___________________________________________________________________________________________

This week was the week leading up to the Half Vineman 70.3 race in Sonoma County, CA. For those of you unfamiliar with the 70.3 term, it was coined last year by the World Triathlon Corporation (owners and operators of the Ford Ironman World Championship and governing body of all of the qualifying events) to distinguish what was previously known as the “half ironman” distance as its own entity. As it is for all Ironman Hawaii qualifiers, the competition at this race is stiff, both for pros and age groupers. Some say it is the most competitive 70.3 race in North America. In addition to this, there is only about one third of the qualifying slots available as a full ironman event, making the Hawaii spots few and far between. This is why this race was my key race for the season. Not necessarily because I felt I could qualify, but to test myself against the best there is out there. <<More >>

Well, this week was supposed to be a return to training after two weeks of tapering for my peak race, Half Vineman. You’d think after eight full seasons of triathlon as well as 11 half ironman races and four full distance races, I would remember that the week after a hard race I would be too sore to train seriously. That being said, while the training stress was low, recovery time is just as important to optimum performance as are the big workouts. <<More >>

Finally, after a week of recovery before, and a week of recovery after Half Vineman, it was time to get back to some training. The only hitch in the plan was a trip to Vegas with my buddies to celebrate the end of my fellowship. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much business as usual with office hours all day Monday and Surgery all day Tuesday. On days like these I typically do a short workout before and a short workout after work. For instance, on Monday I did a 45 minute recovery run in the morning and strength trained in the evening. <<More >>

First off, I would like to apologize for the amount of time between blogs. In addition to finishing my fellowship, moving to Portland and starting practice, my wife also gave birth to our first child, Alison Ann (of course, the most precious beautiful girl in the world). The partners at the Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic have been kind enough to give me some time to spend with our new little girl, so while she naps, I figured I could get some writing in. <<More >>