The Bicyle Studio.....Video!!!!

Here's a short introduction of what we do here at The Bicycle Studio. Look for more to come. Enjoy!!1

Vegas 70.3 WC

I first want to say that the new course they have in Las Vegas, NV is a true World Championship course. This course had much to offer in its difficulty on the bike and run, add some heat to the mix and you've got your work cut out for ya. This course will keep you honest and will only play fair to the well prepared athletes, which is why its the World Championships. I do believe that we rolled the dice and lucked out on the weather playing to our favor. When we arrived on Thursday it was 105 degrees, I went for a short run to get the legs moving and it was absolutely brutal. Race day only saw temperatures reach into the the mid-low 90's, Vegas called this there cold-front!!!!!! I have a feeling that in the year's to come our luck won't be as good as it was this year when it comes to weather.

Now onto the race.

Swim Course

Swim: 31:08...OUCH
I found the swim to be the toughest leg of the race. It was an out and back course and with water temps in the low 80's, this made the swim a non-wetsuit swim, which could have played a factor into my slower swim time...not that I would have been much faster.... The pro's went off at 6:30am and my wave didn't go off till 8am, we also arrived at race check in at 4:30am....so it was a long morning's wait. Once our wave was ready to go we were allowed to enter the water 10min before our start. I tried my best to get a warm-up in with a few race like efforts as well as finding a good starting spot amongst my competitors.
The gun went off and within 300m  I knew something was off in my stroke, and it was at about 400m into the swim that I wanted to be done and out of the water. Then at about 600m in I began to feel a cramp along the bottom of my rib-cage/diaphragm. This only made thing's worse, especially on the mental side of racing. From here I wasn't sure how the race would end up and how bad it would really be. I was eventually a lone Maverick out in the water, I did though make it to shore and couldn't have been more happy to get feet on solid ground.

Out of the water...finally!!!

T2
Out of the water there was a 200 yard dash to transition, Conor informed that I was only 5min back from the lead swimmer in my age group. This gave me a little more air to breath and gave me the confidence I needed to focus on the bike. Once into the tent I got my helmet, shoes and glasses on; grabbed my bike and off I was for another 100 yard dash up a hill to the mount line.

Bike: 2:31:23

The first two miles out of T1 of the bike were up hill, a nice warm-up to what was to come of the bike course. The course was either up or down, nothing was too challenging but it kept you honest.  I was looking forward to this bike course and the challenges it would bring compared to the flat and fast course of Clearwater, FL last year.
For the first half of the bike I focused on pacing myself early and staying on top of my nutrition. I knew the day was heating up and with this course being as tough as it was it would be very important to play your cards right early in the race. A little after the turn-around I found myself behind a small bunch of guys playing cat and mouse with each other. I wasn't sure if they were working together or.......well I have no idea what they were doing. I actually found it kinda amusing to watch. Every 10 seconds someone would make the pass just to be out front, then another pass...then another pass. This continued until one of these little buggers literally cut me off at one of the Aid-stations. It was here at about mile 40 I decided I was done playing games, so I got what I needed at the aid-station and took off like I stole something. Again I was the lone Maverick making my passes all the way to T2,  I noticed only one guy was able to hang on until we got closer to T2 when I lost sight of him for the remainder of the race.

T2
Came into T2 grabbed my run bag and I was out onto the run course in short time.

Run: 1:37:16

The run is a 3 loop course, like the bike course you are either going up or down. I found my stride very early on and was able to fly through the first miles with ease. I was informed again by my cheering squad that I was 28th in age off the bike. I knew if I could keep this pace that I could make some significant gains in placement. My first loop went by fairly quickly, it was on the second lap that I began to struggle a bit. I did my best to take in as much fluids and sponges at each aid-station, on the back half of the course there is about a mile climb that can take everything out of you if your not careful. This hill owned me for the last two laps, besides that I felt that this was one of my better runs in a Half Ironman. I played cat and mouse throughout the run with a few of my competitors but then was able to give it one last kick at the end to get me to the finish.

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Total: 4:44:47

Last year in Clearwater I placed 546th out of 1700 and 74 in age, this year I placed 202nd out of 1700 athletes and 24th in my age on a much more difficult course. I am very happy with the result and improvement that was made in a years time. Looking back at the race I do believe that I may have sat back a little to much on the bike, but you never know what that could have done to my run if I would have gone harder. Overall it was a good race. I'm taking a lot from this race, it started off to be a very long and rough race but ended up to be one of my best races. I know I didn't win my age group or podium but its been the journey of getting where I am at right now that I am most pleased about. I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of my capabilities in this sport. I'm looking forward to working hard to make many more great strides next season. A BIG Thanks to my roommates/friends and my Girlfriend and her family for all the support and cheers in the race. Its always a good feeling to hear your name from the crowd's of a race especially one that is so far from home.

Vegas Time:

We were all able to get Interbike passes so we stayed en extra few days to check out all the cool stuff coming out in 2012. Usually after a race I like to get in good recovery meal, ice bath, rest/sleep, and relax. Not this time, I spent much of the week eating like your typical American; donuts, In n Out Burgers, soda, buffets and on top that of inhaling cigarette smoke in the casino's and late nights. I was on a very limited budget and that was exactly what I was able to afford. we spent much of the week walking our pants off, I don't think my legs recovered from the race until that following Saturday. OUCH!!!!

One cool note though, my roommates Kevin and Conor Mullervy who both race for Team Exergy, were informed of a big team announcement that would happen Thursday night at Club Marquee in Vegas. This club is rumored to be the best club in Vegas/ the world, or so the bouncer tells me. After getting all spruced up and having a hot date on my right (My girlfriend) we arrived to the club (and yes our names were on the list along with only 250 other guests) and were greeted by 6 waiters holding cocktails and beer to get the night started. Our pictures were taken as if we were on the red carpet then we were introduced to the owner of Exergy and team managers. Once in the club we were bombarded with little appetizers, but there was nothing little about them; Kobe beef, lobster, crab spring roles, Filet mignon.....oh and an open bar with all top shelf drinks and water (Voss Water that is).

Lets just say I didn't get enough Voss water that night and the 7hr drive home the next morning was a little rough. Pictures below.
Best of luck to them both, I'm expecting much bigger things next year.

My Hot Date

Ginger 1

Ginger 2

One cool video for a few cool guys!!

Tim DeBoom getting ready for the toughest Ironman distance race on the planet.

Boulder 70.3

Boulder 70.3 was my first attempt at the Half Ironman distance last year, as always its nice to race in your own back yard. This course can be very deceiving, many athletes think of Boulder of a cool Mountain town with plenty of hills to challenge you on the bike and run. Well this can be true but not this event, expect a flat and fast course with little rollers and temperatures in the mid 90's. 

Swim:

 

Again I managed a good start to the swim, avoiding all the josseling and mayhem that ensues in every swim start. In the first few hundred meters I found myself swimming with the big fish (fast guys) but that soon faded and I eventually found myself swimming with plenty of open water. Besides swimming over and around a few of the slower waves before ours I was only accompanied by one other competitor in my age group which was new to me. I came out of the water in 29:03, this was a P.R. and I;m very happy to finally join the "under 30 club"....I just made that up.=)

Bike:

The bike course is a 2 loop course, again a very fast course with some rollers. For this race I was attempting to try some new things when it came to my nutrition. My legs felt a little sluggish but I pushed the pace to finish lap one in a time of 1:07. I felt I could maintain this pace for the second lap but at around mile 40 I began to feel very nauseous and weak. I knew right away that I missed something on my nutrition plan. I sat-up and slowed the pace down until I could get to the next aid station where I would grab as much fuel as I could. I came off the bike and into T2 at 2:21:06. Only a few minutes off from last year, wasn't too happy with that but I knew where I made the mistake and I plan to fix it for the next race.

Run:

Out onto the scorching run course (93 degrees) I began to struggle with my usual Side-stitch. I tried every trick in the book to rid of this stitch, and ended up resorting to breathing out with a loud grunt. I received some very interesting looks from my competitors but it worked and the pain eventually subsided around mile 5. From here it was pure survival for my running ability or the lack there of. I know this is my weakest leg...for now, and I know what needs to be done in training to fix this. I look forward to the off-season and working diligently on my run. Towards the end of the run the heat began to really get to many athletes, I took in as much ice, water and Gatorade as I could at each aid-station. I gave a final push at the end to finish the 13.1 miles in 1:37:47. Not the fastest by any means, but as I said before this will change and I plan to knock off 15 minutes by next season!!!!! You can count on it.

Finish:
Final time was 4:31:05, which placed me 54th Overall and 8th in age. I knocked off about 12 minutes from last years time on this course. I was also able to get a slot to 70.3 World championships in Las Vegas in Sept. I'm happy to take it and have the opportunity to race again this season against some of the world's best at this distance. Until then its back to training full gas and prepping for worlds in September.

Boulder Peak

Ok, wow!!! This blog is a little late, I apologize to all 4 of my readers. I hope you don't cancel your subscription to this one of a kind blog, OK.....Good!!!! Lets get to the race. This past weeke.....I mean a few weekends ago I was back in beautiful Boulder, CO for the Boulder Peak Olympic triathlon, which is now the Boulder 5150 Series. This change only means its a qualifier for the US Championship in Des Moines, Iowa. Other then that its still the same race course, with the same bike course climbing up Old Stage road, if you haven't been up Old Stage, I like to compare it to parts of Little Park rd here in G.J....Damn Steep!!!!

Swim:  23:14  (2010 swim time: 25:46)
Alright, the swim was pretty smooth sailing. Again, I lined up on the far right with very little company (which is always nice and rare). The main goal for this was to stay on course this time, it was a little difficult as we swam straight into the Sun's path...Blinding!!! Eventually we made a turn around a buoy away from the Sun, from here sighting of buoys was easier but the waters soon came congested with the slower swimmers in the waves before ours. Can't complain to much as this happens in every race. Came out of the water in 23:14 just behind the leaders.

T1: Coming out of the water I slowly found my land legs and made my way in and out of transition.


Bike: 1:05:56   (2010 bike time: 1:13:17)
The first 6 miles of the bike heading of Boulder Reservoir are all up-hill. I knew coming into this race that athletes would hold back a little to prepare for the climb up Old Stage Rd at about mile 4.  Coach Tony DeBoom gave me the green light to be aggressive in these first few miles....Roger That!!!! I made my way up Old Stage only thinking to myself ..."dang this is a lot harder then I remember"...I made it atop the hill and I can only remember that I was about to lose my breakfast from that morning.....No worries I kept it down. The rest of the ride was what seemed to me all down hill with only a few rollers. I put my head down and mashed the gears to get me back home to T2.

T2: Came flying off the bike to get my running shoes on and out I was.

Run: 41:48  (2010 run time: 45:06)

This is the part where everything seemed to Sssllllooooooowww down a bit. After about half a mile I found my running legs. The goal was to find a good rhythm early in the run then at the turnaround/halfway point I could open the stride more and push it to the finish. This run is all on dirt so it makes it harder to find a good grip, so you really need to rely on your turnover. I did the best I could for this run, everything seemed in order besides my stomach. I felt I was running a little heavy in the belly. I think it has to do with my pre-race nutrition. Something I hope to change by the time Boulder 70.3 comes. Anyways I slowly pushed the pace back to the finish in a time of 2:13:59.

Overall: 2:13:59, 7th in age and 57 Overall out of 1500.  (2010: 2:26:31, 21st in age and 131 Overall or 1500)

Ok, so if you haven't noticed I knocked off about 14min from my time last year. This is HUGE and I am super happy about this. I think the best part was leaving my coach speechless for a few seconds when I called  to tell him the results. =) Up next is Boulder 70.3 in August. Crunch Time!!!!!

Boulder Sprint

Had a good effort this past weekend in Boulder, CO for the 5430 Boulder Sprint. 750m Swim, 26mile Bike and a 5k run. With only 6 days of rest and recovery from my previous race at Boise 70.3 I was surprised how well I recovered, this gave me a good indication that my race fitness is on par. I also came into this race very relaxed, my only expectations for this race were to improve on last years times and not worry about my placement or anybody else race. This kinda of attitude seemed to work out well for this race.

Swim: 11:50
An improvement from last year, not much but it was better. I opted to line up on the far inside of the buoy's and to my surprise I was all alone with only a few other athletes near my bubble. This made for a very clean and bump/bruise-free start to the race. I wrestled only a few athletes  but managed to find good open water, but this might have been the problem. At the time I thought I was spotting well, keeping all yellow buoy's on my right, I even spotted a pack of guys from my wave just a few meters ahead. But it wasn't until someone in a kayak was yelling and pointing at us to turn around....WTF!!!!! I popped my head up for a moment and quickly realized that about a dozen of us young and reckless swimmers were cutting the course..... and not on purpose I will say. I just might need to get my eyes checked next time!!! We back tracked about 25m or so and were back on course....kids!!!!!

Bike: 43:02
Into T1 and out I was, now onto the bike. Not too much to talk about here, it was a fast course with little rollers. I found a good rhythm from the start and kept a good pace throughout, a few guys in my age group passed me within a few miles onto the bike course. So I kept the pace with these guys and kept them in my site. So yeah, that's kind of it for the bike....nothing too special though I did improve again on last year.

Run: 19:09
My biggest goal for this race was to finally break the dreaded 20min 5k in a triathlon. Out of T2 I gave my legs a chance to find themselves and smooth into a nice cadence before I found my stride. I pushed hard checking my splits only a few times. With doing Boise 70.3 last week it made these 3miles seem like only a mile. They went fast. So I came down the shoot with a time of 19:09, I was pretty pumped about this. I know some of you might run this time in your sleep, but hey give me a break. This white boy is SLOW!!! So this was a big improvement and I'm happy with how things are slowly coming around for me.

Overall: 1:17:03  25th Overall, 3rd in age.

Up next for Mua is the Boulder Peak. An Olympic distance with a very talented field both Pro and Amateur. Should be a good one.

Boise 70.3

I've been looking forward to Boise for some time now. My goal was to knock this race out of the park, get in a good build and take it to the house. Well it was warning track power for this race, if you can remember I came down with a nasty cold that took a solid chunk from my build for this race. Would you call this an excuse???.....sure why not!!!! I felt great and back to normal about a week or so before the race, training was back on par so my outlook was back to an all time high.

I arrived in Boise on Thursday after a 9hr drive, got my packet and then settled in for the night after a short run. Friday was the usual routine, I did my usual pre race warm-up, prepped my bike and took it up to T1 after a short spin. I was fortunate to have my good friend and racing buddy Richie in Boise with me for the race. His family took me as one of their own and treated me like royalty.....much appreciated Richie!!!!!

Swim:
The race start was at 12pm, very different  from the usual 6:00am starts. But I felt it was very easy to adapt to the later start. My age group was the last wave to go off at 12:45. The water was a balmy 50-53 degrees, (that's down right cold) and the only warm-up you got was about 3min before your wave went off. Cold water can have a huge effect on your performance but I feel that my body wasn't so distracted. Shoot sometimes I have a hard time jumping into the local pool because of how ''cold" it is....so either way I made the adjustment. Finding open water was tough from the start, I lined up on the far right (closest to the buoys) and some how ended up on the far left (furthest from buoys) after about 300m (nice route Magellan). I got my bearings in check I was well on my way back on course. I felt I had a good swim, felt strong and smooth, only few rough spots especially maneuvering around the other athletes in the water. I came out of the water in 31:30....not at all what I was hoping but by looks of it, many athletes had just as rough of a swim.

In and out of T2 I was, onto the bike.
Bike:

Not the hardest course I have done but this course had its challenges of hills and many long false flats. The goal for this bike was to build into a solid rhythm and be aggressive. I felt I put in one of my most solid bike efforts so far in a 70.3. Finally felt closer to actually racing instead of trying to finish. I attacked the hills and stayed strong throughout the course, staying very focused on maintaining a good nutrition plan to get be ready for the run. I was only passed by one guy in my age group. He was riding well, I might have tried to hang with him but I knew I was trying to put down a solid run. So I stayed within my race and kept pace. I finished the bike in 2:29:58. Right where I wanted to be. Now onto the run.

T2 was fast, I was in and out before I knew it.........T2: 1:11
Run:
Coming out of T2, my legs felt great, the first 3 miles were around a 6:30 pace. I kept focus on keeping a high turnover and concentrating on the race at hand and not the unknown the lied ahead. The run was along the Green Belt of Downtown Boise, next to the river and plenty of trees to hide from the sun. For this race we had a nice overcast, which helped keep it nice and cool for the run. Heading into the second lap of the course I could feel that my pace was fading slowly.  Looking back I could have used a few more calories from the aid-stations to hold me over.  The last 2.5 miles I was in survival mode and again I took in very little calories, I just wanted to get to the finish..... I finally came down the final stretch excited about my accomplishments in this race. I was pumped that everything went well, no flats, cramps, side stitches, walking, excuses, just a solid race.
Finishing time 4:43:23 85th Overall and 9th in age.

I'm pretty excited about this race, I am coming a long ways from where I was. But I'm in no way satisfied, I know I can compete with those top athletes in my age group. I put in a lot of hard work and I feel that I am doing everything right that I can and know how. From here its a matter of making some small but big adjustments in my training and of course staying consistent. Though the results might not show, I see a very bright future in this sport. Its just a matter of finding the right pieces and molding them into the game plan.Also trying to learn Patience!!!!!


Next up is the Bouder Sprint Triathlon, the beginning of the Boulder Series.

Chasing a Dream!!!

Summer Open Tri....Duathlon

Its days like these that make you appreciate your health as well as adding more fuel to the fire.

In the final days leading up to the race the water conditions reached over 4x the E. coli limit, prompting the race organizers to move the race to a duathlon (2 mile run, 12.4 mile bike then a 3.1 mile run). Also in this time I caught a nasty cold that left me sleepless for the 3 nights leading to the race. At one point I was convinced I wouldn't be toeing the line on race day. Not the best scenario(s) for a race but I had to find the positive and make the best of it.

I love racing and competing so it was easy to convince myself to race then surrender to such a nasty virus. I worked hard in the weeks leading up to this race, the goal was to train straight thru the race and use it as training guide to my build for Boise 70.3 in 3 weeks. I made the decision to race that morning of the race, again, its hard to say no to competing. The race went off well, I gave a good effort, the best I had for the day. I felt I was in 3rd-4th gear the whole race, especially the run, it was difficult to push the envelope in the final miles of the race.  34th OA, 5th in age (2mile Run 12:35, 12.1 Bike 30:32,  3.1mile Run 20:23)

I sure wasn't happy with getting a cold in such a pivotal moment in training, it really derailed some training goals I set for Boise. Its been over a week and I'm now starting to feel the cold beginning to fade away. I have just under a 2weeks till Boise 70.3. In the mean time I'm still trying to make the best of the situation, I'm looking forward to the race, its been a race marked on my calendar with a big star next to it. We'll see what happens until then, I'll see ya in Boise.