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:

Interval	Time	Pace
Swim	29:10	31:18 min/mi
T1	03:20
Bike	01:27:21	17.07 mi/hr
T2	01:57
Run	52:28	08:27 min/mi

The official results are up too.

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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!

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?

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.

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.

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.


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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.


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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.

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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.


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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?