Back in the saddle

I went my first bike ride since... well, it's been a long time. I was trying to come up with excuses not to go: Los Angeles is on fire so the air quality is bad. I have a mountainous 10K tomorrow and I need to rest my legs. But I can ALWAYS find a reason not to do a ride and I need to break the habit so I went. The ride was hosted by Velo Studio, the bike shop about 2 blocks from my work. It was basically a ride to the river trail and back through Griffith Park, 24 miles.

At one point I think the ridemaster kind of yelled at me. I was pretty much chatting with Robert the entire first half of the ride, so we were bringing up the rear where it was easier to ride side-by-side. The I stopped to answer a phone call: it was AT&T, something about how I didn't "pay my bill" and they were going to "cancel my service". Seriously? They interrupted my ride for that nonsense? Anyway, as I was rejoining the group, the ride-nazi came back and told me "let's try to stay together." And I was thinking, "do you have any idea who I am? I'm WEDGIE!" I think he thought I was a newbie because he kept offering me lots of encouragement and very basic pointers.

He may have been closer to the mark than I care to admit. We did the standard Griffith Park hill climb on the way back, and I have to say- it was a little tough. In my defense, I had just run up that same hill last night at a decent pace and my legs were a little tight but still; I'm definitely behind where I need to be. And the bugs - probably the nastiest gnatiest day I've ever been out riding. They were swarming all over us. Awful.

Overall, a pleasant enough ride. There's a 70-mile L.A. River ride next month so I have to get my mileage back up pretty quickly but at least I'm starting.

Up, Up and Run Away!

This weekend I am doing a 10K. Normally, I wouldn't be too worried about a 10K race but this one is a bit of a doozy. I've been calling it the "Verdugo Hills 10K" but in actuality I just found out it's called the Verdugo MOUNTAINS 10K. The website says it's a "challenging" course with 1,745 feet of climbing.

I didn't have a good sense of what 1,745 feet really is, but I realized I had to do some hill training so I started running the bike loop we often do in Griffith Park after work. I knew that the bike course wasn't a huge hill but I thought it would be good base training. I've been running it for the past couple of weeks.

With the official race one week away, I thought it would be a good idea to do sort of a dress rehearsal and try some serious climbing. I decided I would start at the bottom of a hill (Travel Town) and then run uphill for 30 minutes (taking the detour road at the top of the bike loop). I didn't expect to make it a full 3 miles in 30 miles, but this was just going to be a practice run.

So I ran. Up and up and up. I was terrified to look at my watch, because I was worried I would think I was 20 minutes in and it would turn out to be only 12 (you know how time plays tricks on you when you're tired.) I kept ignoring the urge to check my time until I finally thought "OK, this HAS to be more than 20 minutes and I'll have less than 10 minutes to go." I looked down: 31 minutes. Woohoo! I had run pretty much constantly uphill for over 30 minutes and was still feeling pretty good. I rounded up to 35, turned around and rolled breezily down to my car.

I was feeling great! I had no problems with the hill and even though I knew it wasn't the full elevation I figured the excitement of race day would help me with the extra 200 feet or whatever I needed to do. When I got home, I charted my run to see how close I came to simulating this weekend's 10K:

That little orange bump is the regular "hill" run I've been doing for the past couple weeks. The green chart is the training run I was feeling so good about. That brown monstrosity in the background is what I actually have to do on Sunday. I'm screwed.

In hindsight, I probably should have looked at the elevation a little more closely a few weeks ago. At this point, there is nothing I can do about it. I'm hoping to make it at least 2 miles up the mountain before doing some walking but it's going to be a LOOOONNNNG 10K.

Boston

I never liked Boston.

I went to college equidistant from New York and Boston, and there was a definite clash of cultures: either you were a fan of a real city or you supported Boston. I've been to Boston several times, and it just never spoke to me. So I was never interested in doing the Boston Marathon. Sure, I would probably have to wait a few age group levels before I could even think about qualifying, but it was never even on my radar. Not interested.

But I get it. Boston is the marathon of marathons. It's a race that people dream about doing for years, decades, lifetimes. There are millions of runners out there who say "someday, I'll make it to Boston."

23,336 people started the 2013 Boston Marathon.

17,580 finished.

468 crossed the finish line after the bombs went off.

That number 468 amazes me. Many of those people had to run towards/past the explosions to get to the finish line, and they did. Many people did not see the explosions, just the total chaos of the aftermath, and they continued the race. Every individual racer had their own reason for making it to the finish line, whether it was determination or simply denial about what was happening around them, but I think it just says something about how important finishing this race was.

We see too many tragic news stories, but there is something different about Boston. If a train blows up, or an office building, the victims are mostly people going about their daily routines. But yesterday's victims were at the finish line of a race - every one of them gave up their day to come out and support a friend or a family member. Many of them traveled far to get there. I'm sure they spent hours tracking their individual racers, worrying about how they were doing with very little information. I know the stress and excitement of race spectating very well, and that's what the victims were doing that afternoon. They were there doing something GOOD.

On the other side of things, I don't know how many times I've been the racer and saw friends waiting for me at a finish line. It brings tears to my eyes to think that someone could come to watch me at a race to cheer me on and in an instant could wind up losing a leg. Or their life.

And I think about the Boston finishers, and those who couldn't finish. Their special day, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for many, was taken away from them. Their accomplishment is forever overshadowed by tragedy.

My favorite viral image of the day is this photo of the Brooklyn Academy of Music:

For this week at least, I ♥ Boston.

Staying Focused *** this is a good one, promise ***

I have a new car.

It's a 2013 Ford Focus Titanium. It has all sorts of fancy bells and whistles; the car can actually parallel park itself. (yes, it really works, and it's amazing.) It also has a bunch of other features that I'm just starting to learn about, and they're getting me in trouble.

I did a run in Griffith Park after work. Did the 3-mile loop around the golf course then got back to my car parked at the zoo. The car doesn't use an ignition key; instead, you have to have a special wireless key fob with you and you step on the brake while pressing the Start button. I was very sweaty and didn't want to climb into the car to start it up to get the A/C going. Fortunately, there was another option- you can start the car using a remote button on the key fob. So I did that instead. I was standing with the driver's door open and dumped my phone and the key fob on the driver's seat. I had a clean shirt, a towel, and some water in the footwell on the passenger side, so I walked to the other side of the car, instinctively closing the driver door.

As it turns out, when you remote-start the car, the car goes into a "security" mode and all the doors lock automatically. I was locked out of my car, with the engine running, staring at the keys and my phone on the front seat. Alone, in an empty parking lot at the zoo.

I spent about 5 seconds trying to shimmy a window open but I knew that wouldn't work. And I wasn't about to smash a window on my new car. I had no phone to call anyone, and even if I flagged someone down and asked to borrow their phone, who memorizes phone numbers anymore? We just speed-dial. I needed another option. I don't live very far from the zoo, so I figured I already did some running, might as well add a little distance.

It's very easy for me to get home from the zoo by car - it's only 1.5 miles by freeway.  But if you take the side streets, you have to cross two freeways and the L.A. River and it's a convoluted maze that's probably 4 or 5 miles. Well I wasn't about to run another 5 miles, so I just took the freeway. Now then, loyal readers may recall that I accidentally rode my bike on the freeway a few years ago. I took the same route, only this time it was intentional and on foot. If you don't count the on/off ramps, I was technically only on the 134 for about 1/4 mile so that isn't TOO bad. But it was rather loud and busy in the middle of rush hour. And I was surprised just how DIRTY the road was. There was garbage and car parts everywhere that you don't really notice when you're driving by.

Everyone asks me "weren't you worried a cop would see you?" Well, yes, but I wasn't worried about getting a ticket. I was more concerned about the embarrassment of having to explain how I locked my keys in a running car.

I made it home, used a hidden key to get inside, picked up the spare car key and my bike and rode back to the zoo. This time I stuck to the side streets. When I got back to the car, the engine was stopped. At first I was worried that I had run out of gas, but I guess the remote start just automatically turns off if you don't do anything after 10 or 20 minutes. I threw my bike in the back and drove home.

I've ridden my bike on the freeway. I've run on the freeway. Somehow, I suspect someday I will swim on the freeway.

Glendale Downtown Dash 5K

I really liked this race. Mostly because it was literally 5 blocks from home. I woke up, got dressed, and walked to the starting line. Very cool.

I was wearing a Disney Tri Team jersey, and some guy before the race wearing a Vineman T-shirt came up and asked me "are you still doing Tris?" I thought this was odd- did I look like a former triathlete? Did he think I was retired or something? Whatever. He did ask me if I had any races on the calendar, so I was glad I was able to say I was doing Ironman Cozumel.

The course itself was very flat, and was essentially 3 different out-and-back loops. This meant we were never more than 1/2 mile from the start and made the whole race seem very short and fast. We ran through the Americana shopping plaza, which is a pretty nice area but they didn't have the dancing fountains going. That would have been cool.

The mile markers were large fabric flags hanging from metal gates (like ski gates, not fence gates.) When I saw Mile 1, it seemed perfectly natural to run through the gate brushing under the flag. Except as it turns out, the markers weren't fabric. They were some form of really hard posterboard which I smashed my head against. I felt like an idiot and had a headache for the next 2.1 miles.

The online course map left out an important quarter-mile spurt PAST the finish line and then back again, so I thought I was having an amazingly fast pace as I started sprinting towards what I thought was the final couple hundred yards. I should have known better, and so I was a bit burned out for the last half-mile.

Still, overall it was a really good race. Radio Disney was there playing music and generating lots of family-friendly energy the way only Disney can do, and the whole thing just had a nice vibe to it. Will do it again.

Challenge Accepted

My first Ironman was Coeur d'Alene. Didn't really know what I was doing, but things seemed to work out OK.

Next was Wisconsin. I was a little smarter with my training that time: I knew it was a hilly race, so I spent a lot of time focusing the bike (much to the delight of Jon, who thinks triathlons are swim-bike-bike-bike-bike-run). The training paid off - I knocked 20 minutes off my bike time, on a more difficult course.

Then was Kona. I was never happy with my marathons, so I decided to focus on my running. It worked, and I beat my Wisconsin marathon time by 30 minutes. (Bike was 15 minutes slower, but with the Kona winds and some race strategy on my part, I'm not complaining.)

Now I have to do Cozumel. I feel like it's time I did some extra swim training. I know, I know... it's the least important leg to worry about. But I really never was a great swimmer, and I think I should try to improve my swim time (all 3 Ironman swims are within 5 minutes of each other.)

To this end, I made the goal to do 100 swim workouts before Ironman Cozumel in December. I mentioned this to Wisconsin Steve (former tri team swim coach) who didn't think it was very realistic for me. In fact, I have a $10 bet with him that I'll be able to do it. To track my progress, I have a 100ml graduated cylinder:

Here are the rules (made up by me, not necessarily agreed upon):

• For every swim workout I do, I'll add 1 ml of water.

• I can replace workouts lost due to evaporation.

• A workout must be at least 30 minutes of laps. Splashing around in the pool doesn't count.

• One hour or more of laps still only counts as one workout.

• Our 1/2 mile Malibu ocean swims count as a full workout regardless of time. (They're cold and choppy and I want full credit.)

I made the bet with Steve 2 weeks ago, and you may notice the cylinder is still empty. Yes, that's a bit of a problem but I think I'll be getting into the pool again at some point this month.

Rock 'n Roll Pasadena Half Marathon

My home is 6.2 miles from the Rose Bowl. That means that I travelled less distance driving to and from the event than I did actually racing it. Sweet.

I got to the race WAY too early- 5:15 and it was COLD. Probably one of the coldest race mornings I’ve been to. I had four layers of shirts/sweaters on and was still shivering. But by the time we were ready to start the race I was able to drop 2 layers and it was just warm enough to be comfortable.

I went out too fast for the first 5 miles or so. I knew I was going too fast. I told other people from Disney near me “I am going too fast and I am going to crash near the end.” Did I slow down? No. I knew better, but still didn’t do anything about it.

My friend Jana came out for support and saw me at mile 4, and told me she would have a Mtn. Dew for me when I looped back around mile 8. Let me tell you, there are few things more motivational than knowing you have a cold citrusy delicious Dew waiting for you. I started looking for Jana around mile 7, and then at one point I saw a woman in light blue   t-shirt about a block away. Well actually, with my eyesight all I could make out was a splotch of blue, but next to that blue was a glowing spec of neon green. My Dew! I took a few gulps, it was delicious. Jana told me to take the bottle with me and I REALLY wanted to, but I knew I would have just chugged the thing and gotten sick on it so I wisely returned it.

As I predicted, around mile 9 I started bonking a bit. Tri Team Coach Heather, who was running a far more steady pace than I was, caught up with me and we sorta did the last few miles together. (I would pass her a bit, she would pass me a bit, etc.)

Things didn’t really fall apart until mile 11 or so, where I just stopped running completely and stretched out for a bit. It’s a shame because I was so close to the end, but the legs just weren’t there anymore. Still, I don’t think I walked more than 2/10 of a mile total, so overall it wasn’t bad.

I predicted a 2:20 finish time and came in at 2:17. It was not a great race time-wise, but considering where I am in my training I was actually very happy. My longest run in 18 months was last week’s 10-miler where I was having some foot problems, but everything seemed to be OK today.

This was my first “Rock n Roll” race. Overall, I liked it. Parking was a breeze, there were   porta-potties-a-plenty, and everything just seemed to run smoothly. If there was a weak part of the race it was, ironically, the music. Maybe Pasadena has a noise-ordinance, but the bands along the course did not seem very loud to me. And some of the songs they were playing when I went by seemed kind of mellow. I’d much rather have a DJ playing high-energy songs to get me going. There was however a traditional Asian drumming group around mile 5 or so and they were very cool. Also, all of the local school cheerleading squads were great.

After the race a group of us went to “La Grande Orange Cafe” for brunch. I went into the bathroom to wash up (I could not believe how much sweat salt I had on my face!) Another guy came in to wash up wearing a race shirt. I made some small talk: “How was the race?” “It was good.” I told him “yeah, my legs feel a bit tight now but overall it was a good race.” Then he said something odd: “I feel fine. I stretched for 30 minutes after the race. When you’ve done as many of these as I have, you start to learn the tricks.”

OK buddy... First of all, I don’t know how many races you’ve done, but this ain’t my first rodeo either. I know a thing or two about recovery, and there is nothing wrong or unusual about being sore after a race. Second, there is absolutely no reason for you to be stretching for 30 minutes after a half marathon. Come on. Seriously? After you cross the finish line, walk it off for a few minutes then hand in your coupon for a free drink in the beer garden. Done.

I didn’t have much of an appetite so I nibbled on a burger, but as we were leaving they had a tray of free chocolate chip cookies. They were soft and chewy and were covered in large chunks of... salt. Yes, salt. Now I don’t know if this is just the dehydration talking but those cookies were AWESOME. I should have skipped the burger and just chowed down on the cookies. Amazing.

So overall, a fine day. The Agoura Hills Half Marathon is next month, and it’s a lot hillier than Pasadena. It’s on the radar, but I’ll recover for another day or 2 before I make a decision about doing that as well.