School’s out for… um… Spring?

After nearly 13 years I am finally finished with my undergrad degree. Tonight, St. Patrick’s Day, at around 7:50 pm, I finished my last test for my last class for my Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Business Finance at the University of Washington, Bothell Campus.

Now that I’m done with that maybe I can keep this blog up to date. I still have to post my race results from last year and my plans for this year.

Wow, what a ride…

Tri Training (again)

It's that time of year...

 

I've been riding to work and to school lately in preparation for my first Triathon, which is less than 4 weeks away (May 31). Here's my list of events:

 

May 31 - Issaquah Triathlon (400m swim, 15 mi bike, 5K run)

July 26 - Federal Way Escape (400m swim, 11.66 mi bike, 5K run)

Aug 16 - Beaver Lake Triathlon (400m swim, 13.8 mi bike, 4.3 mi run)

 

That should keep me busy. For September I decided to do something a little different, the MS Bike Tour in La Connor, WA, 2 days of 75 miles each on a bike. Should be pretty cool.

 

The longer rides have really helped my training and I have lost 10 pounds in the last month.

Triathlon Pictures Part 2

The professional photogs from the Issquah triathlon just posted their pics from the race last weekend. I found 3 pictures of me by sifting through the unidentifiable pictures. Having my number on my back was convenient during the race but made it hard to find my photos later since they had no way to identify me. There were two from the run and one from the bike. Thank goodness they didn't take any photos of me during the swim. I wouldn't want to drive people away from this site with those...

 

 

Triathlon Recovery: Day 1 & 2

Day 1 - Sunday June 3

 

Today went pretty well. Muscle soreness is much less than I expected. Took some ibuprofen before church to make sure I could make it through 3 hours without much misery. The biggest issue so far is the recurring muscle spasm in my shoulder that has been acting up for some time: it got a lot worse starting last night but nothing serious. I am continuing the elevated calorie diet which should return to normal on Tuesday.

 

Day 2 - Monday, June 4

 

Feeling much better even though the heat at night kept me awake (no one in Seattle has A/C). Shoulder spasms are almost gone.

 

I talked to my parents Sunday night and found out some interesting things about my Dad. I knew he was a distance runner back in High School and College but Mom told me some things I didn't know about my Dad:

 

1. He held the record for the 2 mile run at his High School for several years

2. He won the west coast regional meet in the 3000 and 5000 meters while attending Lassen College in the late '60s (NAIA?)

3. His fastest mile run was 4:05!

4. On his 50th birthday he ran his fastest 10K ever at just over 32 minutes.

5. At his 40th high school reunion they still remembered him as the "fastest man on campus"

 

Way to go Dad! I used to go with him to his races when I was a kid (10K fun runs and such) but I didn't know he was this serious about running. I guess I should have pursued it a bit more when I was young.

 

Issaquah Triathlon Results

Wow, I actually did it and achieved my goal (finish in less than 2 hours). I arrived just in time to sit in traffic as the over 1000 participants waited to get into the parking lot at Lake Sammamish State Park at Issaquah, Washington, just east of Seattle. There was plenty of time for me to set up my bike and other things in the transition area and meander over to the starting area. While waiting in the line for the restroom I found a friend of mine from church who was participating in the Tri with his wife. It was nice to know someone else who did the race.

The swim start for my heat was at 7:18 am sharp. I stayed in the back of the pack and then did the breast stroke for just about the entire 400m swim. The water temp was perfect (for me anyway) at around 70F.  This was my weakest of the three events by far. My time coming out of the water was about 18 minutes (more on that below). The first transition went well considering I didn't have a wet suit to fool with. I put on my shirt, cleaned my feet, donned my shoes, and off I went.

As I was just starting my bike run I saw the race leader coming back from his bike run. He won with a time of 58:35, almost 1 hour faster than me. To put that into perspective, I did the bike portion of the race in just over 55 minutes. The next closest competitor to him was almost 5 minutes behind. I did pretty well on the bike. I noticed that a lot of people around me didn't use their downhill gears: I passed a lot of folks on the downhills with minimal effort. The one hill we had to go over and back on was a slow rise up about 300 feet. Lots of people looked at my funny as I sang Christmas songs to pass the time (i.e. "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Have yourself a merry little Christmas"). I was feeling really good coming out of the second transition.

The run felt really good except for one thing: of the entire course, only 1/4 of it was paved. The remaining was over grassy fields, dirt roads, or sports fields. My ankles were really bothering me as I approached the finish. Most of the course was shaded which turned out to be a blessing as the sun came out near the end. As I broke out of the trees for the final time I saw Wendy and the boys there to cheer me on. I sped up and somehow found the energy to sprint across the finish line.

Here are my official results:

Swim 00:18:23.6  T1 00:06:27.9  Bike 00:55:05.8  T2 00:04:37.9  Run 00:27:49.1  Finish 01:52:24.3  

Overall I am very happy with the entire experience and my performance in this, my rookie race. The 5K time is less than the 5K I ran last month (29:37). The only thing that went wrong for me on race day was that I forgot my shoes. I had to turn around and drive home about 3 miles from home. Good thing I remembered. I can race without a shirt; I can race without socks; but I certainly cannot race without shoes.

 

Triathlon Training: 1 Day to go!

The Triathlon is tomorrow. Yesterday and today I have been resting with no workouts. My diet today has been pretty heavy as I "carb up". The race starts at 7:18 am for me. My race number for tomorrow is 205 and I am wearing an orange swim cap for my heat.

Triathlon Training: 3 Days to Tri

I'm down to 3 days left until my Triathlon. The one I picked for my first one is the Issaquah Triathlon in Issaquah, Washington, at Lake Sammamish State Park. Today was the last day of training before 2 days of rest leading up to race day. My training regimen up to this point has pretty much been my exercise schedule: 3-5 days of various types of exercise including swimming, jogging, cycling, elliptical trainer, etc.
I did a "dry run" last Saturday, although it wasn't all that dry. I did 8 minutes in the water at Lake Sammamish followed by 15 miles on the bike, and 15 minutes of jogging. I wanted to test out my preparedness on the following:

• Can I swim in the chilly waters of Lake Sammamish without a wetsuit?
• Will my Pearl Izumi Tri Shorts work well on the bike after being soaked during the swim?
• Can I run for a sustained period after biking for 15 miles? (it's harder than you might think!)

The dry run was a great success. I only swam for 8 minutes due to the choppy waters. It was Memorial Day weekend, after all. The many boats out on the lake were sending in a steady stream of 2 foot tall wakes. I swallowed so much water during this test that I had to cut my swim short. The cold shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure that if I was trying to place or shave 30 seconds off my overall time that using a wetsuit would give me some benefit but for this first race I'll forgo it.
The shorts worked much better than I thought. I was able to wear the shorts during the swim, bike, and run sections of the workout. Running after the biking is now much easier than it was 2 months ago.
Here are my estimated times up to this point:
1/4 mile swim: 18:00
15 mile bike: 60:00
5K run: 38:00
Overall estimated time: 1:50:00
I'll post pictures and results this weekend after the race.