trottin' for turkey

Well I just returned from Fort Worth, Texas and a wondefull Thanksgiving with the fam. I drove down on Wed from Nebraska and drove back on Sunday, so it was a shirt trip. It is always nice to go back to Fort Worth to see all the family and friends. While I was there, I did manage to sneek in a 5k race on Thursday. The Turkey Trot has been an annual venture for me the last few years. It always falls on a bad time for me: right after my 2-3 week break. Typically it has been super fast 1st mile followed by pain and slowness. This year proved to be muvh of the same. The only difference was that the first mile was faster than normal, and the last two hurt was worse. First off, running a race in Fort Worth is quite different than Lincoln......especially when there are over 1000 people entered. I went through the first mile in 4:56..not too shabby....but way too fast. I was in second (behind the winning Kenyan who trotted to a mediocre 14:37 finish) until mile 2 when the world came down with much force upon me. I crawled the last mile and ended up 6th in around 16:30. If I wnet out in 4:56, guess what my last mile was in? Yeah thats right....pain. Oh well, that is what is to be expected when you take nearly three weeks off.

In other news, it appears that i will be riding Kuota again in 2007. I am super excited as I really enojoyed the bikes this year. I will be riding the Kuota Kebel for my road bike and am will probably ride the K-Factor as my TT bike. The Kebel should be arriving soon. Also I will getting some new race wheels, and they should be here any day. After breaking 4 wheels last year (3 carbon, 1 aluminum) I am in dire need of race wheels, and there has been someone generous enough to provide me a pair for next year. I will continue with Powerbar next year, and the other sponsors are falling into place. On the racing front, it looks as if I wont be raicng again until late March, so it should give me a great 4 months to get in some serious training. After May next year, I no longer have school to hold me back, and I will be faced with the realities of being in the "real world." I am going to trow myself whole-heartedly into sport to see how far I can go in triathlon. Til' next time.......

Cheers,
B

sleasy = slow + easy

Well the short break has come and gone and it is time to start long easy training. I am really looking forward to next year. I hopefully will have some exciting news in the next few weeks, as I finalize my plans with the European teams. It will be a whole new experience living and racing in Europe next summer. Here are some pic's of me racing in Hong Kong. I just got them and thought they were pretty good.

Until next time.......

Cheers,
B

fat and happy.....soon!

The season is finally over. Thank goodness. Treasure Island has come and gone, and while it was not quite the result I hoped for, it is over. The race was simply a lackluster performance. I had an ok swim, but just missed the first pack. Onto the bike we stayed close to the group, but eventually the string broke and we lossed quite a lot of time. Onto the run, I went out hard, but could not quite hang on. My body felt quite lethargic and slow throughout the whole day. I finished just outside the top-10 for the race, but held on to 6th place for the Tri-Cal series. Unlike last year, there were some really fast guys in the top 4 of the series, so it would not have been a cake-walk to increase my place.

After the race a bunch of us went to North Beach in San Fran to just hang out and relax. It was a great time, as it always is, just hanging with the guys. It is really awesome how many good friends I have in the sport. The next day Bucky Schafer and I went surfing at Half-Moon Bay. The waves were tiny and the water was freezing, but it was a great time. Living in Nebraska, I will surf whenever I get the chance.

It is time now for some downtime. I will take the rest of the week completely off. Simply eat, sleep, and drink coffee. Then groundwork for next season will start. I had some ups and downs this season, but the main thing I need to work on is consistency in training and racing. I am really excited to start training for next season, but for the next few weeks, things will be pretty chill. I will go to Fort Worth for Thanksgiving to see the 'rents, and then to New York in the beginning of December for an engagement. After that it is down to Miami for 11 days to get in a mini training camp. Then it is Christmas in Fort Worth (with another mini-camp). Hopefully I will be in decent shape by mid-January. I plan to go race 2 continental cups at the end of January. It has become that time where chasing points is necessary if I ever want to do a World Cup.

Well now it is off the more coffee and sleep!

Cheers,
B