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Here you´ll find some tales written by the racer...

Boulder´s abyss by Santiago Sanz by Santiago Sanz (19-06-08) 

The alarm sound´s and god today is so hard to wake up! My roommate Brad Ray tell´s me “Santi it´s fifteen to five so wake up”. I´m not really ok today and I can feel it in my body, I feel tired but Who doesn´t feel tired at fifteen to five in the morning? I just think for a moment Who will be the guy which has think for this schedule in the wheelchair event? but there´s no time to loose and it´s time to work. 

For a moment I stay thinking in the bed. Yesterday I was in Phoenix, flught to Colorado, wait for two hours in the airport till the taxi driver pick up me, that was a cool guy, critic, how I like, he told me “All those bullshit politics and the gas follow increasing”, I answer him “All are the same bullshit”. He tell´s me that in the wonderful ride from International Denver airport to Boulder there use to be some tornados which can make fly a truck like an ant and I just tell him better don´t see any of those.  

This ride from the airport to Boulder shouldn´t take more than 45 minutes and we cross flat lands where you can buy a house for 200000$ till we arrive to a mountain land where you cannot buy nothing for less than half million dollars. I say Greg “In Spain it´s  impossible buy a house for less than half million euros”. 

We´re arriving Boulder and Greg tell´s me “Santi those are University apartments”, I ask him “This is such a really big University” and Greg answer “One of the biggest in Colorado”. 

I see this town fascinated. From Boulder is Andrew Hampsten, Giro de Italia Champion in the 88 and fourth in Le Tour in 86 and 92, during 92 he helped to someone known as “Indurain” to win his second consecutive tour, both trained here in the 94 when Indurain tried his second hour record in La Paz but he didn´t get it. Boulder was also a train site for another one known as “Rominger” who won three vueltas and one Giro, also I like his character, he was as much competitive than any teammate could stop his race powerful. 

I arrived hotel around six and I was suppose to do an easy push in a bike path which I hear from the racer Tyler Byers. I leave all my luggage in my room and go to take my race number, in the hotel´s garden Tracy (wheelchair event organizer with Don) meet me. “Finally you arrived” and I answer her “Why do you think I was suppose to arrive yesterday, I gave you this flight”, she tell´s me that he doesn´t know why he got the info where I was suppose to arrive yesterday. She tell´s me we´re gonna take my number and to sign all forms. I see to morocco guy Harroufi running and I ask Tracy “Is this the bike path for training?” ans she answer “Yes it is, you can push both directions and is a great quiet place to train”, I emphasize a “Cool”. “So tomorrow do we race at noon?” ans she say´s “Your race is at 6:55am” “What?”, “Yes Santi, at five to seven is the wheelchair event, I look her with an idiot expression and tell her that in Boulder website the wheelchair event was suppose to be at noon, but anyways no time to loose, I´m gonna sign all forms and get ready the chair to jump the bed.   

Finally I´m getting awake and I need to get ready all my stuff, first of all a light breakfast which will be a cereal bar and my “classic” coffee. While coffee is getting out I move to the window and What´s my surprise? It´s raining, it seems that has been raining during all night, also the cloudy sky has a leaden color  and it seems that there won´t be a dry event, I look to Brad and tell him “it´s raining” and I tell him that I hate this glue for rain because it make´s everything get´s sticky (chair, equipment, …) but I cannot think on it, is like when my parents go to work in a rainy day. 

At six I need to be at hall so I cannot get cofusse, at six and a quarter I´ll get the chip in the start line which I haven´t any idea where it is. 

I begin to drink my coffee and today I don´t feel nervous like other events, I deserve a little bit of pleasure, after three victories in the beginning of May, also the whole week has been hard and this race is not bold in red in my training program. Today will be another training session, but a really quality session, hyperventilating and with more than 180b/min also at 6000 feet altitude.  

In my mind are coming back suffering images of all May´s races but I follow with this strange feeling in front of this new event, I ask to myself, Will be as hard as I hear the course? Will I get adapt to 6000 feet? Will I have a good performance after my trip? I don´t answer any of those questons, I´m really quiet because this is more a training session than a race, my main goal is to observe the assimilation of my body to the training program, observe if I race fluid, if the engine work´s at it´s max and the most important, I´m the key element to give Gabi (my coach) a feedback about how´s everything rolling. 

The time happens, next step after breakfast is adjust wheels, put some air and of course put the resine glue in the piece of duck tape, if there´s something I more hate is see a dirty chair before racing, the chair is part of my image and it must be “shinning”. 

When I have all ready I go to wear my competition body and my warm up jacket. I have another half hour to six and everything is ready but suddenly the phone rings and Brad tell me “Santi is for you”, Tracy is on the phone and she tell´s me that she gave me a wrong number and we need to change it so Don is gonna bring me it to my room for change it, I tell her “Ok Tracy but please as fast as you can bring me it, I need to be in the hall at five to six”. 

A few minutes happen since the phone call and till Don arrive to my room I begin to feel anxious but he´s already here. He help´s me and in three minutes all numbers are fixed in the frame and helmet, I´m ready and I want to begin warm up, just only ten minutes to six and I tell Brad that we need to move to hall. 

We take chair and all stuff and move to the hall. We meet some other racers in the lobby and I say hello everybody but my nervous feeling make´s me move out to the street to see how looks weather. It looks better, it doesn´t rain but the road is really wet and I hope those turns won´t be really dangerous because I hate risk in unknown courses. 

I´m in a corner of the hall and jump to the chair, I say to a guy if he can tie my velcro. I like to feel the chair like a part of my body, we are a same element. I begin to put my gloves and in less than an hour the race will begin, I feel happy, back to race and knowing than I´m in a better shape, today I need to enjoy every meter of the ten thousand which complete the BolderBoulder. 

When I´m ready, I wait for a few minutes till all racers get out from hall, I just follow then, I don´t know where is the start line and we need to be there at six fifteen for get the chip. After it I´ll begin to warm up, I´ll have like half hour and I don´t really want to do too many miles due to after the race I want to complete the training with fifteen Km. 

I follow “Wildcats” guys who are the members of Arizona University racing wheelchair team. We push our chairs in the sidewalk on a really busy avenue. I get nervous each time we cross an intersection, the road is so wet and with those small bumps could be really easy to get a flat. 

It´s only one mile from hotel to start line and for me is endless. For me that ride is so much useful to adjust my chair. I feel cold today, maybe train in Phoenix make´s me feel weaker in those weather conditions, but I have good muscular feelings in spite of all week hard sessions. 

We arrive to the Avenue where will take place the beginning of the race and there´s no doubt it will be a top five event, here there will be running today more than fifty thousand people. Some guys when see our “F1” machines are surprised and tell us “that´s cool”. I like so much that avenue, that´s gonna be a super fast beginning, I´m sure will push faster than 30Km/h but when hills begin it will be another history and due to this reason is so much important a great warm up because the step from flat to hilly course should be done without muscular and cardiovascular discomfort. The racer must follow fluid and with a continuous pace. I have no time to loose so I hurry to put the chip and begin to warm up. 

First meters are so quiet, there are to many runners in the avenue and I want to avoid any incidence. I arrive to an intersection and I see my friend Saul who has began to warm up, I turn on my computer and begin´s the routine. I need to do an easy 6K push. I say hello to Saul and ask him, What´s up brother? He tell´s me everything rolls perfect and that he came with all family to Colorado. “When I finish the race I´ll know Paul”. Saul ask me for Pilar and my family, I tell him they´re great and that baby is growing so fast. 

I need to begin with the job. The warm up has began in a small street where I need to turn in an intersection with another avenue where traffic still open. I study this small warm up zone with about 600m. I´ll be here till 10 minutes to the start. Some wheelchair racer meet me there but each of us have his own routine. I´m not a racer who use to make changes from one to another season and I use to warm up like this since five years ago, due to this I try to find a full concentration, I like to observe my “happy” push and fix good in the chair, all must be a same element (body and chair). 

As I begin to complete some Ks, the body begin´s to expres this hot which I could define as pleasure. I begin to feel my joints so clear and in spite of ten degrees which are making a cold morning in this great place, I begin to feel happy, motivated and wishing for the start shot. 

I´m close to 5k warm up and the time for going to the start line has catch me so I need to finish the warm up and I decide for a fast final 500m. I feel my heart hitting hard my chest, also I breath so noisy, it´s really tough this event at 6000 feet.   

I place In the right side of the first line grip and I listen “Five minute to go guys”. I try to keep my concentration and begin to move my arms, just for a moment I think that when I get back to Phoenix, I´ll be one month without any trip and it make´s me feel happy. May was so hard with a lot of flights and I need calm, after this event I´ll begin my final preparation for June/July events. 

“In two minutes this guy with the trompete will give you the thirty seconds signal to the start”. I get surprise, is the first time I listen this,… I get ready for the battle, today I´ll suffer more than enjoy, to get the podium but my feelings are good not great like Spokane or Grand Rapids but difference is so clear, I arrived rest to those events and Boulder is not a top event in my schedule.  

Trompete sound´s and I keep my look in the straight avenue which seems to be infinite, I need to do a good first K, take a good push and breath pace, grow up my heart rate close to 190b/min and then enjoy the 9Ks remaining.   

It´s something amazing but during those thirty seconds the world is paralyze, my brain, my blood, everything flow slower and this “wretched” half minute is eternal but I have always same thinking in my mind, that of my family which is in Spain doing force for his “Santi” push like always with character and determination. My dad know´s that his son will give everything like in every event, my mom know´s I´ll arrive destroy to the finish line and Pilar know´s I´ll enjoy in this race like all because racing is my life, my passion and my best quality. Today like in other occasions I´ll get out to the field with all passion I have inside because there´s no better remuneration for a racer than enjoy in the battle…

Grand Rapids abyss by Santiago Sanz (3-06-08) 

It´s fifteen pass five and I wake up, today my roommate is Edwin Figueroa from LA. For me is so easy to jump from bed, is a rite, a tradition, an obligation,… activation, activation, activation,… is the first order from my brain to my body. Edwin follow´s in his bed, I mover til the window and look throw it, an intense bluee sky, any clouds but is freaking chilly, we listen in the tv just five degrees and I got scare. “Edwin is not gonna rain but if does we´ll die” and he smile´s a lot. 

I turn on the laptop and I´ve time enough to read my mails. I´ve received one from “Noni” who is Gines mom, a boy with eight years who suffer´s my disease, she just send me regards from Spain and hope´s we could meet really soon, I tell Edwin that there are two children (Gines and Victor) who suffer my pathology, the second one is a phenomenal swimmer and Gines felt great last year when he jump to my chair. I tell Edwin “Those children deserve all my help and admiration”. It was a great new to read this mail and I feel so motivated to race.  

While I began to do a coffee and a light breakfast I try to look all the stuff I need (tools, warm up equipment,…) but everything is ready and I don´t need to get worried. 

I begin to drink the coffee, if we can call coffee to this dirty hot water which I drink without breath. I´m not really hungry, yesterday I dinner with Edwin in the “pasta dinner party” of the hotel, he told me “Santi the pasta is your fort” I follow eating this big plate of pasta with chicken and oil and answer him “Edwin eat it, tomorrow you´re gonna use three of those plates in those hard 25Km and if we have cold wind in Lake Drive Avenue just at the end, that´s gonna be a tough course”. 

There´s no time to get confused with the time, at six thirty I need to move to the hall, put some air to wheels and begin to warm up around five to seven but I have close to half hour for it. 

Edwin and me speak about our great training yesterday, when I finished with 14Km instead the eight I had programmed, but this bike path was wonderful. Without no doubt it was the most spectacular place I´ve never trained in my fifteen years like racer, that´s a wonderful bike path which is right in the middle of a forest with a river in the side and several marshes which are formed due to big snows during winter and spring in those northern lands close to Michigan lake. 

“Why don´t we carry our camera in that moment? I tell to the good one of Edwin, next year I need to carry with me this camera and not leave in the stupid bag”. I need to come here with Pilar, she´s gonna like it I say to myself. 

I wear my competition body and my warm up jacket. I have everything ready, “Edwin the compressor”, we take all our stuff and move to the hall. We only have 15 minutes to warm up. We find in that place some nervous racer which is getting ready his racing chair. 

I go to the restroom and when I back I put 150 pounds in each tubular and with any thinking I jump to the chair for warm up. I say Edwin “You´ll find me in the avenue” but I know I won´t see him til the start of the race. I like to warm up keeping my concentration, for listening my body I need to be focus on him, without any distraction, listening my breathing, my barkes, the hitting of the hand with the rim,… I move from Pearl street to Monroe Avenue where is located the start line, but before I cross the bridge that rises majestically on the  Grand river. Just one minute feeling cold all my body in this wonderful morning which has woke up in Grand Rapids and I arrive to Monroe Avenue. I listen some music and the organizers are finishing all work for the race, I have fifty minutes to do my warm up.  

First warm up meters I use for study my muscular feelings, it seems I´m ready and the machine is fully lubricate for the battle. I remember for a moment last year odyssey, when I only slept three hours due to the delay Phoenix flight but this year is so different and I feel really motivaded, I can say so much motivated. I realize there´s no tail wind in first part of the race, I would also say that there are not windy conditions, that´s great because with this kind of cold wind in the last part of the race “Lake Drive Avenue” it could be horrible, like in 2005 where was raining during all event and arriving to this point (22Km) steeped, it was blowing a chill wind which got inside my bones. 

I do my fist Ks and there aren ´t racers warm up but really soon I see the first one, my friend Tyler Byers from Virginia, last weekend he crashed twice in Spokane and I asked him about his arm. “You know Tyler, I dindn´t call you from Baltimore because your injury” he answer´s “I couldn´t train til Thursday”. Nothing more to say and I follow with my routine, I´m so close from four warm up K and everything rolls perfect, I shouldn´t rush, get warm all my body is the main priority in this moment, keep those 130b/min and observe the chair work´s perfect, suddenly, the organizer of the wheelchair event (Kelly) stop me and with a worried expresión ask me “Do you have an extra pair of racing gloves?” I answer “What happen?” she tell´s me that Alfonso Zaragoza hasn´t his racing gloves due to his luggage didn´t arrive and I say surprise “Holly shit”, “Ok Kelly, go with someone else to my hotel room in the Days Inn and you´ll find in my wheels bag an extra pair of gloves, now I need to follow my warm up, sorry guys” and I follow with my warm up, Kelly tell´s me “Thanks a lot Santi”, I accelerate my chair and follow til Fulton and Monroe intersection where we need to change the direction because the traffic still´s open. Someone tell us “10Km event is gonna start in two minutes and road must be clear”, thousands people are gonna run the 10Km event which will begin at half past seven but I cannot stop like a “lelo” (idiot) and let the time pass, I need to find a street to follow warming and this is Louis street, from it´s beginning til the end (Fulton road) I have 300m uphill which work´s perfect for me to finish my eight Km warm up. 

I push this uphill and I feel my body temperature has increased, I´m really close to be ready for race, I think in fifteen minutes I´ll begin to push harder. 

In one intersection of Louis street I see one police woman with a shirt and a reflectant jacket with this chilly weather, it produce me a shiver which cross all my back.  

I follow with my routine and I do this street about five times, some other racer begin´s to push with me like Ramiro Bermudez and Edwin Figueroa, while the thousands runners who has began the 10Km follow crossing Monroe Avenue but almost the vast majority has reached Monroe and Louis intersection and really soon I´ll follow my warm up in the first part of this great race. 

It´s close to twenty for seven and I´m in front of start line in Monroe Avenue, now begin´s countdown, it´s time to increase the hear rate, time for listen the intense breathing, time for growing the adrenaline and, of course the agressiveness which is my way of running, I need to push hard from the first meter, the first 5K should be done in eleven minutes and fifty seconds and this is run a lot, a lot, a lot,… 

In the first acceleration I feel the difference with last year, there´s no tail wind in the direction which follow the course, an amazing straight avenue til the intersection where we turn to the right to get inside a big park (Millenium Park), we have til that point 4Ks, during those first Ks is where the most important thing must be done ans this is no other than take the good pace for doing a second part course with guarantee, because last three miles are painful, it´s important to keep a constant pace and avoid a stupid lactate increasing. 

After two or three accelerations I move to the start line, is a nice place with a small paved road but those are only the first hundred meters. I give Kelly my warm up jacket and I place in the first line of the grip, a Good luck to all my rivals and I begin to focus in the first part of the race. I´m a little bit worried for the fence, I don´t want to crash and I look Kelly who is watching us some meters ahead, I indicate her to avoid any incidence.  

Someone advise with the micro that start will be in just three minutes and all public around begin to clap their hands, whistle and cheer. I think in my great perfomance in Bloomsday last weekend and this thinking confirm´s the confidence in a new victory, this will be my 30^th in my sport career and the fourth consecutive in this event. 

As if of an reflect act I follow moving my arms, those are gonna hit the rims close to six thousands times and those seem to be enjoying like a “huskie”  when they go to run. My body is done for race, my mind enjoy the agony and my heart exhales power like the one´s of a race horse. “It´s time to cut heads”, I say to myself and with this sentence I feel excited for listening the starting shot. 

“One minutes guys” is the key sentence, the one which make me think again in my two main fans, my mom (due to her I have a fighter character) and Pilar (due to her I´m better person and racer), they travel with me, they race with me and they enjoy with me because for me the agony of keep 180b/min is the sumun, the biggest remuneration which has training twice a day with cold, hot, rain,… 

Just only less than fifteen seconds to start and the self confidence become´s in my best weapon, I look to the infinite, this straight goes to the glory and I begin to feel in my neck my heart barke, I´m ready, today I´ll be close to the hour in this event, I´ll be legend and I´ll built a really high roof for the one who want´s to set this record, today, one more day, I´ll do history in spanish athletics…

Spokane´s abyss by Santiago Sanz (14-05-08)

It´s five to six and I jump from bed, really that was not a deep sleep night but I feel euforic. This is one of my favourites races and the course can be defined as wonderful. First of all my resting heart rate and ohlala, 38b/min. My bomb seems to be in shape. 

Yesterday I landed in Spokane at 8:20pm and arrived to this amazing city really rest. After Indianapolis I slept for a while in my room maybe the frustation feeling due to this stupid wrong turn in the course help me to sleep well and get relax. 

I had a nice flight with my friend the speaker “Rob Powers” who invited me to dinner in a french restaurant in Denver´s airport. I told him “You know Tom? Tomorrow I´ll set a new course record in Bloomsday by fourth consecutive year” he just answered me “Holly shit, of course you´ll get it”… 

Alter get dress and get ready all my stuff for the race I move to breakfast located in the hospitality room. I find there that fantastic woman which every year get ready a delicious breakfast to all the wheelchair racers, kenyan runners,… She ask me “How´s my great racer?” and I answer “Trying to wake up but really happy to see you once again”, she serve´s me a great coffee but also emphasize me that if I need it strongrer (European style) she´ll do it, I begin to smile. 

I need to eat a lot today so I take two strawberry bagels and also I spread on it some straberry jelly, of course, with this delicious coffee which I drink with nice friends the canadian Clayton Gerein and my big friend Edwin Figueroa (USA). It´s a nice moment to be with those big boys and also I really enjoy it with those rays of sunshine touching my face, once again we have a nice Spokane´s morning and who doesn´t like to race with those conditions? At that moment Tom Cameron (wheelchair race director) seat with us and he ask me how was Indiana race, he smile´s because he know´s I got lost in that race and I like his 2009 proposal “Santi you need to kill the demon in that race next year like you did in Bloomsday in 2005” (In 2004 I had a mechanical problem with the chair and I couldn´t fight for the victory), I answer him “I don´t know what I´ll do next year but I´ll come back here sure”. Tom began to speak about his trip around Spain with his wife two years ago and he say´s to Clayton that was a fantastic trip around spanish coast (Malaga, Almeria, Alicante, Valencia,…), I can see in his eyes a real admiration for the spanish culture and he finishe´s with a simple “I love Spain”, I just think for a moment “I would like that Tom know my family in Spain”. 

Million question arrive´s and Tom ask it with nonstop, Are you gonna set a new course record by fourth consecutive year? (After the race he would say to best ever history woman racer Jean Driscoll “Here is the boy four consecutive course records, Who can do it?”, I would say Jean that my main goal now in this race would be a second master than her 31´23´´ and we began to smile). I answer Tom with a big self confidence “Of course, You´ll get your four Bloomie record” and Tom say´s “This is my boy”. 

It´s ten to seven and I decide back to my room I have fourty minutes before the wheelchair check in. I rest in my bed while begin to speak with my friend Saul. It was ten months ago when I saw him last time and he´s like I say a friend forever. 

I have carried for his two months baby “Paul” a PUMA sport shoes and he begin´s to tell me that everything rolls perfect in Austin, I say him “next year I´ll go there to know my friend Paul”. 

We follow speaking during half hour and just time to move to hall to do wheelchair check in. The weather is so cold and the termometer is around 7 degrees so I need a long warm up to get the best muscular conditions for the race. I want to begin my warm up at 7:45am.

When I have all ready to begin my warm up I realice that I forgot my velocimeter in my room, I´m a really methodic racer and use to control my 5Km pace in every event, also I know that for set a new course record (32´44´´), I need to push at Doomsday hill around 10Km/h. 

Once again I push to my room and the elevators are so busy because too many runners are gonna race in Bloomsday, it make´s me feel nervous, in that point I meet the great racer and better friend (if it´s possible) Amanda Mcgrory, a big hug and I tell her “Nice to see you again Amanda” and I move fast to my room, take the velocimeter and back to the hall. 

I have all my staff ready (gloves, helmet,…) and it´s twenty to seven so let´s go. I get out from hotel to begin warm up and is “fucking chilly”. For feeling this event, you need to go Spokane, there´s an amazing and great atmosphere with thousand runners in the streets of this little but wonderful town, some of then tell me “you look so fast”. I need to keep focus on the turn I need to do to arrive to start line just for warm up in the first part of the course.

After 500m I take this left turn and begin to push in this uphill street to the start line,for a moment I think that world best wheelchair racers have pushed around those streets Jean Driscoll, Louise Savage, Saul Mendoza, Paul Nitz, Clayton Gerein, Rick Reelie, Mustapha Badid, Candance Cable,… just an increasing adrenaline feeling grow´s inside myself. 

I arrive to start line and begin to warm up, it need to be a really progressive warm up, I have fifty minutes til the start of the race which will be at 8:40am, the best thing is explore the first mile which connect the start with this down hill where we´re gonna coast at 40 miles. When I´m in my first five minutes push I see my teammate Saul Mendoza, he´s unbeatable in this event and has won ten times this event, today we can give again another double victory to Team Eagle like we´ve done in last three editions.

First fifteen minutes I just study my feelings, it´s not easy to recover from a race like I did yesterday in Indiana and of course from those five hours flight,… I think I feel great and no back painful or tie arms seems to be in my body.

When I´m close to the half hour of warm up I do my first down hill really fast and I reach more than 38 miles, then I push that uphill so slow because I don´t want to get injury in this Km with 7% slope, there I see Jhon Duda (Tanzania) and the mitic Jhon Korir (Kenya) who has won Bloomsday like me in three editions.

When I arrive to top of the hill I begin a faster warm up and my heart rate grow´s til 140-150 b/min. I´m in the final step of the warm up and I would like to begin sweat, I think the bomb is barking strength and I begin to think in a new course record. 

When I arrive to start line I give my warm up jacket to a volunteer and I move to the grip. Due to yesterday I didn´t race the time trial I´m located in the second line behind the american Steven Toyoji who tell me “good luck”. I feel confortable instead of low temperature but a great rays sunshine touch my face and make me feel warmer but I don´t stop moving my arms, the warm up was long and productive, I want to push fast since the beginning.

Tom place every racer in his/her place (today 51 racers) and he announce “three minutes to go”, is in that moment when time to enjoy is getting closer. Every racer know that those “hell” hills are gonna kill us but for me this event is something wonderful which I cannot describe with my laptop.

I follow moving my arms in every moment and I listen “One minute to go”, the public begin to loud and clap their hands and it´s something amazing, I feel I´m gonna do things well and of course I know that I arrive to this event in my best shape. “Thirty seconds guys”, is the key sentence, that one which introduce you in the abyss that only a racer/runner know´s , that one which allow you to analyze every millimeter of your body and listen your heart barkes, it´s a pleasure and anguish feeling. I pray all gods for they pity of me in every crazy downhills and I think in Pilar which is the pillar in which is support all my sport career, this course record is for you my life…

Lisbon´s abyss by Santiago Sanz (30-03-08) 

What a hell is that sound? I just wake up quick to turn off the alarm. I have sleep great and cannot believe that is six thirty. I need to be hurry because in fifteen minutes I want to be breakfast to charge my batteries byt no worries, everything is ready, the chair, tools, bag,… just one more race,  but, what a hell? This is the World Champ. 

While I´m getting ready I feel my body full recover of all the week sessions. Yesterday I decided to train in the evening because I arrived to Lisbon at midnight on Friday and that easy push show me that short trip from Alicante til Lisbon was not exhausted.  

I go to breakfast with my brother Javi and we find there all what I need to get a good perfomance (toast, fresh cheese, honey and the most important strong coffee). 

I´m not really hungry (then I wouldn´t agree with this decisión) and I decide not eat a lot. Two toasts with fresh cheese and honey, orange juice and a delicious cafe au lait. 

In this table I meet with all national team and with the technical members Gabi and Antonio Ranchal, both were athletes and they know what to tell us before the race. 

At seven thirty I move to my room and just the last quick review, we are gonna meet in the hall in fifteen minutes. 

When I go down the hall I see around fifty racers, the vast majority of then begin today the competition season. I stay with Gabi a few minutes and we speak about the race. I say him that is too soon for a good perfomance and in spite of everything rolls great my shape is not really good and also the new course is not good for me. The strategy is really easy, push hard from the beginning, I don´t have nothing to lose and I need to follow training for american events. 

We jump to the bus which is gonna drive us to the start line, I meet there with a lot of swiss guys (Marcel, Beat, Manuela, Heinz), we feel a little bit nervous due to the delay and I even more because I don´t wear my watch. 

I follow listening music and I think that around twenty to nine (it was supose to move at eight) we move to the start line close to Belem. 

There´s no time to loose, I undress my tracksuit and jump into the chair, giving to my brother my water bottle. I´m the first racer warming up in a great zone with more than a K and just beginning to move my body. The first lap I begin to push with Masazumi Soejima who will finish in third place in open man class but I´m really focus on a good warm up and I don´t want to be over 130b/min during the 10000 meters that will take me this warm up. 

I feel the hot and humidity conditions presents in the lusa main city and just decide to stop to hidrate myself and turn off my MP3 to “listen” my body. 

Every meter I push make´s growing my adrenaline and the “battle” is close. Just only 15 minutes for the start and the officials move us to the back zone of the start. I see there Gebre and Charles Kamathi and they run as fast as our F1 of the athletics, I can see also famous faces like Adere, what a slender figure has this women and what about the portuguese Eduardo Henriques. 

In the last part of the warm up I begin with some hundred meters accelerations in this bumpy road where I feel so much the vibrations. I meet with Javier Conde and he speak about it “Santi this is a clear bumpy surface” and I just move my head. 

I begin to sweat and I enjoy this fantastic moment, my heart rate reach in some accelerations 175b/min and two minutes later I see Gabi and my brother and order then some water and give to the Antonio´s good one my warp up jacket. “All the best” say to me, they know as me that my perfomance is a mistery  

Gabi stop Rafa and me to make some pictures, I feel proud of my coach in this moment, good teacher, better person and a wonderful researcher in biomechanist and training theory, that is what has move me to the top level. I need to do my best. 

“One more acceleration guys”, I do it with Alina Ivanova and she run´s as fast as me. 

I push to the start line and they´re placing every racer. I´m in third line just behinf Alexandrino another Gabi´s racer. I´m  fully focus on the race and begin to move my arms with balistic movements. Just thirty seconds to go and I feel like a race hourse, restless and hoping to push fast, I can listen the public who is in the start line to watch an excellent race. 

I close my eyes, breath hold for seconds, I feel every part of my body, just adrenaline travel across my veins, I´m in the abyss and enjoy this steemed moment…

Santiago Sanz post (6-09-07)   

When we are just one year from the start of Olympic Games (I detest Paralympic word) I want to follow with this section.

I haven´t written in this section since January and some of you guys have remember me it by mail but too many travels, training sessions and daily activities haven´t allowed me to go into basics topics related with training theory.

I´m thinking since two weeks ago how much has changed the conception that society  had about the basic racer for long distances and this has been due to great racers like (Heinz Frei, Edith Hunkeler, Tosihiro Takada, Kazu Hatanaka, Wakako Tsuchida, Sasahara Hiroki and Amanda Mcgrory). Some of you guys will know now about what I´m gonna speak today but if you don´t know, I´ll tell you that I´m gonna introduce the advantages of been an ectomorfic racer instead of been a mesomorfic racer in long distances events but know you´ll  be answer yourself, What a hell is an ectomorfic/mesomorfic racer?

With some pictures we will define a mesomorfic racer (Joel Jeannot, Claude Issorat, Ernst Van Dyk, Saul Mendoza, Thomas Geirspichler, Chantal Peticlerc, Kurt Fearnley,…).

If we see those racers they have big muscles and they would be define as robust people with a relative big length muscle-skeletal.

In the opossite way we have the ectomorfic racers which I name before and they have long muscle structure but they represent the relative thinness.

If we make reference to biomechanic we´ll say that ectomorfic racers develope a lower power than mesomorfic racers.

When I began to race in Internacional events in 2000 I was really criticized by my “somatotipe” (scientific system which allow how should be define a person inside a group ectomorfic, mesomorfic or endomorfic) ectomorfic but by this time I had read some phisyology textbook and I was convince that my ectomorfic characteristics will allow me be more efficient in middle/long distances but you´ll ask yourself Why?

If we think in a muscle like a group of cells which are coordinated to develope a function, that will help us to know what happen in the muscles of an ectomorfic/mesomorfic racer and considering also the hiperplasy theory (afirm´s which in more hipertrofy muscles there are a big numbeer of cells than in a muscle with a smaller transversal diameter) which is not verified with certainty, so after this we can say that a bigger muscle will has bigger cells than one with ectomorfic characteristics.

Now I´ll show a research of Leibar, X. (1995) where we see an aproximation of the percentage of different fuel substrates to generate ATP, which is the energetic coin which the muscle use for contraction.

Under this information and adapting those events to times get by racers we can conclude with next info:

Considering this info and also knowing that muscular glycogen deposits are limited and that in events longer than 100 minutes is produced the famous “wall” or glycogen depletion, we can answer Who will has more glycogen reserves and by this reason more fuel resources? A mesomorfic racer with bigger muscular cells which need consume more ATP to develope their functions or    an ectomorfic racer?

We must add two really important aspects because a lot of you guys will answer Why racers like Louise Savage, Saul Mendoza, Kurt Fearnley have a great perfomance in the marathon?

-          Those racers named have a big atrophy in their legs and although we know that in racing there is a big vasoconstriction (narrowing of the lumen of blood vessels) in this part of the body, those muscular cells follow working and need fuel substrates because if those don´t arrive to cells there would be a necrosis (cell dying) but those smaller cells consume less fuel than bigger one so this argument is useful also for amputee racers. Just imagine the fuel level that consumed Joel Jeannot.

-          Other aspect that we must consider is that in the vast majority of racing marathons all racers use to draft (stay behind other wheeler) and the fuel consume is much lower. This argument confirms that if Heinz Frei or Amanda Mcgrory can push by thenselves alone at really high speed is due to their phisiology economy. In the case of femenine class is more usual race alone and don´t draft and this is the main reason for what the vast majority of women racers in long distances have an ectomorfic somatotipe. Those racers have a lower fuel consume than mesomorfic racers.

If we move this argument to the efficience in oxygen transport we´ll verify that happen the same.

How we know VO2max or maximum oxygen uptake has a genetic limit and also will depend in the group of muscles wich take part in a movement, for this reason a cross country skier (legs, arms and trunk) can arrive to 90ml/Kg/min and a wheelchair racer (arms and trunk) can arrive til 65ml/Kg/min but What does mean xml/Kg/min? It means that in every minute arrive´s x ml of inspired oxygen to a kilogramo of fresh muscle and by this reason What racer will have a bigger oxygen proportion in their muscle cells the mesomorfic or ectomorfic? The mesomorfic will have more kilogramos of muscle so the question is answered.

 Waiting your comments I say goodbye.

Toronto´s abyss by Santiago Sanz (22-06-07)

It´s seven and wake up I need to turn on batteries and although I hadn´t a great sleep, I went yesterday at ten to bed and “oh la la” 38 beats/minutes is my resting heart rate, not too bad because I arrived yesterday from Spain and I waited for too many hours in Philadelfia befote my flight to Toronto took off.

I open the curtain and the weather is great, just sunny day that is going to get me red when I just get out.

My friend Saul tell´s me “Santi w ego breakfast”. This restaurant is wonderful and like the tradition in that race we began to speak with the coffee in our hands befote eat something. “¿What´s going on Saul?...”, suddenly Canadian racer Clayton Gerein arrive´s and we follow speaking but is 7:30 and I just need to eat.

Today I´m gonna charge my batteries because my feelings yesterday during training session were horrible, it was difficult to breath and my pace was similar to jogging, anyways… sometimes a long trip make´s me feel like a shit and I cannot do nothing else.

Cereals, fruit, skin milk and a raspberry jam toast “Oh yeah”, I think I´ve gasoline in my body for a while and that´s important for that course in Queen´s Park.

At 8:15 I back to my room, prepare all my staff and dress my competition body, I take the water and leave it in my legs and just befote get out I visualize the race, I see every curve, up and downhill and see my strategy, since the beginning I want to do a fast first 5Km around 12´20´´, this sport is for people who attack, those who stay in your back doesn´t get succesful.

I bring all my staff, racing chair and an extra pair of wheels and just go to Queen´s Park where I´ll take my chip and number but for not lose my concentration I began to listen in my MP3 the “Buried Alive” of Sentenced and that´s make´s grow my adrenalina just before the race.

After ten minutes pushing both chairs I arrive to the course and the weather follow´s wonderful. I take my chip and number and just get ready to begin the warm up. Like always since I get in my racing chair I don´t speak with nobody and I concentrate as much as I can to do the best.

At 9:50 I begin to warm up. I´ve fourty minutes and I want to get ready pregressivesly withouth any hurry and beginning at no more than 120 beats, we´ll have time enough to be around 190.

After several laps around course I feel good and I begin to sweat over 5K. Some minutes later I took of my warm up jacket and turn off my MP3, I just prefer to listen “My heart and breath”. I finish with some accelerations of 100m and I listen “every racers to Start line”, that´s the key moment, not get stressful, just let be flow by the time, not forget your strategy, that´s the secret to get everything rolls perfect and not get any inconvenient when you must suffer until die, when the lactate grown´s to the “sky”, when you wish not be a racer,…

We´re in the Start line and from my place just in the middle of front line I visualize the Start with this little uphill at the end of the avenue, I´ll test my rivals there. “One minute to Start”, I listen that and look at my wheelchair and my heart begin´s to bark faster and stronger. 

“Ten, nine, eight, seven,…” I think in the hard May training sessions and the fantastic shape that I get this year, I close the countdown telling to myself, Toronto will be a great event to remember this year, all of you know the rest of the history.

Grand Rapids abyss by Santiago Santiago Sanz (28-05-07)

What´s that noise? I hang the phone and wake up altered and confuse. It has been a short night, I have an emptiness feeling, something usual when I sleep not too much.  

I arrived yesterday at one to the hotel and I spent one more hour getting ready the racing chair for the race. I lost that damn plain and it changed everything but I came here to race and I want to push at 120%.

Today I won´t measure my resting heart rate I just don´t want to know it and I´ll let flow everything til the race. I´ve three hours until begin the race in the cold and grey Grand Rapids. First of all my coffee, I enjoy it and begin to eat some energetic bars because at this time there´s nothing open, even “the sky”.

Yesterday I slept great in the plain and it also surprise me, I just try to rest body and mind, just knowing that instead of arrive in the evening I would arrive at midnight. Also and being optimistic I had a rest day yesterday after complete eight training sessions from Monday til Thursday and doing everything perfect which make me think that I won´t do bad.

My emptiness feeling is dissapearing and after this “strong coffee” and the cereal bars the bottle of water stay in my hand in every moment. I back to the bed and listen in my MP3 “sentenced” which make´s grow my adrenaline and that´s what I´m going to need to feel “highper” when the race begin. At 6:00am I watch through the window. There are no clouds in the sky, am I in Grand Rapids? Last two years it was freezen outside and today will be sunny, I´m really surprise. 

Twenty minutes later I take my chair and staff and go to the hotel where I´ll pick my number and will begin to warm up in about half tour. When I´m in the street the temperature surprise´s me, I´m not in Alicante but it not seem´s to be Michigan. I take the avenue to go to the “Courtyard Marriott” and a runner ask me What time you´ll do this year? My answer, I only think in doing as best as I can, I´m not worry for the time but of course that´s not true and in my mind the 63 minutes are apperaring constantly every minute like an obsession.

Finally I arrive to the hotel and I see Heidie “wheelchair event organizer”, she give´s me the number and we speak about my trip. “Heidie it was a nightmare, I think next year you could invite me a pair of days to race in the best conditions”, I finish with an “anyways I feel ok”.

I seat in a corner of the lobby and wait until seven. After a while I see my friend Edwin Figueroa from L.A. and I explain him what happened me during my trip but I prefer the evasion, I just want silence. At ten past seven I jump to the chair and begin to put my gloves really slow, I think in the course and of course I think that “Old ken River Bank” begin´s in the 20K. I think also in the advantage of train this year for the 5000m, I arrived with about 800Km more than last year and that will help me to push better during last 10K.

I think in my great final in Seoul three weeks ago with my last three K under 2´30´´/K and why not? In Spokane six days ago I had a great end after the hell of “Doomsday hill”. “I feel great” I repeat constantly and I think in the economy of the push ”flow, efficient,…” all what I´ve been working with Gabi during years and hundreds hours.

Just half hour befote the begining of the race I´m pushing in the street but I feel too cold and try to find a cover place to warm up. I begin to move my arms in a little parking and I feel progressively the warm up effects in my body, my heart rate grow´s up and I finish with some accelerations in the avenue where the race will begin.

The heat of the spectators is a big contrast with the cold wind which freeze my ideas but I have only one now, push fast.

I see in the grip my place, just in the middle of the first line, I don´t want any incidence. I just hope good luck to Dean Bergeron and Chantal Peticlerc.

Heidie told every racers that the start will be a flag start and that in three minutes begin the race.

For a few moments I think that in less than six hours I back home but the public claps make´s me back again to the Start line and I listen “one minute to Start”, is in that moment when I cross the line which separate the peace from the abyss, I close my eyes, deep breath, “fifteen seconds”, I listen my heart, some public claps, I feel every muscle of my body, “I´m in the abyss but I enjoy this moment, that´s my moment”…

Spokane´s abyss by Santiago Sanz (10-05-07)

What´s that sound? I wake up and see the clock, it´s six I´ve sleep for ten hours. First of all the resting Heart Rate, yesterday I wasn´t Under 45 but arrived to the hotel at 12:00pm and only sleep six hours. I wait some moments and Oh la la 37 beats/min, I´m ready to race.

Yesterday night I left everything ready in the bag. I´ve almost two hours before begin to warm up, at 7:50 I nedd to be around Spokane streets hitting the rims and I don´t want to delay one minute. I put my body quickly and my friend Saul back with his coffee and toasts from the hospitality room. “Ey Saul I´ll back in 25 minutes” I say him while take my bottle of water that I don´t leave until get in the racing chair.

I eat really light just cofee and a wheat bagel with raisins and jam. I see famous faces, Jhon Morir, Jhon Duda, … and they have same uncertainty expresión as me befote begin the hugh event where will run 40000 people.

I finish the breakfast with my rival and friend Clayton Gerein, the best ever racer of the history. He tell me some anecdotes about Padova´s marathon. At he moment I think, Clayton is going to push hard today, he´s in a good shape and he´ll want war. I back to my room and let the time flow until battle time. I don´t want any distraction.

In the bed I see the race, last year my last miles were not good I need more power at the end. This year I want to do it progressive, just enough risk in the downhill and at from the 9Km push really hard.

At 7:15 I bring my bag, compressor and tell Saul “I´m going to get ready the chair and do the check in”. In the store room I see about 30 racers preparing their stuff. I just go where my machine stay all night and begin to Work on it. Fix wheels, inflate tubulars, and next step the check in, where I see Tom Cameron and he ask me how I feel “Tom I feel great, I think in a new course record” we smile and he just give me the ok for the chair.

I just go out to know what temperature we´ll have for the race. Uff, it´s cold but we don´t have clouds like last year. It´s time to get in the chair, I put my gloves and the warm up jacket, in this moment I try to get relax and avoid any coment, the time is only mine and I can control.

It´s 7:55 I begin warm up and I can smell in the air the beginning of the race. My wrist are cold so I decide begin very slow. I arrive five minutes later to Start line and every streets are close. I begin to push in the first part of the course until the first downhill, I see my rivals but the main thing is keep concentrate in my feelings. I feel better and better but also I feel that cold air is burning my lungs.

At 7:20 I do some acceletations of 200m and I hear “wheelchairs to Start line”.

In the Start line I took of my warm up jacket and follow moving my arms, I don´t want to get cold, I did a great warm up and now is the moment to show it.

I get in the grip of the Start line and feel the adrenaline growing up. “Three minutes to Start”,  I think in the great season I´m doing and how well has been this week in the States after arrive destroy from Corea.

“One minute to Start”, suddenly an insecurity feeling is coming but What a hell! I was born to race, that told me my mom when I was only fifteen and today I´ll show it in that hell hills. I breath deep, hear my heart, sounds the gun and…

Santiago Sanz post (11-01-07)

Just before drive to the airport I´m going to write some lines before begin my long trip to Australia.

I´ll speak today about all measures that a racer should take before a race, which is the main goal of the training program.

There´s no other think which make´s me feel more angry than see racers "racing" before a big event. 

In our sport is very useful see a little group of racers doing sprints just only for show who is the stronger guy or just to demonstrate "look at my great shape", just trying to humiliate our enemy in and friend out the track.

Just before a big event like the Summer Down Under Which will begin in some days, the racer has completed so many training sessions. We´ve done innumerable double sessions, long weight sessions in the gym, we have followed a spetial and hard diet,... and instead of rest and doing aclimatation sessions and activate our body for the main moment, a lot of racers use to spend their energy in the training sessions previous to the race, and what happens? They have a lower perfomance during the race.

I´ll explain now the  hours that our body needs for recovery before the race, based on the energy process used during the session:

Santiago Sanz Post (6-11-06)

When I finish the season always meet with my coach "Gabi" to analyze if we have got the goals that we planned.

Sometimes I speak with athletes and they don´t have those goals and it make´s that these people haven´t a way to follow, get lost and don´t confront the race and some sessions with a spetial motivation.

When it´s time to program the season (annual cycle) and a olympic period  the racer and the coach must put thenself in agreement with the goals to get in a short term (Period of the season), half term (season) and long term (3-4 seasons).

Example of the goals to get in an Olympic cycle for a women racer class T-54 junior (18 years), focus in the competition:

Example of the goals to get in the same racer, focus in the training:

The goals can be related also with the phisical condition of the racer. Now I expose the example of the goals that we follow  in relation to the optimal weight in the different periods of the present season and in the future seasons when I move to marathon training. It begin´s with my weight on 2^nd October (beginning of the season):

                    Short Term

                                                         Half Term

                                                                                  Long Term

What happen´s when we those goals are proposed?

- The racer and coach know what they try to obtain and the way to follow.

- The motivation during the session and the competition is bigger.

- The different periods of the season are defined and are known the best form periods of the season.

- In relation to last point, the secondary competition are delimited like a training way and also will be delimited the main events, like the purpose of the process. This is one of the biggest problems in racing. The racers use to race in every moment and is really difficult to develope the qualities to has a high perfomance. The ideal method is create competitions periods.  

There can be goals focus in the physiological efficiency. Now we have the example about the goals of a male junior racer (18 years) which seems to be a great middle distance athlete in a long term:

1Mile = 1,609Km/h

If the goals are well raised, they should be:

- Delimited,like for exampple, a goal cannot be race the 1500m between 4´10´´ and 3´50´´.

- Goals must be feasible and not a "dream". 

- Goals must be flexible with all the aspects which surround the trainig process.

I hope this training lesson help you and your coach and be useful to get all the goals  that both propose.

Enjoy your training and keep working hard.

Remember that I´ll see you soon in www.santiago-sanz.com