Photo by Mario Cantu
Welcome to my blog. Here you will find postings to keep you up to date on news regarding my training, racing, and life. You can also find my race reports posted at the link below.
Race Reports, Archived Blog Entries, & Past Training Camp Reports
| Ironman Louisville Race Report |
| Click here to read my race report and see pictures from my 4th place finish at Ironman Louisville this last weekend! |
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| September 2nd: Wisdom Teeth Removed = Forced Recovery |
| I had two teeth removed today so I've got a bit of forced recovery after Louisville, which is a good thing. Since I have some couch time over the next couple days, I will have my race report and photos up soon. I found out about 2 months ago that I needed to have my wisdom teeth out soon as well as one more molar. Then at the oral surgeons, I learned that I actually have 5 wisdom teeth instead of 4, so in all, I needed to have 6 teeth extracted. Two of those were mor immediate while the other four could wait, so I scheduled the first two as soon as I could after Louisville so I could use the surgery recovery as part of my post-Ironman rest. The other four are going to come out after Cozumel at the end of the season. They're a bit trickier and have higher risk of complications so I wanted to mimize the risk of any impact on the rest of my season. The extraction went well today. Much better than I ever thought. Dr. K is amazing and really made me feel at ease. I must say that I'm a fan of nitrous now! So no workouts for a few days. I can start easy bikes and runs on Saturday or Sunday. No swimming for a week because the wisdom tooth's root was too close to my sinus so I can't do anything that my build pressure in the sinus. So now that I have couch time I have now no excuse to not put up my race report in the next day or so! Pat |
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| August 20th: Austin Fit Magazine Training Articles |
| I took the time today to scan in several training article that I wrote for and were published in Austin Fit magazine. I wanted to share the knowledge beyond just the Austin readers. I've also posted them for the long term on my News Room page. Nov-09: 5 Ways to a Faster Bike Split Page 1 Page 2 Dec-09: Learning to Race the Day you are Given: The Mental Approach to Different Environmental Conditions Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Mar-10: Sick and Training Page 1 Page 2 Jun-10: Mental Preparation for your Event Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Aug-10: 5 Ways to Survive Summer Training in the Heat Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 |
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| August 14th: Back in the Austin HEAT! |
| I came back to Austin early this week from my 3.5 week training camp in Northern Michigan. I had a great time up north. I loved spending time with my family at my parent's condo up on Lake Charlevoix near East Jordan, Michigan and I got in quite a bit of solid training. I cannot tell you how perfect the weather was in Michigan this year. I was up there for 23 days and only had one rainy day. Other than that, every day was 77-85 degrees. The lake was much warmer than last year so I didn't need a wetsuit for the open water swims. I was able to get in some serious quality and volume. I can tell you that I will be ready to go for Louisville in two weeks. My good friend and fellow pro triathlete, Terra Castro, who's also racing Ironman Louisville, came up to train for 10 days to escape the heat as well. She was already up in Michigan to visit family, so she got in some solid prep work as well. I know Terra is fit and will do great in Louisville!! I came back to Austin three weeks before Louisville to take care of things back at home and to get in some heat acclimation for Louisville. Now when I say heat acclimation, I was imagining some toasty runs and bikes, but I was not ready for the nasty steam bath that Austin has become in the last few weeks! This week, it's been 101-102 degrees every day. Tomorrow's forcast is 104!! That's not heat acclimation, that's just insanity. Ususally when we start tipping the triple digits the humidity drops, but this year it is just sticky-hot. The other day, after a 100+ degree bike ride where we got rained on, we went for a run at about 5pm. It was so humid at 5pm that there was actually steam rising off of Town Lake. Steam on a cool morning is one thing, but in the afternoon is crazy humid. Also with the super hot/humid summer, the mold allergy count is through the roof in Austin. My first 4-5 days back here, I was suffering. The combiniation of travel, the taper start (when you really feel cruddy), fighting the added heat stress, fighting a small cold I picked up in my last couple days in Michigan, and horrible allergies made my first few days here just miserable. Now, I feel like I've gotten past it and am feeling much better. Everything is starting to fall in line. The trick for me over the next 10 days will be to still get in my last few shorter quality sessions, getting proper heat acclimation, but without getting too much heat stress on my body which can slow recovery. It's just a matter of being smart and calculating over the next couple weeks. More to come. Pat |
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| July 27th: Season aerohelmet sticker update |
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I was on the bike the other day when my mind started wandering and I realized that I hadn't given an update on my aerohelmet pizza stickers for 2010. For those of you who aren't familiar with my sticker reward system, Jack (of Jack and Adams Bikes) and I put it in place a couple years ago. Just like the stickers you see on many college and high school football helmets, Jack awards me “pizza slice” stickers for my aerohelmet.
With the bulk of my season's races coming in August-November, I'm looking forward to loading up the helmet with stickers for the rest of 2010! |
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| July 19th: Michigan |
| It's one of my favorite times of the year, Northern Michigan training camp time! This year I'm shortening up the trip a bit to ~3.5 weeks, 24 days, to fit with my Ironman Louisville preparation. This has become an annual training block for me to escape the Austin July-August heat, spend time with family, and train on beautiful roads. In 2008, I came up here for a full 8 weeks, but I used that time to also write my masters thesis (I was having trouble focusing at home in Austin and needed to isolate myself). Last summer I came up for 5.5 weeks and my buddy Richie came up for three of those weeks. This year, I shortened it up by a couple weeks to fit it between my recovery from Ironman Coeur d'Alene and my taper for Ironman Louisville, so it gave me a good 3.5 weeks of solid training block. It's also the perfect timing because the temps in Austin have really started to soar. Now, it's a cool 97-99 degrees everyday in Austin, making training just debilitating. The best swimming sessions at UT are in the morning, but if you use those morning hours for swimming, you don't have any chance of having a quality run session in the heat. Then after a few hours of biking, your water bottles are as hot as steaming coffee, and you're battling dehydration every day; day in and day out. July and August training in Austin is just miserable. SO, I come up to Northern Michigan where my parents have a condo on Lake Charlevoix. The highs every day are 78-83, with cool mornings. For me, that's the perfect training weather. The roads are just great for riding. After putting up with dozens of stoplights, obscene traffic, and agitated drivers in Austin, it's so much fun to ride on nearly deserted roads through the north woods. This is a place where I can shut out all of the noise of "normal life" and just exist and train. I'm really at peace here, I sleep amazing, and my rest and recovery is second to none. My whole goal up here with regards to my Ironman Louisville preparation is to get my cycling back on track. Leading into Ironman Coeur d'Alene my running and swimming fitness were great, but my cycling fitness was probably at about 85% compared to the end of last season. While I'm here I want to get my running fitness back to where it was before Coeur d'Alene. I don't feel like I need to make any significant gains there. Swimming in the lake and at the local community pool, it's hard to make huge swimming gains, so my swimming goal is to maintain fitness and to work on my open-water swimming. I really want to focus back on my cycling so that come Ironman Louisville I can bike 5-6 minutes faster relative to the other guys, at the same effort level I used in Coeur d'Alene. With those training goals in mind, I'm excited to approach these weeks. My first day here, it was a beautiful day and put in a double ride day. 62 miles steady and strong in the morning and 40 miles in the evening with 6x10 minutes hard. I did an easy 5 mile recovery run in the afternoon between the two bikes. Then yesterday I did a 5000M open water swim in the lake with my parents and neice in the boat following, then an 18 mile long run in the evening. Today its out for a 112-125 mile long ride with a short run off the bike then an evening easy recovery swim in the lake. It's just so much fun to have a change of scenery for training and new terrain. I'll try to bring my camera on some rides and take some pictures to post along the way. Pat |
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| July 8th: Austin Fit Magazine, "Body Issue" Photo Spread |
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Check out my full-page photos in Austin Fit Magazine's July "Body Issue". Ten professional athletes were chosen to show body types from different sports. They used me for triathlon. |
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| June 28th: Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene, 7th place! Race Report |
| Click here to see pictures and read my race report from my 7th place finish at Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene |
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| June 22nd: Heading out to Coeur d'Alene |
| Getting ready to head out to Couer d'Alene tomorrow. I am ready to race. It's almost go time and I feel fully prepared and ready to roll. I'm just running around now trying to get everything ready for the trip. The last day before Ironman travel is always crazy. My taper has come along amazing. I really think I nailed it this time with my taper. I'm always trying to tweek my taper a bit to find the best of rest and staying tuned-up. The last two weeks, my legs haven't felt good at all, but that's part of the taper process. It's the hyper-compensation of your body finally repairing all of the damage you did in the prior weeks and months. Just in the last couple days, my legs have started showing really great signs. When I'm going easy, I don't feel great, but when I bring myself up to tempo pace, I feel amazing and those paces feel easy, so that's a great sign. In another couple days, I'm going to be itching to go. Now I'm letting myseld get excited to race. I haven't been this excited to hit the start line in a while. My race strategy is nailed down. My goal this race (and this season) is to bike easier than last year. My goal is to give up five minutes on the bike so that I can really nail the marathon. I think I biked the first 25 miles of every Ironman too hard in the last couple years. If I back off by five minutes, I know I can run 15-20 minutes faster off the bike. So the swim is whatever it is, then I exercise discipline on the bike especially the first half, then it's go time on the run. That's it, my plan. Simple. Execution is key. So check back soon to see a race report from this weekend. And a big thanks to all the kind birthday wishes today! Pat |
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| June 15th: Pure Austin Splash N Dash, fun time and 1st place |
| It was another great and fun night out at the Pure Austin Jack and Adams Splash N Dash last night. Just what I needed as a little tune-up for Coeur d'Alene...a good lung-cleaner. The event capped out at over 200 racers and has become a main stay in the Austin triathlon scene. Team Jack and Adams and High Five Events puts on the monthly race in conjunction with Pure Austin Gym on the third Tuesday of every month during the summer. Last night, I volunteered before the race to help with athlete check-in and then raced for fun. The event is a 700 meter open water swim around the gym's Quarry Lake, and then a quick transition to toss on the running shoes and a 3k run on the gravel path around the lake (it's actually 3.3k a trainer at the gym told me after). I raced the April Splash-N-Dash as a prep race for St. Croix, so I thought I'd do the same two weeks out of Coeur d'Alene. My times were pretty comparable this time. I was a bit slower on the swim, but we wore wetsuits in April. Last night, the water was about 82 degrees, so no wetsuit to help my speed in the water. I was about 30 seconds slower, so 4 seconds/100M without the wetsuit is about right for me. I came out of the water in 3rd place, only 18 seconds down on the first two guys. I was actually leading the swim for the first 150M or so, but then got passed, and held on for another 100 to some feet. I didn't let the lead guys get too far ahead. I passed one in transition and the first guy, who had won the May Splash-N-Dash, was up starting the run by 18 seconds. I cannot tell you how much that run hurts. I think it is much easier running off the bike rather than straight out of the swim. I think my heart rate settles in quite a bit on the bike, but right out of the water my heart-rate is sky high. I didn't hold anything back. It took me just over 1 lap of the 1.1k loop to catch the leader, then kept going. I finished in 1st place with something like a 20-30 second lead. My run time was pretty comparable (I think about 3 seconds slower than April), but it was also about 93 degrees and humid last night compared with the 75 degrees when I raced in April, so I'm more than happy giving up a few seconds to the heat and humidity. All in all, it was a really fun event. High Five and Team Jack and Adams do a first rate job (as always) hosting the event and making it safe and fun for all. They have the grill fired up after with hot dogs, chips, cookies, and sodas for everyone. It was another good indicator for me as I taper that I'm fit and ready to roll in 12 days for Coeur d'Alene. My only dissapointment was with my buddy, Brad, who it was his 36th birthday yesterday. He claimed before the event that he'd eat his age in hot dogs, but he only got through 4. He couldn't even do it for dog-years. Boo Brad! Pat |
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| June 8th: South Mopac TT, new personal best! |
| Last night, I raced the Run-Far South Mopac Time Trial and laid down a new personal best for the event. It's an informal bike race on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday nights of every month from April-October. I've been coming out to the race periodically for the last 5 years. It's a great way to test your fitness and get a solid intensity workout. Basically, Run-Far, the big event timing company in Austin/Texas sets up timing mats on an 8 mile loop that cyclist commonly use here in Austin. They turn on the mats from 6-7pm and you go when you want. It's all on your honor and not ref'd, but the point of the event is for a fun race and to test yourself. Lots of cyclists and triathletes in Austin use the event for training, testing equipment and bike positions, and as a good fitness checkpoint. My previous record on the loop had been 16:42 for the 8 mile loop. This had been whittled down by about a minute over 5 years. I did the 16:42 before Ironman Lake Placid in June of 2008. Two weeks before St.Croix in April of this year, I went 16:48. Last night, I went 16:37, for an average pace of 28.9 mph! Last night it was also raining, storming, and windy as all get-out. In fact, I almost bailed on racing because it was so windy and the roads had huge puddles. I didn't want to risk anything, but I decided to go and just told myself that if I started and it was too dangerous, that I'd just slow down. So on a calm, dry night, I know I could get a couple seconds more than what I did. I'll just save that for August when I go back 3 weeks before Ironman Louisville and see if I can crack the 16:30 barrier! It feels really good 2.5 weeks out from Coeur d'Alene as I'm tapering to lay down a fast time on the bike. Also, according to Jack (of Jack and Adams) and I, a new PR on the South Mopac Time Trial is worth an aero helmet sticker! It feels great that all of my fitness after the last 6 weeks of hard hard work is really coming around. Pat |
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| June 5th: New Champion System Clothing |
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My new Champion System custom clothing for the 2010 season arrived and it looks great. I wanted to post some pictures of my new clothing here. I'm showing just a few of the items. They've completely outfitted me with great gear. If you or your team are looking for custom cycling, triathlon, or running clothing, take a look first at Champion System (www.champ-sys.com) they make amazing stuff. See below:
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| June 1st: What a difference a month makes |
| It's been one month since St.Croix Ironman 70.3 and I've been working very hard. I'm very pleased to see the gains I've made in that time. I've been more focused in the last four weeks in my Ironman Coeur d'Alene training than I have been in a long time. I've been able to hit all of my key sessions and milestones really strong over this time. I can tell you that I am very encouraged by the gains I've made and where my fitness is at now. Now the longest sessions are behind me. I still have a few key workouts and checkpoints over the next couple weeks, but the long taper is essentially starting now (although the first week never really feels like a taper because the volume and intensities are pretty high still). I will be more ready to race an Ironman come June 27 than I have been since mid-last year. The biggest challenge for me now is to be smart and manage my workouts in the rising Austin heat. We've been sitting in the 90s and the forecast has Friday-Monday going from 100-101. I've been really good about getting a daily key session done early in the morning before the day heats up. My plan is to keep up the early sessions and to not be affraid of using the bike trainer and treadmill to avoid excessive heat stress. So for now I can say that my hard work and focus over the last month is really paying off. I'm looking for a local sprint race to jump into a couple weeks before Ironman Coeur d'Alene as a good primer. I am happy and excited to have the old me back and to be as fit and strong as I've ever been. Pat |
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| May 18th: Just train, train, train |
| I feel pretty boring because I don't have anything super new to report on my blog. Since St.Croix it's been nothing but train, train, train. I'm in the biggest training weeks for Coeur d'Alene and I'm in full-on mode. So I guess it's good that I have nothing new to report. Training is sometimes the best when you get into a groove and just plow ahead. My focus has been very simple: execute on every planned workout. Some are meant to be hard, some are meant to be easy, and some are meant to be long. Whatever my purpose on each one, all of myu energy right now is devoted to it. So when I say that there's nothing new to report, that is a good thing. It means that I'm doing what I need to do right now, which is to put in the big miles for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I'm really happy that it's feeling like everything is clicking really well right now. Maybe I'll have something a little more exciting to report in a few days, but I'm kind of hoping that I can keep my monk-like existence going for another couple weeks: sleep, eat, train, eat, train, sleep, train.....Groundhog's Day is a good thing when it's big training block time. Pat |
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| May 2nd: St. Croix Ironman 70.3, 9th place! |
| I'm very happy with another top-10 finish in a major Ironman event. Read my race report and see pictures here. |
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