Daniel vs. The Wall

This past week I've been out training with my old roomate, Jun, in Frostburg Maryland. The riding out here is hard, very hard. During our five rides this past week it rained during four, and we averaged over 15mph once. I realized midway through the week that we were just 15 miles from the town of Westernport which I recognized for one thing: The famed Westernport Wall of the Savageman Triathlon. This climb, and its 31% gradient has quickly become one of the most famous climbs in all of triathlon for its steepness and Tour-like atmosphere on raceday. The race itself is said to be the hardest half-iron tri in the world by all who race it. Having trained on the course this past week I can report that no half-iron I've ever done even compares with this course, and I've done some pretty challenging races. Having seen the videos from the Westernport Wall on raceday I had to go check it out and below is Jun and I attempting to conquer "The Wall".  The Savageman Triathlon is on my triathlon bucket list.  If you're ever passing through Western Maryland check out the Savageman course, you will quickly realize that all of the courses which you thought were challenging, were not!


Raceday chaos on the Wall



Daniel and Jun Versus The Wall

Rev 3 Knoxville

This past weekend, for the second year in a row, I kicked off my season at the Revolution 3 Knoxville triathlon down in Tennessee.

Swim: 19:41 20th fastest split
I went into the swim prepared for the worst. The swim and I just have not been clicking this year. Furthermore with the cold and wet spring in the Midwest I wasn't able to get outside for my typical weekly May open water swims. This would be the first open water swim since September. And I was wearing a new wetsuit for the first time as well. Anyway the swim ended up better than I anticipated. Not good, but not too far off. Got out well and right into the second group where I typically swim. Stayed in the group through the first turns but then halfway through a funny thing happened. I just lost contact. Wasn't struggling too much, the group simply swam away from me. Usually once I get through the first 5 minutes I'm good for staying on in the group but not today. I don't know if it was a momentary lapse in focus or what but it was a helpless feeling watching the group of 10 just pull away. Ended up losing only about 20 seconds to the group but 20 seconds was just enough to allow the 10 or so guys to team up on the bike and work together. All of the 5th-13th place overall finishers swam in that group so that was my one chance at a top-10 finish.

Bike: 1:00:50 23.8mph 16th fastest split
Moved up several positions in the first 5k of the bike but there would be no catching the second group of 8 guys. Rode decent on the day, not great, but not bad. The bike course is what makes this race. It is just a lot of fun to race the fast sweeping turns mixed with two separate 2 miles climbs and a 40+ mph descent.

Run: 35:24 14th fastest split
I had big hopes for the run but the legs were not there which I believe is mostly a result of the challenging bike course. And also probably the 80 miles of running I logged the previous week in training.

Overall: 1:57:48 14th place
I feel alright with my race. Certainly not any kind of breakthrough but the thing I told myself before the race is that barring injury or some unforeseen event, this will be the most out of shape I am for any race this year. And if finishing in the top half of the pro field is my most out of shape, then I should be able to pull off a good year. I just need to keep working. Swim was a little better than I expected and run was a little worse. But overall I was consistently faster than last year all around. It felt great to put on the jersey of my new team, US Pro Tri, for the first time. Next week I'll do it again and try to build off of this out in Maryland at the Columbia Triathlon. Finally I'd like to say that Revolution 3 puts on amazing races on very well thought out venues. I encourage all to check out this series which is doing all it can to support the sport of triathlon. In fact I just booked my ticket out to Connecticut to race Rev 3 Quassy on June 5!

2011 Ready to Roll

The 2011 race season is here and come Sunday morning I'll rollin' into Carmel Indiana hot with my 2011 steed all ready to go for the first hitout of the year! Special thanks to Larry at Covered Bridge Cyclery for all his hard work on these beautiful rigs. I'm excited to be riding Planet X in 2011! See you at the races

2011 Race Schedule-First Attempt

Here is my first attempt at putting together my race schedule for the upcoming 2011 season. I say first attempt because what I end up racing this season will almost certainly be different than what I'm thinking right now. But here is the rough sketch of what the season will look like. Races in bold are what I plan to peak for.

4/17 Carmel Sprint Triathlon IN
This race has unintentionally become my traditional kick off to the season. I've opened with it the past 4 years. Good low key age-group race, a chance to blow out the rust from the offseason, and fun to compare times year to year. I'll be going for 5 straight wins this year.

5/15 Rev 3 Knoxville TN
Had one of my worst races ever here last year, look forward to returning, taking on the challenging course, and love supporting the Rev 3 series!

5/22 Memphis in May 5150 TN or Columbia MD
Going to be a long drive this weekend, haven't decided if it will be to Memphis or Maryland. I've had great success at Memphis the three years I've raced it but Columbia has potential as well.

6/5 Pigman Sprint IA or Rev 3 Quassy CT or Mooseman 70.3 NH
Another long trip, either to Iowa, Connecticut, or New Hampshire. If I show great form in my May races then I'll head out East to take on the tough pro fields, otherwise will play it a little more conservative with Pigman. I've won Pigman before, Quassy is a course that sounds like it would really be challenging, and Mooseman is a place where I have unfinished business after last year's DNF

6/12 Kansas 70.3 or Eagleman 70.3 MD
Ironman 70.3 this weekend, just have to decide if I want to make the long trip East or West

6/26 Pleasant Prairie Triathlon WI
Very fast olympic distance race I'll be looking to make it 3 straight wins

7/9 Muncie 70.3 IN
Really excited for this one, have it highlighted since the day it was announced. First pro triathlon in Indiana in 8+ years, better believe I'm there and hopefully in peak form. Additionally excited as this will be the first ever Bretscher Multisport team event, we have 8 athletes scheduled to race right now!

7/17 Racine 70.3 WI or 7/24 Ironman Lake Placid NY
Will combine my Muncie peak with another race. If I'm prepared to go the distance it'll be Lake Placid, otherwise will stick to the more local 70.3 race.

8/14 Steelhead 70.3 MI
Have had good races here the past two years

9/11 Rev 3 Cedar Point OH
Made the big Iron distance debut here last year and excited to return a second year. Great race, great series, big prize purse all in a relatively short trip. Count me in!

9/24 Peregrine Triathlon IA
One of my favorite races, great venue, super fast course, wonderful event management. Have had great races all three years I've raced, going to 4 wins in a row this year.

10/1 Powerman Muncie Duathlon IN or Pocono 70.3 PA
Long course duathlons certainly take their toll on the body but it's not everyday you find a pro duathlon close to home. Also considering a 70.3

10/9 Rev 3 South Carolina
Love to give back support to the series that supports pros so well and has the best interests of the sport of triathlon in mind!

Assessing the Damage

Yesterday I assessed the damage of the offseason: I stepped on a scale for the first time since September. The last time I weighed myself was the week leading up to Rev3 Cedar Point when I was at peak fitness. The number I saw then: 146.4 pounds. The offseason damage report: 159.6 pounds yesterday morning. No wonder 6min pace was so difficult to hold during my tempo run! The weight is about what I was expecting. What's more is that I'm up to 60 miles per week running and can tell that I've already lost an estimated 5-6 pounds. I still have yet to start swimming or cycling, this week will mark four months away from the bike and the pool. I plan to start swimming this week but it could be another three weeks before I get back on the bike. Three weeks are left in the collegiate swim season and once it wraps up I'll instantly have an extra 3-5 hours each day to train, the time I am currently spending coaching. I'm really not too worried. My experience tells me that the aerobic base I have from running will bring my swim and bike fitness along much quicker than if I wasn't exercising at all right now. Running is by far the most time efficient way to build the aerobic engine (not to mention lose weight) and in past years I've questioned how much I am really gaining by doing 2-3 hour aerobic rides on the trainer. What I'm doing certainly isn't the ideal way to be training right now but I'm confident I'll be in at least respectable shape come May and no reason I can't be coming into peak form in mid-July when I plan my first block of peak races.

A couple pics I snapped of my legs last September, the week of Rev 3









Pic of the same leg today, pitiful

Tri Gear Sale

Making room for new sponsors in 2011, in fact I'll have 100% new sponsors for this upcoming season as my team of the past two years no longer exists. Will be on a new team for the upcoming season, that will be the subject of a future post. The subject of this post is some used equipment that I have to get rid of to make room for the new gear. If you are in need of a road or TT bike, or speedskin, there are some smokin' deals below. If interested, contact me through the link below, I'll be happy to provide anyone with more information or pictures.
http://www.bretschermultisport.com/contact.html

1. Valdora XRD full build carbon road bike w/full Dura Ace components, training wheels (comes ready to ride minus pedals). Size 56. A few months of use and less than 500 miles, perfect condition. Price-$1700 (MSRP $3425) http://www.valdoracycles.com/valdora_XRD_carbon_compact_road_bike.asp


2. Ceepo Singer Carbon TT bike frame, fork, & seatpost. Size 54. Used for 9 months. Price-??? Have had this frame sitting around unused for two years. If you want it I'll work out a price with you, just want to get it sold at this point. Could possibly transfer components from one of the other frames onto this one to make it a full build. Great bike, rode a 2:07 56 mile bike split on this frame http://ceepo.com/2011/products/cp-stinger


3. BlueSeventy Point Zero 3+ Swim skin. Have one used and one that's never been taken out of the box. Used-$50 New-$150 (MSRP $400)
http://www.blueseventy.com/products/detail/pointzero3

Offseason Training Recap

A lot of Pro triathletes will talk about their training volume during big weeks. We're typically proud of the hours we've put in following these weeks and like to brag and make it seem as though we train such high volume year-round. I posted the details of my Ironman training block in my buildup to Rev 3 in my August post here.

However, what a given athlete does for one given week or even one month out of the year is far from a summation of how they train for the entire year. You have to look at the whole body of work and what they do during those down months which they typically won't write much about. In this post I will compliment my Ironman training summary by posting the opposite end of the spectrum, my offseason training summary.

First off, for a proper comparison let's recap the training totals that I logged for the month of August in preparation for my first 140.6

31 days of August training totals
Swim-91k (3k/day average)
Bike-1617 miles (52/day average)
Run-312 miles (10/day average)
Hours-165 (5.3/day average)

Now fast forward to the 55 day span of October 17-December 11, here are the training totals I logged.
October 17-December 11
Swim-0
Bike-0
Run-6 miles (.11 miles/day average)
Hours- <1 (<1 minute/day average)

That's right, in 55 days I wasn't in the pool once, didn't sit on a bike once, just did three runs totaling six miles. Now I will admit that my numbers are a little misleading, but just a little. I was doing about 5 hours/week of cross training (non swim-bike-run workouts) during this time. But still, it was very minimal and probably the longest break I've taken from training in a long time.

So the next time a pro triathlete tells you that they train 40+ hours/week, that doesn't necessarily mean that they train beyond normal human levels for the entire year, or even most of the year. It could be that you are not being told the full story.