Rim Nordic #1 Race Report

First of all I can't thank all the people that left me comments and sent me emails regarding my last post. I got a bunch of great information and a lot of positive feedback. I know I made the right decision to get that stuff out there and I'll definitely share my progress. Thanks again.

So the weekend was a good one. Saturday I was up and met Danielle from Nutzzo (mine and Beth's newest sponsor... more later on this) to pick up the best nut butter (race fuel!) out there I headed home and hit the road with beth. when i woke up my legs felt like junk but as soon as I hit the road they came alive. beth just cruised with me for bit doing her pre-race spin and then I headed out for more miles on my own.

I am still in the middle of a pretty hard training block so I really wasn't in rest/race mode on saturday and the plan was to just train through Sunday's race. So I got in a couple of hours with some good efforts. I really didn't want to head home. my legs felt great and the weather was perfect.


the rest of the afternoon was spent down at the expo for the San Diego International Triathlon to get beth all checked in and ready to go. I was stoked because I got to hang out with Shawn from Avia and his mega fast wife Tracy for a bit and also my homeboys from Breakaway. When we got home Tom showed and then it was off to El Caribe... and encinitas ice cream & frozen yogurt for a solid pre-race meal.

sunday morning we were all up at 430am. beth to head town to harbor island for the SDIT and Tom and I headed up to the mountains. Tom and I showed up got registered and then headed out for a lap of the course. riding an 8.25 mile lap with a lot of climbing hours before the race may not seem (or be) the best strategy, but the course is pretty technical and we wanted to know what we were getting ourselves into. we took it really easy and the course was fun.

tom took off with the other pros at 1130 and my wave started started at 1138. i knew the race was going to be tough because I was lined up with some really fast dudes including Matt, Justin, Marcos from show-air, Humberto from Jenson USA, and my mega fast Celo Pacific teammate Griffith along with some other guys that were ready to drop the hammer.


the start was pretty fast and i was able to hang on. once we hit the single track the climbing started and it got tough. i got trapped a bit behind some slower climbers. i hit the fireroad climb and hammered and got away and moved into 5th and then to 4th. the top 3 guys (justin, griffith, and matt) were up the road. at the turn around at lap two I saw that justin was leading followed closely by Griffith and Matt. I hammerd to get on matt's wheel as we started the steepest, hardest climbs of the course. griffith, matt, and i worked the climb together and then I went around matt and began to pull away with griffith.

working hard with the boys...

once we got back to the fireroad i went for it again and worked really, really hard. i glanced down at my garmin on the bars and my heart rate was about 195 for about 5 mins. I got away from griffith for a bit and caught justin to move into first... but it didn't last too long. griffith caught me on the descent and was able to get pretty good gap on me.

The third and final lap was really hard... the climbing is tough and it was really hot. i was able to hang for 2nd place behind my teammate Griffith so we definitely scored some good points for Celo Pacific. I am really happy with my race and finally feel like i can hang with these fast dudes. i know i still have a lot of work to do to race to my potential but it's good to be able to see and feel and the progress i have made so far this year.

The race.
2:10
24.72 miles
5,000+ ft of climbing
avg HR: 182 bpm
max HR: 199 bpm (gotta love it!)


post race. that's not a mustache... it's dirt.


tom's race didn't go to well as he wasn't feeling good. he actually threw up a couple of times during the race, and much more after the race. unfortunately we couldn't stay for the awards because we was not feeling well, but he came around later on and was feeling much better. i am stoked he came out to race... always a good time!

Beth had a killer race too. she was the first female amateur at the San Diego International Trialthlon, winnig her AG and finishing 5th overall taking down some the elite/pro women! after not really running for 8 weeks it looks like she still has it in her! hopefully she'll carry this momentum into the Vineman 70.3. i am really looking forward to watching her race up there (an hitting the Bear Republic Brew Pub!).

we celebrated sunday night with a big meal at Rimel's and some ice cold Yellowtale Pale Ale.


That's it... another good weekend for the team.