Bike: By this point, the rain started falling and conditions were wet and messy. The roads in genera

Be Fast, Faster. Home About Coaching Meet the Coaches Triathlete Goal Form Testimonials french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews Getting Started Teams Pro Development Team Morgan Anderson Kristin Andrews Brian Duffy, Jr. Jay McCurdy Colin Riley Hallie Blunck Erika Erickson Kathrine Warren ProDev Alumni Ross Hartley Nicole Kelleher Jesse Thomas Kim Campbell french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews Duke Triathlon Club TIMEX Athletes Jackie french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews Arendt Mark Vermeersch FFT-RTP FFT-Madison Individuals Eric Bean Cid Cardoso, Jr. George Worrell Mike Lavery Sponsors Contact Resources Swimming Cycling french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews Running Strength Training Recovery Nutrition Sports Physiology Equipment Anti-Doping Camps / Clinics Triangle StayCation Training Camp April 19-22 White Lake Camp Winter Triathlon Clinic An afternoon with Dr. Jack Daniels Newsletter Forward Spring 2011 Forward Winter 2011 Forward Spring 2012 Calendar
I had heard the tales of trial and tribulation that have cracked even the best of triathletes french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews on the brutal course of St. Croix. french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews I became well aware of the three H's—heat, humidity, french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews and hills—that make the course so infamous. I incorporated hill repeats into my routine to prepare myself for "The Beast," one of the most notorious climbs in triathlon. As May rolled around, I felt ready for the challenge and was excited for the opportunity. It had been nearly 7 months since my last race (Kona), and I was set to release my competitive fire.
In the week leading up to the race, things did not pan out as expected. On Sunday night, I came down with a cold that quickly escalated. Monday I was resigned to my bed, battling a fever, fatigue, and headaches. I felt as if I would never recover. The pain became unbearable. Tuesday saw improvement, but headaches still filled my head and general fatigue remained. Fortunately my body recovered, and by Thursday I felt back to normal. This was also the day I left for the island. I landed in St. Croix in the late evening, and arrived to my hotel, which was on its own five acre island. On Friday I swam the swim course, got in a light a jog, assembled my bike, picked up my registration packet, and previewed the bike course. Thanks to my friend Matt Clifford who had a rental car, I was able to check out The Beast and some other technical sections of the course. french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews Saturday I rode the first part of the bike course and then rested up. It was race time.
Pre-Race: I woke up at 4 am, ate some breakfast, took the ferry over to transition area, set up my transition, checked out Lance, then swam back to the island with Shannon where the swim starts. After the pros went off, my wave was up. I positioned myself french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews to the far left. The beginning of the swim was interesting. It was a run in beach start, but the first 200 yards were essentially a semi-circle, or wide u-turn. There was no straightaway. french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews This worried me as everyone would be swimming french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews on top of one another to hug the buoy line that curved left. The day before I practiced the run in start. I knew exactly how many steps I could take in the water before I should french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews dive, and knew when the ground quickly dipped down—at this point it became quicker and more efficient to swim.
Swim: When the gun went off, I aggressively sprinted into the water, keeping my knees high, and limiting french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews the amount of time my feet were in the water. I quickly found myself a step ahead of everyone french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews around me. Most people dove too early, or tried running too long. I dove just where I practiced, and moved to the lead, placing myself right up against the buoy line. I easily positioned myself to the front without any jockeying or contact. This made my start extremely french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews clean. I held the lead for about a half mile until someone who was drafting me moved ahead. The two of us were clear of everybody else in the wave. The other swimmer was in the 25-29 age group, which also started with us. I drafted him for a bit, but I eventually fell back and swam solo. I exited the water just under 29 minutes, and sprinted french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews toward transition.
Bike: By this point, the rain started falling and conditions were wet and messy. The roads in general were not very smooth, and gravel covered the course. I was moving french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews pretty well and tried to stay cautious on some of the slick turns.  Around mile 5 there was a flat straightaway. I was hauling on the road, turning the cranks. However, I looked up and saw a wide, deep puddle ahead of me that covered the width of the road. My instincts told me that it would not be a good idea to ride through this puddle too quickly, as I didn't know the exact depth of the water. With the intent to maintain my momentum and speed, french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews I thought I found a clever solution. Off to the right of the puddle was a parking lot that was elevated above the road I was on, keeping it dry. I figured I could veer off the road into the parking lot, and once I passed the puddle would gradually move back onto the road.
Well, as I was riding back onto the road from the parking lot at a slight angle, I had to cross over a minor puddle that bordered the right side of the main road. What I didn't french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews see under this puddle was some type of curb. As I moved across this curb, my front wheel jerked straight but my momentum was still moving slightly to the left. UH OH. It all seemed to happen french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews in slow motion as I felt my body tipping french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews over. I went down hard on my left side, landing on my elbow and hip, and using my right hand to help brace the impact. I skidded several feet on the wet ground, cutting through my skin. I laid on the ground, in pain, and thought to myself that my race could be over, and my Kona hopes dead. Not knowing what to do (as I've never crashed before), I did the only thing I knew. Grab my bike and keep going. The bike looked perfectly fine, but I glanced down at my left elbow and saw blood gushing from it. I also noticed all the skin had been peeled off my right palm. I wasn't about to let this crash stop me, so I started riding. I quickly felt pain in my left hip, but figured it was just a bruise of some sort (turned out to be some real serious french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews road rash). The blood spooked me a bit, and I wasn't sure if I should stop and attend to it. But I'm not a quitter As long as I could physically move forward, I would. The crash angered me, and my power spiked as I crushed the pedals to make up for lost time. The situation reminded me of Lance's crash in 2003 on the ascent of Luz Ardiden, where a spectator's bag caught his handlebar causing him to crash. Upon his revival from the crash, he attacked the climb with relentless aggression and motivation, and won the stage. In the spirit of Lance, I told myself I would do the same. The gash under my left elbow made it difficult to settle into aero, and the cut on my right hand made it difficult to grip the aero extension, but I adapted the best I could.
Around mile 20, as I started to drink the fruit smoothie that I use for high liquid calories, I hit a series of a bumps in the road. The weak grip on the water bottle due to my cut caused the bottle to drop. My gut instinct was to keep going, but in hindsight I should have taken the time to retrieve it. In these long races, it is mightily important to consume calories! The rest of the ride went OK. The course was very technical and dangerous, so I road conservatively, and also found myself in a bit of a tactical battle with two other riders. I didn't feel I really killed myself on the bike, so was expecting to be able to put together a solid run. I knew after the bike I was one of the top amateurs and in the lead for my age-group.
Run: Before the race I told myself to start the run conservatively and build into it. My initial pace seemed quite moderate, but as I glanced at my GPS, I noticed I was running sub 6 miles. This was a bit fast, so I scaled it back. I was feeling good and hoping that I could hang on for 13. But as the miles passed, the lack of nutrition on the bike and the loss of blood started to take its toll. A wave of fatigue hit me, and the hilly run course french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews strained my legs. The last third of my run was far less than impressive, but given the circumstances of the day, all I wanted to do was to get to that finish french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews line first in my age-group to seal my Kona spot. I didn't come to St. Croix to have my season's best performance, but rather to book my ticket to Kona, and then move on to the rest of the season. Given the anaerobic focus of my training, I knew long-course racing wasn't my strength right now. Aerobic efficiency will build as the season progresses. I accomplished my goal, and immediately went to the medical tent to have my wounds treated.
Overall: Upon review, although not a fantastic race, I once again faced adversity and overcame it. It's nice to know I have the persistence and determination to deliver when the going gets tough. The island was beautiful, and the culture amazing. Now I'm dealing with some bad road rash, and doing my best to recover for the Columbia Triathlon on May 20. I'm excited to see how I fare on the Olympic Distance!
I've taken a week off since racing Memphis In May. This was written last Monday, but as usual, I'm a week late posting it. Better late than never. So some friends and I headed to Memphis on Friday, partly to race, partly to just road trip. Start 2 Finish put on two races back to [...]
I had heard the tales of trial and tribulation that have cracked even the best of triathletes on the brutal course french quarter landmark hotel guest reviews of St. Croix.  I became well aware of the three H's—heat, humidity, and hills—that make the course so infamous. I incorporated hill repeats into my routine to prepare myself for "The Beast," one of [...]
Well it s the eve of race #3 for the season (Gulf Coast Triathlon), and I realize I have not taken time to write about race #2 yet (confession race #3 is in the books now too race report coming).  Yikes : /  I promise to try to get better (read: more prompt) with my [...]
Okay, so I've been racing of some sort now for 15+ years (middle school, high school, college, medical school), and this is the first attempt from yours truly at that thing we call a race re