Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Honolulu International Triathlon 1st Place!!

Let me start saying that after the first two weeks we had in Kona, I'm very surprised with the result in Honolulu, I was almost sure I was in for a bad day.
Paola and I have waited for almost a year to finally made it to Kona, and the excitement led me to do almost every possible mistake in my training, but how can you turn back in the Queen K when you feel so happy just to be there? So the first week was all about riding, the written plan was a balanced hard week, but it all started to go wrong when I went paddle boarding, I had so much fun, but the next day my shoulders were done, also my calves and shins were pretty sore due to the effort I had to do, just to stay standing in the board, so my running and my swimming training were affected.
Another thing that got me in that negative frame of mind, is that changing the swim stroke is not an easy thing to do, even if you know that you are in the right path there's a lack of confidence due to the lack of results.
So there I was, the day before the race with a bad attitude, fortunately after the alarm went off I knew I was in the right frame of mind. The swim was pretty intense at the start, but after a while I was swimming with plenty of space, that went on for just a while when I had to start passing the first 3 waves that started 3, 6 and 9 minutes before mine. So I had to swerve a lot the rest of the swim, which I finished in 23 minutes, I was hoping a better time, but as soon as I was on my bike I started passing the rest of the previous waves.
After the first turnaround I knew I was in a good position and almost sure I was in first place, that's when I was passed by two guys that were clearly drafting, they had the same uniform and that got me very mad,  I only hoped that they were not in my age group. The last 10kms were under a light rain and we also had a little wind, but nothing to important.
My bike split for the 40k was 59 minutes, a race PR split in an Olympic Triathlon and that helped me get trough the first mile of the run, I felt my legs very heavy, I was afraid I over did it in the bike, but after a while my legs came back and I was able to keep up with the pace, the heavy feeling came back at the end but knowing I was doing fine helped my to finish strong in 39 minutes, also a PR.
I was 1st place in my Age Group and 9th Overall.
The actual race was excellent, the run course in the Ala Moana Park is Beautiful, but the organization of the race I think is not so good. There was no control of the wave starts, it would have been very easy that someone started in the wrong wave on purpose, that could have been avoided with the color of the swim caps, that by the way......... they were handed right before the start along with the timing chips, both should have been in the race bag, luckily the cheating didn't happened at least in my age group or in front of me.

Another thing to mention is the attitude of the race Director someone called JJ, I had the bad luck to catch him in a bad moment I think............ The previous day there was this misunderstanding when I asked him about the next race briefing, I had just arrived when he was finishing the first race brief of the day, so I think he thought I was in the briefing, so the first thing he told, well............ he pretty much yelled at me, was that I had to have the bracelet on before I pick up my number, but when I arrived there was this lady who asked me of I was doing the Olympic, I said yes and she handed me an Orange bracelet, and told me to pick up my number, and that's what I did, so when I came to ask JJ about the next meeting he saw me with the bracelet in one hand and the race number in another, and it was supposed to be mandatory to have the bracelet on, to be handed the number, so he got mad, I just said it wasn't my fault that I received my number without having the bracelet on, that I thought that was his staff responsibility, not mine, and wow! He just exploded, I really thought he was going to hit me in the face, I tried not to explode also by just keeping my mouth shut, and waiting for him to end his show, so after he screamed that this was his race that this were his rules and bla bla bla, I just kept looking at him with a neutral face, and after some awkward seconds of silence, he just shake my hand and said he was cool......... What a freak moment, and what a freak dude! 
That was the bad of the race, but everything else was really good, Honolulu is a great city, it's very cool that everything is so close, the perfect beach of Waikiki with all of it's Restaurant's, Shops and Hotels just steps apart.
The day after the race we went to Kailua Beach, they say it's the number one Beach in the US, Ít's really great but I bet I've heard this same thing about some other beaches ha ha!

Another Highlight of this excellent trip is that Paola raced a 10k race and she also got a PR! She's been running a lot of miles every week! and I mean a Lot!
More than me by far........ There's no doubt that in Kona, she will turn into a runner, I better start coaching her, because she's really strong and I think it's about time to put some sense into her running...... I think she's a power runner, lets see. She was so happy after the race, and got 4th in her age group,  she is very excited to start a formal training program, I Love Her!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Kona. Our First Week.

We finally made it to Kona, since last year it was just a dream, now it's real. We arrived Sunday night after a day with our friend Lalo in L.A. We both were pretty tired of the trip, but monday morning it was like we had new batteries, I was supposed to ride 50k at moderate pace in the Queen K and I ended up riding 120k at almost race pace.

I know it's not the smartest thing to do, specially one week before a race, but I kept doing it the whole week, and to make ir a little worst I took my first shot at Paddlebording, It was really fun, and before I knew I had more than one hour standing in the paddleboard, I won't say it's easy or difficult, because the point is not only stand up and paddle, the point is to go where you wanna go and do it swiftly, and that's when you fall. I had a blast but next day I could feel wich muscles I used to stay upright, the calves and the shins, so my run sessions for the week were in pure pain.


I also put myself in the hands of Coach Steve, I meet him last year and I knew he was the one to trust to change my stroke and help me take my swim to the next step, I do have a long way to go, but here's the place to do it. What I didn't knew about Coach Steve is that he was the assistant coach for Mark Spitz, Amazing!!!
Our place is very close to the pier and to the pool, so we are in the heart of Kona, Paola is running all the time, and of course taking all the sun possible.
Saturday Morning we went to Waikoloa Beach to spend the day, we had Spicy Ahi Poke and Sushi and the day was perfect, we just can't believe that we have already a week here.


Friday we are going to Honolulu, I will race at the Honolulu International Triathlon, it's an Olympic distance Triathlon, it might be not so important in my racing schedule but still I want to do good, so i will try to take it easy this week and get there rested, It's also my first Olympic Triathlon in almost two years, and there's no worst feeling than race with heavy legs.



The people in Kona is very very friendly, it's like a big family and everyone is ready to help in any way you need, so we already feel locals.