Last time I updated C&C with a new entry, I discussed my trip back to Philadelphia this summer (June 2012) to participate in the 2012 Philly Tri. Good times. That leaves us with only two more catch-up topics on this list:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
The Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon and the Kings winning the Stanley Cup both happened in the beginning of June. That was a long, long time ago, my friends, but I will do my best to recall as best as I can. I'll rely on Mr. Internet to fill in any blanks.
Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon
The 2012 Chasing3 New Mexico Open Water Triathlon Series began with this race in Fort Sumner, NM. Race day was scheduled to be Saturday, June 9th. Luckily the day before was my Friday off and I took off for Santa Rosa early in the afternoon. Reserved a [cheap] room at some no-tell hotel in "downtown" Santa Rosa. It was a gem. Hit the streets looking for a grocery store (or anything) to procure the necessary nutrition for race morning. It was slim pickings. Luckily I was able to dig up enough after a couple stops, headed back to the hotel and called it a night early. Never been to Santa Rosa? Yeah, you're not really missing much.
The transition area, just outside of Fort Sumner at Sumner Lake, was about 30 minutes or so from Santa Rosa. The ride down was very pretty as the sun began to rise in the east. Not a whole lot going on out there. Just one ranch after another. You could almost imagine seeing Billy the Kid and his gang rolling through on their way to Fort Sumner.
A little history on Fort Sumner. Any fans of the wild, wild west may recognize the location as a frequent stopping point for the legendary William H. Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid. I'm not much of a historian, and you can find much more detailed information just about anywhere else on the history of Mr. Bonney, but the name of this race came from the fact that Billy the Kid's final resting site is located in Fort Sumner. I had good intentions to check out his grave site after the race but was derailed by some parade going through Fort Sumner which blocked my path. Instead of waiting it out, I flipped a U-turn and headed back to Albuquerque. Maybe next year.
The race started with a 1500m swim in Sumner Lake. It was a deep water start that was a two-loop, out-and-back course. Between the lake and the transition area was a steep-but-short boat ramp (that was nothing like the "wall" at the Cochiti Lake Triathlon). I finished the swim in about 37 minutes and headed up the ramp to T1. Although it was a wetsuit legal race, I went sans wetsuit.
Standard length for an Olympic triathlon bike leg is 40K, which is roughly 25-some odd miles. For whatever reason, the bike leg on this race was short. I don't recall the actual mileage. No biggie. Sometimes you have to take what you can get. Usually there are some tight space constraints and race organizers just can't squeeze out enough mileage. Understandable. Except for the fact that this race was in the middle of the desert with gobs and gobs of space! What gives? If races in the middle of a busy city (see Philly Tri and ITU San Diego) can find the real estate to make the bike leg a legitimate length, why can't we get that done out here? Boggles my mind. Any who, I digress. I was on the bike for about an hour with an average pace of 18.8 MPH.
The run was an out-and-back course with some nice rolling hills. I call them "nice" now but recall they were beating me up pretty good back then. This race had both Sprint and Olympic lengths, so there were two turn around points for the two lengths. At each turn around there were refreshments and ice-cold sponges. In the hot desert heat, they felt amazing. Cruised back to the finish line after the 10K race in about 53-1/2 minutes (8:37/mi pace). Total race time was about 2.5 hours. Here are the itty-gritty details:
Swim: 37:10
T1: 1:27
Bike: 1:00:11 (18.8 MPH)
T2: 1:34
Run: 53:28 (8:37/mi)
Total: 2:33:50
Overall it was a fun race and probably at the top of my list for repeated events next year. Plenty of things to do differently next year, including finding a better place to stay the night before, and definitely visit Mr. Bonney's burial grounds after the race.
Hextall's Cup
Growing up a hockey fan in suburban Philadelphia it was hard to not be a fan of Ron Hextall. He was everything a sports figure in the City of Brotherly Love should be: tough, blue collar, passionate and exciting. He was, also, on hell of a goaltender. The Flyers have been looking for a solid, franchise 'tender ever since. Is Ilya that net minder? Ummm....
So it's November of 2012 and there is no NHL hockey being played due to the lockout. Major bummer. You'll have to think back all the way to June if you want to remember the last time a puck was dropped in a professional NHL hockey game. It was the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup Final as the Los Angeles Kings faced off against the New Jersey Devils.
I had mixed motions on this match up and went back and forth on who to root for. First off, the Devils are the Devils and, as a Flyers fan, it's hard to root for the bastards. However, they beat the Flyers in the playoffs and, to some extent, you want the team that knocked off your team to do well. But again, it's the Devils.
Now the Kings, well the Kings were another story. Some called the Kings the "Flyers in the West." That referred to the high number of ex-Flyers within the organization, most notably, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and John Stevens. The first two were the biggies. Flyers let Richards (their Captain) and Carter go (to separate teams) because they felt the Flyers were unable to win the big one with them in their lineup. Richards went to the Kings and Carter to the Blue Jackets. A mid-season trade sent Carter to the City of Angels.
I was indifferent on the move. Richards was a hard nose player with some solid skills and the rumor mill was fun to listen to in regards to Carter and Scott Hartnell's wife. I digress. The players/picks that the Flyers received in return for Richards and Carter were great additions to the Flyers that produced many points. However, Mike and Jeff had some good chemistry together and were hard to count out once it came time for the playoffs. Their experience in the post season proved beneficial as the Kings dominated their opponents on the way to the Cup.
In the end, I felt pretty good with the Kings hoisting the Cup. Once the sting left after watching Richards and Carter hoist the greatest trophy in sports, I came to terms with the result. The ointment that soothed the cut was the fact that Ron Hextall was in the front office of the King's franchise. He's currently the Vice President and Assistant General Manager for the Kings. After all those close calls and amazing games between the pipes for many teams, Ron finally got that big prize. Way to go!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Let's keep this ball rolling
It's been a few nights since my last entry and I wanted to pick things up quickly from where I left off. If you recall, I was rolling through some updates on the following topics:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
In my last entry, I went into great detail about my amazing trip up to San Francisco to swim in the Bay with my friend Keith. Great time. If you enjoy open water swims and haven't swam in the bay yet, put it on your to do list. Right now. You'll thank me later.
Philadelphia Triathlon
I traveled back to Philly this summer to do the Philly Tri (Olympic). All the years I lived in Philly I never knew this bad boy even existed. I'm sure I was detoured around Kelly Drive due to the race at some point, but never even realized it. Go figure I moved 2,000-some-miles away before becoming interested in triathlons. Oh well. A good excuse to head back "home" regardless.
Flew into PHL Friday night and it was raining. Raining! Something I hadn't experienced in quite a while. And it wouldn't stop. What's up with that? Picked out a shiny Prius from the car rental lot, threw my bagged bike in the back seat and headed to the hotel on City Ave. Met up with my buddy Sean (who was also doing the race) downtown for a couple beers and dinner while catching up on life. After he bounced out to the suburbs I met up with some co-workers at the Urban Salon to surprise a friend at his surprise birthday celebration. It was a surprise within a surprise. After the normal debauchery, we ended up cabbing (oh, how I miss those) over to NoLibs to some hipster bar for a few more drinks and socializing before calling it a night. Luckily the change in time zones helped me keep up with the young kids.
Saturday was a relaxing day which started off with a brunch with Jon, a good friend/old coworker in Rittenhouse Square. Then headed off to the Please Touch Museum area to meet up with Sean for race check-in and to browse through the pre-race festivities. Luckily the rain had stopped and the weather was comfortable. The rain hadn't spiked up the river enough to call off the swim portion of the race. That was good news. Saturday night was quiet and ended with an early night in the sack. Was going to be an early morning Sunday for the race.
Sunday morning came fast. Race morning. Sean picked me up and by the time we parked, walked down to the transition area and found our rack, we had about 5 minutes to get everything ready before catching the last bus to the swim start. Hurry up and wait. We were practically the last wave to start so we had plenty of time to hang around (in the line for the bathroom) before we started. I think our start time was about 7:45. It was a deep-water start in the Schuylkill River. Water temperatures were over 80 deg F and wetsuits were legal but not eligible for points or rewards. Most people went without. Oh my, the river was warm. The horn went off. Go time.
Sighting in the river was a breeze. It was, for the most part, a straight shot until a "J" shape turn at the end. Didn't swim into any dead floating bodies as many people expected I would. Swim time was in the area of 1/2-hour for the 1500m current-assisted swim.
The bike course was a two-lap trek through Fairmount Park. Some decent climbs and fast flats. Was having some gear-shifting issues. After climbing a few of the hills in my small front gear I was running into some issues shifting into my large front gear to go down the hill and speed off into the flats. Was an enjoyable bike ride nevertheless. Final time on the bike was around an hour and twenty minutes.
First half of the run was in the shades along MLK Drive. Legs felt pretty good off the bike and with the exception of fighting my normal post-bike cramps/bloating, the run was decent. Around the 1/2-way mark started feeling more comfortable on my legs and picked the pace up. The second half was a bit more sunny and it was a hot sun beating down on us. My final run time was around 55 minutes. Here is the breakdown:
Swim: 30:31
T1: 4:20
Bike: 1:18:23
T2: 2:59
Run: 53:43
Total: 2:49:56
Some interesting facts:
My return flight wasn't until Tuesday. I purposely gave myself an extra day in Philadelphia to soak in what I've been missing. On Monday I met some old coworkers for lunch down by my old office to catch up on the dirt. Then Monday night I had a ticket to see the Phillies take on the Pirates at Citizens Bank. Coincidentally the guys had tickets to this game in the season ticket package I used to be a part of. I checked out a few innings of the game from my seat before meeting up with the guys to hang out in the concourse. Eventually we ended up heading across the street to the new Infinity Live complex (where the beloved Spectrum used to stand). Enjoyed some beers and conversation along with the usual debauchery.
The trip came to an end too quickly. Before I knew it, I was back on a flight headed off to the desert. Spending time in Philly reminds me of all the little (and big) things that I miss about living in the city. I really should get back to visit more often.
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
In my last entry, I went into great detail about my amazing trip up to San Francisco to swim in the Bay with my friend Keith. Great time. If you enjoy open water swims and haven't swam in the bay yet, put it on your to do list. Right now. You'll thank me later.
Philadelphia Triathlon
I traveled back to Philly this summer to do the Philly Tri (Olympic). All the years I lived in Philly I never knew this bad boy even existed. I'm sure I was detoured around Kelly Drive due to the race at some point, but never even realized it. Go figure I moved 2,000-some-miles away before becoming interested in triathlons. Oh well. A good excuse to head back "home" regardless.
Flew into PHL Friday night and it was raining. Raining! Something I hadn't experienced in quite a while. And it wouldn't stop. What's up with that? Picked out a shiny Prius from the car rental lot, threw my bagged bike in the back seat and headed to the hotel on City Ave. Met up with my buddy Sean (who was also doing the race) downtown for a couple beers and dinner while catching up on life. After he bounced out to the suburbs I met up with some co-workers at the Urban Salon to surprise a friend at his surprise birthday celebration. It was a surprise within a surprise. After the normal debauchery, we ended up cabbing (oh, how I miss those) over to NoLibs to some hipster bar for a few more drinks and socializing before calling it a night. Luckily the change in time zones helped me keep up with the young kids.
Saturday was a relaxing day which started off with a brunch with Jon, a good friend/old coworker in Rittenhouse Square. Then headed off to the Please Touch Museum area to meet up with Sean for race check-in and to browse through the pre-race festivities. Luckily the rain had stopped and the weather was comfortable. The rain hadn't spiked up the river enough to call off the swim portion of the race. That was good news. Saturday night was quiet and ended with an early night in the sack. Was going to be an early morning Sunday for the race.
Sunday morning came fast. Race morning. Sean picked me up and by the time we parked, walked down to the transition area and found our rack, we had about 5 minutes to get everything ready before catching the last bus to the swim start. Hurry up and wait. We were practically the last wave to start so we had plenty of time to hang around (in the line for the bathroom) before we started. I think our start time was about 7:45. It was a deep-water start in the Schuylkill River. Water temperatures were over 80 deg F and wetsuits were legal but not eligible for points or rewards. Most people went without. Oh my, the river was warm. The horn went off. Go time.
Sighting in the river was a breeze. It was, for the most part, a straight shot until a "J" shape turn at the end. Didn't swim into any dead floating bodies as many people expected I would. Swim time was in the area of 1/2-hour for the 1500m current-assisted swim.
The bike course was a two-lap trek through Fairmount Park. Some decent climbs and fast flats. Was having some gear-shifting issues. After climbing a few of the hills in my small front gear I was running into some issues shifting into my large front gear to go down the hill and speed off into the flats. Was an enjoyable bike ride nevertheless. Final time on the bike was around an hour and twenty minutes.
First half of the run was in the shades along MLK Drive. Legs felt pretty good off the bike and with the exception of fighting my normal post-bike cramps/bloating, the run was decent. Around the 1/2-way mark started feeling more comfortable on my legs and picked the pace up. The second half was a bit more sunny and it was a hot sun beating down on us. My final run time was around 55 minutes. Here is the breakdown:
Swim: 30:31
T1: 4:20
Bike: 1:18:23
T2: 2:59
Run: 53:43
Total: 2:49:56
Some interesting facts:
- I beat all other participants from New Mexico. Forget the fact that I was the only one from NM.
- My time was faster than all participants with the following names: Edward, Ron and Ralph.
- There were 18 Andrews in the race, and I was the 14th fastest.
My return flight wasn't until Tuesday. I purposely gave myself an extra day in Philadelphia to soak in what I've been missing. On Monday I met some old coworkers for lunch down by my old office to catch up on the dirt. Then Monday night I had a ticket to see the Phillies take on the Pirates at Citizens Bank. Coincidentally the guys had tickets to this game in the season ticket package I used to be a part of. I checked out a few innings of the game from my seat before meeting up with the guys to hang out in the concourse. Eventually we ended up heading across the street to the new Infinity Live complex (where the beloved Spectrum used to stand). Enjoyed some beers and conversation along with the usual debauchery.
The trip came to an end too quickly. Before I knew it, I was back on a flight headed off to the desert. Spending time in Philly reminds me of all the little (and big) things that I miss about living in the city. I really should get back to visit more often.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween!
'Tis the season! Such a great time of the year. I absolutely love Halloween. The mystery, the costumes, the sounds, the cool fall breeze, the leaves changing colors, et cetera. It's a great time to be alive!
After my most recent post I scrolled through some older entries to see what I had forgotten. The answer was simple: a lot. Seems I had promised an update on a few items which I never got to. The list was as follows:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
All those events occurred in June and July and I never talked one bit about them. I'm sorry. Luckily my memory is still very fresh. Thought I would touch on the above items and get everyone caught up.
San Francisco Bay Swims
I took a swim-vacation last January down to Maho Bay, St. John. Spent 5+ days swimming in the clear, warm, soothing waters of the Virgin Islands as part of an open water workshop with other open water swim buffs. Was a great time. Swam distances I never thought I would swim, and then some. Had a blast.
Met a real cool guy down there, Keith, who was part of the 5-person group I was in that we named The Barracudas. Keith is from San Francisco, and after some ribbing due to the Giants beating the Phillies in the NLCS a few years back, we talked about swimming in the bay. At that time, I had never been to San Francisco but was intrigued by the conditions, specifically, the annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon that starts off with a 1.5 mile swim in the bay. I've heard stories about the strong currents, the cold temperatures, the sharks, the sea lions, and the mystery behind The Rock. Sounded like a great place for a swim.
Upon my return to the states, Keith sent me some information on some options to experience a swim in the San Francisco Bay. You see, it is looked down upon to just take a trip to San Francisco, get a boat out towards Alcatraz, jump off and swim back to shore. The Bay is a busy place and a very uncontrolled environment. Taking on a swim like that requires coordination. Fortunately there are companies/people who take care of all that coordination. One such example is a woman named Leslie and her company swim-art. Keith had some experience with her and liked how she ran her program. Didn't have to twist my arm. Think I surprised Keith as I was quick to reserve my spot on her expedition. And since I wanted to get the most out of my trip to San Francisco, I booked two swims: an Alcatraz swim and a Bridge-to-Bridge (Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge) swim on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The swims were the weekend after the 4th of July. I planned my trip to arrive that Thursday to give me some time to adjust to the surroundings and take in the city. Luckily Keith was able to take some time off from work and play the role of social director, transporter, tour guide, historian, food reviewer, and, most importantly, good friend to enjoy some time, conversation and swims with.
After my flight arrived (in Oakland) Thursday afternoon, Keith dropped me off at the hotel to check in. Stayed in the Hilton Union Square. They gave me a room in the recently renovated wing and it was real nice. Keith picked me back up and we headed to the South End Rowing Club.
The South End Rowing Club (or, just SERC) is a real cool place. Follow the link above for some more history and information. It's located right at Aquatic Park (and, interesting enough, not on the South End at all) and has a private beach-like access to a somewhat protected area of the bay. After a quick tour of the facilities, we changed into our swim gear and headed to the water.
As a noobie to the bay, I naturally slipped into my wetsuit for my initial swim. Keith, a seasoned vet, was well acquainted with the conditions and went naked (i.e., just a swimsuit). Wetsuit or not, my friends, that water is cold. I approached my entry very wrong and waded out into the water, foot by foot, until the water was waist height before diving in. Should have just dove in as soon as possible. Once your entire body is emerged into that water it hits you like a ton of bricks. Takes your breath away. Literally. All you can do is make some poor attempts at a technically correct front crawl stroke and wait for your body to adjust. The good news is, your body does adjust and it's actually a very comfortable swim. Keith swam us around to various parts in the Aquatic Park, stopping every once and a while to chat (and, for him to make sure I'm still alive and haven't froze to death). We only swam for 30 or 40 minutes before heading back to the club. After stripping off my wetsuit, we shivered our way up to the locker room. Adjacent to the locker room are the showers (with a convenient urinal located in the shower - brilliant), and adjacent to the showers is a sauna. Perfect combination. After a refreshing shower, we headed into the sauna to relax, dry off and socialize. After a good soak in the sauna, we got ourselves back together and hit the town for a little sightseeing and, of course, some delicious food.
Friday morning Keith picked me up for a morning swim in the bay. Same routine at the club, except for my second swim in the bay, I decided to go naked. Left the wetsuit in my transition bag. I thought the first dive in with the wetsuit was cold, it didn't even come close to the feeling without a wetsuit on. That thin layer of neoprene really does its job! But, of course, eventually my body did its job to make the necessary adjustments and things were comfortable. We stayed close to the Aquatic Park beach and did a couple laps back and forth along the buoy line. After the customary shower and sauna combination, Keith took me over to the Golden Gate Bridge, which we walked across. Gorgeous views!
Saturday morning was the Alcatraz Swim! We met up with the rest of the swimmers (30+ of us) and support team before loading on to the boat and heading off towards The Rock. Since Friday morning's naked swim went so well, I decided to do the Alcatraz swim sans wetsuit as well. I think out of the 30-some swimmers, there were only 4 of us without a wetsuit. We kept it real. The boat stopped a few hundred yards from the shore of Alcatraz Island and after a few more instructions from Leslie, we started to unload the boat 1-by-1. Jumping off the back of the boat into the cold waters is a much preferred method over wading in slowly. Yeah, it was cold, but that's a given. I started to swim like mad for the shore, as if I was an inmate at the prison and heading for freedom.
Navigating the swim is tricky. The bay fills (floods) and empties (ebbs) at a pretty regular schedule, and that creates a river-like current as you try to swim from Alcatraz to the shore. Depending on the direction and the strength of the current (which can be real intense), you have to adjust your direction of swimming. Think vectors, fellow enginerds! Our swim was with a slight ebb, so we had to aim left of the opening to Aquatic Park and let the current feed is into the opening. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my posts, you know sighting while swimming isn't my strong suit. In conclusion, I was always a little bit too "down stream" and had to work against the current in order to hit the opening. But good news, my friends, I hit it! And so did everyone else in our swim. Not a single person had to be picked up or repositioned. Victory!
I swam up onto the beach at the Aquatic Park and checked in with the guy to let them know I was alive. After a little congratulatory high five - for doing the swim naked - I went back into the water and swam to the South End's beach. About 5 or 6 strokes into that swim my right lat cramped up something fierce. Whoops! Good thing it wasn't a long swim.
After the shower and sauna, Keith and I went out to the Fisherman's Wharf area and found a really tasty pizza place (thanks Yelp!) Chowed down on some delicious brick oven pizza while talking about swimming before Keith took me around to some more spots around the city. I asked him to show me as much as he can, and he obliged. Went over to the University of California campus, up the hill near the Lawrence Berkley Laboratories and took in the amazing view of the bay area. Was a very relaxing afternoon. Exhausted from the swim and sightseeing, I called it a night kind of early. After all, we had a 6-mile swim on Sunday morning to rest up for.
Sunday morning's Bridge-to-Bridge (B2B) swim was early. We met at the same location and rendezvous with the other swimmers and support crew. This swim was much smaller: about 15 of us. Since this was a longer swim, both Keith and I decided to take advantage of the thermal protection provided by a wetsuit. We met up with Ray, or kayak escort, and chatted logistics before we all loaded onto the boat and headed to the Bay Bridge.
The boat ride to the bridge was nice. Early in the morning, typical San Francisco fog, chilly, windy, gently swaying as the boat powers through the bay. A few times along the ride I was thinking to myself, "what am I doing?" All that goes away a few seconds after getting into the water.
This swim was a much longer distance. I think it measures around 6-miles. However, this swim is planned with a heavy ebb (exiting) flood, and that current helps you out a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't jump as early as we wanted to and I believe we missed a good chunk of the strong currents. Our escort Ray kept Keith and I on line as we swam our way down the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped a few times for feed/water and to get sighting directions from Ray. Other than that, we were in our own "cocoon of calm" swimming through the bay. Was a very relaxing, enjoyable and comfortable swim.
Our escort Ray took a few photographs along the way. Here's a photo of me with the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (the fog is covering the rest of the view).
Eventually we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and got picked up by our boat. After Keith, Ray and I (and Ray's kayak) were loaded onto the boat, we headed back to the dock and unloaded. After the standard post-swim shower-sauna, Keith and I hit up the In-and-Out Burger right down the street from the club for our celebratory meal. Delicious. It had been a while since I had In-and-Out. Sure did hit the spot. We decided to walk down Fisherman's Warf to take in the sights and sounds before heading out of the city towards Keith's neck of the woods. My flight was early Monday morning and I had reserved a room at a hotel near the airport for convenience.
Was such a great weekend. Had a great time visiting the city, doing the swims and hanging out with Keith. Will definitely try hard to throw in a trip back up to San Francisco next year to do some more swimming in the bay.
After my most recent post I scrolled through some older entries to see what I had forgotten. The answer was simple: a lot. Seems I had promised an update on a few items which I never got to. The list was as follows:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
All those events occurred in June and July and I never talked one bit about them. I'm sorry. Luckily my memory is still very fresh. Thought I would touch on the above items and get everyone caught up.
San Francisco Bay Swims
I took a swim-vacation last January down to Maho Bay, St. John. Spent 5+ days swimming in the clear, warm, soothing waters of the Virgin Islands as part of an open water workshop with other open water swim buffs. Was a great time. Swam distances I never thought I would swim, and then some. Had a blast.
Met a real cool guy down there, Keith, who was part of the 5-person group I was in that we named The Barracudas. Keith is from San Francisco, and after some ribbing due to the Giants beating the Phillies in the NLCS a few years back, we talked about swimming in the bay. At that time, I had never been to San Francisco but was intrigued by the conditions, specifically, the annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon that starts off with a 1.5 mile swim in the bay. I've heard stories about the strong currents, the cold temperatures, the sharks, the sea lions, and the mystery behind The Rock. Sounded like a great place for a swim.
Upon my return to the states, Keith sent me some information on some options to experience a swim in the San Francisco Bay. You see, it is looked down upon to just take a trip to San Francisco, get a boat out towards Alcatraz, jump off and swim back to shore. The Bay is a busy place and a very uncontrolled environment. Taking on a swim like that requires coordination. Fortunately there are companies/people who take care of all that coordination. One such example is a woman named Leslie and her company swim-art. Keith had some experience with her and liked how she ran her program. Didn't have to twist my arm. Think I surprised Keith as I was quick to reserve my spot on her expedition. And since I wanted to get the most out of my trip to San Francisco, I booked two swims: an Alcatraz swim and a Bridge-to-Bridge (Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge) swim on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The swims were the weekend after the 4th of July. I planned my trip to arrive that Thursday to give me some time to adjust to the surroundings and take in the city. Luckily Keith was able to take some time off from work and play the role of social director, transporter, tour guide, historian, food reviewer, and, most importantly, good friend to enjoy some time, conversation and swims with.
After my flight arrived (in Oakland) Thursday afternoon, Keith dropped me off at the hotel to check in. Stayed in the Hilton Union Square. They gave me a room in the recently renovated wing and it was real nice. Keith picked me back up and we headed to the South End Rowing Club.
The South End Rowing Club (or, just SERC) is a real cool place. Follow the link above for some more history and information. It's located right at Aquatic Park (and, interesting enough, not on the South End at all) and has a private beach-like access to a somewhat protected area of the bay. After a quick tour of the facilities, we changed into our swim gear and headed to the water.
As a noobie to the bay, I naturally slipped into my wetsuit for my initial swim. Keith, a seasoned vet, was well acquainted with the conditions and went naked (i.e., just a swimsuit). Wetsuit or not, my friends, that water is cold. I approached my entry very wrong and waded out into the water, foot by foot, until the water was waist height before diving in. Should have just dove in as soon as possible. Once your entire body is emerged into that water it hits you like a ton of bricks. Takes your breath away. Literally. All you can do is make some poor attempts at a technically correct front crawl stroke and wait for your body to adjust. The good news is, your body does adjust and it's actually a very comfortable swim. Keith swam us around to various parts in the Aquatic Park, stopping every once and a while to chat (and, for him to make sure I'm still alive and haven't froze to death). We only swam for 30 or 40 minutes before heading back to the club. After stripping off my wetsuit, we shivered our way up to the locker room. Adjacent to the locker room are the showers (with a convenient urinal located in the shower - brilliant), and adjacent to the showers is a sauna. Perfect combination. After a refreshing shower, we headed into the sauna to relax, dry off and socialize. After a good soak in the sauna, we got ourselves back together and hit the town for a little sightseeing and, of course, some delicious food.
Friday morning Keith picked me up for a morning swim in the bay. Same routine at the club, except for my second swim in the bay, I decided to go naked. Left the wetsuit in my transition bag. I thought the first dive in with the wetsuit was cold, it didn't even come close to the feeling without a wetsuit on. That thin layer of neoprene really does its job! But, of course, eventually my body did its job to make the necessary adjustments and things were comfortable. We stayed close to the Aquatic Park beach and did a couple laps back and forth along the buoy line. After the customary shower and sauna combination, Keith took me over to the Golden Gate Bridge, which we walked across. Gorgeous views!
Saturday morning was the Alcatraz Swim! We met up with the rest of the swimmers (30+ of us) and support team before loading on to the boat and heading off towards The Rock. Since Friday morning's naked swim went so well, I decided to do the Alcatraz swim sans wetsuit as well. I think out of the 30-some swimmers, there were only 4 of us without a wetsuit. We kept it real. The boat stopped a few hundred yards from the shore of Alcatraz Island and after a few more instructions from Leslie, we started to unload the boat 1-by-1. Jumping off the back of the boat into the cold waters is a much preferred method over wading in slowly. Yeah, it was cold, but that's a given. I started to swim like mad for the shore, as if I was an inmate at the prison and heading for freedom.
Navigating the swim is tricky. The bay fills (floods) and empties (ebbs) at a pretty regular schedule, and that creates a river-like current as you try to swim from Alcatraz to the shore. Depending on the direction and the strength of the current (which can be real intense), you have to adjust your direction of swimming. Think vectors, fellow enginerds! Our swim was with a slight ebb, so we had to aim left of the opening to Aquatic Park and let the current feed is into the opening. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my posts, you know sighting while swimming isn't my strong suit. In conclusion, I was always a little bit too "down stream" and had to work against the current in order to hit the opening. But good news, my friends, I hit it! And so did everyone else in our swim. Not a single person had to be picked up or repositioned. Victory!
I swam up onto the beach at the Aquatic Park and checked in with the guy to let them know I was alive. After a little congratulatory high five - for doing the swim naked - I went back into the water and swam to the South End's beach. About 5 or 6 strokes into that swim my right lat cramped up something fierce. Whoops! Good thing it wasn't a long swim.
After the shower and sauna, Keith and I went out to the Fisherman's Wharf area and found a really tasty pizza place (thanks Yelp!) Chowed down on some delicious brick oven pizza while talking about swimming before Keith took me around to some more spots around the city. I asked him to show me as much as he can, and he obliged. Went over to the University of California campus, up the hill near the Lawrence Berkley Laboratories and took in the amazing view of the bay area. Was a very relaxing afternoon. Exhausted from the swim and sightseeing, I called it a night kind of early. After all, we had a 6-mile swim on Sunday morning to rest up for.
Sunday morning's Bridge-to-Bridge (B2B) swim was early. We met at the same location and rendezvous with the other swimmers and support crew. This swim was much smaller: about 15 of us. Since this was a longer swim, both Keith and I decided to take advantage of the thermal protection provided by a wetsuit. We met up with Ray, or kayak escort, and chatted logistics before we all loaded onto the boat and headed to the Bay Bridge.
The boat ride to the bridge was nice. Early in the morning, typical San Francisco fog, chilly, windy, gently swaying as the boat powers through the bay. A few times along the ride I was thinking to myself, "what am I doing?" All that goes away a few seconds after getting into the water.
This swim was a much longer distance. I think it measures around 6-miles. However, this swim is planned with a heavy ebb (exiting) flood, and that current helps you out a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't jump as early as we wanted to and I believe we missed a good chunk of the strong currents. Our escort Ray kept Keith and I on line as we swam our way down the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped a few times for feed/water and to get sighting directions from Ray. Other than that, we were in our own "cocoon of calm" swimming through the bay. Was a very relaxing, enjoyable and comfortable swim.
Our escort Ray took a few photographs along the way. Here's a photo of me with the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (the fog is covering the rest of the view).
Eventually we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and got picked up by our boat. After Keith, Ray and I (and Ray's kayak) were loaded onto the boat, we headed back to the dock and unloaded. After the standard post-swim shower-sauna, Keith and I hit up the In-and-Out Burger right down the street from the club for our celebratory meal. Delicious. It had been a while since I had In-and-Out. Sure did hit the spot. We decided to walk down Fisherman's Warf to take in the sights and sounds before heading out of the city towards Keith's neck of the woods. My flight was early Monday morning and I had reserved a room at a hotel near the airport for convenience.
Was such a great weekend. Had a great time visiting the city, doing the swims and hanging out with Keith. Will definitely try hard to throw in a trip back up to San Francisco next year to do some more swimming in the bay.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Just a little recap
Hello, my loyal readers. I appy-polly-loggy for such the delay since my last entry. It has been a dynamic few months with some exciting things going on. Let me recap, starting with the most recent, and moving backwards:
Duke City Marathon
After the Ironman 70.3 Timberman in August I realized how poorly prepared I was for that race. The more I thought about it, the more surprised I was that I even finished! I needed to log more miles, more miles, and more miles, and even though I didn't have a DeLorean and a flux capacitor to go back to earlier this year and stick to a thorough training plan for the race, I am able to improve for future races. One way to make that improvement is to gain experience in races of Half Ironman (HIM) lengths, for instance, a Half Marathon. So I signed up for the 13.1 mile race at the Duke City Marathon. Had about 7 weeks to train (from the time I decided to do it) and I took a standard 10-week training program and compressed a few of the weeks. Really enjoyed spending quality time in my running shoes and putting in miles each week. As a result, I felt pretty good on race morning and was looking forward to the run.
My final time was 1:42:02 which was about 3-minutes faster than I was planning! Didn't log a single mile at 8:00/mi or slower, which is pretty good for me. Not a bad line in the sand for me to train for (and beat) next year. The Half Marathon is a fun distance and I'm already planning to throw a few of these into my schedule for next year.
Slam the Dam
After my friend Keith and I did some swims in the San Francisco Bay this summer, we thought it would be fun to do a swimming event. Somehow we attached on to this even they hold in Lake Mead outside Las Vegas called Slam the Dam. Like we need a good excuse to go to Vegas!
The event had a variety of race options: 1.2 mi, 2.4 mi, 8K, Super Slam (2.4 mi + 1.2 mi) and Grand Slam (8K + 1.2 mi). We threw around the idea of doing the 8K but decided against it. I signed up for the Super Slam. Sounded like fun.
Was a great weekend for the event. The water in Lake Mead was a little warm, but the ambient weather was fairly comfortable and we had some great weather. I did the 2.4 mi in 1:28:28 and the 1.2 mi in 44:10. Nothing to write home about, but it wasn't about the time. It was a fun event and good to log in some longer open water swims. Relaxing and people-watching on the Strip afterwards sure is a good gig, too.
Elephant Man Triathlon
My last shot at swimming, biking and running for the season was back at the Elephant Butte in Truth or Consequences, NM. I did the Dam It Man triathlon in a similar location earlier this summer. That was a sprint (pretty intense sprint) distance race and this one was a full Olympic distance triathlon.
For the first time I tried aero wheels on my bike. Rented a pair of Zipp 303's from the bike shop to see how they were. Was pretty excited about them. Probably going to rent a couple more times next year to see what style/brand/depth I like, but they are definitely a future purchase.
The swim was a standard mile-ish swim in the Butte. Nothing fancy at all with my swim. Slow as usual, but effortless. Got out of the water in about 36 minutes. One of the slower swims in my age group. Definitely my number one priority for the off season. More on that at another time.
The bike course was pretty challenging. After some nice rolling hills there was a decent climb to the half-way mark before we started making our way back to the transition area. The second half of the race had more flat sections and was able to get into a good pace. My final bike time was about 1:25:00. Had a blast on the bike.
Running out of T2 we headed towards the dam, which was pretty cool to run over. Coming out of T2 I had some horrible, horrible cramps/bloating/something in my stomach which was not cool. A bit of a reoccurring issue this season (something to look into) and it was ultra bad for this race. The first half of the run was uncomfortable and, consequently, pretty slow. After the turn around I started to feel a bit better and was able to pick up the pace. Miles 4, 5 and 6 my splits were in the 7:45 range. My run time was 53:44 for the 10K for a total time of just a touch over 3-hours (3:01:04).
Ironman 70.3 Timberman
Sean and I met up in New England for our first race at the HIM distance. Hard to believe I was trying this distance so soon. I'm a triathlon noobie. This year, 2012, was my first real season of racing. But, hey, you only live once, and there's no reason why you can't push the body to see how it does. Although a little nervous leading up to race day, I was excited.
The swim was a 1.2 mile swim and I logged a slow 44:03 swim. Water was comfortable and I was one of the few participants who decided to go sans wetsuit. Regardless, I'm not going to beat a dead horse on this, but my weakness at the swims is definitely something I will be working this off season. But, hey, I'm a noob!
Jumped on the bike for a 56 mile ride through gorgeous New Hampshire. The start of the bike had some good meaty hills before it leveled off. Was on the saddle for 3:04:29.
The run portion of a HIM is a 13.1 half marathon. This was my first time tackling this distance. Was pretty uncomfortable coming off the bike out of T2 and got into a pretty poor run-walk rotation. The course had a lot of aid stations with all kinds of stuff. In addition to the standard water, sports drink, soft drink that was at ever station, some stations had cookies, some had pancakes and bacon, some had chips, etc. A little bit of everything. I finally knocked out the 13.1 miles in 2:20:48. My final time for the HIM was 6:27:58. Success was finishing, so I felt good. I left New England on a plane back to the desert hungry for more. You'll see a couple 70.3-distance races pop up into my schedule for 2013.
So, you guys are semi-caught up to the crazy world of yours truly. I know I missed a lot of cool, exciting details and I still owe you guys an update from earlier events. My bad. Stay tuned....
- Ran a 13.1 mile race at this year's Duke City Marathon on Sunday, 21-Oct-2012 here in Albuquerque.
- Participated in the Super Slam at the Slam the Dam swim event in Boulder City, NV on Saturday, 6-Oct-2012.
- Had my last triathlon of the season at the Elephant Man Triathlon in Truth or Consequences, NM on Sunday, 30-Sept-2012.
- Did my first Half Ironman (70.3) in Gilford, NH at the Ironman 70.3 Timberman on Sunday, 19-Aug-2012.
Duke City Marathon
After the Ironman 70.3 Timberman in August I realized how poorly prepared I was for that race. The more I thought about it, the more surprised I was that I even finished! I needed to log more miles, more miles, and more miles, and even though I didn't have a DeLorean and a flux capacitor to go back to earlier this year and stick to a thorough training plan for the race, I am able to improve for future races. One way to make that improvement is to gain experience in races of Half Ironman (HIM) lengths, for instance, a Half Marathon. So I signed up for the 13.1 mile race at the Duke City Marathon. Had about 7 weeks to train (from the time I decided to do it) and I took a standard 10-week training program and compressed a few of the weeks. Really enjoyed spending quality time in my running shoes and putting in miles each week. As a result, I felt pretty good on race morning and was looking forward to the run.
My final time was 1:42:02 which was about 3-minutes faster than I was planning! Didn't log a single mile at 8:00/mi or slower, which is pretty good for me. Not a bad line in the sand for me to train for (and beat) next year. The Half Marathon is a fun distance and I'm already planning to throw a few of these into my schedule for next year.
Slam the Dam
After my friend Keith and I did some swims in the San Francisco Bay this summer, we thought it would be fun to do a swimming event. Somehow we attached on to this even they hold in Lake Mead outside Las Vegas called Slam the Dam. Like we need a good excuse to go to Vegas!
The event had a variety of race options: 1.2 mi, 2.4 mi, 8K, Super Slam (2.4 mi + 1.2 mi) and Grand Slam (8K + 1.2 mi). We threw around the idea of doing the 8K but decided against it. I signed up for the Super Slam. Sounded like fun.
Was a great weekend for the event. The water in Lake Mead was a little warm, but the ambient weather was fairly comfortable and we had some great weather. I did the 2.4 mi in 1:28:28 and the 1.2 mi in 44:10. Nothing to write home about, but it wasn't about the time. It was a fun event and good to log in some longer open water swims. Relaxing and people-watching on the Strip afterwards sure is a good gig, too.
Elephant Man Triathlon
My last shot at swimming, biking and running for the season was back at the Elephant Butte in Truth or Consequences, NM. I did the Dam It Man triathlon in a similar location earlier this summer. That was a sprint (pretty intense sprint) distance race and this one was a full Olympic distance triathlon.
For the first time I tried aero wheels on my bike. Rented a pair of Zipp 303's from the bike shop to see how they were. Was pretty excited about them. Probably going to rent a couple more times next year to see what style/brand/depth I like, but they are definitely a future purchase.
The swim was a standard mile-ish swim in the Butte. Nothing fancy at all with my swim. Slow as usual, but effortless. Got out of the water in about 36 minutes. One of the slower swims in my age group. Definitely my number one priority for the off season. More on that at another time.
The bike course was pretty challenging. After some nice rolling hills there was a decent climb to the half-way mark before we started making our way back to the transition area. The second half of the race had more flat sections and was able to get into a good pace. My final bike time was about 1:25:00. Had a blast on the bike.
Running out of T2 we headed towards the dam, which was pretty cool to run over. Coming out of T2 I had some horrible, horrible cramps/bloating/something in my stomach which was not cool. A bit of a reoccurring issue this season (something to look into) and it was ultra bad for this race. The first half of the run was uncomfortable and, consequently, pretty slow. After the turn around I started to feel a bit better and was able to pick up the pace. Miles 4, 5 and 6 my splits were in the 7:45 range. My run time was 53:44 for the 10K for a total time of just a touch over 3-hours (3:01:04).
Ironman 70.3 Timberman
Sean and I met up in New England for our first race at the HIM distance. Hard to believe I was trying this distance so soon. I'm a triathlon noobie. This year, 2012, was my first real season of racing. But, hey, you only live once, and there's no reason why you can't push the body to see how it does. Although a little nervous leading up to race day, I was excited.
The swim was a 1.2 mile swim and I logged a slow 44:03 swim. Water was comfortable and I was one of the few participants who decided to go sans wetsuit. Regardless, I'm not going to beat a dead horse on this, but my weakness at the swims is definitely something I will be working this off season. But, hey, I'm a noob!
Jumped on the bike for a 56 mile ride through gorgeous New Hampshire. The start of the bike had some good meaty hills before it leveled off. Was on the saddle for 3:04:29.
The run portion of a HIM is a 13.1 half marathon. This was my first time tackling this distance. Was pretty uncomfortable coming off the bike out of T2 and got into a pretty poor run-walk rotation. The course had a lot of aid stations with all kinds of stuff. In addition to the standard water, sports drink, soft drink that was at ever station, some stations had cookies, some had pancakes and bacon, some had chips, etc. A little bit of everything. I finally knocked out the 13.1 miles in 2:20:48. My final time for the HIM was 6:27:58. Success was finishing, so I felt good. I left New England on a plane back to the desert hungry for more. You'll see a couple 70.3-distance races pop up into my schedule for 2013.
So, you guys are semi-caught up to the crazy world of yours truly. I know I missed a lot of cool, exciting details and I still owe you guys an update from earlier events. My bad. Stay tuned....
Friday, August 3, 2012
I got the deuce deuce in the trunk of my car
Alright, loyal readers of mine, I would like to start off with an apology. I'm going to mess the chronological order up here on C&C and it's not meant to throw you off. I'm sorry in advance. As I promised in my last post, I will catch everyone up on the happenings of the last few glorious months. And I will. But not in this post. Like the man in the stall said to the man waiting: give me time.
Those in my generation may recognize the title of this post as lyrics from a song called Garden Grove by Sublime. It's the first track on the self-titled Sublime album released in the summer of 1996. Ah yes, the summer of '96. Seems like yesterday. Kurt Angle won the gold medal for the USA in wrestling at the Olympics in Hotlanta while I goofed off and probably did nothing with my life as a typical 15 year old kid. But I digress.
A few weeks ago Sublime rolled into the desert and put on a show for the Land of Enchantment here in Albuquerque. You may be thinking, "What? Sublime? But Brad Nowell died years ago!" Yes, he did. But the rest of the band lives on (except for Lou Dog, RIP) and they've created other bands (see: Long Beach Dub Allstars) in the past 16 years. Most recently, they (the original drummer and bassist) started playing with a guy named Rome Ramirez. They started doing some shows going by just "Sublime" until Nowell's family caught wind of this and got pissed. Sublime isn't Sublime without Brad (I agree) and they took the fight to the courts and won. So instead of just Sublime, they are called Sublime with Rome. Now you're all caught up. Allow me to slightly modify the first sentence of this paragraph and say, "A few weeks ago Sublime with Rome rolled into the desert..."
As a big Sublime fan I jumped at the chance and procured some tickets. Along with Sublime with Rome (SWR), Pepper and Cypress Hills was on the card. I never heard Pepper before but...Cypress Hills? Insane in the Brain? Yeah, them! Apparently in the 100 years since Insane in the Brain was popular on the radio Cypress Hills has continued to perform and record together. Who would have thought?
Prior to Pepper warming up the crowd a band called Huntington Beach Surround Sound took the stage for a quick set. I didn't catch much of their show. All I can say about them is Huntington Beach is one of my favorite spots in southern California. Good surfing.
Hearing a band for the first time live is a great experience. That's how I feel about Pepper. They put on a good show. A classic three-man-band with both the guitarist and bassist sharing the lead vocals. They had a very Sublime-like sound and were entertaining. Some cool coconut-punchers. I was impressed enough to buy a few of their albums on iTunes. If you haven't heard any of their stuff, I'd recommend them highly.
And now for something completely different...Cypress Hill took the stage. I'll be completely honest: I didn't see any of their show. Well, just bits and pieces from a distance. I left the seats after Pepper to meet up with some friends also at the show and decided to relax on the sidelines and listen to CH instead of crawling through a dozen drunk-and-high fans to get back to said seats. Yes, they did play Insane in the Brain, and a bunch of other songs. Yadda yadda. During the break I got back to where I belong to catch the main performance.
Sublime with Rome put on a good show. I'm not going to lie, though, they played a lot more classic Sublime than I expected. They only played three song from Yours Truly. (Luckily for me, they did play my favorite track from that LP: Take it or Leave it. Thanks guys!) The rest was old school Sublime (with a Nirvana cover, Drain You, off of Nevermind thrown in there). In addition to Rome on the guitar and vocals, original Sublime bassist Eric Wilson hung out on the side slapping his bass and adding some backup sounds via a keyboard. For the most part Eric just played along, smoked a cigarette and gazed out at the crowd through his sunglasses. Very low key. On drums was a guy named Josh Freese. You may be thinking, "Josh Freese? That doesn't sound right!" You are correct, my friend. Josh isn't a Sublime original. Bud Gaugh was the original drummer. And he did, for a while, tour and drum with SWR. However, he had a change of heart and left the group. He was unhappy with playing Sublime music without Brad. I don't blame him. SWR also had some guy on the 1's and 2's.
They ended their show predictably early and left the stage for a few minutes as the crowd chanted for more. Everyone knew they were coming back out. They hadn't even played Panic (hit track from Yours Truly)! They came back out and played a few more tunes before dropping their instruments and leaving for good. Satisfied (somewhat), the crowd dispersed into the desert night, ears ringing and heads nodding.
In other news, what is this?
Hidden in the title of this post is another topic I'd like to ramble on about here for you, my loyal readers. As Brad said, he had a "deuce deuce" in the trunk of his car, referring to a firearm that uses .22 caliber ammunition. Balling. Twenty-two (22) was also the race number I wore for the triathlon I was in last weekend up at Cochiti Lake. I'm switching topics here and I hope I don't lose you. Stay with me.
Last year around this time there were some wicked fires up in the area of Cochiti Lake which ended up cancelling this race for obvious reasons. This year things were cleaned up and the race was on like Donkey Kong.
The lake is only about an hour north of Albuquerque and I decided to just get up early and commute back and forth to this race instead of finding other lodging options. Left around 5a and got to the race site in plenty of time to set everything up and get ready to roll. Transition area closed and headed to the beach. And by beach I mean area by the lake with sharp, painful rocks. You'd think in the desert we'd be able to make a beach with sand, yeah? Think again.
The 1500m swim was a triangular course that we had to do twice. Water was warm (71 deg F, I believe) and I went sans wetsuit. At the first buoy I took a foot/fist to the face which nearly knocked my goggles off my head. Luckily they stayed partially on and I just had to tread water briefly to get the water out of them and get them back over my eyes. Other than that, the swim was pretty uneventful and straight forward. Think my final swim time was in the 33-min area.
Transition went well and I hopped onto my Cervelo P2 and headed out to the course. Now the transition area for this race was located at the bottom of a boat ramp. A long, steep boat ramp. Coming out of the transition area the first thing you hit is said long, steep boat ramp. Once at the top of the boat ramp, the hill continued. Nice way to start the bike. Eventually we got to the top and turned onto the dam service road. This supplied some gorgeous views of the lake/dam and surrounding area. The road was a rough gravel-like texture but flat and fast. This lead back to the main road for a quick downhill burst before climbing back up to start a second loop. After completing the second loop we headed back down the hill and boat ramp to the transition areas (good thing the brakes were working) and changed into my Brooks for the run.
Ah yes, remember that long, steep boat ramp and hill coming out of the transition area? It was there for the bike and didn't go away for the run. Except when heading out for the run I had 26-some miles of biking on my legs and lactic acid was already kicking in. Running up those hills was not fun at all. At times I felt like I wasn't even moving. After what seemed like an eternity I was at the top and onto a much more flat section of the out-and-back run course. But the damage was done. My legs felt shot, and I wasn't the only one. I've never seen so many athletes walk on the run leg of a triathlon as I did at this race. I joined them. There were a couple times where I just needed to walk it out for a few seconds. The dry heat, heavy sun and killer hills really took it to everyone out on the course. But eventually I was at the top of the hill again and heading back to the finish line. Was nice to be able to coast down the hill and boat ramp to finish the race. Somehow I was able to put one foot in front of the other and let gravity take me home. My final race time was just a few minutes under 3 hours. Definitely a challenging course. Probably the most challenging I've been in...so far.
Hung around the transition area for a little bit after the race, socialized and had some food before loading the Jeep up and heading back to the Abq. Gorgeous day and a fun, but challenging, triathlon makes for a great Sunday.
Here are my results:
Swim: 33:25
T1: 2:50
Bike: 1:23:25 (18.0 MPH)
T2: 2:06
Run: 54:53 (8:51/mi)
Total: 2:56:39
My next race isn't until August 19th, but it will be a big one. I'll be traveling to Gilford, NH for Ironman 70.3 Timberman. Can't wait!
Those in my generation may recognize the title of this post as lyrics from a song called Garden Grove by Sublime. It's the first track on the self-titled Sublime album released in the summer of 1996. Ah yes, the summer of '96. Seems like yesterday. Kurt Angle won the gold medal for the USA in wrestling at the Olympics in Hotlanta while I goofed off and probably did nothing with my life as a typical 15 year old kid. But I digress.
A few weeks ago Sublime rolled into the desert and put on a show for the Land of Enchantment here in Albuquerque. You may be thinking, "What? Sublime? But Brad Nowell died years ago!" Yes, he did. But the rest of the band lives on (except for Lou Dog, RIP) and they've created other bands (see: Long Beach Dub Allstars) in the past 16 years. Most recently, they (the original drummer and bassist) started playing with a guy named Rome Ramirez. They started doing some shows going by just "Sublime" until Nowell's family caught wind of this and got pissed. Sublime isn't Sublime without Brad (I agree) and they took the fight to the courts and won. So instead of just Sublime, they are called Sublime with Rome. Now you're all caught up. Allow me to slightly modify the first sentence of this paragraph and say, "A few weeks ago Sublime with Rome rolled into the desert..."
As a big Sublime fan I jumped at the chance and procured some tickets. Along with Sublime with Rome (SWR), Pepper and Cypress Hills was on the card. I never heard Pepper before but...Cypress Hills? Insane in the Brain? Yeah, them! Apparently in the 100 years since Insane in the Brain was popular on the radio Cypress Hills has continued to perform and record together. Who would have thought?
Prior to Pepper warming up the crowd a band called Huntington Beach Surround Sound took the stage for a quick set. I didn't catch much of their show. All I can say about them is Huntington Beach is one of my favorite spots in southern California. Good surfing.
Hearing a band for the first time live is a great experience. That's how I feel about Pepper. They put on a good show. A classic three-man-band with both the guitarist and bassist sharing the lead vocals. They had a very Sublime-like sound and were entertaining. Some cool coconut-punchers. I was impressed enough to buy a few of their albums on iTunes. If you haven't heard any of their stuff, I'd recommend them highly.
And now for something completely different...Cypress Hill took the stage. I'll be completely honest: I didn't see any of their show. Well, just bits and pieces from a distance. I left the seats after Pepper to meet up with some friends also at the show and decided to relax on the sidelines and listen to CH instead of crawling through a dozen drunk-and-high fans to get back to said seats. Yes, they did play Insane in the Brain, and a bunch of other songs. Yadda yadda. During the break I got back to where I belong to catch the main performance.
Sublime with Rome put on a good show. I'm not going to lie, though, they played a lot more classic Sublime than I expected. They only played three song from Yours Truly. (Luckily for me, they did play my favorite track from that LP: Take it or Leave it. Thanks guys!) The rest was old school Sublime (with a Nirvana cover, Drain You, off of Nevermind thrown in there). In addition to Rome on the guitar and vocals, original Sublime bassist Eric Wilson hung out on the side slapping his bass and adding some backup sounds via a keyboard. For the most part Eric just played along, smoked a cigarette and gazed out at the crowd through his sunglasses. Very low key. On drums was a guy named Josh Freese. You may be thinking, "Josh Freese? That doesn't sound right!" You are correct, my friend. Josh isn't a Sublime original. Bud Gaugh was the original drummer. And he did, for a while, tour and drum with SWR. However, he had a change of heart and left the group. He was unhappy with playing Sublime music without Brad. I don't blame him. SWR also had some guy on the 1's and 2's.
They ended their show predictably early and left the stage for a few minutes as the crowd chanted for more. Everyone knew they were coming back out. They hadn't even played Panic (hit track from Yours Truly)! They came back out and played a few more tunes before dropping their instruments and leaving for good. Satisfied (somewhat), the crowd dispersed into the desert night, ears ringing and heads nodding.
In other news, what is this?
Hidden in the title of this post is another topic I'd like to ramble on about here for you, my loyal readers. As Brad said, he had a "deuce deuce" in the trunk of his car, referring to a firearm that uses .22 caliber ammunition. Balling. Twenty-two (22) was also the race number I wore for the triathlon I was in last weekend up at Cochiti Lake. I'm switching topics here and I hope I don't lose you. Stay with me.
Last year around this time there were some wicked fires up in the area of Cochiti Lake which ended up cancelling this race for obvious reasons. This year things were cleaned up and the race was on like Donkey Kong.
The lake is only about an hour north of Albuquerque and I decided to just get up early and commute back and forth to this race instead of finding other lodging options. Left around 5a and got to the race site in plenty of time to set everything up and get ready to roll. Transition area closed and headed to the beach. And by beach I mean area by the lake with sharp, painful rocks. You'd think in the desert we'd be able to make a beach with sand, yeah? Think again.
The 1500m swim was a triangular course that we had to do twice. Water was warm (71 deg F, I believe) and I went sans wetsuit. At the first buoy I took a foot/fist to the face which nearly knocked my goggles off my head. Luckily they stayed partially on and I just had to tread water briefly to get the water out of them and get them back over my eyes. Other than that, the swim was pretty uneventful and straight forward. Think my final swim time was in the 33-min area.
Transition went well and I hopped onto my Cervelo P2 and headed out to the course. Now the transition area for this race was located at the bottom of a boat ramp. A long, steep boat ramp. Coming out of the transition area the first thing you hit is said long, steep boat ramp. Once at the top of the boat ramp, the hill continued. Nice way to start the bike. Eventually we got to the top and turned onto the dam service road. This supplied some gorgeous views of the lake/dam and surrounding area. The road was a rough gravel-like texture but flat and fast. This lead back to the main road for a quick downhill burst before climbing back up to start a second loop. After completing the second loop we headed back down the hill and boat ramp to the transition areas (good thing the brakes were working) and changed into my Brooks for the run.
Ah yes, remember that long, steep boat ramp and hill coming out of the transition area? It was there for the bike and didn't go away for the run. Except when heading out for the run I had 26-some miles of biking on my legs and lactic acid was already kicking in. Running up those hills was not fun at all. At times I felt like I wasn't even moving. After what seemed like an eternity I was at the top and onto a much more flat section of the out-and-back run course. But the damage was done. My legs felt shot, and I wasn't the only one. I've never seen so many athletes walk on the run leg of a triathlon as I did at this race. I joined them. There were a couple times where I just needed to walk it out for a few seconds. The dry heat, heavy sun and killer hills really took it to everyone out on the course. But eventually I was at the top of the hill again and heading back to the finish line. Was nice to be able to coast down the hill and boat ramp to finish the race. Somehow I was able to put one foot in front of the other and let gravity take me home. My final race time was just a few minutes under 3 hours. Definitely a challenging course. Probably the most challenging I've been in...so far.
Hung around the transition area for a little bit after the race, socialized and had some food before loading the Jeep up and heading back to the Abq. Gorgeous day and a fun, but challenging, triathlon makes for a great Sunday.
Here are my results:
Swim: 33:25
T1: 2:50
Bike: 1:23:25 (18.0 MPH)
T2: 2:06
Run: 54:53 (8:51/mi)
Total: 2:56:39
My next race isn't until August 19th, but it will be a big one. I'll be traveling to Gilford, NH for Ironman 70.3 Timberman. Can't wait!
Monday, July 16, 2012
A papa tomato, a mama tomato, and a baby tomato are walking down the street...
Ketchup. Or, catch-up. If you wanted the latter, this is the blog post for you. As for the former, check your refrigerator.
I realize I went from the introduction of a joke to the punchline pretty quickly, but time is of the essence. And if you haven't heard the body of that joke, shame on you. Uma Thurman tells it pretty good in Pulp Fiction. Check it out.
It has been a long time, my loyal readers. Your humble author has been busy, and I'll try to recap the best I could. But not all at once. No use feeding you Cheesesteaks and Chile from a fire hose. My memory is a bit hazy on the details but I'll try to hit the major points.
As for tonight, this is just a teaser. In the next few days/weeks, I'll be posting some detailed entries on the following items that have gone down since the last time we chatted:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
That is everything, I think. Some other topics might sneak in there on us, but that will be alright. Keep everyone on their toes.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
I realize I went from the introduction of a joke to the punchline pretty quickly, but time is of the essence. And if you haven't heard the body of that joke, shame on you. Uma Thurman tells it pretty good in Pulp Fiction. Check it out.
It has been a long time, my loyal readers. Your humble author has been busy, and I'll try to recap the best I could. But not all at once. No use feeding you Cheesesteaks and Chile from a fire hose. My memory is a bit hazy on the details but I'll try to hit the major points.
As for tonight, this is just a teaser. In the next few days/weeks, I'll be posting some detailed entries on the following items that have gone down since the last time we chatted:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
That is everything, I think. Some other topics might sneak in there on us, but that will be alright. Keep everyone on their toes.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
2012 ITU San Diego
The 2012 ITU San Diego wrapped up about 12 hours ago and while things are still fresh in my head I thought I would sit down and tap out how things went. A long day on the road heading back to Albuquerque begins early in the morning tomorrow (Sunday) and I'm pretty exhausted from an early morning today (4a Pacific), but those are the sacrifices I make to you, my loyal readers. Please excuse any and all potential grammatical errors in this post. I'm fading fast.
Today was a beautiful day for a triathlon. Got up around 4 this morning and got some nutrition down my throat. The hotel I'm staying at, which is very nice and comfortable, isn't triathlete friendly. My room doesn't even have a refrigerator. So I had to make due with what I could gather that didn't need to be chilled. After putting together my stock of water bottles laced with Nuun tablets and getting in a quick morning stretch, I headed off to the transition area. Luckily it was only a 30-min walk from the hotel so I didn't need to fight the traffic/bus situation of 2500+ athletes converging into the same area.
My bike was [luckily] where I left it the night before and I quickly laid out my stuff, tapped gels to my bike, got everything situation, etc. At about 6:05a the transition area was closed, a local triathlete sang a real nice Star Spangled Banner, and the first wave of racers got ready to head out the shoot. My wave (M30-34), all with royal blue swim caps, was the last wave on the list, scheduled at 7:20a. I still had quite a while. To pass the time I went for a couple out-and-back swims to loosen up and enjoy some open water swimming. Also met a cool fellow New Mexican and chatted with him and his family for a while.
The first wave was delayed by 15-minutes but they compressed the schedule and our wave was able to start on time at 7:20a. I did my best to avoid the sometimes-lethal kick to the face and lined up towards the back and to the outside. The horn blew and we were off...
Swim
The race started with a 1500m swim in Mission Bay. Water temperature was quoted as 64F which made wetsuits legals. I broke out my 2XU T:2 for the first time since last Memorial Day and took advantage of it's thermal protection (and, of course, added buoyancy). However, as I was pulling the sleeves up to where they should be, I must have either been pulling in the wrong place, have some crazy Hulk-like strength, or the suit wasn't manufactured with the highest quality because a seam in the sleeve ripped. So, looks like I'm in the market for a new wetsuit. Suggestions?
My swim was a bit of a disaster. My stroke felt pretty good - feeling the glide - but my sighting led me astray quite a few times. And by astray I mean pretty far off. As in a volunteer had to chase me down with a kayak. Apparently sighting off the wrong buoy isn't a good idea. The first half of the course I zig-zagged all over the place. Wish I had a GPS unit tracking my path. I knew it was bad when I passed the same guy (he was easy to recognize with his gold TYR Hurricane Freak of Nature wetsuit) three times.The second half of the swim was a little better. Got into a groove of alligator-eying every 8-10 strokes and staying somewhat on track. So good I ran into not just one but two buoys in the process. Ran right into them. Even got semi-tangled up in their anchor.
The last 50-100m of the swim was a mucky mess of seaweed and mud. Nothing like swimming 1500m and then having to wade through knee-high mud. It was an awkward depth of water: too shallow to swim but a little too deep to high-step out comfortably. After getting out of the water, we were shuttled into the opposite end of the transition area than my bike. And with 2500-some participants, the transition area was big. Luckily my stuff was racked not far from the cluster of port-a-johns, so it wasn't too hard to find. After de-mudding, slipping off my ripped wetsuit and putting on my bike gear, I was out of the transition area and hitting the road.
Note: I tried to write this entry the night of the race since it was fresh in my head. I was, however, pretty beat and ended up crashing right about here. The rest of this entry is a week after the race, so the details aren't quite as fresh. I apologize.
Bike
Next was a 40km bike ride that started at Mission Bay and made its way to La Jolla (which I finally got used to saying). The course was well marked, pretty wide in most areas and easy to navigate. It was quite the beast of a course. Right out of the transition area it was a subtle climb until you got to Mt. Soledad. From there it got pretty intense, including a section about 1/2-mile in length that was a solid 10% grade. The hill was pretty meaty. And of course, what goes up, must come down, and the ride down the hill was a good opportunity to tuck into a decent aero position and let the legs relax. It was a two-loop course to make up the 40km before cruising back into the transition area. The energy from the crowd along the route was awesome. Quite a few people took to the streets to watch the age groupers tackle the course.
Security (in the form of volunteers and the San Diego PD) were out in full force on the course to help us out. However, no matter how well they did their job, it's impossible to stop everything. And less than 2 miles into the bike, a guy on a beach cruiser ignored securities demand for him to stop and he came cruising across the bike course perpendicular to my path. It would have been an ugly and disastrous bike-on-bike T-bone collision had I not have gotten a handful of brakes and a quick swerve. Other than that situation, the local traffic and people were respectful of the racers and kept to their own lanes.
Run
As I was getting off the bike and getting into my Brooks for the run, my back started to tighten up to punish me for the 90-minute bike ride. I pounded a gel pack, headed for the exit and tried my best to ignore the pain. After about a mile or so the pain crept away and stayed away. My legs felt pretty fresh coming off the bike but I had over 6-miles left before the finish line so I did my best to keep a good pace. Looking at my Garmin every once and a while, I tried to keep my pace at the 8:00-8:10/mi mark. The run course was a two-lap route on the "boardwalk" (which is nothing like the boardwalks I'm used to on the Jersey Shore). The course looped around the southern point of Mission Bay with the beach on our left and sweet condos to our right. Aid stations were plenty serving water, Gatorade and even some sort of energy bar/gel/etc.
On the last lap and shortly before the last aid station I decided to take in a few more calories to send me home. Reached into my tri suit's pouch and got a Cliff gel pack. I think it was Double Espresso (apparently Chris "Macca" McCormack's favorite flavor). Tore off the top but must have tore it a little too high. The resulting small orifice didn't allow much flow, and instead of re-tearing it a little lower to open it up, I just squeezed harder. As a result, another seam in the packaging gave lose and delicious energy in the form of a paste went everywhere. I was able to get some down my throat, which I followed up with some water at the aid station, but I was licking the rest off my hand, fingers, arm, etc. the rest of the race. It wasn't until after I crossed the finish line that I realized the extent of the mess. Luckily it doesn't really show in any of the photos that were taken of me.
Results
For my very first triathlon at the Olympic distance, I was going to be pleased with any result. Hey, it's a PR! However, with the swim turning into one of my strengths, I was disappointed with my results. It goes to show there is definitely a lot more to open water swimming than stoke length and stroke rate. Definitely something that will need some work and concentration. They say you can't win the race in the swim, but you can lose the race in the swim. The same is true at a personal level: you can't win YOUR race during the swim, but you can lose YOUR race during the swim. Regardless, it's a good starting point and was definitely a fun weekend. Here are the final numbers:
Swim: 38:23 (2:34/100m)
T1: 3:09
Bike: 1:30:36 (16.46 MPH)
T2: 3:24
Run: 51:32 (8:17/mi)
Total: 3:07:01
My next race is coming up in a few weeks. I'll be doing an Olympic Tri at the Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Fort Sumner, NM on Saturday June 9th. Just a quick 3 weeks away. Fort Sumner is where Billy the Kid is buried and there is also a lake out there (think it's called Lake Sumner). It will be my final tune-up before the Philly Tri a few weeks after that. Stay tuned for more.
Today was a beautiful day for a triathlon. Got up around 4 this morning and got some nutrition down my throat. The hotel I'm staying at, which is very nice and comfortable, isn't triathlete friendly. My room doesn't even have a refrigerator. So I had to make due with what I could gather that didn't need to be chilled. After putting together my stock of water bottles laced with Nuun tablets and getting in a quick morning stretch, I headed off to the transition area. Luckily it was only a 30-min walk from the hotel so I didn't need to fight the traffic/bus situation of 2500+ athletes converging into the same area.
My bike was [luckily] where I left it the night before and I quickly laid out my stuff, tapped gels to my bike, got everything situation, etc. At about 6:05a the transition area was closed, a local triathlete sang a real nice Star Spangled Banner, and the first wave of racers got ready to head out the shoot. My wave (M30-34), all with royal blue swim caps, was the last wave on the list, scheduled at 7:20a. I still had quite a while. To pass the time I went for a couple out-and-back swims to loosen up and enjoy some open water swimming. Also met a cool fellow New Mexican and chatted with him and his family for a while.
The first wave was delayed by 15-minutes but they compressed the schedule and our wave was able to start on time at 7:20a. I did my best to avoid the sometimes-lethal kick to the face and lined up towards the back and to the outside. The horn blew and we were off...
Swim
The race started with a 1500m swim in Mission Bay. Water temperature was quoted as 64F which made wetsuits legals. I broke out my 2XU T:2 for the first time since last Memorial Day and took advantage of it's thermal protection (and, of course, added buoyancy). However, as I was pulling the sleeves up to where they should be, I must have either been pulling in the wrong place, have some crazy Hulk-like strength, or the suit wasn't manufactured with the highest quality because a seam in the sleeve ripped. So, looks like I'm in the market for a new wetsuit. Suggestions?
My swim was a bit of a disaster. My stroke felt pretty good - feeling the glide - but my sighting led me astray quite a few times. And by astray I mean pretty far off. As in a volunteer had to chase me down with a kayak. Apparently sighting off the wrong buoy isn't a good idea. The first half of the course I zig-zagged all over the place. Wish I had a GPS unit tracking my path. I knew it was bad when I passed the same guy (he was easy to recognize with his gold TYR Hurricane Freak of Nature wetsuit) three times.The second half of the swim was a little better. Got into a groove of alligator-eying every 8-10 strokes and staying somewhat on track. So good I ran into not just one but two buoys in the process. Ran right into them. Even got semi-tangled up in their anchor.
The last 50-100m of the swim was a mucky mess of seaweed and mud. Nothing like swimming 1500m and then having to wade through knee-high mud. It was an awkward depth of water: too shallow to swim but a little too deep to high-step out comfortably. After getting out of the water, we were shuttled into the opposite end of the transition area than my bike. And with 2500-some participants, the transition area was big. Luckily my stuff was racked not far from the cluster of port-a-johns, so it wasn't too hard to find. After de-mudding, slipping off my ripped wetsuit and putting on my bike gear, I was out of the transition area and hitting the road.
Note: I tried to write this entry the night of the race since it was fresh in my head. I was, however, pretty beat and ended up crashing right about here. The rest of this entry is a week after the race, so the details aren't quite as fresh. I apologize.
Bike
Next was a 40km bike ride that started at Mission Bay and made its way to La Jolla (which I finally got used to saying). The course was well marked, pretty wide in most areas and easy to navigate. It was quite the beast of a course. Right out of the transition area it was a subtle climb until you got to Mt. Soledad. From there it got pretty intense, including a section about 1/2-mile in length that was a solid 10% grade. The hill was pretty meaty. And of course, what goes up, must come down, and the ride down the hill was a good opportunity to tuck into a decent aero position and let the legs relax. It was a two-loop course to make up the 40km before cruising back into the transition area. The energy from the crowd along the route was awesome. Quite a few people took to the streets to watch the age groupers tackle the course.
Security (in the form of volunteers and the San Diego PD) were out in full force on the course to help us out. However, no matter how well they did their job, it's impossible to stop everything. And less than 2 miles into the bike, a guy on a beach cruiser ignored securities demand for him to stop and he came cruising across the bike course perpendicular to my path. It would have been an ugly and disastrous bike-on-bike T-bone collision had I not have gotten a handful of brakes and a quick swerve. Other than that situation, the local traffic and people were respectful of the racers and kept to their own lanes.
Run
As I was getting off the bike and getting into my Brooks for the run, my back started to tighten up to punish me for the 90-minute bike ride. I pounded a gel pack, headed for the exit and tried my best to ignore the pain. After about a mile or so the pain crept away and stayed away. My legs felt pretty fresh coming off the bike but I had over 6-miles left before the finish line so I did my best to keep a good pace. Looking at my Garmin every once and a while, I tried to keep my pace at the 8:00-8:10/mi mark. The run course was a two-lap route on the "boardwalk" (which is nothing like the boardwalks I'm used to on the Jersey Shore). The course looped around the southern point of Mission Bay with the beach on our left and sweet condos to our right. Aid stations were plenty serving water, Gatorade and even some sort of energy bar/gel/etc.
On the last lap and shortly before the last aid station I decided to take in a few more calories to send me home. Reached into my tri suit's pouch and got a Cliff gel pack. I think it was Double Espresso (apparently Chris "Macca" McCormack's favorite flavor). Tore off the top but must have tore it a little too high. The resulting small orifice didn't allow much flow, and instead of re-tearing it a little lower to open it up, I just squeezed harder. As a result, another seam in the packaging gave lose and delicious energy in the form of a paste went everywhere. I was able to get some down my throat, which I followed up with some water at the aid station, but I was licking the rest off my hand, fingers, arm, etc. the rest of the race. It wasn't until after I crossed the finish line that I realized the extent of the mess. Luckily it doesn't really show in any of the photos that were taken of me.
Results
For my very first triathlon at the Olympic distance, I was going to be pleased with any result. Hey, it's a PR! However, with the swim turning into one of my strengths, I was disappointed with my results. It goes to show there is definitely a lot more to open water swimming than stoke length and stroke rate. Definitely something that will need some work and concentration. They say you can't win the race in the swim, but you can lose the race in the swim. The same is true at a personal level: you can't win YOUR race during the swim, but you can lose YOUR race during the swim. Regardless, it's a good starting point and was definitely a fun weekend. Here are the final numbers:
Swim: 38:23 (2:34/100m)
T1: 3:09
Bike: 1:30:36 (16.46 MPH)
T2: 3:24
Run: 51:32 (8:17/mi)
Total: 3:07:01
My next race is coming up in a few weeks. I'll be doing an Olympic Tri at the Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Fort Sumner, NM on Saturday June 9th. Just a quick 3 weeks away. Fort Sumner is where Billy the Kid is buried and there is also a lake out there (think it's called Lake Sumner). It will be my final tune-up before the Philly Tri a few weeks after that. Stay tuned for more.
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