Commitment - Dedication - Desire

...I vs I

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Trial & Error

I raced the John Tanner sprint triathlon this morning in Carrollton GA. The weather was a bit chilly for the natives today, but 50 degrees was plenty warm for me. Its an hour and a half drive to get to the race venue but there are benefits to the long drive…ie; one can think. Some things that excited me about this race was the sprint distance, zero pressure and an opportunity to meet some other triathletes in Atlanta. My aspirations were non-existent, although I went in trying my best as always. Im new to Atlanta and the words that keep ringing in my head when I go out to train with others is; “Ryan, leave your ego at home or you will find yourself training alone.” So I have with the exception of the pool, as I have people there to push me, and I had my ass handed to me climbing the mountains with what I hope to be my new training partners. Im allergic to hills, what can I say…it’s a limiter, and if someone is willing to push and help me in the pool, Im all for it!

So why do a sprint after coming off of Syracuse, Clear Water and a PR at the Miami half? Why not?! After discussing triathlon with others and talking about pipe dreams, it was said to try shorter distances and work on speed. Again, Im new to the area, and to this sport so I will listen to those who are willing to give advice and have experience. Well…sprints are much MUCH different than a 70.3…duh right? Fine, I can accept that and grow from it. Not every race is going to be stellar and not every race is going to go as planned. This distance however…not my style; that I know for certain.

The swim is usually not a leg of the race I like to emphasize, but I feel many inroads have been made in this area for me. I try not to put numbers up as I see it only being a way to inflate one’s ego, but I have done fairly well in my mind for only being in the water a short time. So a 600 swim…easy…go hard and move on to the fun part…BIKE! Honestly, I was thinking around 8minutes at the most… NOTTTTTTTTT!!!

About 200yds into the swim I had enough. Enough getting kicked, punched, swam over, grabbed, goggles getting pulled off (not knocked off, pulled off) and anything else you can imagine. So I picked my head up to see if I could find a lane and got clobbered again. Typical triathlon right? Maybe, but in the longer distances, things tend to thin out and you can usually find a lane or at least a semi clear path. As I breast stroked and watched the leaders pull away, I thought, now I understand why pro’s will sometimes drop out of a race. I did, I really did. Never before had I ever considered stopping, but this was not letting up and it seemed futile to keep getting beat up. I also realized that with such a short bike and run, there was no way catching anyone would be feasible. So why continue??? Then I heard her. (My buddy Bergin Smith who just started triathlons last fall) She is an amazing girl who took to this sport with reckless abandon and her enthusiasm and incredible attitude immediately engulfed me as we became friends.

Bergin designed a shirt for me and posted it on FB last year when I was suffering from some serious injuries and thought I wouldn’t be able to cross the line at Clearwater. It had a “DNF” with a circle and line through it. Pretty much my motto as I battled through injury after injury and repeatedly said, no matter what, I will always finish the race. So I put my goggles back on, head down and started to swim to the finish. I had to finish or I would let my young friend down. Im glad I didn’t stop because of a bad swim. Thank you Bergin!!!

On the drive home, (remember its long and I can think) I told myself no more sprints. Too clustered, too short for me to go hunting on the bike, but a great start to the season as it tested my mental toughness…something that is very important when doing anything in life, not just triathlon.

I haven’t given up on the shorter distance and will try the Olympic once again, but I would be lying if I said that my entry to a nearby 70.3 wouldn’t be in by the end of this month. My plan is to get some much needed help on my nutrition, start talking about serious coaching and set some real goals. Oh, and upgrade Chicky as everyone had some sweet wheels on their bikes and Chicky definitely deserves them. She doesn’t have an inferiority complex, especially as we pass them, but we both agree they look awesome!! Maybe some new bars too!!!

At the end of the day, I highly recommend the John Tanner sprint triathlon! It was well ran, well marked, well staffed and an awesome venue! Kudos to the race director, Im impressed!!

See you soon HIM…

Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Silver Comet 70mile brick

The Silver Comet

Ever since I found out I was moving to Atlanta, my obvious first thoughts were; “where and who can I train with?” Of the many MANY triathletes here in the Atlanta area, two words kept coming up. Silver Comet. This is a trail that goes from just outside of the city to Alabama. It’s a wonderful and incredible idea, and maintained extremely well! Atlanta is very lucky to have this. No cars, no motorized vehicles, just cyclists, runner and…this is where this post begins.

The head of the trail starts off of a road called Mavell, but there are numerous other entrances to get on or off of the Silver Comet. No one told me that perhaps another starting point would be a good idea, so I headed down to Mavell and figured I would start from there. (I feel like Happy Gilmore on the 9th green at 9 ahahaha) Unfortunately, Mavell Rd is not a location that you can put into a GPS, so I found a random street number and entered it. Not positive this would take me to where I wanted to go, when I got off the exit, I saw two cars, both with bike racks and bikes on them. I figured, shut the GPS off and follow because they had to be going to the Silver Comet to ride. WRONG!!!

So I finally get to the trail at the Mavell road entrance and find 9,258,324 cars, bikes, runners, and wait for it…dog walkers, baby strollers, kids on bikes, mothers pushing kids on bikes, dads pushing mothers pushing kids on bikes with strollers and dolls in them. ARGGHHHHH!!! How the hell was I to ride through this giant mass of family sludge?? Good thing I played ball and I think Chicky showed her agile abilities too. I put my mp3 player in, cranked it up and took off.

Yep, the first 10 miles, nothing but kids, strollers, dogs and the aforementioned. Everyone is so flippin nice down here I didn’t want to yell so Chicky and I just weaved the best we could. We had a mission to accomplish and granted, we were late due to my dumb ass following cars rather than the GPS, which by the way, took me right to it, so we had to deal. Lesson learned, get there early, go to a different place to start and follow the damn GPS!

Ok, onto the ride. After only averaging about 17mph for the first 10 miles, (Im proud of that) I took off. My legs felt great, I had three bottles of Infinite (the best stuff on earth!) and 3 gels in my back pockets. Oh yeah, completely dressed in my PTC kit!!! (I need a white top, though…ugh the black) The Silver Comet is FAST! Hovering right around 25-26mph, Chicky and I were loving it! Obviously there were still plenty of people out there but once into Cobb County and then into Polk County it was at a minimum. There were construction workers on the trail and get this, they even had guys sweeping off the road so there was no dirt! Pittsburgh, take some notes huh!! While pen dot(not capped on purpose) is throwing oil and chips everywhere, making it a damn hazard for cyclists, Atlanta is cleaning the 100+ mile path they built specifically for active people!

Kudos and bravo ATL! Im impressed!! I will be donating to this site and doing my part to keep it nice. I saw only one gel pack on the side of the trail and I can only assume the rider or runner did not know it fell out of their pocket because the rest of the trail, spotless!!!

Back to my ride: Nutrition was dead on, however the heat here is new for me and I ran out of drink with 10 miles to go. That’s when I decided to calm it down and ease back in before my run. No need to push dehydration limits. But my salt intake was great, no head aches after, no bonking and best part, my heart rate stayed in check. Not bad for the first 70 mile brick of the season.

Tomorrow I am running in the a.m and open water swimming with the Atlanta Tri Club at lake Allatoona. Looking forward to meeting some great athletes and getting in a lake for the first time of the year. Not a bad way to end my first quality week of training here. Ill return to the base building for the next two and then plan to do a sprint tri for fun either on the 29th or the 30th, but that still remains up in the air as I need to assess my legs each day.

Great to be here! Love my job and my boss is fantastic! Great to be outside! And Great to be surrounded by Triathletes all over!! Thanks ATL! See you all out there!!!




What’s the Diehl?
A Farewell to Ryan Deihl !!!!!!!
[Date]
More Inside .
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Many of you might not know this, but the
Pittsburgh Triathlon Club didn’t always have
the polish it has now. Before the clinics, the
race kits, the website, the Kona qualifiers, we
weren’t much of a club at all, but a small and
ragtag group of newer triathletes. A handful of
us, I, Ken Lambert, Kat Salerno, Jonathan
Swiderski, and Vito Rocco met on the Beginner
Triathlete forums and decided to get together.
The result was a series of weekend morning bike
rides which often started at “the deer” in
Allegheny Commons on the North Side. I still
smile when I think about how leisurely and
enjoyable those rides were, especially when I’m
in the middle of a five-hour ride.
A turning point for the club—it would be fair to
say the turning point—was meeting Ryan Diehl.
As soon as Ryan, with his Tony Little-like
enthusiasm, found our small group, he began
building what you see now: a the fastest growing
USAT-sanctioned club in the country.
In the early days, Ryan made the phone calls
and banged on the doors , forging the early
relationships, with sponsors and with local
athletes, that really started the ball rolling. And
this was all before he was officially elected
As president, he’s been equally tireless. He’s led, delegated, and motivated in a way that few
others could have. Ryan’s seemingly limitless energy, free time, and exclamation points, helped
to shape nearly every aspect of our club.
In Ryan’s very short triathlon career he’s had many ups and downs. Ok, lots and lots of downs.
His first race at the North Park tri started with a kick to the throat early in the swim—in hindsight
a harbinger of the many injuries he would suffer over the next two years—but of course he still
snagged second in his AG. Ryan has gone out of his way to make triathlon a contact sport. Be it
fork failure in the far reaches of Butler county or a landslide hitting his repair shop, Ryan has
become the Biblical Job of triathlon. Yet despite this, he has distinguished himself as a fearless
competitor. Who else could crash into a car, fall off of his bike after the crash and then spend the
entire bike leg of his first 70.3 throwing up all over himself and yet still manage to clinch a spot at
70.3 championships in Clearwater?
Having moved to Atlanta, it’s likely that Ryan will add severe dehydration and heat exhaustion to
his list of triathlon-related maladies. On the other hand, he might overhydrate and end up with
hyponatremia. We’ll all just have to wait and see.
Ryan has truly left more marks on the PTC than Pierce Mill Rd. has left on his legs. You’ll be
missed, Ryan!!!!!!!!
—David Cerniglia, Editor and Secretary