Report: Seattle-to-Portland Ride

For the second time, I rode in the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) Bike Ride.  This is an enormous, organized group ride that traverses the 200+ miles separating these two awesome cities in the Pacific Northwest.  Normally, I don’t blog about events that aren’t races or training camps, but I thought I’d capture my thoughts for the next time I have to do a really long ride in the middle of race season.  I’ll try to keep the report brief and focus on my observations and tips at the end. Continue reading

USAT Duathlon National Championship (Bend, Oregon) – A Race Report and Lessons Learned

The Finish Line at USAT Duathlon NationalsThis wasn’t my greatest race result by a long shot, but it was the result that I deserved.  As I mentioned in my last post, my body has been a house of cards this year.  Maybe a teetering stack of Jenga blocks is a better metaphor with each race being like pulling out another supportive block from the bottom.  Any way you look at it, I’m frail this year; one tiny mistake and everything comes toppling down.  That happened in Avilés when my back went out and boy did it cost me.  This time everything held up—consequently, Nationals were definitely easier and faster than Avilés even though it was at about 3,500 feet of altitude.  But I was also definitely racing well within my already compromised limits.

I’m going to write this race report a little differently because I don’t want to focus as much on the actual race as much as what I’ve learned from doing the race and what I’m doing about it.  Even though I’m not in ideal shape, I am excited and I have a plan.  Also towards the end, I’ll mention some of the longer term challenges that affected both this race and Avilés—as well as what I’ve learned from going through this darker period.  So let’s dig right in! Continue reading

Race Report: ITU Duathlon World Championship 2016 (Avilés, Spain)

This was the most improbable race!  A week ago, I said I couldn’t do it.  The night before the race, I said I couldn’t do it.  And, entering T2, I said that I certainly couldn’t do it.  Never in the 35+ years that I’ve been a competitive runner and cyclist– and in all the hundreds and hundreds of races that I’ve done– I have never faced so much doubt about my ability to do a race.  Yet somehow it came together.  It wasn’t pretty or gloriously fast, but it came together nonetheless.  This race report won’t talk about all the amazingly cool things about the race—it will focus mostly on my injuries and how a World Championship somehow came together despite it all. Continue reading