My next BIG race

Wow, over a month since I've updated my blog. But, it is probably because I've been racing almost every weekend. Race reports that I have yet to do:

• PBR tri
• Rock y Road 50/50
• Tinfoilman Tri

They will be out of order, as I hate holding up the blog for race reports. I'd better get on it because the Casa Grande Tri is this weekend, which would add another report to the list. But, Casa Grande is an important one, because it's Zac's first duathon! (I'm not counting Muddy Buddy, because that's a cutesy event and not really a race).

So, onto the big news. I have a coach! Yes a real live, living, breathing coach! And why would I do this after 5 years of triathon? Because of next season's "A" race. Let's go over the race first and then the coach stuff. So what is next year's big race? Another Ironman? Ha! You are so wrong if you thought that.

Next year's big race is:

XTERRA Saipan on March 13, 2010. I know what you're asking...where the heck is Saipan? About a 3 hr flight south of Japan, near Guam. Google Map here. It's not a race that I've been thinking about forever. Rather a few months and the pieces fell together. Zac has been racking up the frequent flyer miles at work, so I of course, have come up with an ingeious way to spend those miles. To do a race there would be pretty cool. The course is crazy hard, but awesome. The swim is in the ocean over a coral reef, the bike goes through the jungle, and the run takes racers through the tunnels the Japanese dug during WWII. Saipan is considered to be part of the Western XTERRA region (it's a commonwealth of the US), so points count towards my regional standings. But THE most important reason for doing this race: it's a qualifier for the XTERRA World Championships on Maui! (That's like Ironman Kona for the road triathletes out there).

That's the plan. Go to Saipan in March and try my best to qualify in my age group for a world championship slot. XTERRA is similar to Ironman in that they have a lottery system for slots to Maui. The lottery opens in January, and because XTERRA is smaller compared to Ironman, chances are pretty good on getting in via the lottery. But I know if I apply for the lottery, that will be a safety net. I want to fly without a net. I want to qualify and I think I can do it. This is why it was time to get super serious and find a coach to get me there.

There are very few XTERRA training plans out there compared to other training plans. You can find 100s of Ironman training plans, like "20 days to your first Ironman," "Iroman Training on 3 hours a day," and "The peanut butter Ironman diet." Ok, so maybe I made those up but some plans are about that level of crazy. Look for XTERRA and you won't find much. The plans and magazine articles that are out there are for "finishing your first XTERRA" and not "kicking ass at XTERRA." Plus, if I have a shot at a qualifying slot, I want to be the most prepared possible, and to know I did everything training-wise to get there. I needed to get a real live coach.

So how did I go about finding one? This is where the super fabulous Tucson Tri Girls come in. We have several coaches that sponsor the club. Over the years I've heard them speak, so that helped me to narrow it down. But the top personal requirements I had in finding a coach were:

1. Has to be a mountain biker - This is the key portion of the XTERRA race, and the most technical. I wanted someone who knows what it's like to climb crazy hills covered in scree and go bombing down rocky descents. More importantly, they need to be able to tell me what I need to do training-wise to be a better racer on the mountain bike leg.
2. Has to know what XTERRA is, and already trained other XTERRA athletes - XTERRA triathlons are completely different than road triathlons, and I wanted someone that knows how different the races are and how different the training is.
3. I have to like and trust them - I'm not going to listen and follow the training plan of someone I don't like or "click" with. I'm going to be investing a lot of time, money, and effort into this, so I have to trust that the training plan they come up with is the correct one.
4. Has to be about balance - I'm not quitting my job to train for XTERRA. I'm an age grouper, not a pro, so I wanted someone that would allow for the balance of training and real life.
5. Affordable - Holy cow cost can get out of control when you're looking for personalized coaching! I do have other expenses and didn't want to take out another mortgage to cover coaching services.
6. Has to be in Tucson - I wanted someone that could tell me to go climb Mt. Lemmon or go run the Rillito River path, or to do my run in the morning to avoid the heat because it's a tough workout. This also helps in meeting face-to-face with the coach for #3.
7. Has to listen to my feedback and not think I'm crazy - Yeah, so it may be a huge leap to go from my lollygagging training to possible qualifier. But they have to think it's possible, and not think my goals are nuts. Thanks. :)
8. Has to work with the full spectrum of athletes - I like people that work with the people that want to get fit as well as the people that want to be pro racers (and not just work with the pro racer crowd). The coaches that do this seem to be very down to earth and realistic about training and goals.

With all of that I did my research and selected Scott Blanchard of Pyramid Coaching. Scott is a super cool guy as he has done several clinics and speaking events with the Tri Girls, and is a national pro mountain biker. When we had our first meeting, Scott had already looked up the Saipan race and was excited about it. That made me even more excited about it. He felt we could get my fitness up to where it should be and didn't think my goals were completely nuts. Sold!

I went in and got my anerobic threshold testing done, which set up my heart rate zones for training. I had to actually search through my house and find the HR monitor strap that goes with my Garmin because I never used it. I used to follow my HR zones when I was first starting out in triathlon 5 years ago, and quickly abandoned them. Scott sets up all the training based on zones, so I had to get wired back up and start getting into the habit of wearing the strap on my workouts. Last week was my first full week of training on the Pyramid plan. It made me realized how much I had been loafing...pretty much all this past year. I kind of took this year off after last year's Ironman AZ deal, and now I'm mentally refreshed and ready to go after the next crazy goal. But the thing is, I'm really looking forward to this race, and getting to Maui would be awesome and rank above IMAZ in my book. :)

Revealing my secret race

For the past month and a half I've been riding the Redington Road area each weekend. As I alluded to in previous posts, all these rides were in preparation for a race that I was keeping secret. No person in their right mind would ride that area week after week without a purpose. My riding partners know of the race, but they all know about having "races that shall not be named" that you keep under wraps to avoid fully commiting to such races. If you don't declare the race, you can back out at any time for whatever reason. Like you suddenly came to your senses or something. You can also avoid people being critical of your training. "You're doing what?!? Shouldn't you be swimming/biking/running more than you are then?" And then you have to go into your training philosophy and how swimming/biking/running no more than 3 hours per week is a perfectly acceptable way to train for endurance events. Just like living on chocolate, Root Beer, and pizza is a perfectly acceptable nutrition plan.

I'm very careful who I divulge my race info to. Mostly it's the friends that are equally crazy and also have their own personal list of "races that shall not be named." We check on each other periodically through the season and ask "Are you still doing Race X?" Sometimes Race X gets dropped and it's no big deal in this circle. We are all understanding and ask about the next race coming up, as if the thought of doing Race X never existed. Or Race X is still on the list and we sit and wait for our friends to return from said race, to evaluate it and see if it's something we want to consider next year. If it was horrible, thankfully your friends experienced it and not you and you now know to stay far, far away from Race X. Or it was a grand time, and you and your friends can plan on doing Race X the following year.

So it's time to reveal one of my "races that shall not be named" because we are now 2 weeks from said race, and it now appears on my Facebook page. That kind of puts it out there.

Here it is:



Yep, it's the Rock y Road 50/50. It's one of those events where there are no entry fees, no support, all you. Half of the ride is on a mountain bike and the other half on the road. Sounds simple, right? Well not when you add in where the course is. The mountain bike portion is just under 50 miles. We start from McDonald park, ride up Redington Road, down FR4417 to Chiva, over to the Italian Trap AZT and climb that, climb and descend the Bellota AZT to the final turnoff at Milagrosa. Milagrosa is one technical, difficult trail that we descend for 4 miles. After that we ride back to our transition area (our cars) at McDonald park to switch to the road bike portion. After all that nastiness on the mountain bike, we are rewarded with a climb from the base of Mt. Lemmon up to Palisades (mile 19) and back down. Overall it's 88 miles long and 12,134 feet of climbing. Since there's no support, we have to carry all water and nutrition with us. And no, we can't drop some in the desert ahead of time.

Finishing this race is my goal. Last year there was 1 finisher. The year before there were 2. So the chances of not finishing are very high. Sounds perfect!

I've been doing training rides out on Redington each weekend, and technically I've covered all of the course, just not all at once. And thanks to this summer's Easy Peasy Lemmon Squeezy rides, I've done all of Mt. Lemmon several times over. I have the road on Mt. Lemmon and Redington Rd memorized now because I've ridden them so much. Each mountain bike ride I carry all of the water and food that I think I'll need for the race to get used to the weight on my back. I'm hoping the weather will be cooler so that I don't have to carry as much water, because the weight is killer.

My strategy is to metally break the ride up into sections, kind of like doing an Ironman. You don't think about the whole thing because that is just too scary to do. So if you break it up into smaller chunks that are easy to comprehend, it's easier to stay in your box and focus at the task at hand. For the mountain bike portion, my sections are: Climb Redington, Chiva, Italian Trap, Bellota, Milagrosa. I'm much slower on the mountain bike than the road bike, so I'm going to have to push through much of the dirt portion and ride as much as possible without long rest breaks. I pretty much know which steep climbs give me problems, and I'll get off and push up those to save the legs. No point in going in the red on short, steep climbs just to claim I've cleaned them when I need the endurance in my legs for the entire day. Chiva will be the toughest part for me, followed by the climb on Bellota. Even though Milagrosa is the most technical portion, much of it is downhill, and the last time I rode it I rode it really well. And I tell myself that section is only 4.6 miles long. It also helps that it's the very last section before hitting pavement again.

I need to get through the moutain bike portion so that I can get to my strong point, which is climbing Lemmon. Once I get on the tri bike, I'm a climbing machine going up the mountain. I don't know how I can totally suck on climbing in the dirt, but rock on the road. I'm going to blame lack of traction, or rolling resistance, or something. Anyways, I've broken Lemmon up into the following sections: Molino Basin (Mile 5.7), 7 Cats (Mile 9), Windy Point (Mile 14), Palisades (Mile 19). If possible, I'll try to limit rest stops to these mental checkpoints. Once I get to Palisades, I know I can finish because it's all downhill and you get free miles after that. My problem will be daylight. Since I'm so much slower on the dirt, I'll need to keep moving as much as possible to ride in as much daylight as possible. I REALLY don't want to descend down Mt. Lemmon in the dark, but if I get pushed that far I may have to. I'm prepared because I'm strapping my lights to the front of the tri bike, and will have a rear blinky light. If that's what it takes to finish the race, then so be it. Now that I think of it, it may take just as long as an Ironman takes to finish this race.

Race Report: La Jolla 1 mile Rough Water Swim

I have a goal race coming up that requires an ocean swim. I've only done 1 ocean swim before, which was last year's La Jolla rough water swim. So I decided to do the race again this year for the experience. Zac and I made it a weekend trip, and spent time in La Jolla, which has a ton of stuff to do.

On Friday we arrived and had some time to kill before heading over to the hotel. So we wadered around Birch aquarium to check out all the fish.

After that we checked in, got some dinner, and headed down to the beach to watch the sunset.


On Saturday we ran up the coast, and in the afternoon had our very first surf lessons. I loved it! Surfing was so much fun, and we are planning on doing it again any chance we get (most likely any time we are at the beach).

Sunday was race day. This race is great because the women's wave doesn't go off until 11 AM. We opted to walk the 2 miles from the hotel to the race site at La Jolla cove, and as we walked I noticed big waves rolling in. When we got to the cove it was insane. It made last year's swim look like waterskiing water.

You can see how rough it was at this Youtube video.

I watched the racers swim out and how the waves were coming in and decided I'd put myself on the far left of the group. Our wave didn't get to the beach until 11:30 AM. The rough conditions were pushing the race further and further back in the schedule. The gun went off and I ran in to the water with the others and started swimming. It wasn't long before the first wave hit. I could hear the lifeguards yelling about the waves. There was a huge chain of them there to keep us from getting pushed into the rocks. I dove under and emerged on the other side and kept swimming. The next wave hit, and I told myself to keep swimming and once I got out of the cove I would at least be into the rollers and out of the breakers.

The rollers weren't much better. It was really hard to sight, and you had to lift your whole head up and do a couple of strokes just to see past the rollers. Most of the time I looked forward all I saw was a wall of water. One thing I hate is that they use small buoys with a string of balloons tied to them instead of the large TYR dorito chip buoys. On race day the wind was blowing, flattening the balloons. All I knew was to head to the red roofs of the La Jolla Inn.

Zac was watching from the shore and watching people get pulled out of the water. In my wave a gal in a speed suit came in on a surf board. So I beat someone in a speed suit! ;) He also said the main group didn't swim straight. Afterwards that made some sense to me because I had started to the far left with the group on my right, and when I reached the first buoy they were all on my left. So I had swam straighter than the group.

I hit the first buoy and hit the lap button on my watch to see 18 min for the 800 yd leg. That was much slower than last year and my usual 800 time. But conditions were the worst I had ever experienced, and I was here for the swimming experience and not to try to win anything. On the way to the second buoy we were now swimming into the rollers, so sighting was really tough to do. I finally came up to where the lifeguard boat was and could hear them making announcements, so the buoy wasn't far behind. They were telling us to swim towards the point of the cove on the way back in. I rounded the second buoy and followed their directions as they made sense. If you headed towards the point that would help compensate for the waves and the current and keep us out of the rocks.

At this point I was wondering if I was even going to make it. Each wave was sucking the energy out of me. I had to do a lot of sighting on the last leg in, and was hoping I would time it to where I wouldn't have too many breakers. I got lucky and only had one wave wash over my head as I came in. I kept checking behind me and got out before the bad waves hit. According to Zac, just a few minutes earlier the entire cove was white water and the waves were really bad and the group was having a hard time getting in.

I got my finisher's medal and checked my time: 44 minutes and change, which was 8 minutes slower than last year. But I survived the waves, which is what it was all about. Now I have a good gauge for rough ocean conditions and can hopefully survive in case my goal race has rough water.

The start of our wave:

Diving through the waves:

Coming back in:

My "survivor" medal:

All of the pictures of the trip are here on Facebook.

Sabino Canyon trail run

I've mapped out the trail run for the upcoming Tucson Tri Girls training camp, and today Zac and I did a practice run. There is some trail-finding required at some of the creek crossings, so I figured I'd get those out of the way now and make sure where all the turns were.

We will be doing the loop below counter-clockwise. From the parking lot we will be taking lower Bear Canyon Trail to the Sabino Lake Trail. This leads into the Creek Trail, where we will cross the creek several times. The Rattlesnake Trail takes us out of the creek and across the road, where we'll head south on the road for a short bit before joining up with the trail again. There is a bit of a climb out of the creek bed as we intersect the lower Esperero Trail and take that south for about half a mile. We will cross the main road and take the Esperero Trail all the way back to lower Bear Canyon, and back to the parking lot. Overall it will be just under 4 miles. The trail only has a few technical rocky spots, no long climbs, and some great views. It has a great mix of everything for trail running, from slickrock to sandy washes to rocks to smooth dirt. This is a good one for beginner trail runners as the trail isn't technical, and the veterans will enjoy the constant change in terrain and the scenery. I was glad I brought my camera along as the views were fantastic.

Here is our route in blue. (Click to enlarge).

Heading north on the Sabino Lake Trail. (Click any of the photos for a larger version).
Canyon walls to our left as we crossed the creek.

Lots of creek crossings on the Creek Trail.

Starting the climb out of the creek bed on the Rattlesnake Trail.

View from the intersection of Rattlesnake Trail and Esperero Trail.

Another climb on the Esperero Trail as we head back to the parking lot.

View of Sabino Canyon from Esperero Trail. You can see Phoneline Trail cutting into the side of the mountain (future trail run as that one is a bit more technical ;).

The slickrock slide as we head down Esperero Trail, with Tucson in the background.

Always a chance for wildlife encounters on the trail. As I was running, I was looking for the next turn and didn't see this Gila Monster until he jumped, opened his mouth, and hissed at me. He was not happy at how close my foot got! I took a quick picture as he wandered back into the brush. This was the biggest one I've come across out on the trails.

However, the cardboard Gila Monster at the visitor's center is ok to pet. :)

So that's it! We will be doing the run on Saturday, the first day of the Tri Girls training camp. The pace will be nice and casual, and we will wait at all of the turns so that no one gets lost or left behind. Plus, it gives us a chance to take some pics out on the trail. For those that aren't into trail running, there will be a couple of groups running the road at the same time. So there should be something available for everyone. See you at camp!

Italian Springs ride

On Sunday, Zac, Johnny and I set out on our usual Redington ride. I had been sick with a head cold for the past 2 weeks (hence no blog updates) so the plan was to go up Redington to Mile 12.6, do the Italian Springs section of the AZ trail, and take the Jeep roads back to Redington.

We got lucky with the weather this time with clouds keeping the sun off of us for most of the ride. The Italian Springs section of the AZT was great up to the intersection of FR 37. After that we tried to continue on, but the trail turned into a hike-a-bike with loose rock everywhere. We decided to head back and take FR 37 to 4424 to 4417 that took us back to Redington Rd. After that the sun had come out, but at least we had the downhill for the rest of the way home. In the last quarter mile, my front tire started to go flat, so I had to sprint the rest of the way home. I rolled up to the doorstep right as the slime in the tube was sealing the hole. Thankfully the flat happened so close to home and not on the switchback descent of Redington.

Overall it was 4 hours of riding and just over 34 miles covered. The Garmin map is here.

The blue shirt twins hanging out at the OHV area.
Clouds!!!

Rolling along the Italian Springs AZT.

Zac and Johnny coming down the AZT after we turned around and decided not to hike-a-bike anymore.

A bit of mud on the Jeep trails.

Watching the storm roll in.
Heading home.

La Milagrosa ride

On Sunday, Zac, Johnny, and I left at 5:10 AM with lights strapped to our bikes in an effort to beat the heat as much as possible. We rolled up Redington Rd. with very little traffic, except for a few early riser Jeepers. We had made it to Mile 5 by the time the sun hit the road. Surprisingly, one of the shooters was already up and shooting at Mile 6. How early do we need to get up to beat these guys?

It sure was dark when we started.

The sun starting to rise.

The sun still not officially up when we hit the dirt.

Wake up Tucson! Most are still sleeping while we climb the road.

Zac and Johnny crossing over into the sunlight.

We did our usal climb up Redington and at the Mile 10 OHV area, Erik, Liane, and Nicole met up with us. We continued on up to Mile 12.6 and rode the Bellota AZ Trail. The hike-a-bike was killer on my legs, and this was not a good sign for the upcoming ride. The downhill to the intersection of FR 36 was a blast though. We rested under our usual shady tree at the intersection of FR 36, then did the next section of the AZT up to the intersection of the FR36A Jeep road. At this point Erik, Liane, and Nicole split off to return back to their cars, and Zac, Johnny, and I continued forward to the La Milagrosa trailhead.

Erik on the AZT.

The group at our usual shady rest stop.

We stopped at the trailhead to La Milagrosa for one last rest break in the shade. It was 10 AM. This was by far one of the stupidest things I had done. La Milagrosa is a tough trail with no shade and usually ridden in the winter time. But here we were on tired legs about to start the brutal 4.6 mile stretch of trail on a hot summer day. I didn't even bother with Clif Bars this ride. I had frozen 2 Snicker bars and stuck them in my Camelbak. I finished the second half of the first bar before La Milagrosa, figuring I'd save the second bar as a reward on the trail.

The trail starts off with "The Waterfall", a technical rock section. I haven't been on this trail in a few years, and the only time I have ridden it is on my Bullit, which has a few more inches of suspension than the Blur. We hiked down the waterfall, climbed the trail up the other side, and began our ride. Right away there were rock drops to be ridden, and I quickly switched over to getting over the back end of the bike. The Blur did rather well, and the nice thing was, I was able to ride the climbs on a much lighter bike.

Zac and Johnny at The Waterfall.

Zac hiking down the Waterfall.

We were all very tired on La Milagrosa, and as a result, would end up riding over stuff we probably shouldn't have in order to conserve momentum. There was still a lot of hike-a-bike, but I was surprised at the good time we were making. We would have to stop between sections just to rest the legs and arms before rolling again onto the next section. At the top section before the descent down into the wash, my stomach started growling. But I couldn't stop, and told myself I would stop in the wash for a snack. I rode several of the drops and made it to the wash, where I parked the bike, found one of the few areas of shade against a rock wall, and devoured the second Snickers bar.

Views from the trail:

My house is down there...somewhere.

Cool saguaro shot that Johnny took.

Zac in the shade of the rock wall in the wash.


Bike parking in the wash.

We were roasting at this point in the ride, but still had a few miles to go. We hiked up out of the wash and started the descent across the granite playground area.

Johnny and I on the granite playground.

There is a gate after the playground and at this point I got a nosebleed, probably from the heat. Yet another good reason to wear full-fingered MTB gloves. We hiked down the next steep part of the trail and came across a group of teenagers in swimsuits looking for water. Um, they were soon to be disappointed. The only water we had come across in the entire canyon were pools about a foot wide of stagnant water and yellowjackets. We rolled on and finally crossed the last wash and hit Horsehead Rd. From there we took Soldier Trail back to our starting point.

It was just over 5 hours of riding time (over 7 hours of actually being out on the trail). We reached home just after 12 PM. Ironically, at about 3PM the clouds rolled in and the monsoon rains started. I would have loved to have a little rain on the trail that afternoon because it was crazy hot. But we completed a very tough ride. The Garmin map of our track circling the mountains is here. A little over 30 miles total and over 4,000 ft of climbing on the bike.

AZ Trail run in Molino Basin

This morning I was not going to get up early, so I figured my run would have to be at higher elevation on Mt. Lemmon to escape the heat. But luckily it rained overnight and was cloudy this morning, so I was able to take advantage of the good weather to hit a lower trail (and one that's closer to my house). I decided to run the Arizona Trail from Molino Basin. It climbs from the basin parking lot and goes all the way to Prison Camp. I didn't want to trash my legs for tomorrow's long ride, so I took it easy and took the camera with me.

There were mountain bikers:

And ponies:
And I was representing the trail runners:

All the user groups were out on the AZT. I think this section is probably the most popular due to it's proximity to Tucson. Everyone was very friendly and I think we were all out there enjoying the weather. I ran up the trail for about 2 miles, then turned around and headed back down.

Tomorrow we will be on the other side of the Molino Basin Saddle. The plan is to leave our house at 5 AM with lights on the mountain bikes and head up Redington Rd. We will meet other riders at the OHV parking area, and ride the Bellota AZT. Instead of turning around like last week, this week Zac and I are descending down La Milagrosa. I'm hoping for the same weather tomorrow that we had today!