Posted on Mar 4, 2014 in Ramblings, Rants
When you find your partner in life you stop looking… Why? Well, because you have found the person you want to be by your side for the rest of your life. I feel the same way about my sponsors. When I find what I think are the best products, I will do whatever it takes to keep these partnerships. Yet, I know plenty of other professional athletes who choose to swap shoes and bike and wetsuits and nutrition, year-after-year, chasing money. I don’t claim my way is the right way, but I tried the alternative early in my career and sacrificed performance as a result. Simply, my philosophy is to choose the products that work best for me first. It makes me happy because all the money in the world won’t help on race day if you have an under-performing product. And, while most of the high-end triathlon products are good, that doesn’t mean they are the perfect fit for me. So, how do I define “best for me?” It hasn’t been easy. But, here’s a tour of my training and racing essentials: Cervelo Cervelo P3 or P5, for example, have been my bike of choice the past three years. After riding Cervelo, I could not go back to any other brand. It is no surprise that Cervelo has the best cyclists in the sport riding their bikes. When athletes have to invest in their own bikes, they choose Cervelo, and I think that’s because Cervelo constantly reinvests in research and engineering to ensure that they have the most aerodynamic, responsive, and lightest frames on the market. In an Ironman event, you spend most the day on the bike. I want to know that the bike I am riding is the best out there, and I want to know that the people behind it will help me optimize my performance on the bike and use my experience to shape the future of their triathlon bikes. TYR As a swimmer, I am picky about swim gear. So, I have used TYR goggles and swimsuits for years. I always preferred their goggles to any other brand and would buy a new pair for every race. And, their speed suits fit around the chest and shoulders better than anything else I’ve tried. In fact, after several frustrating speed suit issues, including ripping one hours before Ironman World Champs, I actually switched to TYR’s Torque Elite swim skin at my own expense before making them an official partner. Now, I’ve been lucky enough to have them on my team for the past two years, and I wouldn’t recommend anything else. ON Running I first tried ON running shoes at the end of 2012 and wasn’t sure I liked them. They were so different from anything else I had run in. Now, after racing and training in the shoes for the past year, I...
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Posted on Feb 23, 2014 in Race Reports
As an athlete failure is something we all face at one time or another. For many reasons my race in Panama was what I would consider a failure. From every misstep though is an opportunity to learn and grow as an athlete. Luckily the more spectacular the failure the more you can learn so I have many insights I can share with you! 1.) Heat affects everyone differently – this race taught me that I am one that requires a bit of acclimation before I can race well in the heat. The knowledge from this race will definitely help Siri and I plan our preparation for Kona. We will definitely not be flying in 2 days before the race. 2.) Mental trauma from a crash has lasting impacts – I had a collision with an age grouper early in the 2nd lap of the bike and that combined with my recent memory of September’s crash left me very tentative on the bike course. Unfortunately, a very congested 4-lap bike course requires the professionals to be aggressive and rewards that behavior. Any professional doing this race needs to ensure they are physically and mentally ready to ride aggressively in order to have their best bike performance. 3.) Fitness in February is tricky – I thought I was too fit for February but based on my race it doesn’t appear so. As a professional hoping to peak in the early fall, it is hard to get the fitness you need to race well in the early spring and be able to steadily build to a crescendo in the fall. It is very hard for athletes to maintain this top end all year long. Athletes winning in February and March always find it difficult to win in October. If I don’t have to chase points, I much prefer to wait and start my race season at the end of the spring. 4.) Nutrition is always something to be refined – I have had trouble in the heat with my breakfast routine. In Kona, I always assumed that it was swallowing of seawater that led me to have trouble with puking and an inability to eat for the first 60K of the bike. But I had the same issue in this race and the 17-minute swim was not long enough to drink that much seawater. I think it may be time to revisit my food choices race morning. Luckily, I was able to get down only one bottle of First Endurance EFS during the race but that one bottle plus lots of ice and water on the run got me to the finish in a four-hour plus race. It is a tribute to First Endurance that though my race time wasn’t fast it is incredible that what little I could get in of the EFS drink allowed me to race for that long...
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Posted on Feb 14, 2014 in Race Reports
Can’t believe it is Valentines Day and I am in Panama getting ready to race my first event of 2014 this weekend! It seems so early to be racing and as expected the field is stacked. So I am a bit nervous and excited as I anticipate the pain and excitement of getting back out there on the race course for the first time healthy since August. (I was in Kona trying to race in October but in retrospect I was not really healthy and was unable to really go after the race in my condition.) Besides being a bit rusty in racing, I just discovered I am also a bit unpracticed at traveling and packing! I got halfway to the race and realized I forgot to pack my Rudy Project helmets. I didn’t pack any helmet not my road or TT helmet. I guess that is what so many hours on the Turbo without a helmet does – besides turning your brain to mush, it also makes you forgot one tiny bit of equipment. When packing I hadn’t worn a helmet in weeks so forgot about that important little item. Maybe I should start wearing my helmet on the trainer! Training has been going great with Siri and the crew back in Boulder. I am really enjoying living at home with Keiki and Eric instead of being on the road all year. But going from running in snow last week to running in Panama is going to be quite a shock to the system. I am sure to be in for a hot and nasty race this weekend. Bring on the suffering that is what we love right! Keep an eye here for my race report after the...
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Posted on Jan 23, 2014 in Race Reports
Moving on from failure I was crushed by my inability to finish in Kona but also devastated when my accident happened in September a month before the world championships. I tired but failed to recover from my accident and surgery in time for the world championships. I knew going into the race that this was a risk but I had hoped and prepared thinking I had a chance to succeed. All of us fail, but the key is to learn from that failure. First, there is no one to blame for my failure except myself. While the accident in September was simply bad luck, the decision to take a risk and still try to make it to the start line was my own. Despite my failure in Kona, I am glad I tried to race. If I had simply sat on the sidelines, then I know I would have been haunted by that choice. The accident was a random external event that neither my coach, Brett Sutton, nor I could have prevented. In hindsight, next year, I can focus on taking less risks. For example, I can do my easy recovery rides on the trainer and avoid riding outside in wet or icy conditions. Accidents happen and will continue to happen especially to a klutz like me. However, I will focus on minimizing my danger and try to avoid unnecessary risks in the future. Trying but failing to finish Kona has also taught me many important lessons for 2014. It is okay to take a risk, but I must be willing to accept the consequences. By being so public about trying to recover from surgery in time to race, I put myself on the line knowing that not starting and not finishing were strong possibilities given my injuries. I learned that to truly win in Kona you need to be fresh and fit mentally and physically. I underestimated the toll that recovery would have on me both mentally and physically. It was such a difficult fight to simply make it to the start line that I arrived there exhausted. I think arriving fresh is even more important than being fit, and I will not make the same mistake again. In addition, I also learned that the women’s race is changing rapidly. It was amazing to see group of women riding down the Queen K. The race looked much more like the men’s race. It is exciting to see the women’s field becoming stronger every year. The women who did make it to start line fit and fresh had amazing races. I was so impressed by Mirinda Carfrae’s record-breaking performance as well as Rachel Joyce’s sub-9 hour 2nd place finish. Along with these two, we have seen the entire women’s field lifted and performing better than ever. Chrissie Wellington may have started the trend, but it is great to see...
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Posted on Jan 23, 2014 in Uncategorized
Link to article on Triathlete.comAmerican professional triathlete Mary Beth Ellis was injured in a bike accident on Sept. 9 in Cozumel. Despite severe injuries and the resulting surgery, Ellis is working toward a goal of making it to the start line at the 2013 Ironman World Championship start line. She will be providing updates on her progress exclusively to Triathlete.com. See update No. 3, along with a video, below. Today, I walked into the Oakley house here in Kona, and after telling me a story about recovering from a car accident to win the Ironman World Championship, Greg Welch handed me a T-shirt that read simply “Adapt and Conquer.” RELATED – Mary Beth Ellis Kona Update #1: Hurry Slowly I’m not sure if he knew the significance of that, but nothing could have better summed up the last 30 days for me—or, for that matter, the Ironman journey for so many people. Adapting for me meant coming to terms with the fact that I won’t be the same athlete I would have been without the crash—and to realizing that my “training” now includes surgery and twice-a-day physical therapy. Adapting meant I had to do one thing I’ve never been good at… take things slowly. Living at 9200 feet in the mountains of Colorado, I had no choice but to take things slowly. One day at a time I was able to adapt to my injured and now recovering shoulder. Then slowly, inch-by-inch, I have been able to add in some training. First I got on the bike. Then, I began slowly running in the pool and on land. Finally, I added the last piece of swimming with both arms. Things I took for granted, were suddenly obstacles. But, I built confidence each day, and now I believe, beyond tall odds, that I can race. The only question that remains is how my body will adapt, overcome and conquer all the challenges it will face on race day. RELATED: Mary Beth Ellis Kona Update #2: Fall Down. Get Back Up. So, yes, I will be at the starting line at Dig Me Beach in Kona. Yes, I have endured some challenges to get there. But every athlete who will stands on the starting line with me has had to adapt and conquer his or her own unique challenges. We may battle alone to get here, but we will all conquer this beast together on race day. I will be on the starting line in Kona and look forward to racing along side every athlete who made I this far as we adapt, overcome and conquer everything the Ironman throws our way. Please help more athletes stay in the game by supporting the nation’s biggest and oldest non-profit for sports injury research, a cause I’ve become very passionate about over the past couple of weeks, the the Steadman Philippon Research Institute....
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