A New Year

And welcome back to the blogging community! Lots has been going on and deals are in the works for the upcoming season. One big announcement that I'll just go ahead and say it....

I'm racing Pro this year!!!

After placing 3rd overall at both Memphis in May and the Chicago Triathlons, I was able to secure my place and qualify to race as a Professional triathlete. I am mainly planning on racing the half ironman distance this season as it favors a weaker swimmer. This is not to say that I haven't been working on the swim. As of late, I have been focusing on getting into the pool 6 times a week and really putting an effort into form and speed. Before, I was hopping into the pool and swimming just to get yards/meters in. Now I am focusing on getting my speed up and holding it with good form. Hopefully the efforts pay off. I have already noticed that my 100 meter time has dropped, which is always a good sign this early in the season.

In terms of biking and running, its looking very promising. Mid December I set a new marathon personal best with a time of 2:32. I was very excited about this time (although I was shooting for sub 2:30), but the course was difficult and wore me out near the end. Maybe next time I will have to choose a flat course! After the marathon, I took a little time off to recharge and focus on the upcoming season. Jacqui and I purchased a Computrainer, which is an amazing training tool. Its not cheap though! We have been focusing on riding courses and workouts tailored to increase our power and improve bike splits for the season. This past weekend I also jumped in two indoor Time Trial bike races. I was able to post fairly decent times considering I rode two hours before the race. I will hopefully hop into a few more indoor time trials and see how my fitness increases.

So things are looking very good for this year. I do have some very other exciting news in terms of sponsors. I will post this in another post because its so big it deserves its own! But basically I will be all set with everything I need to put up solid results this year. My main webpage of http://www.rybread.com/ should be updated in the near future. I will have new sponsors, new photos, race results, and and 2010 race schedule up. The race schedule is still in the works, but is almost finalized. My first multisport event of the year will be Powerman Alabama which takes place just outside of Birmingham. This race is the Elite Duathlon National Championships. The race distance is a little longer of 10k run, 60k bike, 10k run. I think it will be a tough challenge, but based on how training is going, I will definitely be ready. I am also planning on racing the March Madness Half Marathon. I have my 1/2 Marathon PR on this course, so I'm looking to run hard and have it be a good tune up for the season. Other than that, my race calender is being worked out, but should be ready soon.

And one last note...I've been getting a bit of media attention as of late! I was featured on the cover of the Chicago Triathlon Expo handout/webpage, check it out!

And then just yesterday as I was browsing the LifteTime Fitness Tri website, I was featured in the slideshow of photos on the main page! If you want to see it go to http://www.ltftriathlon.com/ . Or just check on the screen shot I saved to my computer:

So that's about it for now. I will keep everyone updated on this season. I am planning on getting a new waterproof/shockproof camera to capture everything that happens this year. I'm really excited about making my Pro Debut and now that I have a looooooot of work to do!