IMC minus 2 days

After getting registration, and working out done, it was time to enjoy the day.
Here we are checking out the water in Skaha Lake. The park were we were is a 2-minute walk from Mike & Su's house. How awesome is that?

Race? What race?

Is time for some chillin', that's what we are here for. C'mon, papa.......

We had a pic-nic and played at the beach, and the climb-on structure they have at the park by the Skaha Lake. We saw a couple little snakes, and we petted one for a few moments.
The swim this morning was awesome- water is super nice. The bike ride a little later this morning was even better. Mike's expert fine-tuning left the bike rockin', and this mexican's little legs are feeling snappy happy at a fast pace... If I can keep things rolling that way in 2 days, it will be a good one.

We finished our day at the park with some yoga... sorta...
Good nite. Thanks for reading.

IMC minus 3days

We had a great drive up, which included the speediest border crossing in history- Wait time: zero!

A bathroom stop, lunch at Wendy's/Tim Hortons, and one gas stop later and we had made it to Peach City in 7hrs, which is really good! Donovan got to enjoy watching numerous DVDs on the way up. We even stopped by the bear, so I could have Theresa and Donovan try a peach-blueberry shake, one of the tastiest shakes I've ever had, and which I 'discovered' on my first time up here.

Look at all my fruits!!

We got all settled in and our gracious hosts came by a little later on in the evening. Mike's a bike mechanic and I asked for his expert skills to fine tune the drivetrain. Nothing like having a master mechanic look over your work to ensure you got everything right.

Pros have their own personal mechanics. What? You didn't know that?

BTW- Happy belated birthday, Mike!

While Mike rocked his skills on the bike, Donovan and Anja enjoyed one of the presents we brought her- a Stomp Rocket! If you have a little one (or even if you don't) and don't have one of these, man, I gotta tell you- you are missing out big time on serious, simple fun...

Anyhow, tomorrow is an open water swim, hotcakes (of course!), registration, a short bike ride and lots of chillaxing. We are good at that last part....

Until then... g'nite from Peach City

The monkey is out of the bottle

The expression doesn't even make sense, but it sure made me laugh when I heard it.

Anyways, here we are, IMC minus 5days and feeling ready to get my race on! By the time the race rolls around, I will have swam about 25days in openwater. Let's see if the strategy pays off. Today was another excellent lake swim, with good amounts of chop, wind and rain. Plus an ez 35min run with a handful of 1min hard accelerations sprinkled in. I would say it's the last tune-up run for me, and I'm feelin good

We will start packing some stuff tonite, and getting the van ready to go. I have very few last minute details to tend to. Donovan is excited about the movies he gets to watch while we are on the road, and about being in Canada.

I can hardly wait. See what we got!

IMC minus 11days

All is good in our corner of the world. We've been enjoying slightly cooler temperatures, though the last few days the mercury has been on the rise.

Theresa and I are getting pretty jazzed about the race, and about the mini-vacation that comes with it. We really like Penticton- We just wish it was a little closer. We are looking forward to spending a few days with our gracious and totally cool hosts. They have a little girl (Anja) who is one year older than Donovan, and they got along great the first year they met.

That is about it for right now. Tapering is coming along nicely. Oh, I got bib # 37. It's good motivation.

Also- wanted to report that 17-18 Open Water swims later, my Helix and yellow-tinted Hydras are absolutely awesome. My plan for this race build was to swim hard in the pool up until 4weeks out, then go become one with the neoprene 5-6days/week. So far, so good (and loving it).

Mexico 2 - USA 1 (World Cup Qualifier)

Giving props to my homies for keeping the record at our Estadio Azteca 22-0.

El tri rifa!

He's going for distance, he's going for speed...

25hrs. This past week I put in the biggest volume/intensity combo I've ever done. One gallon of IM-race-pace, 5 cups of half-IM pace and sprinkle intensity generously into the bowl, and the short-term end result is one very tired dude. If all goes as planned, the long-term result will be one very fit dude. The weekend was specially challenging, having to overcome the compounding fatigue from the other days, while trying my best to be dad and husband. Given my life situation (i.e. full-time worker bee), this is probably as much of the volume/intensity mix as I can handle.

After recovering a little from training on Saturday, Theresa, Donovan and I went to eat sushi and then walked over to Seattle Center to hear rockin' music at the KEXP Annual BBQ. While we waited for bands to come on-stage, we went over and rode the ferris wheel (In Mexico, we call them wheel of fortune), which Donovan enjoyed only for ~1minute, and then wanted to get off. Maybe he takes after me, and doesn't like rides. It wasn't too bad walking around after a big day of training, maybe I'm just getting used to it.



I want to say thank you to my beautiful and very understanding family, Theresa & Donovan, for putting up with the sporting demands of this past week.

Blue Seventy in da house!

I am very excited to announce I've started a relationship with another local Seattle outfit, makers of the fastest wetsuits and swimming accessories: BLUE SEVENTY! They equip the best swimmers in our sport, and when I look around the starting line in every race I've started, they've always outnumbered all other wetsuit makers. I can hardly wait to take out my new Helix and goggles out for a spin tomorrow at dawn. Seriously: I've been looking for a better fitting suit, one that doesn't require wasting energy stretching material every stroke. The helix component... well, let's just say I am looking forward to experiencing all the hardwork and research behind that design!

Thanks a lot to the guys at Blue Seventy. Here's to faster swim times!

Cheers!!

Do work, son... be smart 'bout it too....

Ancient proverbs to live by:

"2 beers is 2 too many on the eve of a big workout"

"Dig a hole, make sure you can get out"

"Man who gets 2 flats should carry 2 tubes"

After the temperatures subsided some, the rest of this week was not *too* bad, although it still allowed for some good heat training. On Saturday, after some cartoons and the world's best pancakes with Donovan, I went and ran 20+mi, and at 18, well, I went on survival mode, after messing up the hydration and nutrition plan. I am sure not paying attention to proverb # 1 didn't help matters either.... It is amazing how tough running 2-3mi becomes when the engine runs out of gas and coolant....

Theresa came to my rescue and helped me get liquids and nourishment back in me as I lay in the bathtub of cold water. The day got better from there, with patience and understanding from her. We left Donovan at my in-laws and went off to have an 'afternoon/early evening date' in downtown Seattle. We shopped around for a bit, which for me mostly meant looking for places to sit down, rest, drink and eat. I actually think the light walking around helped a little bit. We went to see "UP" in 3-D. Awesome movie, seriously. It was a blast. I was laughing left and right. We then topped it off with a nice dinner at the Pink Door, a place we've been going to together on/off for like 10yrs. All in all, a great Saturday with my beautiful wife.

I feel I dug myself into a hole on Saturday. While I needed to get a long ride in on Sunday, I choose to cap it at 3hrs and at a light effort, <=3w/kilo and higher rpms. By the time 3hrs had gone by, I was done and tired. So I think I payed attention to proverb # 2.

As far as Proverb # 3... My training wheels have had tire liners in them forever. Be smart about the work.

Heat Wave

Seattle experienced heat like never before, or so I understand. The heat raised steadily over 4-5 days up to a crazy maximum on Wednesday. As I was driving home from work, at ~5pm, I saw several business' clocks (you know, the kind that intermittently blink the time, temp, and 1gal of milk for $0.99) showing 108F. Woah!
I got home and joined Theresa and Donovan in his little pool in our backyard. Stuff (furniture, counters, etc) inside our house felt hot to the touch. We slept in our basement, which was probably 20 degrees cooler, without needing fans, so the hottest night in history wasn't too bad for us. After dinner, I went for a 45 min run, and it was still very much in the 90's. I got home dripping sweat. Heat training, anyone? All the people that live & train in these kinds of climates, hats off to you.... it is tough...

YETI

I decided to switch to blogger for my random thoughts, simply b/c I'm not versed enough (nor have the time or drive) to keep playing with Dreamweaver, so this here is my first post.

Older posts, pictures, etc. of my adventures are found on my 'old' website here.

This time, I wanted to talk about this great tasting beer I had this past weekend. Theresa and I were able to have a date while Donovan stayed with Teddy and Katie. I am not sure if it was the 6.5hr ride or the 18-19mi run weekend, but, dang, this thing tasted OH-SO good together with the awesome indian food we had. I was not able to finish all 650ml of this 7% lager, as I was feeling the amount I did have. I'll definitely try again another time....