Giant Eagle Triathlon RR

Just got back from Columbus, OH- which is an awesome city.  Another 2^nd place by just 9 seconds….still seeking that elusive win this year… Here is a great play by play of the race on slowtwitch that covers both Kaleb and I:  http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Yoder_Parker_top_Giant_Eagle_Triathlon_2227.html

I posted the fastest bike and second fastest run- which was great. The bike was flat and super-fast with great road surfaces for the most part and very few turns at all.  The run was somewhat of a struggle for me because I haven’t started my run training yet going into Hyvee and I didn’t back off at all this week from the intense bike training I have been doing.  I definitely felt my training load and lack of speed workouts on the run more than anything- but I was happy to hold it together and I am excited to be where I am at right now and I wouldn’t have changed anything- I know I am in the right spot for right now.  Having patience and the right timing is so incredibly important in this sport and I know Greg has me doing the right things for right now.

However, my swim was the only bummer (10^th best and 1:40 back from the leader!).  It is hard to lose a triathlon in the swim but that seems to be what I am managing to do. I have seen glimpses of myself as a great swimmer during certain sets in practice and I have had races where I have been much closer to the front but I need to translate that more often.  A lot of pro triathletes come from great swim backgrounds but most age groupers come from bike and run backgrounds so I know there are a lot of folks out there who can relate.  I am excited for the work ahead and to improve from here…Greg and I have already talked about trying some different things out and some new ideas...I am excited because I am going to improve in this area!

Kaleb and Kyle both had awesome races…Kaleb had a killer swim and second fastest bike!!! (and obviously the fastest run because he is half gazelle)  Kyle had a rubbing brake the whole bike ride and a rubbing wheel but still managed a top 10- that dude won't give up and always manages to pull off a great result no matter what!! 

 The triathlon was very cool.  The race was a point to point that started in a park outside the city and ended next to the baseball stadium in downtown Columbus. It definitely had a great local feel to it and the race director was quite responsive to athlete concerns.   They have the best road surfaces for the bike that I have seen yet this year for big city races.  Thanks to volunteers, directors, Greg, Wes and the awesome VanOrt Clan for a great race!!

Giant Eagle Triathlon

Nicole and Kaleb finished in close seconds at the inaugural Giant Eagle Multisport Festival in Columbus, OH.  It was a fast and fun course that yielded exciting finishes.  Nicole had the fastest bike split of the day and the second fastest run to come within 9 seconds of the race winner, Jenna Parker.  Kaleb had the second fastest bike split and the fastest run of the day to come within 13 seconds of the race winner, Andrew Yoder.  Kyle Lee had a great performance as well, finishing in the top 10.  Good Luck to Nicole as she heads to New York City this weekend to dominate the NYC Tri!!

Lifetime Minneapolis

This past weekend was Lifetime Minneapolis.  This triathlon is still a big deal, but back in the day, this was it!  It was the largest prize purse in the sport and everyone showed up for a chance at life changing amounts of money.  Although the large prize purse is now spread out over an entire series, this triathlon still had some big names.  Four male athletes had participated in the Olympics and the talent did not stop there, this seems to be the norm for races this season.  I have not yet found a race lacking talent.  I am not sure if that is my good fortune in racing this season or just the way the pro races are.  Oh well, I was ready to race coming off my lackluster performance in Munich.  (I still plan on doing a write-up on my adventure to Europe, but I am still waiting on a few things that may sway my overall perspective of the trip.  Plus I don’t have a race until September, so I may need some topics to fill the long drought between race recaps.)  Lifetime also brought back the Equalizer this year, which is a very unique and awesome, I feel, thing at this race.  The women started 10:43 ahead of the men and the first person across the line, man or woman, is awarded a $5000 prem. 

Swim – I got out well as I usually do on beach starts.  I think I was winning for three strokes. J  Then the pack started moving.  I was on feet and feeling good but then something happened, not sure what, but the pack was gone and they were 5 seconds ahead.  Did I lose focus?  What happened?  I tried to close the gap down, but they just kept getting farther away.  It is still a mystery to me how I fell off so quickly, but I was now swimming solo for the last 1100 meters.  The water was rough so maybe that had something to do with it.  Living in South Bend, it is hard to find anywhere to swim with waves and current.  Enough of the excuses, I had a bad swim.  I had to stay positive and limit my loses.  I was happy when the water got shallow and I was able to dolphin dive a couple times and get out of the water.

Bike – The bike course layout is very nice.  Rolling hills, winding gradual turns, and some miles along the Mississippi makes it a fun course, but the roads themselves are terrible!  They are very rough and you have to ride heads up to make sure you don’t hit any hazards that would pop a tire and end your day.  I did not mind it too much since I was riding completely solo, I got to pick my lines and avoid most of the hazards.  Riding in a group would have gotten interesting though, trying to stagger off the person in front of you and find some smooth road at the same time.  I did hit a couple good bumps that threw me around but it added some fun to riding solo.  My power output was good and overall I had a good ride for my current biking ability.  There is still work to be done, but it is nice to improve from race to race.

Run – I am always happy when I finally get to the run.  It is possibly the most painful part of the race, but it is what I have been doing the longest, so I am usually able to keep it together.  There was something in the air or water in Minneapolis, because my allergies were ramped up during the race.  I noticed it mostly on the run, my chest got tighter as the race progressed.  I was not going to let that slow me down though.  There was an $833 run prem up for grabs, and I could see two guys running together ahead of me.  I caught Limkemann and Lavalle at about 1.5 miles and continued along.  I started catching some of the girls and when I caught up to Nicole I saw she had a little road rash on her thigh.  I figured she went down on the bike because, 1) I should not be catching her this early in the run and 2) the road rash.  I later found out she went down early on the bike, so hats off to her for fighting to the finish!  (She ended up with the fastest run!!  Well done!!)  After the first lap of two my mind started to wander and I started to relax a little, but I was able to keep myself going for the prem.  At about 4.5 miles there was a hair pin and I could see Dave Thompson.  We have gone back and forth all season and I was going to give it a go and try and catch him.  It is funny how different we are, but we usually finish close to one another.  We are similar swimmers, but he is a stronger cyclist, and I am a stronger runner.  He actually had the fastest bike split in the race.  With 600 to go I had a good feeling I could catch him, but he had a large cheering section that was letting him know I was coming.  With 200 to go I caught him and we both started to kick.  I edged him out for 6^th and because of the chase I was able to grab the fastest run split of the day.

Post Race – I kicked my way into a drug test!  Here we go again.  The top 3 were drug tested as well as 2 randoms, which 6^th place happened to be one.  I was taken off to a little church which was about a half mile away from the finish via golf cart.  I was the first one there and the last one to leave!  Once everyone was done and gone, I spent a while just talking to the USADA employees, just passing time before I was able to fill a cup.  Finally I took care of business and was able leave.  Once I returned I found my mom and grandparents who were relieved to see me.  They did not know where I went after the race and were getting worried when they could not find me.

A big thanks to my Mom for driving the whole way there and back!  I kept asking her if she wanted me to drive, but she never let me.  She was a great spectator as well, she gave me updates on place as well as splits to the leader.  It was great to have my grandparents at the race too!  And Nicole decided to bring Wes along as well!  It is wonderful to have a cheering section when racing.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice. ~Wayne Dyer

Kaleb

Philly Triathlon- 4th place

This past weekend was the philly triathlon.  This is one of the coolest race courses on the circuit.  The swim is a point to point, the bike is a hilly 2 lap course right through the most beautiful parts of philly and the run is an easy, flat double loop that is mostly shaded…amazing.

I was happy with my race and effort. I defiantly need to perk up my swimming a bit though. I was about 40 seconds further down than I usually am (the lead girls got to draft off the men cause we started together and that front pack cut the last buoy- bummer for me who stopped and redirected myself around that last buoy  =(  )  Starting a little further back after the swim was tough on this course because it is so turny and hilly that you can’t see anyone up the road.  Nonetheless, I had a similar bike in terms of watts to last week – which means I was hammering the bike- and my run was better than last week I thought. The run was cool under the shade and temps were in the 70s- perfect for a fast day.  They top 3 women broke the course record so it was evident that conditions were perfect.   All in all a good day putting me second in the series now- I am definitely consistent if nothing else!  Now Greg has some new things to try for swimming and time to go back and work on that now… There is always something to work on when you are doing 3 sports!! 

Congrats to Kaleb, Kyle and Greg for also dominating this weekend- Kaleb had a great race in Munich and Kyle showed his running prowess in his first continental cup!!! Nice work guys!

Washington DC Triathlon- 2nd Place

Washington DC Race Report

Maybe it is all about the bike?

So this weekend I came 2^nd behind a formidable Alicia Kaye by 30 seconds even.  I was really pleased with this result and even more pleased that I learned a ton about myself and about strategy. Greg has been telling me to hammer the bike but I am not quite sure I understood what that meant before this weekend.  Greg has had me swimming and biking a lot more in the past two weeks and it really paid off during the race.  Unfortunately I still ended up swimming alone for most of the 1500m but I emerged only about 1 minute down from the leaders.  Getting on the bike I was quite far back in about 15^th place – this field seemed to be very heavy with super-swimmers and I passed only a few people in the first lap of the bike.  Then I had this moment of revelation- about ¾ of the way into the first bike lap I thought to myself, “What if I tried to pretend this was a 40k TT all out with no run afterwards??  Maybe I should just see what happens?” 

I have never really bonked on a run in triathlon before- I actually think this is my race strength. When it is hot or freezing or I drop my water bottle and have no water or lose my nutrition or it is terrible conditions- I can always hang on in the run while a lot of the field falls apart.  This strength has caused me to probably over-perform in several races already (like 3^rd at USAT elite nationals last year behind Laura Bennett and Sarah Groff in my first ever ITU race- of course I wasn’t at that level yet but it happened to be 95 degrees when we started the run….so the entire field came back to me)  How can I leverage that strength in races when it is not 100 degrees out?  I think drilling the bike may be the answer for me and a unique asset of my physiology? Or maybe this is what everyone does in Olympic distance racing and I just caught on for the first time last week..? Either way- it worked.

Anyways, so I took the risk and went really hard on the bike.  My husband Wes knew exactly what I needed to hear and kept yelling split times down from the leaders every time I saw him which was super helpful.  I posted the fastest bike split by 30 seconds and put myself right behind the leaders going into the run. My run was probably 30-45 seconds slower than it has been but I still had the second fastest run split and I know Greg is waiting to train up my run until we get closer to big races later in the season.   I still ended up way ahead of the game at the end of the day with an awesome result for me at this point- I didn’t bonk on the run and I finally learned how to utilize what I have known for a while is a strength in a race. I just can’t wait to put all the pieces together when the time comes…how exciting!!  Greg has been telling me to drill the bike and now I understand why. Having a great race and learning something that you can use in future races is the best feeling ever!!! 

I think the take away point that everyone can use is:  Try to identify your strengths.  Maybe they are a little unconventional and a little more specific than, “I am a good swimmer.”  Maybe they seem situational and difficult to leverage but then keep thinking about it and brainstorming creative ideas to use your strengths.  It wasn’t obvious for me at first.  Just keep thinking on it and it will become clear eventually…

Kaleb is racing in Munich this weekend- how awesome is that!!! Good Luck Kaleb!!!

Top 5 at MIM

Since I met Greg, he has talked about doing the Memphis in May Triathlon. Last year my sister, Karly, got married the weekend of the race so I was unable to make it.  This year I finally got my chance to race there, although the race was held at a new venue in Tunica, MS.  Lucky for the athletes, the race took place on the other side of the Mississippi River levee.  The race was very flat and very fast.  The area would have been great, but a lot of the restaurants and casinos were closed due to the Mississippi flooding.  As long as Mother Nature cooperates in the future, this race will become a must!  Even with all the weather related problems this year, it was a great experience and I am glad I got to race.  A big thanks goes out to the race organizers at start2finish for allowing the race to go on!

Pre-race – Kyle Lee, who is now part of Team IE, was here so I was excited to have a teammate in the race.  Our race was supposed to start at 10:30 so I woke up at 7 and ate my normal prerace breakfast.  It was pouring down rain, so I did not venture out early to watch Greg, Lisa, John, and Enrick race.  I felt bad, but at the rate it was raining I wanted to avoid getting soaked as long as I could.  At about 9 I headed to transition to set up my area.  After I finished setting up transition I headed out to get a jog warm up.  On my way out Greg was finishing so I stopped and talked to him.  About 5 min into my warm up, I saw Lisa on the run course so I yelled some words of encouragement to her.  After warm up I stretched in the hotel since the rain was still coming down hard.  At about 10:15 we had a meeting to see if we were going to get to race, since the lighting had started up about 9:30.  They said we were going so it was into the water for a little swim warm up.  About the time we were going to start they decided conditions were too bad to let us swim.  They were going to postpone the race up to 1 hour, after that they were going to cancel the swim and have a ride-run, not even a Duathlon.  They decided on this since they only had the police and volunteers until 1:30.  With all the waiting around I was starting to get hungry but I did not want to eat solid food so close to the race start.  I found Greg and he was able to get Hammer Gels for Kyle and I.  Greg saved me once again!!  Finally at about 11:15 it was race time!

Swim – Memphis in May is a unique race, in that the race starts in a time trail fashion.  The pros went off in alphabetical order, alternating men/women, every 10 seconds.  I went off about 6 minutes after the first person.  A time trial start for the swim was a very hard thing for me.  I am a very competitive person and I like being able to race head to head, but here I just had to swim hard and hope I could stay focused for 1500 meters.  I caught a couple people and I was happy that no one passed me!  I had a great swim and I ended up catching David Thompson at the end, he started 20 sec ahead of me.  I was feeling good and I knew I had just put together the best swim of the season!

Bike – Once out on the bike, Thompson went around me easily, and I knew there was no way I was staying close to him.  I used watts as my pacer and just settled in to my usual race pace.  I caught Michael Poole after he got a 1 min stand down penalty at about 5 miles.  I wish I was faster because putting up with him on the road was a hard task.  He swerved a lot and was very inconsistent with his speed.  This would not have been a problem, but the pro rules on the bike are very different than the age group rules.  At no point can you be directly behind the person in front of you, even if they are ½ mile up the road, and everyone has an imaginary draft box that you can only be in for 15 seconds.  This is where his swerving became a problem.  I did not want to get a stand down penalty because of someone else’s inability to hold a line.  I just road my pace and tried to stay a legal distance from him.  Coming in to T2 I had a great bike dismount and when I entered transition Greg was in there cheering me on!!

Run – Starting out on the run I could see Kyle so I figured I was doing well.  He started well ahead of me and he is a very strong swimmer, and a good cyclist.  The run was very painful!!  Greg and I have been messing with my position on the bike, to try and get more speed at a lower effort, so my back was not happy and it took a little bit for my legs to come around.  I had no idea how I was doing since everyone started at different times, so I just had to push to the finish.

Post-race – It was a tense few minutes waiting on results.  I felt like I pushed hard and had a good race, but it was so close, I was not sure where I ended up.  When the results came out, I ended up 5^th!!  My highest placing as a pro in a non-draft race.  I was very happy with the result, but I later found out I missed 2^nd place by about 35 seconds.  Things are getting better and I am satisfied with the fact that I am continuing to improve throughout the season.

A big thanks goes out to my mother and my grandparents for being at the race!!  And thanks to Greg and Lisa as well for cheering me on.  Greg’s booming voice and constant race updates always make it easier to compete at a high level!  I always have a great race when you guys are there!  My mother also drove Greg, Lisa and I down to Tunica, so she was a saint for putting up with us for the weekend!

Congrats to Lisa for winning the sprint on Saturday and the Olympic race on Sunday!!  By winning both she ended up winning the amateur challenge by about 3 min!  And Congrats to Greg for winning the masters title and ending up 5^th overall!  Kyle had a great race as well, in his first ever pro race.  It is a big step up to the pros and he will only get faster as he gains experience.  Team IE once again had a great weekend!  Good Luck at CapTex Nicole!!  You are gonna rock!!

“Constant dripping hollows out a stone.”  ~Lucretius

Kaleb

St. Anthony’s Race Report

Kaleb and I just got back from St. Anthony’s triathlon this past
weekend in St. Petersburg.  Wow! What an amazing, world class field. I
have never been in such a deep, competitive field before.  With a
bunch of international folks and some of the fastest WCS racers on the
ITU circuit, it was certainly going to be a competitive day.  The
men’s race was even more ridiculous, with olympic medal winners and
ITU world champions in the mix- crazy!!  I guess that is what happens
with St. Anthony’s becomes double points for the Hyvee triathlon
qualifying process.

The swim was cut short to 1K because of bad wind and there was
certainly a bit of chop in the water.  The short swim was compensated
by a long 800m+ run to transition and we were off on the bike. Only
one word to describe the bike- windy!!!  Now I realize why cyclists
have tended to win this race in the past. Wow- it was a challenge!  I
am pretty sure I pushed higher watts on the bike than I have yet this
year in a race. I knew I had to push the bike more than I usually do
in this race and so I did it and tried not to even contemplate the
run.  I made a bigtime amateur mistake at the dismount and couldn’t
get my shoe off before the line- I ended up unclipping the shoe as I
practically fell over on the bike standing still on the dismount line,
running for a while in the shoe  and then stopping to take it off and
carry it- must have been hilarious for spectators to see this from a
pro- but, oh well- it is good to be humbled sometimes!! The bike ended
up as a 1:02:07 which I was very happy with considering the wind.   I
think my new profile 80 Altair wheels were the secret to keeping my
set up super aero on this bike.
http://www.profile-design.com/profile-design/wheels/wheel-category/carbon-wheels/altair-full-carbon-clinchers-80.html
 My friend Allison (hey Allison if you read this! =)) just purchased
these wheels too after I told her how great they were and we both
loooove them- I am sure Kaleb is super happy with them too, they feel
extremely fast and I am so happy that profile design is entering the
wheel market.  Anyhow, the run was HARD, I think because I had pushed
the bike a bit more that I usually do – the start was rough for
me….slooooww…but the funny thing about me is I always speed up as the
run progresses.  I am pretty sure I am always getting faster and this
is unusal because most people are slowing down as they get to the end
of the run.  My 5k splits were 18:30 and then 17:35 according to the
chip- pretty dramatic- for a 36:05 10k that was only 10 seconds off
the fastest run of the day and the $1000 run preme- bummer- but I had
the fastest run in south beach by only 2 seconds so I cant complain
too much- you win some/you loose some.  Overall I got 7th and 5th
american behind some tremendous performances from the competition. I
was very happy with the result and considering I am now second in the
hyvee point series I think I will hopefully by ok for a spot for the
big race come september after a few more 5150 events =))

Kaleb was an absolute super star, he finished 12th is a ridiculously
competitive mens field. Pretty awesome for a first year pro. Way to go
Kaleb!!!!!!! Great day (yet again!) for Team IE!!

Lisa Mueller and Jake Rhyner also deserve some huge recognition for
their 3rd and 4th place finishes at Duathlon Nationals on a super
tough course…wow!!!

I thought St. Anthony’s triathlon was really a top notch event and I
understand now why it is so popular and has such a storied history.
Althought I know everyone would have liked a 1.5k swim,  I admire the
race directors for putting the safety of the age group athletes first.
I know they will figure out a way to hold a 1.5k swim in the future
that will be safe no matter what the wind conditions.  After
paricipating in a race last year where an athlete passed away in the
water, I admire and respect those who had to make tough and unpopular
but right choices. The race personal seemed great and I know they will
have a safe and creative solution to this issue in the future.  Great
race in everyway- definitely going back next year now that I know
where the bike dismount line is =))