Stream of Endurance Consciousness

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting a lot here (other than not having enough time) is that I don’t think people want to read just another race report and quite honestly this sport is selfish enough so the last thing I need to do is talk more about myself. So basically the reason I haven’t been posting boils down to a lack of creativity on my part. I can’t seem to put together a post that I think people will enjoy. At any rate here’s my attempt at something different.

First off you’ve got to check out my buddy I ran x-c with in college. It’s Tellman Knudson and he is a total bad ass. He’s running across the country…barefoot!!! He’s raising money for homeless youth. Runtellmanrun


Anyhow I’ve been doing a lot of local races and fitness has been progressing quite well. The key principals we use at QT2 systems continue to pay off with PRs and either overall wins or high overall finishes. I’ve been writing “Whitfield” on my hand for all races lately. Check this video out and you’ll know why. If you saw triathlon at the Beijing Olympics you saw how Whitfield was running in a select lead group on the run. He proceeded to get dropped and then mentally pulled himself back up to the group. This happened several times. The last time he made it back into the group he then stuck it to them with an amazing sprint and got the silver medal. Well if you saw that race and liked it—you’ve really got to see this one. The same things happened at the Des Moines ITU world cup with $200k on the line. The lead group on the run had almost the same players but with an even better outcome than Beijing. The mental toughness it took for Simon to pull it together like that amidst extreme suffering is truly inspirational to me.

Whitfield-Des Moines ITU


Here’s the video –it’s pretty short. You have to click Hy Vee and then click the video at the top. It doesn’t show how Simon got dropped and pulled himself back in but the long sprint finish at the end is amazing.

Simon is also Canadian and I happen to be married to a Canadian (and a very proud one at that—read-she has the Canadian flag tattooed on her quad). Simon is a true hero of our sport and an inspiration to everyone. You know what he said when he won $200k at that Des Moines race? Now I can buy my daughter that fancy doll house she wants!! He’s the man!!

That’s all I have for you today—Take care, train smart, recover well and repeat