2012 – Kicking Ass, The Recap

It’s been a great season for Accelerate 3 athletes. Just about everything has gone according to plan. People are faster than they were before, people are winning and when those things happen I’m a very happy coach with very happy athletes. Happy might be an understatement though. It’s been a very, very successful year for a lot of athletes. The adage still holds true. Do the work and the results will follow. I’m fortunate to have a great group of hard working athletes. To you girls and guys I say thank you.

How well has the season gone? Awesome would be a HUGE understatement. It’s actually hard to select the top performance. Could it be a World Championship title, or having three athletes qualify for their elite licenses, or seeing people make 5-15 minute gains over last season, or watching people run faster in a triathlon this season then they were running in open races last season? While there were truly some phenomenal performances, I’m going to let their results speak.

Some of the highlights for WTC events include having the overall amateur woman at three 70.3 events, Augusta, Miami and Muncie spread among two of my athletes. An Age group win and 9th amateur on the day at the 70.3 World Championships, 2nd in the age group, 11th amateur and 40th overall at IM Hawaii, an age group win and 10th amateur on the day at the UK 70.3, 3rd in the age group at Boulder 70.3 and having an athlete post the 10th fastest run time on the day at IMNYC. Out of the seven WTC events, only once has an athlete not finished either overall as the top age group racer or in the top 3 in their age group. That’s some serious ass kicking by Accelerate 3 athletes.

Other results include the fastest female age grouper at St. Anthony’s triathlon…again. 2nd age group male overall and winner of his age group at Abu Dhabi, a course record at the Lowes TT series, AL TT Cat 5 State Champ, SE Regional Cat 5 TT Champ, NC TT Cat 3 Silver medalist, 2nd overall male in the Tucson Triathlon Series and 3rd male overall in the Inside Out Sports NC Triathlon Series. The 1st female overall in that same series is an Accelerate 3 athlete. It’s also the first time in the 11 year history of the series that a female has scored more then 10,000 points in more than one race in a season while going undefeated.

Accelerate 3 athletes have won 16 races this season, have another 15 2nd and 3rd overall finishes. They also recorded 16 top 3 age group podiums excluding overalls. Oddly or thankfully, no one finished either 4th overall or fourth in their age group all season. There has been only one 5th overall and one 5th in their age group. It seems my athletes prefer first through third. Who am I to complain? There have been numerous PB’s across triathlon, cycling and running events by my athletes. Three of my athletes have qualified for their elite license for next year. I’m looking forward to taking these and everyone I coach to the next level next season.

And yes, I’m very, very proud to call these over achievers my athletes.

As I look forward to 2013 there are several big changes on the horizon. I’ll be making the jump to full time coaching, which I am rather excited about. For the first time in ten years, I’ll be able to take on more then 1-2 athletes per year. A lot of times when this happens people have to just expand. I’m reloading while I expand. If you are looking for a coach or are a top age group athlete looking to step up to the elite level, contact me.

There are one or two big things in the works for Accelerate 3. You might see Accelerate 3 morph into something bigger and better then it currently is. I suspect the competitors of the people I coach will be less thrilled about all the changes. But then isn’t that always the case?

Keep checking in to see the changes! Thanks for reading.

A Weekend of Kicking Ass

This weekend was filled with quite a few firsts for me. It was the first time both of my EU based athletes were in the same city as I was. The highlight of my weekend was meeting Tom and Nick. It’s pretty awesome to finally put faces to email addresses. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera with me to the expo where I was meeting them. Bad coach. Really bad.

This past weekend was the 70.3 World Championships. Both Nick and Tom raced. It was hot. Very hot. You ended up sweating. A lot. You needed to drink a lot of fluids just to stay upright. Lots of people were falling out. And that was just spectating. I can’t repeat what one pro woman said about the heat but it had a cuss word to describe how hot it was.

Tom crossed the line in 5:07 which last year would have been a PB for him. This year though he has raced much faster over the half distance. Still a solid showing on a day in which he set new PB’s for the highest temps he’s ever raced in.

Nick absolutely smashed it out on the course. He finished as the 9th age grouper on the day and comfortably won the Men’s 18-24 age group. Yeah, it’s totally bad ass, he became an age group world champ! I’m not going to lie, when I saw him rounding the corner for the finish and I knew he was way up there both age group and overall, my allergies may have caused my eyes to have a very brief, tiny reaction.

Nick Baldwin M18-24 AG World Champ

Another first was taking place down in the hot, muggy depths of Alabama. James and Chad were squaring off to see who would have the fastest bike split at the AL Coastal Triathlon. At the end of the day a string of firsts would happen. James posted the fastest bike split and finished first overall. Chad posted the second fastest bike split and finished second overall.

This is the first time two Accelerate 3 athletes have taken the first two overall podium places at a race. Also the first time that Accelerate 3 triathletes have grabbed the first two bike splits in a race. Not to mention James won $300 and Chad won $200 which makes racing in 100F temps a little better. James and Chad get to square off again at the Rev 3 SC race in October.

Chad’s check!

All in all, as a coach I couldn’t be much happier about this past weekend. There was a good bit of success, some cash flowing into the hands of my athletes. It’s a reward for these guys for their hard work and dedication. Most people want to dream big, but when it comes time to put in the hard work, most people settle for a smaller dream. These guys have been doing the work. It’s paying off. Good job lads.

Nick Baldwin, M18-24 champ