Thank You All!!!!

Hi In this post I wanted to thank Ludus Tours for taking care of my family and helping me bring them to London to watch me at my dream race. If you haven't made your traveling plans to London yet please check them out at www.ludustours.com

 I also wanted to thank all the South Florida Community that helped me out with the fundraisers to buy them the airplane tickets. Having my family there is definitely a huge asset and I'm very happy for that. Thank you so much !!!

 Here is photo from my girlfriend and I at the Crater of the Irazu Volcano here in Costa Rica

Entrevista en America TeVe

En Espanol, aquí va una entrevista para el canal latino de Miami.



Video streaming by Ustream Y Aqui va la segunda Parte:
Video streaming by Ustream

5th in Edmonton World Cup

This past weekend I raced for the first time at the Edmonton World Cup. This was my tune up race before the games and I arrived a bit tired from my preparation for the olympics.  I loved the course since there were two hills on each lap of then bike and one on the run. I had a career best finish at a world cup  5th and even though I was aiming for a podium spot Im pleased with the results taking in cosideration the fatigue that I showed up with. Im now going back to Costa Rica for the final stages of my altitude camp.

San Diego Video

Hi All

 I wanted to share this video with you guys that my girlfriend and biggest fan made me with some photos and videos that she took and also that she found in the web.

Enjoy:

My Olympic Bike

Next Stop... Edmonton

Hola

This upcoming Sunday I will be racing for the first time at the Edmonton World Cup. This will be my last triathlon before the games and it will be a tune up race for me. . Im looking forward on going to Canada, I haven't been there in a while and I always get to meet really nice people. Some of the top contenders in this race are : Simon Whitfield & Kyle Jones from Canada, Tim Don from GBR and Jarrod Shoemaker from Boston.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes next week.

 ciao

Get to know me

Hola,

In this post I will like to let you know a bit about myself, training, racing best places Ive been ect. If you have anything else to ask me please do on the bottom part "comments" 

Full Name:  Manuel Alejandro Huerta Cardenas 

Nick Names: Manny, Manu, Alex, Alejo

Place of Birth: Ciudad Habana, Cuba

Date of Birth : March 22, 1984

Height: 5'6 (169cm)

Weight: 123 lbs (56 kg)

Siblings: Claudia Huerta  and Monica Huerta

Parents: Martha Cardenas & Herminio Huerta

Girlfriend: Pierina Luncio

Hometown: Guaynabo; Puerto Rico

Training:

Best Places to train:  Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Leysin, Switzerland. Noosa, Australia.  Chula Vista, California.

Best Swimming Pool: Olympic Training Center pool in Colorado Springs/ Natatorium in San Juan

Best Open Water Swims: Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Florida

Best places to ride:  Orosi Valley, Costa Rica.  Leysin, Switzerland.  Alp D'Huez, France 

Best places to run:  Sembach, Germany.  Noosa, Australia.  Tucson, Arizona.

Weekly average: 22-25 km swim , 8-10hr bike, 60-80km run

Racing:

Favorite Races: La Paz, Argentina.  Mooloolaba, Australia.  Tiszaujvaros, Hungary. REV 3 Costa Rica

Hardest Race: Alp D'huez, France 

Hottest Race:  Ironman China 2009

Coldest Race:  Kitzbuhel Austria 2011

Hobbies:

Spear Fishing, watching Soccer & Movies

Best Movies:  Step Brothers, The hang over, Wedding Crashers

Pro Teams : Real Madrid, Boca Juniors, Miami Heat, New York Yankees

Training & Racing

Hi All

Well I already got to Costa Rica from Puerto Rico and doing my altitude camp prior to the London Games. I already did two training races since San Diego, the Dallas ITU Continental Cup where I finished 2nd my 3rd podium of the season and an 8km road race  here in Costa Rica where I finished 3rd.

After San Diego its been so overwhelming with everything, meeting with friends, family, sponsors, doing interviews and training 3-5hrs per day.  But now that Im back in Costa Rica and fully focusing on my training for the big date in London.

The Dallas race was good I got a hard effort on a pair of very tire legs on a very hot day. Most of the guys racing were up and coming athletes from Canada, US and Latin America so the pace was a lot slower than a World Cup or World Triathlon Series. I came out of the water in the main chase pack and stay out of trouble throughout the bike riding towards the front. Once we got to the run I felt the legs heavy even thought the bike wasn't fast at all and more tactical than anything, I knew  that the fatigue was coming from the weeks prior to the race and that  I needed a strong tempo/workout run to get the most out of my body at the moment. Only Lucas Vervicas was able to keep up and was stronger than me pulling away on the last loop taking the win.

The 2nd Race I did was the 8km in San Jose (la Gran Manzana) where I finished 3rd running 24:25. Leo Chacon won the race and broke the course record.

Next I will be racing at the Edmonton World Cup on July 7th and it will be my last triathlon before London.

Ciao

Media After San Diego

hi all

I wanted to post here some of the articles/ interviews that are now online enjoy:

Click on the name to read the Articles:

New York Times

Sports Illustrated

Slowtwitch

NBC Miami

Triathlete Magazine

NBC Miami part 2

Dallas News

San Diego UT

San Diego UT part 2

Miami Herald

NBC Latino

Triathlete

Universal Sports

Universal Sports part 2

Miami New Times

Competitor/triathlete

Competitor Radio Podcast

Endurance Planet Podcast

Triathlete Mag Dallas Preview

Marti Noticias

Triathlete Magazine / July

After the Storm!!!

So this past two weeks have been very crazy for me,  so many friends to see, to many fans and supporters to thank and so many interviews to do. Tomorrow I will be heading to Dallas for a race then back to Costa Rica for an altitude training camp at the Volcano.

I am so lucky to have so many of you that have contribute to get my family to London and I can not thank you enough for that. Because of you I will be able to bring my family to watch me race at the biggest sporting event in world.  I'm so proud to be part of this triathlon/ South Florida community.

Soon I will update you with some photos from and after Olympic trials plus I will blog about my training  in the Volcano that i know you all want to hear about :)


see you soon

Im going to London!!!

Hi all

wow what a weekend, I will soon blog about my race report and links with post race videos, photos and interviews.  I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there who has contributed to this. Also I want to congratulate  Hunter Kemper for making the team and to Jarrod and Matt for giving it all these past two years, I wish we could be 4 of us going to London as they deserved it as well.


for now thank you for your kind words!!!

Pre San Diego Media

hi all

here are some links to some interviews/  articles prior to the San Diego Olympic Trial race, enjoy

San Diego Newspaper

FoxSport.com

Triathlete.com

usatriathlon.org

Slowtwitch.com

San Diego Olympic Trials !!!

With about a week to go until the Olympic Trials, my last month of training here in costa rica have been excellent, I started doing the high -low training up at my coach's farm at 7000ft high in the Irazu Volcano  and training down in the city, the drive up to the farm is about 25 minutes and every day we drive up to sleep there and drive down in the mornings  to train. Im very excited to get to California and race at the last selection race for the next olympic games and hopefully I get it done and qualify for London.

here is a video that my friend Leo filmed a night that we got some cows in our way to the farm,  they usually try to sneak in and eat the strawberries that are plant inside.

Anyways I will let you know how the race goes in about a week.  Ciao

SYDNEY WTS

 Hello all, well Sydney's race was a disappointment but learn a lot from my current fitness level. I traveled there about a week prior to the race and USAT had a great training camp set up near by in a town south of sydney in Wollongong.  So straight into the race: I had an ok swim just felt like swimming in a giant washing machine getting hit in every stroke (this is normal) and didn't have time to warm up for the swim plus i didn't wanted to get cold and decided to try it out.. the russians do that all the time so I should had been ok. Came out on the back of the pack but by the second lap of the bike we were all together except a two man break that had 20-30 seconds lead. Then the chaos  arrived, riding on a very narrow road and having the entire field together was vey sketchy, the whole time guys were bumping with each other (also normal) and I'm surprised that only  a few guys went down, specially in the last two laps. I had a very bad T2 and in a WTS event that could be the race, I was one of the last guys out of T2 and that meant that I needed to do some catch up, my first mile was about 4.30 ouch.... and I set myself within the top 20 guys, ran with some fast Canucks for about 4.5 -5km and the wheels came off fading bad for the reminder of the run. The positive thing about this race is that I actually got a fast race under my belt and San Diego won't be such a  shock into my body. I left there knowing that Im fit and only need some high intensity runs before trials and my coach Roberto and I already plan them for this next couple of weeks.

So this is all for now and ill keep you post it on how this last weeks of training goes.

Ciao

Strength Training

Hello in this post I would like to let you know some of the strength training Ive been doing lately. Usually 2-3 times per week and about 30 minutes long after a run that way I already have my muscle warmed up.  Back in February I bought a TRX for my girlfriend and after watching her doing some of the exercises I decided to give it a try. The first couple of times it was very hard and the following day I would feel very sore witch meant that it actually works. Because its simple to carry and to work with, its very convenient to have it and all you need is a door or some thing where you can hang it from. Since I live right in front of a soccer field I usually hang it from the goalie post. Here are some photos of the exercises I do to work my core. You can youtube for some videos and a detail explanation on how to use it properly or just go to their website. I think is a great tool for triathletes with a tight schedule since all you really need is about 20-30 minutes per session and it will keep you FIT ;)

Chest and arms

one leg squads

side to side 

push ups

one leg lunges

Hope you give it a try at your local gym or at home and that it works for you.

Back on The REV3 Podium!!!!

The Podium

Hola Pura Vida!!!
For the 2nd year in a row I finished 2nd, this time behind Cam Dye from Boulder. I dove to Guanacaste on friday from my home here in Cartago, I'm about 300 km but it took me 6hrs to get there. I stayed at the Flamingo Marina Resort, very nice place but if you are planning on staying there in the future please ask for a room as far as possible from the monkey bar, the live band plays until pretty late and they are good but not what you want to listen the night before your race. This hotel is about 6-8km from race site. I woke up at 4am on race morning and drove to the race site, once again REV had a great set up and transition was easy to get to.

At the Briefing keeping the Ordu close by at all times

On your marks

The race started at 6am and having quick swimmers in the field meant I needed a quick start or the race would have been over. A pack of about 5-6 of us form in the front and we stayed together for the entire swim with Fleishmann and Dye pushing in the front.

T1

 Once we got to the bike we had about 300 meters to get our shoes on until you get to a gravel section of about 200 meters and then the mile long climb.  At this climb the pack broke  and to the top only 3 of us were together, Dye, Chacon and myself.  Once we got to the top Dye broke away solo and put the hammer down. I stayed behind with chacon in 3rd for pretty much the entire bike. We got caught by 3 other riders by the end of the bike and we got off the bike pretty close to each other but by then Dye had already a 3 minute lead and was out of reach.

Running with Leo Chacon on the Beach

I got to the run and started to make a lot of ground, ran with chacon and then foster for a while and I got myself back into 2nd place at this point, I knew that I couldn't catch Dye and that 3rd place was still a bit behind so I slowed down and enjoyed the running on the sand.  Im happy with my performance this time of year this is a tough course and I was able to stay strong all the way through. Now back to Puerto Rico for a bit before I head to Sydney.

Girlfriend showing her bling

My Girlfriend also had a good day winning the Half Rev !!!!!


check out the race recap video here:

https://vimeo.com/38729194


my post race interview here :

https://vimeo.com/38732013

Taking out the Ordu for a ride with my Shimano's

At the Monkey Bar in my hotel

Breakfast!!!!

Going Swimming

The Piscina

The Other Piscina

Team Argentina

Teletica Interview

Here is a link from the national tv station here in Costa Rica that interview me prior to the REV3 :

Entrevista en teletica antes de la carrera:

http://www.teletica.com/teleticadeportes/detalle.php?id=124598

The Countdown to REV3 Costa Rica

 I arrived about a week ago to Costa Rica and getting used to the altitude training has been a lot better this time around. I left Costa Rica back in november to go home and I'm now back here to prepare the Olympic trials and hopefully the Olympic Games as well and some of the major US non drafting races that I plan to do this season. The first one will be the REV 3 Costa Rica in the Guanacaste province about 3.5hr drive from where I live and last year I had a good race finishing 2nd behind local hero and training partner Leo Chacon. This time around there will be a higher level of pro field  and Im looking forward to get back there and race. My Orbea Ordu with my shimano components and wheels are ready to rock the costa rican hills. Being one of the biggest sporting events in the country this past weekend we were invited to a press conference  and here are some of the photos.