NerdFest2013. If you thought training was tough try sitting through this...

June 2:  Made it to Louisville KY for NerdFest2013 aka The North American Catalysis Society biennial meeting.  I caught a direct flight from the Dallas ITU race to Louisville to minimize travel time and since I got there so early, I built my bike and went out for a ride!  Absolutely beautiful riding in KY.  Humidity was delicious, I got slimy and sweaty on the ride, and everything smelled so green and fresh.  Ahh I love the south.  Sensual.

But of course I was there on 'work' so I wasnt going to have much time to train.  The conference (The North American Catalysis Meeting) is the top catalysis conference in the word, catalysis being the branch of chemical engineering that I study.  The research we do involves studying materials (catalysts) which make chemical reactions happen (ie. petrochemical, oil company, renewable energy research).  I think there were about 1500 people at the conference about half of which are grad students and the rest professors and researchers from around the world.

Sunday night was the opening reception at Churchill Downs, the venue of the Kentucky Derby, and this being a pretty well funded conference (imagine every petrochemical/oil company ever trying to get involved) it was super classy.  Here is 'Mine that Bird,' the 2009 derby winner who recently switched to soccer.

They had just about every type of Bourbon imaginable (this being KY).  Since I know literally nothing about alcohol it fell flat on me but had to try this one because it was named after my favorite person ever, Thomas Jefferson.  One sip and I nearly choked to death.  Does that mean its good?

Mark Twain however was apparently a fan: "If I cannot drink bourbon and smoke cigars in heaven than I shall not go." Doesnt exactly sound like my life.

Here is a panorama of the 'Hat room'

Of course the food was also delicious.  Sidenote: it was funny watching all these sedentary 60yro nerdy engineers shovel down pastries all week at every break session.

Here are some pictures of the outside of Churchill Downs.  The three people are the three other students from my lab at Colorado.  Simon, Rhea, and Matt.

And finally the conference started...

Each day there were presentations from 8am to 8pm (6 always going on at the same time that you had to choose from), so if you went to everything it was pretty mind numbing.  The first day was pretty hard core, I presented Monday afternoon, but honestly after that it wasnt that bad.  I was still able to get out Tuesday night for another bike ride!  Beautiful southern greenery.

I won a Kokes Award for the conference which paid for my travel and hotel and stuff for the week and one of the perks was that Tuesday night we got a paddle boat ride on the Ohio River.

I still managed to get some swimming and running in either early in the day or as a break from some of the sessions.  I wouldnt ever want to live in Louisville, but it was a pretty cool place to hang out for a week. Made it back to Boulder Friday afternoon just in time for a sick awesome weekend with roommate Ginna's family!

Next up is St Louis 5150 June 28th or so.  Its gonna be another back to back to back with that, then my undergrad friends Todd and Amara getting married in Charlottesville VA and then the Boulder Peak.

Now I can finally enjoy my first weekend of summer!

Rudy

YOLO in big D.

Race #3 in 3 weeks.  June 1 in Dallas TX.

Headed down to Dallas Thursday night for the Pan Am Cup ITU draft legal race.  The draft legal format isn't exactly the best for me since I am strongest at biking, but I was again impressed (this being my second race) with the quality of race setup, the ease of registration, the fact that it was so freakin easy to get a pre-race swim and didnt require driving all over the city looking for a pool, etc.

The team that I am on (Off the Front Multisport) is funded this year by Team Psycho and the focus of the team is draft legal racing.  SO, I put this one one the schedule.  Plus, I got to stay with a bunch of them at the race!  Stephen (heroic team director), his girlfriend (cooler than him), Jake Shoemaker (voluble sidekick), Chelsea Burns (emerging star/sweetheart), Jess Broderick (tri-gossip library).  I also got to see my bud Ryan Bice who I hadnt seen in ages!

Not gonna lie, it was awesome to fly in to Dallas and breathe in the hot humid air.  Its so delicious.  Only 4 days after New Orleans I was experiencing withdraw. 

The day before went so smoothly I spent the entire afternoon reading in the lobby and eavesdropping on the USAT development meeting (thats them in the picture).  They are charged with developing collegiate runners and swimmers into draft legal superstars, including some of my friends.  As far as I understand, they are naturally better at injuring people, so maybe its a real blessing that I was never good enough for them.

Here is the pre-race meeting later that night.

In all, the race prep was great.  I had my 3rd box of kroger brand chocolate cheerios for my 3rd straight race (though I had to ration it this time since I almost ate the whole thing on the plane Thursday).  Fortunately I had my sleeve of pre-race oreos to top off a large pizza and sizeable dose of Stephen's rhetoric.

OH, AND they had madagascar3 on TV.  Freakin amazing movie.  It was the makings of a good weekend.

Its honestly rather hilarious, these draft legal races.  I have done two and each has been just loaded with drama and stories and people hatin on other people.  Its nuts.  The non-drafting 5150 races are boring in comparison--here there are hot athletic chicks everywhere--makes me understand why the olympics is purportedly such a party.

Anyway, I slept in on race day (another perk to add to the list) since the guys race wasnt until 12pm.  I went read a bit and went down to watch the girls bike and then warm up.

In the morning the weather was overcast (as the pictures sorta show) but supposedly Zeus was pissed off and it was supposed to start lightning hailing and blowing at about 12...so I get back from my bike ride warm up and the race people are like yeah we are moving up the start 30 minutes.  Warm up fail.

Funny side note: at the start Manny Huerta was wearing #1 and had PUR on his suit.  The announcer goes "and Manny Huerta from Peru."  PUR is actually Puerto Rico, but the point is that Manny is from Cuba and raced for the US in the olympics last year...none of which makes any sense.

The swim was about what I expected.  I felt fine but got literally drowned.  Some races I swim so hard that I contemplate whether I am drowning (which feels normal after doing swim practices with Jane Scott), but in this race, I wasnt swimming hard...I was just drowning.  Maybe one of these times I will figure it out, but it seems like I would be better off to take up self-water boarding and save the travel money.  Honestly, I just need to suck it up and swim faster at the start.

Anyway, I think I was about 3rd pack out on the bike and was with my teammate Jake who is our super runner extraordinaire.  The plan had been that if we were in the same group, I would bike hard to put him in a good position.  This sounds strategic, but its not.  Our group pretty much sucked at biking; I got bored and ended up riding on the front to stave off daydreaming.  Just like my last DL race, the bike ride was pretty darn useless except for the added value of losing time to the first group...yay...I guess I didnt bike hard enough.

Yeah then we hit the run and everyone literally sprinted off at like 4:40 pace.  I was probably 30th of 30 from our bike group.  But, I just ran what felt like a sustainable pace and remember thinking, damn I would be impressed if they held that.  It was hot as hansel on the run (the sun literally came out halfway through the race--the weather guys were wrong...surprise) and by mile 4 people were wilting like pansies and running with worse posture than my grandpa.  I'd say in that last lap or two I passed like 15 guys and ended up finishing about 14th or so?  I havent seen any results, but probably it was probably a pretty good race for me.

Three sentence summary:
My swimming has improved but I still got drowned.
Biking is useless.
Run was hot as balls.
Synopsis: ITU guys are fast but not tough.  I am bad at ITU.

Oh yeah I had red bull on the bike ride again (mixed 50:50 with water) and it was flippin delicious.  When I went to collect my bike after the race it had sprouted wings.

The day got better when I had 4x muffins (on sale at this bakery place) and completed a mind numbing puzzle in the froyo store.

Besides that, friend Ryan Bice attempted to interact with Dallas infrastructure.

Another fun weekend.  Direct flight Monday morning to...Louisville KY.  What?  NerdFest2013.  The North American Catalysis Conference from Sunday to Friday.  Guaranteed to blow your mind...and your training...that post coming next.

Rudy

New Orleans 5150

Last weekend the tri thing took me to New Orleans (pronounced Naw lens).  Crawfish ya'll

I was lucky to be able to stay with the same homestay as last year Brian who lives right next to Tulane and Loyola just off of St. Charles st.  To be honest, last year (when I was in NO for this race) I was not that impressed with the city.  It's kinda dirty and pretty much everything related to infrastructure is literally crumbling.  (I still wonder how people think it is safe to live below the level of the mississippi river.  I took these pictures while biking on the levee and as you can see the river is pretty high but what I didnt show is that the road is like 10-20ft lower than the level of the river...that seems unsafe)

Anyway, I think this year I took the time to see some of the older architecture and fixed up victorian houses which make for a charming atmosphere.  It might also be that the longer I stay away from the humid climate of the east coast, the more I miss it.  Spring smells so good out there.  The air is so thick and rich.  Here is a picture of St Charles from my bike ride and a panorama of Loyola from St Charles st.

I got in Friday night to NO and my brother Augie texted me from VA saying that our friends the Kings were in NO for Memorial Day weekend!  Now, the King family tends to party hard so I was on my guard knowing I had to race Sunday.  I skipped dinner with them at a restaurant my homestay called "a deep fried heart attack" (basically all new orleans food) but was able to meet up with them later at a jazz bar on Frenchman st--

This is Mrs King with a run of beer...need I say more?

Me with the Kings--Carter to my right was my brother Augie's roommate at UVA this past year.

I cant say I participated in the debauchery (surprise) but it was fun to see a bit more of the city.  Sidenote: I always wonder why I dont see spinners on cars anymore, but being down south I realized its because the city of New Orleans probably bought out the entire market (and also possibly because I live in WASP central aka. Boulder) --> if you dont know what spinners are, watch the video...the lyrics do a good explanation... "I'm ridin spinners, they dont stop"--> I saw a LOT of them this weekend and not gonna lie they look pretty cool in real life (before you realize how ridiculous they are).

After last week's cancelled swim and all around disaster, the weather in NO looked pretty good.  I didnt feel so great on the swim for some reason...kinda flat...which stinks since I have been working so hard on it, but I still swam pretty well and I know I am gonna get a super breakout swim somewhere in here.

The bike and run went great really, I cant complain.  I came out of the water with David Thompson (DT) and Jordan Jones, both great bikers and we rode pretty much the whole way together slowly catching and passing the field.  I thought about passing DT a couple times but I thought, nah, I know he is a good biker so if I stay with him I will have a good ride and should be able to run well.  Sidenote: it was also the first race I had a red bull in my water bottle diluted 50:50 with water and I actually really liked it!  Delicious.  Whoda thought.  And inspiring too....if only I were as cool as these guys maybe I could get sponsored by them...

Usually in races I honestly dont expect to do that well and hitting the run I was thinking meh, I hope I can just hold steady at my pace.  The last mile was pretty tough--it was starting to enter death breathing mode and was feeling like I might black out at any second (typical for me on the run) but I managed to hold on and finish 4th again!

Besides the red bull, I think one of the reasons I raced well was that I had this song stuck in my head the entire weekend and literally non-stop throughout the race.  I wish I were as suave as JT.  Plus he married Jessica Biel.  Smokin hot.

Anyway I think thats all I got.  This weekend is Dallas.  3x weekends in a row of racing, whew!  Then straight from Dallas to a catalysis conference in Louisville KY for the week.  Whoohoo, nerd central.

Rudy

A wonderful weekend in Kansas

Just kidding, it was pretty miserable.

I drove with some friends to Lawrence KS for the 5150 last Sunday.  Everything seemed to be going well; I had some chocolate cheerios and Veronica (girl I rode with) had made some freakin awesome chocolate chip banana bread.   Well then about an hour out of Lawrence we got caught in a huge wreck on I70 that backed up traffic in both directions--and when we finally got through that...the car broke down...literally right next to the wreck.  So here we are on the side of the road on Friday evening.  Any tow trucks still on duty are picking up the pieces of this big ass car wreck next to us, not to mention the fact that their '3 hour estimate' doesnt take into account the fact that traffic is backed up each way.

After nearly sweating to death on the side of the road, running out of water, and contemplating drinking my own urine (or worse, that can of coconut water), I was rescued by Michelle and Jeanni who were driving to the race too and were behind us.  Will and Veronica voted me off the island so I got the free ride to Lawrence...but Will and V got the last laugh... we got stuck in more traffic (another accident) and they got to a hotel in Tulsa (where the car got fixed) long before we got in.

Naturally it was graduation weekend in Lawrence (University of Kansas) so every hotel was booked to the max and we were in the circa 1946 Rodeway Inn.  I had to switch rooms twice (because in one the carpet was soaked and the second the tv didnt work); I was worried about the roof collapsing, but when I saw they had a Disney channel I was quickly distracted by Madagascar3 which is flippin incredible! btw.

Ok, so anyway, got some sleep and biked all over town with friend and fellow pro Jeanni and met up with the others for some pre-race swimming in the lake.  (Unfortunately, not nude).

Chilled out and watched Shark Tale on that disney channel (also awesome) and my roommates finally made it with a fixed car!

They were tired so we went to pick up some pizza (to keep it easy) and whoda thought, there was Rudy's pizza shop!  Unfortunately the pizza wasnt that good but I still packed down a whole large one.

So race day basically sucked.  It was like a Kansas hurricane/tornado/disaster.  Lightning was forking out of the sky and it was raining sideways and freezing cold. The race was delayed 30minutes and the swim was cancelled (which ok this was about the most annoying thing that cold have happened; I mean I have been working on my swim all winter and I just wanted to see if I could make the front pack. Denied.)  The bike was a TT start and I got a flat like a minute before we were supposed to start.  The bike support guys had peaced out about 30min before because of the weather and I was about ready to just accept the weekend as a total failure, but friend Michelle had just decided to not start and she loaned me her wheel just in the nick of time!  Back in business I went off.  There were only 15second gaps between the pros (way too small)...blah blah blah...groups formed pretty quickly, but I was towards the front and was able to hold off the main group of guys until the run (hilly tough course btw).  I ran fine (it got hot and sunny towards the end actually) and finished 4th.  Meh, cant complain; the race was 'fine' but nothing special.  Here is the guys podium.  Pretty nice day by the end, right?

After that I ate a loaf of bread and a 16oz container of cottage cheese (the rudy special) and we drove back to Boulder without the car breaking down (thank you baby jesus).

I am really excited to finally swim in a race!  Maybe this weekend at 5150 New Orleans?  Didnt have too wait long...

Rudy

Warm weather is "just around the corner"

Flatirons Athletic Club, the year-round outdoor pool that I swim at, there is this stupid sign that says "Warm weather is just around the corner," but it has literally snowed 14 inches every Tuesday for the last month.  Tomorrow is Tuesday and it is the first time since March that there isnt a forecast of snow.  I'm not holding my breath though.

To make things worse, the pool heater has been "breaking" like 2x a week for the last month.  I say "breaking" because after about 2 weeks of this nonsense (showing up to the pool almost every other day and hearing that the water is 72) makes me think that the heater didnt just "break" again, in fact it has just been straight up "broken" for about the last 6 weeks and somebody keeps putting band aids on the heater.

The reason I am getting tired of this (apart from having to swim in my wetsuit 2-3times per week) is that there is this awful sign on the way out to the pool that says "warm weather is just around the corner."  If they had put it up last week that would be one thing, but its been there since February and I am about ready to burn it down.

I suppose one thing I cant complain about is that the snow melts in about 2 days and the weekends have been relatively beautiful.  Nice enough even to ride out through Estes Park CO with some friends each of the last two weekends.

My training has been going well, and now that summer is upon us, its only going to get better!  I took my environmental law final last Monday (it was nuts; I was at such an advantage having only to take one law class as compared to my law classmates; there is just so much information to know and read) but anyway, thats over, so I can subtract 6+ hrs a week of reading from my schedule. ALSO, I passed my comprehensive exam (whew) about 2 weeks ago; its a major milestone in the PhD which most students complete about 6months to a year before defending their PhD.  Now that exam was brutal.  Its a 30minute presentation on research to date (which went really well) but then 90 minutes of questions where you just get grilled by the committee.  Its something of a rite of passage and although I thought I was well-prepared, they sure made it tough.  I dont ever need to do that again.

So, now that those things are over, I am cruising into the summer.  All the undergrads are finishing finals and moving out; soon Boulder will be a nice quite town.  My next race is in 2x weeks; the KC5150 followed by the New Orleans 5150 and Dallas.  Its gonna get real, real soon.

In the mean time, I got some new music to keep me occupied.  Cant wait to start riding the dirt roads up in the mountains again!  I KNOW spring has to be "just around the corner."  I cant wait for the trees and plants to start blooming.

Rudy

Collegiate Nationals 2013 and stuffaluffagus

Last weekend was collegiate nats, and since it was so close--Tempe AZ--and my parents and brother were going to be there, I decided to fly down for the weekend and do a small race on Sunday just for fun.  It was the first time in my triathlon career not racing Nats which seems kinda sad, but I knew it was time to move on this year and I am glad I did.  So, in all honesty, I was perfectly content to just watch this year.

And holy smokes was it exciting! Here is the swim taking off in Tempe Town Lake:

I was cheering my head off for the CU guys.  It was exciting to watch them dominate but it was exceptionally impressive to watch Ben Kanute just have his way with the field after winning the draft legal race the day before. 

Here is Davide coming out of the water wearing my old Xterra wetsuit!  It got to experience one more nationals.  Davide went on to crush it for about 7th overall.

 Here is my boy Chris Braden aka Chris B Real coming through on the bike course:

And here is my Brother (actually my brother, who races for UVA) Augie after the finish.

AND in the girls race, new CU student and a friend of mine Michelle Mehnert ran away with the womens title by over a minute!  She was untouchable.  Also, CU ended up winning the overall team title for the 4th straight year.

Besides that my race was fun; not much to report after the excitement from Saturday.

While I was in Phoenix, my parents and I went and toured Frank Loyd Wright's winter home at Taliesin West.  It was a pretty cool house--very modern--I think it seems less impressive on the surface because it was built in a style that is popular today.  Whats amazing is that he did it 80 years ago essentially ushering in the current era of contemporary architecture. (We werent allowed to take pictures of the inside)

Great to see the family, watch my brother race, and my friends from CU dominate.  I flew home to boulder just in time for a massive snowstorm--about the 4th one this month.  We are due for more tomorrow too!  When will it end. (Roommate Ginna scraping off her car)

My car.  Buried.  I think the same day it was like 85 back home in Virginia.

Oh yeah it was a busy week too.  Among other adventures I got to see Band of Horses in concert at the Boulder Theater with Ginna.  Amazing concert. I had an incredible vantage point too.  Got some sweet pictures. It was a good cultural experience too--it always seems like all these weird people go to concerts.

I also just went to Provo last week for a catalysis conference at BYU (yes more traveling).  As expected lots of crappy food, but I did win first place for the student presenters and won $200!  I texted my brother that I was in Provo and that he would "dig it here" and the following conversation ensued.  Anyone know the movie reference??  This is why I love my brother!

This week is gonna be nutso.  I have my comprehensive exam on Thursday and then next Monday my environmental law final.  If I am still alive, maybe spring will get its act together and stop dropping snow all over the place. 

Rudy