My Journey into Triathlons

Seems fitting a few days after my first Ironman that I write my first blog about what got me into this insane sport.

About five years ago Crystal and I were watching T.V. and the Ironman World Championships were on NBC. As I was watching the broadcast I was intrigued and blown away with these freak show humans and what they were doing. I thought to myself, "man these people are bad ass and I would love to do something like this someday somehow." At this time in my life I was going through a major overhaul with every aspect of everything.  Anybody who knows me from my college years know that I was a party animal and not shy about getting wild. Those days were over and my life was going in a new positive and healthy direction. Crystal was a major part in helping me, without her I know I wouldn't be who I am today.

Derek and I Hy-Vee 2014

Fast forward several years and one of my best friends, Derek Tidd, whom I have been racing motocross against for several seasons and recently snapped his wrist, decided to do a little triathlon. I was like "that is dumb dude we race dirt bikes, swimming, biking, and running is so LAME!!!" Well, we are so competitive that it is painful, he happened to do pretty well and in my head I said "if he can do that, I can do it...BETTER!!!" So the summer of 2012 I signed up for this tiny little race, looking back now it was pathetic how short of a distance it was 150 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. I finished 2nd in my division and was completely exhausted afterward.

King, Anthony, and I

That winter Derek and I decided to sign up for a 1/2 Ironman, Kansas 70.3. We had no idea what we were doing and our training was a joke. I could barely swim when I started and it looked more like I was drowning than putting in laps. The one thing about me is I am determined and once I set a goal I will not only accomplish it...I smash it! I did an Olympic Distance Race several weeks before the KS 70.3 but the swim got canceled due to lightening. So I had no practice with an OWS (open water swimming) start until the 70.3, I hated swimming and am still not fond of it, but in this insane game it is what it is. Luckily I got introduced to an awesome guy by the name of John King and he let me tag along with him and his crew to go swimming off of his boat in the early mornings. I still miss those epic predawn swims and watching the sun rise as we cranked out several thousand yards. The 70.3 was a great race and for my debut in the distance I was able to lay down a 4:49:15. I was pumped on breaking 5 hours on my first go at it. Later that year I did several more Olympic distance races including the Hy-Vee Championships in Des Moines Iowa. I was able to get 5th in my division and receive a 400 dollar gift card! This is the race that I knew I was decent at this sport and needed to ramp up and see what I can do.

King's OWS Crew

That winter Crystal and I went on our one year anniversary trip to Glenwood  Springs, Colorado and fell in love with this awesome state. I was looking on craigslist and found a steal of a deal on a used Cannondale Slice TT frame in Denver and just so happened to make it part of our trip home to swing through and pick up the bike. After building the bike up over the next several months I had a good feeling about 2014 race season, and Crystal and I had made the decision to move to Colorado at the end of summer. I joined the River City Sharks Master Swim Club and made some huge leaps in my swimming. Race season started with the Kansas City Triathlon, an Olympic distance race, then a repeat of the Kansas 70.3. This was the last year the Kansas 70.3 was held and I am glad I got to race in it. This was my back yard and I literally trained on part of the course on a weekly basis I was able to throw down a 4:35:00 and place 10th in my division. I thought "there is no way I can go any faster than that" and was ecstatic with my race.

2014 Kansas 70.3

                                                                    

1st Place Overall Dirty Duathlon

It was time to leave Lawrence behind and start our journey in Colorado, we picked Northern Colorado because the job market was good and one of my buddies I went to high school and college with lived in Fort Collins, Brian Fesler. He let us crash at his place for 2 weeks before we found a condo just outside of Loveland. Training was on the back burner until we got settled in and found our groove. I joined the FAST Masters and linked up with the NoCo Tri Club to meet some people and get some new training partners. Everybody kept telling me "you're in Colorado now and everybody is fast up here." I was just using that as fuel in my fire to want to prove myself as a competitor and a strong triathlete. After competing in several small Olympic and sprint distance races here and finishing on the podium at every race, I knew I had something special. I volunteered at the inaugural Boulder Ironman and signed up the next day. The goal was set and in one short year I would be competing in my first full Ironman.

Swim Start Hy-Vee 2013

Once winter hit it was all about shredding the slopes and snowboarding as much as I could. However, as January 1st hit I had other objectives in my mind and crafted my race calendar. Early March 1/2 Marathon, April hard training, May Sprint Tri, June Boulder 70.3, and Loveland Lake to Lake, and finally August Boulder Ironman. I had worked hard over the winter on my base miles and had a great foundation to start ramping up my volume and intensity. My body began to change and I no longer recognized my legs, it looked like I had somebody elses legs on my body, definitely freaky. I also worked with a swim coach for several sessions, Tess Mattern, gave me a swim analysis and some key pointers to work on my biggest weakness. I hit the pool hard and the bike harder, running was on the back burner because I felt as my running is solid and not in need of an overhaul.

2015 Colorado Sprint Triathlon

As the first race of the season approached Colorado Sprint Triathlon I was confident that I would smash it, my fitness was solid and felt super strong. I ended up having a solid race but got a 2 min penalty for going around a corner too fast and drifting past the double yellow line, lesson learned and I will never do that again. The penalty dropped me from 2nd to 3rd in my division, I was pissed but what are you going to do, rules are rules bro!!! Two weeks after this race was the Boulder 70.3, I had high expectations going in but knew it would be a tough race. I wanted to crack 4:30 and thought I could do it if a swam 32, biked 2:23, and ran a 1:33. When the gun went off I actually had a strong swim and felt fast, not very common for me ever, out of the water in 30 mins, WTF!!! I was so pumped with that and shocked at the same time. I was licking my lips to get on my bike and start smashing, as I rolled out of the reservoir  my heart rate had sky rocket to 170+...not good but quickly settled into a strong quick cadence pace and it began to drop. Halfway through the ride I was hammering it, 25 mph average, HELL YEAH!!! By the time I got back to T2 I was off the bike in 2:14, so pumped but a little nervous and hoped I didn't blow my load for the run. As I started the run I settled into a fast pace around 6:55 mile pace and felt pretty strong until mile 7-10 and felt as though I screwed up and pushed too hard on the bike. I was able to rally and fight back and pass a guy in my division with several miles to go, I tried to break him and put on a strong poker face as I ran by and said "nice work on the bike you were crushing it." I acted like I was cool as Hindu cow and not even tired, I laid down a fast pace to pull away quickly crushing his hopes of catching me. As I crossed the finish line I saw my favorite site...Crystal smiling with excitement and so happy to give my disgusting sweaty body a hug. I asked her my time..."...4:20:28...3rd in your division" "WHAT" I said, "refresh that, no way I just did a 4:20."

Podium Boulder 70.3

As we found a shady tree to get out of my kit, I had a break down and started to cry with tears of joy, I just podiumed at an Ironman event in Boulder Colorado....no f-ing way!!!! This was by far the greatest day in my short triathlete life. On the podium smiling ear to ear after an amazing feat, all I could think about was how proud Crystal was of me and that all the bull s@#t training and healthy eating has been worth it. Few days of recovery and a nice chat with Anthony Lee to get my head right and figure out my plan of attack for the last 7 weeks building up to Boulder Ironman.

The weeks after Boulder 70.3 my confidence was at an all time high and just banked the largest volume week in my life capping it off with a 7 hour 140 mile ride up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park and back down to Boulder with a lap of the IM course. The weekend was approaching of the Loveland Lake to Lake Tri and I had a little pain in my distal shin/ankle it felt like a shin splint. After a super easy week I felt good going into the Olympic distance race. Swim was decent, bike felt okay not as fast as I was hoping and as I started the 10K run the shin pain was sharp with every step and by the finish line was screaming in pain. I ended the day finishing 2nd in my division and happy about the results but had this feeling of impending doom that my shin was jacked. I quickly iced it but by the time I got home I could barely walk, being as optimistic as possible I rested, iced, and took anti-inflammatory's. The next day the pain was worse and every step felt like I was getting shocked with sharp pain shooting up my leg, to say I was worried was a huge understatement...more like panic...full bore...irrational thoughts that I was done and my season was over. The thoughts that go through my head are beyond conceivable for an average person, I am as insane as a person in a straight jacket, the only difference is that I know I'm crazy, and can't take medication....because I lost that right in my early twenties.

Wifey and I 

A Few days pass and it is not getting any better, after an MRI and a Dr. telling me that I need to take some serious time off and this is an overuse injury. Devastated was my mood and Crystal doesn't know how to handle a depressed Matt. With a hard couple of days of pitty parties and moping around that I know she was thrilled to deal with such an idiot. I decided that I was going to bump up my swimming to 5+ a week and aqua jog as much as possible. Riding the trainer was still causing the shin massive amounts of pain, but I wasn't giving up hope. As I was aqua jogging a fellow tri guy named Troy, told me about this "miracle worker" and that he could fix me, Mark Rise. http://musclerestoration.com/
I was open to the idea of anything to get me back in the game, we were 4 weeks from the biggest race of my life and I could barely walk let alone conceive 140.6 miles of torture. I was already getting acupuncture 3 times a week with no avail, I set up the first available appointment. Mark and his team are amazing and he knows the body extremely well, he made it really simple and gave me several different exercises to release my off balanced muscles. I told him we were on a time crunch and he assured me he would not only get to the finish line but he would get me to the finish line pain free. Wow, pain free would be sick!!!!

After one more session with Mark and his team, he wanted me to start jogging super easy and the second I felt a tinge of pain stop and do my little trigger point exercises. So 20 minutes of pathetically slow trotting around I had to stop several times and hit those trigger points. Two days later 45 minutes of jogging with 4 stops for trigger points. By the weekend I was feeling 99% I couldn't believe it with 2 weeks until the race I felt as if I was back in the game. I needed to do one last big ride but didn't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere and my leg flair up and I would be screwed so I did something pretty crazy, 100 mile ride on my trainer while watching the Tour de France. The mental toughness it takes to sit on the trainer for more than an hour is pretty intense...well I did 5 1/2 hours...mind melter...but my strongest part of triathlon is certainly not swimming, biking or running it is six inches between my ears, my mental toughness and ability to push through things is my best attribute. Next day I did a 16 mile run, granted it was a super slow pace but over 2 hours on my feet running was a blessing seeing how I was feeling less than a week before that. The final weeks leading up to the race were filled with doubt and the feeling that I wasn't ready. Boy was I wrong......

Kansas 70.3 2014