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.

Bike to work

Today was the perfect day to bike to work and since we had our FY10 marketing kick off meeting and FY09 picnic, I did not have to bring my laptop with me. I biked to work, then bike to Central Park in Santa Clara and then took a 15 mile detour on the bike ride home. Worked from home the rest of the day and ended the evening with a quick 3 mile neighborhood run (7:49 min mile). I'm ready for my shower and bed now. :-)

Good July so far

In addition to my first try tri (this should be a funny play on words...), I've had a good July so far. My running and biking have improved...now I need to get my swimming on par. I burned over 5,000 calories just in one week (July 3-9) but then I pay for it. I got sick, fever, bad cough...I basically was under the weather for a week. Even at my track work out after my week off, I still was coughing pretty badly for the first 20 minutes. But then as my longs warmed up, I felt much better. Yesterday I did a good bike/run combo; 15 miles biking in 50 min, followed up right away with a 3.6 mile run in 35 minutes. Today I swam 1,500 meters and went on a hike with the family in Portola Redwood State Park.

PS: the bike ride was the Portola Valley loop, there's a nice 3 mile climb. kept my cadence above 80 and my speed above 12 miles/hr for the entire climb. :-)

The Day After

I feel surprisingly ok after my Sprint triathlon yesterday. Wonder what I will do tonight. Veg out or go for a short bike ride.

Evening Update: No vegging out :-(  All I needed to do was look at my TNT training schedule and low and behold, I had to do a 50 min bike ride.  So I spent 1 hr on my bike to complete 16 miles.  Dinner was a steak on the grill.

My First Triathlon (Sprint Distance)

When I woke up this morning I decided that I was going to complete my first triathlon today.  A sprint distance, just to prove to myself that I could do it and to also get a better idea to what my estimated time for Pacific Grove would be.  96 minutes and 1,400 calories later, I did it.  22 minutes for 750 meters swim; 45 minutes for 20 km of biking and 29 minutes for 5 km of running.  YEAH!!!!  This was actually much better than I thought!

5k run for 4th of July and other activities

Our family tradition for the last couple of years has been to watch the 4th of July parade in Redwood City, CA (20 miles south of San Francisco).  Every year we looked at the runners participating in the 5k run.  So this year, we joined them.  Tomi and I finished the 5k run, Carolyne finished 3.3 km and Eryk did 1 km.  Hopefully next year they can do better.  I completed the 5k in 28'45", Tomi completed hers in 33'54".

Other preparations for my triathlon have been a 18 mile bike ride in a bit more than 1 hr, a run on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and more Team in Training track, pool and bike activities. 

Hopefully now that my schedule is back to normal (the last 2 weeks were not), I will be able to get back on track with my workouts and preparations for the Triathlon.

Quad's finally better

My quad is finally better. Per Dr Ota's instructions I ran 2 miles and ran it in 16 min. Another 8 min mile. This time I stretched before and after and am icing the quad as I type this

Injuries are a big pain in the ***

My quad injury is finally getting better. So much that for the first time in almost 10 days, I could go for a run. But I had to cut my 2 mile run short and only ran for 1 mile because the pain started to flare up again. )-:

raise $1,500 = swim 1,500 meters

Thank you all for donating over $1,500 so far to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As I promised earlier, I would swim 1 meter for every $1 raised. So today I swam 1,500 meters in the Fremont High School pool. 1,500 meters by coincidence is the distance I need to swim in open water for my triathlon. (yes I know, this is lap swimming, I can stop briefly between laps, so it's not the same as open water swimming)

This means however that I have now done all separate legs of my triathlon. 1,500 meters of swimming, 40 km of biking and 10 km of running. Now all I need to do is do these one after the other..... pffff

no Tour de Cure for me today :-(

Lesson #1: always stretch

Lesson #2: don't try to over do it

Lesson #3: getting an injury is not worth it

I woke up this morning with a lot of pain in my left hip and IT band.  Probably because I pushed myself too much Friday night and sat in a bad positing during the D2 soccer cup yesterday. 

Anyways, the result was not good.  Instead of telling you all that I rode 75 km today in the Tour de Cure, I am now at home icing my left side.  No point in pushing myself to a much worse injury.  What a bummer.

Bike Clinic

The TNT bike clinic was totally worth it, even though I could only stay for 1 hr.  I learned several new things.  I look forward to putting some of it into practice tomorrow in my Tour de Cure ride.

New Running Style = 5 miles in 40 min

The new running style I picked up yesterday at the track meet totally paid off.  I ran 5 miles at a 8 minute mile pace.  5 miles in 40 minutes.  AWESOME.  And more importantly, I feel great!

Team Track meet

TNT Team track meeting at Foothill College tonight.  I learned more about running and running style today in 3 minutes than I did ever before.  I can now say that the Team In Training coaches are totally worth it!!!  After some good advice I put down my fastest 800 meter to date.  3:42 (that's ~ 7:24 min mile).   Add a couple of km's, core strength exercises and good stretching to top it all off.

Swimming with Michael Phelps

My highlight of the day...I joined my co-worker Nate today for a lunch time swim at the Santa Clara International Swim Center. Nate tries to go there every day to swim 3 km, but I digress. I swim my 1 km (500 m freestyle and 500 m breast). First time in a 50 m pool so I'm pretty happy and was tapping myself on the back.

Then, low and behold 15 minutes after I leave the pool and my lane, this skinny guy in yellow green speedos with long arms jumps in. Yes, Michael Phelps swam in the same lane I did! And I posted the pictures here to prove it. Turns out this weekend is the 42nd International Invitational Swim Meet and he was doing his warmups today after the public swim, in the SAME LANE I just swam in!!!!!

1200 yards swim

swam 1200 yards today in 30 minutes. And according to mapmyrun.com that would result only in a calorie burn of 271 calories. oh well...

This could have ended way worse

I went for my first bike ride (on the road bike, not the commute bike) in a while.  I was planning to go for a nice 2 hr ride and was looking forward to putting 40-50 km on my bike.  I also put in a nice climb.  Mt Eden Road in Cupertino, if you've ever been there.  Its a nice semi steep 1 mile climb in the Cupertino/Saratoga mountains.  I did it surprisingly fast.  Kept my cadence at around 60 I guess.  I really felt good.  So what went wrong....  As I was starting my descent, my chain broke and got jammed.  I should have stopped earlier since my chain was spilling gears a lot during the ride.  

Had this happened during the climb or while I was going really fast down hill, I may have blogging from my hospital bed instead.  So the bike is in the shop and I really only got 1/2 the work out in that I wanted.  Other than that I feel great.  I think I may even go for a run later this afternoon.

you can see where the chain broke

42 but really feeling like 32

I turned 42 Thursday and celebrated this Thursday and Friday.  My sister sent me a nice hydration belt for me to use during my training.  My in-laws sent some pictures from our wedding 13 yrs ago and I must say that I look pretty much the same as I did in my late 20s (ok that's pushing it, maybe like I did in my early 30s).  The things is that I do feel almost as good.  I don't think I could have done all this running and swimming 10 or so years ago.  The power of exercise!!!

Today we have our first Saturday training meet.  1 hr of running, stretching and yoga and 1 hr of swimming.  Getting there....

First TNT team meeting

Our first track meeting was a bit disappointing.  It was more of a leisurely meet and greet.  we only ran 1.200 meters and did 10 min of Yoga afterwards.  I also had to leave early to be in time for my surprise birthday party.

All in all, I'm starting to feel good about this.

Raise $1,000 -- Swim 1,000 yards

Since all of you donated $1,000 in less than 24 hrs, I felt compelled and obligated to swim 1,000 yards today. I guess that means that when the fundraising total breaks $2,000, I will be swimming 2,000 yards. :-) Nothing like some good motivation to get going. Thank you all for giving me a big kick under the butt.

Got My Speedo's -- YEAH!

I got my speedos and tested them out in the pool today; I swam doe 1/2 mile.  My son was in the pool for this swimming lessons.  So I decided to lap swim for the duration of his lesson.  25 minutes later, I clocked 32 laps which turned out to be about 1/2 mile.  Not bad for my first time in the pool in a while.  (Note, I did take short breaks several times between laps).

And I biked to work today as well.  So 15 miles on the bike and 1/2 mile in the pool.  Not bad.  

And for those of you who want to see me in these speedos, you'll have to come and watch me swim.  :-) 

Started my fundraising - LinkedIn Rocks!!!

I sent a fundraising email yesterday to my LinkedIn contacts within 24 hrs I raised over $1,000. I have very very humbled by this support and your commitment to help me fight blood cancer. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Beach Run

Accountability report #1: I did not run my 5 miles on Friday.  I actually hung out at my buddy's house drinking some very good red wine.

But today, I ran 3-4 miles on Sand Dollar Beach, a nice sandy beach in Aptos, CA.  The problem with beach running is that it is hard to track on a google map and I did not bring my iPhone with my imapmyrun app running.  Maybe I should invest in a garmin GPS watch afterall.

Meet Renee

Renee is one of the players on the U11G comp soccer team that I coach. Renee was diagnosed with Burkett's Lymphoma Stage 3 on Aug 4th 2008. For the following 3 months after diagnosis she went through very intensive chemotherapy with her final dose on Oct 24th 2008. At this point she is in remission with no known cancerous cells and is again playing soccer at a competitive level.

Renee's family is very thankful to Lucille Packard and the doctors and nurses and staff from oncology for helping Renee go through the ordeal of recovery. The research done for understanding and treating this complex cell disorder is very appreciated not only by her family but also all who have seen a loved one suffering from lymphoma or leukemia or any cancer for that matter. Renee and her family hope this research continues until all of us can figure out the cause and the cure of these cancers with a 100% chance of remission.

Renee, I'm training for this triathlon in your honor. You are my hero. Your determination to fight Lymphoma is truly inspiring.

Day 3, 107 more to go before T-day

Played another indoor soccer game.  This time we won and I scored a goal with a header.  For those of you who saw Messi's beautiful goal in the Champions League final yesterday, it was definitely not in the same class :-)

So as my reward, I ran 2.4 miles tonight at a 9:15 min mile pace.  I'm going to try to run 5 miles tomorrow.

A good chiropractor is worth millions

In addition to hurting my knee, I pulled a muscle in my lower right shoulder.  I actually had to leave work early because I no longer could type.  So I called my Chiropractor and was able to get a last minute appointment.  Dr Brian Ota is a "3 for the price of 1".  Other than being a really good sports chiropractor, he's a shaman and great fitness instigator.  He's the one who kept nagging me to compete in a triathlon and the one who really made me believe I could do this. Anyways, long story short, he worked on my upper back, cracked me a couple times, put me on ice and told me that I should be ok and that yes that I had no excuse not to run tonight.

So here's one for you doc, I ran 4 miles this evening, and my shoulder did not bother me in the least.  And yes, I will follow your advice and ice it before going to bed.  Thanks.

soccer + running = some pain

So yesterday I played indoor soccer for 45 minutes and then decided to go for a 2 mile run after dinner. I did not stretch enough and today I'm paying the price. My knee hurts. But in the good spirit of accountability, I cannot use this as an excuse... So I have to some running or biking today.

This is it, I'm committed

I've been talking about competing in a triathlon for a while now.  Even from before I got into shape I've been dreaming of this.  But after getting into shape, I really thought I could do it.  So I decided to sign up for a Sprint distance triathlon.  But I would always find some lame excuse not to do the actual sign up.... (probably pretty familiar to some of you).

So last week, there was a Team in Training (TNT) information meeting at work (Cisco if have to ask).  And one of the TNT events was the Pacific Grove Triathlon.  The choice was the Sprint or the Olympic distance.  And since I think I could do a sprint today, I decided to sign up for the Olympic distance.  1.5 km swimming; 40 km biking and 10 km running.  The big day is September 12.

So this blog is to document my daily progress (or lack thereof) and to keep me accountable to myself.