Halloween Super Saturday and Suffer Sunday

With it being two weeks out from the Ironman 70.3 World Championships we had organized an unorganized super training weekend in Fort Worth with some of the fastest local triathletes in the DFW Metroplex. These athletes included my coach Brent Poulsen, Korey Sessions, Travis Thomason, Pedro Trinidade, Austin Saylor, Eric Trelz and Cam Mencio (Lubbock). The ages ranged from 23-37 years old.

We started Super Saturday morning with 3 hours in the saddle and I could tell my legs were fatigued from earlier this week as it was one of my hardest weeks. I knew during the warm up it would be a rough day. I got dropped from the group on the first interval. Then I saw Cam on the side of the road looking at his bike, found out he has too much power in those legs and broke a spoke. Then on the way back, I asked Cam if he was alright and he sounded positive, like he had it figured out, but what he said was "I need to borrow your phone" I was like "ok, great" and kept riding. Pedro then caught up to me and asked about Cam. I was like I think he is ok, he said something but I couldn't understand him. After we got off the bike me and Pedro did our sets long run intervals off the bike which was tough. Cam eventually was able to get a ride back in.

After biking and running, next it was swimming for me since I missed a swim this weekend. I did 4,000 meters and the main set was something like 22x100's. I told Brent I had trouble counting that high. Anyways, he laughed and I got close to puking in the pool. But I got the work done. As Philly says, "Get that fitness".

Our festivities for the afternoon included drinking lots of diet coke, watching the movie "Red" which was incredible. I think I like Bruce Willis because he is bald. We then ate at Genghi's Grill again and Carley (Brent's wife) made us some delicious gluten free cupcakes and gluten free pumpkin-pecan pie. We tore that up. We watched the Texas Rangers went Game 3!!! Then me and Eric went to one of his friends house gathering for a short period. I was debating on just going as myself as my face looked like I had smashed up against the wall as I was sooo tired. The picture below is our costume. He is the Karate Kid and I am a Rock Star.

Suffer Sunday was starting with a 90 min progression run. Let me tell you Austin, who is 36 years old can throw it down. Then it was followed quickly by a 2 hour ride around the Trinity Trails and the Benbrook area. I couldn't wait to get this ride done as my legs were beat. We met this girl Becca who caught the end of our ride and she was chatting away, mainly with Austin and his mad skills. Turns out she is a smart girl applying to med schools for internal medicine.

That's pretty much how Super Saturday and Suffer Sunday goes. If you interested in coming out next time and think you can hang, let me know. In two weeks is Ironman 70.3 World Championships. I'll competing in my age group 25-29. I can't wait to get there and have a good time. Thanks to Eric for letting me and Cam crash at his place and eat all his food again and Carley for making the awesome cupcakes and Pumpkin pie

Ironman 70.3 Austin

Friday night Timo and I, were about 3 miles from our hostess house in Leander, Tx. It was 12:30am and I was starting get tired after a couple of swerves of trying to stay in the lane, after the second time, I saw the blue and red lights in my rear view. I knew what I was getting pulled over for. The officer asked questions like if I had been drinking or texting. I wanted to tell him I was so far behind the 21st century that I don't even have texting on my phone. Then he asked if we had meth, then I wanted to say no, but I am from Cedar Creek Lake, then he proceeded with asking if we had steroids. I almost laughed. He also asked what we were up to and what we were doing. I told him we were 3 miles from the house. Fortunately, I kept the conversation straight and got off with a verbal warning.

Pre-Race morning me, Timo, and Jenn we were staring at a tri-spoke wheel that Timo was borrowing from Cam. Where does the air go? I called Cam "Hey buddy, where does the air go on this thing." "Oh just peel back the white sticker". Apparently, a white sticker on a black surface was too much for all three of us to figure out. Timo, had to get some work done on his bike and me and Jenn proceeded to "soft pedal" down the high way. Then I did a pre race swim putting on my wetsuit my arm sleeve just rips. I was pissed!!!! But, there is a positive, my buddy Eric Trelz just happened to be getting out of the water the same time I was about to go in and I told him what had happened he actually had another wetsuit with him, so I got to borrow his. Later that night we hung out with Cam and his family and had a wonderfully cooked spaghetti dinner with beef and we saw the Rangers whoop up on the Yankees.

Race morning started with the National Anthem while a parachute guy held up the huge American flag and landed at the end of the song.

Me and my buddy Travis from Dallas were hanging out before start. I find it good to be loose and joke around with your buddies. I also met some guys from Connecticut and California, they were crackin' me up.

I had my fastest (legit) swim time of 32:24, the swim continues to make improvement. I have knocked off around 3-4 minutes since the beginning of the year. I didn't draft off anybody very long. I found this one guy speeding along by me, I got on his feet but he was zig zagging really bad. Then I found another guy in the middle of the swim but lost him towards the end. I felt sluggish but midway through started feeling better. I got out of the water and felt like a chain smoker trying to run up the hill into transition. I was literally worried about my legs there.

Starting the bike.

The bike course I thought was so much fun minus the bumps. It had lots of rolling hills, turns, and a few steep climbs. I built into the bike, unlike I did at Prairie Man where I basically hammered from the start. I did average near 25 mph the the first hour, the last hour got hard as I tried to maintain some speed. It was more crowded than it should have been because people don't stay to the right of the road. I found out of you say On ur left then their name, it gets there attention better. I finished the bike course in just under 2:16. for a 24.7 mph.

The run was hard!!!! It was 2 loops and it was hilly. I came out of T2 not looking at my watch but running with what felt comfortable, it would later turn out to be 5:45-6min pace. That slowed quick later, especially once we hit the grass. Half of the run was cross country, which was fun and offered a good challenge. There was a huge hill on the back side that slowed me way down. However, I was running my best ever off the bike on the road. I did the first half of the run averaging a 6:21 pace but blew up the last half and only averaged 7:01 pace. I managed to find a sprint at the end of the run and sneak under the 4:20 barrier and finished in 4:19.49.

Half way through the run taking in a gel.

At the finish I was hanging on Jenn trying to catch my breath the official photographer wanted one of those finishing photos. I told Jenn I gotta get out of here. I knew I was about to puke. However, I realize my fitness has been getting better as the year goes along. It took a lot longer for me to puke and I don't think it was as much either, although that is arguable. Instead of needing 2 or 3 IV bags, I only had one.

It was fun weekend. My traveling buddy Timo finished 1st in the college division with a time of 4:16. My coach Brent Poulsen finished 6th among the pro's and Eric Trelz set a PR of 5:35. The day before they got rear ended by lady going 50 mph and then again when she hit the gas instead of the brake. Brent spent most of his pre race day in the hospital with as stiff neck. Thank you to Cam and his family for hosting us and letting us eat all their food. Thank you to Jenn and Tiffany for coming out and supporting and also to the many other volunteers. All those sponges I stuffed in my shorts and top saved my run. Thanks to my generous sponsors OnUrLeft Sports, Retibol Vril, Blueseventy, MonaVie (Brandon Perry) and Brooks I.D. and Brent Poulsen for the excellent coaching. Most important.y thanks to Jesus for keeping my friends safe and letting us have good races!

So, In a few weeks me and Timo are doing this little race in Clearwater, Florida.

Rock on!

William

Ritter wins triathlon

This was in the small town local paper that came out over the weekend. A big thanks to Eston Williams for getting the information out of me to get to the press. Eston "Send me an email about your win." Me, "Ok you got it!" Later in the day I check my email. "William don't forget to send me the information." I think in my head, "Oh yeah, I just forgot". The picture that was run was actually from the Clear Lake tri a few weeks back, since I didn't have any from Stonebridge and the newspaper wanted a picture. Also is mentioned the Stonebridge women's champion. Every competitive woman triathlete needs to be on the look out for up and coming Elizabeth Meraz, better known as Liz Raz!!!

This weekend, I'll spend in Fort Worth training with my coach and pro triathlete Brent Poulsen and we both are gearing up for Austin 70.3 and the World Champs 70.3 in Clearwater.

Ritter wins triathlon
Monitor Staff Reports
McKINNEY–Olympic Center trainer William Ritter won the Stonebridge Ranch Triathlon race in McKinney this past weekend.
Ritter, who works at the East Texas Medical Center-Cedar Creek Lake facility in Gun Barrel City, finished first among 194 male runners, clocking 2:02:43, about two minutes ahead of Dallas resident Shawn Bonsell (2:04:34), who led the Masters age group.
Ritter competed in the Open age group. There were 261 competitors entered in the triathlon, including 66 women.
Plano resident Elizabeth Meraz (competing in the 30-34 group) was the first-place female runner, clocking 2:26:03, about three minutes ahead of Dallas resident Nikki Bertrand, running in the 25-29 age group.