Tag: racing

Ironman Texas

July 20, 2015

(This is a post written shortly after Texas that I hadn’t published)

I haven’t written in a while and that was because I was too focused on training for Ironman Texas and keeping up with my duties in my job and at graduate school. The past few weeks had been crazy and therefore it put me a lot of anxiety in my mind.

So the Ironman Texas story didn’t start on race day for me, it started before and it couldn’t have a worse ending…I had a difficult decision to make which was to pull out from the race.

I wasn’t well, my knee was getting into  a bad shape, I had bad nutrition issues and on top of that my race was over, I wasn’t going to finish in the top spots.

So after 22Km of trying to run, but mostly walking. I gave it a lot of thought and if I was going to qualify for Kona, it wasn’t obviously going to happen that day but I have another shot two months from now and for that I needed to be fulley recovered. So at around the 21km mark I saw my Dad looking for me and worried, So that was it, time to take the chip off my ankle and call it a day.

In conclusion I know I did the right thing by pulling out but that was by far THE HARDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE, it was a really sad moment, all the sacrifices done by me and my loved ones, all the time put into it, the money, the effort…all for nothing.

I am feeling better now physically, although my knee is taking a lot of time to go back to normal. Mentally I am not that great, trying to get through it and convince myself that as an athlete these things happen, and you just have to move on and look forward. So for now it is recovery time for me.

Next Up…Ironman Boulder, where I will leave my skin in the course, I don’t know how its going to turn out but this awful experience just gave me more hunger for success and to finally grab what I have been chasing.

patience

April 1, 2015
this finish line, I will cross it on 2015. (hard work + PATIENCE)

PATIENCE…what a hard task to accomplish in anything. Typically triathletes, or any athlete doesn’t have that much of a patience to get where he or she wants to. It is even hard to understand why you have to take days off and not be training. When in fact, by resting you are doing more than by training.

We all have to deal with an injury at some point in time and it is again, a matter of patience to step aside, do anything in your power to heal it and then…wait, wait until the damn injury is gone so you can get back to do what you love… Once you get back on the train, it is again a matter of patience to recover the fitness that you lost during the absence.  Especially in a sport like long distance triathlon that a lot of your fitness comes over the years and it is a matter of building training on top of previous training, on top of more previous training, again patience, you get the idea by now.

I’ve had to deal with a couple of injuries during my short two years at doing this and one of them is very recent, exactly on spring break, where I could focus solely on training I had to make the hard decision to not do anything but recover from the grueling pain I had in my right hip. Then again, I have lost fitness and speed and still working on getting it back. What I am trying to point out is that it is no secret that any sport has an extra discipline to it…mental toughness and one of the ingredients of this toughness is patience. Learning how to trust your instincts, trust what your body tells you, trust your training and not over do it or under do it, know when to step aside for the greater good (if you want to be in it for the long haul, like myself), etc. I can keep writing about factors that require our patience and resiliency to hang in there and believe in you.

Believe in yourself, in the effort that you put into your things, and have the patience to see the results that will definitely come your way!

2014 Season

November 25, 2014

The year is about to come to an end and the 2015 season is starting for me now. So it’s that time of year to look back and analyze what happened throughout this year and what could be done to get better and what positive outcomes I had and continue to apply them for 2015.

Thinking back on Ironman Maryland…What a race! not only did I do a sub-10 Ironman but I crashed the 10 hour line in 9:46:57, it was my PR by 45min! a bike split that was one of the fastest of the day, and the list can go on.
I decided to do this race after Lake Placid which was only two months away and it seemed a little risky to do two ironman’s in that time span but something inside me just told me that it was the race for me to do to close the season. It also seemed like a good shot to get a slot for Kona 2015. And by that time I would be already living in the U.S, so tickets were cheaper and the flight way shorter, so it seemed like the race to do.
Every race leaves you with positive things and aspects that make you think were you can improve. The most important thing about this race is that it left me thinking was that I am actually good at this, it is only my second year of racing iron distance and I crushed the 10 hour line. Since that day all I think about is how fast can I go, am I actually good enough to dedicate myself entirely to it? How far am I from breaking the 9 hour line? what about winning? I know its a long shot and probably it will take years but why not? I am certainly passionate about the sport and the life around it.
But as good as it sounds to dream with this, when I really think about it I am light years away from the real good ones in the sport. Its funny that I started to do triathlon from a running background and as of today running became my weak link. I consider myself a decent swimmer, not front of the pack but neither the back, Cycling is my strongest leg and usually I pass tons of people on it, but then it comes to the marathon where I get passed, I mean in Lake Placid I was 3rd off the bike and ended up 12th, on Maryland I was 4th and ended 6th, still a better outcome, but as always getting passed. I need to have the proper pace to be able to maintain my spots or at least give a harder fight. I think I am in the point that I have to sacrifice what it takes to win, that simple…I want to win.

This burning desire inside me that says to me every second of every day that this is what I want to do, It’s what really keeps me going and training every day, sacrificing a lot to do it, getting up, putting up with countless hours on a trainer, inside a pool, etc. Even when I just want to lay on a couch and do nothing, I get up and do it. And if I don’t I feel like sh*t at the end of the day. All of this simply because I want to be the best, I am happy when I race, when I train, I am me.

The support I get from my girlfriend, my family, especially the economic support from my father is what makes this possible. I know it sound cheesy, but it is true, I wouldn’t be able to do this without them. There’s not enough words or lifetimes enough to thank them and be grateful. What I can say sure is: THANK YOU!

 

Puerto Rico 70.3 Recap

April 22, 2014

puertorico_70.3_FINAL

What a difficult race! it is the first thing that comes to mind about writing a post about it, the swim was ok, the bike had strong winds, the run was brutally hot and hilly. That is in a few words the summary of the day.

Results:
5:02:50 / 10th in Age Group / 68 overall / 58 in gender
swim: 32:39
Bike: 2:32:00
run: 1:52:36
T1: 3:41
T2: 1:54

In terms of results, my position I think it was a very good result, my best ever. Which left me very happy about the race but there’s a personal view of these times in which I am absolutely certain that they were slow for me, I know I could’ve biked and ran much faster, especially the run. So it left me with mixed feelings, on one hand it is my first top 10 and on a brutal day I performed well, on the other hand I know it was a slow race for me and I could’ve been faster therefore a better position at the end. Also I had to deal with injuries the weeks before, so in conclusion it was a good performance, excellent results and they can only get better! Now it’s time to think on my next challenge which is IRONMAN Lake Placid.

Now back to the race…
The swim was a in a lagoon formed by the ocean, so it was pretty calm but in salt water. Almost no current until the end when you get to the lagoon entrance and the current there is a little against you. It is one lap, you enter at one point and exit on a different one after swimming under a bridge (nice detail!). This has been my best swim ever so I exited the water extremely happy. (32:39)
The first transition is a very long run, I usually can do them really fast and a 3:41 can tell you it was far away from the swim exit. When you get to your bike you have sand on your feet so you loose a couple of seconds cleaning them up a little.
The bike portion of the race turned out to be harder than I thought, I was aiming for a sub 2:25 bike and ended up with 2:32, my slowest in the distance up to here. It was one loop and then halfway back you turned again for second loop to that part of the course. the first part was with the wind in your favour and it seemed that it wasn’t that windy, but as soon as your turned around the real fight begun, turns out it actually was really windy and the speed was reduced a lot which made me realise it wasn’t going to be a fast bike split. Apart from the wind it is really flat, I personally prefer a hillier course given where I come from which is really hilly.

bike
this awesome picture was on the IRONMAN twitter and Facebook page. Thanks to whoever took it! also made me very happy to be on the official IRONMAN media

T2 was close and fast, no problems there.
The run was really hard, it wasn’t flat at all, it was beautiful anyway, all done in old san juan. It was either up or down and the heat was unbelievable. After a first part “flat” you have to go up an 18% short, hard hill, after that it was rolling for a few kilometres and then the hardest part of the race, for me, it was about a kilometre downhill and the street made out of bricks which made it slippery, followed by a long out and back run outside of the old san juan walls. This huge wall heated up so much you could feel it by running beside it and on your other side was the sun’s heat!, a real oven over there, plus no hydration station in this part. You had to go up the hill mentioned before to drink something again! It was 2 loops.

In a hard course what a great race, I would recommend this race to anyone wanting to go. If someone would like a more in-depth review of the course, advice, hotel, any info that I can help you with please feel free to contact me and I would gladly help!