Tonight I was wondering, “Just how far will 70.3 take me?”, so I fired up Google Maps, starting point Santa Monica, then dragged the destination to a familiar spot and 70.3 miles.
Dana Point.
Read MoreApril, 2011 Monthly archive
The last time I put on my wetsuit was my first open water ocean swim a few weeks ago in Santa Monica. Ever since then it’s only been pool swims. TNT rented the Hansen Dam in the San Fernando Valley for the LA tri teams (Eastside, Westside, and IronTEAMs) to practice. For some, it was their first time in open water. Luckily I had a few open water swims under my belt (Long Beach, Desert Tri, and Santa Monica ocean), so I was somewhat comfortable now. I did have the initial jitters because of the put excitement of it all, but hey, that’s what practice is for.
The plan was to circle the man-made lake four times going counter clockwise around 4 buoys for a total of 2000 yards. The first lap, as expected, as very rough for me as I didn’t really get a good rhythm. I also think that my wetsuit wasn’t properly tucked in, so my shoulders felt a little tight. Second lap was a little better, getting the hang of things. Most of the time, I had to keep a fresh open mind and not let distractions get to me (like the rest of my teammates more than halfway around the lap ahead of me, water getting into my goggles, swimcap getting uncomfortable), and just go with it. Once I had all that out of my mind, the last two laps seemed to go by very quickly! Sure, I zigzagged a bit, but I was happy I finished! After the swim, we changed out to do a six miler, which wasn’t too bad. It got a little hot near the end, but nothing we can’t handle.
We ended practice with a nice potluck picnic, where each team brought a certain type of food. Our IronTEAM resident baker, Holly baked up a pretty awesome Wildflower Nasty Grade themed cake, pictured above. There, our coaches went over more Wildflower specifics because this was our last weekend practice before the event. It’s gametime (soon)!!
Read More
The majority of time spent with the team is either swim practice or bike/run practices on weekends. Most of us don’t care if we even match clothing, if bike grease marks are on our hands, or even if our hair is fixed. Makeup? What makeup? We always have multiple layers of gear on from sunglasses to arm warmers to visors.
After 6 months of training we finally had a social event (outside of each other’s participant fundraisers) with the team, specifically a “send-off” event for our Wildflower fundraisers on their event. It was our first time in a non-race related event being outside of training clothes. What? Who are you again? Many were dressed up quite nicely, and needed a few seconds to recognize my own teammates! Being it was a Sunday afternoon, the bar practically to ourselves, it turned out to be a very fun event! Yes, we DO talk more than triathlon topics (although it’s difficult not to). Our social captain Kelly also put together a “TNT Bingo” game where it got everyone there to discover a little bit more info about our teammates. The afternoon lead to group shots, and mild craziness (I say mild because it was barely 7pm still).
Read More
From here on out our team will make making new milestones in training, week by week. This morning’s brick was a monster one. It was approximately 57 miles on the bike, then a 13.5 mile run. It somewhat will simulate Wildflower Long Course coming up, but the hills won’t be as intense (I think).
I felt pretty good for most of the ride along PCH, but I had one problem. I was out of Carbo-Pro, something I usually mix into my drinks. So instead, I offset my carbs by doubling up on the Accelerade, then eating more of the Clif bars. Boy what a mistake that was, the drink was too concentrated, so it tasted too sweet! By this point in training PCH is like home court to us, we pretty much know all the nooks and crannies, but the coaches varied it up with previews of Temescal Canyon, Ensinal Canyon, and Latigo Canyon streets as our major hills. 57 miles. Done. Suprised I felt quite all right!
Oh it was not over. The run was a double “Amalfi Loop” which each loop consisted of a 3.5 mile incline through the Palisades residential area of Santa Monica then a nice downhill through San Vicente. I felt really good the first loop, ran the whole way, then second loop was considerably slower. I was actually good until mile 12, then that’s where my nutrition failed me. I was out of Gu, and out of Accelerade. The weather was hot, and I could feel myself hitting “The Wall”, or some may say “Bonking”. It definitely felt like I was on that last leg of the marathon, out of energy, and the water fountains just wasn’t enough – I had to walk. I was feeling a little dizzy, then my teammate who passed by was a life saver and gave me some shot blocks to help with my energy.
That was the longest mile ever! I eventually made it, but man! I learned the hard way that nutrition is something I should not overlook. I knew right there and then though that I am capable of doing such a distance, but the big unknowns will be the energy spent on the swim, and the intensity levels on the bike and run. I’m a little nervous, but I can’t wait!!!
Today was pretty much a mini-triathlon in Santa Monica. After the ocean swim, we biked north on Ocean and did the Amalfi Hills and up to Mandeville Canyon, and popular climbing ride here. We had to climb up “Mandy” twice, and by my facial expression above, it’s no easy feat. It was hard to imagine that this week was even called “recovery.” What the! Coming down the hill, I had some issues with my bike clips not attaching to my pedals. Tried multiple times, and it just would not clip in! Maybe it was a rock, or it was dirty. Eventually, it clipped in, but maybe 80% of the descent, I was spinning on one leg. I was one of the last cyclists in because of this complication, then a 30 minute run was in order. Again, another complication – maybe 5 minutes in, I noticed my run watch didn’t START. Doh! My mileage on the watch said 2666?? Mileage wasn’t increasing, so I was pretty much winging it by the time. Oh well, I think it wasn’t picking up the GPS correctly, so it just bonked on me. It better not do this on raceday! Overall, a lot of learning was done today despite the setbacks on all 3 sports. I can only be positive about it and look forward to the next practice!
Read More
This morning was the team’s first open water OCEAN swim in Santa Monica. We met at the Santa Monica Beach parking lot off the end of Ocean Park Avenue bright and early at 7am. As we were setting up our transition areas, I could already hear the waves crashing. Yes, I was nervous! We suited up in our wetsuits and walked over to the shore. Like the Long Beach swim, we were split into beginners and experienced ocean swimmers. *waves crashing*. Coach Brad gave us some pointers and described what we will be experiencing out there.
The waves were much larger than yesterday, where some of the experienced swimmers got a head start. Sure, they looked kinda small from the shore, but when you’re in the water and your head is the only things sticking out, a medium wave looks HUGE from that perspective. I tried several times diving under the waves, but I guess the wetsuits were so buoyant that I didn’t go far enough. Yes, dragged back to shore. All of a sudden I was back in shallow water. Coach had explained before the swim that there’s this part in the water that you can just get stuck if you don’t power through a few minutes under and through the water.
You have to remember that this was my FIRST ocean water swim. I wasn’t used to being under water for that long, holding my breath. There were times where I was underwater, panicking what direction I was heading, how deep I was, so when I finally surfaced, my heart was racing. After several tries, I had to go back. I didn’t even get to finish the scheduled lap, but at least now I know how it feels. We will have more chances to conquer this in the future, from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach. Bring it!
Here’s the team after the swim!
