Germany - ITU Worlds - A no-go

i have been m.i.a. for nearly two weeks.
triathlon is all about planning. you plan your races out for the year, perfectly timed to benefit your "a" race. you plan your workouts, in order to get the appropriate volume and intensity for each work week. you plan feeding times, stretching, massage, rest, and everything inbetween. triathlon is such, because whatever we, as triathletes, do today, will affect our race months away. if we could just get up and do a triathlon in six months, and have the same outcome, we wouldn't care about the six months inbetween. but, we must. a wise person once said, "right now, somewhere in the world someone is training, and you are not. when you race him, he will win!" i'm not sure who the wise one is, but this is why we plan. i guess who ever plans the best, and can consistently adhere to said plan, they might achieve higher levels in the sport. enough with the rant... my plan went down the tubes august 17th, and there is nothing i can do about it.

scheduled to fly out of new england for hamburg, germany to compete in the itu world championships early this coming week as a member of TEAM USA, i will not be able to make it. if you ask me what i do or anything about me, i usually tell people, i am a triathlete. which, i am. but, i am also in the uscg, and this sometimes messes with the plan. unfortunately this time, it really messed with the plan. last friday, i was the lead officer on a criminal investigation, and it is now in full swing with all parties (prosecution/defense) going at eachother's necks. the rare investigation has taken precedence in my life, and i am needed at work this week. the only way i could plausibly make it to germany is to fly out on thursday or friday from houston directly to hamburg, and return on tuesday. it is just not possible.

if you dedicate yourself to the sport/life of triathlon, these plans i speak of will chisel your entire life. when you wake up, look at the lunch menu, get asked to grab a beer on a friday night, when your tired, lazy, unmotivated, and before you go to bed. good triathletes, are good, because they sacrifice. they sacrifice the onion rings at lunch, sleeping in on saturdays, partying on friday nights, and all sorts of things all year long. these plans become us. earthlings(non-triathletes) do not understand. they don't get the fact, that on thanksgiving you need to run ten miles, and when shit got in the way, and its raining and dark already, we lace up our training shoes. roadies(no offense) do not like to ride in the rain, triathletes have no choice. we need to follow the plan.



so what do we do when the plan is taken from us?

we make another plan.

"he conquers, who endurs"-persius

HOLY CRAP ITS HOT !!

Dude, it was 110 with the heat index this past weekend, and i was dying. We rolled out onto Chapel Hill's course at about 0700 sunday, and it was so hot and humid, the road was wet. I was shocked how much i sweat so during that ride. I drank over 200 ounces of gatorade and I even started eating little salt packets in order to prevent the total dehadration and sodium depletion state. Overall, it was probably one of the hardest rides I have ever done. Trying to keep up with some of you roadies on those hills with my legs and a tri bike was not easy.

It is thursday morning, and tues and wednesday is done. in the world of liam= i'm done with the hard days(until the weekend). I woke up this morning with my roomate yelling "Liam, wake up!" Dude, my legs hurt so much this morning, i really contemplated going back to bed. Tuesday was a 2 hour interval session on the bike in the blistering misery of Texas heat, and then a 2500 yard battle in the pool at Tommy Elder's (92 degree pool). I swam competitively for over 10 years, and i have never gotten a over-heat/dehadration cramp in a pool before. Wednesday began with a 1 hour heart rate ascension on the bike, and when i was done, i was done. not really - a lil' 6 mile jaunt as well. I definetly increased the protein intake after that one.

I really had some heavy legs this morning, and i was hurting. There is a hurricane brewing in the gulf, and the heat has subsided a bit. We will continue to watch the progression of DEAN, and hopefully it will not prevent my Germany bound intents.

Safe training.

steelhead 70.3 recap

I finally got my bike packed and in bed around 0130 Friday Morning, so the 0530 wake up call from driver Trent Stephens was a tough one. After picking up Andrew Strong, we got to Houston's Hobby Airport at 0700 for our 0905 flight to Chicago's Midway Airport. I ended up sitting and passing out next to a very nice midwestern couple, and Lisa McC arthy(Houston Area Super-Triathlete) was also on our flight, not to race at Steelhead, but a business meeting in Chicago. How Ironic.


We arrive in Chicago, get our rental car, and drove 45 minutes in traffic in the wrong way. FU*K! After that, we finally got into Benton Harbor, MI around 1730, a long day...We roll into transition, and it is packed. I really thought I was in southern california, because the beach did not look like a beach on a lake! the transition was packed, 2700 people registered!

We get our bikes in transition, set them up safely, and hit the pasta dinner. I felt pretty good, maybe a little tired. I took thursday off, but other than that i trained through steelhead. We ran around for hours, purchasing too much gatorade, and finally getting into bed around 11.

0445 and we are up, i did not want to get out of bed! we got outside, and holy crap it was freezing. i couldn't find my pants in my bag either, so i was cold. i set up transition rather quickly, because i wanted to find a port o'potty line. i never did, the lines were crazy, and i had a 1.2 mile beach venture to take in order to get to the swim start. never found the john(read between the lines)!

I literally had to jog down the beach to get to the start, by the time i got there, i got to watch the first wave shove off, and stretch out for my wave 3 departure 5 minutes later. i felt like the swim went well, it actually felt long, but i was okay, i got out of the water a hair over 29min. the worst part was the quarter mile soft sand jaunt to get to transition from the swim finish.

after t2, i realized that i was no longer in texas. i was freezing, and begging for the sun to come out. I could not get warm. I am not sure what was wrong with my legs, but i had nothing until mile30. i finally started to warm up and feel my legs pushing, and then it happened at about mile50, my sciatic nerve acted up. i had to stand on my bike and stretch out my lower back, and glutes. Those last 6 miles were hell, and i had already decided that if it was going to borrow me on the run, that i was done. it hurt that bad.

i fired out of t2, and i was pissed. i was pissed that my 2:41 bike split was a 2:41. racing the clock against my goal now, i was pissed. i needed to run the hell out of this course just to give myself a respectable time. i was out of my age group goals and overall goals, because of the damn bike, now it was time to hunt anybody and everybody down just for a little vindication and try to finish with a decent time.

i hit it hard, and averaged 6:15 for the first 9 miles, then we looped back in and the course was full, and i had noone to chase, i slowed down a bit, finished the run with a 1:22, good enough for the 5th fastest run, all within a minute. i m happy about that. overall time 4:39. a faster bike time, and i'd be where i need to be. i will eventually get there, i will.