Pre-USAT AG Nats and CX China Ramblings

This entry is a continuation of the previous to keep the thoughts separate post-MTB season.

I am currently en route to Milwaukee for USAT Age Group Nationals.

The last triathlon I did was back in March (almost 5 months ago, holy crap) for the Escape from Alcatraz of 2013. They had to hold the event earlier than normal this year because of the America’s Cup races in SF Bay, and that point in time was the beginning of the MTB Season. I decided that I was going to focus on that and then come back to triathlons towards the end of summer in time for this AG Nats race.

Back in March I didn’t have any plans to make a trip to Pennsylvania because I didn’t even think I’d be good enough to compete there. So my original idea to start more of a triathlon focus following CA State Champs was kyboshed when I realized I could do well in PA.

Because I went to MTB Nats, that gave me approximately 3 weeks of prep time for Wisconsin as opposed to the 2 months I had previously planned on.  No worries though, I think I’ll be ready to rock on Saturday with just the right amount of prep under my belt to go fast.

We’ll see how that goes!

Next up will be the cold, winter months of my first full Cyclocross season with the SDG Factory Team. Am I excited? Beyond excited!!! I can’t wait! Cyclocross is pure fun, hard work, and brass balls.  I’m just getting into the amazing community of people who surround the sport and fall more interested in it every day. It’s such a different world than the triathlon community and I love mixing up the people I surround myself with. Bicycles of all sorts draw such a wide variety of interesting people as I’ve come to learn the past couple years. It truly is fascinating and I love learning about all different types of people who are drawn to the two-wheeled, man-powered machines.

Well the one piece of exciting news that’s happened to me in regards to the world of CX is the invitation I received earlier this week to race in Yanqing, China for the first ever UCI Sanctioned Cyclocross race in China!!!! I have to thank the writers over at CX Magazine for helping with the selection process on that one.

They held a search via online applications to help the Chinese race promoters find some Elite athletes to receive all-expenses paid trips to China for the race.. and apparently my application was compelling enough to receive an invite! The only problem, and it is actually a BIG problem, is that the race is the Saturday of Interbike, the 21st. Yeah, I know, it’s pretty much impossible for me to make it. However, I am currently leaving it up to the CX gods to somehow give me a sign in the coming days as to whether or not I can make it happen.
The problem with traveling for Cyclocross races is that 1) you need a backup bike and 2) you need at least one other person to support you with that backup bike in the pit for whatever issues arise during the race. Even more of a reason why this trip is looking more and more unlikely, no matter how hard I try to convince myself there’s a slim chance of it working out.

Regardless,  I got an invitation to race in China for free. That’s pretty freaking awesome.
Definitely can’t say anything close to that has happened in my triathlon career.


On another positive note, I am currently signed up for the UCI Elite Womens race at Cross Vegas on September 18th. A few coworkers will be racing the Wheelers & Dealers race right before I take off, so it will be fun to cheer them on, race, then get straight to the beers : )

Other than that I will be racing some of the Socal Cross Prestige Series on a local level and traveling to a handful of UCI races on the road to USA CX Nationals in January. Stay tuned for more of those plans. Should be another fun adventure just waiting to be had!

'Cross is Coming

1 Day to Vineman

Less than 10 hours to the race.

I'm on my computer with The Replacements playing next to the firefox program opened up to this blog and facebook.
The Replacements is by far my favorite sports movie ever created. Best rootin-for-the-underdog film. Thus, I’m playing it before the race. Garrison and I used to watch this film about every morning for a couple summers a few years back. He and I can mouth this movie word for word. Swear.
The “wide mouth bass” scene just came on : ) haha

Anywho. I’m beating around the bush.

Yesterday we (Mom, Dad and I) left the house around noon. We dropped the dog off and got gas, then we were on our way.

After about 7 and a half hours of driving, Santa Rosa appeared in the distance. Nice little driving tour of CA on our way up here. We checked in and got food at this place I found on my iphone gps. It was called Johnny Garlic’s and it was stellar. All I wanted was pasta and I was satisfied; so the chicken parm was heaven.

Bedtime at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Breakfast was surprisingly thorough.

Around 11:30 we went to the Windsor High School where the Race Expo was taking place. It was our check-in time for last names M-Z. It took some time, but we finally got all our crap and fancy t-shits. Then at 12:30pm we listened to the prerace talk. Everything about the talk was just about penalties and how not to get them. Basically, don’t draft, leave 7 meters between bikes, pass on the left, and you’re good to go. Understandable. As long as the course doesn’t get crowded I’ll be alright.

We went through all the bad traffic to get to the swim start. The river’s going to be 4-7 meters in depth during the entire portion of the swim. When we saw where the place was it was crazy. It was like a pretend beach with a bunch of mountain people all hanging out. I can’t even describe it.. Just not my type of people. Then, we drove all 56 miles of the bike course. And no bueno, all three of us were getting tired just driving it haha. It is absolutely beautiful and we drove by about 1000 vineyards.. so tomorrow’s going to be fun. We didn’t drive the run course, I didn’t want to psyche myself out. I know 13.1 miles is long, that’s all I need to know.

Next up, half hour bike ride warm-up. I rode around the airport, it was actually really awesome. Then I threw on the shoes and did an 18 minute easy run around the industrial business district near the hotel. Everything felt peachy. I know I feel physically ready.

As soon as I rode, I realized that I forgot something for my bike. I had set up the aerodrink with my dad before we left. But guess what I forgot? The straw. The straw and the yellow thingy that prevents splashing. Damnit.

After a quick shower we went back to Windsor High School and set up our Transition 2 stuff. Just shoes and stuff for the run portion. I decided against the fuel belt because there are aid stations every mile on the course.

Sigh of relief. All I needed now was food and rest and I was good to go. Well and I needed a straw. So I stopped at CVS and got lucky finding a thick plastic straw. We picked up a couple bagels for the morning at the market next door and then went to Applebee’s for dinner. I’m pretty sure we hadn’t been to that restaurant in foreverrrr before tonight. But I got a nice hearty place of whole wheat pasta with a bit of chicken and cream sauce. Good fuel, at least I hope.

Now I’m back in the hotel, and updating this blog instead of focusing on the first 2/3 of the race tomorrow. I still need to make sure I have all the food and stuff I need for the bike. I talked to Marc about nutrition stuff for like 2 minutes before it just got me upset. I know I need to drink. I know I need to eat. But I just don’t like thinking about the race. I know I should think about it, but I just want it to happen and not psyche myself out. Ugh. Let’s just get this over with. I signed up like 8 months ago for this thing and I’ve been training hardcore since I’ve been home. Let’s doooooooooo it.

Wish me luck!!!!

2 Weeks to My First Half

4 july 2010

Happy Independence Day!


There are 2 more weeks until my first Half Ironman.
I have been training my butt off. Pretty much like it’s my job, because it is this summer.
So now that I’m starting taper, I thought I’d make some updates on how my hard weeks played out.

6/7/2010
The week of the Redondo Sprint race I did 13:18 hours of training. It was a bit lower to rest up for the nice little sprint fun.

6/14/2020
The week of Father’s Day totaled 18 hours.
Long bike on Tuesday was about 3 hours long. I took the road bike out and just explored a new area and went down a new bike trail, Peter’s Canyon Mountain to Sea Trail. I only went partway down it because it branches off and you have to catch back up to it after taking side streets and I didn’t know where to go.
Long run was about 1:45.

6/21/2010
This week bumped up to a little over 19 hours.
Long bike turned into a long and HARD bike.. much to my dismay. I had to find a 90 minute stretch of road or trail where I never had to stop for a stop light. I thought it was impossible. And after arguing with Marc for a while, I finally decided to look up the Santa Ana River Trail that I had ridden with my dad last year. And surprisingly enough there is a 30 mile stretch of road with no stops. I had a venue, now I just needed the motivation to ride hard by myself for an hour and a half.
Well I did it and the entire thing was 70 miles in 4:06. And I surprised myself by enjoying the whole thing, minus some of the ridiculous head wind. Attached are some pictures from the day.

long day ahead..



















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Angel's Stadium along the way



















Added to the long ride was upping the long run of the week to 2 hours.
Up ahead, the hardest week of training...

6/28/2010
Final hard week bumped up to a little over 21 hours! Yikes.
Another long hard bike. Longer, but with the same amount of hard as last week. I went back to the same Santa Ana River Trail because it’s such an awesome stretch of road with no stopping. It ended up being 75.5 miles and finished at 4 and a half hours. Such a long time. There was 90 minutes of harder riding total, but broken up throughout the ride. The extra distance was round during a quick offshoot down PCH in Huntington. Lovely place to ride, definitely going to ride there more often from now on.
Long run of the week was tough. Ran down Huntington again. Total of 2:05 and 12.86 miles. Almost a half marathon, good enough for me.

That’s basically it. Those were my key workouts, and the long ones where I wish I could have done it with more people. But I’m over here by my lonesome training for a Half Ironman. Life is tough.

1 week to Carlsbad Sprint, 3rd year in a row
2 weeks to Vineman

Bring on the taper!