TRI PHX

Yes, I do wear shoes. 90% of the time, my daily kicks these days are @vibram5fingers KSO’s. Occasionally, I wear “real” shoes to work when I have an important meeting or feel like I “have to”. Sometimes Kristen will give me the “You’re wearing those?” when we go out, but my KSO’s get a lotta foot time.
Training is no different – since you have to wear “shoes” to the gym, and the AZ grass can be a little abrasive for lunchtime; I wrap my feet in VFF any chance I can get. There is more and more research coming out about the benefits of barefoot walking, running & training and I’m all for it!
Today, we decided to do a really tough barefoot circuit on the soccer fields near our office. Jason, Joseph & I tackled the following routine with no breaks – constant motion form one exercise to the next. I didn’t time the workout, it seemed to take less than 15 minutes. I know we were all exhausted when we were done!

• Run 100 yards dragging 100lb sled
• Sprint to center of field, (30) 10lb MB mason twists
• Run high-knees (knees to elbows) 50 yards to goal
• (15) burpees touching top goal crossbar
• Sprint backwards to center of field
• Walking lunges to far goal
• (15) burpees touching top goal crossbar
• Side strides to center of field
• Sprint to corner you started at
• (10) Pushups, run to next corner
• (10) Pushups, run to next corner
• (10) Pushups, run to next corner
• (10) Pushups, run to next corner
• (10) Pushups, run to sled
• Drag sled backwards 50 yards
• Sprint with sled final 50 yards

Yes, I realize the first word in my last (3) posts is barefoot – I just tell it like it is!
Today, Joseph, Jason & I got a great workout outside on the local soccer fields. With only about 35 minutes to get in a full workout; we usually really hustle through a circuit. Here’s what we did (Thanks to MikeyD for teaching me Step 3!):
Step 1: Sled Pull:

Step 1: Sled Pull (Joe Nusairat)

Pulling a 100lbs sled; run as hard as you can for 200 yards. Rest 3 minutes; Repeat.

Step 2: Sprint Circuit

Step 2: Pushups/50 yard Sprint (J. Nusairat, J. Warner)

(5) pushups as fast as possible in plange position (like a sprinter’s hands in starter’s block) on completion of 5th pushup, spring up and sprint 50 yards.
Repeat 6 times with no rest in between.

Step 3: Pull Up & Leg Up/Pike (B. Stewart)

Step 3: Pull Ups & Leg Ups

With a neutral hand position; complete a full pull-up (chest level with hands – not shown in picture) lean your upper body back and pull your heels to the bar. Lower into a pike position with your arms at 90º, hold 3 seconds. Repeat to 10 reps. On last rep hold pike as long as possible.

A fantastic (and exhausting) leg, chest, shoulder lat & abs workout in 20 minutes!

“Hey, Monkey Feet!”
That’s the phrase I hear at work when I’m wearing my Vibram Five Finger KSO’s. Some of my co-workers can’t stand ‘em (the ones with feet “issues”) while most think they are a relative oddity. Some folks ask me about ‘em, some just snicker… but 6 of them plunked down $85 and bought a pair of their own! I’ve happy to say that list includes my #1 personal trainer, ultra-marathoner, über-athlete and great friend Mike DeAngelo* who is now a proud KSO owner. (And I know Chris Wilson from 9 Months to Tri isn’t far behind).
Jason Warner & I have been training either barefoot or in KSO’s for over a year and have been in the best shape of our lives. Simply put, we look forward to working out at lunchtime on the local soccer fields and when you enjoy a workout regimen it sticks!
Training barefoot has also helped me improve my running form; landing on the outside of my midfoot and gently rolling across my forefoot to my toes has become comfortable and natural I’m able to do it even in shoes when running distances longer than a 10k.
Why the 10k mark? between 4 and 6 miles my feet tend to get a little sweaty in my KSO’s and chafe along the outside of my big toe. I bet if I put some Body Glide on my hotspots they’d be fine for a longer distance. (NOTE: When you forget to type the “d” in Body Glide you seem like a pervert). I also have a few pair of Injinji toe socks that I wear when rock climbing with the KSO’s; I’ve yet to run more than 3-4 miles with socks as a test.

Over a 10k; I wear Newton Running Shoes. (Full disclosure: I have a Newton tattoo on my ankle. They changed my life with IMAZ entry in ’09, so they are part of me forever)

So, if I’m into barefoot running – why do I wear shoes?
The answer is as complex as it is simple: because they shoes work. I can give you a whole bunch of explanations or links, but the most important thing to me is that they feel right, fit right, and do exactly what I expect them to.

I’ve been wearing Newton Running shoes and reviewing them for almost 2 years and they are the best shoes I’ve ever worn – and I’ve tried every pair I could afford over the years!
In my Newtons, I am able to use my barefoot technique and run more efficiently in a shoe that “gives back” some energy with each step.

My advice for ANY RUNNER that is planning to transition to a forefoot style is to get a pair of Newton Sir Isaac Guidance Trainer FIRST – even before getting KSO’s. Jumping right into barefoot running is very tough, the Sir Isaac’s can help you adjust while you learn to transition your stride to your forefoot.

So, I’m a barefoot runner now – even with shoes on!

*MikeyD brought up a good point – There’s no getting around the fact that KSO’s smell. He reminded me that during Ragnar Relay Del Sol, mine stunk up the whole car! I use baby powder at least once a day; twice on days I run in them. I also throw ‘em in the washing machine or dishwasher at least once a week. (Kristen loves it when I do that!)

Barefoot Running is a really hot topic right now, more and more people (like me) are getting into training barefoot and/or with Vibram Five Fingers or other minimal shoes. I’ve read tweets, blogs, articles and even some scientific studies about the pros and cons of barefoot running and feel that I have a pretty strong knowledge of the subject. I’ve trained barefoot on grass for about a year now and even tested KSO’s for 8 different types of exercise.
Today, I seemed to stumble on something during my training – I’m not as hungry after running barefoot as I am when I wear shoes. Seriously, I seem to eat about 1/3 less at lunch after a barefoot training session no matter how hard I push myself. I began to wonder over lunch whether it might be proprioception or accupressure and looked up pressure points on the feet to try and back up my purely unscientific theory. Here’s what I found:

So, there are a lot of assumptions I could make based on the chart above – but the major takeaway is this:

Now I know why landing on your heels feels like getting kicked in the balls.

Increases Strength. Increases Endurance. Speeds Up Reaction Time. Reduces Athletic Stress.

These are the pretty amazing claims being made on Under Armour’s Armourbite site, it clearly sounded like something I wanted to try for myself. I am very lucky to have a contact at UA that is way cool – she offered to set me up with the Bite Tech folks. (Apparently Armourbite is a rebranded BiteTech product w/UA graphics) The dude at BiteTech (I’m not exposing their names, they are MY contacts, dammit!) hooked me up instantly. My dentist would have charged $450 on “special” for the non-impact model. With my budget tightening over the last year, there’s no way I could have afforded to try this!

Step 1: Find a dentist –  (see the dentist finder on their site)

Step 2: Get molded – The prep/mold was pretty easy albeit a little messy. If you’ve ever had a mold taken of your teeth, then you know the process. The technology has changed a bit since the last time I got a mold… 25 years ago! The cement/goo that was in the trays got on my face a bit. Here’s a tip; if you’re going to have someone spend 20 minutes contorting your mouth make sure you shave. My face felt like it was rubbed raw and I also took some of the dried goo back to work stuck in my stubble.

Step 3: Get Fitted – My mouthguard came in to my dentist’s office about 10 days later. I had to set up an appointment for fitting. The process was simple; just pop it in and go! Well, I couldn’t go yet… the dentist wanted to take a whole bunch of pictures for some reason. I asked for a copy of ‘em for this blog… but they are not all that flattering.

So, how does it work?
You really should download the brochure, but here’s a little bit:

You are “hard-wired” to clench your jaw.

When you train and compete, your natural reaction is

to clench your jaw. It’s part of the “fight or flight” wiring

of your brain. Your clenched jaw and teeth compress your

temporomandibular joint (TMJ), triggering the release

of excess amounts of performance-sapping hormones

(like cortisol) that produce stress, fatigue and distraction.

UA Performance Mouthwear helps the human body

help itself by unlocking the power of the jaw. Patented

ArmourBiteTM Technology prevents your teeth from

clenching and pivots your jaw forward to relieve

pressure on the TMJ. Gone are the excess negative

hormones and the energy-draining effects, so the

body can now unleash its full potential.

You are “hard-wired” to clench your jaw.When you train and compete, your natural reaction isto clench your jaw. It’s part of the “fight or flight” wiringof your brain. Your clenched jaw and teeth compress yourtemporomandibular joint (TMJ), triggering the releaseof excess amounts of performance-sapping hormones(like cortisol) that produce stress, fatigue and distraction.UA Performance Mouthwear helps the human bodyhelp itself by unlocking the power of the jaw. PatentedArmourBiteTM Technology prevents your teeth fromclenching and pivots your jaw forward to relievepressure on the TMJ. Gone are the excess negativehormones and the energy-draining effects, so thebody can now unleash its full potential.

Where did I wear my Armourbite mouthpiece to test?

• During a road ultramarathon
• During a trail marathon
• During an ultramarathon relay (30+ miles)
• Weightlifting (squat, bench press, dead lifts, box jumps)
• Athletics requiring agility & flexibility

So, how did it work in my testing?

The first piece of the puzzle is getting used to a mouthguard. While it is a lot more comfortable than an “impact sport” mouthguard, there’s still a bit of getting used to it. Normal mouthguards make me gag because they go behind my teeth (I’ve had my wisdom teeth removed) the custom Armourbite fit really well and didn’t cause that problem. Like a wedge in a door, your jaw is propped open a bit – this was a little weird for a while. It seemed to affect my breathing; since it was easier to mouth breathe I noticed that I had to consciously breathe through my nose when I was running. I tend to do that naturally if the pace is comfortable but had to think about it with the UA AB.

You’d think it was obvious not to try and chew gum – or anything for that matter – but I tried anyway. You need to pull it out before you try to eat anything; I even found that energy gels made too much of a mess. Anything thicker than gatorade requires you to take it out. Remember – it’s in there pretty good! You need to pop one side out with a fingernail and it will release its grip on your pearly whites.

Results:

For flat (road) running & endurance I really hoped the AB would help me with my biggest problem – FireHips©. My hips start burning at about 18 miles and are absolutely en fuego by the end of a marathon. If the AB helps with hip flexibility, I’d hoped it would lessen my pain but I didn’t notice any tangible improvements. Combined with the aforementioned breathing difference/slight annoyance, I prefer not to wear it for road marathons.

Using the AB for a more intense physical effort was where it truly makes a difference. During sprints, hill/speed work or even a trail marathon I felt stronger for longer. While I can’t quantify how much better I performed, I can honestly say it is a noticeable difference when I pop the mouthguard out. I actually never realized how much I clench my teeth when sprinting!

For weightlifting, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that I have more power to push around weights when wearing the AB. I have been able to set new max lifts in both flat and dumbbell bench press since wearing the AB during workouts. Honestly, this is where the advantage of the AB really stands out. I’ve been meaning to do a “workout with and without” and compare the results – but 90% of my workouts are squeezed in at lunch.

Agility & reaction time are absolutely improved. Case & point; during my first game of CrossBall wearing the AB I was able to get to balls that would’ve gotten by me without it – no doubt in my mind. I was actually really surprised how far I was able to range and catch up with a 6lb medecine ball going 40mph. I saw a piece on ESPN’s Monday Night Football where they were talking about The Saints players using a one of these mouth guards and Jon Gruden talked (joked?) about how much more flexible the players were and the acrobatic catches they were making. Seriously, when it comes to jumping, twisting & explosive power – I don’t doubt it.

So, simply put – the more intense you work out the better the ArmourBite mouthguard works!

I’m left with one question though: Are the Armourbite mouthpieces “legal” to be used during the combine? Should they be?

50k with Dean Karnazes (center)

According to Kristen: “A marathon just wasn’t enough of a challenge for Brett, so he decided to run farther”.

Bravado aside, that really wasn’t the case. I’m not even a “good” marathoner yet, and still need some serious work to get anywhere near my 3:30 goal. Heck, I still haven’t broken 4:00 yet. This was going to be the year that I went under 3:59:59 and erased the mistake of a 11-minute average for the final 3 miles of OBX to finish at 4:05… but something much cooler came along.

When I realized Karno was coming to town, I knew I had to seize this opportunity to run with him. When Dean was doing his “50 in 50″, I hadn’t gotten into marathons yet and missed that opportunity… I wasn’t going to let this chance pass.

PF Chang’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon is a huge event; with the full and half marathons combined (not to mention the 150 ultra runners) ’10 was the largest running event in the USA.

This year, my goal was to break 4:00 and sneak up on 3:40 or so. I felt pretty confident & strong overall even though I hadn’t run much since Ironman AZ 6 weeks earlier. I’d done a handful of tempo runs from 6-12 miles and a knocked out 20 two weeks before race day. I can’t say I trained hard, but I figured my full-body workout routine would make up for the “rest” I’d given my legs after IMAZ.

I drove down to the start with my buddy Brian Cook who was shooting to break 3:30 and possibly go as low as a BQ 3:15:59. Parking was pretty easy to come by; the 50k started an hour before the marathon. Aside from Brian’s Honda showing “0″ miles to go before empty and being stopped by an officer for going the wrong way on a one-way street (it was closed, and we were going 5 mph) it was non-eventful. Free, easy parking is a bonus but the real win is the line of port-o-johns with no line right at the edge of our parking lot. The 50k runners had a VIP area pre-start, but I hung out with Brian and ate/drank and got ready. He accompanied me over to the start and we got a chance to meet Dean and get an autograph. He’s in phenomenal shape and is shorter than I expected. I’ve read a couple things that were a little critical of him (Born To Run and a few articles online) and I will tell you that he’s a pleasant, nice guy. Pre-start and during the first 4.8 mile loops he was chatty and friendly with those around him. He was there to have fun and be social, and he succeeded. I walked away with a positive attitude towards him, ’nuffsaid.

The aforementioned 4.8 miles was a series of 5 loops from the start and out about 3/4 miles. Yes, it was boring – but I had fun chatting with a guy “Dave” from Ontario. He came all the way down for a warm winter marathon and was a perfect pacesetter for the “ultra” part of the day.

After about 40 minutes of running, the ultra runners had about 20 minutes to kill before the 26.2 start. We had a little VIP warming tent with space heaters, mylar blankets and Cytomax. The one thing that kinda sucked was that the port-o-johns were 100′ away and all too visible to the half-marathoners that were starting one block South of us. The line for the 3 bathrooms was 50-deep and 6-wide; there was no way I’d make it through the line before the marathon start. The half-marathoners weren’t in a rush – their event didn’t start for over an hour.

One thing that seemed like it would be pretty cool about running the ultra was the Corral #1 start – it’s almost like an All Access VIP pass that allowed us to cut to the very front of the line and mingle with the elite runners. Unfortunately, it also meant that the first mile was going to be “run like hell or get run over by thousands of faster runners”. My buddy Brian was literally dead-center of the first row so he was easy to find – but I knew that I could only hang with him for a few hundred yards or the next 40k or so would be pretty ugly. I made it about 50 feet from the start and was reading the back of his shirt “Keep Me on Pace to Boston”. He literally took off like a shot and made the turn North onto 7th and that was the last I saw of him.*

While I may have survived the initial onslaught of runners, I had to deal with about 2 HOURS of runners passing me – that really irked me. It wasn’t that I cared about being passed (I’ve gotten over that) it was the feeling that I was in everyone else’s way or somewhere I didn’t belong. I kept reminding myself that I had already logged about 5 more miles than any of these fresh legs bounding past me, but the truth was I just never felt comfortable. Most races it takes me 3-4 miles to get in a groove, this time it wasn’t until mile 30.5 that I felt “good”.

I’ve run the PF Chang’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon 3 times and trained on the course a handful of times; I know the parts that I hate all too well. Mile 15 through the park is where the pain starts and the rest of the race is usually just “embracing the suck”. I was actually pretty pleased that with the extra 4.8 miles I was hitting this area at about 20 and didn’t feel as bad as I had last year. Of course it didn’t hurt that I was going so slow – I still hadn’t found anything that even resembled my normal pace. Speaking of slow, I had a basic goal of keeping my 50k time under 5:05 which was my Ironman AZ run split.

At about mile marker 21, I saw the 4:00 pace group rumble past and started reevaluating my goal. I attempted to latch onto the 4:10 group… then the 4:15 group and finally the 4:20 before I realized that I just didn’t have anything in the tank. My hips were on fire and my legs were getting heavier each step I took. I finally convinced myself that running for 5 minutes and walking for 1 would be the best way to tackle the last few miles. While I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of a 4:30+ marathon, I didn’t finish in pain, and I was really looking forward to placing my commemorative 50k medal around my neck… and got a note and an apology instead.

I found out earlier in the morning that they opened the registration from 50 participants to 150 – and apparently they didn’t get any more medals. The note I was handed said we could expect our medals in the mail in 4-6 weeks. So, after all that effort I walked away empty-handed and pretty disappointed. Even the slowest race is made a little brighter by a medal and a “congratulations”… a red slip of paper and an apology clearly didn’t have the same morale-lifting effect.

*Brian ended up shattering his initial goal of 3:30, but missed his BQ by a little bit. He went out a little too fast and at one point was 10-15 minutes ahead of his projected finish time and it caught up with him in the late miles.

Ironman AZ '09

There are two stories behind the bike I rode at Ironman AZ 2009; one that’s known to many and one that up until now was only known to those very close to me.
While trying to figure out a good way to raise funds for The Prostate Cancer Foundation, my buddy & co-worker Jack Harbaugh popped his head in my office. During our conversation I mentioned putting the names of friends & family that have battled cancer. Jack’s family has been touched far too often by this dreaded disease, and his sister was days away from getting the great news that she had beaten her recent battle with breast cancer.
Sadly, it didn’t take long for me to put together a list of friends & family that have battled cancer. Some names are in honor of those who are battling for their lives, some have won, and some names are in memory of those who were taken from us. I was able to raise $1600 through Athletes For A Cure for The Prostate Cancer Foundation through the generous donations of my friends & family. Here’s the full list:

• Nelson DeAngelo
• Jan Bodyk
• Art Beaumont
• George Walick
• Carol Gregor
• Shawn Garcia
• Leo Plante
• Dorothy Peter
• Mike Yuchunas
• Tricia Harbaugh
• Jack Markin
• Tom Ross
• Sharon Grady
• Frank Casarella, Sr.

My uncle Leo Plante passed away the night I was installing the names on the bike.

While that might be an inspirational story by itself, there was another layer to the title of this post: Life, Death & Hope.

You may notice I don’t call this bike “My Bike” – while I do own it, I know it belongs to another triathlete who died in a car wreck just before Christmas in ’08. (names witheld for privacy) His wife was too broken up to see his bike hanging in the garage every day, and asked some of her co-workers to help her find a new home for his bike. Through a series of events, this Guru Cron’alu came into my life, and I sold off my own bike to purchase it. I felt from day 1 that this bike was special; and I promised myself that I would do something its previous owner would have loved to do – finish an Ironman.

Ironman AZ Transition

On race day there were several times when my energy level was fading and I drew inspiration from the names of those who have had a REAL battle on their hands; Nelson DeAngelo fought off prostate cancer, Carol Gregor is battling pancreatic cancer, Shawn Garcia fought cancer through grade school and was taken way too young. I also knew that I had a promise to keep the real owner of this bike, and there was nothing that would stop me… even my own bad luck & stupidity.

Flat tires are relatively common with 2400 racers biking 112 miles in the desert; and smart racer makes sure to have plenty of tubes and air to get them through the event. When my rear tire started thumping on the stem at mile 60, I was very zen about the whole thing… I figured I’d take my time and change it – no need to rush. I ran through the normal procedure for swapping out a new tube and got the bike back together within a few minutes… and then I realized the stem on my tube was too short for my rim – I couldn’t put air in the tire. With the help of a race volunteer; I was back rolling about 40 minutes later.

While I was waiting for help, I had only one fear: “I might not finish this race”. I was initially upset for selfish reasons – I wouldn’t be able to call myself an Ironman – and then I centered on the promise that I had to fulfill. It was right about that time my helper appeared out of the blue and fixed my tube. I’m not claiming anything supernatural happened, but I’m really glad for the outcome.

Guru & Me

Tonight, I am writing this as I am stripping the stickers off the bike in order to sell it. I know I’m only removing the decals, the names will remain with this bike forever.

Working on your core is B O R I N G. Crunches? Puh-lease. Planks? Yawn. Swiss Ball? Snore-fest.
@jason_warner & I believe in “making workouts fun” (see video) and want to get a full-body workout in as little time as possible.
Enter CrossBall: 2 guys, a medecine ball and a lot of fun.
Below are the rules & gameplay, while we’ve refined it over the last few games it’s still a bit of a work in progress. Feel free to give some feedback (@triphx on Twitter or triphx@me.com) Work your core, have some fun and compete to win!

CrossBall Field

Ironman AZ (Steve Poirot photo)

I like Tempe, AZ – I really do. As a college town/tourist destination it’s one of my favorite places to bring visitors and for events (SOMA, Nathan Tri, Pat’s Run, PF Chang’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon, etc.) The atmosphere in Tempe is wonderful for athletic events – ASU has such a lively sports scene and there are always spectators for any race I’ve done there. Tempe Town Lake is a pretty backdrop to the downtown Tempe area, and Town Lake park is a great place to watch the boats float by.

Swimming in Tempe Town Lake is another thing altogether.

I’ve done plenty of tris over the years, and each one has a swim that I mentally rank on water quality. I don’t think I’ve every really rated the best & worst until now… here goes:

The BEST swim courses:

1. Litchfield Hills Olympic Triathlon – Litchfield, CT. Drinking quality water in spring-fed lake. Gorgeous!
2. Blue Water Triathlon – AZ/CA Border. Crystal-clear Colorado River & swim is with current.
3. Tribal Sprint Triathlon – Lake Pleasant, AZ. Amazing scenery, nice course
4. Ridgefield Triathlon – Ridgefield, CT. Nice, wide swim lanes & clean water. Beach exit means sandy feet at T1.
5. Timberman Triathlon, Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. Gorgeous lake, friendly course layout close to shore & shallow. (my first tri!)

The WORST swim courses:

1. NYC Triathlon, New York, NY. Hudson river. Yuck. Water is disgusting, floating debris (shopping cart, watermelon, plastic bags, etc.) Just a hideous place to have a swim. Water quality abysmal, actually stains swimsuits and exiting swimmers have a “grime line” across their faces.
2. Bassman Half Iron Triathlon, Absegami Lake, Bass River State Park, NJ. Man-made lake that is only open to swimmers during the event. The water is shallow and the whole swim is spent with weeds wrapping around arms & legs. The visual is even worse – all the stumps of the trees the cut down sprawl below you in the murkiness and look like giant creepy spiders. It’s a positive that you can stand at any time during the swim – until you run into someone who is standing in a swim lane catching their breath. It is also a very strange sensation to drag your hands on the bottom during a stroke. After the race, police officers forced people out of the water that were trying to cool off. I reiterate – they don’t allow swimming in this lake except for the event. The beach is actually fenced off. It seemed like they were hiding something. Also google Absegami Lake, NJ and read the Sasquatch stories.
3. Long Island Sound, Bridgeport, CT. I’ve done about a dozen tris in Long Island Sound up & down the CT coast, and some of my favorite events take place in the dark, salty water (Hammerfest, SoBe). The Park City Mossman takes place in one of my least favorite stretches. In ’07, the tide was so low that some buoys were actually on dry land. We were forced (allowed?) to run/walk between the swim segments. During some of the “runs” your feet got stuck in some muck. Yuck.
4. Tempe Town Lake (SOMA, Nathan, PBR, Ironman AZ, etc.) While I characterize the water as “not that bad” it is very murky and you can barely see your hand in front of your face. What’s worse – you can barely see the foot that’s about to hit your nose. I love Tempe, and will continue to do events in Tempe Town Lake – but I need to admit that it’s not an altogether pleasant swimming experience.
5. Winding Trails Tri, Newington, CT. (a 10-race series on Tuesday nights) The water itself isn’t all that bad, it is average fresh water lake quality. The reason this race makes the list isn’t because of the long weeds in the deep area (creepy when you first touch ‘em) it is because of the tiny swim lanes. Here’s the math: .25 mile swim with (2) 90º turns in swim lanes about 20 feet wide + 100-200 swimmers in a mass start = a washing machine like no other. While Ironman may be 2200 more people at once, Tempe Town Lake is massive and people are also not all-out sprinting the 2.4 miles. In Winding Trails it is a 110% sprint to the first corner with limbs a-flailing. I’m pretty sure I got pummeled by one of my best friends at one race (thanks Erik).

So, what is it like to hop into 60º water and slap/punch/pull & kick 2400 people? Actually – it’s not that bad at all. Most Ironman entrants (1800 first-timers in ’09) seemed to understand that we’re all in this together and swimming over other competitors wouldn’t help anyone. Yes, the water was really, really cold. This was not the coldest water I’ve been in (Hammerfest ’08), but there was nothing that could be called “pleasant” about the water temps. The amazing part about the chilly water was that only 60 days earlier during Nathan Tempe Triathlon the water was almost 20º warmer and wetsuits weren’t legal. What a difference a couple dozen cold desert nights can make. I was thrilled to wear my long-sleeve Xterra Vortex2 wetsuit. That wetsuit is comfy, buoyant and warm. It is probably a fast wetsuit on a decent swimmer… but I am pretty slow. I was pretty pleased with my 1:32 swim split, only 2 minutes off the mark I’d mentally set for myself.

Up next: It’s not the swim that hurts… it’s the turns!

A little housekeeping is in order prior to writing the recap of Ironman AZ ’09.
First off, if it wasn’t for Newton Running I would not have been able to participate in this race. As you may know, Ironman sells out in about a half hour (’10 sold out in 25 minutes) and I wasn’t even considering doing an Ironman when the date to register in person came & went in ’08. Imagine my surprise when I found out on Twitter (via @sirisaac) on August 2nd that I won free entry courtesy of Newton Running! The thrill of the victory was soon followed by the reality of training for an Ironman in 3 months. In honor of Newton Running getting me in the Ironman, I decided to make a statement about my love for their shoes by getting their logo “N” tattooed on my ankle at the same time I got my M-Dot tattoo.

I also would be remiss if I didn’t take the time to mention the sacrifices my family had to put up with during my training. My wife Kristen (@vivistewmom) dealt with my crazy training schedule that required me to be up and out of the house for swimming or running sessions at 6am every weekday and my long runs & bike rides on the weekends that forced me to be up before the sun as well. I missed a lot of quality family time on the weekends with 3-hour runs and 4-5 mile bike rides. Even when I was able to make it home, I was a little worn out from all the energy expended. I also don’t want to gloss over what a tough week it was leading up to IMAZ with my “taper/temper” and the nervous energy, lack of sleep and moodiness. When I don’t exercise, I am miserable, the butterflies of an impending 140.6 surely didn’t help. The weekend of a big race (Marathons, 70.3, IM) is also shot – Saturday involves expo, registration, bike drop-off and other preparations that chew up the whole day. With a 13+ hour event like Ironman, all of Sunday is gone too.

I left my house at 5am and returned home at 11pm – that’s a long day “at work”. I also was able to lean on a great training partner, Jason, (@jason_warner) for my mid-day “boot camp” workouts. I firmly believe that my success at Ironman was largely due to the strengthening of my core from the daily misery of our lunchtime training regimen. Another big thanks to Jase for coming to Tempe with Kristen and Vivi to watch me finish and drive my car home. After 13:38 of torture and 5000 calories burned I was in no condition to drive a standard transmission FJ Cruiser the 45 minutes home.

Last, but surely not least, I need to thank Laryssa (@RysAZ)  for being there when I needed a friend most – right before the start of the swim. Laryssa is a co-worker of mine and volunteers every year for IMAZ as a wetsuit stripper. She came to Tempe about an hour early to see if she could catch up with me before the start. As luck would have it, in a sea of 2400 racers and 1000+ volunteers, Laryssa was directly in front of me when I was at the height of my nervousness. I may not have looked like a basket case on the outside as I was trying to keep it together – inside I was a mess of butterflies & self-doubt. Prior to seeing her, my confidence level was at a 3 out of 10. With Laryssa’s calm demeanor and knowledge of the even I was able to boost my confidence up to a 7. I can’t begin to relate how much of a help she was in my completion of the Ironman.

Next up – A dip in Tempe Town Lake (with 2400 of my closest friends)