I am very lucky, and I am an Idiot

I am Happy with my IronMan ST George race, I have two dominating feelings first I feel incredibly Lucky, Second I realize that I was an Idiot in 3 instances.

I am so lucky. I’m lucky because when I got into Triathlon the first big time triathlete I ever met happened to be David Warden, I met David at a class he did previewing my first race, Icebreaker. David led me to people who could help me with my swim. Keena did such a great job of helping me to change my mechanics and made things make sense to me. Heath filmed me and showed me my glaring problems, It helped me progress by seeing how I needed to improve. Diane also helped me to push myself harder. There are many others that have given me great tips, Jason, Natalie and others gave me specific pointers that made a difference.

I am so lucky to have Power Tri as a sponsor. They made a world of difference for me in this race. They helped me get the 808 which handled the wind with ease and cut through it like a knife. They helped me get the perfect wetsuit. Nathan went above and beyond the call of duty optimizing my bike for the race. They are awesome people who are great friends and love this sport.

I am lucky to have great friends in triathlon, it was heartening to have you cheering me on at the race, it made a difference for me. Thank you for the cheers!

I am lucky to have a great employer. Thank You, Pinnacle Security for a great job that lets me be flexible, and be able to train the way that I do.

I am insanely, amazingly, wonderfully lucky to be married to Megan. It’s like this “Hey honey…um… I don’t want to work very much, I want to spend most of my time training for triathlon. It won’t make us any money in fact it will cost us an awful lot, so…. you….um… need to stop spending money”. She sacrifices in many different ways and I would not do this if she ever asked me not to, but she loves me doing it just as much as I love to do it. Thank You so much Megan!

Idiocy times 3

Idiocy #1 I pulled an Andy Schleck and dropped my chain. That’s what you get for never riding outside and slamming you shifter down. Confession: I swore. (I only swear when I race).

Idiocy #2 I got diarrhea on the run again, just like every other Ironman I have done. I had 7 months since Kona to experiment with anti diarrhea medicine and I just plain never did it so race day comes and I thought about it but I figured if I hadn’t tried it I shouldn’t do it. I only had one porta potty stop but it still made me mad. I don’t think I swore though. (I still felt bad about swearing with the chain drop.)

Idiocy #3 I forgot to cut my stupid toe nails, so my third toe dug into my second crooked toe the whole run and I finished with a bloody shoe.

Ok here’s my report

Swim: Felt great. Wish I could have consistently drafted, I got on some feet a few times but not for long. Wetsuit was great, water was perfect, Happy with my time 1:04:15

Transition 1: I ran as fast as I could the whole time, happy with my time, it was 2:40something I think.

Bike: Biked as hard and as fast as I could the whole time until the last part of snow canyon where I took it down just a notch. Came into t2 as the first amateur time 4:58 something

Transition 2: Same as T1 ran as fast as I could, I think I got a 1:48, happy with it.
Run: I led all amatuerss till about mile 6.5 I was passed in the porta potty. I caught the guy at about mile 13 and led again till about mile 19.5 when 2 guys passed me, then with less than 3 miles to go 2 more guys passed, 2 other guys were gaining on me quick, with one mile to go I picked my pace up, it hurt real bad but I held them off by less than a minute. At 95 degrees the heat got me, the second half of the marathon was tough. Time 3:26:26

GOOD: I won my age group and I took 5th overall for all amateurs. Only 12 pro's beat me.

BAD: I wanted to be 1st overall for all age groupers. Jason told me after the race that I was only 3 minutes behind the winner. (I want to swear right now!)

I actually am really happy with how it all went, crossing the finish line was like no other IronMan before, I felt like I had pushed myself better than my previous 3 IronMans. I am happy with the progress I am making.

Happy Anniversary Megan

We're on this planet earth three rocks from the sun
Just little specks trying to get who knows what done
In a Universe that's 10 billion light years wide
With our lifetimes ticking and no where to hide
We're just here trying to figure it all out
How did it all start and what's it all about
Through it all I do know that something is true
I'm the luckiest little speck because I have you
I do not know how on earth I got you to be with me for this ride
Forever and ever two specks with love 10 billion light years wide

I am the luckiest guy in the world. My wife is willing to spend our anniversary helping me get ready for an IronMan in two days. Thank you Megan for the best 11 years of my life. You are the most amazing person. Thank you for everything. I love you a whole lot.

IronMan St. George Expectations

As a kid my older brother and sister just above me in age were runners. Neither of them had the perfect build for it but they worked really hard and were good at it. My mom and dad ran for exercise and I was encouraged to run as a kid. My parents put me in a few 5k’s and 10k’s but I didn’t like running, in fact I had no desire to run, and I chose instead to play football. I loved Football and it became my singular focus, but I wasn’t that great at football. When I was 13-14 years old I decided that I needed to have really strong legs in order to get better so I started doing massive sets of squats2- 3 times per week. I would do 10 sets of 10 and then 5 sets of 5. In retrospect this was not the best protocol. I am lucky that I have good knees after putting myself through that (My Mom claims I would be taller if I hadn’t done it). Luckily my legs responded to this by getting strong, (I squatted 525 while in high school and eventually hit 705 in college). Football was everything to me and I was obsessed with the dream of making it in College and even the NFL. This dream drove and consumed me, and I loved the pursuit of it. I failed in my ultimate goal of playing in the NFL so my pursuit ended with the end of my college career. I took the singular focus that I had for football and pointed it towards my job until I did the St. George Marathon in 2008. I did OK finishing in 3 hours. I captured a little bit of the fire that I had as I had pursued my football dreams. I wanted to be really good at something athletic again, but I was too big to be a great runner being 200 pounds at the time. I looked at IronMan and thought “I might be good at that”. I thought, I can run but what about swimming and biking. I knew I could not swim but this was after the 08 Olympics with Michael Phelps and they talked about his size 14 feet and how they were his flippers. I thought well I have size 14 feet so if I learn how to swim I’ll be just like him. With biking I thought back to my days of squatting and even though my legs had atrophied, they were still big so I thought the strength would come back quickly. I started swimming and biking December of 08 and have loved the pursuit of becoming really good at IronMan racing. I love the training and tracking my progress towards becoming better. I hope to have a break-through performance on Saturday. I have high expectations for IronMan St. George, and I hope to meet those expectations.

140.6 naaaa 176.8

The scale said 176.8 this morning. The last time a scale registered my weight at this level: I had not yet kissed a girl, I was desperately trying to gain weight, I was 2 inches shorter, my zits were a major concern to me, football and females were the two thoughts that dominated my mind and I never not in a million years thought that 18 years later I would be obsessed with getting lighter in order to perform better in an Ironman.

Bad News: I really won't weigh this much on race day. This was my morning post-major bowel movement pre-breakfast weight. My real race weight will be low 180's

Good News: I have still lost a chunk since Kona and I hope it makes a difference.

5 days till blastoff.