First Half: Half Ironman Augusta!

I'm racing ESI Ironman 70.3 Augusta this Sunday! It is going to be my first 70.3, and hopefully its a good dress rehearsal for Ironman Florida. I am in the 20th swim wave going off at 8:48, 1 hour and 18 minutes after the Pro's start. Hopefully the weather holds up and stays cool like it's been.

If you want to follow me on race day my bib number is 2498! 
You can follow me on Ironman Raceday Tracker by inputting my bib number.

Wish me luck everyone! I can't wait till I toe the line on Sunday!

http://ironmanaugusta.com/

Wilson 100 Century Ride

This was my first official century ride, my only goal was to complete it. I had no intentions to ride it hard I was going for an easy 16.5-17 mph ride. The terrain was nice rollers going through little towns and farm lands.  There were aid stations located about every 20-25 miles, they all were well stocked with food and fluids.

 I felt great through the first 75 miles, I was spinning up the hills and coasting the downhills. The hills weren't to bad, supposedly it is a very similar terrain I will experience in Half Ironman Augusta on September 30th.    The only thing I felt like I could have done a little better was my pacing on some of the steeper hills might have to fast going up. I end up averaging 18.4mph with a average heart rate of 160bpm.  The ride was a great confidence booster. I finished it stronger and faster then I expected. I was very pleased with my self, and it set a great tone for the training camp I had on labor day weekend.

Injuries BLOW!!

Around mid July I was going for a run and got a sharp pain in my left foot. I was just like, "oh I'm just sore," so I took it easy for a few days. I tried to run on it again a week later but that it didn't really happen. I ended up taking 5 weeks off. During that time I tried to bike 6-7 times per week and swim 4 day weeks. This really helped my biking and swimming. I was trying to maintain my run strength by doing some hill intervals

I started running 2 weeks ago. I'm running 6 days a week with low intensity trying to build my volume up for Ironman Florida! If not, I'm going to be suffering a lot on the run. I am doing three short runs two medium runs and one long run every week. Hopefully this will give me enough volume to get through the marathon.

I put her down today...

I was going out for an easy 1 hour training ride this morning. All was going well and I was almost a mile away from home, when I decide to avoid a speed bump. What a stupid mistake that was!! I end up hitting a bump in the road at the wrong angle and it sent me over the bars. I used my hands and left hip to brace my fall leaving me with a fare amount of road rash to match my other hip(from a crash a few years ago). Nothing major happened to the bike, just a few scratches on the bars and a broken aero pad. I'm glad there were no cars behind me because I landed right in the middle of the lane. The experience made me realize you could crash at any moment even when you think your being careful.It could have been a lot worse!


So my PSA: ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!! You'll need it when you least expect it. 

Savannah Sprint Triathlon Race Report 6/17

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine

This was my first race of the season, I was really excited about this race. I've been training pretty constantly since November, so I was looking forward to see if the work I've put in as paid off. The race took place in Savannah, I left Atlanta the day before after work and stayed with my friend Torrie (THANKS again !!). I crawled into bed around 10 but I couldn't really sleep I woke up at 2ish and just rolled around in bed till 4:30. I ate my breakfast and made sure I was drinking fluids. I tried to be quite when I was leaving the house but I end up waking up the dogs, so I'm not sure if I had woken up everyone else in the house. Whoops

My setup 

I got to the race around 5:20, I was one of the first people there. I was able to get a really good spot on the second rack closest to the bike exit/entrance. I had forgotten a flashlight so I began to unpack everything with only a small amount of light coming from the check-in tent. Once I was able to set up everything up, I went for a warm up ride, followed by a warm up run. As I was getting back they announce that wet-suits would not be allowed, the water was 84!! When I got in for a little warm up swim, it felt like bath water, the air temp was in the high 60's which caused the water look like it was steaming!

Transition Area 

Transition closed about 15 mins before the race started so I made my way to the swim start. The start/exit was up the steep little bank on the lake that had turned into a mud ramp with all the people coming in and out of the water, even while paying attention, I almost slip getting into the water for my wave to go off. I was a little bit worried that I'd fall when I was trying to exit since I would be a little bit dazed after the swim.

The Swim

The gun went off at 7:00 I had positioned my self towards the middle of the pack. It was a full contact swim for the first 100 meters. I got kick in the head by someone that it took me a second to recover and then I had someone else grab my leg, not really sure if it was an accident though. After that I was able to find my rhythm. and some clean water. I realized I need to work on my swimming more because it took me a few seconds shy of 10 mins to cover the 500 yards. I'm glad the swim was over I was starting to get a little hot in that water! Turns out I didn't fall getting out of the water and I was able to run to T1 with no problems!

The Bike
The bike course was flat it reminded me a lot of biking back home in Miami. It was a one loop course, with very light traffic and basically zero wind. I settled in at a little faster pace then I was expecting, I was staying between 20-23. At the half way point I was averaging about 21, I decide to pick up the pace a little. End of averaging 22.04. This was the first race I've done with my new race set up It included Victoria Open Corsa Evo race tires, a wheel cover, and the Rudy Project Wingspan. I'm not quite sure how much of a difference the new equipment made but it defiantly felt a lot faster. I felt great the entire time, I was hurting a little bit towards the end of the bike but kept pushing it.

The Run
I got to the run thinking, I was going to be in trouble because I thought I had pushed the bike a little to hard. I ran out of T2 and actually felt pretty good, my last race my legs felt like they were about to fall off, but this time they felt like jello. Even though they were feeling strange I was still moving I went out at 6:50 miles for the first 1/4 before I turned settled in at around 7:50 miles. The run was a 2 loop course around the lake it was flat and my first lap was pretty empty. there was a lot of shade running by the lake, there was water station right when you came out of T2/starting lap 2. I wasn't hurting to bad till the 2.5ish mark, I started to ramp up my speed at this point trying to catch some guy I thought was in my AG. End up closing the gap, but turns out he wasn't in my AG. I felt like that I finished with a little bit of gas in my tank, I could have maybe gone a little harder in mile 2 where my avg pace was 8:05.

Top 3 AG 20-24

2nd Place 20-24 AG Award 

Overall, I felt like I had a pretty good race, I finished 2nd in my AG and 19th OA with a 1:08:46. It was a new PR which I was really excited about and it was a great way to start off the season.

Swim 9:57
Bike 35:03
Run 22:39

Matt helping me finish my workout!

Yesterday was by far one of my hardest training days to date. I had woke up late in the morning so I wasn't able to get my run in before work. So I was force to do a double in the afternoon once I got home. The bike before handed wasn't to bad, but it took a lot out of me. The run that followed basically killed me, I wasn't going to fast but I was dead once I hit the 2/3 mark. My legs felt like they were about to fall off! What got me through it was a YouTube video I'd happen to watch before I left for my ride. (Warning: you might get a little teary watching it) I thought to myself if the boy Matt from the video was able to do that I could definitely finish this run. It probably won't be the last time that Matt is going to help me get through a tough workout because if a kid can have the heart/courage/determination to run that race I hope to be able to  have half of that everyday.

Hardcore Training begins tomorrow!

Finally, I'm done with this semester. It was by far the hardest one yet. Training took a dip the last 2 weeks due to finals. But I am so excited to get some serious training done. All I'm doing is going to be  eat/sleep/train/and some computer science here and there. It's been brutally hot here in Georgia the past few weeks. The heat seems to be worse then Miami(which I didn't think was possible) It going to take some time to get used to it.

The bike is ready to go. I got a new chain and shift/brake cables everything seems to be working smoothly! The only thing I'm not looking forward to his climbing HILLS! I've never actually done hills so I'm worried I am going to suck at first, guess I have to start somewhere.

2009 Felt S32