Race Day!

Whoa - it's been two weeks since the race and I haven't updated this yet - sorry for that! Here's the play-by-play:

2,000 people competed on Sunday, September 14, 2008 in Malibu, CA for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon Presented by Toyota. It consisted of a 1/2 mile swim parallel to the beach, an 18-mile out-and-back bike ride along the Pacific Coast Highway, and a 4-mile run along the walkway next to the beach (known as "The Strand").

To cut a long story short: I did it! Really! I did a full triathlon. Longer than the Castaic sprints, shorter than an Olympic. Pretty much in the middle. I did it! And I only drew blood from two wounds, but more on that later.

Now for the long story.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 4am. 4am. The team was checked-in to the Holiday Inn in Santa Monica and told to meet at 4:50am (yes, 4:50am) in the lobby to board buses for the 30-45 minute ride to Zuma beach in Malibu, a short distance north. I arrived in the lobby, late as usual, at 4:55. Turned out to be a good thing as I was last on the first bus. Why a good thing?

Think about it for a sec: how do you get 65 people on 3 school buses, with their bikes? Really, get creative, because our staff sure did. We sat one person to a seat (two per row) with the bikes stacked two-to-a-row across the aisle. These were long school buses. Being last on, I sat in the front row, not in the claustrophic, bike-barricaded, prison-like dark of the back of the bus, or even the slightly less cruel second row, for that matter.

We arrived at Zuma at about 5:45 and headed into the transition area. Dark, subdued noise, spotlights, sounds of waves crashing. 2,000 people unpacking and setting up. Chilly out, but not bad. My rack was in the middle. Nice.

My family (wife, daughter, mother and Craig my next door neighbor) showed-up around 7:00 and I met them in the Expo area to hear the pre-race talk.



I was in the 40-44 age group, wave 9, which went off at 8:00 (first wave went off at 7:20). The picture above doesn't show my wave as I was in a navy blue swim cap, but does show what it was like running into the 64 degree Pacific Ocean at 8:00am with 150 other guys going through their own mid-life crises.

Prior to jumping in, and hitting the bathroom "one last time" (so I told myself) I took a warm-up swim (well, as warm as you can be in 64 degree water). It actually felt good! I swam out about 100 yards and back in, giving me a great feel for the water and more importantly, something to do while I waited for our wave to go in.

I completed the swim in 00:18:56.9. Not bad. Not good, but then again, no panic attacks and no hanging onto a surfboard for dear life. I actually drafted in behind two guys I was trying to pass, when I figured out that I might as well take it easy and let them do the work.

T1 went very well, after I stumbled out of the water. Gotta work on that. T1 took only 00:02:23.4 as it also included running in and out of the (large) transition area. I was easily as fast on the change as I was at the mock tri, so all was good there. And this time I had my family cheering me on!



The bike ride was great! I mounted using a skateboard mount and enjoyed the ride, passing a bunch of people (ok, not all of them had flat tires), and getting passed by guys with woo-woo wheels (rear discs make a woo-woo sound as they go by). The guy playing drums at mile 10 was awesome. Total bike time: 01:04:34.2 Again, fair to middling, but completed almost without incident...

I came back to the transition area and underestimated where the dismount line was. Fortunately I was already out of my shoes but had to dismount going too fast. I banged-up both feet, my right losing a bit of flesh, dinged my finger, lost a shoe, but otherwise got off before the line. I hobbled to my transition area for T2.

T2 went fine, given that my feet were on fire. T2 took 00:02:22.2. Not too bad considering I was hobbling around with my feet on fire most of the time.



The run was great too! Saw tons of TnT people, all of us yelling "Go Team!" every time we passed. I ran the whole thing, no walking or stopping (except for a 45-second bathroom break at the beginning - gotta work on that). Three guys ran by me in pink speedo's with the text "Deb Won" (or something like that) written on their chests (ooooh, bad bet to lose!)

I dinged my finger on the dismount. Turns out it bled all over my hand. So as I'm running out of the area and see my coach, he yells "Hey Steve!" and I return-yell "I drew blood!" and hold up my hand - laughs all around.

The run was otherwise uneventful and I made it back in 00:37:14.0 (really about 00:36:30 as I had the 45 second bathroom break). Wait a minute, that's pretty much a 9-minute mile, for 4 miles, after swimming and biking: awesome!



Here I am crossing the finish line. Total time was 02:05:30.7. I was number 608 out of about 1,400 age-groupers, 113th out of 164 in my age group. Not too shabby for a first, big tri. Next year I'm going to kick it up several notches, that is for sure!



And here's the medal we all received for participating.

How did the fundraising go? Amazing:

I raised $2,850 with your help!
The three teams, Eastside LA, Westside LA, and Orange County raised $250,000 for LLS, just for this event.
The Malibu Triathlon ended-up raising $950,000 for the Children's Hospital of LA.

I ate 3 Roctane gels and about 32 oz. of Gu20 during the race.

Thank you to everyone who donated to make this such a charitable success:

Bruce and Elaine Mark, Michael Berns, Kevin and Michele Berns, Greg and Patty Bourdon, Gerry and Cary Philpott, Robert & Dalia Messinger, Willie and Lois Sakai, Alicia Calvo, Michael and Lisa Nocita, Rick and Diana Mark, Yan Huang, Josh de la Cuesta, Craig and Ellen Rubin, Keith & Lisa Breton, Rob Cohen, Chris and Jennifer Hardin, Kevin Lasky (Big O Tires/Tarzana), Antoine and Carmen Gabriele, Neil Einbund, Karen Van Tassell, Andy Brauer, Scott Sachs, Kevin and Nef Bromber, Darryl and Deanna Silver, Steve and Robin Ligerman, Darryl & Lisa Ballin, Phyllis & Sandy Beim.

I'd also like to thank my family for putting-up with the wacky training schedule and endless talk of triathlon training and equipment.

My "home team" of competition-training buddies: Craig for being a running-buddy and egging me on in our Father's Day Mock Tri, and Kevin for providing some great competition in the Castaic tri's.

Of course, I couldn't have gotten to this level without the help and encouragement of my Team-in-Training team and our awesome coaches and staff: Scot Harvey ("One more thing..."), Alison Jensen, Joy Rosenstadt ("Seriously, 65 degree water is warm!"), Peter Chandler, Kim Katz, Felix Dacumos, Debbie Robbins, Dominique Bianco, Hector Alfaro ("Thai or tacos?"), Louis Provost ("Write my age, not A-G-E!"), Nadia Valliani ("No refunds!") and my mentor, Gerry Philpott, who got me into this mess to begin with.

What an amazing experience all-around. I highly recommend it! And this is just the beginning...

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So why did it take so long to post this? Monday I came down with what must have been food poisoning. Medium-level case, but debilitating as all get-out. My outer right leg and knees were hurting, and the orthopedist says I now have two runner's knees and a strained/tight/whatever IT band. I've been given some exercises to do and am making room in my week to handle that. Tuesday wasn't much better, but I got a lot of rest. Wednesday was work-catchup day, Thursday I backslid, and that brings us to Friday, at which I was feeling almost normal. Then I just delayed things a week, no real excuses other than that.

Thursday Update

Team In Training, originally uploaded by eyllom.

Wow - weird week! This is week 17, the final week, of training. Well, training isn't quite the right word as we are "tapering" and that means reducing our workouts prior to the race.

What's weird is that we're wrapping up a lot of the things we've done over the past 4 months. We've gotten all the clothing and wetsuit orders worked out. We've reached the point where we can comfortably do the triathlon. We've had our last Saturday practice, our team send-off party (pictured above) and our last Wednesday night practice. We've had our last post-swim dinner.

At swimming practice last night we did about half our usual drills and then met in the shallow end. Another TnT team (training for the Treasure Island tri in SF) joined us. We formed two lines and everyone got a paddle and started making waves. Then, two-by-two, the people on the end ditched their paddles and swam down the middle. We did this about three times. It was actually pretty intense - everyone was yelling and whistling and the water was sloshing terribly. Quite the send-off!

Now all that is left is to do easy exercises to stay loose and meet-up on Saturday to maybe do an ocean swim, pick-up our packets, and head to the hotel in Santa Monica, then meet at 4:30am in the lobby for the bus ride to the Tri. A bit sad really that it's all coming to an end.

But this weekend will Rock!

Holy Floating Data Centers, Batman!

I just read an article describing a patent application by Google for a "floating data center." This would take the form of a boat, using wave generators for electricity (see the video on the link), ocean water for cooling, and with stacks of servers and communications gear in it. Their mobility makes them perfect for crisis and military situations where more local data processing power and Internet access is needed. Cool stuff.

Of course, if it springs a leak your data will get all soggy and need to dry out (you wouldn't want salt water coming into your house through your modem, would you?). Viruses, salt water, hurricanes, what will they think of next to base a news center around?

Weekend Recap

What a weekend!

Saturday we did a "brick" at Griffith Park: 9 mile loop, including a monster hill, then a 15-minute run. Nothing to it.

Sunday we did an 800m swim at Zuma (same as the race should be this Sunday) then a 12 mile bike (short of the 18 on race day). Everyone packed-up to go eat something, but I stayed and ran 5 miles (end-to-end of Zuma) - no stopping and with 6 sprint intervals! The new shoes were a smart move as today I'm really not hurting too much.

Of course once everything was done and I was ready to go, the car wouldn't start! So as I waited for AAA to give me a jump, I practiced bike mounting and dismounting. I'm still not comfortable with the flying cowboy but I picked up a little speed with the skateboard mount.

Today is a rest day - if by "rest" one means cleaning and lubing their bike, which was called for on our schedule. 30 minutes and it was done.

This week is a "taper" week - light exercising, no workouts that really tear your body up, so that we're ready for the race on Sunday. Tomorrow will be a 5-mile run, Wednesday a coached swim, then a rest on Thursday, a very light all-around workout on Friday, and then it's race weekend!

I just planned out the next three months. I'll be competing in the "Day at the Beach" triathlon on 10/12 at Hermosa Beach, in the Muddy Buddy race on 11/4 in San Dimas, and if we don't have anything else going on, the Turkey Tri, also in San Dimas, on 11/30.

I'm a Swimmer

This has been one exciting and educational week.

It's been educational because I took yesterday off: I wasn't feeling well. I felt terribly bad about not sticking to the program but I had a headache and felt tired and just "not right." Boy, did it pay off!

Today I went swimming. I got to the club via bike in a record time of just under 15 minutes (prior record was about 20 minutes). Boy did that feel good, but not as good as what was yet to come.

Facing a time crunch, I found I had about 1 hour to swim, so I chose a plan about midway between the Malibu (sprint) and Pac Grove (olympic) workouts and set to it. First was a 400 yard warm-up. I swam 472 (after converting from a 27-meter lane length). Next was 200 yards in drills: I did 236. Then came the biggie: 900 yards of straight-out swimming. At this point I also committed to seeing how far I could swim without stopping. I was hoping against hope that I could swim 300 (minimum needed for LA Tri Club swim practices).

So the goal was 900 yards. I swam 1,417. The sub-goal was 300 yards without stopping. I swam 1,417 without stopping. The high I felt after completing that was unbelievable.

Then another 236 yards of drills and 472 yards of cool downs.

Overall, the Sprint program called for 1,600 yards, the Olympic program called for 2,200 yards, I swam 2,600 yards (1.35 miles). In one hour. After a 3 mile bike ride.

The icing on the cake (as if there wasn't enough yet)? I rode home in 12 minutes - yes, 12 minutes! Also reached a personal best top speed of 38.3mph going down the big hill from the club.

What a great workout!

But at the beginning I said this was a great week. That's because on Monday I rode over 35 miles (another personal best) and on Saturday I ran 6 miles with stopping or walking (another personal best).

I can only hope this all repeats itself next Sunday at the Malibu Tri!

Thursday Update

Swam last night - over a mile - then gorged on Thai food. I'm actually going to miss Wednesday night swim-and-eat fest's!

Which brings me to the point of what to do after 9/14. It's been almost 4 months now that I've been in training with TnT and it has really been a lot of fun training with the same group of people. I'm already feeling the "void" of not training with them after Malibu.

I guess I have a few ways to go after 9/14:

- Do everything on my own/through online training plans
- Sign up as a participant again and get on another team
- Sign up as a mentor and train with another team
- Get much more involved in LA Tri Club

At this point I'm thinking of going the LA Tri Club route and maybe signing up as a Mentor for TnT, but I need to see what the commitment is for that. While raising money for a cause is great, it's a lot of pressure and right now there are enough other things going on in my life that I think it would just be too much.

Also, I'm trying to devote more time back to photography, which also suffers during the winter months.

Decisions, decisions, but all good ones!

100MPG Cars are Here

The continuing debate as the whether or not we can ever truly get to 100mpg cars is over: it's doable now, it just costs a bit more due to the fact that auto manufacturers aren't using the latest battery technology.

See the CNN report here

Run - Run - Run - Walk - Dang!

Went for a run at Balboa Park today with high expectations of completing 7 miles without stopping and with 5-8 sprints thrown in. At mile 2.5 I started walking. Ran a bit, then walked, and that's how it went all the way back to the car at mile 5.

What happened? I think I'm just plain tired out. I worked-out a decent amount over the weekend. Even though I took Sunday off, I still walked with my wife up some hills for 45 minutes. Yesterday was the monster bike ride. Saturday was the 6 mile run. Coupled with the fact that we started after 10am and it was pretty hot, I just didn't have it in me.

Also, yesterday you may remember that my right knee was hurting. Today it started up again at about mile 1.5. I think it's time to rest my lower body for a few days - which works out because, as a triathlete (grin) I can go swimming instead!

T Minus 12 Days to Malibu!

Week 16! Impossible, no way, unbelievable, no chance! Yes, I've made it to week 16 in training, and there are only 12 days to go until the big race. To kick off this milestone, let's play Jeopardy (ok, a very small subset of Jeopardy):

The Answer is: 35.25.
The question is: how many miles did Steve actually ride on Labor Day?

35.25 miles - a new personal best! Took approximately 2.75 hours (there were a lot of lights). Here's the path: house to Balboa Park, around Balboa Park three times, out along bus/bike path to Canoga Park, back to Reseda Blvd., up Reseda and back to house.

At about mile 28 my right knee started to hurt so I favored my left leg, but I was able to make it back and get up the hill to the house.

Of course, to really complete this and help Tri training, I needed to hop off the bike, quickly get into my running shoes, and run around the block a few times. This helps the body get used to switching from riding to running, which, unless you've actually done it, really throws the body for a loop. So yes, I did that too! And let me tell you, after 35.25 miles, running down a driveway without falling on your face is very difficult! Your legs simply don't work for the first 30 seconds or so.

As a reward we went to our third swim/bbq party of the three-day weekend and I ate without worry.

Nutrition-wise, I had a Chocolate Outrage GU gel before the ride, two more gels during the ride, 48 ounces of Raspberry GU20, and a Bonk Breaker bar. Once home and finished with the mini-run, I downed 12 ounces of mocha-flavored Cytomax Recovery.

Week 15 Recap

Happy Labor Day!

Thursday I took the day off - logistics just didn't pan out for going for a ride. It was tough though - my body has gotten used to constant exercise and when I take a day off I'm really not that fun to be around. Guess I'll just have to train 7 days a week (not!).

On Friday Ryan and I headed up to the club and I swam 1600 meters (over 1700 yards) - I would have gone for 2,000 meters but we ran out of time.

Saturday was the coached open-water swim at Santa Monica. We got in at lifeguard station 28 then swam out, over, and back in at station 29, ran back to 28, and repeated the swim. A light current pushed against us but we managed to complete 3 swims.

I then went for a run (see image below) up the running path, 3 miles each way with 5 1-minute sprints along the way: no stopping or walking the entire 6 miles! A personal best for me. I also maintained the pace of a 10-minute mile for the whole hour (so well that when I returned back to my starting location I was only 8 seconds over the entire hour). One very nice part of the run was passing 3 other LA Tri Club members (they were wearing LTC apparel, as was I). As we each passed each other, we waved and shouted "Go LA!" What great camaraderie!



Sunday (yesterday) my wife and I went for a 45-minute walk up the hills near our house - I was just hurting too bad from the exertions on Saturday. That was my day-off.

Today I'm hoping to get in a 30-mile bike ride, with hills, but we'll have to see as it is a family day.