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!

No more weddings

The two big summer weddings are both over (see bachelor party entries below). Which means my Usher and Best Man duties have all been fulfilled, so I guess that means I can get back to training.

On the swimming front, I've still been attending swim 'lessons' with the Masters swim club at least twice per week. The coach has me doing flip turns now, and my 100m free is down to a new PR of 1:09.6. Not that fast compared to the real swimmers on the team, but that's very fast for me. I only wish I could keep that pace for more than a hundred meters.

Pismo Beach (Bachelor Party #2)

Another good friend of mine is getting married this July, just one week after my friend Joel is getting married (see Kern River) - so last weekend we all went up to Pismo Beach for the bachelor party. Many of the same friends who went to Kern River for the rafting adventure were there for the ATV adventure. Most of these guys have been friends for over 20 years.

We were even able to get one of our friends to fly in from Germany as a surprise for the bachelor. It's good to have old friends, and especially good to be able to get together for events like this.

Pat (the bachelor) is in the center kneeling down

ATV'ing on the dunes
It was a several mile walk back after ATV riding. Check out the kite surfer in the distance. These guys would get 10-20 feet up in the air when they jumped the waves.

Masters Swim

I joined a Masters Swim club this week. It's the first time in my life I've ever done any sort of organized swim training. My first swim with the team was on Wednesday. What a butt kicking!

The best thing about it was that I swam pretty hard for a full hour without getting bored at all. Normally the thought of more than 30 minutes in the pool bores me to tears.

I spent the evening in the #2 slow lane, so there's plenty of room for improvement. Coach Dan said I had a good fundamental freestyle stroke, but there were plenty of things he can help me work on to improve my speed and endurance.

Tombstone

This picture shows the boulder (called Tombstone) that flipped us. This picture was taken on our 4th run down the river.

You can't see me very well in this picture, but I'm in the front left seat wearing my Drymax trail running socks. They really had to work overtime to try to keep my feet dry that day. The bachelor (sitting front right) almost wore a pair of cotton socks on the raft, but I saved him at the last minute and gave him a pair of my drymax socks before we left camp.

Rafting on the Kern

A very good friend of mine is getting married in July. This weekend, I went with six of my best and oldest friends (since Jr. High) on a rafting adventure down the Kern River in California. This was definitely a top 10 adventure for all of us.

The pictures below are from our third run down the river. After each run, we'd switch positions on the raft so we each had opportunities to ride in the front, middle, and back of the raft.

The best part of the day was when we got high-sided on a boulder and the raft went completely upside down and dumped all of us. We got to ride IN the river for a few hundred yards while the guide got the raft back upright and we all climbed back in.

If you ever get a chance to go rafting, I highly recommend it.

(you can click on the images to see a higher quality version of each picture)