Tryin' High in Los Alamos

Input on NM502 changes, please! Meeting Feb 7th!

2012-01-31T15:19:00.001-07:00

Those of you in the Los Alamos area: its the last chance to weigh in on the NM502 options!! Details below are from Betsy L through Darien R. Also, see comment regarding this project from Khal Spencer at the very bottom of the post. Khal is a local cycling enthusiast and advocate and has been following and working with this project closely.

The County Council will make its final decision regarding design of NM502/Trinity Drive at its Tues, Feb 7th meeting, beginning at 7:00pm at the Community Building Council Chambers (475 20th St, next to Ashley Pond on the Ruby K side). It is the only item on the agenda and the council chambers will be packed. The so-called Zimmerman Option, which calms traffic, improves livability and supports multi-modal transportation (read cycling, pedestrians, buses etc), has been recommended by the T-Board. Those opposing this plan are proposing a widened, 4/5 lane road past the Eastern Area neighborhood with a traffic signal at Central. The council can decide to do anything they want - and unfortunately the loudest side often carries the day. So, we have the facts on our side - now we need the voices of the people who will send emails to countycouncil@lacnm.us, and show up and speak up at the Feb 7 meeting.

Below is a statement of support that explains the proposed "Zimmerman Plan" and its benefits, and has links to more details. Select points and benefits that are especially meaningful to you and send them to CC in an email and/or speak about them at the meeting on the 7th. This email and attachment can be forwarded to like-minded friends. For those who want to see Trinity Drive become a safer, multi-modal street that also addresses the needs of adjacent homes and businesses, your support is essential and appreciated. Now is truly the time for, "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

This is to ask your support - email the county council (countycouncil@lacnm.us) / attend the County Council meeting, Tues, Feb 7th at 7:00 at the Community Building Council Chambers (475 20th St, next to Ashley Pond on the Ruby K side) - for the Zimmerman option for the east end of NM 502 with a roundabout at the Central/Trinity intersection. This option, proposed by County Engineer Kyle Zimmerman, is a compromise plan based on designs and ideas considered by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). Transportation Board endorsed this option at their Jan. 19, 2012 meeting. The County’s NM 502 web site has a description and drawings of the Plan.

(http://www.losalamosnm.us/projects/publicworks/Pages/NM502TrinityDriveCorridorStudy.aspx)

The Zimmerman plan with a roundabout supports the County’s goals and street design policy in the following ways.

• Respects and accommodates adjacent residents by reducing motor vehicle speeds to 35 mph near the Eastern Area Neighborhood through road design, using widened medians at Airport Rd. and Tewa Loop, and single thru lanes in each direction near Eastern Area. This reduces noise by about 4 dB in this area.

• Accommodates pedestrians by providing HAWK crossings at both East Park and east of Canyon Road, and roundabout crossings at Central Ave. Buffered sidewalks are included on both sides of the road.

• Considers needs of multi modal transportation by preserving sufficient right-of-way east of Central Ave. so that bike lanes and bus stops can be accommodated.

• Links and improves physical and visual access to our commercial areas on both Trinity Drive and Central Avenue by the roundabout at Central.

• Improves safety for all users by calming traffic with widened medians, roundabouts, HAWK crossings, and single thru lanes in each direction.

• Improves the environment and livability with a roundabout at Central that reduces vehicle delays and stops and reduces vehicle pollution emissions.

• Incorporates best planning practices of professional traffic engineers. The Plan’s lane configurations and roundabout designs have been analyzed by Kyle Zimmerman P. E. and by professional traffic engineering firms Parsons/Brinkerhoff and Ourston Roundabout Engineering. These professional engineers have found that the Plan accommodates our projected traffic volumes until the year 2030.

The Zimmerman plan was arrived at after a long and difficult process that began over a year ago. No interest group obtained everything they wanted in this plan, but it is a good compromise that accommodates our projected traffic volumes and fulfills many of the goals of the County’s street design policy. We strongly urge Council to pass this option so that we can get on with the task of upgrading NM 502 to a road that serves the needs of all corridor users.

Below is a comment from Khal Spencer, local cycling enthusiast and advocate, who has been following and working with this project closely:

Dina is right. Make your opinion heard. Loudly and clearly, but rationally.

This is a very political decision based on relative values of unimpeded vehicle throughput (i.e., high level of service during rush hour), speeds, and pedestrian safety. A lot of the resistance to the Kyle plan is based on the perceived need for more capacity and what I consider outlandish requirements for high level of service (of course, I spent decades on Long Island and in Honolulu). If you want to see how to waste dollars, take a look at Diamond Drive. It is a speedway and HUGELY over capacity even at rush hour.

But on the hill, capacity is limited by the two laner farther down the hill. Not to mention, future changes in the price of gasoline and its impact on commuters from Espanola, Santa Fe, and elsewhere. My doubts were not with the modeling being done by the citizens group, which was quite good, but with the assumptions on future growth being based on past practice. As long as we have the right of way intact, we can add more asphalt if it really becomes necessary.

Once in town, I think we might actually need more than two lanes since you really don’t want a congested downtown during rush hour. In between is a transition zone.

Frankly, none of the options are perfect for everyone, hence what five ( I think) of us who voted yes saw as a compromise solution. None of the options are terribly “bicycle friendly” unless you are already a pretty serious rider. Frankly, I enjoy Trinity as it is because if someone wants to pass me, they have another lane. Central is a bother for me because it bottles up traffic behind me. Two lane options with bike lanes result in right hook crashes at intersections, such as the cyclist who got clipped last week at Diamond and Sandia.

If the county wants something that any potential bicyclist would enjoy, it needs further thought and potentially a “European Solution”. I personally voted for the Zimmerman option on the T Board. Probably the last vote I will cast, since I am term limited off the board at the end of February. Whew.

Get involved if you want to influence the outcome.

Khal Spencer

IM World Championship, Kona, Oct 8, 2011

2011-10-23T12:13:00.026-06:00

Watch out - this is a long one...
As usual, I will include some stuff leading up to the race, as this is a week long set of festivities, not just a single day. We arrived on Tuesday, just in time for the Keiki Dip n Dash. Our sixth grader Ben came along with Dan and me, although the other two kids, being older, stayed home with my visiting Mom. We were also joined by Greg Geoffrion, Nancy Johnson, and Fred and Mindy Shelley from Los Alamos. My cousin and her partner from San Francisco rounded out the cheering section. Frankly, it's easy to come up with spectators, when you are racing in such a nice place to visit.

They had two races – one for the younger kids, followed by one for the older. Ben did great, and it was funny to watch all of the highly competitive parents with their kids during the race. Not that you could include me in that generalization (ha!). Liz Sponagle (from Santa Fe's Running Hub, and also racing on Saturday) was able to join in the spectating fun with us as well. Liz had a hotel right downtown, and therefore needed no car. The rest of us, for a variety of reasons, were staying up in Waikoloa, about 25 miles north of Kailua-Kona. It was nice to be out of the fray, but we found ourselves driving down a lot, so that was a pain.

Immediately after the kids race, the Parade of Nations, with all athletes welcome to walk in it, went down Ali'i Drive, starting at the Kim Kam hotel (race headquarters) and finishing in the Expo, which opened that evening. Tons of gear reps here, including some that were allowing you to demo running shoes, bikes, etc. (Dan and Greg arranged for two hour demos of Argon18 bicycles for the following morning). Having said all this, though, we have learned that especially for our arrival day, this is the best time to skip the festivities, and head straight to our favorite restaurant, the Kona Brewing Company for beer and pizza. Which we did. Ben caught geckos, while the rest of us enjoyed the wide beer selection. Still time for the Expo afterwards, and the crowds had thinned a little by then. Opportunities to visit with pros abound throughout the week.

That's Craig Alexander, the eventual record-setting winner, with Ben, and the following day Mirinda Carfrae, second this year and first place last year, signed some stuff for our absent cross-country runners (John, and Emily Johnson) that was spot-on encouragement.

Gatorade was not a sponsor this year, but PowerBar Peform was, and they sponsored the daily morning swim. They set up a booth where you can check in your gear and go for a swim, and not have to worry about anything while you are out. The swells were high all week, and I hadn't swum in my cool Tyr Torque swim skin since last October, so I was glad to get out there and check out the suit and the conditions. The coffee boat serves up coffee, and PerforM for those who wish to swim by and rest on their ropes.

We were too late to register on Tuesday, so Liz and I took care of that while the guys rode bikes with our helmets Wednesday morning. It was quick, and extremely well run, as you would expect. We each got a bag of stuff, Wheaties, PowerBer, etc. No finisher's T-shirt or cap yet - you don't get those until after you cross that line. The athlete's bracelet was bright orange with a commemorative "KONA ATHLETE" written on it, as well as your number. I guess some people do something clever with these after the race.

Thursday was the popular Underpants Run. Dan, Ben, Greg, and Nancy all participated. Liz and I, with an upcoming race, chose to sit this one out... we were tapering, you know.

Lunch was at Lava Java, a favorite restaurant for many, including Normann Stadler (two -time winner) who was nice, but seemed a bit peeved he had to share the wall with Fred, rather than have a seat at a table like the rest of us.

We spent the afternoon at one of my favorite snorkel spots, next to the Place of Refuge, where we hung out easily for more than an hour in the water with a resting pod of dolphins. It was spectacular. You are not allowed to approach dolphins and turtles, but what can you do when they come to you?! Afterwards, we visited the National Historic Monument and took our annual tiki photos. Ben is wearing this year's official Underpants Run shirt - they raised over $12,000 for West Hawaii Special Olympics last year. And his Biest Milch tattoo got him another free T-shirt this morning. The lesson from this year's race: do not bring too many clothes. I think we each wore a different free T-shirt for the first three days.

Thursday was the pre-race banquet; Friday was gear drop; and Saturday, the race. Up early in order to get body marked, and organized, make my kajillion bathroom stops, and then wonder what to do with myself. It was nice to be able to get myself situated and then come out and hang out with Dan and Ben out of the crowded area. I saw Liz early-on in the body marking tent, but never again after that. I did find my TriSports.com teammate Karin, and spent some time with her in our usual spot in transition before we headed out for the deep water start.

The swells were unpleasant during the swim. Similar to last year, I tried to stay out of most people's way, and succeeded fairly well, though occasionally got pinched by people on both sides and would have to re-group to find open water again. I tried sighting off of the swimmers around me rather than using landmarks this year. The swells were enough that I was worried that if I pulled my head out too many times to look up and around, I would end up getting seasick. Once again, I was reminded about how nice an ocean swim is where you can see the coral and fish. It easily helps you note forward progress, and is just more interesting. Most cool was the pod of dolphins we swam over on our way back in. They were fairly deep down, but not so deep that you didn't get a great view of them.

Out on the bike was great. It's always long, and around 2 hours into it, I found myself losing focus, and really working hard with little to show for it. So I took time to do a little housekeeping - slathered some sunscreen on both shoulders, had a salt pill, and essentially just got my head back into the game. And it actually worked! Continuing on, the ride went smoothly, and most notable, was the lack of wind. That's not to say that it wasn't blowing, and it really did out near the wind turbine farm near the Hawi turnaround, but it wasn't that nasty Hawai'i "head wind no matter what direction you're going" that I have run into in the past. It definitely helped me have my fastest split ever. Although, it did make certain areas very hot, since the wind also helps keep you cool.

Back in T2, I took a bathroom break, got more sunscreen, and was out on the course looking for family. Dan had done a great job of getting everyone to good spectating spots so I could see them multiple times throughout the bike and run. (Although, while I was way out on the Queen K, Dan and the gang were able to have a nice little race respite up at a coffee farm we had discovered a few years ago. What a delightful break, up in the quiet coolness of 2000').

Anyone who's seen any of my other blogs, knows this is the key moment of a race for me - a high five with one of our kids. That's Ben's hand.

The first 10 miles were fun. It's out and back along Ali'i Drive and lined with spectators, and is still early enough that you are excited to be off your bike and running. Even heading up Palani hill wasn't too bad and I was thinking I'd do alright today. And then, the long slog out the Queen K towards the Energy Lab. What a killer. I slowed way down. Decided it was OK to walk through every aid station, be selective about what they had to offer, and basically checked out. Then, and I have no idea what did it, somehow I was able to turn it around and get focused again, so that as I headed into the Energy Lab, I was back into a decent run pace. Which I was able to maintain for the rest of the race. Of course, I cannot run a complete marathon without at least one bathroom stop, so it was necessary to spend more than 2 minutes in the port-a-loo at mile 19, after having just passed two women in my age group leading up to it. It couldn't be helped, though. I was able to get back into it, though, afterwards and continued on my run (yes, it was a run, not a slow miserable shuffle) back to town. I saw Dan and Ben up on the highway, which was a huge finishing boost.

Finished with one of my fastest miles, and best yet - beat the sunset. This has been my goal all four times I have raced here, and this was the first time I actually did it. And with sunset around 6:25 PM, and crossing the line at 6:03PM, there was no question that the sun was still up. I hadn't looked at my watch since 4:30 in the afternoon when I realized that I should be done before the sun, and so hadn't realized just how close I was to breaking 11 hours. But so what; the closest I've ever come to that before was in 2007, when I ran an 11:23. I was totally psyched. Came in 10th in my age group, another personal best at Kona. It was a lot of fun, in that weird sort of Ironman way.

The day after activities include the post-race banquet, which we skipped. We did make it down to Polulu Valley for a nice hike to a black sand beach, and a great opportunity to just stretch out after a long previous day. Sorry to see the trip end. As usual.

Elephant Man Long Course -- THE first in New Mexico!

2011-09-28T18:35:00.014-06:00

Elephant Man Long Course Triathlon

Well, New Mexico’s first Long Course Triathlon is finally a reality. And, it definitely lived up to all the hype and anticipation. I can say for sure that this is definitely the most difficult long course race course I’ve ever done. I won’t say that it was a death march or anything like that, but it was definitely not for the under-prepared. I really enjoyed the course and felt like it went by fairly quickly, except for a couple of sections. If you’re up for a big triathlon challenge, this one is for you.

I’m pretty serious about challenging our tri folks to take on some of the bigger local triathlons. It’s kind-of frustrating to see so much effort being put into these bigger races, but then have the turn-out be somewhat lighter than it should be because people are either too scared to take that next step to swim in open water, or won’t drive the tiny little bit farther, or are “training” for a “real” triathlon somewhere else. Well, I can tell you that there’s plenty of real challenge right nearby. That being said, this is probably THE best bang for the buck, and the scene at Elephant Man is pretty cool.

We have made the trip down to the Elephant Man 4 times now, and it never disappoints. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take on the first long course race in NM, and after reviewing that course and knowing the terrain in the area, I was extra motivated. Again, this one was the real deal, and if you have designs on stepping up to the Ironman, you should do the Elephant Man long course first.

We have fully subscribed to the “camp right there” plan because it just works with a little one in tow. Not only are we skipping the morning commute to the race, but we have so much fun playing on the beaches and in the water at these open water venues. It’s the best time. Elephant Butte is like a second chance at a real summer time weekend in late September. The water is still warm and the air can even get a little hot. This year was the hottest weather we have had yet, but it still wasn’t too bad.

Camping out was great for this year’s race: my race started at 7:00 A.M. Dina’s started at 8:05 A.M., and Suzie Schillaci was so kind to watch Mila for us. That was a big deal, as I was gonna be out for the better part of 5 hrs and Dina would take nearly 3 hrs. We didn’t have to go far to set up transition and got to test out the water all we wanted the day before. Plus, it’s just nice to camp right next to water. We were luckier with this year’s situation, as the Park limited camping to mostly just race participants. Things quieted down a lot earlier than usual and we all got to sleep with no problem.

The water level was also very low this year, due to the drought. If you compare this year’s pics with those of 2007, 08, 09 and even last year, it’s clear that the lake has lost a LOT of water. It looked like little more than some puddles surrounded by the desert hills and mountains, whereas other years it looked pretty good, especially 2008.

Because of the low water level, they had to make an unusual swim pattern, but it worked out pretty well. It was a “T”, but with the top part the longest and the “tail” the shorter part. With the low light at the start and the color of the buoys, we had some trouble sighting at the front of the race. We rounded the second left turn and it was a long way to the far end of the T-crossing. The kayak volunteers were floating back and forth, and at times they obscured our view to the far end turn buoy. That caused a group of us to get off course for a few minutes. The guys in the big boats (mainly Kori Mannon’s dad, Ron) yelled at us to head left and get back on course. Thanks to him, it wasn’t a long way out of our way, but still added a fair bit of extra swimming. The first two guys didn’t get off as much as my next group of four.

I made it out of the water in 4th and passed the 3rd place guy in transition. I caught the 2nd place guy before we even got out of the park, so I figured 1st (Justin Newcomer) was just up ahead. I pretty much just figured I’d forget about him and ride my own race and quickly settled into a steady and comfortable rhythm. I was actually enjoying my ride and the air was nice and cool, with just a slight breeze out of the northwest. I had actually forgotten about the 1st place guy until I saw him on the two big climbs out of Monticello Canyon. Those are two pretty big hills, so he looked closer than he was. I didn’t catch him until we got to the crossing of I-25. He was going pretty well, so I was happy to catch up to him.

We stayed on the Olympic course until that big aid station at the Sierra County airport, where we made the turn out onto the longest and most lonely stretch of the whole race. This section was like going onto the dark side of the moon. It was a 30 mile out-and-back on a pretty lonely stretch of highway in some desolate terrain. It is pretty out there, but in that desolate, southern New Mexico way.

Soon, that little light breeze began to be a wind. It was picking up steadily as we made our way to the semi-ghost town of Cuchillo. We got a little respite from the steady grind with the descent into Cuchillo, but then were punished with the long climb into the wind out of Cuchillo. This was probably the most difficult part of the race and I was glad I had put on a lower gear on my race wheels than I normally use in a race like this. My speed dropped down to a crawl.

There was no relief once at the top of the climb. In fact, the wind was now blowing with some authority and it was right in our face. There is a slight, but relentless grade on that road, as it heads toward the foothills of the Black Range toward the more famous “ghost town” of Winston. It was just a mental test to keep it together on that stretch. I decided to back off a bit and use the time to ensure I was eating and drinking enough. I knew the run was going to be harder than usual, so I figured I would be smart and conserve where I could. I also knew that my closest rivals would likely see me in the distance and probably work too hard to try to pull me back. Another thing I made sure I did was stand up and stretch a lot, despite the stiff headwind, since my back now gets very achy in the aero position for more than an hour. It really affects my run more than it used to.

It was all a very good strategy, but it was a bit scary to see those guys getting close at the far-end turnaround. I kept my head about me and just slowly dialed it up on the way back, not losing my cool and burning out too quickly. On the way back, we had the tailwind with the slight downhill. It was a super fast section and one that took concentration and leg speed. It was also 15 miles, so it got tiring. We got a break, albeit a scary one, on the frightening descent into Cuchillo. The wind was buffeting our aero wheels as we wound down to the base of the canyon and the town. It was fun, though!

Climbing out was actually a welcome relief from the hunched position we had to be in the previous 10 miles. Then, it was back at it with the tight aero position and the super-speedy efficient pedaling.

The final stretch on the Olympic course was fast and fun, and it seemed like the bike wasn’t so bad when I got into Elephant Butte. But, a check on the watch told a different story: 2:32 for the 56 miles is a long time for me. Even on a slow year at Buffalo Springs, I do about a 2:25, so that gives you some idea of how challenging this course is. It was all fun, though.

Into transition, I knew I had a lead, but didn’t know by how much. About 3 guys were pacing together to pull me back at the far turn around, but I knew I had ridden well those last 20 miles. I knew I had gained some of my time back, but didn’t know by how much. The main thing was that I felt quite good and had good energy going into the run and still was in the lead. I felt confident.

I did the transition just like I would have if it were an Olympic. I hit the run and quickly settled into a long-distance rhythm that I think I held the entire way without falter. It actually felt good at first, although it was a burn on my legs to get up that “dam hill” at mile one. I felt the small pangs of cramps, but they quickly diminished once I stretched it out over that dirt dam stretch.

Everything was going GREAT until about mile 4, when I started to notice that the bottoms of my feet were getting hot and quite uncomfortable. I sort of ignored it for another mile, but then just before the mile 6 aid station (where the Olympic turned down that dirt hill), I had to make a stop to loosen my laces. That helped for a few moments, but climbing the long hill off of that dam, they were really getting pissed off at me. The road surface was just too rough for the lightweight soles on my racing flats. I needed beefier shoes (or tougher feet) for those surfaces and the heat wasn’t helping.

I tried lifting my toes when I landed; I tried landing on different parts of my foot and pushing off differently too. It was much more of a problem on the uphills because I needed to land on my forefoot and push off aggressively. It became agonizing by mile 7.

I took only one gel on the whole run, then figured I had enough energy and electrolytes to make it through the race. I started taking on just water, about a cup per aid station. At the 8 mile aid station, I spilled water on myself and when a little trickled into my shoes, I noticed it made them feel better, just a little. I was so happy about that, because the hills just kept coming and there was not one section of that long course run (especially the "extra" part that we did…) that was flat…not one section!

So, I got extra water cups at each of the aid stations and took a few seconds each time to pour it on my feet. It helped a little and kept me from just losing it.

Finally, we had a steep dirt trail/arroyo to climb, followed by a mile of sandy hills before turning onto the long climb back up to the ridge above the lake. My feet were toast, but that was with 3 miles to go, so I just put it out of my mind and tried to push harder. Up to that point, I tempered my running because of my feet. It was like I was trying to run on eggshells. It probably kept me from running too hard, but I wanted to run harder.

With one mile to go (the run down the steep sandy “dam hill”), I kicked it into gear and finished strongly. In the end, I was tired, but it was my feet that limited my race the most. I spoke to 2nd overall, Richard Sena, who had a very strong and smart race, and he said he had the exact same problem and was limping on hamburger feet too. So, I suppose it was an even situation…he still outran me by 3 to 4 minutes. My feet didn't look good after the race -- like a bubbling hot slice of pepperoni pizza on the bottoms. As I write this, they're still very sore and sensitive and dicolored from the blood blisters, etc. Gotta love triathlons!

I was so pleased with the race overall, despite missing my goal time of 4:40 by about 4 minutes. That’s pretty good for a long-course time estimate. And, I was happy to have accomplished such a tough race finish.

They have an awesome race course there and it would be cool to see more people step up to the challenge. In the end, only 63 people crossed the line. Hats off to all of them. That is a huge accomplishment.

And of course, I want to send out a HUGE congratulations to all of you Triatomics racers who gave it everything to pull in some great results, both long course and the Olympic. I'm always SO impressed with how we do as a group.

Enchanted Forest Trail Festival

2011-09-28T18:00:00.007-06:00

Enchanted Forest Trail Festival off-road Duathlon

First of all, a big thanks to those of you who made it out. I know it's tough to commit to something with family and on such short notice. But in the end, it was a great weekend for camping, hanging out and especially for doing this type of event. It's something that any of you who like off-road and mountain adventure should do.

I’ll spare you all the details of how we worked on getting this together and everything that I had to do to make it happen. Suffice it to say that I now realize that a day of chainsaw work is not all that detrimental to preparing for a ½ Ironman the following week =) A big thanks to Dina, who kept encouraging me and filling in the gaps left at home during the time that I was working on this race. It actually turned out to be a great course.

Speaking of the course, I thought it was beautiful. It was also challenging, especially at that altitude. I will admit that the run was a bit long: probably about 2.5km per loop instead of the advertised 2km per loop. Throw in the forest and mountain obstacles, and that turns out to be a pretty tough addition. The bike course was not much over the 10km per loop, but some thought it was longer than it was. Again, chalk it up to the challenge and altitude. I patterned these courses after what I’ve seen at XTERRA events, and in particular, the XTERRA Indian Peaks at the Eldora Alpine and Nordic ski areas. My bike time was exactly the same, but they do say their race course is 12km per loop, if that gives any reference.

The runs took in both wide and open xc ski trails, along with some very forested terrain that serves as the snowshoe trails in the winter. It had been raining a lot in the weeks before the race, so everything was green and wet.

Running at altitude is tough and takes a lot of people by surprise. I think we triathletes are especially surprised, but that is what makes doing these types of events great. They’re different! Even though I ran a grand total of only 51+ minutes at this little event, it served me well the following weekend at the half-IM I did at the Elephant Man because it was so tough.

The bike course was also very interesting and required a variety of skills. There were never any LONG sloggy climbs, but there were plenty of tough hills and slow stretches to make it a very hard workout. The return leg on the “Northwest Passage” xc ski trail had plenty of fast and fun riding, with just enough technical challenge thrown in to make it interesting for the real mountain bikers. This was a very ride-able course and Dina even enjoyed it. That’s saying something from an arguably non-mountain biker.

The cool gray weather, wet forest and green environment made for a beautiful day of racing. I was a little bummed that we weren’t able to see Wheeler Peak out on the “Piece de Resistance” (pronounced with a French accent) trail at the far end of the course, but the low foggy clouds and cold air made for a real Pacific Northwest experience. The course and challenge was hailed (almost universally) as awesome.

That afternoon, the GetOut!NM team hosted a cyclocross clinic that actually had an impressive turnout. I was pretty psyched to see how many people were interested in the clinic and the camping.

The next day, there were two (actually advertised as four different races) consolidated practice cyclocross races. These were a lot of fun and there were just enough guys and gals from around the state to make them interesting. We found a GREAT ‘cross course that had lots of real cyclocross elements: grass, grassy run-ups, boggy areas, really muddy corners, fast sections, wooded downhills, etc. It was a lot of fun.

I jumped in at the last second just to add to the mix. It was fast off the start with some quick-starting juniors, but the altitude probably got to them quickly and I was able to capitalize on the high concentrations of lactic acid coursing through their bodies and ended up on my own after the first lap. I worked on finding good lines and speeding up where I could, especially over the barriers. It had been a while since I’d done a ‘cross race, but I’ve done a lot of them in my life and the XTERRA racing I’ve done helped me to handle the run-ups and barrier sections. It was a blast.

Hopefully, this event will grow in popularity. We’ll likely attempt it one more time and see what kind of turn-out we get.

Ironman 70.3 World Championship 9/11/11 by Tamsen Schurman

2011-09-17T15:43:00.019-06:00

I never raced in Clearwater, Florida where the 70.3 World Championship race has been held in the past, but a decision was made by the WTC (World Triathlon Corporation) to move the race to Las Vegas, Nevada for 2011 (and beyond) with hopes that the course would be much more challenging with hot temperatures, tons of climbing/descending on the bike, and a hilly run. I would say that the race organizers met their goals because the water was 80 degrees so the swim was non-wetsuit, the bike was very challenging, and the run was never flat and it was hot, though not the 105 degree hot that Vegas had been experiencing up until the day before the race. We were told at the pre race meeting that the course had over 5,000 feet of climbing, most of which was on the bike. I pondered that for a bit, and though I bike plenty in the mountains, I hadn’t done any transition runs after my hard mountainous bike rides. Too late to worry about it now and at least I had a few hilly races under my belt for the season.

Qualifying for the championship was not my main goal this year, but going into Ironman 70.3 Boulder I figured that IF I won a slot to the championship race I’d take it. I’ve raced the Boulder course about 6 times and it is truly a great triathlon venue. The swim is beautiful in Boulder reservoir, the bike is a fast and fun 2 loop course north of Boulder, and (this is the reason I really like the race), the run is on a DIRT path around Boulder reservoir. It is a very eco friendly race, and the former race director, Barry Siff, who still has a big role in the success of the race, is just an all around great guy.

I didn’t win my age group in Boulder, but the woman who beat me just happened to be the 3 time 50-54 70.3 World Champion so she automatically qualified by winning the championship race last year. At any other 70.3 race I would have to win my age group to qualify since there is only 1 slot allotted for women age 50-54 at all of the 70.3 races. So, I took the qualifying slot in my age group after finishing well behind the winner in Boulder, and made plans for Sept. 11 in Las Vegas. My good friend John Brown from Tijeras also qualified in Boulder and planned to race at the World Championship but had to withdraw a couple weeks before the race.

My trip started off on Friday morning with snow on the peaks above Taos where I live. That had to be a good omen since skiing is my favorite activity besides triathlon. The flight to Vegas was fine except the plane reeked of alcohol and was quite a rowdy party scene. I suppose this is standard for flights to Las Vegas. I even recall lots of cheering when we landed. The race expo and registration were at the Henderson Pavilion just southeast of Las Vegas. This was also the sight of T2 while T1 was located at Lake Las Vegas, about 15 miles away. The WTC races always seem to require racers to arrive well before the actual race to “check in”. I did the required check in and settled in to watch some US Open tennis on TV at the hotel in Henderson. Talk about amazing athletes, but that is another story.

On the Saturday before the race there was an organized practice swim from 6:30 to 8:30 AM. A 650 yard course was set with buoys and only those of us registered for the race were allowed to swim. The water was somewhat murky but the practice swim felt good. I arrived about 6:45 AM and had a relaxing swim. It looked like many more people were arriving after I’d finished my swim, so I was glad to have gotten up early.

Later in the afternoon on Saturday we had to drop off our bikes and gear bags at T1. There was ample parking near T1 and I never got caught in any traffic jams throughout the weekend. As we entered transition with our bikes there were about 30 people sitting along the sides of the check in line with clipboards and pencils checking off everything from bike brands to wheel sizes. I guess keeping track of bike related statistics is important at the big races. The whole bike and gear bag check in process went very smoothly and quickly. The steep winding walkway from the road down to the bike racks would be an uphill slog on Sunday morning as we left transition.

Race day began very early with the transition area opening at 4:30 AM, though I arrived more like 5 AM. All the women 45 and older started the swim right after the pros at 6:35. I’m sure there were other important announcements on race morning but I only remember hearing that the water temperature was 80 degrees. We were lining up by waves and I chatted with quite a few of the women in my wave, all of whom seemed very friendly, and quite happy to be starting a race at 6:35 in the morning. There were many swim waves following ours, the last of which was the 18 to 24 male age group at 8:00. Andrew Templeton from Albuquerque was the youngest male competitor (he’s 18) in the event, and I chatted with him for a bit at the airport on the way home on Monday. What a great kid and super fit!

Lake Las Vegas is a small manmade lake with smooth, somewhat murky water, and some fancy hotels and golf courses surrounding the lake. It is an attractive setting for a triathlon. The race organizers put together a very safe, easy to follow course for the swim and the race started precisely on time after an emotional moment of silence in remembrance of the 9/11 tragedy.

I felt very comfortable in the WTC legal swim skin that Amy Regan lent to me, although the swim seemed to go on forever which is never a good sign. There was definitely some body contact in our wave, and though I’m used to this, I became somewhat annoyed with the woman who kept tapping my feet on every stroke. Finally I stopped to fix my water filled goggles, and she swam on past me. I continued on towards the next buoy and the next and the next and it seemed like forever before I actually got out of the water. I managed to get through transition without tripping on anything or anybody. I don’t really remember the winding steep uphill walkway to the bike mount line, so I guess it was uneventful.

The bike has been my favorite part of the races that I’ve done this year. I felt great as I started up the first of many climbs right out of transition. One nice thing about going to low altitude to race is that you just don’t breathe as hard on the climbs. The pavement was smooth and the course went into the beautiful Lake Mead National Recreation Area for about 40 miles. There was never a flat section in the 56 miles on the bike so we were always climbing or descending. There were no grind it out tough steep climbs, but lots of medium pitch longer rollers and I really enjoyed the entire bike course though the last climb back to T2 seemed long and since we were back in town it certainly lacked that remote desert feel of the Lake Mead part of the course. All in all though, the bike course is spectacular, and a good course for those of us that ride in northern New Mexico.

I thought I was pushing reasonably hard on the bike, and I passed some women who obviously swam faster than I did, but there was a never ending stream of men passing me throughout the bike. I expected this because all the men except the pros started after the women’s 45+ wave. The race organizers hoped that this much more challenging bike course would curtail all the drafting and pack riding that occurred in Clearwater. I did see a few guys drafting but not in huge numbers. I also caught glimpses of the pro men and women flying by on their way back towards Henderson after the turnaround at mile 20 something.

The bike ride was very quiet (ie: no chatting, no spectators cheering until near the end) except for some strange noises coming from my bike. Nothing serious I figured but slightly annoying. And it served me right for not having the bike tuned up all summer! The green powerade from the excellent and well stocked aide stations was starting to taste way too syrupy by mile 40 and I noticed the temperature was rising a bit as well. And had I actually only consumed 3 packets of Gu on the entire bike leg? Most races I am pretty careful with timely nutrition intake, but for some reason I mostly paid attention to drinking on this course, probably because I knew the run would be hot, and I thought getting more fluids was important.

It turned out I was in 3^rd after the bike. The previously mentioned world champion was right behind me and was running so fast I literally did not even see her pass me right after transition. In fact I think the top 7 women in my age group were all in T2 within 2 or 3 minutes of each other. I haven’t done many races where T1 and T2 are not in the same place. It definitely makes for some logistical challenges, and it also meant the bike course gained quite a bit of altitude by the finish in Henderson. One of the obvious logistical challenges is transporting gear bags. The race organizers handled this very well since we dropped off all our run gear the day before the race at T1 with our bikes and bike gear bags. The run gear bags were all transported and nicely arranged at T2.

As soon as we dismounted from our bikes at T2 they were whisked away by friendly and efficient volunteers. That was very nice, and unexpected. Now my only concern was changing shoes, grabbing a hat and some Endurolytes, and getting on the run course.

I actually felt ok as I headed out onto the run. For the first few miles I settled into a rhythm quite well, though the pace felt pretty slow. The run was quite busy (actually very busy) with racers, spectators, and aid stations and the course continued to be hilly, but gently so for the most part. The run consisted of 3 “repeats” of an out and back circuit near T2. It started out gently downhill for the first mile, then uphill for 2 miles, and then gently downhill for another mile plus. Because each little segment of the run course was out and back, there were always runners going the opposite direction. It was definitely hot and the ice and cold drinks were welcome relief at the aide stations. I had no idea where I was in my age group throughout the whole race. One guy said something like “I haven’t seen many women your age come through here yet” at T2, but I didn’t pay too much attention since people seemed to be flying through transition and flying through the run course as well.

I thought I was running a smart race because it never felt like I was working too hard, and I hoped to pick it up on lap #3. But somehow, probably because I never run on pavement and I don’t really run very many miles in training, by lap #3, my legs felt like lead and I wasn’t moving well at all. I tried a little more Gatorade (at least it was orange and not green!) and my legs picked up a little for the next 5 minutes and then I was back to survival slog mode. Temperatures were close to 90 by now so it felt pretty hot and seeing so many amazingly perky runners fly by me was a bit discouraging. I wanted to run like that but just couldn’t! I was surprised that only 3 women in my age group passed me and I finished 6^th in 5:23. I was very happy with the race, and though I knew I hadn’t had my best race of the year, it was still a good effort at an incredibly competitive race.

The post race massage and food tents were both a welcome sight. I made the decision to go with massage first since the line wasn’t very long. It was a nice relaxing 15 minutes or so, and I highly recommend seeking out a post race massage when it is available. I next made my way over to the food tent and was eyeing the pizza slices on other athletes plates, but when I got to the pizza, it was gone. That was somewhat disappointing, but I found plenty of pasta and fruit and chips instead. I joined some women from Colorado at a table and, as most post race discussions go, some of them felt pretty good about the day and others not so much. I didn’t pick up on the details, but I think the difficulty of the course had surprised many of us.

There were plenty of shuttles to take us (and our bikes and gear bags) back to Lake Las Vegas where the race started. It seemed like quite a few racers stayed at the hotels around the lake and those that didn’t parked cars in the parking lots near the lake. My shuttle ride was very pleasant and I talked with a nice Colorado man getting ready for Kona (his first time). I recall hearing him say that his biking is a bit weak but he was a bigger guy so he probably won’t even notice those winds on the Queen K!

Amy Regan told me that the 70.3 world championship is not nearly as big a scene as Kona and now that I’ve done both, I agree. This race was extremely well organized on a fantastic course (except for the murky water for the swim), with an amazing field of athletes from all over the world. The pre race hype was nothing like Kona and best of all for me, the race is half the distance and not nearly as painful. Hopefully I will return!

Becoming a “true” triathlete

2011-09-14T13:10:00.002-06:00

2011 marks the start of a comeback of sorts, after running cross-country and track both in high school and collegiately I was burnt out and needed some R&R before returning to competitive athletics. Rewind to fall 2010 when I began seriously training again for the first time in about 2 years. After suffering through minimal length workouts for about 8 weeks, I finally began to feel like my former self. After a very consistent winter of training I felt that it was time to begin racing again. After looking at the NM race schedule most of the winter, I decided on several races: Little Boy, Jay Benson, Milkman, Santa Fe, Cochiti. This is a report of my race experiences for the 2011 season.

Atomic Man-Little Boy

In about mid March I finally felt mentally ready to race and decided that my season opener would be Little Boy. After mostly doing easy runs and longer swims, I had begun to add in some intervals and some bike workouts. Race weekend finally arrives and as is typical for Los Alamos, Snow is predicted for the first week of May. During the prerace warm-up temperature were in the 20s and I kept going back and forth between using tights or not. It seemed to be warming up, as race start got closer, so I decided to use only arm warmers and gloves.

As the race goes out, I find myself out way to fast and way to close to the front, especially for the shape I was in. About a quarter in I had the unique experience of getting past by my younger brother for the first time in a race. As it turns out he takes the race lead and pushes the pace the rest of the way. I am content to wait and stalk the lead pack of 5 or 6. Coming into the last half mile I still was able to see the lead pack of guys. Entering T1 I was in about 6^th place and was very happy with my run split.

I managed to catch 3 people in T1, including Alexander and left in 3^rd. During the bike leg I had planned to maintain until the turnaround and crank on the way back. I felt that the way back the hills were easier and you could make more time coming back. I held until the final hill before the turn and was feeling good so I decided to push a little more up the hill. Right before the turn I saw the two leaders within about 30 seconds or so, so I really started pushing. I occasionally caught a glimpse of them until about 2 miles felt, then, I began to feel the lack of bike work and my mph dropped. I hung on until I got to Monterey S and then I was past by Marty. Him passing me woke me up and I was able to finish the bike well.

T2 went smoothly and I was able to overtake Marty early in the run. The second run was pretty miserable; I ended up being content with my place and just held pace.

Overall it was a fun race and a great first race of the season. I was very excited about a 3^rd overall result and excited about the upcoming races.

Jay Benson (ABQ World Championships)

I was particularly excited about Benson since the run course is first, and also quite fast, it would be a very good indication of my current run shape. Alexander and I started in the second wave 2 minutes behind the elite wave. I had planned to go out conservative since the first straight is uphill, and to my surprise Alexander stuck with me on the whole first stretch. We begin catching the end of the first wave. As we crossed roughly the mile he tells me, he was going to go from here and takes off. It was nice of him to wait for me during the first part. I thought about going with him but thought better of it. I kept catching more and more people from the first wave and was able to see Alexander about 30 second upfront. I finished the run and had a smooth T1.

On the bike I started out at a good pace and caught my brother about a mile in. For the first time I had the experience of mostly catching people on the bike instead of being caught. I hit the second turnaround feeling strong and was maintain a good pace. Once again my lack of time on the bike caught up with my and I suffered the last 3 miles.

The swim was also painful. I was out of gas due to lack of training and I couldn’t go. I managed to catch two people but was overall disappointed with my swim.

Final impressions from the race were overall positive but showed that I was out of gas after about 50 min. I needed some longer workouts. I finished with my best time ever at Benson, at just over an hour and just outside the top 10.

Milkman

Milkman is one of my favorite races in NM. The course is a fun, and more difficult then you would think. A lot of the really good guys from down south came out for it this year. My good friends Matt Gonzales and Rance Irving were there also. The lake/pound whatever you want to call it was the clearest I had ever seen it, you could actually see the bottom. I had the advantage of youth during this race, being in the first wave. This I found key because temperatures were supposed to climb to the mid 90s by mid morning. Matt, Rance, and I were all in the same wave. Rance took the early swim lead and never looked back. I swam along side Matt for most of the swim and came out about ten seconds back of him.

On the flip side of being in the early swim wave, they gave all the under 24s the worst transition spots. We had to double back on ourselves to get our bikes and get out of T1. The bike leg was going great. Going up the long hill towards the turn around I noticed I was doing close to 30 going uphill. This of course was due to a great tailwind. The return trip was brutal and the rest of the bike I was suffering. Read: lack of time on the bike.

Coming into T2 I passed my Dad who was just going out on the bike. T2 was uneventful and I went out on the run. I begin passing people as soon as I hit the dirt around the fish hatchery. On the backside of the fish hatchery I began feeling lousy and was light headed. I had been getting water at every aid station but I needed more. I took two glasses of water at each aid station, drank one and poured the other on me to try to keep my core temp down. The heat was getting to me bad. Then I hit the two-mile marker and suddenly felt better and was able to finish strong.

I ended up with a top ten finish and a very good time. I was quite happy with my overall race.

Santa Fe Triathlon

After milkman I had 6 weeks to put in quality training before my next race. I took advantage and added some longer rides and some track work. This was once again a stacked field. The run was first, and it was going to be a fast start. It was completely downhill from the start all the way to the mile marker. Once again I overestimated the shape I was in and started out way to fast chasing the leaders. The next mile was mostly flat and I just tried to hold a solid pace. Pat caught me shortly before the 2 mile marker and I tried to hang with him in the last mile that was all uphill. I couldn’t hang but finished with a solid run time.

T1 went super smooth, I caught multiple people during it and right after the transition. The start of the bike leg I tried to push a little bit and get into a good groove. We made a turn and the rest of the way out was uphill, I put my head down and cranked on it, which worked to my advantage, I had closed to within about 30 sec of my friend Matt. After the turnaround was all-downhill and I gave it everything I had. I finished up the bike leg pretty happy with my effort. Then entering t2 I was able to keep my momentum.

Santa Fe is interesting in the fact that you have to run about 400M to get from transition to the pool. The swim I felt much better than I had late in any race earlier in the season.

Socorro

Socorro is another of my favorite races to do. The only problem with Socorro is the pool can be a little crowed with the time trial swim start. I was lucky and when I started I found myself with clear water both in front and behind me. I had a better swim then I was expecting. I got out of the pool and after passing a small crowd of people I made it to T1. I had a spot on the other side of the transition so I tried to make up some time running without my bike.

I got on the bike and started to push the early portions of it. I was rolling on the bike until we got to the guard shacks to go on the back portion of the bike. Mentally I feel sleep from here to the turnaround, but from the turnaround all the way in I was flying. I finally felt I had some bike legs and was feeling great. Despite raining the night before the course was mostly clear of debris. Coming into t2 one of my shoes got caught on the ground as I dismounted and came off so I had to go back and get it.

Getting out of the run it was surprisingly still overcast and I felt great. I loosened up rather quickly and soon caught several people. Then we turned onto the ditch bank and I really begin moving. I reached the second turnaround and tried to increase the pace. Then with about a half left I started increasing the pace more and for the first time, this season, it felt like I was actually getting up and running. Triatomics overall had an excellent showing, with Pat and Jeff both being in the top 3.

Overall I could not have been happier with this season. The “comeback” is in full force and I can’t wait to see what next season holds now that I have some good races and good base under my belt.

Sept 17-18th Trail Duathlon and Cyclocross Events course info!

2011-08-29T11:19:00.001-06:00

Well, the Enchanted Forest Trail Fest weekend is set for Sept 17th-18th with a trail duathlon and cyclocross events and clinics for all levels and abilities! Proceeds from the event will benefit Los Alamos trail restoration efforts! There will be free camping at the venue (no hookups) and hotel discounts in Red River for participants! Check out registration, schedule and more details on the flyer on the Southwest Nordic Ski Club's homepage under Club News and Upcoming Events front and center.
Below is some info on the actual courses for the Trail Du and Cyclocross events courtesy of Clay:

After the mountain bike race in Red River on Saturday, Nina and I, and a couple of the Get Out! team juniors all went up to the Enchanted Forest trails to scope out the best possible course options. As of now, the trails are beautifully soggy, green and a bit muddy in places -- perfect conditions for a cyclocross and trail duathlon. Except for the altitude, it felt more like we were in Oregon or New Enland. Come Sept. 17-18, the trails will probably have had time to dry up just enough to make for a perfect weekend of trail events.

I can say that I believe we've come up with the best course for the cyclocross event, and the duathlon course is still being figured out with many more little sections of fun and scenic single track still being discovered. We found some nice terrain that will allow the advantage of real cross bikes to be maximized. The course is a blend of some more buffed out double-track "access" road, a short, steep natural run-up right where specators and campers will be, and a lot of rolling/twisty Oregon/New England-like woods that will be quick and fun. We tried to avoid too much steep grinding, or gnarly descents that favor mountain bikes. It'll be a real traditional cyclocross course that both racers and spectators will enjoy.

For those of you who went up to RR for the mountain bike race and got your butt kicked by that crazy (for lack of a better way to phrase it...) course, you might want to consider this event. Trail Du course will be a lot more flowing terrain with a mix of wooded double and single track with only short climbs and fun descents. This is the case for both the run and the bike. These are going be some fun events.

The cyclocross camp is going to feature several accomplished 'crossers giving instruction. If you're looking to improve your cross skills, come up and take advantage of this opportunity.

Vineman 70.3 race report (July 17, 2011)

2011-07-22T18:41:00.026-06:00

The Vineman 70.3 triathlon was held this past Sunday in Sonoma County, CA. It was a very fun race, and a great reason to visit the Bay area. We arrived Friday night on the same flight as fellow racer Jeri Sullivan and Dave Chamberlain. Char Latham also raced, but she put the long miles on her car in order to get to the venue. (Hopefully one or both of them can add onto this). The weather was great all weekend – Saturday was beautiful and sunny, and a great day for some wine tasting before getting to the race expo.

Event organizers required everyone to attend a pre-race briefing and get their hand stamped before you could get your registration packet. Warning to anyone planning on doing this race (and I do recommend it): you can't show up at a briefing late, as they close/lock the doors to the gym and don't let late stragglers in. So you have to wait till the next briefing an hour later if you're not on time.

Vineman is different from many triathlons as it is point to point, with T1 not being in the same place as T2. The race expo is held where T2 exists, so after getting your packet, you can simply drop off your run gear and be done. Makes packing on race morning kind of weird, though, as I kept thinking I was forgetting something, since my pile of stuff was smaller than usual. Up early got us to the transition area in plenty of time. Lots of big name pros raced, including Miranda Carfrae who ran by me as I was bringing all of my gear down to transition. Chris Lieto chatted with Ben and me after the race, while we were mulling about waiting for awards. A very nice guy.

Swim start for Jeri and me
The swim is in the Russian River – a shallow, wide, minimal current waterway – you swim upcurrent for half, and then turn around and come back. There were tons of starting waves – the pros went off at 6:30 men, 6:32 women, and then every 8 minutes after that; Jeri and I weren't till 7:26 and there were plenty more people after us. One nice thing (especially compared to Boulder Peak Olympic distance a week ago), people were free to come and go in transition well after the race had started. (In Boulder last week we all were kicked out at 6:20, ten minutes before the pros started, and we were never allowed back in, no matter the fact that I didn't go off till 7:10). The current did not seem bad at all, although it looked like some people really had trouble with it. For a couple of the waves, we watched the slower people seemingly go no where as they headed out - very troubling till I got in and couldn't figure out what issues they were having, as it really didn't seem like much. The water was 70 degrees, so wetsuit-legal for everyone – there has been one out of the past 20 years that it was so warm, no one could wear a wetsuit. The water was shallow, so that at some points, you could see the bottom, and at the turn around, there were quite a few men walking. I walked a little bit till I realized it was hurting the bottom of my feet. Still, it was so shallow, that you could had to pay attention to not hit the river bottom with your hands. This was only for a little bit, though. And the way back did seem faster than going out. We swam up the right side and back on the left.

Transition was sandy then rocky, but a carpet was laid along the length of the area, except not between rows. Enough to not be too bad, though.
"Where's my bike?"
You have to pay attention to where your rack is - there were close to 40 different rows. They gave you a plastic bag to load your swim gear into so that they could transport it to the finish area for you, or you were free to toss it to your cheering family – which I was able to do. Dan and the boys had gotten up early with me, and had been at the start area the entire time.

Immediately coming out of transition is a little hill. I had watched some of the pros run up it, and others ride up it (yes, they were in, out, and on their way, before I had even entered the water). I chose to run up it before mounting my bike, which I think was the right decision. The bike ride was great. Some hills (one in particular got my attention), with some twists and turns, but very pretty, riding through many vineyard areas and other crops, as well as lots of trees. Best part about the day – the weather was overcast until mid-way through my run. It had been hot on Saturday, which was fine for walking around and touring, but the clouds on Sunday really helped keep it cool throughout a good deal of the race. (I spoke to Liz Miller once back in LA, who has done therace the past two years, and she spoke of >100 degree temps when she finished her runs each time. Ugh). The bike surface is pretty good, although not always. It's a point to point to point bike, leaving Guernesville and ending up in Windsor at the high school. Almost all back roads except for the very end, so quite pleasant. I gotta admit, it's pretty cool to come into transition and only see one other bike anywhere near yours. Some lady came in soon after me, though, and mentioned that I was in second and that the woman in front was a good swimmer. I had no idea. (Turns out the woman in front of me, stayed in front of me for the entire race. And good swimmer, indeed; she's an ex-Olympic swimmer, and was a pro-triathlete for three years as well. And very nice, as I found out while chatting with her after the race).

The run was nice – some more back roads and then literally into and around La Crema winery's vineyards. I knew Dan was bummed, though; part of his spectating plan had been to be sipping wine at the winery while the runners came by. Unfortunately, there was a big sign as we entered the winery, saying “Welcome to La Crema Winery – visit our store in downtown Healdsburg for Wine Tastings,” or something to that effect. So he and the boys had driven all the way out for nothing! But I did get to high-five with the guys a couple of times in and out of the 1.1 mile loop in the vineyard which was fun.

There were a few hills on the run which kept it interesting as well. I saw Char and Jeri, and my friend Jaclyn from TriSports.com on the run, but with everyone starting at different times, it's hard to tell how everyone was really doing. (Although afterwards, I saw Jeri and she said she took more than half an hour off her previous half iron distance race!).

I crossed the finish line 5:05:14 after I started – a time I was pleased with. I certainly felt more recovered from Ironman CdA this weekend than I did in Boulder, although by about mile 8 in the run, I was feeling it in my legs. I ended up 2nd in the W45-49 age group. Awards weren't till 4:00, which gave me time to get a shower (they had a hose-fed three shower head arrangement at the finish – out in the open, but I was able to do a decent enough job in my singlet and shorts, and then get changed in the school's bathroom, that I felt a ton better afterwards), and get my bike boxed up and put away. Awards went 5-deep for age groups with more than 100 competitors, and 3-deep for the smaller ones. We each got a bottle of La Crema wine (which we drank that evening with my cousin at her house in San Francisco – it was quite good!), and some other swag. First got a TYR wetsuit, 2nd got a TriSports.com gift certificate, 3rd got a visor, and then I lost track... I turned down my slot to the 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas this year – Dan will be away at a conference, and I'm not comfortable with such a tough race just a month out from Kona. In past years, the 70.3 race has been AFTER Kona, making it more possible for me, but this year they not only changed the venue from Clearwater, but also the time of the year, so no thanks.

We didn't leave California till Tuesday, taking all of Monday to be tourists in San Francisco. What a great city. I would definitely recommend this race to all Triatomics. Being near sea level certainly makes you feel strong, and the hills are nothing compared to what we have to train on, although they are not be taken lightly, either. And, it's a great reason to take the family to northern California for a long weekend. (A visit to Ghirardelli mid-morning - does it get any better?!)

XTERRA Moab 2011

2011-05-17T22:21:00.003-06:00

First off, refer to the pics on the Triatomics album for the visuals. Moab is interesting to the eye, for sure:
XTERRA Moab Album

This race is a revived version of the XTERRA they last held here about six years ago and before. The course was changed somewhat from those years, which also had other variations. It worked well, except for the fact that we had on-coming traffic on the far end of the bike. Since it was on a Jeep road, there was room to pass, but the lines were sketchy and people didn't give them up easily. Anyway, it was a great race course.

The swim was in pretty cold water -- between 55 and about 58 degrees, depending on how far out it was measured. It was at a little man-made lake called "Ken's Lake" about 8 miles south of town, and there is quite a bit of camping there too. XTERRA races always seem to be two lap swims, which is strange. The water was so cold that people had trouble staying upright after exiting the water. I had a slow transition because my hands were so numb and I had trouble getting things off from the swim, then on for the bike.

The bike course is held on the infamous "Steelbender" (a.k.a. Flat Pass) Jeep trail. It had some gnarly rock slaps, big ledges, etc. It was physically and technically tough and took a real toll on you back, arms, and hamstrings. It was also pretty scary in parts and required some committed moves to stay on and not walk down them. That made a big difference in times, I think. The drops actually made stuff around here seem pretty tame in comparison.

This was also the longest XTERRA I've done. The bike was a long one (taking me 1:51) and the run was a full 10km on a pretty tough trail (my time of 54:08 was not the fastest, but among the fastest). I think the winner did a 48-something run, which was fast on that course. So, it was a longish race and there were a lot of tired folks afterward.

Laury Goddard had been to a Moab XTERRA training camp about 6 weeks prior, so he knew how bad the bike course was. I thought he was exaggerating, but he certainly wasn't. He was rather understating the difficulty, in fact, and to see it for yourself was absolutely necessary. We pre-rode on the Thursday before, and we had to practice certain spots several time to get it down, and get the guts up to do the drops in the race.

Both Laury and Orion had great races. Here's an amazing fact: this was young Orion's FIRST ever triathlon! He's only 16 and we just started to teach him how to "race swim" this year. He had taken to it quite well, and despite being more of a mountain biker, he's turned into a good swimmer and even better runner. I am pushing him to also run cross country for the Hilltoppers this fall.

We did Los Alamos and the Triatomics proud, with age-group medals for all three of us. Laury got 2nd in the 60-64 (...a tough field, no lie!) and Orion got 2nd in the juniors <18 after a hard-fought battle with two other very good triathletes. The guy who ended up winning was a faster swimmer/runner (and a year older and looked like a grown man), but Orion was hands-down the best mtn biker. The other juniors were amazed with his mtn biking strength and ability. I think he has a future in both road and off-road triathlons. And, I gotta hand it to Laury: this was a very physically demanding course and he knew it ahead of time. He just took it in stride and came out smiling on the other side. I don't know many people who can do something like this, and he did it in style at age 63!!!

I got 3rd in the M40-44, with a 9th OVERALL! The M40-44 class had the most placings of the other age groups in the top ten...well, maybe the 25-29ers had more if you count the overall. I also had a girl beat me! She was awesome and had a stellar bike leg. She can also swim and run well, so I'm not ashamed =)

Overall, this was a great race, but not for the faint of heart, or the under-trained. The course is hard and requires good mtn bike skills. It's also physically tough with all of the rock ledges to climb and a lot of granny-gear, gut-busting mega-steep climbing...throw in two stream crossings, and some deep sand, and you've got a lot of work to do. They do have a much shorter "Sport" version that has some of the stuff, but not nearly as bad.

Moab is also a lot of fun. It's a total circus with the National Park tourists, the jeepers and other off-road vehiculars, the motorcycles, the mtn bikers, the river rafters, the Germans...you get the idea! It's all a lot of fun too, except that they only serve that dang Utah 3.2 beer =)

We drove back home the next day, but not without a stop at a totally cool trail system outside of Cortez, called "Phil's World." This place is a must on any mtn biker's list. See the photos and look it up on the mtn bike forums. It's a great set of trails.

babysitting for Storrie and Cochiti Lake Tris?

2011-05-17T15:37:00.000-06:00

Hey, anyone bringing friends/family with them to Storrie Lake or Cochiti Lake tris? If you think they might want to watch our almost 3 year old during the race please email me at dinapesenson at gmail dot com.
We're happy to pay or trade by watching your kid(s) at another event.
thanks!
Dina

Be Nice to the Volunteers!

2011-05-13T17:03:00.006-06:00

Don’t let the blog title put you off – I’m hoping this isn’t going to be too dull or too preachy and isn’t meant to be a rant but I really wanted to put some things out there about the importance of volunteers and how the first three races of this season has changed my outlook on both race organizing and volunteering at races. My plan to volunteer actually started off last year when I was planning my race season (yes, a little early….) and was checking out the Chasing3 race calendar www.chasing3.com . Chasing3 are the folks who are running the New Mexico Triathlon Series this year and amongst other races, they did Benson and Cochiti last year. This year they’re doing more races and a race for free program, where if you volunteer to help at selected races, they give you an entry slot for another selected race for free (more details can be found at http://www.chasing3.com/race-for-free/ ) and that sounded pretty good to me so I volunteered at Coyote Carrera and Benson for slots at Storrie Lake and Cochiti.

The first race I volunteered at was Coyote Carrera down in ABQ and I essentially helped out getting people getting body marked and pointing people in the right direction – nothing too challenging but it was fun being involved and seeing the first 10 or so people crossing the line. One thing that stood out while doing a little crowd control to keep people from impeding racers exiting T2 to the pool was a small number of grouchy people who didn’t like being informed that they probably shouldn’t get in the athletes way – hey I’m trying to do you a favor!

Next up was Atomic Man, I did the Fat Man in the cold and light snow and as it was close to home my wife volunteered and helped out with traffic control and directing on the run course. She’s got a low tolerance to the cold so I’m very grateful she helped out in conditions which would approach her own personal hell !!!! However, she also got a few grouchy people, one who “had kids in the car” and wanted to park in the school parking lot after the Little Boy had started and one classic “I pay my taxes” when told a short section of road was closed. Ah, well you always get a few!

The last race was the ever popular Albuquerque World Championships aka Jay Benson and was as usual a great race. This time I helped John out with timing and the bike out/bike in part of the race. Now here we only had one minor grouch but he came back to apologize so fair play to that guy but what struck me at this race was the amount of effort that went into the race set up. I was involved in the break-down too and if you looked around, all the racks, advertisements, barricades etc. had to be broken down and put away and all the course markers and aid stations broken down too. Angie and John told me the Chasing3 crew had been there since 9pm the night before and had worked right through to after the race – would anyone have guessed that’s what they do? Me neither but I do now!

So I think I’m trying to make a few points:

One is that seriously, be nice the volunteers, you might have pre-race tensions and be trying to get in race mode, but the volunteers have probably been up the same length of time you have if not more and are more than likely doing this for free (or at least a free race ;o) and they don’t have to be there. You don’t want to be remembered at a grouch! I know it’s just a few individuals but I’m not writing about the 99% of nice people. BTW every Triatomic was a credit to the club!!!!!!!

Two, next time you’re at a race, look around and think what might have to be taken down when everyone clears out and remember that someone had to put that up – organizing these races is a non-trivial event and be patient if there are minor kinks during race day. Volunteering has given me a whole new perspective on the amount of effort and organization required to put on a race so hats off to Angie and the whole C3 crew. I only saw a small slice of what happens on race day so I can’t imagine some of the stories they have!

Finally, I’d like to get you thinking about volunteering at a race if you haven’t already done so, not only is it pretty fun and you get to meet a bunch of new people, it’s also an eye-opener to what’s involved and you might be able to pick up some tips on what to do or what not to do - I think I now have an idea what’s the most effective way to mount/dismount the bike!

I also want to thank the C3 crew for putting on some great races so far this year and now I’m just looking forward to Storrie Lake and Cochiti and yes, I'll be back to volunteer at more races!!!

FINISHER: Ironman Arizona 11-21-10

2010-11-24T12:31:00.004-07:00

My goal was to finish my first IM without hurting myself and I got that done. I got high value on my race registration investment coming in at over 16 hours, and I have to say that the accomplishment feels terrific. This was not really a race for me, but rather a test of endurance—and I passed.

I had done the practice swim the day before so knew that the water was 61 degrees and would require every one of my cold-water survival techniques (see previous post) to ensure that I could both breathe and swim for 2.4 miles. A positive mental attitude was also essential to get through this cold-water swim that could have been my undoing. I didn’t jump off the break wall into the water until about 3 minutes before the 7am race start. The entry point was about 150 yards before the official start. The gun had gone off about 2 minutes before I got to the start line in the water. By design, this allowed me to have open water for most of the race. I kept an even, steady pace and my breathing was good. At the half-way point I saw that my time was 54 minutes and I felt confident that at this easy pace I was going to finish the swim before the 2:20 cut-off time. My swim time was 1:58. When I got out of the water, I was so happy to have made the cut-off—just laughing and smiling ear to ear. They had warming tents and volunteers checking for hypothermia, but I didn’t need any warming tent and ran off to get ready for the ride.

They had angels volunteering in the changing tents, or so it seemed. These divinely inspired people dried my feet and put my socks on for me. Really. When I had the brilliant idea to put my aero helmet on right away, they helped me realized that it would likely be better to put my bike jersey on first. They were amazing. Other volunteers brought my bike to me in transition and I was feeling like a princess. It felt really good to be on my bike and my first of three laps of the course was good—the elevation is low, the pavement is smooth, and the terrain is flat. They say that the three loops of this 112 mile course is very spectator friendly, which is it, but the best part of this configuration for me was getting lapped by the pros—typically twice. I saw and cheered on Chrissie Wellington, Linsey Corbin, Heather Wurtele, Leanda Cave, Jordan Rapp, Chris Lieto, and Andy Potts, amongst others. I can now say that I rode bikes with all these people. Very cool. You could always tell when the front of the pack was going to lap you as all the motorcycles would buzz around. Unfortunately, the wind picked up on the second lap and it started to rain. There were two episodes of really gusty winds and hard rain, but I have been caught in conditions like this in training and really worked the positive mental attitude thing. The conditions were too much of a challenge for some and there were many that DNF’ed on the ride. Actually, about 20% of the field DNF’ed. I heard that about a dozen people literally got blown over on the ride; I saw two, one of which was taken away in an ambulance. I was hoping for a little more speed on the bike, but the wind didn’t allow—my time was 7:01.

It felt really good to get off the bike as I don’t think I have ever held an aero position for quite that long. Again, the angels in the changing tent helped me get on my way for the run. I felt pretty good on the first of three laps of the run course, as it had stopped raining, but then it got quite cold with nightfall. By the second lap I was feeling the effort of the day and the cold air, and I started walking more. I got one of those shiny thermal blankets on the second lap and started taking hot chicken broth at the aid stations. My run splits really show how I was loosing energy on the run, but I knew that even with walking I was going to finish 26.2 miles before the 17-hour cutoff (at midnight). I finished just after 11pm with a run time of 6:52. Just before the finish line, a spectator told me to start running (if I could) before the next turn as the finish line cameras would be able to pick me up. It was easier to do than I had anticipated since the crowd at the finish started screaming when they saw me enter the chute. I ran down the chute all smiles and giving high 5’s to every hand I saw. That finish line was incredible—I was in a state of extreme bliss at this point. To add to the intensity of the moment, the first person that congratulated me after the finish was Chrissie Wellington and next to her was Linsey Corbin. When I realized who they were, I screamed like a teenager meeting a rock star. It was so amazing that Chrissie and Linsey would be out there that late to congratulate age-group finishers like me. I then got my long-awaited finisher’s medal, got my picture taken, and thankfully, avoided the med tent.

My sister, Michele, was there at the finish for me as my support and she got my exhausted self, my bike, and all my gear from the finish to the car and back to the hotel. Thanks Michele. I also have to thank my coach, Jessica Kisiel for her guidance in my training, and my family for their tolerance of my training. Thanks also to Phil Coe and the “swimmin’ women” of PAC masters for their support; thanks to Scott Beguin, my excellent bike wrench who ensured that my bike was in great condition; and thanks to my friends and family for their support and for sending me energy and inspiration telepathically—I could feel it all day. It is very gratifying to set a goal as audacious as finishing an Ironman, then planning, training, sacrificing, and working towards it, then actually accomplishing it. My little neice, Amelia, gave me a card before the race that said. “I hope you cross the finish line, oh great and crazy Aunt of mine”. I did it. Thanks Amelia.

Cold Water Swim Survival Techniques

2010-11-07T21:26:00.003-07:00

As some of you know, I have had a few challenges recently with swimming in cold water at triathlons. Last year, I discovered that 64-degree water induced asthma for me. Although more of a confident than fast swimmer, I was a bit weirded out by this. So, over the last year, I have spent a fair bit of time researching and testing techniques for surviving cold water swimming that I thought I would share in the event that cold water challenges others, too.

An inhaler with Ventolin: Use this right before cold water swims. You will need a prescription for it. It opens up the lungs when the cold water wants to shut them down.

Neoprene sleeves: If you have a sleeveless wetsuit, like I do, you can get neoprene sleeves from Quintana Roo so you don’t have to buy another wet suit.

Neoprene cap: This cap will give you an especially dorky look with the groovy chin strap, but it works really well. Just put the latex or silicone race cap right over top.

Ear plugs: Seems that if you keep the cold water out of your ears it keeps you warmer and prevents vertigo—another cold water induced affliction.

Rash guard shirt: These are worn by surfers and you can get thermal shirts that are made of a fleece-type fabric. If you wear them under your wet suit, it really helps keep body heat in--mine is made by Dakine.

Bengay: I have put this on all exposed skin and, unfortunately, it seems to wash off fairly quickly, but it helps keep you warm before the race if the air temperature is cold. It's a little strange, but I have even put this on my face and it actually works well for the initial stage of cold-water swimming when you just can’t seem to get your face in the water. Be sure to wash it all off either during or after the swim as any residual feels weird on your face during the bike.

Hand Warmers: I came up with this one on my own…take disposable, air activated, hand warmers that you would otherwise use in your gloves while skiing and put them in little zip lock bags (double bag, just in case). I put one in the back pocket of my tri suit and the other between the dorky neoprene cap and the race cap. This works amazingly well. Be sure to have a pocket of air in the zip lock bag or the exothermic oxidation reaction is quenched when all the oxygen in the baggie is used up. The hand warmer instructions say not to put them directly against your skin. This is well advised as they tend to get quite warm.

Drink lots of fluids before the swim: It takes about an hour or so before you will need to “release” any beverages you have consumed. This may be nasty, but it really warms you up. Just keep swimming.

I was out at Cochiti Lake this weekend for my last swim-bike-run brick of the season and the water temperature was 58 degrees. I used every one of my cold-water survival techniques and was able to swim adequately with no asthma. Success.

Hope this was helpful. If you know any other techniques for cold water swimming, please share.

Kona Ironman week

2010-10-13T17:47:00.004-06:00

FordIronmanWorldChampionship – it's all one word you know – at least that’s the way it sounds whenever you hear it mentioned.

Dan and I were both racing together again this year. The plan was to actually enjoy the experience together (I was way too crabby during last year's race to make it fun for either of us). Our youngest, Ben, joined us for the trip, although the two older kids got to stay home with my visiting mom (what a terrific person she is).

We met some friends in Honolulu who are now on their third year of spectating on Tuesday, and all made it to Kona just in time for Ben to compete in the Keiki Dip n Dash. (I was going to try to put photos into this blog as well, but think I will go for the wordy version here and you can go to the Triatomics Photos link for commented pictures).

They do a nice job of keeping the kids organized and safe in the water, and Mike Reilly (the IM announcer) leads the runners on a Vespa. Medals were given to all kids – handed out by Paula Newby Fraser and Michellie Jones – the kids couldn't have cared less, but I thought it was cool.

Just like previous years, Dan and I would go out in the morning for a swim along part of the course. Gatorade was not a sponsor this year, and PowerBar Perform drink took its place, including at the gear drop for your morning swim. What a great service – being able to leave your stuff at the pier while you swim without having to worry about it. The scariest part is that the morning swims were simply out and backs, and there were so many people in the water, there was a decent chance of swimming into someone if you weren't careful.

We spent some time snorkeling every day. One day we rented kayaks and paddled the one mile over to Captain Cook's Monument for some excellent snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay. Where we also found Faris Al-Sultan (the 2005 IM champion) and some friends getting ready to SWIM back to our starting point. That's one way to avoid the morning swim crowd, I guess.

There's been a twist this year that a number of people were not ready for (even up until race morning) – WTC and USAT have different rules pertaining to swim skins. Acceptable USAT suits are not necessarily acceptable for WTC, which now requires ONLY fabric (my old speed skin has a slight neoprene portion to it). Luckily for me, suppliers of TriSports.com very generously provided its Kona athletes new helmets and new speed skins, so I was set with the new TYR Torque Pro. We thought Dan's would be OK, but when we checked in with Zoot, they said no, so Dan was faced with swimming in just his tri shorts, and then pulling on his jersey over his wet body afterwards (or buying a new skin – but it's tough to swallow that price tag for essentially a single race).

We also went for bike rides and runs every day, although they were rather short. My new Louis Garneau Superleggera helmet is really cool – literally. It's one of those dimpled aero bullets, but the styrofoam is only around your head, not filling the entire aero void (like our original LG from a number of years ago), and it has some great vent holes, which were terrific not only for the wind, but also for being able to dump water through to further cool my boiling head mid-race. I had just received this new stuff at Elephant Man, so although the smart advice is don't use anything new race day, I'm sure glad I did.

Thursday morning is the annual Underpants Run. It was started 13+ years ago as a way to spoof all of the Europeans who are quite comfortable walking around in their Speedos and nothing else all day. It has grown and grown each year. Multiple hundreds of people participated this year, and outlandish undies were everywhere. Ben chose to wear his conservative Bear Bum boxers although white briefs are the standard. They sell T-shorts to commemorate the event and all proceeds go to West Hawaii Special Olympics. It was a hoot.

Friday was gear drop day. You get multiple colored / labeled bags – one each for Bike Gear, Run Gear, Pre-Swim Gear (morning dry clothes), Run Special Needs, Bike Special Needs. We dropped stuff off, and saw Julie Dibens getting ready to drop off her gear. We did not have as much pro-spotting this year as we have seen in the past – don't know why (although Kate Major was on our flight back to the mainland). As you enter transition, there are a large number of people with clipboards lining the entrance chute – I am guessing they are company reps doing gear counts. You get a personal volunteer tour guide as you take all of your stuff into the transition area. They literally take you by the arm and walk you all the way through, going over the route you will take during the race. The day was now ours, so it was off to the City of Refuge for some more excellent snorkeling – this time while a pod of dolphins swam around us during their mid-day snooze.

Saturday 10/09/10 – Race Day.

Big news in the morning - Chrissie Wellington had dropped out due to illness. We had a bit more of a n understanding of that than we would have liked. A few days earlier, Ben had learned the term “praying to the porcelain god” as he hurled multiple times. And the following day Dan had been fairly under the weather with an upset stomach as well. I am guessing that I did not get sick less to my iron stomach, than to my lack of grazing at a local farm co-op earlier in the week. Ben seemed to be free and clear after 24 hours, but Dan was still not feeling great come Saturday.

We were up and out early, having dropped Ben with our friends well before the crack of dawn. Body marking is a serious endeavor there, with all of the block numbers and the India ink. You are not allowed access to your gear bags, but you can get to your bike to pump tires, add your nutrition holders, etc. We hung out together and then finally I needed one more critical bathroom stop so we parted ways and I went off to find the shortest line possible. Afterwards I still had time left over to wait but couldn't find Dan, so back to transition to quietly hang out when I ran into a TriSports.com teammate Karin Bivens, who we had spent part of race morning with last year. Her husband was a volunteer in the gear area, and told us how people were still wearing illegal swim skins, and were being told last minute to take them off or be DQ'd. (He had just taken one guy's suit to his gear bag). I'd love to know how that all played out in the end...

The pros go off half an hour earlier than the age groupers. I tried to postpone the inevitable and didn't get in the water till 5-10 minutes to go. I hung towards the back a bit, trying to strategically avoid the combat swimming I encountered last year. And who do I see treading water in front of me but Dan! Of course, we soon went our separate ways again but it was nice to see a friendly face before the cannon went off. I was pleased with my “don't get caught in the fray” idea, as the swim was much more pleasant, yet still strenuous, and there were still enough people around me the entire time that I did NOT have to worry about sighting, which I have had issues with in the past. And only one serious elbow to the forehead clobber (OK, I don't know how it could have been an elbow, but something really hard smacked me right in the middle above my goggles). I was pleased, that is, till I saw my time when I got out. I thought I should have been faster. Oh well. At least the speed skin worked out really well, and is truly a neat piece of swim gear – even if I will only use it once or twice a year.

Out on the bike, it was fun. I saw Dan and was able to yell to him after the turn around on Kuakini before we headed out of town, and got a big yell from Ben and our friends as I headed up Palani at the Sack n Save hill - always a welcome treat during a race. The wind and the heat really weren't too bad, until we went around a bend up the long hill toward Hawi. Then it was spectacular Hawai'i wind and I worried about getting blown off my bike. Lots of leaning sideways, and almost being blown into the center line simply because you couldn't keep it on a straight course – you know, all of the classic stuff. I felt pretty good till the last bit home – it just becomes a really long ride. 112 miles will do that to you.

Onto the run, thinking that perhaps I had conserved enough energy at least to not blowup on the run like I did last year. And where was Dan? I had seen him after the Hawi turnaround, but he was still behind me – a very unlikely position for him to be in. I saw Ben and friends at our condo on Ali'i Drive about 2-3 miles into the run, which was great. The whole run along Ali'i was actually going pretty well for me, and feeling pretty good, although I knew there were quite a few people in my age group already well ahead of me. With so many already in front of me, I figured it would be great to be able to run with Dan, enjoy the experience, and overall have a nice race. Then I saw him after the Ali'i turn around and he was not a happy camper and was encouraging me to go ahead rather than wait for him. Which I did. Still feeling good, I again pass Ben, but then I hit the little Palani hill. Three years ago, I remember this as a welcome break from the flat course and a nice way to stretch my legs. Not so this year. I felt like I slowed to a crawl, and could not get it back once I got up onto the Queen K Highway. The death run now took over and the world's longest 10k out to the Energy Lab ensued. Finally downhill into the Energy Lab and a grab at my Run Special Needs bag (some Gus and Enervitene) helped. Kept looking for Dan, having expected him to have come along and passed me miles ago. Finally found him heading down as I was heading back up and out. He did not want to run with me, and had been visiting all portajohns possible along the route. BUMMER. Ford sponsors an Inspiration Station around this point, where family members can leave their athlete a 25 character message that gets flashed up on a Jumbotron screen for you to read as you pass by. We always try to make each other laugh, or at least cheer up. Ben had submitted something from earlier in the trip that totally cracked me up, and with the B-52's “Love Shack” blaring in the background as I ran through, I have to admit that I was inspired and totally picked up my pace. And I had a very strong last 10k. Of course, that's what I felt like, and that's what the various people I passed said (“ooo, nice pace,” etc), but the 9:12s that I clocked out on my watch certainly told the real story. Well, at least I was back to being consistent and not feeling like I was dying and when will this thing ever end? As usual, sunset came way too early, and I was way too far out on the Queen K to be happy about it, but I once again dodged the glow-stick bullet, and did not need one before I got back into town. That last half mile up Ali'i truly is a cool one, but someday I'd like to feel good enough to really enjoy it – at that point I mostly just wanted to be done.

I waited for Dan at the finish, but he was much longer than expected, poor guy. Turns out his heart rate monitor stopped working on the bike so he could only go by perceived exertion; he had been unable to really eat anything on the bike; and was down to only taking on water by the run. Never do a Hawai'i Ironman without nutrition – it's really hard.

Elephant Man, Olympic distance, Elephant Butte, NM 09/26/10

2010-09-29T12:57:00.001-06:00

Another great race weekend at Elephant Butte thanks to Kori, Scott, and the entire Elephant Man race crew. I love this race – in a town of 2500, they get 150 volunteers to help out. How cool is that? A new twist this year was the kids race (Elephant Kids) held Saturday evening at 5:00. Made it easy for you to get registered, get your kid registered, and then watch him race, AFTER a day of soccer in Bernalillo, or whatever. Lots of age groups, different distances for each. Very well run and a great experience for the kiddos. Free T-shirts, race number belts and chip bands (thanks to Dam It Man leftovers – a lot like our Splash n Dash (Atomic Man) swag this year), real timing chips, open water swim point to point parallel to shore, then into the Elephant Man transition area where their bikes and shoes were waiting. They had a nice way of identifying kid ages (straight from Kona Ironman last year) – not only were they body marked with their number and age, but each age group got a color-coded swim cap and wrist band – which made it very easy for the volunteers to identify the proper turn around spots on the bike and run for the different aged kids. There’s a hill immediately coming out of transition for the bike, but the littlest ones (6 and under) got to simply do flat laps around transition in the large parking lot before heading out onto the run. I love those training wheels speeding around the corners. The older ones headed up the hill and out into the state park a certain distance depending upon their ages (oldest: 13-15 age group), before returning for their run. And did I mention that Ben crushed the 9-10 year old competition?! (Just a little proud mom crowing here).

OK, Olympic distance report: weather is always nice down there this time of year; it doesn’t get real hot till the end of the race, however there was more wind than in the past – never a good feeling to watch the strongly flapping flag early in the morn. Four waves of athletes this year – all the women except the athenas went first. A huge group got off in the front; I certainly was not one of them. The wind caused a decent chop so one leg of the triangular course was tougher than the others. Out on the bike the wind made the ride more interesting than usual. We headed out into the wind, though the tough hill is situated such that the wind was actually helpful. It’s still a steep section, though, that separates the strong from the not-so-strong. I had passed a number of those good swimmers by this point but there were was still some unknown number ahead. Came into T2 and took my good ol’ sweet time, just as I had in T1. As Dan reminded me later, you can’t transition an Olympic distance the way you do an ironman. Oops, that sure cost me.

The run was its usual scenic self – sandy for almost the entire first mile makes it tough, but then it’s up onto the dams with nice views. I saw the first four women way ahead of me and had little hope of catching up. Then I saw Mary Uhl, always a very tough competitor, coming at me as I was coming up the hill to the turn around so she became my goal. Finally caught her around the 5 mile mark (lucky for me she hasn’t been able to train much this year!). There’s nothing like running downhill and along a sandy trail hoping someone’s not right on your tail. I ended up 5th OA, 1st AG. As usual, an early race start gave me plenty of opportunities to cheer for fellow Team TriSports.com people, as well as fellow Triatomics. Speaking of which – a great Los Alamos club showing this year: Bill Bearden, Frank Cherne, Chuck Farrar, Greg Geoffrion, Matt Heavner, Char Latham , Amy Lee, Max Light, Clay Moseley (overall winner – congrats!!), Dina Pesenson, Sanna Sevanto, Andy Sutton, Karen Young, were all there (sorry if I missed somebody). A decent number of cool bottle opener medals and a signature EM beer were awarded to our club members. For those of you who missed it – put it on your calendar for next year – the last Sunday in September. It’s a fun weekend and a great race.

Elephant Man 2010

2010-09-26T18:13:00.009-06:00

This was my first attempt at Elephant Man and my last race of the season. We headed down to the lake on Friday to camp for a couple of nights and take advantage of free fishing day that Saturday (there's a reason we tend to only fish on free fishing day - we caught nothing!). Anyway, packet pick up was Saturday afternoon and I was really impressed with how professional the whole set up was. Its all centered down at the beach and there were a handful of tents up with the packet pick up underneath and it was operated with great efficiency. I got my stuff and numbers and headed back to the camp ground for a nap. Later in the afternoon we headed back to the lake for a quick swim and everything felt pretty good and me and Jaclyn bumped into Clay, Dina and Sanna enjoying the beach and Frank when we were on our way out.

The morning of the race we packed all the tent and stuff up and headed to the lake. I racked the bike next to Frank and picked up my chip and got everything set up in transition. Didn't really get chance for a warm up but saw a bunch of other Triatomics - Bill, Amy Regan, Chuck, Amy Lee, Karen and I've probably missed a few - as usual my apologies if I've not mentioned you! The swim started in 4 waves, women first, then men under 39, men over 40 and Clydes and Athenas. I was in the second wave and the swim started about 30 mins later than scheduled. The first leg of the triangle swim was OK, the wind had got stronger and there were some white caps throughout the whole swim, after the first buoy it was into the headwind and the water started to get pretty rough and I was bounced around while trying to make forward progress and probably swallowed more of the lake that would be ideal! I finally got to the second buoy and made the final turn to the shore - I think I tried to overcompensate for the wind and in trying to stay straight ended up heading too far right rather than staying to the left and had a couple of attempts to get back on track before finally getting to shore which probably added a little bit to my swim. I got my wetsuit off at the lake front while it was still wet and did the short run up to transition. The transition was set up really nice, they had these wooden racks on the floor which just had slots in for a wheel - the good thing about this is that it forced you to be a certain distance from your neighbor so everyone had a good amount of room, especially when alternating slots had bikes pointing in the opposite direction. T1 was pretty good, I didn't rush and just got everything done before heading out on to the bike.

The initial climb out of the lake area wasn't bad, it was definitely no Cochiti! The wind was still blowing pretty hard and it was full on into the face, kinda like early spring riding around here. And of course there was the hills, it was mainly rollers so it was easy to crank on the downhill and see how far you could get up the other side with the momentum which was a little tricky with the headwind. The hills went on for about 12 miles or so before the 17% grade climb I was warned about - thankfully it wasn't a long climb but there was another incline after it which was a gentle grade but seemed to go on for about 2 or 3 miles. At around mile 15 we crossed I-25 and the terrain seemed mainly flat or a slight downhill so it was easy to tuck into the aero position and try and get that average speed up. The last couple of miles were through town and back to the lake to T2. Every bump or uneven pavement was marked with green crosses so they were easy to avoid and there were arrows marked all the way on the bike course - couldn't fault a thing about it and if you're used to riding the Bandelier Loop there's nothing about this bike course to scare you.

This is where things got a little tough, transition was fine, no problems, but as soon as I started running I had terrible stomach pains (which I thought were cramps up until after the race) and it seemed like it was going to be when, not if, I launched. It was at this point it stopped being a race and turned into something I just wanted to complete. I was hoping that the pains would stop at some point but they kept with me throughout all 6 miles coming back in waves and slowing me to a slow jog and I had to stop every so often to let the pain subside. - at one point it crossed my mind that maybe my appendix had burst!!!! I have two theories on what caused this - the first year I did Splash'n'Dash I used to get stomach pains on the run from swallowing air on the swim - if I did the same on this swim and with the bike leg in there, that swallowed air would probably be lower in my GI tract and could be causing the pain I was having. I managed to fix this for SnD by paying more attention to not swallowing and swimming faster also helped as I was forced to take deeper breaths. The other possibility is that what I was drinking in my bottles was heavier than my usual stuff and I seemed to drink more of it that I possibly should have done - this could also have had an effect on my GI tract and maybe in conjunction with the amount of lake and air I swallowed may have added to the problem. I'd used the same fuel for a Brick the week before though doing the Loop and doing a hilly 6 mile run in White Rock with no problems but consuming less of it. Unfortunately every step I took hurt and the downhill, which was more physically jarring hurt even more so the run was a little disappointing for me. The run course itself was pretty nice - it starts off with a sandy section and a good climb for about a mile or so and then its out onto the dam and around the lake before a final slight climb to the turn around. There was a good crowd at the finish line and I dragged my butt over the line before heading to the lake to cool down and have a soak. Everyone seemed to do really well, there was plenty of silverware taken home, Clay won overall, Amy Regan got 5th woman and Dina, Amy Lee, Chuck, Frank, Sanna, Char, Greg all took home awards. The organization of this race I was outstanding, it was definitely the best Tri I've been to, its well organized, efficient and the course support was excellent, I couldn't recommend it enough.

Patriot Triathlon 2010

2010-09-22T17:46:00.009-06:00

This was my first time doing a race down at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, they do a few races there throughout the year, the Spring Fling in April and the Jingle Bell in December there too. My race prep had not been the greatest, I’d only been back from a week in England for my brothers wedding about 2 weeks and had just about recovered from the over indulgence and excesses that brought with it. I decided to train right up to the Friday for this one and didn’t do a taper, I figured that I’d rather train a little harder with a focus on Elephant Man which is 2 weeks after this one. I even had a couple of beers the night before, something I never do before a race – some residual Englishness from the trip coming out I think! The venue is close enough to Los Alamos to do the 1h30m drive down that morning so we set off pretty early after grabbing a light breakfast and arrived there just after dawn. The parking was a little tricky with a full parking lot and no guidance on where else to park! Thankfully we still had some shreds of common sense and drove further down the road and asked someone at the race venue entrance who directed us to another lot 100m down the road which was about half full with plenty of space remaining.

After that it was a short walk to do the pick-up and get the chip, all of which was really well organized and ran pretty smoothly. Then it was racking the bike and having a look at the race. The racks seemed a little cramped and pretty tightly packed together, when I got my bike out for a quick warm up, I was knocking back wheels with the row behind me! The indoor pool swim was interesting, it’s a 25yd pool so its 16 lengths Splash’n’Dash style and the swim start is seeded time trial start. Thankfully you had the chance that morning to adjust your swim start position so I jumped up 30 or so spots as I’d given them my 50m pool time rather than 25yd time. This did lead to a bit of confusion and there was a little jostling for position in the line before the start as I wasn’t the only one trying to do this – the numbers were almost meaningless! The swim went pretty well for me, the lanes seemed a little narrow but thankfully I’d positioned myself well and didn’t have to pass or be passed during the swim.

T1 wasn’t the greatest, for some reason I spotted my bike and turned into the wrong side of the rack so I had to u-turn out of to get to my bike so I lost a little time there and then a photographer was capturing this magical moment at the end of the rack so I had him to navigate too! Anyway, I was soon ready and off onto the 15 mile bike which starts with a climb up and out towards the Santa Ana Star Center and through some mini-roundabouts which caused a little havoc when the traffic was slow moving. I confess that I did pass a car on the inside - hopefully I won’t get a barrage of emails for unsafe bicycle riding but I was in a race dammit! There were police or volunteers at most of these so it made things a little easier and finally it was onto quieter roads with much less directional assistance in a more industrial area. There were some spots where I had to search out cyclists ahead of me to see which way to turn. The gentle climb turned into a few rollers and a few more ascents upto about mile 8 or 9, then it flattened out into a residential area and it was downhill for a long stretch. The last mile was a pretty good climb up to the transition area and I had a horrible suspicion I’d be seeing this hill again on the run.

T2 went smooth and uneventful and I was onto the run. This started on the same stretch of road the bike did so it was a good sized climb before a left turn and more of a climb. Eventually the course diverted onto a dirt trail with a little more climbing and lots of sandy spots which led to pretty soft footing and seemed a little hard on the legs. Then there was finally a downhill section which I managed to get a bit of speed going for about ¾ mile or so. Then it was another left onto the same hill the bike finished on which I wasn’t looking forward to, I also seemed to get a bit of a headwind all the way to the finish so needless to say I didn’t really enjoy the run too much. It seemed like an Escher staircase where the downhill and the uphill didn’t really seem to add up.

Anyway, I got over the finish line in a reasonable time and was pretty beat by the whole race. It seemed pretty challenging for a sprint with a good number of climbs both on the bike and the run (the pool thankfully remained flat) and I kind of wish I’d tapered a little bit for it so I could crank a little more on the run, although I was really happy with my bike split. Afterwards there was a good amount of refreshments but the downside to starting near the front of the swim and it being a time-trial start was that there is a huge gap waiting for the results and the awards. Oh and it’s about exposed as it gets, not much shade and it was a pretty hot morning so we nipped off the Lowes and got a few things while waiting around but still didn’t escape the race site until about 1.30ish. Another thing - a few Triatomics got led the wrong direction on the bike, I don’t know the full details but I think it was a race official on the back of a motorbike who led them off. The official line is that it’s down to the athletes to know the course but to be honest with you, if I had a race official in front of me I would expect them to know where they were going and it would have been very difficult not to follow them. Anyway, a bunch of Triatomics were there and we seemed to do pretty well as a club bringing home some silverware and plenty of the new uniforms were on show too!

Socorro Chile Harvest Tri 2010

2010-08-09T14:00:00.004-06:00

This was my second year doing the Socorro Tri, I had fun last year so was eager to do it again and it was one of the first on the calender and it was definitely on there as an A race. Its also the only race I did last year that I'm doing again so was really keen to see how my training has progressed over the past year and a good marker how things were going since getting off the couch two years ago. I had some specific goals this year, mainly to swim around 7mins, take 2 or 3 off last years bike and run sub 7.00m/mile pace on the run. Training had gone really well, I think I've refined my swimming a fair bit, my weekly bike mileage has increased and times have been improving in the Tuesday TTs and I've been trying out the Runners World Run Less Run Faster (it should probably just be called Run Faster....) program which really seems to have improved my run times considerably and I would definitely recommend having a look at it. Since Cochiti I was also concerned about my lack of run performance in that race so I've been getting some good Brick workouts in, doing the Little Boy bike course followed by a 5 mile tempo as part of the RLRF plan - again I think this has also helped out a lot too.

So onto the race - I ended up doing the pickup the morning of the race which was easy and followed by chip pickup and bike check into transition. The transition is a nice set up, racks labeled on the ground by letter which made locating it in T1 and T2 really easy. Managed to get a quick warm-up in and everything felt good and in good shape for the race. The swim is in their outdoor pool which was pretty much the perfect temperature and not heavily chlorinated. The start is time-trial with swimmers sent every 15 second so you have to be pretty much ready to go before you get into the water. I managed to pass a bunch of people in the first 3 or 4 lengths of the 8x50m swim and felt really good even upto the end - I've been concentrating on more arm, less leg which seems to send me much less anaerobic so I can go significantly quicker and save the legs for the rest of the race. I got out and into T1 pretty well, it was my first race having bike shoes clipped in to start with and that saved some time and made getting out to the bike much easier. The bike was pretty uneventful, I just kept it as aero as I could and cranked through it trying to keep as much form as I could. The bike course has a few hills but nothing too evil or too long and it finishes with a quick downhill which is nice although I did take my feet out my shoes about half a mile too soon but don't think it really hurt me in the long run. T2 was also good and went smoothly. I felt really good starting the run and could really feel the benefit of the Bricks paying off. The first mile or so is uphill and my pace seemed pretty good time-wise, then it transitions onto a section of double track before getting back onto the road and a mainly downhill final mile to the finish. The whole run felt solid and I could up the pace a little when I saw the tents and the finish line in sight.

Overall, I was really happy with the race, I managed to execute my plan pretty much as I wanted and hit all my pre-race goals which I was pleasantly surprised at and I came in at virtually the exact time I had hoped for in a very best case scenario. Positives were having my bike shoes clipped which seemed to help in transitions, and I think my Bricks were invaluable - knowing what intensity I could bike at in training and still set a good run pace afterwards definitely gave me more confidence and I didn't have those doubts on the bike that I wouldn't have anything left in the tank for the run. The only downside was a slightly slower bike than I'd hoped for but that's just something extra to work on for the next race! The other thing I need to do is to work out how to slow down everyone else in the 30-34 AG so I can pickup some 2010 silverware!

We had a good Triatomics representation there too - Peter, Nathan, Timbad (LBC reprazent reprazent!), Leland, Nick, Scott were all there and probably some others I missed (apologies!) and between us brought home some well earned awards!

2010 Chile Harvest Youth Race

2010-08-07T19:50:00.002-06:00

Denisse and I took Ethan and Natalie down to Socorro to race in the Chile Harvest Youth Race on Friday, Aug 6. Denisse helped to avert a disaster! Just as we were to leave the hotel room for the race venue, I realized that I forgot the kids' bike helmets! Denisse suggested we find a Wal-Mart, and luckily, there was one only 1/2 mile from the hotel. A quick stop to pick up two helmets, and then on to the pool to sign in. The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful evening to race. Ethan raced in the 9-10 age group, and swam 100 yds, biked 2km and ran 1km. Natalie went next and swam 50yds, biked 1km and ran 1km in the 7-8 age group. Both said they were tired afterwards, but had fun and are looking forward to doing it again next year. Ethan's age group was very competitive with the top 5 finishing within a minute. Ethan missed the podium by 10 seconds! Overall, a great youth race, and well organized. Hope to see more Triatomic kids next year!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. June 27, 2010.

2010-08-03T17:29:00.002-06:00

This is a really nice course and well suited for someone from Los Alamos. The bike has some decent hills on it, though none too tough, and the run is mostly flat, but with a decent little hill that you run up, then turn right around and run back down about ¾ into the loop (all three events are two loop). The lake is beautiful, and the bike course not only goes along the big Coeur d'Alene Lake, but also in the woods above Lake Hayden with nice views. The run is mostly along CdA Lake, with a brief part through a very nice section of the town and its beautiful homes.

CdA is easy to get to – fly into Spokane, WA, then rent a car for the half hour drive into CdA, ID. The lake was cool this year, ~61 degrees. This feels cold when you first get in, but once you get moving, you realize this is actually a great temperature to race in. I had borrowed Tina's goofy neoprene cap just in case, but was glad I decided against using it. A number of people had theirs on, though, so it's worth considering if you have trouble staying warm. It stays light out late into the evening and gets light very early, so no need for early morning flashlights, and only the very latecomers required glow sticks to finish. Race day was a bit windy, but at least the wind was blowing from the south which helped bring you back into shore on the swim, and push you up the longest hills on the bike.

The pros started at 6:25, the rest of us at 7:00. Which wasn't great for some of the slower pros, as they were just making the turn to start their second loop when the cannon went off for the age groupers. I had made a serious mistake and started in the middle of the middle of everyone for the mass beach start. This means that as we swam, everybody kept pinching and pinching till I really felt I was being squeezed to a point where I needed a break and could go no further on my own; but when I popped up to look for help, I realized there was no way I could get to the side of the swimming mass even if I tried, so I swam on. It didn't finally open for me until well after the turns at the far end of the first loop. Really scary. Given all that, I swam a 1:10 total and as always was grateful to be back on land – even more so for this race. This was clearly my fault, though, and could have easily been avoided by simply staying closer to one side, and more to the back at the very beginning.

The bike was beautiful. Decent surfaces for the most part, nice terrain to keep it interesting, and not too hot till the very end. Note that if you do this course – nearly every hill has a false summit, so just when you think you've gotten to the top, you really haven't. I averaged 20 mph for the first 80 miles, but there were still 32 to go! Ended up at 19.2mph – good enough for second fastest in my age group, though there were other women ahead of me to catch.

Into T2, I dropped my bike, grabbed my bag of stuff, and headed into the change tent. Looking up as I was entering it, I see Sister Madonna Buder standing at the entrance in a volunteer's shirt. So I said “Hi Sister,” and she followed me and another volunteer in and helped me get changed! (She's the 80 year old Ironman-competing nun who is routinely covered on the NBC Ironman shows for those of you who don't know). We chatted about her season, she wished me well, and I left her and the other volunteer with all of my sweaty bike gear to stuff back into the bag while I got slathered with more sunscreen and headed onto the run course. Yep, I left a legend to deal with my sweaty socks and helmet.

Out on the run course my legs felt great for the first few miles, plus I was happy to be off the bike. Of course, and unfortunately, that was a short-lived feeling, and I was soon plodding along. I was concerned about throwing up in a hot race again, so I really paid attention to the amount of Gatorade I was drinking and tried to focus on drinking for re-hydration only, not to just help me cool off (I think this is what I must have been guilty of at Deuces Wild, with such dire consequences). It was well over 80 degrees by this time, so it was a real issue. I saw Dan and the boys quite a few times during the run, as well as the TriSports.com crew who had come up to cheer a number of TS athletes (including the female co-owner of the company). Around mile 11 Dan told me the woman ahead of me was only 15 seconds in the lead, but in typical Amy fashion, my body decided that was right about the time I needed to find a Port-A-John, and it was time to further slow this silly pace anyway. Ah well.

Thus it was with great surprise that the next time I saw the guys, Dan said “she's right … there” and pointed to the woman I was about to pass. She must have been feeling even worse than me, as I ended up beating her by 17 minutes or something like that. Another 4+ hour marathon, 4:05 – ugh, even slower than Kona's 4:04 last October! Sure hope I can figure that out before Kona this year... Bottom line, I won my age group, though I was able to turn down the slot for Kona as I had already gotten one earlier in the year. I admit, it was nice to start the race without that extra pressure of needing to do well in order to race alongside Dan this year on the Big Island.

It was such a fun race, and great course, that while I stood in line the next morning with Dan who was signing up for next year's race, I thought what the heck, and signed up as well. And that is that ... my 2010 race season is now all caught up.

Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival, Show Low Arizona. June 5-6, 2010.

2010-08-03T17:27:00.002-06:00

I'm not going to say too much about this one, as I wrote a race report last year and for the most part it is the same – the swim in the lake is fine, though seemingly long; the bike isn't bad – a few hills, especially a long uphill around mile 40 that is always a pain; and a run that you wish was shorter, and cooler (another puke-by-the-side-of-the-course experience for me. Needless to say, orange Gatorade never looks good coming back up). Awards are great for the first five finishers – decent sized gift certificates to TriSports.com. Too bad I was 6th overall. At least I got something for winning my age group.

The nice thing about the weekend is that there is essentially something for everyone: a long course, a long course aquathon (half iron distance without the run), Olympic distance, kids' race all on Saturday; followed by an XTERRA on Sunday. I tried to tell a lot of the story with captions of the photos on the Photos web page, so go have a look there if you're interested. The kids race is only for kids ages 6-12, so that population between 13 and ~15 is sort of out of luck, unless your kid is a real stud and can handle the Olympic distance race.

A lot of Los Alamos people raced this year: Chuck Farrar, Greg Geoffrion, Tina Behr-Andres, and I did the long course; Max Light and Joaquin Gutierrez did the Olympic; our son Ben - the speedster / overall winner – did the youth race; Dan Rees, Clay Moseley, Laurie Goddard, Kim Meyer, and Paul Graham all did the XTERRA. Did I leave anyone out? Probably – sorry about that. Kudos to Laurie and Clay for pulling off a two-fer this weekend, having competed in Farmington the day before. More kudos to Greg and Tina for finishing their first half iron distance races.

Another great raffle this year, although even with all of the extra tickets we bought, we got NOTHING. Greg picked up a nice commuter bike light and a wetsuit, though!

As Clay's blog indicated, the last part of the XTERRA run was actually a swim which was a real hoot to watch. You saw lots of people enter the water, thinking it's just a little high-stepping section they had to get through, only to realize it was too deep to walk, and they'd end up swimming. Right near the transition area, so we all had a great view.

Ironman New Orleans 70.3, April 18, 2010

2010-08-03T17:26:00.001-06:00

Of note to those experienced with Ironman and 70.3 series races filling fast - registration for this race was open till about 3 weeks prior to race day.

This is an interesting one, as they also allow relay teams. I met my sister in New Orleans so that I could race the entire race, and she and two friends could compete as a team (of course, my goal was to beat them...). I was able to fly in Saturday morning, but post-race logistics make it tough to get out Sunday afternoon, so I caught an early morning flight back Monday morning, back into ABQ before noon. You might be able to do it Sunday afternoon / night, but it would take some good planning.

Packet pick up is at the downtown Hilton; it included a mandatory pre-race meeting (couldn't get the packet till you had a “I was in the meeting” stamp on your hand). Meetings occurred every half hour, so it was not as constrictive as it sounds. You need to drop bikes off Saturday afternoon at Univ of NO, which should be noted, is NOT near the Hilton (at least not near enough to drop your bike off, and then conveniently walk back).

The swim was in Lake Pontchartrain, thankfully not nearly as murky as I had expected – I could almost see my hand as it entered the water. I sure couldn't see any nearby competitors or feet to follow, though. They started in waves which was good and bad – seemed like the waves went on forever... My wave was 5th to go, and they were still heading out when I came back into T1. There was a decent wind from the East so the first half of the semi-U-shaped-course-parallel-to-shore wasn't bad but coming back in was a bit rougher. There were enough swells to make it kind of choppy. The worse was the last turn in towards shore, as the wind/water/current made you have to swim almost diagonally. The buoys weren't many so sighting was that much more difficult. It was funny that at the pre-race meeting they made such a big deal about the large number of police / emergency / safety boats that would be out there. With the conditions, though, it was nice to know they were there.

The bike ride is FLAT. The two bridges you cross are the only two hills on the course. The course follows along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain for quite a while, but there are levies built lakeside, so you don't really get the views I was hoping for. Some houses you pass are beautiful, others still Hurricane Katrina-damaged (this was prevalent throughout town – just intermittent trashed houses, interspersed with nice homes, or homes in a state of repair). The headwind was sort of from the side so I never got the help on the return that I had hoped for. Still managed to average ~20 mph, though. We rode through a bayou district, and a National Wildlife Refuge which were interesting. I thought it was pretty cool to see herons hunting in the swamp.

I came into T2 and felt good right off the bike so was pleased with that. Started the run feeling good, thinking I had finally run a smart race, as I slowly picked off women one per mile for the first four or so, though it was tough to tell who was in my age group, who was a relay member, ...who was I really racing. Then around mile 8, I just sort of lost my mental edge and was feeling tired and hot and sloooowed down. I finally got my act together again, but not till the very end of the race. The run goes through a large park (I think it's an abandoned golf course, post-Katrina), and then just down a boring road to the finish. However, the last bit was fun – like Kona, you run the last portion up a signature road lined with people to the finish line – this time it was in the French Quarter, complete with wrought iron balconies. Crossed in 5:08, good enough for second place in my age group (first place crushed me by 13 minutes!). Went to the awards ceremony and was pleased to find out the top two got slots to Clearwater so I took mine, and started planning another trip in November. There was a post-race party in the park which was kind of cool, as you watched GIANT ships moving up and down the Mississippi behind the band. More free beer flowed, which was nice as we waited and waited for the last friend to finish.

The finish line is at Jackson Square, nowhere near transition so you do need to plan ahead as to how to get back to your gear at the end of the day. One of my sister's friends did the race in its entirety and took an eternity to finish, for which we waited. It was nice to see that bikes were still being guarded when we finally got back to UNO (after friend's post-race IV).

The problem with being a relay is that it seemed that relay team members had to hang out in transition while waiting for their team mates – meaning the runner roasted... On the course they did a very good job of keeping the aid stations well-stocked with ice, drinks, etc. I had heard that they had run out the previous (inaugural) year. Supposedly lots of first-timers showed up with no / empty bottles, so there was a larger need for supplies than they had anticipated.

Lavaman, Waikoloa, Hawaii. March 28, 2010

2010-08-03T17:15:00.003-06:00

OK, Andy, I'm sitting on a plane and have some time to write a few race reports. I am going to enter them into the blog separately just to make it easier to find should someone be contemplating the race and wants to search the blog for possible entries...

Lavaman, Waikoloa, Hawaii. March 28, 2010
This is a very nice Olympic distance race that often coincides (though not always) with the Los Alamos schools' spring break, so for all of you parents thinking about a Big Island vacation, I highly recommend this race. It is held on a Sunday, and there is a kids race the Saturday morning prior such that you can get the whole family involved. It's also nice for those of you intrigued by the Ironman World Championship videos of riding along the Queen K highway in the wind and lava – most of the Lavaman bike course is along a portion of that same course. One more important planning note: Bike Works Hawaii rents high-end tri bikes, so no need to lug yours over on the airplane. It's something like a 3-day minimum rental period around Lavaman, but training rides early in the morning before the rest of the family gets up is a great way to spend part of your vacation.

The race is put on by the WTC (you know, the Ironman guys), so they know what they're doing. Even down to the India ink block-number body marking in the morning, although that actually took a while so people who showed up last minute started to worry about actually getting to the starting line on time. Timing chip pickup is on race morning as well. Registration is Saturday afternoon at the Hilton Waikoloa. The race starts at a civilized 7:30, and there were 5 waves: elite, young guys, old guys, young girls, old girls. This is a huge Team in Training destination race, so never feel like you will be last one finishing – there are plenty of people to pass along the way. The swim is in the ocean so the visibility is quite nice, and the buoyancy from the saltwater compensates for the fact that it is typically not wetsuit legal (last year it was actually cool enough to be legal, though very few people wore one). And you get the bonus of seeing coral, colorful fish, and occasionally a turtle swimming by. I got lucky this year, and ended up following a woman wearing those goofy white compression socks who swam just about the same speed as me, and more importantly, in a straight line. My need to try to sight buoys was thereby greatly minimized which helped a lot. It's a decent little run from the beach to your bike, but not too bad. The bike course is well marked and straightforward. There are definitely some rollers, and the wind seems to be squirrelly, but that's part of racing in Hawaii, I think. The road surface is good, and it has a nice wide shoulder.

Back into transition for the run and here's where it gets a little more challenging. You run out on a brief rocky lava trail and then onto black top. Easy to follow but the footing on that first trail makes you pay attention. The run loops around the Waikoloa Beach Village area and then enters the Hilton property. Here you run by their golf course, lagoon, and swimming pools, and get cheered on by your luxuriating family, too busy having fun in the water to really come watch you race (at least, this is what Dan and the boys have done every year, but who can blame them?!). Then the really tough part, but much more fun – you run the last mile on a sandy, rocky trail right along the ocean side back to A' Bay and the finish line. It is a really nice little stretch, but loose footing at the end of a race is always a challenge.

I have done this race at least three times now, coming in second in my age group for the first two, and finally winning the AG this year. They have very nice lava-based ceramic awards for the top three in each age group, and an EXCELLENT post-race beach party for all. Kona Brewing Company is one of the title sponsors so free beer flows along with live music and a good buffet, all right at the beach park. Need I say more?

Cochiti Lake Olympic Triathlon Race Report

2010-07-21T09:57:00.035-06:00

Cochiti was a number of firsts for me, first open water triathlon, first competitive swim in a wetsuit and first Olympic distance triathlon. My training had gone pretty well so I was really looking forward to it albeit a little nervous and concerned about pacing to make sure I had enough left in the tank for the run. Me and Jaclyn got up pretty early the morning of the race and drove down to Cochiti Lake for the race, with ominous clouds hanging over Albuquerque and it looked like the weather might be a little grim. A little rain fell as we got onto the south side of Santa Fe but thankfully the clouds cleared and the possibility of rain diminished as race time approached. Getting into the parking area was easy, it was nice to have people directing you into a parking spot rather than the free for all which usually ensues. The bikes racks were marked according to age group and after dumping my bike and stuff, I went off to get my packet and get marked up for the race. The transition area seemed to be officially closed quite early, about 30 mins before the race so I didn’t really get chance for a proper warm up but did get chance to see a bunch of other Triatomics there. As a club we had a really good number of athletes there, Clay, Dina, Frank, Jeri, Toma, Bill G., Russ, Char, Dr G., Pat H., Kim K., Joaquin, Nick, Fred W., Karen, Tina, Tom, Mark & Kim – so nearly 20 of us, and I’ve probably missed some people (sorry!) and some of those people I havn’t met yet so sorry for not saying hello.

I did get chance to get accustomed to the wetsuit again (only one previous open water swim a few weeks ago!) with a little warm-up and then it was onto the race start. The Elites went first and then it was split into age group male/female waves. I think I was the 3^rd wave to go and wasn’t really ready for the start – down by the shore it was tough to hear the countdown, especially with ear plugs in….So the swim started by the boat dock and was triangle course, clockwise around a couple of buoys. The first stretch I realized I was going a little too quick and eventually got into a decent rhythm, I wasn’t too bothered about keeping up with the faster swimmers, just concerned about keeping good technique and getting to the end without being too anaerobic. The only thing that made the first stretch a little tougher was some guy who couldn’t keep a straight line and swam in a zig-zag right in front of me, he’d have been well clear of me if he happened to swim straight! I eventually gave up slowing down to let him cut in front of me and I kinda swam over him – oops! - needless to say he didn’t cut in front of me again. As I said earlier, this was only my second open-water swim ever, my first was with Eric Lujan who ran an open water swim clinic at Cochiti a few weeks earlier and he really gave me some good tips on sighting, stroke and swimming in a group which definitely helped me out – especially with sighting and staying on course. At the first turn, I realized I’d been swimming into the wind so the second leg was much easier and I managed to get a good pace going. This had its downside as after the second buoy and the stretch back to shore, the wind had picked up a little and things got a little more choppy and a little more difficult but I kept my composure and got back to shore without much difficulty. So I took Pats advice and stripped down my wetsuit and took it off at the shore, I think people may have thought I was a little odd as everyone else was running past struggling with their suits but pretty soon I had mine off and over my shoulders on my way to T1. This did seem to help in the long run, in T1 all I had to do was worry about the usual stuff without the complication of the wetsuit and it gave me an extra little breather at the shore and of course if Pat says that’s the way to do it, who am I to argue!

T1 was pretty smooth, unrushed and probably a little slow, but not to worry. So the bike start isn’t the nicest, it’s a steep uphill for just under a mile before turning left onto the dam wall. The road surface here isn’t the greatest, it’s got a fair bit of gravel on it and these small stones were frequently pinged against the guard rails from the tires. This stretch was about 10 miles or so, and then it’s onto the road which heads out onto Highway 22 towards I-25 and after the dam wall, this was smooth and freshly resurfaces – it was a beautiful transition! I managed to keep my speed up on this stretch after being passed by quite a few people on the wall, it’s a gentle uphill to the turn around and there was a light breeze which turned into a headwind on the return leg which headed back along the road to the boat dock. This ended with a mile or so of uphill to the turn off and then that steep downhill back to the dock. My back was killing me from around mile 20 and no amount of stretching seemed to right it which hammered home the fact I really need to get a bike fit – it really wasn’t much fun! The bike was pretty much OK, as usual I’d like to have generated a bit more speed but I don’t think I’ll get a penalty for drafting Clay for quite some time.

T2 was smooth and quick, the one thing I should remember in future is not to hang the wetsuit on the rail directly above my running shoes and socks. Not that this is a major problem, but I’m convinced that extra couple of ounces of water slowed by run down by at least 6 minutes……. The run was pretty tough, it was that same exit out from the boat dock and onto the dam road, and at this stage, the sun was coming out and starting to bake us. The first mile was really tough and it was a bit of a hard slog up the hill but I kept telling myself, wait for the dam wall and you’ll get your running legs under you. It was great to see Clay powering away in the opposite direction with a great lead and high-fives were definitely in order. Of course, I didn’t quite get my running legs under me and upto the turn around was a gentle uphill which I’d convinced myself would help me get the hammer down on the return leg. At the turn around point, this didn’t happen either and I failed to get any kind of good running feeling at all but it definitely lifted my spirits to see all the Triatomics out there also having fun on the run. It progressively got hotter and before the final right turn back down the steep descent to the finish was another relatively steep climb which seemed wind free and the sun just baked me – this was probably the hardest part of the day, and I ended up walk/running up parts of it – I felt like I was burning up but nearly home and running uphill with Bill Geist ripping past me like it was a recovery run! Finally at the steep descent back to the dock I almost ran well – gravity can be kind sometimes – and dragged myself over the line for the finish.

I really enjoyed the race – I thought the organization was brilliant and the guys at Sport Systems did a really good job. The course was really well marked, with markers every km (mentally demanding on the run though!) on both the run and bike routes, the preliminary results were up really quickly with age group breakdowns too. The course was good, the bike was pretty quick and nice with a couple of hills thrown in and you might have gathered that I thought the run was tough – partly due to the weather – and another water station would have been appreciated on the run but I’m sure that’s volunteer limited. As a club we took home a bunch of silverware, Clay and Toma took the mens and womens Elite wins and plenty of others placed well in their age groups. All in all, an awesome turn out and an awesome race!

2010 Cochiti Tri and Pajarito Punishment race posts!

2010-07-20T14:10:00.001-06:00

In view of the fact that I havent gotten around to posting my own race reports for the longest time, here are links to two really good ones by other people.
One is from the recent Pajarito Punishment Mountain bike race courtesy of our on-again, off-again Triatomics member and awesome blogger, Tarik. Check out Tarik's Pajarito Punishment blog here.
The second race report is by the Triatomics Ukrainian ironwoman friend, Tamara (Toma) Kozulina, who has been coming up to Los Alamos for training at least once a year since 2005. This one is actually a little story about training in Los Alamos (thanks to all the Triatomics who have hosted her!) as well as her experience at the Cochiti Triathlon a week ago. Check out Toma's blog here.

Age Group Nationals for XC Skiing -- January 2010

2010-06-24T15:50:00.002-06:00

...I know, this is a summertime sport blog, but I figured I'd post something from our adventure to Vermont this past January for the age group nationals for xc skiing.

Read about it on the SWNSC blog:

http://swnordicski.blogspot.com/

Tour de Los Alamos babysitting

2010-06-16T07:38:00.002-06:00

Mike is racing and I hope to just get in a ride in the Citizens race during the Tour de Los Alamos. Our wonderful neighbor, who loves kids and offered to take care of Miss Maia when we needed it, is out of town. So, we are looking for a babysitter. Any suggestions? It would be on Sunday, June 20th from 8:30 AM until ~noon. I can drop off Maia anywhere with her stuff, if that is easier for someone. She is 6 months old and not mobile yet . . .

Mike finishing Sandia Crest

2010-06-14T10:05:00.005-06:00

Proud of the hubby Mike Warren- he did a great job at Sandia Crest yesterday. Thought I'd share since he's kind of a quiet guy. He finished 2nd overall in the "A" race (Pro/1/2) in a pretty tough field and told me that he broke his 3 hour power record (and 2 hour). Awesome! Los Alamos was well-represented, taking 1st and 2nd. (Fortunato did fantastic- nabbing the top spot.) Hugh and Gretchen tamed the beast, too. Not sure who else was there . . .

XTERRA Double Header Weekend - Four Corners and Deuces Wild

2010-06-09T17:04:00.005-06:00

The organizers of these two great XTERRA races probably didn't mean to put them both on the same weekend when they were planning their respective races, but somehow there was a goof-up and they ended up back-to-back. This is rare for XTERRA -- to have two races so geographically near each other, but somehow they made it work and even offered incentives for the top finishers who did both. Whatever...they need to fix the schedule. Really, it's the Deuces Wild that moved their race into June, so maybe they will need to assess making a change. It's a double bummer, as we're all forced to miss the Milkman, our best sprint tri in NM and generally considered the sprint triathlon state championship.

So, all of the opinion aside, it turned out to be a pretty cool off-road tri weekend, if not a little hard on the body. I think it was reported that no less than 29 or 30 participants opted to do both, including myself and Laury Goddard. Also at the Four Corners in Farmington was Kim Katko, who put in an awesome race to take 7th overall in the women's event. On the other side of the state line in Arizona, Dan Rees, Kim Meyer and Paul Graham did the Deuce (Amy Regan did the Deuceman 1/2 IM race too -- race report, Amy?).

Laury and I drove up to Farmington to pre-ride the bike course for the Four Corners XTERRA. It is on the Road Apple Rally trails, so if you've done that mtn bike race (the oldest in the world), then you know those trails. The rest of the race is virtually just like the Farmington Grady Williams tri, with some run course deviations. The swim is a two lap affair, making up an approximate 1,500 meter swim.

Did I mention that it got hot? Yep, it was roasty, toasty in Farmington, with just about 100 degrees for the day...probably not so much during the race, but it was definitely in the 90s.

With a lot of hard training from the Galisteo RR to Memorial Day, I was hoping for a good result at Four Corners, but I ended up timing my rest badly and felt VERY flat and generally off during the entire race. I swam OK, but it didn't feel very good and somehow it took everything out of me and I felt like an over-cooked spaghetti noodle on the run. That run is always a good one for me, except for that day. I actually got passed by XTERRA-guy runners, which bummed me out. I struggled the whole way, and even got lost a little bit on a sandstone rock with no markings in sight. I hoped for a better bike ride, but that was actually the worst leg of all.

I crashed not far out of T2 while trying to put on my bike glove, then had to endure a long line of guys just blazing by me during the first half of the race. I seemed to get some legs later in the race and re-caught a couple of them, but the damage was done and I lost a good 7 to 9 minutes overall with all of my mishaps and weaknesses. I did see some positive light during the final miles of the bike, when I began feeling my legs kick in and I left behind those guys who had caught me earlier, and I even caught a guy who had passed me on the run, so I had hopes for the next day's race at Show Low.

At the finish, Laury also lamented on how flat he felt and was equally bummed with his race in general. We philosophized it away, had a good post-race lunch at the Lions Wilderness Park, enjoyed our 4.5 hr drive in 100 degree heat to Arizona, and arrived at the race site packet pickup with renewed hope and vigor. We then headed over to the best local Mexican food restaurant in town (which also catered the race) and had a great dinner and a beer.

We got a little tired and sore by bedtime, but figured a good warmup would help clear the cobwebs, so we opted for the early wake-up and race arrival to leave plenty of time. It was a good strategy, as we both felt like we were ready to go when it was time. It was also really cool seeing the same faces we saw the day before, plus the fresh ones here for just this race. More NM people did this race than the Four Corners, I think...

The swim start at Deuces Wild is always a little crazy because it's a deep water start with an immediate curve to make, making it really tight and cramped right from the gun. It's so crazy how we take off hitting each other and swimming right into the beach and the little observation pier there. After that, it's finally open water and I had some ground to make up. I opted for a much more casual swim than the day before, as I felt that the hard swim at Four Corners set the rest of my race up for a sufferfest since I am way soft on my swim training. It was a good strategy and I felt better at the end of the swim than the beginning, and was much less worked-over once out of the water.

I also took a way-too-leisurely approach to my T-1 and lost about a minute to those guys I needed to stay on par with to be competitive. That's bad, but I don't know what I could do differently...I needed my Camelback with the pending heat, and I needed gloves because I'd get blisters on my hands, so I just don't know. Maybe it actually helps in the long run, but I need to find some speed in T-1 at the XTERRAs.

Once out on the bike, I just worked on finding my rhythm, which is never easy at XTERRA because you're all worked over from the swim. It takes some time to get your mountain biking skills working. I seemed to recover more quickly this year than the other two times I did this, and felt like I was having a decent bike. I rode hard, despite feeling my tired back and legs all the way up the long initial climb to the top of a dome-like mountain. Once at the top, I began to really turn it on and just hung with the two guys who I rode over the top with. They were very good bike handlers, so staying with them was a challenge and helped my overall speed. I even took some turns leading, but it was mostly them making the pace. I was really able to help once we hit a long dirt road section before the final single track sections coming into the finish.

By the end of the bike, I knew it had been a fast ride (my fastest by quite a bit) and I was feeling pretty good. But, with all of the competition at this year's race, my fast bike was only good for about 11th best -- wow! People near the finish were yelling: "ninth, tenth, eleventh" to us 3 guys coming in, so I kicked the last couple of sections to get a gap on those two guys.

Into T-2, I focused on having a faster transition. The guy who was with me (or just behind) blazed in and out so fast that I actually had a gap to make up once we were out on the run. Once again, I actually felt pretty good starting the run, despite achy back and legs. It took a little while to get going, but I was moving along pretty well. At first, I didn't make up any time on the 21 yr old dude in front of me and thought he was going to out-run me. But once we descended the steep hill down below the dam and then had to climb out, it became apparent that he was slowing significantly. I caught him at the top of the climb and suffered back into my run that went across another short dam. I felt alright, but I compared to the year before and just knew I was lacking the juice to have a great run.

And so it went for the rest of the race. I even struggled a little at one point, but as we got nearer to the finish, we had to go through two lake crossings (or marsh crossings). I whole-heartedly dove in right away and swam both without hesitation. The cool water felt good and I think it was actually faster than trying to run through them. With wet, squishy shoes, I ran as fast as my tired body could muster into the finish, with pretty good kick in the final 500m.

Overall, this was a fun weekend. I'd do it again, but realize I need more mtn bike miles and more race-specific training to be competitive with the new group of folks making the move over to XTERRA. I definitely want to go back to Four Corners and avenge my bad day on that very cool course!

Amy Regan got some pics of some of us during the race (see the Triatomics photos link), and the race organization had some good photos that can be purchased. Take a look at 'em if you're ever interested on going to this event. You can see just how pretty it is there and what a nice setting it is for a race.

Legendary Runner in Los Alamos for Jemez Mtn Run this weekend!

2010-05-21T10:25:00.005-06:00

Jemez Mountain Trail Run is this weekend Sat May 22nd! The event always sells out early and often attracts top ultra runners and this year Micah True or "Caballo Blanco" will be participating. See the Los Alamos Monitor story. If you havent read Born to Run its highly recommended. Its a great story and extremely interesting for anyone who has done any running and avid runners in particular.

Micah is from Colorado but lives most of the time down in Batopilas, Chihuahua, in the copper canyon of Mexico with the Raramuri, or more widely known as the 'running people', the Tarahumara Indians. He has adopted their way of life and style of running. He puts on a 50mile ultra marathon in the rugged "Barrancas Del Cobre" each year that attracts the local running people and few legends from around the world. Everyone donates their race winnings back to the local communities.

Caballo Blanco will participate in the Sat race and will also give a talk on Sunday at 4pm at the Unitarian church in Los Alamos, donations requested for his charity Norawas de Raramuri. This should be very interesting so try to attend!

Jay Benson May 9th 2010 Race Report

2010-05-20T09:20:00.001-06:00

This was my first Jay Benson and I thought it was a pretty good race. I decided to drive down that morning which meant a pretty early start but it did mean I could get a proper breakfast! The organizers recommended leaving an hour to get through the guard gates so we left at about 4.30am to get to the gate at 6.30ish, an hour through and a race start at 8am. The traffic was clear as expected, although heading out for a race while people were on their way home from a night out was quite amusing! Getting through the guard gates was quick (10 mins!?) so we were there well before the start. This was quite good though as it gave me plenty of time to set up and relax before the race (and gave Jaclyn time for a nap in the car while I fussed about at transition). I bumped into Laurie on the way to the transition area and we both managed to get bike slots by the bike exit meaning less running in bike shoes and Clay later joined us in the same rack so we had a nice little Triatomics line up. Getting the packets and number was really easy that morning and they were doing a bagless packet pick up so as to minimize the amount of junk handed out and the number of plastic bags going to waste and it was really good, just get your number and chip, pick out a water bottle and get your shirt and away you go, no sifting through 20odd flyers just to put them in the trash.
Andy before the race:

and giving thumbs up at the start line of Wave 2:

So onto the race. It started in several waves, the first to go were the teams and elites and then waves at 3 minute intervals sorted by age groups with males first, then females. I thought this worked pretty well, but I was in the second wave so things were relatively clear for me but I guess AG women may have a different tale to tell. The run went out onto pretty open roads and was pretty quick, it starts with a very gradual downhill and then heads around and then back to transition with a very gradual uphill. The run went pretty well, I managed to keep a reasonable and steady pace at a good effort with still leaving some in the tank and it was easily my best run in a Tri and only a little slower than my current best 5km time at sea level so I was really pleased with that – putting in the miles over winter for an early spring marathon seem to have paid off. The transition was pretty smooth for my first race of the year, but seeing as we’d managed to get a bike slot near the exit, the bikers for the relays we blocking my bike rack and exit and seemed a little oblivious to my presence until I “gently persuaded” them to clear a slight path for me to exit with the tact and diplomacy only an English man could muster……

The bike was a nice loop actually, the majority of the road seemed to be pretty freshly resurfaced apart from one section which had SR4 characteristics but we’re all used to that kind of surface right? The route is quite quick and it was possible to keep a pretty good pace up, the first half is relatively flat and then the second half has some gentle hills in it. I’ve not managed to spend as much time on the bike as I would have liked so far this year and my legs did begin to get a little heavy with about 4 miles to go so probably slacked off a little and would ideally have liked to be at least a minute or two quicker and should have just cranked it but I wanted to save something for the pool. The second transition was quite nice, racking the bike near the exit where there were now no relay people to get in the way - either they’d all gone or my diplomacy had worked better than I’d expected. It was a short run to the pool entrance and I forgot to unclip my race belt but left that poolside. The pool’s pretty nice and it was a standard snake style 400m pool swim. It was pretty clear, only two spots were congested and I managed to clear through those pretty easily and there were a few folks doing nice wide breast stroke to navigate. With hindsight, I’m glad I left a little in the tank on the bike leg as the last 50m I was gasping pretty hard for air, then it was out of the pool and over the line.

L-R: Laurie, Miguel, Bill B.

All in all it was a good race, I was happy with my performance (did I mention the chest infection for the 2 weeks prior?) and it was a good marker for the other races I’m planning on doing this year. All the other folks seemed to have good races too – Clay took 3^rd overall and Laurie, Dina and Amy all got 2^nd in their age groups. There were also a bunch of other Triatomics there (Mehdi, Bill, Scott, Randy and probably a few others – my apologies if I forgot anyone!) and everyone seemed to have a good race. It was well organized and there was plenty of course support.

Clay and Mehdi before the race:

Cochiti Tri and AR is just a tri :)

2010-05-17T13:55:00.000-06:00

Ran into a few people last couple of days and it appears there is confusion as to what Cochiti Tri and Adventure Race actually entail. I'll pass that on to the race dirs for their marketing next year. Meanwhile, here is some info to hopefully clarify any confusion:
These are two events on two separate days. The race dirs from each are working together to advertize as joint event and there will be a prize for people who do both races but they are completely separate events with completely separate registration links - you dont have to worry about getting into one by doing the other.
So the Cochiti tri is all pavement and is Olympic distance, nothing unfamiliar to tri-only people esp those nervous about getting off the pavement.
If you want to try out an adventure race great, but you can also just do the tri. The reason for this post is that it appears having "Adventure Race" in the event name is scaring some triathletes off because it gives the impression that the event will not be a straightforward tri or may involve going off pavement (*GASP*). No off-road on this one - all pavement (even if some bumpy pavement on the dam). Tell your friends!

Cochiti Olympic Tri registration open - register this week!

2010-05-10T09:12:00.005-06:00

Sport Systems has opened registration for the Cochiti Olympic Triathlon. They are not advertising it widely this week so that local NM clubs can get registered. That includes us. Registration will be capped at 250 entrants, so it'll sell out for sure. This event is on July 11th.

You can find registration at nmsportsonline (nmsportsonline doesn't charge any fees)
or on active.com which does charge extra fees.

Here is a brief course description from their flyer:
Swim 1500m
Beach, WAVE start. Triangle Swim.
Wetsuit legal. Cap supplied at packet pickup and must be worn during entire swim until you are in T1.

Bike 40k
Relatively Flat and Fast Loop course.
Out through the Rec Area and over the Dam. Dam road is rough pavement. Turn left off the Dam Road and out almost to I-25. Turn around and take NM-22 back into entrance to Rec Area.

Run 10k
Flat and Fast out and back.
Out through the Rec Area and out onto the Dam Road then back to finish.

Atomic Man Duathlon Sunday April 25th!!

2010-04-16T10:07:00.002-06:00

Dont forget that our awesome Atomic Man Duathlon race is on Sunday April 25th.
For those not familiar there are two distances so its great for newbies or someone with a lot of experience.
Check out our awesome race site courtesy of Sol Web Solutions: http://triatomics.org/duathlon

Please sign up for the race soon, or contact duathlon@triatomics.org to volunteer and help out. All volunteers will get either a long sleeve race shirt or a pint glass with race logo.

Bike Swap to benefit BikeABQ tomorrow (Sat)!

2010-04-16T10:01:00.002-06:00

Just found out:
Sport Systems (used to be Sportz Outdoor) in Albqq is holding a bike swap this Sat (tomorrow!) to benefit BikeABQ (Bike Advocacy in Albuquerque). Get a bike, sell a bike, and help to 'Amsterdamize Albuquerque'! :)
BikeABQ's fabulous Bike Swap is set for (TOMORROW!!!) April 17, 2010 at Sport Systems, 6915 Montgomery NE, 10 am to 4 ...pm.
More info here.
If you havent visited Sport Systems since they've changed from Sportz Outdoor, I hear its really worth the trip with brand new facilities including a full blown bike fitting system with two full-time bike fitting specialists working with it! They are also the guys putting on events like Jay Benson Tri, Spring Fling Tri, bringing back Cochiti tri and putting on a lot of local cycling and adventure events.

Help out by snowshoeing and skiing!

2009-12-08T11:17:00.004-07:00

If you are thinking about going up on the 'Canada Bonita' trails (see map under The Trail section on http://swnordicski.org/) on your backcountry skis or snowshoes this week, please consider making your own tracks (vs following in existing ones) to stomp out as much of the full width of the trail as possible - it will really help the groomers get the machines up there after the storm to make nice skate and classic ski lanes!

If it has NOT been groomed (ie no machine tracks of any kind) its actually helpful to snowshoe on the upper trails too despite the signs. The signs that say not to are only meant for when its groomed. So this is a good chance to get on the upper trail before the grooming closes access to anything but skis. 'Upper' trail is the trail that goes left at the first fork on the map (point A). You will see signs telling you not to snowshoe/hike/bring dogs on it when you are there.

Also, Paul, Dave, Tom and Donna made record time before this snowfall to create a brand new snowshoe specific (no machines on it!) trail off of main trail! Current info on it here. We are hoping to post official 'Snowshoe trail' signs in the next week on it. More info, map and photos to be posted soon on the swnordicski.org site.
The county has started a snowshoe rental and learning program. We will post links to it on http://swnordicski.org/ along with snowshoe trail info shortly.

Btw, the trail will be called Paul's Portal after our own Paul Graham since he was the one to find the best path while working with Tom and Donna. That path also luckily required less deadfall clearing than was originally expected. Dave W worked hard most of Sunday to clear the deadfall from the trail! Made for a brand new trail in about 2 days! Although more work to still be done with signs etc.

Come out an enjoy the snow and thanks for helping to stomp the snow out for the groomers!

Elephant Man - Olympic distance triathlon, Sept 27, 2009

2009-10-02T09:18:00.006-06:00

I'm surprised there are no race reports on the blog for this one, as this was its third year and it has been well run and a lot of fun each year. I posted some photos on the photo page, including a couple of John who went down early with Dan in order to get some fun time in on the lake with triathlon newcomer Greg Geoffrion. EB is only about 4 hours away, and packet pickup is till 5:00 (turned out to be 5:30) Saturday, or even 6-7 A race day, Sunday. Lots of Los Alamos racers this year - Frank Cherne, Bill & Cathy Bearden, Chuck Farrar, Karen Young, myself, Greg, Nick Perry & John Tapia & David McCumber (the three of whom drove an RV down and camped on the beach right next to the start). Two other Triatomics competing were Char Latham from Santa Fe and an Albuquerque guy named Mehdi who I met for the first time. Missing: Max Light Jr who had trained for it but got sick last minute, Ben Davis (Frank said he was supposed to be there but neither of us ever saw him), and Clay, who has been the overall winner the past two years but was busy at Best of the US and hasn't figured out how to be in two places at once yet. It was nice to not only see so many familiar faces, but so many familiar hats - lots of Atomic Man hats were in the crowd, as well as a number of Los Alamos Triathlon shirts.

Another gorgeous race day - got too hot towards the end, but no real wind to worry about. And although the lake is reasonably warm, it's still wetsuit legal. The race starts at a very civilized 8:00 AM, and had enough racers to start in 5 waves. The Mountain Collegiate Team Championship was held at the same time, so they got their own wave. Women 54 and younger were in the third wave. It was nice to have people out front to follow - last year we were the first wave, and I must have covered an extra quarter mile just because I am so poor at sighting during the swim. I have been swimming with the masters at lunch one or two days a week this year and it seems to have paid off. I was third or fourth out of the water, although there was a TriSporrts.com friend very nearby. I caught the two girls ahead of me on the bike pretty quickly, but then was just as easily caught by my friend around mile 8. That was OK, she wasn't too far ahead. But then another TriSports.com chick cruised past me like I was standing still and keeping her in sight was difficult. Ah well. The bike course is a nice one - challenging but doable. It is hilly and there is one significant short hill with more uphill grade after it to keep you going. It starts out around the lake so it's pretty, and then you're in desert. My biggest complaint - there is a short section before you turn around over I-25 and start heading back down on a frontage road, that is so rough/bumpy (it's a serious chip-seal surface) that it makes one wish she was back home on SR 4. It was well marked though, with hazards identified well (yes, there are a few cattle guards), and volunteers and cops were at all major intersections. I left transition something like 2:50 behind the leader, and 1:30 minutes behind #2, according to a counting spectator. The run has a sandy start that leads to a sandy uphill. Then you're on old roads that cross two dams, the second one being Elephant Butte Dam that has been closed off to the public since 9/11. This is the only time during the year anyone can cross it. The course is an out and back, that has a few little hills to the turn around. Too far before the turn around, I saw #1 coming at me, and knew that I couldn't catch her, but #2 was within my sights, and I was able to pass her just after the turn around. Then of course you just run like hell and hope she doesn't catch you back. Was able to cheer for lots of people I knew on the way back - always nice to have something to take your mind off the run itself. At least I finally had felt good coming off the bike. This entire season I had not been feeling too fresh off the bike and with heavy legs - this one finally felt right. Crossed the line 2:31:43 after I started - good enough for second overall. (First and third were both 30 years old, and were the only ones under 40 in the top SEVEN women). It was good day for a lot of LA racers - Chuck had a very solid race and came in 2nd in his AG (by a mere 25 seconds!), Nick was 1st and Greg was third in their AG, Char was 2nd in her AG, Karen was 4th in her AG, Frank had a good race (and is losing enough weight to start considering blowing off that Clydesdale category), and Cathy finished strong and wasn't last, which was outstanding.

This is a great race - very well run and supported by the town of Tor C. It capped at 375 racers this year, and there were over 150 volunteers out there supporting it. They have food afterwards and a Beer Tent. And a couple of other large tents set up for people to simply hang out under, as the sun does get hot down there. Look for tarantulas on the run (Greg saw a couple), and rattlesnakes on the bike (I saw a dead one last year). I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun way to end the season, or warm up for championship races that are later in the year.

Best of the US 2009 -- Mission Viejo, CA

2009-09-30T12:22:00.019-06:00

Here's my blog about the BOUS National Championship 2009 at the Orange County International Triathlon, in Mission Viejo, CA.

Well, after all the anticipation, planning, training, special care taken, and everything else that went into getting myself (and family) to the start line of the Best of the US Championship triathlon in Mission Viejo, CA, things didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. The trip was fun and the race experience there is always special, but my performance wasn’t up to my expectations. It’s not that I could have done a whole lot about it that day, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you hope.

The course there is super cool, and really tough. The swim is in a very, VERY nice lake in Mission Viejo. It’s a private lake with a perfectly manicured beach, park, etc., etc. It was perfectly surveyed with laser precision, so we were told, thus the distance was supposedly a perfect 1,500 meters. It felt long to me, but more about that later!

The bike course heads out into a canyon in the foothills to the northwest of Mission Viejo – Santiago Canyon. It is a popular route, and with good reason. There is a perfect bike lane the entire way out with signs telling motorists to keep off the lane to keep it clear for cyclists. It did have a little debris here and there, but it was mostly quite clean. Terry Moore, the female NM representative from Las Cruces fell victim to something in the lane and got a flat.

The run course was really awesome, with a lot of changing topography and changes of direction. I thought it was a hard 10km to finish off a race, but some of the run times begged to differ. We re-entered the lake park and finished along the beach right along the waterfront. It was a great course, all-in-all. The only thing I didn’t like was that there were two different transition locations. T-1 and T-2 were separated by about 3 miles or so, thus making for a small logistical challenge the day before, and morning of the race…no big deal though because the organizers had good information to direct racers.

The “regular” race had about 1,000 people, plus the extra 100 spots for the BOUS athletes. That’s a pretty good sized race, and it had sold out. It made for a very festive atmosphere at this typical sunny southern California location.

Leading up to the race, things seemed to be pointing toward me having a good chance at a top-10 result. I had seemingly gotten over my mid-summer sinus/respiratory infection that had forced me to skip both Socorro and Los Alamos triathlons. I had worked my fitness back up slowly and had gotten in more miles on the bike than last year, but my swimming had suffered due to the sinus thing and I didn’t seem to have my best run speed. I worked on both once I could sustain the harder efforts, but I always had to watch it when I felt tired or congested. I didn’t want to have a recurrence of the infection.

I signed up for the F-1 triathlon in Roswell, the Tenderfoot triathlon in Salida, CO, and the Patriot Tri in Rio Rancho as three good lead-up races to blow out the pipes and practice the things I needed to have down to be competitive for the BOUS. They were saying that the swim would not be wetsuit legal, so I got one of those speed skin suits as a sponsorship deal and used it in the Tenderfoot tri. They’re weird things, for sure.

Travel is a huge challenge now, with all of the stuff to bring for Mila in addition to all of the tri gear. We did alright, but it is not easy: bike, race wheels, tri gear, car seat, toys, extra extra clothes, etc. etc. Logistics with travel is also tough, and this was made even more challenging by the coordination of visiting family in Los Angeles (two different households), then me taking off solo to Mission Viejo, then meeting back up a day later…… You get the point. But, that seemed to go fairly smoothly and I was not overly stressed prior to the race.

Only a couple of things were nagging at me: the fact that my head and chest had started to get congested again the week prior to the race. I couldn’t understand why, other than I don’t think I ever bucked that nasty infection 100%. Small vestiges of it came and went like the tides during the month previous, and the week before the weather took a nosedive and that seemed to exacerbate things right when I needed to be making some hard speed efforts to fine tune things for the race. I would rest up well, go do my hard speed training, then feel a massive influx of congestion and a really stuffy head. I also got a really badly wrenched neck from doing just little stuff around the house. I could barely turn my head after that. But, the training was still good and I even felt my run speed coming on just in time (I ran the Splash ‘n Dash / LA Tri 5km run course as a “brick” in sub-18 time the Sunday prior to the race, after doing bike intervals), so I was feeling confident.

Getting on the plane and doing all of the travel stuff must have sent my system a little over the edge, despite all of the incessant hand washing and taking Cold-Eeze, Emergenc-C, and Echinacea. I got into LA with a deep cough and somewhat clogged sinuses, and my neck was still stiff and sore. But I still didn’t feel bad, so I remained in good spirits headed toward the race. I was also having fun hanging out with Dina’s family in Los Angeles, who are SO happy to see Mila. That provided a good distraction to pre-race stress.

After driving all the way through the LA metro area to Mission Viejo, then getting out and seeing the bike, part of the run, and then finally the swim course, we had all of the pre-race hub-bub with the BOUS organization and the different racers from each of the states. There were some big names there, some of whom I recognized, but many of whom I have no earthly idea who they are. Jerry MacNeil listed all of their results, which sounded impressive. I knew this would be tough but also that if I had a good day, I would be competitive.

Dina, her sister Liza, her mom Olga, and Mila all stayed in one room, while I got an entire room to myself the night before the race…they insisted and I can’t say how grateful I am. I slept really solidly the night before and felt quite rested the morning of the race. I got out there early, but amazingly, I was already way back in line to get to the venue. That stressed me out a little, as I knew I had to get the race wheels on and get everything set at this busy venue before I was ready. The only problem I had was getting air into my tires using a borrowed pump (I need to get a better travel pump).

I got in a decent warm-up in the water; not great but good enough. Soon, we were lining up in our special “Wave-0” and getting all of the special treatment and announcements. It was all eyes on our wave as the 1000 other racers and families watched us “super triathletes” take off.

I opted to take the second row going into the water, as I knew I would just get trounced with these swimmers (men and women BOUS went all together). It was a good call. I got onto some feet, got hit and kicked for over 500 meters, then started having some breathing problems with the chest congestion. I was holding onto a group, barely, but I wasn’t about to let go. I tried coughing it out and would lose ground, but then redouble the effort to catch back on. It got to be a little too much by about the half-way point and I had to let go and try to clear my chest. For a couple of minutes I just mellowed out and concentrated on the coughing. I then pushed on solo the whole way back. I could see some people ahead of me, but I knew I had lost a LOT of time at that point. It’s amazing! I still would have had a relatively fast swim around here, but with that group, forget about it. I struggled in with a 22:02…not fast in that group. I had hoped for a 20-something or low 21.

I finally made it into T-1 and noticed all of the BOUS bikes that were all gone. I was with a couple of guys and got the heck out of there with a little bit of a slow transition, but not too bad. On the bike, I instantly started passing the stragglers from the swim, then some of the faster swimmers, then some of the faster females – I could tell how the swim went and how the women’s race was playing out. I also noticed that I had instantly caught a handful of guys, but that they were now few and far between…not a good sign. I wasn’t going super great on the bike. I was still coughing and trying to find my legs on the early long climbs of the course. I just didn’t hit it hard enough early to make up the ground I lost. It was becoming more apparent that this was not going to be a remarkable day. I also had a splitting headache for some reason; I think it was the tightness in my neck and upper back putting strain on my head and the aero helmet was not helping matters. It was really annoying and something I hadn’t experienced before.

Way out in the canyon near the "turnaround" where we detoured off the main road onto a strange bumpy road that is normally closed to any sort of traffic, I caught yet one last female…she was so far into the men’s field and had been so far ahead of me, I was just amazed. It occurred to me that if I didn’t ride and run fast, she might finish with me or beat me!

I pushed a lot harder once I was back out on the main canyon road. The hills were steeper on the way back in, so I had some clear goals and dug deep…at least for what I had to give. I think I salvaged a bad ride with those efforts on the way back in and managed to have the 8th fastest ride for all racers on the day. It was a 59:27 and I had hoped for and reasonably expected at least a low 58.

I had no idea how my body was going to react to the run, since I was clearly struggling a little. I was fearful of a 40-something minutes 10km on this really tough course. It was getting quite hot and with all of the landscape watering going on, it was also humid at ground level.

After another rough-around-the-edges transition, I was off on the run and feeling surprisingly OK, but again with headache and congestion. I ignored both and just focused on moving forward as swiftly as possible. I was completely alone for over a mile, then I heard the dreaded footsteps of the last guy I had caught out on the bike – turns out it was Jonathan Krichev from Alabama. He’s a very good triathlete from the deep Southeast (former University of Alabama swimmer), but someone I have beaten before and someone I can usually outrun, but not today. He was moving along just a little quicker than I could muster, so I stopped blowing my nose long enough to let him get by me. I tried briefly to stick with him, but decided against continuing because I have blown up every time I’ve done that at early stages of a run leg. I was on my own again and getting the feeling that I was not really part of the race.

It was like that for quite a while until we hit some really nasty hills at mile 3. I could see Krichev and a couple of others ahead, but what looked like WAY ahead. I tried to get through the hills strongly, but the heat and humidity was sapping me and I just didn’t have the punch to do what I wanted. I focused well and kept my feet moving quickly, but I knew it wasn’t 100%.

It’s tough when you know you’re having an off day, but all the training and struggle you go through to get there keeps you pushing. I had to rethink things a little bit out there and decided I would really try to catch at least one guy ahead. I caught a fleeting glimpse of who I recognized as the Arizona guy, Cam Hill. He’s also a great swimmer and it seems that every year, no matter how we’re both doing, I catch him in the finale of the run. I made that my main goal for the day and set about picking it up as best I could, no matter how much snot I got on myself or how much I was coughing. I set my sights on him and just ran faster, period.

The run course was really crazy between miles 2.5 and 5, but at the 5-mile point, we dumped out of the steep hills and twisty turns of the parks, out onto a parkway, where we did a final out-and-back on a final long hill and were all able to see where we stood relative to the other racers just around us. I wondered if this was all of them, or if there were more already that far ahead of me that I didn’t even see them on this long out-and-back section.

Turns out it was to be the latter. I was further down than I had hoped at that moment, but I didn’t know that yet and my main goal was to catch Cam Hill of Arizona. At the bottom of the hill, he was still quite a distance ahead, but I was gaining steam and gave it 110% up the hill. I felt myself redlining and actually feeling better as I went up. I should have been able to hit that level and hold it much sooner in the race, but this was the only time I felt like I was able to go full-gas all day. I went into the zone and honed in on him until we entered the park. Until I was on his heels, I didn’t think I was going to catch him. Once I was right on him, he heard me and glanced back and I sensed he gave up the ghost to stay ahead of me. Around the corner leading to the home stretch along the waterfront, he slowed and I took the opportunity to keep my momentum and surged all the way to the line – I put 9 seconds on him in that short distance. It was at least a fun finish to what was otherwise a lackluster day. My run ended up being 38:49 on a tough course, but I had really expected a 36-something and really had ambitions for a 35-something.

I was happy it was done and all of the wondering how I would do and worry over my sinus/congestion situation was over. But, I was disappointed in the result. I wanted a top-10, not really for anything to add to my “career” or anything like that, but to put New Mexico in there. I think we do alright with the sport, but it’s hard to come up with the big result when you don’t travel to the big races very much. That takes time and patience, as well as experience and a bit of luck. It seems the less I travel, the worse I do once I do actually go on a trip to a race. I’m so tired of traveling away to races, though, so I doubt I’m going to do a whole lot better than that in the future. I think I’ll pass on it next year. It’s been a fun experiment for me, though. I went four times and grabbed 8th place in 2007. I felt like I struggled badly that day too, but ended up with a stellar run that moved me into the top-10 in only the last couple of kilometers, passing who else, but Cam Hill and Jonathan Krichev.

In the end, I managed to squeak out a 2:02:38, good for 17th place among the BOUS racers (20th overall including the "regular" Orange County Triathlon participants). I had hoped for a 1:58 or so and feel like I had that in me without the problems (read "excuses" =). Still, with the BOUS athletes there, there were 22 men who beat the old age-group course record, and 21 women beat the old female a-g course record. Matter of fact, the first female was only a few seconds off of the previous male course record!!! That goes to show you how tough that field is! (FYI, one of the women beat me by over 2 minutes on the run) So there is some consolation in the result...I just can't get over the fact that the first place guy did it in 1:52:50. That's SIX minutes faster than the pro/elite course record!

Thanks to all of you Triatomics folks for the well-wishes. It's always fun to race with all of you. I also need to REALLY, REALLY thank Dina for her support and efforts in keeping me out there. Any success I have now is due more to her than anything else in the equation! We'll both be out there again next year!

Ironman Canada-30 Aug 2009

2009-09-05T14:35:00.002-06:00

It was not the best of days, nor was it the worst of days at Ironman Canada. It was a civilised day. My overall time was significantly slower than my first IM in Florida on November 1, 2009. I expected that would be the case because the course is much more challenging, but overall, I am proud of completing my second Ironman and especially because I did not let myself become overconfident in approaching this event. In Florida, I had already heard those words, "Fred Winter, you are an Ironman!" In fact those words are not even spoken at the finish line in Canada.

Penticton, British Columbia, the site of now 27 annual Ironman events, is a true jewel and should be on anyone's short list for a visit if not for a triathlon. The setting is not unlike the Napa Valley with over 100 wineries growing grapes on rolling hillsides nestled among three natural lakes and towering mountains. Being on the eastern side of the Cascade mountains, it is the northern end of the Sonoran desert climatic zone; and the low humidity, vegetation, and sunshine remind me of my home in Northern New Mexico, however, the altitude here is only about 2,000 feet compared to 7,000 feet at home.

The Swim-Goal: 1:25 Actual:1:18
Cruising
Race morning started out with perfectly clear skies and temperatures in the high 60's. The transition area is situated at a park adjacent to the sixty mile long Okanagan Lake. I had been warned to expect cold water, but frankly it was not an issue for me. In fact, it could not have been better at 68 degrees. The swim course is a long, stretched out triangle with the start at a narrow corner of the lake. I had talked to a couple of people at the kick-off dinner, who confirmed my decision to place myself at the left side away from the direct line up the buoys from the right side. One person said that it was perfectly acceptable to start from the left side and aim for the first turn, which was marked by a tall sailboat. That way, I could avoid the straight out course and the crowd. That was an incorrect assumption as a lot of other people had figured this out, too. Historically, the swim course turns have been marked by two, two-story houseboats, but the announcer said that someone did not show up that morning with their boat so there was only one house boat at the second turn.

After the singing of "Oh Canada" by a promising local opera singer, the starting horn sounded, and everyone was off in the water. The depth of the water was shallower than I had planned even after swimming in the lake for two prior mornings. My first dive and swim start was thwarted by people still walking in front of me. I stood up and walked with them and dove a second time to restart the swim. There were a lot of people swarming around me at first and then following the words of Paula Newby Fraser, who counseled us at a breakfast meeting, I "found my place." As usual, people piled up at the two major turns on the course. The final return to the swim finish was really enjoyable, and I felt like I had really found my place as I was cruising until it came time to start thinking about the exit ahead. Then it became quite frothy with people squeezing into the narrow exit and whacking each other. "My place" became much more confined. Anyway, I kept swimming as long as I could despite seeing other people standing around me. This was good, as I exited the swim in virtually the same time as I had done at IM FL, where virtually everyone had cheated by not rounding a buoy on the start of a second loop. I much preferred this one loop course despite the narrow exit.

I have learned that I can now sense my overall position by the number of people in the changing tents. When it is really crowded and chaotic in the changing tent, then I know I am up with the faster people. This only seems to be the case, however, at T-1 for me. For IM CA, I was bound and determined not to chew up time at T-1 as I had at IM FL.

I wore a one-piece tri-suit under my wet suit and continued to wear it under my bike jersey. I brought arm warmers thinking that I might need them as I had done in FL, but decided they were not at all necessary. In retrospect, I might have done without my jersey as the dry heat was much more comfortable than at IM FL, but the bike jersey was my friend as I wanted to be with more food and bike supplies than I ultimately needed. I knew all too well that I can never be too prepared for the unexpected during the IM day. At FL, I had stripped the screws holding my bike cleats to my shoes, which lead to lost time. I was bound not to let that happen again and carried an extra set of cleats.

Biking-Goal:7:45 Actual 7:38
Pushing
Now, I headed out on the bike course, which I knew would be my most challenging leg of the event. The course is so much more hilly and mountainous than pancake-flat Florida. In Florida, you head out on roads surrounded by pine forests. In Canada, you are riding first in the town of Penticton, then beside lakes, and rolling hills covered with orchards and vineyard. Then before long, I was focusing on the formidable mountains. As I headed into Osoyoos, the southernmost leg of the bike course, I could see to my right the tall rise of Richter Pass, which was parallel to my entry into Osoyoos. In all of my studying of the bike course, I had focused on Yellow Lake pass as being the most challenging. I have to say that Richter was an equal challenge to Yellow Lake as it has a false flat that leads you on to another and yet another summit. Despite the rigors of the ascent, there were people lining the roadside-lots of people cheering all of us onto the summit. While there are over 4,000 official volunteers for the event, there were more than enough people left over for crowd support. This turnout was unexpected and a delight to keep me pushing ahead.

Once Richter was behind me, I descended into a less populated valley that was filled with rollers. Another cyclist asked me if one of these rollers was the third mountain pass, thanks to my homework, I knew to tell him, "No, far from it." I wish that I had been that certain when I actually thought I was summiting Yellow Pass. Beyond the rollers is the out and back stretch near Cawton. While this was mostly flat, it seemed never ending. At the end of the out and back, approximately 75 miles into the course, is the special needs bike stop. I was happy to have my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I sure did not need two of them. I also did not need my two extra tire tubes and CO2 cartridges. There was that overabundance of caution again. I bid good-bye to these surplus supplies and headed off.

In July, I had had a horrendous series of flat tires that had sapped my mechanical confidence. After following George Gage's suggestion, I replaced my rim seals and all was good, no more flats in New Mexico. Through the services of Tri-Bike Transport, my bike arrived in Penticton sporting the same tires and tubes from Taos. I debated about practicing tire replacement in Canada, but decided to leave well enough alone. My tires and tubes had only about 145 miles on them before the start of the race. As it turned out, I did not need any of the two tubes in by saddle bag, let alone those two in my special needs bag. I would not have wanted any less for the race as I saw many cyclists with flats on the roadside. One story that made me cringe was that in prior years, perverse people had put tacks out on the road looking to prey on unsuspecting bike tires. One rider did tell me that she had flatted on a staple, which sounds like an equally sorry variation of the tack attack.

I was starting to fatigue by the time I made it to the special needs bag pick-up, and my food stop was welcome despite its overabundance. I now realize that I spent way too much time eating compared to the others around me, but I was reinvigorated and ready to tackle Yellow Lake. There was not any significant headwind on the ascent. In not too much time, I thought I was near the summit and a road leading to the Apex ski area. Soon, I saw my wife, Marcia, on the roadside cheering me on along with many other people. I was about to cry with joy on the thought of summiting the dreaded Yellow Lake, when a rider behind me said, "The worst is yet to come." Indeed, I was not there yet so I pushed on for another 1.5 miles to the real summit.

That false sense of summiting was probably the most difficult point in the race for me. I had been obsessing about Yellow Lake for weeks. I was taunting myself with questions about why am I doing yet another Iron distance event within twelve months of the first? Wasn't I already an Ironman? Why didn't I learn from doing my second marathon in less than three months after completing my first run? That event had turned into a slower and painful experience with an injured IT band. Why am I making myself crazed with all of this training? And now I am not at the top of Yellow Lake either!

OK, I had to dig down and make it to the true summit with Yellow Lake nearby. I had driven to this summit on Thursday as I wanted to experience the descent into Penticton before the race. The elevation map for the course had me living in fear of a descent similar to Holman Hill near Taos. I am a not one who is fearless in a descent, and Holman Hill has had me paralyzed from vertigo. After Thursday afternoon's ride back into Penticton, I was looking forward to this final leg. It would be fun and fast. The road was wider than Holman Hill. There was no guardrail falsely protecting me from tumbling off the side of the road. This descent would be a cake walk. Well, Sunday was not Thursday, and the headwind/crosswind was fierce by the time of my descent. I could not pick-up speed. I was not going to make my goal time for the bike. Overconfidence had reared its ugly head again, plus my right quad was cramping on me. For several minutes, I thought what if I can't run? Could I walk the distance and make the midnight cut-off? That was the beginning of some bad negative self-talk.

The Run-Goal: 5:15 Actual:6:11
Plodding + Lackadaisical
Once back into town, I made it to the transition area, and the T-2 changing tent was much more quiet than T-1. I knew that I was back further than I had hoped to be. I saw someone from Kansas City that I had met earlier in the week. He was complaining to someone else about his bike time and said that he was going to head off with his Ironman shuffle. That was probably the wrong thing for me to hear. In retrospect, I needed to be around someone who was going to inspire me to push me harder on the run. The run course leaves the transition area and loops back into the town along the lakeshore before heading south. At that point, I overheard someone tell a runner that he should expect to run a six hour marathon. The lackadaisical Fred took over then during the run, and I do not particularly like him, but I did meet up with some interesting and slower people.

France Cokan is 78 years young, and I hope to have his confidence and vigor when I am that age. At the third aid station situated near Skaha Lake, he came up to me thinking that he knew me. After talking a while, he realized that I was not who he thought, but I wanted to know more about him. How did he have the confidence to be wearing only Speedos and a tank top at his age? Perhaps it is only fitting to become larger than life at his age. He had been introduced at the Friday night dinner as the oldest male participant and the next oldest participant to Sister Madonna Buder, who is 79. I realized that I was uniquely positioned to ask him about his training secrets. Right there at the aid station, in front of a startled volunteer, he demonstrated one of those secrets as he pulled open his Speedos and dumped a cup of ice in his junk drawer. He let me know that it invigorated him as there are big blood vessels down there. He then ran off ahead of me, but only for a while. I kept on plodding along and caught up with him. He probably came up with race/walking before Jeff Galloway. His pattern of bursting ahead and walking finally slowed down to the point that I did not see him on the return leg of the run.

Thankfully by then, I was ahead of the oldest man on the course, but it was getting dark at night as I headed back into Penticton. What was a pleasant downhill coming into the turnaround in Okanagan Falls turned into a significant hill on the way back. At the special needs bag, I once again realized that I had erred on the side of too much food and too much concern about a cold run back into town. I definitely benefitted from a long sleeve shirt in the second half of the run at IM FL, but here in Penticton, that same shirt became a distraction. I could not leave that shirt behind as it had also seen me to the finish line at the New York City Marathon. It was part of me and some great experiences so I tied it to my waist and headed towards town and the finish line in the dark. While IM FL used diesel generators to power flood lights, the course in Penticton had none. There were the occasional cars driving the road and the aid stations to divert my attention from my plodding way, but not enough to help spur a faster pace. If my nemesises, the Three Swimming Amazons, had been there running, I might have found the inspiration to pick it up, but they were back in Taos waiting for another day of swimming-at which they excel.

I made it to the street lights and commercial area of Penticton at about 10:00 PM knowing that I would be at the finish line well in advance of midnight. The crowds grew, but not quite as robust as I had expected, especially after a runner asked me if I had been here before. When I said that this was my first IM Canada, he said, "You will not believe the crowds in town." It wasn't until I left Main Street and headed for the Lakeshore Drive loop that the crowds increased in number and in volume. By that time, I had seen Marcia once again. Fortunately, I knew that she was no where near the actual finish line this time. I turned onto Lakeshore Drive and finally kicked into overdrive. The lights, the music and the crowds were all there motivating everyone. I think that the bike rider from Kansas City at T-2 was the person in front of me. I wanted to pick him off, but he had the same idea of pushing ahead. Then the finish line was behind me. As I approached the finish area, I had been able to deduce that the announcer was not saying, "You are an Ironman." No Hollywood moment? Nope, in Canada, I have come to learn, they seem much more civilised than in the US. You can't even order a medium rare hamburger. It is against the law. But despite the lack of theatrics, there was a true sense of interest in each and every participant. Each runner has a designated greeter to accompany you from the finish line. My greeter was Ron from Edmonton, who was about my age and could not have been nicer. While he made it known that he was volunteering to gain an entry slot in next years event, he spent more than ten minutes with me escorting me to have a final picture taken, to have some food, and to show me where the Ironmates (your wife, family or friends) were waiting for your arrival.

Canada is different than the US. I am not quite sure how to explain it. The people do not seem as in your face as home. While they seem all too civilised, they have an innate desire to stretch and push themselves, which is a quality of life that I admire. The IM Canada course and the community of Penticton certainly exemplify these qualities. Now the question is, can I bring these qualities back home?

Los Alamos Triathlon 2009

2009-08-19T18:36:00.001-06:00

Our local triathlon was this last weekend in Los Alamos and as the longest continually running triathlon in the world for a novice such as myself it was an honor to be part of it. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a different format to the majority of triathlons with the bike leg starting, followed by the 400m pool swim and the run leading us to the finish.

The weather for this years race was great, especially compared to last years grey and dismal weather. The bike started in three waves, the elites and the under 19s started at 7.00am followed by two more waves of age groupers spaced 10 minutes apart. The bike has some hills to it and heads up from the aquatic center, through the guard gates and up past the ski hill road to the back gate where it heads left on 4 a little bit before retracing the route to the pool. The ride went pretty well for me, it seemed a pretty smooth ride with me and about three others passing each other thoughout - I seemed to pass them on the downhill’s and they cranked past me on the climbs which was fine by me as it saved me some leg power! I did find out later that my front brake had slipped a little, probably as a result of removing the wheel to get it on the roof rack and had been rubbing on my front rim possibly for the duration of the ride which comes down to inexperience on my part and something I will definitely learn from for my next race. As I said, the bike seemed to go pretty well and the transition was also pretty smooth. I had set up a good spot for my run stuff so managed to drop of my glasses before getting into the pool. It was a longer T1 this year with the transition area being moved from the parking lot opposite the SnD start to the aquatic center parking lot, so to get the pool involved a short run to the back door of the pool.

Then came the swim which, as last year I found really tough and I didn’t feel that I was going quick in the slightest (of course I wasn’t, but at least I did OK and got through it!), my arms felt really tired and I was blowing pretty hard for what seemed like little effort although I think my technique has improved a little over the last year. My swim time wasn’t as bad as I thought it was and I thought my T2 was pretty fast – I was trying out a liquid skin/body glide approach to the blister areas on my feet so I could run sockless and save time but it didn’t look too good at this point so I opted for a one sock approach on the problem foot before heading out on the run.

To be honest, the run felt really slow, I’d been over the course a few times, which was the SnD run along canyon road, and I knew where the inclines were and where the downhill sections were where I could crank a little harder and I suppose that’s the beauty of a home course. In the end my time for the run was better than I thought it was going to be and I suppose that’s where taking advantage of a familiar terrain came into play.

The organization of this years LA tri was great, the course was well marshaled and the results and subsequent awards ceremony were done in a timely manner with pint glassed given out as prized for AG winners.

Overall, for me a tough format but a great race and unsurprisingly a great showing in the awards by Triatomics, I wont name, names but we should be proud of ourselves - well done to everyone who raced!!!!!

Performance video by MC SpandX

2009-08-17T16:00:00.002-06:00

"God! I gotta get a carbon frame!"
After Show Low this year I was so shocked at how dorky and performace gear-oriented we triathletes have gotten (compression garments for every body part...scary!) that I forgot that there are always cyclists out there to make us feel better about ourselves. Too bad this guy didnt go with the traditional color coordinated top, bottom, helmet, socks, gloves and frame look... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4&eurl

2009 Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon

2009-08-03T08:09:00.004-06:00

The 2009 Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon was on August 1st with the traditional 400m swim/20K Bike/5k run and a time trial start for the swim. After some drama on the Friday with our car working/not working and me running around trying to get the dogs, my bike and our stuff, while dropping the car back at the garage, we got on the road and hauled it down to Socorro to try and make the packet pick-up. It was my first time doing the Socorro Tri and their directions to the pick-up sent you down one of the only roads we found without a street sign! We drove around for a while and eventually found the site just after 8pm and managed to get my number and the swag – a decent tech-tee and a good quality water bottle - before finally being able to settle into the hotel, that is until the heavy footed insomniac in the room above us kept us up longer than we would have liked that evening – grumble, grumble.

The morning rolled round pretty quick and after checking over the bike we headed back to the race site where all the bikes were checked for plugs, helmets checked and body marking done before being allowed into the transition area. I set up my stuff and looked around for other Triatomics and saw Tina, seeded a little ahead of me in the swim, and who thankfully lent me a race belt to replace my recently improvised piece of string – I’d forgotten mine and really didn’t fancy risking safety pins with a snug trisuit. I went to have a look at the outdoor pool and the water temperature seemed pretty warm so I did a quick length or two and it didn’t seem too bad. So as I mentioned, the start was a seeded time trial swim start, I was 141st in, so had a little time to wait but the race organizers had everything really well controlled with the starting line-up being well marshaled and taken care of with people being sent every 15 or 20 seconds. I was in after about 15-20 mins of waiting and the sun was already feeling a little warm on the back of my neck. The swim went pretty smoothly (8 lengths 50m pool), there were a few people who tore past me in the first 2 or 3 lengths but I caught them up in the latter half of the swim and cleared them in the last length to give me a clear exit from the pool. I took it pretty steady and at a reasonably comfortable pace but some of the swimmers around me were going all out and kicking like crazy, something I definitely don’t have the legs for. Some of the turns were a little hairy and congested but I seemed to navigate them OK. T1 was nice and smooth, but a little slower than I would have liked, but I got out pretty quick and on to the bike. The bike course headed towards the hills so was a gentle gradual climb with a few out-and-backs parallel to the hills. On the bike, it was a little breezy and for the first half, which was predominantly up-hill I had the wind in my face which slowed things down slightly. I passed a bunch of people throughout the bike and was only passed by three, a spry looking 2o-something guy, some guy with a solid disk wheel who left me for dead on a down hill and a guy who I later re-passed towards the end. I did nearly eat it on a downhill curve, a pot-hole jumped out of nowhere and I had to react quick to avoid something nasty.

T2 was much better, with Jaclyn and the two dogs cheering me on from the sidelines and headed out for the run. The first mile and bit was a gentle uphill climb and the legs felt a little heavy and it was getting a little warmer but not too bad. Scott Valdez passed me at about the 1 mile marker and vanished speedily into the distance as we transitioned onto a dirt trail which after about half a mile transitioned back onto the road for a slight climb to a turn around point. The final section was down hill so I managed to speed up a little, even though the legs were feeling a little heavy at this point. I passed a quite a few folks on the run and of course a few passed me but when the finish line was in sight, probably about half a mile out, I managed to shift up a gear and got past a few more people before getting over the line. I felt I was going pretty slow on the run by my time wasn’t too bad and I probably could have put a bit more into it – I’ll know for next time!

The race was great – the organization was outstanding, the swag was top notch (they were giving left over tees and bottles from 2008 out after the race too), the course marshalling and support was awesome and it was a really fun race. There were quite a few other Triatomics there that I hadn’t already mentioned – Chuck won his age group with a really fast time, Scott came in 2nd in my age group, Peter Song won his by a good margin and Tina said she shaved off a few minutes from last years time. Leland looked to have a good race and Timbad came in 2nd in his AG. All in all a good turn out, a great race and I’ll hopefully be back there next year!

Santa Fe Triathlon 2009

2009-07-19T11:05:00.003-06:00

The 2nd Annual Santa Fe Triathlon was this weekend at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. The cost of the tri increased $5 over last year's (early registration) fee (from $50 to $55), but since I enjoyed the race last year, I decided to go for it again. As far as I saw, Tina, Kim Katco, myself, and one guy I didn't know but was in uniform (sorry, Mister) represented the Triatomics.

The day promised to be a scorcher, with no clouds and a predicted 90+ degree high. Fortunately, the organizers mitigated this by starting the race at 6:30am. I'm not much of a morning person, but I did appreciate being done long before the temperature really climbed.

Around 280 people showed to race, and as usual, it was a squeeze to find a place to rack the bike (it didn't help that I was a bit late after a quick run-in with the SF policia -- who knew that if the light turns red while you're under it, that counts as running the light?). Parking is at the nearby fairgrounds, so it's a couple-minute walk with your stuff... not a big deal.

This sprint tri is a run-bike-swim. The run start was moved a bit this year to start on the street instead of in the parking lot. This was nice, since there was no squeezing to wind around/through the parking lot exit. They extended the run near the end to make up the difference. The first 3/4-ish miles is on Rodeo, part of which is blocked off from traffic for the runners, heading downhill toward's Sam's club. There was plenty of room to pass, which was important since it was a bulk start, and I passed a bunch of folks before I found people going at a good pace. Then the route cuts onto trail (some paved, some hard-packed dirt - all easy and decently wide), and it's a winding, very low-grade uphill back up to the GCCC. This year they had timing clocks at miles 1, 2 and the end, so you could track your mile-by-mile pace. I enjoyed this and was psyched at my 7:20 first mile. Of course, that was downhill. There was an oddly placed water station just after the 1st mile - it was supposed to be at 1.5mi, but oh well. The run ends with a quick uphill to get around the GCCC - I came in just under my my goal time and moved on to the bike.

The bike is an out-and-back, heading south on Richards, past the SF community college, west/SW on Avenida del Sur, and then east on A Van Nu Po. It's rolling terrain with very little traffic, the latter due to both the early start and the fantastic support this race provides. Although technically an open course, they have a load of cops and volunteers to help with the various intersections and 2 roundabouts. Excepting one section of glass, the road(s) were in good condition with little debris. With some wind and the rollers (and most likely my effort on the run), though, I had trouble maintaining the speed I'd hoped for on the ride and missed my goal time for that event. I believe they changed the end of the bike route to make it less of a jumble at the parking lot entrance/exit, which was nice, though it's possible it was like that last year and I just don't remember.

The T1 and T2 times are not separated at this race and are rolled into the bike time (as far as I can tell, based on my own timing). Also, the transitions are a bit longer than some other races. The transition area is a bit long in length, and there is a downhill run to the pool which, in barefeet especially, adds a little time. Anyhow, I got by bike racked and ran down to the pool.

The pool area was warm, but the water felt OK. Last year some folks complained that the water temp was too warm, but I thought it was fine both years. The lanes are nice and wide -- 3 people can swim abreast without too much irritation, and that's saying something coming from me, who is still trying to get comfortable with that many people in the water around me. This makes it nice since I did actually pass some people, so I could get in the middle of the lane on occasion and still leave room on the left for the others who were still passing me like mad. Excepting an early-on foot cramp, the swim was pretty standard for me, and I popped out and ran to the outside finish.

The after-race events included decent food (fruit, drinks, and bagels with cream cheese, jam, or lunch meats & cheese) and a free massage booth. I didn't hang around for the massage this year, though I did last year and it was great -- just get your name on the list early! The end-of-race area doesn't have many places to sit and is mostly in the sun, so it's not really conducive for hanging out, unless you really want to stay for the awards ceremony.

Overall, I beat my last year's time by a few minutes, shaving off time mostly in the run and a little in the swim, but losing a smidge in the bike/transitions. I like this race because it's local; it starts early; it's extremely well-supported and well-organized; the course is very well-marked, fun, & has little traffic; and they provide good food and massage at the end. Swag bags are standard, with a water bottle, cotton T-shirt, and a few ads/samples. Although maybe a bit pricey for a sprint distance, I do think they try to give you your money's worth.

Swim/Cycle Series #4: Heron Lake

2009-07-17T05:49:00.007-06:00

Where: Heron Lake
What: Open water swim (~1 hr.) + Bike (~2 hr.)
When: Sunday, Jul. 26
Time: 8 a.m.
Optional: camp out Saturday

Since Cochiti was so bloody hot last weekend and started out with dubious air quality, I propose changing venues and heading up to Heron. We'll aim for a Sunday morning swim/ride, as well as a Sat ride for those that show up early. We may be there Fri p.m., so give me a heads up if you want to meet for a ride. T-mobile service will invariably be spotty.

Lake Heron is ~90 miles north on the 84.

Here's the campground map: (I believe campsites were $8/night, cash only)

And estimated water temp.

Rachael's excellent report from last year's Heron trip.

Unless there is a better suggestion, the east side of Willow Creek seemed like a good set of campsites and swim start point. More details to come on carpool location/time. I recall a substantial distance from supplies/beer, so definitely stock up.

Good luck to all of the participants this weekend! Santa Fe, Mountain Man, Vineman!!!!

Cochiti Swim/Cycle Series #3 -> this Sunday

2009-07-06T06:43:00.003-06:00

For those of you not participating in the Tour, we'll gather at Sullivan @ 7 am to do a brick at Cochiti this Sunday, the 12th. Based on the forecast, it should be a warm one. See you there.

Dirt Tri Race Report

2009-06-29T10:02:00.017-06:00

Dirt tri in Albuquerque was this Sunday! We were lucky to have Clay's godparents watching Mila which meant no crazy early wake up for her and plenty of time to ourselves pre-race. Happens so rarely now I didnt know what to do with it!
Another huge plus was that Clay is quite into off-road tris this summer and wanted to fit in at least 3 to get a USAT ranking in off-road. Sounds easy to us 'road tri' people, but off-road tris arent as easy to come by, which means more travel and consequently more stress scheduling each with the whole family. Plus, my mtn biking is in serious need of work so I cant really participate in most off -road tris with Clay which does take the family fun out of it. Hence the ideal dirt tri - near by and simple enough for even Dina's mtn bike skills AND a babysitter to allow us both to do it - WOHOO!

On to the race - it was on the grounds of the Albq Academy private school. I've never been at one and this one is nicer than most university grounds I've experienced - wow! Since this is all fenced off, its well protected from any traffic - great for any first timers and kids in particular!

The start was interesting, 100yard mass dash to bikes layed out near the mount line. Well, ok, for some of us, not so much a 'dash' as a limpy jog in your bike shoes through lumpy grass, slippery cement and sandy dirt. Dont think I care for this start, but definitely interesting to try. Once I got to the bikes I realized I wasnt sure exactly where I layed mine down- seemed to be the case for some others too as they were running from bike to bike looking! Thank goodness for the bright red sides on my bike seat!

Anyway, off on the bike which started with a few hundred yards of pavement - ech! hate pavement with mtn bike tires! Anyway, I started biking like I'm used to in a tri and wondering what the heck the others are doing dawdling. Not that I'm that fast at all, but the biking style and general feeling was nothing like a road tri. Guess those off-road people are different. No one was even trying to breathe hard - I slowed down to make sure I wasnt missing something. Then I figured that who cares and passed as many people as I could before we got on the 'dirt'.... and then my fear of sand and any other such unreliable surfaces to bike on kicked in nicely! After a few slippery moments and freak outs due to people all around me (!) it all got better. The first bit is mostly a gradual up which I'm perfectly happy with and I was still passing people.

Do note, this is the world's easiest off-road event. Any dramatization is due solely to the fact that I have a panic attack just thinking of any descent on even slightly sandy or gravely surface and it is further compounded with having people all around me with all the passing and avoiding! I can barely avoid bushes - moving people are a lot harder! :)

Anyway, biking uphill was nice and I realized that despite having mtn biked less than 10 times in the past 4 years and only 5 of them on this bike this is quite fun and the bike felt great! Thanks to Paul Graham Outfitters for my awesome Stumpjumper! Also, thanks to me for thinking to lock out the shocks - they were so not necessary and the bouncing was really annoying on the warm up. Anyway, the uphill ended as they all do and the downhill started (again, here is some Dina-dramatization: SANDY DOWNHILL! WITH TURNS AT BOTTOM! MASSIVE PANIC! PEOPLE COMING UP BEHIND ME AS I START BREAKING UNCONTROLLABLY! Wow, total fiasco! I all but let go of the steering assuming I'm about to seriously eat it in the bushes and I was trying to figure out which would be softer and then it all worked out - I guess 'letting the bike go" was the thing to do - YEAH! Amazingly I stayed up fine, although I was seriously hyperventilating and my hands were numb from the elbows down from squeezing so hard. Due to all this panic, the downhills were actually a lot more aerobically taxing for me than any uphills!

Then before the next downhill I calmed down enough to realize that these dirt bike wierdos really work the downhill! LIKE CRAZY! Good for them, but then it makes you wonder even more when they barely make it up the next hill, no matter how gentle and easy it may be - What The Heck?! Is it some unofficial off-road thing to not work at all on anything that's against gravity?! This strange difference in approach (and my breaking on the downhills which DID get better towards the end! :) resulted in HUGE yo-yoing between me about 25 people.

Once I got over the surprises the whole thing was a lot of fun! I didnt fall, but in a few really deep arroyos ended up having to dismount in the deeper sand pits. Not too bad. Finishign the bike was on the same pavement stretch and as I turned onto it Clay was already running on it (that means he is finishing his run!). He cheered for me (yay! :). Anyway, I biked into the transition wondering if I can do the run due to painfully strained muscle from the SnD earlier that week. I figured I was going to walk the run, so why rush - I waited for Clay to run into T2 and head into the pool with a ridiculous lead! WoHOO!

I started the run but letting everyone pass me and then realized that running isnt hurting as much as it was earlier! So I sped up and ended up passing some people back - not too bad when you were expecting to have to walk! :) Anyway, ran the rest of the run fine if very slowly, even tried to draft off a 9-year-old boy half the size of my right leg in a bad headwind. As you can imagine it was very helpful to me and gives you the idea of my overall speed and location in the race pack! :) Finally got to T2. Pretty fun so far!

Stripped down to the swimsuit - no small feat with being all sticky! and headed into the pool. Got to pass loads of people before I finished - with the swim last it's always a fun race for me! And Laury and Clay cheered for me - super YAY!

Great stuff. Called to check on Mila, she was all good, so we had to wait for awards (frikin Clay and his doing well! :) But then the total bummer part came. They decided to DQ Clay because he took a wrong turn on the course mainly due to the fact that he was so far ahead volunteers didnt make it to that intersection yet and so no one directed him. That bites. Really. Couldnt believe what a good sport Clay was about the whole thing. Said he understood and tried to make Patrick feel better about having to deliver bad news and then thanked him again for a great event. Didnt complain once even after we left and it was just me and him. Gotta love him! :))))) I was REALLY bummed but since he was being so cool and positive I figured I'd better hold my whining in. Plus, we dont have to stick around for awards now so we can go get Mila sooner. Gotta focus on the positive! :)

Now Clay doesnt have three off-road tris and the next one he can do overlaps with Socorro which is closer, we both can do and love to support! So he will likely stick to doing Socorro instead. ARGH!

In view of this I was thinking that things (events etc) are always aimed at the middle of the pack. You cant help that. So now I realize when someone is reviewing an event is important to know hwere they were in the race - front? middle? last? I'm usually middle and from that perspective this Dirt Tri was very racer friendly and well organized. However, I've been completely DFL before - xc ski race marathon. I was just starting the second half of it when they packed away all aid stations - every single one and later realized it and left a cup and a GU out for me in the snow at the last few - I was almost crying the whole last 3 miles. Then when I finished the finishline was already put away and the race dir was saying "that's all for the bbq and the raffle, thanks for coming, everyone!" You can imagine my race review wouldnt have been most positive even though I know I was crazy slow by all 'middle of pack' expectations.

I also got lucky to lead a race once - ok, not in real time, but it was a TT start with swim first and I was well by myself through most of the swim. Aside from the excitement it was also a royal pain - when I tried to turn the last bouy the kayaker volunteer grabbed on to my suit and wouldnt let me turn to shore thinking I have to do another lap because they didnt realize I was leading. That was a fun little fight. Then on the bike I had no one to follow and lets just say course marking shouldnt EVER be commented on by people who have a few dozen other racers to follow. I had to turn around twice because the volunteers (and more frighteningly: police and traffic control!) apparently dont get their stuff together until the first few racers get them ready by getting lost (hopefully just lost and not getting hit by cars!). Lovely! While I did enjoy the lead car (it was late, but did finally arrive and lead me in on the way back) I certainly had a whole lot more respect for anyone leading the race - its downright dangerous for them! This is another reason I'm such a controlling b*tch when it comes to directing/organizing lead car/police stuff on Atomic Man race day!

Anyway, based on that, it still really bums me out the Dirt Tri went with the DQ. Again, more kudos to my fantastic husband who complimented the race the whole time and still is - what a great sport and a great role model for Mila!
...And I do highly recommend the event, particularly as your first off-road - lots of fun both the course and afterwards (they had sub sandwiches and homemade cookies and a live band for awards!). And for those who get nervous about the crowds in the pool - this is your race - no crowds! They use two pools so people only have to do each lane once and this isnt a huge race, a combination which makes for clean easy passing/getting passed without much clustering or stress.

Swim/Cycle Series Episode #2

2009-06-28T22:15:00.006-06:00

Despite a less than desirable forecast, the day started off alright. Air temps ~70, probably the same for the water, overcast. The water level dropped significantly from last week.

(L to R: Max Light, Ben Davis, Bill Bearden, Bill Geist, Kim Meyer, Liz Miller, Peter Song, Paul Graham)

After a 2700 meter swim (thanks to Taraka for the kayak chaperone), we mounted the bikes for a long ride. The inclement weather caught up to us, however, and we finished a ~30 mile ride nicely wet. Al round good time, judging from the smiles. Thanks for coming everyone! Tentative repeat on July 12th.

Thanks Jian for the pictures!

Carpool to Mtn Man?

2009-06-24T20:35:00.003-06:00

Looking for anyone that is going (or wants to go) to Mtn Man in Flagstaff. Would like to carpool. Please contact Ben @ 310-4835 or trimainiac@gmail.com

Swim/Cycle Series, episode #1

2009-06-24T09:28:00.007-06:00

I think everyone had a good time last Sunday at Cochiti. The weather was excellent, the water quite nice (67-68 if I heard Tina correctly), and *I* missed the dogs.

Thanks to Bill for the use of his kayak and Taraka for chaperoning the swim.

For those of you not going to the Buff this weekend, we'll gather at Sullivan Field this Sunday @ 7 am for another round. This time a few of us will be swimming longer (~1 hr) and going for a longer ride. Hopefully the weather will hold.

XTERRA Buffalo Creek Race Report

2009-06-22T16:55:00.002-06:00

Hi all,
Hope the season is going well for all of you. Word has it that Dan Rees nailed his IMCD and is a probable qualifier for Kona, again! Congratulations Dan. It was a PR for him on that course by quite a bit, so he's proving that sticking with this sport pays off over the long haul.

Speaking of long haul, Laury Goddard and I (and Kim Katko & family), made the long haul up to Bailey, Colorado for the Buffalo Creek XTERRA. Bailey is mostly a tourist trap hole in the road on US Hwy 285 between Denver and Fairplay (a.k.a. "South Park," for all of you fans out there). The venue is at Wellington Lake, a 45 minute drive on a dirt road off of US 285. It is a lovely setting for a race, as well as just hanging out and camping with the family, or whatever. Lots of great campsites can be found, and that's almost a prerequisite if you want to do this race. It's even included with the race entry fee if you choose to do so.

Dr. Goddard and I hauled up there Friday morning, because neither of us had ever seen the venue and with XTERRA, you want to check out the bike course. Unfortunately, the course was too long to go see the whole thing after driving all that way, so we just focused on the very sketchy 3 mile decent along Buffalo Creek itself, on a forest road that consisted of a hard-packed surface transversed by deep drainage trenches (mostly in the turns) and covered in ball-bearing-like eroded crushed granite. It sounds worse than it was, but a lot of care had to be taken on the descent to avoid skittering off the road into the mountainside, or off on the steep slope down to Buffalo Creek.

Friday was nice, but we woke up to a dark, grey day on Saturday morning. We had camped out, so we didn't really have to go far to the venue, which was very nice. We ate breakfast looking out over the lake and wondered what the weather held in store.

The lake is a mountain lake that had only "warmed up" in the last month or so. I loved all of the "ice fishing" signs all over the lakesides. I gathered that the lake temperature was somewhere in the 50s and there were some complaints, but I've done it before and it doesn't seem to bother me too much, although I did get an ice cream headache from it a little bit.

This is the biggest XTERRA race in the world, second only to the world championships at Maui. It was pretty big, that's for sure. I was in a huge wave of guys aged 25-39, plus relays. We watched the pros take off, and they had us all walk out to the edge of the lake in a cove, and I waited for the countdown. Well, there was no countdown or warning of any sort and the guy just sounded a horn and I soon found myself running into the lake with no goggles on. I had them in my hand and had to stop and put them on only after figuring out what had happened after having run and jumped in and actually swam with them in my hand for several strokes. Too much race-start horn response conditioning! What an IDIOT! I was treading water and getting run over and hit and etc., etc., by the whole wave of men 25-39, plus relays, while trying to put the goggles on straight and not be leaky. It was a panicked moment, and to say the least, I didn't do a very good job. I had goggles on crooked and they were half-full (is that pessimistic, or optimistic if used this way?) of water. That sucked. I was SO uncomfortable and distracted and now over-extending myself on the swim to just get going. I finally stopped a little later and dumped out the water and put them on straight, but the damage was done. I had some ground to make up.

I swam steady and tried to focus on getting it together, then I finally got into my rhythm and started to catch the "front group" a little. It was mostly stragglers coming off of it, but I felt like I was back into the race. Unfortunately, the screwed up start made my goggles get all fogged up and with the dark, grey conditions, it wasn't long before I couldn't see a darn thing...just grey darkness. I really had to pull my head out of the water to make out swimmers ahead of me or the buoy on shore. I just focused on swimming straight and smoothly and begged for the end to come quickly to that fiasco. I swam the one-mile swim in 24:40, which turned out to be not so bad, but was a good 2 minutes off of what I should have done, which would have been a very decent swim.

Once out, it was time for the mtn bike adventure. This course is pretty long at 20 miles. I only saw the early parts of the course and realized we were going to be in a lot of big terrain changes. I didn't want to overdo it, but was smarting from the rocky swim, so I sort of hit it pretty hard. My legs felt heavy and I had guys breathing down my neck on the previous-mentioned 3 mile decent. That always makes me nervous. I prefer to do stuff like that alone, but I would never have that luxury in this very popular and competitive race. The whole day was spent either catching guys, getting caught by guys, or trying to stay with those guys.

At the bottom of the climb, I found myself with a cluster of fast mtn bikers. I tried like hell to stay with them. I did OK at first, but when the climbing got technical, the heavy feeling was too much. My back started getting achy very early and it affected me all day. I did pretty well to ignore it mostly, but it was always there and I know it took a bit of the frosting off my cake all day. I was riding a dual suspension bike because I figured the course would be a tough one, but I think I would have rather had a much lighter hard-tail because I seemed to have more trouble on the climbs than the descents on this course, and everyone around me all had much lighter rigs. Mine is a hand-me-down from Paul Graham, who is now riding something lighter for that very reason. I admit I want to blame that quite a bit, but it was probably mostly my go-jo that seemed to be missing that day. It wasn't an awful day, but I'd say that I wasn't 100%, or even in the range of an "A" grade.

I also made quite a number of technical errors on that course. It had quite a bit of everything, and the single track had some particular challenges when racing at full speed. I was always behind some guys who were pushing me well past my comfort zone and I focused too hard on staying with them and not enough on what was coming up. At one point, we went into a stand of trees on a steep descent, where there was a stream crossing and a very steep ascent up the other side. I didn't shift in time and found myself WAY over-geared and had to dismount and run up a long hill, all the while getting passed by those who were breathing down my neck just moments ago. Plus, I must have pulled my wheel in the dropouts, because the disk brakes were rubbing badly and the shifting was all messed up. I rode like that for quite a distance while debating on whether I should pull over, lose more spots, and try to fix it. The annoyance got the best of me, so I pulled over and fixed it. It wasn't as bad as I had figured and I was soon off and riding much better. I was quickly getting disappointed in my race, however.

At times like that, you just have to suck it up and focus on improving your situation. I started focusing more on smoother transitions in and out of technical spots, climbing more smoothly, and having fun, dang it! Sure enough, I began to get my act together and felt like I was riding better and during one particularly cool long section of single track, I smiled at how much fun it all was. I got through the final long single track climb (where we met up with the short course racers), got back onto the dirt road and hit the 3 mile climb that we descended early in the race.

It was here that I felt like I was riding a heavy lead bike, but kept myself smooth and made it over in good shape. A guy who had passed me early in the race, but had suffered a pretty heinous crash (and scared the crap out of me because I nearly ran over his head) came flying by me over the top and I grabbed his wheel (drafted, cause it's legal in XTERRA =) and rode really hard into T2.

I was surprised by my T2 quickness. That's usually an indication of how into the race you are and how you might go on the run. But, it was too early to tell because the early part of this run was up a steep mountain trail. It just felt horrible and my upper body went numb. It took a lot out of me to get to the top and I had let two guys pass me early with no response. At the top, the trail started going down steep, off-camber hills, right back into steep uphills. This went on for some time before we hit a very steep downhill to the base of a nice waterfall. At the bottom, we zigged and zagged through thick forest and scrambled through creeks and over little log bridges, making direction changes every few feet. It was tough running, but I started feeling good again and was having fun.

The trail portion was a little less than half of the run. We exited the trail onto the forest road that circumnavigated the lake. It was here that I suddenly felt my run get under me, despite having some cramping in my quads and hamstrings. I used a little less range of motion and a higher turnover and started picking off guys left and right. I noticed a very tiny racer just ahead and realized it was a chick! I was confused but soon remembered that the pros started ahead and some of them were women. It turns out that this was Sara Tarkington, the woman who eventually won the overall. She was quite a runner and it took a second wind and some digging to catch up to her.

I tried to pass her, but she was having none of it and latched onto another guy who surged ahead. I couldn't respond and a gap formed. A storm was building ahead of us and the cool, moist wind was in our faces. Sarah and the other guy lost steam and I caught back up. I found my rhythm again with a couple of miles to go and just held it steady on their heels. Our little group of three (I rarely race in such close quarters with others like this) were picking off all of the fast mtn bikers who could no longer run fast. It was a LOT of fun and I was impressed with this tiny woman's running speed and toughness.

Nearing the end of the dirt road before we descended a short hill to the lakeshore and final stretch to the finish, we passed a guy with his age, 38, on his leg (I'm in the 35-39 AG). I didn't think anything of it, but he made a gasping stuttered, "Uh, uh...," noise, then said, "...that's not good." The guy had been holding 3rd in our age group until our little group, with me in tow, went flying past him. He tried for a few moments to hang onto us, but couldn't quite do it. We started picking up steam into the finish and he fell off a little bit more. I realized at the very end that I had worked my way back into the top-3 of my age group. I finished with the first place pro women and the other guy who had started off a little slow, but obviously picked it up the whole way to the finish, pretty much like I did.

Right when I finished, it started raining. Laury was still out there and had to contend with the worsening weather. He got done and went straight to the car to change and get warm. We waited around for the awards, where we found out that Kim Katko had picked up 2nd OVERALL in the women's short course race...way to go, Kim!

Laury and I hit the road in a pouring rain. It rained all the way back to the Arkansas valley. We stopped in Salida for dinner and were hit by a mob of people...it was the FibARK freak festival (river rafting and lots of other stuff) weekend. No parking, hard to get around, etc. We settled on an out of the way cafe, where the food was pretty good.

It was a great trip and a very fun, if not tough, race. Lots of racers in Colorado! It's just amazing how many of them there are and how many other events there are on any given weekend there.

If you're inclined to do an XTERRA, this one is cool, but be ready for a tough, longer course. They have the short course option too, so that would be a good start. I recommend the race for sure...

Ironman CDA report from Dan Rees

2009-06-22T09:23:00.002-06:00

I had a good day. The swim, as usual, was my weak point. A strong wind was blowing across the lake and churning up the water. It was also colder - but it turned out to be a perfect temperature for racing hard. The water temperature in lake CDA was 65 deg. which was warmer than the air temperature. The two times I saw a thermometer during the day had the air temperature in the 40's. This was in the morning and on the way back to the hotel around 7 pm. I'm sure it got a little warmer in the day. The rain held off until just about 5 pm so the last 8 minutes of the race I had a little rain, but nothing like what the people who were out there for the duration went through later that night.

It was a shore start which resulted in a slightly more civilized swim than usual. I didn't take the same kind of physical beating I suffered at IM Arizona in November. The wind had created strange currents in the lake. The course was a rectangular course and the turns at the buoys were worst. It was two loops and you ran through a timing gate in between loops. My 1/2 way time was around 36 minutes with my full swim at 1:16. Not my best, actually pretty close to my worst. I came out the water 103 in my age group. My age group had around 270 people in it, so I knew I had a little work to do if I wanted to race Kona with Amy.

The wind was blowing 10 - 15 mph from the Southwest. This wind actually suited me well. Normally, if the wind is blowing like this I can write off the day because I don't seem to do well in the wind. However, the direction of this wind pushed you out of town and assisted you on the uphill and was in your face as you were descending back into town. The bike is two loops. with a short out and back each loop along the lake. There are substantial rolling hills in the middle of the course and it reminded me a little bit of IM Wisconsin where you would work hard to get up a hill and when you started down the other side, not get a good descent because they would put a sharp turn right at the bottom of the hill. I had ridden the course on the computrainer, so I knew what type of average speeds to expect at different points of the course. Generally, on my computrainer rides I would end up coming out of the hills averaging around 18.6 to 19 mph (keeping my HR at my race pace). I came out of the hills the first loop with an average speed of around 21.8 mph and had been passing people consistently. The wind was completely manageable descending back to town. I didn't descend as fast as I climbed but I still boosted my average speed. When I hit town, my average speed had climbed up to 21.9 mph. I held this through town until I got back out to the hills. I was pretty tired by that point, but I knew the average last qualiying time for Kona in my age group from last year was 10:17. The swim plus transistion was 1:21 and I knew that a 3:30 run would be good which forced me into a bike plus T2 of around 5:24. I finished the bike in 5:20 and had moved to 15th position within my age group.

It was pretty empty in transition and I had my own private helper who was shoving my hat on my head and my nutrition in my jersey so I moved through transistion pretty quick. The first 1/4 mile of the run was a little shaky and I got passed by a couple of the people who were with me in transition but that didn't last long. My legs remembered how to run by the time I hit the 1/2 mile mark My first mile was under 7 minutes. I then settled down into around a 7:30 pace for a good bit of the first half of the marathon. The data on the web site is wrong. The timing mat for the 21.75 mi split on the web site was really before mile 21 so it is off by about a mi. The web site shows my pace at aroung 7:30 through mi 21.75. I had actually started running between 7:30 and 8 min milse by that point. It also shows my time falling apart the last 4 mi. This didn't really happen. I slowed down, but I was still running around an 8:15 min/mi pace the last 4 miles. I was able to keep my heart rate up throughout the run. The first half of the run, my heart rate was around 145 - 147 bpm. The second half of the run, it dropped to 140 - 143 bpm. I drank mostly gatorade at the aid stations, took 4 salt pills and 2 gu's during the run, and had a mint each mile and 3 packages of enervitine. I ended up setting a PR for the run of 3:25 and a PR for the entire race of 10:08. My old PR was at IM Lake Placid last year of 10:17. I was 4th in my age group. Numbers 2 and 3 were 4 minutes and 2 minutes in front of me. The first place person in my age group was 32 minutes in front of me. Last year the Kona slots went 7 places in my age group so I pretty sure I will get one. We go down to the race venue in about 2 hours to collect the slot. Amy's going to sign up for next years race at the same time. While I am having trouble moving around quickly today, I would say that I'm in better shape at this moment than usual after an IM.

Dirt Tri babysitting? Sunday June 28th

2009-06-19T11:00:00.003-06:00

Anyone doing the Dirt Tri in Albuquerque on Sunday Jun 28th? If you have someone coming with you who might be able to watch an 11month old during the race (~1.5 hours) let Dina know (dinavolga@yahoo.com). We can return the favor at another event or pay for it.

Pain or Pleasure?

2009-06-18T09:36:00.002-06:00

I am just beginning to understand the contradictions and paradox of these two opposing forces. For the most part, the KS 70.3 was quite a pleasure for me. Unlike last year, the weather was conducive to a faster swim and what seemed like a shorter, less taxing bike ride. The run was certainly not the pain that I remembered from last year, both physically and mentally when the course was closed down due to bad weather. In fact this year, the sun broke through the clouds, and it got painfully hotter towards the end.
This year’s event was at a totally different venue at Clinton Reservoir from the inaugural season of 2008. The day started out painful with the mass arrival of so many participants at one time that the staff could not direct traffic into the parking area fast enough. I am sure that it would have been interesting to have hidden mics in the cars of those of us waiting in line for over 20 minutes to park. I had to really hustle to get to the swim start at T-1, which was nearly a mile away from T-2. After quickly leaving my run gear at T-2, I bolted down the hill to T-1 with barely enough time to leave my gear at my bike and head to the swim start. Thanks to a helpful person in my swim wave, I was able to zip into my wet suit and get in the water. In an earlier day, I would have been completely unnerved by this lack of prep time, but somehow I was fairly serene, and the swim was pleasurable. I was only kicked in the head once, and only got off course once.
The welcoming crowd at the swim exit was much bigger than I anticipated. I felt that I was in the upper third of the 50+ age group wave coming out of the water, and all was good. Then, it dawned on me that I had not had any time to check my tire pressure on my bike before the swim. I made the decision that “oh they feel just fine,” and went on out with the bike. In retrospect, I think they were not fully inflated, but the more critical decision that I had made was to use my gear set and wheel that I used at IM FL. That probably was not so smart as I really could have used the lower gears that I use around Taos. Probably half of the bike course remained the same from last year, but it sure seemed shorter to me. The other similar sensation from the bike course was the feeling of being passed. I really did try to pay attention to my cadence level and keep at or above 80. (I have yet to check the readings from the computer). I really have to figure out why I do not seem to have any cycling power.
Despite these feelings, I really was thoroughly enjoying the scenery. Once again, here was pleasure, but there was the somewhat painful challenge of watching my hydration (I have had two fainting spells from not watching my hydration). I have taken to riding with a Camelback, which I know is not too aero or too cool. In fact, another cyclist came by and offered to straighten up the Camelback for me (that did not help) and another person said, “That thing must cause a lot of wind drag.” I am now on a mission to find the perfect bike-specific hydration system. If I had not had my prior bouts with passing after and during bike rides, I might not be so obsessive about this, but the Camelback has to go for IM CA.
As I was passing over the very flat dam at Clinton Reservoir coming back into T-2, my mind did wander to the fact that I had not finished the Sarah Peretsky novel, Bleeding Kansas, which was set in contemporary Lawrence, but contained a lot of local history that meant a lot to me since I grew up in Lawrence and knew Sarah’s younger brother in grade school. On Friday when I went to pick up my packet, I had an even more blast from the past as one of the registration volunteers was none other than the 80+ year-old mother of a school age friend. Her jaw dropped when I re-introduced myself to her as I am sure that she could not believe that that weird little neighborhood kid from the past was participating in this triathlon. And, what is her son doing these days? No time to dwell on this, let’s get back to the run.
The run course was tightly woven around the expo area and campground where there was a great crowd and music. The only exception was a leg that dropped down the hill to T-1. I started the run thinking that I felt so much better than at the start of last year’s race. Once again, more pleasure, but that feeling started to dwindle as time went by and once again, I was being passed. The course wound through a lot of the campground, and I was constantly fooled thinking that the turnaround point was just ahead. Was it just around the next curve. No, not yet, perhaps it is at the next curve? I knew that by this time things were becoming more mental for me. I really did kick it up for the final mile coming into the finish line, and I was so exhausted that I did (once again) screw up the summary readings on my Polar monitor so that I could not get my max and avg HR. I was gunning for a 6:30 finish time, it actually was 6:42.
Now, I am truly playing mind games with myself. Did I enjoy the day so much that I did not push myself enough? Should I have endured more pain to have the pleasure of attaining my goal time?

Trackwork 6/18/09

2009-06-18T08:58:00.000-06:00

I plan on showing up at noon, starting the workout at 12:15

5x1000M start at your 5k pace and either hold or descend your interval

200M recovery taking around 1/3 of the interval

I will start my intervals at about 88 - 89 pace, which is a 3:40 interval, take a 1:20 recovery and send every 5:00

The key to this workout is the short active recovery, so pick a sustainable pace such that you can maintain the recovery and execute the interval.

Trackwork 6/11/09

2009-06-11T08:35:00.001-06:00

I plan on being at the track at noon and starting at 12:15

today....

1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 all with a brisk walking - or timed-100M recovery. Negative split your pace as you descend the ladder.

So I intend to start at a 90 second pace and basis - and my recovery basis will be a consistent 75 seconds.

The 1600 = 6:00 (90s pace), send on 7:15

The 1200 = 4:24 (88s pace), send on 13:00

The 1000 = 3:35 = (86s pace), send on 18:00

The 800 = 2:48 (84s pace), send on 22:15

The 600 = 2:03 (82s pace), send on 25:45

The 400 = 80s

For all workouts other than speed/power oriented efforts I like to control the recovery for several reasons. it provides positive structure to the entire workout allowing us to incorporate the rest phase into the active phase of the workout, and it doesn't allow us to cheat the recovery. This type of training should keep you high in the aerobic zone for the entire workout and toggle your body in and out of the anaerobic zone. This will force your body to deal with the slowly accumulating byproducts of glycogen and oxygen rich energy consumption ultimately resulting in deeper aerobic capacity and a higher anaerobic floor, a phenomenon that ideally will be realized in faster results on race day. At least, thats what I think it does.

Also, my watch is kind of a pain to reset, so it is easier to keep it running.

All speed work should be contained and controlled. Necessarily it should get more difficult, even very hard as the effort evolves, but always controlled. Concentrate on your form and pace. As always, once you start catastrophically failing the workout as planned, quit it and call it a day...there is no lost honor in this. I quit several workouts a year because I overestimated my ability and simply went too fast with too little recovery or because I was too fatigued for the planned intensity.

Race Report Deuces Wild Tri Festival, Show Low, AZ 05/30,31

2009-06-05T07:34:00.003-06:00

The Deuces Wild Tri festival was last weekend – they have five events, including the kid's race – a little something for everyone. There's a half ironman distance race, an aquabike for those who want the half distance without the run, an Olympic distance race and a kid's race all on Saturday, and an XTERRA on Sunday. Show Low is a 5:15 drive from LA, and don't forget Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, so you lose an hour as you cross the border (a little tidbit forgotten by yours truly. And Laurie Goddard, so I didn't feel quite so much of a doofus). You can check-in at the venue till 7:00 Friday night, but can also do so early on race day.
The Triatomics who participated: Dina and Char Latham from Santa Fe both did the Olympic, Clay and Laurie both did the XTERRA, and I participated in the half. Our boys were supposed to do the kids race, but it got postponed till Sunday morning due to heavy rain mid-day, and we had to leave late Saturday night, so we'll have to wait till next year for that one.
Race morning was nice, a bit chilly (Show Low is around 6300' – helps for Northern New Mexicans, hurts the Phoenix and Tucson people) and there was the usual pre-race discussion about how much clothing to wear. Water temp was reported to be 62 degrees – I was actually comfortable with just my wetsuit, no booties or skull cap like I saw some racers wearing. The men went off at 6:30, women left 4 minutes later. I had a little trouble sighting, as usual, but got out of the water unscathed. It always seems like a long 1.2 miles to me. I knew there were a clump of women ahead of me, but not how many. With all of the men ahead as well, it's pretty tough to know where you stand. Out on the bike I passed 4 or 5 women fairly early on, and then just kept riding. I passed a couple more about a quarter of the way through. The course is a bit hilly but not bad. Especially for those of us who ride the loop on a regular basis. There is a long hill around mile 40, but certainly no worse than coming up from the Bandelier entrance to the back gate, and nothing as bad as climbing out of Ancho. My only complaint – there were a lot more people in the Olympic distance race than the long course and from about mile 27 till I came up to Olympic racers where their bike course joined the long course, I was by myself. That is a long time to stay focused.
The run was a two-loop course that consisted of dirt trail, concrete, asphalt, and hills that sneaked up on you. Definitely not a fast course. I ended up leaving too much out on the bike and never really felt that spring in my step that I usually feel after the first mile or so. It was a slow slog for me and lots of effort. Only one mile was sub 8:00, and at 7:58 for mile 1, I barely even made that milestone. There are a couple of places you have a turn around and can see your competitors. Olympic and long course share the same run, so it was fun to cheer for Char and Dina as we passed each other. I wasn't sure till the half way point for the half that I was in first place – with all of the competitors on the same course and the only delineation being the color of your bib number, and the two-loop nature, there was lots of ways to get it mixed up. I ended up coming in first, though, and beat second by quite a bit (18 minutes).
This is a great race for prizes: overall winners went 5 deep and each received a significant gift certificates to TriSports.com (the race sponsor), as well as a Spinervals CD for all AG first place,s and a decorative keychain holder thing (OK, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that – for now it's stuck in a corner with all of the other race stuff), and finishers medals for all. Plus, they have a HUGE raffle and give away really great stuff – multiple wetsuits, running and cycling shoes, aerobar sets, a Kuota bike frame, a very cool Felt cruiser, and tons of smaller stuff – well worth waiting around for Saturday evening.
I posted a couple of photos on the Photo webpage – don't worry, Clay, Dan came through for you and got some of Dina racing.

Trackwork 6/4/09

2009-06-04T10:07:00.002-06:00

2x3000M at tempo pace.....around 10k, pace or so...400M jog between.

I was right at 93-94 pace for the efforts finishing at 11:43 for both.

Track

2009-06-04T10:07:00.001-06:00

2x3000M at tempo pace.....around 10k, pace or so...400M jog between.

I was right at 93-94 pace for the efforts finishing at 11:43 for both.

Deuces Wild!

2009-06-03T17:52:00.017-06:00

Well, we managed to make it all the way over to Show Low, AZ for the Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival. This is a great race weekend that everyone should experience. They have the DeuceMan 1/2 IM distance race, an Olympic distance race, and a pretty wild XTERRA on Sunday. It was perfect for our little "tri family," as Dina was able to race the Olympic on Saturday while I hung out with Mila, then it was my turn for the XTERRA race on Sunday.

We took the camper and camped the first night at El Malpais Nat'l Monument (very cool place and worth a trip there on its own). Then we went to the race venue at Fool's Hollow Lake in Show Low, but missed getting the very last spot by about 20 minutes...luckily, I had a sneaky backup plan that had us camping right outside the park on a dirt road, but within range of riding to the races each day...very sneaky indeed. The camping near the lake is fantastic.

I have to apologize that I didn't take ONE SINGLE photo of Dina racing. I never even thought to pull out the camera because I had Mila in tow and she needed to eat, sleep, play, eat again, get her diaper changed, and we worked hard on being at the right place on the course for cheering when Dina came in from each leg.

(late update: Dan Rees graciously sent me some pictures he took of Dina during the run leg of her race...thanks to Dan for saving me on that one)

Like I said before, Dina has had a very rough spring with nagging injuries, colds and other strange viruses, so this was going to be interesting. She didn't get to train a single time between Jay Benson and the Deuces Wild Olympic...whoa!

She managed just fine and paced herself after taking off very aggro in the swim and realizing her body wasn't quite ready for that. She backed off and swam steady, then biked steady into T-2 for an unknown run leg. She wasn't sure she would be able to finish, but she did with smiles and laughs to spare. I was amazed at her spirit and ability to push on and do quite well. She did the whole thing in something like 3:16...it's a hilly course and not fast for an Olympic.

A couple of comments on Dina's race: although she got a little nervous beforehand because it is a race, she didn't let it get to her too much even though she was going into a pretty competitive race with virtually NO training. I was impressed. She started out pretty hard, but realized that wasn't the right thing to do and backed off to a level she could sustain and had fun the rest of the race. She stopped to kiss Mila a couple of times, play games with Ben and John Rees (and nearly miss a timing mat in the process), etc. She still ended up 3rd in the Athena category.

On Sunday, the XTERRA went pretty well for me and I'm overall satisfied. I can't really complain, but did have a couple of minor problems.

After Dina's race on Saturday, I attempted to get out on the mtn bike for a quick ride around the bike course, but they're having early monsoons there too and I got hit by a nasty fierce storm at the top of the long, broad dome mountain that we have to climb to the top of in the race. With the lightning and hail, I had to act fast and hoof it back down the way I went up in the sloppy mud and cold, driving rain. It screwed up my bike a little bit and my brakes were rubbing pretty badly for some reason when I got back to the camper. I tried to fix them later, but it didn't seem like I was 100% successful (dang disk brakes!). I didn't worry too much about it since they often sort themselves out magically once you use them a few times on a ride.

The next morning dawned chilly and we were to the race venue with baby Mila by 6AM...way to go Mommy! I didn't have too much to worry about and even got in a good little warmup. I checked the disk brakes again and they were rubbing a little but I had hope they wouldn't hamper my speed too much.

I got enough warmup for the swim and started in the front, and when the gun went off, I hit it hard right in the scrum. I hate those aggressive swim starts, but I wanted to get out in front quickly to avoid being too far back on the mtn bike single track (passing is not so easy in mtn biking). I was quickly engulfed by the idiots and hit in the head and pushed down, so I backed off to the second line. Soon, most of those clown blew up and I found some open water in front, but could still see swimmers ahead of me, so I had no idea what place I was. I got into a very good rhythm and knew it was a good swim when I exited the water. I felt good going up the ramp to the wetsuit strippers, but they botched the strip job and it took probably 30 seconds longer than it should have. Some guys passed me in transition and I would have to work to catch them.

Out on the bike, I was feeling good. But I soon realized that my brakes were scrubbing my speed somewhat and I was getting caught by a few guys who would not normally ride up to me like that. I struggled on the early shallow climbs in the woods until it got steeper. I tried to just dug a little deeper to stay with a couple of guys that I just couldn't let go. It was a little frustrating, but I figured it might not matter on the downhill side of the mountain.

We soon got a little higher on the mountain where the rain fell the hardest and the mud was DEEP and sticky. It is that structural mud that makes fine adobe, and that's exactly what happened on our bikes. It stuck to everything and we were all soon pedaling 50 lbs+ bikes up that steep hill. We would loose 2/3 of our pedal power to slippage, and it began to be a battle of survival. Guys were clogging up everywhere and falling down and just mentally losing it. It was a little comical, but not so much when we were "in the thick of it." I knew the course just got steeper and steeper at that point, so I found a very low gear, let it skip out for a minute or two until the chain wore through the mud and just kept it there. I was a good strategy and I began to catch and pass those guys who had passed me not long before. I kept riding, to my amazement, while they were all forced to push and/or pull their mud-laden bikes up the ever-steepening gradient. We soon hit the upper stretches where there were rocks mixed in with the mud, and that made it interesting because the sticky mud would pick up the rocks and lodge them tightly between wheels and brakes, or wheels and frame. It finally caught up to me too (at one point, I think I was the only one still actually on my bike) and I was stopped dead in my tracks and fell over onto another guy who was pushing his bike at almost the same speed as me -- my cleats were all clogged up and wouldn't unclip from the pedals. So, I had to push a bit, but the really rocky section saved me because the mud cleared enough to get back on and ride the rest of the way to the top, where I figured I was back in the top-5 to 10 spots and now motoring with a lot more gusto.

I hit the nasty descent and never looked back. I knew that everyone else were now having at least as much trouble with their bikes as I had been, so I made hay while I had the chance. I pushed the limits on the very slick, muddy descents and used my brakes very little. We got to an intersection of muddy trail with muddy road and the people said we were about 3 minutes behind the leaders and we're in about 5th, 6th, 7th...that was good news.

The rest of the bike went well and I ended up with the 7th fastest bike split and in about 7th place (that's not always the case). I never felt bad on the bike, whereas last year, I felt a little crapped out by the final steep climb before the last descent into T-2, so I was happy going into the run.

I had a much better T-2 and hit the road in 7th/8th. I love it when you begin to feel your running legs early in a race. I had 6th place in my sights pretty early and ran him down before the course got really technical.

XTERRAs are weird. The course designers are encouraged to throw a lot of obstacles in your way, and that's what they do at this XTERRA. Much of the run is standard off-road running, but at one point, we had to run down a nasty slick rocky hill to the bottom of a lake spillway wash with huge boulders (imagine running across the Cochiti Lake dam), then back up a long, nearly verticle hill. That was at mile #1! That cracks your legs for the rest of the race and you never fully recover from it. I did better than last year and got my speed back up. I began to see a couple of guys ahead, but one guy that I entered T-2 just behind was just killing it and he was pulling away, despite my good run feelings. I saw the guys he was catching and figured I might if I really pushed it, so I did.

Way out on the far end, there's an out-and-back on a jeep road, and that's the first time we got to see where we were. I was in 6th, with 4th and 5th clearly not running as fast as I was, but still quite a ways ahead. Oddly, I thought 2nd looked a little slow too, but too far ahead for this late in the race. I pushed it hard and hoped 4th and 5th would crack. I got my wish with 5th...he died just enough, but 4th held tough.

Again, we had to descend a loose rocky slope to swampy islet of the lake and they made us run right through the lake...not as badly as last year, where it was chest deep and I was forced to actually swim. This time, it was only up the thigh depth and I elected to stay on my feet. Beyond that, it's another steep uphill trudge, now with totally squishy wet feet. Just before getting on the final stretches of the lake bike path and the final paved finishing stretch, they took us down into another swamp, where I got a little lost but have Dina's cheering to thank for helping me navigate to the correct place to climb back up to the lake path.

At that final point, I turned it on with what I had, but felt a knarly hamstring cramp forming and had to back off, so I never quite caught the 4th place guy, who had had a great bike ride.

So, it was 5th overall and I was happy. We all had a lot of war stories to share with each other.

Dina and I noticed how the Arizona tri scene is quite different from ours. These guys all have these entourage "posses" of other people who do everything for them and blow smoke up their butts and just hang out with these guys. They all have fancy haircuts and cars and clothes and what the heck is that all about?

So, it was a fun trip. Now we're off to the Milkman this weekend.

track Work 5/28/09

2009-05-28T08:43:00.001-06:00

I plan on showing up to the track around 11:45 and starting at 12:00

6-8 x 800 at a little faster than 5k pace, timed 200 M recovery taking about 1/2 your interval time

I plan on going around 2:55's with a 90 second recovery, sending every 4:30 on the 1000

Early Season Training & Racing

2009-05-19T17:44:00.007-06:00

I haven't blogged about anything in a while, so I decided that now would be a good time to get something up.

It's been a tough start to the season thus far. With our "new" little one, Mila, in the picture, priorities have changed, schedules have changed, and pretty much life in general has changed. It's all a good thing, but getting back to the "other" things in life that have been such a big part of our lives for a while now, has been a series of fits and starts, and mostly stumbles. We had been doing pretty well during the winter with our xc skiing and the odd run or swim thrown in here and there. By the end of January, Dina and I thought we were doing pretty well and were feeling pretty fit, actually. But alas, putting little Mila into daycare where she was exposed to all of the Ninja baby-viruses, really started to take its toll on her and on us. Amazingly, she has done pretty well with it, but some of that stuff Dina and I hadn't had (or perhaps never have had) since we were little ourselves. Dina and Mila just picked something up again right after Jay Benson, so that put Dina out for another 10-12 days. Ouch.

So, with all of that, plus slow motivation and having family visits (both here and elsewhere) to show Mila off...well, you all get it. I know I'm mostly repeating everyone else's stories here. But, I've been the master of domain all of these years, being able to somewhat prioritize my workouts and fitness over going to social functions, family functions, work functions, etc., etc. Now, it's all catching up to me and I've had no place to hide. I figured that getting a slow, late start would be a good thing for building up energy reserves and recovering from years of abuse and all of that, but getting sick during all of that time was a major setback. We didn't see that coming. And poor Mila -- it's so hard to watch a baby be sick, but man, do they bounce back quickly, while we adults just have it linger for weeks.

So, all of this complaining aside, I have been able to get out and do a few events, and even an odd training session here and there. I am not so accustomed to just jumping into races so ill-prepared as I have this year, but I went out and did it anyway. I wonder what the outcome of this experiment will be, whether I will turn out stronger than ever, or fall flat on my face for lack of a slow-build base in the early part of the year. Hmm, only time will tell.

Earlier this year, Dina and I had to attempt to figure out what our plans/goals might be for racing and training. All of that has now changed due to finding out how volatile the situation can be with a baby that is still breast-fed and the apparent ease that viruses are contracted, by both baby and mother. It's weird. So, while I complain that getting back "into it" has been tough for me, it's been infinitely more difficult for Dina. She seems to be able to get in about four or five days-worth of light workouts before she either comes down with something, or injures something in her back or knee or some other critical biomechanical location. Ooof.

Anyway, I had planned to do more local stuff and perhaps give Dina the chance to do some events further afield while I watch Mila. Back in Februarly and early March, I signed up for La Tierra Torture mtn bike race (two days, short track and the cross-country), and for the Jemez Mtn. Run 1/2 marathon race. I figured I would have had time to properly prepare for both of those events, since they were all the way in May. In between, I'd throw in Jay Benson Triathlon because it's so easy and I'd certainly be able to go hard in that too. Funny how things didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned.

Jay Benson was a rough one for me, but all-in-all, it was a good day, surprisingly. I expected nothing special, and while I didn't win, I'll take the 2nd overall I managed to pull off. A couple of days later, I went out on the LANL "Hard-Attack Tuesday" ride and my legs were so sore and hurting that I struggled to keep up. My legs just kept hurting every day, and I had the Jemez Trail 1/2 Marathon on Saturday, followed by a big group ride out into the Jemez the following day.

The Jemez 1/2 Marathon was OK. Chip took off hard and I felt really heavy and didn't even try to keep it up. I just paced myself and as long as the hills weren't too steep, I was able to fake it. When we hit the Mitchel trail, I was hurtin' and had to back off. My hips, thighs and back were just so overworked that I couldn't muster much more than a shuffle on the upper steep pitches. Once over the top, I tried to kick it back in and actually felt my running legs get under me a little bit. That was encouraging.

I managed to catch one of the guys who had passed me on the steep stuff and hoofed it in for 4th. It wasn't quite what I was expecting in terms of time (...didn't care about placing much), but I had to be somewhat pleased with the final push.

The next day, I struggled BIG TIME on the tough-guy ride out to the end of the pavement past Fenton Lake. It was over 80 miles on tough terrain with INCREDIBLY sore legs. I still had fun and had another epiphany about my nutrition when I'm really tired: I need to take in more calories to keep from bottoming out when I'm at the end of my body's workload limit. At one point, I was struggling just to turn the pedals and didn't really feel very hungry, but took in almost all of my food at once and then a few miles down the road I really felt it get into my blood stream and I recovered to finish strongly on the ride, feeling actually better than I had in the early parts...another good sign.

A little rest the following work week (more like helping out around the house more...) and a couple of good workouts in the rain the following weekend, and I finally started feeling fit and strong again. That was great. Next up: The Deuces Wild XTERRA for me, and the Olympic-distance for Dina.

We're finally catching up to the speed of the season.......

trackwork

2009-05-14T10:01:00.000-06:00

For a couple of reasons, from now until Buffalo Springs in late June most of my workouts are not going to have any real fast stuff, and by that I mean I won't be running much faster than 85 pace. Of course if you are of a mind of speed, it is always easy to cut 200M from an interval and crank the intensity, and hit the same start point as the remainder of the group.

I constructed the workout below for today, but then changed my mind, so it will be for next week. Today I plan on 10 x 600 with a 100m recovery sending every 3 min. I plan on running around 5k pace, so 88 sec/lap or so, should provide about 55 seconds of recovery.

If you run 8:00 min pace send every 4:30, do only 7 or 8 intervals,

Scale accordingly.

Next week I propose a ladder of 800, 1000, 1200, 1200, 1000, 800 where you start the first interval at about 5k pace or a little slower, and descend the entire workout about a second per lap. If your 5k pace is around 8 min miles, the first interval would be at 2:00 pace, or 4:00, the second would be at 1:59 pace, or 4:57-4:58, and so forth

Hold yourself to a 200M recovery that is about equal to twice your pace . So if your intervals start at an 8 min pace (2 min per lap) your recovery would be about 200M in 2 min, therefore you would send at 0, 6:00, 13:00....

I plan on starting at 90 sec pace with a 1:30 recovery term (or maybe 1:15's? we can see what the consensus is)

I will send at 0, 4:30, 9:45, and on and on....

This kind of workout is easy to turn into a threshold/temp style effort by going slower on the interval and just give yourself smaller recovery.

New!! Track Work label and section on homepage!

2009-05-13T17:05:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

rather than just emailing track workouts and times to a list, we decided it may help to reach more people by posting on the blog. So starting next week, click on Running under Training Activities on the homepage - you will see a short info paragraph and the link to all posts with label Track Work. Another plus, is that it will also be a nice way to have a list of workouts to go back to when you need ideas. Right now Jeff is the track man, but that may change, when it does, the next guy will just need to make sure they have access to the triatomics blog by contacting Clay.

Keep checking the triatomics homepage, lots of changes, in particular Helpful Resources section is taking shape.

dina

NEW! Race BABYsitting feature!!!

2009-05-12T16:33:00.003-06:00

One of the many brilliant moms in the club suggested we create a place where people can post what races they are going to with kids and if their spouse can watch a few additional kids thus trading race babysitting favors. Luckily we can use the blog for that! Here is how:
1) Triatomics homesite will shortly (thanks again to Chip and solwebsolutions.com) have a Resources section with a link for Race Babysitting under it. When you click that link you will be taken to all the posts on our blog that have label 'Babysitting'.
2) Anyone can view these posts.
3) To post you must be a club member and if you havent yet will need to request access from blogmaster Clay via link on the Triatomics homepage under Race Babysitting.
4) when posting you will HAVE to type 'babysitting' (no quotes) in the label section of the post (under the large message text box) or your post will not come up as one of the babysitting ones when people click the link from Resources section on the club homepage.
5) you can also always view babysitting (and all other) blog posts by just going to the blog directly. To see posts by label just click Label of your choice in the list on the right. Babysitting is one of them.
More great stuff like that coming up on the homepage and blog shortly including track workouts and more Resources links!