5 DAYS FROM GLORY

     My race is for the people who doubt me, for those who might have seen a kid years ago who was seemingly brought up on the other side of the tracks and written off as worthless. This will be dedicated for everyone who has dreams in life, I may not attain my direct goals on the day but I would like to think I stand as a role model for hard work and taking that huge step to grab my dreams.

     It is upon all of us, just 5 days away from the race that many of us in Western Australia have been working towards, 70.3 Ironman Busselton. So many of my mates have spent countless mornings waking up while its pitch dark outside heading to the swimming pool for a squad swim or to the roads for a group ride. How many times did we pump up our tires the night before and lay out all of our gear ahead of time, thinking about the long day that would lie ahead. Hammer bars, roctane’s, shotz, endurolytes, shotz, lollies, everyone has had their fare share of nutrition to get them through those 4hr rides followed by a moderate run directly after, then maybe an open water swim in the late arvo.

     This race will show who has been putting in the hard work, as well who is fully prepared, physically, mentally and emotionally. I wish that we all put together our ideal race on the day but there are sure to be a few casualties along the war path. Pushing our bodies to these new heights really brings out the most amazing aspects in each of us. I would find it hard to believe that too many of us thought when we were kids that we would be out riding a bike for hours, then running for hours and also swimming for lengthy periods, but we are all doing it. Goals will be achieved and many will be at the finish line with the biggest ear to ear smiles as their goals were just smashed, meaning it’s time to nap the day away followed by partying the night away.

     For once in my life, I can say, I am not shooting to beat this guy or that guy, but I am aiming to perform to the best of my abilities. Time goals are always in play, but with wave starts, weather, and malfunctions of the wildest kind, sometimes its tossed out of the window. I am racing for myself and my loved ones on the day.

  

         Good luck to everyone who is competing at Busselton this weekend, may we have no swells, the wind to our backs and a light mist during the run. You will see me at the Awards/After Party, make sure you present me with a smile and the realization that each of us are blessed to have the health and option to even participate in such an amazing event.

PS: For those interested in tracking my results, you can go to Ironmanlive.com and there are updates along the way. I will post my race # on facebook once I check in on Friday.



Rottnest Island: Adventures in Snorkeling and Sunbathing

 
After my arrival to Australia a couple months ago, I was greatly encouraged to visit some phenomenal place called "Rottnest Island" which is 19k off the coast. In short, this place was amazing as several pictures show below (if you want to cut to the chase you can simply scan for pics).In a brief summary of the island, here are a couple exerts from our friend Mr./Ms. Wikipedia:


The island was given the name "Rattenest" (meaning "rat's nest" in the Dutch language) by the Dutch fleet captain Willem de Vlamingh on 29 December 1696. De Vlamingh described the indigenous marsupial, called a quokka, as a large rat.^[6] Ten Aboriginal prisoners were sent to Rottnest Island in August 1838. The Colonial Secretary announced in June 1839 that the island would become a penal establishment for Aboriginal people, and between 1838 and 1931, except for the period 1849 to 1855, Rottnest was used as an Aboriginal prison to "pacify" local natives. Aboriginal men were imprisoned for offences including spearing livestock, burning the bush or digging vegetables.
It has been estimated that there may be as many as 369 Aboriginal graves on the island. Rottnest was the site of an internment camp in both World War I and World War II. In WWI it was mostly used for German and Austrian enemy aliens, before being closed towards the end of the war due to poor living conditions 


   Upon researching information for this post I didn't realize that some many people were basically captive and/or tortured on the island getaway, crazy what they can turn into a vacation hot spot huh? Moving FORWARD, my good friend from the states Glenn came to Australia for a visit just a couple weeks back, so I knew we had to make a trip to Rottnest while he was around, after all when would he be able to do this again? After a very hectic couple of weeks, the decision was made to head to the island since I actually had a day free, so BOOM here we go! Screw planning this trip out days in advance as most do, we were going to wake up, walk to the train station, hitch a ride to Fremantle , buy our ferry ticket and spend the day hopping (not literally) around the island. Of course with this lack of planning we managed to miss our 1st train, then the ferry we planned on was full so we waited a bit longer, but all in all we still managed to make it in the AM time frame.

  Upon arriving to the island, we noticed heaps of large boats just anchored next to the island were most had small rafts to take into shore after they finished off their floating margarita's. Next stop was finding a bike hire and after some frustration of losing our way, Glenn and I found the shop to hire some sweet single speed bikes. My bell was broke as well as my seat kept sliding down, what an awesome piece of machinery! Glenn was the navigation expert, so trusting his eagle scout instincts, I followed suit. We noticed loads of people walking their bikes up the hills and basically decided that we had to ride up the hills harder while making it look as effortless as possible, CHECK.

Great Hangout area

    On to our adventure, we managed to ride the entire island by bike and then come back for more racking up 36K+ on these rag tag bikes, all the while toting around our full back packs, wearing sandals aka "thongs" in down under slang, and rocking it shirtless. The water was amazing and so clear, heaps of people were at the beaches, it was time to hit the water. After bailing out on paying another $25 on snorkel gear, we decided that our swimming goggles would be just fine, so we hit Little Salmon for the dive of a lifetime. I was hit by a small wave walking into the water because it was so clear it caught me off guard and nearly knocked me on my A$$. Upon further inspection (going under water) I took a single stroke and saw a school of fish in front of me, "WOW THIS IS AWESOME!". I found Glenn and mentioned that I wished we had a snorkel because I just can't hold my breath underwater like some people and then I hear a nice English woman say, " I have a snarkel on the beach, let me fetch it fa you!!!". Sweet I got a snorkel and manged to suck in about half of the Indian Ocean up my nose because I breathed w/o clamping my nose shut, OUCH, BURNING, BURNING!

Little Salmon Bay {favorite snorkeling spot} G$ on the far right

  I figured it out thanks to my above average intelligence level and then explored. Without an underwater camera, the scenery is impossible to accurately describe. The corral and the varieties of fish were amazing, to simply put. We lost time and snorkeled for quite awhile before exploring the remainder of the island. We also realized that because we were caught up with exploring we completely missed lunch and hadn't ate since 7am!  By the way there was only one water spout outside of the main jetty, so we were drastically dehydrating ourselves into nothing. After snorkeling a few other spots, we made it back to our 1st snorkel spot, where we were told promptly not to go because of the waves crashing against the rocks in the afternoon was dangerous. Naturally, Glenn and I had to dive in and see what it was all about, the warnings were pretty accurate as the waves really pushed you around especially if you stayed near the crest of the water line. Fortunately we were able to snap a few pictures of us snorkeling and even a funny video of Glenn falling onto some rocks.

Myself snorkeling against the waves

  All in all this trip was great, we rushed back to make our 5:30pm bike drop off time and decided we should jump over to the hot showers in the villa section of the island. SUBWAY it was for dinner, along with a JUG of orange-mango juice we found at the grocery for $2 and a Mocha milk for $1!!! We decided to change plans and not take the late night 9pm ferry back into existence, so we managed to hop on the 6:30pm ferry home. The ride was rough with the boat bouncing from side to side, but our fatigue began to set in at this point, as well as our sun workout, which mostly soaked up my back. On the way back we were able to witness some amazing drunk ramble from some locals to the police as well as make new friends with 3 women, 2 whom were from Germany visiting and another who works at the mines and encouraged us as everyone else does to apply for a position within the mines to BANK some serious money.

  In recap, this was an amazing trip, the pictures will do little justice, but I am fortunate to be able to say that I have experienced this island with one of my best friends. I hope to continue my adventure around Australia moving forward if things line up in order to allow me to do so. Up next, maybe a trip to Asia? Who knows, once I find that money tree, I will pick it dry!!!

"THE" Epic Ride: pre-ride hype to Busselton with 223k in front of me

  This weekend a small town called Busselton will be host to the Ironman Western Australia 140.6 event and I am very fortunate as I will be in attendance of my very first Ironman. The kicker is that I am actually riding my bicycle from West Perth, ALL THE WAY down to Busselton with a small group of riders. One of which is my friend Nathan Doig, whom took on the challenge of cycling this distance simply because it appears that most people believe it could be an impossible feat for a man who rides his road bike as much as he walks on water, which is very rare in this case.

  To date, I believe that my longest ride is about 70 miles in total earlier in the year on my new Kuota K-factor whom I call "Wayne". "Wayne" continues to be the stout steed that I will ride on this epic journey through the 30+mph wind gust on the way to the Ironman. In all the ride will be at a minimum of 223k to Busselton but the funny thing is that we are staying in another town further south which is about 45k past Busselton, in all this journey COULD potentially be 270k of riding in one day! That's about 164 MILES to all of the Americans back home!  Wish me luck as I hope to have the wind at my back the entire time, may I never run out of fuel or water, and I hope to make the epic ride on the same tubes I begin with.

Directions from Perth to busselton

The Ride of my life to be determined.

I hope to update my blog/facebook status once I reach my destination, so that I may enlighten those who hope that I die, get injured or simply make it in one piece will be able to know what happened. Planning to take my camera with me for some snap shots of the event.

Quick Race Recaps: 1st Xterra Tri Experience & The Lake Wylie Disaster

My 1st Off road triathlon experience was a blast looking back afterwards. At the time I thought otherwise because it beat me up pretty good including a fall near the end of the bike portion. After borrowing my good friend Lat's mountain bike, I attempted 2 off road rides the week of the race just to make sure I can even ride trails and especially with Clip in pedals.

The swim went OK at best, I thought I would be up front the whole way and it didn't work out like I wished, but I came out with my friend Rob Dietz when we had to run to the next swim transition, so I was pleased knowing he was a good swimmer. Once I hit the bike, I was still fairly clear of most of the field but I knew once we hit the woods I was done. My body was dripping wet and my glases fogged up. Holding onto the handles was near impossible the 1st couple miles. I made it through the ride, got passed a lot and managed to pass a few people even. With about a mile to go, I was excited to see open gravel and i went for it down a hill then tried to take a sharp turn, BAM!!! I was on my butt, bleeding and shaking from the fall.




I managed to jump up and head to the transition area, where I was excited to be, since it meant i would be running. I took awhile in transition because I was asking for water from anyone since I did not have any water the entire bike ride. Upon leaving T2 some guy took off in a Florida Gators singlet and I was pumped to catch up. I ran down tons of people and almost ran my way into a top 10 finish even. My split was pretty good and it pleased me for the most part, it even ended up being 2 minutes faster than my friend who won the open 8k the day before...Big thanks to my friend Brian McMahon, Kent and Devon for cheering me on as well as Uncle Wayne for helping out along the journey

http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/view_results.cfm?race_id=1143


Swim: 15:27
T1: 0:57
Bike: 1:08:18
T2: 1:25
Run: 32:50
Finish: 1:58:55

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Lake Wylie Triathlon recap

After getting an entry into this race, I knew the pressure was on since i was signed up as an Open male and the field would be stacked. At this point I had so much stress from moving and trying to juggle several jobs I have been taking on, so I was basically exhausted. On friday after a day of work i spent my time moving boxes from one house to another to complete my move. Moving houses while its about 100 degree's outside, just wears you down! I finally called it a night at 11:45pm to stop packing up and moving things.

4:50am came way too early, I hit the road with the old beater truck I am borrowing for moving purposes and it was hot even in the Am with no A/C.


After checking in and managing a bit of a warm-up I just felt off, I wasn't really excited, i just wanted to get it over. When I got to the water we all hung out forever, then they made us leave and then get back in. I got left after about 300m in the water, the wakes were really hitting me hard and fortunately there was another swimmer as bad as me in the open division.

After trying to stand up and walk in 100m from the beach, I cut my feet up and just swam the rest of the way A DISTANT ways back from everyone else. I hit the bike and picked off an elite woman right away who is a good cyclist, at least something was going right. I saw another person ahead so I attacked and then boom on a flat road. My chain just totally fell off on the outside of my big ring. I couldn't get it back on, so I stop completely after going 23mph, get passed and put my chain on. Once on my bike I work back up to the people I have already passed once and once I finally catch up to them, it happens again, chain OFF. I stopped and had to put my chain back on again. The final straw of frustration came on the bridge just a 1/2m from T2, I jumped in with a group of fast cyclist from the group that started behind me and when we passed a couple elite women, my chain came off AGAIN!!! WTF

By the time I got to T2, i just wasn't sure what to think, a bad swim, even worse bike, and now I am going to run to catch who? I hit the road w/my shoes on and passed a couple people on the 1st mile. After that, I just it in cruise control all the way, I kept a steady pace but certainly did not push myself because I just felt it would be best to save my body for a good training day and put this one in the books. Upon entering the final stretch, they call out my name and guy who is right behind me, he gives it everything he has and passes me before the line while falling over. I calmly slide my chip off and give it to the woman and say "thanks for being out here, I am going to get a cookie".

For anyone reading who watches my races closely and knows I typically do pretty well, this WAS a big set back for me. After the race, I lost my mojo, with moving, trying to work 4 different job angles, I just had nothing left for the sport of running, biking or swimming. Essentially I went on a training hiatus with a couple of occasional runs and rides. USA Triathlon Nationals went out of the window and any other race in between before leaving for Australia. I am not going to consider myself anything special, but locally I am towards the front of the endurance based community and with the combination of events, i just lost ALL confidence, it can happen, to ANYONE, I am living proof...........

I even took a picture of my bike with the thought of putting it on craigslist

Cycle City! Colorado: Day 2

Day #2 was not quite as eventful with running into random people but it was exciting anyways. Today was the first day I had a chance to attempt a run at high altitude. I was "warned" by many people about the effects of running at high elevations, so I took that into careful consideration. Kylee and I set off to a trail where I was hoping to get an hour in is possible before she had to head into work. I was equipped with my 2XU calf sleeves along with long sleeves with my TrySports team tee.




The run was great, as Kylee and I started out together and then after she turned around I decided to see if I could finish out a loop and be back before my 1hr mark. I pushed it pretty hard at some points, once I got to a pretty step climb I could certainly tell that I was having some troubles. After taking a few seconds to relax, i got up the climb and was rolling again. It made me feel good to see that i could beat some mountain bikers around the loop somehow.

After the run, we went back to Kylee's place and she prepped and went into work from 1-10pm, which left me lots of time to fill. Her roommate Christine was nice enough to lend me her bike so that I could roam around boulder. It was pretty cool cruising around, minus the fact that I had a backpack on, looking like a high schooler ha-ha. The plan was to stop at a coffee shop and spend time writing my "day 1" blog which I ended up doing at "the cup", a nice local Colorado flavor spot where tons of people filed in.


After the coffee shop stop I had time to roam all around the "Pearl Street Mall' and stop in a few shops. In the process I took a pretty sweet picture...



After checking out the cool and unique shops I had to figure out what i was going to do for dinner. Head back to the townhouse and eat some oatmeal or grab a meal at some local shop. I began to freeze out in the streets and passed "Old Chicago" where I saw college football on the plasma's, easy decision. No TV at Kylee's so i might as well soak up some college football at the bar. My server actually was from South Carolina and we chatted briefly about some local places to check out, I even got to snap a picture of the watering hole.


Finally at the end of evening I rode Christine's bike back in the pitch dark back to my temporary home. It was soooo freaking cold outside, i was shaking! After about 10 minutes on the bike I actually warmed up and enjoyed the ride. It's a great place that has plenty of side walks and is very biker friendly, which makes things easier for me for sure. Upon arriving home I did more research about running "Magnolia Road", the legendary CU Cross Country Sunday morning training run starting at over 8,100ft of altitude. I managed to find a group who said they planned to meet and carpool from the justice center at 8am SHARP! Time for a good nights rest before I try to conquer the beast!

Check out my pad, it actually sleeps pretty well, THANKS KYLEE!!!

To Motorcycle or not to motorcycle

It was 2006 and I had the need to feel free, so I bought a pretty sweet Honda Shadow ACE deluxe jet black with lots of chrome, awesome. I miss it already! I bought it because one of my best friends at the time (Rob Dietz) convinced me it was time that we buy some motorcycles and cruise around. One week after he brought it up I stepped up and called him from the dealership "yo I just got a bike, yep, honda shadow and their is another one here that would be perfect for you!". He decided to pass on the bike as he got cold feet and I was stuck riding by myself all of the time.


Well it's about that time again, i have the urge to ride! Riding bicycles is cool and all, but it's a lot of work and people always try to kill me. I am thinking its time to hop on a hog and head to the mountains. The plan is to buy my buddies old Honda that has been sitting in his backyard for over 3 years and does not run, yes i said it. I intend to take it on as a project and turn it from a classic 1985 Honda VT500c and make it into one sweet "bobber" eventually.

What do you think, should I drop the bicycle for a non running motorcycle? YES! after much research I am fairly certain that I can get the bike running by my self. Put a few hundred $ into and eventually it could be pretty sweet and a head turner I think.

Sell a $2800 carbon road bike
Buy a $400 24 year old honda vt500... sounds good to me.

after worlds i am taking 2-3 weeks of down time and it would be the perfect time to "tinker" with the hog.

I just want to roll out and be free, do you blame me?