Apple Capital Training Camp

 



*My favorite place to ride my bike past, or go out to dinner at, the Apple Tree Golf Course.

 

Since my first visit to Yakima, WA in 2009 I have really liked this place. I owe Kevin and his family a lot for inviting me here 4 years ago. This same weekend last year I spent in Yakima and it was one of the best weekends of my whole life.  I spent it training, meeting amazing people, chasing new adventures, and attending Kevin and Anne's wedding.  I had so much fun every day with my friends, met and spent time with people I care a lot for, and to top it off had a killer training camp. 



*Congratulations to Kevin and Anne on their one year anniversary, a year goes by fast. Congratulations to my sister and Scott on their 6th anniversary, time flies.  

 

*Beautiful Yakima Valley.



*A rare spot of shade on the Greenway

 

I have this really interesting thing about my personality, I love numbers, when I see objects I think of the numbers behind them, how much they cost, how much they weigh, how long I've had them, etc. I have a similar trait when it comes to dates. When I see a date I always ask myself, "What was I doing on this date a year ago, two years ago?"  I have a keen sense to remember exactly what I was doing on most dates in the recent past.   Having that personality trait makes me remember things of the past, wish I could repeat them, and at times long to re-live adventures.

 

As I have done with other places, such as the Lake Loop, I left a big part of my heart in Yakima, WA last year, it is now one of my favorite places to be.  I really embraced the experiences, enjoyed the training, and made some great memories under the hot Yakima sun.  This year, when the date got close, I found myself longing to be in Yakima with those same people and doing the same things as I was last year. 

 

A part of me naively wished and hoped that I would have as much fun as last year, and that it would somehow be the same.  I saddled up my Orbea Orange Crush road bike, packed my bags full of sunscreen, Hammer Nutrition kits and fuels, and set course.

 

*I stocked up with fruit at the store so I wouldn't go hungry while doing all my training.  For some odd reason the color array made me feel good.

 

*Fruit packing plant.



*Miles of orchards

 

Life, as it usually does, changes quickly.  Even though I was in the same place, training the same routes, and chasing the same adventures, it was all different.  Kevin wasn't there this time, I didn't get to see JM, Kevin's parents had prior obligations, and generally speaking I felt like I was in a shaken up snow globe.  

 

Things such as my training routes and workouts appeared the same, but everything else was shaken up when compared to last year.  It was like seeing a familiar face, but not being able to put your finger on where you know the person from.  It was kind of eerie to realize how fast and drastically life can change.  I have always been very lucky to have a lot of structure and stability in my life, so that small taste of how fast life can change is probably a good lesson for me.

 

*Franklin Park, my favorite place to run and relax. I have many memories here.

 

Although I spent every training minute and mile alone this year, I had a great camp riding, running, and swimming under the blazing Yakima sun.  I ran 92 minutes under the 92 degree sun on the beautiful Greenway --more numbers :) -- rode out past Tampico fighting the winds, cruised through the orchards on my bike for hours until dusk, rode by the golf course, and swam in the now familiar Lions Pool.  I also spent a lot of time at my favorite place in Yakima, Franklin Park, running the track and terrace hill, and reflecting on all that had happened in the last year.  

 

Franklin Park terraces and track. If I wasn't running then I just sat and watched people enjoying their workouts.

 

A cool thing that happened was I met a guy who wants to start triathlon.  I was wearing a triathlon race shirt at the park and he came up to me and asked, "Do you do those things?" pointing to my shirt.  We had a nice conversation, I may have my new friend, Francisco, ready to pull the trigger on his first tri.  That's cool in my opinion.

 

*The air temp was 92, but this exposed path was much hotter, I was glad to have Hammer Endurolytes because it was hot (heat wave lines). lol 

 

*The ironic contrast of hot and cold side-by-side.

 

Even though this trip was not the same as last year, which would be impossible to duplicate, and I really missed all those special people from last year, I had a great time making new memories.  At the end of the day, I can only give my best with what I have, and this year involved having most of those experiences and memories by myself.  That is okay, like I said, life changes fast, and who knows what next year will bring.

Overall, I had a great camp, and I am very proud of all my personal and athletic efforts made on this trip.

To all those people of last year who I missed while I was here, my family, and other friends who follow my adventures,  I hope everyone is having a great start to summer.  We have a lot of memories to make, and hopefully I am included in some of those.  We are very lucky people to do what we do.

Thanks for reading.

 

Bozeman Triathlon

 

When the lake loop calls my name, even if it is before a race, I ride it because I am a Montana Grizzly Bear.  Rooooaaaaaar!  

 

*How can you pass this up?

 

*My bike was clean, my kit was sweet, and my hair was great, I had to ride.

*An hour in and "ahead" looked good.

*But, a storm was soon chasing me.

*I had to stay ahead of the storm so my bike, kit, and hair didn't get messed up.

*Looks good perfect to me.

*Climbing out of the basin.

*In the mountains

*Riding the edge of the storm. Ride Bryan, ride!

*The road to forever, just keep pedalin'.

*At one point I was surrounded by blowing fields.

 

A funny side note:  Lexi, my Subway friend, always makes great sandwiches and asks about my races and I always knock on the window when I run by.  It's always a treat to see her, I had one of her specialty subs to fuel up for the lake loop. 



*Just the way I like it

 

*They pretty much do whatever I want, even slow down business for pics. "The customer is always right."

 

*Not to be out done, my dad slaved over the grill.  We had the most delicious fish I have ever had.  He caught the fish in the lake and cooked them with his own recipe.

 

*Lots of pre-race "treats."

There are people who spend thousands of dollars to come see the beauty of the places that I live and race in.  We often times take for granted the picture of perfection we call home. We are lucky people, big city living...you can keep it, I have something better.

 

It has been a about 7 years since I moved from Bozeman, and I haven't been back much, but my friends at the race treated me like I never even left.  It was great to be back and see my tri friends again.  I should also add that my new friend, Royce Houge, did the long course race and had a successful day, great job to him. 

 

*Tri friend, Dan Heil, he's a good guy. I saw him at the bike turn-around having a stellar race.

 

It was really nice to have my family there.  My parents made the trip to cheer me on, take pictures, and wait for the excruciatingly slow awards. I felt bad because the awards took forever and they both waited.  My sister, Mackenzie, cheered me on, it was nice to see her.  I could hear my family all day.  I also feel bad because I realized I didn't get a picture with my mom, I will have to do a better job at the next race. It was nice to have them all there.  

 

*This is how my dad poses for pics with my sister.

 

*To my delight this is how he posed for my pic, and we wonder where Uriah gets his pic antics.

 

*Seriously, can you even take a more perfect picture?

*My wetsuit takes at least 10 minutes to put on...

 

*and I have to get it just right.

 

*My mom checking everything out before the swim.

 

The swim started and despite being pretty wild it was relatively smooth sailing.  At the first buoy I was in third place.  On the long backstretch my Teres Majors, the muscles on the back of my shoulders, became uncharacteristically tired.  I let up a little and held position as we neared the swim exit.  Dylan, a high school swim champ, put 61 seconds into my group of three that exited together behind him.

 

*Lots of people, anticipation.

 

*Lots of people, mayhem!

 

*The wetsuit that takes 10 mins to put on...

 

*...comes off in 10 seconds.

 

I had a really good transition and left in 2nd place.  Dylan was out of sight after his amazing swim and I had to set to chase.  The good news was that Dylan and I left the chasers on the bike.  The course had a lot of turns and a lot of cornering.  Some of the corners had excess chip seal gravel on them and that is scary.  I found myself easing through most of the fast corners remembering that Floyd Landis broke his hip going too fast through gravel corners.

 

*A big thank you to my tri buddy, Phil Howard, for this action shot.  I trained with him when I lived in Bozeman. It was great to see him again.

 

On the switchback of the big climb of the course I had a good look at the chasers.  I consider it a "good look" because I didn't see any chasers.  All the pressure of those chasing me was off as I rode away .  The chase towards the front was still on, but I wasn't making up any ground on Dylan. 

 

Nearing the end of the bike I could see Dylan way off in the distance.  He was super in the swim, and just as strong on the bike, when the gaps didn't come down on the bike I knew I was in a tough spot.  I don't usually feel the wind go out of my sails during a race.  It's actually good to have that happen because it's a learning opportunity for me.  Dylan did a great job on the bike and I did some learning about dealing with an unrewarded chase effort.  :) 

 

*Into transition 2

*Run boy, run!

 

The run of the is race was pretty sweet. It involved 2 miles of twisting, brush covered trail.  The course was banked in spots so we flew down the 5 foot wide trail cut through the brush and banked hard through the twisting corners.  I had a pretty good run, but lost some steam near the halfway point when I found myself out of touch with catching Dylan, and out of reach of any of my chasers.  That's kind of a ohh-hmm spot  in a race so I tried to enjoy the last of the twisting banked trail, and the final lap around the lake.  

 

  

*See, Grizzly Bear snarl. Grrrrrrr

 

Here is where this post makes its money:

 

There is a very interesting thing that I have found in triathlon.  I rarely follow other people's websites, and I try not to ask people how their training is or how their race went. I'd rather talk about other things.  There are overwhelmingly negative undertones derived from all those inquiries.  I find it quite frustrating actually.  If I ask someone how their training is, the answer is always the same, "Oh, I'm not really training."  Yeah right, if by "not training" they mean "I'm training 15 hours a week and harder than I ever have." then that would be a fair statement.  I have friends who have spent the last 5 years "not training" yet they still set the fastest bike splits, run splits, win races, and finish Ironmans.

 

What is the point in that, just own it.  The true damaging part of this sort of thing is to those who overhear it, those who finished 30th or 50th or whatever, and think they had a great race.  When someone hears a fast person saying, "I had a terrible bike," or "I had a slow run," they look at their own time that is usually significantly slower than that "terrible bike," or "slow run," and all the feelings of accomplishment of anyone slower than a "terrible bike" or "slow run" are instantly diminished. 

 

It's simply wrong, and I think we are all better than that.

 

If you ask how the race went, the negatives are always the lead remarks. Same thing with a lot of blogs.  I got so tired of reading sad, negative race reports about nutrition problems, lack of training, legs falling off during the bike, volunteers with bazukas, blah, blah, that I gave up reading the reports because they make me sad.  I like positive things and think it is very unfortunate when we justify our lack of winning by finding excuses rather than giving credit to the winner for going a better job on that day. Over the years I have even read race reports that included me in them that never once gave me any credit for doing a good job, they were all "I'm faster than him but I had a bad race," etc., etc. When I read those I always promise myself that I will do my best to not take away from other people's accomplishments and lead by example, win or lose.

 

I don't know why we all do this, but we do. Actually I do know why, it's ego.  If we can justify why we didn't win then it makes us seem better, faster, stronger, cooler than "not winning."  I have done this, we all have, but I recognized it a long time ago and have been on a mission to lead by example to not be this way. This race was a great opportunity to do this.  It was actually really rewarding to just give credit to people for doing well in the race and not justifying my performance with anything other than "I did my best today."  

 

My message is to congratulate people for doing a good job, not justify why I didn't go faster and detract from their accomplishment just to save a little ego. 

 

After the race I had an interview with the Bozeman NBC anchor.  My first question to him was, "Are you sure you don't want to interview the winner?"  This is actually the second time that I have finished 2nd in a race and ended up on the news, how does that work? :)  I was pretty pleased when a few friends texted me, "I just saw you on TV!" 

 

 *My advice to you is to cancel your cable because you wouldn't believe what they put on TV these days. ha ha



During the interview the anchor gave me the opportunity to justify my performance, "So Bryan, 2nd place today, tell us about the day, do you think you'll come back next year and try to win?" 

This was my chance to lead by example, my reply was, "I always come to win, but 2nd place is good for today.  The great thing about triathlon is we will try and tear each other apart going for the win, and then shake hands and laugh about it at the finish.  I give Dylan all the credit in the world, he had a great race today, he deserved to win."

 

My humble hope is that people will read this and use it as a learning experience to make triathlon better, and more enjoyable for everyone by simply giving credit to other people rather than making up excuses to save a little ego, I think we will all be better off.  I don't like "not winning," but what goes around comes around, so If I can be humble in both winning and "not winning" then hopefully those around me will see my example and be the same way.   



*Congratulating Dylan on his great race.

 

 

Today was a good day of learning, I am better for it. If anything, it was an opportunity to attempt to help others in making triathlon better.

 

Thanks for reading.

Moses Lake Triathlon

 

 

Collectively, this was an amazing day for me and my friends.  I am so lucky to have people like these who care about me and value what I bring to their life.  We all had so much success that my victory was overshadowed, and you know what,  I don't mind a bit.

 

*Ayla and Lane right before heading to the swim start

 

First off, this was Lane's first triathlon.  He was inspired by Ayla and trained himself into triathlon shape.  I often times grow tired of the mentality when people assume that you cannot learn new things if you are older than....a kid.  Lane is proof that you can, as a full grown man he picked up triathlon and did a great job.  When Lane and I passed each other on the bike course he was waving to me with his whole arm and had a huge grin on his face.  I can't help but think "that is what triathlon is about."  Our group is so proud of him finishing his first tri.  

 

*I selfishly shoved the finish girls out of the way just so I could be the one to put Lane's first finisher medal on his neck.  :)

 

*The magnitude of finishing just one triathlon is life changing, Lane would presumably agree.

 

*Quite the entourage: Grandma Wyman, Ayla, Sarah, Lane, and Terri. I owe a big thank you to Ayla and her family for the cheers and encouragement. It was great to have them. 

 

I am super happy for Ayla, she had a great race.   It is always fun to have her sharing the course.  After I finished I watched one of the most entertaining finishes I had seen in a long time.  

 

 

So let me set this up for you.  With 200 yards to go Ayla was in the mix with two other girls running together.  I got excited knowing what was about to happen.  With 150 yards to go the group was still together and I snuck up beside Ayla to give her some of my tips.  "Stay right with them until the very end and then give everything you have, you can do it!" is what I sneakily whispered to her as she passed. 

 

*'Das right, go get it, girls!

 

She did a great job chasing down a girl that went too early and darn near beat the other girl in a sprint finish.  It was very entertaining to watch and satisfying for me to know that she gave her best.  I was so happy and having so much fun after I saw her finish.  I found myself shouting back the narrative of what I just witnessed.  I'm pretty sure she knew what transpired as she just lived it, but I couldn't stop talking about it, it was awesome.   

 

*The three triathletes after the race. Welcome to the club, Lane. 

 

I also owe a big thank you to Sarah for getting up early, cheering, and taking all these great pictures.  It is so nice because she can navigate her way around the race course, get pics, and take care of herself.  It makes my" job" so much easier knowing she has it all handled and will be there for us. 

 

*Sitting down on the job, hey getting up early to cheer and take pics isn't easy either. :) 



I also wanted to mention Richard Ling, and his son, David.  David had a great race, was in 2nd place at the bike turnaround, and had an overall great showing.  Richard did well and finished 3rd in the men's race showing young David how it's done. I am good friends with Richard because over the years he has made me a better athlete. 

 

*Hammer Teammates, Richard and David Ling showcasing their awards

 

A few years back Richard was the defending champion of a race that I was racing for the first time.  I took off at the start and got a huge lead on the swim and bike.  I got in way over my head on the run and Richard reeled me in like a big fish.  I won't ever forget him flying by me on the run looking super strong, looking like the defending champion.  I gave it my best, but Richard was too much for me and he won the race and my respect.

 

*This is what resulted when I challenged the defending champion, Richard, for the first time.

 

He put me in such a world of hurt that day and I have always looked back on that moment when I needed motivation to get out the door. I have so much respect for Richard because winning a race in consecutive years is a huge feat.  More importantly though, Richard has my respect because even though he wins, he has always been very humble and respectful while doing so. He is a good role model that I was lucky to meet.   I always go out of my way to give him a high-five when we pass on the run course.  

 

So for my race, it went well and I will try and keep this short and sweet.  

 

*My wetsuit and the water felt great, thumbs up. 

We all took off pretty fast but soon settled in.  At the halfway turnaround I had company and slipped into second place.  The leader, a swim specialist just starting triathlon, had a great swim and led me into transition by about 10 seconds. There was also a woman in the subsequent heat who swam even faster than all the men, so great job to her.

*All I can see is white water and arms....

*Where is Waldo the Murder Machine?

 

*Swamp thing hits solid ground 

 

The bike went great, my bike fitness is steadily ramping up, and at the turnaround I had passed the swim leaders and was in the  driver's seat of the race.

*Flying mount!

*Now pedal your lil' legs off, Brodacious!

*Coming in hot

 

*Transition 2, thanks to Hammer for the sweet kit.  If you want one, use the discount link on the right. :)

 

The run got pretty hot, but I held it all together pretty well. I ran a minute faster than I ran last year.  I will admit that I got a little hot and took a short stretch break at the run turnaround.  The volunteers laughed when I said "I am going to take a break [bending over to stretch for 5 seconds]....now I am outta here."

I gave high-fives and said, "good job" to my chasers as I cruised back to the finish satisfied and feeling great.  It was such a great day, a thank you to the Budu Crew for a fantastic event. Rory and Deanna are great people.

*Time to run

*Defending my 2012 win, I look pretty pleased with myself, can you tell?

 

*A big thank you to Hammer Nutrition for their amazing fuels, kits, and support of my dreams. 



*Ayla finish-sprinted her way to an age division medal 

 

*By the time we left, my arms were overflowing with awards and prizes...

  

*...Seriously, look at the prize I swooped up!  I am a champion of cheesy-puns. Lol

Thank you to Drew Magill for his congratulatory texts after the race, it means a lot considering the first time I met him was at this race in 2010.  Thank you to Lane, Ayla, and the other racers who inspire me as much as I inspire them.

 

Thanks to everyone who takes time from their day to read and follow my adventures, I appreciate your interest in what I have to say and the message I try to convey.