Collegiate Triathlon Season Recap.

I’m embarrassed to say how overdue my races reports are... I have been neglecting writing about triathlon the last couple months.  I haven’t posted about the WCCTC collegiate conference championships in Cal-poly, Collegiate nationals draft legal, Olympic, and the draft legal relay, the Fearless F1 super sprint, Wildflower, the first two TCSD summer aquathlons, and most recently, the Monroe EDR draft legal race.  So feel free to stop reading right now.  This isn’t going to be short – I’ll cover most of these races (but not all).  For your convenience I’ll break it down by race.

Aquathlon-ing

Lets start with the biggest challenge and, arguably my biggest accomplishment of the season.  Of course I mean the TCSD aquathlon series.  These ARE a big deal. 
While there was rumor I might be forced to start at the cove rather than the marine room to level the swimming playing field, I actually wasn’t planning on racing the first aquathlon back in May.  On Thursday morning, I had only one thing on my mind and that was delivering my science presentation that I was giving in the UK to my entire lab.  (I was in the UK for a research conference May 18-27^th). No problem.  I had feverously been preparing for this for about 2 weeks – doing last minute MATLAB statistical analysis the morning of.  Fortunately, everyone in the lab turned up and I delivered it “better than expected”.  What is that supposed to mean?  I’m not entirely sure...  After the presentation, I finally noticed how nice it was outside and remembered the TCSD aquathlon.  Perfect.  Last good workout before 10 days of fattening up (on warm fish and chips and mild warm beer) in the UK.  It seemed that over two hundred people showed up for the race – TCSD aquathlons always have a good turn out when the sun is out.  I had a strong swim, but disappointingly did not catching a wave into shore.  With a confortable lead after the swim I was able to run at my own pace, cheer as I crossed path with teammates, and enjoy the beautiful day and fragrance of seaweed rot.  The next aquathlon was June 13^th.  It was another beautiful day and another great turn out.  After what was probably my best TCSD aquathlon swim performance, I was able to pull off another win by holding off some big names in triathlon... (see 2013 Spring issue of USA Triathlon Magazine cover).  TCSD really does a tremendous job with the aquathlons.  They are free, there is always tons of food and volunteers – what more could you ask for? TCSD Rocks.

WCCTC championships.

Earlier in the season, I had my biggest “win” of my triathlon career (until last weekend at Monroe – but we’ll get to that later) at the WCCTC championships near Cal-Poly. I had tacked some of the smaller WCCTC races earlier in the season with good results and “better than expected” run results, so was confident going into the race.  Sergio had prepared me well and I was becoming accustomed to a very short taper.  I only rested for about 3 days for the race and that turned out to be all I needed.  The swim was fast and flat and I earned approximately a 15-20 second lead on the Stanford pack, which was swimming “better than expected” this season.  Out on the bike course, I felt like I was on fire for the first half.  It was the first time I’d raced with my powertap and I was holding what I thought was a very good average.  I wasn’t going to make it easy for those behind me.  At ¾ of the way through, I could see that a group of 4 was eating away at my lead.  I did get a little discouraged at that point because my legs were starting to get a little tired and having people around me would have been nice. Fortunately, they didn’t actually make up any more ground in the last ¼ downhill section, even though my power numbers had dropped considerably.  After a quick transition, I took off at a very strong pace on the run.  Perhaps it was a bit too strong given my bike effort and the lack of significant road miles under my legs.  At two miles, my legs started to cramp a little and I could sense that Yoni of Cal was starting to making up ground steadily.  My calculations were that the race would come down to a sprint finish if I didn’t pick it up at mile 4. Digging deep with two miles to go, I fortunately had enough that day to hold off Yoni and not have to sprint to the line.  The win felt great and for the next hour, I helped hand out water at the finish line and congratulate all my teammates as they came in.

Collegiate Nationals

After a win at conference, I was feeling very strong and confidant going into Nationals.  Training continued to go well and I was fired up with my teammates for the awesomeness of collegiate nationals.  However, it did not quite earned a “better than expected” status, at least not on the performance (or after party) front.  Again, I stuck with the short taper I had been working for me all season.   In retrospect, I did not do enough short intense workouts right before the race(s).  New this year was a draft legal sprint on Friday - the race I was most excited for. 

When the gun went off for the draft legal race, I found myself in unfamiliar territory.   I was behind not one, but 3 other swimmers at 200m. I also had a swimmer grabbing my shoulder every other stroke. I guess this is what most people feel during the swim portion of a triathlon. It sucks! and I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t shed the guy grabbing my shoulder and I had to do everything in my power to stay on the feet of the guys in front of me. It was a struggle and I knew I was in trouble for the day.  After struggling on the swim, I struggled on the bike. Several guys went flying on by me that I knew I could ride with on any given day – especially in a DL format race.  I ended up 11^th.  I still had two more races that weekend however, so I kept my head up and did everything in my power to prepare for Saturday (cleared my head, 60 min easy spin in the evening, compression, ice bath…).

Saturday was a better day. 300m into the race I found myself leading instead of in 4^th place – back to familiar territory.  I could handle this.   Ben Kanute and I swam next to each other the entire way.  I think he was content with my pacing – although neither of us seemed content with being on the other’s feet.  After an “OK” bike, I followed Ben out onto the run course.  I pulled off a 36min 10k, which was a PR, but not good enough to hang on to my position. I faded to 7^th.  There were some fast runs that day.  It was better than the previous day, so I was happy with my effort. I new deep down I had lots of room for improvement. 

The final event of the weekend was the draft legal relay.  It was easily the highlight of collegiate nationals – not only because we ended up 5^th (and won $499 for the team), but also because I’ve always been a team/relay athlete. Even though swimming and triathlon are largely individual sports, I thrive on the team aspect. In college, I was always put on the relays because I would deliver.   Delivering for UCSD, I improving upon my Olympic race and ended up with the 3^rd fastest slit of the day – behind Ben (who won both the DL and Olympic race) and an athlete from CO springs who did not compete in the Olympic race.  Overall it was a blast of a weekend. Collegiate nationals is always the highlight of the triathlon season – no matter how my race goes it is awesome to be able to travel and compete with the UCSD triathlon team. It has been an honor to be the captain/president the last two years. 

To cap off the season, I had the distinction of being named the UCSD Sports Club Male Athlete of the Year.   What an honor!  I have many people to thank for my success this season and previous ones.  My coaches Sergio Borges and Chris Burnham – both of whom have believed and seen in me more than I could have dreamed.   The UCSD triathlon team – the backbone of my success.  The UCSD sport trainers. My family – they have always supported me (especially my mom). I’d also like to thank Powerbar for keeping me fueled, Xterra for making the fastest skin suits and wetsuit in existence, and B+L bikes for their support and help from my humble triathlon beginning several years ago.

Up next is the TriMonroe race report.