Back to Competitive Exercising

It's been a while since I've posted here so I figured I was long due for an update.  A couple years ago I came down with some hip injuries and decided to get them treated (details are found here and here).  I went through with my surgeries (ended up getting both treated) in April 2016 and after what seemed like a super long rehabilitation, I am back to competitive exercising.  Rather than boring words, I thought I'd just post some pictures from some of the races (and a running trip to Switzerland) from the past few months.

SoCal Summer Trail Run 12K (7/21/17)

Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim (8/6/17)

Blacklist LA HBDLA 5K (9/3/17)

Malibu Triathlon (9/16/17)

Switzerland (9/22/17-10/2/17)

Manhattan Beach 10K (10/7/17)

Palm Springs Tram Road Challenge 6K (10/28/17)

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.