Ironman Training Update

Yes, an update on my "insane" training regimen...

My running has slowly gotten better. My longest run so far was 17 miles, which took longer than it should have because of some incredibly sore legs that day. I blame the fact that I chose (for some reason!) to run some hills in the middle of that one! I've been trying to run at least 2 days per week, though I admit that some weeks have been only one. But I think I will survive the run at least.

As for the swimming. Since I swam in high school and college, it's just a matter of finding my stroke again. I feel like I'm getting much better, and may actually be back up to where I was back in 2005 when my open-water swimming was at its peak. Getting back to the shape I was in during college would take some serious effort; as I was swimming at least 24,000 yards per week back then. I'm lucky these days to get in 10,000! I try to swim two or three days per week, and am up to 3600 yards per swim... Not bad pace-wise either. Hopefully I can hold it for the full 2.4 miles!

And finally the cycling. This should obviously be the easy part. 112 miles should seem like nothing after all the doubles, triples and longer rides I have done. The trick will be not pushing too hard. I have to have some energy left for that run!

Here's the latest trick in my arsenal for these triathlons. Hopefully the wetsuit will allow me to swim enough faster to negate the added time of taking it off after the swim!

2008, An Essay With Photos...

Well, another year is just about over. Even as I write this post on December 5, I can tell you that this has been -by far- the best year of my life. And I hope that every year continues to be better than the last.

Certainly, there have been bumps along the way: I experienced my first layoff at the end of October. But the opportunity to teach myself new things has been taken. I now know Illustrator almost better than I know Photoshop. I need to learn all the intricate techniques in Photoshop to make up for it!

The top 5 days of the year (there were many more good days than that, but I had to narrow it down!):

#5. Finishing the LA Grand Tour Triple in the wee hours of June 29.
#4. Finishing the HooDoo 500 on the morning of September 15.
#3. Helping Joan finish the Furnace Creek 508 on October 5.
#2. April 5.
#1. March 20. The day I met the most wonderful person ever to grace God's green earth!

As for movies: 2008 was sort of a mediocre year for good movies, but there were a few gems. We also saw a few old movies at the Stanford theater, but I've narrowed this list down to only the newly released movies (because really, what modern film could compete with Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Trouble With Harry, Harvey, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation or North By Northwest?). This is my five favorites that I saw this year...


#5. Son Of Rambow
#4. Happy Go Lucky
#3. Iron Man
#2. The Dark Knight
#1. Hors de Prix (Priceless)

Other noteworthy things that happened this year:

Gold Triple Crown (for completing 5 double centuries and volunteering at one). The doubles were: Devil Mountain, Central Coast, Davis, Eastern Sierra (my fastest double yet at 12:48), the LA Grand Tour (triple!) and Mount Tam (drove SAG for the last 50 miles of the course).

Concerts! Plenty of those! Joan and I saw The Waifs three times (twice in San Francisco and once in Santa Cruz), Amy Grant, and The Proclaimers (1.5 times this year for me as I was at there concert on New Years last year in Stirling, Scotland (only Auld Lange Syne was played after midnight)). The Proclaimers concert in May was by far the best concert I've ever attended. It didn't hurt that I managed to get 'I'm On My Way' dedicated to Joan during the set!

4th Alcatraz Swim. Not my fastest, but it's always fun to swim with jellyfish and all sorts of crazy people.

Skiing in the Canadian Rockies. Sunshine Village and Lake Louise both have better snow than anything I've skied in California; and those were 'bad' days!

First half-marathon. I didn't do this in a race, but in training. And I just squeaked it in before the end of the year. From Campbell Park nearly to Lexington Dam and back. And in under two hours. Not too bad! =)

And of course, every moment of ever day that I've spent with Joan has been priceless.

All in all, 2008 has to have been my best year yet. Sure, there have been obstacles. But life is about overcoming those. So they can't weight down the positive things that have happened in my life this past year.