Finding Nemo - Just Keep Swimming

I think this will be my mantra during the swim portion of my next race. I'm fairly slow at the swim so maybe this will help me to push forward :)

Yesterday was my 3rd race in 3 weeks and I definitely wasn't looking forward to waking up at 4:30 am again. I wasn't in a huge rush to get to the race as I heard that we would have a PacBikes' (team I race with) rack but apparently we didn't so Chris and I set up next to each other. I thought that was smart as I knew that his bike would be gone which would give me plenty of room to get my wetsuit off and have a quick transition. After spending 24 minutes in the water I finally made it ashore along with some fast women and slow 24-29 year old dudes. One thing that got me riled up was that somebody had tied the balloon that i had on the rack to my bike so that when I started running with my bike along came the balloon. I ripped it off and proceeded to get a slap in the face from the headwind that I wasn't expecting. Two weeks ago a group of us rode the course and at the start was a very nice tailwind. Oh well, I buckled down and managed to get the bike course done in 1:03 which rocks considering I was having shifting issues. As soon as I started the run I could tell that it was going to be tough. My lower right back area started cramping (as it did last week also) but thinking that all I had to do was run for sub 40 min. then it would all be over. I proceeded to get the first 5 km done in about 20 min. and then everything went to shit. My stomach started cramping and the miles never seemed to end. A couple of older (35-39) guys passed me and I tried to keep up but at mile 6 I figured out that the race wasn't almost done and started to have some "wall" issues. It was supposed to be a 6.2 mile run but due to mismarkings, the final distance was closer to 7.4 miles. The run ended up taking me 48 min. It was really awesome seeing friends on the course and I really pushed myself to not only catch up with my Chris but also not get caught by Jim or any of our fast pacbikes women. In the end I finished the race in 2:19 which was good enough for 9th AG, 61st OA. I look forward to having it all come together at Vineman.

Just had a video call with my parents in Michigan and my sister & her family in North Carolina. Quite comical as Michelle's webcam first wouldn't work and then her audio wouldn't work. My parents were having a good time trying out all this new technology. Maybe it'll go off without a hitch next time we do it. Happy Fathers Day!

Trip to MI 2009

Lake Macatawa Tri 2009

Pretty nasty swim as it seemed like when I would take a breath, I would breathe in fumes. Bike was very flat but not ideal for 23 miles of being in the drops as I'm not used to it which meant a very sore bum and back. Run was easy and boring. :) Overall, great race organization with lots of volunteers, aid stations, and sweet awards.

If only I could swim faster...

On June 7, I competed in the Anchorman Sprint triathlon which consisted of a 3/4 mile ocean swim, 9 mile hilly bike, and a 4 mile trail/road/sand ladder run. There were only roughly 150 participants of which about 80+ were men. This is really one of those races where I wish I could swim faster. The swim wasn't as well organized as you would hope which resulted in some people missing the last buoy and reaching land before they were supposed to. It seemed like everytime I breathed on my right side I saw somebody running on the beach prematurely. Instead of cutting a line straight for the beach, I decided to make my way around the third buoy which seemed to take an eternity. I don't think my swim time would have improved much but that could partially be why I ended up around 66th out of 80+ dudes. Once hitting land, we had a long 1 mile transition run in which I probably passed 15-20 people. Some people chose not to have shoes waiting for them and paid for it as the gravel was not feet friendly. The 9 mile bike is literally over a hill and back twice. I knew the course well and had been doing quite a few hill repeats in the weeks leading up. I passed a lot of ppl which made me feel good and also seeing so many familiar faces during the ride as it was 2 loops was encouraging. Probably the biggest encouragement was Andreas, another guy on the Pac Bikes team, coming up from behind and telling me to start pushing it. This was I was starting my 1st loop and him his second. The bike went quick in 30 minutes which was good enough for 6th fastest time. As I started the run I was nervous about my calf as I had cramped it during a training run a few days before. I decided that I would just push myself and if it cramped, oh well. Lucky for me, I was very familiar with the course and decided not to take it easy on the sand ladder. This proved a smart move as I caught up with a few guys during the last 2 miles. My time of 31 minutes was the 4th fastest time on the run. Overall, I was 14th and 2nd in my age group. There were some organization issues with the race but overall it was great to see so many friends racing and cheering. I look forward to seeing how I do this weekend in Holland, MI at another sprint triathlon. Hopefully the shorter swim, longer bike and run work to my favor although I will be renting a road bike instead of bringing mine.

Cute commercial that my dad forwarded me. *Disclaimer: I still don't like dogs and very rarely drink Bud Light.

If you go to the Tri-California website, there's a picture of me on it. It's from a race I did last year, SF Triathlon at Treasure Island. A lot has changed since then as I'm now riding a Scott Plasma 20 which is a triathlon bike as opposed to my old safety orange road bike with a granny gear. I'm also racing this year in the white and black of Team Pac Bikes. I'm still part of GGTC and do most of my training with GGTC members though :)

The Run-walk method

Earlier this morning I read an article in the NY Times about the run-walk method. Although I'm not sure if it is how I'll train for my next marathon, I will keep it in mind. After posting (tweeting) about it on Twitter, it turns out quite a few friends have tried it out and have found it to be a successful way to train whether working towards a marathon, 5 km, or just to get in shape. In the article I'm glad there were examples of runners improving times enough to qualify for Boston as I was under the impression the "run-walk" was more of a technique for those just getting into running... Who knows maybe I'll give it a go and PR.

A cute video of my niece, Maddie.

Animal Building Blocks from Michelle Bollman on Vimeo.

GGTC Vineman ride

ggtc vineman ride
Originally uploaded by Brian McNitt

Haven't blogged lately but after looking at this picture I thought I'd share something: Don't follow me on a ride if I don't know where I'm going. :) I posted a ride on a course that I'll be racing on in July and there were a couple of people who knew where they were going. At one point, myself and another guy were ahead of the group and thought that the next main point would be at the top of a hill. What we didn't know is that there was a turn before we reached said hill. We did go up and down a hill but found that we were 15 miles out of the way. We eventually met up with everybody at the end of the ride. It was a tough ride in which we tried to catch up with the others.

Last weekend I also partook in a swim/ride but found myself lost along with a couple friends. I thought we were looking for a road but that turned out to be the town name... We eventually found our way to the meeting point thanks to GPS and a blackberry.

Hopefully I don't get lost during the next 3 weekends as I'll be racing :)