Anyone know of any good bike loops in the San Fran peninsula/bay area?

Really wanted to do escape from alcatraz but not looking to chance the lottery, I found a race that has open registration for 400 with the same swim, the bike out and back over the golden gate, and the run is famous “double dipsea”!

http://www.envirosports.com/events/alcatraz-xxxi-triathlon-escape-from-the-rock/details

Did a sprint in update NY on July 4th weekend.  About 140 participants.  What a different experience, it was the complete opposite of my half-IM experience.

Highlights were;

• About 10% of the swimmers decided to not wear goggles, and/or were wearing board shorts, and or did some variation of swimming other than freestyle
• A 20-something year old hottie swam in her underwear - not complaining, observing - guessing because she didnt know she had to swim in a triathlon.  (She wound up SMOKING me in the run later)
• About 20 people had bikes older than 40 years. One had a direct drive bike, no gears… very, very impressive on a 1600FT climb over 13 miles

All in all… Much less pressure, much better pack finish, just a fun workout rather than a serious race.

1. What’s important today won’t matter tomorrow

Yeah, so you got a problem. Sleep on it, sunshine. Put it off. Most problems can be safely ignored. You’ll be amazed how often they sort themselves out.

And the gravity of any given problem is inversely proportional to the hour of the day. At three in the morning,  you’ve got an insurmountable issue. After four whisky and cokes at nine in the evening, you haven’t even got an inkling of a problem.

2. Everybody else is furiously improvising, so you can too

Show me an expert and I’ll show you a charlatan. FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT, amigo.

21 year old lifestyle design guru? Hell yeah! Fat, unemployed life-coach? Why not? Homeopathy professional? Whatever, bring it on!

Choose your path, and then Act As If You’re Wearing A Cape.

3. Nobody thinks about you as much as you think about you

Really. They don’t. For example, I’m not thinking about you now. But I bet you are.

4. It’s OK to piss people off

But if you’re pissing everybody off, all the time, it’s time to stop being a dick.

5. Aspiration is for suckers

(arf)

6. Nobody tells all the truth, all the time

So lower your expectations of people. When put in a spot, people fib.

We men lie about our alcohol consumption all the time.

When we’re young and say we had six beers, we probably only had three. Nowadays, if we say we only had three beers, you can be sure it was closer to six.

It doesn’t mean we don’t love you

7. Life doesn’t get better – only your perception of life improves

There was a little man with a lame left leg. He lived on the outskirts of town in a tumble-down house. He had a hole in his roof, and water would come in day and night. His lame left leg meant he couldn’t go out to work, so he survived on the charity of others, who would give him scraps of food. Sometimes he would go for two days and nights with nothing to eat.  One day, the town council decided to fix his roof. The little man with the lame left leg became the happiest person you have ever seen. He was so grateful to be dry that he would smile and sing for the passersby all day long.

***

There was a healthy, beautiful woman who lived in a huge house with six servants and manicured lawns. But alas, she was permanently angry, because Jeannine, that bitch, had told her that her handbag was so last season.

8. Your family comes first, but not to the detriment of everything else

You want to go out with the girls? Tell your husband to make his own dinner. And gents, you don’t need permission for that once-a-year trip to Vegas, you just need to communicate it properly.

9. You’re wrong as often as you’re right

So don’t dwell on either.

10. Men should never wear wigs

[from worldsstrongestlibrarian.com]

What a day!  Despite the hills and the pouring rain for the ENTIRE RACE, I legitimately had a great day.  I remember thinking several times during parts of each leg, that there is nothing more I’d rather be doing… 6 months ago if you told me I’d think that while I’m swimming, biking and running 70 miles, I would have said you have the wrong person.

My recap;

Pre-Race: After Saturday’s race checkin, I decided to drive the bike course and check out these hills.  Having done most of my training on flat Long Island, I was nervous about the New Hampshire hills… and rightfully so.  I could not believe some of the climbs I was going to have to do, I felt like my CAR had trouble!  I drove the course and it hurt my confidence, but at least I knew what I was in for the next day so I’m glad I did it.  I got a semi-decent night’s sleep in at a hotel 30 mins away, woke up at 4AM, got there by 5, and ready to start already.

Swim: Of all three legs, the swim was technically my best at just under 41minutes.  Being this is only my 2nd tri, I mostly kept to the outside of the pack, although mixed it up a few times at the turns and followed some feet along the way with no issues.  Felt like I was cruising so smoothly, and nothing felt better than passing a few people from the previous waves.

What an amazing lake! When you turned for a breath, you could clearly see someone probably 20feet to the side, definitely not like any other OWS I’ve swam in (mostly the long island sound).  

When I got out for T1, I felt great, ready to get on the bike.  I think once I got in the water my nerves of the unknown finally calmed down.

Bike: Ahh the bike, what an experience this was! By this time, it was raining already and at times POURING.  My bike experience consists of about 300 miles on relatively flat roads, so I knew I was in for a long one.  The Mooseman course was a 2 loop course with a ride up and down from the loop (picture a circle sitting on top of a V).  

The “left” side of the loop was crazy.  There was about a 3mile climb capped off with a super steep segment, where about 1 in 3 riders were walking their bikes up.  My 1st loop I wasnt sure how I’d feel the next time I got back to this spot, so I popped off and walked my bike a bit to get to the top… to see a woman dressed up as the devil, welcome to hell! :D

The “top” side of the loop felt like all downhill which I felt like I deserved.  With the pouring rain and parts limited by the officials, it was difficult for me to break 30mph.  I just wasnt comfortable having never ridden in the rain and literally closing my eyes at times because the rain was pelting into my face! (I only had dark sunglasses so didnt wear them)

The “right” side of the loop was great, nice big rolling hills on a highway.  I felt like I biked this segment great and was able to pass a few people who passed me on the hillls. (who will later repass me for good on the 2nd loop)

Back-around for the 2nd time at about 25 miles in, and I felt surprisingly fresh and was ready for another round.  This time I knew what to expect, and pushed through as best I could, and even powered up the devil hill on my bike having more confidence in my legs.

I got a sense of the time at the end of this loop, I was 3hrs on the bike at mile 45.  I kept up on my hydration/nutrition and just powered through the last 10 miles, trying to cycle as best as I could.  I finished up the bike at about 3hrs 40mins.  At the time, I wasn’t thrilled, but all things considered, it was the furthest bike, my 1st time in rain, and by far the hilliest ride I’ve ever done so I got over it quick.

Run:  When I got in for the run, my legs felt like they were toast.  I stepped out onto the run, and surprisingly… I felt like “I can do this.”  By the time I got to the turn around of the 2loop run, I realized my body is game for this run as long as I can keep my mind in it.  I never expected to run the whole 13.1 miles, but I did!  As with the bike, I never ran this far.  I was slow, but running … and clocked in at 2hrs 20mins.  I felt like the tortoise in the tortoise in the hair, because there were people who kept walking and running that I’d keep passing over and over.  During the run, it was still raining, but I was starting to heat up so I was glad.  They did a great job with the aide-station placement so it was easy to stay hydrated and the calories coming in during the run.

Summing it up:

What a day and what a race.  I felt like I prepared correctly and was able to manage my energy and nutrition to last for the full 70.3 miles, I truly felt like I gave my last bit of energy on the last mile and was happy to finish, even it was in 6:57:21 (727/840)

I targeted this goal in December 2009 and am so happy I found triathlon and look forward to getting more time in the water, more miles on the bike, and becoming a faster runner.

Over the past 6 months, I went from an occasional runner to a triathlete.  

In the process…

• Learned how to swim efficiently and with some speed (from not being about to swim 50m)
• Lost 20lbs over 20 weeks of a formal half-iron training program
• Completed 2 triathlons spanning 105+miles
• Got a tri-bike and learned how to ride it to [try to] be fast and efficient
• Woke up early in the snow to swim, ran in the freezing rain at night, and got hit by a damn car on my bike, with the greater goal in mind.
• Set a goal, stuck to it and completed it!

All is said, mission accomplished, yah… now time to get back on the bike! NYC Tri Oly coming up 7/18

Mooseman 70.3 this weekend! Bib#761. Time to put my last 20weeks of training to the test!!

I spent the previous months training in cold weather, rain and snow, or indoors with controlled temps… I forgot it can get hot out! My last tri was in early May, After the short swim in a cool but comfortable lake and got on the bike, it was already over 80 degrees and sunny.  Over the next hour and a half ride, the day gave way to pure sun and approached 90 degrees.  I kept jamming away on the bike, and the nice ~20mph breeze kept me from noticing the sweat leaving my body because it evaporated so fast.  I felt like I was taking in enough liquid, but when I pulled into T2, I realized I had almost a full bottle of the 2 I planned on drinking.  The minute I made it past transition, it hit me.  I was hot, very hot, scary hot.  I pushed through as best I can but could not beat the heat.  Fortunately there were aide stations everywhere, and I pretty much bathed in as many cups as I can grab and drank and drank until the next aide station.  Eventually I was just toast and had to walk/run the last mile.

I weighed myself on this race day.  201.8 at 4AM.  Drove down to NJ and drank a gatorade, and ate breakfast.  Raced, during which I drank 2 20oz gatorades and 6 cups of water, after the race, I drank another 20oz gatorade, 2 16oz waters, ate post race buffet, stopped once on my way home and had a large iced tea and sandwich.  During this time I pissed once.  When i got home, I weighed 201.8!!  Safe to say I did not properly hydrate during the race and was not prepared for the 91 degree day.

With this experience in my mind, I wanted to be sure to pay some special attention to it.  Today I put in a nice brick with a 2hr ride and 30 min run (which is about the same duration as my last ‘problem’ tri above), it is sunny, hot, and the place I trained had 0 shade.  I went into today with a plan, drink no less than every 5 minutes on the bike, and anytime I desired, and take in a gel at 90mins and 120mins.  Also I took a run belt with me for some running fuel.  I kept a great pace on the bike, stuck to my plan, and it was like night and day from my last race run.  Legs felt good, didnt feel too hot, stomach was fine.   With Mooseman coming up in 16 days, I’ll be extending this out to the longer format and hope to be able to hit the ground running with enough energy to make it through.