I hate you Old Man Winter!

I am SO done with the winter.... can't ride outdoors, it's hard and COLD (and sometimes dangerous) to run out there and most of all I keep getting sick... dammit!!!

I am fighting this nasty cold right now which has forced me to stop training for 4 days in a row. Plus my family has been pretty sick too. So if one doesn't get it, the other one will and the one who didn't get it initially might get it because the other one has it!! (I just read that again and I was like.. wtf!) Anyway, you get the point.

Thing is too, St. Louis weather can be very unpredictable.. one day is in the 70s and the very next day it'll drop 40 degrees and it's in the 30s! So yeah, no wonder why people get sick. Wherever you go, grocery store, work, any store in general you hear -or see- people coughing the freaking lungs off. Oh, and we're getting some snow tonight... great!

Ok, I guess I bitched enough... but unfortunately I don't have much else to say at this point. At least it's Friday. Tomorrow I'm getting back into the training mood and I'm excited, it's crazy how training becomes part of you eh?. I'm scheduled to do a reverse brick, which I've never done, but I think should be cool. 30min moderate run, immediately followed by 1hr spinning class. Coach wants me to do this in order for me to become a better and stronger biker.... so anything that will improve my weakest leg, I'll try! Sunday I'm doing a recovery run and a swim.

Enjoy your weekend amigos!

PC

Valentine's boy...

...yup, that's me... kinda cheesy I know but I was born on this very day. On the other hand it's sorta cool because people remember :)

It's funny how you have a birthday and the first thing you think it's: "Oh shoot, I'm in a different age group now" In my case, one of (if not THE) hardest: 35 - 39 Oh well, I guess another reason to push myself even more.... right!

This morning I ran a local 5 miler race, the 'Ghisallo Frosty Five Run'. It was cold (low 30s, probably felt like in the 20s) and windy. According to my Garmin I finished at 35min 34sec... 6 seconds slower than last years. I didn't think about checking my previous year's time and try to beat it... typical me... oh well. Not that I have been working on speed at all, been focusing on my IM base-training right now, so I'm still happy with today's race.

After the race my lovely wife, a friend and I went to have breakfast. After that my friend left and wifey and I went to REI to get my b-day present, a bike rack. Ended up getting the THULE 594 Side Arm:



Cool eh?

I also grabbed some bike gloves and tights.

Training is still going great. Coach makes training fun, it's not repetitive or monotonous at all.
Gonna try to get out in the bike tomorrow, it'll be the first time outdoors since September!!!

Hope everyone is having an awesome Valentine's... enjoy!

PC

Base Training

Been working on my base training for about a month and it's been great!

The swims are pretty good and different workouts make them fun; trainer has been good as well... I find riding on the trainer a bit boring sometimes, but I've been doing mix workouts which make it better plus I watch movies while I ride... not sure I could do them with out a TV down there (basement). Running has been great, no complains there... especially since the weather is getting better. Tried my new Motion All-Weather Newtons and freaking love them, they feel awesome!

My great friend and now Coach Sam has agreed to help me with my training, she's basically training me and it's been working excellent! She has kicked my arse a couple of times but at the end of the day I feel good about each training session. She truly is a fantastic Coach, very knowledgeable and FUN. I am curious as to how my tris are going to go this season and of course how I'll do at IM Lou. (Thanks Sammy!! :) )

Racing-wise I'm doing a 5 mile race on Feb. 14 and then on Feb.28 I'm gonna do a 10 mile trail race. Next month I'm racing the St. Patrick's Day 5 mile race on Mar. 14. Some fun races until tri season which I can hardly wait for. My first tri (I think) will be Tri Zou (formerly known as Race for Sight) in Columbia, MO... It's a nice sprint tri (440 yard swim – 14 mile bike – 3 mile run) I did last year and enjoyed it.

Back to the US and back to training

Vacation was AWESOME.... had a fantastic time with the familia and it was nice to be there for Xmas and New Years. It was hard to say good bye and leave them all but it was time.

Back now and started to train right away. It's been good and I feel great!

Started doing runs outside, yesterday it was really nice, in the 50s and sunny but this Sun is going to be in the 20s and I need to a get 60 min run in. Don't like running in the cold too much, even though it could be a lot colder so I might as well take advantage of the double 'still double digit'. Been on the bike/trainer... those can get boring but some people I know are going to do some group trainer work outs, that should be fun. Swimming is fine, no worries there.

Started working on good nutrition as well and I think that is going well.

Need to read the blogs I follow, I feel kinda disconnected with my blogger amigos.
Hope everybody is training hard and eating well.... like me... j/k.

PC

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