Thursday, December 31, 2009

what is this?


Thursday, December 24, 2009

it rides!!!!



merry christmas

Monday, December 21, 2009

end of year camp...

or should i say, new season get together...

Im in rio maior for 5 days with the rest of the elite and under 23 portuguese squad. Testing, season plans and some training, the usual stuff at this time of the year.

Im still trying to figure out a lot of stuff regarding sponsoring etc, hopefully i will have some good news (for me) to share.

Right now im almost sure that i will race in australia IM in 15 weeks. plenty of time to prepare a good race. but thats about it... not sure about anything else.

For now i am happy for shaving 1:23 from my 3000 swim TT compared to last year at the same place and that i have mantained a decent weight witch didnt hapened last year :P

more as things happen

Friday, December 18, 2009

a first 2010 update

It is certain that i will no longer represent the Timex multisport team in 2010.

It was a very satisfying few years and i thank all the team staff and members for all the help provided.

more soon of course but i do have some "seeking" to do. but its most likely that i will have a new favorite color other than orange :P

Thursday, December 17, 2009

lotus update

only missing a chain and pedals, the lotus project is almost complete

8.2kg and one of the most spetacular frames ever made!!!!






Thursday, December 3, 2009

portuguese precision handcraft!!

This weekend i will have yet more fun with a 100km MTB race...
I had to work a bit to have my bike ready and my last mud bath last sunday produced a broken deralium hanger. i couldnt find a replacement in time so in good portuguese fashion i had to fabricate one :D

from a aluminum bar and after a few hours building strength in my harms i did one that will work even better, i bet the frame will break before this one does :D take a look at the portuguese precision handcrafted hanger



the aluminum bar and the first step of what looks to be a hanger



brute force :P



looks like something


old one and the new one with a lot of work left


almost done




just fixing holes left and some finishing touches



im curious to see how it holds this weekend

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Photos from the weekend


First lap trying to catch up


with a lap of around 5.5 km its hard to know who is who





one of the coolest parts of the course


just before the end of a lap

Monday, November 16, 2009

preparing for maui?

not really but MTB races are fun, this one was the first one. 3h in a +-5km circuit that was hard. my body was very trashed at the end but i felt pretty good.



me with a smile before the race




Sergio Dias rode a ciclocross bike, OUCH, defenetely not a good bike for this course



After some mech problems at lap 2 i worked my way to the lead but eventually droped with a destryed wheel, fortunately it was almost at the end and i finished the lap with 4 min to spare, 4 min where enough to drop to 5th... i think


a very unusual failure for a wheel




it was a lot of fun though :P

results

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

:D


I almost feel like Sergio Dias. But the quality of my stable is far superior than his :D the goas is to have more bikes than Danny!!

and yes, mister Sousa should be commenting something like. "Youre an idiot" or "tu es doente" but he wants one!!! hang on to your broken hooker Paulo :P

Thursday, November 5, 2009

:P



Friday, October 30, 2009

here it is

fresh from the artist that painted my hotta. i had this one strip the clearcoat and do it again, looks brand new.

its quite umbelievable the level of quality of this frame. it will put most of the actual high end frames in shame.

i can actually shave with this frame :D







Tuesday, October 27, 2009

time off

2 weeks are enough, im starting to get crazy with the lack of exercise. Im not a couch potato but less than 10h/week just feels bad and i feel like i have to much free time and too much time to think :P


This week ill do a bit more, at least what i feel like each day. Not a season start but i sure need to moove my body a bit more.

The portuguese bike show was this weekend and my race bike was one of the atractions of the 3 day show :D at least the orange bike had a lot of curious eyes around it. I visited the show on sunday.

Other than this there isnt much to report, i guess its planing time for me, a lot to think about.






Friday, October 23, 2009

projects

no, no 2010 news...

but i do have a few winter projects.



Yes, its a lotus (not the one in the photo) to make some company to the hotta and a MTB bike



Sunday, October 18, 2009

still with my head in the other side of the globe

one week has passed, im back home and decided to finish my season as planed, although i was suposed to race today in the final of the portuguese national champs (olimpic distance in a ITU world champs format), that would hurt a bit if i left something in the big island last saturday.

I have been thinking a lot about the race (or lack of). yesterday i went for a Lusobike short ride in the morning before opening the store and i must have been the worse company possible, no chat no nothing, i spent 2h just thinking in stuff. Ive done almost nothing training wise, im on "vacations" right!! nevethless i feel that i had a great season especially mid season with some good results in key races for me, it was a hard winter spring but after that i did well, too bad about hawaii that was my main goal and where i spent the most time and resourses to have a great day but s#$% happens.

right now, any sort of workout puts me back in hawaii :P so i better advoid them a bit, oh and recharging batteries is also good

Sunday, October 11, 2009

the higher the expectation the higher the fall.

not sure if it makes sense but thats what i feel. i wont say much because im defenetely not in the mood but i do like to let my friends know about what is going on on this side of the world.

the result sheet say it all, i didn't swim, i didn't ride i didn't run. don't ask me why, it just happened. i had everything going perfectly and smoothly before race, i was feeling pretty darn good and even had an uncomon positive atitute but the result was this joke, from start to finish i dragged my body through the course, i had a really hard time just to finish the bike, i was totally melted. I am concious that i was very fit after a great preparation i just wish i blew up on the course trying to get a great result than not having the ability to race.

It also adds up to last year edition where everything was wrong before the race, felt brutally strong race day and everything didnt work around me while racing. i wish i had a day like that yesterday (except for the flats, lost chips and crashes of course :P).


thats it...this was the cherry i had on top of the cake...

cya

Saturday, October 10, 2009

nothing to declare

just photos





Thursday, October 8, 2009

another day in kona


nothing to report, other than a flat during the ride although its a small leak and only noticed after shower. ironman week in kona is always something special...

today i woke up and just relaxed as i only had a bike workout. after the workout i went to the sheraton hotel to have my bike "retuled" and to try the normatec compression boots (nice)

after lunch i wet to the Slowtwitch meeting... you cant miss this :P


a few photos


trying the normated boots
me and codinha riding the queen k
i hope i dont look like this on race day
watch out for the head wind
codinha staying aero
my next years ride, im riding an XXXXXXS bike with, uuuh, 300cc wheels

and a pointless video of my ride in the queen K. it was a good try though but unfortunately i dont have a scooter to make motor pacing yet alone a car to shoot a video :P :P :P



Tuesday, October 6, 2009

some shots from yesterday

yes im teasing all the portuguese friends that wanted to be here :P




^rumors are true


yes, im bald, i shaved and im in hawaii

Saturday, September 26, 2009

almost

One week from today and im off to hawaii :D

I have had my days, good and bad, after sanabria i still had 3 days where i felt tired while training but good hanging around. Ithen had a very tough 4 days (thursday, friday, saturday and sunday) with a LOT of cycling, 580km and last saturday i had a "special" workout that i called "hawaii special". Those 4 days made a huuuuuuge chunk of volume for the week.
It was basically swim 3000, jump into the bike ASAP and ride 140 with 2:15 tempo (90km), make a transition without rushing things up and run 1:40 with 1:00 @3:45/km pace.

Feeling good at this workout was almost mandatory, its one of those workouts that at the end you think "im ready" or "im F#$#%" and i felt good altough having a hard time early in the week.

I pushed a bit on the predicted pace for the run, i was suposed to go at 3:50 (and thats why i called hawaii special, because 3:50 was my pace in 2006 marathon at hawaii) but i felt really good and effortless while running. I did some nutrition tricks during the workout, i followed my race routine in the 2:15 but ran without calories, to to try replicate the feeling of empty tank.
Overall a great workout and next day i still had 200km to top it off :D

this week i had a lot less volume again and of course im in taper zone where like i said, have my good and bad days.

Im actually racing a Olimpic distance today in the afternoon, i really dont want to risk that much, its too close to hawaii for something to go wrong... heck Henning broke his hand yesterday!!!! i still hope he made it to Kona..

cheers

Friday, September 25, 2009

awesome video

standing start

wisdon is worthless, the measure of a man is power

AWESOME

Thursday, September 17, 2009

team timex in kona this year

here are the Team members racing in hawaii

Monday, September 14, 2009

the deal is still up

Back to lisbon, not sure if im happy or not, i sure missed friends and family...

Yesterdays race was everything but good. As soon as i arrived, friday night and in the short workouts i did on saturday i felt like i couldnt breath. I really didnt feel tired hanging around but my breathing wasnt right also. from start to finish i only managed to go in Zone 1 2 but my breathing was like all out, swimming was awfull in those conditions, i had severall parts where i had to breath in every stroke. very interesting, not. But i made a deal with my self to not DNF no matter what (careful with what you understand with this). so i finished. 20th with an oficial Timex racer trainer avg HR of 144 and in need of severall bottled of oxigen. it is interesting that im saying that coming from altitude right ;)

I still managed to hold on to 2nd place in the iberic LD cup, this was the last race. First was Pedro (krepe) that had another great race, 2nd. We where tied for this race but he sure went for it :P

this week is back to some hard work...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

the last one before i leave

as promised, here is my tribute to krepe and his ability to sleep in a car, im sure he is having a hard time at sanabria lake... ill meet him tomorrow after my 1100km drive to sanabria.






yesterday:

100km ride
3000 swim
gym

Today:
45km ride+40 min run
2500m swim just after this post
gym

tomorrow is off day, it sure wont look like one though...