Last day of 2010...

Morning workout!! Not this morning because it's like 30 degrees out, but yesterday with my two bros Steven and Danny! I had forgotten how much damn fun it was to mountain bike in the DA's. It was just like old times and had been at least 5 years in the making, both for the morning workout and the three of us riding together again. Sure it's ok training alone, but absolutely nothing beats riding with your two best buddies. It was very windy yesterday and there was even talk of skipping out on the ride, but we decided to ride for a few miles and if it got too nasty we would turn around and go back. After we got on that singletrack, there was no turning back no matter what the weather was throwing at us. What a way to end 2010! On the endurance level maybe it didn't stack up on some of the other crazy things we have done around the new year, but the fun factor was off the charts and I guarantee we will be laughing about yesterday for years to come. In years past I can remember doing 100 x 100 meter swim repeats on 1:45 plus the extra in years past 00, for example, in 2011 it would require 111 x 100 meters that would be nearly 7 miles of swimming!! I remember talking my almost non swimmer buddy Tony into going to the UTEP pool in 2001 or '02 for that very same workout (he couldn't feel his arms afterwards). The last time I did this was 2005. A mountain bike/run workout we did in 2003 consisted of us riding out from NMSU to Baylor canyon, stashing the bikes in the bushes, putting on running shoes, running to the top of Baylor Pass, back down to the stashed bikes, and back to the pool. The one thing I remember most about that trip was the fact that Jr. was living with us at the time so I made him do the workout as well (RIP). Dang, the years really fly by and yesterday has made me reflect and appreciate all the true friends I have had the pleasure of sharing my personal pleasures with, yes, TRAINING... The times on the roads, trails, or in the pool mean the world to me and are all part of this wonderful journey.

Training in general has been progressing slowly, but it is progressing. I am currently putting together a game plan for the season as far as races are concerned. My training plan is to do what has worked best for me. I was extactic with the way I raced the sprint course last season, but the international and long course left me with a sour taste in my mouth and that is what I am counting on to fuel my training through the winter months.

Be safe tonight and in 2011...

12-28

Good Morning. Well as family members have come and gone I have managed to get in a few more pretty good workouts. It gets a little hard to maintain a training schedule when the rest of the family is still in holiday festive or chill mode. A run around my favorite place in Las Cruces (A Mountain), a bike workout with lots of one legged and speed intervals, and a treadmill run with 4 x 1 mile repeats have me feeling pretty good about the start of this season. My family didn't seem to mind that I was a little late to gatherings or I was on my spinning bike during the annual viewing of various Christmas themed movies and cartoons or even when we took the kids to the park and I seized the opportunity to run in the dry riverbed. Thanks!! When it came time to family stuff we did have a fire in the pit out back, made smores with the kids, put lights up outside, and took the kids on a couple pretty cool hikes. All in all it has been a great break so far and I think all the family members left pretty happy. My little brother Steven gets here today and I told him to bring his mountain bike so that should be fun. Can't wait!!

Now on swimming when I was growing up. Socorro didn't have a swim team or a swim program when I was growing up, but there was always a place to swim:) A few places we used to swim were: the mighty Rio Grande (at a few different locations), the local water tank (which we only did twice because it was way too dark), the tech pool after hours (by sneaking in through the ventilation system which kept the air inside the bubble during the winter fresh), the water hazards on the NM Tech Golf Course (gathering golf balls to sell later, and future training for Milkman...YUCK) and lastly in the stock tank my dad put in the back yard. It seemed like no matter what we did it was always competitive when it came to swimming. Swimming circles in the water tank until the big bubbles in the center came, swimming against the current for as long as possible in the river (Mexican endless pool), gathering the most and best golf balls, and of course holding your breathe the longest were a few of the contests I can remember.

Triathlons would surely have gotten boring for me if I would have just stuck to the usual swim, bike, and run everyday. Growing up in Socorro could have been boring for most, but for my friends and I, it was a blast. We would add elements of creativity to just about every activity we did. For example, when we were playing golf we would invent our own holes and par for them. We would go from 3 tee box to 7 green etc. We were like the commercial for BASF, we didn't have access to all the things a lot of other kids did, but we made the activities we did that much better. I honestly believe it has been this ability to make things fun and break up the monotony which has enabled the competitive fires to burn inside me for so many years. In the next few posts I will let you in on some of the seemingly crazy training I have invented or BASFed over the years. Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!!

Christmas Eve/ Morning

Merry Christmas! Finally made it to church, along with the rest of the catholic population in Las Cruces. Boy was it packed! Church on Sundays may have to be on my resolutions list this year. Training was nothing until all the kiddos were put to sleep, then like the true OCD I hopped on the spinning bike for a couple of hours. It's funny how bad I felt until after I got off the bike, then everything seemed to fall into place. That's the very part of myself I wish I could change, but that's me. The other thing I plan on working on this season is am workouts! I have managed to log every single workout since 1992! That's a heck of a lot of workouts! I would put the average hours somewhere around 550 hrs/yr so the math would reveal about 10,450 hrs or 435 days of training. Damn if I were getting paid even minimum wage for those hours I would actually have a savings account, but then I would more then likely be fat right now.... Getting back to the logging of workouts, I haven't hit the morning training since 2004! That is the last time I rode with team Zia Velo, but that's another story. So to make a long story short I will be a very happy camper if I manage to do at least three morning workouts a week this season...and go to church. A little something about me, I almost always wear a bandanna when I race and if I am not wearing it (due to a visor) I am carrying it with me. The bandanna was given to me by my mother in law and it belonged to her father (Marlene's grandpa) a man I never met, but really wish I had. I figure if he loved Marlene as much as she did him then he would want me to return to her as quick (and safe) as possible so when I race I take it with me and hold it from time to time when I need some Chicano turbo boost. To tell the truth that has been my main motivation for the majority of my triathlon career...Get Back To Mar!! Peace

Christmas Break

Traveling, friends, and family make it a bit hard to keep to a training schedule so it seems I am doing what I can when I can. Running is usually the one workout I will choose when pressed for time. For the past couple days I have done a couple of one hour runs. It's chilly out, probably because although I have all day, I choose to start running around sun set; but it feels good and I scoped out my next run. The Rio Grande is pretty dry and it looked inviting, so it should feel like running on the beach right? Most pools close today for the holiday so I hope to get in a long swim at some point.

Next topic: Triathlon friends, training partners, and fellow competitors who have come and gone.. A couple of years ago my best friend Danny and I were driving back from Ironman Arizona when we decided to make a list. The list would consist of all the people we remembered since the start of our tri career who, were no longer racing or even around anymore...62 was the number we were left with. I think I remembered a few more then Danny, but I am usually the one who is a bit more social. In order to be on the list someone had to to have won a few races, trained with us at some point, or raced at some of the same races we did (someone we would watch out for). The sad part of the list were the cool people who are no longer here (RIP) the funniest parts were remembering the times we all packed in my suburban and headed to a race somewhere. The record for number of people crammed in there was a whopping 17! That was from the Pink Cadillac back to Plaza Las Glorias after one of the many infamous Rocky Point Triathlons. The face on the guy who was operating the taco stand at 4am was priceless when he saw all of us pile out. Who knows where all those people are now a days? I do know one is the model athlete for ZOOT because I see him in all the catalogs.

All I want to do now is Stay Away From The List!!! Happy and safe training. Remember to enjoy these next few months, before we know it the weather will be hot and the racing will be intense...

12-20-10

Nice day in Soco today with my little brother. Not much has changed in the last 20, I still drive the same truck I did in high school, and I still find it extremely difficult getting out the door for a workout before 3 in the afternoon; especially during the winter months. I did manage a 45 minute run with Steven and got in the Tech pool for 45 minutes as well. Training right now is a bit slow and chilly, there are the expected aches and little pains, but I have become used to them over the years. Honestly, I would be quite surprised to have a workout sometime in the next month that didn't feel a bit forced, but it's off to a good start! I've been thinking about all the different things I would like to write about in the next few entries, some ideas are: friends (triathletes) who have come and gone, bikes which have come and gone (that I owned), swimming in the town water supply (tank)....shhhh, and the good times that inevitably have come and gone....

20th year triathlon anniversary blog

Welcome to my new triathlon blog. First off, two things, I am new to blogging, but not to triathlons. Thank you to my little bro Steven who got me started with this blog. I decided I needed to create this for a few different reasons. This is my 20th straight year competing in triathlons and it has been one incredible journey! I have been lucky enough to have sponsors along the way. I can't begin to express how happy I am to have Trisports.com for another season (it's gonna be a memorable one). Lastly, I plan to update this blog as I workout and try to have one of the best seasons as a 42 year old! Hopefully by doing this blog, it will give me much needed motivation to train daily and push myself to new heights this and maybe my final serious season. I started doing something called triathlon in 1992 when I was a junior at NMSU. Back then I was working on campus as a lifeguard, hanging out, and pretty much just enjoying the college life. I remember one day when I was taking a break I saw a couple people enter the pool area with their bikes, put them against the wall, and jump in the water for a swim workout. I remember thinking to myself how fit they looked and I decided to talk to them about their workout. I knew who they were because they were notorious for either riding their bikes or running prior to entering the pool or vice versa, in other words they were simply always working out (and most of the staff thought they were crazy). I approached them and ask what they were training for. They told me they were training for a race that weekend and it was here in Las Cruces. Although I grew up in Socorro, NM where they had no cross country, swimming, or cycling programs growing up I did take a swimming class in college and thought I could  handle the swim portion of the triathlon(800 meters or a half mile). Let me back up just a little bit, growing up in Socorro the triathlon experience was very limited. My sports were pretty much basketball (state runner-ups) and golf where we did manage one state championship and one runner-up award. Running was something I did to just stay in shape for other sports, but never had I actually done a run or swim workout prior to '92. So back to the big debut, it was a race they used to hold at the local duck crapper called Burn Lake. Back then it was a staple in the Southwest Challenge Series and a pretty nice place to swim. The race consisted of a half mile swim, a 28 mile bike ride, and a nice 5.5 mile run. I decided to do the race as a team and I did the swim. After the race I remember how the competitors crossed the finish line and I knew I had to have that feeling for myself. I bought me a steel Diamond Back semi racing bike for 100 bucks and in the next couple weeks I did my first triathlon as a solo racer...I WAS HOOKED!! The three things I remember most about my first triathlon are: 1. Actually doing a transition from running shoes to my Vans for the bike portion. Why? I don't know, I guess I thought they were more comfortable. 2. I didn't know about tire inflation and did the whole race on about 50 lbs of pressure in each tire because I didn't own a pump for presta (proper inflation is about 100psi) 3. How good a beer tastes afterwards. That first year I did 5 more triathlons, bought proper bike shoes, and won my first age group trophy. Back then I didn't really have many goals in the sport it was just something I knew I had to do everyday in order to get better. There were no books to read or training plans to follow, we just made them up as we went along. It was just  plain and simple fun! As with anything in my life I knew that without goals I would become bored, stagnant, and lose interest. I knew there was a race in Hawaii called the Ironman World Championship. I wanted to qualify for it so in 1999 my brother and I headed out there withe family in tow to try to get a coveted slot. I made it and did the Ironman in 1999. It was easily the hardest thing I had ever endured in my life. I had to do it again and did in 2001. I remember people talking about how magical it was running down alii drive to the finish line and all that, but let me tell you for me there was nothing magical about running with what feels like diaper rash for 26 miles. I also remember when the whole ranking system came in from USAT (our governing body) back some time ago. I wanted to be named to the All American team because I figured coming from such a small town the chances of anyone being named an All American from Socorro were slim to none. 2010 marked my 11th consecutive year as being named to the All American list from USAT. Simply meaning we are in the sports upper 2% or so, but for 11 straight years! (What do you think about that my stupid ass 8th grade track coach who laughed at my running form and made me feel like complete crap in front of everyone)? I guess I can safely say I have accomplished all the goals I have set for myself and really was considering throwing in the towel after a very successful 2010 season (where I overalled a whopping 5 races), but there are a few factors that will continue to stoke the fires for 2011. Being so close to twenty straight years and working really hard to keep the streak alive, not to mention I know how much of a bear I turn into when I don't workout for a few days are always on my mind, but the biggest reason is the fact that I am very lucky to say I will be be sponsored again by Trisports.com. Winning a triathlon takes so many different factors to be in your favor that nobody can predict he or she will win x number of races over the season. With that being said, I do promise to commit to training again and be in better shape this season then last and represent well! Tomorrow will begin training for the 2011 campaign. I am off work for two weeks and plan on using this time to jump start my preseason base building..