jeremygrant.com

4hrs surfing, 3 good waves — SW swell was hella weak: 1-4ft long periods

then rested one hour,

76 miles nonstop cycling, 3:59:07, 19 mph avg, 35 mph high — NW winds build into PM

went to the doctor on tuesday.

doctor prescribed “several weeks” of rest for my leg which has an extrememly bad shin splint… i kept pestering him during the examination and he’s like “your leg is red!” and “its really inflamed and swollen” and i barely even walked on it that day…

oh well…

he also said that if i continue to screw up my recovery it will make things worse and i will end up never being able to run again….

so the running shoes and all my miles are shelved for a while

swimming and biking and all the other fun stuff will continue… maybe i’ll do a hill/elevation century for fun

its so depressing seeing all the runners coming out in this weather when i ran all winter getting ready for my half marathons summer… guess i’ll be relegated to the 10K late season this year, at least i got a decent 5K and horrible 10K in this early season.

half iron man 2008 here i come (or 2007–crossing fingers) hmmm maybe i can do the early ’08 half iron man (70.3) california in SD !!! its a plan

This was by far the most ominous triathlon i had ever challenged… it’s reputation precedes itself… i was scared…constantly through the early season i was worried that i wasn’t doing enough hills on the bike or trail running up hill… when i was hit with the gimp leg weeks before i made every effort to work towards finishing this race at any cost… especially if it meant placing low and walking part of the run. i wasn’t worried about caliman (a 1/2 iron distance event) i was more worried about wildflower and its brutal bike course and death march run.

pre race
race tapered 3 days, tuned up the bike, packed my bags and gear three times, tested the tent and sleeping bag, took a Friday off work and left around noon on a glorious 4 1/2 hour drive to the beautiful shores of Lake San Antonio in majestic Monterrey County.

i set up camp, got my gear unpacked and took the bike out for a ride on half the bike course. man it was hilly and i topped out at 50 mph on one downhill….made it back to camp feeling just a little intimidated, ate and took a nap… then trekked downhill like 2 miles to eat dinner, register and trekked another couple miles uphill to chill and go to bed early so i could wake up early and watch the pros race…

woke up and trekked down to see the long course start… wow it was exciting

after i took a swim of half the swim course… the water is so clean and cool here….i had lunch and dinner and so much pasta i could puke (i was eating so much all weekend) and then went to bed way early after i packed my transition bag.

i woke up, had breakfast, and rode down to transition at 7am, set up transition, walked transition twice, left some markers along the way… i wasn’t going to warm up the bike, i needed to conserve energy on a course like this — maybe next year i’ll warm up…. i was ready for the start and made my way to the 9:30 am start… i was at the Porto potty when the national anthem was on… how fitting… first two waves started and then i was able to warm up the swim.

swim
it was a strong swim start as i seeded myself in front. it felt like it was going on longer than i thought it would and i went off course once… i wasn’t so used to swimming in a lake this time… 1 mile, 00:28:14, 540th/2701 overall

t2
i exited the water like a pro, found my spot easy and made the transition quick… ah could have been quicker…0:02:10

bike
i got onto the bike strong and then hit that first hill of 400 ft elevation in 1 mile… appropriately named “Lynch Hill” everyone was struggling except a couple guys that powered up like it was nothing… i could tell that some people had not tested the course prior to the race so i had an advantage of strategy of where i could make my moves in the beginning but once i made it to the core of the course i was playing tag with some great riders… these hills were the real enemies tho… they were brutal… in relation to the long course these hills were nothing but i am sure this is the hardest Olympic course there is… i was really scared to death on some of the downhills…. i had never even gone that fast before, 50mph?!!! no way!!!….1600+ feet of elevation climb over 25 miles, by mile 22 i was ready for it to end and thankfully the drop down lynch hill would be a rest before the run…. right as i dropped in my chain came undone and i did the last mile downhill at 35mph with no chain….no problem….i wasn’t going to try and fix it and risk a crash… i made it to the dismount line easy and was into t2, 25 miles, 1:23:08, 369th/2701 overall, 17.8 avg mph

lynch me hill

t2
i ran into t2, found my spot easily and saw that most of the bikes in my division were still out… that’s a good feeling… i got my shoes on and took time to tape my leg up. i started to walk and feel that my leg wasn’t doing so great… time to walk it out… i mostly walked and jogged the first 4 miles through uphill trails and got some words of encouragement along the way… my favorite was from the 46 year old age grouper that looked 35 and was on his way to victory telling me “way to work through the pain, keep it going you’re doing good!!” it was hell trying to run on that leg… but i wasn’t going to give up… i was going to jog just under the threshold of unbearable pain and wait for the endorphins to kick in. every step on that leg made me feel the sharp pain in my bone… i wasn’t breathing hard at all, my muscles weren’t sore… it was just that damn bone… each time a piercing pain… i even passed a couple guys who were just out of shape… then i hit mile 4 and forgot about the pain and let my stride go long and work it into a steady run… i didn’t feel the pain as much anymore and let myself go even if it wasn’t a real run pace… i didn’t care at this point… but no one was passing me anymore….then i made the turn to the finish chute and finally it was over… the worst run in history was over… 6.2 miles, 1:17:12, 0:12:27 per mile, 2339th/2701 overall

finish/post-race
i was happy to finish, this race was a big deal to me… even if i couldn’t race the run i did well on the rest of the course and this just gives me a reason to come back and take revenge… 3:13:36, 1043rd/2701 overall, 871st/1475 men’s, 170th/279 division

it was the first time i didn’t even care about my time, it was about completing the race and having fun. well i told myself that for most of the day but the truth is i wanted to place high in the ranks in my division and my run killed that dream… it has taught me that i need to be smarter about training and know when to hold back in training so i don’t have to hold back in a race… it ended up costing me like 150 places !!!! i hit the medical tent for some ice for my leg and had some fruit and a protein bar… i actually even ate lunch and had a beer even though i was so sick of eating food at this point i knew i needed it. i was in a little daze and decided instead of hanging out I’d rather just get out of there and so I trekked back up to camp, packed up, cleaned up and got out of there feeling great… i was still hungry but i was just so sick of eating…. i got some drive through on the way home on the 101 and i just demolished a couple huge burritos and was still hungry… i have not felt like that in ages… i was so sick of eating for a week after…

laser tag

throwies

~research for the new retail environment