Malibu Nautica Triathlon

The race is 2 days away and at the last minute I have bowed out and will be spending some time with my son.

Over the last month the idea of cancer research has taken on a new meaning for me when on July 31, 2009 my twin brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was emotional about the work of CHLA before but wow, how things have changed, there is dramatic new urgency. It has also put a few things into perspective and reality, one of those is the importance of every moment we spend with those we love and I can not pass up the opportunity to build a memory of the first scout camp with my son.

My training this year has gone well and I have been looking forward to doing more than "survive" the swim. I'm planning on participating in another race this year and I'll let you know the results.

The team at NBCUniversal has raised nearly $75k to date, I'm proud to be part of such a group.

We all have things we are passionate about, thank you for joining me in mine.
Fred.

You can't run away

I've been pretty regular about getting some running time in at lunch over the past two weeks. It's kind of been an escape.

Friday will be two weeks that my brother got the shocking news that he has cancer. I've been going to work, spent a fair bit of time staring at the walls, a little work and looking forward to getting out to run. The first day out I found myself trying to run away, much the same way I found myself trying to wake myself up but I couldn't. At some point I realized I was awake and it wasn't going to go away. While running I guess I realized I couldn't run away from it either.

This week I've found it an escape to head out and run. It doesn't change anything but it gives me 40 minutes of peace.

Watch out for the waves

Last Saturday I got up early and set out for Zuma to train with the team from work. I arrived around 7:15am and got the bike unloaded and was setting up, everyone was getting their wetsuits on and the yellow lifeguard truck drove up. Turns out the lifeguards performed nearly 100 rescues on Friday and were expecting the surf and riptide to be just as bad for Saturday... they wouldn't let us go in the water. I drove the 1 hour 15 minutes specifically to swim in the ocean so I was a bit disappointed.

We decided we would do an extra long bike ride. Normally we just do the race route of 18 miles but with the additional time we decided to add on some miles and headed north up the coast and doubled that distance. It felt great, I was able to maintain a good pace and finish strong. Then some barefoot running to work on the transition.

the barefoot running overall felt good (as each run has) this was the first time I really felt like I found the rythm and could tell when I was doing it right. As a bonus my calfs felt much better afterwards.

Monday I went for a run at lunch time, again in the VFF's. This time I added a mile and some hills to the route. Maybe not the best idea. I started to feel a little something with my knee right at the end at about 3 miles and about 2 hours later my calfs started to knot up. The knee felt fine when I started walking and has been fine since, but I could harldy walk on Tuesday morning because the calfs were so tight. they loosened up as the day went on and today feel a lot better.

Wednesday I set out for a run again. This time flat and just 2.27 miles. During the second half I stopped to do pushups every couple of hundred yards and got in 120. Again I felt the rhythm and had a good pace for the run. The plan now is to keep it flat and slowly increase the distance.

Swimming at the Duarte pool tonight. My endurance is getting better, and stroke is a little more efficient with better body placement in the water but I really need to work on breathing.

Barefoot Running

Went for a little run around the Lot at lunch today. It's the first time in quite a while since my left knee has been bothering me a bit. As I've been reading about running in the Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) and barefoot running I thought I'd give it a try. I figure since I'm pretty sure it was my shoes that contributed to the sore knee and there seems to be a fairly good argument for running barefoot I would see for my self.

My initial reaction is, WOW! Following advice I kept it to a short run of about 1 mile, then a 1 mile walk back to the front of the Lot. My feet and knees felt great through the whole run but both calfs are pretty tight now. Every one said it would use different muscles and they were right so that's the point of easing into things. Based on my recent knee history it's probably good to ease into things for that too.

It felt good to get out and run again.

So, that's day one. Wednesday I'll give it another go.

Some freaky new shoes

Well, I like going barefoot and have been wearing flip flops to work for the past month or so. It's pretty well known (maybe not accepted) that I will wear sandals to work in the summer time. Keith tends to mock my dry cracked heels. The other day I kicked off the flip flops and was wandering around the office that way (though not to the restroom, that place requires a hazmat suit) and the only comment I got was, "Where are your shoes?" So then I started thinking, why not go barefoot? The big thing I came up with is that it hurts to walk on gravel and asphalt and I'm not a big fan of pain.

I have read a little about the benefits of going barefoot and even a bit about how some people have made the argument that the athletic shoe industry is really just a marketing engine that has created it's own market based on the notion that the human foot needs cushion and support. They make a compelling argument that I'm not sure I fully agree with... yet.

So the same day I was walking around barefoot my friend Stew sends me an e-mail with a link to an article on sneaker free running. I read it and that started me on a trail of articles where I found the Vibram Five Fingers barefoot shoes.

I was intrigued. They look funny but a ton of people say they are extremely comfortable.... with that combination I thought, "I need to give those a try." Well there's plenty of places to order them on the internet but I wanted to see these freaky things and try them on so there began my search. Turns out one of the local Sport Chalet stores carries them (though only in limited quantities and colors). Yesterday I went and tried them out.... people were right they are amazingly comfortable. Like wearing gloves on your feet. I dropped the cash and wore them back to work.

I got the Five Fingers KSO version in black hoping they would just kinda slip by unnoticed.


Not really unnoticed. I noticed one person in the elevator looking at them and trying not to but they never said a word. Another guy said, "do they sell men's shoes at that store too?" Then there was the discussion in one office where I really got the feeling that some were thinking "there goes Fred again."

So, my initial response after wearing them for a day and a half: they are really comfortable. As I said, like wearing gloves on your feet. They breathe well and protect the bottoms of my feet. I can feel the ground. I'm curious if as some research suggests, my posture will improve and my feet will get stronger and less prone to injury but I'm not sure I'm ready to wear them running. For now though, I've got happy feet.

Hillbilly Hill Adventure Race

This year's Hillbilly Hill race was the day before we left for vacation and proved to be a fun challenge again this year. Temperatures were down from the 103 degree start of last year, it was maybe 75 at the start this time out. The field of racers was a little smaller this year with 11 entrants.

As usual it was a rolling start with Trevor counting down to 5:30pm.


I kind of teamed up with Reid as we seemed to take the first bike portion and the run up to the waterfall at the same pace. He and I got to the waterfall with 4 racers behind us, and not too ar behind two others. I was feeling prety good because they were all guys I was a long ways behind last year. So either they slowed down or I was a little faster this year.


Rog was coming up the trail as I headed down. I was able to run down the hill at a pretty good pace but still stopped for a photo.


I made good time down the run and on the paved road part of the bike ride and pulled ahead of
Reid. By the time I reached the summit of Hillbilly Hill I had gotten a ways ahead of Reid and headed down the back side of the hill. The road was hard packed and light sand, not a great combination. I came around a corner about 1/4 the way down and saw Wade and overreacted a bit to make sure I stayed on my side of the road and went over the bars. I ended with a Pete Rose style head first slide along the side of the road.

Wade stopped to see that I was OK as I got up. Some road rash on my left knee and elbow and I jumped back on the bike to find the chain off the front sprocket. I got off and had to fight to get it back on track, in the meantime Reid blew on past me. I was able to get things going again and finished the ride down to the Hillbilly Gate and was able to keep Reid in sight. The ride back down the hill I was not able to catch up to him but did make up some time.

Before I got in the pool Trevor took a picture.


I was successful on one of the 3 "Adventure Skills" which took 1 lap off of the "Adventure swim" which meant only 13 laps. I got in the pool on Reid's first lap and somewhere along the line he let me pass.

Here's Rog with his soccer ball skills test.



And getting washed off while doing pushups.



My total time was 1 hour 32 minutes which is 22 minutes faster than last year. It felt good.


Even with injuries. I did win the trophy for most blood.


After 8 years Danny finally came home with first place.... well, he didn't get to take the trophy home, it stays in Trevor's garage till next year.


Now it's time to start training on the road bike.

Something to play on

So, most evenings after work this week the kids and I have put a bit of time in on the play structure finishing up the details.

The kids helped a lot with the climbing wall. I just lined stuff up and they put in the screws.


Then there were the roofs, handles, rope and telescope.


The kids are having a great time playing on it.


Money well spent to stimulate the kids imagination as well as the economy.

Cami turns 40

My friend Mike called me a while back and said, "do you think we could pull of playing some music at Cami's birthday party?" I thought, "bass and saxophone, we might need to fill it out a little." We came up with our friend Kenny, really Kenny was a ringer, he's actually good.

Mike's idea was that we would play some jazz standards so he came up with a list of tunes and we got together and practiced once and showed up for the party a couple of weeks later.



Mike and Cami did a great job of putting the party together. Lot's of yummy food and beverage and after dinner we set out to play. They had a nice patio tent with dance floor.


Me, Kenny and Mike




Club Marchand. There were some points that folks actually got out there and danced.


It was a good time. Felt good to get out and play.

A Busy Weekend

Saturday was a busy day with a bike ride in the morning. A very nice ride in the May Gray (when that term came up I don't know, I have only heard of June Gloom for Southern California) Up the mountain with the mist from the fog on my face.

After that Ethan and I headed off to a birthday party at Jumpin' Jammin' which was followed by the 2009 Scout Expo at Santa Anita Race track. We've never been and it was great fun. We had heard that Ethan could earn some belt loops at the expo, he soon figured out that some of the booths were just activies and others were the belt loops. For belt loops he did astronomy, science and computer, I just realized the geekiness of that.


On the non-geeky side Ethan participated in archery. It wasn't for a belt loop but he did get a patch.


Sunday I got up and went to play music for the kids at church. Always fun, it was a bit of a train wreck last time, this time went much better. After playing I came home and started working on the new play structure we got for the kids.

7 boxes of about a bazillion pieces. Kerrianne read online that these things take "handy" people forever to put together.

This is about the state I had it in when the kids got home from church.


The upper level floor in.


Junia liked climbing on it already.


Ethan like drilling holes in the roots in the ground.


The kids are already getting Uncle Leo on the slide.


So, today I was able to get the pic nic table, both platforms, the ladder and the slide on. So the kids will be able to start climbing around on it. I need to get time soon to get the roof on and the rest of the rails and it's good to go. I'm feeling pretty good about today's progress.

Visitor for Mother's Day

We had a very nice Mother's Day breakfast that, of course, included bacon and cinnamon rolls. Yesterday the kids and I went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of flowers and pots and planted them out back by the pool and we were able to keep it a surprise until this morning.



We went to church and Junia's class sang songs for the moms.


When we got home and were getting out of the car I heard a sound over by the neighbors gate and looked up to see a bear head poking through to have a look at us. I asked the kids to go right inside while I pulled the camera from my pocket.

By the time I got the camera out he had one back into the yard and I saw him climb up on the block wall and over into the next yard. The neighbor there saw me, opened the window and asked what was going on. I said, "the bear just went in your back yard." Her husband went to have a look out the window and said the bear had gone over the next wall and into Jim's pond.





He seemed to be having a good time cooling off and trying to find the koi.

Then Don the next neighbor came along making noise to scare him away. Bear climbed out of the pond, back up on the wall, across the next yard, up the next wall and he was then gone.

Bonelli Tri-Express #1

Sunday 26 April was the first of 3 Bonelli Tri-Express races for 2009 (I'm not sure yet how many of them I'm going to do.) This first race was 300 meter swim, 13.5k bike and 5k run. I've heard this series of races called the "romp in swamp", but it's a fun race for the start of the season. This is the race series that got me started with triathlon a few years ago.

As when I did this race before, my buddy Wade joined in. It's fun to have a racing team.

It was pretty cold getting there a little before 7am and only warmed up as the sun came above the valley. By 8am for start time it was getting comfortable. Kerrianne, Ethan, Junia, Tanja, Luke and David all arrived just before start time to encourage us on.

I think both Wade and I felt much more comfortable than we did 3 years ago at our first race.


The water actually felt pretty good, not too cold. Someone said it was about 65 degrees. We were in wave 4 of 5, and headed into the water about 8:15am.


I came out feeling the best I've come out of the water 8 minutes later. My best swim time yet but I still have a long way to go to make it something I can really do. I got about 1/2 way through and found my arms had nothing more so I resorted to my normal plan of "survive the swim."

I did catch up to Wade in the transition. Here he's getting his helmet on and grabbing his bike while I'm getting my bike shoes on. This was one of my best transitions yet, likely from the shorter swim and not being as wiped out but I was able to get changed and out on the bike in 2 min 16 seconds.


I entered in the Men's Mountain Bike category, Wade was in the 40-44 year old men category where everyone was on road bikes. I haven't ridden my road bike since September so I went with the mountain bike. The bike felt good, there were really just 2 big hills and the rest was just rolling hills, I actually passed quite a few people (though I did get passed by some of the long course riders that were coming around on their second lap.)


My bike and T2 times didn't get show up on the race web site but I calculated it to be just over 32 minutes all together.

Then off on the run. I got to the end of the transition area and realized I still had my bike gloves on, I decided to save the time and just wear them. I was able to actually run the whole distance, that's a first for me for this rolling hill course. I did see Wade at one point and he was running strong, we yelled at each other as we passed on the out and back part. With about 2 miles to go I saw a guy that I was pretty sure had been on a mountain bike so I thought, "I need to pass him." I didn't want to burn out so I went with a strategy of just slowly closing the distance until the last 1/4 mile when I dug in and sprinted. I guess I needed just a little bit more, I finished 5 seconds behind him.


After the race we waited around to see the times posted. Junia wanted to sit on my bike.


Scores were posted and I came up second in the Men's Mountain Bike category, 5 seconds out of first place. My time was 1 hour 9 minutes 8 seconds.


Wade had a good race too. He ended up with 2nd place in the Men 40-44 years with a time of 1 hour 46 seconds. A very encouraging thing for me was that even if I had rode my mountain bike in the age group category I would have come in 3rd place. Which means even with my slow swim I did really well on both the bike and the run to make up time.


Here's the stats:
Swim Time: 08:08
Swim Rank: 53

T1 Time: 02:16
T1 Rank: 45

Bike Time: 32.:30 including transition
Bike Rank: 42 - 45 somewhere depending on how much of my total bike time was due to transition

Run Time: 26:14
Run Rank: 27

2nd Place Men's Mountain Bike
3rd Place Men 40-44 (not officially but looking at the times, that's where mine falls.)

Overall:
Overall Time: 1:09:08
Overall Rank: 37

There were 90 male entries overall, so I finished in the right side of the percentages.

Check out the course, be sure to select hybrid view to see the satellite picutre.

Pinewood Derby

Today was the big race.... the Pinewood Derby.

Ethan and I got the wheels on our cars earlier this week and used some teflon powder to lube them up a bit. We didn't have a scale to check the weight so we left that till last minute when we got to the race. Some minor weight adjustments and borrowed some graphite from another racer and we checked in the cars, ready to go.

Here are the cars from the Tiger Cub Den.

Ethan's is the white one in the front row.

The event started with the Tiger Cub den. Each car raced 4 times and got points based on what place they were in each. The car with the fewest points was the winner to move on to the championships.

Ethan got a 1st, 3rd and 2 seconds for a total of 8 points, which meant 3rd place in the den, good enough for a ribbon!


My car raced in the "Dads" group. I was consistent at least. 4th place in each of 4 races. But my car looked good.

Ethan and I ran our cars down the track together .

The Next Race

Tonight I registered for the LA Tri-Express on April 26......doh! That's just over a week away! Actually I've been planning on it but had to work some things out at work since I'm supposed to be on-call. Since I haven't been on the road bike since September I'll be doing this one on the mountain bike even though it's a road race. I entered in the category for mountain bike so hopeully that will even things out.

Details on the race are at: www.trievents.com

I'll be doing the race with my buddy Wade. He and I got into this whole triathlon thing together a few years ago.

Results

So they posted the results from the Renegade Off-Road Triathlon. Apparently I was in the water a lot longer than I even imagined.

I'm happy that I finished but would have liked to have done better.

Here's the stats:
Swim: 29.23
T1: 4:03
Bike: 1:46:39
T2: 1:23
Run: 45:57
Total: 3:07:26

Which put me in 83rd place overall.

Renegade Off=Road Triathlon

A beautiful day in Southern California, I was up early and off to Bonelli Park. It was perfectly clear as the sun came up. One of the great things about races at Bonelli is they are 15 minutes from home. I arrived just after they opened the gate and had plenty of time to check in, find me a transition spot and wander around to relax.

Here's the starting line about an hour before start time.


I chose a spot next to the fence so I wouldn't get crowded. That really didn't prove to be a problem as this was a much less crowded event than others I've been to.


KC and the kids arrived 15 minutes before the start to cheer me on.


On my way to test the water.


The swim was long.... well it felt long. I haven't trained for swimming, and haven't done that well even when I was training so I did about as I expected. There weren't many people coming out of the water after me, but I made it.


From the swim I headed to the transition, got changed, hit send on a pre-written Facebook status update on my phone and headed out on the bike.


The ride was good. Some pretty killer hills that I wasn't the only one walking up. The first lap was pretty strong and things started to hit me on the second lap and I walked a couple more of the hills. There was one point when riding down a path line with 5ft tall weeds in full bloom, I took a deep breath and could feel the polin enter my lungs. I kept pushing on and could feel my allergies coming on in full force.

Back to the transition I racked the bike, changed shoes, grabbed my visor and headed out.


KC actually got a great parking spot right out of the transition area so the kids were able to hang out in the car and watch the runners and bikers go by, including me. It was a great encouragement to hear them yell, "Go Daddy, Go!"


The run was 2 miles of some killer hills that I did my best to try to run. At one point my right hamstring started to knot up, a slow stretch and walk it was OK. Later the same thing happened with the left quad. I saw a guy limping along who said he had a knot in is quad so I guess I was lucky it worked out and I was able to run most of the last 1.2 miles. Not fast, but I was able to run.

Overall, I don't think I did as well as I had hoped, I wanted to finish in under 2.5 hours and I think I was over that. Official results are supposed to be posted tomorrow.


Overall it was a good race and I have a good feeling of accomplishment.