Friday night training ride

I actually stopped a guy in his tracks. Of course, I don't blame him...what would you do? Here's a guy riding by on a tandem bike, coming out of the dark, yelling..."Free mustache rides!"

He stop and stammered..."Free musta....oh wow, uh...that's awesome....I guess"

But I'm jumping ahead, let me rewind to the start of the night:

Lisa's parents were in town, and I was planning on going to dinner with them. Rather than drive over (because I knew I was going to have a few glasses of wine) I decided to ride my vintage tandem bike over. Being that it was her mom's birthday, I told them I would stop for a birthday pie down the street at the Marie Callenders. It was a beautiful ride over, the sun was setting, the roads were fairly empty, and everyone I passed looked like they were finally unwinding the noose from a week's worth of work.

I decided on two pies, and got back on the bike to ride the two miles to her house. Here I was, the hero; pulling up on an awesome bike carrying the nights dessert. Right as this thought floated through my head, like a flash, I went down.

Yes, I fell.

The chain came off the bike, with one hand holding the pies I had no choice but to eat concrete on my left side. You've all been there- hit the ground and then jump up so quickly from a mix of adreline and embarrassment that it's even worse than if you just laid there. Quickly I assessed the damage: bleeding and raw elbow, with the tops of both feet (in flip flops) raw and oozing red. What do I do? I'm going to 'meet the parents' and I've not only completely crushed dessert, but I'm going in with a mutilated arm...after turning away from her dad for the first 2 minutes, I realized I was going to fess up. Especially when they took a look at the pies.

I cleaned myself up, with several doses of hydrogen peroxide; and powered through dinner. Don't worry, I made sure to pour with a heavy hand when it came to my own wine glass.
















Leaving dinner, I felt like I couldn't leave well enough alone with this bike...in fact, my actual thoughts were "this bike owes me" and to pay me back I brought my tandem down the strand towards the Hermosa Pier. Being the most immature 30-year old I know, and one who love attention, I realized quickly that calling out to people as I rode by "free rides" wasn't giving me the punch or reaction I wanted. So I changed my greeting to "free mustache rides"...a calling that got a much better reaction.

As I rode down the packed pier, I yelled my greeting to several groups. Coming to the stop light, I noticed a group of guys with buzz cuts and 'Fire Academy' t-shirts on. One of the was obviously drunker than me, and he stumbled over and declared "I'm going for a ride on that bike."

me: "Ha ha don't get any ideas. No one's getting on this bike."
Buzz cut: "Oh yeah, I'm getting on!"
Me: (grabbing his wrist as he tries to mount the back of the bike) "No really, you're not getting on."
BC: "Why not? I'm getting on" (twisting his arm to try and free himself from my grip.)
Me: (maintaining a deathgrip on his arm) "Listen to me...you're not getting on. I'm sorry, I know it'd be fun but it's not happening."
Me: (Maintaining a death grip on his wrist, and simultaneously walking the bike across the street, while dragging BC with me.)
BC: "Why can't we be friends? Let go of me and let's be friends!"
Me: (stopping across the street in front of a crowded restaurant, while holding onto his wrist) "Look...it's not happening. I'll guarantee you're not getting on this bike, so what do you want to do?"
BC: (Takes a picture with his camera-phone, makes a stupid face, and jogs away)

Crisis avoided, why not walk the bike home? I'd say that the tandem and I were even tonight. It got me good by spilling me onto the street, but paid me back with a pretty good story.

Preparing for our Santa Barbara Race

Typist: Tom
Inspiration: Ali
Technical Support: Mitch
Flag Bearer: Lisa


For you calendar savvy folks, you will realize that our race and wine tasting extravaganza falls on Halloween Saturday. That means costumes. We put our heads together and have come up with a theme--Holidays. we'll all dress in costumes to represent one of our nations great holidays. For those of you running, it might not be recommended to run in your full costume, though any flare you add will surely be appreciated (Mitch has threatened to wear his cape).

Here are some initial thoughts on who could be what. we're interested to hear your excitement level. feel free to improvise and/or change your holiday. plan early.

please forward this to Molly as we don't have her email address handy.

Colleen - Pumpkin
Andy - Turkey or Shirtless indian
Ali - Miss Claus
Lauren - Elf / Santa's helper.
Tom - Leprechaun
Mitch - Easter Bunny
Lisa - Lady Liberty
Molly - Seniorita de Cinco de Mayo
Julie - Cupid

Hometown Fair approaching

So it is time to start preparing for our favorite running race in the Southbay- the Manhattan Beach 10k. The day is October 4th you can find info on the race at http://www.mb10k.com/. We have to sign up before race day so make sure you plan accordiningly.

This race is part of the hometown fair, a glorified art fair w/ fried dough, corn on the cob, etc. But the good part of the fair is that it does have a beer garden! (caveat- every year we say we're going to go hoist a few, but every year I'm too pooped to do it.)

Logistics-wise, we can accomodate a couple of people parking at my house, and then ride the cruisers/tandem bicycles over from there. Post-race, I would like to invite everyone to brunch at our house, which will consist of eggs, facon, soysauge, french toast, and homemade (or purchased) apple fritters.

Also, this is an important race as it is getting many of us ready for the Santa Barbara half-marathon in November. I would like to keep my detailed race notes at the website below, and I encourage you all to contribute any running/racing stories or comments to it.

Wildflower Triathlon!

So...this was the big one. Our friend Joel had done the Olympic-distance version of this race (1 kilometer swim 24 mile bike, 6 mile run) last year, and had been talking it up for several months. Lisa signed up for it back in December, Joel had already signed up, so I decided to sign up. When I had talked to all the tri-geeks about Wildflower, they assured me that if I was going to sign up for the race, then I should just buck up and sign up for the Long Distance course: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. In December, it sounded like a good idea....not so much on May 3rd, as I'm standing with a group of people getting ready to start the race...

The Wildflower Tri has the reputation of being one of the most grueling triathlons in the U.S., so even though I had done a distance like this once before, I knew that I had to train really hard for this race or else it would chew me up and spit me out. I felt like I had spent every Saturday in 2008 climbing onto my bike and going out for longer and longer rides. The funny thing, was that after a 60 or 70 mile ride, I was having trouble imagining running 3 miles, much less the half marathon that I would have to on race day.

Part of the fun of racing at Wildflower is that there are no hotels or places to stay within 50 miles of where the race takes place. So most of the people camp in the park right by the start line, and Lisa and I decided to do the same. Did I mention that Joel had opted out of the race? Tough times at work basically cut into all of his training, so he wasn't able to put the time in and decided not to come out for the race.

We set up a nice campsite, and decided that we would use the tent to store all of our stuff, and the sleep in the back of the Xterra. It was actually quite comfortable! My race was on Saturday so after getting up there on Friday and getting out race packets, we had a little premade pasta dinner, and called it an early night. My race started at 8 a.m. so I got to the transition area and found the spot to put my bike at 7:30 a.m. I noticed that there were a bunch of people around me taking pictures and looking over my shoulder. Thought it was a little weird, until I turned around and saw that I was right next to the rack that the pro's were setting up on. There was Chris McCormack, the #1 ranked pro triathlete and reigning Hawaii Ironman Champion. Pretty cool!

My race started, and everyone took off into the race chute into the lake. After getting kicked and grabbed in the first 50 yards of the swim, I finally found some space to start swimming my stroke. Uh, oh- I had space because most of the guys in my wave had gone ahead and were leaving me in the dust with a few other stragglers. Swimming in the lake was a welcome change from the usual ocean swims that I had done in other races, so I found my stroke and did my best to not panic about my 'turtle like' swim. 41 minutes later I was out of the water, and happy to have this leg behind me.

I consider cycling my main area of expertise of the three legs of a triathlon, so I was happy to get on the bike so I could actually pass some people. After mile 1 I hit the first climb. This hill was as steep as any hill I had ever ridden up. If I stopped peddling, I would've fallen over-no joke. I was already pouring sweat and could feel my heart racing, and I was only one mile 2!!! Luckily, after that mile it flattened out a while. The race course was actually really nice for a while. Rolling hills, a few of which I powered through in the big ring of my bike and was able to pass a few people. After 20 miles I was getting discouraged. As hard as I felt I had trained for this race, my glutes and back were already absolutely burning. I guess no matter how hard you train, when you're racing and in one position for over an hour, things are going to hurt. The race was going along as planned, until we hit mile 42, aka "heartrate hill." Just picture it: here I am feeling good, passing people slowly but steadily. I was climbing for about a mile and thought that I was really grooving going up this 6% grade. Then I round the bend in the road, and see that the road gets steeper, and seems to be another mile to go. Everyone I passed started passing me back, it would've been a perfect commercial for blowing all your energy a little too early.

I had to squint as I got to the top of the hill, but yes; in fact there was a guy dressed up like a pink bunny beating a large kettle drum for the riders as they got to the top. I was in another world after this hill, and feeling dizzy and a little bit like a broken man. I had 10+ miles more to go on the bike, but wasn't sure how I was going to be able to get through it. Finally...finally I saw the last downhill down to the transition area. I got to the transition and the people cheering were enough for me to get a little energy together to make a quick change into my running shoes. Lisa was right there when I came in, so I wanted to make a good impression for her and her friend Mark & Brian that had come to the race. I put on my best face and set out for the run, trying to look like I was feeling good.

After the first mile, I realized I was not feeling good. This was backed up by the cramp I got in my thigh-it was so weird to see one muscle completely tense on my leg as I was trying to run. I admit it- I did a lot of walking. Every time the trail turned up hill a little bit, I was dying and doing my best to try and just keep moving forward. One part of the trail was a huge uphill, equivalent to hiking in Topanga Canyon in Malibu. The worst part was on mile 9, I had to run down this hill, and I saw that at some point down the hill you had to turn around, and then come back up the hill. I later learned that this portion was called the "pit" and for me it was the pits. The road was steep and was a mile going down, just to turn around a cone and then start going back up again. I was hurting so much at this point that I started to play a game with myself going up the hill. I told myself if I could run 100 steps, then I would be allowed to walk 50 steps. I did this all the way up the hill, and somehow made it up to mile 11. The last miles were downhill, so I started picking up the pace towards the end, and then got to the last portion that was in the finishing chute. There was plenty of people lining the course and cheering, so I ran as hard as I could to cross the finish line. I was done! But when I came across and found Lisa, I couldn't find my breath. I could only spit out "chair. I need a chair..." because I started to see black and thought that I was going to go down. She grabbed a chair from some tent (what a good girlfriend...) and I sat down and tried to recover. Finally, the vise started to loosen around my chest and I could take normal breaths.

I can honestly say that I was physically beaten after this race. This was different than other things I had tried, because I knew what I was in store for, trained as hard as I could; and was still ruined afterwards. I vowed never to do it again....but after a nights sleep in the Xterra, and watching Lisa's race, I've started to think that maybe this would be a fun race to do in 2009...

New Website Project

My brother and I had been talking for a while about doing a website, so for Nick's birthday I finally did the research and reserved the site: www.whatstheplanstan.net

I didn't really know what the site would be, but we had talked about how cool it would be to create a site where we put a lot of our ideas in regards to going out around L.A. We both felt that it would be fun to write up our ideas, but Nick has so far proven what a good writer he is. Although we're realizing the toughest part of building the site is actually sitting down and writing the subject matter, the things that he's gotten up are really well written and actually make me want to go do the things that he's talking about. I'm hoping we can build on it and turn it into something that people would actually want to look at.

Wildflower Training- my favorite run

One of the things that I need to tell myself is to really try and 'enjoy the ride' of the preparation for the next race. This was one of those days:

There's a trail run along the cliffs of Palos Verdes if you park at the lookout over the city, and it's one of my favorite runs in all of L.A. Driving there after work, I could see myself passing by store windows as a guy who has the stink of the city on him and heavy shoulders from a day in the office. My thoughts were on hiring, firing, and performance numbers when I started the run. But this quickly changed when I realized where I was. No Ipod was needed for this run, with no wind I had the ocean as my background noise and views all the way to Catalina. But as I got about 40 minutes into the run, I realized that I was getting that feeling that comes along rarely for me.

It occuured as I was running on the trail that this was one of those moments. It was right as I was rounding the trail and heading up towards the ravine, away from the ocean. There was brush grown up waist high on either side of me, the trail was hard and consistent, and the sun was just setting. It was right at that point where the sun has just passes below the horizon, and the sky lights up and is ablaze and right then- just for a few minutes- it's brighter than it was for the past hour. I could feel my eyes get wider as I ran, and I my senses are all tuned up. And, ah yes, That's when I felt it. Maybe it was just a runner's high. But when it comes on: "Sometimes, I've got it all figured out" is the feeling I get. A lot of times I can get bogged down with the day to day, but it takes a moment like this for me to remember what we're doing here. Everything is right with the me and I feel like the world is opening up in front of me and showing it's little treasures...specifically for me.

Like I said, the moment passes quickly and I fell back into a familiar run and it hurt, and I was sore, and I thought about work and other unpleasant things. But for those few moments I was lighter than air.

These are the moments I need to cherish-there is no better reason to sign up for these crazy races and spend time getting ready for them than these brief moments of pure happiness.