Fill er up.

I have been spending a good bit of time really getting my fueling dialed in and have definitely been able to tell a difference. The most noticeable change has been my ability to recover from tough workouts. I think that really helps the motivation factor as well. When you're ready to go the next day it make it lots of fun!

Been doing a lot of snowshoeing in the mountains and strength training in the gym and that's my plan for this next month as well. Also have a trip to Montana planned where I'll be hitting up Big Sky with some good friends. Can't wait for that! To make it all even sweeter right about now is when Joshua Tree tends to get perfect. Weekly trips there are a must!

Tritonman Pictures

UCSD Sprint Triathlon

Competed in my first triathlon of 2011 this past weekend at the UCSD Tritonman Sprint Triathlon. Well, it was supposed to be a tri, but due to the amount of rain that has been hammering So Cal it was deemed unsafe to swim and turned into a duathlon. This ended up being my first ever run.bike.run. and a great way to test my speed against all the young college kids. Here are my splits and some notes on the race.

Run - 2 miles - Time. 12:49 Pace. 6:25 per mile.
Not a bad start but definitely should have pushed this a little harder. The run was mostly flat, a couple of small rollers, but did include some areas of mud which made it a little slow. I tried to hang with the leaders in my wave but there were some guys flying.

T1 - :36 seconds
Simple. Came in and took off my running shoes. Put my helmet on and grabbed my bike. Happy with the ease and speed of this.

Bike - 12.25 miles - Time. 34:04 Speed 21.5 mph
Felt really good on the bike. I was able to stay in the aero the whole time and was comfortable as well. Definitely seeing improvements from all the leg strength training I have been doing. Lot's of work needs to be done though as this is the pace I need to be able to hold over the Ironman distance, which is about 100 more miles!

T2 - :33 seconds
Simple again. Came in. Hopped off the bike and put on my running shoes and was off. Happy here.

Run - 2 miles - Time. 13:49 Pace. 6:54 per mile
This was the one area I felt rough on. Coming off the bike my calfs cramped for the first couple hundred yards of the run. I thought about even walking to stretch it out a bit but fought it off and continued to run. I really would have like to have pushed this section harder but my legs just wouldn't go. Definitely happy that I felt bad and was still able to run this fast, but would have liked to felt good! One good note is that I felt as if I was getting stronger towards the end of the run and never felt like I was going to run out of gas.

Total Time - 1:02:14
Overall Place - 51
Age Group Place - 3

Pretty happy with the effort and the results from this race. Running a sprint distance at a collegiate event I knew going in that I was going to get dusted by quite a few young guys but had hoped to go under 1 hour. If I would have pushed just a tad harder on the run segments I could have done that for sure. All in all it was a good test as to where I am speed wise going into the season and definitely a fun day at the beach!

Shaking it Up!

Since the beginning of the year I have been doing very well with my diet which is one area I have always struggled with. I used to under eat and take in lots of sugar which usually left me crashing and burning, and getting injured. I have been paying much more attention to what I am eating, when I am eating it, and how much of it I'm eating. It's paying off. I'm finding out that good tasting healthy food is easier to make than I thought, and that recovering properly and eating right does wonders for a body that's getting old!

(the kitchen chalk board...calorie counting)

2011...off and running

2011 officially got underway this past weekend with the running of the 4th annual Snowshoe the Bear race in Big Bear.

The family flew out and took part in the festivities and everyone (except Dad) took home some hardware! I managed to sneak onto the podium in the last 500 yards of the 10k race ending up with a 3rd place overall finish. Decent way to start the year.

I got burnt this fella Jesse from San Diego who was absolutely flying and Ted from Mountain Fitness who was equally impressive running just over 1 hour for the tough course.

Rachael took 3rd in the women's 10k race and my sisters went 2 and 3 in the women's 5k. Overall outstanding event here in the home town. Paul and Karen put on a solid race that is just getting better and better every go. Next up in the Conquer the Bear series is the Big Bear Shootout mountain bike race in June. I'm shooting for the overall win this year and have already given up about 10 minutes to the two guys in front of me so need to get on the bike a lot this spring. Next up for me is the UCSD Triton Sprint Triathlon in San Diego on the 20th. Looking to go sub 1 hour in this distance but really just a nice warm up race to get into the groove. Check out some more pics from the snowshoe race.

(Lot's going down in the Village of Big Bear Lake)

(Rockstar Jordan Romero in attendance)

(Rachael celebrates the podium with some vitamin C)

(Both the sisters on the podium)