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.
Archived Blog Entries: December 2009 - April 2010
| April 26th: Packing up for St. Croix | ||||||||||||||||||
| I'm packing up today to head out early tomorrow morning for St.Croix Ironman 70.3. I raced there in 2008 and loved the race and experience, so I really wanted to get it back on my schedule. It's been far too long since I've done a major race (November), so I'm itching to get out on the race course. These last couple weeks have been great in terms of my fitness and my hard effort races/workouts. My South Mopac bike time trial 10 days ago went well. My first 8 mile time trial was only 5 seconds slower than my all time fastest. Then after a 20 minute easy spin, I put in a second 8 mile time trial and was only 1 second slower than the first. I've never been able to put in that strong of a second effort. Usually my second TT is about 30-40 seconds slower than the first because I'm so smashed. But only losing 1 second was a good indicator that my endurance at a high effort level is really good now. Then last weekend, I races a small, local first year triathlon here in Austin called the Lake Austin Triathlon. I put in a great effort and won that race (also the first time I've ever had the lead out of the water!!!). Then a couple days later I raced in the Pure Austin/Jack and Adams Splash and Dash (a swimming and running race). I was really happy with how my body responded to all of these efforts. My run is spot on, so that feels good going into a race with such a tough course like St. Croix. So after a long winter with some setbacks, it's really good to feel like the old me again. The race in St. Croix is so much fun, so that just ups my excitement level! St. Croix is not a race you go to make your fastest time. I think most are about 15-20 minutes slower there than on the faster Ironman 70.3 courses. It's hot, humid, hilly, and windy...but fun. The island atmosphere is laid back, but at the same time the race attracts one of the most talented professional fields in the sport. So today is devoted to getting in my workouts and preparing for my trip. I will have internet at my home stay in St. Croix, so I will be posting pictures and updates throughout the week. Check back throughout the week and I'll get up some more updates. Pat |
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| April 13th: First Hits Out | ||||||||||||||||||
| With St.Croix Ironman 70.3, my first major race of the season, about 3 weeks away, I figured it was time for a few solid hits out in training to get my body used to the racing feeling. So over the next couple weeks, I've scheduled in some fun races/events to get those first few efforts into my system. Tonight, I'll be racing at the Run-Far South Mopac Time Trial. It's an informal cycling time trial race that's hosted a couple times per month by the race timing company Run-Far. I haven't gone in over a year and I used to do it monthly as a training race. Basically, you put on your race wheels, aero helmet, slap a timing chip on, and then ride 8 miles as hard as you can. I usually warm-up for about an hour, then do the course once with the timing chip all out. Then take the chip off, ride easy for another 20 minutes, do the loop again all out to see how close I can come on the second loop to my first loop's time, then cool down for a while. It's a fun event and a good checkpoint to see where your fitness is at. I know all of my old records, so I'm curious to see where my current fitness stacks up. Then this Sunday, I signed up for the Lake Travis Sprint Triathlon. It's a 750M swim, 13 mile bike, then 5k run. I think it's a new race. I'm looking forward to getting that short hard effort in my system and getting my competative drive kicking. It should be a fun event. Finally, next Tuesday, I'm heading out to the Pure Austin Splash-N-Dash hosted by Jack And Adams. This is a fun monthly race held out at Quarry Lake in Austin. It's a 750M open water swim followed by a 3k run (~1.8miles). Its a short and fast race. Again, it'll be nice to get these hard short efforts back into my system before I head out to St. Croix in a few weeks. That's it for now. I'm really happy with how my fitness is really starting to come around after a rough winter. More to come soon. Pat |
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| April 2nd: New Sponsor PowerBar Team Elite | ||||||||||||||||||
| I am happy to announce that I will be part of PowerBar's Team Elite for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. I have been a user of PowerBar's products for years, so now being a formal part of their Team Elite is a great honor. I am excited to represent PowerBar's company, products, and team in the coming seasons. The research and sports nutrition science behind its products makes PowerBar the leader in the sports nutrition industry and the best option for my training, racing, and recovery. The PowerBar gels are by far my favorite sports energy gel on the market and you'll always see a couple PowerBars sticking out of my bike jersey pockets on long rides. PowerBar also has an unparalled product breadth to suit all of my lifestyle's needs.
Pat |
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| March 30th: 1379 Kids Triathlon Clinic | ||||||||||||||||||
Over the weekend, I partnered with 1379 Kids clothing store in Austin to host a childrens and families triathlon clinic. This event was in conjunction with the launch of the 1379 Kids Triathlon Series in the Austin area this summer. Families were invided to 1379 Kids clothing store for the free clinic where I talked about the sport of triathlon, what to expect in their first races, equipment for training and racing, racing and training techniques, as well as sports nutrition.  This was a great activity and I'm really happy to be part of a community here in Austin that is encouraging children to be active and live healty lifestyles. If we start encouraging children at a young age and serve as positive role models, we can start them learning good habits. I had a really fun time talking to the kids and families about triathlon and my experiences. It's always fun to get out in the community and hopefully play a positive role. I'm looking forward to doing more fun events with 1379 Kids!  Pat |
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| March 24th: Announcing partnership with Quintana Roo Bicycles for 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
| I am happy to announce that in conjunction with Jack and Adam's Bicycles in Austin, I will be partnering with Quintana Roo Bicycles for 2010. I am very excited to ride the new Quintana Roo CD 0.1 bicycle for this coming season. Myself, Jack and Adam's (a Quintana Roo dealer), and Quintana Roo are working together in a way that will be spotlight the CD 0.1 both in the local Austin market as well on a national level. I believe this partnership will be very beneficial to all parties.
The new bike has arrived at Jack and Adams and is being built as I type. New pictures to come soon! Pat |
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| March 21st: Year of the setback | ||||||||||||||||||
| The start of this year has been different than any I've experienced to date. It's really teaching me lessons in remaining patient. Last week I did something to my soleus (lower of your calf muscles). I'm not sure if it's a pull or a strain, but it's knocked me out of biking and running for a bit. I haven't been updating my blog entries as much because I was waiting until I had a few weeks of great training and progression with some positive news to report. It seems like this year just keeps holding me back from getting my mojo. Since my last blog entry, I was excited to be back training again. I had just been sick for about 3 weeks in February and recovered from an end-of-2009 injury before that. I was ready to start preparing for 2010. After around a week of good training, I came down with another bug. This one was only a cold, but it was frustrating because I had spent the whole month of February sick. I could pretty much train with this one, but I was not 100%. It took me about 10 days to kick that one. Then excited to be finally healthy again, I started back again. My running has not come back fully yet from December, so I had started adding a little intensity to try to get my turnover back. I was out running some 1000s on Wednesday and I did something bad to my soleus. I had to walk home from the run and haven't been able to run since. I don't know how long this setback will take to heal, but with the string of health problems my 2010 year has started with, I'm learning to let go of my expectations for now. So for the time being, I can't say what my first races will be. I may be able to race in Galveston in five weeks, but if my body is not ready, I'm going to delay my season start. This has been such a strange first three months of the year, that I'm throwing all rules for setting up a season out the window for now. I may race in April, May, maybe June. But for now I can't say. I need to let my body come around on its own time rather than on the timeline that I set months ago. The positive part about this latest injury is that I can put in another swim block. I started hitting up some double swim sessions and gym sessions. I started doing easy spinning on the indoor trainer for the bike, but won't go outside yet because the hills hurt my calf. Mentally, I'm in a good place. Dealing and coping with setbacks can be a real challenge. Since January, I've felt like it's been more setbacks than progress, so I'm learning to let go and have my own timeline for fitness. I don't need to be on anyone elses plan or fit for their races. I just need to be fit for my races and if that means it's later in the year than in the past for me, then that's just fine. So for the time being, if you we happen to talk at the bike shop or at the pool and you ask me if I have any races coming up, I'll just smile and say "I don't know, we'll just wait and see." Pat |
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| March 4th: Back in the Swing | ||||||||||||||||||
| It's nice to have a couple good weeks in a row of training. I wasn't able to put together a training camp in another location this year, so I'm training like I do at a training camp here from home. That, in itself, presents some challenges, but I am really happy to be back in the swing of things. I just finished up a good 10-day cycling block where I put in over 1000km (620 miles) in 10 days. I was still running and swimming every day as well, but I made the cycling a focus for that time. I really needed a good jumpstart to my cycling training. I often feel that the key to the first few weeks of getting fit again really means just miles at the start (some call this base training). Then after a couple good volume weeks, start working in intensity, and presto you're fit again after a month. After a few solid recovery days, I'm on to my next 10-day block where my focus is on the run quality and miles. I'll keep my biking and swimming solid, but like the last couple weeks, my focus here is to jumpstart my running. The way my body has been responding, I really feel that after this block, I will officially be back on track. It's been a winter of fits and starts, but I am back and really starting to feel like myself again. It also helps that we've gotten a little better luck with the weather. I saw a report that this year has been the 8th coldest in Austin since 1854. That's pretty cold. And although the temps are still below our averages for this time of year, I think we're on our way back into the "fun weather" for training. More to come. Pat |
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| February 21st: Changing 2010 Race Schedule | ||||||||||||||||||
| It's been a winter unlike one I've experienced. There have been many hiccups to my winter training that have lead me to change my 2010 race schedule. I think it's the best thing to allow me to properly build for the season. My original plan was to open my season with Ironman St. George on May 1, but I have now realized that I wasn't going to be in great Ironman racing form by that time. In the midst of coming back from injury and taking the most time away from running and biking in my career, I was making decent progress at the end of January. Then on February 1st, I got sick, and I mean sick. It was the worst bug I've gotten in years. It nocked me out for a solid 2 weeks. It took me this last week to get me back in the swing of things, so 3 weeks after I first got sick, I'm back to where I was near the end of January, still coming back from my Dec-Jan injury. Then when I put those circumstances together with the coldest and wettest winter I have ever experienced in Texas (actually December was the coldest ever recorded and February is thus far the coldest ever recorded in Austin), I found I was well behind on my build and fitness to be in great Ironman form by May 1. Rather than rush coming back, I decided to change my season schedule to allow myself time to properly build fitness and get my confidence back. I do think my new schedule will be just as fun with some great races. I posted my new schedule here. Pat |
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| January 30th: SBR Sports Inc., New 2010 Sponsor!! | ||||||||||||||||||
| I am excited to announce a new partnership with SBR Sports Inc. for 2010. I have been using their products for some time and love them, so I am happy to partner with this company. SBR Sports Inc. makes the three premier products TriSwim, TriSlide, and Foggle. TriSwim has three great post-swimming products that prevent my hair and skin from drying out from chlorine. In the TriSwim line are shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. I'm no longer getting comments about "straw hair" or getting dry, itchy skin after swim practice. TriSlide is a spray-on skin lubricant to prevent chafing and skin irritation from training. I've been using TriSlide and even on the hottest, most humid Austin summer day, I come back from a long run 100% chafe-free when I use TriSlide. The spray on application is also MUCH more sanitary than the competing roll-on skin lubricants. Foggle is an anti-fog product in convenient single cloth packaging. I keep Foggle cloths in my swim bag to avoid annoying fogged up goggles during practice. Look for these product in your local triathlon or swim shop or visit www.sbrsportsinc.com |
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| January 17th: Announcing Champion System Clothing as New Sponsor for 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
| I am very happy to announce Champion System Clothing as a new sponsor for 2010. I'm excited to be associated with this top-notch company. Champion System (www.champ-sys.com) is the premier custom sports clothing manufacturer. They have taken a new approach to custom teamwear. Champion System has the highest quality custom garments, the lowest and most flexible minimums in the business, unlimited colors with full sublimination, and a simple all-inclusive pricing structure. This enables the customers, teams and individuals alike, to achieve their custom professional look. Champion System provides custom performance and casual clothing for cycling, triathlon, running, nortic skiing, wrestling, and motor sports. Look for me to be training, racing, and hanging around in Champion System clothing this year! I hope that after seeing me in my new training, racing, and casual gear, you will want to order your next custom gear from Champion System. Pat |
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| December 17th: 2010 Race Schedule Announced | ||||||||||||||||||
| I waited a few more weeks than I would have liked to announce my race schedule for the upcoming 2010 race season. Truth be told, I had a little injury in December so rather than starting my year trying to train through a nagging pain, I decided to take quite a bit of time off or running and some time off of cycling. It was more time I've taken off of both sports in several years, but taking some down time in December is a lot less stressful than during a more critical time of the year. I actually used the time to focus on swimming. I put in some crazy swimming weeks. I even put in a 52k yards weeks in the pool. I was pretty much swimming twice a day and doing upper body weights 3-4 times a week. I am noticably stronger in the water now, so I know I'm on the right foot for the gains I need to make in the water to set myself up for success this coming year. This said, I had a couple different race schedules in mind depending on how quickly my body bounced back following my time off. I'm happy to say that I've been running for about two weeks and cycling for about three weeks without any problems so I'm pretty confident my body is ready to come back injury-free. So now I feel ready to post my planned race schedule for 2010. I decided to race 3, instead of 4 full Ironmans this year. I think racing four is possible, but my first one would have had to be in early March to have the time to race and recover from all of them. I've decided to not focus on Kona this year, rather to pick 3 full-Ironmans that suit my racing and where I have the best opportunity to make an impact. From there, I picked some half-Ironmans ("Ironman 70.3") races that fit around those major races and allow me the time to focus on those main 3 races for the season. My 2010 race season focus is on execution. I had all of the tools last year, but in Wisconsin and Cozumel, I made mistakes on my execution. Now with the gains I've made in the water and my focus on execution, I feel that the following schedule best puts me in a position for success in this coming year:
I think this schedule makes for a fun and exciting year! Pat |
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| December 17th: Website Cleanup | ||||||||||||||||||
| Since it's the new year, I've taken some time to go through and clean up my website for the new year. You may or may not notice any changes. I've swapped around a few photos, archived old content, and fixed a few errors that had been nagging me for a while. Nothing major, but now I can check that item off my "to do" list. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| December 15th: AAPER Born to Run Children's Cross Country Meet | ||||||||||||||||||
| This last weekend, I volunteered at the the AAPER Born to Run Children's cross country meet here in Austin. The event is part of the Austin School District's efforts to promote active lifestyles among children. Around 700 children were expected at this year's event with their families, although I think with the cold wet weather we had on race day, less than expected attended. This is a really great event that the Austin School District has been hosting for over 20 years. I enjoy being involved with those events that encourage children to lead active lifestyles.
This is a fun event I've helped with in the past and I love being out there with the kids. The event is for Austin area children ages 5-13, with the younger ones running a 1K route and the older groups running 1 mile. The event devides them into single age groups and genders, ex. 8 year old boys go in one wave.
My job out there, as a pro triathlete, is to give the groups pep-talks and advice before they run and congratulate them when they're finished. It's really a fun and rewarding experience. Last time I volunteered, I also acted as a "rabbit" and paced each group through the run, but this time, I'm taking a couple weeks off of running at the end of the season to let a few little naggin pains heal before I start ramping up for next year. Despite the weather and not getting to run each loop with the kids, I really had a great time out there.
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