Lessons Learned from Eagleman and Evergreen

I have waited a month to post about Eagleman. Coach, Kristine, and those close to me tell me it was a "Good" race. I expected more out of myself than what I got at Eagleman. My swim was atrocious, my bike wasn't good enough, and my run was well disappointing. So I learned that I have to learn from those types of races, and that is where you can learn the most, from your failures. Even though it was not that bad of a race, it definitely could have and should have been executed better. So let's start off with the comparisons:
Eagleman was a 70.3, Evergreen was an OD. I know the distance matters, but just the way I felt in the two makes me want to do Eagleman over again.

Swim: No comparison. Kristine said that I looked like I was trying to beat the water at Eagleman where as in Evergreen I never felt rushed, did not get anxious and concentrated on form and execution. She has been at the pool with me the last few times that I have been working on form and it has put me at a lot more ease. I always think I am doing it right and she is not afraid to tell me how it is, I just recently learned to listen :-)
So at Eagleman I took it on the chin and swam the 1.5 km in 40+ minutes came out of the water gassed. Evergreen was better but to extrapolate the results and compare is not fair but I can say this. I stopped at Eagleman no fewer than 6 times, 3 were in the first 200 yards. At Evergreen I never stopped, hold that I kinda stopped when I cleared my goggles, but I was still kicking.

Bike: Evergreen is just a bunch of rollers whereas Eagleman is FLAT, when I say FLAT I mean if there weren't trees you would be able to survey the entire 56 mile course without ANY problems. I should have crushed this. But I still just eeked out 22 mph. I really felt like I had no power or was timid. I did get knew shoes, (LG HRS Tri Carbon shoes and Speedplay Zeros) before Evergreen. I could really feel the difference. With that being said, Evergreen was not without its challenges. Evergreen is rollers. I like rollers, they are what I train on and I think it is why I did much better. I averaged 23+mph on the rollers. I almost had a wipe out, I was hanging with one of the Illinois tri team on the bike when I thought that I would push on a bigger hill as I stood up and hammered down, my handle bars slipped forward causing slack in the cables and the chain hopped off causing me to ram my knee into the point on the back of the aero bars. That sucked out loud and immediately began to swell, 3 days later it is still swollen and very tender to the touch. I endo'ed, but I did not go over the bars and somehow did not fall off or wipe out. The kid looked at me and said,"That was awesome and asked if I was alright?"
 I smiled and said,"It's better to be lucky than good and it's gonna leave a mark, but at least I don't have to deal with road rash."
I never stopped, but I pulled the bars back up and was lucky enough that I did not have to stop to right the chain. I slowed at that point a bit because it hurt to exert force down, but I finished with a good time.

Run: The run my nemesis. At Eagleman I played it very safe and had a meh time. But at Evergreen I was tired of playing the part of wuss (please karma don't bite me in the ass for that statement :-)). So I ran, not a fast run, but faster than I have in any competition to date. Averaged 7:35 for the entire course, to be truthful, I averaged 7:45 for the first 4 miles then I stepped it up for the last to to average 7:35. Not a whole lot to say other than I know I can push a little more and I am gonna start striving for 7 min/miles.

So now the clock is counting down. Louisville is just around the corner and it has the Jekyll and Hyde reputation of being one of the easier Ironman competitions and one of the hardest. It holds the title of having the highest drop out rate of any IM competition to date. That happened last year and it was brutally hot.

So I am coming to grips with what I have to do. Will I qualify for Kona? Not sure, but I am going to give it everything I got. I am becoming more comfortable with my body, I still have A LOT of work to do on my body and skills, so if Kona doesn't come that's ok. I'll take a break after Louisville, talk to Kristine, and coach, and start to plan next year.

I have 3 definite goals: Kona, Maui, and Vegas. If I qualify for short course again I may run it for giggles, but those other three are the main goals. We will see what the future holds, but this is a lot of fun and I am enjoying the ride :-)

I am gonna say thanks again to a few people because they are the one's that have stood by me and helped prop me up when I need the hand. First and foremost my family and of course most of all Kristine. They have had patience when I have been pissy, supportive when I have been down, and right beside me through it all. I don't believe anybody can do this alone, if they can more power to them, but that's not me. To coaches Jeff and Diane Kline for doing all the brain work and having faith in me. To all my twitter friends who are quick with a shout-out, it makes me smile. I am not a sponsored athlete, I do not get paid by anybody but I think Polar, Hammer Nutrition, Zensah, Computrainer, and Newton products are among some of the best that I have tried. They are quick to educate and help and that is what everybody needs. They take time with noobies like me to even though they probably have answered the questions ten thousand times and they have patience. They have made the journey a lot more enjoyable. So once again thanks to all involved with getting me to this point and lets take it home now and CRUSH Louisville.

Enjoy the pics :-)