an entry somewhere else » Triathlon

Epic Triathlon (their nomenclature)

Anthony — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:08:10 +0000

Yesterday, I completed the last of my summer fun–a sprint triathlon in Petoskey, MI. The results:

500m swim: 13:02, pace: 2:37/100m
T1: 4:44 (this included a 400-500m run from the water to transition area)
20k bike: 40:18, 18.5mph (this had some big hills)
T2: 0:53
5 mile run (~8k): 41:53, 8:23 min/mile
Overall: 1:40:48, 2d in my age group (9min behind leader); Overall: 18 out of 40, (20min behind leader)

The swim was nice and enclosed in a harbor. I had a decent pace considering I hadn’t swam since Colorado. The pace was actually near to the pace for my Oly in late June. The bike had some big hills that dropped me down into the single digits for speed. The run was longer than the usual sprints (and only about a mile less than an Oly length), so I started off pretty slow and picked it up once the path went into the trail with a heckuva kick on the last mile. I’m happy with the pace for the run as well. That’s it for this season for me. I’m going to winterize the bike and take it easy to settle in.

Transit

Anthony — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:07:33 +0000

Well, I’m now in Boulder. Last night, I came with one of the friends I was staying with earlier for the Stroke & Stride. It’s a little swim and run at the Boulder reservoir. I finished the 750m swim in 19:33 and the 5k run in 26:47. Transition time: 1:32. Of course, I do get to claim that I’m at altitude at the moment. A little disappointed in the swim, but I’ve not been hitting any water with regularity lately unless it’s been as part of analysis of yeast cultures.

Next athletic event: Petoskey Sprint Triathlon on August 19.

I rented a road bike here and my friend has his own, so we did a short ride today up some hills. The scenery was great when I could get my eyes on it rather than keeping my eye on the road.

A Year of Fitness

Anthony — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:50:50 +0000

Last year, I trained for a sprint triathlon in my entry to the sport. Three weeks ago, I completed my first Olympic-length triathlon (see the Triathlon page for my training regime). Yesterday, I ran the same sprint tri that started me off. This year was teeth-chattering cold in the water, wet on the bike and a little sun on the run. I’ll compare.

Last year: 3d of 8 in my age group, 69/125 all men

Swim: 20:02, Pace: 4:01/100m, Rank: 6
Transition 1: 3:52
Bike: 40:31, Avg speed: 18.5 mph, Rank: 3
Transition 2: 1:08
Run: 27:36, Pace: 8:53/mile, Rank: 3
Total: 1:33:06

This year (with change in time from last year): 11th of 24 in my age group, 71/158 all men

Swim: 16:11, Pace: 3:15/100m, Rank: 9/24 Comparison- 20:02 v 16:11
Transition 1: 3:18 Comparison: 3:52 v 3:18
Bike: 40:14, Avg speed: 18.5mph, Rank: 12/24 Comparison: 40:31 v 40:14
Transition 2: 1:20 Comparison: 1:08 v 1:20
Run: 25:37, Pace: 8:15mph, Rank: 11/24 Comparison: 27:36 v 25:37
Total: 1:26:38 Comparison: 1:33:06 v 1:26:38

A 6:28 minute improvement! Got whacked in the head a couple times on the swim, plus I hadn’t swam in two weeks. The bike was wet and I did take the turns a little slow and felt the burns on the quads…. I may turn in one more sprint this season.

There She Is

Anthony — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:04:01 +0000

My New Toy: Less the new pedals. Can you say birthday and Christmas present together? The new computer will have to wait;)

Athleticism or Torture?

Anthony — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:09:51 +0000

Bali International Triathlon, 24 June 2007

1500m swim: 39m26s
T1: 2m47s
40k bike: 1h25m20s
T2: 58s
10k run: 58m06s
Total: 3h06m35s

Father’s Day

Anthony — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:13:29 +0000

Yesterday was Father’s Day; last Friday one of my brother’s got married (finally). The latter one puts me in a precarious position as I have repeatedly told people at my uni (students and teachers alike) that I can’t get married until my older brother is married. He always said he was never going to get married. Oops. Now, everyone is expecting me to choose someone to marry in a week. I muster the largest grin I can and do my job.

I’ve been putting my things in order as of late and see that I have way too much stuff. I’m going to leave much of my everyday things and have successfully unloaded the big-ticket items. I have plenty of books to give away. I’m not really sure what else to do with them. Many are at a level that even graduate level students here would have trouble with and I doubt that they are yearning for Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. I know I didn’t; it was on sale. I’m reevaluating my return shipment of books and other assorted material. I know I’m going to buy a lot more over the next week or so.

Less than a week until the inaugural Bali Triathlon.

Dasar Bugil

Anthony — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:56:13 +0000

I nearly went bonkers this week. We ran six days of workshop with two different groups. I did the last three days myself. That’s about 7 hours a day on my feet. Of course, I wasn’t mumbling along the whole time as that would have been pedagogically unsound. Besides, I really don’t like my own voice anyhow.

I also took my chances with the dermatologist this week. My counterpart graciously acccompanied me and informed me after the fact that he would have paid the doctor half what I did for the same services. I paid 20,000 for lab work, 100,000 for consultation (the doctor was walking around in bare feet and took a three second look at my fungus BEFORE washing her hands), and 195,000 for medication. The medication came unlabled in two bags. I have no idea what I’m taking. No one asked me if I was taking any other medications that could contraindicate usage. Hmmm. I’m just happy I’m relatively healthy.

Next week I’m off for Malaysia for more meetings and a presentation at Asia TEFL-a nice pad to the resume that has not been getting any bites. Doh! This trip, along with skipping off to Bali on the 21st for the triathlon, leaves my days in Makassar numbered to less than 20. It’s going to fly by… Some of my Fellow colleagues have lined up jobs in Burma and Greece while others are in the same boat as me–unemployed. I even recently emailed the Overlord to say I’d take another year in Makassar if there was trouble filling the post. He politely reminded me that I said nothing in January about re-upping, and the post was already filled. Fair enough.
The next step is… Perhaps the important thing to take away from this is that I’m not freaking out about lining up a job right now.

Heckuva time

Anthony — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:04:24 +0000

I’m still nose-deep in the pie of life here. Work is still at my fingertips as I write this. The last week has been a bit of folly. One workshop suffered a three-hour loss of electricity and caused the classrooms to be nothing short of a sauna in only tens of minutes. My first thought was that someone didn’t pay the electricity, but that thought was unfounded. Something or other burned out somewhere. Today, the set of lines that the computers and copier are plugged into went dead. No one knows what’s up with that. I think we paid the electrician enough to do the job right. I could be wrong. I hope it’s all going to work tomorrow, or else I’m going to have a rough go of it.

I’ve done little emailing as I had a houseguest from my program for a few days and the final round of workshops have been hell. Well, not hell, but stressful and messing up my triathlon training at the same time. I have no doubt this has also contributed to another raging case of foot fungus. I’ve got the meds and creams as of tonight. Wish me luck!

With that said, I’m to get back to work, at home.

The Home Stretch, Perhaps

Anthony — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:42:51 +0000

I’ve been a busy bugger here as of late. Between that and the worsening phone line in my house, the internet just hasn’t been as fun as it should be. Blogging has been frustrating. Anything online has been frustrating. C’est la vie.

I’m off to the Big Durian (Jakarta) on Thursday. This week is truncated due to a holiday on Thursday and the uni has also closed for Friday. This would be pretty nice but the whole reason I’m heading to Jakarta is for a training on a new teacher training developed by the DoS. I can’t say that I have any love for Jakarta and its enormity, but the periodic leave from Makassar is a necessity. I’ll probably try and catch the Hindu New Year in Bali at the end of the month as well.

With all that said, I’ve been trying to shake off a head cold with mega-hits of vitamin C and rest. I postulate that the fumes in the air have finally hit me. Of course, I am undiagnosed. As long as the cold doesn’t migrate below the neck, I’ll still be training for the triathlon.

And, even though I didn’t forget to send a personal email, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Officially official

Anthony — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 04:54:51 +0000

I’ve just made the plunge and entered the Bali Triathlon! They’ve got my non-refundable electronic transfer, so I’m in. I’m still in need of procuring a worthy bicycle and helmet along with other accoutrement of triathlon need. There’s a new page I’ve created to chronicle the microscopically fascinating daily regime for the training and not clutter up the other factoids that make up my life.