Evergreen Lake Sprint Race Report

Evergreen Lake Triathlon weekend always promises to be an interesting weekend…this year did not disappoint.  Somehow I convinced Matt and Adam to come along for the weekend. I’m not sure if it was the possibility they may get to go disc golfing, camping, or beer…but either way, it is always fun to have more people come along. So Friday afternoon Matt and Adam came to my house to pick up Wyatt and me. We made the hour drive down to Hudson for packet pick up, all the normal stuff that goes with packet pick up, and then I did a quick workout. While I was working out, they set up the tents….we finally figured out we were going to have 6 people, but only tent space for 4…possibly 5. Oh well, that was an issue for a different time—we all just wanted dinner. We ate at Firehouse Pizza in Bloomington, and I had my pre-race beer: Dark Horse Imperial Stout. YUM! Went back to the campsite, talked forever, goodnight….much later than I would normally go to bed, but we were having fun.

These are the two I trusted to set up the tent...

Race morning was the usual: up before the sun, stumble around like a zombie for a few minutes, our noise makers may or may not have opened a beer at 5 something in the morning, and we got ready for the race. With packet pick up the day before and camping 200m away from the race start, it made race morning pretty simple. Pump up the tires, walk bike into Transition, and sit around for a while. The water temp was 81.1 degrees, so not we wetsuit legal. Dang! Oh well, I only had to swim a 500m. They Olympic started at 7, and the sprint started at 7:30…I had a while.

Swim (500m): 9:16

I was hoping to swim in the 8:30-8:40 range, so when I saw 9:16, I was instantly disappointed. Then I remembered that A) this swim course is usually set long B) I still had a 40k bike ahead of me C) It was meters, not yards, so it was so bad. Anyway, I just used positive self talk—Coree, you’re awesome…you swam so well…you’re doing great—and started running for T1.

Not only can they make noise and set up tents, they can take pictures too!

T1: 1:08

This was an absolute mess. Normally my T1 is flawless, but I struggled to get my helmet on this time. I also was not taking a bottle cage on my bike this time, I just planned on holding a bottle in the back of my speedo…since I ride with 1-2 back there on training rides anyway (yes, I wear bike shorts when training).  I was stupid though, and tied my speedo too tight before the swim and couldn’t get the bottle in there. SO, I held the bottle in my mouth, did ran out of T1, flying mount onto the bike, and started to ride…still could not get the bottle in—I hadn’t realized my speedo was tied too tight yet. And, I forgot to loosen the straps on my shoes, so I could not get my feet in my shoes. This little situation ended up probably costing me :15…stupid mistakes.

Bike (40k):  1:02:56

I don’t have much to say about the bike course, besides it is a giant lollipop, and it can fun or miserable, depending on the wind. I honestly couldn’t tell you what direction the wind was blowing, but I was feeling good. It was a rather uneventful ride, and I was only passed by one person on the bike! I just remember being about half way tough the ride, looking down at my watch and thinking, “uh oh, I’m going fast…this can’t be good….but I feel great.”

T2: :48.2 (Fastest)

Quick and simple. In and out. So, 1 for 2 on transitions today.

 

Hoping for a cleaner dismount than the last time I was here..

Run (“5k”): 16:54 (Fastest)

Earlier this year, I got to run the 5k course for the Tri Shark Du. I ran 17:21(5:27/mile) and was angry that I didn’t go sub 17 there…only to find out the course was 5.2 miles…so I felt much better about that. Well, same course this time and I was 16:54 (5:17/mile) 6 weeks later. I had no idea what place I was in starting the run, but I knew I had some work to do. I knew Stephen passed me out of T1, and some guy passed me 15 miles into the bike, so there were at least 2 ahead of me, along with Litowitz and Alexander. So at best I was in 5^th for the sprint, but with my weak swim I figured there would be more out there. My first mile was a 5:18 and I thought, “Oh, Sh*t! I can’t hold this…but it kind of feels easier than some of my workouts…just keep pushing.” I could see Stephen up ahead nearing the turn around. I knew I was in 4^th. I’m pretty sure Stephen flipped me off as he passed me on his was back…this was playing out just like Tri Shark. Sure enough, a little after the 2 mile mark I passed him, and was pretty sure I had 3^rd place. There were few athletes on the course ahead of me, Litowitz and some of the elite Olympic guys, at this point it the goal was just to push it in. Mile 2 was 5:18, mile 3 was 5:24, my last .2 was :54 to run 16:54, good enough for the fastest run split of the day.

Hey, there's Thomas Gerlach!

Finish: 1:31:04. 1^st Collegiate, 3^rd OA.

Thoughts on the race:

 Okay:

     -Swim split—Not what I wanted, but really not awful.

 Bad:

     -T1—I just fumbled…A lot.

 Good:

     -Bike Split- 1:18 in 2010, 1:09 in 2012, 1:02 now

     -Run- :10/mile faster now than 6 weeks ago on same run course

     -Bringing friends to the race—most fun I have had at a tri in a while.

Thanks to Coach Steve for making me fast! Thanks to Matt and Adam for coming along and making some noise…when I do an Ironman someday (a long time from now), I will hire you two to be my noise makers. And thanks to the NIU team (and some of the SIU team) for making it a fun weekend!

Here we go NIU...I don't know why I'm not smiling...or wearing pants...

Next up? 70.3 Racine! What’s next for you?

A Little Bit of Everything...

What a crazy two weeks it has been. I have quite a bit to cover.

Training

Weddings

Sponsorship

Random Thoughts

Well, here we go…

TRAINING:

Training has been fun, but I seemed to be riding the struggle bus for a bit. I come from a running background, but I still struggle on run workouts from time to time—or for a week at a time. I think I was just frustrated with myself for not being able to complete the workouts as well as I would have liked. Luckily things made a turn for the better at the end of this week and things started to come back. Coach told me, “Nobody said getting fast was going to be easy.” I think that was his nice way of saying suck it up and run. Haha. I finally had a good long run (thanks to Wyatt riding along with me carrying fluids for me) and it is definitely a confidence booster going into races the next two weekends. 

Biking was also a struggle for a while, or I just wasn’t super motivated to hop on the trainer after swimming at 5:30 am and doing data entry all day. Data entry is monotonous enough (but I am thankful to have a job!) but then to have to ride the trainer a few nights was my breaking point. I started wondering if I would be ready for Racine, or if I even made the right decision signing up for it…and then one day I finally had a great ride and everything seemed to be back to normal.

I'm such a happy camper...

Swimming…well, my swimming is always hit or miss, but I have been having some decent workouts. Actually I don’t even know if they are decent workouts, but I am feeling good in the water, so that is a plus. I have been working on the catch/pull with my left arm since I really just didn’t have much of one, and it has been helping…now I just need to keep my legs up in the water. I can only think about so many things while swimming, but I would love to get to the point someday where I do not have to think about anything! Although, on Saturday I had one of those moments where everything just felt "right." I'm not sure what "correct" swimming really feels like, but  I think that may have been it.

Overall, I love training, even when I struggle. It may not always sound like I love it, but I really do. I think the hard/struggle weeks just make the weeks that seem easy just that much sweeter.  Over the past few weeks I’ve really had to learn to let go of the bad workouts before going into another workout, and just focus on the task at hand.

This is what all roads seemed to look like.

 WEDDING:

My friends Ross and Rosie got married a week ago J I wish I could say I remember the moment, but I don’t… let’s rewind. A few months ago Ross asked me to be a groomsman in the wedding—I said “let me think about it” because I really wanted to race 70.3 BSLT. In the back of my mind I knew saying yes was the right thing to do, but BSLT seemed like fun. So I came up with about 10 different plans on ways to be in a wedding on Sat afternoon in IL and make it to Lubbock to still race on Sun…none of which were actually possible in real life—but they were plenty possible in my mind. Anyway I finally told him yes, but said I wouldn’t be mad if they changed the date.

Now it is June 29. I was supposed to have a 35ish minute swim and 3ish hour ride in the morning…giving me plenty of time to eat, rest, and get cleaned up for the wedding. I felt great swimming in the lake, and Grandma Dot had breakfast ready for us, so I ate, and then went out on the bike. My workout tuned south pretty quickly, and I was practically driving the struggle bus. I ended up calling the ride at 2.5 hours, and didn’t feel so great.

Lunch was waiting for me when I got off the bike, so I ate and then started to get cleaned up. Once we were all ready, we went to the church to get dressed and take some pictures. I must say for a group of runners/athletes we clean up pretty well! After pictures we sat around for a little bit, and then it was show time. Josh and I have had a running joke going for the past few months of who was going to be the star of the show; after all, he was the best man (even though we all know I am always the star). So before we went on stage some of us were joking that we were going to lock our knees and see if we pass out—I mean nobody actually does that…do they?

We clean up pretty well!

 Now we’re on stage. Literally 10 minutes into the wedding I get a weird feeling in my stomach, and I got all hot and sweaty. Great.  I have one job to do…stand there and look good. I decided to try and shift my weight a little bit to get more comfortable, and as I was shifting I got all light headed. Oh joy. I went to move again and I went tunnel vision on Ethan’s shoulder. The next thing I know there are people hovering over me asking me if I can hear them, my shirt is half unbuttoned, and I am laying on the floor in the back of the church. Apparently I passed out on stage, and no, I did not lock my knees. Guess I really did steal the show haha. So, I don’t even remember much of the wedding, but I know it was good! And congrats Ross and Rosie! I guess I was just so filled with emotion that it moved me to the ground.

The happy couple! Congrats!

 (PS— I’ve been checked out since then and I am okay.)

Also, Rosie’s Grandparents are the best! First, you have to be a saint to put up with 10 college guys staying at your house for a few days, but they loved having us. And we all had a great time hanging out with them, and Dot cooks up a storm! They should open up a tri camp at their house. We could swim in the lake, ride out country roads, and eat at “Dot’s Diner.”

 

I wouldn't mind training here!

SPONSORSHIP:
I applied to be a part of Hawk Racing and didn’t really expect to hear anything back. I had applied to a few other companies and they politely said “thanks, but no thanks” or something along those lines. Well, on Monday morning I got an email saying I was picked up as one of the Hawk Racing sponsored riders! I am pumped. I need to replace the bottom bracket on my bike—it has been making noise, so I can’t wait to try out a new Hawk bottom bracket. I have heard they are awesome, so I can’t wait to use it!

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RANDOM THOUGHTS:
*I always seem to have good long workouts the day after a dark beer or two.

*Sanjay and Craig could quite possibly be my new favorite TV show.

*Casey’s (gas station) has the best smiley face cookies!

*I am super excited for 70.3 Racine!

*I never used to like blueberries, but this summer I can’t stop eating them!

*If you say, "Wear your swimsuit to the pool party," I may show up dressed like this…

Happy 4th of July!

Have a great week y’all.

Rockford Olympic Race Report

Well, where to begin? Last weekend Wyatt and I loaded our stuff into my truck to head north for the Rockford Triathlon & MECTC/MWCTC Conference Challenge. He was excited because it was his first triathlon, and I was excited to try and improve upon my time for the previous year. Now, let me tell you, road trips with me are fun. Since I don’t have an IPod hook up in my truck, you get to listen to CDs or the radio. I usually download some music and randomly put it on a CD and come up with some weird title for it—this trip wasn’t any different. All we had to do was stop by the gas station and we’d be on our way. Well, we had some minor truck trouble at the gas station to set us back a good 15 minutes…a good start to the trip, right?  Anyway, we were meeting our friends Chad and Matt at the park for packet pickup and a quick workout before dinner. Long story short, we all ended up getting to the park at different times, and doing workouts at different times, but hey, it happens.

The only picture I took the whole weekend.

 As we were getting ready to leave the park at 9:30pm to head to dinner, my truck stated acting up again. Wonderful. But, at that time I didn’t care, I just wanted dinner. I don’t even remember the name of the pizza place Erik took us to, all I know is they had pizza by the slice. Good enough for me. We finally made it to Chad’s house a bit after 10:15—just in time to go to bed and wake up at 4:20. Woohoo.

Now I’ll skip all the other fluff and get to the race.

Swim- 28:18 –I was happy with that. It was an in water start this year, and we had a good 5-10 minutes of wating around out in the water before the gun went off. I found a good set of feet to get on and just rode it out. It was a 2 loop swim, and I am kind of awful at sighting, so I decided to follow….after looking back at the Garmin data, apparently the person I was following couldn’t swim a straight line…but I’m sure I wouldn’t have been any better! Haha.

T1- 1:42 I love this race because it has a long T1. Free seconds!

Bike- 1:09:02 –It had started raining during the swim, and it continued on the bike. I was slightly miserable since I really do not like riding in the rain. With a crash, and being hit by a car in the past year, I seem to play it safe on the bike in less than favorable conditions. The wind and rain made for a cautious, but good effort ride It is a simple out and back. Luckily I rode the course the previous weekend, so I knew the spots to watch out for.

T2- :34 Quick and easy. Shoes were soaked.

Run- 34:58. (I forgot to stop my garmin) We rode the run course yesterday and I quickly remembered why run times are slow here…it’s hilly. They had primes for fastest in each discipline, and I was hoping to win the run prime this year. I had some good miles and some okay miles this year. I don’t think I pushed the uphill sections hard enough. It almost felt like a 10k time trial on a hilly course. I would pass a group of 3-5 and then I might not see anybody again for ¾ mile. I just had to run hard and keep pushing, because I never know what could be going on behind me. This race had a few different waves, and we started in wave 1. I never really know who is ahead or behind me. I believe last year I set the run course record @ 37:09, and this year I ran 34:58, but some dude ran 34:57 for the fastest run split and the $50 check! Dang. He also happens to be a DIII All-American in the 10k, so I didn’t feel so bad when I found that out.

Total- 2:14:42 7^th OA, 5^th Collegiate.

	2012	2013	Difference
Swim	31:34	28:18	-3:16
T1	2:11	1:42	-:29
Bike	1:14:43	1:09:07	-5:36
T2	:58.9	:34	-:25
Run	37:09	34:58	- 2:11
Total	2:26:37	2:14:42	-11:55

So, what can I take away from this?
*My swim still needs a lot of work

*I can bike harder
*I need to stay focused on the run when I’m in a gap

*Transitions are key—13 seconds separated 7-10^th. They all beat me on the swim and bike, but my run saved me, along with quick transitions.

It was nice to race with the NIU team and see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while. Thanks to Chad for letting us stay at this house Friday night. And I must say, the pulled pork sandwiches and fruit smoothies after the race were a great touch—I only had 4 of each. Then we made a quick stop by McDonalds after the race for some more goodness. Wyatt introduced me to this chocolate chip coffee something or other, and it was pretty good…okay, really good. It can’t possibly be good for me though!

In other news, I took some underwater swim video, and I think I can see why I’m swimming slow. This was taken from my cooldown, but still…

End of Track, Start of Tri!

Well, I have a long overdue update. I’ll keep it short!

5000m at North Central College

Results:

April 27       SLIAC    1500m   2^nd,  Conference runner-up

May 4         NCCAA  5k         9^th 15:38

May 5         Try-Tri     1^st OA (my first OA win)

May 10       NCC       1500m 4:02

May 16-17  NCC       5k 15:42, 1500m 4:02

June 1          Tri-Shark 4^th OA, 1^st AG/1^stnon-elite

Teammates!

SO…what has happened in the last six weeks?

I missed scoring by 1 place at NCCAAs, but Dad still gave me a hug anyway!

- Track ended. It has been a fun 13 years of competitive track!

            *Thank you to all of those who have supported me through the many years. It has been great getting to know everybody. I was lucky to have some great coaches to help shape me into the runner I am today.

Coach P!

-Tri training has picked up…A LOT.

            *Longer bike intervals. More intervals. Longer runs. Different types of runs.

--Weddings! I have 4-5 weddings of friends that I’ve gone to/will be going to this summer, and I am very excited. I love weddings, they are such a happy time.

It is wedding season :) Looks like construction season too!

Favorite Workouts?

-Geneva Group Ride. On Memorial Day we went up to Geneva to for a group ride, and it was nice to workout with guys my own age. I can’t remember the last time I had a group of guys my age to ride with…and of course breakfast with the group after didn’t hurt.

-12x400m. I was doing this at my local high school, and it just so happened to be jr high graduation the same night. I may or may not have started out a little too quick on some of the early 400s, so I was hurting toward the end. There was a group of probably 10 5^th graders that came outside and started watching my workout, about 7 400m in. They decided they wanted to cheer me on. Well, on number 10 I was not feeling well at all, and after I finished I stated throwing up. Second time that has ever happened to me from a workout! Well, these kids loved it, and started cheering louder for me as I was losing my lunch than when I was running. I made some new fans that day!

2 shots from run #2 @ Tri-Shark.

Biggest Difference Between Track and Tri?

-More bike. Longer, harder intervals. More time on the bike. With running, I could usually just turn my brain off and run. I could feel pace pretty well, and sometimes I could just go through the motions and still get it done. Now,  I have to make sure I am mentally ready going into every workout, and I really cannot turn my brain off…even on runs. Also, I am learning to still run well on tired legs. I was always scared to push the bike too hard during the track season, because I was afraid my legs would be gone for a track workout. Now, I can ride hard and I realize I am still fine to run.

Look...I'm actually enjoying the bike!

What Am I Most Excited For

-Everything! Training. Racing. It is a new challenge and I really think it is going to be fun!

The sun was very rare to see for a few days!

Rest of the Season?

-Rockford Olympic Tri    June 15

-70.3 Racine                   July 21

-AG Nationals                Aug 10

-70.3 Vegas                    Sept 8

-Rev3 Branson                Sept 22

-70.3 Austin                    October 27

Song of the Week

(I’ll do two since I have missed like 6. Good logic, I know haha)

All Black Everything—Lupe Fiasco

Here Comes the Weekend--Pink