Next challenge -- 12k run on Angel Island

Who's up to join me and Martin Bom to run the Hark the Herald Angels run on Angel Island December 12? I'm running the 12 km.

No Goal, No Motivation, No Fun

I have been struggling with getting myself motivated again after the PacGrove Tri. I found that was because I did not have a goal.

So what does every self respecting self-starter do; get a new goal. I just signed up to run 10K in the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.

I am a Triathlete

3 hrs 19 min 08 sec (never mind the clock shown). I beat my personal goal of 3 hrs 30 min and I can now proudly call myself a Triathlete. YEAH!!!! GO TEAM.

A big thank you to all the coaches, mentors and support staff at Team in Training for helping me achieve this goal.

T minus 13

13 days until I can call myself official a triathlete! I have completed several try-tri's but no official competition yet so, I don't want to brag yet.

Today I completed another try-tri at the Pac Grove course. 3 laps of swimming, 2 laps of biking and 1 1/2 lap of running. A bit more than the sprint distance. And as I said today on facebook; I don't even think twice about doing a sprint distance now, and 6 months ago that distance was intimidating.

I'm still aiming to completed my first triathlon in less than 3 1/2 hrs. A couple yrs ago, the thought itself of 3 1/2 hrs of physical exercise made me tired. Now, I'm A-OK with it.

back from vacation, with a smile

It's almost been a month since my last blog update, so what have I been upto? Here's the quick overview.

Aug 1; bike and run circuit; 6 x 3 mile bike and 3 laps around the athletic field. And since I bike to and from the field; I did 31 miles on the bike and 4.5 miles running. All in 2 hr and 35 min.

Aug 6-18 was our annual vacation. We drove 2,975 miles in 9 days and went camping and hiking in Yellowstone National Park (our picture at Artist Point in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone) and Grand Teton National Park.

I got back seriously into preparing for the tri 4 days ago at the Team in Training Thursday track meet.

• Thu Aug 20. 16.5 miles bike (in 50 min) and 2.75 miles run (in 25 min)
• Fri Aug 21: 6.2 mile run in 1 hr
• Sat Aug 22: 1.25 mile swin (1 hr) and 31 mile (in just under 2 hrs)
• Sun Aug 23: @ PacGrove Tri course. 1 mile open water swim (45 min in 58F/14C cold water); 25 mile bike ride (in just under 90 minutes) and only a 2 mile run (in 21 min). I could not run much more unfortunately. Also I was completely drowsy and weak on my feet after the swim. I need to eat and drink more before going in the water.

Just as a reminder, my olympic distance tri is 1 mile swim/24 mile bike/6 mile run. So based on today's "race" my target time should be around 3:15 + transitions.

I'm putting down the line here in my blog; I will try to finish the race in under 3 1/2 hours (including my transitions)

busy weekend

This weekend was another busy weekend. Started Saturday with my first open water swim. The experience was "lacking". A nice word to say that I did not do very well in murky salt water where I could not see my hands in front of me. After the swim we ran for 4 miles. That was much easier.

On Sunday, Tomi and I took the kids on a nice 17.5 mile bike ride. Where I would normally finish that in about 1 hr, it took us almost 3, but who cares. We went riding as a family. Gotta love that.

Now all I need to do is find more open water to do more practice swims and I should be ready for Pacific Grove. 54 more days.

Found My Swim Zen

Today's practice schedule called for a 1,500 meter swim. The first 2 250 meters were ok, the 3rd 250 was hard....so I switched to breast stroke for the 4th 250. That must have relaxed me because during my next 500 meter, I felt like I found me swim Zen. Nice strokes, kept head under water, breathing in the small air pocket. Felt nice :-)

The coaching last Sunday really seems to have improved my technique. Thanks Coach Tom.