The North Face Ultra Challenge - Strava 50k

I've had my eye on different Strava challenges. Most of them are a week long or over a weekend. My weekends are always super busy with work, meetings, and church. Plus I have a wife that I like to spend time with. The North Face Challenge seemed more up my alley because it wasn't 50k in one run, but over a weekend. See the Strava link here to check it out.

I took a ton of photos using my Samsung Galaxy S3 and an arm case. We had rain for five or six days which mad for really humid conditions. It was a tough weekend, but totally worth it.

I finished the 50k in 6 runs:

Saturday
Run 1: 21.8km to the very last train station before work.
Run 2: 1.1km to work from the train station.
Run 3: 9.8km after work back to the far train station.
Run 4: 1.8km to the flower shop to pick up a few roses for the mrs. Her choir was performing.

Sunday
Run 5: 10.3km Sunday morning with Kendall.
Run 6: 6.4km Sunday night after church.
Total: 51km!

Right out of the door. 

The temple two minutes from my house. 

It wouldn't be Saturday morning without a little Taichi!

It looked like it was going to be a nice day.

I decided to run parallel with the train tracks. It's flat and usually not too many lights.

This was as I was passing Taichung Train Station. Who knew it would be raining 15 minutes later? 

 Just a big god sitting on some houses. 

A quick Gu and some Supao. Gupao?

雙子新大樓 The church used to be on the 34th floor on the right.

Scooters. This is at one of the smaller train stations too. 

I don't know why, but this lady passed me and cut me off. Not cool. I even had time to take out my phone to snap a few photos. When she saw I had a camera, she took off. 

Here are some of my battle scars. 

2012 HSR Miaoli Station - Duathlon Championship

My first duathlon! Run 5k + Ride 28k + Run 5k.

I'll be honest, I wasn't too excited because I consider myself to be a much better swimmer than a runner, and now I had to run twice. After my run bike run brick three weeks ago, I sort of knew how i'd feel. For me, running a quick 5k and then getting on my bike sort of feels like i'm cycling uphill and holding my breath. I feel a massive lack of energy in my legs, sort of like I'm peddling with Play-doh.

After talking to an experienced duathlon veteran, Michael Le Houllier (who finished 10th overall), I decided to push a little harder on my first 5k (Strava link here) to try and get into a good cycling group. Draft legal! I managed to run 19:09 and ended up with a small group of 7 riders who quickly caught another group.

The 28km ride was up and down over 1-2km hills (Strava link here). I even got a KOM on one of the segments. The out and back course gave me a chance to see how far the lead pack was. I estimated that they had five minutes on us, which isn't bad. An average heartrate of 191 landed me a 45:15 with an average of 35.3 km/h.

The last 5k separates the men from the boys as they say. It was tough! My second 5k was two full minutes slower than my first. I managed to hold my own and pass a few people up. My time of 21:03 (Strava link here) landed me and overall 50th and 7th in my age group.

Official finish time: 1:27:27.

It was a fast race and I'll definitely do it again next year.

Check out my mancave. I drilled some framing into the roof to suspend my bike. 

I was up at 4am to catch the first train North. I had no idea that the meal I ate at 4:10am would be my last until 8pm that night. Literal pain from being so hungry. 

#bikeporn

I was the tallest in my age group, but unfortunately not the fastest. 

Stoked! 

My dragon trophy is better than your dragon trophy. 

Ironman 70.3 Taiwan Race Report

After hours of mental and physical preparation, thousands upon thousands of calories burned, sacrificing sleeping in, and sore commutes to and from school, I was finally able to compete in and complete my first half Ironman, the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan.

30 minutes til' swim start. 

Chris "Macca" McCormack took last years race and I was a little sad that he wouldn't be there to defend his title. There were still plenty of pros in competition, but none who drew as much attention as Macca. 

1.9 km swim - 37:29. The swim started at 6:15am and was a 1,600 people mass start. Unfortunately, I am not able to afford a wetsuit yet, so I swam with my trishorts as always. I set a goal for 35 minutes on the swim, which was a little ambitious considering all the people swimming with me. The water was super warm and the jellyfish were out. I had to swim against a group of people who were cutting the buoy, then I got stung by a jellyfish on my upper lip. I had a terrible first lap. There were two 950m laps with a short on shore run around a cone and across the censor before the second lap. Strava Swim link here.

10 minutes until the pro swim. 

90 km bike - 2:45:21 The bike course (Strava link here - I'm 5th place!) was flat and fast. It was 2 1/2 laps around the south western tip of Taiwan. We rode clockwise along the ocean as well as through rural farming neighborhoods and rice fields. I was able to maintain an average speed of 34.1 kph on my detachable aero bars. I only had three small mishaps. I hit a bump a few minutes in and one of my nutrition bottles fell out. I had to stop, unclip, and grab it. I dropped another bottle towards the end of my second lap and only a few minutes later, had a sticker stuck on the tire, so stopped to rip it off. I took a GU every 45-minutes and switched between caffeinated and non-caffeinated.

I need to work on the bike mount. 

21 km run - 1:59:00. Terrible! I started way too fast, but I felt like my body was just going that fast, I wasn't trying to push or set a pace. Lesson learned. Strava link. The run was flat and paralleled the last segment of the bike course. 14km south, and 7km back north to the finish line located at Yoho Beach Resort.

I have finished three half-marathons, one marathon, one sprint triathlon, and four olympic distance triathlons, but nothing felt quite like finishing this race. I struggled the last mile, but summed up the strength to run the end. The crowd was amazing, slapping hands and cheering loudly. A strong sense of emotion and accomplishment hit me as I rounded the corner to the finish line.

After crossing the finish line, the first thing I did was look for my wife. Lauren has been nothing but supportive of me on this journey and it is to her I owe my accomplishments. I love her infinitely. We were able to sneak in a congratulatory kiss before I went and collapsed for a few minutes on the grass.

I did it. I finished. I hit my goal. 5:21:50. 

Time to eat the 6,500 calories I just burned!

Lauren and I spent Sunday relaxing and eating. We used our new Samsung Galaxy S3 to take some sweet panoramic pictures. 

This place is called Chuhuo 出火. There are natural gasses that come out from these rocks and even though the chain fence says 'No Trespassing' we couldn't help ourselves from purchasing popcorn from the old lady and popping it over the open flame. Cooking popcorn on an eternal natural gas flame was a first for both Lauren and I. 

Ah... Baisha Beach 白沙 was good to us as usual. We seriously had perfect weather. I wouldn't have changed a thing. 

We went to some nature preserve museum at a lake. 

See you next year?

2012 International Hualian 56.5 Triathlon

Official Results: Swim 29:40.83  Bike 1:21:03.87  Run 55:39.31  Total 2:46:24.01

Saturday was my 3rd triathlon. It was at Carp Lake (鯉魚潭) in Hualien. It was a beautiful race and well organized. After school, I grabbed my gear, and headed to the train station.

Here's my bike all packed up. Also pictured are my Jesus sandals from the night market.

The gear minus the bike and swim cap. 

 I'm really loving my set-up. My bike is precisely obedient. 

I arrived at the hostel a little late and it was too dark to see anything. When I woke up, I saw this.

http://www.lake-house.in/

If you ever find yourself in Hualien, I highly recommend staying here.

This isn't my finished set-up, but close. 

The swim was beautiful. Perfect water  temperature (wetsuits not allowed) and no waves.

Play by play:

Swim - I was in the second heat (5 minutes after the 1st), which was terrible. The pros and women go first. Even if I tried, there's no way I could catch the pros, but the women are a different story. I had passed more than half by the first turn, and many more on the way back. I spent most of the swim spotting and dodging instead of just focusing on technique and breathing. I felt great coming out of the water.

Bike - There were two 22.5km laps for the bike, downhill the first half, and uphill the next. I was alone for a while on the bike. I passed two guys on the downhill, but eventually got caught by some crazies who were flying. I drafted behind them for a while, but couldn't hang. They were too strong. I was wasted after the first lap, but found a sweet group and we all drafted (legal in this race) the second lap. I felt strong and was ready for the run. 

Run - I felt great on the first mile, but got a double stitch and had to walk. I though this was going to be a repeat of my last two triathlons. I was frustrated because I've been doing bricks to prepare for this. Then, as fast as they came, they went away. I finished strong and didn't let anyone pass me on the last 5k. I'm pretty sure it was an 11k run. Well, at least that's what my watch told me.

I don't have my official time yet, but know it was 2:46:xx. That was a good enough time to put me 8th in my age group. I'll have to wait a few days to see my overall rank. I got a trophy, my picture taken, and a lot of pride. 

The way home was terrible. I ended up sleeping on the floor of a train storage car to Taipei, where I had to get off and catch a bus back to Taichung. I got home at 1:30am totally wiped out. Worth it!

MILE	TIME	AVG.PACE
1	7:48	7'48"/mi
2	16:54	9'06"/mi
3	25:30	8'36"/mi
4	33:48	8'18"/mi
5	41:49	8'01"/mi
6	50:07	8'18"/mi

Here I am a couple hours later with my 8th in age group trophy. 

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.