gone with the wind

Monique and I got to Vegas yesterday but I was finishing up a big day of work. Unfortunately, that has been the norm the last week or so but it was a good fit with taper time. Stress in another form... By the time I got off my laptop and my phone out of my ear yesterday the wind was HOWLING!

The news (depending on what you were watching) said there were gusts between 40 and 52mph and similar weather in St George. Our brick workout was out the window so we just soaked up some more rest and ate...again. Eating is one thing I have not cut back and although I gained a few pounds I know I will have all my strength for St. George and I am going to need it!

I do understand that "training is physical and racing is mental" so I appreciate the mental switch for now. Last week, I could not stop thinking about the fact that I am going to run a MARATHON let alone after about eight hours of racing already in my body. I kinda forgot about all that now and I am just relaxed and ready to get r' done!

Some interesting facts I picked up this week too like that it takes approximately 5,000 strokes to complete an Ironman swim and about 30,000 pedal circles on the bike that should get us to "expend 8,500 to 11,500 kilocalories and lose up to 2 litres of fluid per hour". Makes me hungry even now...

When we drove into SG this morning the weather could not be better. No wind, overcast and a chance of showers. Perfect! I hope it stays like this for a couple of days. This place is beautiful!

We just finished checking in and the enormity of this race started to set in. There are lots of people here from lots of different places. We got our race packets and our numbers marked on our bodies TWO DAYS before the race. Quite a major production.


Then we ate. Ate again and now we have been resting watching TV. A major change from our usual habits. Monique got some disc wheel looking tattoos and if this town was not transformed into Ironman village they would have probably think she just escaped from prison the way she was putting away the food and talking that slang gang jive. Why are we still so hungry?


Tomorrow we are planning on an easy swim, bike, run to loosen up and then follow it up the next day with a bigger swim, bike, run. Simple right?

The Hay Is In The Barn!

Its just 13 days until my first Ironman race and all of the work is done. The hay is in the barn!!

I have been kicking around the goal of completing an Ironman race now for the last few years. . . maybe longer. I have given it a lot of thought... probably much longer and more than most people realize. I also realized that it takes a long time to make the grade and I was not going to rush it. The road along the way has been so much fun I really want to just keep climbing... but that is for another post.

I made a decision to start training for the Ironman St. George race back in November. At the time it felt like a long ways out and a few people (including myself) thought it may have been a bit early to start smashing out big training weeks...big for me anyways. By making a commitment to the race I also gave up my option for any excuse. I joined a Masters swimming group, worked on my biggest limiter (running), focused on the little things like getting the best food I could afford and stretching more and starting working with the best team of coaches for endurance . . . Gordo literally wrote the book on going long ;-)

I was without excuse to give it my all but it was still all new and unknown. Maybe I would crack....I didn't know my breaking point. Was I bound to be a February rock star and burn out by May? Could I focus for so long on just one race, one day? Is there such a thing as starting too early? Would I even like going long? There are many questions and risks along the way and its all part of the fun.

By this time last year, I had already competed a couple handful of races from paddling, snowshoeing and the like. I realized that I really love to race and race often. Switching gears to "put all my eggs in one basket" and put six months into one race was a hard choice for me to make at first. Some people jump right in and somehow manage to get fit for an Ironman race on a 20 week training plan. What I found to be the longest and hardest part about doing the training is setting up my life so that I could do the work. I am very grateful for my job, wife, friends and family that allowed me to stack some hay over the last six months or more.

stacking the hay, loading the spring, having a lot of fun!

I was also once about 215 pounds (just before Monique got married to me...lucky her!) and decided to make a lifestyle switch that just so happened to pull me into some athletic pursuits. A personal change in my lifestyle that will last the rest of my life. I wont go into detail about it now except to say that my motivation behind getting into sport a bit later in life (~28yrs old) was from within...an alignment that brings me more momentum than could be generated by an external motivation.

The last couple of weeks have answered many of my questions about my quest along the road to my first Ironman. The training "fits" ME. I love going for a ride all day long and running off of the bike. Swimming long sets are the type of mediation that sorts me out and I don't think you can ever start too early (or too late for that matter). What was once a big volume week or training has simply become the norm and I feel like I am just getting started.

I got to cap off the last couple of weeks of my training with some solid sessions on the course and around my normal training grounds. I have seen some glimpses of fitness in training that I have never seen before but saved my deep desires for race day ;-) "you bring the popcorn, I'll bring the pain"

This weekend, Monique and I joined Doreen for our first Century ride. We decided to jump into this Friday and signed up the morning of the ride. It was the first time any of us had done one of these "organized drafting buffet rides" but this one was legit. You cant hide on a climb! The girls had never gone over 100 miles and this ride boasted about 11K of climbing. They picked a good one!

This was key for me to realize just how much "the norm" had become for me. Prior to November I had only ridden over 100 miles two times (once on the road/once on my mountain bike). The century ride on Saturday marked my 10th time riding over 100 miles since November for me and I did over 100 miles the day before. It was just another "session" on the bike for me at this point.

It was inspiring to watch these girls grind out the ride with a smile the entire time. There is something lasting about suffering together in the highs and lows of a ride. As much as it was a grind we loved it and realized it was not as hard as we imagined. Monique just got stronger the longer we rode. Good stuff and there is a lot that fits into that theme.

I banked WAY more training that I ever thought I would have along the way to this race. Many times working towards a goal without excuses does that to you... somehow you always end up doing more than what you intended and the goal moves towards you as well. I never got injured and burnout is far from a reality. I started posting my training miles on here because I kept banking a solid week and didn't quite know if I could repeat it... Week after week, month after month. I exceeded what I dreamed about..I crushed my dreams!..ha..ha. It almost scares me to see the numbers of my miles/hours.

In the 180 days ending 2010-04-18:

	activity	#	time	miles		km		+ft
	Road Bike	92	211:42:18	3467.3		5580.08		157525
	Swim	112	110:51:00	190.29		306.25
	Mt Bike	36	83:00:33	688.93		1108.73		100543
	Trail Running	63	62:47:28	455.1	(8:17)	732.41	(5:09)	56323
	Road Running	55	40:54:08	312.82	(7:51)	503.43	(4:52)	23219
	Strength	25	15:23:00
	Yoga	21	11:00:00
	Trekking	5	10:45:00	32.15	(20:04)	51.74	(12:28)	10224
	Paddle	2	2:13:00	11.93		19.2
	Total	177	548:36:27	5158.53		8301.85		347833

Now is the time for me to be thankful and soak up all of those miles and smiles. It has been such a fun experience and I can honestly say I enjoyed every mile along the way.

My expectations for the race has not changed. I want to finish. I want to enjoy it and take it all in. They hay is in the barn and its time to taper. "Maintain, but don't expect to build. That's what tapering means"

see ya out there

IMSG recon. . . take 2

Monique and I just got back from Utah where we got to spend a couple of days with our buddy "Sully" and check out the Ironman St. George course. I got to attend the EC camp last November but never got to see the run course and it was a good time for Monique to see the bike course and ride it on her 3 day old bike.

She opted not to go with that saddle for the new rig

We picked up her bike the day before we left and in the first three days she got to ride it in 3 different states and put just under 200 miles on it. A good start on the new rig!

Once in SG territory we hit up the pool for a nice long set and then we rode through the Snow Canyon Park (i recommend checking it out of you get to SG early) and got some pictures for the Team Duke Children's Healing Art Project. We are honored to be a part of this and hope we can do more with Team Duke in the future. These kids and the program are rad.

I had some goals for our "mini-camp" and I was interested to see the progress I made since last time I rode the bike course. However, as much as we had some recon to do we were also taking a bit of a vacation. I had banked some comp-days from working weekends and staying with Sully in the mellow town of St. George was a welcomed relaxing weekend.

BTY...My friend Sully has been living here since January and is in TOP shape...He qualified for Kona last year with a 4:11 at a 70.3 and he has just been getting faster and faster...too bad he aged up to my AG! I have no doubt that he will win our age group and probably be the top amateur. He is an animal but one of the nicest guys that I know. It is just exciting to see my friends get ramped up for a big race. Its going to be one good party AFTER the race!

Anyways...Back to the recon. I posted some pictures up for the EC team and data files and maybe it will be a help for you if you are doing the race? They are posted over here. Let me know if you want any data files, etc and I can email them over to you.


We finished up with some solid training and relaxing. I did get to see and run on the course and it is the real deal. It is not that steep hilly and for sure most people will be able to run the entire course if your pacing sets you up correctly on the bike. I hope to be in that camp! I kept thinking that this is just like a big Xterra course and I am happy that I still have that "ignorance is bliss" having never done an Ironman before because I have nothing to compare this course to except an Xterra. I went through an entire tub of Grape Vitargo over the weekend. Race fuel and recovery to the next level! This stuff works so well I never felt depleted during or after the trip. Love it!


I did make some big improvements from riding the loop back in November and somewhere around an extra ~60watts for the same heart rate but I realized when I got home it was more about "the big picture". My perception had changed and my understanding about what it takes is very different from what I thought that Ironman training is all about. I got some big sessions in but more importantly I absorbed them. Working with the Endurance Corner Team has been HUGE! There is now over seven coaches on the forum and plenty of great athletes who provide a good example. There is no easy way but there is a better way!

I cut back from my planned camp as far as volume and let go of some of the things I thought that I had to knock out before the race. Why do we feel like we NEED do complete some things before we are really ready...? Sometimes a growing checklist. I have yet to run over 20 miles and had to let go of some other "things" I had wanted to put a check box next to...but I had to let it go. I just have to trust my training and know that I am saving the good stuff for race day.

run course profile

I got a message from Gordo about mission accomplished for the camp. At first I was bummed because I had my growing list that i didn't knock out. Then I realized that it was successful and I was not destroyed. I had a great swim, bike and run session the day I got back and the numbers looked really good and I felt even better. Consistency. That was enough prove to me that a transformation was made in the way I was thinking and working.

This is my training log entry the Sunday after we got back from SG and about sums it up...

I was starting to get bummed that I didn't destroy myself this weekend. This was suppose to be my BIG push before the race and I dont even feel wiped out. I pushed it a bit more on the last downhill and let my quads have it...They are not sore at all today. I dont feel tired. I dont feel overtrained. I had so much fun swimming and I want to do that workout again..now. The bike ride was just "another session"... t-run off the bike is just what i do after a long ride... the long run the next day was just progressed from what I have been running but it was not over the top. I was thinking I would even be fully recovered in just a day or two. Then... I had to smile. OK. This is the "mission accomplished". My proof from the puddin'. It was smart to not try and do the extra loop and push a 10hr ride. It was smart to not get fixed on a number and try and hit 20 miles on my run. This is NOT what I would normally do and still doing the IM distance over 3 days would have killed me before. THIS is all the confirmation that i needed mentally and physically that i needed. Not running 20 miles but backing up a big weekend...week after week and now month after month. This was just another training week and at ~20hrs this is a normal week of training for me now and just loaded on the back end. Something I will ABSORB and recover from quickly without getting injured and staying HIGHLY motivated. I cannot take credit for the "smart" part. I am grateful. The rest of the workouts today was a bit more confirmation.

I'm Ready!

back in the saddle again

Busy couple of weeks and I have been back at work balancing the "life" stuff. I am really grateful I have a job that I can focus so much energy on training when it matters and it worked out well for Oceanside and my lead up to St. George so far. Its not always that way and sometimes I get buried behind weekends of work but it just makes me appreciate when it all works out.

I was interested to see how I would recover from the Oceanside race. It proved to be pretty motivating to see what paces I ended up with and to know that I saved some good stuff for race day. The week after I basically took it easy and stayed off of the running for a few days and soaked it up in the pool.


I had to head to Fresno for work on the next Tuesday so I got to hit up an old pool I use to swim at in Bako and ride the bike path. So nice out there right now and cleared my mind!


By Friday, I was feeling pretty good and jumped back into the EC training schedule with a "Strength Brick" workout. I had some huge gains since the last time I did this workout and knocked out a swim and some core work too. I was back! ...and stronger too! Here is my training time including the O-Side race until today.

In the 12 days ending 2010-04-07:

	activity	#	time	miles		km		+ft
	Road Bike	9	16:56:30	262.7		422.77		6815
	Swim	10	8:58:00	16.76	(32:05)	26.98	(19:56)
	Trail Running	6	4:38:58	35.7	(7:49)	57.45	(4:51)	5005
	Road Running	1	1:35:00	14.0	(6:47)	22.53	(4:13)	1080
	Yoga	2	1:30:00
	Strength	1	55:00
	Total	12	34:33:28	329.16		529.74		12900

The next day Monique and I joined some friends for an "easy" 5ish hour ride. I didn't really plan on it. I was trying to keep the volume low but just rolled with it. I felt great running off of the bike and just got back to my normal training patterns. Open water swimming and some fun runs in the trails with friends.



Then our good friends were heading for THE summit. Literally... After reaching 6 of the great summits, Karen, Paul, Jordan and team left for Everest. A few of us got to catch up for just a bit over lunch before they left. This has been such a treat to witness. They are some amazing people and I am honored just to get to hear all of the stories. Huge inspiration. You can follow the adventure over here http://www.jordanromero.com



Here is a pic of some BBQ pizza that we made with Ryan and Sarah the other night. The girls did some cooking, Ryan took care of the refreshments and I burnt the chicken and did my fare share of eating. I love team work!


So from here it is back in the saddle and back to the journey that has become Ironman in the making. Such a fun trip!

Cali 70.3 Race Report

This last weekend I got to join over 2,200 people from over 30 countries for my second half ironman. By this time last year, I had raced over a handful of times a variety of races. However, this year I decided to sit them out and the hardest to let go was The Vision Quest race but in trying to just focus on my first Ironman (St George) and do something different I really don't feel like I am "giving up" anything. I am really enjoying just swimming, biking and running. Something makes me feel like going long is a good fit for me. Well, it makes me happy anyway.

Thats not my running technique...its the end of a double shaka

Last year, I jumped into the Oceanside 70.3 and I though for sure I would be racing a few more 70.3’s by the end of the year. . . I guess I am just a slacker because it took me a year to get into another one of them and I am at the same 70.3. I hope to race a few more of these this year if it all works out in the unplanned schedule.

I was not even sure if I would be able to race this weekend after my recent “issues” so I was really stoked just to make it out to the starting line and get to see some friends.
I thought that I would list out my goals for Oceanside. These tend to slide if they are not written down and when expectations creep in from outsiders or growing goals in the mind.

• Enjoy it - I almost didn’t make the race because of more than one reason – I was happy to make it to the starting line and I have not raced in a long time compared to last years schedule. Racing is fun!
• Learn from it - I have been training at such low intensities and working on race sim bricks but here was a real race and real race data I could learn about my efforts across all three sports, test my nutrition, mental approach, etc
• Beat my time from last year - This is where crushing my own dreams comes into play. I did not have the intensity of last year but I did have a consistent volume and a better balance than ever between all three sports. The proof they say is in the puddin’
• Don’t crap my pants – sounds like an obvious one but with the days I had leading up to this race this was definitely in the top 5!
• Finish strong - I had one more dream crushing stretch goal. After working on my biggest limiter of the three sports (running) over the winter I dropped 11 minutes off of my open half marathon PB last month. The plan was working! If my pacing and nutrition worked out I was going to try and beat that time at the end of this race. Not the same course and not easy but that is what dreaming is for right?


I started off the race in the back. My bike was racked in the very last row…of a very long transition. In fact, it was even outside of the gate where the swim entry was to the transition and I was in the very last wave for the age groupers. This ended up being a good motivation throughout the race.

As we made our way to the start I lined up on the right side (outside) of the pack. This let me get clean water to start things off because most of the fast guys started on the left side. I made my way over to the pack and quickly found some feet. I felt extremely comfortable in the water and I have never experienced the “awareness” during the swim like I did this time. I knew where I was, where the packs breaking away were at and how to navigate a smart swim. I hope this awareness sticks for the rest of my races.


A few groups broke away and I was able to follow them and get right back on some feet. This went on and on. . .I moved up to ride on one guys hip for a while until my goggles got knocked off and after fixing them I decided to just settle for feet. Water is 1,000 times thicker than air and drafting is legal in the water. Brilliant. It was working too and I felt like I was not working…at all. I realized as we reached the turn around that I was cruising along at an easy/steady pace and almost felt guilty about not taking a turn at the front. The last two thirds of the swim everyone started to slow down so I started swimming solo and searching for someone else to draft as we weaved in and out of the packs of waves that started before us.

I finished the swim with all 3 stroke breathing and as I ran into transition I really felt like I just finished the warm up and was ready for the main set. This started to bug me at first because I felt like I held back or could have gone much faster but then I started to realize that like I didn’t do anything “hard” yet was a HUGE mental boost that I could take for a deposit later in the race.

I really wanted to target about 210-220 watts for the bike. Gordo suggested that I ride closer to 240 watts and I was a bit scared of that number. This is only my second half ironman and I still have a (healthy) fear of going out too hard. The goal was just to keep it under control for the first part of the bike and then settle into a HIM pace. The only problem was I was not sure what HIM pace was….yet.

The first 20 minutes of the bike I was really fighting mentally to keep my power down. It felt REAL easy to be pushing well over what I should have been and if I didn’t see the numbers myself I would think my power meter was broken. Adrenaline and a high heart rate can do funny things to your RPE perception!

I only had a couple small issues on the bike but I still felt like I was not really working "hard". Probably a good sign that i was pacing properly and mentally was a boost. Many things can go wrong before or on race day but I was collecting grips of goodness all day. THAT was what I focused on.

I started to move up my target watts throughout the rest of the bike leg. I figured if there was a time to learn if I was pushing too hard it was now. Better to learn this and suck up a 13 miler run off the bike than it would 5 weeks from now at St G with 26 miles to run. The mental deposit I was getting from the swim was growing on the bike by leaps and bounds. I had already exceeded the watts I thought I could maintain and still felt like I was not even really working hard. I also started in the last wave and so I had a steady line of people I was passing the entire race. Seriously…I must have said “on your left” a few hundred times and by my finish place I likely passed over 2,000 people.

By this time I got to the back of the bike course the wind picked up and I was a bit nervous riding the disc with my only road crash just three days fresh in my mind. My legs felt great and my nutrition was dialed in.... Vitargo rocket fuel. From this point on I let the numbers go and just rode more by feeling all the way into T2 without having to worry about keeping a watts range. Even with my watts going up the conditions were a bit different this year with a lot of that power literally going into the wind. I did drop some time from last year however and still feel like I started way too slow. I guess I banked another mental deposit to bring on the run.
My normalized power for the ride ended up being 257 watts for the 2.5 hours. Last year it was 206 watts. . . kinda makes me wonder what I would have done if I did race Vision Quest this year!

I got out of transition and my legs felt like I never even rode the bike. Crap. I knew I was going to make myself suffer on the run now! I realized I would need all of those mental boosts for the run because I did not have one excuse for why I should not beat my 13 mile PB. I wanted to start slow but there was a tail wind heading out and I sure felt it on the way back on the two lap course. I knew it was going to be hard to hold pace on that final 3 miles heading to the finish. I must have known the pain cave was on its way because I stopped at the aid stations more than 5 times before the final 3 miles. Those sponges with ice cold water just felt so good!



The last three miles I had to start making bets with myself, lying to myself about when “I will stop at the next…” and I started withdrawing those positive mental gems I collected. This was a great learning lesson for St G! Mentally, I have never been more focused closing out a race. I was starting to feel the fatigue and I gave myself one spot to walk before a final push. Of course, when I got there my buddy Sean was waiting and started to run beside me. I knew I could not stop…I didnt understand what he was saying at this point but his timing and presence was spot on and proved to be just the fuel I needed. Teamwork. Thanks Sean!


I enjoyed myself immensely! I learned a ton of things from this race and about myself from this race while beating my time from last year. I also just barley beat my open half marathon PB… but I did beat it and I didn’t crap my pants. All my expectations/goals exceeded. I crushed my dreams in the best way possible.

the real St. G and me

The Endurance Corner crew did very well at the race and I am really stoked to be a part of the team. I cant wait for some future trips and maybe even a camp with Gordo one day ;-)

There are many things that can go wrong in a race or leading up to a race. My friend Luke recently said something like that to me about training months just to have one day or one thing and it is all wrecked. That is all part of putting together a race..perhaps what i love about it in some way. When it comes together and you can execute the plan it is ____... Words cannot describe but if you have been there you know the feeling. Minutes after I crossed the finish line I was in a tent getting a massage and listening to an acoustic guitar band play in the next tent and just reflecting on the race and just how lucky i got to be racing and have a good day. THAT was out of this world...priceless.

As good as my race was I could not imagine how Beth must have felt. I was so inspired by her because of the life balance and race she put together. She blew my mind and blew away her competition with her finish. She won her age group, qualified for Kona and did it all with a big smile on her face. She planted a seed in my head I never thought I would have...huge inspiration. Thanks Beth!

I was so glad I was able to race and now I am resting up for my last training block before St. G. My goals for St. G are even simpler. I made them up back in November and am going to stick with them.

#1 Finish! I am doing everything I can to ensure I complete the race...even if it takes crapping my pants along the way ;-)
#2 Take everything I can from it - Complex I know... I want to take the experiences from it (race day and training) to use in the future for all areas of life. It has proved to be a wonderful journey so far.


No surprise to me...Monique is killing it and ready to take on St George and it is just the course for her. This women has been married to me for over six years and so she has been working on her mental strength...she will crush dreams in Utah on May 1st. She raced this weekend on her cyclocross bike and she dropped 51 minutes off of her time from last year. Scary to think of her riding her new road bike for St G.

good news. . . bad news

I hope this ticket theme does not continue on my blog…After my last post about my traffic ticket collection I thought I would be done with that chapter. This week I was in LA for a lunch meeting at Houston’s and running late because I was stuck in traffic. LA go figure…


My buddy ordered me the salmon and I spent the next 30 minutes driving around looking for parking. Now I was really late! Apparently they had a mid-week farmers market and all the parking lots were full. I ended up finding a meter spot and because I was already so late I just took my chances my not filling it up because I didn’t have any quarters. Brave with my recent luck huh! Well, I got out of lunch about 1.5hours later to get to my truck with no ticket! Sweet! I was parked at the end of the street where the market started and a cop car was blocking traffic so maybe the ticket meter person didn’t drive that far up? I was so stoked I pulled out to beat traffic on the way home and pulled right into a Mercedes in front of me. Yikes! The cop who was parked blocking the market asked me for my driver’s license and reg before I even put it in park.


Unfortunately, that was not the bad part of that day. I ended up getting food poisoning from that salmon that I had and spent the night on the bathroom floor throwing up out of both ends. While I thought that I would be good to go after getting it all out of my system it has been five days and six pounds now that I have lost with my stomach just wrecked! I really did NOT want to loose 6lbs and I have been feeling pretty weak. It made me feel better about sitting out the Vision Quest race last weekend and with the training load I have been keeping I would probably benefit from the additional rest anyways. However, I was still questioning going forward with racing Oceanside this weekend.

sickboy on the trainer

Yesterday was the first day I made it without having any stomach issues and I got my appetite back. Stoked! I have still been able to knock out a few smaller workouts on the trainer (with the bathroom close!) and today it felt like it was all coming together. I felt good enough to nail my last swim/bike/run workout this morning with my bike in race mode setup. I was going to tweet a pic my bike this morning...I was really stoked on my ghetto black spray paint bike with race wheels..maybe even a little prideful.

the dream machine (where i do most of my daydreaming)

Monique and I got in a great swim with Nova this morning and it was wetsuit Wednesday. . . a perfect workout! All I was thinking about is how lucky I am to have great friends. I got a wetsuit yesterday from my friend Trevor that I got to use this morning and for the race this weekend. I got that disc rear wheel from my buddy Sean. I got a front 404 from my friend Keevin. Monique and I got a place to stay Friday night with James and Beth before the race. I even had Ryan offering to bring me over some ice-cream when I was sick. Now that is a good friend! I had the inspiration and encouragement from all my friends as I hit the road for a spin after our swim and that was all I needed. Last spin to test out the wheels and body. With the swim, bike and inspiration in check I was ready to go! My mind was set on racing this weekend.

JUST as I was thinking about that I caught my front wheel between a crack in the road. I know…I know. I have been down this road so many times and I seriously cannot even explain how simple it was but I did it. I caught my front wheel and before I knew it I was sideways sliding into the middle lane. Thank God there were no cars around because I stopped between the while lines in a daze. Did this really just happen? It could have been much worse

boom boom

crack kills

I basically slid to where I took this picture only into the middle lane. From my SRM it looks like I was going mid-20's but I was not hammering....Good or bad it just happened. The crack between the white line is what caught my front tire. I’m so lame!

only a scratch

hipper post-shower

My right side took the blunt of the crash and my hip and elbow got the bump and slide. This is my first crash on the road and quite different from crashing in the dirt. Good thing I was wearing gloves. Don’t worry dudes…The wheels and bike are OK!

I’m not set on racing this weekend or drilling myself silly. Emotion would have me go far in either direction... I realize that it is sometimes a fine line between passion and addiction but I also realize that IT just happens. Good or bad is how you take it in most cases. Sometimes that IT is a good thing…sometimes IT is a bad thing. Who are we to know when we cannot see the end yet. Not resorting to feelings and relying on what I know is best.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11

Really, does anything else really matter? I will do what I can do and if I am up to race this weekend then I will give it everything I have on that day. If not I will be stoked to go watch my friends race and enjoy another sunny SoCal day.

My hip is a bit sore but that didn’t stop me from getting in a few laps around the track after my ride. With my swim/bike/run workout done I am heading into my scheduled massage today. Perfect ending to a solid day and all before lunch(and I can eat lunch without it blasting out my backside too)! Bagging all of this before work mid-week gives me nothing to complain about! I am truly blessed and grateful. Now, ALL my perspectives are in order and I learned something again from training. Training can teach you or build character for all areas outside training. That is what I love about it. Training is for racing just like this life is for the next. As they say in the hood…Its all good!

another boring weekend

I often feel like the luckiest boy alive (and i am!) but I have been collecting quite a few tickets recently. I got some speeding tickets, parking tickets, no reg sticker, driver license type of tickets. I even got one for ridding my bike that was over $450! Yikes!

I don’t know if it is just California trying to collect extra revenue but I guess it could be worse. No accidents except for Monique crashing her car. . . into my car. Its all good…Just hope that page has turned now before I loose any more money!


We really didn’t have too much planned for this weekend except for a photo shoot on Saturday in San Diego for Monique. It was for Ellsworth bikes and we got out there early for a possible group ride and tour of the ranch. Cool place! We learned a lot about Ellsworth from Tony , Dan and the crew and it was refreshing to see another company doing it right. We learned about the quality control process of raw materials to the finished product (kind of like good food). Tony is pretty passionate about what he does and lives. . .even a solar powered factory with avocado trees and some amazing views.



Monique found a couple of things she really liked. . . Ellsworth has probably the biggest range of bikes from any US manufacture. Everyone knows about their mountain bikes but they also have commuter (non-human powered) bikes, cross bikes, road bikes and now even some tri bikes.

It was a pretty low day for me training wise. I was designated Sherpa boy and ended up driving the Van at the last spot. Fun day and I was proud of Monique for sticking it out in the cold. Sure didn’t look as cold as it was that day!



From there we drove to Temecula to stay with Paul, Lisa and Little D. Good times. They have four German dudes who were staying with them for a month and they all just got back from a moto session. Food was on and I was beat from doing nothing all day. Funny how that works.

Then next morning we got up, drove to Oceanside to meet up with James and Beth. I was SO STOKED to find my drivers license in an old bag that morning. I have been missing it for over 3 months and I would need it to get onto the Camp Pendleton base for our ride. It would have been handy to have when I got pulled over those four times too. . .



The Winning Walshes bagged a 100 miles while Monique and I stuck it out in tough weather for a nice 70 miles or so. . . Seriously, one of the best days we have had recently and that is hard to beat around here. Being true tri nerds, three of us had to get our T-Run on and lucky for Monique and I we parked in O-Side so we got to run on the race course we will be at in a couple of weeks. THIS is where my mind has been for the last few months ;-) Unfortunately, when we got back to the car I had ANOTHER parking ticket waiting for me. HA! Funny even now.


We got home in time to get a good bison steak dinner with lots of greens and spend a few precious moments together before the laundry and bottle washing started to get ready for next week. Another boring weekend in the books