I like to make at least one out of every 20 blog posts somewhat serious. Bare with me. I am sure my next 19 posts will be filled with stories of squashing prairie dogs with my mountain bike, and big horned sheep trying to bite my face.
I have been with Timex since the end of my first season of the sport of triathlon. When I got the call that I was on the team, I was absolutely speechless. And honored. Not because I had acheived something great and was being rewarded for it. In the world of professional triathlon, I hadn’t scratched the surface yet. I was honored because an absolute stranger was putting his faith in my potential.
My first race on the Timex team was Ironman Arizona. I got to the race site and found the mechanic, Doug, working on a bike at the team truck. “Excuse me,” I squeaked. No response. “Um, sir, excuse me.” Still no answer. Maybe he is hard of hearing. “EXCUSE ME!” He turned, and said “shhhh, I am listening to the bike.”
Doug swears he doesn’t remember it, but I will never forget it for as long as I live. From that day grew a friendship, followed by familyship (sometimes I make up words, work with me here). What is the difference between a sponsor and family? They love you just as much on your worse days as they do on your best days. I have had a lifetime’s worth of bad days in the last 3 years. But still, every time I look around, they are still there, just as supportive as they were on the first day they decided to sponsor me. I can’t quit on this sport as long as they haven’t quit on me. And I love them for that.
That being said, I am pretty stoked for 2011. I am excited about my stable health, my stable head, and my game plan. I hope every race is a good one, not for me- but for the guys at Timex. I can’t think of a better way to thank my family.

My first trip to the magical Island of Hawaii was in 1986.  I had gone to watch 2 good friends, and training partners, do the esteemed “Hawaii Ironman.”  I t grabbed me like no other experience to date; and, just two years later, I was able to experience Kona as a competitor.  Since that time, I have returned to Kona eight more times — racing in 1995, doing media (and spectating) five times, and racing again this year. 

This is not a race report.  My race?  Well, it was OK.  I went into it tired, not rested, and had a flat day from the get go.  But, hey, it’s Kona – the Hawaii Ironman – no way can you feel badly about the privilege of riding the Queen K, running Alii, and sharing the stage with the greatest triathletes in the world (along with the “other” greatest over at ITU).  It was, of course, awesome and, well, magical.

I’m currently working on a book that talks about “the other stuff” in being a successful triathlete: rest, recovery, nutrition, balance, etc … everything besides swim-bike-run.  Well, this brief blog is about “the other stuff” that I did – and loved – in Kona this year.

THE TEAM – And I thought it was cool being with 7 teammates in Lubbock in June – and it was.  But, 15+ in Kona … are you kidding me?  No question – that was the best part of my Kona experience in 2010.  From seeing Stu virtually every day at Dig Me Beach, on Alii, or on the Queen K (we were out there quite early, 2 weeks early for me); to the group of us walking beside the team car in the Ironman Parade, handing out and tossing all kinds of cool Timex schwag; to Doug being – well, Doug – in setting our bikes up perfectly; all being together at the finish line till midnight; and our special team brunch the day after the race … it was all incredibly special … and “family-like.”

Team ... Pre-Parade

MEDIA – I love writing, and I love being connected to the sport through writing.  So, despite trying to lay low and “just” be an athlete during race week, I still wrote two major pieces for ironman.com that week.  The most fun one was on Lava Java, and how Normann Stadler is largely credited with its amazing popularity.  Once he started hanging out there several years ago, before it was the place to be seen, people started flocking in, and the staff couldn’t keep up with the sudden crowds.  Normann actually went in back and helped wash dishes!  Legend, fairy tale?  I think not.

With Jeff Fischer, Lava Java Owner

PUBLIC SPEAKING – I am a true fan of the sport, and have enormous respect for those who commit their lives to being the best in triathlon (I also admire anyone who balances “life” with triathlon).  Therefore, it was my pleasure to be the Moderator for two pro panels, organized by K-Swiss (great shoes!).  Both were a blast.  From Mirinda (Rinny) Carfrae to Chris Lieto, Julie Dibens, Terenzo Bozzone, and about 10 others, each and every athlete were loose, engaged with the audience, and a delight to be with.

With Andreas Raelert & Dirk Boeckel at K-Swiss (Timex Hat)

FOOD & FUN – After so many trips to Kona, I really have this food & fun thing nailed, I think.  From “Macadamia-Crusted Mahi Mahi” at the Kona Inn, to the fresh fruit (almost) daily at the local farmers market and, ultimately, at the always wild industry party following the Awards Ceremony.  One added special feature for me this year was the PowerBar Breakfast for their Team Elite.  This was my first year on the team, and what a reward, sharing breakfast with what seemed like 100 other PB athletes and PB staff.  It was wonderful!

Man, I love Kona – the entire experience.  It is such an exhibition of the best of our sport, and the best of our lifestyle.  It always me proud to be part of that family of athletes and people; but, this year was extra special, being part of the incredible Timex Multisport Team.  Mucho thanks to Tristan, Keith, Doug, all the temmates in Kona and back at home cheering; my friends at K-Swiss and Powerbar; the folks at Orbea, whose Ordu rode beautifully; and WTC for providing such a magnificent stage to perform and play upon.

Still Feeling Good At This Point (photo credit: Warren Schuckies)

For another story and version of my Kona experience, please visit www.ironman.com, where the story should post on November 18.  Now … off to Tempe, to end the season.

When Triathelte magazine ranked B2B as one of the top 5 best races in the country I knew I had to check it out, especially since it is only about a 2hr drive from my home.   It is a national race in my back yard and all 140.6 miles of it did not disappoint.  First off the race is based out of Wilmington, NC, which is a great city and provided plenty for the family to do before, during and after the race.  I was a little nervous about the number of logistics involved in racing a point to point swim, and point to point bike, but Setup Events did an outstanding job and everything went smoothly.

The race begins at the southern tip of Wrightsville Beach, where the swim course follows the intercostal waterway back to downtown Wrightsville.  The bike then takes athletes out around Wilmington up into some beautiful scenic and smooth roads and back to the USS North Carolina Battleship memorial/museum.  The run course takes athletes from the Battleship through downtown Wilmington into a great park and back to the Battleship…hence the name beach to battleship.

Race morning I got to transition early, finished my bike set up and hopped on the bus and arrived at the swim start at 6am, over an hour to take care of business, get the wetsuit on, warm up and get ready to rock.  The water temp was in the mid 60’s which was great, but the air temp was around 40 at race time, so there were a few very cold and anxious minutes before the gun went off.  However, before I knew it I was battling my way thru the first 100 meters of the swim course where I found myself leading the second pack.  I was determined not to be left behind so I picked up the effort and found myself comfortably sitting at the back of the first group.  I settled into a steady rhythm and felt really good.  The last few hundred meters of the swim involve navigating an “S” turn around some small islands.  It was this point I noticed some athletes swimming off course so I took it upon myself to break away from the group and I put a steady surge effort for a few minutes and found myself breaking away from the pack and leading a small group.  I resisted the urge to cut the course and followed the “S” turn because I had heard from some locals that there are eddy currents close to the islands which can significantly you slow down.  I was well informed because I saw some swimers trying to cut the course only to be slowed way down and I made it to the swim finish well before them.  I got out of the water with only a few people ahead of me, but was surprised when I saw the clock read 57min, it turns out the tide and wind was against us almost the whole way.  Given that I was perfectly satisfied and would considered it a pretty good swim result for me.

The transition is pretty long as the swim finishes at a marina and you have to run a few hundred meters across the road (don’t worry it was closed to traffic) to get to the field where transition was located.  The whole run was packed with spectators cheering and making all kinds of noise, so it didn’t matter that I could not feel me feet, it was a “rock star” moment.  I took a few extra minutes in transition to put on a long sleeve jersey, a skull cap, gloves and I had already put toe covered on my shoes.  It felt like this took forever, especially while wet, however, it turned out I had one of the fastest T1 of the day and I was perfectly comfortable the entire bike ride, not too cold or too hot…just right.  In fact I took the skull cap and gloves off around mile 70 once the temps got up into the 60’s.

The bike course is great and within 10 miles I found myself riding with the eventual winner of the race, Zach Ruble.  He and I rode together taking turns setting the pace until about mile 75.  There was a light to moderate head wind most of the first 75 miles.  It was not terrible wind, but it was unrelenting and began to wear on me after awhile.  As a result it was nice to at least not be alone for this portion of the race.  Around mile 80 Zach rode away from me and I let him go as I began to run a little low on energy, as I had missed some important nutrition and I was doing the best I could to take in enough carbs and sodium, however, it was not enough.  Of note, at some point on the bike I must have received a penalty because when I was looking at the results I have a 6min penalty.  Fortunately this did not change anything in the overall results.  I have no idea where or how this occurred, because no one ever said anything to me.  This is the first time I have ever received any kind of penalty, I would like to know what the referee thought I did wrong so I can avoid it in the future.

I rolled into T2 threw on my shoes and compression sock as quickly as I could and got out on the run course about 2-3 minutes behind the leader in 2^nd position and just began running.  The first 2 miles of the run course consist of crossing 2 over-pass bridges which was a bit of a jolt to the system, however once I hit mile 2 I was feeling pretty good and hitting stride.  At mile 8 I cut the lead down by about 30 seconds, however, then at mile 10 my nutritional deficit on the bike began to catch up with me.  By mile 12 I knew I was in trouble so I began stuffing myself with everything I could at the aid stations, but it was too little too late and the legs were simply running out of gas.  I just had nothing, I concentrated on my form, tried to relax as the body was hurting, but not as much as I was struggling mentally.  In addition my Achilles had been acting up the last few months and my run training was not where I wanted it to be heading into this race.  So my lack of run training certainly played a part in my less than stellar run performance.

The thought of quitting entered my head several times, but each time I banished it knowing that anything can happen down the road and I tried to simply keep moving forwards.  At mile 16 I saw my wife and 3.5 month old daughter and ran over towards them.  As soon as I got within 5 feet of them, my daughter recognized me and gave me a huge smile, I quickly kissed them both and that gave me a much-needed mental pick me up.  I knew that the chances of winning the race were quickly fading, however, I was determined to hang on for second.  I made it through some very tough mental stretches and some unscheduled and unwelcome port-a-potty stops, but did hold on to second.   Honestly, I am very disappointed with my run as it is one of the slowest run splits I have ever had in a iron distance tri, but I cannot complain too much give the circumstances. However, the hardest part of my day was shortly after I crossed the finish line my daughter needed to have her diaper changed…so with great difficultly I got down on my knees and changed her diaper leading my wife to say “Real Ironmen change diaper at the finish line.”  Maybe that should be formally added to the race next year.  By the way, for those keeping track at home, it only took me 64 seconds to change the diaper…

All in all B2B was an awesome race, I had a great experience and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a great fall half or full.  More importantly, I am satisfied that I finished my 2010 season on a positive note.  There have certainly been some highs and low over the 2010 season, but I enter the off season with the perfect balance of feeling satisfied, yet also motivated and hungry for a break through 2011.

Full race results here:

Thanks,

www.alexmmtri.com

I was excited to race as I was the fittest I have been since my injury in July 2009. I had logged my biggest training week ever prior to this race at 22 hours which really boosted my confidence. The race started out with a bang as the ocean swim was pretty intense. A very strong current was towing everyone in each wave out so much that it took a long time for the group to separate and after I got kicked in the jaw and chomped on my tongue, I decided to quickly end this nonsense and get inside the buoy line to swim. It was a tough swim with the wakes and currents at the turn buoys and on the return. I was very pleased with my swim time as I exited and even more excited to note that this is the first time EVER my swim has ranked higher than the bike and run. I handled the conditions well and swam strong relative to my peers!

The bike was the windiest of the three years and I averaged about the same watts as previous years. My time was a little slow at 2:46:00 but I was fine with it given the day and the wind and congestion on the course. The run is always where truth is revealed. I ran a good run with the first and last splits being the strongest. 9:11 wasn’t my ideal pace for the day as I was shooting super high for a 9 min avg. But of course, I over shoot always and need my coach to keep me in check. I finished at 5:31 which is almost a 30 minute improvement from last year and only 10 minutes off my best time on this course.

After good discussion with Melissa, I realized that the day was a HUGE VICTORY from a coaches perspective. 70.3 is a long race and I ran solid. The whole day was solid. This was the first time in 16 months. We are excited for the off season as we are optimistic we will be able to get good improvements with being able to train consistently as the ailments are becoming a thing of the past and strength is returning. It’s been a long, hard road, but Saturdays race showed me I’m closer than I’ve been and Victory will be a more common occurrence again.

I need to make a huge shout out to TIMEX. It was so awesome to get to the run turn around and be greeted by the TIMEX TRUCK!.. I said to the man running next to me “Well, I didn’t know I was going to be shown this kind of love on the course?!” He said, “That’s some serious love!” And I responded with “The thing is, Timex is showing everyone the love by being here!” and my new friend couldn’t have agreed more!

Another shout out to those of you who supported me on my final push to this race and over the weekend. You know who you are and I appreciate it more than you know. Your support has been amazing.

Thank you to TIMEX, BikeSource, ORBEA, SHIMANO, SUGOI, KSwiss, Mix 1, Tri Swim and so many other sponsors listed to the right. Your support for 2010 has made all the difference.  Also to DJBerner for being the best there is when it comes to bikes!

Seven months and 10 races later, my 2010 season comes to a close. I’m so excited to work hard in the off season, I can’t even stand it. Probably not what you were expecting to hear…. ;0)

Enjoy your training =)  www.tristafrancis.com

The past two weekends were filled with races where I filled two different roles and encountered two different weather conditions!

I spent the first weekend of November in Panama City Beach where I was able to watch several athletes I coach compete at Ironman Florida. I even got to volunteer as an official ‘POINTER’ on the bike course! Two comments regarding this experience- 1) Porta Potties that are easily accessible to the volunteers would be nice and 2) It was FREEZING out there!

After a quick trip to Ironman Florida and back to Texas for a couple of days I was a little disheveled as I headed to Clearwater for the 70.3 World Championship. However, once I arrived in Clearwater, the serenity of the ocean helped me to get settled as I attempted to dial into race mode.

Even though this race had been on my calendar since April, it still snuck up on me and I felt mentally and physically unprepared. I flip-flopped on this race several times, and yet, there was always this nagging voice that said-go. So, I went. I don’t like to race injured and often question the sanity of those who do, but by the time this race rolled around, I was on the road to recovery. However, the fact remained-I had done very little training since IM Wisconsin.

Swim-Choppy, but not as crowded as IM Wisconsin, so that was delightful…and this time I only got knocked and/or kicked 4 separate times during the swim. Swim time still wasn’t all that great-so I was a little disappointed. Swimming was actually the only training I had been diligent about since IM Wisconsin!

Bike-Five miles into the bike my groin was already bothering me when I went into the aero position. I was pretty bummed about this, but I had two choices…I could either pull out of the race, or adapt. I pulled back on the effort and sat up out of the aerobars quite frequently. This helped the groin but it hurt the pride. Thankfully around mile 30 my groin started to feel better even in the aero position but power output was still affected. That being said, I knew that the groin issue was not completely resolved going into this race, so really-I should not have been surprised. Bottom line-I was passed by a LOT of people on the bike.

Run-Thankfully my groin did not bother me at all on the run, and I felt strong from the get-go, with the exception of this slight stomach distress that just teetered on the verge of becoming a major problem. I am grateful that it did not come to a head on the run, but it certainly impacted my nutrition and hydration. That being said, I am very happy with my run at this race.

The biggest lesson I learned from this race is that if training has been compromised then goals must be set accordingly. More importantly, if I tell myself that I am ok with adjusting my race expectations then I shouldn’t make excuses for the results…accept them, and celebrate what was achieved. I admit…this was/is a tough one for me…I guess it is a work in process. I am learning to acknowledge the good, learn from the “do-better next time” and appreciate that I have healthy body that CAN race. I also learned that entering a race with ZERO performance goals is not the best way for me to operate. Without the goals I was unable to mentally prepare for the race in a manner that is necessary for peak performance.

So, that is it for the 2010 TRI season. I am eagerly anticipating 2011, but, for now, I’m going to enjoy some downtime!