Emails Suck

Emails piss me off sometimes. Let me explain...So, last Thursday, I get back to my car after my ride and I’m checking in on 4square. I then check and see what emails I got and this little gem from USAT was sitting in my inbox

” Congratulations! The USA Triathlon Southeast Regional Council has preliminarily determined that you have qualified to compete in the 2010 Age Group National Championship on September 25, 2010 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama…
Congratulations again! We hope that you are able to represent the Southeast Region this year while we have the unique honor of hosting the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship.Sincerely,USA Triathlon Southeast RegionRankings Committee”

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. I didn’t think that I placed high enough in my races to qualify. I guess I tried calling MH to tell her. I was going to tweet it and tell my coach so we could adjust my training schedule as needed, but decided to wait until a little later. On the way home, I stopped by MH’s grandmother’s house to join them for a birthday dinner. When I got in my car to leave, I saw I had another email from USAT. Psyched, thinking that it was further instructions…race info…whatever…I click read and am greeted with this kick in the junk

Dear USA Triathlon Member,

You may have recently inadvertently received a notice informing you that you qualified for USA Triathlon's Age Group Nationals. This message was sent in error and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused…

Thanks for your continued support,
USA Triathlon

Thanks a lot USAT. might want to double check everything before you hit that send button next time.

Touching Base

Well, training has been going pretty good since Mt. Lakes. Gotten some good rides in...swimming has been consistent...and running is finally starting to come along. I'm sure that I should be a lot further along with running, but with the nagging knees this year, I haven't been able to get all the volume in. I did get a 13 miler in this AM which is the furthest that I've run since Mercedes back in February (holy crap, I do have some volume to make up).

Things are about to start getting crazy. Little man turns 1 this Friday! Can't believe that he has been in our world for a whole year already. He has definitely made life interesting, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Coming home to he and MH make the days worthwhile. We are having his party on the 11th (Surfin Safari!). We thought about inviting friends, but with family alone we are going to be pretty cramped in our quarters so if we started inviting friends, we'd have to rent out a hall. We are definitely blessed with large families and awesome friends. This weekend, marks the start of college football...hell yes! Auburn kicks off the season against Arkansas State. I'm pumped about seeing how our boys are going to be this season. WDE!

Sunday will by my second to last race before IMFL. Callaway Gardens hosts the longest running triathlon in the US. I hear it is lots of fun. They are also having a hot air balloon festival this weekend. It ought to be a pretty cool thing. Then Sunday night, Keith has hooked me up with some tickets to the NASCAR race in Atlanta. It's going to be a busy weekend, thank God we have Monday off.

I'll put up another post towards the end of the week. On a side note...I'm a hit with the Asians! Every post has at least 2 comments from them. Have a great week!

Eric's Quote of the Day: "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve great success, and others have it thrust upon them" ~Shakespeare

Mt. Lakes Race Report

This race rocked. As usual, Team-Magic put on one heck of an event. It ran smoothly and the swag was top notch (who doesn’t love a tie-dyed t-shirt?). I felt great this entire race. My knee held up and HR & breathing was pretty much under control the entire race. I headed up to Guntersville Friday night to pick-up my packet. I got checked in and took a few minutes to check all of my gear and spin the bike in the parking lot for a few minutes to make sure it faired the drive ok. Then I took it easy for the rest of the night.

Pre-Race
Woke up around 5:00 and turned on the coffee pot. I hit up the continental breakfast and had a waffle for breakfast. I showered, got dressed, loaded up my bike and headed up the road to the rec center. Once there, I headed to transition to set up my area. I walked around a bit sipping on some Gatorade. I ran into a bunch of folks that I swim with and my coach. John and I talked for a bit about strategy. We both had the same idea that I was going to go moderately hard on the bike and then build to the turnaround on the run and kill it for the last 1.5 miles. I headed down to the water to get a warm-up swim in. The water was extremely warm. Luckily we swam in a hot @ss pool for a few weeks so all of us from the Mt. Brook Y were ready for it. The water was pretty merky, you’d get a handful or facefull of weeds every now and then. The swim area is very shallow too. You could stand up halfway out and be just over waist deep. As time ticked on by, everyone started to make their way to the water. The race director started getting everyone lined up. The “elder” triathletes were first into the water. I hope that I’m that able when I’m their age. The first 200 people were in the water and I started getting in my spot.

The Swim
241...go. I hit the timing mat and started running into the water. People were walking way too long. You can swim in the water so much faster. Once it was mid-thigh, I dove on in. I managed to stay on course this race. I had to look ahead and sight a bit more than I initially wanted, but hey, it’s better than having to get chased down by one of the kayakers. I felt pretty good in the water. I was passing a few people and managed to not get run over by anybody. I felt like I still had a little bit more in me so at the turn, I started digging harder. My breathing stayed under control as I passed a few more people. Once I was about 10 yds form shore, I stood up and ran it on in. I checked my watch as I crossed the timing mat and saw 9:37. All I could think was that this was going to be a great race. Time- 9:37 Rank 19/31

T1
The run to transition is short. I grabbed a cup of water from the volunteers as I entered transition. I slipped on my helmet, shoes, and race belt. Put on my glasses and jogged my bike out of transition. I hit the mount line…got on…and started hammering on out for a 16.4 mile ride. My T1 time was 2:12 which was about the norm for my division. I’d still love to be able to keep my shoes on my bike and do the awesome flying mounts and dismounts.

The Bike
The bike course is super flat. There are a couple of rollers, but nothing major. I started passing a good bit of people. The course was pretty crowded for the first 5-6 miles. The marshalls were out in full force dishing out penalties for “drafting.” The rules say you have to keep 3 bike lengths between you and the bike in front of you. It’s pretty ahrd to do that when you’re going 3 and 4 wide like at Talladega trying to pass people. Some people are so obivious when cheating. They get in a single file line not a foot off each other and start flying by everyone. If you can live with yourself have at it. I felt pretty good on the bike. I tried not to go too hard, but some of those straight-aways just asked to be hammered out. Around mile 13.5 you take a right and start riding on the causeway. The wind was pretty strong, but I still managed to hold a good cadence and speed. I made the last turn towards the rec center, slipped my feet out of my shoes, and spun to the dismount line. I crossed the timing mat and headed to my rack in transition. Time 47:17, Rank 13/31, AvgRate 20.6mph

T2
As I crossed the mat, I had to run around a few folks that were walking around in no hurry whatsoever. I tossed my bike on the rack, slipped on socks and shoes, swapped my helmet for my hat and took off. No T2 time posted.

The Run
So I hit the running trail and tried to take it easy for a little bit. Like I mentioned earlier, my plan was to start off easy and build to a good pace so at the turnaround I could kill it back to the finish. It started out ok. I walked once on the way out but that was mainly to get some water. I felt like I was keeping good form. I hit the turnaround and started running a little harder. Once again, I let doubt enter my head and started to slow down. I almost started walking but kept going. I looked at my watch and saw that I had a slight chance to hit my mark of sub 1:30. I picked up the pace. Everything felt great for a change. I heard John holler from the road to finish strong. I dug a little deeper and the last half mile I was going at a pretty good clip. I checked my watch again and saw it tick past 1:30…dangit. Oh well, I was still determined to not lose to myself by much. I bared down and crossed the finish line. Time 32:07 Rank 23/31 AvgRate 10:32 min/mi. Total time was 1:31:12.

Post-Race
I hit up the food line and tried to cool off in the pool for a little bit while we waited on results to be posted. Once I saw I wasn’t placing (I always have high hopes) I got my bike and headed to the car to start my journey home.

This was a great race. I felt great the entire time. I was curious how this year compared to last year. Last year, this was my final race, but I didn’t train much for it after competing at Chattanooga. So let’s see the rundown…

2009 2010
Swim 16:39 9:37
T1 4:15 2:12
Bike 55:46 (17.2mph) 47:17 (20.6mph)
Run 42:07 (14:03 min/mi) 32:07 (10:32 min/mi)
Total 2:00:55 1:31:12

So I feel like I’ve come a long way in the past year. I manage to shave off almost 30mins. Each repeat race I’ve done this year I have managed to post a much better time. But, with just 2 races left before D-Day on Nov 6th, I still have a good ways to go to be ready for 140.6 miles.

Click HERE to see the pics

Erics’ Quote of the Day: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” ~Thomas Edison

Just checkin in...

Training has been going pretty good since my last check in. Feeling strong in the pool…bike’s coming along…running…eehh. I’ve been trying to get in extra volume in the pool. John (coach) wants me to shoot for an extra 2000m each week so I’m not dead coming out of the water in November. Crazy to think that IMFL is only 85 days away. Today, I’m about to head out to a site visit and then make my way up to Guntersville for Mt. Lakes. This is a fun race. I wasn’t really ready to race last year. Last year after Chatty, I pretty much phoned it in. I barely swam or rode. Running was just a thought. I feel pretty good about this weekend. It’s a sprint (for those keeping track at home 600yd swim/16.2mi bike/3mi run). Everything is crazy flat and fast. I’m hoping to break 1:30 for this race. It’s gonna mean that my run will need to be one of the best runs I’ve had. We will see. There is a 50% chance of rain last time I checked. The high is only 89. It might actually be comfortable for the first little bit. I’m hoping to get up there and get a nice ride in after I grab my race packet and get checked into my room. I’ll be check in on twitter as the weekend progresses and I’ll try to get a race report up sometime on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Eric’s Quote of the Day: repeat, but one of my favorites “Your past is not your potential” ~Unknown

Happennings...

Random training comments...Well, training has been going pretty good. Getting some good days in along with missing some days I shouldn't. I'm definitely ready for it to cool off just a bit. I need to start picking up my running. I've started doing yoga two days a week as suggested by Sophia. Go ahead, laugh it up if you must. You get an awesome core workout doing this stuff. I got refitted on my bike last week. Lowered the seat and stem. Pushed the seat back and extended the stem a bit more. Making me flatter when I go aero and putting my legs more over the pedals to give me more power. Felt pretty strong on the couple of rides I've gotten in. My long ride this weekend (5hrs) will be the true test.
I ended up not racing this past weekend. I was sidelined with strep...booo. I was pretty bummed about not racing, but come to find out, the race was super-unorganized. No timing chips, no course marshalls, people cutting corners everywhere. Just a big ol' cluster! Up next is a "twofer" the weekend of 8/14. I'll have a sprint race on Saturday at Lake Guntersville (I did this one last year...awesome venue) followed by an Oly up the road in Pikeville, TN on Sunday. That is the plan at least. I don't have rooms booked yet and haven't registered for the Oly yet. I'm going to see how my training goes this rest of this week. This post has been a little random and rambling, so I'll end it here with a Lance quote.

Eric's Quote of the Day: " This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?" ~ Lance Armstrong