More pics from the SC Half

Here's Dan Moss, me, and Gregory Carr in the last few miles of the bike

Teammates Cameron Dorn(left) raced his first half today and smoked a 4:25. Hal Outen(center) was on a relay and ran the half marathon.

I'm asking Andrew Hodges, "How the hell did you go so fast?"
My 2yr old enjoyed the "sprinkler tent"

South Carolina Half

I just raced the SC Half yesterday, so here's a race report to tell you all about my fun-filled day.




Sunrise off Lake Greenwood.


The SC half is one of my favorite races of the year. The first year I did it, I had my best race ever, so that mentality has kind of stuck with me. Last year, I had a terrible race, but there's plenty of good reason for that. Shouldn't have ever started the race, but I had already paid. Not too smart. Anyway I was really focused on having a great race this year. My run training has been a bit short due to some ailments, but I had been able to log some quality miles a few weeks before the event. I was very optimistic about my chances for a PB at this race this year, as my swim and bike fitness were pretty good.

We live a little over an hour from the race site, so an early morning drive was in order. It's not like you sleep much before a race anyway, so no big deal. The weather forecast was ideal. Temps started out in the 60's with a high of 82. A little warm, but not for the south.

Swim: I was late getting in the water for a warm-up, as I had to get my swim cap I left in the car. Only got in about 50 yards of warm-up before I was told to get out of the lake. Not good, as I usually need a good long swim to get the arms awake and ready. Back in the water after race announcements, and boom, we're off. The game plan was to find the group of swimmers that I know, and follow them for the swim. Dan Moss and Peter Kotland are just a bit faster than me in the water, so ideal drafting partners. I was unable to find them at the start, so I ended up swimming it alone. I felt pretty good in the water. My goggles were a bit fogged up, so I was having some trouble navigating, but was able to see some splashing ahead of me. Throughout the swim I was alone and feeling good. At the last turn buoy, I saw 2 people about 25 yards ahead of me. I picked it up to catch them. What do you know...it was Dan and Peter. I followed Dan for the last 100 yards of the swim into T1. Swim: 27:54

Heading out of the water.


T1: Off with the wetsuit, on with the helmet. A team mate of mine, Hal Outen yelled out that there was a group of 4 about 3 minutes ahead of us. "What??" was my response. 3 minutes?? Damn, I had better get moving. I took off and left Peter and Dan behind me.

Bike: I'll already admit it..I went too hard at the start of the bike. I knew Dan would catch me at some point b/c he's the stronger cyclist, but I also wanted to see how many people I could pick off all while trying to put a gap between me and Peter. I felt super strong starting out on the bike. I really felt like I had a ton of energy to spare. I picked off 2 guys in the first 10 miles. Dan caught me at mile 17. We caught a third guy at around mile 25. I was feeling good. Haulin' butt and catching people. The third guy we caught stayed with us and benefited from Dan and me pushing the pace. At around mile 35 I asked a volunteer how many were in front of us and he said "2". Crap, I thought we only had one in front. I knew one of the guys in front of us was Andrew Hodges. I wasn't even expecting to mix it up with him, as he's out of my league, but I had no idea who was still up there with him. As the miles added up, my quads started to feel the pain of going a little too hard. I was starting to get concerned about my ability to run later, so I let off the pace a little bit. The three of us stayed within 50 yards of each other as we finished the ride and headed into T2. They were in front of me, so I entered T2 5th OA. Bike: 2:17:20

Heading into T2

T2: Quick tip...think about your transition before you get there. My dumb butt ran right past my bike rack. Luckily Dan was nice enough to ask "Where are you going?". I've raced at this site many times and we usually get racked on the opposite end of the transition. I guess I was thinking my rack was still up there. Thankfully Dan saved me some time. Other than that, T2 was smooth and I was out on the run. Ugh.

Heading out of T2, as you can see I'm smiling..not for long

Run: I have to say, I was feeling pretty good at the start of the run. Dan and the other guy that I will now refer to as Gregory Carr were not too far ahead of me. Dan was obviously off the pace, so I knew something was wrong. I caught him right before mile one and he was having some serious stomach issues. He summed it all up by saying "Have fun", when I caught up to him. First mile was 6:06. Damn, that felt easy. Sweet. It looked like I was starting to catch Gregory as well. I just tried to find a rhythm and stay there. Second mile was 6:14, a little slower but more uphill. That's ok, 'm still feeling good. Third mile was 6:38. Wait a minute I was slowing down and I couldn't seem to pick it back up. Not good. I've seen this before. Alright, at this point I was starting to tire already and I had a long way to go. My quads were getting very tight, and I was concerned of them locking up. I started to get in defensive mode. The next few miles were getting slower and slower. At this point I just wanted to hold a 7 min mile pace. A few miles I really struggled and had some really slow miles. Not good as Peter Kotland was about 3 minutes behind me at mile 6. He was looking good, too. Damn. I had a few side stitches and my legs wanted to cramp on me a few times, but I was able to hold it together, just barely. I saw third place in front of me was slowing as well. I caught him at mile 10. Yeah!!! I'm in third place...podium and check $$ await me at the finish. I turn around at mile 11 and see Peter hard charging. He's less than a minute behind me. I had to push it to keep my third place. I turn around again at mile 12 to find him about 100 yards behind me. I tried my best to pick up the pace, but I knew I wasn't moving very fast. In a few moments I passed Brooks Keys going the opposite direction. He says "Good job Peter". That can't be good. I turn around and he's right behind me...flying. Okay, he goes by, I say farewell to my trophy and check. He was going much too fast for me to hang on. I end up finishing in 4th place OA. My legs ached and they're very sore today. Run: 1:30:44

Total time: 4:17:55

Not smiling anymore...

Not a PB, but still a decent race. I really had plans of running a sub 1:25 half mary, but my legs had no go power. A result of taking it too hard on the bike and not having the run conditioning
needed to hold that pace. Andrew won the race with a 3:59:55. He was flying on the run. Gregory Carr was second with a 4:10, and Peter was in front of me with a 4:16.

Next race is a local Int'l Distance race, then I'm headed to Wilmington for the Beach2Battleship Iron Distance.

New hand position on the bike

Below is a pic of my revised position after going to the wind tunnel. The only change is my hands are raised a bit. I actually find this position to be more comfortable. Notice how the top of the forearm is parallel to the ground. Please no comments about the pretty painting : )

Even more pics...

Everyone likes pictures, so here's some more from the wind tunnel. My blog only allows me to load 5 at a time.

A2 offers customers a chance to test different helmets, bars, and wheels. Very cool. However, if you are a manufacturer, you cannot use these products to test against you own product. The helmets we tested were our own. I was digging the Hed3 Deeps in the background.Here's John Cobb telling me to get comfortable b/c I'm gonna be in this oversized closet for a long time. That's Herbert looking on.
Here's a shot of the customer side of the control center. You can see Mike Giraud getting my bike set up. He's the Bicycle Specialist at the A2 tunnel and conducted all of the tests for us.
This is me with Simone Barbazza (Marketing) and Norberto Fava (Product Manager) from Rudy Project. Both were great to work with!!

More pedalling...

More pics from the wind tunnel

That 30mph wind in my face was killin' my eyes. Thank goodness Rudy Project makes sunglasses.
More shots of the smoke... That's Simone Barbazza taking a picture in the background.


Another pic with the Giro Advantage. That's Mike Giraud in the background. He's the Bicycle Specialist at the A2 Tunnel. Very knowledgable about bikes and TT aerodynamics. Nice guy, too.

Some of the glasses we tested. The fastest ones are not what you think... I can say that after testing all of these glasses, Rudy Project makes the best glasses I have ever used. Very high quality. Thanks to the guys at RP for letting me have a pair.

A day at the Wind Tunnel with John Cobb and Rudy Project

I was very fortunate to spend most of yesterday at the A2 Wind Tunnel in Mooresville, NC with John Cobb and Rudy Project. Just to back up a bit, John selected me and Herbert Krabel(administrator for Slowtwitch) to join him for aerodynamic testing. It was a bit of luck, but the day was a little bit of work in exchange.

Anyway, back to yesterday.

We met at the tunnel at 7:30AM. Once there I met John, Herbert, a couple of John's friends, and two representatives from Rudy Project: Simone and Norberto (both from Rudy's Corp. Office in Italy).

Here's the A2 Wind Tunnel. The building in the background is a larger wind tunnel for race cars. It is used 24/7 and is booked for a full year in advance.

We set up my bike in the tunnel and began testing with Rudy's new road helmet. This helmet was so light, it was ridiculous. We tested it with a winter cover as well. We then tested about 10 pairs of Rudy glasses. We also tested them against most all of the competitor's top sellers. This took a while, but the data showed a good pair of shades can save you as much time as a front race wheel. No kidding!!! It all has to do with the way the air flows around the glasses and around the helmet/head. Even John seemed surprised by the results.

We then tested Rudy's new aero helmet. It was a prototype that was a plaster mold with a normal helmet inner. Very heavy, especially to wear for a while. The finished product will obviously be much lighter and not made of plaster : ) I can't show pics or say too much about it. I can say that it tested FAST!! I look forward to getting one once it's in production. We compared it to a Spiuk, a Giro, and an LG Rocket Air. All helmets were tested at 0* and 10* yaw. It was very interesting to see how much development goes into developing a product. The Rudy guys and John were both coming up with ideas to test with the helmet. Let's just say they were using their share of cardboard and duct tape. It was all very exciting to be a part of. It was also very cool to give feedback about fit, comfort, air flow, etc... As you all know , the more air flow results in less aerodynamics. Rudy is making something that will work for both...The helmet was part transformer with lots of ideas and possibilities. In the end John made some recommendations for a few subtle changes, but the helmet will remain very similar to what we saw.
Here's me with the Giro Advantage.

After the helmet tests, we broke out the smoke. We used smoke to show airflow with the new road helmet and the new aero helmet. John also used a string to show the airflow disturbances with the aero helmet. Cool, but messy. I needed a shower after the smoke. Lots and lots of pics taken during the smoke.

Here's John showing Norberto how the air flows over my back.

Then, John did a few runs to test my aerodynamics. We really just tested my hand position. He said he liked my position overall, but thought we could improve my aerodynamics by moving my hands up. After testing two different positions, we found one that will work better than my original position. Very cool. I'll be using the new hand position beginning now and can test it at my race next weekend, the SC Half. Not much of a change, so I'm not too worried about making the change this close to one of my "A" races. I was able to find out which helmet tests fastest for
me. Well, the fastest helmet in production for me is the Spiuk, my current race helmet.

Here's a pic with the Spiuk. This was before the hands were raised.

After this, we switched bikes in the tunnel and Herbert put in his Jamis, which is a very nice looking bike. Those Xentis wheels and bars are wicked cool. Much nicer to see in person. We did use my training wheelset for both bikes, so the Xentis wheels had to sit in the control room. Herbert also tested all of the helmets including the Rudy prototype. He has a "Type B" back, where I have a "Type A" back. This different back shape allowed John and RP to get more data on the performance of the Rudy helmet compared to it's competitors. Once again, the Rudy tested very FAST. After many many more runs and many many more photos we finished all of the tests.

Overall a GREAT experience. Being able to listen to John at work was worth the trip all together. John's a great guy that was a lot of fun to hang out with for the day. He has a very "down to earth" way of looking at things. He's a "simple solutions" for problems kind of guy. Although some of his "simple solutions" come from years of wind tunnel experience. I learned a lot about air flow and aerodynamics during the visit. I hope to help out again.

Triathlon and Injuries : (

Anyone that has been in endurance sports for a couple of years has had to deal with overuse injuries. I've definitely had my share. This is my 3rd season in triathlon, and I have yet to make it through a full season without a MINOR issue. So far, this may be the first season that I don't have a MAJOR issue. Here are my thoughts on how to deal with injuries, and most importantly, how I've dealt with them this year.

First of all, when I say MINOR issue, I mean an ache and pain that prevents me from doing the full distances I would like. But, I am still able to do some training.

A MAJOR issue is when I'm laid up and not able to do any training.

My first year, I developed "Runner's Knee" and Achilles tendonitis

My second year, I developed IT band friction syndrome (the worst injury ever!!!!)

This year I have been able to hold off full blown achilles tendonitis and IT band friction syndrome. Both in opposite legs from last year. Go figure. Maybe my body is just not designed to do endurance events, or maybe I just push too hard too early. I'm thinking it's the second.

My first reccomendation to anyone that feels a tightness, pulling, achiness, or any feeling that is other than ordinary fatigue/soreness from training, talk to someone that knows sports injuries. Don't make the mistake of just "running/riding through it". I made that mistake my first two years. I thought I was a wuss if I didn't train in order to rest, so I just put myself out of my misery. Not a wuss, just real dumb.

Let me emphasize "someone that knows sports injuries". I can refer you to someone if needed, but I have seen Dr's that really don't know how to help serious endurance athletes.

If you do endurance sports, then you have to know the RICE acronym. This is the first treatment for most all overuse injuries. Google it and you can find a ton of material on proper techniques. It stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. I have been able to apply the RICE method to my two injuries this year and prevent them from getting any worse. I've also used strength exercises that I've learned from my prior experiences.

The other step in keeping your injuries from getting out of hand is to know when to STOP. Again, don't run through it. You're not a wuss if you end up walking home. I do a lot of running on the treadmill when I have MINOR issues, so I can stop whenever I feel I need and not have to walk home. This is what happened to me last year with my ITBS. I was 5 miles from home, my knee was getting sore. I ran 5 miles home...end of story...out of commission. Had I stopped at mile 5 and found a way home, I could have possible avoided the injury that totally ruined my second half of last year's season.

So, again this is just some quick points from my experiences. I could make tell more, but I think you get the point. I'm still nursing my right IT band as I'm preparing for the SC Half and the Beach2Battleship Full Iron race. I'm not able to put in the running mileage I would like, but I AM still able to run.

My best advice for anyone that's having a problem is to see someone that knows sports injuries. Don't leave it up to WebMD for your diagnosis. Odds are you may need rehabilitation, and you don't want to leave that up to yourself.

Take care!