at the max speed of 50 mph (I only drove 60 - 65 the whole way back). So, I got back in Lexington about 1.5 hours later than I had planned but I did make it back so I wasn't worried about it.

Next up, Steelhead 70.3 and then.....

Thanks for reading.

Tony

Brick Run after Long ride this past Friday

2011-07-25T10:47:00.002-04:00

I'm just trying a few things and this is my first of several workouts that I'll post. I just got a new Garmin so I figured I could share some cool info. This was a 7k (supposed to be 8k but temp's were around 100 degrees so I cut it short) @ a strong pace or roughly half marathon race pace. I did a 4 hour ride preceding this run with some race pace efforts.

Let's see if this works

Tony

Another Post?

2011-07-25T10:25:00.002-04:00

Well another solid week of training has come and gone. I am finding myself on another Monday where I'm just chilling and watching a little "Bones" on tv. I realized that July is almost over and I've only posted once during this month. Nothing too exciting has happened since Muncie but my training has been going very well. I got in a very solid training week after Muncie and enjoyed a recovery day on Sunday the 17th by going to the Red's v. Cardinals game in Cincy with my girlfriend and her friends from home. We had a blast and enjoyed some great baseball even though the Reds won.

This past week I got some really good workouts in dispite the heat. I was waking up early to get the hard workouts in and just suffering in the heat for the easier workouts. I think the week caught up with me as I melted on my long run yesterday. Not sure if I was just worn out from the week of training or if the heat was taking the extra energy out of me. I enjoyed sleeping in this morning and a short shake out run in the rain just to help loosen the legs up from last week's work.

I'm looking forward to racing this weekend in Columbus at the "Giant Eagle Triathlon." I haven't raced an Olympic distance triathlon since Rev3 Knoxville in May. Let's hope I can get the leg turnover going this week in time for the race on Sunday.

Tony

And being the track nerd that I am. There was a new AR ran in the 5k recently by Bernard Lagat and you should check out the race. He is a phenominal athlete and I really appreciate a great performance, in any sport. Here is the video.

http://youtu.be/C5eJbkC4iuE

Muncie 70.3

2011-07-12T20:14:00.003-04:00

This past weekend I made my first trip up to Muncie, Indiana for the Half Ironman race that has been held there for the past 32 years. I have always heard great things about it and since it is now an Ironman owned event, I figured I would go race. I drove up Friday morning and actually came into town on the bike course so I was able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I drove straight to the race site and got in a little bike ride and open water swim before heading to my homestay's house. Thank you to Karen Wenger and Al Smith for hosting me and Casey for the weekend and giving a place to sleep. After the Pro meeting and an amazing dinner that was cooked by Karen, we sat around and relaxed before going to bed.

Saturday morning was a little different than most race mornings as I got to sleep until 5:15am since the race didn't start until 8am. This was extremely late compared to most 70.3 races. I ate a little food, then headed down to the race site. After racking my bike, I got everything set up and headed down to the water. I was anxious to try out my new Profile Design speed suit as I have never used one before. The water temp was well over 80 degrees so we were definitely not using wetsuits.

At 8 am, the gun went off. I got a pretty good start and was out well. After a few hundred yards, I settled in on some feet and felt good about my position. I got a little too comfortable and I lost those feet. I immiediately put on a surge to get back on but it was too late. I was by myself for 300 - 400 yards before a group of guys caught me. I just sat in that group all of the way until the end of the swim. I came out of the water with a few guys who usually out swim me but also a few guys that I normally out swim so I guess it was where I should have been????

Any ways, I ran into T1 and was out onto my bike. I had a much better transition than I did in Kansas and also Muncie has a much easier first few miles on the bike to get warmed up than Kansas did. It took me a few miles to get warmed up but once I warmed up, I was moving pretty good. I passed a few guys that I came out of the water with and made a move to catch 2 guys that were just up the road. I exerted maybe just a tad too much energy in catching those guys too fast, but it doesn't matter now, I caught them. Me, Joe McDaniel, Zach Ruble, and Daniel Bretscher all stayed pretty close for almost the whole bike leg. We were only about 1 minute or so down from the "main" pack and at both turn arounds we were maintaining this gap. We had a nice little tail wind from 33ish miles up until 45 - 47 miles. It was great to have a nice tail wind during this section. Mike Caiazzo flew by us around the 45 mile mark and kept going. He ended up having a fantastic race and finished 2nd overall.

I came into T2 with the same 3 guys that I had been riding with for most of the bike leg and we were in spots 9 - 12 overall. I had a good transition and was off running. I felt alright, but not normal for the first 1.5 miles. Then it hit me. My legs already felt like jello and it felt like my quads were going to cramp at any second. I backed off a little and tryed to maintain my pace. I could see the "main" pack just barely up the road. They maybe had 1 - 2 minutes on me and I felt that with my running ability that I should have been able to catch at least 3 - 4 of those guys. Well, the wheels fell off and I just went slower and slower. I did catch 1 guy but only to be passed by another. I was sitting in 10th place for most of the run leg and not making up any ground. Once I had covered 5 miles, I had to walk a little. I started walking 30 seconds per 2 miles of running. That plan worked and got me to the finish line even if it wasn't as fast as I wanted to go. Brent Poulsen flew by me around mile 10 and I was able to hold on to 11th postion for the rest of the run.

This was my best swim/bike combo of the year but unfortunately the heat got to me on the run and I just melted. This was my hottest race of the year and I believe I was a little too excited to start the run. I should have been a little more patient and settled into a slower pace to start the run. Maybe I could have held this slightly slower pace and ended up running faster in the long run.

Anyways, I had a decent result given the conditions and was extremely pleased with my bike leg as I have never gone that fast for 56 miles before. Next up is the Giant Eagle Triathlon on the 31st of July. Then Steelhead 70.3 on the 14th of August.

T-Bird

Vacation time

2011-06-29T08:40:00.002-04:00

I'm now back in Lexington after 2+ weeks of traveling. I started the trip on the Thursday before Kansas 70.3. We drove to St. Louis, stayed the night, then traveled on to Lawrence for the race. After the race, we drove back to St. Louis and stayed two nights with Casey's family. Tuesday came around and we came back to Lexington. Wednesday came and we were off to the Lake for a family reunion. We spent several days at the Lake just relaxing and enjoying a few short and easy trail runs. It is always great to see my extended family that I don't get to see very often and to eat all of the amazing baked goods that everyone brings for snacking. We had some fun laying by the pool and enjoying time out on the boat. Very early Saturday morning, we hit the road from the lake to meet up with my dad's side of the family for our trip to the beach. By 3pm that day, we were in Destin, Florida. We spent a very nice week in Destin before traveling back to Kentucky this past Saturday. Unfortunately my car broke down in Bowling Green so Casey had to pick me up to get me back to Lexington, but I did eventually make it, haha.

Florida was amazing and it was nice to get in some good training on the beach. The weather was extremely hot and humid, but I guess its good for a short amount of time. My hardest run workout of the week was performed at 5am as I was trying to beat the heat. I did some early bike workouts as well as I had to ride on a busy road so if I didn't go early, then I had to fight with very heavy beach traffic for 12 - 14 miles of road. Swimming was the easiest of the 3 disciplines as I had a nice outdoor pool to swim in, and the heat wouldn't affect me as much as the other 2 sports. I did several runs in the afternoon when the "feels like" temperature was well above 100 so that made for some "not-so-easy" easy runs. What always makes vacation fun is being able to spend time with my family as we all live in different locations and of course all of the good seafood. I had Lobster twice (which is my favorite seafood) and then several different types of fish that were freshly caught and prepared.

But it is good to be back and to have a normal routine again. I have Muncie 70.3 coming up in about 10 days and then the Giant Eagle Triathlon in Columbus, Ohio on the 31st of July.

Tony

Kansas 70.3 RR

2011-06-13T11:01:00.002-04:00

After a couple of solid training weeks, I was ready to race. I felt like a bum during my taper this past week as I was doing a lot of nothing. I am reading a great book that I got for Christmas entitled "Unbroken." Anyways, last weekend I decided to compete in a local sprint Tri to get in a solid effort 1 week out from Kansas and I knew it wouldn't take too much out of me. After some difficulties with the course, I did manage to pull out the win but I could definitely tell I needed to rest more as I didn't feel great in either the swim, bike, or run.
This past Thursday, Casey and I hit the road to St. Louis as we stayed with her parents Thursday evening before heading to Lawrence on Friday. Friday we made it to Lawrence and had a fabulous homestay with Marc. He has an amazing home and Casey and I really enjoyed staying with his family. We even got to Karaoke on Saturday for our evening entertainment.
Saturday was a lot of short, easy workouts, eating food, Pro meeting, and just chilling. I watch the Adidas Grand Prix Track meet on TV and rested before heading out to dinner.

Sunday morning came and I was ready to roll. I got everything ready, set up my T2 before heading down to T1 by the water. At 6:15, I had my wetsuit on and was ready to get started. At 6:30, the gun went off. I had a great starting position on the inside and got out pretty good. I found some feet after about 100 - 200 of swimming and I stayed right where I was for the next 600 - 700 meters. I started to fall off pace just a tad but was really fatigued for some reason. This was the warmest water that I've used my wetsuit in many years and I was getting very over heated. My shoulders were a little tired as I didn't swim in my wetsuit very much leading up to the race as I didn't expect to use it, but these are all just excuses. I lost those feet just before the first turn, and also got hit by a big wave right as I took a breath so it took me 6 - 8 strokes to catch my breath. By that time, a 10 meter gap had opened and I was in no man's land for the return trip to shore. This felt like the longest swim ever. The wind was howling and pushing me to the left so I was swimming like a snake trying to fight the current of the water as I came back to shore. I came out off the water with no one in sight and a feeling that I was in dead last. I hopped on my bike and I was off.

I felt terrible for these first 5 miles on the bike, I had trouble getting my feet in my shoes, and also had a direct head wind. I thought about stopping but figured that I had traveled too far to just stop. I put my head down and went after those guys up the road. I kept my eye on my power and pushed the pace. I caught one guy around mile 8, then didn't see anyone else until Zach Ruble flew by me around mile 22. I caught a few others but wasn't really making up much time on the leaders. The wind was brutal for most of the bike and I was not a happy camper. I had a decent wattage average for my bike split but the time was really slow compared to other years here at Kansas. I came into T2 in about 13 or 14th position with a group of guys just 1 minute up the road or so. I knew if I could put together one of my usual runs, I would most likely catch them.

2 miles into the run I felt terrible. My legs were heavy and I felt like I was slogging along. I passed Zach pretty early in the run but everyone else had at least a minute on me. I held pace for the first lap and loosened up a little but never felt great. Around mile 8, I could finally see places 10th and 11th running together. I passed them around mile 9 - 9.5 and put some good time on them. I was happy to be in 10th given how terrible I felt and knew that 8th place still had a good distance on me. I just ran it in and managed to sneek into 9th position thanks to a guy who went a little too hard on the bike. I crossed the line in 9th place and was extremely happy to be finished.

I am really sore as my shoulders, back, legs, hips, knees, and stomach are all making it hard for me to move normally today. I'm thinking a lot of laying around, or hanging out by the pool if the sun comes out, is my plan for the day. I'm racing in the Muncie 70.3 race in a few weeks but I have 2 good weeks of R&R which will be spent at the Lake this week and then at the beach in Florida next week.

Tony

Training Update...

2011-05-31T06:16:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks so I thought I could give a little update as to how my training is going. I'm currently waiting for my breakfast to settle before I head out the door for a run workout. I woke up starving for some reason so I had to eat a little bit. This past week was the biggest overall training volume week of my life. I hit just over 26 hours total of training. I put in roughly 210 miles on the bike, 57ish on the run, and then somewhere around 32k in the pool. I had several key workouts last week which included hill repeats on both the run and the bike, and then some 70.3 work on both the run and the bike. Some of those 70.3 specific workouts on the bike SUCK!!! They are just mind numbing and hard to find a great place outside to do them without running into a stop sign, traffic, or stop light. I ended up going on the computrainer as it would allow me to control some of the external factors and allow for me to not worry about having to stop during any of my efforts. I had a fantastic run workout Sunday morning that also doubled as my long run for the week so I feel like I have had some great work heading into Kansas 70.3 in less than 2 weeks. But, something that comes with great training is great Recovery days, haha. I slept in yesterday (Memorial Day) as I had toyed around with the idea of doing a local 5k. I woke up and just felt spent. I had a HUGE breakfast and then could not get off of the couch. I then had a decent sized lunch and went to the pool just to hang out. After the pool, I came home only to lay on the couch some more before heading out to dinner with Casey. We topped the night off with a good movie. So, Memorial Day was a success in the fact that I did absolutely nothing productive (other than laundry).

There is a little Sprint Triathlon this weekend in the Louisville area that I'm using as a tune up this coming weekend. Just something to get the competitve juices flowing and get a little speed in before I go races some of the big boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

Tony

Rev 3 Knoxville Pics

2011-05-20T16:18:00.004-04:00

While we waited for them to let us walk down to the water, Matty Reed makes some small talk with Lisska and I about our wetsuits. Lisska and I both have the new "Marlin" Profile Design wetsuit while Matty already has the Marlin 2 (not yet available). And he told us they have to make a custom suit for him since he's so tall.

Coming back into T2.

This is roughly 1.5 - 2 miles into the run. I got this pic from Competitor.com. They refer to it as the "look back" haha.

This was around 3.5 miles or so into the run and I had just put in a little surge trying to gap myself from Thompson and Richie.

Running out of T1 with my Planet X in hand. Look David Thompson is in yet another race photo with me.

Rev 3 Knoxville RR

2011-05-17T07:48:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was the 2nd annual Rev3 Knoxville race. I wasn't in shape to be competitive last year and was upset with myself that I wasn't competing so I made sure to be there this year in good shape. Knoxville is only about 170 miles from Lexington so it makes for a fast trip. It is definitely the closest prize money race (excluding IM Louisville). I headed down on Friday and met up with my team director to get some goodies from the team. I rocked my new US Pro Tri racing kit during the race thanks to Champion System. The uniform was super comfortable and definitely got some attention as I made it in two different photo galleries from the race. I drove to one of my good friends' in-laws' house as that is where I would be staying for the weekend and called it a night. The Cochrans treated me like I was a king and I want to thank them for that. I had a fantastic time staying at their house and was very relaxed the whole weekend. Mrs. Cochran made us rice krispie treats and Strawberry Shortcakes. They were amazing.

Saturday I got my shake out workouts out of the way early, then relaxed for most of the day before we had some great Italian food that evening. Race day rolled around and I was feeling good. After setting up my transition area, I headed down to the race start with my Profile Design Marlin wetsuit since the water temp was below 68. While I was hanging out before the start, Kevin Lisska and I (my teammate) were putting on our wetsuits and Matty Reed came over and gave us a hard time since he already had the Marlin 2 (which I don't believe has been released to the public). At 5 minutes til 7, they walked us down to the water and let us get in. At 7am, we were off.

I got a starting position very close to shore since we would be swimming up stream for the first 500 or so meters. It was great to have some open water and not have to fight with a ton of guys like I did at St. A's. I had a good start and settled into the group around 300 - 400 meters. We hit the turn buoys and were headed back down stream. It was pretty uneventful as I just sat on some feet the whole time back. I ws stuck behind at least 5 - 8 guys all of which seemed like they were swimming side-by-side. I knew it would be stupid to try and get around them so I just enjoyed the ride. We came out of the water and my brother yelled at me that we were the main pack and only 5 guys were in front of us. I had a good T1 and got out with the lead guys from our group. I recognized a few names in our group and knew they were strong cyclists so I knew I would have to go hard to stay with them. I put my head down and forced myself to not let those guys go. I stayed in touch the whole bike ride and was even pushing the pace at several points. We caught 1 guy up the road so when we came back into T2, I was roughly 6th or 7th place as I headed out onto the run. Richie Cunningham and David Thompson both were with me running out of T2. We were 6th - 8th positions. We were chasing after Joe Gambles who was roughly 20 - 30 seconds up the road and we were running away from the other guys that were in our bike group. Thompson pushed the pace for the first mile or so until I took the lead and tried to make a little gap. I was unsuccessful so we just ran hard until we hit the turn around point at around 2.5 miles. About a mile later, we hit a hill and I tried to get away again. Again, I was unsuccessful and we were all still together. Richie took off with about 1.5 miles to go and I couldn't go with him. Thompson responded so they both put about 10 meters on me. It stayed that way to the finish with Richie managing to gap Thompson before the finish line. I crossed in 8th position in a time just over 1:52. I was extremely happy with my performance but it would have been nice to finish 6th instead of 8th. After the race, my dad treated my brother, Kevin, Casey, and myself to Calhoun's on-the-river, which was amazing as always.

Congrats to Matty Reed for pulling out the win and Cam Dye for finishing 2nd. They were really flying out on the road. Thanks again to the Cochrans for letting me stay at their house. Thanks to my dad, brother, and girlfriend for traveling down to Knoxville to watch me race as I'm always excited to have support at races.

I now have a 3 weekend break from racing and next up is Kansas 70.3 on the 12th of June.

Thanks for reading.

T-Bird

Check out these 2 sites for some photos from the race. The photo albums are both entitled "Rev 3 Knoxville"

www.triathlon.competitor.com

www.lavamagazine.com

St. A's RR

2011-05-03T07:10:00.002-04:00

And another race is in the books. This is my 4th race of the year and it is just barely May. I am pumped to be racing this early, but get frustrated when I'm not finishing like I want to. I have to keep reminding myself that I have experimented with some "off" distances and that it is still VERY early in the year.

I decided to make this a shorter trip so that I could stick to my usual routine for a little bit longer. A lot of the races that I've competed in this year has been a 5+ day trip. On Thursday, I got everything packed while getting in my normal workouts for the day. I drove to Corbin that evening and prepared to leave for Tampa first thing Friday morning. Friday was pretty uneventful. Just drove the 700+ miles down to St. Petersburg from Corbin and actually made really good time. I got to my homestay's house around 4pm and went out for a little shake out jog. I should mention that Jeff was an amazing homestay and I don't think I could have had a better place to stay. He provided me with everything that I needed, and was a great host. He only lived a few miles from the race site as well, so it made for very easy travel. He took me to the "Mad Dogs" (the St. Pete Tri Club) cookout Friday night and got to meet several other pros and local triathletes while enjoying some great food. I recognized a few guys, but the club asked all of the pros to stand and there were about 20 of us there, most of which I didn't recognize. I found out that a lot of these guys were from Europe, Australia, or New Zealand and were visiting the US for the first time.

After the cookout, Jeff took me to a chill, little bar in downtown St. Pete to try some of the local brews and listen to a little live music. We only hung out for about an hour as I had had a long day and was ready for bed. Saturday morning I slept in, went for a little bike ride with Jeff, grabbed a snack and went over to the swim course to get in an open water swim. A few years ago I swam in the Gulf as that was where my hotel was and it was as smooth as glass when the Bay was rough and choppy. I figured I better swim the actual swim course this time to get used to the chop and rough conditions. The swim was good, then went back to shower at the house, and made it back just in time for the Pro meeting at the Pier. This is, BY FAR, my favorite pro meeting as they provide us with plenty of great food. Philip LaHaye does an amazing job with the race and treats every pro like they are the returning champ. He really emphasized to make sure that no one was drafting and that the swim course may change due to the predicted wind directions/speed. He had a "Plan B" which most races do not plan for and had everything ready to roll on race morning as the wind was as expected and he had to go to plan B. After the meeting I just went back to the house and hung out before we dropped off Jeff's bike in transitions and found a good place to eat. After stopping at the grocery on the way home, I was lounging on the couch watching the Penn Relays and enjoying just doing nothing by 8pm.

Race morning rolled around which meant a very early wake up call. I drove just down the road to get some McDonald's coffee (as was my only close option) and then came back to the house to get everything ready. At 5:15, I left the house and rode my bike down to the race as it was only 4 or 5 miles. I got everything set up, and was ready to race. They did move the swim to "Plan B" and it is only a 1000 meter swim but it was still a swim. Most races either cancel the swim or make it a duathlon so I wasn't displeased with the decision. Around 7 am, the gun went off and we sprinted into the water. It was a long run on the beach at the start as I'm used to starting very close to the water line and this was roughly 60 - 80 meters until we hit the water. I took the outside as it was only 100 meters or so to the turn buoy which made for a crazy turn since we all hit it at the same time. I learned my lesson from Clermont and went a little wide this time. I only got dunked twice in that first minute or so. I found some feet and swam. We made the final turn and I lost those feet. We had a 150 degree turn to the next buoy and I turned to go to that swim buoy. Everyone else made a 90 degree turn and swam straight to the beach as it was closer. I took a breath to the left and saw guys running down the beach as I was still swimming. I immediately turned and swam straight to shore and then ran the rest of the way down the beach to the "swim exit." I lost a little time during that last 2 - 3 minutes of the swim course by not sticking with the group and going straight over to the beach. We had a long run to T1 and I was out on my bike.

This was my first race on my new Planet X w/ a Quarq Powermeter so I was able to see what kind of power I was putting out during this race but was definitely not letting it restrict me as I needed to catch guys up the road. Before the 5 mile mark, I caught a pack or 4-5 guys and passed them. I caught another guy around mile 10 and the rest of the way was lonely riding. I never really pulled away from the pack so I saw 1 - 2 of those guys towards the end of the ride and we went into T2 together. I had a good transition and was off and running. Two guys ran by me before the 1st mile mark so I thought I was running slow until I saw a 5:15 for my first mile. I tried to maintain this pace as best as possible. I managed to settle into pace and clicked off a few 5:30 miles for the next couple of miles. I got to the turn around point just over 17 minutes and there were a couple of guys that hit the turn around right before me so I was chasing a few guys down. The last 3 miles were pretty uneventful as I did manage to catch a few guys and held 5:30 pace until the finish line. I ran just over 34 minutes which was a PR for me off of the bike. I had no idea where I finished but I knew I wasn't close to the top 10. I cooled down, grabbed some food, got a massage, talked with a bunch of buddies that I haven't seen in a while, and then got my bike. My homestay finished right as I finished all of these things so I talked with him for a few minutes before riding back to the house and packing up the car to hit the road.

It's amazing how less sore you are when you race for less than 1/2 of my usual distance and when you actually cool down after a race. I was pleased with my effort as I got some good numbers from my Quarq about my bike split, and ran a solid 10k off the bike. I need to fight more in the first few 100 yards of the swim but 70.3 swims are nothing like these ITU style swims where everyone is capable of swimming a fast 1.5k.

Thanks again to Jeff for a spectacular homestay and to Philip for putting on a great race. I may just have to go back next year.

Next up: Rev 3 Knoxville - May 15th.

Tony

NOLA 70.3 RR

2011-04-21T07:57:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the delayed posting, but I am back in Lexington and back in full swing with training and work. This past weekend I traveled down to New Orleans with a big crew from Lexington to compete in the 70.3 race there. We left Lexington on Thursday morning in a 15 passenger van which had 4 passengers and 6 bikes along with lots of race bags and suit cases. We made it work and had a pretty good trip down. Once we got there I went for a little shake out jog through downtown New Orleans and then we went on a journey to find some good creole. We were successful but it was expensive.

Friday and Saturday were much of the same as we were getting in a few short workouts, fighting the wind in the process, and then looking for places to eat that wouldn't break the bank. I did get a great breakfast Saturday morning at the host hotel. I had a crawfish omelette, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, coffee, and some french toast which was amazing. I did get in the lake that we would be swimming in Saturday afternoon and it was very choppy. It was some of the worst water conditions that I've swam in so it made me wonder about the race the next day.

Sunday morning rolled around and it was still kind of windy. We made it down to transition and started to get everything set up when Tom Z. came by to let me know they decided to cancel the swim. Then a few minutes later, they announced it over the loudspeaker that the swim was cancelled. I understood the decision, but was a little frustrated considering my current swim fitness. They decided to start the Pro's in a TT format with :30 between each person. This was the best decision as they considered to make us run a 1/2 mile run before the bike which would have done nothing to break up the Pros.

Anyways, I was number 33 so I was probably 7th or 8th from last of the men's pro field to start with all of the "top" guys seeded 1 - 10. So I would be starting at least 5 - 10 minutes behind some of the faster guys that I could pace off of. The start was built up and then much of a let down as only 1 guy started at a time and it really wasn't that exciting, haha. About 15 minutes after the first guy took off, I started. The first 3 miles were with the whipping wind, I averaged over 29 mph for this section AND THEN I turned into the wind. Mile 3 - 16 were directly into the wind. I caught 1 guy up the road but had 2 - 3 guys catch me during this section. We got a break for about 2 - 3 miles after a right hand turn but then turned back into a head wind before the 20 mile mark and stayed in this direction until the 28th mile. That U turn was my favorite of the whole race, haha. We turned around and immediately my current speed went from 21ish to 29ish mph. I stayed about where I was for the remainder of the bike as I did catch a few guys but also had 1 or 2 more guys catch me. I came into transition feeling like I was close to last place as I had roughly 4 - 5 guys pass me and I was one of the last pro's to start.

I ran through T2 (BTW, I wore socks since we didn't have to swim) and got to my rack position. I slipped my first shoe on and felt something in my shoe. I looked at my other sock and realized I had roughly 80 burs (those little tiny spikey things that stick to your clothes) on the bottom of my foot and it would have taken forever to remove them so I just put my shoes on and took off on the run.

All I could think about for that first mile or so was all of those little burs on my feet, but I started to fatigue a little after that so I stopped focusing on my feet. I passed 3 - 4 guys in the first 2 - 3 miles of the run and was trying to catch a few others. Even if I was running faster than some of the guys in front of me, I wouldn't know it because they started so far in front of me. I was holding a decent pace and I kept pushing. I knew there were valuable WC 70.3 points on the line and I need to get all that I can. I managed not to fall off too bad towards the end of the race and I caught one last guy before I made it to the finish line. I had no idea what my finishing place was or what my time was but I didn't care at the moment.

I immediately pulled my shoes off and got rid of my socks as they were still covered with all of the burs. I was smart about my "swim bag" as I put my jacket in it and also my phone, so I was able to get my bag from the bag check and look up the results on ironman live. I found out that I had finished 15th, which I was hoping for a better finish, but I knew that there were some really fast guys that I was racing, and also some guys that were really strong cyclists/runners that can't swim. I am confident that my placing would have been better if the swim would not have been cancelled.

After the race I waited around for my fellow racers from Lexington while I talked amongst the Pros about their races. I grabbed a little food and we took the shuttle back to the transition area to get our bikes.

That evening I was able to walk down Bourbon St. and find some good Creole food. I tried some boiled Crawfish, raw Oysters, and then a few PoBoys to catch up on my caloric deficit from earlier in the day. And of course I had to try the beignets from Cafe du Monde. They were very good but I think I prefer regular donuts from Krispie Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts.

Next up: St. Anthony's Tri on May 1st.

Tony

Swimming - Part 2

2011-04-04T10:36:00.002-04:00

So, after Augusta, I decided I was going to swim more and do harder workouts. Swimming is the easiest of the 3 sports for me to talk myself out of a hard workout. I may go to the pool thinking about maybe doing 6 x 400 HBA, or 20 x 100 on a hard interval and once I get in the water, it just sounds better to do the Master's workout of the day as it was easier, or to throw on some paddles because I LOVE to swim with paddles. I had 1.5 months before Clearwater 70.3 and I needed to be with the main pack out of the water if I wanted a chance to finish well. I committed myself for the following month to at least be in the water 4 days a week swimming. I was doing some really challenging bike / run workouts so adding in yardage in the pool was a challenge. I did successfully add in harder workouts in the water, but my yardage stayed about the same as it had been before. I was only hitting around 20,000 yards because I was only swimming 4ish days a week, but was feeling better in the water because of the threshold workouts. I went into Clearwater and had a decent swim but nothing spectacular. I came out of the water with some strong cyclists, but had an average T1 and was left in the dust. At least at Augusta I was able to pace off of Chris Legh when he passed me early in the bike to help catch some of the other guys. At Clearwater, Legh and a few others beat me out of T1 so I had no one to pace off of and the few guys that I was catching were slightly weaker cyclists than me, so we were not making up ground on the main pack. I ended up in no man's land and had a pretty average race. After Clearwater, I took it easy for a few weeks, then hit it hard in December. I got my yardage up to over 20,000 yards a week and continued to build from there. I swam over 100,000 yards for January and February, and then March was really close to 100,000 and that included 2 taper weeks for 2 separate races. I have felt a large improvement in my swimming as of late, and I was only 1:05 behind Kahn and O'Donnell at San Juan 70.3. I feel like the only reason I wasn't in the pack was because of the guy in front of me stopping about 1200 into the swim thus opening a small gap from us to the end of the front pack. This is the closest I've been to the leaders in a big race like that and has given me some confidence about my swimming. There are a few small changes I've made in my swimming that have enabled me to do this. 1. Swimming main sets of at least 2400 yards, preferably longer. For distance swimmers I've read it needs to be 3k or more. 2. Lots of drills, and emphasis on 1 arm swimming with the opposite arm at your side. 3. Swimming w/ a pull buoy between your ankles. 4. Cutting back on the # of yards I swim w/ paddles. These three things have helped A TON. I rely a lot on my kick, even when I pull w/ paddles and a buoy, I still unconsciously kick. When I put the buoy between my ankles, it doesn't allow me to kick at all and makes me focus on rotating my body. It also makes me think about keeping balance without using my kick to stabalize myself. I feel like this has given me a better feel for the water. Also, since I'm actually swimming more and not pulling w/ paddles, this also has allowed me to "feel" the water better. The 1 arm drill is incredibly hard when you don't have good body balance in the water. This has been a great drill for me and allowed me to focus on my body rotation and position in the water. The #1 step was swimming longer main sets. On most days, I would swim 4 - 5k but do this by swimming 1.5k warmup, and then 2 sets of around 1,500, whether they were swim, kick, pull, drill, etc. So my usual swim set was only about a mile in length and then 2,500 on super long days. Once the new year came around, I have tried to do a longer main set even on the easier days, but just swimming slower than usual. If on a harder day I'm holding 1:05 pace per 100, the easier days I'm going over 1:10 pace. And I try to include a lot of backstroke on the recovery swim days just to mix it up and not get burnt out on freestyle. Harder days I'll either have fast intervals and have a goal of just finishing the main set, or focus more on pace and take :10 - :20 rest between intervals while trying to hold the pace. And on the harder days, I'll incorporate a long cool down just to help loosen up and get in a few extra yards. I am still working on my swimming as it is something that I will always be working on, but I swam 21,000 yards last week and that was with a recovery day and a skipped swim workout so I'm pretty pleased with where I have progressed to from just November of last year. Tony

Swimming - Part 1

2011-03-28T10:05:00.004-04:00

Since I started competing in triathons in 2005, I have made a huge improvement in my swimming abilities, but it has been a long journey. I started swimming for fitness in 2004 when I was injured and I couldn't run. I had a friend go over the basics of swimming freestyle so I went to the pool and put it to work. I swam "water polo" style for awhile but I eventually upgraded to putting my face in the water. I would swim 2 - 3 times a week and I really enjoyed the workout. I decided right then I would also look into cycling and if I enjoyed that I would attempt a triathlon. That fall I bought a bike, liked it, and decided to train for the winter going into the 2005 tri season. That first year competing in triathlons I swam in the ball park of 23 - 25 minutes for a 1.5k open water swim. I did so by swimming twice a week with maybe a third swim on big weeks. I was able to bike/run down most of my competitors at the local races so I was happy with how I was finishing in races. The following year I got a little faster in the water (but not much) and started to win some of the local races (I was also stronger on the bike so that helped). I was swimming 2 - 3 times a week of maybe 3,500 yards. So swimming 10,000 yards in a single week was a HUGE week. I was content with having a small deficit out of the water and then chasing everyone down. This worked great at local races, but I got my eyes opened at USAT Nationals in the summer of 2006. This was my first "big" race so I was very niave going into the race about my abilities. I got SMOKED on the swim. I came out pretty far back from the leaders and was also extremely worn out from the swim. I had never felt that "out of shape" after a swim leg before. I did manage to qualify for the World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. I went there in September of 2006 and again came out of the water pretty far back from the leaders and that left me a lot of work to do on the bike/run. When I got back to the US, I decided I was going to improve my swim. I joined the Wildcat Master's swim team and this helped a lot. I was swimming with faster swimmers, I increased my weekly yardage to roughly 15k a week, and was in the water about 4 times a week. That next spring, my first several races I was in the ball park of 19 minutes for the 1.5k open water swim. I was top 20 out of the water at Collegiate Nationals allowing me to finish in the top 10 overall at the end of the race. I kept that routine for 2007 and really didn't improve much. During the off season after the 2007 season, I decided that 2008 was going to be my year. I worked hard during the off season and was in the water 4 - 5 times a week, sometimes swimming more than 20k in a single week. That season I was regularly in the top 10 out of the water at big races such as Memphis in May, St. Anthony's, Clearwater 70.3, Chicago Triathlon, etc. and this allowed me to finish VERY well in most of those races. I got my Pro card at the end of 2008 and increased my yardage even more in 2009. I was swimming around 100k a month and having some really solid workouts. However, I learned the difference between a Pro triathlete and an AG'er triathlete: Pro's are VERY strong in the water. They were all great swimmers and I went from being top 5 - 10 out of the water to "back of the pack" swimmer. I found that the wetsuit gave me some confidence and I was able to hang with the average swimmers when I swam in a wetsuit. I kept working on my swim, but was getting a little burnt out so I wasn't as consistent with my swim workouts as usual. I might make it to the pool 4 times a week and was putting in about 20k a week, but this was a decrease in yardage from the beginning of the year. I had some decent results for my first year as a Pro, but I was happy to end the season at the end of September after Augusta 70.3. I took a long down period and enjoyed taking time off. I actually enjoyed it too much and didn't train hard until almost April of 2010. I didn't touch my bike for several months, I was swimming but not regularly, and was running only about 30 - 40 miles a week. This really hurt everything that I had built up over the past 4 years. I swam about 4 minutes slower than the leaders at the Kansas 70.3 race. I knew I needed to get stronger in the water. That summer I swam more long course than I ever had and I was actually 4th out of the water in August at the Steelhead 70.3 race. This gave me a lot of confidence about my swimming, so I focused on my run and bike for the next 1.5 months and I lost some of my swimming fitness. I was only in the water 3 - 4 times a week going into Augusta 70.3 and I paid for it. I finished 7th at Augusta 70.3 (after being 18th or so out of the water) and had a "light bulb" go off at that race. It is a down river swim, and I was still about 2 minutes back from the leaders out of the water when I was within 45 seconds of the leaders the previous year. This "light bulb" told me I should work on my swim. To be con't. A great link to check out before I post "Part 2" is from Matt Dixon at Purple Patch Fitness. He discusses the importance of swimming yardage. http://purplepatchfitness.com/purplepatch_fitness/Knowledge+/Entries/2011/2/19_Secrets_of_the_Triathlon__Secret_1_Swim_More!.html

Pics from San Juan

2011-03-24T16:29:00.003-04:00

Our hotel.

Pool #1 (view is from the 3rd floor, but definitely not our room)

Pool #2

And where the lagoon in which we swam in connects to the Atlantic Ocean. You can also see the host hotel on the far right in the pic.

Me sitting pretty on some guys feet in the water. Got this pic since we swam under a bridge and Casey was posted up on the bridge to watch me go by. I was easy to find considering I was 1 of 3 pros not wearing a swim skin and my suit was red.

Me right before heading out for lap #2 on the run.

Here is a pic of me coming into the finish area.

Here is a pic of the sweat bands that Casey made for me out of her old socks when I remembered that I had forgotten to pack mine. They worked great.

Casey and I sitting before our beautiful Mofongos the night after the race. I got one with Chicken and her's was with Pork. That is a Plantain chip that is sticking out from the top.

My Trip to Puerto Rico

2011-03-23T09:55:00.002-04:00

During my trip to Colorado in January to get my USAT Level 1 Coaching Certification, my coach threw out the idea to travel to San Juan 70.3 in March. I kind of laughed off the idea because of how early it was, and I really am not a fan of flying to races. I later decided to go ahead and give it a shot as it was during my GF's spring break so we could have a little getaway.

I left on Tuesday March 15th from Lexington at 6:30am. We had a connection in Charlotte before we headed south. We landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico around 2pm. Luckily, I had no problems with my flights or luggage and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Conrad Hotel which was really nice. We did not have an ocean view room, but we were staying there at a discounted rate thanks to Ironman so I can't complain. We mostly hung out by the pool for the remainder of the day and I went out for a little shake out jog before dinner. We tried the hotel restaurant and it was very good, but a little pricey. I did get a side item of fried plantains which was amazing.

The next day I woke up and went for a run, grabbed a little breakfast, then hit the pool. We sat out for a while before checking out the swim course. It just so happened to be attached to our hotel so we only had to walk about 100 meters from our hotel to the starting line for San Juan 70.3. We swam in the lagoon and had a blast. We were told there were Manatees in the water so we kept our eyes open but unfortunately didn't see them. They are very gentle creatures so we knew not to worry about them. We grabbed a little lunch, hit the pool again, and I took off for a bike ride later in the evening. This was an experience. The roads in downtown San Juan are in terrible condition with lots of pot holes. And it was also rush hour so I managed to make it 18 miles over a span of 1 hr and 15 minutes. This wasn't the "loosen up" ride I was expecting so I called it a day. I was scared of getting a flat tire the whole time as I was on my race wheels and I was either stopped at a light or sprinting for my life away from traffic, haha.

We hit up a local Puerto Rican restaurant that evening and it was delicious. I had a stuffed plantain w/ shredded flank steak which is called a Mofongo. And I had to try the local beer of Medalla, which is just a light beer. Nothing too special.

Thursday was more of the same just without the bike ride. We were enjoying the warm weather and taking in a little sun. I had to go up to the room in the middle of the day so I could watch the Cats take on Princeton. We had a much closer game than expected but pulled out the victory in the final seconds. We ate at a local pizza place for dinner and it was very good. Friday I had my usual day before a race day as I had to attend the Pro meeting, get in some short workouts, check in my bike, pick up my packet, and try to rest as much as possible. I managed to swim everyday in the lagoon and Casey swam each and every time with me. We did a little snorkeling without the snorkels after our swim on Thursday which was kind of fun.

Saturday I raced, and then after the race had my feet attended to as my shoes cut my feet up pretty good. This was not the shoes fault as I did not straighten out the tongue of my shoe so it was folded over. I hurried from the medical tent back to the hotel to watch the Cats take on W. Virginia at 12:15pm. I made it back to the room just in time.

After the game I picked up my bike, took it apart, and went down to the pool to relax some. That evening we took a taxi into Old San Juan, ate at "Raices" which was very good (I got another Mofongo, only with chicken this time). We then walked up to the Fort El Morro, to check it out. We couldn't get many good photos as it was already dark but it was extremely nice. We were overlooking the ocean, enjoying the ocean breeze, and checking out some really old Forts that were built by the Spanish (I think?).

We made it back to the hotel and I finished packing my bike before hitting the sack. I did manage to go for a shake out run Sunday morning before my flight and I ran past a bar at 6:45am and it was still bumpin' from the past night. The music was still going and it was still PACKED with people. I thought that was kind of funny as I have never seen a bar still full at close to 7am on Sunday morning.

All in all, it was a great trip. I got to enjoy 80+ degree temps for several days in a row and it was sunny the whole time. I got to race against some of the fastest guys in the World including the reigning Ironman World Champ. I may post some pics that my GF took in the next day or two.

Thanks for reading.

Tony

San Juan 70.3 RR

2011-03-21T08:42:00.003-04:00

This post will be only for race day and I'll talk about my travels and experiences in Puerto Rico here in the next few days. The weather was amazing and I had a blast while I was down there. I am now back in Lexington and getting back in the swing of things.

March 19 - Race morning is here and I wake up ready to roll. I didn't sleep well as our neighbors in the hotel are on spring break and they didn't get in until around 2:30am. There was also some alarm outside going off for about an hour during the night so that wasn't pleasant, but the hay was in the barn as I had slept amazingly the past several nights. I had some coffee and a clif bar before walking over to the transition area. I noticed that I wasn't really as hungry as usualy and actually my stomach didn't feel "right." I shrugged it off and tried to eat my 2nd Clif bar as I usually have 2 for breakfast before a 70.3 event because they settle well and very easy to travel with. I ate maybe half of the 2nd one and threw the rest out. I sipped on some water as I set up my transition area and walked back over to the swim start / my hotel area. I was fortunate enough to have a hotel that was about 100 meters from the swim start so I went back up to my room, dropped off the stuff I didn't need for the race, and put on my race gear. I still didn't feel normal, but decided I didn't travel all the way to Puerto Rico just to watch a 70.3. I figured I would at least give it a shot, and if I'm not able to finish, no big deal, I would have at least given it a shot. I headed back down, got in a great swim warm up, got a good luck kiss from Casey, and we were told to enter the water at 6:45am.

6:50 - the gun goes off and I'm on the far left side of the start line. This is exactly where I wanted to be as I hate getting stuck right in the middle of everyone. I had clear water for the first 300 yards or so and got out great. I came over, found some feet, and sat right there for the rest of the first 700. We made the first turn and I got cut off by another guy. We made the next turn and then had a 900 swim to the bridge that we swam under, then another 250 to the finish. I sat on this guy's feet for about 400 yards until he stopped to fix his goggles. When he did this, he lost the feet in front of him and cut me off from closing that gap to those feet. I ended up back on his feet until after the bridge and I went around him and came out of the water about 20 seconds down from the first swim pack and in 11th position. I had a great T1 and got out on the bike. It took a few miles for my legs to come around but I needed to go HARD so that I could bridge that gap to the leaders. I could see 2 - 3 guys just up the road, but they had about 30 seconds on me. I went really hard but just couldn't close that gap. I settled into pace and stayed put for a while. I had 2 guys pass me over the next 25 miles and then had a group of guys catch me with about 15 miles to go. I was able to stick with these guys going back into T2. We had a head wind for those last 20 miles so it was nice to have a few other guys to ride with.

I came into T2 with HUGE salt stains on my red tri suit. This made me a little worried I didn't consume enough electrolytes during the bike, but I knew that I really couldn't have taken anymore as I had taken more than usual. I had a pretty solid transition and passed 2 guys in the transition area. I passed 2 more guys before the 1 mile mark on the run. So I'm now sitting around 11th place and I could see 2 more guys just up the road. I knew this would be a battle of attrition as the heat was just unbearable (at least for this time of year in the US). I walked the next aid station to insure I took in enough liquids and I got at least 4 sponges to stuff in my suit before I took off. This was an out and back run and also a 2 loop run so I could see exactly who was in front of me and how far they were up on me. I was slowly catching the 2 guys in front of me. I caught these guys between the 5th and 6th miles. I got to the run turn around to see Casey going crazy screaming that Macca was less than 1 minute up the road. I could tell he was hurting and if I was able to maintain pace, I might catch him. I got to the aid station around the 8th mile and I walked again to make sure I got in my fluids and cold sponges on my head. I took off and was able to catch Richie Cunningham just before the 10th mile. This put me in 8th place and in the money. I knew all I had to do was hold on. We start to run up the hill just after the 10th mile and my boy Nick is running down telling me that Macca is just in front of me. I put my head down, make it to the top, and before I know it I'm passing Macca around the 11th mile. I know that I'm in 7th place and have less than 2 miles to go before the finish. I attempt to maintain pace and around the 12th mile I see another guy just up the road. I assume its an AG'er on his first lap but as I get closer I realize it was Oscar Galindez. I pass him and have an all downhill run to the finish. I crossed the finish line in 6th place in a time around 4:04:15.

I was extremely pleased with the effort on the day. This was the closest I've ever been to the lead swimmers after the swim, and I had a great run considering the difficulty and heat on the run course. I was able to pace myself properly and pass a lot of guys who went just a little too hard on the bike.

The course was amazing. This was, by far, my favorite swim of any 70.3 I've ever done as it was in a lagoon that is attached to the Atlantic Ocean. It was pretty much like a salt water lake and it was fun to swim under a VERY low bridge. The bike course was pretty flat, and had some rough areas, but overall was a good course. They had repaved some areas so the asphalt was perfect in those areas. The wind was brutal but that is something you have to deal with on different days. The run course was the most challenging 70.3 course I have been apart of. It was very rolling with 2 STEEP hills per run lap. These hills were shorter than 200 meters, but they sure hurt a lot. It was awesome to run by Fort El Marro there in Old San Juan and having a view of the ocean at all times on the run course.

Overall it was a great trip and I'm very pleased with how my first 70.3 went for the year.

Thanks for reading. Another post soon to follow about the other aspects of the trip.

Tony

ITU Sprint US National Champs RR

2011-03-07T08:06:00.004-05:00

I am back in KY and not happy about it. The weather in Florida was amazing and it would have been nice to stick around for a few days to get in a solid training block before this 70.3 that is now less than 2 weeks away. I ran yesterday morning before hitting the road and it was 65 degrees at 5:15AM. When I got into Lexington at 6:30pm last night, it was 36 degrees and we drove through a little snow close to the KY/TN border which did not make either Kevin or myself happy.

Anyways, it was great to be in Florida. We left Wednesday afternoon and headed towards
Atlanta where we would be staying overnight with a friend's brother. He welcomed us with open arms and provided us with some very comfortable couches. We woke up and headed South from there. We rolled into Clermont around 4pm on Thursday and went straight to the National Training Center to get in a swim. Luckily, they had it set up for long course and the pool was outside so this was a GREAT change from the usual indoor, short course swim for me. We swam a little over 3000 meters and shared a lane with Michael Raelert (whom you may have heard of). The highlight of the swim was Kevin going to the bottom and "blossoming" Raelert. It was a little dissapointing that he gave no reaction what-so-ever. I guess he isn't used to seeing the underside (just to clarify, Kevin was not naked, he was in his speedo) of people whom he has never met. Anyways, we grabbed some dinner from Outback after the swim and stayed with an ex UK swimmer, Eric, who was gracious enough to allow us to stay with for the whole weekend. Thanks Eric.
Friday we woke up, had a little breakfast, then headed out to the race course to check it out. It was sunny and 65 and I wished I had 2 days before my race as I wanted to ride for 2+ hrs. After a nice little 45 min. bike ride, 15 min run, and then a little swim to check out the swim conditions, we were headed back to the apartment for a nap and some relaxing. I had a Pro meeting at 5:30, hit the Olive Garden with two other former UK swim and dive team members, then hit the sack for the evening.

Saturday, Kevin raced at 10:30 and I took off at 1:30. I'm not used to racing in the afternoon so I had a normal breakfast, then a small lunch at around 10:30 to insure I wouldn't feel it during the race. I got everything ready, and was ready to roll at 1:30. I got a good warmup swim in by swimming the whole swim course, but I wasn't sure how the swim would play out due to the shallow water. I was able to run for over 100 meters in the water, and then could dolphin dive for at least another 100 meters. The first buoy was only 350 meters from the shore so that would only be 150 meters of actuall swimming before making the first turn.

I made it back to the beach for the introductions and the start. The cap size of the field was 75 and we had 73 guys on the start list, with many of them being Americans who were biting at the bit to get a chance to race an ITU race, like myself. Sure this was going to be less than an hour of racing when I'm used to racing for around 4 hours, but this would be fun, right?

At 1:30, the gun went off. Just like I had thought, I ran for 100 meters or so, then started to dolphin dive for another 100 or so. I was towards the front of the pack, but the pack was really tight. We hit the first turn buoy, and I went under water. With about 60 guys all hitting 1 turn buoy at the same time, it doesn't make for an organized swim turn. I had at least 4 or 5 guys grab me and push me under (at least I could still touch bottom, right?). I lost a little bit of time at that turn but was able to fight back and get going again. I made the 2nd turn and was still sitting pretty on some feet that were in the middle off the pack. We hit the shallower water, I started to dolphin dive, and then I was running out of the water. I could see a huge pack of guys just about 10 seconds up, so I knew it was crucial for me to sprint up the beach and have a fast transition. I did so, but fumbled with my helmet a little (I don't like it that much but it was my only road helmet) and was off. I came out of T1 (probably had my best bike mount of my life) and was sitting behind about 7 - 8 guys as we started the bike segment. Unfortunately, there was a 10 - 15 sec. gap in front of those guys to the main pack and I knew it was crucial to catch the pack before they started pulling away. I got my feet in my shoes fast, then took off. The guys I was with all decided to put their shoes on at the same time and I dropped them and was in no man's land for about 1 minute or so. I was ALL OUT but not making much ground on the main pack and not really dropping the pack behind me. I decided to sit up and wait so we could all work together and maybe catch the pack. Well, this never happened. We worked together, but not really well, so we ended up losing about 45 seconds or so over the course of the 20k bike course. We came into T2 about 1 minute or so down from the leaders and knew there was no chance of catching most of them as they are all phenominal runners. No problem, I would just run my best anyways. I had a good T2, and was out running. My legs felt like bricks due to all of the sprinting and ALL OUT efforts that I had put forth during the bike segment. It took me a minute or so to start feeling decent but I never really felt great. I was in no man's land and I pretty much stayed there the whole time. I crossed the finish line way back from the winners but in front of a small group of guys so I wasn't last, haha.

I knew that this type of racing isn't my forte so I didn't have any expectations except to have fun and get in a solid first effort of the year. I was happy with the effort, just not the result. I was hoping to be apart of the main bike pack coming into T2 and my fumbling with my helmet and getting caught behind the guys that I did coming out of T2 cost me this position. Sure I should have swam 10 - 15 seconds faster and I wouldn't have had to worry about it. But it just goes to show you how 1 - 3 seconds at a critical point in the race can end up costing you several minutes later in the race. I may have lost about 1 minute during the bike portion, and then another 30 seconds or so on the run since I wouldn't have exerted as much energy on the bike. I would have had a better draft and only had to sit in and not have to push the pace.

In the grand scheme of things, I did swim(run) under 8 minutes for the swim, biked a 28:something for the 20k bike segment, then ran 16:18 for 3 miles (course was a tad short) so it wasn't a terrible day. But when the top guys biked 27:30ish and then ran under 14, I have a long way to go, haha.

But it was a great experience and fun to compete at a distance like that against some of the top names on the ITU circuit. I now have San Juan 70.3 less than two weeks from now and then a month before New Orleans 70.3.

Back to training.

T-Bird

Mercedes Half Marathon RR

2011-02-14T09:58:00.003-05:00

Well, my first race of the year is over with and a good time was had by all. I traveled down to Birmingham, AL on Saturday to race on Sunday. I have heard great things about the race and Jill Edwards did a great job helping the pro's out with everything. She helped me get a room at the Sheraton hotel downtown, which was only 1.5 blocks from the start/finish line. That is always great to be able to leave your room at 6:35 and have plenty of time to warmup and start the race at 7. And it's also great to be able to walk straight to your room, put on some dry clothes and cooldown immediately following the race. The volunteers and police did a great job with everything, and the course overall was a little harder than I expected, but it is still a fast course.

Casey made the journey with me on Saturday. We made it in town with about an hour to spare for the Expo so I could pick up my packet. We then ventured out to find a place to eat. Once we were told there was nothing in walking distance, we just hopped into the car and drove a few miles down the highway to a Chili's which is always a great choice. After dinner, we had a relaxing evening and I was in bed by a decent hour.

I woke up to temps below 30 degrees (which wasn't in the forcast a few days before this) so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked, but there wasn't any wind so it wasn't terrible. I raced for the first time in compression socks which actually kept me warm and also I believe that I'm not as sore as I usually am so I may start racing in them, as dorky as they are. I made it to the start with a few minutes to spare and at 7:03 we were off. The pace felt surprisingly slow at first, but I guess it was a marathon/half marathon start so there wouldn't be too many people taking off at sub-5 min. mile pace. The 1st mile mark as a little short and we went through in about 4:50. The next few miles were uneventful. I just stayed tucked into the pack that I was in (the 2nd pack on the road as 4 really fast guys were up the road) and maintained a nice tempo for these miles. I to about 4 -5 miles and realized how fast were were actually moving. We went through 5 miles around 26:30 and 6 miles right at 32:00 (take into consideration the short 1st mile). This pace was a little hot for me, but I wasn't too worried about it as I was working with the faster guys in front of me. Well, that is when they were able to maintain pace and I started to fall off. The next 2 miles were the hardest on the course so they managed to put a little time on me on the uphills and I managed to put a little distance on the guys behind me on the hills as well. The 9th mile was fairly flat and the 10th mile again was mostly uphill. I clicked off these miles around 5:40 pace and was hoping for a downhill finish for the last 3.1 miles. Well, that wasn't the case. The 11th was slightly downhill, the 12th, and most of the 13th miles were flat but straight into a headwind (the wind picked up as the temps went up throughout the day). I went through 11 miles just under 1 hr and then 12 miles in 1:05:26. I knew I had to cover 1.1 miles in 6:34 and that all I had to do was hold pace and I would be 10 - 15 seconds faster than that. Well I didn't think about that first mile that was a little short. They made up for that in the last mile. The 13th mile had a .25 mile uphill leading up to the 13 mile mark, and then two 90 degree turns in the last .1 of a mile. I hit 13 miles right at 1:11:30 and knew I had to get on my horse to get in under 1:12. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I picked up the pace, but all I could do was watch the clock tick to 1:12 as I was crossing the finish. It turns out, my finishing time was right at 1:12:00. And no I could not have gone faster because I used that "faster" speed to get in at 1:12:00, haha.

After the race, Casey found me, and we made our way back to the hotel. I did a short cooldown and we packed up and hit the road. They had some amazing BBQ for us, but considering it was 9am, we decided to hit the road and find a Panera on the way home. I am really happy about this early fitness and I know it is because of the hours that I have been putting in this year. I doubled the number of training hours that I put in in January from 2010 to 2011. When you make a large amount of training hours the norm, it doesn't really seem that bad, and it feels normal, who knew.

Thanks for reading. Up next, ITU US National Sprint Championships Tri in Clermont, FL.

Tony

Long Time No See

2011-01-26T08:13:00.003-05:00

So I have been pretty terrible about keeping up with this during the off season, but to be honest, not too much has happened since my last race. I took a few down weeks after Clearwater to recover and just to clear my head before I started training for the 2011 season, which at the time I hadn't really thought of too many races which I really wanted to focus on. I had a few ideas for this season, but that was it, they were just ideas. Well, I put in a few pretty solid weeks in December, was pretty consistent over the holiday weeks (Christmas and New Year) and have been still at it this month. One of the things that has been drastically different from past years is having access to a computrainer (at Swim Bike Run of KY) to train on during this winter months. I feel like I'm in the best cycling shape of my life right now, so I'm anxious to get out on the roads to see how strong I actually am.

I have a lot of trouble with motivation during the winter months, as I'm sure most people do that live in a state with weather like Kentucky. Especially the weeks surrounding the holidays in December, I have trouble getting out the door and I tend to eat significantly more food than usual. As we all know, those two don't work great together. Not having access to a pool in my hometown also doesn't help me get in those extra yards I need to work on my swimming on the days I decide to visit home. However, I had a shorter holiday visit than past years thanks to my job here in Lexington (and the fact that I don't get a 3 week break like I did during college).

The month of January has also been pretty exciting in regards to travel. I have been to Colorado Springs and Bowling Green already this year, when the month of January is usually a month for me to get back into the swing of things. I flew out to Colorado the 2nd weekend of January to get my USAT level 1 coaching certification and also to honor Susan Bradley-Cox and her induction to the USAT hall of fame by attending the hall of fame dinner there in Colorado Springs that same weekend. So, if anyone is interested in being coached, shoot me an email as I would love to help you reach your goals.

The very next weekend I drove down to Bowling Green to visit my girlfriend and family. She is doing her first clinical of PT school there in Bowling Green, so I decided to go down and spend the weekend with her. I was able to get in my first 1hour and 45 minute run of the year while I was there. Sure it was 14 degrees, but that just shows that the weather will only affect you if you let it.

I am now back in Lexington for a few weeks and will be racing in the Mercedes Half Marathon on February 13th in Birmingham, AL. I'm really looking forward to it as it should be a fun race. Then once March rolls around, I have two races that I'm looking at: the USA sprint National championships in Clermont, FL on the 5th and then San Juan 70.3 on the 19th. So I'm looking at two extremes at distances, one being a sprint ITU draft legal race, and the other being a half ironman.

So we'll see how the season starts off.

Thanks for reading.

Tony

Some Pics

2010-11-16T21:10:00.003-05:00

And of course, I posted these in the opposite order. AAAHHHH!!!
Me sprinting it in just to make sure Nick Waninger didn't catch me. Thanks for the scare buddy.

Coming out of T2.

Taking off on the bike.

Coming out of the water.

Nice little pre race photo with Casey.

Clearwater 70.3 RR

2010-11-15T13:08:00.002-05:00

Well, my 2010 season is over and it is nice not having to worry about my workouts for once. I woke up this morning not sure how I was going to fill the day. I have mostly been doing some things around the house before I head to work this evening. Doing a little laundry, grocery shopping, and a few little chores that I had put off last week just because I didn't have time to do them. Now I'm catching up on my favorite TV shows on Hulu.

Our trip to Clearwater began last Tuesday night when I departed Lexington and drove a whole hour to my hometown of Corbin to spend the night and meet up with my bro before we left for Florida. Wednesday morning we hit the road and spent most of the day in the car. We had a nice dinner on the beach that evening and I enjoyed some fish tacos for the first time in my life. Thursday came around and I went for a little jog before my brother and I hit up IHOP for breakfast. This wouldn't be my normal breakfast, but our hotel didn't offer breakfast and IHOP was less than a 1/4 mile from the hotel with no other options (not that I'm complaining, I love a good IHOP breakfast, just not usually this close to a big race). Ben and I went for a little swim later, then picked up my roommate Kevin, my sister, and my mom from the airport followed by a little lunch at Firehouse. We hung out for a little, went for a little spin, then met up with my grandparents for dinner. Friday was about the same. Some easy morning workouts, a little IHOP for breakfast, the pro meeting, Subway for lunch, meeting up the family to discuss the race day parking situation, checking in my gear to the transition area, dinner with my dad, and bedtime.

Saturday rolled around and the weather was perfect. High 50's, not much of a wind, and clear skies. After my usual breakfast, I headed down to the transition area to finish my pre race prep. At about 6:15, I had my wetsuit on, got a good luck kiss from Casey, then headed down to the water for my warmup. At 6:40, I was standing on the beach with some of the best triathletes in the world waiting for the gun to go off. There is nothing more nerve racking than the "waiting" period just before a big race. At 6:45, the cannon went off.

I didn't have a great starting position, but actually had a decent run into the water. I shot through a little gap, did the dolphin dive a few times, then was in water deep enough to swim. I put my head down and tried to get into a good position. I fought with a few guys for the first 200 - 300 meters, and swallowed a few mouth fulls of water in the process. I got right on the buoy line and felt like I was decent position. I lost the feet in front of me about 600 meters in but kept that group close until the first turn buoy. Once we rounded that turn, we swam 100 meters directly into the wind/waves. That is where I lost the group in front of me. I thought for a second I was in no man's land, but after the next turn buoy, I had another group catch me, so I just sat in and swam with then the rest of the way into the beach. I was the last one in that group out of the water, but I was out with some fast cyclists such as Maxim Kriat, Chris Legh, and Leon Griffin so I knew that I had a chance to pace off of some really fast guys to help me get back into the action. Well, apparently my T1 was terrible and I never once saw those guys. I felt that I had a decent transition, put my head down for the first 5 miles on the bike, and I caught 4 -5 guys that were just up the road. None of these guys were the names that I previously mentioned and I found out that the guys that I caught were not the strongest of cyclists. They were strong enough to sit behind me and pace, but not enough to be in the wind themselves. When I would back off, they would pass me, but our pace would drop a couple of mph. So I basically pulled this group for the majority of the race. We did have 2 MUCH stronger cyclists pass us, but they were out of my league. I tried to pace off of both of them when they passed, but I felt like I was going sprint tri speed and not 70.3 speed, and I did want to have something left for the run. I came into T2 well behind the leaders and not in a great position overall. I took off on the run and realized that the flat and windy course had done some work to my legs. I felt like I had no gas in the tank what-so-ever. I just decided right then that I was going to finish the race, no matter what, and give it my best effort. I fought off cramps and just an overall terrible feeling in my whole body for the first 3 miles of the run. After I got a little fluids and Power Gels into my system, I felt a little better. The rest of the run, I paced off of the guys who were just up the road. I did eventually catch them around mile 10 - 11. My fastest splits on the run were actually my last 3 miles which was a little surprising. I guess that is what happens when you are trying to pass competitors. After a little scare from my buddy Nick Waninger at mile 13.05 of the run, I managed to cross the finish line just in front of him in 28th position among the pro's.

I was extremely happy to be finished with the race. This was my slowest 70.3 of the year and I was not overly happy with my performance, but I know that there are days that you just have to grind it out, and today was one of those days. Overall, I felt flat the whole race. I felt that I couldn't keep up the strong pace on the bike and that I didn't have any turn over on the run.
I know that I am better on the harder bike courses that have more hills because that is where I tend to be a little better than the average triathlete but these flatter courses are not the best for me considering the terrain of central Kentucky.

But, my season is now over and I have 2011 to look forward to. I would love to see how I can match up against these guys in Las Vegas. I know I need to keep up my work in the water, actually train on the bike in the off season, and then keep up my mileage over the winter. I'll bet that having a decent base phase will make a world of difference going into a new season.

I want to thank everyone who travelled down to Florida to watch me. It was a blast having everyone there and supporting me. My roommate Kevin had an amazing race and finished 2nd in his AG and 8th overall among the amateurs. My brother fought his way through the race battling his injured IT band and finished the race. We were all happy to be done for the season.

Tony

VERSUS 2009 Trailer - We got ourselves a game with lyrics - Underdog com...

2010-11-09T14:01:00.000-05:00

Are You Ready?

2010-11-09T13:47:00.003-05:00

The week has come and in a few days my season will be over. I have been anxiously waiting for this Saturday and am really looking forward to competing against some of the best 70.3 athletes in the world. I'm headed to Clearwater tomorrow to get checked into the hotel and just going to hang out and rest before Saturday.

As I have heard before, "The hay is in the barn." I am just doing a few maintenance workouts before Saturday and that is just to keep the blood moving. All of the hard stuff is over, I just have to go out and perform this weekend. I watched "Friday Night Lights" this morning while I was on the trainer and I absolutely love that movie. It always gets me pumped up before a big race.

And I know I have posted that video before, but it's one of my favorites. It is the Versus commercial from 2009. I don't know if there is anything better to watch to get you motivated to go out and give 110%.

T-Bird

Medical Center 10k Classic RR

2010-10-25T11:22:00.003-04:00

Well another 2 weeks have gone by since my last post and all is well. The weather is starting to get a little colder, but nothing too serious. It's nice that the weather has stayed as warm as it has allowing me to train outside more so than I anticipated going into Clearwater. I'm still doing my computrainer workout once a week, but trying to get outside on most of the other days. I have yet to retreat to the treadmill and this up coming week looks to be sunny on most of the days.

I traveled to Bowling Green this past weekend to visit the family and run in a little 10k that has a pretty fast course (and a little prize money). I figured since it was at the end of a recovery week that I might run a PR if I raced well, and maybe even dip under 33 minutes for the first time. After a good warmup with my brother, I headed to the start line just before the start at 8:30. At 8:30 the gun went off, and so did the Kenyans. I have never raced in such a deep field of Kenyans and I felt like I was out of my league even 100 yards into the race. I knew I wasn't there to compete for the overall victory as the last 3 - 4 winners have all broke 30 minutes, but I was simply there to be as competitive as possible and run fast. Well, after about a 1/4 mile, I was in about 25th - 30th position and falling back from the main pack. They were absolutely flying and there was nothing I could do to hang on. I went through the first mile in 5:00 and realized that, yes, they were running fast as I was a good 20 - 30 seconds back from the leaders. The 2nd mile gave me an opportunity to pass a few of the competitors who wanted to be in the lead group, but were not in shape enough to do so for very long. I passed 3 - 4 guys during this second mile and went through the 2 mile in 10:11. The pain set in and I realized that I wasn't far off of my 5k PR pace. I managed to get away from another competitor during the 3rd mile and made my way up the biggest hill on the course. It's about a 1/2 mile long but very gradual. I went to 3 miles at 15:30 and the 5k at 16:05. I knew the 4th mile would be the hardest with the hill, but it is always the hardest mile of a 10k anyways. I tried to keep my rhythm, but fell off pace a little and went through 4 miles in 21 flat. I sped up a little, but was chasing 2 guys who were a good 30 seconds up, and trying to get away from a guy who was about 20 seconds back from me. I was in no man's land and just trying to hold on for dear life. I went through 5 miles in 26:25 (which is a best for me). One thing I love about this race is they have the mile and kilometers marked throughout the course. I went through 9k at 29:43 meaning I had to run the last kilometer in under 3:17. It is mostly downhill and I had just enough in the tank to do so. I crossed the finish line in 32:53ish.

A 10k is extremely painful when compared to a triathlon. You are running at top end speed for a good 30 minutes and this hurts your lungs A LOT. In a triathlon, it is more painful for the body as a whole, but I am never that close to my VO2 max during a triathlon (especially during a 1/2 IM).

I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at Jackson's Orchard, my grandparent's orchard in Bowling Green, and watched a little football. Sunday morning came around and my brother and I got in a great ride through the flat country in Warren and Logan Counties. It was a little windy, but was a good prep for Clearwater.

Less than 3 week to go before Clearwater, and then its time for some downtime.

Tony

The Adventures of T-Bird

2010-10-11T20:17:00.002-04:00

I had a great week of training this past week but I did make a silly/amateur mistake. The week started off pretty simple with some simple workouts. Thursday came around and that is my usual day I have efforts on the bike. I had a 2 hour threshold set and it is extremely useful to have the computrainer at Swim Bike Run of Ky to use. I definitely put myself in the hole during that workout, but had the strength to finish it which was encouraging. It was definitely the hardest bike workout I have ever done, but having the strength to successfully finish it made it even better. Now I did have trouble walking for the rest of the day, ha. Friday came around and I skipped out on my tempo run in the afternoon since I had a long day at work, so I decided I would just include it into my long run the following morning.

I met up with an old friend, Ali Grace (or maybe its Morgan, she just got married about a month ago), Saturday morning to do my tempo/long run. She runs professionally for ZAP fitness and made for a great running partner this morning. I met up with her about 10 minutes into my run and we headed out to the new "Legacy Trail" to start our workout. I ended up running 5 miles before we even started our workout and then our tempo session started. I helped pace her for her efforts. She had a 3 mile effort at 6 minute pace, and then every effort after that got a 1/2 mile shorter and just a tad faster. After our 2nd effort, I realized that I was 12 miles from home. I never once thought about the total distance of how far I was running until this point. I didn't freak out at first. We turned around right after the 2nd effort and started our recovery jog. I helped pace her for her next effort and then that still put me about 6 - 7 miles from home. So I just ran the most direct route that I could back to Swim Bike Run of KY (since it was 2 miles closer to my current location than my house was). Luckily, Jeff Buhr was about to leave the shop so he gave me a ride home. I ended up running 20.4 miles miles when I was only scheduled to run 13 - 14 miles total. Needless to say, I took the following day off from running, ha. I still got in a solid bike ride with Kevin on Sunday to finish off a great week.

One encouraging thing about that run on Saturday was the fact that I didn't take any kind of nutrition and a lot of the run was at "tempo" pace and I never "bonked." Don't get me wrong, I was extremely tired and hungry but I guess the intense training that I have done of the past few years is helping and making me a stronger/fitter triathlete. And the fact that my "best" distance of a triathlon takes around 4 hours to complete and this run only lasted 2:15. It is still my longest run in almost 3 years.

Today was a nice recovery day and I'm back at the hard stuff tomorrow.

Tony

RJ Corman Duathlon RR

2010-10-02T14:35:00.003-04:00

Yes, those are real.

Well, I "officially" competed in my first duathlon today and it turned out to be a GREAT idea considering this was my trophy. I have done several in the past, but only because the swim leg got cancelled from a triathlon. The Chrysallis House and Swim Bike Run of KY teamed up to help RJ Corman put on this high dollar event. They are really looking to make it a big event next year. The owner, Rick Corman, put up $6,000 for prize money but did not necessarily want to make it a professional race. He wanted it to be a "Go Big or Go Home" kind of deal. And it definitely was. You either received $1,000 for 1st, or (originally) nothing for 2nd place (Swim Bike Run of KY stepped in and donated some gift cards for 2nd and 3rd place so they wouldn't go home empty handed). The winners of the Duathlon and 5k would each receive $1,000 and then there would be 8 $250 drawings for random people who competed in the race (either the duathlon or the 5k). As it turns out, that kind of money will get people to stick around for awards. It was one of the biggest award ceremonies I have seen at a smaller race like this.

Anyways, I have been struggling all week trying to recover from last weekend. I did an easy bike ride Wednesday which didn't feel too bad but I still didn't feel normal. Thursday had some easy swimming and running involved in it but both workouts took all of the motivation I had stored up inside of me to get out the door. Friday morning I did a 1.5 hr computrainer ride and then rested for the rest of the day. I wasn't sure what to expect today but I felt pretty decent. It was 43 degrees this morning so it was a little chilly at the start. The first 5k felt A LOT better than expected. We went through the first mile in about 5:12 and I had no idea I was running that fast. We slowed down a little over the next 2 miles but I managed to get a little gap on the next 2 competitors going into T1. I think I ran around 16:40 for that first 5k. I hopped on the bike and was off through RJ Corman's property. He owns A TON of property and the first 3 - 4 miles of the bike course is on his private property and then the last 3 - 4 miles of the bike course is on his property. Two of those last miles are on his Runway for his jet. Crazy, huh? Anyways, the middle section of the bike is pretty technical. We go down a fast decent into a hard right hand turn. They did a great job warning us about the course but the 3rd place finished had a bout of bad luck with his carbon brakes and didn't make it into that turn.

I came into T2 with about 2.5 - 3 minutes on the next guy and I was off onto the 2nd run. It was the same course as the first run so I knew what to expect and I just kept a good tempo across the finish line. It was a 5k / 15 miles / 5k Duathlon and my finishing time was 1:16:something. I was extremely pleased with how I felt and the effort for the day. My legs felt a little heavy on the bike but nothing too terrible. My roomie, Kevin Ryan, finished 2nd overall and then Jeff Buhr came home in 3rd. He ended up with a little road rash, but nothing too serious from his spill. Allison Stewart brought home the W on the ladies side.

Now its time to hit it hard and get in a big block of training for Clearwater. I plan on running a 10k in Bowling Green here in a few weeks but there will be no taper or rest for that race. Then my season will be done.

T-Bird

Augusta RR (rest and recovery)

2010-09-29T13:30:00.002-04:00

Well today is day 3 since Augusta, and I have not done much since. I took Monday off and yesterday was filled with a short swim and a short run. Today I'm hoping to get out on the bike and ride a little of the RJ Corman Duathlon bike course before Saturday.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was my brother's new PR for a 70.3 distance race. He dropped about 8 minutes from his previous fastest race and went 4:18. And also, Congrats to Jamie Johnson for completing his first 70.3.

I'm really looking forward to is getting back into the swing of things (or maybe not looking forward to). I have been sleeping in quite a bit and doing 2 workouts after work. Once the hard workouts begin, I won't be able to get away with that. Usually the week of a race, or even the week following a hard race, I'll sleep in a little more and tend to not worry about my workouts as much. I still get them in, they are usually shorter and easier, thus easier to squeeze in 2 workouts after work. I guess next week I'll have to break the habit and get my butt out of bed.

And in other news, I am 2-1 in fantasy football and I only lost in week 2 because my boy Chris Johnson was shut down by the Steelers. But I don't think he'll let that happen again, ha.

T-Bird

Augusta 70.3 RR

2010-09-27T15:43:00.002-04:00

Well, I have another 70.3 under my belt, and I learned that racing in the rain isn't really that bad. It was actually pretty nice. Last year at this race, it was in the mid 80's and sunny. This year it was in the mid 70's and raining. The wind wasn't too bad and I never really felt too overheated. My brother and I got to Augusta Friday evening and just hung out. We went for a little shake out run, and then met up with a buddy, Jamie Johnson, and his father at Mellow Mushroom to enjoy some pizza. Saturday was filled with a lot of hanging out in the hotel room, watching football, and doing a lot of nothing.
Sunday morning came and we set up our stuff for the race, and got ready to roll. I found out that the new rule change for the wetsuit cut off temperature would allow the pro's to wear wetsuits in the swim. I haven't raced (or even worn) in a wetsuit since Steelhead of 2009. So almost 1 year and 2 months!!!

I went to the start and at 7:30 we were off. I had a great first 100 yards but other than that, I never really felt like I was catching much water. I stayed close to the buoys hoping for a little help from the current, but I didn't stick to anybody's feet and that was a big mistake. I lost the only feet that I tried to stay on and I was having trouble sighting with my foggy goggles so I was relying on the splashing from the swimmers in front of me. I came out of the water in 17th position which was a huge difference from the 4th position that I came out in from Steelhead. At the time I didn't know what position I was in, but I knew I didn't have a great swim. Fortunately, I felt good on the bike and went after everyone. Chris Legh was right behind me so we paced off of each other to pass a few people and to catch the next bike pack. Once we caught them, he went right by them and was headed towards the main bike pack. I am not quite as strong as him on the bike so by the time I had recovered from our first effort, he had put a good 50 - 100 yards on me. I knew that it would take a really hard effort to get him, but I just didn't have it in my legs. He eventually caught the main pack as I got settled into that 2nd pack. We did not draft, we just used each other for pacing and to help each other stay motivated. We tried hard to catch the main pack for the first hour but we ended up losing almost 2 - 3 minutes on that pack over that last 25 miles or so. Patrick Evoe came by us with about 6 miles to go and really bumped up our pace heading back into T2.

I had an average T2 and was off on the run. I believe I was 15th starting the run and was a little demoralized at the time. I knew I was out of the money by a long shot and not even sure how far back I was of the next competitor (excluding the guys I came into T2 with). After about a mile of running, Nick Waninger was using his fleet feet to pull away from me, and I had pulled away from two other guys. I was just trying to keep Nick close and hoping we would catch a few guys. I went through 6 miles in about 34:30 and didn't really feel too terrible. I caught 2 more guys around mile 7 and then I started my 2nd lap of the run. At this time, a lot of AG'ers were on the run course so I couldn't really tell too much of a difference between guys that I was catching, or guys that were 1 lap behind me. It really helped to have some of them (people to pass) there because around mile 11 I thought about walking and again just about 1/2 mile from the finish*. I had some really rough patches and I know those last 2 miles were significantly slower than the rest of my run. I found out at the finish line that I ended up passing another 3 - 4 guys and finished 7th overall. I was really happy to see the finishing clock at 3:53 and change as I have never been faster than 3:54 and I haven't done that since 2008. I crossed the finish line in 3:53:51.

My finishing spot wasn't what I had hoped for, but there were some really fast guys there. I have never gone that fast in a 70.3 and I found out that it hurts A LOT to go that fast. I am really looking forward to Clearwater and hoping that I can have a similar result on the bike/run while putting together a better swim.

Now I just need to focus on recovering fast since I have a duathlon this weekend here in Central KY.

Tony

*One of the hardest aspects of racing professionally is the fact that you are by yourself for most of the race, so you are fighting that little voice in your head the whole race. When I raced as an AG'er, I always had a lot of people to pass, which gave me a lot of reinforcement for how fast I was going, and a lot of times it would help me continue going that same speed. My wave always started kind of late compared to everyone else, so that gave me hundreds of people to chase after. Now that I start first, you are either in first place and by yourself, or somewhere in the top 10 - 20 hoping that you are close to the other professionals that you are racing against. For example, at Kansas this year, I rode for almost 20 miles without seeing another competitor, so that little voice in my head telling me to slow down did not help matters, ha.

Off to Augusta

2010-09-23T22:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a couple of photos from Tri for Sight.

And I guess it's never a good sign when you have to create a new password to log on to your own blog considering I forgot my old one. I am sitting in Corbin, KY right now and am headed to bed. My brother and I are headed to Augusta, GA tomorrow for the 70.3 on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to racing this weekend. Training has been going really well the past 3 - 4 weeks and my running in particular has felt good. I have put in over 200 miles of running over the past 4 weeks which I haven't done in a long time. And I've also put in about 620 miles over that same period on the bike. My swimming isn't as consistent as it once was, but I still feel decent in the water. Especially with the race course as it is in Augusta, the swim is the least of my worries. It is a down river swim and considering I swam under 21 minutes last year in the middle of a "rough patch" of swimming for myself, I'm looking to do about the same this year with stronger bike and run legs. Saturday, we'll probably just hang out and watch a lot of football and I'll make sure my fantasy football team is ready to play.

I'm really looking forward to testing out my new Kiwami Uniform. They really did it up for me and I got an all red uniform with my Kiwami gift certificate that I won at the Tri for Sight. And I also have some new shoes, but they aren't broken in yet so I wait to test those out a few weeks from now. I got the new color of the Brooks Green Silence. Check 'em out:

http://www.brooksrunning.com/product/1100961D/374669/Green%20Silence

Well, off to bed. You should be able to follow the race on Sunday at www.ironman.com.

There will be a link to the Augusta 70.3 and it will bring up athlete tracker. Race starts at 7:30am

T-Bird

Dusting off the Ole Cobwebs

2010-09-06T10:34:00.002-04:00

Well, I competed in my first triathlon in over a month yesterday here in Lexington, KY and it was a blast. It was a lot different than what I'm used to. I'm usually traveling to a race that is at least an Olympic distance and it usually takes up my whole weekend. But the Tri for Sight offers me a great opportunity to break up the monotony of training and get in a solid effort for a shorter triathlon while staying at my own house. This means I have to hang up my "distance" legs and find my "sprint" legs. Unfortunately, I was unable to find them, in 2 of the 3 sports. My run training has been going really well the past few weeks and I felt pretty solid on the run yesterday but that also might have had something to do with the weather. It was a cool 52 degrees when the race started yesterday.

I got in a solid week of training this past week and was a little tired going into the race but I knew that Augusta and Clearwater are the two "big" races left for the year. Ben and Dana (his girlfriend) traveled to Lexington for the race on Saturday so we all had a nice lunch and dinner while watching the Cats take down the dirty Cards in football. Casey, Ben, and I all woke up on Sunday to get everything ready for the race and to travel down to the transition area (which is less than 1 mile from my house). I racked my bike in transition, got everything set, helped Casey set up her transition area, and we were ready to race.

I was number 101 so I was first in the water for the time trial start. Annie Fryman was swimmer number 2 (a girl that I coached last year) and then Casey was number 3. I knew that I had to swim fast enough not to get passed by either of these two fast swimmers.

I got out of the water where I started and had a quick T1 and was out on the bike. The bike was pretty uneventful even though it was a different course from last year. I could really feel my "dead legs" during the 2nd half of the bike which was coming back into town and is mostly uphill. I stayed within my zone and made it back to T2 still maintaining the lead. I had an average T2 (had trouble getting my new shoes on fast) and was out onto the run. It is so nice to have cooler temps to run in. I went through 2 miles in 10:50 and realized that I haven't ran that fast in a triathlon in a long time. On the way back, I had a little digestion problems, but nothing too serious. I just slowed a little and made it across the finish line in a decent time. I ended up running 22:10 for a legit 4 mile course which was nice considering some of my recent triathlon run splits. I loved the Brooks T6 racer. They were light and fast and helped me run as fast as I did.

A few minutes later, my brother crossed the finish line and ended up 2nd overall. He also ran in the T6 racers, so I'm sure it was no coincidence. I put on a little clothing since it was a little chilly, and jogged back out on the run course to cheer for Casey. She came through a lot faster than she expected and finish in an hour and 50 minutes which was 10 minutes faster than her goal time. This was her first triathlon and she finished FIRST in her AG and 6th overall.

Overall it was a great day and always a pleasure to compete in such a great event. Beth Atnip does a great job with this race and puts a lot of effort into the event (even after she put on IM Louisville 1 week ago). Congrats to my bro and to Casey for racing well. And to George Van Meter for winning his AG at IM Louisville and getting a slot to Kona.

Up Next: Augusta 70.3.

P.s. I was going to race a 10k this weekend in London, Ky for a chance at winning $10,000, but it was canceled because they didn't have enough people signed up for the race. This race offered $30,000 of prize money to the top 3 male and females but less than 100 people had signed up for it so I guess they couldn't cover the cost of putting on the race. It has been delayed until 2011. I guess that is what happens when you don't put a lot of effort into advertising.

Tony

Long Time No See

2010-08-28T11:27:00.005-04:00

Well, I am alive and well. I know it has been a long time since I posted last, but I have been recharging the batteries and getting ready to gear up for the remainder of the season. I used the week and a half following Steelhead to recover and get in a few solid days of cycling before I left the country for 8 days. The day before our vacation, I did an uphill time trial here in Lexington which was put on by the local tri team here (Bluegrass Tri Club). It was a lot of fun (or at least as much fun as you can have during hard efforts) and a solid last workout before vacation. I drove to Corbin after that bike ride, packed my bags, and was ready to roll Thursday morning. We left Corbin around 5 am and made it to Knoxville for our flight with plenty of extra time. We flew to Charlotte, and then to Punta Cana, Dominican Rupublic. We arrived sometime in the late afternoon and we used the rest of the day to check out our resort and find a nice place to eat. We only had to narrow it down to 1 place of the 14 restaurants that were on our resorts property, ha. We went to bed early since we only got 3 - 4 hours of sleep the night before and were ready to hit the beach.

Here's a pic from our first day on the beach.
Just a shot of the water from our seats. Nice a clear.

We mostly hung out the rest of the day and went out to eat at a different place (which I regret) that evening. Here is a pic from dinner.

Unfortunately, I got something from the food and was sick for the next 2 days. I never threw up but you can use your imagination what I was dealing with. I lost roughly 3 - 4 pounds in 24 hours. All I did was drink water/Powerade, rest, and make frequent visits to the potty.

But, that was the worst part. I still managed to hang out on the beach those days because I didn't feel terrible, just not normal/good. The rest of the food was pretty amazing. We had room service from 7 am - 11pm so we usually ordered a fruit tray after our afternoon run. Fresh papaya and mangos are amazing. The breakfast was always good with omelettes but their version of oatmeal was a little strange (or at least for my taste).

Once I was recovered, I tried to take my rental bike out for a spin, but the chain was broken. Oh well, guess I was going to have to stick to running for the remainder of the vacation.

Adam and I found some pretty baller hats. We did not purchase them because it would have been a safety hazard for us both due to the ladies, ha.

Since we had all of the entertainment we would ever want right on our resort property, we stayed put most nights. This night I tried my luck with some roulette. I lost money really fast that night. I may have lasted 3 minutes. The next night I went back and played for almost 45 minutes and managed to lose zero dollars, but I did not make any as well.

We got to swim with dolphins, sharks, and manta rays while we were there which was pretty cool. Here the sharks are only inches below my feet.

We had a great time and here was a family pic from the last night.

We got back late on a Friday and I was ready to get back to the serious training. Only problem was the fact that I hadn't swam/biked in over a week. My first few rides were a little rough, but I didn't feel as terrible as I thought I would in the water. It is now Saturday morning and I'm about to head out for another bike ride.

Tri for Sight is on the 5th of September, the 10k for 10k in London, KY is the 11th of September (along with UK's first home football game and the first weekend of NFL football, holler) and then I have the Augusta 70.3 race on the 26th of September. With my vacation, I'm mentally and physically rested and ready to hit it hard leading up to Clearwater 70.3.

Until next time...

T-Bird

Pic of the Podium

2010-08-05T21:20:00.003-04:00

So I definitely snagged this pic from James Cotter's blog. Thanks bro. Nice race.

And as you can probably tell, we were definitely not ready for the picture. I believe the announcer has asked us something so everyone turned around except for me. Guess I missed out.

Tony

Steelhead 70.3 RR

2010-08-02T12:47:00.002-04:00

Well, my last race in the month of July has come and gone and I am extremely pleased with the effort/result. Now its time for a little rest and recovery during the month of August before I start my training block for Augusta and Clearwater.

Thursday, my brother and I left town and headed for St. Joseph, MI to compete in the Steelhead 70.3 race on Saturday. We got up there in the late afternoon and went for a little lake swim. It was extremely windy and the lake conditions looked more like an ocean when we swam. We only hoped the weather wouldn't be like that for the race. After the swim, we walked around downtown, found some good food and ice cream, and called it a night. Friday we woke up, got our pre race workouts over with and hit downtown again for some more food. Afterwards, we drove to a blueberry farm and picked up 10 pounds of blueberries and the best blueberry scone I had ever eaten. We headed to pick up our packets and made it back to our home stay's house before 4:30. After a little cat nap, we went to dinner and called it a night.

Saturday morning came and it was extremely nice knowing that the transition area was only about .5 mile from our home stay's house. The second we walked out the door, it started to spit rain and it only got progressively harder. I racked my bike in transition, and attempted to stay dry for a while. My brother and I decided to run our bags back to the house since we had a little time to kill, and the house was in the direction of the swim start. I walked down to the beach from the house, and swam to the swim start for a good warm up.

At 7 am we were off. I had a great start and may or may not have been the first person to the first buoy. After a little jockeying for position, I got a great rhythm and swam as fast as I could. About halfway through the swim, I had a swimmer come by me so I sat on his feet for a few hundred yards. We closed the gap to the group in front of us and we actually went by the group. I ended up leading that 2nd pack out of the water which was unusual for me. I was 4th out of the water but the pack was made up of about 10 guys, so I was probably the 8th person or so out of T1. After 2 guys took off in the first 5 miles or so, I settled into pace and just tried to keep those guys in sight. Around mile 20 - 25, Michael Lovato, Zach Ruble, and another guy flew by me. Once again, I put my head down and attempted to keep them close. I did a decent job until about mile 40. Daniel Bretscher and myself ended up almost riding the whole course together (legally). He did beat me back to T2 by 15 seconds or so, but he was still in sight. I had a great transition, but thanks to the rain, my shoes were completely soaked. The rain had only stopped a few minutes earlier, but the sun was already poking its head out. I tried to do what I did at Kansas and just take my time on the run. I was not catching anyone in the first hundred meters so I needed to pace myself. Around mile 1 I ran by Bretscher and Ruble was just up the road. I passed him at mile 3 and another pro around mile 4. At the 5 mile mark I had a spectator tell me I was in 5th position. I had no idea what place I was in, but 5th place was the last place to get prize money so I needed to stay where I was at. Ryan Bates, who was spectating, yelled at me and told me Lovato was just up the road. I was on a mission to catch him. I ran the next 4 miles at 5:45 pace when I covered the first 6 miles in just under 6:00 pace. I passed Lovato around mile 10 or so and tried to pick up the pace from there. I held onto 4th place and crossed the finish line in a time of 3:58:17.

This was my best finish in an Ironman event, my first time receiving a paycheck from an Ironman event, and I also qualified for the World Championship race in Clearwater.

Thanks again to Ann who let both my brother and I crash at her house for the weekend.

Evergreen Lake Tri RR

2010-07-20T09:58:00.003-04:00

Well, another week, another race report. I know this is a little late, but Kevin and myself traveled to Bloomington, IL this past weekend to race at the Evergreen Lake Triathlon. It was an Olympic Distance triathlon that offered a little prize money that attracted a few professionals and fast elite amateurs. I decided I would give it a go and try and win some money. We drove up Friday afternoon and stayed with his aunt and uncle's house in Farmer City, IL. They have a large farm and it was a great place to stay the night before a race. Thank you to the Ryan family for opening up your house to me. We were served fresh corn on the cob and homemade pizza when we arrived Friday. We had a nice dinner in downtown Champagne, IL and then hit the sack early Friday night.

We had an early wake up call since we were about 40 minutes from the race site and we weren't exactly sure where we were going. We had no problems thanks to our Garmin. We got our packets, set up our transition areas, and were ready to go.

We were in the first wave and this was actually my first wave start this year that had more than 10 people in it. It was a little crazy, but a nice feeling. I have done too many TT starts and need to do more open water wave starts. I had a great start but then settled into my "not that fast" pace that I usually do during a triathlon. I was about 7th out of the water but a good 1.5 minutes down to the leaders. I had a good T1 and was out on the bike. I passed a few guys early and recognized Kevin up the road when I got to about the 5th mile mark. I chased him and another guy down over the next 5 - 7 miles and was in no man's land for the rest of the bike course. The 3 leaders were well up, and I was in fourth position. I came into T2 in fourth and took off after third place on the run. After about a .5 mile of running, I realized it was going to be a long day. I didn't feel good and it was hot. The run course had no shade and the sun beat down on us during the whole run course. I was slowly gaining ground on the third place guy, but not fast enough. Unfortunately, I got passed around the 4th mile by another guy. He came by me like I was standing still and I realized why when I saw his run split. He ran almost 3 minutes faster than me. I held onto 5th position and was about 45 seconds out of 3rd.

All in all, it was a good effort on a hot day. I didn't rest as Steelhead in 2 weeks is the main focus right now. Chattanooga on a Sunday, an extremely long and hard bike ride on Tuesday, and then this race on Saturday made for a hard week. But a nice relaxing Sunday made for a great recovery day, and I went back to work yesterday.

The race was a little eye opening showing me I need to work on all three sports. Especially since this wasn't that big of a race and I got out biked by almost 4 minutes by the fastest cyclist, and out ran by almost 3 minutes by the fastest runner. I believe all of those rest WEEKS that I took in the early season are coming back to haunt me now. I guess this will be the kick in my butt for next off season to get me training when the weather is cold and nasty.

Until next time.

Tony

Chattanooga Waterfront Tri

2010-07-12T14:13:00.004-04:00

Once again, I spent the 2nd weekend of July in Chattanooga, TN for the Waterfront Triathlon. This was my third straight year traveling there for the race and once again, I regretted my decision, haha. That bike course is really difficult, and it always hurts, ALOT. Which in turn, makes for a difficult run just because your legs are fried.

In all seriousness, it is a great race. I wouldn't have returned (twice) if I did not think it was a great race. Team Magic does a great job putting the race on and making it a fun race. The swim is down stream in the river, the bike course is on the highway, and the run is on the path that runs alongside the river. It's a great course, just not an easy one.

My brother and I arrived on Saturday evening. We picked up our packets, went to the "elite" meeting, then grabbed some dinner with some good company at the Big River Brewery. Sunday morning came, we rode our bikes down from the hotel, and prepped our Transition area for the race. Luckily, I was given race number 1 since I was the returning champion. Even though most of the guys I was competing against swam competitively in college, I was still the number 1 seed in the water (not cool).

Well, 7:30 am rolled around, and I was off. It didn't take too long for Zach Winchester to come flying by me. A minute or two later, two others came by me, and towards the end of the swim a fourth guy flew by. I guess I was happy to only have 4 guys pass me, but I was out of the water in about 18 minutes which is decent for me. I ran up to T1 and took off on the bike.

The bike was uneventful. My legs didn't feel great, and I knew that I was catching everyone that was up the road, I was only making up about 2 seconds per mile (rough estimate). They were still a ways up the road, even at the turn around. I passed one guy around the 15th mile, but that was my only victim on the bike. I rolled into T2 in 4th position and had a good transition. I took off on the run with two guys in sight. I caught Winchester about a mile into the run, and with a few encouraging words from him, took off after the next guy. It took me 3.5 miles to catch the first guy off of the bike, but I managed to go by him and put enough time between him and myself to cover the time trial start. I never caught Eric Limkemann who took home the big W for the event. I crossed the finish line in second position. It was a tough run, but I felt decent about it. Well, when I checked the results, another competitor had beaten me by 1 second. He was third across the line, but if he started 1 minute back from me, then he only had to finish 59 seconds behind me. it's hard to figure out placing with the time trial starting.

It was a tough and hot day but was happy to have finished where I did. There were some fast guys there. It was a much deeper field than in past years. It always brings out the best in people when you are racing against the best. I have a short week ahead of me, and another race on Saturday (the Evergreen Lake Tri) in Illinois.

Off to the pool.

Tony

4th of July

2010-07-03T12:23:00.002-04:00

So even though it is the 3rd of July, I'll go ahead and post. Today was the annual Bluegrass 10k and I ran it for the 8th straight year. I ran a 10k PR last year on this course and I feel like I'm in better shape than last year so I was looking forward to running fast this morning. Well, needless to say, I am feeling a little tired from my little training block. I have had 2 straight weeks of the highest amount of training I've put in all year, and this is my third week of about the same amount. I had a gruelling bike workout on Tuesday and then a nice little track workout on Wednesday. The workouts went great, but they definitley feel less than optimal. I felt like I had heavy legs for the past 2 days, and it wasn't much better this morning.

I got in a great warmup on my way to the start list and was ready to go. The gun went off and I went straight to the front (still had speed in my legs from doing some 200's on Wed). Well, that wasn't smart and I paid the price. I ended up in no man's land for almost the whole race, and I only had 1 guy pass me between miles 1 & 6. Two guys caught me at the six mile mark and I was able to hold off one of them, but the other charged away. I ended up running 34:05 (almost 40 seconds slower than last yr) but I wasn't too worried about it. It was a great workout and got me a race paced effort. The middle of that race is always my down fall. Take out the 3rd and 4th miles, and I averaged about 5:20 - 5:25 miles. But those middle two miles are brutal, and a little long (according to Garmin). I ended up finishing 8th.

Casey ran her first 10k and she was happy to break 50 minutes in her first attempt. She has a big half marathon on the 17th of July, I know she'll do awesome. And Ben broke into the top 15 for the first time at this race so he was pleased with his effort as well. We stuck to our usual plans by going to Panera after the race and pigging out on cinnamon crunch bagels. Now we are about to go for a little swim, then watch some soccer and track. I am really missing out on the Tour of France since Lexington Insight doesn't carry "Versus." I need to file a complaint. At least I can watch it on DirecTV at work during the week.

Next week is going to be a little easier, then I'm headed to Chattanooga for the Waterfront triathlon on Sunday the 11th.

Tony

Another great Week

2010-06-28T21:09:00.002-04:00

It is once again Monday and I have another (short) update. I have once again had my biggest week of training of the year. I had about 21.5 hours of training this past week and may have even more this week (doubtful with the annual Bluegrass 10k on Saturday). I put in almost 170 miles on the bike which is a pretty solid week of riding for me, along with almost 50 miles of running. I opted out of the local triathlon which was yesterday to focus on my training. I knew I would at least rest a day or so going into the race, and I needed a solid week of training so I chose not to race. Congrats to my fellow coworkers Kevin Ryan and Allison Stewart for their big W's and my brother for finishing 2nd only to Kevin.

However, I did enjoy my first weekend in Lexington since May 16th. I had 5 straight weekends on the road so it was nice to be able and not travel this past weekend. I got my workout over with early Saturday morning, had breakfast at Panera with Casey, and relaxed most of the afternoon by watching some track and field and the World Cup. Sunday I ran my longest run of the year, went for an easy spin with Casey, and watched more soccer and track. I took an active recovery day today and am hitting it hard once again tomorrow.

Off to bed.

Tony

Summertime

2010-06-21T10:09:00.002-04:00

Since my last race, I have had a great week of recovery and a great week of training. Last week I hit my yearly high for hours of training in 1 week, and the week before I was at the lake for 4 days getting in plenty of rest after Kansas 70.3.

I got in a few easy bouts of exercise the days after Kansas, then went to Lake Barkley on Wednesday of that week. I was there until Sunday. I got in plenty of boating time which including waterskiing and tubing behind the boat, along with some pool time. I was able to finish "The Blindside" book which was a great read. I have seen the movie twice, but the book had a little more background information about the whole story behind the left tackle in the NFL and also a little more background about the people involved in the story. Anyways, I played a little golf, and our family had a surprise party celebrating my great aunt and uncle's 60th wedding anniversary.

I got back to work on Monday and I had a very solid week of training last week. I got in a great longer ride with my brother on Saturday even though it rained on us for most of the ride. And we got in our long run yesterday before it got blazing hot. It was still really humid and made for a not-so-comfortable run but we got in the miles. I finished the week with over 20 hours of training which was the first time this year I've hit that mark.

After the run, we had a great father's day in Corbin by eating a great lunch after church, then hanging out by the pool with the family.

Now I'm taking advantage of my recovery day by sleeping in this morning and get a little work done at the shop right now. I might end up at the pool and get in a little swim later today.

Until next time.

Tony

Kansas 70.3 RR

2010-06-08T20:43:00.002-04:00

I am finally settled back in Lexington and will be leaving once again tomorrow. The annual family reunion is this weekend at "Land between the Lakes" in Western Kentucky and I'm really looking forward to it. We stay at the Lodge on the lake and just hang out all weekend including: golf, skiing, sitting by the pool, ping pong, and eating lots of home baked sweets.

Anyways, I got back from Lawrence Kansas where I competed in my first 70.3 of the year. I did feel a little out of shape on the bike, but I finally ran well off of the bike which is unusual for me. I usually go too hard on the bike and then fall apart on the run. With the help of my coach, Beth Atnip, I finally nailed my nutrition plan on the bike, which I feel is a big reason that I ran so well. I have always taken in enough calories (or at least I think I did) but I never thought about how many electrolytes I was consuming. Thanks to the help of my Powerbar gels, EFS, and Salt Stick, I had plenty of electrolytes for this race.

We left Lexington on Friday and just drove the whole way. It was a long day in the car, but traveling with Eric, Kevin, and my bro, it made the trip seem not as far. We had some good pizza Friday night and then crashed. Saturday we woke up and had some breakfast before we headed to the race site to get in a little shake out workout. Saturday warmed up to almost 95 degrees and was sunny all day. It made for a hot workout, but we knew it was supposed to cool off for race day. I went to the pro meeting at 4, headed back to the hotel to chill, then grabbed some dinner before we went to bed. The pro meeting was kind of funny. I've never raced against Chris Lieto so I have never seen the following that he has. There were 4 - 5 guys from K-Swiss that were considered "handlers" that just hung out at the pro meeting and were there obviously for Chris (and maybe Andrew Yoder). I didn't realize that triathletes had "groupies." Maybe one day I can have some, haha.

Well, race day came and I was ready to roll. I stayed calm and collected before the race and didn't get over anxious before the race like I did several times last year. I put on my Kiwami "Torpedo" and got in the water for the race start. The swim started without much fighting and I started on Potts' feet. Needless to say, that didn't last very long. And I found out that I need to work on my ability to swim straight. I probably swam an extra 50 - 100 meters extra thanks to my horrible sighting skills. I ended up between packs and swimming by myself for the whole swim. I was 6th out of the water, but was a few minutes behind the leaders which wasn't where I wanted to be. I took off on the bike and just didn't feel great. I was kind of going fast, but not like I did last year. I got passed by 2 guys around mile 10, and then didn't see anyone for another 20 miles (except at turn arounds). It's hard to keep pushing when you are by yourself the whole time. That is one of the biggest differences between being a professional and an amateur. When I was a fast amateur, I got reinforcement when I would pass people (and I usually passed a lot of people considering my age group went last). Now, not passing anyone until the 35 mile mark, that's not very reinforcing. But I did pass one guy. Around mile 45 I was ready to get off of the bike and start the run. I made it back to transition in 7th position, had a decent T2, and took off in my new Brooks Green Silence shoes (which I love BTW).

The guy I passed on the bike came flying by me just 1/4 mile into the run. I didn't even try and keep up hoping that he would fall apart towards the end of the run (he didn't). I just put my head down and really focused on being controlled. I didn't look at my watch until the 2 mile mark which I went through at 11 minutes flat. I thought it was a little fast, but it didn't feel fast. I kept that pace for the next 6 miles and went through the 8 miles mark around 44:30 or so. I did slow down a little towards the end but I never went through the pain that I have gone through in the past which was a nice change. I guess all of those running miles that I put in over the winter finally paid off. I ended up running a 1:14:06 which is a huge PR for a run split in a 70.3. Again, I feel that my nutritional plan and the lower temperatures helped me finish the race like I did. I ended up finishing as the 7th pro (8th overall since 1 amateur beat me, but he had a wetsuit, so...) and was relatively happy with my race. I dropped 1.5 minutes from last year's race and I wasn't that sore afterwards. My brother and Kevin both finished in the top 4 in their AG and got spots to the World Championship in Clearwater. Beth also had a great race finishing the the top 10 amateurs overall.

We were extremely happy with our races and we hit the road back to Lexington. Thanks to the Miller's for letting us crash in Chesterfield Sunday night before finishing the trip on Monday.

Off to the Lake for some R&R, then hitting it hard for a good month or so before I race again. Next up is the Markey Race for Cancer here in Lexington.

T-Bird.

My Short Work Week

2010-06-05T09:19:00.002-04:00

Well, last weekend I flew to St. Louis to visit Casey. I flew out at 8 am and arrived at 8:05 (with time change) which is always nice. I went for a little run and hung out by the pool for the rest of the day. It was a nice and relaxing weekend with my girlfriend and her family. Saturday I got to swim with her old club team which was a change of pace. That area has a bunch of outdoor swimming pools. I swam with the club team Saturday morning in a 50m outdoor pool and then with the Master's team on Sunday morning at a different outdoor 50m pool. I love swimming outdoors, especially when it's a long course pool. I squeezed in a few runs in the sweltering heat that weekend and managed to not miss a day of training on my Memorial Day weekend. I got in 2 workouts Sunday morning before we left for the river (first time for me). Casey's family has a boat on the river and we took it out. I have never been on a boat on the river. I grew up on the lake and always travel to the Lake for our annual family reunion but I've never been on a river. The water was a little rough and we had to dodge a few more logs and sticks, but otherwise it was a good time. Friday night and Sunday night we ate some amazing home cooked/grilled food and Saturday night we visited "The Hill" and had some really good Italian food. We drove back on Monday (Casey had to return to Lexington for school on Tuesday). St. Louis isn't as far as I had originally thought, but it was a short drive either.

I worked Tuesday thru Thursday and got in some solid taper workouts before I hit the road again yesterday. We left Lexington before 9 am and arrived in Lawrence, Kansas last night around 6 pm. It was a long drive, but we borrowed a full size van so we could fit 4 people with 4 bikes and all of the luggage. It worked great. I may have consumed enough calories yesterday on the trip to feed a normal American for 3 - 4 days, ha. Something about being bored in the car and snacking just goes together.

I had an amazing Hawaiian chicago style pizza at "Old Chicago" last night and we hit the sack soon afterwards. I woke up this morning feeling good and rested. It is 75 degrees right now and overcast. They are expecting record highs today here in Lawrence, but its only a high of 80 tomorrow and overcast. That will be a nice change of racing weather when compared to Memphis.

Well off to get in a little workout and then race tomorrow. Will have the race report up sometime in the 2 days following the race, ha.

Tony

A day in the Sauna

2010-05-24T20:29:00.003-04:00

So I raced in Millington, TN yesterday at the annual Memphis in May triathlon. It just so happened to be the hottest day of the year (for me) and also the hottest day that I've ever raced in. So that made for some fun race reports (from friends and fellow competitors).

Just like last year, we did our usual dinner at Amerigo's the night before the race. We woke up early and I drove Ben and Kevin to the race site and I went back to the hotel to go back to bed. The pros start time was at 10:30 compared to the 7:15 race start for everyone else. I showed up to the race site close to 8:30 and it was already a warm day (only to get hotter). I got my gear ready and tried to stay cool before our race start. I watched Ben, Kevin, Sean, Beth, and Allison all come in off of the bike and take off on their run while I was getting my transition area set up. I started my watch when Ben took off on his run to see his 10k split. Well, after the 40 minute mark passed, I stopped the watch because I had to go get ready for my race. I saw Kevin come in looking pretty bad so I knew it was going to be a long day. Kevin ran under 38 minutes 2 weeks ago at the Knoxville Rev 3 tri and ran 44 minutes yesterday. Ben ran under 37 minutes last year on this very course and ran over 44 minutes yesterday. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the run.

By the time we started, it was close to 90 degrees and still rising. The ITU race I did in Austin last year was a little warmer but there was no humidity compared to Memphis. Luckily, Millington has comparable weather to KY because the humidity was almost as high as the temperature. I had on my Kiwami speedsuit and was ready to roll. I was the 10th pro into the water. I felt really good in the water, and I got into a pretty good rythym which is wierd, haha. The last 300 - 400 yards I was hurting a little bit, but overall I felt that I had a decent swim. It was my fastest swim split ever at Memphis so that is something to be happy about (18:04). I came out of the water, stripped off my speed suit and grabbed the bike. I have felt really good about my bike workouts lately so I was confident about the bike. It took me a few miles to get warmed up, but once I was, I got around several of the guys that passed me in the water, and the others that started in front of me. After ten miles or so, it was only Andrew Starykowicz and Daniel Bretscher. We rode together (don't worry, it was legal) for the rest of the ride pretty much going into T2 within 15 seconds of each other. I knew that Starykowicz was injured, but it was still a little confidence builder to ride with him considering he is one of the strongest cyclist in the business. My bike split was around 54:45. I had a great T2 and was the 2nd pro overall to start the run.

AND THEN....

It was all down hill from there. I immediately felt the heat and was overwhelmed. I was walking with a 1/2 mile of starting the run. When Daniel came running by me, I started running again and we spoke for a brief second until he dropped me. I walked the first aid station to make sure I got enough fluids over my head and in my system. I ran the whole 2nd mile considering it was shaded. I was running slower than 6:30 pace and I couldn't have cared less. I felt horrible about DNF'ing at St. Anthony's last year and that wasn't happening again. I was determined to finish the race no matter how long it took me to run/walk the 10k. At about 1.5 miles, Zach Winchester came flying by me. Just like Daniel, he had some encouraging words for me to keep going. I hung in there and told myself only to walk when I absolutely needed to. There was no walking if it was shaded or if it was downhill. So I almost ran 2 miles with walking. At the turn around, I stopped and walked a little to get some more ice water over my head. I made it up the hill that is the 4th mile of the course. I felt better and better as the run went on (not that I was really running any faster). I took 2 more short but sweet walk breaks (aid stations) and I managed to run my last 2 miles in under 12:50 (compared to the 6:50 pace I ran for the first 4 miles. I finished the race with 2 competitors within 20 seconds of me (but they started behind me at the start of race so their overall time was faster than mine by more than 20 seconds). My 10k split was 41:39. But considering the fastest professional run split was 39:15, I wasn't too terribly upset about my run. Instead of being a swim/bike/run triathlon, it turned into a swim/bike/"survive the heat the best" triathlon. And apparently I'm not that good at surviving in the heat.

I finished the race with a smile on my face and was happy that I had gutted it out. I had a blast racing which is THE goal of the year. I want to have fun which I did (the pic at the top proves it because that is 100 meters from the finish line). It was fun to go fast on the bike. It wasn't as much fun to battle the heat like that on the run, but I dug deep and managed a 5th place amongst a solid professional field and a little pay day. Only 13 pro men and 9 pro women ended up finishing the race considered 30+ started the race.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony, then we hit the long road back to Lexington. By the time Kevin and I made it back, we had some techno music jamming in the minivan trying to keep us awake. We had a fun trip, and we're looking forward to another road trip to Lawrence, Kansas in 2 weeks for the Kansas 70.3 race. Hopefully it won't be as hot, ha.

Tony

Memphis in May Weekend

2010-05-22T15:33:00.004-04:00

So I am in Millington, TN for the annual Memphis in May triathlon. I have done this race for 6 years in a row (including this yr) and I absolutely love this race. This was my first ever Olympic distance race and also the first race that I won some money at as a professional. It is always ran well and just a fun weekend overall. We came down from Lexington yesterday and got here late in the afternoon. We went for a little swim once we got here to cool off (the AC went out in our van on the way down) and then went to the hotel to check in. We kept it low key last night by just hanging in the hotel and watching "I love you, Man." We did stop at Wal Mart which I happened to find my new favorite candy: Pretzel M&M's.

This morning we woke up and went down to the race site to watch some of the Mideast Multisport athletes compete in the sprint distance race. Beth and Allison had great races by placing 10th and 11th overall on the female side while Sean also put up a pretty solid performance (not sure of his placing overall).

Kevin, Ben, and myself all went for a little spin on the bike to loosen up the legs, got in a short run and the hopped in the lake to cool off. Once we were finished, we left and grabbed some lunch at McAllister's. I always love me some sweet tea.

Now I'm off to the pro meeting and then some dinner at Amerigo's. I really pumped about the race tomorrow as it is my first "bigger" race of the year. My training has been pretty solid, and I've backed off a little this week for a little rest. I'm also excited about trying out the new gear. I'm rocking the Zipp 1080 rear wheel and the Zipp 808 front wheel. I also have some EFS to drink and a new Salt Stick dispenser to help me keep my electrolytes up during the race. I'm definitely going to need those tomorrow when the temperature hits close to 95 degrees.

I'll have a Race report by Monday evening, but I'm sure I'll "tweet" a brief summary of my result.

Tony

Mother's Day Weekend

2010-05-10T11:15:00.002-04:00

I spent the weekend in Bowling Green with most of my family and had a great time. I left Saturday afternoon after work and came back late last night. I was able to squeeze in my longest run of the year with my brother and eat lots of amazing food. We had a huge lunch at my Aunt Jill and Uncle Brent's house. They cooked up some amazing burgers, grilled chicken, asparagus, strawberry pretzel salad, and some other amazing sides. And to top it off, we had some Coconut cake (which I love). I ate until I couldn't eat anymore. I guess that is one of the bonuses of running 15+ miles in the morning.

It was really nice to catch up with the extended family and to see my mom on Mother's day.

Last week may have been my biggest (hardest) week of the year and I'm happy about it. I have been having a lot of fun with training and haven't really dreaded a single workout yet. Getting out of bed for the early morning workouts haven't been as hard as usual. I have had some swimming partners, biking partners, and running partners, which I'm not used to having for all 3 sports. I have had 2 great weeks of cycling and hope to continue this training. I'm taking today easy as it was nice to sleep in this morning.

And it was cool to check out the results of Rev3 in Knoxville and it really made me wish that I had raced (excluding the cold temps). It is rare to have such a big event so close to home, and unfortunately I didn't put in the training this off season to want to race this early in the year. But I hope the race had great success and they return to Knoxville next year. Congrats to Kevin Ryan on his solid performance in the Elite Male category there. He dominated the swim and held on for a 10th place finish.

Until next time.

Tony

Picture Time

2010-04-29T08:00:00.006-04:00

Here are just a few photos from the past 2 weeks or so. I have a few from my first Tri of the year, a few from Keeneland and then one from the WA swim banquet last week.

Enjoy.

The Past Few Days

2010-04-28T08:01:00.003-04:00

So I am trying to get my butt in gear and get in a consistent training block before some of my bigger races come up. I know that I'm nowhere near my fitness last year, but psychologically, I feel much healthier. I know what to expect when I compete against some of the best athletes in the world and I know that I have a long way to go this season before I would consider myself "in shape." haha. But I don't know if I really consider myself "in shape" most of the time. I have a warped opinion and have probably only been in peak physical condition a few times in my life.

I have had a great time with training and work lately. Its fun to go out for a bike ride with a few other guys, or even a large group. Its fun to meet up with guys for an easy run or a to swim with the kids that I coach just a few months ago. Even though I am working more, and forcing myself to workout at hours that I'm not used to, I am having fun which is the key for 2010. I have Memphis in May next on my schedule which is somewhere around the 23rd of May.

I spent last Friday in the UK dental school for about 7 hours. My old roommate is graduating from dental school and he needed a patient that had a cavity and I ended up having a cavity (actually about 4). He gave me 2 fillings on Friday, and then his good friend gave me another on Saturday morning. And since I qualified to be his patient, I got paid. It was nice to have a few cavities filled and to be paid to do so. But it made for a long weekend. And my good friend Tyson married his sweet heart Amy Saturday evening. That was a great wedding and a great reception. We had a lot of fun.

After a long weekend, it was great to have a little fun Monday night by going to The Catspy's. My girlfriend finished up her 4th year of elgibility for the UK swim team and was invited to the "Catspy's Awards." I was lucky enough to be her date. This is just a little awards banquet for all UK athletes and they really do put on a good show. It was cool to see guys like Randall Cobb, John Conner, Pattrick Patterson, and of course John Wall. But also the athletes that don't get as much publicity that compete for "the love of the game."

That about it for now.

T-Bird

Happy Birthday Bethany

2010-04-20T06:43:00.003-04:00

Today is my sister's 19th bday. Happy Birthday Bethany.

This past Saturday after the race, Bethany, my brother Ben, Casey, and myself all went to Keeneland to celebrate the wonderful weather and my sister's birthday (a little early). It was as crowded as I have ever seen it, but it was still fun. And it was the first time in a LONG time that I have left Keeneland after MAKING money instead of losing money. Of my last 5 bets, I made money on 3 of them. So after betting almost 30 dollars for the day, I left with about 40 dollars. I know, I dropped some big money, haha. And we ended the day by eating some Pazzo's, which is always one of my favorite places to eat.

Heart and Sole Triathlon RR

2010-04-18T08:44:00.003-04:00

Well this is my first race report in a long time. I haven't been working near as hard as I did last off-season and yesterday gave me a good idea of how far behind I am.

The few days before the race, the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy. Saturday was supposed to have a low temperature of around 38, which is really cold for a triathlon. What I found out Friday night, is that low temp was for Saturday night, going into Sunday morning. And the rain came a little early by hitting us Friday night. So the roads were dry, and it was only in the low 50's race morning. That is still a little chilly, but it wasn't terrible, I've raced in worse.

I was the #1 seeded person again this year, so I didn't have to worry about fighting with people in the pool as I try and snake my way through the pool for the 400 yard swim. The swim was about normal, and without any highlight. I came out feeling pretty comfortable and took off on the bike. I pushed hard on the bike, but I didn't want to go all out because of my lack of fitness. Well, that plan didn't work because I found myself really hammering the hills and then asking myself why I was pushing so hard. My legs haven't felt pain like that this year so it tells me there is a lot of work to be done. Because I was the first cyclist coming through the bike course, all of the cops that were directing traffic were still in their cars so I had to stop at a stop light, but got lucky with the other intersections since I hit a few green lights. I came off of the bike and my legs felt like jello. My feet were numb from the cold wind on the bike and I just felt like I have never ran off of the bike in my life. It was pretty rough for about 7 - 9 minutes, but I loosened up and probably ran faster for the second half of the 5k. I forgot how nasty and hard that XC course was. I crossed the finish line in 59:57. Which to my surprise was less than a minute slower than last year, so I was pretty happy with my performance. I was hoping to run a little faster, but I haven't done any speed work so I feel that will come fast.

Thanks for reading.

I know, I know

2010-04-09T08:50:00.003-04:00

So it has officially been about 4 months since my last post, but nothing super exciting has really happened in that time. I have only raced once since that time and it was a smaller Half Marathon located in Bowling Green, KY. My training has been really spotty, but now that the weather has changed, it is starting to look better. But here is my last 4 months in review:

After my really successful 2008 season, I was really excited about my 2009 season, and my first year racing as a professional. I started training for the '09 season in December of 2008 after only taking 1 - 2 weeks of down time after Clearwater. I put in a large amount of training during the winter months and was ready to go in April of 2009. After a disappointing St. Anthony's, I began to question whether I was up to the challenge of racing as a Professional. I doubted my fitness and lost a lot of confidence at that race. I raced for the rest of the season with a little chip on my shoulder. I was stepping on the start line of every race analyzing the field and telling myself who I could beat, and who was just out of my league. When you step on the starting line for the first time against guys like Matt Reed, Andy Potts, and Tim O'Donnell, its hard to tell yourself that you can beat these guys when I had looked up to them for the previous few years as the icons of the sport. Races like Chattanooga and Tri for Sight were fun little races for me to compete in, but still it seemed like I had a lot of pressure on me. I was racing as if everyone in the sport would notice if I didn't race "fast." I did end the season with my best race of the year. I went into Augusta 70.3 with a different attitude. I was to stay relaxed in the swim as opposed to freaking out because I was swimming with "faster" swimmers. I came out of the water not to far behind the main guys and had a pretty solid race overall.

Once the season was over, I took some time off, and when I starting working out again, I wanted to focus on what I really wanted to improve. I felt that I needed to improve my swim and my run so that is all I did leading into December. But once it got really cold, I lost a little motivation and started working out less and less. I finally realized that I needed a break since I had been "training" for almost 2 years straight.

I have had a lot of fun this winter with coaching and training. I would go out for a run, swim, or bike when I wanted to, instead of sticking to a plan. This has helped my mind set for the year and gotten me back to my roots. The first few years I raced, I was a runner that did triathlons. So that is what I've been doing. I have been running more than usual, while also swimming 5 - 6 times a week, and the occasional bike ride. And now that the weather is nice, I have enjoyed going for bike rides. Instead of training because I HAD to, I have been training because I have WANTED to. This makes a world of difference.

I have also started a new job since my last post. I am the Assistant Manager at "Swim Bike Run of KY." I am now finished with my assistant coaching position with Wildcat Aquatics and am solely working at the new tri shop that has opened here in Lexington, KY. This training/retail center is an awesome place. We have a computrainer studio, an endless pool, and a few tready's in the training half of the shop. On the retail side we carry just about anything and everything you would need to do a triathlon. I am grateful for the swim coaching position that Ben Davis gave me, and I developed many life long relationships with him as well as with the swimmers that I coached.

My training is coming around and I am excited about the upcoming season even if I may not be in near as good shape as I was at this point last year. I'm swimming in our home Master's swim meet this weekend and then I'm racing the Heart and Sole Triathlon in Versailles, KY on the 17th of April.

That's it for now. I'll probably watch "The Master's" today and see if Tiger can shoot another amazing round. Then I'll head to the UK baseball game this evening if the weather warms up a little.

Tony

Christmas Time

2009-12-15T08:58:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I posted last, but there isn't a lot going on these days. My training is going and the weather has been extreme lately. I ran last Thursday when the high for the day was 23 degrees. I about froze to death. And then I ran yesterday when it got up to 60 degrees which was really, really nice.

I spent the weekend in Louisville at the Cardinal Christmas Classic where our swim team competed. All of the kids swam really well, and it was fun to watch them swim. And I also got to catch up with my aunt Francie and Carol who I hadn't seen in a few months. They were gracious enough to house me over the weekend.

The Cats are now ranked 3rd in the nation which is awesome. I was blessed enough to get a ticket to the UNC game thanks to my girlfriend. And a few days later we watched the UConn game which was another extremely exciting game. We defeated IU this past weekend which always makes UK fans happy. The football team is headed to the Music City Bowl (again!!!). And I'm headed down there with them. The game is the 27th of December and should be a lot of fun.

I'm really excited about the holidays. I get to travel home and spend time with the family which I love to do. And I just love to watch Christmas movies. Elf, Christmas Vacation, and The Christmas Story are 3 of my favorites. I think I watch The Christmas Story about 6 times a year, all of which are during the 24 hr. marathon on TBS on Christmas Eve and day. I also like to watch the Christmas Carol and Home Alone 1 & 2 (I refuse to watch the third and fourth).

In preparation for the holidays, Casey and I have been doing little things to decorate around the house. We helped Beth put up the Christmas tree and ornaments. The following night we made a bunch of homemade ornaments which was a lot of fun. I haven't made the applesauce and cinnamon ornaments since I was about 8 years old. I forgot how good they smell, and how horrible they taste, haha.

Tony

What a week

2009-11-29T18:12:00.002-05:00

Another Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. And just like past years, I'm sure that I'm about 5 pounds heavier than I was about a week ago. I decided to take a few days off to let a little lingering injury heal, and I also ate an abnormally large amount of food since it was Thanksgiving. I went home Wednesday and had an amazing dinner in Corbin on Thursday. I traveled to Bowling Green on Friday and had another Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. I have not worked out in a week and I'm ready to get going. My off season officially starts tomorrow. I'm cutting my "sweets" intake down A LOT considering I ate enough in the last 4 days to feed a small family for a week.

And I don't have any exciting "CATS" info to post this week as we suffered yet another Heartbreaking loss to UT. I hate the Vols more and more every year because of these losses we keep suffering. I would almost rather lose by 20+ points than to lose in OT. However, the Cats bball team did bring home the big W from the "Cancun Challenge." The playing conditions weren't ideal considering we played in a ballroom with chandeliers hanging from the low ceiling. There were large cracks in the hardwood court, and a buffet was only feet from the baseline. But we still managed to play alright. A friend of mine made a joke saying "of course we were playing in the Cancun Challenge. Billy Gillespie scheduled that tourny because the bar was 5 feet from the court."

I thought that was funny. But the big game is next Saturday: UK vs. UNC here in Lexington. I can't wait.

Tony

C A T S... Cats, Cats, Cats

2009-11-22T12:51:00.002-05:00

We have had a wonderful weekend in athletics here at UK and I couldn't be happier. Casey and the rest of the UK swim team traveled down to Knoxville to compete at the UT invitational. The team swam really well all weekend and the girls' team managed to bring home the victory. The defeated UT, and Virginia Tech (both who defeated them earlier in the year) along with Alabama. The guys weren't as fortunate. They were out scored by UT by only 4 points. But all in all, the team had their best meet of the year by far. Casey swam season best times in all of her events including the 200 IM, 200 free, 100 free, and 200 fly.

UK basketball defeated Rider yesterday here in Lexington by almost 30 points, and we looked the best we have all year. I get more and more excited about every game that we play. John Wall and company are really fun to watch. They are headed down to Cancun to finish up the tournament this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. And UK football defeated the Georgia bulldogs in Athens for the first time since 1977. We are now 7 - 4. This has been an up and down year for us in football. We should not have lost to MSU or USC, but we pulled out some big wins against UGA, and Auburn. I just really hope we can beat UT this coming weekend. I'm tired of losing to them.

I'm sure there were some other exciting things going on in other sports as well, but these were the top 3 in my book. And now its 1pm on a Sunday which can only mean 1 thing: it's Fantasy football time.

And on some sad news, I will be missing my first NCAA xc meet in over 6 years. Me, and several other buddies have traveled to watch the NCAA meet the past 6 years in a row. We all delayed in making plans this year, and now we aren't going. I guess I'll just watch the meet on tv tomorrow.

Tony

Pain

2009-11-19T07:41:00.002-05:00

I read an article about pain in the new "Running Times" and it's a pretty good article. It discusses how the top runners in the sport deal with pain during a race and their different perspectives are pretty interesting. The Japanese runners use gaman which is the Japanese concept of enduring pain with dignity and grace. I know that most people don't like to deal with that amount of pain, but I guess the Japanese like to see how much they can endure. Other runners talk about breaking the race into segments so you just have to deal with the pain in shorter amounts of time thus making the race go by faster. The African runners talk about relying on their strength that they get from religion. Haile Gebrselassie (WR holder in the marathon) talks about accepting the pain rather than fighting it.

It's a pretty good article. Maybe I'll start thinking about Gaman instead of getting nervous and dreading a hard workout before I even start it. I have witnessed several swimmers on my team phych them selves out before a hard workout just because the set "looks hard." And I know that I've done this myself. I tell myself that it's going to hurt, and I give in to the pain and end up not having a good workout. If I could just not think about the workout, and do it, then I would be much better off, along with a few other people that I know.

Anyways, training has been going pretty good. My running feels really good as of lately. I have had a few faster paced runs which were unplanned. I would just feel good and pick up the pace for no reason, and finish the run feeling like I didn't try that hard. I did a 5 mile fartlek yesterday which was unplanned and I ended up running the 5 miles in 28:10 which I feel is pretty good for the time of year. My swimming has been hit and miss, but my bad days I'm still holding a decent pace that I couldn't have held in past years, so I know that I'm getting faster in the water, I just really dislike those slow days.

I hit just under 50 miles last week and will be around 55 miles for this week. My swimming yardage has been higher than usual, but it'll probably take a little hit over the next 2 weeks with a big swim meet at our pool this weekend, and Thanksgiving next weekend. But with these breaks in swimming, I'm going to start biking.

My first swim meet as a coach starts tomorrow. We are hosting our annual Autumn Classic this weekend and the kids are swimming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm looking forward to watching them swim. And several of them found my blog this week and wanted shout outs. Kelsey Mclaughlin, Caroline Jacobs, and Casey Ren are three of the girls that I'll be watching swim this weekend. Good luck girls.

T-Bird

Wednesday Update

2009-11-11T08:05:00.002-05:00

After a great weekend with the family in Bowling Green, I'm back in Lexington for the usual stuff. I got to have dinner with the family at my grandparents Friday night, do a few workouts with my bro, see my sister as a cheerleader for WKU for the first time, and just have a great weekend in general. I am now enjoying all of the apples and apple cider that I can handle thanks to my grandparents who own "Jackson's Orchard" in Bowling Green, KY. And I know that Eric, Beth, and Casey have enjoyed them as well.

I have really been working hard in the water, and also been putting in the work on the road. I'm still 2 days behind on my running challenge, but that isn't bad for over 30 days of running. And I don't have a workout for today but I did get a suggestion of a video to post on here. This is just a little time trial for fun at the University of Texas. One guy does a 100 backstroke for time (with no 15 meter rule, so it's pretty much all under water) and another is a 150 breaststroke for time. The most impressive thing is the 100 underwater.

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/play/80787-friday-afternoon-texas

and here is another video that is just funning.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/failblog/videos/326/

Tony

November already?

2009-11-04T09:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting in the past few weeks but I haven't really had much to blog about now since the season is over but I'll give you a quick update.

Training has been going pretty good. I still have yet to touch my bike since my last race, but I have been slowly upping my mileage in running, and trying to hit some big numbers in swimming as well. I did swim a PR for yardage a few weeks ago by swimming over 37,000 yards, but I proceeded to catch a little cold the following Monday so I took 2 days off from the water, and then took a few days really easy so I was around 15,000 for that week. I managed to hit over 30,000 last week and I felt like I didn't swim a ton either, so that is a good sign. My last three weeks of running has been 40, 47, and 50 miles. This week is going to be a down week before I keep going up the ladder. My running challenge is going really good too. It is over 3 weeks into the challenge and I have run 22 times in 24 days. I have a 2-a-day planned later this week so I'll only be down by one run at the end of 4 weeks.

Coaching is going great. The kids had their first meet a few weeks ago and they all swam pretty well considering it was an early season meet. They have a pretty hard set planned for today with 6 x 200 FAST!!! And tomorrow they have a 5,000 straight swim. Good thing I'm not swimming with them right now, ha.

Fantasy Football is as exciting as ever and I'm in first place in my division. I am playing the guy that I'm tied with in my division this weekend so there is a lot on the line.

I may have a new favorite show that is called "White Collar" which comes on USA on Friday night. It's pretty good.

And having an American win the NYC marathon this past weekend was also awesome. Congrats to Meb for the big W.

Tony

Who likes IM?

2009-10-21T08:50:00.002-04:00

As in Individual Medley, not Ironman. The workout of the week is going to be a main set that our swim team did almost a week ago. It is called the Ultimate IM set and I know the kids did not have fun doing it. The send off's can be changed around to fit any swimmer, but this is a long set so it shouldn't be performed by anyone who doesn't usually swim a large amount of yards. Or if you aren't really used to swimming a lot of IM. You don't want to mess up your shoulders because of the amount of Butterfly you must swim during this set.

And unfortunately, there isn't a video to post with this workout, but here is how the set is broken up (and I'll post the "B" intervals for the set):

4 x 400 IM alternating 5:45 and 5:30 send off's
8 x 200 IM all on a 2:55 send off
16 x 100 IM alternating 1:25 and 1:15 send off's

We had the 400's and 100's on alternating intervals. They would swim one at moderate pace and then one fast. The 200's were all on the same interval.

Out of the 20+ swimmers that started the set, only 3 finished the entire workout as planned without missing an interval. Most of the swimmers were forced to swim freestyle on the faster interval during the 100's. This only happened after they missed an interval.

And an update on the 100/100 challenge, I'm 9 for 9 right now. I have actually not missed a day of running so far and its going good. Most days I'm keeping it pretty easy with a shorter run of 30 - 45 minutes. I did do a longer run on Saturday and plan on doing another this weekend. I put in 40 miles last week and plan to be around 45 this week.

T-Bird

The Pushup Challenge and the 100 in 100

2009-10-14T08:05:00.003-04:00

This is a little bit different from some of the past workouts that I've posted but its a good little off season challenge to try out. The main goal is to see how fast you can do 100 push ups. This challenge originated from this guy's friend (who is a girl) who said that she did 100 pushups in 2 minutes and 47 seconds. So, being the man that he is, he felt he should be able to do this easily if she could do it. And, he fails miserably almost doubling her time.

You can break it up however you want, you just have to finish 100 pushups as fast as possible.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235353-flotrack-2009-xc-season/201816-the-pushup-challenge

Here is the link to the guy who explains the challenge and shows his attempt at the challenge. I have never tried it because I'm too scared of how horribly sore I would be for the following days.

Monday I also started a running challenge that I have heard some people do over the winter to help them with motivation. Dave K wanted to do 100 runs in 100 days and for me to do it with him. So far, I have ran twice in 2 days so I am on pace, haha.

The rules:
a.) each run must be over 30 minutes to count.
b.) there can be multiple runs in a day as long as there is at least 2 hours between runs

That is pretty much it. Nothing too complicated. And I have started up my winter of swimming as well. I'm going to act more like a swimmer when I'm in the water and focus on some more distance swimming which I have never really done much of. Yesterday I did 3 x 1000 on a faster send off. This was extremely hard, and I died miserably on the last one, but it gives me some room for improvement if I decide to do this set again, ha.

That's about it for now.

Tony

WOW

2009-10-07T09:13:00.002-04:00

Last week might have been the least exciting week of the year. I was taking some time off, and I filled that time I usually spend training by just sitting around. I was bored out of my mind. This week, my coaching schedule is in full swing. The kids are swimming 2-a-days, 3 days a week and have started swimming a workout on the weekend. So I went from working just around 15 hours a week to around 23 hours a week. So I don't feel too much like a bum anymore, haha. I have ran the past three days and have swam a little, but no serious training has begun yet. This past Saturday was a lot of fun with Ben and his girlfriend coming up for the game on Saturday. Those two and Casey and myself all went to the UK/Bama game, then to Mellow Mushroom, and then to the movies for a pretty exciting Saturday. Sunday, Casey and I were able to enjoy a little tennis, which neither of us had played in forever.

Now, the workout of the week is going to be from the Hansons-Brooks project. Brian Sell is running the Chicago Marathon this weekend (I think, ha) so I figured I could show a video of his training. He has been known to run 150+ miles weeks. He did not break 10 minutes for 2 miles in high school, but has since become an Olympian by making the 2008 US marathon team. They are doing 8 x 1k at just faster than marathon race pace. The coach talks about throwing the marathon guys on the track a few times just to keep a little speed in their legs. They did this workout 5 weeks before the Boston marathon. Enjoy

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/129-brian-sell/170131-hansons-brooks-workout-2009-boston-marathon-episode-12

Tony

The Workout of the Week

2009-09-30T09:16:00.002-04:00

I have another running workout to show you guys. This workout is performed by a HS team that I believe is in Illinios. They have several national championships in XC and numerous state titles in their recent history. The coach is a bit of a legend and he has his boys doing 5 x 1 mile today with 3 minutes recovery. It's always cool to see a HS team this large when compared to a team like I was on in HS that barely had a full team of 7 guys running XC. And this workout is a couple of years old. This video was recorded during the fall of 2007.

And I have reason to believe that is Al Pacino that is coaching or at least it is his voice twin. They sound identical.

Here's the link. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/475-joe-newton/5083-york-hs-workout

Tony

Augusta 70.3 Race Report

2009-09-28T10:14:00.002-04:00

Well the season is done. I am sitting in Corbin right now and am headed back to Lexington today. Beth, Eric, Jeff, Neely, Casey Gilvin, Ben, Dave K, and myself all raced in Augusta, GA yesterday and we had a blast. Ben and I drove down Friday morning from Corbin and arrived just before 5 pm. We hung out at the hotel before going to get some steak with Jeff and Neely. Everyone else arrived a little bit later in the evening. Saturday we did our usual pre race activities. We ate a big breakfast, went for a short bike ride and a short run, got all of our racing gear ready, and went to the pre race meetings. Saturday evening we watched UK get destroyed by UF while we enjoyed our pizza from Mellow Mushroom.

My alarm went off at 4:30 am Sunday morning so I could eat my usual breakfast before the race. We were mostly packed and were headed towards the transition area by 5:30. My wave was the first wave to go off at 7:30. This was my first ever 70.3 race without swimming in a wetsuit, but I wasn't too worried about that. It was a point to point swim, with the current of the river, and with a strong wind at our back.

The gun went off at 7:30 and we dove right in. I had a different mind set about this race. I told myself I would race my own race, as opposed to focusing on what everyone else was doing like I had been doing for the past few races. The swim is where I have been getting a little nervous about and really trying to swim with the fast guys. Once we were in the water, I focused on a strong, efficient stroke, as opposed to worrying about swimming fast. Well, this worked out great. I was in the front of the lead pack for about 5 minutes until everyone picked up the pace a little. I ended up at the back of the 1st pack and I stayed there for the rest of the swim. I was very controlled and comfortable the whole swim and never felt overwhelmed like I did at Tuscaloosa or Steelhead. I came out of the water side-by-side with Victor Zyemtsev (who won Ironman Louisville) and we went ran into T1. I could see the leaders heading out of T1 as I was heading in so I knew there wasn't a big gap at all.

Once on the bike, I passed 2 guys early, then just put my head down and kept rolling. Chris Legh passed me about 5 miles into the bike and made me look like I was standing still. He is really strong. We had a tail wind for the first hour so it was fast. I covered almost 13.5 miles in the first 30 minutes and just under 26 miles for the first hour. Nick Waninger caught me around mile 12 - 14 and kind of gave me a little boost. We have raced many times this year and are very equal in ability. Once he caught me, I put my head down to stay close to him. We ended up riding the rest of the bike course together (not drafting, just using each other's energy to keep moving fast). We caught several guys over the next 20 - 30 miles. 2 - 3 guys actually rolled us up pretty good too. There were some strong guys there. This bike course was a lot tougher than I expected and the strong winds did not make it a fun day. I really suffered the last 10 - 15 miles because of the strong head winds that we were fighting to get back to transition. I really slowed down a lot over the last hour of the bike ride. I came into T2 behind Nick and 2 guys that had just passed us on the bike. We headed out on the run, and I knew it was going to be tough. I did not feel good at all, but I sure hoped it would get better.

Nick started to pull away, but I ran the other two guys down (they had about a 30 - 45 second lead off of the bike) within the first 3 miles. I was still chasing Nick, but he had a great run and he only distanced me even further throughout the run course. The rest of the run was a battle with myself. I never passed another guy and no one passed me. I managed to run 1:19 and change on a 13 mile course ( 1/10 of a mile short). I crossed the finish line in 11th place overall and just under 4 hours for my finishing time (3:59:35).

This was my worst result in a 70.3 race this year, but my best race. Those were the toughest conditions that I've had to race in this year, and the strongest field that I've raced against. They pushed me to my fastest 70.3 of the year and a good finishing note for the 2009 season. I've had a long season and am glad to be finished. But the thing about these races is they really motivate me for other races. A little fire inside of me wants to race at Clearwater. This will most likely not happen since I'm not qualified but ....

It would probably be the best decision to figure out my bike position (I could barely walk after the race because my knee hurt so bad from the bike ride), work on my swim stroke, and build up my running miles so that I'm able to run 5:40 pace for 13.1 miles after a hard swim/bike. Guys like Greg Bennett just make it look so easy.

And our Lexington crew really did well. Ben finished 5th in his AG and this was also his first ever attempt at this distance. Beth finished 3rd in her AG, Jeff finished 3rd in his AG, Eric finished 6th in his AG and got a spot for Clearwater. Neely finished her first ever 70.3 race.
Overall we had a great time and I would love to race there again next year.

Preliminary results can be found here:

http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/augusta70.3/?show=tracker&rid=260&year=2009

Until next time.

T-Bird

WOW

2009-09-23T07:56:00.001-04:00

Today’s workout video is of an aquatics team (that I’ve never heard of) and they are working on pace. The coach talks about the emphasis of good stroke technique and keeping good form throughout the workout as opposed to cranking out a bunch of hard intervals where everyone is barely making the send offs.

The distance group is doing 36 x 100 which is broken up into 2 sets, and then into 3 parts within the set. The first four 100’s are performed at 200 race pace plus 6 seconds per hundred. So if your 200 race pace is 2:00, then you are to perform the first four 100’s on 1:06. The send off for the entire set is 1:35.

The next six 100’s are 200 race pace plus 5 seconds and the last eight 100’s are 200 race pace plus 4 seconds. Going back to the original example, the swimmer would perform four 100’s on 1:06, six on 1:05, and eight on 1:04; all with a send off of 1:35. So they are getting about 30 seconds of rest after every interval.

After the first set, they got a few minutes of recovery before starting the set all over again. I have swum a modified version of this set, but never the entire set. I feel like every time I want to attempt the whole set, I’m close to a race and I don’t want to mess up my taper by swimming 36 100’s at close to race pace.

Hope you enjoy the video.

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/speaker/522-sean-hutchison/182349-pace-work-with-king-aquatic-club

Tony

Check up

2009-09-22T10:33:00.002-04:00

I know I haven't blogged about anything lately, but there really isn't anything too exciting in my life right now. I have been putting in the work, while getting a lot of rest for the past week or so. I'll be racing in Augusta this Sunday which is most likely going to be my last race of the year. I had plans on going to Clearwater, but I feel like I would benefit more by focusing on next year instead of squeezing in another race this year. After Augusta, my plan is to take a couple of weeks off (not completely) and then start putting in a large aerobic base while working on some of my swimming mechanics so I'll be better prepared for the 2010 season. If I race at Clearwater, I would train hard for another month or so, and then taper for about 2 weeks, then take the 2 weeks of recovery, and not start my build up for next year until the first of December. But the only problem with that is I don't know if there is enough internal motivation left in my system to get me to train hard for another month or so. The bike rides are becoming more dreadful (for no particular reason), I delay workouts more and more with every passing day, and I am just ready for a break. Now don't get me wrong, I have still worked hard up to this point and am ready to roll this weekend in Augusta. I know this is something that a lot of people struggle with, but even professional athletes struggle to get out the door for every single workout.

I'm thinking that next year may have to be broken into 2 seasons. Maybe an early season where I race 4 - 5 times in April, May and June. Then I'll start all over and have another build up to a later season where I'll race maybe once in August, and then have a few big races in September and October. That way, I'll still get in about the same number of races within the year, but I'll be fresher and more prepared for the races as opposed to getting burnt out half way through the season, and having some rough races during that period to deal with.

Check back tomorrow for the workout of the week.

Tony

Ryan Hall's WO

2009-09-16T08:26:00.002-04:00

Today I'm posting another workout from before the Olympic Trials marathon which was in NYC in late 2007. Ryan is one of the greatest American distance runners of all time. He is running in Philly this weekend in the "Distance Classic" which I believe is a half marathon. And then he is running in the New York Marathon this fall which will be his "A" race of the fall.

In this workout, he's doing a marathon race paced run of 15 miles. He does it on a road that he does a lot of his training and he discusses during the video of how his faith in God affects him as a runner. It's a great video.

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=5c60b9016f85cc43196f

Enjoy.

Tony

SBCTFS RR

2009-09-14T09:24:00.002-04:00

Does the title make sense? It's short for "Susan Bradley-Cox Tri for Sight Race Report" and I guess I didn't really save much time now that I had to type what that acronym was short for, ha.

Anyways, yesterday was the annual Triathlon here in Lexington which is always a great race. Beth and Eric both spend a lot of time making sure that it is a great race. They receive numerous compliments every year about how well ran the event is and how safe everyone feels on the course. This year they even changed the bike course a little to make it safer.

I woke up yesterday morning and decided I would try something new for breakfast before a race. I had some oatmeal with a cup of coffee and my morning serving of FRS. I got the car packed up and I headed down to the transition area. It always nice to eat breakfast at home and sleep in your own bed the night before a race. After setting up my transition area and a little run warmup, I was ready to roll. I was fourth in the water since it was a swim seaded start in a pool swim. We had to snake our way down the pool to get in our 800 meters of swimming. I took off and just didn't feel like I was catching much water. I haven't felt good in the water for about a month now. I don't know what the problem is, but hopefully it will get better before Augusta here in 2 weeks. Anyways, I passed the guy who started immediately in front of me pretty fast, and then had the pool almost to myself for the rest of the swim. I was too far behind Dave K and Kevin R. to catch them and I had a big gap on the guys behind me. I came out of the water in third position and sprinted to the transition area. Kevin is injured right now so I knew he was only doing the swim, so I just needed to chase down Dave. Had a good transition and took off on my first race on my Mercury Trident bike. I got rolling early and was really making up some ground quick. I caught Dave about 5 - 6 miles into the race and then opened up a gap on my way back on the bike. I felt great and got some good encouragement around the 14 mile mark from some of my kids on the swim team, which was nice. And apparently they were making fun of Dave because he used to coach them. Dave told me they yelled, "Dave, Tony is killing you." to Dave when he went by on the bike, haha. Anyways, I went into T2 with a pretty big gap and took off on the run looking to run pretty fast. I kept a pretty good tempo the whole run and I came across the finish line in first place. I ended up running just under 22 minutes for the 4 mile course. Unfortunately, it was the slowest I've ever ran on that course (which I didn't realize until I checked old results last night). I did feel good on the run and I had the fastest bike split in the race so that is always great news. I'm hoping to keep this fitness going into Augusta 70.3 and that I can feel a little better on the swim.

Results can be found at:

http://www.besttimescct.com/results/Sight09.txt

Til next time.

Tony

The Showdown

2009-09-12T09:27:00.002-04:00

Round #13????

So, in 2006, Dave Kuendig and I were racing head-to-head for the first time since we were both considered "fast." at the Tri for Sight here in Lexington. We had raced before but it was my first Olympic distance race ever and it was at the beginning of 2005. Anyways, our friends really hyped up this head to head race and couldn't decide who would win. Dave was obviously the better swimmer (and still is) and everyone told me I was stronger on the bike and a better runner. I was convinced that I could run him down if I made up most of the deficit on the bike. Well, needless to say, he was a MUCH better swimmer than I on that day. I only made up about 30 seconds of that 1:40 that I lost on the swim. So he won our first "showdown" by about a minute.

Over the next couple of years, we have raced in many different races with both of us coming out on top on different occasions. But the only real "showdown" is always at Tri for Sight since it is a time trial start and we always start very close to the front. In 2007, neither of us raced and Eric Bell came up from Knoxville to take home the big W. Last year, was another head-to-head battle between the two of us. All of our friends made a big deal about it again, but not as big of a deal as they made it out to be in 2006. I had improved my swim a lot since 2006, and Dave only managed to put about 30 seconds on my last year in the water. I managed to catch him close to the half way point on the bike and then lead the way into the second transition. Unfortunately, he was cut off by a car about 200 yards from the transition area and he had a little spill. He was forced to run his bike into transition and he lost a significant amount of time due to the accident. Once he got onto the run, he felt that he did not have a chance of catching me, so he kind of ran at a tempo pace. So last year's race was a tainted victory for me. But I did manage to break Dave's course record by about 15 seconds.

Tomorrow, September 13th of 2009, is the SHOWDOWN at the Susan Bradley-Cox Tri for Sight. But nobody has really talked about it this year, so I just thought this would make a funny blog.

And Congrats to Susan Bradley-Cox who won her AG at the World Championships in Australia.

T-Bird

Today's Workout

2009-09-09T08:06:00.002-04:00

First off, training is going pretty good. I had a great weekend of training in Corbin while I also attended one of my best friends' wedding on Saturday. And I want to say Congrats to Daniel and Lindsay Lowe. It was a great wedding and I had a blast. That is why Casey and I were all dressed up for in that picture from the last post. We decided that we should take a picture since we really don't get dressed up all that often, ha. I have a race this weekend here in Lexington and I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, it is Wednesday so I have another workout. Since Dathan Ritzenhein broke the American Record in the 5k about a week ago, I'll post one of my favorite workouts of his. This was a workout he did leading into the Olympic Trials marathon in 2007. He did this "marathon paced run" about a month before the race. He practiced everything including nutrition and hydration just as if he were running the race itself. It's kind of a long video, but they explain everything that is included during the workout and the reason for doing those things. Here's the link:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/85-dathan-ritzenhein/5468-part-4-the-workout

Hope you enjoy.

T-Bird

Big Pimpin'

2009-09-06T13:13:00.003-04:00

I may look good in spandex, but I think that I look even better in this picture. It's probably because of the good company.

Workout Wed./Thurs.

2009-09-03T08:09:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting in the last week. But here is the workout of the week that I love. The video isn't the most exciting thing to watch ever, but I love this swim set. It is a very challenging set and really gets difficult if you went too hard in the beginning. The video explains the set, but basically, the first send off is at :20 seconds and you build up to 2:00 minutes, adding :5 seconds every interval. You swim as far as you can while still getting a little rest within the given time. So, when I do this set, I will do 25y on the :20, 25y on the :25, 50y on the :30, 50y on the :35 .............. 150y on 1:55, and the last one doing a 175y on 2:00. The person that is swimming decides when to jump up the distance on the next send off. You never go back down in distance. The first time I attempted this set, I tried to do a 150y on 1:40, which came back to haunt me. I ended up swimming the last 5 send off's (1:40, 1:45, 1:50, 1:55, & 2:00) with no rest. I swam 750y straight because I blew up and I couldn't recover, haha. My PR for the set is swimming a total of 1975 yards. I have yet to make the 2000y distance for the set. I hope this wasn't too confusing.

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/play/74330-the-nitro-whistle-set

And for reference, here are the intervals that I hit the last time I did this set.

25y on :20
25y on :25
50y on :30
50y on :35
50y on :40
50y on :45
75y on :50
75y on :55
75y on :60
75y on :65
100y on 1:10
100y on 1:15
100y on 1:20
125y on 1:25
125y on 1:30
125y on 1:35
125y on 1:40
150y on 1:45
150y on 1:50
150y on 1:55
175y on 2:00
Total distance: 1975y

Update

2009-09-03T07:47:00.003-04:00

Everything is great here in Lexington. I have started my new coaching job which has been a blast so far. The pool is reopening today so it will be the kids first day in the water today. Ben Davis (the head coach) and I have just been making them run a little while giving them all kinds of core work and leg exercises.

Training has been really good the past few days or so. It may be the cooler temperatures or maybe, I have just been feeling better. I have had some really good run workouts. I had a good long run on Sunday and a nice, easy run on Monday. That run on Monday was one of those runs that is so relaxed and easy that I was just excited to be out running. There was almost no exertion and the weather was great. Tuesday was a hard run workout which went really well. I haven't ran that well in a workout since June. Yesterday I just had a normal bike ride and a swim. On the bike ride I decided I would ride to the hill where we do hill repeats and just do one repeat easy then head home. On the ride to the hill, I decided since it was an easier ride, I would throw in one hard effort on the hill and go after the hill record. The fastest I have ever climbed that hill in was 6:42 which I did at some point last season. I decided that I was in good enough shape to give it a run. Just a few weeks ago I climbed the hill in 6:50 with a few other guys so I knew I could climb fast. I got to the bottom of the hill and just decided to really attack it. I sprinted the bottom section and then settled into pace. I got to my checkpoint on the hill in under 5 minutes which I had never done before so I knew I was going hard. I just tried to keep my tempo all the way to the top and I ended up finishing the climb in 6:32, a new PR. I was really excited. Then I just rode easy back to the house. Then I swam with Casey in the afternoon, who was supposed to do a 1000y TT as her workout. I, for some reason, told her I would do it with her. I took it out really hard and then settled into pace. I almost even split this TT because I went through the 500 just over 5:30. I finished in 11:07 which is only 1.2 seconds off of my PR from a dive (recorded as a split during a 1650y race at the Wildcat Master's Swim Meet). So I was pretty happy with this. I know I need to be a lot faster but its a good step in the right direction. Today I have a long run which I'm about to take off on. And this weekend I'm headed home to Corbin to watch one of my best friends get married.

Tony

Workout Wednesday

2009-08-26T09:20:00.002-04:00

I'm going to steal an idea from several websites and start posting some of my favorite workouts every Wednesday. Whether it is a workout that I like to do during a certain training phase, or it is a workout video that I have borrowed from other websites, there will be some kind of workout posted.

I'm going to start today with one of my favorite workout videos from www.flotrack.org. I love this website and they always have great coverage of whatever big meet is going on. The link says the video was posted April 11th, but I believe it was originally posted last fall when this workout was recorded. The OSU Cowboys (the better of the 3 OSU's) ran this workout as a tune up workout before going into the National XC meet in November. It is 6 x 1 mile repeats on the xc course. The goal was to decend every repeat. If an athlete ran any single repeat slower than the previous, they were done with the workout, no matter what number they were on. The ultimate goal was to run all 6 repeats. Enjoy

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/635-german-fernandez/78340-oklahoma-state-workout-with-the-cowboys-episode-7

Tony

Elite Nationals Aquathlon

2009-08-24T10:22:00.002-04:00

So... I did my 2nd ever ITU race and it just so happened to be the US National Championships. And needless to say, it didn't go well. A lot of my training this summer has been more focused on longer racing, and this race was a shock to the system. And the month of August is never a great month to expect to have good swimming fitness because the LAC is closed for its annual cleaning.

Anyways, myself, my brother, and many others from Lexington all headed down to Tuscaloosa, AL on Thursday. I ate at Olive Garden Thursday night, and then called it a night early. Friday, we woke up and went down to the race site to workout a little. I got in a great warmup swim in the river. The water was a little warm, but there was almost no current at all thanks to the dams. We rode the amateur bike course, then jogged a little before we grabbed lunch and headed back to the hotel to chill out. We ended up eating Mellow Mushroom that evening and went to bed. Saturday was a early day for Eric, Beth, Ben, Jeff, Sean, George, Sam, Allison and Kevin (and I believe there were still some more from Lexington). I woke up around 7 am and grabbed some breakfast considering my race didn't start until 2:15. I drove down to the race site to watch everybody on the run and everybody did amazing. My bro finished 25th in the extremely competitive 20 - 24 AG while Kevin finished 17th. Eric finished 5th and Jeff finished 8th in the 30 - 34 AG while Beth finished 4th on the women's side of the 30 - 34 AG. George also got 8th in his AG, Allison got 10th in her AG, and Sam got 24th in his AG. Overall, I think Lexington had a great showing at the National Championship.

I got down to the race site around 12:30 and started getting everything ready for my race. Word got around that the dam was opened up because of flooding so the current was extremely strong today. The fastest AG swimmer swam in the mid - 22 minutes, which is extremely slow. Hayley Piersol swam over 20 minutes in the elite women's race when she has been swimming in the low 17's for that same distance in many of her races previous to this one. So I knew it was going to be a swimmer's race, which did not play into my favor. I just stayed positive, got in a great swim warmup, and hoped to find some fast feet for me to sit on.

The horn went off and we dove in. I was stuck in the middle of the pontoon and ended up between the 2 swim groups. The faster swimmers either got on the far left or the far right side of the pontoon, and thanks to my draw, I was one of the last ones to pick my spot. I felt great for the first 200 or so. It was pretty open, and I didn't get beat up like I did in Austin. I tried to come over on some feet and ended up battling with someone for those feet. I backed off and tried to get on his feet and ending up fighting with someone else. This is where it all went wrong. I need to work on my swimming tactics. I lost a lot of time in the next 100 - 200 yards because I spent too much energy looking for some feet instead of just putting my head down and focusing on going fast. I eventually found feet, but it was too late. I was the last person in the pack and I soon realized that our pack was only made up of about 5 guys and we were pretty far back from everyone else. I still had to work extremely hard to stay in that pack and I came out of the water in 22:40 (ugh!!!!) and was 3rd from last (embarassing). My HR felt like it was above 200 and I was breathing extremely hard. I had a dismal T1 and made it almost impossible to catch the few guys I came out of the water with. On the first hill on the bike, I caught 2 of the 4 guys just in front of me, but the other 2 guys pulled away and really worked hard. Unfortunately, myself and the other 2 guys didn't have the organization to get together and work to catch the people up the road. I ended up riding away from those guys and I rode 5 of the 6 laps all by myself. I was lapped by the leaders on that 5th lap so I was pulled from the course and thus embarassed once more.

I know that I hit both my max HR and my max VO2 during that race. That style of racing is so much different than anything that I've ever done. I am usually breathing really hard right after the swim and I use the first few miles on the bike to get going. You can't do that in this race. It is 100% all out, all of the time. I made the mistake of assuming I could use my bike as a strength later in the bike. I needed to recover from the swim in the first 2 - 3 miles of the bike and this is where I should have bridged up to the 2 guys who really worked well together to catch the big pack up the road. They only had about 10 seconds on me out of T1 and I just didn't "man" up to close the gap.

But I know I need to really work on my swim and my open water swimming tactics. I'm sorry to everyone who really supports me and roots for me. I wish I did better and I'm going to do everything in my power this off season to become a better triathlete. I have the Susan Bradley Cox Tri for Sight in a few weeks here in Lexington, KY which is going to be a great race. This is always a great event and they are giving away better awards than they ever have thanks to Kiwami, John's Run/Walk Shop, and a few other sponsors who have made generous donations. Then I'm racing in Augusta 70.3 towards the end of September.

Tony

Cycling Safety

2009-08-17T08:05:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note. I have had several people ask me about where to ride, how to ride, how I fight with traffic, etc. The more you ride, the more comfortable you will become on the road. But here are just a few quick tips for cycling safety.

I always try to stay over on my side of the road, and I always obey the rules of the road, like stopping at all stop signs and red lights. If you are riding with a group, ride single file when cars are around. Do not react to a car that honks or does something to you first. They will always have the upper hand since they are in a motorized vehicle and you are on a bike. Just wave with a smile on your face (as hard is that is) and hopefully it will make them feel like an a@$. In extreme situations, you can always call the police and report the driver (which my buddy has done several times since he is a policeman). And I usually try to find roads that tend to have lower amounts of traffic. What happened at the Tom Sawyer triathlon is something that cannot be prepared for. It was an anamoly that rarely happens. The few deaths that occured during the year of 2008 in triathlons in the USA all happened during the swim portion of the race. When someone gets behind the wheel after drinking, it is dangerous for everyone on the road around them. And this time this driver just so happened to be intoxicated at 8 am and was driving in the wrong place at the wrong time, while also making some absolutely horrible decisions after hitting the cyclist.

Being aware of your surroundings and riding defensively will help you stay out of harms way.

Hope that helped.

Tony

Monday

2009-08-17T07:33:00.003-04:00

I know it's been over a week since my last post but I have been at the beach having a great time. I went to Destin, Fl for my annual family vacation. My brother and I got in some great training in Florida. I know that vacation is usually a rest week, but we both have a big race this coming weekend in Alabama. We are both competing at Nationals, which will be Ben's first National Championship race. Almost everyday, we would wake up and get a workout over with early, then later in the day head to the pool to swim. It was so hot there, so we had to run or bike in the morning when it wasn't as hot. We always swam in the afternoon. We got to hang out on the beach in between workouts, eat some really good seafood every evening, and hang out with the entire family which doesn't happen that often.

Some of the workouts we did while in Florida felt epic, even though they were not that hard (in normal conditions). The first full day I did my second longest run of the year, and in the heat there, it was an epic run. I managed to hold under 7:10 pace (which is about my normal long run pace), but I just felt like I melted on the run. I laid out 4 bottles of Gatorade endurance to make sure that I stayed hydrated, which did help. We did a harder bike ride on Tuesday, and then a harder run on Wednesday which was equally as hard as that long run.

With my second ITU race in my life coming up this weekend, I have been on my new Mercury road bike more than ever, and I have missed having a road bike. I have had so much fun on it. Sure, I have loved my tri bike, but this road bike is just a little different and it is fantastic.

And this week is great for tv viewing. The Track and Field World Championships started on Saturday and will continue until this coming Sunday. Versus and NBC has live and replay coverage everyday. It is really exciting to watch the best in the World, do what it is that they are good at. For example, the 100 m dash was last night, and Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt went head-to-head for the first time in a while. Bolt ran a WR by over a tenth of a second and Gay ran a new AR of 9.71. It was crazy to watch. www.letsrun.com has complete coverage and tv viewing schedules for the Championships.

That's about it for now.

T-Bird

Confidence

2009-08-07T22:21:00.002-04:00

So I usually will pass some extra time by watching tv, reading a book, or surfing the world wide web (which I do most of the time). Well I love the website www.flotrack.org. I am a track nerd (not as bad as I used to be) and they have some great videos and blogs on this site. I came across an article about Lindsay Allen and a blogpost that she wrote back in April. She discusses how she used to battle with self confidence going into races and how it always hurt her performance. Here is her complete blog post:

"I've always lacked a certain confidence when I toe the line of a race. But it wasn’t until this year that I fully understand how this negative thinking hurt my performance.While in college, I failed to live up to my own expectations which propelled me to pursue post-collegiate running. I knew my body was capable of much more. While I'm often found to be my own worst enemy, those insecurities stemmed from many factors- doubts about my training, incompatible coaching styles, and the craziness of college life, just to name a few. And until now, I never had anyone telling me I could be great.Reflecting on my recent personal bests since joining McMillan, I think the most significant contributing factor has been my new outlook on the sport. This positive outlook has been driven by the mindset of my teammates, the unparalleled coaching support, knowing adidas has taken a chance on me, and most importantly, the fact that I have removed any limitations I once set on myself.

In pursuing post-collegiate running I vowed that I'd stop making excuses, doubting myself, or accepting mediocrity. I am a professional runner and I will act like it. I will keep my expectations high and put healthy pressure on myself to perform. I enter each race with this refreshing mentality and enjoy the rewards.I have since toed the line of a race knowing anything less than a win would be a disappointment. I have also stuck with a rabbit running a pace equivalent to a 30 second PR in the 5k…why not? It all paid off.

For all of you out there who find themselves in similar states of doubt, just know that if you love something, remove any self-set limitations. Do it whole-heartedly. There's no time like the present."

Here is a link to her blog: http://www.mcmillanelite.com/lindsayallen.htm

I love what she says about acting like a professional. I need to keep my expectations high when I enter races because I am a professional triathlete and I need to act like it. I need to remove the self-set limitations that I have put upon myself this year because there is no time like the present. Why wait to get better next year when I can do it now.

Just a thought.

Tony

Vacation Time

2009-08-06T08:09:00.003-04:00

After returning from Michigan on Sunday, I went straight to Corbin to enjoy a birthday dinner for my dad. I returned to Lexington on Monday and have had a great week of training. We had some nasty storms on Tuesday which flooded Louisville, so I was stuck on the trainer for an easy ride. I was fortunate enough to head out the door for an easy run that evening after the storms passed. I woke up yesterday morning to swim with a couple of friends at an outdoor pool. It was 62 degrees outside and raining. It had rained for several hours so the water temperature was really cold. I was freezing. This is probably the coldest I've ever been during a swim workout. I came home, took a hot shower, put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, then made a big cup of coffee. Yesterday evening, me and 7 others, yes I said 7 others, took off for a bike ride. It was nice to ride with a bigger group. We rode to the hill up from the Ferry on Tates Creek hill and did three repeats, one of which was insanely hard. And by some miracle, I woke up this morning to run with the early morning run group at 5:30 am. We did 8 miles this morning at a nice little clip.

So, training is going really well and I feel pretty good considering I did a 70.3 just last Saturday. I guess I didn't go hard enough, ha. But I'm excited about Saturday because it is time for our annual family vacation. This year we are headed to Destin, Fl. We will be there for a week and it will be nice to hang out on the beach and have nothing to worry about (not that I really have much to worry about here in Lexington). Next on the schedule is Elite Nationals ITU in Tuscaloosa, AL on the 22nd.

I have just been so blessed with my friends and family that have given me the opportunities that I have and I'm looking forward to everything in the near future. Whether it is my training partners who help get me out the door, my family who always give me encouraging words no matter what the situation, or somebody who has never met me but keeps up with me through my blog/twitter; I thank you all for this and giving me this opportunity. I love doing what I'm doing.

Tony

Steelhead 70.3 RR

2009-08-02T07:06:00.002-04:00

So I raced in Benton Harbor, MI yesterday and it was one of my most disappointing races this year. It was just one of those days that I didn't have anything in the tank. I got on the wrong feet in the swim and didn't make the first swim pack. I came into T1 a little behind, and took off on the bike really not feeling well. It took me about 20 miles to loosen the legs up, and to get going. I hammered the bike from 20 to about 40 miles and then we made the turn home into the head wind. That really took a lot of energy fighting that wind for the last 16 miles. I backed off a little, hoping to save some energy for the run, but that didn't work out well. I ran 6 min. miles for the first 4 miles, 6:25 min. miles for the next 4 miles, and then about 6:50 pace for the last 5 miles. I just didn't have anything for the run. I started the run in 7th place. I passed 2 people in the first 2 miles, putting me into 5th place. I stayed there for about 5 seconds before one guy passed me. I ended up getting passed by 3 guys on the run and finishing 8th. This race was my slowest 70.3 ever, but it was a tough day. Nobody in the field really had a super fast run split (excluding Potts who raced really strong), and the wind made the bike splits a little slow as well. I expected to be several minutes faster than Kansas 70.3 and it was actually several minutes slower.

But I finished in the top 10 and am glad to have the race behind me. Thank you so much to my homestay Ann and her father for opening up their home for me. It was a beautiful home that was really close to the race sight. And thanks to my fans who drove up to support me; my coach Beth, Gram, and Gramps.

More details to follow soon...

And I want to wish my Dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Tony

Motto

2009-07-24T08:48:00.002-04:00

I saw this commercial during the Tour de France coverage on Versus which really got me going. It is an amazing commercial which is really inspiring and I believe everyone should see this commercial. It is my new motto when I race, and I believe it should be everyone's. No one should go into a race expecting nothing but the best.

Here is the speech:

Here is the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution claims that “Only strong shall survive.” Maybe so, maybe so. But the theory of competition says, “Just because they are the strong, doesn’t mean they can’t get their asses kicked.” That’s right! See, what every long shot, come-from-behind, underdog will tell you is this; the other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds may be stacked against you. Fair enough. But what the odds don’t know, this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of test, one where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking. Just remember, out here, the results don’t always add up. No matter what the stats may say and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted. When the race is on, all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle.

And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, “We got ourselves a game!”

Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LMEa0TVY_4&feature=related

Peace,

T-Bird

Short and Sweet

2009-07-21T10:00:00.002-04:00

So everything is still amazing here in Lexington. I have had an amazing summer. Training this past week was hard as usual. I did both my longest run of the year and the longest bike of the year in the same week. The run was almost 16 miles which was on Tuesday, and the bike was almost 85 miles on Saturday. Both of those workouts really beat me up for the next day's workouts, but I managed. I hit about 20.5 hours for the week last week and will be around 18 - 19 hours this week. Next week should be a little lighter thanks to Steelhead on Saturday, Aug. 1st.

I have had a great time keeping up with the Tour de France and every other sporting event over the past week. I love to watch Golf on tv, especially a major. The British Open was exciting to watch and I know I speak for everyone when I say that I feel sorry for Tom Watson. Stewart Cink is a great guy, and it was awesome to see him win his first major, but it was just heart wrenching to watch Tom Watson during the 4 hole playoff.

Anyways, off to the pool. I said I would keep it short and sweet.

Tony

Waterfront Chattanooga Tri RR

2009-07-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

I traveled down to Chattanooga, TN on Saturday with Ben, Eric, and Beth to race in the Chatty Tri yesterday. Beth booked a room at the Chattanoogan which is an extremely nice hotel in downtown Chattanooga and extremely affordable. We almost didn't want to race Sunday morning so we could sleep in and take advantage of the room service breakfast that we could order. I mean what sounds better? A Tennessee Omelet or 2 hours of pain during a triathlon?

Anyways, we had a great weekend trip. We came on Corbin on Friday to stay with my mom before we headed on down to Chattanooga on Saturday. She fixed an amazing dinner Friday evening for us and I got to enjoy my grandparents peaches for the first time this peach season. Those peaches are better than any other fruit in the world. Saturday, we woke up and got our workouts over with, then went on down to TN. Once we got there, we checked into the hotel, picked up our race packets, then went to dinner at Big River. We had a great dinner then went back to the hotel. Sunday morning, we rode our bikes to the race since it was less than a mile from our hotel. I was racer #4 so I would be the 4th person to start in the time trial layout of the race. Two guys that I knew were better swimmers than I started in front of me, so I wanted to sprint and get on their feet from the start. At 7:30 AM, the first swimmer was off (who was racer #2. Racer #1 wasn't there). I sprinted but wasn't able to get close enough to their feet to hang on. I kept them fairly close considering they both swam in college, and they both only put about 30 - 45 seconds on me in the water. In the past, they both usually will put 1 - 1.5 minutes on me, if I had a good swim. I got out of the water in 17:58 (without a wetsuit) and this is my fastest mile swim ever (even if its a little short). I sprinted through T1 with only racers #2 and #3 in front of me.

Once I was on the bike, I caught racer #3 before the 2 mile mark. I started to climb one of the many hills on this course and looked down to find my water bottle; it wasn't there. So, I had no hydration for the entire bike ride. I thought about this for a second, and figured it wasn't too big of a deal, so I just hammered on. I caught racer #2 around mile 10 and I just flew by him. He stayed close to me for a mile and re passed me before the turnaround. After the turnaround, I went right back by him and I never saw him again. At mile 14, there happened to be a cycling shop van on the side of the road for race support. I asked him if he had any water and he said yes. He drove a mile up the road, got out of his car, and gave me the water bottle. I was so happy to have some hydration. I drank this entire bottle before the end of the bike, and was able to consume my GU also. Without any water, your mouth gets all sticky and it feels like cottonmouth when you eat a GU. So I want to thank River City Cycles for being out on the course for bike support. You guys really helped me a lot.

I came into T2 with no one in sight of me. I had a great transition and took off on the run. I heard them announce that racer #2 was in T2 once I was a few hundred meters into the run. I ran scared the whole run. I knew Eric Bell was behind me, and how fast of a runner he was. I wasn't sure how much time I had on him in T2 (he wasn't racer #2, he started behind me) but I knew I couldn't run slow and still beat him. I started the run slower than normal, but started to pick up the pace once I was out there. Every aid station I came to, had volunteers who were excited to see the first person, but unprepared for me. I didn't get any hydration at two of these aid stations because of this. They just sat there and clapped for me while I was trying to get water or gatorade from them. I got to the turnaround and saw Eric about 1 minute or so back from me. I just put my head down and continued to run scared. I was able to hold him off and win the race. I finished the race almost exactly 4 minutes faster than last year. I swam 2 minutes faster and biked 2 minutes faster, and ran the exact same time. I was really happy with the race and glad to take home my biggest paycheck to date.

However, before the awards and after the official results had been posted, the race officials came and talked to me. Another racer had accused me of taking outside assistance (the water bottle from the cycling shop van) and also of drafting. The official told me this was a 2 minute penalty and it would cost me the victory. No officials saw me break any rules, so therefore no officials recorded that I broke any rules. It is illegal for an official to assess a penalty without any official record of the broken penalty during the race (I didn't know this at the time). I argued that the van was out there for race support and that I didn't do anything wrong. He eventually told me that I need to work on my integrity and gave me a warning for doing something that was borderline illegal. I was unaware of any such rule, and I asked the official why he didn't cover that rule in the pre race meeting. I was more offended by the questioning of my integrity and just the fact that another racer accused me of cheating.

Other than that, I had a great trip to Chatty and enjoyed the weekend.

Next race: Steelhead 70.3

Tony

The Dog Whisperer

2009-07-06T17:29:00.002-04:00

So I'm on my usual longerish bike ride on the weekend, only I'm in my home town of Corbin and I'm riding with my brother. I usually do a longer ride on Saturday, but it was the 4th of July so I ran the annual Bluegrass 10k on Saturday (more on that later). So anyways, I did my longer ride on Sunday with my brother. Well, he is in Corbin for the summer and he knows where the dogs are on the route that are going to bother us. He told me a few stories while we were riding about several encounters with these dogs but I didn't think anything about it. Well, we are riding by a house that has a few dogs, and we were rolling pretty good so I figured that we wouldn't have any trouble with them. Well, Ben slows down, gets out his bottle of water, swerves towards the dog, and sprays it in the face. It was hilarious.

So anyways, Saturday was the 4th of July and I ran the Bluegrass 10k for the 7th straight year. I was looking to run under 34 minutes considering this is a pretty difficult race. I ran just over 34 minutes last year, and the temperature was about the same as last year. I started the race pretty comfortable and just ran within myself for the first mile or so. I went through the mile in about 5:14 and I figured that was a great pace. I had a few guys to run with from about 1.5 miles until about 4.5 miles in the race. I just tucked in behind two guys from the 2nd to 3rd mile mark and then jumped in front of those guys trying to pick up the pace a little. That didn't really help much so I just tucked back in about a half mile later. I stayed there until about the 4.5 mile mark when another guy caught us and went by us like we were walking. Dave K and I sped up to go with this guy and we just latched on with him. I managed to pick up the pace pretty easily but Dave fell off pace a little after that move. Once we hit the 5th mile mark, it was me and this guy fighting for the 6th place spot. I put an acceleration on him but didn't manage to drop him. He passed me and put about 2 - 3 meters on me and he held that lead until about the 6th mile. With 1/4 mile to go I decided to fight like I used to, and to not just give in. I started to pick up the pace but I wasn't really catching him. I switched gears and was still not catching him fast enough to get him before the line. I switched into my top end gear and just managed to get him right at the line. I finished 6th place in a time of 33:23 with a NEW 10k PR. I haven't ran a 10k PR since the spring of 2006. I'm really excited about this considering the difficulty of the race and considering I haven't ran that fast in about 3.5 years.

Training is going great still. I'm headed down to Chattanooga this weekend for the Waterfront Triathlon with Beth, Eric, and Ben. I have put in about 41 hours of training over the past 2 weeks. This week may be kind of a down week with the race this weekend. I'm just enjoying my recovery day today by watching the Tour de France rerun right now and I'm about to go eat some pizza at Pazzo's.

T-Bird

The month of July

2009-07-02T10:57:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it is already the 2nd of July. Everything is going great here in Lexington. My training is going really well, and so is everything else. I hit over 21 hours of training last week which is the most I've probably hit since March or so. I just finished my second run workout of the week and I'm watching Serena Williams in the semi final match of Wimbledon. I love watching Wimbledon. I feel like I follow it very closely every year. This was actually the first year that our family vacation hasn't been the same week as Wimbledon in a long time.

The last week and a half or so, I have been swimming a lot. My workouts have been a little more intense and my yardage has been a little higher than usual. I don't normally swim long course, but I really feel like swimming long course is making me a better swimmer. I just feel stronger and more relaxed in the water (with an exception of those "off" days).

My no sweets challenge is going great. I almost had a piece of candy yesterday without even thinking about it, but I happened to remember the challenge as I reached for the candy. I have been eating some yogurt with fresh fruit instead of pigging out on some cookies or ice cream after dinner. I never really set any rules for the "no eating out" challenge which officially started yesterday. So here they are:

1. I will not eat out for dinner when I'm in Lexington other than Monday nights at Pazzo's.
2. I will try and cook dinner at least 4 nights a week.
3. If I eat out for breakfast or lunch it must be at either Firehouse, Subway, Panera or Chipotle.
4. I am also allowed to eat at one of these places for dinner once a week.

So pretty much I am cutting out dinner like restaurants that I would eat at usually 1 - 2 times per week when Casey and I didn't feel like cooking. So hopefully this challenge will help cut back on the amount of money I'm spending on food and maybe make my food intake a little healthier. I am also cutting out deep fried foods from my diet.

So... No sweets, no eating out at dinner, and no deep fried foods. These restrictions are a little more general than last year's food challenge, but will hopefully help me improve my diet habits.

And my running challenge is going ok. I have already skipped 2 days of running in the first 10 days of the 40 days, but that isn't too big of a deal. I have ran more in the past 11 days than I have in a while and I feel like I'm getting my running legs back. I'm running the annual Bluegrass 10k Saturday morning and hopefully I'll run faster than last year. Then, I'm headed to Corbin for the evening of the 4th to watch my dad's annual fireworks show. AND, the Tour de France starts on the 4th. What an exciting day!!!

Tony

40 days and 40 nights

2009-06-26T17:52:00.002-04:00

So, I didn't announce this "double" challenge this past Sunday/Monday but I have already started several challenges. I am not eating sweets right now. I haven't had any since Saturday, so that is 6 full days as of midnight tonight. Even when Panera gave me a free cookie today for messing up my order, I decided to just bring it home for the roomies. The term sweets includes all of the following: cookies, candy, ice cream, chocolate, and anything else that may be a dessert. I plan on doing this until August 1st which will be the day after the 40th day. So technically, the challenge started on Monday, June 22nd. And I have Nationals on the 22nd of August so I'll keep some restrictions on my sweet intake until after Nationals. Casey and I had also discussed making a challenge of some sort related to "eating out" to help encourage us to cook more. I'll still eat at lunch type places such as Subway, Firehouse, Panera, and Chipotle, but we would be cutting out the dinner type places such as Cheddar's, Olive Garden, Pazzo's, etc. This may be challenging, but that's the fun part, right? And of course I would have to throw in the exclusion of when I'm traveling to race. It might be kind of hard to cook in a hotel. More details to follow July 1.

The second challenge is to run 40 times in 40 days. This may be a stretch, but I need to improve my running, so this is a little extra motivation to get me out the door. I have already skipped a day of running, but it's nothing a little 2-a-day can't fix. Any run over 3 miles counts as a run. That is about the only rule that I'm making for this challenge. And if I do a two-a-day then there has to be at least 1 hour between runs.

Training has been going great this week. I got to try out my new road bike thanks to Mercury. Mercury is a new bike company that offers some really nice bikes for a great price. I'm riding the Apollo road frame and the Trident tri bike frame. They both are amazing and I can't wait to race them. Check them out at: www.mercurybikes.com. I've been swimming a lot this week, and I feel pretty good in the water. I swam with the UK team this morning, and have been in the water with the Wildcat Aquatics team a few other times this week. On Wednesday, I did my first track workout in a while and it really hurt, ha. I'm not used to doing fast stuff, but I better get some turnover in my legs before some the the big races I have coming up over the next 2 months.

Now I'm looking forward to the big tv schedule for the weekend with the big Hy-Vee ITU race tomorrow, the Team Champs Tri on Sunday, and the US National track meet going on all weekend. The men's 10k last night was a pretty fun race to watch. You can find it at www.flotrack.org. And the men's 5k should be pretty exciting tonight. I haven't watched the women's 10k yet, but it looked exciting just by looking at the results (or at least the last few laps).

Tony

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T20:10:00.002-04:00

Happy Father's Day to my dad who has been super supportive of every decision that I've ever made. He has never doubted me in my chosen path, he has only provided support and encouragement and I owe a lot of my success to him for this.

I am back in Lexington after spending a wonderful few days at Lake Barkley for our annual family reunion. I arrived at the Lodge there on the lake Wednesday afternoon and my step dad and I went straight to the golf course to get in a quick 18 holes. I shot an 84 which is the best I've played all year. It was about 95 degrees with 90% humidity so we were extremely hot during this round of golf. The entire weekend was almost miserably hot. The coolest day was 91 degrees with only about 80% humidity. I played golf Thursday and Friday mornings and then spent the rest of the day on the boat or by the pool. I squeezed in a few runs on a trail that is there close to the lodge. My brother and I ran 8 miles after our round of golf on Thursday and we had to have lost about 10 pounds in water weight. I haven't sweated that much in a long time on a single run. Friday and Saturday's runs weren't much better, but they were shorter in distance so they weren't as bad. Friday night was our annual "wallyball" game. I happened to have a better record than last year. My team won about the same number of games that we lost, compared to last year when my team lost every game, ha. Saturday, I got the run over with early, then I went on the boat for a few hours, then sat by the pool for the rest of the day. We ended up playing wallyball again Saturday evening as well. I ate all kinds of amazing food while I was there, and I worked on my tan lines a little bit since I still have lines from my Kiwami suits from that last 3 races I've done.

I'm looking forward to hitting training hard this week. I feel rested and rejuvenated and ready to go. Nothing like a recovery week at the lake.

Tony

Kansas 70.3 road trip (and race report)

2009-06-16T06:47:00.003-04:00

Friday morning, Beth, Eric, Jeff, and I all left Lexington in route to Lawrence, Kansas. Beth had the amazing idea of borrowing her mother's full size van so we could all squeeze our bikes and gear into one vehicle. This turned out to be an amazing idea. All 4 bikes fit perfectly with the wheels still on the bikes, along with all of our other race gear and luggage. We left about 7:30 am Friday morning and were prepared for the worst. Casey made some homemade granola bars for the trip, Jeff put together his usual pre-race travel trail mix, Jeff's g/f made some muffins and cookies that we all got to share, while Beth, Eric, and Jeff all packed enough Gatorade to hydrate a football team. We made it to Lawrence faster than we expected to, and with all 4 of us taking turns driving, it made the trip to by faster. I didn't drive on the way there, but I drove from Kansas City back to St. Louis after the race on Sunday, so I did do my part. Eric drove the most. Thanks Eric.

Anyways, we had dinner at "Old Chicago" Friday night close to the campus of KU (I got some weird stares wearing my UK t-shirts around). We went back to the hotel and called it a night around 10 pm. We woke up and decided we wanted Panera for breakfast which is what we all eat pretty regularly. This Panera in Lawrence was a "serve yourself" Panera. They handed us bagels in which we had to do whatever we wanted to do with them, as opposed to having them slized and toasted for us like they are at every other Panera I've been to. After breakfast, we drove the bike course, went for an easy bike ride, run, and swim, got lunch, and went back to the hotel. After dinner that evening, we went back to the hotel and were all in bed by 8 which is extremely unusual for me, but we watched "The Dark Knight" until about 9:30 so that was fine with me. I don't like to go to bed super early.

Race morning we woke up and headed down to the race site. This was a 2 transition triathlon which is the first that I've ever done. We had to drop our running stuff in T2 and then head down to T1 to put everything we would need for the bike portion. It was a little hectic and I do not prefer this type of transition, but it wasn't bad. The water temperature was 71.6 degrees that morning (warmer than the Austin race) but because it was a longer race, the wetsuit "cut-off" temperature was 72 degrees as opposed to the new rule of 68 which will be in full effect next year at all swim distances under 3k. I proceeded to get everything ready, and then head down to the water. There were only about 30 Pro guys starting and they blew the starting gun promptly at 6:30 am.

I sprinted out like I usually do, but this swim start wasn't as crowded as some of the other pro races I've done this year. I didn't get out with the lead pack, but I found some feet that were almost the same speed as me, and I just stayed on those feet in the second pack. I came out of the water somewhere around 16th place or so in a group of about 6 guys. I had an average T1 and headed out onto the bike course where I was hoping I would make up some ground. Luckily, I was right and I passed my first 2 victims in the first 2 miles of the bike. I caught a few other guys in the next ten miles, and we all went about the same speed for about 20 - 25 miles. We weren't drafting, but we were working together to catch some of the lead guys. I got some momentum throughout the ride and ended getting away from the group I was riding with. I ended up about 1 mile behind the second group of guys. I was only about 5 minutes down from the lead group and only 2 - 3 minutes back from the second group. I ended up into T2 in 9th place and about a minute in front of the group I was riding with for a while. I had one of the fastest T2's in the race (only slower than the top 2 finishers) and headed out onto the run, not feeling very good at all. I was tight for the first 2 miles, then I felt great until about the 5th mile. I caught one guy before the mile marker, then I did not see another guy until I got passed by Simon Thompson around mile 4. Once he passed me, Andrew Hodges didn't wait too long until he came flying by me around mile 6. Once I made it to the second lap of the run, I was all by myself. I haven't experienced pain like that since the last few miles of Clearwater last year. I was on the verge of blowing up, but was somehow managing to hold just over 6-minute mile pace. I held this pace until the 11th mile when the wheels came off. I got passed by one more guy at about the 12.5 mile mark of the run and there was nothing I could do. I was in survival mode and was just hoping the finish line would come soon. I managed to pass Tim Deboom about 600 yards from the finish line and crack into the top 10.

I heard the mile splits were not accurate, but if they were, I ran the last 2.1 miles in 14:40 pace which is about 7 minute mile pace, which is slow compared to the 5:55 pace I was holding through 11 miles. But a lot of my mile splits were around 6:05 and my avg. pace for the 13.1 miles was 6:06, so I'm assuming those last 2 miles were a bit long even though I know I slowed down significantly. I finished in 4:02:57 and in tenth place.

After the race, we drove to the nearest Wendy's to get a "Toffee Coffee Swirly Frostie." We then drove to St. Louis to spend the night at the Miller residence. Thank you Miller family for hosting us after the race. Monday morning we woke up glad to only have a 6 hr drive ahead of us instead of the 10 hours it took us to get to Lawrence from Lexington.

I'm extremely pleased with my effort on Sunday. I had a decent swim, a good bike, and an average run. I need to really work on my run in the next few months, but I'm really looking forward to some of my upcoming races. But most importantly, I'm looking forward to going to the lake tomorrow and playing golf all weekend. And congrats to Eric, Beth, and Jeff who all PR's for that distance and to Jeff for qualifying for the World Championships in Clearwater. Congrats to my brother for placing third overall at a local race in Shelbyville, KY and qualifying for Nationals in Alabama in August.

Thanks for Reading. Up next: Waterfront Chattanooga Triathlon - July 12th

Tony

Teriyaki Steak on a Sunday Evening

2009-06-07T21:15:00.003-04:00

I'm sitting at Casey's right now after an amazing dinner of Teriyaki steak. It was a strips of steak in a bed of rice and snow peas with a teriyaki sauce over top. It was really good. Nothing better after an eazy evening run.

Just like my update on Tuesday, there really isn't much going on here in Lexington. I have been lifeguarding during the late morning/early afternoon, and working out afterwards everyday. I have had some great workouts this week which really makes me feel good going into this weekend. We're traveling to Lawrence, Kansas on Friday and returning the day after the race on Monday. I was really worn out after a long track workout on Wednesday which consisted of a 5k at threshold, then some fast stuff, and some tempo stuff. The 5k at threshold was in 16:59 which was a PR (for that workout, still over a minute slower than my actual 5k PR). Last year for the same workout, I was running around 17:15. I ended up running almost 7.5 miles fast that day. The following day, I decided to do a hard swim that one of the swim coaches at the pool suggested that I attempt. I was supposed to do 3 x ( 3 x 400) with a 200 ez between sets. The first set of 400's were at base pace (2,000 time trial pace) plus 3 seconds per 100, the 2nd set of 400's at base pace per 100, and the last set of 400's at base pace subtract 2 seconds per 100. It was one of the hardest sets I've done in the water. I am used to doing main sets of only about 1,500 - 2,500 with the occasional 3,000 yard main set on a really hard day. This main set was 4,000 yards and I was really tired for the remainder of the day. I had a great brick workout on Saturday with Jeff and Eric and then some normal workouts today.

Anyways, I have been on a reading "kick" for the past week or so and I'm loving it. If anyone has some good suggestions then you should comment on this post. I just finished reading the classic, "Brave New World" which was pretty interesting. I'm reading "I, Robot" right now. I decided that I would read some of the books that my favorite movies have been based on. Next on the list is "I am Legend." And I found a book in my girlfriend's basement that includes four of Ernest Hemingway's novels into the one book. I'm thinking that I may break that open after "I am Legend."

Who knows???

T-Bird

Summer!!!

2009-06-02T18:44:00.002-04:00

Since the summer is in full swing, I have had a great summer so far. This past week was a little more laid back since I didn't have to travel anywhere for a race. My training has been going great. I had a big bike ride on Saturday and a longer run on Sunday. My swimming is going pretty good too. I have been swimming with Wildcat Aquatics during the mornings, and they have been kicking my butt. It's never fun to swim with 15 - 18 yr olds and have some of them really work me really hard just to keep up, especially some of the girls. The long bike felt great on Saturday, and I had another medium distance ride today which again was good. The weather has been pretty warm, but I love it. Running in hot weather isn't the best, but I love to bike in hot weather. I have a big track workout tomorrow.

Everything else has been going great as well. I'm officially moved into my new residence at the Atnip household. I'm currently doing some laundry while I watch a show about the history of distilleries on the History channel. I have been eating a lot of food in between workouts, and just enjoying the summer. We cooked out Saturday night after our long ride. We ate at "Saul Good" after watching the new Terminator movie on Sunday evening. Yesterday I ate six meals (no exaggeration, I promise). I guess I was a little deprived of calories after my weekend workouts, and I just couldn't stop eating yesterday. I had Panera for breakfast, a sandwich around noon, a Firehouse sub at 2:30, a bowl of cereal at 5:00, veggies and a beef rollover thanks to Beth at 7:00, and some Hamburger Helper thanks to Casey around 9:00. I thought about having some ice cream, but my stomach really hurt around 10 pm so I decided I better not, haha.

And on a side note, I guess I go to Panera for breakfast too much considering that I walked in yesterday morning and the lady looked at me and said, "two cinnamon crunch bagels, sliced and toasted with butter?" which is what I order everytime I go to Panera for breakfast.

That's about it for now. Looking forward to racing again in 1 week and 5 days at the Kansas 70.3 event. My first 70.3 of the year.

Tony

CapTex ITU race report

2009-05-25T20:03:00.002-04:00

Well, I have experienced the most pain that I have ever experienced during a race today during my first ITU race. There have been some bad races where I didn't feel good, but today was just blazing. I didn't feel bad, it was just sssooooooo hot that I had trouble with the heat. There were 52 guys on the start list, so I was excited about my opportunity to race some ITU guys that I don't race very often. I tend to run my mouth to my buddy Kuendig about how awesome I could do against some of these middle of the pack Pro triathletes. Well today I had my chance, and most of them put me in my place, haha. Actually, a few surprised me, but I held my own against most of them. There were some fast guys here that I knew I would almost have to have a perfect race to beat so I didn't expect a victory or anything going into the race.

The swim was very brutal. We started off sprinting and I was lucky to hold on. I didn't get a great position for the in-water start to begin with. I was really working hard and was sprinting for the first 400 or so. I tried to pick some feet to swim on, but I was really getting beat up. Once we made the first turn, I was in a pack that was right about my speed. I found some feet, settled down a little, and got into a rhythm. Unfortunately, our speed wasn't quite as fast as the top guys out of the water. The group I was with came out in around 18:25 and we were almost 2 minutes back from the top guys. The main group of guys were almost a minute in front of us.

I had a great transition and was out on the bike with about 5 other guys. We formed into a pack quickly and caught about 5 - 7 more guys in the first lap of five. Our pack was about 12 guys and only about 4 of us really worked hard. We were almost 30 - 40 seconds down from the "main" pack of guys and we were losing about 5 - 10 seconds per lap. We just couldn't get organized enough to really do any damage.

We came into the second transition almost 1:30 down from the main pack. I had a great second transition and was off onto the run. I felt like I had eaten a burrito on the bike because of all of the gatorade I was drinking. It was extremely hot and I wanted to stay hydrated, but I guess I should have taken a bottle of water and a bottle of gatorade instead of two bottles of gatorade. The first half mile on the run, my stomach was upset and I felt like I was going to throw up, but I felt like I was running kind of fast. But the heat hit me about a mile into the run, and it was ugly from there. I was only passing the guys who were almost walking. I did not handle the heat well. I ran 34:59 according to the results, but I know the run course was short because I was not running that fast, haha. I finished 26th out of 48 starters. Only 38 guys finished.

I had a great time in my first ITU race, and it was great experience, but I know what I need to work on. My swim needs to improve A LOT!!! I guess I'll just start swimming with UK and doing lots of harder sets in the water. I felt pretty good today in the water and was still towards the back of the pack today. But it was my first race, so I'm excited to have finished the race (which was my goal when I was running, I felt so bad, I thought about stopping and walking, but I kept it going today unlike St. A's) and to have gained the experience.

Until next time.

Tony

Results can be found here:

http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?posted_p=t&numPerPage=50&rsID=78761&eventClass=ITU+Pan+American+Cup&queryType=division&orgID=216392

Update from Austin

2009-05-24T17:51:00.002-04:00

It is the day before my first ITU race here in Austin, TX, and I'm having a great time so far. Fellow pro triathletes, Brandon and Amy Marsh, were kind enough to open up their home for Kuendig and I for the weekend. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Marshes.

We arrived around noonish Saturday afternoon, and have had a great stay so far. There were no travel problems on the way down, so that was a great way to start the trip. We ate at Thundercloud Subs for lunch yesterday (and again today) and ate their special, Roast beef and Avocado which was amazing. After taking a nap, not running due to a severe Thunderstorm, and building up our bikes, we ate dinner at Chuy's which is a local TexMex place here in Austin, which again was amazing. But, I don't think I'll eat that the night before the race, ha. We went home to watch the NBA game and Gladiator before calling it a night. We woke up this morning and did a little easy bike ride followed by an easy run. We went to Einstein brothers Bagels for brunch and off to the pro briefing at 11 am. After the meeting, we ended up swimming in the lake and then eating another roast beef and avocado sub. Now, I'm sitting here before we take off to downtown Austin for dinner with one of Kuendig's old swimming buddies.

Tomorrow is a first for me: sleeping in on race morning. Our race doesn't begin until 12:20 in the afternoon so it should be nice and warm here in Austin. But I'm excited to be racing against some of the best in the nation. The race has about 50 guys, mostly from the USA. If there is a pro triathlete that you have never heard of, then they are probably racing in this race, including myself, haha.

Thats about it. I should have a race report up tomorrow evening or so. If not, then I'll try to have one up by Tuesday night. We fly out Tuesday afternoon, to arrive home late Tuesday night. Happy Memorial Day.

T-Bird

MIM race report

2009-05-19T16:20:00.008-04:00

So it has been almost a week and a half since my last post and I apologize for that. Last week was my official first week of summer. I'm working at the Lancaster Aquatic Center for the summer while I race. I will be looking for a job over the course of the summer since I am no longer a student.

This past weekend I traveled down to Memphis for the annual Memphis in May triathlon. This will be my 5th yr racing here, and I was excited to race there for the first time as a professional. Casey, Beth, Ben, David Kuendig, and myself all drove down in two cars. We met up with several other Lexingtonians once we got there. Lexington, KY had quite a showing at that race. We drove down Friday morning after a little easy swim at the LAC. I managed to talk Casey into swimming with me once we got to the race site on Friday. She doesn't like to swim in the open water very much. And you could tell she hasn't done it much because of the zig-zags she was swimming through the water, haha. After a very short swim, we went and found a place to eat. We ended up eating at Olive Garden which is always a wonderful choice. Then we went and saw the movie "Angels and Demons" which was a lot better than I expected it to be. Saturday we ate some breakfast, did our usual pre-race workout routine, and then hung out for a while. Dave and I had to attend the pro meeting that afternoon, then we all went to "Amerigo's" which is the place we've eaten at the night before the race for 5 straight years now.

Race morning, Dave and I got to sleep in while Ben and Beth had to leave the hotel at 5 am to prepare for the race. Dave and I didn't start until 10:30 am. We left the hotel around 8 and got there with plenty of time to warmup and get everything ready for the race. Luckily, my race number was "4" so I got to be the first male professional in the water for the time trial start.

Myself, Dave, and George Van Meter (who had already finished his race)

The guy who started right behind me is an amazing swimmer, so I knew that he was going to pass me early in the swim.

At the start, I dove into the water, and sprinted past the one girl that started in front of me. Cameron Dye, flew by me about 200 yards into the swim and never looked back. I got out of the water quite a ways behind him, but was still the second pro out of the water. My swim time was 18:46. This was a little slower than last year, but I used a wetsuit last year so I was ok with this time.

I sprinted through T1 and was headed out onto the bike. It was a very windy day, and the first few miles had a strong cross wind. Around the 5 mile mark, another pro came flying by me. Andrew Starykowicz went by me like I was standing still. He passed me right as we turned with the wind. I put my head down and tried to keep him close. I was riding 32 - 34 mph with the wind and he was dropping me like a bad habit. I kept him within sight for about 5 miles, then he was gone. I rode by myself for the last 15 miles of the course, and the last 8ish were miserable. The wind had picked up, and was now a head wind for the remaining 8 or so miles. I rode as smart as I could by not killing myself but by trying to maintain a good tempo into the wind. I rode into T2 and was the 3rd pro off of the bike.

I had a great T2 and took off on the run. My first mile was 5:45 and I did not feel good at all. I managed to pick up the pace, and I negative split the run. I ran the second half of the run 50 seconds faster. I guess I should have gone out faster. Since it was an out and back run, I saw all of my competition, but Starykowicz had a good .25 of a mile on me, and I had about the same distance on the next guy behind me. I ran the whole run by myself. I crossed the finish line and was glad to be done. I was pleased with my race, knowing it was a slow day to race in Memphis.

My bike split was almost 2 minutes slower than I went 2 yrs ago on that same course. My run split was my fastest ever at Memphis, but it still wasn't "fast" by any means. I ended up in 4th place. The two guys that passed me both beat me, and the guy that finished behind me beat me. He started almost 5 minutes behind me, and only finished about 1 - 2 minutes behind me.

So I officially got my first professional paycheck for that 4th place performance, and I'm looking forward to my first draft legal race this coming Memorial Day in Austin, Texas.

Congrats to Beth Atnip for a huge PR on that windy day in Memphis and to Ben for a huge PR on the same course. They both fought through the conditions and ran their butts off to finish well.

Thanks for reading.

Tony

Finals Week

2009-05-09T08:33:00.004-04:00

Even though most college students usually get stressed out during Finals week, I am the exact opposite. I have never been one to stress out about tests and that may be why I have made decent grades all of my life. Finals week always seemed like a vacation week for me. I only had to attend anywhere from 2 - 5 tests, and the rest of the week I would just hang out and workout / nap / do whatever I wanted. This week was not much different. I did not have a single final exam to take this week so I have just been working out, and working at the pool. I worked at the pool Monday and Tuesday nights. I made a trip home on Wednesday after swimming long course that morning with Wildcat Aquatics.

My trip home was to see Dr. Krishna, a heart specialist. After my recent dnf at St. Anthony's, a few close friends and relatives were worried about me. I had mentioned a little chest pain so everyone automatically registered that I had some heart problems since there have been a few heart issues in my family tree. The initial checkup on Wednesday afternoon was really good. The EKG was great and he listened to my heart and said everything sounded great. That was the news I was expecting to receive but he then told me he wanted to monitor my heart for a 24 hour period. That was around 1 pm on Wednesday. I didn't want to do it since I wouldn't be able to exercise. I had an easy, longerish run that afternoon, and then a big brick workout the following day. My dad talked me into doing it, so I was forced to skip the afternoon run. And I couldn't start the brick workout until 1:32 pm on Thursday (exactly 24 hrs from when they started the mechanism). I sat around really bored on Thursday but I was pretty productive. I finished grading the final exams I had given, posted the grades online, and looked for a few sponsorships. ISM saddles ( http://www.ismseat.com/ ) had already filled their roster for the 2009 season, but they still offered me a great deal on their seats, and I now currently own two new bike seats thanks to ISM. Don't worry Gram, these seats have been proven to "not cause sterility in cyclists."

Anyways, I was bored because of the large device that was attached to me that was monitoring my heart.
Might be kind hard with this large device attached to me.

Those pads left adhesive marks on my chest for more than 2 days

I planned my Thursday just right. I slept in since I knew I couldn't exercise until after 1:30. I woke up around 9:30 and had a large breakfast while I killed time playing on the internet and watching SportsCenter. I layed out all of my workout gear to prepare for my brick, and I was on the bike riding no more than 5 minutes after I stripped this device off. I proceded to have a great brick workout, one in which my legs are still a little sore from. I really enjoy those workouts in Corbin because there are fewer traffic lights and less cars to fight with while I'm running fast. Lexington isn't as conducive to that type of workout, or at least where my apartment is located.

I'm about to head out for a long bike ride and then a short run off of the bike. Hopefully it won't be too windy like the weather channel predicted.

And I want to say Thanks to Brad and Kim Miller for the wonderful dinner last night to celebrate Casey's and my graduations and thanks for the graduation gift.

One week from tomorrow: Memphis in May

T-Bird

Flying Pig Half Marathon Race Report

2009-05-03T10:47:00.002-04:00

Well, it's not even 11 am this Sunday morning and I have already ran a half marathon in Cincinnati, eaten Panera for breakfast, and returned back to Lexington to post about the race. My legs are really smoked after that race but I'm really pleased with my effort.

Beth and I drove up to Cincinnati last night so we could pick up our race packets, visit with her family, and then go to bed so we could wake up early to run this race at 6:30 am. Beth and I woke up at 4:30 so we could eat a little something and then drive from her brother's house to downtown to try and find a good parking spot. We got downtown around 5:30 and we just hung out for a little and got our race gear ready. We starting jogging to the start line / bathroom around 6 and were ready to roll by 6:30. The first few miles were all flat with an exception of the bridges we had to run over. I decided to wear my Garmin 405 so I could get some HR info for this race. I went through the first 3 miles in about 16:40 and I felt really crappy. I settled into a good pace for the next three miles and went through the sixth mile at 33:30. The seventh hill was torture. It was straight uphill and was really slow. The 2 - 3 miles after the 7th mile had some decent hills in them as well so those 4 miles were all a little slower. I went through the 10 mile mark around 56:45 ish. The last 3 miles were downhill and super fast. I ran my last 3 miles in 16:25. My 13 mile mark was right at 1:13:10. And somehow that last .1 of a mile took me 1:40, haha. My mile splits on my Garmin were about .02 short per mile. By the end of the race, it registered that we ran 13.3 miles. Beth's Garmin said the same thing so I my actual 13.1 split was about 1:13:40. That extra .2 of a mile cost me about a minute or so. No matter what the actual finish time is, it was still a huge PR. My fastest half marathon was actually ran at Clearwater last November in about 1:18:10 or so.

Beth also had an awesome race and ran a PR as well. She covered the 13.3 miles in 1:33:43. We were both excited, walked back to the car, and immediately changed into some dry clothes. Hopefully these Zensah compression sleeves will help me feel better tomorrow so I'm not limping around like I ran a Half Marathon in racing flats, ha. And we also stopped at Panera on the way home which is almost a must after a hard effort like that.

Until next time.

Tony

Rain, Rain,Go Away

2009-05-02T09:01:00.002-04:00

I'm currently sitting on the couch watching Sportscenter and looking out the window at the rain that is falling from the sky. I had a 2.5 hour bike ride this morning, but I don't believe that is going to happen thanks to the rain and chilly weather. I am about to hop on the trainer, but I don't think I'm going to ride that for 2.5 hours. And the rain is supposed to stick around for a while. The Flying Pig Half Marathon tomorrow has rain and thunderstorms projected for the race weather. Sounds like fun, yay.

This week has been a great week. I traveled back from Florida on Monday, and hit it hard on Tuesday. I went for a relaxing run Tuesday morning and then had a pretty hard swim that afternoon. I had a bike workout on Wednesday, and a track workout on Thursday. I wore some older shoes on the track on Thursday because it was raining and that was a big mistake. My calves are still sore this morning.

Yesterday was my last day of classes, so I'm officially finished. I attended both classes this week only to find that we did not have a pop quiz in either class. Either way, I only skipped 3 - 4 classes this semester, haha. I am excited to be done with school, but anxious about what is next to come.

My spirits have been uplifted by all of my close friends and family about this past weekend's result. Thank you to everyone who followed me, gave me "pep" talks after the race, and have kept their faith in me. I am extremely excited about my upcoming races. Memphis in May is one of my favorite races and it is 2 weeks from tomorrow. There is going to be some pretty good competition there. I was a little too anxious about St. Anthony's and the rough waters did not make me feel any better about the race. I can't wait to race again. I have had some great workouts in all 3 sports, and I just wasn't able to show my off my fitness last weekend in Florida. I'm looking forward to the season and all of the opportunities that are available for me.

Thanks for reading. I'll have a race report for the big half mary tomorrow.

T-Bird