No more Chipotle meals

I've posted to the right the nutrition of today's Chipotle order (Chicken burrito bol with rice, black beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, cheese and lettuce).

I'm so very disappointed. I love getting lunch at Chioptle: fresh, tasty ingredients (they even sponsor a bicycle team!) that's served up to order.

I've been sticking to getting chicken burrito bols from Chipotle (cutting out the high-calorie tortilla) when I do go out to eat for lunch. And I thought this was a good thing.

You can futz around with your own order using this handy Chipotle Nutrition Facts Calculator.

I've seriously got to re-think my Chipotle affection altogether.

What gets me is the PDV of the cholesterol (from the chicken) and the SODIUM!!! (from the chicken, and, believe it or not, the salsas). Simply absurd how hight they are.

Grumble, grumble. Another food source drops off the list.

running, donating blood and biking

I still haven't jumped back into the training regimen full-force, so I decided to do my own thing this weekend and went for a long run Saturday and a long ride today.

Yesterday morning, I went to my favorite run path, Sawyer Camp Trail, at dawn to get a nice long run in. I decided to do a timed run and, an hour after starting, I'd put in 7.5 miles. Wow. I remember when I'd huff and puff (and walk a bit) trying to struggle through a 10K. Now, I feel like if I'd had the time, I could've kept going a lot farther than the distance I did.

I guess, given the fact I raced for almost two hours in my first triathlon, I shouldn't marvel so much at running for an hour straight, but it was still a nice feeling.

When I showed up for my appointment to give blood a little later in the afternoon, my blood pressure was only 90/50 (pulse was 66 which is high for me, it's usually around 56). The nurse was a little surprised, and when I explained I'd just been on a long run, she reluctantly let me go ahead and give. Five minutes after the stick, I'd donated a pint and was sitting at the refreshment table waiting to make sure I was, indeed, feeling ok after the blood loss (I was).

After waiting the mandatory 24 hours of no exercise, I hopped on the bike this afternoon and rode the "VC loop" which is a 21-mile ride that cuts through Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside. It's called the VC loop because it cuts through some of the richest neighborhoods on the peninsula, and the kinds of cars passing me (Ferraris, Maseratis and Benzes, oh my!) definitely lived up to the reputation. Even though I'd put on sunscreen, I still managed to burn my back a little (was wearing my sleeveless triathlon top) in the 91 degree heat.

I was rather tired by the time I got home, but that didn't stop me from taking the girls to the pool, and I have to admit the cool water felt good on my leg muscles. Even now, six hours later, I'm still feeling tight and hope I don't have a night full of muscle cramps ahead of me.

Now that I've got these workouts behind me, I think it's time to hop back on the scheduled workout wagon (at week 5). Only 8 weeks to go to my next triathlon!

resources for the beginner triathlete

Can't believe I was blind to the BeginnerTriathlete.com web site until just this week. Now I can't get enough of it.

The site's aimed, of course, at the beginner triathlete, and it's chock full of good stuff like

• Training Plans
• Training Logs
  
• Race Reports
• How-to Articles

I'm almost embarrassed at how much sleep I lost devouring the content on the site last night.

Tempted to add my own "first race" experience to their collection, but I'll leave it here on the blog (for now).

what to do after my first triathlon?

So how to keep the training momentum up now that my first triathlon is over?

The answer is to sign up for other physical challenges, so now I've got a summer full of them. If you're going to be at any of these yourself, let me know!

• June 8 - Muddy Buddy - San Jose, CA
  
• June 21 - Tri for Fun - Pleasanton, CA
• July 11 - Climbing Mt. Whitney (going up to 14,500' again!)
• Sep 20 - Alcatraz Invitational Swim - San Francisco, CA
• Oct 2 - Rock n Roll San Jose Half Marathon - San Jose, CA
• Nov 27 - Silicon Valley Turkey Trot - San Jose, CA
  

Looks like there's a hole in my schedule in August... depending on how our vacation plans go, I might run a 10K up in Canada mid-August. But maybe I need to find another triathlon to compete in instead?

Regardless, the event that's got me worried and is pushing me to train better is the Alcatraz swim in September.

Starting in May, I'll be joining the PCA Masters swim program to get my swim groove on. Given how much trouble I had with the swim in my triathlon, I can only think this is going to be a good thing.

my first triathlon - split times are in

So, the official results of my first triathlon are in. I've known for a week that I finished the race in 1:55:42, coming in 282nd of 385 racers. That felt pretty good, all things considered. Way above the last one in.

So, here are my splits (and how they rank among the 385 competitors):

• 1/2 mile swim: 0:16:44 (279)
• 13 mile bike: 0:55:17 (277)
• 4 mile run: 0:43:41 (273)
• Total: 1:55:42 (282)

In looking at the times, I'm assuming the transition times are included in the leg that follows, since by my bike computer, I know it only took me 48 minutes to ride the course, and it took a while to get from the lake to the transition area.

But when I'm stacked up against my age group, I came in 40th of 42. Meh.

I take comfort in the fact that guys from my age group placed 2, 3 and 5 in the overall race, so it's a competitive bracket. If I think it's going to get easier as I get older, I'm sorely mistaken, though. The 40-44 bracket is almost as big as my 35-39 group, and I'd have placed 32nd of 38 in with the same time in the older bracket. (It seems I'm not the only one discovering triathlons are a great way to get and stay in shape.)

At least now I've got my baseline from which to get better, no?

Oh, and I caught the Ford Ironman 70.3 Florida Triathlon on TV this week. Inspirational stuff, and I think I've set my sights on doing something that distance in a couple years :^).

my first triathlon - the run and the finish

This is the last post covering my experience actual doing my first triathlon race, the ICE Breaker Triathlon in Granite Bay, CA, on April 13, 2008. See setup to swim to T1 and the bike and T2 for the first two installments.

Turns out I'd bested Thom by three and a half minutes on the bike leg. By now, it was 82 degrees and sunny, and the heat really started to get to me. At the first aid station (just 100 yards out of the transition area), I stopped and took on Gatorade and water. No need to try to drink and run at the same time (and spill most of the cup's contents), I could pause, drink, then go.

As I started running again, my calves felt like they were trying to cramp up. This was a new sensation for me after a bike-to-run transition. In previous bricks, it'd always felt like my legs were made of rubber and my thighs somehow weren't functioning properly. Never a problem with the calves... until today. Likely, it was due to the heat and my fluid intake. I was hoping it wouldn't get worse as I kept going.

The run path exited the nice paved sidewalk and entered the dirt path (cross country, oh fun!). By now, I'd picked up a running partner. Actually, he'd picked me up, coming up from behind and then passing me (barely). By the number on his right calf, I could see he was a 58 year old guy. On his left calf was a big red Ironman M tattoo. Was he an Ironman? A wannabe? Much to distract me as we ran, up until he pulled away from me after a little uphill section on the run.

By the time I hit the first aid station at mile 1, I'd been able to run through the tight feeling in my calves and by the time I entered the second mile (fueled on a little more water and gatorade), I was feeling in the zone on the run.

I'd done all my run training on the road, and here this was a trail run with a lot of little up-n-down hills. I wasn't used to all the little up-and-down roller coaster hills, and they started taking their toll, especially as we were running on what I assume used to be lake bed. In other words: no shade, hot sun, misery.

I started walking the up-hills because I could feel my temperature rising as my energy drained. Yes, I was getting passed by stronger runners (the top women racers were now catching up from their wave start). Every time I was passed, I tried to same something encouraging to the passer ("go go go!" or "nice running" or "keep it up!"). I figured I'd appreciate the same treatment if/when I passed anyone, and by now I knew I was going to finish this race, my first triathlon was almost over!

After the turnaround, I managed to keep in a pack of guys that took the same walk-the-uphills-run-elsewhere approach to the running leg with me, and we held together through the biggest hill just before mile 3 and through to the last aid station at mile 3.

Truth be told, the run went so much faster than I thought it would (in my mind at least, don't know about the actual time on the clock). Before I knew it, I had gotten to the end of the parking lot opposite the transition area with about 300 yards to run to the finish line. Lots of folks in their portable chairs along the course watching us sweat it out. More than one person said "I don't know how they do it!" as I ran past them... a nice pick-me-up as I knew exactly how I'd done it: months and months of training.

To motivate me to go a bit faster, when I saw the finish line and the clock above it still 200 yards away, I set my sights on the guy 50 yards in front of me as the one to pass before we finished. At almost a sprint, I pulled ahead of him with barely 20 yards to go.

As I ran across the finish line (hearing the announcer say "here's number 141, Thomas Kriese!") I looked up at the clock to see I'd managed to pull it all in under two hours. Soon I heard the screams of "Daddy! Daddy!" as my daughters caught sight of me crossing the finish line.

They weren't too crazy about hugging me as the sweat poured off, but they seemed happy to dance around (the long wait for daddy to finish was over). My lovely wife wasn't so bashful about the sweat and gave me a great hug and kiss. She told me how proud of me she was, and I can't even begin to tell her just how important her support of me has been these last months. Her making the space for me to train (I tried my best to do things early in the morning while they all slept) allowed me to be fully prepared for the race. I couldn't have done it without her.

And as I looked around to see where Thom might be, there he was, right beside me grinning ear to ear. We exchanged congrats as I began to wonder, did he pass me on the run? How could I have missed him? Maybe when I stopped at the aid station at mile 3?

Turns out I'd beaten Thom by 30 seconds. I'd put enough distance between us on the bike to squeak out a win overall. It was a bit of a hollow victory though, as Thom had muscled through whatever had ailed him during the swim and was hampered by an inability to catch his breath the rest of the race (Thom got checked out by a doc, and we suspect he had a swim-induced pulmonary edema - SIPE). I know if he hadn't been hampered with SIPE, he'd have beaten me easily. Still, I appreciate him letting me best him in my first triathlon (this was his fifth).

So, I've done it. My first triathlon is in the bag. I can call myself a triathlete.

And just like Joe Friel had promised in his Your First Triathlon book, by following his training program, I'd finished with a smile.

It's still just sinking in that I finally did it. Wow, my first triathlon. After six months of training, it's done.

Before I do my next one, I really have to work on my swim. Time to start training again.

my first triathlon - the bike and T2

Now that I can call myself a triathlete, I'm sharing the details of my first race with you so you can learn from what went well and what didn't as I completed my race. This post picks up where my previous post on setup to swim to T1 left off.

After clipping into my pedals, I started working my way up the gears on my hybrid K2 Astral 4.0 bike. While in college, I did a lot of bike riding, so this leg felt the strongest for me.

The course for the ICE Breaker Triathlon was two laps on twisty, rolling terrain with a lot of little 5% grade hills. The biggest challenge (as we'd all been warned) was that our cornering skills would be tested, and boy was that advice dead-on.

However, before getting into the twisty rolling portion of the ride, there was a flat straightaway that stretched out for about 3/4 of a mile. Perfect for a high gear push to get up to 24mph. As I was heading out and into my first mile of riding, there were already guys from the first wave of swimmers returning to start their second lap on the course.

I made sure to focus on keeping my own cadence and not get caught up on being passed by guys on tri bikes leaning over onto their aero bars. I set my sights on reeling in the bikers in front of me. By the time I'd reached the far end of the course, I'd managed to pass up a half dozen folks which was harder than it should have been due to all the twists in the road.

Shortly after the first turnaround, I passed Thom while he was still outbound (he did the race on a mountain bike... what a trooper!). After that, it was focusing on the road ahead of me while still noticing there were a lot more bikes on the road as the waves of racers entered into the bike course.

By the time I was on the straightaway heading back to the start of my second lap, the road was full of people racing their hearts out.

While drafting was forbidden per the race officials, it seemed there were a lot of loose interpretations as to how close one could follow without technically "drafting." Since there was no one looking out to make sure the no drafting rule was being adhered to, there were clumps of cyclists moving their way around the course. I guess if folks really were that set on getting a better time, they'll just have to live with themselves.

As I came around the bike lap turn around, I looked down to see that my bicycle computer was registering 80 degrees out on the blacktop.

The second lap was similar to the first in that I continued to get passed by folks on road bikes and tri bikes. The folks hunkered over their aero bars as they passed didn't bother me so much (they should have been passing me, no?), the ones on their road bikes bothered me a little.

As Thom put it, "if I hear 'on your left' one more time, I'm gonna scream." I still took solace in the fact I was continuing to pass others, both male and female as I made my way around the course on my last lap. So I got my share of saying "on your left" in, too.

While I worried a little bit about getting a flat, I wasn't so unfortunate as the four folks I saw cursing their luck as they peeled their tires off rims on the side of the road.

The only bad thing I saw was out towards the turnaround at the far end of the course, one of the volunteers was at the side of the road hovering over a racer who'd either crashed or collapsed on the side of the road (nowhere near a turn, tho). By the time I passed the spot on my return leg, the EMTs were on site checking her out more thoroughly. Thom told me that by the time he passed the scene, she was on a stretcher. Here's hoping she's ok.

After 47 minutes or so on the road, I sped back into the transition area to hear a very sweet observation: "and we have our first hybrid bike finishing!" (yay me!)

I coasted to a stop at my towel, threw off my helmet, changed into my running shoes (more Gu, more carbo-water) and exited through the run-out chute feeling pretty good. My T2 felt really fast.

The swim leg was long behind me, though not forgotten. The bike leg went well, and now just one leg was in the way of me finishing the race. I could walk from here and be able to call myself a triathlete, but I was going to run as far and as fast as I could. After all, Thom is a much stronger runner, and I'd hoped I'd put in enough of a gap between us on the bikes that he wouldn't catch me out on the run course.

I said I hoped, right?

Next post: the run and the finish.