Strawberry Fields Triathlon: Overview

On July 19, 2009 I raced in the Strawberry Fields Olympic Distance Triathlon.

I signed up for it several months ago when I found out my friend Ray was going to be flying in from Ecuador - visiting family & friends in California. He's a triathlete, and we keep in touch via email and social networking. It's been 6 years since the last time he was in LA, so when he said he was coming to town and he wanted to do a triathlon while he was here - we signed up.

This was the first time I've competed in this particular triathlon and I'd say the organizers put on a great event. The race consisted of a 1500m ocean swim, a 40k bike, and a 10k run. It's definitley a flat and fast course. I got a new PR of 2:39:29 in an Olympic distance tri.

My split times for the event were:

Swim: 40:77
T1: 2:59
Bike: 1:03:29
T2: 1:38
Run: 50:06

A pain in the neck

In addition to a new PR at the Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon, I also got a pretty good wetsuit hickey (picture below). I was careless the day before the Triathlon and got a slight sunburn on my neck. I assume starting the day with a sunburn was enough to let that wetsuit really dig in and rub my neck raw during the swim.

I will post my report sometime this week. I'm waiting for the event photos to be posted so I can add them to the report.

10 things I learned during my first Double Century

10. The LA Wheelmen's Grand Tour is a great event with very good support and awesome rest stops.

9. The lowland double century is the perfect first timers double

8. Hill training is a great way to prepare your legs for a double century

7. Hill training is not sufficient for training your butt to be in a saddle for over 11 hrs

6. "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette is NOT a good song to have stuck in your head for a double century

5. Ojai looks like a nice little town. I had never been there before, but now I want to take a walk around there some weekend

4. Riding along the ocean from Carpenteria to Malibu is really a treat

3. I can eat a bagel with peanut butter, a large glass of milk, 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a ham & cheese sandwich, a bean & cheese burrito, a bag of potato chips, 3 power gels, a bar, 2 chocolate chip cookies, 2000 calories worth of carbo pro, 3 12oz sodas, a bowl of chili with cheese, pasta salad, a cup o noodles soup, and lots of gatorade -- and still lose three (3) pounds by the end of the day

2. After 165 miles of bicycle riding, a warm "cup o noodles" soup tastes like food prepared by the goddess Hestia

1. Text messages and Facebook comments delivered to my phone are a GREAT motivator during a long day of exercise. Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement.

San Diego Century - Dos Picos 103

The San Diego "Dos Picos" 103 mile bike ride was last weekend. I went with my brother-in-law and two of his co-workers to ride in this event. One guy did the metric century, the other two guys were first time century riders.

We got started a little later than I would have liked, but by 7:30am we were on our way. We stayed together for the first 10 miles or so, and then the group splintered a bit and we rode separately until we got to the first rest-stop. The rest of the day we followed a very similar pattern. We would gather at the rest-stop, ride together for a short while, then break up until the next rest stop.

My average speed was a little faster than my speed during the Conejo ride the previous week. That might be partly due to the longer rest breaks I took while waiting to regroup. It was a good challenging ride and well supported. I'd definitely do it again.

Here's my gps log from the event

Cruising the Conejo

2009 is my Bike focus year, hopefully leading up to a 200 mile bike ride this Summer.

Last Saturday was the 25th annual Crusin' the Conejo Century ride. The Century ride was labeled as a 103 mile ride with 6,000 feet of climbing. According to my gps log, it was 100.8 miles with about 5400ft of climbing.

Either way, it was a challenging ride, and I felt really strong at the end. I started the ride just after 7am and finished in a little over 7hrs (including a few short rest-stop breaks).

The ride was really well done and well supported. Most rest stops were manned by Boy Scout troops who helped pour water, hold bikes, and prep food. I'll definitely consider doing it again next year because it's local, cheap, and well done.

I love doing organized rides, but it's always a bit of a bummer to have to stop at lights and stop signs. I guess I'm spoiled by Triathlon and Marathon running where the streets are closed down and traffic is controlled for the athletes. Then again, the Conejo Century was only $40, so it's hard to complain about traffic lights. I'm sure it would be 10x more expensive if they had to shut streets down.

Next Saturday is the San Diego Century

Double Century

I haven't posted anything new in months, but I have been training.  I've got a couple century rides I'm thinking about riding in May (Cruising the Conejo and the San Diego Century), and then maybe a double century (200 miles) towards the end of June.  2009 is my cycling focus year, so most of my events will be cycling events. 

I was doing my long training rides on Saturday, but I just found out this week that all of my son's T-Ball games are going to be on Saturday morning, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get long rides in on some other day.  If the June double doesn't work out, then I'll try to find a good long ride in the Fall.

I have signed up for the Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon in July, but that will probably be my only tri this year.

IMAZ video short

Here's the video I promised from the 2008 Ironman in Arizona. It's pretty generic, but it gives a little bit of the start, swim, bike, and finish line. The first finisher on the video is the winner of the race, and the last finisher was the final official finisher to cross the line before midnight.

IMAZ 2008

Yikes! It's been almost a month since I went to go watch six friends compete in Ironman Arizona.

I've got some pictures and video that I'll try to upload this week, but the long and short of it is we had a great time and all six of our friends finished the race.

We stayed and watched everything starting from the cannon that started the race, all the way until the last official finisher crossed the line just before midnight. In fact, we were still there when the first "non" finisher crossed just a minute or so past the cutoff. The volunteers were all clearing the area when the athlete turned the corner - so they quickly ran back and held up the tape for her. The whole experience was pretty awesome.

I'll definitely be going back next year to volunteer and then the plan is to sign up for the 2010 race.

The new bike!

Wow, it's been almost two months without a post. I guess that's because I haven't done much that's worthy of writing about. But this week I got a new bike and just HAD to post a picture of it.

2008 Felt B2 Pro

Mine has Zipp 404s instead of the 606s, and I had them put black tape on the bars instead of the white tape. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture of mine, but for now - the Felt marketing pic will have to do.

I drove all the way down to San Diego to get it because they had a great closeout sale on all of their remaining 2008 bikes. I rode several including a Scott, Kuota, and a Cervelo. The Felt was definitely the best fit and a great deal so I got it. I can't wait to take it out for a long ride this weekend!

5k Swim results

Well, I did it Sunday morning. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I got through it. I sort of compare it to the difficulty of a 1/2 Marathon for me. Roughly the same amount of time and fatigue.

My wife went with me to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, CA. and helped me keep track of my laps and my time which helped a lot.

I swam 100 lengths of the pool, which is 5,000 meters or 3.1 miles. My 1K split times were:

• 1k 19:54
• 2k 21:28
• 3k 22:16
• 4k 21:32
• 5k 21:02

Total -- 1:46:22
At 2.4 miles my time was about 1:19 (this is the Ironman Distance). This time would have put me around 1200 out of 2027 swimmers in the Arizona Ironman race earlier this year. Even my total time of 1:46:22 is well within the IM cutoff time (2:20:00) so that's a good confidence booster too.

I tried to take it nice and easy so I wouldn't burn out. On the second half of the swim I started doing a lot more breast stroke and side stroke to give my shoulders a break. I don't think that will be a great idea on race day because the breast stroke uses my legs a lot more and I don't want to burn out my legs before I get on the bike. I did the whole thing without taking a break for food or water and I didn't feel too hungry of thirsty afterwards, so I'm happy about that since I won't be able to eat or drink on the race course swim.

Overall it was a success and I don't feel sore at all today which is a good sign. I really makes me respect the 10 mile ocean swim my Master's coach is going to do later this month.

5k Swim

This weekend I'm going to try to finish a 5k (3.1 mile) swim.

I wanted to try an organized open water swim, but the majority of them are between 1 to 2 mile swims, and I've already done a 2 mile open water swim, so swimming another 1 or 2 mile open water swim does not fit my desire to push my limits out to the 3 mile mark.

I found a 5k swim down in Long Beach, CA. but they didn't allow wetsuits, and you need to provide your own kayak and paddler which I don't have.

So instead I'm just going to drag myself down to the local long-course (50m) Olympic pool and swim 100 laps (lengths? - I still don't know what to call it).

Hansen Results

This was the first time Tami and both ran in the same triathlon. I started in the first wave, and Tami was in the 3rd wave. Due to the super short swim, I was coming out of the water as her wave was going in, so I gave her a loud "GO TAMIII" as I came up the ramp.

Tami finished 37th in her age group, and 250th overall with a time of 1:27:01

That's about 2.5 minutes slower than last years time, but with less than half of the training. Her swim and both transitions were actually faster than last year, but her bike and run were slighly slower. Overall, considering the light training, she was very pleased that she kept her time under 1:30

I finished 18th in my age group, and 32nd overall with a time of 1:05:13

I know I have room to improve on the bike. I just haven't been finding the time to get out and ride as much as I should.

Official results are posted at http://www.resultsbyprimetime.com/

Hansen Dam Triathlon

My wife and I are signed up and will be competing in the 4th annual Hansen Dam Triathlon this coming Sunday (Aug 17). Tami did her first triathlon here last year.

This year we're dropping the kids off with my sister and we're both going to compete. She hasn't trained as much this year, but she thinks she can improve her transition times enough to still beat her time from last year. We're also going with two newbies from our local YMCA. I always love to be there when someone finishes their first triathlon. There's nothing quite like that first tri.

Wow! Did you see this?

Did you see the 4x100 freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics last night? If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go to NBCOlympics.com to find it, or click here right now and watch it. It was the most amazing race ever.

Individual and team world records were shattered and the American swimmers made up a lot of ground in the last 100 to win by just .08 of a second ahead of the favored French team. That's the smallest margin of Olympic victory EVER for this event.

Hypoxic Club

The Masters club I've been swimming with has something called the Hypoxic Club Challenge

Porter Valley Masters Hypoxic Club Challenge

To become a member of the Hypoxic Club you have to be able to swim at least one half lap (12 ½ yards) without taking a breath. To reach every stage past this initial step you must complete a consecutive half lap. For example, step one is 12 ½ yards, step two is 25 yards, step three is 37 ½ yards…etc. There is no final goal to reach when attempting Hypoxic Club because you can always try to push yourself that extra yard! As your fitness levels, endurance, and efficiency increase you will be able to extend your distance.

Requirements: For your attempted distance to count the majority of that distance must be swum above the surface.

So this Wednesday, I gave it a shot. I was certain that I could swim at least 50 yards without taking a breath, and thought I might be able to go another half lap if I got a good push off the wall. Well, I was able to go a full 75 yards (3 lengths in the pool) without a breath - giving me the current top position in the challenge. Our coach even sent an email to the club (probably to get some of the better swimmers to join in and take away my top spot).

>>To give everyone who was not present an update on the Hypoxic Club challenge, last night one our newer swimmers raised the bar to a higher level. Jeff attempted and completed 75 yards without breathing, smashing the old record by 25 yards. Great job Jeff!