Sunday, December 30, 2007

Peaman (champs) and bloody Bree Wee

When I first began coming to vacation in Kona in 1997 I loved running into a guy by the name of Peaman. He had this race he put on every six weeks and i loved arriving from New Zealand to compete in his races. Once I moved to Kona I raced them ever chance I could and started winning them every once and a while. I always hated it when Matty Cunningham, D. Lawerence, Mike McCarey, or Gary Cooke came to race because I could beat them in the swim, but would crumble in run and end up defeated. This race definitely shaped me into the triathlete I am today as I was humbled every six weeks and learned I had to be able to run fast in this sport. I think I won my first championship back in 2000 or 2001 and have not been able to race this race since because of work and then because of me leaving the island. 2007 had me on the island for the race and I was going to try and win again.

Little history lesson here also. Everyone has to be very familiar with the name Bree Wee now. She was the first amateur at Ironman Hawaii this year and placed 13 overall. Yes, I know, AWESOME. I ran into Bree in 2003 at the Lavaman triathlon after I crossed the finish line. This girl ran up to me and had her picture taken with me and I will not lie, she was a looker for sure :) as most of you will notice from her pic in the latest tri mag for Lifesport coaching. I moved to Texas in 2004 and would catch up with her every now and then for training. She has to be one of the most talented and dedicated triathletes I know. She jumped aboard with Life sport and has blossomed into on hell of World class triathlete.

The race. I arrived at the pier and was pretty nervous. I always get nervous no matter how big or small the race is. The gun went off and I charged up with the top four swimmers and died five minutes into the swim. At that point I decided to keep my head down and just swim. HAHA next time I looked up I was so far of course and to my horror looked back to see the pack was following me :) I must have been 100 yards off the buoy to the left. Who who was it that was right there on my feet? The speedy Bree Wee. i knew I was going to hurt because she can move on the pavement. She got me on the swim and was off on the run like a rocket. My transition was not my quickest but I eventually got out. Bree is quick and it took a lot of effort to catch up to her. I will tell you why I beat her today and I still laugh about it now. She was so busy responding to everyone passing us the opposite way. She was not just waving, she was talking to everyone and addressing them all by name!

Bree you are awesome and I can't wait to see what you accomplish next year. Look forward to catching up with you and Jim on Friday.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

My end of year #1

2007 was just a crazy year with lots of ups and downs and I hope I will reap all the benefits of 2007 in 2008. I sometimes laugh when I say I have a pro card!

The Races
Cactus Challenge 3rd
Honu Half IM 10th
LA Triathlon 22nd
Texas Tri 1st
Texas Man 1st
Long horn tri 6th
70.3 Worlds 30th

I was very fired up about racing this year, especially after placing 7th at World Champs. I know the field was not stacked as it was this year, but it was still a solid and respectable race. The season started off with the Cactus Challenge in April were I had another poor race. First year at Cactus I was sent the wrong way on the bike and found myself way off the pace coming into the run and just blew up. Last year I went the wrong way on the bike again and was only seconds away from the win! This year I was flat on the bike. Every year I enter this I have flawed.

Honu Half Ironman was in June and I showed up feeling somewhat confident. I had a poor swim and tried to play catch up all day. I did a crash course running program in my final build for this race and ended flat on the run. Placed 10th overall and was not very pleased.

LA triathlon....I am not even going to go there.

Texas man and tri and Longhorn. I finally started to do well. These are great races that I think are so much fun. All of these courses are very Texas and I think i saw more rattlesnakes on the road in these three races then I have seen my entire time I have resided in Texas. Two wins and some much needed confidence ignited my ego. Longhorn was a race I really wanted to do well in. I finally went to the pool and told myself I had to put in the hard yards. I use to be such a strong swimmer and have really fallen off the past few years. Came out of the swim at Longhorn with a massive lead and just waited for the pack to catch me on the bike. The bike was not at 100% so I cruised with the pack know i had a strong to unleash once my feet hit the ground. The plan was going brilliant as the leader only had 2 minutes on us! I came out of T2 with a mission and by mile three the lead was 30 seconds! Beauty, race is the bag I was thinking. Yes, far too cocky and I got whacked with the humble stick in the form of severe cramping like I have never had before. Placed sixth and ended up visiting medical for a while to cool down and get hydrated. I was confident in my form leading up to worlds.

WORLDS! I had received a beautiful package of 700 dollars and some other goodies for placing top ten last year. No stress in the last month leading up to this race. As always if you caught onto my feeling flat theme, work called. This time it was a completely different scenario in why I had to log lots of hours. I started to develop the superman bug and it also killed me at worlds. With very little time to train daily, I just went and hammered every day and was logging some nice numbers on the SRM....too nice and too frequently. I began freaking out about not performing as well as in 2006, I freaked out because I was getting in lots of speed but no distance, I was not happy that I was was very fatigued seven days out from the race. I stopped training five days out from the race and just prayed I would come right. Come race day I had a solid swim out with the main pack and that is about the only positive thing I have to say about the race. My legs were lifeless and I was absolutely furious when I got spit off the back.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

it is gone!

Yesterday I had to turn in my blackberry (a.k.a crackberry)! While i was working, i always wanted to get rid of it. I hated that everyone could get hold of me by phone, txt, e-mail, or instant messenger. You had no excuse what so ever if you did not get back to anybody within five minutes! Now I miss it, I feel like I am not in the know, even though I do not need to be in the know. I am having withdrawls already and want another all in one device, but it is only a want not a need.

Training is coming along well thanks to CATZ. The marathon training has not been coming along too well because of the departure from work and moving all my gear out of my place. Every Tues. and Thur. I go to CATZ for a intense hour long work that focuses on injury prevention, strength conditioning, and speed-fitness. I have been constant with running 4 miles, three times a week pretty slow. I went out yesterday to my surprise and hammered out a 41 minute 7.1 mile loop! Thank you Bill for pushing me hard during each session.

Head off to dallas on Saturday to stay with Lindsay's parents till Christmas morning. I'm looking forward to this as they have a huge Christmas bash. We then leave to Hawaii on christmas morning. I have never flown on Christmas and hope the flights will be empty so i can get some shut eye before having Christams dinner with my folks.

Monday, December 10, 2007

New Path

Handed in the letter of resignation the other day and it was tough. Been working for a family here in Austin for the past four years and it was very hard to let go emotionally. I have a lot of love for the kids I worked with. I'm out on my own now and have to get cracking pretty quickly to find a job since I will be coming home in 08 with a wife!!

Been working out at the CATZ facility the past three weeks. If you're in Austin and want a solid hour long workout you have to check these guys out. Awesome group of trainers who push you hard. I don't think I have been as sore as I have been in a while.