A young Hungarian lieutenant sent one of his reconnaissance units out into the Swiss Alps to complete some training maneuvers. Just as they headed into the mountains, it began to snow. The snow worsened, and the unit quickly became lost. After missing for two days, the lieutenant feared that he had sent the entire unit to their death. Then, miraculously, on the 3rd day the unit returned.
What happened? How did they survive? How did they navigate in the snowstorm? These questions raced through the mind of the lieutenant. One of the men spoke up:
“When the snow started we became lost, and feared we would all die. Then one of us found a map in his pocket…it gave us great hope. We made camp, outlasted the storm, and then used the map to navigate out of the wilderness back to camp. Without the map, we would have never made it off the mountain”
The lieutenant was overjoyed, and asked to see the map that had saved his men. The man gave him the map and the lieutenant looked over it closely. A look of shock came over his face.
What he was holding was not a map of the Alps, but a map of the Pyrenees.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
updates
Hey yall!
It has been an eventful second half of the season for sure! Since my last blog I have been to Washington, Canada, Hungary, Switzerland, New York, and I am currently sitting in the airport in South Korea. I am blaming the ridiculous heat wave in Texas on my lack of posting.
Racing this season has been all over the place....some solid results and some lacking. Since hashing out all the races between June and now would be way too long and boring (for everyone save my wife and parents), I will present some highlights and some photos. 8 photos is like 8,000 words, right??
Monroe Pan American ITU Cup-8th. This was my fourth Top-9 ITU finish this year.
My Tizzy World Cup, Lausanne WCS, and ITU Team World Champ results were varied (all one big trip). The highlight? Finishing 5th at the ITU Team Triathlon World Championships with these three great athletes!! It was an awesome race and hopefully the ITU can successfully get it into the 2016 Olympics. You even got to see my derriere on Universal Sports for a few seconds as I chased some guy named Brownlee.
The lowlight of the trip? Crashing in that same race! Crashing barefoot is highly underated....you need your feet for just about everything!
No pictures from Nationals in Buffalo because, well, it was Buffalo.
Tongyeong World Cup was this past weekend in South Korea. It was my first ever World Cup back in 2008, and I like coming back here. It was a smooth trip over as I had Ethan Brown and Greg Billington to roll with. I had another bit of a rough swim, which made for a ridiculous 32k chase to make the front bunch. Good news is we made it. Finished 34th.
I dont have anymore pics from the race, so here are some new ones from Seoul this past May(same country, right?)
It has been an eventful second half of the season for sure! Since my last blog I have been to Washington, Canada, Hungary, Switzerland, New York, and I am currently sitting in the airport in South Korea. I am blaming the ridiculous heat wave in Texas on my lack of posting.
Racing this season has been all over the place....some solid results and some lacking. Since hashing out all the races between June and now would be way too long and boring (for everyone save my wife and parents), I will present some highlights and some photos. 8 photos is like 8,000 words, right??
Monroe Pan American ITU Cup-8th. This was my fourth Top-9 ITU finish this year.
My Tizzy World Cup, Lausanne WCS, and ITU Team World Champ results were varied (all one big trip). The highlight? Finishing 5th at the ITU Team Triathlon World Championships with these three great athletes!! It was an awesome race and hopefully the ITU can successfully get it into the 2016 Olympics. You even got to see my derriere on Universal Sports for a few seconds as I chased some guy named Brownlee.
l'equipe americain
The lowlight of the trip? Crashing in that same race! Crashing barefoot is highly underated....you need your feet for just about everything! Lasusanne is pretty (yes I took this, Mr Fretta)
No pictures from Nationals in Buffalo because, well, it was Buffalo.
Tongyeong World Cup was this past weekend in South Korea. It was my first ever World Cup back in 2008, and I like coming back here. It was a smooth trip over as I had Ethan Brown and Greg Billington to roll with. I had another bit of a rough swim, which made for a ridiculous 32k chase to make the front bunch. Good news is we made it. Finished 34th.
pre-race game face
I dont have anymore pics from the race, so here are some new ones from Seoul this past May(same country, right?)
The season is pretty much done for me. There are a few World Cups left and we are at the pointy end of Olympic qualifying, but it is time for me to shut down and get ready for next year. I am going to make an early push next year to try and get a start at the WCS in San Diego in May. That's our Olympic Qualifier, and the goal. I am not quite as high in the rankings as I would have hoped after this year, but I am still in the mix. Time for a quick break, and then the hardest winter's training of my life!
I am racing Galveston 5150 this weekend and it should be a fun, low pressure way to end the season.
Cheerio,
B
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
girl shorts, kimchi, yellow mountain, and ATX
It is already June. Crazy.
No, I have not been injured....just not blogging. Instead of giving a play by play of the last 3 months, I will just do it in rapid-fire succession:
Moololaba World Cup, big training block, back-to-back Continental Cups in Asia, Lifetime Fitness Series-Capital of Texas, and finally back to training.
There is 3 months for ya! What follows below is a slightly longer version of the past few weeks.
Here is a pretty picture of the Moo'ba beach...I have not so pretty remembrances of the actual race
After Mooloaba WC and the disappointment with the result there, I came back to Texas to put the disappointment behind me and get in some hard work. The positive thing from the race in Mooloolaba was that it exposed some big holes in my fitness and training. It has to be one of the hardest courses on the ITU circuit, and with the best field in years, there was nowhere to hide.
I needed some points to get into later season World Cups, so I looked at my options for ITU races. I can't stand Mexico, so Asia was the only other choice. The first race was in Seoul.....
It was pretty similar to the ITU WCS course last year: cold swim, technical bike, and a run on the footpath. I had a great swim and came out in about 8-9th position and after a good transition made the initial "front pack" of 6. For Asia, this race was stacked. Tim Don, Reto Hug, Sapunov, Gaag, and 60 others made it a full field. The bike pace was on from the first pedal stroke, and it never let up. It was by far one of the hardest bike rides I have ever done. I can only imagine how hard the WCS bike was last year....
No, I have not been injured....just not blogging. Instead of giving a play by play of the last 3 months, I will just do it in rapid-fire succession:Moololaba World Cup, big training block, back-to-back Continental Cups in Asia, Lifetime Fitness Series-Capital of Texas, and finally back to training.
There is 3 months for ya! What follows below is a slightly longer version of the past few weeks.
Here is a pretty picture of the Moo'ba beach...I have not so pretty remembrances of the actual race
After Mooloaba WC and the disappointment with the result there, I came back to Texas to put the disappointment behind me and get in some hard work. The positive thing from the race in Mooloolaba was that it exposed some big holes in my fitness and training. It has to be one of the hardest courses on the ITU circuit, and with the best field in years, there was nowhere to hide.I needed some points to get into later season World Cups, so I looked at my options for ITU races. I can't stand Mexico, so Asia was the only other choice. The first race was in Seoul.....
It was pretty similar to the ITU WCS course last year: cold swim, technical bike, and a run on the footpath. I had a great swim and came out in about 8-9th position and after a good transition made the initial "front pack" of 6. For Asia, this race was stacked. Tim Don, Reto Hug, Sapunov, Gaag, and 60 others made it a full field. The bike pace was on from the first pedal stroke, and it never let up. It was by far one of the hardest bike rides I have ever done. I can only imagine how hard the WCS bike was last year.... It made me feel a little better when I was riding next to Reto on the lap 6 and he was slobbering on himself gasping for breath trying to close a gap. I started to fade a bit towards the end of the bike, and when I got to the run, my stomach was toast. I struggled through 5k's or so of cramps, and pulled the plug. I do not like dnf'ing, but I was trying to play it smart as I felt horrible, and had another race in 6 days. On to China.
This time around was in Huangshan, China in the Anhui province. The "Yellow Mountain" is a popular destination choice for Chinese tourists. The scenery was nice and there were lots of green mountains and small villages. I have raced in China quite a bit and edible/race-week approved food is sometimes tough to find.....but not on this trip. Enter Breadman. I am convinced Breadman saved my life, or at least my stomach. Delicious naan-style bread made in a trash-can barrel right in front of you. Can street food get any better? Couple that with oreos and coke and you have a 3 course meal!
This is the lake....the water was cool and clean (The mountains don't look yellow to me, though)
Traffic Chaos. They don't obey the traffic lights, honk incessantly, and often drive on the wrong side of the road, but stand in the middle of the intersection and you somehow will not get run over. Probably.
The week between Seoul and China was tough. I felt terrible all week, and was wondering how the race would play out. For every session I was tired and the legs ached. I tried to push it towards the back of my mind and relax. There was a great group of guys racing in China and it was nice to chill and commiserate with the other internationals. I shared a room with Jens Toft fromDenmark. Legend.That guy puts out more watts than his car (which incidentally is a smart car, so that is probably true). The Aussie boys are always a good laugh and then there is Dickie Nicholls. He probably deserves his own post......
Race day came I was nervously confident. Jimmy Seears and I swam next to each other for the first 300m and then had a had a bit if a shocker when we exited the water on lap one in pack 3! Hit the panic button and swim for your life! We clawed our way back up and barely latched on to the end of the first pack running up to T1. Crisis averted. We all worked really well on the bike and had a 1:15 lead on the chasers. Onto the run I felt solid and ran just off the back on the lead group of 6. I tried to bridge the 10s gap or so several times, but just couldnt and was stuck in no-man's land. In the end, I got outsprinted and finished up 8th.
To add to the insult of being outsprinted, the Chinese gentleman that beat me was wearing biking gloves. Not kidding. I was less that 30s out of 3rd so we were all pretty tightly bunched. So close. I am happy with how things went, and I also feel that my running is coming back around and heading in the right direction! As coach says, "no amount of training will give you as much confidence as a good result."
I came back to the US, recovered for a few days and then hopped into the Capital of Texas Triathlon. It was a great fun to do a low-pressure non-drafting race, and even with getting mis-directed in the swim, it was a great day to race in front of the fam and friends in Austin. I finished 16th.....still have to work on my time-trialling if I want to do any of more of that stuff!
Next up in Monroe Continental Cup just outside of Seattle, Washington in 2 weeks. My head is down and I am ready to go race hard. Happy training yall!
Cheers,
B
This time around was in Huangshan, China in the Anhui province. The "Yellow Mountain" is a popular destination choice for Chinese tourists. The scenery was nice and there were lots of green mountains and small villages. I have raced in China quite a bit and edible/race-week approved food is sometimes tough to find.....but not on this trip. Enter Breadman. I am convinced Breadman saved my life, or at least my stomach. Delicious naan-style bread made in a trash-can barrel right in front of you. Can street food get any better? Couple that with oreos and coke and you have a 3 course meal!
This is the lake....the water was cool and clean (The mountains don't look yellow to me, though)Traffic Chaos. They don't obey the traffic lights, honk incessantly, and often drive on the wrong side of the road, but stand in the middle of the intersection and you somehow will not get run over. Probably.
The week between Seoul and China was tough. I felt terrible all week, and was wondering how the race would play out. For every session I was tired and the legs ached. I tried to push it towards the back of my mind and relax. There was a great group of guys racing in China and it was nice to chill and commiserate with the other internationals. I shared a room with Jens Toft fromDenmark. Legend.That guy puts out more watts than his car (which incidentally is a smart car, so that is probably true). The Aussie boys are always a good laugh and then there is Dickie Nicholls. He probably deserves his own post......Race day came I was nervously confident. Jimmy Seears and I swam next to each other for the first 300m and then had a had a bit if a shocker when we exited the water on lap one in pack 3! Hit the panic button and swim for your life! We clawed our way back up and barely latched on to the end of the first pack running up to T1. Crisis averted. We all worked really well on the bike and had a 1:15 lead on the chasers. Onto the run I felt solid and ran just off the back on the lead group of 6. I tried to bridge the 10s gap or so several times, but just couldnt and was stuck in no-man's land. In the end, I got outsprinted and finished up 8th.
To add to the insult of being outsprinted, the Chinese gentleman that beat me was wearing biking gloves. Not kidding. I was less that 30s out of 3rd so we were all pretty tightly bunched. So close. I am happy with how things went, and I also feel that my running is coming back around and heading in the right direction! As coach says, "no amount of training will give you as much confidence as a good result."
I came back to the US, recovered for a few days and then hopped into the Capital of Texas Triathlon. It was a great fun to do a low-pressure non-drafting race, and even with getting mis-directed in the swim, it was a great day to race in front of the fam and friends in Austin. I finished 16th.....still have to work on my time-trialling if I want to do any of more of that stuff!
Next up in Monroe Continental Cup just outside of Seattle, Washington in 2 weeks. My head is down and I am ready to go race hard. Happy training yall!
Cheers,
B
Friday, February 25, 2011
the horizon
In the crazy world of ITU racing, it can be very difficult to nail down a set racing schedule. You often don't know what races you can get into until the last minute. Or, after you have a good result, the door suddenly swings open to races that you thought were previously not possible. It can make planning a season quite difficult!
Happy Racing.....the season has started!!!!!
Up Next: Lauren and I are heading to Clermont, Florida next week for the USA Sprint National Championships. It is quite a big field and will be a great race to see where the legs are. It is hard to hide when 70 guys are on the line. It will also be Lauren's first race of the year and her first pro race, so this race will be super exciting for the both of us. She has been training really hard and it will be a great experience for us to do our first race together.
After Clermont, I will have 3 weeks until I head to Australia for the Mooloolaba World Cup on March 25th. I just found out I got a start, so instead of a mini-training camp over spring break, I will be heading down under to mix it up with the big boys and race. Pretty excited to say the least!
Happy Racing.....the season has started!!!!!
Cheers,
B
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
link to the interview
Here is a link to the recent interview that Slowtwitch did on me:
Travelling Man Barrett Brandon
It was pretty cool to get "slowtwitched." If you haven't read it already, check it out!
Cheers,
B
Travelling Man Barrett Brandon
It was pretty cool to get "slowtwitched." If you haven't read it already, check it out!
Cheers,
B
Thursday, January 20, 2011
have you ever?
Have you ever had a race delayed for over in hour while sitting in 100F/38C heat?
Have you ever had a race referee blow the horn to start the swim when no one was ready?
Have you ever been at a race where the temperature drop 30 degrees in 10minutes?
Have you ever been riding along in a pack and then been swallowed by a sandstorm?
After being swallowed by the sandstorm, have you ever smacked into your good friend and crashed?
Have you ever seen a foot of rain fall in 30minutes in a race before?
Have you ever had pavement turn into a slip and slide?
Have you ever seen 20 people crash (separately) in a race before?
Have you ever ridden up to your skewers in a moving water?
Have you ever rode into T2 only to see volunteers holding your shoes so they dont float down the river?
Have you ever run through water up to your knees....on a street through the run course!
If you can answer yes to all these questions, you were definitelty at 2011 La Paz Triathlon.
The weather was insane. Lots of people have talked about it, and probably no one can do it justice if you werent there. It was dangerous; it was crazy. I swam in the lead pack of 10 or so. I crashed right as the weather got bad on the bike. I managed to stay upright the rest of the way, and came in with the chase pack. I ran/swam/dolphin-dived to 9th.*
*-There is some discrepency as to whether another athlete in the top 10 cut the course.
More pics and video to come.
Have you ever had a race referee blow the horn to start the swim when no one was ready?
Have you ever been at a race where the temperature drop 30 degrees in 10minutes?
Have you ever been riding along in a pack and then been swallowed by a sandstorm?
After being swallowed by the sandstorm, have you ever smacked into your good friend and crashed?
Have you ever seen a foot of rain fall in 30minutes in a race before?
Have you ever had pavement turn into a slip and slide?
Have you ever seen 20 people crash (separately) in a race before?
Have you ever ridden up to your skewers in a moving water?
Have you ever rode into T2 only to see volunteers holding your shoes so they dont float down the river?
Have you ever run through water up to your knees....on a street through the run course!
If you can answer yes to all these questions, you were definitelty at 2011 La Paz Triathlon.
The weather was insane. Lots of people have talked about it, and probably no one can do it justice if you werent there. It was dangerous; it was crazy. I swam in the lead pack of 10 or so. I crashed right as the weather got bad on the bike. I managed to stay upright the rest of the way, and came in with the chase pack. I ran/swam/dolphin-dived to 9th.*
*-There is some discrepency as to whether another athlete in the top 10 cut the course.
More pics and video to come.
cheers,
b
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
chile chile chile
First race of the year is done and dusted! I cant believe I will have two races done before January 20th....
I had a solid result in Chile considering both the time of year and more importantly how long it took me to get there. A snowstorm (more like snow drizzle) and a very inept Air Canada delayed me over 27hrs to get to Chile. The race was Sunday at 10:45AM and I didnt even arrive at my hotel until 5:30pm on Saturday.
I did a good job of remaining calm and not stressing out over the delay, but my 50hrs in-transit was going to catch up with me evetually...
As I stood on the start line looking into the ocean I could only think of two things: 1)All I want to do is sleep and 2) I should have eaten more yesterday.
Control the controllables.
Gun went off, and so did I. First pack swim, avoided dogs, potholes, and Chileans on the bike, and ran.
Finished 8th.
this pic is more for Harry than me. good on ya, mate!
I had a solid result in Chile considering both the time of year and more importantly how long it took me to get there. A snowstorm (more like snow drizzle) and a very inept Air Canada delayed me over 27hrs to get to Chile. The race was Sunday at 10:45AM and I didnt even arrive at my hotel until 5:30pm on Saturday.
I did a good job of remaining calm and not stressing out over the delay, but my 50hrs in-transit was going to catch up with me evetually...
As I stood on the start line looking into the ocean I could only think of two things: 1)All I want to do is sleep and 2) I should have eaten more yesterday.
Control the controllables.
Gun went off, and so did I. First pack swim, avoided dogs, potholes, and Chileans on the bike, and ran.
Finished 8th.
this pic is more for Harry than me. good on ya, mate!cheers,
b
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