Sunday, March 29, 2009

Weekend Training & a Newbie's First Triathlon..

OK this is a little long..

Wow, what a week of training it turned out to be since I was slacking during the beginning of the week. Mid-week I decided to get a hair cut so I went along with my dad to the Air Force Base. I guess this should have told me something but I did get my hair cut from there right when I moved here so I thought no worries, right? Well after telling the nice young lady how to cut it, it somehow turned into her own style and well.. it looks like I just in listed! Short all the way around. I kind of had a feeling it was going to be shorter than expected when she touched my head and I could feel it. Well it will grow back, so no worries.. but really sitting in front of a sign that says "We are the Experts in the Military Cut" I should have known they were gonna get me!

After looking around the base and seeing some cool stuff it was back to the house I was able to get a swim in later with some wicked cramping due to poor hydration during the day. So I climbed out of the water with 2000 completed. And I was actually feeling good otherwise, leaving me 500 short on the swim.

On Friday night I was at Forms house as we watch John John Molina go 15-0 with another TKO! John was totally prepared for the fight and although he took some hits, he was able to lay his power on the guy and just take him out in the 2nd Round! Nice job John John!

After the fight we went next door to neighbor Mike who was preparing for his 1st Sprint Triathlon on Saturday afternoon, called the Showdown at Sundown Triathlon. It was a Sprint and Olympic distances. So Form gave me some last minute pointers and he tried the wetsuit on that he was going to be using, then it was back to Forms to get to bed.

Saturday morning I was up early as I had to meet up with Southern Nevada Team in Training marathon group to help out. I got the run place, meet the coach and we got situated on the where I was to go. I was able to speak with some of the participants briefly at the start but was able to really talk with them more after the run. It was fun to be back with TNT and I even got to get in the group picture as I was told I was with the So. NV. Chapter now and had to be in it! They were all very welcoming and I look forward to being involved more with the marathon groups and hopefully as a Triathlon coach later this year!

After TNT was over, Form was riding his way over to the TNT park where they ran and were going to ride some more from there, but I could not get a hold of the speed demon so I left and fortunately I saw him flying down the road and turned around to chase him down. Once we got caught up we went back to his house and rode out from there for a nice painful hil climbing 50 mile experience in what is called Seven Hills.. but really it should be called like 42 hills or something b/c they are never ending in this Vegas subdivision. It was a great ride, I even got called an Asshole by some dipshit in his convertible b/c I had dropped some stuff out of my back pocket and I quickly turned around b/c I was not going to ride to the top of Ass Kicking Hill #X to turn around, come back down, get my stuff before it got ran over and then go back up ass kicking again. So I checked for traffic... dipshit was far off but oncoming.. and I went back down the rode about 100 meters on the wrong side and I guess he got scared or something b/c he slowed as I waited for him to clear and he called me an Asshole.. I just totally laughed as I picked up my stuff and Form told me I had missed the turn anyway so good thing I didn't go up that freakn' hill.. not that it mattered b/c he took me to another hill that was much worse! Thanks Dude! Oh and it was called "Democracy Hill" .. Not sure where that freakn' name came from b/c all I know it should have been called DICTATOR HILL b/c it will own your ass if you don't work your butt off to get to the top of it.. Long steady climb with a nice turn up in grade the last 5oo yards or so.. it sucked! but I did it and then we had super fun flying down the hill !!!

Oh.. I can talk about the last major long hill climb that Form totally dropped me on with his out of the saddle climbing and me trying to grind it out and real him back in but that didn't happen, I guess b/c I gave it hell on Democracy Hill or something.. But Form did a nice job on that hill and I was surely impressed at Mr. I'm Slow.. in the pool .. on the bike.. and run.. YA WHATEVER! This guy is machine getting ready for IM Cd'A.!!!

So once back at the house we quickly changed and headed for Mikes 1st Triathlon.. He was nervous as any 1st timer and it was great to see him and others like that as it brings back memories to when we were all in that 1st Triathlon position!!! Do you all remember yours? Mine was Americas Triathlon.. aka Capital of Texas Triathlon! So Mike was ready and went off in the last wave of guys and was out of the water in about 12 mins.. he did good and was glad to be done. The T1 was seriously long at Lake Las Vegas but its a nice place so off he went on the bike and we went to the watch the leaders come back on the bike .. where we saw the 2nd place guy totally miss the turn and as we all YELLED at him he kept going only to have the 1st place female who was 3rd on the bike overall follow him. Shit!! that's gotta totally suck! Luckily there was a police officer there with a motorcycle that quickly went after the lady and she quickly returned but the guy was way down the rode and by the time he came back he was in 4th or 5th, I cant remember. Then Form and I started yelling to the others to make the right turn and the cops got some more cones to make the turn more noticeable.. Not sure where the RD was on that one. We saw Mike come back and quickly ran to T2 and got some pics of him off on the run. He ran a quick 5k and got to see him finish as well! Nice job Mike! Afterwards we all went to dinner and enjoyed his post race review. I think we have another triathlete in the making.

Sunday I was out on the bike for a 25 mile windy crazy ride but I got it done and then transitioned to a nice 10k run. It was windy as well but manageable. I planned my run route so that my 10k mark I would basically still have about 4.5 miles back to the house and ran the 10k part a little harder than the last 4.5. Overall it was a good 10.5 mile run for me and it was somewhat hot so that helped in case RAGE is hot that day and/or windy. After I was able to jump in the pool which is now about 60-62*.. cold but very nice for an ice bath!

OK .. that's it for now.. sorry it was so long this time.. but good things are happening!!

Don't forget to jump over to Forms blog and wish him luck at California 70.3 this weekend!!

rockon`

5 comments:

Formulaic said...

What do you mean 'in case Rage is hot'?

Dude! It's Rage, you KNOW it's gonna be hot.

But after seeing you tear it up at seven hills, I know you are ready for Rage.

It's a good thing you had to turn back otherwise, I would have never have caught you!

Once you get going, there is no stopping you!

Keep it up!

teacherwoman said...

Nice haircut! :)

Lindsay said...

too funny about the haircut, guess you needed a more hardcore look.

RBR said...

Dude! So nice to virtually "meet" you! I have no cohesive thoughts so I am bulleting this baby:

1. Yeah, I am pretty over Formulaic's "I am so slow" BS. Well, as long as he is waiting at the CdA finish for me with pizza (I hear those fast SOBs eat it all after IM) I guess I will forgive him.

2. I am now very excited to meet you at Rage as well. Again, you all may be waiting at Stef's for a while. Feel free to start dinner without me ;o) I am the real slow, not Formulaic's fake slow.

3. Yay TNT!! I am a two season alumni and they gave me my start in all things endurance. Fun, enthusiastic coaches make all the difference. You will be great!

Ok, mammoth comment over. See you at Rage!

CoachLiz said...

Sweet haircut!

It makes you look like a triathlete. Kinda like Macca's cut.

Sorry I punked out on you Saturday night before you could fill me in on the weekend.