Blog » 2012 full US season wrap-up
2012 full US season wrap-up
So it is definitely time for an update after continually putting them off in the hope I could find some form and get some results.
My first few weeks over here started reasonably well in Boulder, Colorado. I arrived, had an easy 5 days and then got stuck in to a lot of training.
My first race was Escape from Alcatraz and had planned on using it as a bit of a training race before heading to Canada two weeks later for Ironman 70.3 Mont Tremblant.
Half Ironman distance races were going to be my main focus of the season, as well as the Des Moines 5150 final (the big money race).
I got out of bed the day before Alcatraz to head to the airport and instantly new something wasn’t right.
I went straight to the toilet and it all started from there. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a shuttle for 90 minutes and then get on a plane for 2 or so hours, but I also knew that I had to somehow get to San Francisco, as I had my university exams to sit there the week following.
Safe to say it was the worst flight of my life and I spent it all in the toilet – I’ll spare you the details.
I spent the night twisting and turning and the only racing I was doing was to and from the bathroom.
I then spent the next week doing absolutely nothing, eating very little, and somehow managed to complete 4 exams.
This is where I went wrong. I then decided that because I had already booked all my travel to Canada I would go and try and race.
I also rolled my ankle badly on my 2nd run before the race, which meant I went in to the race on almost no training and I felt every bit the lack of strength (and fitness) and dug myself deeper in to the pit.
I finished 7th, ok I guess – but really was a race I could have won and that was my intention.
I arrived back in Boulder and continued to make mistakes. I simply wanted to find the form that I had before I left home and went straight back in to training.
My next race was Boulder 5150, only two weeks after Canada. I should have missed this race, but I needed the points to qualify for Des Moines and so struggled through another tough race.
I found out the week after Boulder 5150 that I had qualified for Des Moines and so was able to settle down for a few weeks and miss my next 2 races to try and get some strength back in the body.
Next on the list were Boulder 70.3 followed by the Santa Cruz International – separated by a trip to El Salvador to renew my visa.
My coach and I decided that Boulder 70.3 would be a good strength tester and that not ‘over exerting’ myself would be a safe option, with Des Moines a month away and a week full of travel and racing to come not over doing it was key.
Boulder 70.3 went reasonably well and spent most my time on the front of our big bike group. I missed a couple of opportunities to get up the road with 2 small breakaways, as I just didn’t have the freshness of the guys sitting behind me doing nothing. Anyway, I rode well and ran 1 lap of the run, which also felt good.
My body felt in much better shape and only doing half the run meant that I didn’t have the stiffness and soreness that you get from running a full half-marathon.
Two days later I was off to El Salvador. An interesting couple of days and my mission was accomplished when I was granted my new visa on the way back in to the US.
I raced the Santa Cruz international that weekend and finally felt like I had some form. I raced a sprint race on Saturday for 2nd and then the International on Sunday for 3rd.
I lacked a lot of overall speed and actually raced just as fast when the distance was doubled on the same course from Saturday to Sunday. I really felt the Boulder ‘Diesel’ affect, but was happy just to have been able to compete decently again.
I had decided that Boulder wasn’t working so well for me – the altitude combined with the relentless heat (30+) everyday was taking its toll on my training consistency and so I shut up shop there and moved out to Orange County, just south of LA. I managed to get rid of the altitude, but ran smack bang in to a heat wave that was probably even hotter than Boulder.
Anyway, straight back in to training it was after a big 10 days of racing and travelling and once again started digging that hole. I trained harder than I had ever trained in the 3 weeks after Santa Cruz and before Des Moines as I really wanted to get a great result at one of my target races and of course refill the bank account a bit.
This training spell was miserable, but I told myself I’d come through the other side with a good taper better than ever... I didn’t.
Des Moines was my worst race I think I have ever had and on any other day I would have called it quits within the first 1km of the bike. However, just finishing (last - 30th) was $3000 and so battled my way through the most embarrassing race of my life. I had to walk parts of the run, which in an Olympic Distance race is not so good.
From Des Moines I headed to Canada for another 70.3 in Muskoka, but I had the week off training instead and missed that race.
Its always a worry when you have a week off training and find that you feel worse when you get going again. This is how I felt after my small break and a recurring trend throughout my season.
The next race was down in San Diego in the reinvention of the Formula one style racing – 300m swim, 6km bike, 2.5km run x2.
I was lucky enough to have Giant Bikes send me down a road bike to use on the 10 lap 600m circuit, which was rather tight, but good fun. I think getting off of my TT bike and riding a road bike for the first time in 5 or so months was what gave me a little fresher legs to break away and have a lead off the first bike, but the running legs were once again missing and overall the race ended as most of the others had with a disappointing result.
I got talked in to starting the Half Ironman the next day. This was the race Lance Armstrong also raced and won, quite impressively...
I just did the swim and some of the bike and I guess I can say that I raced LA in his last ever race.
After the weekend of racing in San Diego I realised that things weren’t getting any better and I should probably stop banging my head against a brick wall.
I had already booked my trip to Dallas for the final of the Lifetime series and so headed there with no expectations and the chance to see Dallas on my mind.
I had a good swim and led that out, but slowly faded again to finish 11th.
I have just had two weeks off and will be focusing on finally finishing off my degree over the next few weeks before heading home mid November.
It will be interesting to get that extra weight off my shoulders, which at times has been a healthy distraction, but also at times a burden.
So, it has been another season with a steep learning curve and to be honest I am sick of learning.
The support I receive from you all is worth a lot more than the results I have achieved this US season. I definitely do not feel worthy of it at present.
However I am really excited (and scared) to say that today is my first day of training in my build up to Challenge Wanaka, my debut Iron distance race.
Over the years of learning in this sport I have come to realise that I have a limited amount of speed, but a much greater ability to sustain that limited speed.
I have also learnt that I need longer and more stable build-ups to big races and no where is better than at home in Christchurch.
Challenge Wanaka is a tough course, but I know the race, know the course and know the conditions and I am really looking forward to crossing that finish line on January 19th and standing on the podium.
To my sponsors, I can not thank you all enough and I hope you will continue to support me through to Wanaka.
To everyone else, thank you for your continued support and look forward to catching up sometime soon.
Until next time
Thanks again
Cheers
Dylan
