Asia Pacific Ironman 70.3 Championship in Phuket, Thailand.

After being for almost 2 Weeks in Thailand and having raced last Sunday, I couldn't be happier, Thailand is such a magical place, I couldn't write this race report without writing about Thailand and also posting a couple of Pictures.... After Laguna Phuket Triathlon Sunday last week, there was no rest time, I know that's not ideal but hey, how could you miss one of the most Mythical After-parties in the Triathlon World? so right after the race there we were Jumping and Dancing like maniacs at the Rhythm of AC-DC or Black Eyed Peas! This time the party started to slow down right at midnight because most of us were racing in just 7 days.....

Next Day Monday at 7am we were on a Speedboat trip to Phi Phi Islands, we visited the Island where the Movie "The Beach" by Leonaldo li Caplio (As Thai People call him  ha ha) We also visited an Island that you can walk around the whole island in less than 10 minutes, and if you stand up in a Big rock in one of the tips of the island you can see the whole Island.... Note: It's not a sandbar! But it has a few very cool Bars ha ha!

Next dat Tuesday after a couple of hrs on the bike and an easy swim we headed to Patong for one of the weirdest nights I've ever experienced.... Let's just say that is a rated XXX Night out, Night Ladies, Ladies who do weird shows with ping pong balls amongst ohter things, and another genre called Ladyboys!


Wednesday we went to another Speedboat trip to more islands, this time we saw the place where the Movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" a 1974 James Bond 007 was filmed...
It was only until Thursday that I started to Focus a little more for the upcoming Ironman 70.3 race...........
It was my first time racing 2 weekends straight so the plan was just what I did, take it really easy a few days and then light training for the rest with just a few bursts of intensity Thursday & Friday....
One of the reasons I choose this 2 races is because of my new training weapon, The  Normatec Boots are simply "AMAZING" I know I couldn't have made it without them.

Ok Lets go back to Race day....
The Whole Week it was Sunny and Hot, just as Thailand should be, or at least as I thought it should be, Saturday the skies closed in and the rain started, when I planned to take my bike to Check in into Transition it was raining cats and dogs! So I waited until the  last minute, when I finally went there was a Foot of water flooding the Transition, and the Weather Forecast for Sunday was even worse.....
Race day appeared to be much better, we lined on the Beach start and got ready to go, the gun went off and I tried to do the same as last week, find a fast feet and get on with it..... This time it didn't worked, I lost the faster guys in the craze of the swim start, I could see 3 or 4 green caps up front, but I was never able to catch their feet.....I hate that slow guys start from the line! Why do they do that? Do they like to be passed all over, hit and elbowed?

Pros started 6 minutes ahead of us, and the first wave of Yellow swim caps started 5 minutes ahed, I started passing slow Yellows "Before" the first Ocean turnaround buoy, and that meant that it was going to be a slow swim due to the Yellow caps TRAFFIC, passing and passing people was the rest of the swim, and with every pass it came danger, cause even if they know they are slower and are about to be passed, they try everything.... So it was pretty rough, I finished the Ocean swim run over the beach part and jumped into the Lagoon, that after swimming in the Ocean it feels terrible, cause it's Hot and Frech water! So you feel more tired and you feel like you're sinking, but I tried to focus on how cool is that swim and got into my rhythm again....

I exited the water in 30 minutes and got on my Bike, the first 15kms were flat but not fast, to many corners, then there's the BRIDGE where you have to dismount a go over it running for about 300mts, it's all well carpeted so no issues there, around km 45 we hit the first set of hills, these are NASTY hills, this is the reason I had a 27 cogset in my rear cassette, by this time it was just starting to rain and some of this hills are 22% steep, so it was tricky to maintain the balance between cadence and strength, too much and your rear wheel slipped! Yeah it Slipped Uphill, every thing that goes up, must come down, so there were also NASTY downhills with sharp corners, the torrential rain was imminent, and I just wanted to get out of those hills before the skies opened and let it pour down! I was really concentrated in one of those downhills, maybe too mucho, cause when the road turned up, I had the wrong gear, and for the first time ever I completely lost my chain and got stuck in the rear wheel/frame! I think I lost a few of valuable minutes trying to fix it on the fly, until I realized I had to stop and do it by hand, then. starting in that kind of steep uphill is no easy task, the truth is that I felt like an idiot! I would regret those minutes in the end, I knew it!

As soon as I left the hilly section the Heavens came down, and they came down HARD! It was raining cats and dogs, I've never ridden in this kind of rain! 40-45km/hr and you could see nothing! NOTHING! it was pretty scary, cause there were flooded sections, it was like crossing rivers! I'm glad that the bike wheels are so thin and when you hit the water it only slows you down, so now I know my bike is Hydrodynamic too!

I crossed the bridge again, by then the rain was now normal, passed the plantation area, the airport and hit the second section of hills, by this time the road was very very slippery and I remember seeing more than a few guys go down, it's not encouraging to see a guy that you are closing in fast to go down...... makes you slow down... When I got to Transition I had no idea how I was in my Age Group, so I started in the dark, hoping Paola was there to tell me, but with that such first wave that started 5 minutes ahead it was almost impossible, the first few kms I tried not to look at my watch and just run at a comfortable pace, I had 21kms ahead of me, and those hills even that I was prepared they were going to ask for payment at some point of the run.... I looked at my watch at km 3 and I was in a 4min/km  pace, too fast.. so I tried to slow down a bit, more like a 4:20/km but then around km 7 when I heard my name I had to bang a sub 4min km, It's a boost hearing Chris Lieto Cheering on you! He had to drop out of the race after crashing a few kms into the Bike.

When I started my second lap, Paola gave me the "Look" and that meant I was not doing great, so I tried to pay attention to the numbers from my Age Group I saw at the turnarounds, It was difficult to know where I was, but I was aware of 2 guys closing in fast on me, one of them really fast, I was also closing in a few guys and I ended up passing them, But that guy number 495 was getting closer and closer, I didn't knew if we were fighting a podium finish or a top ten, but I knew he was going to catch me real close to the end, and that't exactly what happened, this guy who then I learned lives in Singapore, James Middleditch passed me around km 20.8, my plan from the last 15kms since I saw him was very simple, run as fast as possible leaving something for the end, and thats what I did, even that the last 3 kms were close to 4min pace (6:24/mile) when he passed me, I let him go a few meters hoping he let his guard down, and then I just sprinted in the corner to the finish line, I didn't knew I had that kick at the end, so at least I was very happy for the next few hrs, I saw the numbers and I thought I was 3rd place.. how wrong I was!

When I saw the list I couldn't believe that I was 9th! 6 minutes from that 3rd place, and a whole 11 minutes from 1st and 2nd! I want my revenge! I know my swim could have been better, but my Bike Split Time is that one that bothers me..... It difficult to say "I should have done this or that" cause probably I could have not run a 1:30 for the Half Marathon that at the end it was Faster than all the guys but one, that finished ahead of me!

This Race is now my Favorite and I want to come back next year, it's not a fast race, and it's by no means an easy one, it might be one of the toughest races around but is so much fun!
Thank You Thailand for one of the Best Trips EVER!

Kob Kun Kaa Thailand.... Kob Kun Kaa.

Laguna Phuket Triathlon 2011

Since I started Triathlon many years ago I read about the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, in that time it was Mike Pigg, Simon Lessing and Greg Welch the guys winning the race, Obviously it was not even a dream doing that race in such an Exotic place like Thailand..... Time went by and then guys like Craig Alexander and Greg Bennet came to win the race, this only made it more a "Mystique Race"

So Arriving to Phuket Thailand was already an accomplishment by itself, the place blew my mind from the beginning, my second time in Asia and it was a pleasure to see the same kind of Friendly and Happy People, as in Malaysia, everyone is super kind and you can feel the good vibe all around you.
Phuket is an island in South Thailand, the Beaches are "AMAZING" is like a dream, and there are thousands of them...
But let's get back to the Laguna Phuket Triathlon....... it's a very particular race.
The swim starts in the ocean, then you run in the beach just to jump into a Lagoon to swim the last 600 meters of the 1.8k, The 55kms Bike Course has a Gnarly Set of Leg Killer Hills at the beginning, some of them with a mind boggling 22% incline! Yes! 22% (according to Garmin)
And it ends with a 12km Run in a mix of Hot and Sunny Pavement, and a hard Grass Golf Course...

I did what my Coach Justin Granger told me, I got there with a 27 tooth cogset to save my legs for the run (and to be able to climb those hills)
I had a great swim at the feet of a faster swimmer than me, came out of the water fresh in 29 minutes and got into my bike getting in some nutrition as fast as possible before hitting the hills at around km6.
When we hit the Hills I took my time and tried to go as smooth as possible and always in the saddle, I saw others grind them selves up like maniacs, I let them go..... after 7 or 8 kms of hills we got to the Rolling Hills around the Airport area, I started to pass all of this guys, we were only 16kms in and they already had fried legs, then after the town I saw I was in a good position Overall, so it was hard to keep my cool, I wanted to go faster and I could, but I also wanted to have a good run...

The rest of the 55kms were between little towns and plantation areas, in some towns the School Kid were lining on the side of the road screaming and Cheering, that was a great energy boost!
By the way. Those part of plantation areas were Hot and Humid as Hell, but the truth is that it was not as "Hellish" as almost everyday in the Queen K......

My 55k Bike split was a solid 1:32 and I'm quite happy with it,  I started the Run with a 3:55km just from the excitement of seeing the Transition Area in a such a Beautiful place, and from seeing Paola and Joana who were cheering on me, it was also great to be that far away and realized that I have already quite few friends, so hearing my name in other parts of the Run Course was also very positive and energizing, in the next few kms I found a rhythm of 4:05 for the kms that were flat and 4:15 for the ones that were on the spongy grass of the rolling golf course....

It was a 2 lap course of 6km each, and when I got to the second loop Paola told me that I had to hurry up if I wanted a podium, She screamed 3 minutes from second place, I knew that if she didn't told me my placing it was because I was out of the podium, so for the first time I did a Negative Split Run during a Race, I didn't catch a place in the podium, but I'm satisfied with my race, the Run split for the 12kms was 49:50 and looking at the others my total time was right there... Maybe not enough but close..... I fell short for 37 seconds for a 3rd place and 1:06 for a 2nd place (The 1st place smoked us by  3-4 minutes)
I finished in 14th Overall (with 5 Pros) and 5th in my Age Group, But the truth is that when I say I'm satisfied I really mean motivated to train harder............

..........1- Massimo Cigana PRO ITA Swim 27:43 Bike 1:18 Run 43:54 Total Time 2:32:51

.........2- Alberto Cassadei PRO ITA Swim 24:21 Bike 1:24 Run 45:31 Total Time 2:36:56

.....3- Romain Guillaume PRO FRA Swim 24:59 Bike 1:25 Run 43:55 Total Time 2:37:08

..4- Frederik Cronenburg PRO SWE Swim 26:23 Bike 1:26 Run 43:45 Total Time 2:38:10

....5- Todd Spackman M-18-24 AUS Swim 27:14 Bike 1:30 Run 44:00 Total Time 2:43:42

.............6- Justin Granger PRO AUS Swim 27:04 Bike 1:30 Run 48:07 Total Time 2:48:04

......7- Thomas Braun M-40-44 GER Swim 27:04 Bike 1:28 Run 51:58 Total Time 2:50:49

8- Benjamin Webeck M-30-34 AUS Swim 29:35 Bike 1:30 Run 49:12 Total Time 2:51:28

.........9- Richard Hall M-40-44 GBR Swim 28:41 Bike 1:32 Run 49:18 Total Time 2:53:06

............10-Luca Figini M-40-44 ITA Swim 28:59 Bike 1:31 Run 49:26 Total Time 2:53:30

....11- Chris Bradford M-35-39 AUS Swim 29:16 Bike 1:30 Run 50:45 Total Time 2:53:36

....12- Timothy Smith M-25-29 NZL Swim 31:53 Bike 1:30 Run 48:41 Total Time 2:53 57

.................13- Ashley Dyer M-40-44 GBR 28:45 Bike 1:32 Run 50:34 Total Time 2:54:06

............14-Jano Soto M-40-44 MEX Swim 29:03 Bike 1:32 Run 49:52 Total Time 2:54:12

Lavaman Keauhou 2011

There's not to much to tell about the Race, I won my Age Group and I was 7th Overall, never felt great during the Race but it's not a fast course.........

Swim :24:47 Bike 1:04:14 Run :41:50 Total Time 2:10:51 

Video Clip Of Ironman Honu 70.3 Hawaii 2011

Kona Half Marathon & The balancing game

How cool is that the start line of your next race is exactly 0.5 miles from your front door? That's how far Paola and I had to walk to the start of the Kona Half Marathon last weekend, and in August it will be the same for Lavaman Keauhou Triathlon, I just love it!
The Race Plan was to Bang some fast miles at the beginning and then just hang in there as long as possible, because this 1/2 Marathon was more part of my training than a Running Race...

I've been working with Justin in my run for the last few weeks, and the goal at this phase is to make me a better long distance runner with Ironman in mind. So The Kona Half Ironman was a good opportunity to see how long I could hold some fast paced miles.
The gun went off and I just went on thinking I was going easy, after 3 weeks of feeling sore all the time and after a week of tapering I should have imagined that I was going to start too fast, and that's what I did

I saw the first km in 3:38 ( I thought that I might have I started a little too fast, it was also a hint to see that I was in very first place ha ha! I tried to ease it down and I found my pace in 4min per km or 6:24 per Mile, running in Alii Drive from Keauhou north up to Sports Authority where the turnaround was, at the Turnaround I still felt ok, the first 10k in 40 min so I tried to just hold that pace back to Keauhou, but 21 it's not the same as 10, around km 16 I started to struggle to hold the pace, and I got to the finish line in 1:25 6th Overall

Ironman 70.3 Honu 2011

Hapuna Beach

It's been a while since my last blog, I had a lot going on but not too much related to Triathlon that didn't required a quick update. So I kind of waited until my next Important Race.
So first... Here's the quick update since Abu Dhabi:
After Abu Dhabi I was in a pretty bad shape, all beat up in many ways, my first ever DNF, burnt Feet, the worst Jet lag ever, and to top it all I went to see the Doctor because in the last few months previous to Abu Dhabi I wasn't feeling really comfortable in my bike (saddle wise)... To make the story short I ended having Surgery that same day, they removed a mass I had down there that luckily was just a 1 inch Cyst with no traces of cancer.... On the bad side, I obviously had to stay away from my bike for a while, and let me tell you..... I had no desire at all to jump into that saddle ha ha!
So I had to skip Lavaman and Ironman St George.

The Brutal Mass Start Swim

OK now Ironman 70.3 Honu 2011.
After all that happened this turned out to be my main event of the year, so the pressure to do well was on... I usually don't get nervous at all, but I was felling obligated to do very well and that put me in a "tense" mode the days before the race. Honu is definitely my favorite race, not only because it's a beautiful race in the best place, it's because now it's in my own backyard! with my friends!

And should have been enough for me to avoid this BIG Mistake, after checkin in the Bike at Hapuna Beach I had planned to eat my favorite Hamburger at the the Fairmont Orchid at Mauna Lani, everything was going according to plan, but it started to rain just a little, so we decided to eat somewhere else, we went to an Italian in Waikoloa Beach Resort, they didn't have my burger and also they didn't have a steak that I like, so I went with another kind of steak, I was starting to feel hungry so when it came and I noticed it was FULL of garlic I juts ate it! In the moment I finished I knew I was in trouble, my stomach is very strong, I almost never have G.I. Issues and it was making some weird noises, went home, reprehended myself a couple of times for doing that and then went on to keep a positive frame of mind.
At 3am I was throwing up in the toilet! I kept myself in positive and drank tons of coffee, I was wired and went on to the start at Hapuna beach.

Coming out of the water in 6th

The race start in Honu is always very physical, this time it was Brutal! The race has been growing since the first time I did it in 2009 when we were 1300, it went to 1550 in 2010 and now in 2011 we were 1800 guys, so you can imagine the first turn buoy! That's exactly when I got an elbow right in my Jaw! I heard the BONE sound going through my body and then realized that I couldn't close my Jaw! it was out of it's place, it didn't hurt so I just kept on swimming, that went on for a couple of minutes until it finally got back to it's place, I don't think it really slowed me down but it was a weird feeling.

Back from Hawi

My Age Group was enormous! 238! I came out of the water in 6th place and went on blazing through T1.
The first part of the bike was ok, I wasn't feeling great and strong but also I had no stomach issues and that helped me keep myself into positive side. At the turnaround in Hawi my energy levels came up when I finally saw where I was in the Overall so I hammered all the way back to Mauna Lani.
Arriving to Mauna Lani Beautiful Golf Course is always like finding a Oasis in the middle of the dessert, specially after riding 90kms in the Dreadful Queen K and the Always hard Climb up to Hawi. Too bad that feeling lasts only for a brief moment. I came out of T2 ready for what I knew it was coming, even that the Run Course is beautiful it's a damn hard RUN!

Arriving to Mauna Lani T2

Mauna Lani Golf Course "The 1st Mile"

I always tend to do a pretty fast first mile even if I try to keep it easy and relaxed, maybe because I always see and hear Paola Cheering me up, I don't know but I thought that my first mile was going to be well under 7minutes close to a 6:30 so when I saw a 7:05 at the first mile marker it made me remember myself throwing up in the bathroom a few hours ago......

You just can't beat this view with the Ocean in the Background

For a moment I felt pretty scared of the remaining 12.1 Miles! So I started to work in my mind, I took every mile like the only mile, the problem it was that every mile felt like the last mile I could do at that pace! And it wasn't even the pace I knew I could hold on..... So in reality I felt like crap for the for the first 7 miles, after mile 7, I felt better, my pace didn't improved but I felt more comfortable, I knew that pace was what I had in me for that day and went on to just try to keep it up!

It's a really tough course

Does it seems Flat to you?

When I came to the Mini Energy Lab I was prepared, so I put the gas down, I felt even better and coming out of it in one piece I was almost there. There's nothing compared to see the horizon all green with palm trees and the Ocean in the background with one mile to go. It was a tough day at the office as it is always in Honu and in general it was an OK result, 46th Overall in what seemed to be the Ironman 70.3 World of my Age Group.

Paola always by my side 

Our friends Cory & Alyssa

Yeah!

Abu Dhabi Race Report (English)

Since we got to Abu Dhabi everything was quite different from last year, the Airport that was already beautiful, now was under construction "renovation" I don't understand why.... We also arrived extremely tired after a 33hr flight from Kona-San Francisco-Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi. And the weather was surprisingly cold! That made me remind that I left my wetsuit in Hawaii, very dumb thing to do, I don't know why but since last year the thing that I remembered the most of this race was the extreme heat, so I just bothered to find out if the race would aloud the use of speedsuits, they didn't just like a WTC event, so I decided to race with a Red/Black Kiwami Amphibian instead of my usual Kiwami Konami White Trisuit
The week was pretty crazy, we both were trying to recover from the awful long trip, swollen legs (I forgot also my compression socks) and specially the Jet Lag! I think I jinxed myself when I told Cory and Alyssa "Oh 33hrs of flight, we can handle that, we are used to it" ha ha ha! The whole trip I had to eat every word I said! Just like Justin Bieber song..... Never say Never! ha ha ha!
The weather kept changing drastically every day, it's incredible how this is possible in the Desert. The only thing that kept rising was the water temperature, when we arrived it was 21 degrees celsius, but it kept rising 1/2 a degree every day, so I had a pretty good chance of being safe without a wetsuit.
Friday came and the water was 23 degrees exactly but the organizers decided that it was going to be wetsuit legal...duh.. I thought that saturday the water would be above 23 degrees.
Race day came, 5am at transition and there was Belinda Granger with a wetsuit for me, thanks BG! I was resigned to loose some minutes but now I had a wetsuit! Cool!
When the gun went off I found myself leading the swim, when I got to the first turn buoy I noticed that we were 5 guys that had separated around 3 meters from the group, so I decided to save some energy and follow some feet, we stayed together for the rest of the 3k swim and started the bike together.

in the first few kilometers still in Abu Dhabi we left behind a couple of guys, and other left me and a guy with an AVIA Uniform, he left pretty fast, maybe too fast and I thought he will sooner or later would blow up....
As soon as I got out of the city into the Desert road the wind made it's great appearance!! I knew it was going to be a tough one this time, so the beautiful road from last year now seemed very, very scary. Then I thought that I shouldn't have this negative thoughts so early in the race, so I tried to focus and do my thing. Which was not that easy, the wind kept on coming strong, you could see waves of sand in the tarmac, what made me feel better is that the first 45kms I passed them in 1:19 (34.1km/h) and also I passed the guy in the Avia Uniform. I knew I was going strong even with the wind, I felt good and even better in the second 45kms which I passed in 1:13 (36.9km/h) Pretty good for the conditions, so the first 90k were down in 2:32, I felt I could finish at that pace without a problem, but that problem came at km 130.....

I started feeling crappy, I think it was the Gatorade they gave me a couple of times when I asked for water, in the 3rd 45k my pace dropped to 1:22 (32.9km/h) the only good thing was to see the Guy who left us at the beginning, he was pedaling squares! I felt for him, but I also felt for me, because the guy from AVIA passed me too.... I felt better after drinking some Coke and water and I got to the 180km mark in 5:15.

Then all went to Sh#$%^ I felt terrible, tired and started cramping every time I went out of the saddle, and I couldn't stand the aero position anymore, my back was killing me. So the last 20kms I tried to recover for the run, I dropped my pace a lot, but I worked, I arrived to Transition feeling good and strong for my 20k run.
Now I know I should have visualized my race like I do every time, but this time I didn't..... maybe if I did I would have noticed that I needed to get to Transition with my bike shoes "ON" and not barefoot, last year it was pretty hot, the problem with this year was that it was EXTREMELY HOT! Just like a frying pan! My head didn't worked as I was running over the blue hot tiles I was just thinking in getting to the tent, I didn't even thought about stopping in my track and put on my shoes.... Bad mistake!

I started the run feeling good, my pace was fast (6:30min/mile) and I was not pushing that hard, but after 2k I felt a sharp pain in both feet, it was like electric shocks, I said to myself "come on, suck it up" but after 3kms it was just impossible, my primal instinct was taking over and changing my foot landing position, I couldn't do anything, and the pain was excruciating! I thought I was developing blisters from the burned feet, so I thought in sitting down and puncture the blisters to let the water out, but there was no water yet! It was more like the outside skin was separated from the inside skin, that's why I felt that my feet were sliding inside my shoes.

I sat down for a while trying to find a way to continue, but when I stood up to try to run, I couldn't even walk! I was forced to DNF a Triathlon Race for the first time in my life. They took me in a car to the finish line to find out that Dirk got 3rd place! I was happy for him but pissed off with me. After a couple of hrs I remembered that I do this because I like it, that it's all about the Journey not the Destination, so I felt better the same day after a nice shower.
The rest of the trip was pretty good actually, we went to Dubai and also to a 4x4 Safari in the Desert, it was excellent.

Now we are back in Hawaii after another 33hr flight from hell, happy to be back home.