Fontainenbleau - Thursday, May 1, 2008

May 1st in France in a national holiday, International labor day and all. While at breakfast, The Great Magnetic Wife asked our waiter what one says on May Day. He didn't seem to understand the question. "Do you wish others a happy May Day?" She asked. "If you would like to," was his response. She inquired further, "how do you celebrate?" "By not working." Maybe he was mad that he had to work on May Day.

We went of to visit cousin Liz in Fontainebleau. Lori and Bruce stayed in Paris. This would have been the third day of long train rides for Bruce (Strasbourg, London, Fontainebleau) and also they probably wanted some alone time. The train ride took less than an hour, Fontainbleau is almost a suburb of Paris. There are people who live there who work in Paris. 

Liz met us at the station and took us on a tour of Avon and Fontainebleau. Being a holiday, almost everything was closed, including the very nice bike shop in the photo above, but fortunately a really delightful cheese shop was open and so we stopped for a nice selection of cheeses and meats. We later stopped at an open bakery for some bread. Lunch having been procured, we stopped to pick up some Lily of the Valley, a traditional May Day gift in France, at the stand below.

We made our way back to Liz's house and got the grand tour. It is a charming three-story house plus a basement. Liz's husband, Fredo, and one of her two boys, Luc, soon arrived. Fredo and I smoked Cuban cigars in the back yard and then we all had lunch of the marvelous cheese and meat we got in town. 

It was time to tour the grounds of the Chateau de Fontainebleau, next to Versailles, it is the biggest palace in France. It is where Napoleon said his farewell after his defeat at Waterloo. It is about a twenty minute walk from the house. The Chateau was closed, being a holiday, but the grounds were open and they are spectacular. It did rain off and on, sometimes quite hard, during our walk and tour of the grounds, but being from L.A., where we don't get a lot of it, I usually enjoy rain.

Back at the house, we played poker. I won big, but if we were playing with actual money, rather than just chips, I'm sure I wouldn't have played the same way. I bet big and was really quite reckless. So, it didn't make me think I am actually good at poker. I'm sure I'm not.

We called my sister Margaret. Liz and Margaret are quite close, so it was a great deal of fun speaking to her.  This is a picture of me on the phone with Margaret.

Finally we got on the train back to Paris, loaded with leftover cheese, meat and bread from lunch. When we got back to the hotel, we had a nice dinner with Bruce and Lori with our leftovers.

John Thum

The Best Smoothie Ever!

The Great Magnetic Wife usually prepares a smoothie for me each morning. Today she was particularly artistic.

John Thum

Paris - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - Some Actual Training!

The Great Magnetic Wife and Lori went off shopping with Lori's Friend.  Bruce went off to London for the day for a business meeting. The girls also met up with my cousin Liz, who lives in Fontainebleau. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get in some actual training. Looking at a map of Paris, I saw a large park a little more than a mile from our hotel. The park is the Bois de Boulogne. It is big, and according to my tour book is a popular place to run.  I didn't see a lot of runners, but it did start to rain about 30 minutes into the run.  

I ran about a mile down Avenue Foch from the Arc de Triomphe to the Bois de Boulogne. I didn't bring a water bottle, but I figured that this was a big city park, there were bound to be a lot of water fountains. Apparently the French don't believe in public water fountains. They do like them for dogs, though.  There were plenty of water fountains for dogs.  Eventually, about 5 miles into the run, I really needed some water and I couldn't just drink the rain, so I humbled myself and got down on all fours and drank out of the doggie water fountain. Hey, they drink out of our toilets whenever they can.

The Bois de Boulogne is really beautiful.  There is a combination of lakes, large fields, woods, everything you could want in a big park.  It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York.

At some point I took a turn that had me running down a path next to the Seine.  It is a section that is lined with house boats.  Some were spectacular, some were run-down pieces of junk that made me wonder how they actually stayed afloat. But it was a nice section that seemed as if tourists don't often go.  At some point, I thought I might be lost. I wasn't getting closer to anything I recognized. I ran back up to the main road and suddenly realized that I had passed there about an hour earlier. I could have sworn I was going one direction.  

I ran by Longchamp Racecourse, one of two horse racing tracks in the Bois de Boulogne. It was quite nice. The track itself was much bigger than an American horse track.  I estimate the track was over two miles around. It was all turf, no dirt. I found a park map and made my way back to the hotel.  In all, I ran for about two and a half hours and cover a little over twelve miles. Not a bad day of training.

When I was back at the hotel, The Great Magnetic Wife called and asked if I wanted to join her and the girls for some shopping.  I could hear my cousin Liz in the background, wisely say, "no!" Perhaps The Great Magnetic Wife was just trying to be nice, but I can't imagine why I would possibly want to join three ladies on a shopping trip.

I decided to make my way over to he Arc de Triomphe and check it out up close.  Rain was threatening again, but if it rained, so what? Just as I crossed the street to the entrance of the tunnel that takes you to the ADT, I was approached by a woman who asked, "do you speak english?" I said yes. She handed me a card that said that she was from Bosnia, and then WHAM! I was pushed hard from behind into the woman. I knew immediately what was happening. Pickpockets! Fortunately, every guide book I read, warned of pickpockets and so I kept my wallet in the zipped, inside pocket of my jacket. I pulled away and left. Nothing was taken, but I'm sure that I would not have kept my wallet zipped away if it was not for the guide book warnings. Thanks, guidebooks!

I went through the tunnel and checked out the Arc from the ground. I figured I would come back with The Great Magnetic Wife for a trip to the top. The sky was getting pretty dark, so I headed back into the tunnel to go back to the hotel. By the time I got to the other side it was hailing quite hard. I was surprised. 

The girls eventually made it back and we had espresso in the hotel bar. Liz left to go back home and the rest of us went to Cafe L'Esmarelda for dinner. In a bit of gender role reversal I had the croque madam and The Great Magnetic Wife had the croque monsieur.

John Thum

Strasbourg - Tuesday, April 29, 2008

We got up and had our usual fabulous continental breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we got on a train for a couple of hours to go to Strasbourg to see the town and visit Lori's friend from college, Jean-Yves Benichou, who plays bass in the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Strasbourg is a charming little city that has at various times been a part of Germany or France. It most recently changed countries after WWII. Jean-Yves gave us a great tour of the city and took us to Le Terrasse Restaurant on the top of the Printemps department store.

After lunch Lori, Bruce and Jean-Yves went off one way and The Great Magnetic Wife and I went another. Mostly we looked at the local Toy Stores. We had an espresso in a local cafe and spent some time in the cathedral.  At one point we heard a great deal of commotion and looked across the canal to see the Young Commies having some kind of a march.  Perhaps it was a pre-May Day march. Pretentious, welfare state students, who will one day become workers with a 35 hour work week, unite!

While the Great Magnetic Wife went to a big department store, I went to the local Virgin Megastore. They seemed to mostly feature artists I have heard of, certainly a lot of Madonna displays. There were really very few big displays of French artists.

We met back up with Lori, Bruce and Jean-Yves and made our way back to the train station. We had a beer and a sandwich and headed back to Paris.  I guess our day of touring Strasbourg tuckered us out.

Back in Paris, we ate at the Cafe de L'est. Had some great French onion soup, which they call onion soup.

John Thum

Paris - Monday, April 28,2008

I woke up at about 3:00 am and realized that I did not feel very well. I had some aching all over my body, but especially in my legs. I hoped to just go back to sleep, but I was unable to. I got up and went out on the balcony to look down at what was happening on the street. Not much at 3:00 am: A guy walked by, someone from the hotel put out the trash. I then started writing down the adventures from the previous day, in other words, I started this. I made several attempts to go back to sleep, but my legs were so achy and painful that I could not do so until about 4:30 am.

I wasn't feeling great when we got up. We had planned on going to the Louvre, but that idea seemed a little daunting considering how I felt. It was suggested that instead of the Louvre, we go to the Clooney. I was hesitant to go to a Museum devoted entirely to George Clooney, but it turns out that it is called the Cluny,  and is a museum devoted to medieval art and artifacts. It is housed in an old monastery that also has ruins from Roman era baths. It was pretty neat, especially the tapestries. After a couple of hours, I realized I was not gong to be able to continue for the rest of the day. I took the metro back to the hotel while the others went on to other sights. Here is a photo of Bruce and me in the courtyard of the Cluny after our tour.

I rested at the hotel and watched the World Snooker Championship on Eurosport. I ended up really getting into it. I watched a little every day. The winner, Ronnie O'Sullivan, wasn't determined until after we got back, but I was interested enough that I had to look it up on the web to see who finally won.

After some rest, I felt a little better and we had tickets to the Ballet at the Opera National de Paris near the site of the Bastille. We saw three short pieces by Nureyev, Balantine and Forsythe. The last one was excruciatingly boring and pretentious, the first two were pretty entertaining, but I still had trouble staying awake, as did Lori, Bruce and The Great Magnetic Wife.

We had dinner at Bistro Romain, a chain of Italian restaurants. It is sort of France's answer to The Olive Garden, but it was quite good.

John Thum

Paris - Sunday, April 27, 2008

the Great Magnetic Wife and I arrived in Paris quite tired, having not slept much on the plane. This was part of the plan to beat jet-lag: exhaust ourselves and if we go to bed at a normal Paris-time, we will get up completely acclimated to the new time zone. It worked last year in Italy.

We waited at the airport for a couple of hours for ours hosts, Lori and Bruce, to arrive. We wouldn’t be able to check into the hotel without them and didn’t want to be burdened with our luggage in the mean time. We met Lori and Bruce at the arrival gate and we all took a cab into Paris and settled into the truly fabulous Hotel Raphael.

After a shower and a change of clothes, we went out for a little exploration/walking tour. We headed down Avenue Kleber towards the Eiffel Tower. Lori, in particular, was getting quite hungry and needed some sustenance before going much further. So we stopped at the Café Kleber, a very Parisian sidewalk café. I had French fries. Hey, when in Rome…or Paris…well, you know. They were good, but there was no ketchup. Boy those French have a lot to learn about their fries.

We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower. It is quite spectacular and actually much larger than I had imagined. The wait to go to the top was about an hour and Lori and Bruce didn’t want to do so anyway, so The Great Magnetic Wife and I figured we would come back early on a weekday. Unfortunately we never did.

We all headed past the Eiffel Tower towards the Ecole Militaire and planned on a loop that would take us past the Grand Palais, down the Champs Elysees, to the Arc de Triomphe and back to the hotel, in total, about a three and a half mile loop.

We saw a group of guys playing American (flag) football and I couldn’t resist getting a picture of them during a play with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Having not slept much, we were starting to get pretty tired on this walk. It was nice to finally get to the Arc de Triomphe and then our hotel.

There was Champaign waiting for us in the room, so we had a little before a quick nap and then off to dinner at Le Butte Chappelle.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. The Great Magnetic Wife, of course, went down to the hotel’s business center to check her auctions on Ebay, but I laid down and dozed off.

John Thum

Back To Blogging

Many things have gotten in the way of blogging for the last few weeks. I hope to catch up this weekend on all of the goings on.

John Thum

Homme de Fer

Ah, Paris...

More sight-seeing than training, but I did get in one good long run at the Bois de Boulogne. Here's a photo from our day trip to Strasbourg. The goal is to become an Homme de Fer, an Ironman!

John Thum

Ooh La La

There will probably be limited blogging in the next week as The Great Magnetic Wife and I are off to Paris on Saturday. I guess it will be a run focused training week, because I don't see much opportunity to swim or bike. 

John Thum

Yikes!

On most Friday mornings I swim with a group from the L.A. Tri Club, somehow thinking that there is safety in numbers. We've seen many dolphins, seals and other aquatic creatures, but fortunately, never a shark. It was disturbing to hear about the shark attack this morning in Solana Beach. Dave Martin, a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego was out for his usual Friday swim with some fellow triathletes when he was attacked. He died of his wounds a short time later. It gives one pause and it is certainly making The Great Magnetic Wife nervous, but I will be back in the ocean week after next, when we get back from France.

John Thum

My Addiction

While The Great Magnetic Wife is out of town, I have had to fend for myself in the morning. Not so bad, I did it for years.  On Friday I made coffee and went to work.  At about 2:00, I started to not feel so great.  I was getting a headache and alternating between being really hot and freezing cold. I though, "oh, no, I have a fever.  I don't want to be sick." By the end of the workday, I was not feeling good at all. I just wanted to get home. I keep my bike at work during the week so that I can get in a ride afterwards.  I usually bring it home on Friday for my weekend long ride, but at that point I was not interested in doing anything, but getting in the car so that I could get home and go to bed.

I had plans that night to go to the House of Blues to see Ratt, but I realized that I wasn't going anywhere.  My head was pounding, I felt nauseous and all I wanted to do was to pass out.  It suddenly occurred to me that I had the symptoms that I have had before when I forgot to drink coffee. But I had had some coffee that morning.  Then the thought came into my head that perhaps I made decaf.  I looked at the bag of coffee, and there was no indication, but I know we have decaf around.  I made another pot of coffee from another bag that I knew was caffeinated as quickly as I could. But I knew from past experience it wasn't going to be a quick fix. It would still take a couple of hours for the sickness to go away. A call later in the evening from The Great Magnetic Wife confirmed that I had made decaf.

I am obviously addicted to caffeine. If I don't have it I get terrible withdrawal symptoms. It is funny, because coffee doesn't really give me a buzz. I drink it because I enjoy it and if I don't, I feel sick. But I don't drink a lot. I usually have one small cup in the morning and very rarely have any more during the day. I never crave it, I just like to have a cup. But the addiction is strong. It would be hard to go through complete withdrawal.

John Thum 

Cramps!

On Wednesday night, I took The Great Magnetic Wife to the airport. The mother is quite ill and she is going to visit her in New York. However, I also had my last session of a swim clinic I have been taking. As it was on the way to the airport, we stopped for the swim clinic before preceding to LAX.

We did lots of drills while one by one each of the participants was taped doing a lap.  I think it will be quite instructive to see a video of myself swimming.  On the last lap before I was to go, I got a little cramp in my legs.  It is not that unusual for me to get cramps in my feet while swimming, but I can't remember cramps in my legs.  I stretched out my legs a little and then it was time for me to be taped.

I started to cramp up a little while I was being taped, but not that bad. I was able to continue. Then shortly after I did my lap and I was about to swim back to the other side of the pool, I started to cramp in my calves and my quads like I have never done before in my life.  The pain was excruciating. I couldn't even swim to the other side of the pool.  I went to the edge and managed to back up the little pool-side ladder.  By this time, Jamie Silber, who had been filming me had rushed over and helped me out.  The Great Magnetic Wife was behind him by a few seconds.  Jamie massaged my leg for about five to ten minutes until I could walk again. He was really quite helpful.  I am grateful that he was there.  

I have no idea why I cramped so badly.  But I sure hope it never happens during a race.  I would probably have to drop out.

John Thum

Ironman Arizona, Pt. 2

By the time I arrived at the race at about 8:45 and the bike was well under way.  I saw Michellie Jones speed by to a big cheer from the crowd. A few members of the L.A. Tri Club I don't know also went by, but I dutifully shouted out, "go, L.A. Tri!"

By 9:00 It was starting to get hot. 

Near the transition area in Tempe is the Hayden Butte. It overlooks all of Tempe and it seemed to me it would be a good place to watch the event. I decided to hike up there before it got too hot. The view is fantastic.  You can see all of Tempe, including ASU's Sun Devil Stadium, and it was a good way to see a lot more of the bike course. However, there were a few hikers up there, but not a lot of triathlon fans, so after about a half an hour, I went back down to be amongst the cheering throngs. 

I wondered around for a while getting different views and finally settled on a spot on one of the bridges over Tempe Town Lake where a could view the end of the bike course and also look down into the transition area and also view part of the run when it started.  I stayed there until the first pros came into transition and then ran by.

I still needed to get my planned training run in and so I took off for about an hour. While I was running, I really got an appreciation for how hard it was out there.  I was only going to run for five to six mile, but it was brutal.  Hot, windy, dry! I went through all the water in my fuel belt by about 3.5 miles in.  I was sweating because of the heat, but because of the lack of humidity and wind, there was almost no sweat on my body. I had been slathering sunscreen on myself about every half an hour and whatever sweat I did have seemed to make the sunscreen drip into my eyes. I just kept telling myself, "you have it easy. If you want to be an Ironman you have to keep on going." I did and I got in about 5.5 miles.  I was glad it was over and I was glad I was not competing that day.  I sure hope it is cooler and less windy next November.

After my run I went down to the transition area.  The Ironman races are incredibly well organized. Competitors don't have to worry about finding their rack space and parking their bikes.  As soon as each athlete dismounts, a volunteer takes the bike, another volunteer announces the competitor's number, another volunteer grabs the bike to run transition bag and the athlete goes off into a changing tent.  As nice as that is, there was no doubt that many of there athletes looked wasted. The winds and heat had brutalized them. It seemed to me that an unusually large number were dropping out.  When I later looked at the results, there were over 300 DNFs, that's over 18% of the participants, the 3rd highest rate in Ironman history. Wow! On most Ironman races there are about 50.

The men's pro race was quite exciting. I was very happy when, as the winner was less than a minute from the finish, suddenly over the PA system Black Sabbath's Ironman came blaring out. That was totally rockin' hot! Jozsef Major came from 4th place with about three miles to go to first.  It wasn't quite a sprint to the finish line, but he beat TJ Tollakson by a mere 17 seconds. The first four finishers athletes finished with 1:13 of each other. The fifth place finisher Rene Goehler collapsed at the finish, always quite dramatic. I spent a few more hours there and then finally went back to my cousin's house.  I ended up watching the quite a number of finishers on the coverage at Ironman.com. 

All photos were taken from Ironman.com and were taken by Lee Gruenfeld.

John Thum

Flying and Ironman, Part 1

On Saturday morning I headed off to Arizona. The last April version of Ironman Arizona was heald on Sunday. It will be switched to November this year and I will be competing.  Way back when, before I knew that the race was being switched to November, I planned on going so that I could sign up for the at the sight and ensure myself a spot.  You can look back on the first post of this blog here to review how those plans changed.  In any case, I still thought it was a good idea to observe the race and see if I could glean any wisdom from being there.

It took about six and a half hours to driver to Chandler, where I stayed with my cousin, Allan Tellam. I figured that door to door it would take about four and a half hours to fly there, so for the price of spending another couple of hours in the car, I would have a lot more freedom to come and go when I felt like it.  I remember the olden days when I just loved to fly. I miss those days. Allan is a Captain for Southwest Airlines and lives in a community, Stellar Airpark, that is next to a private runway. In order to build a house there, you are required to have a hangar.  You don't have to have a plane, although almost everybody does.

Allan offered to take me up in his plane on Sunday morning. I had to do a quick evaluation of what I wanted to do.  The whole reason I was even there was to observe the Ironman. It would be a lot of fun to watch 2000 athletes do a mass swim start.  There is a bridge over the swim start that would make it especially good for viewing. On the other hand, I have never been up in a small plane.  The thrill of flying that I used to love on major airlines would be even more intense on a small plane, with the pilot right beside me.  I would miss the swim, but heck, the fastest guy out there is going to take more than eight hours to complete the bloody thing.  I went flying and boy, I'm glad I did.  It was really quite a thrill. Allan even let me have the stick and throttle while we were taking off.  His feet were on the rudder, which I sure is the hard part, but it was a lot of fun to make that thing take off!

We took about a five minute flight to Chandler Airport and had breakfast at the Hangar Cafe. Then we went flying around the desert.  Allan flew low over the desert, which was a great deal of fun, then did a "touch and go" landing. Also a thrill. And then we finally landed and came back. It would have been fun to see the start of the Ironman, but it could not have compared to flying!

John Thum

Mechanical Bull

What a weekend!  So much so that it has taken until Wednesday to write about it.  On Friday night The Great Magnetic Wife and I met her good friend Lori, and Lori's daughter Diana for dinner at the Saddle Ranch on Sunset Blvd. We have lived just down the street from there since it opened, but have never been. The food was so-so, but the service was good and the atmosphere was fun. There was a drunk guy who annoyed just about everyone there, but eventually he was kicked out. 

They gave us a free desert and then the manager came over and offered a free mechanical bull ride.  You betcha!  Having never been on a mechanical bull, but always secretly wanting to, this was my chance.  

I signed my life away on their disclaimer form and within ten minutes was up on the bull.  The guy who operated it gave me a few pointers and off we went. I probably lasted about six or seven seconds and then was bucked off.  The guy asked me if I wanted another round and I said sure.  The second time I was doing quite well.  I counted to eight seconds in my mind and so that would have been a great ride had it been a real bull.  Then some I started to think, "this kind of hurts and it's not that much fun anymore." So I let go and got tossed off.  I'm glad I did it.  I can now cross that off the list of things I need to do. It wasn't very high up on the list, but it was there. Now it's not.

John Thum

Tri-Ku XVI

Our taxes are due

The Great Magnetic Wife frets

No Ironman trip for her

John Thum

The Funk

It often seems that when a big event that I have been preparing for a long time finally comes and goes there is a period let down and bewilderment afterwards. The big event in this case was, of course, the Ironman California 70.3. I prepared and focused on this race for about six months and the week after it finally happened, I was happy I did it, but a little down that it was over.  I felt that way for about two days after the L.A. Marathon, but I knew that the half-ironman was less than a month away and I had to stop feeling aimless and start training.  

I took a break from training almost the whole week after the Oceanside race.  I would log onto The Great Magnetic Field and see my Ironman countdown clock ticking and see that I had over seven months to worry about that and go about my day slightly depressed. 

Finally I went to see Cherie Gruenfeld speak, she's a multiple age-group Ironman world champion. She was promoting and selling her new book, "Become An Ironman," I bought a copy and reading it began to get me out of my funk.  I realized I will need everyone of those days in the next seven plus months to prepare for Ironman Arizona in November.  I started training again quite vigorously last Monday and mapped out my training plan for the rest of the month. 

I wonder what kind of funk I will be in next November after I finish Ironman Arizona?

Speaking of Ironman Arizona, I am going to Tempe this weekend to observe the final April version the race.  I hope I will be able to learn a few things about how to prepare for the race in November.

The Great Magnetic Wife may or may not accompany me as taxes are due and she is in charge.

John Thum

Photos From Oceanside Ironman 70.3

D'oh! I dropped my swim cap.  It's always my favorite souvenir from races.  Swim time 46:09
On the backside at Camp Pendleton.

More Photos From Oceanside Ironman 70.3

Heading back to T2 after 56 miles on the bike.  Bike time 3:38:23, T2 time 6:47.
With my exceedingly awkward gate, I plodded along to a 2:35:40 half-marathon.
I did it!  Don't let the clock time fool you. I started the race 57 minutes after the pros. Final Time 7:17:16.

Tri-ku XV

A kick to the face

The guy in the black wetsuit

I'll remember him

John Thum

Ironman California 70.3 Race Report

The Great Magnetic Wife dropped me about as close to the transition area as a car could go at about 5:00 am, took a few pictures and went back to the hotel for a little more sleep. She can never understand why I want to get to the race site so early, but I'm not sure she understands exactly why I do this. She's a trouper though. I keep telling her that she is under no obligation to come to these things, and she always answers, "don't be silly." She once said, "As mid-life crises go, racing triathlons is preferable to a Ferrari and a young girlfriend."  So true.

I had my backpack stuffed with all of my gear and awkwardly rode my bike, wearing my Crocs instead of my cycling shoes and made it to transition. The Ironman races actually assign each participant a place on the rack.  You don't have to fight for your space.  Very nice.  I spent a long time setting up, before searching for the bathrooms.

When it was time for the pro men to begin, I watched their swim start. About every three minutes another wave began.  I was in wave 17, so it was almost an hour after the first wave that I was to start.  I got in my wetsuit, went to the bathroom one last time, ate a final pre-race Powerbar and headed for the start.  I was kind of just hanging out with a bunch of other dudes in light blue swim caps, figuring that we had time, when I noticed a guy in a light blue swim cap frantically rushing through the crowd.  I wondered if he knew something that I didn't.  I followed and noticed that the people lined up in front of me in orange and green caps were standing behind signs that read "wave 19 and wave 18."  Yikes, I gotta go! I rushed through the crowd, "excuse me, pardon me, sorry about that, I have to get through!" as soon as I approached the boat launch, my wave was just getting in the water.  I would have felt really stupid had I missed the start.

  

We swam to the starting line and did a water start.  I actually like these better than running into the water.  For some reason there is less jostling and kicking than a shore start. I still felt like I was swimming in a washing machine, but I seemed to get kicked less. 

I have always had trouble sighting in an open water swim and always seem to go off course.  I decided that I was going to look up every 10 strokes. I figured on a 1.2 mile swim, It would be a particularly bad idea to add up to another 20% of distance by getting lost.  Whatever time I lost in spending so much time making sure I was on course, I would save in energy that I could use later.  The swim was uneventful, since we were swimming in a protected harbor, the water was fairly calm.  The only hard part was coming back and having the sun right in our eyes.  It was hard to see anything. I finished the swim in 46:09. Not a great time, but the plan was to take it easy and not spend all of my energy at the start.

The plan was also to take my time in transition. This being my first half-ironman, I just wanted to finish.  I was not going to worry about a minute here or there.  My T1 was a little over 10 minutes. 

I headed out on the bike and quickly realized that I was doing the exact same course as the Camp Pendleton International Triathlon that I did last July. The first 15 miles or so, were the same.  It was nice, to have some familiarity with the route. About 10 miles into the course, I passed my friend and fellow L.A. Tri Clubber, Frank Deese. We were also in the same pace group with the L.A. Leggers.

My only real goal was to finish the bike before the cutoff time, but somewhere in my mind I thought I could complete the 56 miles of the bike in 3:15:00. The first half was great, I was averaging about 20 mph through the first 28 miles. At one point I was going up a long, but mild up-hill section and I looked down at the speedometer and saw that I was doing 23 mph. "We obviously have a strong tail wind," I thought to myself. "On the way back we will be on the other side of the mountains, maybe the head wind won't be so strong." Wrong!

  

I completed the first half of the bike in 1:20:00 and I was feeling great.  Then we turned south. The head wind was strong.  There were times on a flat road that I couldn't go any faster that 9 mph.

 

Then I looked ahead and saw a hill that I was really hoping was not part of the course. But as I looked a little harder, I could see cyclists trying to get up.  I could also see people walking their bikes. Fortunately, there was a downhill before it, so I was going to get as much momentum as I possibly could.  I should have been able to get up to 35 mph on the approach, but with the headwind I could only get to about 18 mph. At least half the racers were walking their bikes, I was determined that I was not going to get off of my bike. I was struggling, going about 5 mph, I looked over to the side a saw a guy vomit. This is gnarly! I looked ahead and saw someone serpentine up the hill.  What a good idea. So, I started doing it too, and was able to get all of the way up.  There was another pretty steep hill about 10 miles later, but once I was up that monster, nothing was too much. The wind was still slowing me down and continued to until about the last 5 miles.

My final bike time was 3:38:23. That headwind was a killer. I was a little disappointed with the time, but I'm not sure what else I could have done.  I was glad I put aerobars on my bike, because every time I went into aero position I gained about one mile per hour.

I set my Garmin to beep every 15 minutes. This reminded me to drink and eat.  This worked out well.  I often get famished during training rides, because I forget to eat and drink until it is too late.  But because I was constantly fueling myself, I got off of the bike feeling strong.  Although with all of the drinking and eating, I did have to go to the bathroom, so at least half of my 6:47 T2 time was spent in the port-a-potty.

I went out on the run with a plan.  I trained for the L.A. Marathon by using the Jeff Galloway run-walk method. I ran for 5 minutes and walked for one.  There was another L.A. Tri Club, Laurie Nye, member who went out on the run at the same time and seemed to have the same run-walk plan.  For the first 4 or 5 miles, we passed each other numerous times.  We finally got in sync and ran-walked for the rest of the half-marathon together.  

It was great to run with someone. That is one of the great things about being a part of the L.A. Tri Club. At every part of the race, when ever I passed another member of the club, whether I knew the athlete or not, there was always encouragement. Go L.A. Tri! It really does spur one on. 

As the I got to the last quarter mile, the crowds were cheering, I heard, "Go L.A. Tri!, Go Thum, You're almost there!" I felt good and so I ran as fast as I could for the last 100 yards and finished in the half-marathon portion of the triathlon in 2:35:40 and the whole thing in 7:17:16. The Great Magnetic Wife was there and it was wonderful to see her. 

I asked myself whether I could do that whole thing again right then and there? No. But my November I will be able to.  On to Ironman Arizona!

John Thum

Oceanside Half Ironman 7:17:16

I finished the Ironman California 70.3 in a time of 7:17:16.

Race report coming soon.

John Thum

Click...

After months of worrying and doubt and thinking to myself that I am crazy to attempt a half-ironman, there was finally a moment that clicked on Saturday. I finally thought, "I can do this." I have attempted two very long brick workouts and was thwarted by bike problems on one and hip pain on the other. I had to give up. If this were race day, I might have gone on, but it wasn't and I have never completed anything close to the swim/bike/run distances of a half-ironman all in one day.

Saturday changed that. I did a one mile swim, a forty five mile ride and a seven mile run. The run was a little difficult because I am still experiencing some hip pain, but if it were race day, I could have kept going. I think I can do this!

I did about a half mile swim this morning and will do about twenty miles on the bike this evening. This is exciting.

John Thum

Tri-Ku XIV

I start to shudder
The count-down clock on my blog
Less than two-fifty

John Thum

Busy, Busy, Busy Busy....

This was a busy week. I went out almost every night, which is really unusual, and still managed to train everyday.  I also committed to playing bass at church on Sunday. Between the training, the movies with my friends, etc. I had almost no time to learn the songs.  

Saturday was non-stop. I rode 50 miles on the bike. I planned a brick, but as soon as I started to run my hip hurt. I injured it on my last run on Thursday. I did not want to injure it further, so I stopped.  This gave me a chance to actually shower before I went for rehearsal for church. From rehearsal the Great Magnetic Wife and I went to the L.A. Leggers celebration dinner in Santa Monica. Got back home about 11:00 and up early to go to church for one last rehearsal before the service. I went straight from the service to another attempt at a brick.  I rode for 36 miles and then managed to walk/run somewhat gingerly for 3 miles. I slept very well Sunday night.

John Thum

Ironman, Ironman...

Iron Man, Iron Man

Does whatever an iron can...

Some guy on the web reviewing the new Iron Man movie trailer.

A Very Orthodox Running Style

Out on my usual Thursday morning run, I encountered something I had never seen before. I decided to follow the City of West Hollywood's "Well Walking Path" for my run and see where it would take me. Part of the run was down Santa Monica Boulevard approaching Fairfax. It was there that I spied an unusual sight. It was at about 6:30 in the morning, and because of the early Daylight Saving Time this year, it was still dark. Running ahead of me, in the same direction, was a man in a black suit, white dress shirt and a big black hat. He wasn't going very fast, even slower than me, if you can believe that. At first he looked as if he were jogging to catch a bus or something, but there was no bus around. As I got closer and he kept on going, I realized he was out for his morning run, just like me, only he was an Orthodox Jew who was wearing a black suit and hat. His shoes must have been some sort of soft-sole dress shoe like Rockports, because they sure weren't running shoes. Just as I caught up to him, he turned and went down a side street. But, a short while after I turned on Fairfax Avenue, he was there again. After I passed him, I didn't see him again.

I applaud him for getting his morning exercise, but I have to wonder if he has a special jogging suit. I sure wouldn't want to start my day sweating in the suit I was going to wear for the rest of the day.

John Thum

Sad and Scary

Kristi Gough and Matt Peterson, two bay area cyclists were killed on Sunday, March 9 while on a ride in Cupertino. A Sheriff''s Deputy, who apparently fell asleep in his car and went out of control, hit Kristi and Matt as well as Christopher Knapp, who is recovering at Stanford University Hospital.

I didn't know any of the people involved, although through the L.A. Tri Club I know people who knew Kristi. But it is very sad and scary whenever I hear about a cyclist being killed. When ever I ride on the street, I just assume that cars don't see me. I'm not sure there was anything that Kristi, Matt or Christopher could have done, but it is so important to be vigilant and aware of absolutely everything going on around when out cycling.

That same Sunday, my niece, Rae Brownsberger won a race for the Stanford cycling team in the same general area and with a heavy heart, having full knowledge of what had happened earlier.

Even though I didn't know anybody involved, it cuts me deeply from both sides. As a cyclist and triathlete, I am too aware of the dangers of riding in the street. As someone who hires and works with hundreds of drivers, I am too aware of the dangers of driving when not fully awake. I hired a great guy, just out of the Navy, Dan Evens, to be a test driver. Almost two years ago he was killed when he slammed into the back of a slowed semi when he fell asleep. Part of my job is to conduct safety meetings and teach defensive driving. I have come to realize that driving while fatigued is just as bad as driving drunk.

I pray for all involved in this tragedy.

John Thum

Tri-Ku XIII

Soreness in my legs
Hitch in my get-along
Twenty six point two

Perhaps this should be a Mar-Ku.

John Thum

L.A. Marathon 5:39:37

I did it! I finished the L.A. Marathon! Not nearly as fast as I wanted to, but I finished.

The pace leaders for my 11.5 pace group with the L.A. Leggers were doing a great job and had us slightly ahead of schedule. I was doing really well for the first 15 miles, when I really had to go to the bathroom. I had to go from about mile 5 and it was getting critical. I finally found a port-a-potty bank that didn't have a line, so I left the group and ran over. It has happened before on long runs that as soon as I stop running, my legs start to really hurt. All of the lactic acid just sit in the muscles and the pain is intense.

I did my business and tried to catch up to my pace group. We all wear yellow hats, so it is a fairly easy group to identify in a crowd. After about twenty minutes, with my legs really beginning to hurt, I saw a group of yellow hats ahead. I finally caught up with them, but I realized it was not my group of yellow hatted runners. I was heart-broken. At the same time, I felt a twinge in my calf that I had injured in December. Not wanting to re-injure, I made the decision to walk the rest of the marathon. My sub-five hour finish dream was over. Oh well, I was determined to finish.

I called the Great Magnetic Wife to let her know that I would be later than I hoped. She was downtown and we met on the course. She brought her puppet, Spot the Cheetah, figuring that a cheetah would like the running event. The Great Magnetic Wife is like that. It was wonderful to see her.

Just then I saw a couple of people from my pace group who were also walking. We ended up doing it together with a few short runs from time to time. We did finish the last quarter-mile or so running and strong. I was hoping for a sub-five hour time, but I ended up at 5:39:37. Hey, I finished!

The legs are sore, but the feeling of accomplishment is high.

John Thum

Macca

The L.A. Leggers final training run, before the L.A. Marathon, of one mile was yesterday.  I wasn't even going to go until I heard that after the run Chris "Macca" McCormack was going to be the speaker.  Macca is the current world Ironman champion and a really incredible triathlete. He completed the marathon portion of the Kona Ironman, one of the hardest, hottest, most humid runs in the world in 2:42. Amazing. He was inspirational and a real regular bloke. He really pressed the point that unless you are injured, just keep going. It is much better to have a slow time and finish than to quit. 

John Thum