Tagged!

This is my first time being “tagged” on my blog.. heck.. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until Stuart tagged me on Christmas Eve Eve. So.. without further adieu…

1. What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2010?

That’s an easy one.. HANDS DOWN, my biggest and most proud accomplishment of 2010 was finishing Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside back in March. I was so happy to finish that race, especially with the short experience I had with triathlons and the lack of preparations.

Crossing the FINISH LINE (!!!) of IM 70.3 CA!

The next big and proud accomplishment of 2010 is deciding to torture myself again with another half-iron distance race with even less preparation (if that was even possible).

Not the most graceful of my triathlon performances.. but still a FINISH!

2. What are your running goals for 2011?

I’ve already posted up my race schedule for 2011, but the main running goal isn’t to just finish races. I really want to start being competitive instead of ending up in the middle of the pack (which is still better than the back, but only marginally). So the real running goal for 2011 is to get faster. Key milestones: sub-25 minute 5k (ok.. that’s not THAT fast, but it’s faster than what I can do now) and sub-2 hour half marathon (aiming for 1:45 at Disneyland Half Marathon during Labor Day Weekend).

3. What is your favorite race?

It’s hard to pick a favorite race for 2010 since I did so many. In terms of running, I absolutely LOVED Xterra Trail Race #1 – Point Mugu State Park. That’s one race that affirmed my preference for trail running over street running and made me realize that running is actually fun when the scenery and terrain changes and challenges you.

Awesome course.. and I'll probably come back and do it again!

4. What is your most embarassing running moment?

I’m lucky enough to NOT have had ANY embarrassing running moments to date, let alone in 2011. Although, on a personal note, the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon was pretty much a DISASTER for me. I was grossly unprepared for it (as I have been for most of my 2010 races) which was ok at the start, but escalated quickly from uncomfortable to painful to downright depressing. My legs throbbed and my spirit broke.. I cried.. I almost gave up.. and then somehow I managed to find the will-power to keep going (it mainly had to do with running into my cousins just about when I was ready to throw in the towel).

One of the many "eye-opening" races that told me: "You better be prepared next time!!"

So… that was my first attempt at playing this blog-tagging game… Now it’s my turn to do some tagging…

Elise, Kelly, Skyler, and Allison (you can change it to biking, as that is more applicable)… TAG! YOU’RE IT!

Silverman Triathlon – Part TWO: Race Day

FINALLY getting around to posting up my race report for Silverman. I had the text all typed up, but hadn’t sifted through the pictures yet. There were hundreds, and I somehow managed to whittle them down to the ones included here…

After an EXTRA LONG night’s sleep (went to bed early + end of daylight savings).. Minh and I woke up to the pleasant sounds of race announcements outside our window…

Part TWO – Race Day

I thought we should wake up early to make sure we had plenty of time to get ready. Full distance was off at 7AM, Half distance off at 8:30AM… and we woke up at 6AM… why? I don’t know.. but that’s the time I picked. I should have slept in longer, since I had more than an hour of down time before the race started, but it was nice to be up and eat and be completely ready.

T1 set-up.. perhaps not the most efficient way for this race...

The swim was a MASS START at 8:30AM. Over 1000 swimmers all starting at the same time… it was a little intimidating. I stayed off to the left and near the middle since I’m not a fast swimmer. I ended up making an EXTRA big loop around the buoys, which probably increased my swim distance and time, but kept me away from elbows, feet, black eyes, and punches in the gut. The swim felt like it lasted forever… I was definitely happy to be done with it.

I'm amazed the Minh was able to find me in that crowd of swimmers (Green cap in the middle)

A sea of swimmers... so that's what a mass start looks like...

Here’s a quick look at how to T1 like a World Champion… Macca-style…

Macca shows us how to T1 like a World Champion...

My T1 (in comparison) was much slower and not as graceful…

First time getting my wetsuit ripped off me... was... different...

Here I am putting on socks.. because I STILL cannot ride without them..

Somehow I managed to drop my bike (twice) on the way out of T1... ::what a clutz::

Heading out onto the bike course.. I had a rock stuck in my left cleat, so it tooke me FOREVER to clip in...

The bike course was killer… by far the toughest bike course I’ve ever had to ride. The first half of the course through Lake Mead National Recreational Area wasn’t so bad. There were some nice long hills, followed by some long descents for recovery. I was pushing hard up the hills and flying down the descents as fast as I was comfortable (sometimes faster than I was comfortable with). I got passed by a lot of athletes, but I also passed a lot of athletes, so I was feeling confident in my pace. That was until we left the Lake Mead NRA.

Beautiful winding/rolling hills through the dessert...

Athletes facing a mild (by this race's standards) hill about 20-miles into the bike course..

Here I am going up that same hill.. First time I saw Minh all day.. ::thumbs up::

Last climb out before leaving Lake Mead NRA

Riding through Lake Mead NRA was more difficult than riding through Santiago Canyon, and more difficult than the second half of the River Mountain Trail Loop and then through Henderson to T2. What made the second half of the course so difficult was a few things compounding on eachother:

1. fatigue from the first half of the course with the hills and descents
2. a long, seemingly never-ending gradual climb
3. head winds or cross winds the whole time
4. three very steep “sisters” in the middle of the long, seemingly never-ending gradual climb
5. very little downhill recovery time

The second half of the course seemed to last FOREVER… and I seemed to be going SOOOOOO S-L-O-W-L-Y that it was incredibly frustrating. It was a much harder bike course than I was prepared for, but I also had a great time riding it. It definitely makes you PUSH yourself, even if you weren’t in a race.

FINALLY got to T2 and handed my bike off to one of the lovely volunteers who disposed of it as necessary. By this time, I was ready to be rid of the thing and get my run on. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t exactly ready to get my run on. I didn’t eat much while on the bike (three gels, two bottles of HEED, one packet of Clif Bloks, some Gatorade), so I figured I’d start fueling at the beginning of the run. First stop I took half a banana and some water. Second stop I took a gel and some water and Gatorade. Third stop I took a handful of pretzels and water…. and then my stomach started to church and ache and running became nearly impossible.. so I had to slow to a walk. For the next few miles I only took in water and had to walk.. A LOT… which made my run a lot slower than I wanted. I would alternate between walking and jogging, but the jogging was very difficult. Overall.. my legs were fine… it was my stomach that didn’t want me running..

I think this is around Mile 6..

What also made it difficult were the HILLS on the course. Some of those hills seemed never-ending.. just like on the bike. Who would have thought a desert city had so many hills??? I never would have guessed. I also am always so surprised at how long a half-marathon actually is. There were times during the run when I thought I was getting close to the finish and there’d still be 3 miles left.. and those three miles seemed to last FOREVER. I don’t know if my head could handle the crazy mind-games… luckily I survived.

Tried to muster up a "sprint" through the finish..

After getting through the finishline and getting my medal and t-shirt.. I went straight for the food tent. I was STARVING. I barely ate anything all day on the course, so I was happy to see all the food they had available for us. Two different pastas from Macaroni Grill, pizza (the local pizza store actual had to close down to support the race), chili, milk, sodas, water, cookies, pretzels, bananas, etc. etc. etc… I grabbed a plate-full of pasta, a Coke, and a bowl of chili. It was the most delicious post-race meal I’ve ever eaten. By-passed the massage tent and headed out to meet Minh.

Silverman "SURVIVOR"!!!

I was definitely a lot MORE SORE after the race than I was after Oceanside… but I survived.. and I had a GREAT time. Still debating whether to come back. It was a great race and an awesome, challenging course. It was also one of the most well-organized races I’d ever been to, with nearly as many volunteers as there were athletes. If I ever DO decide to compete in this race again.. I’ll definitely need to be better prepared.

RESULTS
SWIM – 0:50:24
T1 – 0:05:45
BIKE – 3:55:19
T2 – 0:03:07
RUN – 2:35:30
OVERALL – 7:30:03

Silverman… They don’t call it the “World’s Toughest Triathlon” for nothing…. trust me.

Nice shot of the Las Vegas skyline.. GOODNIGHT, Henderson!

Silverman Triathlon – Part ONE: Pre-Race

The Silverman Triathlon was a bit of a last minute addition to my triathlon season. It wasn’t on the original season schedule, but I decided to sign up for it around July as one last “hurrah” for my year. I’m really glad I did, because it was such a GREAT race.

Part ONE – Pre-Race

Minh and I packed up the car and headed out Friday evening after work. Minh built this new bike rack thing so that we could put the bikes INSIDE the car. It was pretty cool. We were ablet o fit his cross bike and my tri bike, plus all our other gear and travel things, and snacks, for the trip. Much better than having to leave the bikes outside while we drove four hours across the desert with the howling winds.

LEFT: Just the bikes... RIGHT: All packed up...

We opted to NOT get a room Friday night because we would be getting to the Las Vegas area pretty late. Instead, we made plans to pull an “all-nighter”. We got to Vegas around 11PM.. so we parked the car at Bellagio and walked down to MGM Grand to watch Saw 3D – I’ve been wanting to see this movie since Minh first showed me the trailer.. if you like the Saw movies, then you’ll definitely like it. But don’t go to see it until you’ve seen the ENTIRE series. After the movie, we headed back to the Bellagio to walk through the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. I thought it would be bigger and take more of our time.. but it was still pretty cool.

Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden

By now it was probably 3AM… we didn’t know what else to do and we’re not much of gamblers… so we went to sleep in the car. We got kicked out of the parking structure around 5AM by a security guard.. hehe.. it was a good nap though. By that time, we decided to head out to Henderson and find breakfast. Made a quick stop at the Las Vegas Welcome Sign for a photo-op.

Ahh.. Las Vegas.. Where else can you get "internet beer"?

The drive to Henderson wasn’t very long, and thus, did not kill very much time. We found a place to get breakfast that opens at 6AM.. so we only had to chill in the car for about half an hour before eating. The restaurant is called The Cracked Egg. It was OK for a breakfast place.. nothing special.

Breakfast from the Cracked Egg

After we finished eating, we still had about an hour to kill before the Race Packet Pick-Up opened… so we went to Whole Foods and walked around looking at groceries. I had forgotten that their was a Pancake Breakfast going on at the Expo, or else we would have gone to that. Eventually we got to the Expo and Race Packet Pick-up and Mandatory Athlete Meeting and all that other good stuff.

Silverman Finish-line.. I'll see you TOMORROW!!

Coffee and Kahlua to keep us awake during Mandatory Athlete Meeting

After leaving the expo, we headed out to the Race Start/T1 area (which was next to our hotel) to drop off my bike, bike gear, and run gear. I got a pretty good spot in my aisle since no one else had showed up to drop off their bike.

Bike Checked IN!! Best spot in my row!

Once all my gear was dropped off, we headed to the hotel to see if we could check-in early…. and we DID!!! YAY!!! The room was really nice and spacious and RIGHT NEXT TO the race start. There was also a nice small kitchen area with stove, dishwasher, sink, mini fridge, pots, pans, plates, silverware, cooking utensils, etc.. so we could make food.

I was hoping for a nap once we were all checked in, but Minh said “NO!”. His thinking was that if we napped, then we wouldn’t get a good night’s rest that night… so.. We went to go find lunch and things to make for dinner. Then we ate.. watched TV.. walked around a little bit.. pre=drove parts of the course.. made dinner.. and went to bed.

Lunchtime!

For dinner... browned butter and mushroom pasta

Race day report coming… in Part TWO…

Good night BIKES.. I'll see you in the morning!

One More Week

One week away from the Silverman Triathlon and GETTING EXCITED!!!! For the final full weekend of training, I got it a “long” (in time, not in distance) run and a hill-y bike ride. The original schedule (as it always is) was to ride on Saturday and run on Sunday (while Minh went into work). But, since the forecast called for rain on Saturday, we swapped days – ran on Saturday while Minh went into work and ride on Sunday.

Even though the weather cleared up rather nicely Saturday morning, I still opted to run indoors on the treadmill than outside. I just didn’t feel like going outside, and even though I don’t really like running on the treadmill (the pace always feels different than on the road), I really didn’t want to leave the house. So.. I toasted a mango coconut scone from Blackmarket Bakery and got ready for a nice long-ish jog on the treadmill.

Popped in one of my favorite movies, the Royal Tenenbaums, and started jogging. I kept the pace fairly easy since I didn’t want to push too hard so close to the race.. but I stayed on during the entire movie. Afterwards, I cleaned up, made myself pizza for lunch, and attempted my first sewing project in a LONG LONG time. More on that later.

Sunday’s ride was nice. We (meaning Minh) packed up the bikes and we headed up a little past the Marketplace to start the ride. We were doing a 30+ mile hill-y loop that would take us through Santiago Canyon. The weather was great for this – not too hot and a little breezy – and the ride was pretty good. The hills were hard, but not as bad as they were a few months ago. We were originally going to do two loops, but needed the rest of the day to do other Sunday thing, so we did one loop plus a little extra heading up Jamboree to Chapman and back to the car. It all added up to about 42 miles of good hills. Should be good prep for the hills awaiting me in Henderson.

Beautiful day for a ride through the Canyon.. (that's Minh)

Cruising along Irvine Blvd...

I’m supposed to take it easy this week leading up to the race. I’ll probably go for a couple swim session and some light jogs and easy spins during the week. I’m feeling pretty good about my level of preparation, but I’m also not really sure what to expect in terms of weather conditions or course conditions – hot or cold, winds, potholes, etc. Should be a good time though, either way.