Is This Me?

9/21/08

Denver and Stacie Do Alcatraz

I was bored one afternoon at work, and found a ride on craigslist headed to SF. Found another one headed back to MT later in the week. Thursday night I called the guy headed to SF, Friday I found coverage at work. Saturday I typed out a To-Do list for the guy covering me. I was gone on Sunday, and drinking coffee with Stacie Monday morning.

First thing's first... Lets get drunk and go to Alcatraz! We are most definitely anti-prohibition.

Next stop, The Rock!

The ferry captain told us "If you two stand out in front like that you will get wet!" We took funny pictures and DARED him to soak us.

Famous last words: "You know, for warning us about getting wet, I'm REALLY dry right n...*SPLASH*" We were splashed several times after the initial spraying, and remained outside until the salty wet was too much to deal with. We were almost to the door to get inside and got NAILED by the biggest wave yet. We didn't stop laughing for 10 minutes.

As you can see, Stacie was still wet upon incarceration. I've been trying to think of a good caption for this picture and only came up with "You must be 56" tall (the green line) to go on the tour." and "Welcome to OZ bitch!"

Misc pics from inside Alcatraz. In the picture on the top right, I was learning something. Top left is a cell (a guest bedroom of sorts). The bottom left is a view of the solitary confinement cells. Bottom right is the playground. This is where the inmates were allowed to play kickball, four-square, handball, and their own special version of UFC.

Thug Life with a view...

More misc pictures. No good captions. Ending the tour and headed back to the city. We sat on the back of the ferry this time, and didn't get wet.

Stacie and I were CLEARLY drunk and loving life when this picture was taken. Standing in ferry line to get to The Rock, the tour people take pictures of you against a background showing the island.

Tour Tickets: ?? (Stacie paid...)
Beers: $18
Pre-Tour Pictures: $22
Ending the tour by taking a picture OF a $22 picture, re-racking the picture and calling everyone else standing in line waiting to pay $22 for a picture suckers: Priceless.

7/19/08

Pond-Water and Athlete's Foot Stew

I finished my second Sprint Triathlon. My overall time was 1:42:15. Not quite the 25 faster (see below) I was aiming for, but there was significant improvement in every event, which is very satisfying. My goal - aside from moving quicker, was to work a lot harder than the first time, too (makes sense, right?). This was also accomplished as was evident from the terrible jaw cramp I got trying to chew a bagel after the race. It was painful, but satisfying and fulfilling in a way I didn't think was possible from a bagel. I'm happy about my performance but still have a lot of room for improvement.

Total: 1:42:15
Swim Time: 0:24:34
Bike Time: 0:40:00
Run Time 0:33:40
T1 0:02:10
T2 0:01:51

The first tri swim I did was 800 meters, and I did it in 21:32. The second swim was 1000 meters and I did that in 24:34 minutes. Adjusted for the distance and lack of turn and push-offs, I would like to say I moved about 3 minutes faster swimming than last time. My total transition time was 4:01 minutes, this is 2:14 minutes faster transitioning. I was exactly 6:18 minutes faster biking. And finally, the biggest improvement was 8:38 minutes faster running.

All this for a total improvement of 20 Minutes and 10 Seconds faster than my first triathlon. Only 5 minutes shy of my original goal.

My next goal is to finish 10 minutes faster than this last triathlon. Again, I have a feeling the largest improvement will come from running - I'm seeing an orthopedist to get rid of some knee pain problems I have been living with for a while. Free from pain, I will be able to train a lot harder and move a lot faster.

Training Log Graphs:

7/13/08

Tri Pic

Buff and Lancaster at Spring Meadow lake.

Tri Pic

Resting in the shade.

Tri Pic

Jaw cramps trying to eat a eat a bagel after the race... WTF?

7/4/08

How You Doin'?

This is my first race since my triathlon. It's only a 5k run but it was a good one for me. 32 minutes(10 minutes faster than last time!) with an average heart rate of 170 and 180 max. Knee pain was manageable. July 13th - Bring on the next Tri!!

From Perfect-Timing.org:

There were 8 finishers in the Male 20 to 29 age group and
80 finishers in your distance. A total of 179 runners signed
up for the inaugural race.

Your overall finish place was 57 and your age group finish place
was 7. Your overall finish percentile was 71 while your age group
percentile was 88. Your time of 32:19.1 gave you a 10:25 pace per mile.

6/2/08

My Big Fat Triathlon

I Tri'd My Best...

Technically, it was a Sprint Triathlon - a shorter faster version of an Olympic length triathlon. Sprint = 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. First and foremost, I did not cry before or after the finish line. I did a lot of sweating and that may have looked like crying but I assure it was only my skin crying from exhaustion.

My second, although previously unstated, goal was to get some profound insight into my soul, a deeper understanding of myself and my ambitions in life, or at the very least an overpowering sense of self satisfaction from competing something that only a year ago would have been enough to scare me into getting really hammered and I don't know... Drive around or something. In this regard, upon crossing the finish line resulted in complete and utter failure but not total dissatisfaction. My friend Mark Lancaster (no relation) told me he started running and didn't get that clarity/satisfaction/deeper understanding for a long time after he started running, so I am going to trust his wisdom (since it has helped me on more than one occasion) and go ahead and keep at it...

The one thing I did get at the finish line was complete and utter exhaustion. I had swam 1/2 mile faster than I've ever swam before (21 minutes - grease lightening if your name is Denver), biked 10 miles and hit the wall so to speak for miles 10-12 (46 minutes) and got off my bike and tried to run a total of 3 miles (42 minutes - long story). Every muscle and joint I used in the previous 2 hours hurt. It was either cramped, completely limp, or it just hurt. It was the most miserable I can remember feeling in a LONG time. I hated it. I'm going to do it again in 5 weeks.

Swim 21:32
Bike 46:18
Run 42:18
Transition 6:15

The Plan
This race served as a good starting point. My swim can be improved dramatically if I can build the endurance to swim continually and turn around effeciently. As it is, I get to the end of the pool, stand up, cough up a lot of water, breathe, and jump back in and go. Biking can be improved by starting a real training routine instead of going out once or twice a week for 12 miles and riding until my legs hurt, then whining some more - so my plan is to begin a structured bicycling exercise routine. Running - this was truly a pathetic low for me for more reasons than I care to count. One thing I wasn't read for was knee pain. I had a surgery a year ago on my left knee. After the first mile of running (very slow) my knee started to hurt - it got to a point where I had to walk until the pain went away and jog again. Unfortunately this didn't even allow me to run hard or long enough to get my heart rate up - SO, one of my biggest goals in the next 5 weeks is to strength train my left knee and hopefully run and condition it to a point where there is no pain running. My transition time was also pathetic - so I will work on cutting this in half. My goal for for my next triathlon is to finish 25 minutes faster than the first - most of this will come from running. My goal is to maintain at least a 10min/mile pace.

Below are some pictures... Click on the image to make it larger. Camera work is fuzzy - I blame Dave Conners.