Chino Valley Sprint Tri

It was fun to be RACING again. My last "race" was adjusted a bit and turned into a training day.

300m swim - 6:17
21 mile bike - (includes both T1 and T2) - 1:05:15
3.1 mile run - 22:55

Total - 1:34:26



6th Overall and 1st in 35-39

Chino Valley is 10 miles north of Prescott, AZ. It is a nice small town with great scenery and a good pool facility to house this event. The altitude is 5100 feet. We live at 1,300 feet in Phoenix. I usually do not feel the altitude until I get to 10,000 feet but yesterday was different. I felt it early and often during the race. Working to pace my breathing was another thing to add to the list of things to "mentally manage".

The swim: 10 months ago I did this swim in 7:15. It was - at that point - one of my better swims. Yesterday I swam "okay" and still managed to improve almost a minute in 300m over a 10 month span. Improvement is fun. There is still work to do. I'll figure it out. Sans triathlon competition, I can work on the swim for a long time yet. I do enjoy it.

The bike: I wish my Garmin hadn't fried last week so that I could post the elevation chart for this bike. It's fairly hilly and the roads are less than smooth. It's not St George hilly, but it is higher altitude. I crashed on the course last year. It was a minor crash, but my bike was disabled so I could not finish. This year a friend, fellow St George participant and fast dude Adam Folts crashed near the exact spot I did - causing him some massive road rash. His left side (especially his lat) did not have much skin left as he went to accept his second place OVERALL plaque. Yes, he had the fastest run split of the day AFTER the bike crash.

The run: I have been working on speed since the Ironman. I need to work more. Altitude or not, there were holes in my approach. I had to goad myself during the run to keep a hard pace. I usually don't have to have that mental discussion.

Overall - I am pleased. 6th out of 45 dudes that started this race. 1st in my age group by quite a time gap. I conquered the only true DNF of my short triathlon career and won a Fuel Belt running belt as a door prize.

This week: Work, house work, walk, yoga, lift weights, swim, bike, run, eat, sleep - repeat.

Never get tired of laughter

I swear I have laughed so much in the past three weeks that ... well ... I want to laugh at the amount of laughter.

I don't know if that loose screw finally broke free or if my perspective on things changed. Heck, it could be both.

Most of the time I am laughing at Carrie. Not laughing at her like "I can't believe how stupid you are ..." but rather "Wow, I have never thought of that thing in that way ..." or "I can't believe you just said that."

For example:

I am now famous at home for being borderline narcoleptic at any hour past 6pm. (This is a much better option than it was a few years ago when I was attending sleep studies to try and figure out why I couldn't sleep.) A few weeks ago I passed out mid-sentence and I awoke to Carrie's voice and face RIGHT IN MY GRILL as she semi-shouted "Sleep!". It sounded like an intro to an 80s rap song the way she said it. It was defintely one of those you had to be there moments - but just now I had to stop typing to laugh.

This week I re-focused my efforts on eating very cleanly. It definitely makes a major difference in how I feel. Not that I had been eating horribly - but with the training volume in pre-Ironman phase, nearly anything with any hint of nutritional value was on the menu.

I am so excited to race this weekend. Last year I got a flat and crashed on this race course... so it is revenge time. The race this weekend is well-suited to me because MOST of the race is on the bike. It is a 300m swim, 22 mile bike, 2 mile run. I have purposely been working speed since May 7th in prep for this weekend and next weekend's shorter sprint races.

Major house progress - training notes

Aside from some training over the weekend (walking and cycling) we mostly churned out work on the house.

To recap our progression on the remodeling job:

February 27th - signed the papers.

March 10th - removed popcorn ceiling and refinished throughout home.

March 20th - removed carpet in two bedrooms and repaired and painted walls.

March 25th - replaced missing carpet with bamboo floors

April - removed dropped soffitts to raise ceiling by 14 inches in the kitchen and entry way.
- removed dividing wall between kitchen and dining room to open up the whole great room.
- relocated and rebuilt the coat closet in the entry to make the entry way larger.
- reworked ALL of the duct work for the HVAC and added a second air return to increase efficiency.
- added a new pantry, a double upper and double lower cabinet to increase the size and space in the kitchen.
- added new pendant lights over the kitchen island and 17 new LED recessed lights in the remodeled space

May - (post Ironman)
- replaced / added new tile where walls were moved
- stained new cabinets to ALMOST match the existing (will be a project later to match all cabinets)
- removed carpet from office - refinished concrete and stained in a coffee color - sealed with clear epoxy
- painted kitchen (2 gallons)
- painted great room and entry way (2 gallons)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It has been a journey just since Ironman. Yes, I have been training - but I have found a balance with work and home improvement. I have to say that the early early morning workouts (3am-4am) EVERY DAY during Ironman training were both physically and mentally tiring.

Over the long weekend we did the staining on the concrete in the office, worked on the cabinets, finished grouting the tile and painted both the kitchen and the great room. We had not planned on painting but because the concrete prep was effort followed by a waiting period on multiple steps ... we just went for it.

I had a fantastic and fast 24 mile bike ride yesterday (1:03:20). I ran into Christian Bailey (a teammate) and we climbed Hummingbird together. He sprinted ahead at quite a clip. It was nice to have somebody whip me so soundly on climbing that hill. I can now train at a new level because I know he is faster than me. He did admit that it killed him to go at that rate. I have to admit that I was fine afterwards :-). I finished the uphill back to the house faster than I ever have - holding 23mph for a half mile with about 3% incline. Everywhere on the route I was at least 1 to 2 mph faster than I was pre-Ironman. This is just further proof that A) I am still a beginner. B) Long course racing is very different from sprint and middle distance. C) Ironman training is tiring.

Two sprint races over the next two weeks. I will be ready.



BH

Three cycle sessions in 20 hours.

Overdoing it is my thing most of the time.

Wednesday / Thursday turned out pretty darn good considering. I have resumed my routine of going to the gym at lunch during the work day. It is a good habit. I am not out spending money on expensive lunches and getting some extra training time in to boot. During yesterday's lunch workout I rode the spin bike for 30 minutes at a sweaty pace for a little over 12 miles. Then I hit the treadmill for a 5K at around 21:20 which was even more sweaty than the bike pace.

Last night we headed over to the gym for a spin class with Penny. It was hot in the room so the sweat was rolling. We did an endurance ride. Since we were there about 20 minutes early, we had well over an hour and a solid 25-30 miles.

Then I shot out of bed this morning at 4:55 and headed out to meet Seth, Jason, "XTine" and Bruce for the Mad Libs ride. It was only the second time I had ridden with them because I usually train by myself or with Carrie. So another fairly intense 20 miler on the bike.

Speed. Speed. Speed.

Gotta love it! Did I over do it? Nope. I am not sore and I am ready for the next challenge.

Soap Box - non triathlon ranting

I was reading about the climbing year at Everest. 4 climbers died this week in conditions described as "congested".

I then saw this quote:

"Traffic jam at Everest. Perhaps it's time people realized they are not being pioneers..."

I congratulate this person for nailing it. This is my point. I am a climber. I have climbed all over the southwest. I have never done mountaineering. It is somewhat appealing to me because I don't get cold too easily. I have always said I have NO DESIRE to do Mt Everest. I hear that the litter on the mountain is becoming a problem. The problem being that it is not just empty oxygen bottles. It's human waste, food waste and dead bodies with a side of steel oxygen containers.

Isn't it time to at least reassess the situation surrounding the summit of Everest? People with more money than sense show up to "conquer" the highest peak on the planet only with the aid from a team of sherpas, a professional guide and any other luxury that can be had above 18,000 feet. I agree that it is probably a very challenging physical endeavor but this is getting ridiculous.

Here's another quote:

"You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."

Guess who said this? Sir Edmund Hillary. He and Tenzing Norgay summitted Everest in 1953. What this quote says to me is that Hillary realized that he was just a regular person who decided to do something DIFFERENT. He wanted to push his own boundaries. He was obesssed with summitting the mountain. After he did, he spent his life helping the people of Tibet ... rather than climbing Everest again and again. He did summit several other peaks after Everest but continued to do some truly pioneering things beyond climbing.

"Going after goals is a pure endeavor if those goals are persued with a personal motive and measured only in terms of how it changed you as a human."

I said that - just now.

Going to the summit of the world's highest mountain for the sake of being able to show people your wealth and prowess is a poor approach.