2009 Around the Corner

I was so tired at the end of October, I didn't want to train and I certainly didn't want to race. My last race of the season, Pumpkinman, had this cute 5 mile climb to transition (Halfmax course had about 6500' climbing, the Olympic about 3100'), about 100 meters of flat and on to the run. The race wasn't flawless, but beyond that, I was done racing. I did ok, ended up 4th and scored points for TCSD for the team national championships. I was however happy to be done racing for the year. 2008 wasn't a great season for me, too much going on, work, life, moving, etc to allow the racing season I wanted, but overall, not a bad racing year.

After witnessing the tragic military plane crash last week in San Diego where a man, father, husband and son-in-law lost his entire family (his wife, 2 young children and mother-in-law) in an instant, I had to ask myself why. Why was I meant to witness this tragedy? My answer is - to live life and just go for it. You never know when a plane may crash into your house.

With that, I am thankful for my family, my friends, my teammates, my colleagues and the people that motivate me.

As it is that time of year - ready for a new one... on come the resolutions. As usual, I resolve to have a better year. Be a better person, race a better race, better my performance at work.

So what's on the agenda for 2009....

January:

1/17 - Velo Bella camp, SLO

February:

2/8 - Fiesta Island Time Trial (FITT), San Diego

2/28 - Bulldog Road Race, Oceanside

March:

3/8 - FITT, SD

3/22 - Palm Springs Triathlon, Palm Desert

April:

4/5 - FITT, SD

May:

5/3 - Wildflower, Paso Robles

5/10 - FITT, SD

5/17 - Encinitas Triathlon, Encinitas or Tempe International, Tempe AZ

June:

6/14 - Redondo Beach Triathlon, Redondo Beach

6/28 - San Diego International, SD or Ventura Breath of Life Triathlon USAT Regional Championships, Ventura, CA

July:

7/26 - Pacific Coast USAT Sprint National Championships, Newport Beach, CA

August:

8/22 - USAT Olympic National Championships, Tuscaloosa, AL

September:

9/12 - FITT, SD

9/13 - Big Kahuna Long Course Triathlon, Big Sur, CA

9/27 - OC Tri, Irvine, CA

October:

10/11 - FITT, CA

10/25 - Soma Long Course Triathlon, Tempe, AZ

I'm sure I'll add, subtract, substitute, tweak, fudge as necessary...

As for you - I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, give a stranger a smile, call a relative you haven't talked to recently and take a moment to be thankful for all the wonderful things.

In the meantime, happy riding!

Raja

Reflections

2008 is coming to a close.. so many things to reflect on. So many things that happened. The biggest shocker of all was loosing Dave Martin. It wasn't supposed to happen. Not like that. Statistically speaking, we should be good for another 50 years. But nobody wants to test that number. Me neither. No need to test the waters, at least not for awhile. A lesson for us all, live life now. Don't worry about the past, or too much about the future. If you don't live it now, you may loose it forever.

The Greatest Club on Earth

I just want to comment about what an amazing club TCSD (Triathlon Club of San Diego) is - for both sport, and support. Dave Martin was tragically killed by a 16' great white shark off the coast of Solana Beach in May of this year. A regular swim by TCSDers every Friday morning turned tragic beyond belief.

ESPN went beyond words, a touching article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=backinthewater

USA Triathlon Nationals 2008!

Well, it's done and over.. so that's good news. No mechanicals, that's good news. It didn't rain, more good news (start temp was estimated at 45 degrees). And I did much better than last year, so that's good news. Last year I was plagued with the mystery leak in my disk (turned out to be the stem). This year, new disk, no problem! Not!

On Thursday before the race I got a good ride on the course and I would even say the course & I had a little pow wow, chatted up some issues I had on the mind, and by the end of the ride we became good friends. :o) I did my feel good brick after and jetted off to go jump in a hot shower at the hotel. Upon opening the back of the car the theme to a horror movie started to play in my head. I was cursed! Disk was flat as a pancake. Crap!!!!! Online store Team Estrogen came to my rescue. I called them up having ordered a ton of stuff from them in the past for some solid bike shop advice. They pointed the way to a local tri store called Athlete's Lounge, where tri bikes, leather couches and napping tri geeks come together. Their mechanic was a saint and was able to patch my teeny tiny hole without having to use one of my spares or start the stretching process all over again. PHEW!

During check in USAT had a "More Cowbell" giveaway - so yes, you can bet I will be ding-a-linging my sweet cowbell when the pro tour rolls into town next Feb (Tour of CA) for the march up to the Mt Palomar finish. Sweet! Always wanted a cowbell...

On race morning we were delighted to feel the weather warm up a bit (to the 60s). The lake, in the low 70s, was going to be a pleasure to jump in, it really is a beautiful lake.

We started from the dock the elite team dives off, except we got to be good little age groupers and sit on the dock, then dunk in to start. I'm not a natural swimmer. Being fishy doesn't come easy for me. All those great Phelpsian pheaturs that makes swimmers swim great - well, I don't have them! Except a little stubbornness and desire. I didn't start learning to swim correctly until I started triathlon 4 years ago so I'm pretty much playing catch up all the time. Once the horn went off indicating the start of my race, the swim felt pretty steady. I was on a mission for feet. Bubbles, find the feet, attempt to stay there. Loose the feet, find new bubbles, new feet, and try to stay there. Repeat. I figured if I could keep finding feet I would have a decent swim split. I exited the water at 26 minutes, which was good for me (one day I'll like swimming...). Last year at this race I achieved my first 26 min split ever, so it was nice to stay consistent at that split.

Once on the bike I felt great and let it go. According to hubby Dave, I was 25th out of the water, so I had a few spots to make up if I wanted to try to make Worlds. I finished the first lap in just over 34 min and was on a roll. Then the second lap hit and an all too familiar pain started to radiate down my left leg. Stupid sacrum! I had been feeling this over the last 3 months and was delighted to be pain free after my last visit to Dr. Crunch (Dr.Elleraas, my chiropractor) and Gino Cinco (UCPT ART), the Miracleman. Since the course is so hilly (~3000' climbing in 24ish miles) I backed off the big chain ring over the last couple of miles with the more pitchy climbs to give the legs a break before the dreaded run. Sacrificing some time on the bike would probably save me minutes on this run. I finished in 1:10, good. Marked improvement in my time from last year (1:13). (Picture right from 2007 Nationals)

Then the run... oh the run. The run from hell... and back. I forgot about these hills. I mean I remembered the hills, but I forgot how long & nasty they got. Coming round the half way point, my left leg was loosing power and push. I tried to latch on to some guys that were passing me and managed to keep my head on straight. Only 3 major climbs left on the run at this point, I could do this. I looked at the asphalt ('cause trust me, looking up at the hill was just depressing!) and tried to use the pain in my left leg as a distraction. Then I looked at my heart rate monitor. Approaching 200. Crap. I was at max and there was no avoiding the pain and lack of oxygen at that point. Coming in the final hill, I was gaining on the girl in front of me, but as we turned to go down a rather steep incline, she widened the gap. I just didn't have the coordination to turn my left leg over any faster. The last 200 was fairly flat and I ran as hard I could but couldn't quite catch her. At least I got to within 2 seconds. I finished the run in 46 min, a marked improvement from my 49 min run last year.

I finished in 21st place with a time of 2:26. I missed the chance to go to worlds by 1 spot. Yup, 2 seconds. You'd think that should be bad news, but really, it's good news. I'm that much closer to qualifying that last year! As frustrating as it can be to be that close and not get it, things happen for a reason, and with the crazy competition in this age group, I truly felt like I gave it everything I had for the day and didn't have any extra seconds I could have wrangled up from somewhere. That's all you can ask for when you're trying to sync all 3 events on one day. For a year that started slow and dismal with waning hope, I would say it was a success. If not, I can always wait until I'm 60 to qualify!

Many, many thanks to coach Peter Clode for loads of schedules that get better and better every year, Lesley Paterson for reminding me I can suffer longer and harder, Gino Cinco at UC Physical Therapy for un-tweaking me after all my muscle tweaking workouts, Chris Elleraas of Carmel Valley Chiropractic who was the first brave soul to straighten my broken body, Cassidy's Massage Clinic for reminding me that going injury free is an option, Tri Club San Diego for being the best tri club & training group on earth, and of course, my husband Dave, who was at the finish line with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

Now, you can bet I'll be calling all the above to figure out how to un-tweak my left leg so I can start training again.

Happy Riding!
Raja

P.S. I didn't believe there was so much climbing on the bike.. until I mapped it myself..... click here for a 1 loop elevation which skewed even higher! The race course is 2 loops....

Run for the border

Imperial Beach Triathlon

So you basically drive down the 5 south till, oh, the border. Take a right and go to the beach. Ta da! Imperial Beach! Now Tijuana is renowned for their pristine water - or sewage spills, so I'm glad that fence along the border keeps all the bad bugs out. I checked in for the race on Sat and immediately hear rumors that the swim could be cancelled due to bacteria counts being too high. Sweet! The race directors run a good race and wouldn't put us in harms way, so I would just have to take their word on the water quality. Personally I suck at beach entries/exits so I'm not sure that I would be too upset if the swim were to be cancelled. But alas.. it the water was fine and the swim would go on.

But it sucked in any case. I haven't seen the splits yet, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty. Just as my little toes hit semi-dry sand and stopped ('cause I was just about walking at that point), stripped out of my wetsuit and then ran into T1. One of my goals was to quicken up my transitions, so I'm glad I ran right past my bike in T1. I've always known that swimming provides me serious oxygen debt in the pool, but now I get an open water-demo of oxygen-debt-brain-loss. Goody!

Once on the bike things start to look good and blood once again returns to the gray-matter. The bike felt pretty good, even while viewing the Mexican houses on the other side of the hill.

Then comes the run. It always hurts, no matter how good you think you feel. I guess that's part of the "fun"... one day it won't hurt! Only a 5K run, but with an average heart rate of 188 on the run, at least I can say I gave her a good old fashion try! It wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked, not bad, but I was hoping for a little better, and not quite fast enough the close the gap to first on such a short distance.

I have to say, I'll take 2nd! If I counted correctly, I was 5th overall. I can't wait for a lake swim again!

After the race I was standing by the score board and I hear "damn, he beat me again!" from somewhere next to me. It just got me thinking - that's what brings us coming back... for yet another pain fest. That feeling that you can do better next time, it's like crack...

Next crack... Nationals..... wish me luck, I'll need it!

Happy riding!
Raja

Bella grooves & moves

OK, so this is the first time I've had 20 unread emails in my email box! Haven't written much and already blew my rule of thumb when it comes to writing race reports... write them within the first couple days after racing to get the full effect. Oh well!

This morning I attended a meeting of new Velo Bella triathlete getting ready for the US Women's Triathlon series triathlon in October and it was so great to see so many new faces! Triathlon seems formidable at first, but then after you do your first race you realize it's a ton of fun and the sense of accomplishment when you finish will get you signed up for your next!

Since the Mouse Attack, I've been to Coeur D'Alene to watch Bella Stacy Dietrich (left) and my husband Dave McMahon (right) race at Ironman CDA. Dave came in at a fantastic 10:40ish, taking 20 minutes off his Ironman Canada time (even with a swim disaster!), and Stacy finished in an astonishing 11:28 and was sporting a HUGE smile the entire time... sick!

Then I went to Napa for my girlfriend Leticia's wedding... ahhh.. a beautiful bride and fine glass of wine are always a good thing.

Since I had been away for the previous few weeks, what's 2 more!.... Back to living in a hotel for a couple of weeks as part of training for work. Get up early, run, shower, change for work, work training from 7:30-5:30, then back to the hotel, change and jump on the trainer for a couple of hours.. or zip off to the pool for a swim. Luckily my work partner (Stacy D. above) is also a tri-geek bella so my cohorts were already prepared for the equipment I moved into my hotel room.. bikes, trainers, swim cords, too many shoes and a bag full of Power Bars.

Then I raced Pendleton International and hoped I'd be recovered enough from my work training "graduation" class.... I wasn't going to expect too much since I really haven't had time to put in the solid training I would have liked to. Since I didn't have too many opportunities to swim for the previous month (except for a 25 yard pool at about 80 degrees), it was no surprise the swim sucked. Or the quarter mile run through deep sand to T1. But alas, I survived. I finally felt good on the bike. While I was at training for work, I dropped my TT bike off at the shop with a suspicious noise coming from my cranks. Of course I had heard it for awhile, but never thought it was an issue. Turns out my bottom bracket had more or less disentegrated. Oops! So ya think that's why riding that bike has been soooo hard??

Needless to say, the bike felt MUCH better and I finished in 1:10, right where I should be. (T1 & T2 were in the bike time for a total of 1:13:49). Out of T2 I left the legs turn into rocks. The deep sand was coming to haunt me. I just tried to stay steady and see if the lactic acid would miraculously disappear. Coming around to the second lap I was at about 23 minutes, I took some salt tabs & a motivator and within a half mile I had found my legs. I could hear Lesley "come on Raaa-yaaaa" like she does in your workouts and tried to focus on what I would I if she were there staring at me... she's really the Scottish Devil that one! And I mean Devil in the fire & energy that she exudes. I set my sights on a local TCSD racer who has quite a good run and if I could catch her I knew it would be a good run. Every hundred meters I got closer, and closer and I knew if she heard me coming, she could possibly out sprint me to the finish, so I used a little stealth and a whole lot of surprise to edge her out in the last 100 meters. Unfortunately with triathlon, you never really know who's in your age group so you just have to aim for someone in front of you and chip away.. then cross your fingers there's not too many you didn't see. There always is!

I ended up 3rd and really was quite happy with that. As soon as I get my swim back on and perhaps attempt to trim up a bit more, I think Nationals will be a better show this year. At least I hope so! It would be oh soo nice to race in Australia next year.... we'll see. Not sure if it's possible this year with the career change taking so much of my time, but I know it will all work out for the better.

Next race.. Imperial Beach Triathlon... see you there!

Happy Riding!

Raja

(Stacy in her post-Ironman daze...)

Get the MOUSE!

It's been awhile since my last posting... oye!

I had a change of careers in April and pretty much everything else has had to sit on the back burner until I get settled.

In May I did Wildflower Olympic and had fun. Training this year has been hampered by one thing or another, illness, work, injury, you name it. The gods are holding me back! I didn't expect much out of Wildflower, and still came away bummed with my race. The good news, my swim was the best yet and I really was delighted with it. The bike & run, well, not so much. I ended up 9th out of about 200 or so that finished. The exciting part was the finish.. pics below in the previous post....

Then came Encinitas Sprint (pic). I was 3rd with what I consider a crappy bike portion of the race. It wasn't bad, but I know I should be doing better. The run was ok.. and the swim.. well, I'm not so hot for surf entry so I survived.

This past weekend was probably one of the most fun races I've ever done. It was the Danskin Disneyland Triathlon. That's right, Kingdom of the Mouse, or in this case, California Adventure. The swim was in the lagoon in CA Adventure, the bike was a 2 loop course around the entire part and the run was a windy route through the park. With over 1300 competitors (all women), this was a big race.

Why did I enter? Well, when else can you take a dip in Disneyland without them giving you a life ban?!??

On check-in before the race I heard one woman say, "the water is disgusting! It's a lagoon! There were ducks right there pooping." Uhhh.. this is Disneyland where everything is sterile, that taste is actually chlorine and that brown water is dye so you don't see the tracks for the boat. If only she knew what nasty water really tastes like... As you walked in the water, it was warm, you know, kinda like bath water. No wetsuits needed so I wore a tri-swim suit for the first time. Couldn't wear my Bella kit as it's a 2 piece. Instead a put a Bella tattoo on my arm and wore my signature hair flair. The swim was a ton of fun, but a bit of a faux-Ironman. With about 16 waves (me in wave 9)starting every 3 minutes, it was A LOT of swimming over or around people in previous waves. Next time I think I'll actually race Elite instead of Age Group so I can get in the first wave and not have to crawl between quite so many ladies. But where else can you stroke, stroke, breathe, look at the ferris wheel, stroke, stroke, breath, look rollercoaster, stroke, stroke, breath, look Mickey...

The bike was fun, and my bike created quite a bit of attention (aka The Hornet) as there were a number of first-timers racing. I really enjoyed being able to answer questions, even got to give a fix-a-flat demo. Newby: "What are these?" Me: "These are tire levers, you really should know what they are and how to use them..."

Back to the race... so the bike was ok, still feeling a bit lacking in strength and it showed as I was unable to loose the cute chick in red on the cervelo with the disk. I should have been able to smoke her, but instead she latched on and let me take her for a ride. We leap frogged around for a bit between swim, T1, the bike & T2, but then she spanked me on the run. At least she was nice & cute!

By the time I got off the bike I was still coughing up the drink mix I managed to inhale. Note to self: don't inhale your drink!!! The run started and I had the glugs. You know that sloshy feeling from drinking then trying to run?! After the first mile I felt better and began to relax. Unfortunately the run was almost over by that point so I just ran my way past the popcorn and cotton candy, past the store where you can flatten a penny, past the churros, around the fountain, through the western-shoot-out store front and to the finish. With one great leap for Velo Bella, I was done!

I finished 2nd in my age group behind that nice cute chick on the Cervelo, and 6th overall. Not too bad.. but I know I can do better next year. My coaches tell me it's a long season and I've still got time to recover from a dreadful season (so far), but I have to say.. it's tough when you know you can do better and when people who don't usually beat you are squeeking in front of you... oh well, the life of a crazy triathlete with a life!

Pic of me passing on the bike.... no Bella gear... a tiny VB tattoo on my right shoulder... and way wicked VB water bottle to represent!

We had a number of Bellas attend, I'll update this blog with a list, but CONGRATS to all, this was a fantastic race and HIGHLY recommended as a destination race.

Happy Riding!
Raja

WIldflower - Race Report Preview

Just a little summin' summin' to post before I get my delightfully charming (and funny) race report posted....

I had a couple of challengers down the final shoot... and the facial close ups take the cake... enjoy... cause I was suffering..

Inspiration!

I can only tell how how amazing and motivating triathletes are. Fellow Velo Bella Whitney DeSpain and Shannon Werner finished their first Ironman races this weekend at Ironman Arizona this last weekend. Vic, another Bella made this video, and it just may bring you to tears... the next time I complain about the wind or the heat... please remind me it could be worse.. I could be doing an Ironman...



After her daughter watched the video.. her beautiful daughter Abby replied, "Mommy, I thought you were going to run"... (too funny!)

Run, walk or crawl, 25% of competitors at the 2008 Ironman Arizona didn't even finish.

A HUGE Congrats to Velo Bella Shannon Werner for a smashing debut at Ironman, placing 7th in her age group!

And another CONGRATS to VB Sandra Fairchild for finishing her first Olympic distance Triathlon at the Irongirl in Vegas!

We're not in Kansas any more

So how wrong is it when you're in the middle of nowhere (about 40 miles from anything), the wind is gusting to 40 miles per hour, the thought "if it's like this all the way home, I'm going to cry" is circling through your head.. and the then you see it.... Saddle Sore Trail.

Dave, Stacy, Julie, Miller, Rice & myself drove out to Ocotillo, Ca to do the Stagecoach Century this morning. I had checked the weather courtesy of my iPhone... it was going to be a cool 88 degree F (down from the originally forecast 95 degrees, thank goodness!). There was a slight detail my precious iCrackPhone didn't tell me..... oh yeah.. little breezy today.

We open the car door in Ocotillo and nearly get our arms ripped off as the wind tears the door open. Oh crap. Uh Houston... this is going to SUCK! My concerns are belayed as the man inside the warm, comfy building states that the reports from the road state the wind settles about 10 miles down the road once you drop down into the canyon. Cool.. let's ride.

Yeah, it took 50 minutes to ride the first 10 miles. 6 of us, forming a nice eschelon, rotating & playing well with others.. just to try to maintain a whopping 10 mph. Ouch! Relentless head/cross wind from hell. Mother nature had a different plan from us.

With the exception of about 2 separate 1 miles stretches, the entire freaking 50 mile stretch was a battle of wills... the will not to turn around and go hide in the car. Even up the stupid climbs. Ugg.

But Bellas don't quit...

42 miles of battling ridiculous wind, we pass the lunch stop and still have 8 miles to go to the turn around. Stacy's pretty sure her mum would have washed her mouth out with soap by that point. That last 8 miles took about 45 minutes. It took six strong cyclist about 4:20 to travel the 50 miles.. and all we could think was "it better not be like this on the way back!"

We ate lunch, took a family picture, started off again for home, Julie pointed out the Saddle Sore Trail (just how wrong is that!), battled into 2 miles of headwind, and then flew home in a tick over 2 hours. I don't think I've ever maintained 35-42mph for such a distance ever. Even the 3 climbs we had to do coming home didn't slow us down too much.

So last week when I was whining and moaning in my blogventure over the wind at CA IM 70.3.... I had no idea what it could have been like! Oh my...

Thank goodness Shadow Tour provides such a well supplied century!