2011 Recap!

  What an exciting 2011 season!  I’m very proud of my first season as a pro and am already looking forward to the 2012 season.  This year was filled with highlights, lessons learned, and most importantly a lot of fun.  Below I’ll hit some of the highlights.

First I would like to thank my family, friends, and supporters for all the help you’ve provided me this season.  Even though it is an individual sport, it is most definitely a team effort, without my team around me I wouldn’t have been successful!

-        As many of you know this is a very time committed sport.  I dedicated substantially more time this year than previous and my wonderful wife Erin was very patient with me as I set out to achieve goals and she sacrificed much to allow me to play, thank you Erin! 

-        I started working with Coach Zane Castro this year and developed a great relationship with someone that is as committed to my success as I am, probably couldn’t have made it through the year without him and definitely not have seen the gains I did this year, thanks Zane! 

-        I had some great training partners this year that helped to keep me motivated and the sport fun, thanks Robbie, Sean, Carlos, the Wednesday Tri-sition Area run group and many more. 

-        I was lucky enough to partner with Trisition Area again this year and had a blast doing it.  Marco and Lorena run a first class business that focuses on the sport and helping progress it in San Antonio.  I received support from them on numerous occasions be it in the form of help getting me the gear I need to race and train on or just listening and providing guidance on ways to approach this crazy sport as a professional.  I can’t thank them enough for their help. 

-        I would like to also give a shout out to the fitness club, Spectrum at Rogers Ranch, and their GM Paul Schoenberg.  I benefitted from a great partnership between Spectrum and Tri-sition area, not only by having a fabulous facility to train in but by being associated with a fitness club that supports the triathlon community, if any of you had a chance to watch the Tri to be spooky Kids triathlon at Spectrum this fall you know what I’m talking about. 

So to all my team members’ Thank you so much and I am looking forward to our future endeavors.

Now onto the season recap.  Nathan White, a great guy from Iowa and fellow professional triathlete (www.nathanwhitetri.com) has a Carmichael training systems ad running in Triathlete magazine right now.  Part of the caption reads, “I knew after my first triathlon that someday I hoped to turn pro.  What I didn’t know was how much I still had to learn.  About training.  About racing.  About how to succeed.  Eventually I made it, and guess what?  It got even harder…”  This really sums up the year.  A few years ago I set the goal to become a professional triathlete.  I worked hard and last year I accomplished that goal.  Well this year guess what?   IT GOT EVEN HARDER!  Qualifying to race as a professional and actually toeing the line to compete are two very different things.  I raced 10 events this year with 5 having a strictly pro field, 3 having an Elite amateur race and 2 local open races.  Those 5 Pro races showed me that I have a lot of hard work to do to become a top tier professional but those 5 other races showed me I belong in the professional field.  I ended up with;  two 1^st, one 2^nd, one 3^rd, two 6^th, a 12^th, a 19^th, a 20^th and a 25^th for overall finishes.  I finished ever race I entered though not always in top form and not once did I finish as the last pro.

Some of my highlights of the season were;

-         A few local wins, especially enjoyed Marble falls Tri

-     Running down guys at New Orleans 70.3 after a hard bonk on the bike and the post race celebration with Carlos and Erin.

-         A 40 kilometer Time trial PR at the Texas state TT championships, winning the CAT 5 title.  Then rocking the Team TT championships the next day with Robbie, Mark and Chris.

-        Getting a “big check” at the Bridgeland Triathlon.

-        A 10K PR in the Captex triathlon

-        The underwear run in Kona!

-        Epic training rides with Robbie Wade.

-        And a lot of fun just being outside putting the work in.

Now that I’ve officially closed the book on the 2011 season I’m looking forward to 2012.  With training already under way please stay tuned for some announcements in regards to the expansion of my “team” in the form of sponsors and my tentative race schedule.  Thanks for reading!