Qualified for the 2012 Age Group national championships at The NutCracker triathlon: a race report

The Nutcracker triathlon was held this morning in Rio Rancho New Mexico. It was a Run-Bike-Swim at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center. The bike course was an out-and-back (moderately hilly) 25K. The run was a hilly loop 5K course. The swim was a serpentine 400 meter swim, up/down one lane at a time.

The Nutcracker triathlon was RD’d by Mark Mico. Every time I race a multisport event put on by Mark Mico I’m amazed. His events are always extremely well organized and stress free events. The race results were posted online by the evening of the race. He always hands out the nicest age group awards of any local sprint. This year each and every athlete who placed top 3 in their AG received a wood plaque that had “The Nutcracker triathlon 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place division” on it. The registration fees of his events are always much cheaper than any other sprint distance races.

The night before the Nutcracker triathlon a storm covered New Mexico in a fine sheet of snow. With all the snow and ice that had dropped just hours before sun came up I was afraid the bike portion of the triathlon was going to be canceled, but true to the land of enchantment most of the snow melted before the race start, all three legs of the race was a GO. It was only 24 degrees at the start of the race. There were icy patches on the run and bike. A fellow triathlete who was ahead of me on the run fell twice, apparently it didn’t affect him that badly because he still finished ahead of me on both the run and bike. It wasn’t until the second transition that I was able to get ahead of him.

Today I wasn’t expecting much of a performance. My legs were still fatigued from racing Ironman Arizona 14 days ago, and my time trial bike was destroyed back in September, so I was racing on my slow heavy off brand road bike. Somehow, someway I still ended up having a great race. I finished in 1:23:18, 8th place out of 98 triathletes, I took 1st place in the 35-39 age group division, and I qualified for the 2012 US national Age Group Championships that will be held on August 18th in Burlington Vermont!!!!

My buddy Matt Hall took 2nd place in the 35-39 age group and 11th overall. He laid a smack down on the bike making up the 2 minute lead I put on him during the run. He was right on my tail coming into T-2! I put a good 45 seconds on him in T-2- it’s a good thing I get naked quick. I was able to extend that lead in the water to 1:45. My training partner Audra Macejka took 3rd place age group in her 1st triathlon ever! Great things happened at the Nutcracker triathlon today!

My wife and I need to spend some time in prayer on whether we can afford the time away from my work, my wife’s college study, and the expenses that would be needed to drive the 5 of us Hanson's all the way to Burlington Vermont so that I could compete in the 2012 USAT National Age Group Championships. It’s been a dream of mine for quite awhile to qualify and compete in the Age group and sprint distance national championships, but that would be a very long and expensive drive with 5 of us in a minivan. All of our babies all under the age of 7. I'll let you know what we decided as soon as we figure it out. Thanks for tuning in!!!

which sport for the 2012 season?

I finally feel like I'm healing up from my stomach flue. I'm not sure I feel well enough to pick up my training plan on Monday, but I'm pretty sure Tuesday I'll be back to working out consistently.

With all this time off from training I've started to dream about what I'll be training for after I finish Ironman Arizona. I've decided I'll be training for one of 2 options:

1) train for a mid season sprint distance triathlon & attempt to qualify for the 2012 Sprint National Triathlon Championships.

I've qualified for the national championships at the Half Iron distance & the Oly distance, but never the sprint distance, which is ironic because I'm a much better short course athlete.

2) Train for cycling specific racing. I really enjoyed racing Oak Flats RR last weekend but I didn't do well, I finished 32nd out of 38 Cat 5 riders. I'm very competitive, once I try a new sport I usually will become OCD with it until I can do it well. New Mexico has some amazing road races, time trials, criteriums, multi day road races, & omniums. If I choose to train for cycling here are some of the races I'm interested in:

April
Hayfield Roubaix

Adoption Exchange classic (this race is an omnium consisting of 2 days, 3 events consisting of a Criterium, Time Trial, and Road Race)

May
Galisteo Road Race

June
Santa Fe RR (2 days consisting of a Road Race & a Time Trial)

Crest Race

July
Santa Fe Hill Climb.

August
Oak Flats

September
Record Challenge Time Trial (worlds fastest 40k held in Moriarty NM)

It's awesome virtually all of them are local races.

Closer than I ever dreamed

I spent 5 years training an average of 15-19 hours a week for Ironman distance triathlons. During that 5 year stretch I never placed in an A race higher than in the 50 percentage of competitors. 2010 is the 1st season I've trained exclusively for sprint distance triathlons. I found out very quickly my body is better suited for sprint distance training & racing!

This year out of 10 races I've competed in I've taken top 10 overall in 3 & top 5 in 3. Today I realized I'm getting very close to qualifying for the National sprint distance triathlon championships. If my memory is correct I need to finish in the top 3% of a USAT sprint distance triathlon to qualify. In my last 3 USAT certified sprint triathlons I've missed being in the top 3% by 90 seconds on the flat courses & 4 minutes on the hilly courses. Considering I've been training for sprint distance triathlons for only half a season, I think my chances are very good for building enough speed & fitness to make the top 3% within the next year or 2.

So now I start the process of figuring out how I'm going to knock of 1 1/2 to 3 minutes on a sprint distance triathlon.
-Hiring a coach would make a big difference! Later this year I'll put in for that promotion at work I've been procrastinating putting in for the last decade. Once I get that promotion I could afford to hire a coach again. I already have the coach I'd like to hire picked out. Julia Rossi from Mile High Multisport.
-I don't swim consistently at all! If I was to start swimming at least twice a week every week I could knock off at least 20 seconds on a sprint distance race.
-I haven't done any strength training for my legs since I started self coaching back in September of 2009. Having more power in my legs would increase my speed on the bike, knocking off perhaps another 30 seconds.
-More speed work/track intervals could knock off 15 seconds on the run.
-The single biggest thing I need to do to become faster is drop some body weight. My dream weight is 179. I'm currently 193 (I gained a couple pounds from the family vacation we went on this weekend). That would be a 14 pound weight loss. 14 pounds in endurance athletics is HUGE! Just dropping that weight alone would make me fast enough to qualify for the National Sprint triathlon Championships easily. Up until a couple weeks ago I was trying to lose an average of 2 pounds a week. I kept getting down to 188, then falling off the diet wagon & shooting back up to 192. A couple weeks ago I'd decided to stop trying to lose weight & maintain until November. Rather than take that all or nothing weight loss stance, I think I simply need to try & lose weight more gradually. I'm going to shoot for hitting my goal weight of 179 by Dec 1st. That will make for an average of .58 of a pound a week of weight loss to hit 179 by December. Attempting to lose weight much more gradually would give me more calories a day to eat, which would make me less hungry & less likely to end up falling off the diet wagon & binge eating again & again & again. Losing the weight more gradually would also make my body much less likely to trigger some of the self defense mechanisms that our body has to having lost as much weight as I have so far, & hope to lose by December.

Whish me luck!