weightlifting coach Juaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club

Today after training my weightlifting coach Juaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club told me he wanted me to skip the 2nd annual John Davis memerial weightlifting meet next weekend to get in more quality training time with him. My old triathlon coach Pete Alfino of Mile High Multi-sport used to ask me the same thing all the time, "don't race this weekend, train instead. You need the training more than the race." I'd ignore my former triathlon coach and race. Every single time. Joaquin's the best coach I've ever had in any sport. I think the world of Joaquin. Both as a coach and as a person. If Joaquin asks me to not lift in a meet, then I'm not lifting in a meet. I do what he says no questions asked. Period. The only regret I have is not having found him to train under his tutlage earlier. He opened up High Dessert Athletic Club way back in 1998. I could have been lifting with him since I was 23 years old instead of starting with him at 40. I can't even imagine how my life would have been different if I'd of started lifting with him 16 years ago. For one, I'd be a beast by now. Jennifer Buckner has been lifting with him since 1998 and she's one of the strongest master weightlifters in the nation! But, I'm here now. And I love it. It's hard to believe when I left Santa Fe I was considering giving up weightlifting and becoming a powerlifter. My fear was I wouldn't be able to find decent coaching.

I've been stuck at 310 pounds for a little over three weeks now. In the past I'd of freaked out about not losing any weight for three weeks. But I'm OK with it now. I'll continue doing what my  sports nutrition coach Barry Schroeder says and eventually we'll get through it. If not, that's ok too. I've gotten to the point that I'm comfortable with myself. I like myself as I am at any weight. I believe the new fancy term for that is fat acceptance. Accepting myself as i am sure makes trying to eat for health and weightlifting performance more enjoyable. Now it's a goal and a process I can enjoy rather than feeling manic and obsessed about getting to a bodyweight that will make others and ultimately myself like me more.

unresonable goal setting

My biggest trouble in Athletics is goals. I find a goal to focus on and a month later I drop that one and move on to another goal. My old triathlon coach, Pete Alfino of Mile High Multi-sport coaching was the first one to tell me, "what my problem is". He was right. He usually was. He wasn't very good at presenting things in a way that was good for me. He was more of a this is what I think f#cking deal with and quit whining kind of coach. He pissed me off and hurt my feeling a lot, but he was usually right.


My goal for a long time was to drop to the 105k (232pound) weight class for olympic style weightlifting. It's actually a very good goal, but it's to big and would take to long to get to. So I'd get frustrated or bored and give up on weight loss and just focus on weightlifting.

I'm currently 319 pounds. I need a more attainable goal. My nutrition coach Barry Schroeder helped me find a goal that'll help me keep my motivation up and give me a short term win: i love to compete in NASA powerlifting competitions. I'm currently in the super heavyweight division. To drop into the next division I'd need to get to 307.9 pounds. The next NASA powerlifting meet is July 9th. That gives me a couple months to lose 10 pounds. 1.5 pounds a week. It's doable, won't take much time, and is motivational. At my current strength I could set 11 national and 30 New Mexico state NASA powerlifting records. Now that's motivating!

So, Barry and I are back at it. Trying to get my big fat butt to lose some weight. Here it goes....

I'm a flake and OCD both

I used to drive my old triathlon coach Pete Alfino nuts. I'd set a goal to compete at a race and a couple months into training for it i'd get the itch and want to change my goal. And here i am contemplating changing my goal again.  Since December I'd been gradually losing weight. My goal was to get to the 105k weight class. Although i was still gaining strength as i was losing weight, I'm not gaining as much as I do when I'm not trying to lose weight. So now of course I'm attempting to  justify staying at current weight. There's no doubt I'd look better if i lost weight. I'm sure I'd also feel better about myself at a lighter weight. But if i stay my current weight I'll be stronger for Olympic style weightlifting. And i REALLY LOVE Olympic style weightlifting! I'm even better at weightlifting than i was at triathlon, and i ended up being a highly decorated triathlete. I also have a really legitimate fear of getting obsessed with weight loss. I have a tendency to get a little out of control with sports and food. I found a picture of when i was a hard core triathlete. I was to thin and absolutely not eating enough.

And here's one of me now. 

I'd love to lose 80-90 pounds, but I'm afraid of going off the deep end with my eating again. 

What to do? What to do? 

change of race plans

Thanks to my wife who has been willing to make some adjustments to her schedule I've been able to get in all the training I need for my Iron distance triathlon. Unfortunately I've had no time for anything other than Iron training. To be able to fit in all my training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday's I only get 3 hours of sleep which I'm ok with. But in a few weeks my training will get so time consuming it'll start to infringe with the special one on one time I spend with my kids. I'm not ok with that at all. So starting today I'm no longer planning on training for the Redman Iron distance triathlon this September. Instead I'll be training for some late season sprint distance triathlons. On one hand I'm glad because I love training and racing for sprints and I hate training for Irons. But one of my life goals was to go sub 13 hours at an Iron. All my training thus far showed I was going to break 13 hours easily. Now that goal will have to wait. Since my wife will be entering nursing school this fall I wont have the opportunity to start training for another Iron until late 2015. Oh well, such is life.

My diet fell apart this Saturday and Sunday. My weight is now 197.4. It pisses me off that I struggle so badly with the eating aspect of triathlon. The mad scientist Pete Alfino (my former triathlon coach) told me training for sprint distance triathlons would help keep my metabolism higher than Iron training does and would help keep my weight down, so there's another great reason switching to sprint distance triathlons is a good thing.

Yesterday I attacked some hills on the bike. It felt great. I love hill workouts, lactate threshold intervals, & power intervals! Sprint training is going to be great fun! I'm looking forward to this!

recovering from a PR & a new coach

Well, I'm post Redman. I was excited about my new 70.3 PR of 5 hr 30 min. I never dreamed I'd be that fast at that distance, especially considering all the rain, standing water, and mud from flooding on the bike & run course. I realize the biggest reasons for my increased speed was my low body weight- low for me anyways, and great coaching.

My coach is having me take off until Friday, then we'll evaluate how I feel & start training for the Silverman half Iron which is schedualed for Nov 7th. The Silverman is a very hard course with lots of climbing. So low body weight at the Silverman will be even more important than it was for the Redman. I feel I can get to 190-195 by then, & 180-185 by the New year. If I can get to that weight I'm going to race all of 2010 as a 35-39 AG. Racing as an AG, & under 200 pounds for an entire year has always been one of my biggest goals in triathlon. Wish me luck!

I'm ahead in the South West Challenge series. The athlete closest to me in points is a guy named George Ferland. Apparently he's very fast. He's won the Clydesdale division in every race he's competed in the last 2 years. There are 2 races left for the season. Essentially what it boils down to is if he races in either one of the next 2 he will be champion. If He doesn't compete in either of the 2 remaining I win the series. I'll keep you informed.

After the Silverman I'm going to be looking for a new coach. I've been with the coach I have now since the summer of 06. Coach Pete is awesome and he has shown me what nearly perfect triathlon coaching is like. He's good. Very very good, & he knows how good he is. Consequently and understandably he is raising his prices at the new year. I just can't afford to keep him on. $ is the one & only reason I have to get another coach.

I've had bad coaches before. Nothing is more aggravating & disheartening. I had a feeling this was going to happen with Coach Pete, so I'd been keeping my eyes open for other coaches for awhile. If this happened I was planning on hiring a retired pro cyclist by the name of James Webster who coaching here in Alb. Then, after speaking with my current coach this weekend, he told me he has some coaches who have signed on to coach for his company who are outstanding. He also gave me a discount on the coaching he's giving me until the Silverman as an incentive to stay with Mile High Multisport coaching. I'm now unsure what I'll do. 50/50 I guess.

James Webster is a local coach. That's a plus. He made a living from being a pro endurance athlete, the knowledge he'd have to offer based on his life experiences in pro cycling would be priceless. He returns phone calls very quickly, the negative side of him is that the times I emailed him, he took a long time to respond or never responded at all. Although I must point out I wasn't his paying athlete, so a slow response is understandable to a point. The other negative side of James is that he & his triathlon club has a pretty serious blood feud going on with mine. My tiathlon team, the NM Outlaws have always been such a supportive & kind group of people, I am unwilling to leave the NM Outlaws. I doubt James would be willing to coach me if I refused to join his team & race for "the enemy".

I trust my current coach whole hearted. If he says the coaches he has working for him are good I believe him. He'll also be over seeing the coaches under him, so I'll still have Coach Pete there giving advise to my new coach, explaining my strengths & weaknesses & how best to deal with them. There is also the fact that I have some serious food issues that coach Pete has been very patient with. I'm unwilling to tolerate someone saying something stupid & inconsiderate like "just be more mindful about what your putting in your mouth".

For right now I don't know which way I'll go for a new coach. I'll keep you informed.

Thanks for tuning in.

The Redman Half Iron!

My training hasn't been going well this year. By far the least motivated & the least amount of training I've done since starting training for triathlons in 2005. Surprisingly my weight has stayed consistent, higher than I'd like, but consistent. Mid-high 220's.

I started training for sprint distance triathlons (400 meter swim, 12.5 mile bike, 3.2 mile run) last year after Ironman Arizona. I chose to do that because sprints are my favorite distance to race at. I have been shocked to find out that although sprints are my favorite distance to race at half irons are by far my favorite distance to train for. Iron training was in my opinion a bit to much time spent training to really be enjoyable. At my peak training last year I was training 19 hours a week. On Sundays I'd do a 6 hour bike with a 45 min run, then Monday morning I'd do a run from 3-3.5 hrs long. So full Ironman training was to long and monotonous, yet training for anything shorter than the half iron distance leaves me feeling unsatisfied, which was why a couple days ago I was surfing some half iron web sites.

Last year I found a series called the Halfmax & ultramax. They are the same distances as Ironman & 70.3 (half iron), but this new series has Clydesdale & Athena divisions which Ironman & 70.3 no longer has. The minute I found that series on the web I decided that the Halfmax national championships was one of my eventual goals. A person would have to qualify for the Halfmax national championships. At the time I'd found the max series on the web I was weighing less than 200 pounds & I needed to qualify as an AG 30-34. Time needed to qualify- 5hrs 05 minutes! That is VERY fast indeed. An entire half an hour faster than my PR.

Well a couple days ago I saw that the Clydesdale qualifying time is 5:35. I am a Clydesdale now! I had finished the 5430 half Iron in 5:35 late last year as a tune up race for IMAZ. So that means I DID qualify for the Halfmax national championships!!! I was so excited I emailed the all my friends & the RD to let everyone know I'd be racing at the championships which will be held in Sept in Oklahoma city! The race that the event will be held at is called the Redman Half Iron.

I was nervous about emailing my coach & asking him to rebuild my plan for the 2nd time in 4 months. Coaches don't like their athletes to change A races. I did this in February when I decided to not race at the trisport.com dessert classic duathlon, & here I am doing it again 6 weeks before my current A race of the Milkman triathlon in Dexter NM.

My coaches response was amazing. He was supportive & as pumped up as I was about me qualifying & competing in this years Halfmax national championships.

So once again I'm back to training long, & I've changed my A race once again. I believe that going back to training for the longer distances will help control my weight too. That's important because in endurance athletics skinny isn't a body type, it's a tactical necessity!

Last September at the 5430 I was weighing 210 when I busted out with a 5hr 35 minute time. I believe I need to be at LEAST that light to match my 5:35 time. Hopefully I'll be lighter.

Current weight is 227 with four and a half months until the Redman Halfmax national championships!!!!

Wish me luck Peeps! & thanks for tuning in!

Dare I say "moderation"?

After my post "the big 3 paranoia" a couple weeks ago that was full of motivation & expecting great things....things simply fell apart. I missed 4 workouts one week, then I didn't work out once the entire next week. Ouch indeed!

Normally I'd beat myself up about something like this. I'm realizing I completed a late season Ironman & didn't take enough time off, plus my focus has been on my 2 children, my wife, & my new baby on the way. I'm going to do my best to rededicate myself, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I'm unable to get back into the swing of hard core training like I'm used to. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. This was supposed to be my season to shine, since I'm now training specifically for sprints & that distance is the one I've always done best at. But, this is a life long sport, it's like my coach Pete Alfino says, I don't do this for a living, it's for fun. So let's make the best of it.

Oh, & if Jason McClure is reading this, thanks for the words of encouragement. For you to encourage someone who is one of your rival competitors in your division, says a lot about the kind of person you are.

The first time I had tried weight watchers online I lost a ton of weight. Hindsight I believe I lost to much way to quickly. I was averaging just under 4 pounds of loss every week. I kept that up from Nov 07 until May 08. I dropped from 256 to an all time low of 188. I remember being ravenously hungry all the time.

I'm hovering around 230 now & I've been attempting weight watchers online again. I'm not dealing with the hunger well at all. I'll get a week into the diet & the hunger gets to me and I fall off the diet wagon again.

Albert Einstein said "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again & expecting a different outcome." I might be a very, very, very slow learner, but by golly I think I'm on to something. If I lost to much weight to quickly before & was hungry to the point of torture, & now I'm so hungry all the time that I fail to stay consistent, then obviously I'm not getting enough calories on WW online!

So now what I shall try is to eat double the activity points I'm allocated on WW. I believe this will help for multiple reasons.
-I'll be getting more calories on the days I'm working out which is when I need the extra nutrients & calories to recover.
-I'll be getting more calories so I won't be so ravenous & end up self destructing.
-I will be losing weight more slowly, which from what I'm told makes a person more apt to not gain the weight back.

Like I said, I don't learn quickly, but at times I am capable of semi-intelligent thought. I'd like to point out I did say semi-intelligent. I don't want people to start expecting a light bulb above this noggin to often or they will be often disappointed:)

A tad bit of info for ya. Mac & Cheese out of a box has a butt lod of calories. Today I had just a tad bit, 1 cup to be exact. That was 9 weight watchers points!!! Darn near gave me a heart attack! Beware the mac & cheese out of the box!

Ironman cut off times

My training hasn't gone well this last week. I got sick again. This time it was my yearly stomach virus. I was out for 3 days. No training for 3 days! Just me laid out on the couch. One thing I can guarantee you, I will not take for granted crossing the Iron finish line. Some people seem to be naturals. They are built for endurance athletics. I'm not one of those. I excel in sprint distance
triathlons. Usually in a sprint triathlon I'm in the top 10 percent. But going long has been a serious struggle for me. I've been training for an Iron finish non-stop now for 5.5 years. So far it has alluded me. But I'm not willing to give up. I'll push through the pain, injuries, sickness, & monotonous 6 hr bike rides & 3.5 hr runs. Some day I will be an Ironman.

My coach Pete Alfino sent me an email last week. He has made reservations to be there in Tempe on November 23rd when I attempt Ironman Arizona. He said he wanted to be there when I complete my first Iron. I'm excited that he'll be there. But I'm also worried. Last year he was going to do the same thing for me at the Silverman Ironman, but his plans to be in Nevada on race day ended up falling through. I remember being silently grateful. Up until last year he had never had a athlete DNF (did not finish) an Iron. I was his first athlete to DNF. Some 1st
time things are great to be there in person for. His first athlete DNF'ing after almost a decade of coaching isn't one of them. Now he'll be there for my 3rd attempt, my 2nd attempt with him coaching me.

For those who don't know there are cut off times during Ironman events. A person has to be done with the 2.4 mile swim in 2 hr 20 minutes. That shouldn't be a problem for me. I'm not a fast swimmer, but I believe I'll be out of the water in around 1 hr 40 minutes. 40 minutes to spare. The cut off time for the bike is 5:30 PM (race day start time is 7 AM). 8 hrs 10 minutes to go 112 miles on a bicycle. Last year I missed the bike cut of time by 45 minutes.

I'm not worried at all about the 26.2 mile run. The run cut off time is midnight. If I took the max amount of time to bike then I would have to be done with the run in 6.5 hrs. Running is my
strongest event. So I'm not really worried about the run cut off time. I'm guessing even if my legs are toast after a 2.4 mile swim & a 112 mile bike it shouldn't take me more than 5 hrs to finish the 26.2 mile run. So, in my mind, as long as I finish the bike in time, I should be able to cross the finish line before the Ironman cut off time of midnight. 3rd times a charm? I sure hope so. I want to hear the announcer say "Cody from New Mexico, you are an Ironman!" I dream of hearing those words. I have dreamed of hearing those words for almost 6 years now. Is this the year? We'll see in 6 weeks.

Great news. I called Bike World in Alb & threw a fit that after 5.5 weeks I still don't have the front fork for my tri bike. Originally Bike World claimed it would take 2 weeks. They're claiming that Cannondale just hasn't sent the fork yet. I didn't believe them. I thought they just hadn't taken the time to put it on. Well Bike World decided to call up Cannondale & they gave Cannondale as bad of a butt chewing as I gave Bike world. So now Cannondale is sending me a front fork free of charge. They are not even charging delivery. That's saving me $240 plus delivery. Great news!!! Thanks Bike World!!!

On Wednesday my daughter who is 3 years old figured out how to peddle her tricycle. Now that she has learned how to peddle by herself she's peddling all over the place! Talking about making up for lost time! Seems she and I are both in a major bike build phase! It's things like this that makes life so enjoyable. Being a Dad is the best gift God has ever given me.

On the up & up

I haven't blogged for awhile. Usually when I don't write in my blog it's because things have fallen apart in one form or another. I'm usually an optimistic person. So when I'm doing well, or planning on doing well I'll blog to share the excitement. I wasn't doing well. But I'm back on track now.

In early Sept I wrecked my new Cannondale carbon slice triathlon bike. I still haven't gotten it back from the bike shop yet. How long does it take to order & put on a new fork? Somehow I doubt it takes an entire month.
After the wreck I missed about a week of training while healing up the nicks & bruises. A couple days before I was ready to train again I got sick It was just a flue. But dang this was a kicker! On average I only get sick about once a year. It's usually a stomach virus, & it's usually during a big training block. Other than that one stomach virus a year I don't usually catch anything at all. As a matter of a fact I believe it's been almost 4 years since I got the flue. This one made up for it. I was down & out! It stuck around for a good 3 weeks. I missed another one & a half weeks training from sickness. Total time training lost was 2.5 weeks.

Late August I started to get depressed. That's very unusual for me. I don't get down in the dumps very often. I suppose because I'm always expecting things to get better, & since I'm always looking foreword to what tomorrow may bring, that by the time I realize I'm depressed I'm usually pretty deep into it. Last week I was having a hard time even getting out of bed. I'd missed more workouts this month than in any month in 5 years of me training for triathlon.

Some of the reasons for my emotional state was me missing my Dad who died in July.

Worry over my Mom, who isn't handling his death well. She tends to dive head first into projects, keeping herself busy enough that she won't have time to feel, much less heal. Which explained her heart attack in July.

My biggest reason for my emotional downer was that I've been missing my 2 children. I've been working 72-86 hrs a week since last Oct when my wife quite her job to be a stay at home Mom. I went from having 3 days at home with my babies while my wife was at work to only seeing them a couple hrs a day between shifts. That's been hard. Really hard. In the last year I've watched my daughter go from a complete Daddy's girl to wanting her Mom most of the time. That's understandable considering my wife is now there all of the time to give her the love & attention she needs. I'd do anything to go back to the way things were with my children. But to do that I'd have to break my wife's heart by having her go back to work again. One of the steps I've decided to do to help our financial situation is something I have been avoiding for 13 years of me working here at the new Mexico state Penitentiary. I'm going to put in for Sergeant. Call me content or complacent. Same thing I suppose. But I've always enjoyed my job so much that I didn't want to promote in fear that I'd end up hating my job like most every other person I've ever known. Given the choice between being content with my job or more time with my babies I'll choose more time with my children.

Now for the good news. My wife & I paid off our house last month so that means I can work a little less. Instead of working 70-80 hrs a week I'll only have to work 60 hrs a week to make our minimum bills. That's more time home with my kids, not as much as I'd like. But I'll take what I can get.

Since July I've gained 29 pounds. I went from a fast & slim 188 back up to a 217 pound Clydesdale. Jeez, it took a lot of effort to get from 257 last Nov to 188 this June. Half of that work on weight loss disappeared in 3 months time. Very disappointing. In June I had a 6 pack. No 6 pack now that's for sure.

My coach Pete Alfino wrote me an email a couple weeks ago. I wish I'd of kept it because it was very insightful. To sum it up he said I am way to hard on myself when things start to slip a little in training. I thought about what he said & I had a realization. During every build phase I've done just before my years "A" race I've gained between 30-50 pounds. Every time I start getting close to an A race I beat myself up if I miss a workout, or have a bad day training. When I get stressed I turn to food. When I turn to food I get pissed because I know I'm putting my A race in jeopardy by gaining weight. In turn the weight gain pisses me off and I turn to food to find temporary comfort. It had been a big snowball effect. That snow ball is the reason that after 5 years of training & 2 failed attempts I'm still not an Ironman.

I know, I know. I should of realized this pattern awhile ago. Not sure why I didn't see the pattern before. But regardless, I now know. I believe knowing what was happening & why will help me deal with this in the future. Perhaps I won't be able to completely stop the weight gain during every build phase. But I'd be willing to bet this knowledge will help slow the fat tide dramatically.

Since this realization my attitude has completely turned around. Since my attitude about working out has gotten better my workouts have gotten better again too. I've not gained weight this week for the first time since June.

So now I can start spending a little more time with my children & my triathlon training has gotten back on track. Things are better. Now if I could just get my triathlon bike back from Bike World in Albuquerque.

Thanks for being a part of my gripe fest. If you don't hear from me on my blog in the next couple weeks you'll know this turn for the good didn't continue. Hopefully I'll post again soon. Peace! I'm out.

5430 half Iron race report

I can't start my race report without talking 1st about how much I loved Boulder Colorado. It was absolutely gorgeous & an endurance athletes dream city. My wife & I have agreed we want to move there once I retire. 7-8 yeas depending if I want to max my retirement or not.

The swim started out in the Boulder reservoir. I was in wave #5. I stated out feeling great & reached the half way point in 20 minutes. For some reason I fatigued at the three quarter point & slowed slightly. Looks like I need to start working on more distance per swim. I finished the swim in 43 minutes 20 seconds. My 2nd best time at that distance. As I was running into T1 I heard an entire group of people start yelling encouragement for me. It took me surprise because I was so far from my normal stomping ground. I didn't think anyone would know me by name. I was in the zone though so didn't stop to see who it was.

I had a fast T1 time of 1 minute 36 seconds. Especially considering how large the transition area was.

I started the bike on my new Cannondale Carbon Slice & my HED 3 wheels feeling excited, yet nervous. I had set my goals high for today's race. I wouldn't be happy unless I set a new 70.3 PR. My old PR was 5 hrs 58 minutes on a much easier course & in much better weather & altitude conditions. The bike course was two 28 mile loops. Half way through the first lap I was feeling like I was keeping a faster speed at low zone 3 than I had at any of my other 4 half irons. But that was just a feeling with no facts behind it because I had no magnet on my HED wheels. I was riding blind.

At one of the aid stations on the first loop one of the volunteers dropped the gel she was trying to hand me. I turned back around & peddled by her a 2nd time to get my race nutrition. I wasn't willing to risk going on without the gel because I may of risked running out of energy later in the course if I failed to eat enough early on. On the 2nd loop I dropped the gel. 3rd loop was a success but getting it on the 3rd try didn't help me feel better about the time I'd lost circling around in little retarded circles.

On the beginning of the 2nd loop I felt great. Much less fatigue than I had ever felt by that point in any other 70.3 distance race.

I finished the 56 mile bike in 2 hrs 51 minutes keeping an average speed of 19.6 miles an hour.

Another great transition time of 1 minute 45 seconds.

When I started the run I felt my legs burning in areas I don't usually fatigue that much at. I knew that was because I'd only trained on my new bike for 2 weeks, one of those being a taper week. I was a little worried how my legs would handle the stress later on the run.

I most definitely ran the first of the two 6.5 mile loops too fast. I was averaging a little faster than an 8;30 pace. At the beginning of the 2nd run loop I hear some guy screaming & yelling encouragement to me again. He was behind me but was running up to me pretty quickly. After 13 years working in a prison people running up behind me screaming like that can make me pretty jumpy. I looked behind me as I ran with my fight or flight instinct in full swing! Turns out it was my coach Pete Alfino. He drove out to the race from Highlands Ranch Colorado to watch me & a couple of his other athletes race. He was so pumped up when he saw what time I may finish the half in that he got onto the run course & started running with me. He was shouting for me to continue kicking butt, to watch my heart rate & not let it get to high to ensure a strong finish. About that time a race official ran onto the course screaming at my coach to get off the course! It was quite amusing seeing the official yelling & chasing my coach as my coach was yelling & chasing me. I must admit that gave me one heck of a boost seeing someone so excited for my race going as well as it had up to that point.

I didn't feel the negative affects of the fast run pace until around mile 9. By that point I knew I was racing well, but I needed to try & continue running at a descent pace & avoid bonking or falling apart. It was going to be close. At mile 10 a fellow Clydesdale passed me & that gave me the motivation to ignore the exhaustion, dig deep, & pick up the pace. It was a real battle until the 12.5 mile mark when I kicked in the after burners. I was hoping to run fast enough in the last .6 miles to either blow my fellow competitor out of the water, or get far enough ahead quickly enough that he would slow down thinking it was no use trying to hang with a pace like that. I use that strategy a lot in the tail end of races. It seems to break peoples will when they see someone they have been keeping up with jet off like a speeding locomotive. Most of the time when I use this tactic my competitor slows down enough thinking it is pointless to try to keep up, that even if I fall apart before I reach the finish line I have created enough of a gap that he's unable to catch up.

My best half Marathon time of 1:58:45 was set in Dec 06 at the Tucson half marathon. I broke my half Mary time in a Half Iron with a of run time of 1:58:07!!!

Total finishing time of 5:36:24!!! Broke my PR by over 22 minutes!!! Finished 8th place Clyde. They grow them fast in Boulder. The first place Clyd was in the 4:40's! 2nd & 3rd place Clyd were both 5:22. Only one second seperated the two.

better than great

Last October while training for the Silverman I did many 4hr 45 minute bricks. They were a 4 hr bike followed by a 45 min run. That's a decent brick. Not as long as I will be completing soon considering IMAZ is still 4 months away. Last year on these 4hr 45 min bricks I averaged 12.5 miles an hour on the bike with a 12-13 minute per mile pace on the run.

Today I completed the same brick, but the major difference was I smoked the course that I struggled with last year. In the 4 hrs 16 minutes on the bike I completed 69.5 miles. That's a 16+ MPH ave. When I got back home & hopped off the bike I felt great! No fatigue in the slightest. I then completed a 4.1 mile run in 35 minutes. Today my biggest struggle was not continuing past the time my coach wanted me to train. I wanted to keep going. I felt amazing!!! I'm really feeling confident about IMAZ. My coach has got me on an amazing program that I'm getting phenomenal results from. Things are looking good.

pain is my reward

After my DNF in Nov of last year I advised my coach Pete Alfino of Mile High Multisport that I was going to do everything within my power to lose weight so that I could be a better triathlete. My coach advised me that not only does being lighter make a triathlete faster, it also makes their bodies more able to handle larger training loads. Those aren't his exact words, I'm paraphrasing here, but that's the gist of it.

Apparently Coach Alfino thinks sub 190 is light enough to reward me with some serious pain. The month of June is going to be the hardest month of training I've experienced in my life. I'm really looking foreword to it. Here's the fun that I'm scheduled for in the month of June....
6th 10 mile run
7th 100 mile bike
8th off
9th 3100 yard swim
10th 40 mile bike
11th 60 mile bike
12th 40 mile bike
13th 3000 yard swim
14th 30 min run/1hr bike/30 min run/1hr bike
15th off
16th run 14 miles
17th 3400 yard swim
18th 1.5 hrs of hill work on the bike
19th run. 2 mile warm up. 5X800 meter intervals. 2 mile C/D
20th 3300 yard swim
21st 2 hr 45 min bike with 40 minutes at threshold
22nd off
23rd 14 mile run
24th 2850 yard swim
25th 1.5 hrs of hill work on the bike
26th run. 2 mile warm up. 5X800 meter intervals. 2 mile C/D
27th 3300 yards swim
28th 4 hrs of 20 minutes easy, 40 minutes zone 3. Followed up with a 45 minute run
29th off
30th run 30 min on treadmill

After this Ironman Arizona will be like a recovery day. This will be intense! This is why I call my coach "The Mad Scientist". I've got better results in any 4 months of being trained by him that I have in any year of being coached by another coach or any 1.5 years of self coaching. On top of getting in phenomenal physical form, this month will be the month that I get to my racing weight. Coach Alfino told me he doesn't want me losing weight once we get into the big blocks of Iron training. It would be entirely to exhausting on my body to be at a caloric deficit while putting in such hard & long training miles. So after this month, wherever I'm at with my weight I'll be just trying to maintain until the November Ironman Arizona.Thanks for tuning in. Peace!

Buffman & Squeaky post race report

Buffman & Squeaky post race report

I competed in the Buffman & Squeaky Olympic distance triathlon on Sunday It was the 4th time I've completed the Buffman, & my 6th Olympic distance triathlon altogether. I PR'd this distance last year with a 2 hr 52 minute performance. Because I've lost 40 pounds since last year & my Coach The Mad Scientist Pete Alfino has been getting freakish results from my body this year, I set a lofty goal. I wanted to get a 2 hr 40 minute time or better. That would be a 12 minute PR. Normally that would be an outlandish goal. But I have faith in my fitness level & body this year.

Like I wrote on my blog in an earlier post I really struggled with this taper. I binge ate from Thursday until Saturday night. Everyday I woke up telling myself it won't happen again today. It did, & each day was worse. In the 4 days of struggling I gained 5 pounds. I'm up to 193.8. Up from 188.6. The bad news is I've been averaging 1 pound a week of weight loss so this backslide will take me at least a month to recover from. The great news was as soon as the race was over I didn't have any cravings at all. I haven't had any since then either. It's always my greatest fear that I won't get back on the band wagon after one of these rough periods. That has been the story of my life with this current weight loss streak being the only exeption so far.

I showed up at the race sight at my normal 6 am arrival time. I got my favorite spot for this race. I've got that spot every year for the past 4 years. I set up my transition area & commenced mingling until race start time It was unusually cold that morning. I was hoping it would stay cooler than normal the entire race. The Buffman & Squeaky has a tendency to be hot on
the tail end of the bike & very very hot on the run. Add the killer hills on this course & it can make for a rough race. The temps did end up staying unusually cool the entire race which is especially good news for me, since I'm a bigger triathlete I have allot of difficulty dispersing heat.

The water at the Buffman & Squeaky triathlon is spring fed so it's always a bit of a shock every year to see how cold the water is. It was a mass swim start. I usually wait until most everyone is in the water & on their way before I start my swim. This year I hopped right in the mix, mid pack. You see, even though I fought him tooth & nail my coach has demanded I swim more. The
difference this year has been amazing. An open water mass swim start is a contact event to say the least. About 500 meters into the swim I hear a heavily accented voice yell "this is fun!" It was a guy I met named Marcos. He's a really great guy I met pre-race who is from Germany & was competing in his first real triathlon. I say "real" because he's done some of the White Sands Missile Range triathlons. But those are not open water swims, there are not usually many racers at those, & their not mass start swims. So it was his first mass start but apparently it didn't bother him at all because he finished a couple minutes ahead of me despite my best swim ever. I finished the swim in 32 minutes & got out of the water at the same time as fellow Outlaw Carl Armstrong. That was a first. Carl is normally a vastly superior swimmer compared to me.

As I ran out of the water & into transition I was very dizzy. That's common after a long open water swim, but this time was much much worse than normal. When I got to my transition area I was so dizzy I had to sit down to put on my socks & shoes. Not something I normally do & not something I'd suggest if your looking for a fast transition.

On the bike, immediately out of transition there is a huge hill about 8 percent grade and probably around 150 yards long. All the other years this hill saps my strength for the rest of the race. I never really recover from that climb. Not to mention that all 6 or 7 of these very steep & long hills on this course used to have the same effect on me. Not this year! I tore those hills up like I've never dreamed I could do. I usually get passed by dozens of people on each climb. I would hold my own on the flats, but the hills was the place I lost all my time. Again, not this year. I only got passed a few times by people who were obviously bike dominant triathletes. Most of those I caught back up to & passed on the run.

I pushed myself as hard as I possibly could the entire bike. At the turn around I thought I had made a pacing mistake because my legs were hurting really bad. I though if I kept up this pace I'd have nothing left for the run. To late now I thought. I might as well go for broke. By the time I reached the transition to the run my legs were on fire, they even felt slightly swollen & pumped up from the effort I was using to push the pace on the bike.

I thought to myself as soon as I started the run that I was in trouble. My legs were hurting & I felt much more exhausted than I ever had before starting a run on an Olympic distance. Well, I thought for the 2nd time that day, might as well go for broke. I figured it was pretty much certain I was going to fall apart on the run. My legs really were trashed. I figured I might as well run as hard as I could for as long as I could in hopes that I could put enough time between me & my competition so that once I had to start the tedious run/walk process I'd be far enough ahead that not to many would catch up. I was wrong in my theory. But wrong in a good way. I continued pushing myself harder than I thought I could sustain, but I never had to slow down. I kept pushing my legs harder & further into what I felt was the point beyond what I could handle. I never slowed down! Apparently my training for IMAZ is going well because I have what
seems to be a limitless well of energy/endurance in my legs. I finished my race in 2hrs 40 minutes 55 seconds. I made my goal of finishing in 2hrs 40 minutes or under. I broke my PR by 12 minutes!!! Its not like I had only done 1 or 2 Olympic races to have a PR of 2;52. I'd done 6 Olympic races & crushed the previous best by a kickin 12 minutes!!!

As I've said before, my coach told me I'm on tack for a 13 hr Ironman in Nov. That seemed way to good to be true. But now, I do believe. From an Ironman DNF in Nov 07 to a possible 13 hr Ironman in 08. Oh Goodness, God is very kind to me indeed. The splits of the Buffman & Squeaky aren't posted yet. As soon as they are I'll update my blog. Thanks for tuning in, & God bless you all.

change of goals

Well. I'm down to 190 pounds. My average weight loss is about 1- 1.2 pounds a week right now. I'd like to be losing big numbers again like I was Nov-Feb. But hey, I'm only 10 pounds from the goal I'd set earlier in the year of 180. As long as I keep looking at the results & physique I've built for myself I'm able to avoid becoming frustrated, heck I get down right giddy. From 256 pounds to 190 since Nov. 66 pounds in 6 months. From a size 46 to a size 44. Not to
shabby. I am content with what I have done so far. But I'm not through yet.

I've decided I'm going to continue losing weight until I see it is a hindrance rather than a help to my triathlon speed. I'll be able to tell by the tests my coach Pete Alfino gives me every rest/test week & by watching my workouts very carefully. When I start feeling exhausted on long workouts I normally could handle & other signs like that I'll increase my calories to maintain my weight. Regardless of how light that is at that time. You see, I've learned that fat is
not just weight, it's speed. Skinny is not just a body type. Its a tactical necessity. I was able to talk to a local triathlon legend this weekend, Clay Mosely. He's one of the fastest triathletes in the South West. He told me he's 6 foot 1 inches tall & 175 pounds. Now that I have my nutrition dialed in I don't see any reason at all I can't get that low too, perhaps even lower. He's 2
inches taller than me afterall.

I just finished reading an AMAZING book called Lance Armstrong's War. Absolutely wonderful book. It was talking about how you can tell when a cyclist is on his peak physique because he has cheek folds. The book explains that cyclist get to the point where they no longer have enough fat to have dimples when they smile, so their skin just folds. I'll stop myself before I get to that
point I'm sure. But I'll let my performance tell me when enough is enough. It's funny how life changes a persons opinions on things. I grew up idolizing Arnold Scharzinegger & Sly Stalone. I just wanted to be big & strong. When I trained I always lifted weights & that's all. But now I've actually gone the other complete opposite way & am willing to try & lose some upper body muscle to gain an advantage of speed on the bike & run. All I do is cardio barely any weights at all. Definitely no lifting for size anymore. Never would I have guessed that this would happen.