Learning From Experience - Swimming

I am celebrating 3 years since signing up for my first Ironman 70.3! Through my experience on this journey, I want to share what changed and what has remained the same since starting triathlons. In the coming weeks, I will release a new topic each week.  

Madion 70.3 - 2017 (5:24:37)              Muncie 70.3 - 2019 (4:30:31)     

Let’s dive into the first topic, SWIMMING!

For those who have been in the sport a while, hopefully you get some laughs out of this. For those who are still new, please try to find some takeaways!

When I first started training: I swam in trunks, used open turns and would just swim 80-100 laps straight. Please enjoy my very first training video…

Now, I swim in jammers (maybe upgrade to speedo if I start holding 1:20’s), flip turn (even though they aren’t pretty), swim with a Masters group, and mostly utilize drills and interval training.

Let’s break these down a bit:

Trunks to Jammers – Jammers mostly stopped the Masters Swim Group from making fun of me. One could argue that they help you “feel the water” as you practice streamlining, but I made the switch because it helped me hit those faster intervals.

Open Turns to Flip Turns – Now WHY would an open water swimmer care about flip turns? They only make you faster in the pool and you don’t use them in triathlon (excluding the indoor sprint). I would argue that they DO make you faster in open water and here is why:

1. Increased lung capacity. If you are doing open turns, pay attention to the giant breath you take at the wall before pushing off. By holding your breath during a flip turn (instead of an extra breath), it taxes your cardiovascular system. When you finally get back into open water, you will feel much less exhausted.
2. More fluid and maintained rhythm. An open turn causes more of a disruption every length of the pool. Just like running or cycling, I hate when my rhythm is thrown off by traffic lights.
3. Joining a Masters Swim Group. There are many benefits to Masters Programs, and learning flip turns made it much easier for me to train with them! It’s also easier to lane share when the pool is busy.  

Straight swimming to intervals – If the goal is to simply log yards, straight swimming works great. If you are looking to increase your speed and efficiency, intervals are key. I was once told, if you want to learn how to swim faster, you need to…swim faster. Profound right??? Let me explain. By doing 100 yard intervals, I can drop my usual pace of 1:30/100yards down to 1:20 or faster by giving myself some recovery time between each 100. I obviously cannot hold that 1:20 pace for very long, BUT my body is learning what that pace FEELS like. To swim that faster pace, my body is making adjustments whether it be adding power or increasing efficiency. As speed increases, the intervals become easier and I give myself less rest.

Key Takeaways: Flip turns don't take very long to learn, and you can slowly start incorporating them into your warm up and cool down until it becomes second nature. Interval training is the key to increasing speed, and a Masters group will teach you how to utilize them.

My swim is only considered decent in the world of triathlon, but Please let me know if you have questions and I’d love to discuss further! Next week I will break down the changes I’ve made in the world of cycling.

Training and Wattie Ink Update

I am excited to announce that I have been accepted onto the WATTIE INK ELITE TEAM for 2020! Earlier I posted about joining the Hit Squad, but later received a communication regarding their elite team. Both teams within Wattie Ink are tight knit with a strong family atmosphere. The Elite Team has the additional support of sponsors and there are tighter obligations when it comes to racing and sponsor support. I am thrilled to Rock the W with this amazing team.

More training stuff: My swim has been struggling since Ironman Louisville. My overall yardage and motivation to swim has been down, so that might be what’s causing it. I am hoping to get some solid effort swims in before the holidays and get myself back to where I was.

On a more positive note, I just finished one of my best bike and run workouts to date.

Bike: 5x5 miles @ 250 watts (65 miles total)

Run: 5x1 mile at 6:00min pace with 1 mile active recovery

I “look forward to” increasing my training load further and getting back to my fitness level from Ironman Wisconsin. At the end of November, I will have 6 months until Ironman Tulsa to make the necessary improvements and have a better shot at Kona.

Team Wattie Ink

A new season and a new team. This past year, I have been a proud member of TriMafia as my first Triathlon club. I rocked the team kit in every race and represented the team from the podium twice. I appreciated meeting a few of my teammates at difference races and received support through our team page.

For 2020, I will be joining the Wattie Ink Hit Squad! I am very excited for the opportunity to represent the brand and be part of this tight knit community.

Quick Training Update: I am still getting back to 100% after a dealing with the flu/various viruses the past 2 weeks. Over the weekend I was able to get out for a hard 56 miler on the P3 and crank out a max effort half marathon. It felt good to start pushing it again and run fast. The half marathon ended up being a 1:26, so I plan on targeting a 1:25 at 6:30/mi or better for the Turkey Trot Half Marathon in 2.5 weeks.

That’s all for now!

Training Update: Caught the Flu

Here is a quick update on things since I missed my post last week. I’ve been sick since last Tuesday and am still in recovery mode. Hopefully I will be running at full steam by the weekend to get some longer workouts in. I haven’t quite hit my stride since IMLOU, but I’m still chipping away at my 2019 distance goals.

I made it to 1,000 run miles back in Louisville, 200 miles in the lap pool yesterday, and I have 90 miles to go before getting 4,000 on the bike. Here is where I am currently at for this year on distance and hours of pure training.

Quick outlook on what’s next:

11/30/2019: Turkey Trot Half Marathon – Last year I this was my first race returning from injury and I ran my first sub 1:30 (1:26:55). I am excited to be back even though I haven’t been able to properly prepare.

Might be a cop out, but I’ll be happy with a 1:25 and course PR based on where I’m at.

4/25/2020: Illinois Marathon – This was my first ever marathon that I ran on 12 days of training. I won my age group with a 3:13:28, which is STILL my current PR. I came within 2 minutes of that time at Ironman Wisconsin, so hopefully I’m ready to finally break 3 hours.

5/31/202: Ironman Tulsa – With Ironman Tulsa looming a month after the marathon, I will not be focusing on the run. My bike still needs the most work, so that is where my focus will be! With that in mind, I still hope to break 3 hours in the marathon and boost my confidence in running 3:10 or faster at Tulsa.

Bike “Mishap” Explained

My race season is officially over, and I’ve has some time to reflect on the year. Going into Ironman Louisville, I was prepared to do nothing for 2 weeks. But with how poorly I raced, I haven’t been able to sit still and have been busy investigating my bike mishap. In my previous post I tried to blame a mechanical issue on the bike for slowing me down.

Actually stopped to remind myself I should be recovering. Soaking in the views

I took my bike to a local shop, and they didn’t find anything causing friction. This means my power meter was reading high, and my legs were not fully recovered (it felt like I could’ve been pushing that hard). I took my race setup for a ride last week to see what the power would be reading.

Prior to Race: 200 watts ~ 20.5-21.0mph

Race: 230 watts = 20mph

Post Race: 252 watts = 20.5mph

This tells me that the power meter is reading ~40 watts higher than it should be. I know weather plays a large factor in all of this, but I was consistently averaging over 20mph at 200 watts. I plan on recalibrating the Vector 3 pedal this week and making sure my crank arm length wasn’t changed (that’d be an easy fix!).

Alright, rant over. This week I am hoping to catch up with friends and do some housework instead of training all week. I can tell my body needs some time to fully recover, but it is hard knowing that I need to make even more improvements if I plan on getting to Kona.

Oh yeah, and I’m playing around with idea of Ironman Tulsa May 31^st for my next attempt =O We’ll see if 6 months will be enough time to train!

Ironman Louisville: Race Report

There is a lot to unpack here, so I’ll try* to be brief.

Overall, it was a tough day for me as a lot of things did not fall into place. There was the cancelled swim, forgetting my bike nutrition, a headwind in both directions and having an unknown mechanical issue on the bike. I burned out my legs trying to hit the right speed and had nothing left physically or mentally for the run. Once I knew my chance at Kona was gone, I decided to slow up and take some time to thank my family during the marathon.

Love my family: Thanks for sticking with me

Swim: CANCELLED due to algae bloom.

Going into the race, this was a negative for me. As a more well-rounded athlete, not being able to swim puts me at a disadvantage against the stronger cyclist/runners. In most races, I typically build a 5-10 minute gap on the swim that they need to earn back. That aside, I did my best to stay focused on the plan.

Bike: 

If you don’t know how a cancelled swim works, you basically start in T1 with your bike gear on and wait for your rack number to be called. Ours was based on bib number, and I was 1292.

The morning started out at 40 degrees, so I kept my sweats on as long as I possibly could before heading to the start line. It was around this time that I realized I left ALL my bike nutrition at the hotel. There was nothing I could do at that point except plan on getting fuel at every transition. As I was tracking my watt output on the bike, I knew something was very wrong.

Time to get a little technical… In training I average right at 200 watts, and that typically gives me an average speed of 20-21mph. For this race, I held 230 WATTS and only averaged 20mph. Lesson learned? Have a bike mechanic look it over before major races! I promise I will not make this mistake again.

T2: Getting off the bike, I was pretty much ready to walk the marathon. I was in 24^th age group, and had nothing left in my legs from pushing too many watts (should’ve been closer to 210). I couldn’t even do my flying dismount and walked my bike to the volunteer with my cleats still on. I pulled on my shoes and slowly jogged to get my bag. A volunteer handed me the wrong bag, so I needed to go back and get the right one. I took my time and started to jog once I hit the timing mat.

Run: 

My plan for the run was simple. Run 30 minutes before I take my first walk. I was expecting to take 4-4.5 hours to get through it and just didn’t care at that point. I had a rough first lap but was still holding around an 8 min/mi. Walking past my family was probably the hardest part of the day. I stopped to give my dad a hug and just walked for a bit. Once I got going again, I must have caught my 2^nd wind. Lap 2 was actually faster than my first, and I kept skipping my “walk breaks” at each aid station. With a shot at still hitting a 3:30 marathon, I used that as motivation to push it home.

I can’t thank my family and Ty enough for being there and sticking out a rough day with me. Without them there, I would have been much more miserable and out on course a lot longer.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13

Except for a half marathon this fall, my race season is at an end. My posts may be less frequent/shorter, but I will continue to write updates on how my training is progressing. I will be finalizing my race calendar for next year to determine where I will make my next qualifying attempt. As always, thank you for your support and following me on the Road to Kona.

Final Taper into IMLOU

As I am midway through my final taper into Ironman Louisville, I wanted to share some of my thoughts leading into my A race. I just finished my last speed workout (John Deere 5K) taking 2^nd, and I’m ready to switch to all easy workouts. I am also battling a cold, so please send some thoughts/prayers my way with less than 5 days to go.

Was made fun of for wearing my compression socks in public

At this point, it’s been 18 months since I made the decision to go all in and attempt qualifying for Kona. I lose sight of how long it’s been and forget to reflect on everything I have been through so far. After my thoughts, I’ve included a detailed recap for anyone wanting to know some specifics =)

There have been quite a few ups and downs in the last 18 months as you will see below. It’s hard to believe that at this time last year, I was going to physical therapy twice a week for my knee through December. My heart pounds every time I think about this race, and I worry the past 18 months will be for nothing. I don’t know what to expect for conditions, how fast my competition will be or if I can perform the way I did at Madison. Madison was meant to be a set-up race for the main event, and that adds even more pressure.

I know I will do well if I can simply push it as hard as Madison. I remember the pain and dark places that race took me, so simply “repeating the effort” isn’t so simple. This week I plan on trying to keep myself busy and keeping my mind from going there. At this point, I am relying on friends and family as they encourage and amp me up. I already have a lot to be proud of for coming this far. My body is physically ready to take it on, and it’s time to focus my mind.

I hate doing this, but here are my goals for Ironman Louisville:

Top 5 AG

Aggressive 9:30 finish time

Swim - 0:57, Bike – 5:15, Run - 3:05, T1&T2 – 0:10

My finish at Ironman Louisville 2017 (10:39) - expecting to drop over an hour

Detailed Recap

Fall 2017: Completed first Ironman in Wisconsin - 11:38. Ironman Louisville 5 weeks later in 10:39 (Thanks Garrett for the push!) I was meant to be a 1 (or 2 in this case) and done, so I completely dropped training.

March of 2018: I met my buddy Craig, and he got me back in the pool. And after training with him I decided I would do another Ironman that fall. I signed up for Madison again with 6 months to train. I learned more about the Ironman World Championships held in Kona Hawaii and started looking into how I could qualify. Each Ironman offers 40 slots to the age group athletes, and each age group receives slots based on their size. My age group of 25-29 typically gets 2 slots, so I’d be looking to place 1^st or 2^nd. My plan at this point was to use IMWI 2018 as a stepping stone to see my improvements from last year and to see what I needed to work on for 2019.

August 2018: 3 Week before Wisconsin, I was picked up during a century ride due to excruciating knee pain. I was off the bike for 3 weeks leading up to the race, and I almost didn’t go. I decided it would at least be worth completing the swim to see my improvement, and I would bike as far as I could expecting a DNF.

September 2018: To my great surprise, I survived the bike and finished in 11:10. Unfortunately, this race was meant to bring me closer to the podium and gauge where I was at. Instead, I left with 22^nd place and unable to start training for 2019.

After the race I started Physical Therapy. I couldn’t bike or run until mid-November and stuck to swimming for fitness. Once I was cleared to bike again, I had to slowly work my way back up to riding for just an hour.

April 2019: My running pm the other hand progressed quickly, and I dropped a huge half marathon PR of 1:21:29 in April. This was a huge confidence boost as I continued training towards the Muncie 70.3.

May 2019: Along the way, I thought I could easily drop a sub 3 hr marathon and punch my ticket to Boston. The marathon dominated me, and I didn’t come close with a 3:16.

July 2019: My first real test of speed and fitness to see how I stack up to the competition was Muncie 70.3. I managed 5^th AG with a time of 4:30:31 and was very satisfied with the performance. I still wasn’t where I needed to be to take a shot at Kona, but I was moving in the right direction.

September 2019: Ironman Wisconsin was not my A race for the year. Instead, I chose it as a set-up race to make a my “true” qualifying attempt in Louisville 5 weeks later. I finished in 10:00:32 and snagged 5^th AG! I didn’t think I had a shot at the podium, yet there I was at the awards ceremony waiting for the Kona slots allocation. As you may know from my previous post, the 2nd slot rolled down to 3^rd place (who beat me by 36 seconds).

I always have a fear of the unknown, and what will come out of Ironman Louisville has my stomach in knots. But as Ty always reminds me, “Being nervous is good! It reveals how important this is to you”. So with that perspective, I eagerly await to toe that starting line and can’t wait to be in the mix with my competition.

Fastest Employee at the John Deere 5K (2nd Overall!)