International Tri

My team rocked!

We took second in the relay category out of 5-6 teams that entered. It was back & forth with David's team to the point we ended fairly close together. The time for David's team was not posted as of the point we left the park so we don't know how they did besides also rocking it for giving it their all!

As I've posted earlier, I was doing the 1500m (~.93 miles) swim portion in the lake at Walnut Creek. All relay teams started in the 6th wave (Women 40+, Athenas, and relays) which means we started about 20 minutes after the first group. I started towards the back and pretty much stayed there. Between having shoulder problems recently and simply just not training my swim speed enough, there were only a few people behind me out of the water. That being said, it was a big motivator for me because I thought Karen had long since passed me and that the only other person near me was slightly ahead of me. Thus thinking I was DFL (dead f***ing last), I really pushed the last 500m to get ahead of atleast the one person and I think I passed another along that last push.

When I got towards the end it was an utter muddy, mucky mess that I was slipping in but I was determined to give it all I had and I sprinted up the hill to give the chip to G as fast as possible. At that point I saw David still there which meant Karen was still behind me. I hung out in the transition area to cheer her on. She was only 4-5 minutes behind me so G didn't have much of a lead.

Once both David & G were out biking for their respective teams, Karen & I rinsed off and went to hang with our runners (Gena for David's team, Courtney for my team)for about an hour because we figured that would be the absolute minimum time it would take to do the 23.5 mile bike course.

As we were waiting for our guys to make it in, one of our other coworkers actually finished the race and ended up placing first in his age group. Very impressive.

One hour twenty after he left, David came cruising in at full speed. He looked like he was going to face plant getting off the bike because how hard he pushed and how much his legs didn't want to run. He passed his chip off to Gena and we waited patiently for G to come in. Evidently David overtook G & his 5 minute lead in less than 8 miles. Another 15 minutes later G came in and also looked like he pushed incredibly hard, so we sent Courtney out for her 6 mile trail run.

The run on this triathlon is nasty because it is two loops of the same course, thus after the first loop you literally run next to the finish sign and have to keep going. When the ladies came through the half way mark (and we all of course cheered them on), Courtney had made up some time such that it appeared that if they kept the same paces they'd be dead even coming into the finish. In the end, Courtney pulled out all the stops and sprinted like a mad woman across the line. Gena came in not too much longer there after.

I'm very proud and happy for everyone who participated today. I think we all pushed hard and made it a real good race.

Week 3 of Lazyman

In week 3 of Lazyman I was hampered by very knotty shoulders that impacted everything (yes, you use the upperback in all three sports in some way). I did manage to complete .3 miles swim, 17.1 miles bike, and 10.2 miles run. As of the week cut off that means I'm done with the swim, almost done with the run (which I actually finished this morning but counts in week 4), and no where close on the bike.

In related news, the international Tri is this Sunday. Kinda seems surreal.

Week 2 of Lazyman

Week 2 was hampered by a business trip and just getting out of the routine. I accomplished 1500m swim (~1 mile), 4 miles biking, and 6.3 miles running. With any luck I can make up the biking somehow and actually finish this thing.

My goal for week 3 is to finish both the swim (really easy as long as I get to a pool) and the running (Saturday should be 4 miles and if I do 5k on Monday I'll get it). As for the biking, just try to get in more in general.

Week 1 of Lazyman

My week 1 totals for Lazyman were 1.2 miles swimming, 28 miles biking, 7.2 miles running. Logically that leaves 1.2 miles swimming, 84 biking, and 19 running. This is very doable.

Lazyman Returns!

With July brings the return of the Lazyman Triathlon. We have the entirety of July to do the distance of an Ironman Triathlon: 2.4miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running. I feel very confident that this year I can actually complete it since I'm starting at a great advantage over last year - I actually have a bike and feel reasonably confident using it.

I will try to post weekly updates with distances remaining. I started off the month with an early morning run (2.6 miles) and short bike (2 miles).

Lazyman Left to go
2.4 miles swimming
110 miles biking
23.6 miles running