I DID IT!!

I qualified for the IronKids National Championship!

I competed in the 10 year old male division. Results are here.

I think this was the hardest iron kids of all because I had 66 kids in my division and only the top 5 qualify for the national championship race. This was a hard course because there was a lot of uphill parts on the bike and run and I wasn't used to that.

My total time was 28:51.3. I was only 28 seconds behind 2nd place. I know I can train hard for the next three weeks and improve 10 seconds on each part of the race.

I actually had my best times ever on all three parts of the race but the transitions were really long. I had to run about 250 yards to get to my bike after I got out of the pool. I was pretty tired and really didn't run that fast so I know I can make up some time there.

I had the second fastest run time and the second fastest transition/bike time out of all 66 kids. My swim time was really bad, but it was good for me. Im going to work hard on my swimming the next three weeks.

My goal for the Championship is top 10.

Thank you for your support!

National Championship is October 4th in Tucson Arizona.

Training - September 5/6

Sept 5 in the evening I rode 4 miles and then ran 1 mile.

Sept 6 I ran 1 mile and had a new best time, 7:40.

Today I'm going to swim and bike.

Training-September 5th

Sorry for no posts in such a long time but school and baseball are really getting in the way. I've still been training though. Such as running a mile every now and then. A few days ago I got my one piece swimsuit for the ironkids triathlon, so we went swimming today. I rode my bike down to the pool and we swam a 50 meter warm-up a 150 meter swim the 135 meter mark in 3:59 a 50 meter warm-down and then another 150 meters. After the swim I rode my bike back to our house.

I'm also keeping up with my own workout with sit-ups, push-ups, kettle bell swings, medicine ball tosses and a new addition tri-cep push-ups.

We leave Friday for GA. We are going to train hard this week. I'm really looking forward to going to GA!!

August 26 (by Dad)

Shortly after the last post, Austin spiked a fever. He ran fever on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning. He went to baseball practice Tuesday night (they have a tournament this weekend) but I decided to take a couple days off to let him get his strength back.

He assured me he was good to go for tonight so we eased back into training.

He did a fast 2 mile bike (7:10) and followed that up with a .5 mile run in 4 minutes.

Now that school and baseball have started, we really have to squeeze in training where we can. He is determined to do well at Ironkids.

Tomorrow he has school followed by baseball. He leaves for school at 6:30am and we don't get home until around 8:20pm on baseball days (tues/thurs)

Those will probably be "rest days" from now on.

We have a swim and a run planned for Friday.

August 23

Today I did a big swimming work out.

50m warm up

150m as fast as I could go

50m sprint x 4 with 15 second breaks

Then we worked on turning around buoys

150m warm down

Training august 20, 21, 22,

August 20:
This was the day after the Mock race. It rained really bad right when I was about to go for a bike ride. So instead I did a core workout. 30 pushups, 30 sit-ups, 5lb kettle bell workout, and I tossed up a 4lb medicine ball 50 times.

August 21: BIG WORK OUT!
I did the same workout I did yesterday plus an extra sit up and pushup and 10 extra medicine ball throws and 10 extra swings with the kettle bell.

Swimming: I swam 50m sprint, then 150m sprint x 2, then another 50m sprint. We think the timing was wrong for the Kiwanis 100m, because my best 50m is 1:07.05. So I don't think I can do 100m in 2:02 (plus that included getting out of the pool and running to the mat). So my new goal for 135m is 3:30.

Bike: I biked 6.27 miles

Run: Right after I got off the bike, we ran 2 miles.


August 22:
Bike: We just got done biking 10.33 miles.

Im going to keep doing the core workouts by adding one extra push up and sit up and ten extra throws witht he medicine ball and ten extra kettle bell swings everyday.

Tomorrow we are going to swim a lot and then try to run our fastest mile ever. (the fastest so far is 7:41)

Mock Race - August 19th

Swim

Goal: 3:00.00

Today: 3:47.66

1st Transition:

Goal: 0:15.00

Today: 0:43.26

Bike

Goal: 15:00.00

Today: 14:23.27

2nd Transition

Goal: 0:30.00

Today: 0:20.10

Run

Goal: 8:30.00

Today: 8:42.92

Total

Goal: 27:15.00

Today: 27:57:21

Today was the mock race day as you know and in my thoughts I did very well. The three parts of the race that I think I can improve on are the run, the swim, and the first transition. The first transition I did better on Monday when I had a shirt. That time was 31 seconds. Today I didn't put on a shirt so I don't know why my time was slower. The swim was worse than Monday's swim but I know I can get better. I did the Kiwanis swim which was 100m in 2:02 so I'm not sure why it is taking me this long to go 135m. The run was only 12 seconds behind our goal and that's pretty good.

We're also biking 10 miles today for training.

Dad is getting me a one piece triathlon suit because we have to have our upper body covered for the bike and run in ironkids and I don't want to waste time putting a shirt on.

Training - August 18th

Yesterday we did our training a little different. It was different because we decided to run on a treadmill. So we went to Legends where I could get some baseball work done and then run on a treadmill. Legends is the place me and dad have a membership at. We did three .5 mile runs.

Today we are going to do a core workout. Im going to let my legs rest today because I have baseball tryouts and they are going to be timing me running.

Tomorrow we are going to re-do the mock race. These are my goals:

Swim: 3:00

1st Transition: 15 seconds

Bike: 15:00

2nd Transition: 30 seconds

Run: 8:30

Total: 27:15

The swim and run are going to be the hardest for me.

Training - August 14,15,16

August 14th- This was the first day of having the new shoes clipped in. We rode about 2 miles and then got off and ran 1 mile. We didn't time the bike ride. I ran the mile in 7:41.

August 15th- I had baseball in the morning and spent the night with my friend Bruce. So I didn't really do any training that day.

August 16th- This was the day I was supposed to do a Mock Race. It didn't go as planned. We started the swim and I finished it in 3:42. I did the 100m at Kiwanis in 2:02, so I know I can do 135m in a better time. I guess I was tired after spending the night at Bruce's. The first transition went well. With the clip in shoes I did it in 35 seconds. Then the biking went horribly wrong. I kept looking at my speedometer and it said 14mph. I was kind of upset about it because the average should be between 16 and 17. I was trying to push harder to get it up to 16 and 17 but I couldn't do it for very long. I was getting very frustrated and I didn't understand why I was going so slow. About 2.5 miles in I looked back and Dad wasn't there anymore. He had a flat tire and crashed. At this point we had to stop the race.

Dad explained later that there was a strong head wind and that's why I had to work so hard. He told me that I would have made up for it on the way back so I shouldn't have pushed so hard against the wind because I wore myself out. And he was right, because when I went back to the pool to get mom I got up to 21.7 mph.

I was pretty upset we didn't get to finish the mock race. Dad said I was on pace to finish in under 30 minutes but I want to finish it in under 27. We are going to run 3 .5 mile sprints today. Tomorrow I have baseball tryouts so we are just going to do a core muscle work out.

Wednesday we are going to re-do the mock race.

Training - August 10,11,12,13

Thanks for all the nice comments that everyone has left me. Here is the update on the past 4 days

August 10th: I ran 1 mile then had a break for 2 minutes then 1/2 a mile.

August 11th: swim 50m sprint, 500m, 50m sprint

August 12: Ran 2 miles

August 13th: swim 25m sprint x 5 with 10 second breaks, 150m

Tomorrow we are going to the bike store to have my new pedals put on. Dad will be home all day so we're going to swim, bike, and run tomorrow.

We're doing a mock race this weekend with the ironkids distances. 31 days until Ironkids!!

Race Results (by dad)

The results are in!

Austin's total race time was 15:05.8 which was good enough for 3rd place out of 14. The winner only finished 28.1 seconds in front of Austin!

Please remember that it is difficult to compare our training (and goals/times) to this race. The first transition in this race was almost an 1/8 of a mile away from the swimming exit. There was also uphill portions to the run and bike. So we are very pleased with his time!

I won't go into the details, but it was fairly obvious who only did one mile on the bike instead of two. Its a shame, but they actually gave the first place trophy to one of those kiddos!

Here is the break down of Austin's times:

Swim (which started in the pool and finished after exiting the pool and running about 10 yards)
2:02.8
Austin had the 11th best time. This was by far his weakest event. The best time was 1:16.3 and the average time was around 1:49. I don't think we'll improve the overall swim time for Ironkids by more than 15 seconds, but every second counts!

Bike (started 10 yards outside of the pool and included a long run and the first transition)
8:43.2
This was the 2nd best time for his age group! As a matter of fact, Austin had the third fastest bike time for all boys ages 10-13! Remember, this time included the first transition. We are pretty excited to know that time will decrease even more once we get the clip on shoes that will already be fastened to the bike.

Run (started as soon as he dismounted the bike, included the 2nd transition)
4:19.8
Austin had the 4th best run time. The best run time was 4:10.8 so he was not far off!


Austin is pretty excited about the Ironkids Triathlon. He knows he can do well if he continues training. He eagerly ran 1.5 miles in the heat of the day today as part of his training. We will do a time trial using the IronKids distances this weekend. We are aiming for a time under 30 minutes. 30 minutes has been top 5 at every Ironkids so far this year! The best time we have seen was 25:31!

Stay tuned!

Kiwanis Triathlon!!

Hey as you know today was the day of the Kiwanis kids triathlon! As you also know my dad said I was going to give my comments. The race in my opinion was very well organized (and dad thought the same thing.) The swim and the first transition were very well organized. They had a mat down at the first transition so that the computer chips knew that you had done the swim and started the bike time. The only part that wasn't very organized was the bike. Like dad said the people monitoring the bike ride weren't keeping track of how many times kids had been around the course and that's what's good about the bracelet thing. You get a bracelet for every time you cross the start line. That's not how they did it today. Instead they used computer chips to monitor time not the number of bike laps. The next transition was just like the first. There was a mat where you dismounted your bike and when you crossed that it started the run and included your 2nd transition. The run was a half mile so that was good. At the end of the run they had generators that stopped the computer chip when you passed it. My overall opinion was that the race was a great warm-up and a great first triathlon!

Race Day: "by dad"

Austin did great! There were about fifteen 10 y/o boys. This was by far the most competitive group we've seen. The race directors decided to do staggered starts at 10 second intervals. Austin was the first to go in his age group. The good news is that he was also the first 10 y/o boy to cross the finish line! The boy who started the swim 10 seconds behind him exited the pool just in front of Austin, but Austin made up for it in transition one and was on his bike riding about 30 seconds before the other kiddo was.

He didn't "just finish" the race. He pushed himself the entire time. I was very proud of him.

We won't know the official times until Monday or Tuesday. There was major controversy involving the biking portion of the race. Austin's age group had to complete the mile long loop twice. There were several kids who only did one loop instead of two. Apparently no one was tracking this but it was clearly evident after looking at some of the biking times. I'm not sure how they will sort it out but it really doesn't matter. Austin had a great time and was grinning from ear to ear when he finished. I have no doubt the Ironkids will be a little more official with their results.

I would like to thank everyone for their support. Austin checked the blog on my iphone this morning (on the way to the race) to see if anyone had left comments. He was very encouraged by your words (mom, dad and christin)

Austin went straight from the race to a 2 hour baseball scrimmage. He went 0-2 a the plate but got to pitch and got through his inning with 12 pitches, one strikeout, no runs and only one hit and one walk.

He will post his thoughts on the race a little later today.

Thanks again!

Training - August 6th- 7th

Today is the day before the BIG RACE!!!!!!!!! Today was also a rest day, but I rode my new road bike so I could get better at riding it. What I did was practice getting my feet in the toe clips and practice my transitions.

Yesterday Dad and I went down to the Branch Crossing YMCA and road my bike on the race course. Each time you pass the YMCA it's about a mile, so we rode the bike the equivalent distance of the track. We thought I was going to have to get off my bike and get a bracelet to show I had done one lap and could come in for the run but we were wrong! There was a lady there helping to set up the race course and told us that we were wearing computer chips so they start when the kids start and stop when the kids stop. We are also doing staggered starts, which means kids are starting the swim every ten seconds. She also walked us through the whole race and even told us where we were going to mount our bikes get off our bikes.

This is how the race is going to go:

Swimming: When I start swimming I'm going to go up a lane, then come back down another lane and do the same thing with the next two lanes. No buoys like the last one.

Transition #1: After I finish swimming I'm going to run to my transition area put down my goggles and swim cap, dry my feet, put on my helmet, put on my shoes and take my bike to the mounting area mount and start riding.

Bike: I'm going to do the course which when going away from the YMCA is mostly down but coming back is mostly up hill. One bad part is you have to go up a bus ramp when you go into the school parking lot. Another bad part is that the down hill part ends with a very steep up hill part.

Transition #2: I'm going to take my bike, put it up, take off my helmet and put on my shirt while I'm running.

Running: The run is only half a mile so I'm going to put on my shirt at first while I'm running because I have to have a shirt with my number on it when I cross the finish line and run as hard as I can to try and win!!!!

I am excited about the race. I have to wake up at 545am and be there by 645 so I am going ot bed soon.

Check back tomorrow for the results! Thanks for everyone's support!