August Highlights:
- I compete in 2014 USAT Olympic-Distance National Championships
- Kids start school
- And the biggest waves of the year rock our coastline courtesy of hurricane Marie
2014 USAT National Championships Recap
The Race
Sometimes, and maybe more often than not, you can’t find your A game for your A race. That’s the short version of what happened to me in Milwaukee this year. Ever since receiving my invitation to participate in National Championships, I had been looking forward to participating in this event. Initially, I did not have any really big goals for the race. The main objective was to go out there, do it, and see what it was all about. Well, that view lasted a few weeks, but as the new year approached, I got more serious about my training. I swam more, biked more, and ran more than I had in any other season. The results led to some record times for me in the pool, an 18% increase in my bike power level (which is huge), and a record sub 7 minute mile pace 5K in my third race of the season. I seriously began to believe that I could have a great race at Nationals which would place me in the top 90 or so in my age group based on the times. This would equate to a sub 2:20 time for a 1500 meter swim, 40km bike ride, and 10K run. I was even more pumped when a coach I respect told me that based on what he had seen there was no reason I couldn’t bag a top 18 spot and secure a slot in the World Championships. What place did I end up getting? Well, the one and the eight were correct, but you’d have to add another digit to that number to get my final result. I was 181st out of the 215 people in my age group with a time of 2 hours and 34 minutes — not exactly a world championship qualifying result.
What went wrong? (more…)