2013

 

I wish I had more time to add to this blog, but it's just not possible with all that I have going on these days. Between teaching, coaching, being athletic director, training, and still trying to be a good father and husband it just doesn't leave time for much else. I am going to try to do a better job in 2013.

 

Above are some pictures. Rachel always does a nice job with our Christmas card and those pictures really highlight the past year. Looking back on 2013 I couldn't have scripted it any better. I feel blessed more and more.

 

Some highlights for me this past year in somewhat chronological order were: being inducted into the Otsego County Sports Hall of Fame (the youngest member to have been inducted), finishing my masters degree in Educational Leadership, coaching our boys basketball team to a 2nd place league finish-will be first place this year, coaching our boys track and field team to a 2nd straight conference title, the birth of our second daughter Zoe, a PR at the half marathon distance 2 days later, a PR at the Mark Mellon Triathlon, our 7th wedding anniversary, completing my first Ironman in a respectable 10:06 and 5th place age group finish, starting my new position as the athletic director for Mancelona Public Schools, shooting a nice looking buck on opening day, and going to a Lions, Pistons, U of M football, and U of M basketball game all within 2 months of each other. It's going to be tough topping that every year!

 

I don't tell you that stuff to boast, I tell you that because it shows what can be accomplished through hard work and dedication. It's not all about accomplishing things, but it sure is fun to succeed and the best way I know how to honor the big man upstairs is to use the talents that he has given me.

 

Obviously, life is lived at 100 mph in the Smith family. I wouldn't have it any other way. Rachel continues to amaze me. She becomes a better wife and mother every day. She tells me I hold things together, when in reality it's her that acts as the glue. Nothing that we do would be possible if it weren't for her. Our daughters resembke her so much already in that they are both so happy and pleasant to be around. The older they get the more fun it is!

 

On the triathlon front I have been back to work for 3 weeks now. I took a nice 3 month "break" this fall where I did something about every day, but it was all very unstructured. I don't normally take more than about a month to do that each year, but with all of the above going on this past year I needed some reprieve.

 

I haven't swam since September, and I won't be until March. Without having a pool closer than 30 min. away it is not the best use of my time. That being said, I think March 1 is the latest I can afford to start swimming and be ready to roll come early June for USAT Long Course Nationals in Grand Rapids. Last year I didn't swim until January and swam 59 minutes for Ironman off less than 10k of swimming a week. In the elite age group race even at all the big races I'm not behind because of my swim...it tends to always be from the run. Therefore, a big focus for the winter is to improve my bike (because in triathlon your bike fitness has everything to do with how well one runs off the bike) and to lay down a very solid run base. I'll also be doing a xc ski session or two each week as that really helps get your entire body in shape while probably being some of the best "core" exercise out there.

 

I decided to work with my old coach Janda Ricci-Munn again this year. I just don't have the same time to plan as I used to and being able to just put my trust in Janda and get the work done has been nice. I enjoyed going at it myself the past couple of years, but in order to make any more improvement I needed to go at things a bit differently. Janda gives me a lot of variety in training where I tend to repeat a lot of sessions when planning my own schedules. I was also getting a bit stale and by simply doing some different things I think that will have me seeing some nice improvement again. There's also that sense of accountability and I see myself working a bit harder knowing I have to check in and be honest with how the fitness is coming. That, and it's always nice learning new things from Janda as he is a wealth of knowledge and continues to learn about the sport. It doesn't hurt that Janda has some big names professionals on his roster now and to see them benefitting from his coaching is very reassuring.

 

I'll be representing the Zoot team again this year. You can see the updated sponsors on the right hand side of the blog. I wouldn't want to represent any other company and I really do believe it is the best triathlon specific company in the world. They have gone out of their way several times to help me out with gear and a ton of my family and friends have gotten to experience the generosity of such an awesome company and Zoot is definitely well known now in northern and central Michigan.

 

So far, my race schedule is looking like an early season duathlon, Bayshore half marathon, USAT Long Course Nationals in GR, Mark Mellon, East Jordan Tri, a 70.3 in July and/or early August, a couple other local tris, and hopefully ending the year crushing 70.3 Worlds in Mt. Tremblant. Maybe I'll end the year with a marathon and/or Iceman.

 

I'll end with a link to this speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFnmsCnr6g . It's worth the 15 minutes! If I'm ever second guessing myself, I watch this video and instantly the passion comes back.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!



Ironman Lake Placid

I really intended to do a better job of keeping up with this blog this year, but I guess when you have 2 children 2 or under, a new job of sorts in that I'm our schools athletic director now, coaching 2 varsity sports, and trying to be a good husband it doesn't leave a whole lot of time when the free time I do have is mostly spent training. I don't mean to use any of those things as excuses for anything because those are all things I have chosen in my life and am very blessed to love what I do and to have an awesome family to share it with. I wouldn't have it any other way.

There is no sense in retracing the season before Lake Placid really. I did a few other events with highlights being a new PR for the half marathon distance going 1:17 and a very good showing at the Mark Mellon Triathlon coming 2nd to training partner/friend Ben McMurray from Petoskey (1st in our age group and 14th overall at Placid) who is arguably the best triathlete in the state and recording my highest power output for the 40k distance in a tri and also my fastest 10k off the bike (on a legit course as I've run faster on short courses).

Everything leading up to Lake Placid couldn't have gone much better. The unknown of course was the distance and having no experience being out there pushing the limit for 10 hours. It's impossible to do anything near the distance of an Ironman in training so you're trying to prepare yourself by doing some long sessions and then supporting them with lots of other work...mostly faster. I suppose if you had 20+ hours to train for most of the year like some you could get away with not doing as much intensity, but for me that's not possible. I knew I could come very close to 10 hours and the perfect day goal was 9:45. Almost every year the race has been held if you went 10 hours or very close to it you earned a slot for Ironman Hawaii. It just happened to be that this year my age group crushed it and 10:06 only got me 5th place in the age group (top 3 earned Kona slots). Last year 10:15 went to Kona.

Considering this was my first Ironman I can't be anything but happy. I will try another one at some point and now that I have some experience I know I can improve. I think I'd change just a few small pieces of my training, but really it boils down to confidence/mental strength on the run. I am sure I could have run quicker and this is obvious by how I ran the last 6 miles...my fastest 6 of the day and a lot of that was on the toughest part of the course. I admit I was scared of blowing up and having to walk...a reason I also held back on the bike quite a bit. I know the last thing I wanted to do was go too hard too soon and end up walking and going 10:30+. Once you start walking, which is an urge quite frequently in an Ironman run, the time just piles on. You're not speed walking...it's more like a 20 min. per mile type walk and it can end up being a very long day.

One thing I will say is that if you want to know how deep you can dig and how much guts you have...do an Ironman and you'll find out very quickly. So many doubts creep in all day long and you just have to keep answering the call to keep on rolling and not stop. You have to do the training, but assuming that you did...on race day it is much more of mental task than physical. I have played almost every sport imagineable and there is no possible single day event that is harder than Ironman.

I can't thank my family, friends, and sponsors enough for all of their support. It would be impossible to compete at any sort of high level without so much help from all kinds of people. Rachel deserves the most credit as she has to deal with our crazy lifestyle every day, but she just smiles and makes the best of it all. I don't know where I'd be without her.

We had a lot of fun on our trip and most of that can be seen through some pictures on facebook if you're interested.

Not sure what's next in store for me. I will likely do one more training cycle to prep for the Boyne City Tri on Labor Day weekend and then it will be deciding which route to go from there. I will definitely do another Ironman at some point. If Wisconsin registration makes it online I may go for it. If that doesn't pan out I will likely focus on getting faster for the sprint and olympic distances with maybe throwing a half ironman in there at some point each year. The frustarting thing about Ironman is the races sell out so quickly and most of them you have to go to the site in order to ensure yourself an entry. Some make it online the next day, but it's rare. I just can't justify traveling so far just to sign up...craziness!

All I know is I'm as motivated as ever to keep pushing the envelope with this sport and kicking butt. I have lots more to achieve before I move on to something else.

Thanks for reading.

Whitepine Stampede

I did my 2nd ski race of the year on Saturday and man was it fun. The best thing about the skiing for me is I don't ski a whole lot and have zero expectations of a result. I just go out and try to give a good effort and stay with the pack. Well, I did just that and came 5th overall (1st in age group) in the 20k skate race. I was right behind places 2-4, but with there not being a lot of room to pass toward the end and me not having a lot of ski racing experience the guys turned on the jets and flew by the last 200 meters or so. I did finish with the group, though, and these guys do well at every race they go to in the midwest so I'll take it.

Here are the results: http://www.whitepinestampede.org/2013_results_20Km

Otherwise, I'm just clipping along getting in the training each day. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to some warmer temps so I can get outside on the bike, but it is what it is and overall I'm feeling pretty good. I have to keep in mind that the goal for the year is Kona in October so that is a long ways a way. Yes, I am putting a lot of eggs in the Lake Placid basket, but I am also going to Kona to try to compete not just participate. I keep reminding myself that once I start training like a true elite come summer time because of not having to teach, it only take me a few weeks to really get into top shape. All the work until then is getting my body hardened if you will so I can handle that training well.

Thanks for reading.

Frozen Foot 5 Miler

Yesterday I raced the Frozen Foot 5 Mile road race in Traverse City. I normally don't race much besides a few xc ski races during the winter, but I always find a nice little fitness jump after a race and there really is no better test to see where your fitness is at. I wanted to see where I was truly at with my running right now. I really had no specific goal, but was pretty sure I could run 5:45 pace with the course being fairly hilly with a decent amount of wind. The temps were awesome though for this time of the year being almost 50 degrees. Rare for sure in N. Michigan, but I'll take it as I'm sure the snow will be returning soon.

I felt great and ran 28:05 for the 5 miles, which equates to more like 5:38 pace. I was 2nd place on the day. For this time of the year I am very pleased with this. I have only been training for 6 weeks and the first 4 of those weeks were really just getting my body rolling again. I've been doing some solid training the last 2 weeks, but did not expect that pace to feel so controlled. I think the bit of run block I did this fall is paying off and then just the consistent training. Each year I do this sport I sweat it gets easier and easier to get back up to a good fitness level after taking a break.

Happy New Year

2012 was awesome wasn't it?! I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store. It's shaping up to be our best year yet with another baby on the way and me training for my first Ironman. This week I have upped the ante so to speak with the training. It has been tough on the body, but already by Friday the body is starting to remember what it feels like to go fast. Because of the tough winters here, the best option is to do fairly high intensity work in all 3 disciplines. I plan to get in anywhere from 10-15 hours consistently throughout the winter before bumping the volume up once it gets nicer outside. I have always felt  that the best approach to training is to disperse the training pretty evenly between swim, bike, and run. There are lots of things to consider here, but at least this time of year I try to do that. When it warms up the bike volume picks up and the run volume also. I tend to swim a bit more during the winter, back it down a little in the Spring and then once school is out I up the swimming again with an additonal open water swim or two.

This first week has seen me doing a very high end session in each discipline. These are fiarly short and sweet, but are probably the toughest sessions of the week. This week the main sets were for the swim: 4 x 25, 4 x 50, and 4 x 100 basically all out. For the bike it was 4 x 20 sec., 4 x 40 sec., and 4 x 60 sec. with about 20 - 40 sec. rest depending on which small set I was on. These were done at 500+ watts, 450+ watts, and 400+ watts respectively. That was followed by some big gear work. Run wise it was 4 x 100m, 4 x 200m, and 4 x 400m basically at best effort as well. This was followed by some aerobic hill repeats. I haven't done much work this fast in a long time, but I am looking for another breakthrough and I am confident this faster work will be the key.

I am also doing one more race specific workout in each discipline. This week was 3 x 12 min. on the bike at threshold with only a min. or two recovery between. The run was 3 x 2k with a 1/4 mile jog in between or so. These were done at threshold as well. The swim set was 3 x 300 at the same effort. These efforts are also done at close to olympic distance effort.

The last 3 sessions of the week are more half ironman or steady state type effort. 25 min. at that followed by some big gear work for the bike session (I sub in 60-90 min. of xc skiing as well on that day). Run workout is 11-12 miles with 5 or so at steady state. Swim workout is more endurance based with a 1000+ straight along with a longer paddle set where I use a buoy for some of it and also some band work.

On top of that I hit 3 strength workouts that last about 30 minutes each and that pretty much sums up the first real week of the 2013 season.

Bring on next week!