The 2009 TNT Tri season came and went, the 2009 Toyota US Open race was great... and I didn't take the time to post timely updates.

After much procrastination, here goes my race report.

"If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait 5 minutes and it'll change..." It was as true as ever during the days before, and, on race day morning for this year's US Open Tri. Let's face it, I grew up in tropical weather-most of the year-balmy-Guadalajara. I'm a wimp anytime it gets cloudy, windy, rainy and outside temperature doesn't get above 60.

That's exactly what it was like when we left the Dallas Hyatt at about 5am on October 11th. We all drove to American Airlines Center, set up our T2 stuff (running shoes, socks, race belt and number); and off on the bus we went towards Joe Pool lake for finishing touches on T1 and race start. Was it 50 maybe? I don't remember, but it felt cold as we all got out of the bus for a near 2 hour wait by the lake before the start of the swim. Kudos to Sergio Jr, my son, for hanging out by me the entire time.

We both sheltered ourselver in the men's restroom, where we at least stayed dry. It was pretty convenient, given my usual and frequent pre-race visits thanks to pre-race jitters and water intake. The swim portion was the usual struggle to stay afloat, at least this time I could finally stop fearing drowning, those wetsuits are great!. However, I probably (as in all races before) got most of my hydration during the swim. Hard to tell how much lake water I gobbled up, not good. Swim split time; 36:29 (at a rate of 2:14 for every 100 meters), only good for 488th place. not good either, but similar to past races.

Some progress was made during the bike leg, although this is where trouble sort of started. We had a strong cross wind throughout the first several miles as we were riding out of Lynn Creek Park along the Joe Pool Lake dam. Legs are not supposed to be tired after the swim, mine always are thanks to poor swimming, so this was challenging. It didn't help that we were greeted by some very tough hills upon exiting the park. I don't know how many miles was that, but it lasted forever as anyone else on our team will tell you!. I was never able to get comfortable
on the bike, legs were tired, the bagels, bananas and yogurt I had for breakfast threw a curveball on my stomach too. I was somehow riding on the blind, not knowing how fast/slow or how far on the race I was, since I came to rely on the bike's computer, which had decided to stop working that same morning. Bike split: 1:17:30 (19.2 MPH) good enough for 188th place on the bike portion alone.

As I finally got to T2 inside American Airlines Center's parking lot and got on my running shoes, the first mile felt good!. So many people from TNT cheering your name, that feels awsome!. By the start of mile 2 it all started going downhill, legs were all but gone. Or at least that's how they felt; I was tempted to take the 5K turn around point at the katy trail. I just wanted to finish the race. Thoughts of walking, stopping, quitting, taking a break; they all crossed my mind as I went through to the 3.1 mile turnaround point. Breakfast was still playing with my stomach too.

However, it was refreshing to run into my friends from the Ft Worth team on the trail. Robby, Mario, Adam, Kristen, Nicole, Erin, Karelyn, Carey. You just can't stop. Nearly 6 months getting ready for this race; there is no quitting!. I had the choice, our honored heroes can't quit, they can't stop the pain of cancer at will like I could have done it on the race. The split time for the 10K leg was 46:36 (7:31 m/mile); 234th place on the run.

Overall finishing place was 229th out of 640 finishers. 19th place in my age group out of 62 with a finishing time of 2:43:30.

I was initially disappointed at my finishing time, how I felt during the race, the race conditions, the course, the weather, etc. However, it wasn't all that bad after all. 19.2MPH on the bike, given how many hills we faced was quite decent.

I was humbled by the support of everyone at TNT. Special thanks to our coaches Tim and Lawrence; Ft Worth's Tri team coordinator Ashley, Chris, Mark. and our mentors, James, Missy and Denise.

"I'll be back". Just a week after the race I found out a dear friend of mine, Eve Skaer, had been diagnosed with a form of cancer at the beginning of October. She will be my motivation in 2010 as I get ready for the US Open. The goal will be to raise more than this year's $3200 dollars, I'll shoot for $4000 this time; with your help, we'll make it.

I was asked to write this article, which was later published on Motorola's Wellness Center's July Newsletter:

Editor’s Note: Sergio has been with Motorola for the last 16.5 years. He has been a great, respected and admired health and fitness ambassador for TX14. He is too modest to write an article that highlights his many and impressive achievements as a runner and tri-athlete, not to mention passion for charity through exercise, so I make mention of that to honor his distinguished and talented achievements over the years.

We wish him only greatness as he moves on to his next station in life. The sun doesn’t set here – keep shining Serg.

Sergio Flores-Chavira

Senior Systems Engineer

CDMA Field Ops

Three Constants: Consistency, Periodization & Rest

Training, nutrition methods, the overall concept of fitness and what the human body is capable of in the world of sports and fitness – just some of the things that have changed substantially over the years.

Progress has been slow sometimes – it took the International Olympic Committee 88 years to finally add the women's marathon to the Olympic program, never mind that women had been officially allowed to run previous New York and Boston marathons.

More changes are certain to come in the future. However there are some aspects that we can be sure will remain unchanged:

Consistency: approach exercise and physical activity with a long-term perspective. Quick fix and sporadic efforts simply don't work. For example, unhealthy rapid and unsustainable weight , ramping up mileage excessively in a short period of time and not allowing the body enough recovery time are recipes for disaster, often leading to overuse injuries, burn out and weaken the immune system. Regardless of the sport or physical activity, a slow, gradual increase in volume and intensity allows the body to adapt itself to the stress placed upon it.

Periodization: Once a regular program of exercise has been well established (through consistency), it is important to vary the intensity and duration at regular intervals. Training at high intensity levels for long periods of time can lead to overuse injuries. For the average person, exercise at moderate to medium intensity for most of the time. As a general rule, you should feel tired but not exhausted at the end of any given session: there should be a feeling of Yes, I could do this workout all over again later today. Cross training is a good way to achieve this: if you are a runner, jump in the pool, ride your bike, play basketball, lift weights, etc. You get the idea!

Rest! Once the competitive bug bites you, it is hard to take days off. However, it is during rest days that the body repairs itself. Rest may mean cross training - an alternate exercise can provide rest to muscles used in your main form of exercise; an active form of resting that allows the body to recover from strenuous effort while keeping one's fitness intact.

My First Trathlon, Part III (and last)

Once inside the water, more surprises and "learning" came. I'm not exactly light skinned, let's face it, water was murky (Lake Carolyn in Irving, not exactly pristine waters), maroon swim cap. Fear, which later became almost panick, took over, "what if I get tired?", "I can't touch the lake's bottom?", "where are the life guards in their kayaks?", "if I make it to the bottom of the lake, no one will find me, I'll drown!!!".

It was nearly impossible to keep the negative thoughts out of my mind. I kept thinking what the hell was I doing when I signed up for this?. Eventually, I had to swim to the shore with only a 100 yards to go to calm myself down and re-assure myself I could finish this. Eventually, after a couple of minutes I finally covered the last portion of the swim with no further incidents. Out of the water I went and the fun continued.

Out on my brand new bike I went and the first couple of miles felt pretty good, the bike was so light and fast I was really glad I stayed away from the Mountain bike. However, once again, lack of practice almost made me crash when reaching for the water bottle, I came close to hitting the curb really bad as I lost control of the bike. Trying to get into an "aero" psition also made it for an interesting race, getting me close to a fall a couple more times when trying to stay "aero" and shifting gears at the same time. What I never anticipated was how bad my "bottom" was going to feel like in the last third of the race. My buttocks were hurting so bad, the last 15 minutes of the ride were painful to say the least, had to stand up, sit down, push my body forward, then backwards on the seat, then stand up again, sit down, etc. in an infinite cycle.

To top the tri experience off, the running portion was no different from the swim and bike legs. Just as I was getting off the bike on T2, my heart started racing thanks to a non-dangerous condition -according to my doctor- called supra ventricular tachycardia. My rate went quickly from 130-140 bpm to above 195 in a matter of seconds, not dangerous but not good, as it gets me short of breath. It just becomes very annoying to try and keep the effort. I tried to play some old tricks to get the heart rate back under control to no avail; after a couple of minutes resting inside the transition area I decided to just walk the entire 5K.

People, spectators, always make road races and triathlons very enjoyable experiences. It's always encouraging to hear people cheer you up and clap their hands as you run past them. This case was no exception, everyone attending the race and sitting around the transition area cheered my up as I walked by and started walking. Even though my heart rate never really went under control, I recovered and rested enough during the walk to allow me to start joggin for the last couple of miles. Hearing the announcer say my name as I was getting close to the finish line was also a very neat experience "Sergio Flores, from Fort Worth, Texas, finishing uo strong..." Aftre 48 minutes, the 5K was over, total finish time must have been over 1 hour 30 minutes, overall winner finished in well under 1 hour. I was used to finishing in the top 50 overall in 5K races, this triathlon: 140th overall...

The after race party and awards ceremony is a part of the race experience many people don's stick around to enjoy. There's usually plenty of food, fruit, pizza, snacks, goodies and at certain races even beer, to make this a nice part to stay for, even for non medal winners.

Overall, this was far from the experience I was anticipating, it was tough, hard and even painful, but hey! as of this date, I've completed 6 other triathlons so far and under the right circumstances I will complete a half and a full Ironman in the future, it's not a matter or "if" but more like "when", will I be able to race a half in 2009? I hope so!

My First Trathlon, Part II

Triathlons (and athletic events in general for that matter) have a special way to bring yourself to reality really quick. Somehow they are a humbling experience for almost everybody; sooner or later, you will experience it if you're at it long enough.

The day before the race I decided to go ahead and buy a real road bike, instead of relying on my "SUV" like mountain bike. Good call, I thought; as I was planning on racing often. Went to the bike shop after an extensive research on the internet, and bought me the cheapest road bike I could find. Hey!, that was a good call, the bike alone was $500, but it's pretty light and components are of good quality (Shimano 105, carbon fiber fork, Alex rim wheels, etc).

Next stop, Pearl Izumi's outlet shop in Hulen St. Needed the Tri suit of course!; I was committed to having a good race. Shirt, check, shorts, check, bike helmet, check, goggles, check. Bike shoes? what for? nah, don't need them, un-check; how much slower can you go with regular running shoes? Not much, right? I was ready for race day!

Race was scheduled to start at 7am on a Sunday morning. Unfortunatelly, not every thing went according to plan. I was on the phone until close to 1am; alarm clock went off at 5; pre-race jitters and everything else meant no more than 2 hours of sleep. Oh, well, out to Irving I went. And then, the learning began. Can't remember exactly, but the gun went off for the first wave of swimmers at exactly 7; I must have been on the 4th or 5th wave because I had plenty of time to get even more nervous for the race.

Used the port-a-potties at least twice. The second visit almost turning my whole Tri experince into a disaster, as I inadvertently dropped my goggles to the floor, not without missing the toilet seat and its contents by a couple of inches.

My first Triathlon, Part I.

This post has a long time in the making. But here it is:

Like most people who are now racing (or have raced) triathlons in the past. I first learned about the sport by watching a bunch of crazy individuals in what they called "Ironman" in the early 80's. It was certainly an exotic event at the time. They used to show snapshots of the race on one of the most popular sports shows in Mexico called "DeporTV".

I have to admit I was always mesmerized by the race. How crazy does someone need to be to take part in such an excruciating event? Are they out of their mind? Not only were they spending over 8 hours in the race, but the last event was a FULL marathon!. What were they thinking? I used to think I was never going to be able to do that!.

Then came my college days in the second half of the 80's -gosh, I'm dating myself here- and triathlons slowly started to appear around my hometown; a couple of friends I knew from my track and field team made the jump. Then our University began having a yearly event, somewhat similar to today's Olympic/International distance (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run).

I figured I would take the plunge like my friends and started to "train", or so I thought, for the triathlon, feeling confident the race portion should not be a problem I started swimming 3000 meters, 2-3 times a week. That was a short lived effort, which didn't last for more than a couple of months because of lack of committment and training partners probably (excuses, excuses). My triathlon dreams were put on hold for a few years...

Fast forward to 2005, when I finally decided to start exercising regularly; a few cometitive 5K's here and there, some jogging, some weight lifting at the Motorola gym; and... some pilates at the local YMCA too!, they were all part of my workout before I stumbled upon an ad on the internet for an upcoming Triathlon: The TRIAmerica Series was coming to town.

I learned about the event 5 days before the race, so I figured, well, I have a mountain bike. I hadn't done any swimming since college but since I signed up for the Sprint distance (800 meter swim, 20 Km bike, 5Km race) I figured that wouldn't be a problem. Besides, how hard could it be to ride 20 Km anyway???