daswafford wrote:
I hold a lot of respect for anyone with EMJ, so first, congrats on being good enough to make it in! I read the blog and TBH, I didn't really get what you were trying to share. I would love to know more about being a pro exerciser - as in, what's a typically day / training week look like for someone of your speed? At your age, are you still in school? Working? Or totally focused on tri? What's it like being on EMJ? Do you guys train together (I know it's spread over the country.... but do you have like local teams too that train, or is it solo, or what?) Please share more :-P!
david.
Both my brother Steve and I raced on EMJ. He turned pro in 2016 after Kona at 23. I'm 22 right now. Basically most of the people who read my blog (until now) have some background on me. I went to ASU in the fall of 2013, studied supply chain, and played a lot of sports my freshman year. After I watched him get 3rd at collegiate nationals in Tempe in 2014, I decided that I wanted to be good at exercising too. I have no background in any of the sports, but was really competitive at hockey growing up (we're from MN) so decided to switch my focus.
The first year I was pretty bad, but managed to get some solid results. I did all the collegiate club races and had a ton of fun. I also played a pretty decent part in growing ASU's club team to what it is right now (50 people, no longer on probation, and a lot of fun). After a summer in Bend Oregon interning for Picky Bars I realized that if I kept progessing at the current rate I was then I'd be able to exercise professionally.
I managed to get pretty good by the time I was a senior, and graduated early in December because I had enough credits and hated school. I kept working part time as a tutor for the athletic department (ironic. I know.) and was able to do the collegiate races in the spring, including nationals, because I was a full time student that fall. A little bit unfair, but I was working a lot at a running store/tutoring so did it to represent ASU because I love the team. Ended up 4th there, but 3rd after Dan had a BS penalty and he was bumped down to 5th place.
Then I got a stress fracture in my Femur in June, which threw my whole summer/70.3 worlds quest off the rails. OK so that's background haha.
Basically, EMJ has a giant training camp in Februrary where most of the team goes to Vegas and does a lot of exercising. Talbot Cox came down and did an amazing job taking pictures and making videos for it. Everything was literally amazing. I don't know how it could get any better to be honest. They do an unreal job taking care of us and there is no other way to put it. There is a big group of dudes in the bay area who train together and another decent size group who do so as well, but other than Vegas, this is the only time the team gets to see everyone together. Chattanooga worlds was another great time for everyone to unite. Unfortunately, EMJ doesn't have "pros" on the team.
I work part time at a running/tri store as well as a cycling studio, and train as much as possible. Training takes priority for me, so I get to essentially hand pick the 2-3 days I work, and then train full time the rest of the other days. Right now, I'm living in Fort Collins, Colorado. It's like Boulder with less traffic and no homeless people, but still cheaper because it's not Boulder. My roommate is the manager for the Tri side of our store, and he gives me a great deal on rent to help out.
For training, there are a ton of great cyclists here in town including Chad Haga (who has no idea who I am) Gavin Mannion (Also no idea) and Zack Allison (actually knows me haha). There is a great masters swim group, albeit expensive so I can't afford it. And there are tons of CSU kids who love to run. If you read the blog, you'll know I'm pretty "in" with their team. I ride with them a few times a week, hang out, have sold my old bikes to them, and the freshman love using their guest swipes on me probably because I look (and am) really hungry 75% of the time.
Details of training for me are interesting. Swimming is the main focus right now. At the high level, making a pack and being efficient are the most important parts. I work quite a bit on high end speed, and once a week have a sprint workout. This means efforts from 50-100 all out on an interval with tons of rest. Then some days are "strong" workouts, with efforts faster than 1k effort, and other days are aerobic. I swim 5x a week, totally to around 22k in volume.
Mostly easy riding, but occasionally I get to crush some hills. It's hard to have an easy ride around here in Fort Collins, and I do ~8-12 hours a week right now. During January, February, and March that'll probably progress to 12-16 hours. But we'll see. Only my coach knows what's going to happen lol. I mix it up between bikes and routes and love riding in the cold weather up here.
Running is also interesting because of the stress fracture. It's progressed to walk-runs where I do 2 minutes on, 1 minute walk. Pretty easy, not winning races, and making sure my leg doesn't feel like it's going to fall off again.
I also do a bunch of yoga - about 3x a week, and some strength exercises like lunges, side lunges, single leg squats, step ups, among others. I hope this answers your questions, sorry for writing a book :)