Training & Coaching

It's been a couple of weeks since I got back from New Zealand - what an unbelievable country that is.  It would have been great to spend more time there, but I know that won't be my last time there hopefully.   I even proposed to my brother that once he graduates from Architecture school that will be his graduation present.  We are going to take a backpacking trip and explore the sites.  This ought to give him some motivation to get through some of the tough times, as he's in his 3rd year and having to pull some all nighters to get his school work done, while also working 25 hours a week to pay for his tuition - super proud of him!

Believe it or not when I got back from my trip I didn't feel jet-lagged at all.  I purposely stayed awake most of the flight so that I'd adjust to the time zones a little faster, but I was happily surprised that I never felt super exhausted.   I did allow myself to sleep a little longer as I felt my body needed the rest, but I picked up right where I left off and been able to keep pace without breaking down.

As for my training - things are coming along well.  I am doing 4 crossfit workouts per week, and doing 2 bike rides, 2 swim sessions and 2 run sessions per week all based off Crossfit Endurance.

Last week I was pretty exhausted by Saturday and took Sunday off completely as I really felt like my body could use the rest.  For this week, I swam Monday with Christopher Walden & Christina at Coronado Community Pool  - and if you haven't been there, you absolutely have to go sometime, it's one of the nicest pools I have ever swam in.  I got on my bike both Tuesday & Thursday and managed to get in some good riding and was able to avoid the rain.  This morning I was able to go to the Mission Valley YMCA and do Masters swim.  As my Ironman is fast approaching I'll be doing that once or twice a week to improve my swim.

I definitely feel as if I am on track for my training.  I need to make sure I do a few rides to test out my nutrition, and continue to be consistent and stay strong and get all the little tid bits dialed in the next few months - less than 12 weeks to go, so now its a matter of fine tuning the training and coming up with a race strategy and getting my nutrition in order for the race.

I was on the IM St. George site this week, and they have a pretty cool course preview - check it out



As for this weekend I am now sitting at the airport getting ready to head up to Portland to coach the Crossfit Endurance course at Crossfit Excellence - I absolutely love what I do, and feel super blessed and grateful that I have an opportunity to pass on what I have learned about endurance training and making a positive impact in people's lives.

GOALS - Dreaming BIG!!!

I did a lot of reading/writing on my trip down under, here's some things that I came up with...

The premises for these goals is what if I couldn't fail - that was one of the things that got me dreaming big.   The other one is if I had $100 million in the bank what would I do with myself.  Took these concepts from "The Four Hour Work Week"

6 months:
1. Make 10k from coaches development program (CFE) - this is an idea I'd like to explore
2. Debt free - possibilities here: write a bestseller, lottery, TV show? - 10k extra income per month next 6 months. 
3.  Start a charity/non-profit for kids
4. Investments in place for future

12 months:
1. Kids - start a family
2. Bestseller book?
3. Open up an endurance based Invictus Endurance based facility
4. Trip to Europe - 4 weeks-3months

More adventure in my life!!!!!

I've since been working on these goals - it seems that it's easy for me to set goals, but then achieving them can be another story.  These aren't easy by any means and will require quite a bit of dedication and discipline.    One of the main things that has been running through my head is continuing to be productive rather than just being active and the difference between effective and efficient - a little food for thought - explore those for a good time :)

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Pictures from AUS & NZ

A breath of fresh air

I landed in Wellington, New Zealand last wednesday night - just past midnight. Since my flight was arriving after midnight I found a hotel right near the airport. Before this trip I didn't really pay attention to where NZ was on the map, I had a general idea. Flying from Perth, Australia I had a layover in Melbourne for about an hour or so, each flight was about 3 and a half hours. I left about 11am and by the time I landed in NZ I had gone through 5 different time zones. Even though it was past midnight, for Perth time which i was slightly adjusted to it was only 7pm, which meant stayed up until about 2am. Breakfast was delivered before 9am and my day was started.

Matt & Donna from MAD CF came and picked me up around lunchtime and brought me to where I'd be staying over the weekend. It was a nice place, overlooking the water which had some stunning views. It's hard to find words to describe the essence of NZ - it's absolutely stunning and breath taking. Just from the drive from the airport to Petone which is where I'd be, it was absolutely incredible views...just wait till I post the pictures

After getting comfortable at hotel I got picked up to go check out the place where I'd be teaching course over the weekend. Their CF is great, a nice space and very fun to workout in, I knew it was going to go well over the weekend! Afterwords we went into town for dinner and that was about it, I as feeling a bit of the effects from all the travel and the different time zones - I needed some rest.

Friday worked out in the morning, we went to breakfast and did some swimming in the afternoon, have to keep up with my IM training :). After that I went into Wellington, which is about a 15 minute train from Petone. The city itself is like a mini San Francisco, super cute, fun, hilly, lots of coffee shops and seemed very diverse. I spent most of the afternoon wondering around which is always something I really enjoy doing to get familiar with a new area.

Friday Matt & Donna hosted a small BBQ of some of the folks that would be attending course over the weekend which was fun. Notable from the course was the down pour that we got Saturday afternoon when we were about to start the workout - it wasn't light at all. The weather is quite interesting here, it's quite windy almost always, and the sun can be super intense - I guess there's a whole in the ozone here. 20 minutes in the sun is about all that one can take. I got dark right away - love it!!!!!

Sunday I could feel something coming on, I wasn't sure what it was, but could sense it...turns out with the wind being quite strong peoples allergies can flare up easily, which is something I hadn't prepared for. Towards the afternoon on Sunday it was starting to get to me, but I pushed through it and gave them my best. We had 21 attendees in Perth, and 22 here in NZ.

Monday came and I felt like crap - my head felt like it was going to pop out of my ears.  We had picked up some zyrtec(allergy medicine) but it wasn't working fast enough.  I managed to get in a workout in the morning and another in the afternoon, but I was in quite a bit of discomfort throughout the day, and a bit tired from coaching course over the weekend - the group was really fun, even had someone come all the way from the middle of Australia, about an 8 hour trip for the course.

Monday night Matt had something that resembled the netti pot and I got busy with it - I didn't use to be a believer but sometime last year I couldn't shake off a sinus headache for awhile and tried it and found immediate relief.  This time it worked well once again, I woke up Tuesday still congested, but no headache - yeaaaa!!!!  This was great since Donna and I were going to the South Island for a day trip - it was a 3 hour ferry and the views were seriously breath taking, coming in through the sounds and docking in Picton.  

We spent the day near by, we looked into going to some of the near by places, but it was too expensive or too late in the day, so we had a lunch in town and did a great 3-4 hour very near by which was the perfect way to spend the day.   The weather was incredible too, nice and warm clear sunny skies.  We came back on the ferry later that afternoon.

Wednesday Matt had a work meeting that he had to drive to, which was about 3 hours away and I tagged along and got to see a lot of the North Island thanks to this opportunity.  During his meeting I managed to do a 30 mile bike ride (super windy - great IM training) and then we drove a little further to Lake Taupo which is where IM New Zealand takes place and it's a sight that words can't even begin to describe.  We also went to Huka falls, had lunch and made our way back to Wellington.   On the drive I saw the most incredible nature display, volcanoes, trees of all sorts, desert - yes in the middle of all this, and lots of sheep!!!

It's Thursday now and I return to San Diego tomorrow night, I've had the chance to see quite a bit of NZ during my short stay thanks to my gracious hosts Matt & Donna.  New Zealand is beyond amazing, it'd be super fun to do a backpacking trip for 3 months here with my brother sometime - maybe someday...

I'll be posting pictures from entire trip this weekend - stay tuned :)

Trip down under

This has been quite an interesting trip so far...
I'll write some highlights tomorrow with details, but for now all is well- I arrived in new Zealand and I have a feeling this is going to be an amazing place to spend the next 9 days :)

How fast time flies - it's been over a week since I have been gone, and I haven't been very good about updating the world on what i have been up to.

Here's the highlights so far: left San Diego last Tuesday night, jet to LA and direct to Auckland, NZ where I had a 6 hour layover, I didn't realize this until the week I was leaving which is when I got into action.  I remembered Darren from CF games last year and touched base with him via facebook. Let's just say this was the best layover ever.   He was awesome to pick me up from the airport, we went to CF NZ right away and I felt right at home and within a few minutes of being there we were already plotting a workout.   A great met-con of front squats and ring push ups later we were both feeling pretty good about getting that done!  If that wasn't the best thing, just wait- we then jumping into the ocean and since it's summer here in this part of the world it was a very special treat.  It gets better though- before heading back to the airport went to darren's pad and he made a super delicious gigantic paleo omelette - what a treat!!!!!  Before you know it we were headed back to the airport - I really couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my 6 hour layover than this - completely unexpected, and totally a kick ass way to start this amazing trip.

From auckland to Perth it's another 7 hour flight - and if you are doing the math the total travel time is now up to 30 hours by the time I arrived in Perth.  The weather here was incredible, and I was picked up at the airport by Jason from 'the cell' which is the original Crossfit in Perth.  It was super nice of him to come and pick me up and drop me off at the hotel I had booked which was about 45 minutes away- more on this later :)

I lost a day in the traveling, not literally but considering the time difference, perth is 16 hours of SD which meant I arrived at my hotel early evening on Thursday.  I was staying in Scarborough Beach at a place about 5 minute walk to the water.  This was definitely one of the perks, but the place I stayed was not the nicest in the world - let's just say that I made due with what I had :)

The plan was to stay until Wednesday the 26th in Perth, and I'd be coaching all day saturday and Sunday, which left me with Friday and Monday and Tuesday to get settled and explore.  Jason & Carol were absolutely amazing incredible during my stay in Perth, they came and picked me up every day and took me anywhere I wanted to go - super outstanding individuals that showed me some great hospitality.  I ended up working out at the cell everyday I wasn't coaching which was a blast since I got to meet a lot of their community and it's no wonder why they've been so successful -  they really care about their members and quality is preached across the board in all they do!

The course over the weekend went really well- had people from all over, including someone from japan!   I love the international courses because everyone is super eager to learn.  The course was held at SF Gym (West Coast Crossfit), and it was a great space for it.  We had a parking garage we could use without interruptions, which made it fantastic for the drills and such.  

Notable about Perth - city is very expensive, I came thinking it'd be cheaper than US and was shocked the average meal eating out was somewhere between $25-$35 I suppose that's what happens when you are isolated from the rest of the world, you have to import everything and it drives up the prices for everything. The beaches are incredible, I went for a great run on Monday morning up the coast only to be greeted by the super strong winds on the way back, which made the run very mentally challenging - great training for my ironman:) Perth as a city can get very windy, but the warm temperatures made it very nice.

that about does it in terms of highlights so far, aside from everything I decided to buy myself an iPad before I left which I had been considering for quite sometime.  Before the trip I debated whether to bring my laptop or not, I decided to keep it at home.  It's been an adjustment so far but totally able to manage without laptop, there have been a few instances where it would have certainly been convenient, but I have made due without and it's much lighter on my backpack carryon :)

One of the best things about taking a trip is having time to reflect about where I am at in life, but that's another post in itself - let's just say that I have been reading 'the four hour workweek' and super inspired and dreaming big like I never have before!!!!!

Bumble Bee 5K

My last race of 2010 - I ran the Bumble Bee 5k yesterday and here's how it went...

My garmin said that I finished in 18:13, and i think the official time was 18:15, not sure yet as the results have yet to post.

This is a pretty good time, about where I have been running for the past couple of years, but I was disappointed with my performance and here's why....

The morning was nice, a bit cold, but the sun was out - not bad racing conditions, i think temperature at the time of the race was low 50s.  Gun went off and I was near the front - I was wearing my garmin and set my pace zones for 5:31 - 5:54  - last year I ran this race and finally broke the 18 minute mark with a blazing 17:55  - I was pretty stoked with this performance.  That was the first race I used the garmin and it really helped me be more consistent in the race instead of going out too fast during the first mile.

So what happened yesterday - I went out at a pretty good pace, my first mile was 5:29, my second mile a bit slower which is typical at 5:55 and my last mile was 6:05.  Normally my 2nd mile is slower and I am able to pick up the last mile and finish strong - yesterday this was not the case.

I could say that the wind was a factor, at the turn around point it was definitely notable on the way back.  The sun was also starting to get real hot at that point and I definitely felt my system overheating believe it or not, but the truth is that I gave up.  Something happened, not sure exactly what it was - but mentally I found it difficult to stay dialed in during the last mile, as a few runners were going by my I had no drive to want to stay with them, which is highly unusual and unlike me.

Could it have been because I wasn't completely rested - maybe, I worked out hard sunday-tuesday with a couple of double days, took wednesday off and had a great massage in the morning, so was I properly rested?  Maybe, maybe not...This was not an A race for me, but it was certainly a race I was looking to run fast and potentially PR - could I have run under 18 minutes again - most definitely, I am super confident that if I would have picked up the last 400-800 meters I could have easily done so, but I didn't want to.   As I saw the finish line I was beat, mentally and physically - I couldn't recruit the energy to get into that extra gear I've been known to get before, oh well.  I was mentally defeated too - I could tell this was happening and the frustration/disapointment came on fast.  I knew when I passed the 3 mile marker I could go into a super fast sprint and potentially gotten under 18 minutes - but it just didn't happen yesterday.

I started this post yesterday, and just now finishing it - i looked up the official times and here they are:

http://www.y-events.com/10bumble5k.htm

It turns out my official time was 18:11 and I finished in 6th place in my age group and 35th overall in a race close to 1500 people.  No place to be disappointed, but this is what I call a character building day.