45 mi coast ride

Yesterday was a fabulous beach bike ride with the family, followed by a great beach day at Beacons with some friends, and their family.

Had a beautiful ride this morning. Well rested, got on the road by about 6:30 and headed out to an empty PCH. Up the Torrey hill, back down into La Jolla shores, over to LJ Cove, past Windansea, Birdrock, PB and down to the jetty at South Mission Beach. Return ride was still pretty uncrowded, but coming back through Del Mar saw a lot of cyclists heading out for their rides. Passing Del Mar Dog Beach, I saw my usual volleyball crew (TARPP) getting the rules briefing for the annual King/Queen of the Beach tournament. They all looked pretty focused listening, so I guess Eric must've been giving out the rules/regs of the tourney, and the team pairings. I skipped this event this year because last year I hurt my wimpy back by diving too much while trying to make it out of the quarter finals and into the semis, and also discovered the next day that I had an unbelievable amount of blisters (on top of blisters) which took almost 2 weeks to heal all the way. But the back injury began the injury spiral took me down for the better part of 8 months. Glad I'm finally healthy and getting fit again.

Off to the beach with the family again today, with another group of friends and their kids.

4100 M (2.5Mi) Swim

Swam my longest distance ever of 4100M (2.5 Mi) continuous freestyle this morning at the Y in 1hr 14min 7sec. That's a decent pace for me, of ~1 min 49 sec / 100M.

I'm really happy about this because I've been pretty focused on ramping up my run, and I've been somewhat neglecting the pool work, in combination with my wrist injury, which kept me out of the pool a bit. The wrist felt great this morning!

Another reason I'm really happy about this swim is that on Saturday afternoon, I barely could do my old 1600M workout, even though I was planning on doing 3400M, because I had this breathless, "I'm drowning" feeling for the first 500M or so, and never really shook the tiredness. That was new, odd, suprising, and worrisome all at the same time. Saturday's sad swim had me extremely worried about my upcoming events: 3Mi ocean swim for Gatorman (La Jolla Rough Water Swim), and the Orange County International Triathlon Swim 1500M (yeah - not that long but, it's part of a Triathlon).

After today's swim, I'm feeling very confident about the swim portions of these events.

P.R. Half Marathon distance

Did a Half Marathon distance run this morning (my 3rd time running this distance), and set a new personal record of 1hr 51min 27secs. Yep - I know it's only an 8:30 / mi pace, but that's good for me at this distance. During that last 3 miles I was really trying to zone out and concentrate on my pace, and become a running zombie. When I got to the last mile split, and saw that I was going to beat my previous two times, I really pushed the final mile to my max, and was really happy with the resulting final time. Today, I became certain that my mind works against me most of the time, and I need to try to shut it off. For the entire 1st loop, I had this dread of the pain of doing the 2nd loop. That soaks up a lot of effort, and makes everything seem harder. Several times I had to talk myself out of stopping after only 1 loop. As soon as I hit my house, grabbed my water and banana for the 2nd loop, all that dread went away, and the running seemed much easier: "I'm half way there - this isn't so bad - I feel pretty good." I need to work on this mental aspect a lot. I would call it fear of pain. I saw this written on the back of a Marine's shirt at the Pendleton Sprint Tri - "Pain is the feeling of weakness leaving your body". I like that a lot. I need to tell myself that more when I'm running.

The Good stuff:
- getting more fit and faster at a distance that was only 6 months ago unthinkable for me
- running without my shirt on to stay cool in spite of the high humidity this morning (I'm not buying that story that running specific clothing keeps you cooler than having no shirt on - it hasn't been the case for me)
- taking a goo before the run, and hydrating enough beforehand (last time I just wanted to get on the road)
- running more carefully to help avoid hard impact (my knees and hips feel much better today than after the last run)
- taking the time to tighten the front laces to avoid my feet sliding forward in my shoes and giving me blisters, BUT...

The Bad stuff:
- in spite of my lacing efforts, and running care, I got blisters on the toes next to my big toe, I think it probably started happening after the final hill climb of the run.
- I thought the blisters from the last run had healed and become calouses (to offer more protection), but I guess this wasn't the case. They are big blisters on the tips now. I'll need to get this figured out. Time to go back to the running store and ask a lot of questions.

Wrist on the mend

On Saturday afternoon, I was able to do a swim at the Y, wearing the wrist guard. Pretty weird swim for me though. The first 400 M or so, I literally felt like I was on the verge of drowning. I just could not get enough air. I was swimming 1:45 100's, which is (sadly) a typical pace for me, where I'm pushing hard, but not to my limits. Nonetheless, I just couldn't get enough air. This was really depressing, particularly since I was rested. It was the afternoon, and the water felt waaay too hot for me. I was considering just stopping at 800M (what?!). But, I kept on pushing through and finished what was my old workout, of 1600M continuous freestyle. When I was driving to the pool, I was thinking that I'd do 3400M, so I was pretty bummed. I've got to get a lot of pool time in this week and fix that right away, since I've got the Gatorman coming up.

Today, the wrist felt good enough to bear weight, so I rode into work. I got some good sleep last night, so I was able to do my long route into work this morning (up Torrey hill, and back down, then up Sorrento Valley Blvd). After yesterday's depressing pool session, this ride cheered me up as I told myself as I set out from home to get ready for some suffering. I pushed really hard, and my lungs and my legs rose to the occasion. I kinda shocked one runner as I was sprint climbing the small hill into Solana Beach, because I was breathing so hard, but I don't care. If I'm not pushing that hard, then I'll never be ready for racing. Nope I'm not the fittest or fastest guy, but I'm trying my damn hardest when I'm out there.

Speaking of which, one thing that consistently bugged me in the Olympics was the commentators making what verged on derogatory comments about some of the athletes. I mean look, these people have committed themselves to a goal, day in and out, gotten to the Olympics, besting many of their fellow countryman, who were no doubt super-committed also, and are now competing against the best athletes in the world in their sport. I mean jeez, you think that these people aren't busting their humps, under that extreme pressure, trying to give their 110% best effort? To me the Olympics, are just so awesome, and humbling, for the commitment that these athletes have. Win, lose, or crumble under the pressure, they have my deep respect. One comment that particularly bugged me was the live blogging of the Triathlon, where the supposed expert blogger calls the guys trying to make the breakaway on the bike stage "pretenders, not contenders". What a cheap shot.

5.5 Mi paddleboard, and another 1/2 Marathon run

Tuesday was a bike ride day, but I didn't get enough sleep, so I just did the direct, 14 mile route, into work instead of the 23 mi Torrey up and back loop.

Wednesday went for a 5.5 mi paddleboard from Cardiff to the white buoy off of Moonlight and back. I was pretty stoked, since it was my first time paddleboarding, and I was able to knee paddle a good deal. It's is fairly difficult to maintain your balance while doing it, even if you've surfed before, so I was happy about being able to get up a number of times, and find a good power stroke rythm. Kinda kept pace with my buddy who loaned me the board, and does it a lot. He got ahead of me, but didn't really have to wait up too much, but he also informs me that he's slow relative to the regular group. Guess I'd better buck up and get in some more paddleboarding. Anyway, water was beautiful, and it was a great trip, until the end when I nose dived the paddleboard riding a wave in, and caught my wrist in the water bottle cage. Thought I broke it, fortunately not. Terrible timing too, since when I rode my bike back to home, and was getting ready to leave for work, discovered a totally flat back tire on my truck from a big-ol screw in the tread. Had to jack and change the tire pretty much entirely left handed. Every time I accidentally tried to use my right hand for anything, I was quickly reminded of my mistake by a lovely sharp pain running from wrist to elbow.

Today I ran my 1/2 marathon route, and improved on my time. Unfortunately, when I got done, 3 bad things happened: 1) my arm/wrist was *really* aching/throbbing from yesterday's injury, 2) I wasn't running carefully enough, maybe thumping my feet down when tired, and my knees were really aching and continue to be that way, and 3) I didn't pay close enough to making sure that the front part of my laces were tight, and I managed to get blisters on my toes. Dang, it's been kind of a bummer week, in spite of the good training.

Solana Beach Playa Del Run

The Solana Beach stop of the Zoot Playa Del Run was today. Very fun event, great venue (Fletcher Cove), and perfect weather and water temp. I've been swimming all week at the beach with my kids and decided to do the 1K swim without goggles. This was really nice because sighting the buoys was much easier (for me anyway), and I found it much less disorienting. Too bad I outswam the set wave on the way in. Man, that run up the ramp to transition is tough, but it makes you feel good as you're gutting it out on the way up. Sure it's no IronMan effort, but it's still fun. The 5K run was flat and fast, and I posted 7 min 15 sec miles by my watch (a new personal record). The times posted on the results page however, show 8 min miles, but that includes my sucky slow transition because my lame feet need socks in order to run. Me, and I guess from the results, Scott Schiff, ended up pushing each other pretty hard (for us anyway) on the last 3/4 mile or so. It helped my run time out a lot - thanks Scott! Really a fun group a people there today.

Afterwards, went to help out the cleanup effort from a good friend's 40th bday, along with some others who were at the party last night. Our kids all played, and we all poked along, cleaned up, aided by lots of beverages, and some excellent food remaining from the party. Finished off with one final trip to the beach (Cardiff), with the kids all surfing and boogie boarding. Excellent x 10 week!

Pendleton recap and First 1/2 Marathon

I'm on vacation at home this week (just like I did last year). Absolutely outstanding. Started out with the Pendleton Sprint Tri, and moved up into the upper 33% (13 of 46 in age group), however most of the usual suspects were not present so I'm not going to weight it to heavily in my mind. Nonetheless, what a fun race! Beautiful bike ride, and the finish line was really cool through the LCAC. On the drive back home saw a newlywed couple (from the writing on their windows) leaving the Tri with a pair of bikes on top. Gave them a huge shaka - what a great way to begin their journey together!

The rest of the week has been tons of fun spending time with my kids, and their friends at the beach for surfing, boogie boarding, snorkeling at the cove, Del Mar racetrack, mini-golf, Lego-land, etc, and some nice date nights with my fabulous wife.

Yesterday, did a session at Velocity sports fitness in Carlsbad with a friend of mine, and had a good time and a good workout.

Today I'm thrilled to have run my first half marathon distance run. Yeah, it was ~9 min/mile pace, but I did it, and 6 months ago, 13.1 miles would've been unthinkable for me. Ran this route twice: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=232599

Looking forward to the Solana Beach Playa Del Run this weekend. Sadly skipped the AFC Half Marathon, because I thought I wouldn't be ready for it - guess I was wrong. Still have the Silver Strand Half Marthon, and Carlsbad Half to look forward to though.

Anyway, what a great week - wahoo!

Double Swim Weekend

Coming off of a pretty fun weekend. Saturday was the fun, but not very well attended, inagural event of the Xterra Surf Monkey. I did the continuous 1 Mi swim (I think it was shorter than stated), and 5K beach run. It was really fun, but I don't think they posted any results online, and I didn't stick around to check the board since my two girls were heading off camping and I had to get home to take care of my son.

Sunday was the Tour of Buoys. I did the 1.5 mile portion. The 5 mile event was really excellent to watch at the start because all swimmers in that event had to be paired with a kayaker. So there was tons of kayaks with all the colors of the rainbow floating just offshore on a balmy, lake-calm, 70 degree water La Jolla morning. I ended up swimming much more than 1.5 miles because of my continually terrible sighting, but the water was warm and beautiful, and I had a great time sprinting as hard as I could on the last leg, knowing that there was no bike (or run) afterwards. Even so, elderly women still beat me - sad, and embarrassing! Needless to say, I left a way too much in the tank on the first 2 legs, misjudging my needed reserves just a little bit. Added to that, I kinda made a bit of a goofball of myself at the end of the race. I was so amped up coming out of the water, that I basically sprinted up the beach as hard as I could go through the finish line. The lady taking down the finisher numbers was so shocked at me, she yelled pretty harshly, "SLOW DOWN!" I guess my triathlon thinking did not translate well into the pure swimming world where it's what you do in the water that counts. In recalling the moment it seemed that the people surrounding the finish were kinda shocked as well. I watched other people finishing after me, at it seemed that the idea is to exit the water pretty casually. Oh, well, even that couldn't spoil such an awesome day.

Rounded the whole great weekend out by taking my son (6) and two of his friends down to see the AVP finals at Mariner's Point, and saw some amazing play, and a bunch of the people from our volleyball crew there too.