Off to London

Right now I am about to put on my ones and twos and hop on a plane to London to race at the ITU Age Group Short Course World Championships on September 15th.  In preparation for London I have raced several times since I last posted here.  I'll spare you the blabber and just post some photos from those races.  

Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim - 4th AG, 45:50

Chula Vista Challenge -  1st Overall, 1:58:15

Nautica Malibu Triathlon - 
International Distance: 3rd Overall, 1:56:27
Classic Distance: 2nd Mixed Relay, 1:28:48

I did the swim leg of the mixed relay filling in for Alison De Lucca.  Thanks to Alison for all of the pictures!

Mavic Race Wheels
Lastly, I was lucky to get a hold of a sweet Mavic wheelset a week ago. I don't often take pictures of my gear and post it on the internet, but daaammnn...in this case I couldn't resist. I found out at Malibu that these wheels ride as fast as they look. They sure spice up the good 'ole P2! Looking forward to racing around London with these wheels!

July Update

I haven't posted here in a while, so I thought I'd give an update.  First, a mini race report:

San Diego International Triathlon (SDIT)

About a month ago I raced the San Diego International Triathlon. SDIT iss a non-USAT event, so I was able to toe-the-line in the elite division with the fast guys (I also raced elite at this race last year with relatively successful results).

During the swim I was one of three guys leading a chase pack behind the eventual winner, Luke McKenzie. I think I was second out of the water behind Luke, but a few guys in the chase pack with me had a faster transition, so I was probably 4th or 5th heading out on the bike course. Out on the bike course, I was passed by a few more of the uber strong cyclists, but I held my ground among the rest of the field. At the start of the run I was in 7th and I knew I had some work to do. I was able to run down two of the guys in front of me and I didn't let anyone pass. I usually take down an energy gel during the bike leg of a race that is this distance. During this race I lost the gel pack and didn't take in any nutrition the whole race.  I was very glad when I crossed the finish line because I was definitely running on fumes for the last couple of miles.

I ended up finishing 5th overall. The guys in front of me included a pair of Ironman champions (Luke and Luke) and a couple of guys that race on the ITU circuit (Chris and Derek). I'd say I was in pretty good company.

A nice summary article of the race can be found here.

I must have a weird shaped head because it seems that my cap is always falling off...

Photo courtesy of Kevin Koresky @ TriLounge.com

Hoping the finish line is right around the corner

Photo courtesy of Kevin Koresky @ TriLounge.com

What am I up to right now, you ask?

Right now I am in the middle of a heavy training block focusing on getting strong and fast for my late season races. I am finishing off about a month of high volume work.  I will dial back for a week and then focus on speed work leading up to my next race.  My remaining triathlon race schedule for the 2013 season is the following:

• 9/7 - Nautica Malibu Triathlon (International Distance)
• 9/15 - ITU Short Course Age Group World Championship
• 10/20 - Lifetime Triathlon - Oceanside

I have a Team USA uniform.  Seems weird to see my name on there...

But first, I will be racing the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim on August 4th.

Finally, if you need to stock up on triathlon gear for your late season races, use coupon code MTRIPP at trisports.com for 15% off of your purchase!

DATA - Vineman Monte Rio and Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon

I forgot to post GPS data in my race report, so here it is.

2013 Vineman Monte Rio and Redondo Beach Sprint

I raced the past two weekends at Vineman Monte Rio on June 2nd and at the Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon on June 9th. Right now I am sitting in the jury assembly room at the Los Angeles Superior Court waiting to see if I get selected for jury duty.  This is fortunate for the blog, as I have some spare time to write race reports. So, here's a two-for-one report:

Vineman Monte Rio

Swim
Just like Vineman 70.3, the swim was an out and back in the Russian river.  The water was comfortably warm and very calm.  At the start I took it relatively strong as I usually do in order to get out front.  The weird thing was that right from the start, I was alone.  It felt like everyone waited 5 seconds before starting.   At about 200 yards I looked around to see if there was anyone around me to draft off.  I realized I was in the lead so I settled into a comfortable pace and tried to stay far enough out front so that no one could catch my draft.  At the turn-around I was able to gauge that I had about a 30 second lead on the rest of the field.  The river only had a slight current, but I could definitely feel that I was swimming against it on the way back.  Although it didn't feel good, I must have handled the current fairly well because I exited the water with about 1:20 advantage on the field.

Bike
The bike course was drop dead gorgeous. From racing Vineman 70.3 before, I knew the scenery on the bike course would be good.  The scenery on this course was great!  The views of rivers, redwood forests, and the ocean were spectacular.  The only worry I had before the race was getting through a fairly bumpy 6 mile stretch near the beginning, but I was happy to get past that without any mechanical difficulties. It took about 5 or so miles into the course until my legs settled in and I was able to put some power into the crank.  At the turn-around point, I was able to gauge that I had about a 2 minute lead on the field.  I knew there were some fast runners behind me so I figured I needed to try to hold that margin into T2. It turns out that I ended up with the fastest bike split on the day, which was sort of a surprise.    

Transition 2
A description of my T2 is warranted here. It was terrible and sort of embarrassing because I was the only athlete in transition and the race announcer was talking me up the whole time.  Because the course was new to me, the transition snuck up on me and I wasn't able to slip out of my shoes before the dismount line.  I sort of freaked out but ended up running in my bike shoes to the rack. For those of you who don't race, a common technique (which I practice) is to slip out of your shoes while riding and leaving them connected to the pedals, and run barefoot to the bike rack.  Running with your shoes on is clumsy and slow due to the metal cleats on the bottom.  Anyways, I racked my bike and realized my running shoes were about 10 feet away.  Whoops! I left my bike where it was and ran over to my running shoes and started putting them on.  To add to my crappy transition I fumbled around while putting on my shoes, something I am usually pretty decent at.  Once I got my shoes on I started to run the wrong way, but luckily the race announcer corrected me and I proceed out the correct run exit.  I was happy to get that debacle over with and get onto the 10K.  

Run
The run course was another amazing course.  It was flat, cool, and probably 90% shaded; perfect for me.  It took me about a mile to settle into a comfortable pace.  One thing that is nice about being out front is that you have a guide in front of you to chase.  On the swim there was a kayak guide, the bike there was a motorcycle guide, and the run there was someone riding a mountain bike guiding me.  They sort of act like the rabbit out front.  At the turn-around of the out-and-back run, I found out that I had maintained my 2 minute lead on the pack.  At that point I did some math in my head and realized that unless something went wrong with my run or the guy chasing me had a world class split on the second half of the 10K, I was in pretty good shape.  With about half a mile to go I got some intel from the bike guide that I still had a fairly healthy lead.  This allowed me to relax and push to the finish at a comfortable pace.

I ended up finishing first overall with a time of 1:59:33. This race did not have a dedicated pro field but two pros showed up to race, Andrew Bauer and Ken Rakestraw, both of which had beaten me at Wildflower in previous years while they were still amateurs.  I think they are currently focusing their training and racing on the 70.3 distance, but it was nice to find out that I can hang with them at this shorter distance. 

Thanks to Jeff Kapic for the excellent photos.  Check out the link here to see some more great photos.

Redondo Beach Sprint
The Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon is super short: 0.5 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run.  It is shorter than I usually prefer, but the fact that it is my hometown race and I could ride my bike 3 miles from home to the transition was all the reason I needed to race.

I'll keep this recap short just like the race.  With a race this short, you just red line it from start to finish.  There were some good swimmers that showed up and a pack of 5 of them took off like a bat out of hell from the beginning.  I pushed very hard to keep up with them, but ended up exiting the swim about 15 seconds behind the lead pack.  As I made the long run to transition while gasping for air, I passed one or two of them and quickly hurried off on my bike. When I race the Olympic distance, it usually takes about 5 miles for my legs to settle in on the bike and stop burning.  With the short sprint distance, the bike leg was pretty much over by the time this happened.  I made it to T2 and hurried off on the run.  The run course is rather technical with a lot of turns over the 2 mile course.  A little over halfway through the course, I passed a guy and then we entered this portion that basically zig-zagged through a parking lot.  While rounding one of the turns, I tripped over a crack and hit the pavement.  Yes, Mark Tripp tripped while running. Har harrrr. After rolling around a couple times, I got up and proceeded on with the race.  The embarrassment from the fall was probably worse than the scrapes that showed up on my legs. Fortunately, the fall didn't hinder me too much and I was able to hold my position until the finish.  

I ended up 3rd overall with a time of 41:02.  The two guys that be at me, Chris Foster and Brian Lamar, both race ITU, so I'd say my 3rd place finish was not too bad.  Because I had some fresh road rash on my legs from the running crash, I immediately headed home to clean clean up.  I felt bad about not sticking around for the awards, but figured it would be best to clean my woulds ASAP in order to prevent any possible infection.

The Redondo Beach Sprint helped confirm in my mind that at this point, the Olympic distance is the distance for me.  Last year I realized that 70.3 is too much given the amount of training I am able to put in and yesterday I realized that I prefer a little more of the endurance aspect of racing than the sprint distance allows.

Thanks again to TriSports.com for the continued support.  Remember to use coupon code MTRIPP for 15% off your purchase of eligible items.

Next up is the San Diego International Triathlon on June 30th.

2013 Wildflower Recap

I raced the Wildflower Olympic Triathlon two weeks ago, but work travel and general laziness prevented me from writing a race report. I'm not going to claim this as a report, but I thought I'd share some highlights and few pictures.

Pre-Race
I arrived Thursday to nab a quality camping spot and settle down.  Friday and Saturday were spent just hanging out with an occasional jog or spin to keep the legs fresh.  Because I am a wimp and it was pretty damn hot on Saturday, I was glad I chose to not race the long course this year.

Race-Day 
The weather conditions were completely different on Sunday compared to the previous days.  As I was setting my stuff up in transition I knew the wind was going to prevent this day from being a record setting day.  The swim, which is normally a calm lake swim, was super choppy.  The out portion of the bike leg had a strong tailwind with occasional side wind gusts to keep us paying attention.  This tailwind turned into a pretty nasty headwind coming back.  Although a little slower than previous years, I made it back to T2 safely without getting blown into a ditch.  The cold weather was actually quite nice on the run.  In the last mile while running down Lynch Hill and into the finishers chute, I was slowly catching up to the eventual overall collegiate female winner, Liz Gruber.  As we approached the finish line I noticed the finishing banner going up so I decided to pull to the side and try to not photobomb Liz's finish line photos.  I ended up walking across the finish line with a time of 2:08:00 which put me at 1st overall amateur (two speedy college kids beat me).

I am very pleased with my result. My only goal coming into the race was to complete the bike course without crashing (like I did two weeks before in San Diego).  Even though the winds made it difficult, I was happy to get to T2 safe and sound.

My "camping desk" and tent (Subaru Outback)

Camping Buddies

Running down the finishing chute

Shutting down to let Liz have her championship moment

Strolling across the finish line

I suppose 3rd and 4th were too cold to stick around for the awards ceremony

Thanks to TriSports.com for the continued support.  Remember to use coupon code "MTRIPP" for 15% off of your purchase at Trisports.com.

Next up is the Santa Monica Classic 10K this weekend followed by Vineman Monte Rio on June 2nd.

World Triathlon San Diego Race Report

This past Friday I traveled down to San Diego to watch the Women's Elite race at the Omegawave World Triathlon San Diego.  I also raced in the Age Group Olympic Distance race the next morning.  Well, sort of.  Long story short...I crashed two times within the first three miles of the bike leg.  Shortly after that, my front tire blew thereby ending my racing for the day.  I'll get to the details of how this all happened, but first some pictures from the Women's Elite race held Friday afternoon.

Waiting in the "VIP" area for the race to start

Sarah Groff was kind enough to stop in the middle of her race and pose for a picture

The chase pack

Watching the Elite race in the "VIP" area with TCSD President, Stephen Banister

(Stephen was also the winner of the M30-34 division in the AG race the following day!)

Yuliya Yelistratova of Ukraine

Now, onto MY race:

Swim
In my old age, I am finding the that getting an adequate warm up session is critical.  Being in the last (12th) wave, I had plenty of time on my hands and was able to get in a solid swim warm up.  My body felt loose and ready to race. The starting chute was very narrow and fit only about 6 or 7 people wide.  I ended up being in the 2nd row of people at the start line, but was able to maneuver to the front when the horn went off and we sprinted into the water.  As I reached the first buoy I had the feeling I was pulling away from the rest of the guys in my wave, but it was hard to tell because I was lined up to the left at the start and I also breath to my left.  From then on I focused on swimming as straight as I could from buoy to buoy while avoiding getting kicked by any of the swimmers from previous waves that I was passing.  I was racing with a new wetsuit and new type of goggles and was happy that I did not have any troubles with either of these items.

I finished the swim with the fastest overall swim split at 19:01 and had a little over a minute lead in my age group going into T1.

Bike
My transition went well and the bike leg started off normal, but that quickly changed about a mile or so into the ride when crash #1 occurred.  I was about half way between the first and second U-turns in the course when I hit a bump or pothole or some unknown hazard in the road.  I think what happened was that I was riding near a bunch of people trying to figure out if I was still in a no pass zone and not paying attention to the road or looking for hazards.  I definitely was not expecting and did not see whatever I hit.  The bump was big enough that it caused me to slip out of my aerobars, lose control of my front wheel, and go down.  I'd estimate I was riding about 15 mph at the time so it wasn't the hardest fall, but when I stood up I definitely had some significant road rash on my elbows and hands.  I took a little time to gain my composure and started to assess the health of my bike.  I rotated my aerobars back to where they should be and put my chain back on.  After about 30 seconds, I felt I had recovered from the mental trauma of flying over my handle bars, so I hopped back on my bike to continue with the course.  I immediately noticed my saddle was rotated out of position so I had to stop again and bang it back in place before continuing.

Not more than 1/4 mile after my first crash, I approached the 2nd U-turn on the course and this is where my 2nd crash occurred.  Because I was in the last wave of the Olympic distance race, the bike course was already very crowded and at this time several people were already on their 2nd loop.  As I approached the U-turn I was among a pack of other riders.  Unfortunately, one of these riders went down in front of me and I was basically boxed in so that I had no other option other than to run into him and fall down too.  So, less than two miles into the bike I had already hit the pavement twice!  As I got up from my second fall one of the volunteers pointed out to me that I was bleeding.  I snapped back at her explaining that I had already crashed and was well aware of the blood.  I quickly realized I was yelling at a poor volunteer that was trying to help me, so I immediately apologized and explained to her that I was having a bad day.

As I continued on after my 2nd crash I really began to contemplate if it was safe for me to continue.  I was unsure if my bike was damaged and was concerned something might break causing me to have a third crash.  Less than a minute later as I was beginning to accelerate down a hill I heard a loud pop and immediately noticed my front tire had gone completely flat.  Fortunately, I was able to come to a safe stop and didn't hit the pavement for a 3rd time.  At that point I realized my day was over and I decided to start my walk of shame back to the transition area.  Except, instead of being hung over and carrying my heels, I was scraped up and carrying my bike shoes.

So, yeah...I crashed twice within the first 3 miles of the bike course.  Of course I am unhappy with that result and I felt especially bummed when I saw people walking around after the race with their finisher medals and looks of accomplishment on their faces.  But, as I was driving home after the race I began to laugh out loud.  I mean, who crashes their bike twice in the first 3 miles?!?!  That is an accomplishment in itself!

If I can take one positive out of this race, it was my swim split.  M swim split wasn't a PR, but having the top overall split with some fast swimmers in the field is a good indication that my swim conditioning is in a decent place.  Right now, I just need to look towards the future and put rest of this debacle behind me (what a well placed cliche!).

I think with the help of some Neosporin and Advil I should be good to go in a couple days.  Based on preliminary forensic investigation, my bike appears to be in a similar condition to my body; scraped up but functional.  Before this crash I was already low in the age group rankings for coolest looking bike, but now I'm probably fight to not be last.  Oh well...

Next up is Wildflower Olympic on May 5th.

Notice the blood and scrapes!

Updates from Past Two Months

I have not posted here in a while, so I thought I'd post some updates on what I've been up to over the past couple months.  

Peru Surf Vacation

In mid February I took a 1.5 week trip down to Mancora, Peru for a little surf vacation before the race season got underway.  The trip and surf break were awesome.  The only bad thing is I got sick about half way through the trip which had lasting effects for over a week after I got back to the States.  This threw a wrench into my training and early season race schedule.  Regardless of the sickness, the experience in Peru was awesome.  Here are some pictures:

Mancora Strip at night 

Mancora Beach Early Morning

 Mancora Beach Mid Afternoon

Sunset in on Mancora Beach

Mancora Surf Break (this was a small day)

Race Schedule Change

Because of my vacation and the fact that I was sick for quite a while, I decided to not race two of the early season races that I had earlier planned (UCLA IronBruin and Superseal).  Instead, I decided to focus on preparing for Wildflower and added a couple later season races to my schedule.  The updated and likely to change race schedule can be seen here.

ITU Short Course World Championships

Through the 2012 rankings qualification criteria, I recently earned a spot to travel to London in mid September and race with Team USA at the ITU Short Course (Olympic Distance) World Championships.  I'm still mulling over whether I will accept the spot (of course I want to but it will cost me quite a chunk of change), but I'd say at this point I'm really leaning towards accepting. 

St Patrick's Day 10K

After pulling out of Superseal I decided to travel down to San Diego to race with my buddy Kosuke in a 10K race on St. Patrick's Day.  Because I was racing on about 2 weeks of training following my vacation/sickness, my plan was to simply take it easy.  Of course I took it hard when the gun went off because I don't know how to do anything other than that in a race situation.  I managed a decent time on a fun and flat course.  The best part of the race by far was the beer garden. Unlimited Stone IPA = best beer garden ever!  Here are some Garmin data for you geeks:

Team TriSports.com

This is a little late, but I am happy to announce that I will once again be racing with Team TriSports.com for the 2013 triathlon season.  TrisSports.com, based out of Tucson AZ, is one of the leading online multisport retailers. I encourage you to read about the unique culture at TriSports.com by visiting the link here.

Please, if you can, help support me by using the coupon code MTRIPP for all purchases made at TriSports.com and you will receive 15% off of your order. Yes, that is a whopping 15% off!  Go get your shopping on!

Redondo Beach Superbowl 10K

My first race of the season is in the books.  It wasn't a triathlon, but a 10K running race, the Redondo Beach Superbowl Sunday 10K. Because I am still in the building phase of my training, I didn't quite know how this race was going to go.  I assumed I would not get a PR, but had hoped to be near the 35 minute range.

I have spent a lot of time over the past few years trying to determine the best triathlon pre-race routines so that I can go as fast as possible once the gun goes off.  When I showed up for the race this morning I realized that my pre-triathlon routines don't really apply.  I had no idea how to properly prepare for a running race.  So, I decided to look for fast-looking people and copy what they were doing.  I first stretched and then went for a little jog.  I then skipped around...the fast looking guys were doing it, so I decided I should as well.

I eventually got bored with skipping and headed over to the start line.  I arrived there about 10 minutes before the gun time.  There was a lot of elbow room, so I positioned myself right at the front of the pack.  About two minutes before the gun went off, a large group of elite runners came and jammed themselves right at the starting line.  I ended up about 5 people deep.  Oh well, so much for trying to get a position right up front.

Here is the course map for reference:

The gun went off and within about 40 yards the front pack started to spread out and I was able to find a clear path to run.  I noticed a few guys simply take off right from the beginning, but I had the discipline to ignore them and stick with the amount of exertion that felt correct for me.  At about 1.5 miles into the race, I found myself in a group of 4 people and there were about 4 others ahead of us.  As we headed South on Catalina I tried to settle into a pace that was pushing, but not too much such that I would blow up before I got half way through the race.  I felt pretty strong for the next couple of miles and began to pull away from the pack I was running with near mile 4. My confidence increased and I unintentionally put in a little kick as I started to head back on Esplanade.  I soon backed off slightly because at that point I was starting to hurt.  This wasn't the injury type of hurting, but the I'm tired as hell and want to lay down type of hurting.  From that point on I kept saying in my head "just two more measly miles are left" and then when I hit mile 5 it was "just over 1 more measly mile...about 6 minutes of pain". Thinking about how much distance or time is left in a race really helps me to mentally push through to the finish line.  Even though I sorta felt like I was going to die during the last two miles of the race, I felt fairly strong on the little climb away from the Redondo Beach Pier near the 5.5 mile mark.  It is good to know that I can push through hills late in a race, a skill that will be crucial this year at Wildflower. Once I got to the top of the hill, I knew it was mostly downhill to the finish.  I opened up my stride and let gravity pull me to the finish line.  At that point, I didn't really know where I stood within race pack, but my goal was to prevent anyone from making a kick and passing me during the final stretch.  I was successful in meeting that goal.

I ended up finishing 4th Overall and 1st in my Division (M30-34), with a time of 34:15.  Full results can be seen here.

Here are the Garmin stats:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my results.  Finishing 4th in a race like this with a big field of real runners (not triathletes, there's a difference) seems like a pretty nice accomplishment.  I also exceeded my 35 minute goal and actually finished about 13 seconds short of a PR.  That's pretty good considering the fact that I would estimate my running fitness is only at about 80% of where it will be for the peak of the triathlon season.  I hope I can build on this race and put together a nice 2013 race season.  There's still a lot more ahead!

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  Unfortunately I did not have any friends or family spectating for this race.

As always, thanks to Trisports.com for their continued support.  Next race is the UCLA IronBruin on March 3rd.

2013 Race Schedule

Date	Race	Distance
2/3	Redondo Beach Superbowl 10K	10K
3/3	UCLA IronBruin Triathlon	Sprint
3/17	Superseal Triathlon	Olympic
4/20	ITU World Triathlon San Diego	Olympic
5/5	Wildflower Olympic Triathlon	Olympic
6/30	San Diego International Triathlon	International
7/14	Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon	Olympic
9/7	Nautica Malibu Triathlon	Olympic
10/13	Los Angeles Triathlon	Olympic

So, there it is...my 2013 race schedule.  Given the fact that Wildflower is the only race I have registered for to date, the schedule is very subject to change.  Here are some thoughts expressed in the form of bullets:

• One of the biggest changes from previous years is that my 2013 schedule does not include any 70.3 (a.k.a. Half Ironman) distance races.  Training and racing the 70.3 distance took a lot of mental and physical energy out of me last year.  My plan is to focus on the shorter distance this year and hopefully avoid the late season burnout like I experienced last year.
• Wildflower is a big race on my schedule.  Largely because I am trying to defend my title, but also because I think it is going to be a blast.  The majority of triathletes that I know are racing Wildflower this year so I expect the whole festival to be an awesome experience.
• Every year I try to do some sort of small local sprint race as a warm-up for the season.  The UCLA IronBruin Triathlon is serving that purpose this year.  These types of races usually don't have much pressure associated with them, so I find them rather fun.
• I try to include a new destination race in my schedule each year to keep things exciting.  Last year I raced in Switzerland and spent some time exploring Northern Italy and riding my bike through the Swiss Alps.  My plan this year was to race at Rev3 Portland, but I recently discovered that race was canceled for 2013.  My current idea for a destination race is the Vancouver International Triathlon on July14th.