Clearwater 70.3

2009 Clearwater 70.3 Race Report

This past Sunday I raced at the 70.3 World Triathlon Championships in Clearwater, Florida. It has been a long, fun season and I was looking forward to one last hard effort in 2009. Coming off a great race two weeks ago in Austin, Texas I felt pretty confident that I was ready to go.

At the end of the day, I feel as though I came up a bit short finishing overall in 37^th with a time of 3:47:55. Taking the week to evaluate things I realize that it was a solid race, with a very big field of 85 pro men.

I realized early on in the race that the swim was going to dictate my position going into the run. Leading into the race my swimming was very strong; to analyze my swim in Clearwater I would have to say it was a poor performance. I knew I had the speed however; I spent the first 800m battling with other swimmers for position. Eventually I decided just to back off and swim because I was expending too much energy. I ended up exiting 45second’s back from the leaders. Mistake number one of the day was relaxing and ending up in a second group.

I rode relatively smart trying not to get any penalties which was very tough with a big field on narrow flat roads. The chase pack that eventually formed was huge, there had to be 40 of us. I felt like for 2 hours I was often slowing down trying to not to get a penalty. I was in a chase pack but we were still riding very fast, it contained a lot of good athletes from different countries that have been top 10 here in the past or that have won 70.3 races this year. The pack had the likes of James Cotter, Richie Cunningham, James Hadley, Jeff Symonds, Renaldo Colluci and half way through the bike Oscar Galindaz and Chris Legh entered the group. Overall, the bike went well except I lost a bottle from the back of my bike and I dropped another at the last bottle drop forcing me to survive on one bottle. At the end of the bike I had started to get a headache and the temperature started to rise.

After a slow transition due to a lost bag I started to get in my rhythm. The run course was 2 loops which means I got to see spectators frequently which brought positive energy when I needed it most. I ended up running 1:17 and change for the half marathon putting me in 37^th place. With such a quick field there were easily 10 spots in front of me within 1 minute and another 10 spots right behind me. It was great to hear Alicia Kaye and all of the friends and coach’s I had watching and cheering. I gave it what I had on the day, but if I had swam 30 seconds faster the race could have been different.

A perfect summary of my 2009 season is illustrated in this Andre Agassi quote that I came across while reading his biography Open. To give a little context to this quote, Andre said this after losing the US Open when he was 15 years old. I still think he made $90 000 that year and bought himself a new Corvette. “Looking back it was good but not great. I see a gap between where I am and where I need to be, and I feel reasonably confident that I can close that gap.”

I would like to thank Dan Smith, Colonels Bikes, LifeSport, K-Swiss, AquaSphere, Path to Wellness, Frank@ PowerBar Canada, Ridglea Swimming and of course Carley and my parents for all of their support this season. I am super excited for 2010, however now its time to rest. I would like to congratulate all who raced on Saturday and to wish everyone a safe and healthy off-season.

Thanks for reading,

Brent

World Champs!

Saturday the race will have live coverage at http://www.ironmanlive.com/.
With 85 Pro Men on the start list it is going to be a very fast and exciting race. My bib # is 58. A special thanks to everyone who has supported me all season!

Longhorn 70.3 and Halloween

Exciting out of water at Austin 70.3.

Coming off the bike;

Out on the supposedly flat/fast run course.

Carley and I trying to enjoy Halloween. Unfortunately it was a sugar less, alcohol free Halloween as training was pretty heavy that weekend. I was supposed to be a rock star with my 5 dollar costume however rock stars do not go to bed at 9pm!

William and I ran into a Celebrity Costume, his swim cap even had Phelps on it!
I can't believe Clearwater 70.3 Championships are only 1 week away. It is going to be super fast so the next week i will be trying to rest up and stay sharp. Thanks to Nancy Glenn for sending me some photos from Longhorn 70.3.

Have a great weekend!

Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

On Sunday I raced the Longhorn 70.3 triathlon in Austin, Texas. Since a rough race at Muskoka 70.3 in August, I recently had a great block of training and therefore started to gain confidence leading into this race. However, I was still unsure of how the day would unfold as I had a pretty big week leading into the race as well as some hard days earlier in the week. Also, early in the week I had a hard time moving around and felt pretty sluggish, but I wanted to use this race to get back into the mix of things and put out a hard effort as part of my World 70.3 triathlon preparations. Friday I headed up with friend/training partner Dave McManic where we stayed with some others in a house. I tried to isolate myself from distractions and just focused on resting up for the 2 days prior to the race, as I was pretty fatigued.

At the same time I was very scared and nervous. Training had been going well and I had a lot of confidence from swim splits/power numbers/data from running and my power to weight ratio was up, however I questioned the following: What if I had a bad race? What if I was too tired from the previous block of training? No matter what happened my goal for the day was to have fun and put myself in the race and remain positive and focused.

For the start of the swim I positioned myself on the right side of the line with Sean Bechtel (Can), as I knew Sean was a good swimmer and was hoping for a good clean start. I am not sure it was the best tangential line to the first buoy but I figured it was lot easier than dealing with a lot of swinging arms. After the first turn I was easily in the lead group but going around the final turn into shore I seemed to be fighting with some other swimmers for position and a few of us fell off the pack as it got stretched out approaching the shore. I exited the water and sprinted up the hill and into transition. I knew I had a solid swim as I looked up and saw Greg Bennett (Aus) and Sean Bechtel peeling off their wetsuits. I had a good fast transition and hammered up the road putting myself into position passing a few people eventually forming into a group of 3-4 athletes. I could still see the lead vehicle and things were good, there was a pack of 4 up the road including Richie Cunningham (Aus), Luke Bell (AUS), and Brian Fleishman (USA,) and Greg Bennett. We were not too far back as I could still see them.

It seemed like I rode with Sean, Graham O’grady (NZL), Allessandro Desasperi most of the ride, however Maxim Krait and Massimo Cigna rode past us and our group was not able to ride with them, however by the end of the ride they were in sight again. After the 56 miles in which I was able to average 25.26mph I was sitting in 7th place, getting off my bike well before the dismount line to make sure that there was no chance of a penalty my shoe unclipped off my bike and I was forced to go back and get it. After picking up my shoe and running into transition Sean passed me and I worked hard to get my running shoes on fast and get out on the course. I re-passed Sean and started to really be aggressive early in the run to see if I could run into a top 5 placing knowing that the 6 guys ahead of me were a lot closer than they normally are at 70.3 races. Based on splits that were given I had anywhere from 1-3minutes for positions 1-6.

After running the first loop hard I could start to see some athletes up the road and I was getting fired up but I was definitely feeling my early efforts. I was still in 7th running hard and towards the second lap of the run Jeff Symonds from Canada passed me as I was starting to tire and after 2 laps I was in 8th but keeping Jeff within striking distance but he was running super fast. On the 3rd lap it started to go down hill, I kept pushing and pushing but my legs got so heavy and tired that my mind was trying but the legs were not producing. I went from running 5:30-5:40 miles on the hilly course to running well over 6 minute pace and it was getting ugly. I was not too far from the finish line but a big chase pack was slowly coming onto me and I did my best to hold some of them off but I still managed to be passed by Kirk Nelson, Patrick Evoe, Victor Zymetsev and another athlete. I tried to pick up my pace to catch Fraser Cartmell (Scotland) who I could see just before the finish line but I ran out of time.
I ended up finishing 12th in a competitive field with a 23:22 swim, 2:12:55 bike, and a 1:17:44 for 3:57:51. Even though I had a rough last lap of the run I still feel that I have gone up to a new level in fitness and I am starting to be in the mix of the race. This is exactly what I needed for a confidence booster. It was a great field in Austin with Ironman Florida, Arizona and Cozumel as well as a lot of talented athletes in the area preparing for the 2009 World Championship in Florida.

I would like to thank Colonel’s Bikes, Lifesport, Coach Dan Smith, K-SWISS Canada, Ridglea Swimming, Frank from Powerbar and all of my friends and training partners for pushing me to new levels. Also big thanks to William Ritter for letting me borrow his new ZIPP disc wheel. I hope to be providing some photos soon.

Next on the agenda is World Championship preparation. Carley is moving down to Texas to start a job this week, and I’m pretty stoked. I will definitely have some stories and pics to post about our adventures.

Thanks for reading, Brent

Next up Longhorn 70.3

Off to Austin tomorrow for Longhorn 70.3. Last year i was 19Th with a 4:09 with some bike issues and a pretty good size field. I have alot of confidence from the last few weeks of training and even though i am getting ready for Clearwater 70.3 in November i still feel the fitness is there. I could write a big blog post about the hard session's i have completed but what really matters is how the body responds and how i do on race day. Since it will be somewhat of a short drive/hard training race i have a few little goals but mostly to have fun and really put myself in the race with a hard effort.

After this race i will really be trying to sharpen up for that big day in November. Pictures and race report's to come next week. I want to wish everyone good luck who is racing on Sunday, and don't forget to stick around and get your picture taken with a Longhorn.

Texas and an Update

First off I must apologize for my lack of posts lately. Since Muskoka not too much has gone down that is not the usual training/recovering routine. However, in terms of geographical location, I'm currently back in Texas for the long haul. It's perfect timing too as football season is just kicking off and the boys seem to be off to a pretty good start to the season so that is exciting. You can't live in Texas with out being a football fan!

This past weekend I raced a local 26.5 mile TT in Glenrose Texas. It was called the Texas Time Trials and it was an extremly hilly windy loop. I had a bet with the race director that I could hold over 24 mph with the climbs. I got lucky and did. I backed up Sunday with a pretty solid Bike/Run session so training seems to be rolling along.

I'm pretty excited to be back in Texas as the weather in Canada has turned to Winter very quickly. Carley has been working like a madwomen getting all her certifications and paperwork in line in order for her to move down here as well. She will be here tomorrow for some interviews and then it looks like she'll be here for the long haul with me.

Other than that training has been going well. After my race in Muskoka, I was left with the eagerness and determination to complete another race before worlds in November. And there happens to a race very close to my new home in Texas, the Longhorn 70.3. So I plan on racing that in a few weeks and then focusing on World Championships in November.

Cheers,

Pictorial of Muskoka 70.3

En route to Muskoka,

We stayed at the Pow Wow Lodge resort on the other side of the lake from the Muskoka swim start. It was awesome! I even caught a boat ride across the lake in the morning, with the owner, as oppose to having to sit in the traffic, park and take the shuttle down. It was a definite benefit.

Exiting the swim. It was nearly a 250m run to transition area from the beach exit.

Starting the bike off in great position, less than 1 minute back.

Right before I got off the bike and also minutes before I received the penalty.

Starting the run after a 4 minute penalty and an extra 1 minute thinking I was serving the penalty in transition area.

Finishing the run, not too pleased but accepting.

On the golf course with Carley attempting to ease my mind from the race.

Lessons learned! Thanks for viewing.