Chili Harvest Triathlon

I'm packing for the Chile Harvest Triathlon which will be held tomorrow in Soccorro NM. The Chili Fest is the state club championships. I'll be racing for the NM Outlaws who are state champions for the last 3 straight years. This year we're having some tough competition from the Las Alamos Triatomics & Endurance Endeavors.

The state club championships will be my last race of the year for the SW Challenge series. Right now I'm ahead of the SW Challenge Series in the Clydesdale open division, I have a total of 66 points. My 2 closest competition has 46 & 34 points. I'm well ahead, but each of them knows I have a baby due soon & am unable to race the rest of the year- except for the Redman, which isn't part of the series. There are 9 races left in the series after this weekend. Plenty of races to surpass my measly 66 points. But I'm still hoping to wrap up the series & win my division for the third straight year if I can finish tomorrow in first place. If I can do that I'll have 76 points Which would still allow plenty of time for my competition to overcome:(

In 2006 I finished the Chile Harvest triathlon with a poor performance- yet still setting a PR with a time of 1 hr 27 minutes.

I'll be showing up at the race start this year weighing 207! I'm about 20 pounds lighter than I was when I PR'd this race in 2006. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to be a few seconds faster on the swim, I'm expecting to average over 18 mph on the bike this year which will be an increase of 5.5 mph from '06!!!! & I think I'll be about 1 minute faster on the run. All things considered I'm hoping to finish no slower than 1 hour 15 minutes which will knock off 12 minutes from my PR. Keep your finger crossed, because I really need the series points!

As I said earlier I'm weighing in at 207. I'm 7 pounds from my goal weight of 200 by the Redman half Iron on Sept 19th. & I'm 22 pounds from my ultimate goal of 185 which is the weight I'd like to try & maintain & race at all next season.

This month I had a great month of training. I thought I had hit a 600 mile month, but when I doubled checked my #'s I realized I missed it by 21 miles.

Swim 16404 yards
Bike 578.5 miles
Run 72.25 miles

Still going strong

This whole week I've been on a high. I finally had a good race this weekend at the Santa Fe Triathlon. I averaged over 20 miles an hour on the bike & had one of my top 3 swims ever. I'm sure a lot of my performance had to do with me finally completing all of my scheduled workouts. I was swamped with family obligations this summer and missed a bunch of workouts, but even when I did have the time to train I missed more than my fair share. A lot of that had to do with burnout from training for Ironman Arizona last year. I believe I'm back in full swing now!

I believe the other aspect of my increased speed is my diet. Before I was following Weight Watchers, which I don't believe is a great diet for endurance athletes. Most of the week I burn well over 1000 calories a day working out. On WW I only replaced half of what I burned, which left me at a huge deficit, which not only prevented me from getting the nutrients & calories needed to recover, but also left me furiously hungry all the time. Coniquently I was constantly falling off the diet wagon. All that yo-yo dieting was frustrating to me.

On my new diet regimen I'm rarely ever hungry. When I am hungry I do a quick swim, bike, or run at an easy pace to earn some extra calories. Since I get to eat %100 of the calories I burn it's very easy & worth while to do extra exercising.

Because it's so rewarding to workout extra, I've been doing a lot of zone 1 training on my indoor trainer while watching the Tour De France. It's very easy for me to lose track of time watching the Tour. Normally an hour on the trainer a couple times a week is all I can tolerate. While watching this epic bike race I'm putting in an hour and a half to two hours a day at least four times a week on top of my scheduled workouts. So far this month I've racked up 470 cycling miles. I'm hoping to hit my first 600 mile month without missing any of my scheduled running or swimming. I'll need to average a bit over 17 miles a day the rest of the month, but since this entire week is a recovery week I may miss my goal by just a bit.

My weight this morning was 213.6. I l'm down another 2 pounds this week, 14 pounds lost total while using dietpower. 28 pounds to go.

Thanks for tuning in!

2nd annual Santa Fe Triathlon

Today was the 2009 Santa Fe triathlon. This race was only 5 miles from my house, & used the same course I usually train on a daily basis. I can't come close to explaining how nice it was not having to deal with leaving a hotel, loading the car, & finding a race sight in an area I'm unfamiliar with. This was the most stress free race I've competed in all 6 years that I've been doing triathlons.

The race was extremely well ran. The only knock against it was they were a little unprepared for as many triathletes as they had. They should of had more bike racks. Everything else went off without a hitch. As a matter of a fact the results were posted online by 11 am!

The race was a 5 K Run/ 12.8 mile Bike/ 400 meter pool swim. The race start was packed! There were probably 350-400. I wasn't expecting that many to show. There were even more at this race than there was at the Milkman triathlon which was the Rocky Mountain championships.

Up until this year the run had been my forte. But this year I've been running like dog pooh. I started out this run feeling decent for a change. I really liked the way the run course was set up. It was %100 closed to traffic, the majority of it was on a bike/run trail, & it had a 90 degree turn around at the 2.5 mile mark. I like U turns on the run portion of a triathlon so I can see how much of a lead or deficit I have on my competition. I finished the run in 24:58. Unfortunately I was a good 10-15 seconds slower in T-1 today which is usually where I dominate.

I got on the bike & felt great immediately! From the very start of the bike I was hammering & passed a ton of people, but more importantly not a single person passed me. My combined finishing time of the bike & T-1 was a blazing fast 40 minutes 1 second . My great performance on the bike came as a complete & total surprise. This was a pretty hilly course, & saying I don't climb well is an understatement. & the last 2.5 weeks I've been training very very hard & entered this race with no taper or rest at all.

I had a great swim. Perhaps the reason I did so well was this is the pool I swim in daily. Home territory for me. I grabbed a lady's slip stream & drafted off her the entire 400 meter swim. I've tried drafting in the water before & had never been able to keep on their feet. Today I drafted perfectly! Finished the swim & T-2 in a combined time of 8 minutes flat.

Total race time was 1 hr 12 minutes 59 seconds. Unfortunately there was no Clydesdale division today, so I raced in the 30-34 AG & placed 9th. Like I'd said in earlier blog posts my ultimate goal is to race all of next year weighing under 200 pounds. As of this morning I'm 214. Today's race made me realize the ONLY way I'll be competitive as an age grouper is to race at between 180-190 pounds. I completed 2 races last year at 192 pounds, & boy was I fast! At the Jay Benson which was the same distance as today's race I finished in 1:04. I completed the Buffman & Squeaky Olympic distance triathlon in 2:40:57. I was definitely competitive in my AG at 192. At 180 I might even start placing top 3. Ah, the dreams of triathlon & the aspirations of SPEED!

Thanks for tuning in!

Goal 1 down 2 to go!

Today was a great day. This morning I weighed in at 215, which was my short term goal. Next goal is to be at or below 205 by the Halfmax National Championships on Sept 19th. Goal after that is 180-185 by New Years day! Ultimate goal is to compete all next year between 180-190 pounds. 12 pound down, 30 more to go!

I went on a 38 mile bike & a 2 mile run with with a buddy of mine. He's a former pro cyclist. He threw a beat down on the bike this morning.

After our ride he put on my new triathlon saddle onto my bike. It's at least a half pound lighter, not to mention it's dang perdy! I'll be trying it out on Sundays Santa Fe triathlon.

I'm excited about the Santa Fe triathlon this Saturday. I'm 12 pounds lighter than I was on my last race, plus I have a lighter & really fast looking seat. & you know how important appearances are. If you look fast, you must be fast!

The Santa Fe triathlon is all of 5 miles from my house. I'll be racing on my home territory. This will be my 10th race of the South West Challenge Series this year. So far I'm in 1st place in the open Clydesdale division with 78.25 points.

I'll keep you updated on how the battle with the bulge & my triathlon endeavors are going. Thanks for tuning in!

warning very very graphic pics, & more losses

This week has been an awesome week! My wife's B-day was celebrated this week. At the party I had to much cake & pizza. I was 1100 calories over to be exact. On dietpower, my new found dieting program, I am able to easily do a quick workout to earn extra calories. I got home, rode my indoor trainer trainer while watching the Tour De France. 1 hr 38 minutes & not only was I able to earn enough calories to negate my excess calories, but I had earned 200 calories more than I'd needed. Speaking of indoor training miles I've been logging a ton of indoor trainer miles on top of what my coach has assigned. Another successful day & successful week in the books! Current weight is 216. I'm down 11 & have 31 more pounds to go.

At work we call new employees fish. Partially they're called fish because they are wet behind the ears, but also because more often than not it's the rookies who either don't have the experience or common sense to avoid getting stabbed. So they are usually the ones flopping around the the floor like a fish out of water with holes poked in them from an inmate.

My oldest friend works at another facility & sent these pics to me, they are of a rookie who was a really big guy. He saw an inmate with a shank & rather than wait for proper back up or calling for the tower to open fire he decided his size, strength, & aggression would be able to overwhelm the skinny, yet armed inmate. Apparently that didn't work out so well for him.

One of the things I've learned from 14 years working in a prison is no matter how hot it is, bring a jacket with a liner, hoodie sweat shirts, and at least a few t-shirts, along with our mandatory uniforms. I wear all these into the pods, cell blocks, or dorms when I have my spidey sense tell me to be on my toes. There's been more than one time that this has saved me from earning extra holes to breath from, literally & figuratively, just like a fish.

Thanks for tuning in.

Continued weight loss!

A friend of mine named Sandra is an endurance athlete very similar to me- only she's a faster cyclist. She too struggles with her weight. it sucks having to struggle with weight when your an endurance athlete because low body weight is so very important to our speed and endurance. It has to do with our power to weight ratio on the bike & the height to power ratio on the run.

Sandra showed me a computer program called dietpower. It's AMAZING! I've been making great gains for the 2.5 weeks I've been on it & haven't fallen off the wagon once since starting the program. I was until recently doing weight watchers online. I found out that on WW I was hungry all the time. Like I've said a 100 times I'm an all or nothing kind of a guy. Once I fall off the wagon for one meal I may not gain control for days or even weeks. I believe the reason I was so hungry on WW was that I was only able to eat half the calories I earned from my workout. Being a long distance triathlete, it's fairly common for me to burn 4500 calories on a long day of training. Out of the 4500 I burned I'd only be able to eat 2250. In my opinion that left me at such a large deficit that not only was I STARVING, but even worse was that I wasn't getting enough calories or nutrients to recover from a hard days training.

Another thing than Sandra & I have in common is we've both turned to blogging to stay motivated, show our recent weight & athletic gains & losses, to share our battle, & perhaps to even help others who also have our issues with the battle of the bulge. Her blog isn't public or I'd share the sight with my peeps, but I'm very excited to watch her adventure.

I weighed in @ 218 this morning, down from 225 a little less than 3 weeks ago. I'm hoping to be approximately 205 by the Halfmax National Championships race on Sept 19th. I'm a fast triathlete at that weight. My long term goal is to be @ 185 pounds by Nov 10th. The lightest I've been since mid school was 188 pounds in May of last year. I think I'll be able to get to that weight using my new Diet Power. But more importantly I think I'll be able to maintain that weight this time.

On to the Tour De France!!! I'm a bit behind, stage 5 was today yet I just finished watching stage 4 on TiVo. Stage 4 was the team time trial. Stage 4 was the most exciting stage I've ever seen!!!!! & this Tour is turning out to be the most exciting Tour I've ever watched. I'm going to try to watch all of stage 5 today before I go into work. For those not watching YOU ARE MISSING OUT BIG TIME!

Peace peeps!

Good deed and the Tour

Today I celebrated the 4th of July with a 3 hr 20 minute brick workout with my best friend. We started at the Smiths @ Tramway & Central. We rode up into the mountains & after a 30 minute warm up we did 5X12 minutes in zone 3 with 3 minute rest intervals. We turned around 3 miles from Chilile. We ended up finishing 42.6 miles on the bike then completed off with a 20 minute run.

On the tail end of the ride I decided to ride past Smiths to get an extra 15 minutes of riding in. I didn't need to do this, but I made a last minute decision. 15 minutes past Smiths we turned our bikes around & we attempted to head back to our vehicles, but before we could we heard someone yelling in a near panicked voice "hey! Hey you on the bike! Help!"

I stopped my bike & looked around. I could still hear the voice yelling for me to help, but I couldn't see anyone. I approached some bushes on the side of a house & lying there on the ground was a little old lady who had fallen & was unable to get up on her own. When I reached down to help her up I realized just how old she was. Very elderly & frail. Apparently she'd been there awhile because her face was red & flushed from the heat & she had defecated herself. I told her I was going to call 911, but she got really mad & told me no! She gave me a number she wanted to call. Apparently it was the house we were outside of. After I told the person who answered what the situation was a 20 something year old kid came out of the house to help her in. I was pissed off because he left her there outside so long. He never checked on her or heard her yells. He should of been more aware.

The good deed having been done, we headed back to our vehicles to finish off the 3 hr bike ride with a quick 20 minute run.

Once we finished our days workout I headed to my in-laws house to catch the last 46 minutes of the Tour De France. I heard on Verses that Lance Armstrong is lighter at the beginning of this Tour than any of the 7 he had been victorious in. Sounds like a great start!!!

I wasn't sure- I don't think anyone outside of team Astana is sure who will be their team leader this year. At the end of the day Alberto Cantador took 2nd place, Andreas Kloden took 4th, Levi Leipheimer took 6th & Lance Armstrong took 10th place. I don't know if that means Lance will be a domastique for Contador or the other way around, but I know that if 4 of the top 10 riders of stage 1 are team Astana, that boads well for them. Either way I'll be watching EVERY day, each & every minute of the Tour this year to find out.

God bless.

Triathlon related things, me, & mine

This weekend I'm scheduled & have paid the registration fee for the Farmington Freedom Days Olympic distance triathlon. I've always wanted to do this triathlon & this year my schedule allows for it. Unfortunately I had a financial choice to make. Race, or upgrade my DirecTV to get the cheapest channel package that has the Tour De France. Unfortunately I can't afford to do both right now.

Like any good endurance athlete I have chosen the Tour. Especially since I have TiVo! I think this is best for me- at least that's what I'm telling myself- because I'll get a ton of base miles on my indoor bike trainer watching Lance Armstrong win another Tour. Plus I'm way ahead in the South West Challenge Series so missing one race shouldn't hurt my standings much- hopefully.

I don't know what I'm more excited about, watching Lance ride again, or the possibility of watching another American winning a French cycling race. In general the French really dislike American cyclists, yet in the last decade Americans have won more Tour De France races than all other countries combined! Gotta love it. I sure get a kick out of it!

My daughter has started riding what she & I refer to as her "big girl bicycle". She started riding it a few weeks ago. She's already a great runner & an awe inspiring swimmer for her age (4 years old this Sept). Now that she's nailing the bike riding I'm thinking she'll be finishing her first triathlon next year. The Jay Benson triathlon in May has a kids mini-triathlon. It's on Mothers day. I'm not sure if my wife will be excited or filled with dread watching another family member become a full fledged triathlete;)

I have found an amazing tool for triathletes. It's called Powerdiet.com It's a web site designed to provide a nearly perfect diet for athletes. On day 1 of being on this program I enter my current weight, the goal weight I'm wanting to achieve, & the date I want to achieve it on. Each day I enter my weight & the program finds my metabolic rate so that the sight knows exactly how many calories each day I need to be at a deficit to reach my goal weight on time. I also enter the time & intensity of my workouts each day & Power diet automatically adjusts to allow more calories. Power Diet doesn't estimate calories based off an average person like Weight Watchers Online, it figures out exactly what my calorie needs are daily. No guess work on my part at all.

The other thing I like about Power Diet is, as I enter the foods I eat the program shows me exactly how much total fat, protein, carbohydrates, & 33 of the major nutrients I've eaten. If I haven't eaten enough of anyone of those the site tells me & makes suggestions on what foods to eat that has what I'm lacking. Perfect tool for endurance athletes.

current weight: 218.8

Hope you all enjoy your 4th of July. Peace!