Becoming Aquaman

I've really been trying to buckle down the swimming portion of the triathlon. Luckily, I subscribe to another blog with a writer who is trying to get back into Ironman after accumulating some rust. LAtely, he has been working with a swim coach. I read his advice, do my best to apply the tips given, and put my time in the water. Check him out at Rust to Ironman.

3/23 - I set out to do a 1.5 km swim. With class until 3, errands to run, dinner to eat, and work at 5:30, I didn't have a lot of time. I can't see the clock without my glasses on, so it's hard to tell how long it takes me. I feel a lot stronger now than I did the three times I swam before my first tri. I will NEVER make the mistake of not preparing well enough. After all, proper preparation prevents poor performance.

3/24 - Work started at 10, so I set out at 8:20am to start the 35km ride to Changhua. It rained a little Friday night so the ground was still wet in the morning, which put dew on my leg hairs. The ride there was going to be about 55 minutes, but a marching band crossed the intersection and I had to wait it out. I was in a major hurry on the way home, so I set out with an hour and ten minutes to ride home and shower before my wife picked me up for dinner. I had to run every red light. The push was totally worth it and was a fine workout in preparation for Taidong.

3/27 - Run with Bigfoot. 6x600 and 6x1000. I pushed on the last few 1000's to try and not be last. I actually finished first in one, but only one. Every time I join them I feel even stronger. We'll see in the long run how this focus on speed work turns out.

3/28 - Lauren and I went to the pool together. I had a track meet the next day so I took it easy. My calves were still a little sore from my run with Bigfoot so I focused only on arms.

3/29 - Track meet at Taichung Sport Center. I totally forgot that I signed up for the 200m and the 400m. The day was long, I didn't do well, and had to go to work right after. Now my calves are really burning!

3/30 - I had an hour and a half to finally do some swim intervals. This was my first REAL swim workout. I googled "swim workouts for triathletes" and found plenty of advice. I choose the following workout:
Warm up - 600m. 25m with fists, 25m regular swim. Going from fists to open hands makes me feel like I have paddles!
6x300 at faster than race speed. The last repeat I did 400 to make my final distance 2500m. I feel plenty sore already (my swim was 6 hours ago) and am confident that on my next tri, I won't be dizzy going from the swim to the bike.

I'm debating whether or not I want to ride to work tomorrow. Sleeping in is sounding prettttty nice.

More Tri Training

With the Taidong 51.5 in just over a month and the Fengyuan Half-Marathon in just two weeks, I've been trying to balance a fair amount of cycling and swimming in with running and speed training. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do any brick workouts, but I won't let that get in the way of hitting my goal of hitting 2:45 on my next tri. Shaving six minutes off my last time shouldn't be too hard depending on how much my swim has improved.

March 13 - Another run with Bigfoot. These guys are crazy. I love running with them and feel the burn the night of as well as the three days following the workout. 6x600 and 6x100 with 5k runs both before and after the workout. I must admit my 5k time on the way home was shamefully slow. My calves felt like they were going to explode. About 20 km's total for the night.

March 16 - Another swim. I didn't have a lot of time with work pending, but was able to put in a fast 1000m, the last 300m being high aerobic pace. I still don't have a way to track my swim speed because I can't see the wall clock without my glasses. On March 23 I have a goal to swim 2000m and will keep time.

VOMIT! Yup, I got home from work, didn't feel amazing, and woke up twice to shoot liquid from places. I threw up three times, then had other stomach problems. Sorry to my poor wife who had to wake up to those terrible noises.

March 20 - I had originally planned to run with Bigfoot, but I'm still recovering from the weekend and had Indian food with Coldstone for lunch. Not the best mix! I ran 3.45 miles in 27:41.

March 21 - Took time after class to ride up Daken. It was such a nice ride! I met a few cyclists who told me the mosquitos were really biting today. I took a rest to drink a new gel and swarms of mosquitos started attacking my legs. I did the Wenxin Road/Dong Shan Road loop up to Lian Kang Road, and then down to Tai Yuan Road on the way home. Cars are always surprised when I pass them going downhill. It's so much fun, and probably a little dangerous on a 1.5-car width road, but I can't help it. It's probably a 40km ride, 20 up and 20 down.

I learned than if I turn right here, it turns into a sweet loop.

Chain fell off.

With everything being so aerodynamic, I don't feel the need to shave my legs. 

So that's it. Not as much working out as I'd like, but I still feel confident I'll be able to hit my goal. The hard part is going to be working out in the HOT summer in preparation for the Taiwan Ironman 70.3 which will be on November 3rd or 4th.

Post Triathlon Workouts

Unlike after my marathon, I decided to not take too much time off. I ran my marathon on New Years Eve, ran a mile on January 9, seven miles on the 14th, and a couple low distance runs about once a week after that.
This time around I didn't let myself rest too much.

3/6/2012 - I joined a running club called Bigfoot full of really amazing athletes. I've seen them at all my running events and know a lot of them also do triathlons. Every Tuesday, a group gets together to do some speed work. We did 6x600 repeats with a 150m walk in between, then after a two-minute water break, did 6x1000m. I stopped my watch every time we walked and ended up with 5.57 miles in 36:28.

3/8/2012 - My original plan was to wake up at the same time as my wife to go for a long ride, but things didn't work out that way. Instead, I headed over the Changhua 彰化 for work. I left at 3:00pm and decided to book it out there. During the 30km ride, I only had to stop three times. The way back (8:50pm) was a little slower, but still a sweet ride. Altogether: 60+ km.

3/9/2012 - After class I headed to the pool. It was a cold day in Taichung, so I was really looking forward to the hot tub before my swim. I ended up swimming 2000m. I've really been focusing on the correct swimming stroke from triathlete videos on youtube. Swimming is something I need to work on the most.

Lauren and I are going on a hike tomorrow with people from our church. We hiked Daken last year in February and will take better pictures this year. The trails on Daken are really cool. They are completely made of logs and in some areas they go straight up the mountain. Pictures to come soon.

2012 Romantic Love River Triathlon

My first olympic-distance triathlon was super fun. I honestly can't wait until the end of April until my next event. Lauren and I took the bus Saturday afternoon to Gaoxiong (高雄）to meet up with Tommy Chen. Tommy lives in Gaoxiong and was gracious enough to let us stay in his home... well, his parent's home. I had the opportunity to check out the track and transition area as well as feel the water. 

As I've grown older I've realized that I have weird phobias. I'm scared of cold water and weed whackers. Weed whackers because when I was young, a weed whacker hit a rock just right and shattered the rear passenger window where I was sitting. I can't figure out why I'm afraid of cold water. Most people can just jump in the water and it doesn't phase them. I have to take my time unless the temperature is adequately comfortable. What can I say, I'm a baby. ANYWAYS, the water was warm so I wasn't nervous.

I had noodles for dinner, plenty of water and sport drink, and went to bed at 11pm. 

Waking up early has never been difficult for me. Lauren, however, is not the same (love you Lauren). I was up at 5:30am to eat a bagel and start drinking. Lauren got ready and we left. I had to ride there, but it was only a few kilometers.

After getting inked, I got ready. I've read tons about setting up my stations to get ready for T1 (the first transfer from swimming to cycling) and T2 (the transition from cycling to running). Basically, I set up my station so that the things I wanted to put on first were on top of the pile. 

#190. This was with 30 mins to go.

Me and all my gear. My seat is too high to fit under the bar to hang, so this had to do. 

I love my Kharma. She had a tire deflate but the trusty guys at the Giant tent helped me out. 

After getting on my cap and goggles, I jumped in the water to join the others waiting behind the flagged-rope. Some genius decided it was a good idea to hang onto it to help him stay afloat. Others joined in and it was bad. Everyone was pushing to get to the front before it even started, which made treading water difficult. I got kicked in the nuts twice so I had to bring my knees up which was difficult. Finally the gun went off and we all started, that is, after the douche in front of me pushed off my chest with his feet. The first 150m or so was nuts! It was like a fish hatchery. It was like too many people crammed into a van (Superbad quote). I wasn't thinking and definitely pushed a little too hard and should have remembered to pace myself, but then again I wanted out of that clump.

This is with only about 150m to go. I will humbly admit that I did not prepare well enough for the swimming portion of the triathlon. Sure I have excuses (I've been sick for 2.5 weeks now, I had a cough attack under a bridge during the swim, I only swam three times since October) but I can say, lesson learned! I will be getting in the pool at least twice a week from now on. I had no idea my wife was right there taking photos, but she sure got a great one of me eh?

Like I said, I didn't prepare well. I was super dizzy when I got out of the water. Fortunately, they had giant buckets of water so I dowsed myself. It was cold, but really helped. I barely remember getting from the water to my station. My body was stuck leaning forward, so if I didn't run, I would have fallen over. Awesome! 

T1 was uneventful. I've heard that on your first tri you should wear socks on the bike. I did just because I haven't tried these shoes without socks and didn't want any hot spots. My chain fell off because I made a rookie mistake of backpedaling half a rotation to try and get a good push off my already clipped shoe. It only costed me 20 seconds. After I fixed that I was off. 

The bike was my strongest of the three disciplines. I felt fantastic and flew through the 40km. I had a line of people following me for a half lap. Someone crashed behind me and only one guy remained. He passed me later haha. My first two laps were 11 minutes a piece (8km per lap) and my last three were at 12 or 13 per.  

There I was starting my run with NOTHING left to give. You could say that I pushed too hard on the bike. I think that I ran out of juice because I didn't plan well enough. I hydrated well, but didn't bring any carbs to eat as I did with my marathon. I plan to pick up some gels and try those out for some of my brick workouts.

After struggling through my HOT 10k (it was 89F or 31.6 C for you non-US folks) I ran in with a time of 2:51:44. My last lap was a real struggle. Brick workouts will be a focus before my next tri. My slowest 10k ever took 1 hour and 1 minute. 

I was exhausted but so stoked. The only thing I could do was sit down and pour water on my head. I sat here for a good 30 minutes, ate a typical lunch (rice, pork, and veggies), collected my free stuff (two shirts, a sport bottle, a medal, and a lot of pride), and got on my bike to ride back to Tommy's. 

Lauren and I forgot to take a post-race photo, so we did it at Tommy's house. Here you go.

Lessons learned:
Do brick workouts.
Swim more.
Eat carbs during the race.
Don't backpedal.

PS. I ran a marathon in the cold with no nipple chafing. Why do my nipples hurt after today? 10k? Honestly.

Love River Tri Prep

I am SUPER excited for my first triathlon tomorrow morning. Lauren and I are taking the bus to Kaoshiung (高雄）around noon to meet up with Tommy Chen, with whom we will be staying. I always hear bad things about Love River (愛河). Wikipedia says that 4 months out of the year, one can find feces in the water. Can I bring a snorkel? The last thing I want in my mouth when I'm gasping for air is second-hand broccoli beef and rice. Sorry for the visual.

My throat is still hurting and I still have lots of presents come up when I cough. A little cough and sore throat won't stop me. My body has been itching to train but I had to take it easy to let myself recover. I still went on two little runs, a swim, and a few rides.

2/29 - A mile run for PE. Yes I still have PE at 24-years old @5:51.

3/1 - An easy 5k to keep my legs obedient @ 25:26.

3/2 - A short 500m swim to make sure one last time that my gear is working and comfy.

Everyday - 10km bike sprint to and from Feng Chia University. I set my record this week with 11 minutes (one direction with lights... kinda). 

I've always been a checklist kind of guy. I guess it's the OCD in me. Almost every tips/advice blog says that checklists are key for triathlon preparation. 

This is what they sent me in the mail. I can only read a little Chinese and there was a lot of new vocabulary in this. Luckily, I have my friend Pita to read to me. If she reads it out loud then I can understand. 

Here's my gear minus the bike and my numbers. Weather is unpredictable, so I'm bringing my long tripants and trishorts. 

Tripants/trishorts. Neoprene shirt if the water is a little nippy. Blue running/riding top. Two pairs of goggles. Swim cap. Shoes for run and bike. 2 bottles. Nike Sportband. Cough pills. Socks. Towel. Deoderant (why?). Helmet. Wrenches. Pump and hose. Extra tube. Camera (represented by the lens cap). iPhone. 

Not pictured is my bike, a change of clothes for the way home, and my beautiful wife.

The black Nike Free Run 2's were my first running shoe since... elementary school probably. I was so cool in Jr. High and High School that I ran in skater shoes or Converse. My wife bought them for me in August and now I have over 420 miles on them. These orange ones were on sale so I picked them up for next season. My blackies still have a lot of life in them though.