Last weekend was Military Nationals at Point Magu CA. The race is pretty unique with teams from Air Force, Navy, Marines, and of course the Army all competing in a Draft legal race! I wish we could make this a Continental Cup…. Ill leave that discussion for another day. The reason we draft legal is because the Military World Champs are draft legal, so it only makes sense to select team to compete at that format.  This race gets faster and faster each year, this year I believe we had 6 or 7 male pro triathletes racing and the top 6 guys all broke 1:50.00 for an Olympic distance! 

The race for me went just as planned and I don’t think I could have done anymore in terms of training or race strategy to win it. I could say well I don’t have enough time to train or sleep or something like that, but the guy who beat me just graduated from his residency for orthopedic surgery the day before!  

The swim was cold and choppy and it was a little rough for me the first lap, but during the second lap I started to feel pretty good. I got out of the water in 17:51 and I only had Tommy Brown who is a superstar Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer / former Naval Academy swimmer on my feet. I learned from my mistakes last year and quickly dropped the hammer on the bike and just Time Trialed by myself for 40k. I did not have the fastest bike split of the day that goes to Mr Arthur Mathissen (Army team member and a BA Ironman triathlete, trust me and don’t get into a cycling race with this guy), but I believe I was the only one that did not have the opportunity to draft out there.  I actually had a good lead going into the last lap, but James Bales, Kyle Hooker, and Tommy Brown put about  50 secs in me in the last of four laps.  I got off the bike and by about the first 1k James was ahead of me. Once he gaped me I couldn’t do anything to respond. I still ran a 33 which is very good for me and overall am happy about where my fitness is, especially while in class and leading up to going out to Colorado. I’m especially excited because James is also going to be in WCAP for the Air Force so it will be great to have a training partner out there!! I truly believe that for short course athletes having a training partner to get you to push that extra 1% really is beneficial.

 The Coteau-du-Lac ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup is the next race on the schedule. This is the qualifier for U23 World Champs, I got to make sure to secure a spot on that team. After that I will be jumping into Life Time Minneapolis and possibly New York.

 (more pics soon to come)

I finally made it into the World Class Athlete Program! It has taken me 5 years and a tremendous amount of work, but I will finally get a shot at being a real professional athlete. I will still be on active duty and still serving my commitment incurred from graduating from West Point, so I really can’t ask for a better deal.  I will be moving to Colorado Springs July 16^th and will for sure be there until October 2012. I will be focusing on ITU racing and doing everything I can to attain Olympic points so that I will have a shot at racing in the Olympic Trials. I really enjoy racing non drafting racing so I will continue to try and squeeze in some US short course racing when it fits into the schedule. I’m very excited that I will have a real chance to go through a proper training cycle. Lately it’s been just shoot from the hip and race what I can when I can and just build fitness from the races. This is pretty much a dream come true for me, and judging by the gains I had last time I went to CO I’m very excited to get faster and be a force to reckon with on the race course.

This was a quick trip to South America compared to the last one a week ago, and just as fun and interesting. My total trip down took me on one train, one bus (fortunately, I am pretty familiar with public transportation to the  New York city airports), two plane rides, and then another bus ride. It was about 2:30 by the time we arrived in Salinas and, as usual, the hotel did not have any of the Americans reservations. I sometimes think that if you don’t speak Spanish, they just ignore any request for a hotel room. We moved on to the next hotel and, well, let’s just say neither side spoke each others language. But, after a good amount of frustration on both sides, we got one small room for three guys and three bike boxes–it was a little tight. I have yet to figure out how people make hotel reservations down there.

So, what happen in the race–there was a huge spectrum of talent  in our race. It ranged from guys that have been to World Champ races and won 70.3’s to guys that were swimming in cycling bibs. The swim was pretty fast and I was in the pack the whole time. One of these races I will figure out how to transfer my pool speed to open water speed. I just could not get in the front of the pack and lead out of the swim. Once I realized that I wasn’t able to get anywhere on the swim, I just hung in the pack and swam with people. Once out of the water that’s when things got interesting. It had rained for about 20 mins right before the race and that made the roads super slick from all the oils and grease. I doubt that the roads get cleaned much. I got on to the bike and was in a good position right on Vande’s wheel (he is a real strong biker) so I hung on to him letting him pull me up to the front pack.  Into the first technical part of the bike there were a lot of guys, including me, crashing due to the slippery roads, but my crash wasn’t bad and I got right up and started running my bike up a hill.  After that first crash people were pretty careful.  Chris Foster eventually caught up to us and just about pulled us up to front pack, but he flatted at about lap 5. He was flying on the bike and that flat sure didn’t stop him because he caught back up to our group on lap 6.  

Off the bike I ran well for about 5k, but I was hurting and started to fall apart on the last lap. I kept it together though and finished. I am always looking for that amazing run off the bike, I know it’s there but it’s rare when I transition and just feel really just fast. I feel like I have been at about 75% strength for these past 3 races. Next goal is to qualify for 70.3 worlds!

The trip back was interesting. I’ve never had such a hard time leaving a country. First I had a heated discussion with an airline employee about the cost of my bike shipment. Unfortunately, I lost and had to pay $200. From there I had to pay a $30 exit fee and go through security. At security I was confronted by a drug enforcement officer and interrogated–in Spanish. I told him “no hablo espanol” but he continued to ask me questions (still in Spanish)–just more slowly. I answered the best I could, but I could tell he was getting frustrated with me. He went through my carry-on pretty thoroughly– I mean he sniffed my laptop for drugs. The only reason he let me go is because I was being called down to the tarmac to have my checked bags stripped apart by drug control. They had a lot questions about my bike tools and gels and so on and so on. From there I still had to go through more security–two more times.

If you want to read more stories about competing in S America, check out www.kevincollington.com

the only real good part of this race was my last mile.

La Paz!–All I have to say is awesome town and awesome race!  There were at least 5,000 people out to watch this race. There were people all over cheering. Really cool–I’ve never been to a race where there were that many people out cheering. Definitely want to go back next year and actually win the race! Along with having such awesome support for the race, the town was awesome to hang out in for 5 days. Great food, great people, and I love siesta! Everyone was so nice and helpful–especially to the stupid gringos (aka me) that didn’t know any Spanish.

The race didn’t go as planned for me. The swim was solid, they boated us up river, dropped us off on the beach and then said “GO”.  I swam a little over 2K in 20 mins so, yeah, the current helped a little. Got onto the bike and I was about 10 secs down from the lead pack, but they grouped together pretty quick and I couldn’t close the gap. Once I got swallowed up by the next pack I got onto the back and quickly screwed up and crashed. I was taking some water, went over a speed bump, and then rubbed the back wheel of another guy and couldn’t get out of it. So, I crashed and lost that pack, but I got into another 4-man group that was moving pretty fast. Unfortunately, I was having some mechanical problems after the crash and lost that pack. From then on I was pretty much with one other guy and we were switching off. Got onto the run and did solid. I mean, considering all the energy I burned on the bike and the crash, I like to think I held it together pretty well mentally and physically. I would have liked to have be in the race, kinda hard to run when you think you’re out of the race. Well, gotta get ready for Ecuador next weekend!! That’s going to be a great race for me!

It’s been an exciting week in my little world. Got an awesome grant from the ITU to pay for most of my trip to Vina del Mar and La Paz. I am very excited to represent the USA down in Chile and Argentina. It is going to be a tough field out there, but I will be in top form to compete against other top athletes from around the world.

TOGA bikes has also assisted me in changing my TT bike into a road bike so that I can race on it in ITU races. Got Gold bar tape, and gold cable housing it looks pretty slick.  It’s way slick! Pictures to come soon. Other than that it’s been a solid week of training, it seems finally I am putting some things together. Going home Monday, so since I won’t have my bike , I’ll have to just take the days to do a bunch of treadmill running and swimming on the old St Thomas Academy swim team. Got to get ready to go to Chile on January 7!

This week of training has been a little up and down. Had some good swims, some bad and then there was a little trouble with an irritated left quad. The result is I have to do a little extra easy spinning on the rollers.  The weather took a turn for the worst this week, we got two snow storms this week and the weather has been windy and very cold so  haven’t been able to get outside on my bike. After some miserable rides in ice rain, snow, and just really cold conditions, I have a rule for myself not to ride in snow storms or when the wind chill is below 20. I know I am a pansy, but it’s just not worth it to me to try and do intervals in such miserable conditions.  Get this though, I was in strait shorts and jersey at the end of last week!  I was very happy to take advantage of that beautiful day.

Other than the weather it’s been a great past couple weeks of workouts. Getting ready for a January A race is a little bit difficult I have to admit. It makes the holidays a little more stressful and I can’t really indulge in all the holiday treats…. bummer for me. I can’t complain too– much I mean I am getting to go to Chile and Argentina for almost 2 weeks.  I can take a couple cold days, indoor rides, and turn my head to an extra serving of warm butter filled biscuits.

This is the first of many blogs, so make sure to check back in a couple days.

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I have been working on my website a lot lately and I’ve made a lot of progress. I am always amazed at how long it takes and how much time is wasted trying to get a website to do what you want. I am just testing a lot of things in the next couple weeks, just trying to get things organized on here.