Almost Time For Worlds!!!!!!!!!

No not cycling worlds.......IRONMAN worlds. Yep its in Hawaii, and me and my family will be going to cheer on my dad, whose going to compete. He won't admit it but i think if everything goes right he will be the world masters champ.
HERES A INTERVIEW SLOWTWITCH DID WITH HIM:


Andy Meyer is Kona 2008 bound
Written by: Herbert Krabel
Date: Tue Dec 04 2007


For our series "Profile of an age grouper" we talk to Andy Meyer who won his age group at Ironman Florida in 2007 after almost 2 years away from triathlon. This Cohutta, GA native raced Ironman Florida in 2004 and 2005 and then pretty much raced road bikes for the next 2 years. He was also busy supporting his cycling protégé son A.J. as a driver, masseur, cook and proud dad. In the fall of 2007 he returned to triathlon and won his age group at Ironman Florida.

Andy Meyer

Age: 45
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 143 pounds

ST: When did you first consider doing an Ironman Triathlon?

Andy: I actually have a brother, Pat and a friend, Ben Eicholtz who talked me into doing IMFL about 3 years ago. I had always toyed with the idea of doing an IM since my early twenties, but starting a career and family took precedence. I followed the sport closely and Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Tinely, Mike Pigg, and Scott Molina were all idols of mine. I was in awe of the incredible effort, perseverance and fortitude these athletes exhibited. No way would I ever be able to do an Ironman. I had done the usual bike racing, running races, short course triathlons, mountain biking and adventure races. Pat, Ben and myself were looking for a new challenge and they suggested we all try an IM. I had always been one who struggled early in any kind of race and felt stronger as the event proceeded. This seemed like the natural choice as they so convincingly argued. I had reservations about the training time commitments not to mention just being able to finish an IM. We picked IMFL because it was close to home and gave us all summer to train. I completed my first IMFL in just under 11 hours and was hooked. I realized I had so much more I could improve upon. The next year I dropped another hour and again realized I could go even faster with better training, diet, and nutrition. The third time was the charm as I had a blessed day and everything came together for another 30 plus minute improvement.


ST: Prior to IMFL, what triathlons did you do in the last few years?

Andy: In the last 3 years, I'd done IMFL 2004 and 2005 but skipped 2006 to help my son, A.J. get his cycling career going, plus I also wanted to improve my running (8th overall '06 Atlanta Marathon and 2nd master). I had also done the Chattanooga Waterfront 2005, and the Cohutta Springs '04, '05 and '07 triathlons for fun. Mainly, I'd been doing masters road cycling events though.


ST: How did you build up for this year's Ironman Florida?

Andy: As a husband of 22 years with a wonderful wife, Karen, who makes training/racing at all possible, plus a dad to 3 sons and a full time job, I tried to focus on what would give me the biggest improvement for the least time investment. Nutrition and diet were the obvious choices, but so was running improvement. In the two previous IMFLs I had neglected running to work on my weaknesses, swimming and cycling. I ran in high school and college, so I just counted on my natural running ability. In both those races I swam around 1:00 and biked 5:00, which put me in, reach of a Kona spot, but suffered at the 18-20 mile mark on the run with 4:08 and 3:50 run splits. I actually began my IMFL '07 buildup with the '06 fall Atlanta Marathon. I was able to carry that over into the spring and work on swimming through the winter along with riding, racing and training with A.J. and his team up until May, and then the formal training began. In May, I began 3 months of base work, followed by 2 months of strength work, then 1 month of taper/race specific work. All the while, I was able to get back to my college racing weight with the loss of 5 pounds. Thus I was at IMFL '07 with a stronger run; a swim and ride that were equal to previous years and 5 pounds lighter.


ST: Were you actually gunning for a Hawaii slot?

Andy: Kona was a very distant dream. I actually thought that was well out of the question and I never even entertained the thought of an age group win! One thing I've learned about IM racing and training, it is not about the outside race itself, but about the race inside your mind and body. I've finally come to understand what Mark Allen was saying about racing an Ironman. I just wanted to be better prepared than in the past years and what ever happened would be fine. Kona had only faintly entered my mind, but to tell you the truth, I was going to hang up all the racing and training after this race. I've been racing/training since I was in middle school and at age 45, I wanted to travel and enjoy watching A.J. race. I also have older son, Hunter, a freshman who plays basketball for the University of the South, and I wanted to travel and watch him play too. My youngest son, Conner wants to start bike racing juniors next year, so another young cyclist needs to be managed, but most of all I wanted to spend time with my wife as she has spent our whole marriage sacrificing for my training. She deserves so much more than I could ever repay her. It is time I start repaying her! Well, when I got to the 13.1 mile mark of the run, she and A.J. told me I was leading my age group and I'd better not walk any until the race was over! Then I knew Hawaii was in the equation and she wanted to go! That night, before roll-down the next morning, we, as a family, decided maybe I could train for one more year. We all wanted to go to Kona.


ST: Rumor has it that you are constantly supporting your talented son A.J. Can you tell me more about that?

Andy: My middle son A.J. is a better cyclist at age 16 than I ever was, or will be. He's been fortunate enough to be selected to race the last 2 summers with the 15-16 year old U.S. National Team in Belgium. You can see him driving the break during a race in Belgium in the picture. (Ed. left) He also placed 4th in the road race and 2nd in the criterium at this years Junior Nationals. My father (A.J. grandfather) and I have been shuffling him around the country to races for the last few years. We play mechanic, masseur, cook, driver and on occasion proud parent. Since I'm at these events with A.J., I try to race the masters if I can, but sometimes it is more important that he has all the support needs. We are on opposite ends of the athletic development curve; he's on the way up and well let's say I've seen better days. I get him through a race, then after that, I can train or I get up early in the morning and fit in a workout. It's all about time management skills! I've been fortunate to meet so many good people that have actually helped me with A.J. and my training; Coach Brown and his son Nathan, Lynn and Bill Joslin, Chris and Lori Harkey, Steve Carpenter, Rich Hincapie, Marshall Martin, Jeff Gibson, Ron Swope, Saul Raisin and the Scenic City Velo club.

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Euro Trip Summary

So im finally back home from my euro adventure. It feels good to be done with my season. Europe was great i'll try to some it up or else this post would be a novel. After the Giro Di Bascilicata we did this badass ride to watch the womens race. While we were there i proceed to have what i be leave to be a hallucination. But after a 2nd look i realized that this was reality and I was looking at Mario Cipolini ride up. Mario is totally my hero, so my and Boz proceeded to get our pic with him, but it only got better. it turns out Mario lives in our same town so we rode back with him, Thomas Dekkar, Jorg Jaske, and some CSC dude. It was great. So that was that. The final race we did over there was a nations cup in Croatia. Everyone was saying it was the strongest junior field outside of the world championships. Racing there was good. I had my ups and downs, but the last day i finished in the lead group, and got 26th. All in all this trip was a hell of a success, maybe not result wise, but i got to race against the best riders in the world and see what it takes to make it at the highest level. I also got to see what i believe to be some of the most beautiful sights in the world. Damn im lucky......Oh yea so my season is over but im still gonna do the Saul Raisin crit on OCT. 4th. Not training for it though. BY GOD ITS CROSS COUNTRY TIME!

AJ

1st race

So our 1st race was called the giro di bascillata or something. It was def. not easy but i felt like i was able to compete good. The first day i attacked alot in the 1st part and actually got into some good moves but nothing stuck. On the finishing climb i got popped and soft peddaled it in. Jacob got a solid 4th place for us and Nate followed with a 6th place, so we actually had something to work with on GC. The next day was a bad day for the whole team. Everyone except Jacob missed the front split on this massive 20k climb, so i chased for nate with other teammates then sat up on the last climb. The last day i felt great. I was giving the field hell attacking like crazy until the first big desent. I then proceded to crash hard. It was raining and my wheels just slid out at like 35mph. So after i got myself in order the peleton had a good min, on me. But i tucked in behind our car and chased for a good 30k when i finally caught the pack. I felt good when i caught up and actually made it over the main climb with the lead group of like 20 guys along with my teammate jacob. I tried to help jacob the best i could, and with 1k to go i bonked and probably cruised in for a top 25. Jacob got 2nd! so that was great. I felt alot strong then my results showed, and had i not bonked the last day im pretty damn sure i couldve gotton a top 10, but thats that and hopefully Croatia will be better,
thats all for now,

aj

Italy

Is awesome!!! Besides the fact that i have been here 2 days and my bike or luggage still hasn't came. Not to bad though, im on a team bike, and i even rocked one of nate's spare hot tubs kit for the first 2 rides! The house is awesome, and we are in an absoloutly beautiful area. Surrounded by sweet mountains, some are even snowcapped. Today we did a 4.5hrs ride and it seemed like an 2.5hrs!!! This place makes me relize how lucky i am to get the chance to come here. Even if a get my ass kicked the whole time over here i wont regret coming.
living it up,
aj

Italy Bound

So I leave for Italy 2maro. It should be good times. I did some great riding this weekend with my coach Carp. We rode in the mountians and my legs felt pretty darn good. Not sure if that will mean anyhting racing against fast Italians but I guess i'll find out soon enough. My computer is totally out of commision right now so not sure how much i'll be able to update but i try......italy here i come

sat. crits

Sat Crit am.

I went in an early move that stayed out for about 15 mins. when we got caught the winning move of 6 riders went. After that things were really negative, finally i was able to get away with some strong guys and we never could close the gap on the leaders but we held of the peleton and i ended up finishing 9th.

sat. crit pm

I decided to be mre conserveitive in this crit, which turned out to be a bad idea. the winning break ended up being the first one. Once again it got negative when the break was formed. Finally I got away with DLP rider Tommy N. We ended up staying away and i got 7th.

So they weren't bad my legs felt good, the only prob. was that im still sick. I ended up not doing the 100k classic so i can heal up. Next race is somewhere in Italy, fun fun.