vacation over, tri-zombie returns

I just returned from a 10 day vacation. In almost 17 years of working at the prison this was the best vacation I've ever had. I raced in the Dog House sprint triathlon, got to visit my favorite cousins in Lubbock TX, but best of all was that I got to be at home with my wife at night, tuck my 3 kids into bed, take them to school, go to their soccer practices, and go to church with my wife and kids on Wednesday nights; all the things I've been missing from working at nights.

While on vacation I became used to sleeping at nights- having a normal persons schedule. Last night was my 2nd night back to work, I feel like a zombie, I'm probably acting like one too. I'm no longer used to sleeping during the day, it usually takes a couple weeks to acclimate to working the graveyard shift again. Until then I'll be chronically fatigued and struggling to find the energy to bike and run. Today I'm scheduled for some sprint work at the track and a strength training workout. It's a toss up as to weather I'll do it.... Dang I'm tired.

I keep reminding myself, just 37 more months until I'll retire from the prison, my wife will have graduated from nursing school, and I can finally go back to working a regular shift and feel like a normally functioning human being again.

The 2012 Dog House sprint triathlon race report

Today I competed in the Dog House sprint triathlon in Buffalo Springs Lake outside of Lubbock Texas. In 2010 I had one of my best races of all time at this race and finished in an hours twenty two minutes and in 2011 I finished in 1:23:13. This year they increased the distance of the swim, it was some where around 575 meters. I finished the swim in 9:22 and 19th overall.

I've been racing with a new aero helmet and I had serious problems getting it on in transition. I lost a good 9 seconds trying to get that dang thing on. I'm usually great in transition, but today I had a 79 second 1st transition. Very slow. My transition was 16th overall.

The bike was 17.6 miles and it was WINDY! I've been struggling to find the time to get in much cycling this year. The times I've been able to ride has been predominantly on the indoors rollers which isn't great for building short course speed. I finished the bike 54:18, maintaining a 19.4 mph average and finished with the 8th fastest bike ride of day.

T-2 was much better for me than T-1 with a 46.4 second transition 2 which was the 4th fastest transition 2 of the day.

I felt good on the run considering I've been struggling with a pulled quad muscle for the last few weeks. I finished the 3.1 mile run in 23:46 keeping a 7:40 pace. There was some confusion about where the turn around was. 2 athletes in front of me and 3 who were close behind me turned around about 25-30 meters early. I'm not sure why, but the volunteers didn't try and get the athletes to stop and come back. The time they got ahead of me by turning around early I wasn't able to make up. The RD's should have had a better marked course and more volunteers to prevent that from happening. A timing mat at the turn around would have provided the info of which athletes cut the course and who ran the distances they were supposed to. Oh well, such is life.

I finished 10th on the run.

My total time was 1:39:34, 8th place overall, and 2nd place in my age group.

I now have 5 races and 45 points for the SW challenge series 35-39 age group.

My next race will be the Tri Raider sprint triathlon in 5 weeks right here in Lubbock Texas.

Sacrifice at the 2011 Dog House Sprint triathlon: a race report

Last night I arrived at Buffalo Springs Lake outside Lubbock TX at 12:52 AM. While driving to Lubbock I listened to an audio book called "Night" by Ellie Wiesel. It was an autobiography of the authors own gruesome experiences of the death camps in Germany. I got decent sleep in the back of my van at the race sight, but after listening to the book about the holocaust I woke up missing my wife & children so badly I ached inside. I'm grateful that I know God is in control, that He loves my family with all His heart & is there with them always. Regardless of whether I'm there with them or or not, they are never alone. I honestly have no clue how those who don't have a close personal relationship with Jesus can face daily life thinking they & their loved ones are facing the world alone.

The race started with a 500 meter open water swim. I decided to do this race last minute & I rushed packing for the race, so I forgot my wet suit. The water was 52 degrees! Somehow that didn't seem to slow me much. I had a great swim 7 minutes 42 seconds. I was shocked by my time! I swim at the GCCC pool in Santa Fe. They won't allow children into the gym's day care unless they are 2 years or older. My wife goes to school full time & I watch my babies all day so I haven't been able to practice swimming since my youngest was born 20 months ago. So completing a 7:42 500 meter was a feat of miracle proportions!

The bike was 17.6 miles on a course with some pretty brutal hills. My cycling has been my weakest of the 3 sports all year. Plus my front HED3 tubular wheel got a flat tire last weekend during the Jay Benson triathlon. Since I hadn't originally planned on racing this weekend I hadn't put on a new tubular tire yet. So I raced on my Shimano 105's. My 105's are the wheels I train on. I hate fixing flats so my 105's have heavy duty Armadillo tires with thick thorn proof tubes. They are very heavy & slow compared to my HED3 race wheels & are not a good set to be lugging up & down the hills of Buffalo Springs. To make things worse there was a strong head wind. I was surprised to find the non-aero wheels were hindering me more on the flats where I could ride faster than they were climbing the hills. I've always heard that aero dynamics were more important than weight, but I had no idea how true it was until today. Even though I was racing on heavy non aero wheels in strong winds I was still able to complete the 17.5 mile bike in a little over 51:30! I was having a great day regardless of having no wet suit or decent race wheels!!!

The run was a 5K run on a flat fast course! Recently my running has been great! I have no idea why. I haven't been doing any speed or hill work, but my running just keeps getting faster & faster each week! I've never made gains like this before. I'm a faster runner now than I ever have been & I'm still 7 pounds heavier than I was last year!

During the run I knew I was somewhere in the top 5 overall, but I wasn't sure where in the top 5 I was exactly. A guy passed me at the half way point & I started pushing myself to repass him. He & I had a massive battle. He'd pass then I would. With only a mile remaining of the run he stopped running & doubled over with cramps. I knew since he stopped I was going to have that much higher of a placing, but rather than take the higher placing I slowed down & started yelling at him, "keep going, don't stop! We're only a mile from the finish! You can rest in less than 7 minutes!" He listened & started running again. He & I started battling for position once again. He'd pass me, then I'd pass him. The last 125 meters he slammed on the gas & as hard as I tried I just couldn't keep up. I found out at the awards ceremony he finished 2nd place overall male & I placed 3rd overall male. He finished seconds ahead of me. I know on the run he had given into the pain & stopped running. But because of my encouragement he started running again & pitting himself against me. If I hadn't of yelled at him to keep going I would have had my first top 2 finish of my life. But what matters more to me than the highest finish of my life is to know that I helped someone accomplish something they wouldn't have without my help. That feels great. Instead of walking away feeling good because of a higher finish I'm walking away feeling great because I did something for someone most people would never have done. I did what I did because I dont race for glory. I race to glorify God.

I finished today's 5k run in a little less than 21:56 minutes. I completed the entire race in in 1 hour 23 minutes 13 seconds. I missed breaking my PR by less than a minute. Considering what strong winds there was & that I was using a slow pair of training wheels I think it was a great day.

This was my 8th race for the SW Chllenge series & my 73rd multisport race all time.

The Dog House Triathlon 2010 race report

This past weekend, May 16th 2010 was The Dog House sprint triathlon. It was a 500 meter swim, a 17.6 mile bike, & a 3.2 mile run in Lubbock TX.

I was motivated to do well in this race because my cousin Greg, who got me into triathlon way back when was going to be racing with me.

Like I'd posted on my last blog entry, I wasn't expecting much from myself in this race. I'd over trained leading up to my A race 3 weeks prior to the Dog House triathlon & had been struggling to get through any workouts, much less been able to finish any races with any serious speed.

Because of my poor performance the last month I took some time before the race to pray. I asked for a strong race if it was Gods will, or to give me the strength to accept a bad performance if it was what He wanted for me that day. This particular prayer is one I pray frequently: to have the strength to accept His will when his desires conflict with what I want. I have made great progress with accepting His will over mine, which isn't an easy thing for me to do. I'm a man of sinful nature & all to often I see myself acting just like a stubborn & strong willed child would, resenting when things don't go my way, pouting, & feeling sorry for myself-case in point look at my last blog post, jeez, that was ridiculous! I try & remember God is ALWAYS right in everything He does, even when- no especially when it goes against what I want.

The race started with a 500 meter open water swim. It was a mass start in water just a bit over a 60 degree temperature. The last time I raced in Lubbock (2008) I waited in the back of the pack to allow the majority of the athletes to get out onto the swim course before I started swimming. Not this time! I've improved my swimming speed & skills & was confident I could swim in the middle of the the pack where all the pushing & thrashing is. As soon as the gun went off I took off running into water. As the water became deep enough that running became too slow & cumbersome, but it wasn't yet deep enough to start swimming yet I started to dolphin. I was surprised to see I was the only athlete doing that.

I really needed a great swim because I knew the swim was where I had the biggest advantage on my cousin, who struggles in the water. He is an AMAZING cyclist, & knew I had to put a lot of distance on him in the water or he was sure to pass me early enough in the bike that I'd never be able to catch him on the run. I ended up with one of the 2 best swims of my life, getting out of the 500 meter swim in under 8 minutes!

I made a rookie mistake & couldn't find my bike in T-1 losing a good 20 seconds.

The bike course is very hilly & challenging! There are a 3 or 4 BIG hills each way on the out & back course, the 1st of which is the largest & longest and starts 100 feet from the bike start.

I had a strong bike performance finishing the 17.5 mile bike averaging approximately 22 mph. Amazingly enough I had finished the swim in a good enough time that my cousin wasn't able to pass me on the bike.

I started the run with my stop watch telling me I was just under the 1 hour mark total. I knew I was having a great race, pulling off some wonderful splits, but the run had been where I was struggling most recently. I had no idea what to expect, but I was motivated because I kept imagining my cousin was about to pass me by any minute, & I didn't want to get into a situation where he & I were running the entire course stride for stride, pushing each other to the breaking point, because I know how much heart that man has, & he'd end up testing my limits beyond what would be fun for me, squeezing every last bit of energy I had out of me, until I had nothing left & he'd end up dropping me, leaving me to struggle on the rest of the run on wobbly legs, exhausted, barely able to hold myself in an upright position, much less run with any authority.

Since it was an out and back run I was able to count athletes coming by from the turn around point. By my count I was in 5th place overall. I was able to hold onto the 5th place overall until there was 1 mile left on the run. At that point a lady by the name of Gretchen passed me. She was running very well, with perfect form, up on her toes, her steps were light, fast, & rhythmic, I could barely hear them at all. As she passed me her steps sounded like small patters of rain & I never once heard her breath heavily, which was completely the opposite of me, which I imagine sounded to her like she was getting chased by an asthmatic elephant.

I hung with her a well as I could, but this lady was strong! She ended up finishing 15 seconds ahead of me- remember me being unable to find my bike in T-1? That 20 second mistake cost me a top 5 finish. That just shows a person never stops learning, or in my case, never stops having to relearn:)

I finished the 5K run in approximately 23 minutes.

After I finished I went back out onto the course & paced my cousin the remainder of his run. We really kicked up the speed the last half mile! Being able to finish the remainder of his run with him was a great moment, I'll remember that fondly the rest of my life!

I finished the race in a total of 1 hour 22 minutes. Finishing in 6th place overall & 1st place AG 35-39. I now am in 1st place in the South West Challenge Series 35-39 AG with a total of 71.25 points.