México 2 - Francia 0

The sweet taste of victory

¡¡¡ Viva el Tri !!!

Boise 70.3 - 16th MPro

Photo by Idaho Statesman

What better way to end the last big build to an Ironman than with a lot of pain courtesy of super tough race conditions? So thanks, Boise, for kicking my butt.

I drove to pick up fellow pro Michael "Rocket Cheeto" Gordon, and then we were on our way to Boise. The drive was really nice, and we got the chance to catch up, ponder the meaning of life, and trash talk.

The 2pm race start was awesome. More 70.3's should do this. Here's how it went- The water was WAY cold for this dude. I could not keep my hands open to catch water towards the end of the swim, which got more interesting with the the little chop on the way back. I was just wanting to be out of the freezing reservoir. Wasn't a good swim.

Blue Triads racked after a tough tough ride.

On to the bike, we were immediately greeted with absolutely crazy wind conditions on top of heat. Everyone I talked to after the race agreed it was ridiculous. We got blasted the whole ride, having to either lean hard left, or right, to keep the bikes upright. After that kind of riding, there just wasn't a whole lot of running left in anyone. Just look at the run times.

Michael & I chatting it up with our buddy & runner-up Ben Hoffman.
Cuidadito con Ben- el chamaco se ha convertido en dinamita pura, y va por buen camino.

Professor M. Gordon, Doctor A. Jensen, B. Halpin, "the Missoula Click" + 1 Mexican, post-race.

Hey, if you see this guy, please remind him he owes me a beer.

We chatted post-race about what REALLY matters (the World Cup!)

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Before signing off, thanks to Shane and Katie for hosting us. You guys were truly awesome! Thanks to my great sponsors, Blue, Nuun, Blue Seventy, First Endurance and Oomph! for their continued support. Last, but always first, Theresa & Donovan- I missed them so freaking much.

My lats/shoulders are still sore from fighting to keep the bike on the road, my butt is sore from all the driving. Bring on the taper, 13 days to Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

jc

Boxes & bags of goodies

The new Blue Seventy Trisuits are here, and mine just made it back from getting logo'd!! The endurance suit uses Cold Black fabric to keep things cool and allow ariflow. It also has as few seams as possible. The fit is great for me and I'm excited to race in it and make a fashion statement! I would like to thank taigraphx for the print job and crazy-quick turnaround.

Representin' for the guys that support me

In addition, a package from the folks at First Endurance arrived, to restock my pantry with rocketfuel. EFS drink and liquid shot continue to be my staples for training, and I resort to Pre-Race when it's an early morning workout or, as the name implies, pre race nutrition. I was also sent the new prototype Liquid Shot flavor. I really like the original vanilla, but this is equally tasty and a good option for all you non-vanilla-ites out there. And of course, Optygen HP rounds up my stash.

The 2 small flasks are the top-secret new liquid shot flavor.
I could tell you more about it, but then I'd have to put you in the cooler...

As always, Nuun keeps on hydratin', and I recently got a little refill. Mhhhh.... bubbleycious goodness.....

Can't wait to get to the start line at Boise and then see what happens 2 weeks later.

I 'll try to make as many guys see this side of the trisuit this season.

jc

More hurt, exploding gear and other stuff

The last big build training block for the big race is on-going. Things are going well. I've been able to make the most of my bike training time thanks to the computrainer. Boy, does that thing hurt. This past Saturday it destroyed the tire on a trainer wheel. Granted, the rubber was old. Still, that is just plain cool, when you are able to take a piece of equipment to its limit (without hurting yourself in the process, of course).

On a not-as cool note about equipment failing, the battery inside my SRM powercontrol exploded. WTH? I have no idea why or how. The burst was strong enough it severed cable connections, basically, rendering it out of commission. Since it lightly holds charge, I may try to race with at Boise just so I can have speed, HR and rpm numbers in front of me.

At this point in time, I'm starting to feel the fatigue accumulating in my body. That, and a few nites of reduced sleep hours, and I'm starting to move a little slow. I am looking forward to racing hard next Saturday at Boise, and then to begin the taper down to Ironman Cd'A.

Let's see what we got then.

The Hurt Weekend

I've had some really solid training over Memorial Day weekend, including some heavy cycling and running. The pedal-pounding pain was delivered thanks to racermate's evil (and fantastic) training tool known as computrainer. Load a real course video on one of these puppies, and you will be pedaling every single foot of every single mile you log. I'd like to think my fitness is decent, but let me go ahead and admit just how much ouch this thing dished out on me. It hurt.

Aside from the hours spent on the computrainer in the hurt garage over days, I also had an awesome LONG run with one of the my best friends. For me, it was a nice & low perceived effort for the even pace we were blasting. I'm not about to go quoting numbers or making predictions, but let's see what happens at Coeur d'Alene when the dust settles.

Additonally, Donovan and I took Theresa swimming with us on and we got our hotcakes and waffles on (as always).

Peace

Training with the stars

This past weekend I got invited to tag alongside a couple of the top rock stars in the state. Fellow BLUE rider Michael "Pedal Pounder" Gordon and Kara Nielsen planned a long suffer fest, and I got sent an RSVP to get my butt kicked. Sure-why not? It's always nice to be humbled by riding with power houses.

Look at these two geeks...

The ride turned out to be actually really nice, though we did get hit with a heavy shower during the first hour, and the air temperatures made us wonder if Spring is ever going to come. We were able to hit some long stretches of open road, and made sure we got some good headwind beating on us. Last time I went out with Michael on this route, I was gasping for air- at least I was able to hang off the back this time.

Don't let the smile fool you- she bends crank arms just by looking at them.

I got a chance to practice my IM race-day nutrition and hydration, composed of First Endurance (Liquid Shot and EFS) and NUUN, while Michael and Kara shared a couple almonds, a fig and some cheetos. Maybe that's the secret to going fast... In any case, I got my fueling strategy down and feel confident with the 4th discipline come race day.

Small and Medium Triads. Can you tell which one is which? Mine is the more aero.

Another solid weekend of training in the books for me. Now a few days of down time, and then it's time for the final build block ending with Boise 70.3, all in preparation for IM Coeur d'Alene.

Thanks Michael and Kara for the long ride!

10 de Mayo

Día de la Madre. It's a chance for me to think back on the time I had with Mona. I remember many 10 de Mayos when a phone call was as close as we could be. I would play one certain mariachi song that celebrates mothers' love and remember her crying happily on the other end of the phone. Sigh... There's also the part of me that looks at my present life and is grateful for the family we have and what an awesome mother Theresa is to our little guy.

Speaking of parenting, we had a tough weekend in that department. Donovan underwent oral surgery at Seattle's Children's Hospital. The end result is he doesn't have his 2 front upper baby teeth anymore, a product of tooth decay from having really big teeth crowded into a tiny mouth. In the greater scheme of things, it is not so bad, and it helps to see he quickly accepted what happened, is adapting, and back to being his usual happy self. My point is this- we worried, we stressed, it was mentally draining. In any case, my thoughts go out to parents and their children who battle the really tough medical conditions. You guys are on whole different level of toughness.

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....