This weekend was an emotional commencement for my feelings towards draft legal triathlon. In 2001, when I was racing semi-regularly, juniors switched from draft-illegal Olympic distance racing to draft-legal sprint distance. This made a bunch of sense for us U19 triathletes hoping to move into the ITU ranks with eventual dreams of an Olympic team. I remember it well – I was a 16 year old kid sketching Olympic rings all over my school books dreaming of 2008 or 2012…

Well, that was a pipe dream as I simply couldn’t swim or run fast enough to keep up with these uber athletes in draft legal. All of a sudden, we weren’t TT-ing doing our own races. The pack came out of the swim, hit the bike and you couldn’t miss that pack or your race was over. Then the run came down to the speediest legs off of the junior Cat-5-esk crit that just went down. The switch to draft legal gave me a mental reason to shut off cycling tenacity. Once you’re in the pack, don’t attack – wait for the run. But not being a runner, I couldn’t figure out how to use cycling as an advantage. Attack? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

This was my first weekend seeing an ITU WCS event in person. If you haven’t seen a race, hit up triathlon.org and have your mind blown. These guys and gals are at the rivet for 2 hours posting swim times that’d make Mikey Phelps impressed and then they turn around track-worthy 10km times with, oh yeah, a 25+ mph bike ride for an hour.

So 10 years ago, I used draft legal racing as my excuse to not attack every segment of my tris. And since, when school and product development has taken priority, I’ve just accepted my run as slow and irreparable. Then I saw Jonathan Brownlee’s race this weekend and I woke up. The kid ATTACKED the swim and blasted out one of the fastest times, jumps on his bike and is the key attacker on the bike. Watching the race, it’s inevitable that it’s gonna come down to a group pack ride (58 guys hit T2 together), but he’s still attacking. Any coach would say that’s crazy. But here’s a guy that can do it and mentally, he’s focused on winning, attacking – it’s not about energy conservation. It’s about freaking killing everyone around whenever possible.

Then those 58 guys hit T2, and blasting out in the first 1km, this kid just keeps attacking. DAMN. Forget his fitness, forget his incredible talent, he is just pure tenacity. So Brownlee takes the win as was expected of him, but close behind are 30 of his closest frien-emies. With Olympic spots on the line, everyone’s fired up. Tim Don comes in just a bit ahead of Manny Huerta, then Simon comes in with his Canadian teammate Kyle Jones, and Macca slots in as the 3rd Aussie this weekend.

I talked with Macca after the race and he was just blown away by the level of the race and the speed of everyone – “I just ran 31 mins for 30th place. That run was just crazy!” Then he takes a photo with an 8-year-old kid who’s ecstatic to meet his hero. “Make sure you remember this in 5-years when we’re back hear racing.” Yup a 22-year old Brit had just lit up the course and respect for an 8-year-old future racer was front of the mind.

There were 1,001 emotions over the weekend, but my biggest take-away was to run. Just run. Run fast. Run more. I love the bike, and I’ve used it as a crutch for too many years. But to be a true triathlete, you can’t be afraid of the run, you’ve gotta embrace it and attack. To the guys and girls this weekend that taught me that, thank you. You’re truly inspirational.

Congrats to all and good luck at London 2012!

This weekend is the great camping, racing, chillin’ in the woods trip that happens only once per year but never lets down. Anyone who hasn’t raced or lived Wildflower hasn’t experienced one of the classic triathlon events of the calendar. And up until last year, I hadn’t either. I’ve been racing triathlon since I was 6 years old but growing up in Maine, so far away from Kona, Florida, Texas, and California meant that I never really saw the races that were written about in the magazines or talked about by the pros. Oceanside, St. Anthony’s, Memphis in May all went on when there was still snow on the ground outside my house. And Wildflower. 

Wildflower’s the first place I ever heard about Jamba Juice. What is this juice? I had no idea what a smoothie was. Yea, I guess I was pretty sheltered up in Maine but we did have internet and I promise we didn’t have to fish for our food (everyday, anyways).
Two years ago I went to the race just to experience it. I was training for Ironman and used it as a long bike weekend (2 loops of the long course bike course). The most memorable moment was pre-race when Conrad was chatting us up at the team truck and said something like “they think Xterra athletes aren’t really that fast…just wait for the bike”. Sure enough, Conrad comes off the bike in 2nd looking worked but with a big ol’ smile on his face. The field was stacked and he proved his point.

Last year, I got called into race with a buddy of mine on a relay and I did my first tri relay race. Normally, I’d be the cyclist in a race like this but instead I was the recruited runner. This might’ve been an OK call in the 9th grade when I could actually run, but it worked out anyway. Wildflower is a beast on the bike and run course – lots of climbing and some steep sections that’ll make you honest in your early season.

This’ll be the first year I race solo and despite little form, I’m revvvved up to race. I’ll do the mtn bike triathlon Saturday morning and then the Olympic on Sunday. With no form and plenty of Specialized friend’s racing, there’s sure to be lots of trash talking with nothing to back it up. Unfortunately aero’s not gonna make up the difference this time.

Onto the camp ground – Anyone out there should swing by Lynch #4-6 for a post race hoorah and a beer.

San Diego freakin’ rocks. Sun, sand, awesome people, great roads for running and riding. Give me a few more days down south in the sun!

Over the long weekend, I went to the Triathlon America Conference in San Diego – attended by the business leaders in triathlon and truly the founders of the sport. It was a humbling group to be around for 3 full days and there was a ton of inspiration. Some days I feel like the kid who gets to hang out with these triathlon legends but having started in the sport as a kid (around 10-ish) I realize I’ve been around this crowd my whole life.

These are all people I didn’t know well or had just met, but somehow had uncanny links back to my past, present, and likely future in triathlon…

I met Mike O’Neil who represents Barbara Riveros (one of our true rockstar ITU athletes on the team) and also Sarah Groff (racing the Olympics in London this summer!!!). Sarah and I grew up racing with on Vortex Racing, founded and coached by Steve Kelley. Steve supported me when I was a kid growing up racing tri (really….like age 12-16) and at the same time, let Bobby Behan, this tall skinny lanky pro Irishman sleep on his floor while he was racing pro in Massachusetts. Flash forward to 2012 -- Bobby runs the Specialized Global Triathlon Team – a guy I met back when I was 10 years old. But with a guy as linked up as Bobby, generally all roads lead back to the tall Irishman. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, meh… It’s more like four degrees of Bobby Behan. (Seriously triathletes, try it…)

I was re-introduced to Gale Bernhardt – amazing athlete and truly one of the great triathlon coaches out there. Gale has worked with the USAT National Team many many years over the past decade. She first met Jeff Donaldson, pro mechanic, in 2002 when he was wrenching for the USAT Team for the PanAm games. Flash forward to 2012 -- Jeff is wrenching for our pro triathletes and is a core part of our the Specialized product development team. I hadn’t seen Gale since testing at the Fort Collins Wind Tunnel back in ’07. Great to reconnect.

We listened to Mike Buteau, an incredibly intelligent and articulate writer for Bloomberg, present on some very cool general business and marketing topics. He also happens to be a supremely motivated triathlete and I’d say a product technophile. Naturally, we get talking about wind tunnel testing (something I tend to get wrapped up in from time to time) and Mike Giraud, former fitter/WT operator at the A2 Wind Tunnel, who now works at Blue, comes up in convo. Mike also works with Chance Regina at Blue, a guy I worked with at Specialized during my first internships back in 2005. Mike B gets to telling me a funny tidbit about Chance though – apparently he’s quite the baker and just made a Girl Scout cookie, thin-mint cheesecake. Cheers, Chance – Triathlon & baking – that’s a balance in life!

It doesn’t matter how big the industry grows to be, it’ll always seem small when the connections lead back. It was a great conference and I’m happy to say everyone there generally agreed -- the sport is healthy and thriving.

A huge congrats to Craig Alexander for winning the Male Triathlete of the Year award! Crowie, we've got the trophy at the office and will get it in the mail ASAP!   

This is the time of year that the crew gets together and we start brainstorming all of the crazy stuff we didn’t get to study, proto, or mess with during the past year.  It’s team camp and wind tunnel season – both leading to a lot of product development.  With new guys on the teams like Levi on the road side and Crowie on the tri side, this winter should have some cool innovation in store. 

But jeeze, I’ve gotta reflect a bit on this past year… it’s been said before and I’m sure will be said again, but wow what a year.  Our 2011 started at the McLaren headquarters when we launched the SW + McLaren Venge.  I actually got to spend my birthday at McLaren with our product team looking at F1 cars and dreaming up new aero ideas for bikes.  Granted there’s a lot more you can do redirecting 200 mph air than you can do at 20 mph, but some cool ideas came out nonetheless.  It’s been a cool ride working with McLaren so far and I can’t wait to show what we’re working on next…

Then we had an uber crazy awesome summer with great product launches all over the world.  It was cool doing our Dealer Event in Monterey – riding the roads around Pebble Beach with some loopy hills and killer crosswinds were a good test for the Venge.

And with Kona to cap it all off -- wow.  The athletes there are mega impressive.  The whole week, riding up and down Alii Drive was inspiring.  I’ve never seen so many fit athletes in one place.  The Shiv launch was really special for our team as it’s been a bike we’ve been working on since we made the first Transition years ago.  And with Crowie having one of the rides of his life and just a picture perfect swim and run, and a course record – it couldn’t have been any more special.  Our global tri team, product development crew, Mike Sinyard, and everyone was together to enjoy the launch and as a tri guy and aero-geek, it was one of the best weeks of my life.  In 10 years, looking back, that week in Kona will be one of my most fond memories.  That week had pieces of everything – great people, awesome rides and runs, plenty of product talk, some cliff jumping, and well – sun.  Isn’t that what we live for? 

So now it’s almost 2012, we’re finishing the 2013 product line, and doing R&D on 2014 and 2015.  Back to the wind tunnel to look for some more freespeed.