FELIZ AÑO NUEVO from Ecuador!

Which means (for the ones who don't know): Happy New Year!
I am having a fabulous time in my home time Cuenca. :)

Been running a few times and man, it's a lot harder here (at about 9,000 feet sea-level). My nephew became my running partner. We did a litle 4.5 mile race and he kicked my arse....lol
He trains track and field and he has a lot of potential.
We're doing a 10K race tomorrow morning and I bet he'll place in his age group.

I just wanna take this opportunity to wish you all a fantastic 2009 and best luck training and racing!

PC

Quick update

Training has been going real nice. Lifting has been good, spinning always is fun, picked up on running as well and I swam this week... it was the first time I went swimming since September (Cancun 70.3)!! Felt awesome though.

Can't believe I'm leaving to Ecuador a week from tomorrow... I can't hardly wait!

This weekend my wife and I are running a 5K race, it's called "Fun in the Freeway". They closed one of the highways here to fix it and before they re-open it (this Monday) they let them have a 5k race. Should be good times, and according to accuweather.com it'll be in high 40s.

Not a whole lot more to report at the moment.

PC

So I did it!

I am officially registered for the Ford Ironman Louisville - Aug. 30, 2009!

I thought a lot about it... initially I was gonna shoot for IM Tempe, AZ but it got sold out in minutes, and the only IM event in the US still accepting applications was Louisville so it was either that one or wait until 2010. I registered a little over a week ago and yesterday I received one of those Ironman Top Stories email (newsletter) stating: "Ford Ironman Louisville Sells Out for 2009. Ironman announces that Ford Ironman Louisville, taking place on August 30, 2009, has reached capacity.", so I did it right on time.

This is very exciting and scary at the same time... it's hard to believe that in 2007 when I did my very first tri (sprint) I used to hear, read and watch all about Ironman and used to think: "yeah, it'll be a long long time until I start thinking about that". Several sprint, about 5 oly and 2 Half Ironman races I signed for Ironman.

So obviously I started training right away. Started going to the gym and doing some weights to get some strength back, started taking spinning and also started running.

Before registering for IM Lou I thought I'd do some training in Ecuador, you know a little running... maybe going to the gym I used to go when I lived there, nothing too serious. Now, with this race 8 months away I need to train hard and often. It'll be interesting running in Cuenca (my home town) which is in the mountains at around 8,500 feet sea-level.

A little bit about Cuenca:

http://www.ecuador.us/cuenca.htm

Below is my possible race schedule for 2009:

DATE & EVENT

03/14 St. Patrick's Day Parade 5M Run (STL, MO)

04/18 GO! St. Louis Half Marathon (STL, MO)

05/? Race For Sight Triathlon Sprint (Columbia, MO)

05/17 Memphis in May Triathlon Oly (Memphis, TN)

06/06 Ultramax Triathlon Oly (Innsbrook, MO)

06/21 High Cliff Triathlon Half (Sherwood, WI)

07/? Joker's Wild Half Marathon (STL, MO)

07/? Tour de Kirkwood Sprint Triathlon (STL, MO)

07/? Ballwin Sprint Triathlon (STL, MO)

08/30 Ford Ironman Louisville (Louisville, KY)

Stay warm!

PC