Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door.”
Uncle John’s Band, Grateful Dead
I knew it would be a tall task to defend last year’s win at CB&I Tri. The level of competition keeps getting stronger in this community and having Balazs Csoke and Justin Daerr toeing the line this year meant I would need to raise my game if I wanted to have a crack at repeating.
I took a six week break from exercise after Challenge Bahrain - with the exception of a handful of SUP tours of the local lakes - and by the time February rolled around, I was chomping at the bit to get prep for the upcoming season underway. I set a few intermediate goals to gauge how my fitness was tracking including: The Woodlands Half Marathon (March), Rouge Roubaix (March) and Muddy Trails 10k (April). Despite crashing in Rouge Roubaix, all signs pointed that my fitness was on track to throw down the gauntlet on May 2nd.
It was helpful having visiting pros Tim Reed and Justin in town and I made sure to join as many of their high-intensity sessions as my schedule allowed. I made it a point to hop in the pool with Tim a few times a week. He’s a big proponent of low volume, high intensity training, which aligns with my training philosophy too, so we proved a good match as he was in between racing 70.3 New Orleans and 70.3 St. George. For cycling, Steve Elliott of VR Cycling Studio wrote me up a manageable plan where we could optimize the limited time I had available to achieve our desired result...producing as much power as possible over 20-30 minutes!
Despite the water temp of Lake Woodlands jumping up four (4) degrees to 76-F in the two days leading into the race, it was deemed a wetsuit swim. I was surprised Balazs opted to race without a wetsuit but last year I got schooled in the water by a top junior girl swimmer who didn’t use a wetsuit, so my game plan remained the same, hang with him as long as possible. We ended up swimming side by side to the first turn buoy at which time I tried moving back to his feet. Oddly enough, slipping back to take advantage of his draft, is when I started to drop off his pace. Justin took over the second position and I tried to keep contact with his feet and exited the water only down 10-15 seconds. As a side note, I’m really impressed with how much Justin’s swimming has improved over the years. It’s obvious he’s put in a lot of hard work.
Having both Balazs and JD in sight out of T1 was a big confidence booster. I didn’t waiver from my game plan of pushing the first five miles of the 15-mile bike at the most uncomfortable pace I could manage. I was really excited by all the tight turns over the early part of the course and figured my cycling background would be an advantage. I took over the lead from Balazs shortly after turning onto Gosling Rd. I buried my head and pushed. I didn’t look back until the exit ramp onto Woodlands Pkwy and was surprised to see Balazs still behind me. I waived him around and when he didn’t respond I told myself to bury it for five (5) more minutes and then reassess. When I turned back I could no longer see him so decided to back the effort down a hair as my legs hadn’t yet experienced a run off the bike this year and I didn’t know how they would respond.
I was surprised to exit T2 and not see Balazs or JD arrive yet so I shook out a small calf cramp and took off on the 3-mile run at the highest pace I could manage. I wanted to get to the turnaround as quickly as possible so I could determine how to dole out the effort over the back half of the course. With around a minute lead at the turnaround I continued to push hard until the bridge on Lake Woodlands and then enjoyed the final 50 meters holding Elin and trying to keep up with Kaia across the line. Thanks to my in-laws for having the girls on hand to see their Mama and Dada participate.
A few high-fives to pass out as no effort is ever done alone. Emily and the two girls gave me all the motivation I needed. It was inspiring to see Emily race to 2nd place overall off the back of her limited training. She is a daily inspiration to me and our daughters as she gets her 45-60 minutes of ‘training’ in every morning at 4:45AM!
JD and Balazs were great sportsmen. Both are in the midst of their Ironman prep, which couldn’t be more different from short course racing, but their presence in the race made me dig really deep to get the most out of myself. Neither were at their best but no excuses were made. Pure class.
Jeff Chaffin at BikeLand helped fix a major mechanical problem with my TT bike a few days before the race. If it wasn’t for him and his staff I would have had to default to my cross bike on race day. Phew!
Steve Elliott constructed an achievable cycling plan that worked with my schedule and provided constant feedback on how I could squeeze every watt out while on the bike. His VR Cycling Studio has proven to be a valuable resource for me.
Keith Johnson and his partners at SROSM for the access to their Alter G treadmill. Three weeks ago my run training was hampered by Sciatica and being able to continue running without the impact of bodyweight helped stay the course with training. Of course, they also have the best Physical Therapist in town! No, I’m not biased.
Finally, I am continually amazed by The Woodlands Township. This is considered a small town race, perfectly suited for beginners, however they put on a world class production. Angel Nicks has assembled an all-star cast including Dana Lyons in the Transition Area, Willie Fowlkes and The Woodlands Marathon Management Company keeping us safe out there on the course, Sandra Sutherland with over 400 Volunteers helpful and smiling all morning, and one of the most knowledgable announcers around, Jon Walk. The man does his homework! I always manage to learn new facts about myself that I didn’t previously know.
*Special Thanks to Bryan Alsdorf and 2014 CB&I Female Champ Sarah Gray Hankla for the photos!
