Mike Caiazzo.com

Hunter reading his book on Trucks and cheering his Dad on during the race.

My oldest son Jack wearing the shirts that my Wife made for Lake Placid.

My oldest son Jack warming up my uniform before the race.

  This past weekend I completed my first Ironman, racing Lake Placid.  Exactly one year before the race I raced my last race of 2008 and scheduled surgery on my achillies.  With no training from the end of July to the end of December, racing and Ironman in 2009 was nowhere on my radar.  I even thought racing ½ Ironmans in 2009 would be a challenge.  After racing well for the beginning of the season my coach Kurt Perham mentioned in early July that I should race Lake Placid.  I had only been training 8-12 hours a week and I had not ridden over 60 miles in the past two year so I was very hesitant.  We put together two long brick workouts and if they both went well I would sign up.  One went well but the other one did not go well at all, but I signed up anyway. 

   At Lake Placid I rented a house about 1 mile from the start of the race.  Staying at the house was my wife (Megan), two sons, (Jack 2 ½ and Hunter 15 months), both my parents, my mother in-law, my uncle and my coach, Kurt.  It was a full house!  After driving the course the day before race I thought that I was making a huge mistake trying to race an Ironman while only training 10 hours a week.  What was I thinking!  The weather was forecasted to be showers with occasionally thunderstorms which would have been perfect.   On race morning I was more nervous than any race I have been in for a long time.  Normally I knew what to expect during the race, this time I had no idea what laid ahead of me.   

  The pros get to start 10 minutes ahead of the age-groupers which was nice because I didn’t have to try and swim with 2300 other people around.  The gun went off and it was still one of the roughest swim starts I have been in and there were only about 50 pros at the start.  About 100 meters in I went to look up and the girl next to me clocks me right in the temple knocking my goggles off.  I quickly reseal my goggles and kept swimming hard.  My goal was to try and be with the second group of swimmers.  After about 5-10 minutes I settled in behind some feet.  About 15 minutes into the swim I looked up and saw that the leaders were not too far up which was good and I was in a group of 4 other people.  I went through the first loop in 26:20, which I was very surprised by.  I jumped back into the water for the second loop.  The pace seemed to slow significantly.  Halfway through the second lap I tried to read my watch to see what pace I was swimming but couldn’t read the numbers.  I was convinced that I would probably come out of the water somewhere between 60 and 65 minutes.  I got out of the water and the clock read 55:21.  Very surprising!  I ran down the street heading for my bike.  I looked back and did not see the group I came out of the water with.  I then realized that it was because they stopped at the wetsuit strippers, which I probably should have. 

   I grabbed my Jamis Xenith T2 and headed out on the bike course in 5^th place in the men’s pro division.  I tried to settle into my pace but had a tough time with other guys flying by me on the bike.  By the time I descend the large hill about 15 miles into the bike I was in 11^th place.  The sun started to come out and it was really getting warm on the bike.  Not what I had planned on at all.  The first loop of the bike was pretty uneventful.  I stayed right on my goal watts number for the 1^st loop.  I complete the first loop in 2:25.  Starting the second loop I began to realize that holding 250 watts for the next 56 miles was not going to happen.  Just after I passed the aid station at the beginning of Haselton Road I looked down and realized that I did not have any fluids left.   I got to the turn around, about 7 miles, and was dying of thirst and needed food.  With no fluid I was not going to try and take any gels because I wasn’t sure I would be able to swallow the gel.  I finally got to the end of Haselton and grabbed a water and Gatorade.  I proceed to drink nearly a whole Gatorade going through the aid station.  At this point I had about 60 minutes left on the bike.  I had no energy at this point and was struggling to ride 200 watts.  My back was cramping and I was having trouble breathing and staying in the aerobars.  This was my biggest fear that I would crack during the last hour of the bike.  At this point my nutrition plan went out the window and I tried to eat my way back to T2.  I made the turn onto Highway 86 and had only 13 miles to the finish.  The only problem was that it was all up hill.  On the first hill after the turn onto HWY 86 I passed Petr Vabrousek, Paul Fritzsche and Tereza Macel, shortly after I passed Zach Ruble.  Zach proceeded to ride really tough and hung with me to the last climb, called Papa Bear or something.  (I was cursing all the bears the whole way up HWY 86!) .  Just before we entered town Mac Brown came charging by both Zach and I.  I enter T2 in 6^th.  I had the 7^th fastest bike out of the male pros with a time of 5:03:42.

  I came into T2 put on my Newton running shoes and headed out on the run.  I had a very fast T2 (3^rd fastest overall!) and was starting the run in 5^th place.  I heard that I was 11 minutes behind 2^nd and 7 minutes behind 3^rd and 4^th.   I tried to settle into my running pace and not go out to hard.  My first mile was 5:30, not exactly “settling” in, although it was mostly downhill.  I finally settled into my running rhythm and was clipping off 6:15 to 6:20 miles for the first 13 miles.  I went through the ½ in 1:23.  I was now only a few minutes behind 2^nd and closing fast.  I still felt I was holding myself back.  I thought at this point that at around mile 16 I would have to start pushing the pace and then the last 2-3 miles I would just try and hang on.  Just as I was thinking this my quads started to cramp.  I had to really push just to try and keep 6:30 pace.  My goal was to try and run 6:30 pace and run a sub 2:50 marathon.   By mile 19 I had nothing left and was just trying to put one foot in front of the other.  I had switched from trying to catch 2^nd, into survival mode.  I caught Matt Lieto on the large hill by the ski jumps, around mile 22.  I kept pushing hoping that I would see Jason Shortis who was running in 3^rd up the road.  At mile 23 I heard that I was just 1 minute behind Jason, but I still could not see him.  My coach and family yelled at me mile 24, but I was to tired to acknowledge them.  All I could think about was the end!  My other goal was to go under 9:00 hours.  When I got to mile 25 my watch read 8:51.  I knew at this point I was probably running 7:30 pace adding 90 seconds for the .2 miles to make 26.2 miles put me exactly at 9:00.  So I had no time to spare.  I entered the stadium and my watch read 8:59:20.  I couldn’t see the finish and wasn’t sure how far around the skating oval I had to go.   When I made the last turn to see the finish, the clock read 8:59:40.  I tried to “sprint” for the line and crossed just under 9 hours, 8:57:57, good for 4^th place overall and the first American.  My marathon time was 2:56:09 good for the 3^rd fastest time in the race.  I qualified for Kona, but did not take my spot for financial reason. 

  Overall I was happy with my race.  Going out too hard on the bike really cost me tons of time at the end.  The last 20 miles of the 2^nd loop I was 10 minutes slower than the 1^st time around.  I learned a lot from this race and I should be able to take what I have learned and improve on my next Ironman.   With out the help of Kurt Perham helping with pacing, nutrition and all of the other things I would have had no chance of doing well.  Also a huge thanks goes out to my team US Pro Tri and all of the sponsors, Jamis bike, Newton running shoes, Zone nutrition, Hed wheels and all of the other sponsors (see www.USProTri.com ) for providing me with training and racing equipment.  And most importantly to my wife and family for the support in pursing my hobby!   

Yesterday I raced in my 4^th consecutive Eagleman 70.3 race.  This has always been one of my favorite races for two reasons, 1) it is pancake flat (my watch measured 140 ft of elevation gain on the bike and run) and 2) I always seem to race well.  I wasn’t sure what to expect this year because this was the first time in 3 years that I was going to race back to back weekends.  Last weekend I competed in one of the toughest ½ Ironman courses, Revolution 3.  I was very sore all week and had a slightly strained hamstring.  When I tried to run 20 minutes on Friday I struggled through it and nearly had to walk.  Not good.  If I can’t run 20 min easy I surely will not be able to run 13.1 miles at sub 6 minute pace.

  I flew to the race with my father Saturday morning and arrived at the race site at 10:30am and did all of the pre-race stuff, check-in, build bike, pro meeting etc.  We then checked into our hotel around 5:30pm.   All of the hotels around the race fill up so early and I am a huge procrastinator so I always have to stay 30 miles away from the race.  This makes for an early race morning. 

  On race morning the alarm was set for 4:15am for a 6:40am start.  Just before the start they called all of the pros out of the water to go over the timing mat.  The start was about 50 yards into the water.  I was about half way to the starting line, when I hear someone yell “GO”.  Some of the pros start swimming and some are still standing around.  The guy next to me was holding his goggles in his hands and I hear him say “Is that for real?”  Not the kind of start I was hoping for.  About 200 yards into the race I was about 10yds back from a large group.  I tried and push hard to close the gap, but can’t seem to.  I kept trying to put on surges to close the gap, but am not closing at all.  At the ½ way point the group was about 20yds up and I was beginning to think that I was not going to close it.  Just then I felt something brush over my elbow and upper arm.  Then it started to tingle really bad, I had been stung by a sea nettle (jellyfish).  I continue to swim along, but every stroke my arm stung more and more.  I finally exited the water in a time 28:24.  Not a good way to start the day.

  I hopped onto my Jamis T2 and wasoff trying to make up some time.  I felt pretty good on the bike and was settling into my pace.  I passed a few guys early in the ride and was riding in 10^th.  At about the half way point I checked and was averaging 275 watts and can see a group of 4 guys riding together in front of me.   I approach the group and immediately went past them quickly.  I surged for a bit and for about 2-3 minutes, averaged 330 watts.  I looked back and all 4 are lined up behind me.  I continued to push hard trying to drop them.  I averaged 315 (27.5mph) watts for the next 10 minutes and still could not drop them.  I looked back and they are all lined right up behind me.  I then settled back down and was riding 280-290 (26mph) watts for the next 15-20 minutes.  I kept looking back occasionally and sure enough all 4 guys were still lined up ride behind me.  About 1:40 into the ride I thought maybe I would race the “Pro” way and let someone else lead so I could rest for a few minutes and try another attack on the group later.  I the slowed down and rode at 240-245 (23mph) watts for about 3-4 minutes and surprise, surprise nobody took the lead.  I then figured I only had about 20 minutes to go until the finish and if we continue to ride this slow we would never catch the 5 guys in front of us.  So I again pushed the pace averaging 315 watts for the last 25 minutes.  Along this time I pick up 2 more guys to join my group.  So all 7 of us came rolling into T2 together.  Kind of funny how I rode 275 watts for the first ½ of the race and made up almost 90 seconds on the group and when I rode 292 watts for the second half of the race I didn’t put anytime into them.   My time on the bike was 2:11:34 good for the 4^th best pro bike time.

  I start the run and immediately felt the effects of pushing the bike.  About 800 yards into the run a group of 6 started to put a 10 yard gap on me.  I knew that if I lost contact I would be in trouble.  I surged to close the gap and just try to breathe and settle in.  We went through the first mile well under 5:30 pace.  I guess that was why it felt so tough.  Between the 1 and 2 mile mark a few more guys fell back and it was just me and two other guys.  I was now starting to settle in and it didn’t feel like a struggle.  We went through the second mile 5:32.  Shortly after mile 2 it was just me and one other guy.  I am now feeling pretty good and am cruising along.  Between miles 2-3 he goes from right on my shoulder to 30 seconds or more back.  Come to find out he had to take a bathroom break.  So by mile 3 I had about 30-45 seconds on the guy behind me and I was running in 4th.  I continue to cruise along running 5:40 pace with it feeling easy.  The course was out and back so as I approach the turn around I see that Michael Lovato was 4 minutes up on me.  That is a lot of time to make up in just 6.5 miles, but not impossible.  I also notice that the guy behind me was only about 45 seconds behind me.  I knew that the guy behind me was a very competitive Ironman racer so I figured he would not fade, so if I didn’t continue to push he would catch me.  My legs felt really good, the problem was I was having some stomach issues, which started with about 20 minutes left on the bike.  It was slowly getting worse and I was wondering if I was going to be able to make it to finish without a pit stop.  All along I was continuing to cruise along clipping off 5:45-5:50 miles.  Before I knew it I was at mile 12 with nobody in sight behind me.  I finished with the 2^nd best run time of the day with a time of 5:15:05 (5:44 pace).  My total time of the day was 3:58:12 good for 4^th overall and I finally placed in the money.  I was 1:20 behind Michael Lovato who came in 3^rd. 

  Overall it was a good day.  I was very surprised how good my legs felt on both the bike and run after a tough race last weekend.   About an hour after the race I was driving the 2 hour drive to BWI airport to board my plane home.  I got home shortly after 5:30pm just in time for dinner with my wife and two sons.   Just another weekend for the life of a working “PRO” triathlete.

A few weeks ago I received a pair of the new 2009 Zoot Tempo shoes.  I wish I could post a pic but I can’t!  Sorry.   I was only able to run in them a few times but I really like the changes from 2008.  The 2008 Zoot racing flat was one of the best shoes I have ever run in.  They seemed to roll me to the ball of my foot.  The only complaint of the 2008 shoe was the clip that held the lace.  This has been totally changed in the 2009 version and it works great.  The colors in the 2009 version are total different than 2008, yet are like nothing else on the market.  I believe the shoes are scheduled to be sold in late winter early spring.  Stay tunned for more details.

Well it is official now, my season is over already.  Thursday, 8/28 I had achilles tendon surgery (Topaz) done by DR Asherman at Orthopedics Associates.  My achilles has been bothering me for nearly 2 years so hopefully this will help so that I can run pain free.  The surgery was very routine and everything is healing as it should.   I have a giant foot splint that I have to wear all of the time.   I should be able to swim after about 4 weeks and may start running after 8 weeks.  There is no rush to get back at it since this is normally the time of year I am taking some down time.

So I was flipping through the August Triathlete Magizine and flipped to a page with the new Scott Plasma 2 bike and who is on the bike but me. It is kind of strange to be flipping though a magazine with people like Ficker, Standler, Alexander, Potts, and Snowsill and then Caiazzo. The picture was taken in March when I went out to Fort Collins, Colorado to do a photo shoot with Scott Bikes. We went to the wind tunnel and did testing on most of the top bikes in the industry along with the Plasma 08 and the Plasma 2 09. It was a great learning experience. The Plasma 2 is a great looking bike and if it rides anything like the Plasma it is going to be a great bike.