The Louie Triathlon

Sunday saw me competing in my first Olympic distance triathlon (0.9 mile swim, 26 mile bike and 6 mile run) at the 5th annual Louie Triathlon which was held on Treasure Island. This is held in memory of Louie Bonpua who managed to complete Ironman Canada despite having active leukemia. Similar to our last triathlon on Treasure Island, this was a combined North and South Bay Team event with over 100 people participating. Unlike our last outing to Treasure Island a couple of weeks ago, when it rained on us non-stop for 4 hours, this time the weather was perfect.

Once again, I am grateful to Raj for the photography. I am impressed at how quickly she is improving as a sports photographer.

So here is my report. As I mentioned, the weather was fabulous but somebody had forgotten to turn on the water heaters so the bay was bloody cold! Here I am at the start waiting for my wave to go in. Note the TV camera - there were two local stations covering the event, which was reported on the 10 O'clock news later that day.


The swim consisted of three circuits of a triangular course around the bay. Despite the cold, I managed to swim the entire course without stopping which is the furthest I have ever swum continuously in open water. I have been experimenting with strategies to combat the cold. One was to use ear plugs so that I don't get dizzy from the cold water getting into my ears. The other was to wear neoprene booties so that my feet don't get so cold. This is a big problem for me as it is no fun running on numb feet. The ear plugs worked out quite nicely but the boots didn't seem to make much difference.



This course is a little different from most in that we had to climb a long steep set of stairs to get off the beach and then run 1/2 mile to the transition area which is what I am doing in the above picture.




The bike course was flat but technical. We had to do six laps of the course which had an endless number of turns resulting in a lot of speeding up and slowing down. There was also some local traffic which added to the challenge. Still, this is my strongest discipline and I had a lot of fun chasing down the other riders.



And finally the run, which consisted on four laps of a 1.5 mile course. The feeling finally returned to my feet after a couple of miles. Here I am on the finishing straight!

Overall, it took me 2 hours and 56 mins. I am not sure of my splits as my bike computer stopped recording. However, I estimate that it took me about 45 mins for the swim, 1:20 for the bike and about 45 mins for the run. As the start was staggered, I am not sure where I came in overall, but it was somewhere in the first 25%. Hopefully, we will get a breakdown from our coaches. It is not that I am competitive or anything.....

Thanks again for all of you support. If you haven't done so already, please consider sponsoring me. I need to raise at least $4000 by the end of February.

This is why I work from home.

Every now and again I realise that working for myself from home was one of the smartest things that I have done in a long time (that and marrying Raj). I had a training session in the pool today which went fine. However, swimming laps in the pool is far from interesting. So instead of doing my run on the treadmill at the gym I drove down to Ocean Beach and ran along the ocean front. I am sure that I couldn't do this sort of thing if I still worked inside an evil corporation.
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like being on my own all day but I kind of got used to not having to commute, not having to deal with all of the office politics, and not having to deal with other people's issues. All in all it is a much more civilized way to pass the day. An extra bonus is that I get to see more of Raj as she is usually off at some point during the week. It also allows me to train like a maniac!

New Year Resolutions?

The New Year came and went without much of a fuss this year. We were battered by a series of storms which have now passed, and have been replaced by some rather nice'n mild weather. I caught up with some of my team at the track last night and was suprised to hear how many had taken a break from training over the holidays. Some were paying the price as our coach put us through a short but tough speed session on the track. Other stuck to the plan, fearing, like me, that if you miss too many sessions then it will be difficult to keep up as the training builds over the coming months.
Taking up more exercise is supposed to be one of the three most common New Year resolutions. The other two are giving up smoking and dieting. Sadly, most people fail miserably at all three within a very short time. Just go to a gym this week and see how many new people there are - most will not be there next month. My only advise on this is that you want to exercise more regularly, then you need to find something to train for. It doesn't have to be an IronMan, it could be something as simple as entering a 3-mile fun run in a couple of months time. Without a focus, regular exercise can be hard to sustain.
So what about my New Year resolutions....well, the only major changes I made were implemented several months ago so they are not really new. But, I do intend to keep them up for this year. Apart from all the training, I gave up caffeine a couple of months ago which was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Although there is caffeine in many places that you might not expect, such as chocolate and GU, so I am occassionally exposed to it. This has been quite beneficial in that I do feel less stressed overall. In addition, I decided to cut back on alcohol. This may be a bit of a shock, but I really haven't missed it. I do still have the occassional glass of wine if we go out but I am rarely drinking at home. What I find odd is that I don't miss it, and when I do drink, I don't feel like drinking a lot. We will see if it lasts!