Take Two

I am finally back to training. I was supposed to start back Monday 5/10,but I woke up very sick and my knee was still a mess, so I pulled the plug and rested another week. I did start eating better - sorta. I went from 3 terrible meals a day to 1 or 2 bad meals. Its amazing how much better I started to feel once I had a few fruits and veggies! I was starting to get sick off all the bad food anyways!

Fast forward to this Monday 5/17, the knee is better, still not 100% but getting there. I had a little 2k swim planned. Man, it felt like I did 10k. My arms were smashed after my 29 min swim!
I am back in the gym, moving massive amounts of weight. Trying to get my weak triathlete body ready for another round of IM training.


Tuesday was the first ride back. 2.5 hours on the road bike. It was nice to be outside enjoying the day, the off time made me realize how much I love this training and racing stuff!

Quick fact - I rode less then 100 miles outside during the build up to St George.

While the time went by pretty fast, I could the feel the extra 9 pounds that is now attached to my mid section. I am pretty sure people saw this as I rode by....

# 9

This post is to honor a good friend of mine who I will really miss over the next 22 weeks. We became friends in Kona last year, he was so good,cheap and filled my growling stomach.....

The Mcdonalds #9. For those of you who do know what a # 9 entails. I'll fill you in. 5 piece chicken selects (It must be good, its white meat!) a large fry and large soda all for $7.78. Tough to beat!

Here are the marco-nutritents for this sucker. Surprisingly, its actually one of the worst items on the menu :)
Fat 65
Pro 44
Cho 64
Anyways, I had my fair share of the # 9 over the course of last week along with LOTS of donuts, pizza and coffee.
But, the fun is over and its time to get back to work. I'll be treading water in Kailua Bay before I know it.

We have finalized the rest of the racing season and I am really excited to get out there and start racing.
I'll be at
Mooseman Olympic
Ashland Olmpic
Musselman Half
Marlboro Sprint
Kona.

I am looking forward to rebuilding fitness and showing up to the start line Oct 9th, fitter and fast then last year!

St George.

It could’ve been worse! During the days leading up to the race it was WINDY and I mean 45 mph + cross winds and 30 mph plus headwinds. We ended up with about 7-10 mph headwinds on the long windy canyon section. I rode this section at about 220-230 watts averaging anywhere from 14-17mph. Lucky we were able to do this section twice! The ride finished with a nice long descent were I was able to let my stomach settle and rest the legs for what would proven to be a very tough marathon course.
The run was awesome from the super hilly course to the views at the top of the climb it was truly spectacular. It was so hard that it separated the people who knew how to correctly pace and fuel a hard bike and even harder run very quickly, typically most people can fake it for the first 7-10 miles. Jesse and I started the run together and we immediately started catching people who were already in a heap of trouble and we hadn’t hit the hard part yet. I won’t describe the course to much here, check out the profile and the top run times and you’ll see it was no joke. I felt really good until mile 15, at that point I went into a pretty bad place for about 3 miles, I tore into my last gel at mile 18 (Double Latte–50 mg of caffeine) 5 mins later I was in a better place still not great but I was getting it done. Mille 20-22 are mostly uphill, I knew once I was up and over the last climb the course was mostly downhill to the finish…..The last 4.2 miles were all about keeping the best run form and highest cadence I could all the way to the finish.
I ended up 1st in my age group and 4th amateur overall.

Once again it was a great day for all Qt2ers. It just goes to show that a ton of hard work and patience over the long term brings extraordinary results.

A big thank you goes out to Jesse for helping me get to the start line of my 4th IM in 1 piece and with a new level of fitness.
Obviously, none of this would have been possible without the support of my wife, Courtney.

Sorry for the short race report, I have a VERY long “Honey Do” list and 6 days to get it all done before the Kona build begins!.