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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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! ;-)

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.

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