Sunday was another great day for me in San Francisco. We dove off a boat at 7am into the San Francisco Bay, turned our feet to the Alcatraz Prison and swam for shore. I lead for most of the swim, but as we came into the Marina I found myself behind some guys with much better lines. Out of the water fourth, I took off on the bike with some great company. John Kenny, Kyle Leto, Brian Fleischmann, and myself attacked the first hill like it was the deciding factor of the race, but at the top my legs were screaming at me. I looked around and everyone else was in just as much pain, so I pushed over the top and took a lead on the first quick decent by Big Beach. I never looked back, but at the first turn around I was about a minute ahead of Leto, and at the second it was closer to 90 seconds.

When I started the run nobody else was close to transition. I ran for a while before I saw Kyle and Brian come by me still riding, but I wanted to get in a good hard run, so I refused to back off. I pushed it hard enough that I didn’t even notice the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the foreground. It wasn’t until I ran though the small tunnel under the Golden Gate and hit the single track that I started to relax and really enjoy my surroundings. The Pacific ocean was misty with the morning sunlight just shining over the hill making the cliffs light up with glowing dew… It was quite a pleasant run until I dropped down onto Big Beach and realized that the new Tri-California course removed the 1 mile out-and-back section on the beach. With that extra mile in 2008 I had been able to run down to the hard packed sand and let my legs recover some from the hard decent. With the new course, you pop out onto the beach just a short distance from the bottom of the treacherous sand ladder, and there’s no time to run for hard pack. It’s about a minute of slogging through soft sand, which gets your already beaten-up legs to the point of furry, then up the “ladder” which is really just a big sand dune with some buried logs that help with traction. When I did this race in 2008 I had the fastest time up the sand ladder by 12 seconds. This time, I decided to go the slow methodical way - grabbing the ropes on the sides and alternating between walking and skipping my way up the dune. Through all the sand my K-Swiss Kruuz started to get some sand in them through the holes in the bottom (meant to drain water out of the shoes). I was worried, but when left the sand it drained from my shoes as quickly as it had entered. No harm done! At the top I started running again, and was glad for my conservative effort because the “top” of the sand ladder is really only half way up the final hill. As I turned onto the hard pack and continued up my mom was there telling me I had a three minute lead over Leto. At this point, I started smiling. I kept the pace fairly high, but chose to enjoy the last three miles: the Golden Gate, Crissy Field, the single track section and concrete stairs up and over the old bunkers. This is the most scenic and fun race in the world.

I surprised the announcer, who was not yet expecting me when I appeared in the finish chute. I was raising my arms and high five-ing spectators for 100 meters before the loud speaker announced that I was about to finish. So I took my time, smiled, high five-ed more of the crowd, took a bow, and then waited for four minutes to greet Kyle Leto and Steve Sexto (who had a great run) finishing in second and third respectively.

It was a tough race, a beautiful race, and a good indicator of my current fitness. Thanks coaches!!

This is my sister congratulating me after the race. See any family resemblance? Perhaps the smile, or the nose, or the way we squint into the sun? She says next year she’ll do the race - WATCH OUT!!

Me and my 9 month old nephew, Carter. He flew down from Seattle to watch me.

I’m going back to San Francisco for another Tri-California race on Sunday. I will be racing the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz. My entire family is flying in to see me, even 9 month old Carter and his mom (my sister) Susan. This course is amazing. Probably the most beautiful urban race in existence, so I’m hoping my family can get some great pictures of me. Better than this one from the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in 2008, which I ran with an injured foot and no pink Rudy Project sunglasses - I still had the fastest time up the Sand Ladder!

I would write more, but I’m off to the airport with a book bag full of books! I started an MBA program at the University of Colorado this week, and suddenly I have no problem keeping myself occupied. My first three courses are “Leading and Managing in Changing Times”, “Intro to Accounting”, and “Marketing Strategy”. My Management prof seems really cool. Our first assignment is to write a self assessment, in which we point out our own flaws, our goals, our strengths, and how we plan to become better people through self-management and life balance. Step 1 to life balance: enjoy life. (check!)

After London I flew back to Colorado Springs. I’ve been trying really hard to make this my home, but for someone who violently detests sprawling, track-hone infested, overly automotive based suburban sprawl, it’s a tough town to love. So when I returned I decided to spend the rest of the week with friends in Boulder. (Yes, it’s technically a suburb, and it has plenty of oversized malls, separated by wide roads that require u-turns to get around the unnecessary medians - but there are traits that make up for those unfortunate features.)

I haven’t spent any time with Rory in a few months, and I was excited to stay in the fancy new apartment he got with his girlfriend Mojdeh. Unfortunately, Rory works in a restaurant and our schedules don’t mesh up well. Over 5 days we saw about 15 minutes of each other.

The training, however, was better than I expected. I swam at Scott Carpenter - an outdoor 50m pool - where I ran into several other pro triathletes. I ran around the CU Cross Country course, and saw some pro runners. I rode up through North Boulder and saw some pro cyclists… It’s strange to me that there are more athletes to train with, and better tromping grounds than the Olympic Training Center. But then again, there’s no Matt Chrabot.

So after a very pleasant week, I gave in to obligation (to get my MBA class schedule squared away, show my face at the Elite Development Camp USAT is holding, and to get free massage) and drove back down to Colorado Springs this morning. On the way I went to Tri-For-The-Cure, a very large all-women’s sprint triathlon with 3000 women competing and raising money for cancer research. Courtenay was racing (just for fun) and I figured it would be an excellent way to recover from the monster training day I did on Saturday. (Note to anyone who suffers from training plan stubbornness like me - if you’re supposed to run off the bike, and it’s over 90 degrees and you just did a long ride up to 9300 feet for the first time ever and you don’t have a water bottle holster - take a nap and run later in the day, that hour-long slog will make you tough, but certainly not fast.) So I played Super Fan for an hour while Courtenay rocked the socks off the elite wave. She was wearing a Wonder Woman suit that was designed by Taigraphx and printed by Splish. The coolest part of her outfit was that it matched her K-Swiss KRuuz perfectly, and after the race she couldn’t stop complimenting my sponsor, “I LOVE these K-Swiss SHOES!!, they’re AMAZING!!” (is it the shoes or just her?) Tai does my suits as well, and I’m a little bitter that my race uni doesn’t look nearly as supremely awesome. Perhaps if Splish starts making men’s triathlon racing apparel (or if the ITU makes their uniform rules less strict) then I can rock a superhero look. But which Superhero am I?

This is a series of interviews from before and after Saturday’s ITU Pan-America Cup Triathlon courtesy of TriCal TV.

It’s the fourth of July, which is my favorite holiday. I like it because the weather’s nice, and I have absolutely no obligations. If I want to see family, I see family, if I want to see friends, I’ll hang out with friends - and everyone else has the same lack of obligations. It’s the perfect day. This morning I had a career day on the track. I did 10×600 with 2 minutes rest and averaged 1:40. That’s pretty good for me! I think it must have been the special kicks I was wearing from K-Swiss. These USA K-Ona’s are perfect for Independence day, or a podium. And with a run workout like that, I hope to have more opportunities to wear them!

Here’s some pictures from the pool party we had at the OTC today. I didn’t think wrestlers could swim, but check out what they CAN do!

This interview is reposted from the Zoom Performance website.

That’s part one.

And this is part two

A pair of Keahou Trainers after a long Hawaii winter

Spring is finally here, but don’t throw out your winter trainers yet! I’m going to give away a pair of K’Ona lightweight trainers from K-Swiss to one person who can prove that they put their winter trainers through hell. Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win.

1. Take a picture of your winter trainers. One picture only, but pick an angle that makes them look their worst. Mud stains, torn tread, toe holes… What has winter done to your shoes?
2. Send that picture to trainerpics [at] bencollins [dot] org OR post it on twitter after this this text: “win @kswiss K’Ona running shoes from @triBC - post a pic of trainers uglier than these:” (there should be plenty of characters left for your pic).
3. I will post all picture submissions right here on my blog, and the winner will be picked by a panel of independent judges (to be revealed). If you submit via twitter, make sure you follow me so I can notify you if you win.

Getting your friends to leave comments on my blog in order to persuade the judges is perfectly alright.

If you win, I’ll contact you for size, address, and preference for which country you would like on your shoes. (The US flag is cool, but the Brazil Flag K’onas are bitchin’!)

The winner will be chosen on April 11th - Kick off day of the 2010 ITU World Championship Series. The first race is in Sydney, Australia.

The K-Swiss K'Ona shoes are SUPER fast - Perfect for racing, or just a hard day at the track.

Now, I’m supposed to make some clarifications about the contest: This contest is with bencollins.org, no purchase is necessary, the opinions and views expressed on bencollins.org do not represent the views/opinions of K-Swiss Inc. (Hopefully I covered everything I needed to.) K-Swiss is providing the shoes that I’m giving to the winner, but that’s it. I want to thank K-Swiss for their enthusiasm in supporting me, and for letting me do something fun like this contest.

That’s it! Now go snap some pictures of those running shoes and send them this way!

The training camp has continued to involve something hard every day. Tuesday we did a run / swim in the morning at the 27.5 meter pool. We keep doing the same workouts we would in the 25 yard pool, but instead of 5,000 yards we’re actually getting in 5500 meters. It’s almost like free mileage because you don’t really notice it when the walls are just a little farther apart. (btw, my hormone level must be getting messed with from all this training because I was watching 24 on Hulu last night and one of the actors said, “just tell me how much further it is”, which annoyed the crap out of me because I couldn’t correct her. Why can’t people figure out the difference between fUrther and fArther? Maybe it’s just me, I’m sure I make my own grammatical errors. And I’ve also bean craving chocolate, so it has to be the training.) Anyway, the afternoon run was a hard one. 4×8 minutes with 1 minute rest holding the fastest possible average. It was not unlike a 10k for time, and I was definitely the slowest of the boys still. It was after the first interval that I stopped for a quick second to retie my shoe when Kathy Tremblay caught me and I realized that I had better get my act together if I didn’t want to be “chicked” (when a guy is beaten by a girl – quite the modest making moment when it happens at this level). I managed to outrun her on the last three intervals, but I was closer to her than I was to the next guy ahead of me.

Wednesday we did what basically amounted to a 5k TT on the bike. To clarify, that’s 5,000 vertical feet. We started on the side of Mt. Haleakala and rode 3×20 minutes with 5 minutes “easy” in between. The “easy” part, however, was still uphill and I never got my HR even close to a recovery rate. We actually finished the ride at about 4700 feet, but the total ascent for the ride was almost exactly 5,000 ft, according to my Edge 705. This ride marked the turning point for me. I started off conservatively on the first interval and found myself riding with Andrew Russell and Kathy (yeah, she’s crazy strong – and really nice too). The three of us rode together for for the second interval at a stronger pace, then on the last interval Kathy dropped back and after 11 minutes I was riding solo as Andrew’s legs started telling him about the past 17 days of training he’s put into them. It’s pretty unbelievable to think that an hour at my best effort didn’t even get me half way to the 10,000ft peak, but it was still a great training day.

Which brings me to today. Another double run with a swim in between. We repeated last weeks run workout of 24x 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds “easier”. This time I didn’t try to stay with the group leaders, Simon Whitfield and Kyle Jones. I started off with the main group and found myself running in fourth position with Kyle an Simon long gone and Jeff Phillips coming back to me ever so slowly. Eventually I passed Jeff, ran with him for 5 or 6 more intervals, then fell back as he found a second wind. It was definitely a successful workout, if only because I didn’t do anything dumb like last week. Hooray for small victories!

(A quick plug for my K-Swiss K’Ona trainers. I’ve been really pleased how they handle fast running through uneven surfaces like the cane fields and on grass. I haven’t twisted my ankle once, and normally I’m the type to roll an ankle easily when I pick up the pace on trails. I’m very impressed.)

Tomorrow we were planning to ride up to the peak of Haleakala, but since everyone seems fatigued we’re going to do another 4 hour “base ride” – which means a 4 hour hammer-fest on the Simon-Pain-Train. I’d much rather ride up the mountain at a constant effort, and get some cool pictures to replace the photo above, which I took from the peak in 2006 with my aluminum Felt (complete with the strap on bars and fold-up pads). Oh well. Looks like I’ll have to come back to  Maui again to get in my crater ride.

Click on these guys sites that I’m training with (and linking to). All but Jeff have particularly good blogs with lots of pictures, as do Kirsten Sweetland and Andrew McCartney.

Sunday I raced in a local “biathlon” put on by the Waikiki Swim Club which consisted of a 5k run followed by a 1k swim. This “Christmas Biathlon” was supposed to be held last month, but lucky for me they had to postpone it until I was here on the island and ready to race. These local community events are really fun, and a great way to reconnect with other athletes in the area. Equal in enjoyment for me, however, is the ability to bring humor to a race where the primary goal is to have fun.

[Above: Can you guess which one’s me?]

So, I wore a pink Splish suit with big bubbly eyes on the front and my K-Swiss K’Ruuz. I figured nobody wanted to lose to a guy in a little pink suit, and with my K’Ruuz it would be pretty hard to beat me. One guy, Brandon Laan (6th at the Honolulu Marathon this year!), did outrun me, however, and the swimmer of his relay was Bill Goding (we used to duke it out at swim practice a few nights a week). They beat me, but nobody else did!

[From left: Todd Iacovelli, Stefan Reinke, Ben Collins, Bill Goding Brandon Laan]

From the gun I followed the lead of Todd Iacovelli and Brandon, both very good local runners. I did my best to stay on their heels, and when Brandon put in a surge at mile 1 my legs shouted at me for not having done any speed training since early November. Brandon gained a few meters on us and I pulled ahead of Todd to try to close the gap. I didn’t see Todd again, and about the time I got back in Brandon’s draft he surged again, creating a 20 second gap over the next few minutes, which remained for the rest of the run race.

I crossed the timing mat at the start of the swim in 15 minutes 50 seconds – 23 seconds after Brandon tagged Bill to start the swim. Jumping into the water, I felt like an old rubber tire trying to swim. Running and swimming are different muscle groups, so I didn’t realize how much of an affect one would have on the other. Somehow in triathlon there’s not so obvious a connection between swimming fast and running fast. It took me a long time to start swimming smoothly, my tummy felt like it was dragging on the bottom, my arms couldn’t seem pull any water, and every wave knocked me around like a turd in a toilet bowl (sorry, for some reason that was the first image that came to mind).

Coming back into the finish I finally started feeling a bit stronger. Bill was LONG gone, but my legs were able to kick again, and my arms were able to pull again, so I kicked and pulled as hard as I could and when the bottom came up to meet me I stood up to hear my fans shouting and telling  me to go away. Apparently, in the pre-race briefing when they said, “keep all the buoys on your  right” they meant “keep the two turn buoys on your right, and the final buoy on your left”. So I went back out and swam around the buoy, I lost very little time and it didn’t make a difference at all in the outcome of the race. After a few more people went to the wrong side, however, they sent some volunteers out to direct the swimmers to the other side. All was well.

[Left: Bob Havrilak drove me to the race and took pictures. As you can see, I’m more worried about what’s going on in the pre-race briefing than looking at the shutter. Pictured is Me, Courtenay, Sarah, and Than (Courtenay’s sister and brother)]

Courtenay raced as well, and we were both the first individuals of our respective genders. Go us, right?

On January 17th is a the second race in this 3-race series. Same course, so it would be an excellent way to judge improvement, or get in on the fun if you missed it the first time around. Check out the WSC website (linked above) for entry info.

We headed to the North Shore of Oahu just before Christmas. I was hoping for a week in the “country” with some nice cycling and running through the woods, but by December 26th I was nearly in tears with frustration over poor training opportunities. It seemed to me that, contrary to what one would expect, the kelly-green bumper stickers pleading “keep the country country” and the black and white ones claiming “HE>I” were sure signs of people who would gladly commit vehicular homicide just to chase cyclists off their precious, traffic-ridden, pothole-speckled, shoulder-less highway. The park and cane haul roads I used to run on when I was living at my uncle’s house are now cluttered with “no trespassing” signs and some jerk in a big van drives around threatening people with $500 fines if they pass the gates. And lastly, the pool was closed for lap swim for the entire four day weekend while the ocean was plagued with 40ft waves. For a guy who likes to train all day, life sucked.

[above: My K-Swiss Keahou’s started off sparkling clean before this run…]

In my last post, I mentioned a run… I spent Christmas Day with my cousin 11 miles down the road from Sunset Beach and decided to ignore a few “no trespassing” signs (which became increasingly threatening - “trespassers will be prosecuted” to “Explosives, stay away”, to “if you come in, we’ll shoot you.” – but who would kill me on Christmas?). Shortly after that last sign the road curved into thick Hawaiian jungle with flora so thick I could only see 10 meters max in any direction. All around me were the sounds of a living forest: birds, bugs, wild pigs, and all the delicate rustling of millions of plants dancing in the breeze.

I found a dirt bike trail that wound its way up the side of a mountain, and I figured it would be nice to get away from civilization and let myself relax for a bit. It was a Christmas present to myself. I ran up, and up, and up, and then up some more – stopping at every opening in the thick green jungle to admire the breathtaking views. My Garmin 310xt told me that I was around 1000 ft above sea level, climbing up a ridge into the Hauula Forest Reserve. At one point I was on a portion of the ridge with cliffs on both sides and no trees nearby when a helicopter came right towards me. “Oh man, if they sent a helicopter I must be in really deep trouble,” I thought. It went right over the top of me, then turned around and came right back to me before flying off into the distance. Figuring that if they were looking for me I was already screwed, I kept climbing, unsure of how far the ridge would take me. I was covered in mud from scrambling up dirt cliffs, and slipping down a few gnarly sections of “trail”, and my legs were scratched from pushing through some knee high shrubs, but for the most part it looked like someone had actually cleaned the trail quite recently. Just when I thought there was no possible way for a dirt bike to get through the technical section behind me I saw fresh motorcycle tracks cut into the red dirt. I kept running, and scrambling upwards until the trail suddenly disappeared. A few more strides and I found out why – there was a 200ft vertical drop directly in front of me and on both sides. The next ridge over had a path that kept going into the forest, but there was no way to get to the next ridge without going all the way back down. I was 3.5 miles in, and it had taken me 45 hard minutes to get there – this would have to be the end of my journey.

The helicopter must have been an island tour, because I never saw a single person during my run. Also, on the way out I was determined to find a route to the forest that didn’t involve disobeying so many signs. I took a few random turns, and used the GPS “bread-crumb” feature of my Garmin Forerunner 310xt to make sure I was headed in the right direction (a few times I got completely turned around – it’s really hard to find your way through thick rain-forest like that). Eventually I succeeded. I ended up coming out of a the trail right behind a Mormon church just a couple miles down from my cousin’s house. I immediately downloaded the route to Garmin Connect to show my cousin, then spent a while trying figure out how to embed the Google map into my blog. Apparently that feature will be in the February update of Garmin Connect, which is probably good because posting a map of where I was trespassing onto the internet is not necessarily a great idea.

With this little adventure under my belt, I headed back to the North Shore with a new determination to find my way off the beaten path – those adventures will be the subject of my next few posts.