On Fire!

What a week it has been for training. My run-training was tough this week with 3 key sessions of runs of a long run of 100 minutes on Wednesday. Thursday was some hard tempo and hill repeats with 40 minutes of straight overgear on the bike that night and Saturday was a little 5k on tired legs in downtown Fort Worth, which brings me to the main set of this blog.

The main reason I needed to come to Fort Worth was to at Colonel's Bicycle shop for a new chain for the "Spanish Beauty", I also got new some rockin' new orange tires for her too!!!

At Colonel's Bikes

I stayed with my favorite Canadians Brent and Carley, but with the Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver and me being the only American in the condo, I took one for the "team" and put up with their verbal and visual abuse (see pics below), such as we have more gold's than you, we're better at hockey, but all I heard was blah, blah, blah.

Anyways, Saturday morning I did a workout in downtown Fort Worth. I think Fort Worth, Texas has to be one of the fittest cities in the United States if not the whole wide world. I am not sure why Runner's World does not rank it as such. I did a warmup jog with my Coach and Pro-triathlete Brent Poulsen and recently former A&M Runner Andrew Montes to downtown and we were met by 20,000 other people who were getting ready to run too. It was so crazy, they had different distances you could choose from like a 5k, 10k, marathon, and even a freakin' ultra marathon (these guys are nuts). Fort Worth is so organized in it's running community they even had these big mile markers, water/gatorade stops and dude's calling off your splits.

Andrew and Brent were wanting get a fast 10k in while I was just hoping to hang on their shoulders for 5k. We got off to a fast start and at this fast pace I hear a Taylor Swift song "You belong with meeee" some dude is listening too it so loud while we are running and I couldn't help it and I busted out laughing. I wondered why any dude would want to listen to that song while running much less listen to it anyways. We ran the first mile in 5:01. After 1.5 miles I fell off Brent and Andrew's shoulders. The next half for me wasn't that great but I finished a 5k in 16:38 and then pulled out, which averaged out to the pace I was trying to hit 5:20 mi/pace. Andrew went onto win the 10k 32:16 and Brent finished with 4th in 33:24, with first 2 miles slightly long according to my watch.

In other light of things un-related to running or triathlon. I was sitting at the table last night going over and correcting my editations (new word I made up) Bo had given me. I was tired from the training week, I was hungry and about to pass out, and needed to shower. Yes, I did wait awhile to shower. I finally got up and said, I'm gonna take a shower, but before that we were hearing a lot of sirens go down the street. I peaked out my window and saw police lights against a house across the street. I got outside to check things out. You know how people in East Texas is. I had to be nosy and see what was going on then I said "Holy Crap! There's a house on freakin' fire!" Josh and I check things out, this trailer was up in freakin' flames. I never seen such a thing, it was like watching a movie because we couldn't do anything about it. Our water hose couldn't reach that far and there was every Fire Dept. and volunteers from the area cities helping out. Eventually we did closer and heard the guy who lived there say "We all made it out alive, but we lost everything we have." If you would like to donate something to them, send me an email about it (williamtritter@yahoo.com) and we will get it to them somehow.

A Shout out to RJ Cowan and old college running buddy who was 2nd overall in the half-marathon, he has been burning up some of the major half marathons in Texas over the past year or so, and to BO Trainor for editing my latest paper for management class and for organizing dinner at Milano's in downtown Fort Worth. Carley, for killing it during the 10k. I ran with her for my cool down and she was passing people left and right, but she wore her Canadian toboggan, she may have been trying to get away from the Americans. Also to everybody else I know who happened to show up in down townat the same time I did.

Brent, me, and Andrew doing an "ice bath" in the 54 degree pool. If I had known it was ab shot I would have pulled up my jacket too.

I'm about to go under, but Brent had some mercy. He did say if I swam 400 meters in this pool he'd buy lunch, but I turned it down.

Some of the visual abuse I had to see.

Carley in her Canadian toboggan, it even has a big ball on it.

Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon

I will try to make this post short and sweet. The only thing sweet about this post is that I didn't wreck.

I stayed at my buddy's Bo's house (by the way Bo, thanks for the hosting) that night and he let me eat his chicken and veggies, however being the growing boy I am, I was still hungry, we went to the local Subway near by and I got the foot long chicken terakyaki sandwich.

The morning of the race, I woke up right before my alarm went off. Got everything ready, stopped by the convenience store for coffee and got the race site at 6:45am, then I realized we had driven all the way there and let my helmet in my car back his place, so we had to haul back fast like and run a few red lights back to his house to get my helmet and make it back to to the start.

We made it back 5 minutes prior to blocking off the traffic as I was about to start my warm up, the race director Jack is already talking about closing transition way early according to the email that I had printed off. Then there are thunderstorms and race is delayed 30 minutes.

We finally got to start and it was a 2mr/15mb/2mr. It was a very fast start. For whatever reason UNT Triathlete Phillip Dudley takes off like a madman and everyone else follows suit. I am trying to stay relaxed but I know there are some fast guys in this race so I try to stay with in contact. I went to through the first mile in 5:07, so I imagine there were a few guys just under 5 minutes, the second mile slowed down some (5:22) and I was slowly catching the front pack. I ended up 6th after the first run, I rush to transition, get my bike, and do a quick flying mount to catch that first group. Early on I worked my way up to 2nd and I thought I was going to gain ground on Will Brewer but unfortunately I got caught by a few other cyclists and fell back some. Me and Baylor triathlete Matt Ison were trading turns using a "legal distant" draft to hopefully pull our way back up front. However it wasn't working and at the end of the second loop I realize if I want to beat Matt I need to start pulling away as my legs were starting to feel better I hit a tremendous surged as my watch was putting me at 27/28 mph but right after I crossed the timing mat to start the third and final loop I hear hiss out of my front tire. I tried to ride it out in prayers that it wasn't mine but as I slowed down I checked it it was flat so as I wanted to curse a bit and throw and kick things I remained calm and was glad I didn't wreck and just walked slowly back in encouraging a few other racers out there. When I got back I just did the second 2 mile run as a good effort to get the workout in and push the other racers out there.

If I had to do all over again as this was my first du, I would have stayed with who I knew was consistent on the first run and worked my way up differently on the bike. I think I would have been 4th or 5th if I didn't flat and if I raced smarter I think I could have been 2nd or 3rd. But you live and learn and this was definitely a learning opportunity here. It also still very early season right now so you shouldn't be near your peak right now.

Congrats to all the racers that competed and the volunteers who made it success. It was super fast race especially with full teams from A&M, Texas Tech, and UNT. Also TCU and Baylor had representatives as well. Congrats to Will Brewer for killin' it out there and setting a course record. Results link is here http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4070

So much for short and sweet, here a few pictures I stole, I mean found later on facebook from different people.

Start of the men 39 and under

Making the final turn back to transition finish the 2mile run in 10:30. Behind me is training mate Bryce Fluker out of Longivew, Tx and Texas Tech alum.

Ray Waton a photographer wanted to shoot me as I made my walk back into the stadium.

Ice bath later and the new Triathlete Mag with Greg Bennett on it to take my mind off the cold. It was actually "warmer" today 54 degrees.

Next up I am doing the Athens Triathlon in a couple of weeks and hoping it warms up.

Thanks,

WR

East Texas Snow Days

Today I had a scheduled rest day planned which worked out perfectly since I didn't really have to worry about all the snow, but I did call in late to work. In the mean time me and my roommate Josh built snowman just over 6ft tall. While were doing that I bent over my jeans split, I felt rush of cold air go up my pants and was like, "Josh, do I have a hole in my pants." He was like yeah. I guess this is a sign I need to go on a stricter diet with maybe lettuce, pickles, and celery, a carrot or two might be ok. You can see our pictures below.

I do have another fairly big weekend planned with tomorrow after work and in between my paper writing I planned to do a few mile repeats and Sunday is an early morning run-bike ride before church and strength swim since I missed it the other day due to the weather It looks like the weather should be a bit nicer to us then.

And closing on a better note Baby Scotty is almost cancer free. Click his picture on the right and read his journal for further updates. Keep him in your prayers that things will only get better.

Snowman!

Josh and I by our snowman taller than us.

"Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk, inside yo trunk."

A side view of East Texas Medical Center in Cedar Creek Lake

My car at 5:15am, before I called in this morning.

Mega Training Weekend in Fort Worth

This past weekend I met with a group of athletes from different ranges of abilities with my coach Brent Poulsen being the leader. We even had a speedy youngster with us that could for sure move in the pool. We had our work cut out for and it was important to stay fueled. There is just a few of the nutrition products I use, however it shouldn't be taking the place of real food. They are good for some recovery and fueling, especially when time is tight.

Saturday morning was a 8am start with a 2 hour progression run. I think this was the first time I done a progression run this long but it was one of my best, I was wearing my new Brooks Glycerin shoes that I've been wearing for about a week. We had a big group of maybe 10 or so once we hit the Trinity trail we split up into our own paces. I was going a little faster than I probably should have to start but it was ok and my training mate Bryce was there with me. After 45 minutes of around 6.55 mile pace we started the next 45 minutes moderate at 6.20s. Then the last 30 minutes was as hard as we could maintain and I dropped it from 5.50-5.55 mile pace. After run practice it was time go back to the house and eat breakfast to refuel then it was swim practice, but before that I had to go to the bank real quick and well the bank I found was closed and I ended up running into construction and making wrong turns getting to the pool that I was 20 minutes late. I still owe them 1000 yards. Anyways I had to build into the swim and my stomach was hurting early on. We did a bit of strength work with pulls and paddles. There were so many of us in there swimming it turned out to be good open water practice during these cold months. Right after our swim it was a quick change and we were on our bikes for an "easy" base ride. It was good ride we rode by a ranch that had buffaloes and zebras.

After a day of training we hit up this local Mexican place for food. We ate tons of chips and salsa, while we waited of what actually felt like an eternity. Then I ate my plate which contained grilled chicken and tomatoes, rice and beans. I also ate half of Carley's plate and didn't even feel stuffed, in matter of fact we got back to the house and ate her brownies she made for us. Me, Bryce, and Cam passed out before 9PM Saturday night watching UFC.

Sunday morning was another early start me, Bryce, and Cam hobbled down Dave's steps like 80 year old man I see everyday at work for a 40 minute recovery run. Our first mile was 9:33. We refueled again and we met up with the group for a 3 hour bike ride in 38 degree weather, once we got going it wasn't so bad though. I only had like 4 layers on. After a warmup we did a 45 minute steady tempo where we picked up the pace on every loop. Surprisingly I hung with the Cam and Brent as the only 3 left of the main group that stayed on. However I missed a few pulls though, it's funny when you exercise you don't think as well. Then we did few hill repeats then after that we rode back to the pool and did a few fast swims. I thought I was swimming good drafting off Jarrod for more than half a lap from what I was doing the day before, but turns out he was cramping up. No wonder. Then not long later I started cramping up in the same spot on my inner thigh as well, as did most everyone else. That was pretty much it.

Right now I am finishing up one last build week and then next weekend is the Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon.