How it all started and everything after that...

Even though my triathlon career didn’t officially start until 2007, it really began in November of 2005 at Ironman Florida.

In 2005, I was five years removed from serving an enlistment in the United States Marine Corps.   At that time, I had let myself go and there were a few things to blame for that. One, I started working at Intuit in 2000 and put on my “Intuit” weight.  Every meeting you walked into, there were bagels, muffins, cookies, drinks, etc… On top of that, I stopped running except for the occasional jaunt around Miramar Lake.  I was hitting the gym with my long time friend, Joel, throwing weights around. My main source of nutrition was creatine, protein shakes, Red Robin, and breakfast burritos….pretty much everything that tasted great at the time!  In 2005, I was around 240 lbs and definitely not the healthiest.

In 2005, I met Caryn whose brother had started doing triathlon.  He competed in Ironman Florida that November, so we headed to the Florida Panhandle to watch him race.  This was my first exposure to triathlon.  As I watched all the competitors that day, I thought to myself, “If some of these people can do this, so can I!”

We were still living in San Diego at the time, and when we got back I picked up my first road bike!  It was an $800.00 Giant and all I could do was ride around Miramar Lake; which was 12 miles. I also started running again and did a few half marathons with Caryn before we left San Diego.

In September of 2006, we moved to Tucson and that is when I really got into triathlon.  In November, we joined the local tri club and jumped in on their group runs and rides.   We also became members at the Northwest YMCA and started swimming.  I had no idea what I was doing when I got in the water. My first workout was 300-400 yards and it took 15 minutes to complete.  I didn’t get discouraged and kept at it.  In March of 2007, I bought my first tri bike, a Kuota K-Factor, and in that same month, I competed in my first triathlon in Lake Havasu.  It was the Olympic distance and took me 3:15 minutes to complete.  At the time, I was ecstatic to finish the race and was proud of what I had accomplished.

After that race, I decided I wanted to do a half ironman.  Looking back now that was definitely not the right decision! I do not recommend a half or ironman in your first year of the sport, especially if any of the sports are not your strength!  I got a semi-custom plan from a local coach and got after it.  I logged my miles, but that is really all I can say I did. I didn’t know my HR zones, so I was always training too hard.  I also battled overuse injuries the entire year.  Throughout the year I competed in a few Sprint and Olympic distance events to get familiar with racing. In October of 2007, I raced the Longhorn Half Ironman in Austin, TX. It was the first year of the race and had not yet become a 70.3.   On race day, the heat index was 103 and to this day it was the most miserable day of racing I have ever had!

Over the next few years I continued to train and race quite a bit, but still wasn’t doing things the “right” way. I know everyone has his or her definition of training the “right” way, but I knew I was not optimizing my training. Even though I was starting to get faster and drop some weight, I still wasn’t close to where I am today. I had really hit a plateau with my training and weight loss.  My fastest Olympic Distance was a 2:25 and change.  I had also attempted another half at Boise 70.3 in 2010.  I didn’t go in to this race properly trained and had another bad race, but definitely not as bad as Austin!  That is when I decided that I would be shelving my half goals until I hit some shorter distance goals.

In 2010, I raced USAT Age Group Nationals in Tuscaloosa, AL.  It was my first year competing at that race and even though the race didn’t go as planned; the trip had an impact on the athlete and coach I am today.  That is where I met my coach, Trista Francis.  In addition, I realized I had a ton of work to do to compete at the National level.

In 2011, I hired Coach T.  Immediately, I noticed a difference in her coaching philosophy versus those I had worked with in the past.  For one, there was a lot more recovery built into my season and workouts were tailored to exactly what my goals were.  She also started me on strength training, which I feel has had a big impact on my performance.  Again, I qualified for Age Group Nationals in Burlington, VT, but was unable to race. The month before I rolled my ankle pretty bad on a long run in San Diego and ended up with posterior tibia tendonitis.  That set me back with my running for a few months.

In 2012, I started to really see the benefit of working with a coach. In May of 2012, I competed at 5150 St. Anthony’s. I went 5^th in my Age Group with a time of 2:10 and change. That was a six-minute PR over my previous Olympic PR. That qualified me for the 5150 Championships at HyVee in September.   2012 was starting out great and continued to have my best season since I started triathlon.  Not only was racing going well, and I made some tweaks to my diet, which resulted in me slimming down. Before this, I had felt like I had hit a plateau with my weight. 

That August I decided to race a sprint on Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California.  This was going to be a tune-up race for Age Group Nationals in Burlington, VT.  At mile 16 of the 18-mile bike course my season came to a crashing halt!  I hit a large bump, lost my water bottle, and ran over it.  I made the mistake of looking back and when I did my front wheel turned.  I went from 30mph to zero in a matter of seconds.  As I lay on the ground, volunteers and even a few racers came to my aid.  With the adrenaline from the crash rushing through my veins all I wanted to do was get back up and finish the race.  They kept me still until the ambulance got there to transport me to the hospital.  After seven hours in the ER, cat scans, multiple x-rays, I was finally released.  I ended up with a cracked rib, grade two separation of my shoulder and lots of road rash. At least that is all the damage I thought had occurred!  With HyVee and Age Group Nationals now off the schedule, my focus was on getting back as quickly as possible.

After about four weeks, I was still unable to run without severe pain, so I went in and saw my Ortho.  He sent me in for an MRI and the results were not horrible, but not great. I had fractured my hip socket and pelvis during the crash, but due to the swelling, the X-rays during my ER visit didn’t show the fractures.  They were healing like they should, and he told me to hold off running for a bit longer. Ten weeks after the accident, I was finally able to slip on the running shoes!  A 20-minute run had never felt so satisfying.  At that moment, I knew that 2013 was going to be great year!  I did finish out 2012 with earning USAT Honorable Mention All-American.

Now that I was back running; my training was in full swing to get ready for the upcoming season.  However in February I had another setback!  I ended up with a stress fracture in my right foot and developed Peroneal Tendonitis in the same ankle.  It only took me out eight weeks, but I did hassle with the tendonitis all of 2013 after the stress fracture.  Luckily, I was still able to reach a lot of my goals I had set at the beginning of the season.  I raced at USAT Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee and earned a spot on Team USA in the sprint distance. That was after pulling out of the Olympic distance the day before due to a flat.  In addition to earning the Team USA spot, I also earned USAT All-American status in 2013!

It has been a long seven years and I have had to change a lot to reach my goals. My eating habits have changed from the type of food I eat; to how much food I eat. I still have days where I struggle, but I always look back to where I was in 2007 and that motivates me to get back on track. In 2014, I am going to incorporate mostly natural foods into my diet, plus going gluten free.  I have also started fueling with Generation UCan for a majority of my workouts.  Hopefully these changes will give me more energy and allow me to recover faster than before.  Definitely more to come on those two changes once I get a few months under my belt.

I look forward to what the future holds and can’t wait to continue on this journey that started as an overweight beginner triathlete to now a USAT All-American and 2014 Team USA member.

2014 Race Schedule: St. George 70.3, ITU WCS Chicago, USAT Age Group Nationals, ITU Short Course Worlds, TriRock San Diego

Kona, HI March 2014