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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
SHARKS!!!! And I'm Swimming!
Seriously, that's not a joke. I got to swim right along side sharks on Saturday. It makes you swim faster, that's for sure!
Now, I know some of you are thinking I've gone a little too far with the intensity this time, but to be honest, they were tame leopard sharks. They are all over the waters in the La Jolla, CA area. I went down there (it's just a bit south of where I am staying) with Lucy on Saturday to do some open water swimming as the water is that clear, picturesque blue. As you swim out there are a ton of little colorful fish swimming along the seaweed floor, and as you get a bit further out, you start to see these 3ft long little sharks. It kind of freaks you out at first when just over a month ago I read about triathletes getting attacked by sharks in the San Diego area. Thanks goes out to my pal Andy for telling me in advance that I wont get my leg taken off.
The whole swim was really nice as there were buoys if you wanted to swim straight out, or there were two beach across the bay from one another that you could swim back and forth from. It is also a popular place to kayak at (there are a bunch of little caves and coves you can explore), so there were tons of people around at all times which was cool as it gave you someone to race every now and then. The water will pretty calm too, which was great as I was looking for a recovery swim of sorts.
You see, my job at Zoot has come to include more than just marketing campaigns; I have become the resident guinea pig for our biology/fabric guru, Chris. We have been working on developing a new, and super cool product for fall, but that means we need to test it. Chris's idea of testing the product and its effects on performance meant doing VO2max tests and 90min of biking at threshold with and without the new gear. Now, if you haven't ever done a VO2max test before, let me be the first to tell you, they are NOT enjoyable. Most triathletes want to get one done (for some sadistic reason or another), but I hate them. You literally run or bike until you fall over or start to black out, hence the word maximum at the end. Though, I must say, doing the 90min at threshold (or just below it) on the bike, indoors was worse given that it was at the end of one long week of training.
Now, most of you know about my little incident in Mexico back in April...you know, the severe heat stroke that resulted in my mother being royally pissed off at me for multiple weeks. If you don't know what I am talking about, check out the story here at Triathlete magazine: http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/Features/2007_Features/The_race_report_from_hell.htm
When we did the 90min threshold ride, we took my weight before starting and then at the end to see how much water I was losing via sweating. Over the course of those 90min, I drank 48oz of water, but I still managed to lose 5lbs of weight...that's a lot in 90min at 73 degree ambient temperature. Though, it just pretty much confirms what I already knew, and that is that I sweat tons in racing and training. On the bright side, we have devised some possible ways of cooping with it that we're going to try out over the next few races.
On a brighter note, I had another race this past Sunday up in Carlsbad (about 15min north of where I am staying) that attracted the local talent as well as a number of Aussies and some South Americans as well. Now, I was looking to just get in a good workout and place decently. As one wise person out there told me via e-mail before the race, "Just relax and do it for fun. I always had my best races when I did that." Heck, why not take that approach. I had nothing to lose.
When setting up in transition there were a number of people in the elite racks that seemed to have a bit of chip on the shoulder that day, which always results in some pretty intense racing. The water was calm for the most part and the break was easy to get past. Almost from the start the race gotten broken up. There was a group of about 7 or 8 of us that went off the front and stayed there for the entire swim. But, once out of the water things got broken up among that lead group, which I was in. The exit out of transition was uphill, and it was pretty much right after you got on the bike, so that made for some pretty interesting approaches to the start of the bike. I just stayed calm and got into a rhythm which resulted in me catching the 3rd place guy pretty quickly. Now, to my dismay, this person decided that today would be a good day to draft, illegally. He clipped onto my wheel and proceeded to stay there. I passed the 2nd place rider shortly after the halfway point (this was a sprint triathlon of 1K, 25K, 5K) with Turel still sucking my wheel. I got pissed, looked over my shoulder and told him to cut it out...I did this two more times before we hit transition.
Needless to say, the fact that he had been drafting off me had the adrenaline flowing. Right out of T2, which was nearly flawless, I took off at an almost flat out pace. I wanted to drop him, and I wanted to drop him to the point that he had no desire to come after me. At the one mile mark I looked over my shoulder...he was about 15sec back, which isn't much in by any standard, so I put my head down and hammered on. Right at that point the course went though a pretty sizable crowd which helped to get me pumping even faster. By the time I got to the two mile mark, the drafter was over 40sec back. I had second place in the bag; however, Byod Conrick, an amazing athlete, had pulled away on the run taking his 20sec lead off the bike and turned it into a little of a minute winning margin.
All in all, it was nice to get back on the podium after some rough races at the start of the season. It also reinforced the fact that cheating (or drafting) does not pay at all. there was quite a media presence too, so that was a nice benefit as they took quite an interest in the 21 year old from up nort der. The jokes about the cold and awful accents (which I apparently don't have, and never knew people from Wisconsin were supposed to have) never end out here.
But, it's time to get on the bike and make my way over to work, and that reminds me, one of my projects here was a Page on Facebook, and you can all see it even if you do NOT have a Facebook account. Just follow this link here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zoot-Sports/15730589196
Other than that, be sure to check out the website as always, www.kamnetz.com, stay safe, stay in touch, and for those of you in Wisconsin, try not to drown with all the rain and overflowing lakes. Look for another race report after Wales (July 26th, though I have one this weekend too, Vineman 70.3 up in northern Cali) when I'll cover both races.
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