Monday, May 31, 2010

Hawaii Part I

Well, I finally made it back to Hawaii.. So happy right now. This has basically been the gold at the end of the rainbow (really gay analogy, but it's the best I can do right now). The last 4 months has been the semester from Hell, and I don't feel one bit of guilt not thinking about school right now. Thankfully, I've been able to do a couple of little local sprint races this last month, which basically just served as good brick sessions. I got 1st in my division in the Encinitas Sprint and 14th overall, only a few min back from Macca and Luke Bell. I also won my first race, which was cool. I did a San Diego Tri Club race on fiesta island a week ago or so ago and came out 40+ seconds ahead of my buddy Michael Clinch, (which I was stoked about, because that guy can fly on the run). Very cool to finally win a race and I thank God for the ability to do so.

After a slight scramble at the airport on Sunday, I made it here in one piece (with the exception of my bike, which was in many pieces, but has since then been reassembled). I'm pretty excited about the bike leg of this race.. B&L Bikes (which I recently started working at) was kind enough to lend me a pair of Zipp race wheels. Man, they are fast. Also, having knowledge of the bike course this year is paying off. Getting here a week early and riding the course is quite nice, so I know when and where to push it and where to take it easy so I don't blow up.

I have such a love-hate relationship with the Big Island. Probably one of the nicest places on earth. I swam for an hour yesterday, admiring all of the sea life swimming under me in crystal clear water. The bike course is amazing, as it parallels the coast the entire way and has semi-truck sized bike lanes to ride in. However, this is Hawaii, where great feelings of confidence and energy can be wiped away with a searing heat wave or a relentless head wind.

I had a pretty ridiculous ride yesterday. Nothing is more frustrating/depressing than biking 30 miles into a head wind averaging 18-20 mph on a full out effort, then upon turning around you find the winds have changed and you get a headwind on the way back as well. This was just my luck yesterday. You know it's bad when you're watching the plants on the side of the road to see where the wind will be gusting so you can brace yourself, rather than watching the road itself. I found out it was 20-30 mph gusts. Super sketchy. What was really awesome was, when leaving my place yesterday, I rode down a 5 mile 1000ft decent to the Queen K, into a headwind (which was frustrating, but not the end of the world). It was only fitting that after these painful 55 miles to Hawi and back, I head up this again... into a headwind. Talk about torture. That's Hawaii for you.

I don't even want to talk about running over here. I take that back, I do. Hills, heat, & humidity. That about sums up the run this Saturday. All you can think about is stopping during the 13.1 miles of Hell. I've been doing course specific training for this run in the last few months so I'm feeling pretty confident about it. I'm not going to let it beat me this year, that's all I can say.

I'll have another update closer to race day this week. Just trying my best to enjoy Hawaii and stay focused over here. My parents come in late Wednesday so I'm basically doing a lot of sleeping on the beach right now;)
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go throw popcorn at the turkeys chillin on the golf course before going for a run.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you are having an awesome week. Good luck this weekend. Only special athletes get to say they rode on the "Queen K". Keep up your writing, it's not only entertaining but motivating too. If only I had such interesting things to write about in my training.

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