Love your bike, part II

I have already written about how much I love my bike, but this post is about tough love. On March 7, 2010 I went to San Diego to once more take part of the Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego, on his second presentation.

Of course, I registered for the century, 101 miles with about 4157 ft of ascent on a beautiful course around San Diego, outstanding organization, and this year offering a 53mile and a 32mile courses. And, of course, it was raining the whole course. Sorry, no pictures this time, the Iphone was in a plastic bag.

Instead of skipping to the shorter courses, I tried to complete the century, as it was the only one to offer a challenging KOM segment that killed my body last year. Unnecessary to say I paid for my audacity. The ride started under pouring rain, with 10 minutes delay waiting for the Amtrak train to pass, with all riders soaked to their underware. The extent of the damage was just felt at the first stop at mile 15: my computer had died, and I was uncontrollably shivering at lower efforts. I even took a wrong turn going into the shortest ride, when I decided to continue the daring enterprise.

I happilly did the KOM segment: 6.75 miles, grade 3%-12% (averaging 5.2%), total vertical of 1,858 feet, in 1:10:37, still very slow for a real ciclist, but about 20 min faster than last year (of course because of multiple rest stops...). But right after the KOM I noticed that my breaks weren't working properly, and when I had to stop with a flat rear tire, I saw my break pads were almost complete worn down, probably because of the sandy wet course.

At mile 67 I had to stop, as I was going to face more downhills, and I couldn't trust my breaks. That, and I had to wait for an hour in the rain for my wife to come to pick me up. At least I was able to complete a metric century, and do the KOM once more.

Now I know why, even if it is fun, the pros don't like to ride in the rain. And my love for biking killed my computer (now working again after drying for a week), my break pads (switched to higher quality ones) and my drivetrain (now switched to a real Shimano Ultegra).

My tough love to myself upgraded my bike, and taught me new lessons. Waiting for the next year's new lessons...

Nursing 2010

I am happy and proud to say I'm busier than ever. Work is productive, the new apartment is comfortable, I am in control of my diet, and I am doing Yoga every day, all following my own schedule.

With the commitment of doing my first Ironman-distance race, the Full Vineman race in 07/31/10, I have since last December started Yoga practice, what became a basic daily need of my body and soul. Together with periodization of my diet following the principles taught by coach Bob Seebohar, I lost about four pounds, feel better and have more energy. Burning more fat, I can stand longer periods of time without food (5-6h instead of 2-3h), and I don't have the highs and peaks of blood sugar. My core is stronger, I don't have back or neck pains, and I sleep beter. I don't need daily doses of Ibuprofen anymore.

Of course, training time and activities have to increase. I am still working on setting up my training slots adapting myself to this new reality, but comparing to last year I am already more active. I bought a cheap hybrid bike to be able to bike to work and swimming workouts without being afraid of losing my beloved tri-adapted bike.

I am posting from my Iphone, so then I can post on the go, but unfortunately I cannot add pictures and make it prettier. But I really had to update my blog, after thinking about this post for over a month. I know this is probably a prolonged honeymoon with my improved me, but this has been my reality for two months. Just ran Pasadena Marathon last weekend, and suffered a good bit with poor training and gastric upset, but I felt good over the first 15 miles, finishing about the same time as the average time for previous marathons.

I am happy with myself and know what to do. Ready for more road work ahead.

Proudly announcing I'm a BookSneeze reviewer.

Sorry for the delay on my posts.
Thank God I've been very busy, very productive and happy.
Ramping up the training, of course, preparing for Full Vineman on 07/31/10.

To catch up on my reading, and get another incentive to write blogs more often, I joined BookSneeze as a reviewer; I will share my book reviews, read during my rest hours.

Posting soon!

Malibu International Marathon

A

     Zuma Beach, in Malibu, CA, has a very special place in my heart. It is a beautiful place where I had planned my first A race, where I first got panic at open water swim, where I first noticed my bike strength was not enough, where I will always be able to watch the ocean without people interrupting my view.

     That is essentially why I was mesmerized by the idea of running a marathon through PCH finishing at Zuma Beach. I knew there would be hills at the last half, and without proper training this would not be a race to get a personal best. But as usual, being this the first event there was a special attraction. And I had to run another marathon for 2009.

     It was a chilly morning (43-45F), and parking was available near the finish line, with shuttles to take the runners to the start. My wife was running the half, and would start at the middle of the full course, two hours later, so we had to go separate ways. There was a small number of racers for the full marathon (331 finishers), and the sun came out right before the start.
      Following my training on forefoot running, I decided to make this my first marathon on flat lightweight shoes, my old pair of Asics DS Gel Racer that I used on my sprint triathlons throughout 2009. Addionally to that, I was three weeks on my low carb diet, lighter and feeling more energetic. My watch battery had died, so there would be no time monitoring, what contributed to decrease my anxiety.

       I felt really good at start, and decided to leave behind the 4:30 pace group, as I was able to run confortably at 9 min/mile pace. When we reached the Pacific Coast Highway there was a strong headwind for about two miles, what required extra energy spenditure. But I kept the 9 min/mile until mile 15, when everything came down, as I started to climb the hills. Probably I had muscle fatigue resulting from the current diet mixed with the different running technique. I had to do walk breaks, mostly on the hills, as I did not have a watch to rigorously follow a schedule. At that point, it became a fun run, and I started to chase the other marathon maniacs and interesting people.

      To help me finish the last three miles, I met a runner training with Galloway using an interesting device to time the run/walk/run schedule. That tiny box with loud beeper really pushed me forward, and we finished the marathon few minutes after 4:30, without being passed by the pace group (that or I was really short of oxygen).

       I ran Malibu more than two months after my last marathon (Kauai Marathon, 09/06/09), and a month after I burned out after Magic Mountain Man (10/10/09), so it was my secret pleasure to finish it. I was finally reclaiming my running form back, in time for Baton Rouge Beach Marathon in 12/05/09, and a happy 2009 closure.
      To have the same result as previous marathons was reassuring, with the new diet, the new technique and the new year to come. I was finally going back to my roots, becoming a better runner and triathlete.