Shower More Often!!!!

I know what you're thinking, and no....I'm not talking about your scent. I'm not sure how good your hygiene is. That's between you and your loved ones. I cannot smell you from here (which is a good start I suppose) but I digress.

What I am really talking about is how I realized that as athletes we tend to shower much more frequently than what most might consider "normal". I realized this after my day consisted of three workouts and two showers. Many times I find myself wondering if the first shower is really just a waste of time when I know I will just be in need of another one in a couple of hours. Then I am so kindly reminded by my lovely wife that it is DEFINITELY needed.

I just wanted to fill you in on some of the things that run through my mind throughout the day. Stay tuned for more!

(Soaking wet after a training ride in July. One reason for a shower)

I'm Back!!!

I've been away from the blog for about a year, and this is probably were most would say how sorry they are that they haven't kept people up to date on all of there shenanigans. However, I am not going to say that. Mainly due to the fact that I'm not that sorry. I just had a busy year, but I will take this time to fill you in on what happened during the 2010 season.

It was a big year for me, I was able to fulfill a dream I have had pretty much ever since I started racing seriously in the sport. I was accepted onto the United States Air Force Triathlon Team! This meant that I would be traveling from my home in Germany all the way to California in order to race in my first draft legal triathlon. As you can tell by the picture below (taken at the Frankfurt Airport the day I left for Cali) I was pretty excited about it.

(On the way to Cali)

Once arriving in California We had a couple of busy days prior to the race to get our bikes inspected and do some training. I definitely did not expect California to be as cold as it was. I was lucky to get to enjoy the experience with my wife as she made the journey separately to watch me in the race. I would have loved to have been able to give her a good showing during the race, but that wasn't to be. I ended up getting beat up quite a bit in the swim and ended up getting taken out of the water by the lifeguards. Needless to say, that's where my race ended. I was pretty dissapointed, but the team ended up taking first place so that helped....a little. So I sucked that up and began looking ahead to the next race which was two weeks later in Baumholder Germany.

(training in California)

I was looking forward to having a good performance in Baumholder considering I was in the best shape of my life and didn't get to use any of it in Cali. So the day of the race came and I was feeling ready. The family and friends were there to cheer me on.

The race started off just how I wanted it to. I came out of the swim in 4th place and came out of transition in 3rd. I was prepared to throw down on the bike since it is a non drafting race I was ready for it to be a battle. The battle wasn't to be... I ended up having to repair two flat tires on the course which effectively ended my chances of winning that race. I decided I couldn't call it quits and have two DNF's in a row so I suffered through the bike (my tire went flat again with around 15km to go forcing me to ride on a flat front tire) and finished the race with a strong run split.

(feeling dejected after my first flat)

The rest of the season consited of racing on the 2012 Olympic course in London which was a blast, and at the ITU (International Triathlon Union) race in Kitzbuehl, Austria. The family was not able to make it to London with me which was a weird feeling. I had never raced a triathlon without them there.

I am now training for the 2011 season, I hope to be back in California in April to race with the AF again and I am training to make it to the Military World Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. I try harder this year to keep you updated on my progress towards the goal of making it to Brazil. I hope this helps get you back up to date.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Indoor Training

Winter in Germany has been pretty mild this year, with the coldest day so far being around 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Now with that being said I personally don't feel like risking the ice and wetness to ride outside. That and I also would rather not be cleaning my bike daily. So I conduct quite a bit of my cycling training indoors. (By quite a bit I mean 100%) The trainer workouts I do vary from 30mn strength training sessions to 3hr rides.

The other day I was doing some strength work on the bike so the pressure on my rear wheel was cranked down just a little bit more to help add some additional resistance. Well, the workout went well and another day of training was in the books. The next day when I head to my bike to start another day of training I realize that my rear tire was flat. Now my trainer is in my kids play room so this wasn't too odd considering I have a very curious 3yr old. I proceed to put air in it and decide to come back in about an hour. When I finally get my motivation back up to endure a couple hours of pain I see that my tire isn't holding any air. At this point I realize I've been doing some pretty intense training if I've shred my tire!!! I'm also not sure if this is something I should be proud of, or something that should be a warning sign of a head injury.

So Today was day four of the 2010 non off season, or on season....WHATEVER it's called. Which meant I was doing some more work on building my cycling base strength. I spent an intense 30mn on the bike with heart rates hitting 181, and big gears and low cadences. I have yet to detox my diet and start eating healthy, which should probably be done soon in order for all this training to remain effective, but tonight's workout was followed by Macaroni and Cheese with the kiddos and some Delicious fresh baked cookies from my wife.

Well time to go to bed, first early morning swim session of the new year tomorrow!!!

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my new website where I am intending to keep you up-to-date on my adventures, race experiences, and talk all about triathlon.
I am a husband to a beautiful lady, father of two beautiful children, a 3yr old over energetic boy, and an 18 month old little girl. I currently work full time as an Active Duty Air Force member and we are stationed in Germany. With all of this going on my life is plenty busy, then you add in the triathlons.
I didn't really get into triathlons until about 2 years ago when on a whim I entered a sprint race at Grand Forks AFB. I signed up for the race a week prior. With no training I placed second, and the fire was lit. Last year I raced in three races one international distance, one Olympic distance, and one sprint distance. The season was successful, but there was also a definite room for improvement (I didn't start training until about 2 weeks prior to the first race).
So I invite you to follow along now that the off season is over and my training for 2010 season begins. I am planning on doing at least one 70.3 distance race this year. Ok, I think that's enough for now, thanks for checking in!