El Paso Tri Club

The El Paso Tri Club is up and running and I would say...oficially off the ground. I just wanted to give the quick update. Google the El Paso Tric Club to check us out.

I am currently training for a duathlon at White Sands Missle Range. I have to do well because in my last race...well let's just say that I had no business racing. The other race that I am getting ready for is the El Paso Marathon. I will be doing the 13 mile run. I did this race in 2007. It is a pretty tough run. The first six miles are pretty much all up hill.

Well the duathlon is about 3 weeks away. I will keep everyone posted on the results!

Polar BEAR 2008 (2009) Season

Today was the beginning of the 2009 Triathlon season. Well maybe not exactly I believe the Jingle Bell Triathlon was actually the beginning of the 2009 season. Anyway, I did not train for the race but I still had a great time and the turn out was awesome. I saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time. I saw Cody who is in my age group. I had not seen him since the last Polar Bear, I believe.

The weather was cold....as can be expected in December, but talk about dodging a bullet. Right as the race came to an end the winds picked up! We had an occasional gust or two on the bike during the race but nothing compared to how the winds were towards the mid morning and afternoon.

I ended up in second place overall for the 2008 SWCS racing season. My goal next year will be to get first overall. In 2007, during my first year in the 30-34 age group I placed third overall. It only makes sense to keep progressing. With the next race more than a month away. I have to start training and getting ready for the 2009 season. I plan not to be so busy at work next year and I plan to dedicate more time to the things that make me happy.

I have no idea what placed I finished but I am working on getting the splits and placings....stand by I will update soon.

String of Bad Luck at the Yucca Triathlon

Okay so I had back to back triathlon races this past weekend. So let me start off with the Yucca Triathlon which was a 10k run, 48k bike, and 400m swim. When I started the run I felt good. I haven't had a chance to download my GARMIN 405 data yet, but at last glance I think I was averaging 8:20 miles for the 10k, which I know is not fast but I was happy with it. As I transitioned into the bike my legs felt good so I jammed out on the bike, then it happened! Approximately 10k into the bike I went over a good size rock, I even felt the back tire move to the left. So of course the next noise I was waiting for was the loud pop! Oh yeah let me mention right now, I am riding tubulars and I am not carrying a spare tire or tools. So I don't hear the bang but I do feel slower. So I am trying to look back at the rear wheel. Well I don't know what happened but my rear tire was riding low. I rode a couple of more miles and I looked back again to check on the tire. I could not understand how I had been able to ride the next couple of miles and not loose all my tire pressure. Long story short I don't know what happened but I lost a significant amount of tire pressure without going completely flat. So there I was with about 38k to go on the bike and I was asking myself do I stop and wait for the SAG WAGON or do I keep on knowing I wont place but at least I will finish. So, I decided screw it, I will keep going. Okay, I hit the 40k marker and BANG!! So if you are a reasonable person like I am you are thinking the rear tire is done! No, my front tire blew out....and I mean it blew out, there will be no riding this one out!

So not only did it suck riding on rear low tire but then I get stranded with 8k to go, walking, bare footed, and pissed! So this goes in the record books as my first DNF (did not finish).

I dropped off my tri-bike at Crazy Cat for repairs that evening. The next day (Sunday) I had a race at Ascarate Park in El Paso, Texas and with my bike in the shop I would have to use my road bike for the race.

I woke up sore the next day but I was ready to redeem myself. Here is the race layout; 1.5 mile run, 6 mile bike, 1.5 mile run, 6 mile bike, 800 meter swim. Again, I have not downloaded the Garmin 405 info, but my final time was 1:15 and I finished 3rd in my age group. I am still fighting for Southwest Challenge points and the Yucca DNF really hurt me on the points especially since I am playing catch up. I will keep you all posted on my strategy!

Back to Back

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.

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.