Silicon Valley Pro Challenge

The 2009 Silicon Valley Triathlon featured a very unique format for the pros. There was a 40k bike time trial in the morning followed by a swim-run-swim-run race in the afternoon. I guess the point of the format was to make the triathlon more spectator friendly, and in the process, make it one of the hardest races of my life. I mean the run out in between swim laps is bad, but this took it to a new level - I thought I was going to have to utilize one of the lifeguards to save me on that second swim!
The day started off well with the 40k time trial on a mostly fast course with one hill halfway through the bike. I have done this tri a couple times before, but never done an all out ITT of that distance before. And true to form, I went out just a little too hard. That one mile climb seemed more like Mt. Diablo after the House of Pain ride! Anyway, I would have been ecstatic with my 54:53 time, had I not found out that Mr. Lieto biked a 49:46!!! Yes, he put 5 minutes on me on a 24.8 mile bike. Mad props to him - he's such a stud! There's a reason why Trek gave him a prototype TT rig that only he, Lance and Alberto have.
So, that meant Chris started the swim-run-swim-run 5 mins in front of me, David Thompson and Lewis Elliot had two minutes on me, Greg Remaly 30 seconds, Chris Foster 15 seconds and Brian Lavelle only 3 seconds back of me. I was super happy just to be in the mix with these superstar athletes. I drank lots of Fluid in between races to stay hydrated and aid in my recovery. Big thanks to Dave and Rich for the support!
On the first leg of the swim, I managed to only catch Chris, only to get demolished by him once we were on land. Brian also ran away from me on that run, so I know I had my work cut out on the second swim. I have never swam so hard in my life and by the end of the 750m swim, I realized that I had caught 4 of the guys ahead of me and had a real shot at getting 3rd and making some money. The second run hurt! I think the format was created to just see how much pain the pros could put ourselves through. Despite my best efforts, Chris, Clayton and Greg passed me on the run and I ended the day in 6th place. As Manny would say "I was leaking oil" badly during that second run, but all in all, it was a very fun day. Chris absolutely dominated the field. They might as well rename the race to the Chris Lieto Pro Challenge for next year.
I am currently getting in some quality training so I will be ready for TI and Vineman in a couple weeks. Today, I just finished my test set track workout of 20x400s on :75 or better with 30 sec rest. Made each one, so my run is getting there. It was the first time I made the intervals with a couple of running partners to suffer with. I think my HS football team thought I was going insane yelling at myself in between 400s. Anyway, I can't have another repeat of Wildflower at Vineman. Then again, I don't think that would be possible - at least I hope so!

I added some pics from the race. The first one was the two exhausted Fluid athletes - me and Chris. The second one was taken before I knew what I was getting myself into. And the last one was me suffering on the run. Thanks Dave for the pics!

Escape from Alcatraz

Despite the fact that I live in San Francisco and have more than ample opportunities to practice the Alcatraz course, that race kicked my butt for the second year running. Once again, the swim killed me! Although last year, my swim fitness was pathetic and I deserved being thoroughly whooped by the Potts and Sanson express train, this year was a different story and I was swimming faster than ever in workouts. As usual, I had an awesome start – how I wish every race had a pontoon start or a dive off of a boat – and quickly settled into a nice pace. However, I am not sure why I decided to do this, but I decided to take a different line than the lead boat. Halfway though the swim when I realized that no one was going around me I took a couple of backstrokes and realized that I was leading a renegade pack of about 5 swimmers way off course. That pack of seagulls that I thought was in the water a solid 200 yards to my left was everyone else. I tried to correct my line and drift over to them, but in the end went too far left and got into the rocks. My best bet would have been to stay my course since the current was not as strong as in years past, but oh well. When I exited the water with a couple of the female pros I knew I had some work to do on the bike. Once I was on my bike I started picking up athletes and got into a really nice rhythm. I was really happy with my decision to ride a tt bike and entered t2 in 9th place. Onto the run, I tried to maintain good form, but I could tell that my bike effort was going to hurt me on the run. A fast moving Lewis Elliot flew by me. The next athlete was my good friend Matt Seymour and Matty offered me some words of encouragement when he went by. I tagged along with him until the downhill to Baker Beach where his foot speed combined with my toasted quads gapped me by about a hundred yards. The second half of that run was uneventful as I could not close the gap that Matty had on me and finished in 11th place. All in all it was a fun race and it was great seeing familiar faces like my good friends from Cal – Melissa, Maggie, K Hass and Brandon cheering for me on the flat stretch and Dave and all the Pac Bikes crew scattered throughout the course. You guys carried me through after my awful swim and allowed me to dwell on the good parts of my race, like not giving up after the swim and my solid bike. Thanks for all of the support! And Mags and Melissa, those custom nose strips were a super hot look!

What exactly are we swimming in?

I just read this pr about the Pan Ams Champs last month. Makes you wonder just how safe that water you are diving into actually is.

OSDH Announces Results of Triathlon Illness Investigation
The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) announced today that an investigation of gastrointestinal illness reported in a recent Oklahoma City triathlon was related to exposure to water during swimming practice sessions or during the swim portion of the event.The OSDH began its investigation after receiving reports that some participants became ill following their participation in the Boathouse International Triathlon held in Oklahoma City May 16-17. State health epidemiologists queried participants through an online survey to try to determine what event or personal exposures could have led to diarrhea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal symptoms. Of the 367 participants, 218 responded to the survey and of that number, 45 met the OSDH case definition for illness, which was an acute onset of diarrhea in a 24-hour period and/or vomiting following the event. Health officials also sought stool specimens from those reporting illness.

The rest of the article can be found at http://www.ok.gov/health/Organization/Office_of_Communications/News_Releases/2009_News_Releases/OSDH_Announces_Results_of_Triathlon_Illness_Investigation.html

HS student denied diploma

This seems really harsh to me, especially since the poor kid will never get a second shot at walking at his hs graduation. If the same etiquette codes were enforced at Cal's graduation, half the student body would walk sans diploma.
I read this article on yahoo news:
A Very Costly Kiss: Senior Denied Diplomaby by Mike Krumboltz For teens, there is no greater joy than graduating high school. Shaking off the shackles of education and claiming that hard-fought diploma is truly an epic day. Unfortunately, for several students at Bonny Eagle High School in Maine, their natural exuberance has led to some surprisingly serious problems.On Friday night, when the senior class was waiting to graduate, excitement began to grow. Students bounced a large inflatable rubber duck. The noise level rose. And then came "the kiss." When called, one student walked on stage to receive his diploma and blew a kiss to his family. The school administrator, clearly not the sentimental sort, sent the student back to his seat ... sans diploma.
The rest of the article can be found at www.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92681?fp=1

Austin

Austin was my third trip to Texas since 2007. I raced in Dallas in 2007 and Lubbock just a few months ago, but Austin is by far my favorite city of the three.
After one of the smoothest travel days in recent memory, I arrived in Austin on Saturday at 7 pm and my roommate, Chris Riekert and I arrived at the La Quinta by 8. We settled down a bit and then went to the front desk for recommendations for places to eat. The lady at the desk answered 6th street, 5 blocks south of where we were staying. As we approached 6th street, we could hear the commotion of people just having a good time. We looked around for a couple of blocks and settled on a cafe in the lobby of one of the hotels. Most people were enjoying some extravagant desserts, but Chris and I inhaled some quality burgers. By the time we finished our meal and walked outside, the party had really gotten started. They were people everywhere. The streets were actually closed to traffic. I thought it was Mardi Gras or something. Chris turned to me and said we should just call everyone in the race and tell them to go out so we will all be on a level playing field. And, after knowing the final outcome of both of our races, I think both of us should of just started the post-race festivities a couple days early.
The actual race, well.... sucked! For starters it was 90 degrees and pretty humid and you know how much I love heat and humidity when I race! My 5 minute warm-up run felt more like I was jogging in place in a sauna. I was at least happy it was a non-wetsuit swim because it would have been death putting on a wetsuit in that weather. I was also super pumped it was a non-wetsuit swim because a.) I was swimming really well and b.) that meant I got to try out my new suit - the Kiwami Kameleon( a hybrid suit that inserts neoprene panels on the chest and thighs for extra buoyancy). The suit felt awesome in the water and I knew I was going to crush this swim. However, the start of the swim did not go nearly as planned. I love in water starts because with my get out speed I usually gain a huge advantage on the field. I was #19 for the race and was happy with my starting position. However, once the commands we given and the horn blew, the rope that was in the water (to prevent us from false-starting) actually was attempted to be pulled up, literally hanging me by the neck. I then got the pleasure of getting bull dozed by the people behind me. It was by far my worst start ever. I worked the rest of the swim to get towards to the front of the swim and exited the water in 13. There were two packs of 3 up the road and we had a pack of 6. We did not exactly work well together, but caught the first pack of three before getting swallowed up by the main chase group of 20 by lap 2 or 5. At that point I was perfectly content to assume my position at the back of the pack and prepare for the run. I felt really good going into the run when one of the athletes decided it would be an awesome time to play human pinball and managed to hit the curb, taking out half of the pack about 1k from the finish of the bike. The guys that were able to regroup trickled into transition about a minute down from that front group. I made it into transition, but my body was in no shape to run. This debacle in Austin inflated my average crash rate since January 2008 to one in every three months – Yeah! I should really look into the full body armor!
The only redeeming quality of the trip was the post race party on 6th street the night after the race. But it was an expensive party to attend. My flight cost $200, but the most outrageous thing was that my bike was $250! I could have bought a seat for my bike... it could have even enjoyed extra leg room and upgraded to economy plus for the extra 50. If at all possible, I will avoid flying United ever again.

Last swim meet of the year/first half

Over the past weekend I attended the CCS HS swim meet. Wow! There was some incredibly fast swimming! Almost every event had a new CCS record. Watching a sub 20 second 50 free by shayne fleming was insane. Also a freshman girl went 1:57 and change in the 200 IM and 4:43 in the 500. Absolutely ridiculous!
Overall, I was very happy with how the SI swimmers did. Pieter got third in both the 200 and 100 frees with a 1:38.55 and 45.35 respectively. If it was any other year, he probably would have won both events with those times. Both were SI records and All- American automatics. USC will be very happy to have him! The boys also set SI records and AAA times in both free relays. And, Brad went 4:40 and change in his 500. Overall, 6 SI records went down over the weekend(all free events from the 50 to the 500 and both free relays) and the boys team took 5th overall. I believe this was their highest finish ever. Each and every guy set prs in their individual events and the relays were really fast as well! Big thanks to Xterra for hooking up the team with the super fast Velocity Red Poolsuit in time for the meet.
On a personal note, I raced(well more like barely survived) my first half ironman at Wildflower. Outside of the swim, which I exited the water in 4th, the race went pretty badly. I had no legs on the bike and had my nagging calf injury flare up again on the run at mile 2. I actually went back to the finish area with chips in my hand when I told myself that I had to finish my first half and tuned back around and walked/jogged the 13 miles. For future reference, one thing is for sure, if I am not 100% before a half, there is no use even toeing the line. I mean I blow up in Olympics pretty badly, but this took it to a whole new level. My body was wrecked for about 2 weeks and is just starting to come around again. Next up for me is the ITU race in Austin on Memorial Day. It’s my first ITU race of the year and I need to have a good showing!

Collegiate Nationals Part III

Despite the very best effort from each and every Golden Bear, Cal could not top the well- balanced team from Annapolis and relinquished the national champion title to the Naval Academy. There were some truly heroic performances from our team members that must be applauded. Robyn Shaffer and Daniella Mehech were both sick within the week leading up to the race, but gutted it out to finish 8th and 9th respectively; Mike Jafari had a break through performance in the 5th wave, maneuvering through the slower athletes to a top 10 finish overall; and our president, Kevin Haas, racing after the epic three day drive in a Penske truck to deliver the team’s bike in Lubbock from Berkeley. Not to mention the fact that our sprint racers in the race before the Olympic had transformed into the best cheerleaders ever! They had painted their bodies and arranged themselves to spell “Go Tri Bears” on their chest and “California” on their back. They positioned themselves on top of the last climb on the course and cheered with the same enthusiasm for all athletes, regardless of school affiliation. Post – race they also had their scarlet letter “branded” to them as the Texas sun tanned the rest of their bodies except where the letter was painted on. I don’t care what the “official” results said, but UC Berkeley definitely showed why we should have won the spirit award. Not to mention the fact that the entire team donned a “Muhammed Alinesque” custom Cal robes during the whole weekend. The special treat of the day was a surprise visit from two great friends: our ex-president Christi Leong and Dwight Upshaw, who drove from Boulder to watch Cal Triathlon race at Nationals. They are truly wonderful people and bleed blue and gold. They, too, stationed themselves at the top of that hill. I could not have been more proud to be a bear! It was a very satisfying runner-up title, (the 5th in the past 6 collegiate nationals with the sole exception being the national championship title last year) knowing that each and every team member left it all out on the race course. The men retained the national title, while the women garnered 4th place.

It truly was a bitter sweet day for me. I was so happy with how the team performed, but I was sad that it was going to be my last race wearing the blue and gold. I have been a member of the Cal Triathlon team since 2004 and it will be the tri team that will forever define my college experience. It has truly been an honor to have you guys in my life. I love all of you guys! Big thanks to each and every one of my teammates for their undying support, love and encouragement. We owe a lot to our wonderful coach, Andy Schmitz, who once again tapped into the full potential of the team, which allowed us to produce at a level that we thought was not possible. From his visualization session to his words of encouragement and motivation, Andy made the team believe we would all race as champions.

Andy and the rest of the team will reload for next year and will hopefully bring back that national title to Berkeley. I also truly hope my good friend, Steve Sexton, will return to collegiate racing and help UC Berkeley make that dream a reality. He truly is a champion and the team surely missed his abilities and leadership in Lubbock. His addition would have made things real interesting for that overall duel with Navy and the team title! I have no doubt that Kenny will vie for the individual male honors and whether it is him or Steve, Cal will keep that title in house. On the women’s side, Daniella and Robyn will be right in the hunt for individual honors and lead a very strong women’s contingent in 2010. Roll on you bears and you stay classy!