Race day!!

Woke up @ 6am to my alarm. Groaned for a bit, then got up. Dreading race day diarrhea, i stay away from the yewzj oatmeal+milk+yogurt+protein powda, and instead eat 2 slices of wheat bread wif a couple schmears of peanut butter, and a banana with garlic hummus scooped onto each bite. The banana/hummus combo is quite taystie, must remember it for the future. Went thru my checklist and made sure i didnt forget my wetsuit or something lame as hell like I did in training last week, and then loaded up my bike and crap into the car and I was off!~~

Arriving at the location was pretty kewl. Saw an even larger amount of gosu bikes, racked 3-4 per car, on top and on back, the excitement built. I met up with joanna, joe, and wade, and after setting up our areas, we took a warmup run to check out the water. Also...there were like 6 porta potties for liek the 800+ ppl that were there...sux to be a girl, lawl. Anyways, felt the water, twas hella cold as expected. Ran back, put on wetsuits, then walked back to the start area. Watched the first waves of collegiate males and females go off, and then it was time for us to enter the water. Met some other pinoys Jon and Jeremy doing their first tris like me, and one of them had a half ironman scheduled for next month, O_O!~~

I got into the water and twas pretty shocked. It was actually an open water start, so we had to swim ~2-300 meters out. I guess it was good because it allowed me to warm up. I coudlnt put my head underwater for maybe the first 40% of it, but i knew I would have to in order to swim well...so by the time I reached the starting area, i felt gooder and could swim with my face in the water. The start sucked, all these noobs swam up in front of me and got in the way. The first 100 or so was spent weaving around them or getting swam on by someone behind me that wasnt looking. I stopped often to see where i was and to figure out where to go. The water was soMurky™ that you couldnt see anything anyways, lawl~~ I swallowed a big mouf full of salt water in the very beginning of the swim, so i felt like throwing up for the rest of the 450m...X_X. Something about salt water + exhaustion induced fear of drowning into me...but i just kept turning my arms and eventually made it to the docks.

There were liek 8 guys on the docks just pulling swimmers out of the water. I banged my groin on the way up, gay...but had no time to "AHHH *gasp* AHHH *gasp*" peter griffin stylee, and just ran up the ramp and started running back towards the transition area, like 1/4 mile away, barefoot. Jon was actaully on the side taking pics and cheering, it was prettyEncouraging™. T1 went alright, got there and stripped off my wetsuit. The guy on the other side of the rack (cervelo p2) knocked down someone elses bike onto mine, so we picked i tup and that wasted liek 5s ~_~. Got my cleats, shades, and helmet on, picked up mah clif shot blocks, and started running towards the mounting area.

I got onto my bike and entered the lollipop loop. I tried to go onto my handlebars so i could opent he cliff shots packet, but there were a bunch of riders passing me and i was wobbling...so i just went caveman on it and ripped it open with mah teef. Ate a few blocks, drank some water, and then held onto the rest. By now im starting to pass people, but at the same time the pros and collegiates are passing me too. Oh yeah..whent he guy knocked down the bike onto mine, he jarred loose my wheel sensor, so i had no speedometer for the entire cycling portion of the race. I just followed some guys and used my own RPE to determine how fast to go. On the third (final) lap i picked up the pace and passed up the guy i was pacing. Polished off the remaining shot blocks, then took my feet of my cleats while still pedaling to the dismount area.

I ran about 100 yds to T2, parked my bike, tossed off hemet and glasses, and quickly laced up my shoes. I already had socks on from putting them on in T1, so I didnt have to do that. They were a bit wet because i didnt take time to dry my feet off after the swim portion, and the ground was wet in random places as well. I took off down the running portion of the race...but quickly experienced my worst leg pain in quite a while. Both calves were cramped, and I could barely run, but then i saw Jon taking pics again and yelling "TRY HARDER!!"" lol. I yelled back that my legs werent working and i wanted to die already and it was so hard (thats what she said).

Passed by an aid station, guzzled some gatorade for electrolyte replenishment, and immediately wanted to throw up. Cursed, and kept going. Passed the 1 mile marker sign. Start pacing this guy in front of me, but my stomach and legs feel like shit and my leg turnover is noticeably decreasing. I pass by a girl in a stanford uniform who looks to be in more pain than I am. The guy in front of me pulls away. I pass another aid station and take a sip of water, dont dare stomach the rest in case it makes me feel even more worser. At around miel 1.5 i feel gooder tho, and get back into stride. I pass the mile 2 marker, then the turnaround, and then pass up the guy I was pacing. I increase my pace until I know i'm about a quarter mile out, then i just go balls out all cylinders to the finish line, passing liek 12 more peeps ^_^~~

I see jon taking pics and yelling again and manage to throw up a peace sign while im sprinting, lol. Meet up with joe at the end and turns out i only finished a few minutes behind him, not too shabby for first run! NOICE~~ But yeah, grab some oranges, eat a bagel, grab some water, n then head back to jon so we can cheer joanna when she comes in. She blazes by, we yell, and all is well~ And that was my first triathlon experience! 500m swim, 20km bike, 5km run in 01:11. Ill get the official times and some pics later, but it was quite the experience. Next to pop is my olympic distance tri cherry V(^_^)V~~

ONE DAY OUT!!! ~

Oh, hai~~~ Here I am 1 day out from the Stanford Treeathlon. Am pretty worried about race day diarrhea and other annoying crap like that. I went for an open water swim last weekend with my friend joanna, and omfg it was hella cold...perhaps mid 40° water..X_X. I couldnt even put my face in for more than a few strokes, and when i first jumped in, i couldnt move and was gasping for breath for a minute or two....major ruh roh to worry about come race day. Did a hard 15 mi bike after that....hips and quads major hurted for a day or 2 X_X. I breally need to practice more long/hard rides and also brick some runs into that training too. Quarry lakes is a super noice place to train dough...imma prolly go back if i sign up for another tri. Open water swim plus long and uncrowded trail nearby, win O_O~!

Here are some pics of the gear i picked up @ sports basement. Love the parties that give u 20% off...too bad i couldnt couple it with mah AAA 10% discount, else it wouldve been a hella good deal O_O~~

700x23c Continental gatorskins. lots of good feedback from friends that ride these. flat resistant and much less rolling resistance than my current 700x30c treads.

Blueseventy synergie wetsuit. I wanted an orca sonar, loved the feel and fit...but they had the 2009 models on teh same rack as the 2010s...so when i got to the register i found out it was $70 more den i tot...so had to bring it back and find anudder one T_T.

Halfway thru T1 transition. As soon as i get out of the water, unzip wetsuit halfway and run to transition area. Tri suit is underneath and ready to go~~

With race bib and swim cap/goggle ensemble.

Reading up on pre-race nutrition, and coupled with my hyperactive GI tract, I will avoid eating any fiber whenever possible for the next 24 hours. Im not sure if its all the training, or all the fiber i normally eat...but i have to crap liek 2x a day and it feels super gassy and painful, but comes out smoothly and almost diarrhea-like. Its pretty annoying...but at least it isnt real diarrhea...?? Imma be hella pissed if it happens on race day dough X_X.

Went to pick up my race packet today and ride around the course to get an idea of what i'll hab to go thru tomollo. It was prettyWindy™, but with a lot of smooth patches of road, and some ruff ones. Got there too early and rode around, ran into one of the race coordinators (Keeren or Karen) and helped set up stuff. She looked liek she could pwn mah noob ass tomollo, and prolly will. But got some info and chitchatted abt the race, so that was kewl beanz. Saw a lot of cars ride in with pretty awesome bikes....yoikes! some cervelo and orbea, all TT bikes...
This is Fiorella, mah bebe i will ride tomollo. Those super thick tires gonna be replaced with some thinner slicks. Perhaps I will need to get her a TT companion later if i decide to get super cereal about triathlons O_O~~

Oh I also worked on my transitions earlier this afternoon...it went sumpin like this:

1) Run to bike cleats and put them on
2) Put on helmet and shades
3) Get on bike, clip in, and ride around the block
4) Take feet out of cleats while riding and continue pedaling back to my stuffs
5) Dismount, get into running shoes, run off~

Did it about 10 times, first time was around 02:30, got it down to 02:07 by the last run. Race day will be more complicated with the wetsuit and other peopels crap in the way, but i feel much gooder having practiced it today~~

Ok thats all for now, RACE TOMOLLO!!~!~ X_X

FIRST!!!

Wellp, decided to be one of those forum douches and just proclaim that I own the first, post, evarr~~ This blog will track my training highs and lows on the journey to Ironman, hence the blog title Triathlete in Training, or TiT for short. I didnt wanna steal team in training's acronym, plus they tried to avoid being called TIT, so i guess thats a win for meh, lawl ^_^~~. Nehoo, the biggest obstacle on that journey has actually been conquered - that obstacle being my struggle with rampant fatassery in all its overeating, unhealthy eating, couch potato glory X_X. Ironman triathlons cost upwards of $500 to compete in...so looks like i need a raise before i can try one O_O!

I signed up for a sprint distance triathlon 2 weeks ago, and have <2 weeks left to train before the event happens! I picked up a wetsuit and tri suit yday, as well as some conti gatorskins. My current 700x30c hybrids wont really cut it for competition. Training is going well, I do a 5.5mi loop around work every afternoon, and bike or swim at night. I have yet to do an open water swim, so that could be trouble, but hopefully can get one in this weekend O_O! I haven't practiced any transitions yet either, so this could be quite entertaining... Saturday could be an open water swim/bike brick, and Sunday i plan to do 25-30mi bike/5mi run brick.

Mmm thats about all for now, it is time to sleep. More pics and training info later~~