2012 Season in Review...

To sum my 2012 racing season up in a few words:

"Slow start - strong finish!"   (I peaked in September vs June like usual)  

"Media Whore" (my pic in 2 newspapers, on TV and in a national e-mail campaign)

"I'm a T'Roadie" (triathlete now racing as CAT4 road cyclist)

The highlights of the season were:

• Overall Winner - Tour of the Valley a three day bike stage race - (CATV - road racing)
• Rev3 Full Ironman Triathlon - 12th overall, 2nd in AG and a new personal best of 10:22...
• 3rd place overall finish at the HFP Vermilion Olympic Triathlon (my highest Olympic overall finish).
• Raced in China, USA and New Zealand

Racing in Shanghai, China

When the 2012 season started, I had recently taken a new position (VP Operations) with a new company (Nook Industries), and was very unsure how much time I would have to devote to training.  The other, lesser factor, was that I usually peak in June and am burned out in August/September... and I wanted to start my heavy training later to try to adjust.

Me and 30,000+ Chinese at the start
of the Shanghai International Marathon

I was lucky enough to race in China (Shanghai Half Marathon) to begin the season, and New Zealand (Christchurch Half Marathon) to finish the season! I'm rather lucky to find races to do when I am traveling overseas...


My winter training months were mostly work-focused and honestly, my training was not very good.


That was until I started run training with a local professional triathlete.  I was preparing for a spring marathon and he was preparing for an early season Ironman and we made for a great pair for run training.  We did a 23 mile run together that seemed to only last 20 minutes... and were able to push ourselves rather hard on the track in speed workouts (where Jim would bury me...).  The great thing was that it broke me out of my training rut and got me motivated for the season.



And... I'm SPENT!!!

Springtime came and I was ready for a sub 3:00 marathon...  but race day came, and it was 85F+ and any hopes of a fast marathon evaporated in the heat.  That was a disappointing day, to say the least.



In June, I raced Deer Creek and Maumee Bay Olympic triathlons, which were only so-so for me.  Definitely not as fast as the year before, but my plan was to peak a few months later.  Patience.  But it sucked feeling slow on courses where I know I have gone faster in the past...

While I am a very strong cyclist, and a "student of the sport"...  My past Coach  kept me from doing road races or crits because of the risk of crashes / injury (which I understand).   This year, I was determined to race and see what I could do...



SnakeBite Racing - before TOV Road Race

I started with the local "Westlake Crit Series" and found immediate success...  it was a lot of fun, and gave a chance to practice tactics with my other teammates before going into the big races.  I won money my first night and every week I raced Westlake! I gave all that money to my two sons, who were noticeably more supportive of my bike racing! :)    Won a few races, got on the podium some more and helped other teammates to win.  More importantly, I was in LOVE with the sport of bike racing!



The 3 day Tour Of the Valley cycling race in July was the pinacle of the bike racing season for me...
After a disappointing 3rd place in the Time Trial Friday evening, I took 3rd in the Road Race Saturday morning and then closed out the weekend with a 2nd in the Crit on Sunday.  Those points combined together in the "General Classification" and I was the overall winner in CAT5!  It was really exciting, and my SnakeBite Racing teammates were a huge help before and of course during the races!  Plus, the 3 day race weekend was simply a lot of FUN with friends and teammates.  (race report)

I was able to petition USA Cycling for an early upgrade to CAT 4 based on my results.   I'm pleased to be racing at the next level in 2013 and can't wait to work with my SnakeBite Racing cycling teammates to find more success for the team!





3rd place overall - Olympic Distance - Vermilion Triathlon



During July and August, I was focused on preparing for the Ironman distance Rev3 Cedar Point in September.  Another professional triathlete was in town for the summer and we did some great long training rides together.  In addition to being pushed to grind it out for 120 miles, I learned a LOT about better ways to pace and train on the long rides to finish strong.  It must've helped a lot, because I turned in a 5:02 bike split at Rev3, which was the 2nd fastest on the day!!

A pleasant surprise was the HFP Vermilion Triathlon in August.  It is one of the "local" races and I wanted to do it, even though my body was wrecked from the ironman training.  Long story short, I had a solid bike and pushed the run to finish 3rd overall - which has been my highest overall finish in an Olympic distance Triathlon.  This also served to qualify me for the 2013 National Championships!  (race report)



Rev3 Cedar Point - Full Iron...
Felt good to finally be done!

After some more hard weeks of training, it was time for the Rev3 Full Iron triathlon at Cedar Point. 


I ended up 2nd in my age group and 12th overall... and more importantly, took about 20 minutes of my prior best time to set my new best of 10 hours 22 minutes!


As you can read in my race report, I had a great day and my best ironman finish, despite having to slow my run down due to some significant "GI" issues during the marathon.








Christchurch, New Zealand - Half Marathon

One week after my big race, I was in China for a week on business, and then headed down to visit a supplier in New Zealand for a few days.  I was lucky enough to squeeze in the Christchurch Half Marathon over the weekend, where I ran a comfortable 1h30min... which was pretty good considering the extensive traveling and time zone changes I had gone through in the previous days!




All-in-all, the "start slower, peak later" strategy paid off.  It was just difficult to hit the early races not feeling my very best...  but I had my best August and September - so it was so worth it!