Happy Holidays!

The year 2008 may be ending, but a new season has already started. Health-conscious athletes everywhere are carb-counting and eating a lot of vegetables. Training logs are registering scale results and future plans. 'Tis the (2009) season to be jolly.

This is the time to wrap-up the gains and medals, to pass stories on and to look ahead for new gifts and blessings. My main achievements this year were to become a triathlete and to start this blog. That is why it is important to me to come here every week. Over the next posts I will publish complete lists of races in 2008 and personal records, but now it is the time to simply celebrate, without looking back, without cleaning closets, without calculations or predictions (those are all for next week and next year).

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. Carol Nelson

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. Mary Ellen Chase

Learning to live with myself, part 2

Again running after fun and auto-discovery, objectively training for the Big Cat Challenge taking advantage of a business trip, I took part in the North Face Endurance Challenge 2008 in San Francisco, CA. Because of the challenging course, I decided to run the half-marathon. Maybe next year I will be ready for the 50K or the 50M courses.

This was my very first trail race, with the usual extra hardships: I arrived at San Francisco at 11:50PM on the night before the race, after travelling for about twelve hours (from Miami), and waking up at 4:30 AM in order to be able to get to take the shuttle to the start, at the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Temperatures were around freezing 44F on the morning of the race day, promising a very interesting race. Dean Karnazes was there hosting the event, less than 24hours after coming back from his trip to Antarctica, and classified this course as difficulty 8/10.

Besides the excitement and the challenge, the idea was to use this race as a rehearsal for the Big Cat Challenge, testing new trail running shoes and Injinji running socks. I have to say: I am impressed! Besides multiple compliments about my shoes, I could run wildly over the sandy fire roads, comfortably and fast on downhills. No blisters, no pain. I just regret to have bought white socks, and just one pair!

During this race I could really feel I was flying on downhills, but uphills were brutal, and I have learned my lesson on specific training: train on hills, to be able to run uphills!

It was a real pleasure to run those trails, where the only people you could see were the runners, and there was no cell signal in many areas. That is a definition of heaven on Earth...

I was really happy to participate in that race, and my prediction of 2:30 finish was not wrong: I finished 2:38:23, with no injuries, no falls, no blisters. My muscles were sore for a week after the race, mostly on the abdomen, and this was a good training race for the Big Cat Challenge. Again I ran a race by curiosity and impulse, but at least I was running in the right direction.

This was my first step to finish 2008 with a strong kick and to solve once for all my growing pains.


Next races: Big Cat Challenge 12-hour Ultramarathon (12/27/08), Surf City USA Marathon (02/01/09), Pasadena Marathon (03/22/09), 27th Annual Avia Wildflower Triathlon Long Course (05/02/09), Vineman Ironman 70.3 (07/19/09).

Heroes of the week: the San Diego Chargers came back to spotlight, bringing hopes for playoffs. Support your local team!

Quote of the week: “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second." William James.

Learning to live with myself, part 1

It has been a while since my last post because I was on a trip, so I will divide my news in two parts. I have learned a lot about myself playing hard over these last weeks, and this actually came adequately as end-of-year reflection.

On 11/30/08 I raced the Turkey Tri (0.5M swim, 14M bike, 4.5M run), in commemoration of Thanksgiving and Triathlon season finale. I neglected swimming and cycling for a while, and I knew I would pay a price for that. My prediction was a finish in 1h50min, without knowing the course.

Bonelli Park is a beautiful place, with mountains at sight, a big central lake, and a lot of green. But the water was dark and cold, the bike course is moderately hilly, and the run path is narrow. That together with my unpreparedness brought a weird result to a beautiful day and a beautiful course. If you can believe, the race organization did not track transition times, even using chips. So my times were: swim 28:31, bike 56:35, run 40:31, finish 2:05:37.

During the swim I had shortness of breath, probably a mix of cold water, bad technique and panic, and I needed to float for about three minutes.
The first buoy was very far from the start, and all swimmers had navigation problems. On top of that, many experienced triathletes had the impression that the course was longer than 0.5 mile. At T1 I checked my time, and then I started a personal race against the clock. The bike leg was exciting, with many turns and rolling hills, my first using cyclocomputer. From that I know my bike time was 49 min, with probably T1 5:35min and T2 2 min. My legs complained a little on the run course, but I still could have a relative catch-up. I placed overall 318/601, and age group 54/76.

I paid the price for not being prepared, and I will have to live with that. But within a context of Half-Ironman training for next season, this showed me this is the time to stop racing for fun and curiosity, to know courses and have experience, and start objectively racing, with defined training plan, goals and purpose. I already know I can do it and finish it, even without preparation, but it is time to train against myself. I am always very enthusiastic and hungry for new experiences, bright characteristics of Aries natives, but hard-headed and hard to adhere to hard long and steady plans.

Now it is time to be a grown-up triathlete and focus my time and energy.

Next races: Big Cat Challenge 12-hour Ultramarathon (12/27/08), Surf City USA Marathon (02/01/09), 27th Annual Avia Wildflower Triathlon Long Course (05/02/09), Vineman Ironman 70.3 (07/19/09).

Hero of the week: Manny Pacquiao, who won against the odds and the media, making history starting a new era in boxing.

Quote of the week: “The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.” Alden Nowlan.