Cows Tendons

So last night Nicky Samuels (NZ athlete) and I went out to find some dinner. Almost everybody else has left Ishigaki, but I decided to stay here and luckily Nicky decided to stay as well so we have been doing a bit of training together. Last night we went to a new restaurant and ordered "Cow Muscle Meat Bowl." We thought we had ordered cow meet and rice bowl, but instead we got cow tendons and fat and rice. Needless to say there was not much eating of the cow tendons, but it was really funny. The restaurant was an American style cafe, but no real American food except hamburgers.
This morning I went on a ride to the north side of Ishigaki island and on the way back I got to ride through a tunnel, which was pretty cool but also scary as it amplified the noise when cars were in there. The tunnel was a half mile long and dark as well but it was pretty cool to bike through a mountain.
Ishigaki Triathlon Story

Ishigaki

I love Ishigaki... and as the t-shirts for this years race say "Ishigaki loves you!" I really enjoy being here in Ishigaki, its like a very low key place, with great riding, great open water swimming, nice running (not the best as I dont know of any trails, but wide sidewalks) but the best thing is going out to eat here. Its like a roulette wheel, you point at something and hope you get what you want. The first two nights were great, we found an Ishigaki beef restaurant and while it is very expensive ($25) a meal including rice and beef it was great to find a good reliable place to eat. Of course the night before the race we decided it was a good idea to change things up, and we ended up at two restaurants before being sent to a third one that serves pasta. I basically wanted rice and chicken, but they don't serve chicken here the way we get it at home, it is impossible to find chicken breast or portions that are big. So we ate dinner and went to Coco! to top off the dinner with some other snack food.
Everything is going great here, it is such a great place to train and I really love it here. I cant wait to race tomorrow and see how my winter of training went. Overall, I am just having a lot of fun and can't wait to race.

On the way to Japan

I am on my way to Japan. It was a busy few days at home and I felt like I was always running around like crazy; however, it was great to see Alicia and my family. Last night I had a BBQ at my uncle's house after my mom finished the marathon in 3:53... pretty awesome! I got to run in downtown Boston for the first time and won the BAA 5k in 14:28. I felt great and smooth running and it was pretty great to run on the finish stretch of the Boston Marathon although I am not sure that I deserved that since I had not run 26.2 miles to get there.
Anyways, I am off to Japan and Korea for the Ishigaki World Cup and Tongyeong World Championship Series Race. It should be a lot of fun and I love training in Ishigaki. Almost time to board flight #1 out of 4 on my journey.

Home from FLA!

Its about 1300 miles from Winter Garden, FL to Maynard, MA and I made the drive in 2 days, leaving at 6:30pm on Monday evening and arriving home at 6:00pm on Wednesday evening. It was a very eventful drive as I hit 4 huge rain storms, including 2 that forced me to stop driving because I could not see in front of me. I stayed overnight outside Savannah, GA on Monday night and in Washington, DC on Tuesday night.
I biked in Fayetteville, NC on Tuesday around 1pm and had an awesome ride. The roads were great and I only saw a few cars, including one car who beeped at me, gave me a thumbs up and a big wave... honestly where does that happen. I then stopped to run around 6pm on Tuesday at Prince William National Forest Park in Triangle, VA. It was an amazing place, other than the fact that it started to rain very hard in the middle of my run. I ran for 6 miles on the trails and enjoyed being in the woods by myself and running along this awesome creek with some small waterfalls.
On Wednesday morning I woke up bright and early to join some DC Triathlon club members for their morning run workout, I did a few laps with them and paced Omar through a few intervals and then went back to the hotel to get a WARM shower. It was 40 degrees and misting outside while we were running. After that it was breakfast and off to a small press conference to help launch the ITU World Championship Series race in Washington DC. The race director, race organziers, the mayor of DC (Adrian Fenty) and I all said a brief bit and answered a few questions all while standing in front of the backdrop of the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin (It is going to be a BEAUTIFUL race).
Now I am back home and going to get in a few days of easier and then harder training before I head off to Ishigaki and Tongyeong!

Relay for Life!!

My sister's swim coach at NYU, Lauren Beam, was just diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She is only 32 years old and a triathlete, swimmer and runner. They have created a donations page for their Relay for Life which is taking place this weekend at NYU.

Donate here:
TEAM BEAM Relay for Life

Carlsbad 5000

Wow that was a lot of fun. I had a really enjoyable time during my three days in California. I worked with Pam on my biomechanics and got ready for my 5k road race. I was hoping to go as close to 14:10 as possible, with my PR being 14:09 on the track I thought that would be a fun goal. I ended up running 14:13 and finishing in 14th place. I really enjoyed hanging out with the professional runners and the staff of Elite Racing treated me very well. Ill post some pictures as soon as I can find some. I am back in Florida for a few more days before heading back home to Maynard.

In San Diego... getting ready for Carlsbad!

I got into San Diego yesterday morning. I barely made my connection in LAX, my flight arrived a few minutes late and I got off the plane at 9:45. My flight to Carlsbad left at 10:00, but luckily we were the closest gate to the start of the terminal and I knew exactly which way to power walk to get to the commuter gates. I got there in about 5 minutes and got on the plane no problem. Other than it being a really bumpy flight there were no issues.
Pam was waiting to pick me up at the airport and I spent the rest of the day working on biomechanics, going for a 6 mile run and relaxing. Today I get to do a 3000 meter swim and a 4-5 mile run with some longer strides and then its time to test out my running legs! I am really excited to compete against such a great start list and have complete confidence that I will not even be close to the leaders in this race, but my goal is to run fast and push myself as hard as I can against the great competition.
Carlsbad Start List