Day at the Beach Redux

Another one bits the dust. Now we all have goals. And it is usually to do better than what we did before. This was no exception. So begins another Day at the Beach Triathlon in Hermosa Beach. I did, however, have one more goal in mind for this event. Every triathlon I've done so far my right calve has cramped. This is definitely something I would not like to repeat.

This year it was a trio of participants. My dad, my uncle, and myself. A little history, my uncle got my to do my first event 2 years ago (this event actually) but didn't sign up in time and I got stuck doing it by myself. So now was the time to bond through fire.

The swim was not the warm 67 degrees it was the week before. Based on the previous week I thought to myself, this is nice and warm "I don't need a wetsuit." Famous last words. The water was cold but thank goodness that the sand was freezing and my feet froze before I hit the water. Coming in at 16:08.2 it was a few minutes slower than the last time but this time I didn't feel like passing out as soon as I dragged my body onto the sand. And I did run most of the way to transition.

(I know its not pretty)

I am losing weight. I just keep in might what my final before and after pictures will look like. If I'm lucky, they might look as kick ass as Wes's. T1 was a little faster this time at 4:32.4.

As far as the bike, well lets just say that a picture is worth a thousand words...

(Dad, Uncle, TriVortex)

Is that a smile on my face??? yes, yes it is and yes I referred to myself in the third person. ooo dad? Are you okay? lol! Bike time reporting in at 43:16.5. I switched pedals for this event and decided not to go with the clips. It felt great not having to worry about changing shoes but as far as pictures go. It just doesn't look triathlon-ish. And T2 was done in 2:09.3.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. I hate it and I love when its over. I did feel the cramp coming the whole run but I just walked when it got bad to keep it at bay. No cramps = nice finish and an overall great time.


Run - 45:22 (one minute faster than last time!)

Grand total time was 1:51:28.3. Not exactly blazingly fast but crossing with a smile will definitely due for now ;-)

Playing on the Freeway

It was just your typical day riding your bike in the fast lane of the freeway. With vendors and bands lined up in the carpool lane. This freeway is so new that the section doesn't even show up on Google Maps.

I got a call from dad the night before saying that he couldn't make. There will be other events so that wasn't a problem. TriChef call the night before as well and needed help changing out the back tire. Floated a couple tips and Wala! tire on in a matter of seconds. So we set things up for him to meet me at my place and we can "carpool" to the Freeway. The time was set for 6AM since registration was at 7AM and I hadn't paid yet (he pre-registered online). So it's 6:30AM and I jump out of bed hoping that he hasn't been sitting outside my house for the past half hour pounding on my door. But I look out and there's no car. I give a call to his cell and no answer so I left a message. So now its 5 till 7AM and I give one more call before I head out to register...another message left.

I get there and there is the usual hustle and bustle. I get in line and register and the vendors are already set up and people are walking around. I cruise over the Specialized and Cannondale tents to see if there are any freebie's...nope. No new bike components for me, darn. The gun goes off at 8AM and its 7:55 so I give TriChef one more call...voicemail! Okay, his money, not mine.

So I'm chugging on a slight uphill grade against a head wind at about 12MPH but coming back with the tailwind and "descending" at about 21MPH! I did the 10.55 miles in 41:10 (~15.37 MPH). After the ride I walked around a little in my clips and got annoyed so I bike back to the car and switched shoes (didn't want to leave the bike on the rack). So I walked around the expo checking everything out and grabbed a Carne Asada Burrito for a post-race meal with some free Vitamin Water (Guava flavor, hmmm). I get a call from TriChef around 11AM and he said he slept in and forgot that he set his phone to vibrate. You snooze, you lose. He was P-Off that he got the bike ready and paid and didn't even race. So I continue by stroll around checking out the bullet proof Hummer that the Rialto PD rolled out, the live band, free stuff that the vendors were giving out, car show, lions and tigers and bears...oh, my.

Who I most sorry for during this whole day are the runners. The 10K didn't start till 10AM and by that time it was already 85 degrees! Poor guys. So that was my day playing on the freeway. The last time I got on the freeway on something other than a car was when I was in high school and I talked a couple of friends into Roller Blading on the 710 freeway in the middle of the day (NO EVENT TAKING PLACE). So we bladed to the Queen Mary and they were so freaked out about how close the cars got that we took the shuttle back....wimps.

Bonelli Tri Express Series #1 - Newbie-Atholon

Lets start with the night before going down the checklist making sure everything is in order. Check, check, check, as I go down the list at 10pm. Time for bed, hell, it was time for bed 3 hours before. Not that it mattered much. My wife and I woke up every hour on the hour all night. At one point she got up and yelled “I’m not even racing, why can’t I sleep.” I love sympathy anxiety. I just hope it doesn’t go the other way around when we decide to have kids.

Race Morning: (4:30am) Not that it hard getting up this early since I was already up. I started with a little Hawaiian bread and a little GU H20 and a couple of cups of regular water. Loaded up some of gear into the car and noticed it was a damp morning. On the drive over to San Dimas it was flat out raining, I was getting calls from my fellow newbies asking if the event will still go on, I assured them that short of a lightning strike, rain or shine. Besides its not like we weren’t going to get wet.

(Dad, Cousin, Me)

(6:15am) I get to Bonelli Park and Luke (my cousin) and my Dad are already there with a parking spot reserved for me. Gotta love family. By the time I got there the morning was frigged but at least the rain stopped. We shoot the cold breeze and unload for about an hour. And Adam shows up. I give Josh a call…voicemail. I get a call back at around 7:20 saying that he slept in. Well the gun goes off at 8:30am so hurry.

(Adam, Josh, Rick [Dad], Me, Luke [Cousin])

(7:45am) Now everyone is in the transition area getting oriented or disoriented depending on how you look at it.

[I’ll be reporting the other newbie’s race reports as they come in: so today will just be mine]
Everyone is either on the shore in wading in water when the promoters put up and flag and have Witney Houston (recording) singing the National Anthem. The waves are sent off and I find myself in the corral waiting...I hate waiting, you start thinking. I'm an external optimist and an internal pesimist. So everything that can go wrong is flying through my head. The gun fires and off we go. I alligned myself to the outside as to not get in too far into the washing machine. I was behind my cousin for a while watching, he was doing fine so I passed on his left and kept going till I came to a guy who was breast stroking the whole way. When I went to pass on his right he kicked me right in the chest. He appologized but that didn't change the fact that I got kicked in the chest by a guy a foot taller than me (and I know this because everyone is a foot taller than me - see pix for reference). I was second out of the water behind my friend Josh, didn't think I was going to pass up Mr. Varsity Swimmer, but I didn't want to be too far behind.

I actually had some energy to jog a little out of the water. Next time I'll run all the way into transition. I got into transition and it took me about 4.5 minutes to get out. Which is what I was expecting given that this was the first time I would actually have to switch into clip shoes for the bike.

The bike was great...sorta. I actually passed a few people this time. Felt good, especially since they looked to be in better shape than me. They passed my later on the run, but I'll take my small victories. The only hiccup was when I was zooming down and straight around 35 mph and shifted too quickly and as soon as my thumb pushed down I know one more push on the peddle, and sure enough...POP goes my chain. Not into little pieces but just off the gear. So I coasted down and midway up the next hill till I came to a stop and put the chain back on. On the last hill of the bike I tried to get out of the saddle and finish it up strong but my calve wouldn't let me so I sat back down and coasted back into transition.

T2 went a lot better than I expected. I thought I was going to have a problem getting the clips undone in a hurry. It seems that whem I'm at home it take a while to get my clips off and that with no pressure. It was pretty seemless. My times will be posted on the bottom.

Like I said the transition was fine but the run had only just begun. Right when I started running out of T2 my right calve died on me. It took me about 1/4 of a mile to work it to the point where I could run on it. That coarse was HILLY. Up and down, up and down. Soooo many ups and downs that I was getting sea sick. Or just SICK. Basically I walked up most of the hills and ran down. Getting closer to the finishline I see my beautiful wife like a mirage. She ran up to me and ran with me across the finishline. I slowed my pace slightly before the finish so that I could cross the line smiling. Instead of another drunken puppet like Hermosa. I felt much better this time around.

It was great to have the support of my family and friends there edging my on. Running alongside me, I totally forgot about my legs at that point. A hilly course from hell, but a great race and a great day.

Live Long, Play Hard, Tri Harder!

Overall Rank 127 (Out of 137)Final Time - 1:40:41

Swim (200 yrds) - 0:04:35 (Ranked 64)

T1 - 0:04:24

Bike - 0:38:28 (Ranked 118) Avg Speed: 10.8 MPH

T2 - 0:03:09

Run - 0:50:05 (Ranked 133) Avg Speed: 16.09 Min/miles

Celebrating New Year's GYGO Style

What a great way to start the New Year than with a triathlon. To Kahuna and all those involved in setting this event up, THANKS!!! I had a blast. It was great to finally see everyone in person. *Before I go on, a few words to those who were at Corona Del Mar. I talk a lot of smack but its all in good fun. If Michael Jordan walked into my basketball court...I'd talk crap.* Also, I borrowed from the pages of Kahuna Math, my real 100 Fly time was 1:05...not sub 1:00. If Kahuna can round 1300 people passing him in IronMan down to 1000, I can do a little rounding of my own.

Funny, I didn't know that "Iron" was so susceptible to the cold. I believe Iron Wil used the terms "kept man." But all kidding aside, I had a ball.

Ok, now for the lowdown "Race Report." I was at the gym at 8:30am to do the run and bike portion of my tri. The results are as follows: Run 2 miles in 29.31 minutes (14.46/mile, yeah, I know, I think I'm getting sick, my HR was like 180!!! the whole time) and Bike 6 miles in 16.40 minutes (about 21.6 mph). Once this was all done it was a short drive from Huntington Beach (where my wife and celebrated new years with family) to Corona Del Mar State Beach to MEET up with "Iron" (the term shall be used loosely from now on) Kahuna.

Those in attendance:
THE "Iron" Kahuna (who at the end of the day, I gave the MDOT it's proper respect and bowed humbly),

RoboStu (who's uncanny resemblance to one of my dad's friends threw me for a second),

Neoprene Wedgie (Mike, great talking to you and thanks for the info on Bonelli Park, see you around the blog-o-sphere),

Emilia (who's blog I can't find so if you are reading this, comment so I read your blog),

Iain (who "hired" a photographer [his wife] to take pix of everyone, brought his kids [your son is lucky to have a high energy father, that is only way to keep up with him, this kid is 2 and was climbing up the lifeguard tower by himself!] please contact me so I can get a copy of those pictures.

Everyone showed up ready to do the Polarbear swim at around 10am, well not everyone. Someone showed up with a wetsuit (he shall remain nameless....*coughrobo*) But after some "encouragement" he suited down and jumped in like the rest of us. The Swim Start was hilarious. The line was drawn in the sand and there was a countdown to our freezing demise. We were off, but the anticipation and excitement got to Kahuna & Robo they ended up tumbling forward, falling in the sand as they "fought for position." So their general direction was at least towards the water. I don't think there were any permanent injuries. Once everyone was in the water and "swam" (more a long the lines of flailing arms as the muscles went into shock) a few strokes the general consensus was that the swim leg was done. It was then a mad rush back to our warm towels and some dry clothes. We spent about 15 minutes in T1 (which is not bad if you consider that Kahuna spent 12 @ Ironman Florida) then everyone broke off to finish their TRI. Since I went to the gym earlier I was done. For me the priority was to get back to the house, get ready, and have lunch in Hacienda Heights. As part of my "nutritional plan," you know, put back what was burned off. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I will update this post once I get the pictures from Iain and everyone look out for the video (Iain, I'll apologize for Kahuna having to take multiple takes. It seems that Kahuna needed to figure out that it is easier to video tape someone when the lens cap is off).

Have a Happy New Year to everyone out there and to the TRI-blog Alliance...See you later.

The Day at The Beach - Hermosa Beach Triathlon (10/15/2006) Devirginized

Yes people I did it. 1/4 Mile Swim / 10 Mile Bike / 3 Mile Run. It doesn't sound like much, but you try it. My total time was 1:46:48.2. Which is only 15 minutes more than what I was planning on doing it in. Where do I begin? How about how I got myself into this mess. My uncle mentioned that he was thinking about participating in one and I opened my big mouth say that I would do it with him. Then I asked when the event was, he says "5 weeks"!!!! Great [sarcastic]. So the very next day I started researching and training. Now it’s a week before the event and my uncle (who shall remain nameless) tries to sign up last minute and can't because it's sold out. Now I'm stuck doing this on my own. So now its race day, I'm set to go out in the first wave @ 7am. I arrived @ 5:45am to get my transition area set up. The CANNON went off and it was beach sprint to the water. By the time I got out of the water, I was so tired and disoriented that I couldn't get me wetsuit off. I had to stop moving and fiddle with the darn thing to get it off. Finally, I got it unzipped and started on my way towards the transition area to get ready for the Bike. On my way there was a water station that I used to get the taste of salt water out of my mouth. I figured "hey, I got my Gatorade on my bike." Big mistake. I walked the bike past the "mount" line and got on. The course started with an immediate uphill climb, I was in the wrong set of gears and fought all the way to the top. Halfway up the hill I got my water bottle and took a drink, tried to put it back, and ooops...there goes my Gatorade. Now I have nothing to drink for the next 10 miles. My legs were noodles for the whole ride because of the climb. Before long, I was back in the transition area getting ready for the RUN. Coming out of the transition there was another water station. I grabbed water and as I started to drink, my right leg cramped, and water in my face instead of my mouth. Now there's no water for next 1.5 miles. I finally worked the cramp out and started running. I'm slow and do about a 15 min/mile. Slow and steady. I finally got to the next water station and decided to stop and walk through it, to make sure I got some water. With about 200 yards to go, my uncle came out to run with me to the finish. At this time my left leg started cramping. At 100 yards both my legs cramped at the same time. I told myself that no mater what I was going to sprint the last 25 yards. Then I saw the cruel imaginations of the even coordinators at work. They veered the trail off the side walk to finish in the sand. I had the run the last 5 yards in the sand with 2 cramped legs like a drunken puppet. But I did it. It’s over...and I'm training for the next one.PS: Here are my splits for those of you who are interested (the T's represent time in transition:T1=swim to bike,T2=bike to run)

Swim - 14:22

T1 - 4:37

Bike - 39:40

T2 - 2:09

Run - 46:03