GEC Breakthrough!

Funny that GEC really grew after my crash 2 years ago, but this weekend (after Jill's crash) GEC had a significant breakthrough in our coaching with both the men's and women's overall wins in a race...



From GEC Coach Brian Nath:

Grasky Endurance was well represented this weekend at the 25th running of the Mountain Man Triathlon in Flagstaff, AZ. The race takes place at 7000 feet at Lake Mary just outside of Flagstaff. In the Olympic distance Leo Carrillo and Kathy Rakel both won 1st overall male and female. This was Leo’s second win in two weeks and he is on track to have a terrific race in Tuscaloosa at USAT Age Group Nationals in a few weeks. Kathy continues to add to her trophy case and will also be racing the the win at Age Group Nationals. Beth Andresen took home second place in her age group in the Olympic--Beth has now placed in her last two races. Jarreu Jones who is a recent addition to GEC competed in his first Olympic distance race and will be competing in his first 1/2 Ironman at SOMA in October. Brian Nath PR’d his Olympic distance time by six minutes, Caryn Nath was 2nd in her AG.

Brian G's note: Leo's SMOKIN time of 58:low was the fastest I've seen on that course in a long time aside from top pros, and Kathy crushed it in a last minute decision to race after a move and new job. I'm impressed!



Congratulations to everyone!

Exploring San Diego by bike…sort of

We spent the first few days in San Diego playing (working) on Coronado and riding down the strand. Then on Sunday we moved up north to Miramar, from where we were able to ride to and up on the coast highway, through La Jolla and the Torrey Pines area. Beautiful areas and great riding!

On Tuesday after my flight, Jill and I were riding along the coast highway in Carlsbad. I’d ridden from the base while Jill had met me up the road. We were having a great ride and enjoying the perfect afternoon weather (while back home in Tucson it was 110 degrees!). All of a sudden I heard a yelp and looked over to see Jill flying sideways through the air while her bike was diving into the pavement. Not good.

**As you recall, two years ago I was in SoCal when I attempted to separate my foot form my leg. Apparently, SoCal is not the place for the Graskys to take their bikes.

It turns out that Jill’s front wheel had gotten caught in a rut between the pavement and the gutter, and as she pulled it out it over-corrected and turned hard right. The bike dove and she fell and twisted. The problem was the electrical junction box and water valve that were in line with her direction of travel. She hit them both, stopping her cold. A 911 call, 2 lifeguards, an army of paramedics, and an ambulance ride later we find she’d broken 2 ribs, lacerated her spleen and punctured her lung. Owwie.

Meanwhile I have the added worry about the several mortgage payments worth of bikes I’d just left with a lifeguard to throw in the back of his pickup, and not knowing how I was going to get them or my truck. Hmm. Back to the task at hand.
When they found the spleen damage, they decide Jill needed better care, so she got a ride in a helicopter to Scripps Trauma Center. Now I’m jealous. Sort of.

Turns out they didn’t need to operate, thankfully, but she won 3 nights in the hospital and a lot of attention with more blood draws, x-rays and CT scans than I could count. I was able to miss the rest of the week of work and stay with her there. On Friday she was able to go home, and we left San Diego on Saturday.
She’s doing better now, but is quite a bit beat up and sore. This one will take a while to heal, and she’ll be sore for weeks. The worst part will be trying to keep her off her bike until the docs allow it.

Thanks to all of you who prayed and continue to pray for her healing, comfort, and quick recovery.

Oh, and I got the bikes. Not a scratch! Wish I could say that for Jill.

Brian

Getting into Fights at work

Tuesday started out well. I am in San Diego with the squadron flying against Marine Corps F-18s and was scheduled to fly 1 vs. 1 against one of the Hornets. We met in the airspace and had fuel for 2 engagements. It’s good to fight something other than the standard student-flown F-16, and a combat qualified pilot flying an F-18 is a worthy adversary.

We started the fights nose-to-nose at 500mph each. This type of fighting is a great opportunity to know and practice tactics—to capitalize on your strengths and exploit the adversary’s weaknesses. The Hornet’s strength is slow speed fighting as it can move its nose around quite at will. My strength is to stay fast and use a different style of fighting. He who drives the fight toward his strength will win.

The fight went all over…9 Gs level, then into the vertical, then back to level, …. It was exciting to see the F-18 ‘across the circle,’ or canopy to canopy, him doing everything to take shots on me, me doing everything to take shots at him. Simulated missile shots were taken, but the engagement was only ended and a “kill” was called on a simulated gun hit. Trying to hit a jinking and jiving bandit at ¼ mile away is not the easiest thing to do.

But I won. Did you ever doubt? :)

I learned after the fight that the pilot I was fighting is prepping to head over to the Middle East. I know that no matter what is thrown at him, he’s capable and will handle it with success. Good luck Marine, and may God be with you.

Brian

GEC Elite Team

So far, the inaugural year of the Grasky Endurance Coaching Elite Team is shaping up well. With GEC, Zoot, Trisports.com, Cycleops, Genuine Innovations, and Rudy Project as sponsors, the Elite Team is set up well and flying fast in GEC colors.

The ultimate question, of course, is how are we doing?

Kathy Rakel is our short-course queen. She started out by winning a local trail race series, then won the TX Best of the US Championship and will be representing her second state in the BoUS National Championship this fall. After that she was top 5 in St Anthony’s in FL and qualified for her pro card a few weeks later at . Just last week, Kathy won her age group and qualified for Clearwater and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship at Buffalo Springs Lake Tri.



Brian Barrett is burning up the XTERRA circuit with an overall win at Deuces Wild and an age group 2nd at the West Cup in Las Vegas. He is sitting in 2nd in the 30-34 age group in XTERRA points, just one race out of first. In a rare road triathlon appearance, Brian finished 2nd overall. Not bad for a fat tire guy.

Brad Hendron has been solid. He was 6th overall at Tempe International as a ‘B’ race, then he finished 2nd overall at Deuces Wild Half Ironman. That qualified him for the HalkMax Championships. But that’s not good enough. He went on to finish 5th in his age group and qualify for Ironman 70.3 Worlds at Buffalo Springs Lake Tri. (He missed a Kona slot by only 5 minutes! Grr!)

I’m cycling now, and won the AZ State Road Race champs. It’s a different type of sport, that’s for sure!

These athletes each represent a different aspect of triathlon and sport and life in general. But what do these athletes have in common? Lots. An intense drive and desire for success (podium slots); a desire to inspire others to greatness; and fervor for life in their quests.

Thanks to all the sponsors and their wonderful help. Look for these and all the GEC athletes flying in Green and Black at the local races near you. They’ll be easy to spot…they’ll be on the ones on the podium.

Brian

Arizona State Road Race Championship Race Report

Now, I’m not a cyclist. Or, at least I wasn’t. My ankle’s been giving me fits ever since my injury and I’ve gone through every doc in the Tucson book with little love, so I’ve finally accepted that I need to lay off it for a while.

OK, so I’m a cyclist now. Let’s race.

Last weekend was the AZ State Road Race Championship in the garden spot of Globe, AZ. I fly over Globe weekly, and I know for a fact there’s not much down there. I mean not much at all. Good terrain for cycling, though. I decided at the last minute to race, and all (both) of the hotels in town were booked, so we drove up the morning of the race. It meant a 3am wakeup, but traffic was light!

The course was perfect! My ideal course involves some flat sections with rolling hills, and a 1500 foot climb either up to or just prior to the finish. This is going to be fun (and will hurt). There were a lot of Trisports.com teammates in the race. Triathletes in the road race…it was good to see. I’m feeling good on my 15lb Cannondale SuperSix and with this climb, I’m loving my Q-Rings. Bring it!

We start. We ride easy out for a while, then one of my Trisports.com teammates starts a tempo effort off the front to the bottom of the first climb. A little early, but we go. We drop the majority of the pack on the first climbs, but most of them catch back up on the descents. Some of the sprinters put in small attacks on the rollers, but no one gets away. This said, we arrive at the bottom of the last major climb in one big pack. Now it gets fun!

We pick up the pace a little and start pulling a few off the back of the pack. By about a mile up the pack is down to 12 and holding steady. I’m riding 3rd, then 2nd. As the leader pulls off, I attack. When I sit back down, we’re 8 or so. So off I go again. And then there were 6. So I go again. 5. Then 4 on the next attack. At what I assess as a mile from the summit, I put in a big attack, hoping to break the group (and trying to not break myself). It works. I pull ahead and ride as hard as I can for the last mile. Nope, it was 3 miles from the summit. Oops. “Owwie. Stay ahead. This hurts. Please let the summit be around the next corner.”

One guy caught me at the top, and it was a good thing so we could work together to stay ahead on the final descent and flat section. We even caught up to the Cat 4 guys who started 3 minutes in front. At the 1km mark, I find myself on Ryan’s wheel. And there I sit. Ryan goes into a sprint at about 600m, I stay with him, then give it everything I have left at 400m to go. It works.

I pull off after the line, stop the bike, and lay down ready to pass out, vomit, go into convulsions, and celebrate all at the same time. I congratulate Ryan and the rest of the guys, go grab some water, and begin to wonder how it is that a triathlete can win a road race. I still haven’t figured it out.

Thanks to Cannondale for the great SuperSix, Zipp for the 404s, Rotor Cranks for the Q-Rings, and Hammer Nutrition for keeping my energy up in training.

Brian