Monday Notebook

Disclaimer: This post has 3 photos of me in it.  Though they are intended solely to assist in the illustration of bigger point(s), I will completely understand if any readers decide to forge reading this post because they are sick of looking at me.  For those who pass on today's post, I'm working on a 12 point argument on why Pluto should be reinstated as a planet.  Look for that tomorrow.

PART 1 - DON'T FORGET THAT THINGS TAKE TIME.
 
I'm just over 2 years into the new lifestyle now.  From a weight loss perspective that's 75 pounds.  The first 50 or so were (relatively) easy.  It's funny what happens when getting off your ass and doing something meets giving up drinking.  I lost 50 pounds in the first year.  The picture below is from the 2009 Long Beach Triathlon.  I weigh about 230 here.  Though in retrospect wearing a skin tight tri-top was an extremely bad fashion decision, I hope I can turn a negative into a positive by deeming this photo exhibit "A".

Exhibit "A" - Long Beach Triathlon 2009 - Chunky and stressed.

In the last year,  the weight loss slowed down - I've lost about 25 pounds.  But on the flip side, I've become faster and stronger than I ever imagined possible, and my body composition has changed quite a bit.  Exhibit "B" is from last weekend.

Exhibit "B" - Long Beach Triathlon 2010.  A bit less chunky and a lot less stressed.

Above and beyond the weight loss, what strikes me the most is that after a year I look more calm and composed, experienced and confident.  Call me crazy, but in some ways I'm more excited by that.

I'm not looking for "way to go!!" or "kick some more ass!!" comments.  Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate every single comment I get.  But as it relates to getting from there to here, the pleasure is all mine.  Rather, I just wanted to put out a visual reminder that the realization of great things always take time.  Some of you started your journey earlier, some started later.  But in the end, we'll all get to the same place.  By the way, I've still got a ways to go, but I'm totally up for it.  How could I not be?

PART 2 - WE DIDN'T HAVE A SUMMER - UNTIL NOW.

Totally baked.

Southern California is baking.  I'm not just talking about the Inland Empire or the Valley, I'm talking about the coast too.  It was close to 100 degrees in Huntington Beach today.  I'm not sure it's ever been this hot in the 7 years I've lived here.

But if Jeff from Dangle The Carrot can endure a Texas summer, I can endure a few days of a California anomaly.  So there was no way I wasn't riding today.

When it gets hot here, it's usually because the winds are coming in from the desert.  So when I hit the road today I was surprised to discover that the wind was still coming in over the ocean from the southwest.  Except the wind was super heated.  How does this happen when the water temps have barely reached 62 degrees this year?

Once I got past the initial shock of the heat, the ride wasn't so bad.  I told myself that this was probably how it was going to feel at Ironman Hawaii 70.3 so I might as well take it where I can get it.  Besides, any chance to get some mileage on Pacific Coast Highway in the aero position is tough to pass up.

That said, I look a little more grimy in the post ride photo than usual.

They say we have a week of heat this left....

Home Game

Is it just me, or is Google Earth a little creepy?  It's like the NSA having an open house every third Sunday of the month, except it's actually every day as long as you have an Internet connection.

Well, whatever.  The only thing that the current image of my house shows is that I have a red Tacoma pick-up.

That's what I'll be driving tomorrow morning when I head to Long Beach for the race.  My last two races have been down in San Diego, so Saturday night stays along with a bunch of other extra logistics have been required.  Tomorrow, it's out of (my own) bed, a 20 minute drive, and then a race.  I'll be home for brunch.  This race is what I call a home game.

I'm pretty much ready to go - the transition bag is packed, my tires are pumped up and my number is attached to the race belt.  Bottles of Nuun are chilling in the fridge.

Stuff - Ready.

I didn't do too much to today, though for the first time ever I did a little training the day before a race.  Nothing big - just 5 x 200 for 1000 yards of swimming at the pool.  Training today is notable because it represents a significant shift in my usual rigid processes.  Actually the swim felt awesome, though I'll need to find a bit more speed to stay on my predictions.

There's also been a slight change to the plan.  It turns out Ian has fallen asleep on our bed.  If you could see a picture of him sleeping,  you'd be loathe to move him too.  Lots of covers, little head sticking out.  So I'll be sleeping on the couch.  But it's my couch, and it's quite comfy.

Long Beach Triathlon Predictions

The Queen Mary is a central landmark for the Long Beach course.

I come into this Sunday's Long Beach Sprint Triathlon 15 pounds lighter and 12 months wiser than last year.  Last year's race was my second ever, and I finished the 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike and 3 mile run course in 1:29:33.

I'm still not quite used to this concept, but I'm considering Long Beach a "B" race, as the Orange County Olympic Distance Triathlon is 3 weeks later on October 10th.  All this means is that I'm not really reducing my normal training load until the end of the week.

Despite my less than awesome finishing time last year, Long Beach is a fast course.  The swim is behind a breakwater and calm.  With the exception of deceptively steep bridge (which you cross both ways twice), the bike course is wide, well paved and mostly flat.  The run course is a flat out and back route along the beach and then out onto a jetty.

Here's a breakdown of how I think the race will go down:

 THE SWIM - 1/2 MILE

I have a plan, and hopefully it will work.  Recently, I've been working on two things during swim training - short, all out efforts and active recovery.  The good news is that on my all out efforts I've managed to work up to swimming 45 second 50's.  The bad news is that all I can do is 50's at that pace.  Here's my plan:

Start:

50 Yards all out
50 yards recovery
50 yards all out
250 yards recovery

= 8:30/400 yards;

Repeat above for second 400 yards;

= 17:00/800 yards;

And then I hope to swim the last 80 yards in 1:30 for a total swim time of 18:30.

Projected Swim Time:  18:30; 2:06/per 100 yards (Last Year: 20:25; 2:20/per 100 yards)

 THE BIKE - 11 MILES

I have a plan for the bike too - to go as fast as I possibly can.  And as I mentioned above, this is a good course for this plan with wide roads and just a little climbing.

I've never come into a race with this much bike volume (almost 1000 miles in the last 2 months), so I'll be betting that my legs can handle 11 miles of all out cycling and still have enough left for a good run.  I'm pretty confident that this is a fair bet. 

Last year, the bike course never got congested.  I'm hoping that holds true for this year as well and I'll be able to pick a line and go.  And when I have to climb that bridge, I'll avoid the "staying in aero heroics" that have got me in trouble in the past by sitting up, grabbing the pursuit bars and hammering.

Projected Bike Time: 30:00; 22 MPH (Last Year: 37:31; 17.59 MPH)

THE RUN - 3 MILES

Though it would not be right to call anything in a race "routine", starting the run always marks the point where I know I am going to finish the race without any issues.  I usually rank higher in the run than I do in the other disciplines.  And I will be holding nothing back on Sunday.  I know this run course well, so I'll easily be able to track where I am relative to the finish.  I'm going for a 3 mile PR - This is the perfect place to do it and I am already psyching myself up.  I'm going to negative split this run.  I'm not sure I can get to a sub 7 minute 3rd mile, but who knows?  There's Belgian Waffles waiting for me at Sonny's Restaurant after the race.


Projected Run Time:  21:45; 7:15/per mile (Last Year: 25:14; 8:24/per mile) 

There is a pretty long run from the swim exit to transition, so if I add 6 minutes to cover both T1 and T2, then I am projecting to finish the race in 1:16:15.  That would be about a 15 minute improvement over last year.  I had a 13 minute improvement from 2009 to 2010 at the Solana Beach Triathlon, which is slightly shorter.  So the math for this race seems to add up, at least in my mind.

We'll see what happens on Sunday...

With a little help from my friends...

Here's a couple of things you may not know about me:

1.  I've always had trouble asking for help.

2. When I needed help a couple years ago, it found me.

Though this is certainly not the easiest thing to write, I'm a recovering alcoholic.  I had my last drink in June of 2008, and have not looked back since.  The day I had my last drink was also the day before I walked away from a company that I had started from practically nothing six years before.  I was at the end of my rope mentally.  It's a long story, and I would be remiss to suggest I was the only victim.  The short version is that the drinking was way out of control, I weighed 300 pounds, and I was pretty much out of my mind with stress and fatigue.  It was time to go.

Then two things happened.  I started exercising, and you all know where that ended up.  Even more importantly, a friend of mine (who I'm sure who would prefer to stay unnamed), came into my life in a big way.  He was kind enough to give me a bit of work to help me keep my financial situation together while I worked on getting myself together.  Looking back, I was so damaged then that I probably didn't earn too much of what I got paid.  But he never complained.  Because he is recovering too, he knew what I was going through.  There is no doubt he helped me through the beginning stages of my recovery.  And the funny thing is I didn't even realize it at the time.  But I do now, so I'd like to thank him.

It's two years later, and I'm doing good.  I'm happy, healthy, and (usually) have my wits back.  Multisport has been a HUGE part of the recovery process, but without my friend, I wouldn't have got to where I am.

While I was registering for the Long Beach Triathlon a few weeks ago, there was an opportunity to put together a fund raising page for CARE, which is the charitable beneficiary of the race.  The Comprehensive AIDS Resource and Education (C.A.R.E.) Program at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, is a non-profit program that helps meet the medical and social needs of the HIV community throughout Los Angeles County.

To be honest, I've not quite been able to get my head around asking for donations in conjunction with registering for a race.  I dunno, It feels like I'm suggesting that if you donate a thousand bucks, I'll get off my lazy ass and do a triathlon.  This probably has something to do with what I mentioned at the beginning - I have trouble asking for help.

The irony with multisport is that it's a completely one sided equation.  All I have to do is put some sweat equity into a sport that I love, and the return on investment is staggering.  Health and fitness?  Of course.  But how about confidence, self esteem, improved relationships, happiness, vitality and a zillion other benefits?

The truth is, I feel guilty because I was lucky.  I got another chance, and where I ended up is better than what I had.  How is that fair?  I have no idea.  What I do know is there are a lot of people who need help making their lives better.  Though I hope that you guys didn't have to start where I did, our involvement in endurance sports has put us all on a road to a better place.  And chances are, someone or something helped or inspired you to get started.

There are all sorts of worthy causes and all sorts of ways to help.  But since I am going to go to the Long Beach Triathlon and have an amazing race, why not do my best to make sure that the race is amazing for some other people too?

I've set a goal to raise $1000 by race day, which September 19th.  For those of you have already donated,  THANK YOU!!  For anyone else who can donate, it would be really appreciated.

I hope Jeff from Dangle The Carrot doesn't mind me borrowing his line, but thanks for reading.