#100

First off this is post #100 for me, so that is kinda exciting. The ITU San Francisco Triathlon is where I have ended my season each year for the last 5 years. It is a great race in a great city. Is is a good race not necessarily for the venue (bike course leaves a lot to be desired), but because it usually becomes the last stop for me and all my triathlon related friends for the season. It is alsways a struggle mentally for me to keep focused until mid-November and this year was no exception. I arrived in San Fran ready to race. I was excited finishing up my season well and making up for the week before. I did race hard, and have a solid race, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for.

My swim was going well in the leadup to the race, but disaster struck in the race. I had a great start gapping both Matt Chrabot and Matt Reed (they started next to me). At the first buoy something happened and about 5-6 people got tangled in the buoy/ropes. I was actually stuck underneath the buoy trying to find some air. It was like the buoy ate me. When I finally got un-stuck from the buoy and started swimming, the break had already happened. I was leading the chase with about 8 guys off the front. I swam in the chase pack until I got eaten by another buoy. Then I went to the end of the chas pack. You would have thinked I learned my lesson the first time. Looking back, and talking with the other guys I think the buoys were not secured properly and had some extraa ropes or soemthing. A lot of people had trouble with these. You can see big Matty Reed getting caught in one in the video below.

We were far back on the bike, but are group worked relatively well, caught quite a few ahead of us, and came into T2 about 25 seconds down. I started to feel a little queasy in the stomach, but shrugged it off. While my swim was terrible, we managed to "re-enter" the race on the bike. Onto the run I felt great for the first lap (of 3) and was running in 10th/11th with a Columbian. Starting the 2nd lap I started to go backwards. I really struggled with my stomach and slowed. I got passed by quite few guys. I found my legs on the 3rd lap, but the stomach was doing sommersaults by that time. I caught a few guys on the way home, but honestly I think I was running faster because I knew there were Porta-Potties at the finish line.

I finished up 13th, but didnt stop running when I crossed the line....I ran straight to the john. As I am jogging over to the toilet, the ankle chip guy is screaming at me and chasing me down asking for my chip. I told him he can come in the toilet with me if he wants, but I am not waiting for him to de-chip me. He thought for a second and then left me alone. I thought I would be better after the visit, but things got worse. I made beacoup des voyages to the bathroom for the next 4 hours. I have no idea why. It could have been from South Korea, what I ate the night before, or just nerves. I wasn't nervous, so I dont think that was that. And I didnt get sick again, so I dont think it was a parasite. Whatever, it was bad for about 1 hour before my race to 3 hours after.

Now I am on BREAK!! I cant describe how great this feels. I have no travelling on planes, no training, and zero diet restrictions (for a few weeks). The end of season break has arrived and I am loving it. I will take a couple weeks completely off and then take a few to get back in the swing of things. I will post a season retrospective soon and also a "season in pictures" blog post so I dont completely quit blogging and lose all 1.78 of my faithful readers.

Cheers,
B

Seoul to SFO

The 2008 Incheon Triathlon has been run and won, but not by me. I was feeling quite good about the race leading in, had easy travel, and recovered from the jet-lag fairly easily. Leading into the race on Saturday I thought I was in for a good one. To make matters a little more interesting, the race organizers decided to bring in some VERY fast people. Think a little less like a random race in Asia and a little more like an ITU World Cup.....

The swim went ok, but I had a bad start and got caught behind quite a few guys. I battled my way back through the dropped swimmers to the pack and exited about 5-6 seconds behind the first pack of about 6 guys. I had a good T1 and hopped on the bike. I was 2nd wheel behind Jan Rehula (2000 bronze triathlon medalist and rides like a motorcycle). I was holding on for dear life with my feet still on top of my cycling shoes. We were about 15-20 meters behind the first pack (who were conveniently tucked behind the lead motorcycle). Well, I got dropped. No excuses or reasons, I just couldnt hang on any more. And while this race was stacked, there were not too many people racing so once I got dropped, there was no one even close. The next group was over a minute behind at this point. I rolled into T2 with the 2nd pack a little over 2 minutes down, and out of the race. I ran one lap of the run, and then pulled the plug. I dont like dropping out, but San Francisco ITU is this next weekend, and I felt like it was the smartest choice. I am now in San Fran at Lauren's resting and recouperating for this weekend. The field is small, but competitive and I look forward to racing HARD! No quitting this time, no matter what happens.

Enough about the race.....there were quite a few other interesting things about the trip. I met a bunch of Czech guys who were racing. One (Petr Bures) was an exchange student in Weatherford, Texas!!! This small town is about 15 miles from my house and I ride there all the time. What a small world....Another Czech, (we will call him Pretzel because I cant spell or pronounce his name) is on my new French Team next year. It was good to hear about the new manager and my new teammates. More info will come soon about my plans for next year, my new club, and some new sponsors. And lastly, while we stayed in a nice hotel, it was in the middle of nowhere, and we were left sitting in out rooms trying to stay entertained. The food, though, was by far the best meals I have had in Asia. Night and Day difference to racing in China. We even had a pre-race dinner at the Incheon Airport Hyatt that would probably rank in my top 10 meals of all time. It was that good. In summary, the race was not great, but racing in Korea get two thumbs way up!!

talk soon after this weekend in San Fran! Cheers,
B

In Seoul

I made it to Seoul safe and sound. The flight over was quite eventful, and surprisingly short (at least it felt like that to me). I have settled into the race hotel and things are ticking along. Although, it is 5:30 in the morning and I have been up for at least 1.5 hours. Still haven't kicked the jet-lag yet. The last 4 times I have came over to Asia my body settles into a routine: Desperately try to stay up until 9:00PM, wake up at 4:00AM, Nap around 1:00PM after lunch, and repeat. Everyday I get closer and closer to adjusting to normal and then BAM!, I fly back to the US and mess up the 'ole clock again.

The hotel here is top-notch per the Asian norm, and I have to say the food is the best I have had in Asia so far. It is unreal how "easier" these Asia trips become when the food and hotel is not disgusting. The last couple trips I have taken to Asian provided a few moments of "what the heck am I doing here" as I stand in some awful hotel with no-one else around with whom I can commiserate, and last nights food (or whatever that was) doing somersaults in my belly. This one has been quite pleasurable so far.......except it it FREEZING!

This place is ridiculously cold. The high yesterday was in the 50's. That is the high folks, not what temp it was at 9:30 when we are supposed to race. This morning it is in the low 50's and pouring rain. The ocean is a mild 62 degrees, so I guess it could be worse, right? Well, hopefully it will be relatively warm on race day. We will see.

That is it for now. I might check in again before race day. Wouldnt wanna be too adventurous and blog 3x/week........

Cheers,
B

the last push

It is DEFINITELY that time of the season again. Every morning my body hurts a little more, and it is harder to get up. The weather is changing and my daily motivation seems to be hanging in the balance. It is the end of the season. I still love triathlon, it just seems that the actual act of training is getting tougher. Today was the last day of my three week block of training. Suprisingly, I was very consistent throughout in terms of volume and intensity. But now, I am completely wiped. The thing is I only have maitenance workouts for the next two weeks! Almost there.....

The main problem for me is that I get excited for my upcoming break and next season, and often lose concentration about the last few races I have to do. This year seems to be similar. When I first decided to race in Seoul on Nov. 2nd, I was hesitant about adding this race due to the travel and losing a week of training for San Francisco. Now, however, I am super excited to leave and cant wait! The reason? My "training" ends 7 days earlier than before. After my long run today (which went well) I dont think I can put in much more hard work. The end is in sight. If I was racing only San Francisco, then it would be another 1.5 weeks of hard training until I left for the race. I dont know if I could of held the intensity high for that long. I have included some pics of my last trip to Korea for your perusal. This trip was back in April of this year to the Tongyeong, World Cup. Next time I post it should be from the Orient. Shweet.

random rocks

a vista
testing local cuisine with 2x Hawaii Champ Chrissy Wellington (giving her a shout out for her performance)

until next time,

B

chez moi

I am finally back in Texas! (Fort Worth to be specific). I arrived about a week ago and have been settling into things. My parents moved to Austin while I was in France, so I have come home to a large empty (at least empty of people) house. My parents moved to a much smaller place in Austin, so I am tasked with getting this puppy ready to rent out. If you have ever been the the Brandon's you know this is no small task. Which is why I have a timeline of around 3 months to do it.

On the training and racing front, I am getting ready for my last two races of the season. I know I said I only had one left, but somehow I managed to add another race to my schedule. This race just happens to be in Seoul, South Korea. Well, nothing like keeping to the theme of "insane travel" for this year. It is Nov. 2, so it is the week before Treasure Island in San Fran. I view it as a hit ou" for T.I.--this hit-out just seems to be a little out of the way. Until then I am training hard. With this alteration in the race schedule, there are 4 weeks between my last race (Scott Tinley's) and the Seoul race. That is the longest break from racing I have had all season (since last year to be exact). Well, we will give it a go!!

Cheers,
B

ST

Scott Tinley's is one of the cooler races that I do each year (this year both literally and figuratively). Is it such a relaxed and low-key race with a great vibe. It really feels like a grss-roots old-school triathlon. After my month globe-trotting I was looking forward to this kind of race....

Not to say that the race was going to be easy or the competition lacking, but this was certainly a no pressure race for me. Since I was racing in France, Portland, China, and then Scott Tinley's (California) on consecutive weekends, I didnt bring my TT bike (straight-up ITU old school road bike). I think this hurt me a bit on the bike, but probably not as much as the like of bike hours due to travel in the last month......and my inability to time-trial!

My body has taken a beating with my schedule this year, and wasnt sure how race #24 would go. It went ok. I had an easy-breezy swim where I came out 4th right in the bunch (Flash was off the front). I had a good first 20k of the 40k bike, and then EXPLODED! The last half was not so much fun. Onto the run, I recovered a bit and ran strong. not fast, but at least it felt considerably better than the chinese 10k running debacle a week earlier. I finished 12th, right behind K-fed who was also having a less then stellar race.

The good news is that my feet and body are starting to feel better and I am ready to put in a huge push towards Treasure Island in 5 weeks. This is my last and only race left this season and I want to finish the season on a high note! I head back to Fort Worth tomorrow to put in a 5-week training block. It is time for hermit mode: sleeping and training with the occasional meal. In the words of Tim Don, "train hard, win easy"

cheers,
B

Asia, revisited

China, like Portland did not quite go according to plan. I was really hoping for a top finish. I have had a good track record in Asia and was looking to keep the streak alive with this race--it just didnt happen. I think it was about one race too many this trip. Whereas Portland was just a case of being tired and missing 6 days of swimming beofrehand, China was probably too much travel with a combo of no run training.

When I booked this 4 week round the world tour, I wasnt injured and it still seemed like a tough schedule. Through a little heel issue into the mix and it was going to be not so much fun. I swam as much as possible between Portland and China (as much as you can in 7 days with 2 days travel across the Pacific), but it didnt seem to help much. I had a good swim, but not like the rest this year. I exited the water in 3rd place right behind the two leaders, but it was probably the hardest I have ever swum in a triathlon and the pace was not that fast. I dont know if it was residual fatigue form travel or just themeager swim training of the past several weeks (or both).

Into transition I was fine, but mucked up putting my feet in my cycling shoes and promptly had a 10m gap to the four leaders up the road. I road as hard as possible, but I couldnt bring them back. I finally had to sit up and wait for the next group. The group ended up being about 1:15 back out of the water so we had some work to do. Me and another Ukranian (we call him Nintendo) dragged the pack of Chinese around, but we eventually caught the front group. At this point my calves were cramping and I was seeing stars I was so tired, but thought after a few k's of recovery on the bike I would be ok. Not so much. I hopped of the bike and just couldnt go. From the first step of the run, I struggled. I was not going to pull the plug and slugged out it for a dismal 18th place. I think I scored about 3 ITU points and got a smack-kick in the pants from the Chinese.

As Manny, put it, "I saw your run split, bro. What did you do, stop for chinese food on the run?" Well, Manny I didnt, but it was slow. Race reports of bad races are always hard to write. They always take longer to put up than the good ones. Right now, I am back in the USA in California getting ready for my next race. In this case, "getting ready" means sleeping, eating, and not much training. I am racing a low-key race in San Luis Obispo this Saturday then heading back to Fort Worth. I have about 5 weeks between then and my next race which also happens to be my last race. Plenty of time to recover from this round of trips and smash myself into some good form for the last race.

forget Geb.....how about Irina?

In other news, I watched Haille G run an amazing sub 2:03:59 in the marathon this weekend, but it was Irina Mikitenko who caught my eye. She is a German marathoner who just became the 4th fastest woman ever in 2:19:19 (this time would qualify her for US men's Olympic trials). More importantly to me, she has a very short shuffly-type stride--very similar to mine! I have always tried to lenghten and change my lengthen my super-short stride, but people like her make me think it might be possible to run fast with my natural stride. And to boot, before she was a marathoner, she was world-class in the 1500, so she can run fast with her short stride. She is my new Hero!!

disaster

Pro nat's was a disaster. I had three straight 12 hour days of travel from France to DFW to Portland combined with 2 days on either end of no pool time. To sum it up, I have been swimming the best I have since college, but with the preceeding 6 out of 7 days before the race with ZERO swimming, I was in for a shocker.

I was a little jet-lagged and fatigued from the travel, but nothing that I couldnt handle (I thought). I felt reasonable leading up to the race and had felt great last week in France at my last race. Well, like the stock market, a lot can happen in 7 days...

I dove into the water and was struggling like I never have from the get-go. My stroke felt aweful, and the body was tired. I never recovered and things actually got worse throughout the swim. I was swimming so hard I was loosing my lunch and was quite cold and dizzy, but going nowhere. I came out WELL behind the leaders in the second pack. It took me about 3 of the 8 laps to feel a little better on the bike, but this was more like going from being on death's doorstep to aweful. Onto the run our group was well back of the leaders, my heel hurt, my motivation hurt, and I didnt feel like killing myself just to slug through to the finish. I stepped off the course. I am still debating whether it was the right decision up to now. Looking back, a 12-15th place (my estimation on my place if I would have finished) would have garnered me nothing but a few measely ITU points which I dont really need right now, and would have required me to limp for at least 3-4 days. I thinking packing it in was the smarter choice, although I have to deal with the emotional ramifications of that choice now.

What really frustrates me is that I havent had a solid ITU race on American soil. Every single ITU race I have done in the last 3-4 years in the USA has gone terrible. There are myriad different reasons for each of the races. I just want to have 1 good race in the US! Is that too much to ask? Oh well. It is time to focus on the next one. This time the next one happens to be in China again. This week (as in 5 days from now). So as I sit and type this blog, I am in Vancouver on the way back to the Orient. Hopefully the body can hold together and I can put together a solid race. We shall see.

Cheers,
B