Diving into the Australian Culture (or observing it)

   After arriving in Australia this past Thursday evening, I felt like I fell off of a cliff, landed on some rail road tracks and then was quickly smashed by a freight train. In short, the trip truly took every bit of zest out of my system. Frankly I am still surprised that the people I ate dinner with that night thought I was anything other than a prick because I was short and brief with conversation. Luckily, Friday morning I was able to muster up enough of "me" to meet some of the running group for "brekky" and a latte at Bruce's cafe' next to the running centre. As the days have passed, I have began to feel more and more like myself thankfully.

Ryan, Rosie, and Janna Friday AM

  Fighting sickness just before leaving the states did not help my transition down under, as I have been coughing up green stuff for nearly two weeks and I am honestly surprised that I have not progressed with my sickness. I have been feeling like I really need a solid anti-biotic to knock everything out and I was chatting with Janna about the local pharmacy's during her off day on Monday. In Australia, the drugstore's are called "chemist", it sounds a bit sketchy to me, but its a legit place for vitamins and medicine. Initially I am thinking of some odd ball drug dealer who has a little shack in the back alley and people call him "the chemist".  Janna seems to be about tired of my coughing up a lung and spitting globs of mucus out on the pavement at this point, so I am trying to rest up and take a solid dose of "Ultra preventative" pills I brought from the Greenapple Sports & Wellness Center.

Marcus and Alba Barton Look alike's

Cody pre-race

  Friday was a struggle for me mostly, I tried napping and also tried running, which both were very ineffective. Trying to nap when the sun light is out, really through me off and then running with my weak and broken down body proved to be a bad decision on my part. Once the late afternoon arrived, Janna and I met Cody and Neil aka Berrylicious at The Running Centre and promptly drove to one of the local tracks where the WA marathon club hosted a 10,000m race. Cody was registered and hoped I could pace him through the 5k in just over 16 minutes while obviously my body had different plans so I was relegated to calling splits and taking pictures. Gerry aka G-money was also racing the 10k, his first on the track so I was cheering him on and updating each as to their positions in the race. Roberto Bussi, the local road racer was looking to hit the sub 30:30 mark in order to qualify for the Emil Zatopek 10,000m on the track later this season, so we knew it would be a fast race.

Sydney Olympic games High jump pit

It was exciting watching a track race again, I was half out of it but it still was pretty cool. I missed some of Cody's splits for him and mostly took crappy photo's but I tried none the less< G-money went balls to the walls from the start with the leaders and hit 4:53 at the mile and still managed a 4th place finish and sub 33 10k. Cody ran a very even race, basically leading some guy for 22 laps around the track whom was wearing an ipod and then eventually sped off over the last 1/4m to put a nice gap on him. 32:46 was Cody's official time, good enough to win a toolbox at the end of the night. I was ready to leave as the weather was actually pretty cold and not what I anticipated. 

10k Start

Cody & Gerry battling

 All in all everyone did very well and then we had the after party at "Macca's" aka McDonald's, yes I said it. 8 of us made our way to McDonald's were I ordered a double big mac and Cody picked out a milkshake. I was able to experience the locals to a whole new level while eating with my new friends. Some younger people ran into the building, making all kinds of noise, obviously very intoxicated. this is when I realized that the drinking age is 18 here and I was notified that many of the teens had some serious drinking issues, from what I could see was evident.

Oh man I really want a cheeseburger, it has been so long!

On Saturday morning we met up at the running centre just before I would embark on my 1st driving experience "down under".  I had to take my bike across town to Matt Illingsworth in order to have it pieced together so that I can start training.

 Here I am just before starting the Hyundai Accent, driving on the left hand side of the road, and shifting gears with my left hand. It was weird to say the least and the funniest thing of all I thought of was, can anyone just get a car and drive? I mean I don't have an international permit or insurance, oh well, keep it on the hush
  





Janna showed me how to get to a small town called SobiacoWTF

Tastings burger in Sobiaco

Yummm

After we left the cafe', we found our way to the market, and this my 1st experience in a farmers market in all my years actually. Wow was it insane, people everywhere and fresh fruit everywhere! The prices were much cheaper than they would be at the supermarket so Janna and I picked up a few things amongst the chaos.

 We made our way to our final destination, "woolworths" which is a grocery in Perth that Janna prefers. It was basically like any traditional shop back home with a few exceptions of course. I noticed they had a section labeled "cordials", what the hell is that? I look closer and it looks like dish soap or something, so I had to snap a picture naturally. Ok, so I find out its basically like a concentrated drink mix that you blend w/water. It's actually pretty tasty and similar to any fruit drink back home.

 Gerry and his family kindly invited all of us over to their home for a dinner feast of sorts. We had some kind of excellent fish accompanied with vegetables, potato's, some cheese and a good portion of bread. I wanted to check out this whole Vegemite thing, so Gerry hooked me up with a bit on my bread. Boom! It was actually good, not sure I anticipated that but it was. He said that I could not lather the bread with it as I naturally would have but just spread it very lightly. THANKS AGAIN to the Hill family for hosting us, the food was amazing and healthy to boot! 

Vegemite! Not too bad, try it out sometime! The enormous bowl of fruit and vanilla ice cream to follow was the real treat. Freshly cut fruit is always good and when its topped with ice cream, its heaven. I may ask the Hill family to adopt me simply because they have a pool, make a feast at dinner time and have cable tele!

Training Smart = racing good

- After many years of trial and error I have stumbled upon wisdom in the form of training. In my younger days I tried to defy the logic that I could run certain paces with lack of proper training simply because I was going to "man-up". Well I did fairly well with this philosphy but never quite hit those goals. Over the past 2 years I have finally began reaching my potential and along the way have set new PR's from the mile to the half marathon.

The reason this happened was because of consistent training and much of it was specific focus. I PR'ed in the half marathon and with some loose running afterwards I ended up setting a 10k PR after having a good time at cooper river the day before as well as knocking out a big 5k PR, finally breaking the 15:30 barrier, and also making the 2009 World Duathlon championships.

I have been in focus for the last 6 weeks on the Turkey Trot 8k, hoping to break 26:30 maybe 26:20 and setting a new PR. One of the main things I have learned about proper training is PROPER RECOVERY. Eating correct, stretching, and drills make a huge difference, even compression provides a large benefit. After these past 2 years it has all come together and thats why I have total confidence and faith in a training regimine that i want to share with others. I have yet to be seriously injuried in any way and I have only climbed higher and higher with my goals.

-Once I get the mental side of things down at every race I will be golden. I have a habit of picking one or 2 races to really excell at lay back on the others. Training for 3-4 weeks before a marathon does not mean you are in marathon shape< I could easily run a sub 2:50 marathon in my opinion right now but I want to take it to another level when I race a marathon again and that's breaking 2:40, which requires more specific focus along with higher mileage.

Here's to you Mr. Marathon, I will be coming for you again in the new few years.....
Train Smart
Race Smart

2009 World Championship Recap

The 2009 World Championship was an amazing experience to say the least. I had to buckle down and train on the bike and by foot for the first time ever really. After qualifying for worlds I gathered up $ to buy a new Kestrel Talon to train and race on which was a big chunk of change for me. After the outcome at worlds I was initially very upset because of my training didn't show on race day due to other outside factors.

I had the most support I have ever had for a race by family and friends it was amazing! I heard my name so many times while running and bike through the infield of lowe's motor speedway it certainly helped me push harder each time. Unfortunately for the spectators it was raining almost the entire time so it was a bit miserable, but it wasn't anything that beer and grey goose couldn't change.

10 minutes before the start of my world championships race, it hit me and i freaked. I left my ankle chip in the transition area as well as my cycling shoes were IN MY CAR!!! I was there for 3hrs socializing and not focusing that I forgot all of this. The transition area was closed but I convinced the monitor to please let me grab my chip and then to throw my shoes near my bike. Thank the lord I remembered my shoes and I got to the start line w/4 minutes to spare.

At the line, people were talking but in other languages, it was pretty cool. I was on the 2nd/3rd row from the front and then the gun fired. I wanted to be near the front of the pack because i knew i had good fitness but also because my fans would be at about 1/2m into the race cheering. We took off and at about that 1/2 mile I was thinking this is WAY to fast then I heard on the intercom, "if these guys keep this pace they will be running faster than the pro's, this is suicidal", then I knew I needed to back off a bit ha-ha. 5:05 was my first mile according to Cody. After a mile I began to have some very bad breathing problems so I tried to get my composure back so that I could finish solid.

Aubrey was in front of me the entire time, cody caught up at about 2.5 miles and I gave it all I had to stay w/him through the spectator area and just after that I couldn't do much more. at 2.5m when cody said "hey man they will start coming back to us" I told him to upzip my back because i could not breath at all, hoping this would open up my breathing, WRONG. That team USA one piece was just way too tight for me. I haven't had breathing problems like that in years, it sucks that it happened the day of the biggest race of my life!



Once the 10k finished it was raining really hard and my shoes were water logged. I hit the transition and noticed cody was already gone. I grabbed my bike and hit the road, with a slow mount and a slow start because there was a sharp curve and I was afraid to bust it. The 1st 2 miles I rode very conservative because I saw 5 people actually wreck it was crazy, we were riding through areas that were flooding. At about 4 miles into the ride my left leg began to get tight then I tried to stretch on the bike and it LOCKED UP. I had never had this happen in my life, it hurt so bad, i didn't know what to do because i couldn't pedal. I was going about 21mph, then i was coasting at about 11mph pedaling w/one leg.

At this point, i knew my race was way out of the window, with the goal not to wreck. Eventually after a couple miles the muscle lock released and I could pedal fairly normal. The 2nd loop, I finally decided to let it rip. 2 guys passed me with Disc and I said "F--k It, no one else is going to pass me and I am going to reel these 2 guys in" I went for it and rolled them up while maintaining a high cadence weaving through people. Catching guys in my division was a new thing for me, as the goal is to just not get passed by as many people as possible is the goal usually. When we hit one of the final climbs I clicked through my gears into the small ring real quick and BAM...the chain was on the ground 1/2 way up a hill, dammit!

After stopping and watching everyone pass me who I had spent the last loop putting ground on, it pissed me off. What a freakin day! I finally got back to my transition area and i realized when i went to mount my bike, cody's bike was in my place. I had a lot of trouble slipping into my shoes but finally hit the trail w/a roctane. I began passing people in the transition and knew I had a chance to roll up a lot of people, but it didn't happen like tri's or duathlons usually do for me. Mostly because I ran 18:19 for 5k which was the SLOWEST I have ever ran to close out a race. My breathing problems and cramping kept fighting each other, it sucked. with about 3/4m left, I passed one USA guy and said "come on we are almost there man", he jumped on my shoes and stayed there and tried to pass me going onto the last finishing straight away. We took 2 sides of the straight away passing numerous people in the middle and I knew I COULD not get out kicked in front of my family, so I gave it one big push and got 1 second on him in the end.

The experience is something to take w/me, knowing that the next big race, I need to get away from everyone 30minutes before the race to focus. I thought I was going to get hypothermia from the weather but i rushed from the speedway as soon as I could after giving congrats to aubrey and cody. What a race both of those guys had, i was proud to be apart of their group and a usa teammate. G$ was certainly the highlight of the race for most people, as he painted himself blue and had USA across his chest. After the 10k portion of the run, he managed to disappear and wind up asleep in a garage somewhere, PRICELESS....



Special thanks to all of my friends and family who came out, it meant a lot to me, thank you all for cheering in the cold and rain!!!