Transitions

 NAGT Alabang. Oct 17  (Photo by Carina / Marvin)

It's been a while. 

A lot has happened in almost two months after I did the Ironman 70.3 in Camsur. I celebrated my completion of that formidable feat by eating to my heart's content for at least a week. Travel mate Ronald and I made sure we partook of sinful foods like crispy pata before we drove back to Manila. I easily gained 5lbs post-70.3. For two weeks after the race, I did little athletic activity - the most arduous was a 300m swim I managed to squeeze in between chats in the pool. No bike, no run. After 8 months of training I deserved it.

I wish I had the luxury of loafing after the race but I did not. I spent the two-week vacation I had in two equal parts: a week tapering and doing the race, the other week packing my life's material hoard in 12 balikbayan boxes, hauling them off along with furniture and plants in two truck loads into a new place, and unpacking them before starting a new work routine in a new company. I thought triathlon transitions are hard, but they are nothing compared to life's transitions.

It's been a while but I'm back. In the happy flurry that is work, I rejoice in those short morning walks or occasional sprints I do in the hills of Pasig, and in the Thursday swim nights with friends. Yes, I now share the same training hills with good friend Gingerbreadman although I think my friend runs on a different timezone. On the hills of Pasig I walk in Vibram Five Fingers, or sprint like a kid in my favorite K-swiss Ironman shoes. Meanwhile, in the cacophony of new things in my life, those night swims prove comfortably familiar.

This morning I did the min-sprint triathlon in Ayala Alabang. A mini-sprint! After an Ironman 70.3!  My friends are incredulous! But in my personal scheme of things the mini-sprint fit perfectly. I signed up because I wanted to speed up. In 70.3 I have proven to myself that I can endure. This time, I want to be fast, or at least better than the turtle pace I used to love. That my new work allows only enough training time for a mini-sprint did factor in the decision.

I found myself sharing the starting line with tri newbies Neil and Timmy, classmates in our Thursday swim nights. I swim better than them, but in a mini-sprint, how many minutes can you actually lead over the newbies? Moreover, Tim and Neil might not have done a triathlon yet, but they like newbies of today have the privilege of training with those who already passed the rite of passage. I remember training for my first ever triathlon (a UPLB sprint!) all by lonesome, occasionally sharing the pool with then newbie (now coach) Ige Lopez. In 2008 when I came back to triathlon, I was the default swim "coach" of our office "team" of mini-sprinters, simply because of that lone 2003 triathlon experience. Among the four of us, I clocked in the best time of 17minutes for a 350m swim. Yup 17 minutes! Then 48min for bike and 21 minutes for the run. Finished in 1:26 minutes. I asked multi-sport batchmate Ian what was his first mini-sprint time and he said 1:21. He finished 70.3 in less than 7 hrs (6:30 I think).

A month after I joined the mini-sprint again and shaved 12 minutes from my pathetic time. This time, 1:14, with 10++ for swim, 38min for bike and 24min for the run. I walked in parts, but maybe because I burned my legs riding my mountain bike.

Last Sunday, I was thrilled to get out of the pool at 7:33 in my watch. With an 8++ time for the swim including the jog to the transition, I think I was in the upper quartile at least in the swim leg. It pays to have that experience of washing machine swims and knowing that you used to swim 2k straight for the last few months. A half-ironman vet slugging it out with the newbies. Haha. What I lack in innate physical skills, I shall make up with experience, technique and wisdom :-)

But really, it was not about me competing with others. It's me competing with myself. My teammates made fun bets on us (Neil, Tim and myself) but I took it all in stride. I have my own agenda: Do better, and in the process pull up others or be pulled up by them. I spent several Thursday swim nights pulling the leg, tickling feet, splashing water, and cutting swim paths of the newbies including Noelle and Karen. That should do them good.

And it did. Noelle came out of the water 3rd or 4th, winning the Mini-sprint in the end. I shall bask in her reflected glory by saying that not only did I convince her to run (and qualify) for Milo marathon, but I also persuaded her to give triathlon a try. Haha. Good job, Noelle! Kudos too to Karen who survived the swim to claim the 3rd place spot. Tim and Neil did good too, with swim splits of 9 and 10 minutes, respectively.

Ecstatic from the swim, I also had good transition one. I ditched the socks and dove my feet straight into my tri shoes (well, not really, caused I wiped them with a towel first hehe). I was steadily biking going into the halfway mark when Neil biked past me. Goodness, Neil, I know you will pass me in the bike, but not so early please. Haha. I had my own bike pace but I tried hard to keep Neil on sight for as long as I could. I did not catch the mountain biker-turned-roadie Neil. What I did catch is my own personal bike record. I shaved 6 minutes off my previous record. Yehey! To do better on the bike is number one on my training agenda. Thank you Neil!

I had good transition 2 as well. I ditched the socks again, confident in the powers of my K-swiss Kona shoes. No dead weights on the legs so I steadily ran, although not as fast as I wanted, maybe because of the excess poundage. Sigh, Neil was not on sight. I knew I was on my way to beating my PR but I also tried to beat Neil in the process because a teammate had the good sense (or is it loyalty and friendship?) to bet on me. I would only see Neil just before Caliraya Street, already on his way back. If I followed what at least two people told me that the turnaround was Pagaspas St, that meant Neil was ahead of me by 300-400 meters. Kinda hard to catch up at that point so my spirit sank a bit. I slowed down to get a drink, and only then did it hit me. I was right, the turnaround was just Caliraya St. Grrr, I should not have slowed down and gave up so easily. That shall cost RJ Pancake House breakfast for Neil and Karen. Sorry my friend, but Neil had the momentum.

I tried to pick up pace and saw Timmy still on his uphill climb while I was dashing downhill toward the finish. I was steadily running and accelerating. What I did not know was Timmy was targetting me. Haha. That competitive guy! On my last 50 meters, Timmy darted from nowhere to steal my limelight. What the....But I stopped there. I had my moment in Camsur. Let this be Timmy's. And so Timmy crossed the finish line at 1:00:23. Me two seconds after, and 14 minutes better than my previous record. I did not beat the 60 minutes, but it was good enough. I was thrilled to know later that Tim had the second best run split in the mini-sprint in the effort to catch me. Well-done kiddo. You can always have that bragging right that in your first triathlon, you beat an Ironman 70.3 veteran. Same goes for you Neil who clocked in at 58min. See you both in longer races. Maybe that time I shall do better not only in my standards, but in yours too. Haha.

Congratulations everyone. Happy transitions :-)

My Third Triathlon: Speedo NAGT Oct 2008

I was not supposed to be in this triathlon. I was supposed to be resting a day after my 10K Adidas KOTR. But crazy man that I am, I called up the TRAP office the afternoon before the race to register. I would do the mini-sprint again, to redeem myself. I felt good completing the Animo Sprint (well, mini for me) last September, which was supposed to be a fun event for my group of friends, but minutes after crossing the finish line I was already castigating myself for taking the legs too lightly and not aiming for better times. Surely I could have done better.

And so there I was in AAV setting up my stuff inside the transition area at 5:30am while my fellow try-hard athlete friends are still on their beds. It was a bummer for me that on the rare occasion that I was early, my wave had to start the last at 7:30 am. I had to wait for 2 hrs! Of the 40 or so males in the mini-sprint, there are probably just 5 people I recognise from previous ANIMO sprint. There seem to be a lot of newcomers or new faces, something which I actually welcome as I still am a newbie myself.

Swim.
I may be a leisure swimmer, but I still fancy myself as a water baby and I badly wanted to improve my swim time. I promised myself I would be more aggressive, but apparently the others are more determined than I am. Everyone it seemed sprinted from the time the race signal was given. I thought I was already good at swimming through tight spaces, but it was real challenge to go past the swarm, especially with the kids (13-15) and the breaststrokers swimming alongside. I thought the swarm will end after 2 laps, but I had to fight my way through 5 laps. At least 3 times I had to stop or slow down; otherwise, I will hit other people or some breaststroker will kick me in the face. In my mind I was screaming, "Can you please make me pass through and not hog the whole lane!!!" Despite the struggle, I finished with a decent 10:55, partly carried away by the fast ones some of whom finished the swim within 7 minutes.

Transition 1: I learned my lesson and brought my slippers near the pool for the walk/run back into transition area. I saw one put shoes near the pool site, an idea I may copy next time (unless I consider using bike cleats instead, err, I may be getting too far ahead on this idea).

Bike
My weekly practices seemed to have helped. I have had enough of the scenery during practices that I did not look at dogs and houses this time around. I was amazed myself, but I did overtake at least 2-3 people during the bike leg. In true triathlon tradition I tried to greet or encourage these people, my simple way of paying it forward for encouragements I have received in the past. I got cheap thrills from the occasional overtakes, but later in the run one of the persons I overtook confided to me that it was his first time to ride a road bike and that he was not familiar with the gears. Bummer. Overall it was a good ride and I managed to pare down my time by 8 minutes including the transition.

Run
Transition 2 was quick and uneventful. I felt good coming from the bike ride, but I fared below expectations during the run. To start with, my legs are not yet fully recovered from my Adidas run the previous day. Worse, I brought the wrong pair of running shoes. I should have brought the pair with more cushioning as my legs are already beat up by the third leg. So my legs were like bricks for almost the whole run duration. It was a bit disheartening to see 2-3 people overtaking me this time. To add to my misery, the race course was slightly altered with the last part being an uphill-downhill trip along University Avenue. My time was about 3 minutes more than my last mini-sprint.

Overall, it was an 12 minute improvement from my last race. It was not bad considering I had a 10K run the previous day. I believe other triathletes did the same double-race booking. We are addicts all. The best part for me is the shirt. I like what it says in the back. When I finish my first real sprint, I will wear it with pride.

Enjoying my Second Triathlon

I enlisted in the Animo Sprint Triathlon (mini-sprint category) with only two goals in mind. First is to have a better finish (I finished last in my first triathlon!) and second is not to have cramps during the race. (My hamstrings and ankles ached during the bike and run legs in my first triathlon). My miserable performance is my triathlon debut is attributed to lack of preparation. A week after doing my first Milo 5K race in Baguio where I sprained my ankle from race start due to lack of warm-up, I wanted to redeem myself and do the next first challenge that came along - the 2003 UP Los Baños Triathlon. With crazy egging from my group of rowing friends who did the Baguio Milo race, I enlisted in my first triathlon.

I was better prepared in my second triathlon. I knew that biking and running are my weak points so I hit the gym almost daily for exercises on the cycling machine and treadmill. I also did the bike race route for two consecutive weekends prior to the race. I of course made sure that I could still swim the 350m required.

I was bent on enjoying the whole race that I took my sweet time for most of the course. I forget it was competition and acted like I was doing leisure sports. For starters, I arrived relatively late at 6:30am. I calmly got my race back and had myself number-marked. I very slowly unpacked and laid out the stuff I would need for transition to biking. Finally I proceeded to the pool area to wait.

I believe I was too successful in calming my nerves before the race that I became too relaxed. I took my sweet time cooling myself by showering. Because I was not hurrying, I lost the opportunity to do practice swims before the race. I was a bit jolted when the signal for swim start was given and a swarm of guys swam through me as I was still navigating myself toward the starting wall. I tried to get my bearings in the first 2 laps, and then I relaxed again. I did the same meditative strokes I use to do when I swim alone. I do not know if I was fast or slow, but I did leave behind some people. Towards the middle of the swim course, I felt the lanes were mine alone. I suppose the good swimmers went ahead, while the new ones were left behind. I was there in the middle concentrating on form and conserving energy for the next legs.

In an attempt to get into my swim zone, I zoned off all the chaos and commotion. Very calmly, I climbed out of the pool and headed to the bike transition area. Only after the swim did I realize that my watch chrono was off. In the transition area, I leisurely put on bike clothes and shoes and chewed through half of a powerbar. I just realised I needed to hurry up when a friend arrived from the swim leg. The transition from pool to bike mount took me six leisurely minutes!

The bike leg is my Achilles heel. In my first and crazy triathlon attempt 5 years ago, my thigh muscles hurt like hell from lack of previous use. For my second triathlon, I was better prepared. I pushed the effort level on the cycling machine to 10 (with 12 being the highest) to prepare for the arduous uphill segments. On race day, I purposedly did not exert much effort on the level surfaces so I could have energy stocks for the uphill. The ascends worked my upper leg muscles but not really to the point of pain or exhaustion. Confident that I managed the first ascend, I relaxed even further. It was then that I turned the sprint into a bike tour of the village. I admired the nice houses and beautiful dogs from my road vantage point. I saw labrador retrievers, a German shepherd and a pug. After my village tour, I dismounted from my bike with the urgency of a vacationer. One of the race organizers was yelling "Finish strong, brother" but it took him two friendly yells for me to realise that they were addressed to me. I was still calm in my second transition phase, but was faster.

The running leg for me was most uneventful. For one, many others have already finished that there were less people to race with. More importantly, for an overweight person like me, running puts so much stress on the knees and ankles. My wide flat feet does not help either. I cannot run fast for instance. I am just jogging really. So I I have not reached that point where running is pure bliss, where you have long, effortless strides fully supported by adequate heart and lung capacities. I would like to believe that swimming has developed my heart and lung, but my weight is really killing my legs. I have shed 15 lbs since I started training again in August, but I need to shed more! I enjoy this kind of bliss in swimming; soon, I hope to have the same feeling in running.