Abu Dhabi, Dubai & New York City. What a Trip!

Finally I had the time to Upload to the pictures from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, & New York.

It was pretty hard because Paola shoot more than 3,000 pictures.
I just love to say this...... "THIS WAS THE BEST TRIP OF MY LIFE" and I keep saying that at least once a year, that means we are going to the right places, or least to "our" Right places.

Abu Dhabi is unreal............ Everything is perfect and beautyful, & The Hotel Shangri-La just made it seem even more perfect.

Since the moment you enter the lobby you know you are in a Special Hotel, I've never seen anything like it, the service and disposition of everyone is above normal, they make you feel like a Sheik, the view of the Zayed Mosque is amazing, you can see it from every place in the Hotel, and at night the Ilumination of the pool with the Purple Mosque in the Background seems unreal.

The race as I said in my previous Blog, was almost perfect, I know that the organizers want this to be one of the most important Triathlon races in the world, and I think they achieved that in the very first attempt.
After the race, we went to a Safari in the desert, an expert driver took us on a Toyota 4 Runner along with other 7 or 8 Toyotas, and going up and down 60 meters high Dunes is an experience I wont forget, ever.

After about and hour, we stop to see the Sunset, and that's something you want to see in the Desert, then we arrived to the Camp Site where we had Libanese food, Shi Sha, Camel Riding and a Belly Dancer Show.

Dubai was also pretty amazing, the Burj Khalifa Tower is the tallest in the World, with 800 meters you kind of loose the perspective of things, the Tall Buildings at it's side are pretty tall, but they seem tiny, and then you think about the sorrounding thing, like the Fountains and the Mall in the explanade below, even that the Fountains are twice bigger than the Fountains of the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Then.......... New York. It was a long time since I visited NYC, and I didn't remember that I liked it so much, even that this kind of life has nothing to do with Triathlon, I kind of like it, It has a "something" about it that's pretty cool and adictive. We went for a run in Central Park almost everyday, then have breakfast in a random place in the Strees, we just looked for a different "cafe" So there we were, next to the usual kind of New Yorkers, ha ha! Very Very different one from the other, this is where you get to find so many different people.
We went to a Knicks Game, and to the Liberty Statue, we were also turning experts in the Subway, and we also walked and walked and walked a little more.
One of the best things about triathlon, is that you get to travel and meet interesting people and places, and like this trip, places that if it wasn't because of a race, we might have never visited, and now we can't wait to come back.

Abu Dhabi International Triathlon, Race Recap. 3rd Place.

Yesterday was the day that I've been waiting, and training for more than 120 days. It was a long wait, and with it came a lot of expectation from this race, so to tell you the truth the previous days I was a little nervous, the long long trip to Abu Dhabi and all the waiting made difficult to take it as "just another race"

This time there was my family here to watch me race, so my thinking was
"I took them all across the Globe to watch me race, I just can't let them down"
So the simple idea of having a flat tubular, gave me nightmares.
There were also other things to worry about, even I didn't wanted to think to much about it, but they were always in the back of my mind.

One of them was the approach that I took with my training for this new distance for me, my longest race before this was Half Ironman distance races, so 90kms at race pace was the longest distance I ever done. And my approach to training for a 200kms bike ride, was the opposite as almost everyone does it, instead of doing various Long & Slow Rides, I took it with mid distance (90-120k) At slightly below race pace, so my longest ride in the year was just one, of 120kms. So even that I knew I had it in me, there was this fear of the 200kms that I have never, ever ride in my life.

There was the Heat factor also. I like the hot races, and I tend to handle the heat ok, but the previous days here in Abu Dhabi were just too much, I was starting to doubt of my affinity with the mercury.

And the last one, was the field.........it was like a Kona Week, everyone was very fit, so I knew it was going to be "Hard" in every aspect.

4am.......... and I was already up and ready to go, after a Good Breakfast, we went to the Emirates Palace, a Hotel that really deserves a couple of lines, it's simply AMAZING!
It's the most expensive Hotel ever built, 3,000 Million Dollars, it has 850,000 m2 of floor space, an underground parking for 2,500 cars, and the exterior has 114 domes of 60 meters high. so being on it's beach front at T1 was a privilege.

So there I was preparing my stuff in T1 with a surreal view of this amazing changing color hotel in the background.
The swim was 2 laps of 1500 meters and a 100 meter dash in the sand in between. My first lap was right on time, 23 minutes, and my second I think I didn't swim straight, because I lost a minute, coming out of the water in 47 minutes.

Already in the bike I knew it was going to be a hard & hot day, much more than the previous days, because I had been training at that time, and it wasn't as hot as this day at the same time.
The bike course was in the Corniche that is along the beach front of Abu Dhabi, where all this super hyper modern buildings are, so the first 7kms of the course are extremely beautiful. but then you cross the first out of many bridges, and enter the real Desert, at the moment you start seeing the sand dunes you feel the temperature rising, the view was fantastic, and I was feeling also fantastic, the first 40k split came in 1:04, the second 40k in 1:05:50, the 90kms split was 2:27 and the 180kms split was 4:57 for a Total of 5:30 pretty much what I expected in the right conditions, the only "problem" was that this were no right conditions by any means.....

The heat was just like being in a barbecue, just like Bjorn Andersson later said it. I was pushing like there was no run after the 200kms bike ride, I knew I was taking a risk of blowing up, but since biking is my strongest leg, it was also my best bet, so there I was hammering through a hotter than hell heat, some winds, and hot water & gatorade at the aid stations.

It was a real hard bike, but it also had something that no Triathlon race in the world has.......
You get to enter and ride the incredible "ABU DHABI YAS MARINA FORMULA 1 CIRCUIT" this was a rest for your mind and body the 2 times we rode the 4 kilometers of the circuit. The surface of the Abu Dhabi roads is very smooth, but as I entered the Yas Marina Circuit was like there was someone pushing me, the pain in my legs was gone and the mind was to busy enjoying the surreal view of the buildings like the Ferrari Building, or the Yachts parked inside the Marina that's inside of the circuit, it was like being inside an X-BOX game of car racing.
(I can't wait for the pictures)

After 150kms I started to feel cramps in my thighs every time I was out of the saddle, so for the next bridges I was forced to stay in the saddle.

Arriving a T2, there was a smile in my face when I saw my bike split of 5:30, but that smile turned into a scream of pain when I took my first stride, my left thigh was cramping bad, and the floor was like a frying pan, after a couple of steps the cramp started to fade away, so I knew I was ok for that 20kms run that was in front of me, and that I was pretending it didn't existed for the previous 6 hours, now it was about time to start thinking they were as real as the 3k of swiming plus the 200kms bike ride.

The run was ok, I never felt like I was suffering, I just didn't have another gear, the first lap I did it, in 40 minutes, and the second in 46 minutes, for a total of 7:48 enough for a podiumo 3rd place in the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon.

p.s. as soon as I have time, I will upload some pictures in the Gallery @ http://www.janosoto.com/

My better Half.

Today I'm feeling good because is hard for me to even climb the steps in my house. That's a good sign in your day off with just some days to go, till the next race.

It's been a long wait and lots of hard work since my last Half Ironman at the Worlds in Clearwater last November, but I have this nice feeling that I did my job.

And is in this time off that I've been thinking a lot in my other half, the best one, my better Half... Paola.

I really know how lucky I am to have someone like Paola by my side, in this last few months I know I've been like a maniac, full of energy in the morning and depleted in the afternoon, I know the bipolar mood changes we triathletes have while training, and it's amazing to realize how easy she changes to good, something that for other couples can be hard.

I have to give her credit for pushing me to train when I needed to train, and holding me back when I needed to rest, I've always relied a lot in listening to my body, but I think she might have a super coach soul inside, she can actually read me better than I do, she's been taking care of my nutrition and even my hours of sleep.

So this last few months the correct way to say it, is "We've done the work, now lets RACE"

I know that this nice feeling won't last long, and it will turn into butterflies in the stomach, I know it's going to feel like that because of the same long waiting, also because it will be, by far..........my longest race ever.

This year "we" decided that my goal was Kona, and this is the first step, I know that the whole road is going be tough, but I'm enjoying every minute of it. I'm starting to think that I like pain ( maybe just like every triathlete, ha ha)

In this last few months I discovered that I really like the long distance, maybe it's too soon to say that, but at least I like training for it, lets hope I can say that after I cross the finish line.

After Abu Dhabi, a new chapter in my life will begin, and it has the M-dot written all over.

I might never have the M-dot tattoo, but with the new training surely it is already stamped under my skin.

It's not only the Ironman race that made Hawaii so special for me and for Paola, there's something about the Island and it's Ohana, that makes you never want to leave that place, Paola felt the same, so in May, we will be arriving with plenty of time to make a good training camp for the Honu 70.3 (that's the next step) So the 2010 year ride starts now..........

This month there will be a Kiwami advertise in the French Triathlete Magazine, where I will be using the new Konami Trisuit, Super comfortable, by the way!

Check it out:

www.kiwami.co.uk/shop/konami-trisuit_1-60.html Or http://www.kiwamitri.com/ for the U.S.

I love what they wrote in the Ad, I just can't get it out of my head. And I don't want to, I love it!

I hope I can buy the magazine in the Zurich Airport.

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