Another trial race

This weeks training consisted of a couple of run outings at work during lunchtime, hapkido 3 nights and a pre-race of the Malibu course. This time around we included transitions. The swim was tough as expected but I was able to keep myself calm and work my way through it. One moment I wondered what I was doing and why I was there. Though I was at the rear of the pod I was able to finish and not feel dizzy when I came out of the water. I need to work on a system for the first transition from swim to bike. The bike was good and I was able to make up time and pull through strong, though there are people that are faster than me I think the bike is my strong event. Transition to the run was smooth, I took it slow the first mile and focused on just keeping going and making sure my legs didn't cramp up. By the end of mile 2 I was feeling better than when I started the run and was able to pick up my pace more and more as I completed the 2nd two miles.

Total time 2hours 3minutes.

It was very encouraging to be out there with the team.

Is that Yoko?

A bit of running at work this week but some silly meetings got in the way so I only got 2 days in. The I was off Friday and thought I'd take a bike ride down to Santa Fe Dam, go for a swim and ride home. Well, apparenlty they don't get too many folks swimming on a Friday morning so they make the swim area smaller... a lot smaller. In fact by the time I got out to where it would be deep enough to actually swim it was only about 20 feet across so I stayed on the bike and just made the loop back home.. 17.5 miles. I had projects to work on around the house anyway.

Saturday we took the kids to San Clemente to the beach. After burying the kids in the sand I decided to take advantage of being at the ocean and go for a swim. So I put on the wetsuit and headed out. The water wasn't really cold enough to need a wetsuit but I need to get used to swimming in it.

Here's me headed out.

You have to look close, but I'm there. I swam and thought I had gone a good ways and headed in. When I got on shore I realized I had only gone a few hundred yards. I'm gonna say it was extra tough because the afternoon ocean was so rough, the reality is I'm not the swimmer I wanna be.

The wetsuit was comfortable and I didn't feel like it was a hinderance and helped keep me afloat.

Junia took a self portrait.


Tomorrow I'm going to try Santa Fe Dam again. There's always a bazillion people there on the weekends so they have the whole swim area open. And with that many people it should feel just like teh triatlon event.

Running in the heat

This week's training consisted of a lot of running... well, a lot of running for me anyway. Two days of 6 miles and 1 day of 4 miles at lunch time. It felt pretty good. I can't remember ever running 6 miles in my life. It was 90-95 degrees each day.

Work got in the way of my bike ride on Saturday morning so I ended up going out at 7:30pm. It was beautiful, a full moon and clear. I did my normal 20 mile loop out to Santa Fe Dam. The wildlife this week consisted of the bats flying around under the bridges under Huntingto Drive and the 210 Fwy.

Swimming consisted of a pool party throwing kids around in the pool.

Wildlife this weekend

So, I got a call from Larry The Neighbor about 1:30 last Thursday afternoon, he said Uncle Leo was trying to take on a bear and two cubs in the back yard. He got Leo out of the yard and over to his place to keep him safe.

I headed home from work, by the time I got there KC had gotten home to find the police and animal control in our driveway. She go Uncle Leo and he was covered in something sticky...and boy did he stink! Not like a skunk... but stink. By the time I got home she had him washed off, then he went off to the groomer on Friday.

Apparently the bears came over to play with Uncle Leo after hanging out in Larry's jacuzzi.




Then Sunday the kids and I were playing Uno out by the pool, I looked over at the pool and saw a big spider floating...dead. I, of course went and grabbed the camera. Wen we scooped it out of the pool Ethan wanted to scare mom with it...I said that would be a bad idea.

Here's the spider with Junia's hand for size comparison.

Training
Training wise, I still had a good weekend. With a 10 mile ride/4 mile run on Friday. 3 mile run on Saturday then a 6 mile ride, 1/2 mile swim and 2 mile run on Sunday.

Wildlife and a pre-race

Wildlife
Well, the training plan at night around home has taken a turn. I was out for a ride a week or so ago about 8:30pm and rustled up a deer and a few miles later something came out at me, it was either a raccoon, skunk or possum. Kinda startled me and I rode faster.

When I got home Uncle Leo was barking at the back wall. When I called him in I could hear something up in the avocado tree. Of course I grabbed the camera and a flash light, I kept looking around and then I saw it.... a brown bear. I tried to get pictures but didn't get close enough for the flash so none of them turned out. They would have been great of the guy peeking over the wall at me. I ran back in side and grabbed the video cam, by the time I got back out there the bear was up on the wall. I need to get a video capture to post a video clip. The bear stayed up there for about 10 minutes then hopped back up in the tree to get some more avocados. I think I need to put some chips out there so he can make guacamole.

The result is I'm not as into running around here late at night and I've kicked in the noontime runs at work shooting for at least 3 times a week.

Pre-race
I joined the team from work for a pre-race out at Zuma where we actually did the whole course. Turns out we did about 75% of the swim, the whole 18mile ride and 4 mile run...and I made it.


The swim. Went better than I expected. We all went into the water together and out the 150 yards. We floated and gathered together while Scott gave us all some tips then started swimming up the coast past 3 lifeguard towers. Some of the others turned around and swam back, I headed to the shore. Felt pretty good, 14 minutes.


The ride. We set off in two groups, me in the second a couple of minutes behind. Once we got out of the parking lot and onto PCH I just kick in and started going. The course seems a lot less hilly than the rides I've been doing up to now so I was able to get some good sped going and I caught up to some of the folks from the first group and finished the ride in 20 minutes less than I've been doing 28 miles out here.

The Run. The run is down the sidewalk along the beach..... which means flat. That works well for me.

Overall it felt good, and very encouraging to complete all of the events in one shot. The fear of drowning is subsiding but the swim was still a lot of work... more practicing to do.