3.4 KM Swim Day

I've gotta start ramping up my swim distance for Gatorman (3mi), so today I told myself I'd do 2 Miles (3300M). I messed up one of the splits on my watch, so I figured I'd go an extra 100 just to make sure I did my 2 Miles. Felt pretty good. I definitely could go another mile, in the pool anyway, but didn't want to overdo it because I've got 2 swimming events this weekend: SurfMonkey 1 Mi swim / 5K run on Saturday, and Tour of Buoys 1.5 Mi swim on Sunday.

Swim results: 3400M / 2.11 Miles, time=1:02:50, pace=2.02MPH, 1:50 min/100M

Feeling pretty good about this one as it's the first time I've ever gone this distance.

What's a guy supposed to do?

This morning while riding into work, I was focusing pretty hard on keeping up a good pace. Coming through the flats in Del Mar, at the the last minute I noticed a young woman fixing a flat and slowed down a little (not wanting to break my pace too much) to see if she was OK. She needed a pump, so I stopped, and gave her mine. I actually felt kind of rude because I really had passed her by.

So, I gave her my pump but didn't want to be the imposing "You don't know what you're doing, let me do that for you" kind of guy. I mean this woman was fit, had quality gear (way better than my low end bike), and looked like she'd been riding a lot. Surely she'd changed tires before, and me jumping in there would just seem to be a slap in the face to an independent young woman, I was sure.

Anyway, I drank some water and tried not to look on, to avoid looking like I was overseeing her work. So she didn't get the pump working (heck I'd never even used this particular one before myself). So, I offer to help - now feeling like a jerk for not offering right away - and I get the pump going (though it didn't at first seem like it was working - which is probably the same thing that happened to her), and there the tire is pumped up. Great all better, she's very nice, and now I'll let her put her wheel back on, and I'll be on my way so I can contemplate the irony of trying to avoid insulting someone, and then being a jerk by not being chivalrous.

But, wait, it's the back wheel, why didn't I notice that, and she's having a problem getting that on. So, I put my bike down again, now feeling doubly bad, help put it back on, try to make polite small talk, and get on my way.

I was feeling so bad about the whole thing that I forgot her name (though she worked at Qualcomm).

Anyhow, sorry Qualcomm young lady!

I was trying to do the right thing, but really ended up doing the wrong thing in this very confusing era for men (or this particular man).

Good thing I rode the Torrey hill and then looped back to work for 24 mi. instead of the short 14 mi. way which kept me tired enough (and close to bonking since I'm reducing my cal intake on account of my waste-line), that I was able to let go of all that... on the ride anyway.

Solana Beach Tri Results

The Solana Beach tri sure was an exciting event. Lots of people in a great location, and everyone's excited. I really enjoyed it. I always like the check in's on Saturday, and this one was particularly fun, and exciting. Heck, even Amanda Felder was out at the Avia booth dressed identically to her cover shot on Triathlete mag.

It was a doubly good event for me because my 71 year old dad was in it with me, and my wife and kids came out to cheer us on. I couldn't believe what a great feeling it was when I was truckin up that hill after the swim, and my family is yelling for me with big smiles "Go dad!". Just awesome!

I came in 32 of 72 in my age group and this met my goal of getting into the upper 50% of my age group for the first time. The splits were posted today, which is good because I forgot to split the times on my own watch. Though, something that annoys me about KOZ triathlons is that they don't give you separate T1 and T2 times.

On the bike, my computer said 21.8MPH avg speed when I got off. That's a personal record for a tri, but the bike was pretty short (9Mi), and for that matter so was the swim. Man that bike ride was crowded. They need to shut down the entire 101 to do that one. There were so many people out there on such a short ride, that everyone was seriously congested. I saw lots of close calls during passing (3 and 4 deep), and one during the Via De La Valle turn where a guy in front of me almost got run into the curb by another guy who drifted to the right. I'm glad the guy in front of me saved it, or it would've been a nasty wreck that would've included me.

My run improved, which is good because I gave up some bike training to work on that, but it's still a slow 7:43 pace. I guess on the bright side (depending upon how you look at it), that's a personal record. The top runner in my AG was Steve Thunder who turned 5:58 miles, but actually faster than that since that time included T2. Dang! As I entered T2 I was just 28 sec behind Mr. Thunder, but I would've needed to be about 5 minutes ahead of him at that point to have a chance of finishing anywhere near him.

Today I had a nice double training day. Times are not great, but doing two good work outs made me feel better about it:
2250 M swim this morning at 1:48 min / 100 pace.
6.55 Mile run this afternoon at 8:14 min /mile pace.

I've also decided not to stop training in order to rest up for a sprint distance race. Now that I'm beyond my initial goal of just doing any triathlon, I'm not going to miss training days for short races.

Looking forward to a double sport weekend coming up:
Surf Monkey 1 Mi swim / 5K run (I like the name and the monkey mascot dude)
Tour Of Buoys 1.5 Mi swim

Too much rest

Could there be such a thing? Well, yes. I haven't done anything but rest since Tuesday, and I'm now officially going crazy. I really don't want to do any work outs now since I'm almost to race day and I'd like to see if I do any better when fully rested. Funny that Solana Beach started out at the beginning of spring as my GOAL, and now it's really far too short to be a goal. I am, however, absolutely looking forward to it, particularly because my dad's doing this one with me. It's just that I should not have interrupted my training schedule for so long, even though I want to see how far I can crank up my speed (especially on the run) when I'm fully rested.

I can't believe that my right hamstring is still tight from pulling it playing volleyball on the Friday before the Carlsbad tri. That was 2 weeks ago! I tried stretching it last night, and it's still pretty tight. Oh, well.

Tomorrow's Saturday!! Packet pickup, excitement building, and gear prep!

First 1/2 Iron swim

Wanted to swim last night after kids went to bed, but was worried about right ear. Still felt clogged up from body surfing on Saturday. This morning, after some good rest and vitamins, hit the pool kinda later (around 6:45). Lots of people in the pool today. Maybe people are (like me) getting their last good swim workout before the Solana Beach tri. Funny though, that one is really a short swim - 500M I think. Anyway, I did a 1/2 Ironman set of 2100M continuous freestyle. I always work it this way since I'm really just trying to do what I need to do in the race. I've seen lots of arguments to do other stuff - sprints, kicks, etc., but right now, I'm just into training exactly like I'm going to race. Anyway, my first workout at this distance went OK for me. Hope the ear stays OK.

2100M freestyle, total time=37:28.71, avg/100=1:47.08

The guys winning my AG are swimming 1:15's (like Gunner Granquist - dang that's fast dude!) to 1:30's, and that's INCLUDING the time to sprint up the beach to T1!

Tomorrow, I hope to time my ride on the Solana Beach Triathlon route and hope for no stop lights. Then it's resting my body, and trying to keep from going crazy for lack of doing anything until race day.

Looking Forward

Did so badly on the run at the Carlsbad triathlon (~8:40/mi), that I decided I can no longer just get by on the run. Last Friday, I ran my all out fastest to my 5K mark at Seaside reef. I only managed 7:20/mi, and the guys winning my age group are at 6:00/mi.

Saturday, had a nice, very early morning ride to Oceanside and back for about 26mi. As I was riding back, I realized that if I showered quickly, I could drive up and watch the Pendleton International triathlon. I was really bummed about this one because I tried to sign up on June 11th, but it closed out on June 10th. Anyway, I happened to see my neighbor Bonnie as she was coming out of the water, and cheered her on. She ended up winning her AG! Very impressive. I had sent out this email to the guys in my neighborhood trying to fire them up to do Solana Beach with me. None of them really responded with any interest, but Bonnie said she thought she would do one. And she did, and wins her AG! Dang I'm envious. Go Bonnie!

Sunday I thought about Pendleton, and decided I'd better get onto some longer distances. Today I ran a 10K (seaside reef and back). I only managed 9:20 miles, but it was a beautiful morning, and I was happy that I finished it without feeling too dead.

Then, today at work, a lightning bolt hit me. I had been wanting to do Iron Man California 70.3. It's in Oceanside so it's easy to get to. It's a 1/2 IM, so I'd be ramping up my distance towards an eventual full IM, and it's about the right amount of time for me to train. Big problem though - it falls right on the first day of my family trip to Kauai. I had been bemoaning this unfortunate coincidence for a couple of weeks, until today when I rembered that we haven't purchased our plane tickets yet because the prices were sooooo high. I figured out that I could have Nadine and the kids go ahead, I could do the IM California, then fly out the next day to meet them. I called Nadine right away at work. No answer - the anticipation was killing me - would IM California close out today? Nadine called me back later in the day, and was OK with heading out first with the kids. She was really supportive of my goal. I was stoked. What a great day.

Can't wait for Solana Beach this weekend. My 71 year old dad is doing his 2nd tri with me. Both of our 1st tri's was the Moore's UCSD tri down at Mission bay this year. What a great year it's been.

First Day

Well, it's my first day setting up a blog. I didn't really ever know what these were until I saw someone else's and thought I'd give it a try.