Ross Hauser Takes a Look at 2007 Races and Looks Ahead to Miamiman

Almost all of us exercise because it is good for our health and we love the friends we make but something deep inside of most of us drives us to go faster and farther then we have ever gone before. I just spent five days cycling in Italy with my wife, friends and some new found friends and believe I am ready to take my racing to the next level. Somewhere during the week on one of the many, many climbs, I felt different. I felt stronger, lighter, capable of more and more. Most of the participants of our cycling tour in Italy did each climb one time, I did them as often as I could. I just wanted to climb and climb. I felt for the first time in my life, that I truly was light. That climbing no longer had its hold on me and that virtually I could do any climb. I embraced the climbs. I did fret as to their steepness or length. I just enjoyed them. I became ‘one’ with them as it were and somewhere on the hills of Tuscany I became a different athlete. It is time for me to break 5 hours in the Half Ironman.

2007 started out for me doing Ironman Arizona (April). I was ready to break 12 hours in the Ironman. I trained hard over the brutal Chicago winter. I was ready, unfortunately for me, it was an extremely windy day and not the type of day you set PR’s in. I rode on. I embraced the wind, knowing that 12 hours was not possible that an improvement in my Ironman race placement was. For the third consecutive Ironman race I improved my placement. I finished something like 675 out of 2200 athletes, improving my placement by 175 spots. I was happy with the result. My time was 12:29, but I knew I gave an 11:45 effort but the conditions were not condusive for such a time.

The Ironman Race was my big “A” race for the year. I spent the summer helping my buddies train for their Ironman, marathon and cycling races. I did century rides and several 20 mile runs with my friends including Bill (Ironman Lake Placid), Chris (Ironman Wisconsin) and Rob (Chicago Marathon). I had a great time. I felt during the summer that at any moment I could ride 112 miles on the Ironman Madison course or do 20 miles of hills at Waterfall Glen. It was and is a great feeling. I helped Marion complete the Horrible Hilly Hundreds cycle ride for the first time. It involved 7000 feet of climbing over 70 miles. It took her seven hours but she did awesome. To complete this bicycle ride is a great accomplish. She took her cycling to the next level. Perhaps someday we will compete in tandem cycling?

I did a few smaller races. I did the Lake Geneva Triathlon (July). I did not get a chance to warm up on the swim so when I went into the 55 degree water I had a panic attack. I did not give up, though I treded water for 5 minutes and went from near the front of the swim to the back. I battled back and ended up doing the Olympic distance triathlon in 2:47, which is not a great time but only ended up loosing the race by 18 minutes. I was second in my age group, my highest finish. Plus one has to realize that I was not rested for this race. I was very proud of the way I fought back during the rest of the race after the swim debacle. You can be assured I will warm up before the swim start at future triathlons.

Also in July I did the Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 mile race. It was the first time I did a race at Waterfall Glen, my favorite place to run. I had a goal of 72 minutes. I had the perfect race during a perfect day. I started out with my ‘ol training buddies John and Kristin for the few miles. I held pace and ended up at 71:12. It was awesome! John and Kristin were around 75 minutes. I paced myself perfect. I learned that I could pace myself and hold the pace til the end. The next day I did a half mile swim as part of a relay during the Waukegan Triathlon (Harbor Lights Triathlon). Marion did the bike and our oldest nephew Kyle did the run. We took third in the relay division. It was awesome!

Twice during August I went cycling just west of Madison. This is my favorite Midwest destination to cycle. What I haven’t told you is that I did them both in the same week. On Wednesday I went up with my training buddy Giulia to help Chris train for Ironman Wisconsin. We had a great 112 mile ride. Then on Saturday I cycled the Dairyland Dare 200K with my buddy Jim. It was one of those moments where you realized you are not the same athlete that you were the year before. Remember I was not rested for this ride. I had just done a hilly 112 miler just a few days before but the strength I had the day of the Dairyland Dare was enormous. The ride was 136 miles with about 15,000 feet of climbing. My buddy Jim ended up doing a 100 miles but I completed the whole 200K ride. The scenary was spectacular but I was encouraged to finish strong and set a lot of personal records including: most miles in one day, most hours cycling one day and of course most amount of climbing in one day. I ended up that week with the most amount of miles I put on the bike in one week.

September 8th was a monumental day for me. I completed the Big Shoulders 5K swim in 1 hour 38 minutes, beating my previous PR by 17 minutes. I still ended up in the bottom 25% in the race but realize I am doing the race against swimmers! I am a triathlete! I did use my wetsuit but even during this event I was proud of the way I handled the swim. I worked on just swimming and not evaluating my swimming. I wanted to go through the whole swim without panicking and having to go on back. I accomplished this! Yes I did warm up and this helped tremendously! Lake Michigan that day was kind of choppy but I did not let that get to me. I ended up 2 minutes ahead of my buddy Ken Ng, who in the past had instructed me in swimming. I had a wetsuit on and he did not so technically he would have beaten me if I did not have my wetsuit on. But cycling with the likes of Jim Donegan and swimming with the likes of Ken Ng made me realize I had made a lot of strides in the past year in regard to getting stronger and faster in all the disciplines of triathlon.

I should note that hooking up with John Chen during the Xtreme 10 Miler at Waterfall Glen was great because John got me back into doing track speed work. I have done it probably five times over the past couple of months. Each time on the track seems like I set new PR’s including doing 16 x quarter miles in around 85 seconds or 4 x 1 miles in about 6 minute/mile pace.

About two months ago I started seeing Gina Orlando, a hypnotist. I have had some ‘not healthy’ thinking patterns my whole life and believed that some of them were causing me to not sleep. She is really part hypnotist part psychologist. I have wanted to see a sports psychologist for a long time and since I knew Gina for a long time and trusted her I started seeing her once/month. Though I am a natural medicine doctor, Christian, and know a lot about medicine I am one to utilize the resources of ‘other’ experts. You can always better yourself. Of course I need to read my Bible and pray to ‘renew’ my mind but honestly most Americans, me included, are clueless about meditation. When was the last time you sat along in a room and meditated on God, the Bible, or anything without thinking about anything but it? Anyway Gina has helped me a lot. I have decided to see her once/month to talk and to continue to get rid of all my ‘unhealthy’ thought patterns. I have already seen results in regard to sleeping, my training and my athletic performance. We are working on getting me to not only compete like a champion but train mentally and physically like one. I believe it is working. Let me give you one real brief example.

About once every six weeks I go with my two buddies Tim and Allan to Tim’s place in Three Rivers Michigan. We go there to swim, bike and run. Well the run is a hilly 5 mile run that we do after swimming 1.2 miles and biking up and down hills for 30 miles. Obviously we are a little tired after the bike. Well we aren’t but 1.5 miles into the run and Tim takes off. Tim often trains in one speed and one speed only and that is fast! I am surprised at how fast he is despite having Maximus his son (one year old) and having little time to train. Well I tried for like a mile or two catch him and couldn’t. Normally I would give up, because what is the big deal? It isn’t like we are in a race? Well, this day was different. I didn’t have that give up attitude. I eventually caught him and passed him. Again something was different. I was tougher. Not just physically but mentally. Something in my subconscious was different. I think I owe the work with Gina for that!

So now we come to September 24th. I am on a plane right now heading toward Chicago from Amsterdam. Earlier in the day I had taken a flight from Florence Italy to Amsterdam. I completed five days of cycling with my wife, friends, and new found friends in Tuscany, Italy. It was amazing. Somewhere during those five days I changed. My body and mind changed. I was stronger, faster, tougher. I did not fear. It was during one of the rides that I knew that I could break 5 hours in the Half Ironman. Five days of cycling in a row was the most I had ever done. My body held up great.

In August 2006 I had an amazing race during The Steelhead Half Ironman. My previous PR was 5:56 for the distance and on that day I did a 5:17 and felt great the whole way! That was a perfect weather day. On November 11, 2007 I will be with many of my friends and training partners doing MiamiMan which is also a Half Ironman. I am hopeful to break 5 hours. I will be in a new age classification. The 45-49 year olds as I just turned 45. It will be interesting if I have a good race what place I get. I still have 6-7 weeks of training but feel I could break another milestone on my quest to make to a world championship. It is a long road to qualify for a world championship, let alone a national championship, in any sport. To make it to the Ironman World Championships you have to be in the top 5% in your age group. I feel right now I am in the top 15-20% but only race results will tell the real story. I’ll keep you posted!