Howdy Ya’ll – Texas 70.3, Ironman Texas and Everything in Between

Greetings from Texas. The Lonestar state is where I’ve called home for the past couple of week. Kaitlin and I ventured down here for the Texas 70.3 down in Galveston (You know, the place where Robert Durst killed that dude) on April 28th and since then have been hunkered in putting the final touches on our preparation for the 2015 edition of Ironman Texas. Courtesy of some very gracious Texans, we’ve managed to have a good roof over our heads, fine pools to swim at and all sorts of other help as we navigate the maze that is “The Woodlands, TX”. When I say maze, I mean it. This place is just one big confusing maze, known only by those that call this place their home. Almost everything is hidden behind the trees that give this place it’s namesake. Literally just this morning, about my 11th day here I navigated myself to the pool without the aid of google maps.

So how did we get here? Last time you heard from Kait and I we were living large out in California. Since our return to the East coast we have been working hard towards our first Monument race of the year, The 2015 Ironman We both put in some big hours and covered many miles. Luckily for us the April weather in Boston turned out to be pretty great (save for Marathon Monday). Thankfully I was very warm in my Barnana Banana Suit!

After wrapping up a few big weeks of training up north, we headed south the Friday before the Texas 70.3. Galveston was a pretty solid race for all intents and purposes. After a couple really heavy training weeks, (including 6 and 7 hours bike rides and a long run that followed the Boston marathon course from about mile 7.5 to the finish line) I did my best to rest up during the week leading into the race. Coming out of the water leading a decent size chase group I was psyched to see my hard work in the pool translate once again to improvement on race day.

Once out of the water and onto the bike the pace kicked up very high. Behind me out of the water were guys like Lionel Sanders, Matt Russell and Chris Baird. All fella’s who can lay it down on the bike. After about 5 miles of keeping in touch with their group I slipped up and got caught in a bad spot with a few slower cyclists and an official on a motorcycle. Blocking my advancement I hesitated instead of plowing on by them and maintaining contact with the faster group. In retrospect I needed to be on the ball and make the move. After that I was in no-mans land by myself for a while. At the turn-around I was pleasantly surprised to see I wasn’t that far behind from the group that had dropped me. Giving it literally all my legs had in me that day I scrambled back to T2 figuring that the run was just gonna hurt no matter what…so pedal to the metal. Feeling somewhat flat from the weeks before and the tough 56 miles, my run was less than spectacular and was the missing link to a sub 4 hour day. Finishing in 4:03 (:28, 2:08, 1:24) I was the 14th professional and earned myself nice finishers medal, free water and another solid white running cap that looked strangely similar to the one I received at Oceanside.

A couple days after Galveston while out on a bike ride here in the Woodlands my legs decided to regain their form, making me think that the sub 4 hour day I was looking for was missed by only a couple days. But that’s how it goes. The bigger goal is Ironman Texas and everything has been setup for May 16th.

Since then the days have been rolling along. Along with Kait, there are a few other QT2 Pro athletes making The Woodlands their home in the lead up to the race. This optimal setup has allowed for us to nail the hard sessions with others and really ensure that we’re all getting the most out of ourselves. We’ve also had some great opportunities to train in the heat and humidity of Texas, with the goal to acclimate our bodies as much as possible. So bring on the Nasty Conditions Texas!

With just about a week to go until race day, we all our putting the final touches on our preparation with a solid ride and run. After that we’ll lounge around a lot, eat good food and catch up on all the tv and movies we’ve missed over the last 5 months due to the 7:30 or 8pm bed times.

One thing I know about the race here in Texas this year is that I am definitely ready to roll. Having the ability to ride and run on the course has been a tremendous opportunity. When that gun goes off at 6:25am on May 16th I promise you all I will be going out gun’s blazing.