good news. . . bad news

I hope this ticket theme does not continue on my blog…After my last post about my traffic ticket collection I thought I would be done with that chapter. This week I was in LA for a lunch meeting at Houston’s and running late because I was stuck in traffic. LA go figure…


My buddy ordered me the salmon and I spent the next 30 minutes driving around looking for parking. Now I was really late! Apparently they had a mid-week farmers market and all the parking lots were full. I ended up finding a meter spot and because I was already so late I just took my chances my not filling it up because I didn’t have any quarters. Brave with my recent luck huh! Well, I got out of lunch about 1.5hours later to get to my truck with no ticket! Sweet! I was parked at the end of the street where the market started and a cop car was blocking traffic so maybe the ticket meter person didn’t drive that far up? I was so stoked I pulled out to beat traffic on the way home and pulled right into a Mercedes in front of me. Yikes! The cop who was parked blocking the market asked me for my driver’s license and reg before I even put it in park.


Unfortunately, that was not the bad part of that day. I ended up getting food poisoning from that salmon that I had and spent the night on the bathroom floor throwing up out of both ends. While I thought that I would be good to go after getting it all out of my system it has been five days and six pounds now that I have lost with my stomach just wrecked! I really did NOT want to loose 6lbs and I have been feeling pretty weak. It made me feel better about sitting out the Vision Quest race last weekend and with the training load I have been keeping I would probably benefit from the additional rest anyways. However, I was still questioning going forward with racing Oceanside this weekend.

sickboy on the trainer

Yesterday was the first day I made it without having any stomach issues and I got my appetite back. Stoked! I have still been able to knock out a few smaller workouts on the trainer (with the bathroom close!) and today it felt like it was all coming together. I felt good enough to nail my last swim/bike/run workout this morning with my bike in race mode setup. I was going to tweet a pic my bike this morning...I was really stoked on my ghetto black spray paint bike with race wheels..maybe even a little prideful.

the dream machine (where i do most of my daydreaming)

Monique and I got in a great swim with Nova this morning and it was wetsuit Wednesday. . . a perfect workout! All I was thinking about is how lucky I am to have great friends. I got a wetsuit yesterday from my friend Trevor that I got to use this morning and for the race this weekend. I got that disc rear wheel from my buddy Sean. I got a front 404 from my friend Keevin. Monique and I got a place to stay Friday night with James and Beth before the race. I even had Ryan offering to bring me over some ice-cream when I was sick. Now that is a good friend! I had the inspiration and encouragement from all my friends as I hit the road for a spin after our swim and that was all I needed. Last spin to test out the wheels and body. With the swim, bike and inspiration in check I was ready to go! My mind was set on racing this weekend.

JUST as I was thinking about that I caught my front wheel between a crack in the road. I know…I know. I have been down this road so many times and I seriously cannot even explain how simple it was but I did it. I caught my front wheel and before I knew it I was sideways sliding into the middle lane. Thank God there were no cars around because I stopped between the while lines in a daze. Did this really just happen? It could have been much worse

boom boom

crack kills

I basically slid to where I took this picture only into the middle lane. From my SRM it looks like I was going mid-20's but I was not hammering....Good or bad it just happened. The crack between the white line is what caught my front tire. I’m so lame!

only a scratch

hipper post-shower

My right side took the blunt of the crash and my hip and elbow got the bump and slide. This is my first crash on the road and quite different from crashing in the dirt. Good thing I was wearing gloves. Don’t worry dudes…The wheels and bike are OK!

I’m not set on racing this weekend or drilling myself silly. Emotion would have me go far in either direction... I realize that it is sometimes a fine line between passion and addiction but I also realize that IT just happens. Good or bad is how you take it in most cases. Sometimes that IT is a good thing…sometimes IT is a bad thing. Who are we to know when we cannot see the end yet. Not resorting to feelings and relying on what I know is best.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11

Really, does anything else really matter? I will do what I can do and if I am up to race this weekend then I will give it everything I have on that day. If not I will be stoked to go watch my friends race and enjoy another sunny SoCal day.

My hip is a bit sore but that didn’t stop me from getting in a few laps around the track after my ride. With my swim/bike/run workout done I am heading into my scheduled massage today. Perfect ending to a solid day and all before lunch(and I can eat lunch without it blasting out my backside too)! Bagging all of this before work mid-week gives me nothing to complain about! I am truly blessed and grateful. Now, ALL my perspectives are in order and I learned something again from training. Training can teach you or build character for all areas outside training. That is what I love about it. Training is for racing just like this life is for the next. As they say in the hood…Its all good!

another boring weekend

I often feel like the luckiest boy alive (and i am!) but I have been collecting quite a few tickets recently. I got some speeding tickets, parking tickets, no reg sticker, driver license type of tickets. I even got one for ridding my bike that was over $450! Yikes!

I don’t know if it is just California trying to collect extra revenue but I guess it could be worse. No accidents except for Monique crashing her car. . . into my car. Its all good…Just hope that page has turned now before I loose any more money!


We really didn’t have too much planned for this weekend except for a photo shoot on Saturday in San Diego for Monique. It was for Ellsworth bikes and we got out there early for a possible group ride and tour of the ranch. Cool place! We learned a lot about Ellsworth from Tony , Dan and the crew and it was refreshing to see another company doing it right. We learned about the quality control process of raw materials to the finished product (kind of like good food). Tony is pretty passionate about what he does and lives. . .even a solar powered factory with avocado trees and some amazing views.



Monique found a couple of things she really liked. . . Ellsworth has probably the biggest range of bikes from any US manufacture. Everyone knows about their mountain bikes but they also have commuter (non-human powered) bikes, cross bikes, road bikes and now even some tri bikes.

It was a pretty low day for me training wise. I was designated Sherpa boy and ended up driving the Van at the last spot. Fun day and I was proud of Monique for sticking it out in the cold. Sure didn’t look as cold as it was that day!



From there we drove to Temecula to stay with Paul, Lisa and Little D. Good times. They have four German dudes who were staying with them for a month and they all just got back from a moto session. Food was on and I was beat from doing nothing all day. Funny how that works.

Then next morning we got up, drove to Oceanside to meet up with James and Beth. I was SO STOKED to find my drivers license in an old bag that morning. I have been missing it for over 3 months and I would need it to get onto the Camp Pendleton base for our ride. It would have been handy to have when I got pulled over those four times too. . .



The Winning Walshes bagged a 100 miles while Monique and I stuck it out in tough weather for a nice 70 miles or so. . . Seriously, one of the best days we have had recently and that is hard to beat around here. Being true tri nerds, three of us had to get our T-Run on and lucky for Monique and I we parked in O-Side so we got to run on the race course we will be at in a couple of weeks. THIS is where my mind has been for the last few months ;-) Unfortunately, when we got back to the car I had ANOTHER parking ticket waiting for me. HA! Funny even now.


We got home in time to get a good bison steak dinner with lots of greens and spend a few precious moments together before the laundry and bottle washing started to get ready for next week. Another boring weekend in the books

Gettin it done...letting it happen

I have been stoked to get through my little mini-camp injury free and totally ready for more. My TSB hole had taken a bigger dive than ever and I am starting to learn more about what it takes to get me "a bit tired"


I have been working on a post about WKO+ software (still not posted) and I am starting to get some use out of it after collecting data for about a year now. Here is a snap shot at my mini-camp and some of the sessions I got in. I was basically focused on bike volume after spending Dec-Jan trying to get my running up to par. Gordo helped me come up with a better outline so I would not completely crush myself or not leave room to push it a bit more before my St. George Ironman camp. That is going to be a long one...

In the 13 days ending 2010-03-04:

	activity	#	time	miles		km		+ft
	Road Bike	10	29:02:59	509.53	(3:25)	820.01	(2:08)	26769
	Swim	9	10:00:00	17.68	(33:56)	28.45	(21:05)
	Mt Bike	4	8:55:00	65.87	(8:07)	106.01	(5:03)	10710
	Trail Running	5	5:49:23	41.47	(8:38)	65.13	(5:22)	4826
	Road Running	5	4:07:54	32.59	(7:36)	52.45	(4:44)	2152
	Strength	1	1:00:00
	Yoga	2	50:00
	Total	13	59:45:16	667.14		1072.05		44457

Time has been flying by (i wonder where my time has gone? :-) and I have been back and forth the last few weeks about racing Vision Quest or not. I have had such a better balance on swimming, biking and running and my mind has just been focused on long course triathlon. Mountain biking is still a deep passion for me and fun times with friends but I just dont have that "kick" to race VQ this year. I have been able to get out in the dirt with friends and the trails are the BEST I have ever seen them...Tacky, deep greens and browns and fast!


Last week I got a good balance of road and dirt. Palos Verdes ride and trail run mid-week after work with Sean. His "secret" training grounds have now been exposed and although we never made the Dream Crushers Century happen due to schedules and weather we all will be back in this area soon. Its pretty motivating that we have so many good places that are only about an hours drive away.

Later in the week I had some meetings in San Diego and was able to fit in a dreamcrush ride with James and Sean again...We hit the Walsh extension to the Swami loop. Good times. I know we have rough jobs! Riding with these guys is inspiring and being able to "share" our progress, setbacks and daily crap on AP is what i love! I have much respect for these guys and its always a pleasure to roll in the miles with them.

Then capped of the weekend with a ride up in the Santa Ana's with Monique, Beth, Ryan, James and Sean. This is what its all about!!

Yes, they are singing the happy song

Crack kills Ryan!

So for now I am just riding, eating a lot of the best food I can get my hands on and enjoying every mile of training. I feel like I have a totally different perspective this year with racing. Not in a hurry for anything really and just enjoying the journey. Probably a good thing for endurance racing.

DreamCrusher Century Extravaganza

training has been going good for me and it really is all just about getting out with friends and having fun. I have learned quite a few things from Gordo already and one that comes to mind is "never show your best in training". . . there are just some things you have to save it for race day.

With two big races just a few weeks away I have a nice training camp on the way with some comp days that I banked for working over the last weekend(s). I should recover from this in just enough time to hit the dreamcrusher ride and push my ALT to a new level. Goodness.

That is really what this post is about anyways. Making our ride "unofficially... official". Would i really go out and crushing myself on a ride that has little importance to my racing in the name of nothingness and a good time with friends. Of course! I am very motivated by my friends and pushing it and mixing in some points is sure to get me to a new level. I am thinking about taping that quote to my handlebars for the day however... It is all just for fun between the dc crew ya know. I will likely need another camp and extravaganza of greater proportions sometime before St. George. Something wildly extravagant!


The ride is set for March 6th 9am start. Feel free to join us or add some more fun topics for points. There are two main route options and we will have an A and B group for speed/pacing. the 4 climb ride will allow for additional tac on extra credit for the peppy few who want to go a bit more.

100 mile ride – 4 long climbs
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&num=200&msa=0&msid=117702146361632047086.00047ffd921fa9d13ff33&z=11

90 Mile Ride – 3 long climbs
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&num=200&msa=0&msid=117702146361632047086.00047ffdf3816f3f63a26&ll=34.072,-118.77594&spn=0.354913,0.718918&z=11

• 100 points if you finish the entire ride
• 10 points for taking the KOM (multiple KOM's)
• 5 points for most vitargo consumed (will be close between sean and slater)
• 5 points for whoever brings the best post race beer (will be decided post ride, will close between james and ryan)
• 5 points if you are riding a TT bike
• 5 points if you run after
• 5 points is you swim before
• 5 points if you pull the biggest group for the majority of the day
• 5 points if this ride is the longest ride you have completed in the last 12 months
• 5 points for puking (needs to be 20oz or more and witnessed)
• 2 points for every 10 miles you ride over the minimum distance (100miles)
• 5 points if this is your longest ride ever
• 5 points if you ride the next day
• 2 points for helping someone w/ a mechanical (that they could not fix themselves)

Hope to see ya there!

my weekend in pictures

had a long weekend...not only enjoying the Monday holiday but full weekend of long work, family, training and food. Not always in that order or preference . . .

Friday, I got in a nice ride with Ryan at Aliso Woods. Greenery everywhere and the dirt was still wet and tacky. Ryan showed me some new trails I had never seen before and after almost two weeks off of the mountain bike I got to experience the most technical trail I have ridden in Aliso within the first 30min of the ride. Good start!

Ryan telling the climbs to "come see him!"

multitasking downhills and con-calls

Then it was off to work for the weekend... Friday night at 7:30pm until sometime Sunday at about 11pm. I was closing out a project that we had started almost 18 months ago with data center designing and nerd-o-metrics. Of course, I got to take a good break somewhere in the middle and a much needed nap but it was a good experience to have a solid plan that our teamwork knocked out like clockwork. We basically migrated a bunch of legacy infrastructure gear like the stuff below


into some pretty new scalable, virtual and a few other catchy word type redundant gear routing up to 15 terabits per seconds. I have noticed that after a solid "life" accomplishment I usually knock out a pretty good effort in sport...I guess the zeroing of stress and celebration of pulling something off that you have been working on for a while is like a tail wind when the plan works out...and you don't get fired.

I use to do installs like this all the time...long before I started racing. There are so many similarities between the two (developing a design/plan, teamwork, details, etc) and I think if I have any mental toughness it was developed during the years I was working around on stuff like this. You never know what God has you working on and it maybe overwhelming to see the big picture too soon. I would never imagine riding for 6 hours just three years ago and now it is just "a session" and usually just one of two or three for a big day of training. Funny how that works.


I was still a bit behind on sleep so I decided to hit Sunday with no plans for training. I just wanted to see how I would feel and enjoy the nice 80 degree temps and clear skies. Monique and I headed out on foot and I ended up getting in a 11.5 mile progressive run. Felt good! Then I hopped on the bike for a 140K ride with some hot laps in the canyon. I like to ride my bike.

I rode into the dark because of the late start but watching the sunset I had one of those moments. . . Happy. I rode home in the dark and then bagged a 3K swim, gym session and another 30min run. Good day.
Monday, we were up to head north and spend the day with Moniques parents. I love them...They just dont make American folks like they use to. I thought we were going to meet up with Paul Romero but I had my days mixed up! Still a little behind on sleep and brainpower. We packed our mtb and headed for some local trails. New trails found. We have only ridden here once before and made a left at the first trail. Big difference in the choice!

This time we turned right and right into a 4.5 mile non-stop climb of over 2,100ft. Hello! We rode until we were pooped (not very long) and then bagged a swim on the way home. Lots of good stuff to explore out there in the future. Solid ride and I am having to deal with my rest day when I am not riding with M anymore. She is getting too fast!


We also got into the Park City Point to Point Race (PCP2P) that is going to be held later in the year. There was about 9 of us who got in before it sold out and it looks to be the perfect vacation bash to end a killer year. 78 miles of 90% single track trails and 14K of climbing with friends. . . add in some T-runs and compression socks and then I will start snapping more pictures ;-)

runnin, riddin and lovin

Last weekend, I got to participate in my third half marathon race with Monique at the Surf City venue. 20K mix of people between the marathon, half and 5k. crazy.

When we first ran this back in 2006 it was the longest physical activity that Monique had ever completed. We ran side by side and finished in 2hr 20min and it was a struggle for her to just finish. After our ride yesterday it is hard to imagine Monique struggling to finish anything. She looks to get stronger the longer she goes too. I'm really stoked to be headed into our first Ironman journey together.

Last year at the Surf City half marathon we ran our own paces and I finished with a PR of 1:35:33 (7:19min/mi pace). Pretty stoked with the amount of running I had in my legs and the bike focus. I was pretty close to that time (1:39) a few weeks later running off the bike at the Oceanside 70.3 including getting a little lost in transition. Not going to make that mistake this year!

I had plenty of steady running going into the half this year. Finishing 30/30 and trying to be a more balanced TRIathlete helped. Running IS fun! While I have slowly been chipping down my slow and steady pace but I have not ran with my heart rate over 155bpm in a long time. My steady pace was dropping to about ~7:15min/mi and getting closer to 7min/mi pace. Improvement but I must admit I was a bit shocked when I saw my paces for the race. My coach Gordo suggested that I take the first 3 miles as a warmup and shoot for my best average pace over the next 10 miles.

Trying not to get caught up with "the race" and the people huffin and puffin around me in the first few miles was the hard part and I felt like I was holding back but I was running at about a 6:40min/mi pace...oops?.. Thought I went out too fast and it was faster than I was ever running but I just focused on my breathing and knew I could still turn it up if needed. Mile 5 is when I started rolling ~6:25 pace for the next 7 or so miles. Expectation exceeded and I was just stoked at any pace by then. Kind of weird how you can hold a pace even if you dont "practice" it.... Exciting! Finished in 1:25 (6:33min/mi pace) and got myself a new PR but more importantly proof that "its" working! Monique sqeeked in under 2hrs!

I need to work all weekend to close out a project that I have been working on since June of 2009. A new network upgrade that is going to start tonight at 8pm and probably finish sometime Saturday at noon. Around the clock. Brutal but good mental training and I love my job. Only bummer is I will probably be toasted on Sunday for VDay....

So...yesterday Monique and I headed out for our early VDay brick. The last couple of years we have done a pretty "adventurous somethings" for Valentines and we got an early start this year. We packed our snowshoes, crampons, h20-prof this and that and headed for the mountains!

The plan was to climb GMR with our gear to the base of Mount Baldy. The Glendora Mountain Road is one of my favorite rides and the conditions were ideal to make it an adventurous day. Once we completed the ride to Baldy ski resort we would lock up the bikes and snowshoe to the top for a tea party. We had a few routes in mind for the trek and then we could take the long or short ride back to the car. All of this "planning" took place yesterday morning and on the drive out there. We did some 6,000ft of climbing on the way to the Baldy village and it was quite the workout with all of our gear and the conditions.

As we got closer we also came upon more obstacles. Sometimes it was black ice. I learned my lesson about why it is not smart to think you can ride over it and practice your balance. We found a few downed trees and land slides too..

Then when we thought we could enjoy the last few miles of downhill to the village but we had snow, snow and more snow. I did not realize how much work it would be to ride through the snow but it was a unique experience and a ton o fun.

Unfortunately, I still had to get on some con-calls later in the day and we were running out of sunlight, food and time so we had to cut our adventure short. bummer. No snowshoe action after packing all that crap for 5plus hours and 6K of climbing! We did get to test our gear and pack list and now have a itch to get back on the route soon and bring some friends along.


until then...

home bound...

sitting in the airport in Oakland waiting to catch my flight and get back home. ramble, ramble...I have started a few posts recently but I have just been super busy with work and training and hitting those key dates.

I just finished up three days of tech training here in SF and 2010 strategy meetings for our quarterly company goals, etc for work. I had my review about a month ago and my expectations were just not to get fired and keep the flexibility that I have been given to train and be able to get creative with my time. Turns out just doing what is required scored me in the top 90% of the company and i even got a little award and a little something special from Tiffany & Co. Grateful I just didn't get fired ;-)

In November, I decided to make a switch and go long with my training and racing for next year. My 2010 challenges will take on some exploration in an area that I feel is a good fit for me. Keep my mind as interested as my body and I have always felt like I start to feel better after 3-3:30 hours into training or racing. Looking back, I have also done pretty good at longer races even if I was not specifically training for them so maybe this is where I can be competitive at...we shall see. I set out to get a much frequency in Nov-Dec and see how I responded to it... Double my swim volume, run more than I ever have in my life and bike the long rides that I love. My goal was to see if my body or mind would crack or if I wanted more. I love it! I want more! . . . and more importantly it is "working". I have gotten faster at all three sports but more specifically I am able to hold my steady pace for a much longer time... an appropriate theme for going long.

I have also kept in contact with Gordo since I attended the St. George camp back in November. I knew Gordo was a rockstar for long course racing, coaching and repository for endurance fitness but I was very pleasantly surprised at what a nice guy he was when we met in person. The time that he took to address and talk with every athlete and meet their needs was just a natural expression of how he operates. This was very refreshing to see and a big motivation for me.


I have been working with Gordo Byrn and the Endurance Corner team now and I am honored to be a part of the EC team and get some of what I consider the best coaching out there. No excuses now! Time to take my energy and use it at the right times with a structure. Something I have never had before in training but I am actually finding that I really enjoy it. Gordo makes that part easy. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gordo and I cannot think of a better coach to have for me in my attempt to go long.

My running has been going well...No injuries from the ramp in volume for the 30 days of running and I am even mixing in some more intensity here and there. This weekend I am running the Surf City half marathon and I am excited to see how things shake out. I have no time goals and just looked up my time from last year 1:35:33 or a 7:18min/mi pace. Not bad considering the amount of running I had going into it and the ride the day before.

My only goals for this year are to have fun with it and beat my time from last year. Whatever time I get for the half this weekend I want to beat that time running off the bike at Oceanside in a few weeks so I will be running somewhere between last years time and a manageable pace that I will try to crush running off the bike. Hopefully I don't go out too fast!