sponsors

So I am at the Los Angeles triathlon expo and I see this guy wearing a champions triathlon t-shirt, a race I won in march in pflugerville.  I go up and ask him if he is from Austin and he says no but I work with Champion systems, we sponsor that race.  We got into a brief conversation and he asks me "do you race all over".  I replied yes, which I definetly do (thank you mom and dad), he hands me a business card and says send me an email maybe we can get you some free gear.  I was so excited I almost fell down.  The man was Scott Kaylin, president of Champion systems.  And Yes they have offered me a sponsorship.  But most sponsorships dont come so easily, or randomly.  I should also say that amateurs are not as limited as you might think in their ability to get sponsorships.  Age groupers can find sponsorships if they look and are adamant about a particular brand and if you don't believe me go look at the hammerbucks program, they pay out big if you like hammer and wear their kit, which I don't to either.

Being the end of the year I set out to find sponsors by hunting around the ol' interweb and it has been  pretty good so far. I have 3 confirmed sponsors, Xterra wetsuits who offer me great discounts 66-75% for myself AND FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!  if you want one just ask.  I have first endurance giving me discounts on nutrition products including the magic pill Optygen HP which my biology professor said was a drug for its abilities.  As I mentioned earlier I have champion systems providing me with clothes, although those details havent been worked out yet.  But for them to produce the tri suit that is worn by gomez and my idol Greg bennett makes me giddy.  I seriously cannot wait to see it.  I will probably spend a week or two training in it just to see how cool it is, and so everyone can see all the sponsor logos that I am putting on it.  I think I am also going to get free product from Nuun the electrolyte tablets.  I work for them as a sampler and the sales manager said I would get free product,  I will definetly want their logo on my race suit just because I like them that much.

I got lucky with Champion systems, but finding sponsors is really all about showing interest, showing good performance, and showing how you can benefit their company.  Sponsors want to gain something out of it not just give it away because they think your fast.  I would say my best selling point was my coaching and personal training.  Because I do swim coaching and I am connected in the fitness industry of Austin I can market products to my clients the way that my coach marketed to me.  I remember One time James gave me a bottle of endurolytes for free and I used them for two years!  Until I discovered Nuun and realized how much better it was. 

my thoughts on: the Off-season

The off-season.  A real misnomer.  time off from racing perhaps, but I have always looked at the off season as a time to improve and enhance my abilities.  The off season represents a huge amount of time.  Time is a triathletes most valuable resource.  More valuable than anything except genetics.  I have heard stories of people who take months of rest during the off season.  I have also heard of people who do not take any rest and continue to train as normal.  There seems to be a balance between the two that needs to be reached.  People who train consecutively without ever fully recovering (fully recovering takes several weeks typically) end up sick or hurt or have general health problems.  However people who take decent rest typically seem to be fine.  As a matter of fact it seems like rest in the long run is preferable.  My reasoning for this is that I have trained HARD like 20-25 hours a week for two years but I can still get smoked by guys in there late 20's or thirties who train a few times a week.  It seems like this accumulation of time for training with recovery is really what matters, not how much training can be packed into a brief period.  Perhaps training when fully recovered is really the best way to train, after all don't we race when we're fully recovered? and shouldn't training reflect racing?  It's a complicated subject.  In the words of doctor Suess "Life is a great balancing act".

pavarrotti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3R25CPb1Y0

This guy was truly amazing

offseason training

Time to get back to BASE-ics.  That is with training at least.  Im finding it difficult to deal with the sun setting at 5 o clock every day.  It really messes with my time.  But for now I am working around it.  Registered for my almost last semester at St. Edwards and realized that I will only have class tuesday and thursday, HOW AWESOME!!!  The only problem is I wont have any training time on those days, but Im sure James and I can work it out.  I am really wanting to focus on long-distance running this winter.  I ran an hour today after about an hour swim and hour bike and averaged a heart rate of 164 running at what I think was 6:30 pace. That is just sad.  How could it be so high after all the training I have put in?  IDK  but it tells me I need to put in quantity which I think I am going to start doing.  However I do remind myself that I have racked up 8 months worth of running injuries in the two years since I started triathlon so I guess I really have only had 16 months plus however long I ran in college and afterwards for recreation.  Sooo to run an hour at an easy pace and not feel tired is pretty good, right???  AAAAAAAnyways this is my first post so read it AND WRITE COMMENTS, it will make me feel really good.

test

testing out my first post