I have two good friends and room mates that live in Miami, Florida. Paul is a professional photographer and David is... well David just works. They came to crash at my house the day before I left for my triathlon in Arkansas and when I got back I was going with them to Miami.
The trip took FOREVER! But it wasn't that bad because I slept a lot and when I wasn't sleeping I was driving Paul and David crazy or playing on my iphone. I'm pretty sure about an hour outside of Nashville, they wanted to leave me on the side of the road. Actually, they tried leaving me at every single gas station or they would hide and make me think they left me!
After almost 16 hours of driving, we finally made it to Miami!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Jail Break Triathlon
When I got laid off, the weather was crap for two straight weeks. I thought I was going to be outside everyday and play. I was wrong! It rained all day long, everyday for two weeks. I was doing a brick work out at the Y (for those that do not know me, I hate training inside. I hate spin bikes and equally hate treadmills!) on another rainy day when an employee came up to me and asked it I was triathlete and I said yes. He said there was another person training at the the Y today that was a good triathlete and that I should meet him. He introduced me to this guy named Rob. He told me about a triathlon that he was wanting to do but needed a team mate. Naturally, having so much free time on my hands, I offered to be his partner. The race was 3.5 mile canoe, 8 mile mountain bike and a 2.5 mile trail run. You and your partner start off in the canoe and then they combine your total times for the bike and run to get a final combined time.
Race Day: This race is called Jail Break because it's held across the street from a prison and the inmates come out and get to help at the event! I'm sure some of us in our tights looked more like jail bait to some of these guys!
The river was up about 10 feet because of all the rain. The excess rain also made for some extremely muddy conditions. The rain definitely did not let up for the race. It was a complete down pour for the entire race! We were in the 3rd group to start the canoe because of our mountain biking experience. This would turn out to be awful because two groups were already in front of us making a complete mess of the course. Me and Rob came in 1st place out of the canoe and then carried our canoes up a long hill to the transition area. By the time we got to the transition area, it had filled up with 6 inches of rain and mud! The bike started off with this 60 degree hill with rocks and tree limbs all over it. You're bike just slid all over the place. I had mud in my teeth from the very start. Just imagine jumping into a mud pit. That's what I looked like. The course was exceptionally difficult on the steep hills. I had to unclip from my pedals and run my bike up the hills. Sometimes even having to crawl on my hands and knees to make it to the top. I caught up and passed almost everyone in group two on the trail. When I started the run I knew it was going to be difficult because it went over the first 2 miles of the bike trail. If I wasn't slipping all over the place I was on my hands and knees again crawling up hills and grabbing onto trees to pull myself forward. I caught and passed several people from the first group on the run and finished with a really good time. We ended up taking 3rd place overall out of 100 teams. We only got beat by two teams that were professional mountain bikers. If I had more experience riding trails, I think we could have won the entire race.
Experiencing this type of race really made me want to try Xterra races. Xterra races are similar to road triathlons but they have a mountain bike and trail run instead of a road bike and run.
The rain finally stopped at the end of the race and the sun actually came out! I had a blast at this race and will definitely do it again next year. Except next time, I'm winning the entire thing!
Race Day: This race is called Jail Break because it's held across the street from a prison and the inmates come out and get to help at the event! I'm sure some of us in our tights looked more like jail bait to some of these guys!
The river was up about 10 feet because of all the rain. The excess rain also made for some extremely muddy conditions. The rain definitely did not let up for the race. It was a complete down pour for the entire race! We were in the 3rd group to start the canoe because of our mountain biking experience. This would turn out to be awful because two groups were already in front of us making a complete mess of the course. Me and Rob came in 1st place out of the canoe and then carried our canoes up a long hill to the transition area. By the time we got to the transition area, it had filled up with 6 inches of rain and mud! The bike started off with this 60 degree hill with rocks and tree limbs all over it. You're bike just slid all over the place. I had mud in my teeth from the very start. Just imagine jumping into a mud pit. That's what I looked like. The course was exceptionally difficult on the steep hills. I had to unclip from my pedals and run my bike up the hills. Sometimes even having to crawl on my hands and knees to make it to the top. I caught up and passed almost everyone in group two on the trail. When I started the run I knew it was going to be difficult because it went over the first 2 miles of the bike trail. If I wasn't slipping all over the place I was on my hands and knees again crawling up hills and grabbing onto trees to pull myself forward. I caught and passed several people from the first group on the run and finished with a really good time. We ended up taking 3rd place overall out of 100 teams. We only got beat by two teams that were professional mountain bikers. If I had more experience riding trails, I think we could have won the entire race.
Experiencing this type of race really made me want to try Xterra races. Xterra races are similar to road triathlons but they have a mountain bike and trail run instead of a road bike and run.
The rain finally stopped at the end of the race and the sun actually came out! I had a blast at this race and will definitely do it again next year. Except next time, I'm winning the entire thing!
Another Statistic
On Tuesday, September 8 I became another statistic for the exceedingly high unemployment rate in America. With Monday off from work, I came into work with tons of stories from my Half Ironman race for everyone in the office. I was always known for having story time every monday from my weekend adventures. Everything started off the same way it did every morning. Nothing seemed different. I got a message saying to meet in the conference room for a meeting. It was a random group of people in the conference room but this was normal sometimes when making company wide announcements. The CEO and President came in and said, you're in here because we are laying you off. Me being a clown, I almost laughed out loud and said, this is a joke, right! Good thing I decided to wear my "professional pants" to work that day. Basically, 20% of the company was laid off. It was a business decision that would put the company in a better financial situation. I was in disbelief. This actually happened to me. We were told that we could not go back in to the office. Someone was collecting our belongings at our desks and we could exit the back door and our stuff will be in brown bags in the first floor lobby. I was upset that I couldn't say good bye to anyone. After working for almost two years with everyone, you develop some close relationships. Leaving the building for the last time felt like a scene off the Breakfast Club. I knew I probably wouldn't see some of these people again and everyone was going off in their own directions. I was the only one that left with a smile on my face. I had been praying for a change. I knew this was the blessing in disguise that I had been hoping for. I immediately knew that I had no excuses anymore for not pursuing my dreams and finding a job that I was happy with. I'm glad that my boss chose me out of our department to be let go. She knew that I wasn't happy and it was evident in my face as I worked. Out of everyone in our company, I was the one that people thought shouldn't be sitting at a desk looking over spreadsheets. It's just not me.
Bright side is, I have tons of time to train and do some adventurous things. Not to mention the nice severance package I was left with! Thanks for the memories Eco-Energy and good bye ethanol and biodiesel fuel tax laws!
Bright side is, I have tons of time to train and do some adventurous things. Not to mention the nice severance package I was left with! Thanks for the memories Eco-Energy and good bye ethanol and biodiesel fuel tax laws!
Great Illini Half Ironman
When I first started training for triathlons this year, I did not think a Half Ironman would be possible. Prior to this race I've only completed two sprints and one olympic distance triathlon. I proved to myself that anything is possible with hard work, dedication and even making major changes to the life you used to live.
I was relatively at ease with the thought of racing for 70.3 miles until I got to the check-in tent the day before the race. It's an anxiousness that I always felt when I ran track and cross country in high school. Everyone looks like they're capable of doing a low 4 hour Half and the swim course looks longer than 1.2 miles.
I don't have many pre race rituals yet since I'm fairly inexperienced at triathlons. As I write this, I have completed another two triathlons and there have been a few things that seem to be a pattern. I like setting up an area in my hotel room that will be similar to my transition area the day of the race. Then I like to stare at it and visualize myself coming out of the water into T1 and what I will need to get, in what order and any other variables that may change what I do. I do the same thing for T2 and eventually I fall asleep dreaming of me racing.
Race day came with no surprises. The course was pretty flat and the weather was overcast and cool. I warmed up with no music this time because my ipod decided to die on me. One thing that I did not anticipate was rain. The weather man forcasted a 10% chance of rain. He was 100% wrong. Rain started coming down a few minutes before the gun went off!
Swim: I had been practicing open water swims several times a week. Specifically, I focused on going out really fast for the first few hundred yards then settling into a rhythm. This technique was supposed to get me out in front and keep out of the chaos of people fighting to get around the first buoy. When everyone got in the water for the swim start, I made sure I was in front and right in the middle. The gun went off and a madness of arms and legs thrashed the water. I got absolutely brutalized. Nothing went the way I had planned. I literally got swam over for the first 500 yards. My breathing was off, I tensed up and I felt awful during the swim. The swim was a two loop course and starting the second loop, I felt absolutely horrible. I swam about 10 minutes slower than I am capable of and when I got out of the water, I knew I had expelled too much energy during the swim. This was going to be a long day.
Bike: The first 10 miles of the bike I focused on warming up my legs and getting mentally prepared for the rest of the race. In training I had only gone over 56 miles a few times and it was usually a coin flip on whether I felt good or not. I was hoping that today I would be feeling good after the bike because I had not ran anything close to 13.1 miles after a long bike! The bike course was also two loops so I knew that how I felt at the turn around would be a good indication as to how hard I could push it. Around mile 15, I was taking a right hand turn off this gravel road (yes, gravel roads! skinny tires and rocks everywhere is no bueno!) and two people tried to pass on my inside right. I don't know if there is an etiquette rule about passing on 90 degree turns in a race like this considering you're going to be on the bike for a long time. Pass after the turn! I took my turn out wide and as I was turning I realized that I was heading into a loose gravel strip and I could see the writing on the wall. Wet roads, loose gravel, and skinny tires do not play well together. I ate the pavement going around 20 miles an hour and absolutely killed my entire right side of my body. My arm was bleeding really bad and it looked like huge rocks were stuck in it. To make matters worse, when I'm in the arrow position on my bike, all my weight is on my front forearms. This made the paid excruciating. Even with the bike wreck, I still managed to avg 19.9 mph. That was a personal best for me and I was pretty excited about it.
Run: It's now time to run 13.1 miles after swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles! I started off my first mile at a 6:45 pace which felt really good. Then I got to mile two and all hell broke loose. I started having the feelings of a cramp coming up in my right quad. Then my left quad. Then both decided to fire off at the same time that made me stop dead in my tracks. I tried walking them out for a minute till the pain subsided and began running again. A few minutes later it happened again. This time my hamstrings began to cramp and I had to lay flat on the ground because I could not move or everything would cramp up. I felt like my legs were pulling on muscles in my neck. That's how bad my muscles were cramping. Long story long, I had to fight this back and forth pain for the entire race. I finished up averaging 8:30 miles. I was completely bummed out.
Even though all three parts of the race went bad, I still finished the race with a huge smile on my face. It was a smile of relief, disbelief and accomplishment. I finished at 5 hours and 30 minutes and got second place in my age group. I was about 20 minutes slower than I wanted to be but it gives me some motivation to train harder for next year.
I was relatively at ease with the thought of racing for 70.3 miles until I got to the check-in tent the day before the race. It's an anxiousness that I always felt when I ran track and cross country in high school. Everyone looks like they're capable of doing a low 4 hour Half and the swim course looks longer than 1.2 miles.
I don't have many pre race rituals yet since I'm fairly inexperienced at triathlons. As I write this, I have completed another two triathlons and there have been a few things that seem to be a pattern. I like setting up an area in my hotel room that will be similar to my transition area the day of the race. Then I like to stare at it and visualize myself coming out of the water into T1 and what I will need to get, in what order and any other variables that may change what I do. I do the same thing for T2 and eventually I fall asleep dreaming of me racing.
Race day came with no surprises. The course was pretty flat and the weather was overcast and cool. I warmed up with no music this time because my ipod decided to die on me. One thing that I did not anticipate was rain. The weather man forcasted a 10% chance of rain. He was 100% wrong. Rain started coming down a few minutes before the gun went off!
Swim: I had been practicing open water swims several times a week. Specifically, I focused on going out really fast for the first few hundred yards then settling into a rhythm. This technique was supposed to get me out in front and keep out of the chaos of people fighting to get around the first buoy. When everyone got in the water for the swim start, I made sure I was in front and right in the middle. The gun went off and a madness of arms and legs thrashed the water. I got absolutely brutalized. Nothing went the way I had planned. I literally got swam over for the first 500 yards. My breathing was off, I tensed up and I felt awful during the swim. The swim was a two loop course and starting the second loop, I felt absolutely horrible. I swam about 10 minutes slower than I am capable of and when I got out of the water, I knew I had expelled too much energy during the swim. This was going to be a long day.
Bike: The first 10 miles of the bike I focused on warming up my legs and getting mentally prepared for the rest of the race. In training I had only gone over 56 miles a few times and it was usually a coin flip on whether I felt good or not. I was hoping that today I would be feeling good after the bike because I had not ran anything close to 13.1 miles after a long bike! The bike course was also two loops so I knew that how I felt at the turn around would be a good indication as to how hard I could push it. Around mile 15, I was taking a right hand turn off this gravel road (yes, gravel roads! skinny tires and rocks everywhere is no bueno!) and two people tried to pass on my inside right. I don't know if there is an etiquette rule about passing on 90 degree turns in a race like this considering you're going to be on the bike for a long time. Pass after the turn! I took my turn out wide and as I was turning I realized that I was heading into a loose gravel strip and I could see the writing on the wall. Wet roads, loose gravel, and skinny tires do not play well together. I ate the pavement going around 20 miles an hour and absolutely killed my entire right side of my body. My arm was bleeding really bad and it looked like huge rocks were stuck in it. To make matters worse, when I'm in the arrow position on my bike, all my weight is on my front forearms. This made the paid excruciating. Even with the bike wreck, I still managed to avg 19.9 mph. That was a personal best for me and I was pretty excited about it.
Run: It's now time to run 13.1 miles after swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles! I started off my first mile at a 6:45 pace which felt really good. Then I got to mile two and all hell broke loose. I started having the feelings of a cramp coming up in my right quad. Then my left quad. Then both decided to fire off at the same time that made me stop dead in my tracks. I tried walking them out for a minute till the pain subsided and began running again. A few minutes later it happened again. This time my hamstrings began to cramp and I had to lay flat on the ground because I could not move or everything would cramp up. I felt like my legs were pulling on muscles in my neck. That's how bad my muscles were cramping. Long story long, I had to fight this back and forth pain for the entire race. I finished up averaging 8:30 miles. I was completely bummed out.
Even though all three parts of the race went bad, I still finished the race with a huge smile on my face. It was a smile of relief, disbelief and accomplishment. I finished at 5 hours and 30 minutes and got second place in my age group. I was about 20 minutes slower than I wanted to be but it gives me some motivation to train harder for next year.
Catching Up
I wish I had a good excuse for not updating my blog, but I have none. However, in my defense, I have not been sitting on the couch with nothing to write about. This has been the busiest and most crazy part of my year so far. Here's what I've been up to...
My first Half Ironman Race
Getting laid off from my job
An off road triathlon
A sprint triathlon in Arkansas
and a road trip to Miami, The Keys, and The Everglades that has lasted a month
Today, I will attempt to make up for lost time and tell some pretty cool stories about my past trips, races and epic adventures.
My first Half Ironman Race
Getting laid off from my job
An off road triathlon
A sprint triathlon in Arkansas
and a road trip to Miami, The Keys, and The Everglades that has lasted a month
Today, I will attempt to make up for lost time and tell some pretty cool stories about my past trips, races and epic adventures.
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