WFTW 08 Recap

For the photoset, click here!

I'm still recovering from the weekend. A night owl, I find myself wanting to hit the hay before 10PM the last two days. Didn't hurt me too bad at track last night though so I should be good.

WFTW (Wildflower Training Weekend) started at 4PM Friday for Spamsiwan and myself. The Iron Knitter+Baker was my ride down and one of my cabin mates at Cabin 2. She's awesome company because she always travels with food but you have to like vegetarian fare which I don't mind at all.

After a 3.5 hour drive we got there with a lot of daylight left with four options for the afternoon; swim, bike, run or eat and hangout. I opted for the run and ran the long course route which is 13.1 miles. I ended up with a little more since I got lost twice. The route is partly on trails which was sweet.

Cabin 2 was awesome, there was 10 of us total and I knew everyone. Everyone brought food and drinks and by the time I got back from my run the kitchen was in full swing. Jennie our cabin leader is also the social director for the club and the early folks had to come to our cabin for check in. This was nice because we got to see a lot of folks. The bulk of the 140 or so participants came in the evening however not being able to leave work early.

Not getting enough sleep the week before did catch up to me. Hit me on Saturday afternoon after a hard bike ride. I was out for another 13 and ended with 9. I was dragging on Sunday too. Fortunately for me I am blessed with great friends and on both occasions my workout was saved by friends who were willing to run with me. There is just no substitute for good company on the run. The weekend workouts looked like this:

Friday: 13+ mile run
Saturday: 56 mile bike ride (hard) + 9 mile run
Sunday: 25 mile run (two loops on the long course run minus a mile)

Spams got me home in time for church Sunday (4pm service) and a Redbull got me through the rest. It was an amazing weekend and I could go on and on and on but you wouldn't want that. It was warm and sunny the whole weekend, not too bad on the wind either. The water temps were great although I didn't swim. People were great, the social BBQ Saturday night was fun, cabin hopping for desserts Saturday evening was even more entertaining and I got my workouts done. Plus I whopped some butt on the bike too despite not having ridden since I left for Florida. We were joined at the lake by our companion tri-club, a group from Silicon Valley, 2 clubs from LA, a couple of college teams and individuals who were out training on their own. The college kids, from both teams, got us up at 12 midnight Friday when a bunch of them ran down to the docks screaming and yelling while they jumped in the water. They did this over and over again. I met a couple of them the next day. Darn kids!

Now I'm just concentrating on getting enough rest and recovery for the Mt. Diablo 50-miler this coming weekend.

I hope you all enjoyed the pics. Jennie here is my vid of the transition race that you requested. Shorter but no less entertaining. Jennie I know why you like this video so much:)

The Transition Race

Video courtesy of John Hayato. Great job capturing the fun John! Friggin Chris, haha, I just noticed it now. He drinks his beer first before taking off his wetsuit - priorities!

Oh man what a freakingly good weekend. Now I can finally recover, from Florida and from the training weekend. Got pics and a report to share but in the meantime here is a video of the "Transition Race" we had this past weekend, it's a training weekend tradition. It's a mock race that emphasizes not the three sports of triathlon (swim, bike and run) but the fourth sport which is the transitions - the transition from the swim to the bike known as T1 and the final transition from bike to run known as T2. If you watch the video you'll know what I mean. I shot my own footage with an even better angle on the crash but John's video tells the whole story better.

It starts with the participants dressed in their wetsuits by the waters edge. They run up, transition to the bike, bike a lap around the parking lot, transition to the run and do another lap for the finish. Winner was Jake M., representing Cabin 2. Way to represent Jakey! Not only did our cabin had the most sugar (isn't this the drug of choice for endurance athletes?) for the weekend but we also had the honor of having the winner for the transition game. Oh and no one really chugs a Heineken in the transitions just another twist. I'm sure you guys already knew that.

The last video is a quick 11 second footage of actual pros at a race last year. Watch how fast they go from running their bikes out of the transition area to riding them. Since I'm talking about transitions, thought I'd throw this in too just for comparison.

Enjoy!

Touch and Go

Hanging with blogging ultra running friends in the middle of nowhere in Florida. Olga with her youngest, Stephen and Bob.

With me in the picture this time as Stephen takes the shot.

Got in yesterday, paid a bunch of bills, worked a bunch, had dinner and a movie with my favorite girl, packed, had breakfast with my good friend Jessica and her mom, cleaned the bike and now after meeting one deadline I am getting ready to head out to the afore mentioned Wildflower training weekend. I slept 3 hours in two days. 7 in three. Ha, a good exercise in keeping it going despite the need for zzzz. If my ride Spamsiwan will let me I'd like to zzzz part of the way there - it's about a 3.5 hour drive south.

I hope you all have a great weekend. To my blog friends, I apologize for being away, catch up with you guys soon.

Still Here

Still here in Florida. Having fun hanging with the family, eating their food, drinking their beer and driving their cars. It's not all vacation though, work followed me here. Sa'll good, I'm blessed to have work. Family is doing great. Stepdad is still kickin despite the smoking and drinking, mom can still make me feel like I'm 12 when she yells at me from across the room and I've been making 2AM snack runs to 711 with my sister - one of our traditions. The difference this time is that I don't buy anything. I look at everything and buy nothing, okay I'm lying, just something small. I'm committed to dropping the weight prior to the May and June races. Mom and Dad's cooking is harder the harder fight. The day before I arrived I told them I'm super training mode and I only want the really healthy stuff, my dad responds by thawing some pork baby back ribs for first dinner. A few weeks ago he won a large BBQ grill, an Italian made shotgun and a silver watch at a local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) fundraising event. Where the heck am I? BBQ and a shotgun? So he's been using the grill but he plans to sell the shotgun. Not like he hunts or anything.

Been running a bit, one hour spurts. I'm 2-2. Succeeded twice, failed twice. It's just so boring and warm here. It's alright, I'll get one more run in before leaving for home Thursday AM, then it's off to our triathlon club's annual Wildflower training weekend in Paso Robles. Down there it can get very warm, some hills, lots of trails and a lake for swim training. I plan to do it all plus multiple loops on the half marathon course. We've got coaches on hand, a bike wrench, some massage therapists and a catered dinner on Saturday night. What's not to like. There will be about 150 of us and word is that our companion club will also be there as well as a club from Silicon Valley. As J~Mom said, "It's on like Donkey Kong!"

I'm lame, brought the camera but I forgot the camera cord to download to the comp. Finally met Bob, finally. Olga just happened to be in town too visiting her son Alex and taking her youngest, Stephen, to Disneyworld. We all met in the middle of nowhere, that was a trip. Pics to come.