2013 Race Calendar

So what does 2013 look like? Well, this isn't set in stone yet, but it is the plan...
As always, life can (and most likely will) get in the way of some of this and so the plan is open to change. 

April: 

 - Adoption Exchange Classic Omnium

 - Atomic Man duathlon

May:

 - St. George 70.3

 - Jemez Mountain Trail Run 1/2 marathon

June:

 - Billy the Kid Tombstone Olympic Tri

 - Run the Caldera trail 1/2 marathon

 - Tour de Los Alamos road race

 - Storrie Lake Olympic Tri (maybe... depends on travel schedule, could be replaced by Mona Vale Cold Water Classic 1.2km ocean swim)

July:

 - Taos Gran Fondo

 - Cochiti Lake Olympic Tri

August:

 - Boulder 70.3

 - Los Alamos Triathlon (Sprint)

 - The 505 Triathlon (1mi swim, 40mi bike, 9.5mi run)

September:

 - XTerra Dread Mon Tri

 - Trinada del Muerto (70.3)

And a fall marathon with the girlfriend...

Then I'm going to sleep until there's enough snow to take the board out. Or take the car out for a track day. Or something that doesn't involve swim, bike or run.

But for now, Happy New Year to all! All the best for 2013.

2012 in summary

This has been quite a year. It's hard to know where to start to summarize it...

So here's a picture of some of my haul from events this year:

So what were my race highlights?
Obviously doing the toughest Ironman course in the world as my first is a highlight, especially having raised a good chunk of change for Olivia's Vision. Going under 5 hours at Boulder 70.3 is probably the result of the season. To be honest though, performing pretty consistently well through my packed season is marvellous. Not bad for a first season dedicated to triathlon, even though 2011 was my first tri season it was more about cycling until I decided I wanted to do a half-ironman...

So this season:
Atomic Man duathlon (10km run, 40km bike, 5km run): 8th overall, 7th male, 4th M35-39.
Run the Caldera, trail 1/2 marathon: 24th overall, 23rd male, 14th M30-39
 - in 7th place at 7 miles before injuring foot...
Tour de Los Alamos (27 mile road race, Citizens class): 2nd overall, 1st M30-39
Storrie Lake olympic triathlon: 23rd overall, 5th M35-39
Cochiti Lake olympic triathlon: 14th overall, 3rd M35-39
 - PODIUM!
Ironman 70.3 Boulder: 192nd overall, 33rd M35-39  TIME: 4:59:30
 - Swim: 35, Bike: 2:33, Run 1:43
Los Alamos triathlon (20km bike, 400m swim, 5km run): 6th overall, 4th elite
 - yup, got my first Elite wave start!
Ironman Wales: 453rd overall, 96th M35-39   TIME: 12:15:10
 - stuck on small chainring for last 50 miles of the bike
 - windy, hilly, cold and absolutely fantastic
 - Swim: 1:07, Bike: 6:55 (grrr), Run: 3:46

I also got two century tours in... the Santa Fe century and the Day of the Tread century. Sadly I had to miss my favourite tour - the Enchanted Circle century.

Also in 2012:
Continuing uveitis and cystoid macular edema
Right eye, lens replacement (cataract surgery #1)
Left eye, lens replacement (cataract surgery #2)
Several slow-release corticosteroid implants in each eye
Chondritis on left ear
Countless injections of immuno-suppressant methotrexate (now thankfully discontinued)
Giant horse-pills of CellCept (immunosuppressant)

Hopefully the new drugs will push my uveitis into remission, and with it the macular edema that causes most of my vision problems. With the new lenses, that'll mean clear, cataract-free vision. Okay, so I'll need some YAG-lasering of the eyes to clean up the new lenses sometime, and no medication is 100% side-effect free, but I'm hopeful. 2012 went well, despite two eye surgeries and copious performance-reducing drugs.


So now it's time for that christmas thing. So have a good one. Eat, drink, be merry and watch out for zombies...

Horse Pills and Off-Season

As usual I've left this too long between postings, but I'm back with new medication, new goals and new off-season training fun...

Horse pills

Apart from local treatment for my vision problems, which usually involves some sort of injection in the eye, I'm also taking immunosuppressants. Previously, I was injecting myself with some nasty yellow stuff called methotrexate. It was/is used for various cancer treatments, as well as autoimmune disease. In my case, it also led to significant nausea as my dose was increased. Unfortunately, it still didn't seem to do anything for me (apart from giving me a good 24-36 hours of feeling sick each week).

No more! Now I have giant pills to swallow. My doctor has taken me off the evil yellow stuff and started me on CellCept - a drug usually used to suppress the immune system of organ transplant recipients. Three weeks in and all is fairly good. In fact, I got a new steroid implant in my right eye this week and the vision cleared up in just a couple of days. If I didn't know better I'd say that the new drugs might be helping already!

The biggest problem so far is that I have to take the (giant) pills on an empty stomach: no food for 2-3 hours before the pill, no food for an hour afterwards. Really? When in the day do I go 3-4 hours without food? Needless to say, I'm having to adjust my feeding schedule and it's going to be tricky fueling big training days with this constraint. Still, if it means remission then I'm all for it.

Off-season

The best laid plans of mice and men... So that early March marathon? Not happening. The girl was the driving force there and she had to interrupt training for a number of weeks. We talked about it and came to the conclusion that she could train to get around the marathon, but it might be a miserable day running a marathon under-trained. So now she's committed to doing a marathon in 2013, but later in the year.

How does this affect my plans? Well, it means that I won't build my run distance as much over winter. Since my last run was 6 miles on snowy trails I can't say that's all bad.

Bike training is going well though. It's officially too icky and cold for outdoor rides, so I'm on the trainer three times a week. TrainerRoad is my new best friend. If you haven't heard of it, and you like to ride bikes, then you should check it out.

Swim training has been patchy, but I did another freestyle clinic with the excellent folks at Santa Fe Aquatics Club and feel like I made some good progress. Now I just have to spend some time in the water to work on really cementing my improved stroke. It's just so hard to motivate myself to swim in winter.

New-season

I have goal races! Of course, I haven't signed up for anything, but that'll come.

My season will open on April 28th with a race that I'm helping out with this year: the Atomic Man duathlon (2012 race report), which is the USAT Rocky Mountain Regional Duathlon Championship. There's a great local race series put on by Chasing3 too...
However, my big 3 for the year (subject to me changing my mind):
1. Ironman 70.3 St. George, Utah (US Pro Championships) -- May 3rd
2. Tour de Los Alamos, New Mexico (this year's race report) -- TBD (June 16th?)
3. Ironman 70.3 Boulder, Colorado (this year's race report)

Then a marathon in September/October time with the girl to round out the season. I'll make a decision closer to the actual race season whether or not I'll be racing bikes in Cat 5 in 2013, aiming to cat up ASAP. Question of the season: can I get fast enough at 70.3 to qualify for the World Championship?

Winter is where I will lay my foundation. I think I stand to gain the most from investing time in the bike.  By the end of January I should see my bike fitness way up on my lazy, couch-potato, post-Ironman form and hopefully start seeing real gains from structured training too. You can track my efforts on my trainerroad page.