the first race report of the year.

It's a shame that the first race report of the year couldn't be a bit better, but it all works out as the next one will be great. This was my first pan amaericain championships not as a junior. Boy is it a different ball game, not only was I racing against some of the top u 23 athletes there were also some big names in the elite category which we raced against. One including the like of a soon to be olympian, Jarrod Shoemaker, who did not even win the whole thing. It was deffinetley a pretty cool expereince to be in the same bike pack as some of these guys. Before the race even started I was probably the most nervous I have ever been. There were a few things helping with this, one of the biggest factors was probably the fact that I was hoping to get my U23 worlds spot at this race. Which meant I was suppose to be top 10 against all these big names. On top of this I was looking at the waves which had scared me a little the day before. The waves were probably about 7 feet above the water and crashing down hard, and they expected us to swim past these waves and then continue with the swim. I have never in my whole triathlon career been nervouse about a swim. I knew that for me to have any hope at getting my spot I would need to be in the first pack out of the water. I had joked around that I would be first out of the water, which would be a tough feet, but maybe not impossible. As we were marched down by ranking I started looking around at the guys, they are soo much older and more experienced and..no time to syke yourself out, "number 52, Scott Dagnall," Ok so you probably couldnt tell that he was talking about me as it was one of the funniest pronunciations of my last name I have ever heard, Standing on the line as far right as possible I looked to my left and saw over 70 standing beside me getting ready to attack these 7 foot waves. I turned around to spit one last time before we strated. "Takeyourmarksgo" they slured the words together and before I could even turn back around the race was started. I managed to rush the water and get ahead of a lot of people by the time we hit the First wave.Kaaaaboooom!! The first wave came crashing down right on top of me, time to hold my breath until it passes then pop up. Nope that didnt work, I am now about 15 meters closer to the shore then when that wave hit. I had a rough time with a few more huge waves and managed to get past where the waves were breaking. I hit the first boy the furthest back I have ever been before in triathlon swim. O well now it was go time. I had a really solid swim from there out and managed to swim through most of the pack and all the way up to 4th and still making up ime on the leaders. I finished the swim in 4th place right behind the first 3. sprinted up to transition and a quick transition to catch the lead pack. As I jumped on my bike I felt my seatpost slide right down. I looked down to see that I was basically riding on my frame. As I pedalled away I was careful not to hit my elbows with my knees. Not a good situation to be In. I kept pedaling away and managed to stay with the leaders for the first 3 laps. "Hey I might actually be able to stay in this lead pack this whole thing even with my seat like this," I said to myself. Maybe not, As I came out of the u-turn on the 3rd lap I stood up to accelerate and pop up came my back wheel and I came to a holt, I sat back down and did my best to push the pedals, tried standing again and same thing. As I slowly started loosing thepack I noticed my quick release on my back wheel had come undone. My heart sank as I knew I had to stop to fix this. Before the next turn around I stope and tried to tighten it up which seemed to take forever and I tried to adjust the seat. One swift hit to the seat and yank it up. I hoped back on and the seat slid back down. Eff it, I wanted to try and catch back up to this lead pack, but one vs. 10 not going to happen. O well next pack, I could still run fast off the bike and have a decent race. Nope, my quick release came undone 2 more times and I had to stop both times, my back wheel also eventually started rubbing and everything fell apart. I ended up pullingout of the race at lap 6 after doing everything I could to try to get to the run. Positives, Top 4 out of the water even after getting crushed by the waves, Staying in the lead pack even with my seat being messed and having no power. Also lasty I am very fired up for my next race, and I am ready to kill it. For now I am going back home and giving crush (The specialized) a bunch of tlc.

Coming back into shore..

Heading out past the break..

Reflect

Here we are leaving tucson after beeing here for a month. What I used to see as a small pink house in arizona turned into a place that I have called home for the last month or so. A place that I once was unsure whether or not I would be able to stay turned into a place that I did not want to leave. Looking back now it has been one of the best months of my life. Tuscon was amazing to us, the people are awsome, the weather was great and the memories are priceless. I am Already starting to look forward to the possibility to going back next year. There is no point in me typing forever especially when a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some of the pictures from our adventures. Special thanks to the partners in crime who made it a trip to remember.(stevo, a-russ,and JP).

The U of A pool that we were fortunite enought to swim at.

The boys in fron of the lemmon tree house.

A little carbo loading, 18 inch pizza with 2 inch deep crust split 2 ways? MMM good

The Boys at our favurite ice cream place!! The cookies and cream was key!!

Tucson!!

So I have not posted in forever so i figure now would be a good time. I have been here in Tucson Arizona for the last month or so. I is probably one of the coolest places that I have ever been. The weather is nice, the riding is amazing and the lemmon house crew is wicked. While we have been down here, my training has certainly stepped up a level. It is awsome to get away from some of the destrations back home and get down to training. We have also stepped up or volume quite alot while we have been down here. We leave here in a couple days and now I am starting to reflect on some of the key workouts for each spect.

Swim:

The swimming down here has been a treat! We have been fortunite enough to be swnimming at the U of A aquatic centre. It has been switching back and forth between short course yards and long course meteres. Short course meters has to be one of my favourite things. One of my favourite workouts for swimming has to be when we do 16by 100 fast 50 ez, the 100;s on 1:10. Being short course yards I was able to crush this set, averaging 56 seconds for the100's.Pretty solid.

Bike:

The biking is one of the things that i have loved down her. We have been without a car, so we have had to bike everywhere while down here. Our bike volume while down here has been huge. My favourite wourkouts while down here was when we rode from the house to mt lemmon crushed the lemmon climb and then rode home. It ussually takes just under an hour to get to lemmon or back and then lemmon is just under 2 hours up and 45 minutes down, you do the math. The best part was that was after a swim in the morning, and we did this more then once.

Running:

our running has been pretty simular to home, excpt it is after all these other huge workouts. My favourie run whiledown here was just the other day when we went to the University track and did our 1km repeats. Not only was the track the nicest i have ever seen, but I also crushed 4 of them averaging 3:02's.

Everthing has been amazing down here, I hope we are lucky enough to come here again. Thanks to the mom and dad for helping me get down here!!! I will post pics soon, but my battery is about to die, but here is one for now.

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The boys at the U of A track