Jonser's view from the edge...

Kona 2011 Part 2- Life in my sport. Why?

2011-10-29T11:00:00.000-06:00

I am often asked how I can train and race while having three jobs. It is a challenge, to be honest. The logistics of having a few careers along with training daily can be a real grind- and I would not have it any other way. I am on my path. I have said it in past posts in this blog- I love my life in this sport. It forces a strict regimentation into my life that I find comforting and fulfilling. Obviously, I would not be in my 30th year of military service if I did not enjoy a little structure.

I love the routine and life rhythm of training and racing. It is fun to think how and where I am going to get in my training. As one who lives a good portion of life on the road, figuring out how that training is going to take place is a huge challenge. It is also hugely rewarding when I do get that training in there with everything else I have going on. I sometimes have to train tired after flying all day. From an exercise science perspective, it isn’t optimum, but a lot of things in life are not optimum. Life is frenetic, confusing, and can be wrought with mistakes…and so is some of my training. As I get older, it gets easier as I have figured out how better to do things, but it is never perfect. What in life is?

On the drive back from Buffalo Springs, Teresa and I had a very long talk about why we still race triathlons. We both had unsatisfying efforts. T was forced to DNF due to sickness and I was run down by two athletes in my AG after having been in the lead of the race for 4 hours. The travel, the money, the time training, the pre-race nervousness, the obvious suffering that takes place in long, hot, difficult races- why? T and I are in our late 40’s and early 50’s. Why the forced, unnecessary pain? We spent hours driving through the northwestern part of Texas breaking our sport down in great detail. The answer we came up with is that in the rigor of racing and training hard, one can often find their “best self”.

Your best self is that part of you that surfaces when you draw from deep within to find strength, courage, and toughness and the other personal qualities one needs to make it through this life and avoid the enduring downward pull toward mediocrity. The demands of living a life in this sport forces a person to continue to work on finding their best self. In order to set the table in your life to find that best self requires that you build a system for living that facilitates finding the extraordinary in yourself- every damn day. If you can find it in Ironman, you can find it in love, work, and any area you need to. I have come to embrace all areas in my life at the same temperature I approach Ironman. I believe I am better for it. Ironman, like real life, never gets easy. You have to continue to try harder every day. The results are extremely satisfying when you do succeed and infuriatingly maddening when you don’t. It is in that tension between success and failure where the contest of life truly resides.

In addition to constantly searching for your best self, other reasons for continuing to live a life in this sport are the authentic friendships in which I am blessed to be a part. Some of my best buds are in my triathlon community. Obviously, I am blessed with a tight navy network of dudes that are my dear friends for life. Triathlon has also provided me with a “bro network” of wonderful and authentic folks with whom I like to stay in close touch. Along with those close buds, the overall community of folks we see at races is really fun. Big events like Kona really drive that home. It was such a pleasure to walk through town this week and re-unite with so many wonderful people from our Ironman life. Aussies, Kiwi’s, Brits, Americans, South Africans, Austrians, Germans, Brazilians, Canadians, and Portuguese- our triathlon friend network is literally global. I find that part of our sport to be fantastic.

So there it is. Life in this sport is an exercise in finding your best self. Along the way, it is very likely you will find a bunch of epic friends to help you in that search. The thought of that makes me feel at home in a sport that I have decided to invest a sizable portion of my life.

Jonser

Kona Blog 2011 Part 1- Ironman. It can be a freak show, but it is my kind of freak show!

2011-10-29T10:21:00.000-06:00

I seem to not feel the urge to blog much when I am not at race venues. When I am at these epic venues such as Kona, my grape fills with perspective on a number of topics. Obviously, this week it is mostly on Ironman and life in this sport.
Teresa arrived here last Thursday and I followed on Sunday after work. It is good to be back on the Big Island for this race. I am not racing this year. Teresa is here to compete in her 11th Kona and her 24th Ironman overall. In my opinion that is pretty remarkable. It comes at a cost, but she continues to love the sport, as do I.

There is a lot to love about this sport. The lifestyle, the race venues, and the types of people this sport attracts are what keep me fired up on Ironman. I would have to say that there is a freak show aspect to Kona, but it’s my kind of freak show. I dig it. I can only imagine what some folks think if they have never been around a big triathlon and this crowd rolls into town. The streets are lined with tanned ectomorphs with their shaved legs, skintight everything, knee high compression socks, and the obligatory M- dot (ironman corporate logo) tattoo on their ankles. Many are sporting a minimum of two watches on their arms so they can track their every move by GPS, monitor their heart rate, and count their kilojoules of energy expended. I’m not kidding. They track their energy expended and measure it in kilojoules to come up with a TSS. I forget what TSS stands for (I think it is Total Stress Score). I have athletes that report theirs to me. It is a 1 percent solution for all but the really big volume boys, and I deal in 90 percent solutions. With ironman training, it is a basic JFT prescription for most folks. JFT is a quote from a couple of mentors of mine. It stands for Just F—kin Train. I find with most, that if they consistently JFT, they hit every athletic benchmark they can set for themselves.

So let us get back to the freak show. Walking around Dig Me Beach here in Kona in the morning is an epic freak show, but I love it. You see everything. This morning was the Underpants Run. A couple of famous US coaches, who are married to a couple of former champions of this race, conduct this run at a few Ironman races around the world. It is a kick to watch. Folks show up in their underwear and run like an army platoon around town, perform funny calisthenics and various group running drills. You see just about anything you can imagine in these runs. It is hilarious. This morning, there were small kids running with their dads, in public, in completely crazy underwear. All part of the freak show-my freak show.

On the whole, when you come to these races you see very committed athletes who are the best 1,700 in the world, along with some lottery folks and CEO’s who pay their way in. I live in Boulder and get to see the pros train on a daily basis up close, with a few of them being my good friends. I respect the pros, but that is their job. I have a huge appreciation for the working age group athlete. They are the backbone of this sport. They pay the exorbitant entry fees so that these races happen, they buy the products that support the companies that sponsor these events, and their story is the one I am most interested in telling.

Ironman is on a lot of folks’ bucket list. It is a stop on their journey of self discovery, and I think that is the coolest. I have to admit that is not where I am. Ironman is not a stop on the journey, it is a destination. This is my sport. This is my freak show. I have wanted to compete in this sport for as long as I can remember, and I love being here. I hope to be here for a lifetime.

More later.
Jonser

Operation Rio De Janeiro: the 5th World Military Games Post #5- Conclusion

2011-07-28T20:26:00.000-06:00

On race morning I woke up early and hustled down to board the buses that would take us to the race venue on Copacabana Beach. The bus was full of nerves and eerily quiet. I sat next to Kathy Rakel and we chatted a little about a few race items, but for the most part, it was a quiet ride. Upon arrival, things got really busy with getting everyone situated. I was running around trying my best to be helpful, but with the exception of applying a few tattoos (race numbers) on a couple of the girls, they had it down and were ready to roll.

I had no expectations of any of the team members other than they race their hardest and be happy with their effort. I could tell they were all ready to get started and it was most likely a relief for them when the cannon sounded, sending them all into the water. Laura was the first to emerge from the water for our team and I got busy from then on. The race went by in a blur and before I knew it, they were all finished and I was hustling back for the men’s start. Kathy was our top female at 21st and Laura was next, followed by Jolene, and then Big O and Lil O. Rachel quickly filed in after Lil O. I was ecstatic with all of their times and especially their efforts. The swim was choppy and they all, with the exception of the O’Connors, wound up in lousy packs of riders to work with. The only reason the O’C’s were fine, was it was the two of them and a straggler or two at times. Poor Kathy got isolated between packs and did a 7 lap TT solo before finally catching the pack in front of her. She rode tough and I was proud of her for catching that pack.

So the girls got home and I was happy and off to watch the men go at it. Oskutis had a monster swim and was able to get himself into the lead pack within a few laps. Bales and Tonder took a bad line to the first buoy and paid for it on the swim and had to ride hard all day in lethargic packs, but both finished it off with great runs. Brad P raced his guts out and had a breakthrough performance, finishing third among the US team. Weasel raced tough all day and got home in style. Like the women, most of the men found themselves in packs with athletes who didn’t want to work on the bike. Everybody just wanted to sit in and wait for the run. This format of triathlon has that aspect to it and can be frustrating for those strong on the bike.

All in all, it was a superb showing for the US Team. One has to remember that other countries bring professional athletes, not real military members, so I judge our performance by an objective standard, not based on the overall field. Some of these athletes here came straight from the ITU (pro world cup series) circuit and watching them struggle to be comfortable in a military uniform they never wear was interesting to observe during our time together at the Opening Ceremony. It is what it is, though, and we know the drill. I did find it interesting that there were some Brazilian athletes here that had military ID cards that were issued in the last days of June 2011. The Polish male team could not produce military ID’s and were not allowed to compete.

My favorite thing about our stay in Rio would have to be our time spent with some of the other teams. By far, our overall favorite team was the Irish. We met up with them in the airport before we ever got to the Blue Village. Their Team Captain and Coach, Derek Nugent was introduced to me by my National War College Classmate, Ireland Defence Forces Colonel Michael Beary. Michael and I had taken a couple of classes together in grad school and became fast friends. His experiences as an Irish Colonel in many multi-national forces scuffles around the world give him a credibility that I truly respect. He just happened to be in Rio as one of the Chiefs of Mission for the Games and it was great to reunite with him.

Along with the Irish Team, we also spent a lot of time with the Canadians. They are just good folks and we really enjoyed their companionship. We knew all of them as they came down to Armed Forces Nationals in April and used the race as their qualifier for their National Team as well. Other teams I enjoyed were the Colombians, and especially India. I knew a few of the Indians from Mumbai in 2007, and they are a team that is still developing. They remind me of Marines, in that where you see one of them, you see all of them. That is a terrific quality in a team. I loved the time I spent with the Indian Team. We traded emails and I look forward to staying in touch.

In looking back on my 13 days in Rio, I would have to say I grew weary of the logistical snags we experienced with the Brazilians. As I have posted earlier, they got left high and dry by the contractors in charge of things and they rebounded nicely, but an area I grew impatient with was timeliness of travel. I tried twice to go on tours while there and both times the delays with buses and the inability to stay on schedule forced me to abandon the trip and just go back to my room. The bus ride back from the race took us 4.5 hours. It really did. That is not an embellishment or exaggeration. My athletes were absolutely starving and being trapped on a bus after racing contributed to extra muscle soreness for them as well. I would have to give the host country of this year’s CISM a C- for logistics. I have faith that they will get it right for the Soccer World Cup in 2014, followed 2 years later by the 2016 Olympic Games. They know they have work to do. The organizers of CISM cruised through the crowd during the after party that they threw for all the athletes, shaking hands and thanking folks for their patience with the snags here and there. I respect that.

In being so harsh on the Brazilians for logistics, I would have to give them an A++ in hospitality. Brazilians are lovely people. Friendly, warm, enthusiastic and an absolute thirst for any pin, garment, jacket, or patch with USA on it was refreshing. They literally swarmed Scotty Tonder one afternoon when he pulled out a pin for a child at a soccer game. We were greeted warmly at every single meal and the friendliness was genuine. They also took their role in protecting us very seriously. I always felt safe during travel. We always traveled with armed security and a motorcade, which was kind of cool. I will always remember Brazilians as fantastic folks.

One doesn’t get many opportunities like this in life and in sport. I don’t take the last 17 days for granted. For me personally, it came at a bit of a cost in that my schedule does not flex easily to accommodate 16 days away from real work and my business, but we made it work. It only worked because my wife took up all of the slack, as did a few of the folks I work with back in my navy headquarters. Thank you to my dear Teresa, as it is our anniversary today and I am hours from being able to see her and the little brown dog. I am counting the minutes. Thank you to Commander Matt “Burro” Grahl, USN for covering my six back at the Navy so I could come live this wonderful experience. I am blessed in many ways. My time with this team is among the many blessings I enjoy. They, along with Brazil, will be in my heart forever.

Thank you to the All Armed Forces Triathlon Team. They put up with my idiosyncrasies, which are considerable, and they made me laugh until my belly hurt more than once. Rio 2011 is in the books, as is my time with this team. A life experience I will never forget.

Thanks for reading. Train with joy or not at all!
Jonser

Operation Rio De Janeiro: the 5th World Military Games. Post #4

2011-07-23T06:12:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is the big day for the athletes. At the Team Captain meeting last week, the race director stated that unless something strange happened with the weather, the swim should be without wetsuits. But as all things go, we find ourselves with two cold, rainy days leading into tomorrow’s race. It is not a big deal in my mind in that the weather is forecast to be nice tomorrow, it’s just that the water will have cooled with the changing weather and the athletes will begin their day in rubber. For us, there are no worries. All of our athletes brought wetsuits in case we did end up racing in them. There are a few countries like Belgium that are scrambling to find a wetsuit for their third best guy behind Vanhoenacker and Van Lierde (no relation to Luc, although Luc Van Lierde is his coach). I think the Germans are going to hook him with a suit, so he should be good. The Belgian coach and I raced against each other in 2006 and got along great, so to be honest, if I had my rubber here with me, I would loan it to them in a second. Friendship in sport is the CISM motto and if the coaches can’t live it…

I am happy with the draw we got for both the male and female races. The draw is done by computer at the coaches meeting and we drew the furthermost position to the left for the male, which puts us #26 out of 26 teams for the start. The start is a parabola so there is no definitive advantage to any team, other than preference based on ones teams’ strengths. For our females we are third from the left in very similar position to the males. I was excited with this draw as a few of our women are more specialized in biking and running and I was concerned about them getting swallowed up and choked off in the center, were they to have gotten that seed in the drawing.

I genuinely like our chances in this race. Our athletes, unlike a good number of other competitors are all pure “soldiers”, as I heard a euro coach describing his athletes. I was running with the German coach the other evening. We have been saying hello to the other on Alii Drive in Kona for years without formally meeting one another or knowing that we were each involved in military sports as well. He described some of his athletes as “athletes” and the others as “soldiers”. An example on roughly how the conversation went- “We don’t have our athletes here for this race so close to the next WCS (World Cup Series) race, we only brought soldiers”. See, in most competing countries within CISM, conscription, or what the United States calls the Draft, is still in place. This means that every single male has to enter into mandatory service. In many of these countries, that service can be done as an athlete. Along with this, many military men are elites on their own, just as are the members of our team. So when we talk about our team in the same terms as Michael, the German coach, all of our racers are soldiers. With that being said, our soldiers are used to racing on the weekends and then training along with working normal jobs through the week. This means they are always carrying a steady level of fatigue in their bodies. The real advantage of us conducting our 4 day training camp in Annapolis and then having this long period of time here in Rio, is the team was allowed to lay down a pretty solid of work during the first part of this trip and then pull back a little bit and just rest. I am convinced that the team in general will have a breakthrough day tomorrow because of this. Stress then rest equals fast times on Copacabana baby!

I think the cooler times are going to bring some pretty fast times. I am excited to see our top men and women rage, and I am anxious to see the team members that I consider as developing have huge breakthroughs that take them to a new level, which bodes great things for the next few years of Armed Forces and CISM.

It is amazing how attached I get to these kids (and Weasel). I pay very close attention to precisely what each one does in their training each day and can see progress happening on a daily basis. I have run this team very differently than the way other Team Captains are running theirs. Some are very structured in the teams daily activities and run a very tight ship. For those teams and those programs, I think that is spot on. For us, I think allowing the athletes to construct their own training days is to their advantage. I try to always be close by if there are any questions, or someone needs an inspiring swim workout because they are bored with what their personal coach has them scheduled for them that day. For the most part, I think in our team, just being there and being available is the best for the athlete. Having said that, I have become hugely invested in each of these athletes races, and I am secretly very nervous for them. I’m not that fussed about overall placings and team placings. Those things take care of themselves. I am nervous because I want them to all walk away with having the race of their lives, and most importantly, an experience they will remember forever.

This will be a very special race on a very special venue. How many times do you get to race at your limit on the streets of the Copacabana shepherded by a colossal statue of Christ the Redeemer looking down upon ya? It is lining up to be an epic day. That much is for sure. I doubt I will have a voice tomorrow night. I plan at screaming at volume 11 for my team with all I have the entire race.

Thanks for reading,
Jonser

Operation Rio De Janeiro: the 5th World Military Games Post #3

2011-07-22T19:41:00.000-06:00

Tonight I am sitting by the open window with the cool breeze and the smell of rain on asphalt filling the room. Two blocks away there is yet another Brazilian live band playing in the compound. If you have not spent time listening to Brazilian music, you might want to try it. Lovely stuff.

I thought I would talk a little about the female squad we brought with us here to Rio. Our Armed Forces National Champion this year is Air Force Captain Kathy Rakel. Kathy is an Air Force Intelligence Officer stationed in Arizona and lives and trains in the same area with trips to Southern California to train with her coach. This is Kathy’s second National Armed Forces title and first CISM competition. To be honest, I did not know Kathy before this trip. We exchanged hellos at Armed Forces and traded a few emails with details on the trip before this, but we came on this trip as strangers to the other. Kathy has been very single minded in her preparation for this event and has bypassed the sightseeing and touring here in Rio for the most part, so she and I have found ourselves running and swimming a fair amount together in the afternoons here locally. This has given us the opportunity to get to know one another a bit in the last 10 days or so. Kathy is an extremely impressive individual. If one were to look back at her life in her 26 years they would be blown away by her accomplishments. She is the type who only has one speed- full on, and her life shows it. It has been a blast to get to know her and hang with her a bit. Kathy is high speed for sure, but has a lovely, calm, and enjoyable personality that allows you to just hang out and get to know her. We have had a lot of fun just chatting about whatever comes to mind and truly exchanging in conversation. I am excited about watching her race this weekend. A race this size, with the international talent that is present, will be an excellent test for Kathy. I think people are going to be surprised with her performance. I won’t be. I can feel what is coming. Kathy is going to lay down a blistering race and I am going to have a front row seat to watch it.

Air Force Captain Colleen O’Connor and I were on the same CISM team that competed in Sweden in 2006. I actually don’t remember Colleen that well other than her birthday was on one of the days we were there and we did something nice for her. Colleen and I have since reacquainted and I have the honor of personally coaching her and her sister. Colleen is the real deal both in life and in sport. Colleen was the second place female at Armed Forces and is only going to continue to get faster. Colleen is an Air Force pilot and has a very challenging international flight schedule, which can be a huge disruption to her triathlon training. We have managed to come up with a system to keep her training rolling even when she is bouncing around the globe. Colleen is a former NCAA Division 1 swimmer and brings that work ethic to her training. We have also become solid friends along our triathlon journey. Colleen is a blast; she is sweet, intelligent and mature. The world needs more Colleen O’Connors’. Colleen’s training here in Rio has been awesome and I expect her to bust out a big one this weekend. I can’t wait!

Captain Erin O’Conner is the younger sister of Colleen. As I coach both sisters, I would sometimes get them mixed up when I was writing their training schedules, so I started calling them Big O and Lil O. Erin is Lil’O. Other than being a squirt, there is nothing little about Erin O’Connor. She goes big in everything she does. She was actually not even named to the Air Force squad this year, but due to an injury to a teammate, was a last minute addition to the team. So what did she do? She ripped out an amazing race at Armed Forces and finished third female overall! That is how Erin rolls. I love coaching this young woman. As one of my favorite Lieutenants from down in Corpus likes to say-she is legit! It would be wise to not look past Lil’O. She is a beast on the bike and as mentally tough as any athlete I have ever met. I love to get her fired up. I can tell when I am successful because her eyes quickly tighten up just a bit; kind of like how a fire control radar locks a target. I have big plans for this kid. The fun part is I am sure her plans are bigger!

Air Force Staff Sergeant Jolene Wilkinson is an Air Force Reservist and a pro triathlete and personal trainer. Jolene and I met during our time together at the 4th World Military Games in Mumbai, India in 2007. Jolene gets my vote as the athlete most fun to talk with while walking on scary streets. I remember in Mumbai she and I talked our heads off while walking through some scarier parts of Mumbai. The same just happened the other day. After all of the Force Protection Briefs we have received before coming here, a few of us launched out the front gate to head to a grocery store a mile or so away. Jolene and I chatted non-stop the entire way there and back. After I got back, one of the other Team Captains told me that little stretch of road was one of the most dangerous in Rio. Classic. Some leader I turned out to be! Jolene comes into this race extremely fit and healthy. I always enjoy watching her race and Sunday will be no exception.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Laura Springer is no stranger to these higher level competitions. Laura has actually competed in CISM in Swimming and now in triathlon. Laura and I met in Kona in 2009. Laura has also raced on the All-Navy Cross Country team in addition to the other two sports. If you were to ever gone for a swim or run with Laura you would know why she is competing at this level. She is a truly beautiful athlete to watch. Her swim stroke is both graceful and powerful as she slices through the water with authority. Her running is the same. When Laura strides, she bounds from powerful stride to powerful stride with sleekness and grace. As a coach, I sit there and think- geez, that is just beautiful to watch. A pure athlete is how I would describe Laura. It is great to have her here.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Rachel Beckmann is a grad school student in Oregon, getting her masters in Chemical Engineering. This degree goes along with her Electrical Engineering undergraduate degree from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. If you were to read that with nothing else in there, you would never come up with who Rachel really is. She is probably the most intriguing of all these athletes to me. She not only comes with a 400 pound brain, she is also the real deal in multisport. She can go at any distance. I have seen her do good things in both Sweden and Mumbai at ITU military distance and we have also shared the same parts of the lava fields in Kona together. Rachel has a phenomenal sense of humor and my favorite kind of sense of humor. It isn’t the gut busting obvious type of funny ha ha’s. It is the subtle and nuanced observations from someone much wiser than her years. Rachel has impressed me every single international trip we have ventured on together. This trip is no different. I also pity the person that is not her teammate who tries to stay on her wheel on Sunday. Rachel will take them to a new level of difficulty. Rachel hurts people on the bike-males and female alike. One of the other international competitors here was eating lunch with me a couple of days ago and pointed over at Rachel. “Who is she?” he asks me in broken English. I thought he was sweet on her or something so I just said, “that is Rachel” with nothing more than that. “She strong on bike…mean on bike!” That would be Rachel! Rachel is never an athlete I ever wonder whether she is going to have a good day or a bad day. She will go like hell anytime, anywhere, at anything- not just triathlon. That is why I like and respect Rachel as much as I do.

Well, there we go. There are our girls. They are probably the strongest 6 I have seen us put together. I am really looking forward to their race on Sunday. Once I get back to real internet, I will upload a bunch of photos along with team pictures, etc.

Thanks for reading!
Jonser

Operation Rio De Janeiro, the 5th World Military Games- Post #2

2011-07-19T09:29:00.000-06:00

This morning we got up to head over to the site of the swimming for the Pentathletes, as they have a macdaddy 50 meter pool to swim in vs. our 25 meter ice bath. As luck would have it, the competition schedule and our swim practice schedule didn’t jive, so I got to learn a bit about the sport of Pentathlon. Unbeknown to me, the military forces of the world have some of the finest pentathletes in the world, including the USA. The athlete I spent time with this morning was Major Ely Bremmer, USAF, who competed in the 08 Olympic Games. I got to watch him shoot and we walked around the sporting venue and chatted about the sport. Modern Pentathlon is a very interesting combo of horseback riding, fencing, shooting, running and swimming. There is some luck involved in what horse you draw for the competition, but the remainder comes down to just pure athleticism. Imagine running a 1000 meter run as hard as you can go and then picking up a pistol that shoots a laser beam and hit the bulls eye 5 times, and then repeat that two more times over. I am known for a lot of things; being a good shot is not one of them. My pistol marksmanship ribbon aside (I’m sure the range master just felt sorry for me back in the day because all the other ensigns got marksmanship ribbons), but how bad of a shot am I? Let’s just say no animal has ever feared my presence in the woods. I can’t hit a target standing still, much less with a heaving chest from being in oxygen debt after just running hard. So that is what I learned this morning- Pentathlon is a challenging and skilled sport demanding some pretty varied skills from its athletes. Good stuff. I am trying to hit a new sport each day that I know nothing about so I can keep learning. I am going to have to break down and go watch some of the swimming finals, though, as that is clearly my favorite sport besides triathlon to watch.

This morning, I thought I would write a few lines on some of our triathletes we have on the team. The team is comprised of 5 men and 6 women. The Team is selected at the Armed Forces National Championships. We take the top 6 men and women. Unfortunately, one of our males got sick prior to our traveling and could not make the trip.

Lt Col Greg Price, USMC, is a fighter pilot by trade, and like me,a reservist. He has been on active duty for the last 4 years as the Officer in Charge of the Wounded Warrior detachment in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Greg is also an American Airlines pilot and intends to return to the cockpit when he has completed his tour with his current assignment. I have blogged about Greg “Weasel” Price before. Weasel and I duked it out in Kona in 09 (there is a blog about it if you go back to my October 09 Kona race report on the blogsite). Weasel and I get the opportunity to train together when I am on Honolulu layovers, he is just a super dude. I am glad he is here representing.

Major James Bales, USAF, is our Armed Forces National Champion this year and should do quite well on race day, which will be on the 24th of July. James is a former NCAA Division 1 swimmer, pro triathlete, and when he is not doing that, he is an orthopedic surgeon at the Air Force Academy. I could start kicking out his sports and professional resume, but that would be a series of posts all by itself. Just know that James is one of those dudes who are good at everything. Great athlete, scary smart, and one of the most genuine and nicest guys you would ever want to meet. He and I have traveled abroad to races before and I always look forward to our chats.

LTJG Derek Oskutis, USN, and I first met by phone when he was a midshipman at the Naval Academy and was the Captain of the Naval Academy Triathlon Team. Derek is 24 or so and is a great young man. He is fresh out of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training and is also a ranked pro triathlete who has time racing on the international scene. He is a ball of energy and literally cannot sit still. I crack up every time I look over at him, because he is always swinging his arms, snapping his fingers, wiggling his legs, something is always moving on this kid. He has a thousand ideas about a thousand things and is just going full on the entire time he is awake. I get energy from Derek and it is great to have him around. He has a bright future doing whatever it is he will do in life, triathlon or other. His parents should be very proud of who he is and how much he has achieved in his 24 years on this planet.

Capt Scott Tonder is an Air Force physiologist who is on his way to medical school in the coming weeks after this competition. I had never met Scotty before this trip. We ran an hour or so on the track together the other day and yacked our heads off. He is going places and he does it with enthusiasm and a natural curiosity that will serve him well. He is a phenomenal athlete on top of all his other talents. I am anxious to see how life treats this fine young guy. He is having a blast here in Rio and is taking it all in, as he should be.

Brad Pigage is a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer based in Houston, Texas. As a former enlisted man in the navy, I have a special place in my heart for the young enlisted studs that do good things in our force. Brad, or B-Rad as he is known by some, inspires me. He is a hard working athlete who has a very bright future in our sport. I make no bones about it- he is my favorite athlete on the team. I love to see young dudes always doing their best, and that is Brad. He wants to be the very best he can be all the time. I especially appreciate his military bearing and self possessed nature. He is mature beyond his years, as all these guys are, but he has a specialness to him that makes me excited about his future. I expect nothing but great things coming from B-Rad, both in the sport and in his career. He is by far the most excited about being here at his first international competition. He should get comfortable-he will see more of these CISM’s and World Games for sure. I am ecstatic he made this team- he races the way men should race.

I will cover the females in a separate post. Most of the athletes are finished with their training for the day and are off to see some sites or watch some events. I have come down with a small cold (I think I got a chill from training in the ice bath), so I am keeping my distance from these guys and getting in a little training of my own to stay fit and get back to being healthy.

Thanks for reading-
Jonser

Operation Rio De Janeiro: the 5th World Military Games- Post #1

2011-07-18T18:26:00.000-06:00

This whole Rio adventure began sometime last summer when the All-Navy Endurance sports coach, Jim Felty, called me and told me that he would not be able to attend the World Military Games in Brazil as he had family commitments that precluded him from making the trip. I was honored that he would think of me, and so that is how I find myself on this wonderful journey as the Team Captain of the All Armed Forces Triathlon Team.

This adventure started last weekend in Annapolis with a 4 day training camp for the athletes. It actually turned out really well. The athletes turned up fit and ready to roll straight out of the gate. We got in some great swims at the Naval Academy pool and some terrific group rides on a loop that one of the Naval Academy grads taught us. We trained through the day and ate as a team at night. It was a ton of fun. The weather was rocking and that just made it all the sweeter. I have been to Annapolis before, but have never spent much time there. If for some reason I had to work in DC, I would live in Annapolis. It reminds me of Coronado, California with a traditional east coast vibe. It is truly a lovely place.
Our trek to Brazil was a 25 hour adventure with a serious bag drag in there. We were loaded down with bikes, wheels, two weeks of gear, Team USA garbalia, the works. I don’t think I have ever lugged that much stuff from one place to another by air. This was even after I packed a box of things I didn’t think I would need after Annapolis and sent it home! We flew to Miami and then after a 5 hour sit we flew to Rio where we sat for another three and a half hours before we were bused to the Athletes Village.

Have you ever shown up at a friend’s BBQ or party an hour or so early by accident and they were expecting you but they aren’t truly prepared for your arrival? That is what it was like for us getting here on the 13th. Rooms weren’t ready, no food for the first 5 to 6 hours, no hot water- the list goes on. We were roughing it for a bit and we were wondering if the Brazilians were going to be able to conduct a sporting event of this magnitude. It was so bad that the Chinese athletes literally slept along the road outside the Athlete Village and the Chileans slept on the bus that brought them from the airport. We have since come to learn that the contracting company in charge of throwing this shindig walked off the job 10 days prior to the athletes arrival here at the Village. Can you imagine? Here is where I have to just take my hat off to the Brazilians and the delegation as a whole. 10 days prior they get left high and dry and by four days into our stay all systems are go.

When we first arrived, we ate beans and rice along with chicken, coffee and bananas with some different assortments of bread for all three meals. We now have the full spread of plentiful choices, and gifts at the door in the morning when we arrive at the dining facility! God Bless em. It gets a little better every day and we are having a fantastic experience.

I will post more in the coming days now that we have hot water, wireless, viable training venues, and all the other basics that make a two week visit to this wonderful country memorable.

More later…

A rest infused stream of consciousness on work, goals, and retirement.

2011-04-30T07:51:00.000-06:00

The title of my blog is random thoughts, revelations, and crazy crap that seem to occupy that space between my ears. My time down here in St Croix, including the day of travel, has left me with a few days to just think and rest. I have been thinking a lot about my good fortune. I am one of the most fortunate guys in the world in that I have three gigs that I absolutely love. It has been said that if you have a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life. I totally embrace that statement and it has been true for me.

I love all three of my gigs for different reasons. I love flying for United Airlines. I have wanted to be a pilot since I was 7 years old. I’m not making that up. It isn’t an embellishment. It is the truth. I have always loved airplanes and have always wanted to fly them. I literally used to dream of being a United Airlines pilot. When I was a kid, my parents were divorced and I would travel with my little brother from one parent to the other. We would always fly on United Airlines to Denver and then fly Continental to Houston. The pilots used to pull us up to the flight deck and give us the tour. I remember them asking me if I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up. Well, it worked out for me. United has been wonderful to me and I have loved it.

I could have never done any of the things in my life were it not to have been for the Navy. I quit high school and enlisted in the navy when I was 17 years old. I have done everything from clean toilets to serve food in the wardroom, to all the other grungy lower level jobs that young enlisted men do in their first years in the service. I even bucked hay on a working party in Memphis, Tennessee! I have also tracked Soviet airplanes and ships back in the day as an 18 year old electronics warfare technician. I have flown or traveled by ship all over the world thanks to the navy. They paid for my education both undergraduate and graduate school. I have been in the same room as the President of the United States three times in my life. I have sat in the White House Press Secretary’s office. I have flown in 20+ different types of airplanes and done some really cool things. Now I get to pay back for all of those incredible opportunities in a leadership role where I get to set the stage for some to live out some of the same experiences that have come my way. I do a lot of navy as a reservist- and love every single second of it.

A lot of guys think of making rank as something that is a reward to them. I look at that one differently. Ribbons and medals are awarded for what you or your unit has done. Rank is bestowed with a trust based on what they believe you will do in the future. I was quite chuffed when I made 0-6 because it meant that the number of years I could serve would be increased to 30 years commissioned service (36 years for me due to my enlisted years). I now get to bang around this place for 7 more years and work as hard as I can to look out after the next generation of the navy. Of all my gigs, being a navy guy is my absolute favorite. T and I were talking about it over lunch yesterday when I was clacking away on my iphone answering emails. She asked me if I ever get tired of working. No. I don’t. I love technology for that reason. I can be in St Croix preparing for a race and at the same time staying engaged, so that nothing slips through the cracks. I also have a dynamo of a staff that are smarter than me and have my back 24/7. In a crowd like that, I never get tired of working- because to me it isn’t work, it is service. It puts a whole different spin on it.

My third gig is the coaching thing. I sometimes refer to myself as the accidental coach. I started coaching friends of mine, literally on the back of bar napkins in pubs laying out a basic week structure for dudes. I remember one time drawing out a mitochondrial cell in a bar in Ecuador, with a dull pencil, explaining how the cell works and why it is important in endurance exercise. I absolutely love this stuff! That gravitated to sending out Monday emails with a layout of what my buddies might want to consider when getting their training in week to week. Mitch Gold with Counterpart coaching took it from there when he gave me the opportunity to coach with CpC in 2005. Mitch taught me how to coach and how to throw camps. For that, I will forever be in his debt.

In 2008, I ventured out on my own fearing that my coaching journey might draw to a close due to being in grad school and launching into marriage with T. I had no idea that it would blossom so fully into a genuine coaching enterprise with T as my partner, and having a few coaches come onboard to share with us the opportunity to build the IMJ tribe. I still can’t believe I am rolling down this coaching journey enjoying it as much as I am.

It is amazing how much I learn each day from both the navy and coaching. To be honest and blunt, United Airlines is a union gig. I fly revenue trips for a corporation. I have an employee file number that is six digits long and a union member number. I communicate with a computer for my schedule, I fly the trip, and a paycheck arrives. I rarely fly with the same person twice, there is very little camaraderie, and I will only progress as far as my seniority (based on my date of hire) allows. I still love it, as this profession allows me to do so many things other career paths do not, but it is what it is. We aren’t exactly curing cancer over there at the big U.

I learn new skill sets every day in the navy. I think my favorite thing about the reserves is the growth that is necessary in order to successfully take on each of the new roles that have come my way every couple of years. At this level in leadership, if you don’t grow and continue to develop; you will be gently ushered toward retirement. I love that about the navy reserves and the navy in general. You are never done learning and growing. It never gets easy, and the next challenge is on its way as we speak. I heard a phenomenal quote from a woman we met at breakfast yesterday morning here in St Croix. Susan Quinby spends an appreciable amount of her winter here and is a faculty member at Barnard College at Columbia University in New York City. She quoted her mother when she said “if you rest, you rust.” After watching my grandfather take his own life at 85 because he was literally bored to death (my opinion), I have just become very comfortable with the thought that I will never retire from working. My roles and gigs will inevitably change over the years, but I don’t ever intend to stop working. I just don’t see any reason to go heels up, wear sansabelt slacks pulled up to my nipples and white tennis shoes, play golf (a fat white guys plague if you ask me), and sit around watching network news bitching about stuff that probably doesn’t affect me, is half true and that I don’t fully understand, just because I am bored out of my grape.

Coaching is an example to me about how much I have to learn in this life. I say it again. I have so much to learn. I have so much to do. I am only partly aware of how much I still need to learn, because I think there is truth in the axiom that “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

On things that I need to learn, the business side of coaching has probably been my biggest challenge. I have always been very uncomfortable talking with folks about money. I suspect it is because I was raised poor by a single mother. We needed help from the government in the way of welfare (working welfare, my mother has always had a job and worked her ass off). As a boy, I was very aware of our situation and was embarrassed by it. I think because of this, I get very reticent to raise the issue of money, even when it is for services paid in the way of coaching. Just learning from Teresa how to go about that, as well as how to advertise a business, build a website, develop product, search engine optimization, set up a social media site, etc., has been huge. I am much more comfortable in talking training protocols, methodology, and things like sports science. The business side of IMJ has made me so much more aware on how business in America works. It is a recurring theme both with the navy, my coaching, and my journey as an athlete- there is just so much to work on, whether it is in the way of training hard and continuing to improve as an athlete, or learning more about how to be more effective in making my athletes get faster, or working hard to more fully understand how to most effectively provide leadership and impact to the navy folks with whom I work. I love the prospect of the challenges that lie ahead!
So there it is. That is what has been rumbling around in my brain the last three days. I would quickly state that I am having a glorious time with my wife, best friend, lover, and training partner. I just absolutely love traveling to races with Teresa. Everybody deserves someone that loves them completely. I am in that situation with Teresa. No one is more content with that thought than me. Blessed.

If you survived that rambling stream of consciousness- hope it was worth it.

Cheers.

Jonser

Armed Forces National Championships 2011

2011-04-29T07:32:00.001-06:00

If you are going to wear the big N, you better represent!

After my last blog post prior to the Armed Force race, I had intended to get right back to writing on how the race went down. As things go, I charged full speed ahead back into life and did not kick out a proper report on our day in Southern California.

WHY I LOVE NAVY SPORTS

Armed Forces National Championships is a very special event, and is like no other race. I have done this race a number of times over the last decade and have to count it as one of my absolute favorites. The first time I ever competed at Armed Forces was in 2003; before this race was draft legal ITU. In 2002, I saw this sign over the water fountain in a navy gym advertising all the sports that take place in All Navy Sports. I was brand new in the sport and was in love with all things triathlon. I saw triathlon as one of the sports, and decided to give the Navy Sports guy a call. He was a really nice guy by the name of John Hickok. He explained the All-Navy process to me, and encouraged me to apply the following year.

I applied for the All-Navy team in 2003 with a race resume of a whopping two races- a 2:11 Olympic distance and my 10:48 first ironman. Navy sports did not select me to the team that year, but invited me down to race in the open division. I leapt at the chance, and obviously all these years later, I am glad I did. That week with the navy team did so much in motivating me to want to do more in the sport and in the navy. I was surrounded by all these young SEALs, pilots, Seabees, submariners, and divers. Among these young navy studs was a 22 year old triathlon phenom from the U.S. Naval Academy by the name of Ensign Timothy O’Donnell. Even though I was an alternate and not a “real” navy team member, I never noticed. The navy team is an inclusive deal. If you are navy-then you are a part of this team. They included me in everything, gave me free shoes, race gear and loaded me in the van with everyone else. Man was I hooked on All-Navy Sports after that! I did my part during the race and finished as the 6th overall navy guy, which got me a spot on the following year’s team. To this day I am in touch with more than half of the members on that 2003 team, and count it as one of my fondest memories in the sport.

There is a reason that All-Navy Triathlon is as strong a program as it is. It hinges on a couple of legacy players who have given tirelessly to this team for over a decade. The primary stakeholder on this team is an inspirational individual by the name of Commander James Felty, USN (retired). Jim was an elite distance runner back when Carter was president, and has been competitive since. He still winds it up in an ironman or two each year. Jim is the flag bearer of this program, and I am convinced it would not even be a team without him. Jim is easy to love and respect. I think any kid who gets the opportunity to race for Jim on the Navy team has the same opinion. Not only are Jim’s accomplishments as an athlete astounding, his journey through the navy ranks is even more so. Jim made his way through the entire enlisted ranks all the way through Master Chief (that is the top for enlisted guys), and then started on the bottom rung of the officer ranks and made it all the way to retiring with scrambled eggs on his hat (the gold braid you see on the navy hat of senior officers). Jim is even a more impressive person in his personal life as the father of four. He is so dedicated to his kids that he is bypassing the opportunity to be the All-Armed Forces coach in Brazil to take his teenage son on a coveted hiking trip.

The second pillar to the Navy Sports triathlon program is a civilian gentleman by the name of Mr. Kent Blankenship. Kent was the race director of the Armed Forces race for a decade and is also the U.S. member that travels overseas representing us on the world’s sports scene, as well as being the coach in Kona for us military types for many years. Kent has moved on to other challenges, but his thumbprint will forever be etched on All-Navy Triathlon. It has been an honor to be on 9 or so All-Navy Teams. It was the support of these two gentlemen, along with a cast of others like Mr. Bill Marx, who as an executive for the Navy Exchange, has kept us navy boys in running shoes and apparel for a decade. Former Navy Sports director Mr. Donald Golden and current director Mr. James Senn do so much for these navy kids. The details of supporting a team each year both at the ITU Olympic distance and fielding an Ironman Team, along with all the support that goes with it, is a maze of details. I have been blessed to be a part of an organization that has enjoyed the full support and dedication of these wonderful men.

As we go forward, I hope that I can begin to pay back for all the years of good racing I have enjoyed with the letters NAVY across my chest. I know for a fact that there are more than a couple of races that I probably could have been talked into walking or quitting were it not for the weight of the big NAVY on my tri kit that kept me hammering all the way to the line. I always say that when you sport the big N, you better represent.

THE RACE

As I wrote in my last post, the race week weather was cold and windy. I had very low expectations for the race weather, but we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t warm, but it was warm enough. One of the benefits of this race is the transition area is literally 300 meters out my hotel room door. I lay on my bed under the covers until 40 minutes before the race. I racked my bike, got marked, slid into my wetsuit and walked over to the beach. I passed on the opportunity to get in and warm up. I just hopped up and down a few times and boom, we were off. The water was the coldest I have ever encountered in a race. It was somewhere between 52 and 54 degrees. It was that kind of stinging cold that just hurts. I got out through the surf and started swimming hard. As I came around the first buoy, the cold just kind of brought my arm swing to a slow grind. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to move my arms, but as I went numb, things improved. I have to admit that I swam a terrible first lap. My navigation was terrible, my arm speed was terrible, I was just basically stinking up the place with bad racing. Fortunately for me things improved on the second lap. I got out after the first lap, ran around the buoy and then back into the surf. I was swimming right next to one of my favorite members of the navy squad, Sam Dannenbrang. Sam is a talented young elite age grouper who will go pro in the coming years. You will recognize his name before long. Sam has a perpetual smile on his face, even when he is swimming. He breaths to his left, I to my right, so we just sat there swimming along eye balling each other. It helped me to find my rhythm and I was able to get my swim mojo back. I swam a fantastic second lap and came out of the water pretty happy with things overall.

My T1 was as terrible as my first lap in the swim. I struggled with my wetsuit and lost the group with whom I had swum. For those who know ITU racing, this was death for me as I had just lost the big boy group I needed for the bike. I got out and going on the bike and bridged up to navy teammate Bill “SPIG” Reid. He, I and an army kid who didn’t want to work got on our way. I was able to gently cajole and convince the army kid that it was in his interest to go hard with us. He was slow to respond, but the beauty of being old in a young man’s world is I know how young dude’s brains work. I literally pushed him into his pull a couple of times when I needed to recover. I barked and threw out a couple of “Jonserisms” that got him thinking his physical safety might be at risk if he didn’t take his pulls. He did fine after that and my threats turned to encouragement when he started to suffer later in the ride. We continued to gobble up packs in front of us and we ended up with 4 navy dudes plus me in a pack of 10 or so. As I was racing open division this year and not a scoring member for Navy, I did my best to take a lot of pulls and make something of them so that the navy boys could come off the bike with running legs. There were a couple of Air Force guys who benefited from my bigger , longer pulls as well, but the Air Force guys took their fair share of pulls, so nothing but respect for those cats.

We came off the bike in a big pack and launched on the run. The navy boys in my pack did some terrific running to do their best against a phenomenal Air Force squad who raced intelligently and honorably all day. Air Force won the overall championship as well as the individual championship by an impressive pro named James Bales, an Air Force orthopedic surgeon. We in the navy hate to lose, but if we are going to lose to anyone, Captain James Bales, USAF, is one I like to see do well. He was the bridesmaid for a lot of years while Tim O’Donnell reigned for 5 years as the Armed Forces National Champion. James continued to race tough all those years and is the epitome of what we should be in our sport. I look forward to spending time in Brazil with James.

I got home fine and ran my standard 40 min 10k off the bike. The reality for me is in order for me to ever be successful at this distance I have to run faster. I continue to improve and am optimistic that I will. The question is will I be able to improve enough on the run to ever make the navy team again at this distance. I think I will. The reason I say this in my blog is a lot of folks who read this have the same question about their own performances. Everyone wonders if they will improve, and if so, will they improve to the point that they are truly satisfied. For me, there would be no reason for me to continue in the sport if I didn’t truly believe I could. There are a lot of choices on how I can spend my days. If I am going to dedicate this much time to our sport, I want to be the absolute best athlete I can be. With running as my limiter, I need to continue to focus on it like I have the last few years. My 6 min pr on the run in Kona prove to me that I can in fact keep getting faster.

I enjoyed this race more than I have in the past. I think a big part of it was due to the members of this year’s team. There are some extraordinary young guys wearing NAVY these days. We have some really impressive pro triathletes in Derek Oskutis, Kyle Hooker and Brad Pigage. We have a cast of spectacular age groupers to back up those boys in Sam Dannenbrang, Mike Brown, Zach Poehlman, John Marinovich, Cam Loos and Jay Calvert. There are a couple of others that I am just forgetting, so please forgive me.

I was swimming the other day and I was carrying on a conversation with myself (as I tend to do on longer, harder sets) about why I liked this year’s team so much more than normal. The answer is easy. The 2011 Navy Team is full of phenomenal athletes, but they are even better people. These dudes, by any metric you want to apply, are just amazing human beings. I loved just being in their midst, listening to their conversations and laughter. I am blessed with the opportunity.

Now as Teresa and I fly south toward St Croix, the triathlon adventure continues. Armed Forces Nationals woke up my body and my last three weeks of training have been very solid. I don’t know if it will show up this soon in St Croix, but it will be fun to race there, regardless of the result. I plan on going balls out the whole way as a good training day. I hope for good things. Teresa is starting to come right, and if her tempo run on Sunday is any indication, everybody better just stand by. The Pocket Rocket is getting ready to lay it down.

I’ll try to post some small narratives on our experience in St Croix. We had a magical time last year, and hope for the same this year.

Train with joy or not at all!

Jonser

Armed Forces National Championships Prelude 2011

2011-04-09T16:52:00.000-06:00

Some fast young men getting ready to whip it up.

It is 13 minutes before the transition area opens for the 2011 Armed Forces National Championships. It is cold here (by my standards) in that it is less than 60 degrees and the water is sub 55 degrees. Ocean swims are always daunting, but cold ocean swims are even more so. Yesterday the navy team went for a dip in the ocean, and I skipped it. No need to practice bleeding to remind ones’ self that bleeding is bad.

We have a stacked team here this year. I am not a short course ITU rules kind of athlete, but have had success in this venue before as well as in Sweden as a member of Team USA. This year, I did not submit an application, but truth be told, I was about number 15 with the numbers selected being at 12 men, 6 women. Fortunately, as one who has been here a lot, they invite me out of professional courtesy and allow me a role on the team as well as invite me to race in the open division. I love it because I get to be around all of this great energy and get in my first race of the year to start knocking off the rust of an all-too work intensive off season with not enough training. With a camp in Lodi last month and showing up here tired from 4 days of good training in Phoenix, I feel like I am starting to make strides toward some sort of real fitness. This race of two hours at my limit will be a nice piece of specific stress to continue to help me build that race fitness I am looking for with a couple of races in June being a target for me.
In one of my blogs last month, I mentioned that I doubted that I would race this year. I skipped a season of racing in 2007 during my year as commanding officer of my squadron, and while I loved my navy job, I was miserable because I had taken something out of my life that I truly love- racing triathlons. I know that my training will be compromised over the next two years in my current navy job, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t race. I love racing regardless of how fast or slow I go. Given the choice, I would rather go fast, but I will take what I can get. At a very basic level, I am just blessed to be healthy enough to train and race. I never forget that. This year will be what it will be, but I will continue to live like a champion and put that champion spirit in everything I do. This year I will also focus on fully supporting Teresa toward another Kona victory, as well as continuing to build the IMJ Coaching tribe.

I can tell this race is a different race for me as it is an hour before the race and I am sitting in my room on my bed blogging instead of warming up and going over my bike with a fine tooth comb. There is just something about being inside warm vs. outside being cold that is very appealing to me right now! I guess I should grow a pair and get moving toward the race. I will follow this up with a full race report and some insights on the race, the week with the navy athletes, and a little about what I pondered on in our hard 5 day block of work in Phoenix earlier this week. It is not necessarily a good thing to come into a prestigious race like this tired from training, but it is much better on the nerves, as usually in years past at this race, I was crawling out of my skin 90 minutes before a race. Today I just want to go race at my limit, not embarrass myself in front of these kids, represent my service and my country, live up to my rank, and be the best ambassador for our sport that I can be. If I zing out a respectable race along with that, awesome. If not, I will take notes on things I need to improve upon, pack up my bike, go have a beer with the other navy coach, and start back training hard tomorrow. Ok, now I gotta go as they are getting close to closing transition! Pain is temporary, but it is a lovely way to test a dudes' character. I will report back soon.

Jonser

March Lodi Camp Conclusion

2011-03-23T10:22:00.000-06:00

After the longer ride on Thursday, Friday’s early morning ride was intended to be mellow and just help us absorb the miles from the previous days. With the threat of rain looming, we clipped in a bit earlier than normal and got out on the road. Everyone was in good spirits and we moved along purposefully through the vineyards.

After a short coffee stop in Walnut Grove, the tribe mounted up and we began our trek back home. Bob and I were a bit concerned about the dark clouds and wanted to get closer to Lodi as soon as possible, as the weather looked better back that way. I think I had this in mind when I went to the front and set the pace for the return. After about 15 minutes the winds started to really pick up. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor, nor did I have my power meter attached, so I was just riding based on perceived exertion. I was fortunate to wake up Friday morning with good legs and before I knew it I was unintentionally putting some in the group in difficulty with a few unhinging off the back. Zach, ever the diplomat, stomped up to me and told me that he just got gapped driving 350 watts and I might want to mellow out before a mutiny takes place.

That is the thing with strong direct crosswinds; they don’t provide much protection for those on your wheel. Any unanticipated surges can make it difficult for folks to stay in the group. I was actually a little embarrassed that I had accidentally ridden some folks off my wheel. Truth be told, I pride myself in setting a very steady and manageable tempo when pulling. I love to be on the front pulling the peloton for hours at a time. I was working very hard at this point to keep the group together, yet still get down the road, as I was concerned about the rain getting to us before we got home. After 14 years of living in the Pacific Northwest and training in the rain more than I like to remember, I hate riding in the rain. I mean not just a little, a whole lot! Feel free to refer to my 2010 Kona race day post to see how it screws with my grape.

So there I am pulling the crew with the pocket rocket (wife) riding next to me. She still wasn’t over my putting her in difficulty a while back and she came to the front to tell me all about it. The wind was rocking her world and she was tired from the previous day’s long ride, along with general fatigue from the entire week. I tried to make small talk with her to raise her spirits and get her to not be so mad at me for my honest mistake, but she was having none of it. She looked over at me, told me to shut up, and then she shook her tiny little bony fist at me! Ah, the married life on the bike- just a little piece of heaven…with small pockets of pain. The trial of miles and the miles of trials, as a friend likes to say.

So we survived the “easy” ride and off on the brick run we went. Everyone ran their own pre-assigned program and the Friday training day was in the books. Friday afternoon was a relaxing afternoon of downtime where folks could chill, break down their bikes, and get a massage or whatever they wanted to do after a long week of training.

The last evening at camp was terrific. Bob hosted dinner for us at the Fields Family Winery. It is quite the opportunity to hang out in a small family winery and taste the good stuff, along with eat fantastic Mexican food. It also happened to be Sal’s 47th birthday so the crew got the opportunity to sing happy birthday and hang out. A fantastic time was had by all and it was the perfect end to a lovely camp.

Saturday morning we got up early one last time to swim, which was the final workout of the camp. I stayed on deck and coached the swim with lots of stroke work, drills and video taping of the campers. I very much enjoy coaching from the deck after swimming with the athletes all week. I like to check out the camper’s stroke from underneath the water during our training sets and offer corrections each day, but it is great to watch them from above as well, as some things are more obvious from the deck. I also like to make sure each athlete goes home with drills that are specific to the issues they need to address in their stroke. Doing these types of sessions at the end of camp is ideal as we are able to keep the workload mellow and short while focusing on swimming pretty.

So that was it. Our 7 day camp jammed by and was over in the blink of an eye. We amassed 15,000 to 20,000 yards (depending on the individual) in the pool, rode approximately 250 miles, and ran approximately 4.5 hours all in one week of glorious fun. As much as Bob, T and I worried about the rain, we escaped most of it and we got in every training session that was on the schedule. I saw folks dramatically improve through the week and every single athlete got stronger as the camp rolled on. That tells me that we applied the proper amount of stress in the right doses throughout our week together. I have been to camps where everyone leaves shredded and 70 percent of the athletes got sick in the following 10 days. I don’t want that to be what our camps are about.

Our camps are not tough guy camps. There are other camps that do a better job with that type of athlete. I say it all the time that it isn’t about how much an athlete can endure, it is about how much an athlete can absorb. If somebody wants to lay down the kind of volume that they can brag about in their blogs, then our camps are probably not for you. You can see by our weekly workload that we aren’t setting any records in volume, miles or duration. What we are doing is getting the athlete to train right up to the optimum level of performance to where they can recover every day and come out and have a good day the next day. We all get tired, but we get tired the right way with specific fatigue, properly applied stress, and then we are done. We don’t take athletes deep into uncharted territory. Having said this, our athletes are challenged by the week, and for some, they do hit daily records in terms of yardage and miles, but they are sane milestones that were reached with a specific intent in mind.

This collaborative effort with Bob Korock turned out to be a wonderful experiment. Teresa and I are control freaks when it comes to our camps and we were very leery of working with another coach without being able to control all the variables of the camp. We came away even better friends with Bob, and could not have enjoyed our time with him more. He was so responsive in this effort and we not only enjoyed coaching a camp with him, we enjoyed deepening an already solid friendship as well.

When Teresa and I first decided to start coaching camps, we had a lot of obstacles to overcome. Camps are harder than they look, and it takes an enormous amount of coordination and planning to do them right. Also, there are a significant amount of resources that are involved. IMJ Coaching is absolutely blessed to have the full camp sponsorship of Hammer Nutrition. Steve Born and Kendra Powell of Hammer make sure we have everything we need, and their soup to nuts sponsorship make it possible for us to do what we love to do. It is even more amazing that Hammer signed on to sponsor us before we had ever even put on our first camp. I will never forget this and will always be loyal to Hammer Nutrition. I can say the same for Albert Boyce and Coffees of Hawaii. Albert has supported IMJ with his coffee from the day I started out on my own and there is only one coffee we will be serving at our camps.

Most importantly, it goes without saying that camps would not happen if it were not for athletes who come to them. Thank you so much to Sal Lancaster, Michelle Schwartz, Zach Poehlman, Rosie Barnes, Stu Gibson and Josh Vincent for taking time out of their busy lives to come do it up in the vineyards of Lodi. I learn and grow from every camp in which I get the opportunity to participate. This one was no exception. I got to train hard, hang out with awesome human beings, and learn a lot about myself. I count this experience as yet another blessing in an enormously blessed life.

Train with joy or not at all!

Thanks for reading.
Jonser

March Lodi Camp Day 4

2011-03-18T23:32:00.000-06:00

Today’s ride turned out to be one of the best rides I have been a part of in a camp. After another attack on Panera Bread Co., we clipped in a little after 9am and headed out as a peloton of 10. The first 90 minutes to 2 hours was just a comfortable 2 x 2 pack cruising out on these beautiful Lodi countryside roads. We made our way through the vineyards and headed north toward the Rancho Seco Nuclear plant. We cruised along highway 104 toward Ione where we stopped for water and whatever anyone needed to take onboard before we got into the climbing.

At the Ione stop there were these two Irish Setters that hung out with us on the curb. The owner quickly appeared and had to show us what good dogs his guys were. He would put nuts down in front of them and they would stare intently at him waiting on his every word. He would say eat…they wouldn’t move. He would say Bella…they wouldn’t move. He said some words in Japanese…they wouldn’t move. He then whispers Bon Appetit! Boom! They were on those nuts like a hobo on a ham sandwich. It was pretty awesome and it kept us entertained. So what does that have to do with long rides and triathlon? Everything. There is a lot to see in this world, and tooling around on your bike for 7 hours at a pop gives a guy the opportunity to stop, hang out in a small town in Northern California, and take a look around. It isn’t every day you hang out with dogs that speak French. I just dig stuff like that.

After watering up, we pressed into the lumpy part of the ride with plenty of hills to suffer in for a few hours. As soon as the roads turned into windy hills, a few of us boys ratcheted things up and got in some good climbing. I was easily the least fit of the three of us off the front that had decided to point our noses uphill. Zach and Mark are both tough boys in the mountains and I rode at my limit to stay with them most of the day. They got away from me during a piece, but I was proud of myself to keep them in view. There is nothing like some climbing for a couple of hours to expose whatever weaknesses you have been hiding in the flats. I sat on my LT (Lactate threshold) and higher during the climbs. It felt good to get in some hard work. That is exactly what I was hoping would happen this week.

The peloton did some really good work through the lumpy parts as well, and we all popped out the other side into Sutter Creek happy and tired. We continued our day around the back roads of San Joaquin Valley checking out some unbelievable horse farms, reservoirs, dams, waterfalls, and some of the nicest riding roads I have ever ridden. There is a European countryside feeling to a lot of this part of California, and the training is just wonderful. At around the 5 hour mark, we stopped for some water and coke, and then rode back as a pack. On the way back, a few of the boys separated off the front and booked it hard for the house. Right then one of the tribe got a flat, so we stopped and fixed it. We then rode the last 25 miles home very controlled, and as a team, minus the three who had gone off the front like they had stolen something. I got to thinking during this time that this is such a smart way to train. I see a lot of groups that drill it from stem to stern in their training, and that is why they go home fried and end up sick. We drilled it during the times we were supposed to and then brought things back into the sane range and continued to get good stuff in, while not blowing ourselves to bits at the end of the day. It was really evident to me at dinner that we had done it right. Everyone was a bit baked from the ride, but nobody was drooling into their salad.

So like I said; today’s ride was easily one of the best training rides I have been on. 103 miles of tough guy riding, 5,000’ of elevation gain, over 6 hours of riding with a little under 7 in the saddle (with stops, flats, etc). Days like today make me fall in love with my sport all over again. This is why I do this stuff. I love to turn myself inside out to see what is there and then when happy with the result, cruise around beautiful countryside with beautiful people talking about beautiful things. This is what I call training with joy.

Bon Appetit’!

Jonser

March Lodi Camp – Day 3

2011-03-16T22:41:00.001-06:00

We woke up to rain this morning and we decided to push the big ride until tomorrow. Teresa had coordinated a big fancy breakfast with the hotel, so we got off to a great start by pounding down some big calories to keep us rolling through the day. I have already gone on about this hotel. Today was the same story. Love it.

We got to the pool around 9 this morning and we decided that with no big bike staring us in the face it was time to get in some real swimmin’! We were joined this morning by another one of my athletes, Josh Vincent. Josh has been with us for a few years. I have blogged about him in the past. I love this kid and it is always a treat to have him at the camps. He is also the designer of our logo. He has so much talent and maturity at 32 years old.

Bob’s athlete, Mark Petrofiesa, was able to drop in for a couple of days of training. Mark is one of the best 45-49’rs in the world. He is known for being able to go hard every day, all day. I wrote about him in a blog back in 09 in Kona. Mark and I rode the entire Kona bike portion together this last year. It is great to have him here to train with us for a couple of days. Mark is sharpening up for Oceanside in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on him. He is the real deal.

So back to swimming- the distance for the swim varied from 5,000 yds for a few, with Josh and I knocking out 6,700 yards of fun. The workout was a warm up of 600 free, 4 x 100 on 5 RI, 4 x 50 and a main set of 500 on 5 RI, 5 x 150’s on 5 RI, 5 x 150’s, 400, 4 x 150’s, 4 x 50’s, 300, 3 x 150’s, 3 x 50’s, 200, 2 x 150’s, 2 x 50’s, 200, 350, 250 pull, 150, 2 x 125.

I like the vibe camps get when you get all 8 people rolling through the sets in the pool. It is a neat sound to just hear the hand hits on the water and the splashing of flip turns. It is kind of a hypnotic type of drumbeat that plays on for an hour and a half or so. I get a lot of good thinking in those times. I suffered today through the middle of the set. With fresh arms on Josh and Mark showing up, the tempo was just a touch richer and I could feel it within about 1200 yds that I was going to struggle a bit today. A lot of triathletes like to brag about their yardage and mileage. That is not my intent here as volume just for volumes’ sake doesn’t mean much in our sport. I am only relating what is going on here in Lodi, so the reader gets a feel for what is going down.

There is something that happens when I suffer in training. I don’t back off or slow down, as getting tired through specific stimulus is what I am looking for to create the space for an adaptation to take place, and for my fitness to improve. With that suffering, I am forced to go to what I call “flat mind”. When I am building fitness, I tend to push back against the discomfort/pain at first and then after awhile I can calm down and just let the pain sit in there without spending so much time trying to push it away. Kind of hard to relate that if you haven’t suffered in training for an extended period of time. It isn’t an exercise in masochism; it is just another way to physically be comfortable being uncomfortable. While I am in that state, it is kind of interesting in that I can create a mental state of total calm, even though I am suffering. It is in those moments that I get really clear on a lot of things. I think that is one of the attractions for me in training and racing as a lifestyle. I tend to have an inside voice that is always chattering away kind of like a sports announcer rambling out the play by play as the day goes on. Getting deep in training and spending time suffering tends to make my brain go quiet and in that space of no chatter, I am able to really dial in on specific things I am trying to work through. This paragraph might not make sense to some, but it is what it is.

After the swim, Bob took us to probably the best deli I have ever visited. The food was terrific and the service was even better. A few around the table had that thousand yard stare that you only get when you have been pounding it out in the pool. I dig it.

After a nap and some recovery, we jumped in the cars to drive a little out of town to set up for a longer run. Coach Bob had this route nailed. It was on a rolling road with not much traffic that had rollers for as long as you wanted to run. Everyone had objectives assigned for their run and off we went. The run wrapped around a reservoir and there was some continuous climbing that left one up on a plateau with an awesome view of the entire valley. Most of us knocked out 60 to 100 minutes of steady aerobic running. I dialed in a 12 miler. I struggled through miles 7-9, but then hit a good patch and was able to get home on a pace I could live with.

I am digging this place more every day. It is crazy that I grew up less than 60 miles from here and had absolutely no idea how prime this part of the country is. If I were to again live in California, I would bee line it right here. It is a good thing that Boulder has stolen my heart and I plan on living there forever. But if I ever change my mind…

So another good day of training, some suffering, and everybody is getting good and tired as we look forward to some serious riding tomorrow. 110 miles of rollers, flats and hills are on tap. I’m suspecting that I will be getting more “flat mind” time tomorrow. I have been there and done that plenty in my years of training. I don’t always look forward to it, but I know what to do when it gets here.
We are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing here in Lodi- Training with joy or not at all!

Seek clarity in all you can.

Jonser

March Lodi Camp Day Two

2011-03-15T23:24:00.000-06:00

Today was a solid day of camp as we started off the day with a bigger swim and then an easy bike with the key session being the 60-70 minute strength run at the end.
We have really started to enjoy how lovely this hotel is. We begin our mornings with coffee in a lovely setting by a fireplace with homemade organic breads and fruit. It is intimate and we get some time first thing in the morning to really have nice conversations about a myriad of topics. Because a few of us are navy bubbas, the conversation can typically migrate back to what we feel most comfortable talking about- ourselves. With the tragedy in Japan, we are all feeling the heaviness of their grief and we talk about it quite a bit. Three of us navy types have lived in Japan and love both the country and its people, so our hearts are heavy. We also spend time talking about training and the inside baseball of mitochondrial mass, capillary density…and chicks. So we have it all covered I think.
We kicked off the morning by getting to the pool a touch early and getting wet while it was still a little on the chilly side. Everybody brought arms and lungs today and we got it done. Yardage varied among the campers, but all of it good stuff. Zach and I continued our week of trying to get in a bit more swimming than normal. We kicked out 6100 yards in about an hour and 40 or so. Our workout this morning was 4 x 250 free, 4 x 125 on short RI, 1000 continuous every 4th 25 IMO, 800 free, 800 as 4 x(150 free, 50 kick), 400 pull, 1 x 200 IM, 2 x 500 as 250 pull, 100 hard odd 25's, cruise evens, 3 x 50's steady, and then 300 easy with pull buoy with a 100 c/d.

After the swim we ate the Panera bread restaurant out of all of their eggs, seriously. Everyone was famished and we moved through their chow proper. We got ourselves on our bikes with little downtime and cruised out an easy 2 hour ride to help absorb some of the work so far. I especially enjoyed this ride as I got a chance to visit more with everyone here. It is a funny thing when you coach someone via the internet. I am immersed in their daily training lives via emails, texts, phone calls, etc. but there is just so much I don’t know about these folks with whom I communicate on a weekly basis. I love it when my athletes attend these camps because I get to know them so much better.

When it comes to triathlon coaching, I think there are a lot better exercise physiologists out there, and certainly better specialized dudes in various areas, but I think I score pretty high on the GASF (Give a Shit Factor), as I totally give a shit about my athletes and where they are vs. where they want to be. I love the interaction I have with each and every one of them. One of the luxuries of having a coaching business that is not your primary means of income is everybody I coach – I choose to coach. I don’t have to coach any of them if I don’t want to. I like and genuinely respect all of my athletes and I learn as much from them as they probably do from me. How rewarding is that? Huge.

So after the 2 hour ride, we powered down for an hour and then embarked on our key run. The rain started to come down as we were heading out and it got wet and muddy out there pretty quickly. Because I have athletes peaking for different events soon, I had the athletes all on different runs with different objectives. Zach was laying down 5 x 8 minute harder efforts with 1 minute recovery after a longer warmup as he prepares for draft legal Olympic stuff. Rosie was on something similar with a touch longer recovery. Stu is getting ready for Ironman South Africa so he was doing a steady longer effort to work the muscular endurance side of things and live a portion of his afternoon riding a 154 beats per minute heart rate. Michelle was working longer intervals, as was Sal, as they peak for Oceanside. T and I were doing our own thing and I decided to spend my run with Stu. I try to spend every workout with someone different. Stu and I ran steady for an hour. The rain was hammering us at this point and as good friends, we don’t feel the pressure to talk. Sometimes when I train with my folks, I just want to train with them and no talking is required. So we legged it down the levy at a respectable clip shoulder to shoulder, no words being passed. I was rocking a little Underworld in my itunes and was in my happy place.

It is an honor and a miracle to train with my good friend Stu Gibson. Stu and I met in 2003 and became fast friends. He flew over to Kona in both 2004 and 2005 just to be there to support and cheer me on in my first two Konas. Stu is one of those guys who is not only hugely intelligent, as in brilliant, but he can apply it instantaneously. As a navy dude, I have worked with more than a few 50 pound brains, but not all of them can use that brain. A submarine dude best described it as being smart, but not being able to think. This is not the case with Stu. Stu just…well, the damn guy just knows everything. I love talking with him on any subject ranging from enhanced ground proximity warning systems in airplanes to why the overproduction of corn is a government subsidization of McDonald’s and how that is killing Americans through obesity and diabetes. We get it all covered on a long ride!

Stu had a real life scare a couple of years ago. Stu was diagnosed with a fast growing brain tumor. We in his friend network tried to keep things light and fun, as fun as something that scary can be, and we referred to it as a Stumor. Well, Stu survived open brain surgery and the removal of the Stumor and returned to our sport. He has returned to good health and we continue to enjoy our friendship in sport. God’s blessing for sure.

So we got in another 5 hour day or so and are ready to attack again tomorrow. Rain has become the issue as we march forward. We are in a wait and see mode for tomorrow. It will either be a 6 hour flame thrower of a ride, or a long run and longer swim. We will see how the rain gods treat us in the morning.
My quote for this blog came from the famous world champion triathlete, John Hellemens, when he stated “You need to worry about the training that is appropriate for you, not worry about what others are doing”. I really like this quote. It kind of feathers in nicely with my quote I write in here often, “It ain’t about being better than anybody else, it’s about me being better than I used to be".

There you go!

Later,
Jonser

March Lodi Camp - Day 1

2011-03-14T22:45:00.002-06:00

Today was the first official day of the March Lodi Camp that Teresa and I are coaching with former professional triathlete and coach Bob Korock. Bob was my coach for a few years and he and I have been friends for almost 5 years. Bob was a pro for 14 years and is a contractor, father, part owner of a winery, and easily one of the nicest men I have met.

He and I had breakfast in Kona this year before the race and we spoke of the possibility of doing a camp together. We followed up on it and here we are. When we both were looking at this week in Lodi to do some late winter training, we checked the farmer’s Almanac and the chances of rain were slim and the temperatures should be solid for training. We are now a little nervous as it looks like we may get some rain this week. Here is why coaches need to bring athletes to camps that they know can deal with different situations. The group we have here are my kind of people. We got rained on a little yesterday when we did a shakedown run and swim just to loosen everyone up from a day of traveling. Not one athlete said a thing about the fact it was raining. They are here to train and they really don’t give a rip about the weather- within reason.

We are living at the Wine and Roses hotel right here in the middle of the Lodi Wine country. The accommodations are awesome. Bob knows the folks here so we were able to use this hotel as camp headquarters, which is a blessing. The staff can’t do enough for us.

We kicked off the training this morning with a solid swim. Zach and I pounded out 5,000 yards. 1,000 continuous with every 4^th 25 backstroke, 400 easy free, 10 x 50’s leaving on the :50, and then 8 x 200. The first 4 were leaving on the 2:55 and then we brought that down to leaving on the 2:50. We wrapped it up with a 400 IM, and then 600 or so of drills and such to get to 5,000. Zach and I have trained in camps before and we find that we make good training partners. Zach Poehlman is a navy fighter pilot based in San Diego and is ramping up for Armed Forces National Championships in Pt Mugu April 9^th. Zach is on his first All-Navy team, but it won’t be his last. As his coach, I am very pumped to see how he goes next month. He is scary fit, ripped like you read about, and focused. Should be a fun week.

After the swim, we got something to eat and hit the 4 hour ride around the outskirts of Lodi. If you have never trained here, you are missing out. The riding is glorious. We rode flats, rollers, some soul suckers and everything in between. The group assimilated nicely as a group and rode in a tight pack. It is amazing the ground you can cover when the group rolls down the road together and not strung out all over the place. In the middle of today’s ride we jumped each other with some peppy climbs and such to make it interesting and Zach and I took off for some serious stuff for a few miles followed closely by Sal who wanted in on the fun. Sal Lancaster is one of my athletes that I have been coaching for a few years. Portuguese by birth , he came to the states as a young man and is an amazing success story. I will feature him one of these days in our newsletter and tell his story. The short version is that he is the nicest, most sincere guy in the world who speaks with a moderate Portuguese accent. He also has a quirky streak. He can be enormously silly and fun and it is always at the right time. He can split me in two laughing so hard. He can also whip up a ton of big boy pain on the bike when he wants to do that too. He was a lifesaver tonight beating back into the wind. I had been on the front pulling around 20 mph or so in stiff, harsh winds and was starting to bonk a little. He saw it and immediately dropped in to let me sit on his wheel long enough for me to steal a gel from our newest IMJ Coach, Kristin “Rosie” Barnes. Having Sal take that pull right then was all I needed to get home. I was able to recover and get it rolling again.

I am coming into this camp hoping to build some serious fitness. I have been working pretty hard with both United and the Navy and my training is really behind where it typically is this time of year. So much so, that I am flirting with not racing this year. My new role in the navy is the absolute dream gig, and I want to make sure I do that job to the fullest and our coaching business is in a place that if we continue doing some of the things that are pumping real life into it should bear great fruit for this and follow on seasons. This has left me training in the seams and I have not been as consistent at the level necessary to race successfully. I don’t like absolute statements, but I currently can’t see myself racing anytime soon unless my fitness dramatically improves.

That doesn’t mean I am not willing to come and drill it in these camps. The great thing about these camps is there is such a family environment that you can lay it out on a bike ride or run and the group will still get you home. I love that part about tight camps.

Tomorrow should be solid. Zach and I will swim 5-6K in the pool and then it is a casual 2 hour ride and a 1 hour tempo run. I am looking forward to the whole enchilada.

We will do our best this week to Train with joy or not at all!

As Gordo says- “live by the trials of miles, and miles of trials!”

Later,

Jonser

Kona 2010. It is a wrap!

2010-10-14T18:15:00.001-06:00

Hey Jonser! How do you feel? “Like a bag of crap sandwiches, you?!”

Kona 2010 is in the books. The men’s professional race was spectacular and Mirinda Carfrae’s performance in the woman’s field was inspiring and fun to watch. I cannot wait to watch the NBC coverage this December. I am sure it will be riveting.

Teresa’s performance was terrific and I am so happy for her. I think this was her 5th 2nd place age group finish. She went as fast as she could all day and finished behind an extremely impressive performance by Ellen Hart of Denver, CO.

The morning got off to kind of a funny start. I woke up at 3am and waddled out to lay down on the living room couch in our condo. I sat there and listened to the coffee maker hiss as it brewed my favorite coffee. My coach, Kristian, wandered out and sat down at the table and we talked about nothing in particular. We then could hear the water hitting the leaves outside the back porch. My whole body just went limp. Rain. No way. How could it be rain? I hate rain. Fourteen years in Seattle and thousands of miles running and riding in the stuff. I hate it. There are only three things I hate on this planet- beets, sauerkraut, and the bloody rain. Kristian could tell I was really letting it bother me. I had just suffered in the rain in Ironman Canada. I was wondering how I was going to do it again. I got a little negative and chippy for a few minutes (understatement of the month). I went into the bedroom after my cup of coffee to put on my timing chip, swim trunks, etc. I noticed that I could no longer hear the rain out the open window in the bedroom. Maybe it has stopped! I looked out and the road wasn’t wet. How could that be? I quickly jumped out the front door to take a quick look. The road was dry as a bone and I could see stars. What is going on? I couldn’t get my brain around what was happening. I am not known to peel the onion very quickly before a couple cups of joe in the AM. I wandered back out to the back porch and then I figured it out. Sprinklers. The bloody sprinklers were on in the back area of our condos and that is why it was all wet back there. What a dip I can be. I had gotten myself all upset about nothing. Life is harder when you are stupid!

So now that I had climbed back in off the ledge over the “rain” issue, we got ready and Kristian drove us to the swim start and we made our way to body marking. It amazes me how slick the organizers of the Hawaii Ironman have every evolution of this race. There were 1,750 of us athletes and not once all week did I stand in a line. I have to believe the volunteer to athlete ratio is better than one to one. It is one of the really awesome things about this race. You are given the rock star treatment the whole way. It makes the whole experience even that much nicer. After body marking we made our way to our bikes and got everything squared away. We were ready to race about 15 minutes after we arrived at the race, so we proceeded to our friends Robbie and Susie’s hotel room right behind the pier and lay down on their bed and waited for the time to pass. It was a luxury to be able to use a real bathroom and chill before the day began.

It all happened pretty quickly after that. The cannon went off and let the aqua combat begin. I have written in other blogs about the swim here in Kona. It was equally as terrible this year. A critic would probably ask why they don’t widen the start line so we aren’t all forced on top of each other. It is going to take someone getting seriously hurt before they change it and I know it makes for great television to see all the amateurs thrashing the life out of each other for an hour or so. I won’t complain about it. There is a way for me to avoid this contact; and that is to just swim faster. The boys who go 55-56 minutes aren’t getting their goggles resealed by other swimmers feet and elbows. That is a slower swimmer’s problem. So that will be my answer to the beating I take every year. I am just going to get faster.

So coming out of the water I had one of the best volunteers ever in the T1 tent. I had just swum in a Speedo, so I had to don both bike shorts and a tri top and get all my gear to launch on the bike ride. That volunteer had me suited up and on my way in about 20 seconds. It helps so much to have someone dedicated totally to you in the tent. Again, the volunteers here are sent directly from heaven. The bike got off to an uneventful start and I was down the road in no time. I don’t have much to say about the bike ride. The winds were mild with the exception of coming back from Hawi when they got down right sporty and some folks got hurt when they touched the floor after being blown off their bikes by the gusts. For the most part, one of the more mild wind days I have experienced there. I rode solid, but in the last two hours when it was time to start putting in the bigger watts, I was not able to summon the power required to get on with the bigger boys who were starting to reel me in. I was left to just pedal home on my own and I could feel the race going on without me. It was quite disheartening, to be honest. I had hoped to do big things on the bike and set myself up to run tough and into contention with the studs in my age group. I was unable to do that. No excuses, I just wasn’t able to make it happen regardless of how much I wanted it to happen. Someone said to me after the race that if I were to have ridden my normal ride I would have gone in the low 9:30's. Well, by that logic, if my sister had testes she would be my brother! I don't do if's.

As I pedaled into town I promised myself that I wasn’t going to spend the next three and a half hours running the race pissed off at myself and worrying about whatever I had done wrong. I have never said hello back to everyone who cheered for me on the course. I typically just wave a hand at them and keep staring straight ahead. I wasn’t really racing for anything at that point and I just wanted to represent the navy well, as I had NAVY written all over my race kit. I am glad I did that. I enjoyed the run much more than I ever have. I ran as hard as I could and never gave up on the race. I kissed one of the Aussie volunteers, Bev, going into the bike/run transition. Bev is always there on the pier during race week making sure the athletes don’t need anything and she has been there for years. T introduced me to her last year and she and I have a short conversation everyday during the week of Ironman. Seeing her there and taking the time to give her a kiss was a perfect way to switch off the bike and turn on the run. Nice people give me energy and Bev certainly did for me. I moved quickly into T2 and sat down next to my buddy Scott Davis. We traded some perspectives on how the day was going and then boom, I was running the run in Ironman. I didn’t feel good, but my legs felt strong. I got a few miles up the road and my coach, Kristian, was looking at me in a sort of disappointed way. Hey, what can a guy do but his best? That was what I was doing. I stopped, shook his hand, and asked him how his day was going. He seemed perturbed that I had stopped running. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank him for looking after my training this last year. He is a wonderful coach- for a midget.

At mile three, the Air Force athlete Scott “Kidd” Poteet pulled up next to me. We ran a few miles together. We moved right along at a 7:10-7:20ish pace and chatted, talked shit about the Army and general observations on the day. Kidd is a wonderful dude. He just finished a tour flying as the slot pilot (#4) for the Thunderbirds and is on his way to command an aggressor squadron later in the year. How he gets the time to also be a world class ironman is beyond me. There are just some superb human beings on this planet that are good at everything. Kidd is one of those guys. I still like to send as much abuse his way as I can muster. After he had dropped me and gotten up the road about 100 meters in front of me, some of the folks on the side of the road would shout “go Navy! The Air Force is only 100 meters in front of you!” I would shout back that he was my retarded younger brother in the Air Force and that I was proud of him EVEN with his disability. It was good for some laughs and that is good for morale, mostly mine, on a hard and tough run. That is pretty much how the run went. Solid, strong running with a tired, old body. Mentally I was in a good place, I was just tired and suffering a touch. Coming back down Alii before the run up Palani and out onto the Queen K, Teresa’s immigration attorney and one of our dear friends, Linda, asked me how I felt. “Like a bag of crap sandwiches, you?!” She thought that was pretty descriptive and for me, quite accurate. The run turned out to be a good news story. I was able to get out and back, ran with confidence the whole way; and ran the Hawaii Ironman marathon 6 minutes faster than I ever have in my life. Total time on the day was 9:46:00, my second fastest time ever here in the lava.

One of my early mentors and someone I continue to admire is a former pro triathlete by the name of Tom Price. Tom is a two time champion of Ironman Canada. The day before my first Ironman, Tom gave me some of the best advice I have ever received in this sport. Tom wished me luck on my race and as I was walking out of his bike shop he told me that no matter what time I run in my ironman, not to kill my friends' buzz with the five reasons why I didn’t have my optimum race. He said, and rightly so, that 90 percent of our friends and family don’t know the difference between an 8:30 ironman and a 12:30 ironman, so don’t torture everyone with all the reasons you didn’t go faster. Wear your performance and your finishing time like a Gold medal, regardless of what that time is. Your family just wants you to be happy with your effort. Why would you steal that joy from them by going obsessive compulsive and killing their joy with your woes over your race?! My son offered me his observation after his second or third time watching an ironman. He shared with me this, “Pop, the thing I like about Ironman is that it isn’t like the short races you do, where it is all about a podium or no podium. Here at Ironman, if you finish in less than 17 hours you are in the club!” How true is that, eh?

So my result last Saturday? Gold medal. I’m about results, not excuses. If there are things I need to fix for next year, you can bet I have written them down and they will get fixed. I am so happy I raced this race this year. I learned a lot about a lot. I plan to expound upon some of those lessons this winter in a few blogs.

I just have to add one more thing about Teresa and this race. When I am out there racing, I think about Teresa constantly. I wondered if the swim was as tough for her as it was for me. I worried that maybe the stout winds up at Hawi got her, I wondered if she is running ok and if the neuroma in her foot was killing her, and then there she was! She was running straight at me on Alii while I was going the other way. It is one of the most amazing feelings in the world to see your wife running strong with a smile getting it done down the road after you have been worrying about her all day. The intensity of that feeling might not make it through these words to the reader, but there are few emotions as strong as seeing the one you love, your partner and best friend, barreling down Alii-the most famous road in triathlon next to the Queen K! I was so relieved and happy to see she was having a good day. I am so proud of her and her race. The perfect ending to that piece of the day was to be able to stand there at the finish line and catch her as she came across the finish line. It was absolutely one of the highlights of my triathlon career. It is experiences like these that made this year’s race so rich and full. I will always look back at the 2010 Kona race with this as easily one of my favorite races. Like I always say…just a little piece of heaven!

So now we are flying home to get on with what the autumn and winter have in store for us. For me, it will involve a lot of flying and work. For T, it will be the same with work. We both look forward to healing up and figuring out what we can do better next year. We hope some of you will be able to come out and train with us and tap into the Jonser/Teresa training machine. We plan on hitting it proper all year!

Train with joy or not at all!

Thanks for reading.

Jonser

Race day is upon us!

2010-10-10T11:13:00.000-06:00

Well, here it is. The bikes are checked in. All the workouts are over. There is nothing left on the calendar in 2010 except to get out there and race. It should be exciting stuff. The town has absolutely been abuzz since Monday. I don’t remember it being this crazy all throughout Kailua, but I am sure it is just my lack of attention, not necessarily anything different than the normal Kona craziness. This race is so much more than just a race to me. It is more a celebration of a lifestyle and a personal statement to me of hard work, discipline, successful time management along with the overarching thought that dreams really can come true.

Even before I ever got into triathlon, I have dreamt of this race. When I was a teenager, the Hawaii Ironman was telecast on the old ABC Wide World of Sports. I used to watch it and wonder how a guy like Dave Scott could do what he does. I still find myself not believing that I am actually someone who gets to compete in the Hawaii Ironman. I know a lot of dudes who log their one Ironman and continue on other pursuits on their bucket list. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but that is not me. This is my destination. I don’t need to climb any mountains. I don’t need to jump out of any airplanes. I am where I am supposed to be. I want to race Ironman’s, fly airplanes, coach and write- period. I am in my wheelhouse. This is my happy place. I have to admit it feels great to finally know that. I wandered around looking for my raison’d’etre for a long time and it is such a calming feeling to know I am finally on my path. It is better late than never, eh?

This year was different from the point that this is the first year on the Navy team (my fourth in Kona as a navy athlete, with one year as the alternate) that we have had press coverage of the competing athletes. The special interest stories you see on the NBC broadcast are folks featured due to the Navy.com sponsorship of years past. We have the Armed Forces Network (actually the name changed, but I can’t remember what it is) interviewing us and filming us. While fun, and from a vain standpoint, flattering, I can’t help but feel a bit unworthy. When I think of navy stories, especially in our sport, I think the press has done a great job of picking up on some of the amazing individuals we have in our service. Last year’s special by NBC on CAPT Dave Haas was especially great in my eyes. He was the Commanding Officer of the ship who you saw riding his Computrainer on the bridge of the ship while underway, rowing and running on the treadmill all while being at sea. Those are the kind of stories that grab me. Right now there are thousands of sailors either in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa and some in places you would not even believe have sailors there, in harm’s way, doing our nation’s bidding. My story isn’t that interesting, but hell, if you are going to put a mike in front of my gob and ask me questions about the navy, I will take up all the battery life you have in your recorder telling the navy story and that of the military professional. Military service is a calling beyond self, and at most levels, three atmospheres above politics. I don’t mean to lose anybody in my strong feelings for my military buds, I am not one who wraps himself in the flag, or any particular cause or camp, but I am huge on the navy, it’s how I roll. You cut me…I bleed blue and gold. So as this is very likely my last All-Navy Team, I am more than enthusiastic in telling that story. It is much richer and deeper than my own story and it is an honor to tell it-especially in this venue. Ironman is exactly like military service; at some point in the race, things get extremely difficult. When it does, there is only one thing for you to do, harden up and press forward.

Triathlon.com online recently posted the age group picks for tomorrow. Teresa was named by them to win her age group. I agree with them. It is so good to see her racing well again. She is like everyone else in that she struggles from time to time to get in her training. She gets tired, burned out, and frustrated, just like the rest of us. The difference is she never quits. Never. She never throws in the towel and never lets up. She has that champion vibe. I am not embellishing. I can feel it when she has it; she has it in spades now. If I were a 50-54 year old woman, I would go like hell and hope T runs out of real estate, because T is going to hammer all the way to the finish line. I am hoping for great things for her tomorrow. She is feeling great and I can tell when she gets irritable she is getting her fangs sharp for a hard day’s work. Based on that metric, she is more than ready!

So the 45-49 year age group males? I really don’t know. On paper there are at least 15 dudes here who can clean my clock. I am looking forward to racing hard tomorrow and seeing where I stack up. I am still a relatively young athlete with only 8 years in the sport, so I plan on continuing to get better. I honestly can’t wait for the gun to go off tomorrow and see where I am at the end of the day. I learned in Canada that quitting is just not an option for me, so I plan on either going faster than I ever have, or damn near dying in the pursuit of that goal. One of the first” hello’s” that sunk in with me when I moved to Boulder, was realizing how good I am not. When I was training in a small venue like the eastside of Seattle, I thought I was one of the better ironman dudes in the area. When I did swim in a masters club or dropped into someone else’s gym, I would always be one of the faster swimmers in the pool and could ride with anyone in town. That is not the case in Boulder. I am lucky to only swim 3 lanes down from the fast lane, and I am swimming my ass off to be in that lane! The talent there is just sick. The benefit of that is you quickly realize that you are not zip codes, but states, from being the best one of the best in the world. This realization keeps me humble and grounded in the fact that I am not anything more than a very solid age group athlete with a huge passion for the sport and the people in it. I am more than good with that realization.

Well, tomorrow the Super Bowl of our sport will kick off at 6:30am. I am so stoked to be there and in the middle of the whole thing! What other sport allows amateur middle-aged dudes like me to throw the football around with the Joe Montana’s and Tony Romo’s of our sport? You are correct-none. I think that is beyond cool.

So tomorrow I am going to swim for all I am worth, ride smart and tough, and God willing, run strong and with courage on the back half. If I do those things, this race will be a huge success! Nobody is as curious as me to see if that happens.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Jonser

Lets see that smile and that ego, because both will be gone on Saturday! - Kaye Hert, official IMJ photographer and cheerleader.

2010-10-08T01:10:00.000-06:00

I am sitting here next to the Sweet Pea tapping away on the laptop with all of beautiful Kona outside waiting. That is the thing with race week and powering down to be ready on race day. I would love to just be out ripping it up every day and I can see that there are a few who are doing that, but the pre-race taper calls for the laying low the closer we get to the race.

The weekend here in Kona was just prime. Saturday we rode with the boys, and Sunday T and I ran out to the energy lab and back. The Saturday ride consisted of Hamster, Josh, Ross, T, Paul and me. We rode 3 hours and change, and it was very enjoyable. The rain christened our arrival back into Kailua on the return, but as all things in Kona go, even that was wonderful.

Having six of our athletes here is an absolute gas. We roll out as a tribe everyday and the energy is better than fantastic. I will give you a quick rundown of the boys…and of course, Rosie.

I have written plenty about my bud Paul. Paul qualified at Brazil by going 9:40 and placing third behind two legit big boys in this sport. Paul had a brilliant effort there and save the broken wrist in August is locked and loaded. I expect big things from him here in the lava this year.

Ross Hillesheim has only been with us for a few months. As a long time friend of one of my navy buddies, Ross contacted us out of the blue and was at our July camp. Ross got a lottery slot to Kona and is fairly new to the sport. Ross is a friendly, warm and fun 28 year old guy from Carmel, California. Ross works in his family business and was clearly raised right. T and I have taken to him straight away and we love having him around. It is fun to see Kona through his eyes this year and appreciate things we have taken for granted because they are new to Ross. Ross is a very gifted triathlete. I love coaching him and he will be a regular here at this race very soon. He is as pure an endurance athlete as I have met. I look forward to watching him progress over the years.

Josh Vincent has been part of IMJ Coaching for a few years. Josh came to me broken and over trained and we have struggled with his injuries for awhile, but is finally healthy and it is showing in his racing. Josh blasted out a 10:19 on a brutal day in Louisville and rightfully earned his slot to come to Kona this year. It is a very short turnaround from Louisville, but I would not be surprised to see this young South African bust out a great one. Josh lives in the city in San Francisco and is a technology guy. He is also the designer of our logo and is a classic renaissance guy. He, too, was at our July camp and is a phenomenal swimmer and strong both on the bike and run. This will not be his last visit to the lava.

I wrote about Hunter “Hamster” Hobson last year in my Kona blog. Hamster is back as the Marine Corps athlete. Hamster just belted out a 10:21 in Canada and is determined to do the same or better here. Hamster is not just an IMJ athlete; he is quickly becoming a very dear friend to T and me. His wife Margy, along with Hamster, were with us in St. Croix in the spring. It is the friendships that you build up in this sport as you march along on your journey that really become the real treat in this sport. Hamster is back for his second Hawaii Ironman. Having last year’s experience under his belt will be huge for him as we go at it Saturday morning.

Lee Boyer is a friend and navy teammate. Lee is the Executive Officer of a Navy squadron in Florida. Lee is primed to bust out a huge effort here in his first trip to Kona. I have seen Lee power through to some impressive race results and I don’t expect anything different here on the 9th. Lee has no weaknesses. He is a legit Kona player and his fast swim, strong bike and a genuine runners run could bode well for him on Saturday. I am excited to see how he goes. He is not only a great athlete; he is a super human being. I am proud to race with him and even more proud to be his friend.

Kristen “Rosie” Barnes is both an IMJ athlete and my navy teammate. Rosie and I go back a few years. Rosie is an F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer by trade and is good at just about everything. I first met her at a CpC camp I coached back in 2007 with Chris McCormack and Mitch Gold. I first noticed how tough she was back then when we were swimming heinous sessions that included 6-7k swims and 6-7 hour bikes. There is no quit in Rosie and she motivates me every time I open her logs. Rosie just got back from a year in Kuwait where she was working with the Army. Rosie emailed me out of the blue and asked if it was possible to start laying down serious training even though she was in isolated duty with not much for training venues. We worked it out and she has been laying it down since then. Whenever I need to get motivated, I look to Rosie. She gets me fired up for sure!

Having this crew here with T, me, as well as our coach, Kristian and his wife Charlotte has made this week wonderful. The daily sessions with each of us meeting up every morning is a great way to start the day. If you sometimes get down, just surround yourself with positive people. It will help every time.

Tomorrow, the Vulcans will start to arrive en masse. Let the games begin!

Jonser

“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”

2010-10-05T11:13:00.002-06:00

I read a quote in my daytimer this morning when I woke up that says “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”. I have been sitting here sipping my coffee looking over the dark ocean, as the sun has yet to rise, thinking about that meaty quote. Some dude named Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe has now taken my morning hostage as I run the concept around in my grape for awhile. I have been thinking about talent, ones path, happiness vs. unhappiness a lot lately. I have an entire blog in the future to write about this one as I was heavily influenced by a documentary I watched last Sunday, Rush: beyond the lighted stage. It is a wonderful documentary about my personal favorite band of all time, but there is so much more about this amazing Canadian trio and their journey over the course of the bands history. Like I said, this one is a whole blog in itself after the race, but it comes down to the same principal to which Goethe speaks- using your talent to find your greatest happiness.

So Friday in Kona was just wonderful after arriving late Thursday night. T and I swam together in the ocean and I swam the entire course to just loosen up and settle in to being in Kona. The currents were sporty and I ended up taking the long route. It was nice of a kayaker to come all the way out to see if I knew where the hell I was going. I joked to the gal that now we know why my swim splits here are always terrible. It is not only because I am slow, but I am challenged at navigating as well. That is a tough combo to overcome! She laughed; we talked about the weather, the changes in Kailua in the last few years, the remodel of the King Kam hotel and other sundries. I then decided that even though I am a sailor and built to go to sea, staying closer to the shore might be a better call. At the turnaround buoy I stopped and said hello to a guy just resting at the half way mark. He was from Austria. He was keen to speak English to me and we had a nice chat. This was his first Kona and I could tell he was ecstatic and scared to death all the same time. He was a wonderful dude. I wished him well and swam in to shore.

There is something so free about swimming in the ocean. It is easily one of the most enjoyable things I get the chance to do in my life. I spent some time as a boy living on a lake in Arkansas and had unlimited access to swimming in that lake. At 11 years old, I used to launch out solo and swim all the way across the lake and back. It was probably a 3k swim or so and I used to love to just find a tree on the other side of the lake and swim for it. I would climb up on the brick wall on the other side, do a Tarzan yell and dive back in and swim back. I remember I used to feel like I had really done something when I would get back. When I was that age, I was a tiny kid. Scrawny and small, completely unsure of just about everything, but when I was slicing through that water, I was free, powerful, and as happy as I ever need to be. Thirty four years later, I feel exactly the same way. Maybe that is what Goethe is talking about. It is definitely something for me to think about for awhile.

The week before Ironman week is a great time to get here. The majority of the Vulcans have yet to arrive, so the town is not as crowded, it’s just more of the hard core that are here and it is wonderful. Friday afternoon, Paul got here and he and I went for a short, brisk run along Alii Drive to get our running legs back after a long day of travel. Paul and I have been buds for almost a decade and training partners for the same amount of time. We have run so many miles together over the years, literally thousands of miles. It comforts me to run next to him after all this time. Paul is a pure runner and his body sway, little foot slap he has, and his gentle laugh at just about everything I say, are so comforting to me. We no longer live right next to each other and don’t train together every single day like we used to, but it is like not a minute has passed since our last training session together. Everybody needs a closer than close bud. It is one of those gifts from God that I don’t ever take for granted.

After training, Teresa and I hit the bike shop to get the necessary race stuff and replace a few items that the TSA stole out of my bike box. One quick word on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and then I won’t touch it again. The TSA and I do not get along. The TSA gets to me because it is a group of folks that operate in a mode where there is no thought or reasoning involved in their search process. They might as well be robots. The only problem is they are operating off of strict rules, yet they all don’t know the rules. So here you have folks that won’t think, won’t reason, and don’t adhere to their own rules because they don’t completely know them. They hate guys like me who actually know that there is a website called www.tsa.gov and you can read the instructions for yourself. God help you if you point it out to them. I would have to say in full disclosure that I went to grad school with two TSA executives. Both were extremely intelligent and wonderful people. It is a problem downstream. I wouldn’t mind, but they never put my bike box back together right and my bike has scratches to prove it. They take stuff the regulations allow me to bring, yet you can’t debate them about it because nothing is more powerful than a knucklehead with a badge. I’m over it…not really, but I’m done blogging about it. Add it to the reasons why I drink!

So this quick little story about the bike shop and then I will go train. We go into the bike shop. We are there at least two hours. Teresa tries on just about everything, involves every single employee in her search for the perfect whatever it is she is looking for, puts everything back or returns it days later, asks everyone’s opinion on just about everything and then once they are all completely exhausted…leaves! She just kills me. I find it the funniest thing. T just has no problem involving employees in her shopping experience. As we are driving away I ask her if maybe she drives all those folks crazy. “Oh no, sweetie. They ALL know me in there!” You bet your bippy they all know her! Splits me in two. I crack up laughing just thinking about some of the shit she does. It is one of the thousand things I love about her and why she is my partner for life.

Well, the sun is up, I am properly caffeinated, and the princess has awakened and is ready to train, so out the door we go!

Thanks for reading.

Shaka,

Jonser

Kona 2011 Day 1

2010-10-02T11:30:00.000-06:00

Kona baby! Here we come…again!

I have been traveling all day. 0300 wake up for T, Sassy and me. Sassy to the doggy daycare, T to United for some space available travel fun, and me to American Airlines courtesy of the U.S. Navy. T got on both flights and got into Kona this morning. I flew Denver to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Honolulu and then a 6 hour sit due to a cancelled flight and then over to Kona. I am currently in between Honolulu and Kona now.

I have been thinking about this year’s Kona all week long and have no idea how it is going to go. As a pilot, I just go by a checklist. It makes things easy for me. Here was my checklist last night when I was packing:

Bike-check, Bike stuff-check, run gear-check, swim gear-check, casual clothes, underwear and a shavekit-check, frazzled nerves because I am scared to death I didn’t recover from Canada-check, pit in my stomach because I have been breaking my own rule on getting 8 hours of sleep a night-check, amazing excitement because tomorrow I will wake up and swim the course-check, pumped because Hamster and Paul get here tomorrow-check, 14 days uninterrupted with my wife-check, checklist complete.

I will take the next week and spend some time talking about the inside of age group kona racing, general perceptions I have for this year, anything interesting that pops up, and of course, tell you a lot about my amazing athletes that are here racing Kona. I am fortunate enough to have six of them here this year.

For now, I would say that the only overarching feeling I have is one of gratitude. I am grateful to be healthy enough to once again come to the island and race in what I would consider the Big Daddy of our sport. Just getting here and getting here healthy is a huge accomplishment. Like I have heard it said- it is an honor to race Kona. I feel it huge right now!

The Flight Attendant just announced, “we have begun our initial descent into Kona Keahole Airport. Please bring your seat to the upright and locked position, ensure any personal items you have taken out during the flight are safely stowed underneath the seat in front of you, the Captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign, this is for your safety and the safety of those around you. Please turn off any electrical devices, laptop computers, cellphones”…Doh! That’s me! More later…!

Jonser

Ironman Canada 2010- It is a thin line between quitting and winning!

2010-09-06T10:42:00.001-06:00

Paul, clearly enjoying the fact his Kona slot is in the bag!

I have said before in this blog that Ironman Canada is where I started my Ironman journey and that this race was by far my favorite event. I come away from this Ironman in Penticton feeling the same way.

We arrived in Penticton late in the evening and began our week in Paradise with an easy run. There is a magical quality to Penticton. It is hard to explain to someone in a blog, so I won’t try. I will just say that picture Tuscany on a lake close to some of the nicest human beings our planet has to offer, and you have Penticton. We had a special crew of IMJ athletes there this year. The mornings were my favorite parts with all of the crew jumping in the lake at 7:30 or so every morning. Race week morning group swims are easily one of my favorite aspects of our sport. Standing around with bed head and pillow marks on our faces, donning our wetsuits talking about whether the water is cold or not with the crew is just fun. There is a pre race vibe of excitement, slight nervousness, but generally just great energy amongst the bunch. Every morning we would all assemble, jump in and get wet. We would swim along the buoy line in a pack and when we would get a bit strung out; I would stop and re gather the tribe. We would usually toss around jokes, make fun of someone about something and generally just have a good time. Every morning after the swim we would all meet at the same café called the Bench. It is a lovely café with an international vibe as we would meet the Swiss and German athletes there every morning. I love to sit around café’s and get high on lattes, and this café is no exception.

Our pre race week is really not that interesting and is kind of just technical tri-geekery, so I won’t cover it blow by blow. Bottom line: it was fun.

The race:

I was a little more nervous this year than I remember being for past ironmans. I am guessing the reason for that is I felt like I was coming into this race with pretty good form. I had gotten a really good look at my fitness at the Racine 70.3 in July and had a chance to address the issues I found needed work between the two races. Coaching our two camps back to back provided me with a challenging 55 hour block of work in about 13 days, so I was absorbing that nicely and thinking that I might have the opportunity to run a personal best in this year’s IMC. In years past, I have never run well on the course along Skaha lake and was curious if my long runs in Magnolia above 9,000’ elevation back home might help to bring me into this race a bit stronger on the run, as that was my limiter in Racine a month prior. I found it interesting that I would be more nervous the more fit I was. I think the reason is I didn’t want to squander that fitness with a bad performance or by making a racing mistake. With my aggressive life and work schedule, I don’t know when I will be able to build that level of fitness again.

The morning of the race was miserable for me. I just sat on the couch eating my breakfast, nervous as hell. I am able to control it, but geez, no fun. I became very concerned after body marking when I ran out to the Starbucks to get to a restroom, and as I was running out there my legs felt terrible. Usually on race morning, my legs feel springy and explosive, and usually give me a shot of confidence that I am race ready. As I ran, I felt like my knees and ankles were just bottoming out. The visual in my head was like I was running with a pocket full of bolts; just heavy and flat. I didn’t panic, but I definitely remember thinking this does not feel good.

The swim got off quick and within 5 or 6 hand hits I was free of the crowd and swimming in clear water on a solid pair of feet. I was digging that for sure! The water was like glass and everyone around me obviously had a clue on how to swim in a triathlon. We formed a couple nice little lines and away we all went. The girl I was swimming on was swimming straight enough and was a classic two beat kicker, so it was easy to see where she was and where she was going. I was living large for sure. I stayed on her feet until the turnaround when she exploded and fell away to never be seen again. I saw a pack in front of me about 30 meters ahead, so I decided I would try to dig hard for a few minutes and see if I could bridge up. I was successful in that attempt and I found another set of female feet. This gal was going max gas and I had to initially dig hard to get on. I was able to stay with her until about 3 buoys to go and she lit off another rocket booster. I kept her at about two body lengths and could not get any closer, but she wasn’t getting any further away. Good enough! I exited the swim, saw 54 something on the clock and away I went into the changing tent.

It is not often you go into T1 and the volunteer helping you is a friend. One of my Canadian military coach friends was a volunteer in the tent. Michel recognized me as well, as we have been to Sweden and India together as athletes and coaches for our respective national teams. My only challenge was to put on my gear as fast as he was putting on the rest of my gear! He had me suited up and ready for bike combat in what seemed like about 8 seconds. Out on the bike, I was riding out Main Street and looked down to see I was driving 340 watts. A touch large on the power I would say, so I made a mental note to trim way back and not try to eat up the faster swimmers all at once. Climbing up McLean Road I lost my spare kit out the rear cage holder. I had to do a U-turn and go get it. I lost a considerable amount of momentum, not to mention the group of dudes I was leading up the climb. That is how it goes when you don’t tape things down properly. The ride was uneventful for the first 90 minutes or so. I was by myself the whole way. When I say by myself, I mean I can’t see anyone in front of me and I cannot see anyone behind me. Crickets and the lovely, hypnotic sound of a disk wheel- that is it.
After passing through the small town of Oliver, I looked behind and to my right and I could see the mountain passes I was going to be climbing in an hour or so. My pilot’s eye spotted the weather front moving toward the mountains. I thought to myself that the mountains are going to get ugly soon. I decided that I would risk going hard early in order to be up and over the passes before the real stuff hits. I dialed up my watts and was holding 260 watts on the flats and climbing the rollers at 280-320 depending on the pitch. I knew I might blow up, but if you know me, you know I do not tolerate the cold at all. Never have. I would much rather race in a furnace than a refrigerator. It is just how I am built. I got up the first pass called Richter and into the rollers, affectionately known as the “7 bitches” with no drama. I climbed solid, but not my best, and was generally moving well. I never felt like I had that pure pop in my legs that I usually have when I race, especially when I climb. I just felt flat for whatever reason. My legs weren’t tired, just flat. Anyhow, I just pressed on without much overall concern. I just kept riding my tempo, eating and drinking and hoping for good things. I got up Yellow Lake Pass and on the final ascent, the rain hit. At about this same time, payment came due for my earlier decision to ride watts I cannot sustain the entire 180k of riding. I was not surprised when it hit, I was just happy that I was inside 10 minutes of summiting and would be able to motor back into town on what I had left. The rain started hitting me pretty hard and my legs got really cold. I focused on descending safely down the mountain and a few of the younger dudes passed me going much faster than I was willing to go. When I was a flight school instructor pilot, I used to refer to that as NAFOD (no apparent fear of death). I wished the young boys well, and hoped they wouldn’t pay a severe penalty for the 55 mph descent on wet, slipper asphalt. I shiver uncontrollably on cold descents and if I don’t really focus, it can get really dangerous really fast. As I entered Penticton, I had become very cold and my legs were seizing a bit. I was solid on calories and water, but the overall cold had really soaked into my body. I was suffering for sure. I started thinking about pulling the pin. I worried that I would dig too deep into my system and not only finish this race poorly, but endanger my effort in Kona, which is only 6 weeks from Canada. As I tried to ride with pace back into T2, my legs were absolutely gone. I remember looking down and seeing 129 watts and I was riding for all I was worth. I decided to not fight the power and just rode comfortably back in. It is what it is, I remember thinking. As I got off my bike, I remember hearing the announcer, Steve King, state that I was the leader in my age group. Figures, I would quit a race that I was leading. Bike split 5:10:50.

I got into T2 and the volunteer there was just awesome. He was putting all my gear right in front of me and encouraging me to hurry. I was so cold; I had kind of gotten to the point where I was convinced I was going to pull out. I told him so and he couldn’t believe it. He told me he had only seen 30 or so guys come through the tent and that nobody as old as me had gotten there yet. I think that was a compliment, but I am not sure! I went to the restroom and took care of that urgent feeling that had been there the last hour and then decided I would run out on Lakeshore and talk to my longtime training partner and best bud, Paul. I got to Paul and he was full of stats, positions and other key race info that I should be caring about. I told him I might quit. I honestly can’t remember the conversation we had, other than he encouraged me to run for a while and see if I felt better. I got emotional and he ran alongside me until I quit balling. I tell ya, man. There is no crying in baseball, but there is a heap of crybabies in Ironman. I was feeling absolutely exhausted, my feet were numb, my butt hurt from a nagging saddle sore I had picked up late in August and I was freezing cold. Total freaking misery. I asked myself; why in the hell do I do this stuff?! This sucks! So I got my act together. Paul squeezed my arm and told me to give myself a chance to win, and that I had a big lead. I trust Paul. I have written enough about him in this blog, I will spare you the love fest.

So up I go onto Main Street with a Canadian in the 50-54 AG. He was awesome. We were running stride for stride and then he just fell behind and drafted off me up the hill. We were close enough that we were still talking. As we cleared the second aid station, all the bikers were starting to come in. In about a 2 minute time frame, four or five spectators on the side of the road were screaming “Go Jonser” and then about 10 riders from my crew and others I know all were screaming “Run Jonser” and then T rode by and screamed “Go Scott”. So now I am committed. There is just no way can I quit this thing. They have all seen me and I am in. I told myself I need to HTFU and get up the road. At least give yourself a chance to win this thing, I told myself. The Canadian also added into the mix when he asks me, “hey, is there anybody here you don’t know?!” We laughed and I could tell our running legs were starting to come to both of us so we started to lay it down proper. I came right at about the 7 or 8 mile marker and it was there I started thinking, hey, I don’t think I am stinking up this run. Things feel pretty solid here. I climbed up into the OK Falls and low fived Dennis Meeker, my Boulder buddy, coming the other way. Hey, I am almost at the turnaround and the fast dudes are just now climbing out. Things are ok. I just need to keep running, eating and don’t puss out of this thing!

As I was climbing out of the OK Falls, I ran into a friend of mine, Dave Ciaverella, who was on the side of the road on his mountain bike. I asked him if he had seen anyone in my age group. He shared with me that he thought he saw a dude running the same speed as me, 3 minutes behind. Holy cow, I thought, I better ramp it up and see if anything is there. I picked up my tempo at the 15 mile mark and ran as hard as I could all the way back into town. I was pleased with the tempo I was holding. I looked behind me and I could not see another athlete in sight. I thought, well this is a good thing and just kept running with everything I had. I came through the 22 mile mark and another bud, Ben Bigglestone, saw me and starting going crazy, cheering me and jumping up and down. I got choked up for some reason. It is just good to see people you know when you are suffering and hitting it hard. I was able to just go full speed all the way to the finish. I came down the chute, high fived my dear buddy Paul and Hamster’s wife, Margy and ran with authority all the way to the tape. 3:28 on the run. 9:40:52 on the day. Steve King looked down at me from up in the booth above the finish line and announced to everyone that I had just won my age group. 2010 Ironman Canada Age Group Champion 45-49.

My take-aways:

-When in serious difficulty, Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt offers outstanding counsel: Never ever ever ever give in!

-I owe Tim Deboom, two- time Ironman World Champion, a sincere thank you for my performance in this race. When I started the day, I did not feel good. I never felt good at any point during the day. I never felt strong, I never felt powerful. As I described, there were times when I felt worse than I ever have. Tim said during an interview after his 2002 victory in Kona that you don’t have to feel good to go fast. I repeated that to myself for 9+hours last Sunday. I don’t know Tim. I have seen him often over the last year I have lived here, and we wave at one another on rides in Boulder, but if I ever do meet him, I will be sure to thank him for sure. Had I not had those words with me, I don’t know if I could have kept charging all day.

-Having a wife that has taught me how to eat, sleep and live like a champion is indescribable. She tells me daily how talented I am and that I am going to keep getting faster. She has helped me change my racing from not trying to lose, to actually turning that energy the other way and racing to win. That sounds like a subtle shift in philosophy, but it is not. It is a very dramatic difference in how you execute your race. It changes how you structure everything in your life. Thanks Sweet Pea.

-Having a network of friends, especially dear ones that you can tell anything to, and can lean on when you are tired, cold, and suffering makes all the difference in the world. Thank you, Paul.

-I have significantly benefitted from swimming with Monica Byrn and seeking Joanna Zeiger’s counsel on race pacing. Monica has shown me the penalty in pacing poorly in a hard, long workout and Joanna has given me a couple of go to swim workouts that I do every Monday and it made all the difference in the world. Thanks JZ and Monica.

-One of my goals in 2011 is to become a better bike mechanic. Currently, I am a touch below absolutely terrible. Thanks to Shawn Burke for pre-flighting my bike for me and getting my Zero brakes race ready. I am not ashamed to say in front of God and everybody- Zero brakes suck. They are light for a reason; they don’t serve any other purpose. My new bike will have durace or ultegra. I won’t even sell my zero brakes. I wouldn’t put anybody else’s life in jeopardy. But seriously, thanks Shawn.

-Thanks to Dave Ciaverella. After the race he confessed that the nearest guy to me was over ten minutes behind, but that I was running well and he didn’t want me to slow down. Thanks, bro.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of my athletes. I read your logs daily, love to train with you at our camps, and you motivate me more than you would ever know. Our little mom and pop coaching enterprise is not only as fun as anything I have done, we are forming lasting life friendships beyond my wildest expectations. Just remember, rest days are for the weak!

I will close this blog with my own piece of advice to you. It has served me well over the years, as I am clearly an emotional type of dude. It is an old navy pilot trick; it is also a line from an old A3 song - “If you’re going to cry, leave your shades on!”

Peace,
Jonser

Forty days to Ironman Canada

2010-07-20T16:37:00.000-06:00

Forty days to Canada. Wow, how a year can fly by in a blink of an eye. It feels like it was four months ago that Teresa and I stood in line to get our slots for Canada up in Penticton. I had big plans for this year’s Ironman Canada. I saw myself doing a pr with a crazy fast time, but to be honest, my winter and spring prep was just spotty enough in consistency that I am now just training to be respectable within my age group. I am not a believer in excuses, only in results. This year was a pretty work-charged year for me and there were weeks where training just could not come first, and it shows in my current fitness. I will go as hard as I can possibly go, but I am also realistic in my expectations. I never count myself out of anything, but I was planning on rolling into this final build with much better form.

T and I raced in the Racine 70.3 over the weekend up in Wisconsin. First, I will talk about the race and then about my effort there. Racine is a first rate race. It deserves to be a major race and was happy to see the big pros show up and go fast. Crowie, Bell, Major and Warriner all were there along with other top pros and didn’t disappoint.

So what makes a race a good race or a bad race? For me, it is all about safety, vibe/good energy, volunteer attitude, and a course that is laid out well for the athletes. Racine 70.3 gets an A+ in all of those categories. With safety always needing to be a priority, I was extremely pleased with the way the course was laid out. The intersections were all perfectly marked, manned and guarded by police, so there was no way traffic was going to impede upon the race. Also, the corners were all swept so clean you could eat off them. I was able to corner at high speeds with no worries with sand, gravel, etc. There were some chip seal breaks in the road that jar you around a little, but hell, that isn’t the race’s fault. Its Wisconsin farm country and that is how they build the roads there.

The vibe of the race is a great one. The expo was fantastic. The attitude of everyone we met from Kenosha to Racine couldn’t do enough for us…and with a smile. As a people guy, I loved this aspect of our time there.

One of the things that can be good and potentially bad in our sport are the kids that are volunteers. Kids are the perfect volunteers if the aid station captains have provided enough instructions so that the kids help the athletes, not impede their progress. I don’t think that I have ever seen a race that had trained the kid volunteers as well as this one. The young folks were all heads up, paying attention, totally in to the race and they could not have done a better job. That is saying a lot when you have to feed and water 2,000 athletes. Also, children give me energy. A nice young person with a smile throwing a coke my way is good for me in my heart and when I am racing with a good heart, I am at my best. I think the aid station captains were magnificent with their crews in Racine. God bless them.

The course itself is laid out beautifully. The swim was a point to point swim. We walked down the beach and swam from one end to the other. I had never done a swim like that before. Also, the buoys were perfectly placed apart so that when you passed one buoy, you could already spot the next one. This made it simple to swim a straight line. I am not known for my navigation, so if I can swim straight as an arrow on a course, you know it is perfect.

The bike course is sweet. It is an honest course in that while relatively flat, had just enough false flats and mild rollers to allow those whose bike is their weapon to get away and use that to their advantage without having a pack hunt them down. I also would have to say that I did not see one single pack or drafting violation on the entire day. The officials were there, but like a good referee in a boxing match, they were not a factor in the outcome of the race. I loved this bike course-fair, but still laid out in a way that if you wanted to motor around at 25 mph, you could do it if you brought the legs.

The run was perfect. Flat with just a couple of soul suckers climbing out of town that made ya work for whatever you got. At the half iron distance, I like the two loop runs. It makes it super simple. Three miles or so out, same back, repeat. No worries.

The fans were terrific in this race. Standard Wisconsin people- friendly, warm, enthusiastic, engaged. What more does an athlete need, eh? So Racine 70.3 is an A+ race in every way. I look forward to doing it again!

As far as my race, I was neither displeased nor elated. It was an opportunity for me to take a look at my fitness before my last four week build to Canada prior to my peak/taper. As I have written in previous blogs, my training and racing has been spotty since 2006. I gauge most of my efforts upon my 2006 logs to compare where I am at based on where I have been in my fitness before. 2006 was a strange year. It was epic from the perspective of what I was able to do with my racing. I plowed through barriers that year that I never thought I would be capable. My cycling really went to another level with both a 53 min 40k in an Olympic and my 4:53 bike in Kona. My swimming was as solid as it had ever been and my running, while not fast, was uber strong. I could muscle the same pace forever- I just didn’t have anything but one gear. But I was ok with that gear! From a personal perspective, 2006 was also the most tragic year of my life. I almost lost one of my best buddies I have ever had when my training partner Paul narrowly dodged death when he was hit by a car on a training ride. 2006 was also the year I got divorced, which is the single greatest tragedy in my life. I doubt I will ever truly recover from that, but I don’t go there in this blog.

So after 2006 I have struggled as an athlete. Last year was super in that I started to build toward a recovery from that layoff. I cannot be happier with my 3:01 in Boston. Many thanks to my good bud Jim Felty for guiding me through my build for Boston. If you are a pure runner and are looking for a wonderful coach and super person, work with Jim Felty. Top shelf guy. Also, as I have written in this blog, my 2009 Kona was my finest race ever. Not because I went my fastest, I did not. It is my greatest achievement because I was able to dig deeper than ever before and when I dug deep into the dark parts, I liked what I found.

So here we are in 2010, I am 45. So now what do I do in the sport? I had laid out huge plans for the season with some pretty high benchmarks. The reality is a guy has to work. Often, that work has to come first. I spent a lot of this year sneaking in training around the seams and you just don’t get better doing that. If you really want to get better in this sport, you can disregard most of the hyped BS methodologies out there. Put away your powermeters, heart rate monitors, and all the other fancy stuff that people buy solely because it is embossed with an Mdot. If you want to go faster in this sport than you ever have, you just need to embrace Gordo Byrn and Scott Molina’s mantra of JFT (just f*ckin’ train) 40 out of 52 weeks a year. If you do that, everything else falls in place. Once you are living that protocol, THEN you can start to worry about power and your FT, whiz bang gadgetry and the like. Not until you are consistent and frequent in all three disciplines can you even entertain the idea of looking at adding other aspects to your daily training regimen. That is the short and the long of it with me. If I want to get faster as I get older, I have to live the training I prescribe to my athletes. If I am not laying down consistent and purposeful weeks of training, than I will not go any faster. If that is the case then I will have to settle for 2006 being the highlight year of my ironman journey. Hope is not a strategy, but I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen. The prescription for this kid for the future is as simple as this- JFT, Jonser…and dig it while you do it!

So the report card on this race for me was a B+. The last 5-6 weeks I have been laying it down proper and I can see that I am making genuine strides in building form for both Canada and then Kona. My swim in Racine was 31 minutes. I lead my wave from start to finish of the swim, so I had no gauge as to how fast I was going. I felt strong and smooth in the water, so was surprised with the longer time; I am more of a high 26/low 27 kind of guy. I rarely freak out when I see a slower swim split. Swims are hard to mark perfectly for distance and with currents and things, it is even harder. I am not unhappy with the swim. I have struggled all year with my swim. Bottom line, I am one of those guys that doesn’t improve unless I am hitting 15-20k of swimming a week. If I swim less than that I basically maintain what I have in swimming fitness. I have been able to get in some bigger weeks as of late and I can see my swim splits gradually sneaking down a touch.

My bike was very solid. I rode 2:19. The winner of the race (my ag) rode a 2:11. He was a stud on the bike. We spoke after the race. He was a super nice guy. His name was Chris. He shared with me he is a former elite cyclist. It showed! He came by me at about 35 miles and I asked him if he brought anyone with him. He was incredulous. He said hell no, he was averaging 27 mph! Well there you go. If you don’t want guys on your wheel in a half ironman, truck around the course at 27 mph. You don’t have to worry about a wheel sucker at those speeds! I kept him in view for about 10 miles, but I just couldn’t hang with him any longer and I had to ride my effort, not his.

I got off the bike feeling good. I ran the first loop at a 7:02 pace and the second at a 7:09 pace. I was secretly hoping that I would run a touch better than 7 min miles, but again, races are a report card and my true running fitness off the bike for a half is not sub seven stuff yet. I ran as hard as I could with no cramps or issues, and felt strong enough to run at max effort the whole way, so that is where my fitness really is- 1:33 stuff. A fella can hope to be a 1:25 kind of guy all he wants, but if you run as hard as you possibly can from start to finish and you go 1:33, well, you are a 1:33 guy and you need to decide what you need to do in your training to get that run time to improve. For me, I am working that over in my grape as we speak. I’ll get back to ya and let you know what I did if I get it right.

Overall, I was happy to race from start to finish and go as hard as I could the whole way to hit the tape at 4:28:32. It really helps me and my coach Kristian put together the pieces as to where to focus for the time remaining before taper. If I were to have to factor in a flat or cramps, etc it would be much more difficult. I have no excuses. 4:28 was all I had in me. B+.

One area I need to dramatically improve is racing. I am rusty big time. T felt the same way. In years past, it would take me about 15 min to break down and pack my bike and tri gear to travel and I would need about that amount of time to rebuild and set up in transition. I was lost like a toddler in Wal-Mart in the transition area trying to remember what I need to have in there and where to put everything. Layoffs are really detrimental to racing, in my opinion. One of the huge takeaways from this weekend is as I plan next year, I am going to put at least 8-10 races on the calendar. This racing 1-3 times a year just isn’t enough. We felt the same way in St Croix. I think surgeons remove gall bladders faster than I set up in transition this weekend. I give myself a D there. The good news is I know how to fix it-race more.

Lastly, the one area where I give myself a very high A, if not A+, is my mental focus for this race. I just wrote a Monday minder about this on my website. Check it out if you feel the urge. I am finally getting my brain around the race nerves thing after 10 years of seriously racing. I think I raced the entire race in a positive mental state, with a very quiet mind all day. That makes all the difference in the world when you can just relax and feel your body do what it knows how to do. No hr monitor, no power, just max effort with a flat mind. It works for me and I am going to keep going with that.

That is all I got. Thanks for reading. As always, train with joy or not at all!

Jonser

Let's get this year started!

2010-05-16T20:43:00.000-06:00

It has been quite awhile since my last post on my blog. It hasn’t been due to laziness, I usually don’t get pumped to post until I get deep into the racing part of the year.

Ironman Canada

I have been fortunate through the latter half of the winter and early spring to start putting my training together and make solid gains as I build my fitness toward my A race this year, which is Ironman Canada in late August. I have completed Ironman Canada 5 times and have watched the race 3 times in the last 10 years. I have to admit there is no other race that evokes such“specialness” to it, if that is even a word. While Kona is the “macdaddy” big boy race, Ironman Canada and that week in the Okanagan Valley each year is no less than an epic journey. I love that race.

As much as I love IMC, I never have my best races there for some reason. I do well enough, but have never nailed it. This year is going to be different. I want to put in a swim I am proud of, be huge on the bike, and not falter on that run. I usually get my butt kicked on the run, typically climbing back out of the Okanagan Falls after the turnaround and limping home. That isn’t going to happen this year! My goal is to run solid into the Falls and rage coming out. Regardless of my overall time, if I can power back strong all the way to Main Street, I will be more than satisfied! I proved to myself last year in Kona that I can run hard for the last 10 miles.

Living in Boulder

I think some of my life choices over the last year have really set me up nicely to continue to go faster at least through the remainder of my forties, but I am hoping for much longer ;) Obviously, the choice to move to Boulder has been huge. This town is clearly built for folks like T and me. We are very basic people with basic needs and desires. Living in our neighborhood quietly tucked away in the fields of Boulder County is my version of heaven on earth. I even like it that some of my neighbors have the blue tarps over their pickups with the flat tires. It just adds color and texture to that mosaic we refer to as humanity. It would drive me crazy if I ever intended to sell my house, but because I intend to die in my current home, it doesn’t bother me a lick…anyway, I digress.

The ability to cycle and run right out my front door is such a luxury. It is unbelievable what it has done for my consistency. My training crew is absolutely exceptional and I think will be the reason I will someday write in this blog about breaking age group records or winning a race outright. I don’t say that as anything other than that I truly believe that I have so much that I have not done in this sport and even though I am 45, I feel better (literally) than I did when I first gave this sport a go when I was 24. I am really blessed with the ability to train with folks that are perfect for me. For me, my wife is the perfect training partner. I love training with her. Where I am intense (so I am told, I think I’m as chill as they come, but some protest to that characterization) and sometimes all over the map with emotion, she is steady and mellow. It calms me to just be in the same room with her, and it is even more that way when we train. After all, that is how we met. I only knew her about 20 minutes before we were training in the pool together back in 2007. )

The Crew

One of the big surprises to my moving to Boulder is that I have gotten the opportunity to train consistently with Joanna Zeiger. I remember watching her in the 2001 Ironman coverage, which might have been a bit unfair, and thinking, “Wow, this chick is intense!” I got to know her a bit when she would train with Mitch and me in Palm Springs. She was always pretty quiet, but we had decent chats. She and I would go out for a second run every few days right before dinner and we would get to know each other a bit, but still were kind of strangers. This winter, she has been so generous, always extending the offer to train with her. We have put in some time in her basement on the trainer during the really cold months and ride our long Saturday rides outside now that it is warmer. Once you get over the fact that you are training with one of the most accomplished triathletes in our sport and get over the fact that she has a PhD in Genetics from Johns Hopkins and is a de facto Bronze medalist in the 2000 Olympics, you find you are training with a solid, consistent and generous athlete. She made huge contributions to my winter training this year both on the bike and in the weight room. My favorite thing about her is you can count on her. Triathletes can sometimes be flakes, and as a career military dude, that drives me freaking crazy! Joanna is not like that. She is where she says she is going to be and she shows up ready to train. I look forward to hitting the rides hard with her through the rest of the summer.

The other members of the crew are Brandon Del Campo and Billy Edwards. I have written about both in this blog before. I have been training with both for about 5 years and love every session I get in with either. They are both better athletes than me, but it ain’t about that. I have caused BDC to suffer before and he has certainly returned the favor. Billy is the same way. Billy and I were roommates during the earthquake in Kona in 06, as well as numerous races, and I just dig that kid. He has a crusty exterior, but its bullshit. He is as sweet as they come, and I am having a great time watching him make that transition from a young dude in his 20’s with his hair on fire, to becoming the coach/mentor/personal example that he has become for his kids he coaches at the Naval Academy.

With a crew like my wife, Joanna, BDC and Billy, I have no excuses. It all comes down to getting it done. I see this year at IMC as a test to see if I can do exactly that- get it done.

Will I ever really learn to swim?

One of my frustrations this year is something has happened to my swimming. I cannot figure it out, but when I first started this sport; my swimming was my weapon, with my cycling being solid and my run being slightly better than terrible. Both in Kona and last week in St Croix (a separate blog on its own) my swimming is now my worst of the three with my cycling becoming a legitimate weapon and my run being more than respectable (for long distance triathlon). I really have no excuse- I swim Dave Scott’s swims, Wolfgang Dietrich is hugely generous with his time, as is Simon Lessing. One of my hopes (fully recognizing that hope is not a strategy) is I unscrew this part of my racing and get my swims back down where they belong and not having to spend the first part of my bike catching back up to the leaders. I’ll continue to work on it.

Coaching…it matters!

Lastly, as I don’t want to make these blogs too long, is my coaching-as in who has coached me- not who I coach. I would have to say, I have been tremendously fortunate with coaches throughout my last 8 years in the sport.

My first tri coach was a guy named Peter Sleight. Peter really taught me a lot about balancing my weeks, training with a good attitude and letting my cycling develop through a focus on technique and being efficient.

My coach after that was Gordo Byrn. Back when Gordo wasn’t such a big deal, but every bit as smart and friendly, he used to coach guys by just answering their questions via email for $100 bones a month. In only about 4 months of swapping emails and a few calls with Gordo, along with reading his old school blogs, and his old forum, I learned a ton. I went from a 10:07 guy to breaking 10 and going to Kona in under 6 months. That was a sweet deal I had with Gordo, and it is unfortunate that he went off to do other things, because there were a few of us that hit the jackpot with that set up.

My next coach was 1988 Ironman Champion Scott Molina. Scott coached me during the summer of 2006 and man did that guy help me go to the next level! Living Molina protocols, while coaching Camps with CpC, put most of the stats in my racing bio that I list on my website. The reality is, some of these coaches like Molina charge a lot of money (because they are worth it) and I just couldn’t afford it.

After Molina, I found Bob Korock, a former pro and a phenomenal coach from Modesto, California. The tragedy with Bob is I signed on with him during a time that I didn’t have the time to really put in the sport for a few years. For the age grouper out there that is really looking for a guy to take him to the limit of his ability, I can’t say enough about Bob.

Last summer, after the navy selected me to represent them in Kona, I took Teresa’s advice and started working with a coach out of Queensland, Australia. His name is Kristian Manietta. Coaches are a personal thing and you can have two coaches tell you the same thing, but when a coach and an athlete just connect on another subliminal level, that training session becomes unbelievably productive. That is how it is with Kristian. He has a way of communicating with me that just make my training better than it has ever been before. My goal now is to take that wisdom and those sessions from Kristian and take my training and racing to a level that I can’t even yet know exists.

Yesterday is so… yesterday!

One thing I love about our sport is that in most circles guys my age are talking about how good they used to be or what their life used to be like. In triathlon we are all about what life is like now and how much better we are going to be in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Just thinking about how I am going to hit that next swim, bike or run gets me pumped. I don’t just limit that mindset to my sport. I use it in my flying, my coaching, and as a teacher/mentor/leader in the navy.

I think the primary take-away for me out of this post is that life is about today, while prepping for tomorrow. Yesterday is so…yesterday! Who in the hell cares about yesterday? I’m all about today. My former brother in law used to say something all the time that I thought was a great statement. He would say, “some folks look at the glass as half empty, and some look at the glass as half full. I look at the glass as half full, but it is only half full because I drank the other half and it was great!”

I dig it.

Work harder on yourself than you do your job- the late Jim Rohn.

Train with joy…

Jonser

Kona 2009…it is in the books baby!!

2009-10-13T20:44:00.000-06:00

Sweet Teresa cheering me home.

Any good navy flying story always starts with “so there I was!”… So there I was, sitting next to my buddy Paul in the bike rack area of Kona and we were just kicking back against the wall taking in the pre-race show. I just love the electricity before these things kick off. All the Vulcans with numbers stamped on their arms, sponsors stick-on tattoos, skinsuits over their tri kits, sunscreen everywhere, its Ironman, baby! Kona is like no other in the pre-race festivities. Polynesian drums, rock music blaring everywhere, Navy skydivers jumping into the water right off the pier, it just goes on and on. It is one heck of a show for sure!

So then 1779 of us get wet and swim easily out to the start at the end of the pier. There were feet and elbows everywhere! We are all bobbing in the swells for the better part of 15 minutes, as we get ready to get going. And then it happens, KABOOM! The cannon goes off and away we go. This year I thought it was quite prophetic that the day before the race, my high school water polo coach friended me on Facebook! Coach Ron Bergmann had a huge influence on me when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. I was quite small as a freshman. I wrestled as an 89 pounder my freshman year and was only a few pounds heavier my sophomore year. Lets just say, I got the snot pounded out of me in water polo. Coach Bergmann taught me how to rumble with the bigger boys and I learned a lot from him. Funny that 29 years have gone by since I have seen him, and then we connect. So back to my point- having a water polo background helps in the Kona swim because I am able to swim pretty fast with my head out of the water and I am comfortable with the body contact. I don’t like the contact, but it doesn’t freak me out. The ability to swim heads up for the first few minutes can save you a couple of teeth☺ The swim this year was violent. It always is, but this year it was a level or two above what I have experienced in other years. I survived and got out of the water in 1:01. Not great, not terrible.

I got out on the bike and rode conservatively, but purposefully. This year the trades weren’t as pervasive as 2004, but they were constant all day and shifted half way through, so that we rode pretty much the entire day with a quartering headwind. I was pleased with the bike. I held back for the most part and never put myself in difficulty. On the way back on the Queen K, I found myself in a friendly group of dudes. We all stayed legal and rode with integrity, but we also were racing smart and working together. It was good to have friends, Eric Hodska, Kristian Manietta and Albert Boyce in that mix. There was also a young Aussie by the name of Nicksta who was always saying something light and fun all day, which makes it nice when we are all riding hard like that. Good times for sure out there. The volunteers were beyond awesome on the bike course. This race really is world class in every way.

So I had a longer T2 than in years past as I stopped for a nature break and made sure I didn’t forget anything. I had also packed a little present for Teresa, as it was her birthday. I knew that I would see her early in the run, and a gift is a good way to show that even though I am racing, I have her in my thoughts always. As I ran off Kuakini down toward Alii I ran into a sea of friendly screams from T, Mels, Fletch, Paul’ s wife Kaye, his folks Tom and Jo, our friends from DC- Michelle and Marion and probably a few I didn’t know were there (sorry if I left you out. Please forgive me). Teresa cracks me up. I came around the corner and she spotted me and jumped about three feet in the air and just went crazy. My favorite thing about my 51-year-old wife is she is more like 15 years old. Her youthful enthusiasm and fresh approach toward each day just sends a rush of warmth through my entire body. I am a pretty positive guy, but T makes me look at life with even more optimism and pure enjoyment. It has been like waking up and being 25 years younger since she came into my life. When I talk about the main thing being to keep the main thing the main thing? Teresa Denise Rider is the main thing for me. She brings a sunny side to this life of mine, and the freakin’ sun comes out everyday for this guy. How good does it feel to admit that, eh!!! More later on why I used the word freakin’☺

So life is just a little piece of heaven and I am cruising down Alii digging my own chili, sitting on my 7:35ish pace when boom- debilitating cramps in my upper and lower gut that just cinch in as tight as a UFC rear naked choke. I am not exaggerating. They were bad. I just thought, Oh no, this is bad. Really bad. With cramps in ironman, you cannot just continue on doing what you were doing. They will not get better by themselves. I just admitted to myself right there and then that I was going to have to just stop the whole show and deal aggressively with these damn cramps or I was going on a long, hot walk. I walked through aid stations 3, 4 and 5 and just took everything they had except Gatorade. I typically don’t do Gatorade in races for various reasons, but at the 6-mile mark, I just thought, “screw it, it looks really good to me and what do I have to lose”. I felt like I was having the period from hell- cramping, bloating and beginning to have a generally bad disposition. I had been running 9 minute miles or slower through these things, but then as I got about half way between miles 6 and 7 I started to come right and the bad patch I had been in was starting to subside. I peeled the onion pretty fast after that and said, aha! The Gatorade is working, this means I must be on my way to hyponatremia or something close (hyponatremic-look it up☺) and just went huge on salt and electrolytes along with an aggressive stream of gels and anything else they were offering. Mile by mile, I felt better and better and I looked down at my Garmin and I was again running sub 7:40’s and was getting my sense of humor back.

During my bad patch, Navy LT Nick Brown had run with me for a while to cheer me up, but left me because I was running way too slow. Marine Lt. Colonel Greg Price also caught me and dropped me. At that point I thought to myself that the Military title was most likely not going to be mine this year. My friend Greg (callsign Weasel) is a tough customer. He, like me, is a reservist and an airline pilot on the outside and is a tough, smart, fast ironman triathlete. He tends to just get stronger the harder the conditions get, so I didn’t see him going by me as a good thing, other than I was happy for him because he is my bud and it looked like his day was going great. So I ran up out of Alii onto Kuakini and up Palani toward the Queen K highway for the long hard effort toward the Natural Energy Labs. Damn if I didn’t come up on young LT Nick Brown having his own issues. I like this young officer a lot, even though we had just met days earlier at a navyathletes.com thing. You can read his bio on www.navyathletes.com. He is exactly what I picture when I look at the future of the force once older cats like me punch out and do other things. I wanted to motivate him to stop walking and get running, so I kind of bullied him a bit with some shit about navy dudes don’t walk outside aid stations and he is representing his country blah, blah, blah. He bought it and ran with me for a mile or two and started to come right. I continued to feel better and left him on his own in good hands in an aid station and started to build my effort toward the Energy Lab. I next came upon my bud, Eric Hodska who ran with me for about 4 miles. We did well to pace each other and were starting to dial in sub 7:20’s from 14-18. We continued to walk the aid stations and motor as hard as we felt we could in between. The conditions were just barbaric. It was icky and sticky for sure! Tarzan would have DNF’d. There was total carnage out on the highway. Eric and I just picked our way through the dying and dead and headed down into the Energy Lab. Right before the turnaround I spotted my bud Weasel running back the other way. I decided to see if I could catch him. Eric wished me well and I picked it up as much as I could. I was able to catch Greg as we exited out the top of the Energy lab and we ran a few miles together. The pace was picking up and we stayed together within 10-15 feet. Don’t get me wrong- Weasel and I weren’t racing against one another, we were racing with each other. There is a big difference. It was just good clean fun to see who could dig deeper. There is a ton of mutual respect between us, and at the parties after these things, where you find one of us- you usually find the other. That Vulcan is one of them good people! So Greg and I were running together, but not a word was spoken between us. When you hurt that bad, talking is impossible. I just thought to myself that I am going to have to really run if I am going to be the first military guy. Greg isn’t the kind of guy who folds, so I was going to just have to run faster. I turned my legs over as hard as I could between miles 21 and 23. My Garmin showed 6:55’s to 7:05’s during those miles. So during this hard effort, I got religious and started bargaining with God. I said “God, just don’t let me weaken. If I hold up I promise to give up using the F word for a year”! Any of you who know me know I love to use the F word. It is my favorite word for some reason. I use it as a noun, a verb, an adjective, a good morning greeting to my buddy Paul, and a formal name on regular occasion. I also know that God doesn’t work that way, but man, when you are in the pain hole- you will result to back room bargains over profanity with God if you think it will help you continue to run faster! So now I get a whole year of not using my favorite word. Nobody is as curious as me if I can do it, but a deal is a deal and I will make good on it☺ I could no longer hear Weasel’s footsteps behind me, but I was afraid to look back. I ran by one of my buddies, Mark, who was working an aid station and I asked him about the Marine behind me. He just recommended that I run as hard as I could because he was right there, and “keep it rolling”. I appreciated Mark’s advice. I ran through the next three aid stations and was climbing toward Palani when I ran into my friend, Bob Korock- tri coach extraordinaire and former long time pro. I asked Bob about the Marine behind me and he assured me that he wasn’t right behind me. It was then that I thought, holy cow, maybe I really did it. I ran as fast as I could from mile 25 to the finish, but I was thoroughly baked. I had never come up against my pain barrier before and then just pushed through it to where the pain sensation was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I just let it sit there in my body while I ran. I didn’t fight it or try to make it go away. I just accepted it and let it hurt. My mind got really quiet during that piece of the race. I have never been there before in Ironman. I have raced hard and trained hard plenty of times, but I have never done that to myself. I still couldn’t believe Greg wasn’t there and as I ran by Teresa near the finish, I asked her “where is the Marine?” She looked at me like I was crazy.

In years past, I have enjoyed that turn onto Alii into the crowds and pranced toward the finish. Not this year. I was completely spent and just wanted to finish. I ran straight to the white line, saluted; found my two catchers (the volunteers who meet you and make sure you are ok). I’m fuzzy on what happened next and found myself looking up at the top of the tent with an IV in my arm. I had run myself unconscious.

So that was my ironman. It was by far my favorite effort thus far. I have gone faster on this course, both in 2005 and 2006, but I have never put together an effort to where I had to take myself to another level to reach my goal. I proved to myself I can go to a place I didn’t think existed. And for that, this years’ race is my favorite of the 9 Ironmans I have completed.

My Kona blogs for 2009 have come to a natural end. I have enjoyed this summer’s journey back into the sport. I am so happy and blessed to be back doing what I love to do and can’t remember ever being this happy in the sport.

As I fly home to Boulder now to take up where I left off with my professional life, I will never forget this summer or the 12 days I was in Kona in 2009. It was sweet and was the vacation I have needed for over half a decade. Life can be so rich and full of so many good things. Sometimes we might just have to give ourselves a chance to get un-busy and take a big look around. It is amazing what we can see when we do.

Peace,
Jonser

Them Vulcans in Kona I been talkin’ about….them is some good people!

2009-10-09T19:37:00.000-06:00

Well here we are the day before the race. I am sitting here on my lanai over looking the water with the sun coming up behind my back. As I look out over the water I can see the turn around buoys on the racecourse. A few swimmers are actually rounding them right now. I know a couple of guys who were going to swim the whole course the day before the race. If they are in my age group and faster than me…I hope they ride and run the course today as well!

I am starting to get that amped up feeling that I usually get as I get closer to big races. For me, that is good. If I don’t get that feeling it usually means I am not ready for some reason. I am nervous for sure, but I have to say my overarching emotion I have felt all week is just pure joy and relief. Joy that I am back in the sport I love so much and joy that I am back among all the Vulcans in this sport. Relief in that I can still get myself scary fit. When I get out of shape and put on a little weight, I go through this mental circle jerk in my mind where the negative side says “Its over, you’ll never be fit and fast again. You are too old”. I proved that isn’t the case this summer and it just fills me with relief that the door on my athletic career isn’t closed yet☺

It has been great to just wander around Kailua half dressed all week digging the scene. If you have never seen this place during Ironman week, you have to check it out some time. So much good energy to put in your pocket and take home with you.

This week, the duration of my training sessions came way down as any natural race taper would dictate, mixed in with a small touch of intensity to continue to sharpen the knife for Saturday. One of the guys I coached this year is a Marine Colonel by the name of Hunter “Hamster” Hobson. Hamster and I met at the Jim Thorpe Sports Days at the Army War College last year while I was in school at National. Hamster was at the “rival” school there at NDU, the Industrial College of Armed Forces (ICAF). There is really no rival in there, but we artificially hate them during the school year as a place to put our competitive energy as we compete against ICAF in intramural sports all year. I met Hamster on the 8k XC run at the sports days competition, which included all the services War Colleges. Hamster ran me down at the finish (in front of my wife!). I use the excuse that it was the week after Boston, but he could beat me running any day of the week. He is one of those freaks who are good at everything. Hamster is the rock star of military pilots in my book. He is a former Blue Angel (#2 on the right side in the diamond formation), and the former Commanding Officer of a Marine Fighter Squadron who has seen multiple tours in combat. He is as humble as he is studly. Were it not for the unfortunate moniker of Hamster, he would max out on stud points. Anyway, Hamster got a lottery slot this year for Kona and asked me to coach him. He is off the chart talented and we have trained together all week.

On Monday, Hamster and I rode 90 minutes easy and later that day we swam some hard sets in the pool with Paul and Teresa. Tuesday we swam the entire course with my buddy Scotty Davis, who just finished the LA Triathlon (first amateur at 44 years old), who as an awesome swimmer and was nice enough to pace me through some short hard sets out to the buoy. We stopped at the Coffees of Hawaii boat/espresso bar on the way back. My buddy and fellow ironman competitor Albert Boyce is the owner of COH and runs an espresso bar out on the swim course where you just swim up and grab an espresso and the chat with all of those on the boat. Kevin Purcell, the former Chippendale and ever-present tri coach is always aboard as is my friend from Boulder and pro triathlete Mark Van Akkeren. Marky V crashed while training here a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately cannot race. After the espresso, we swam back toward the pier when we ran into a school of dolphins (at least over 50 were in this school). Hamster grabbed my leg and pointed underwater, as I looked down a mom and baby dolphin came cruising right beneath me less than two feet away. As she cruised by, she turned her belly toward me and let out the little sonar squeal they make. TOO FREAKIN’ COOL! It was one of the most wonderful things I have experienced in the water. All my fellow Vulcans stopped swimming as well. We just all enjoyed the oneness with these terrific creatures. I will never forget that experience. Later that afternoon, Scotty Davis and I went for a quick 8 miler to shake things loose for me. He is a hugely generous person who gave away his Tuesday to train with me and catch up. Scotty and I are coaching a camp together along with pro triathlete, Tim O’Donnell in April down in Southern California. I look forward to that.

The rest of the week I have been just chilling out on the sofa, soaking up my training and resting for the big day. Race week is probably one of the only times I allow myself to just be a lazy slug. For those of you who know me personally, I have been told I can be a touch intense and tend to live kind of an aggressive schedule. I’m just not good at lying around. It doesn’t suit me. I’m always hyped up on coffee and suffer from mild ADD. My former flight surgeon, who as a civilian is an occupational osteopath, tried to make it sound better one time over beers in Ecuador when he broke it to me that he was officially diagnosing me with ADD, or whatever the cone head quacks call it these days. He said, “Jonser, you are a very highly developed ADD guy”. What the hell is tha…oh’ look, shiny keys☺. If the worst affliction I end up with in this life is a head full of cowlicks, my stupid laugh, and a little ADD mixed in there, I will be just fine! So anyway, I have just lounged around on the couch. I have actually watched an entire football game and two baseball games. That exceeds the number of games I have watched cumulatively since 2004.

Laying around on Holiday (as the wife calls it) has been really great for me. I have been pretty freakin’ busy the last few years. I went straight from commanding my navy squadron to grad school and then straight back to United Airlines with literally no break at all. This last month of just training and this week of just resting have been beyond wonderful. When I freshen up from fatigue, I get the opportunity to be introspective and put the pieces together in my life, both past and present. I often come away with a completely different perspective on things than I formerly had. I will save the deep life stuff for some other time and keep this triathlon specific. With regard to me and being in this sport, I just have to acknowledge that this little journey of running, biking and swimming over the last 8 years has completely changed my life. Back in 2000, I was a United Captain, an upwardly mobile LCDR in the reserves, a husband and a father; and while most thought I had the world by the balls- I was the most lost guy on this planet. I had never set any goals beyond sitting in the left seat of commercial jets and flying grey airplanes for the government. My eldest was through with high school and was killing college and my youngest was doing all the good things a 13 year old was supposed to. I would get so frustrated that I couldn’t visualize what was next. Nine years later, the clarity is in HD. Most likely, that comes from just living longer and maturing, but there is something about this Vulcan Ironman lifestyle that just clears up ambiguity for me. I haven’t quite nailed down what that is, but I will keep rolling it around in my grape until that answer comes from within, eh? For now, I know this: The main thing, is to keep the main thing- the main thing.

Yesterday I got to hang out at the navyathletes.com tent at the expo. Because navy is a major sponsor for this event, we not only have the dudes racing for navy like myself, we have other navy ironman dudes who get to come race and represent. These young navy studs are so impressive to me. You can read their bios on www.navyathletes.com under 2009 athletes. I got to hang out with them a bit yesterday. I have nothing but respect and admiration for these guys. I am so proud to be a member of today’s military. I quit high school and enlisted back in 1982 and it wasn’t the case back then. Most young sailors did everything they could to not look like sailors when they were out in town. That post Vietnam funk was still alive and well. I am glad I have stayed in these 27 years to see and live in a different United States Navy. My prayer is that this country really realizes how special these young kids are and how devoted to their service they really are. I get chills up my spine when I think about it. Hooyah!

So, tomorrows race- I have stated in former blogs that if one places a time goal on this race, he is either a novice and is going to have a rude awakening, or is more highly evolved than me and just knows these things☺ Me, I honesty have no time goal. A navy buddy texted me last night and wished me luck on achieving my goals tomorrow. I responded that I already have. I am here to race my fourth Kona and I am more fit than I have ever been in my life. How good it feels to say that and mean it! Tomorrow, I will be happy with whatever the day delivers because I am truly back in the sport and just to go play with the big boys is enough for this year. Having said that, I, like anyone else, have some rough parameters I would like to stay close to through the day to gauge my progress. I have never broken an hour in this swim for whatever reason, so the closer I am to 1:00 the better. On the bike, I am going to cap my watts at 230 out of respect for the course and would be happy if I could ride in the 5:20 or so range. I have broken 5:15 in 5 of my 8 Ironmans and have gone sub 4:54 here, but I have been away for a while, so am going to be conservative. My pr on the run on this course is 3:32 and I would be ecstatic if I could get in under 3:30. The rest I will just leave out there for the lava gods. If you are tracking me on ironman.com and you see me missing the above times, don’t feel bad for me. Just know I am having a total blast, loving life with the other sick and twisted Vulcans and am happy to be out there giving it my all. I will leave it all on the course, I promise.

Train with joy or not at all!

Jonser

Livin’ in Kona... the Vulcan’s have arrived!

2009-10-05T19:27:00.000-06:00

So Teresa and I got here on Thursday and island life got started off with a bang 7am Friday morning with a group swim of the entire course. Kristian Manietta invited us both out to the pier to swim with the usual suspects you would see in Kona this early. It was basically a who’s who of triathlon. I dislike namedroppers and stargazers, so I won’t rattle them all off, I’ll just say that everyone you see in the Triathlon magazines were there on the pier. We all suited up and got wet in a mass start that closely represented the race start we will experience next Saturday. I was looking forward to swimming the entire course and I was especially excited to swim it with a crowd just to practice sitting in a pack and drafting while test-driving my new Xterra skin suit. It started off brisk and I just sat in with a pack that didn’t put me in difficulty, yet still required me to swim like I really knew how. The water was not terribly choppy, but choppy enough to drink a little salt water now and then and the swells were of a good size. We swam out solid, everyone regrouped and then we swam back. I was feeling especially fresh, coming down from 5500’ to sea level, so I opened it up for about 15 minutes to see what was there. It feels awesome to come down from altitude. I felt like I was taking in twice as much air as I am used to…because I was. After swimming hard for a while, I dialed it back, slipped back into the pack and swam the rest of the course comfortably. What a great way to start off our vacation here in Kona!

Kona is neat during Ironman week because if you get here early enough you basically get to watch a small little village grow each day by about a thousand people- literally. The energy is just a touch more alive each time we come into the center of town. I really dig that part about being here during this event. Serious ironman folks are such an interesting crowd; they really do look like a group from another planet. The first time I ever raced an ironman, I noted to my son that it was like showing up and all the other Vulcan’s are there. In our own separate communities, we are the odd man out, but in Kona we are all re-united☺. You walk through a town of people who all have shaved legs with veins bulging from places I didn’t realize we were even supposed to have veins. Folks are scary lean from being primed for this event. I have heard it described as being so lean you can see their spine from the front! I personally dig it. All of these folks are on hyper drive for sure…good stuff.

Saturday morning we mounted up with a crew of about 15-20 and headed down the Queen K in a friendly, easy bike ride. After a couple of hours, we turned around and five of us (Kristian, his wife, Charlotte Paul, my long time training partner Paul, and Teresa) headed back into town. It was nice to get in a little under 4 hours saddle time in the sun and wind and start acclimating to the conditions. We ended the ride with a Jamba Juice. One of my favorite things about ironman training is the after ride social stuff like just grabbing a juice or a coffee and sitting around visiting with other athletes. It is definitely one of the things I like most about the sport. I used to coach with a guy and we used to like to do crazy crap like swim 8500 yards and then go straight to Krispy Kreme, order a dozen donuts, two large cups of coffee, sit down and see how fast we could eat donuts. It was always a race to see if you could get to the seventh donut out of a dozen, but it was always 6 and 6.

Friday afternoon while swimming easy in the ocean with Paul, we were bobbing in the swells, taking the big look around and just digging the fact we were both racing Kona together after 8 years of training together and we got to talking about how great it is to be in the sport. We both agreed that one of the bennies of being in Ironman is there is an element of just being a kid. While in professional life we have to act like grownups and make good calls and be professional, in our tri life we can basically just act like kids. Ride our bikes, eat ice cream, and swim with the dolphins-just basic fun kid stuff. Of course when you are 7 hours into your ironman race, the fun aspect is overshadowed by some suffering and bearing down and calling forth a ton of courage, but in a lot of the training, there is still plenty of room for good old fashioned kid fun. I love that part.

This morning we headed out to the energy lab in the lava fields and dialed in a 90 minute run. We cruised it with some sets of race pace stuff in there, but it was mostly just cruising along, digging the scenery, chatting about life stuff. It was great to go out there and run easy. I have never done that. I have run in and out of the energy lab 3 times, but always during a race. I am usually deep into the pain hole at that point and running out of the energy lab always seemed like such a long, hard climb. This morning while running casually, I could see that it isn’t the vicious hill I portray it to be and I will remember that on race day.

This week is shaping up to be a ton of fun with revisiting old friends and meeting new folks each day. It would be the understatement of a lifetime to say I am happy to be here!

More later…

Jonser

25 days to Kona....uh, wait- How about 15 days Knucklehead!!

2009-09-27T09:11:00.000-06:00

A couple of days ago I posted on Facebook that I had 25 days to go until Kona. Someone dropped me a note on my FB wall and said, "uh dude, its only 15 days away! Now of course I know I am headed over there next week, but this entire build toward Hawaii has been constructed around my little ticker on my computer that tells me how many days I have left. Somehow, the date on the ticker is wrong! Beauty. Classic Scott Jones maneuver. Set up a time line for success and be off by 11 days:) Ain't the first time I have pulled crap like that.

Since my last post, I have had my challenges in my training. I travelled to Penticton to watch 4 of my athletes race Ironman Canada and, also, to train. Out of laziness, I relied on a buddy of mine to loan me his bike so that I wouldn't have to spend the exorbitant fees airlines are charging athletes to bring their bikes with them. I won't rant about this, I will just state my own opinion on charging an athlete $175 bike fee- that it is sick and wrong and they should be killed for coming up with such a ridiculous fee for athletes to travel on the airline. I wouldn't say boo if they charged for golf clubs! Fat white guys get all the breaks in this country. I'm done with it, I won't talk about it again.
So I got up to Penticton and got in a good swim. The next day I was going to ride the course on my buddies' bike. I will spare you the details, but I was out there for over 8 hours with 6 flat tires on the day and descended down off Yellow Lake Pass in the pitch black dark. For those who know that course, it is a perilous descent where most hit speeds of 50 mph without pedaling a stroke. I got stuck up there with a dead cellphone and no choice but to get back to Penticton and descended off that mountain scared out of my wits. I lived, but I will never put myself in that situation again. I was fortunate in that once I descended down off the mountain and got back on the main highway, a Canadian saint by the name of Carrie Graham, stopped and asked me if I would like a ride back into town. I didn't let her finish the question before I was loading my bike on her bike rack on the back of her SUV! So I made a bad decision to not call the baby ugly early in the day when it was questionable if I could finish the course in time after I got all those flat tires. I was fortunate in that I didn't end up paying a greater penalty for a bad decision.

I was hoping to race a couple of weeks ago at the Harvest Moon Half Ironman and got off to a good start. I got out of the water with the leaders in site. I ran out of the water at 25 minutes flat and then ran up to come across the chip line in 26:10. I felt solid in the water and it was good to race in the rubber again. I got on the bike and was riding well, looking at a lot of watts while riding very comfortably. I hit some sort of pothole and snap! I broke one of my bar extensions on my tri bars. I rode along with it hanging down 90 degrees from where it should be and I just pounded away on my bull horns and thought I could at least get in some good work and see some watts to use as caps for power numbers in Kona. Unfortunately, over the next 50 minutes the allen screws that hold the bar extension on the bar worked their way out and the bar extension separated from the base bar altogether. The bike was then not safe to ride and I had to DNF. It was the first DNF of my tri career. I have raced 50-70 races or so (I tried to count and gave up) over the years and I have finished a few really ugly, but I have always finished. It hurt me in my heart to drop out. Early in my life, I quit a few things. I quit 7th grade football. Later, I quit high school- by far my greatest failure in life. I was able to recover from that through a lot of really hard work in my life, but I still think about it everyday. I made a promise to myself that I would never quit anything again. I hate quitting. I hate the thought, I hate the concept. I remember someone early in my navy career saying "quitters never win, winners never quit". I live by that ethos, so even though I had a mechanical that prevented me from continuing, I still had to work through it. It bothered me for about a week or so, but my consistent training helped me in just moving by it.

So with those two obstacles over the past few weeks, things haven't been perfect in my training, but I have to say with all honesty, my training on the whole has been fantastic. I am in the best shape of my life. I am leaner, at 156lbs, then I have been since I was younger than 22 years old. My watts have never been higher, my swim intervals are starting to really come around and my running is showing great numbers. I just started riding power about a month ago. My normalized power in 2006 in Kona was 242 watts. In my build on my intervals prior to that race I rarely sustained over 300 watts. I would be in the high 200's but not much more than that. Yesterday on my last long ride, I would sit on as much as 345 watts on the intervals with 280 being the floor. I needed to surge up a hill to go by someone yesterday on a steady climb and I was able to command 440 watts and hold it until I was past the other rider. I have just never seen numbers like that. On the swims, I am not accustomed to swimming meters everyday, but now that I am training at Flatirons, I am swimming nothing but meters. For me in the past, to hold sub 1:25's was a good thing. Thursday, Brandon and I were swimming some hard 100's and I hit 1:17 and held the rest below 1:20 while at altitude at the end of a long week. I don't know what this really means other than I, at 44 years old, am going faster in my training than I have ever gone. Lastly, for me, it comes down to running. In 2006, I laid down a solid 4:53 bike only to run a lumbering, lethargic 3:37 and nix probably one of my only opportunities to ever break 9:30 in Kona. I have worked very hard on my running the last year or so. Last Sunday on my 19 miler I was able to hold sub 7:40's for the second hour in my 2:25 run. I put in 20 minutes of 7:00-7:15 from miles 15-18 miles of my run which gives me confidence as I get ready to race my first ironman in 3 years.

As I finish my last hard block of training today with a 2 hour run and a recovery swim, I have to confess that I could not be more proud of my training this summer. I started this 100 something day journey to Kona (who knows the exact number of days-remember, I am the guy who can't even get his computer to count it right for me:). I started in earnest for this race on June 14th. I weighed 176lbs the day I graduated from NWC and moved west. I only had about 8 swims in my body at that point with none of them over 2k. I have amassed a summer of really hard, solid, consistent training. My weight, the power numbers, swim numbers and Garmin don't lie, baby. I have done the work. The only thing I have not done is race this distance in a few years and that is where the questions arise. I am so used to having tested my fitness over 6-8 races over a season to know where I am as I fly to Kona. I am going over there this year in the dark, so that is where I guess the questions come in. Can I go fast over the course of a whole day? Will I stand up under the pressure of the brutality of the conditions on the Big Island? Will my body tolerate such a violent abuse of my musculoskeletal, adrenal and aerobic systems? Kona is a course that humbles even the very best athletes in the world to a walk, crawl or the dreaded DNF.

I guess all these questions are why we work so hard to qualify for this race, eh? It is a privilege to race in Kona. I am looking forward to that challenge. For me, I come to the race 80 percent complete. I am ecstatic with what I have been able to do with my fitness over the summer and feel confident I will have some good stuff on the Island. Now I just need to go finish this off and secure the other 20 percent to make this journey over 2009 complete. For me, that would be to bear down and summon my best when it is called for in just a few days. I am digging the journey for sure and feel so blessed that I am healthy and well enough to engage in something so special.

Jonser

52 days to Kona…time to hit press to test?

2009-09-02T09:39:00.000-06:00

In aviation, most of our instruments and emergency systems have a button or switch installed that we can “press to test” to ensure the system works as advertised. I am almost inside 50 days to Kona and my days of training hard have been fruitful and productive. I feel better now than I have in years. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember ever feeling this good. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m faster than I’ve ever been. I don’t know the answer to that question. That brings us to the subject of press to test. In a couple of weeks I’ll race my first Half Ironman as a tune up for Hawaii and I’ll get that opportunity to press to test the system and see how everything is coming together.
My last month of training has been as good a block of hard work as I’ve compiled in a very long time. I have appreciated the Boulder playground and the community of athletes I have to train with here. Yesterday, I tagged along with my pro triathlete buddy, Brandon, to Flatirons Athletic club to get in a swim. It was supposed to be coached by the famous 6-time Ironman Champion, Dave Scott. I swim in his sister’s masters classes often, but thought it would be neat to see what kind of pain package Dave is offering over at Flatirons. Unfortunately, Dave was a no-show and former Olympian and pro triathlete, Joanna Zeiger, put up a session that was first rate. In most camps and Masters programs I’ve been involved with I typically hang out in the fast lane, either leading or in the mix somewhere. To let you know the quality of the Flatirons scene…I was four lanes down from the fast lane and happy to be there. Greg and Laura Bennett, Matty Reed, Craig Alexander, Joanna and a few other big boys were “over yonder” swimming 300’s to my 250’s. In the lane next to me was Chrissie Wellington leading the boys interval after interval in a fire breather set. Kind of cool to be in the same pool with three or four former Olympians along with both of the 2008 Hawaii Ironman Champions in Alexander and Wellington.
Sitting on the pool deck with Brandon before the workout, I started to feel real anxiety and fear as the heavyweights all started to emerge onto the pool deck. It is kind of funny (funny ironic, not funny ha ha) the feeling that came over me just prior to the swim. I was having a personal “what the f… am I doing here with these thoroughbreds?!”. I get this from time to time. The last time I got that was the first day at the National War College in DC. I was thinking, “How does a fleet average dude like me get to hang out with these future generals and admirals”. I’ve gotten these feelings of fear and anxiety all the way back to age group swimming and water polo when I was in high school. It is an irrational feeling, and usually not deserved. I was sharing my thought with Brandon about the fear I feel when I train with the tough guys of the sport. Brandon understood what I was talking about. For a younger fella, he is quite wise for his years. I appreciate his counsel.
The good news that goes with this fear emotion that wells up in me is that I don’t let it stop me from doing anything. I am fearful and apprehensive often, but luckily I am capable of just pressing through it. I’m glad I can, because usually good things happen. Like I mentioned before, the emotion is quite irrational. As I got comfortable in the water and was able to make my way to the front and lead my lane through the tough sets, I started to give myself a talking to. You know, I’m not some “wanna be” guy, trying to stargaze on these pros. I go plenty fast myself and have competed on the world stage within my category with excellent results, and I win stuff, too. I also do all that while holding down a couple of pretty cool careers and carry on a pretty busy life outside the sport. Its ironic that at almost 45 years old I have to work through some of the same emotional shit I did when I was a teenager. My philosophy is that everybody on this planet is mildly insane in some area of his or her life. I guess this is mine, eh? I’ll continue to work on managing it the best I can☺
So my last thought on training with pros. I’m fortunate enough to have good friends that happen to be pros. I never expected when moving here that I’d actually train with them. I just thought I’d see them often and hang out. I’ve been quite surprised how open some of my pro buds are to my training with them. One of these pros, besides Brandon, is Tim O’Donnell. Timmy and I have been on a number of All-Navy teams over the years. Tim was on the short list on making the U.S. Olympic team and is a World Cup pro who is lighting the world on fire this year with not only victories, but also course records to go along with those victories. I would think that Tim would want to be out training with all the other elite big boys who live in this town. Who would think that a pro of his caliber would be open to training with an old dude like myself? It has been great for my training to head out with him on the bike and see how he does business and do my best to stay in the same zip code☺. It’s a blessing for sure and I look forward to training more with him in the future.
So before I wrap this up and upload it onto my website, I just wanted to add that as I write this I am flying to Seattle to drive to Penticton to sign up for Ironman Canada 2010, and watch my athletes race on Sunday. I’m excited about riding the course tomorrow. I started my ironman life in Penticton and I hope to race there for many years to come.
I’m excited my training is coming along as solidly as it has the last month or so. I am anxious to lay down another month of really solid work and show up October 10th at the Kailua pier knowing I did all I could do in my summer of hard training to be ready to represent the U.S. Navy honorably. I don’t need to win anything, I just need to go race as hard as I can and let my race come from within. I don’t have a time goal for this race, as Kona is too hard of a race to go down the “paper Ironman rabbit hole”. The conditions can be down right brutal. I’ll know when I am cooking down Alii Drive toward the finish line if I have stayed tough throughout and given my best effort. Best effort…what more can men offer on a given day?

Sj

74 days to Kona...

2009-08-06T21:44:00.000-06:00

I got my notice from the WTC today for my official registration for Hawaii. There is something about seeing that Hawaii Ironman logo on the letterhead that makes the blood rush to my head. Kona is spiritual for me. There is something about what I’m willing to put myself through in my training, along with how deep I’m willing and able to go that makes this race so meaningful for me.

Ironman is basically an opportunity to shed all pretenses and see our real selves. We get glimpses of that in our hard, long training days, but the rest of the patina is completely stripped away on race day about half way through the day and we get a real deep, long look at ourselves. I dig this introspective journey, as painful as it is. How many folks engage in an activity where they get a real gander under the hood to see how they are built? In all honesty, I don’t always like what I see. Sometimes I’m heartened to find real toughness, truth, strength and a durability that surprises me. In some races I’ve found an unwillingness to hurt as deeply as I need to and often fear just for fears' sake. It is what it is, and that is why I like these big, hard races. This year I hope to find more of the former and less of the latter;)

I’m pleased and mildly surprised with where I am in my training. I have a long way to go in the next two months, but with only 5 weeks back on the bike and in the water, I’m good with where I am today. Last week I coached a camp here in Boulder. It was awesome. It was so much fun to have the people here that we did. It was also a great way for me to benchmark my training. My long time training partner, Paul Hert was here for the camp. It was terrific to be back on the road with him knocking down the miles. We got into this sport together almost a decade ago and to climb side by side up the steep hills in the thin air was nothing less than beautiful. My favorite thing about training with Paul is with all the miles and races he and I have shared; we still don’t race each other. We don’t race each other; we train with each other. There is a huge difference. We will train day in day out, bleeding from the eyes, but all to make ourselves better. I feel as much joy when he goes fast as when I do. It was awesome to see him going as fast as he is right now. He’s peaking for Canada and he’s as fit as I’ve seen him. He’s in better shape than me, but I stayed closer to him than I expected I would, so it was super for him to show up and go good.

In the spring of 2006 Paul was hit on his bike and was seriously injured. When he didn't show up where he was supposed to be, his wife Kaye called me and I went looking for him as we were supposed to train together that day and I knew where he might be. Half way through the ride, Kaye called me and told me he had been flown to the hospital unconscious. I hammered all the way back to my car wondering if I had just lost the best training partner I have ever had, and as dear a friend as a guy can have. So one can probably understand why I am so pleased to see him in such great shape. It is a blessing for sure.

The other discovery that came from last week’s training was how very sweet it is to be training in Boulder. The number and variety of rides along with the pureness of training in the Front Range makes this place Ironman nirvana. I feel so blessed every time I walk out to my garage, put on my helmet, slip into my bike shoes and pick one of my bikes and head out for the mountains.

In the coming weeks I need to see some progress in my swimming. While the stroke and feel are coming around, I still haven’t seen the drop in my times that is going to be required for a good Kona swim. I am just now hitting in the low 2:30’s on my 200 repeats. In 2006, I was in the low 2:20’s. I’m hoping that in the coming weeks I’m hitting those in 2:26ish with my 100’s around 1:10. If I see that at altitude then I’ll know I’m coming right in September. I’ll keep you informed.

Train with joy…and look for your best self. We all have our best self with us always; it is about being able to find it when we need it, eh?

sj

Ninety-two days to Kona...who's counting?

2009-07-20T10:39:00.000-06:00

Ninety-two days to Kona…who’s counting?

I’m sitting here on the airplane on my break during a flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. It has been a month or so since I graduated from the National War College and I am now back to my normal airline pilot routine. It does feel strange to be off active duty with the navy and back out in the public sector. I would have to admit that I really miss the academic environment grad school life offers. My year at NWC will be with me forever. I still can’t believe that the Navy gave me such a profound life opportunity as a mid-life masters degree and a chance to live in our nation’s capital for a year. I feel so blessed for the opportunity.
Now that I am back to my regular day-to-day life, my daily thoughts are again consumed with the Hawaii Ironman. My countdown timer here on my Macbook tells me I have 92 days and 17 hours until I start my fourth journey in Kona, starting with the epic swim in Kailua Bay followed by a day of ripping up and down the Queen K and the unbelievable finish on Alii Drive with the cheering crowds and all my friends and family cheering me toward the line…I cannot wait! Any Kona finisher will tell you that the few seconds of turning on to Alii Drive into those crowds stays with a guy for a lifetime. I’m ready for my fourth dose of that joy.
The Navy was generous enough to name me as their sole male representative this year to the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. In year’s past, there have been three of us to comprise the All-Navy Ironman Triathlon team. Being the one dude the Navy has selected for this years’ team has added a whole new kind of pressure that I am still reconciling in my brain. There is the additional element of realizing I have not worn an Ironman race chip around my ankle for two years. At 44 years old I wonder daily if there is still that sub 9:40 mojo flowing through my veins. Intellectually, I know it is there. My training and my recent performance at Boston let me know I am still getting faster, but the doubts still lie there down deep. Sitting quietly on this airplane with an appreciable amount of jetlag always draws forth my own doubts and questions about my fitness.
The Navy bypassed some real hosses this year to give me the nod for Kona. I’m humbled by their selection and I don’t take the All-Navy team selection committee’s comment that I have always shown up “lean, fit and ready to race” lightly. That is my exact intent this year. With the 92 days I have left, I am going to move my training right to the center of my life and really dig in there and see what I can find in the way of speed, economy and strength. Should be a very fun journey. Nobody is more curious than I how it will shake out in the lava fields.
Tune in often and I’ll let you in on how the training goes and ultimately how I hold up at “the show”. If pain is good, then it would make sense that extreme pain would be extremely good!! Time to find out.

More later…

Winters are crazy

2009-02-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've never enjoyed winter. It seems that everything I enjoy is put on hold in the winter with the exception of skiing. I live for the sun, I live for riding my bike on warm days, running in the heat, swimming on my back looking at the blue sky. That doesn't happen in the winter. The tougher part of that is in order to be fit enough to enjoy the summer, one has to slog away on the treadmills, rowing machines and bike trainer day in day out. While it helps me catch up on my netflix movie list, I still find it really challenging.

I came up with an idea yesterday and am curious to see how it unfolds. One of my classmates here at NWC died suddenly soon after school started. He was a Navy Captain in the Senegalese Navy. We as students have raised a little money for his family back home, but haven't really met our standard as a class of senior military professionals. I've been scratching my grape over this one. I think one of the reasons most have been silent on this one, is his situation scares the living bejesus out of us! We could be him. He was 52 years old just running on the treadmill in the afternoon after school and dropped dead. Dude, that is 8 years from now for me. It really brings it home for me how short this journey really is...or can be. What it does for me is ramp up my motivation to get the things done in my life that I deem important and make sure other things are squared away so that when my number pops, I've done it and no one gets left handling my details- they've already been taken care of.

So I decided yesterday that I will dedicate my Boston Marathon to Captain Matar. I'm going to challenge my 200 some odd classmates to back me with a buck a mile, 10 dollar bonus if I break 3:20, 15 dollar bonus if I break 3:10, double their contribution if I break 3:00. My hope is that it will shine the light back on Matar and possibly rally the troops as we start to wane half way through the school year with the weight of the course load and upcoming due papers.

Its just a thought.

Jonser

Welcome to my blog

2009-01-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. It is my intent to share in this blog the thoughts that come rumbling through my grape on training, coaching, physiology, life and anything else that just comes from within. Enjoy!

One of the biggest weeks of my life...comin' up!

2007-05-27T21:24:00.001-06:00

Next Saturday I get the awesome opportunity of taking command of my navy squadron. As I sit here looking at my current life through a set of very jetlagged eyes (I just returned from Hong Kong today) I see so much that I hope to do in the next 15 months, but at the same time, know that I'm going to be challenged in ways I cannot yet fathom. I do know this- I'm going to give this gig every ounce of my soul. I think there have been times over the last three years where I've kept my emotions in check with regard to the upcoming Commanding Officer role because I felt the navy reserves might make that job go away through realignment or decommissioning and I didn't want to go down that emotional gopher hole of a loss from something that may have never been mine in the first place. Kind of an abstract statement, but one I stand by. I hope to use this blog as a bit of a truth serum to give my inner voice a chance to speak through journaling. I've done this for years with a pen and paper, but a blog is a more user friendly forum for me. Nobody is more curious than me how this will go.