This week I reached an agreement with Racermate, makers of Computrainer, for sponsorship starting in 2012. I’ve been training on a Computrainer for a couple of years now, so the partnership is a natural fit. The hard work that’s taken me from an average cyclist to Hy-Vee prime winning cyclist has been overwhelmingly indoors on a Computrainer. In the past I’ve used only the basic functions of the Computrainer, but I’m looking forward to working with Raermate to laern how to use features like Spinscan pedal stroke analysis, real course simulations, and customized workouts. By maximizing my use of indoor power training I’m hoping I can reach a new level of cycling ability next year. Booyah!

[Above: Ben Collins and Mark Fretta riding Computrainers in the Olympic Training Center’s Triathlon Training Room (a.k.a “the basement”)]

After Guatape I flew straight to Seattle. It’s always hard going home during the season, or anytime really. Whenever I travel someplace for an extended period of time I try to get into a training routine as quickly as possible. (The routine makes training take less time, you have a time for each workout set, you know where to run and where to swim and you have a typical bike course, so the day goes more smoothly and you miss fewer workouts than if you’re constantly looking for lap swim, looking for a new run route and trying to find a group to ride with.) But in Seattle there are so many variables that get in the way of being able to jump into a routine that I end up having to adjust my schedule for each individual day. First, I’m only home a couple times this year, so I need to see the dentist, see my friends, spend time with my 18 month old nephew, spend time with my mom, my dad, my friends, visit my favorite bike shops… And then there’s the issue of transportation. My parents have two cars, mine is in Colorado, so if they’re gone all day I’m stuck at home, which isn’t exactly close to anything. (My parents moved out of the city right before I went to college. I hate the suburbs.) The bike trail is closed for reconstruction by my house as well, which means there are no soft surfaces to run on from my parent’s house – I need a car to get to the state park. What I’m getting at is that visiting home is a cluster*&^% of compounding logistical problems that make it really hard to settle into any kind of routine. So I don’t, and it always ends up being a great time.

My first day in Seattle was the quietest. Just my parents and myself. My sister and brother-in-law (BIL) were working and the nephew was in daycare (they all live in the same house), so I was able to sleep in, do some light training and then head to swim practice with Cascade Swim Club. It was great. Then next day was also quiet, except the nephew was at home with my mom, and I had to finish training super early because my massage therapist refuses to make an appointment after 3pm (he’s good enough that I don’t really care, but he’s also busy enough that I won’t tell you his name unless you promise not to schedule while I’m in town). It was the Thursday before the Monroe Pan American Cup that all hell broke loose. My aunt and uncle came into town with my two cousins, and Tommy Zaferes arrived and was staying with my family for the Monroe race. Rory and Mojdeh also came over to see me, as they just moved to Seattle from Boulder and it had been over a month since I’d been able to visit them. So just to clarify, I was trying to rest and prepare for an ITU continental cup with seven adults, two teenagers, and an 18 month old child living under the same roof and two very close friends making frequent visits, and everyone seeming bummed when I skipped out on the party for a swim/bike/run. It was awesome.

The first day with everyone in the house my cousin, Boomer, came with Tommy and me to the state park for a run. I thought it would be a learning experience for a 17-year-old surfer from Hawaii to try to hang with us, even for an easy run, and it was. Boomer was shocked when we told him that in the entire triathlon we don’t ever stop, walk, or otherwise take a breather. My other cousin, Caitie, was smarter and stayed home.

The day before Monroe the beautiful clear weather Seattle had experienced my first few days back changed and became grey rainy crud. It finally felt like home. Tommy and I did a course preview and attended the prerace meeting where, I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see that Hunter Kemper was actually present. Hunter’s been having such a great season, I thought he’d stick to world cups and the Lifetime series. It was good to see him though, as I feel like I learn a little from every race I do with him. He just exudes experience. Everyone in the field watches Hunter when he races, and Hunter – even as a marked man – is always in the right place at the right time.

Everyone competing in Monroe seemed to agree that for a first year race it was done incredibly well. The course, while boring, was safe and quite spectator friendly. The swim was in a small lake that could have been confused for a flooded drainage ditch (only with clean water), the bike ride took us out and back on the main road along side the lake and featured three 180s and two 90 degree turns on every pancake flat lap, the run – also flat – was four laps on a paved path around the lake that totaled 10.4 kilometers. It was not a course for breakaways. The one unknown going into the race was the quality of the swim field. There were more people I would classify as “super swimmers” in Monroe than any other race I’ve done. Zaferes, McClarty, McCartney, Darling, and Bird are all people who routinely win swim primes over the slightly slower – though often better on land – swimmers like Potts, Dye, and Kemper. Even with a wetsuit we all knew it would be tough to keep up with those guys.

The swim started off fast. Tommy helped me improve my beach starts by having me practice over and over the day before the race, so I was able to get a pretty good leap off the line. I broke out and was almost instantly in third behind Zaferes and McClarty. I stayed right there with only Bird passing me in the first lap. McCartney got ahead at some point and Tommy and I lost those guys feet and led in a large pack about 20 seconds down from the three leaders. Tommy had a terrible transition and lost the lead group, Hunter was right next to me out of the water and with his help we instantly caught the super swimmers within a kilometer from T1. The lead pack became 12 guys with a small lead over the next pack of five that was mainly guys who struggled getting off their wetsuits. 12 to 5 is not really an even race and our lead grew significantly without any of us really pushing that hard. There were a few feeble attempts to get away, but on that course it would have taken a superhero, or someone that nobody cared about (perhaps a wooden leg?) to get away. I followed Hunter’s lead. He and I have talked a little about working together, so I asked if he wanted to try anything, but he confirmed that it was smartest just to wait. I still spent my share of energy at the front. I hate leaches. So I felt good about taking the lead into T2 next to Hunter. We racked and I popped on my KRuuz way faster than Kemper (take that old man!) so I had the edge on the field starting the run. Rory was there wearing his “I [heart] BC” t-shirt that my buddy Tai made for us, and as I started the run with Hunter he was yelling “GO BEN, STAY WITH HIM, STAY WITH HIM, STAY WITH HIM!!!!” I tried to stay with Hunter as he came by me, I tried as hard as I could to run as fast as he was. I’m sure I was going well beyond any speed I’ve maintained in a workout, and I could only hang for 400 meters. After that I just tried to keep the gap from growing too rapidly, and in doing so I put about 10 seconds onto a group of four runners by the second kilometer. I was now being hunted by a pack and I was out in the wind by myself. I kept running, for once I was actually in the race, I had put down the start speed I didn’t think I had and it put me in position to do what I love: RACE!!! At the end of the first lap that group of six lost three people to the penalty board (Personally I think the ITU should stop changing the sport through the advent of new penalty-worthy rules and let the sport change through allowance of tactics like what the Brits did at the Euro Championships this year.) but I was gaining ground on them ever so slowly. On the second lap I had 20 seconds, on the third it was 25, but the group was only two. On the fourth lap Andrew Russell dropped the rest of them and closed the gap on me to just under 20 seconds. All the while, we all lost over two minutes to Kemper. I finished second with Andrew behind me for third.

At the finish I was greeted by a massive group of friends and family and an asthma attack that almost caused me to pass out. I’m not sure how I made it through the final lap without being able to breath, but I was certainly glad the EMTs were at the finish line to hold me up and give me oxygen until I could breath normally. I’ve never had an asthma attack like that before, but now that I have I feel like I’m officially past the point of no return on the nerd spectrum. Seriously, I wear glasses, I’m good at math and science and now I need an inhaler? Where’s my calculator watch? Oh wait; I have one with GPS instead.

The award ceremony was also a highlight thanks to all the supporters present. When I stood up on the podium a large segment of the crowd started chanting, “COLLINS, COLLINS, COLLINS…” When Hunter stood up there was polite clapping, and after it quieted down he turned to my fan section and asked, “where’s my cheer for first?” To which they responded, “COLLINS, COLLINS, COLLINS!” He can run two minutes faster, but he can’t win the hometown crowd.

Tomorrow I race the Edmonton World Cup. I’m here with my parents, and I’m hoping I can convince all of Paula Findlay’s hometown friends to come cheer for me. I wonder if they have t-shirts to show their support? Maybe they could call themselves the “PF-gang”.

Click the thumbnails below for more pics from Monroe. A HUGE thanks to my BIL, Matthew Lamb, for being my star photographer at the event. All the photos are from him.

Since I’ve arrived in Japan there hasn’t been much going on. I sleep a lot. I eat when I should. I train as much as I need to. The rest of the time I’ve just been sitting around, chatting with people, refreshing my inbox to see if the ITU has finally made their decision of whether or not to hold the Yokohama World Championship race in four weeks, or if USA Triathlon has decided yet if they’ll be sending me to the Monterrey World Cup in just three. It’s low stress to the extreme, which is a really nice change of pace from filling out insurance claims, maxing out credit cards, and the other chores of post-theft reestablishment of stuff.

My favorite part of being in Ishigaki is definitely the cycling. The people are quite friendly, and the traffic is light. The roads are pristine and the scenery is endlessly engrossing. My first ride on Wednesday reminded me that I had intended to stay an extra day this year so that I could be a tourist. I’ve been about a third of the way around the island, and I really want to see the rest of it, but I let my budget decide my return date so the tourism will have to wait until next year.

There has been a bit of translational humor, which can almost be expected in a place like Japan where the alphabet and language is so different from English. Like when Steve Sexton and I asked the front desk where we could find a simple meal for relatively little cash they handed us their “English” map of the town and pointed to a place called “Banira Deri”. I told Steve that it was probably a deli (with an ‘L’), which he laughed at and I expected to be true. Unfortunately, most of the landmarks on the English map did not have English signs, so it was hard to identify whether places like “Banana Café” we were supposed to pass were really there. When we did arrive to the street where the “Banira Deri” was supposed to be we found two restaurants – both looked appealing – but neither with the sign we were looking for. The first one had a sign in English, but since it didn’t match our map we assumed it was the second store. It was after browsing both menus that I looked up at the first sign and realized that “Banira Deri” was a double translation of “Vanilla Deli” (first to Japanese characters, then back to English). The food was great.

We swim in a 50m pool at the Ishigaki Sports complex, which also boasts a huge gym, a baseball field and a track and field center. The only thing missing is a velodrome. This is where I did all of my swimming the past few days and most of my running. I’m sure there are plenty of dirt paths on this island, but I haven’t found them, so I just lingered around the track to enjoy the grass and soft surface.

Aside from the food – which has been low protein, high-carb with a very un-western palate – and the training, I’ve been a pretty lame tourist. I figured out how to watch Netflix’s live stream by using a proxy server back home (it won’t stream to IPs outside the US), which has provided some entertainment. I haven’t figured out how to get USAT’s Normatec to work without the voltage converter (they bought a 220 volt Norma, so places like Japan and the United States require us to use a voltage converter to step it up from 110 volts) that was left at home thinking it wouldn’t be needed in Australia last week.

As far as the race goes, I’m excited. We came a long way for this, so I’m not leaving anything on the course. Besides, I have some pent up energy from my anticlimactic participatory experience last weekend at South Beach. I’ll take luck, but all I really need to do (in the crass words of Rory) is “not [mess] up.”

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After the race last weekend USAT invited all of the high-performance athletes to participate in a two day cycling skills clinic. Before the clinic I heard a lot of people voicing concerns that our time would not be spent as valuably as if we were just training as normal, but by the end of the first day I think everyone was glad to be part of the camp.

Our instructor, Michael Heitz, is one of those intuitive coaches who can change his queues based on how individual people are responding. The day started off in the classroom discussing the importance of riding defensively, and having a box of tricks to pull out in an instant when needed. What do you do when you cross wheels with someone? How do you get around a corner in the rain? How do you get back upright if your wheels are slipping? Can you get around a corner with your shoulder touching the person next to you? Michael wanted to make sure we knew what to do in all those situations.

We headed out to the parking lot and learned a few drills. We learned to touch the ground while riding, how to hang our butts down by the rear break, how to pedal through turns, and how to ride a slalom course with one hand on the back of the person next to us. Later, we got on a soccer field and practiced bumping tires, then Jarrod showed me how to dismount into T2 by pulling my foot through. In the past I’ve stubbed my toe trying that method, but once I got the hang of it I can see why most of the guys prefer it. You hit the ground more upright and can start running without falling forward onto the handlebars. If you watch the video I posted a few weeks ago, you can see what I mean, when I dismount my first leg to hit the ground is behind me, so my weight goes forward onto my handle bars until my feet catch up to the rest of my body. By pulling that leg forward (between the pedal leg and the bike) you can start with your foot under your body and get your hand right to your saddle after the dismount.

The second day we did more slalom, more bumping, pushing with our shoulders, plus a group ride to work on pace lining. That was all fun, but the best part of the clinic was at the end when we went back to the grass for a game that Michael calls Trash Ball. It goes like this: Two teams, both line up at one end of the field. Michael has a Nerf ball that he tosses into the middle of the field, and we all charge toward it. We have to pick it up off the ground, pass it to our teammates (we weren’t allowed to hold the ball for more than three seconds at a time) and then drop it in the trash bin to score. Sounds simple, but we weren’t allow to unclip, and we could only shove each other with our shoulders (no arm pushing). At the start of the game, only two of us could even reach down far enough to pick up the ball, but by the end we were all sprinting after the ball, leaning against each other to block, grabbing the ball, and gently manhandling our bikes to keep the other team away from the ball so we could score. It was the capstone to what was the most fun I’ve ever had in triathlon training.

USA Triathlon did a great job of organizing the camp, and I really think what we learned will help us in races. Like I said after my 5th crash of last season, I either need to ride less aggressively or get better at riding aggressively. This type of clinic is definitely going to help with the latter. Thanks USAT!

Slowtwitch says I’m a “Man with style”! Check out the interview I did this week by clicking here.

And yes, the last picture shown in the interview (and the one above) was definitely taken specifically for the interview, including the afro picking I did beforehand.

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I finished my homework and started writing about my last two weeks in Mexico. In the meantime, here’s a video that Rory put together. This is how you train when you’re missing skin on a quarter of your back and have to race again in a week. More on how I lost all that skin when I post again.

Woah! It’s been three weeks since Worlds, and SO much has happened. I’m back in Colorado and finishing up what is probably the last little training block of 2010, getting ready for Huatulco and Puerto Vallarta (World Cup and Continental Championships, respectively), catching up on schoolwork (I guess if I wasn’t behind it’s not really catching up, but that’s how it feels), and trying to keep focus for just a few more weeks (meaning I’m NOT thinking about all the awesome things I’m going to do in the off-season… maybe a trip to Hawaii for a month or two, if I take a trip to Europe I’ll be Platinum Elite on Continental Airlines – that could be fun – somehow I need to get my cross country skis to Colorado, so maybe I’ll go back to Seattle for a little while… okay, I’m NOT thinking about this yet!)

After Worlds I felt pretty terrible until a few days ago. I trained right through the fatigue, knowing that it was mainly just jet lag, and was hoping for a miracle at Nationals in Tuscaloosa last weekend. The miracle happened in the form of a crash and a blown tire within the first minute of the bike. In other word, there was not a miracle. By the time I got to the wheel pit and changed tires I was out of the race, so I caught up with a small group of U23 athletes and turned the day into a fun workout. Once the pressure was off, I managed to have a much better time than most of the guys in the front pack. Steve Sexton, for instance, had a temperature of 107 degrees when he crossed the finish line – WOAH!! Maybe in Tuscaloosa one should wear their ice vest during the race, not just before.

So I came back from Tuscaloosa empty handed. I dropped out after a hard 5k run in order to save my legs for the bigger races coming up.

Back in Colorado… There’s really not much going on here. I spent a few days with Rory and Mojdeh in Boulder, and got a bike fit from Retul on my new Orbea Orca road bike frame. That bike is awesome! I really wanted to get some exposure for Orbea at Nationals (it’s going to be on Verses 10/14), but I’ll have to get my TV time at another race. The bike deserves a blog post of its own, so I’ll stop here and save more for another post.

The past two weeks I’ve done sessions in the lab with an Oxygen mask. I’m not sure the O2 really allows me to go much harder, but it certainly makes my recovery faster. I did a bike/run workout both times. The numbers were good, but what surprised me was how I felt the next day – eager to hit it again!

That’s the new Blue Seventy endurance race kit. It’s amazing! Doesn’t restrict breathing, swimmable, tight around the mid-section (other suits bag up on me), and quite breathable. Plus it’s white and meshy in the back, which is great for summer races.

I just wish running with a mask and tube on a treadmill were a little more natural…

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 another video from the San Francisco Pan-America Cup. It shows the actual racing!

Not much else is going on here in London. We’re training in a 30.3m pool (33.3yards) which has made swim practice rather interesting: “Alright, 4×60.6 on a minute, followed by 4×90.9 on 1:15 right into a 363.6 on 5 minutes…” I’ve nearly died in training rides, and will likely stay on the trainer indoors the rest of the trip (except for the race of course), and the running here is littered with landmarks, statues, and plenty of other things to look at. It’s pretty fun.