Monday, September 28, 2009
Somber News
I just found out that the son of one of my friends is in a coma from a fall he had last week. While I never met Justin I have worked with his dad for several years and consider him a friend. Justin works for RunTex and is involved in the running world. RunTex is having a candlelight vigil this Thursday night, October 1st, at 8PM. I know that it would mean a lot for the family to see the running world come out and show their support.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Austin Tri and Beva
So much to report! I bet it would be a little less daunting if I were to do this a little more progressively, huh? Since I last left you all I got my new triathlon bike, gone to Corpus Christi, and completed my first Olympic distance tri.
Strawberry Shortcake is a great bike and a ton of fun to ride. But when it comes to racing, her 12 gears, down tube shifters, and steel frame make her a little less than peppy. So it was time to look at getting a new bike. Enter Beva, my lovely Masi Coltello Aero. When I ordered her I was expecting to get a red bike with white lettering and decals, but came to find out that the previous year’s model was available for $200 less and the only difference was it was white with red lettering and decals. For those that don’t know me all that well, I am not exactly the world’s largest UT fan. In fact it could be said that I am a bit of a UT antagonist. So alas, the “red” lettering and decals is actually a rather dark orange. This was a little bit of a kharmatic sucker punch. Oh well. She is still lovely and I am having a blast on her. It is amazing how much easier cycling is on a newer and lighter bike.
A couple of days after getting Beva, I had to head down to Corpus Christi for a conference. It has actually been 20+ years since I have been to Corpus, so I was pretty excited to head down there. I stayed at one of the Omni hotels right along the sea wall, so the view and location were great! My first evening their I decided I would hop out to the sea wall (just across the street from the hotel) and go for a run. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly humid it was; who would have thought that?! But the second thing I noticed was that practically everybody waved at each other! It was the coolest thing. No matter what pace, direction, or what not, everybody out on the sea wall acknowledged the other folks out there. The next two days I managed to get Beva out on the road. Beva is much larger than Strawberry so for someone that is already not the most comfortable on a bike, she is a bit daunting. With that in mind and my race coming up the next week I figured that I should just spend some time getting acclimated to riding her. Luckily the conference's schedule (and my skipping of one session) allowed for me to get two rides in, one of about 30 minutes and another of about 90. There is definitely something to be said for riding along the beach. Pretty nice little outings. Oh; the conference was good and I actually learned a fair amount.
Speaking of learning stuff; I really hope that I learned a lot from the Austin Triathlon. It really all started out fine. I got my bike setup in the transition area the day before, had a decent sleep that night, and came to the race feeling pretty good. As has become tradition (well, if two previous times counts as tradition) I popped a gel about 15 minutes before I jumped into the water for the swim. The treading start was something new to me, but I really liked it. The start, though still a jumble, did not seem to be quite as violent as the running starts. The swim went really well. I didn't want to go out too hard and be exhausted as soon as I got out of the water, but I didn't want to lollygag toomuch. Despite the dread of not being able to see the buoys that were spread incredibly far apart, I was able to get in a decent stride most of the way and felt great for all 1500 meters of the swim.
Typically I am not too terribly fast in transition and today ended up not being an exception despite my efforts to make it one. My feet were just caked with mud and dirt by the time I made it to my bike and it took me a bit of time to get it knocked off sufficiently before throwing on my shoes. Oh well.
Well, here it is; Beva's maiden race. The bike course consisted of three laps around and through downtown Austin. I had done a test run on the course just two days before so I was feeling pretty confident that I would be able to get through it without incident and know where to shift and all that good stuff. This was all true, but alas my inexperience on bikes caught up to me. I dropped my chain just a few hundred yards before a big turn and had to jump off to the side of the road and get it back on. More than likely this didn't take but a minute and a half or so, but it was still aggravating. I was just in a bad gear choice and tried to push it too hard. Luckily this was the first loop and I was able to get through the next two without any other mechanical failures. If only my brain didn't stop working too. During my ride I took another gel and for some reason, it did not agree with my stomach too well. I became a little queasyabout 15 minutes after taking it. Then there was the fact that I am a little too competitive at times. About halfway through my first lap I started to hear the familiar sound of carbon disc wheels coming up behind me. This was not supposed to be happening so quickly on my new bike! Beva and I were supposed to be flying! It took me the rest of the lap to realize that most of these people breezing past me were the pros making their laps, yet I still felt pressured to try to kick it up a notch anytime I got passed. This increased machismo coupled with my gurgling tummy left me quite distracted and I failed to drink even half of the water and Propel that I had with me. By the end of the bike I was still feeling OK, just a little bit of an upset stomach but nothing too bad. I had average 20mph which for me was really good and ultimately I was pretty happy with the ride.
Shortly after reracking my bike and getting my running shoes on I began to feel the effects of under-hydration and a digestive system not loving the gels. I wanted to throw-up and could not drink enough at the water stations; plus my legs felt as if they had nothing left in them to give. As I filled up on water and Gatorade at the water stops my stomach began to start sloshing with all of the liquid it no longer had the ability to take in. My queasiness has now manifested itself into outright nausea. Awesome! Only 4 more miles to go. The run is typically my best part and I had been looking forward to it. Alas, it felt like I was just barely moving and despising every minute of it. Finally I saw that the finish line was within a quarter mile and managed to summon everything left in me and gave it one last push. As soon as I crossed the line I started looking forward to my next triathlon and was telling myself that I would learn from this experience. Then I set off to pass out under a tent with cold water and try not to throw-up on anyone.
Miraculously I had to have been moving faster in the run than it felt like. I managed to finish the 10k in 48:27 and the entire race in 2:38:16. Not as well as I know that I can do, but for my first time out I am really proud of that time. It was certainly the most difficult physical thing I have done so far. Now the countdown begins for Iron Star in Conroe, TX; a half ironman on November 8th. We shall see what happens.
Strawberry Shortcake is a great bike and a ton of fun to ride. But when it comes to racing, her 12 gears, down tube shifters, and steel frame make her a little less than peppy. So it was time to look at getting a new bike. Enter Beva, my lovely Masi Coltello Aero. When I ordered her I was expecting to get a red bike with white lettering and decals, but came to find out that the previous year’s model was available for $200 less and the only difference was it was white with red lettering and decals. For those that don’t know me all that well, I am not exactly the world’s largest UT fan. In fact it could be said that I am a bit of a UT antagonist. So alas, the “red” lettering and decals is actually a rather dark orange. This was a little bit of a kharmatic sucker punch. Oh well. She is still lovely and I am having a blast on her. It is amazing how much easier cycling is on a newer and lighter bike.
A couple of days after getting Beva, I had to head down to Corpus Christi for a conference. It has actually been 20+ years since I have been to Corpus, so I was pretty excited to head down there. I stayed at one of the Omni hotels right along the sea wall, so the view and location were great! My first evening their I decided I would hop out to the sea wall (just across the street from the hotel) and go for a run. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly humid it was; who would have thought that?! But the second thing I noticed was that practically everybody waved at each other! It was the coolest thing. No matter what pace, direction, or what not, everybody out on the sea wall acknowledged the other folks out there. The next two days I managed to get Beva out on the road. Beva is much larger than Strawberry so for someone that is already not the most comfortable on a bike, she is a bit daunting. With that in mind and my race coming up the next week I figured that I should just spend some time getting acclimated to riding her. Luckily the conference's schedule (and my skipping of one session) allowed for me to get two rides in, one of about 30 minutes and another of about 90. There is definitely something to be said for riding along the beach. Pretty nice little outings. Oh; the conference was good and I actually learned a fair amount.
Speaking of learning stuff; I really hope that I learned a lot from the Austin Triathlon. It really all started out fine. I got my bike setup in the transition area the day before, had a decent sleep that night, and came to the race feeling pretty good. As has become tradition (well, if two previous times counts as tradition) I popped a gel about 15 minutes before I jumped into the water for the swim. The treading start was something new to me, but I really liked it. The start, though still a jumble, did not seem to be quite as violent as the running starts. The swim went really well. I didn't want to go out too hard and be exhausted as soon as I got out of the water, but I didn't want to lollygag toomuch. Despite the dread of not being able to see the buoys that were spread incredibly far apart, I was able to get in a decent stride most of the way and felt great for all 1500 meters of the swim.
Typically I am not too terribly fast in transition and today ended up not being an exception despite my efforts to make it one. My feet were just caked with mud and dirt by the time I made it to my bike and it took me a bit of time to get it knocked off sufficiently before throwing on my shoes. Oh well.
Well, here it is; Beva's maiden race. The bike course consisted of three laps around and through downtown Austin. I had done a test run on the course just two days before so I was feeling pretty confident that I would be able to get through it without incident and know where to shift and all that good stuff. This was all true, but alas my inexperience on bikes caught up to me. I dropped my chain just a few hundred yards before a big turn and had to jump off to the side of the road and get it back on. More than likely this didn't take but a minute and a half or so, but it was still aggravating. I was just in a bad gear choice and tried to push it too hard. Luckily this was the first loop and I was able to get through the next two without any other mechanical failures. If only my brain didn't stop working too. During my ride I took another gel and for some reason, it did not agree with my stomach too well. I became a little queasyabout 15 minutes after taking it. Then there was the fact that I am a little too competitive at times. About halfway through my first lap I started to hear the familiar sound of carbon disc wheels coming up behind me. This was not supposed to be happening so quickly on my new bike! Beva and I were supposed to be flying! It took me the rest of the lap to realize that most of these people breezing past me were the pros making their laps, yet I still felt pressured to try to kick it up a notch anytime I got passed. This increased machismo coupled with my gurgling tummy left me quite distracted and I failed to drink even half of the water and Propel that I had with me. By the end of the bike I was still feeling OK, just a little bit of an upset stomach but nothing too bad. I had average 20mph which for me was really good and ultimately I was pretty happy with the ride.
Shortly after reracking my bike and getting my running shoes on I began to feel the effects of under-hydration and a digestive system not loving the gels. I wanted to throw-up and could not drink enough at the water stations; plus my legs felt as if they had nothing left in them to give. As I filled up on water and Gatorade at the water stops my stomach began to start sloshing with all of the liquid it no longer had the ability to take in. My queasiness has now manifested itself into outright nausea. Awesome! Only 4 more miles to go. The run is typically my best part and I had been looking forward to it. Alas, it felt like I was just barely moving and despising every minute of it. Finally I saw that the finish line was within a quarter mile and managed to summon everything left in me and gave it one last push. As soon as I crossed the line I started looking forward to my next triathlon and was telling myself that I would learn from this experience. Then I set off to pass out under a tent with cold water and try not to throw-up on anyone.
Miraculously I had to have been moving faster in the run than it felt like. I managed to finish the 10k in 48:27 and the entire race in 2:38:16. Not as well as I know that I can do, but for my first time out I am really proud of that time. It was certainly the most difficult physical thing I have done so far. Now the countdown begins for Iron Star in Conroe, TX; a half ironman on November 8th. We shall see what happens.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Randomness
There really is not a whole lot of running or triathlon stuff to report right now; so what little I have I will get out of the way first. The leg is feeling much better! This morning I made it through a 4 mile run with no pain. And I even went along at a pretty good pace, so that is making me very happy. Hopefully this means that I will be ready for the Austin Tri on Labor Day. We shall see. Only other tidbit of news I have is that I should be getting my new bike in this week.
On a completely un-running topic I recently drank the koolaide and purchased an iPhone. (My office recently gave the OK for us to use them and I found out the data plan was $15 less per month than my BlackBerry.) Going into buying the phone, I asked a bunch of my friends what they thought of theirs and was amazed that only one of them had anything less than an enthusiastic praise chorus for it. That one just said that it was a good phone. I have never seen that with any electronic device. So my expectations were pretty high. It has been about three weeks now that I have had my iPhone 3Gs. It is definitely a good phone. But i have not had the euphoric experience that most people seem to have. I cannot really put my finger on it, but it just hasn't changed my life to quite the same degree as it has seemed to do so for others. What about y'all? Any thoughts?
That is about all for now, but in the mean time, run friendly! -T
On a completely un-running topic I recently drank the koolaide and purchased an iPhone. (My office recently gave the OK for us to use them and I found out the data plan was $15 less per month than my BlackBerry.) Going into buying the phone, I asked a bunch of my friends what they thought of theirs and was amazed that only one of them had anything less than an enthusiastic praise chorus for it. That one just said that it was a good phone. I have never seen that with any electronic device. So my expectations were pretty high. It has been about three weeks now that I have had my iPhone 3Gs. It is definitely a good phone. But i have not had the euphoric experience that most people seem to have. I cannot really put my finger on it, but it just hasn't changed my life to quite the same degree as it has seemed to do so for others. What about y'all? Any thoughts?
That is about all for now, but in the mean time, run friendly! -T
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Long Overdue Update
Who would have ever thought that I would have a staggeringly wide gap between posts? Yeah, we all saw that coming I think...
I have now completed my first two triathlons and am three and a half weeks out from my first Olympic distance. Jack's Generic Tri was the latest endeavor. It, like Couples Tri, was a sprint distance race. Luckily this time there were no chain, or other mechanical, issues with Strawberry Shortcake. Everything seemed to go a little smoother this time around just by the simple fact that it was a tad less foreign to me. I think that I can probably kick it up a notch or so on the swim, but was pretty happy with the effort I gave throughout it all. We shall see how it all comes together for the Austin Tri (the Olympic distance) coming up on Labor Day.
We all know and love Strawberry Shortcake. She is a lovely 12 speed, steel framed bike from the early '80s with the gear shifts on the downtube and has a ton of character. I truly do enjoy her and look forward to holding onto her for some time to come. But as far as riding her in a triathlon is probably akin to trying to run the Kentucky Derby on a Clydesdale. So I have gone forth and ordered a new bike. My Masi Coltello Aero should be in late this week or early next. Needless to say I am quite excited.
The last bit of exciting kibblet of knowledge is that I am currently trying to recover from a lower leg injury. Last Saturday, about halfway through my 14 mile run, my left shin just started hurting more and more until it finally forced me to stop and hobble home. (It is a very long walk from the Capitol grounds to Mary Street.) I have laid off of it, mostly, this past week and have had some work done on it at Advanced Rehabilitation. It seems to be getting better and I am hopeful that I can get back to running this coming week. As for right now I will continue to take it easy and sport the red kinesio tape on my leg.
Perhaps I do have the motivation to go for a dip in Barton Springs today...
As I forgot to post this yesterday, I will fill in the cliff hanger. I did go swim yesterday afternoon and this morning at Barton Springs. It was quite nice and am glad I did it. The tape held up through the first swim, but I took it off in the shower last night. No major hair loss to report.
I have now completed my first two triathlons and am three and a half weeks out from my first Olympic distance. Jack's Generic Tri was the latest endeavor. It, like Couples Tri, was a sprint distance race. Luckily this time there were no chain, or other mechanical, issues with Strawberry Shortcake. Everything seemed to go a little smoother this time around just by the simple fact that it was a tad less foreign to me. I think that I can probably kick it up a notch or so on the swim, but was pretty happy with the effort I gave throughout it all. We shall see how it all comes together for the Austin Tri (the Olympic distance) coming up on Labor Day.
We all know and love Strawberry Shortcake. She is a lovely 12 speed, steel framed bike from the early '80s with the gear shifts on the downtube and has a ton of character. I truly do enjoy her and look forward to holding onto her for some time to come. But as far as riding her in a triathlon is probably akin to trying to run the Kentucky Derby on a Clydesdale. So I have gone forth and ordered a new bike. My Masi Coltello Aero should be in late this week or early next. Needless to say I am quite excited.
The last bit of exciting kibblet of knowledge is that I am currently trying to recover from a lower leg injury. Last Saturday, about halfway through my 14 mile run, my left shin just started hurting more and more until it finally forced me to stop and hobble home. (It is a very long walk from the Capitol grounds to Mary Street.) I have laid off of it, mostly, this past week and have had some work done on it at Advanced Rehabilitation. It seems to be getting better and I am hopeful that I can get back to running this coming week. As for right now I will continue to take it easy and sport the red kinesio tape on my leg.
Perhaps I do have the motivation to go for a dip in Barton Springs today...
As I forgot to post this yesterday, I will fill in the cliff hanger. I did go swim yesterday afternoon and this morning at Barton Springs. It was quite nice and am glad I did it. The tape held up through the first swim, but I took it off in the shower last night. No major hair loss to report.
Monday, July 20, 2009
A Call for Body Glide
This is not a post for the faint of heart. Well, the ending at least.
For my long run this Saturday I decided to head over to One Texas Center at Barton Springs and South 1st and do a modified version of one of my favorite runs. I took off on South 1st, crossed Lady Bird Lake (it pains me to not say Town Lake) and up Colorado before weaseling my way over to Guadalupe. The goal for this run was to do 90 minutes, and as I had not done a true long run in quite some time, I was not exactly sure what to expect.
All in all I was feeling great. Made it down the drag and was headed north of campus. I even made it to Lamar with plenty of time to spare before turning back. At the 40 minute mark I hit 51st. I wasn’t quite sure of the ease in which I could find cross streets and such that would take me back to good southern bound routes after that so I decided I would just turn right onto 51st and make up the extra time on the hike and bike trail.
After hoping from Duval to Speedway, through campus and across the Capital grounds, I started to notice an annoying little sensation as I was running south down Congress. One of my nipples had begun to chafe a small amount, but not an insane amount; just enough to announce its presence. This was kind of odd as I had used Body Glide before my run. (For those wondering, Body Glide is a lubricant to reduce chaffing during running and comes in what looks like a deodorant stick.) So I go ahead and hang a right and jump onto the hike and bike trail at Congress and proceed onwards to the Pfluger Foot Bridge. As I am making my along the trail I start getting this weird sense that people are looking at me with an abnormal amount of curiosity. I know I am sweaty and certainly a little flushed in the face, but I am not wheezing for making any strange grunting noises so I am a tad perplexed. (Somewhere in the back of my mind I was certain it was just because they had never before seen running demonstrated in such a magnificent and graceful way. I like to live in a fantasy world. And yes, the unicorns do run beside me.)
Finally I made my way back to the parking lot of One Texas Center and after 90 minutes I had covered 11 miles. As I began to walk around a little to get my cool down in that I realized why everyone had been giving me perplexed looks; there, on the front of my shirt was a sweat diluted blood stain leading down from my right nipple. Lovely!
The moral of this story is to always use more Body Glide than you think is necessary. Or it just serves as yet another great thing to laugh at me about. I’ll let you all decide.
In the meantime, have fun, stay safe, run friendly, and wave; even to the guy with the bloody nipple. –Tanner
PS I have a strong sense that I was jumping from one verb tense to another throughout this. I am too lazy to go back and make the changes.
For my long run this Saturday I decided to head over to One Texas Center at Barton Springs and South 1st and do a modified version of one of my favorite runs. I took off on South 1st, crossed Lady Bird Lake (it pains me to not say Town Lake) and up Colorado before weaseling my way over to Guadalupe. The goal for this run was to do 90 minutes, and as I had not done a true long run in quite some time, I was not exactly sure what to expect.
All in all I was feeling great. Made it down the drag and was headed north of campus. I even made it to Lamar with plenty of time to spare before turning back. At the 40 minute mark I hit 51st. I wasn’t quite sure of the ease in which I could find cross streets and such that would take me back to good southern bound routes after that so I decided I would just turn right onto 51st and make up the extra time on the hike and bike trail.
After hoping from Duval to Speedway, through campus and across the Capital grounds, I started to notice an annoying little sensation as I was running south down Congress. One of my nipples had begun to chafe a small amount, but not an insane amount; just enough to announce its presence. This was kind of odd as I had used Body Glide before my run. (For those wondering, Body Glide is a lubricant to reduce chaffing during running and comes in what looks like a deodorant stick.) So I go ahead and hang a right and jump onto the hike and bike trail at Congress and proceed onwards to the Pfluger Foot Bridge. As I am making my along the trail I start getting this weird sense that people are looking at me with an abnormal amount of curiosity. I know I am sweaty and certainly a little flushed in the face, but I am not wheezing for making any strange grunting noises so I am a tad perplexed. (Somewhere in the back of my mind I was certain it was just because they had never before seen running demonstrated in such a magnificent and graceful way. I like to live in a fantasy world. And yes, the unicorns do run beside me.)
Finally I made my way back to the parking lot of One Texas Center and after 90 minutes I had covered 11 miles. As I began to walk around a little to get my cool down in that I realized why everyone had been giving me perplexed looks; there, on the front of my shirt was a sweat diluted blood stain leading down from my right nipple. Lovely!
The moral of this story is to always use more Body Glide than you think is necessary. Or it just serves as yet another great thing to laugh at me about. I’ll let you all decide.
In the meantime, have fun, stay safe, run friendly, and wave; even to the guy with the bloody nipple. –Tanner
PS I have a strong sense that I was jumping from one verb tense to another throughout this. I am too lazy to go back and make the changes.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Couples Tri
I survived! Which is much more of an accomplishment than I had thought that it would be. I finished in 1:25:46 which beat my goal of 1:30 and I definitely learned more on what to expect in the future. It was a blast and I am definitely going to keep going!
The swim, as expected, was the most foreign event to me. I have swam in open water before and am not creeped out by murky water, but I had never done these things with several hundred of my best friends; that is where things became a little interesting. People had prepared me for the onslaught on bumps and kicks that were going to happen, so that was frustrating, but not frightening. What really started to make me bug out was that when I came up to get my bearings, I had to really strain to see over the other swimmers and it just took much longer to get a fix on where I needed to go. Finally by the last third of the swim I had settled down and got a good stride going. Hopefully the next race will be a little more smooth. [800m in 16:28]
The first transition was by far my longest. It was a pretty long jog up from the lake to the transition area. Once there I had to put on my shirt, dry my feet and pull on socks and shoes. I probably could have gone a tad more smoothly through it, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. [T1 in 3:27]
So off to the races Strawberry Shortcake and I were. Make no mistake, I was planning on getting creamed here. (And I did.) We got rolling and as expected all of those fancy, new, younger bikes just passed us up like nothing, but still I was going forward and feeling good. All in all, that was all I was hoping for. I had been warned about this one turn at the bottom of a hill that went directly into a pretty steep climb. As I got to the bottom of the hill I got into what I thought was a pretty light gear, made the turn and started my climb. I quickly realized that I had misjudged my gearing and had to drop it again. Yeah, disaster loomed. My chain slipped off as soon as I did this. I quickly hopped off and jumped into the weeds, flipped the bike over, and started examining the problem. Let it be known that I am not mechanical in nature and that I have no experience repairing bicycles. Low and behold, after a couple of minutes I had the chain back on. Miracles do happen! Now came the crashing realization that I was still in too big of a gear, especially being that I was starting this hill climb from a dead stop. Back over the side of the road to change the gear again. Finally made it up the hill and had reasonably smooth sailing from there. Even started to pass a lot of people; not sure if it was anger or just the "rest" that I had. All in all I would say that I lost anywhere from 3-5 minutes with that ordeal. [11.2 miles in 41:59]
Second transition was fine. Was already in my shoes and outside of hanging my bike up the wrong way got out fairly smoothly. [T2 in 1:15]
Finally I was off to the races. I knew that I didn't have everything left in the tank, but I felt that I could still run at a decent pace. The trail was almost entirely on grass, except for a little bit on a road at the very end, which made the pounding a lot easier to take. After about a mile in I realized that I should have popped a goo in transition or at the tail end of the bike, but oh well. There wasn't too much left. Most of the race was downhill until you came into the last kilometer of it or so. Climbing that last hill really pointed out how much energy I truly had already spent. But as I neared the top, I saw the finish line, and saw that my parents (for whom this was their first time coming out to see me race since high school) had made it there to watch the final kick it pushed me on and I was able to sprint in the last 150 meters. I had crossed the line and finished my first triathlon. [5km in 22:35]
Sorry for the long-winded play by play. I'll try to keep the next report a little shorter.
Run friendly! -Tanner
The swim, as expected, was the most foreign event to me. I have swam in open water before and am not creeped out by murky water, but I had never done these things with several hundred of my best friends; that is where things became a little interesting. People had prepared me for the onslaught on bumps and kicks that were going to happen, so that was frustrating, but not frightening. What really started to make me bug out was that when I came up to get my bearings, I had to really strain to see over the other swimmers and it just took much longer to get a fix on where I needed to go. Finally by the last third of the swim I had settled down and got a good stride going. Hopefully the next race will be a little more smooth. [800m in 16:28]
The first transition was by far my longest. It was a pretty long jog up from the lake to the transition area. Once there I had to put on my shirt, dry my feet and pull on socks and shoes. I probably could have gone a tad more smoothly through it, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. [T1 in 3:27]
So off to the races Strawberry Shortcake and I were. Make no mistake, I was planning on getting creamed here. (And I did.) We got rolling and as expected all of those fancy, new, younger bikes just passed us up like nothing, but still I was going forward and feeling good. All in all, that was all I was hoping for. I had been warned about this one turn at the bottom of a hill that went directly into a pretty steep climb. As I got to the bottom of the hill I got into what I thought was a pretty light gear, made the turn and started my climb. I quickly realized that I had misjudged my gearing and had to drop it again. Yeah, disaster loomed. My chain slipped off as soon as I did this. I quickly hopped off and jumped into the weeds, flipped the bike over, and started examining the problem. Let it be known that I am not mechanical in nature and that I have no experience repairing bicycles. Low and behold, after a couple of minutes I had the chain back on. Miracles do happen! Now came the crashing realization that I was still in too big of a gear, especially being that I was starting this hill climb from a dead stop. Back over the side of the road to change the gear again. Finally made it up the hill and had reasonably smooth sailing from there. Even started to pass a lot of people; not sure if it was anger or just the "rest" that I had. All in all I would say that I lost anywhere from 3-5 minutes with that ordeal. [11.2 miles in 41:59]
Second transition was fine. Was already in my shoes and outside of hanging my bike up the wrong way got out fairly smoothly. [T2 in 1:15]
Finally I was off to the races. I knew that I didn't have everything left in the tank, but I felt that I could still run at a decent pace. The trail was almost entirely on grass, except for a little bit on a road at the very end, which made the pounding a lot easier to take. After about a mile in I realized that I should have popped a goo in transition or at the tail end of the bike, but oh well. There wasn't too much left. Most of the race was downhill until you came into the last kilometer of it or so. Climbing that last hill really pointed out how much energy I truly had already spent. But as I neared the top, I saw the finish line, and saw that my parents (for whom this was their first time coming out to see me race since high school) had made it there to watch the final kick it pushed me on and I was able to sprint in the last 150 meters. I had crossed the line and finished my first triathlon. [5km in 22:35]
Sorry for the long-winded play by play. I'll try to keep the next report a little shorter.
Run friendly! -Tanner
Friday, July 10, 2009
Tri Training
June marked the beginning of my triathlon aspirations. That month quickly melted away, much the same as the stick of deodorant I forgot in the car, and I have now found myself in July. The training is still going strong and I have managed to transpose my sick running obsession onto the whole triathlon thing. Sunday will mark my first triathlon. My good running buddy Jimmy signed us up for the Couples Triathlon (horrible name for it not requiring you to actually be a couple). This is only a sprint tri (800m swim, 11.2 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) so it shouldn't be too terribly brutal. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Yes, I have apparently forgotten how to write. Hopefully I will become more productive on here and that might inspire the mental juices to flow once again. (And yes, I am aware that they never flowed with much force.)
Yes, I have apparently forgotten how to write. Hopefully I will become more productive on here and that might inspire the mental juices to flow once again. (And yes, I am aware that they never flowed with much force.)
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