Run for the Hungry 2009

November 26th, 2009 1 Comment

I had signed up for this turkey trot event last Thanksgiving, but I skipped it due to rain. I know. Wimpy. But that was a year ago.

This year I followed through on the race, doing the 5K event. I’ve been chasing after breaking the sub-20 minute barrier for the 5K distance. To that end, I need to maintain a pace of 6:24 or better on average. On this Thanksgiving morning it was not to be. My official time was 20:44. However, it was good enough for 1st place in my AG (out of 44) and 18th overall (out of 1440). So for those results, I am extremely pleased!

My strategy for this race was to try to do a negative split as advised by my fellow Breakaway team member, Dave P. For the first mile, I planned to run 6:30, followed by 6:25 for the second mile, and 6:15 for the last mile.

After waiting around for almost two hours for the race to start, I was feeling pretty antsy. So when the gun finally went off, I felt relieved and energized. As the lead group of runners ran out ahead, I purposely held back and let several people pass me. It was difficult at first to see so many people driving forward past me. But after the first mile or mile and one-half, I had passed most of the people easily by sticking to my plan.

I executed the plan flawlessly for two miles. By mile 3 though I was feeling a little tired. I managed to speed up for a few seconds here and there with short bursts of speed, but my pace during that last mile would not be fast enough to guarantee me a sub-20 finish. As I approached the last half-mile, I thought about sprinting as hard as I could. But I hesitated, thinking that I would not be able to sustain the speed and slow down too much by the time I reached the finish line.

At the end, I was off by only 45 seconds, which is basically about 15 seconds/mile off pace. So close. My regret for this race was that I did not sprint all out for that last half-mile. And due to that small miscalculation, I missed my goal time.

After resting for a bit and snacking on some post-race grub (bagels, water, electrolyte drinks, and even some pizza!), I checked out the results board and learned that I had won my division. For the awards we were given these nice blue aluminum water bottles. You know already… I would prefer to have a cheap plastic medal for a prize. But I’m happy my name is in the record books as the first place finisher in my age group.

At first I was just going to let this sub-20 thing go for this year, and just try again in 2010. But my coach says I should go for it. So I’ve signed up for another 5K in a couple of weeks. I plan to use the same strategy, and hopefully, I’ll have more juice at the end for the sprint to break the 20-minute barrier.

Silver Strand 2009

November 15th, 2009 1 Comment

You know something? I spend a lot of time comparing myself to other people, and then worrying about how I’m not doing well or progressing. Clearly, that’s not a healthy outlook on life or competitive sports. Only one person can be the best at any given time, and that glory of being Number One is just for a brief time. So then what about all the folks who train and don’t win? Success can’t only be measured by who takes home the gold! I learned something post-race today in an inspirational video about Ryan Hall: “Success is being faithful with what I have been entrusted.”

So with respect to athletics with what have I been entrusted?

  • A lean body
    • I’ll never abuse my body with food again.
  • Ability to quickly learn and adapt
    • I’ll continue to challenge myself to improve my swimming, cycling, and running.
  • Perseverance and determination
    • I’ll continue testing my limits because no cost or sacrifice can compare with One who has made an ultimate sacrifice.
  • Small measure of athletic talent
    • To whatever my potential is, I intend to pursue it and be satisfied with my best.

Today, I beat my previous half marathon PR by almost two full minutes. I’m stoked with my time of 1:41:37. Official results are in, and I placed 31 out of 184 in my age group, and finished 246 out of 2631 in the entire race. I think that’s fantastic compared to how I did in my first half marathon last January.

For a little more than half of the race, I kept up a 7:24 pace as I strived to finish the race in under 1:40:00. So while I did not reach my desired goal of breaking the 1:40 time barrier today, I rejoice in my efforts for about 7.5 miles at sustaining that pace.

When I examine my lap data, I saw that I spent most of the race in Zone 4, near my maximum heart rate. So it’s no surprise now that I could not sustain that sub-1:40 pace. However, I am confident that with time and more training, I’ll be able to keep that pace for a longer duration. It really hurt at mile 10 when we entered that Navy radar base. But I’m pleased with my sprint during the last half-mile of the race. I credit that last-minute effort to keeping my time in the very low 1:40s.

Next up on Thanksgiving Day is my next attempt at breaking the 20-minute barrier in a 5K.

P.S. When I looked at the results for the 5K in my age group, my previous time at Shelter Island would have been good for first place at the Silver Strand. That’s cool.

Silver Strand 2009 Pre-race

November 14th, 2009 No Comments

“So how do you feel?”, my coach (Luke Walton, no not that lame one on the Lakers) asked me at the race expo.

“I feel great!”, I responded sincerely. Didn’t even hesitate one second with that response.

Despite a crazy work and school schedule this fall, I believe I’m prepared and as ready as I’ll ever be for my fourth half marathon tomorrow.

My training volume has been a little lower than what I would normally do, but I’ve got a little bit of business to take care of before 2009 is over. So the decreased volume is fine. I still feel sharp, and I do my best when my legs are fresh.

For tomorrow’s race, I just have one goal: get my time in the 1:30s. So that would put me at 1:39:59. I need to run a max pace of 7:37. I’m getting a feel for running at this faster pace, but it’s still a little strange to me. I’d like to stay within a pace range of 7:14 – 7:37. If I’m successful in doing this, my finish time should be between 1:35:00 and 1:39:59.

At the expo, I spoke with Luke about my 2010 race schedule. I’m excited to focus on the 70.3 half-Iron distance. I’ve signed up for two A races so far, Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside and Vineman Ironman 70.3 in Sonoma. Depending on what happens with my Kona lottery bid, I may or may not do the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 in Austin, Texas. In discussing the possibility of doing the Kona Ironman, Luke advised not to race a marathon since it would be close in proximity to the Vineman race. Instead, we would just be increasing my runs to get ready in the event that I get the Kona slot.

Mentally, I feel elevated by my swim in the gym pool yesterday. I swam 1.2 miles continuously, and felt more comfortable than ever before with the flip turns. It feels good to notice improvement in my swimming, especially not feeling so tired. Yes, I do have more work to do in the pool to get totally comfortable with the turns and to attain a minimum fitness level that would give me confidence in my ability to complete and compete at a swim distance of 1.2 miles. I guess coach was right, just a little patience and hard work is needed. So glad to be seeing results in the water.

Looking forward to reporting about this race. Over and out to do a little 20-minute jog.

Shelter Island 5K 2009

November 11th, 2009 No Comments

20:58, good enough for 3rd place

20:58, good enough for 3rd place

I have fond memories of the Shelter Island 5K event. In 2008 it was my first race ever. Because I was running in the LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin 5K, the 2009 Shelter Island 5K was not scheduled to be part of my race calendar. But the LIVESTRONG 5K was not a real 5K, so when I received an email reminder about Shelter Island, I signed up.

For this race, I just had one goal: set a new PR by finishing the race in under 20 minutes. With an average pace of 6:29 during LIVESTRONG, I knew that it was possible. In order to finish 3.1 miles in under 20 minutes, I need to run at a max pace of 6:25. So I set my sights on running a 6:15 pace.

On the morning of November 8th, I arrived at the start line at 6:00 AM to pick up my bib number. It would be another 45 minutes before I planned to do a little warm-up jog. At about 6:50 AM I did a one-mile jog and some light stretching. The national anthem played at approximately 7:25 AM. I stood at the front of the start line where all the people who plan to finish strong start these short sprint races (I suppose this is true). Surprisingly, a fellow Breakaway athlete, Dave Platfoot, said hello. I guess Dave and I were the only two athletes to skip the planned trail run to do this 5K instead. At 7:30 the starting horn went off.

I started out very fast after clearing the messy and crowded start line. For some strange reason there was this old, gray-haired man in the front of the starting pack, and as soon as the horn went off he raised his arms in the air and just stood there. Now don’t get me wrong. Normally, I have tremendous respect for elderly folks, but this was ridiculous. As I moved close to this old guy on my right, I shoved him out of my way with my right arm, “Get out of the way.” I confess it now so that I won’t have to do it later on when my career is over like Andre Agassi. So yes, I shoved an old man at the start of the Shelter Island 5K.

So the leading group of runners, which included Dave and myself, led out at a super fast pace, about 5:15 (??). In any case, it was way too fast. Unfortunately, I tried to keep that pace for about half a mile. I slowed down a little bit for the rest of the first mile, but I think I was running way too fast for my current ability at about 6:05. By mile 1.5 and mile 2, I was definitely feeling the redline of my heart rate, and I had slowed down to about 6:30. I knew at this point that I would not be finishing the race in under 20 minutes. For about 30 seconds I felt a little sorry for myself and disappointed. I saw my average pace slow to about 6:40 – 6:45 with about 0.75 miles left in the race. For the last half mile I attempted to sprint, thinking that I should finish the race with a time that began with 20 minutes rather than 21 minutes.

As I approached the finished line, I saw the race clock very close to the 21-minute mark. I heard the announcer screaming that there were 10 seconds remaining before the 21-minute mark. As the announcer counted down the seconds to 1, I crossed the line. The volunteers at the line handed me a slip that said 21:01. I looked at my Garmin, and it said 20:59. I am compelled to go with the “official” time because that’s what’s in the record books. I felt really disappointed to have missed the 21-minute mark by two seconds. But I consoled myself quickly with the very nice champagne brunch and the fact that I just bested my previous PR by almost one minute.

For brunch, I enjoyed lots of fruit, some powdered scrambled eggs, a little bacon, and a little breakfast burrito with salsa. I stayed away from the juices and alcohol. The Platfoots joined me at the table where we made small talk with some new runners who had just recently gotten into running.

Talking with the noobs reminded me of myself a little more than one year ago. I did my first training run on October 12, 2008, and ran my first race, the Shelter Island 5K less than one month later. My time last year was 21:56. I remember how I thought I was going to finish the race in 18 minutes. Yes, laugh out loud. During my one month of running I saw my 5K times decrease by three minutes each time I did a practice 5K. I remember some of my earliest 5K times were like 28 minutes, then 24 minutes, and my fastest ever in practice was 21:38. All these times were attained during my pre-Breakaway Training days. Even my recent 5K PR was set in April at 21:55 at the Carlsbad 5000. I joined Breakaway one month later in May 2009. After seven months of training with Breakaway, I entered this 5K knowing that breaking 20 minutes was realistic. My downfall today (if you want to call it that) was that I ran the first mile too fast. Dave Platfoot suggested that I run at about a 6:10 and just try to ignore the fast starters at the beginning.

After brunch we decided to check the posted official times. Dave finished second in his age group (30-34). I found my name on the 3rd page (!!), so I was very surprised to see that I had finished 3rd in my age group with an official time of 20:58. Not only did I get under the 21-minute barrier, but it was good enough for the podium. Oh the sweetness of the podium. How I missed that exuberant feeling. I immediately called Maria to share the good news, and I also placed a call to Murray who was responsible for getting me into all this running and multisport stuff.

We all waited for the awards ceremony to begin. They handed out awards to the youngest people first, so it took awhile. The overall race winner, a 16-year old, finished the race in 16:56. That’s just plain crazy. The cool thing about this awards ceremony is that there are lots of people there for it because of the super nice brunch they serve the finishers. So when they announced my name, I ran up to the stage amidst lots of congratulations and well-wishes from my fellow runners. So cool.

My prize was a $50 gift certificate for dinner at the Kona Kai hotel restaurant. Very nice. But honestly, I would have preferred a cheap medal instead. I know. I’m vain. But what can I say?

I’m so glad I signed up for the Shelter Island event this year. I have very fond memories of this race, my first race a year ago and my first running podium finish.

LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin 2009 Report

October 26th, 2009 No Comments

Do my legs look humongous?

Do my legs look humongous?

Driving to Dripping Springs High School for the start of the ride took about 45 minutes. We parked at Roger Hanks Park, got our stuff ready, and rode about a half mile to the high school. Maria, Parris, Lucas, and his friend Kyle met us there at the start line at about 7:00 AM. The Challenge is definitely one of the most well-organized events I have ever attended. There was food and coffee for all the participants. At about 7:15 I realized that I had forgotten my Garmin Edge 705 GPS unit back at the car, so Murray and I rode back to get it. Given my poor sense of direction, my Garmin helps put my mind at ease with its capability to provide turn-by-turn directions. Oh yeah, Parris wanted to take lots of goofy pictures of us, like this one. Do my legs look humongous?

At 8:00 after the singing of the national anthem and a send off from Mr. Lance Armstrong, Team Tuma finally got underway on the 90-mile journey. With over 3800 riders it took quite some time to actually reach the start line and clear the starting area. Murray and I started off fairly slowly, navigating through the maze of riders going too slow or riding crookedly.

The initial roads out of the start area were extremely bumpy as they were mostly some kind of rough gravel. I had initially planned to ride the entire ride with Murray, and early on, I let him lead the way through the maze of riders. But after awhile I got bored of the slow pace and motioned for us to pick up the pace to try to clear the rag-tag group of riders. With a couple of big bumps in the road, my air pump launched out of its velcro straps. Unfortunately, Murray had no idea and went on ahead. After retrieving my pump, my water bottle launched after another big bump in the road, and I stopped to retrieve that. By the time I got going again , Murray was several minutes ahead of me maybe two miles out. I raced and weaved through riders to catch up. It wasn’t exactly my plan to be riding hard so early in the route.

Finally, I caught up with Murray, chastised him for not waiting and pulled ahead. I did stop a couple of times to wait for Murray to catch up to me. The scenery of the route was fantastic, creeks, lakes, country roads, and quaint homes. By the way, the weather in Austin was so nice. The weather was partly cloudy in the 70s with the sun breaking out every once in awhile.

Even with the moderate temperatures, I made it a point to hydrate regularly and refuel with my Infinit blend. At about mile 30, I signaled to Murray that I needed to stop at the next Power Stop to go to the restroom. So at mile 36 I pulled into the Aid Station to do just that. The station was also well-stocked with food: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, trail mix, power bars, gels, Gatorade, water, and even a bike mechanic. Murray pulled in about 10 minutes later. After his pit stop we headed out again to complete the remaining 54 miles of the route.

The route was so clearly marked with bright yellow signs, volunteers with flags, and the local sheriff pointing the way, it would be nearly impossible for me to get lost. I used my Garmin as an odometer and didn’t need it at all for directions.

Because the route was so clearly marked, I decided to go ahead and break my promise to Murray to ride with him, and turned on my afterburners to see just how fast I could do this Challenge. So on I rode, pushing hard on the flats and downhills and trying to maintain a decent climbing speed when going uphill, remaining seated in the saddle rather than standing up to climb. My Cervelo P2 and my legs did not disappoint. It was fun to pass riders going uphill as I remained seated.

At mile 56 I recorded my split time at 3:02. As I approached 56 miles, I had pushed even harder trying to get my split under three hours. However, a slight uphill at mile 54.5 forced me to slow down slightly. I’m confident that had I not stopped two times earlier to retrieve my air pump and water bottle, I could have attained a split of 2:50 or less.

At about mile 60, both my quadriceps started crampng badly. I swallowed some more of my Infinit drink, and the cramps subsided two miles later. Coupled with some downhill portions, I was able to sustain speeds of 27 – 34 mph for some time. It was only when going uphill that the cramps affected my speed.

I reached mile 76 at about 4 hours and 10 minutes. My Garmin was telling me that there were about 10 miles remaining on the route. Clearly it was not a true 90-mile route. And despite being hampered by cramps, I was excited at the thought of being able to complete the Challenge in under five hours. With on and off bursts of cramping pain, I sprinted when I had the opportunity and slowed down when the cramps would not allow me to go any faster. I was able to finish the last 10 miles in about 40 more minutes, completing the entire route in 4:49 minutes! Very exciting for me.

As I reflect on the pain of my last 26 miles, it reminds me of the pain that people suffering from cancer have to endure. My cramps were nothing to me as I thought of Vivien Tuma for whom I dedicated this weekend. If she can hang in there as she fights lymphoma, then surely I could endure 26 miles of cramps. With that in mind, I was able to struggle ahead to the finish line. As I crossed I raised my arms into a V, Mark Cavendish style.

What happened with Murray? After resting for a bit and catching up with my family, I grabbed a bite to eat and a massage and waited for Murray. Little did we know, he had already crossed the finish line. I thought we would have to wait at least two hours. Yeah, I know, I thought I smoked him by at least two hours. But Murray rode a personal best as well, finishing his ride in under six hours. But it was very satisfying to smoke him by one hour and one minute. He finished at 5:50.

What a great weekend. Thank you again to all my financial supporters for making it possible to ride for cancer this weekend. Through your efforts we contributed $3054 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. May you be richly blessed for your generosity.

Team Tuma Post-race

Team Tuma Post-race

LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin 2009 Update

October 24th, 2009 No Comments

Hey there everybody. Just wanted to let you know Team Tuma arrived safely in Austin on Friday afternoon after 20 hours of driving over two days.

It’s been non-stop since we arrived. On Friday, we picked up our race materials at the downtown Austin Convention Center. Thanks to all the generous donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation via my LIVESTRONG Challenge account, I was rewarded with a lot of cool LIVESTRONG stuff, which will make for some nice souvenirs and memorabilia from this trip.

LIVESTRONG Loot

LIVESTRONG Loot

This morning Murray and I participated in the “5k” Run/Walk. That was a fun experience. The energy and excitement from all the participants was contagious. I felt not a single tinge of pain at all on my left ankle, so I was able to post an outstanding time. Granted the event was not a real 5k since the course was only 2.67 miles long. My time for that distance was 17:19, but my pace was the fastest 5k pace I have ever run at 6:29 minute/mile! For about a minute I actually led the field. What an incredible feeling that is to be the race leader and have everyone else behind you. It was surreal. In the end I knew that I could not sustain that lead pace, which was an insane 5:14 minute/mile. In the end, I finished in the top 10 of the entire field and maintained a personal best average race pace.

TexMex lunch with family

TexMex lunch with family

For lunch we met up with my cousin and his wife, Ed and Connie. Murray and I are staying at their luxurious vacation home on Lake Travis. Maria, her sister, husband, and my nephew and niece were also able to join us for lunch.

After lunch, Murray and I took a quick tour of the Lance Armstrong Foundation headquarters. What a unique office and top-quality operation. It was very uplifting. Please check out the pictures of that office later. They are very cool.

LAF Offices

LAF Offices

To wrap up the evening, Murray and I participated in the LIVESTRONG Challenge Celebration Dinner. My guest and I were invited because I raised over $3000 thanks to your generosity. What an uplifting dinner featuring cancer survivor, Eric Shanteau, Olympic athlete and World Champion swimmer. Of course, we heard from the man himself, Mr. Lance Armstrong two times. He did a little Q & A that was very interesting and also gave us a closing speech at the end of the evening.

Q&A with Lance Armstrong

Q&A with Lance Armstrong

Tomorrow is the big ride. I’m finally fully amped up for the ride, and Murray and I are excited to dedicate our pain and suffering on the bike tomorrow to Vivien Tuma!

LIVESTRONG Pre-Event

October 18th, 2009 1 Comment

Training in the garage

Training in the garage

The LIVESTRONG Challenge event in Austin is only a few days away! I’m pretty amped up about it, though it’s kind of difficult to get too excited given how busy work and school are. I’ve started packing already, and plan to finish packing all my things, except for my bike by late Sunday night. I’m driving out with Murray early Thursday morning. We plan to stop in Fort Stockton on the first night, and then arrive in Austin on Friday afternoon.

I have a full schedule ahead over the trip:

  • Pick up race materials on Friday
  • Open House tour of the LIVESTRONG HQ on Friday
  • Run in the 5k on Saturday morning
  • Lunch with family on Saturday
  • Celebration dinner (hopefully with Lance Armstrong) on Saturday night
  • The big 90-mile ride on Sunday
  • Supposedly a 20-mile run with Murray on Monday
  • Start return trip to California on Monday!
Training on the Trainer

Training on the Trainer

My training for the Challenge has been fantastic. I’ve just followed my coach’s plan that included several long rides with my Breakaway Training friend, Eric. This past Saturday, we rode 90 miles, and I did not feel fatigued or tired despite the strange weather out on the San Diego coast. Today, I decided to go out for a run in my neighborhood, and accidentally stepped on a crack in the street, which caused me to twist my left ankle. I’ve iced my ankle a couple of times and taken Iboprofen to help bring down the swelling. I hope my ankle is a go by Saturday, otherwise, I will have to skip the 5k run. The good news is that the ankle injury does not impact my ability to ride my bike, so all systems go for the 90-mile Challenge ride.

To get my regular workout in today, I rode for an hour on my new Kurt Kinetic Fluid Trainer in the garage. The bike trainer will be a welcome addition to my training regimen for when it rains and gets too cold this fall and winter season.

I’d like to thank all of you for your support of this endeavor. For all my financial supporters, a big thanks for making my participation in the Challenge ride possible. I will try to write at least one blog entry on my trip and maybe even a video log if I have time.

Mission Bay Tri 2009

October 14th, 2009 No Comments

Not a very good report to finally get out after the Mission Bay Sprint Triathlon of October 4th. At the same distance as the Surftown Tri about a month ago, my overall time was about five minutes slower at 1:07:11. As I look over the winning times, they seemed to be about five minutes slower than the previous sprint race at Surftown.

Swim (11:43) – I had intended to get my swim to 10 minutes or under but simply tired out. Later I heard from a couple of folks, including my coach, that they thought the swim course was measured incorrectly, and was actually a little longer than it was supposed to be. No matter, I still have a long ways to go with respect to swimming.

Bike (29:51) – I was probably most disappointed with my bike performance. I had significant difficulty at the start of my bike segment putting on my cleats. I had not practiced putting my cleats on since the last race, and I actually had to stop to the side, remove the cleats from the pedals, and put them on. I probably lost over a minute due to the poor start. The bike course seemed very technical with lots of sharp turns and zig-zags through the Sea World parking lot. The best part of the ride was the one loop around Fiesta Island, which I have done numerous times. When I arrived home to upload my Garmin data, I noticed that the overall bike distance was about 10.2 miles. The race distance was supposed to be 9.3, most likely another mis-measurement of the course.

Run (22:45) – This was the best part of my race. It’s not my fastest 5k time, but it is certainly the fastest 5k time for me AFTER swimming and biking. I’m encouraged by my progress in running, and I hope to break the 20-21 minutes barrier in the next several weeks. On a cool note, I passed three or four people in the “finish chute” area, and actually stepped on the mat at the finish line a split second before someone else.

Sprinting to the finish line

Sprinting to the finish line

Transitions – I’m fairly pleased with my transition times, T1 = 0:02:16 and T2 = 0:01:06. My T2 was the fourth fastest in my age group. If I had not stopped to take a couple of sips from my drink bottle, I’m betting I would have had either top or number two T2 time in my age group.

This was my fifth and last triathlon of the season. In the off season, I am determined to radically improve my swimming technique, fitness, and endurance. By the next spring, I would like to be able to shave at least three minutes off my swim time at this sprint distance. To that end, I asked a fellow Breakaway athlete to teach me how to do flip turns in the pool. Doing flip turns will force me to hold my breath longer as I push off the wall, and I believe that being able to go farther on less air will improve my fitness in the water. Also, I’ve asked my coach to include more speed/interval training in my weekly pool workouts.

Despite not having broken the one-hour barrier, I think I had a very successful rookie triathlon season.

Mission Bay Pre-race

October 3rd, 2009 No Comments

It’s 7:30 PM and I’m getting ready for bed. Brushed teeth, washed face, drank vitamins, and took two Benadryl to help me sleep. Tomorrow I’m racing in my fifth triathlon, a sprint, the same distances as Surftown last month:

500-m (about 0.3 miles) swim, 15K (about 9.3 miles) bike, 5K (3.1  miles) run.

This is my last chance until next spring to get my time under one hour at the sprint distance. So once again my goal for the race is 0:59:59.

I plan to go all out on the swim, something I’ve never done before. In all my other races, I’ve always reserved some energy. I hope with all-out sprinting, I can get my swim time to 10 minutes or under. I feel very confident on my bike. On this morning’s ride, I tested my legs for just a little bit and I was able to go about 25-28 mph almost effortlessly in a high Zone 2, low Zone 3. My run needs to be close to 20 minutes, something I’ve not been able to do ever. But I’ve been working hard at my running, and with the ample rest I’ve had this week, I hope I have my fastest 5k time. My goal is to spend no more than two or two and one-half minutes in transition. All in all, I need to have a perfect race to go under an hour.

I feel a little more relaxed than usual, definitely not wound up or uptight.

This week I had light workouts. I went easy on the brick run on Tuesday night. I did an easy four-mile run on Thursday morning and skipped the track workout. Friday I skipped swimming at the Cove and swimming altogether. And today, I did an easy 45-minute ride followed by a 15-minute run, about 10-miles and 1.5 miles, respectively. I got my bike tuned up this past week, and it is running smoothly, thanks to Matt Simpson of Rivet Cyclesport in Oceanside.

After picking up my stuff at the race expo, I bought a new tire at B&L to replace the one damaged by the metal shard a couple of weeks ago. My race bag was packed hours ago, and it’s already sitting in the passenger of my car.

Wish me luck!

LIVESTRONG Day

October 2nd, 2009 No Comments

Today is LIVESTRONG day. 13 years ago today, Lance Armstrong, was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer. And today I reached my fundraising goal of $3000 in my LIVESTRONG Challenge, Austin campaign.

Thank you to ALL my teammates who donated. The last two weeks have shown strong giving in response to my Twitter and Facebook campaign during which I challenged folks to give specific dollar amounts to reach my goal. When I started the campaign I was a little less than $1500 away from my goal.

I am especially grateful for all the generous folks that I have either known for many years or just met. Thanks to my coaches at Breakaway Training for sharing my campaign with the entire team. Breakaway Training donations represent close to 15% of all my donations to date.

You can still help with donations, of course. Donate online to fight cancer.

Now it’s time to focus on the ride. I can’t wait. Austin, here I come.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »