Capital of Texas Triathlon: race recap

I have an hour to kill at the Austin airport before my flight, so I figure I’ll write a race recap to kill some time. A few months ago I decided to sign up for the CapTexTri in Austin, TX and booked a flight as I had a free ticket on Frontier through reward miles. The race crept up on me fast. I finished 4^th overall and was the 1st amateur to cross the line, so I hopefully should be able to earn my pro license as it was one of the few qualifier races around the nation where the top 3 in the amateur field can qualify.

The goals of the day were to earn my pro license and to avoid muscle cramping on the run. A year ago I thought this would never be possible, but I’ve worked very hard for over a year and a half for this and slowly I’ve realized it’s well within reach if I keep chasing it.

The day before the race, when I checked in I realized I had been put in the wrong wave, with the 25-29 year olds starting at 8:30 instead of the open invitational division at 7am. I went back to the race expo and luckily I got it changed with ease. While I checked in, the race director asked me if I’d like to be interviewed on Slowtwitch.com by Tim Carlson. Slowtwitch is the #1 triathlon website in the country. It’s huge. ESPN.com is to all sports as Slowtwitch is to triathlon. It was pretty random and of course unexpected, but I said yes and thought being on Slowtwitch would be pretty neat. While in my cubicle last year during work I would listen to triathlon podcasts, CompetiorRadio.com shows, and visit Slowtwich daily...while working hard of course. There’s only a few new stories on the site each week, but I’d always read the articles.

I thought to myself, ‘now I've gotta to win this thing, don’t I? I don’t want to look like a fool, haha.’ Plus, they probably won’t write the article unless I win. I found myself daydreaming a bit and envisioned a victory and a front page headline on Slowtwitch with a big finish line photo, in addition to the pro license, and a ton of joy. How cool would that be…Well, the victory didn’t happen but that’s ok. Hopefully some day, right?. I’m not sure if the article will come out or not. From a reporter’s view, there’s not much of a reason to write the article if I didn’t win the race, really. 4th place is 4th, not 1st! I was told the article wouldn’t be with the main results, but would come out later in the week in a special feature section. We shall see. Back to the race..

I didn’t really know who was in the race, and found out 3 pros (James Bales, Nathan White, and Nicholas Sterghos- Bales & Sterghos recently raced my teammate Jordan at the Ixtapa, Mexico ITU race last week, & White was supposed to as well but missed a flight) had signed up, along with a few good locals. I thought winning was a good possibility but of course would be a challenge. I was going to give it a shot.

The swim was very long, which I knew, and the race director today announced the swim course was 350m long due to a release of water into the lake and movement of the buoys. No wonder I swam 24 minutes! The leader out of the water was a young gun at age 20 with the name Yoho on his back. I had never heard of him, but saw in a hurry he was a stellar swimmer! He usually swims an 18:30, and came out in the mid 22’s. I believe he swims in college, and sure was impressive! He told me he too came to try to earn his pro license. Yoho ended up 5^th with a great finish.

I swam with the lead pack and tried to stay relaxed. Unfortunately I never really felt well at all nor found my rhythm. The race was in Lake Austin (which is really the Colorado River), which was mostly smooth and obstacle free other than a few bridge posts, but I ran my arm and leg into a huge sharp rock about halfway through the swim, which I didn’t see until the last second when the damage was already done. It through off my focus a bit, but things like that are part of racing. My friend Beaux from Austin actually told me about rocks out there the day before. I’m sure I got unlucky as I was swimming a bit left, and didn’t hear about anyone else hitting it, though I’m sure with 3000 people in the two races, several others did as well. I was feeling it in my arm a bit, but tried to stay focused on just getting to shore and ignoring the distraction.

I was out of the water in about 10^th, in pretty poor position and way further back than I expected to be.

The bike course consisted of 4 loops through downtown, with some up hills and downs, 6.2 miles each loop. I’ve rarely felt as poorly physically as I did in those first 2 loops for some reason. My legs were screaming, I couldn’t hammer at all, I was sweating like crazy; just plain struggling physically and thinking to myself, I have come a long ways and this is going to be a very long day. Finally by the 3^rd loop my legs started to come alive and I tried to change my mindset and regain focus and positive thinking. I don’t believe anyone passed me on the bike, but I didn’t think I had passed anyone either. By the 3^rd loop the age group athletes were out on the course, and I had no idea which lap anyone I passed was on or what place I was in. It was constant weaving around people, though passing people got me motivated to push harder…even if they were elderly folks J. I tried to use it as motivation and not frustration. I took 4 salt tablets, a PowerGel, downed a bunch of my salty drink mix in hopes that may help some. On the laps, I checked my clock splits and knew I had outsplit my first 2 laps by about a minute and a half on my 2^nd two laps, so I definitely was feeling better by the end of the bike. In transition, I somehow slammed my bike into the ground (twice) while running it to the rack. I was cringing thinking about my race wheels hitting the ground like that! Not good at all. The run into transition was on a long, hard and rocky dirt field. I guess I need to practice running with my bike more J.

The run course was 6.8 miles, not 10k, according to someone I talked to who raced with their GPS, also long like the swim (and thus the winning time was 2:03 where it would have been about 1:56 or so). I ran steady, started out conservative with the heat, picked off a few people the first loop, and then caught up to the stud swimmer Yoho and decided to sit on his shoulder for the last 2 miles, exactly like I had done with Chris Berg at Malibu last year. I passed him a few times, thought about taking off to try to catch Sterghos who was about 25 seconds ahead, but was fearful of muscle cramps since it was very hot (about 95 degrees) by then and no shade on the run. So, I decided to tuck back on his shoulder and just sit there. Honestly, I simply didn’t care enough and felt too terrible on the day to really go for it, though truthfully my legs had it in me. I knew there were a few pros in the race and realized I actually was still up near the front, and probably the top amateur still. I got complacent and told myself I felt too terrible early on in the race, and just wanted to outkick this young gun, which I knew I would easily do if I didn’t cramp up. Though kinda embarrassing and not wanting to be the guy sprinting the last 50 meters that everyone sees and says “wow he had way too much left in the tank”, I waited til 75m til the finish, then went on by to get him by 6 seconds. I was very, very glad to be done with that race!

That’s one thing about triathlon, your training often takes you through it, even if you’re not feeling the best. I was hoping to have a bit of a better race truthfully, but am pleased I have the opportunity to step up and race at the professional level in the future.

A special thank you needs to go to Erik Pace Birkholz who I met in California and has supported me and believed in me since day one, and for financially sponsoring me and this race trip. Also thanks to Clair & Alfred Mayo for letting me hang out and crash at their house overnight. Finishing as the top amateur on a day like that is encouraging to me and shows the level I can compete at when things go well, and I am pleased I made the trip. I plan on applying for my pro license soon, and focusing now on getting my run strength back for Pro Nationals in September and hopefully a few other draft-legal and non-drafting races, so I’ll likely switch my schedule around some the rest of the season assuming all goes according to plan.

A few highlights of the weekend were being able to meet up with one of my best friends from Santa Barbara, Bethany Nickless. She coaches track now at UCSB and I was able to watch part of the NCAA Regional track meet on Friday at UT with her. Also, I got to know Beaux Benson well, a friend from Multisport Ministries who I’d only talked to on the internet prior. Beaux was in a horrible cycling accident and comatose for weeks last year. He had a 10% chance of coming out of the coma. We prayed for him daily, God spared his life, and today he has recovered fully and has an amazing story of how God is far from being done with him yet. Things like this are the most important things of life. They put things in perspective, and confirm that these types of relationships are what life is truly about and what is most important, not personal glory, race results, or selfish pursuits.

Thanks for reading & for all your support.

-RB

Click Here for a local newspaper recap of the race. Here's a few photos from a news website before the race:

Capital of Texas Triathlon
May 31, 2010

(Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)

Ryan Borger of Denver pauses for the National Anthem.

Littlefoot Triathlon race recap

Two weeks ago our team, or should I say mostly race director Amy Dannwolf, our female pro on the team, put on the Littlefoot Triathlon at Bear Creek park. She did an awesome job and it people had a ton of fun at the race. It was a sprint distance race with a small pro prize purse, so it brought about 15 Colorado pros. It’s crazy that a small 200 person race will bring quality athletes like this. Only near Boulder I suppose, would this happen. Our elite race took place after the age group race, which was nice as it was a bit chilly out still and the water temp was 52 degrees! It had snowed earlier in the week, and double swim caps were necessary for sure. One age group athlete raced in just board shorts, and on my warm-up bike spin I found him standing and shaking in the grass along side the course, staring at the ground… hypothermia. That’s one gutsy dude. It reminded me of my first triathlon. In 2000, my brother and I signed up for a sprint race in Cheyenne Mountain and raced in our swim team speedos in 50 degree water. That’s the only race I’ve beaten my brother in, only because he literally froze and didn’t finish…and my sister’s stellar Performance mountain bike that I rode came through for me.

My father helped us out as the motorcycle driver carrying the USAT referee on the back, so it was cool to give my dad some thumbs up’s while racing and riding next to him, although he said he didn’t see me at all during the race. He was probably too focused on the road or didn’t recognize me in the aero helmet and racing topless without a tri jersey. Our team ITU uniforms come in a few weeks, so I had to sport my trademark old school style one last time. Mostly though, I have a very hard time breathing on the run in tight tri tops, and find it much more comfortable.

I finished 5^th out of about 12 or 15 pros, and a total of 20 in our elite wave, and was pleased with the result. On the swim, Branden Rakita, a very good Xterra pro and ex-Riptide team member led out of the water by about 15 seconds, while a group of 5 of us came out all together close behind, including teammates Matt Balzer, Jordan Jones, and Dan Mackenzie. Forgoing my swim warm-up after swimming about 10 seconds out into the lake, I assumed it best to stay warm until the gun goes off. The bike was steady and I stayed in about 4^th or 5^th place the whole ride, trading places often with Matt Balzer and James Hadley, a pro from Great Britain who trains in Boulder, until Matt pulled away from us a bit on the second loop.

With my recent calf injury, my run is where I was worried most. I’ve never been more confident in my swim than my run, ever. I am a stronger swimmer than in the past, and my run volume has been pretty low lately unfortunately. I got through it with no cramps and little pain, passed James Hadley, and got passed by my coach for the past 2 seasons & now teammate Josh Merrick, who came from behind out of the water to claim 3^rd place with his blazing run. Jordan continued his great season and took 1^st, Rakita 2^nd, Josh 3^rd, Joe McDaniel 4^th, myself 5^th, and Dan & James Hadley just behind in 5^th and 6^th.

It was a decent day at the race. One surprise for me was to see some very stellar Ironman athletes further back. Brad Seng of team Sport Beans and Justin Daerr, who was 3^rd at Challenge Wanaka Iron distance race, and who’s PR is about 8:45, were behind our front group. I had assumed with a base volume like those guys do in training, they’d be able to crush a sprint race. However, it shows how different these types of racing really are.

It was fun having my parents, my girlfriend Amy, and my sister and my lovely little niece and nephew there cheering me on, as they don’t get to see me race much.

Last weekend at the Columbia Triathlon in Maryland, my teammate Dan Mackenzie had a great race to take 3^rd place behind young gun uber-cyclist Andrew Yoder and Tim O’Donnell, the reigning ITU long course world champion. Dan brought home $2500 and James Hadley also won $500 that day, so I know in the future I can be in the money range as I finished just ahead of the two at Littlefoot, though I must acknowledge Dan had a better race at Columbia than Littlefoot for sure and is just starting to break through this year. Congrats to Dan for a huge race and the paycheck!

Maintaining Balance & Positive Thinking

In any pursuit toward an end goal, I think it'd be a heck of a lot easier to focus and motivate oneself if there was a certain and direct positive relationship between time spent/effort and end goal success. If 20 hours of training equaled an average Olympic distance race time of 2:05, and 30 hours equaled a 1:58, etc.. it would favor those most disciplined, which would be pretty nice in a way. If I was told training 60 hours a week would get me to the top, of course I'd put in the 60 hours. Not even a question. If this was the case, however, it also could make life more stressful and frustrating when things got in the way of those efforts or hours put forward toward the effort, like injuries, work, family, etc. since you'd know exactly what you're missing out on.
Triathlon is a sport where a lot is still unknown. I've talked to several people about this last week, including my teammates. When I trained with '05 Ironman champ Faris Al Sultan from Germany before his race in Kona last October, I remember cooling down after a track workout talking about this. Faris, one of the best in the world and one who has been in the sport since his youth, believes we still don't really know the best way to train. Everyone tries things, puts in the hours, but we often don't know if we'd race better with more training or less. We simply train, go along with our best guesses, and race. I think that is something just to accept, to experiment with on an individual basis, use a ton of common sense (& some research) and see if we can narrow anything down and find out how our bodies respond to different types of training.

I have made it a goal to stay positive, and think about these things at times like the past few months when things have gotten in the way of my training, especially how training less may actually help us perform better. Last summer I was pretty overtrained and didn't feel strong on a single training run the last 3 months of the season. I would push through up to 18 miles on Sundays in the hills of Santa Barbara, struggling much of the way. So, with my run volume forced to be down the past 3-4 months due to injuries and sickness, I'm trying to stay confident that some rest is good. I have only been able to run 3 times since Mazatlan due to a calf injury that simply won't go away yet. In the back of my mind, I know my run volume has been pretty poor, and that I do need much more volume in training, but if only negatives creep into our minds, there is nothing positive that can come from it. It hasn't always been easy to stay positive, but it's a goal I have. It's important to turn the negative around and seek out the positive. For example, my swim has gotten stronger due to the running injury. We often dwell on the negative and see past anything positive, which will eventually break our confidence down more and more. Obviously we'd all wish to stay healthy, since many of us have sacrificed a lot to be able to train, and when we aren't able to train as we wish, it becomes stressful since we know how much we've sacrificed. We don't want to perform poorly and hear from the critics. Injuries and sickness are part of life. If we're smart about preventing them, then we've done a good job, and when they come, it's important to simply deal with them, stay positive, and keep on keepin' on in the other things we're still able to do.

Mazatlan Pan Am ITU continental cup : Race Report

Most importantly it was a good day for my Riptide teammates. Jordan finished 11th overall to earn ITU points, the first time a Riptide athlete has done that in a while. He had a great run. Dan and Matt followed Jordan a little bit further down the pack, also decent performances, yet we all know they have more in them as well. The 3 of them were able to get in the same bike pack, which I just missed by about 20 seconds if I could have swam with more fury. Amy also finished her first ITU race. Cyrus barely missed a bike pack and had to ride solo for a while and unfortunately was lapped out. He'll be back for the next race and will be able to get in a pack.

My first ITU race was a lot of fun, even considering my horrid & painful run leg, which consisted of bad quad cramps forcing me to stop often, trying to shuffle to the finish. I struggled to run a 38:12 10k, so a good 4+ minutes slow. I had to take 3 days off of running after the race, as my legs were still a painful mess, but am now ready to get back at it. That being said, I was able to enjoy an hour long swim to an island and back to our beachfront hotel with Dan, and enjoy the hot tubs.
I learned a lot from the experience, and it was awesome to be part of a big international race. At the day's end, I finished a disappointing 40th place out of 52. It was a stacked field with various Olmpians (Shoemaker, Serrano, Plata), and countries represented included the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, & Israel.

I knew coming into the race that my fitness was not where I had hoped it to be, due to up and down training due to 2 bouts of sickness, a slight hamstring strain, but mostly other life happenings and distractions, which are all part of life and must be dealt with. I put my doubts aside and focused on giving 110% effort and nothing less, and I knew my swim fitness was still better than it's ever been so had confidence in the swim. For ITU racing, the swim is everything..well kinda. If you can't swim fast, you have no chance in ITU racing since the bike leg is draft legal, and a slow swim will leave you alone and likely to get lapped out of the race on the bike.

Race recap: We lined up on the beach for the 2 lap swim start. It was an awesome environment. A TV helicopter over the water covering the swim. The announcers introduced us one by one as we took our starting spots. There were quite a few locals watching as they held a local race prior to ours, which started at 11:30am. My first 500m of the swim hurt me, as I was not near aggressive enough, and I struggled to get around a few slower swimmers I was trapped behind. I had planned for a crazy start, but I still didn't get out quick enough. I had a ton of trouble trying to get around people, and got my head fully palmed and dunked under by someone, right before getting my leg pulled on, which got me a bit frustrated. It's like slapping people in a washing machine and getting pulled for the first 400m or so. This is racing, and it's important to stay calm and focused. I tried to push the 2nd 750m swim loop harder than the first, struggled with a crazy chest cramp, but made sure I had my eyes on the guys right with me so I had a group to work with on the bike. I exited the water feeling too fresh. Part of it was coming to sea level from altitude, which felt great, and part of it was my swim fitness. I was encouraged to feel fairly fresh out of the water. Yet at the same time, this meant I hadn't left enough in the water.

I sprinted to transition, grabbed my bike, and tried to TT my way up to the large pack, which I just missed by 18-20 seconds. Problem is often in ITU racing, and in this case, this 20 seconds meant a finishing time of 2-3 minutes slower, since that huge bike group biked a 1:01 and our smaller group clocked a 1:03. Again, lessons learned. The swim is what it's all about. I waited for a few miles until I slipped my feet in my shoes, as I knew I needed all the speed I could maintain and to give it my all to try to catch the group. After spending myself quite a bit, I realized the group was gone, and I wouldn't make up the time as I was riding into a crazy headwind as well. The bike course was 6 out and back loops, and we averaged about 7-8 mph slower on the way out compared to the way back to transition, to give you an idea of the wind. I ended up joining up with my friend Henry Hagenbuch (USA, All-American steeplechaser for UCLA) who was just behind me, and we worked together to catch Americans Jimmy Archer, Sean Jefferson (ex-pro miler for the Oregon Track Club), Victor Plata (2004 Olympian), 2 Mexican athletes, and another rider. Our group worked together for the entire bike. Henry and I did a lot of work for our group. Draft-legal racing is a ton of fun as you still have to hammer, but get breaks here and there when on someone's wheel. Still hard, but not the same effort as TT'ing for 100% of the time. I got to use my Spanish a lot and often yelled at the Mexicans to do their share of the work, who were found slouching in the back here and there.
I came off the bike with super-runners Henry and Jefferson, cramped badly about a half mile into the 3 lap 10k, and was forced to hobble a bit. My legs simply wouldn't let me run, so I had no option but to try to rub it out, stop and stretch, and try again. This was the trend on the run. Jimmy Archer and I shared similar experiences, as we passed each other often, and then cramped often. The run course was crazy hot, and I had only taken 2 salt tablets on the bike. They had about 6 aid stations per lap, with bags of water you bite into to break open. Before that race I thought that seemed crazy, but the last lap I took water at every station to pour on myself as I was really overheating.
Although it was not the perfect race, I am happy to finish my first ITU race and excited to take the lessons learned into the next race. I will continue to attempt to figure out my cramping issues, and plan on experimenting more with salt, nutrition and diet, and am planning on getting a Vo2 max test, sweat rate test, and other tests done to see if I can narrow things down a bit more. I've talked to a few people about it and have gotten some great recommendations. I think a big part of my muscle cramping is the need for more runs off the bike, and the need for that muscle memory. I am adding more brick workouts to my training, and am confident that is a great place to start.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.
Ryan

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Dan's wife Beth took some great race shots, thanks Beth!

Tribute to A Cyclist: Uncle Larry

Sometimes things wake you up in life, and make you realize what is truly important in life; and how little things we stress about are absolutely not worth stressing about. I've been sick lately, had a hamstring injury, and a few other setbacks. There are days I've been a bit discouraged about this stuff, but when we put things in the right perspective, those things aren't a big deal at all. It is a blessing to have each and every day of life, whether we are sick or healthy, we have life. And we know if we are sick, we will soon get better. These are blessings. Two tragic deaths happened lately, two people who are or were once close to myself and my family. My mom's uncle Larry was killed cycling. He was 77 years old, and had been an avid cyclist all his life. He was hit by a car. He was doing what he loved to do. The image is tough to look at for me. Cycling is something I do 4+ times a week, something that needs caution. Cycling is something I can relate to, such a sad loss. RIP Uncle Larry, who is in heaven. This picture was in the newspaper along with an article.
My best friend Kyle growing up lost his mother a few weeks ago, very unexpectedly. She was like a 2nd mother to me growing up, always shuttling us around to basketball practice, home from school, to the rec center. She was such a generous woman to all. Thank you Barbara for your generosity and hospitality to me growing up. My thoughts and prayers go out to both families. Things like this definitely hit you hard and make you realize, maybe today shouldn't just be about me. We are never guaranteed another day of life. Each day is a gift from God. Cherish it, live it out as fully as possible, and engage with and serve others in the process.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/02/jenison_bicyclist_77_killed_in.html

Colorado Runners Association article

Not that it has happened much, but when people mention you in an article, it does a few things in my mind. 1) It motivates me. 2) And it serves, in a perhaps odd way, as accountability to me. Who am I accountable to from an article? Well, maybe it's the readers in my mind, although they may not really care. Either way, little mentions like this help keep me motivated to continue pursuing goals until they're met.
Hopefully articles like this motivate others as well, that is the point, not to talk about me. To get others off the couch for their first run ever or to pursue sport further as I am.

The Colorado Runners Association wrote up a little blurb on their site. It can be found at:

http://www.corun.org/view_artilce.php?article_id=47&from=home

-Ryan

Good read on cycling cadence

Encouraging article for me as I TT in races around 105 rpm, but I think it's slowing dropping for me. I've recently held the mentality I need to push bigger gears, as Chrissie Wellington has talked about learning to do in recent interviews. It will get your legs strong, whereas high cadence will get your heart rate/aerobic system working more. Both good things, which is why there are times to incorporate both high and low cadence in training. This article praises Lance's high cadence:
http://www.trainright.com/articles.asp?uid=4613&p=4366

The infamous Neil: I really appreciate this guy

My college roommate and one of my best friends Neil Bezdek has been extremely supportive of my triathlon pursuits. He's encouraged me from day 1 (via phone since he was in NYC and I was in Santa Barbara), and I've tried to do the same for him as he's pursuing pro cycling. Many weekends last season we'd call each other and give a race recap, pep talk; I'd try to pick his brain about cycling training, and we'd keep telling each other to keep on chasing the dream, when not everyone around us did. He's supported me as much as anyone in this..and since he's the smartest person I know, I figure I'd be ok listening to him. Crazy to think both of us are really chasing a similar thing. 4 years ago I would have laughed if someone told me we'd be doing what we are now.
Check out this recent article about Neil on VeloNews, the largest US cycling website there is. This is huge exposure for him. To give you an idea, this article was (& is currently) on the front page for a week, along with about 8 other articles: one about Lance, Schleck.. big stories. Really cool read. Congrats Neil!
http://velonews.competitor.com/2009/12/news/neil-bezdek-has-gone-from-bike-messenger-to-a-domestic-pro-in-two-seasons_102134
[Picture: Neil found this beach cruiser he is on in a dumpster, we (kinda) fixed it up in the dorm room, entered Neil in a beach cruiser race where he won a big growler of beer on a piece of crap bike with a wobbly wheel, whose name became Money due to the success & awesome green color. Neil's first of many wins & where his talent was discovered.

Training winter style, snowed today so kept us on the trainers.

Super Foods. Go Get Some!

It's nearing the holidays so we're all supposed to talk about food, how much we've eaten, how many desserts we've made, but don't you dare talk about how fat we're getting. That's a no no at this time of year. I do like deserts though, but have realized I need to focus on chomping down the good for you stuff, not just the taste good stuff. Only the good things about food. Ok. I last wrote about how my cramping issue will make or break my pro triathlon quest. I've tried everything...legal: salt tablets, electrolyte salt, powders, pills, vitamins, coral calcium-magnesium (I know, it got a lot of hype with a multi-level marketing scheme a few years ago, google the Okinawa people and coral calcium in their diet. Still, I had to try it, I was/am in need of a solution). While reminiscing about my youth, although I didn't watch that many cartoons, Popeye came to mind. .
All I know is that I have not cramped in 2 weeks, had no massages, and have been downing 2 bowls of spinach a day, one right before my swim. Spinach is a high alkaline food, and from my understanding, could help balance out lactic acid levels. It's still trial and error, but I'm going to stick with this for a while, along with my Garden of Life Perfect food green powder, although I have to gag it down at times. Everyone's blood type is different, and some need more alkalines to neutralize acid levels (if I'm wrong, please tell me, I'm still a newer self-experimenting and self-named nutritionist). I know the cramps are from lactic acid buildup, which is why massage helps me, as it clears out lactic acid. Costco is the only way to buy spinach if you're planning on eating it rabbit-style like I now have to. $3.50 gets you a HUGE tub of it, which would cost $20 for that much elsewhere.
I'm pumped for my new discovery. If the cure is this simple, I'll be jumping for joy. It may be not this easy, especially as training volume/intensity increases the next few months, but a good discovery. I have realized that doctors and many experts all have their own opinion, and I've always taken it with a grain of salt. Some know a ton, but I think we know our own bodies better than anyone else often. I've explained my alkaline-acid theory to a few doctors, and they insist I'm still low on salt or magnesium. I don't buy it, as I've had blood tests done when I had my nice health insurance, and my levels were great.

Mix1 also has been helping me a ton. It's a great co. out of Boulder who supports our team. Check out their protein/antioxidant drink, filled with tons of good stuff and perfect for a light snack before a swim or a good recovery drink after. Check it out next time you're at Costco, Whole Foods, King Soopers, etc. Zoey the dog agrees to as you can see in the picture... ok quick story. My 2 year old niece Anna was getting sick, so we put her on the high fiber/antioxidant (tan color bottle) drink for a few days, pumped her full of good stuff, and she was better in a day. Check it out at www.mix1life.com !

Justin's Nut Butter has also been helping keep me energized. Another local company who is very supportive of our team, they make bomb organic peanut butter and almond butter. No goopy oils, all natural, lots of flavor. Just plan good stuff. The squeeze packs are good for long rides too, like a gel, just squeeze it out. mmmmmm. You can pick some up at places such as REI, Whole Foods, King Soopers, Toys R Us or online. They now have chocolate flavors mmm.

In other news, training is ramping up again. I took an easy November, worked a lot on a house remodel with my bro, got in 1-2 workouts a day, but nothing at too high of intensity yet. I did my 1st swim meet this weekend, first one since age 12...and still racing head to head against 15 year olds. I swam the 1650 yd/mile, in a sweet 25 yd pool in Ft. Collins with touch timing and all. Felt like Phelps out there..timing pads, not speed-wise. I swam 19:41, had some goggle issues and was messing with them a lot to get water out, and went a bit too conservative having too much left at the end. For my first race, I now know my fitness and that I can push harder the first half of that. 66 lengths in the pool is a bit long, so I didn't want to blow up half way through it. I am fitter in the water than on land right now as far as endurance goes, which is probably a first. I need to get in the 18:00s in the next few months to be where I want to be. That should be doable I believe. We do these youth meets just for training and a good workout. And to intimidate little kids before the race who are 12 next to us on the blocks, since we know we can't do it after the race since they may beat us. These kids are the fast kids who swim for club teams before the high school season starts. The serious ones!

Train hard. Treat every day as a gift from God. Chase your goals and don't look back.

The End of Season 1: A Look Back

Wow. It's October again. 1 year ago I remember laying on the floor in Santa Barbara of my bedroom thinking to myself, "I wonder how good I could be if I trained for this sport." So I decided to go for it, for 1 year, & was ridiculously motivated from last October thru about April. I didn't want to go 50%, not even 80% at it. I wanted to give it an honest effort. I probably missed or cut short only 1 or 2 workouts from my training schedule those first 5-6 months. I got fit pretty fast, aerobically at least. As I look back and analyze my first season, getting ready for season #2, there are definitely lessons I've learned. I'll outline a few of them below. Looking back, yes I've come a long ways and have gotten a lot better. I did my first Olympic distance race in about 2:12 I think, and now have a PR of 1:58. Am I pleased with the improvement? Yes, but I have a new mindset and goals. I don't plan on stopping until I'm a pro triathlete..and then I'm sure I won't plan on stopping either. I now know where I stand, and know that goal is well within reach. There's no reason I shouldn't earn the pro card this next season. Before this season I had no idea where I was at, or what this pursuit takes.. Would 1 year be enough? I honestly didn't know. Maybe you can get great at this sport in 1 year, I thought. If I ask myself that now, I'd say it does take more than a year, especially for the cycling muscles to come around. Oh yea, and the swim technique. I think that takes 25 or 30 years. I now know more about my potential, as well as what it will take to get where I want to be. I didn't plan on continuing for over a year necessarily, but deep down I think I knew I would. I'm now in Colorado and in a completely different surrounding than I was in Santa Barbara. My life has changed a ton. There are a lot of unknowns here...I moved and everything is kinda up in the air. The only thing I really know about this new life is I want to keep doing triathlon. I need make some decisions in the future, such as work, should I go to school, should I just train for a year unemployed? I have the Riptide team now to swim with daily and also do a few other weekly workouts with, which is awesome. I was used to biking & running out my front door to the hills, and driving a short way to the pool, instead of being in a real bigger city. There will be a bit more travel time here to get to the training spots, but that's just part of it. There are a lot of benefits to life here, or I wouldn't have moved,, like the team, much cheaper living, altitude (although still getting used to it), and more balance in my life with things like family, a 2 year old and a dog around, friends, etc.


Some lessons learned from season 1:

1. The season is long: It's important to have fun, have variety in training, and find people to train with. Last year I trained alone, every day at lunch and every night after work, either a night trainer ride in my room or a night run in the dark. Until I met up with the guys at the pool for lunch workouts. I was maybe too motivated if that's possible, and when I got to around May, June, and July, I was feeling the effects of the long season and was still only halfway through it. I would read Slowtwitch.com or Triathlete Magazine before bed, which caused me to wake up half the nights thinking about swim technique or training methods. I struggled with sleep a lot for a while, tried some sleeping pills here & there, which I refused to take more than once in a while, and I think my lack of balance in life had something to do with that. I began to stress over sleep, knowing not sleeping would affect training, and thus couldn't sleep even more with my mind upset. All this to say.. the triathlon season is long, and maintaining some balance will help keep me motivated and healthy. There's no reason to think about the sport 24-7, which gets your life way out of balance, and be patient gaining fitness in the the off-season, as it needs different training intensities than mid-season workouts. Fitness will definitely come.

2. Cycling legs don't come overnight: With my running background, and my weak chicken legs I had, I thought I could just hammer bike workouts for a few months and be able to ride fast. I realized consistency and as a family- friend/former pro-cyclist Eddy Hilger told me in an email (I'd hassle him with training questions, such as those on how to get fit/fast on the bike in the off-season, nutrition, etc). He responded, "just keep riding." I wanted a 2 page email with the 'secret workouts', not a 3 line response. But in a sense he's right. It wasn't until about August or September, 10 months after I started real cycling training, where my legs began to feel a bit powerful. I have a ways to go, but am encouraged to have a year of cycling legs under me now. Year 2 is where I expect to really see the benefits.

3. Swimming speed doesn't come overnight: I thought if I just put in the time in the pool, I'd get fast, like running and cycling (eventually). Wrong. Well, and right I guess. This one is hard. I swam a lot, I thought, about 3500m - 5600m per workout, 4 days a week this season. I didn't see my 100m speed get much faster in a year, however, endurance is gained which helps you come out of the water less fatigued. What do I do then, if I don't have the swim speed I want? Keep swimming. And swim more. There's no other options. Lifting weights may help, and I'm starting to lift more. But what I've realized, especially through talking to people, is 1) I really wasn't swimming that much, 2) to get better, you gotta just swim tons! And 3) focus on technique!! That's more important than just putting in the yards. I am bringing my swims up from 4x/week to 6-8 sessions per week this off-season.

4. Cramping: Keep Trying Things: I would likely have my pro card right now if I could have figured out my cramping completely this season. I got 5th at the LA tri in the elite amateur race and needed top 5. Like often, I cramped on the run and ended up getting passed. It's the most frustrating thing, since I want to hammer, but the body doesn't let you. You literally start to hobble and can't keep running normally. I tried salt tablets, green nasty powder drinks, Calcium/Magnesium vitamins, salty drinks, etc.. everything. All but massage, until late August. I went in about 5 times to Kim Freetly in Ventura, who really helped me. My legs were soooo screwed up she said. I had a horribly painful first massage of 'muscle-stripping', was sore the next day, but my legs started to feel much better. I went in 2-3 times before my next race and had NO CRAMPING at Malibu, for the first time in a race! Massage is something I will NEED to do this next season, once a week. As a stingy and currently (semi-)unemployed person, I may need to bite the bullet on this one. It's the only thing that seems to be helping my cramping in races. When I run prior to swimming, I often cramp in the pool. In races on the run, I cramp. My body is different than anyone else's I've realized. I talked to Chris Lieto on the phone one day (2nd place at Ironman this year) about salt loss, etc, and talked to Terenzo and Faris when I trained with them. I've talked to doctors.. and everyone says electrolytes, salt, etc. But I've realized I know my body more than others I think. I know I cramp 15 min into a lake swim in a race, where I'm not sweating yet or losing salt. That's why I think it's purely muscular. I'm not losing salt 15 min into a swim! Anyways...massage hopefully is the answer. Now who wants to be my massage sponsor?!

5. The Pursuit Must be Fun: At the end of my life, how good of a triathlete I will have become will matter sooo sooo much. More than anything else I do in life. Right. Just kidding. Having fun in the pursuit whenever possible is important. Why? Because at the end of it all there are bigger and more important things in life, and if you chase a goal not enjoying it, and living in it selfishly, then it's pretty pointless. There are more important things we'll realize looking back on, like how we lived our lives to help others, etc. There's no need to stress over triathlon goals or achievements. Have fun with it. Pursue the goals, enjoy the journey, know it's not the most important thing in life (though yes it's still important to us, or we wouldn't do it), give it 100% since God's given the opportunity and talent, and use triathlon as an opportunity to meet, serve, and enjoy others.

6. Take More Pain in Races: Mental & physical toughness is the key to being fast. This sport, especially the run, hurts like crazy. There were races where I simply didn't want to hurt enough. I need to work on simply taking the pain, sucking it up, and hurting. It's a race, it's supposed to hurt. I know for a fact if I took more pain in several races this year, I would have run 30+ seconds faster. Period. I did hurt bad in some races, but not every single race. That needs to change. I hurt a ton in training, especially on bike intervals, and need to really get back to hurting and taking more pain on the run. Not that I don't hurt, I just know I can hurt more. A good article I saw on this is at :http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/fashion/29FITNESS.html?_r=3&hpw

7. Training: The term training is so broad, but I think there's a ton I've learned about training this year that I need to incorporate into next season.. we'll see if that happens :) I can't pinpoint just one area I need to change. There are many: higher swim volume, more track/speed work on the run (this is huge I think), more sleep, and massage are some. Did I say MASSAGE?!!! Oh yea and swim technique and kick. Oh yea, and 10 other things.. My bike workouts were pretty on target I think, thanks to Josh Merrick who would write up my workouts. Looking back, I did some crazy hard bike interval workouts and brick workouts with hard runs right after the bikes. I trained a ton last year, and was pretty consistent, yet in about July I hit a low point, lacked mental toughness and didn't feel well physically. I may have been a bit over-trained or mentally needing more variety in my life. All these things are things to think about and learn from for this next year. I can tell already with more balance in my life, some of these issues naturally go away.

Last 2 Races of '09: LA & Dallas

My last 2 races didn't go spectacular. I finished 5th in the amateur elite div. at LA, top 3 was needed for the pro license. I struggled that day all around, which makes me kick myself I couldn't take advantage of a good opportunity. After cramping on the run I was passed and finished 5th. The swim was by far the craziest swim of my life. The waves were HUGE, I thought they might cancel the swim. There was a crazy current too, bringing people near the rock jetty. My friend Ant is an LA lifeguard and was working the race out there in the waves. He said they were pulling people out one after another. It was very hard to see the buoys. After the swim, I was rather tired from what felt like a wrestling match, and was out about 7th or 8th in my division. The bike for me wasn't much better; my legs never got going and it was super windy with my disc wheel which I shouldn't have used. The run was 2 loops basically up this huge hill and back down, twice. I tried to regain my focus I had lost for most of the race, settled in, until cramping with about 1.5 mi to go. I ran a 35 min 10k again. It's important to focus on the good things of the day though. I won a sweet TYR backpack, which was much needed. I also met a guy named Jeff Petersen. He finished 4th and passed me on the run and finished about 20 sec ahead of me, 12 sec from 3rd. Cool guy. He won the Pac Grove race a few weeks earlier where top 3 earned the pro card also. We both weren't going to pay the $25 fee to shuttle back to our cars from Staples Center to Venice beach, so we biked the course back with all out gear on our backs. So my broken Westmont track back will be replaced by a sweet TYR bag with straps! No more aching backs while riding back to the car after races I to ridiculous fees!

I slept a few hours, packed my truck, and drove to Colorado the next day. Two days after arriving I flew to Dallas, where I got to stay with a bunch of friends from Multisport Ministries at the Four Seasons. It was incredible, and was probably the first and last time I'll get to stay in a hotel like that. That race was rough. I started cramping in the water, got through the freezing rainy bike, and settled in on the run for another 35 min 10k again, still sub-par. My buddy Derek Yorek, who raced the pros- which included Matt Reed and Greg Bennett, was unable to finish the bike as he froze up. It was a great trip though besides the race. I thought I could still race ok off no sleep and after the hectic week with the move, and wanted to give it a shot at least, since I didn't have many costs to race there with a free airline ticket (& arguing out of the 2 bike baggage fees..somehow, after making a scene about it) and the hotel hook-up.

I racI biked the whole time with my sunglasses like this below my eyes, since I couldn't see a thing with the rain.. I still don't know why I didn't throw them off somewhere. Guess I didn't want to go back and find them.

Malibu Triathlon & Team Abu Dhabi

I've got 2 more weeks left here, it's kinda crazy. Then on to my new life in Colorado. I've got mixed feelings of course, but am excited for change. I've been doing some training lately with Faris Al Sultan and Swen Sundberg, both German Ironman athletes who I met at the pool. They're here for 3 weeks until Kona for the Ironman on Oct. 10. Faris won it in 2005, and is a powerhouse especially on the bike. On Friday we met up at 8:30 am, where I got a lesson on how to strap road flats to the aero bars (see pic), something I hadn't seen before, and rode 2 hours and ended up at the UCSB track for a track workout (after stopping for Coke and Twix of course.. crazy Ironmen, what's the deal with Coke in training, Terenzo drinks it too) with the main sets 5x200m w/200 float, followed by 5x1200m w/400 jog. It was a good workout, and while talking with them I realized I haven't been on the track enough this season, especially as an Olympic distance athlete. We rode another hour back to town, and later ended the day with a swim at the awesome Los Banos 50m pool at night, a pool I'm going to miss a lot.

Yesterday we all did the local group ride, along with Andrea and Werner. Andrea is also on their team (team Abu Dhabi - which is sponsored by the tourism district there, in the United Arab Emirates) and Werner is an ex-pro who's their team manager. It was one of the fastest rides out to the top of Hwy 150, I think because the local racers wanted to TRY to give it to the triathletes. We were flyin' on the way out with about 50 people. Aaron Olson, a local pro who used to race for T-Mobile and Bissell, and Kim Anderson, another local pro on Columbia-HTC who won the women's version of the Tour de France was there, along with Cody who is rides for the Bissell pro team. Most of the group turned back at the top of the hill, where about 12 of us did the whole 70 mile loop with Faris, Cody, and Aaron pulling for most of it. I took a few pulls for a few minutes but knew my legs were feeling the track work from Friday, so I stuck in 2nd or 3rd position staring at Faris' butt for most of it, shaking my head in amazement at their strength!

We all went out for steaks last night with Swen, Werner, and Faris treated, but said when I win the Ironman and get the paycheck he expects me to treat. He's a super nice guy and a lot of fun.
That's it for the update, I might race the OC Tri next weekend, haven't decided yet. Then it's the LA Tri on Oct 4, a move to CO on Oct. 5 or 6, then another race in Dallas to end the season Oct. 11.
pic: always-smiling Faris & a great shot of my right shoulder, Werner had some camera issues :)

I camped out in Malibu in tents with friends, always exciting with no sleep, and raced the Malibu Olympic tri last weekend; I took 2nd in the amateur field, which I'm pretty pleased about since it was a big race of about 1000 and my time was faster than a few pros. My bike is really coming along, as I've just hit about the 1 year mark of real cycling training. Finally I am seeing the rewards of the training as now I am much more confident in riding harder. 8 months ago my cycling was weaker than my swim. I had the fastest run split and 3rd fastest bike. I need to get my swim around this next off-season, as I can get stronger and need to improve the swim to come out of the water with the lead pack. Can't wait to get with the Riptide team in a month or so. They swim a ton from Nov.- Feb., exactly what I need, with a few double swim days every week.

Until next time.. Ryan
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Santa Barbara Group Ride videos: some Saturdays we get up to 80 people, about 10-15 do the full loop

Colorado - bound

Well, I'm moving to Colorado in a month. I think it's time. I was accepted to be part of Riptide Multisports (www.riptidemultisports.com) elite tri team for next season; composed currently of 1 amateur and about 8 pro guys, so it will be awesome being part of a group, which should help me continue to progress as I aim to earn my pro card by the end of next season, as well as give me a little social balance with training. Finding a part time job will be the not as exciting part of the move, but I'll be living with my sister for a little while to save $. It's a great opportunity, and I look forward to the change. Last week I got offered another job here as well as a good local sponsorship, but unfortunately will not be able to take advantage of them. I know there are good things in store in Colorado..I'm headed back "home" for a while. I know I will miss living in paradise though. That's inevitable.

SB Long Course & Sprint Nationals

I wish 'almost' counted sometimes, haha. I had a good learning experience and have mixed feelings today looking back at the SB Long Course tri yesterday, my first race longer than Olympic distance. I finished 5th to some good pro's, and was having a great race entering the run in 2nd a few minutes behind Pro John Dahlz & a few minutes ahead of 3rd. Dahlz won in 2:53 (while I posted a 2:57), he's the '09 College Nat'l Champ & recently placed 4th at Vineman 70.3, where he beat the likes of '08 Ironman champ Craig Alexander by over 5 minutes. Congrats to John, who also sports the Breathe Right nasal strips like me..thatta boy, they help! I was 4th in the elite wave out of the water, passed a guy in T1 and another 2 miles into the bike and remained in 2nd for the next hour.
I just needed to not blow up and hold on for the 10 mile run and 2nd was mine. I guess easier said than done. I cramped 2 miles into it in the quads, grabbed my baggie of salt tablets, and found I had dumped them out somewhere. Apparently I still managed 6:15 pace on the day but had to stop a few times in the race to rub out cramps, once for the restroom, and a few times the last mile since I was really feeling horrid and struggling bad. Patrick Baldwin & pro Mac Brown passed me around miles 6 and 8. I gutted it out to finish the last 200m strong and made it to the line where I fell over in the sand, and then blacked out for a bit to find people soaking me with sponges, which felt really really good. I tried to be mentally tough on the run, but sometimes the body just won't go.
I gained good experience from my first longer race ever, learned about nutrition and how a longer race feels, so I will take positive things from it.
I used my new Hed Stinger disc wheel that they Brian & Josh at Inside Track Ventura helped me get, which was pretty fun. Unfortunately my Garmin GPS flew off my bike on Toro Canyon Rd somewhere after hitting a huge bump; after searching for over an hour yesterday after the race it was nowhere to be found. My water bottle flew off a mile into the bike too, which couldn't have helped my hydration; stuff was like popcorn yesterday flying off my bike. They said they would DQ anyone who's water bottle flew off the bike and didn't stop to get it, as they were very concerned for safety of other riders since a lady died on the course last year. The bike has some big up and down hills with sharp dangerous curves. But I wasn't about to stop going 25 mph and look for my bottle in the weeds. Everyone..keep looking for my GPS along the road. Thanks!
A few weeks ago I won the 25-29 age group and took 3rd at the USAT Sprint Nationals in Newport. So I guess they give me the age group National Champion title, but really I wouldn't call it a true Nationals. It was turned into a duathlon since the waves and current was too dangerous apparently. It was a fun sprint. I ran a 15:43 3 mi split on a tough course with 2 very steep hills.
Here's one rather funny pic of the little fainting spell yesterday. It was awesome having my friends out there cheering and Meyers there to help drag me to the medical tent.
I also got to meet Matt Laferty from Lifewater Int'l who I'd been in touch with via email for a few weeks, a non-profit helping bring clean water to villages all over the world for the first time. I may try to race some tri's and try to raise $ through their Team Lifewater events. Check out http://www.lifewater.org.

Strawberry Fields Tri & HyVee

Today I raced the Strawberry Fields olympic tri in Oxnard, and got some encouragement from it. I still have a lot of work to do but am pleased with my improvements. A year ago I won the sprint race there on my birthday, which was my first real dabble in triathlon, although I didn't train much for that race. So I realized I've been in the sport now exactly one year, and started real training around November of last year. It was nice to be able to drive there the morning of for once. I didn't sleep the night before the previous races this season, which I'm working on, but I slept better last night after takinga sleeping pill, and got 4 1/2 hours of sleep, which is 4 1/2 hours more than I have gotten in past races so that felt great.
I finished 4th in 1:58:15 and lost to 2 pro card holders (Brett Brown, and Henry Hagenbuch, an ex-UCLA steeplechaser who just won the Escape from Alcatraz amateur race and earned his pro card there a few weeks ago. He had the fastest run split in that race by 50 seconds, faster than all the pros..Andy Potts, etc.. Impressive.) Brown was 3rd at the Wildflower olympic this year. I lost by about 2:15 to Brown & 1:40 to Henry today. The swim was crazy wavy, a true ocean swim. Swim times were super slow with the chop and a nice current and I think the distance was a little long. We swam straight out to sea for the first 7 min. or so...true shark territory. It was crazy how far that buoy was out there! For some reason my cramping has been less severe in ocean swims, and I don't know why (different stroke/less kicking? swallowing salt H20 helps? Who knows?). In retrospect, I should have hammered the swim harder though, as I felt pretty fresh the whole time. I came out of the water 7th. We all got our butts kicked by Brown in the swim, but I came out in front of Henry by 4:00. Talk about spread out early between the top group. Basically that says Henry is a beast of a bike/runner (he split 31:50 on the 10k!), and I need to work on my swim! The bike was flat and fast and was probably 3 minutes short, but the swim may have been equally long to make up for it.
No one passed me on the bike, but I didn't know what place I was in entering the run. Turns out I was in 3rd, then Henry flew by me about 5k into it. I knew he was coming fast since it was a 2 loop course, and was going to try to latch on, but it didn't happen. I ran a 35:07, which is rather poor for me. I need to be mentally stronger when I'm hurting. I've run much faster off the bike, so I wasn't necessarily excited about my run. Overall I was pleased with the result though, and had no cramps for the 2nd time ever which has been my huge issue, so no cramps was great. I tried lactic acid buffer pills before the race, salt tablets on the bike, and got back on my probiotics/super green veggie powder this week, so one or all of those might have helped.
Hy Vee in Iowa was a cramp fest from the start. No wetsuits allowed. 2500+ people. 83 degree lake water. I cramped in the quads 14 min. into the swim, hobbled into T1, cramped off and on during the bike in the hamstrings and hips (that was a new place for me), and struggled on the run. The course was slower than I thought it would be, and a lot of competitors showed up. I finished 25th in 2:06:08, very disappointed and frustrated with my body, but that stuff happens, and I need to learn from the big race experiences and take something positive from it. I was very impressed by the race organization. It was an incredible production, with the world cup pro race which had all the Olympians, grandstands, helicopters, NBC cameras all over, $2 million in prize $, etc.
It was a long day, as my race started at 6am. After we Dutched as much free food and drinks our bags would hold, my cousin Brent and I hopped in the car and drove 10 hours to Denver and arrived by 9pm