Philadelphia Triathlon Race Report

The Philadelphia Triathlon was last weekend, a while ago I know, but since I got back from Philly I've been busy moving from San Francisco to Phoenix - and we're there! Anisia and I spent most of the day yesterday looking for apartments. I now know all the talking points and bases for comparison for apartment complexes (washer/dryer in unit vs on-site, new appliances vs older ones, ceiling fans, quality of workout facilities (all of these places have a workout room on-site with treadmills, other cardio, strength-training equipment, etc, but the quality varies), parking, on-site pool(s), space within the unit (we need a separate "training studio" room in addition to a living room and bedroom), carpeting, etc) and of course LOCATION is hugely important.

We started out looking around the Biltmore/Arcadia area of north central Phoenix, close to Anisia's sisters and a very good swimming facility, but after we didn't find anything we were looking for there, we migrated a little southeast in the direction of Papago Park and Tempe. The places we've narrowed it down to are right next to this 1200-acre park (great for running ) and close to the eastern boundary of the Phoenix valley, so good for cycling too. We are also very close to Tempe and the ASU swimming pools, so we'll have some excellent options for swimming as well. I'm excited.

I've done my first run (45 minutes) and first bike ride (2:30) here since moving, and the temps have been around 100-110 degrees WITH humidity (it's monsoon season), and well, it's tough! I'm taking hydration to a whole new level. The heat forces me to slow down some because my HR skyrockets as my core body temperature goes up, and there's never enough cold water to drink or pour on my head (such a good feeling though!). It will be interesting to see how I adjust to this climate - even if I bike and run in the morning, the heat is still formidable and takes a toll on the body.

Anyway, back to the Philly Triathlon, even if it feels like months ago. I had a great homestay just an easy 20 minute bike ride away from transition, which made the whole weekend go much better and simply. It was my third race in consecutive weekends, but I was thinking it would be my best, and it turned out to be true. My swim wasn't great - it was a 1.5k point-to-point swim in the river, and I wasn't aggressive enough starting out, and then I had some visibility issues so I ended up doing nearly the entire swim just off the tail of the lead pack. Despite this mental mistake, my swimming fitness is pretty reasonable so I was only about :30 off the back by the end of the swim.

The bike probably went the best of the three for me that day. The 2-lap course was a mix of flats and shortish, sometimes steep climbs, and I loved it. I couldn't quite hang with fast-biking DKT on the first lap but I did catch and pass everyone in the lead swim group with the exception of Andrew Yoder and John Kenny, the later of whom I did catch and pass halfway through the second lap. I wasn't quite as focused, especially on the second lap, and I wasn't quite as strong as I'd like, but it was definitely one of my better bike efforts this year.

I started the run in 3rd by myself, with Yoder and DKT upfront. It was a typical humid summer morning in Pennsylvania, and I really felt it on the run. I definitely couldn't go as fast as I wanted to, but I was keeping it together OK trying not to overheat. John Kenny went by me at mile three, but then the rest of the way I kept him close and held my ground to any chasers, so I finished 4th. It was a fun, tough race, and I enjoyed it.

I've been taking the season one race at a time, seeing if I can improve in ladder-fashion, building on each race from the races beforehand. The goal is to keep improving as the season progresses, and so far, I think I'm on track. I have a lot of work to do to get where I want to be, but given my circumstances at this point in the season, I'm pleased with the results.

My next races is not until August 2nd, Steelhead 70.3 in Michigan, so I have some good time to get settled in here in Phoenix and put some good fitness into the bank. More soon.

Silicon Valley Pro Challenge Race Report

Yesterday was the Silicon Valley Pro Challenge - a really fun, exciting, spectator-friendly event with a unique format: a 40k bike time-trial first thing in the morning before the age groupers did their concurrently-run Olympic distance triathlon, and then a 800 meter swim/ 2.5 mile run/ 800 m swim/ 2.5 mile run several hours later, at about noon when the bulk of the age groupers had finished and could join the crowd to cheer us on.

It was my first race on the new Jamis Xenith T2 time trial bike, fitted with Hed Jet 90 front and a Hed Jet Disc back wheel, and I was really happy with my set-up. The course was great too - nice, wide-open roads, a lot of flats, some challenging winds, one tough climb, and some good gradual downhills to make up some time. I was not happy, however, with my cycling fitness. I felt pretty good intially, but I feel like I burned my muscles out a little too quickly. My glutes and hamstrings need some more strength work on the bike I think. But it was a great opportunity to test everything out just doing a bike TT without swimming before or running immediately after. You can push that much harder knowing that this is it, you have a long rest until the final event. This made it more painful, of course, but I don't mind that.

I finished in 4th place in the small but competitive men's field of 11 with about a 54:24. Chris Lieto earned himself a huge lead with an astounding 49:45, and David Thompson and Lewis Elliot put in great rides about 1:30 ahead of me. There were a bunch of guys close behind me, in the order of superfast runner Chris Foster; Brian Lavelle, a big, strong guy like me; John Dahlz, a very good swimmer and runner; and then lurking a little behind them was Clayton Fettel from Australia, an incredibly fast swimmer who led the way out of the Bay in the Escape from Alcatraz last weekend.

The 3-4 hours wait in between was fun. I spent it mostly laying under a tent near the lake and the finish line, watching the age group triathletes finish their race. Soon the second event was upon us. We started in the order we finished the TT bike, with the same time gaps. Chris Lieto took off first onto the rectangular, 800 meter swim in Lake Almaden. Over three minutes later David and Lewis went nearly at the same time; I went about :90 later, Chris Foster dove in :20 later, etc. Nearly all of us chose to wear wetsuits for the first swim, and then race in our triathlon suit in the second swim. I felt pretty good about my first swim. I caught up to Lewis by the end, and I think I made up a little time on Lieto and David. The first run was tough. It was four kilometer-long loops through the crowds and passing through the finish line each time. You could see where your competitors were at different places, and so I was constantly gauging where I was in relation to everyone else.

David was running well and putting some time on me, Lewis as well, and fast runner Chris Foster went by me about halfway through, so I went back into the water in 5th position, with Brian and John not far behind. Going back in the water already at threshold was an interesting experience to say the least. I think I went a little too slow heading out, because halfway through I realized I had a lot more to give, so I dug in. I came out of the water in 3rd place, but only a little ahead of a group of four containing Chris Foster, Brian, John, and Clayton Fettel, who had made up a lot of time on that second swim. Fettell went by me within the first 100 meters of the run, and then Foster not surprisingly followed a lap later, but I ran well to finish a solid 5th place.

Chris Lieto easily held onto his big advantage to take the victory, with David in second, Chris Foster in 3rd, Clayton in 4th, me 5th, John 6th, Brian 7th and Lewis in 8th. I think we all had a great time out there with the crowds cheering us on. I'm glad USA Productions put on this great, unique race that allows us to race with a good number of people cheering us on, and I hope to be on the line for any future editions of this race and any other USA Productions race with this unique format. Any fan of triathlon and pro triathletes should come out to cheer us on, because it's a great, entertaining show. Most of us pro triathletes train and race in relative anonymity, often competing so early in the morning that we can't even get our closest family and friends to come watch us, so the Silicon Valley Pro Challenge is a great opportunity for both the athletes and the fans.

Pictures coming soon...

Escape from Alcatraz race report

This 2009 edition of my favorite race, my seventh time "escaping," was a pretty big bummer. I think everyone can agree that the swim was really tough- choppy, wavy, slow conditions practically the whole way. Because of the unpredictable nature of the waves, I lost count at around a dozen big swallows of disgusting salt water, and I was pretty much sick by the end of it. Still, I managed to have an OK swim finish in a chase pack with some decent swimmers. On the bike I wasn't feeling great but I was using my experience and brute strength to power up the climbs and finesse my way through the technical downhills. I was moving up through the field pretty nicely, but then at a little past halfway in Golden Gate Park, disaster struck. Completely out of the blue, my handlebar tape unraveled in a second. I slowed down to a crawl to fix it, lest it get in my front wheel and send me flying. I sort of fixed it, but without the plug, I knew I was in violation of the rules and fairly certain of a DQ when I arrived back in transition, if not sooner. So totally bummed, I finished the rest of the bike at half effort, then pulled off my number and turned in my chip before heading out for what was now an easy training run.

It's disappointing to miss out on a certain high finish at my favorite race but sometimes things like this happen. The good news is that I have another race this coming weekend to quickly atone myself - The Silicon Valley Pro Challenge Triathlon - and I'm really looking forward to it, the unique, spectator-friendly event will have great crowds and lots of excitement - come out to watch and cheer me on!

pre-race swim at Aquatic Park the day before the race:


very happy to be done with the swim section of the race - it was rough out there!


I like this boat in Aquatic Park - that is me out there swimming with the long arms.

Since the World Must Know

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging very much lately. I feel badly about it, but the fact is I just don't have the extra time or energy to do it. Most days I'm training most of the morning and some of the afternoon, then I'm off to work for the rest of the day, and I get back home around 9:45, and I just want to eat and spend time with Anisia. Then I sleep for 9-10 hours.

But I'm sucking it up and writing this afternoon, even though I just finished a challenging track workout, my first in at least three years. Yes, three years.

Training has been going well. i've found extra time and energy somewhere and put it to good use. I've been doing the Wednesday Old Le Honda group ride often, and running right after in brick-fashion, and I've been extending the length of my long rides - quite a bit in fact. On Memorial Day Weekend, Anisia and I went up to Ukiah to visit her mom, and on Sunday (sandwiched in between days of going to Lake Mendocino for great trail-run-open-water-swims) I rode to Mendocino (on the coast) and then I rode back after hanging out there for 1-2 hours, eating lunch and touring the cute coastal town with AC and her mom. It was a hilly three hour ride there on Orr Springs Road, 50 miles and lots of climbing. Then on the way back I took the flatter 128-253 route back to Ukiah. But it was still 60 miles and included a 10 mile, 2000 foot climb starting at mile 90 of the 110 mile day with 8k of cumulative climbing. Riding time was just under 6 hours. Tough, but very fun and rewarding.

Here I am climbing the very steep Orr Springs Rd climb out of the Ukiah valley.


It was very steep and hot. It climbed over 2k quite quickly, but then you first catch some cool ocean breezes at the top as a reward.


AC and I rode together for a little while on the way to Mendocino. It was her first ride after completing her finals (A's in both O Chem and Calculus!)



I enjoyed it so much that I decided I would go even further the next weekend - last weekend. AC and I drove up to Napa, and we took off together on Silverado Trail. I did a monster loop that took me to Lake Berryessa, Middletown, Calistoga, and back to Napa in about 120 miles and 7k climbing, just over 6 hours and 3.5 liters of coke. Then I had two dinners, part of probably an 11,000 calorie day.

This past week was a recovery week, but i had to take more rest than planned because of food poisoning, which just ended yesterday after five days of stomach aches, cramps, nausea, and even some vomiting. Not fun, and I'm still not sure what it was that caused it, i'm just happy it's over. I got over it in time to do my planned track workout today, my first in ages. I've been blessed to have good natural 10k speed, but since I haven't had a good fast race in a while, I wanted to give my legs a strong stimulus with the Escape from Alcatraz next weekend. It was actually a lot of fun, while being pretty tough and challenging. Now it's time to lie on the couch and watch movies with AC.

Today's workout at the beautiful and pretty much deserted SFSU track.



I'm still swimming! In fact, it's going really well. Here I am in the pool at a resort in Napa.

Fitness is the goal

I decided this week to skip Memphis in favor of getting better recovery from Wildflower and increasing my fitness. I will miss the Memphis race, my homestay family, and my friends there, but I decided I would be better off getting back to 100% health and getting a head start on improving my fitness for my next triathlon, The Escape from Alcatraz, and for all of my races to come the rest of the season. Memphis was to be my first team race with the US Pro Tri Team (I have five of them this year), but now it will be the Philadelphia Triathlon on June 28th. It's great that some family and friends in the vicinity can come watch. I'm going to use the airfare from the cancelled Memphis flight towards another team race later on, perhaps the Spirit of Racine Triathlon in July.

I'm excited for this big block of training I've just started a few days ago. I'll be riding on my new Jamis Xenith TT bike for the first time in a couple days. I rode the Wednesday noon ride up Old La Honda this past week for the second time. Even though I was not in 100% health, it went a lot better than the first time - I was 2nd again, but with a faster time - 16:45 - and much less painful than before. I'm looking forward to doing this ride more frequently as well as doing a bunch of great long rides every Saturday, including the Spring Hill Road Race on the 30th.

Swimming is a lot more fun now that it's much sunnier and warmer than this Winter, and my swimming fitness keeps coming around. I haven't run too much in the wake of the brutal WF run course and the resulting overworked soleus, but I did start up this past Wednesday with a quick transition run after the noon ride, and then a nice 30 minute run yesterday, and I have to say my running feels more natural and stronger than it's felt in a long time, thanks in large part to the Newton running shoes.

Another cool thing is the Kurt Kinetic power computer for my Rock 'n Roll trainer - I hooked it up this past week, and it works great. It's awesome to be able to see and track my wattage for my trainer rides, of which I'm still doing quite often. Starting next week I'll be doing a key tempo workout with the Jamis TT bike on the trainer, and I'll be basing the workout off of wattage.

One of the keys to improving my fitness is consistency - frequent workouts with good total volume. I'm still working as much as ever but I with this block of 3-4 weeks before my next race, I'm in a really good place with everything - swim/bike/run, my daily routine, sleep pattern, etc. Things are great with Anisia too. She's studying hard for her final exams, and I've been enjoying helping her with her Calculus. Being a tutor comes in handy. After her final exams at the end of next week, she's going to get back into her triathlon training.

Wildflower Triathlon race report

This past Saturday was the 2009 Wildflower Triathlon. I've done the race three times before - 2004 when I got 5th in my half-ironman debut; 2006 when I got 3rd with a 4:03; and then 2007 when a severe back spasm on the bike led to me being taken away to the hospital in a helicopter. So definitely one of the goals heading into this race was to work out those demons from that last experience. I won't lie and say I didn't feel any related anxiety heading into the race, but honestly it wasn't nearly as big a deal as I would've thought. I tried to remember the good years, 2004 and 2006, and it worked pretty well mentally.

Anisia and I drove down on Friday through rain, and rain awaited us at Lake San Antonio, though it wasn't quite the cold rain of this past Winter in SF that we were used to. It was good to see and catch up with some pro triathlete friends, including Nenad Rodic, Lewis Elliot, and Eileen Swanson. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with Ain-Alar Juhanson, a pro triathlete who is about as tall as me and weighs a little more. Wow, I thought I was the only pro triathlete above the 190 lb mark.

Saturday morning was mostly overcast at the 8 AM swim start. With about 60 pro men on the starting line, it was pretty congested at the beginning. I went out wide from the start, which on one hand kept me out of most of the congestion, but on the other hand I had to swim more. Soon, though, I was in the middle of a pack, and then before I knew it the pack splintered into two groups and I found myself in the second group. The pace wasn't as fast as I would've liked, but there was nothing to do but be patient about it.

On the bike I felt reasonably good for most of the first part, then struggled to maintain a good rhythm in the middle, and then I climbed up Nasty Grade and finished out the rest of the 56 mile bike course reasonably well, all things considered. The sun had come out at this point and it got a little warm onto the run. I kind of slogged through the first few miles of the run, partly because I was getting my legs back from the bike, but also because it's important to be patient on the challenging 13.1 mile WF run course. The tough, uphill trail section came and went, and soon I found myself striding along pretty well after mile 6. I passed several guys before the finish and came in 15th place.

I felt like I definitely had a better race than at Oceanside, but I'm still not at the fitness that I've been at in previous years. Those years I was just doing triathlons - I had the whole day to train, and I was averaging 25+hrs of training a week. This year I'm working full-time, and I've found it to be a real struggle to fit in my training. I've only averaged about 15 hours a week this season - obviously not enough to get in top shape. While I know I'll be working a lot less soon, in the meanwhile I've got to try to find some more time and energy to train better and longer. I enjoy balance in my life, but it's tilted too much towards work, when my real passion is triathlon.

Overall, I really enjoyed the weekend in Lake San Antonio. The course is as great as ever - a true test of your triathlon fitness, challenging, beautiful, and ever-changing - and meeting and talking with triathlete friends and other people associated with the sport was a lot of fun. I'm already looking forward to coming back next year!




Anisia was right there taking pictures and yelling at me when I came out of the swim, but I didn't see her...


Nor did I see her when she was literally IN transition from the bike to the run.


She was all alone at mile 7 when she took this. Nope, didn't see her!



Yes, there she is! And there the finish line is!



It was a good weekend at the lake.

going down, down, down

Last Saturday's long ride in the South Peninsula was awesome. Yes, I did get lost early on, but soon I found my way, went up Old La Honda, made it to the coast, and went up the sublime Tunitas Creek Rd - 7 miles of beautiful, twisty, deserted pavement through a thick redwood forrest to Skyline Blvd - and then down Skyline and Hgwy 84 back to the start. Unbelievable riding - it completely blows away Marin, which in comparison has much more limited riding options and the few roads there aren't as nice, as high, or as versatile. Also, in the peninsula you don't have crazy drivers trying to knock you off the road, and cops issuing you $400 tickets just for trying to ride your bike.

So I decided to go back to ride in the Peninsula every chance I get from now on. It's a 30 minute drive to Woodside from where I live, most of it on the scenic, wide-open 280 highway, by far the best highway in the Bay Area.

My next chance was this past Wednesday, as a part of the "noon goon" group ride that races up Old La Honda Rd. I was a little late for the start so I parked off of an earlier exit and met up with the group on their way. I barely had time to catch my breath before we started the big climb, 3.3 miles and 1290 feet of climbing. There were about 30 starting the climb, but soon there were just four of us alone at the front. A Garmin-Chipotle guy set the pace early on, then I took over and only one guy stayed with me, a rider from Metromint. After a little while he went to the front and I began to struggle to hold his wheel. On a particularly steep switchback I lost his wheel and went into lactic acid survival mode - I just wanted to get to the top at this point. Eventually I did, in about 17:30, not too bad for disintegrating halfway up.

The rest of the ride was a lot of fun, so I'm already looking forward to my next chance to join this Wednesday noon ride again and improve my time up Old La Honda.

I've decided to skip the Wente Road Race this Saturday. My hamstrings are pretty worked from the good cycling and running I've been doing lately, and I think it's better to keep building up my mental and physical reserves for Wildflower next weekend - because I will need them.


Speaking of running - it has been going well too, lately. I've gotten very used to my Newton running shoes doing a series of 40 minute runs. I do the same route every time - a 4.5 mile out-and-back from our place near Dolores Park to the far Golden Gate Park end of the Panhandle. It's got a fair amount of climbing - 300 ft according to my really cool Suunto HRM, and now that I'm used to the route, not too many stops for traffic lights. When I finish with the out-and-back, I do a loop or two in Dolores Park and then some form drills and pick-ups until I reach 40-45 minutes total. This out-and-back used to take me 35 minutes with stops from Church and 18th back to Church and 18th, but since I've been using the Newtons, my times have kept going down, with no sign of stopping:

I was pleased last week to be under 33 minutes, and then I was thrilled when my time dropped under 32 at the end of last week. But then when I got down to 30:45 with a 143 avg HR this past Wednesday (before the noon ride) I thought I had reached my limit...Wrong! Yesterday after an easy indoor bike on my new Kurt Kinetic Rock 'n Roll trainer (which kicks ass btw), I did 29:12 with a 141 avg HR. I'm really happy with sub 6:30/mile pace on a hilly course with traffic stops, and now I know my times will continue to keep dropping, as long as I continue to adapt to the Newtons and in doing so, improve my running form.