NOLA 70.3

On Sunday April 21st, I raced the New Orleans 70.3 all week I had a good vibe leading into the race, a few weeks early I had my first outing of the season at the San Juan 70.3, and had gone back to the grind in training to get set to race hard and fast in New Orleans.  I lined up with my friends and great training buddies Wes Anderson and Carlos Miranda; we enjoy sharing our racing experiences and are always there for one another along the way to have a fun and positive race day.  Wes and I got off to and not so smooth start in the Pro field, when the race officials decided to not countdown and blow the horn early, I was still un fogging my goggles and then all of a sudden it was GO!! I sprinted as hard as I could with my goggles all fogged up still, and managed to get back on the group, I felt great from the first stroke and started with the pack to the first turn which was about 500/600 out then we split and I found myself up front of the pack I was in, up until the last 400 or so when the other guys came around me, before we had to climb up the steep stairs for our Transition run. I had a great T1 and was out on the bike with no problem. 

On the bike we rode into a strong headwind after a quick out and back up a steep overpass, the bike course can be summed up pretty easy: wind from every direction, with super bumpy roads, mostly flat with the only hills coming for steep highway over passes.  My favorite part of the ride was heading down the road towards the Irish Bayou; I was thinking ‘I wonder if there is a pub down there somewhere??’   On the bike I felt OK, nothing special. There is some work to be done before I’m rolling at what I believe is possible and need to be hitting. But I’ll take it right now during the race I couldn’t push or drive, but the effort was more so a steady state effort. I was happy to be able to feel good in last 10k after having a not so great feeling previous 20k.  It’s always a joy to hop off the bike and feel a spring in your step, so many times we get off to heavy crappy legs and spend the first few miles on the run trying to find your running legs, I guess one of the positives of biking what felt below par was my legs were fresh from the start of the run. I straight away attacked after seeing 14 or so bikes in T2 (had a ball park idea from counting on the last out and bike) I charged hard and caught the guy I was riding with within 1.5milles, helped by a 5:12 first miles and then I locked into pace and held strong until the finish. I kept thinking of my soon to be born baby and was excited to be feeling so effortless and just be so consistence with my splits; slowest mile was a 5:39 up one of the small hills that we had to run up. I was rolling guys down and ended up 9^th at mile 10, after that I  couldn’t see another man up there road (afterwards found out the next guys was 2 mins up) On the last turn I was excited to hear my great friend Kyle Meyers of Silverback productions, shoot for me. He gave me the motivation to sprint to the line and I crossed in 3:56:09, which is the faster time by an Irishman.

Bill Burke and Premier Event Management did an excellent job with this race. We had a cool finish in historic Louis Armstrong Park. With lots of food afterward and a great free massage to speed up recovery!.

Couple of shootouts to my great support team,

My sponsors: Revolution Race Team San Antonio with the great backing of Alphia Warrior, The Fit Kitchen and Eoni, my employer Superfeet who just happens to make the best insole in the world which powers me to race fast and stay injury free.  My great training partners the Warpath’s!!! Susan Ingram and Tiitta Elias for all the work on my swim, it’s paying off.  Synergy Sports/Grey Wheels, Triathlete Health.com

 

Here is  photo of Kyle and I  @ the Finishline !

Race Plan 2013

 Schedule 2013

March 17^th San Juan 70.3

March 31^st Oceanside 70.3

April 21^st New Orleans 70.3

April 28^th Kemah Olympic

May 26^th Austin Cap Tex Olympic

June 9^th Kansas 70.3

June 30th Buffalo Springs 70.3

July 21^th Racine 70.3

Aug 4^th Bridgeland Sprint

Aug 25^th Chicago Tri

Sept 2^nd Houston Triathlon

Sept 8^th Worlds 70.3 Las Vegas

Sept 14^th Rose City Tri Sprint

Sept 15^th Trifecta Olympic

Oct 10th Lifetime Dallas Olympic

Oct 27th Austin 70.3

Checking In

Its been a while since I have posted and so much has happened I don't know were to start. So this will be a quick overview and more focused on getting me up to speed on blogging.

After 70.3 worlds I raced Rose City Tri and Possum Kingdom ( a gem of a race) I feel like I missed my peak by a week as I was jumping out of my skin both days. Its easily to sit here and say I could have done x y and z at Vegas. I had those guys actually! as you race the race on the day and get your finishing place to life with. End of story. Live-learn-forgot. But it got me excited for Austin 70.3 and beyond.... fast forward to Sept 19th (my bros birthday actually) I was in Baton Rouge, knocked out 3k in the pool with a masters group and was on one enjoyable  6 mile run around the lakes at LSU when I had a bad fall turned out fractured my Thumb and had surgery a week last. So 2012 was over and out !

6 weeks in a cast all up my arm with 3 pins holding my thumb in place for 4 weeks and the last 2 weeks I had just a case around my hand. I started back a little swimming in the last week when the cast, just 1000m or so 3 times. When the injury happened I decided to take a 1-2 week break and not do any workouts, then I started running only, with no structure just putting in miles and some tempo type stuff when I felt like it.

So when I hopped back officially in the pool, I wasn't expecting much in terms of pace or feel ! I was just happy to be back in the water and meet my friends at the pool again. But my masters Coach, Susan had me move to my normal lane for a set of 200m's, my goal was to hang on! when I saw the clock after rep 1, I knew I hadn't lost much at all. Just some endurance, which came back after a week or so. I'm so lucky to have a great swim coach to help me with my weakness and I'm excited to see what 2013 brings for me in Triathlon. No more losing lots of time !!!

Thankfully down in San Antonio we have amazing winter and our crew has starting to get focused and ready to put some solid basework in order to build for the next racing season. Wes and I have been kicking about racing plans for 2013. Lots to be determined and organized but for now its time to put the head down and get the work done. This coming week I will aim to get more specific with bike workouts and keep my swim volume high.

Finally I did the Hel of a Du Duathlon on Saturday and had lots of fun and knocked out a solid time to break the course record with my limited biking the last 12 weeks.  

Have a great week.

Robbie

70.3 World Champs

On Sunday the 10^th,  I raced the World Championships in Las Vegas, the field was stacked with all the household names along with the up and coming guys in the sport of Triathlon.  WTC did an amazing job finding a true course to test the physical and mental strength of each competitor you really earned your finishers medal out there!

Race day rolled around pretty quick and so did 3:30am on Sunday morning, race time was 6:30am and my morning went smooth and uneventful.  I did forget to put tape cover on my Disc to block the opening for the value! Ah well could have forgot to put on my water bottles.  I was positioned next to my friend Shannon for New Zealand, we always end up riding together when we race, I joked that we would probably end up getting out of the water together and getting in each other’s way on bike out.  Funny enough we did get out pretty much together.

The swim start was in the water and the hard part was for us not trying to inch/float forward after the 30sec countdown. But the line held somewhat steady then all crazy broke out with the sound of the cannon. I kept contact and was in the mix on feet to the first buoy. However, my group of 3-4 lost contact with the pack after a few hundred meters. When you have the caliber of guys like Potts and Josh Amberger the swim is going to be super fast from the gun. With that been said I was disappointed when I saw the clock at just under 30min,  my training and other races have indicted I should be around 28min. But I stayed positive and set out to hunt. We had a long transition before we got to our bikes, then I saw a few guys start the climb so I attacked the first hill to make contact, and ended up just driving past and keeping the head down. I caught some more guys before the turn around at mile 24; we had some serious climbing   and descents and then hit a head wind on the return.  Before I reached the turn I saw the front group of 12 and a chase pack of 9, I counted myself at 39 so I picked off 5 bikes and ended up getting 6 or 7 more before hitting T2. I got off the bike feeling ready to run, but reminded myself patience’s was key to the run with the heat and hills, I kept moving up and hitting solid splits both up and down hill, until right at 10.5miles when my focus turned to the finish mode, I did pick off some more guys and kicked in strong to end up 24th in 4:20:56.

Overall I was pleased with my result, I don't think I raced up to my expectations and fitness level but when I look around at the guys just up the road from me and behind me I got to be happy, time/splits is really not a factor it's all about getting yourself in the mindset of racing on the edge on a day when it’s so hot.  I can proudly say I'm 24th in the world in my second year racing Pro.

This result wouldn’t have be possible without the great support team of  sponsors, friends and family so thanks so much to Bart and Mindy of Snapple Tri Team, Also On Running Shoes (Thanks Jon Cook), Immunotec keeping me healthy and allowing me to recover strong. Superfeet for being the best company in the world to work for and making great performance products that everyone should be wearing!! And last but not less my amazing wife Heather.

More to come on Rose City Sprint Tri and Trifecta Olympic  double win weekend.

Thanks,

Robbie