Sarah Haskins and me...

On Sunday March 22nd I was able to meet Olympic Triathlete Sarah Haskins who was in St. Louis (her hometown). Sarah was invited to the YMCA where she used to swim to talk about what it takes to become an Olympic athlete from nutrition to training and dedication. It was really nice to meet her and talk to her for a bit. She's a very cool girl, smart and of course a fantastic triathlete.

By the way...I can't believe how bad I've been at updating my blog, I know I suck... Don't even have a reason... call it laziness, call it busy times, maybe a little bit of both?

Anyway, training for IM Louisville has been great. Haven't had any injuries and I can totally feel my bike has improved! Hard work is definitely paying off. It's so rewarding to see and feel those changes, those differences... I can really tell the difference of my bike now versus last year. Bad thing has been the weather but I have still managed to get out and ride. Last weekend I rode 36miles on Sat and 46 on Sun. Today I did 40 on a sunny but cold morning, it was in the high 30s when a couple of friends and I started.

Swimming has been also been great, all good there and nothing much to report. I'm in the 2,000+ meter per work out right now and feel pretty good. Finally the runs. My runs have improved as well. Back in March for the St. Patrick's Parade 5mile Race in downtown St. Louis I managed to PR with a time of 33min 58sec which put me in 15th place out of 168 in my age group (35-39). Not bad at all since I've been doing lots of endurance training and not so much speed work.

The GO! St. Louis half marathon is a week from tomorrow, should be interesting. I'm looking forward to it. The following weekend some local triathletes who are also doing IM Lou are going to Louisville for an IM training camp. On Saturday some of us will be running the Kentucky Derby Festival Half-Marathon in the morning and then we are swimming in the afternoon; Sunday we are riding half or the full IM bike course. I think it'll be a great chance to get familiar with the course and kinda of know what to expect on race day.

I am pretty excited about my first triathlon of the season which is less than a month away. It's the Tri Zou (formerly known as Race for Sight) in Columbia, MO. It's a sprint one, I did it last year and it's a nice way to start the season (I hear Simon Lessing is doing this race this year). Then later in May I'll be going to Memphis for the popular: Memphis in May oly triathlon.

In preparation for IM Lou I also registered for a half ironman distance race, the Cutting Edge Half Classic in Effignham, Illinois... it's on June 21st.

That's my little update for now... HAPPY EASTER!

PC

Too much chlorine!

OMG chlorine is SO nasty, especially when there is a ton of it... they are putting WAY too much of in the pool where I swim. I have taken 2 showers, one at the gym and one at home and I still smell it, fell it.. TASTE it!!! This is the second time that I actually taste it. It felt weird when I was in the pool, in between work outs, my mouth and especially teeth felt dry..... they are still a bit dry and even my throat feels a bit.. sore, and not the "cough - cough" type sore, it's more like the I went to a concert last night and sang all the songs for 3 hours sore.

I am definitely talking to someone at the gym about it, this can't be good for me... or anyone who swims there. I mean for real, it's a pretty strong chemical and in exaggerated amounts... not good! Result: extra dry skin, burning eyes, sore throat, dry teeth and mouth and of course the well known obnoxious chlorine smell which kind of becomes your 2 day cologne/perfume.

One thing's for sure.... highly chlorinated pools suck!

PC

Castlewood Park 10m Trail Race

This past Sat. I did my second trail race ever. My first one was about a couple of years ago when I did one of the X-Terra series, that race was a 5k I think.

The one I did on Sat 2/28 was at Castlewood Park in Ballwin, MO. it was put together by Big River Running Company.
(nice face huh? that's my: "I'm gonna sprint!" face) ===>

The race started at 10am, it was a cold morning (in the low 30s but it definitely felt colder) but I was fine as soon as we started. The course was harder than I thought it would be. Of course running on a trail is completely different than road running... you have to be totally aware about where you step because there are roots and rocks hiding underneath the leafs. This trail is used a lot by mountain bikers and you could tell, there were a lot of MB tracks on the ground, and that was a pin because it was very uneven and easy to twist your ankle, which i did a few times. Each time I did I would drop myself with it and that seemed to work, I never had to stop because it wasn't too bad. Lots of hills, up hills.. down hills.... and at the end.. a nice little river to cross.... it was actually kind of fun to go through it. I didn't care to run the last .3 or so with soaked shoes and socks. If it would have been anything longer than a mile I probably wouldn't have done it.

By mile 4ish I fell.... I missed a root and went down, luckily I fell on a bunch of leafs... I pretty much bounced back up and kept running. It could have been a lot worse because there were parts where we ran on gravel, rocky areas and steep hills. At mile 5 the S. Louis Tri Club (which I belong to) had a water station.... felt nice to have some agua, Gatorade and a GU (I forgot to bring my own gel) and of course seeing some of the tri club peeps, cheering and all.

Finished at 1hr 18min. Not bad for a trail race. When I went to the organizers' website to check official results they had a disclaimer stating: "For safety reasons we made a few changes to the course over the last month. These changes gave us an official race distance of 9.2 miles" Doesn't have any additional info on it....

Now the crazy thing about this whole story is... at the finish line they had NO WATER!!!!....... (crickets)


WTF... what race doesn't have water at the end???? not even a 1 mile race! I mean, we just ran 10 miles - or 9.2 - They only had those 180 energy drinks. I couldn't believe it! Everybody was asking each other, where's the water?? do you know where is the water? water??? nada.... no water! I mean, c'mon! picture this: you go, run a 10 mile trail race, finish and someone hands you a Red Bull.... yeah... pretty wild eh? Disappointing. At least the race t-shirt is cool :)

P

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