2008

2008 was a great year for me, both professionally and personally. My fiancée and I really settled into our new home in the suburbs of Birmingham, AL, and I got accepted into the University Of Alabama School Of Law, where I currently attend Law classes and hope to earn a J.D. by 2011 ( or 2012 f it gets in the way of training/racing), while maintaining a career as a professional triathlete.

My initial thoughts were that Law School would slow me down some, but I have found the opposite. It made me streamline my life, simplify things, and as a result, I ended up getting faster. I hope to be able to keep the trend through 2009.

Here is a quick recap of the year:

January:
Florida Training Camp
March:
Miami International Triathlon – DNF (flat tire on km 4)
Training Camp in El Paso, TX
April:
Dallas, TX Half Ironman – 5th
May:
Alabama State Champion
Tri-America New Orleans (Course Record) – 2nd
Rock 'N Roll Man – South East Long Course Championship – 2nd
June:
Buster Britton Triathlon – 2nd
Alabama State Games – Gold (new course record)
July:
Riverboat Triathlon – 1st (new course record)
August:
Lake Chaparral Olympic Triathlon (Canada) – 2nd
Callaway Gardens Triathlon – 1st
September:
Weiss Lake Triathlon – 1st (new course record)

Totals:

Wins: 4
Podiums (Top 5): 10
Pieces of luggage lost/delayed: 2
Miles traveled to and from events: 19,000+
Injuries: 0
Times sick: 0
Rides with former Tour de France winners: 1

Solid Day

Although I should have spent at least some time catching up on my contracts class, I spent the day training with the 'Bama Triathletes.

After a solid mid day long run on Saturday ( gotta get acclimatized) that took me through the heart of Tuscaloosa on game day, I woke up today feeling ready to tackle the long day we had planned.

5 of us did about 40 minutes of open water swimming right down from the dam at the Black Warrior River. Then 3 of us then jumped on our bikes for 110k through the rolling hills of Tuscaloosa and Pickens County. Once off the bike, we did a transition run with some speed thrown in to keep ourselves honest.

All in all, a very solid Sunday.

Lake Weiss Triathlon Race Report

I was excited to race this event again this year after winning it last year while preparing for Ironman Florida. I really wanted to use the event as a gauge of my 2008 fitness vs. 2007, and was pleased at the end when I stopped the clock at 1:10:20, over 90 seconds than the course record I set last year.

Thanks goes to Morgan Ramey who showed up and kept me honest all day. He started in the wave behind mine, and was in the virtual lead ( I was actually at the front, but he lead as he begun the race in a wave 2 minutes down from mine) for a good portion of the race.

He is quite a speedy rider and his bike split was nearly 2 minutes faster than mine on the rolling hills of Northern Alabama/Georgia. Luckily my swim and run were faster than his, and with a couple of miles at ~5:30 I was able to secure the win and set a new course record.

Overall, I had a great time. The RD's were so kind to put me up in a very nice cabin, right on the water. I wish I had stayed longer.

Riding with Floyd

I had the chance to ride with Floyed Landis recently. Dude is really down to earth, very easy to talk to, and told a lot of very interesting stories about training and racing in the pro peloton.

In 2006, Floyd won the inaugural Tour of California, the Paris-Nice stage race, the Tour de Georgia.

The ride was social in nature, but he turned on the jets a couple of times just to let us experience the speed. It was quite outstanding. I was behind him on a small hill and really was within less than 10 seconds of a blow up when we crested and thankfully, he let up.

9/11

I would like to ask we all take a moment this morning to acknowledge the fallen victims of the attack on our nation on 9-11-01.

We can never forget.

Groove

After what has been one of the busiest summers of my life, I am finally settling into a nice groove again. Law School is still taking up considerable amounts of time and energy. However, I have come up with a training plan that still allows me to improve while putting in a high academic workload and learning the law.

Maintaining a career as a pro athlete and law student at the same time is tough, but I am enjoying the challenge. For me, it’s only fun if it is challenging!

I only have one class on Fridays, so I get to drive home and stay there until Monday morning. It’s a bit crazy having 2 homes and spending time equally each week at both, but it is the set up I found that will best allow me to maintain both edges of the knife as sharp as possible. It’s working thus far, so I plan on staying with it.

Callaway Gardens Triathlon

Yesterday I my celebrated 31st overall career win at the nationally acclaimed Callaway Gardens Triathlon, America’s oldest ongoing continental triathlon. The event, held over Labor Day weekend, is older than I am - it has been going on since 1980! The Callaway Gardens Triathlon has been one of the “Top Ten Races” to do in the USA multiple times over the past 28 years, and I wanted to race it and pay my dues at one of the nation’s oldest triathlon.

Crossing the finish line in a time of 1:29:50, I led the race from start to finish, eventually stopping the race clock 28 seconds ahead of my nearest competitor. The race temperature never got above 82°F and a light breeze made the 30k bike course and 8k run course easier on myself and all of the other 290 athletes on the race course.

This has certainly been a great season – this is my 4th win and 7th Top 3 podium – and I still have a couple more races before I shut down the season, so I am going to try to get 10 podiums, which would be a first for me. With the help of some of my sponsors, I have changed my diet this year, and it really shows in the results. I always pushed the envelope and that often meant weakening my immune system, but I have not been sick this year at all, which is also a first for me.

My fiancee was there getting some video footage for the 2009 promo video, and it was nice to get footage of the finish line celebration to add to it.

Ciao,

Felipe