Chris Berg

It took a few days to get this up, because of a few things.  This past weekend, my friend Matt from college got married, and old friends were in town.  Also I am going to work on re-vamping the pictures section to get rid of old photos and just have 2009 shots there.  Give me some time.  With that being said, let me talk about the race.

This was my second race in the “pro” division, and it might have been one of the toughest fields for the race in years.  Returning champ Chris Foster, and veteran Aussie Luke Bell, as well as the local pro’s there were also some other international studs too.  I wasn’t peaked for this race, but that doesn’t mean I was going easy.  It just means I was not as rested, and hadn’t done any workouts specific for the race.

The 100o meter swim was fast, due to flat and calm conditions and the ITU international studs leading the way.  Some of whom are up there with Andy Potts on most swims, beating him out of the water on several occasions.  It took me about 300 meters to get into my rythm and I settled in and kept trucking.  I pulled off a solid swim effort, and did not feel too fatigued.  I came of the water at 11:01, which is averaging about 1:06 per 100 meters.  Solid fast time, and I was out with a group including some big names.  I took T-1 a little slower than most, in fact the slowest pro transition.  But I was on the bike course where I have struggled in prior years.

The course is hilly, and makes it very hard to get into a groove because of the short undulations.  I did as best I could, and had the best bike split I have had at that race.  I had a plan, average what I have been on Wednesday rides in terms of wattage.  I did just that averaging 266 watts for the course at about 24 mph for the 30k bike course.  My time was 44:49, and I was off on the run course, with Luke just ahead and Erik behind.  Felipe was a ways behind after a mechanical issue plagued him and cost him roughly 5 minutes.

I passed Luke and Brian Rhodes on the run in the first kilometer of the 10k run.  From then on out, I was hunting down people, and fending off those behind me.  I was able to run down Thomas Lopez at about mile 4 of the run, and didn’t look back.  I was holding well right on 6 minute per mile pace, and was passed by Patrick Baldwin on the last 1.5 miles.  I tried to see if I could match his pace, but it was too quick for me that day.  I picked it up a little after he passed me, to keep fending off a surging Mac Brown returning from injury, and Erik, who could be right on my heels.  The run split was 37:51, which was slower than 6 minute pace.  Turns out due to some course changes, the run was 300 meters long.  Had it been dead on, I would have ran around 37 flat out for the 10k, which is what I wanted to do.

The end of the day put me in the top 10 in the very competitive pro field in 9th place, and I feel really good about it.  I swam well, and not too hard.  I cycled right where I wanted to be, and ran a good time.  I am really happy especially because I finally put together a good race on this course.  For not peaking, I am stoked I can run that fast with legs that aren’t as rested as they could have been.  Pictures will be up soon.

In other news, check out the new Triathlete magazine, where my friend Hunter co-authored a great article poking fun at some gadgets from the 80’s.  It is a funny read.  Also check out Motortabs, they recently added my race bio to the athlete page.  Next race is Vineman 70.3 and it is less than 3 weeks away!  Fun fun fun!!!

There is exactly one week until San Diego International.  I am looking forward to my second race in the “Pro/Elite” category, and will be racing the familiar faces of the local scene as well as some other big shots from the Southern California landscape.

The past week of training has been great, and I have been feeling good in my workouts, and have been continuing to push myself using the new power meter.  As such, bike workouts have been slightly changed, and some runs have been made a little longer.  I am really happy about these changes, because I love running long now no matter what the circumstances are (which have been rain for the past THREE Saturdays), anything under 30 minutes just feels like a tease.  I have maintained my swimming fitness and right now I am happy with where it is.

The KOM competition continued this past week, as Felipe, Daniel and I made the traditional journey to our playground.  A course record was sure to be set had it not been for the road work that forced us into a cyclocross type situation where we twice had to dismount our bikes and hope over some barriers.  No harm done on the new roads, and we were back on the bikes dancing on the pedals.  I was able to successfully defend the polka-dots again.  Though Daniel due to a user error on his Fondriest bike, was back on his Specialized until a new part comes in.

So I will not be peaking for SDIT, just training through it, before a small two week power session before Vineman 70.3 for which I will be semi-tapered.  I won’t be peaking for a race until Malibu, and then again at Clearwater.  In other equipment news, I ordered some fancy new training wheels from Matt at Rivet Cyclesport, which should be coming in about a week or so after SDIT.  That about sums it up for the past week, should have report on SDIT and some other things as well.  I just did an interview for http://finishline-multisport.com which I will post a link to when it is posted in the up and coming weeks.  Big congratulations to my friend Hunter Reed for getting on his horse for his first Ironman this past weekend, way to go man!

The post Honu funk quickly dissipated in the days following my return to San Diego.  Some easy days or workouts eased into longer workouts, and before I could think about being back in the routine, I was already there.  It was nice to enjoy some of the easy days, but I really miss training, the volume, the intensity and the overall beauty of pushing myself everyday.  There are some fun things to discuss in this post, so I will have at it.

In non-triathlon related news, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup this week, beating the Detroit Redwings in 7 games.  So in your face Marian Hossa.  He left the Penguins last year, after they had lost to Detroit in the finals, saying he wanted to be on a team that would win championships.  Well, he ate his words as we watched Sidney Crosby lift the cup.  That as well as Hossa didn’t even contribute a single point in the 7 game final.  IN YOUR FACE.

Back to my world of swim bike run.  I got a new training tool when I got back from Honu.  It is an SRM power meter.  What this does is allows me to read my power output in terms of watts, in addition to speed and cadence.  Wattage is a valuable data tool that can help you cycling as well as your running.  By working with wattage you can determine your threshold for power over certain distances, making sure not to give to much effort on the bike.  This will allow me to maximize both my run and my bike splits as I move forward and become more familiar with myself and my capabilities.  So far the past week has been fun looking at my charts using the software for the computer.  I will post some of my workouts as I become more familiar with the ins and outs of the program.  For now I can say it is really sweet.  So now that Nick, Shawn and I all are using power readings in our training, it looks like Felipe is going to dive in and get one soon.

Swimming is back on full swing, and I am attempting to work my base intervals a little quicker.  I am getting in the ocean once a week on Friday’s at the cove with almost every other triathlete in San Diego.  Running is right back into form, and I was ticking off the usual splits on the track this week, which had some longer intervals than normal.  Being back in full swing also marked the return of our King of the Mountain competition on Thursdays.

If you were wondering, I did successfully defend my polka-dot jersey and still hold KOM honors.  The ride was a little more punchy than usual, an we clocked in about 90s from our fastest time during the interval.  That workout is a lot of fun, and leaves the legs drained, which makes running at the track later in the day even more interesting.  Being able to still run fast on tired legs is important to me, so I don’t mind hitting them back to back.

San Diego International Triathlon is in two weeks, and I expect to be racing against a really competitive pro field including defending champ Chris Foster, and the strong local talent.  There may also be some outsiders who come in and shock us all.  We will have to wait and see, but I am looking to do better at this race than in prior years.  I will not be peaking for this race, but I should get a little but of rest before hand.  That is all for now, until next time!

Honu 70.3 is done and in the books.  There were some high points, and also some lows.  The end of the day I finished 5^th in the 25-29 age group, and 55^th overall out of the 1300 plus competitors, and total time of 4:47:31.  There are some good stories in the following paragraphs so read on.

The swim was awesome.  Crystal clear water, calm seas, and warm water.  I love swimming without a wetsuit.  Mainly because those who depend on the wetsuit to keep them buoyant suffer, and the real swimmers are separated from the not so real swimmers.  It may only be by 2 minutes or so, but that is still 2 minutes that I wouldn’t have otherwise.  It was a mass start, and there were some folks, who over estimated their abilities in the water, and I sifted through them, and things cleared up after the first buoy.  The lead group strung out, and I was happy to find my rhythm and swim on.  I came out of the water right with Erik, and Felipe was right behind us.  Erik and I were 2^nd (Erik) and 3^rd in the age group out of the water.  I loved this swim, I love the mass start, and I loved getting use of my ZOOT speed suit for the first time in race conditions.  My swim time was:  26:40.

Out onto the Queen K highway for the bike leg, which mimics the Ironman World Championship course.  This means the winds can change every 5 minutes, and it gets hot!  I headed out on the bike course, and got my legs underneath me fairly quick, and I got to Erik 20 minutes onto the bike.  A familiar face also passed me, but she wasn’t on the bike she would normally be riding, so I decided in my mind, it wasn’t who I thought it was.  The three of us were with each other all the way out to the turnaround point, with yours truly behind Erik and the female rider.  The way out had huge headwinds, and slight uphill.  I was grabbing water at the aid stations to pour over myself to stay cool.  I grabbed some more water at the turn around point, and passed Erik through the station.  The female rider and I carried on.  The way back was FAST.  The headwinds were now tailwinds, and the slight uphill was a slight downhill.  I was holding 35MPH effortlessly.  Felipe had long since passed us on the bike and was ahead up the road.  The rolling up and down Queen K winded back to T-2, and I was off the bike in:  2:27:24.

I put my shoes on, grabbed my visor and headed out into the unknown run course.  The course was different from prior years.  It was 6 miles of grass running, then a mix of path and road the remaining miles.  I left transition with the female rider, and then finally it clicked, she was who I thought she was.  She said to me as we ran together, “my lead isn’t as big as I thought it was,”.  As soon as I heard the Aussie accent I knew it was Belinda Granger.  I said let’s go, and we ran out together.  After some chitchat, we ran on.  I passed a struggling Felipe on the run, which would eventually take its toll on everyone.  It was at about mile 3 where Belinda kept going, and left me behind.  The constant changing terrain, slight hills, and no refuge from the sun, in addition to crazy humidity all played factors.  My heart rate would not come down, and pushing any harder would have put me into a medical tent.  The goal now was to hold on.  I slogged along with a kid from Canberra who works at the Institute for sport, and we decided, the only was to be prepared for this type of heat would be to train here.  I lost him as we hit about mile 9.  We had a system of holding a solid pace, and taking the aid stations slowly, getting water, ice, and cold sponges to keep as cool as we can.  The heat got to him, and heat dropped back.  Then up ahead I noticed a male pro, who was also suffering.  I caught up to him, and noticed it was Ben Sanson, Frenchman, who was first out of the water in the 2008 Ironman World Championships.  We shuffled our feet for the last 5k together, and talked about the race and other things.  At the final kilometer mark, he said let’s enjoy this final “k”.  We picked it up a bit, and stormed to the line together, I was able to cross just before him.  My run time was a slow and hellish:  1:49:13.

All in all, I can’t be unhappy about this race.  The swim went well, the bike went well, and nobody had a good day on the run.  Even Craig Alexander, overall winner went about 6-7 minutes off of what he would normally run, and said this course presented a harder challenge than the 26.2 mile course in October.  I feel confident that I will continue to improve.  I am still on the podium, and still improving.  My bike split was faster than Oceanside, my swim was just as fast without a wetsuit, and well the run…. everyone suffered on the run.  The good news is Joe, Kathy, and Shawn picked up spots for Clearwater this year, which means a huge set of Breakaway athletes will be making a show at 70.3 World Championships.  Next up is SDIT, followed by Vineman 70.3.  I am looking forward to racing a 70.3 course, which I have already raced on.

Short and sweet, I am off to Hawaii for the Honu 70.3 this Saturday.  I am enjoying the rest I have for my taper, but as always I feel anxious because this week is low in volume.  Plus I need to pack, make sure everything is in order.  Not only that, I have to hope I have saved up enough good karma that I don’t end up at a customer service desk saying, “Hey, I gave you my stuff a few hours ago…and it is not here now…I would like to have it back…now.”  Felipe and I head out on Thursday, where JoeandKathy (one word by design) Erik, and many others will be there already.  Shawn Lantz and I are sharing a room in some resort hotel, in which JoeandKathy are also staying.  Race is shaping up to be a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to having a good time at only my fourth 70.3 race.  I should have a race report up within a week after the race, and I also have been charged with a full on report to write for Amateur Endurance.  I will have the link up for that when all is said and done this weekend.  That is all for Hawaii.

There are now plans developing for a trip to Australia sometime in January/February 2010…I am just saying…more to follow when we hammer out the details…

We had a lot of fun with the guys from UrideTV at the Spring Sprint Triathlon a few weeks back, here is the link to the video they put together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_I_bj0bKh8

This past week was a great week for training.  I felt good on long runs, interval runs on the track, and our tempo/pace work.  Whether it was off the bike, or fresh start the legs feel good right now.  On the bike I am feeling really great as well, legs are turning over nicely and I am looking forward to getting into Hawaii in very nice form.  But what this post is mainly about is our trip to the desert on Saturday.  We rode 55 miles in the desert, and ran afterwards for a half an hour.

The group headed out the Borrego Springs, to get some heat training in the books so we would be good for Hawaii.  Though the desert is not the same heat, it is heat none the less.  When we hit the turnaround point in the ride it had already reached 95F.  We finished the rest of the ride in an even split, 75 minutes out, 75 minutes back.  So a total of 2:30 for the ride.  When we got back to the cars, it was well over 100F.  We slowly got our running shoes on, and headed out for our run.

The first 5 minutes of the run were fine.  It was after that when you begin to feel the heat radiating up off the pavement, and rising all around you.  This combined with the sun coming down was very debilitating.  We hit our turn around for the run, and I actually began to feel a whole lot better.  I was able to slowly pick up the pace and keep my form.  We got back from the run and began to pour coolers of water all over ourselves as we began to cool off.  Every two people had brought  cooler full of drinks, and there was plenty of drinks and water to go around.  I had soaked some small towels in the cold water and fashioned a nice hat out of one.  Sponges of cold water were floating around as well.  We were sitting in the shade and finally decided to see just how hot it really was out there.  We found a thermometer in the shade, and it read 102F IN THE SHADE!  So hot out there.

It was nice to do that before Hawaii, and nice to know that I have everything together nutrition wise for the heat, all I need to do is execute in the race.  The two week taper is now under way!!!  resting up and getting myself race ready.  The few weeks of power work were a lot of fun and I always enjoy challenging training sessions.  Really looking forward to this race with a lot of friends from Breakaway.  One pre-race post to follow this, and then will have one up after the race.

This week was the meat of the power weeks leading up to Honu 70.3.  It involved some pretty high volume and some high intensity.  While some aspects of the week changed due to some circumstances that seemed inevitable, (the weatherman is a fink) this week marked the return of some old fun, that had not been active for a long time.  Let me tell you all about it.

Monday was relatively tame.  Luke and I met up early for a 90 minute run starting at my place and down through Mission Beach.  We started out slow, loosening the legs after the spring race the previous day.  In the middle things picked up a little bit, as we moved into a good tempo pace.  We both felt pretty good considering the effort the day before.  I hit the pool later in the day to get a solid swim in.  Tuesday I got in the water again to do some more intense swim work.  I got to spin and let the legs loosen on the bike before running a good tempo for a little afterwards, only 20 minutes.  If you are wondering, the feet are almost completely healed up and I am 100% sure they will be no problem in Hawaii.  I am back to not wearing socks, which makes me top five for ugliest feet in the world.  The left leg has been worked on twice, and the tightness is pretty much all gone and it feels fine.  It loosens up just fine once I get moving.

Wednesday was an exciting day, and I honestly can’t remember parts of it after the workout.  We did the usual interval, but once again in record time dropping to 37:24 for the ride.  We pedaled back to Felipe’s house, all knowing what lay ahead for us.  90 minutes, in the following fashion: 15 minutes fast, 15 minutes aerobic three times through.  Nathan joined us, which was a good thing, but made the pace fast.  The last 2-3 minutes of each high intensity effort turned into Nathan v. Chris.  But there was no finish line, just when the time expired we eased up.  So we just kept getting faster until the clock told us to slow down.  I wasn’t feeling at all that beat up when we finished.  We spent some time just lounging around cooling down with the hose.  Eventually I made it home, made a blender full of FLUID, and headed to the shower.  I remember sitting down in the shower to take some pressure off my legs.  I must have fallen asleep for 20 minutes, or lost my mind.  I woke up at the bottom of the shower, half the blender had been consumed.  I decided I should finish it, and dry off.  Then I saw the mess I made.  A trail of cycling clothes led from the door to the shower, with some drips of FLUID leading from the kitchen to the shower.  I spent the next few hours zoning in and out recovering form the 4 hour brick workout that was Wednesday morning.

Thursday, I was not sure how my legs would feel.  But they were good enough to set a new Soledad record at 50:14.  I was back in polka dots for the first time this year.  The jersey is back, and will be on my shoulders until someone dethrones me.  The track brought some mile repeats, and I was stoked to have Juliano there to run with.  We ran in lane 4 as we always do, and went out and split 5:40 for the first 1600M, fell a lot on the second one, and split 5:47 for the 1600M.  I was feeling bad about falling off the pace we set, so I decided to ramp it up for the third, and hit 5:35 for 1600M.  For those wondering, the real mile times, are roughly (very roughly) 5:24, 5:31, and 5:19.  I am happy with those leading up to Honu.  I enjoyed the 400 recovery runs in between the miles, and got in a good total for the workout at just over 5 miles.

Friday was a solid cove swim, despite some swell coming into the area.  The water has warmed up the above 60F, which is warm enough for me!  Saturday I felt good on the ride.  We rode in Elfin, because the forcast was way too hot in the desert for us to ride there this week.  They were calling for 80+ on the coast, which meant well over 100 in the desert.  But it seems the good old weatherman is a fink, and the sun didn’t start shining until right when I finished my run off the bike around noon.  Thanks a lot weather man.  But we will be in the desert next week no matter what.  Sunday Nick and I played in the ocean, practicing surf entry and exit at the beach, while body surfing a little bit in the swell that came in through the weekend.  We ran a solid 30 minutes afterwards, building from an easy pace to a good tempo.

That is everything!!  News and notes, my SRM power meter is on back order, my wheel has been fixed, and I secured a travel case for Hawaii.  The wheels have limited life left, but I will ride them until the give out for good.  Hopefully not anytime soon.  One more hardcore week of power before tapering.  Only three weeks until Big Island fun.

Spring Sprint was today and it was the first time I have done a short race like this since last September.  The race was .25 mile swim, 9 mile bike, and 3 mile run.  It was the first time I raced out of age group and in the PRO/ELITE classification.  The usual suspects from the local triathlon scene were there, which includes a lot of people from Breakaway Training.  There was also a world champion and olympic silver medalist racing who goes by the name of Michellie Jones.  (no splits yet, will update when I have them).

The swim was in the very dirty and gross Mission Bay.  The water was fairly warm and we all got out when the gun went off.  The swim was quick, I really had no idea where I was relative to everyone else.  I know I was out of the water with Luke, Felipe and Nathan.  I pretty much knew we would all be out of the water with each other.  I ran into T-1 and made a pretty quick transition.  Then I was off on the bike.  Swim time 5:23.

The bike is short, flat and fast.  Michellie had passed me in T-1, and I was determined not to be “chicked” this weekend, so I pedaled hard as her and I weaved in and out of some athletes from the duathlon already on the race course.  We got to the loop section of the course and that was when I passed Michellie and saw Luke and Felipe passed me.  The back side of the loop was very very fast, and we were hitting speeds upwards of 30MPH.  The group of us were pretty much jockeying for position along the bike course until we came into T-2.  We had passed Erik along the way there, but he was close behind.  Bike time 23:39.

I rushed through T-2 and got myself off and running.  I used some New Skin, liquid band-aid on my wounds, and it worked pretty well.  No bleeding, and I didn’t notice any problems.  The left leg was a little tight, but it sorted itself out.  I darted past Felipe and Luke out of T-2, and set my sites on Nathan and Caue who were the only two ahead of me at that point.  I catch them just before the first mile, and settle into their pace.  The Caue surged, and I knew I have the speed and strength to go with him.  I did have that, but I didn’t have the stomach too.  Some of the nasty bay water mentioned earlier, had been swallowed on the swim, and came back up on the run.  It was awful, it came out the same color of the bay, and I was just shocked.  I felt like a million dollars after though, and I was back into running.  By that time Nathan and Caue had gone off, and I was j0ined by Erik.  We ran together slowly closing the gap on them on the second loop of the run.  In the last mile or so, Erik pulled away from me.  The finished ended with Nathan beating Caue to the line, followed by Erik and myself.  The finish times were 46:02, 46:07, 46:11, and I finished in 46:22.  Pretty close race if I say so myself!!  Run time 17:20.

Happy with the effort over the short distance, given a slightly bum left leg, and two cut up feet.  Not to mention “getting sick” on the run because of the bay water.  Some side notes, since Felipe finished behind myself, Nathan, and Luke, he lost our bet, and will be running free next time we hit the trails.  I saw my friend Adam Bordeman, who will be racing Florida 70.3 in two weeks.

I have two hard weeks of training coming up before I taper off for Honu 70.3 on May 30th.  It will include some trips to the desert for heat training, which should hurt like hell, but be a blast regardless.  Feet are getting better and so is the leg.  Until next time.

So, you can surmise from the post, this week there was some blood.  Not from fighting, not from crashing but from running like a moron.  More on that later.  Next weekend is Spring Sprint, and it should be interesting to note that Felipe, Luke, Nathan, and myself will all be racing pro.  We decided to make a wager, to make things a little interesting among ourselves.  The person who finishes last out of the four of us, will have to do our next long run in the nude.  Talk about free running.

This week was a solid week and started off great with 90 minutes of running along the coast with Luke on Monday, with a solid swim later in the day.  Tuesday I had another solid swim, followed by a good spin session and run.  After the run my left leg was a little tight, but I stretched it out and went to bed.  The next morning it was really tight, so I stretched again.  It was fine on the bike, but running was not so great.  I opted to skip the run and track on Thursday.  The Wednesday ride was the fastest ever, at 37:40.  It was good to get that speed going, but I was bummed by the lack on run after.  On Thursday we went back to Soledad to conquer the hill.  I was feeling good, and had a really strong ride.  The time might have been close to a record fast time, had it not been for my opting to stop at a light that I could have gone through.  Anyway it was still solid, and I swam afterwards because I still wasn’t running.

Friday was an easy day, and I got my leg worked on so I could test it out on Saturday to run long on Sunday.  Saturday ride was a good tempo.  I rode on the tri bike to get some vertical work in preperation for Hawaii.  I was able to run afterwards, so I was in high spirits for Sundays long run.

I decided to run in some new shoes, Nike Lunaracer.  They are light weight and offer more traction for trails than my Newton shoes.  They felt great for the first 15 minutes, and I noticed the were rubbing.  I guess I am getting blisters I thought to myself, running sockless as I always do.  Then about another 10 minutes later, it feels like I am being cut.  I look down to see some red, I guess I am bleeding a little I said to myself as I ran on.  Then after 45 minutes I turned around and went back, feeling my feet swimming in blood.  It was painful for a while, but then everything numbed up, and I was fine.  Apparently the heels were worse of than anything else, and I didn’t even know they were cut.  Here is what the aftermath looked like.

I would also like to give a shout out to my old man, who had an interesting race this weekend in New Jersey and managed to get on the podium.  Nice work old man.  So anyway, Hawaii in five weeks, Sprint next weekend, and tender feet for the time being.  Not to worry, just HTFU.