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.