Carlsbad Beach Fest 1-mile swim

Prior to a wedding for one of Jamie's college roommates, we headed north to Carlsbad so I could compete in a one mile ocean swim. I found the race last weekend and decided it was a good idea to test the water and make the swimming I've done the last six months count for something. 

No idea on the official results but I was somewhere under 29 minutes. Started swimming, got about 100 yards out realized we could all still stand up. Stood up, ran some more. It was smooth sailing through the break from there until the first buoy where the waves got a little rough. Made the turn south, a little rough then through the kelp bed. Felt like I could have walked on the water it was so thick. Swam with my head up for about 50-75 yards pulling kelp until the second/final turn. It smoothed out from there until the lifeguard on the jet ski told two-three us we were heading too far north. Sighting the shore was pretty poor on my end. Turned a little southeast on the way back in. Landed far too north on shore so ran to the finish about 1/10 mile down. 

Looking at prior mile swim results I'm very happy with how the race turned out for me as compared to when I started this whole open water swimming process in 2011. 

Big thanks to Jamie for getting out of bed to come with and support me. 

No caption needed. Wow.

Very Proud: Jamie and her Mom

Couldn't be prouder of Jamie and her Mom at the Rock'n'Roll San Diego Half-Marathon a weekend ago. Jamie told me at the onset of her training that she wanted to go under 1:45 and she accomplished that last Saturday. I don't think Jamie missed a workout. I could see her attitude toward running change over the course of her training as well, from "running hurts" (h20 athlete) to "I enjoy this". Her Mom, Ann, completed her first half-marathon with the help of training from her Pear device.

Alas, I have no picture of Jamie and I at the race because...we never seem to think of that until later. Whoops. Now to convince Jamie to do the Ventura Half-Marathon in September with me.

Team USA

Although I'm not taking the slot, I'm posting it so I have this forever....because it's cool as heck. It definitely gives a sense of national pride. 

I looked it up for 2014. It's in Spain.
Location: Pontevedra, Spain

They already have 2015 listed.
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Qualifying for a world championship with a 300 blood sugar

Racing the OC Duathlon this year brought a lot full circle for me. This was actually my first ever multisport race in 2010. That year it was a 5k run-37k bike-5k run and this year it was a 2k run-37k bike-10k run. In 2010 both runs were pancake flat while this year the second run was a very hard hill climb run with a challenging bike. This was basically my A-race for the year without fully declaring that in my training, even though I've still been swimming consistently considering this race had no water involved. 

This race was also a qualifer for the World Duathlon Championship in Ottawa in August. I think this is the real reason I signed up, I wanted something different and some goal around it. 

Race
Waking up race morning I had a slightly high blood sugar just over 200. Not ideal race morning. I drew up the insulin, gave myself the injection and went on my way setting up transition nice and early.

Double arrows up on my continuous glucose monitor (CGM), my blood sugar rocketed well past the 300 line and kept going up. I checked to make sure it was right and gave myself a slight correction. Problem was.... it kept going up. Even after setting up transition it was still on the rise and by this point I could feel it. My stomach turned to knots and the lethargic feeling set in. I took my blood sugar again, still over the top high and gave myself another correction.

Jamie wasn't with me at this race so I was alone. I text my Dad first knowing he would be awake two time zones away then Jamie. In reality I was looking for the "it'll be fine", "go win one for the gipper", encouragement I knew I would get. I told Jamie I would start and see how I felt by the end of the bike. At this point I was definitely spilling ketones in my urine and decided if that kept up I would pull the plug.

I ran twenty minutes for a warm up with high hopes (literally high hopes) that my skyrocketing blood sugar would come down. It seemed to level out somewhere in the 300's before the gun went off for the 2k start.

Race Start: 2k Run
The race was off. My stomach was in knots but I seemed to hold my desired pace. It was an out and back to transition. Down on the way out, up on the way back.

Bike
Running shoes off for the bike. During the first run I couldn't imagine how I would keep up with that blood sugar. Some where in the first two miles of the bike a miracle happened and I felt fine.

I think that's the beauty of racing. The adrenaline takes over and you can do things as long as your mind can imagine it. I kept telling myself to stay in the moment and all would be fine, turned out it was.

About twenty minutes into the bike I felt my CGM beep that my blood sugar was crashing. Perfect I thought, now I can have a gel and level it off. I ate two gels and rode. I felt great riding, I was holding the power numbers I wanted and told myself I was having a good race.

Then I tested while riding another twenty minutes later, now forty minutes into the bike. Still in the 300's. The number on the screen shocked me. It didn't matter. I felt good. I would cruise into transition and test again on the run.

Run (2): 10k
At this point who knows how I felt. I tested the first mile on the run while holding my pace, 320. I pulled a syringe out of my tri kit and threw three units into my leg. I can't imagine it took more than two total seconds. 

I had forty minutes left of this race and I wanted at least one more gel for energy to finish. I hit the lap button on my watch and took the last gel fifteen minutes after the injection (roughly the time insulin takes to get in the system).

The run on this course is brutally hard. A slight down hill for the first two miles then a monstrous climb for the next few miles to the finish line which is at a different point from the transition area.

I finished the race incredibly strong for everything that had happened. The last mile for me was brutally tough, my body finally having enough. I ended the race with my blood sugars in the high 200's, nearly double the blood sugar of all the other competitors.

Recap
I can honestly say this may be one of my proudest races. In the moments I should have felt like death I felt good. I kept in the moment and didn't worry about why my blood sugar could be so high or how it was negativity affecting my current world. Blood sugars can be a state of mind as much as a real number.

Even with that blood sugar I qualified for the age-group duathlon world championships. I won't be taking the spot as it is the same weekend as my planned bachelor party (don't worry friends, we are still going to Vegas). I finished in 2:05 with a 1:08 bike and 0:48 run.

I'm not completely positive why my blood sugar went through the roof like that. The only real logic I can come up with is that I didn't give myself the full dose of insulin at 4:30am. For a race I normally lay out the syringe with the insulin in it the night prior. This time I didn't. Race lesson, lay out the insulin the night before.

The best part
I had to walk two miles back from the finish line to transition. Halfway two friendly women in a Lexus SUV with a roof rack holding a bike stopped and yelled, "do you want a ride to transition". I responded "my mother would kill me if I got in that car". 

Mary-Beth and Beverly (as I learned their names were) responded; "honey we aren't going to do anything to you". I said I didn't know if I should take that as a compliment or be offended. Then I promptly took the ride. My mother would be very disappointed with me getting in that car but I couldn't resist.

Central Valley Riding

This last weekend I was lucky enough to ride some of the best roads I've ever ridden. Jamie was in a friends wedding in Pismo Beach, CA, along the coast in the Central Valley of California, just south of San Luis Obisbo so I brought my bike to do some riding while Jamie went with the girls for wedding day fun. 

It turned out to be one of the best rides I've ever been on. I loved every second of it and felt so fortunate to be able to ride in such a lovely place. The roads were smooth with no stops and hardly any traffic. Going north I ended up at a lake called Lopez Lake with many campers and boaters. It was the second road however that was the gem. 

I planned to ride Hausna Road, which was a 10 mile stretch of road that I knew would dead end. What I didn't know was the end of the road was a beautiful valley called Hausna Valley. As I stood here at the end of the road looking into the valley with no cellular singular I thought about how few people have probably stood in this spot. Everyone knows the beauty of Diamond Head in Hawaii but so very few have seen this hidden area, away from the world with no connection to the outside besides one lone road. 

Panorama view of the valley.

The road to the north is Lopez Lake and the south is Huasna Road.

 I told Jamie that if we hit the lottery I would buy that ranch in the valley. Turns out not even a $250 million powerball could afford it. From a newspaper article I found, "Excelaron claimed the 720-acre field sits atop 208 million barrels of oil, of which 30 percent is recoverable and at $100 a barrel is worth $6.24 billion".

Later at the wedding.

Spring Sprint Duathlon

It's a big race when you get to start with argyle socks! 

Fun morning racing in the Spring Sprint Duathlon. This was the first time I've raced a duathlon since my first multisport event in 2010, the Orange County Duathlon. I'm racing that event again this year in two weeks so the sprint was a good prep. 

Early morning with a 6:45 race start time. Up at 4:30, 178 blood sugar. Fast acting insulin shot, get ready, Clif Bar and off. 

After a warm up and another unit of insulin mixed in with another Clif Bar the race was off. 1 mile run, 10.5 mile bike, 5k run.

A mile run out and back. I felt great for the start. It's been one nagging leg thing after another since the ankle injury so I was happy nothing was acting up once the race had started. 

 Hop on the bike for two laps around Fiesta Island for about an 10.5 mile bike. 

The winds on the back side were the strongest I've ever felt on the island but my legs felt strong. I played back and forth with another racer for about a lap then finally completely over took him around the start of the second lap. I knew he would be a far stronger runner than me so I wanted to add whatever time I could. Around and around the merry-go-round we go for the two laps then back to transition. 

Off the bike and putting the running shoes back on we went out for the two lap run course. Here is where it started to get cloudy. I couldn't tell if I was having a low blood sugar or if it was just the blood rush, I tested while still running (yes, you can do that). Blood sugar was 140, perfect for the race. 

I couldn't believe when I passed the first mile that I had only gone that far. Everything seemed to be in slow motion but things seemed to speed up from there. The first lap of the run was my own personal hell but the second lap I felt good. I finished strong and was happy with how the day went. 

The gentleman I went back and forth with during the bike ended up passing me near the middle of the second lap on the run. Looking at the results he ended up beating me by twenty seconds. If I could go back I would have pushed the bike a lot more. 

My running this year is sloppy to put it nicely but I've made improvements on the bike for the long term and I'm gaining confidence with longer distance running.

Overall: 1:00:30.8
 Run 1: 6:31 (Told you Dad)
T1: 34 seconds
Bike: 00:30:10
T2: 40 seconds
Run 2: 22:32 (7:15 pace)
2nd in my age group to the overall winner, 10th overall out of 112. Results here.

Jamie was a trooper today, with a 4:30am day start she beat the rush to take all the pictures and support me through the morning. 

Week 1 Food Challenge

One of the things I like about posting training, eating and racing is that it keeps you honest. It's a time to reflect on past and present even if it's just my parents and a few friends reading.

In being honest, week 1 of the food was... well... falling off the wagon. Being navigator in an ultra van for a Ragnar Relay with zero sleep (I think I closed my eyes for 20 minutes on Friday night but never was actually asleep) lead to the wheels coming off the wagon on whole food. 

The low point was a cake pop at 5:30am from a Starbucks. 

It was so good though. Wow. I see why the rest of America is obese. Once the brain had no sleep and the shakes started with a ton of decision fatigue, I lost utter control. My blood sugar the next four hours fell victim.

Nine hours of sleep was all I managed on Saturday night, eleven last evening. Even Monday wasn't the best day for the whole food thing. Trying to finish off checking up on sleep and returning to normal. 

Ragnar was fun as always though so maybe, just maybe the cake pop was worth it. I got to run twice and the second time was through Mission Bay. It was at noon on Saturday after no sleep but I was grateful to have a job that allows me to be with fun people and run in the sun of San Diego.