Tag: hawaii

2016 here I go

April 6, 2016

It’s already April and my triathlon racing is finally going to start next weekend. I have been training with very little rest since November of last year and I am hungry to race.

Ironman_703Florida

 

A lot has happened after my Boulder race, I have a new coach, a new way of training, lived in NY, then back to Colombia, then back home and finally  I have settled in my student/triathlete life now and made it manageable.

My main focus for this year is to participate (and do well) in any, or both, world championships. I have big goals in the sport and I know that this year is the start of it. For the past few weeks I was lucky enough to go to Boulder, CO and train with my coach, Rebekah Keat which has been the most amazing experience to be under her guidance.

IMG_1162 (1)

My year will start on Florida 70.3 in Haines City, a non-pro race. Right now my feeling is just to race, have fun and absolutely give it my best. Being the first of five races of the year it’s not an A race for sure but I am looking for a positive result, as always.

Physically I feel well, I have improved a lot since I started with Rebekah and I know that this race will show my hard work until now. As in every race I have 5 goals to achieve, which I will keep to myself for now, I will comment on them AFTER the race, but what I cna say is that they’re tough, I am setting a high bar that I know I can get to it if I have the performance I know I am capable of.

That’s all for now, post-race thoughts and goal achieving to come next week.

What happened in Boulder (Part 1)

October 15, 2015

Ironman Boulder was supposed to be a breakthrough race for me, the spot where I would finally get my slot to Kona and be able to race among the best in the world, plus some other people that go there by other accomplishments; racing a lot or paying a lot, anyway, still almost all of who go to Hawaii are the best in the world and I wanted to take a shot against all of them.

I went to Boulder with such great expectations, a race in altitude and with a hilly bike leg, Just like where I grew up and where I train every day, sounds like a good match. Boulder, as we all know, happens to be the home for many top triathletes and that had me excited too, to meet some of them and to see the place they all go to become the best in the world, and since in the future I want to be one of them it was exciting to see where they lived.

I arrived there with my dad and we were automatically blown away by the beauty of this place, it was just simply amazing, the city, the landscape, everything. Plus, you saw people cycling, running, walking or just doing some kind of activity wherever you looked.

Boulder

After building up my bike, which is always uncomfortable on a hotel room I was ready to hit the roads for my first training day in the course. I had to bike 1:30 with some short efforts, just a little above race pace. Once I started my ride I felt it was meant for me, the course had these false flats, some downhill and the screaming fast flats, broken up by more hills. I felt great, my power was great and I just thought to myself that I was going to nail this race.

The next few days were all about training, swimming, running and some more biking. The swim had to be in a pool since the reservoir was only opening on certain days at a certain hour, so I went to a local pool. Every day throughout the week was the discussion about the water temperature, some people said there was no way it wasn’t going to be without a wetsuit, other said it was already too hot to be wetsuit legal, and it just went back and forth, bets came in place, pros were saying one thing, other were saying other, it was just funny to hear all of this. I was just mentally prepared for anything, Personally I couldn’t care less how the swim was going to be, I had swam a lot for this race and knew I could have a good swim that was going to set me up for a killer bike leg.

As for the run, one image says more than a 1000 words…I had the honor to run in this kind of scenery

Boulder Run

The day before the race I was very lucky to meet Ben Hoffman and Tim Don, two guys that were incredibly kind a we had a really good conversation about a lot of stuff. I also got some good advice on the course, gear, goals, it was a just a really cool conversation. It was just so much fun to have met those two guys the day before. Oh and The Hoff speaks fluent Spanish!

Tim Don

It just made me even more prepared to what I came for…to win.

Little that I knew, Boulder had a little surprise for me.

part 2 shortly…

Top 1%

February 9, 2015

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2014 was an extremely positive year, an I’ve written about it in my previous posts. Another result, that I am really happy with, is that I was able to finish within the top 1% in my Age Group (25-29) in the IRONMAN ranking. It is just another token that tells me that I am on the right path to the top but still a long way to go. Anyway, its a pretty good result, out of 10,917 that raced in my age group in 2014, not only was I in the top 1%. I ended up on 59th place, with a year best of 11. (yes, there was a time of the year were I was on 11th place), still to end up in the top 60 is a really good accomplishment.

To me, all these little things help me get through the harsh times, there are days when you don’t want to do anything, don’t even want to look at your bike, but is all these accomplishments, and the future goals that make me get up, do what needs to be done, enjoy it, and at the end of the day be glad that I overcame whatever mental lockdown was holding me.

To some people this might not mean anything, to me it means that all of the training that I put in, the racing, the money, my family’s sacrifice, etc. Paid off, that I can accomplish whatever I set myself into, the only secret to it is discipline and hard work, and that applies to anything, whatever floats your boat in life…be disciplined, work hard!

2015…looking ahead

December 4, 2014

Its that time of year where we can dream about the new season to come, and with that new challenges, new goals, and an unstoppable desire for success. For me the goal is one…make it Kona. It is indeed a hard goal to reach, but I believe in myself, If I don’t nobody else will. So in order to race in October I have to set up my 2015 plan which also sounds simple: Two Ironman races, one in may and one in August. The reason for them being two is to have a back up plan in case something goes wrong on the first one. But my determination and my training plan is set to get my ticket in May. My two races are going to be Texas and Boulder; I chose these races first because of their dates and second because of my skills. \ Ironman_Texas1

Texas is very hot and humid and where I come from is also really hot and where I live right now the humidity is twice what it is over there. It is a warm race and until today my other Ironman racing has been done in cool weather so it would be nice to change. Other things are that I will be racing with some friends from back home and that is always good, the goal os for all of us to qualify in this race.

ironman_boulder1

I actually chose Boulder before Texas because this town is the mecca for triathlon and how nice would it be to get to know the place!, but my reasons for this race were because of the altitude, I’m used to it, where I’ve lived all my life is about 5,000ft (1,600m) above sea level so that would definitely be an advantage. Also because of the course, is also really similar to what I’m used to. The other reason is that an August race would most definitely have a roll down so that would mean that if I don’t have my expected race I still have a chance of getting my spot in the roll down. My third piece of the puzzle for this year is to find sponsorship, This is a highly expensive sport and I am finding it very hard to combine it with being a student and having almost no income. I will be part of my coaching Age Group Elite team in QT2 systems, so that is a starting point. But I will be knocking on doors and setting up a plan to find people, brands, companies that believe in what I do and want to partner up in order for me to chase this dream.

I can feel that 2015 is going to be my year, I WILL QUALIFY TO KONA. I am going to do whatever it takes to make my dream come true of being among the best in the sport.
this finish line, I will cross it on 2015.
this finish line, I will cross it on 2015.

oh, and by the way, my 2015 already started a month ago, so training is under way! I hope that all of you who are reading this reaches their goals for the season to come in whatever is that you do!

If you have any questions, comments, sponsorhip offers, or just want to know more feel free to contact me at any time!