So this past month, I've been really concentrating on my triathlon training. I think I surfed once or twice, nothing to really blog about. So, if you're looking for stuff about surf, check out the links to the right.
Friday, 9/8/06
Went to the Marriot, in Marina Del Rey, to pick up my race packet and look for free stuff. $12 to park!!! WTF!!! F You Marriot! Funny thing about this is that I could have parked for free if I entered through the open gate in the alley. I just passed the tip along to one of the other athletes entering the parking lot. I hope he took it. Got a bunch of cool stuff from the expo: water bottles, chapstick, clif bars, highlighter color luggage tags, electorlite tabs that dissolved in water, a shirt, towel and endurance gatorade. Some other stuff but not that cool. Afterward, ate at Aunt Kizzy's. Super good food!!!! MMMM.. cornbread!!!!
Saturday, 9/9/06
Hung out with the chickie and friends. Ate at Phillipe's in downtown. MMMMMM!!! Then got some taro boba (tapioca balls for you non-knowers) and some spicy fried chicken. An hour later, ate dinner at a hot pot place. Super good. On the way home, stomach starts to hurt... big time! Great, I have to race the next day! Get home, take care of business and load the car for tomorrow. I took off my front wheel and notice something embedded in the tire. Hmmm, it's kinda in the where i found the hole in the tube. Oh well, bring the new tires just in case.
Sunday, 4:30am 9/10/06
Drive to Venice beach. Chickie asks me, "So, do you know where to go?" I reply, "Dude, that's what I asked you to look up when I was loading the car!!" We found where to park. $10 f-ing dollars! Oh well. Walk to the T1 (swim to bike transition) area, walk around aimlessly looking for the wave 8 rack. Finally find it, fix my gear and meet the chickie outside. As I'm walking out, I look at the wave 6 rack and it's just a bunch of dudes my age. WTF, how in the world did I think I was in wave 8? I'm in wave 6!!!! Doh! Oh well, I'm not gonna move my stuff.
Walk to the water, which is 70 degrees, and hang out. Watch the pro men and women take off. Geez they're fast. Took the men about 5 minutes to reach the .25mile marker. As I'm watching, I see that there are some huge close out waves and think, dang that would not be fun on a surfboard. Then it hits me, go warm up and while you're at it, figure out how to get past the break. So, I wetsuit up and just duck dive the waves, swim around and get warmed up. I try to body surf in and I guess that's would you would call it. Walk to shore and look at the starting line and think, "Hey, are those white caps? OH SHIT!!!" 3-2-1 Go!!! My wave started without me!!! So I book it up the beach and around to the starting line and run down to the water. I ran so hard, that I was out of breath getting to the water. Duck dive 3 or 4 times and I'm in calmer water. Ok, time to swim. I'm so tired!!! I can't breath and it affects my swim. Finally after 500 meters, I'm calm enough to swim faster. Pass some white caps and then I pass some pink caps; must have been the previous wave. Woo hoo!! I'm passing people on the swim. I've never done that before. Then again, this is my second tri and the first was a sprint distance. Finished around my pace, heel clicked for the supporters and I'm into T1. 40 min swim.
The bike was great. Once again, I passed people that were in front of me. Click, click, click! WTF is that sound.. oh just my fork censor for my computer hitting the magent. Do I stop and fix it or fix it while I'm riding and risk a finger? Forget stopping! I fix it really quickly and I still have 4 fingers on my right hand! We rode through so much of LA. I think I've seen more of LA on my bike than in my car. The last downhill was just gnarly. I'm not sure what street, but I think it was Grand near Temple. Dang that was crazy! Finish the bike leg at my pace, 24.5 miles, in 1 hour 25 minutes.
WTF!! We have to run up that gnarly hill we just went down??!?! This is gonna be a long run. I pretty much suck on the run portion. I get humbled by the people I passed earlier. So many f-ing hills! I think almost half was hill. I started walking up a hill around mile 3. Funny that I was walking faster than I was running because I was making up ground on the person in front of me that was walking. After a minute of walking, I think, "Dude, you didn't sacrafice and train for nothing, finish it running, MOTHERF-ER!" Start up again, got some encouragement from other racers and fans. Finished the race in 3 hours 49 minutes. WTF!!! My run was almost 1hr 45 minutes!!! WTF!! So I'm sad but convince myself that it was really hard and you'll do better next year. Find the chickie, get a big hug and kisses. She shows me her phone, she has been getting text messages from Accenture. An athlete tracking service. Oh, it was free!!! I signed up for it at the expo. I finished the race in 3 hours 24 minutes!!! HELL YEAH!!! 6 minutes under my goal time!!! And to top that, we got free massages!! Thank you Carli!!
A few notes from this weekend:
Anyone have the recipe for Aunt Kizzy's cornbread?
Triathlon rules: No IPODs on the bike... um yeah, saw at least 3 people
Thank you to LA traffic for waiting for my slow ass to cross the street.
No going out the day before, just to prevent the eating of crappy food
Wear my "How about a threesome? (pics of swim, bike and run)" shirt more often.
Practice my transitions. 4 and 3 minute transitions? Too long.
Read the course description next time
Call in sick the next day.
Next up is the Boot Camp Challenge 10/7 and half marathon 10/15.
Time to surf and run!
LATER!
