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.

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:

• 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.

I think that catches everyone up from the last time I posted. However, now that I think about it, the last time I posted it was promising I would catch everyone up from past events. So I'm WAY behind. Baby steps...

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....

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!

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!

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.

(Kettle)Bells to the Wall

A couple months ago, my old roommate emailed me with an article from the New York Times about kettlebell gyms around the country. Highlighted in said article wasa well-regarded kettlebell gym located here in sunny/windy Albuquerque. The name of the gym is Firebellz, which is a nod to the Firefighting/EMS background of the founders/owners.

I first got into kettlebells back in 2009 while training at Daddis Fight Camps in Philadelphia. I would mix one or two kettlebell classes in between Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes in an effort to continually mix up my workout.

For those unfamiliar with kettlebells, they are basically a cannon ball with a handle welded on to it. I'm sure anyone who is curious has already Googled the topic to find out more, so I won't labor on the details. The workouts typically consist of various lifts, swings, stretches and moves that incorporate the kettlebell(s) in some fashion. It's been said to be the secret behind the Iron Curtain and the crazy strength/toughness of the Russians. I bet Ilya Bryzgalov could tell some good kettlebelling stories.

The KB (kettlebell) classes at Daddis were intense. They were only 30-minutes in length and they were never an easy 30 minutes. The classes were advertised to be a similar burn to a full hour or even 90-minute session lifting weight in a gym. I believed it. I would have sore muscles that I didn't even know I had.

When Christina (my old roommate) sent me that NYT article it got me interested in getting back into the swing (no pun intended) of things and potentially add it into my workout schedule. But, for whatever reason, I didn't act on it until a few weeks ago. They were running a Groupon special for their introductory course and I decided to give it a go. After just a few minutes getting reacquainted with the KB, I was re-hooked.

The special was for their "Spark" class which is required for newbies (like me, sort of) to learn the techniques, postures, etc. in order to properly and safely workout with a KB. It was very beneficial. My experiences at the KB classes at Daddis were very technical and safe, but I never had the one-on-one interaction with a certified KBer to show me the proper stances, positions, angles and details. The devil is definitely in the details. The first Spark class we did nothing but deadlifts. A lot of them. Some with the bell, some without. The instructors were very thorough and patient. The deadlift movement is the basis for a lot of KB moves. It's critical to master, thus we spent a lot of time on it. My second class was much of the same, but spent some more detailed time on the swing, also another key movement in KB training. My hamstrings and glutes were very sore afterwards. (And they still are.)

While at my first class, I was keyed in on a program Firebellz offers called the Body Transformation Contest. It is a 12-week program they run, monitor, motivate, etc. in order to help people reach their fitness goals, whether it is to lose weight and tone up, or to bulk up with some solid mass. In addition to attending the classes they have offered at various times during the week, they assist with tracking your goals, monitoring your diet, and increasing your knowledge about your body, nutrition, injury prevention, and other hot-and-critical topics. The results from those who have participated in the past are pretty amazing. You can see for yourself on their website. If you're anything like me, you're skeptical of these before-and-after photos. You see them all the time on TV, whether it's for P90X, Weight Watchers, Curves, or whatever and you're never quite sure if you can fully believe the truth behind the advertising. Are they the same people? Did they post-produce the photos with some modifications to enhance the results? But I met the dude who won the past BTC (Body Transformation Contest) and he's legit. (Although, I just me the guy, so I didn't know him as the "before" dude.) The people coming out of this are filled with praise for the program. Chatting it up got me pretty amped.

So I took the plunge and threw my name into the hat for the upcoming BTC.

And it starts this upcoming week (4/30).

Tomorrow (4/28) I'm due at the gym for the initial photo, weigh-in and measurements. This Thursday is the first group meeting to review all the details and to meet the rest group. Meal logs aren't required for this week but getting to the required classes is. No better time to dive into things than now.

Between triathlon training (ITU San Diego is right around the corner), hockey season starting up and this BTC, it'll be a full schedule, but a healthy one. And since I have this little lane in the information super highway, I thought I would make a constant effort to update my progress along the way with weekly stats, results and thoughts to share with you, my loyal readers.

Stay tuned for more.

2012 Coyote Carrera Results

Saturday marked the much-anticipated start to my 2012 triathlon season with the Coyote Carrera Triathlon held here in Albuquerque. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the event seemed to have gone off without a blip.

I will be completely honest when I say I was not completely "ready" for the event. Yes, I've been training steadily but the last few weeks I have been slightly off on my usually solid regiment of swimming, biking and running (and, of course, cross training). To make things worse, I was sent on business travel this past Tuesday and spent a couple days away from home base, working odd hours in a different area without my usual resources and with gobs of good eating with coworkers. Not the ideal scenario.

For all the business traveling that I have done, I have never been able to make progress on any fitness/weight loss/etc. goals while away. That's why I'm so impressed with someone like my friend Quoc who can have a man-weekend in Vegas and still stay on track with his goals. Whoa! Way to go.

As for me, my "workout" leading up to the race was limited to sitting in large conferences rooms and walking from point A to point B. As a result, I felt stiff, rusty, tight and generally unprepared Saturday morning for the race. Imagine the tin man from Wizard of Oz before they would oil his joints. That's how I felt.

Nevertheless, I was excited! It was a gorgeous New Mexico morning among a couple hundred fellow triathletes. Got up a little later than anticipated and ended up getting to the transition area at about 7:10. Luckily traffic was light. Was a little later than I wanted to get there but still had plenty of time to find my spot, get numbered and start to prepare.

After some light socializing, a short jog and dynamic stretching and the Star Spangled Banner, it was go time. I was in the first wave (8:00AM) and the run started right on time. The course was very similar to the Thanksgiving 4 Mile race from last year and it brought back some good memories. The run felt pretty good. The majority of it was on the Bosque which is a nice flat trail. I pounded a Cliff energy gel right before the transition area. My T1 was pretty bad. Getting out of running shoes and into bike shoes should be a pretty smooth transition but I botched it up. My transitions need some work.

EDIT: The run was supposed to be a 5K course. However, I noticed my time and my pace, as displayed on the results, did not match up with a 5K run. After an inquire to the race director, it appears the course was unfortunately set up short. The run was actually 2.72 miles. 

The bike route was a two-loop course on open road. In addition to dealing with other triathletes, we had to deal with horrible New Mexican drivers. And the worst part was 9.5 miles of the little-over-10 mile course was on pothole-infested roads. They made Pennsylvania roads look like a smooth sheet of ice. I hit a few unavoidable ditches and thought my kidney was gonna jump out of my stomach. Rolled into the transition area, racked my bike, grabbed my goggles and headed in to the pool for the swim.

The swim was as hectic as I assumed it would be. Bodies splashing all over the place. Each lane had people going in both directions which made it nearly impossible to pass (or, for that matter, to be passed). Was one of my weaker swims. I just couldn't find my cocoon of calmness and I felt, on numerous occasions, my technique slip. My time was also killed by the waiting at the walls for all the traffic to sort out. Jumped (read: walked up the steps) out of the pool, across the Red Bull finish line and celebrated the completion of my season opener.

Below are my official results for the race:

2.72 mi Run: 19:35 (7:12/mi)
T1: 2:20
16.5K Bike: 30:32 (20.14 MPH)
T2: 1:02
400m Pool Swim: 8:57
Total: 1:02:26

That was good enough for 55th overall (out of 201) and 12th in my AG (out of 17).

Overall I wasn't completely disappointed with my performance. My rusty body could have used a couple of squirts of oil along the way, but that's the life of an AG triathlete. Seeing a nearly 9-minute 400 meter swim makes me cringe a bit, but that's the nature of the beast with these pandemonium pool swims.

Looking ahead, ITU San Diego is only a few weeks away which is very exciting. Travel plans are set and all I have to do between now and then is continue along with my training plan.