Boulder Peak

Last weekend was the Boulder Peak Olympic distance triathlon.
Swim: 25 minutes
Bike: 1:18:22
Run 43:17

My bike still needs lots of work and I feel like it always will. The most exciting thing was that I hit a fox going about 35 mph down the back side of Olde Stage Rd. He jumped out right in front of me and I clipped his back end. My front wheel wobbled and I screamed as I wondered which side of my body was going to get the worst road rash. Things worked out and I didn't crash. I looked back and saw the fox lope across the road. Looks like we both made it! I was probably a bit more cautious after that than I would have liked to be.
Nearly at T2 three guys were riding side by side and a car was trying to pull out perpendicular to them. I passed them as the car nearly took us all out. One of the guys crashed into my rear wheel. We both stayed upright and almost doesn't count.
So a couple of close calls and I was happy to be out on the run. I ran hard and passed more people than passed me. My run kept me just under 7 minutes per mile and I am very happy with that. Today I rode my bike and I look forward to the 70.3 next month!

1st triathlon of the season.

After a week of injury and a week of illness, I am happy with my results from yesterday's Summer Open sprint triathlon.
I swam a 10:53 750 meter swim. I love wetsuits. I never got on anybody's feet. That was frustrating. I had a few strokes behind somebody, but then they would start breaststroking. Being out in no man's land feels inefficient.
After a quick (:52) T1, I was onto the bike. There were a ton of Triads and even one Triad SL. My 12.4 mile bike was completed in 32:32 for an average speed of 22.9 mph. For me that is pretty good, but compared to the rest of the field, it sucks. We are going to work on the bike for the upcoming season.
T2 (:41) went well and I took off quickly on the heels of some guy hauling ass for the first half mile. Realizing that pace was unsustainable, I settled into my own rhythm and tried to pick people off. The run felt good and I was happy with a 19:58 (6:27 pace) 5k.

I ended up 3rd in my age group out of 33 and 28th of the 353 total.
I am still not feeling 100% and it was difficult to pick up the pace at some points in the race. I had a blast none the less and got to play with the dogs in the lake after the race. Time for a busy day off now.

Splish and Sudan.

I won my first Twitter contest!

Check out Splish.com so you can have cool suits like I have. My favorite is the "I must be butter... cause I'm on a roll". It has accompanying pictures of butter and a roll. While at the pool I was talking to a woman that I was sharing a lane with. She mentioned that triathlon season is starting soon. I feel that the season is well under way. She travels for work (I didn't ask what she does) but was recently in Sudan (non work related) to help monitor the elections. I think that Boulder people would go out and do that. It sounded a bit self righteous, but maybe she can really help the Sudanese do whatever it is that they are trying to do. Even Jimmy Carter was there making sure that democracy was spread properly. Unfortunately, it sounds like most Sudanese feel that the election was rigged and the winner was predetermined.

What a day.

Looks like this is turning into a fishing blog. I woke up exhausted this morning. I moped around not wanting to do anything. I was going to go for a run, but took a nap instead. Poor me with too much time on my hands. I finally decided to leave the house, but only to go fishing. The grocery list can wait. As can the exercising. I headed up Boulder Canyon to see what it was like. I have never fished up very far as it looks pretty steep and too fast for the fish. The few good areas were all taken by people fishing. I thought that it being pretty cold (50 degrees), cloudy, and a Friday afternoon, people would have better things to do. I finally found a place that looked decent and pulled over. The water was fast, but I spotted a couple of small fish and pulled one out. That really made me happy. It is exhilarating fishing a new area and landing a fish. I tied on new leader and tippet, so all my knots held (ok it was a 7 inch fish). The hole was small and I spooked the rest when I caught the first, so I moved on up the canyon. I was close to Nederland and it was getting colder. The creek flattened out and I had to keep the dogs from running upstream while trying to spot the easily spooked fish. I was staying back and peering to where I thought that they should be. Finally I saw one and made a couple of casts to him. He went for it, but I missed it. I thought that he moved up a bit so I snuck up and made another cast. Wham! A fish came out of nowhere and hammered my fly. I was startled long enough to wait until she ate it before setting the hook. When I landed her, I was surprised how big she was!

So it turned out to be a good trip. Then I mustered the courage to go and get my run done. I ran to the track to throw down some 400s, but it was full of kids. (I was at their high school.) I ran around for a bit until they were all gone and got my track splits faster than I thought I could. That also felt good. Then we ate a lot and I finished today's swim session. I feel so accomplished for a day that started off very slowly.

A couple of days ago we hit up the Big Thompson for some fishing. It was our first time there, but we landed a few fish. Mojdeh got her first Brown Trout as well as her first fish on a fly that she tied herself. I also have been teaching Lando about fishing.

Today, I also won my first Twitter contest. Thanks to Splish for hooking me up! They asked for someone to take a picture of themselves in their Splish suit at a historical national monument. Apparently Chautauqua Park is one so I threw on a Splish suit and drove there, Moj took a pic, and I sent it to them. Now I can expect a prize in the mail! Time to put the dogs to bed.

USAT Hall of Fame!

Last weekend, in the middle of the Denver Golf Expo, we were invited to the Hall of Fame dinner for USA Triathlon. Thanks, Rudy Project. It was impressive to see the original race directors and athletes like Barb Lindquist and Pauly Newby-Fraser. I was surprised by the amount of religious rhetoric at the dinner (by the speakers) and I was surprised that the athletes weren't competing for themselves. They claimed to be doing it for God, because that is what He wants them to do. That seems like a good way to get out of feeling selfish. Too many families suffer when you have to train 40 hours a week. Either way, I felt very lucky to be there. It isn't too often that we get to have dinner at a place as fancy as the Broadmoor Hotel.

We have been swimming twice a week at the YMCA. They finally approved out financial assistance so we can afford to work out there. There is a masters class that they call something else. Tonight I was the only person to show up. I swam about 3,000 yards (meters?) tonight with the main set being 20X50's. The first 5 on 1 minute, the middle 10 on 50 seconds, and the last 5 on 1 a minute. It was hard, but made the laps pass by quickly.
I have also been watching the Endurance Films while riding my bike. It is a fun, sweaty, hour long workout that is always entertaining when it is snowing outside. Friday, we have our first lesson with Sit Means Sit dog training. They came to our house to show us a free demonstration and it was very impressive. We spent a few days with them previously and they have been wonderful. They even have payment plans! I will try to post updates as we progress.

Just found out that the YMCA offers a masters class that is called something else. We went last night and it was great. Just over 2k kicked my butt. Between the breathing every 3, 5, or 7 strokes and the head up swimming, it felt close to water boarding. If I had any information, I would have easily given it up. Now we just wait to hear back from our financial assistance application to see how much we have to pay when we join. I will be buying a new Splish suit now that they are super cheap! Splish.com

Cold Blue.

A year ago I was complaining about sand flies at Nelson Lakes. It was an early New Years' Eve. This year, I am excited to have launched TropoDesignz.com and have a job. We headed up to Vail last weekend to work at a snowshoe race which was a lot of fun. We stayed in Silverthorne the night before. Thanks to my last job, we have accumulated some points to give us some free nights at the Quality Inn. We fished Saturday afternoon. I think that it was 8 degrees. It was amazing to see the fish active and rising in that freezing water.

I was surprised to actually catch something on a size 24 fly. (It is about the size of the tip of a pen.) Sunday, we got up early and worked at the race. They don't go fast, but apparently, they have fun snowshoeing.
I am not a fan of resolutions, but every time that I bike or run, I remember how much I like it. Getting paid soon may allow me to join the recreation center near our house. Then I can swim as well. Maybe it is time to pick races for 2010?!
It turns out that Santa is a Persian woman in New York! We got a check that is specifically to be used for the purchase of a KitchenAid. I am excited. One year ago while living out of my backpack, I never would have thought that I would have a KitchenAid!
And if you didn't receive a Christmas card, here is what they looked like:

Update.

This blog is usually about all the cool things that I do. I am still not sure why I keep writing things here. Maybe it is for my own records in the future. Maybe it is so my friends far away know what I am going through. I like reading other people's blogs so that I don't have to call them to see what they are doing. It feels like Facebook for adults. The egocentric part of me checks my Google Analytics to see if people actually read this.
This week has been pretty crazy. A couple of days fishing Cheesman Canyon with Ed resulted in  two huge rainbows for me. (But only one picture.) I rode my bike a couple of days and realized that I like riding my bike more than I thought. My mother went into the hospital with severe cramps and ended up having a hysterectomy and colostomy. She was released yesterday and things seem to be going well for the recovery.
In two days I will be finished with my contract with Endurance Sports Marketing. Then I can go out and find another job. I am really looking forward to next year. Actually I am really looking forward to today. Moj will be studying so I will have a Sunday to mess around. That is not unlike every other day. Yesterday, we looked at a car in Denver that we found form Craigslist. Piece of crap. It was good to see it because it seemed too good to be true. That search will continue.
The off season training plan is to swim twice a week, run twice a week, and ride my bike four times a week. The bike is my weakest so I want to spend more time in the saddle. Hopefully I will have a couple of trainers for the snowy days. I also need to get a membership somewhere with a pool.
Until next time my friends, life is good.

SOMA pictures.

Thanks to Red Rock Co. for putting on a great event! Thanks to Rudy Project for a great dinner this weekend. We bought our ski passes today. Now it is time for some winter activities! The resorts are opening and I am excited.

SOMA Half.

Swim 33:43
T1 1:06
Bike 2:38:10
T2 1:09
Run 1:47:12
Total 5:01:21

While I am happy with my overall result, I feel like I made a lot of mistakes.
The swim was the most brutal swim that I have ever been in. I was kicked, hit, punched, slapped, pushed, and everything else that could happen. That being said I think that I violated quite a few people as well. It was a swim start and all the guys under 30 were in the same wave. It was pretty aggressive. I made my way towards the front of the pack, but it did no good. I had to stop to fix my goggles a couple of time. That never happens. The women started a few minutes before us and we quickly caught them. Then I caught the group in front of them. A couple times I ran into some massive person that was sitting still treading water and trying not to panic. My wetsuit was rubbing on my neck. That also never happens, I must have put the strap in a funny position. Another rookie mistake. I am such an age grouper.
The first transition went well although I have still never tried the flying mount. Mounting my bike, I put my foot on top of my shoe and somehow pushed it off the pedal. I had to stop and put my shoe on like everyone else. Come on Rory, get it together! I took off pedaling and realized that I had no liquids. No water bottle, nothing. I knew that at mile 9 there was an aid station so I just hoped to make it there. The bike was 3 loops. I started pretty conservatively because I don't think that I have ridden 56 miles at one time this year. At the aid station, I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade. While trying to take a sip and thank the volunteers I somehow managed to squirt the Gatorade up my nose and into my eye. I guess I was squeezing the bottle really hard. I was very thirsty! The first bike loop was faster than I expected. The course was flat and we had a bit of cloud cover so the temperature was perfect. The second loop went well except for my penalty. The three lanes came together to one lane with no shoulders. A dozen people came together and as we tried to get in front of each other two guys in front started talking and going the same speed. There was no way to go forward, back, left or right. The ref pulled up and gave at least 8 of us either drafting or blocking penalties. We were all yelling at these two guys to move, but it was too late. Whatever. The bike ended well and I was excited for the run.
The run started well with the first mile a 7:04. Mile 2 was a 7:10. I was hoping to run 8 minute miles, so this was feeling good. I know that my last two half marathons that I ran were a 7:10 pace. Then it all slowly deteriorated. 8:00, 8:30, blah blah blah. The last four mile were hard. I was definitely shuffling. I think that people were cheering for me because I looked like I was hurting.
Overall, I am really stoked about the time though. 5:01 is almost 15 minutes better than my last half. Of course comparing Kona to Tempe isn't really fair. I will post pictures as I get them!

LA Triathlon.

I was able to race the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon presented by Herbalife. I should rephrase that. I participated in the race this weekend. Checking the results, I was not too disappointed. The only thing that I have to blame is my lack of fitness. My guess is that it might be a direct result of the lack of training. I did swim with Courtenay a couple of weeks ago, but apparently that didn’t carry over to this race. I felt like my arms weren’t pulling me through the water, but were just going through the motions. There was a little swell and plenty of people had some difficulty. I hate when people complain about conditions in the ocean. If you are scared, don’t enter a race in the ocean. Know what you are signing up for. There were plenty of lifeguards and I never felt like it was too dangerous. I was able to catch a couple of waves in at the end of the swim so that must have saved me about 4 seconds.
The bike wasn’t as exciting as I thought that it would be. I love racing in cities where everything is shut down. There were lots of volunteers, cops everywhere, and the plenty of people wondering what was going on when they woke up Sunday morning. We rode through Korea Town and ended near the Staples Center. My legs felt constantly tired and I am hoping that it was uphill most of the way. After all, we were heading away from the ocean. It looked pretty flat however.

The run was great. Except for one big hill. Up was bad, down was scary. I loved the run though. I never felt like I had any “pep” out there. I felt very flat the whole day. Like I was just going through the motions. I liked the run course because we got to run past a Disney building that I saw in the movie “The Soloist”. It was also fun because it was pretty close to an out and back and we did two loops. I like out and back courses. There is something that makes me happy when I know that I am on my way back. After the first half, everything seems easier, no matter what the distance is. I was glad that I got to do the race. We left LA a couple of days later and now I am sitting in the Honolulu airport. When I publish this, I plan on being on my lanai looking over the warm part of the Pacific thinking about how hectic this next week will be and how happy I am that I am not racing. I look forward to a full week with a few thousand friends.

My Lake Washington Swim

Texas Man pics.

Here are some pics from last week's race, the Texas Man Tri.

We made it to Austin. Tricia was here for a few days before leaving town. We got together with her and Ben over the last couple of nights. They are fun people and awesome athletes. It has been great weather here which is really nice.

Ben and I before a run at Barton Springs.

I have been training a little more now that I have races coming up. Tonight, I go to pick up Michael. He also works for my boss, Craig. He will be manning the soy milk booth next to our USAT booth. He will also be staying in our room with us. Barton Springs is closed on Thursdays. That is something that we found out the hard way. It looks like a fun place to hang out in the sun. It is a spring that is contained by man made barriers. The water is constantly 68 degrees. I get to wear my wetsuit for the 2nd time.

BI

What do we do on the Big Island?

 

Eat fruit. (Lilikoi/passionfruit)

 

Go to the beach.

Stand up paddleboard. (No surf.)
 

Chase fish.

We also got to hang out with my good friend Kurt. His website FreeDivePhoto.com is under construction, but it is still worth checking out. He nevers uses any scuba gear. He dove to 70 meters the day that we saw him. And he wins speafishing tournaments.

pogue ma thoin

I suppose yesterday was a very Irish day for me. I woke up and my name was still Rory ("Red King" in Irish). I went to my first real day at work, selling Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian food (ok not Irish). Then I got on a bus. This might seem like no big deal, but to me it was heaven. It was the first time I have been on a bus where people speak English. I never had a problem on buses in other countries,
but it makes it so much easier when you speak the language. The buses here are efficient, cheap, and reliable. After 12 hours on a bus in South America, or trying not to get ripped off in Vietnam, this one hour jaunt to Denver barely gave me time to rest before going running.
I met up with a couple of new friends and we joined the Irish Snug Runners. This seemed too good to be true. It was an Irish pub that hosted a free run. With free pasta and salad after the run. And free t-shirts when you complete 10 runs. No catch. It was fun to see our table of sweaty runners in tiny shorts hanging out in an Irish pub.
Speaking of tiny shorts, I know that the anticipation has been killing a few of you, so let me thank Bree one more time for telling me about Splish.com. Although these are not custom made, I couldn't let them go by. I think that you will agree, this completes my Irish day. I am off to the pool.

Honolulu Triathlon

Last Sunday, the Honolulu Triathlon was hosted in my backyard. I competed last year and had a lot of fun. I was hoping to do better than my 2 hr 15 min time from 2006. I signed up on Active.com, it was really easy.
This year I swam 30 seconds faster despite my timing chip coming off halfway through the swim! I had to stop, turn around, grab my chip (that was slowly sinking) and hold it in my hand for the second half of the swim. I feel that I could have been another half minute faster had this not happened.

I knocked 4 minutes off my bike time from last year. This could be because I was using some rental Zipp race wheels. Or maybe my new hero/nemesis Aubrey was pushing me on the bike the whole way. We swam together, then played cat and mouse on the bike, but I knew that he would pull away on the run.

My run this year was 2 minutes faster than last year. I ran a 40 minute 10K which puts my pace at just under 6 mins and 30 secs per mile. I cannot complain about that! Rumor has it that the run was a little longer than 10K so my pace would actually be faster.

I am very happy with my time. This is the fastest Olympic distance triathlon I have ever done.
I think that this is for a few reasons. First and foremost, I have been training more than last year. This year, I am coaching the Team Jet half ironman training group. It has really helped my overall fitness, but I am really nailing my nutrition on all of my races. Bill Burke put on a great race. I would like to thank IT&B for letting me use the Zipp demo wheels. Rudy Project kept me safe and looking good in my Rydon sunglasses and Syton helmet.
Special mahalo to my sponsors go! airlines, Star Bulletin, and look how good our team looked in our uniforms that Tai Graphx helped us design.

So in the end, I did a 2:08! Much better than last year. My blisters are finally healing. If you have any chafing, blisters, or irritated skin, I highly recommend Aquaphor healing ointment.

Look out for me in the Ford Iroman 70.3 Hawai'i race coming up in a week!