Posts Tagged with: "Triathlon"

Last month, I chose to race Tri United 2 on July 1 (next week) instead of 5i50 held yesterday, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t join in on the fun…at least in the water!

Jun and I decided to swim the 5i50 course at Subic as part of our training for Tri United 2.  We arrived in Subic’s All Hands Beach at 2PM to view seemingly calm and still water.  Looked good to me!

– A portion of the 5i50 swim course –

– Race participants checking out the course. One guy yelled: “Parang nasa washing machine!” –

Jun and I jumped in and, almost immediately, I wondered what the hell I was doing there. The waves were pushing me back and forth. We tried our best to swim in choppy water just as the other swimmers were doing. After one loop, the newbie swimmer in me declared that training was done. I had enough “fun” for one day (and swallowed enough sea water to provide my body with sodium until Ironman 70.3!)

– Jun and I –

I heard the water during the actual race was much calmer since it was the morning.  As for me, my mission was accomplished. My goal was to allow myself to swim in turbulent water in preparation for the worst case scenario in a race.  Oh yeah, this scared me to death alright!

– with Tina and Patty, my bike skills classmates with Coach Norman Pascual –

– Nice bumping into no less than Carlos, the guy behind the awesome site swimbikerun.ph –

We decided to drop by the 5i50 race briefing to wish our friends the best of luck and a safe race.  Everything from the set up, the sponsors’ booths, and briefing were impressive. I had a tinge of regret about not joining this race, then after a split second, I came to my senses, heaved a sigh of relief, and rejoiced in the fact that I still had 7 days of training before my big race. Phew!

– Spotted Secondwind-Sun Team Benny, Jay, and Lods –

– Ricky Pena of Sun and his wife Rory and my teammates Pot and Ed Inocentes –

Congratulations to all the finishers of 5i50!

Chris Sports gives us another reason to head to Subic…

This begins a series of posts about my many adventures (and misadventures) as I train for Ironman Cebu 70.3 on August 5, 2012.  “ROAD TO IM 70.3” will be posted every Monday, but, if I have more to share, I may post another within the week.  This will be a countdown of sorts to race day.  A journal of my training…and all my whining (I’m not sure if you’ll want to hear this), bragging (hey, who else do I share my little achievements with?!), and learnings.

If you are a runner completely uninterested in triathlon, just sit back and enjoy.  You may pick up a thing or two to help your running or you may be inspired to try swimming or cycling or both.  At the very least, you may be entertained with the craziness of triathlon training.

If you are a triathlete, this could be a walk down memory lane as you recall the days when you were once a clueless, unbalanced, inflexible, yelping newbie like me.  Please stop yourself from laughing about my little mishaps or, worse, major idiotic moves.  If you can’t, then run to the bathroom, shut the door, let out a big guffaw, then come back to read more.  Oh, it would be great if you could drop a tip or two for myself and other readers, too.

Now, if you are a runner contemplating on getting into triathlon or hastily signed up for Ironman 70.3 like me, you’ve come to the right place!  Take this journey with me. It’s definitely merrier with more newbie triathletes thinking in unison:  “What the hell did I get myself into?!!”

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COUNTDOWN TO IRONMAN 70.3 CEBU: 10 WEEKS

10 more weeks to Ironman 70.3 Cebu. 5 more weeks to Tri United 2.  My coach, Andy Leuterio, reminded me about this early last week when he emailed me my program. Distances, particularly for the swim and bike, would substantially increase to build up for race day.  I swear my index finger was shaking when I clicked on the mouse to open Coach Andy’s file (which we’ve been tossing back and forth every week as he sends me the program on Monday and I return it filled up every Sunday) entitled: “Jaymie Pizarro’s Battle Plan.”  Total hours of training: 14 hours.

That week is over and I only hit 10 training hours.  Life got in the way you see!  That’s not to say that the week was not filled with things to be proud of or happy about.  Here are many firsts that made this week fantastic for me:

1) First time to ride alone…and I hit 65k!  (I was supposed to ride 100k that day in JalaJala with friends, but my ITBS started acting up. Aaargh!)

2) First time to drink from the internal bladder on the Shiv. (Don’t laugh. I’ve had the Shiv for over a month now, but it’s taken us (me and him) quite some time to get familiar with each other.)

– This is the straw for the Shiv’s internal bladder which makes it accessible while riding –

– Shiv’s internal bladder in the pink circle –

Special thanks to Coach Norman Pascual who allowed me to be saling pusa for a day in his bike skills session at SM MOA. We spent 2 hours going around in circles just to get me and another student, Patty, to get to drink while riding!  While I can drink from the straw, I still need to learn how to drink from the bottle!  Need more bike skill sessions!

– with Coach Norman Pascual, Jun, Rex, Monching, Patty, Tina, Dennis, Weng, and Ruben –

3) First time to attach my Garmin 310XT to the Shiv!  Got myself the Garmin bicycle mount kit (which I’ll be changing to the Quick Release Kit) and the Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor.

– Garmin 310XT will be for the Shiv now.   I’m using the Garmin Bicycle Mount kit here, but I’ll be changing it to the Quick Release Kit –

– Attached Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor’s three components: GSC 10, pedal magnet, and spoke magnet –

– Close up of pedal magnet –

Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor: P3,550
Garmin Bicycle Mount Kit: P1,750

Where to buy:
Navco, 3/F Millennium Place, Meralco Ave. cor J. Vargas Ave. Ortigas Center, Pasig.
Phone: 782-5913 / 571-6716

4) First time to swim this far: 2.5k!  Woot woot!  Don’t ask me to clap though because my arms were extremely exhausted the day after.

5) First time to post on my Road to Ironman 70.3 series!  Here’s to 10 more to go before the big day!

The hubby, kids, and I are in Singapore right now for a much needed, and may I say, well-deserved vacation. I’m looking forward to 4 full days of rest, relaxation, and shopping. (Honestly, the only item on my list are bike jerseys!) We arrived this morning and headed straight for Universal Studios.

– Soaked after Jurassic Park ride. Will this count for my swim today? –

– We’re having a great time. First time of the kids here. Last time the hubby and I were here was when we ran Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in 2009. I had not so fond memories of the marathon passing by East Coast Park earlier this morning! –

There’s a place for me here in Sentosa…

We’re having a great time, but training doesn’t stop while I’m here. I plan to run and swim tomorrow.

Coach Andy had me do extra workouts before leaving Manila. For example, he had me bike for three consecutive days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Oooh, wait, gotta tell you about Thursday. Coach Andy called it the “CBW”. I innocently asked what the three initials meant thinking it was some technical term in biking. Ya know, like Yasso 800 or Tempo run. My knees buckled when I later learned that CBW stands for: “Character Building Workout.” YIKES.  After two hours on the bike trainer grunting and groveling staring down at a pool of sweat by my feet as if I had dunked myself with a bucket of water, I sure felt like, um, a woman of character.

Andy also had me swim twice and, not surprisingly, I ended both sessions feeling like I had walked a marathon using my arms and hands!  I only ran once the past week and that was after a bike ride. Andy must know me well because he saved the best (and my favorite workout) for last…and for this trip!

Like I always say, I love traveling. And, I love running even more. To combine both of my passions always makes me insanely happy. So, for tomorrow, my program requires me to run 15k around Sentosa. The pace? As commanded by the Coach, he says: “Run like you stole something.” He’s hilarious isn’t he?  He makes me want to laugh and cry every time he sends me his program for the week!

Anyway, robber pace or not, humid or cool, tired or well-rested, I’m looking forward to running around Sentosa tomorrow, then jumping into the pool for a swim.  Hey, a vacation just isn’t complete with some sort of training, right?

Enjoy the weekend guys. I surely will!

“The miracle isn’t that I finished.  The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”

– John Bingham

Woohoo! I finished Tri United 1 yesterday! It was a 1k swim – 30k bike – 7k run, a distance that may seem short to experienced triathletes, but daunting to this newbie.  I’m writing to you now so that’s proof that I survived it.  Even better, I actually had fun!

I hesitatingly showed up for the women’s race yesterday all nervous and jittery. Quite honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing there.  I knew I didn’t have enough training.  I wanted to stay home with the kids for the weekend.  And, every time I thought of the swim and bike, my stomach churned. But, surprisingly, when I looked out at the sea in Laiya, I felt a certain calmness.  All of a sudden, I felt I made the right decision in showing up for the race and facing my fears.  Just like my first 5k way back in 2007, I knew I was at the right place.

RACE BRIEFING

The women’s race was at 2:30pm Saturday while the men would race Sunday morning (earlier this morning). We were 42 participants in the women’s race.

The course was friendly for beginners like me. It was 2 loops each for the swim, bike, and run. So, we pretty much knew what to expect for each of the 2nd loops.

– Host during the race briefing for the women’s race –

– Female triathletes during the brieifing. That’s Lods Yapson of Team Secondwind in the Sun Broadband shirt. Hey, Sun Broadband, I like! hah! –

– Unilab GM Clinton Hess during the briefing. In the back, my teammates Jake and Paolo are busy with more important matters: packing their baon –

– My teammates Bic, Adel, Mike, and Clint during the briefing –

THE RACE

It was my first open water swim triathlon. The only time I ever swam in open water before this race was at The Next Step Tri Camp last year. To say that I was nervous was an understatement.

Swimming out towards the buoy was tough as we went against the current. It kinda freaked me out that I couldn’t see anything at the bottom.  I don’t know how many times I stopped to hang on to the buoy just to find my way. But, heading back towards the shore, as my Coach had advised, I pulled hard and swam at a good pace. That’s exactly what I did.  Before I knew it, I was out of the water telling my teammates how much fun it was.

We ran 300m from the swim to the transition area. I calmly wore my bike shoes, helmet, shades, race bib, and hydrated, then off I went on the bike. Oh boy, I could use a lot more training on the bike. This was the point where I felt everyone was just overtaking me and I felt frustrated about wanting to go faster but not being able to.  Lots of newbie tales here: there was a time I almost bumped the race signage, or the time I u-turned beyond the u-turn portion to avoid hurting the spectators, or the time I yelled at men on motorcycles ogling at all of us women: “Lumayo kayo sa akin! Babanggain ko kayo!”

After what felt like forever, I finally reached the transition area and dismounted without crashing (one of my nightmares). The first few kilometers of the run were difficult. I wanted to push harder, but my legs felt heavy off the bike. (That’s what I get for not doing any brick sessions!) By the 2nd loop, I felt much better and I went at a slightly faster clip to finish the race.

– Heading towards the finish. Photo courtesy of Gica Limjoco –

THE END

I’m such a newbie. I didn’t even get my time. I guess I was just ecstatic about finishing. And, to tell you the truth, that’s really all that mattered to me at that point.

How many times have we said that, when it comes to your first marathon, the only goal is to finish? Well, for my first serious triathlon, it was exactly the same. The goal was to enjoy the journey and to finish with a smile on my face, and that’s exactly what I did.  I just had a grand time all throughout the race!

Uh oh, guys, I think I’m hooked.

Thanks so much to Coach Patrick Joson for teaching me the basics of biking and chasing after me when I was learning how to ride with cleats, Coach Andy Leuterio for taking me out for interval rides, Coach Martin Carandang for teaching me how to swim even if I take too long in between laps, Team Berlin and Team Kalyo (that’s just you and me, Ton) for our always fun runs, and to Team Unilab Active Health for the camaraderie and support.  This is only the beginning.

– with good friend and 2nd Place finisher for her age category, Bic –

– Teammate Ani de Leon, wins in her age category just 4 months after giving birth –

– with teammates from Team Unilab Active Health. They all stayed overnight for the men’s race the day after (today), but I rushed home after the race to be with the kiddos –