Ironman Boulder

This past Sunday marked the second annual Ironman Boulder and what was supposed to be my fifth Ironman race.  However, this race would be unlike any other I have ever done as I had teamed up with +Dennis Vanderheiden and his organization, Athletes in Tandem, to pull David Gallaway, a 52 year old man with cerebral palsy, through the 140.6 mile race.

But to get the entire story, I need to back up to last September.  That was when I made the decision to register for Ironman Boulder.  My intentions were to train hard with the other northern Colorado triathletes who were going to compete (there were plenty of them!) and try to PR.  Unfortunately, just a few weeks after registering, I was notified that I had been tagged for a year long mobilization with the Navy that was supposed to start this past June in Djibouti, Africa.  Thinking that I wouldn't be around to race this summer, my training took a back seat to everything else that was going on and by the time my orders were cancelled in May, I knew my original plan was no longer possible.

T1 Setup

That's when I contacted Dennis and he told me he had an athlete in mind he could pair me up with for the Ironman.  In preparation for this past weekend, I pulled another AiT athlete, Zack, at several of the +Green Events Horsetooth Tri Training events where we would swim 1500m and then run a 5k.  I also pulled Zack at the Carter Lake Crossing, a 3 mile swim event in Loveland.  Because of these events, I went into Sunday's race confident I could make it through the swim and the run, but was really nervous about making the bike cutoff as the race would be the first time I would pull the trailer behind the bike.

Friday

Due to commitments with work, I wasn't able to make it down to Boulder to register until late Friday afternoon.  By the time I finally arrived at the Ironman Village, Dennis and his athlete, PJ, and David were all waiting for me in the registration tent.  That process went quickly and then Dennis gave me the raft for the swim and the bike and run trailers to check in the next day.  Then it was off to the hotel to TRY to get a good night's sleep.  I say try because the room my parents and I got only had one bed and a pull-out couch...guess who got the pull-out!

Thanks Patrick Ray for helping Dennis
and I get everything ready

Saturday

Saturday morning, I got up relatively early and headed down to Boulder Reservoir to get in a quick ride and check in my bike and trailer.  As soon as I started my ride, I knew my concerns about making the bike cutoff were warranted.  I could feel the drag and extra weight up every little incline...and David wasn't even in it!  However, I told myself to take it out slow the next day and I would be able to get through it just fine.  I then checked in my bike/trailer and headed over to T2 to check in my run gear and run stroller.

Later that afternoon, my parents and I headed over to +Jonathan Mason's In-Laws house who allowed all the MP Multisport athletes to gather there for a pre-race dinner.  After plenty of food and drink, it was back to the hotel to get to bed early...I got the bed that night!

Sunday

Sunday morning came way too fast and before I knew it, it was time to meet Dennis, PJ, and David at the shuttle pick-up at 5am.  Unfortunately, PJ and David arrived a bit late so by the time we got to the reservoir, Dennis and I were running around like crazy to make sure we had everything ready to go. Luckily, my parents and +Patrick Ray were there to assist with the logistics and we finally got everything ready to go right as the gun was going off.

Rafts ready to go

Swim:  Because we were so late getting everything ready, Dennis, PJ, David and I had to start in the very back and were pretty much the last athletes to enter the water.  This made for a frustrating swim as it's pretty difficult to maneuver through a crowd of 3,000+ swimmers while towing a raft.  There were a few times we had to stop to let people untangle themselves from the ropes.  But it was pretty cool passing people the entire 2.4 miles.  As we exited the water, Patrick and Jessica (David's caretaker) were there to meet us and transfer David from the raft to the bike trailer and I was off to the change tent to get ready for the bike.

Swim Finish

Off on the swim...

Trying to find David!

T1:  Here is where the trouble started.  As I exited the change tent, I looked around and couldn't find David so I assumed he was waiting at the bike rack.  However, when I got to my bike, he wasn't there either.  I then ran to the bike exit and waited a few minutes but again, he didn't show up.  I then decide to run up the hill to the bike mount line to see if he was up there.  Again, he was nowhere to be seen.  Then about 20 minutes later, I finally found Patrick and he called me back down to transition, where I finally got David and the trailer hooked to my bike.

Beautiful Bike Ride

Bike:  As we started out on the bike, I settled into a pretty easy pace and just focused on spinning at a high cadence and trying not to push too hard on the hills.  I also knew the heat would play a major factor during the day so I tried to hydrate and eat a lot during the early miles.  I can't even begin to describe how great the volunteers, spectators and other athletes treated us.  We were cheered on by just about everyone who went by us and I looked back a few times to see David with a big smile on his face.  He also kept himself entertained by playing with the plastic on the side of the trailer.  Before long it was time to stop at Aid Station 3 where we were supposed to meet Jessica so she could feed David.  Unfortunately, she couldn't make it there due to the traffic and road closures.  So after a quick phone call, we decided just to meet at the next aid station.  When we finally met up, it was nice to get off the bike for a minute to stretch my legs and back and Dennis even provided David and I with vests dipped in ice water to help keep us cool (best idea ever!).  Back on the road, we started our second loop of the bike course but the heat and extra weight from the trailer were taking their toll.  At the next aid station, I stopped to get some food and ate a banana and had a quick chat with one of the great volunteers.  However, as soon as we started riding again, I knew things were not good.  I got really nauseous and just a few minutes later the banana came right back up.  I rode a bit further but realized that I wasn't going to be able to keep any food down and that chances were slim that we would make the bike cutoff, so I pulled over and called it a day.

It was definitely a huge disappointment that I couldn't get David to the finish but the fact that he was still smiling when he was being lifted out of the trailer made me feel a bit better (although he may have just been happy to finally be getting out of the trailer!).  I've even started looking at other races I can do with David so that he can finally cross that finish line.  Sunday was a tough day but it was also a good learning experience and I am very happy to have been a part of it.  While neither Dennis nor I were able to finish this past weekend, you can bet we will both be out there again and I would encourage anyone who is interested to contact Dennis to see how you can help.  Until next time, Work Hard, Don't Stop!

Still happy even though we didn't make it

My 2 biggest supporters

Learning the Language

RPE, HR Max, FTP, LT, VO2 Max.  These terms are thrown around a lot in the endurance athlete community and when you listen to many of us talk, it may seem like we are speaking a language that is anything but English.  While more and more athletes have adopted these acronyms into their everyday language, there still seems to be a lot of confusion as to what many of these mean and how and when they can be used to help increase performance.  The goal of this post is to hopefully serve as an Enduance Athlete to English translator so that you will know if someone is making fun of you by stating that their 40k TT will be faster than yours because they have a higher FTP than you and they are only working at an RPE of 7 instead of 10!


Let's start with what is probably the easiest acronym to understand; RPE.  RPE stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion and is based on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is walking and 10 is all-out.  This method of training is commonly used by coaches and athletes alike because it requires no expensive or sophisticated equipment, just an understanding of how your body feels at a given level of intensity.  If your coach tells you to do a 30 min run at an RPE of 3, you now know that this should be an easy recovery run.  Unfortunately, most endurance athletes tend to have a Type A personality and 'easy' is a subjective term and your RPE 3 workout can easily become a RPE 5 run, especially if you are training with a partner.  Therefore, while RPE is a simple method to use while training, it is often difficult to tell if you actually accomplished the goal of the workout.


Next is HR Max.  This stands for Heart Rate maximum and this type of training, as the name implies, uses percentages of your maximum heart rate broken into 5 different zones.  Zone 1 represents the lowest intensity zone (think brisk walking) while zone 5 once again represents an all-out effort.  This is also a very common method  used by coaches and athletes because it only requires a heart rate monitor and a simple test to determine the athletes HR Max.  After determining your HR Max, you can then use any number of websites to calculate your HR training zones.  While this method is considered better than RPE because you are getting some objective data, there are still flaws in using this method of training.  First, every heart is different, so if you use a simple calculation (often 220-age) to determine your HR Max, you most likely are not going to have very accurate zones.  Furthermore, HR is very sensitive to many outside influences.  Anything from lack of sleep, stress, caffeine, and even weather, can affect an individuals HR while not necessarily impacting the work you are actually doing.  Simply put, your HR may tell you that you are in zone 5 while your muscles are only working out in zone 4!


FTP is yet another method to determine your athletic performance.  FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power and is often described as the maximum effort that can be sustained for 1 hour.  Cyclists are the athletes primarily concerned with this type of training because it gives them an accurate picture of the work their muscles are doing, expressed in terms of watts.  To determine an athlete's FTP, they have to complete one of many available protocols using a power meter and then, once again, use any number of websites to calculate your FTP zones (this time broken into 7 different zones).  Using this method of training is preferable to the two above because it is based off of actual work.  For example, if an athlete with a FTP of 275 watts is supposed to be doing a zone 2 (endurance) ride, they should keep their power output between 146-196 watts.  If the athlete is above or below the minimum and maximum values, they know that they are working too hard or not hard enough and that the coffee they had that morning isn't affecting their numbers.  The downside to FTP training is that, for it to be effective, the athlete needs a power meter, which can be pretty pricey.  An alternative to this is to have the test done at a performance lab and have their FTP associated with their HR during the test and then use their HR as a way to do their training on a daily basis, returning the lab periodically to retest.

A lactate analyzer, like the one shown here, along with a
graded exercise test can give you a good idea as to your body's
physiological response to exercise.

LT stands for Lactate Threshold.  LT is similar to FTP but it goes a step further in that it gives the athlete a look at their body's physiological response to exercise.  The athlete is given a graded exercise test in a performance lab setting and the test administrator takes a blood sample, often from the fingertip of the athlete, to determine the amount of lactate (often referred to as lactic acid) in the blood.  At rest and low levels of exercise intensity, humans primarily utilize fat as their main source of energy.  The byproducts of fat metabolism are carbon dioxide, water, and ATP (energy), all of which do not have much effect on the muscles response to energy.  This is why we can maintain an easy pace for long periods of time!  However, as the intensity of exercise increases, our bodies require a faster source of energy, which comes from carbohydrates.  While carbohydrates provide a faster fuel source, it also produces lactate and hydrogen ions.  Lactate itself has been shown to be an additional source of energy for working muscles, primarily the heart, but it's the buildup of the hydrogen ions that causes the muscle cells to become more acidic.  Fortunately, the increase in lactate in the blood gives us a good idea of what is going on in the muscles and with a lactate analyzer and a graded exercise test, the test administrator can determine the exercise intensity at which this process is occurring.  For runners, this number is determined by pace and for cyclists, wattage.  Periodic retesting will give the coach/athlete an idea as to just how well their training regimen is working and if any adjustments need to be made. 

A VO2 Max test is a good indication of
aerobic performance.

Finally, there is VO2 max.  VO2 max refers to the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can utilize during exercise.  It is measured using a graded exercise test where the athlete is attached to a metabolic cart that analyzes oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.  The results are expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute of exercise (mlO2/kg/min).  For those looking to increase their aerobic fitness for long distance events, this is a good test to have done periodically to see if you are properly training your aerobic fitness.  While it is not really practical to use the information from this test in your daily training, the test does give the athlete an accurate HR max which can be correlated to the proper training zones.

Hopefully after reading this post, you now have a better understanding of the Endurance Athlete language and can start impressing your training partners by incorporating some of this terminology into your daily vocabulary.  For those of you with a coach, I encourage you to discuss these different types of training with him/her to determine the best way for you to reach your goals next season.  Now get out there and Work Hard, Don't Stop!!!

Trusting The Process

Chances are, if you are reading this post, you are a multisport or endurance athlete.  And, if you are like most, you have probably been told on more than one occasion by friends and family that you have a "Type A" personality.  Well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  It only makes sense, considering the amount of training required for your chosen sport.

The road may be long, but follow it long enough
and your dreams will be realized.

However, if you are like me and have ever had a coach, you have probably heard them say multiple times to "trust the process."  So how are we supposed to trust the process when it is our very nature to question everything?  I'd like to tell you my personal story and how it led me to exactly where I want to be.

My story starts way back in high school (I never said the process was going to be quick and easy!).  I ran cross-country and track all four years in high school and had a coach that I didn't really like very well.  Don't get me wrong, he was an amazing coach who produced multiple state and national champions, but if you were not one of his star athletes, you were pretty much nobody.  And trust me, I was far from being one of his start athletes!  However, at the team banquet my senior year, he said something to me that I will never forget.  He told me that when I finished college, he wanted me to come back and take over his coaching job.  That single sentence was enough to make me want to be a coach someday.

Well, after college, I didn't go back and take over his job.  I accepted a position in the Navy's Officer Candidate School and spent the next four years working on ship's and traveling to places I never imagined I would get to see.  While it was a great experience, I still had this idea in the back of my mind that I was meant to work with athletes.  So I gave up the job security and income that comes with the military, packed up my belongings, and moved to Colorado to study Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University.

For the next three years, I studied hard and learned everything I could about the human body and how it responds to exercise.  I carefully selected my practicums and internships to work with people who were viewed as experts in their field.  During this time, I also experienced financial difficulties and often questioned whether or not I made the right decision to leave the Navy.

Then, this past January, after discussing the idea of an endurance training center located in Fort Collins with a good friend of mine, every decision I made since high school started making sense.  While earning my first degree, I was a walk-on on the school's cross-country and track teams and had a coach that I had nothing but respect for and leaned a lot from and wanted more than ever to be a coach.  However, at that time, I didn't have the confidence or knowledge to truly be an effective coach.  The confidence came from my time in the Navy and having to learn how to be a leader that people will listen to and trust.  The knowledge came at CSU studying under some of the best in the business.  This past July, I travelled to South Carolina to attend the USA Triathlon's Level I coaching clinic and finally became a certified coach.  Additionally, in just the past week, I have received multiple messages in my inbox from people looking for a coach!  And, as I have already mentioned, plans for an endurance training center, the NoCo Endurance Center, are well underway and it's only a matter of time before the doors are open.

My dream started over 12 years ago.  But it doesn't really matter when you decide you want something.  As long as you work hard at whatever is put in front of you, you will get to where you want to go.  My good friend Steve Mantell once told me that the only thing he thinks about when racing is "Go fast, don't stop."  While that is a great mantra while racing, I have modified it slightly to "Work hard, don't stop."  The process may take days, weeks, months, or in many cases, years to come together.  But if you trust in the process and never lose sight of your goals, you can never fail.  Now go out there and work hard, don't stop!