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On September 6, 2008, I will be participating at the 2008 Yucca Triathlon and on September 7, 2008, I will be participating in the Tre Foil Triathlon in El Paso, Texas. I have never tried back to back races and since I will be putting in full effort into both of them it should make for an interesting weekend. The Yucca will be a 10k run, 48k bike, and 400m swim. The Tre Foil will be a 1.6 mile run, 6 mile bike, 1.6 mile run, 6 mile bike, then 800m swim.

My training has been going well. I will give a post race report...stay tuned!

IN CONTROL OF MY LIFE AGAIN

I know it has been a long time since I have written anything on my blog but I am back. I am also racing again, which feels great!

So a quick recap! Back in February 2008, work took a hold of me and without going into great detail, I was basically working 16-18 hour days. Being consumed by work did not leave me any time to train and therefore no time to race.

But believe it or not the rest was well needed. I feel fired up and ready to go again. I am way behind in the Southwest Challenge Series Triathlon points but I have full intentions of making a run for the points before the year is up!

My first race after the lay off was the Las Cruces Duathlon. The day started off great beginning with the weather. I had never done the course so I had no idea what it would be like. For those of you who have never done the Las Cruces Duathlon here is the run down. The course is a 5k run/26mile bike/5k run. The race was held at the field of dreams, which by the way is a nice sports facility. The run was flat, half pavement, and half loose gravel, which in all actuality was not so bad. The bike was 26 miles, not bad right? Well the first thirteen miles were up hill. Never having done the course I thought the hill would never end. Now the awesome part, the course was an out and back, so you guessed it! We were moving on the way back! If I remember correctly I hit a top speed of 45 mph, and I held it for a little while. After arrival at T2 it was off to another 5k run same course, however the final 400 meters were done around a track, for what they called a victory lap! It was a great race. I am still waiting for the results. I left right after the race for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel!!

Last weekend I did my second race after my layoff and the 4th race of the season for the Southwest Challenge Series. I was in good ole' Odessa, Texas for the Tumbleweed Triathlon. The first time that I did this race was back in 2006, it was also my last. I was excited to see how much I had improved in two years. One quick story! I thought the race was on a Saturday, so I left El Paso Friday afternoon, arrived at the YMCA for registration and then they broke me the bad news! The race was actually on Sunday. So I had to pay for an extra night at the hotel. No big deal I had the wife and dog with me so I had no worries back home!!!

Now to the race. The race consisted of a 5k run/12 mile bike/500m swim. It was a great race I felt great. The only factor, it was a little windy, other than that it was a great race. I improved my 5k run time and my 12 mile bike time. I don't have the exact figures but you all will have to take my word for it. The swim time was about thirty seconds slower. I will attribute it to the following: in 2006 the race was traditional order S/B/R. This year it was reversed so I think I would have had a faster time but since it was my last event I figure that's why I was thirty seconds slower.

Anyway, I'm back! I am excited, primarily cause I have a grip on my life again. I took a look at the points and Cody Hanson is in the lead. Pretty good for his first year as an age grouper.....my congrats! I don't know if either one of us will get the eight races in time but we will see. I know the rules changed regarding the amount of races that you have to do. But when the points are close you almost have to get your eight races in. Anyway, I hope to see you all at the races!!!!

No more Excuses

I have been super consumed by work and I have taken about two weeks off. I feel well rested physically but mentally....well that is a different story! I am going to miss the El Paso Marathon due to lack of training! I was going to sign up at the last minute but I figure I would just get injured if I tried to push it.

So I did the John Stermer Duathlon! PT Dog Matt and I had a great time! Great race! PT Dog was nursing an injured ankle so he took it easy on the run. The bike was great I never lost sight of him and I think that really helped keep the focus of my burning legs and in the long run I think that I had personal best on the bike. We averaged 21.1 mph, we were moving!

So it looks like Alpine will be next! I will more than likley do race day registration and we will see how it goes. More on work later! I had 80 hour work weeks the last two weeks!

So aside from failing health I have no more excuses I WILL make time to work out! See you all at the races!!

FLIP TURNS

Ok, so I have been swimming since May 2005! I was never a swimmer before and my first day in the swimming pool consisted of swimming one length of the pool (25 yds).....rest......swim another length.....rest......repeat.....call it a work out after 400 yds. Well I have come a long way since then. I did my first open water swim in 2007 at Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 and today I did my first flip turn in the pool. I was excited, I've always wanted to learn how to do a flip turn and today I got it down, so I did the entire work out with flip turns! I did not realize how much it takes out of you! Anyway, I just wanted to share this with my readers! Train Smart~

On the El Paso Bicycle club

For those of you who will soon visit El Paso, Texas on a weekend let me recommend a bike ride with the El Paso Bicycle Club, a group of friendly people who really welcome non-club members on their rides.

Here is the website: http://www.elpasobicycleclub.com/home.html

On the website you will find a link named "calender" and there you will find a list of rides for the weekends and weekdays. Sometimes it's difficult for me to get a group of friends to go ride with because we're not all on the same schedule and let's face it riding on your own is not the most exciting 2 to 3 hours on the bike. So when my friends are too busy I hook up with the El Paso Bicycle Club. So for whatever reason you should find your self in El Paso check out their website maybe you can catch a ride with them.

Ok, enough promoting. I had a decent training week. Work interfered with a couple of workouts but nothing that really set me back. I need to start picking up my mileage just a tad as I have the El Paso Marathon coming up on March 2, 2008 (only doing the half though). So far the training is going great and the main reason for that is that I'm injury free. Last year about this time I had some problems with my feet. Now that's all healed up and my training has been going smooth and on track.

I am also getting ready for the John Stermer Triathlon or Duathlon, not sure what it is going to be yet since the SWCS calender is not out yet, coming in February! See you all there, I'm out!

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.