2017 -- Stay hungry

"Disappointing," that's the best word to describe my 2016 season. Last year, I made an active decision to get my training back on track and deliver some strong results. I had aimed to top off the season with a sub-10-hour PR at Ironman Maryland. Well, I ended up

• missing an early-season race for illness
• having to DQ (still ran but cut the bike short) due to a triple-flat situation 
• DNSing Maryland after hurricane-light conditions scrapped the swim, shortened the bike and flooded the run

I spent the winter reconsidering my approach to the sport. Is triathlon too much of an "all your eggs in one basket" sport to still make sense in my life? Am I better doing more frequent bike or running races?

The conclusion that I came to is that

• I love the sport of triathlon. It has had a tremendously positive influence in my life at times when I've needed that most.
• The sport mix keeps me interested and challenged.
• I have unfinished business, especially at the half- and full-Ironman distances.

With that in mind, I'm back at it and ready to make this a personal best year. And I'm going to remain focused on that positive attitude despite the inevitable hiccups that come with heavy racing and training. As I write this, I'm sitting in Galveston, the day before Ironman 70.3 Texas. I am not racing tomorrow, but will be cheering on my good friend Hugh. Why? Because I broke my radius five weeks ago when I tripped and fell--incredibly ungracefully--while running a tempo workout at night.

But rather than throw in the towel--"another year of shit racing ahead of me"--I'm taking the setback in stride and am feeling hungry. I've managed to keep up run and bike volume despite the broken arm. At times, it has been very frustrating. Riding your trainer with a broken arm sucks. A lot. (After this whole experience, I have a tonne of respect for nearly every professional cyclist who will break their collarbone at some point during their career and be back on the trainer hard a few days later. It's not fun. And no matter what you do, the pain eats away at your brain during the early weeks of recovery.)

I've also focused on tightening up diet and lifestyle choices. I'm over 30 now and my job can be stressful... hard training requires dedicated R&R and solid, consistent nutrition. I'm trying to take a page from a close colleague who I've seen increasingly improve as a runner--he's a sub-3:00 marathon now--through the "simple" approach of consistency. His big weeks aren't huge, but he focuses on quality, on recovery and on eating well.

So, at seven weeks out from my first race of the year, I'm excited to cheer Hugh on tomorrow (and to do a nice 2-hour easy run of my own while he's out on the bike.)

Here's to staying hungry.

South Carolina (the wrap-up)

What an awesome weekend! The tldr: this area has truly phenomenal riding--beautiful, challenging and safe--and the Hotel Domestique continues to be an amazing place to stay.

Day 2 featured a tough ride from Brevard, NC up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The long climb up along 276 passes by the Looking Glass Waterfall which is pretty spectacular. On the way up, I was joined by a local Cat 1 who races for Brevard College. Nice guy and the company kept the climb feeling lighter.

Once up on the Blue Ridge, I cruised for about 10 miles and caught up with Ethan near Devil's Courthouse. The view along the route was remarkable--all you could see were (literally) blue mountains in every direction.

Following the Blue Ridge, we descended along 215. Our profile map had us convinced that we'd already done all of our climbing for the day, but Ethan and I got gutted by about 10 more very punchy, tough ascents. By the time we wrapped up our 5.5-hour, 8200-vertical-ft ride, we were both totally hosed. It was time for some delicious BBQ at Hawg Wild BBQ.

Day 3 was an easy spin for just over 3 hours. We still banged out about 3,000 ft of climbing, but it seemed like child's play. Cruised up to Saluda--a very cool, mountain-top town--and then did some descending and more climbing. Once back at the Domestique, Ethan and I crushed some delicious panini and just unwound for the remainder of the day.

All in, a very successful weekend. And some interesting numbers comparing this year and the same 3-day weekend in 2014:

• 2014
• 11:39
• 174.6 mi
• 6610 kJ
• 12,400 ft gain
• 2015
• 14:16
• 211.7 mi
• 8288 kJ
• 20,217 ft gain

And to wrap things up...

South Carolina

Been a long, long while since I made a training-/racing-related post. So here goes nothing.

Away from home for a long weekend of base training. The goal: get in some long, steady, solid miles on the bike. The venue: Greenville, South Carolina.

My buddy Ethan and I arrived at GSP last night and made our way over to the Hotel Domestique. Developed by former pro George Hincapie, this hotel is the perfect destination for a cycling-centric get-away. The property itself is beautiful--feels like you're in Tuscany--and there are many services which cater to cyclist, e.g. "bike concierge", on-site mechanic and soigneur, etc.

Today, we kicked off the visit with a steady ride down to Paris Mountain State Park. We started by working through some beautiful neighbourhoods with quiet, quality roads. Then we did a pretty great climb up Altamont Road (which weaves you up Paris Mountain through a beautiful set of homes). After summiting, we worked our way over to the State Park and worked our way around some lakes and brooks and waterfalls.

We are both a little out of shape, but we felt motivated to have a solid first day. So, after the state park, we worked back to the hotel and did another climb. The route was a bit of a lollipop that took us into North Carolina, out and about and the back down. Solid, solid climb up towards Hendersonville, NC through some heavily wooded areas. Minimal traffic and beautiful views of the Saluda Reservoir:

When we finally got back to the hotel, we had put in some good work in the saddle: 5:20, 85 miles, avg 215 W, NP 230 W... and 8900 ft of climbing!

And to cover the 3400 Cal workout, a phenomenal post-workout recovery snack at Domestique's great Restaurant 17:

Race Report #2: Eagleman -- 10 June 2012

Slowly but surely, I'm catching up on long-overdue race reports.

I'll start off by sparing any weak suspense and coming clean. This was my first time competing at Eagleman; it was also my first DNF.

Eagleman is down in Cambridge, MD and is actually put together by the same folks who organized the first Ironman I raced, way back in 2008. The course is flat and fast... well, it has the potential to be fast but humidity can do a lot to change those plans.

My plan for this race was to test out my spring training and get some hot racing under the belt. I didn't really walk away with the former, but the latter definitely happened!

I drove down to Maryland with my training/racing buddy Glenn and my girlfriend, Posie. The drive was short and painless.

Glenn and I spent the early of the afternoon preparing for the next day. In my case, I started to tinker with my bike position which I had at this point still failed to dial in. (Big mistake.) As you'll recall, I'm racing on a new time trial bike this year... and it's been some real work getting the fit figured out.

After buggering around for a bit, we took our bikes for a test ride. My Shiv didn't feel all that much better, but it didn't really feel worse either. We checked in and parked our bikes in transition just before dinner and then retreated to the Hyatt Resort to do a test swim and unwind. Hotel was quite nice.

Race morning went as it always does. I had my usual nutrition but should have gone a little heavier given my late start of 8am--in most races, I start at 7am. (Less big mistake.)

My race wave went off without too much commotion. I settled into a decent rhythm and felt good in the water. I opted not to wear a (barely legal) wetsuit for fear of overheating as I have in the past in warm water. Definitely cost me some time. (Unclear if this was a mistake.)

I got out of the water in decent time, moved through transition and got on my bike. This began my 56mi of agony. My latest rendition of bike fit was terrible. Shoulders hurt. Saddle hurt. Leg hurt. Couldn't put out any power. Spent the last 15mi out of the aero position struggling to get done. The worst I have ever felt on a bike in a race. Jeez!

By the time I hit transition, I knew that I had blown the race. At this point it was 99F and the humidity was beyond thick. So, without too much thought, I pulled the plug. I turned over my race chip and walked out of transition.

My first (and hopefully only) DNF was weird. I was bummed out that I had had such a bad day--especially because the bike-related issues were due to me being bad about simple things like fit. But still, it seemed like the entirely right move and really didn't feel like an admission of defeat. I didn't cave during a moment of intense suffering--which is good because that is a seal that I do not want to break. Rather, I was just having a terrible day and slogging through 13.1mi of absurd humidity didn't seem like it offered much value. I knew I could finish, but why?

Anyway, the race did serve as a reset for me.

First off, after finishing, it was clear that I needed to figure out my bike position. Within a day, I had a video off to TT Bike Fit and a week later, I had a completely new (and comfortable fit). Who would have thought that it just took 56 terrible miles of riding to get me to do the smart thing. (I cannot over-endorse Todd and the folks at TT Bike Fit.)

Secondly, it was clear that I needed to work on general fitness and train for the heat, and that I needed renewed focus. This switch flipped nearly overnight.

So, was Eagleman a failure? Totally. Did some good come from it? I'd like to say "yes!"

My buddy Glenn had a better day than I. This is us walking to the car post-race.

Race Report #1: Bassman -- 6 May 2012

Well, I guess it's about time that I start documenting some of my races for the year.

This year I decided that I needed to get back into my habit of an early-season Half Ironman to dust off the cobwebs. Bassman was just that. It's a small, local race run down in Tuckerton, NJ. It's actually slightly longer than a 70.3--on top of the usual 1.2-mile swim, there is a 58-mile bike and a 14-mile run.

I drove down the night before with my racing buddy Dave. We crashed at a small seaside motel out on Long Beach Island... To call it a little run-down would be an understatement. But it served the purpose and was easy to line up. Dave and I were pretty beat from the trip down and some heavy training volume so after race registration, we grabbed an early bite to eat and were passed out by 9am.

On Sunday the road at 4:30am to get to the race on time. With such a small roster, transition was a simple in-out experience. Saw my buddy Glenn as we both prepped our new bikes--he and I both picked up Shivs this spring. Also had the chance to meet Logan Franks in person. (His story is pretty amazing and worth checking out... just a small spoiler: he learned how to swim in a pool in one of Saddam's palaces.)

The swim kicked off without my hooplah. Having put on a good (well, bad) amount of weight over the weekend, my wetsuit was definitely tight and that created some problems for me in the swim. Slow and tired shoulders... In any case, was out of the water in a mediocre but reasonable amount of time.

Hit the bike. It was my first real long ride on Shiv... and it showed. It's a phenomenal bike and very fast, but my position on race day certainly was not dialed in. Shoulder pain, saddle pain, stiffness, no power. It was a disaster. Lesson learned.... time to get a new fit on the bike. Definitely had taken for granted that I had tuned my position on my old Cervelo P2 to fit like a glove.

Off the bike, I hit the run. Banged out two 6:45 miles and felt great. Then things fell apart. I hadn't been doing any long running yet, leading up to the race and it showed. The run turned into a slog and I just scraped together a bunch of 7:30- and 8-minute miles. Nutrition was definitely out-of-whack, too.

Finished the race in a respectable place but nothing to write home about. One upside, Glenn crushed it and took 2nd overall. Great for him.

All in all, the race served its purpose. Test out my new gear (and realize that it really needed adjustment) and dust off the cobwebs.

Bike racing

Couldn't start this post without a quick mention of Ryder Hesjedal's huge win at the Giro. This marks the first ever Grand Tour win for Canada... and how better than to do it on a Canadian bike!

Now onto my far less exciting past few months racing bikes. With a long season ahead of me--I have my sights set on IMAZ as my A race for 2012--I decided that it would be fun (and hopefully productive) to do some bike racing early on in the year. Add some excitement to my life, createa reason for picking up a new bike and work on some bike-specific fitness.

So far this year, I've done a few races with my buddy Glenn and the rest of the Toga!/Gotham cycling team. I have focused on road racing in Central Park, namely the Spring Series and CRCA and raced in one time trial down in New Jersey. All in all, it's been a great experience. I've built a tonne of bike fitness that was sorely lacking coming out of the winter and have had a lot of fun. I have seen my teammate hit the podium a few times and perhaps most importantly I've yet to crash (knock on serious wood).

A few photos from the races.

Sprinting up the final climb of the Readington Time Trial.

My buddy Glenn cruising through the Readington TT.

Toga!/Gotham after a CRCA race. Glenn took 2nd in a field sprint.