2007 Boulder Peak Triathlon: My First!

That’s right! Two Sundays ago, July 22nd, I raced my first triathlon. I’m no longer a triathlon virgin although one could definitely tell how inexperience I was based on my transition times. I made a few rookie and a few you-should-have-known-better mistakes throughout the race but at the end, I was happy I crossed the finish line without major issues.

Swim (40:57)
The 1500m swim wasn’t as bad as I thought even though I’m a weak swimmer, having only been swimming for a little over a year and did not spend enough time doing drills. Heck, I think I can count how many times I did swimming drills using the fingers from both hands. The first 1/3 of the swimming length was directly towards the rising sun, which even though was annoying, provided a clear landmark of where I needed to go. After passing the first turn buoy, the strong swimmers from the wave that started 5 minutes after mine caught up with me. And when I reached the next turn buoy, the swimmers from the wave after the last one passed me. It would have been very discouraging if I didn’t keep telling myself to tune everybody else out. Kinda hard to do since they made their presence known with their elbows and their feet on my face. Ah, the joy of open water triathlon swim. My biggest mistake during the swim portion of this race happened after the second to last buoy (which I thought was the last buoy). I was heading towards the exit gate when everybody else was heading at about 15 degree angle towards the last buoy. It was kinda odd to see people swimming away from me. Let’s just say I had to make a big course correction to get myself to the last buoy. I may have thought that the swim wasn’t challenging enough for me that I needed to add the extra distance.

T1 (3:52)
It was hard coming out of the water. Disoriented, drained and I could only muster a very slow jog back to the transition area. My wetsuit didn’t come off like a prom dress because I forgot to apply bodyglide on my legs (rookie mistake). *sigh* Until today I’m still not sure why I actually took the time to eat a banana (it actually took a lot of time to peel the skins off a banana) which later on, adding insult to injury, gave me a stomach ache. In any case, almost 4 minutes later, I finally rode away on my bike.

Bike (1:29:0
A week before the race, I rode the Boulder Peak bike course so I knew what to expect. I was really glad I did it too because the first 7 miles of the bike leg was pretty rough. Slow gradual uphill and then around mile 6, the tough Old Stage Coach Hill which is a 2/3 of a mile 15% incline climb. I knew in order to be able to do that climb, I needed to get my heart rate down or else I’d go into cardiac arrest by the time I get all the way to the peak. While trying to figure out how to slow down the old ticker, my bib number on my bike did not want to stay in place. Somehow I lost a twist tie that held the bib number to the down tube. The cardboard bib keep sliding back and rubbing against my thighs and after much attempt to fix the issue, I finally gave up and just tore the number off my bike and stuffed it in my pocket. Note to self: I really need to make sure everything is in place and secure for my next race because I was all over the road while trying to fix my bib number. Talk about accident ready to happen. I managed to climb up Old Stage Coach hill but it took every ounce of will power to not stop and walk. I knew once I pass the community mailboxes, it was going to be all downhill from there. Man, I tell ya, I bet some people with their fancy time trial bike complete with aerobars and disc wheels could have gone as fast as 55 mph if it wasn’t for the 35mph speed limit during the 0.6 mile stretch after the peak. Even I had to hold on to the brakes just to keep myself from going over the limit. Unfortunately, the momentum that I got from the descent through Left Hand Canyon was wasted when police officers in charge of traffic stopped us at the T-junction of Left Hand Canyon and Highway 36. Now, I found that weird and I’m sure that was very uncommon but a bunch of us were stuck there and wasted a few minutes of our valuable race time. The rest of the course was uneventful unless if you think hop-scotching (I learned this terminology from a guy who was hop-scotching me) with a few other racers on the course was something worth writing about on a blog. I shouldn’t be complaining though, because it kinda help passed the time and by 10 o’clock in the morning, I got back to the transition area.

T2 (3:55)
I’m flat-footed which means I over pronate when I run. Over pronation is bad and have caused me some serious injuries in the past. A year ago my podiatrist prescribed me a pair of orthotics to help me correct my foot strike while running. A fellow triathlete from Seattle, Brad “Zappoman” recommended that I use orthotics in my biking shoes and after months of riding with them, I could really tell the difference. The big problem during the race, however, was transfering those orthotics from my biking shoes to my running shoes. And since elastic laces made it harder to do the switch, I opted for normal shoe laces. As the result, my transition time suffered. Or at least that was my excuse for having slow transition time.

Run (1:01:46)
Out of the three disciplines, running was the one that I had the most experience. I started swimming February of 2006. I bought my road bike mid March ‘07. I’ve been running for almost 2 years now with 4 marathons under my belt and I was certain I wouldn’t have too much trouble running 6.2 miles. Believe it or not, I made the most mistakes during my run. My first mile was 8:31/mile. Please note, I would only run faster than that if it was a 5K race. Mistake #1: I started too fast and didn’t listen to my body. My heart was racing fast according to my heart rate monitor yet I didn’t do anything to slow down. So much for wearing all those fancy contraptions around your body. Mistake #2: I was tense. I didn’t realize that I was until I saw my race photos. My shoulders almost touched my ears and my arms were stiff. Being tensed during a race use more energy and a long distance endurance sport is all about efficiency. Mistake #3 and the worst of ‘em all: I ate my energy gel without any water. I stopped by the aid station, I grabbed a cup of water, I swallowed one of my Cranksports eGel then instead of drinking water (when eating gel, you have to drink water with it), I splashed it on my face. It was a little over 85 that day, though, so I had a pretty good excuse for doing that. My stomach started cramping up a mile and a half away from the finish line and I had to walk for a few minutes. Well, at least at the end of the race I had a little bit more gas in the tank so I kicked it to have a strong finish. 9:57/mile average wasn’t all that bad, considering.

One down, another one to go this season. It’ll be a harder race. 5430 Long Course: Half-Ironman distance. If I could shave my transition time by half and cut my mistakes about the same amount, I think I might survive it. Wish me luck!

p/s: Kudos to my training partner, Erin Manzanares who finished 2:57:07. Awesome job, Erin! Very proud of you. And thank you so much to Aaron Ladd for being the awesome support crew of one.

Ironman Legends!

My triathlon training partner, Erin and I went to the Boulder Reservoir to pick up our race packet for the 2007 Boulder Peak Triathlon race tomorrow. I was surprised to discover that Sister Madonna Buder will also be toeing the starting line. This tough 77 year old nun has completed 33 Ironman races (17 Hawaii Kona Ironman) and she only started running when she was 49. A little over 2 months ago, she was involved in a bike crash during California’s Wildflower Triathlon and suffered a triple fracture of the ulna and a single fracture of the radius (Denver Post ‘Nun can’t kick this habit’ July 17th, 2007) but that accident did not stop her from racing tomorrow. What an inspiration!

Chris McCormack (Macca) was also at the expo. This Ironman finished first in a few Ironman 140.6 and 70.3 but his latest highlight is finishing first in the Ironman distance race in Germany, Quelle Challenge Roth for the fourth time in a row and also breaking his own personal record with 7:54:23. 3 minutes shy of the World Record!

Wow! A lot of world class athletes presence for my first Tri. I hope I’ll get to feed off their energy to get me through to the finish line.

A Dream? Or an Epiphany?

One of the definitions for the word epiphany from Dictionary.com:

3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I wonder if that was what I experienced a couple nights ago. I woke up around 1 in the morning having dreamt about starting a new life in San Francisco. Within seconds, I was in front of my computer browsing, surfing, and googling forums, blogs, Craig’s list and whoever’s personal website researching and gathering info on job market, housing and living expenses in the Bay area. Gotta tell ya, the numbers were not all that impressive. Everybody knows that cost of living there is one of the highest in the world. Excerpt from San Francisco Chamber of Commerce website:

The San Francisco Center for Economic Development reports that the Bay Area housing market has experienced record-breaking appreciation. “Since 1993, San Francisco median home price has increased by nearly 96 percent, with the median home price in San Francisco currently standing at $543,000 and the Bay Area average at $403,000. The National Association of Realtors reports that the median US existing-home price is expected to reach $165,000 for 2003.”

Triple the National average?! Yikes! San Franciscans do get paid more, though with the mean household income of $83,417 (National average: $60,528). Still, average Joe and Jane making $83K having to pay the mortgage of a $545K townhome. Looks like I’ll have to change my easy lifestyle from having the comfort of my own place to sharing a nice little Victorian with half a dozen roommates.

Not everything about San Francisco is bad, though. In fact, cost of living is probably the only down side that could deter me from moving there. I like the idea of a more moderate temperature. I’ll be able to run and not have to worry about putting on 5 extra layers during winter time. Even better, I’ll get to ride my road bike all year round! I will not get the benefit of high altitude training. I will also miss the snow but I can live without it or I can make it a point to visit my friends back in Colorado for a week long skiing trip. If I really need a fix, Heavenly and Squaw Valley are about 3-3 1/2 hours away.

Dancing is a big passion of mine besides running. I’ve been salsa dancing for a number of years and slowly taking up West Coast Swing and Balboa. Even though Salsa scene in Denver has improved tremendously over the last two years, it is still nowhere close to the scene in San Francisco and this is based on my visit to the local salsa clubs 6 years ago. I am unsure about the Swing dancing community but I bet it’s pretty comparable if not better than Denver. I’m itching to the prospect of improving my dance vocabularies by learning from the top dancers in the Bay area.

Every city is unique. 300+ sunny days and mild winter in Denver, the nice weather and beautiful beaches of San Diego, New York city (need I even say anything) and others. I’ve done my share of visiting cities in the good ol’ U.S. of A and Canada. I even made it a point to run marathons in cities I’ve never been before (Portland, Virginia Beach and San Diego) and every time I boarded the plane home, I usually just shrugged and said “it’s nice but I don’t know if I could live here.” I’ve never felt more at home when I visited San Francisco 6 years ago. I could probably go on for days about all the cool things I’ve experienced during my short visit: night life, diversity, food (oh my god, the food!), awesome salsa bands, Jerry Seinfeld at Davis Symphony Hall, Robin Williams at some bar which name I couldn’t remember, parking, pretty ladies, the beaches, friendly locals etc.

16 years ago I came to a junction of my life where I took a simple turn and ended up in the States. It seems like I’m approaching another junction. I’m hoping for signs to point me which way to go. Or maybe the signs are already there. Could being turned down from a higher paying job which caused me to reconsider buying a house thus making me free from being stuck in Colorado with a mortgage be a sign? Could a failed attempt at romance with the woman whom I really think is the one be another? Could the fortune from the fortune cookie which says “You will have a happy adventure soon” seal the deal? It could have been just a dream. It could have been an epiphany. Whatever it was, I somehow left my heart in San Francisco.

Hello Farina! Hello Hermione!

It’s that time again where I introduced my two new pairs of running shoes, Farina and Hermione. If anybody read my blog post ‘Hello Diana! Hello Emily!, then you’ll know why and who do I name my shoes after. I had to skip the letter G because in 7 months time, I was not able to go out on a date with a lady who’s first name start with that letter. And since it’s July and July being Harry Potter’s month (release of the Rise of the Phoenix movie and upcoming release of the 7th and final book, The Deathly Hallows), and coincidently enough, I’m on my 6th and 7th pair of running shoes lifetime, I’m bending my running shoes naming rule by christening my 7th pair, Hermione. Cute, don’t you think?

Diana and Emily both had to be retired after 6 months of service, close to 800 miles (combined), 2 marathons (San Diego and Shamrock Marathon) and a half marathon. Thanks for the memories!

My First Brick Workout!

First of all, some people told me that a brick workout is a workout consisting of 2 different disciplines (swim/bike, bike/run or swim/run) but I’ve googled the word and found this article: Bricking It - The essentials of brick training for triathlons among many others articles out there.

What’s a “brick” and why is it named so?

* Bike-Run-ICK!
* That’s how your legs feel for the first part of the run.
* Named by Mark Sisson and Scott Zagarino one day in 1988 after they completed a Bike-Run workout — “Just another brick in the wall”.

In any case, my first bike-run workout went pretty well without too much ‘ick’.  I did notice that my heart rate shot up from 145 average bpm during the 36-mile cycling portion to 170 average bpm during the 6.1-mile run just to maintain a 9:17 min/mile average.  I felt fine but it was kinda scary!

DUDE!

Whatever you do, do not say the word “DUDE” in a job interview if you really want to get the job. Even if it was by accident or you didn’t mean to say it. Me? If somebody doesn’t want to hire you because of that, you probably way better off not getting the job. Still, there are things not to say in an interview:

Why Slang Is ‘Way Bad’

Here’s the 411 on slang in interviews.

Never use slang in an interview. You should speak to an interviewer just as you would to a business colleague or even a boss. That means you must sound polished and professional.

Also, the interviewer (who may not be as cool as you are) may have no idea what you’re saying when you use slang.

Last, never, EVER, use profanity in an interview. There’s simply no place for it.

Crash Orchid!

Last night, Crash Orchid released their debut album, Black Box Dialogues and performed at the 3 Kings Tavern. Check out a video that I took of them while performing one of their hit songs, Soyuz II.

I bought their CD and so should you! Although, I’m not entirely sure how one could go about doing so. I’ve sent an email to the band and will update this blog on how you can get a copy.

Heather

After a few hours of actual drawing time at Wash Park accompanied by a few glasses of Chardonnay (to stop the left side of my brain from telling the right side of my brain what to do), I think I’m finally done with Heather’s portrait. This portrait was one of the hardest to draw for me to date because for some odd reasons, something was always off whether it was the eye brow, shading, etc. I talked to my friends who have attended art school or have taken art classes and they gave a lot of good comments and feedback. Sometimes I wonder if I should take some art classes.

Well, here’s Heather. The portrait looks so much better in-person and the subject even way (12x) better in-person.

3-Year Anniversary

Today is my third year anniversary at my current job and my boss agreed to raise my salary significantly.  Great, right?  Except for some reasons, I am not as excited as I should be.  Could it be because even with the raise, I’m still making less than the F.N.G. who they just hired last Monday and has less experience than me?  Or could it be because even with the raise, I’m still making less than my other co-worker who has less responsibilities than I do?

Happy Birthday Mama!

I guess my mom had to be content sharing her birthday celebration with my dad since it was also Father’s day.  My brother and sister took them both out for lunch.  Made me wonder if the five of us will ever have an opportunity to sit on a dining table together again.  Although, I couldn’t really remember us dining together that much growing up.  Not because we’re a dysfunctional family, but because my sister and I started attending boarding schools since we were 15 and 13.  And then I left for the States 4 years later.

Anyway, happy birthday, Mama!  Picture to the left was taken of my mom and her only grandchild, Danial.