Quick Weekend Recap

As weekends go, this one was pretty decent. I mean, as good a weekend can be that doesn't involve several hours of singletrack and sweat. And about as good a weekend can be that involves one of our cars spinning out on the highway, blowing a tire and destroying the rim.

That was low point and it could have very, very easily been much worse as my wife missed the guardrail by not much more than 20 feet. As it was, her outside wheels slipped off the newly laid asphalt lip and dropped about four inches which yanked the car to the left, she over-compensated to the right and the back end of the car whipped around spinning her into a gigantic cloud of dust. She was luckily unhurt and the car is mostly fine, just a tweaked rim, lots of dust everywhere and an ache for a front end alignment.

Taking Stock

It has been a little while I've taken a few minutes to take stock of where things are and where we are going in the near term.

The big news in our house is that Sullivan is 6 years old and let me tell you, that kid knows the significance of his birthday! His birthday desires change almost with each breath. What he will likely end up with as his bigger present is going to be an upgraded bike. He has borrowed his brother's bigger (geared and cable brakes) mountain bike and is clearly ready to upgrade. Both of the boys have outgrown their bikes and Grady is now riding his Specialized Hot Rock exclusively. Sully's new bike is a Giant MTX 125 and should suit him for a couple of years, I hope.

It hasn't all been joyous. Grady crashed pretty hard the other day while my wife was out with the boys riding. Yeah, I also got her bike back into running condition and she's been getting out and rolling with them. I'm going to start again soon, as soon as my legs are back into feeling decent.

I competed in my second Avia Wildflower Mountain Bike Triathlon this last weekend. The first time was in 2010 and involved both my wife and I racing and the whole family going on our first camping trip together at the same time. It was quite a bit to bite off on the first effort and, overall, went pretty damned well. This year's race ended up being a solo affair. It involved a butt-ass early wake up and roll, up at 4:30 and out the door by 5:05. Drove to Lake San Antonio to get in the park before the closed the road down for the day's races (no entry or exit between 8 and 3). The nice thing is that I got there in plenty of time. Got parked, had time to relax and unwind from the drive. Slowly got my gear together, coasted down Lynch Hill (a massive high speed bomber run) and got all checked in and marked up. The race itself was pretty good although I made an error on the swim which cost me some time and I ended up swallowing quite a bit of lake water in the choppy spot I got caught in. Oh well.

The rest of the race was pretty decent. I felt slower on my bike than expected and the hills were a little tougher. I could also feel my calves trying to cramp up on me on the second lap. I was able to hold off the cramps, finish the ride, stretch a little bit and then get out on the run and complete the race before the cramps really took hold and locked down my legs. I should have made the extra effort to get in for a sports massage last week during my final preparations for the race. A painful lesson that I'm still feeling the after-effects of today. My quads are still barking at me whenever I get up to walk around. Will get out of for a light bike ride today to start spinning them back into shape.

Overall, I shaved time on all three disciplines, most in the run and swim and a little bit on the bike. One transition was faster but the other was slower by the same amount so they were a wash. And the hardest part of the day was actually driving home with some torched legs. I really wished I'd had cruise control (or, more accurately, working cruise control) in my car. I actually had to stop and stretch out my legs so I could press down on the gas pedal.

It was a good race and I'm looking forward to going back again next year with my family to enjoy camping and racing together.

There are a number of other developments in the works these days but I'm not quite ready to pull the cover back just yet.

Things are not bad right now, that could change as soon as tomorrow but, for now, things are decent and looking up!

Looking Forward and Up

The SCMTB Fest is coming!

What do the next ten months of 2012 hold? For myself and my little family, we are stuffing as much good stuff in among the work. I count myself pretty lucky that I work in education and have some summer break time to do more family stuff. I usually end up working over the summer and this one will be no different. But I have a boss who wants me to write up my schedule and give him an idea of what I will do.

What does the rest of the year hold for us? Several group camping trips with friends to Big Sur, Mt. Madonna, Arroyo Seco, the Sea Otter Classic, Spicer up north and New Brighton Beach locally. I've got my first and likely only triathlon of the year scheduled and on the books at the Avia Wildflower, we may camp for it but not in with the other triathletes as it is just too darned pricey to do it right now. Maybe next year when my pay returns to its normal levels (long story but the short of it is my checks are about $350 light right now).

Where Does The Time Go?

Today is the end of the second week of the summer school session. I'm halfway to being totally free and clear for the rest of the summer. And let me tell you, these four hour work days are HARD! No, not really. Yesterday I worked the Help line that was set up for district folks to call in with tech issues. I answered five calls in four hours.

But even with that low call incidence, the day ripped right by. I got in a decent workout after work with a swim which always helps me feel more settled and balanced out (though I'm rather irritated that the gym has now seen fit to literally lock up the kettlebells to keep non-Crossfit folks from using them. That's lame and kind of stupid but I'll just have to buy or make my own kettlebell to get those swings in (kettlebell swings are fantastic for strengthening your core).

Planning the 2011 Racing Season

I've started to look at races next year to map out what I want to try and do, what my wife wants to try and do and also looking at the longer race weekend camping trip getaways.

Here's the initial work up I've developed and it looks like March into May is going to be the busiest time of the year with two or three tris and the Sea Otter Classic in the mix as well.

While I enjoyed doing the Santa Cruz Sprint Tri, I think I'm going to go for off road triathlons. I just don't really care for riding a bicycle on the road and its hard to be competitive without dropping a big chunk of cash into a road bike that, to be honest, I don't even really want.

Anyway, here's the schedule that's starting to come together.

Obligatory Triathlon Experience Write Up

I took part in my second triathlon today, the Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon. It consisted of a 750 meter swim in the Monterey Bay (kelp and all), a 12.4 mile bike ride and a 3.2 mile run. Nope, not even sniffing at the kind of distances the Ironmen do but its a start. Plus, its alot more feasible for me to train for and enjoy a sprint tri than much of anything else at this point.

On Tap for This Week

Note, NOT Dodger Blue.

After last week started off pretty well, I got a little ill mid-week and it mostly kept me on the sidelines until yesterday. Not sure what the deal was, it felt like my brain was too big or something and would send shooting pain through my body if I moved my head too quickly.

Not too much fun, especially with one or two little boys constantly clamoring for "uppy" or horse back rides or for me to toss them around like tiddlywinks (which they surprisingly love).

But this week is gonna be big, fun and awesome with a little work thrown in to make the fun time that much more fun by comparison. And I'm jumping back into my training schedule after last week's near complete washout. I will take it a little easy to start but will need to start getting in some hard workouts as the race is just about six weeks off now.

We are very likely going to go to see the Giants play the Dodgers tomorrow night which should be lots of fun, especially if the Giants bat's spark up a little hot streak. Heck, I'd just like to see Pablo Sandoval get on a tear, he's so due, he's getting calls from collection agencies!

And any week that includes the San Francisco Giants playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers is gonna be a week to get "up" for. Ideally we'll see the Giants crush the Dodgers three games in a row, and by crush I mean double digit whoopings!

Plus, "The Lost Boys" will be shown on Wednesday at 9pm at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, Corey Feldman will intro the movie! It should be one of those wonderful Santa Cruz memories and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie again, this time shown mere feet from where it was filmed! Plus, its totally got vampires AND motorcycles AND the Feldman/Haim super Corey twin power so suck on that Twilight!

This coming Saturday is going to be a blockbuster day. Combined with Grady's sixth (how in the heck did he get to be 6 already?) there's this little thing called UFC 116 that is headlined by 530 pounds of men in Brock Lesnar taking on Shane Carwin for the unified UFC Heavyweight Championship. These are some big, big men and they will be throwing bombs at each other. Someone's getting their lights turned off and I'm betting/hoping it'll be the classless ass Lesnar getting put down and out.

Since we've already had a party for the boys, Saturday will likely be less friends and more family oriented stuff. Maybe a beach trip, maybe some bike riding, maybe something else altogether but definitely an all-family event.

And in between now and then there will be lots of training going on! I feel healthy again, I feel ready to rip it up. I'm throwing some road semi-slicks on my Ibis Mojo to do some training rides for the style of bike stage in the Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon (one long dead straight ride out and then swoopy, curvy awesomeness along West Cliff back in) and I will be working on both my swim stroke and my running. I am going to shave minutes whenever and wherever I can. I expect to do well in this race!

Time to get on it!

Target Acquired

I am almost officially signed on to compete in my second sprint triathlon race. It is the Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon on August 9th, it consists of a 600-700 yard ocean swim, a 12 mile bike ride and then a 3.2 mile run. My buddy, Paul, is going to be racing in it as well so that will be fun. My wife has declined the challenge because of the swim portion which will definitely be the most challenging aspect of the race for me as well.

The best part about this race is that much of it takes place on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. One of my all-time favorite places in the whole world and not just because there is usually a tailwind coming back from Natural Bridges State Park that makes the blast towards the Boardwalk feel like it is at warp speed (though it definitely does not hurt).

I will probably end up doing this race on my mountain bike refitted with slick road tires as I do not see a new road bike (nor do I really want one if the truth is told) in my near future. Maybe a full wetsuit and definitely some new and better running shoes but I've already got most of the gear I will need.

And, with a new race target acquired, I am now automatically compelled to kick my lax ass back into gear and back into shape. I will freely admit to having slacked off badly after the Avia. The lack of a goal to work towards is a strong motivator. I will likely start looking for my next race midway through the training for this one. Maybe September or October but definitely no ocean swims then!

One other really cool thing about this particular race is that, once I'm signed up, there are free Tuesday evening workouts to join in on. This includes transition practices and open water swims! And the more comfortable I am going in, the better my overall time and satisfaction will be. Racing and finishing is fun and all but now I'm going to start setting higher and higher goals. I want to shoot for a top 25% in my age group finish and that's a pretty good sized improvement from my 33rd of 72 at the Avia.

Stay tuned for delightful training updates, epiphanies and, I'm sure, the occasional owie.

Refocusing Motivation

In the last week and a half since the triathlon I've gone on precisely one reasonably good bike ride and one very, very short other bike ride. I've also put a little bit of weight back on since the race, nothing too significant especially since my weight can fluctuate by as much as 8 or 10 pounds in a single day. But enough weight has creeped back on me to make me realize that its time to put another event on the calendar to train for.

I've found that I workout much more consistently and for longer periods when I know that I've got an event coming up that I need to be proper shape for. I do not ever want to be standing on the starting line wishing I'd done more to train for the race that's about to start.

And I'm going to be using that knowledge to create another dynamic training situation. I'm making use of The American Triathlon Calendar to find some cool races coming up. I'd like to do some of the Santa Cruz sprint triathlons but I'm a little leery of the ocean swim leg of the race. That ocean water is really, really butt ass cold and knowing how hard it was to paddle through the lake at San Antonio makes the ocean swim even that much more daunting. But we'll see what comes up.

Welcome to The Other Side

We survived the weekend. We survived our first family camping trip and survived our respective triathlons. I did better than I'd hoped, placing 33rd in my age class and 304th out of all the men in the race and 399th out of 998 total racers. I was slow (but faster than expected) in the water at 11:44 and good for 694th overall, I knew my bike stage was going to be my strength and it was with a time of 42:51 and good for 203rd overall and my run was surprisingly better than expected at 21:03 and good for 619th place overall.

My run was actually faster than my training runs which was quite surprising since I felt like I was crawling most of the way. And, if the run had been any longer, my quads would have started to cramp up on me. I'd hydrated like a mofo the day before, had avoided caffeine and alcohol and had gotten as decent a sleep as was possible the night before my first ever triathlon.

In some ways the whole thing was kind of surreal. I found myself in the transition area laying out my gear, making sure sunglasses and gloves and helmet were ready on my handlebars, making sure my socks were in my cycling shoes and doing all of the other little things to make the switch from swim to bike to run smoother and easier. And then I was standing in my age group on the boat launch ramp watching the previous age classes get sent out into the water. And then I was in the water feeling the icy grip of the water squeeze the air out of my lungs even through my wetsuit.

I made a conscious effort to think out my race plan as I was awaiting the gun to plunge into the water. I was telling myself again and again to not worry when I was passed by others and to swim/bike/run my own race. I knew I would be passed left and right in the swim but I also knew I'd be passing lots of folks on the bike and then I'd get passed again on the run. Unlike the race at the Sea Otter Classic a few weeks ago, I went at my own speed and let the rest of the athletes race at their speed. The plan worked out much, much better than my go like a jack rabbit on an electric skillet plan from the Sea Otter.

From a race perspective I think I did about as well as could be expected given it was my first time. I'm not sure of too many things I would change for next time, maybe less water on the bike ride since I barely even got through half my first water bottle and the second bottle was just dead weight.

And, of course, we've been spending a bunch of time this week looking at other races coming up. There are bunches and bunches of them. I'm mostly interested in the sprint or mountain bike triathlons for now but we might just work our way up to full triathlons at some point. There are several triathlons in Santa Cruz over the summer and I might just jump into one of those, the only big sticking point is that the swim is going to be much harder and much, much colder since it will be in the Monterey Bay and not in a lake.

Overall, I would give the Avia Wildflower Triathlon a strong B+. They could have been much more informative on the web site so we'd have planned better but the actual event was run incredibly smoothly given that there were 7500 triathletes competing over the two days. I would give my performance in the race as a straight B, I did many things right and only a couple of things could be made better.

It was alot of fun and we are planning on returning next year and trying to bring a team of friends along for the fun as well.

I will also add some photos to this post when I get home this evening. I didn't get as many pictures taken as I would have liked but its quite hard to race and think about photo opps, ya know?

See You On the Other Side

We were supposed to be on the road more than an hour and a half ago but this is a pretty complex weekend so there are lists to check, multiple coolers to pack, kids to occupy and all kinds of other stuff.


I just mentioned to my wife that we bit off a pretty big first camping trip with the kids weekend by combining it with a first time triathlon for me and a first time in a long time triathlon for my wife.

But hey, go big or stay home, right?

Anyway, we're getting ready to head out and I thought I'd steal a quick minute to post this.

See you in a few days.

Training Notes

Tuesday marked my last hard workout before this weekend's triathlon. I'll get a light workout in today and then almost nothing at all on Friday. With some luck, planning and proper nutrition (and hydration!) I'll be hitting my powerzone just as the race starts.

Yesterday's swim was an interesting one as it was my first time ever trying to swim any distance in a spring wetsuit (short sleeves and short legs). The bouyancy was nice and there was little restriction on my arms to propel myself. And it was really helpful to practice a few transitions to get some idea of how to get out of the wetsuit as quickly as possible.

I spent most of my swim workout doing mental calculations to figure out just how many laps in a 25 yard pool equals a quarter mile. After a few misteps in my calculations I did eventually come to just under 18 laps equaling a quarter mile which was a little less than my guesstimate and works out well for me.

I also worked hard to go non-stop and to not use the walls of the pool to push off of since there will be no break time or walls in the lake this weekend.

From the pool I headed into the gym to get leg #2 of the triathlon knocked out with a bike ride on the Expresso bikes. I'm starting to find that they are less comfortable than they could be and they really, really need to have some air flowing across me or I literally pour sweat.

T-Minus Five Days and Counting

I can never remember, when you're counting something down, do you include today and the day of the event? If today is Monday and the event is Saturday then does that make it five days or six? I could make cogent arguments either way but the underlying reality is that come Saturday morning at 9:45 or so, I will be on or near the starting line for the Avia Wildflower Mountain Bike Triathlon.

Which means this is the last week to get some reasonably decent workouts in, add a little extra cardio to the tank, work on transitions and get our gear sorted out and then packed into the truck. We will be camping out at the triathlon along with 20,000 other triathletes and their support teams/families which will also be a new experience as the boys have not really done any camping save for sleeping in the tent in the backyard.

I don't feel completely ready for the race especially since my training has taken a hit in the last week since the Sea Otter Classic where I bonked very hard. My legs have felt quite leaden lately but I'm doing my best to spin the deadness out of them. I've been putting in the time when I can and will race as best I can. I'm going to be approaching the race differently than the mountain bike race last week. I will be pacing myself better, holding energy in reserve, prepping better the day before and starting the race with a clearer race plan.

And my main focus of the entire thing is to have fun, spend some quality time with my family and to not take everything so seriously. I know I'm not going to win so I'm going to try and have a good time.

I still need to put together my checklist of gear, camping and other stuff. This is going to be a busy and fast week and I'm sure there will be much stress in the process too. Hopefully it will all end up in an awesome time for all of us. And maybe I'll get some cool photos as well.

But really, I just want it to be a fun weekend.

Off the Track

My training schedule went a little bit sideways this weekend. Our schedule could have accommodated some workouts but I wasn't feeling it and decided to let it slide. Not to say that I did nothing but I definitely did not hit the weights or the bikes or the treadmill or the pool. I did swing a whip and take down a whole ton of weeds which did get me sore.

But today is officially the get back on track day. It is supposed to be a rest day according to my schedule but I don't see another rest day. I see a good hard sweat in my future.

And just under three weeks until my first mountain bike race ever at the Sea Otter Classic! That should prove interesting. I'm trying to approach it more from an educational experience and trying not to worry about where I place but I also expect that my competitive juices will kick in once the race has started. I'm looking to have some fun, do decently well on the race and not be last.

A little sliding is acceptable but anything more than a day or two could be bad for my training and I've come too far to let anything derail me now.