The Coach Buzz ...

As I reflect on 2017, it's been a very rewarding season. My results were OK, but the real satisfaction came from finding a lot of enjoyment in the process to prepare for events. In my opinion this is probably the most important thing to have when you are seeking a great result. Chasing can be frustrating and a recipe for failure. Letting the results happen is a recipe for success and now that I have that back I should probably race at least another season (19th season)!! My Favorite Race & Picture From 2017 (Puerto Rico 70.3) After the decision to race was made, my coach and I came up with a good plan and got to work with steps 1 and 2 of the process. Step 1 was to rest. What?!?! Yes, REST! The last 2 months have been just that. It's been an excellent balance between just the right amount of training to bring me to a solid level of fitness when the calendar turns and down time; focusing on a few other things such as coaching education, time in the woods, m

Solid End To 2017   The 2017 season started strong in Puerto Rico and ended strong at Ironman Louisville. The middle was less than desirable. Ironman Louisville was a race that I had planned on doing all season. This was mostly because I knew I would be training hard for Ironman Wisconsin and I wanted to see if I could carry the fitness for another 5 weeks. This is something that I haven't done very well in the past, however I felt like my strength and maturity as an athlete would allow me to do it this year. If you haven't been to Louisville to race, you should definitely add it to your list. The river swim, though dirty, is unique and pretty enjoyable. The bike course is VERY rolling with about 5500' of climbing that comes almost all from about mile 15 to 95. It absolutely beautiful with great road surfaces. The run is for the most part flat and ends at Fourth Street Live (downtown area of Lou where they have bands and a number or restaurants). There is plent

Mile 90 on Midtown Road This year's Ironman Wisconsin was a race that I was keyed in on since 2014. That was the last time I was able to race here in Madison due to the absence of a Professional Men's field. Each season I would race but wouldn't quite have the heart that I normally would have at Ironman Wisconsin. As you can imagine, this year when it was announced the male pro's would be back, I was ALL IN. The season was focused on this race, 30hr+ weeks all summer long to try to raise the bar going into this event. The result of the training was fantastic and the data geeks would have had a field day with it. My coach, Cliff English, built a massive engine and he gets all of the credit for that!! As we all know though, things don't go exactly as planned and while I did avoid getting my usual cold/flu in peak training, I managed to pick up a sinus infection about 8 days before the race thanks to our lovely Lake Monona on a rough day. I took antibiotics t

IMWI 2010 5th Place Professional I cannot believe it's almost race week and more importantly I cannot believe I get to race an Ironman again in my home town. I raced IMWI 2002 through 2014, then without a men's Professional race, had to skip out on 2015 and 2016. Now that it's back for 2017 and I am grateful to simply be on that starting line once again. Ironman for me represents something different than any other race distance, because it was such a challenge for me to be competitive at and because it is so different than any other race distance out there. There is no faking the distance, there is no Tour d'France mentality of "create a gap" that others miscalculate. The race is more like the boxing the match from a few weeks ago, or the US Open 2nd Round match from last night with Nadal. What is the condition of your body late in the game; round 10, 2hrs into a match or 8hrs into the race while at mile 20 of the run. Of course we all have bad days,

It's not always just big training that creates big fitness gains. It's also coaching from someone who you trust and mesh well with, it's having the support of sponsors who believe in you as much as you do their products and in the case of my build for Racine 70.3, fantastic local events to work on game day skills. This season between Chattanooga 70.3 and Racine 70.3 I put in some very big training, but I also raced just about everything I could at the local level. To me, these events are no brainers even for athletes racing at the highest level in our sport. They offer inexpensive opportunities to improve my game, have some fun and interact with other athletes and break up the daily grind of big training. No, not every event goes well, in fact some of them go terrible, but that's not the goal for these races and it's impossible to be at your best all of the time. A huge shout out to Race Day Events , Elkhart Lake Triathlon and Big Swell Swim for hav

This was my 4th time racing in the city of Chattanooga and probably the most thankful I have been to be on a start-line. The night before was filled with severe storms that made all of us seriously doubt whether they would even have a race. Somehow, it didn't even rain on race day! This was the second race of the season and my coach, Cliff English and I definitely had a plan of attack on this one. It was important to do a few things differently this time around. We had a goal to go under 4hrs on the course, but to try to do it while also gathering some data, learning a bit about a few athletes who I'll race again later in the season and seeing how the body handled certain efforts. THE SWIM There was probably 2" of rain that fell the night before the race and even though they shut the dam off a few hours before the start, the water was still flowing quite quickly which made for some very slow swimming to the first turn buoy (350m upstream). I started in my usual sp

The first race of the year is always one to remind yourself that you are racing again! San Juan is one of my favorite races on the circuit and this year's result was solid and a good one to build on. Here is the full 411. THE SWIM I thought I could start very conservative (as you can see here) and then bridge or tack onto the back of the group like I have in some past races…however that didn’t happen here and I was 30-45sec off the back the entire time. I felt good for the most part, but it definitely was a bit of a shock to be racing again. Rather than kill myself to get up to the few I saw ahead, I kept my rhythm with eyes on moving up during the bike and run.  Thank you to Blue Seventy for the great PZ4 skinsuit. This is by far the best/longest lasting skin suit on the market. THE BIKE Unfortunately, my ability to bridge didn't come into fruition. Though I exited T1 only 20sec behind the group of a few, it included Mr. Russel