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Mar 7, 2011    |       2 comments

First Test – Desert Triathlon

I’ve always thought wearing the whole tri get-up was weird – tight top and shorts, but today it finally came together and now I understand. Now I was one of those people wearing that outfit, and you know what? I wear it proud! Last night I couldn’t really sleep because of my fears of my FIRST triathlon. What was going to happen? I never even did any cheer support for a triathlon. I think the only exposure to it in the past have been through pictures, or maybe the Kona Ironman Championships on TV. I had no idea how the swim start, transition, crowd support, finish line was going to be until today.

We woke up bright and early to get to the brightly lit transition areas. Everything we learned about transition from past practices were applied here, from splitting all my gear to specific sports, positioning of sunscreen, to the alternating positioning of bikes. You can feel the intensity in the transition area as you can see some pretty hard core triathletes with the expensive aero helmets, $8k bikes, nervous beginners (like me), family and friends outside of the transition area, and everyone testing and reviewing all their gear. You also hear everyone talking about past experiences and current feelings, it was fun! Outside of the area were volunteers marking up athletes with their race number on their arm and age on their calf. It’s mainly for the photographers, but I think the age thing is a mental thing to see who passes you up on the bike or run.
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Mar 5, 2011    |      0 comments

Night Before The Race

Rewind to about 4 years ago, the night before the Rock N Roll San Diego Full Marathon, my first marathon actually. The jitters and excitement were both nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time. Since then, I’ve went through numerous marathons without a sweat, mainly because I really just go out there for fun, without any high expectations. For some reason, those feelings of my first marathon are back, for my first triathlon. Sure, this is what our coaches call a “Training Triathlon,” but in the end, it’s still my “First” triathlon. The triathlon swim experience is still unknown to me. I hear so many horror stories, plus I get warned a lot about the nature of the start. I don’t have any worries about the bike or run because the course is flat anyway. I think what’s bringing back all these nervous feelings is that preparing the night before is so intense – prep all the things you need for the swim, all for the bike, then all for the run. Do I have all the nutrition? Where’s my sunscreen? How about my contacts? I really need to relax!

Mar 5, 2011    |      1 comment

First Open Water Swim

This morning was the team’s first open water swim in the Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, one day before my first triathlon. One would think that it’s too quick to do a triathlon with very little open water experience, but I trust my coaches and we’ll see what happens! It was just 2 months ago that my coaches were concerned that I should already be swimming at the end of January. Swimming, meaning I don’t stop and stand at the middle of the pool, or hold on to lane lines, or use a pool buoy, or hang out at the wall. It was just a body positioning adjustment that worked wonders for me, which got me to this point in time, ready for my first open water swim.

Lemme tell ya, you don’t know how SCARED I was prior to jumping in that bay. Sooo many questions and thoughts running through my head. “How deep is that water? How buoyant will I be? How come there’s no lifeguards? Will I be even slower than I already am? If I stop, how hard will it be to tread water? That water looks dirty. I think the water is too cold. How fast is everyone else? I need some floaties. I hope water doesn’t get in my goggles. I heard it’s good to pee inside your wetsuit if you pee. What if a shark gets into this bay?” yeah, just some absurd thoughts! I was already feeling uncomfortable wearing my snazzy new Team in Training wetsuit. I’ve never worn a wetsuit before, so everything felt so tight and restricted.

So coach Brad split up the team into two: People with open water experience and people without. Pretty obvious which side I was in! When it was time to go, I didn’t really know what to do because I was just used to kicking off a pool wall. “Umm… ok, I guess float and go?” Immediately I felt how much more buoyant I was with the wetsuit. Everyone was swimming at a pretty good pace, except me. I was freaking out. Just like many people warned me, it was definitely hard to breathe (at first), my nerves were high, heart was beating fast. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Good thing Coach Arkady was hanging back to calm me down at times and give me pointers. (Thank you Arkady!). By the turnaround point, I got my rhythm down, and things slowly got better. Water was cold, so my head, hands and feet were freezing. Water was salty, and seemed dirty (of course relative to the usual pool water), but I just need to practice in it more to get more comfortable. I actually like it better than pool swimming because the wetsuit helps, and once I get a rhythm down, I can keep going!

Mar 4, 2011    |      0 comments

Madness to Beat Cancer

My teammate, Scott and I set up a new fundraiser for the college hoops fanatics out there for March Madness, called Madness to Beat Cancer. It uses the CBS Sports bracket system, so you’ll have to be a member first (it’s free), then join. It’s $20 donation to enter, half goes to the pool, and the other half is donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Check our website for details!

Mar 1, 2011    |      0 comments

Swim & Sight

Since the Toyota Desert Triathlon is this weekend, our swim set tonight was geared towards preparing us for open water swimming. It’s such a time crunched schedule as tonight we learned some sighting skills, Saturday will be our first open water swim in Long Beach, then Sunday is the International Distance triathlon. Coaches told us we shouldn’t put any weight on the event, as it should be a learning experience, and should we thought of “just another practice.” True though, what is there to lose? We’ve all surpassed all the distances in each of the disciplines, but we just haven’t practiced real transitioning. I’ve heard from numerous people that Desert Tri is a great starter event, so I’ll take their word for it.

So back to tonight. Initially I was having a hard time even just “warming” up. What was going on? I eventually got used to it, and it was on to our main sets. We had a little game called “Walk of Shame”, where we counted our strokes up 25 yards, then on the way back, we have to do one LESS stroke, and see where we end up. Three to a lane, the furthest one back will have to walk back. Yes, I was always the one to walk back (I wasn’t that far off from the next person though!). I think I was at the 24 stroke range, and everyone else on my lane was 18-20. Hmm.. maybe I should take advantage of the streamline glide a little more in my turnover. After several sets of those, we did a few 100s, 200s, 400s. At one point, I was just following my teammate Donovan, and I think we did a lot more than we were supposed to. Lesson learned, I should keep track of my OWN lap count! It wasn’t too bad though, because since I was following him, I realized I was drafting him, so I didn’t have to cut through the water as much as he did.

For most of the sets, we had to practice sighting, looking forward every 2, every 4, once a lap, and so on to practice where we’re going. In the open water, there’s no such thing as lane lines, we’re on our own! It was really tough because I could feel my legs drop, thus creating more drag, so I’m a little nervous for Sunday. We’ll just have to wait and see!

Feb 28, 2011    |      0 comments

Calorie Counting

Many say the 4th discipline in Triathlons is nutrition. It’s all about what your body can handle, and taking good care of it. I admit, I’ve never been a healthy eater, but a good way to improve that is to be aware of actually what is being consumed. Before all this started, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, I was tracking all my food intake and fitness calorie burn via the Livestrong iPhone app and website. Everything I eat, good or bad, is tracked. I’ve set up my target calorie count (which I’m still not sure if I should aim higher since my level of activity has increased), and for a few months now I’ve recorded everything. I don’t think I’ve skipped a day yet in these past four months.

From the consistency of doing all this, I’ve got a pretty good idea of how much I’ve been eating vs how many calories I’ve been burning with all these workouts. Weekends are tough because if you look at the chart above, I’m burning thousands and thousands of calories, and I’m still not eating enough! I also have to be careful not to load up these calories with junk food calories though. What do I do?? I still don’t know. Is it better to be at a comfortable negative net calories than even net calories filled up with unhealthy calories? Time to do some research or talk to my coaches, and I’ll report back here.

Feb 27, 2011    |      0 comments

The Long Ride

This morning’s practice was the longest ride we’ve ever done this season! Crazy! Who would’ve thought! We started with a roughly 7 mile warm-up from Ocean Ave up San Vicente to the Brentwood Golf Course, then 2 hours up PCH and back. The new 70.3 team did 40 minutes up PCH and back. Our coaches wanted us to reset our computers after the warm-up so they can get a sense of our Half IM bike distance time. They wanted us to go beyond our cruising speed and push our speed a little more than usual, and power through those hills too – and that I did. My legs were still a little tight from yesterday’s hilly run, so I definitely felt the burn the first hour, which initially gave me doubts of finishing today strong. Fortunately, the pain eventually subsided (but I still wasn’t 100%), and was able to continue. I loved the “after the rain” weather, so we experienced beautiful views of the coast through PCH, and a clearer view of the crazy drivers there as well! Riding on PCH is fun but scary at the same time. Today, I saw one of my teammates inches away from being hit by a truck’s sideview mirror! It was definitely a close call! That’s why it’s so important to stay to the right of the white line.

Since it was a make-up ride from yesterday, it wasn’t an official IronTEAM group workout, so there were no SAG stops or staff to watch our equipment. From now on all our bike workouts will have to be followed by a run, so we were scheduled to do a 30 minute run. I had to ride back to my car, mount it on the bike rack, hoping no one will steal it, change into running gear, and go. Pace was slower than usual, but hey, I just rode for almost 70 miles! Again, every week in training I reach a new milestone, going further than I’d ever imagine.

Stats for today:
Total Bike: 68.75 miles
4 Hour Bike Distance: 61.79
4 Hour Bike Time: 4:03:08

Total Run: 3 miles
Total Run Time: 30:27

Feb 26, 2011    |      0 comments

The Saturday Mix Show

I feel like a crazy chemist the day before a big ride. My drinks of choice are: Accelerade topped off with Carbo-Pro to 76g of carbs for hours 1 and 3. For hours 2 and 4, I add in how many carbs I’d get for the Powerbar with then Accelerade drink, then add a little less with Carbo-Pro. Endurox R4 is my recovery drink. I’ve experimented with other combinations and brands, and I think I’ve found my favorites!

Feb 26, 2011    |      0 comments

Rain Doesn’t Stop Us

There were weather forecasts of hail and snow in Los Angeles this weekend since the past few days have been torrential downpour, wind, and very cold. Rain or shine, our team still trains, but in this case, we were on standby this morning if we were to bike or run. I took a chance last night and didn’t prepare my bike nutrition. Luckily, we didn’t have to bike because the rains left a lot of unsafe conditions on PCH – our coaches didn’t want to take any chances.

So instead, we were back at our usual “Amalfi” meeting. This loop was very familiar to me because it was something the TNT Westside Marathon team did a few times. It was similar to the run last week where we met at Ocean & San Vicente, proceeded down the hill and back up the neighborhood. We then kept going up and up and up! It spit us back out to Sunset and eventually made our way down San Vicente from 26th St. Sorry, only the people familiar with this route will understand this. It’s also a popular bike route in Santa Monica. Again, I ran with my new running buddy Liz from the 70.3 team since she’s training for LA Marathon and we’re about the same pace. I’m glad we push each other to keep on running, otherwise, I don’t think I’d be able to run such a hilly course without walking. Overall, another great run!

Here’s the elevation chart:

Feb 22, 2011    |      1 comment

1000

I did it! 1000 yards straight! Huge milestone in my training tonight at the coached Culver City Plunge! So crazy, I’d never thought I could get this far in so little time (less than 3 months). We started off with a few warmup laps then more with a kickboard. Main set was 100, 200, then 400. After that, it was the big 1000! DONE!

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