Motivational Video - (especially for the underdog!)

What gives? Suddenly I'm posting nearly everyday??? Well, got some momentum, so I'm rolling with it...

Check out this video. Pretty inspiring and motivating.



Vance

Jackass Politicians....

Tahoe Report

It's time to get caught up again, with a brief race report of Tahoe. As I mentioned in the posts before the race, I was battling some sinus issues, (luckily it never spread to my chest to become a bronchitis or anything), but I wasn't looking to this race as a peak performance anyway. I hadn't done this race since 2005, and even then I double flatted and was unable to finish, so it had actually been since 2004, when I won the 25-29 men's division, that I had completed this race.

I took the opportunity to go as a fun race/workout, and enjoy getting back to my roots within the sport.

The morning was cold, but better than the day before, and much better than any of us expected. I set up my transition spot, and got on my wetsuit to get in the water. The water temp was 59 degrees, which was the same as IMCDA, so it was good. I think I needed to do a bit more warm-up though, with a jog, as in my training, I realize it takes me a long time to really get into a groove. This race was a hard effort from the beginning, so a good warm-up would really help!

The swim started fairly easy enough for me, as I started to the right of most of the pro's, near a bunch of age-groupers. I stumbled my first steps, but was quickly in clear water with no one near me. I could see the big pack to my left, and I started to check for the best intersection point with the pack and still swimming straight to the buoy, which was 300 meters out, and would be a sharp right turn. About 150-200 meters into the swim though, I really began to struggle with my breathing. The altitude clearly was getting to me. For a brief moment, I almost panicked! I had trouble keeping my face in the water, and felt like I just couldn't breathe. I had to remind myself that I was not going to suffocate, I was fine, but I needed to slow down my stroke rate and take longer, easier breaths, in order to regain my composure and breathing. I even told myself, "Don't worry about the front pack now, just find your rhythm and get your breathing under control. I can try to get back to them."

By the time I got around the buoy, I was fine again, and noticed I was in no-mans land with only 1 other swimmer, Chris Legh. Chris and I finished the first lap together, and I let him lead the second. I saw we had no chance of really catching the leaders, so I just got long and enjoyed the ride. One age-grouper caught us, who was an incredible swimmer, and I couldn't believe he was just staying with us. He was surging, then breast-stroking, then surging past me, then fighting for Chris' feet. I was actually thinking, "When this guy gets his head out of ass and decides to go, I'm getting off Chris' feet and getting on his." Then I saw his face, and it was the guy I was staying with in Tahoe! Billy! He's a good friend of Craig's. I had to laugh in the water.

The transition could have gone better, as I struggled to get my shoes on at the shore. I remembered in the past I would bruise my heels on the run to transition, as my feet were always numb, and the shoes would help that. Once I got them on, I was moving well. I couldn't believe it though, when I saw and heard Josiah Middaugh exit the water about 10 secs back of me. He had the swim of his life!

As I entered T1, I saw the lead group hitting the road on their bikes. Once I got on the bike, I tried to settle into a rhythm with my friend Andy Noble. He and I would be back and forth much of the bike. We'd catch some faster swimmers, get caught by some great bikers, like Brian Smith and Sam Gardner. Andy kept telling me how cold he was, while I felt fine for temperature, just struggling breathing. I was looking at the power meter, and when the pitch of Tunnel Creek Road was steady and not too steep, I felt good and was able to hold good watts. When the road got steep, I struggled. It seemed like I just couldn't put any real force into the pedals.

Once I got to the top, it was the flume trail. I was able to hold the best watts here, because it's nice and flat, just twisty. I'm starting to think I'm just warming up and things are looking good. By the time I hit the second tough climb, I'm back to struggling to put force into the pedals. Now I'm thinking the sickness might be affecting me, as well as maybe I didn't rest enough for such a serious effort.

I get to the descent on the trail, and as I remembered it, it seemed straight-forward, nothing too technical. Then I realize, I use to ride my mountain bike a lot more, and so it's a bit harder than I remember! I have a washout on a sharp turn, and decide that I will not be taking any risks on the descent. I needed to get thru this race healthy and not waste my Ironman Arizona prep.

I let one rider by, with another right behind him that surprises me, and I scrap my left shin/calf on a BIG BOULDER. (That's the blood on my leg in the photo. THANKS RICH! Click on the photo to see the bigger, more detailed version!) I get to the road into T2, and just as I suspected from my Ironman training, I'm still feeling fine. I was actually a little excited for the run. I was down in about 24th place, with even a few amateurs in front of me. I wanted to get back to running well.

Off the bike, I tried to focus on my cadence and get my rhythm. Whenever the trail went slightly down, I really opened it up. Whenever it went uphill, I tried to focus on the cadence and work hard! I passed about 8 people, and finished 16th. I had the 8th fastest run split overall, and not far from the 4th. I was really pleased with this, as these guys all train for faster run splits than I do, my focus is entirely strength.

I even managed to beat my time from 2004! Whew, what a relief! All in all, I had a lot of fun, and was happy with the performance. It's tempting to get back to doing XTERRA full-time again. But, that's still doutful.

More posts to come, but that's it for now...Will update on training and my Kona thoughts...

Vance

Tahoe

Got to Tahoe this afternoon. Flight was delayed about an hour, but made it unscathed. Yesterday morning I woke up and it was clear I had finally gotten sick. My sinus headaches all week started to get worse. My hope has been to keep it out of my chest, and that seems to have worked.

I did some light workouts today, and man, it's cold as hell here! I'm coming from 2 of the hottest days of the year in San Diego, to this cold! Oh well...

Tomorrow will probably be the coldest triathlon I've ever done, so we will see how it goes. I heard that they canceled the swim today for the sport race, because of the 2-3 foot swells and wind. It will be interesting to see how the cold temps affect some athletes. Some might thrive in it, while others might just lock up.

I'm just hoping my sinus issues don't hinder me much. It's been an odd week of training, with some rest, some great workouts, some BAD workouts, some surprisingly better than expected workouts, and some sickness. Not sure what to expect.

Staying with my athlete Craig Evans, and his wife and 2 kids, as well as another nice guy from Nashville, Billy. They're swimmers, so I'll be chasing tomorrow for sure....

Stay tuned for more.

Vance

It's been awhile...

Wow, long time, no post. Sorry about that. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy and critic, as I don't like worthless posts, so I try to put substance into each one. After a while, that becomes a burden. So with that said, let's catch-up...

- Was in Lincoln, Nebraska last weekend, watching my beloved Huskers lose to Virginia Tech. It was an exciting game, and they showed a lot of heart and fight to the end, making it the best game I've been at and seen from them since 2001, when they won at Notre Dame in overtime, with Heisman winning QB Eric Crouch. I love Bo Pelini as coach! I never liked Callahan at all, as my wife can attest to. The Huskers have a great future.

- I brought my buddy Jim Walsh to Lincoln with me for the game, and we ran with the Nebraska XC team on Saturday morning before the game. We ran this trail, and had a great 16 miler, holding 6 min pace and faster, with relative ease. My running is really coming back! I'm excited about it, and it was great to get back to Lincoln and run with the team. It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since I ran on that team. Wow, time flies. (But good to see I still hold my own!!!)

- A few weeks ago I bonked in training, HARD. The Gatorman was the tipping point. Tried to do too much in my training, trying to hit every weakness. I crashed hard. Had to take a few days off to recover, and it wasn't pretty. Then I rebounded well from my recovery week and had the biggest and best week of the year!

- This week was a different set-up, as I had to recover from the trip, still get in my IMAZ specific prep, and recover enough again to race this Sunday in Tahoe at the XTERRA National Championships. I took Monday off, then Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty big and hard. I was pretty beat, and now I have 3 lighter days to recover and be ready for Tahoe. We will see how it goes. Mostly going for fun and a great workout. The course is a lot of strength on the bike, and turnover on the run. I should have the strength, and hopefully the turnover will be there too.

As always, you can track my training log with the link on the right. So even if I'm not updating the blog very well, you can still see how things are going.

I'll post again soon, (I promise).

Vance

Thank God it's College Football Season!

It's been awhile since the last post, and there are a number of reasons...

1. Training! Lots of it, makes for little time.
2. Coaching! Lots of it, makes for little time.
3. Olympics - Watched a bunch of it, including and the triathlons, live, screaming and jumping up and down on my couch when Simon came back!
4. Traveled to Boulder for a week for some TrainingBible business, and training. Hot and dry in Boulder...nice place to visit, but San Diego still gets the nod as the best place to train, (no comparison if the question is asked in the winter!)

It doesn't look like I'll be getting much time back, at least for the weekends, since college football season kicks off this weekend!!! Nebraska, (my alma mater), opens with Western Michigan! Will be watching that game, you can bet! I love college football!

Training is actually going well, as I just completed a big week with a 4-mile race here yesterday in 21:02. Not terribly fast, but believe it or not that's 35 seconds faster than I ran in this same race in 2006, in my Florida prep. So that's a good sign.

Also had one of my better rides last week, and I'm clearly strong as a whole. Weight is good, but not great, should get better in the coming weeks. Excited about things moving forward.

We shall see!

Vance

Time for a post

So I haven't been good about blogging here, sorry.

Been busy with training, of course, but the volume and time commitment has really increased. The weekend was especially big and busy...

Friday - Big swim workout in the AM, with lots of fast 200's, 100's and 50's. It was my best swim of the year, which is great considering how much work I've been doing in the weight room and with core conditioning. I know I was tired, but was still going fast.

Later it was a 9 mile run easy, with a 2 hour ride to finish the day. On the bike was when the bees struck again. Right to the right temple, a bee stung me as it got stuck between my glasses, helmet and head. OUCH! Hurt like hell. For the entire weekend I looked like a cabbage-patch kid, but just on one half of my face. It was so bad, I refused to get a photo of it.

Saturday - Kevin McCarey's workout, where I got WORKED! His son, Eamon, put a hurting on me. The intervals were tough, and thru the trails around UCSD. After the 10 miles of running total, with nearly 6 miles of it HARD, it was onto the bike with a fellow Nebraska boy, Nolan. We rode the Swami's loop with attacking on the hills. Come the last hour of this 3.5 hour ride, I was struggling.

Sunday - Got up in the AM and it was off to Cardiff, to meet the local running group for a 2 hour plus run. It was a good group, and my fitness has clearly improved through the 3 runs with this group I've done. On this run, I was dropped with about 2 miles to go, and had to do what I could to hold on. Afterwards, it was an easy ride to the Cove for a clinic with some swimmers for the Gatorman, and a swim.

This week's focus is recovery for the first three days, then tests on Thursday and Friday. The weekend will be back to some high volume work, with a trip to Boulder planned next week.

Vance