It is about time for the latest news from St Augustine, Florida…

After spending much time in Luxembourg and waiting for my visa papers to go through, I decided to leave and escape the cold and rainy weather back home. Two and a half weeks of 45 degrees was definitely enough, especially when preparing for some more early season races in the heat here in the south of the US.  Oh well, and I just found out that my visa didn’t go through either, which is a real bummer for my summer racing and training plans over here.

I have plenty of other options so no need to stress, and I have enough time to prepare for Hawaii and do a couple of other races over here during the summer.

So when I came back to the warm Florida weather I got right back into some heavy training and forgot about the stressful race in Abu Dhabi.  The new goal was defined as 70.3 New Orleans and four weeks later another 70.3 race in Florida at Disney.  

It's a deal: I am riding CEEPO in 2010!

I have 2 weeks till the first race and so I thought it’s time to recap what happened so far. Starting the season 18 pounds heavier than I was when I raced in Kona in October, I did my first bike ride at the end of December.  I was running and swimming already, so it didn’t take long to find my legs again and even my “unnecessary extra training pounds” are pretty much all gone.

Now, after several hours of sweating in and around St. Augustine, FL, it seems like I am ready to race in just about 2 weeks from now.  

I have some cool news for those fellow triathletes out there that are trying to get in good bike shape this season!  I am going on LA Talk Radio with Mr. Simon Gowen to share all of my cycling training secrets with you!

Update: The Live show is finished now but you can still listen to the show on the Simon’s Podcast!  Just CLICK HERE!

Three hard weeks of training are done and there is more to come. The past few weeks have been very intersting for me, hanging out with Rappstar and learning some more stuff about the triathlon world.  Our focus in Clermont at the NTC was to do some quality miles on the bike. The first week was more swimming oriented for me and the second week I spent lots of hours in the saddle.  Five more weeks till my first race in Abu Dhabi and there is still some work to be done.  Luckily my body looks more like an athlete’s again and I was able to shed off some more pounds during that time.

We all know after the last race of the season the following days are filled with parties and good food–and lots of it. I really do crave certain food that I didn’t get to eat during the season because it’s just “not good for me”.

Honestly, my opinion is that we need to have a down time after all the hard work and focus before the big race. We all deserve it! For instance, after Hawaii I took seven weeks off- completely. Meaning I had 3 runs (30-45 min) and 2 swims (1.5 – 2 km) and some minor sport activity and that was it. I am sure it’s not the ideal for some people, but I need that time to recharge and to live a “normal” life for a few weeks.