I didn’t win. I really wanted to win, but I didn’t
win.

I raced the Battle of San Jacinto OLY triathlon this
weekend in Houston (La Porte actually).

The race began in Galveston Bay and the water was
still cool enough to make the swim wetsuit legal
(barely at 77 or so). The water was a little choppy
and that typically works to my advantage. I tend to
get dropped early on in races when the pure swimmers
can hammer out in flat water, but choppy water keeps
things closer together and I have a better chance of
hanging onto the pack until the pace settles.

The swim broke up very quickly. Eventually the race
leader pulled ahead and I swam solo in second until it
finished. Unfortunately I was starting to feel really
hot and that is never a good thing for me. Overheating
in the water is quite detrimental to my racing.

I felt really sick at the start of the bike. My HR was
in the 180s, I puked, and I generally just felt
wrecked. Luckily the race included some solid climbs
early on which forced me to ride hard, but then
allowed my HR and my core temp to drop on the
descents. After the first 8-10 miles the course goes
dead flat. My legs felt much better by this point and
I was in the lead.

I overheated in the Lifetime Fitness Tri last year and
it showed itself on the run. Knowing this, I decided I
was going to “TJ” the rest of the bike course (ride as
hard as I could, a la Mr. Tollakson).

I hit the the two loop run course and I likely
ascended every single mile. Things were getting worse
and with one mile to go I was passed. I was frustrated
that I couldn’t race to my normal ability, but I was
pleased that I managed to hold it together physically
until the end. I actually thought I was going to have
to drop out of the race around mile 2. I held it
together enough to hold onto 2nd so s’all good.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I kind of see the weather channel as the next MTV. MTV
revolved solely around music videos in the beginning
and the Weather Channel addresses the current (or
future) weather forecasts. Now we all know MTV has
next to nothing to do with music videos now and sister
stations (and sister stations of the sister stations)
had to be created to host these music videos.

The WC is the same way. More ’shows’ are in the daily
and prime time lineup, and who knows? Maybe there will
be a WC2 one day.

-jd

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Well, I’m waiting to go to lunch with some friends so
I might as well give a quick update.

I’m actually in the middle of another serious blog,
but I haven’t posted it yet. Sometimes I need to take
step back when I get worked up.

Lunch was cancelled.

Anyways, about taking a step back… …I suppose I
can get a little worked up, especially with a couple
beers in me. I’ve been in Houston since late Monday
night (after a super awesome 14 hour drive from
clermont) and I’ve been doing my best to catch up with
my friends that still live here. Luckily my friends
and I don’t need a lot of time to ‘catch up.’ We just
say ‘what’s up’ and get right back into normal
conversations and such.

One of my buddies and I got into a conversation aout
sociology, gas prices, overpopulation, etc. and I was
getting pretty worked up about things. Kind of makes
me laugh when I take things so seriously, but I can’t
help it sometimes.

Anyways, Houston is growing and its damn warm here.
June weather in April. Rough.

The Astros are great. I made it to a game the other
night. I won’t pretend to be a huge baseball fan, but
I have always enjoyed Astros bb and I love to go to
games (especially with a big group). My friends are
bigger fans and it rubs off on me. Its also easier to
get into it when they are doing so well.

Training has been fairly light this week other than
running. I’ve been swimming and biking, but not as
much as usual. I’m racing a local OLY race tomorrow
and I’m pretty excited about that. I take pride in
being from Houston (even though I’ll likely never live
here again. I’m done with big cities) and racing here
excites me.

I’ll let you all know how it goes. Can’t wait to have
breakfast at Goode Co Taqueria when its all over.

-jd

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Last weekend BB and I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama
to race Powerman. Its a long course duathlon
consisting of an 8K run, 53K bike and then another 8K
run.

We got a bit of a cold blast over the weekend and race
morning was 41 degrees with steady winds out of the
North. I started the race with arm warmers and gloves
and I never regretted that decision.

PMAL was my first race pro race with a pro field.
Powermans tend to bring out the stronger runners in
triathlon as well as the pure duathletes. I had a feel
I was going to get dusted on the first run.

I was right.

The lead pack literally put about 200-300 meters
(being generous to me here) into me by mile one.
Awesome. My legs felt great and fresh, but my race
plan was to simply TT the course at the appropriate
effort and the overall placing after that would be
whatever it would be.

I went through the first run in 28:18, grabbed my bike
and headed out of T1.

The bike course at PMAL has a great road surface and a
solid amount of steady climbing. I was pretty far from
any of the pros in contention so I had an open road to
put my head down and ride hard for the first lap of
the course. I had to navigate my way through the AG
race after the first lap, but I finished the bike
without incidence.

I was pretty psyched when the second run got started.
I was starting to smell the finish line and my legs
were not completely toasted yet. I ran the second run
in 28:59 and finished 8th within the pro field and
11th overall. BB still races AG and had started around
nine minutes behind me. I waited at the finish line
hoping that nine minutes would pass by before he
crossed the line. Well, only 8:30 passed and BB took
the victory in the JDvBB classic.

We both agreed that duathlons are hard, but fun,
races. Powerman Alabama is a first class event managed
by Team Magic. I was impressed by the volunteers, the
host city, the officials, and the overall race
direction. To top it off, they imposed drug testing
for the professional athletes that placed in the
money.

I’m a little late on reporting about this race since I
jumped right back into training this week in Clermont,
but here are a few things BB and I learned over the
weekend:

1. Duathlons are hard.

2. Driving eight hours is not fun, even with two
drivers.

3. Fix your car stereo before you go on long road
trips.

4. Grits and Southern Homeade Biscuits can be
successfully eaten for breakfast the day before a
race.

5. Along the same lines, Taco Bell can be eaten the
night before. I’ll let you all contemplate what we
ordered.

6. Having your own coffee and coffee maker on road
trips is the_best_idea_ever.

7. Alabama is a pretty state.

8. Duathlons are hard.

-jd

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I raced this past weekend and I had intentions of
writing something sooner, but I had a carpet to clean.
At least, I had a carpet I wanted to clean.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I live
with a dude named Graham, aka, G Nash. GN and I met
before IM Utah in 2002 and have been friends ever
since. He has probably played the biggest role (second
only to my family) in supporting my pursuit of this
sport. For the past four months he has put up with
both BB and I. In exchange for his overwhelming
hospitality we try to pick up a little and look after
his friends (Fat Cat and Iggy Pop).

Anyways, I had this great idea about cleaning his
carpet when he was away on business. BB and I headed
over to Home Depot…

Off Tangent… …Home Depot is amazing. Not really
the store itself, just everything that is going on in
there at that same time. Its the sort of place that
can make you feel a bit arbitrary (universally at
least). You might have these wonderful ambitions about
your own life while growing up (saving the world,
becoming president, curing cancer) and all of sudden
you find yourself debating about which kind of zip
ties you prefer. Not the most exciting moment of that
fancy journey you dreamed about as a kid (or adult).

Those are some of the less sexy moments of our lives
that don’t get written/talked about, but are obviously
necessary. It kind of reminds me of all the aerobic
maintenance workouts in between the fancy ones. Its
all part of the program, but hardly memorable in the
long run. Ride left, ride right, out-and-back, etc.
(sorry, inside joke there)

Anyways, long story short: The carpet cleaner we
rented doesn’t really work that well. In fact, it
sucked. 54 bucks, and 4-5 hours later we made a very
minor difference.

Through my own experiences I have now learned that two
things are worth the money:

1)Movers

2)Professional Carpet Cleaners (assuming your place
has more than a few hundred square feet of carpet).

+++++++++++++++++++++

Right, the race.

I did an OLY tri this weekend here in Clermont. It was
the last day of a 28-day training cycle. It was also
the fourth race in four consecutive weekends within
that training cycle. Nevertheless, I felt good about
it and I was pleased with the result.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I lined up to
the outside at the swim start and it has_NEVER_worked
well when I have done that. I promise I will never
line up anywhere but the middle from now on. This
error left me TTing the course solo and I had
absolutely no one to work with. I came out in 21 flat,
but it was still 3.5-4 minutes down on the leaders.

I rode fairly hard (fastest bike split) and ran well,
but it was only enough to get me into 3rd overall. I
was within 90 seconds of the leader and I really gave
that away in the water. Oh well. I’ll get this nailed
down eventually.

I was pleased with my run though. I ran the 10K in
36:33 and really felt in control the whole way. I was
only running about 8-10 sec/mile off my open 10K
ability so that was a good sign. I have not really
been blessed with incredible open run speed (working
on it), but I have been fortunate enough to access
that fitness more easily than some in triathlon
running.

So now I have a few easy days before heading to
Birmingham for Powerman Alabama. I have always wanted
to do this event so I’m pretty excited. Its also my
first race as an elite in a pro field. I reckon I’ll
be a bit humbled as I will now start the journey
within a new set of ranks.

cheers,

jd

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