Monday, April 11, 2011

things got ugly

Here is a quick report of the race.

of course im not really happy with the final result but i was happy for several other factors.

Swim: Didnt felt right again, slugish and without that strenght that lets me go hard, was in the group at the end of first lap and lost it. i totally know that i have swimming skills to go low 50's but until i really do it (again)...

Bike: I felt good legs right from the begining, Mr vabrosek was 1:30 in front of me and i caught him right away at in the middle of the first climb. that should mean something right? i had him for 2 laps on my back. When i was about to get the special needs at km 120 they messed id up really hard and i was left with nothing in the poocket to eat. I didnt freak out that much, slowed down for the last lap and tried to eat everything i could grab in aidstations. this is the acquiles heel of this organization in my opinion, aid stations had Nothing and when they had, it was bloody dificult to get them. the special needs logistics was provided by a logistics company (or sponsored) i guess that was why it didnt work ;).

anyway, the last 10 or so kms i rode again in a good pace and was really hoping to get my stuff (calories) in my transition bag.

I starded the run slower so that the calories could make their way to my legs. 4 km into the run is started to run faster again, at 4min/km, i imediately got into the guys that left me until i melted in vomit and diarhea. it came really hard and all of the suden. i had to slow down so much with so much pain for so many kms that finishing had become the goal, wasnt easy...

I threw up 3 times, one of them was self inflicted to try and take something out and countless stops in bushes and toilets. At the end of lap2 things got really ugly, my belly looked like it was about to explode and i was so dehydrated that i started feeling nausea and defenetely wasnt running in a straight line. At that time i stoped and  standed still for a few seconds, the symphony of my belly was quite incredible in the occasion. then i starded running again slowly. until km 35, where after une last vomit period (the self inflicted one) i ingested my very first liquid for 25km in for if water, goosh it felt so good to actually feel that that small ammount of water was absorved by the body!!! with nothing in my belly i started feeling alright again and had more water only. i felt so much better that i went back to the 4min/km pace and ran 2 km at 3:50 pace... WTF

So yes, not very happy with the result but i believe that if this thing didnt happen i would have a great race because i felt fine when thing where normal. oh well, i got the tshirt ;)

WC164K won the AG in under 11h so that was a great finish for her, really proud :D

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

the Lions in Africa

i got here yesterday around 3pm.

Greeted by a faboulous wind and mild temperature i just needed a short taxi ride to get to my guesthouse.
Rode a bit and ran a bit and i was done with my first day or hours in SA

Today the wind was the same but temperature was waaaaay higher, well into the 30´s

I saw the first Lions in my ride with WC164k and they looked fast and hungry ;)
Ridind the whole loop was good to understand that this could be a 10 min faster course but surface just doesnt help.

People are very friendly and the "ironman" seems to be a very big thing in this period of the year here (end of summer). Great place to visit so far.






Thursday, March 31, 2011

Porto Santo

so this weekend, the first race of the season (for me) took place in Porto santo, the small island with awesome beaches here in portugal.

I was 2nd last year in a very thight race where i was passed with just 1.5 km to go. This year with a totally diferent periodization i was looking to go up another spot but had to settle for the same ;)

It was the first week of Taper or something close to that for me. Africa is just around the corner!!!

I really didnt felt like a million bucks in the three sports so all was pretty leveled, lost too much time in the swim wasnt abble to put the watts i was requested to and am perfectly aware that i could do it and the run was slugish too. Pedro Gomes was untoutchable by a long shot since the swim and i fought with Rafael during the race for second. i passed him arount 60 70 km into the ride and tought he was going to close the gap on the run but fortunately he faded in the last half and i was safe in 2nd, another 2nd. i swam something like 28 biked 2:17 and ran 1:15:30 for an just over 4h race something like 5 min off pedro and with 3 min to 3rd.

This week i will se more taper of course with some cool workouts to do in the weekend, then its off to AFRICA.

some photos










The "clube TAP" won the team competition and that was a great start of the season.

WC164K won the women competition in the run so overall a great weekend :D

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Weekend at the new spot

Cadaval, 40 min from lisbon is my new flavor of the day spot.

Awesome roads, hills, flats, no traffic, dirt roads to run, its awesome... I LIKE IT.

I spent another weekend over there to log my final kms before thinking in any kind of taper for south africa.

Me and WC164K AKA Vanessa witch is of course the local hero ;)

Gorgeous weekend with awesome weather, finally. Saturday saw me riding 3h running 50 min and swimming 3000m and on sunday a long 5:20 followed by 45 min run, all this with tons of intervals gave me a lot of energy to enjoy the rest of the day doing nothing and enjoying the weather :D

All is right, felt tired after this weekend but its all part of the process.

A little test this weekend and we will see how it goes from there.


Friday, March 18, 2011

time to race

been quiet for a while now right?

Well there is severall things going on but training has been there all the time and i have been happy with it...

An overview of what i have been doing is around this: LESS=MORE ;)

With all the debate of more is more or less is more and since i have a new coach that knows me since my very first jogs to do some duathlons. Very good friend Helder.

I have been doing less for sure when compared to what was usual in any year i have been racing IM at least for most of it anyway.

A LOT less kms in the pool in the winter with very focused workouts that although shorter really are hard.
The same has been going on with bike and run but not as much. I have been seeing quality workouts everywhere ;)

And since time really flies, next week i will be racing in an Half Ironman in madeira. 2 weeks afterwards, Ironman South Africa is my goal.

The nice thing about after South Africa is that i will race a MTB stage race for the fun and why not get out of it with a tremendous bike capabilities ;)

more soon, i hope

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

training update

looks like this, at least totals, lots and lots of quality stuff in training too.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

2011

Well i need to say that im still alive ;)

will be back to posting, for now a few updates in my blog and will be back for more news

First IM of the year will be in fack Ironman South Africa!!!

be back soon

Friday, December 24, 2010

2010 Ford Ironman World Championship (Part 01)


i really want to get back there ;)

Monday, December 6, 2010

a few details



winter bike project

brought back to life a bianchi steel frame with some parts i have around

the fork itselt weights 889 grams ;)

but the bike has a very decent weight at 8,2kg