Approximately 8 months ago I had the “brilliant” idea of applying for a seeded spot in the Norseman 10th Anniversary Race.  For those unfamiliar, the race is ridiculously difficult.  For example, the profile:

Notice that the profile is in meters.  Oh, and the race starts off by jumping off a ferry into pitch blackness at 4:50am in the middle of a fjord.  “Brilliant” idea Mark.  Just brilliant.

Okay, all sarcasm aside, this was probably one of the better ideas I’ve had.  Norway is GORGEOUS.  For example, a picture of Eidfjord, the town (and fjord) where the race begins:

When in Eidfjord, we stayed in a town about 30 minutes away called Kinsarvik; the drive along the way was RI-DIC-U-LOUS.  A quick picture of our cabin in Kinsarvik:

If you look closely, you can see that the view on the opposite side of the cabin is very similar the view seen in Eidfjord picture above.  Certainly, the race is truly unique.  And speaking of that, I should probably talk about how things went.

Getting up at 1:15am for the 3:00am check-in was a bit early.  However, per usual, I was quickly awake, myself, and for once, nervous for the race.  Once 3:45 rolled around, it was time to hop on the ferry:

That’s my brother, Matt, on the left and our friend Luke Reynolds on the right.  They had traveled to Europe to visit Luke’s foreign exchange “brother” from high school and swung by Norway on the way home to be my race support (each athlete had to have his or her own support car).

Though I was quite nervous on the ferry, once I plummeted into the cold waters 2.4 miles from Eidfjord, I realized it was just another race (a statement I made to Matt in T1) and I should focus on enjoying it (especially given that my training had been sub-par; my goal was just to get a black t-shirt, awarded to the top 160 finishers at the top of Gaustatoppen mountain).  Swimming went off without a hitch, as I put minimal effort in to conserve as much energy as possible for the bike and run portions.  With a time in the high-58s, I was stoked (especially knowing I could’ve swam much more quickly if I wasn’t so focused on conserving energy).

Exiting T1, the (roughly) 4,000 foot climb was quite enjoyable, as I passed about the same number of people who had passed me.  The scenery was ridiculous, as we basically traveled along a river that had carved out a valley of pure beauty.  Near the top of the climb, Matt and Luke caught me for the first time:

Shortly thereafter, I threw on a coat, as temperature had dropped from about 60 in Eidfjord to about 45.  Let me tell you, descending a couple thousand feet in 45-degree weather is less-than-stellar.

It was on the descent that the wheels fell off (figuratively).  Again, I was facing the same problem that I had faced during Oceanside earlier in the year; I simply did not was to be racing.  Looking at my watch, I was “only” 3:45 into racing, and expected a 12-hour “ish” time given the massive elevation changes during the day.  It was after a 10-minute stop with Matt and Luke at the road where I decided to mail it in; I didn’t have 8 more hours of racing left in the tank.  Ultimately, a disappointment, and obviously raises many questions about why I haven’t been enjoying racing.

In sum, I’d like to point out that as I’m writing this blog (about 10 days post-race), I think I simply need a “break” from triathlon; one I’ve been hesitant to take in the middle of my planned racing season (in which I’ve only done 2 of my planned 6 races).  So I’m in the middle of a 1-month break, where I am only allowed short swim, bike and run workouts if I feel the urge, following a forced 3-week period of no swimming, biking or running.  Already, I’m feeling the urge to race again, but may decide to wait until the 2013 season to return, just to ensure that “burnout” doesn’t rear its ugly head once again.

Following the race, we headed to our cabin near Gaustatoppen (where the race finishes) and settled down for a nap.  We then headed into a nearby town, Rjukan, for a few post-race brews, much needed after a disappointing day:

The next day, we decided to take the hour-long hike to the top of Gaustatoppen, which is also the last 5-6k of the marathon course (and obviously, looking at the profile, a whopping 6,000 foot change in elevation!):

I’m glad we did the hike, as it brought about a resurgence in motivation for me, as I couldn’t stop thinking that I should have reached the top the day before.  Norseman 2014?

As is customary, I have rambled, but must sign-off with MAD PROPS:

• Matt and Luke, a stupendous support crew and great company for the entire vacation
• The people of Norway.  I was very impressed with how friendly people were (and their knowledge of English!) and how genuine my fellow competitors were before and after the race
• Timex, for giving me great support during the year
• My fellow competitors, especially those completing the race.  My hat is off to all

With that, I will be signing off.

Until next time, peace…

Oh, and one more thing: I WILL be back for Norseman 2014.

For my first race this year I made the short trek from Santa Monica down to Oceanside, per usual, hoping to compete for the overall amateur title.  Though I did not have the best of races, a great learning experience ensued…READ ON for another exciting “analysis” of my race!?!?!?!?!

The swimmy swim swim (see start of my AG above) went fairly well; I was aiming for a 27:something and exited the water in 28:07.  Given that the swim was essentially two different courses, with the sheltered bay part and the rolling, more-exposed-to-the-ocean part, I was pretty happy with the time, confident that I would be well into the 27s in a calm swim.  Dumping my wetsuit in exchange for the bike gear, I rolled out of T1 right around 31′.

Battling the drizzle all through the first couple of hours on the bike led for a cold race, which I believe was common across the field.  Though my bike time was respectable, at 2:30 and change, the biggest issue was NOT the fact that I didn’t have my best ride, but rather than I did NOT want to be riding at all :-(  More on this to come below…

T2 was a challenge, with my feet numb; add-on to this the fact that I forgot my nutrition in T2 after exit (leading to me turning around, returning to nutrition and circling back again) and my first mile split was less-than-stellar!  Settling into 6:20 pace, I knew I was in for a respectable run, but again, nothing blazing fast.  Coming across the finish line in 5th place in my AG and 15th overall amateur, I had a respectable race, one I’m reasonably happy with given that I’m in early-season shape and was dealing with mental issues during the race.  I have to give some serious props to the folks who out-battled me in the race, particularly a couple of age-groupers who absolutely HOUSED me on the bike :-)

For a quick delving into my crazy mind, let’s take a look at the fact that I did NOT want to be out there during the bike and struggled to find motivation on the run as well.  Looking over the past couple seasons, I’ve tended to have my best results EARLY in the year, when I was having fun with training, enjoying my time with swim / bike / run.  Looking at my training over the prior couple of weeks, I was NOT having fun, as training was costing me too much mentally, especially given my full-time job in the investment management industry (a stressful industry in-and-of-itself) and trying to foster relationships with people in a new city (a reminder: I just moved to Santa Monica about 9 months ago).  All this is leading to a conclusion that I need to return to having fun in the sport, which will hopefully lead to better results, both racing and in “life balance”.  Does this mean less training?  A few days off?  More specificity?  Bagging a planned race?  Sleeping more?  Sleeping less?  Meditation?  Visiting a sports psychologist?  The options are virtually endless and it will be an interesting journey to see where things end up.  It’s quite an experience to figure out the appropriate balance between work, hobbies, friends and family and is only natural that the optimal balance is occasionally “out of whack”.  I will be working with my buddy and coach Mike Lavery,  taking another look at how to best solve this issue; more to come (on triathlon and broader life battles) in future blogs.

To end on a more positive note, as is tradition, mad props:

• Lavery, for putting up with my continuous changing-of-the-mind and randomness; I have to be a high-maintenance athlete to coach (at least I’m aware of the fact!)
• Theresa Hill, (girl?)friend from Chicago, who traveled out to watch and was a fantastic sherpa with my schtuff during the race.  Oh, and if you can’t tell, we are in the defining-the-relationship stage ;-)
• Teammates Nick Thompson and Mac Brown for throwing together solid races
• Buddies Sam Mazer, Jason Smith, Gavin Anderson and Adrienne Hengells for solid races (serious props to Adrienne for pulling down the overall girls’ amateur title!)
• Timex.  I LOVE traveling to races and seeing teammates from around the world travel to races, giving me a chance to support them in addition to fostering life-long relationships

That’s all I have for now.  Stay tuned for (and more positive and more balanced) future updates!

Until next time, peace…

After my tremendous blow-up earlier this year in CdA, I (naturally) figured that I should try my hand at the silly distance that is Ironman yet again.  Thus, Ironman Arizona was the goal for the end of the season and training began in earnest in mid-July following my recovery from CdA.  Also, my brother (“Fat Matt”) was coming out to watch, so I was uber-pumped.

The days leading up to the race were chill, the only downfall was that I had a sore throat…fortunately, I diagnosed (by looking in the mirror) that it was a canker-sore.  Given my extended knowledge of the field of medicine due to my strong grades in my sophomore (in high school!) biology class, I ignored it. Giving that it is STILL bothering me (~10 days later as I type) perhaps I should go get it checked out?!?

Race day morning was boring, though my bagels from the hotel had hardened overnight into stones of death:

I chowed down, losing no teeth in the process and survived to race start.

Though the air temperature was brisk, I was pleasantly surprised when jumping into the water (~62 degrees) that it felt warmer than the air.  I proceeded to place myself near the front of the swim pack.  The swim went off without a hitch, though I think I settled down a bit too early and probably swam a bit crooked.  However, still managed another 58-and-change swim so could not complain.

After a blazing transition, I rolled onto the bike course planning to chow down a billion calories on the first loop (of three), while “just chillin’” and keep the effort easy, but constant.  Though I had some stiffness in my back, after stopping at mile 18 to crack it, the stiffness lessened.  My splits for the bike course were ridiculously even, at 1:45-and-change for all three, leaving me with a 5:16 bike split (and no penalties!). The only thing I was frustrated by was how flat this course was (relative to CdA) and the fact that I biked the exact same time.  Oh well.  Whatever.  CRUSH the run.

Taking off on the run, I felt alright and strolled through the first mile just under 6:30.  A little quick, so I held back and dropped mile splits between 6:40 and 6:50 through the halfway point.  Around mile 5 or so I picked up one of the Pros, Gudmund Snilstveit (from Norway) who was going for his country record of 8:40ish.  We proceeded to run together for for about 10 miles (chatting about the fact that I’m doing Norseman next year; he called me insane) and he drifted back a little bit, so I said “crush it” and kept plodding along.  He stayed reasonably close through my second lap, as I checked on him here-and-there, and was happy to find out later (from my brother) that he got his national record with an 8:38!  He also told my bro “Tell your brother thanks for pushing me.”  I couldn’t have been happier.  A quick snapshot around where I picked up Gudmund:

Back to my run…I ran pretty consistently (though slightly slower) through mile 16 or so, dropping down to about 7:00 and was preparing to pickup the pace a bit for the close around mile 22-23, hoping for a ~3:00 mary.  Alas, it wasn’t to be.  Around mile 21 I started to feel LIKE SHIT.  I was crushing the coke, stopped by the can (I couldn’t pee), eating cookies, oranges, more coke, water but was still feeling crappy.  I walk-ran to an aid station around 22.5 and proceeded to stumble around, unable to grab anything the entirety of the aid station (a feat-in-and-of-itself if you know how long these aid stations are).  After getting through the aid station, a volunteer stopped me and asked if I needed anything.  I responded “sugar”. The next few moments are a blur…

The EMT’s came by, asked me how I was doing, what my name was, etc. and though I knew the answers, I struggled to respond quickly.  I then felt a little weak and felt myself begin to fall and the EMT saying “He’s goin’ dude”.  The next thing I know they took me on a stretcher into the ambulance and shaking extensively, leading to them asking if I had a history of seizures.  I was able to respond no.  About 20′ later we were sitting in the hospital room and I was beginning to make inappropriate jokes as my brother arrived (after being called by the EMT).  The EMT asked “Do you remember passing out dude?”  I was shocked.  I SWORE I maintained consciousness the WHOLE TIME, but he reiterated, “Yeah dude, you passed out a couple of times.”  Ridiculous.  And I still SWEAR I was conscious the whole time.

Now, before I go, a litany of mad-props:

• Timex Teammates Victor Zyemtsev (3rd overall!!), Dave Harju, Marie Danais, Daniel Brienza, Luis Alvarez and Juli Fiocca for their late-season racing crush-fest
• Buddy Thomas Gerlach for a great pro debut
• My coach Mike Lavery, who has been very supportive throughout the past couple years, bringing me to the athlete I am today (not the non-finishing one; the occassionally-finishing-fast one)
• My little brother Matt (senior in high school), who is actually not fat and owns the Vermeersch family record in the mile (but not real races like the 2-mile)…it was his first tri as a spectator and I believe he is planning on coming to Norseman for Round II in a continuance of his lackey duties…
• Team Manager Tristan Brown and Team Mechanic Doug Berner for their great work
• Gudmund Snilstveit, for attaining his Norwegian national record
• The volunteer who yanked me off the course
• The EMT’s who stole me from the volunteer and made sure I didn’t take a further trip down the rabbit-hole
• The doctors and nurses who helped nurse me back to health in the ER
• And for those of you who’ve actually made it this far reading–mad props to you too!

What an adventure.  A national record.   A trip for my bro.  A trip to the hospital.  All in one race!  The unfortunate thing is that though I don’t think I drank enough on the bike (they put two bags of fluid in me at the hospital) I feel as though the rest of my race was smart.  Perhaps my nutrition was off?  Did my pre-race beer the night before have something to do with it? Was I really THAT dehydrated?  Not having anything to point the finger to and say “Ah-hah, that’s it” leaves me frustrated.  I’ve had a mental blow-up in an Ironman (CdA) and a physical blow-up in an Ironman (Arizona) in two attempts.  Will I ever get it right?!?

However, that is why we race.  To learn.  Learn how to get it right.  Learn how to live…live life to it’s fullest.

Until next time, peace…

Alright.  So I’m like several months behind writing blog posts.  So, in an attempt to satisfy all six of my fans (my mother and her 2 pet cats quickly cut that number in half) I will attempt to delve waaaaay back into the dark regions of my mind to share some epic Hometown Racing!!

LA Triathlon

I hate Olympic-distance triathlons.  In the past year, I’ve learned I have one speed: half-Ironman.  This leads to weak-sauce performances in shorter races and epic blow-ups in Ironman races. 

First off, while getting ready in transition, I hear the “PFFT” of an exploding tire.  Meanwhile, I’m puttering around wonder what poor putz had the unfortunate experience of a tire deflating on race day.  ALAS, five minutes later I learn I AM that poor person: my disc wheel had taken a crap.  After weeping for five more minutes (I did not bring spare equipment) I sprinted over to the bike tent and miraculously was the first in line.  I learned that the rim strip had finally decided to take a nose-dive and we quickly used electrical tape and “patched ‘er up”.  On to the race.

I sucked in the swim.  Sighting was difficult even with clear goggles.  Boo-hoo to me.  Moving on.

The entire bike ride I put it in high gear (a.k.a. about 3% harder than half-Ironman gear) and managed to ride slightly over an hour.  I found out later that I managed to pick up a positioning penalty on the bike, adding two minutes to my time.  To this day I still have no idea what I did, but (save one) every single person in the Elite wave ending behind me ended up with the same penalty.  Not sure what the ref was seeing, but oh well.  It only cost me a place.  There are bigger tragedies in the world.

I ran pretty well, picking off several people and throwing down a 35-and-change 10k off the bike.

Net, net, a 2:07 and 5th place finish in the Elite wave.  Acceptable, but unfortunate given my 2:00 bike penalty and horrendous swim (literally the worst swim since starting racing).  A quick picture of the Elite podium (I’m the super-tiny dude on the left):

Onto the following weekend…

Manhattan Beach 10k

Boom.  An open 10k.  A race distance I have never run, so it was guaranteed a PR.  I was hoping to crushify my prior week’s 10k time from the LA Triathlon.  The plan was to make it my long run for the week, running 30-40 minutes before-hand then tempo the first 5k and then rip it through the last 5k.  Simple right?  WRONG.

The first three miles went as planned.  With splits between 5:35 and 5:45, a nice tempo pace.  And at slightly over 3 miles, it was HAMMER-TIME.  Commence play-by-play…

Mile 3

Legs…not…responding…to…HAMMER-TIME…

Okay.  I’ll wait a mile, then we’ll amp it up and throw down the pace.

Mile 4

Sputter.  Bang.  Clank.  Waiting another mile.

Mile 5

Giant hill.  Shuffle.  Saunter.

Mile 5.5

Look around frantically.  Think “Where is Paul?”

Mile 5.7

This straight-away sucks.  It goes on forever.  “Where is Paul?”

Mile 5.8

See Paul.  Commence mimosa hand-off:

Mile 5.9

Turn.  It.  On.

Mile 6.0

Blazing speed.  I would estimate it at ~3:30 per mile pace, give or take about 3:30.

Mile 6.1

Yes.  I’m really running at 0:00 seconds per mile. 

Mile 6.2

Cross finish.  Even with the last 0.1 miles at 0:00 seconds, I managed to get housed by ~1:00 by my 5k time from the prior weekend.  Ahhh, the sweet taste of defeat…and mimosas…

Now, as is tradition…

MULTI-RACE MAD PROPS!!!

Haha you six fans…I DID NOT forget my super-uber-sweet mad props…

• Bike-Tech Guy from LA Triathlon weekend (name is escaping me at the moment) for fixing my disc wheel
• Tower 26 Coach Gerry Rodrigues for telling me I need to show up for swim practice more frequently (I agree Gerry)
• Paul M., for the epic (and successful!) in-race-mimosa-hand-off
• Friends Janelle and Kevin Nerison, for letting me store my crap at their house pre-MB10k and for taking me to the beer tent after

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Until next time, peace…

…and from what I heard…it was even “cool” for Vegas at that time of year!  I was looking forward to my second time at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships with a goal to end up on the podium for a second year in a row; alas, it was not to be.

The new Vegas course was a fantastic venue for a half…swim location was great (albeit with a looong run after the swim into T1) and I really enjoyed the opportunity to swim under a hotel / bridge…siiiick!  The bike course was smooooth with little danger of getting shaken by bumps (as is typical at most races / rides).  The run course was awfully tough, with temperatures rising into the mid-90s, a welcome respote from the more common 100-110 degree heat!

Now, for a “quick” race recap.  I put “quick” in quotes because it will most likely NOT be quick.  I am a rambler…fitting that I went to a high school nicknamed the “Rams”…bahahahahaha…and clearly I’m also “hilarious”…

The swim went reasonably well, which is excellent given the fact that I’ve spent a lot of time in the pool and the surf attempting to suck less.  With a 28:53, I was slightly disappointed, but according to my boy Bruce Gennari (former swimmer at the University of Alabama that dropped a low-25 minute swim) the swim was slightly long, so I’m hoping my “true” time is a little quicker, perhaps even in the 27s.  Still need to suck less.

After plowing over some dudes in transition that weren’t running fast enough I headed onto the bike.  Timex Teammate Bo Parrish there to take my picture right as the bike started:

I have to thank Bo for the great race support; he was originally planning to race Vegas but wrecked on a recovery ride following his AG victory at the Hy-Vee Triathlon the week following and broke his collarbone and a couple ribs.  Bummer-fest.  Fortunately Bo was able to scream our pre-determined phrase at me during the run (“Don’t be a b*tch Vermeersch!!”) which I subsequently ignored.  Check out failblog.org…you’ll likely see detonation on the run course by yours truly…but I digress…more to come on the run below…

The bike was reasonably hilly but the grades were nothing that required standing and mashing the pedals; a welcome relief from my recent rides in Santa Monica on Topanga Canyon and Mulholland Highway (I moved in July to start a new job with Twin Haven Capital Partners in LA) which are epic suffer-fests.  I raced the entire bike conservatively, planning to hammer the last 8-miles up the longest grade on the course.  With a bike time of 2:27 and change I moved to within 3:00 of the lead and had my strongest discipline remaining.  I was stoked.

Alas, the heat of Vegas (on an air-conditioned-esque day) chewed me up and spit me out.  Detonation city.  Running a 1:27, this was my slowest half-marathon to date (excluding Steelhead in 2010 where I had to visit the port-o-pot 4 times and walked all the aid stages; talk about epic…!) which is disappointing.  I felt solid coming out of T2, dropped a 5:38 on the first mile and slowed to 7:00 on the ensuing 2-mile uphill.  Coming back down I rolled back-to-back 6:00s but from there out, survival was the name of the game, fighting back-and-forth with a K-Swiss dude for the entire run, as can be seen here:

That’s my boy Stefan Holtkotter of Germany, who wrapped up 5th place for our Age Group, M25-29.  Taking me down by 20 seconds, I just didn’t have it in me.  29 seconds separated me from 4th, with 4th – 7th all finishing in 4:28!  I really have to hand it to Stefan for a great effort up the final climb, where I knew the race would be won or lost.  We were back-and-forth for approximately 8 miles and he really showed me how to finish a race!

As I’m clearly giving Stefan some mad props, it only makes sense to bring back the tradish:

• Podium finishes by Timex Teammates Chris Thomas, Tim Hola and Bruce Gennari; excellent stuff boys
• Timex Teammates Shannon Coates, Hannah Freeman, Wendy Mader and Brian Boyle for great races (especially Brian for beating his Clearwater time from last year by 6 minutes!)
• Timex Teammates Ian Ray, Bo Parrish, Denny Meeker and Daniel Brienza for cheering hard-core during the race
• Team Manager Tristan “Thor” Brown and Mechanic Doug “Stove-top” Berner
• Corporate Timex folks Adriana Espinosa and Keith Brown for making the trip out and sitting with us during the awards ceremony; great stuff
• Buddy Morgan Anderson who managed her second-consecutive podium finish in W20-24 while ripping through her second year of med school!
• The sickenly-fast European boys of M25-29..all 5 dudes ahead of me hail from across the Atlantic with FOUR being from Germany…needless to say I would warm the bench on the German Triathlon Team…!

Though a disappointing finish, I can’t complain for a lack of effort, as I enjoyed respite from the heat in the med-tent post race (I’m guessing heat-exhaustion rather than dehydration).  Unfortunately, some days you don’t have it, and I picked the wrong day.  Last year, I managed to end up in 4th place in my Age Group, with 10 seconds separating me from 6th!  It’s amazing how close these races can be when everyone is in phenomenal shape and feeling fast; small differences can make or break your run…today I drew the short straw…but I suppose that’s what draws us back to the sport…the battle against yourself…and the challenge to become your best…

That’s all for now.  LA Tri on September 25th.  As per usual, the goal is to compete for overall amateur title.  I will (obvs) blog RE: said finish when the race is complete.

Until next time…peace…