I quit, I'm raising the white flag!!

Looks like I may be giving up on a couple things. Just call me the local French representative!

The 1st thing I'm quitting on, I'm done trying to lose weight. I'm burned out. I think my body needs to try & maintain at 188 pounds for awhile to get used to this new lighter weight I'm at. It's stressful on the body to drop weight while still training hard. I've been losing or gaining weight non stop since last July. I've decided I'm going to attempt to stay at the weight I'm at until November 1st. At that time I'll try & drop this last 8 or 9 pounds. My dream weight is 179-180. If everything works out the way I'd like I'll be at my goal weight by the 1st race of the 2011 race season.

I did a lot of praying both last year & this year to get faster at multisport, & I became faster than I ever dreamed I could be. Now I'm going to continue to pray for speed at triathlon, and to maintain my weight until November. For those of you who are new to my blog, my weight has always been an issue for me. It wasn't until late last year that I was able to drop a significant amount of the weight I'd been hanging onto the last 5 years. The most important thing pertaining to multisport I'll be praying for is for me to be able to use triathlon & duathlon to spread God's word.

The other thing I may end up having to bail out of is the Halfmax National championships this September. I qualified for the Halfmax National Championships last September & was hoping to race & attempt to qualify again for the 3rd straight year. It's not that I don't want to compete in that race, because I desperately do, it's that I can't afford the entry fee & travel.

I've been working on getting sponsored by AFSCME. If I can get them as a sponsor before the registration deadline I'll jump at the opportunity to race at the Halfmax National Championships, but if not then it just wasn't meant to be. I'm ok with that, I am a Christian & family man 1st, multi-sport athlete 2nd.

This Saturday I'll be competing in the Chick-fil-a sprint triathlon in Amarillo TX. I called the the RD, Mark G. & asked him exactly what the bike course is like. He said "flat!" I asked, "rolling hills flat, or really flat". He replied, "flat as a pancake flat!" I'm was already excited about competing in The Chick-Fil-a triathlon. But now I'm even more excited! As many of you know I am much more powerful & competitive on a flat course than a hilly one. I struggle badly with climbing. Any race I do with hills I will get beat by people I normally finish ahead of. Case in point, I beat a fellow by the name of Garrot Rennonat the Dog House Sprint triathlon in Lubbock TX in May by a minute 19 seconds. A month later I competed against him in the Gallup triathlon, which is a VERY hilly course! He beat me by 2 min 13 sec.

It's rare that I get the opportunity to race on a very flat & fast course. I love flat & fast courses!!! I always have my best performances at flat races. Oh me! oh my! I am excited!

A great thing happened at work last night. I witnessed to one of my fellow co-workers. He's now wanting to come to church with my family & I. I'm going to do my best to plant the seed of God's great word & hope God makes it grow. Anytime I try bringing others to Christ I always feel like I am such an unworthy person to be bringing such a great thing as God's grace into someone's life. He's such an awesome God, & I'm such an average man-on a good day. Most days, I'm a wretched, sinful man who would have no chance of entering heaven on my own accord. For someone like me to try & spread God's word, I feel a bit overwhelmed. But then I think of some of the stories I've read in the bible. The story of Moses is the one that comes 1st to my mind. Moses felt like he wasn't a good enough of a man to do all that God asked of Him. But through God, anything is possible. If any of you prayer warriors out there are willing, I'd sure love a few prayers for me to be able to show him the way, & let God take it over from there.

The Gallup triathlon race report

I completed the June 12th 2010 Gallup triathlon, no flats this time! This was my 63rd multisport race, which doesn't include centuries, marathons, etc. I'm 37 races away from hitting one of my multisport goals of completing 100 races. The race results didn't get posted until Monday or so. But overall I was very impressed with this race. BTW, it's the hardest sprint distance triathlon I've ever competed in. VERY Hard course!

It was a seated 400 yard swim, 12.6 mile bike, & a 3.2 mile run.

My splits were:
400 yard swim in 6 min 29 sec.
T-1 45 seconds
12.6 mile bike in 37 min 56 seconds, a 19.93 mph Ave
T-2 in 34 seconds!
3.2 mile run in 23 min 19 seconds, a 7:31 min per mile pace.
A total time of 1 hr 9 min 3 seconds, crushing my previous PR at this race!
I finished 4th place overall out of 82, & 1st place in my division.

I drove up there with a co-worker & friend named Pete Jackson. His times were
Swim 10 min 43 sec
T-1 1 min 59 sec
Bike 47 min 5 sec 16.6 mph Ave
T-2 1 min 5 sec
Run 31 min 38 sec. 10:12 min per mile pace
Total 1 hr 32 min 30 sec
He was 1st place 45-49!
Considering this was only his 3rd race, he's doing amazing!

With this 1st place finish I'm securely in 1st place in the South West Challenge Series 35-39 age group with a total of 74.5 points. I have 4 first place finishes, 2 second place finishes, & 2 third place finishes.

My closest competitors is Greg Gouveia who has 38 points in 5 races, & Cory Adair who has 36 points in 5 races.

I'm now in a position that in 6+ years of hard core training & racing I've never been in before. I have accomplished my major goal of the season, so now I can train & race as I please. If I don't train as hard as I usually do, that's ok. I'll enjoy the down time so I can come back the later part of this season refreshed & ready to train hard core again. Or if I decide to train as hard as I want, I can do that too! Whatever I want to do at this point I can do without any feelings of guilt or impending dread, of shoulda, coulda, woulda! My next race that I need to take seriously isn't until my first 2 races of the new season, The Polar Bear triathlon & The Jingle Bell triathlon this Dec. How refreshing this is! I believe God has granted me this gift of achieving my seasons goal so early in the year because I have started using triathlon to glorify Him & spread His word

My next race is going to be the Chick-fil-a triathlon in Amarillo TX June 19th 2010. It's going to be flat, so I think I'm going to race on my HED3, disk wheel set. The Chick-fil-a triathlon weekends race was my fathers day present & it will be the 1st race my family has attended since the Buffman and Squeaky triathlon in 2008. I'm excited to be able to finish a race in front of my kids. Hopefully they will think it's exciting & think it was fun to watch Daddy race.

Wish me luck, & I'll see you at the races!