An open call for a group mountain bike ride

My wife bought me a book called "Mountain biking Northern New Mexico". The book says the best mountain bike ride in New Mexico is South Boundary Trial. After reading about the ride I became really excited about doing it & am wanting to get as many of my buddies to do it with me as I can. So this is an open invite for a group mountain bike ride on Sunday August 1st.

The ride starts at the trailhead on forest road near Angel Fire NM & ends at the El Nogal camp grounds. Anyone who is interested contact me & we'll work out the details!

On another note I had a buddy of mine who lives in another state ask me about the Enchanted circle century. Any of you who has not done the Enchanted Circle Century, I highly suggest you do it. It's the prettiest ride I've ever done. It's a beautiful & strenuous ride through Northern New Mexico's mountains. There's a lot of climbing. The last climb is up Bobcat pass, a nonstop, no rest climb of 3000 feet ending at 9,800 elevation, then descending into Red River. If my buddy ends up coming up & doing it, I'll do it with him. The Enchanted Circle Century is on September 11th this year, which comes at a rough time because I've already paid for the Patriot Triathlon which is September 12th. So it looks as if I may end up doing a hilly & very challenging century on a Saturday & a triathlon the next morning!

Closer than I ever dreamed

I spent 5 years training an average of 15-19 hours a week for Ironman distance triathlons. During that 5 year stretch I never placed in an A race higher than in the 50 percentage of competitors. 2010 is the 1st season I've trained exclusively for sprint distance triathlons. I found out very quickly my body is better suited for sprint distance training & racing!

This year out of 10 races I've competed in I've taken top 10 overall in 3 & top 5 in 3. Today I realized I'm getting very close to qualifying for the National sprint distance triathlon championships. If my memory is correct I need to finish in the top 3% of a USAT sprint distance triathlon to qualify. In my last 3 USAT certified sprint triathlons I've missed being in the top 3% by 90 seconds on the flat courses & 4 minutes on the hilly courses. Considering I've been training for sprint distance triathlons for only half a season, I think my chances are very good for building enough speed & fitness to make the top 3% within the next year or 2.

So now I start the process of figuring out how I'm going to knock of 1 1/2 to 3 minutes on a sprint distance triathlon.
-Hiring a coach would make a big difference! Later this year I'll put in for that promotion at work I've been procrastinating putting in for the last decade. Once I get that promotion I could afford to hire a coach again. I already have the coach I'd like to hire picked out. Julia Rossi from Mile High Multisport.
-I don't swim consistently at all! If I was to start swimming at least twice a week every week I could knock off at least 20 seconds on a sprint distance race.
-I haven't done any strength training for my legs since I started self coaching back in September of 2009. Having more power in my legs would increase my speed on the bike, knocking off perhaps another 30 seconds.
-More speed work/track intervals could knock off 15 seconds on the run.
-The single biggest thing I need to do to become faster is drop some body weight. My dream weight is 179. I'm currently 193 (I gained a couple pounds from the family vacation we went on this weekend). That would be a 14 pound weight loss. 14 pounds in endurance athletics is HUGE! Just dropping that weight alone would make me fast enough to qualify for the National Sprint triathlon Championships easily. Up until a couple weeks ago I was trying to lose an average of 2 pounds a week. I kept getting down to 188, then falling off the diet wagon & shooting back up to 192. A couple weeks ago I'd decided to stop trying to lose weight & maintain until November. Rather than take that all or nothing weight loss stance, I think I simply need to try & lose weight more gradually. I'm going to shoot for hitting my goal weight of 179 by Dec 1st. That will make for an average of .58 of a pound a week of weight loss to hit 179 by December. Attempting to lose weight much more gradually would give me more calories a day to eat, which would make me less hungry & less likely to end up falling off the diet wagon & binge eating again & again & again. Losing the weight more gradually would also make my body much less likely to trigger some of the self defense mechanisms that our body has to having lost as much weight as I have so far, & hope to lose by December.

Whish me luck!

Chick-fil-a sprint triathlon race report

I competed in the Chick-fil-a sprint triathlon June 19th 2010. It was a 400 meter swim, a 12.6 mile bike, & a 3.2 mile run. This a an AWESOME race! I've never seen so many volunteers for a sprint! The run was a great course winding through a HUGE sports parks that went in-between soccer & baseball fields that had kids games going on. People were stopping the games to hoot & yell for us triathletes.

It was the flattest fastest bike course I've EVER competed on. I used my HED3/ disk wheel set. They had finishers medal for every finisher, & the best awards I've ever seen at a sprint for the top 3 in each division. The top male & female overall got free Chick-fil-a for a year. They had free Chick-fil-a meals for all the competitors post race. They had a DJ playing music, & a guy dressed as the Chick-fil-a cow playing with all the kids. They had a kids triathlon after the adults race. All the kids got finishers medals. The RD's name is Mark G., & I called him 4 times the 2 weeks before the race asking questions that would annoy most RD's. He seemed happy to answer any questions I had. I loved this race & am planning on making it an every year race for my triathlon schedule.

I could go on forever about the great things pertaining to this race. The only bad thing that happened was my fault. I had my wife register me. During the registration process they asked my wife what my swim time was, she put 2hrs down as my 400 meter swim time. It was a seeded swim start, meaning they start a swimmer in the pool every 15 seconds starting with the fastest swimmer 1st, the slowest swimmer last. I was the last person to start my swim. This was bad for my race for a multiple reasons.

1) The race was scheduled to start at 8am. I didn't start my swim until 9:15 am. I ate at 5am to make sure my food was fully digested & my fuel tanks were completely topped off for the 8am race start. By the time I started my swim I was very hungry & incredibly thirsty.

2) By 9:15 it was getting really hot. My biggest deficiency as an endurance athlete is my inability to tolerate the heat. The heat hits me hard & slows me down much more than most athletes. By the time I hit the last half of my run it was sweltering hot!

3) All the people I was swimming with were averaging a 12-20 minute swims, mine is normal approximately a 7:20, so while I was swimming it was like I was trying to traverse an obstacle field. I must of passed 15 people. I guarantee I lost 15-20 seconds on the swim, I didn't want to swim around those people as aggressively as I normally do because I knew these were new swimmers & triathletes. I didn't want them to leave having received any elbows or having been swam over or dunked- yes that is normally what I do.

All is all I still finished with a decent time. 1 hr 5 min 39 seconds, taking 2nd place in my division out of 25, & taking 10th place overall out 200. I now have 75.75 points in the South West Challenge Series & am in 1st place in the 35-39 AG.

I finished 23 seconds behind Wade, who I have looked up to as an endurance athlete for many years. Hopefully some day I can finish in front of him at a race. I can guarantee you, knowing him as long as I have, once I beat him he won't be a poor sport about it. He's an honorable sportsman who would be excited & congratulate me. I strive to be as wonderful of representative of the sport of triathlon as he has been.

After the race I took my family camping at Palo Duro canyon outside Amarillo TX. We were very excited about our camping expedition. It did turn out well. It was unseasonably hot. It got to 101 that day. The night was miserably hot too. We're going to try camping again the last week of July, but this time in the mountains where it will be nice & cool.

My next race is the Santa Fe triathlon July 2010.

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!

Gallup triathlon & goal weight

Last year at the Gallup triathlon I got a flat at the half way point of the bike. Rather than quit I ran with my bike 6.1 miles, then finished the 3.2 mile run. I finished dead last that day. This was the 2nd time I'd raced that triathlon & the 2nd time I'd flatted on the bike.

I currently have 71.25 points in the South West Challenge Series. I'm almost 30 points above the nearest competitor. I have decided to cancel half of the races I was planning for the last half of the year. The Gallup triathlon was one of the races I was going to cancel. But after thinking about it I decided I needed to do that race again. I need to redeem myself at that race.

June 19th, the Gallup triathlon will be my next race.

My dream weight is 180 pounds. That would put me under 5% body fat. I know this because of the body dunk test I got at the University of New Mexico physiology lab. I'd be a screaming fast triathlete at that weight.

Since April I've been fluctuating from 187- 194. Although I'm very happy to be that low I'd be lying if I didn't say I am obsessing about getting down to my dream weight of 180. Seems every tine I get down to 187 or 188 I self destruct & pop back up to 192.

I'm going to try & get down to 180 one more time. My goal is to be at that weight a little before the Santa Fe Triathlon mid July. If I self destruct again I'm going to try & maintain 188 for a few months to allow my body to get used to being at a low body weight, to heal up, & hopefully be ready to drop that last 8 pounds by the beginning of 2011.

May 22nd brick

On May 22nd I did a 4 mile run, then rode my bike into Alb. 65 miles total. I love this ride. It has great views and is a challenging course. Here are some of the pictures of this ride. I saw an aryan brotherhood compound. I took a picture (1st picture), someone from the compound saw me take it, they got into thier vehicle & followed me for a few miles before turning around. I was a bit nervous while they were following me to say the least. If you can see it, the symbol above thier gate is a lightning bolt inside of a zia sysmbol, that signifies the NM faction of the AB. Glad I didn't have a liscence plate or any way for them to identify me.


Today May 27th I taught my daughter to ride her bike w/out training wheels. This was her 2nd attempt. By the evenning she could ride around the block. She just needs help getting onto the seat and peddling the 1st few feet.

Chicken me

Looks like I won't be doing any Tuesday night crits after all. I'm chickening out. I have more than enough fitness, but I don't believe my group riding skills are ready for a crit yet. Hopefully next year.

This Saturday I'll be doing a brick starting at noon. If anyone wants to do all or part of it with me, feel free. The more the merrier. I'll be starting with a 4 mile run starting at my house, located at the Penitentiary of New Mexico just South of Santa Fe, approximately 1.5 miles south of the 599 rail runner stop. After the run I'll be cycling to Albuquerque via highway 14, a 62 mile bike ride ending at Paseo Del Norte & Wyoming, then another short 10 min run. If interested feel free to email me o.c.tri@comcast.net

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.

Self coaching is for the birds

I started self coaching back in December. I built a training plan to peak for the Atomicman duathlon in April. I based the program I built from a triathlon book by Matt Fitzgerald. While on this self made plan I was doing WAY to much hill & speed work & not enough zone 2 & 3. I ended up over trained & got sick the weekend of the Atomicman. I pushed myself so hard that I ruined my 1st A race of the 2010 season, which happens on occasion for all endurance triathletes. A peak & a taper is a balancing act.

My self made training plan not only ruined my Atomicman duathlon, it also ruined my Jay Benson triathlon. I was very excited about competing in the 2010 Jay Benson triathlon. It's the biggest & most popular race in NM- although I suspect the Elephant Man Oly tri & the Cochati Oly tri will soon surpass the Jay Benson's popularity & draw of local elite triathletes. I ended up missing my PR by 2 minutes & missing my goal of 1 hour or below by 5 minutes.

Since the Atomicman I've been struggling mightily with my running & cycling. After talking to a buddy who was a professional cyclist & knows about such things, I found out that I am struggling now because my base deteriorated from a lack of zone 2 training. So now instead of peaking again for the Santa Fe triathlon in July I'm going to have to spend an extra couple months rebuilding my zone 2 fitness. I'll still do the Santa Fe tri, but it'll be a C race & I'm not expecting to race very well. My next A race will now be the Patriot triathlon in Rio Rancho in September.

The poor racing & training I've been experiencing the last month triggered me falling off the diet wagon for awhile. I went from 187 back up to 192 pounds. Thankfully I'm back to eating healthy. I should be back down to 187 by early June, just in time for the Gallup triathlon.

I knew from past experience I didn't like self coaching. With this heart breaking experience I've realized I dislike it & am worse at it than I even remembered. I'm trying to work out some things financially so that I can get myself a coach again. If I had it my way I'd get coach Pete Alfino back. He was AMAZING, but since he's as good as he is, he's about 3X more $ than I could afford. Barring getting the mad scientist coach Pete Alfino back I'd like to hire coach Julia Rossi. I've heard nothing but good things about her. She has a degree in sports something-or-another, her coaching philosophy is very similar to Petes, plus she's a phenomenal triathlete herself.

My wife realizes how important having a coach is to me, so we're trying to put our heads together to see if we can work the $ thing out. It's a serious struggle because my wife is a stay at home Mom who I'm putting through school, & we have 3 kids, all living off my one income.

If we are unable to figure it out then we've agreed I'm going to go for a promotion at work- something I've been avoiding for all I'm worth the last 15 years. We'd use the pay raise to hire Julia Rossi as my coach.

Until my wife & I can make some money magically appear from our finances or I get promoted I'm going to do the best I can figuring out my training plan on my own.

This weekend I'm competing in the Dog House Sprint triathlon in Lubbock TX. I love this race. It's well put on, organized, a VERY FUN course, great awards, etc. I'm not expecting a very good performance, but will enjoy the experience regardless of how I perform. At the end of this race they have a photographer taking pictures of triathletes running across the finish line. The last couple times I've competed in this race I got a picture as I ran across the finish line carrying my daughter. This year my son is old enough that I'll be getting our 1st picture of he & I crossing a finish line together. I'm really excited about that. I'll post the picture as soon as I get it.

Thanks for tuning in.

Unbalievable! & unavoidable!

I started working at the state penitentiary in 1995 at 19 years old. My favorite joke at the time was to ask some of the older officers there, "how long have you been here?"
If for example they said, "I started in 1981".
I'd reply, "WOW! You've been here since I was 6 years old!"

Haha! I thought that I was being very funny at the time! Well guess what happened to me last night..... A young guy who just started working at the NM state Penn asked me how long I'd been there- how did I not see this coming?
"Since 1995." I replied.
"Dang! You've been here since I was 6 years old!"
Somehow it seemed a lot funnier when I was not on the receiving end of that punch line.......

I completed my first 2 triathlons in 2005. I immediately became severely addicted to the sport. I've done an average of 16 triathlons a year every year since. Even for a hard core triathlete I race a bunch (a bunch being the most precise word I could come up with). Next weekend I will be competing in my 9th multisport race of the 2010 season. Racing takes a lot more effort than it sounds. The race is the easiest part of racing a triathlon. There's the packing of the bikes, extra race wheels, & gear. The travel to a race, rarely do I get to race in my home town. I pick up my race packet the day before the race. Then to save $ I find a camp ground & set up a tent & a camp out for the night. The next morning I wake at 4-5am, drive to the race site, set up my transition area, check my bike & gear to ensure they are in good working order, race, attend the race ceremony, go back to my camp sit & break down my tent & repack for the drive home, drive home, then spend that night on the couch not spending quality time with my amazing wife & kids because I'm tired!

As unbelievable as this is to those who know me, I'm tired. I don't want to say I'm burned out, because by no means am I burned out. I still LOVE to race! But I'm getting a little tired of racing so frequently! So, I'm still planing to finish the 2 races a month I have scheduled the next few months, but after July I'm going to take a hard look at my placing in the South West Challenge Series. If I'm secure in the top 2 of the 35-39 AG I'm going to skip the 2 races I had planned in August, 2 of the 4 races I had planned in Sept, & Silverman Half Iron I had planned in Nov. Even after missing those 5 races in the later half of the year I'll end up with 19 races for the year, 18 of those would be South West challenge series races.

I know this is a big "IF".... But if at any time I feel I'm secure in the #1 spot in the SW series I'll limit my racing to The Santa Fe tri in July, the Patriot & Redman Half in Sept, & the Jingle Bell & Polar Bear tri in Dec.

There's never a bad race

It's always nice getting in peak shape for a big race. Being able to show up for a triathlon I've been training months for, hammering out top speeds for obscene distances. Finding someone just a little faster than me, using him or her to pace off of & push beyond my bodies pain threshold! Seeing someone try to keep pace with me & pushing myself harder and faster, pushing with all I have, pushing myself to the breaking point until my competition's will breaks & I ride or run farther & farther away from him. Oh my, this is the fuel that feeds me to train for 15+ hours a week.

Then there's the rebuilding phase after an A race.... It's always amazed me how fast & far I can go for my A race, & immediately after the race my speeds & endurance just seems to disappear! I know the reasons. I understand it's the process of periodization, the peaks are high & glorious, but the rebuilding phase is rough.

The past 2 weeks I've been struggling to get through distances that a few weeks ago I'd of laughed at. Each day this week I'm building a bit more endurance. Each day I feel my fitness returning, slowly but surely. Thankfully the human body can take massive amounts of long slow training, also known as base work. I know the more I swim, bike, & run at this slow pace now, the faster I'll be able to swim, bike, & run later.

This Sunday May 9th is the Jay Benson triathlon. I love the Jay Benson triathlon! The fastest triathletes in the state show up for this race! The fact is it's just 2 weeks after my A race, so although I'm going to push myself as hard as I can, the unavoidable fact is I'm still feeling sluggish. So I have two choices,
1) rest a bit & hope to squeak out a half way decent race, but still no where near where I normally would.
or 2) realize this soon after an A race I'm going to have a slow race no matter what, so I might as well take advantage of the each & every minute I have to build back my base.

Long term choice #2 makes the most sense. My step Dad, Bob Foster used to tell me don't borrow from the future to pay for my present. So rather than take it easy on Saturday, resting my body for Sundays race I'm going to squeeze in as many base miles as I can. I'll be getting off work at 6 am on Saturday. I'll wake up around 2pm, hop on the bike & ride from my house in Santa Fe to Albuquerque via highway 14, approximately a 70 mile ride full of big mountains & lots of climbing. Then I'll compete in the Jay Benson triathlon the next morning on legs fatigued from training. I like the feeling of being tired & sore, & I love racing. Sounds like a great combination to me!

Let the competition begin, let the glory go to God!

Tues night crits & the worlds best wife

Starting in May, every Tuesday night there are criteriums being held in Albuquerque. I have every other Tuesday night off from work. I'm going to start hitting as many tuesdat night crits as I can. In the 6 years I've been training, I've only ridden in a group once. Lord help anyone racing the crits with me the first couple of months! I sure hope I pick this up quickly. Should be fun, but I am a bit nervous. Hopefully I don't leave a long line of cyclists bodies laying all over the road behind me! Here's a 1st person video of what group riding is like.

My next triathlon is the Jay Benson Triathlon the 3rd Sunday in May. It'll be my 8th race of the SW challenge series! One of my goals this year is to beat my Jay Benson PR set in 2008. That's a tall order! My 2008 Jay Benson was my single best race of all time. I was smokin fast that day, setting a PR of 1hr 4 minutes!

There's a kids triathlon after the adults race that my 4.5 year old daughter will be competing in. This will be my daughters 2nd race in as many months. The Jay Benson is on Mothers day. Thank goodness I have such a great wife! There's not many mothers who would allow their family to compete in a triathlon & steal thier special day. One things for certain, I do have an amazing wife! I thank God that He gave me her, no one else would be willing to tolerate me!

2010 Atomic Man duathlon race report

Sunday April 25th was the Atomic Man Duathlon. This was my A race. I'd been training for this race exclusively since December. My training had been going great & each race I'd done this year I'd become progressively faster.

Saturday, the day before the Atomic Man duathlon I slept 20 hours out of a 24 hour period. I rarely am able to sleep more than 6 hours straight. That was unusual, but I chalked it up to my taper. Tapering usually does weird things to an athletes body.

Sunday, race morning my stomach was upset. This is also very rare. I inherited an iron stomach. I can eat anything anytime & I never have stomach issues.

During the 1st 4 kilometer run I was on the verge of puking. I had a decent run time considering how I felt, although if I had felt better I'd of been able to keep up a much faster pace. I ran 4K in 18 minutes 41 seconds, finishing the 1st run with an average pace of 7:29 per mile.

T-1 was 55 seconds.

I felt fine on the bike. It was a 15 kilometer bike which I finished in 26 minutes 33 seconds keeping a 21 mph average. My bike was the 7th fastest split of the day.

T-2 was 40 seconds.

My 2nd run was a disaster. I was dry heaving the majority of the run, now my stomach was cramping horribly & my stomach issues had dropped a bit lower if you take my drift. I was contemplating voluntarily DNF'ing my first race. The first half was just a bit faster than a trot. The 2nd half I was making a mad dash for the port-o-potties that were at the finish line! Because of my internal and uncomfortable motivation to move with a purpose I had a negative split, finishing the 2nd 4K run in 19:42 keeping an average pace of 7:53 per mile.

All in all I finished in 1 hour 6 minutes 29 seconds. God blessed me that day. This was the 4th consecutive year I'd completed this race, & I PR'd it with all the stomach & GI issues I had that day. I took 11th place overall & 3rd place in my division.

30 minutes after I got home from the race & awards ceremony I got the chills, cold sweats, & all the unmentionable problems associated with a stomach flue. I spent the next 2 days in bed feeling like death warmed over. I realized it was not "unfortunate" I had problems during the race. I realized it was God blessing me by holding off the worse of the stomach flue until I was done with my race. Thanks to Him I still went to my favorite race & set a best personal course time while sick.

My next race is the Jay Benson triathlon in Albuquerque on May 9th 2010. The Jay Benson will be my 8th race for the 2010 South West Challenge Series competition. I'm hoping to beat my course PR of the Jay Benson of 1 hour 4 minutes. So far with 7 races completed I have 63 points for the series. My closest competitor is an all around great guy & fellow triathlete named Greg Gouveia who has 38 points. The Jay Benson triathlon will be my 60th multisport race.

I have decided to register for a 2nd scheduled half iron this year, the Silverman half iron which will be held on November 7th in Henderson Nevada. The Silverman & I have unsettled business. I tried the full Iron distance race in 2007 & received my only DNF in almost 60 multisport races. The Silverman is the hardest Iron in North America!

The other half iron I'm scheduled for is the Redman half Iron triathlon in September which is the Halfmax national championships. I qualified for the Halfmax national championships last September with a half iron time of 5 hours 30 minutes. I'm racing about 11 pounds lighter right now than I was then, so I hope to set another course PR & qualify for the Halfmax nationals for the 3rd year in a row.

2010 Spring Fling Triathlon race report

April 18th 2010 I competed in the Spring Fling Triathlon in Rio Rancho New Mexico. I was particularly motivated for this race for a few reasons.

1) A buddy of mine, who is the author of the blog "Tales of a Southern Triathlete" sent me an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) triathlon top to race in so I could show the world I was racing for Christ & that all the glory from my performance went to Him 1st!

2) my best friend Jimmy Murphy was going to be racing in this triathlon with me. The last 3 years Jimmy & I have competed against each other at least a couple times a year. He's beaten me soundly in each & everyone of them & I wanted vindication. Most of all I was glad to be racing with Jimmy because I'd have the company & camaraderie of a fellow follower of our God Jesus Christ!

3) This was my first USAT sanctioned race of the year.

4) This race was put on by Mark Mico who is one of the best race directors I've ever seen put on a multisport race.

5) I felt strong & fast coming into this race. I'd been getting faster each & everyday in my training & I was only weighing in at 189 pounds! Light is fast baby!

The only reason I could think of that I'd have a poor race on Sunday was because on Friday I completed a 2.5 hr bike ride, & on Sat (the day before the Spring Fling Triathlon) I went for a run of 1 hr 40 minutes. I thought about taking it easy on Fri & Sat so I'd have a better performance at the Spring Fling. But I ended up not resting because this week was my last push for my A race on April 25th, the Atomic Man duathlon. I decided to risk being a bit tired for the Spring Fling triathlon rather than risk feeling rusty for the Atomic Man duathlon the following week.

The Spring Fling Triathlon was a 5k run, 30k bike, 400yd swim. 1st off let me tell you, this is a VERY VERY hilly & grueling course on both the run & bike. It's probably the hardest short course triathlon I've ever competed in. In my opinion it's even more strenuous than the Los Alamos triathlon.

I started off the run with a fellow triathlete by the name of Rob at my side at an easy 7:30 per mile pace & decided to gradually increase my pace throughout the run. Starting off to hard on the run has always been one of my 2 biggest weaknesses (the other being hills which I'll get to shortly). Apparently Dave Fairbanks-clydesdale extraordinaire- was correct when he told me I'd be a much faster triathlete if I'd start off running slower & having a negative split because I ended up finishing the 5K run (3.1 miles) in 23:39 which is an average of 7:39 per mile. Considering what a mountainous and slow course this is I was very pleased!

The bike is as brutal as the run is. It's a 30K bike (18.64 miles). Even though I pushed myself as hard as I humanly could on the run I still felt GREAT on the bike, no fatigue or rubbery legs at all. I started passing people immediately & continued to do so until I hit a few of the bigger hills. I was passed by 3 people while in the midst of my max effort hill climbing! These were the only 3 people to pass me on the bike at all, it was no coincidence they passed me while climbing a hill. Only one of those was I able to repass after we were done with the climbing.

I have always known hills were my weakness on both the bike & the run. An athlete's ability to hill climb has to do with a persons power to weight ratio. To become a better hill climber a person can either build more strength or lose weight, preferably both. I spent this entire winter doing both. I did a lot of big gear training, hill climbing, & I also dropped 40 pounds of body weight. I assumed I'd be a powerful hill climber by now, but I was wrong. I have become MUCH MUCH better at hills, but hills are still my weakness. I'll continue working on increasing my power & dropping some more weight in the hopes of of becoming a stronger & faster triathlete in the hopes of using my passion & speed in triathlon to Glorify God!

Even though it was a bike course filled with hills (my kryptonite) I still finished the 18.6 mile bike in 55 minutes 6 seconds, which is an average of over 20 mph!

As I came into T-2 I was about to attempt a rolling dismount. A few feet from the dismount line I realized how fatigued my legs were & I decided to not attempt it. I think it would of ended up being less of a rolling dismount & more of a flying/ tumbling dismount. I found out later there was someone video taping the athletes dismounting & entering T-2, so I feel I made a good decision & possibly avoided becoming a star on America's Home videos.

I hit the water feeling GREAT! There were a lot of athletes close enough in front of me I knew I could work my way up the standings if I swam well and aggressive. In the first 25 yards a guy & I tried passing a much slower swimmer doing a breast stroke. Both of us attempting to pass at the same time make us 3 people wide in a narrow swim lane & made for a tight fit. I thought that was fun, that ended up being nothing compared to what was yet to come!

At one point there were 3 swimmers wide heading up one lane & 2 more wide coming the towards us from the opposite direction. Usually when this happens a few of the people will stop & wait for the group of people to thin out before swimming foreword to avoid a collision & thrashing around of arms, legs, & people. None of us stopped or slowed this time! 2 peoples heads made an audible & hollow thunking sound as they swam head first into each other. That left 1 person heading up the lane, he got kicked in the face dislodging his goggles. 2 people, me & one other swimming down the lane. The guy swimming the same direction as I was a far superior swimmer & he passed me with relative ease- even though I tried bumping & pushing him a bit to intimidate or slow him. When the bump & grind failed I tried catching his feet (drafting off him) but he was simply to fast.

I finished the 400 meter swim in 7 minutes 53 seconds. The 7:53 time included the time spent running into T-2 with my bike, racking my bike, getting out of my cycling gear & running to the pool. Not a great time, not bad either.

My finishing time was 1 hr 26 minutes 36 seconds. I finished 3rd place 35-39 AG out of 25. I was mistakenly placed in the 30-34 AG at the awards ceremony, but I'm actually a 35-39 AG this year. I finished 19th overall.

1st family camping trip (with a triathlon thrown in)

I have scheduled my families first camping trip. We will be going to Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas. We are all VERY EXCITED.

-It's our first family vacation in which all 5 of us are going (my wife, kids ages 4, 2, infant, & I).
-We'll arrive on Friday June 18th, set up camp, sing camp fire songs, cook smores, hot dogs, etc!
-On Sat morning, June 19th there will be the Chick-Fil-a triathlon for me. This will be a B race in which I'll have a small taper, so God willing I'll have a great race!
-after my race they will have a kids triathlon for my 4 year old daughter!
-Sat night we will watch the live musical "Texas".
-Sunday we will see all the sights & activities of Palo Duro state park including riding on a train that travels through the majority of the canyon (my 2 year old son will LOVE that).
-Sunday night we'll drive into Lubbock & visit my cousins who has kids the same age as ours.
- Monday we'll visit my Grandma & Grandpa in Hobbs NM!

This will be such an amazing vacation! Can't wait!

The parable of the talents

The church sermon I listened to this morning at the New Covenant church in Albuquerque New Mexico hit me hard. It was about Matthew's 25 14-30, the parable of the talents.

I knew in essence what this parable was about, but I learned so much more & would like to share with you what I feel God meant for me to learn & to apply in my triathlon training & racing.

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

 19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'

 21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

 22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'

 23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

 24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

 26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

 28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is what I learned today & how I believe it was meant to be applied in my life. The majority of what I am writing from here on is by memory of the church sermon this morning & my own interpretation of what I remember and am reading. If there is any biblical misinterpretations please know it is my fault, not that of God, the particular version of bible I am reading, or my pastor.

'

-the master who departed in this parable is Jesus. When He departed he left each person (his followers, including you & I) with money (or talents) according to their abilities. No one received more or less than they could handle. If he failed in his assignment they could not claim they had failed because of being overwhelmed. Failure could only come from laziness or hatred to his father. The talents represents any type of resources we are given. We are responsible to use what God has given us. The issue isn't how much we are given, but how well we use what we have.

In verse 19 it says "after a long time He shall return". The verse doesn't say a specific time frame. We should live like He is returning tomorrow, we are to use our time, talents, & treasures diligently in order to serve God in whatever we do.

When the master returned the 1st 2 servants showed they had taken the money (talents) they were given & had invested it well. Verse 21 says "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

If you notice the master rewards each of the 1st 2 servants equally. What matters isn't how much you are given, what counts is what you do with the talent God gave us.

The 3rd servant had a talent, but instead of using his talent for his master he buried it. The 3rd servant was only thinking of himself. He even admitted that he knew his master, "harvested where you have not sown & gather where you did not plant." What, "harvested where you have not sown & gather where you did not plant." means is that Jesus expects us to use the talents He has given us to spread His word.

The last servant was judged because of his self centeredness. We as God's children must not make excuses to avoid doing what God calls us to do. I believe God is truly my master & I must obey Him willingly. My time, money, & abilities are not mine in the 1st pace, they are His! I am a caretaker of my talents, not an owner.

This parable describes the consequences of the attitude of Christ's return. The person who diligently prepares for it by investing his or her talent to serve God will be rewarded. The person who has no heart for the work of the kingdom will be punished. God rewards faithfulness. Those who bear no fruit for Gods kingdom cannot expect to be treated the same as those who are faithful.

My pastor said each & everyone of us are given a talent. It is our responsibility to figure out how God has specifically gifted each of us.

I believe I have a passion for triathlon. When I started training for triathlon I was VERY out of shape & over weight. My only goal was to finish a triathlon. not even to finish with a half way decent time, just to be able to finish. After I finished my first triathlon I became addicted & now I train obsessively. Each season I've become a little faster, & with each improvement I made I became more passionate. As I gained speed & finished faster each year another unexpected thing happened. More people started to come up to me & asked how I was improving so much.

When people ask me how I have become faster or how did I do in the race, that is my opportunity to use the talent & passion God gave me! When people ask me how I became faster I will glorify God! I will say,"God spoiled me today. He deserves all the Glory!". On top of mentioning God any opportunity I get I am going to buy a Christian triathlon bib to race in, I'm going to put something on my bike that says I race for Christ, & I am going to use this blog to glorify God & all the things he does to help me in all things triathlon.

Perhaps God may decide to germinate some of the seeds I am spreading in His name, for in Matthew's it says:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

And in Mark 16:15 it says: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

The word "Go" is a verb. These two scriptures are known as the Great Commission, and if I can't get motivated from the words of Jesus...........

The similarity of the taper blues, pregnancy, & PMS

My wife & I started talking about the similarity of a taper to pregnancy & PMS.

"when I was pregnant my ankles were swollen," she said.
"My feet don't fit into shoes," I replied (after my 1.5 mile run, 32 mile bike with 7X 1 mile max effort hill climbs, then a 2nd run of 5 miles with 9X quarter mile sprints).
"I wanted to sleep all the time."
"I do too!"
"My back hurt."
"Mine does too!"
"I had weird cravings for Taco Bell Mexican pizzas" she said.
"And Wienerschnitzel Chile cheese hamburgers & Chile cheese french fries!" I threw into the mix as my mouth was watering!
"I was emotional & got hurt feelings, & angry for no reason," she said.
"Yes, yes, me too!"
"You do sound like your pregnant! Or having PMS." she said.....

.....I didn't find her last comment very amusing, true or not. Which of course it is true... but regardless I had no idea how similar the symptoms of triathlon training, pregnancy, &, er, well, PMS were.


So, as you see I'm into my taper. I'm getting the taper blues. As any endurance athlete can tell you tapering causes bi-polar type issues with the body & mind. The harder the training block the athlete endured the harder the taper is to endure-for both the athlete, & the friends & loved ones of the triathlete.

I recently pushed myself harder than I ever have before. In the month of March not only did I set personal run & bike mileage records, I also completed more hill repeats, lactate threshold sets, & speed work than I ever dreamed I would or could. I was focused, dedicated, & pushing myself farther than I had ever imagined. Consequently this taper is feeling particularly difficult. One day I feel like I can bike or run better than any athlete in the world! The next I feel like a 3 toed sloth on a bicycle. One minute I'm setting personal best training days, the next I'm winded & needing to rest after climbing a single story of stairs. I'm starting to feel pains that I freak out on, thinking they are injuries, but disappear in days or in hours:(

I feel constant fatigue, I'm needing more sleep now than I did when I was hammering out the big & fast miles. Like I said earlier in my post, I'm hyper sensitive, grouchy, moody, even angry at times. I'm over reacting to the smallest transgression, sometimes even to imagined slights. I'm having massive food cravings!!! & to think us triathletes do this to ourselves on purpose!!!!

Because of the taper I have been backing off on my workouts. I'm reducing my training 30% during 1st week of the taper, 50% week 2, and 75% week 3 which is race week.

I have always been told to use the above described reduced training plan as a guideline, and to back off more if needed. The number one rule during a taper is to let your body heal, rest, and reboost from all the intense training. I'll let you know how the taper goes, if I can get my lazy butt out of bed to do anything as physically demanding as blogging. Ugh, I'm so tired! & did I mention I'm crazy hungry? I'd kill for some Wienerschnitzel Chile cheese hamburgers & Chile cheese french fries!!! But no! I can't touch 'em, because I'm down to 190 pounds!!! & I need to avoid putting on any weight before my race! April 25th is the date! White Rock is the place! Put The Atomicman duathlon on your calendar peeps because this former Clydesdale is going to rock that course!!!!

May's workout

Until my wife & I can afford for me to hire coach Julia Rossi from Mile High Multisport, I'm building my own training plans. The 1st time I did this back in Sept I felt very out of my realm. The 1st race I built my own plan for was the Atomicman duathlon, which will be held on the 25th of this month. I feel confident in my plan, my self coaching, & my upcoming race. I'm expecting even bigger things from my next training plan I'm building now which will have me peak for The Santa Fe triathlon on July 17th 2010! I will have just finished an A race so I'll be starting off slow, recovering a bit, as the month progresses I'll start doing progressively harder workouts, starting w/ some zone 4, some fartleks, & a bit of zone 5. June & the 1st part of July should be monster months! Lots of hard zone 5 intervals & track speed days! Tune in here for my training plan for June-July!

Here is my training for the month of May. I haven't built my swimming workouts yet.

Sat May 01
Run
50 min z-2 run

Sun May 02
Rest

Mon May 03
Bike 42 min wu
8X20 sec Z-5b w/ 2 min r/i
20 min cd

Tue May 04
Run Fartlek
40 min z-2 w/ 8X30 sec R/I @ 5B

Wed May 05
Brick
bike 1:15 z-2
run 45 min z-2

Thu May 06
Brick
bike 1:15 z-2
run 10 min z-2

Fri May 07
Brick
bike 1:45 z-2
run 50 min z-2

Sat May 08
run
55 min z-2

Sun May 09
RaceDay
Jay Benson triathlon
3mi run/ 12 mi bike/ 400m swim

Mon May 10
bike
44 min w/u. 8X20 sec @ z-5B w/ 2 min RI

Tue May 11
Run fartlek
run 45 min z-2 w/ 8X30 @ z-5B

WedMay 12
Brick
bike 1:15 z-2
run 45 min z-2

Thu May 13
bike 1:15 z-2

FriMay 14
Brick
bike 2 hr Z-2
run 50 min z-2

SatMay 15
Run
1 hr z-2

Sun May 16
RaceDay
The Dog House Sprint
500m swim/17.6mi bike/3.1 mi run

Mon May 17
Bike_TT LT test

Tue May 18
Run_TT Run LT test

Wed May 19
Brick
45 min z-1` bike
35 min z-1 run

Thu May 20
Brick
bike 26 min w/u. 26 min z-4. 20 min c/d.
run 10 min z-2

Fri May 21
Brick
bike 1:45 z-2.
run 10 min w/u. 18 min z-4. 10 min c/d.

Sat May 22
Run
50 min z-2

Sun May 23
Rest

Mon May 24
bike speed
23 min w/u. 9X1min z-5b w/ 2 min ri. 20 min c/d

Tue May 25
Run
10 min wu. 15X30 sec @ 5B w/ 2 min ri. 10 min c/d.

Wed May 26
Brick
bike 1 hr z-1
run 40 min z-1

Thu May 27
Bike bike 2hrs z-2.
run 10 min wu. 26 min @ z-4. 10 min cd

FriMay 28
Brick
bike 2 hr z-2.
run 10 min wu. 26 min @ z-4. 10 min cd

Sat May 29
Run
run 1 hr z-2

Sun May 30
Rest

MonMay 31
Bike bike 30 min wu. 11X1 min z-5b w/ 2 min ri. 20 min cd

2010 Wind triathlon race report

On April 3rd 2010 I competed in the Wind triathlon at WSMR. This was a reverse triathlon which was supposed to have a 7K run, 35K bike, a 400 meter swim. I raced with my Garmin 305 & found the distances to be a 3.91 mile run, a 22.3 mile bike, & a 400 meter swim.

I weighed in on race morning weighing 191, this woyld be the lightest I'd ever raced at. March I had a BIG month of training miles, so I wasn't sure if I'd suffer on this triathlon from fatigue or if I would have recovered enough to get a speed increase. I started jogging to warm up about an half hour before the race & couldn't seem to get that nice warmed up feeling. I wasn't sure if that was a bad sign or not. Either way, it was time to find out.

The last couple races a guy named Dave has really spent a lot of time teaching me some of the more subtle things about triathlon. Such as: My biggest problem is pacing. I start every race like I'd been shot out of a gun. I take off sprinting, and slow down more & more as the run progresses. I decided I was going to force myself to slow down my run pace for the first half & see if I could get a negative split.

Even though I started slow I was in the top 4 for the 1st 1.5 miles. Like I'd said, I start out way to fast, so this is usual for me. What wasn't usual was that as the run progressed to the point where I usually slow, I didn't seem to be slowing at all this race. At the half way point I was maintaining 5th place overall, sustaining a 7 minute mile pace. Then something unusual happened. At the 3 mile mark I got a stomach cramp. I've only gotten stomach cramps at 2 other races before. This was unusual & very heart breaking because I was having such a stellar race. By the 5K mark I was running bent over with pain, I saw Dave slipping farther away & my competition catching me slowly but surely. The pain became so intense I was becoming nauseous. At the 3.5 mile mark the pain seemed to become to much for my body, so it did it's best to alleviate the problem, & I threw up. Problem alleviated! I felt great again & the stitch in my side was virtually gone. I took off again, back in the hunt!

I ended up finishing the 3.9 mile run in 27 minutes 45 seconds, keeping a 7:09 pace.

I hopped on the bike, which I'd really been working on over the winter & tried to reel in some of the leaders. There is something about the WSMR bike courses, they seem to be very difficult to have fast times at, even on a great day. My best WSMR bike average was 19.1 mph set this Feb at the Presidents Day Duathlon.

Today I felt like I had an average bike at best. I caught one person who was ahead of me right before the turn around putting me into 4th place overall. Then a youngster wearing a New Mexico State University triathlon team singlet passed me on the bike with 5K to go. I tried my best to hang with him, to no avail. This kid was FAST! I finished the bike in 5th place overall with an bike split of 62 minutes, which is an average of a little over 21 miles an hour- course PR baby! I got into T-2 approximately 45 seconds behind the NM state kid.

I had a fast transition & made up about 15 seconds on the youngster. I entered the pool & started trying to find my rhythm. Around 150 meters into the swim I passed the NM kid & was able to hold off the rest of the competition with an average at best swim of 8 minutes & change.

I ended up securing a 4th place overall finish, 2nd place age group 35-39 with a total time of 1 hr 38 minutes setting a personal course PR baby!

This was my 5th race of the 2010 South West Challenge Series. I now have 3 first place finishes, 1 second place & one third place finish for a total of 47 points for the SW series 35-39 AG. A fellow by the name of Gregory Gouveia is in 2nd place with 24 points.

My next race is the Spring Fling triathlon in Rio Rancho on April 18th. A fellow competitor has let me borrow his pair of Easton 404's for that race! Those are a $2000+ pair of wheels & he just said, "here ya go. Mail em back when your done!" Wow. What a great guy. I can't believe how wondeful this guy is! Thanks Jason!!!

See you at the races!