Ironman Training Damper Surgery

No working out for a month! I have the Goleta Beach Olympic Tri 7/29 and a Sprint Tri set for the week after. Then I have three months to train specifically for my Half Ironman here in Kending, Taiwan. My fitness at this point is good enough to where as long as I get some swims in (with a bag over my foot) I should be ok on race day this summer. 

Okay, so for a few years I've had plantar warts. I've been very careful not to spread them (wearing shoes in the house ALL the time) and had cryotherapy multiple times in California. At that time, I was insured through work, and even with my Blue Cross insurance it was $120 per visit. Terrible! I ended up spending (with my parents help) more than $1,000 to no avail. 

Doing all this running, cycling, and swimming has helped me to realize how important it is to finally get rid of these things. My Taiwan National Insurance doesn't kick in until July, which would mean that any sort of treatment or operation would only cost me the entrance fee into the hospital (about $3 USD). I decided that with my upcoming training schedule (1 Olympic, 1 Sprint, 1 Half Ironman) I should just get it done now.

I called the hospital at 4pm Wednesday night, set an appointment for two hours later, and saw the doctor at 6:30. That would never happen back home. She asked if I wanted to do the operation the next day. Sure!? I went in Thursday at 3:30pm and got it done. Without insurance the whole ordeal cost me about $280 USD. Amazingly cheap. They have to remove it in two procedures. They did the lower one and the two below my small toes. The next procedure, set for 6/6 is for the big one. 

The pictures below are of my feet. Don't look if you have a weak stomach. I warned you!

 Before

After

Before

After

The whole shot. That big purple oval is set for 6/6.

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. 

Taitung Results

Here are my split times for the 2012 Taitung Flowing Lake 51.5 International Triathlon

I'm pretty happy with my swim time. It's four minutes faster than last time, but I came out of the water feeling a lot stronger. 

I'm pretty sure that both transition times were added to my bike time. T1 is a full 750m run from the water to the bike. A little excessive don't you think? I felt great on the bike, despite the massive wind we had after the turnaround and all the people illegally drafting. I even got reported for doing it after a group of 5 passed me. 

As always, I struggled a bit on the run. I had a lot more energy than at Love River, but the heat defeated me. It was brutally hot and I have the number 185 burned into my flesh to prove it. 

Recent Workouts: I took a whole week off... besides a little open water swim in Kenting.

5/7 - Went for a swim. Did an easy 200m (25 fist/25 swim) warmup and then did a quick 800 to get my heart going. 

5/8 - I had a bike-run workout. I took off up Daken and reached the trailhead in 35 minutes. Then I set out on foot and ran straight uphill for .75 miles. The run back down felt great, but that uphill was a struggle. 

5/9 - 200m warmup, then swam 6x100 at anaerobic pace. It was short, but tough.

5/11 - Swam a 200m warmup, then 4x400 at anaerobic pace. I wanted to go faster than race pace to help my body get used to a high heart BPM while in the water. I felt great after.

2012 Taitung Flowing Lake 51.5 International Triathlon

This was such a fun race. I will definitely be back next year for the 113km tri. Lauren and I took the 8-hour train down Friday night to see the 113 race on Saturday morning. I wanted to check out the course as well as see a few friends compete. They had great cloudy weather and I was hoping for the best. I got a great sleep and rode the 5km from my hostel to the event. 

Getting stamped. They did it the night before at the pre-race check-in, but after sleeping on it I needed it redone.

Checking my gear before the swim. It was already hot. 

I finished the swim in 30:59:xx. Much faster than last time. We then had a 700m run to the bike. It was the longest transition I'd ever heard of. 

My legs felt great on the bike on the way to the turnaround point. I was definitely on pace.

After turning around, I realized how strong the wind actually was. The way back was 10 minutes longer than the way there. Ouch. I was passed by a group of 10 people all illegally drafting. I was reported (you get two warnings) after they passed me.

I knew it was going to be a tough 10k. The heat was in full force, hence the sun umbrellas in the background. It was about 90F with wonderful Taiwan humidity. 

I couldn't hack it on the run. I overheated multiple times and just tried not to let people pass me. I still came in 67th (637 total) overall and 8th in my age group of 85. I wanted sub-2:40 but it just didn't happen. I wish the event started at 6:30 and not 8:30. 

This about sums up how I felt.

Lauren and I were able to spend 5 days in Kenting, which is Taiwan's Hawaii. We had perfect weather and I enjoyed skipping school all week to spend time with my beautiful wife. 

Passion fruit popsicle at the aquarium!

This is the second southernmost tip of Taiwan. It's called Maobitou (貓鼻頭), which literally means Cat nose head. There's a fisherman's trail that leads down the rocks where tourists don't go and it was totally worth it. 

As always, we spent plenty of time at Baisha (白沙). The tide was up and we were backed up against the sand wall so I had to build a barricade. 

Lauren really wanted to try coconut so I bought her one. She is still trying to convince me that she likes it but I don't believe her. 

This is the famous lighthouse on the southernmost tip of Taiwan. 

We had a great trip. It was a great event, vacation, and reunion with my old friend (and best man) Nathan Brady Steele and wife Alex xxxx (Lauren said her middle name is Sandy? not true) Steele. 

Final Preparation for Taidong

I'm so antsy! I hate tapering, it makes me feel lazy and unprepared. All I want to do is go run. I went on a ride and a swim this week, but that's it. 800m and 25km. This week has been super busy for Lauren and I. She has a HUGE bake sale (hundreds of cupcakes, cookies, and brownies), we are leaving for vacation, and we have guests coming upon our return. 

I bought a bike bag! This is my baby as I prepare to put her in.

Pulled my seat post out and definitely have some extra room.

My bike came with a plug to protect my fork. I was going to use tennis balls and a pencil, but this is much more convenient. 

Front wheel goes in first.

Ready to go. Not the most suitable carry on for trains but better than paying extra to ship your bike in the back cars.

I'm shooting for sub-2:40 this weekend. It looks like it'll rain Saturday evening, and might sprinkle Sunday. As long as it's dry for the bike, I could care less how the swim and run weather is.

Coming Events

With a week full of midterms and the heat returning, I've had to do my best to squeeze in some training. The main things keeping me focused on racing is my schedule, and racing videos.

Let's take a look at my race schedule:

4/29 - Taidong 51.5 with a goal for sub-2:40
5/19 - 2012 Hualien International Triathlon - Starts at 12:30pm... in summer... in Taiwan. I look forward to this one because it's around a lake and there's an extra 5km on the bike. 56.5!
6/17 - 2012 Xiuguluan River St. Rafting Triathlon - Yup, white water rapids for 11k, run 12.6, then     cycle 44km. This should be REALLY fun. "Come to be the Raftman" it says.
7/29 - Goleta Beach Triathlon - I'm really excited to compete in California. I haven't seen my side of the  family in 16 months, and more than 18 months by the time I go home. The race is only two hours from my parents house. Plus, racing at the beach in California sounds pretty awesome. I will be racing with my oldest friend Michael Tolman, whom I haven't seen since I got married.

Speaking of marriage, my wife and I have been married for 18 months. At what point are we no longer newlyweds? Here is a photo taken at UNIQLO here in Taichung.

WORKOUTS:

4/16 - Rode up and over Daken. I take the loop from Wen Xin Road to Dong Shan Road, up and around Lian Kang Xiang, and then down to Tai Yuan Road. I can feel my legs getting stronger as I push harder to make it up with more speed. I remember when I couldnt' even do it, I had to rest a few times. I was back home in an hour and ten minutes.

4/16 - With a busy week ahead, I knew I had to squeeze in swimming too. Lauren tagged along. We find that when two white people jump in to share lanes, all the Taiwanese people move to other lanes. What am I supposed to do? It literally happens every time, which is sad, but nice. I swam a warm-up 400 (50-swim and 50-fist), then did 6x100 as fast as I could. I should have finished my original plan of 8x100, but I was beat from my ride today.

Did you watch Boston? If you've never watched the amazing coverage of Ironman Kona, you can see the whole special at this link.

HOT WEEK!

Unlike after my marathon, I decided to hop right back into working out.

4/9 - Rode my mountain bike to school and around the city. This was mostly just to stretch out and not be lazy. After my marathon, I only ran 21 miles in January and about 15 in February. Oops.

4/10 - Ran with Bigfoot. Because of the special schedule we have for midterms week, I had to eat early lunch and didn't have time for dinner. My run was terrible. I ran 6x600, but when it came to the 6x1000 I couldn't hang. I only did four before I gave up. I rested for 30 minutes or so, then played soccer with Elias, mi amigo from Paraguay for about an hour.

4/11 - Swam 1500m faster than race pace. I planned to get my heart rate up and finish with negative splits.  The workout was 27 minutes long. If I could hold that pace for the triathlon, I'd be shaving a full seven minutes off the first of the three disciplines. I plan to swim a 30 minute 1500m at my next tri on 4/29 in Taidong.

4/12 - It was a really hot day and I had all the time in the world. After having some problems pumping up my tires at the motorcycle shop next door I set out to ride my bike to Changhua for work. My record was 52 minutes for the 32km journey. The trip there was terribly hot and I drank almost my entire bottle of Supao. I felt like I was riding slow so I kept pushing, knowing I would be a sweaty mess in the cram school with no air conditioning. When I arrived, I looked at my watch and was pleasantly surprised to see 50 minutes. I walked in the school, and immediately left to try and cool/dry off in the shade. Even after changing into my spare clothes I was gross. The ride home was an uneventful 54 minutes.

In other news, LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY! 

I'm assuming the transition times are added to the following event? I thought I had a faster bike and run time. My goals for Taidong this month are 30-minute swim, keep the same bike time, and run a 50-minute 10k. I'm shooting for sub-2:40. I have one more week to work out before I begin to taper.