Despite the best well-laid plans, there can still be a few things out of one’s control on race day. That’s what happened to me yesterday at IM 70.3 California. Despite a couple of things I could not control, I’m pleased with my race results and time with my third 70.3 race, 5:27:29. Though it’s not a 70.3 PR, it’s close to my PR, which I set on a much easier course at Vineman 70.3. For this race, I was very well-prepared to execute my race plan 0:35 swim, 2:30 bike, and 1:40-1:45 run.

Setup: As usual I woke up early and was one of the first people in line to enter Transition. I claimed the end spot on my rack, set my stuff up, talked with other Breakaway athletes, and hung out with Eric. I ate a second breakfast at 5:30 AM for more calories since my first meal was at 3:30 AM. I used the porta-potty four times. I even had to pee right before the swim, and peed in my wetsuit while waiting in the swim corral. I’m sure the woman next to me knew that was my pee on the ground, but the transition area was closed and I didn’t feel like undoing my wetsuit to pee in the porta-potties inside the corral. Oh well, hopefully she didn’t step in the puddle of pee I left behind.

Finishing the swim

Swim (0:38:45): Water temperature was 62°F, much warmer than last year’s 54°. I didn’t wear my thermal cap underneath my white race cap. Other than the 10 minute ocean swim Eric and I did a few days ago, this would be my first long ocean swim of the season. I dreaded it. I met up with Maria and friends at the dock as my wave entered the water. I dunked myself underneath the water and allowed the water to fill my suit. As the wave before me left, my wave then swam out to the start buoys where we waited for our 7:36 AM wave start.

As per my plan, I started mid-pack and to the right. I’d let the ambitious swimmers fight for position near the front while I’m content to find my own space and avoid the initial bump and grind. When it was all said and done, I took two minutes off my swim time as compared to last year’s race.

If there was one thing I would have liked to change about the swim it would be my attitude. All I could think about was: “I can’t wait for this swim to be over.” The swim out to the turn around point seemed to take forever, which only aggravated me even more. The highlight of the swim was when I bopped some woman in the head with my right arm/hand. I kept swimming and she stopped. “Nice!”, she said. I wish I could have stopped to laugh out loud, but all I wanted to do was get this swim over with and on to the good stuff. In my mind, I thought: “Get over it, lady. Swim faster next time so later waves won’t catch you.”

T1 (0:5:24): The run from swim in back to T1 is long. So I started peeling the top part of my wetsuit off while running back to T1. My struggles with removing the wetsuit from my ankles continue. I think I wasted about 40 seconds struggling with it. Finally with the wetsuit off, I put on my race number, helmet, and shoes and headed out for my 56-mile adventure.

Bike (2:43:15): I was eager to get out on the bike course, my obvious strength. Equipped with a PowerTap wheel I rented from Race Day Wheels, My goal was to sustain an average power output of 235 watts and a time of 2:30. I would need to average 22.4 mph. I did okay for the first 28 miles, averaging about 23 mph. Unfortunately, I spent too much energy sustaining that speed because my average power for the first half was 245 watts.

When I reached the steep first climb, I really wanted to attack that hill and climb hard. But I was really surprised that the right side of the road was blocked. In their infinite wisdom the race officials decided that the athletes would use the narrow left side of the road. I was pretty annoyed. About half way up, I said “Screw it” and rode on the right side of road with other athletes who were fed up.

After the first tough climb, I noticed my average speed was much lower. I knew some fatigue had set in, but not enough to slow me down that much. After a mile or so, I realized that I was riding into some tough headwinds, which made the bike ride that much slower. After the third hill, I rode about 24 mph average back to transition. When all was said and done, my bike time was about the same as last year’s ride. I think the headwinds basically ruined my race plan. My average speed for the ride dropped to 20.6 mph and average power dropped to 214 watts. Despite my best preparations for the ride of my life, I had no control over the wind. I would have to deal with the extra 10 minutes I had not planned on.

Hit <Esc> to skip the following rant…

<rant>I spent pretty much the whole bike course riding on the left side of other athletes, passing them. The course seemed really crowded to me. On one part near the campgrounds by Camp Pendleton there were three riders across the road blocking my way. The one on the farthest left was some jackass woman lollygagging. I yelled out at her: “Pass if you’re gonna pass.” I heard her yell something unintelligible to me as I passed her. I wanted to give her the California Condor, but I was too busy going 28 mph while she was probably going 17 mph.</rant>

T2 (0:4:13): I’m really disappointed with my T2 time. I knew right away I made a huge mistake by planning to wear compression socks. I wasted about a minute and a half struggling to put on those socks. Lesson learned: next time I plan to wear compression sleeves underneath my wetsuit.

On the run

Run (1:55:52): Despite taking additional salt tabs (two per hour) during the bike ride, I had cramps in my quads at the start of the run for the second year in a row. They were so painful! My right quad was frozen in a powerful contraction that forced me to slow down to a shuffle walk, grimacing in pain. I appreciated the encouragement people yelled out to me to “walk it out” and “keep going”. I broke open a salt capsule and put the contents on my tongue. After washing it down at the first aid station, the major cramps went away after about five minutes.

At least I was able to run at about 8:48-8:50 min/mile. Again, this was not part of my race plan. I had the energy to go faster, but when I tried, the pain in my quads was too much. So I figured I would just deal with it. Sub-9 with an annoying dull cramp in my right quad was better than walking the entire half marathon like last year.

My training buddy, Eric, caught up to me and passed me about 1 mile into the second loop (about 7.5 miles into the run). He was supposed to be injured and unable to run. Yet there he was making me look bad. I kept Eric within my sights until mile 11. Unfortunately, when I decided to make the move to catch up, he turned on the jets too. And I was unable to maintain the kind of speed to catch him because of the cramp pain. At that point, my run became about finishing strong in under two hours.

This is what you get after you crush me by 10 min with a crippled foot. Jerk

Despite being crushed by 10 minutes by my crippled training partner, I was very happy for him and actually very pleased with my own time. Instead of being disappointed in not achieving my goals for this race, I celebrated my accomplishment, knowing that I was prepared and that I adjusted my race strategy appropriate to the conditions that the race day brought to me. I still haven’t figured out the run part and how I need to change my nutrition plan to prevent cramps. So I’m planning another race day consultation with Fuel Factor to come up with a plan for the biggest race of my life in June, Ironman Couer d’Alene.

Sorry, if you were looking for commentary about that blond girl going wild on Asians in Powell Library at UCLA, then you found the wrong article.

It seems like forever since my last post, and it also seems like a lot has happened. In the last month, I moved up an age group to the 45-49 AG when I turned 45. And while you youngsters out there think that we more venerable athletes are slowing down, I’m actually finding that the athletes at the top of the older age groups seem to get faster and/or retain their speed from their youth. I’m both nervous and excited about competing in the new AG. Why nervous? Well, it seems like it just gets tougher and tougher every year. And this AG is no exception. There are some fast, tough, badass people in my new AG. Excited? Heck yea! I have made huge gains in my nutrition and training this past month, so I am stoked to put these gains to the test in my first triathlon of the season this weekend at IM 70.3 California.

I’ve recently become a huge fan of Ben Greenfield’s podcast of http://bengreenfieldfitness.com. Ben is a nutrition expert, exercise physiologist, elite triathlete, and renowned fitness coach. I highly recommend you subscribe to his fitness podcasts unless of course you and I are in the same age group. If you and I are in the same age group, don’t listen to the podcasts because they suck and will be a huge waste  of your time.

From Mr. Greenfield I learned about the importance of supplementing my diet with essential amino acids and branch chain amino acids (BCAAs). And it’s not about eating enough protein, fool. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total carnivore. Well at least, as an omnivore I enjoy a good share of lean meats in my daily diet. From personal experience, I can validate that consumption of amino acids before, during, and after exercise have enabled me to have increased stamina and endurance. I can ride harder, longer. I can run faster and farther, extending the time out when my body begins to fatigue. I won’t bore you with my regimen and products, but contact me if you’re interested. Or you can just listen to the aforementioned podcasts.

Case in point. On February 19th I did a bike course preview of the IM 70.3 California on a Computrainer. My volume of training that week was a little more than 13 hours, and by the time that I did the course, I was exhausted. At the time I was just supplementing my diet with my regular sport drinks, Infinit and VITALYTE. I completed the 56-mile course utterly fatigued in a time of 2:51 and an average power output of 209 watts. I started my new amino acid regimen shortly after that.

After experiencing amazing results for four weeks, I completed the Computrainer course again on March 19th. That week my training volume was a little longer at almost 15 hours. And by the end of the week I felt fantastic, not tired. During the ride I purposely stayed in 2nd for the first part of the course behind my buddy, Eric, for 30 miles. My strategy was to follow closely behind until we reached the first hill. I climbed hard and waited to see what would happen. Then I climbed the next two hills and amazingly I had lots of energy remaining. I finished the course in 2:37 (average 237 watts), and apparently, I was only the third person in the history of that gym to finish in under 2 hours 40 minutes. The best part of the ride was that I had no cramps afterward, and was able to run well for 20 minutes. NOTE: For this particular workout I also supplemented my amino acid-laced drinks with SaltStick capsules, one every half hour.

With regards to training, you may remember that just a few months ago I was sidelined with an injury to my hip flexors. I’ve been going to physical therapy to deal with that and finished my final session last week. My legs and hips seem stronger than ever thanks to the workout regimen my evil therapist prescribed to me each week. The one old “new” thing I’ve reintroduced into my training regimen is doing strength training three times a week. Prior to triathlon I used to be a gym rat, but when I started training seriously for tris, I stopped strength training. I won’t repeat myself too much since I already wrote a blog about this topic, but I will never give up strength training again. I feel great and for sure, it has been my key to rehabilitating and preventing injury. Strength training, stretching, dynamic warm-ups, foam rolling. Just do it.

Short of jinxing myself this Saturday at the race, here are my goals. Finish the swim in 35 min, bike in 2:30, and run 1:40-ish (if I can avoid cramps). What time do I want? You do the math. But keep it to yourself. I don’t want to get jinxed!

I don’t have a good track record for writing my race reports on time so I think it’s pretty good that this is going up only a week after the race.

I had very high expectations of myself for this race, especially since my first 70.3 race last March at Oceanside did not go as planned. I wanted to finish this race well under 6 hours and close to the 5:15 mark. Overall, I am very pleased with my results and the execution of my race plan. My official race time was 5:21:53.

Getting my T1 space ready

Pre-race: I arrived in Windsor on Friday, two days before the race and just after finishing a crazy week of work filled with sleepless nights and super important meetings. I think I had about 8 hours of sleep in about 72 hours. I worried that my lack of sleep would negatively affect my performance. Other than a lack of sleep, my pre-race was worry-free thanks to Jay for driving up my bike and race bag

After a short one-hour flight into San Jose, Maria and I drove up through Friday traffic and barely made it to the Athlete Dinner. It was a really good pasta dinner sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce for the city of Windsor. After dinner, we checked into the “not so comfortable” Comfort Inn in Santa Rosa, met up with Jay to take care of bike stuff, and then hit the sack for some much needed sleep.

Saturday was devoted to a morning one-hour workout bike ride and run with Jay and Mikey. It felt good to move around as I was still feeling lethargic from sitting behind a computer all week long with no sleep. After the morning pre-race workout, Jay and I checked in, looked around the race expo, bought some souvenirs, and dropped off our running gear at T2 located at Windsor High School. By the way, don’t bother with the pre-race course talk. It just made me nervous listening to all the warnings about the dangerous turns on the bike course. That’s not the kind of stuff you want to get lodged in your head before a race. We all ate lunch at Quizno’s, and then took a nap in the hotel. Later that evening Jay and I got our bikes and swim gear ready for the race. I had forgotten to bring an air pump, so I was a little worried about finding a pump before the race.

Swim: The next morning Jay and I left for the swim start/T1 at 4:30 am. The start was located at Johnson’s Beach at the Russian River Resort area. As soon as we arrived, I had to dart behind a building to go to the bathroom. I could wait no longer. Sorry, Guerneville peeps. There were no race refs around, so no penalties for me. I borrowed an air pump from some professional women triathletes, which alleviated my final worry of the morning.

I found my row and selected a spot to set up my transition area. Mentally, I made note of its location, which was five rows up from the porta-potty on the side of the Bike Out path. Wave 12 started at 7:58 am, so I had about three hours to kill. I did that by going to the bathroom about 6 more times. Good thing I brought some toilet paper.

Pre-race chat with Maria

At about 7:00 am I saw Maria. You can’t start a race without a good luck kiss! Warming up was pretty much non-existent. I had no running shoes, so I did a couple of jog laps back and forth in my sandals, and then I put on my wetsuit.

I was feeling a little nervous, as usual, about swimming. But as soon as I got into the water, it was amazingly warm 72.5 degrees. And because it was a freshwater river, it felt like swimming in a pool. I started to feel more confident. Finally at 7:50 am Wave 12 got into our starting area. I positioned myself to the right and a little rear. I think I get the best results starting there since I’m not going out to lead the swim. My goal for the swim was to do it in 35 minutes.

When the horn went off, I felt good and started out strong. With no clock to look at, I typically gauge my swim based on my perceived effort. For some weird reason, I felt tired for most of the swim. The water was shallow in many parts of the swim course, so I actually stood up and walked at some points. This helped me catch my breath. When I reached the turnaround point, it was about 19 or 20 minutes into the race, and I thought my swim was pretty much toast. So I buckled down and swam a little harder to get back to T1. Later I was surprised to learn that my swim was 37:24, which was almost a full three minutes faster than Oceanside. I chalk up the tired feeling in the water to perhaps a greater perceived effort. One thing I did differently in this race was to kick minimally. I think this saved me from getting any swim cramps before the bike ride. With a wetsuit on, you don’t really need to kick. I feel that the additional effort spent towards kicking doesn’t really increase my forward movement all that much in a wetsuit.

At this particular race for T1, we have to pack up all our gear into a bag. Then the race volunteers bring our stuff to the finish line for us. In addition to my usual difficulties removing the bib john portion of the wet suit, I spent more time than I wanted trying to get everything into my bag before leaving on the bike ride. There is still much to improve in my T1 transition. It was a slow 4:06.

Bike Out

Bike: Immediately at the Bike Mount area, there is a small hill. Some people chose to walk their bikes up the hill, but it seemed to small to me to waste time doing that. Before the race I put my bike into a lower gear so I basically just sprinted up the hill while trying to dodge the noobs who were walking and struggling to clip into their pedals.

Basically for the first 8 miles or so, I was pretty annoyed with just passing people and trying to clear a path for myself where I felt I wasn’t surrounded by other athletes. I worried a little about getting a drafting penalty, but fortunately the refs weren’t monitoring the start of the bike course too closely.

I encountered a sharp right turn at mile 7, and then I forgot about the immediate left turn. I almost ate it when my bike ran into some dirt. I thought about my time trial face plant at Fiesta Island last March for a few seconds, and was relieved that I didn’t lose control as I got out of the dirt and onto the road.

The bike course was much easier than that of the Oceanside race. There were some points where I was going 30+ mph. But given the rolling hills on the course, I was very pleased to sustain an average speed of 21 mph for the entire bike route. The weather was still overcast, which enabled me to maintain a fast speed with little effect from climate and heat. The advice given to me before the race was to go “slower” on the bike course and save some energy for the run.

I finished half the course (28 miles) at about 1:15. The weather was still relatively overcast, but the sun and heat were finally making their appearance. I decided to race the rest of the bike route in such a way that I could go as fast as I can without exerting a lot of effort. To maximize this, I pedaled hard on downhills and used the momentum to get up the rolling hills with ease. Despite the overcast weather, I stuck to my race nutrition plan and took a sip of my Infinit bike mix every 10 minutes even though I didn’t feel thirsty.

At mile 45 I went up the lone steep hill of the course at a relatively slow pace. I could feel the beginnings of cramps in my quads, the same situation that caused my Oceanside race to be so poor on the run. I continued to ride as planned, going as fast as a I could without exerting my quads too hard. The last part of the race heading back into Windsor was relatively flat. I know I could have gone faster with a little more effort, but I was afraid of cramping on the run.

Overall, I was very pleased with my bike leg. I didn’t ride as conservatively as I had planned. My time was 2:37, and I was shooting for 2:45.

Run Out

Run: When I arrived to my spot at T2, I secured my bike to the rack and tore open my bag of running gear. My T2 time was much shorter than T1, 2:49.

About three-tenths of a mile onto the course, I felt the familiar pang of pain in my quads, especially my right quad. The cramps were here! Instead of panicking, I moved off the run course to stop and stretch for a few seconds. When the pain subsided I began running again.

After the first mile of running relatively slow, I had a talk with my negative self and asked if there was any reason why I should settle for less on the run? I had a goal of finishing this half marathon in under two hours, but my current pace was definitely putting me at the 2:15 mark again. I convinced my negative self to go away and just focused on maintaining a steady cadence.

At times I had to walk to prevent the cramps from taking over. As I reached mile 6 I felt my confidence return. I knew I had it in me to finish this run in under two hours so I continued at a comfortable pace that would allow me to do just that. It was not my fastest pace, but it was definitely a doable pace at which I could manage the pain of impending cramps while still achieving my time goals.

As I entered the finish chute, I passed about three people. Why weren’t they sprinting? Who knows? I took a last look at my watch and I knew my results would be good. I was very happy with my final time of 5:21:53. The run? Yea. I finished it in under two hours with a time of 1:59:47.

In addition to improving my swim time, I would also like to improve my T1 and running time. I feel like I’m on the cusp of going under 5 hours for this distance. If I can get my time under 5 hours, then I think I’ll have a good shot at qualifying for Clearwater in my age group. I know I can knock 20 minutes off my run time as I build up my strength and endurance for running after swimming/biking.

So yea. For me, I kicked ass in this race. And I’m pretty happy about it.

Crossing the finish line

This was it. The day had arrived: March 27, 2010. I’ve been mentally gearing up for this day since I registered for this race 10 months ago on May 26, 2009. I’d say that I began my serious training and preparation for my first IRONMAN 70.3 at the beginning of 2010.

Of the four elements in triathlon, yes I meant to say four, I identified two liabilities to work on in my race preparation. One, swimming. Two, nutrition.

Since January, I’ve been swimming at least three times per week for about 5 miles/week. Each Tuesday, I swam on my own at LA Fitness, following the swim workout created for me by my coach. For my other two weekly swims each Wednesday and Friday, I joined a Master’s Swim program with the Escondido Swim Club. In the last four months, I have swum about 95,000 yards. My swim pace decreased from about 1:50/100 yards when I first began to my current fastest pace of 1:37/100 yards. I swam my fastest 1.2 miles in the pool in 41:37.

For as much as I could control about my apprehension of water, I did as much as I could in the pool to overcome any doubts and fears. Swimming, swimming, and more swimming. I definitely improved both my speed and my endurance.

The big question still lingering: How would I do in the ocean? Where the water is dark and cold. Where there are tons of other people around me splashing and kicking in my face. The day before the race, I downloaded a race preview talk given by professional triathlete and coach, Jim Vance. I planned to follow his advice to acclimate to the cold waters of the Oceanside Harbor:

1. Warm up prior to the swim so that I’m sweaty with the wetsuit on.
2. Dunk my face and head into the water and breathe to prevent hyperventilating.
3. Let my wetsuit fill up with water.
4. Choose an appropriate place to start in relation to the other swimmers based on my ability.

With respect to nutrition, I enlisted the aid of expert nutritionist, Kim Mueller, of Fuel Factor. She performed a diet and exercise analysis on me. From the diet analysis, she created a baseline meal plan for me of 2200 calories per day, along with a plan for extra calories to account for pre-workout, work, and post-workout recovery. In the last four months, I learned a lot from Kim about how and when to eat to fuel my workouts and races as well as recover from them. Armed with a new nutrition regimen for the last four months, I must say I have never felt better. In the past four months, not only have I maintained a sub-10% body fat percentage, but I have also felt great for all but two of my workouts and events. My nutrition and diet, the fourth discipline of triathlon, have given me confidence in my body’s ability to perform based on providing it with the most ideal fuel.

A week before the race, Kim gave me the best advice. I think it was the key for my mental outlook on race day. She said:

Just go out there and have fun. Enjoy each sport as you do them. You’ve already done the hard part and all the work. The race is the easy part.

This totally put me at ease. Along with the tips from Jim Vance, I felt very relaxed for my swim! I don’t think I have ever been more prepared for a race before. Swimming, cycling, and running had all peaked at the right time.

When the gun went off for the swim, I did not hyperventilate, but just swam as if I were in the pool, very relaxed. I thought about my race pace and what that feels like. The only hiccups for me in the swim was dealing with all the people around and getting bumped. A bit into the race I started to feel a little tired, and I told myself that the feeling was ridiculous given the fitness level I had attained through all my pool workouts. After assuring myself that the feeling was not true, it went away. And I knew I would have no difficulty finishing the swim. My goal was to finish the swim in under 45 minutes, but because of my hiccups in the water where I stopped swimming briefly after getting bumped a couple of times, I kind of put the sub-45 minute out of my mind, thinking it was not possible. I even felt some cramps beginning in my quads during the swim, which was kind of strange since I don’t really kick that much in my wetsuit. Finally, as I got out of the water and headed into T1 I looked down at my watch and saw that my swim time had been much faster than I expected. Later I would learn that my official swim time was 40:24. Because this time included the run to the transition area, it meant my actual swim time was under 40 minutes!

As I ran to my rack, the cramps in my quads were very painful. I hoped that they would go away on my bike ride. As it turned out, my quads never cramped during the ride. I headed out of T1 with not so great a transition time of 5:20. I had some difficulty getting my bib john off, so it slowed me down. In future 70.3 races I’d like to see my T1 time down between 2 and 3 minutes. Most of the bike ride is actually flat. So I zoomed at about 20-25 mph for much of the flat portions. I knew there were three hills on the bike course, the first one and steepest one occurring at mile 30.

Honestly, I didn’t respect these hills as much as I should have. The first one kicked my butt. Though it was the steepest, it was the shortest hill. One down, two to go. By the time I finished the third hill at mile 45, 2 hours 15 minutes on the bike ride had elapsed. It meant that I had to go around 11 miles in about a half hour. Translation: I had to sustain at least 22 mph to meet my goal of going under 2 hours 45 for the bike ride. I had to make a race decision about this: do I go for it or do I save some gas for the run? My quads were speaking to me also. They told me that as soon as I stepped off my bike they were going to cramp. I could feel it. Don’t ask me how I knew. I just knew. So I decided to go for it. I met my bike goal and finished the ride in 2:43:41.

T2 was much easier for me. I racked my bike, put on my socks, shoes, and visor. I grabbed a quick drink, my soft flasks of Infinit run mix, and a bar, and off I went. As I headed out on the run, I spotted Maria and Tony. The soft flasks did not cooperate and stay in my jersey pockets, so I decided to toss the bar to Tony so that I could hold on to both flasks during the entire run. As I rounded the second turn onto the streets of Oceanside, the cramps came back very hard. They were so painful that I had to stop and stretch.

This pretty much was my entire half marathon. I had vowed that I would never walk nor stop during a run, but now I have learned to respect those who walk or stop during a run. My cramp pain was so unbearable that running with any sort of normal speed for me was impossible. And so I hobbled, stopped, stretched, walked, and sometimes ran for the entire 13.1 miles. As planned, I stopped at every aid station for a small sip of water to chase my Infinit mix down. By mile 6 the cramps were extremely frustrating, and I started to eat potato chips and pretzels at the aid stations for the extra salt. I don’t think it helped any. For me, this half marathon was about mental toughness. No longer was it about trying to get a good time (my goal was going under 1:45), but it was about finishing this run respectably, which meant an all-out sprint at the finish line despite the pain. I dealt with the cramp pain, sprinted at the finish line and passed about four runners, and finished with my slowest half marathon time ever of 2:15:45. My total race time was 5:47:17.

Although I was disappointed with not having gotten my overall time closer to 5:15, I was very pleased with my race execution. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and I plan to do better at my next 70.3 in July at Vineman, preferably with no cramps at all.

Now that I’ve achieved my goal of the Triple Crown in 2009, I’m shifting my focus to 2010 and beyond.

In the long term, I would like to complete an Ironman race in 2011. I’m thinking of one of these:

• Ironman Cozumel (November 2011)
• Ironman Florida (November 2011)
• Ironman Hawaii (if I get in through the lottery, October 2011)

The Ironman race is 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run (full marathon) for a total of 140.6 miles. Sounds crazy? It is.

During the year that I do my first Ironman, I definitely want to do Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, as well as run a couple of full marathons (like Carlsbad in January 2011 and maybe the NYC Marathon in November 2011).

In the near term, I plan to have only two or three A races in 2010, all focused on the half-Ironman distance:

• Ironman 70.3 California (a local race in Oceanside), March 27, 2010
• Vineman Ironman 70.3 (up in northern California near my in-laws), July 18, 2010

As the name implies, the half-Ironman race is 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run (half marathon) for a total 0f 70.3 miles.

If my training is going well, I may do:

• Wildflower (long course), April 30 – May 2, 2010
• Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (in Kona), June 5, 2010

Bring it!