just follow your feet....

importance of belief

2011-11-06T08:16:00.004-06:00

A young Hungarian lieutenant sent one of his reconnaissance units out into the Swiss Alps to complete some training maneuvers. Just as they headed into the mountains, it began to snow. The snow worsened, and the unit quickly became lost. After missing for two days, the lieutenant feared that he had sent the entire unit to their death. Then, miraculously, on the 3rd day the unit returned.

What happened? How did they survive? How did they navigate in the snowstorm? These questions raced through the mind of the lieutenant. One of the men spoke up:

“When the snow started we became lost, and feared we would all die. Then one of us found a map in his pocket…it gave us great hope. We made camp, outlasted the storm, and then used the map to navigate out of the wilderness back to camp. Without the map, we would have never made it off the mountain”

The lieutenant was overjoyed, and asked to see the map that had saved his men. The man gave him the map and the lieutenant looked over it closely. A look of shock came over his face.

What he was holding was not a map of the Alps, but a map of the Pyrenees.

updates

2011-10-16T23:10:00.006-05:00

Hey yall!

It has been an eventful second half of the season for sure! Since my last blog I have been to Washington, Canada, Hungary, Switzerland, New York, and I am currently sitting in the airport in South Korea. I am blaming the ridiculous heat wave in Texas on my lack of posting.

Racing this season has been all over the place....some solid results and some lacking. Since hashing out all the races between June and now would be way too long and boring (for everyone save my wife and parents), I will present some highlights and some photos. 8 photos is like 8,000 words, right??

Monroe Pan American ITU Cup-8th. This was my fourth Top-9 ITU finish this year.

My Tizzy World Cup, Lausanne WCS, and ITU Team World Champ results were varied (all one big trip). The highlight? Finishing 5th at the ITU Team Triathlon World Championships with these three great athletes!! It was an awesome race and hopefully the ITU can successfully get it into the 2016 Olympics. You even got to see my derriere on Universal Sports for a few seconds as I chased some guy named Brownlee.

l'equipe americain

The lowlight of the trip? Crashing in that same race! Crashing barefoot is highly underated....you need your feet for just about everything!

Lasusanne is pretty (yes I took this, Mr Fretta)

No pictures from Nationals in Buffalo because, well, it was Buffalo.

Tongyeong World Cup was this past weekend in South Korea. It was my first ever World Cup back in 2008, and I like coming back here. It was a smooth trip over as I had Ethan Brown and Greg Billington to roll with. I had another bit of a rough swim, which made for a ridiculous 32k chase to make the front bunch. Good news is we made it. Finished 34th.

pre-race game face

I dont have anymore pics from the race, so here are some new ones from Seoul this past May(same country, right?)

The season is pretty much done for me. There are a few World Cups left and we are at the pointy end of Olympic qualifying, but it is time for me to shut down and get ready for next year. I am going to make an early push next year to try and get a start at the WCS in San Diego in May. That's our Olympic Qualifier, and the goal. I am not quite as high in the rankings as I would have hoped after this year, but I am still in the mix. Time for a quick break, and then the hardest winter's training of my life!

I am racing Galveston 5150 this weekend and it should be a fun, low pressure way to end the season.

Cheerio,

girl shorts, kimchi, yellow mountain, and ATX

2011-06-08T13:44:00.013-05:00

It is already June. Crazy.No, I have not been injured....just not blogging. Instead of giving a play by play of the last 3 months, I will just do it in rapid-fire succession:

Moololaba World Cup, big training block, back-to-back Continental Cups in Asia, Lifetime Fitness Series-Capital of Texas, and finally back to training.

There is 3 months for ya! What follows below is a slightly longer version of the past few weeks.

Here is a pretty picture of the Moo'ba beach...I have not so pretty remembrances of the actual race
After Mooloaba WC and the disappointment with the result there, I came back to Texas to put the disappointment behind me and get in some hard work. The positive thing from the race in Mooloolaba was that it exposed some big holes in my fitness and training. It has to be one of the hardest courses on the ITU circuit, and with the best field in years, there was nowhere to hide.
I needed some points to get into later season World Cups, so I looked at my options for ITU races. I can't stand Mexico, so Asia was the only other choice. The first race was in Seoul..... It was pretty similar to the ITU WCS course last year: cold swim, technical bike, and a run on the footpath. I had a great swim and came out in about 8-9th position and after a good transition made the initial "front pack" of 6. For Asia, this race was stacked. Tim Don, Reto Hug, Sapunov, Gaag, and 60 others made it a full field. The bike pace was on from the first pedal stroke, and it never let up. It was by far one of the hardest bike rides I have ever done. I can only imagine how hard the WCS bike was last year....

It made me feel a little better when I was riding next to Reto on the lap 6 and he was slobbering on himself gasping for breath trying to close a gap. I started to fade a bit towards the end of the bike, and when I got to the run, my stomach was toast. I struggled through 5k's or so of cramps, and pulled the plug. I do not like dnf'ing, but I was trying to play it smart as I felt horrible, and had another race in 6 days. On to China.

This time around was in Huangshan, China in the Anhui province. The "Yellow Mountain" is a popular destination choice for Chinese tourists. The scenery was nice and there were lots of green mountains and small villages. I have raced in China quite a bit and edible/race-week approved food is sometimes tough to find.....but not on this trip. Enter Breadman. I am convinced Breadman saved my life, or at least my stomach. Delicious naan-style bread made in a trash-can barrel right in front of you. Can street food get any better? Couple that with oreos and coke and you have a 3 course meal!

This is the lake....the water was cool and clean (The mountains don't look yellow to me, though)Traffic Chaos. They don't obey the traffic lights, honk incessantly, and often drive on the wrong side of the road, but stand in the middle of the intersection and you somehow will not get run over. Probably.The week between Seoul and China was tough. I felt terrible all week, and was wondering how the race would play out. For every session I was tired and the legs ached. I tried to push it towards the back of my mind and relax. There was a great group of guys racing in China and it was nice to chill and commiserate with the other internationals. I shared a room with Jens Toft fromDenmark. Legend.That guy puts out more watts than his car (which incidentally is a smart car, so that is probably true). The Aussie boys are always a good laugh and then there is Dickie Nicholls. He probably deserves his own post......

Race day came I was nervously confident. Jimmy Seears and I swam next to each other for the first 300m and then had a had a bit if a shocker when we exited the water on lap one in pack 3! Hit the panic button and swim for your life! We clawed our way back up and barely latched on to the end of the first pack running up to T1. Crisis averted. We all worked really well on the bike and had a 1:15 lead on the chasers. Onto the run I felt solid and ran just off the back on the lead group of 6. I tried to bridge the 10s gap or so several times, but just couldnt and was stuck in no-man's land. In the end, I got outsprinted and finished up 8th.

To add to the insult of being outsprinted, the Chinese gentleman that beat me was wearing biking gloves. Not kidding. I was less that 30s out of 3rd so we were all pretty tightly bunched. So close. I am happy with how things went, and I also feel that my running is coming back around and heading in the right direction! As coach says, "no amount of training will give you as much confidence as a good result."

I came back to the US, recovered for a few days and then hopped into the Capital of Texas Triathlon. It was a great fun to do a low-pressure non-drafting race, and even with getting mis-directed in the swim, it was a great day to race in front of the fam and friends in Austin. I finished 16th.....still have to work on my time-trialling if I want to do any of more of that stuff!

Next up in Monroe Continental Cup just outside of Seattle, Washington in 2 weeks. My head is down and I am ready to go race hard. Happy training yall!

Cheers,
B

the horizon

2011-02-25T08:25:00.007-06:00

In the crazy world of ITU racing, it can be very difficult to nail down a set racing schedule. You often don't know what races you can get into until the last minute. Or, after you have a good result, the door suddenly swings open to races that you thought were previously not possible. It can make planning a season quite difficult!

Up Next: Lauren and I are heading to Clermont, Florida next week for the USA Sprint National Championships. It is quite a big field and will be a great race to see where the legs are. It is hard to hide when 70 guys are on the line. It will also be Lauren's first race of the year and her first pro race, so this race will be super exciting for the both of us. She has been training really hard and it will be a great experience for us to do our first race together.

After Clermont, I will have 3 weeks until I head to Australia for the Mooloolaba World Cup on March 25th. I just found out I got a start, so instead of a mini-training camp over spring break, I will be heading down under to mix it up with the big boys and race. Pretty excited to say the least!

Happy Racing.....the season has started!!!!!

Cheers,

link to the interview

2011-02-08T11:58:00.002-06:00

Here is a link to the recent interview that Slowtwitch did on me:

Travelling Man Barrett Brandon

It was pretty cool to get "slowtwitched." If you haven't read it already, check it out!

Cheers,
B

la paz videos

2011-01-20T20:13:00.007-06:00

have you ever?

2011-01-20T16:20:00.005-06:00

Have you ever had a race delayed for over in hour while sitting in 100F/38C heat?

Have you ever had a race referee blow the horn to start the swim when no one was ready?

Have you ever been at a race where the temperature drop 30 degrees in 10minutes?

Have you ever been riding along in a pack and then been swallowed by a sandstorm?

After being swallowed by the sandstorm, have you ever smacked into your good friend and crashed?

Have you ever seen a foot of rain fall in 30minutes in a race before?

Have you ever had pavement turn into a slip and slide?

Have you ever seen 20 people crash (separately) in a race before?

Have you ever ridden up to your skewers in a moving water?

Have you ever rode into T2 only to see volunteers holding your shoes so they dont float down the river?

Have you ever run through water up to your knees....on a street through the run course!

If you can answer yes to all these questions, you were definitelty at 2011 La Paz Triathlon.
The weather was insane. Lots of people have talked about it, and probably no one can do it justice if you werent there. It was dangerous; it was crazy. I swam in the lead pack of 10 or so. I crashed right as the weather got bad on the bike. I managed to stay upright the rest of the way, and came in with the chase pack. I ran/swam/dolphin-dived to 9th.*

*-There is some discrepency as to whether another athlete in the top 10 cut the course.

More pics and video to come.

cheers,

chile chile chile

2011-01-12T15:12:00.003-06:00

First race of the year is done and dusted! I cant believe I will have two races done before January 20th....

I had a solid result in Chile considering both the time of year and more importantly how long it took me to get there. A snowstorm (more like snow drizzle) and a very inept Air Canada delayed me over 27hrs to get to Chile. The race was Sunday at 10:45AM and I didnt even arrive at my hotel until 5:30pm on Saturday.

I did a good job of remaining calm and not stressing out over the delay, but my 50hrs in-transit was going to catch up with me evetually...

As I stood on the start line looking into the ocean I could only think of two things: 1)All I want to do is sleep and 2) I should have eaten more yesterday.

Control the controllables.

Gun went off, and so did I. First pack swim, avoided dogs, potholes, and Chileans on the bike, and ran.

Finished 8th.

this pic is more for Harry than me. good on ya, mate!

cheers,

new year, new goals, new things, new races....

2011-01-07T16:17:00.004-06:00

Hey yall!

Just a quick micro blog from the Toronto Airport. I am currently En Route to Chile for the start to the 2011 season. I am racing ITU Vina del Mar (Chile) and ITU La Paz (Argentina) back to back over the next 9 days. It should be quite an adventure! I have had my head down the last 8 weeks and am ready to race...even if it is January 7th!

Olympic Qualification is always a difficult and tricky process, but I am excited for a great 2011 season! I hope all of you enjoyed your "off-season" and had a great holidays!

Cheers,
Barrett

six weeks in a blog

2010-10-17T01:32:00.003-05:00

The blog is not dead! And neither am I. It seems like every spare chance to write I have had over the past 6 weeks, I lacked the requisite willpower/brainpower to do so. (not that my writing uses that much brainpower...)

So what has happened over the last 6 weeks? 4 races, lots of flying, jetlagedness, positives, negatives, sickness, more sickness, and the end of my season.

The whole focus of the second half of my season was on Huatulco World Cup and Tongyeong World Cup, which didnt go up to snuff....but more on those in a bit.

Sept 11th, I raced in wonderful Pacific Grove. I love the race and the place. Just like last year, struggled with my wetsuit and missed the front pack. You would think I would learn. Finished the day in 8th and finally felt like my running legs were coming around.

Two weeks later it was off to Alabama for our national championships. It was easily 896 degrees on race day, so I was excited. So excited that I drank and drank and drank and drank until I was like the purple fat kid in Willy Wonka. I thought I was well hydrated. My stomach was wondering why I was trying to drown it. Off the bike and onto the run with all the big boys and the stomach just said no. Lesson learned. Keep it simple and do what you always do. I shuffled to 15th place (13th american), which (for whatever it is worth) was my highest finish at pro nats. still longing for what could have been.....

Which brings us to our last 2 races. the double. Two World Cups, Huatulco (Mexico) and Tongyeong (South Korea), separated by 6 days and 15,000 miles. This was the main focus for my second part of the season. Do well at both, move up a funding level, get magical Olympic points, and finish 2010 with a bang! Instead I finished with a shart.

Two days before Huatulco, my stomach sent a message to my brain that it had stamped return to sender on the food I had just deposited. I sat on my bed all night trying to will the sickness away, but I could not. I stayed in bed the whole next day, and it got bad enough I even thought about coming home. I couldnt eat, just sit and moan. Not fun.

The cramps, nausea, and port-a-loo trips subsided enough on race day that I thought I would try and swim. I ended up a little better than I though and made it to the run before calling it a day. 6 days in later in Tongyeong I made it 500meters into the swim before I realized that I was in even worse shape then the week before. Dizzy, exhausted, and feeling like I may not make it back to the pontoon I stopped after the swim.

So the season did not even end poorly....there was no conclusion at all. It just stopped. So now I am on my "break" and that was a great decision. Immediately after South Korea (maybe 30min) I felt a chest infection coming on. It came on, and rather frustratingly, has been on for the better part of two weeks. Sometimes you look back at what you could have done differently to change the outcome, but this time there was nothing I could have done. I can take at least some solace in that fact.

Not scoring any points in these races has put me in an uphill battle for Olympic Qualification Rankings, but there is still quite a bit of time and plenty of opportunities.

Now I just need to pull a Foster at the beginning of the year, and a Sexton at the end of the year. Or I guess you could just say pull a Gomez......

Some pics from Pacific Grove....courtesy of Derkacs Photography

Cheers,

backwards and forwards

2010-09-02T08:19:00.002-05:00

First we will travel back to my last race: Canadian Nationals in Kelowna, Canada. I had the worst swim I have had in years and didnt make the first pack of 10 or so out of the water. Said pack stayed away and built up a huge lead. Going into the race I figured that the first group would stay away (one of the reasons I went to Kelowna!), but didnt figure that I would be in the other group. To add insult to a bad swim, I snapped my rear derailleur cable on the 4th of 6 laps. This means I had two gears (53x12, 39x12) to go up the giant hill each lap. Not fun. Came off the bike frustrated w/ dead legs. Finished 18th.

On the upside, Kelowna is beautiful and I did have a wonderful time in Kelowna with my good friends Todd and Rhonda Preston. They used to live and Nebraska and Todd and I did some super tough training weeks together back in the day. I hadnt seen them in 4yrs so it was great to catch up. I definitely will be heading back to Kelowna next year 1) to have a better race and 2) to see those guys!

And forwards. Coming up in 1.5 weeks is Pacific Grove Triathlon. I love all Tri-Cal events and cant wait to get to PG to race. It is a great venue and a race that I have done well at before. After PG it will be 2 weeks until the next "big one": US Nationals.

Cheers,
B

tizzy wc

2010-08-10T06:02:00.003-05:00

Tizzy 2010 was a quick trip in and out of Europe for me. I left for Hungary this past Wednesday, raced on Sunday and was back in my bed Monday night. I had another 66% race: where swimming and biking were fine but the run was a bit of a puzzle. Euro racing is unlkike anything else. They are so much harder than any other races.

Tactically the race did not play out not in my favor as the entire race came together out of the water. Over 60 guys eventually made the main pack. I managed my efforts on the technical course very well on the bike, and positioned myself well in the pack coming into T2. Even still, I still had another really tough run. It is really tough when how you race/perform is so far removed from how you have trained leading in (and trained all year long).

That is part of the puzzle that is triathlon...

I have about 9 days before I head up to Kelowna, Canada for the next race. It will be a smaller field, but as it is Canadian Nationals there will be some big names up at the pointy end of the race. Time to rest, recover, refocus, and then run fast!

Sexton leading the charge (me 4th back in Red/White)

On far left, fighting for position...sometimes people need a push!

Cheers,

the honkey's

2010-07-22T06:43:00.001-05:00

Now I am for sure planning on going back to Hong Kong. Love it there!

pékin, pechino, pequim, beijing

2010-07-12T11:12:00.006-05:00

It sucked in every language. It was always going to be hard to double up on two different continents in 6 days but it was a necessity. I needed 2 more scores before the Kitzbuhel WCS entry deadline to help secure a starting spot. I could have raced San Francisco ITU this past weekend, but unfortunately for me (fortunately for her) my sister got married the same day. Trust me, going to Beijing was not ideal and not to boost my frequent flyer account. It was simply a points haul....

It was cool to race on the Olympic course. The same carpet is still there!

On one hand, it was mildly successful as I passed one American that I needed to with my 16th place. On the other hand it was extremely dissappointing as I had such a solid race in Quebec and was looking forward to building upon that result. On the day, I really never felt good and suffered like a dog in the heat and pollution during the run. Once again I made the lead pack/breakaway (of 10) out of the swim, but we couldnt figure out how to work together and got swallowed up by a pack of 25 at the 35k mark of the 40k bike course. The run saw a spectacular explosion by me, but I held on to get some points.

Once I got back to the USA, I took the week really, really easy to let the body recover from the travel and to help absorb the training effect over the past 8 weeks. Now I have a 4 week block to prepare for the Tizzy World Cup in Hungary, and hopefully the Kitzbuhel WCS (have to wait and see if I got a start) the following weekend. For now, the head's down and training hat is on!!!

Cheers,

Olympic Venue we raced on

me and a homeless man (I believe his name is Andrew Wright) watching the world cup

The forbidden cityTiananmen

Coteu-du-Lac

2010-06-30T11:57:00.003-05:00

Me and EZ Breezy

Bonjour!

I just got back to the US after a quick trip up north to Montreal, Canada for the CDL Pan-American ITU Cup. It was a successful trip and I am finally happy to have posted a solid result. I ended up in 5th, which is by far my best "North-American" ITU result. I have had some great races in Asia and Europe, but the results in ITU races in North America have eluded me for some time (for myriad reasons...).

I am also happy with how my form is shaping up. My swimming is bar none the best it has been in a long, long time. I knew this heading into the race as my times in the pool are much better than they ever have been. One problem in ITU seems to often be transferring training fitness into race execution. Looking back on the swim it was nice to go into the race with confidence in my swimming ability and exit the water after having executed that swimming fitness in the race.

I came out of the water in about 6th or 7th and we formed one small pack of about 7 that lasted till about 5k where we were swallowed by around 35 guys. Not my ideal race scenario. I focused on limiting my efforts, staying out of trouble, and preparing for the run. As there were about 4-5 crashes in my pack alone, staying out of trouble was easier said than done! I managed to stay upright and came off the bike and out of T2 in solid position.

I pushed hard the first 2k of the run and managed to move myself into 3rd place before I started to fade a little from 5-8k. In the end I managed to hold on for 5th, earn a lot of points, and make a little cash (always a good thing as a "professional"). Running from a huge bike pack has never been a strong suit of mine and I am happy about where things are, and more importantly were they are heading.

Up next is the Beijing Asian Cup being held on the 2008 Olympic Course (and 2011 WCS Grand Final, too). And by next, I mean now as I am currently sitting in the SFO airport lounge typing up this blog on my way to Beijing. Now I just have to repeat last weekend's performance again and I have an excellent shot at getting in to some WCS races later this year.

Thanks for reading

Cheers,

The Award Ceremony (Ill take better pics next time!)

training camp!

2010-05-24T09:12:00.004-05:00

The whole goal of my early season racing and travelling around the world was to get into Madrid WCS and the big-money ITU HyVee race....and I failed on both accounts. I just missed getting into Madrid WCS. It seems if I would have placed one place higher at ANY race I did this year I would have gotten into the race. Madrid is the first big race in Europe this year, first race of the 2012 Olympic Qualification, and the first completely filled ITU WCS race of the year.

After my initial disappointment of not getting in, I decided to look at the positives: an 8 week training block! There is literally no ITU racing anywhere near the US in May or early June, so for the first time ever, I will put in a big block of uninteruppted training in the middle of the season. I just finished up the first 4 weeks, and have to say that my training times/indicators are really good.

My next race will be June 26th in Canada. Because there are no races this summer in the USA I will have to travel again to race. I still have another 4 weeks to put in some hard training and prepare for Canada and the heap of races I have planned in August-October....

Over the next four weeks, I will do some local running races to boost the confidence and hopefully set some new pr's.

the focus of training/racing over next 2 months: Get back to this race (Kitzbuhel WCS)!

happy training,
B

Monterrey and Ishigaki

2010-04-27T11:44:00.005-05:00

ishigaki world cup video (i am in red and white)

I am currently sitting on a plane heading back from my latest round of races. At this point I have been travelling for about 25 hours and have had plenty of time to think and assess the past two races and where I go from here.

After I raced in Mazatlan in March, I quickly realized that while I had quite a large base of fitness, I lacked some of the speed and sharpness needed to be successful racing ITU races. I had a great 4 week block of training w/ reduced volume and plenty of Vo2 max work. The numbers and response were good and I felt ready to go heading into the Monterrey/Ishigaki double.

Monterrey was the first race up and after a quick uneventful trip, I was ready to race. I got blocked in a bit at the start and by the time I made it to the front of the swim pack, a gap had formed to a group of 8 or so. I led the main pack for most of the swim and was comfortable.

Onto the bike that comfort ended. It was definitely one of the hardest bikes I have ever done. The course had many tight turns, u-turns, and general bottle necks which strung out our pack. We chased the lead breakaway of 8 riders from the first k and didn’t slow down the entire bike. Towards the end of the bike, I started to have some cramping issues with my stomach. Onto the run, they got worse. I struggled a lot, but shuffled along and finished 27th. Not what I wanted or where I feel I am capable of finishing by any means.

After Monterrey, Manny Huerta and I began the very, very long process of getting to Ishigaki, Japan. We left Monday morning at 7:00 AM, spent one night in the air, one night in Okinawa, and then finally arrived in Ishigaki Wednesday morning around 10:00AM….that is a lot of hours! Combined with the previous weekend’s race the rest of the week was damage control: sleep, eat, and train just enough your body doesn’t fall asleep.

After being disappointed in Monterrey, I was ready for vindication in Ishigaki. Race day arrived faster than expected, and I was ready to race. Ishigaki is notorious for breakaways on the swim, so I was very keen to get on the train out of the water. I had a great swim and exited in the top 8 or so, very much in the break. Immediately out of transition we go up a steep bridge which forces the selection out of the water. I had good legs and made the break. I was ecstatic. There were 11 of us in the break with some strong Russian and Australian riders. I thought that this was the race.

Unfortunately, we were riding hard, but unorganized and the chase group was 20 seconds behind us. After 20k out front we were reeled in. Once this happened we went from 11 to 30, and we stopped riding. We slowed so much around 30k that the 3rd pack caught us and we swelled to 35. There were some very slow swimmers who ended up making the “front” pack by the end of the race. Obviously this was quite frustrating for me, but it is the nature of ITU racing.

Onto the run, I again felt sub-par running. Unlike the week before, I was able to keep the top 10 in range for the first 5k, After 5k, I started to struggle and slipped backwards. I ended up 21st. Again, not what I felt I was capable of doing. When you do 2 races back to back with so much travel and stress, it is very difficult to figure out exactly what went wrong, and how to fix it. So now the coach and I need to sit down and figure out what needs to be done over the next 6-8 weeks.

On the positive side, there are some things that I can take away from the last 10 days. For one, my swim is where it needs to be. I am swimming better and more consistently than ever, and have found what I need to do swim fast. Biking is improving as well. While I struggled in Monterrey, my powerfiles from the 2 races showed some big jumps in power to what I have done in the past. Running….that is the mystery! I had great workouts leading up to the races, and felt great. One big thing I am going to do differently is change my pre-race nutrition. I have been having problems for a while, and now have the resources to use a nutritionist to help me figure out what is my best fueling strategy for racing.

That’s plenty for now. As the US men are doing well right now, it is touch and go which races I will be doing in May/June. I still have a decent shot getting into HY-Vee, so that will be the focus over the next 7 weeks….

Cheers,
b

boom!

2010-03-12T07:31:00.000-06:00

2010 Schedule

2010-03-08T12:27:00.004-06:00

Recently it has been lots of training and not much else. I have been laying the groundwork for the upcoming season, and have been very busy the last few weeks.

After Ecuador, I was sick for nearly a week. It was not pretty. To date, I have raced in 23 countries and in some very, very, dirty water. The only place that I have gotten sick from the water/food has been Oklahoma and now, Ecuador. After my unplanned "recovery" week it has been 3 weeks full gas with very few hiccups. I have accumulated a lot of hours and miles in the old legs and I think that the preparation for this season is moving right along. Swimming is swimming, biking has seen quite a big jump in fitness, and my running has been my most consistent block ever. 10 of 13 weeks since mid-December have 60mile+ (about 100k) weeks. Consistency is KEY.

I am getting excited to race!! My next race is March 20th in Mazatlan, Mexico. I will be finishing up the my aerobic-base build right before the race, so I should be fit, but not too fast. After Mazatlan, the ITU World Cup Season (for me) will start in Monterrey, Mexico on April 18th. Here is my somewhat-finalized schedule for 2010. Some of these races I have to be ranked high enough to get into so nothing is for certain....it is more of a penciled-in schedule. I will be racing 14 events on 4 continents and in 9 different countries if all goes as planned this year.

2010 schedule:

ITU Salinas PanAm Cup-2/13/2010-Ecuador
ITU Mazatlan PanAm Cup-3/20/2010-Mexico
Monterrey ITU World Cup-4/17/2010-Mexico
Ishigaki ITU World Cup-4/25/2010-Japan
Seoul ITU World Champ Series-5/8/2010-South Korea
Madrid ITU World Champ Series-6/6/2010-Spain
Hyvee ITU Elite World Cup-6/13/2010-Iowa
Kitzbuhel ITU World Champ Series-8/14/2010-Austria
San Francisco Triathlon-Alcatraz-8/29/2010-California
The Triathlon at Pacific Grove-9/11/2010-California
US Pro Nationals-9/26/2010-Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Huatulco ITU World Cup-10/10/2010-Mexico
Tongyeong ITU World Cup-10/17/2010-South Korea
Hong Kong ITU Asian Cup-10/24/2010-Hong Kong

That is all for now....I will update again soon once the racing gets underway. Who wants to hear me drone on about training all the time? Travelling and racing is where it is at!!!

Cheers,
B

Equador ITU

2010-02-08T11:20:00.004-06:00

post-race "festivities" in Guayaquil, Equador

This past weekend I made the trip to Salinas, Equador to start the 2010 season. I have never raced in Februrary before (much less the beginning of it), so I knew my body was in for a few shocks!! Training throughout December and January was consistent, but a little light on total hours. In addition to the holidays, I got married on January 17th!!! While this was/is great news it also meant that I arrived to the start line a little "underdone" on the training.

Apparently since Olympic qualification starts pretty soon, ITU races in the middle of nowhere (even in February) are getting quite popular. The start list here was much stronger than I anticipated when I booked the trip. I guess there are no more easy "points runs" any more. You have to work hard to get your points! (Points are arbitrary numbers assigned to race finishes by an international organization that forces me to travel around the world and accumulate these little goodies in hopes of being eligible to go to the Olympics).

The race itself went ok. I had a great swim, and exited the water in about 3rd...my open water swimming seemingly just keeps on improving year-to-year. The bike was wet, dangerous, and tough (and I have not been biking much at all). Through my "wedding season" I focused on maintaning running volume, and thus the biking suffered. I was worried coming about it coming into the race, but I ended up managing just fine. I stayed out of trouble (the rain caused around 15 people to crash), and was in the first pack the whole way. Onto the run (the one discipline I thought would go quite well), I stuggled a bit. I just didnt have that extra "race" gear I need to run super fast. With only some solid base/easy miles in my legs, I was only able to run steady and fell from about 9th place at 5k to 13th at the finish. While my running fitness is decent the overall fitness package still needs lots of work!

All in all, I am happy with the race. 13th got me a few points, and I moved up to 97th in the world rankings. This will help me get into some bigger races later this year, and was the sole purpose of the trip. I am now back in Fort Worth getting ready for a huge 6 week block of training. It is time to get into serious training mode: lots of training, lots of sleeping, and a little bit of eating!

Next race is Mazatlan ITU on March 20th.....

Cheers,
B

off season and coaching...

2009-12-07T08:46:00.003-06:00

pics from Brazil

The 2009 season has finished. I took a short week off, and now am slowly getting back into proper training. I am still not quite there yet...the bike, as of right now, is still in its case. I started running and swimming again quickly, and they seem to be going well already. I have some big changes in store for 2010, and can't wait to start the real groundwork for next season.

My first race next year will be February 6th in Ecuador, so I'd best get going!! The next 6-7 weeks are focusing on the run and building a solid foundation for next year. After that it will be time to put in the miles: swim, bike, run, eat, rest and repeat..lots!!!

On another front, I will be coaching a few athletes in 2010. I have available a coaching packet that details my background in triathlon, coaching philosophy, and some other helpful information about how I can help you accomplish your goals in sport. If you are interested, or have any questions please send me an email at info@barrettbrandon.com for more information.

Cheers,
B

fin de la saison

2009-11-18T09:25:00.004-06:00

bem-vindos a Brazil

Last week I headed down to the sunny (or more like scorching) village of Huatulco, Mexico. It was a quiet little tourist village situated on the Pacific side of Mexico. It would have been great for a vacation, but it was torture for a triathlon. In addition to the 100 degree heat there was a monstrous hill (600m at about 18%) that we had to go up 8 times. In the end, I don’t know if it was the heat, the hill, or my bike fitness, but I ended up on the wrong side of this statistic: only 22 people out of the near 50 who started, finished. It was that tough.

I left the night of the race to get back to Texas ASAP. I was heading to Brazil this weekend, so I only had a few days to recover and train before some more major travel. On the way back to Texas, I had to overnight in the Mexico City airport. Let me say it was an experience. I could write a long blog of that adventure. We will leave it at you should avoid going through there if possible, and if you must make sure you have LOTS of time between connections. Since we had about 10hrs, we made it ok. Once home it was only 3 short days before I boarded the flight to South America.

The travel was long, but painless. I was really excited for my first trip to Brazil, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was an incredible place, and I am definitely going back if/when I get the chance. The people were friendly, the weather was perfect, the beaches were serene, and the food was amazing. I came to Brazil to race the Cambirou ITU Continental Cup to gain ever important world ranking points, to secure funding for 2010, and to pad my frequent flier account for next year. It was a success on all fronts.

The race was nearly a repeat of Huatulco: an ocean swim, a ridiculously hilly bike, and a warm run (albeit, Cambirou was much cooler than Huatulco: 80’s and humid). I swam like a beached whale, but still made the first pack easily. The bike was tough, again. There was a 450m hill with a gradient of about 16-17% we had to do four times (plus 4 more on the backside of the hill). I stayed out of trouble and fared much better this time on the hill. I had a little snafu putting on my shoes and ended up starting the run way behind. I eventually worked my way from 11th to 5th by the finish. A solid result, and a nice way to finish the season.

Well, it wasn’t quite done. Manny Huerta and I decided that we wanted to try to attempt the Cambirou “double.” 90min after the ITU race finished was the Cambirou GP Sprint triathlon. This was a non-drafting sprint triathlon that started in time-trial format. There was a 10,000USD purse on the line, so of course we were in. Gotta make that paper somehow!
During the middle of the ITU race (about 8k into the run, actually) I decided there was NO way I was doing another race right after. Well, after a little chiding, goading, and coercing w/ the others after the 1st race, I decided I was in. And that decision is still affecting me now. I am still so sore I can barely stand up and walk…but it was great fun!

The course was the same as the ITU race (just half the distance) so we had to go up and down and up that hill several more times. To make matters worse, since it was a time trial start (one person every 30 seconds), you had no idea where you were in the standings. You could be winning, second to last, or battling it out for the last pay spot and you wouldn’t know the difference. The horn goes beep, and you flog yourself for another hour from start to finish. I ended up 8th, and just out of the money. Ouch! It was good fun, though. I got revenge on Manny who beat me in the ITU race, so that was a small consolation for the flogfest!

After the race, we hung out with the race director, Juca “di Luca” Salvadori. He showed us a great time exploring the city. He is a great guy, and was really kind to me and Manny. He went way out of his way to make sure we had a good time in Cambirou. I think all we did was eat: fried shrimp, pao de queijo (cheese bread), and of course meat! We went to an authentic Churrascharia where I am sure I ate my weight in beef. Overall it was a great trip, and a nice finish to the year.

Now it is time for a short break before I lay the foundation for next year. My first race of the season is actually January 10th so my break better not be too long! Unlike the previous years, I actually am really excited about training right now, and am looking forward to getting back into the heavy training pretty quickly.

Team America

you cannot believe how much meat I just ate!

Me, Juca, and Fred champagne toast!

Remember, winter miles = summer smiles!!
Cheers,

HKG

2009-10-19T16:51:00.004-05:00

What a difference a week makes. Last week I raced the Palembang Asian Cup in Indonesia and was able to secure my first major win. This week I was a little further down the results finishing in 9th. When compared to my other results this season, 9th would have been ok, but after you have a paradigm-shifting performance, your views on what is “good” and what is “sub-par” begin to change.

Hong Kong is an incredible city. It is China, but it has been tempered, shaped, and molded by Western occupation into this entity that is unlike any other. It has amazing food, plenty of culture, world-renowned shopping, and arguably the best skyline in the world. It is an exciting and dynamic mix of cultures, and I just can’t seem to get enough of the city. Much like the city itself, the composition of men’s field boasted a broad range of international athletes from all over the globe. With several Beijing Olympians and World Cup winners, the field was not only diverse, but also highly competitive.

The race venue at the Hong Kong ITU race was also unique: it took place in Disneyland. The swim was in the ocean just outside the steps of the Disneyland Hotel. The bike traversed through the maze of roads exiting the park out toward a large bridge (read: hill) which we went up and down it seven times. The run was flat and went through the grounds as well. When you combined the speed of the swim, the hills on the bike, and the humid oven on the run you had one tough race!

The swim start was the dreaded in-water start. I got hit in the first stroke of the swim, and continued to get hit until I exited 1500 meters later. Despite this, I managed to swim well, and exited in the front pack of 6 containing the Polyansky Brothers, the Alterman Brothers, and Daniel Sapunov. We had a small break out of the water and worked hard the first few k’s of the bike to keep the gap, but were swallowed up by one chase pack, then another and then another. Coming into T2 almost the entire field had bridged up to the front pack.

After a little bauble into transition I ran hard to make up the ground I had lost, but I knew instantly that I was going to be in for a tough run. Unlike last week when I felt good the instant the run started, this week the legs felt heavy, and my stomach was giving me issues. I did what I could, ran hard to the end, and crossed the line in 9th place. It was a solid field, but I can’t help but be disappointed after the great result from the weekend before. The form and ability are there, but part of racing successfully on the ITU circuit is the ability to back up results week after week, no matter how the body feels.

Congratulations to Tony Moulai for a great win! Monsieur Moulai is looking quite fit heading in to the Huatulco Word Cup next month. As for me, this Asia trip was quite successful, and has set me up well for the rest of the season and into 2010. Now I am heading back to the USA to recover and to get ready for the Huatulco Word Cup on November 8th. Although the season is winding down, my fitness is solid, my motivation is high I and can’t wait to get to the next start line!

Here are some pics from Indonesia last week:

Junior and ITU podiums at Award Ceremony

suffering in the heat on the run

running out of T2

being interviewed by the governor of Sumatra

Cheers,

a win, a win, a win!

2009-10-14T19:55:00.002-05:00

I just won my first ever pro race!!! And it was over Dmitry Polyanksy, which to me, is a huge deal. The support and emails have been awesome. I wrote a blog for the ITU website www.triathlon.org and they posted it here.

Here is a copy of what I wrote for them:

Traveling to and racing an ITU Asian Cup is often as much about the experience of the race as it is the race itself. It seems no matter how crazy the travel, unique the venue, or how spectacular the karaoke-singing race organizer is, there always seems to be several similar themes that these races share: an enthusiastic local organizing committee, huge community involvement, and wonderful athlete support. Last weekend’s 2009 Palembang ITU Asian Cup in Palembang, Indonesia was no different.

After a difficult first half of the season I found some good form heading into September and went looking to find some races. As the North American ITU racing scene had died down, the only choice was to head to Asia. I have raced here often and enjoy the different cultures and unique racing opportunities that are presented.

I arrived in Palembang after a nightmare five flights and 45 hours of travel. It may have been a nightmare, but it was a planned nightmare, as this was the quickest route from the US. I arrived tired, but excited about the prospect of racing. First up on Saturday was the Asian Aquathlon Championships. This event was the day before the triathlon, and consisted of a 1000m swim and a 2.5k run. It was a good way to ‘open up the system’ after all the travel. It was also good fun and I ended up second place behind Dmitry Polyansky from Russia, and felt good heading into Sunday’s triathlon.

Race day arrived, and I was ready to go. The swim was in a spring-fed lake named Lake Opi. It was very clean, but presented a few shocks to the system. Because Palembang, along with all of Indonesia sit in a very seismic region (Palembang is located on Sumatra and 500km away from the recent earthquake in Padang), this spring-fed lake had quite a bit more sulphur than usual. It was quite interesting climbing out of the water and feeling like your teeth were furry! In addition to this, there were also alligators! It was quite scary at first, but these ones were actually very small (about the length of your arm). I didn’t want to ask what happens to small alligators when they grow up. Big alligators!? Maybe that was some of the unique local cuisine we were sampling…

With a 6:30am start, the horn went off before you knew it, and we were off. I swam well, and exited the water very comfortably in the lead pack. Onto the bike a lead pack of five formed that included the Polyansky brothers, Dmitry and Igor. The bike was route consisted of simple out and backs, and our group was able to work well together and build on our advantage. As we rode the sun continued to heat up the road, and I knew it would be a hot one on the run.

I had a good transition and took off for a super-hot 10k in the sun. I like the heat, and felt really good so I pushed the pace right out of transition. Dmitry Polyansky was the only one to respond, and we ran stride for stride for the rest of the 10k. At 6k and 8k into the run Polyansky put two really strong surges in, but I was feeling great and was able to respond. I decided to wait to make my move until the finish. With 200m to go, I gave it all I had and was able to pull away and take the win! I had a few spare seconds to celebrate and really relished the moment. This was my first ITU victory, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was a great race for me, and really good confirmation of my recent training and form.

Afterwards we were treated like celebrities by the locals: there were hundreds of local children who clamored for our autographs, the governor of Sumatra hosted the awards dinner and reception for us, and the media seemed awestruck that people from Russia, Canada, USA, and all over the world would come to tiny Palembang to race a triathlon. Mark Sungkar, president of Indonesian Triathlon Federation and race organizer (and as evidenced at the awards party….karaoke super star!) put this event together to help boost local interest in the sport and to grow triathlon within Indonesia. Mark has a passion for triathlon, and it is evident in his determination to grow the sport in his corner of the world. Now I am off to Hong Kong to race next weekend, where I am sure another great race and adventure awaits!

I will post some pics, and video from the race shortly....thanks for reading!

cheers,

training and training

2009-09-26T14:45:00.004-05:00

the run in PG

I'd like to keep the content rolling on my blog, which means when I am not racing that either I have to talk about others racing or myself training. Today, I am gonna post about about my training over the last several weeks.

When I was in France during my altitude training camp (early August), all I could do was train and rest. Besides frequent naps, I did a lot of talking, and hopefully, more listening. I had the benefit of being around, and training with, some of the best triathletes and coaches around.

I talked with several people about how poorly my season had gone so far this year, and several specifc things I could do to turn it around. This brings us to today's post. One of the key components that has been absent from my training is speed-work (on the run). I am not talking about running close to 10k goal race pace, but getting up and firing off some 400's all-out! There are several reasons specific to me that I need to especially work on this, but I will save those for another post.

The structure of the last few weeks has looked very similar. This is the first time I have done the same workouts week-in and week-out for a long period of time, but I am really am enjoying it! There have been just slight progressions in either the speed or duration of the interval from week-to-week. Since my run is the limiting factor right now, the weeks have been organized around 3 key sessions (4 if you include my long run). Here they are:

Tues: 6-10 x 400 FAST on 3:00--Started out at 6 and am building up to 10-12 holding the same pace.

Thurs-AM Run, Hard Bike w/intervals and then straight to the track: 2x3200m w/2min; 3x2k, 1k w/90; and 4x2k w/90 was the progression over the last few weeks. Distance has increased and the pace has gotten faster.

Sat-Hill Repeats. 4x2:30min repeats @ 8%, and 4-6x30s @ 8%. These were done to focus on my toe-off/drive part of my run, and to work on increasing my stride length. As I move into the last few hard weeks of my season, the Saturday Hill repeats will be phased out and I will start to introduce another speed session on the flats....probably off the bike.

Sun-14-16 mile long run, but cruisy

The other runs have been double runs and fillers to get me to around 55-60miles per week (90-100k). This has been the formula for about the last 5 weeks now, and it has been working well.

I have been swimming extremely well in the pool, and the bike has been rolling along. I ran decent at Pacific Grove after a very, very hard ride, and I think there will be even bigger improvements to come in my last three races. That is it for now. Just wanted to give you a little glimpse into wha tI have been doing over the last 5 weeks. Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
b

a step in the right direction

2009-09-16T10:29:00.007-05:00

I got 4th this past weekend in the Pacific Grove International Triathlon in California. I ended up 8 seconds behind 3rd so I was tantalizingly close to the podium!! Overall I am happy with how the race went, but a little peeved at a small mistake that cost me a higher finish...

I had a great start to the swim even though it was about 53 degrees! I was in the lead pack of 4 (including myself) for the swim and stayed there for the entirety of it. We had a lead of about 55s or so on the rest of the field....this pack was the race! Normally I have a great T1 and am super fast taking off the wetsuit. Not that day. It got stuck around BOTH ankles. While I lost maybe 6-10s because of this, it was just enough to keep me from making it to the bike with the 3 others. I hung right behind fora while but could not bridge up, and had to wait/get caught by another small group of 2 behind me.

I rode the whole bike with the 2 guys (Manny and Jamie Stephenson from Canada) and we couldn't hold the time to the front group (Flash, John Dahlz, and Kyle Leto). For 3 of the 4 laps we were holding steady at 1min, but the last lap we ran out of juice and lost another 30-45seconds. Coming into T2 I was really fatigued from the ride, but still down 1:30+ to the leaders.....not the plan!

Onto the run my legs felt surprisingly ok! I ran well and steady for the first 2 laps with Manny and then made a surge on the last lap to try to reel in John Dahlz. I knew I was closing on him, but due to the twisting nature of the course, I couldn't see him until right before the finish line. I ran in 8 seconds behind him for 4th place with the 2nd fastest run split. If I would have been in the group that I swam with??? That is the nature of triathlons...so many variables. Transitions are the 4th discipline, and I will start working on mine!

All in all it was a great weekend and really gave me some confidence back. I am in really good shape and I needed a race like that to get my head back into the game. I am starting a 3 week block before I head to Asia to do 2 races in the middle of October. I am excited to continue to build on the gains I have made in the past several weeks.

Cheers,

back to blogging

2009-09-05T13:36:00.013-05:00

not a bad view, eh?

Haven't blogged in a while, but I am not too sorry about it this time. I needed some time away from writing my thoughts down as racing has not gone as expected (to say the least). Last time I blogged I had just arrived at the Centre Nationale de Entrainement Altitude (CNEA) in Font Romeu, France. I am no longer in Font, but back in Fort Worth, Texas so I will fill you in on the details.....

I spent 3 weeks up at altitude in Font Romeu w/ about the best training group you could hope for. France, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Scotland, and Hong Kong were all represented there. While everyone had different plans, we all swim, bike, run and thus were able to train quite a bit together. By far it was one of the hardest, most consistent blocks of training I have done. But it was also the most fun. Training in groups with great people just seems to make the miles tick away faster and keep the motivation high. If only l'autre amercains would get this.... Font is beautiful and challenging. As one would guess, when you live on the side of a mountain flat spots are few are far between.I got in quite a bit of volume and still managed a sprucing of intensity (not too much since it was my first time at altitude).

I came down from Font to race Tizzy WC. Coming down from Altitude can be a tricky thing. Sometimes things go brilliantly and sometimes they go pear-shaped. Everyone seems to be different in their responses to coming down. The 3 days leading up to the race, I felt awesome. It was really easy to breath and I felt good with extra rest and extra oxygen.

During the swim I felt a little sluggish, and had a little trouble getting out the first 300m. After that I moved up the field as best I could and thought I was right in the middle of the first pack. I felt great. It wad the easiest swim for me in while. And that turned out to be the problem. I was in the 2nd pack! I hopped on the bike and started chasing. We made up ground quickly and started to reel in the first group. Right as we were about to catch them, there was a crash in our group that took out half our pack. Ouch. We were like 10s down. It totally killed our paceline and motivation and we lost heaps of time. Never made that first pack. Got on the run and had nothing. I gave it a go, but was dead and having trouble breathing. I ran well for 2.5k and then went backwards...literally. I called it a day. I friggin hate dropping out...

Then it was back to the states to get in some more training and racing. I raced nationals two weeks later, missed a buoy and got DQ'd. I wont go into details, but race buoys shouldn't move!
So here I am in September looking back on my season. It has not been good. So the question is do I call it a year early, regroup, and come back firing for next year?? To be honest, this is what I was thinking. I was pretty disheartened after nationals. You should never make a decision right after a race. I took a few days to recoup, regroup, and rethink.

Since June, I have had some of the best, most consistent training I have ever had. While my races haven't shown it, the data is there. I am fit. I need to race. I want to race. I consulted some of the experts I know to try to figure out what I can improve on. I got some great ideas and have been implementing them in my training, and they seem to be paying off. I will get into those in another blog as that is a different topic. Training theories sounds like better off-season blogging material to me.....

So here I am in Fort Worth continuing to tick off the sessions. Things have been going great and I am excited for the "start" of my new season. I am racing 4 more times this year. Next weekend I will head to Pacific Grove in California. I love that race and will be looking to get on the podium (my best result there was 4th, so it is the only logical step). After PG I will return to Fort Worth and do a block of training before I head to Asia. I will race the ITU Indonesia Asian Cup, and the ITU Hong Kong Asian Cup in the middle of October on back-to-back weekends. My last race will be the ITU Hualtulco World Cup in South Texas (read: Mexico) on November 10th.

Looking forward to racing well! Here are some pics from my time in Font Romeu.....enjoy!

the swim squadstuffing my face with cola66 kilos in that pic baybe!contemplating life, triathlon, or maybe nothing...In Andorra @ 2400m...long climb up!got to go to Dirk's "place" on the beach for an afternoon

The gang out at l'ermitage

Cheers,

san fran to paris to tours

2009-07-23T04:08:00.007-05:00

Just a short one to cover the last two races. I am up at altitude for a training camp. The air is quite thin up here and apparently the thin air affects the internet as well. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes to send an email. They have managed to find something slower than dial-up here.....

San Fran was not great. As the French say, un jour sans (a day without). I had an ok swim and exited at the back of the main pack. I rode in the main pack and then came off looking for a solid run. It didnt happen. I have no real explanation as to why I had such a bad day. My workouts leading up to San Fran were very good. Maybe I was a little fatigued....who knows. I ended up 15th on the day, which is not what I wanted or where I could/should have finished. Onward.

After San Fran I flew to Paris to start my european campaign numero uno. I took the train down to Tours to meet my new French team, Vendome. I really enjoyed the hospitality of Jaques and Patrick for the few days I stayed in Vendome. There were lots of home cooked meals, croissants, and even a little ratatouille. I raced my first French Grand Prix with Vendome last Sunday. I cant explain how FAST this type of racing is. It is half the olympic distance (750m/20k/5k) and draft legal. With nearly 90 guys on the starting line, it is quite a fight in the water. If you combine this with the sinking pontoon (pics below), you have a recipe for a not so fun swim. I was positioned right in the middle of the "pontoon" and got hammered. And it didnt stop until I climbed out of the water. Onto the bike I was the back of a group just meters behind the main group. Unlike the ITU races in the USA, FGP races are toujours au bloc. We were right there but after a few attacks our group shattered and we missed the train. Ouch. I had a good first k off the bike, and then settled into a solid pace for the rest. Running felt much better than San Fran, but still needs quite a bit of work.

Individually I did quite poorly, but it seems most people get housed their first FGP. No excuses, just more work that needs to be done. I do feel as though I am moving in the right direction with the training, and a good result is coming soon. Our team did amazing as we finished 6th (out of 14 teams). There are 4 "super-teams" in France so the others are almost always fighting for 5th place. The first 3 from each team are scored according to their finishing place a la cross-country in the USA. Hopefully I get another crack at the FGP later this year....It was a blast and incredible racing.

Now I am hunkered down in the Pyrenees mountains at Font Romeu. Font is a tiny French town situated in the mountains at an altitude of 1850m. The CNEA (Centre National Entrainement d' Alitutde) is a altitude training center where loads of euros come to train. Paula Radcliffe has an apartment here, so you know the running is pretty good. We actually ran into Paula as we were doing a long run down at the lake 2 days ago. Such an amazing runner.

Originally I was coming up here to train with Dirk Bockel (Luxembourg), but have quickly found out this is the place to be in Europe. It seems like half of the WCS/World Cup ITU circuit is here training. There are endless trails, plenty of climbs, perfect 50m pool, loads of people to train with, and zero distractions. The views of the mountains aren't too bad either! I will post some pics from here soon. I will be here until Tizzy World Cup August 9th. A bientot!

Cheers,
B

about that time

2009-07-03T12:40:00.005-05:00

It is about time for an update. Training has been rolling along since I got back from Korea. Nothing too special or crazy, but just some solid work. I had to take about a week ez/recovery after Korea. I thought that I would be fine in a few days, but I think the length of the course, the difficulty, and the long travel home took a little larger toll than expected. After some light training, I hopped in another 10-day block to get ready for San Francisco ITU and then my subsequent Euro-trip.

My next 5 weeks will be quite crazy. Here is the itinerary:
July 9th-Depart for San Francisco
July 11th-San Francisco ITU Triathlon
July 14th-Depart for Paris
July 15th-Arrive in Paris, depart for Vendome
July18th-Depart from Vendome to Tours
July19th-French Grand Prix Triathlon
July 20th-Depart Tours for Font Romeu Training camp (altitude)
Aug 6th-Depart Font Romeu for Paris
Aug 7th-Depart Paris for Budapest, then onto Tizzy (way too long to type actual name)
Aug 9th-Race ITU Tizzy World Cup
Aug 10th-Depart Hungary for Paris
Aug 11th-Fly back to the 'ol USA

Sounds a little crazy, but I think in reality it will be a great trip with some really fast racing, and hopefully some good results. I am really excited about the short altitude camp in the south of France (Font Romeu). It is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to train. I will have a good group of guys there to train with, and the facilities or next to none. I am interested to see how my body responds to altitude. I have not been up in several years, and never in this part of the season.

Of course I will keep the blog updated as I travel. I tend to forget to blog when at home as life is quite monastic and oftentimes just boring. As I travel, I will snap some pics and share the journey. Since some people like to look at pictures and don't like to read, I have put some pics I just found from China last year up. Turns out I am kinda a big deal there.....

I love how the Chinese writing is completely over Betten's face!

Not exactly and ITU-legal uniform...whoops!

And while a mild rock-star in Yicheng, China (don't google it because there is no way you will find it), I enjoy complete anonymity in Fort Worth, Texas. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Barrett

giro de Korea

2009-06-16T10:50:00.006-05:00

What a race. In so many different ways this race was an experience. From the standard rigors of traveling across the Pacific to the endless hotel transfers to alpe d’huez, this race was memorable and unique experience. In a nutshell, I had a solid race. I swam well, biked conservatively, and had a really good run.

pan-o-rama

And now onto the details…..

My travel to Seoul was fairly uneventful and smooth. After one night in Incheon (the actual city the airport is in), we had a 4hr transfer to our next hotel. As in per the norm in Asian races, leaving at 8:00 means 8:45, and 4hrs could only happen if we had a helicopter and not a 50-person bus. Day one in Incheon ended up being 8hrs on a bus. It only took us 5hrs to drive to our new hotel, but another 3hrs to drive 30k of the course. That’s right, 10k/hr in a bus. Painful. One of the reasons was the terrain, but also we had worst bus driver on the planet. He was slow and wouldn’t drive on the correct side of the road. On the way back to Seoul, he kept falling asleep at the wheel! Apparently he understood enough English that when we were constantly poking fun at him, he got the idea of what we were saying. His way of getting back was constantly getting us lost, finding traffic jams, and driving as slow as possible.

this is really south korea

The one nice thing was that due to the ridiculous logistics of the race, everyone was on the bus together. I had a feeling it was going to be somewhat like this, so instead of stressing out, I just had a laugh….or three. We stayed at 4 hotels in 4 different nights! Every time we moved, we had to transfer all our luggage and bikes with us. What a production. It felt like a floating circus. In 4 days we spent about 17 hours in that bus.
One of the reasons for the hotel and bus situation was that the course was point-to-point. In fact the only discipline where we started and finished at the same place was the swim. The distance was a bit unusual: 3k swim, 80k bike, and 20k run. The swim was in the ocean, the bike was 80k straight up, and the run was from one mountain top to another. The bike had just under 2000m of total climbing and went from 0-1450m elevation. There was one significant climb that was about 10% for 8k, and another 15k climb that probably averaged 8-9% with the last 4k bit well over 12%. Everything else was basically a false flat. It was tough to say the least. The run was just as bad. There was about 10k of downhill running on a really rocky rough “nature” trail followed by some 15-20% hills. On top of it all, the run started at 1450m high, so the air was a little thin.

The funny thing is this was the “easier” course. The organizers had wanted to put some insane hills in the race on the bike and run, but Jan Rehula (Korean National Team Coach, and Sydney Olympics bronze medalist in Triathlon) came to our rescue and said that crawling up the side of a mountain was not triathlon. When we pre-drove the course we all assumed that the winner would take about 5.5hrs. The course ended up being a little faster than anticipated and I finished in 4hrs43min. Time-wise this was still my longest race to date.

The race itself went pretty well. I had a solid swim, and exited in the front pack. I knew the bike was going to be a struggle for me, so my plan was to race it conservatively. My back has been bothering me on and off since St Croix, so with the distance of the race and the long travel and transfers, I was quite worried about it locking up again. It ended up feeling pretty good and I rode well. Looking back, I should have been a little more aggressive on the bike, but I am happy with how it went. Onto the run, I felt amazing. I honestly haven’t felt that good running off the bike in a long, long time. I have no idea why if felt good, but it did. The first 5k I felt like I was floating. I found a great rhythm and focused on the guys up ahead. I ended up reeling in a Japanese guy who went back and forth with me throughout the run. The run was pretty brutal. The first 10k was almost all downhill. It seems easy, but it was so hard trying to run fast and not have your quads lock up. I think the downhill bits were much harder on the legs than the uphill ones. I found myself even with the Japanese guy the last k (which happened to be 16% uphill) and had to put in one burst to beat him. I am glad I did as I ended up 10th…the last money slot! I ended up having the 2nd fastest run of the day, and am really happy about that.

the nicest of our 4 different hotels

This race was really good for me mentally. After DNF’s in St. Croix and ITU Austin, and getting sick at Pan-Am Champs in Oklahoma, it is great not only to finish a race, but to race well! It is always fun for me travelling to new places and catching up will all my friends on the circuit. I am really excited about the next few months as I start to build my speed and start racing more ITU races. I have 4 weeks until I race again (ITU Treasure Island in San Francisco). I am going to dive back into the hard training with another big block coming up. But first, I need a few days recovery…..my legs are so smashed that I can barely walk right now.

the local cuisine...
a video of the finish line area

cheers,

two weeks I would rather forget!

2009-06-01T20:17:00.007-05:00

Long time between posts again on the blog front. It seems I just couldn't bring myself to write the posts on my last two races. What's done is done, and if I want to keep my 7.3 loyal readers I really should update. These two races were back to back in OKC and Austin respectively. As Fort Worth sits right smack in the middle of the two, Ethan, Kevin, and Steve, flew into DFW and stayed at my house for the two weeks. It was some great training, good laughs, and a fun time w/ the boys.

First up was the ITU Continental Championship in Oklahoma City. I was really looking forward to this race as it was both a continental championship (Canada all the way down to Chile were competing....wait, that is 2 continents!), and my first ITU race this year. I was a little nervous about the swim, because it determines so much of your race. A 5sec gap can turn into 3 minutes by the end of the bike (which it did, of course!). I should have been nervous about the swim, but for other reasons than missing the bike pack.

This is a link to a USA Today article about the race and the water quality. The strange thing is that this article was written BEFORE the race happened. Basically the fecal coliform (insert whatever non-scientific 4-letter word you choose) was "elevated" enough for USA Today to write a story about a triathlon. This of course was before the torrential rains the night before the race which brought all the run-off directly into our swimming water-way. Err, I mean sewage dump.

I had a solid swim after a rough start. I made it to shore at the back of the main pack, but in decent position. The swim was not fast, but very, very rough. I grabbed my bike and took off...

the end of the train....running for my life

Right at the mount line, Brian Fleischman crashed into Steve and caused a small gap in the line of people. Flash was able to get back on, but Steve was out of the race. This little separation of a few meters within the front swim pack turned into a big separation by the end of the bike. Our group (about 10 strong) was just not working that well together and the front bunch (of about 7) was. We lost almost 3 minutes on them. To make matters worse, we ended up getting caught at the end of the bike by a HUGE group of people. Some of these guys swam over a minute slower than I did. Completely unacceptable!

I hopped off the bike ready for a solid run, but it didn't happen. I felt terrible. After the St Croix debacle there was no way I was going to drop out. I kept thinking my legs would come around, but things just got worse. I finished in the top 25, but this certainly was not the result I was looking for.

As soon as I was done, my stomach started to feel a little weird. This is somewhat normal before/during/after a race for me, so I didn't think anything of it. But within 10 minutes of finishing I was running for then bathroom. And I kept running to the bathroom....for the next 4 days. I have had GI issues and certainly my fair share of sickness, but nothing like this. It was awful! I have swam through boat wreckage in the Mekong River in Laos/Thailand, lakes in China where the pollution is so thick you cant sight more than 20 meters, watched a diaper float past me at the swim start in the Hudson River, and dodged oil super tankers in the Singapore harbor, but the place that I get crazy sick is in Oklahoma. Crazy stuff.

suffering on the run

There was a long week between the two races and I had hoped to get some good training in. But since I was sick, it became more self preservation and hydration than solid training. My issues finally settled down on the Friday before the Monday (memorial day) race. I was excited to race and hoped to redeem myself a bit form the previous weekend. On to the race...

The swim in Austin was fast! It was on from the gun. I had a smooth start and then red-lined it for the rest of the way. To give you an idea how fast our swim was....I exited the water about 10-15 sec down on the leaders (Cameron Dye and Mark Van Akkeren), but my swim time was still 14 sec faster than Hayley Piersol's (who swum in the women's pro race 1hr before). Yes, she is a girl, but she also is THAT girl. Brother of Aaron Piersol, medal winner at the Olympics in Athens, and holds a short course yards 1650 time of like 15:45 or something.

Andrew Russell has a good report of the happenings of the bike. In a nutshell, I came out of the swim near the front bunch, rode well in my small pack before a huge pack with all the players came together. There were three guys about 45s off the front, but they were never going to run that fast so we let them hang out and fry their legs. I was sitting in on the bike and feeling good. Then disaster struck. Again.

About 1 mile from the transition, another athlete (he, along with the rest of the pack knows who he is. We will call him Muppet.) failed to hold his line touched wheels and hit the deck. It was a stupid crash. It happened on a wide open road going completely straight. What a joke. Well, Muppet hit the deck and I was about 3 wheels behind him. I had just enough time to to think "oh crap"before I was flying through the air at about 30mph. I bounced once and then covered my head as riders poured on top of me. Around 10-11 guys went down. I jumped up and tore through the pile of carbon bikes. There was a huge pile of guys and bikes. I found mine, but not only were the handlebars twisted 90degrees and the chain fused to the chain-stay, but also my downtube looked like this:

pretty sure they are not shipped from the factory like this...

My race was over. And also so was my new bike. Me and the Tarmac only had about a 4 week relationship thanks to Muppet. I actually came out of the crash with a few bruises and very light road rash, so I was quite lucky.

Here is a pic if the swim finish:

I am in the pack at the back on the left. Now that the Specialized was dead, I was in a bit of a pickle. I needed a bike and needed one quick. 2 weeks after Austin I am headed for Korea. Waiting 1.5 weeks for a frame wasn't an option. Luckily James at Fort Worth Cycling had a Cannondale in my size. I built up the frame immediately and have already been smashing the rides on it. It is a 2009 Cannondale Super 6 Hi-mod Frame. Freakishly light, but yet incredibly stiff. I love it. I cant wait to race it in Korea!

the new and improved steed

Thats enough for now...Check in again soon. I will be posting (hopefully) more frequently. My twitter is always going so if you want more info you can follow me there.

Cheers,
B

rough day in the islands

2009-05-07T20:59:00.005-05:00

St Croix 2009 was not quite the race I was hoping for. First off, let me say that the island is amazing. It has such a great feel to it, and is really beautiful. I can unserstand why so many people come back year after year. That said, this is an incredibly tough race. Wildflower and this race are always on the same weekend, and I often would look at and compare results. There is no comparison: St Croix is tougher. Rumor was that this year was an "easier" year with very little wind. That was made up for with hills, hills, heat, and humidity.

Pre-race was island style: laid-back and chill. I had a couple days to rest up and relax before toeing the line this past Sunday. On race day, I was calm and excited to race. I was a little anxious for the swim as there were quite a few fast swimmers in the men's pro field. I started the swim smooth and in control and sat in the lead pack very, very comfortably for the entire swim. It was perfect. My HR was low, and I was sitting in 3rd wheel just chilling in the water. I wish all my ITU swims could be that easy. I exited the water in 4th and made my way to transition.

I hopped on the bike and took off.....er should i say pedaled. I felt pretty bad from the start of the bike, and struggled immeadiately. The first 15 miles I kept ralphing every time I would drink anything. My stomach settled around mile 20 and I was able to down some liquids and gels. Stomach issues done, but back...no bueno. My back started to hurt around mile 25-30. I ignored it for a while, but it got worse and worse. By mile 35, pedaling hard in the aero position would shoot pains up my lower back. It just kept getting worse, and I was getting slower and slower. By around mile 45 I couldnt even get in the aerobars and my back was spasming. I decided to call it a day. I was no longer racing, just soft-pedaling back home. Not how I wanted to go out in St Croix.

Looking back I think several things caused this to happen. 1)I was riding a road bike. Not the smartest idea for this race. 2)My position in front was too low and aggressive for the distance. 3)Probably most importantly, I didnt spend enough time training in my aerobars before the race. Doing 5-10min repeats the week of the race in your new aerobars does not prepare you for 2.5hrs of solid time-trialing in them. Lessons learned. I definitely want to go back next year and redeem myself for the race. All I can do know is put my head back down and train for the next race. In 2 weeks I will be toing the line at the ITU Pan-American Championships in Oklahoma City. First ITU of the year makes me a little nervous, but my swim at St. Croix gives me a bit of confidence leading in. Should be a great race!! Here are some pics from the race:

Cheers,

gentlemen, start your engines...

2009-04-23T09:08:00.003-05:00

I am at about 1 post/month right now....not so good at updating these days. Training has been going really well lately. There hasn't been quite the volume that I have had in the past, but lots of intensity and consistency. These two things quite often have lagged in my training. This Sunday I am racing the World Championships of Benbrook, Texas (otherwise known and the Benbrook Sprint Triathlon). It will be my first time to don the race uni since last November. It should be a great hit-out for the season. Plus, I have lots of friends who are doing the race so it should be a lot of fun too.

After that things get bit more serious. I am opening up the "real" race season down in St. Croix for my annual 70.3 distance race. The start list looks good and I am excited to finally start my season. I just got a sweet new bike and lots of other exciting things to blog about, but not quite enough time right now. When I get the race machine all dialed in I will post some pics and a bit more about my recent training and the build-up over the past 4 weeks. Once the race season starts.....more consistent blogging!!!!

Cheers,

vid

2009-03-27T20:07:00.002-05:00

training is going well, but dont feel like rehashing it right now. I have been increasing the quality, and the body is coming along. I will update soon with more on training, and on the sched for the next few weeks. Here is a cool new ITU video....This is how we roll!

Cheers,
B

the past week

2009-03-09T08:17:00.002-05:00

This past week I got in my first "real" week of training. Well, I have been training very consistently over the past 6 weeks, but haven't logged the bigger weeks I was hoping for. After the half-marathon last Sunday my legs were shot the first few days of the week, but managed to get a great week of cycling.

Totals:

swimming-18k

bike 14 hrs

run 41 miles

hrs 24 hrs

Bike was the focus this week (and the next two weeks also). Running is moving along, but I still have to be careful with the foot. I did get in a 16.5 mile long run on Sunday w/ the last 3 miles tempo effort. Pretty jazzed about that! Since the swim group is on taper/holiday, swimming is either solo or w/ one other person. That said, I had two really solid swim sessions last week.

This coming week should see more swimming. biking, and running (go figure) and will also include my first visit to the track this season. I am planning to defend my title (ha!) at the St Patty's Day Triathlon this w/e. Time to feel the pain....

Cheers,

les fotos

2009-03-03T20:15:00.002-06:00

it is freezing and windy...do i really want to do this?

cheers,

long time between drinks

2009-03-02T16:06:00.002-06:00

I have been totally slacking off on the blogger front. Sorry. Although, my new-found interest/obsession with twitter makes it easier for me to update little tidbits about my training. If you want you can check my twitter in the sidebar for frequent updates.

In reality the month of February was a quiet month on all accounts. I ticked off some decent training, but nothing spectacular. My foot is not 100%, but I am managing it and slowly building up the miles. Biking and swimming are ticking along. March will be much different. It is time to really start stressing the body by adding volume and intensity to the workload. I am in decent shape now, but a long ways from where I want to be in May when the real action starts.

I got real sick about a week and a half ago, but have repsonded well from it. I even raced my first "open" half-marathon this past Saturday. It was a test for me to see where my running is w/ my very, very limited build-up thus far. I ran a smartly paced race and exceeded my own expectations time-wise. I ran 1:15:31 on a hilly course w/23-24mph sustained winds. The wind was whipping something fierce, and the course is not fast to begin with, thus, I am quite pleased. 1:15:31 is 5:45 pace almost on the money. Considering outside of some hill repeats, I havent raced, been to the track, or even done a single tempo since last November this time is good for me. Definitely gives me somehting to build upon going forward. I will post some pics as soon as I get them...

Cheers,
b

onwards and upwards

2009-01-29T11:56:00.003-06:00

With the advent of the twittering and the constant preoccupation there, the blog posts have slacked a little. Training has been going well the last 3 weeks. Nothing to write home about, but putting in 15-20 hours of mostly base. I am slowly building the volume, with an emphasis on strength. My foot (plantar fascia) has really been giving me troubles so I have had to put a limit on the yogging. I have been rolling it, massaging it, icing it, and sleeping in a boot--not so much fun, but necessary. It is finally coming around and I can hopefully up the diet of running.

Other than that nothing much to report. I have found a great training partner who has helped me to maintain the consistency even through the sporadically "terrible" texas weather, so that has been a real plus. In sponsorship news, I would like to welcome Profile-Design on for another year. I have been with them for 4 years now, and they are a great company committed to triathlon.

I will update again when the training gets more "serious." After all, it it still only January....

Cheers,

sweet pics

2009-01-10T20:06:00.005-06:00

These are some nice pics I found from the San Francisco Triathlon.

cheers,
b

older

2008-12-28T21:10:00.002-06:00

I am a little older since the last time I posted, but hopefully no worse for the wear. December is coming to a close, and I can feel the itch returning to my body. This whole month has been only maintenance as far as training goes. I have enjoyed the down time with lots of eating and sleeping in. Last time I weighed myself I gained 10 pounds since the beginning of november. For all the crap I have eaten, that aint too bad...

Tomorrow starts the first "official" training week for me of the '09 season. Kevin is coming to stay with me for a few days and as he is in much better shape than I am right now I am sure I will be hurting after he leaves. The goal for the month of January is to gradually build up the hours while focusing more on strength than quantity. This year I am probably not racing until May, so I am going to take it slow and build a solid base. Last year things were a little rushed in the preparation phase and I dont plan on making that mistake again.

I hope all yall had a great Christmas and have a happy new year. I am still finalizing sponsorships for next year and will post about my plans next year soon.

Cheers,
b

a year in pictures

2008-12-08T08:09:00.019-06:00

MEXICO

Mt Diablo, CA

FRANCE
going "euro"

anyone get the joke??
read this funny story here

my 1st interview in francais

les etrangers = the foreigners

leading the French Grand Prix Le Champions de France (team manager)

Luxembourg

photo shoot w/ Olympian Dirk Dockel

LONDON

TURKEY

2nd place team USA World Champs

ASIA

black eggs....mmmm protein

thats all folks....Just a little snipit of my year racing abroad.

cheers,

the long road back

2008-12-03T09:53:00.003-06:00

This year of racing was pretty hard on my mind and body, so I decided to take a solid break after San Francisco. The plan was two weeks of absolutely nothing, then a few weeks of 1 workout/day building into some decent fitness by January 1. And by decent, I just mean being able to run 90 minutes without having to lay on the sofa in a coma.

Two weeks turned into about 3. I did a couple (read: 2) of "fun" workouts with Lauren over the Turkey Day Holiday, but nothing over 30 minutes. Now that my R&R is complete, it is time to bust out the cobwebs. I think the hardest part for me is being so out of shape wanting so desperately to be in shape. This season, however I am going to use my head a little more and be smarter about training, recovery, and especially my racing scheule (maybe I'll keep it below 24 races and 100,000 miles of air travel within 8 months??), so I have no problem being quite out of shape this point in the year.

The plan is to use Demcember to get re-aquainted with swimming, biking, and running so that on Jan 1st I can actually start training. Jan, Feb, March, and April will be my foundation phase where I patiently build up my mileage and log consistent weeks. My first race will probably be Wildflower the first weekend in May, followed by the Pan-American Championships in Oklahoma 2 weeks later.

Next year I will be racing for U.S. Vendome Triathlon Club in Vendome, France. The difference is that this year I will be making two short trips over to Europe instead of one 4 month-long stay. I will do some bigger races in the US this year as well (i.e. Hy-VEE) and also will undoubtedly travel to Asia several times. I will post a more complete schedule when the ITU releases theirs to us.

Hope everyone has a good holiday season and I will blog again soon...

Cheers,
B

#100

2008-11-12T22:40:00.008-06:00

First off this is post #100 for me, so that is kinda exciting. The ITU San Francisco Triathlon is where I have ended my season each year for the last 5 years. It is a great race in a great city. Is is a good race not necessarily for the venue (bike course leaves a lot to be desired), but because it usually becomes the last stop for me and all my triathlon related friends for the season. It is alsways a struggle mentally for me to keep focused until mid-November and this year was no exception. I arrived in San Fran ready to race. I was excited finishing up my season well and making up for the week before. I did race hard, and have a solid race, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for.

My swim was going well in the leadup to the race, but disaster struck in the race. I had a great start gapping both Matt Chrabot and Matt Reed (they started next to me). At the first buoy something happened and about 5-6 people got tangled in the buoy/ropes. I was actually stuck underneath the buoy trying to find some air. It was like the buoy ate me. When I finally got un-stuck from the buoy and started swimming, the break had already happened. I was leading the chase with about 8 guys off the front. I swam in the chase pack until I got eaten by another buoy. Then I went to the end of the chas pack. You would have thinked I learned my lesson the first time. Looking back, and talking with the other guys I think the buoys were not secured properly and had some extraa ropes or soemthing. A lot of people had trouble with these. You can see big Matty Reed getting caught in one in the video below.

We were far back on the bike, but are group worked relatively well, caught quite a few ahead of us, and came into T2 about 25 seconds down. I started to feel a little queasy in the stomach, but shrugged it off. While my swim was terrible, we managed to "re-enter" the race on the bike. Onto the run I felt great for the first lap (of 3) and was running in 10th/11th with a Columbian. Starting the 2nd lap I started to go backwards. I really struggled with my stomach and slowed. I got passed by quite few guys. I found my legs on the 3rd lap, but the stomach was doing sommersaults by that time. I caught a few guys on the way home, but honestly I think I was running faster because I knew there were Porta-Potties at the finish line.

I finished up 13th, but didnt stop running when I crossed the line....I ran straight to the john. As I am jogging over to the toilet, the ankle chip guy is screaming at me and chasing me down asking for my chip. I told him he can come in the toilet with me if he wants, but I am not waiting for him to de-chip me. He thought for a second and then left me alone. I thought I would be better after the visit, but things got worse. I made beacoup des voyages to the bathroom for the next 4 hours. I have no idea why. It could have been from South Korea, what I ate the night before, or just nerves. I wasn't nervous, so I dont think that was that. And I didnt get sick again, so I dont think it was a parasite. Whatever, it was bad for about 1 hour before my race to 3 hours after.

Now I am on BREAK!! I cant describe how great this feels. I have no travelling on planes, no training, and zero diet restrictions (for a few weeks). The end of season break has arrived and I am loving it. I will take a couple weeks completely off and then take a few to get back in the swing of things. I will post a season retrospective soon and also a "season in pictures" blog post so I dont completely quit blogging and lose all 1.78 of my faithful readers.

Cheers,
B

Seoul to SFO

2008-11-05T10:11:00.004-06:00

The 2008 Incheon Triathlon has been run and won, but not by me. I was feeling quite good about the race leading in, had easy travel, and recovered from the jet-lag fairly easily. Leading into the race on Saturday I thought I was in for a good one. To make matters a little more interesting, the race organizers decided to bring in some VERY fast people. Think a little less like a random race in Asia and a little more like an ITU World Cup.....

The swim went ok, but I had a bad start and got caught behind quite a few guys. I battled my way back through the dropped swimmers to the pack and exited about 5-6 seconds behind the first pack of about 6 guys. I had a good T1 and hopped on the bike. I was 2nd wheel behind Jan Rehula (2000 bronze triathlon medalist and rides like a motorcycle). I was holding on for dear life with my feet still on top of my cycling shoes. We were about 15-20 meters behind the first pack (who were conveniently tucked behind the lead motorcycle). Well, I got dropped. No excuses or reasons, I just couldnt hang on any more. And while this race was stacked, there were not too many people racing so once I got dropped, there was no one even close. The next group was over a minute behind at this point. I rolled into T2 with the 2nd pack a little over 2 minutes down, and out of the race. I ran one lap of the run, and then pulled the plug. I dont like dropping out, but San Francisco ITU is this next weekend, and I felt like it was the smartest choice. I am now in San Fran at Lauren's resting and recouperating for this weekend. The field is small, but competitive and I look forward to racing HARD! No quitting this time, no matter what happens.

Enough about the race.....there were quite a few other interesting things about the trip. I met a bunch of Czech guys who were racing. One (Petr Bures) was an exchange student in Weatherford, Texas!!! This small town is about 15 miles from my house and I ride there all the time. What a small world....Another Czech, (we will call him Pretzel because I cant spell or pronounce his name) is on my new French Team next year. It was good to hear about the new manager and my new teammates. More info will come soon about my plans for next year, my new club, and some new sponsors. And lastly, while we stayed in a nice hotel, it was in the middle of nowhere, and we were left sitting in out rooms trying to stay entertained. The food, though, was by far the best meals I have had in Asia. Night and Day difference to racing in China. We even had a pre-race dinner at the Incheon Airport Hyatt that would probably rank in my top 10 meals of all time. It was that good. In summary, the race was not great, but racing in Korea get two thumbs way up!!

talk soon after this weekend in San Fran! Cheers,
B

In Seoul

2008-10-30T05:35:00.001-05:00

I made it to Seoul safe and sound. The flight over was quite eventful, and surprisingly short (at least it felt like that to me). I have settled into the race hotel and things are ticking along. Although, it is 5:30 in the morning and I have been up for at least 1.5 hours. Still haven't kicked the jet-lag yet. The last 4 times I have came over to Asia my body settles into a routine: Desperately try to stay up until 9:00PM, wake up at 4:00AM, Nap around 1:00PM after lunch, and repeat. Everyday I get closer and closer to adjusting to normal and then BAM!, I fly back to the US and mess up the 'ole clock again.

The hotel here is top-notch per the Asian norm, and I have to say the food is the best I have had in Asia so far. It is unreal how "easier" these Asia trips become when the food and hotel is not disgusting. The last couple trips I have taken to Asian provided a few moments of "what the heck am I doing here" as I stand in some awful hotel with no-one else around with whom I can commiserate, and last nights food (or whatever that was) doing somersaults in my belly. This one has been quite pleasurable so far.......except it it FREEZING!

This place is ridiculously cold. The high yesterday was in the 50's. That is the high folks, not what temp it was at 9:30 when we are supposed to race. This morning it is in the low 50's and pouring rain. The ocean is a mild 62 degrees, so I guess it could be worse, right? Well, hopefully it will be relatively warm on race day. We will see.

That is it for now. I might check in again before race day. Wouldnt wanna be too adventurous and blog 3x/week........

Cheers,
B

the last push

2008-10-21T09:54:00.008-05:00

It is DEFINITELY that time of the season again. Every morning my body hurts a little more, and it is harder to get up. The weather is changing and my daily motivation seems to be hanging in the balance. It is the end of the season. I still love triathlon, it just seems that the actual act of training is getting tougher. Today was the last day of my three week block of training. Suprisingly, I was very consistent throughout in terms of volume and intensity. But now, I am completely wiped. The thing is I only have maitenance workouts for the next two weeks! Almost there.....

The main problem for me is that I get excited for my upcoming break and next season, and often lose concentration about the last few races I have to do. This year seems to be similar. When I first decided to race in Seoul on Nov. 2nd, I was hesitant about adding this race due to the travel and losing a week of training for San Francisco. Now, however, I am super excited to leave and cant wait! The reason? My "training" ends 7 days earlier than before. After my long run today (which went well) I dont think I can put in much more hard work. The end is in sight. If I was racing only San Francisco, then it would be another 1.5 weeks of hard training until I left for the race. I dont know if I could of held the intensity high for that long. I have included some pics of my last trip to Korea for your perusal. This trip was back in April of this year to the Tongyeong, World Cup. Next time I post it should be from the Orient. Shweet.

random rocks

a vista
testing local cuisine with 2x Hawaii Champ Chrissy Wellington (giving her a shout out for her performance)

until next time,

chez moi

2008-10-15T08:45:00.003-05:00

I am finally back in Texas! (Fort Worth to be specific). I arrived about a week ago and have been settling into things. My parents moved to Austin while I was in France, so I have come home to a large empty (at least empty of people) house. My parents moved to a much smaller place in Austin, so I am tasked with getting this puppy ready to rent out. If you have ever been the the Brandon's you know this is no small task. Which is why I have a timeline of around 3 months to do it.

On the training and racing front, I am getting ready for my last two races of the season. I know I said I only had one left, but somehow I managed to add another race to my schedule. This race just happens to be in Seoul, South Korea. Well, nothing like keeping to the theme of "insane travel" for this year. It is Nov. 2, so it is the week before Treasure Island in San Fran. I view it as a hit ou" for T.I.--this hit-out just seems to be a little out of the way. Until then I am training hard. With this alteration in the race schedule, there are 4 weeks between my last race (Scott Tinley's) and the Seoul race. That is the longest break from racing I have had all season (since last year to be exact). Well, we will give it a go!!

Cheers,
B

ST

2008-10-06T16:10:00.002-05:00

Scott Tinley's is one of the cooler races that I do each year (this year both literally and figuratively). Is it such a relaxed and low-key race with a great vibe. It really feels like a grss-roots old-school triathlon. After my month globe-trotting I was looking forward to this kind of race....

Not to say that the race was going to be easy or the competition lacking, but this was certainly a no pressure race for me. Since I was racing in France, Portland, China, and then Scott Tinley's (California) on consecutive weekends, I didnt bring my TT bike (straight-up ITU old school road bike). I think this hurt me a bit on the bike, but probably not as much as the like of bike hours due to travel in the last month......and my inability to time-trial!

My body has taken a beating with my schedule this year, and wasnt sure how race #24 would go. It went ok. I had an easy-breezy swim where I came out 4th right in the bunch (Flash was off the front). I had a good first 20k of the 40k bike, and then EXPLODED! The last half was not so much fun. Onto the run, I recovered a bit and ran strong. not fast, but at least it felt considerably better than the chinese 10k running debacle a week earlier. I finished 12th, right behind K-fed who was also having a less then stellar race.

The good news is that my feet and body are starting to feel better and I am ready to put in a huge push towards Treasure Island in 5 weeks. This is my last and only race left this season and I want to finish the season on a high note! I head back to Fort Worth tomorrow to put in a 5-week training block. It is time for hermit mode: sleeping and training with the occasional meal. In the words of Tim Don, "train hard, win easy"

cheers,
B

Asia, revisited

2008-10-01T10:16:00.006-05:00

China, like Portland did not quite go according to plan. I was really hoping for a top finish. I have had a good track record in Asia and was looking to keep the streak alive with this race--it just didnt happen. I think it was about one race too many this trip. Whereas Portland was just a case of being tired and missing 6 days of swimming beofrehand, China was probably too much travel with a combo of no run training.

When I booked this 4 week round the world tour, I wasnt injured and it still seemed like a tough schedule. Through a little heel issue into the mix and it was going to be not so much fun. I swam as much as possible between Portland and China (as much as you can in 7 days with 2 days travel across the Pacific), but it didnt seem to help much. I had a good swim, but not like the rest this year. I exited the water in 3rd place right behind the two leaders, but it was probably the hardest I have ever swum in a triathlon and the pace was not that fast. I dont know if it was residual fatigue form travel or just themeager swim training of the past several weeks (or both).

Into transition I was fine, but mucked up putting my feet in my cycling shoes and promptly had a 10m gap to the four leaders up the road. I road as hard as possible, but I couldnt bring them back. I finally had to sit up and wait for the next group. The group ended up being about 1:15 back out of the water so we had some work to do. Me and another Ukranian (we call him Nintendo) dragged the pack of Chinese around, but we eventually caught the front group. At this point my calves were cramping and I was seeing stars I was so tired, but thought after a few k's of recovery on the bike I would be ok. Not so much. I hopped of the bike and just couldnt go. From the first step of the run, I struggled. I was not going to pull the plug and slugged out it for a dismal 18th place. I think I scored about 3 ITU points and got a smack-kick in the pants from the Chinese.

As Manny, put it, "I saw your run split, bro. What did you do, stop for chinese food on the run?" Well, Manny I didnt, but it was slow. Race reports of bad races are always hard to write. They always take longer to put up than the good ones. Right now, I am back in the USA in California getting ready for my next race. In this case, "getting ready" means sleeping, eating, and not much training. I am racing a low-key race in San Luis Obispo this Saturday then heading back to Fort Worth. I have about 5 weeks between then and my next race which also happens to be my last race. Plenty of time to recover from this round of trips and smash myself into some good form for the last race.

forget Geb.....how about Irina?

In other news, I watched Haille G run an amazing sub 2:03:59 in the marathon this weekend, but it was Irina Mikitenko who caught my eye. She is a German marathoner who just became the 4th fastest woman ever in 2:19:19 (this time would qualify her for US men's Olympic trials). More importantly to me, she has a very short shuffly-type stride--very similar to mine! I have always tried to lenghten and change my lengthen my super-short stride, but people like her make me think it might be possible to run fast with my natural stride. And to boot, before she was a marathoner, she was world-class in the 1500, so she can run fast with her short stride. She is my new Hero!!

disaster

2008-09-23T13:12:00.003-05:00

Pro nat's was a disaster. I had three straight 12 hour days of travel from France to DFW to Portland combined with 2 days on either end of no pool time. To sum it up, I have been swimming the best I have since college, but with the preceeding 6 out of 7 days before the race with ZERO swimming, I was in for a shocker.

I was a little jet-lagged and fatigued from the travel, but nothing that I couldnt handle (I thought). I felt reasonable leading up to the race and had felt great last week in France at my last race. Well, like the stock market, a lot can happen in 7 days...

I dove into the water and was struggling like I never have from the get-go. My stroke felt aweful, and the body was tired. I never recovered and things actually got worse throughout the swim. I was swimming so hard I was loosing my lunch and was quite cold and dizzy, but going nowhere. I came out WELL behind the leaders in the second pack. It took me about 3 of the 8 laps to feel a little better on the bike, but this was more like going from being on death's doorstep to aweful. Onto the run our group was well back of the leaders, my heel hurt, my motivation hurt, and I didnt feel like killing myself just to slug through to the finish. I stepped off the course. I am still debating whether it was the right decision up to now. Looking back, a 12-15th place (my estimation on my place if I would have finished) would have garnered me nothing but a few measely ITU points which I dont really need right now, and would have required me to limp for at least 3-4 days. I thinking packing it in was the smarter choice, although I have to deal with the emotional ramifications of that choice now.

What really frustrates me is that I havent had a solid ITU race on American soil. Every single ITU race I have done in the last 3-4 years in the USA has gone terrible. There are myriad different reasons for each of the races. I just want to have 1 good race in the US! Is that too much to ask? Oh well. It is time to focus on the next one. This time the next one happens to be in China again. This week (as in 5 days from now). So as I sit and type this blog, I am in Vancouver on the way back to the Orient. Hopefully the body can hold together and I can put together a solid race. We shall see.

Cheers,
B

c’est enorme!

2008-09-18T10:28:00.002-05:00

Well I finally cracked one! It wasn't the perfect race, and I think I can still race better, but it was a breakthrough for me. During the race in Scotland last week I did something to my heel (as if I haven't had enough problems with my feet). It has been so sore I couldn't run on it all week. Heading into the race this weekend I was pretty nervous. As someone who prefers to run a lot of miles, this "no running" strategy wasn't exactly good for my confidence.

And on top of the heel, this was a huge race for our team. In the French Grand Prix Series (much like European football….or soccer to uneducated people), the bottom 2 teams from D1 go to D2 and the top 2 teams form D2 go to D1. Our team signed me and some other foreigners for the sole purpose of helping the club go to D1 next year. Going into the last race, we were in second place, but only by a hair.

For the last month, (and especially since Scotland) I have really been focusing on swimming and riding since my body has not cooperated on the run. After the most recent heel issue, it was decided by me that I would no longer "sit in" on the bike and wait but to attack the swim and the bike to get in a breakaway. All the US guys that race with me would be shocked. This race was one of a few that went exactly according to plan.

I had an awful start to the swim (sometimes it is expected when you have 105 guys and 150meters to the first turn buoy), but my fitness came through and I clawed my way into 4th out of the water. Along with another teammate behind me, we had a break out of the water. I hopped on the bike and took off. It ended up being 9 guys in the break. I pushed really hard and felt solid on the bike. We were pretty disorganized, but managed to hold off the second pack. The gap grew to 35 seconds to the chase pack (which consisted of about 60-70 guys), but the last lap of the bike we lost quite a bit of time and ended up only having 15 seconds or so. Not too much time for all our hard work, but better than nothing. Next I went onto the 5k, 3 lap run, in 3rd position and ran well for the first lap. The 2nd lap I got passed by two guys to put me into 5th going into the last lap. I was feeling ok, but the quads were cramping pretty badly. About 800m from the finish I got caught by 2 more guys and we ran together all the way to the finish chute. I didn't have the finishing speed and ended up getting out sprinted by both (one was my teammate) for 7th place.

I still think I can race better, but all things considered I am happy. This was by far my best place in the FGP this season and things look good for racing in France again next season. In the end, our team finished 2nd on the day which catapulted us to 1st in D2. Champions of France D2!!!!! So not only do we go to D1, we are the champs of the 2nd division. As you can see from the above pic our manager, Eric, was ecstatic about our victory. He didn't sleep the week before the race he was so nervous, and was crying afterwards. What a perfect way to end the season of racing in France!

I am now in Denver airport en route to Portland for the USA National Championships. While the French season is over for me, I still have a few more races and heaps of travelling! Fun, fun. After Portland I have 1 day in San Fran and then off to China for another race. I will post some musings on a summer racing abroad shortly. What a crazy, but wonderful experience. I think words hardly will do justice to the memories. Cheers, and thanks for reading.

Les Etrangers aprѐs race [l to r: Moi, Nico(francais), Adam, Jason, and Kris (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie)].

and the l'equipe on top of the podium

aye, scotland

2008-09-09T05:17:00.006-05:00

What the heck do I have to do to have a good race and make a little money? I went across the pond to Scotland for the last round of the British Triathlon Corus series in lovely (read:cold) Strathclyde Park, just outside of Glasgow. I am now back in St Jean with no money in my pocket, but a nice big shiner on my right eye. As my camera is broken at the moment I have no pic's of the black eye, alas...

Before I digress....to the race. It was an exciting, but unusual format of 300m swim/10k bike/2k run with prelims and finals. First 10 in each heat automatically go through to the finals and then the next 5 fastest times. Super-fast racing. I was looking forward to a good workout and sharperner for our next French Grand Prix Race this coming weekend.

The first heat went great. I sat on Ali Brownlee's (British Olympian) feet for the entire swim to exit the water 2nd. Got onto the bike and felt great. Ali attacked up the hill, and no one followed, so I chased, and chased, and chased. No one would work with me and I had to pull the group around for most of the 10k bike. I had a good next transition and started the run off fast. I was running comfortably in 3rd, so I backed off to conserve a little energy for the final (which started 40 min after our race). A german dude must have forgotten that there are no points for the prelim when he sprinted past me at the line....no problem, an easy 4th and moving to the finals!

Ohh, the final. This was not the time or the place to muck up the transitions. I had a good swim (other than getting breastroke-kicked in the eye socket around the first buoy), and excited the water 5th or so. Onto the bike, I made the same mistake as the first race, but this time Will Clarke (another British Olympian) attacked when I was putting on my shoes during the hill and broke up the group. Nobody would chase, so it was fellow FGP athlete, Pete Friedman and I who tried to chase down the lead group of 5. Not possible. We were stuck in no-man's land for the entirety of the bike, only to be swallowed up by the remaining 18-20 riders right before T2. I had good position going into T2, but struggled like never before putting on my shoes. I must have lost 10-15 sec alone in T2. I exited last. Ouch. Not what you want to do in a 2k run, as there is absolutely no room to make any time up. I caught a few guys, but simply couldnt turn my legs over fast enough and ran out of real-estate. I think I was 16th or something. Quite frustrating to say the least.

3 good things from the trip: 1)it was good training 2) I felt really strong 3)I got to see Scotland. Although I nearly missed the trip as I must have a giant target on my back. I got "special attention" at both the US embassy in Paris, and at the UK entry point in Scotland. When the border patrol man takes all of your posessions, says he will be right back, to take a seat, and whatever you do ABSOLUTELY do not move, you tend to get a little nervous.....

Now I am back in St Jean de Monts (via Amsterdam, Paris, St Cloud, Paris, St. Cloud, Paris, Nantes, St Jean). Lets just say that yesterday there was no "training," but I might have set an official world record of sprinting 1k with my bike box (from train to train to embassy to pool to train to train). Time to get some rest, recoup, and roll out this weekend for the FGP!

here is a pic of me leading the last FGP in Setton about 1k into the run

Cheers,
B

not so laboring day....

2008-09-01T02:30:00.003-05:00

In l'etats d'Unis today is labor day. This has no real significance in France, except for the fact I am having some Passport issues here, and the good ole US embassy likes to take French AND American holidays off. So, I must wait until tomorrow to fix le probleme. Being that I am in France, and nothing can be done expediently, I am sure I will spend the better part of the week fixing the issue and not just tomorrow morning.

Other than the passport headache, things having been rolling quiter along. I haven't raced in ages....i think maybe two weeks? What have I been doing all this time? Training, of course. I have put in three really solid weeks of swimming and biking, coupled with two decent running weeks. I wouldn't say that the issue with my foot is completely resolved, but it is getting better/manageable. I got in 50 miles of running last week w/ two track sessions and two other hard brick sessions, so while the miles might be a little on the low side, I have got lots of intensity. Overall volume has been good as well. Last week with almost no running I got in 22 hours, and this week I logged 26.5 hours. My body feels like it is holding together all right. I have one more large week in this "block" of training. And then the fun begins....again.

Once again I think I have outdone myself on the travelling/racing front. Another 4 week around the world adventure begins this Friday! I am flying to Scotland to race a super-sprint triathlon x 2! There are prelims and finals and it should be a stacked race. After that it is back to France for my last Grand Prix team race. Hopefully we will move up to D1. After that it is back to the USA (Portland) for our National Champs. Then I decided to go back to the Orient and will race an ITU race in China again. After that back to the USA for good (at least a while). And will follow up with one more Olympic Distance race in California. This is beginning to sound a little like April.....

So five races in 4 weeks in four different countries on three continents. Somethimes I wonder if I am trying to kill myself. Oh, even though I have purchased the plane tickets for all of these races, they are all contingent on my passport issues getting resolved. Anyhow today is a much needed recovery day on this American holiday. I have some more work to get in before the madness starts again (did it ever really stop), so I better rest up....

Cheers,
B

olympic repechage

2008-08-22T02:20:00.004-05:00

If there is anyone on this planet who hasnt been watching the Olympics, I'll clue them to what the repechage is. Basically it is what happens when you dont make the finals of your sport in the heats. Some sports get another round to advance to the finals, via a "loser's bracket." There is no repechage for swimming, but there is for rowing. Obviously there are no heats/finals in triathlon, but if there was a repechage in this 2008 Olympic year, it would undoubtedly be called The London Triathlon.

The London Triathlon is the largest triathlon in the world with around 12,000 people participating. crazy. While all of these weren't pro men, 70 of them were. And of said 70, we had multiple world champions (triathlon and duathlon), previous olympians, german national champions, the entire population of french professionals who didnt make their olympic team, cheeky brits, and basically everyone in the world who was a good triathlete. Since it was the same weekend as the opening ceremonies, no current Olympians were there. But apparently everyone else thought the same thing: "maybe i'll go to London this year because it is during the Olympics and the field wont be too strong." It was quite comical standing on the pontoon and listening to everyone talk about how ridiculously stacked this "easy" race had become. oh well, game on!

After 200m long false start in the water, courtesy of Benji Sansome (french, of course), the race actually started and we were off. The swim was mayhem, but I came out in the group. The transition was inside a convention hall (I started to have flashbacks to my various Boston Triathlon disasters). The bike was sketchy, turny, and windy. I got to the run, and had a little struggle. I finished 24th. Not really what I wanted, but I am keep grinding it out. The training will pay off soon!!

I have decided not to race again for 3 whole weeks! Why thats enough time to take a break, do some base training, and then get into the speedwork. All joking aside, I hurt my foot before/during/after London. I actually have been having foot problems for a while, but after London they got bad. I decided to take some time off to let them heal. Actually judging by the fact I could barely walk, I was forced to take some time off. After a week of R&R, well actually swimming loads and biking, my feet seem good enough to run on. I am in the midst of a large training block leading in to my next few races...I only have 4 more weeks here in France and then it is back to US of A. Then to China. Then US of A. Ahhhhh the travelling never stops. I have slept in so many different and strange beds this year. I have definately set a personal record. Since there is no races for a while and the GF just left France, I will send updates on training and whatever else is new to my life. until then enjoy the pics of me suffering in Londres

i look quasi-fast in this pic...

....and not so fast here

to be a tourist, if only for 3 hours

Cheers,

Barrett

i'll take it!

2008-08-06T06:53:00.003-05:00

A win is a win. Well, in this case it was my first win of the season, but not in an actual triathlon. It was a "multisport" event. Technically it was an "aquathon" or "aquathlon." I dont really know the appropriate nomenclature. Anyhow, this race consisted of three stages: 200m swim/2k run, then 200m swim/4k run, and finally 400m swim/4k run. There was about 10min break in between each one so not too much rest. The one with thes fastest combined time from all three was the winner. It was only about a 800 total swim and 10k total run so it was a little more run focused....

I had decided a long time ago I was not going to do the race. Even though it was about an hour away I am getting a little tired of racing and just wanted to stay at home and train. Well the pool situation has been dismal at best in St Jean recently, and when I woke up Sunday morning to find that once again the pompiers (firemen) were again not swimming (which means I have no access to the pool. The ocean had huge swells so open water for the umpteenth time in the week was a no go. Allright I guess I have to drive down to the aquathlon and race to get in a good swim workout. My track workout for the day was turned into 10k of "aquathlon" race pace whatever that is.

As I arrvied I had two goals. One, to get a god solid swim warm up and cool down and a good workout on the swim portions of the race. Second I wanted to feel strong on the run portion. I had done a 1:45 progressive tempo long run the day before so my legs were quite smashed. I also figured that since the race was in the middle of nowhere and we were racing for peanuts that no one would show up. I though I would be out racing the dudes on my team and some other older Frenchies. Not the case....several D1 and D2 Frenchies decided that this would be fun to race. I had my work cut out for me. The race went from: "I am not doing it" to "I will just use it as a workout" to "I am going to have to get my butt in gear and race" To make matters worse there was an article in Ouest-France mag about how fast I swim and how I was the favorite for the race. How did they know I was even racing? I didnt even know I was racing until 3 hours before the race. Now I really have to do well!

If you have ever raced in Europe, especially France, you know how sketchy the courses can be. When the are designed it seems as if they try to hurt the athletes. How do you make an aquathlon sketchy? Since there is no bike, you have to be creative. Instead of starting people in or near the water, put them 100m or so away from the water under the giant finish banner. Next make the course short (way less than 200m) and put the turn buoy at like 50m away. And just for kicks, make eveyone run barefoot on jagged concrete (of course no carpet) and halfway through the run to the water insert a 90 degree left hand turn straight into a 10% downhill boat ramp (read pothotes and jagged concrete everywhere). Throw in testosterone, a narrow road, frenchies who couldn't break 2:00/100m in a pool but for some reason want to be first into the water, and huge boulders on either side if you "crash" and you have a race.

As far as the race itself. It was good. I was a little cautious on the first etape (I was not interested in doing the slip-n-slide on the boat ramp) which resulted in me exiting in 15th place after the quick shower/swim. I must have had the fastest run split, cause I was like last out of transition and the leaders were in a different time-zone. I put my head down and ran into 4th about 5 seconds behind the winner of the first race. Not too bad for me for the first one. My parents opted not to give me a SINGLE fast-twitch fiber from their gene pool. Le deuxieme etape went much better. I was second out of the water, took over the lead in transition and rocked the run to win the stage! Woo-hoo. The last race was even better. I led out of the water and led the whole run to take the third stage and 2008 Jard-Sur-Mer Aquathlon Victory (read: extreme sarcasm. This race is really not that important). I felt awesome on the runs and was really happy with how my legs responded being so tired. It was a real confindence booster to run well super tired, even if the race was not so important.

Now it is time to finish off the prep for London. London is a big race for me and hopefully I can rock it. It is high time for me to step up in some big races.....until next time!

warming up in the wetty

leading out of the water of round 3the race to my shoes

Cheers,
B

tactically perfect,

2008-07-30T15:05:00.008-05:00

As is the norm this summer this weekend brought another race. This one was in France and it was the second race for my club team, St Jean De Monts. We are in the fight to move up divisions next year (like European soccer) and our manager was fired up for our team.

My race went ok, but again not quite great. I had an easy swim comfortably in the first pack. Onto the bike I felt great. Our small lead pack was caught by the 2nd and 3rd pack and swelled to over 70 people. 70 people combined with crazy small European roads meant super-sketch-ville. I fought hard to get to the front on the last lap of the bike. Into the second transition I was second wheel. Out of the second transition and onto the run I quickly moved to the lead with 70 people streched out behind me. I have tried to be more aggressive in my racing and this was going perfect! I got a little too excited and took off. I lead the race until about 1.5-2k when the wheels came off. I exploded. I hung on for the next 3k, but faded to 15th. Our team ended up 2nd so we are sitting really good for next year.

I was really happy with how aggressive I raced, but again a little disappointed with my run. So after a few weeks of racing and rest, it is back to my bread and butter: miles and long repeats. I think I have focused a little too much on speed, and need to get back to working on my efficiency and endurance. Back to the grindstone.......The London Triathlon is my next race in two weeks. First time to the UK and pretty excited about it. Here are some pic's from the weekend of my team and the race.

Which way do we go?

And we're off!

Cheers,

Coupe de Monde Round #2

2008-07-22T06:02:00.011-05:00

This one is a little hard to write. I had been looking forward to racing the World Cup in Austria for a long time. I have been in "camp" mode for about 7 weeks stringing together my most consistent block of training ever. I was really hoping for a top 20 classement and thought my fitness was good enough to achieve it. I just finished up nearly three weeks fo hard training with Dirk and was ripping to race. Nevertheless sometimes you have those days. Sunday was one of them. I couldnt even manage to run tempo....

The swim was a little hectic. It was really cold, but not cold enough for wetsuits. I decided to not do a swim warm up because of my inability to deal with getting too cold in the water. Got smashed around like a rag doll for the first lap. Not so bueno. I exited the first of the two lap swim in what felt like last. I dove back in the water at the the end of a very long line. I had to bridge quite a few gaps on the second lap, but overall the pace was not too hard and I had a great 2nd lap. I exited the water with quite a few other big name athletes, but a little back from the leaders. We eventually caught the first pack and I felt quite good. On to the run.....

The wheels came off. No idea what happened. I went out hard for about 1k and that was it. I had no gas, and I have no explanation. I thought maybe I was just a little tired and would eventually come around, but the run actually got worse throughout the 10k. 2 days after the race now, I still dont know what happened. I am taking this week really, really, easy to get my body and legs to come right. I have been smashing myself and racing way too much, so I think some relaxation should be good for me. I have a French Grand Prix team race this weekend so I need to be ready. I think maybe the body just wants a little breather...
Here are some pics from the World Cup in Austria:

Team America

leading out the chase

The weekend before this race I hopped in a local race in Ecthernach, just outside Luxembourg City. I had a great swim leading out of the water, was in a break on the bike for 25k of the 40k and ended up 4th. Lots of good pics though and a tough, fun race.

Do I really want to do this?

sortie l'eau that one hurt a bit

Well thats it for this post. After this week of recuperation I hope to write another race report, but this time with good news! In the mean time i'll keep my chin up, and my wheels down...
Cheers,
B

back in the lux

2008-07-11T00:28:00.007-05:00

After the race in Turkey, I had a one day stopover in Istanbul. It is a pretty amazing city that has history dating back to B.C. It is the gateway to Asia. and half of the city sits in Europe while the other half sits in Asia. A true melting pot of cuisines, cultures, and religions. Although one day will never do it justice, here are some pics from my 12 hour day in Istanbul.

The Blue Mosques

The Aya Sophia

Rooftop view of the city from our last dinner....at sunset. Ahhhh! I was a little underdressed for the dinner so they gave me a "ladies" blanket

In other news, I am absolutely in love with Luxembourg. Such a great place to ride your bike, and it has by far the best views from any major city in the world. Only prob......sooo expensive. Why is it that every city I love to train in carries a $$$$ price tag (i.e. San Francisco). Anyways, training has been some of the hardest I have done and I have been making every session count. With Dirk, aka "german precision" every session in solid with absolutely no junk miles. It has been really good for me. I have been really solid through the sessions and even saw a 6 hour day on Wednesday. Body is really tired, but that's the point isn't it? I decided that I am going to race a local race with a little bit of coin this Sunday as my last hard workout for the 2 week camp. I am tired, but will put forth a solid effort. Well off to training...

The area here is beautiful here and will post some Lux pic's on the next post.

Cheers,
B

the WUGS that was

2008-07-02T07:42:00.009-05:00

l'equipe

The 2008 World University Games have come and gone faster than I could have imagined. This year it is official....I am a 3 time World Uni Games partipant, and at all three games I have failed to make the front pack. This time I was in the bets overall and swim shape of my life, and still failed to make it. 1o Races in 10 weeks with 9 first packs. The only one I missed was this one. Ouch!

I think the word of the day for me was complacent. I was swimmming comforatbly in the first pack of the swim, but got complacent and drifted towards the back of the first pack. After a good transition. I hopped on my bike only to have a slight derailleur problem lose me several precious seconds which ended up meaning missing the first pack. If I had been less complacent in the swim, the problem would not have been a problem. On the first lap, of the bike I was complacent and content to let the chase pack chase the leaders. We were only (4 of us) like 15 seconds down on the first group on the first hill. Instead of hoping someone else would pull me up to the group. I should have attached and possibly made it. Who knows what would have actually hapened, but I was complacent and sat in.

Our HotelTeam USA going for a ride

The bike was crazy hard with 2 steep hills per lap with 8 laps total. There was about 0% of my day spenton the flats. To make it even more interesting the wind was gusting at 30mph. And it was 33degrees (90+ F). Tough day. We ended up losing about 1 minute to the first group by the end of the bike. I felt w-recked by he end of the bike. Then came the run.

The run has been the focus of my training for the last three weeks. Going into the race I was very confident of my run. Going into said run, I became decidely less confindent. I was having a little trouble keeping liquids down on the bike (not hurling, more like gentle spitting up) and I lost focus after missing the front swim pack. I started the run and felt ok, but did not attack the course. I was complacent.

Team USA apres race

Also, this race is a team race and the top 3 from each country score for the team. With 2 people in the first group and 1 person in my group, who told me he was feeling really good for th erun, I was out of the team scoring. Just needed to get through the run. Well at the 1.25 k turnaround. I saw Ethan, our start runner (who made the first pack) struggling. This meant that I was now the 3rd place US and had to run fast. The coaches were screaming at me to keep passing people. Right around this time my legs started to come around and I began to pass people. 25, 20, 17, and finally 15th. If I ran my first 2 laps like my last 2 I think i would have been top 10. Our team with Kevin Collington (6th), Stephen Sexton (7th), and myself ended up getting 2nd. This was the best result ever by a USA FISU Team.

This is the Suisse and USA teams (no idea why we have our shirts off)

The trip was great fun and it was a blast to hang out with the guys. Stephen, K-Fed, and EB all have race reports on their sites, and K-Fed has a good report on the swiss-american medal ceremony shenanigans. Check them out. I am now in Luxembourg for a three week training camp. I have already logged a few crazy sessions, but the training here is good. The views are second to none, and as of right now Luxembourg City could be my favourite city in the world. Well this race report has become way too long. But I did add quite a few pictures for those who have a problem with reading. I am going to make it a bit longer by adding my French race report for all my french readers (maybe 1). It is unedited but understandable if you speak French.

Une petite description de ma course en Turkie pour le Championatte de Monde Universitaire. Pour le nage il y a 77 triathletes et le depart de le pontoon est tres dificile. Sortie le nage Je suis dans le premiere ensemble. Apres une bonne parc 1 Je suis dans the derriere de the premiere ensemble, mais un probleme technique dans le premiere kilometre dans le velo et voila, Je suis in the deuxieme ensemble (Je ne sais pas the mot pour le problem technique dans francais. Dans l´Anglais "my front derailleur"). Le course pour le velo est tres dificile avec 2 cotes grandes par boucle (8 boucles = 16 cotes!!). Le vend est tres dificile aussi avec 40-50kilometre par heure. Le temp pour le jour est 33° C. Quelle mierde! Arrivee dans parc 2 une minute derriere de le premiere ensemble. Ma course a pied est pas mal, mais je fini dans 15eme. Je suis le 3eme par l`equipe les Etats-Unis. Le classement de notre equipe (USA) est 2eme!!!! Une bonne resultat par le federation. Merci et @+

Well that does it for this round. Catch up again in a bit.

Cheers,
B

mad skillz, team dirk, and racing

2008-06-23T07:53:00.010-05:00

First off, I have some mad French skillz. This past Saturday was the St. Jean De Monts Triathlon team presentation. It included all kinds of media interviews and promo stuff. We had a news crew follow us around while the team swam, rode, and ran. After that it was off to one of our sponsors, Super U, for a live radio interview. As one of the foreigners, I was asked to give an interview. in french. I only began studying French 3 months ago and have been here for one month. It was tough, and I had to ask the lady to repeat a few questions, but the team and (espcially me) were very happy with how I did. They even said they could understand everything I said!! I was pretty nervous but pulled it off. Since this was live.....no do-overs!

listening intently

After the interview, we had a dinner and the presentation at Bessau Auto's that night. Here are some picks of our team from the presentation

the entire D2 team

Mattieu and I discussing franglais (french-english)....notice the hand movement!
The D2 team with the entire club in the background

So that was fun. The next day Adam and I hopped in the car for a 3 hour drive to St Calais for another Sprint Race. This time the race was non-drafting. I had a huge run week and thought I might struggle a little on the run, but it was the bike that did me in. I had a bad swim, but still managed to exit 3rd right with the leaders. I mucked up T1 pretty bad, and subsequently missed the "pack" The pack of twelve were riding quite close together and it was impossible to bring them back. The ref tried to give the entire pack a penatly, but there was a little confusion and it ended up that only a few got penalties and others didnt. I am not going to go into frenchie rules and regs, but 6 people got DQ'd and I moved into 6th. Yeahh! (that was written with incerdible sarcasm).

Beginning to get a little worried that I am too tired, but pressing on. I finished my three week run block with 71 miles and three quality sessions. I did an 1:30 run on Wed w/ 3 x Moneghetti set (A hard fartlek about 39 min in length) and 20x200 w/ (3 on 60, 1 on 90) x 5 on Friday and nailed both the sets. Held 34's for the track workout the entire way. Through in the 5k run in my race and another solid run week. This has been by far my best and most consistent 3 week running block ever. It hasnt payed off in my races yet, but with my much needed taper week, I should come right this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend I am racing the World University Triathlon Championships in Erdek, Turkey. I head to Paris on Wed, then fly to Istanbul, race on Saturday, and return to Paris next Monday. Here is where my next adventure begins.... I am going to do a 2.5 week training camp with the famous Dirk Boekel, Luxembourg triathlete extradonairre. Dirk has just recently secured his Olympic spot for Beijing and has asked me to come up to the Lux and train with him during his Olympic prep. It is a big honor for me and I am excited. I have been to Luxembourg and it is one of the greatest countries in Europe. Awesome secenery and really good for training.

The camp will work perfectly with my race schedule. The camp will lead up to the Kitzbuhel World Cup and then my next French team race the following week. Hopefully I can help Dirk and continue to build on my own fitness. Dirk has legs the size of tree trunks and is one the best cyclists on the circuit, so that will be good for me. It has been pretty tough for me training through these past few races and struggling with results, but I am continuing to add to my foundation and confident that I can have a breakthrough race soon.

Well thats all for now!

Cheers,

B

another week, another race

2008-06-18T02:54:00.005-05:00

Heading out on the run....

The race went ok, but not great. I felt really tired (with due cause) leading in and suffered a bit (again) on the run. I was content to sit 2nd wheel on the swim and stayed that way through the entire swim. The bike was a large group and the run, along with some GI issues that involved a post-finish line sprint to the toilettes and me not being able to find my legs, was a bit tough. I ran for an 8th place finish. It is hard sacrificing these local races, but I want to do well when it counts!

This week was the second in my three week run-focused training block leading into World University Championships. All in all it was a solid week of training. As far as total hours go I am only hovering above the 20 hour mark. Because of the swim situation here, I can only get in about 16-18k per week. If I was really struggling in the pool, I would do heaps of open water to bring it up to 25k or so, but that is not the case. In fact, I am swimming better now than in the last 5 years. The last few years my running has slowly improved while my swimming has almost gotten slower. The foundation I laid with FAST this winter is paying off. Biking was solid this week with 4 rides and some solid threshold work.

The run. This week was perhaps my best week of running in quite a while. While the race on Sunday didn't quite show it, I had a great week. Total miles were 69, so 1 short of "the goal" (the goal being an arbitrary number I made up), but the real story lies between the numbers. On Tues I did 15x150m uphill sprints, on Thursday me and my roomie Adam took it to each other on the track. The set was 8x400 on 2:00 straight into 8x200 on 1:15 w/ all efforts D1-4. There were heaps of 68's and a 66 and 65 on some 400's. I didnt even know I could run that fast (this was on a cinders track as well). We got even more fiesty on the 200's and popped off a 30 for number 4, so of course number 8 would be completely on. We both dropped a 29 for number 8. I have not seen that number on the track since good 'ol days of high school. A "tempo"type run during the race on Sunday brought the week total to 3 solid sessions. I am on the verge of blowing up. One more week of this stuff and I will be done! This week should be the biggest with around 20k swimming, 10 hours biking, and 75 miles running w/ three key workouts. Another race this Sunday and then REST, REST, REST for the Uni games the week after.

Also a big thanks to Profile-Design. I just signed on for another year with them and this year they are my wetsuit sponsor as well. The Gold Cell Suit is by far the fastest and most flexible suit I have ever worn. It is also the only suit that I do not have to cut the legs to get off. What a concept......Why don't we make a suit that is easy to get off? Well, no other company does. I plan to lead out quite a few more swims this year with it on. It is always nice toeing the line and knowing you have the best equipment.

until next time,

Cheers,
B

a "rest" week

2008-06-09T03:27:00.004-05:00

pics from last weekend (the last time I will be in that wetsuit! more to come on that...) leading the swim

Last week was a recovery week, but I raced a small sprint race in Jard-Sur-Mer for some grocery money on the weekend. I absoutely hammered start of the swim and won the swim prime. First time leading out of the water in a while! The bike was the bike (draft-legal), and I had a run like I had just taken a recovery week: sluggish. I finished 4th, but our team took the team title. A solid day.

This week was my first weekend off racing in 7 weekends. Originally I planned in racing an Olympic Distance race, but decided to take the weekend off to recharge the mind. There is a race every weekend here, they always have a little money, and are always within a few hours drive. Thus, it's very hard to skip races. Then after a while, you realize you are killing yourself for 100-200 euro and your results have stagnated. Plus, even with this week off, I am still racing the next 5 out of 7 weekends, so I am not too worried about a lack of races.

Since I have some bigger fish to fry in 3 weeks (World University Games in Turkey), I decided to put in a massive 3 week run-focused training block. So far this season my swimming has been spot on and I have made the front bunch at every race I have done: 7 races and 7 front packs. I have never been this consistent in the water. I have only been biking 4-7 hours a week for the last 6 week because of racing, but it seems the hard efforts on the bike each weekend have maintained my fitness, so my biking has been good too.

now about the run......This has been a different story. My run has been solid, but just off the mark. I have had trouble running off the bike this year. I had some great workouts this spring, but havent converted those into stellar runs in a race. I think the lack of miles in my legs and the constant travel have hurt my run most of all. I think I am strong, but not fast. Every race I can run steady, but can never pick up the pace. So back to the drawing board: Big, Hard Miles!

This week was the first of my 3-week "run camp" leading into World Uni's on June 28th. I logged 65 miles on the run (biggest week so far this year), 11 hours on the bike, and just over 16k in the pool. I had three quality sessions on the run and they felt good. The plan is to continue the run build over the next two weeks in both quality and quantity with holding the biking at 10 hours or so and the swim at 20k. Next week should come in at 70 miles or a little more. I am racing a sprint again this weekend. It will be a good training race, and hopefully I can land on top of the podium.

Cheers,
B

cool video

2008-06-03T02:33:00.003-05:00

Great Commercial. If only we had more of this in the states.....

stats

2008-06-01T02:07:00.012-05:00

I have finally setteld down from all my travel and am getting used to life on the beach in St Jean De Monts, France. I had no idea France had such nice beaches. The town is a quaint little place full of seaside cafes, the occasional disco, and plenty of patisseries. Every day after training you can hop on the beach cruiser and take a 2k jaunt to the centre ville and buy a hot baguette, or grap a board and go hit up the beach for some waves.

doing a lot of this lately

As you can tell, training this week, if anything, has been lax, unstructered, and very little volume. I have put my body through a meat grinder the last 6 weeks, and I really needed some recovery. This week was lots of sleeping, way too much eating, and just a little training each day to make sure the body keeps moving. I am racing later today (not complete recovery), but it is a draft-legal sprint race (750m sw/20k bike/5k run) about 1 hr drive from my doorstep so hopefully won't be too hard on me. So while I am keeping my string of consecutive races alive (in three hours it will be 7 races in 6 weeks), I wont have to travel anymore. Four weeks of sleeping in my bed EVERY night!

Here are some facts about the last six weeks:

Races: 6--four Olympic Distance, 1 sprint, 1 half-iron

DNF: 1--Dropped out of half on the run

Time Zone Changes (must stay in time zone for more than 24hours) : 9 (5 being greater than 7 hours)

Airports Visited (in order, Italics are non-US airports): DFW-IAH-MZT-MZT-MEX-DFW-SFO-ICN-PUS-PUS-ICN-NRT-SFO-DFW-DFW-SFO-SFO-DFW-DFW-YYZ-FRA-TLS-CDG-ZRH-PVG-XFN-WUH-PEK-CDG

Cities Stayed in (must spend at least 24 hours, leave airport): DFW; Mazatlan; DFW; Tongyeong, South Korea; DFW; San Francisco; Pasa Robles; San Francisco; DFW; Toulouse, France; Mimizan, France; Toulouse, France; Paris; Charleville, France; Paris; Yicheng, China; and St. Jean De Monts, France

Total Miles Flown in Air: 36,200 Miles

Sleepless Nights: too many to count.......

Will update soon on the races coming up!
Cheers,
B

the first grand prix and china

2008-05-27T03:07:00.009-05:00

the most famous street in cycling

It has been a while since my last post, but life has been crazy busy. I competed in my first Franch Grand Prix race May 18th, then drove back to Paris, spent all day at the Chinese consulate on Monday, received my visa to China and left for China Tuesday morning. 30+ hours of travel later I arrived in Yicheng, China. I havent blogged for a week, because of China's strict restrictions for the web blocked my access

We'll talk about the the French Grand Prix race first. It was held in Charleville 3 hours north of Paris. I drove from Paris with the team in our team car. It was like old memories of college swimming. The team aspect of racing is a fun and refreshing change of pace. The team is great and loads of fun. The race had 105 people start for the sprint triathlon (750m swim/20k bike/5k run). I had a great start and was 4th out of the water onto the bike. We were off the front for 10k, but the group of 50+ reeled us in, and the last 10k of the bike was spent getting ready to run with 50 guys. Transition in critcal in such a short run with so many people, and unfortunately I got boxed in at the end. Totally my own fault, and something I will remeber for the next race. I ran hard out of transition, but did not have the legs to sprint. I moved into 8th at the 3k mark of the run, but faded badly the last 2k to 15th. I was quite disappointed with my run, but still managed to split a 15:57 for the 5k. Our team ended up 5th with a sloid performance. I am excited about the next team race. I am confindent that I can be on the podium!

the team kit

l'equipe

Now onto China. Leading into the race, I was beginning to feel a little flat and tired. This would be my 6th race in 5 weeks. The trips involved 3 contintents, 5 countries, and over 50,000 miles of air travel. There is so much I could blog about China: the pollution, the poverty, strnage food,the crazy kids, the nose-picking, coughing, spitting, 2.50USD/gallon gas! crazy traffic, fake knock-off everything, nazi translators, or the good internationals that I raced with.

I will stick with the basics. The race was held in Yicheng which is a 1:45 our flight from Beijing, and then a 4 hour bus ride along the "country-side." This is "real" China, not the sugar coated touristy experience staying in Beijing city center and bargaining with the locals over fake Oakley's. Few people ever get to experience this. Yicheng City is small by Chinese standards with a metro population of only 4.5 million people. In fact it is so small, you cannot even find it on google.

The race went ok. I had a great swim and exited with a few internationls and about 6 Chinese. We had 20 seconds on the main group of around 30 people. Only the two Aussies and myself seemed to want to work. So we pulled around 8 other guys for 40k. We ended up putting 1:10 into the chase pack of 30. I had the worst run so far this year, in the one race where I could/should have won. I have travelled way, way too much and knew things would come unravelled at some point. That point was 2k into the 10k run. The city brought over 30,000 people (not a typo) out to watch the race. It was insane. At some points it was so loud it was deafening. It didnt seem to help my run, though, and I ended up fading to 9th, so I made a little money and got important ITU points. Sometimes I finish a race and think I could have run faster, but for this one I had to empty the tank to run as slow as i did. It was mentally the toughest 10k I have ever done. Thats racing though! After the race they threw us a big celebration with this Cirque du Soleil type thing. It was pretty cool.

These "eggs" are wrapped in feces and then buried underground for years, and turn black in the process. Bon Appetite!

These are mini eels with their heads still attachedThe Aussie/Kiwi/Yank contingent The Stage for the awards and show Pics from the race site....

Now I am with my club in St Jean De Monts in western France near the ocean. Time to get in the hard work to get ready for Word Univeristy Games in Turkey on June 28th. I am super excited to get back into the swing of training.

dans paris

2008-05-16T12:22:00.002-05:00

I am currently in Paris getting ready for my first team race. This is my first time in Paris and it is really an amazing city. I got to see the Champs-Elysees this morning which was pretty cool. I love all the little cafes and think I have had more coffee and ham sandwiches on delicious baguette bread than ever before. Other than that I am preparing for the race this Sunday. It is in Charleville which is somwhere north of here. Tomorrow I get to meet the rest of my team and my coach and manager. Should be fun. As far as the race itself, I have no idea what to expect, but am hoping for a good result. The body is gettting pretty tired from all the travel, but still holding together. I am having some problems getting my visa for China, so if I dont get it Monday, then the China trip will be a no go.

Well I will keep you posted on the happenings and new pics when i get them.

Cheers,
B

pics from mimizan

2008-05-13T16:38:00.003-05:00

the beast apres race

On the Podium...ish The nice girl who lent me her bike
The wesuit actually looks ok from this pic (looks can be deceiving)
doing what i do best
Thats all for now.

Cheers,

2008-05-12T09:06:00.006-05:00

I have been to China twice (outside the touristy parts) and am going again in 10 days. For some reason this video does not suprise me a bit.

oh the places you will go..

2008-05-12T03:43:00.004-05:00

Where do I start? I arrived safely in Toulouse with uneventful travel. Uneventful, that is, until I arrived in Toulouse sans bike. Uh oh. I reveived my 70 pound oversize vault of a bag, but not the ever important bike and wetsuit. I needed my bike because, my new flatmate Pierre was picking me up from airport and we were driving four hours to Mimizan to race a triathlon the next day. No bike, means no race. This is not looking good. The lady at Lufthansa looks at me and says, "I do not know where it is. How do you say....it is lost" Ummm. Ok. Is it lost in Toronto or in Frankfurt? "It is just lost" Great. Isnt the whole point of electronic baggage tracking to electronically track the baggage? C'est la vie. just go with the flow.

So I decided to go to Mimizan with Pierre and watch the race. Well, I did bring my racing flats just in case I found a bike. And a wetsuit. And a race suit. And bike shoes. And a helmet. We arrived at the race site after a quick 4 hours (I slept the whole way...Thanks Pierre!). When I arrived I ran into Sylvain Sudrie (he whooped me in South Korea). We chatted in Franco-English for a bit, and I told him about my situation. He pointed to a girl standing next to him. You could use her bike. Ok, I said. So I talked to Nadie and she said it was no problem. We would sort out the details tomorrow. Ok, You can use my helmet, bike, and shoes. What size soes are you? 44. Ok well my shoes are 42 (8 in the US). No problem, I said. I love it when my toes are curled into a ball at the end of the cycling shoes. I went and found Pierre and said that I found a bike for the race and showed him the piece of paper with her number. He looks at me and said. "What is this? You have only been in Franc for 5 hours and you have a phone number already!" haha!

We left the race site and went to the hotel to get some shut eye. Our race was at 3:00 (this is an age group race). I LOVE this place already. I just had to pick up the bike at 12:00 and find a wetsuit. The race announcer asked if anyone had a wesuit for me to borrow. Another woman volunteered and went to her car to ge the wetsuit. She handed it to me. Merci Beacoup! and grab the bike and off to the hotel for lunch and then the race.

The bike I was given was a 21lb giant ocr womens size small with a triple chainring up front and an XL women's saddle which does not fit my XS mens rear end, and some very un-lightweight wheels. The seat height was perfect though, and after lowering the handle bars a bit, it was ready to rock......ish. My wetsuit looked like swiss cheese. I am not even kidding. There must have been 40 holes in it. I think it was a 1990 circa Aquaman that had been hit 3 times by shrapnel. But it still would help with thec old. Sadly, I did not think it wad going to help my swim.

I stood on the start line with around 30 seconds of warm up in me, about to fall asleep. There were actually some very fast professionals at this race. I was not nervous, just trying to keep form laughing out loud at my situation. BOOM! The gun went off and all of the sudden I hade 100 French men sprinting next to me on the beach. Ok need to swim fast now. Body says, no friggin way! I stay on the three leaders feet for around 200m and then with my heart about to explode, I said enough. There was no way I was going to beat these guys anyway, so why kill myslef? So I just went my own pace for the rest of the swim, until a pack of 5 caught up with me. What the heck? These Frenchie age-groupers can swim. Everytime I took a swim stroke my swiss-cheese wetsuit would roll up my arms. Yes it was that loose. I had an ok transition.

Onto the bike, with my womens bike and too small shoes, I put down the hammer and actually passed 4 guys! then got passed by a few more from behind. This race was Olympic distance and non-drafting, so the bike was 40k (24.8 mile) Around the 10k mark, an official rode up next to me and started screaming at me in French. I screamed back in English that I was not drafting, and then realized that he was pointing at my number belt. In France it is tres important that you wear this at all times. My number was ripped of with my wetsuit, but I did not know it at the time. I tried in broken French, and he responded in non-broken French. After 5 minutes of arguing. He said disqualifique, non classement. Ok. Got it. I just got disqualified and would receive no classification for the race. Nice, first race and I dont even make it to half-way of the bike. I decided to ride the rest of the way hard on my Giant tricycle. It was going ok maybe 10th place at this point (all things considered) when I came to a literal fork in the road with no signs. Only screaming Frenchies and no cyclists in front of me. A little French lessson:

tournet a gouche = turn left
tournet a droit = turn right
tout droite = straight

These three words are very important when you have no idea where you are going. They screamed a gouche, a gouche (which I do know) but it didnt click in my brain and I went right. More screaming. OK, ok the stupid American went the wrong way. I get it. There was a huge median so i needed to go 200m one way and another 200m back. Nice. At this point i was 3 miles from transition and decided to just coast in. I was disqualified anyway and no there was no point in going hard. warm-down time. I pedaled into transition and jogged to my rack. I needed to put on my shoes so I wouldn't be barefoot.

As I was putting them on, another official runs over to me and says, "One minute penalty for the belt" What? I thought I was disqualified? Nope. No it is back to one minute now. Ok so now I need to run to make some money. But I am at least 14th or so by this time. Well I need a good 10k of running in my legs. I took off running strong and feeling suprisingly ok. I passed a lot of guys but had no idea where I was in the rankings. I decided just to run strong to save a little legs for my French Grand Prix Debut next weekend.

I ended up with the fastest run of the day, around 32 minutes (ahead of Bignet and Sudrie) and placed 9th! I got 100Euro for my effort (161USD) so it paid for the trip and my subsequent 8euro trip (13USD) to Le DoMac (French Slang for McDonalds--that one is for you Stephen!). Crazy Place, Crazy Trip, but crazy fun. It is Monday and my bike has still not arrived, but hopefully it will be here soon. Next week is a my first team race and very important for me. Hopefully I can be on the podium. We shall see. Sorry the post is a little long, but so much happened I didnt know when to stop. And I promise pic's of the shenanigans will be posted shortly.

Cheers,
B

pics from south korea

2008-05-06T22:51:00.003-05:00

The start Just behind timmy
fast transition
in the center actually at the FRONT of the pack
charging home on the run
thats all for now!

Cheers,

famous in france

2008-05-06T10:25:00.003-05:00

Hardly, but i did get a pick in a newspaper for my 29th place finish in Korea World Cup. While no one cares in the USA, the team in France thought it was worthy enough to submit to the paper. Though I can only make out about half of the article, I do know it is about me.......
Cheers,
B

wildflower

2008-05-06T10:02:00.004-05:00

That pretty much sums up my Wildflower Half Ironman race. I went into the race a little tired from the trip to Korea, but still feeling confident about having a good race. I made a last chance decision to race on my road bike (bad idea) due some shipping/bike box/travel issues. I had a great swim was safely in the first pack the entire time. I made a move to get around Terenzo for the swim prime with about 200m left but couldn't quite get there so I just swam in. This is my third race this year and all three have been solid first pack swims. This is a first for me. Usually I am quite out of swim shape this time of year, but I guess all those winter swim sessions paid off.

Onto the bike I stayed conservative knowing that my biking fitness was good for 40k, but untested over this distance. I road strong until about 40 miles when the body (especially my back) said NO! It is not always the best when you blow at the base of a 5 mile 8-10% climb. I really struggled the last 15 miles on the bike and lost around 7-8 min on the guys I was with. My back really started to tighten and seize up. I rolled into transition thinking I would take off on the run and see how it went. No dice. I was shuffling like an old man. I decided in light of how bad I felt and how much more racing i have in the next three weeks to call it a day. It was a tough decision and it still bugs me that I dropped out, but I think it was the smartest idea. It was only my second race ever that I chose to drop out of.

After a couple days rest the back, the body, and the mind are ready to go. While the race wasn' t the best, it was fun to spend the weekend with my buddy Mark, Lauren, the great Steven Sexton, and Amanda Felder. Amanda and Steven were both members of the 2006 World University Games Team, and the 3 of us will be going to Erdek, Turkey this june for the 2008 World University Games triathlon. Well thats it for this post. I am back in Fort Worth until Friday when I head to France for the next flogfest.

Cheers,
Barrett

tongyeong wc

2008-04-27T20:37:00.004-05:00

Les AmericainsJust finished my first world cup on Saturday with a solid result. Much like the Pan American Championships in Mexico last week, the race went well, but not great. I am still looking for that breakthrough race. Travelling to the race was nice, as the 4 other Amercans were on my flight from the US to Korea. It always makes travelling a little easier with familiar faces.

I settled in to the time zone change fairly well and got about to maintenance training before the race. It turns out that South Korea is quite cold this time of year. The water was around 57 degrees (read: alcatraz) and the air was hovering in the 60's most of the time. For the start of the race, I lined up right in the middle of the pontoon. I had a solid start and was right in the bunch. It was a super hectic swim and i got pounded for the entire 1500 meters. I just kept my cool and kep swimming in the pack. It was actually much easier than anticpated. I was 22 at 750meters and dropped back to 29 at 1500m, but was squarely situated in the pack.

The bike course was actually quite difficult with lots of climbing each lap. There were some grades up to 10%. With 40 guys exiting the water within 15 seconds transition was quite crazy. In addition to the hills there was some crazy wind on the course. The organizers shortened the bike by about 5k to avoid going onto a bridge where the wind was gusting really hard. There were lots of strong cyclists in our group, but the headwind kept everyone together. I stayed in the middle of the pack, out of trouble as much as possible.

The bike pack stayed together and I rolled into transition ready to rock the run. Unfortunately, my legs and lungs thought otherwise. I struggled again with crazy fast pace off the bike, but managed to finish strong w/ a 30th place. Not great, but one of the better World Cup debuts by an American. I finished within the 5% time cut-off so I received both Olympic Ranking and World Ranking points. As of right now, I am 125th in the world. Aside from the race, it was really great to hang out with some of the guys over the week. Got to spend a bit of time with Dirk Boekel and Marko Albert. Awesome guys and hopefully I'll run into them again. Timmy, Jazz, Joe, and the rest of Team USA made it fun all the way around. I think I spent more time in Tous Les Jours (the best pastry shop) than I did anywhere esle. All in all it was a great experience and I feel like I had fun and learned quite a bit. Right knwo I am chilling in the Singapore Air Lounge in Seoul. Gotta love travel! I even managed to get bumped up to business so I will be rolling home in style. I am in Texas for 1 day then off to California for another race. Lets hope the form carries through and the body hold together. Here are some pics:

World Ironman Champ Chrissie Wellington hanging w/ the "mortals"Before you judge these Euros, the one on the right won $200,000 at Des Moines last year

Cheers,

one down.....

2008-04-24T02:00:00.003-05:00

I haven’t even really had time to process last weekend’s ITU Pan American Championships in Mazatlan, Mexico and I am already on a plane over the pacific headed to South Korea for my next race. The first leg of my 7 consecutive races started out fairly well. I can’t say that I was completely satisfied with the race, but looking back it was a solid outing and much better than races previous years.

The travel there was uneventful and smooth, which is always a good way to start. I ended up staying with Bucky Schafer, Matt Charbot, and Chris Foster. It turned out to be an awesome group and we all had a lot of fun. It makes travelling a lot easier when you got a few mates with ya. We even had a stalker, complete with heavy breathing and creepy phone calls. He even would watch us eat at the hotel restaurant. In fact, it got so bad we had to unplug our phone. Sometimes you just help but laugh. Maybe next time we should check the speedos at the door and put on the boardies instead…….

A big shout out to Matt Charbot for going off the front on the bike, winning the race, and beating US Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker! Matt is a good guy, pretty smart, and oddly enough speaks Greek. We were all blown away when we found out. As far as my race, the conditions played a huge role in the race. On the swim there were 10+foot waves. The waves were so bad that they canceled the age group swim, and they had to pull out 4 or 5 juniors from the water during the race. It wasn’t so much swimming as trying not to drown. In the pic below you can see us starting the race. The organizers managed to start us in the middle of a huge set and we got pummeled.

I had a good swim came out in a big group and quickly ended up in the first pack. The bike was uneventful and nondescript. By the end of the bike our group had grown to around 30 or so w/ just two cyclists off the front. Heading onto the run, I was looking forward to laying the smack down. In T2 I had some trouble getting my shoes on which saw me come out near the back of our bike pack. It was also about 90 degrees with no wind and without a single cloud in the sky. With the heat, I knew it was gong to be a rough run, and lots of guys would fade. I had a really rough first 5k and stayed pretty far back of my pack, just trying to drink water and find my legs. I knew all the training this winter would come into play at some point, and it happened around the 6k mark. I started to feel stronger and stronger and started to reel guys in. I ended up passing 9 guys in the last 4k of the run. I almost made it 10, but lost a sprint finish to a Canuck. Canada: 1 USA: 1,648,702. I ended up in 13th, and was the 4th American.

I went into the race with two goals: 1) a top 10 finish and 2) securing a spot for World University Games. I was really close to top 10 and I am still waiting for confirmation, but the consensus is that I made the selection for the 2008 World University Games Triathlon in Erdek, Turkey this July. I had a speedy sub-33min 10k (it probably was a little short. Ok, it was short), and pretty much everyone who beat me has been racing for a while this season. It was a solid hit out for the next 7 weeks. I am racing my first World Cup this Saturday in Tongyeong, South Korea. Hopefully I can build on this past weekend and have an even better race. I don’t know what it is about Asia, but I always keep coming back to race here. To date I have raced in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, China, and now South Korea. And I am finalizing another trip to China on May 25th. It is a love/hate relationship, but I have had some of my best results there.
Here are some pic’s of the race in Mexico and the ensuing shenanigans.

room 208

Viejo Mazatlan (Old Mazatlan)

how many americans can you pack into an elevator?

game faces on!

well thats all for now.....

Cheers,

too much stimulation!

2008-04-14T10:42:00.008-05:00

This weekend was prehaps the greatest weekend of sports (at least that I care about) this year. I am sure i am forgetting something: Paris-Roubaix(cycling), Short Course World Champs (swimming), Flora London Marathon (running), Ishigaki World Cup (triathlon), and 2 Ironmans (triathlon). Sunday AM I was jumping all over the place looking up results. First off, Ryan Hall, a white American born and bred in Cali ran 2:06:17 for 5th in the overall fastest and deepest marathon field ever! Just in case you were wondering, 3:00/Kilometer pace is 2:06:35. That is absolutely sick! It is also his third marathon, he is like 26, and they went out well under World Record pace (1:02 and change). Beijing medals here we come. He is the future of American distance running.

Next up, Ishigaki WC. Simon Whitfield, one of my favorite guys in the sport rolled out again for WC win number 11! His training group have been lighting it on fire so far this year. Simon is a consumate professional and I have loads of respect for the guy. Also has an awesome blog ( only about 3000 times better than this blog)
And lastly, my homeboy TJ Tollakson got second in a brutal Ironman Arizona. He raced on the front for 8:30 hours only to get out-sprinted by 18 seconds, the toughest way to lose. Actually the top FOUR athletes were within about 1 min of each other. That is not a fun way to end a 8+ hour race . TJ, you will get that win soon!

And on to my own training. The last two weeks have been really solid training. I brought the hours down quite a bit, but the intensity went through the roof! I am going in to a block where I will be racing 8 races in 9 weeks on three continents. First off is Mazatlan ITU this Saturday then straight off to Tongyeong Korea for my first ITU World Cup.

3/31-4/6
swim: 21,600 yds
Bike: 7.25 hours w/ crazy hard group ride and one solid Steady state day on TT bike
run: 45 miles w/ 3 key wkouts: 1)track session 15x400 on 2:00 as 2 race pace/1 fast. For me, I ripped it ave. 73 on the first 2 400's and 69's on the fast one. Also did a progressive tempo on the tready (30min), and a hard fartlek 4x(3,2,1 fast w/ 2 min recov). Really solid wkouts for me.
hrs:18

4/7-4/13
swim:26,000 long course meters!
bike: 6 hrs w/ 8x2min all out on trainer, and one hard group ride
run:48 miles This week again three "fast" sessions w/Tracky session 6x1k w/ 90 ave 3:07, super short and sprinty fartlek workout, and one progrssive tempo (24min) desc by 8 min. Felt great, and am ready to race!!!!
hrs: 20.5

Well the training is done and in the bank. Now it is time to race. I am actually itching to race, rather than the usual first-race hesitancy. I think it is going to be a great year. Thanks for reading!

cheers,
Barrett

rated pg

2008-04-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

The following picture is:
A.) Me participating in my own solo version of Kona Underpants run
B.) Me trying to get a date in South Beach
C.) What happens when you forget your running shorts for your brick workout and have to make do with what you have

And the comment of the run goes to the eight year old girl who asked her mommy why the strange man was running in his underwear. And yes you may not notice it, but my neon green shoes matched perfectly with the boxers.

Cheers,
b

the week(s) that was

2008-04-04T12:33:00.009-05:00

Two weeks ago i traveled to Napa valley for my cousin's wedding. For those of you who don't believe it is possible for me to get dressed up, I have attached pic's below to support this uncommon phenomenon. The plan was to stay in the Bay Area for an extra 8 days after the wedding and get a solid week of training. The Bay Area is one of my favorite places to train as it has a great swim team (Scott w/ PASA), awesome riding, and great running trails.

My little cousin and I

Me and the lady

The trip started off with a little hick-up. My flight got super delayed and then stuck in Denver on Thursday nght. I decided to take the flight on Friday morning and stay with good friend Bucky Schafer and his wonderful parents. Well it turned out to be the right move. I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with Bucky and his brothers and got to go see the first round of the NCAA Basketball tourney. We had fourth row seats behind the basket as we watched Bucky's alma mater, Notre Dame, destroy George Mason (only to get beat soundly the next round). For my "troubles" (little did the airline know) I got a free ticket voucher for anywhere in the US that United flies. Even better when I got home, United had sent me a letter apologizing for the extreme delay and sent me a $150 voucher for my "pain and suffering." The best part of the whole thing is that I booked the flight on miles (paid the whopping taxes of $7.49) and got a stopover in Denver, a free ticket, and $150 bucks. Not too shabby...... Here is a pic of the Buckster and I circa 2006 in Pacific Grove, Cali:

The extra day did hamper the training though. I got to Napa only to find my bike der hanger was broken. Didnt get it fixed until the following Tues. so there was a little to be desired for the week in the biking department. I did feel I made up for it the next week though.

Here is the question: If I do 11 hours one week and 30 the next, is it the same as doing two 20.5 hr weeks.......hmmm not so sure, but I can only control the controlables (SP? is that even a word?)

3/17-3/23 unofficial "recovery" week w/travel, delays, and a broken bike

Total hrs were arond 11 with 49 miles of running and one track wkout. I did 3x[2x400 on 2:30, 1x1600 on 7:30]. Felt AWFULL, but stuck it through. 73-74 on 400's and 5:06 on miles. Not my best ever, but put it in the bank. Also managed a few quality swim sessions.

3/24-3/30 San Fran mini training camp

hrs: 30

swim: 28,500 yds w/4 hard LCM swims

bike: 14.25 hrs w/ hill repeats, and a hard group ride (3hr) plus climbing up Mt Diablo for 50min for total of 5:15 hour ride on Sat. The total ride had around 1:30 of sustained climbing, and the group kept the flats interesting.

run: 55.5 miles w/Tready Tempo of 3 miles 5:27 @ 1% grade, and a fast, fast fartlek of 2x[2x90 w/90rest, 2x60 w/60rest, 30/30, 15/15), and a solid 16.5 long run.

Solid week.....And in other news I have just recieved an entry to my first World Cup in Tongyeong, South Korea! So after Pan American Champs in Mazatlan on April 19th. I will be hopping on a plane the next day to fly to South Korea. It is sure to be the toughest and fastest race I have ever done.

On that note i better get to training. thanks for reading.....

cheers,

Austin, 3:05, 1st, and David Beckham

2008-03-18T11:09:00.006-05:00

It has been a while since my last training update. It has been a mixture of business and laziness, and probably more the latter. Quite a lot has happened in the last few weeks. The last weekend in Feb. I went down to Austin to catch the Big12 Swimming and Diving Championships. I was at the end of my recovery week and the perfect time for a little weekend diversion. First off, Austin is amazing. It is such an awesome city to train in and also a great place to hang out. Definitely could see myself ending up there. I did three wrokouts while i was there and managed to see Michael Lovato (actually ran him down on the trail, but for fear of being perceived a stalker I cut off after a few miles), i rode into Andrea Fisher and rode with her group for a few hours, James Bonney, and someone else whose name is slipping my mind right now. I also ate at Chuy's which is one of the best Tex-Mex joints around. All in all it was a great weekend. Can't wait to get back!

In other news had my best track workout ever 2 weeks ago, and quite suprisingly it was my first one of the year. I did 5x1k w/ 90s rest. I went 3:07, 3:03, 3:06, 3:06, 3:03. It was super windy and I did it on my own, which gave me a lot of confidence going into this season. To average 3:05 k's for my first ringer of the year is a good sign. All the hard work seems to be paying off.....

Here is my weekly totals since last post:
2/25-3/2: Recovery
Swim: 15,700m
Bike: 6.25 Hrs
Run: 20 miles--too much travel, and nursing my sore calf
Hrs: 14hrs

3/3-3/9: Increase intensity
Swim: 14,400yds
Bike: 7:45 hrs w/ hard trainer ride 6x2min w/1 min recov. Ave HR= 160, Max 171
Run: 48miles w/ 5x1k w/90s (3:05ave) and 6x400 w/60s jog recov @75 as main workouts
Hrs: 17.75hrs

3/10-3/16
Swim: 14,100 yds
Bike: 7 hrs w/ 6x2min hard/2 Ez
Run: 56 miles w/ 2x(2x90hard/90easy, 60/60, 30/30, 15/15)
Hrs: 18 hrs--Sat Race St. Patrick's Triathlon!
No track wkout, but did do a sprint race, and won! I did the St Patricks Day Triathlon for a nice little hitout and to bust out the cobwebs. I did a 4.5 hour hard day the day before so my legs were shattered for the race. I still managed to race ok....My run felt smooth and solid. I neg split it for the 5k so around 8:30 for first 2.5k and 8:18 for second 2.5k for a 16:48 split by my watch.

Super Chuffed! No, I am not becoming British it is just that after the triathlon, I went to the FC Dallas v. LA Galaxy to see David Beckham play. The game was great, and we had awesome seats (15 bucks for 20th row, gotta love soccer in the states). Afterward we randomly ran into their team bus going to their "secret" hotel. As we followed the police escort, parked in a ditch, and then sprinted over to the hotel, we were able to catch Becks himself climbing off. There I stood, next to arguably the most famous sports celebrity in the world w/ no camera or anything to sign. I found my ticket stub, and did manage to snap a pic on the trusty camera phone. It was pretty crazy though. The girl next to me actually fainted when he took his pic with her. funny stuff.
Well sweet dreams ladies! This post is getting way too long so Im out!

cheers,

where's the fork...

2008-02-25T08:39:00.013-06:00

If you can find it you can stick it in me, because I am done. Completely wasted. This week was my first big week so far this year, and it lived up to all the pain and agony that I anticipated. The plan was to do 30 hours to finish my "base" pahse and get a solid week of strength in. It ended up 28.5 hrs due to a missed swim. Actually this time it was not my fault as both Saturday and Sunday evenings the pool was closed before I could make it there. Otherwise it was a really good week. I decided to load the back half of the week again and ended up with 17 hours on Fri-Sun.

Totals:

swim: 22,500 w/ a 7000yd practice and because all my swims are with a swim team there is way, way, to much intensity for my liking!

bike: 14 hours w/ group ride on Tues where for 25 miles my HR never dipped below 155 and got up to 180. Sat/Sun were 4hrs/3.75hrs of solid group rides. Hard week of cycling for me.

run: 58 miles. Didnt quite get over 60 like I hoped but it was solid. 16 miler on Sat. after 4 hour ride hurt (especially when I forgot socks....at least 5 bleeding blisters). On Sunday after ride did a really solid 6 mile run right off the bike and felt really good. It was really encouraging to nail the very last workout of the week.

hrs: 28.5 --On Sunday I had three coffees throughout the day, which is a sure sign I am tired.

As I sit here in the coffee shop after a monday morning swim that was a little harder than expected, my quads keep cramping up. It did the same thing last night as well. I am in need of an easy week and it is finally here. Time to let the body heal and recover. This week should be between 18-20 hours of maintenance training.

And in other news, I am excited to have Powerbar back for 2 more years. I just received my first shipment before this weekend. I really have missed my Powerbar stuff. It is great to have them back on board. They are a great company, provide me with great support, and I cant imagine training without Powerbars in my pocket

Until next time.....cheers!

motivation

2008-02-19T21:55:00.009-06:00

This week was another solid week in the bank. I have been steady since the beginning of January and the fitness is beginning to show. I wanted to get in 26-27 hours this week but fell a little short. I skipped one swim and one bike, so the weekly total was a little lower. The run, however, which has been my focus, increased:

Le details:

Swim: 22,900 in 4 practices. Tues was 7200yds (felt like an age group swimmer again)

Bike: 7 hours-3 rides. Thurs was a really, really hard group ride again. Couldnt even pull through.

Run: 62 miles. This saved the week. I loaded the end of the week with mileage getting 39.5 miles in the last 3 days (12/15/12.5) w/6 tempo on the end of the 15 miler on Saturday, and 2 miles of 76s/100s 400's on the track on Sunday. Really tired from the running.

Total hours this week were 23.5. This next week WILL be 30 hours and then a much needed recovery week.

And finally here is some motivation. The ITU just launched there Olympic Games Page here. Nothing like pictures from Athens to get your butt out the door to keep training.

until next time, Cheers!

cette semaine...

2008-02-13T12:48:00.005-06:00

This will be the first week of updates of my training schedule. Last week I got in a solid 24.25 hours of training in. It was the first of three large weeks that I will do before a recovery week. This week should be around 26-27 hours and next week around 30 hours. I am still primarily in the base phase still, so biking and running are primarily steady w/ 1 to 2 uptempo workouts per week. Swimming is always fairly intensive. I wont do anything on the track (running) until after the next recovery week.

Week specifics:
swimming: 26,800 yds -really solid with lots of intensity

biking: 8 hrs - 3 rides, with one really, really hard group ride

running: 58 miles - steady w/ one fartlek run 2x[2x90s w/90rest, 2x60s w/60rest, 2/30s w/30rest, and 2/15s w/15 rest]--yes i stole this workout from another training group, but I really like it. Legs feel good when they get up and go. Max HR got up to 181.

Hours: 24.25

Pretty solid week for me. Consistency is the key for me. Hopefully I can keep stringing solid week after week together, and get ready for the debut April 19th.

Cheers,
B

february is here

2008-02-05T13:52:00.000-06:00

Well I decided to skip the entire month of January on the blogging front. I spent the new year in Bend, Oregon. It was a great refreshing change of pace for me. I got in some swims, runs, and a few cross country ski sessions. It was a blast and recharged the old batteries. Since, then training has been consistent, but not extraordinary. The last couple weeks have seen the weekly training rise above 2o hours, and I am slowly starting to feel strong again. I will be ramping things up to 25 hours this week and then close to 30 hours for the next 3-4 weeks. The #1 goal for me this early season is consistency. It is the major thing my training has lacked the last several years. I have decided that after my health issues at the end of last season, to start the build up slow this year and be completely fit before I race.

I have decided not to do the race in Mexico March 8th and St. Kitts on the 15th. Even writing that down makes me want to erase and decide to go race. Last year I started my season a little before I was ready, and this year I dont want to make the same mistake. As of right now, I will probably race 20 times or so this year, even without these two races added in. For once, I am going to use better judgement and not do every race just because it is there. It is now looking like April 19th will be my first race. This will be in Mazatlan, Mexico. It is the Pan-American Championships and an important race for me. It is also the selection race for the 2008 World University Games in Erdek, Turkey. I hope to qualify there for my 3rd consecutive World University Games.

New to the blog this year I will start to post more about my weekly training. I have simply used it in the past for travel and race updates, but want to start blogging more frequently. Well that is all for now. Have a great new year and safe travels!

Cheers,
B

NYC

2007-12-14T09:35:00.000-06:00

I just got back from New York City. I was a quick trip, thursday to sunday, but fun nevertheless. It is a great time of year to visit New York. I was able to being along the misses, and we had a great time. It was my first mini vacation this year. In two weeks I will be heading out to Bend, Oregon for 14 days of vacation. It should be a great time, and aloow my body to continue to rejuvinate and get ready for next season.

As far as training and my race schedule, I have taken about 4 weeks completely off. I am currently starting to train a little more consistently, but it is really hard to get going again. The break has been good for the body and mind, and I am really excited about the upcoming season. As of right now, I will start my season March 8 in Mexico City. I will race in North Amercia (based in Fort Worth, TX) until mid-may, and then head to France for the summer. I am racing for St-Jean-De-Monts Triathlon team. It should be a great experience. I am really excited about it. After that, we will see what happens. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays....

Cheers,
B

Treasure Island Duathlon?

2007-11-15T09:34:00.000-06:00

The 2007 season has finally come to a close, but it was not quite the ending that I was hoping for. For some reason two days before the race, some chinese captain of a container ship didn't realize that, "turn right or you will hit the Bay Bridge," actually meant, "turn right or you will hit the bay bridge," and plowed his huge conatiner ship into the side of the bridge. I am no Bay Area geography expert, but it is my impression that the Bay Bridge has not moved in quite a few years. Also, I believe that it is quite a large structure. Maybe I am wrong, but I will check on that for you.

So said ship hit said bridge and "up from the boat came a bubblin' crude" (insert music here). 150,000 gallons of eco-friendly oil spilled all over the bay. The city forced the cancellation of the swim portion, and thus the race became a duathlon. Great. Well thanks to the really, really, brillaint ITU officials, they decided that a 6.6kilo run/40kilo bike/10k run was the "fairest" format. In case you were wondering, these distances are completely arbitrary, not the standard format and a little bit ridiculous.

All other things aside, I had a terrible race. I had really bad legs and really struggled all day. I did hang on and actuallyu finish the race, so I netted a 6th place in the Tri-California Series. That is 6th for me for the last 3 years in a row. Well, dismal racing seems to be the theme lately so I know I need a rest. I am going to get some bloodwork done, just to make sure that all my levels are ok. But as of right now, I wont even run across the crosswalk until two weeks from now. Time to catch up on blogging, rest, TV, planning next year, and everything else I havent done for a while. I am currently planning out my season next year, which will be heavy on the ITU/draft-legal side of things, and I am still contemplating making a last-ditch run at 2008 Olympic Trials (read: lots of flying and money), but we shall see. The only news for next year to report is that I will be RACING IN FRANCE! I signed with the French Club St-Jean-Du-Monts in Div. 2. I am really excited and it should be a great opportunity. My first race is May 31st.

That is all for now. No pictures and lots of words = little blog reading (well less than the little traffic i get).

Cheers,
B

a month

2007-10-25T09:56:00.000-05:00

It has been about a month since my last post. This is the time of year when things began to wind down, and all my energy is spent training instead of other things. Because it is so late in the season, it is hard to keep going. Since I wrote last I have raced once, Scott Tinley's adventures, but it did not go well. I have been struggling for the last couple months with my fitness. After returning form Asia, I think I trained too hard too quick and put myself in a big hole. I have since got things right (I think) and am back into the thick of training.

I have about a little less than 3 weeks untill I race next. I have been located down in Fort Worth, Texas for the last couple weeks and will finish out the year here. I have been smashing myself in the pool, biking, and running. I have a great group of swimmers, cyclists, and runners down here to train with. Hopefully the training will pay off on Nov. 10th. This is The Treasure Island Triathlon (ITU Olympic Distance) and it is the Tri-California Series Championship Race. Hopefully I can pull off a good race and finish top-3 in the series. After that it is either down-time or possibly one more race. If I am selected I will attend the Eliat Israel World Cup on Dec. 1st. That will really stretch out my season, but if I have any shot at the Olympic Trials in April, I need to do it.

I will update more soon......

Cheers,
B

demasiado largo...

2007-09-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

It has been too long since my last post. I have been back in the US of A and trying to recover and get back into shape. On September 9th I journeyed out to Cali for the Pacific Grove Triathlon. Last year, this was my best race all season which garnered me a 4th place finish. I went in this year hoping for a podium, espcially after my successful European campaign.

It was not mean to be. I put in two large 70+ mile weeks of running before the race, so I thought I would be quite fit. I actually was quite flat on race day and struggled all day. My swim was fine, and I made the pack, but I was suffering so much on the bike (in a large pack and on a flat course). This was not a good sign. Onto the run, things got worse. I struggled all day and still dont really know what happened. I went from 4th and large payday to 17th in one year. Oh well, somtimes that is sport and things go wrong.

I talked with some people, and begun to think that my iron levels might be a little low from racing often in Asia with little or no meat. If you couple my 5 weeks of little meat intake, with racing often, and then returning to the USA and samshing a few high-mileage run weeks, you get a recipe for depleted iron levels. I started to take iron over week ago, and the enrgy seems to be returning. I just finshed my biggest two weeks this year, and I feel quite fit. Hopefully that will translate into race results this weekend and in the coming weeks. I race in California again this weekend at Scott Tinley's and then it is back to 4 giant weeks to prepare for San Francisco Triathlon, which will be my own peronal world championships for this season.

Well, this post is getting a little long, so I will wrap it up. Here is video of the Pacific Grove Triathlon. I am not on much of it, because I was bringing up the rear, but if yoy look close you can find a few spots.

Pacific Grove Triathlon

Cheers,
B

at long last.....

2007-08-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

My trip is finally over. I am back in comfy old Lincoln, Nebraska trying to recover from a serious case of jet lag. It has been a long, long trip. Here are some of the vitals of the trip. I raced in 3 different countries (China, Singapore, and United States). Visited 4 countries (add Thailand to the prevouis list. Here is a list of all the cities that I spent at least one night in: Chicago, Rochester, Lincoln, Beijing, Jinzhou, Singapore, Chiang Mai, Beijing, Jiayuguan, Beijing, San Francisco, and then finally back to Lincoln, all in the five weeks (in that order too). I raced 4 times in 5 weeks, and met all kinds of new mates (cant call them friends because they are all Kiwi or Aussie). It only took me 3 days of travel to make it home. I at rice rice at 47 times out of a possible 56 luches and dinners (I refuse to eat nooldles, rice, and/or strange meat before noon). I even got bumped up to business class from Toyko to LA. And most importantly I had three solid results: 8th, 5th, 6th.

Yup, the 6th is from Jiayuguan ITU race last weekend on the 12th of August. It was a really, really tough race. First off, Jiayuguan is a 1683m (higher than Denver). Secondly it was at the end of my monster trip, and I was exhausted. I was flat all day, ecpecially on the bike. But, it was another solid, but not great finish. Now it is back to work. 3.5 weeks till I race again in Cali, and believe me hard work will be done.

Jiayuguan really was incredibly beautiful though. I even got to go see the great wall. It is too bad that I am so over travelling at this point to enjoy it. Oh well I did my best. The food here, on the other hand, is horrible. At one of the last nights for dinner, we saw that at the buffet there were these potatoes in this stew with meat. The potatoes looked really good so we has a few. They tasted all right, but when we went back for seconds, we realized that it was potato and chicken head stew. The meat was chicken heads with their eyes andeverything. I almost threw up on the spot. SO no more potatoes. Well there are plenty more stories but I am simply too knackered to write any more. If you want some more funny stories you know where to find me.

until next time.......

Sooo whaaaatttyyyy Kraaaaaapp! (good-bye in Thai)

Waiting for my plane to Jiayuguan

The statue for triathlon......only in China would they build this

Fresh mountain air

The wall is pretty cool

au revoir thailand

2007-08-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

It is finally time to leave Thailand to head back to China. It has been a successful trip so far, but I want to get one more solid race under my belt before returing back to the states. I have spent the last 10 days or so with my sis and her roommates in Chiangmai, Thailand. It is always great fun to hang out with the sis, and this time was no different. It has been a long month and training is really starting to suffer. I am ready to get back to Lincoln, and get back in my groove. Hopefully, after this next race I will have enough points to be able to get into my first ever World Cup in Rhodes, Greece. I just need one more solid score (good result) and I should be set.

Right now I am in Bangkok awaiting my flight into interior China. It should be interesting. I have no idea where I am going, only the name of a city: Jiayuguan. No one (even people who live in China) that I have talked to knows where it is. I had to have Chinses travel agent book the interior flights (definitely didnt speak a word of English). I didnt receive confirmation that I am on the flight, I didnt pay for the flight yet, and I have no idea how much it costs. All I know is that I am supposed to be picked up by a little tuk-tuk and taken to the race hotel (dont know that either). Oh well, It is always an adveture travelling through Asia (China especially).

Here are some pics of Thailand. I got to go to a real Muy Thai fight which my sis's freind won. We also went to the Night Safari, which is Thai for "outside zoo at night with mosquitos" but it was a good time nevertheless. I even got to hold a baby white tiger.

enjoy,

Post Singapore Race Carnage

The Night Safari

I look like an idiot

I am too scared to stop and take a pic with the real ones......

pixies

2007-07-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

Starbucks......taking over the free world one cup at a time

They make you feel so special in Asia
All you have to do is look at the name of the hotel

Here is the other Hotel I stayed at..

on a roll!

2007-07-29T21:51:00.000-05:00

First off, I love Singapore. It is such an incredible city. In addition to the cleanliness and the safeness of the city, it really is beautiful as well. I just finished the third stop of my 5 week around the world (almost) trip. The 2007 Singapore ITU race went quite well. I had my best ever ITU result with a 5th place finish, right behind Mr. Nischuishi, 2004 Olympian from Japan. It was my second solid result in two weeks. Last week there was the 11th ranked person in the world in the race, and 3 Olympians (New Zealand, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong), and this week there was top 10 athlete in the world and three Olympians (Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Japan). These races have been quite competitive.

Heading into the race I was quite nervous as Courtney Atkinson from Australia was toeing the start line. Courtney is one of the best triathletes on the world (top 10 and over 5 World Cup victories), but he is also an incredible swimmer. I was concerned that the swim would be crazy fast and that several athletes would ride away. Not so. I had a solid swim to come out in the middle of the first pack. It was a tight, fast, and technical bike course. I rode well, and hopped off the bike feeling good, but not great. Last week it took me 5-6k to find my legs. This week was similar in that when I hopped of the bike I felt quite flat, but instead of pushing it I settled into a solid pace and accelerated throughout the run. I began to pick off people off one at a time, and moved up. With about 3k to go I passed Nischuishi and moved into 4th place, but he fought back and re-passed me with 1k to go. I was incredibly humid, and I was suffering. It felt like their was a hot blanket around your body, and it really zapped your energy.

Overall I am happy with the result, but I know my run is much better. I think with all the traveling, jet-lag, and my unfortunate week before New York, I a not quite as sharp as I was 3 weeks ago. That means it is back to the grindstone for the next 10 days will I prepare in Thailand for the last race of my Asian trip. For this next race my goal is to get my first podium finish in an ITU/Professional race. We shall see. For now it is au revoir!.

Cheers,
B

chillin in asia

2007-07-26T20:16:00.000-05:00

Asia has been quite an experience. Every time I come here I learn more and am exposed to many new things. SIngapore, apart form my hotel, has been great. It is a beautiful city, clean, easy to get around in, and to top it off everyone speaks English. For the travelling impaired, Singapore is definitely a nice "starter" country in south asia.

I have decided to stay two weeks longer to do another race in China. I will fly up to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week and a half to visit with the sis, and then up to Northern China (near Mongolia). I am really ready to come home, but I need to do this next race to improove my world ranking. I decided that I need to make sacrifices if I want to do this as a profession. While some of you might not call flying to Thaialnd and China a sacrifice, it has been really hard travelling by myself away form Family and friends. On top of that, I packed incredibly light for a two week trip, and now it has turned into a month excursion. Oh well, I think things will improve when I get to Thailand. The accom (with the sis) is tops, and a very familiar and warm setting.

Well i am sitting in McDonalds typing away on the net. I have the race briefing today and then it will be time to focus on Sunday's race, which I have almost not even thought about yet becuase of finding out the logistics of the China trip.

Here are some pic's for those who dont like to read:

This is apparently the world's largest fountain (this is only the top story)

The dont grow them like this in the McD's in the states

Those are actually steps, and they repaint them for different shows

It has rained every day since we have been here--everything is so green

Cheers,

updates...

2007-07-25T03:12:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Well China was an experience, full of highs, lows, and everything in between. Travel to the race took over 72 hours, and was by far the most strenuous of my life. Because of rerouting issues, I missed my flight out of Beijing into Shenyang. This was the lasy flight out of the day, and forced me to spend the night in Beijing. I got swindled by a bunch of gypsies, but they did not steal my stuff. The story is way too long and complicated for me to write in the blog, so if you want a funny story call me when I am back in the states. I'll summarize by saying I thought these girls were form the race organization, took their help (which they did help me), but then paid handsomely for it. They were unofficial taxi drivers, and let me tell you, even in Beijing a 5 hour Taxi service was not cheap. I did see Tienanmen (SP?) square though, but my camara died right before I arrived, so I had to pay for pictures od me there. Oh yeah, Beijing is perhaps the worst city in the world. I hate it. It is so polluted, crowded, it smells, and people are quite rude. It is about ten times worse than Bangkok.

Onto the race.... The organizers put on s stellar race. We were shuttled from the airport to the race-site (nearly 5 hours) and well looked after. After being alone for nearly 3 days, it was nice to see some of my friends again. I met some awesome Kiwi's and Aussies as well. Race day came fast. It actually turned out to be quite a stellar field. There were 3 current Olympians and many other fast athletes. I had a solid swim, right in the main bunch. I exited in great position and hopped on my bike. Onto the bike was the race went really wrong. I immediately got dropped by the front group. I ended up in a chase pack with 4 other Asians. Not a good place to be in with the front pack 30 sec up the road and no one willing to do the work. Fortunately for me (not for others) there was a crash in the first pack. One rider, Nathan Richmond, an Olympian from New Zealand, fell but was not hurt. He got back up and joined us, and it was just the firepower we needed to catch the front group. We rode very hard to catch the front bunch by the half-way point. My legs were fried from the chase, but I tried to make the best of the situation. My seat had also slipped down again, and my quads started to cramp. Not too bueno for the run. Onto the run, I went out hard and felt suprisingly ok....for about 1k. I was in 4th at the 1k, then I absolutely blew to pieces. I dropped to 12th place by the 5k, nearly 30 seconds down on those ahead of me. Somehow I found my legs again, and started to run faster, I was in 10th by the 8k mark with two other athletes right ahead of me. I made a hard move with 1k to go and turned on the gas. The two others responded to my surge, and matched it. Running down the finishing chute, I could see either athlete on each side, and also could feel my quadriceps cramping like crazy. I gave it all I had, and ended up winning the sprint for 8th. I picked up some solid points and a little coin. I was a little disappointed with my run, but with the travel, jet-lag, seat-post malfunction, and knee injuries I think it was a good starting point.

I am currently in Singapore and I love it. It is a great city, and super clean. I found the world's best pastry shop, and will eat there every morning. The next race is here in Singapore this Sunday the 29th. Once again the field will be strong. After this I have decided to stay an extra two weeks in Asia and do another race in China. I will visit my sis up in Thailand for a few days and then head to China, and then back to America around the 14th of August.

Here are some of the pic's from my travel and the race:

This is Omar Tayara, my bro and the guy who I sprinted for 8th with (he was 9th)

What's up finish?
Cheers,

numero dos

2007-07-22T08:54:00.000-05:00

Well race number 2 went considerably better than number 1. I finished up in 8th, so it was a solid result. I was pretty jet-lagged as it took nearly 72 hours of crazy travel to get to whereever I am in China (I have absolutely no clue). Anyways I will post more pics and a full race report and details of China and travel soon. I cant figure how to turn off the chinese characters on my blog so it is quite difficult to publish.

More soon.....

Cheers,
B

reporto numero uno---dnf

2007-07-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

Well , it definitely was not the way I wanted to start my three week racing tour, but I DNF'd (did not finish) the ITU Geneva race in upstate New York. This last week has been quite frustrating for me. I fell and messed up my knee, got zero sleep studying and writing my finals in accounting, got stuck sleeping on the floor in the Chicago airport, and also got sick before the race (head cold/ allergies / congestion) and after the race (g.i. / immodium is my best friend =) ). I wasnt feeling right the day of the race, had a bad swim, rode really hard to bridge the gap, didnt bridge the gap, and then pulled the pin on the run. We were too far back for any result to be salvaged, and I know I have some really tough traveling and racing in the next few weeks, so I played it conservatively. Hopefully I have used up all my bad luck/kharma/whatever in the small town of Geneva.

As for now it is 800mg of ibuprofen, water, immodium, ice-baths, self-massages, sleep, and compression socks as much as possible try to fix the bruised and battered bod.

Cheers,
B

the big w!

2007-07-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I can finally chaulk up the first win of 2007 season. Granted it was a local race in Lincoln, NE, but it was also a duathlon. After my last duathlon, I swore I would never do another one, but somehow I found myself on the starting line. There was one other really fast duathlete, so I knew I would have to really lay it on the line for the win. I also put in 5:45 hours worth of excercise (a very solid triple workout) on Sat, so I knew I was going in with tired legs. Needless to say, I was a little nervous.....

The format was a 2 mile run, 12 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Each run had one really steep hill in it, and the bike was quite hilly, with a few steep hills. Onto the first run, I smashed it! I ran 10:28 completely controlled and it felt great. It was the best I have ever felt or looked (according to a passerby). I started the bike w/ a 20 sec lead, but ended getting caught after 2 of the 3 laps. I hung on and we entered T2 together. I averaged just over 24mph, so I was quite happy. I was confindent in my 2nd run, and started the run strong. I got quite an inital gap, and was able to just finish solidly, clocking around 11:00 for the final 2 miles.

I have really been having good workouts the last 4 weeks or so. I have been killing my track workouts and kept the volume quite high. I am finally sorting out my injuries, and getting solid training in. I have two more weeks before the real racing starts. So I will kill myself this week, take it a little easy the next week, and then get ready to race. Next up on the calendar are the Geneva ITU Continental Cup in New York on Jul 14, then the Jinzhou ITU Continental Cup in Lioning, China on Jul 22, and then the OSIM Singapore ITU Continental Cup on July 29th. That is three races in three weeks, and they are all over the world. Hopefully this race is a sign of good things to come........

Cheers,
B

Des Moines

2007-06-19T10:42:00.000-05:00

I ventured out to Des Moines to watch the "unofficial" world triathlon championships. It was a short 2:45 drive, but worth it to see the big boys lay it on the line.

Here are some pics I took! Enjoy,

B

the bike works!......

2007-06-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

but it seems as if I dont. Alcatraz was a really tough race for me this year. That is part of the reason that this race report has taken so long to get up. It is always tough to write about your worst races.

The swim started out ok, but was incredibly wavy and rough. As I couldnt really see the shore, I decided to follow the people right in front of me--bad idea. We ended up swimming really, really wide (point to point course with no swim buoys), and I lost about another 45 seconds to my already sub-par swim. Onto the bike I felt strong and attacked the first part of the course, I passed quite few people, and things were looking up. Then, I hit a wall and went backwards. The last half of the bike I really started to fade. Onto the run my stomach was in so many knots and was cramping badly. I gave up a few more places during the first 4 miles. The last 4 my stomach started to come around, but it was a little too late. It was a pretty dismal result with three bad splits.

I have 6 weeks till I race next so now it is hermit time. I have got to get fit for the next race.

Cheers,
B

the ride

2007-05-21T15:37:00.001-05:00

The new bike....the new wheels. I look fast, now I just have to go out and train. I am probably the only one who cares about my new bike, but as this is my blog, and I can do what I want, here are some pic's

wildflower, finally

2007-05-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well the Wildflower triathlon has come and past, and I have still not posted about it. It is one of those things like when somone calls you or emails you and you dont immediately call or email them back, that the longer you wait, the harder it is to do. Well, this report is only about two weeks late.

Widlfower is one of the greatest triathlon events in the world. People from all over come together at Lake San Antonio in Norhtern California and camp literally in the middle of nowhere. And yes, for those of you who are not aware, there actually is some open space in California that does not have 300,000 people per square foot living there.

The swim went ok, as Luke Bell and I fought hard for the end of the lead pack. The problem was we were fighting each other and as a result neither of us made it on. I arrived about 45-1min down on the leaders into the first transition, but solidly amid the second chase pack. Onto the bike, I was climbing well, but just didnt have the power on the flats. This year there was crazy wind on the course, and I felt as though I was back in Nebraska. It wa quite a lonely day as I only had company on the bike for 2 out of 56 miles. It was just me, my bike, and the wind trying to blow me over. I faded quite a bit on the bike, but did not blow up like last year. Onto the run, I felt quite good all things considered, but my achilles was really acting up. I have been battleing an achilles issue for about 2 months or so now. Every step I took it felt as though it was going to rip. It took about 4-5 miles to loosen up a bit. Finally it started to feel a little better, but right at that moment the wind picked up again (just my luck). I battled it out to the end and got 18th, one place higher than the 19th of 2005. My time, 4:30 and change was by no means fast. In fact, it was my slowest time ever at Wildflower. But, since the winning time was the slowest time since 1996, I dont feel so bad. It was an ok result, but I was hoping for a little more.

It has been really crazy with school and work the last month, so my leadup to Wildflower was not as good as I hoped for. I am now currently in sunny California for 5 weeks of training and getting ready for the upcoming sumer season. Next up is Escape from Alcatraz. I have been training hard and hopefully will be prepared.

My buddy Mark joined me in the Wildflower triathlon experience, and we got to go out to Half Moon Bay to check out the sights. Unfortunately Mavericks was not breaking (no surf), so we just enjoyed the great weather. (See above pic's of HMB)

Cheers,

my life is on hold

2007-04-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Just got my new bike in!!!!!! Everything else will have to take a break. Pic's will follow soon. I feel like it is Christmas....

B