No air at the Colombian World Cup!!

More or less, this represents the air missing from my rear tire (photo taken swimming in México)!

Less than 5 miles in and I experienced the same scene from 5 months ago.  My tire was flat, again . . . How, my father wondered, could lighting strike the same place twice?!
The only two flats I had racing in 2011 were at Guatapé...

(Guatapé in June...)

I wish I could say "this was my best", but I could not say that... I raced my best at the 13 ITU races, but no performance could match my regular workouts.
I peaked at the LA Triathlon, which was not an ITU race.  During that race, I used Siri's 'loving it' psychology to release all my abilities for racing.  Because of that experience, I was ready at Guatapé until the flat . . .

Unfortunately, mechanical failure is a part of sport.  Fortunately, in the sporting world, future events offer the opportunity to overcome it.

So my last chance for points in 2011 awaits in Auckland, NZD
Let' s go for it!!!

I think, therefore I persist!!

38th on the Tongyeong - Korea World Cup...

The race did not go as I anticipated.  I had learned not to worry about results, but we always have expectations (which must not be requirements).   Once more, I did not reach my potential in this race, but it left me a wiser triathlete.

I had a positive outlook about the competition.  I felt good that day and for the first time in a World Championship I was swimming with ease in the middle of the pack.  Having already completed three quarters of the water portion, I felt I could sprint at will, until in the last 300 m my stomach started to cramp and I could barely breathe.  @^&! I thought, "I cannot believe this is happening again."  Cramps had been conquered, or so I thought.  I slowed down almost to a stop, breathed deeply, believing I could catch the pack on the bike.

Because of slowing in the water, a few athletes caught me and we started biking as a group of five.  For the remainder of the race I did not feel as tired as I had previously, but the cramps remained.  I pushed, but with such a small group, overcoming the strong lead packs seemed impossible.  Once I realized that, I just tried my best.  

Sometimes the goal seems so close and yet so far at the same time...
What a test of patience! C'est la vie!
Maybe I will find the emerald on my next attempt!!

As described in this paragraph from Paulo Coelho's amazing book I just read "The Alchemist":

(...)
"The old (wizard) man related that, the week before, he had been forced to appear before a miner, and had taken the form of a stone. The miner had abandoned everything to go mining for emeralds. For five years he had been working a certain river, and had examined hundreds of thousands of stones looking for an emerald. The miner was about to give it all up, right at the point when, if he were to examine just one more stone—just one more— he would find his emerald. Since the miner had sacrificed everything to his destiny, the old man decided to become involved. He transformed himself into a stone that rolled up to the miner's foot. The miner, with all the anger and frustration of his five fruitless years, picked up the stone and threw it aside. But he had thrown it with such force that it broke the stone it fell upon, and there, embedded in the broken stone, was the most beautiful emerald in the world.

'People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being,' said the old man, with a certain bitterness. 'Maybe that's why they give up on it so early, too. But that's the way it is." (...)

37th at Huatulco World Cup, México

I thought it would be really hard, and maybe I would not be prepared. But I did it!!
I arrived at the Mexican World Cup without worryies about results!
The goal was accomplished, I did the best I could and had fun in the whole race!!

Of course, is a kind of masochist fun!! I suffered a lot, but who will say that it is not fun any arduous climb to the summit of a mountain!?
I believe the secret is not to pursue your dream... but live it!!

I did not make one of my best races, despite having swum much better then the others WCs, on the first lap of the cycling course I felt my legs weak, and could not stay with the pack, on the course there was a big hill plus the heat of the asphalt, I was climbing inside a sauna, was close to 3 minutes like in the hell!! Probably the thermal sensation was about 45°C... I was suffering so much, but as I saw the others suffering too, I was enjoying it, like lets see who takes that for longer!!

I started to feeling better on each lap, but the first pack was already on a big gap, so I enjoyed the group of about 5 (which were not always the same 5, some were catched, and others were dropped out).
I left to run amost creeping! But this was the game!! I knew that at the end of the race I would be glad to had been played the match till the end!!

Sometimes came into my mind that I had invested a lot of money and time to be there and I did not have a good performance, but soon I realized that I could enjoy every minute on the pursuit of my dream!
Another lesson learned!!

On the next day was my birthday, so I tried enjoy myself a bit more suffering on the Huatulco beaches, as on the pictures above!!

This are not wrinkles of the time, but from the wind speed!
Neither are white hairs, but water drops on 60kph!!
Ok, all right, I was getting older at that day!!! hahaha

7th at LA Tri, Free of Expectations!!!

Racing in the Los Angeles Triathlon was like discovering something new!!
I had fun like I haven't had a long time ago, and with my coach Siri Lindley we confirmed I was having some psychological weakness on facing the races...

(30secs to go!!)

Coming from awesome trains but any good races I started to think that I could be having some psychological deficiencies...
With the thought that would be perfect to have a mind of a soldier, who gives even his life for the nation, I thought that would be interesting to read a military psychologic book, so I did, and the reading was fine, but couldn't find any answer for my poor performance, is not courage that was missing on my mind...

(Having 40km of pure fun!!)

Since Edmonton WC, on july, my amazing coach Siri, opened my eyes for the problem called:

EXPECTATION!!
Gosh, waiting for a supposed future is something that really agonizes everybody...
We work hard the whole year, we sacrifice parties and weekends, investing time and money on a big target, and how can we do not expect reap the rewards!??

Looking back on this race, perhaps a tip is to not put so much focus on just one goal.
Always point on different targets and know that not all of them will succeed as wished... So we can avoid jitters of having all your chips on just one bet...

Expectation makes anxiousness, and I believe that this was consuming me on the World Cup races.
2011 is an important year for the Olympic trials, without a good sponsor, plus the Brazilian Confederation avoiding my participation, I could not imagine having bad results, an that unconscious pressure I think justifies my physical and mental exhaustion on the WC races...

Thanks to Siri, I realized how different is to be on a race without expetations. A non drafting race, where I bought a TT bike the day before the race, and without any specific training for it, I could just expect to have fun doing my best possible on that day.

(mens podium)

I arrived at the start line filled of energy, knowing that would be a great day! Pretty different on the feelings of the last races...

Just loving it!! (like Siri always say!)
I swam, rode and ran really good, exception for my second transition which was the worse one, because I had really bad cramps on my quads at the time to put the shoes on!! Luckily these cramps were getting better as I was running!
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon - Olympic results

I am still learning how to race without expectations, its not easy when the funnel for the Olympics is getting tight, and without a good sponsor I cannot travel without worries on if it wil be worth to race so far...

But following the mantra "just do it, just love it!"
Here we gooooo!!!
For the next World Cups:
Mexico - at 9th and Korea october 15th!!

50th place at Yokohama Dextro World Champs...

The race was hot, really hot!!! Before the start I was already dripping over my stuff on the transition area... But this was not close the reason for my poor performance, still need to work on some details...

I lost the first huge pack for about 10 secs, and pay the price of high self-confidence, when I rode almost the 40km without an aerobar and race wheels, I was pretty confident of leaving the water on a group pack..

I started to run completely exhausted, and since the beginning I was fighting through pain, I tried many reactions but my body was not reacting... So I ran to the finish line just fighting against my self, but not chasing points or positions...

I was really disappointed because, just finishing a race was not something I was looking for in Japan, but as I read the other day on someone twitter: "In life we should not expect the storm to pass, but we need to learn how to dance in the rain!"

So lets hang out in Japan!!

Sharks for anyone!?? At least if one day you got a bite, you both are even!!! lol

Crazy people in Japan... Here the weird hat, and Fabio naked!! lol

Delights in Chinatown!!!

This guy makes pictures with only a scissor!! Incredible!!

Avatar!

Curious!

"Sorry, if you can't speak Japanese, You don't stay at our hotel by disaster" :-o

Metro Station of Motomachi!

Walking around Yokohama!

Just arriving from the Airport, Yokohama on Tokyo Bay is the second city on population from Japan.

The Japanese people is very witty, so on each block I was awarded with a different wonder like that!!

Any sightseeing in Japan is like a dream! I could spend hours in any tent, temple, restaurant and even on a grocery store!! Soooo diferent!!

On this temple I could find some similarity with Brazil!! Maybe that guardian is dancing some Brazilian stuff!!

 http://youtu.be/CvbOhDr6a6A

Some exotic food, can't wait after the race!!

The God of the sea, bring me some good luck!! Ryujim Dragon...

Watashi wa Vanha desu!! Haiii

Amazing all the details...

The goal for this race is to be better than the guy I was yesterday!!

The start would be at 11:00 am on Monday, so 7:00 pm on Sunday for CA...

The race will be broadcast live on www.triathlon.org

The Boomerang Effect

In Brazil sometimes we say that everything that goes, one day will comes back ...
This is not an exact rule, and I like the example of the boomerang because first comes the "BOOM" I mean, we must break the inertia and make a great effort more or less calculated to throw it... and then if get it back in your hands "Merang", otherwise it always still lots of fun!!

After nearly six months away from home, I returned to Curitiba!
How good is to change, get out of routine, spend a few days at home, train in the cold (not that fun), seeing family and friends!
Energy recharged!

Sometimes I feel so tired of traveling... This nomadic life is not that cool!
But if you want to achieve something big, you need to pay the price and BOOM!
Here I go and in the next five Tuesdays I will be embarking on a plane "going and returning": a week in LA, one week in Japan, one more week in LA, another in Brazil, time for a Mexican one, and again I stop in the U.S. !
I say one week, but it will be actually five days because the other 48 hours I'll be sitting trying to sleep between the skies and airports of many different countries!
OMG... it accurately portrays the pursuit of an Olympic place!
Living the dream! :-)

Well, I was not only boomeranging at Caiobá - Brazil, but also participated in an open water challenge!

The crazy one without a wetsuit in the picture is me!
I was swimming well, but got stuck in some currents, what made me lose a lot of time! I swam about 15 minutes worse than last time and finished in 5th place, finishing the aprox. 3 km in 55 minutes.
Congratulations to all who completed the challenge, was not an easy one!

This week I'm in Los Angeles and the next stop will be in Yokohama - Japan, the race was postponed after the terrible tsunami that shocked the world.
The race is a stage of the 2012 World Championships and also distribute points for Olympic ranking.

Here we goooooooooo!!!!!