So Long 2014 Season...

It has been a while since I've posted here so I figured it was time to check in and give a little update on my season.  I'll go ahead and cut to the finish.  This weekend I was supposed to be racing the Malibu Triathlon and then continuing on through October and finishing my season at Lifetime Oceanside.  Well...those plans have changed.  I have decided to go ahead and call an end to my triathlon season.  I'll explain why, but first I'll bring you up to speed on some of my racing since I last posted her in June.

San Diego International Triathlon
In mid June I went on a training trip to Mammoth Mountain with a group from Volt Multisport.  It was a great training trip at altitude with a great group of people, but I was a little worried that my body would feel drained while racing SDIT a week later.  Luckily that ended up not being true.  I'd say my race at SDIT was probably my best overall race of the season.  I had a solid swim and bike, and my run split was easily my best 10K split as part of a triathlon.  I ended up finishing 2nd among some some guys that coming into this race I would have never thought I could hang with.

Photo courtesy of Tyler Olson 

Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim
Each year as a supplement to my triathlon season I also race in several open water swim races.  Probably the biggest swim race every season is the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier race between the Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach piers.  Each year I've steadily moved up in the results list and I ended up finishing this year 19th overall which put me 4th in my division.

Even with a little "shark incident" earlier in the summer there was still a record number of swimmers in the 2014 race.

Everyone has their game face on right before the start of the race...

There is always a mad sprint to the water in order to stay ahead of the chaos due to 500+ swimmers racing to a buoy placed 150 yards offshore.

Still racing to the water...

This is a small window into the mayhem at the start of the race.

Approximately two miles later it is all over.

Trans Tahoe Relay Swim
This year, for the first time, I also raced on a 6 person relay in the Trans Tahoe Relay Swim across Lake Tahoe.  It was really fun being part of a relay team as opposed to the solo races that I am usually in.  Also, swimming in the crystal clear Lake Tahoe with mountains in the background was just amazing.  I was lucky to be part of a fast team and we ended up winning our division and finished 8th overall.

You can definitely see from the pictures why they say "Keep Tahoe Blue".

Kosuke had a crazy fast swim leg that kept us up front.

Beer mugs for the winners!

USAT Olympic Distance AG National Championship
A week after the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier I traveled to Milwaukee to race at USAT Nationals.  My race the previous week set me up for a good swim and I came out of the water in the lead with two guys right behind me.  On the bike I traded the lead back and forth with another athlete and then on the run was able to put a gap between me and the rest of the wave.  I ended up winning my age group and coming in 8th overall in what I would say and I think many would agree was a highly competitive year for this race.  Consistent with the American culture of "no one gets left out", awards went 10 deep.

ITU Olympic Distance AG World Championship
About three weeks after Nationals I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta, CA for Worlds.  One of the best parts of being in Edmonton was being able to see in person the pure dominance by elite athletes Gwen Jorgensen and Javier Gomez Noya.  Especially Javier who I believe is undoubtedly the best short to mid distance triathlete ever.

After a few days of putzing around town and watching the other elite and amateur races, it was my time to race the morning of Labor Day. Without a swim warm-up I felt like crap during the whole swim and ended up with a slower than normal swim split.  But, I still ended up with a 40 second lead on my wave heading out onto the bike.  Within a few miles, the faster guys in my wave caught up to me but didn't pass and drop me.  I ended up riding the rest of the bike leg trading leads with a German and Canadian and was still able to head out on the run in the lead.  About a half mile into the run, the Canadian and eventual winner Robert Johnson passed me and I ended up holding that position for the remainder of the race finishing 2nd in my AG and 5th overall.

A little glimpse of part of the swim course and the swim exit:

Here I am at the start of the bike leg and am still putting my shoes on:

Congratulations to Eric Burnett for pulling off the double by racing both the Sprint and Olympic distance races in Edmonton.

The theme of the race was "It Was Epic".  That may have been a slight overstatement, but, ok I'll go with it...It Was Epic!

So, that brings us to the present and now I am starting my off-season. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons.  First and the most obvious of all is that I ended up with a little tweak in my ankle following my race in Edmonton.  I do not believe it is too severe but it would have prevented the proper preparation for Malibu this weekend and Oceanside at the end of October.  The less obvious reason is that in general my body is tired and has been feeling that way since the beginning of August.  I figured that if I were to continue to race through the end of October I would be even more tired by that time and I saw no benefit of doing that.  So, I have decided to call it a season, rest up, do some fun off-season stuff (surf, ski, have a life outside of triathlon, etc.), and prepare for next year.  I am happy with my 2014 season and have big plans for next year, so I want to set myself up properly.

Updates from Past Two Months

I have not posted here in a while, so I thought I'd post some updates on what I've been up to over the past couple months.  

Peru Surf Vacation

In mid February I took a 1.5 week trip down to Mancora, Peru for a little surf vacation before the race season got underway.  The trip and surf break were awesome.  The only bad thing is I got sick about half way through the trip which had lasting effects for over a week after I got back to the States.  This threw a wrench into my training and early season race schedule.  Regardless of the sickness, the experience in Peru was awesome.  Here are some pictures:

Mancora Strip at night 

Mancora Beach Early Morning

 Mancora Beach Mid Afternoon

Sunset in on Mancora Beach

Mancora Surf Break (this was a small day)

Race Schedule Change

Because of my vacation and the fact that I was sick for quite a while, I decided to not race two of the early season races that I had earlier planned (UCLA IronBruin and Superseal).  Instead, I decided to focus on preparing for Wildflower and added a couple later season races to my schedule.  The updated and likely to change race schedule can be seen here.

ITU Short Course World Championships

Through the 2012 rankings qualification criteria, I recently earned a spot to travel to London in mid September and race with Team USA at the ITU Short Course (Olympic Distance) World Championships.  I'm still mulling over whether I will accept the spot (of course I want to but it will cost me quite a chunk of change), but I'd say at this point I'm really leaning towards accepting. 

St Patrick's Day 10K

After pulling out of Superseal I decided to travel down to San Diego to race with my buddy Kosuke in a 10K race on St. Patrick's Day.  Because I was racing on about 2 weeks of training following my vacation/sickness, my plan was to simply take it easy.  Of course I took it hard when the gun went off because I don't know how to do anything other than that in a race situation.  I managed a decent time on a fun and flat course.  The best part of the race by far was the beer garden. Unlimited Stone IPA = best beer garden ever!  Here are some Garmin data for you geeks:

Team TriSports.com

This is a little late, but I am happy to announce that I will once again be racing with Team TriSports.com for the 2013 triathlon season.  TrisSports.com, based out of Tucson AZ, is one of the leading online multisport retailers. I encourage you to read about the unique culture at TriSports.com by visiting the link here.

Please, if you can, help support me by using the coupon code MTRIPP for all purchases made at TriSports.com and you will receive 15% off of your order. Yes, that is a whopping 15% off!  Go get your shopping on!

Hello Vegas

I will be leaving for Las Vegas (Henderson, NV to be exact) in a few minutes! Why? To compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship this Sunday (Sept. 11). I was able to earn a qualifying spot back in July while racing at Vineman and thought I shouldn't pass up the chance to participate in this race, so I took the slot and now here I am about to leave for Vegas. Compared to my days leading up to Vineman, I feel more prepared for this race physically. I have no major injuries and have had a good taper over the past week. Other than getting through the rush hour LA traffic while driving to Vegas, my main concern for the weekend is the hot Nevada heat. This is about how I believe the sun will appear to me during the race:

Because I live in a coastal area, the majority of my training and racing is done in a cool climate. I have tried to train during the hottest parts of the day over the past month, but I'm not sure it has been enough to prepare me for the race day conditions. I guess I'll just to stay on my game with hydration and see how it goes. The good news is the Sunday forecast is showing a high of 88F in Henderson compared to the 110F highs over the past couple weeks.

I will try to ignore the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" rule and have a nice race report following the race. So, remember to check back early next week

Oregon

I'm in Portland! Yesterday was the first day of my 12 day vacation along the west coast. I started by driving from LA to the Santa Rosa Airport then jumped on a plane to Portland, which happened to be my first time flying on a turbo-prop. It was a good experience especially because they served complimentary micro-brew IPA and the flight attendant noticed my Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt and started talking Pink Floyd with me.  

I'm going to spend a couple days in Portland at my sister's pad, then drive to Lincoln City on the coast for a family reunion next week.  Below are a couple pictures of the view from my sister's condo in Portland...nice change of scenery from the rooftop views I get in Redondo Beach.

Next Friday I will drive back to Portland and hop on a plane back to Santa Rosa where I will stay until the following Tuesday. During my stay in the Santa Rosa area I will be racing in Vineman. So, that's an overview of my next 1.5 weeks, and of course, I will not be thinking of work one bit during that time.

Now that I'm back on track with the running portion of my training, I decided to go on one last long run before the race next weekend.  I did a few loops along the river and over the bridges shown in the pictures above. It seemed to be quite a popular running spot with some fairly fast runners out there today. Probably due to the proximity to Nike and U of Oregon.  Overall, I think I put in about 10 miles and my legs are feeling good.  I plan to throttle down and give them some rest over the next week.

More vacation/training updates and photos to follow...