This weeks picture is of my girlfriend Kelly. The picture has nothing to do with the title, except that she currently lives in Indiana and it was taken in my parent's back yard, which is in Indiana. Oh, and Kelly is a fast swimmer!
Kelly has TMJ, which has been causing her to suffer from severe headaches. There are a few ways to correct this problem: surgery, wearing a mouth guard for the rest of your life, or braces for a year. She has currently been wearing a mouth guard, but is scheduled to get braces September 15th. She is very nervous about this, as anyone getting braces this late in life would be. So, I figured she deserves to show off her beautiful smile a bit before the procedure. I've told her..."One year, for the rest of your life."
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Race Report
I was going to write a very detailed race report, but there is really not much more to it than I had already written. My greatest feeling of accomplishment has nothing to do with my splits or finishing time, but my execution. I had a few problems on the run, but never a total detonation.
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Camps
Before I start, I wanted to mention that we are working on two Spring Camps. The camps will be based in Tucson, AZ. Pricing will be $2,250 and will include everything but your airfare to/from Tucson.
Camp 1 -- March 22-30, 2008 -- this will be a balanced training camp with an emphasis on the bike. For athletes racing IM Arizona, we'll schedule an "honest" race sim ride on March 23rd and make sure the rest of the camp fits into your Peak Period.
Camp 2 -- April 19-27, 2008 -- this will be a bike-focused training camp and the stronger athletes will ride 400-500 miles across the camp.
For more information contact me at "mat" at Endurance Corner dot com
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Not So Speedy
I had a friend who was racing IMLou that told me he didn’t want to finish because he was embarrassed of how slow he was going. This athlete finished under 13 hours and it was his first Ironman. This got me a bit fired up. Here you have a young athlete competing in their first Ironman, whom should have no pressure other than finishing, embarrassed about their time. I thought about this for a bit…
I just finished my first Ironman in 10 hours and 52 minutes. I write this because, I would be willing to bet, if I took a poll of 20 athletes from back home, most if not all of them would have me racing faster than this.
My intentions are not on bashing my buddies from Indiana nor am I claiming that they are clueless at predicting race times, talent, etc. I was in the same boat before I arrived in Boulder. In Boulder, I had the chance to learn a great lesson in humility. I was nowhere near as fast as I thought. I feel foolish for admitting this, but I was dead set on finishing Louisville in 9:15 and I was completely serious ( Swim-sub 1 hour, Bike-sub 5 hour, Run-around 3:15). Don’t ask me where I got these numbers, but it just seemed they were the splits I needed for a good Ironman.
I bring this up because this is a real issue for many athletes. It is this sort of pressure that causes athletes to try and race beyond their current fitness level.
If you want and example…I’ll use myself. When I first started triathlon, biking was something I picked up very quickly and I was able to ride with the area’s strongest cyclists. This made me think that I was an animal on the bike. My first triathlon I ever competed in, was a Half Iroman. In this race, I biked a 2:18 and couldn’t run after the effort, blaming poor nutrition for my severe vomiting. This was the theme for every single one of my long course triathlons last year. Good swim, fast bike, problems on the run.
You can now see why a 5:42 bike split is something you wouldn’t expect to see from me, or is it? I believe it is, and that all of my other races were false representations of where my bike fitness truly lied. I would ride as hard as I could, as if the race ended in T2. I thought this was the way to race and that I would get more props from having the fastest bike split than I would for finishing mid-pack.
I have been asked if I think that I biked too easy. I probably could have ridden a bit harder, but in the end, I still didn’t run fast and will continue to keep the efforts on the bike where they are until I do.
I am very happy with my race at IMLou. I’m proud that I had the courage to follow my plan and to see it through during one of the most stressful and exciting moments of my life. I’m 26 years old and have plenty of time to go fast. Right now, I’m laying the foundation for when my body is able to handle the fitness. You don’t go off the Boulder to train with the big dogs for three months and come back a rock star. It takes time to get good and I am willing to be patient--No shortcuts!
Patience,
Mat
