What happened the last 2 months?

So, a lot has happened since the last post 2.5 months ago. Since Nationals, I’ve signed up for the Ironman Louisville 2010, had a bike crash in the Clarksville Sunrise Century, Brett and I kicked ass in the Augusta Half Ironman, did Jack and Back (150 mile bike ride), participated on Team NashMash in the 2009 Bourbon Chase (200 mile relay running race), did a half Marathon with Bryan who beat his previous PR by over 18 minutes, and Brett and I joined the Trace Bikes Race team. It’s been a bit busy huh? I’ll post some pictures and write more soon because I don’t have them all or much time right now.

Nationals

Swim – 1500 meters, with two-thirds of it upstream. “Severe flooding throughout the area” was the race director’s message at 5AM… in addition to “army corps suggest too strong of a current to be in the river.” Imagine a muddy, flooded, dirty, fast moving river with logs, cups, HUGE dead floating catfish, and anything else the rain over the past several days had washed down into it. As I stood on the side watching the trash sail by while waiting for my wave, I really wondered if I could even swim as fast as that current was moving. So did many others. My waved was called to warm up. 90 people in my wave (the biggest wave, representing nearly 10% of the race). I jumped in and instantly noticed that I could not see ANYTHING through the water. You could only see dirt/debris particles moving past your face in what reminded me of how the stars looked when the Star Ship Enterprise was entering warp speed (just a mass blur of stuff). I could not see my forearm in front of me as I took strokes upstream for warmup.

This was an in water start (i.e. in the water, not touching the bottom, and trying to not get washed downstream before the horn blew). The horn sounded, 90 people starting kicking and slapping the water JUST like the mass triathlon starts you see. It looked like a crazy mosh pit you’d see at a rock concert, except in water. I was right in the middle of it facing my biggest fear. Not once did I get nervous or lose control of my breathing. Absolutely an incredible accomplishment for me! Partly because most of my wave dropped me within five minutes, but I did survive the male 30-34 age that caught me and swam over, under, and around me.

We first swam downstream for about 200 meters to the first right turn. When I checked my watch at the turn buoy, I noticed that I had swum that distance in under 3 mins (very FAST). Once we made the right turn to cross the river, the current began to wash us downstream. To make it to the next right turn buoy on the other side of the river, you had to swim at a 45 degree angle. 150 meters across – 7 mins. YUCK. That right turn put you directly into the current for roughly 1,000 meters. We had two large course marking buoys then the last right turn buoy so I mentally (and then physically) divided it into 3x350 segments. As I made my way to the first buoy, my arms were burning and my heart rate escalated. I felt as if I was going NOWHERE. After 15mins of effort, I made it to the first buoy. A grabbed hold for a rest, as did many others, and looked around the course noting several people giving up. After what seemed like no time but was probably more like a couple minutes of rest, I headed for the second buoy. As I made my way to the next buoy over the next 20 minutes or so, a lot of things went through my head: let’s quit, no way am I quitting, there’s someone else quitting and getting into a boat, where’s a damn kayak to hold onto, did that old lady really just fly by me, I can’t quit because they gave us an awesome backpack that I really want to use, ok I’m quitting and this is pointless, no wait I am facing my fears and who CARES about my time. Then finally I latched onto the second buoy.

With only about another 300 meters or so to the last right turn buoy to cross the river, I was exahausted. I’m a terrible swimmer anyway and the current took everything out of me. My half-ass stroke was now looking full-assed. Anyway, I decided that there was NOWAY I was quitting. No matter how long it took me to finish this swim, I was NOT going to get a DNF. This was now more about a personal goal of overcoming my open water racing fear than anything else. I pulled upstream for about 10 minutes when I looked back to see that I couldn’t have been more than 125 meters or so from the buoy I’d just left. I kept fighting, I kept thinking of my mom who was about to undergo open heart surgery again and if she could endure that pain, then I could swim this. I kept fighting and pulling my way to the turn buoy. Once I made that right turn, the current washed my body, and many others, down. DAMN! WHY? So again fighting at a 45 degree angle just to swim strait across the river. I, and many others, were completely worn out by this time and it was all we could do to make it across. The current had ended up washing us downstream so much that the last 25 meters was swimming directly into the current up the side of the river bank JUST to get to the swim exit. DONE! I felt like I had accomplished the biggest thing in my life. I did what should have taken me less than 30 minutes in 1:20:55.

Bike – The bike as a decent course with only a couple inclines forcing my speed below 10mph. Even with the SIX 180 degree U-Turns (and not to mention after the most challenge swim of my life), I still managed to average 20.3mph. I should have been closer to 22, but hey, I’ll take that given how tired I was.

Run – The run was harder than expected; it had three very steep short hills that I actually walked up. I wasn’t going any faster up them running, so why not take a break and walk them right? I finished the run in an 8:37 pace.

In all, it was a great event for me. I got to race (race behind) with the country’s best triathletes. I got to experience what will be the WORST swim of my triathlon career (as I do not expect anything any worse). I did not finish last in my age group either… next to last. 4 DNFs in my group too. It’s been 6 days since this race, I still haven’t swam, I probably won’t until next week either.

Another Great Week of Training

It seems like I keep having a lot of good training weeks with each one topping the previous. Much like the week before, I was able to get quality workouts in each discipline. It’s a good thing though because I need to be pretty much in taper mood now since I have 4 big events over the next 5 weeks.

Swimming: I ended up with two 1.5 mile swims and two 1.2 mile swims. I’m still not getting much faster in the water but I can tell my endurance is really building because I’m not nearly as tired when I’m finished with the workout. However, no matter how hard I pull through the water, I don’t get faster, I just get out of breath. That’s ok though, I’m focused more on building a base for IM next year anyway.

Bike: I had planned on riding 3 days this week but only ended up with two. I decided to take Sunday off as part of my taper for Nationals this weekend. Thursday night was the quickest Thursday ride we’ve had so far; 27 miles @ 20.6 average. Then, on Saturday, Jeff and I ended up getting a 53 miler at 22.5 mph average. This is nearly 1 mph faster than our previous best. It was an incredible feeling. Jeff and I took turns pulling on the areas of the course that we're each best at. This was the third weekend I have done this course and I now have my nutrition for the half IM perfected. Jeff road another 60-70 on Sunday but as I noted above, I needed a rest for my taper.

Run: This week seemed all out the long/moderately long runs. Monday was they typical 6 miler. However, on Wednesday, I ended up with a 10 miler at close to an 8:00 min pace. Then, I decided to run long on Friday with Brett and ended up with an 8 miler at nearly an 8:00 min pace. To some people, these aren’t “LONG” runs, but they are long runs for half marathon training as part of a half ironman training program. Plus, I ran them all at roughly my race pace… I got 24 miles in at race pace this week. Maybe I should consider lowering my half ironman race pace?

Nationals is this weekend. I’m in taper mood right now which is incredibly hard for me. Those of you who know me know that I love training and to really cut back and/or take a rest day is hard. I plan on only swimming twice, running twice, and biking once this week. I’ll take Friday off and then race on Saturday. I plan on doing a 50-60 mile ride with Doug and Jeff on Sunday to at least get some decent mileage in this week. Not sure how Nationals is going to go. I plan on taking a long time in the water (probably 35 mins as compared to 20-25 mins for most of my age group), complete the bike course at around a 21-22mph average, and run a sub 7:30 for the run portion. In all, I hope to complete it somewhere around 2 hours and 35 mins. Not a bad time at all, but compared to the professionals and other age group winners there, I will probably come in towards the bottom of the field.
Week totals: 4 swims (5.5 miles), 3 runs (24 miles @ race pace), and two bikes (80 miles @ 20+mph).

Upcoming Events:
-Nationals (this weekend)
-Hood to Coast (next weekend)
-Clarksville Century (the following weekend)
-Augusta Half Ironman (five weeks away)
-Jack/Back 150 miler (six weeks away)

Solid Week of Training

This past week may have been the best week of training yet; it just felt like I had great solid workouts in all three sports. Most weeks are good, but I typical only have killer workouts in one area each week.

Swimming – Got three good swims in, four would have been nice, but the quality of the swims was outstanding. Ended up with two 1.5 mile long course swims in well under an hour (which is good for me) and one 1.2 mile open water swim in just under 42 mins (which is fantastic for me). Regardless of how good my swims are, swimming will always be my weakness.

Bike – Got three great rides in, two really memorable ones. Thursday night as always was around 27-28 miles and averaged just under 20. Always some hard hills for me and the speed is just so impulsive. Saturday was a great 50 mile solo ride, no breaks, no stops, only riding 50 miles as hard as I could to see what would happen. The goal was to push out something over 21mph. I do have to thank Jeff Davis for suggesting that anything over 21 by yourself would be pretty hard because anytime I saw my speed drop below 21, I thought of that and just pushed through the pain as hard as I could. I was at a 21.3 average around mile 47, so I hunkered down on the tip of my saddle and pushed out everything I had for the last 3 miles. I ended up hitting 21.5mph for the 50 mile course. Just the weekend before, I did the same course with 4 guys and averaged only 0.1 faster. I now think we could have pushed over 22 if we’d wanted to. I followed this ride up with a 3 mile brick run at a 7:37 pace. The first 10 mins sucked bad, but I started to feel really good. I only stopped because I was trying to make it to breakfast with Kiki and the Meurers.

The third ride, Sunday (on my rest day, but I was feeling unusually good), was about 53 miles and averaged around 17mph. A bit slower than the previous day, but there was close to 4,000 feet of climbing this day as compared to the 1,200ish the prior day. I went out with a couple other guys and it was just fun to ride along, talk, and enjoy the ride instead of killing yourself for training. We stopped about midway at a little café/coffee shop and had espresso out on their porch. For some reason, I felt like a true cyclist in Europe training for one of the grand tours. Doug always puts together great rides.

Run – (wow, this is already getting long) Got 4 runs in. Brett kept me running this week, had he not shown up in the morning to run, I’m not sure I would have pushed out the runs I got. This was some incredible running by Brett too. I mean, let’s face it, if he can hang with me, he’s quit a badass right? HAHAHA, just means he’ll probably end up with a running injury like I so love to keep all year. Anyway, I got 6 easy miles on Monday. Brett and I ran an 8 miler (moderate long run for half IM training) on Wednesday at a rather fast long run pace of 7:53. We then started out for a 6 miler on Friday but felt great around mile 5 so we tacked on some extra making it an 8 miler at a 7:57 pace. These two 8 milers were great runs for both of us since the pace was around my expected race pace and well below Brett’s race pace. However, Brett might need to start recalculating his race pace… his running has really ramped up lately. My last run of the week was the 3 mile 7:37 paced brick run after my ride on Saturday.

In all, a fantastic week (however no off day, maybe I’ll take Tuesday off this week since it is an exceptionally easy day anyway). 4.2 miles in the water, a tad over 130 on the bike, and 25 running and all at pretty intense efforts. I just realized that the entire week of training is only 18.6 miles longer than a Full Ironman Race... hmm, that is going to kill us next year. I’d say this was a breakthrough week for Brett’s running too. Way to go man! GOOD LUCK to Lucas and Rachel on the on the crit racing this week and the Olympic Tri this weekend… these two never stop!

21.6mph over 54 miles

Friday’s 1.5 mile swim seemed a lot harder than normal. If you know me, you know swimming is by far my biggest weakness. I was getting out of breath, taking in lots of water, and having a hard time sighting for direction. That turnaround buoy could not have come any faster. Once I made it to the 1.2 mile loop buoy, I was going to head back but EVERYONE kept going to the 1.5… so I followed. There were huge waves coming in from all the boats out in the main lake and my body felt like it was being tossed around in a washing machine. I just knew when I got back to shore my watch was going to have clocked well over an hour (I refuse to look at it as I swim as my friend Colleen said you swim faster when you don’t look at it). Well, I looked once we hit the shore and it said “55:50”. Are you kidding me? This isn’t fast by no means and I (as usual) was the last person out of the water, but this was about 3 minutes faster than last week’s split. Hmm, I guess the swim sucked and was hard because I was actually pulling hard.

Ok, so this past weekend proved to be another great bike training workout. We mapped out a ride from the bike shop out to Fernvale and back. It was a rather flat two-loop course with a big hill at the beginning and a smaller one at the end. Only about 1,600 feet of climbing per my Garmin but we averaged 21.6mph. This was by far the fastest training ride I have ever done (previous was 21.1 over 44 miles); especially for 54 miles and a near 4 mile run at a 7:34 pace after. I think I got my nutrition down too: 1 gel every 15 miles, half a payday every 20 miles, 1 bottle of Gatorade every 18 miles, and 2 endurodytes every hour. This left me feeling pretty good for the run after. I gotta thank Jeff for pulling some of the way though, we could have kept that pace without he and I giving each other some rest. I’m hoping with a taper and fresh legs that I can manage a 21.0mph average of my half ironman course in Augusta later this year because this workout was at the end of a very long/hard week of training and I was FAR from fresh. I think I’m going to head out and do the same ride this coming weekend by myself and see how I can do OR do a 50+ mile loop back in KY. Depends on where we are this weekend.

After the ride and run, I got cleaned up and headed to KY for my 10 year reunion. Yeah, I’m getting old. However, I don’t think I’m as “old” as some of the people that attended the reunion. I know this isn’t nice, but I almost didn’t recognize some of these people. Here’s a picture of Kiki and me… she cleans up nice huh? HAHA!

The past week’s workouts yielded some more reasonable training numbers: 3 swims totaling about 4 miles, only 2 bikes (both over 20mph though) totaling right at 90 miles, and 4 runs totaling only about 20 miles (actually not bad for my messed up Achilles). In all, I guess it was only about 12 hours of training but this week’s tempo/paces were kicked up a bit and left me feeling pretty tired by Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a much needed rest day.

Achilles Monster

This past week of training was really focused more on swimming and biking since I’ve been experiencing some lingering pain in my left Achilles tendon. I ran one 6 miler this past week at a 7:22 pace and decided to just take 7 days off running to let the tendon rest. I had a few good swims to speak of though. I did a 2500 meter long course swim and a 2000 yard pull with a buoy which were both a decent paces (57mins and sub 40 mins respectively). James Banker (team Clementine’s official Panckae Coordinator – see older post) came out for the lake swim on Friday and did a phenomenal job considering he hadn’t really swam more than ten times in the past 12 months. James went out to the 1.2 mile round-trip buoy (see photo) and hung out while me and another guy headed out for the 1.5 mile buoy. We joined back up with James and swam back in. Total time was 58:33 I believe. Not too bad, still rather slow but I’ll take it. To put that picture into perspective, those are rather large sailboats.



Tuesday, I rode my bike to work. While not a lot of distance, it’s a good speed workout because I try my best to keep with the traffic. Thursday was the typical group ride. Jeff Davis and I got in about a 12 mile warm-up before the group ride though. As always, the group ride turns in to a lung-bleeding hammer fest because we can’t EVER just ride for fun… it’s always a race. Lucas, Jeff, and Jon left me on a decent climb (I suck at longer ones once they top out over 6% or so). It took me a few miles, but I ended up catching them. Lucas said the three of them were working hard together so that I couldn’t catch them… but I did. I was pretty happy with that and really really wanted to vomit once I did though.

We ended up getting a great 60 mile ride in on Saturday. I headed out with Lucas, Rusty, Rachel, and Jon around 7AM. We covered a rather challenging 60 mile route with over 2,700 feet of climbing and still maintained a 19.1 mile average. It was a beautiful route… lots of low fog/mist early in the morning, buffalo, little towns, and other wildlife along the course. While maybe not the best route for triathlon training, I’m sure those hills will make us stronger on race day

In all, I ended up doing 1 run, 3 swims, and 3 bike rides this past week. Not the hardest of weeks. All of the swims and bikes were very strong workouts though, so I’m not too worried about missing a couple runs. I’m hoping Frankenstein has recovered from his injury and can join in on the training this week. We miss you Brett!

Braves Rest Week

This past week was a nice rest week. Training was brought down a few notches and I took the entire weekend off. The biggest accomplishment would have to be the 1.75 mile open water swim on Friday in 1:03:12. We spent the weekend in Atlanta for a Braves Game (see photo) which forced me to take the whole weekend off (granted, I could have taken my running shoes, but decided to actually rest and spend time with friends). I ended up getting 8 workouts compared to the typical 11-12. 4 swims (almost 6 miles), 2 runs (14 miles), and two bikes (65 miles) – like I said, far less than normal but I did come back this past Monday feeling GREAT! I plan on having a moderate week of training this week followed by two really hard weeks, then a taper week to our next race (Fall Creek Falls). Augusta is only 10 weeks away!

Twenty One Point One

This past week proved to be a great week for training, setting TWO PR’s on the bike, and the longest OW swim. First of all, I got my aero bars put on my Madone before Brett and I did the Full Moon ride. The Full Mood ride starts at the first parking lot of the Trace and is a 25 mile out and back trip. Brett and I ended up averaging exactly 20mph on the ride. This was very exciting because the most we had ever averaged on the trace was 19mph and it wasn’t without incredible effort. Plus, riding in the dark was a blast.

Then, the following day, I went out for the Friday afternoon open water swim at Hamilton Creek. Only two others showed up since there was a big race this weekend. We headed out to the 1.5 mile loop buoy and about halfway out the other two guys announced they were heading back. So, I finished my first 1.5 mile loop by myself. In the picture, we start to the left of the boats and swim way out around them and out into the main body of water… then back. It got a bit choppy once I got out of the cove area and into the main lake, but as evidenced by this post, I MADE IT. Anyone that knows me knows that this was an incredible accomplishment for me. I used to not do well in OW. It wasn’t fast, but it was very manageable and built up some great confidence in OW racing.

Saturday marked an incredible brick workout. I was back in KY and did an old 44 mile loop through Livermore, KY that I learned about last year with some buddies. There were some short 5% and 6% climbs, but most are around 2% and 3% so I was able to remain in the aero position nearly 90% of the time. Total climbing was only about 1,600 feet which is comparable to the 25 mile ride on the trace that I referred to above. I believe this route best reflects that of Augusta’s Half Ironman that Brett and I are doing later this year. I ended up setting another PR by averaging 21.1mph on this course by myself (and then ran a 5k immediately after at a 7:43 pace). This gave me great hope that I might be able to break 5:30 in Augusta. Later that day, as the family was out on the lake, I swam about another mile. It was a great day of training.

This past week’s training ended up yielding 6 swims (8 miles in the water), 2 bike rides (@ 20 and 21.1 mph), and 4 runs (all at sub 8 min miles, including a 10 miler). Took Sunday off and plan on only swimming today (Monday) since I have some recovering to do. In all, I feel great and honestly don’t have much soreness at all. I get two days off this weekend!!!

Open Water and Brick Training

Ok, I’ve finally gotten this thing up to date. Make sure you scroll through to the end and you may even have to click "older post" to get caught up. I’ll try to post something weekly now (whether we’re racing or just training).

This past Friday, I did my first real open water swim practice. I found a group that swims a 1.5 mile loop (sometimes 2 and 3 times) on Percy Priest Lake on Friday afternoons. We met at 6AM since it was the Holiday weekend and we didn’t wanna get hit by some drunken redneck boaters (although we were in a cove full of sailboats, so I’m not sure how many rednecks actually prefer sailboats over loud outboard Bayliners). Anyway, once again, up at 5am… this half ironman training requires me to get up WAY to early every day of the week. It was about 60 degrees outside and the water was warm, so at 6AM there was about 3 feet of thick fog sitting on the water. As weird as it felt swimming through fog (as if some large crustacean creature from the Paleolithic era named Nessie was gonna pop up at an moment, maybe she’d give me a ride?), I think not being able to see how far I had to go actually helped me. I ended up comfortably swimming about 1 mile in 36 mins. Not fast, but all I want to do is get through the swim portion. I then ran about 6 miles at a 7:14 pace. Later this week, I’ll go the full 1.5 loop.

Saturday’s ride (again, waking up at 5AM) got cut short to 40 miles because a few members needed to get back for the 4th Parade. Brett Kennedy and I had originally planned on 50ish, but 40 at about 19mph on the Trace was good enough. We quickly put on our running shoes after the ride and went for a 24 min run. My guess is that we covered about 3 miles. It was a good brick workout considering everything we had done previously this week (28 running, 140 bike, and 4.5 swim). We met back up at Jim’s, had some coffee, had some laughs, played with Happy, and was back home by 10am (and into a nice ice bath). That’s the best part of starting workouts at 6AM.

Remainder of season includes:
- Fall Creek Falls Olympic Tri
- Nationals – Olympic Tri
- Hood to Coast
- August Half Iron
- Jack & Back
- Huntsville Marathon
- Other random events that get thrown in

Hulk Piss 2009

The Old Hickory Tri is nicknamed the Hulk Piss Tri (copyright James Banker 2007) because the water is a nasty murky green with visibility of about 11 inches. Plus, when you jump in, it’s even warm and doesn’t smell that pleasant! One can only assume that this best describes the Hulk’s urine.

This sprint tri consist of a 400 yard swim (or close to 600 when Team Magic’s buoys notoriously drift WAY off course), a 1.5 mile run, 12.5 mile bike, and another 1.5 mile run. Not a bad little practice workout with all the transitions. Three of Team Clementine’s members participated in this event: James Banker (3 yr Veteran), Jeff Rooks, and Jonathan Minton. Some of the greatest highlights of this event include James breaking a 1:40 with NO training in the past several months, Jeff Rooks averaging 18.7mph on an old bottom tube shifting bike without bike shoes to clip in, and Jonathan spending over 14 minutes frolicking around like a 7 yr old sissy in the water in what SHOULD have taken him 10 mins. Again, another pathetic swim by Jonathan (however, I did break well over 20mph on the bike – 20.9 to be exact).

Finish Times:
James Banker – 1:37:19
Jeff Rooks – 1:18:31
Jonathan Minton – 1:16:42

In the end, it wasn’t a bad race at all considering James tapers for 6 months, this was only Rooks’ third race, Rooks and Minton raced the previous weekend (Monster, see post below), and Minton hadn’t had a day off training since before the previous race.

Monster Tri – Monster Day

When I woke up at 4am, I thought, “what the hell is wrong with me, this is insane.” I had to hit the road by 4:15am to meet my buddy Mark because our bikes were to be racked in Pulaski, TN for our first Sprint Tri of the season. Not only did I have to drive about 2 hours south to this race, I also had to come back home and get ready for a wedding in KY (2 hours north). The entire day was a sprint race.

The Monster Tri turned out better for everyone this year. Mark’s peddle didn’t fall off, Jeff won third place in his age group and this was only his second triathlon every, and I won my age group again this year… which qualified me for Nationals later this year. The swim was a 200 yard pool swim: Mark – 4:03, Jeff – 4:18, Jonathan – 4:46 (PATHETIC). The bike had about 1,400 feet of climbing over 16.7 miles: Mark – 14.8, Jeff – 16.8, Jonathan – 19.2. The run was supposed to be a 3 miler but I don’t think it was quit 3 miles. It started and ended in the Giles County Old Cemetery and at this point, it was about 90 degrees. It appeared that the left the computer programmed at 3 miles though because the paces published (which I think are impossible) were as follows: Mark – 6:23, Jeff – 6:47, Jonathan – 5:46.

Overall times and places
Mark Womack – 1:32:34 and 4th in age group
Jeff Rooks – 1:25:07 and 3rd in age group
Jonathan Minton – 1:15:22 and 1st in age group (by over 7 minutes)

The day didn’t end there for me. I drove 2 hours back home, got cleaned up, and drove two more hours north to a wedding at 4pm. After the wedding and reception, Kristin drove us back home (I was just too tired). We finally got home and in bed around midnight after a total of 8 hours in the car, a race, and a wedding. I had to speed through my race-to-wedding transition and was still painted up with body markings at the wedding… classic trashy redneck huh?

Tour de’ Caves – Kentucky

Ok, so I’ve not been that great on keeping this updated. I will try to do much better since more races and training events are picking up this summer. The Tour de’ Caves in Kentucky (June 6, 2009) turned out to be a great little ride. I went up there with a few guys that I had met just the weekend before (David Runkle, Wes Allen, and the Bachus family). This ride also marked Shrek’s maiden voyage (my new green Trek Madone 6.5). The ride was small, only about 200 bikes or so, and the roads were really nice. Not as many hills as the typical deliverance back roads of middle TN, but still about 4,000 feet of climbing over 68 miles. We averaged 19.9 mph over the course… me and another guy kept riding past the end to try and hit a 20 average, but it just wasn’t happening and we were tired. I felt pretty good on my new bike and it was exciting to see my average speed improve with just the addition of a better bike. It still makes me sick to think how much I had to pay for just those couple extra mph’s though

Check back soon for updates on the Monster Tri and Old Hickory Tri.

Team Clementine Supports LiveSTRONG Foundation

As noted in previous posts, Team Clementine is a big supporter of the LiveSTRONG foundation (www.livestrong.org) and their mission to raise awareness and fight cancer. We spend countless hours training and preparing for races and we strongly believe in not wasting that time just to race for nothing. This is why we are currently training for one of the most grueling 197 mile relay races in America. We are running the Hood to Coast relay race (http://www.hoodtocoast.com) in order to raise awareness and funds for the LiveSTRONG foundation. Out of the 24 member national team, 6 of those members belong to Team Clementine. Mark Woamck, Bryan Meurer, Jeff Rooks, Wayne Pryor, Brett Kennedy, and Jonathan Minton will each be raising a minimum of $1,500 for the foundation. All of us have been touched by cancer and if you would like to help support the Lance Armstrong Foundation and help these team Clementine members exceed the minimum fundraising goal for the foundation, please visit the team page where you can select any of these six members, as well as any of the other 18 members, to donate too. https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=286710&lis=1&kntae286710=7230E92431724FD6A6B5B1202BF67602&supId=0&team=3383485&cj=Y

The race will take place Oregon over a two day period in late August (yeah, we’ll be up running all night long with no sleep for a few days and living out of vans). 12,000 runners will be participating. Last year, team Clementine member Jonathan Minton ran on the inaugural LiveSTRONG team and raised in excess of $3,000 for the foundation. Please help all six of this year’s Team Clementine runners do the same. Please help us support the LiveSTRONG foundation’s mission. Please help us fight cancer!

(Last year's LAF Team)

Unite and Fight! LiveSTRONG!

Chase named KY and NM Chapter President

Chase McKeown is a world renowned cyclist hailing from the where most professional athletes hail… Kentucky. The great state of Kentucky has produced some incredible athletes throughout history such as Jonny Dept, Katie Couric, and George Clooney and Chase is not unlike these aforementioned athletic supernovas. In addition to his unheard of abilities on the bike, Chase is a trombone playing phenomenon unlike anything the world has every seen.

Kentucky is fortunate enough to have Chase make his home there. However, Chase will be (as he typically does) spending 3 months of intense training at a camp in New Mexico at just above 7,000 feet. Living and training at this altitude is what makes Chase uncatchable on the bike.

I have been personally fortunate enough to spend a few long rides with Chase and still cherish those rides as one of the biggest honors of my life.

For all these reasons, Team Clementine has entrusted the great honor of allowing Chase to lead Team Clementine’s great mission into Kentucky and New Mexico. We know that Chase will only recruit those athletes who truly deserve the great honor of being a Team Clementine member.

We wish Chase good luck as he extends Team Clementine to the national level.

3 States 3 Mountains

Imagine waking up at 4am, riding down to the packet and chip pickup. It’s already drizzling outside. You get back to your hotel around 5am; take a shower so that you feel somewhat fresh after having 4 hours of sleep the night before, then making some last minute tweaks to your bike. You get changed into your ride gear (unsure if you need arm warmers, vest, rain jacket, or possible a tornado shelter) and head down for breakfast around 6:30. You consume a big meal, take a big crap, and head the staging area around 7:30am with 2,500 other riders (still drizzly). You have 100 miles and three big climbs of nearly 6,000 feet ahead of you (not to mention you ran a half marathon the weekend before and intend on doing another century the very next day). Nearly at the moment the ride starts, it begins to pour rain. This is how 3 States 3 Mountains started this year.

For the first 14 miles, the rain didn’t stop; it was pounding my face like little shards of glass as we made our way through Chattanooga and out to the first climb. At times, you could hardly see the bike in front of you. During miles 14-20, it felt as though the rain had let up, maybe because the pace slowed to about 8mph as we made our 6 mile journey up the 6-8% grade. Once we crested the top and began descending the wet, switchback, road down the other side, it confirmed that the rain hadn’t let up. Once we hit the bottom around mile 25, there were about 600 riders grouped together under a carwash trying to stay warm and out of the weather. Everyone was uncontrollably shaking from the weather conditions. The porta-potty was the warmest place around. It was at that point that we decided we’d take the split off at mile 44 and complete only the 60 mile course. This was punishment.

Mile 44, the split off. The rain had backed off a bit and the temperature began to rise; rise enough that we all felt warm and decided that we were doing the entire 100 regardless of the rain. Maybe we were warm because we experienced a couple flats and ended up having to race the clock to the split off point before the century cutoff time elapsed. Either way, we went right… right towards the next climb and the remaining 66 miles.

The second climb was just around the corner. This climb was peaking around 10-12% but only lasted about 3.5 miles. Cadence slowed considerable as we made our way to the top. The rain had lightened a bit and everyone’s spirits were good. We road the crest of this mountain for about 10 miles and the rain completely stopped as we made our way down the other side; a much more enjoyable decent even though we still didn’t exceed 30mph due to the slippery roads.

Once we hit the bottom, the rain picked back up. We could hear thunder in the distance and a SAG truck told us there was a tornado watch out. We picked up the pace and made our way to the third climb at mile 82. Lookout Mountain (meaning from the top, you can lookout and see forever… meaning you were about to climb the toughest grade of the day between miles 82 and 85). It was only a 3 mile climb, but it was at 15-16% with the last half mile ranging from 17-20%. Yes, the rain pelted us as we climbed. We remained in the saddle, leaning way forward to keep the front wheel on the ground, because the back wheel would slip on the wet road when standing. Once we got to the top, it wasn’t raining. However, we were in the could itself. As we descended down the other side with only about 15 miles to go, the rain picked back up. As we approached Chattanooga, the rain slowly came to a stop. We rode the last 5 miles with partly cloudy skies and crossed the finish line shortly after.

3S3M was an incredible experience, and to have accomplished it while contending with the weather actually made it a bit more rewarding. We covered three states (TN, AL, and GA) and climbed three good mountains. After reading the next day’s forecast, “90% chance of sever storms capable of producing large hail,” we decided it might not be in our best interest to attempt that. We later learned that the course was evacuated by the EMA due to tornados. Maybe next year!

Sahara Desert Marathon 2009

The Sahara Desert Marathon and Half Marathon started out hot… wait, I mean the Country Music Marathon… it was just the hottest it’d ever been in my 5 years of toeing up to the start line. This was Nashville’s first heat wave of the year. I would like to say it was in the 90s, but that’d be a fib (maybe not for the finish line, though). It was about 70 at the start, which is hot considering everyone on Team Clementine was used to mid-50s. In addition, the race director modified the course to loop further into downtown to give the runners a more enjoyable running experience (and add a long 1 mile hill at the 2nd mile marker).

Regardless of the heat and hills, Team Clementine performed as you would expect: we kicked ass.

Marathon Results:
Wim Codington – 3:04:58 (48th overall finish)

Half Marathon Results:
Mark Woamck – 1:52:35
Zach Simpson – 2:06:38
Bryan Meurer – 2:38:04 (including 2 miles of throw up)
John Irby – 1:52:19
Nate Kenney – 1:38:05
Jonathan Minton – 1:35:33

Official Clementine Debut

On April 11, 2009, Team Clementine made its official debut. Sure, members of Team Clementine had toed the starting line of the Fangtastic 5k two months earlier. However, on a cool spring day in April, something was different. Some would say it was the flat, fast course. Others would say it was the ice cream awarded to each finisher. The secret, though, lay in the inner fabric of a shirt. That's right, a shirt. But not just any shirt. On this day, the official uniform of Team Clementine made its debut. Amy Womack, Official HR representative, paved the way for a remarkable 2009 racing season by taking 1:29 off of her Fangtastic 5k time two months earlier with a Purity Moosic City 5k time of 28:50, an unofficial PR. Mark Womack, who was unable to sport the orange and white (Go Vols, by the way) due to participation in the Corporate Challenge, also improved on his Fangtastic time by clocking a 21:51, which stands as a post-high school PR. The 2009 racing season is off to a great start, so jump on board.

James Banker named Pancake Coordinator

Every professional team on earth knows that the real secret to success is having an impeccable pancake coordinator. Team member Sir James Banker (that’s right, the Queen has knighted this horse riding pancake revolutionist) has studied the art of scheduling pancake breakfast for years. He knows the best restaurants with the finest syrups. His attention to detail and schedules is like none other. His coordinating emails are precise and his suggestions are excellent. This is why Banker has been unanimously voted and named Team Clementine’s Pancake Coordinator. You may have seen James on an Iron Chef episode in which he challenged Iron Chef Aunt Jemima when the secret ingredient was Pancakes. You know the outcome of that…. That’s why it’s called Uncle James now.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank James for all his hard work in getting the team together for breakfast over the past several months. Without people like James in this world, we wouldn’t have the carbs and sugar to fuel our bodies (or Meurer’s channel two clients).

Thanks for all your hard work James!

Fangtastic 5k

Valentines Day 2009 - who could think of a better way to celebrate? That’s right, you can’t! Starting off this day dedicated to the celebration of love with a 5k is truly dedicating the day to Team Clementine’s one true love: RUNNING (well, anything competitive and endurance related really). Two members of the team started the season right with posting some very good preseason times. The race was staged in downtown Nashville, which coupled with the wind that day, made the hills downtown feel like the streets of San Francisco. Two members of the team celebrated their eternal love for the sport (as well as each other) by kicking out some killer times. Amy Womack, Team Clementine’s official HR director, ran a 30:19. Mark Womack, Team Clementine’s official head running coach, ran a 22:57. Jonathan Minton, who has yet to be named to any position, ran a 20:42. V-Day 2009 proved to be a great kickoff to the teams competitive season.

We Haven't Retired

Wow, has it really been this long since anything was posted to this blog? Well, just because the blog has been ignored doesn’t mean that Team Clementine hasn’t been kicking ass all over Middle Tennessee. The team has been training and racing too hard to take the time to update this for the millions of followers (I guess it’s a good thing Fox Sports has been following and documenting everything). Full post will come soon for the following events in which Team Clementine has participated:

Fantastic 5k – February 14, 2009
Purity Music City 5k – April 11, 2009
Country Music Marathon – April 25, 2009

Future Events which should cap off May are as follows:

3 States 3 Mountains Century - May 2, 2009
Cheaha Challenge Century - May 3, 2009
BBQ Fest 5k - May 9, 2009
Tour de’ Nashville - May 16, 2009
Strawberry Festival 5k - May 23, 2009

Check back soon for updates and photos.

Team Clementine Appoints Running Coach

As Team Clementine continues to grow by astronomical leaps and bounds, we are proud to announce that Womack, yet again another exceptional athlete, has accepted our proposal to lead this great team as our Running Coach. Like our swim coach, Coach K, Womack has been competing professionally at the international level for many years. Many of you might remember the infamous Runners World magazine article a few years back in which his incredible performance in the Country Music Half Marathon was featured. As with Coach K, Womack will be posting running tips from time to time. Please join me in welcoming this world-renowned athlete as part of our coaching staff and team.

Tuesday's Swim Tip - "S-Squared" Lead

First, let me thank all of you for your nomination, your support and your faith in me for Team Clementine's swim coach. It's been a tough journey (the last two weeks have just killed me!) to get to this position, but well worth it. I was told by one of our executive assistants that representatives from each of Sports Illustrated and Triathlete Magazine showed up our Ernst & Young office to interview me, but due to our client confidentiality (aka, bullshit) rules, they were turned away. I'm just hoping they didn't find a copy of that picture of me and Phelps smoking the bushazay (pronounced "boo' shaw zway").

On a less serious note, welcome to 'Tuesday's Swim Tip' with Coach K. My goal is to provide a weekly tip to help improve your swimming and efficiency of your stroke. Let me disclaim that you will not turn into Michael Phelps or Natalie Coughlin nor Amanda Beard (or hell, Jonathan Minton), but if you picture these tips in your swimming and drills, I do think it will help you become a better swimmer.

This week's mental tip...the shoulder shrug lead, or what I've named it, "S-Squared" Lead. I call it the Lead because it begins the recovery phase of your stroke.

The other day I was swimming with the Excel Triathlete group and Coach Ashley Whitney (I wonder if Sports Illustrated has showed up at her door yet?) yelled out to me, "Brett! Shrug your shoulder." Huh? Shrug my shoulder?

The S-Squared Lead happens during the recovery phase of your stroke (after the pull). Some of you may have practiced the "zipper drill", which is the recovery phase of your stroke before your hand enters the water. You practice the zipper drill to stay in a streamlined body position. If you prefer the "wave your hands in the air...and wave like you just don't care!" stroke, then by all means, go for it. But a streamlined recovery will make you more efficient in the water.

I like to picture "shrugging" my shoulder to my ear to start my recovery (i.e., start the zipper) rather than picturing myself "zipping" my side.

Practice set:

Go to the pool and swim 25 (or 50) meters with the mental picture of using your "hand" to zip your side during your recovery. DO NOT THINK ABOUT YOUR SHOULDER. Rest 30 seconds. Then swim the same distance with the mental picture of shrugging your shoulder and letting your hand and elbow follow the shrug up the side of your body during the the recovery. This is not a weight-lifting shrug, but rather a continuous fluid motion. This mental picture has really helped me during our swim workouts.

Try it out and let me know your comments.

- Coach K

Team Clementine Names Head Swim Coach

Today, Brett Kennedy was named Team Clementine’s official swimming coach. Coach Brett will be leading Team Clementine in many open water swims and pool drills throughout the season. Reach out to Brett with any of your aquatic questions and concerns and check back for his weekly (or whenever he feels) swim tips.

Earlier today, after about an hour of swim drills, a couple teammates got together in Belle Meade for yet another great long run… ended up completing about 8 miles at a 7:46 pace. This marks the 13th day in a row of training sessions. These unseasonably warm weekends (last Sunday and yet again tomorrow) make it hard not to take off Sundays for rest. I hope it’s cold next Sunday because the Fangtastic 5k next Saturday will mark exactly 20 days without a full rest day.

Our team’s graphic artist has completed the design of our new race shirts for 2009 and is in the process of working with the screen printers. A sample shirt was delivered yesterday and Kristin is working to make some final tweaks. We should have some price quotes for sweat wicking shirts sometime early next week. We’ll post everything and make final decisions next week and get the shirts ordered soon thereafter.

Other items:
Nashville, TN – Fangtastic 5k on Saturday, February 14, 2009
Portland, OR – HTC details are getting ironed out, we’ll know more soon
Memphis, TN – RB’s Ride into Spring, April 4
Memphis in May Olympic Tri – Sunday May 17

Breakthrough Run

Last Saturday, Womack and I got in our first GREAT long run and we still have 12 weeks until the CMM Half Marathon. It was an unseasonably warm 62 degree day out on the Smyrna Greenway in late January. Being that we’re both on a “comeback” from weeks of PT for I.T. band issues and it was our first outside run in many weeks, 9 miles wasn’t too bad… especially at about an 8:10 pace and following an entire week of training. We both finished the training session not feeling overly tired or worn out. As of now, it appears that the 1:35 goal is very achievable; surely we can drop 55 seconds off our pace and add 4 measly miles by race day right?

The Predators Fangtastic 5k is coming up on Saturday, February 14. A few members of Team Clementine will be running the race and then going to the game that night. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than running a race and then going to a hockey game.

LiveSTRONG Army - Midsouth

In an effort to spread awareness about Cancer and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), a Midsouth Chapter was created yesterday. LiveSTRONG Army – Midsouth was initiated by Brett Richard of Memphis, TN as “A place for all whose lives have been touched by cancer to share their stories and help each other LIVESTRONG.” I got to know Brett through Colleen Wilson (a very inspiring and incredible athlete who works for LAF in Austin). LiveSTRONG Army – Midsouth will be participating in many athletic events across the country to raise awareness about cancer and LAF, including RB’s Ride Into Spring, RAGBRAI, HTC, LiveSTRONG Challenges, and our very own chapter 5k run/walk on LiveSTRONG day (10/2). If you belong to Facebook, look up the group LiveSTRONG Army – Midsouth and join us in the fight against cancer. More updates and information will be posted here in the weeks to come. Team Clementine is a supporter of LAF and will be participating in many of the LiveSTRONG events, including HTC, hosting the Midsouth Chapter’s 5k run/walk, and the LiveSTRONG Challenge in Austin.

LiveSTRONG!

A Recipe for Endurance

Minton's Marvelous Morsels

(Granola/Everything Cookies)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Taste: Out of this world

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 – 1.5 cups rolled oats
1 – 1.5 cups whole bran cereal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped pecans (or other desired nut)
½ cup almond slivers/slices (or other desired nut)
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup wheat germ
1 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup honey

Optional:
1 cup dried fruit (Berries or Raisins)
1 cup chocolate chips

Prepare:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together in a large bowl with a large wooden spoon. Add flour last, a little at a time as you blend it in. If optional ingredients are used, add some more applesauce or a little milk to keep consistency consistent. Don’t be alarmed, this should mix up pretty chunky. Feel free to adjust ingredients such as the nuts, oats, bran cereal, and flour to get your desired consistency (more nutty, more cake like, etc). Bake for roughly 10 minutes or until done.

Place spoons of mix onto a non-stick baking sheet. Be sure to flatten the little balls on the sheet some before cooking (since these cookies are pretty chunky and the mix is a little dry, they want fall down and form a cookie shape like a traditional cookie.)

Suggested Serving:

Put a couple in your jersey pocket and eat as needed. Be prepared to be amazed.

The Spanish Sweet Clementine

Drafted back in circa 2007 in honor of a good friend working late nights in east TN, and to commemorate the inaugural pealing of this tasty citrus indulgence, I present to you this one and only poetic masterpiece: The Spanish Sweet Clementine.

The Spanish Sweet Clementine

Oh how I love you sweet Clementine orange. You are so tasty and special. Sweet and delicious... especially most nutritious. Oh how I love you sweet Clementine orange.

Clementine, sitting so sweet in your special little crate in the grocery store… I just don’t know how my taste buds ever survived before you, what a bore. You’re tasty juice is so sweet and pure, I’m sure my potassium depleted muscles, you will cure.

Clementine, with your soft bright skin, in the store you’re easy to find… you belong to the mandarin family of oranges, the smallest of your kind. Imported into the states the first time in 1982… now I just can’t get enough of you.

Now that you are intrigued by the tasty little jingle I have prepared, I’m sure it is time for me to get back to work, despaired. Sweet Clementine, I’m sure we’ll meet again, in about 2 hours when I peal another one of you, and dig in.

The Clementine Experiment

November 2006 - two young athletes worked tirelessly in a cold, dark conference room. It was a typical late night at Captain D’s and these athletes, as usual, were pouring over audit workpapers. Little did these two know, something bigger was happening all around them, something that would bond them, and others, together as teammates on one of the greatest endurance teams ever known.

It was at that point that The Clementine Experiment was conceived. It would not be until two years later that these athletes would realize what had happened.

The idea of running the upcoming 2007 Country Music Half Marathon in a 1:30, which was quit a stretch for these two “professional amateurs”, kept being tossed around the audit room back in 2006. April 2007 brought disappointment to each, yet built a foundation of motivation and drive like none other. Over the next two years, these two athletes would endure hours and hours of rigorous training, injuries, career changes, and even transform from runners to triathletes. Then, in November 2008, after miles and miles and hours and hours of training, one of these athletes declared that he was going to write a book about the experiences of going from an out-of-shape auditor to an age-group winning triathlete and (hopefully) an Ironman.

The two athletes started reminiscing about those longs nights in the audit room, the room where it all began, and how they used to discuss running. Book titles started being tossed around and then they both remembered one single important thing that they could not believe they had forgotten. Clementines. It was the sweet Spanish Clementine that had gotten them through those difficult times. It was the Clementine that given them the ability to work all those nights and train all those long miles. The book title was determined that instant: The Clementine Experiment.

The Clementine Experiment did not end there. Many friends were made along the last two years of mileage that were all part of The Clementine Experiment, part of what ultimately made this group of teammates what they are today. Team Clementine was created. Team Clementine is a group of amateur athletes who support each other in racing the most challenging endurance events they personally can. Team Clementine is a group of average men and women who work normal jobs by day, train like professional athletes by night, and race like machines on the weekend.

Anyone can juggle the many things that are thrown at them in life and become an “ironman” at anything they wish to pursue. This webpage will be used to track the experiences of Team Clementine throughout the next year, the progress towards becoming an ironman, and motivate others to lead a healthy, balanced, and active lifestyle.