Registered for Ironman 70.3 BSLT

Well it is official I am registered for the BSLT 70.3 Ironman. Every time I register for an event it is my official commitment to train and get ready for that event. It seems I can talk about doing an event all I want, but it is not till I get registered that I get into full training mode.

I have several goals for this race:

1. I want to finish first off!

2. Assuming I get through #1 I want to beat my 2007 time of 7:14 (I know it's slow but it was my first one so not too many laughs out there)!

I am not trying to make excuses but I did have a bad showing and my lack of attention to detail to my training and nutrition really showed on race day.

3. Swim under 50 minutes (I am a brick in the water).

4. Lastly I would like to dedicate my efforts to my father-in-law who is suffering from ALS. I am not sure if he will make it to the race yet, but I will video tape it for him if he is not there to see me cross the finish line, hopefully some where around 6:00 hours.

So as the new year comes around I say Cheers, to all you bloggers and loyal followers!

Hunting Vacation

I just got back from Amarillo, Texas. I decided to take a break from it all and go on a little hunting trip with my dad. No work, no workouts, no early morning alarms, no chores, it was great! As long as I can remember my dad has always loved hunting and whenever possible he has always taken my brother and I. So now that I can return the favor I figured it would be a great idea. I got a telephone call from my buddy who lives in McLean, Texas he told me that I was way overdue for a visit and it was then that he invited me over for hunting. I immediately thought of my dad and asked him if he wanted to go and since my dad is retired that took all of two seconds before he replied and said he would go.

We had a great time. Two hours into our hunt we got a beautiful 10 point buck! After that we just enjoyed the outdoors driving around the beautiful panhandle country. My buddy and I just caught up on stuff and told old stories. My dad was great sport he just sat back and enjoyed the company and listened to my buddy and I talk for hours.

It was nice to put away the swimming gear, bike gear, and running shoes away for a while. I have to say it was a break well needed and with Christmas coming I have to say I don't think that I will be training this up coming week either. I have included a picture of the hunting trip.

To all those who follow along, God bless! Have a Merry Christmas and I will see you all after the holidays.

Weekly Training Report and Getting Tagged!

I am in the middle of still trying to figure this blogging thing out, then out of the blue I get Tagged by Cody the Clydesdale. I have provided below 5 interesting things about me and then it turns out I have to tag five other people I don't know five people yet, so if I tagged you sorry, didn't mean to scare you but chances are is that I follow your blogs!



1. I played College Baseball at El Paso Community College and Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. While attending Sul Ross State I hit the weights and got up to about 215 lbs. Now I weigh 185 lbs (Much nicer on the knees).


2. My college roommate and I were traveling home to El Paso, TX from Alpine, TX for the weekend. Then our car broke down between Marfa, Texas and Valentine, Texas. Why we did the following is beyond me but we did it. I now have this on my list of incredible feats of strength and stupidity! We pushed my car (at the time a small Chevy S-10), for 16 long miles until we got to Valentine, Texas. We spent the night and waited for our rescue team (our parents) to show the next morning to pick us up!


3. I have a thing for reality shows. I am currently hooked on "The Hills" from MTV. I am 30 years old and I am still watching MTV, worse yet teenage reality shows at that! It is my guilty pleasure. I don't feel so bad because my wife (also 30) watches it with me.


4. I have a re-occurring nightmare that haunts me to this day. In my dream it is the first day of school. I attend all of my classes, and I tell myself, "I think I have the schedule memorized". It is then that I throw away my schedule. The dream elapses to the end of the semester and then it is time for the FINAL EXAMS! It is then that I realize that I haven't gone to a particular class since the first day of school. Then when I show up to take the test, everyone is looking at me like, "who the hell is the new guy"! I think this dream haunts me because I have a fear of being late. I am always running about 10 to 15 minutes early for an event or meeting, etc!.


5. I was in Italy in 2005 with my wife for 15 days. We toured Rome, Venice, Sangimignano, Florence, Pisa, and the region of Tuscany. I know that this last one might not be that interesting but I thought it was awesome so I had to write about.

NOW I will attempt to tag five people hope they don't freak out.....by saying who the hell is this guy....(blame Cody)!

Tripharmbunny, clydeologist, athenadiaries, swtrigal, and the dread pirate.



TRAINING


Ok, I've been sluggish in the mornings and in my last report I was having problems getting the training motor up and running. Well the first thing I did was try my buddies swim work outs and let me tell you what they have really kick started my morning swim workouts that pretty much consisted of 1000 to 1500 yards of freestyle, boring right? Well the new work out incorporates warm-ups, sprints, stroke technique drills, and longer yardage! I need all the help I can get in the swim. My goal this year is to do better at the BSLT Ironman 70.3. Last year my swim time was 50:07, I am a very SLOW swimmer.



My running is coming along well. Last year about this time I had a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis. This year I am slowly increasing my miles, last year I think the problem was that I was running everyday, when I was never an "everyday runner" and I was piling on the miles.


My cycling is coming along. I still need to utilize my trainer more often and I need to get some longer rides in on the weekend. My homework for this week is to add more training time to my cycling.

Why is it so hard to train through the holidays?

For the last two years I have always faced the same issues during the months of December, January, and February. The first issue is dealing with the winter months. I usually do my swims in the morning, which means I wake up at 5:00 am. But when the bed is so warm and it is so cold outside it really makes it hard to get out of bed. On the days that I do get out of bed I get a descent workout. Now my second issue is time management, of course during the winter months the days are shorter. I usually ride in the evenings during the summer months, but by the time I get out of work during the winter it is already dark and cold. So do I toughen up? Well I thought I would smarten up and buy an indoor trainer. I did and I have to say I am not using it as much as I thought I would be using it.


So I fight morning laziness and the evening clock for the days during the winter months, making it very difficult to have a successful off-season. I am going to try something new though, I intend to spice up my training by trying out some new workouts that my buddy from Dallas sent me. I hope that peaks my interest and gets me out of bed a whole lot easier. Well I am just checking in to let you all know what I am battling every day. More to come....let see if this little spark can ignite my training into overdrive!

THE POLAR BEAR TRIATHLON 2007

Well I finally got off my butt and created a blog! This past weekend was the Polar Bear Triathlon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This will be my second time doing this race. This will be the first race of the 2008 race season for the Southwest Challenge Series, a triathlon racing season composed of over twenty races throughout New Mexico and West Texas.

I arrived a little later that I usual to the race (normally me and my partner are the third and fourth ones there). This was the first time that my lovely wife would accompany me to a race at White Sands. She usually attends the bigger races that are USAT sanctioned, so I was pretty happy that she decided to go. I me and my friend "PT Dog Matt" usually push each other for these races but he could not make it to the race, so I had get motivated without him.

The weather was great, a little wind but not too bad (more on that later). I began by setting up my transition area with the help of my lovely assistant. Once I was set up I sweat I only had about 5 minutes to warm-up. The race director got up front and called everyone to attention, gave his normal spill and then I heard that the race was a 7K instead of a 5K. I was expecting a 5k and with being sick all week I wasn't sure that my stomach could handle the distances. Then before you knew it we were off in my head I was just thinking who cares just have fun and race at a training pace. The run was smooth with a start in the front of the pack that ended somewhere in the middle of the pack. Funny, when you train on a treadmill it seems that when you hit the pavement you feel like you gained twenty pounds. My legs were burning for the first 2 miles then the burned tapered off.

As I approached T1, I felt great the leg burn was mostly gone and I felt good. I transitioned and hit the bike. I was curious to see how I would do. I was trying something new. I had not ridden in about two months (on pavement), but I had been tearing it up on my indoor trainer in front of the big screen in my garage. The first portion of the 30k bike was slightly down hill. The legs were feeling great and that is right about the time I started passing all the people that had passed me in last mile of the run. It's always a great feeling but then I just remind myself that I just need to improve my run so that it is proportional to my bike. I was moving along great when the road turned just a bit to the right at about 10k and "bam", it was that wind that I thought was none existent. I started pushing harder and I went to an easier gear on the bike, made it passed the wind and then took advantage of a great downhill at about 20k, I was moving about 30 mph it was great. The last 5k were tough, they always are at White Sands. I don't know why but I always get the feeling that I am going up hill when it looks perfectly flat.

As I pedal into T2 I see my loyal wife reading her book, with no idea I am coming into transition. No sooner as that thought processed through my mind she looks up and starts cheering me on, I get changed for my swim, and I start running for the pool. As I am running there is my book worm wife and loyal friend running right next to me cheering Go! Go! You gotta love these not sanctioned USAT races were loved ones can be close to the transition area cheering you on.

I plunged into the indoor pool (I love this, the water is so warm, it was in the 50's outside) to start my 400m swim. I am not a great swimmer at all. But I have been practicing by doing longer pool workouts, working on stroke technique, and sprints for power and endurance. I was passed three times, I think? I was actually pretty happy with my swim, I usually have a small "school" of triathletes pass me in the pool.

I did not stick around for the final times, apparently some people were late to the race and were allowed to start anyway. So it was going to be a while before the results were out. According to my watch though, these were my times: 30:50 for the 7K, 59:00 for the 30k, and 10:33 for the 400m swim.

So the wife and I opted to go to another banquet. The Southwest Challenge Series has an awards ceremony at the end of the race season and they give the awards out for the different age groups. For the 2007 race season I earned 3rd place. This was my first attempt at a complete season, and I have to say I was pretty happy with the results. The trophies were great and unique, "Champagne Bottles"! All and all we had a great time, great weather, and good company, made for a relaxing Saturday morning.