For Grey

I've been trying to write this for a while, and it's been tough. Today seemed like a good day.

On July 20, 2013, one of my best friends in the world passed away. Grey Liston was on his latest of many adventures, climbing Mount Olympus, when he fell and lost his life. I've known Grey since we were freshman in college swimming for UNCW. Grey was my roommate, teammate, fellow WB lifeguard, but most importantly, a loyal friend. Truly great friends are hard to come by these days, and I'm just glad to have known Grey while he was on this earth.

One of the great things that Grey and I shared was our love of open water swimming. Whether it was a pier to pier swim with the team or a horizon swim with the lifeguard squad, we both craved the challenge and adventure. Last weekend, I competed in the Pier2Pier race at Wrightsville Beach. This is an event Grey dominated on numerous occasions. While I didn't have the greatest result, getting the chance to honor Grey's memory (as well as another former Seahawk, Ryan Young) was comforting. Seeing former teammates and lifeguards who knew Grey was a great experience.

Today, I competed in another race that Grey enjoyed, the Wilmington YMCA Triathlon at Wrightsville Beach. True to form, Grey would absolutely annihilate the swim portion of this race, swimming so fast that one year he finished the swim before they even had the timing matts out. It was a bit nasty today, as it rained all morning long. I was feeling a bit sluggish warming up, and started to doubt my form a bit. I thought about what Grey would do. He'd charge the swim so hard that no one would have a chance to stay with him. He wouldn't think about how tired he felt or bonking later on; just start hammering right out of the gates. So that's what I did. I went out hard and didn't look back. When I thought about backing off, I could hear Grey telling me to quit being a bitch and go! Even when victory was all but certain, I continued to drive on, turning myself inside out. That's what Grey would have done. No mercy, just charge it. Crossing the line, I knew I had done Grey proud.

Grey meant so much to so many people. Those of you who knew him can surely attest to his fun loving attitude and genuine nature. His passing came too soon, but his legacy will continue to inspire friends and family to never take one day for granted. There's so much more that I can't even put into words. In the end, I miss my friend, but we'll meet again some time.

I've been combing through old photos, trying to pick a good one. I think this sums it up well. Love ya Greyman.

Full tilt at Park Ave, keep charging Grey

White Lake International Triathlon (no, it's not the one with Al Trautwig in Hawaii, it's different, you see there are many different distances...aw screw it, who cares)

It seems like only yesterday that I was racing the quintessential spring classic that is White Lake Sprint. Fast forward to today, and were back at White Lake for the fall'ish international distance race. I have a history with this course of going very hard on the bike and subsequently imploding on the run. However, today I am happy to say that I was able to contain my excitement, and take the victory with a very well balanced and dosed effort. I biked almost a minute slower than last year, but ran just about 4 minutes faster. I'd say thats a fair trade. It was still a hard fought win, with James Haycraft breathing down my neck as he laid down an impressive bike run combo. And the reward for such a demanding effort? Well, as we all know, rural Bladen County is steeped in a rich Japanese heritage. So it was only fitting that the winners today received traditional miso soup bowls and spoons.

Miso happy I won

Unfortunately, as you can see in the photo, I had an accident. While the bowl managed to avoid certain peril when I drove away with it on top of my car, it was not so lucky when I got home. As any true man would, I was attempting to carry every single triathlon play thingy in my car all at once, when I dropped the bowl, breaking one of the handles off. While I am deeply saddened by that my actions resulted in this unfortunate accident, I have no regrets, and will continue to refuse to take more than one trip to carry in my belongings. yolo

In other news, for those of you that don't know, I have been training under the guidance of Tom Clifford (Without Limits Coaching) for the past 6-7 weeks. Tom is big on the use of Compu-Trainers (computer controlled resistance bike trainer) for very focused and effective bike workouts. Shameless plug: the damn thing works. I've been doing all of my quality work on the Compu-Trainer at the Without Limits Compu-Trainer Studio over the past month and a half, and I am amazed how fast I was able to regain my fitness after being in an overtraining slump for most of the year.

Lot's of ride options, including multi-rider so you can train side-by-side with friends, regardless of ability 

Analyze your pedaling efficiency in real time

As you can see from the photos above, there's a lot more going on with than just riding your bike without going anywhere. Coming from a guy who typically hates riding the trainer (I think I rode indoors three times this winter), the constant stream of data keeps you engaged, and makes workouts go by fast.

Currently, I'm training at the lowest volume I have in years, but I'm performing at or above previous results. Take today for instance. I'm probably no fitter than I was last year at this time, but I was able to settle into my threshold pace and stay there for the whole race. Last year, I was spiking my power all over the place, and struggled to find a rhythm, which resulted in a sub-par run. Being able to set the trainer right at your calculated threshold in a way "programs" your body so that when you race, you're able to maintain a high and consistent output without even thinking about it. Click here, or just ask me if you want to learn more about this highly effective training tool. Whether your time crunched, or just want to get faster in less time, you need to check this out.

So what's next you ask? Only the single most important race on the international calendar. Of course I am referring to the Wrightsville Beach World Championships (aka Wilmington YMCA Triathlon). This is not to be confused with the Azalea Festival World Championships held earlier this year. Every year, over 1000 athletes put it on the line in hopes of winning the coveted...well, you never quite know what there gonna hand out, but chances are it might get "lost" in all the excitement.

Circa 2007 throwback victory, rockin the jammer, what a kook

On the mend again...

So I'm about half way back from Maine (Rev3 Old Orchard Beach), and I know one thing for certain. If you see the following sign, you might want to consider turning around.

Just shoot me now

It's funny how soon you forget just how awful it is to travel north. Between the endless toll roads and mind numbing traffic, it's no wonder why everyone is heavily self medicated these days. But once you get to Maine, it's pretty cool. You just have to negotiate your way through the sea of human detritus in between.

Ok, that brings me to my bitching quota for the month.

In other news, I'm happy to say that after a successful round of treatments on my leg, I am back on track with my training. As mentioned above, I raced the Rev3 triathlon in Old Orchard Beach, ME yesterday. Rev3 puts on a great race, and the location in Old Orchard Beach was perfect. While it was not my best result (14th Pro), it was the first race in a long time that I didn't have any nagging pains before, during, or after. After some navigational errors made by the lead swimmer, the swim broke up a bit coming into the last turn buoy. I came out of the water in 9th place, but lost a couple spots in the long run to T1. Out on the bike, I decided to take a more conservative approach. It was an out and back course that was net uphill until the turnaround. It was a good strategy, as I was able to finish the bike strong and get on the to run with legs that weren't to burned up. The run course was a similar affair, so I took the same approach  and was pleased to negative split the run by a few seconds. While I didn't run super fast, it was a decent time, and I was able to hold my form together from start to finish.

So, I mentioned above that I had some treatment done (Graston) to my leg. If your not aware of this treatment, it basically involves scraping across your muscles and fascia with some specially designed metals tools (picture the handle of an eating utensil) and lubricant. It's about as pleasant as it sounds, but I swear it works. I had it done years ago on an adhesion that was giving me issues, and it worked like a charm. However, I knew that with the problems I was having, it was going to take following up with a strict regimen of exercises and stretching to prevent recurrence. In addition to the usual preventative measures (foam roller, balance exercises, etc...) I decided to incorporate ice baths into my routine. Ice baths a great at flushing all of the crap in your legs after a hard training session as well as prevent delayed muscle soreness. However, ice baths can be a pain in the ass, especially in the summer. You usually need 3 bags of ice to get it remotely cold enough. Thankfully, Jon Duplessis over at Accent Physical Therapy has just installed an ice therapy bath that is kept between 45-48 degrees.

Jus' chillin'

  Being able to have everything ready when you get there is crucial. Get done with a super intense brick or track session, rinse off, and hop in. It's amazing how much better I feel at work having soaked for 15 minutes after a tough morning workout. The ease of which I can get in and out means that I do it more often. It's easy to just say screw it when you have to lug around a bunch of 5 pound ice bags, only to have them half melted by the time you get home.

Ok, so what else is new. I did move into a sick new pad. It's a really old house back on Bradley Creek.

Charming, isn't it

Great front porch to post up on and pick off squirrels and other intruders.

Our dock on the creek

We have a shared dock out on Bradley Creek. Great spot to launch a paddle board or surf ski. And if you don't mind dysentery, we've got all the oysters you can eat. 

Sun room/Dance hall

The sun room is no doubt the coolest part of the house. We will be renting it out for corporate events and school dances.

On a final note, the Mf'ing CEO himself, Kenny Powers, made an appearance at Bike Cycles to film the a scene for the final season of East Bound and Down. Kenny Powers is the reason I keep pushing every day to be the best at working out.

Creepin' a photo op during make-up 

 

We was robbed

So, you might have already seen this floating around if you've been in any athletic stores the last few days. Apparently someone thought it would be funny to put Willem Dafoe on the cover of Endurance Magazine.

Sneaky basterd

Dafoe's career has been going downhill ever since Platoon, and this is clearly a last chance stab at glory. Unfortunately, it was my glory he tried to steal. Lets just say I took care of it.

Those were crazy times

War is hell, but triathlon, now that's some serious s!@#.

Columbia Triathlon Report

Seems like the rain is following me everywhere I go this year. I suffered through another wet and soggy one today at the Columbia Triathlon in Columbia, MD today. One of the great things about this race though is the fact that I grew up in near by Catonsville, and know the lay of the land.

"Well, at least you're not in Arbutus"

Unfortunately, that was not much help today. After a mediocre swim and poor bike, I was to far back to have any impact on the race when it came to the run. I decided to back off a bit on the run to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on the hilly and technical run course. At Knoxville two weeks ago, I ran lights out (which is a little depressing when I saw my split) and my calves were so sore it took the whole week to feel remotely recovered. I still have some slight nagging pains in my left calf, so pushing hard when I was well out of the money would have been foolish.

Looking forward, I am excited to announce that I will be working with Coach Brooks Doughtie of All Out Multisport based in Raleigh. Brooks has built a great group of athletes, specifically youth, junior, and elite squads targeting draft legal as well as non-draft legal formats. Clubs like these are the future of the sport in the US, developing younger athletes for the highly competitive international junior and senior elite ranks.

I have been primarily self coached over the past several years with varied success. Being objective with yourself can be a tricky thing. I have found that I am pretty good with reading my body (its a quick read, short chapters make you feel smart), but inevitably find myself making poor decisions that stifle growth. It is my assertion that the past two performances are symptomatic of these poor decisions. The fitness is sufficient, but a few missteps have lead to sub-par results.

Save UNCW Swimming and Diving

To the 10's of fans of my blog, you may or may not know that I am an alumni of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. During my four years at UNCW, I competed on the division 1 swimming and diving team. Just this past season, the men's swimming and diving team captured their 12th straight Colonial Athletic Association Championship, cementing their legacy as one of the most dominant programs in the conference across all sports. Both the men's and women's team's have also sent student-athletes to the NCAA championships, showing influence on a national stage that is uncommon for similar mid-major programs. However, a recent report released by the Intercollegiate Athletics Review Committee has recommended cutting the men's and women's swimming and diving programs along with three others (Softball, Men's Indoor Track, and Men's Cross Country) due to budget concerns. The university wishes to divert the money saved to help make "revenue" sports like Basketball more competitive. I put revenue in quotes because the Basketball team had the largest deficit last year ($1.1 million) of any sports team. Seeing as the Basketball team has failed on the court and in the classroom (ineligible due to grades last year for post-season play) with a budget of $1.6 million, lack of money doesn't seem to be there problem. The swimming and diving programs at UNCW have the smallest budgets of any other swimming and diving teams in the conference. Yet, year after year, the team gets the job done with high average GPA's and graduation rates,  and an unprecedented string of confernece titles. Clearly we have some amazingly talented people working with the swim and dive team that would be lost if these cuts go through.

Collegiate athletics programs should be valued by more than just dollars and cents. These are university programs that help produce some of the most influential and successful members of our community. Lessons learned on the field of play are invaluable supplements to those learned in the classroom. As an alumni of the program, I can say that it has been one of the greatest influencing factors on my life thus far. I urge you all to please help raise awareness anyway you can to help save not just the swim team's, but also the other team's on the chopping block. The athletics program at UNCW is one big family, and if you take away even just one, the family is at risk of falling apart. Whose to say that any of the other programs are safe if this precedent is made. One way to show your support is by clicking on the following link to sign a petition stating that you support the UNCW Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving programs.
https://www.change.org/petitions/uncw-chancellor-gary-miller-save-uncw-swimming-and-diving

Thanks for your time, and as Coach Allen always says, "it's a great day to be a Seahawk".

Rev3 Knoxville Race Report

As you may already know, if you live in the eastern half of the country, the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend at the Rev3 Knoxville Triathlon. Steady rains and 50 degree air temps made for a pleasant ride through the foot hills surrounding the downtown area. Not knowing whether a puddle of water was hiding a wheel-eating pothole forced me to call on my years of minesweeper training:

Oh s#!@, I'm in trouble

Alright, so it was actually quite unpleasant. (WARNING: Excessive bitching ahead, reader discretion advised) My lack of bike course knowledge proved to be costly. I found myself braking to much in some areas and overcooking corners in others. The rain and poor viability made it hard to navigate the course at race speed. I came out of the swim in pretty good shape, but kept loosing contact with faster riders as they came by me. I also froze my ass off, a condition I can trace back to before the race started. After donning my wetsuit, I realized I forgot to put on my usual cold weather embrocation (tiger balm). Usually used for pain relief, I've found that it works really well to help get and keep blood flowing on cold days.

As usual, I was cutting my prep-time extremely close and did not have enough time to remove my suit and apply. Fortunately, I was able to turn in a decent run and limit my loses. When all was said and done, I finished 15th on the day. Not what I was hoping for, but I was happy I was able to mentally stay in the race after a sub-par bike. Post race, I was hacking up a lung for a good 2 hours. During the race I was spitting up a combination of sports drink and energy gel that left me with a pretty raw esophagus. Still not quite sure what that was all about. I guess maybe I should't have taken Towlie's pre-race advice:

Getting high in the Sun Sphere

Ok, so maybe I took his advice a too literally. I took this photo from the Sun Sphere at the Worlds Fair Park in Knoxville overlooking the race finish/expo area. The Sun Sphere is a giant gold globe on top of a pedestal that you can see from all around the city. I did what Towlie said, and got as high in the sphere as I could, but I don't think it helped.

The next race on my schedule will be the Columbia Triathlon up in Maryland. Much like Knoxville, it's a challenging course that ensures no one is getting a free ride. However, having raced Columbia before and grown up close by, I know the course well and enter with confidence.  

The Hell of The North (Bladen County)

Well, it was a truly epic day at the Queen of the Classics that is the White Lake Sprint. With epic rough road sections and epically cold water temperatures, Oxford English will have to add White Lake Sprint to their list of definitions for epic. For decades to come, old men in taverns from here to Burgaw will wax poetic about the 2013 edition of l'enfer du Nord or, The Hell of the North Bladen County. Middle-aged men will pay thousands of dollars to ride guided tours across the fabled White Lake pavé.

We are so le epic

As I said before in my last post, White Lake Sprint has usurped that little bicycle riding race in France, officially laying claim to all of the aforementioned nicknames. Nobody told Fabian Cancellara until he crossed the finish line at the Roubaix Velodrome. Realizing how lame he was, Fabian pulled a ninja suicide right there in the infield.

 Why didn't I listen to Boonen!

Ok, so I lied. Fabian is still alive after his victory at Paris-Roubaix (if you can call it living, poor guy). If he had only taken Tom Boonen's advice to go race White Lake Sprint, he might have captured the coveted cobbled textured beer mug.

The chalice in all its glory 

But alas, it was not to be. I am pleased to say that I was able to secure the title for the second year running. What made this victory even better was that I was able to share the podium with my good friend and teammate from Germany, Lukas Kampkotter. Lukas is from Hannover, Germany, but has been here in North Carolina for the past month visiting relatives and training. Last year, I had the privilege of racing with Lukas on the Hannover 96 Bundesliga Triathlon Team. For those who don't know, Bundesliga is the German national triathlon organization, which is comprised of different tiers of racers. The first division is the premier division, and the division we competed in while I was there. The first division is comprised of teams from all over Germany, but the teams are usually a mix of domestic and foreign professional triathletes. For example, our team was comprised of several local athletes from Hannover as well as pro's from Denmark and Australia. The races are primarily contested in the draft-legal format in either the sprint or olympic distance. They are quite competitive with former olympians and top World Triathlon Series racers toeing the line on a regular basis. On top of that, the courses are typically quite technical, with some lovely cobble sections sprinkled in just for fun.

19mm Tires should do the trick 

The race itself was a bit more painful than I was expecting. Fatigue from hard training made it difficult to find a rhythm. The only thing that really got me through it was a healthy dose of caffeine. I don't drink coffee or any caffeinated products on a regular basis, so it always helps give me an extra boost on race day. Caffeine is great because, it's a proven ergogenic aid, and, as Towelie would say, "it's not illegal b!#@$!"

Don't forget to bring a towel

It's Classics season and it smells like crap

Its getting to the end of March, and that means the spring classics season is in full swing over in Europe. We are finally getting our first taste of spring here in the Cape Fear. Unfortunately though, I'm not talking about the weather, which has been quite disappointing thus far. I'm talking about crap. Dog crap to be specific. All the fair weather runners are coming out of the wood works, and they're dragging Fido along with them. What they always forget is that Fido isn't allowed to use public restrooms (when will the discrimination end), so he is forced to go on the grass (or the sidewalk, always my favorite). And surprise, they don't have a bag, even though  in many areas, such as the loop at Wrightsville, there's bag dispensers everywhere. So now the rest of us are left dodging landmines as we try to get in a run. And as water warms up, we'll soon be swimming in the channel and the ocean. To help illustrate the problem here, I have included a intricate diagram of a watershed, not unlike the one we all live in.

It always floats downstream

As we can see, the swimmer in the diagram is particularly nonplussed at the sight of poo flowing into the very water he is swimming in. So for the love of god, bag it, scoop it, hell, eat it thats what your in to. 

Alright enough of that s*&%. Getting back to the classics season, which is really heating up with the Tour of Flanders today (warning: minor spoiler ahead). However, many of these riders will have there sights set on the true Queen of the Classics taking place next Sunday. No, I'm not talking about Paris-Roubaix. Nobody cares about that antiquated race anymore. I'm obviously referring to the White Lake Sprint Triathlon. A true test for the specialists, the White Lake Sprint always brings out the hard men of the sport. However, due to an early crash at Flanders today, one of the favorites, Tom Boonen, is questionable for the start on Sunday. 

"I should've just rested for White Lake!"

I wish Tom a speedy recovery, but it will be nice having one less person to worry about.

Sarasota Pan Am Cup-O-Noodles - Now with flavor

 Another weekend, and another race. Although this one can't quite match the clout of the AFWC, it was still fairly competitive. I did have to drive a bit farther though. This weeks adventure took me down to Sarasota, FL for the ITU Sarasota Pan American Cup (the ITU is very creative with their names). For those of you unfamiliar, ITU cup races are contested in the draft legal format and primarily over the international/olympic distance. These races are also known for having the worst prize money to depth of field ratios in the entire sport. For most, these races are used to garner ITU points to build their way up the food chain of races from the Continental Cup level all the way up to the Olympics. For others, it's a great way to get your ass handed to you as the draft legal format can be brutally unforgiving if you make the smallest mistakes.

Unfortunately, this weekend I fell into the later group.

Poor basterd

 If only I could go back Marty McFly style and warn myself. Better yet, I need Marty to go back and hook me up with some of these:

Power laces, truly the future of the sport

 Hell, just give me a damn Hoverboard while we're at it. Seeing as they haven't been invented yet, I could probably talk my way out of a penalty.

Gimme the damn board kid, Matt's in trouble!

 Ok, so I guess the Delorean broke down, because Marty never came to my rescue. Therefore, the following events were allowed to occur.

 After a solid swim, I found myself in postion to easily make the first chase group behind the breakaway of three that had got away. As I made my way through transition, I struggled a bit to unzip my wetsuit. My transition was about 5 seconds slower then most of the other guys, but it was just enough to put me in no-mans-land heading onto the bike course. I formed up a chase group with 4 other guys, but we just couldn't match the fire power of the lead group. We were eventually caught by the second main pack on the road about half way through the bike leg. With the help of the extra horsepower, we managed to mitigate our losses, but still came into T2 with a 2 minute deficit. I tried to channel Jens Voigt, and tell my legs to shut up, but they weren't having any of that. They kept on being like "Dumbass, why'd you bike so hard? Don't you know we aint ready for that kinda crap? Its friggin March man!". Couple of whiny bitches they are. So, with the lower half of my body in full protest, I slogged through the run as best I could. Come to find, my run was not too terribly slow, most everyone else just decided to run fast as hell. I managed to finish 25th on the day, which wasn't so bad, but could have been a good bit better had it not been for a few poorly timed mishaps.

 There were a couple of good takeaways from this weekend though. I was first off the bike and first out of transition from my chase group, which has never happened before. I also managed to not completely crap the bed with my early season fitness (or lack there of). On the other hand, I was also pretty stupid. Instead of being smart and applying sunscreen on my shoulders once I noticed that there wasn't an ounce of shade on the course, I chose to just get fried.

Yeah, too much surface area on those bad boys to ignore.

 Now I'm left with what can best be described as a combination wife beater and deep v-neck tan line on my back.

So Marty, if your reading this, quit playing Huey Lewis and save my ass. 

Yes, I am still alive

I would like to take this time to let everyone know that I am indeed still alive and well. Any rumors of nefarious acts should be treated as false, unless you saw me do it, in which case I will discredit you with the fury of 1000 Lance Armstrongs! 

But in all seriousness folks, I have good news. The road to recovery has been long and frustrating, but I can finally see the light. I have been dealing with a nagging lower leg injury for the past 2 years now that has prevented me from training at full capacity. To make a long story short, I did a little tweaking with my run form and some insoles, and now I am feeling great. Its a wonderful feeling to be able to do some kind of speed work again. 

As we speak, I am planning out my schedule for 2013. It will include the usual local races, in addition to a focus on the Rev3 and 5150 short course race series. Thanks to Shawn and Bike Cycles (I'm still working there a bit by the way), I will be riding a very nice all black 2013 Specialized Shiv Pro with some cool custom features that I rigged up (pictures to come). I am very excited about being back on a Specialized this year, as I really enjoyed my Transition from 2 years ago. I also broke down and got fitted by Jon (him and Shawn are our Specialized certified fit gurus) and I am very pleased with the results. Lesson learned from that experience is to never take your contact points (i.e. saddle, pedals, handlebars) for granted. I preach it every day, but I am still amazed at how big a difference proper insoles and cleat placement can make.

Stay tuned for more as the season draws near. But its still winter time, so for now, take a cue from Mimsy and enjoy a cold one while ya still can... and yes, pants are always optional.