Alcatraz Triathlon - course advice

Which bike? I rode the Trek without aero bars because I was too lazy to put them on... in fact I wasn't even sure if I would actually do anything but the swim since I had a cold/flu. Of course, I took all my gear to transition just in case I felt like riding/running... seeing my bike I figured what the hell, I could ride 18 miles at an easy pace... same decision process at T2... you get the picture... This year I will ride the Trek (w/ bars!) as it seems to make most sense for the course/hills. It's either uphill or downhill with only a couple of flat stretches. I reckon if you did a poll of the pro field you might get a 50/50 response on road vs. tri-bike set-up. I guess it depends if you're equally comfortable on both bikes. I tend to think I'm a stronger climber on the Trek, and the bike is lighter. I actually brought up the question with Chris last weekend and he advised the Trek without hesitation... hopefully you'll have the Seven by then?

As for the course... my course commentary sucks... I wish Bailey had written up Alcatraz... would be far more colorful... plus I have a crappy memory... but here goes.

Swim - there's a *mandatory* meeting the day before to disseminate information on the currents/sighting etc for the swim. I think you have less to worry about than me because I assume you'll just be following a lead kayak? They leave the amatuers to flail along at their own sweet pace. Don't forget the 3/4mile run from Crissy Field back to T1 at Marina Green... best to throw on a pair of sneakers for this so bring two pairs.

Bike - I'll add a few personal notes to GGTC course description - link below. It's an out & back course and it's basically uphill or downhill the entire way. Plus the roads are pretty bad/potholed! 18 miles with approx. 1900ft of climbing. The first mile or so out of transition is flat but then it's uphill or downhill until you reach the Great Highway at mile 6 or so. Gradient-wise, some of these inclines are 8% and above. Beware the hard right at mile 5. You transition from a sharp downhill to a sharp(ish) incline so if you're not careful it could get ugly - dropping a chain would be the big rookie mistake here. Big downhills with turns until you hit a short flat section along the Great Highway. Then you turn into Golden Gate Park and hit the moderate *rollers* of the park. This is a moderate recovery section of the course (though it's short so I'm not sure you get to recover at any point...). After the park you retrace your pedal strokes back along the Geat Highway and climb back past the Cliff House. I'm guessing the grade averages 7-8% and flattens out briefly as you turn left onto Camino del Mar and make the right onto Clement St which is very short but probably 15%+ grade. The climb back up to the Legion of Honor (past the golf course) is ~4-5%. Turn right at the Legion and it's downhill until mile 14 when you have another ~0.75 mile climb (~6%) to the top of Baker Beach. After that, it's downhill or flat all the way back to T2. I'll ride it in the next week or so, and if something springs to mind, I will let you know. You should definitely drive/ride the course on Friday/Saturday before the race because there are lots of twists and turns.

http://ggtc.org/alcatraz_bike.php

Run - Almost an out & back course. Long flat stretch out of transition. Mix of tarmac then packed dirt through Crissy Field. Must be 1.5 miles before hitting the stairs/very steep dirt section which leads you to the coastal trail. The steep section is short, 1/4 mile or so before levelling out (slight uphill) until you reach the GGB and are on the Coastal Trail. This is narrow (will make more of a difference for you on the return than on the way out!) and includes a short flight of wooden steps (~10-12 steps). Basically flat for ~ 1 mile until you reach the top of Baker Beach and then big downhill (the hill you just biked) to the beach. Run out and back along the sand for about 3/4 of a mile. This gets you to the famed *sand ladder*. You've seen it on TV, right? Basically two steps foward, one step back for 0.5mile. Most people walk the steepest section. Use the ropes. At the top, you'll retrace your steps back to Marina Green. ~0.25mile uphill to get you back onto the trail part, after which it will be downhill and then the flat 1.5mile Crissy Field section back to the finishing chute

There is No Easy Way by Chris Hauth

Here I go again. Traveling this past week has afforded me the opportunity to read, write a lot of notes and then of course gather these different inputs and combine them into some sort of squabble that might benefit all of us. I know it goes deep at times and thank you for enduring my rambling. BUT - It was also interesting that while I was reading two books (J. Krishnamurti, Think of These Things & The Perfect Mile by N. Bascomb) it seems some of you have been getting restless - both these books addressed some of the simple facts you are getting too analytical about in your training and racing. While it is that time of year where we start thinking more about our races and analyze our 'feeling', there are some Truths that we seem to accept more when races are far off on the horizon. Why is it that we start taking all our inputs, from heart rate to eating habits and break them into fragmented pieces that are supposed to tell us something - show us we are improving, give us a pat on the back and let us know we are strong, healthy and fit? Why do we not think of these data points in the fall or the off-season? Why do we need validation as we get closer to race day?

Because we fear the simplicity of this entire process. Some of you have heard me say in the past weeks "this is all so simple, so easy". Not easy in effort but easy in how this process works. Most of you then shake your heads and figure 'that's easy for him to say' or 'he is soo full of himself'. Well, I have written this comment before and it exemplifies the ultimate Truth to me and how simple it all is:

There is no easy way -- there are consequences to every action, if you define sport in terms of process, then the fact that the path is difficult is the whole point! All athletes have assets and liabilities -- the only path to true satisfaction is by striving to achieve 100% of our own personal potential. Whether we achieve anything in life is 100% our doing -- no coach can create success, the athlete is responsible.

There is no easy way -- I love that sentence. If it were easy, why do it? The reason most of you enjoy this endurance sport is because of the challenge of it as well as the lifestyle of being fit and on an almost permanent fitness 'high' - knowing one can go out and ride any mountain or a 100+ miles is a great feeling. But is is not easy, nor is it supposed to be. Life provides us with a natural filter, those that want to sacrifice and suffer for this privilege of fitness and those that don't. It is that simple: suffer and sacrifice gives us a reward.

There is no easy way -- Why do we look for a magic formula? Why do we question our training, our inputs, our results, our data points? Why do we wonder about strength vs. power, how one person is faster than someone else, why too hard is so disheartening and too easy is just not the right feeling? There is only one way - to just do it. It might seem boring, but it is that simple. Go out and consistently work the miles.

There is no easy way -- We all have our motivations, our reasons. These don't have to be crypto-religious reasons - for most of you it should be this simple: to cover ground fast. Not only to better than the next competitor, but better than yourself...That is the true simple nature of what this sport is - a challenge to cover ground faster than you did previously. While training is for many of us is a rite of purification, that feeling of it being a lifestyle because it feels so good, from it comes speed and strength. But training also needs to simulate racing - and racing is a rite of death; from it comes knowledge (Krishnanurti). While this sounds intense, this rite demands a certain amount of time spent precisely on the Red Line - where you are riding the edge and there is nothing but hurt, suffering and pain on the other side. It is a knowledge of this experience that will prepare us better for that race day. It is not easy to train/race on this Edge - but then again, if we can spend a significant time on it...well, you know that answer.

There is no easy way -- We all make our sacrifices but we also need to keep it simple. We are all athletes (and some of you really are!) with an absurdly difficult task. This daily toil is arduous; satisfying on the whole, but not the bounding, joyous, happy-day nature romp we read in magazines. We listen carefully (??!!) to our bodies and heed strange requests. We all know what the mystic-athletes, the joggers, the water-cooler triathletes and others of their ilk say. But we also know that their euphoric selves are generally nowhere to be seen on dark, rainy mornings - especially not on the early weekends. They primarily want to talk it, not do it.... Simple: the true athlete trains even when he does not feel like it, races when supposed to, without excuses and with nothing held back. One does not question strength and power, heart rate and zones - they just go out and do the miles, do the work, put their head down and remain within the process - there are consequences to every action - if done honorably and consistently those consequences are positive result in our own personal definition of positive.

And the simple Truth -- We all have to go out and do it. As Roger Bannister said (um 50 years ago yesterday) the Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. The true competitive athlete, simmering in our own existential juices, we endure our melancholia the only way we know how: gently , together with those few others who endure/understand with us; yet sometimes very much alone. We have to do it. Just get through it with all we know how. Trial of Miles - they do add up, the hours of work, the cold, simple fact that our toil will result in a better race - but not guaranteed. Miles of Trials - there are ups and downs, days where things all fall into place and days where it is impossible to get our of bed or climb that hill fast, or work that interval as hard as you should, or h-a-n-g on to that wheel. Days where it all seems to fall apart and we see the lady in the lake or the wheel in front of us fade over the hill in front of us. You just gotta do it - it's that simple. There is no magic formula, there is no easy way...

And finally - take this tidbit of information from the book I just finished with you: The main point/difference in Krishnanurti's book is that he doesn't espouse any particular path, belief system or other dogma. His view is that there is a universal truth within us all - we simply need to quiet our mind for this truth to become apparent..... He also talks quite a bit about the only real truth being what we experience for ourselves and that it is not possible to follow anything, anyone, any creed to a truth... truth is a pathless land... get it? Simply put - there is no easy way, just our own.....

Word.

Chris

Saturday 1 May - Wildflower Long Course Triathlon

Calories - 1,000 during race, at least 3,000 post-race and let's not begin to count Sunday's ice-cream *treats* ; Alcohol units - 4 (two red wine and 1 *buttery nipple*) all post-race; Negative thoughts during the run - gazillion, if people heard my self-talk, I'd be committed to a mental institution; High temperature in Lockwood- 93F Event - 1.2mi swim, 55mi bike, 13.1mi run

7:50am - National Anthem singer is a *no-show*. Sing-a-long to an instrumental version... if only I knew the words... I'm clearly not yet ready for my citizenship test.
8:00am - Official start time of men's pro wave but the athletes are having trouble grasping the concept of the start line being on the concrete ramp rather than in the water.
8:02am - Close-up view of the men's start... more white-water that a Class V rapid! 9:17am - Wave 16, i.e. women's 30-34 gets underway... Lake San Antonio is balmy. Didn't even flinch when the water hit the bottom of the wetsuit zipper.
9:54am - Hurrah! Out of the water. Look at watch. 37minutes. Oh, no! But I can swim 2200yds in 32minutes in the pool! Why so slow?
10:04am - Riding 10% grades of Beach Hill, *Egg Beaters* passes me. Note to self that I'll be seeing her again. I feel icky, my quads are sore. Remind myself it's only mile 3.
11:18am - Somewhere along Jolon Road. Finally warmed up. Need to begin working the flatsthough I'm feeling nauseous? Clif bars are not very appealing right now but must eat! What to do?
11:23am - Pass Megan who yells that there are about a dozen W30-34 ahead of me. No
idea how she's keeping count because *body markings* seemed to have washed off in the lake but am cheered slightly by the fact that I'm moving through the field. Eat some Clif Bar. Hope I can keep it down.
12:07pm - Middle of the friggin' day and I'm climbing shadeless Nasty Grade... Bugger! But I'm riding the Trek and I have a 12-27 rear cassette. How hard can it be?
12:09pm - "Jordan Cantwell". Who's calling me? Turn head to look around.
Brian Finlay: "There are five W30-34 ahead of you, I've been keeping count
for you. Good luck".
12:15pm - Pass *Egg Beaters girl*... Told you so! But she's 26...
12:25pm - "Phipp, phipp, phipp..." What's that noise? Darn... rode over someone's helmet sticker and it is plastered on my front wheel.
12:26pm - "Phipp, phipp, phipp..." Dismount and carefully unpeel the sticker, which then sticks to my fingers. Unpeel sticker from fingers.
12:27pm - Remount.
12:49pm - Cruise into T2. Rack bike. Discover bag of gummy worms is now one single, molten jelly snake. Abandon the candy idea. Leave T2 with water bottle and Clif shots.
1:01pm - Mile 1 of the run. No women in sight... just guys. But everyone is walking? Why? It's *swim, bike, run* not *swim, bike, death march*. C'mon people.
1:19pm - Olympic Club cheering posse. Flanny hands me a capful of ice which I place into my cap. Is that an illegal assist? Never mind. Have not seen a course marshall all day.
1:21pm - Mile 3. I'm running 10 minute miles. This is not good... but I'm the only one running. That's good isn't it? Why won't the guys start running?
1:33pm - Naked water stop... naked girl with *freshman twenty* and *brazilian bikini
wax* tries to high 5 me. Eeuww.
1:45pm - Steep section of trail... now I'm walking and it feels good. I can walk all 13 miles can't I? Remind myself that I can't walk at Lake Placid so pick up the pace barely.
1:56pm - Mile 6. I'm running 11-12min/miles. This is terrible. Girl runs by me. She's
42...phew, not my age-group, but I'm being run down by 42 year olds! Develop new *aid station protocol* - cup of water on head, 3 gulps of Gatorade, cup of water with Clif shot. Feel much better. 2:12pm - Back in campground. Crowds cheering because I'm the only girl in sight. Somehow I've revived and I'm running 7min 30s pace. This is good! Where did it come from? GGTC and SFTri clubs start yelling my name. I'm moving! Yay!
2:20pm - Cruise by KKS cheering posse... Lots of noise. Hear Pete's voice call "Go JC" but am focused and continue running at this new-found pace.
2:36pm - Running uphill out of *the Pit* and see 32 year old girl ahead of me. I pass her but she picks up the pace and stays on my shoulder. "Just keep running your pace, Jordan."
2:37pm - 32 year old is breathing heavily and *drops off the back*. Pass JPM colleague, Seth Miller. Smile to self.
2:42pm - Steep run down Lynch Hill. I'm flying downhill and grimacing from the pain as the newly-formed blisters on the balls of my feet are being punctured. Ouch!
2:49pm - Cross finish line in 5hrs 35min 46s

Good enough for 5th place in my age-group, which at Wildflower merits a place on the podium. Even better news is that Natalie took 1st place in our age-group!

Jordan