Mark's Musings

SOUTHWEST CHALLENGE SERIES
A Duathlon and Triathlon Championship Series
18^th Annual - 2008 Season

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Mark's Musings

Musings and Rambling thoughts from the odd mind of Mark Balsiger
Not necessarily related to Southwest Challenge Series

Read all about it. Our Home town hero and Founder of our Series, James Arthur "Flip" Lyle:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_9509012?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com

Everyone who participates in triathlon here in the Southwest, newcomer, or ol-timer, to some degree or another owes Flip a vote of thanks! Congratulation, Flip and Thanks!

Buffalo Spring is only three weeks away. Let's get serious about that training NOW!. Time to pull out all the stops! Here's a plan that will help help immensely in your training for the swim http://youtube.com/watch?v=U_6tOzt-nfM

Good luck to you all!!

It has come to the attention of the home office here at the Southwest Challenge Series that transition times of some of our area athletes at the recently held Boise 70.3 were less than stellar. In our efforts here at SWCS HQ to support our athletes in every area possible we offer these following training videos expressly focused on transitions.

First, as an example of of getting in and getting out as quickly as possible:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j-H18AGvsS0

Further as an example of extreme but highly recommended transition training:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0C-2tFCsDYw

And finally, tips on getting out of that wetsuit or just changing clothes as fast as humanly possible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDuburCMQaY&NR=1

We are proud to offer this free training advice and suggest checking in often for future expert tips from the pros here at SWCS!

Congratulations to our Boise 70.3 finishers, Gretchen McElroy, Monica Lorey, Carol Carreon, and Felix Hinojosa. They withstood frigid water temps and cold rainy conditions to do us all proud.

Also congrats to Francois Modave, who the day before in Hawaii turned in an outstanding performance in the 70.3 event there. If anyone is curious about what the weather was like there, I urge them to check out this weather forecast just a few days before the race:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=430cwalf5UE&feature=related

Good luck to Matt Emrich, Sal Perches, and Falko Schoeneweiss as they contend with the frigid waters in San Francisco Bay at the "Escape From Alcatraz" this weekend.

And good luck to the rest of us this weekend at the Milkman in Dexter. Hopefully, we'll fare better in water conditions. For those of you who don't know, the "Bar" in "downtown" Dexter may be the best post-race watering hole on the whole series circuit.

This final reminder to all to be safe out there:

http://autoworld.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/terrible-accident-car-crashes-into-bike-race-in-mexico/

The 28-year-old driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed in the race, said police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez. A photo taken by an official of the city showed cyclists and equipment launched high into the air by the collision.

Rodriguez said Juan Campos was charged with murder Alejandro Alvarez, 37, of Monterrey. Authorities said the wreck happened 15 minutes in the 34 kilometers (21 miles) race Sunday along a road between Baghdad and Playa Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
Campos said he is a U.S. citizen living in Brownsville. The USA Consulate could not immediately confirm that.