The SLO triathlon was set up as a completion triathlon rather than one with competition as its main focus. The triathlon is an all day event and had over 1,000 people register for it! I was lucky that I registered early for it and got an early start time. I was there at 7am. Ugh! But at least the weather was going to be cool and not hot like folks who got a 12pm or later start time.
The distance was not far considering I did an Olympic triathlon first. The SLO distance was
1/2 mile swim, 15.3 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run. Not far unless you did not train for it.
What I did to train for this one. ....
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
It has been a while so a Summary
After the Morro Bay triathlon, I took some time off as school was coming to a close and summer was starting. My daughter was starting a day camp and I began to work at the kayak shop part time again. Training was low on the list. However, I was still running every other day.
The next triathlon was the San Luis Obispo Sprint Triathlon on 7/25. A whole month to train. Yea, right.
I did start to swim. That is now my weakest sport of the three. I found it hard to fit it in but I was able to make it happen. I was swimming on Mondays and Fridays at the gym and putting my kids in day care at the gym. My friend Nikki was nice enough to help me out with my technique. I am always in the water but rarely swimming. It was great to have an expert coaching me. I discovered that swimming is harder than I thought. I only had to swim a 1/2 mile for the sprint triathlon. Not a big deal but to do it well is something different.
Right up to the SLO tri, here was my total training.
really 3 weeks worth
Running: 32.5 miles
Biking: 103 miles
Swimming: 4 miles.
I underestimated what I needed to do for training. I did not do enough.
Next..SLO Triathlon.
The next triathlon was the San Luis Obispo Sprint Triathlon on 7/25. A whole month to train. Yea, right.
I did start to swim. That is now my weakest sport of the three. I found it hard to fit it in but I was able to make it happen. I was swimming on Mondays and Fridays at the gym and putting my kids in day care at the gym. My friend Nikki was nice enough to help me out with my technique. I am always in the water but rarely swimming. It was great to have an expert coaching me. I discovered that swimming is harder than I thought. I only had to swim a 1/2 mile for the sprint triathlon. Not a big deal but to do it well is something different.
Right up to the SLO tri, here was my total training.
really 3 weeks worth
Running: 32.5 miles
Biking: 103 miles
Swimming: 4 miles.
I underestimated what I needed to do for training. I did not do enough.
Next..SLO Triathlon.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
How to DONATE
Thanks for helping out the MORE project. If you would like to DONATE, please visit www.themoreproject.org and click on Donate.
Then when you enter in your payment information, please ADD "RACING FOR A REASON-TOM REILLY#2383907" in the comment section.
I greatly appreciate your time in reading this blog and helping those less fortunate. Together we can change a generation!
Then when you enter in your payment information, please ADD "RACING FOR A REASON-TOM REILLY#2383907" in the comment section.
I greatly appreciate your time in reading this blog and helping those less fortunate. Together we can change a generation!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Morro Bay triathlon pictures
Top Picture: Kayaking-upcurrent leg.Fighting the currents
Middle Picture: Running finish area
Bottom Picture: Bike transition area. Morro Rock in the background
Part 2 Morro Bay Triathlon
After getting my gear all set up and seeing Doug and Tiffany, all I had to do was wait. and pee. and wait some more. The swimmers went in first and the we got to set up on the water in our kayaks. Two guys in surf skiis came in 1st and 2nd on the water. I came in 3rd out of 6. Not bad.
Doug and Tiffany grabbed the kayak for me on my first transition.
Getting my shoes on etc took longer than I thought. Ran out of the transition area and on to the bike portion. This was a long bike. 26.5 miles. I was a bit cautious and stopped at the water station to fill my water bottle. Three people passed me while I was filling up on water. Got onto Los Osos Valley rd and the wind was in my face the whole way. It was tough.Then the hills came on Turi rd. I was warned about them and..yep they sucked too. The great parts were the down hill section. That was fun and a great break. Then onto South bay blvd and then back to Morro Rock. I caught up to one of the guys that I already passed on the kayak but he passed me early on in the bike.
Into transition(t2) to the Run
I was much faster here, just a quick change of shoes. As I was sitting down (a big no, no I've had heard) I heard the announcer say the first kayaker came acorss the finish line. Dang! I and just starting my run. Oh well. It is my first time and I just wanted to finish.
Shoes on, and time to go. My legs felt like they were filled with cement! I hobbled across the road and then onto the sand. Ouch! at least I was not alone. There were other folks with that same cement feeling. Down onto the hard packed sand and just followed the crowd. Not a really fast pace but I was off and running!
The run went along the beach. Now it was nice to have a cool sea breeze. The ride was hot and now the coolness was welcomed. As I ran along and noticed more people headed back I thought the turn around point was up ahead. Not! I had to run over a bunch of rocks to get to the other side of the beach and then run another km to get to the turn around. Then back over the rocks and then the other 4kms back to the finish line.
As I got closer to the rocks I saw different crowds of people on the beach so I was not really sure where to go. The volunteers helped me out and shouted at me repeatedly to head back up the parking lot. As I changed course, I finally past the one other kayaker that passed me on the bike. It felt really good to pass someone.
Coming into the final section on the bike path, folks were all encouraging me to sprint to the finish. So I did. But not really sure how long I had to sprint. Luckily it wasn't far.
Then the announcer called out my name and city where I was from and just started to run as fast as I could. I was bookin' it. Hands raised with a big smile on my face.
I did it!, I did it! 3:38:15.
Tiffany and Doug saw me finish and were there to congratulate me. I had a hard time walking but after I got some juice I was feeling better.
What a feeling! Wow I did it!
I stuck around for the awards ceremony to help with recovery and to see the raffle. The awards were all given out but the raffle never really happened. Oh well.
On my way home I stopped by Bob's Big Boy for a huge plate of spagetti and chilli. Yum!
Made it home around 2pm and hugged the wife and kissed the kids. Then went outside and ran around with the kids in the yard. Proper nutrition is sooo important. Thanks Monavie for getting me through the physical part. Thanks to Tiffany and Doug for your moral support. It was great to have someone there to cheer me on.
Thanks to the MORE project for keeping me focused on WHY.
Doug and Tiffany grabbed the kayak for me on my first transition.
Getting my shoes on etc took longer than I thought. Ran out of the transition area and on to the bike portion. This was a long bike. 26.5 miles. I was a bit cautious and stopped at the water station to fill my water bottle. Three people passed me while I was filling up on water. Got onto Los Osos Valley rd and the wind was in my face the whole way. It was tough.Then the hills came on Turi rd. I was warned about them and..yep they sucked too. The great parts were the down hill section. That was fun and a great break. Then onto South bay blvd and then back to Morro Rock. I caught up to one of the guys that I already passed on the kayak but he passed me early on in the bike.
Into transition(t2) to the Run
I was much faster here, just a quick change of shoes. As I was sitting down (a big no, no I've had heard) I heard the announcer say the first kayaker came acorss the finish line. Dang! I and just starting my run. Oh well. It is my first time and I just wanted to finish.
Shoes on, and time to go. My legs felt like they were filled with cement! I hobbled across the road and then onto the sand. Ouch! at least I was not alone. There were other folks with that same cement feeling. Down onto the hard packed sand and just followed the crowd. Not a really fast pace but I was off and running!
The run went along the beach. Now it was nice to have a cool sea breeze. The ride was hot and now the coolness was welcomed. As I ran along and noticed more people headed back I thought the turn around point was up ahead. Not! I had to run over a bunch of rocks to get to the other side of the beach and then run another km to get to the turn around. Then back over the rocks and then the other 4kms back to the finish line.
As I got closer to the rocks I saw different crowds of people on the beach so I was not really sure where to go. The volunteers helped me out and shouted at me repeatedly to head back up the parking lot. As I changed course, I finally past the one other kayaker that passed me on the bike. It felt really good to pass someone.
Coming into the final section on the bike path, folks were all encouraging me to sprint to the finish. So I did. But not really sure how long I had to sprint. Luckily it wasn't far.
Then the announcer called out my name and city where I was from and just started to run as fast as I could. I was bookin' it. Hands raised with a big smile on my face.
I did it!, I did it! 3:38:15.
Tiffany and Doug saw me finish and were there to congratulate me. I had a hard time walking but after I got some juice I was feeling better.
What a feeling! Wow I did it!
I stuck around for the awards ceremony to help with recovery and to see the raffle. The awards were all given out but the raffle never really happened. Oh well.
On my way home I stopped by Bob's Big Boy for a huge plate of spagetti and chilli. Yum!
Made it home around 2pm and hugged the wife and kissed the kids. Then went outside and ran around with the kids in the yard. Proper nutrition is sooo important. Thanks Monavie for getting me through the physical part. Thanks to Tiffany and Doug for your moral support. It was great to have someone there to cheer me on.
Thanks to the MORE project for keeping me focused on WHY.
Monday, August 2, 2010
1st Annual Morro Bay Olympic Triathlon June 6, 2010
WOW! I was all nerves before the race.
Saturday:
On Saturday I signed in and got my race bag. It has your numbers for running and for the bike, a swim cap (i didn't need it), some gel stuff (yuk) and some upcoming race info etc etc. The registration was behind the Dockside restaurant along the Embarcadero. The weather was awesome on Saturday. I stayed for the pasta feed and Triathlon clinic afterwards. It was well worth my time since I learned about where the heck I was supposed to paddle, bike and run. I had no real clue before.
I even ran into a very nice couple from porterville who are also Monavie distributors! They were wearing Monavie sweatshirts. Their sons got them into the business and now they are RUBIES! That is they are making $100,000 residually/year. Crazy thing is, the wife's parents are also in Monavie and and he is 78 years old! Go Robert! Crazy still, his family name is CANET and his family had the original spanish land grant that included Morro Rock! What wierd but great day.
Saturday night after the pasta feed, Chris Stehula (US collegiate national champion), was there talking about how to make it through one of these and he told stories to encourage us all to do our best. Nice kid. There were folks from the Bay area, L.A area that were serious about competing. I met another newbie who was headed to the Naval academy at the end of July.
I stopped by my friend Tiffany's house and picked up her husbands' fiberglass sit on top for the race. I figured it would be faster than my plastic sea kayak. Got home finally around 8:30pm, got the kids to bed, made sure all of my gear was together and then went to sleep around 11pm.
Sunday:
Got up at 5:00 to eat, drink and load my car. Arrived around 6:30 to set up the kayak, get my gear set out and get a better idea of what was about to happen.
There were some vendors set up and people all around. It was a fun kind of nervousness. I saw people riding into Morro Bay on their race bikes. From where I have no idea. And yes, I did visit the bathroom several times before I had to get into place.
Tiffany and Doug met me there near the beach launch area. There were only 6 kayaks set up, but two were surf skiis (really fast and long race boats). The swim happened in waves, by age group. Each wave had different color swim caps. The swim was about 1 mile and went out along the rock and then to the sand spit and back in a triangle. It was very cold water! 52 degrees. Burrr. Glad I was on top of it.
More to come.
Saturday:
On Saturday I signed in and got my race bag. It has your numbers for running and for the bike, a swim cap (i didn't need it), some gel stuff (yuk) and some upcoming race info etc etc. The registration was behind the Dockside restaurant along the Embarcadero. The weather was awesome on Saturday. I stayed for the pasta feed and Triathlon clinic afterwards. It was well worth my time since I learned about where the heck I was supposed to paddle, bike and run. I had no real clue before.
I even ran into a very nice couple from porterville who are also Monavie distributors! They were wearing Monavie sweatshirts. Their sons got them into the business and now they are RUBIES! That is they are making $100,000 residually/year. Crazy thing is, the wife's parents are also in Monavie and and he is 78 years old! Go Robert! Crazy still, his family name is CANET and his family had the original spanish land grant that included Morro Rock! What wierd but great day.
Saturday night after the pasta feed, Chris Stehula (US collegiate national champion), was there talking about how to make it through one of these and he told stories to encourage us all to do our best. Nice kid. There were folks from the Bay area, L.A area that were serious about competing. I met another newbie who was headed to the Naval academy at the end of July.
I stopped by my friend Tiffany's house and picked up her husbands' fiberglass sit on top for the race. I figured it would be faster than my plastic sea kayak. Got home finally around 8:30pm, got the kids to bed, made sure all of my gear was together and then went to sleep around 11pm.
Sunday:
Got up at 5:00 to eat, drink and load my car. Arrived around 6:30 to set up the kayak, get my gear set out and get a better idea of what was about to happen.
There were some vendors set up and people all around. It was a fun kind of nervousness. I saw people riding into Morro Bay on their race bikes. From where I have no idea. And yes, I did visit the bathroom several times before I had to get into place.
Tiffany and Doug met me there near the beach launch area. There were only 6 kayaks set up, but two were surf skiis (really fast and long race boats). The swim happened in waves, by age group. Each wave had different color swim caps. The swim was about 1 mile and went out along the rock and then to the sand spit and back in a triangle. It was very cold water! 52 degrees. Burrr. Glad I was on top of it.
More to come.
My first Race Ever was a 10K
The strawberry stampede is the running event on sunday morning before the festival finishes up for the year.
This local event had people of all ages doing the 10k run, 5k run and the 5k walk.
I got up super early so I could be there on time.
I got there to early. I had to wait..and wait ..and wait some more but I learned a lot about waiting. BE CLOSE TO A BATHROOM.
Yep, that is the key for me. I must have gone a million times before the race. Ok, not really that much but ask my friends and they understand.
At the starting line there was a bunch of folks jockying for position. The announcer said if you cannot run this distance under 30 minutes you should go to the back of the group.
I had no frickin' idea what my time would be but I knew I was not that fast. So to the back I went. Dang there was a lot of people.
Luckily once we started, I recognized another person from a kayaking event. Within the first few blocks we were chatting and he became my pacing partner. Thanks Mike! I asked him how fast he does one of these events. He was shooting for under 55 minutes. I was hoping just to finish.
Did I mention that at 8am it was already 80 degrees out? That is not very common in May.
It was a very HOT run but I did it. Thanks to Mike we came in at 53:38. Whoo hooo!
Now I had to go home, shower and get to church on time.
Guess what? I made it just as everyone sat down. If you don't believe in miracles, I certainly do.
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