Unfortunately for us, our last night game was against number 1 Oregon. Though we didn’t win, we came really close, losing 13 – 15, which was a spectacular game for Cal’s defense. I used the opportunity to take a couple pictures with my new camera.

The last night game at the original Memorial Stadium.

This coming Saturday is the 113th Big Game at Cal.  Cal has held the Axe for 2 years straight, and 7 out of the last 8 years. So far, for every Big Game I’ve gone to and every Big Game that Dean has been at Stanfurd during, Cal has won. The one year I didn’t attend (I was in India) and Dean wasn’t attending Stanfurd, Cal lost (2007). In other words, Cal is about to upset #8 Stanfurd.

The last night game at the original Memorial Stadium.

As far as my pictures I took with my camera, I have been extremely impressed with the Nikon D7000′s very high dynamic range. All the pictures here are untouched JPEGs, straight from the camera (Aperture can’t yet process the D7000′s RAW images – plus I don’t feel like storing hundreds of 20MB image files).

Cal vs. Oregon

I also just got back from a trip to Big Sur, and will be posting the pictures from that trip with the D7000 soon as well.

I’m pretty familiar with the course, having done it a number of times.

Not the blowout improvement I was hoping for (I only improved by 8 seconds off last year’s time), but improvement none-the-less. I think I stayed up way too late the night before and was super tired during the run. I just sort of lost energy and couldn’t finish strong in the run, which shows as it was one of my slowest run performances yet. Serves me right for sorting pictures late into the night.

This year, I elected to begin my training with some high altitude training in South America. So instead of doing a bunch of preparatory triathlons leading up to Wildflower, I went on a month-long trip to Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. After I got back, I had 3 weeks to get ready. I pretty much started immediately by riding my bike to work every day. The 10 mile (each way) commute definitely allowed me to get comfortable on the bike and to keep a record (via My Tracks) which allowed me to strive for specific time and speed marks.

I did a little bit of running here and there, and a little bit of swimming. But for the most part, I went to CrossFit and rode my bike. Finally, and I think the most important part of the training was the motivation to try to beat my sister and friend Margo. However, with so little prep time and after a 6 mile practice run with Amy where I almost cramped up, I relegated myself to third place out of them.

As with last year, we went down Saturday morning and got to watch the long course athletes finishing on the bike. There were four of us that went down: Margo, Amy, Mike and myself. Margo’s roommates came down later in the day. Once cars were allowed to enter the campground again, we drove down, found a spot to camp and proceeded to check out the starting line and the festival area. The evening was uneventful with a great dinner and sitting around the BBQ grill for some warmth before heading to sleep.

I woke up early, ate, and then Amy, Margo and I went down to the transition area. Luckily, my shorts this year didn’t have a giant hole in them. Which allowed me more time and less stress. My goals for the day were to finish the swim in 40 minutes, the bike in 2 hours and the run in 1 1/2 hours. I figured that since I hadn’t done very much swimming, I’d be slow, my bike would probably be faster than 2 hours because of all the practice I’d had, but that I wouldn’t be able to run the whole time and have to walk a majority of the race. I was hoping for under 4 hours. Because the guys go first in the race, my start was a good hour before Amy and Margo started. So I was just dreading the possibility that I’d see them on the run.

With wetsuit and swim gear on, I was ready for the race to start. The swim ended up being a lot more choppy than any other lake swim I’d done. It took me back to my days doing the Santa Barbara and Carpinteria Triathlons. The best reason I could figure for the extra chop during the swim was the huge increase in number of boats and ferries in the lake this year. The swim seemed to last forever, and a lot more people passed me than I remember in the previous races. However, I pressed on at a pretty steady pace. Getting to the finish was one of the best feelings ever. I checked my watch and saw a time of 30 minutes 10 seconds. That totally surprised me and pumped me up a bit.

My T1 split was probably pretty slow, but I got on the bike and started up the hill, at about the same pace as everyone around me. Once at the top, I was even able to continue at a similar pace to people around me. I just kept trying to stay near the couple of guys in front of me, passing or gaining ground on the flats / downhills and losing ground on the uphill segments. Because of the massive hydrating I’d done on Saturday and that morning, I had to stop and pee at the second aid station. Once I got to the turn around point, I realized that my bike was actually going pretty well. I was somewhere in the mid 40 minutes for the bike. On the ride back, I kept looking for Amy and Margo, expecting to see them flying along, but never saw them. The bike ended up finishing in 1 hour 33 minutes, which meant, that if I had a 50 – 55 minute run, I’d finish in under 3 hours. And I still felt good.

The run started hard and slow, but I got into a rhythm. The possibility of finishing sub 3 hour was become a greater and greater motivation for me, forcing me to push on. I felt like I had to walk a lot more than last year and it seemed hotter on the run. Finally, at the top of all the hills, I checked my watch. 2:55 with just a run down Lynch Hill and 1km to go. I started to sprint down Lynch Hill as fast as I could, passing a bunch of people, watching the time get ever closer to 3 hours. My mistake was to not leave anything for the flat section right before the finish, which is so much longer than I remember. All I knew was that I hadn’t broken 3 hours. I finished in 3 hours 1 minute and 5 seconds and then almost puked all over the volunteers.

[Official Results Here - Bib 5630]

Obviously, I did better than my goal. Though I figured that Amy and Margo were killing the course. I couldn’t look up their splits while they were racing, and had no idea where they were. So I had to just sit and wait. I first saw Margo, who, depending on her start time, finished in just over 3 hours (in front of me) or 3 hours 5 minutes. I turned out the latter was her start time. Margo finished in 3 hours 5 minutes 13 seconds. Meaning that not only had I destroyed my goal, I had also beat Amy and Margo, with tons less training. Amy finished in 3 hours 22 minutes 59 seconds. They both did awesome in their first Olympic races after I introduced them to the sport last August.

The free post race massage was so worth it and was pure amazing. However, my biggest regret is not getting a massage the following day though. Every Olympic I do from now on, a post-race massage is going to be included. As long as I’m not doing some other international trip just before next year’s race, I really want to attempt the long course.

Starting the race, my goal was to finish in an hour or less. Looking at the last race, I thought that a 9 minute improvement was reasonable, despite the fact I spent a significant portion of the month between races in the Caribbean. I’d say my biggest weakness was still my cycling performance, though I was able to improve.

Not the blowout improvement I was hoping for, but improvement none-the-less. Plus I beat Amy, Margot and Joe :) I am definitely looking forward to the next tri I’m doing.

In addition, this was the first triathlon for my friends Joe and Rachel. They absolutely killed it and did very well. After they came and watched me do Wildflower, they got motivated to try a triathlon themselves. I suggested the Tri for Fun series as those races are nearby, quite fun and an easy course that is great for beginners. Both of them finished strong and are planning on doing more triathlons in the future. Here’s to the Wildflower Olympic race next year!

As this race doesn’t collect splits, I collected them myself and posted them below.

Despite the year of experience since doing the exact same course, exercising more and, in general, being more prepared, I was slower in all three events. I wasn’t too much slower in the run or bike, which is good considering that I was injured. But it is still disappointing. As usual, I passed a lot of people on the run, and got passed on the bike. However, I’ve been starting to look into improving my cycling legs. I’ve got another Tri for Fun in 2 months, so I’ll see how well that training works out.

Starting the Bike

I had first heard of Wildflower a few years back when my sister told me about an event she was going to where there was a giant party and, almost as an afterthought, a triathlon was held. As my interest in tri’s increased, I of course heard more about Wildflower. I came to find out that there are 3 events: the long course (a half Ironman), an Olympic distance course and a mountain bike sprint.

Then, sometime in the last couple months, I decided to start my 2009 Olympic distance tri season with Wildflower. The first thing I did after signing up was to begin to round up a posse to join me at the event. I managed to convince my friends Dean, Joe and Rachel to come. My sister and her friend also decided to volunteer, so I’d be seeing them on the course somewhere. The plan was coming along beautifully. Until I realized the Olympic event was on Sunday, and the other two were on Saturday. This was a major bummer as I was hoping to totally enjoy the festival and relax and camp after my race. Instead, I had to go through another full day of anxiety as I watched the other races. I just hoped to find a camping spot that wasn’t going to be too loud Saturday night.

So in the months leading up to the event my training consisted mostly of frequent CrossFitting, biking on some weekends, and when the event got closer, swimming a couple times a week.  I really should have done more cycling and running, but a combination of laziness and busyness led to more nights not running, and more excuses to no cycle places. Plus it was cold out lots of times! I did feel a bit underprepared for the event, and plan to change that feeling in the future, but I knew I could finish. Based on my previous Olympic distance tri, I set a goal of 3 hours and 30 minutes. Yes, this is 40 minutes slower, but I liked that it was a round number. I decided to shoot for around a 30 minute swim, 2 hour bike and an hour run. I knew the bike and run had more hills than other tris, and I suck at biking, so I added more time to them than my previous tri.

Originally, our posse was set to leave Friday night from the Bay Area, and drive down to Lake San Antonio where we would get to hang out all day Saturday before my race Sunday. But then a storm came in and dumped rain on us and we got scared. So we postponed our departure until Saturday morning, attempting to get down and witness part of the end of the long course bike and run. The drive down was (mostly) uneventful and got to drive next to athletes tackling Nasty Grade and Heart Rate Hill. I was not jealous of them. We finally arrived at the entrance to the lake, but had to wait for most of the bikers to make it back before we could drive down. So we hung out, ate lunch and eventually took a drive down the Olympic distance bike course before we were able to enter and setup camp. Saturday evening I setup my gear and prepared my transition bag before taking an Ambien to get the best sleep I could.

I woke up at 6:30am to prepare for the event. We had a nice breakfast before I began to change into my tri shorts. As I was getting them out of my bag, I noticed what seemed to be a hole in the butt. Upon closer examination, it was indeed a hole, a big hole at that. I have no idea when or how it got there, but I’m just hoping that I hadn’t been mooning the people of the Stanfurd pool for too long. The only option was to get a new pair, and quick. I found a good pair at the festival, changed, and proceeded to set up transition. Crisis averted.

In preparation for the race, Saturday was spent hydrating as much as possible. I know I succeeded because I woke up 3 times to pee Saturday night. For the race, I had 2 Gu packs on my bike, and one on my shorts for the run. I planned to have one at the top of Lynch Hill (the first bike hill out of transition), and then one after the 12 mile turn around. And then I had plenty of Gatorade. The race started at 9:20am and I finished a few hours later:

[Official Results Here - Bib 5634]

So as you can see, I did better than my goal. My swim was almost dead on with my last race, and my run was only slightly slower, despite the fact that Wildflower has about a 1200 ft elevation gain in the run alone, and the SF tri was completely flat. As usual for me, the bike killed me. My super slow pace seriously hurt me. The top guys had paces of 23 MPH, with one guy at 27 MPH! I did pass 5 people on the bike. And only 2 of them had flat tires. There was no point in trying to count the number of guys who passed me. Though I’m sure I passed quite a few of them on the run. Obviously, I need to work on this area. I really think I just don’t know how to cycle, plus I’m just not used to it. So if you know how to cycle and want to give me tips, and/or have an indoor trainer for me to use, please let me know!

Race Finish

I felt really good at the finish, save for some initial feelings of wanting to puke. But that was cause I was sprinting the last couple hundred meters. I even had some gelato shortly after the race (thanks Dean, Joe and Rachel!). Also, I really do want to thank those guys for coming. I really, really liked having them at the various transition areas during the race. I also want to thank my sister Amy and her friend Margo for bailing on their volunteer duties to cheer and study. Having someone you know at the race cheering you on really boosts your spirit and gives you that much more energy and motivation to do your best and fight on, which is really important in endurance events. And having an entire posse, that is truly awesome :).

So what did I gain from this? I had an amazing weekend and really enjoyed the race. I’ve also decided that 2010 is the year of the half Ironman for me. Right now, I’m planning on doing the Wildflower long course. I’m going to do several more Olympic distance tris, and really work on that cycling (!) in preparation. Also, Joe and Rachel have been inspired to do the Wildflower Olympic distance course next year. I look forward to being at many of their races cheering them on!

As I write this today, the day after the race, I do so without being sore. I can feel that my muscles did something, but I have no trouble moving and would have hit up CrossFit today except for one thing: I am terribly sunburned. I put on sunscreen, but that much exercise and swimming just stripped it from my body. I can attribute this lack of soreness to two things: CrossFit is awesome, and that I should have given more yesterday during the race. It seems weird to have done 3 hours 15 minutes of exercise and feel the way I do today. Granted, I was a bit stiff for a bit yesterday, even after post event stretching, but not today.

A great race, with some great weather. Wildflower, til next year.

This was the second time I’d run a 12k distance race, with this one being decidedly harder than the bridge to bridge run in San Francisco I did last time.  In the 12k overall, I got 13th place, and got second place in the age group results. My time of 1:18:14 got me an average of a 10:43 minutes / mile pace. Seeing as how challenging the course was, I’m not disappointed in my results, but am confident that on my next run in December, I can turn it up a notch to 11.

Well, I signed up for the event, which occurred yesterday morning.  The race took place on Treasure Island in the San Francisco bay. Treasure Island is part of the island the Bay Bridge passes through.  I woke up at the super early hour of 5am to make it to the island by 6am so I could check in and prepare my transition area before the early race start at 7:15am.

Since the island isn’t very big, the course was a series of loops.  The first event, swimming was 1.5km, where I swam twice around a triangle with 250m sides.  From there I jumped on my bike for a 40km bike course.  The 40km course consisted of 6 laps of a ~6.66km circuit.  After biking was the run, 3 laps at ~3.33km each, for a total of 10k.  The distance are the same as the ones used in the Olympics, making this an Olympic triathlon, and thus, much harder than the previous sprint triathlons I’ve done.

My initial estimate for the course was to complete it all in about 3 1/2 hours, broken down as follows: 30min for the swim, 2 hours for the bike, and 1 hour for the run. The estimate for the bike was taken from a recent 25.4 mile ride that I completed in just under 2 hours. This ended up being the estimate that was very exaggerated because the triathlon course was so flat.  With that being said, here is a breakdown of my results:

So as has been the case with all the past tri’s I have done, biking is my weakest link.  I really need to do more bike training next time.  I’m pretty sure that the only people I passed on my bike yesterday were the people with flat tires (and there were a lot of them!).  The first place guy finished with a time of 2:04:49, which means I’ve got quite a bit of improvement to make. I’m not sure when my next tri is going to be, but now that I know what the Olympic distance is like, I know I can do many more of them.

• Push Press (65lbs)
• Row
• Wall Ball (14lbs)
• Sumo Dead Lift High Pull (55lbs)
• Box Jump

I ended up doing the following reps for each exercise:

For a total score of 259. I tried to be as consistent as I could between subsequent rounds, and I think I accomplished that goal pretty well.  I also set the bar pretty high for the next time I do a FGB with men’s weight.  Especially considering that I felt like I had energy left over at the end of the workout.  I was tired, but not lie down on the ground for 5 minutes tired.

The course was located in the hills south west of San Jose and the start was in a little valley at the edge of the Quicksilver park. The course description mentioned that there were going to be hills along the route, but I was not prepared for what the course actually consisted of.  At the start was a topo of the route, and, being the map lover I am, I spent time reading the course layout.  The starting line was somewhere around 600 feet.  From there, the course would wind up a road to a single track trail, where it would continue to ascend.  The ascent continued until about the 10k half-way point, where it then began the descent.  In all, I read that there was about 1000 feet of elevation gain. Most of which was continuous.  So it was quite difficult.

I didn’t feel particularly confident in my run up the mountain, and went slightly slower down the second half since I didn’t want to injure my knees.  Somewhere in the last kilometer, a guy passed me, and actually scared me when he came up.  I didn’t think about it, but it turned out I had been in the lead, and this guy just overtook me for the lead.  I followed him closely to the finish, finishing 7 seconds behind him.  This put me in second place overall for the 10k!  I could have won! Despite that stupid mistake, I did get second place and finished in 56 minutes, 58 seconds.  So it wasn’t a fast 10k, but the hill slowed everyone way down.

In the end, the race was difficult, and made me realize that I need to do more hill running.  My current run routes are all in flat areas.  I think that I’m going to start trying to do the dish path more often and work on my interval times there as a good way to train.