I’ve been self-coached, or my own coach, for the last five years. I’ve had individual swim coaches like Coach Brackin who has been a great help for my swim stroke, but never having someone overlooking my entire training plan, race preparation, and recovery. Being my own coach has been a valuable experience and has offered some advantages. I’ve learned so much about myself, and training/racing “do’s and don’ts.” I’ve enjoyed the flexibility it’s offered to train with a lot of great athletes. It’s been nice to adapt my training on-the-go to what I feel like I want or need in my training plans. But now, it’s time for a change.

     Over the last 18 months I’ve really struggled with consistency in my racing. I’ve had great races and terrible races. It hasn’t been for a lack of fitness or training, in fact, I’ve trained very hard (sometimes to hard) and had great fitness over the last 18 months. What’s become very evident is that I’ve lost the ability to be objective with myself in a way where I can make prudent and logical decisions about the training and recovery I need at any particular time in my training and racing cycles. I’m someone who always wants to do more or go harder in my training. This last year, I found myself simply pulling out old training logs and replicating some old plans that had historically resulted in fitness that led to great races. The problem is that we evolve as athletes. Our bodies change over time and so do our needs. Training that worked for me at one point in time won’t necessarily work for me now. If we chase old training plans and fitness, we are more likely to plateau or over-do things, than we are to grow. This is exactly what I experienced this season.

     Being self-coached, you’re making all of your own decisions. I would make a plan, but then I would question my own judgment and decision-making. Let’s say I planned a bike-run day. I’d be resting after my sessions and think to myself, “maybe I should add a swim, I need to work on my swim” or maybe I should add a run to make it a double run day…..more is better. I would constantly question my own decisions about training: am I doing enough, am I doing too much, am I doing enough of the right things? I’d get to races and question my own preparation, getting to the start line emotionally stressed and not trusting in my own preparation. Watching my friends with good coaches, I see them follow their plans, check the boxes for each session each day, then rest and relax. They trust in their coaches and show up at races confident that they followed the plan made by an expert, and they come in with confidence in that knowledge. I feel like I can be a good coach for others because I can be objective with someone else, but objective with myself……not a chance.

     Over the last couple months, Megan and I have discussed the possibility of me working with a coach in the future. It was an easy and hard decision at the same time. I’ve been so independent and self-reliant over the last five years that putting my entire training plan in someone else’s hands was a little scary. It’s also a financial decision. The best professional coaches are never cheap. The easy side of the decision is that deep down, I knew this was something I really needed to grow. I’ve lost trust in my decision-making for making my own training to get faster and stronger.

     We decided that I was going to seek out a coach. I started by deciding on my criteria. First and foremost, I wanted to trust the coach and his/her knowledge. If you put your career in someone else’s hands, you must totally trust that they know how to get the most out of your body and take you to your full potential. For this, I know I need to work with the best. Second, the coach must have worked with and taken male professional triathletes to the top of Ironman distance racing. There are many coaches who have been successful with athletes at shorter distances and those who have been successful with women athletes at the Ironman distance, but the list is much shorter of coaches who have worked with males at the top of Ironman. My final main criteria is that the coach needs to have an approach in a way that highlights what I call the big three of training and racing: the science, art, and spirit of racing.

      The science of racing is understanding the exercise physiology of training and racing. With the advent of power meters, gps, heart rate monitors, and other technology, there are a lot of coaches who, I feel, depend too much on a science-only approach. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very very important aspect, but there’s more to the puzzle. An athlete can get far with science-only, but will not meet their full potential without the other two aspects. The art of coaching is the ability to take the science, then modify the approach based upon knowledge, wisdom, and experience. This is where the coach can look at an athlete and best find a way to apply scientific principles to that athlete’s individual strengths, physiology, areas for improvement, wants, and needs. The best coaches take the science of training and build it around the athlete rather than forcing the athlete into one scientific formula. The final piece is what I call the spirit of racing. It’s the sports psychology aspect, getting the athlete to the start-line calm and confident, ready to unleash everything and dig deep on that day. The best coaches have all three: science, art, and spirit of racing and this is what I was seeking.

    According to USA Triathlon’s website, there are currently 2,200 certified triathlon coaches in the US. I’m sorry in advance if you fall in this category, but I think there are too many people who take the 3 day course, get their certification, then call themselves coaches. There are a lot of good coaches out there, but very few who have the skill set to take professionals to the top. I was looking for the best, not one of the masses of 2,200 coaches.

     Next came the research phase. I made a list of all of the coaches that fell into what I was looking for, then I dug deep. I did a lot of reading on-line, looking into the coaches and their athletes. I talked to a lot of friends and athletes about coaches. I trust my friends’ opinions. I like getting many different viewpoints before I make a decision. I did this for a few weeks before narrowing down to two candidates. I spoke with athletes who have worked with those coaches. I then contacted those coaches to get to know them, their philosophies, understand if they are taking on clients, as well as other logistical details. Basically seeing if I am a good fit for a coach and he is a good fit for me. Through this process, I found my new coach and am very excited to work together: Michael Krüger.

     Michael is probably the best Ironman coach whom very few people know on this side of the Atlantic. Michael is from Denmark and until recently, he mostly worked with European athletes. Now he coaches athletes all over the world. He doesn’t run a large coaching-mill business that has many coaches under him working with masses of athletes. He only works with a handful of athletes so that he can give them his best attention. The more I got to know Michael, his personality, perspectives, history, approach, attention to his athletes, and his athletes results, the more I came to believe that I could really put my racing career in his hands.

     Michael was a professional triathlete himself, so right away he knows the sport inside and out and he knows what it’s like to be in the athletes’ shoes. He knows what it takes to be great at the sport. He didn’t only learn it in a book; he lived it himself. Beyond his personal racing experience, his education was in sports performance and exercise physiology from the Deutsche Sportochschule Köln (German Sport University, Cologne) the largest sports-specific university in Europe. Michael spent many years as the Danish National Team’s coach, taking Danish athletes to world championships and Olympic games. At the same time, he coached Danish and other athletes as they moved to longer distance racing. He has coached male professional athletes to be ITU Long-Course World Champions, many Ironman wins, sub-8 hour Ironman performances, and Kona top-10s. Some of the well-known male Ironman athletes he’s worked with (I’m sure there are others I didn’t know about so I‘m sorry if I missed you) are Torbjorn Sindballe, Jordan Rapp (current), Dirk Bockel (current), Rasmus Henning, and Martin Jenson (current). Talking with my friends Tyler and Nikki Butterfield, I know he also worked with them earlier this season. Michael came very highly recommended from his athletes.

     This will be a big change for me, but I’m both ready and excited. I’ve found an amazing coach who I feel we can form a great long-term partnership and can trust with my development. He and I have talked about the fact that there is usually a period of time (3-6 months) it takes for an athlete to adapt to a new coach and vice versa. There’s a learning curve for both parties as we learn about each other and learn to communicate. For this reason, this is the perfect time of year to start working together. I am very optimistic about this change and my future development.

    After my sub-par race in Quebec, I was very frustrated, but I did my best to shake off the bad race and get back into training for a couple weeks before Muncie. I didn't think I felt particularly bad in Tremblant, but I was just moving slow. Had there not been a clock or other guys racing around me, I would have thought I was racing pretty well. It was just that I wasn't going fast for the effort level. I can best describe it like I was stuck in 3rd gear. When I returned to Boulder after the race, I got back into my training routine for a couple weeks, went to Detroit for my cousin's wedding, went back to Boulder, then to Indiana for Muncie 70.3. In the days before Muncie, I thought my body felt good. I was ready to put in a good race. As soon as the start gun fired for the swim start, I felt horrible. I couldn't swim for the life of me. I felt like I had just learned to swim. I was getting dropped by everyone under the sun. In practice I'd been swimming very well, so I was surprised. I got out of the swim and saw only 3 other bikes on the rack other than my own. I've had plenty of bad swims in my career, usually I just shake them off and get on the with rest of my race. When I started the bike, I couldn't push the gears on the bike. I struggled to pass the female pros. I felt like I was hammering and I couldn't get my speed above 23 mph on flat roads. I my body felt terrible. I kept telling myself to stick with it and my body would come around. After 20 miles on the bike, it was getting worse. After that many miles, my mind started really getting down. I was not enjoying myself. I had moved to 2nd to last place and I gave up.

     I wanted to be anywhere else in the world than on that bike. My family and friends were standing at mile 30. I pulled over and got off my bike. I hated racing so much at that moment that I looked at my wife and said "I think that's the last triathlon that I'm ever going to do, I think I'm done racing." My wife and parents were there. My sister, brother in law, niece, and nephew were there. Four of my best friends from childhood drove down from Detroit and Chicago to watch the race as well. I felt horrible. Whenever family and friends come to a race to watch, and I don't do well, I feel really bad. Even if they tell me they don't care if I do well or not, I still carry feelings of guilt. It feels great if I have a a good race and people are there. I want to put on a show for family and friends to take the time and effort to come see me. I almost cried when I got off the bike, quitting the race, and my 7 year old niece looked at me and innocently asked me if I stopped because I was feeling sick. I hate the feeling of quitting. At the moment I got off the bike I never wanted to race again.

     One of my childhood friends said to me that they'd rather be there when I am struggling and need them, than to be there on a good day; and he really meant it. We went back to the hotel and proceeded to have one of the most fun days I've had in a long time. We went to a "fun park" with batting cages and go-karts. We just played around all afternoon. I hadn't done batting cages and go-karts in probably 15+ years. We played like kids. I haven't laughed that much in years. I totally forgot about racing and that I had been ready to quit triathlon a few hours earlier. My wife, parents, friends, and I all went out to a brew pub, then "out on the town" in Muncie. We stayed out at the bars until about 1am, something I hadn't done for years. I have to say that my family and friends did what they do best. Help me keep life in perspective and remember what really matters in life. They helped me get triathlon out of my head.

     Megan and I flew back to Boulder the day after the race. I was still down for a couple days, but did my best just to get back to training, even if my head and heart were not 100% right. I found that after those couple days, I started coming around. The reason I was down wasn't because I had one bad race or even two. I've always been able to shake off a bad race. This time it was different. It was that for the first time in my racing, I felt as if I was in a slump. I felt like I work my booty off, dedicate my life to this career, and I hadn't seen the fruits of my labor in racing. The engineer in me was having trouble swallowing these last couple races. It's because of the pattern rather than a couple data points at races. After winning Louisville last year, I went to Augusta 70.3 and finished in 3rd place. More than ever before, I was excited for the rest of 2012 and was looking forward to what the future would hold in 2013.

    That October, I race in Austin 70.3. A cold front had come in and it was 37 degrees at the swim start. I've learned that my body does not race well in the cold. My body shut down early on the bike in that race so I dropped out. I shook that race off and was looking forward to Ironman Cozumel. There I pushed too hard on the bike and blew up. I ended up walking and shuffling the run. I ended the year on two low notes, but didn't let them put a damper on me. In March I went to San Juan 70.3 and that's where I went off course on the run. I wouldn't have been in the money in that race, but it would have been a pretty good race to start the year. I finished in 19th place and annoyed. When I went to Ironman Australia I was ready for a good race. My swimming was going well and I my running felt like it was back on track. In the weeks before the race, a weird thing happened, my biking went from solid, to feeling terrible. I thought my taper for Australia would take care of it. I was very happy with the result in Australia, but what many people don't know was that it was my worst Ironman bike in five years. So I walked away happy with the result, but scratching my head about my biking. Then I had these two races in a row at Mont Tremblant and Muncie. What got me down wasn't a bad race or two, it was that I had 5 bad races out of 6. That's 6th race, Ironman Australia, was good overall, but even there my biking had dropped for the first time in my career. I felt like I was officially in a slump. It wasn't for a lack of training, trying, or dedication.

     Now that I'm a little removed from these last couple races, I can see that my life this year really took a toll on my racing. Megan and I were married on March 23rd, the week after San Juan. The original plan had been for me to race Ironman Cabos the week before the wedding, then I'd be in full rest mode. After a January injury, I had to change my ealry season schedule. Coming back from San Juan, my fitness was coming along. I wouldn't change our wedding for anything. It was the most important and special day of my life. I did, however, underestimate how much the wedding took out of me physically and emotionally. Then right after the wedding, as I was training for Australia, Megan and I were planning our move from Austin to Boulder. I came Newest Online Casinos with No Deposit Bonuses from 10 days in Australia and had 10 days to completely pack up our lives and be ready for a permanent move to Boulder. Past years' summers were easy to organize because I'd just pack up the car and go. The full move was much tougher. When I came to Boulder and I started training again, I think it took more out of me than usual. I was in the middle of moving, unpacking, and setting up life, while recovering from an Ironman, and getting used to the altitude. Hindsight being 20/20, I can see now, that all of these life events and changes were taking a toll on my mind and body. I'll call it a "silent exhaustion" was building in me. Usually getting used to the altitude alone is a multi-week process. This time with life changes and trying to race in Tremblant and Muncie, it put me over the edge. I can see this now, plain as day.

    Had I written this blog/race report in the day or two after Muncie, I would have had a much different perspective. I was in a dark place, questioning my career and racing. After a few days, I came around. For the first time since February, Megan and I have 6 weeks with no travel or life changes. We can just "be". Over the last two weeks, I can honestly say that I feel like I have the "old me" back. I've found that fire in my belly again. After Muncie I didn't want to race Ironman Louisville in August. Now I'm more motivated and focused than I've been in over a year. I've found my competitive drive and spirit. I'm excited to race. With that, my body has come around and I'm putting in training sessions where my body is performing again. A different Pat will be at the start line in August than was at these last couple races. It's been really nice training with Chris McDonald here in Boulder over the last few weeks. We're both going to be ready to go in four weeks.

     As I struggled over the last couple months, it's been valuable for me to look at professional athletes in all sports. Every athlete struggles at times. As long as we keep moving forward, every dip, lapse, or slump in performance can be overcome. As much as I questioned myself in recent times, I think this has been a very important growth experience for me.

Pat

 
Click here to see pictures and read about my 2nd place finish at Ironman Australia on May 5th

 I have my 2013 race schedule finalized. It's taken me a while and I've gone through a few iterations to get to this point. I had a different schedule in mind originally, but a January injury set back my early season plans, but now I'm on track and think I have a really good schedule planned for this year:

Planned 2013 Race Schedule:

 - Ironman 70.3 San Juan - San Juan, PR - March 17
 - Ironman Australia - Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia - May 5
 - *Ironman 70.3 Kansas - Lawrence, KS - June 9
 - Ironman 70.3 Mont Tremblant - Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada - June 23
 - Ironman 70.3 Muncie - Muncie, IN - July 13
 - Ironman Louisville - Louisville, KY - August 25
 - Ironman 70.3 Augusta - Augusta, GA - September 29
 - Ironman Florida - Panama City, Florida - November 2

*Maybe race Ironman 70.3 Kansas, depending on how my recovery goes from Ironman Australia. I don't want to force a recovery. If I feel good, I'll race.

My original plan was to try to race Kona this year. The points system is tricky. If you don't want to chase points, then you need to race pretty solid every time, pick the right races, and start racing early. My original plan was to race the Panama 70.3 in February, then the new Ironman Cabos on March 17. If I had raced well in Ironman Cozumel, then raced pretty well at both Panama and Cabos, I would have been well on my way to having the needed Kona points. Except, I went terrible in Cozumel, then got injured in January. The January injury required me to take almost 3 weeks off of running, which pretty much took both Panama in Feb and Cabos in March off the table. I recovered from the injury and am well on my way back on track. I'll be fine to race a 70.3 in March at San Juan, but I wouldn't have been ready for a full Ironman on that day. So then the issue was that if I wanted to race Kona, I'd have to chase after high point races the rest of the year and even then my chances were far from assured.

So I decided not to sweat it and to pick a race schedule that would get me excited, be fun, but also put me in the position for success. I wanted to go back to Ironman Louisville one more time. I've never had the opportunity to wear the number 1 at a race and to defend a title. I wanted to have that experience while I could. I picked other races that I thought would be fun and keep me motivated throughout the year. I'm not 100% sure about how exactly I want to play the end of the year. I've penciled in Ironman Florida rather than Ironman Cozumel this year. I've raced Cozumel four years in a row and feel like doing something different. Last year's race there left a really bad taste with me. I may go back, but am waiting to make that decision until a later date. For now, though, the above is my schedule for 2013. I think this is going to be a great year!

 
     I'm very happy to announce a new partnership for 2013 with Brooks Airbrush Studio. Kevin Brooks is a very talented and passionate airbrush artist specializing in custom bike and helmet design and painting. Keven spent years working on custom car and truck paint, pinstriping, and design. Kevin decided to combine his passion for endurance sports and his talent for painting and design into a business. Brooks Airbrush Studio now produces the best custom paint jobs in the business. Kevin and I are working together to design an amazing custom aerohelmet for this year. Make sure to check out my helmet at the races this year. For more information about getting your own custom bike or helmet paint job, visit www.brooksairbrushstudio.com. Growing up as a hockey player and fan, I always loved the custom painted goalie masks, so I can't wait to sport my new racing lid....design and photos to come.

                                                              

     2012 is in the books. What an interesting year it has been. I can safely say that in terms of my racing career, this year has had the highest highs and lowest lows. I started out the year in a terrible way with a tough winter of injuries and mental challenges. I was very happy to turn things around to finish 5^th at Ironman 70.3 New Orleans, then had a complete let down when I couldn’t get my body rolling at Ironman Texas and dropped out. I went up to Boulder for the summer, went to Racine 70.3 where I had a good swim and bike, but a bad run and finished with a very mediocre 7^th place. Then things rallied with the in at Ironman Louisville, then when I backed it up with 3^rd at Augusta 70.3. I came back to Austin in October excited for the last two races of my season, only to let myself down at Austin 70.3 by dropping out and Ironman Cozumel finishing 58th last weekend.

     At Austin 70.3 I reconfirmed something I already knew, when the mercury drops on race morning, I’m useless. The cold front that helped cause all of the Hurricane Sandy trouble in the east moved over Austin on race weekend. The normally warm temps of October were replaced by a frosty reading of 38 degrees by transition by the race staff on race morning. I tried to bundle up that morning, but coming out of the water and getting on the bike wet with the temps in the upper 30’s left me freezing and shaking as I started my ride. I learned last year at the Poconos 70.3 when it’s really cold, my body shuts down. By mile 5 of the bike in Austin, I was going backwards, not able to get my bike up to what I’d consider an average training ride pace. I pulled the plug at mile 6, turned around, and biked to transition and dropped out. I walked away frustrated because I felt like I was fit and had turned my year around, but mother nature had dealt me a race that is terrible for my weaknesses. There is a reason you will never see me at certain races, those with a chance of being very cold like Oceanside 70.3. Brrrrr, no thank you.

     I finished up my Ironman Cozumel training in November and felt confident that I had great fitness going into Cozumel. Megan, my family, and I made a trip out of the race. I cannot say enough great things about Ironman Cozumel as a race and destination. I think it is my favorite Ironman and it is easily the most underrated race in North America. I loved our race trip this year, but my race itself didn’t go as planned.

     The wind was out of an abnormal direction on race day which changed the conditions as compared to years past. The swim was surprisingly rough. I came out of the swim five minutes slower than last year with a 58 minute swim. This was especially disappointing because I had been swimming the best of my life in training in the weeks leading into the race. I was actually expecting to surprise myself, it turns out I was right, but not in the way I had hoped. I felt good in the water and it felt like I swam better than the time and placement out of the water would suggest. I later found out that the currents were so strong and water so choppy that about 200 athletes didn't make the swim cut-off time of 2:20. That's a huge number as compared to other races.

     Getting on the bike, I felt solid. I got into a good groove, the pace felt very fast, but controlled and I started picking guys off. The problem this year is that the pro field was huge and each guy I passed proceeded to sit behind me and suck my wheel. Eventually I had a line of about 15 guys drafting their buns off. I was so mad. We didn’t see a draft marshal until mile 30. He was around for about 5 minutes and then we didn’t see another one for a good hour. When the draft marshals were there the guys went to legal distance. Once he sped away, the 7 meter zone went to about 3 meter zone. My big mistake of the day was burning energy pulling the group, then trying to pull away on my own. I did that a few times only to be pulled back. They’d sprint, then sit on my wheel. I burned way too many matches.

     On the third loop of the bike, I knew I was in trouble. My pace fell way off. I had spent too much energy on those first two loops. I kept my spirits up because there has been many times where I’ve felt like my bike legs were torched, but I’ve been able to run well. Starting the run, my legs were done. I tried not to make any judgments in the first few miles on how I felt. After about 5 miles, I knew I was done. I was well hydrated, I’d followed my nutrition plan, I was just hammered. My pace continued to slow. I felt like I could jog easily without a problem, but picking up the pace wasn’t an option. I knew I was fading to the “Ironman shuffle” and to be honest I thought long and hard about dropping out. For some reason, I decided to stick with it that day. I thought about all of the frustration I felt about dropping out of Ironman Texas and Austin 70.3. In the previous 5 years of racing, I had dropped out of 4 races. If I had dropped out of Cozumel, that would make 3 in this year alone, almost the same as the previous five years combined. I just couldn’t stomach that. So I decided to stick with it and shuffle it in. I stopped and talked to my family and told them that I was okay, I wasn’t in it anymore, but I would finish and enjoy the experience. I thought to myself that they didn’t travel to Mexico to see me drop out, so I needed to finish also for them. Then, there is the race, Cozumel is such a great race with amazing energy that I felt like I owed it to the race and the other competitors to finish.

     Yes, it hurt to not have the day I wanted, but I’m happy I finished. There were many times in the last 8 miles that I cursed my pride while walking for making me finish, but as soon as I was done, I knew I made the right call. I finished in 58^th place, just a small cry from the top-5 for which I was gunning. I feel like I can close the chapter on this year. It’s been a strange year of ups and downs. I learned from this race, but I don’t have any regrets. Sure, next time I may make different tactical decisions on the bike, but that’s how you learn.

     So now it’s time to close the books on the year, take a little time down, and take care of the things I’ve been neglecting or putting off for the last few months. It’s time for the annual reassessments and retooling for next season. I’m going into this off-season with a good feeling for next year. This year I faced my own personal demons as they relate to this sport. I had ups and downs, but I came out the other side fine. Here’s to a great year with great lessons.

    
      I'm happy to announce the next step in my swimming progress this month by starting my work with Coach Kim Brackin at Brackin Elite Swim Training (BEST). BEST opened this month with personal one-on-one elite-level swim coaching here in Austin. The swim leg of the triathlon is critical for setting up my race and putting me in a position where I can win races. Not growing up as a swimmer and taking my first swim strokes at age 24, making improvements in the swim portion of has been the biggest developmental challenge for me as an athlete. I will be working with BEST because Coach Brackin's expertise and experience coaching athletes to the top level speak for themselves. She also brings with her the best set of tools with the Endless Pool and DartFish analytical software to help in the process.

     Coach Brackin is one of the most accomplished swimming coaches in the country. She was the Assistant Head Coach and Co-Head Coach at Auburn University's swim team from 1997-2005 leading the Tigers to win 7 NCAA National Championships. In 2002, she was NCAA Swimming's Co-Head Coach of the year. She has personally mentored 7 Olympians (with 7 Olympic medals), 7 world championship swimmers (9 medals including 4 gold), and 12 World University Games swimmers. Kim was also the coach of the Zimbabwe National Swim Team for both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. She recently served as the head coach for the University of Texas Women's swim team from 2006-2012 winning multiple Big-12 Championships with the lady Longhorns. She's also coached at Northwestern University, Davidson College, and Ithaca College. With a Masters Degree in sports psychology she understands the importance of the psychological aspects of training and racing. In her personal life, she has also been a triathlete and completed an Ironman, so she also understands the requirements of open water swimming beyond the pool.

      As of this month, Coach Brackin has started the BEST program, where she is focused on giving elite-level one-on-one swim coaching. She's utilizing an Endless Pool at her Newest Online Casinos with No Deposit Bonuses in Austin along with underwater cameras and Dartfish analytical software to give athletes visual feedback as she works with us. As one of her first clients, we are partnering together for the long term to take me to the top. This is not a couple swimming lessons and I'm not expecting instant gratification, rather this is a long-term relationship to make the necessary changes. During my first session with her, we instantly identified several issues with my stroke. I've had people telling me things before, but to have visual feedback right there at the pool is something I've never experienced before. While swimming or performing a drill, I can see myself in the mirrors lining the bottom of the Endless Pool. Then, as soon as I pop my head up, Coach Brackin has a flat screen TV pool-side already looping the video feed of what I was just swimming. Right away, I can see that I'm not swimming how I THOUGHT I was. We all think we have an awareness of our own bodies, but until we can see it for ourselves, we have no idea. I've already had several moments of "am I really doing that?!!"

     Of course, with swimming, there are always little things we can work on, but already with Coach Brackin, I think we've hit on a major issue (or several inter-related issues). It all stems from my breathing. I breath to my right. I'm breathing late and too long. In taking too long to take my breath, my left arm has too much time out in front. Rather than go into my catch, it goes too straight and I glide. At the same time because I'm breathing too long, my hips are WAY over-rotating. That throws my body off balance. This causes two things to happen: 1) because my hips are rotating too much, the left shoulder ends up dropping too deep in the water like a plow. 2) because I'm over-rotated, my body is out of balance and it requires a strange cross kick to right my booty. All of this is very inefficient and slowing me down. As I've always said when it comes to swimming. My heart and lungs are fit, because I know I can keep up with the other guys on the bike and run, so it's not an issue of "fitness." I know it's not a strength issue because there are plenty of 12 year-old girl swimmers who can swim circles around me. So that means it's an issue of technique. The issues I pointed out above are not the only things going on, but they're the major ones and they're all inter-related. As I've said, I'm not expecting instant fixes. I've swam hundreds of thousands, rather millions, of yards in a certain way, so it will take time, patience, and effort to re-wire my muscle memory. Also, it's one thing to swim correctly doing drills and swimming easy, then it's totally different to maintain that form for hard workouts and then into races. This is why partnering with BEST is long term.

I know that Coach Brackin has the tools and techniques to lead me in this next leg in my journey. I cannot express to you how excited I am for this next step.


Click here to view an example video of our work

Click here to read my race report and see pictures from my first Ironman win in Louisville.

didn't get a chance to pick up a copy of April's Austin FIt Magazine triathlon issue, then check it out here. I've posted the portion of the feature article on Austin's professional triathletes about me here.

                                                          

                                                                    

RecoveryPump (recoverypump.com) is an Active Pneumatic Compression System used for recovery therapy in the maximal, endurance sports arena.  This system is an aggressive therapy to clear metabolic waste and increase oxygen perfusion by improving venous return during rest and recovery.  With maximal exertion, like that experienced during racing or training for triathlon, marathon, cycling or any high intensity or endurance exercise, the body’s natural rhythm cannot keep up with clearing the waste produced by metabolizing elements that create energy for muscle activity. The use of passive compression and/or systems that mimic “the natural rhythm” do not deliver enough compression to efficiently clear the tissue of these waste products and restore the natural delivery of oxygen and plasma to replenish the cells and muscle.  The RecoveryPump System provides adequate compression to energize the Venous System to replenish the cells.

The RecoveryPump system is an FDA approved, medical grade, Sequential, Intermittent, Pneumatic, Compression Pump (well known in the medical field as SIPC and the standard of care for acute venous disorders) that inflates 4 chambered sleeves from the foot to the hip.  Receiving massaging compression feels great and is very restorative.  

I use my RecoveryPump every day and clearly notice the benefits in my recovery. For details about purchasing a Recovery Pump, contact Doug Weatherby, .

I couldn't be happier with my race yesterday here at Ironman Cozumel. 6th place overall and a huge personal best time of 8:35. What a great way to finish off the 2010 season. I'll work on getting my race report up here in the next couple days. Check back soon. For now, it's time for some cookies, margaritas, snorkeling, and the beach.

It was also really fun to see my friend Michael Lovato have a great race and to be able to run for a bit with my close friend Stephan Schwarze. Michael was 2nd overall and Stephan was 5th agegrouper. Get job guys!

I've posted some race photos my dad took yesterday and vacation photos here from Cozumel, more to come soon:

Dinner a couple days before the race. Mom will be horrified that I posted this pic, but I couldn't resist when she's sporting this fashionable hat

View from our hotel room at El Presidente. Nicest hotel I've ever stayed in by far.


View up the long driveway to the hotel

Back yard behind our hotel room.


Hotel swimming pool. Not our stroller!

Walkway to hotel room


Warmup swim day before race from hotel in my new Xterra Velicity M Speedsuit (new WTC legal textile suit)


Warmup swim in Xterra Velocity M Speedsuit

Water is not a swimming pool, yes that's the ocean!


Cozumel has the best water for an Ironman swim in the world, bar none.


Road where I was doing a warm-up run. Just a neat road I wanted to take a picture.


Race morning at the bike racks

Pre race with my friend Dede Griesbauer


Bike out after a good swim

It was another toasty one on the run today

Dad got some good run pictures while mom gave me my time gaps to the other guys




Happy after a solid (but painful) day


To get an IV or not to get an IV? I think I'll have a Coke and a massage instead.

More pics to come

I made it into Cozumel safe and sound after a long day of trains, planes, and automobiles on Tuesday. I'm settled in now and really happy to be here. I took this picture this morning on my ride. I call this picture "A Quintana Roo in Quintana Roo" (for those who don't know, Cozumel is in the state of Quintana Roo)

I've stayed the last two nights at the race hotel where I stayed last year, but today, my parents arrive and we move over to the nice El Presidente. I'm excited about that hotel and will be sure to post some pictures.

When I was in the final weeks of training for this race, I felt like this season was dragging on and was lasting forever, but to tell you the truth, as soon as I stepped off the boat on Cozumel, it was like a switch flipped and I couldn't be more excited to be here and to race. This is such an amazing venue for an event. The island and community really embrases it.

I'll get some more pictures posted in the next couple days.

Pat