Vineman 70.3: Lessons to Learn

Going for bigger challenges, I had on Vineman 70.3 my second half-ironman triathlon. It was my first registration, my A race, while Wildflower was to be my rehearsal. Vineman was special because of the M-dot logo, I should say.

It taught me a lot of lessons, I am happy and proud to say. First lesson was never to travel on the previous day of a long distance race. Trying to save time and money, I went from LA to San Francisco on the morning of the previous day, spent hours driving and dehydrating, wasted my lunch time at the expo, and ended having lunch at a supermarket at 4PM, about fifteen hours from the race start. Bad plan.

Driving back and forth along the bike course, still made to have dinner with colleagues from LA TRI, at a place to have a pizza "to die for", with an old ambulance for deliveries (see picture).

Slept well, but worried through the hot night for have forgotten to check again the race course, with no Internet or IPhone access to do so at bedtime. That was my second lesson: study carefully the race course, months and weeks before.

Transition area and swimming start were crowded, with many colorful distractions and loudspeakers, and I almost missed the start of my wave. The Russian River is a beautiful place, and its warm calm and shallow waters were a pleasure to swimmers of all levels. At mid-course I regretted to wear full wetsuit, sweating while touching the bottom with my hands. At the end, I regretted not to have trained better: 57:32, in such ideal conditions. Of course, transition area was half empty. Little problems packing everything, and T1 was 4:19.

Best bike ever was followed by my worst run ever; cooking under the hot sun, I had foot cramps over the first four miles, followed by excessive fluid intake up to mile 6 and consequent abdominal cramps and nausea over the last six miles: 2:44:20. Last three miles were
a slow long nightmare, watching the minutes fly over my tired legs and dizzy head.

Packing everything under the hot sun and my burning rage, recovering from nausea and abdominal cramps, I felt the bitter taste of dissatisfaction. 7:16:50 was my time.

One last lesson was still to be learnt from Coach Brian Melekian, at the exit of transition area.

"Hey, are you OK?"-he asked.
"I am upset because I did not break seven hours."- I said.

"DID YOU have FUN?"- he returned.

Yes, ideed. It was fun, probably even when I was hurting.

That's why I love Triathlon. And that's why I will come back to Sonoma.

"A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it." - Anonymous.

Holy Water and multiple blessings

Finally rain came to California, watering the plants and cleaning the air. Now it does feel like Fall and Thanksgiving week.

But I'd like to talk about other waters. Last week I returned to swimming training, after a month off, because of trips, marathon training and recovery, and cold nights. It was like a rebirth, or a baptism, if you like. Streaming through the swimming pool, I experienced the same joy I felt when I was able to swim 200 meters without stop for the first time. This is what I live for. That night I dreamt I was flying.

As expected, Brian did better than expected. He finished Ironman Arizona in 10:09:48 (overall 171/2300, age group 23/201). As I said before: this guy is living the dream! Congratulations!

Talking about heroes, Dean Karnazes has started his journey on The Last Desert, an ultramarathon in Antarctica, seeking to be the first to complete all four deserts in a year (Atacama, Gobi, Sahara and Antarctica).

Talking about blessings, I just bought a my first cycling computer. This is my first step to start flying on the bike. Last weekend I had my last ride without it, and of course I forgot my watch. During the same ride I had my first flat; I estimate I was back on the course in eight minutes, approximately.

Still talking about blessings, the controversy is on about swimming speedsuits. USA Swimming has proposed new swimsuit regulation, coming together to the concerns about technological "doping". This questions all world records achieved during last Olympics, and probably will turn them unreachable. It will be interesting to see what will be the final solution.

This is Thanksgiving Day, and here I register my humble gratitude for all the joy and happiness achieved this year. This weekend I will compete in the Turkey Tri, my fourth sprint triathlon. This year I became a triathlete, and through triathlon I was able to make a myriad of new friends, have multiple additional reasons to smile every day, and have found new goals in my life.

Thank God, this year has been a year of hard work, and that is why I play hard. Next week I am traveling to San Francisco, and I will take opportunity to run my first trail race, in The North Face Endurance Challenge. Because the trail course involves ascent of more than 900 feet, I will run the half-marathon, instead of the 50K or 50M courses. But do not worry: to extend my limits I have registered for the Big Cat Challenge 2008, a 12-hour ultramarathon.

Next races: Turkey Tri (11/30/08), The North Face Endurance Challenge Half-Marathon (12/06/08), Big Cat Challenge 12-hour Ultramaraton (12/27/08), Surf City USA Marathon (02/01/09), Vineman Ironman 70.3 (07/19/09).

Hero of the week: Brian Melekian. Every week he shows me new possibilities, new goals, new dreams.

Quote of the week: "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Mahatma Gandhi.

Healthy thoughts

I just briefly mentioned on previous post another reason to dislike New York: the large amount of people smoking over you. Probably this is just an impression resultant of so many people crowding Manhattan, but the fact is I am not as exposed to cigarette smoking here in LA. Even worse: for the whole 26.2 miles of the New York City Marathon I had at least ten times smokers throwing their air pollutants over the runners; approximately at mile 25 there was a guy smoking cigars at the race course! Maybe I am being too sharp, but that came to me as a disrespect to all runners, not to mention public health.

Talking about health, the day before New York City Marathon I had a trauma to my right shin caused by my luggage, and that created a very painful shin splint, felt only after the race, until two days ago. For the first five days after the race I could not walk properly, and only now I have stretched enough and recovered my balance. A wonderful realization was to learn that exercise accelerated my recovery, through spinning and treadmill training, avoiding excessive load on the legs. It is always nice to see that my body takes better care of itself than I do.

Mental health was another issue this week. The concerns of being injured, together with pain at every step lasting more than three days threatened my sanity. My plans on running Pasadena Marathon this weekend were put aside, even because the race was sold out while I waited to register after my recovery was evident. The urge to sit and plan my next year schedule has started to cause me nightmares, and this probably will make me busy next weekend. Only the idea of a new sprint triathlon in two weeks (the Turkey Tri) and Vineman Ironman 70.3 on next July can make me forget my current frustrations and push me forward.

Talking about happiness, the current streak of victories of the Trojans and the NY Giants have an important role, but what fills my soul and blows my mind is Brian Melekian and his journey to Ironman Arizona. To read the posts on his blog is always inspiring, even though his numbers show me I still have a lot of work to do. Now he just launched his online coaching website. It is an honor to know he reads my blog. For all these next days and during the race on November 23rd you can bet all my good thoughts and strong energy will be with him.

Feeling well again comes together with the joys of the Holidays, and the hope of an even better year. Tomorrow I will participate for the second time in Run for Her, a 5K race to raise awareness and funds to support ovarian cancer research, as part of my sprint triathlon training. I have started again to be able to plan ahead and project goals, and this is my healthiest state of mind.

Next races: Run for Her 5K (11/16/08), Turkey Tri (11/30/08), Surf City USA Marathon (02/01/09), Vineman Ironman 70.3 (07/19/09).

Hero of the week: Lance Armstrong. He is the inevitable hero; well-accomplished, gifted and well-spoken. Above any criticism and all the media, he is able to catch the public attention to important issues and his cause. He managed to be a landmark to whom athletes compare themselves, for better or worse...

Quote of the week: “If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people's opinions will rush in from all quarters”

George Bernard Shaw.

Three-Triathlons-Triathlete, first part of three (say it fast three times...)

I am now very happy to consider myself a triathlete. After five months of preparation, I was able to throw all my energy in three triathlons in three consecutive weekends.

The first race I registered for was Nautica Malibu Triathlon, in benefit of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. With their team, I was able to learn Triathlon 101 and have group training and my first open water swim clinics. My eternal gratitude to coaches Chris Smith and Brian Melekian who showed me the joys of multisport and taught me to always have fun. It was an honor to wear their colors, and now all my pictures will be monotous because of the same uniform , but CHLA is one of the best children's hospitals in the world, and I am proud to declare that in all races.

Since the beggining I knew the swim would be my biggest problem: I could not even swim 50 M without stop, and in all of the open water swim clinics I got panic attacks. Joining the Southern California Aquatics (SCAQ) masters program and daily workouts made me begin to enjoy the swim. It was one of my most remarkable moments of my life when I finally was able to swim 200 M at once.

Because of all the fear of open water, I had to prove to myself that I could do it. That and the short swim course of the Kaiser Permanente LA Triathlon (swim 0.4 Mi, bike 19.5Mi, run 3.1Mi) made me sign up for my first ever race, one week before Malibu. That was a rehearsal, and it could not be done many weeks before simply because I was not ready at all.

It was a feat to wake up at 3:30AM on race day, bike 4Mi to take a bus to Santa Monica , and bike 3Mi more to Venice Beach ( do not ask me why: I do not have a car...). That was when I felt all the joy of multisport ; to see the sunshine at the beach , finishing nutrition tune-up and setting transition , this is divine. And I learned that I needed a headlamp to succeed in this sport.

I needed two swim warm-ups to feel confident enough to line up at the start. Funny how it really feels like you are swimming in a washing machine, with people all around you, grabbing your arms and legs, and suddenly stopping to kick you on the face. It was a good lesson, and I finished 0.4Mi swim in 18:43, mostly because of multiple stops to wait for people to clear my way, and because of bad navigation. But I was happy to survive swimming faster that predicted.

Transition time was 3:33, mostly because I was short of breath after the swim, but my transition was exactly at the exit, so I got it fast for my standards.

The bike leg was fun in the beggining, with me daring to go to aero position (give me a break: I had bought the bike just six months before...), then scary in the middle (hilly course) and exciting end with a huge downhill. Bike time 1:07:48, mostly because I got hypoglycemic on the last quarter of the bike. I have to confess: I can not avoid a smile when going fast downhill or doing a sharp turn. Maybe that will go with time.

T2 went 2:01, mostly because I had to understand where was the exit. My fault: next time I promise I will study the maps better...

The run started with a huge smile, because I realized I could finish in less than two hours (please understand: that was my very first sprint triathlon...). But I had to face the same hill of the bike course, up in the first 1.5Mi, down in the second half. No fluid stops, chasing competing age-groupers, finished in 25:22, happy to finish strong, already worried about recovery for next weekend.

Now I knew I could do it, and I had to improve. More road work ahead.

Next races: Long Beach International Marathon (10/12/08); ING New York Marathon (11/02/08).

Quote of the week: Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it. Margaret Thatcher

Here to stay!

Did you notice how many triathletes have blogs nowadays?

That is one of the many reasons I decided to start my own. This is a very good way to commit myself to my training, to save some time for rest (out of work, out of training), to make new friends, to talk unlimited hours about what we love, and to pay tribute to all my heroes.

Love; that is the motto of my life, and that is what I will try to write about. We all love multisport and to face challenges on a daily basis, this is written in stone. But I am talking about the feeling that moves all our bodies and minds against water, wind, pain and hunger. We do what we do because we love ourselves, and we love to be happy and healthy for our loved ones, to laugh, smile and cheer with our friends, in the name of all those who can not go out there with us. And that feeling has no limits, and always pushes forward.

That is the reason of the name of this blog: I am constantly preparing myself for the days to come, and does not matter who you are, what you do, where you came from, we all have more road work ahead, no end in sight.

I can finally brag I am a triathlete, after completing three competitions in three weeks: Kaiser Permanente LA Triathlon (09/07/08), Nautica Malibu Triathlon (09/14/08) and Long Beach Triathlon (09/21/08). I am very proud of my achievements, and I will talk about them in another time. To this date, I have ran 16 marathons and one ultramarathon, but nothing was a bigger challenge than to learn how to be a triathlete. Now I am six pounds lighter, eating healthier than ever, and loving this new lifestyle. You can follow my public training log in www.buckeyeoutdoors.com under tripleS.

Next races: Long Beach International Marathon (10/12/08); ING New York Marathon (11/02/08).

Hero of the week: Brian Melekian. That guy is living the dream. Brain tumor survivor, he spends his days training, preparing for Ironman. You can follow his blog at http://brianmelekian.blogspot.com/. Recently, he showed my newest dream bike: Cervelo P4. You can see pictures and comments at http://www.roadcycling.com/reviews/Cervelo_Debuts_The_P4_at_Interbike_002452_printer.shtml

And video at http://reviews.roadbikereview.com/interbike/2009-cervelo-p4/.

Quote of the week: If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.

Lance Armstrong

This was my first post of an entire life to come. Please talk to me at tripleStalks@gmail.com.