a new twist

In October my wife & I had our 3rd child in a little over 4 years. Consequently the time I have been able to spend swimming, cycling, & running has decreased dramatically. Last year my average training time was around 15-19 hrs a week. Now it has dropped to 10. I had until recently been telling people, "my glory years of triathlon are over. I don't have the time to train like I used to, so I'll train when I can & be content with being a back of the pack triathlete."

Like most triathletes I'd developed an addiction for the long distance triathlons. I'd trained exclusively for 70.3 & Ironman distance races for 5 years. Although I trained a ton each week in the longer races I finished with relatively slow times. The gains from my training were few & slow in coming.

Now that I'm forced to train less, I have tried making up for it by doing more intense & harder training. Lots of threshold, speed, & hill interval training. Well, it appears I have accidentally found my niche. After only 5 weeks of sprint training my speeds have increased dramatically. The gains I'm getting training for the shorter & faster triathlons are coming quickly. Quicker than I've ever had happen before! I have quickly come to LOVE the feel of going fast! Apparently this is exactly the kind of triathlon training my body is made for. Although my weight has been relatively the same the last few weeks (210), my pants are fitting loser around the waist. I was a bit baffled by this. Where was the extra weight? This morning my wife did a double take & told me my quads & calves were huge! I looked in the mirror, and sure enough they have gotten substantially bigger. It's amazing to me to see these kinds of body & speed changes after only 5 weeks!

Needless to say I'm very excited! I can't wait to race my first sprint triathlon to see if I really have developed as much speed as I feel I have. I won't have to wait long. I have the Polar Bear triathlon on Dec 5th & the Jingle Bell triathlon Dec 6th. Until then I'll be happily lost in training because it appears I have fallen in love with triathlon training all over again.

Wish me luck, & thanks for tuning in.

cycling friendly roads

You may have seen the notice in the paper over the weekend regarding the NM41 corridor study and Public Comment meeting scheduled for Nov 17 in Galisteo.

I asking you all to ask that you consider taking a moment to fire off a quick email if you cannot attend the meeting to ask that this project include bike-friendly shoulders as a minimum improvement for safety and multi-modal transportation in general and support of direct economic development resulting from revenue generated by the Santa Fe Century which uses this route from Galisteo to Lamy.

contact emails are
dawn@dpenningtonassociates.com
Karyn.Lujan@state.nm.us

There is some additional information on the project location, scope, proposals, etc at
http://nmshtd.state.nm.us/main.asp?secid=16696

Thanks for getting INVOLVED in asking for safer roads!

The Polar Bear & The Jingle Bell triathlons

I just sent in my registration for the Jingle Bell triathlon & the Polar Bear triathlon. These 2 races are the first 2 of the 2010 season. I got an email a couple weeks ago that the date of the Polar Bear has been moved to the 5th of Dec. So now these 2 races are on back to back mornings. 2 races in 2 days! Could anything be more fun?

This will be the 6th consecutive year I'll be racing the Polar Bear triathlon. Although I'm weighing in at 215 & the excess weight would normally slow me down, I've been training for short and FAST races, so my speeds have been increasing. Even though I'm over weight I believe I have a great chance of beating my course PR of 1 hr 47 minutes set last year. The Polar Bear is on a Saturday and my times at the Polar Bear triathlon have been:

2004 1:54
2005 1:58
2006 (course changed this year) 1:30
2007 1:49
2008 1:47

Like I said the Polar is on Sat & the Jingle Bell is on Sunday morning so I'll be fatigued for the Jingle Bell triathlon. Last year was the first year I completed the Jingle Bell triathlon, I had a break out performance of 1 hr 27 minutes so I seriously doubt I'll set a new one.

I'm really looking foreward to that weekend. Should be great fun!

Thanks for tuning in!

a new season

The Silverman 70.3 triathlon was going to be my last race of the year, I had to bail out of the Silverman. My wife simply wasn't healed up enough from the C section. Now the 2009 season is officially over. I ended up having a decent season. I took 7th place in my division in the Halfman National Championships. I PR'd a 70.3 distance race with a 5 hr 30 min time. & I took 2nd place in the Clydesdale open division in the South West Challenge series.

Although I'm weighing in 17 pounds higher than was my goal for this time was, I'm still super excited about the upcoming 2010 season. Although I'm weighing in 17 pounds higher than was my goal, I'm getting faster. I'm only training for sprints this year so I haven't been going long much. I've been doing more speed work than I ever have in the past.

Back at the beginning of the 2008 season I was weighing in the low 200's & felt I could get below 200 & stay there for the whole season. Based off of how I felt I decided to race the season as an Age Grouper. I ended up taking 1st place 30-34 AG in the SW series, but was very disheartened & frustrated because I was only able to stay below that magical weight of 200 for a little over a month.

This year again I have decided to race as an age grouper. This year I know the chances of me getting below, much less staying below 200 pounds is slim to none. My goal unlike 2008 is to race as an AG & enjoy the competition of the age group I'm now in. Oh, by the way, I age up this month. I'm now 34 & where my birth date lands puts me in the 35-39 ag.

The 35-39 ag is no joke. That age group is easily the fastest age group out there. So my work is cut out for me. But I have something a lot of the faster 35-39 year olds don't have: the willingness & suport to do 16 or more races in the South West this year.

Wish me luck for the 2010 season I'm going to need it!

I'm no fair weather rider

Today a snow storm hit Santa Fe. It lasted a few hours. One of the things I love about New Mexico is that I can ride my bicycle pretty much year round. As long as the snow isn't sticking to the roads or there isn't ice on the roads I can still ride.

Let me back track just a bit. For the last 3 weeks I've been on paternity leave & haven't shaved so I have grown one heck of a beard.

So, on with the story. Today I saw that there was an inch or so of snow sticking to the ground, but none at all sticking to the roads, so I threw on my cold weather cycling gear & took off for a ride! After about 20 minutes of riding the people who drove by were pointing at me. I get that a lot when I ride during the winter. Last year I went on a 3.5 hr bike ride in 19 degree weather. I actually had someone who drove past me turn back around & record me on their camcorder as I rode past them:) This time it was a while before I figured out why people were so amused with me. The snow that would normally hit my clean shaved face would melt. Today the snow was hitting my beard & instead of melting it was freezing & building up. After 45 minutes I had over a half inch of snow frozen onto my bearded face. Here's an interesting fact- the snow freezing onto my beard prevented the cold wind from hitting my face. So my face was warm & comfortable the entire ride.

Silverman 70.3 is on!

It's been a miracle, but I haven't missed a single workout in 3 weeks! As busy as I have been taking care of my wife healing up from a C section, keeping our 2 & 4 year olds busy, & trying to keep the house as neat as my wife likes it. Needless to say I don't have the time to train long anymore. Instead of training for 70.3's I've been training for sprints. It's been a miracle, but I haven't missed a single workout in 3weeks! I finish my run or bike before the kids wake up. Then 3 days a week while the kids nap I swim. After 3 weeks I'm feeling the effects of over reaching. Which is nice, because after next week I'll take a recovery week & do thew Silverman 70.3. I know, I had backed out of the Silverman, but my cousin has asked me to race it with him. It doesn't take much to convince me to race. I usually average 15 races a year! A bit OC perhaps? So I'll drive up there, sleep in the van, eat the cheapest foods I can find, & struggle through the Silverman. I say struggle because since Sept 18th the longest bike rides I've done was 33 miles & 25 miles. My longest run has been 5 miles. I'm definitely training way to short to do well in a half Iron. but hey, I'll struggle through it & enjoy it regardless of how much it hurts:)

Home again

My wife & I had baby #3. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces. He was born via C section on the 12th. He's perfect in every way.

I have a great wife. We were in the hospital for 3 days & each day my wife would feed baby Rion so he'd sleep well, & then she'd tell me to go workout. The whole time we were in the hospital I never missed one workout.

Once we got home training became a bit more difficult. Since my wife had a C section I've been taking care of her while she's recovering, while also trying my best to keep my 4 & 2 year olds occupied & happy, & try & hold & bond with baby Rion. The amount of training I've been able to do has been cut by more than half. I don't mind at all, just stating the facts. My long rides have been cut from 4-5 hrs to 1.5-2 &, my long runs have gone from 13-15 miles to 6 miles. Consequently my goals have changed. I went from my goal being The Silverman Half in November of this year & the Mountain Man in Aug 2010, which are both 70.3 distance triathlons. Now my next A races will be the Jingle Bell & Polar Bear triathlons in back to back weekends in Dec. I have absolutely no idea what my next A race after that will be. I don't know how much time I'll have to train, but more importantly I don't think we'll have the money for me to do any half Iron distance races which cost $250 & up or any Iron distance races which cost $500 & up, depending on the popularity of the race. Plus I'd have to travel to any 70.3 or Iron races, & we can't afford to travel either.

I am also now officially without a coach. The 5 weeks I'm taking off of paternity leave have stretched us beyond the breaking point financially. I'm hoping I can afford another coach mid next year, but to be honest I'm not sure we can rebound by then.


So, the only 2 things I do know about next years triathlon season is that I'll be doing local races, & I'll most definitely be a Clydesdale again next year. I'm doing poorly with the weight loss, gaining rather than losing. My current weight is 215. I don't mind doing local races or being a Clydesdale at all. The local races here in NM are fantastic. & the Clydesdales here in the SW all know each other & offer each other great support. I just wish I could stay under 215 pounds, which I'm thinking wont happen....again. Thanks for tuning in

a kinder gentler aproach:-)

I've been in the hospital for 4.5 days with my wife & new born son & while there realized my point of view on my previous post should have been presented differently. More on the bith of my wifes & my new born later, once I catch up on some sleep.

How's this:

First & foremost the RD's of races should have C/A divisions. I've sent out emails to all but the Alpine. I'm hoping I can get as many people to email the races RD's to request this as possible, even if their not a C/A.

I understand that there's no way to know which triathletes in a race are C/A's or where they finished among each other. So there's no way to know who should get 2-10 points. But the series has always given 1 point for just finishing a SW Series race. In my opinion I think the C/A's should STILL geta the 1 point for competing & finishing a series race.

I don't think the 1 point should be Johns responsibility to figure out. If a C/A emails & asks for the point because they did the race then they get the point for finishing that race. At least then their not completely out of luck. If a C/A doesn't care to ask for the 1 or 1/4 point & never gets it then no harm done. It's a very easy & uncomplicated way of giving at least some credit for completing a SW series race.

I could understand in part why someone would say,
"if you want the series points there are plenty of other races in the series. Just do one of the other ones."

or

"If that particular race is that important to you then you should do it for the joy of that race, not the points."

I just think giving the C/A's the choice to do the series race without at least a point for finishing isn't really much of a choice at all. I already had the choice to do any race not affiliated with the series. I do 10-15 SW series races EVERY YEAR because I love competing not just in each race individually, but racing in an entire year long series where I can get credit & points for competing in ANY of multiple races affiliated with that series. If it's in the series I feel it should be in the series for everyone at least in part. Leaving out a group, or three groups is still unfair to those groups left out. A 1 or a 1/4 point (if more than 8 races are completed) at least recognizes that a person or group of people did that race in the series.

Don't isolate me & my kind just because we're fat. Just kidding.... unless of course me planting that picture of a fat kid being left out of all the AG games pulls your heart strings, then by all means feel it baby! LOL.

I can understand everyone has different points of views on any one subject & by no means am I trying to say "I'm the only one who's right here."

I truly hope I didn't offend anyone by posting my feelings on this issue. & please understand I'm not one of the series haters that only write about the series because they resent the series. The reason I'm so passionate about this particular subject is because I'm truly passionate about the series, the competition, & camaraderie that comes from the SW series. As a Clyde I want that feeling at ALL the SW series races. Not just some of them.
Peace,