Off to Hungary

Well....

The time has arrived. Tomorrow afternoon I will be leaving for Gyor, Hungary for the World Duathlon Championships. There will be about 60 of the world's best duathletes competing against each other.....and I will be one of them. The USA is sending 5 athletes to compete in the event. My goal this year is to place in the top 3 for the U23 category. What this means is that there is a special division of elite athletes that are under 23 years old. It allows them to compete for a world championship since they are younger than the typical professional athlete. It also gives them experience at the professional level.

I will make sure to update the blog with pictures and stories about my travels and the race itself. My Uncle Peter is coming along with me. I am sure we will have some great stories to tell by the time we arrive back in the states. Wish me luck and check back frequently for new stories!

-bread

Law Day Duathlon

May 5th, 2007

Show me the Money!
-Law Day Duathlon (2 mile run, 14 mile bike, 2 mile run)


Well, the stomach pains are slowly disappearing! This is a good sign because the Duathlon World Championships are right around the corner. I definitely need to be ready for that one. Well this weekend I took a chance and drove up to Rockford to race in the Law Day Duathlon. The 125 dollars to the winner sparked my interest in this race too. I know its not much money considering all the expenses I have, but with barely anybody willing to help out sponsorship-wise this season, I am going to struggle getting by. A side note: I do want to thank all my current sponsors who have helped out - Village Tavern and Grill, Elk Grove Police Dept., Cerama-Lab, The Rabe Family, The Kingsmill Family, My own family, My Grandma and Grandpa Larson, and The Ryan Family for putting my name out there. It really means a lot, no matter what amount. This sport is extremely expensive and time consuming. Without the help of these people, I would not be racing at all this season.

Ok, back to the race. I drove home for the weekend and up to Rockford with my dad. He is my race supporter going to all the races that I do. It is amazing to have somebody like him willing to do all the things that he does for me. It was a bonus that he was racing in the duathlon too! We woke up early Saturday morning, drove to the race, signed up, and get all our equipment ready. I did a little warmup and my stomach felt good. I did this race a few years ago and placed second because of my weak biking at the time. I knew that I should be able to win if my stomach were to hold up. At the start, I felt a little nervous because I had the same expectations as the previous week in Sullivan, and I did not want the same results. The gun went off, and I made sure to make an impression. I took the lead and never looked back. By the 1/2 mile I was all alone and then decided to coast into the first transition. My two mile time was just under 10 minutes, not too fast, but not too slow. I took off on the bike and this little course has some rollers! It was a three loop course so I was hoping to keep my lead by the third lap. Well going into the second lap I was passed! I was a little worried because I did not want to give up my lead and not be able to catch back up on the last run. On the third lap I was passed again! I need to work on my cycling a little more.

So going into the last run, I was sitting in third place. I had a fast transition and passed the 2nd place guy within seconds of the last run. I was running quickly and my stomach didnt hurt! This was another main goal of the race. I wanted to see if my stomach would hold up. If it didnt, I was going to have to get some more tests done. By the 1 mile mark, I took the lead again. I did not have to work very hard on the last mile and just saved my energy. I coasted into the win with a time of 58:20 with a second 2 mile time of 10:30. Overall, it was a great race because I had no pain and also got a little bonus of 125 dollars. It will help out with the shipping of my bike out to Hungary in just 2 weeks!

My dad ended up doing well. He enjoyed the course and it was really nice to have him there competing alongside me. I will have to get him registered for a few more races this summer so that he gets involved too! Well, next up is the World Championships in Hungary. I will take a bunch of pictures and write some details about the trip while I'm out there. So make sure you check back. I will be leaving on May 14th, racing on the 19th, and flying home on the 21st.


One last thing! I wanted to congratulate my little bro, Jason, for running a 6:56 mile for his school. He is in third grade, just turned 9 years old, and is beating all the times I ever ran. Keep up the good work dude, you're amazing!

Sullivan Triathlon

April 29th, 2007

"That should be an easy win"
-Sullivan Triathlon (400 meter swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run)

This phrase was put into my mind when going out to Sullivan, IL for my first triathlon of the season. Being a professional duathlete going up against some local triathletes should be a breeze of a win. Well, this was not the case. Going out to Sullivan, a 45 minute drive from my U of I school, I was expected by many to win the race. The truth is that I actually was expecting to win the race too with a solid effort.

I drove out to the race with my dad and dog, Roxy in the wonderful 80 degree weather. It was sunny, warm, and quite a contrast from the Powerman Alabama weather two weeks ago. It is beyond belief how the weather has been changing so rapidly these past few weeks! At the race site, I swam a few laps, set up my equipment, and was ready to go.

The swim was in an indoor pool of 400 meters. Each swimmer started individually with a 10 second gap between each one. The race director seeded each swimmer by an estimated 400 swim time, so I was the 33rd starter for the race with a 6:15 estimation. Well, after watching the first few swimmers in the pool, I knew I would have to have a pretty amazing race if I was going to win. With my weak swimming background (swimming for a few weeks with no technique), I knew I would have to have a good bike and an amazing run in order to pull it off. The first swimmers completed the swim in a time of around 4:40. It made me realize how much work I need to put into the pool if I'm going to be successful in the sport. I finished my swim in a time of 6:28. Not too bad considering I have no clue how to do flip turns and must stop at the wall each time and then push off to go to the next lap. I recall swimming 7:30s a year ago for my 400s, so my time has dropped some, but not nearly enough.

After a quick transition, I hopped onto my bike and was off. This is were the problems arose. The previous week or so I was experiencing some stomach problems. It felt as if there was a knot tied in my intestines. Well with each pedal stroke, I was exerting some strong pressure on my middle stomach and it hurt! I forced myself to concentrate on the bike and just produce a fast smooth cadence without putting to much power into the stroke in order to minimize the pain. I figured I might still have a chance to win the race because with a strong run, I can come back. Well, the rest of the bike didn't go too well considering I lost a lot of ground to the front leaders.

Another quick transition led me to the final run of the day. I took off and ouch! My stomach tightened, and I knew the race was over. I barely ran for 100 yards and I was walking. I have never not finished a race, and I wasn't going to let a small sprint triathlon be the first one after all the training I do! I took off running and the pain got worse! It started to creep into my back so that my whole midsection was a tightened up mess. I figured out that in order to not have to walk, I just had to jog and not push myself at all. I was running 6:20 miles, the slowest I have ever gone. I should easily be at around 5:10 pace. I finished up the race and found out I was 5th overall. It was quite disappointing knowing that I had such a poor performance in a small local race. My main concern was not about the race though, it was about my grueling stomach. There was something seriously wrong and I needed to get it checked out. I decided to make an appointment to see what was wrong.

Test results came back....I'm dehydrated, have low blood sugar, and have a gastrointestinal virus. The virus goes away in three weeks, so basically I have about one more week and it should be gone. I sure hope so because this is not a good way to lead up to the Duathlon World Championships. I will keep everyone updated with more news and updates on the season. Check back!

-the bread

Heritage 10k

Sunday, April 22nd OSF Heritage 10k Run in Rockford This past weekend I decided to drive up to Rockford, IL in order to race in 10k. I had a busy training week of high intensity and long intervals, so my body was not up to running very hard. The race was set to start at 1 oclock in the afternoon, which is a strange starting time for a race. The temperature was HOT and WINDY! This weather in the midwest sure is crazy, one day it is 30 degrees and the next it is 80! Well it was around 80 degrees, sunny, with 22 mph winds for the start of the race. While warming up, I realized that my body really didnt want to race all out. I was barely able to do a stride without getting tired. So going into the race, I decided that the best option was to start out slowly and stay with the leaders until the end and see what I had left. This was disappointing because going into the race, I really wanted to get a good feel of how it feels to start a race out fast. The Duathlon World Championships are coming up soon, and the first run is a 10k so I thought it would be a good gauge of what is to be expected. The race started, and to my surprise, nobody wanted to take it out hard. My mind and body went into race mode, and I took off. I went through the first mile in 4:49 with nobody else near me. This was a good sign becuase I did not feel that I was running very hard. After the third mile, which I went through in 15 flat, the wind picked up. The course took a turn and the wind was almost impossible to run through. This was when I started to get tired. There was no competition even close to me, which made it mentally taxing to push myself through the rest of the race. I backed off and decided that I would just finish in a decent time and save my energy for the upcoming training week. I finished the 10k in 33:04, more than a minute ahead of the next finisher. I think that with a non-windy day and a taper, I will be at 30:15 or below. This is exciting because I know that I will need to run that fast for my opening 10k at the world championships which are in 3 weeks. Its nice to see that even after being sick through the winter months and not working out for 4 straight weeks, I am back to where I should be. I just need to focus on my bike strength and this season looks to be very promising. Up next weekend is a small local triathlon in Sullivan, IL. The race is about 40 miles away from my school, which is nice because I will not have to drive very far like I usually do. I'm excited to see how my swimming is coming along, even though it is only a 400 meter swim. I plan on focusing on using the race as a quick speed workout and pushing myself on the bike to use it as a gauge on how to pace myself throughout the longer races. Check back in a few days to see how my training is going and to see the results of upcoming races! -rybread also, if you want to check it out, I was featured in the Rockford newspaper on my win at the Heritage 10k.

http://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/SPORTS/104230035