Still Dre

I thought of what I should title this blog post during a run, and at the time, it was genius. I now have no recollection of why I would ever title it, "Still Dre" other than the fact that I am currently McLovin' Dr. Dre all over again. It could be the fact that I ate shit and when I fell, I knocked all sense out of my head. Definitely a possibility. Anyways, this clearly is the first post in a long time. I'm not going to pretend that I have a life and am too busy to blog, well...because.. anyone who is blogging clearly has time to and may - or may not - have a life. Ok, fine.. maybe it is just me without the life. Moving on.. after Clearwater I was in a bit of a rut and not digging the training or anything triathlon related at all. Felipe thankfully gave me two weeks COMPLETELY off.. and that was amazing. Having that time off made me feel human again, and it was enough time to recharge my batteries. Even though I try to be, I am not an Energizer Bunny who can keep going..and going..and going. Basically, I was burnt out. That burnt out feeling is long gone now and I can happily say that I am enjoying training again.

After my weeks off, I had a couple of solid training weeks back with Breakaway. I especially felt great on the track with Emily and Jenny who are running superstars. The track sessions usually consisted of me yelling at them to slow down and that we were above z3, but thankfully they never listened to me. About a month ago I made the extremely difficult decision to begin training with Lesley Patterson. My friend Katie captured what most people were probably thinking, "what?! you practically bleed orange!" What she said was totally true, which is why the decision was so hard. There are really no juicy details that I can give you as to why I made this decision except that I decided that it would be the best decision for me to make as an athlete. That's it! I have nothing but respect and appreciation for Felipe and without him I would have never gotten to Kona or Clearwater, hell, I'd still be renting a mountain bike the day before Mission Bay and racing in homemade cotton tye dye shirts. Felipe is an amazing coach and probably the most generous one that you will meet. Not only is Felipe amazing, but the whole team is great, too. I could go on and on, but I think through my previous posts it is obvious how much love I have for it. Plus,I'm starting to tear up and it's just weird (I honestly am becoming more and more like my mom.. she cries at Folger commercials, and great.. I do too now).

While I pride myself on giving great nicknames to people, Lesley hasn't quite gotten a good one yet. Les is too common, so the most appropriate one for now is "Scottish Devil." Another friend calls her something like "Corrupt Tinkerbell" or something like that. Think that's funny? Just wait until you have a 90 pound, 5 foot demon kicking YOUR ass, and you won't think it's so funny anymore! Seriously, it is just bizarre that someone that tiny can produce such strength. The best part of Devil Woman is not her intensity, it is that she is so funny. After a hellacious swim set at UCSD, she turns and looks at me, completely serious and goes, "Ah f***, I think I've just shit myself!" Her word choice, or maybe just her appreciation for the "F" word cracks me up..until it is directed at me! Most importantly, I'm really happy training with her and I am seeing improvements in my run and bike. As I've said many times before, I am a masher on the bike, and on the run, my cadence is like 2. Wait, let me rephrase that.. I WAS!!! I've been doing lots of spinning/high cadence on the bike and lots of exercises/drill to improve cadence on the run. During my 5 miles time trial today, I was freaking Tony the Tiger feeling great. I was told to maintain a certain heartrate, and the 5 miles actually felt easy. The kicker is that it was at a 7:35.80 pace (I couldn't say 7:36 pace.. because that just wouldn't be kosher). My motivation may have come from Lesley riding next to me reminding me of proper form, but I am happy!!!!

So, those are the latest updates from me. This Friday, my friend Jess is taking me mountain biking, and I will see if any XTERRA races are in my future. First, I will have to make it out alive... wish me luck!

Love,
Whitters, Baca, and Goofy