Oh! And the “Finisher’s Video” that I got.

Mike Reilly did in fact call me an Ironman at the finishing line, however the video didn’t capture that epic moment.

Here are some photos!

The worst part of these trips is dropping this guy off at the vet for boarding. Kills me every time

T1 at full Ironman events are very clean - much the opposite of most other races.

I think I was still a bit confused from the whole horizontal to vertical thing.

Oh god I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and I would die a happy (and very large) man.

What do I think I did right?

• Nutrition - Up until the last loop of the run course I was feeling great with no stomach problems. I generally don’t have digestion problems but sometimes don’t keep up on calorie in-take during long endurance events. I can’t remember all that I had but here’s a basic run down of what foods kept me going.
  • Breakfast? I can barely remember! A combination of Greenlees awesome cinnamon bread, some dark chocolate peanut butter, Trader Joe’s miniature chocolate chip cookies and probably a kids clif bar. Super healthy right?
  • Honeystinger Waffles – I believe I had 5 or so of these things. Definitely my favorite thing to eat while cycling – very tasty and go down easy.
  • Powerbar Gel Blasts – I’m not really much of a fan of gels, but these gummy style bites are a great alternative. I emptied a couple bags of these into a ziploc bag and took them when I felt necessary. I mixed the raspberry and strawberry banana flavors. (3 packages total)
  • Clif Shot Blocks – I love the tropical flavor and saved the package for the run course to switch it up.
  • Powerbar Perform – The on course sports drink. I actually like the lemon lime on the bike, but didn’t care for the mango on the run course. I tried to alternate bottles of this at the bike aid stations and…
  • Water!
  • Potato chips – On the run course when salt was needed very badly. Ate maybe two handfuls over the entire marathon.
  • Chicken broth – best thing I ever tasted.
• Bike pacing – I was happy with my bike split. 17.6mph over 112 miles isn’t very fast but I felt like I left enough “juice” in the tank to be able to give a valiant effort on the run.
• Not panicking after being punched in the face multiple times during the first 5 minutes of the swim. I’ve been hit before plenty of times, but never so much in such a little amount of time. The Ironman washing machine was amazing and intimidating.
• Thanking the volunteers every time I could – without them the race wouldn’t have been the amazing experience it was. I tried to thank every single one I could for doing what they did. Great people.

What do I think I did wrong?

• Weight – This one is obvious. I still need to shed at least a minimum of 25 pounds on my frame. I’ve come a long way so far but I’ve been stalled for way too long. It’s my own fault for not controlling my diet more and using the “I’m training” attitude too much. I think this is the hardest to fix for me but I have to try. A lighter weight will increase my speed and endurance since I’m essentially strapping a 25lb (35lb?) plate to my belly and going out there doing this.
• Brick Workouts - I didn’t do nearly enough of these at all. It wouldn’t have prevented the meltdown that I had with blisters on the run course but I would have gotten a lot further along than I did before that epic meltdown! Respect the brick!
• Bike Workouts - My cycling workouts were much more rare than they should have been. Yes I’m happy with my pacing but I know I could’ve been much better if I spent adequate time out in the saddle. It is the sport out of the three that I feel the most comfortable so I neglect it too much.
• Heat adaptation – Not sure how the hell I could be prepared for that Houston heat but there has to be a way! Lock myself in the sauna for a while? Wear layers? I think I just got unlucky with the California weather too.

I have many more things that pop in and out of my head that I wish I did differently but those are the main ones. I have to lay off that BBQ!

Will I do it again!?

YES. I’m already in the planning stages of picking a new venue for another challenge, and this time I’m bringing a partner. Kelly is going to join me on the next Ironman journey. Very excited and will post updates on here shortly.

Silicon Valley Long Course

A triathlon in my backyard! They added a new long course (1 mile swim / 56 mile bike / 9 mile run)  format for this year. I did the SVIT (Olympic Distance) last year and the recap is in this post.

I did a bit better than I was expecting, especially after the Ironman a few weeks earlier.

Swim: 34:53 (Making progress, happy, goal time was under 38 minutes.)
Bike: 2:55:34 (19.1mph, happy with this too, goal time was under 3:10)
Run: 1:28:59  (Goal for this was 10 minute miles, 1:30! whew)

Total time ended up being 5:05:02. Honestly would have been happy with anything under 5:30.

This was Kelly’s first attempt at this distance and she did very well. She completed two sprints and an Olympic so far, so this was a big step up.

Kelly finishing!

All done and gloating after finishing

Finishers medal

Whew, sorry for the big blast of random things flying around. Organization isn’t my cup of tea. I really don’t have too much going on until mid-July when the Vineman 70.3 is and I’m looking forward to getting revenge on my performance from last year!

For now it’s time to rest up…

She's going to kill me for posting this, but I think it's hilarious.

You did what!?
Yep, I drove to Houston from the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m still a bit shaken up from the nasty flight back from the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon in Las Vegas and the idea of somehow getting all my gear there was too hard to fathom. It was 1962 miles away and an extremely boring ride on Interstate 10 for most of the way.

We packed up all the gear and clothes – I know I brought too much stuff, but it was my first Ironman and thought I’d need to bring an entire bike toolbox with me! D’oh. We were able to squeeze all the stuff into the Prius and had plenty of room. The hatchback is a lot bigger than you’d think!  The drive itself was very boring – I5 down into Los Angeles and then eventually hooking up with I10 all the way into Houston. We stopped in Phoenix on the first night and some Econolodge in the west Texas boonies the second night. We should have left a day sooner because we had to high-tail it for another 7 hours of driving to get to The Woodlands for the mandatory packet pickup … on Thursday … even though the race is on a Saturday!

Packet Pickup
We made it to the packet pickup, which was located pretty close to the Woodlands Mall parking lot with a few hours to spare. We apparently picked a good time since there was only 6 people in line – by the time I got my stuff done the line was probably over a hundred strong. Iron distance triathlons work a little differently than the shorter distances. All your gear goes into specially marked bags, so transition areas look and work much better. The packet also had my race Bibs and stickers to place on all my bags and gear. Here’s what our hotel bed looked like:

I didn’t have to worry about the green one since I had family with me but I used the other 4. The ‘Special needs’ bags you get to pick up at about the half way point on the bike and during laps 2 or 3 of the run.

What do you do with these puppies? Here’s a little sample:
Bike Gear: Jam my aero helmet, bike shoes, socks, sun glasses, bodyglide, food to put in my jersey pockets.
Bike Special Needs : More food: Honey Stinger waffles, powerbar gel blasts and believe it or not honey bbq fritos… salty and hit the spot at the right times!
Run Gear: Obviously shoes, visor and a fresh clean pair of socks! And more waffles!
Run Special Needs:  More of the same food.

I was fortunate enough to not only have my awesome wife with me there to support me but my in-law’s flew all the way to Texas from Pennsylvania to be there! It was so awesome to have them out there and definitely helped me push along at some of my worst times.

Bike Drop Off
The day before the race you have to drop off all your bags and your bike and yep – it was pretty intense and really starting to heat up in Texas. I was dripping sweat just walking around as you can see here:

The rest of the day was spent lounging around and eating everything I could find.

And on to the spice – the race itself!

Swim – 2.4 miles – 1:39:09
The water temperature was warm enough that a special wetsuit role comes in to play. If you wear a wetsuit you are not eligible for age group awards or to take a coveted Kona slot for the Ironman World Championships. Needless to say the only way that would happen is if rednecks shot everyone else in my age group while I was on the bike. So I opted to wear a wet suit. Swimming is definitely not my strong point and I’ve never been in a mass-start before. I wore a sleeveless wet suit for the first time to try to keep cool before the heat was on.

Nerves in full effect - trying to clear my head!

We all queued up into the water after the professionals were sent off. Over 2,000 of us lodged into a fairly small area of the lake. They played one of my favorite tunes to kick off the start – Black Sabbath’s Iron Man. (Click that and read the rest of the review! lol)  Once it started, holy crap, it was mass mayhem. I was kicked in the face and punched in the side of the head about 15 seconds into the race. I knew it was going to be a long day.

Good luck finding me

I was hoping that once the better swimmers got further out things would spread out a bit, but that never happened. I was surrounded by people for most of the swim. It ended in a canal at the Woodlands Waterway which was gorgeous, and pretty intense with people lined up on both sides cheering us on. It felt so good to hear Mike Reilly’s voice over the speakers at the end of the swim. It was my biggest fear – not making that 2:20 cutoff somehow.

It was a bit more packed when us slower folks made it that far!

Transition 1 – Swim to bike –  10:23
I wanted to get in and out of transition and onto that bike as soon as possible but of course there was a bunch of hiccups. I double knotted my transition bag the day before and wasn’t thinking about having to open it when I got into the changing tent. Spent a minute or two fumbling with it before just tearing a hole in the side of it to get my bike gear out and jam my swim stuff inside of it. Luckily for me all of my stuff ended up in tact when I picked it up at the end.  I have no clue how I spent 10 minutes there though… haha

Bike – 112 Miles – 6:22:32
The bike course was beautiful and relatively flat for 112 miles. Total elevation gain on my Garmin Edge ended up being 3,618ft. That is a bit less than some little 40 mile loop I do in California. I still tried to maintain my decent heart rate so I’d be able to run the marathon. It felt really good to be passing a ton of bikes… one of the benefits of being a terrible swimmer I guess! I kept up on my nutrition really well during the bike and felt great. In retrospect I probably should have pushed it a bit harder and aimed for 5:45 or under, but that run frightened me since the heat and humidity in Houston area is unreal. I had to stop to pee at an aid station about 30 miles in.

I alternated taking water and sports drink at every other aid station – except skipping the 1st one and another one later on in the course. And at mile 60ish I picked up my special needs bag to replenish some of the nutrition I liked. Also in there was a note from my wife that really picked the spirits up.

The heat really started picking up during the last 30 miles or so of the course and I knew that run was going to be walking hell. I tried to ease up a little more to keep my HR down and recover the legs a little bit. By the time the Garmin showed 112 I was certainly ready to get off the bike, but it hadn’t felt like it was that far. That was a good feeling!

Transition 2 – Bike to Run – 14:13
I handed my bike and helmet off to the volunteer and headed toward the changing tent. Yep – in full Ironman’s they even rack your bike for you. Totally bad ass and I want that for sprints!

Just walking near the changing tent I really felt that Houston heat. It was like walking into a pizza kitchen with no windows or air conditioning. Holy cow. I utilized the facilities and headed into the tent. I sat down and was already downright drenched in sweat. They ran out of water in T1 and the volunteers were scrambling to get some – there was quite a number of people just sitting there staring at the tent walls. I knew then it was going to be even more rough than I thought. I took my time getting new socks on and bodygliding up all the important places. Then I took a minute or two just to regain composure and headed on out. At least I can grasp why this one took 14 minutes!

Run 26.2 miles – 6:00:29
I got out on the run course and thank god there was an aid station about 100 feet from the exit. I loaded up on water like a camel! I think my sweat rate was higher than what I could physically drink at the time.  I was about 1 mile into the run course and I saw a few people sitting on the curb trying to regain composure. I saw two different people throwing up behind a dumpster and into bushes. I saw a lady crying and breaking down. I thought I accidently  made the wrong turn into a warzone. The most surprising thing was that I passed a female pro (They have P’s written on the back of their leg) while running a 9:00 mile… She was likely on her 3rd lap of the run course already, but if that wasn’t a sign for things to come I don’t know what was!

Yeah, very attractive huh? I had to peel all the hot triathlete ladies off me with a knife.

The aid stations were incredible. Volunteers were very well trained, very vocal and the most supportive I’ve ever seen.  I was able to keep running by shoving the ice cold water filled sponges down my back and rigged up into my visor. This was a major catch 22 that I didn’t know yet. The water from the sponges was running down my back… through, uh, a special area, and down my leg into my socks. This majorly chafed that, uh, special area, and water logged my shoes. I ended up keeping between a 10-11:30 minute mile for most of the 1st lap which would keep me on track for me 5 hour goal. The people surrounding the waterway were incredible. My name was on my bib and hearing everyone personally cheering me on really helps. I unfortunately missed my family since they weren’t sure where the start of the course was – they ended up being at the start of loop #2 and #3 though!

The 2nd loop? All hell started to break loose. My feet started to burn and I could feel the friction starting to heat my feet up. This combined with the outside humidity and heat was just killing me. I kept up my water rituals, but ended up with a pretty nasty present for it.

[[[ I made this small becuase it's pretty gross - click on it if you really want to see it.  lol ]]]

I had these big guys on both of my feet. It was hurting to land on the ball of my foot but I was able to run-walk the rest of loop number 2.

Loop 3? OH MY GOD WHY ARE MY FEET ON FIRE I AM GOING TO DIE. I was contemplating stopping at the med tents for assistance but I was afraid they would take me off the course. I have no idea why but I just had it in my head that I needed to get this done by myself. I pressed on but had to walk just about the entire lap of 8 miles on those lovely feet.

Still looking good for all those ladies!

Throughout the race I kept trying to thank every volunteer I saw – they made the race soo much more than I thought it could be, but by lap #3 it was getting hard to do it. I still did – but when someone said “Looking good!!!” I wanted to say some choice words back to them! hah!  I was at a point where I stopped sweating and it really scared me. I was actually starting to get a little cold… I knew something wasn’t right so I started taking everything at the aid stations I could – water, sports drink, potato chips, cookies etc. I felt better 10 or 15 minutes later, but it was a bit scary to think I was only 6 miles away from becoming an Ironman and I might not do it.

During the NBC coverage of the Ironman World Championships I always found it funny that they would have chicken broth on the course when it started to get later in the run. On my 3rd loop I got to take some – and OH .. MY .. GOD it hit the spot. It was the perfect mix of salt and taste that I needed. The only thing that tasted better to me during the last month was the BBQ and TexMex that I got to eat. I slogged on and got to that finishing chute.

Overall Time – 140.6 miles – 14:26:43

140.6 miles done, and a title for the rest of my life.

I was tearing up – I think I only ran about a mile of that last loop and walked the rest, but I felt like a million bucks when I hit that finishing chute with people screaming everywhere. I felt like a rockstar or a professional wrestler running down to the main event. It made that hugely steep entry fee seem not so bad.

And my favorite photo of it all? I didn’t get here by myself – no way in hell I would have managed to do it. I had the best support and training partner someone could ever ask for… she thinks she wouldn’t have been able to do “one of these” yet? BS!

I know this post has been long enough so I’ll try to add another one with some more details of some of things that happened and how other stuff went… but for now…

I AM AN IRONMAN!

Holy crap, I’ve been super busy. Since my last update in February I did race in the Stanford Treeathlon, Jenny’s Light 10k, Green St. Patrick’s half marathon, US Half Marathon Part 2, Tierra Bella Century, Big Bunny Fun Run and The Relay. I’ve been really busy training, eating and sleeping as much as possible while Ironman Texas lingers right around the corner. I don’t think I’m even half as well prepared as I should be by now, but I can’t complain.

Here’s a quick rundown of things that went on:

Stanford Treeathlon:
The weather for the Treeathlon was very cold for the bay area and the water temperature I believe was into the 50′s. They unfortunately had to cancel the swim portion because of hypothermia fears while out on the bike course. They turned it into a duathlon format instead by replacing the swim with a run. Of course I’m not a very strong runner (not that I’m a strong swimmer, but hey!) I was a little bummed but it’s a completely understandable decision by the race directors. Proud to say I finished pretty mid-pack… which makes me very happy! Progress! Cycling was pretty fast and the running a bit slower… as usual!

SVTC Group shot!

Jenny’s Light:
The Jenny’s Light 10k was pretty fun. I didn’t do too well but I don’t even remember what lame excuse I had! Haha. It was at Vasona Park in Los Gatos and for a very good cause. Unfortunately I don’t think I have any photos from the event which stinks, especially since Kelly won a prize for wearing a running skirt! I promise if I find photos I’ll get them on here.

Go Green:
The weekend after the Jenny’s Light run we went back to Vasona Park to run the Go Green St. Patrick’s Day Half Marathon. It was a lot of the same course as the previous week, except, well, twice as big. Good scenery and good people, but it was very crowded. There was also quite a lot of problems going on such as signage and volunteer shortages. I think the race might have grown a little too big for it’s belt already but hopefully they straighten it out for next year. I did ok but blew up a bit during the last few miles of the race.

Yes, I was trying to give a thumbs up on purpose!

US Half Part 2:
A month later we headed up to San Francisco to do the 2nd half of the “US Half Marathon” series. It was the same course as the first half, but it crosses the Golden Gate Bridge and through some nice areas of San Francisco so I can’t complain. It’s a full marathon with a 4 month break in-between! There was a big lack of porta potties, but I found one about 100 yards past the starting line. (After the race started!) I stopped my garmin and I’m using THAT time as my official time, because hey, who the hell puts porta potties on the other side of the starting line? Anyway, I was trying to keep my heart rate fairly low for this and was really happy being really close to breaking two hours. I know I can definitely do it now if I go out harder and have a less demanding course. The Golden Gate Bridge does subtract 1 minute from your pace though… always pumps me up.

This is why you don't give me the option to make our own personalized bib!

Left medal is from the 1st half, right one is the 2nd half

They COMBINE!!!!

Tierra Bella:
Because I’m a huge fan of suffering, we headed down to Gilroy to ride the Tierra Bella century. It was a nice 102 mile route with about
6700 feet of climbing on my altimiter. The Henry Coe climb was pretty difficult but rewarding. I believe it was around 2700 feet over the course of about 8 miles. I wanted to have a full recap with photos on the ride but alas, I forgot to even bring my camera with me for the ride. I’d like to go down and ride a bunch of the route again and get some shots. It was gorgeous. A volunteer took a good shot of Kelly and I at the rest stop around the 75th mile.

Can you spot the hidden oreo?

Big Bunny Fun Run 5k
I love this race. A nice little trot around the City Hall area in Cupertino the day before Easter. No Active.com registrations, you actually have to mail it in or use some decrpit city-wide course registration management system. I think I set a 5k PR at this race, but the best part – Kelly placed 3rd in her age group! And the 31-39 Women’s age group is really competitive. Really proud of her and she was lit up like a Christmas tree for the rest of the weekend.

Bib & Age group award medal!

The age group placer herself!

and last but not least …

The Relay:

It’s a really fun and unique style of race. Each team has 12 runners and take turns running through the 194 mile course. It starts in Calistoga, CA and ends the next day at Davenport, CA next to Santa Cruz. Each team splits into two separate vans. The van with the current runner out on the road goes to a point or two on the course to support their runner and then waits at the next transition where the next waits for the ‘baton’ to get started on their leg. So if you ever see a ton of white vans and runners around, you might have wandered in the path of a relay style race. They’re becoming very popular now with the RAGNAR Relay’s taking off and even a movie being made about the Hood To Coast one. One of the nickname’s it has is “California’s Longest Party” — and that it is.

For those who have read Dean Karnazes’ book, The Ultramarathon Man, this is the same race he talks about during the book where he ran solo. Yes, the same one he ordered Round Table pizza during!

The atmosphere is pretty awesome – vans get all decked out with decorations and even some runners run in costumes. And team names? Yes, very creative: Just Watering Your Flowers Ma’am, 24 Bouncing Boobs, Team Dean Minus Dean Plus 12, Better At Running My Mouth, Pigs in Pursuit (A team of all Cops from Woodland, CA, hah!), Trans Fatty Asses, Well Hung Over… just to name a few! Our team was ‘The Scrappers’ since our fearless leader (and sponsor) works for Sims Metal Management. I don’t know how Dave can organize something as well as this. I think I’d have an easier time running it solo than trying to get everything together as smoothly as he did. Major props to him.

Each runner does 3 legs. I ran 5, 17 and 29.

Leg 5:
A nice flat 5.4 mile run through Yountville, California. It’s pretty close to Napa and is a gorgeous small town. The sun was really beating down and made for a really nice challenge. If this is how bad it was here I don’t know how I’m going to make it through Ironman Texas!

Leg 17:
This was mostly on some bike paths around Corte Madera into Sausalito. It was perfect running weather although it was somewhere around 1am or something at the time. A couple big hills in the beginning but mostly pretty flat for the remainder. Felt good and my headlamp worked really well. A few runners actually thanked me for lighting up the area when I passed them. Glad I picked it up last year at Zombie Runner.

Leg 29:
This leg is a big hill. I don’t know how much elevation it actually was since apparnetly my garmin believes I fell off one of the cliffs on the route. (Says 2,542 feet gain and loss, 1607.) … probably around 1000ft I overheard someone say. Anyhow — this was very hard as some grades during the run were so steep that my calves felt strained trying to run up them even with a super quick and short cadence. Still happy with my time on that — I passed quite a number of people during it too and I was definitely not the only one struggling out there.

The only thing I really dislike about it is that some people/teams are infatuated with ‘roadkill’ — passing another runner. I dislike the whole concept. I think running is more about being free and enjoying the spirit and experience. It’s more euphoric to me than marking numbers and celebrating passing someone who may be slower than you. Big deal. Good job. I have more appreciation and respect for the person with the slowest time than I do the quickest. I like to think I’m not talking out of my ass – I passed 20 other runners and was passed by 2 runners. (3 on the first leg, 8 on the 2nd, 9 on the 3rd.) I’m not fast by most measures but I was really very lucky to get people in bunches on my route. Last year I was probably passed by about the same and I think I passed 2 people. I still remember waiting for our runner last year and watching another set of runners go by and a their van yelling ‘nice roadkill!’ to their runner that passed someone else. I don’t like that. Enjoy the time outside and the route to get there. If you’re in the top few elite teams, sure, be happy you’re smoking your competition, but I think knocking your ego down a few notches while you do it would make for a better experience. Sorry for the rant. Fortunately my team wasn’t really caught up in it at all, and were all supportive and cheering everyone else on.

My team was a really great and fun bunch:

L-R: Kneeling: Robert, Norm. Standing: Jennifer, Kelly, Mark, Me and Ed

I left my cell phone and camera on the kitchen table so I didn’t even get to take any photos or utilize the twitter #TheRelay2011 hashtag. Argh!

Here’s a few photos of the weekend that I was sent from Ed and Norm (Thanks guys!)

The start line. Only 194 miles by foot until the end.

Jennifer starting strong! (Bib 105)

Only a brief sample of the miles upon miles of vineyards we saw.

Kelly and Robert. Don't know if it's the shorts or not but he's fast!

Awesome pony-tail action shot!

Always looking at that watch! Doh. And Norm looks too good for just running in that heat!

Me looking at the watch. Half of my race finish photos look like this too

Only 196 miles, a few hours of sleep, BBQ, burritos to get to the end. And enjoying the after meal.

Whew, sorry for the photo bomb. I’m glad others took them and shared! Was a really fun weekend.

Conclusion:

I have a very short time left to fit in some more training before I start the major taper for Ironman Texas. Do I feel ready? No way. Will I go for it anyway? You got it. I feel like I should have done at minimum twice as much volume as I did, but hope it’s enough. I’ve done a few 2.4 mile swims in my pool (without flip turns too) and come close to the two hour mark. I won’t be able to wear a wetsuit becuase of water temperature and it’s going to be hot as hell there… so I’m hoping I come in under 2 hours for that. The cutoff is 2 hours and 20 minutes and I’d like to have a bigger buffer. Cycling has been my strongpoint so I’m hoping the 112 miles will leave me with enough hours to run, walk or shuffle on the marathon.

I’ll do my best to keep this updated but feel free to follow me on Twitter. I’m sure Kelly will live tweet my updates on May 21st. Or she’ll let you know how I’m doing in the hospital that it’s sponsored by when I get bit by a water moccasin. *panic*

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnyway – I’ve been compiling up a list of events that I’m going to attempt to do in 2011. It’s a lot bigger than I expected but I’m looking forward to it. Some people like to go out and get sloshed on a Saturday evening or go out to a fancy restaurant on Friday nights. Well, not I. I can’t place exactly when it happened but participating in endurance/race type events is extremely fun. The people, the atmosphere, the actual courses and scenery… and it’s much healthier than consuming 5,000 calories worth of liquid to only throw it up the next morning. Although sometimes I feel like I should be throwing up during the run.

Everything is not set in stone but here’s the list. My ‘A’ races are Ironman Texas, Vineman 70.3 and the Poconos 70.3. There’s a few scheduling mishaps that I’d like to work through (glaring example is the Steamtown Marathon the week after the Poconos Half Ironman.) but should be a blast!

2011
Jan 1 – New Years Run for a Healthy World (10k)
Feb 12 – Campbell Valentine Fun Run 10k
Feb 27 – Stanford Treeathlon (Sprint treeathlon)
Mar 6 – Jenny’s Light 10k
Mar 13 – Go Green St. Patrick’s Day Run (Half-marathon)
Apr 10 – US Half Marathon Part 2 – The ‘Other’ Half
Apr 16 – Tierra Bella 2011 (Century)
Apr 23 – Big Bunny Fun Run (5k)
Apr 30 – May 1 – The Relay (Team: Scrappers!)
May 7 – Los Altos Hills Pathways (10k trial)
May 15 – Bay To Breakers (12k)
May 21 – Ironman Texas (!!!)
Jun 11 – Silicon Valley Long Course Triathlon (Half iron distance)
Jun 12 – Silicon Valley International Triathlon (Maybe!)
Jul 17 – Vineman 70.3
July 31 – The San Francisco Marathon
Aug 14 – Santa Cruz International Triathlon (Olympic distance)
Sep 5 – Labor Day Run for a Healthy World 10k (Don’t see it on their website yet but I presume it will go on in 2011)
Sep 17 – Palo Alto Echelon Gran Fondo (Century)
Sep 25 – Santa Cruz Sentinel Triathlon (May skip on this)
Oct 2 – Ironman Pocono Mountains 70.3
Oct 9 – Steamtown Marathon
Oct 15 – Oktoberfest 5K Run
Oct 29 – Warrior Dash
Oct 30 – Monster Dash (10k)
Nov 24 – Silicon Valley Turkey Trot (10k)
Dec 4 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon
Dec 11 – Santa Cruz Jingle Bell Rock 5k

Whew, I think I burned 508 calories just compiling that list.

In other news – after saving up for a long time I finally was able to get a triathlon/TT bike – and for a pretty nifty price too!

2011 Felt B12. Excuse the ugly cabling housing – it will be fixed along with shortening the aero bars after I have my FIST fitting done. And excuse the backward seatpost bag – I couldn’t rig that stupid thing on there with the TT seat but I already fixed that.

Only been on two longer rides of about 50 miles with a bit of climbing and I’m in heaven. I shaved off a couple minutes of my Old La Honda time. Although I can probably smash it on my road bike now since it’s been a while since I tried and I should climb much better on that. Hah!

The real test will be in another week and a half at the Stanford Treeathlon at the Redwood Shores. I’m a terrible blogger and I don’t think I even recapped it last year. Shame on me.

I saw this posted somewhere on a forum and thought it was pretty fun – San Francisco locals should appreciate this. San Francisco neighborhoods by the bike type:

Anyone else an event-a-holic like me? Anyone doing some of the same events?

I accomplished quite a few things I’m proud of during 2010 that I never imagined I would even try in 2009. I completed my first Half Ironman, 2 Olympic distance and 2 sprint distance triathlons. I ran in 3 marathons, 2 half marathons and a whole ton of 10k and 5k’s. I rode 100 miles around the beautiful hills of Napa Valley. I was part of a relay team that ran 200 miles from Calistoga, CA to Davenport, CA. I did two ‘obstacle’ course running/cycle events. Whew. That makes me tired just typing all that out.

I set all my PRs in 2010. That wasn’t exactly hard since I started running in the later half of 2009 and was road cycling a couple years prior.

I lost a good amount of weight.

I traveled back to Scranton to visit family and friends!

The most impressive? I actually posted a few times in this blog. I’ve tried doing one of these a long time ago but never really found any kind of community. Now I kind of found one and I’m trying to find my little space in the world. Good times!

I spent the last couple weeks after the Rock and Roll Marathon in Vegas just veging about. I let my guard down a lot and ended up putting on a couple pounds more than I would have liked over the holiday. For example…

From Pluto's. Not sure how I got only a cookie at a salad place!

And not to be outdone by the humongous cookie I finally tried a BBQ place we’ve passed by countless times in Santa Clara and boy it was delicious.

Ribs, Briekt, Pulled Pork, Cajun Sausage and Chicken! Honorable mentions to the baked potato.

New years eve was, of course like every other year,  spent lounging around doing nothing. In fact I was taking my dog outside to go the bathroom when the day changed and I heard some people cheering about. Really exciting, eh?

We kicked off the beginning of the year the same way we did last year: running in the New Year Run For A Healthy World. I was fighting off the tail end of a cold/fever I had earlier so I knew it was not going to be a PR but it was fun anyway.

Oh god that heel strike. I thought I stopped doing that.

So yeah – nothing really exciting happened since my last update! But I did get an electric blanket for our “self” Christmas gift… but the beagle enjoys it the most.

Hope everyone had a great year. I’m going to get my 2011 tentative schedule up pretty soon.

So, did any of you do anything exciting for the new year? Or were you a lazy bum like me and stay home?

Bring it on, 2011!