Back to the Routine

I’ve been back in COS for a few days now…enough time to finally unpack my bike and bag, do some laundry, and catch up on e-mails. The weather in Colorado is breaking record high temperatures…I’m glad I was in the cool breezes of San Francisco last weekend while it was 97+ degrees here!
Ahead of me is another 3 week time period before my next triathlon…plenty of time to get some serious training before tapering for USA Pro Nationals. The race is in Long Beach, California on June 25th…I fly into LAX on the morning of the 23rd. After the race I will be staying an extra day to participate in the USAT National Teams Summit…basically most of the top American Pro triathletes are going to meet and discuss race strategies, team tactics, and all sorts of top secret information to help us win races:)!
This race is also our second U23 team race…so there will be 5 guys and 5 girls in matching race suits…Jasmine, Jenna, Lesley, Jen, and I for the women and Matt, Manny, Mike, John, and Ethan for the men. We all had great results in Honolulu, the first U23 team race, and it will be exciting to see even more improvement!
The Honolulu triathlon was also the first of five races in the “Haul to the Great Wall” series...since Jasmine won the race, she’s leading the points right now…and I’m in third behind Sarah Groff. The Long Beach Pro Nationals is the second race of the series. As of right now, I plan on competing in only 4 of the races because the Boston Triathlon is the same weekend as World Championships in Switzerland! Hopefully, with good results at Long Beach, Connecticut, and Westchester, I will stay near the top of the points.
I’ve almost forgot to report on my lil’bro’s first USA Open Water National Championship experience…Dustin had a great 10K swim in Ft. Myers last weekend! I was setting up my transition area for the Alcatraz race and the last thing I did before boarding the buses to the boat dock was call my dad. He was walking up and down the beach while the men were the water. He reported that Dustin was swimming in the front group of 12 men which had broken away from the rest of the competitors. It was just after the 5K (half way point of the race) and I had to leave my phone behind and go do my own race.
The first phone call I made after finishing was to my dad again…this time he and Dustin were driving home…but I got a recap of the race: Dustin hung in with the lead pack for 3 out of 4 laps and then when the pace increased, he hung on as long as possible in a full sprint! At the end, he finished 13th overall in a field of 40 top swimmers…his Gator teammate, Scott Kaufmann was 2nd in the event and will be representing the USA at World Champs.
Since I’m talking about Dustin here…I should mention that his 20th BIRTHDAY is on Saturday! I’ve got to take my box of presents down to the shipping offices and get them in the mail to Florida or they are going to have a belated arrival!