long time between drinks

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

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,

B

sweet pics

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

cheers,
b

older

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

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,

b

the long road back

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

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

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