Galveston 70.3 Pro-Debut

My 2013 season ended with the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii with a rather disappointing finish as my last AG race. Quad & IT injuries crept up on me over the summer and hampered my performance on the big island. Following a three week hiatus from training I traveled up to Calgary for the winter where I focused on increasing my power on the bike since my bike split at Kona was so poor compared to the rest of the field / division. Pain in Quads & IT's kept me from being able to put in the necessary run volume to build any real confidence that my injuries would simply dissolve through pure rest. I spent time at the Calgary Downtown Sports Clinic having my run and muscular forms analyzed. Weak hip flexors and stabilizers were identified as the probably cause to my pain and have since been completing PT to fix my muscle imbalances. This will be an on going process that will probably take till the end of the year before it really starts to get better. Following a few months in Canada I traveled down to Houston to train with the my team OutRival Racing in The Woodlands, Texas for most of January. Was definitely nice to be able to get back outside to train. I then headed off to Florida to train with QT2 at their pro-training camp in Clermont Florida. It was one of the best experiences of my life getting to train along side their pro athletes and some of the top people in the sport. Was also one of the hardest. Haha. Never have I trained so much for three weeks straight but it definitely paid off in Galveston where I was able to shave off an additional 4:30 off my bike split from last year despite the incredible winds we had to cope with.

Swim
26:02, 9th out of the water

After worrying about the weather all week I was happy to wake up on race morning and see that we were not engulfed in thunderstorms. High winds however turned what is normally a very flat swim into a very nasty chop. I felt very confident about my swim thanks to Coach Tim Floyd of Magnolia Masters. The weeks leading up to the race I had been swimming some of my best times and knew that I should be able to stick with most of the main field. The choppy weather and overcast skies delayed the start until we had a bit more light but even with the additional time when the gun went off sighting was extremely difficult. A few of the guys in the field took off and left the main field behind to struggle through the waves to the first turn buoy and the choppy waves kept pushing me off course and adding time to my swim. Once we made the first turn I was able to settle into a comfortable pace and started to work my way but up through the field putting myself in a pretty good position of 9th out of the water and heading into T1. I was extremely happy with my swim as I entered T1 seeing on the clock that I had gone just over 26 minutes (over a minute faster from last year) despite the unusually rough conditions.

Bike
2:12:21 (25.4 mph), 22nd off the bike

Out of transition, we proceeded onto the bike course where we all knew we would have a full tail wind pushing us out to the turn around and a massive head wind to greet us on the way home. The first 28 miles to the turn around took a mere 55 minutes and change averaging just over 30mph and this was only slowed by the fact that I ran out of gears.

At the halfway point, a vicious headwind slammed the field and brought a lot of the field back together. At the turn around point I was greeted by my fellow teammate and professional triathlete Matt Hanson. We both looked at each other and just joked about the wind feeling like it was actually pushing us backwards and that we weren't actually able to make any forward progress. A group of us rode together for the first 15 miles of the return trip but then I began to suffer a bit as my left IT band began to tighten up and hurt quite badly. Luckily it didn't seize completely as it had in Kona and I was able to close back on the group over the last 10 miles and entered transition with a group of about 10 other athletes and on pace to break 4 hours for the first time

Run

1:21:37 (6:13/mi)

Out on the run, the immediately began to feel my IT bands continue to tighten up and knew that it was probably only a matter of time before my run pace really began to suffer. The 180 degree turns on the course (2 on each of the three laps) also began to take a big toll on my legs as I was having to break stride and accelerate back up to speed. I was able to hold between 5:45 and 6:05 miles for the first 8 miles but then the wheels came off. The last 5 miles (roughly the whole third lap of the run course) was one of the most painful of my life. I felt like I couldn't actually push off and it was all I could do to just salvage my run. It was very depressing to watch the miles slow from 6:00 to 6:30 to 6:50 by the end and know that my goal time of sub four hours was going to be missed by a few minutes.

I crossed the line in 4:03:05 which while being a 4:30 minute PR was not satisfying in anyway. Galveston definitely showed me that my fitness level while it has improved is still far below where it needs to be and specifically my run form needs a great deal of work. I'm not in any discouraged but if anything more determined to improve my fitness and form and show that by season's end.  

I'd like to give a special thanks to my Coach Michelle Leblanc of OutRival Racing and my Swim Coach Tim Floyd of Magnolia Masters.