Fast Triathlon Victory!!

Buzios beach, Rio de Janeiro hosted the Fast Triathlon last Sunday, the biggest TV station in Brazil broadcast the competition live.
This triathlon is made for TV, and it is a team race (6 countries with 3 athletes on each team). 

We raced 250m swim, 4km bike and 1.2km run, with 15min in between; three times!

As the distance is short, the speed is fast, and the race is really intense!!

When we are lining up for the start, our arms and legs still hurting from the previous round!!

In the first round, I finished third, behind Alarza from Spain, and Buckingham from England. Brazil, also represented by Wesley Matos and Danilo Pimentel, trailed the Spanish by 9 points and the English by 4.

Although we saw the likelihood of winning the race unlikely, we were willing to do whatever it took to accomplish that goal! On the second round, I broke away on the bike, and held that nice gap during the run portion, taking the win!!
We passed the British team, but the Spanish held onto the lead by 7 points...

The third round started well with the 3 Brazilians exiting the water first, but soon we became a peloton of Brazilians, Spanish, English and Colombians. A strategy started to take form. We wanted a double Brazilian win. Wesley was able to build a nice gap on the bike. But each time I tried to break away, the opposing teams worked well to stay with me. So I worked to hold back the big pack!


As we went into the run, I wasn't sure if we could take the win, but then noticed a Brazilian running ahead of each Spaniard. In the end, Wesley won; I got seventh place; and I knew we had gained some points over the Spanish team; I just didn't know if it would be enough...


By one point we won it!!! Uhuuuuuuuu!! :-D

Final results:

1 - Brazil: 111 points
2 - Spain: 110 points
3 - Great Britain: 98 points
4 - Colômbia: 59 points
5 - Chile: 24 points
6 - South Africa: 19 points

As I did last year, I put my race suit up for auction to raise money for a worthy instituition named "Fazenda da Esperança" or in English "Farm of Hope" for the treatment of chemical dependency... The website is in portuguese but if interested, you can send me your offer by email ,(maurocavanha@hotmail.com) before February 22th.
Cheers!

1st place at Fiss International Triathlon!!

A picture is worth more than a 1000 words!! 

I have to confess that I was getting used to posts filled by reflections trying to explain to myself why the race did not go as expected...

Life is made of ups and downs, so I knew that eventually everything would come together and the result would be great!!

The race happened at San Cristóbal - Venezuela, Saturday at 3:00 pm. 

I started with a good  mile swim, but left the water with a 30 sec gap behind the leaders. On the 24 mile bike ride, I overtook the leaders and it was my turn to open a 30 sec gap on them!!

During the 6 mile run, I pushed as hard as I could, without looking back!! It felt amazing!!

I set a new course record of 1:54:20! 

With 5kg lost weight and an improvement of 6% on my VO2 capacity, I have come to understand that the Brazilian National Federation made the right decision for themselves by taking me out from the Olympic trials! It would not look good for them if someone who do not receive any support (out of the 1.4 million dollars which the Olympic Committee gives to the Triathlon Federation), should win a Olympic spot...

Afterwards I was invited to a very cool interview at TRT channel!! 

The organizer, Mario, also scheduled me with a bunch of radio stations. Suddenly I was listening live on the radio to my Spanish accent!! Doing an interview is not an easy thing! Can you imagine how much more difficult it is when it isn't your first language!! lol

Tracing the new route!

If there is one thing that I have learned with so many travels around the world in 2011, it is that there are infinite new horizons!!

Without the Olympic Games, working-out harder (and faster!) than ever before, plus new partnerships for the 2012 season, I will start racing already next week. I am motivated to trace this new path!

*January 29th - Fiss San Cristóvão Festival ...
This is the most traditional race in Venezuela, it is a commemorative event, like the carnival of that city! Olympic distance with legal draft (1500m - swim, 40km - bike, 10km - run).
The curiosity on this race is that the swim happens on a 50m swimming pool!

* February 12th - Fast Triathlon World Championship...
One of the events of the Brazilian Summer Games; it will be broadcast live for all Brazil on the #1 TV Channel - TV Globo. It is a race where all athletes do this very short and "balls to the wall" course three times: (250m - swim, 4km - bike and 1km - run). The 5 invited countries for the 2012 edition are Germany, Colômbia, South Africa, Chile, and England.

*March 04th - Sesc Triathlon Caiobá...
It is so great to compete at home!! This is one of the most traditional Brazilian races, and my favorite!
This year the 1000 registration spots sold out in less than 10minutes.
It is a draft legal Olympic Distance.

*March 17th - South American Championship...
Despite this being an official ITU race, I think the Brazilian Federation will let me race, as it does not count for  Olympic points. I have never raced before in Santiago, Chile, but I am very excited about this one!!

*Dia 30/03/2012 - 70.3 Ocean Side...
The start of the long distance races will be in Califórnia, and it could not be a better place! Forty give minutes from where I love to live and train with Siri's Team!!
Half Ironman distance is 1,2 mi swimming, 56 mi biking and 13.1 mi running, which together sums 70.3 miles!

After that, I intend to stay another couple of months training with my coach, Siri Lindley, in LA, and pick some other 70.3's and non draft races like the LifeTime Series, Toyota Cup, Revolution3. I am also thinking about racing the Brazilian full Ironman, which is scheduled for May!!

Here I go!!!

Changing the focus!

It is nothing new for politics and sports to collide.
This has already happened in other countries, and the Brazilian federation is no exception.
The lack of rules allows politics to bias their favorites, especially when those employing politics are also the coaches of athletes in the contest for the national team...

After fighting to compete in almost every World Cup in 2011, this year my Federation said I will not race anyone for Olympic points. The justification (and I am not joking...) was that as were other Brazilians with more points than me, their positions should be preserved without the risk that I might take points away by coming in before them. (Seems like a joke, because if I can really beat the other Brazilians, it just indicates I would be a better contender for a Olympic spot.)

Luckily triathlon offers many possibilities with different races, which do not involves federations.
Although disappointed that I will not being able to compete in the Olympic Games, I am very optimistic to start a new season with several non-draft cups and also the Ironman series.

I could not be on a better team or in a better place to tread this new path!! Training with Siri Lindley in Santa Monica, CA.  has brought back the pleasure of working hard. She really knows how to make us give it our all, each and every day!!

I can't wait to start racing on 2012!!
Ironman, Here I come!!!

The trip not over yet!! The Rangitoto Island...

After visiting the museum, the rain slowed, so I decided to visit the Rangitoto Island!! This is the view of the harbor... 

It took around 40 minutes by ferry...

Rangitoto Island was formed by a volcano, which became extinct 600 years ago... Rangitoto means "bleeding sky" in Maori .

On the way to the island I met Basile, a french ultra marathon runner, and together we planned to run a big portion, passing through the most scenic spots on the volcanic island. 

On the volcano's path, we ran for almost 2 and half hours!!

We kept a good pace, but always enjoying the environment!! 

We had to stop several times just to admire the scenery!

On the 1920's the island was also an important military base...

A beautiful military base!!

Along the way we passed many people climbing to the summit!

The rain went out!! And blessed by the sun, our adventure was even better!!

Certainly one of the best paths I ever ran!!!

We stopped at some volcanic caves, but without a flashlight we couldn't explore deeper...

The directions were well marked and we also had a map on hands, but we could not contain our excitement on running through the whole island!! 

As a result, we could spend only 5 minutes at the summit, because the last ferry was leaving in 20 minutes and we did not wish to learn what happens if someone misses the last ferry of the day!! lol

The map indicated 1h45min walking time from the summit to harbor and we were not sure if we could make it in only 20 minutes... So we ran and we ran faaaast!! Descending with rocks in the path and some sharp downhills, I almost lost my footing several times over the 22 minutes trip.
The ferry was there!! whew!!

In the end, thinking about our adventure, where we ran for 2h 30min yet only spent 5 min at the summit... I remembered the saying, "journey is what bring us happiness, not the destination..."

And I was reaaaly happy with all that great work done to summit the volcano!! :-D

Not only that great work climbing the volcano, but also trying to get to the Olympics!! 

Thanks God, I can persist in that endeavor!! 

Thanks Renata, Maire, Sergey and Amili for the amazing times in New Zealand!!

Taking advantage of the new year wishes, I wish all the readers a 2012 plenty of adventure, sports, happiness, love, friends and achievements!!!

Feliz Ano Novo!!

Last day - Museum of Auckland

My last breakfast in New Zealand, with the required reading for anyone who lived in Maire's house.

Trying to understand some of life's soap operas!

 The day started raining, so I planned to visiting the Museum of Auckland!!

Plenty of Maroris culture and symbols...

Maoris were the Indians, or aborigenes who lived in Nova Zelândia before the arrival of Europeans.

 The word "maori", in the Maori's language means the distinction between gods or mortal humans...

 There were some crazy Indians there too! hahaha

The Haka, a Maori dance, was used to show the men's stamina and force. The New Zealand rugby national team traditionally dances a similar version to intimidate their opponents, called Ka Mate.

I found the translation from Wikipédia website:

The "Ka Mate" haka generally opens with a set of five preparatory instructions shouted by the leader, before the whole team joins in:

"Ka Mate"

Leader:	Ringa pakia!		Slap the hands against the thighs!
	Uma tiraha!		Puff out the chest.
	Turi whatia!		Bend the knees!
	Hope whai ake!		Let the hip follow!
	Waewae takahia kia kino!		Stomp the feet as hard as you can!
Leader:	Ka mate, ka mate		'I die, I die,
Team:	Ka ora' Ka ora'		'I live, 'I live,
Leader:	Ka mate, ka mate		'I die, 'I die
Team:	Ka ora Ka ora "		'I live, 'I live,
All:	Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru		This is the hairy man
	Nāna i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā		...Who caused the sun to shine again for me
	A Upane! Ka Upane!		Up the ladder, Up the ladder
	Upane Kaupane"		Up to the top
	Whiti te rā,!		The sun shines!
	Hī!		Rise!

Day three!!

The third day in New Zealand was the busiest!!! 

Renata, Sergey and Marie took the day off from work and we went for a tourist, adventure marathon!!

We started at Muriwai beach on the Tasmanian Sea.

We watched Gannets, the birds that can fly up to 60mph and dive down over 40 yards to catch fish!

Hundreds of gannets!

Great views!!!

The Tasmanian Sea is characterized by the rough and cold water, and the black sand.

We hopped into the freezing water to body surf...
Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and then began our jungle adventure!

We navigated through many obstacles over 25 yards up attached onto the trees...

Equipment checked!

The tyrolean was the best!!! Woohooo

There were 12 courses with different levels of difficulty.

Sergey takes a break!!

We spent almost 90 minutes climbing on hopes and hitting our shins on wood!! ouch!! lol

After leaving the jungle, we relaxed at a Spas... 

We Challenged each other swimming and raced, my arms never felt so heavy!!

Sergey insisted I not leave NZ without trying Bikram Yoga, so that was our next stop...

Luckily I had a swimming suit on under my clothes. After the first asana, I took everything off except my swimming trunks... In a 105°F room we exercised for 90 min. OMG, I was almost dying!! 

Never before had I seen so much sweat draining from my body. During some stances I could not count the drops falling onto my towel. I took some breaks but showed my stamina by completing the full session!! Afterwards, my towel was at least 5kg heavier!

After drinking several liters of water, we finished the day chilling out and singing karaoke!! 

This long day left me without arms, legs or a voice to use to cry for help!! lol