training, training, training

Not much else to say... busy with life otherwise...

At this point, I've decided to skip Florida 70.3 on 05/16 and keep training hard, targeting Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I will race at Boise 70.3 two weeks out as final prep for IM Cd'A. Should be good....

Juggling the calendar, the $, and the little fish.

For the time-constrained triathlete and on limited funds, one of the more complex aspects of triathlon is figuring out what races make sense and fit to make the most out of a full racing season. Take yours truly as an example- I was having a slight niggle in one lower leg, and hence hesitated to finalize travel plans to Texas 70.3 , taking place 04/24. Even in tip-top shape, I don't think we could have afforded the plane ticket, looking ahead to the rest of the season expenses.

The Shawnigan Half IM I thought of doing on 05/01 is out of the question. Simply too pricey and too many logistics involved for me.

So now it's time to figure out which is better: Flying to Florida 70.3 (05/06) or driving to Boise 70.3 (06/12). They both involve roughly the same travel time, obviously driving to Boise is more affordable than flying to Orlando. But, Boise is also only 2 weeks before Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Which is not too bad.

In other news, Donovan has become a fish, and I'm having a hard time explaining to him why we can't go to the swimming pool all the time. If it was up to him, we'd likely be there 2-3times a day. Where did I put that ITU U23 application???

One more partner

As we head into the 2010 season, I'm totally excited to announce I'll be counting on the support from First Endurance.
From Pre-Race to EFS Drink to Liquid Shot, it is just an awesome line up of nutrition products that work. Period. I've been using their products for some time, so I'm super happy to be able to partner up with a company not only dedicated to sport, but totally interested in its athletes and their feedback. What do I currently use to train and race? Check my existing stash in our pantry:
Here's to having to not worry about nutrition when racing! Thanks First Endurance!!!

jc

Oceanside 70.3 - 25th MPro

The hug from the team makes it all worthwhile :o)

Man, what a tough race! I was talking afterwards with Michael Raelert, and while he won, he agreed with me: Between the hills, head & cross winds, and heat, this is one tough course. The bike was tougher than I expected. The run was not as easy as it looks on paper. Tim DeBoom ran less than 2 minutes faster than me. I feel pretty good about that. I gave it all I had on the day and learned a few things along the way:

*A half IM swim in 58-59F water is not as bad as I thought. Keep working the swim, not bad for a first wetsuit swim in 6months.
*Transition faster.
*Review the powerfile and see where you could have metered the watts better, I had a hard time holding good power in the last 15mi.
*Transition faster. C'mon, it's a race, what were you doing?
*Trust your run and keep it steady, let go of your ego. I should have stayed put at the comfortable 5:45pace I was running, instead of reacting to faster race action around me. It would have translated into a faster run split than the 6:13 average pace I posted. Race & learn.

Here are some other images:

This is the front end of the Triad, ready to roll. Photo by Aaron Hersh

Just get me home...

Thanks to my awesome family and my sponsors: Blue Seventy, NUUN, Blue Cycles, Oomph! and Corpore Sano.

More later, it's time for a beer.

cheers!

Goin' back to Cali...

We made it to Oceanside. Yeah. Donovan and I jumped in the pool of the condo we are staying at to officially declare the vacation is on. The condo complex is right on the beach, right next to the Strand, which is where the run course goes.

We are excited to go check out the beach tomorrow.

It took me 45minutes to put the Triad back together, which is pretty good, given how much I had to disassemble it to put in the box. Time to go to bed.

Paralympic awesomeness...

I was watching some coverage of ice sledge hockey, part of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic games. Long time ago, I agreed with a good friend that hockey players were indeed the most physically talented athletes out there. Seriously. Going full speed on ice, on skates, using a stick to control a tiny puck, all while getting clobbered. Nevermind trying to get the puck into the tiny goal which is, for all practical purposes, fully shielded by the dude in huge pads and with lighting-quick reflexes. Maybe it's cuz I didn't grow up on ice, but that is crazy stuff. HOWEVER, the paralympic athletes I saw last nite, for me, took all that to a whole new level. I was in awe, I could not stop watching. That's what I call bad-ass hockey players.

In other news, Oceanside 70.3 is T minus 10days. The Triad is ready to roll. Pictures up soon. Hopefully it warms up a little so we can have a good vacation (and a good race!).

Very unexpected...

Saturday was a really nice day here in Seattle: Beautiful sunshine, starting to warm up a little. And in as much as it would been a perfect day for training, it was even more so for spending it with Theresa and Donovan. I can't really remember the last time I took a day completely off from training.

We woke up late-ish, Theresa made us some awesome hot cakes (!!) and then we all went to the Museum of Flight, where we've had a familiy membership now for a few years (Donovan loves it). It is a very cool place we visit way often, with some really fantastic airplanes, including a Blackbird and a Concorde, among many others. Afterwards, we needed lunch and decided to try out a place called Randy's, just one block south of the Museum. We knew nothing about it, but we were hungry enough to check it out. We are so glad we did.

Photo by Daniel Spils

The place has the decor of an era gone by, and is full of flying aricraft memorabilia. Our waitress called us "Hon" and "Dear", and tickled Donovan. The food is diner-style down-to-earth, and was really tasty and very affordable. We'll most definitely be going back there.

Donovan and I went to pay Lucia Roadenizer, the very nice lady who greeted & sat us. He handed her the 'ticket', and as I paid, she said to hold on, she had something for him. I thought, oh, a little sticker or a stamp. Out she comes with a model airplane in a box, for us to put together. Completely blew me away. This day in age, who is THAT nice? Donovan was SOOOOO excited, he was jumping up and down. We got home, all of us sat down in the sun-drenched living room and put the little plane together. Donovan wants to bring it the next time we go back.

It was just one of those REALLY feel-good days.

Back in shape.

I had a short conversation late last week with an older gentleman who frequents the pool. He is a regular at the water aerobics in the shallow pool. Always says a friendly hello. We never really talked before, though. Our conversation went from how crowded the pool was that day, to how nice the weekend days looked ahead. He said he was happy to be able to walk again and enjoy the sun. Walk again? He went on to describe how a stroke had just about immobilized the left side of his body, and how hard work (water aerobics included) and lots of patience over 5yrs, had gotten him mobile again. He said he was happier now, and just wanted to get back in shape. Our conversation finished with him saying 'Someday, I'll come over to the big pool for a swim' and I assured him he would.

I don't know if there's a point to this little story, but I wanted to write it up anyways.