Comedic genius. Not triathlon related, but I thought it was funny.
“My Sport is Your Sport’s Punishment”
I saw this on a shirt the other day when I was out running. Pretty funny.
Sea Otter Century
Rode in the Sea Otter Century today. Sponsored by Bicycling magazine, at the Sea Otter classic. Not a competition, just a well-supported (well, almost) century. Plenty of fun, 100 miles on the bike, 6650′ elevation gain.
Good group of people at the aid stations, plenty of food and drinks, although there could have been one more aid station around mile 50 or so, I was running out of water by the time I got to the aid station at mile 65. That is possibly because the biggest climb was right there. Oh well. Also, at the end, there was no one there to greet us coming back from the century and giving us our BBQ tickets. Poor organization at the finish point, I think. I blame Bicycling magazine.
Oh, and thanks to the group of guys that pulled me for the first 40 miles. I wouldn’t have done so well without you guys. I was the big guy in the blue kit on the blue Bianchi who kept talking about my 16 mile commute and how that I figured I should be done at mile 16, since that was normal daily commute distance…
And for those who don’t speak cycling lingo, a century is a 100 mile ride. Sort of like cyclings equivalent to a marathon.
Edit: forgot to mention that I had total pedaling time of 5:49. This is not counting the time I spent changing the flat around mile 80 or so (5 miles short of the last aid station), or the time I spent at the aid stations, or the 3 minute rest break in the shade while climbing Laureles Grade…
Posted in Cycling.
I Registered for a Bike Race, and They Made Me Swim and Run, Too! Or, My Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
So, this is my report on my Oceanside Half Ironman Triathlon, on Saturday April 4th.
Drove down to O’side on Friday with my wife, and the bike on the trailer mount on the back of the car. No problems, traffic wasn’t even very bad going through LA. Got to O’side, checked in to the hotel, and went to race registration/packet pick. No problems there, either. Walked the mile down to the transition area to check it out, not so bad either. Went back and had Pat and Oscars breadsticks and pasta for dinner, and got to sleep early.
Woke up bright an early at 0330. Jen wasn’t too happy about the early hour, but she did a good job all weekend as my semi-official race support crew. Thanks! Had my morning coke and oatmeal cookie bar, and then hit the bathroom to poop. Got everything ready and pooped again… Drove to the race got everything unpacked, and guess what, I had to poop again. Apparently, my body has this fight or flight reaction thing before a race and wants to purge itself of all extraneous matter. So, I won’t bore anyone with my tales of having to poop twice more that morning.
Anyways, got everything set up in transition area, said a last goodbye to Jen and then lined up with my wave for the swim. It was cold, I was shivering in my wetsuit while waiting for my wave to start. We were the 10th wave, I think. Last M35-39 wave to go, silver caps. As we were waiting, the first pros came running back up the chute from the swim, Andy Potts in the lead, with a course record of 21:27. Wow! That was fast. Finally we got into the water, and it was actually warmed in the water than not, even though the water was 59 degrees. Got to the starting point, heard the horn and started swimming. Didn’t get kicked, and only got ran over a couple of times. Passed some folks from the waves ahead of us, and got passed by many from the wave behind me. Final swim time was 40:39. Not stellar by any means, but fine by me.
Ran up the long chute to transition, got my jersey and bike shorts on over my tri suit since it was semi cold that morning, got the shoes and socks on, gloves, helmet and sunglasses and took off. 6:17 in T1, could have been faster, but comfort was somewhat important to me.
Bike went well, got into the aero position and rode well for the first 8-9 miles, but I really had to pee, so I finally stopped at a restroom around mile 15 and relieved myself. It was getting difficult to get into the aero position because I had to pee so bad. After that, no more body issues for the entire race, which was good. Got to the first narrow, no-passing zone, and apparently this meant everyone had to slow to a crawl, all bunched up. Probably did 7 mph for about 1/4 mile through there, and then blasted off out of there as soon as the no-passing zone ended. Finally got to the first big hill, the so-called 1st Sgt’s Hill on Pendleton, about 11-12% grade for about 1/2 mile. Saw some people walking up it, and got really worried, but I persevered, and powered through it. I have standard 50/39 crank with a 12-25 cassette on my tri bike, and I really wish I had a compact 50/34 crank on it! Only had to stand a couple of times, and made it to the top of that hill. Unfortunately, there were more hills waiting for me. Powered through the rest of the course, and only had one mishap; my chain came off in a downshift. Easy fix, though, and probably only cost me about 30 seconds. Final bike time was 2:57:54, average speed 18.9 mph. Not bad, about what I expected.
T2 wasn’t bad, only took 4:05, but I did almost forget to take off my bike shorts. Fortunately, my race support crew yelled at me to remind me, and I stripped them off, got my shoes on and started running. Oh, I forgot to mention, as I was coming in to the bike finish, the course leaders were finishing their run. Discouraging and awe-inspiring all at once…
The run was okay, but I should have run about 20 minutes faster than I did. I ran it in 2:02:39, with a 9:21 minute/mile pace. Since I run 7 minute miles in training, and am capable of 6 minute miles, I was somewhat disappointed. I think I just ran out of gas. Oh well. The 1/4 mile sand stretch was also disheartening, as it really threw off my rhythm (such as it was) I ended up walking the sand stretch the 3rd and 4th time through it. The good part about the run was that it was along the Strand in O’side, and many, many people were lined up alongside and cheering. Since we had our names on our race numbers, everybody would yell out “Good job, (your name)” to all the runners going on by. A faux pas on my part: as I was catching up to one girl on the last leg of the second lap, I cheered her on, saying “Good job, bring it home strong” She turned and looked at me and told me she had another lap to go. Ooops.
Well, got to the finish line, got my picture taken, had no need to go to the medical tent, saw the line for the massage tent and walked right on by it, and went to the food tent. It was hot and stuffy in the food tent, but I had my finishers cap and jersey on, so it was okay… Eat a bunch of pizza and some luke warm soda, which tasted really good. Sat and talked with a older guy and was impressed by his stories of past triathlons. Finally got up and walked back out to transition, packed up my stuff and met my wife and headed home. All in all, I was happy with my first half Ironman triathlon, and want to do some more.
Overall time was 5:51:22, 195/356 in M35-39, and 981 overall place. Got to work on my run, I think.
Couple of pictures below, first me waiting for the swim, then smiling during T2, and then me at the turnaround point in the run.
Halfway Done
Smiling at T2
Shivering Before the Swim
Where the Heck was Little Bo Peep?
So I was doing a MTB ride this morning over at Fort Ord, just kind of a recovery ride after all the events of the past couple of weeks, and I was probably about 1.5 hours into my ride and more or less heading home, on trail 41, one of the best trails out there. I was going pretty quickly, went up over a hill and started heading down, and had to stop instantly for what was ahead.
There were probably 200 sheep blocking the trail, grazing on the grass and blocking the trail/ The panic stop was interesting because the trail was already steep downhill, and the lead sheep looked up at me, and then continued grazing. I was probably 10 feet from him. Where in the heck was Little Bo Peep?!?!?! Apparently, she lost her sheep.
Anyways, with a bit of yelling and rolling forward, the herd of sheep started moving out of the way, and I continued on my merry way home. I did keep an eye out for little Bo Peep, though, and more sheep as well. Too bad neither appeared.
Posted in Cycling.
Riding On Laguna Seca Raceway
Last night I had an opportunity to ride my bike on Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway. It was a blast! Laguna Seca is one of the more famous/historic raceways out there, and while I haven’t yet had a chance to take my car out on it (which I will do at some point!), riding my bike on it was great. There were some serious uphills, since LS has plenty of elevation changes, and then some serious downhills. Blasting down the corkscrew at 50 mph on my bike was a rush, I can’t imagine I could do it much faster in my car without scaring myself to death. Part of the corkscrew almost felt like I was in free fall, it was so steep and fast.
Apparently they are going to start doing this once a month twilight cycling ride on LS, so i look forward to next time.
Also, since the Sea Otter Classic is coming to Monterey April 16-19, they wanted to do a practice criterium (a form of bike racing) to see how it would work. They sectioned off a small portion of the track to make a 1.15 mile long crit course, and began the practice race at about 6:30 PM, with a planned time of 40 minutes. I took off to the front right at the start, since I wanted to feel like I was the leader for a bit. I was able to hold that for about one lap (since most folks were just warming up) and then the peloton caught up to me. I was able to stick with the peloton for about 5-6 laps, and then fell off the back, made a valiant attempt to get back in the pack, and then fell off again. From there it was all over. I kept going for a bit, and then after another 4-5 laps, I decided that was it. Good news is that despite me being primarily a triathlete (who are notorious for poor bike handling skills), my bike handling was up to snuff, without any problems. Bad news is that the peloton dropped me like a bad habit, as I mentioned. However, I think i could probably hold my own in a crit at the Cat 4/5 level, given that there were some seriously fast guys out there last night. Maybe I will try some bike racing at some point.
I haven’t forgotten about the Oceanside 70.3 race report. I am going through the pictures and will write up a good report by this weekend.
Posted in Cycling, Motor Sports, News, Triathlon.
Half Ironman, Done.
5:51:22. Pretty happy with that, as this was my first half and I wanted to come in under 6 hours. Swim was 40:39, pretty sucky, but I knew that. Bike was 2:57:54, okay, and run was 2:02:29, relatively slow. Oh well, I am still happy. 195/380 in M35-39. Now time for the massage and to figure out how to get better.
More details and pictures later when i recover
Posted in Triathlon.
Two Days and Counting….
Less than 48 hours from when I write this, I will be coming out of the Oceanside harbor, having swam 1.2 miles in the chilly (~58 degrees!) water, and getting ready to ride 56 miles on Camp Pendleton, including up the so-call First Sergeant’s Hill (any Marine whose been to Camp Pendleton knows what that is!), a 11% grade, 1/2 mile long section, and then run (or jog may be the more accurate term) 13.1 miles in Oceanside, on the road to completion of my first half Ironman triathlon.
Looking forward to it! If you are in the San Diego/Oceanside area this weekend, you are more than welcome to come out and watch me and 3000 of my closest friends all doing this. I think I am bib number 1045, or just look for the short haired guy who appears to be dying…
XTERRA was a Blast, Pt 2
So, I promised, here is the full report on my XTERRA triathlon at Folsom Lake, CA.
It was a good time, the weather was (almost) perfect. The day prior it got up to 81 degrees, but on the day of, the temp hovered in the high 60’s. Really windy, though, hence the almost part. The wind wasn’t too much of a problem, since the hills blocked the wind in most places. Did I mention hills? Yes, this one had some serious hills, on both the run and the bike. That’s alright, though, since I do a lot of my training in hilly country, I was more or less ready for it.
What I wasn’t ready for was the technical aspect of the MTB course, with some rock gardens, tight turns, and other interesting parts, all the while I was trying to go all out on the MTB to get some good times in.
Mishap number 1: took a wrong turn on a somewhat poorly marked area, and wasted about two minutes out and two minutes back. Of course, this was one lap number two, so I should have known better…
Mishap number 2: front tire washed out on me on a tight turn that I took too fast. In the after pictures below, you can see the dirt from where I landed on my shoulder and rolled a bit. Took the chain off my bike as well, probably wasted about two minutes getting it all back together.
Difficulty number 1: passing on a singletrack MTB course is difficult, especially if the person in front of you doesn’t want to let you pass. Most people were good about this, but not all. That’s the way it goes, though.
Otherwise, it all went well. The water was damn cold, again, it took about 100-200 meters before I could get into a swimming rhythm, but I did, finally. Didn’t put socks on my feet for the MTB portion, just my MTB shoes, and that actually worked well, except that my feet were still numb from the cold for the first mile or so of the run. I did put socks on for the run! Other funny thing was that I threw on my biking shorts over my tri suit in T1, and then forgot to take them off in T2, so I ran the course with my biking shorts over my tri suit. Fortunately, I did not get any chafing. I’ll have to remember, though, this weekend, in the Oceanside half Iron, to take the biking shorts off, since running 13.1 miles in bike shorts might be a problem.
And here are what I think are the best pictures (my wife was the photographer), one showing me starting off on the bike course, and one showing me finishing up the bike course, battle scars and all…
Before....
...After
All in all, a great time, and something I would do again. Now to recover and get ready for this weekends half Iron!
XTERRA is a Blast!
My XTERRA triathlon on Sunday was a blast. More info tomorrow and pics, since I am too tired to write much right now, but two things:
Pro of an XTERRA: if you crash on your MTB, it doesn’t hurt as much because the sand/dirt is softer than the blacktop of a road tri
Con of an XTERRA: It’s much easier to to crash.
I’m fine, only had one crash, and that only took a bit of skin off my shoulder. All in all, a great day!
Posted in Triathlon.