20 days til race time

Yes That's what it left only 20 days after a whole year awaiting the big race Taper time and begin resting.
This weekend I had a tough time training due to my car was damage and took care of it not without paying a lot of $$$$ that screw my Saturday long bike ride.So I did the long Run on Saturday and the not so long bike ride on Sunday due to bad weather plus the long swim now Taper begins...
I am really excited towards what is coming and I am really positive about the race
will be back with some thoughts

Rough night

I ate or drink something yesterday that Kick my stomach and late on my run in the last lap of my run I poop or pup on my self.I was mess up and my sleep has suffer. So here I am at 5:20 writing about it with some good music and thinking on how the hell I am going to work at 7 and how I am going to put my bike ride tonight without proper sleep rest and eating.

Other than this little accident everything has been going great.Training has been good as I am in the late stages of preparation for IM Arizona. Yes the day is less than a month it is just around the corner. It has been a journey in a good way. Training for and Ironman teach you a lot of stuff about your self is tough more on the mind than the body. Everything has been hard in a good way.

I have been a bad blogger in fact because of training and also because the internet connection at my place "free because I don't feel paying for it" work some times and others not.

If you know last week at my home country there was a huge explosion of oil containers. This was rally hard for me because my dad is the GM of the company not the owner so it was really a difficult time for my family. My dad and me haven't had the greatest relationship a father and can have but I can say something he is one hell of a hard worker and I know is a hard time for him because less than 4 month ago he lost his mom. I don't know what caused the explosion just in case you are wondering.

To the people running new-york Marathon this weekend good luck I have been there for the last 2 years and due to Ironman training I wont go this year but enjoy the experience because is something out of this world

Is a great time for sports fans World Series (hope the Yankees don't win) a NFL season getting better the NBA just starting the soccer in Europe and MLS playoffs plus the NCAA basketball just around the corner plus their other sports like Football (which i don't follow due to the stupid crap bowl system) men and women soccer ,cross country and women volleyball.

Have to rest so enjoy your weekend and if you wonder what I was listening go to the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Of8KDaUrdM
they are one of the greatest rock bands of all time from Argentina

not a good training weekend

It was suppose today a hard training weekend but due to the rain and th 40's turn out to be a crap I did my long swim and my long run but miss my long bike ride and then the 30 minutes run.I was really frustrated with weather because for 5 straight day it was raining and the sun never came. It was suppose to be fall but felt like winter. In fact not a good weekend hope fully next 1 will be better.
This week will be hey to my training as is the last 1 before tpering beging so hopefully the weather cooperates (no rain).
Thats all for now I ll be back later this week

Fall and training

The fall is here.all day here have been in the 50's so that tells you that is the beginning of the cold chili season in the DC/VA/MD.
With that I did this weekend the Baltimore 1 /2 marathon as a training run in preparation for the IM in 6 weeks or 40 days however you like it more. Is my 3rd straight year doing that race and I love it for some reason. walking through the 2 stadiums before the start of the race and running through all Baltimore is awesome from the ghetto to the nice neighborhoods the park the tiger the music is nice. Don get me wrong is a tough maraton or 1/2 but fun. Coach told to try to run on zone 3 all the way and not go to zone 5 on the hills and I did just that had a great fun race. The time 1:40:33.
On the afternoon I did what 90% of the triathlete in the universe did watch the Hawaii or Kona Ironman (is not a world Championship more on this on another post). Was a great race as usual and watching the performances of Chrissie Wellington (winner)Chris Lieto (bike) and Craig Alexander (winner) and Mirindia Carefree (run) were amazing. It gave me a good mind set for my century ride the next morning. Next morning It was century ride day. My plan was to drive to la Plata MD and do a su ported ride over there but I woke up late? 7 am and I had to woke up at 5 so I decided to do it around here the Montgomery county Frederic county and DC Area. In total it took me 6 hour to do 102 miles with 2 stops for bathroom and eating. I was really Happy with my ride first because I come from 1/2 marathon the day before 2nd it was windy at the beginning and hilly and give a good feeling getting ready for IM.After the ride I did a quick 3.2 mile run. I was tier but I did it in less than 27 minutes so that put on the 9 minute mile pace so wasn't bad. The rest of the day I Pass out period
This week is going to be hard training week as I will put between 20 to 23 hours of training in preparation for the IM. And yes I work full time

I will try to blog about certain topics regarding some currents event but I dont know if will have time due to training.
Happy week

Weekend

I am heading tomorrow to Baltimore to do the 1/2 marathon as a training run and un Sunday to La plata MD to do a Century Ride. Resting for both events I ll be watching the IM world championship.
I have been training a lot this week and the next 1 and the one after 1 so basically that is my life in preparation for Ironman Arizona that is less than 45 days.

happy weekend

Augusta 70.3 pictures

Here are some pics from the race
click here from the race
Here are mine











The sun glasses that I have been using in the last few races are not sports sunglasses in fact they are stylish sun glasses that got on sale from Kenneth Cole for 40 $$ a few months ago.I try them once for a practice bike ride and they cover you completely so they have become sports regular glasses and they are awesome.
Happy Weekd and good luck for evreyone that is racing

Augusta 70.3 Race Report

I left the DC area around 9 with my friends and head down to Augusta.We were flying and we arrive at 5:45 just in time for the last race briefing of the day and packet pick up. This was a smart decision do to the fact base on others reading Saturday in the afternoon was crowded. Went the Augusta Jameson suits which for the $$$ is really nice, is not to expensive. Saturday basically sleep in ate free breakfast from the hotel watched a movie (Rudo y Cursi Which is great!!!!) and head down to transition area around 2. Did a 35 minute ride and a 10 minute run. Then I set up the bike and went for a swim at the river.The problem for the swim was that i forgot the wetsuit at the hotel so I went in without wetsuit to the water. It was 70 degrees and for me that's cold as hell as i was born and raised in the warm waters of the Caribbean. Swam 10 minutes and notice that the current was really strong and that if was going to be like that on race morning we were going to fly. The strongest part of the current was toward the center so I already had my strategy set for Sunday morning. The rest of the afternoon / night I just eat pasta and rested.

Sunday morning woke up around 4:45 ate waffle bread and Peaunut butter and drive to the transition I was there around 5: 50 set up everything went to the port like 2 times and took the shuttle bus to the swim start. Got there went to the port again, put my wetsuit head to the entrance as I was in the third wave.
The Swim: I knew it was going to be fast because of the current They announce that the current was Pushing 1 /2 a knot (more on this later).My strategy was simple get in to the water as soon as possible and go to the middle of the river. It work from there the horn sounded and I went it was a nice swim not many bumps, the water was clean and clear. The only major issue was and idiot try to swim with me or towards me. he hit me twice at the third one I just stopped push him to the left and I continue my way the guy never came back. From there I was just flying. The swim was 27:28.. Super fast in fact 10 seconds faster than the swim at Nations that was 1500 meter remember this was 1.2 mile.
So for those who want to know more of the current speed I did an exercise with my time. knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, which is equal to exactly 1.852 km/h and approximately 1.151 mph
Knot= 1.151 MPH
1 /2 knot= .575 MPH
I was expecting to swim a 35:30 which is 1:50 per hundred meter and 2.028 MPH
So we have my expected swim time in MPH and speed of the current
Add both of them
.575 + 2.028= 2.603MPH = 27:28 which is 126 per hundred meter which was my time.
What I want to tell is that the make you go fast really fast at least 8 minutes for me and I suspect that slower you swam the more minutes you were going to get. So this in did was a fast swim.

T1 this was the worst part of the race for me because it was long walk on the street and my feet are sensitive to rocks and debris on the street.So if I try to run it's hurt. So I walked slow and got to my bike. Since I knew it was slow already I decided to put my socks on clear that out of the way.
T1 4:13

The bike, was fast my plan was to practice Iron-man pacing and stay in zone 3 as most time as possible and not to go all out. At the beginning of the bike every one was flying and passing me but I stay calm and stick to my plan. There was suppose to be some hills but really the Montgomery county hills are much difficult so really those hills were nothing. This is a fast course on the bike so you have to roll and will be good. I practice nutrition and drink water and accelerate as much as possible and eat 3 power bars the plan was executed perfectly as got almost 800 calories. The bike went great. I hold my self but again the plan was to practice IM pacing.
Time was 2:52:19 for a pace 19.5 MPH

T2 went quick as I just put my running shoes and role.
2:06

The run went great it was flat. Right after transition I went to the ports so that mean that my hydration was great. I knew that I can be around 1:45 time on a good day. for the first 7 miles I paced my self and average 8:18. Then I began to feel the race and started to feel tired but thanks to # 275 the guy has been running with me told me begin pushing and we did that for the next 5 miles we were flying probably around the 7 min mile pace.I hold my self until mile 12 that I got tired the last mile I survived and enjoy the crossing the finish line.
Final time 1:46:05 for an 8:06 minute mile pace.
Total time 5:12:06

This was a great for being a first year event. It has a fast course over all and the city of Augusta is supporting the race really nice. The down part was that I don't think the city and the restaurant were aware about the amount of people that was going to be there. On most pasta restaurant and all others the waiting time for eating was 60 - 90 minutes. Hopefully next year they get more prepare. I recommend this race to any body specially if you are a slow swimmer. I don't know how my 2010 season is going to look but if I have the chance I definitely be back

Happy weekend