June Lake Triathlon

07/07/2018

June lake triathlon is a beautiful event situated 25 minutes north of mammoth and 20 minutes south of Lee Vining where 120 hits 395. The swim is a nice lap around the south end of the lake at 7500’, followed by a great bike ride on the June Lake Loop and lastly a hike up 1000’ over the 10k run to finish back on the beach.

I took the swim on too hard and ended up having to do some chilled out back stroke for the first quarter mile until I could get my heart rate under control... Lesson #1 - when at altitude, ease into the swim! Still finished in 31 minutes so not my worst.

The bike was epic-ly amazing! I cruised at over 20 mph even with 1300 ft of climbing. The Shiv once again proved what a powerful tool it is.

The run however was deadly. I don’t think I’ve ever run a 10k so slow. I should have probably gone easier on the bike, I should have probably drank more fluids because it was super hot, but any way about it I was not ready to hike at altitude in the super tough conditions. Total race time was 2:53 - a new PR for slow, but that was largely due to the run with a hint of altitude and heat.

They always say you’ll be faster next time... but it will be tough to ever get used to this course. Fortunately it is the most beautiful race to date, so I bet once Violet can do the kids race we’ll be back!

Bay to Breakers 2018

05/20/2018

Bay to breakers is always a blast. Same purple tutu costume, but started closer to the front of the coral. After a tough Wildflower performance lacking food/hydration, B2B was going to be a breeze minus the lingering lactic acid. I went in just hoping for a sub-7 performance and came out with a PR by 45 seconds getting close the 50 minute mark at 50:15! Pacing was a good steady start, 7:03 on the hill, and negative split all the way through the park just running out of gas at the end as two guys passed me. We’ll see if I manage to change up the costume for next year.

PS - Also did a swim time trial at 15:36 for 1k and then a 1:20 100 follow up - a good week for racing

Wildflower Olympic

05/06/2018

Starting the day I was low on fuel after having food poisoning the day before. Crammed a bagel, a shot blok, and a few bottles of water and we were off. Swim went well minus goggles getting filled with water at the beginning of race (don’t take them off after warm up!) Then the bike was a really tough start but things picked up. Struggled with low gears - gotta get that checked out, but flew (36 mph for the last 1k) on the down hills. The aero bike is a miricle at speed. The run was the most solid minus almost cramping in the middle, but still pulled out sub 7:30 splits. Definitely not an A race but super fun and look forward to next time!

Kaiser Half Marathon - SF

02/04/2018

Switching tact for the blog and going from mountain write ups to race write ups. Lots more to come. Kaiser was the first race of 2018 and it was a blast. We raced across golden gate park with baby in tow and took second place in the stroller division (if only it existed) and were 5 minutes off my half marathon PR. Lori and I didn’t even push it as it was a training race for her Boston Marathon later this year.... well didn’t push it till the end of course. Which means only faster next year!