almost 7 months without a peep...here goes attempt #2 at keeping this thing more up to date.
So, as you would imagine, a LOT has happened in those 6+ months. I'll try and keep it short and to the point.
The biggest change was that at the end of March, I took the opportunity to return to North Carolina and Inside-Out Sports. I enjoyed my time in Philly and working with Elite but when it came down to it, i'm NOT a city person. It was a good experience and I learned alot and met some really cool people. On the Elite Bicycles side of things, I still fully stand behind the product just as much if not more! As Dave said many times, he could choose to be rich or successful, and he chose the latter. Hopefully the first will come in time.
Once I returned to N.C., I jumped in a small local sprint tri and came away with my first win. It was a nasty, rainy day (wait for this trend to form) on a hilly course but it was good to get in a good effort. I started first in the pool swim and never saw anyone for the next hour. my closest challenger was super-studette Stacey Richardson (top 3 overall at USAT nationals).
Next up was White Lake Sprint which I was able to call in a favor to get in at the last minute. I'd had an o.k. race here the year before and wanted to finish well but it's always a tough one with alot of the local sprint studs racing hard for the Best of the US slot. After a decent 'whitewater' swim, I held my own on the very windy two loop bike course, and then made up a few more slots on my strength, the run. I ended up 5th overall with the 18th best swim, 5th bike, and 3rd run. The weather was less than desirable but everyone had to deal with it.
DUSTIN SHINHOLSER
CARY NC
18
00:12:32
00:01:10
5
00:34:28
5
00:34:28
00:00:51
3
00:16:54
00:16:54
01:05:53
Overall, not a bad day.
At this point, I was starting to become a little burnt out and finding in harder and harder to get up for workouts. Even worse, after a missed or reduced workout, I'd mentally beat myself up for it. I made a decision to cancel my trip to Portland for USAT Nationals because it was to be an expensive solo trip and if I wasn't going to race hard, I wasn't going. The only race left that I was committed to was the Columbia Tri (1.5k-45k-10k) so I'd hang on through that one.
I headed up to Columbia, MD far less than prepared to race. Mentally, it just wasn't
there. I drove the bike course and was suprised to see how technical and hilly it was. Not helping my cause! I got there on race morning after staying with my uncle and met Alison who came down to watch me race. I doddled around way too much and then had to rush to get to the start. I made it to the water after the pro wave went off 2 min before the elite wave that I was in. No problem except that I still didn't have my wetsuit on and I'd had no warmup...did I mention lack of motivation for workouts...I hadn't swam AT ALL since the White Lake race 2 weeks prior! I make it to the line of the in-water start with all of 10 seconds to spare. The swim actually went suprisingly well given the circumstances. I headed out of t1 only to lose my shoe and drop my bike, and it was raining (notice the pattern)! I rode steady but not hard. I just wasn't willing to go into that 'hurt' that racing using brings on and with the wet technical roads, I wasn't taking any chances on crashing. After I finally got through the long bike, I headed and just to get through the run to get it all over with. I finished 11/19 in the elite wave and farther back overall than I care to discuss. It was a good trip and a race that I'd like to take on again some time.
there. I drove the bike course and was suprised to see how technical and hilly it was. Not helping my cause! I got there on race morning after staying with my uncle and met Alison who came down to watch me race. I doddled around way too much and then had to rush to get to the start. I made it to the water after the pro wave went off 2 min before the elite wave that I was in. No problem except that I still didn't have my wetsuit on and I'd had no warmup...did I mention lack of motivation for workouts...I hadn't swam AT ALL since the White Lake race 2 weeks prior! I make it to the line of the in-water start with all of 10 seconds to spare. The swim actually went suprisingly well given the circumstances. I headed out of t1 only to lose my shoe and drop my bike, and it was raining (notice the pattern)! I rode steady but not hard. I just wasn't willing to go into that 'hurt' that racing using brings on and with the wet technical roads, I wasn't taking any chances on crashing. After I finally got through the long bike, I headed and just to get through the run to get it all over with. I finished 11/19 in the elite wave and farther back overall than I care to discuss. It was a good trip and a race that I'd like to take on again some time.I had made a decision that I wanted to focus on my running for a while and try and hit some goal times in my head that would require running to be my main focus and not splitting time with the swim and bike. This went well for a few weeks of mileage build up and I was enjoying the feel of some real miles in my legs. I started to develop a pain in my left hamstring the progessively got worse, even though I thought it would just get better. It went from loosening up after a mile or so until finally one weekend 6 mile run at the beach, I hobbled through the entire workout.
I dropped my mileage from around 50 to at or less than 0. A big fat goose egg. Nada. Zip. Zilch!! I got real comfy in my easy chair, flipped channels, petted my dog, and even did a little surfing. I 
lost what tan I had and put on a few pounds of ice cream and gummy worms and it was great! At least for a while. Let's face it, I've always been athletic and I've always had something active going on. That's just me. I started riding my bike again and being drug to the pool at 6am by my roommate. I even slowly started putting in a few running miles. I headed to the NC/SC mountains one weekend to visit some friends gearing up for some upcoming IM races. It was a BIG reality check for how out of shape I'd become. Granted, these guys race professionally so they're not you're typical weekend warrior but I got spit out the back before we really got going.
lost what tan I had and put on a few pounds of ice cream and gummy worms and it was great! At least for a while. Let's face it, I've always been athletic and I've always had something active going on. That's just me. I started riding my bike again and being drug to the pool at 6am by my roommate. I even slowly started putting in a few running miles. I headed to the NC/SC mountains one weekend to visit some friends gearing up for some upcoming IM races. It was a BIG reality check for how out of shape I'd become. Granted, these guys race professionally so they're not you're typical weekend warrior but I got spit out the back before we really got going.Fast forward to present day. I've actually been working out pretty regularly these last few weeks. I'm running about 3 times a week, riding about the same, and swimming 2-3 times. I've got no real plan and just kinda go by how I feel. When I get in the pool, I just go with no real structure. It's kinda nice and takes alot of pressure off me mentally to hit certain splits, yardage, etc. I've been doing some training with Alison for the Duke 1/2 IM coming up in a few weeks. It'll be her first one so I've been coaching her through it. I'm headed out to Texas in late October for a 1/2 IM and I'm on the start list of Pinehurst (olympic) 2 weeks before. I know I'll make the trip to Texas and will make a decision on Pinehurst closer to race day. It's a touch NCTS race and my ego can't take a huge pounding to people I know ; ). Never say never though. I've got some early long course racing thoughts that I'm preparing for but I won't release the full details on that quite yet (hint: watch out for the cactus).
