DO WORK

• Alarm went off and I felt great. I slept alright; probably fell asleep around 11:00 p.m. after tossing and turning for 3 hours. It wasn't too bad as I took a 2 hour nap after lunch. After shaking of some sleep with half a can of Diet Coke, I ate 1 banana and a peanut butter and banana sandwich. After breakfast I felt pretty solid, a little full, but solid. Once I took a shower, shaved and got dressed I loaded the car and was off to the lake. At 5:20 we walked out the door (1hr 20min till race start). Grabbed some EAS Catapult for the drive over and was good to go.

RACETIME: 50 min till race start:

• Almost to transition but a long line of cars has got us backed up pretty good. It was a perfect time to dig in the bag and grab some EAS Muscle Armor and EAS V02 Peak. Now I was good to go, just need to get to transition and drop the bike off with time to get in the water. As I walked down the hill with Julie, the dogs and my bike, I noticed the clock said 6:10...30 minutes to go...gotta hurry. I got body marked, dropped the bike off, took a gel, made one last restroom stop and was off to the Lake. I managed to get in about 200 meters of warm-up before I needed to get out of the water and cross the matt to register my chip. Line-up time and I had two minutes to collect my thoughts before we went off.

RACETIME: 00:00

• The horn went off and we charged the water hard. I lined up at the front of the wave as I never like starting behind anyone. I didn't disappoint anyone since the guy next to me and I broke the hole open for everyone to follow. It didn't take but about a minute for 7 guys to swim by and give me a nice kick in the eyeball. Nice, that felt really good. At least it wasn't worse. What was worse was the bath water we were swimming in. There was no way that water was below 78 degrees. Maybe at the spring where the temperature was taken, it's always cold there. I was hot and when I say hot, I mean scorching. I felt like I was going to pass out. Next time I need to find myself into a sleeveless wetsuit. The swim wasn't near as bad as California as I would much rather deal with overheating than hypothermia. Cold water is just too hard for me to cope with. There were probably 4 or 5 times I wanted to quit. My head wasn't right during the swim. I had a hard time breathing because of the heat, and my body was starting to tingle. I really wish this swim went perfect as I've been putting in a lot of time in the water and would have really enjoyed a perfect day in the water. Just lessons along the way I need to learn. The swim wasn't all that bad as I got out of the water in 28:36. Finally that part of the race was over.

RACETIME: 00:30

• Bike time and a nice hill to start things off. After several conversations with my coach I took his advice and decided to roll with an 11/23 rear cassette. It was a perfect choice. I never stood once during any of the climbs and I mean never. I stayed controlled and enjoyed the climbing process instead of struggling to get to the top. Once I hit the top it was smooth sailing as I never felt the need to recover from pushing a hard gear, just right back into rhythm. I opted to go with no heart rate monitor for this race, straight perceived exertion. After 10 miles on the bike my Garmin Edge 205 bike computer went out. It lost the satellite link and I was now without any speed data. That pissed me off since I wanted to see my speed average throughout the bike. Oh well, at least I had a watch on and could do the math every 10 miles at the markers. During the bike, I never felt like I was riding the edge, I felt smooth and fluid. For this race, it was about putting together a solid day and not just an amazing bike split. At about mile 45 my legs started moving pretty good, I felt really strong so I went with it. I just enjoyed the ride home and eased up once we got back into the park. I rode my own race, never chasing anyone, never letting anyone influence the way I rode, never swaying from what I wanted to do for the entire day. I jumped off the bike in 2:37. It wasn't the fastest bike split by a long shot, nor was it a PR, but it was completely controlled.

RACETIME: 03:09

• I wasn't sure how this run was going to turn out. It's an extremely hard run and I just don't have enough experience to know whether or not my legs will do what there supposed to. I decided to leave transition with one of the water bottles off my bike. Stay controlled was the thought running through my mind as I started the run. Stay hydrated, drink some fluids and get your legs together. Funny thing was, my legs were just fine. I never struggled to find my legs off the bike. I ran through mile 1 in 6:49. Way too fast is what I told myself, but don't run off pace...run on feel. So that's what I did and went through mile 2 in 6:40. Well this changed as I turned the corner and ran up the first hill, next mile came in 7:11. Oh my gosh did I struggle to keep running up that first hill. I kept telling myself to stay controlled and focus on getting to the top. The top came and I settled back down to a controlled pace. I cleared mile 4 in 7:37 after a flat section and downhill. Mile 5 was going to be tough as it was one of the hardest hills on the course. 7:54 was my pace and I was starting to get tired. Now came a long out and back false flat section. This stretch of road is in the middle of nowhere and it feels like it goes on for ever. Mile 6 came in 7:22, 7 came in 7:56, 8 came in 7:37, 9 came in 7:03 which was down the big hill at mile 4. Mile10 was up the last big hill of the day and it slowed me down to 8:10. After that I was pretty consistent with 7:30 min miles on the way home. At mile 11 my legs were starting to really feel like lead. I never stopped during the run and wasn't about to start. I focused on the two remaining miles and treated them like they were training runs I'd done so many times before. I finished the run in 1:38:31.

I came across the line in 4:47:45.

I was pleased with the day. I didn't make the trip to Lubbock for any other reason but to give the race everything I had. After the day was done, I did just that. I was very happy with the way I executed the race. My wife was there with our two little puppies which made the trip even more enjoyable. I'm very lucky to have her in my life, and I'm even more blessed that she enjoys watching me do what I love so much. On a side note, I want to say thank you to my amazing sponsors; EAS, Orca, Javelin, and Fuel Belt for all the support you give me on a day to day basis. A very important thank you goes out to Coach Dave Latourette who has been not only a coach but a mentor along the way.

This week I'll be taking a much needed easy week and will start my build process for Ironman Florida next week. My next couple races should be Marble Falls and then off the Arkansas for the CATS Half Ironman.

Talk to you soon....