Happy New Year!
I am SO TIRED of looking at my post from Guatape. And after battling not one but TWO viruses on my website in the past month I found myself looking at that post a lot. I must post something new! If you visited my website you may have been notified that it was an “attack” site. I’m sorry if my website attacked you. Very aggressive, my website. Just like real-life Kevin. The Google Reader users out there can pay no mind to this apology.
I’m starting to race early this year at the Pan American Championship in La Paz, Argentina on January 15th. This is a race I always wanted to do but could never justify – with the most ridiculous travel for any triathlon EVER and also the race date in mid January it just never made sense. Now that I am being forced to go in order to solidify my start at Olympic Trials in May I’m happy to make the trip. Speaking of the Olympics, the men’s team is wide open. It’s ON!! With eight weeks of solid training in the Florida heat under my belt I AM ready to go for La Paz! No negative affirmations here.
May 2012 be full of happiness and free of attack websites!
2012 – another year with PAULO at the helm. Thanks to Lauren Harrison for the pic.
The Triathlon Squad
I take it I’ve told you about my condition? Plantar fasciitis…in both of my feet. But I’m happy to report that the injury subsided and I made a happy return to racing this past weekend, placing eighth in the San Francisco Pan American Cup!
I was nowhere near race-ready, but I was newly race-able, so I went out and “knocked the rust off,” missing the front pack in the swim and riding a more-or-less solo 40K in between a large front pack and a similarly large third pack (I caught my friend John Dahlz and a Canadian kid named Aaron Thomas in the final 10K on the bike, giving me a bit of rest). I topped it all off with a 35:22 10K. It was a tough day for sure as I was going flat-out pretty much the whole race and didn’t have much to show for it at the end of the day.
Three weeks in St. George, Utah with Paulo Sousa’s Triathlon Squad brought me to the start line in San Francisco. After arriving at the camp Paulo nonchalantly made the claim that “the problem is in your calves and achilles, not your foot,” and then something like “I hope you like water-running (sinister laugh),” and then made me bring my “Stick” to every run session for post-run self-treatment. Two weeks later I logged a 76k run week.
Getting into the car three weeks prior to make the drive to St. George I remember thinking, “Am I really doing this?” Gut check time, Dupree! I was hesitant to leave the comfort of my new home in Boulder, a place I called home for only three weeks before taking off to camp, but also the best place for training I ever encountered – especially for cycling. However, for those three weeks I was just doing my own thing and I know that self-coaching is a recipe for major athlete disaster. And despite being back to a little run training I couldn’t seem to shake the plantar fasciitis completely. So I took off to see what the Triathlon Squad is all about.
Rewind three more weeks – I just arrived in Boulder and fired my coach that I moved to Boulder to work with. Yeah, that makes sense! During my road trip from Orlando to Boulder I saw quite a few Paulo Sousa coached athletes – namely Andrew Hodges and Amanda Felder – and the suspicions I already held about the efficacy of a run-specific coach as a triathlon coach grew until I finally cracked and started the process of change. It was only 18 months ago that a friend of mine made the same decision, changing to a squad-based coach known for hard work and results, and halfway through camp we all sat around the computer and watched Sarah Groff get on the podium in Kitzbuhel! So I’m confident in my decision for sure.
Live From Saint George
My life on the road continues. I stayed in Boulder long enough to adapt to altitude and learn that it’s best to pay with cash at Amante and then it was back in the car and off to Paulo Sousa‘s training camp in St. George, UT. This was certainly not in my plans when I left Florida in May but a cross-country drive does provide lots of time to think things over…
There are no races on my schedule – just getting the work done, carrying water, chopping wood and all that!
The Triathlon Squad at Sand Hollow State Park. The water is 22C so I don’t get a wetsuit (ITU rules)!
New for ’09
Oh hi. It’s been awhile but I’m back to blogging for 2009. Thanks for reading! So what’s new in the world of Kevin Collington? I know everyone is just dying to know.
First off, I moved! I managed to acquire full-time Olympic Training Center ‘resident’ status for 2009 so I packed up and left Florida on December 27th and took a sweet road trip across the country and moved into Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. This will not be permanent as I will be living at the OTC in Colorado Springs, Colorado for the majority of the year, but for now the perennial summer of Chula beats the Colorado Springs winter any day. Thanks to Andrew, Barrett, and Paulo for letting me stay at your places as I bummed it across the country.
Chula Vista is great. Right now the weather averages a dry 50 degree low and 80 degree high. The winter is considered the ‘rainy season,’ meaning it rains about once or twice a month. A suburb of San Diego, Chula is best known for making the news in border patrol related stories. Also, as Mr. Sexton recently reported, Chula was chosen by Forbes.com as one of America’s “most boring cities.” So that’s where I live!
Chula Vista…endless suburbia and shopping centers.
The Otay Reservoir in Chula (this is right outside the training center).
In other news I am now in the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) registered testing pool. This means that I have to tell USADA where I am at all times and also set aside one hour of my day between 6 AM and 11 PM to be in a very specific location of my choosing for that entire hour so they can come and test me. I know it sounds like a bit of a pain in the ass…it is. But what USADA does is very much worthwhile and I’m happy to be a part of it.
I’m also excited to report that I’m working with a few new companies this year, namely Shimano, Kiwami, and Rudy Project.
Oh and lastly, since I receive requests on almost a daily basis of, “Kevin, we want to know what you’re doing RIGHT NOW and AT ALL TIMES!” I got a twitter account and put it over in the right sidebar. Barrett has one, too. We’re so trendy. Too much Kevin Collington? Not possible.
