PT killed me yesterday so I ended up swimming 1600 yards in the pool with Blake instead of running. Also since I ran Tuesday night, I opted for the 36 hour rest instead of pushing the mileage too hard. I drove over to Karen's house this morning for a 5-mile tempo run. We left her house at 6:15 for an easy 2-mile warm-up. After a quick bathroom stop, we were off and running down the UCI bike path 2.5 out and back. The target for today was 6:00 average. We started a little slow, probably because my initial sense of pace is slightly off given all the leg strengthening work I've been doing. As the miles went along we fell more and more into a good rhythm, and starting dropping the mile splits down. Sometime around the 3rd mile I fell into form and clicked off the last three miles like a metronome, progressively faster for each. Splits for today's workout were 6:11, 6:04, 6:01, 5:51, 5:50. We cooled down 2 miles back to her house for a solid 9 miles for the day.
It was very satisfying at how comfortable this pace still is for me, despite low mileage weeks and all my knee/quad/hamstring issues from the last several weeks. My IT Band was about 85% during the workout, and loosened up (in a good way) as the workout progressed. I never came close to getting anaerobic, and felt like I could have kept cruising along for another 5 miles. My plan is to continue doing nothing but easy, rhythm, and tempo runs (nothing below 5:30) for a couple weeks so I can finally give my body a chance to recover while I start building mileage again. To top off the workout, after I cooled off, I got to take a full lower-body ice bath in the iCool!
Lastly, I've been looking around for some nutritional supplments/healthy alternatives to some of the crap I've been eating lately (especially at work: cookies, donuts etc.). I was recently given some free samples of Isagenix to try out, as workout supplements, and nutritional replacements. I sampled it for the first time after my workout. The Chocolate Clean Crisp Lean Bar is a winner, tasted good, and I didn't feel gross after eating it. I tried the milk/vitamin shake, and although it may have worked, I either didn't mix it well enough or should have used a blender, because it did not taste good going down. I was fortunate to hold it down until lunch. I have one more sample shake to try (maybe after a longer run next week), as well as a few other items, but the jury is still out for me on Isagenix.
... for slow easy runs. I'm not going to do any more speed workouts for the next two weeks (by speed I mean anything under 5:30 pace). This IT band/knee thing has gone on long enough and its time to get better. Treatment has been going well, and I was happy to get through last weekend injury free, but it's time to get better.
Cal Coast moved its Tuesday night workouts to the Shady Canyon bike bath. Instead of track work, we are phasing in a long tempo run. The "A" group had 10 minutes hard today, but I hung back and ran two miles slightly up tempo (5:45 ish) on the dirt. My IT band felt fine, except for a couple awkward steps. There wasn't much change of pace between throughout the entire run, and I ended up logging 40 minutes, or 6 miles.
Last Thursday I made the decision that I was feeling healthy enough to line up at the OC Duathlon on Saturday. My IT band still isn't right, but at least its feeling a little bit better and I'm running with less discomfort. The problem is, with all the exercises I've been doing at PT to strengthen the stabilizer muscles in my knees and hips, I've had some extra muscle fatigue the last few weeks. Still, since this is probably my last multi-event race for a while, I decided to give it a go.
The race was 5k run/38 k bike/5k run. Gun time was 7 a.m. so I had to get up extra-early for my pre-race routine (4:45 a.m.). Heather (ran the 5k) and I got there extra early around 5:45 so I'd have time to get a good transition spot and get a good warm-up in. After a 2 mile warm-up, I ended up waiting in the bathroom line until 6:55 and had to rush to put on my racing flats and Alcatraz tri-shirt. Run #1 went out way too quick. The first 1.5 miles rolls down hill and some kid decided to take it out a little too fast. Since I haven't done anything quick in a while, I had no sense of pace and went with him. We came through the first two miles at 4:44 and 9:41, then I decided that was too quick and I should slow down, unfortunately a mile too late. I cruised home the third mile in 5:50 and ran the first 5k in about 16:10. If this was an even-paced 5k, that would have been fine, but the first two miles completely drained my legs.
My transition on to the bike was excellent (about 40 seconds), and I made up some ground on the first three miles out towards Santiago Canyon Road. About four miles out at the top of the hill I started rolling downhill at what I thought were good speeds of 30-39 m.p.h. To my surprise, over the next 5 miles, six guys blew by me like I was standing still, probably doing about 45 during the downhill stretches. I was in top gear and my legs just weren't firing like they normally do (nothing close to Alcatraz). I also paid $20 to demo a pair of Zipp 404's from Surf City Cyclery that probably worked great, except my legs were dead, so who really knows. My quads and hamstrings also starting tightening up a bit and I think subconsciously I didn't want to push through that soreness and set back my recovery any more. The one positive on the bike is I was able to eat and digest an orange GU (energy drink) without any side effects on my stomach, something I may try and do for the marathon. I struggled home on the bike in 61 minutes and in 10th place (note: 3 years ago I did this same ride in 58 minutes). I had another good transition on to the run and tried to go pass as many people as I could on the 2nd run.
I had a mediocre 2nd 5k, passing two guys in 16:39. It went by really quick and again I really didn't go into overdrive because I didn't have many guys within passing range, and I didn't want to do any further damage to my IT band. The final result wasn't terrible, 1:35.44 (2nd M25-29), but I finished this event 2 minutes faster in 2007. Heather and I hung around long enough to pick up my age group award (plus a nice pair of sun glasses), then took off and passed out for the rest of the day.
I dragged Rachel out for a 4 mile recovery run today, then cashed in my 2nd massage that I won at the Spirit Run in March. Back to rehab tomorrow and no more racing until mid-June. 33 miles for the week, hopefully back above 40 next week.
Met Karen at 6:30 for an easy 6. We went really slow (7:45 ish pace) with some discomfort but nothing too bad. Once again, I took an extra 30 minutes at home to stretch down, foam roll the pain away, and ice my legs. No surprise, this is really paying dividends when I go to work. I don't feel any residual discomfort at work after my runs anymore. On a separate note, I think my tenure with the New Balance 760 series may be up. I'm headed to Road Runner this weekend to look at new shoes and insoles. It was nice while it lasted.
I spent another lunch at PT. Today Ray murdered my quads and hamstrings. Hopefully they are in good enough shape to race tomorrow at the OC Duathlon, and hopefully my competetive instincts don't run be back into injury.
Today I had my first pain-free run in over a month (well, 95% pain free). I woke up early this morning to try and get an easy run in before work. Normally I try and get out the door within 30 minutes of rolling out of bed, but I took an hour today (and will do going forward) to make sure I'm sufficiently loosened up. Once I got down to Back Bay Road I settled into 6:40's, which felt easy. Coming home I picked it up a bit to 6:30's, which caused some tightness, but I didn't aggravate anything. Total for the day was 40 minutes, 6 miles. The best part of the run was that I didn't favor either leg at all. I would guess I'm about 80-85% back to full strength.
Once I got home I spent about 30 minutes stretching down, using the foam roller and doing other various stretches before icing down. The extra time post-run definitely helped because I have not been remotely sore all day, except for some mild tightness in my left hamstring. I'm still on track to compete in the OC Duathlon this weekend.
Julie organized the second transition workout of the season this morning. Five of us met at her pool in Irvine at 5:45 a.m, took an easy 10-15 minutes to set up our bikes and warm-up, then got going on 3 x (400 yard swim/2k bike/1k run). Unlike yesterday, I was feeling some soreness and stiffness in my quad and knee, a byproduct of running mid-to-low 60's on those quarters yesterday.
My three circuits were 13:50 (easy), 12:50 (harder), 12:55 (crap). As usual, I only swam 300 yards on the swim, both because every one else in the pool was an elite swimmer. The first circuit I took it really easy, because the whole point was just to practice transitions. I also hadn't been in a pool since I tweaked my neck and shoulder last week so I wanted to be very cautious. My second circuit was by far the best. I swam a little harder, and had a great transition on to the bike (my weakest part) and was able to get my feet into the bike shoes very quickly. I also hammered the run, probably stupid, and managed to catch everyone before the end of the run. The third circuit I was quick out of the pool, but couldn't get on my bike and accidentally kicked a shoe off. Better to happen in practice than this weekend. After the workout was over I cooled down 200 yards in the pool and headed off to work, then ProSport PT for an hour during lunch.
Totals for the day: Swim: 1200, Bike 10k, Run 3 miles
I spent the entire weekend in Philadelphia for Rachel's Penn graduation and despite my desire to run the Rocky steps up the Philadelphia Art Museum, I didn't run a step all weekend. No big deal, congrats to Rachel, college grad, her weekend! My knee felt progressively better each day, until I had to lug one of her 50 pound suitcases down some stairs. Rachel's stairs are hobbit-sized, so you can only really fit up the stairway if you are 5'2 or less, meaning I have to contort in various ways to get around her apartment. I was less than thrilled with my newly sore knee as I boarded my flight home yesterday.
Fortunately, PT was great today. The people at Pro-Sport are great and getting the knots out of my quads, and have a running competition to see who can put me in the most pain each day. Nancy is the runaway winner so far with her sharp elbows. So after 90 minutes of therapy and drills, I was actually feeling pretty good, and decided I would head out to the Cal Coast workout to test out my legs.
I left work a little later than usual for Tuesday so I didn't have much time before the workout started, and decided to take a longer warm-up and skip out of the first couple intervals. Today's workout was 1200, 800, 4x400 - a very short workout since it's our last week on the track. Next week we are moving to the Shady Canyon bike path to start tempo runs. I kept my entire first 10 minutes on the grass, and was thrilled to discover from the first step that I could finally run without any discomfort or limp. After 10 minutes of exuberant running I threw caution to the wind and decided to hop in the 800, but take it easy. The splits were stupid, (38, 34, 40, 45) and I cruised through in 2:37-not hard, but first up-tempo running I have done since my triathlon. I made sure to jog a whole lap before the 400's and was hesitant to jump in those, but decided I would just hang back and relax (and I stayed out of my flats).
Not so much. The first split was an easy 71 (perfect, nothing faster). Then I started loosening up a bit and came through in 66 on the next split, feeling pretty good (ok! but nothing below 65). Then as my legs continued to wake up I started feeling really good and came through in 64 for the next one (crap, may pay for that later). I debated sitting out the last 400, but it was our last group workout there for a while and why not. I ended up running a 61. Then I hopped in with Kare for the last couple hundred yards of her 2 mile workout, and cooled down 3 miles, for 6.5 on the day.
Considering I haven't done anything faster than 6:45 pace for the past two weeks I was very happy to see some leg speed was still there. I really wanted to get moving once before my duathlon this weekend, and I'm feeling like without any major setbacks, I should be good to go for Saturday.
My IT Band Syndrome is starting to subside, despite running on it for the last four days. I met Karen this morning on Back Bay Road for an easy 50 minutes flat. Somehow, I managed to run down Jamboree without pain, but had some discomfort for most of the run. We kept a much slower and relaxed pace today (7:30ish I think) so I don't think I aggravated anything. In other news, my left shoulder and chest area are about 90% recovered, so that's one less nuissance to worry about. Total for the day was 6.5 miles.
I headed back to ProSport during my lunch hour for PT. Nancy, my trainer, drilled on my quad and IT band for about 30 minutes as I let out pathetic whimpers. I definitely limped off the massage table after that. Next, I went through about 8 strengthening drills, then hopped back on the massage table for ice and stim.
Tomorrow is an off day (and travel day - Rachel's Penn graduation), and I'll probably skip Monday as well. I'm hoping to feel normal by Wednesday so I attack this duathlon next weekend.
I just ran for three consecutive days, the first time that's happened in four weeks! I logged another 6 miles today during lunch. I tried to keep it as flat as possible again and headed down to Crystal Cove, averaging about 6:40 pace. At least I can say the run was better than yesterday, all though my stomach was acting up which turned into an adventure. It's still taking me about 5-10 minutes to warm up my legs, but once I get going, I barely notice my knee.
I had a good 30 minute stretch-down after the run, with some intense work on the foam-roller followed by ice. All in all, my body is still way out of whack, and I'm 50/50 right now on where I'll show up for the OC Duathlon. My neck and back are still really tight on my left side, but the discomfort is slowly receding. Hopefully, a few more days of consistent running will shock me back into shape and I'll be fine. I definitely don't feel like I'm in the same body that ran 15:20 4 weeks ago.
At least I'm running again. My IT band wasn't too bad today, probably about 70% of where it should be. I logged 6 miles after work today, averaging around 6:45 pace. I also still can't run downhill without discomfort, but that should go away soon. Still some intense chest stiffness, but it's starting to loosen up. I'm also trying to stretch down for at least 30 minutes after every run now, a bit of a challenge, and test of my patience, but worth it.
Also went to PT during lunch and had my quads and IT band drilled on for a while.
After a sleepless night, I finally relented and started popping advil at 3 a.m. My entire left side, neck shoulder, and chest were stiff and aching. I tried to make it through work, but was having difficulty taking deep breaths. I managed to get into see Dr. Steve, my chiropractor, who diagnosed my disjointed neck, and managed to crack it back into place, while keeping me in near agony for 30 minutes.
After work I headed to my first physical therapy session at ProSport on Bristol. I went through a pretty intense circuit and the trainers worked out some stiffness in my quads so my IT band might loosen up. The bulk of the circuit consisted of various squats and lunges. I was already feeling pretty strong after my hour was up.
My aim was still to get to the track for the Cal Coast workout, or jog at the very least. I managed to log about 5.5 miles, with the last few down at my comfort zone of 6:00-6:20, and without pain, which is very encouraging. Hopefully after four weeks of PT, this thing will be gone and I can get the mileage back up. In the meantime, no swimming for at least a week.
This morning got off to a great start, as I visited the Doc to get my MRI results. The news: my knee is "structurally perfect." Well, OK then. Time to start running. I was still a little sore from yesterday so I decided to swim today and get the mileage back up tomorrow.
I headed to the pool after work for what was supposed to be an easy workout. I took an easy 500 yard warm up mixing up the usual drills throughout. Then I decided to do some speed work in the pool. I'm trying to get my 100 time a little faster, so I decided to do 10 x 100 with 15 seconds recovery, keeping all the 100's below 1:30. I was 1:25 - 1:27 on all of the first 9, and my breathing was getting pretty intense by the #8. The last one I really tried to speed up and ended up muscling through it in 1:23. Then I cooled down 500 yards for 2000 on the day. After a brief jacuzzi session, I cooled of and headed to dinner.
About 30 minutes letter my chest started getting really tight. I overworked or overused my pecs on that swim, so while it was a great workout, I'm having some uncomfortable chest stiffness right now, which isn't too pleasant. I had this briefly last week and it went away in day. I think I may have pulled something so I'll probably take the rest of the week off from swimming.
Last note is my Brightroom CD from the race arrived and new pics are posted on facebook.
Happy Mother's Day! Now that I've had a week to let my body recover and let the Escape experience marinate for a while, it's time to look forward. My knee wasn't doing too great after the race, so I took four days completely off from running. In the meantime, I went to my orthopedist to make sure nothing serious is going on there and ended up getting an MRI on Wednesday, which I'll hear results on tomorrow.
It didn't do any physical activity following the race. On Monday I went to Erik's pool and swam about 500 yards before my body said stop. Thursday I went back to the pool and swam about 2100 yards, with some sprints mixed in. I actually swam so hard that I had some chest soreness issues until Saturday. Friday I tried my first run since the race. My knee was definitely not fully ready for it, but I decided to run through it and logged an easy 5 miles at around 7 minute pace. Saturday morning, Erik and I headed up to El Morro to do some trail running and logged another 6 miles at a moderate 7-7:30 pace. I had to stop a couple times to massage my knee, but it was feeling a little better. Today I went for a 42 mile leisurely bike ride with Michael, Dennis, and Blake through Laguna Hills and back on PCH. I'm feeling pretty good physically except for more knee soreness, but I think it is in remission, especially with the down mileage. Hopefully the doctor will proscribe some PT this week and I'll be go to go by next weekend.
Looking head, I'm targeting the OC Duathlon in two weeks, where if healthy, I should be in good enough shape to win it, so get better knee! The some fun and fast races in June, and getting the mileage back up for the Chicago Marathon.
What a weekend! This was the coolest athletic event I've ever competed in. Everything about this weekend was a success, the weather on race day was perfect, the logistics for the race were great, the race could not have gone much better for me, and I had a great support crew. Even a flat tire on Saturday ended up working out well.
Heather and I drove her car up to San Francisco early Friday morning. At the time, my knee tendinitis was still an issue, and since I had not been on a run longer than 6 miles in weeks, I was worried it would not hold up over 8 miles of hilly (especially down hill) running. We arrived in San Fran around 1 p.m. and after checking in, I went for a run. I was determined to break in my new Saucony racing flats that gave me terrible blisters at the Carlsbad 5000, so I wore them without laces during the car ride, then took them for a quick 1 mile on the treadmill. I wasn't getting any blisters, but during the 1 mile, my knee started to bother me. I quickly popped off the treadmill onto the elliptical for a few minutes. Then after I thought I had loosened up enough, I threw on my trainers and went for a painfully slow run down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. I totaled a painful six miles for the day and at this point was starting to worry more about my knee than the swim. I should also mention I was furiously icing my knees all day, to the point where I may have broken the hotel ice machine, but at least it helped.
Saturday morning I let myself sleep in a little. No use in keeping sleeping patterns when I knew I wouldn't get a wink of sleep anyways on Saturday night. I knew running would be a bad idea so I hopped on the stationary bike for about 40 minutes to get a good sweat going. Then Heather and I headed down to the Marina for breakfast and the Expo to pick up my race packet. When the valet brought her car around, the right rear passenger tire was flat (with a nail in it). They claimed this could have happened anywhere, but the tire definitely did not have a nail in it when we arrived on Friday. After suppressing a near freak-out, I was actually quite relieved. We were lucky we chose to drive down to the Marina, instead of cabbing it, otherwise I would not have discovered the flat until 5 a.m. on Sunday morning. The hotel valet was very nice, and changed our tire for us, then took the flat over to a tire center and paid for the patch work, and waived our valet charges. Crisis averted, and $100 saved.
At the expo, the race organizers were giving hourly course talks so all the competitors would know what to expect. Mostly it was just "do not be afraid of the water" for about 30 minutes. After the Expo, we headed back to Union Square to meet Mom and Mary, then pick up some race-day nutritional supplements. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a grocery store anywhere that carried my favorite Oatmeal Raisin Power Bar, so I had to settle for Vanilla Crisp. Then Mom, Mary, Heather and I went for a great pre-race meal at Antica Trattoria (Anne recommended for us via her tennis coach, Lele) which had a fantastic spinach salad.
After dinner it was time for final pre-race preparations. I laid out all my gear and food for race day, bib #'s, put air in my tires, and set up my two transition bags. As you can see by the pictures it's actually a ton of stuff. Mom and Mary went across the street to buy some ID tags and colorful string to identify my tri-bag so it wouldn't get stolen out of the transition area. I tried to go to sleep around 10, and set a 4:30 a.m. wake-up for myself, but predictably, I barely slept that night. I woke up about once and hour, and actually changed my alarm to 4:15 so I could really take my time Sunday morning.
RACE DAY
I woke up minutes ahead of my alarm on race day and began my usual routine: 20 minute hot shower to loosen up my leg muscles, food intake, bathroom etc. All my equipment was packed up so I didn't have to think about forgetting anything, and the car was even pulled forward when I got downstairs. I arrived at the Marina around 5:15 with only whimpers of daylight to help set up my bike in the transition area. There were two transitions to set up. First, I had a plastic bag (with my #256) for the transition area at the water exit. In this bag I had my racing flats, a half-filled Gatorade bottle, and a power bar. Then I headed over to my assigned bike rack, which was in a good position on the end of a row, so I had plenty of room to set up my gear. I brought a second pair of racing flats along in case the new ones didn't work out well on the 1/2 mile run from the marina to the bike rack. After I finished setting up, I boarded a bus with 50 other escapees, and headed over to Pier 3 to pick up my timing chip and board the San Francisco Belle.
It was light out by the time my bus arrived at the docks around 6 a.m., about an hour before the boat was scheduled to leave the dock. It was relaxing to see the water was perfectly calm, no wind whatsoever, and not a cloud in the sky. I stayed off the boat for a bit because I was getting antsy and figured once I got on board my jitters would increase. Once on board I found my friend Sarah and compared nervousness for a while. Fortunately, there were not too many people on board at 6:15 so I had an opportunity to make one last bathroom stop. When I came out of the cabin, the line for the bathrooms was about 45 minutes so this ended up being pretty clutch. We had been advised not to put on our wetsuits until the boat left the dock because otherwise we might risk overheating. I spent the last 20 minutes before we left putting on way too much body glide to make sure I had an easy time getting my suit off.
We left the dock at precisely 7 a.m. and headed out for a loop around Alcatraz. There were plenty of slow-claps and whistles as we pulled away from the dock--no turning back now. I slowly put my wet suit on, up to my waste until about 7:40, when the boat was settled in launch position. With about 15 minutes to start, I had to pee really badly. I had been pounding water on the boat for the last hour and it just crept up. The bathroom line was too long and I figured I could hold it until I was in the water, and then who really cares. I zipped my wetsuit on with ease, something I usually have a hard time doing on my own, and put on my swim caps. I was planning on wearing a swim cap on my head, then goggles, then my age-group cap over that, but the second swim cap made the goggles too tight and hurt my head, so I just wore the goggles over both swim caps instead. I tied up all my sweats and warm-ups in my clothing bag (to be delivered after the race), and proceeded towards the starboard doors... 5 minutes to go. The elites made their way out in front of us and lined up on the outside of the railing so they could jump off together... 30 seconds. Everyone starts pushing towards the doors and I move my way forward so I can get off in a relatively good position. There's the horn and I can see people start to jump off the boat. I am ridiculously nervous, but inch forward, about 10 seconds from jumping off a perfectly good boat... this is really about to happen. Suddenly I'm at the end of the boat... GO!
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" is my only thought for the first 10 seconds, hoping the people behind me don't jump on my head. This is immediately replaced my "THIS IS FREAKING COLD!" Actually, my full body Zoot wet suit was phenomenal during the swim, and my body was warm the entire time. My extremities were not. For the first five minutes my face and feet were very cold. I pulled extra hard on the swim to warm up faster which half-worked--my face warmed up and my feet went numb. I had spot picked out just west of Ghirardelli Square, a tall antenna above some trees, which I focused on for about the first 10 minutes of the swim. Since I’ve spent the last eight weeks practicing breathing on both sides, I was generally breathing every three strokes, and using the people around me to make sure I was going straight. I kept telling myself that as long as I was in between people, I was fine. I then shifted my focus over to Fort Mason for the next ten minutes, and really didn’t look much at all. I focused in on my breathing and got a great cadence going, even as a few small swells trickled in the Bay. About half way through the swim, I started passing people and actually crawled up on a few people by accident. Finally, after what felt like 2o minutes of swimming (I left my watch at T1), I briefly removed my goggles to focus in on my destination. I was pleasantly surprised how close it was, probably not more than 600 yards to the beach at that point. With renewed vigor, I upped my pace, and headed straight for the beach. The last 100 yards is a blur; I was swimming as hard as I could, and my arms were spent as I hit the beach. I pulled off my swim cap and goggles as quickly as possible, started to run for the transition, and waved hello to my support crew which was quite relived to see me get out of the water in one piece and free of shark bites.
The run to T1 was a bit of a struggle. My feet were frozen and covered in sand, making for an uncomfortable trot to my transition bag, which was laid out on asphalt in numerical order. My first problem though, was my bag was hidden under another so for about 20 seconds, I couldn’t find it. After a near freak-out (see below) I found the bag, peeled off my wet suit (with ease!) and slipped on my shoes. Then I keep trying to shove my wetsuit back in the transition bag so it wouldn’t get lost or stolen, which ended up taking another 30 seconds. I chugged some Gatorade, opened my vanilla crisp power bar, and took off down the sidewalk towards my bike transition. Now came nervous part two: how would my knee react. For at least the half mile to my bike, my knee held up great. It must have helped that I basically sprinted the half mile, passed about 40 people, and didn’t feel a thing, probably because of the adrenaline. The other positive was that my new shoes were gripping to my heels really well, and I was comfortable enough to know I could wear them for the 8 mile run. I had an excellent transition out of my shoes and onto the bike, but lost a minute to the top age groupers due to all my follies by the water.
After successfully mounting the bike, I downed about the half the power bar I was carrying and stuffed the rest in my shirt pocket. I was carrying two water bottles on the bike, one half-filled with Gatorade, and the other mostly full of water (above pic in center). I took down about half of each bottle in the first two miles, which was just about the only flat section of the course. We headed west toward the Golden Gate Bridge and climbed up to the top of the Presidio. I was people right and left up the hill, and was climbing with surprising ease. I actually did not get passed on the bike, and if someone did go by me, I passed them back seconds later. Where I really excelled on the bike yesterday was riding strong over the top of the hills. I would continuously gap others while cresting over hills because while my legs were getting sore, I was never aerobically tired, probably a product of all the extra swim work I’ve been doing. The rest of the bike course was beautiful, swinging through some neighborhoods and down the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean. The entire course was either climbing or descending, and at the top of all the major climbs volunteers were waiting with water bottles, which I took every time and quickly discarded a la Tour de France cyclists. While cruising down hill at speeds exceeding 40 m.p.h. I made sure to take a few quick glances at the 6-8 foot swells crashing on the rocks. The bike course returned home with a loop through Golden Gate Park, then we re-traced our steps, and I continued passing people on the way home. So many people it was shocking. I didn’t even strap on aero-bars because I thought they would weigh me down. I also got a chuckle every time I passed someone on a $10,000 bike. I don’t understand why people didn’t just bring their road bikes to this course. I think the tri-bikes created a disadvantage here because they are harder to maneuver and more difficult for steep climbs. After a rapid final descent to the Marina (nearly losing control, 46 m.p.h.), and un-clipped with half a mile to go and popped off my bike into the transition area. Total bike ride was 54:29, averaging 19.8 m.p.h. It was the 58th fastest bike ride of the day (when you factor in my long transition before-hand, probably about 30th without the transition).
I added another needless minute to the final transition while putting my shoes on. The first shoe went on with ease, but the insole on the second shoe kept slipping out of place, so many times that I had to sit down and hold it in place. Finally, after two minutes in transition, I was off and running. According to Heather, I was about the 90th person to leave the transition area as we headed out for the run. Now it was time for some fun.
My favorite thing about triathlon is the order of events. The swim is my weakest event, so I’m naturally behind out of the water. I’m pretty strong on the bike, usually top 5%, so I’m always passing people, but I’m not an elite cyclist. The run is obviously my strength. My only concern heading into the run was that my knee might not hold up. I figured the only way to make sure the knee loosened up was essentially to a really hard first 400 meters to get myself going. After we got on the flat dirt path along the Marina we continued to pass people, and I was encourage not to be feeling a hint of pain, so I decided to keep the pace going, and hit the first mile marker in 5:05. Whoops! Now way I was keeping that up, so I slowed down to something closer to 5:45 pace until we started climbing the steps up towards Golden Gate Bridge. I continued to pass people right and left, sometimes 3-4 at a time, with no hint of going backwards. Mile 3 was straight up hill and really put a damper to my pace, but even more so for everyone else. Mile 4 descended down to the beach just north of the bridge, which was the only really tough part on my knees, and the course took us along the waters edge for 800 meters, to the turnaround, then back east and up.
The final real hurdle of the day was the infamous sand ladder, which I had never seen in person, but was quite steeper than the preview video. Nobody was running the sand ladder. I tried at first but it was too draining, so I pulled myself up along side the railing and did a quick “power climb”, which hurt more than any other part of the race. Even walking I passed three people. Finally, about two-thirds of the way up the sand ladder, I decided to myself into a run and passed another 5 people before the top. Small funny moment here. The sand ladder was so steep I couldn't see up over the top, so when it started to crest, much to my dismay there was still another 100 yards. "Are you f***ing serious?!" I muttered aloud to myself, just after the a lady on the course yelled, "you're doing great!" and I think she was somewhat taken aback. So to the volunteer/spectator on the sand ladder, if you ever read this, sorry about that. The sand ladder continued into another 400 yards of up-hill to the bridge, and finally it was time to descend back down the steps and head to the marina. Even though I power-walked/climbed for half the sand ladder, I somehow had the 8th fastest time on that section of the course, so I guess it hit other people hard too.
The stairs spat me out right below the Golden Gate Bridge and I had two miles of flat to the finish. At this point, I was passing fewer and fewer people, because there were just fewer left to pass, and I was running on excitement and adrenaline because I knew I had a great race going. As I passed the 6 mile mark a about 37 minutes (freaking sand ladder!), I scanned the dirt path ahead of me and spotted two twins in Stanford gear about 200 yards ahead who appeared to be moving at a good pace. That’s the target. I went into track mode and budgeted my energy to catch them by the finish. I passed a couple stragglers in between but by the 7 mile mark (5:40) I had halved the distance. I was winding up the speed, faster and faster, and with 800 meters to go, we started passing throngs of spectators, cheering quite loudly. I came around the final turn right on the twins heals, and in the process had caught two others. The momentum and crowd took me into a full out sprint, and I closed in a 5:18 last mile for 48:03 for the run (2nd fastest non-pro of the day), and a 2:22:31, about 7 minutes faster than my personal predicted finish time! I was also the 36th person to cross the line, meaning I passed at least 50 people during the run. I had the 40th fastest time of the day, was the 16th fastest non-pro, and 5th in my age group (M25-29).
My support crew and Erik had a perfect perch over the finish line and captured all sorts of unflattering pictures as I wandered around in a daze. I finally found some fruit and began impaling simple sugars. I also took at advantage of a free massage, which provided a nice opportunity for some interest pictures. It took us about two hours to get out of there, partly because I was in recovery mode and getting treatment, and partly to enjoy the environment. Finally, Heather and I left San Francisco with Erik in tow around 5 p.m. and made to back to Newport Beach by 11.
This was the coolest athletic event I’ve ever taken part in. The planning and logistics are great, the course could not be better, and triathletes always seem to be the friendliest people. I trained my butt off for two months leading up to this and it is so rewarding to see the fruits of hard work pay off. I’ll definitely come back and compete again someday.
I ran cross country and track and field for Yale. Then spent five years working for the Bond King in Newport Beach. Now, I'm pursuing my M.B.A at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In between all of that, I like to run, bike, swim, and race a little. This is both a training blog and a chronicle of those events.
