Vineman Adventures

Race-- Vineman Half Aquabike
Distance-- Half-Iron- 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike (no run)

The view from my hotel room to Applebee's

Pre-race-- Since the race is up in the Napa Valley, I drove up Thursday, packet pickup was on Friday so wanted to get there a day before. Long car trip, ended up in Oakland/Bay Area traffic for about 2 hours, total travel time from Orange County (via Inglewood) 10 hours. Arrived and checked into hotel, headed from hotel out the door and across the parking lot to Applebee's for dinner. Friday-- packet pickup, everyone had to go to a meeting before picking up packets, athletes were there for the Full Vineman, Full and Half Vineman AquaBike, and Barb's Race (a women's only half-iron distance race). There were always 2 meetings going on at a given hour, AquaBike and Barb's meetings alternated. So when I got out of my meeting, all the people who went to the first Vineman and Barb's race meetings were already in line to pick up packets, so it was quite a wait and struggle to get in the gym to get to the line where I picked up my packet. Checked out the expo, met with my coach and teammates at our team's expo booth. Pre-race dinner as always chicken sandwich from Burger King.

Race morning-- woke up around 4:00 and got dressed. Went to lobby to eat breakfast, had my usual cereal and some fruit, ran into someone I knew, kind of threw me off, wasn't expecting to see anyone familiar as all my teammates were staying elsewhere. Packed up the car and headed off in the darkness, got almost there and realized that I had forgotten my wetsuit at the hotel, so headed back to get it, I had given myself plenty of time, so I didn't stress out too much. Of course, I wasn't using my transition bag, and so forgot to pack goggles, but luckily for me, I keep extras in my car, so didn't worry too much about that. Got to the race site finally, set up my transition area. I'm all set up, I go to check my watch, the band's there, but the watch isn't, so I head back up to my car where it was sitting charging. Met with my teammates for a few quick pictures before the start of the race, then got my feet wet and headed to the start corral.

The SWIM-- 1.2 miles- split- 36:56. This was my first ever river/fresh water swim, also my first in water start. I'm used to ocean and pool swims. Got myself situated for a good start, tried to stay away from too many people, but toward the center of the river so I didn't touch bottom. The river was so shallow at points that a lot of people stood up and walked, but for me swimming is faster. I did have to alter my stroke a bit, keeping a very high elbow in those areas where I would end up scraping the rocky bottom if I had used my normal stroke. To the turn around took about 20 minutes, I did check my watch, this was going against the current.

Transition-- only one this time, but it's a point to point race, so had to bag up all my gear and hand it off to my coach. Coming out of the water great got to use wetsuit strippers (another first for me) she had that wetsuit off me in no time. I still took my time in transition to get my arm warmers on and mentally situate myself for my longest bike ride ever.

The BIKE-- 56 miles- split- 3:55:48. I did have a goal of beating 4 hours on the bike, so I accomplished that. Was passed by several of my teammates who started after me (they were all doing Barb's race). Hit the aid stations pretty well timed, stopped to refill and rest a bit. The best aid station was the one at mile 29, pb&j really hit the spot, had been surviving mostly on gatorade and water until then, had a few shot blocs and some sport beans. Did okay with the terrain until I got to Chalk Hill, ran out of gears and didn't want to risk falling off, so I walked it up, but the ride down was worth it. In my slowest/longest mile, I hit my top speed on the bike. Made it to the finish dismounted then walked quickly so the guy behind me didn't pass me before I got to the official finish line.

Post race- pretty boring, ate, got my stuff, watched a few teammates complete first loop of their run, got on shuttle back to start to get my car, drove back to see a another teammate head out on her start of the run (she had a much more interesting experience on the bike), got my bike and a few souvenirs and headed back to the hotel. Went out to dinner at Johnny Garlics (owned by Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive Ins & Dives) was very good. Drove home the next day, stopping along the way to visit my Aunt and Uncle who live on the way. I took the 101 home (longer route, but better for stopping) and my total travel time was about 8 hours, not including the hour I stopped to visit.

Santa Rosa, the hometown of Peanut's creator Charles Schultz is not to far from where the race was, in fact there is a Snoopy (as Joe Cool) statue in the Windsor town green. I had to take a picture as it made me feel at home, since I live near (and used to work at) Knott's Berry Farm (Camp Snoopy).

Strawberry Fields Triathlon

Race- Strawberry Fields Triathlon
Distance - Olympic
Date- July 17th, 2011


Pre-race-- had my usual breakfast, and met teammates to head down to the race. Arrived, and set up on rack at end closest to swim finish and run out. Walked down to swim start area, got in and swam around for a few minutes before we were ordered out of the water. This year I was in the 2nd of the Olympic distance waves, last year I was in the last wave. I appreciate it when race directors alternate waves on a yearly basis.


The Swim-- 1500m-- worked on maintaining consistency, focused on trying to not go out to fast. Breathing pattern maintained 2-2-4 when swimming parallel to the shore, breathing every 3-5 strokes when going out and coming back to shore. Final time: 33:19 (Garmin) includes "run" to transition which I walked, and got passed by several people. 16 minutes faster than last year


T1- good, about the same as last year, easier to get off sleeveless wetsuit, I wore a full sleeve wetsuit last year and was probably a bit over-heated.


Bike-- 21.6 miles (Garmin) not quite 40K-- wore aero helmet for the first time. Focused on keeping constant cadence and not crashing. Kept wondering when one of my teammates was going to pass me, as she is quite good on the bike. Final time: 1:17:30 (Garmin) 16 minutes faster than last year. I've done more focused training here, including trainer workouts with Jim Lubinski at Triathlon Lab in Santa Monica.


T2- about the same as last year, more time to put on shoes, using five finger shoes. 


Run-- 10K-- I was actually able to run more this year, walked all but about 400 yards last year. This year set a goal to run one minute walk one minute, and this worked out well. Walked a bit more toward the end to time out so I could run into the finish. Was not surprised when I was passed by Chris Schauble as I was heading out for second lap, he was headed to the finish. I had a plan and was sticking to it and smashing my time from last year. It was during the run that both of my teammates passed me. Final time : 1:28:08 (Garmin) 24 minutes faster than last year.


Overall great race, knocked almost an hour off of my time from last year. The field was smaller and faster this year. It was great to be able to race with some people I know, had a great time, didn't even worry about Carmageddon.