Treasure Island Duathlon?

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

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...

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.....

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

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,

B

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

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!

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

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,

B