St. George pictures

The early going.

Finding a rhythm.

Splashing through the puddles.

Approach to the finish.

The finish!

Losing all your marbles

Before embarking on my first marathon training program, I asked the question, "I have never run more than four miles before, how will I be able to run 26? In one day?" The answer was complete cheese and went something like this...

"I'll give you a bag of 26 marbles and after each mile you throw out one marble.  When you cross the finish line look down in your bag and you will see you just lost all your marbles." - Mark Foist.

Officially my time in St. George was 2:59:36.  I thought about what I would write, but in the end decided there probably wasn’t much to say.  I had a good race and felt great. The weather looked menacing at first but helped keep my legs cool and wet. I ran a negative split of 1:33/1:27 just like I had hoped and planned. I told Carey the day before the race I planned to run sub 3.  I laughed when I said it knowing that if I truly wanted to do that, I would have to run my fastest half marathon ever and it would be in the second half. Although I laughed, a part of me thought I might be able to pull it off.

My favorite moment in the race came after I crossed the finish line (of course).  In previous marathons and Ironmans, when I crossed the line, it was done. No emotional ending or discharge, just a simple “I am glad that is over.”  This time was different. I embraced Carey and had a hard time holding back. It was roughly six years ago that Carey and I became active in running.  It was the finish of the San Diego marathon that captured my attention. Watching runner after runner endure a pain unimaginable to cross a line marked on the ground before the clock overhead struck 3:00:00. I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. In the grand scheme of things, whether I finished 2:59:59 or 3:00:01 is irrelevant.  What’s a couple of seconds after all? But on this day, this race, this time, it mattered. I don’t know why, but I know it did.

This is how I got it done.

1 - 7:43 (7:43)
2 - 7:26 (15:09)
3 - 7:13 (22:22)
4 - 7:00 (29:23)
5 - 6:51 (36:14)
6 - 6:05 (42:40)
7 - 6:44 (49:05)
8 - 7:40 (56:45)
9 - 7:47 (1:04:33)
10 - 6:46 (1:11:19)
11 - 7:19 (1:18:39)
12 - 7:06 (1:25:45)
13 - 6:54 (1:32:40)
14 - 6:47 (1:39:27)
15 - 6:33 (1:46:01)
16 - 6:19 (1:52:21)
17 - 6:44 (1:59:05)
18 - 6:17 (2:05:23)
19 - 6:56 (2:12:19)
20 - 6:51 (2:19:11)
21 - 6:04 (2:25:16)
22 - 6:36 (2:31:53)
23 - 6:31 (2:38:24)
24 - 6:30 (2:44:55)
25 - 6:39 (2:51:34)
26.2 – 8:05 (2:59:39)

Run smart,

J-Rod

2:59

Enough said.

Changing winds

Fall is beginning to whisper in my ear and in previous years, I dread that cold whisper. Not surprising since I have lived in Houston and So Cal for over 25 years absorbing the warmth and sunshine deep into my flesh. As a result, my motivation for braving the cold is usually absent during fall/winter which causes me to struggle in early season races. Last year was the exception when I struggled through the entire year. This year I am trying a new strategy. I haven’t been on my bike since the 5430 Long Course back in early August except for once. Even a month later I am not chomping at the bit to get back on. I simply haven’t thought about the bike that much since the race. For the time being, I am enjoying being a pure runner. I hope my St. George results reflect the work I have put into my running and more importantly, I hope that same running fitness carries over into next year. I have always struggled on the runs in a triathlon so I am trying to give myself a jump start this time around.

I am hoping that by the time mid-October rolls around, I will be craving to get back on the bike regardless of weather. Until that craving comes, I’ll let the bike rest in favor of running shoes.

Those that know me know it is usually around this time I start the great debate. Do I hang up the triathlon gear in favor of being a pure cyclist? This year there is no debate. I am triathlete AND I am a cyclist. At least for another year.

So as I look ahead to St. George and beyond to next season, I see a lot of areas I need to work on to really improve and continue taking steps forward. Much like this year’s election, this off season will be about change. I need to do something different to get off the plateau I have been on the last couple of years. So what is in store for me next year? I can’t say just yet, but you can bet that I will be changing things up in the racing scene as well as the off season. Besides, if I make any big announcements here, it will take away from another big story.

Run hard,
J-Rod

Thoughts from a 56 mile ride during the 5430 Long Course

- Should I be hurting on the bike this soon (less than a mile into the race)? Better back off.

- Crap, speed up, you just got passed by a girl. At least, she rides for Toyota-United. Still gotta pass her back though.

- I need a new saddle.

- That dude has four water bottles on his $6K carbon bike! WTF? There are six aid stations on this bike course. Idiot!

- Was that Steve running on Jay Rd? Maybe I should be doing a long run instead of this race. He’s fast ya know.

- Dammit! She passed me again. Go hard, show no mercy.

- Wow, that’s the fifth dude that has passed me and we haven’t even hit the 5 mile mark.

- I am glad the clouds are covering the sun.

- Why won’t my legs go faster? Push! Fuck, that hurts, back off.

- Those three guys are pace lining it. Assfucks!

- I wonder what it’s like to do the entire race in a speedo.

- Damn, my legs really hurt right now and I haven’t even finished the first lap. This is going to suck. I mean this already sucks.

- I wonder if Carey and the kids still plan on coming to the Rez? They are probably watching the Olympics.

- I dig women’s beach volleyball!

- I want to go to Maui. Maui Waui! He he. I wonder what it would be like to do this race high. Never mind, I don’t have enough food with me. It would suck.

- Can’t wait to have a burrito at the finish.

- Shit, I may not finish. This ride really sucks.

- Holden’s a tough monkey. He wouldn’t complain like this. I should be a tough monkey. Be like Holden.

- I need to get some work done after this race. Maybe I should go to the office. Will I be too tired?

- That’s the third racer I have seen with a flat tire. If I flat, I would be fucked [I don’t race with spares]. Wait…I hope I get a flat.

- Are you kidding me? I have to run after this shit.

- Triathlon sucks.

- Fuck, I dropped my water bottle (I only have one water bottle cage). I wish I had four water bottles on my bike like that one dude. I am an idiot!

- The next asshole with a disk wheel (and that trademark disk wheel sound) passes me, I am going to chuck my water bottle at them. Wait, I don’t have a water bottle. Idiot!

- Don’t overcook that corner. Damn that was close.

- I wonder if I actually have to finish the race in order to get a burrito.

- Will Carey think I am a pussy if I quit? I bet Holden will. I should at least start the run.

- Finally, the Rez. That was a shitty ride. Don’t do that again.

Plain and simple, I lacked focus. Usually I focus on turning the pedals without all the other noise. That didn't happen Sunday. The season is over so plenty to think about in the fall/winter. I do have one race left this year and it has nothing to do with a bike. It will be a nice change of pace.

Run hard,
J-Rod

Boulder Peak Triathlon 2008

My build up to the Peak had been going good. Not great, but good. Swimming had been a little spotty since Florida ½ IM, but I was beginning to find my stroke and also riding into form on the bike. Running was also good, but not great.

Bike racing the two weekends before the Peak would be on tap to really build my speed going into the Peak. Niwot was the first of three bike races on menu and as it turned out, it would be the last. After running a solid race for the first 58 minutes, the final lap turned into a disaster. Long story short, I took the final turn too fast and hard and hit the deck at 25-30 mph skidding across the pavement donating copious amounts of flesh (from both sides of my ass) to the town of Niwot. For the next week and half I would ooze blood and slime through bandages and pants. Clearly I would not be working out the final two weeks before the Peak. In addition to half of my ass missing, I suffered some trauma to my left wrist tearing some tendons that connect the ulna to the little finger. The tear while minor made riding up and down hills painful and swimming was a bit of a challenge.

Thankfully the triathlon gods smiled down on me because on the Wednesday before the Peak, I could start training again which I promptly took advantage of. By the time the Peak rolled around, almost all of my injuries had healed or was at least not significant enough to play a role in how I raced. I no longer had injuries to worry about on race day, instead it was just fitness.

The week leading up to the Peak, the family and I were honored to host a one the men’s professional athletes from France, Nicolas Becker. Nico is an easy going guy that seemed to just blend into the family.

I had no real goals for the race. After all on the Tuesday before, I basically threw in the towel after attempting to swim and unable to due to my wrist. I was just lucky to be there. That being said, if I show up at a race, I plan to go hard.

That’s what I did when we launched into the water. I went hard. Too hard! After the first 250-300 meters, I blew up in spectacular fashion. I stopped to look around praying I was only dreaming and would get a do over. But no luck, only charging athletes looking at me ready to swim right through me if I didn’t get moving. After doing some back stroke, breast stroke, doggy paddling, floating, etc., I finally settled into my own pace. At the conclusion of the swim I swam almost two minutes faster than last year. I suspect the swim course was shortened.

The adventure continued with the bike leg. Following the enforced speed limit of 35 coming down Old Stage, once I hit the bottom I began to really crank on the pedals out of the saddle to build back up to speed. That’s when my chain came flying off the big ring sending my legs out of the pedals and my body nearly over the top of my handlebars. Not a good feeling at 35 mph. Luckily, I stayed on my machine and avoided disaster. I reached down to get my chain back on (not an easy task at 35mph) which it did not want to go on easily. It finally made it on and I was off again. The remainder of the bike (and the race for the most part) I simply could not seem to push or go hard. I was on cruise control and unable to accelerate. Same thing for the run, but by that time, I had checked out of the race mentally. I still enjoyed the race (not the heat) and kept a positive attitude. I crossed the line 1 min faster than last year. Again, the swim course had to have been shorter since my bike and run times were slower. The race can be characterized as a comedy of errors. I have three weeks until the long course (half Ironman) so hopefully I can fine tune some things and really have a solid race and be able to push hard.

After my race, I waited for Nico to return from the bike leg (pros started 1.5 hours after age groupers). The men’s pro field was stacked with Olympians, Xterra Champions, and World Champions (Matt and Shane Reed, Simon Lessing, Peter Robertson, Seth Wealing, etc). Matt Reed set a punishing pace on the bike and followed that with a blistering pace on the run to capture the title. Nico, coming off of the Providence 70.3 race last week, put in what I thought was a great race against the best athletes in the world to finish 12th.

The remainder of the week I live like a bachelor with Carey and the kids living it up in Oklahoma with the Bushyheads. Chaos can’t even begin to describe what it’s like there with seven kids and three dogs in that house.

Stay tuned for some more updates as I head into the final part of the racing season.

Ride hard,
J-Rod

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Disney (and 70.3), TTs, crits, politics and more

I am due for some updates. Let's see, there was Florida 70.3, Disney World, road racing, politics, and a whole lot more. I won’t hit all these topics in this post but I do plan to cover it all over the next week or so. So sit tight.

City Park

My first crit of the year turned out to be a crash filled race with no less than 5-6 separate incidents. Anytime you mix 80 egos with super high octane aggression and a technical course, crashes are inevitable. Some crashes are the result of the aggressive riding, some a result of carelessness, and one or two just an act of God.

As usual with any crit the three elements it takes to win, especially technical crits like City Park, are positioning, fitness, and luck. I had most of those elements in the race but lacked in the fitness department to really impact the race and could have used a little more luck.

Fifteen minutes into the 60 minute race after a prime sprint, I jumped off the front. When the pace slowed a bit I took that as an opportunity to make something happen. I was joined a short time later by Delaney (eventual winner) and a rider from Spine and Sport. This attempt netted the three of us nothing more than a several minutes of being clear of potential crashes in the pack.

Tucked in the back in the early break.

For the rest of the race, I just tried to stay near the front and hope luck would keep me out of trouble. With a couple of laps remaining, I saw Diran moving up to the front with Jeremy in tow. Once I saw this, I too moved to the front to help drive the pace the final two laps and hopefully setup any one of our capable sprinters. After drilling it at the front for about a minute, I eased up hoping someone would pull through to keep the pace fast. That’s when a rider from Horizon Organic pulled around and said something like “Let’s go.”’ I turned back and saw a gap had formed so we punch it. Unfortunately the fuel tank was flirting with Empty and once again my attempt for glory in a break failed.

The remaining lap was about recovering as much as possible for one last dig for the inevitable sprint finish. Approaching the final turn I was sitting 5th wheel. That’s when Delany streaked by on the outside to preempt the sprint. I knew when he passed by that was the winning move. We all scrambled for some wheels and as we came out of the final turn, a rider in front of me we down for no apparent reason (this was one of those crashes that had to have been an act of God as I saw nothing to bring him down). Although I was able to avoid the crash, it was enough to disrupt my sprint causing me to lose 4-5 places. That’s where I could have used a little more luck. Regardless, the winning move had been made and we were all just sprinting to slide into a money spot. In the end I crossed the line in 10th place just good enough for the last money place. It took a protest and a review of the finish video to actually get my result. Initially I was scored as not having finished.

Revving it up for the sprint before the act of God

The kids then took their turn for racing glory in the kids race. Although it appears Megan was ready to stick it to the rest of the field (including big brother), don’t be fooled. Immediately after the start, the deafening screams from obsessed parents froze her in her tracks like a dear in the headlights. I managed to get her to ride the one lap. I think we will need to check the photo finish as I am pretty sure she pipped the last rider on the road to be the 74th out of 75th rider. It was all in good fun.

All systems go!

TTs

There is no other race that hurts more in my opinion than a TT. I jumped into the Bouder TT series last week to work my upper limits more and I did just that. It was the first time on the Javelin since Florida and I hadn't quite put the bike fully back together. Unfortunately I didn't remember this until my handlebars started sliding around and my seat post started dropping on Hwy 36 about a quarter through the race. Regardless, I posted a decent time and succeeded in working my upper zone.

That was last week. This week I took cover under the shelter of a nice glass of red wine instead of showing my grit in the rain. There is always next week.

Ride hard,

J-Rod

Puppies, politics, bronchitis and racing

I finally gave in. The kids and Carey worked me over pretty good and now we have a three month old puppy named Otis. I can’t complain. Seeing the kids completely enamored by the pup is worth cleaning up his piss and shit.

Speaking of piss and shit, Clinton scored a victory in Penn. Tuesday, however at what cost? Obama still has more delegates, more votes, more states, and a hell of a lot more class.

Thanks to all the political pollution, I am still trying to recover from bronchitis. I sound like shit, I am easing back onto the bike, and I race this weekend in beautiful Deer Trail where the forecast is for wind and lots of it.

Race and wind? Didn’t I just do that? Oh yeah, Haystack TTT. Just because you have teammates with you in a time trial, it doesn’t make it any easier. We managed to pull off 4^th place with less than 20 seconds covering 2nd-4th places. Not bad considering we never practiced and our start look more like a Mt. Evans HC finish with everyone scattered. I’ll take the heat on that one. My starts are so powerful that not many racers can match the intensity and power I produce (nor the bullshit I talk).

I head back to Redlands next week, but this time only for a couple of days. No bikes and no races. Just work. I’ll get back in time to get throttled for Lookout Mountain HC. Why do I race again? Oh yeah, it builds character. But I thought I was already a character?

Ride hard,

J-Rod

Picking up the pieces

After having been away from home for a week and a half (seems longer), I am finally back where I belong. While Redlands is especially nice this time of year, there truly is no place like home.

I officially kicked off the race season in San Dimas this past weekend. This race in my mind was listed as one of my priority races. I knew the course from last year and had already written my victory speech blog entry. The time trial was hard but I managed to secure a solid third place and only 27 seconds behind the leader. The road race I won on a solo break beating the pack by nearly a minute. The crit was more ceremonial than anything and ended with me still standing atop the podium as GC winner.

Unfortunately, that is not how the story really played out. The true story went something like this: I sucked ass on the TT, sucked even more ass on the road race, and because of all the ass sucking the previous two days, I was not allowed to suck any more ass for the crit.

For me, the weekend will be remembered for the road race. I was out of the race before it really began. The race was on a 7 mile circuit with one KOM climb (not very long, but really steep). The first time up the climb, I slid to the back as my heart was about to come through my chest. Near the top of the climb, I popped. Unfortunately I could not chase back on and that was it. I was out of the race before the first lap was complete. As I approached the start/finish I was ready to call it a day. However instead of pulling off, I kept going. I knew inside that I had to keep racing until I finished the race or until I was pulled. I was later joined by another rider and together we urged each other on until ultimately we were pulled from the race.

I will analyze things trying to pin down what went so wrong, but in the end I will take the advice of Mark and “just be Manny”. Thanks for the tip and a place to crash.

Be sure to take a look at the photos Lisa took at the race. There are some great shots in there.

Don’t suck so much ass,

J-Rod

Spring-ing into action

Spring is almost here and with it the race season. In fact the road race season officially kicked off today in Fort Collins, but without me. Right now, my focus is later in March for the San Dimas Stage Race. Yep, it's the same race where I was throttled in the road race. I am intent on not letting that happen again. But first, I must focus on the hills since the stage one is a time trial up Glendora Mountain. Oddly enough, I did fairly well in the TT considering how little I rode in the hills leading up to that race.

My training was derailed for a bit, when I drove my bike into the garage atop the car. The sound of crunching carbon is not a sound I would wish upon anyone (including my enemies). Thankfully I was insured and now have a new machine (Madone 5.5). Today I put that new bike to the test by climbing, climbing, and climbing. I still have a ways to go, but I know I am getting there.

After San Dimas, my focus turns to Florida Ironman 70.3 in May. My preparation for this race will be very similar to my prep for San Dimas by climbing, climbing, and climbing. Beyond that, the only races I will be really focusing on are Mt. Evans and Longmont. I won't be winning Mt. Evans, but I do look to make a statement there. As for Longmont, I want to win, period.

Ride hard,
J-Rod