Spokes

The chaos of what has been my 2010 triathlon season finally drew to a close this past Saturday up in Santa Barbara. It is exactly one year ago that I finished Ironman Canada, and I still can’t believe that I ever competed at that distance. This year has been a year marked with chaos, injury, inconsistent training, and an overloaded work schedule. I guess that’s life sometimes. Santa Barbara is a special place for me. It is the home of college spring break vacations and one of the first places I ever visited in California. I proposed to my wife there on a starry night in 1999 overlooking the city from the pier. The beauty in the city is unmatched as the mountains nestle up to the ocean in a postcard panoramic shot. I love it there. This is the second time I have raced the Santa Barbara Long Course Tri. The 1 mile swim, 34 mile bike, 10 mile run course tests your top end limits through numerous hills, sweeping bends and coastal bliss. I didn’t really have major expectations of perfor

Injuries suck. You never know how you are going to recover after a crash like I had one month ago. Especially when you have to start from ground zero to get ready for a ½ Ironman event. I was starting to build up a decent base going into the San Diego International. My run was coming along, and even my swim was showing promise. And then the crash…. Not that injuries and sickness should be used as an excuse for mediocre race performance, but in this case, it is exactly what prepped me for a mediocre race in Boulder. Missing almost three weeks of key workouts and run volume set me up for a subpar ½ marathon. The swim started off OK. I was able to find a little room and get into a rhythm that made it OK. The refreshing Colorado reservoir water was a nice 71 degrees. About 200 yards into the swim, my body started to realize that there was a lack of oxygen going in due to the altitude. My every-third-stoke breath turned into an every-stroke routine and killed my momentum despite my bes