Zack's Triathlon Blog

Last week flew by. The weekday workouts were rather uneventful so I didn't bother posting about them. Let's get right to the good stuff.

The real WildFlower Triathlon takes place at Lake San Antonio which is sort of west of Fresno. It is very remote and there is very little in the way of civilization nearby. As a result we will be camping there during the event, and in order to avoid any mishaps, and have some fun, we wanted to head down for a trial weekend.

On Friday, we packed up our hordes of gear, camping supplies, and food and headed down to Lake San Antonio. It was a 3-4 hour drive from San Francisco, and by the time we arrived it was starting to rain. We found the rest of our group and set up camp. Friday night was cold and wet, and we had to barter with our neighboring groups to fill in some of the gaps in our supplies. We seemed to be overstocked on cookies and booze and lacking in the fire and shelter area. It was a good learning experience, and hopefully we will be a bit better prepared during the actual event.

Saturday morning we woke up to a cold wet fog and headed down to the lake. I was more than a bit nervous as this was to be the first mile swim I had done in open water. I went very early to get a good look at the course and the others who were swimming before me. Last weekend it took me 38 minutes to swim 2/3 of a mile, so my goal was to beat 60 minutes. When it was finally time for my wave to start I ignored my nerves and just started swimming. We swam out to a bouy and then to the left hugging the shoreline. After some serious concentration and about 100 meters, I felt my hand touch some reeds. I looked up and found that I had turned too sharply around the bouy, and in my intense focus, swam right into the shore. I corrected my line and headed back towards the pack. The water was cold, but not quite as cold as the bay, and it tasted much better. It was a bit clearer - I could see 10 feet or so, compared to the roughly 3 foot visibility of the bay. There were lots of wood chips, twigs and other random things floating everywhere and I did my best not to inhale or swallow any of it. Once I began to focus and get down to business I swam out to the turnaround point and found that only a little over 18 minutes had passed! I turned around with some renewed energy, but quickly grew tired and wasn't able to pick up my speed at all. I made it back to the start in a personal best 36:16! Not too shabby!

We got out of the water and took around 20 minutes to transition to our bikes. During the real race, we will attempt to do this faster, but for now, the goal was simply to learn the course. We set off with the pack and headed up the road to Lynch Hill. I had heard many things about this hill, which is steep enough to garner "steep grade" road signs.
Going up the hill wasn't nearly as bad as everyone had made it out to be, and I was pleased to be able to power up the hill at a pretty good clip. After the climb, my usual riding buddies took off ahead of me and I faced the long and very hilly course alone for almost the entire time. It was a very tough course overall, there were very few flat areas and almost no tree cover. My top speed heading down the hills was 41.5 MPH, which would have been loads of fun if I didn't know that I would later have to ride back up the hill. The best thing about the course is flying down Lynch Hill at top speed which allows you to cool off a bit at the end of the ride. My time was 1:40:05, but I wouldn't be surprised if I am not able to ride this fast during the real event, as the temperatures are expected to be in the 90's-100's.

After arriving back in the transition area (aka the parking lot) we ate, re-hydrated, stretched and cheered for others as they arrived. Shortly, the entire team was sprawled out around the parking lot resting and soaking up the warm sun. The cold and misery of Friday night all but forgotten. The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and lounging around the campsite. It was incredibly nice outside, and a great bonding experience for the team.

While we were doing the first two legs (swim, bike) of our race, the Iron Team was doing a complete Half IronMan, which consisted of a 1.25 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. Saturday night, they held a party to celebrate their completion of a significant milestone in their training. There was music and booze and it was unfortunate that some of us had to take it easy and turn in early so that we could run the next morning.

We got up and packed up camp on Sunday morning and headed back to the transition area. I tried to imagine arriving here and hopping off my bike and heading off to the run, and I'm sure it would have been much harder. For starters, it is a VERY challenging run. The "flat part" would be considered hilly in most parts of the world. It looked like rolling hills (and rather steep ones at that) to me. The course is essentially 5 miles up hill, and then a one mile very steep descent (down Lynch Hill) back to the transition area. It was tough, even with the night of sleep. This time, I finished it in 55:09, we'll see how I do with the heat and after swimming and biking in just 4 weeks!

All-in-all the weekend was a fantastic and very memorable experience. I can only hope that the real event goes this well. Click here to see all of the pictures I took over the weekend.

Summary for week 10:

	Duration (Min)	Distance	Calories
Swimming	113	2.45	1081
Biking	100	24.8	1287
Running	154	12.34	1585
TOTAL	367	39.59	3953