Texas Stampede Triathlon

Sunset over Lake Benbrook 

This past weekend I was wapping a 3 week training block that ended with the Texas Stampede triathlon since it was local and I didn't have to travel for it which made packing for this a breeze. After of over 4 years of cycling in the same shoes, I finally got around to getting a brand spankin' new Shimano shoes thanks from a generous bonus through work. The had arrived a couple of days before and I stopped at the new shop at Benbrook Bicycle that just opened a few weeks ago and Ron set me up with the cleats for my new Shimano's. Ron is a former Lockheed Martin engineer, so be sure to visit there.

 The open wave started with just 5 of us. I had gotten off to a good start until I veered left which was almost immediately. Two guys Matt and Trent pulled ahead and I couldn't quite get close enough to get in the draft. I've been working one on one with Brent Poulsen on my swim technique that's coming around, but when trying to go faster that has been a challenge as I still swam the race some with my straight arm out of the water.  I came out of the water 3rd.

Getting ready to make the U-Turn for the second loops. This is where I got cussed out by a competitor for getting  in front of them on the U Turn. It was either run into them or get around them. Someone forgot there was a race going on behind them. 

The bike was a fun, hilly,and windy route I spent my time chasing Matt and Trent. I didn't gain any time on Trent. He ended up putting some time on me though.

Heading out for one more loop on the hilly course. 

Coming off the bike I was about 30 seconds off Matt and Trent I was informed. They came off together. I started gaining ground on Trent but Matt was pulling away from Trent. I finally caught up to Trent and kept talking myself up to keep chasing Matt. I finally got Matt with a mile to go but I had some serious side stitches that I wasn't able to suffer through for another mile. 

A few of my Co-workers & friends came out to watch too and met me at the finish. 

L to R: Me, Baby Camden, Wade, Jackie, & Mack.

My #1 Cheerleader also came out too.


 I am looking forward to another big block training to gear up towards a few events this fall. Thanks to my generous sponsors and my Lord who help keep me racing and training:  Revolution Multisport,Extremus, Karbon Speed, and CR Massage who I need to go back too very soon. 

I went out to ride again post triathlon (after Pancakes) and got the double flat. Going down the huge hill by the Fort Worth Zoo sounded like glass was breaking as I heard my tube pop then my spare tube had a whole in it.

Bummed out that no air is going in. 

Yes, I still keep my race number on. 

 Thanks for reading. See you on the course.

Cap Tex Triathlon

After Memphis, Calley and I headed to Austin for the Cap Tex Tri. I was seeking redemption after the previous week's 10k run off the bike. 

We were there early for a little mini-vacation and were welcomed by rain showers Saturday morning. We both did a little run outside of the hotel

Friday afternoon we were out and about exploring off Lady Bird Lake trail and we were about to hop onto this dam to feel the cool water until we saw this snake waiting here, shown below.

We also found these pair of swan's swimming along too. They both came right up next to us gawking for our camera phones.

Saturday morning we started the day off with a nice huge breakfast at place called Abel's on the Lake. This nice place with an outdoor seating deck off Lake Austin. The water looked much cleaner then the water we would be swimming in the following morning.

Race morning came along and I was pretty excited I had some good rest the last couple of days. I love waking up without an alarm clock, that is something I could get used to. I was mentally prepared to rock this out. I came out of the water with an average swim for me, minutes down from where I need to be and should be. 

The Cap Tex bike course is through downtown Austin requires the abilities to make sharp turns and high power output to get rolling again, neither which I have but I felt like I was doing pretty well on the bike. There is also a short steep hill or two in the loop we did x 4. As technical as the Cap Tex course that you have to repeat 4 times with 2,000 other cyclists on the road, it's still a beauty, especially biking in front of the Texas Capital.

I was feeling good on and once I got off the bike, however it didn't take long at all before my legs felt like logs and could never get them moving again (same story in Memphis, part 2). Brad Williams a RWB Triathlete caught me walking within 2 miles and said "We're from Texas, we don't walk" he was right about that, endurance athletes from Texas are some of the toughest athletes I know. I didn't walk the rest of the way, I at least kept one foot off the ground. 

After this race I was pretty mentally beat up and ready to retire. I did almost for a whole week but Calley encouraged me to keep "tri-ing". My goal is to get back to having fun with it then the W's will come. I thank God for my God-given talent and plan to use it also the amazing people who support me: Calley, my parents, Revolution Multi-Sport, Extremus and all my mentors and friends.

Always scoop up yo dawg's poop!! Ain't nobody got  time to be steppin' in all of dat! 

Memphis in May Triathlon

I love Memphis. Memphis has "culture". BBQ & Fried Chicken, Beale St. and Rock -N-Roll!

Standing in Front of Memphis' finest dancers on Beale St. 

We left early Friday morning from Tyler. I was still asleep as we were driving there as it was apparent as I bumped the curb in the median departing Tyler. Calley and I picked my mom up in Carthage and were Memphis Bound. 

Memphis was lots of fun. Friday night we went down to Beale St. where all the action is in Memphis. We explored all the tour-isty shops, a civil rights museum, and even a BBQ joint that is up for the running for the Best BBQ in May. Calley ran into King Arthur's BBQ who was in the running for the Best BBQ in the Memphis in May Festival. King Athur finally convinced her to try some his bbq sauce. That evening we went to Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls of Fire" diner for dinner. After dinner we made our way upstairs to where a man was playing the great music on the piano.  

Below are a few pictures from the adventures on Beale St.

King Arthur selling Calley on his BBQ. 

"Sold" on King Arthur.

Calley's is in the middle of Beale St. 

My Mom and I after dinner at Jerry Lee's Lewis "Great Balls of Fire" restaurant. 

My Mom listening to the Piano Man upstairs after dinner. 

Calley and I dancing to the Piano man. 

Here I am taking my mom out for a spin on the floor. 

It got a little romantical in there.

Pre-race morning, Saturday before the race I went and did my pre-race spin and it had rained some over night as I was spinning in the midst of the sprint race that was being held. I made a U turn at my turn-a-round time and it may have been a little sharp and I felt my back tire slip and down I went in slow motion. Fortunately, everything was A-OK. Nothing was broken, no road rash, or bruises. Most importantly, the bike was fine too. 

That afternoon, we toured around some and went to Sun Record Studio. The recording studio where some of the greatest recorded such as The King Himself - Elvis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and so many others. 

Following the visit at Sun Studio, went to check out Graceland. The mansion that Elvis bought and lived in for some time. Before you know it was time for dinner and we found the spaghetti warehouse in Memphis where I had a light pasta dinner followed by short stroll along the Mississippi River. 

                                 

                                      Calley and I walking by Graceland. 

                                       

                                            Everything was fine until Elvis started hitting on my mom and girl friend. 

  

                                         

                                                  On the drums set the Legends used. 

                             

My Mom and I at Spaghetti Warehouse for pre race dinner. 

                                      

                                                     Sun Studio Records where the Rock-n-Roll Legends recorded. 

                                         

                                                  This is the mic that Elvis first recorded on and  is still working today. 

Walking by the River after dinner. 

Race morning came and I was super pumped and ready to roll. I met up with Elvis for some good luck vibes. I got in line since it was a time trial start which was way  more organized than Kemah was without all the chaos. I thought I was having a good swim and maybe I was but it was an average swim for me. 

I met the Elvis impersonator for some good luck vibes. He would later start hitting on my mom after the race, and Calley.  

On the bike, it took me a couple of minutes to get my legs going we were going straight into a SW headwind it felt like. We rode maybe 14 mile into wind before we got the much anticipated tail-wind to take us back home. The course was super flat but the wind made it plenty challenging. The scenery was amazing as it was a nice view of farm fields. 

Coming in on the bike. 

Starting the run my legs went to logs. It started out with a small steep hill. I could never get my legs moving really and plus it was quite warm by the time the run started. I focused on a quicker turnover. That seemed to help some but I was still struggling. 

Wrapping up the 10k run. 

I ended  up placing 4th in my age-group. Overall this was very fun trip and it was I would consider doing again next year. After Memphis I traveled to Austin to race Cap Tex, so more to come on that soon.

Thank you for reading!!

Kemah Triathlon

I was looking forward to the triathlon. I had missed last year because I broke my arm the year before so I was eager to race. I also had my bike fit adjusted by the Colonel at Colonel Bikes. I called Doug up and told I was tired of riding like a sissy especially after Galveston (even with the flats) I knew my riding wasn't near as where it should be and to see if he could get me riding like I used to. Unfortunately, the bike was canceled at Kemah because it rained heavily all night and into the morning, but I think I've seen some positive changes based on the numbers on the computrainer/heart rate. 

I made the trip to Kemah with my parents. It started pouring down the night before. I never thought the bike would have been canceled. I woke up early the next morning to find that the bike was canceled and that they changed the start times.

 The Swim was a "time trial" start from a jump off the Colonel paddle boat that is usually stationed at Moody Gardens in Galveston. The time trial start was not at all what I was expecting. I thought there would be a couple of seconds between everybody but they told us to go all at once. It appeared to be more dangerous than a wave start so that didn't make any sense to me. I didn't get a chance to look up to see where I was jumping and the water was very choppy, I started following a pack of what I could see only to find we were going the wrong people. Brandon Barnett and I also started swimming on top of each other at the start and I think I sliced my hand on his toenail (Brandon, I meant to tell you to cut those knives on your toes). Luckily, he wasn't carrying any fungus and my hand is mending up. My swim wasn't great at all, much work still to do.

The first 3 miles of my run was sub par, I got off to an ok start but lost my legs within the first half-mile and it was getting ugly. Around the 3 mile marker Ashley Johnson, from the Loncar team passed me. I thought I'm going to have a hard time explaining this one. Ashley's heckuva an athlete. I somehow find part of my legs for the second half and negative split by 60-90".

I quickly got over this race and focused on getting ready for Memphis in May in a couple of weeks. I am thankful for my amazing support system: My Parents, Calley, Coach Brent. Also, Extremus, Revolution Multisport, Tri it Wear, and now Karbon Speed and CR Massage. I thank God even for the bad races...

A special shout out to Todd Hamilton for being an inspiration to a lot of people in his comeback race this past weekend at Texas Man X 50 he rocked it out and was 5th overall and 1st Masters. He was struck by suburban last summer in Weatherford, Tx a small town just west of Fort Worth.

Ironman Texas 70.3 2013

 

I left for Galveston with my girlfriend Calley and my roommates Kyle and Stephanie. I usually get excited about going back this race but I'm beginning to have second thoughts on that as the last 3 years haven't worked out so well, but more on that later. I was also surprising Calley with a small surprise as this was our big 3 month anniversary of dating, this is a big milestone. We got to the room  late Friday night and I was waiting on her to quit talking and do her thing so I could set up for her surprise without her noticing. 

 

 Once she wasn't looking I was able to whip out the the cupcakes, picture frame, and the rest of the pictures from some of our adventures. I believe she liked the surprise and was impressed I found a way to sneak everything in without her noticing. Sneaky, sneaky.

The next morning we both did our bike rides along the sea wall, we had some minor difficulties getting both of our bikes together as both chains had kinks in them, but once we got going I captured these shots of the ocean on the way back from my ride as I was just cruising in loosening up the legs.

 

For lunch we both picked up a baked potato from McAlister's Deli and walked across the street and I had lunch out on the beach. As we both started started throwing our scraps for the birds. I found out they loved the baked potato but they didn't like the tomato's that were on it. They wouldn't even touch that.

  

While I was taking a short dip in the ocean, Calley was able to not only draw this out but take a picture of it without me noticing and surprise me with it on facebook.

 

That night we went to search for dinner but found out the wait times were ridiculously long. We drove further down the seawall thinking maybe some of the triathletes wouldn't go out this way and we were wrong. We experienced some of the worst customer service ever at Mario's but we had great company as we ran into Clay Emge from Tyler and his girlfriend Kimberly. Clay would go off and have a great race finishing in 4:13.

Taking a hit off the crack pipe.

Race morning well lets just say things started looking rough from this picture above. I went to pump up my tires and I noticed my crack pipe had fell out of my pump and I had to borrow one at tech support, I'm glad they even had one. I would find my afterwards and as it must have fell into my transition bag.

Calley and I making our way down near the start and we spotted Stacy McKinney!

 I was the first person to enter the water for my age group as I cannon balled in before our start with 217 other guys. I didn't think my swim was too bad overall but towards the end a lady had cut in front of me and started swimming left. I reached over her and continued my swim but she got a good kick to my ribs, that I didn't really feel at the time until the next morning I was wandering why our my ribs sore and remembered I was kicked there. Still my swim didn't represent of what I know I'm capable of actually it was very sub-par.

Trying to get out of the water and rip a fast transition.

          

  Once I got my wetsuit off my garmin had snapped off too, I guess that is better than loosing in the water. I need a simple repair on it now though. I only ran back to get it because I realized how expensive it was, if my tri shorts had fallen off I might would have even noticed. You can see my Garmin at the bottom of the photo above.

 

Things got worse. Running through T1 there were so many bikes I passed up mine a couple of times before I finally slowed down enough to find it and  yes I knew my number. 

 

 Hopping on the bike my legs feel pretty great and I was going Garmin-less. It wasn't long later I get passed by a speedy 21 year old kid and that is encouraging me to go with him. I hung with him easily for a few minutes but started wandering why I was loosing ground all of sudden. Then I could feel something in my rear wheel that something wasn't right. I kept thinking I would know for sure if it was a flat. Then I could feel the wheel start going side to side. I said that's it I need to check this out. Sure enough, I was getting flat just shy of the 15 mile marker.  I had Vittoria Pit Stop to use for flats, I never used it in a race before and I wasn't sure how I was going to get to the stem that was up in the disc. Once I got some air in noticed I that the disc had ants on it then I noticed I was getting bit. I started running down the road and jumped on the bike and got I was able to reach it just fine and get going down the road but that only lasted for about 5 miles before I was flat again. This was it, I was out of Pit-Stop. I just took the wheel off thinking that a mechanical crew would come by someday. Nope, never happened. I flagged down a race support vehicle and they couldn't reach anybody in mechanical due to a poor signal. They were going to go up the road and find tech support to help me out if not they would give me a ride back. I finally sat down on the side of the leaned up against someones trash can and watched the race go by. A lot of friendly racers were asking if they could help, finally a stranger threw me another can of pit-stop and I was able to get going again. Not long later I grab a water hand out at the same time a kid also drops one into the road and I'm heading right towards it....I run right over and was able to stay on the bike At the turn around I commit that I'm going to hammer the last 28 miles as hard as I can. I lasted for maybe 20 miles before I noticed that I'm getting pretty tired from that. I also could tell I was getting low on air again, hoping to make it back back to T2 time in before I do. Coming back into Moody Gardens I ran over those speed bumps pretty hard and that just knocked everything completely out I pull up and started walking to the transition.While I know I didn't have much air in my tire most of the time I was riding, based on the results I would have still been way behind. I'm taking immediate attention to this and hoping to get this corrected soon.

Somehow I'm still feeling, but deep down I'm not too happy with this end result.

 I didn't hustle for time through transition like I normally do. My legs were shot through time trialing the last half.  I set a moderate pace on the run once I got going then I another 24 year old kid passes me on the run and I go with him and started encouraging him to keep going and telling him he had this as we would pass guys in his age group. I had some highs and lows on the run, the cola kept me going and I would try to get it every chance I could. It tasted sooo good at the time.

On the drive back Calley was there to cheer me up with her singing some of her favorite tunes. Finally, I passed out on the drive back.

Well it wasn't the race I was hoping for it's back to the drawing board. I still have some amazing people and an awesome Lord who is always there for me.  In the meantime, I'm resting up and will be getting ready for the Kemah triathlon soon. Thanks again for reading.