Monday, June 22, 2009

Tri For Fun

This past weekend, a group of us participated in the Pleasanton Tri for Fun. It is a sprint distance triathlon: 400 yard swim, 11 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. There are no official times, so the race is fairly low key. In fact, many of the participants do their first tri at the Tri for Fun.

Josh Redstone and I did the whole triathlon while Peter Brende (swim), Jeremy Cotter (bike), and Ryan Barrett (run) did it as a relay. This was Josh and Jeremy's first tri, so congrats to them! We had a really good time and all completed the event successfully.

The lovely Tina woke up before sunrise with us to take pictures of the whole thing. She's something special. :)

Castle Rock

Tina and I went camping at Castle Rock State Park a couple of weeks ago. We got a bunch of backpacking gear from REI as wedding presents, and this was our first chance to use all of it at once!

Castle Rock is just South of Hwy 9 on Skyline. Here's a map to the parking lot where you can park overnight:



View Larger Map

The State Park website has a nice brochure that contains a map to the campground. Camping plus parking was only $10 for the night. What a deal!

We drove into the parking lot on Saturday afternoon, got a little orientation from the ranger stationed at the entrance, and started on our hike. The campground is about three miles away from the parking lot, and the scenery is beautiful the whole way. It starts out with a canopy of tall trees that blocks out enough sunlight that there is very little underbrush. Large sandstone boulders are popular with rock climbers.


About a mile into the hike, the view really opens up:


We arrived at the campsite well before dark. It was empty except for a small group of Boy Scouts. We picked a secluded site and set up camp. During the evening and night, the rangers came by multiple times to make sure that we had not started a campfire. The fire danger in the area is very high, so they were extraordinarily cautious.

In the morning, we took an alternate route back to the parking lot. Along the way, we discovered the largest forest of poison oak that I've ever seen.



All of the low, leafy plants in the picture are poison oak! Tina didn't like the idea of walking past it, but we didn't have a choice. Amazingly, we didn't catch any of it.


In all, we had a great time at Castle Rock. I highly recommend it for a day hike as well as for backpacking overnight.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Giro d'Italia

I watched the Giro d'Italia during the month of May on Universal Sports. It is a lot like the Tour de France: lots of long days on the bike, big mountains to climb, different types of stages, and enthusiastic fans.

The end of the race was incredible. Denis Menchov had a 20 second lead on Danilo Di Luca going into the last stage of the race which was an individual time trial through the streets of Rome. It started to rain as the leaders got on the course. Menchov was doing really well until the last kilometer (takes a little while to load and there's a commercial). Oh man, was that exciting!

By the way, the commercial that runs before the Menchov clip is for a series of short documentaries about Cervelo Test Team. You can watch them at bartape.net. I recommend taking the time to watch them. The production quality is surprisingly high, and I found it very interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of a bike race.

Overgrown

Those are the steps that lead from our driveway to the front door. You can see that they're a little overgrown. Tina says that they need a Brazilian wax. :)

PS- In writing this post, I came across this rather entertaining video (somewhat risque if you are at work).

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Wildflower

It took me a couple of weeks, but here is my writeup of the Wildflower triathlon.

On May 3, I completed the Olympic distance of the Wildflower Triathlon. It felt really good to cross the finish line after all the training I've done. I finished in 2 hours 54 minutes. Here is the breakdown:
IntervalTimePace
Swim29:1031:18 min/mi
T103:20
Bike01:27:2117.07 mi/hr
T201:57
Run52:2808:27 min/mi


The official results are up too.




Tina and I drove down with Tomas, a coworker and Team in Training teammate, to Lake San Antonio on Friday afternoon. We wanted to get our campsite set up before dark. It was raining lightly on Friday, but it cleared up by the time the long course event started on Saturday morning. Team in Training had its own section of the campground-- there were hundreds of TNT people competing in the two events that weekend.

We had a pasta dinner on both Friday and Saturday night. Representatives from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society told us how much money we raised: a few million dollars just for this one event! After 29 years, Team in Training is on track to raise its one billionth dollar by the end of this year. That's an incredible amount of money to go to cancer research and cancer patients.

On Saturday morning, Tina started a long search for a Starbucks where she could get internet access to do work while I went down to watch the long course event. Near the transition area, there was a large expo with food and vendors. Music played all day while announcers told us how the race was unfolding. I cheered on my teammates as they came out of the water and got on their bikes. Once I had seen most of them, I hiked a mile uphill back to the campsite for lunch. I ate, took a nap, and then watched the run portion of the race since it came right through the campground. By that time, Tina had returned after many hours of driving, and we hiked back down to the finish line in time to see my mentor, Ellen, finish the race. We had another pasta dinner, and I went to bed early (with earplugs) while the long course folks partied.

On Sunday morning, I woke up early to get ready for my race. After some group photos, we climbed on our bikes and rode down to the start/transition/finish area. Using a permanent pen, they wrote my number on both arms, both hands, and both legs. I thought this was a little excessive since they had already given us numbered stickers for our bike helmets and a paper bib number for the run. While I was being marked up, John Tannaci walked by. We chatted for a bit, and I learned that he planned to swim in the 63 degree water without a wetsuit. Yikes!

I set up my very small transition area, applied my body glide, put on my wetsuit, ate a packet of Gu, and made my way to the starting line. The first wave, collegiate men, started at 9 am, collegiate women started at 9:05, men 17-24 started at 9:10, and my wave, men 25-29 started at 9:15. Once the 9:10 wave started, we were allowed to take a few minutes in the water to get warmed up. We regrouped at the starting line, and I decided to stand a few rows back from the front.

The announcer counted us down, and my wave charged into the water. As you can see in the photo above, the entry into the water isn't very wide. The mass of men entering the water meant that I barely had to paddle to move with the group because the current was so strong. I'd heard stories of triathlon starts with people being swum over, kicked, and elbowed, but my start went smoothly. After a couple hundred meters, I was able to settle into my rhythm. I veered off course a couple of times during the swim, but overall it went well.

The transition to the bike was good, and by the time I got on my bike, I noticed I had passed a couple of collegiate women (remember they started 10 minutes ahead of me). I felt good on the bike and mostly continued to pass people. A few kilometers in, I came up on a kid trying to reach something under his seat while he was riding. I heard something metal hit the ground, and I figured he had dropped one of the CO2 cartridges used to inflate a tire. He stood up to look back and his seat fell off! Pretty tough to go the remaining 30 km without a bike seat. Luckily, nothing bad happened to me on the ride. I ate my Shot Bloks, drank my water (they handed out full bottles on the course!), and paced myself until I got back to the transition area.

I felt strong going into the run. The first mile (of six) is pretty flat. Miles 2 through 5 were uphill, and I really felt it. I didn't walk, but I was running pretty slowly by the time I got to the top of the hill. I tried to drink water at the aid stations, but my stomach wasn't interested. The last mile was steep downhill and I barely had anything left. A girl tried to pass me in the last 100m, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I dug deep and sprinted into the finish. It felt so good to be done!

Thanks to Tina and my teammates for taking pictures:


During the race, one of the things that impressed me was all of the cheering I got because I was wearing a Team in Training jersey. Supporters were all over the course yelling, "Go Team!". It made me feel really good and gave me an extra boost. It felt even better to hear Tina cheering for me. :)

After the race, we struggled back uphill to the campsite where we packed up and started the long trip home. With only one road out of the campground and tens of thousands of people trying to leave, the traffic was horrible. It took an hour to go just a couple of miles.

The weekend was a bit too much of a production for my taste though: the long drive, camping the night before the big race, the hike in and out of the transition area, and the traffic on the way out. I plan to do more triathlons in the future but probably not Wildflower again.

In all, it was a great experience, and I'm really proud of all the training I did leading up to the event. Finishing in under 3 hours was great too!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Bamboo

We have a lot of bamboo in our yard. The landscaper was careful to put all of the bamboo in rhizome containers because bamboo is known for spreading like a weed. A few clumps of bamboo are buried in the ground, but most are in black plastic, 10 gallon buckets lined with a plastic mesh. These buckets just sit on the ground around the yard, screening us from the neighbors.

With spring around us, I had noticed some large sprouts in the buried bamboo clumps. They grow really fast! I then noticed some sprouts well outside the buried rhizome containers. In fact, these sprouts were close to one of the black plastic buckets. Then I saw another sprout near another bucket.

I tried to pick up one of the buckets, but it had grown roots. The bamboo had broken through the plastic liner and snuck out the four drainage holes in the bucket. I grabbed my hand clippers and tried to snip the roots. Too thick. I went back into the garage and pulled out the three foot lopper. After loosening it up a bit, I gave a good yank on the bucket and it came free. Here are two of the buckets:



I spent the next few hours digging around for all of the roots. Here is one rhizome trying to make dash under the fence into the neighbor's yard.


It turns out, all of the buckets in the yard had roots growing out of them. Only three were really bad. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. In the short term, I'm going to lift the buckets weekly to break any new roots escaping from the buckets. In the long term, I could buy a container and put the bucket in that, but I'm concerned about the lack of drainage. Any thoughts?

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Something in the water...

Today we did another open water swim at Redwood Shores. We did a similar swim about a month ago. The water was just as cold and murky as before: I couldn't see my hand with my arm extended.

We swam to the middle of the lagoon as a warm up. I was almost to the middle when I felt something bump my leg. I pulled my head out of the water and looked around. The closest person to me was about 20 feet away. I figured I had imagined it and kept swimming.

Then something bumped my arm.

It felt like I had swum up against a fish, but it was hard to tell with my full wetsuit on. I kept swimming.

Something bumped my other arm.

I started to get nervous. It isn't like fish to bump into people. Something was wrong, but I couldn't see anything through the water! I started to get scared. I thought, "Maybe it's the tail of a much larger animal. Like a dolphin." Here comes the scary thought, "Or a shark."

Another bump on the leg.

I was freaking out. I pulled my head up and looked around for my teammates. I was not the only one alarmed by the mysterious sea creatures. People all around were shrieking and yelling, "What is that?!" Someone finally caught sight of one: jellyfish.

Great, we're a couple hundred yards from shore and surrounded by jellyfish. I woke up early on a Saturday for this?

We did whatever we could to get back to shore without touching any more jellyfish. One of the best swimmers delicately kicked on his back. The jellyfish seemed not to be right at the surface, so I did my best water strider impression. As we got close to the shore, the coaches tried to reassure us, "The jellyfish aren't dangerous. They won't hurt you."

"Oh yeah? Then why aren't you in the water?"

But it was true, I hadn't been stung and neither had my teammates. It turns out they are Moon Jellyfish which are harmless to humans. Even so, I didn't enjoy bumping into animal life in murky water.

We did the rest of the swim close to the shore where there weren't any jellyfish. I was expecting to bump into more jellyfish the whole time, so it was hard to relax. I will not be swimming there again.

After the swim, we ran around the lagoon a few times. I felt really good the whole time.

With just one week to go before Wildflower, we are going to start tapering our workouts. No hard efforts, no long runs, etc. Our coaches told us that we should expect to feel a little lethargic as our bodies recover. I'll let you know how it goes.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Last Marker Set

At practice yesterday, we biked up Taaffe again. I did the loop three times and climbed up Taaffe a fourth before going right back down. The whole thing took just over an hour.

You may remember that my knee has been hurting me. I went to the physical therapist a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that my quadraceps are really inflexible and my hips muscles aren't as strong as they should be. He gave me some daily stretches and one hip strengthening exercise, and my knee has been feeling much better since then. It isn't perfect, but I haven't had to stop from the pain like I did before.

After the hour of biking, we did our last two mile marker set. I did the first marker set in 15.5 minutes back in February (with only a warmup beforehand). I did this marker set in about 15 minutes. It isn't quite where I want to be, but given that I barely ran during March and I had just biked for an hour, it is pretty good.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Wildflower Practice Weekend

This past weekend, I went with my Team in Training chapter plus many other chapters to practice the Wildflower Triathlon route. This is the triathlon I'm training for, so it was great to see the entire course ahead of time. (I had a previous post about the course before I had first-hand knowledge.) The organizers had arranged lifeguards for the swim and aid stations for the bike and run. We camped by Lake San Antonio just like we will for the actual event. It was an excellent dry run.

On Saturday, we woke up early to do the swim. The water was about 61F. We had our wetsuits on, and mine did a good job of keeping my body warm. My face hurt from the cold though. Once I got used to the cold, I finished the swim easily. Here is the group swimming.

After the swim, we got on our bikes and did the full bike course. It was much hillier and hotter than I expected. I was really glad to see it beforehand because I would not bring enough food and water to the real event otherwise.

The Olympic distance course is an out-and-back with very little shade. It took me about 1.5 hours and I went through 3 water bottles. Normally, I drink about one bottle per hour, so this was a lot of water for me to drink.


View Larger Map

On the bike, I also tried Shot Bloks for the first time. They are a like gels or Gu but in gummy form. I put them in my Bento Box where I could easily access one at a time. I really liked them. It was nice to be able to eat a little at a time. With a packet of Gu, you have to eat the whole thing at once or else it will goop all over the place.

We spent the rest of Saturday hanging out around camp, drinking beer, and playing cornhole.

On Sunday, we did the full run. Like the bike, it was much hillier than I expected. It made me push back my goal pace for the event to 8 or 8.5 min/mile from 7 or 7.5 min/mile. The last mile is a steep downhill that made my knees hurt.


View Larger Map

Friday, March 27, 2009

Taaffe Hill Repeats


Yesterday, we didn't have our usual track practice at Foothill College. We met there, but we immediately took off on our bikes to climb a road that was new to me: Taaffe.

View Larger Map
We went up Taaffe, across Altamont, back down Black Mountain and Natoma, and then across Elena back to the bottom of Taaffe. That's the big loop in the map above. It was a great ride with some rolling hills, climbing, and speedy descents. I did the climb three times.

Above, you can see the elevation profile of the ride vs. my time. I did a pretty good job of maintaining my pace on all three climbs, but you can see that the third climb took just a little longer. More details.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Different Kind of Brrrr

My previous post, Brrr, described the ice baths I took after a few workouts. This past weekend, we went swimming in the San Francisco Bay. It was cold, cold, cold.

We jumped into the water at Redwood Shores which is a lagoon attached to the San Francisco Bay. The water was cold, salty, and murky. I could barely see my hand while swimming.


View Larger Map


We wore our wetsuits for the first time. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a picture of a man in a wetsuit that is "safe for work", so here is a cropped photo of me. In the picture, I am generously applying Body Glide to prevent the wetsuit from chafing me. Body Glide is incredible. It isn't goopy or messy, but it just works.

Note the BIG Team in Training logo on the wetsuit. When you fold down the top suit, there is another logo on the inside. The logo is upside down so it will be right side up when the suit is folded down. Someone thought that through!

Swimming with a wetsuit wasn't too bad. I definitely floated on top of the water easier, but it was difficult to tell if I was going faster (that's what everybody says a wetsuit does). I still struggle a bit with sighting, especially with the murky water. Got any tips?

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Brrrr

I titled this post "Brrrr" because this story has a cold ending. Let me start from the beginning.


My knee still hurts. I had to stop early during the last two track workouts because of the pain. In an effort to get a referral to a physical therapist, I saw two general practitioners during this past week. While only one gave me a referral, they both diagnosed my knee pain as Patello-femoral Syndrome. Basically, my kneecap is moving at an angle instead of straight up and down, so it rubs and causes pain. It doesn't go straight because there is an imbalance in my quadriceps. Until I can see the physical therapist, I have a few exercises I can do at home.

I've determined that my running form greatly affects the amount of pain in my knee. When I run slowly, my heel strikes the ground first. Not only does this slow me down, but it increases the amount of impact on my knees and the rest of my body. When I run faster, my weight shifts forward to the ball of my foot. As I learned this past Thursday, 6:00 min/mile pace means no pain but 7:45 min/mile pace means lots of pain. Too bad I can't do a 6:00 min/mile for more than about, well, one mile.

I come home from the track workouts with sore muscles and an achy knee. Our coaches have been advocating ice baths, so I've done it a couple of times now. Here's how it works: I take all of the ice from the freezer and dump it into the tub. While the tub fills up with cold water, I put on as many layers of clothing on my upper body as I can. I even put on my beanie. I climb into the tub and immerse my legs and hips in the icy water and sit there for 5-10 minutes. Or as long as I can stand it. It is a cold and miserable 5 minutes that I do not wish on anyone. However, my legs feel pretty good the next day, so it seems to work.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Old La Honda

For our Saturday ride, we went up Old La Honda. This is a windy, steep, and narrow road that goes from Woodside to Skyline Blvd. Of all the routes to Skyline is it probably the easiest, yet the first time I did it, the climb was interminable. You can see in the elevation profile below that one hill is quite a bit bigger than the rest.

A few people in our group were definitely taken by surprise. :)

Here we are at the top of the mountain:


To get back down the mountain, I've only ever gone down Old La Honda. Like I said earlier, it is windy, steep, and narrow, so my hands ache from braking the whole way down. On Saturday, we went down Highway 84 or "regular La Honda" instead. I wouldn't suggest going up 84 because of the traffic, but it was perfect to go down. The speed limit is 30 mph and you hardly have to break or peddle to maintain that speed. Below, you can see the same elevation profile as above, but this graph also includes my speed. Going up Old La Honda, I averaged about 7 mph. Going down 84, I averaged about 30 mph.

See the full details of the ride.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Skiing at Northstar

Tina and I have been skiing at Northstar this season. I like it because there is a lot of terrain for each of our skill levels and because it is protected from the wind on stormy days. Here are a few pictures that I snapped with my phone:



This past weekend, we took a little hike around the golf course on snowshoes. Because the iPhone has GPS, you can see the same pictures as above displayed on a map. Be sure to turn on satellite view so you can see the golf course and ski runs. While we were out, I helped Tina build her first snowman ever. In the picture, you can just barely make out the eyes, nose, and mouth she poked in to make his face.

St. Michael's Alley



A couple of weeks ago, Tina and I had brunch at St. Michael's Alley with Tina #2. The food is always great, and we like the atmosphere. It is upscale for a restaurant that serves brunch, but it is casual enough that they give you crayons to draw on the paper tablecloth. Here is my drawing of a panda having a bamboo brunch of his own. When I'm a famous artist, you can say you saw it here first! ;-)

Friday, March 6, 2009

Pyramid


I was a little sick this week, but I went to track practice on Thursday anyway. The coaches managed to trick us into doing intervals again by calling them by another name: a pyramid. After warmup and strength training, we ran our pyramid:
  1. 200m run, 200m recover (slow jog)
  2. 400m run, 200m recover
  3. 600m run, 400m recover
  4. 800m run, 400m recover
  5. 800m fast run, 400m recover
  6. 600m fast run, 400m recover
  7. 400m fast run, 200m recover
  8. 200m fast run, 200m recover
After the workout, I asked one of the coaches about my knee because it was still hurting. She confirmed my suspicion that my IT band is too tight. She recommended some core exercises and using a foam roller. I hope it helps.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

This week's workouts

On Thursday, we had our track workout at the Foothill College Track. The majority of the workout consisted of mile repeats: run four laps (one mile), walk a lap, run four laps, walk a lap, etc for four miles. "Repeats" is just another word for "intervals" without the run-until-you-throw-up association I developed in high school. The goal was to do miles 1 and 3 at the same pace and do miles 2 and 4 about 10-15 seconds faster. I did just that. My times for each mile were:
  1. 7:30
  2. 7:20
  3. 7:30
  4. 7:20
Unfortunately, my knee has been hurting me. I think my shoes are just old, so I got fitted at Road Runner Sports. They had me walk on a special mat that measured my arch height and level of pronation. Then I ran barefoot on a treadmill while they videotaped my feet from the rear. It was pretty neat, and they determined that I need a bit more stability in my shoe.

I bought a pair of Mizuno shoes. Nike uses air for cushioning, Asics uses gel, and Mizuno uses a wavy piece of plastic. The Mizuno's were much lighter and felt better all around. We'll see how the runs go this week.

On Saturday, we had our swim and bike workout. The swim was good, and the bike was fantastic.

For the swim, I brought a water bottle to the pool for the first time. The body still sweats while in the water, so it is important to stay hydrated. I felt much better for it. Our coaches have been encouraging us to drink more than just water, so I mixed Cytomax into my bottle. What a difference!

By the time I got on the bike, I was pumped up. On the map, you can see that I did a loop between Arastradero and Page Mill. In fact, I did that loop twice before heading back to the start. I rode fast and it felt so good! Here are the ride details.


View Larger Map

Friday, February 27, 2009

Mountain Biking

I went mountain biking for the first time on Wednesday.  Jeremy and I rented full suspension bikes from Bike Connection for $35 for the day.  It was very convenient.

We woke up early so we could do our ride before work.  We drove to the top of Page Mill Road and started our ride from the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve.  It threatened to rain on us as as we were driving, but the sun came out as we started our ride.  The trails were wet and slippery, and we were covered with mud by the time we finished.  I haven't been that dirty in a long time.  :)

We didn't have a plan for where we were going when we started out, so you can see on the map that we had to turn around a couple of times.  Here are the full ride details.


We had incredible views of both the coast and the bay.  I'm looking forward to more open space preserve mountain bike rides in the future!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Wildflower Course

Some of you have asked for more information about the triathlon I'm doing. Here's what I've gathered from the web since I haven't done it before.

The Wildflower Triathlon is a whole weekend of events May 1-3, 2009. Some people describe it as the Woodstock of triathlons. People camp out for the weekend and watch the triathlons going on. Wildflower takes place in and around Lake San Antonio which is about a three hour drive South of Palo Alto on Hwy 101.

There are three triathlons going on that weekend. They are all in the same general area but vary in length. From shortest to longest, they are: Sprint, Olympic, and Long Course. I'm doing the Olympic distance. You can see the map on the right. The distances are: swim 1.5 km (1 mile), bike 40 km (25 miles), run 10 km (6 miles). The map has elevation profiles, so you can see that the bike is pretty hilly- compare it to the elevation of the Sand Hill Road ride I did last weekend.

The swim is in the lake, but I guess it is on the cold side as we will be wearing full wetsuits.

Last year there were about 1400 participants in the Olympic event. This year, there will be more than 20 waves starting at 5 minute intervals! That's a lot of people swimming on top of each other. Reminds me of this training video:


If you know any other details about the event, please add a comment!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Swimming with Paddles


I swam with paddles on my hands for the first time the other day. The paddles are just larger than my hand and hook onto my fingers with surgical tubing. They provide extra resistance in the water and make it easier to tell when your hand is in the right position to pull more water. Like fins, paddles made me feel like I was zooming through the water.

Until I took them off.

My arms, tired from the extra resistance, felt like chopsticks as they cut through the water. A similar situation you might be familiar with is jumping on a trampoline for 15 minutes and then jumping up and down on concrete. "Where have my superpowers gone?"

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Cramps


Getting leg cramps in the pool is no fun. I've had minor cramps before, but nothing like this.

I went to our usual coached workout this morning. They split us into two groups: half went biking first, half went swimming first. I was in the biking group. We rode at a brisk pace (17 mph on the flats) from Burgess Pool in Menlo Park, up Sand Hill Road, and turned around at the base of Old La Honda. It was a great ride and took us about an hour.

We headed to the pool when we got back from the ride. We did a little bit of stretching before jumping in, and the coaches warned us about getting cramps when swimming after biking. Note that in a triathlon, the order of events is swim, bike, run-- it hadn't occurred to me that cramps would be so common if you do them in reverse order.

My calves started cramping soon after I got in the pool. Each time I pushed off a wall, one or both would spasm. I stretched against the wall, and the cramps went away for most of the workout. At the end of the workout, our coach told us to swim a 200 yard cool down (8 laps). I swam the first lap, pushed off the far wall, and both calves and one hamstring cramped simultaneously. I turned around and got out of the pool. I didn't feel like drowning today.

One of my teammates suggested using a foam roller when I got home. I don't have one, so I had Tina use a rolling pin on my calves and hamstrings. Tina said, "This isn't pizza dough, but maybe one day it will be!" It felt pretty good, but my legs have still been tight for the rest of the day. I need to start bringing my water bottle to the pool with me.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Tour of California: First Place!

Today, I found myself in first place in the Tour of California, a pro cycling event.  Here's how it happened.

Tina and I spent Valentine's Day in Napa.  We stayed at the Wine Country Inn which is a homey bed and breakfast in St. Helena.  We ate our Valentine's dinner at Meadowood, and it was fabulous.  One of the courses was poached beef tenderloin with an onion and mustard sauce.  Sounds pretty ordinary, right?  It turns out that "poached" means sous vide which is a cooking style that makes the meat extremely tender and juicy.  I literally cried it was so good.  I've eaten a lot of good things before, but this was easily the best.

Anyway, we were in Napa for the weekend, and I needed to get a workout in.  I set off for a run in the rain.  I stumbled upon a few spectators as I turned onto Silverado Trail from Lodi Lane.  I knew that the Tour was going on, but I didn't know that it was going through Napa.  A section of Silverado Trail was closed for the event, so I was happy to run along it and try to see the riders.  I turned a corner and found a couple hundred spectators massed together, waiting for the riders to show up.   I felt a little awkward running in front of that may people, but there wasn't any room to run behind them.  I picked up my pace a bit and ran down the middle of the lane.

"You're in first place!" yelled someone from the crowd.

I ran faster.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Marker Set

At our two coached practices this week, we did a marker set.  A marker set measures our time and exhertion level so we can track our progress over the season.

On Thursday, we did a two mile run.  The coach told us not to push oursevles too hard this early in the season, so I paced myself for an 8-minute mile.  I did the first mile in exactly 8 minutes.  I felt good, so I did the second mile in 7.5 minutes for a total of 15.5 minutes.  We then noted our self-perceived intensity level:

INTENSITY LEVELS
Level 1: warm-up, talking easy
Level 2: short conversations comfortable
Level 3: 1-2 word sentences possible
Level 4: can’t talk, only cuss
Level 5: max effort, need all breath for sprint

I gave myself a 4 for the run.  Given that I want to do the run portion of my tri at a 7 minute/mile pace, I have quite a bit of work to do.

Today, we did a marker set in the pool.  We swam for 10 minutes, trying to do as many laps as possible.  I did 25 laps (625 yards) with an intensity level of 3.  Level 3 may sound like I was taking it easy, but my form gets much worse if I stay above level 3 for more than a minute or two.  In any case, my goal is to do the swim portion of the tri in under 30 minutes, so this pace should get me there.

After the swim, we went for a ride up Alpine Road.  Check out the route.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Age Group - Elite - Pro


There are more than 100 people on the Silicon Valley Team, and everyone has their own pace. The coaches split us up in to three categories:
  1. Age group: beginning level to establish aerobic base and develop skills
  2. Elite Group: intermediate level for those who already have some aerobic base
  3. Pro Group: a challenging level for those with race experience and a solid base
Not quite sure what to expect, I slotted myself as "Elite". It turns out that I am comfortably in the Pro group for swimming and biking and just barely in the Pro group for running.

This got me thinking about my goals for Wildflower. I looked at the race results for 2008 and 2007, and I think I can finish in the top 15% overall if I train really hard. In 2007, I would have needed to finish in under 2 hours 40 minutes. The hardest part will be getting my running pace down to about 7 min/mile.