It was my first real day in the city. I could hear all the honking cars, sirens and construction that had been going on since about 7am. Coming from Boulder I am used to birds chirping, squirrels climbing on trees and the occasional dog bark. I decided to jump start the day with one of those yoga classes I had found on line the night before. According to the map it was just an elevator ride and one block down the way.
Walking to class made me realize why there were so many yoga classes in the area, There was so much foot traffic that no doubt everyone on the side walk was a constant stress case. I was in awe of how many people there were. I have been to the city many times before but this just seemed unusually high. Maybe it was because Martha Stewart films her show just across the street? Although, who really wants to go see her? "And now we will be making a beautiful and tasty center piece out of fruits and chocolates" *SNORE*
The Yoga studio was on the third floor. It was Beikram yoga like I had been doing back in Boulder which means the room should be around 100-103 degrees. I had become so addicted to it in Boulder that I couldn't wait to get my sweat on! When I got to the studio it seemed really nice inside. Everything was zen as usual and the woman at the front, who was also going to be the instructor, seemed very pleasant as well. She asked me if I had done hot yoga before and I told her I had and was really enjoying it etc. She also asked me if I would like to buy a water for the class. Normally I don't drink water during the class. I seem to be fine and just hydrate after. I told her I would pass. She looked at me as if I was one of those guys who has to do everything the "macho" way and prove themselves. Really I wasn't, I just don't drink water in classes.
Once I was signed in she went over a very strict policy that the studio has. It says ONCE IN THE ROOM YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THE ROOM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Basically they want you to stay in the room and go into child's pose or something if it gets too hot. I was like "fine whatever". I wasn't planning on leaving anyway. I signed the notice and went to change into my shorts.
The class was just about to start and I walked into the room directly followed by the instructor who proceeded to close the door. "HOLY HELL! WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!!!!" I had not been in the room yet but when I did the smell was seriously making me want to vomit. Literally I had some dry heaves and developed a minor moment of panic. I looked down and saw that the room was carpeted. How can a hot yoga studio have carpet!!! There were about 7 others in the room. As I tried my best to breathe though my mouth I looked around trying to make some eye contact with anyone that might share my issue with the smell in the room. Nobody seemed to have issue but me. All these crazy bitches were breathing hard through their noses and exhaling with that "HAAAAAAAAAAA" sound. The room was extra hot as well. I was used to hot but the temp in here was CRAZY hot. Honestly you could have baked a pizza in there.
My manly pride did get the best of me and I missed my chance to run out of there before the class started. I set my mat up and quickly went over to get some water in the spray bottles that you use on the soft matt to help you from slipping. I didn't pay attention to the bottle I was grabbing and before I knew it I was spraying matt cleanser all over the place. Honestly I didn't care because it was the best smelling thing in the room. I sprayed the shit out of my matt. Sure I would probably have soap bubbles on the mat by mid class but I didn't care! I even managed a quick spray on my finger and rubbed it on my nose to try and kill the smell of the room! The girl next to me saw me do that and moved her matt over a bit LOL. I think people in the room could sense my discomfort. How was I going to make it for an hour 30 of this. I was in Yoga HELL.
Once we all got to the top off our mats for the opening breathing exercises I was getting a bit acclimated to the smell. Or maybe it was the ammonia in my nose? Anyway, as soon as the class started, the instructor who had put on a Madonna like headset was now shouting out commands at mach one to us. Was this really happening? She sounded like a yogi auctioneer. "SHiiiiiivasinavasinavasinavasinavasina, DOWNWARD DOG, UP DOG, DOWNWARD DOG going once, twice SOLD to the lady doing Cobra in the back row!" It was the most uncalled for way to run a yoga class. She kept telling us to "stretch, go further, FURTHER, feel the pain, go beyond the pain, pain is good" etc. Since when is pain a good idea in a yoga class?
My past experience in yoga has been that time can go by rather fast. Classes for me in Boulder are over before I know it. It was no wonder that when I looked up and saw the clock I only had about 45 min to go. Thank the lord! I was already dying of the heat and smell. My matt was soaked and in fact did have a few bubbles on it from the soap spray. Of course the room stank like bad booty as most of my sweat was rolling onto the carpet.
We were doing some poses that had us facing the front mirror for most of the time. But finally the yoga auction was going to take a break and she had us turn around and face the back wall for some seated stuff. My relief of all the standing pose came to a halt when I realized that all this time, which I thought was a lot, was in fact almost nothing. I had been looking at the clock in the mirror. In reality only about 15 min had gone by. How can one mistake 45 min when it is actually only 15? It must have been the heat. I don't know. All I did know was that hope was fading away and I had well over an hour left in the room. I was so thirsty, so hot, so miserable and so annoyed! There wasn't even anyone hot to look at in the room. In fact there was only one guy who was in front of me. He was mid 30's, somewhat over weight and needed a good back waxing. I didn't care. I was desperate. I gave him a mental make over LOL Not bad.
As I cleaned up Mr. Big (We'll call him that to stay in line with the Sex and The CITY theme. Besides he was in fact "big") I noticed he had two bottles of water with him. Only one had been opened and the other was totally full with delicious beads of moisture running down it like it was about to be shot for an Aquafina add. I wanted it bad. I needed it! I MUST HAVE IT! We were all down on all fours doing some easier stuff and I was trying as best I could to get "Big's" attention. All I needed to do was make him understand that I had to have that water and that I would get him a new one when it was over. That is alot harder to do with just your the eyes. I suppose I could have said something as Miss Crazy teaching the class was so loud that you probably wouldn't hear me whisper. Alas I couldn't make contact. I thought about just grabbing the bottle and acting like it was mine but I could totally see myself grabbing it and running to a corner in the room screaming "IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE!" A heat induced tantrum.
I was screwed. I had exhausted everything at this point and was stuck in the room for another 50 min with no water and no hope. We were in triangle pose and I was looking up at my hand as hoards of water came running down my arm at my face. It was at that moment that my inner Miagi kicked in. "You want race Kona! You need deal better with heat!" This whole class was in many ways like my 5 miles of crap on the run last year in Kona. When I realized that I decided that this was my lesson for the class. Sure I was uncomfortable and things stunk (literally). The only thing I could control now was my mind and holding poses. Everything else was out of my control. I decided to go deep within and stay centered for the rest of this class. I focused more on the poses and less on everything else. Of course Miss Crazy had to add one more element and turned up the heat a notch. As if we weren't all dying already! I figured at some point I would stop sweating all together. I mean how much water can I actually have in my body.
We got down to the last 5 min in class. I had made it!!! I felt so much better and really think that if anything this class was mental training for Hawaii. Well it was training for any situation in life that is beyond uncomfortable. When I picked my mat up water went everywhere. I really didn't give a shit. That studio deserved to have a giant puddle left from me. I was leaving my mark!
I took the biggest breath of my life when I got out of there and ran for the shower. I had thought for a while that I would buy several waters and chug them but now I was kinda interested to see how much water weight I had lost. I held back and stumbled my way back to cliffs. He had a scale at the Apt and when I got on I was 152 pounds! Normally I weigh around 161-164! Even if it read low, that was still some decent water loss. I grabbed a huge jug and even found some Salt stick pills and took it all in while again having a nice ice cold shower.
Later that day we were going to head out on a ride into the park. It is about 20 blocks from Cliffs place which would mean some serious city riding for me. I can only imagine what kind of blog worthy stuff it will bring!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
BDC in The City.
A while back I agreed to take some time away from my Boulder life and go to The Big Apple to train a bit with my buddy Cliff Scherb (a.k.a Cliff Bar, but I guess now that I have the Power Bar Sponsorship I should just go back to calling him Cliff). Cliff started an online coaching company called Tri Star Athletes ( www.tristarathlete.com ) and we thought it would be fun to do an inner city camp for all the die hards he coaches here in Manhattan.
I was very excited to go on this trip especially because I wasn't going to bring my bike. Cliff has and extra Scott road bike that he was going to let me use. The last time I came into the city with my bike was a complete nightmare! Not having to deal with all that and save on the added costs got my trip off to a very enjoyable start.
When I got on the plane I could tell right away that it was a NY based crew. Everything is very "to the point", efficient and has just a hint of friendliness so that they don't come off rude. It was very impressive the way they can say "All you's people needs ta sit down now!" and not be rude. True skill.
Anyway, somehow I got stuck sitting in front of this woman that had two over grown monkeys...I mean kids...that decided to scream and climb all over the seats for the entire flight. When the flight attendant came by with her cart there was no hint of friendliness but instead a rather large dose of an "un friendly" hint. "Lady your kids cant be climbing all overs the seats and screaming bloody murder while the captains got the seat belt sign on! Are you crazy or something?.....Pretzels?" Okay she didn't say all that but when she got to me I gave her the eye roll and wink letting her now that all of us passengers would back her up if she decided to go off on this women. She didn't and I just got my usual extra snack, a shoulder squeeze and wink back from her. *Sigh*
I of course forgot my headphones and with the new airline crunch they weren't giving any out for free. Jet Blue had the Wimbledon Final on so at least I could watch something that really didn't need the sound. The match between Federer and Nadal was so good it took my mind off the screaming, chair rocking and occasionally peanut flying over my seat. I really wanted Nadal to win. I love Roger and think he is an awesome Tennis player but I go for the underdog 99% of the time. When Nadal took it in the 5th set I found out how many people were watching the match. The entire plane made this huge gasp. You would have thought we were going down. The lady sitting in the aisle across from me was a real hoot as well. She was a blonde (dyed for sure) in her 40's (total cougar) that looked as if she may have been trying to make it in LA for a few years and finally realized Tinsel Town wasn't calling and decided to cart her ass back to NYC. She was watching as Nadal gave his speech and she had her head set on and I am assuming that her ears were a bit clogged because she kept going "AWWWWEEEEEEEE...." followed by a lip smack sound that was so freaking loud you could no doubt hear it from both ends of the plane. Literally every 5 seconds "AWWWEEEEEEEE.....*lip smack*" I couldn't control myself and started laughing. I was so embarrassed because she could tell I was laughing at her. Luckily the captian started the final descent although I would have liked to get up and go to the can so I could stop my laughing. "Awwwwweeeeee *lip Smack*"
I will admit that I felt a little displaced when I got into the airport. I have become so accustomed to traveling in smaller cities except for LAX where I really know where I am going. Here it is like a zoo. Actually it is a public zoo like Lincoln Park. What a dump! But I guess that is part of the lure to NYC.
Cliff had given me two choices to get to his place. I could either take a cab or hop on the train. I only had one bag so I decided to catch the subway. Honestly, taking a cab is like doping. It is expensive and totally cheating! Getting the train was no big deal but when I got off at 23rd st. I soon found out that I was in Queens rather than Manhattan. A cab was tempting but I just got back on the train and took one that was headed towards Manhattan. The great thing about NYC is that you have plenty of landmarks to go off. Cliff was right down the street form the Empire State Building so I just got off when I was in Manhattan and walked towards that.
When I made it to the apt I was quite impressed with the pad. The last time I stayed at a friends in NYC, the bed took up the whole place. cliffs was more like Jerry Seinfeld's place. I can do this for a week!
I settled in and got on line to see if I could find some Yoga classes in the area. Sure enough I found plenty and figured I could go all week for free. Then cliff and I walked downstairs to Whole Foods. It was just like being in Boulder but I was trapped in cement! Hopefully I won't die when we go on some rides. I'm sure there will be plenty to write about in the next few days.
Cheers,
bdc
I was very excited to go on this trip especially because I wasn't going to bring my bike. Cliff has and extra Scott road bike that he was going to let me use. The last time I came into the city with my bike was a complete nightmare! Not having to deal with all that and save on the added costs got my trip off to a very enjoyable start.
When I got on the plane I could tell right away that it was a NY based crew. Everything is very "to the point", efficient and has just a hint of friendliness so that they don't come off rude. It was very impressive the way they can say "All you's people needs ta sit down now!" and not be rude. True skill.
Anyway, somehow I got stuck sitting in front of this woman that had two over grown monkeys...I mean kids...that decided to scream and climb all over the seats for the entire flight. When the flight attendant came by with her cart there was no hint of friendliness but instead a rather large dose of an "un friendly" hint. "Lady your kids cant be climbing all overs the seats and screaming bloody murder while the captains got the seat belt sign on! Are you crazy or something?.....Pretzels?" Okay she didn't say all that but when she got to me I gave her the eye roll and wink letting her now that all of us passengers would back her up if she decided to go off on this women. She didn't and I just got my usual extra snack, a shoulder squeeze and wink back from her. *Sigh*
I of course forgot my headphones and with the new airline crunch they weren't giving any out for free. Jet Blue had the Wimbledon Final on so at least I could watch something that really didn't need the sound. The match between Federer and Nadal was so good it took my mind off the screaming, chair rocking and occasionally peanut flying over my seat. I really wanted Nadal to win. I love Roger and think he is an awesome Tennis player but I go for the underdog 99% of the time. When Nadal took it in the 5th set I found out how many people were watching the match. The entire plane made this huge gasp. You would have thought we were going down. The lady sitting in the aisle across from me was a real hoot as well. She was a blonde (dyed for sure) in her 40's (total cougar) that looked as if she may have been trying to make it in LA for a few years and finally realized Tinsel Town wasn't calling and decided to cart her ass back to NYC. She was watching as Nadal gave his speech and she had her head set on and I am assuming that her ears were a bit clogged because she kept going "AWWWWEEEEEEEE...." followed by a lip smack sound that was so freaking loud you could no doubt hear it from both ends of the plane. Literally every 5 seconds "AWWWEEEEEEEE.....*lip smack*" I couldn't control myself and started laughing. I was so embarrassed because she could tell I was laughing at her. Luckily the captian started the final descent although I would have liked to get up and go to the can so I could stop my laughing. "Awwwwweeeeee *lip Smack*"
I will admit that I felt a little displaced when I got into the airport. I have become so accustomed to traveling in smaller cities except for LAX where I really know where I am going. Here it is like a zoo. Actually it is a public zoo like Lincoln Park. What a dump! But I guess that is part of the lure to NYC.
Cliff had given me two choices to get to his place. I could either take a cab or hop on the train. I only had one bag so I decided to catch the subway. Honestly, taking a cab is like doping. It is expensive and totally cheating! Getting the train was no big deal but when I got off at 23rd st. I soon found out that I was in Queens rather than Manhattan. A cab was tempting but I just got back on the train and took one that was headed towards Manhattan. The great thing about NYC is that you have plenty of landmarks to go off. Cliff was right down the street form the Empire State Building so I just got off when I was in Manhattan and walked towards that.
When I made it to the apt I was quite impressed with the pad. The last time I stayed at a friends in NYC, the bed took up the whole place. cliffs was more like Jerry Seinfeld's place. I can do this for a week!
I settled in and got on line to see if I could find some Yoga classes in the area. Sure enough I found plenty and figured I could go all week for free. Then cliff and I walked downstairs to Whole Foods. It was just like being in Boulder but I was trapped in cement! Hopefully I won't die when we go on some rides. I'm sure there will be plenty to write about in the next few days.
Cheers,
bdc
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Half Naked Cougar Spotted In South Boulder.
Well I am back in Boulder after a week of really "bummer" weather in Canada. Ben and I went to watch the ITU World Cup race in Vancouver which was pretty awesome. I have never been to an ITU race before. Matt Reed was racing and I was stoked on that as I have never seen him race in person either. Fifth over all and a damn gutsy effort our there! I hooked up with Kelly (his wife) to watch the race and got a little race of my own helping her run after her very energetic two year old!
Anyway, when I got back to Boulder I was very excited to see my peeps. Teressa Rider who is abandoning us all for a, get this, "MAN" was going to come over to my house for a run before she flew off to be with that "MAN"! Teressa of course had on one of her super cute Jagged running outfits. A nice spandex bottom with a very small jog bra top thingie-ma-whats-it. Shit, if I was rocking her body you can bet I would have something cute like that on too...
The run was nice. I went her pace which is a bit slower than mine and that afforded me to run a tad longer time wise with her. She was complaining that she had a stomach ache when we turned around. Apparently she had a decent amount of beets for lunch. Who hasn't gone for a run where you had a little too much in the belly? Normally when I have these problems my running companion gets blasted with some pretty toxic farts of mine. I'm a little notorious....
We got to about 33 min into it and Teressa wanted to run further before we went back. I had been having issues with my foot again since the race and didn't want to go further so I told her that I would just wait on this bridge near the East Boulder Rec Center while she ran out and back to a parking lot. Teressa has been known to get lost on her way to the bathroom in her own house so I thought it would be safe sending her on this out and back. "Just follow the stream and turn around when you get to the parking lot". She looked around as if to get the land marks in her head before she took off. "OUT AND BACK! GO!"
I waited patiently on the bridge stretching, enjoying the views, finding my inner zen so that I don't go into freak out mode if my foot decided to hurt the next morning. When I noticed that I was feeling quite calm I also noticed that it was because so much time had passed and the Cougar was taking a really long time to do this out and back. "I swear to god....if she got lost....."
A little more time goes by and this women comes running over to me. "Are you Brandon?" she says. "Yeah I am." I must say I was concerned now. Something was definitely wrong because this woman seemed very nervous about whatever she was about to tell me.
"Well your friend is in a bit of distress." Oh shit she's probably hurt I thought. "Ummm she is down by the creek and is bottomless." I don't think my mind registered what she said right away but then I got it and thought, has Teressa pulled a Margo Kidder (Lois Lane) and gone nuts, taken her bottoms off and started running around South Boulder? I know she has been a bit stressed these days but...
"Actually she was going to the bathroom by the creek and some man startled her and she dropped her bottoms and they went down the creek and she couldn't get them. So she is just naked by the side of the creek." When I stopped laughing I had to actually grab the woman's arm and ask her if she was serious. "For REAL!?!" There was no joke here. Teressa was somewhere down South Boulder Creek trying to get it renamed to Beaver Creek. I hoped to god she wasn't running towards the bridge with her hands over her WHO HA. I was fully prepared to pretend I didn't know her and run off! But then I realized how "real" this situation was and that her bottoms were not coming back. I started running down the trail calling out her name. I figured she wouldn't be easy to see so I was looking near bushes and stuff. The women had told me that she was trying to hide near a bridge.
I ran all the way to the parking lot and couldn't find her. It was funny because for some reason when I was calling out her name I was whispering. I was waiting for a "Psst. BDC, I am over here and I lost my knickers." That didn't happen so I started to ask a few people if they had possible seen a small, fit, 1/2 naked Aussie women running around. Most said no, key word MOST, and after I told them why she was 1/2 naked they gave me this look like "That's what you get for having sex with your girlfriend down by the creek!" Now I was getting embaraced. Well, okay I wasn't. I admit, I was feeling like a stud. "uhhh yeah, that's it, she couldn't resist me and made me take her right here on the trail." Everyday I understand the straight male mentality a little bit better...
So when I didn't find her and had asked every person around me if they had seen her, and quite a few had, it gave me the idea that she had gotten help from someone. With that I decided to run back to the house and hope she was there.
When I got back my roommate Lindsay was home and I asked her if Teressa was here and she said no. When I told her what happened she immediately went into "nurse" mode (she's a nurse) and got some shorts a towel and grabbed her car keys STAT! "Come ON! She can't be left out there with no bottoms!" I explained that I didn't know where we should look so she said that we should go to the parking lot. That was where Miss Godiva was spotted last.
Lindsay who is a runner as well couldn't understand why she would take off her bottoms all the way to go to the bathroom. I was dumbfounded as well. I mean Teressa is a veteran athlete, multiple Kona Age Group Champion and was 17th overall at the LA Marathon in her FIFTIES. There is no way this is the first time she has pulled a road side service dump. I was really looking forward to an explanation on this one. We couldn't come up with anything.
Lindsay and I decided to split up when we got to the parking lot. She took the towel and drove over to East Boulder Rec and I took the shorts and ran the track. I couldn't find her again and when I made to East Boulder Rec I went inside and asked the front desk if anyone nude had come in lately. They looked at me like I was nuts but I really didn't want to explain the story. So I left and sat outside waiting for Lindsay to come here. Hopefully she had found her.
Lindsay rolls up in the car and sure enough the cougar had been caged. They were both laughing hysterically. When I got to the car I looked down and she had a United Airlines blanket wrapped around her waist. Apparently some guy ran back to his car and gave it to her. He later saw her running up and down the trail looking for me. His exact words were "Oh, good job. You are going to finish your run."
Teressa was in shock at how many people had been on the trail. "Bloody HELL. There were couples, baby joggers, dog walkers FRICKEN HECK! I just said "Hi" and pretended nothing was wrong. It wasn't until some man offered me some help by getting this blanket." Then she proceded to talk about how cute the blanket was with her top LOL!!! You should have seen how she had it on. It looked taylored!
The only thing left was to get the scoop on why she had taken her bottoms off. Well, she did have stomach problems and went to use a Port-A-potty but, well, just didn't get there fast enough. DOOH! Don't laugh, we have all been there. When she saw the creek she thought "Oh I can just walk down and rinse them out." While in the process of this some man said hi to her and she freaked and dropped them and the current took them away. I guess this actually leads to another question. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUMP IN AFTER THEM!!!!" With my little Cougar, we may never know.
Fear not Boulderites. The 1/2 Naked Cougar spotted in South Boulder has been caught and transferred to Seattle for the next week. She will be released back into the Boulder wildlife for another two months when she returns so make sure you keep on the lookout!
P.S.- In order for me to get permission to tell this story I had to ad that I am the only one that gets to call her "Cougar". All others must refer to her as Kitten.
Cheers,
bdc
Anyway, when I got back to Boulder I was very excited to see my peeps. Teressa Rider who is abandoning us all for a, get this, "MAN" was going to come over to my house for a run before she flew off to be with that "MAN"! Teressa of course had on one of her super cute Jagged running outfits. A nice spandex bottom with a very small jog bra top thingie-ma-whats-it. Shit, if I was rocking her body you can bet I would have something cute like that on too...
The run was nice. I went her pace which is a bit slower than mine and that afforded me to run a tad longer time wise with her. She was complaining that she had a stomach ache when we turned around. Apparently she had a decent amount of beets for lunch. Who hasn't gone for a run where you had a little too much in the belly? Normally when I have these problems my running companion gets blasted with some pretty toxic farts of mine. I'm a little notorious....
We got to about 33 min into it and Teressa wanted to run further before we went back. I had been having issues with my foot again since the race and didn't want to go further so I told her that I would just wait on this bridge near the East Boulder Rec Center while she ran out and back to a parking lot. Teressa has been known to get lost on her way to the bathroom in her own house so I thought it would be safe sending her on this out and back. "Just follow the stream and turn around when you get to the parking lot". She looked around as if to get the land marks in her head before she took off. "OUT AND BACK! GO!"
I waited patiently on the bridge stretching, enjoying the views, finding my inner zen so that I don't go into freak out mode if my foot decided to hurt the next morning. When I noticed that I was feeling quite calm I also noticed that it was because so much time had passed and the Cougar was taking a really long time to do this out and back. "I swear to god....if she got lost....."
A little more time goes by and this women comes running over to me. "Are you Brandon?" she says. "Yeah I am." I must say I was concerned now. Something was definitely wrong because this woman seemed very nervous about whatever she was about to tell me.
"Well your friend is in a bit of distress." Oh shit she's probably hurt I thought. "Ummm she is down by the creek and is bottomless." I don't think my mind registered what she said right away but then I got it and thought, has Teressa pulled a Margo Kidder (Lois Lane) and gone nuts, taken her bottoms off and started running around South Boulder? I know she has been a bit stressed these days but...
"Actually she was going to the bathroom by the creek and some man startled her and she dropped her bottoms and they went down the creek and she couldn't get them. So she is just naked by the side of the creek." When I stopped laughing I had to actually grab the woman's arm and ask her if she was serious. "For REAL!?!" There was no joke here. Teressa was somewhere down South Boulder Creek trying to get it renamed to Beaver Creek. I hoped to god she wasn't running towards the bridge with her hands over her WHO HA. I was fully prepared to pretend I didn't know her and run off! But then I realized how "real" this situation was and that her bottoms were not coming back. I started running down the trail calling out her name. I figured she wouldn't be easy to see so I was looking near bushes and stuff. The women had told me that she was trying to hide near a bridge.
I ran all the way to the parking lot and couldn't find her. It was funny because for some reason when I was calling out her name I was whispering. I was waiting for a "Psst. BDC, I am over here and I lost my knickers." That didn't happen so I started to ask a few people if they had possible seen a small, fit, 1/2 naked Aussie women running around. Most said no, key word MOST, and after I told them why she was 1/2 naked they gave me this look like "That's what you get for having sex with your girlfriend down by the creek!" Now I was getting embaraced. Well, okay I wasn't. I admit, I was feeling like a stud. "uhhh yeah, that's it, she couldn't resist me and made me take her right here on the trail." Everyday I understand the straight male mentality a little bit better...
So when I didn't find her and had asked every person around me if they had seen her, and quite a few had, it gave me the idea that she had gotten help from someone. With that I decided to run back to the house and hope she was there.
When I got back my roommate Lindsay was home and I asked her if Teressa was here and she said no. When I told her what happened she immediately went into "nurse" mode (she's a nurse) and got some shorts a towel and grabbed her car keys STAT! "Come ON! She can't be left out there with no bottoms!" I explained that I didn't know where we should look so she said that we should go to the parking lot. That was where Miss Godiva was spotted last.
Lindsay who is a runner as well couldn't understand why she would take off her bottoms all the way to go to the bathroom. I was dumbfounded as well. I mean Teressa is a veteran athlete, multiple Kona Age Group Champion and was 17th overall at the LA Marathon in her FIFTIES. There is no way this is the first time she has pulled a road side service dump. I was really looking forward to an explanation on this one. We couldn't come up with anything.
Lindsay and I decided to split up when we got to the parking lot. She took the towel and drove over to East Boulder Rec and I took the shorts and ran the track. I couldn't find her again and when I made to East Boulder Rec I went inside and asked the front desk if anyone nude had come in lately. They looked at me like I was nuts but I really didn't want to explain the story. So I left and sat outside waiting for Lindsay to come here. Hopefully she had found her.
Lindsay rolls up in the car and sure enough the cougar had been caged. They were both laughing hysterically. When I got to the car I looked down and she had a United Airlines blanket wrapped around her waist. Apparently some guy ran back to his car and gave it to her. He later saw her running up and down the trail looking for me. His exact words were "Oh, good job. You are going to finish your run."
Teressa was in shock at how many people had been on the trail. "Bloody HELL. There were couples, baby joggers, dog walkers FRICKEN HECK! I just said "Hi" and pretended nothing was wrong. It wasn't until some man offered me some help by getting this blanket." Then she proceded to talk about how cute the blanket was with her top LOL!!! You should have seen how she had it on. It looked taylored!
The only thing left was to get the scoop on why she had taken her bottoms off. Well, she did have stomach problems and went to use a Port-A-potty but, well, just didn't get there fast enough. DOOH! Don't laugh, we have all been there. When she saw the creek she thought "Oh I can just walk down and rinse them out." While in the process of this some man said hi to her and she freaked and dropped them and the current took them away. I guess this actually leads to another question. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUMP IN AFTER THEM!!!!" With my little Cougar, we may never know.
Fear not Boulderites. The 1/2 Naked Cougar spotted in South Boulder has been caught and transferred to Seattle for the next week. She will be released back into the Boulder wildlife for another two months when she returns so make sure you keep on the lookout!
P.S.- In order for me to get permission to tell this story I had to ad that I am the only one that gets to call her "Cougar". All others must refer to her as Kitten.
Cheers,
bdc
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Hawaii 70.3 HONU Race Report 2008
Well the first race of the season is under my belt and I have some really good information on where I stand physically and mentally. I had two goals for this race which were to grab a Kona slot and not get chicked. I know that sounds a bit lame but there were some top notch females in the race and I felt that if I could hold them off, my day wouldn't be too bad. However, as you will see, both goals were just barley met!
The week leading into the race did not consist of much. My training had just started to come around and I didn't want to do anyting the week leading up that would make me tired. The mind set was still focused on health and not doing anything that was going to upset my foot. The race would be enough.
The days leading into the race were really windy down by Hapuna Beach. I wasn't too excited about that because I knew deep down that a windy day for me was going to be a hard day. Granted, all windy days are hard, but I knew where my bike strenght was and for me to ride strong I was going to need a calm day with favorable winds. Race morning was anything but that.
I had to accept what I was in for and try and go at this with a positive attitude. I had been swimming much better lately and thought I might be in the position for one of my all time top swims. Unfortunately that did not happen and the swim was in many ways a wash. The race changed its venue to a deep water start rather than a beach run in because last year certain people decided to run along the beach and cheat. Stuff like that just gets me. Anyway, the set up was that all swimmers needed to be between two orange bouys. I decided to line up towards the deepest one to avoid the merge of people as much as possible. The problem was that all swimmers on the line were shooting for one bouy that was about 600 meters away and then will have to make a 90 degree turn. With the Hawaii IM start you have such a long way to go before you merge that things thin out a bit. This was looking like it was going to be pure chaos.
It actually got worse before the gun. It seemed that more and more people were coming over to the section that I was in. The pro filed was over here as well and they kept inching forward. To be fair, the current was pulling us all past the line and the swim crew kept trying to push us back. I of course decided to grab the bouy so I would stop drifting. That was dumb. I should have stayed on the front line and just got yelled at like everyone else. There were several people with surf boards and a guy on a jet ski right in front of us screaming that they would not start the race until people got back. There was no way that the race would start with this entire section blocked by officials. "BANG!"
I couldn't believe the race gun just went off. I was about two rows back and had a jet ski right in front of me. I got stuck so far back and was getting kicked and whacked more than I ever had in any triathlon. It was so bad that it was just stupid! There wasn't a damn thing I could do. When we got to the first buoy I thought I might have a chance to get out of it. But no, I was with people that felt a break was needed when they hit the buoy. I stoped being nice and started pushing people under. I was the jerk grabbing legs and heads and literally crawling over you. Even that didn't work. I was just stuck. The swim was going to be a write off at this point. I just put my head down and smacked feet for the rest of the way. It felt like we were going so slow. It was like a Dave Scott workout on a hot summer day!
At least I wasn't expending that much energy on the swim. When I finally got out of the water the time was a high 28 min. Bad but not horrific. When I saw some of the people that I came out of the water with I knew that it was most likely that way for everyone unless of course you can swim sub 26 min. I don't care that much about my swim times though. They are what they are...
The run to T1 is a bit long and up a decent hill. It is best that you don't run up it like Carl Lewis. Of course some people do and it just makes me smile.....well laugh. Another thing that makes me laugh is my transition times! What the hell was I doing? I must have sat down and had a coffee or something as I checked them against other peoples and I was 2 min slower than everyone. TWO MIN!!! That is so lame. At least I know I have some "free speed" for my next race. That could have moved me up a few places overall in the race.
Once out on the bike I tried to find a rhythm. Ben Cotter and Mike Montgomery were in T1 with me and I know that both of them are very strong riders. I wanted to see if I could keep them in site. That so did not happen. I did move up a bit but then we turned around to head up towards Hawi and the wind was taking it's toll on me. I actually got passed by quite a few people on the bike. There was a group ahead of me that I figured had Sam McGlone in it and I couldn't make any ground on them to save my life. Johnathin Toker passed me on the climb as if I was standing still. I think I have ridden longer and harder in training rides. But none the less it was where I was at. I thought that I would get a break when we turned back down but it seemed that we only got a brief tail wind and then it was back to a cross wind. I just wanted off the climb at that point.
When we got back on the Queen K I was passed by a good number of people including a female pro. But wait it gets better. I couldn't even sit legal and keep up with her LOL! Mitch and a bunch of others rolled by too. I was now getting a bit discouraged. Even if I could pull off a good run I was now pretty far back. I think there was a bit of concern on my part about the run as last year it was my slowest run in my entire triathlon endeavor. This was going to suck if we had a repeat of that.
When I finally made it to T2 and got off the bike the legs felt like I rode all out. My quads were heavy and running through T2 was not pretty. I had a really hard time finding my rack number and had to stop and get someone to find it for me. I was in super lame mode at this point. But none the less the shoes went on and off I went.
Mitch was stepping out of the porta potty as I ran by and he said something to me. I think he wanted me to run with him but the way things were going I needed all the time I could get and just ran off. I had my Garmin 305 on for the first time and the damn thing didn't pick up the satellite until about 2 miles into the run. Part of the reason I am not a gadget guy is that when they don't work it frustrates the hell out of me and causes my mind to think about things other than running. My goal on the run is to get to that point of ultimate discomfort as fast as possible so that I can acclimate to the feeling. One of the keys to running fast for me is to get as uncomfortable as possible and then bank on my fitness to tolerate it. If you are in shape then each mile should feel a bit better and you can push the level of discomfort. Hence my ability to run negative splits on the run. I don't recommend that in an IM though...It doesn't work!
I achieved that level of discomfort from step one and when the watch finally kicked in I couldn't believe how slow my pace was for the perceived effort I was putting out. There was still a part of me holding back though because I really didn't want to bonk on this course like I did last year. I just kept focusing on the next person in front of me and roped them in. It wasn't until some guy with a 43 on his leg passed me that the fire really got lit. I know I wasn't having my best day but I rarely get passed on a run and to have it be by some 43 year old guy was just not gonna happen. Not that 43 year old guys can't run.....
He was moving at a good clip when I caught back up to him but I could tell by the way that he was breathing that he had bitten off way more than he could chew with his pace. I used him for a bit to get my own pace up and then took off. I saw the pace on my watch start to drop and began to feel the best I felt all day. I was now on parts of the course that was pure hell to me last year. Feeling good at that point was the green light to turn it on. I had about 3 miles to go and I was able to drop sub 6's for all of them. My last mile and a 1/2 felt really good. I now had people insight that I thougth were out of my reach. Sam and Jonathin Toker were two of them. I really did not want to get beat by Sam today and knew that JT was in my age group. At this point it wasn't a matter of "Can I?", It was a matter of "Do you want it bad enough?" My body wasn't going to fail but it would be hard to convince the mind to go to a place that is that uncomfortable. I didn't have much time left so I really had to treat this like I was in a 5K road race.
I passed 2 others on my way up to them, all of which were in my own age group, and then saw Sam take off away from JT. There were two aid stations left and I had to blow them all. In fact, I should mention that this race was somehow done on almost nothing. I had a Power Gel before the swim and on the bike I had one Gel and a bottle of sports drink with a few chugs of water. I think the wind was one of the main things that prevented me from getting more. But on the run all I had was coke at every other aid station. I had JT's salt stick pills with me and never took any and only had a sip of water. Not sure why, but I never felt like I needed anything. So by this point skipping an aid station was no biggie.
I didn't catch Sam until the last 400 meters. As I ran in I could hear "And here she is. Defending champion....". All I wanted was to get to the finish and get out of there. I felt like a dick passing her at the end and didn't want to be in the way of her glory moment LOL. None the less my fast last 1/2 got me my Kona slot. I would have been about 4th in my age had I not got motivated to pick it up. I didn't win but finished second and luckily first place was from Hawaii so he got an island slot and I got the international one. His name is Flanagan and he swam something crazy like 23 min. I think he went to the Olympics for swimming. Anyway, he and I were on the bus to the airport and he said this was his first 1/2 and that Kona will be his first full. I think you will see something special by him on his first go at it.....just a hunch.
It was a great trip and if you look at the results our entire crew there took a good number of the Kona slots! Ben Cotter (25-29) Myself (30-34) Mike Montgomery (35-39) Mark Peitrofessa (40-45) Scott Davis (40-45) Linea Alford (35-39)
Great job to all that raced!
The week leading into the race did not consist of much. My training had just started to come around and I didn't want to do anyting the week leading up that would make me tired. The mind set was still focused on health and not doing anything that was going to upset my foot. The race would be enough.
The days leading into the race were really windy down by Hapuna Beach. I wasn't too excited about that because I knew deep down that a windy day for me was going to be a hard day. Granted, all windy days are hard, but I knew where my bike strenght was and for me to ride strong I was going to need a calm day with favorable winds. Race morning was anything but that.
I had to accept what I was in for and try and go at this with a positive attitude. I had been swimming much better lately and thought I might be in the position for one of my all time top swims. Unfortunately that did not happen and the swim was in many ways a wash. The race changed its venue to a deep water start rather than a beach run in because last year certain people decided to run along the beach and cheat. Stuff like that just gets me. Anyway, the set up was that all swimmers needed to be between two orange bouys. I decided to line up towards the deepest one to avoid the merge of people as much as possible. The problem was that all swimmers on the line were shooting for one bouy that was about 600 meters away and then will have to make a 90 degree turn. With the Hawaii IM start you have such a long way to go before you merge that things thin out a bit. This was looking like it was going to be pure chaos.
It actually got worse before the gun. It seemed that more and more people were coming over to the section that I was in. The pro filed was over here as well and they kept inching forward. To be fair, the current was pulling us all past the line and the swim crew kept trying to push us back. I of course decided to grab the bouy so I would stop drifting. That was dumb. I should have stayed on the front line and just got yelled at like everyone else. There were several people with surf boards and a guy on a jet ski right in front of us screaming that they would not start the race until people got back. There was no way that the race would start with this entire section blocked by officials. "BANG!"
I couldn't believe the race gun just went off. I was about two rows back and had a jet ski right in front of me. I got stuck so far back and was getting kicked and whacked more than I ever had in any triathlon. It was so bad that it was just stupid! There wasn't a damn thing I could do. When we got to the first buoy I thought I might have a chance to get out of it. But no, I was with people that felt a break was needed when they hit the buoy. I stoped being nice and started pushing people under. I was the jerk grabbing legs and heads and literally crawling over you. Even that didn't work. I was just stuck. The swim was going to be a write off at this point. I just put my head down and smacked feet for the rest of the way. It felt like we were going so slow. It was like a Dave Scott workout on a hot summer day!
At least I wasn't expending that much energy on the swim. When I finally got out of the water the time was a high 28 min. Bad but not horrific. When I saw some of the people that I came out of the water with I knew that it was most likely that way for everyone unless of course you can swim sub 26 min. I don't care that much about my swim times though. They are what they are...
The run to T1 is a bit long and up a decent hill. It is best that you don't run up it like Carl Lewis. Of course some people do and it just makes me smile.....well laugh. Another thing that makes me laugh is my transition times! What the hell was I doing? I must have sat down and had a coffee or something as I checked them against other peoples and I was 2 min slower than everyone. TWO MIN!!! That is so lame. At least I know I have some "free speed" for my next race. That could have moved me up a few places overall in the race.
Once out on the bike I tried to find a rhythm. Ben Cotter and Mike Montgomery were in T1 with me and I know that both of them are very strong riders. I wanted to see if I could keep them in site. That so did not happen. I did move up a bit but then we turned around to head up towards Hawi and the wind was taking it's toll on me. I actually got passed by quite a few people on the bike. There was a group ahead of me that I figured had Sam McGlone in it and I couldn't make any ground on them to save my life. Johnathin Toker passed me on the climb as if I was standing still. I think I have ridden longer and harder in training rides. But none the less it was where I was at. I thought that I would get a break when we turned back down but it seemed that we only got a brief tail wind and then it was back to a cross wind. I just wanted off the climb at that point.
When we got back on the Queen K I was passed by a good number of people including a female pro. But wait it gets better. I couldn't even sit legal and keep up with her LOL! Mitch and a bunch of others rolled by too. I was now getting a bit discouraged. Even if I could pull off a good run I was now pretty far back. I think there was a bit of concern on my part about the run as last year it was my slowest run in my entire triathlon endeavor. This was going to suck if we had a repeat of that.
When I finally made it to T2 and got off the bike the legs felt like I rode all out. My quads were heavy and running through T2 was not pretty. I had a really hard time finding my rack number and had to stop and get someone to find it for me. I was in super lame mode at this point. But none the less the shoes went on and off I went.
Mitch was stepping out of the porta potty as I ran by and he said something to me. I think he wanted me to run with him but the way things were going I needed all the time I could get and just ran off. I had my Garmin 305 on for the first time and the damn thing didn't pick up the satellite until about 2 miles into the run. Part of the reason I am not a gadget guy is that when they don't work it frustrates the hell out of me and causes my mind to think about things other than running. My goal on the run is to get to that point of ultimate discomfort as fast as possible so that I can acclimate to the feeling. One of the keys to running fast for me is to get as uncomfortable as possible and then bank on my fitness to tolerate it. If you are in shape then each mile should feel a bit better and you can push the level of discomfort. Hence my ability to run negative splits on the run. I don't recommend that in an IM though...It doesn't work!
I achieved that level of discomfort from step one and when the watch finally kicked in I couldn't believe how slow my pace was for the perceived effort I was putting out. There was still a part of me holding back though because I really didn't want to bonk on this course like I did last year. I just kept focusing on the next person in front of me and roped them in. It wasn't until some guy with a 43 on his leg passed me that the fire really got lit. I know I wasn't having my best day but I rarely get passed on a run and to have it be by some 43 year old guy was just not gonna happen. Not that 43 year old guys can't run.....
He was moving at a good clip when I caught back up to him but I could tell by the way that he was breathing that he had bitten off way more than he could chew with his pace. I used him for a bit to get my own pace up and then took off. I saw the pace on my watch start to drop and began to feel the best I felt all day. I was now on parts of the course that was pure hell to me last year. Feeling good at that point was the green light to turn it on. I had about 3 miles to go and I was able to drop sub 6's for all of them. My last mile and a 1/2 felt really good. I now had people insight that I thougth were out of my reach. Sam and Jonathin Toker were two of them. I really did not want to get beat by Sam today and knew that JT was in my age group. At this point it wasn't a matter of "Can I?", It was a matter of "Do you want it bad enough?" My body wasn't going to fail but it would be hard to convince the mind to go to a place that is that uncomfortable. I didn't have much time left so I really had to treat this like I was in a 5K road race.
I passed 2 others on my way up to them, all of which were in my own age group, and then saw Sam take off away from JT. There were two aid stations left and I had to blow them all. In fact, I should mention that this race was somehow done on almost nothing. I had a Power Gel before the swim and on the bike I had one Gel and a bottle of sports drink with a few chugs of water. I think the wind was one of the main things that prevented me from getting more. But on the run all I had was coke at every other aid station. I had JT's salt stick pills with me and never took any and only had a sip of water. Not sure why, but I never felt like I needed anything. So by this point skipping an aid station was no biggie.
I didn't catch Sam until the last 400 meters. As I ran in I could hear "And here she is. Defending champion....". All I wanted was to get to the finish and get out of there. I felt like a dick passing her at the end and didn't want to be in the way of her glory moment LOL. None the less my fast last 1/2 got me my Kona slot. I would have been about 4th in my age had I not got motivated to pick it up. I didn't win but finished second and luckily first place was from Hawaii so he got an island slot and I got the international one. His name is Flanagan and he swam something crazy like 23 min. I think he went to the Olympics for swimming. Anyway, he and I were on the bus to the airport and he said this was his first 1/2 and that Kona will be his first full. I think you will see something special by him on his first go at it.....just a hunch.
It was a great trip and if you look at the results our entire crew there took a good number of the Kona slots! Ben Cotter (25-29) Myself (30-34) Mike Montgomery (35-39) Mark Peitrofessa (40-45) Scott Davis (40-45) Linea Alford (35-39)
Great job to all that raced!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Big Decisions
This was a pic taken up in Canada. I was on a run with Ben (who is Ben you ask?) and I saw this giant log thing and realized that it looked like the worlds largest turtle! It really looked like it might get up and walk off at any moment.
So this last week was filled with a few big decisions. The first being the Supreme Courts ruling in California on gay marriage. I am not going to get into that now but will later as the whole thing is more complex than it appears and I want to spell it out with all the facts. The second is related to my triathlon life. I decided that I am going to race one more year as an age grouper and have given up my pro card.
This was a decision that I was thinking about for the past few weeks. I talked to a few friends around here that I trust and it seems that everyone was in favor of me switching back. With the injury I faced this last year I don't think I am ready to step it up a notch just yet. I may still make the gains that I want to this year but I think that it would be a lot harder with the added pressure of racing pro. Even though racing "pro" is in some ways just a "classification" I still found that there are pressures around it that I really don't need right now.
I do eventually want to race pro but only when I am confident that I can race at that level. I see a lot of guys out there that have the talent but don't cut the mustard when it comes to results. Having a year like that will not benefit a guy like me. Gordo and I talked allot about the "enjoyment factor" and I realized that I wasn't enjoying what I was doing as much anymore. I think it came from this feeling that if I raced pro I was going to have to be spot on every time I came to the line. Granted, that is based alot on just worrying what other people think and maybe that is the case. I just don't want to go to a race as a pro and finish 3rd in my age. I think that's silly. But that's just me.
What I want to focus on now is having a solid year so that I do make even more gains that allow me to have the confidence to race pro. Part of that is going to be having an injury free year. So far we are still on track. If I raced pro I think I may have felt the need to rush things and that might put me back to square one with my foot. In the age group field I can relax a bit and go at my own pace. Besides, there are PLENTY of awesome age group athletes that make the field pretty damn competitive!
Some may ask how I was able to have a pro card and go back to age group this year. The simple answer is that I haven't raced yet. I never raced pro in 08 and called USAT to make sure all this was kosher and have been cleared etc.
With the switch back I also found some fire starting around an Ironman. I clearly don't have the fitness right now to do an Ironman anytime soon but as my body becomes stronger and the injury, plantar faciitis (AKA Schizophrenia of the foot) goes away, I think I would like to get a Hawaii slot and build up for it later in the year. I'm not totally sold on the idea yet but I will take my slot if I get it in Honu or anywhere else. I just love that race and had a blast last year. Having another crack at it as an age grouper seems like a great challenge to me. I was 97th overall last year so 75th seems like a nice target :-)
Training is going well and I just had a test on the bike over at Gordo's "Endurance Corner Lab". I showed signs of improvement and have actually found the testing to be helpful. I was such a skeptic before and really had no interest in it. But now I quite like it and enjoy using my power meter and dare I say heart rate monitor a bit. If anything I think it is fun to go in the lab and try and beat your last test or show that the bod is more efficient. Matt Steinmetz does the test and is really good at getting you to give it towards the end when it gets hard. And yes, this is a blatant plug for Endurance Corner! Those guys have been really good to me from the start and they have a good little show going on over there.
Well I am now a few days out of leaving for paradise to go race Honu. Lots of great friends racing from all over the world and Ben! "Whose Ben?"
Cheers,
bdc
Monday, May 12, 2008
Denver Academy Diversity Day
I haven't got my site complete yet so I am going to use this blog for a non tri post (like I said I wouldn't LOL) The pic above is an attempt to balance it out. Marky V had asked me if I wanted to go Snow Shoeing up in the mountains for some "cross training" and this pic is from that day. That is actually Mark in the pic....
This last week I had the privilege of being a guest lecturer at The Denver Academy High School for their Diversity Day. I was asked to speak about the Matthew Shepard murder and also share my own personal experiences with coming out and growing up gay.
The day was broken up into two 55 min sessions followed by a lunch session with all the speakers and students for a larger discussion section. I didn't have that much information on what the day would be like so I kind of went into it a bit blind. I had several things prepared and decided that I would make a really quick assessment of the situation and go from there. For the most part I am really good at "winging" it.
When I got there I found I was a bit nervous. I haven't really talked on this subject to a group this young and wasn't exactly sure how they would react. I figured it would go both ways with some kids being accepting and others not so much. I decided that I would try and make the sessions as interactive as possible and encourage questions and sharing. However, I was going to stay away from anything that dealt with sex, religion and politics. That isn't so easy to do with this subject because right now that is the "hub" of homosexuality. It is heavily in the political arena, religions battle about it and well, part of being gay obviously involves sex. So how was I going to go about this staying away from the big three?
It turned out to be much easier than I thought. Most of the kids were really interested in my story and I easily transitioned most of the talk into a larger scope that dealt with the way in which we all judge people. I think the idea is not to stop judging but rather, where do you go after your judgment? It would be nice if we didn't judge people as much as we did but it seems we are hard wired to do it. We need to start taking our judgments and question the reasons we have them. Much of the information that we obtain on a certain subject or group of people is not correct. Taking a moment to think about things a bit more will help with that realization. I catch myself doing it. I will have developed an opinion on something and then realize that my information on it is limited and sketchy.
In regards to homosexuality, many people have very strong opinions about it that are based on miss information. Some of the questions I get absolutely floor me. "So when you are in a relationship, who is the guy and who is the girl?" That is my favorite one!
All in all I found the kids at this school to be WAY smarter than most adults on issues of diversity. It gave me a lot of hope to see so many smart young individuals that get "it" on so many levels. My talk probably would have been more effective if given to the parents.
It really is all about education and obtaining truthful information. I try to check myself when I have an opinion about something that I don't have that much information on. Even if it is as simple as my thoughts on a movie that I haven't seen. I realize it isn't fair to comment on it. People need to stop making comments on things that they know nothing about. We do it ALL the time. I do my best these days not to. It is okay to not have an opinion on something and just say " I really don't know". Lets all try it.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race
What a difference a few weeks make! I have noticed that in the last few weeks things have really turned around. I was in a physical and mental slump in regards to triathlon for a decent amount of time and I am seeing a very bright light at the end of this tunnel. I say "this" tunnel because as we all know, it would be foolish to think that it would be the last "tunnel" when doing triathlons. It's part of it and the people who manage those times best seem to do quite well.
Anyway, as I said, things are on the up and up. I had made a quick last minute trip to LA this weekend. It just so happened that I had a meeting out there on Friday and the UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race was on Saturday. I had not been able to go to the race in the last two years so I was pretty stoked that I would be out there.
The race is a 2,400. I think we figure that is long enough but not too long while short enough but not too short. The race had been taken off the track because it was felt that the track was too intimidating and attendance became low. That was fine with me as I was in no shape to run a 2,400 on the track.
The race site was on our old stomping ground in Brentwood. We met at 26th and San Vicente which is one of the major running areas in LA. I can't begin to tell you how many times I ran up and down that strip while in college. Even when I was younger I ran and raced there as my parents always took me to the Brentwood 5K/10K race. I think I actually ran it when I was under the age of 10!.
San Vicente has a huge grass median that we run on and there are these really big trees that have roots that pop out of the ground about every 20 feet. If most people are not careful they are sure to go down. Back in college we could run that strip with our eyes closed and never hit a root!
So the race, which I decided to take part in, started at the top of SV and 26th. When I rolled up in the car I was shocked to see Bob Larson standing there. I had no idea that the "Bobcat" would be there. He had his mega phone in hand just like old times. Bob is now the head Olympic Track Coach and well known for coaching my former teammate and high school rival Meb Keflezigi. Meb had that extra something back then that we all lacked which took him to a Silver Medal in the Olympic Marathon. That extra something wasn't necessarily athletic potential. The guy was just mentally mature to a point none of us were. I guess that is what happens when your family flees a war torn part of Africa. Most of us were taking our college time for granted......
Meb wasn't at the race but he had planned to be at the UCLA/USC track meet going on later that day. A few of the guys I knew and ran with were there, most noticeably Matt Olin. He was my best friend in college and is exactly the same today. It was a real trip to be lined up on SV next to Matt with Bobcat giving us the workout.
I had debated not to do the run because of the fear of possibly injury. But I gave in and decided that I would do it. I figured I would have a "get out of jail free" card on this one. I was the most "trained" guy there and to sit on the sideline was just dumb.
After Bob got done making his jokes like he always did (some funny, others horribly painfull!) he sounded his horn and off we went. It didn't seem like we were running that fast but in a few min a could feel my lungs burning a bit. That could have been from the speed or the smog! I just kept chugging along and was laughing that I was so far back. I had to take it out a bit slower as I think all this IM training has made me slow. I haven't done any top end running in a few years other than races and boy could I feel it.
Bob was standing at the mile marker with his horn yelling out splits. I didn't have my watch on and figured we were running about 6 min mile pace. We came through at 5:01 LOL! No wonder my lungs were burning. Who knew I could run a 5 min mile out of the blue like that?? We kept the same pace for the rest of the race which was only 800 meters more. When it was done I felt like I had taken a shot of battery acid. To think we would do 8 of those at a pace much faster and not really even notice it until number 7.
Matt and I decided to go on one of our old runs since we were down that way. We headed to the Santa Monica Pier and actually ran our to the end of it. Matt and I were the only guys who used to run all the way to the end. We always felt that if we were down there we might as well enjoy it. The water looked really nasty and it pains me to think LA Tri Club people swim in it. I used to do that. Yuck!
Once back from our run which was about an hour total we gave a good stretch and then I had to rush off. I was doing a charity spin class for the Aids Life Cycle. It was an hour 30 class and was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to do that now. All in all the class was fine. Spinning is so hard if you don't do it. Even with bike fitness it still gives you a much harder workout. I think that is because it requires a strength that we don't really use on the bike. I liked it alot and found myself super sore the next day.
I was worried that my decision to do the race and the spin class would hurt me but it didn't at all and I really think I might be able to start training my top end a bit more. After the the Alumni race it made me realize that if I was injury free I could totally get myself back in to 15 min 5k shape. That is only 3x4:50 mile. If I can do a 2,400 at 7:20 pace off nothing a 15 min 5K is not that far off. But not that I am going to train for that. However, it did give me some confidence that I could get down to my 1:15 1/2 ironman run time. So we will see what happens.
As of now I am still going to proceed with caution. I have decide that Hawaii 70.3 (Honu) will be my first race. Looking forward to it and will keep the postings current on how the training is going. The new site should be up around Friday where I will be starting my other blog that doesn't talk about triathlon or sports.
Cheers,
bdc
Anyway, as I said, things are on the up and up. I had made a quick last minute trip to LA this weekend. It just so happened that I had a meeting out there on Friday and the UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race was on Saturday. I had not been able to go to the race in the last two years so I was pretty stoked that I would be out there.
The race is a 2,400. I think we figure that is long enough but not too long while short enough but not too short. The race had been taken off the track because it was felt that the track was too intimidating and attendance became low. That was fine with me as I was in no shape to run a 2,400 on the track.
The race site was on our old stomping ground in Brentwood. We met at 26th and San Vicente which is one of the major running areas in LA. I can't begin to tell you how many times I ran up and down that strip while in college. Even when I was younger I ran and raced there as my parents always took me to the Brentwood 5K/10K race. I think I actually ran it when I was under the age of 10!.
San Vicente has a huge grass median that we run on and there are these really big trees that have roots that pop out of the ground about every 20 feet. If most people are not careful they are sure to go down. Back in college we could run that strip with our eyes closed and never hit a root!
So the race, which I decided to take part in, started at the top of SV and 26th. When I rolled up in the car I was shocked to see Bob Larson standing there. I had no idea that the "Bobcat" would be there. He had his mega phone in hand just like old times. Bob is now the head Olympic Track Coach and well known for coaching my former teammate and high school rival Meb Keflezigi. Meb had that extra something back then that we all lacked which took him to a Silver Medal in the Olympic Marathon. That extra something wasn't necessarily athletic potential. The guy was just mentally mature to a point none of us were. I guess that is what happens when your family flees a war torn part of Africa. Most of us were taking our college time for granted......
Meb wasn't at the race but he had planned to be at the UCLA/USC track meet going on later that day. A few of the guys I knew and ran with were there, most noticeably Matt Olin. He was my best friend in college and is exactly the same today. It was a real trip to be lined up on SV next to Matt with Bobcat giving us the workout.
I had debated not to do the run because of the fear of possibly injury. But I gave in and decided that I would do it. I figured I would have a "get out of jail free" card on this one. I was the most "trained" guy there and to sit on the sideline was just dumb.
After Bob got done making his jokes like he always did (some funny, others horribly painfull!) he sounded his horn and off we went. It didn't seem like we were running that fast but in a few min a could feel my lungs burning a bit. That could have been from the speed or the smog! I just kept chugging along and was laughing that I was so far back. I had to take it out a bit slower as I think all this IM training has made me slow. I haven't done any top end running in a few years other than races and boy could I feel it.
Bob was standing at the mile marker with his horn yelling out splits. I didn't have my watch on and figured we were running about 6 min mile pace. We came through at 5:01 LOL! No wonder my lungs were burning. Who knew I could run a 5 min mile out of the blue like that?? We kept the same pace for the rest of the race which was only 800 meters more. When it was done I felt like I had taken a shot of battery acid. To think we would do 8 of those at a pace much faster and not really even notice it until number 7.
Matt and I decided to go on one of our old runs since we were down that way. We headed to the Santa Monica Pier and actually ran our to the end of it. Matt and I were the only guys who used to run all the way to the end. We always felt that if we were down there we might as well enjoy it. The water looked really nasty and it pains me to think LA Tri Club people swim in it. I used to do that. Yuck!
Once back from our run which was about an hour total we gave a good stretch and then I had to rush off. I was doing a charity spin class for the Aids Life Cycle. It was an hour 30 class and was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to do that now. All in all the class was fine. Spinning is so hard if you don't do it. Even with bike fitness it still gives you a much harder workout. I think that is because it requires a strength that we don't really use on the bike. I liked it alot and found myself super sore the next day.
I was worried that my decision to do the race and the spin class would hurt me but it didn't at all and I really think I might be able to start training my top end a bit more. After the the Alumni race it made me realize that if I was injury free I could totally get myself back in to 15 min 5k shape. That is only 3x4:50 mile. If I can do a 2,400 at 7:20 pace off nothing a 15 min 5K is not that far off. But not that I am going to train for that. However, it did give me some confidence that I could get down to my 1:15 1/2 ironman run time. So we will see what happens.
As of now I am still going to proceed with caution. I have decide that Hawaii 70.3 (Honu) will be my first race. Looking forward to it and will keep the postings current on how the training is going. The new site should be up around Friday where I will be starting my other blog that doesn't talk about triathlon or sports.
Cheers,
bdc
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