Me and the man in the pool

One night, not so long ago, when I was swimming my second workout of the day in a busy 25 meter pool at the Club that I regularly swim (most of the time on a different schedule!), all 6 lanes where rather crowded with two or more swimmers, except for one which had only one swimmer. I kindly asked the gentlemen if I could join him and we agreed to swim side by side rather than anti-clockwise as indicated for that lane. I jumped in the lane and started my warm-up as planned for that session by my coach, very soon I was starting to lap the good fellow. I carried on and started swimming my main set, until I noticed that I was actually swimming on my own, cool I thought to my self!

Guess what? The gentlemen stopped me at one of my turns as he had been observing me, and said to me, I can see straight away that you are a triathlete! I was surprised, not by the statement, but for the fact that he actually stopped me to say such! I was so surprised that I just kept looking at him, he kept talking and talking, saying that he used to be a swimming coach at Club La Santa in Lanzarote, Spain. He asked if I knew where that was? He then continued to tell me that he had been counting my stroke average and that they were quite good, but I needed to improve! I looked amazed to my friend, pool mate watch at my wrist and started to click on my log statistics for that workout and I was within an average stroke count of 11 and an efficiency rate of 41, I was warming-up after all, building into my main set! After almost three minutes of swimming rhetoric and a geographic lesson about the Canary Islands in Spain, I was told by the old gentlemen that if I continue improving I could make it to the top! PERIOD! I only had words to say thank you for your advice, and have a good night as he walked away! While I returned into my training bit, I was thinking to my self... gosh, the purpose of me being there in that crowed pool with all level of abilities mixed, was, is and it will be always with the purpose of improve, no matter what! I'm kind of used to these kind of comments every so often! One time I was even told by some one, acting ignorant (but not that ignorant!) that I would never make it to the pro ranks! How funny is that when actually I have been a pro now for quite awhile! Morale of the story is anyway: Always keep smiling and being polite, as it doesn't hurt listen to people , even if they do not have the slightest idea about what they are talking about! :)

The True Ironman Spirit

This is a short post just to update you fellows on what is some piece of Winter and the build up of base mileage for the up coming 2010 season! See for your self 's! Do you fancy an early morning run in the lovely English Weather? :)

I'm proud to anounce that I'm Officially Sponsored by Tanita Corporation

Hi,

I'm in a hurry to go running, but I can not wait until I return to proudly announce Tanita Corporation as my latest addition to my sponsors grid.

Yes I'll be testing the new Tanita BC-1000 the foremost advanced scale to date featuring ANT + technology and a very sophisticated body measurement assessment, all bundled with a software that integrates all very close to perfection!

Thank you very much Tanita Corporation! Check my web site soon as I will have some technical articles about my use of the Tanita BC-1000 and the way it is monitoring my fitness progression as a long distance triathlete.

My wife challenges the Roth Circuit on the bike! :)

Hi there every one, just a quick post as instead of just punishing myself I decided to throw a challenge to my wifey, she happily attacked the Roth bike circuit with a smile into her face, for a couple of minutes, until Ivonne Van Vlerken showed up in the circuit as a virtual rider, giving her a quite ruff time in our VR turbo Trainer. In the end it was a fabulous training session for my wife along some of the best in the Roth Scenario. Well done honey!

Weatherman got it right!!

My second post on the 16th January 2010

Yes!! The BBC weatherman got it bang on right, the sun came out at last and the snow went bye bye! Hurrah! I was able to go on a freezing ride on the road. I´m not going to say it was the perfect day or the perfect workout but it was a nice health break outdoors away from the trusty turbo trainer. I road for close to 1 hour 45 min and guess what? Yes..it was COLD, rather VERY COLD & WINDY! On the way home just five minutes in fact from my cozy nest I was surprised after a nasty hill to find a snow block literally at the top of the lane which meant I had to dismount with my best pair of carbon cycling shoes ´(´oh shit´!), although I was wearing neoprene shoe covers. I literally had to trudge through the slushy stuff carrying my bike. I was so surprised as all the snow around home had completely disappeared! After crossing what felt like a glacier in no man´s land I had an opportunity to a warm bath in a puddle to clean my shoes and cleats. I must confess I was quite pleased to be able to see those cleats again! :) Time to clip on and finally head home feeling like a snowman or rather more like vanilla ice cream. Upon arriving home I dropped off my bike through on a pair of running shoes and hopped on to the old railway behind my house for a run with my wife who was wondering where I disappeared to! Off we trotted for a nice 30 minuter. Thank goodness it was time to finally stretch, clean up, refuel and relax.

1st post of 2010

Today it's D day, I decided to write my first post of 2010. I'm waiting for next Thursday badly, as I'm expecting a totally new revised plan from my coaches for the new season, with all the preparation stages and micro cycles I'll have to endure.

I'm looking forward as well to the weather in the UK to get better, it has been snowing and miserable now for weeks without end. Tomorrow, Sunday, it's promised by the BBC weather forecast website to be a great increase in day temperature to 8º Celsius positive, still rather miserable, but compared to the last couple of weeks it's kind of a summer day! If so, I'll hit the road for a bike ride followed by a run, actually managing a brick session!

Today I did some core work, some endurance work and had a full body massage. Rest of the day dedicated to my family, according to my wife the version should be "dedicated to my laptop!" :)

Hope to have some more exciting news tomorrow.