Ernesto Villarroel's Group - FULL (Page 20)

Tizon, this is an awesome story!

I've been trying to get my son, who's a dedicated surfer, to do some running at least with not much success. To most surfers triathlons are definately not on the 'cool list'. 

Thanks Mark and Barry.  Yes it is official.  I did my first one and Ernesto is as awesome in person as he is on the forum.  I was probably most excited that he was there!  Thanks Ernesto.

I am amazed that he got swim pictures through the glass, since there were no spectators allowed in the pool area.

I think it's hilarious that Ernesto told me to get the time thing out of my head when I wanted to set a time goal.  After I finished and he left, he called me to ask me my time.  Since I wasn't yet thinking clearly, I said I was just going to get it off the internet.  What I should have said was "you told me to quit thinking about time and just have fun, so I did".

So I wanted 1:45 to 1:50 and I got 1:49:37.6.  I think I had fun too.   I'll post a race report after my nap

Well, I can honestly say it took a lot of persuading to get some of the boys in the surf crew to join me.  They see some dudes running around in speedo's and this doesn't give the best impression.  Here is what I said to break this down for them...When you break your leash on a big day, can you swim in?

Here in texas the waves break on sandbars and usually its really easy to paddle out past the breakers.  Thing is that when it gets big here in Texas it means that there is a Hurricane out in the Gulf,(Katrina,Rita,Ike,Brett) and texas surfers pride themselves on surfing those rare Hurricane swells instead of evacuating inland.  However, to surf the hurricane swell requires alot of paddling, waves will be breaking as far as you can see out on the horizon.  These waves need a deep gut(sandbar) to break, and its usually about 1-1.5miles out to sea where the swell actually becomes a rideable wave, as you can imagine, the currents are raging, there is an endless wall of whitewater that takes hours to punch through.  This requires alot of endurance and you need to have a solid crew that can back you up when you paddle out these days.  Your arms start to feel like spagetti, and the surfboard feels like it isnt even there.  If you get lucky and punch through to the outside, you get to take a breath, turn around and you cant even recognize where you are, the currents can sweep you down the beach as much as 10miles just on the paddle out.  You take time to re-catch your breath, and you may spend as much as an hour waiting for the right wave to come through,drifting further down the beach and in some cases further out to sea.  Then a 3 story wall of water  pops up and lines up about for 200 yards, you dont really know where the take off point is so you spend time waiting for the right one,  you catch one and it can take you all the way back in.  You might spend 5-6 hours out there and maybe catch 2-3 waves.  Then jog back to where you parked for another  2 hours. 

Endurance is what surfers need.  There are many surfers who rely to heavily on their leashes.  Leashes break and when they do you better hope someone in your crew saw you.  I'm confident that our buddy system works out there but sometimes you never know,  your leash pops, no one sees you, and you panic, better know deep down that you can swim back in. 

Surfers can really get too attached to their boards, so its a real reality check when your leash breaks and your board dissapears and you realize that your not that strong a swimmer.  If your going to be a committed surfer you better be in shape.

This reality check came for me when I was out surfing in Washington State, the beach was littered with huge logs that get washed out to see from the rivers from all the logging, they float just beneath the surface and you cant see'em, It was Big day solid 15-20footers rolling through and pitching out, hollow, the water was freezing dark emerald green and after about 45minutes of paddling out I was greeted by a pissed off sea lion who circled around me and barked and barked, this sent shivers down my spine, that sea lion was huge (what out there eats these things) then it dawned on me, i was in great white country, not in the little backyard texas, but the sea lion went away and i calmed down,  and a beauty of a wave came through.  It was early morning only one other person out, and I took off way to deep and this wave came down on me hard.  I popped up on the back side then like a freight train my leash pulled me, my board was tombstoning with the whitewater, then POP, my board was gone, I was 400yards off into Great white country,and my heart sank, I started thrashing the water swimming as hard as i could,BOOM, big wave lands right on my back and puts me through the spin cycle, which way is the surface gasp for air, images of sunken logs going through my head,sea lions, then great whites, I was panicking , "calm down" i said to myself, back stroking, breath in, dont panic, I got in the groove and blocked out all the bad thing i couldnt see below me,  my board was waiting for me at the beach, leash snapped, energy gone, defeated.  I was so happy to be on the land. 

What i learned, dont rely on my leash, especially thin ones from texas. 

Ernesto or anyone that knows,

How do I do a race report?  It says do I want to copy data, but copy it from where?  I know I can upload from my Garmin but it will just go to the regular training blog.

Your assistance please.

Never mind.  I figured it out.

Tyson, your stories are cooler than triathlons. Now I'm itching about surfing, I never heard anyone that did it and didn't love it. Too bad the only surf up here is when the cars are passing by during the flash floods.

I would go for the Olympic at Captex, you can finish it although the bike is hilly on that course. Make sure you train in the heat too, Captex is one of the first hot races of the year. Also, procure a wetsuit because the water at Barton Springs is COLD. It is a good race. If you have any doubts or want to get SUPER ready for the distance, wait until October and do Toyota US Open here in Dallas, it is by far a World Class Event and I'm racing it as I've done the last three editions. Jackie, I highly recommend you think about it too.

It's official.  I got 'er done.

Ernesto,

Should I swim tomorrow or rest?  I thought about trying my wetsuit in one of the lakes in my neighborhood instead of driving to the pool.  I'd like to work towards an open water tri next.

It depends on your wear from the race. I'll tell you though that swimming is very therapeutic, you recover faster from swimming than you do by doing nothing. Your choice. If you choose to go open water, find a lake that has a "no wake" buoy line to use for sighting, remember the black line will disappear so you will have to start developing that skill. Don't just swim out in the open without references.

MAKE SURE IT IS LEGAL IN YOUR COUNTY. Don't go to jail! hahaha.

This is so true! I couldn't believe swimming in Lake Michigan was ILLEGAL in Chicago and Ohio Street Beach was the only place to allocated to train!

Went to the pool because we got the cold front from Benbrook today.  Our lakes are private, we have 5 of them.  And, they all have houses around them.  I figure I can swim from a house on one side to a house on the other, right?  The lakes are pretty deserted right now, so it would be hard to find someone to make a wake.  I plan to take a friend with me so I'm not out there alone.

Bike is in the car.  I'm guessing tomorrow is a nice and easy aerobic ride and Wed is a nice and easy aerobic run?  I can't work out on Thursday or Saturday this week, so those are my rest days.

OK, my second set of FS paddles went to the pool today.  Amazon forgot to send the rubber tubing with the 1st set.  They seemed to turn on my hand when I tried to use them.  Am I doing something wrong?

They don't come with instructions, so I figured I just put the tubing in, tighten em up and freestyle.  That didn't seem to work well.

Tell me what time you can talk and I'll explain it to you over the phone, send me a text.

Joan,

There’s a lot of heated debate about the need of protein DURING the workouts. Some people advocates that you have to have some protein intake and some say the protein replacement occurs after the exercise. Personally I believe none is needed during but you do have to have a large intake immediately after your workout to start repairing all the tissue breakdown (this is a point that nobody argues). This is a small time window of only two hours following the workout.

You do not need to do a pre-race “protein load” like you do with carb stores. Just continue on with what you’re doing and after you workout (especially when you go long) do some Recoverite (Hammer) or Endurox R4 (Accelerade products) to bounce back fast.

Alfredo,

Sorry to hear work got in the way of training, welcome to my world! The best way to increase the strength for the swim part is to purchase a pair of paddles, finis freestyle or speedos. They will do two things for you: give you more power and correct your hand in the catch and pull phases of the stroke. This last one happens because the paddle will exaggerate any misalignment of the palm and drive your hand inwards or outwards. Regardless, the best way to get strong in the water is… to swim. Proficiency pays off more than anything. Lance Armstrong said of Ian Ulrich: he’s the most talented cyclist in the world, I guess I beat him because I’m the one that worked the hardest.

Keep working on it, patience, determination and consistency is the formula for triathlon success and personal.

Thanks Ernesto,

I will try this for shure..  thanks also for the advise..!!

Last long run before the IM done. 32 kms and I'm not even tired after I took the shower. Awesome. Of course I was purposefully slow/aerobic from the beginning and did the Galloway's mix (running/walking). It is amazing what you can condition your body to...

Hope you guys have a great weekend!  

YEs, you slow down to grab things and your best bet is to start calling them out loudly as you're approaching the aid station, so they'll wave back at you. About peeing, I am the same way, I stopped two times on the bike and three on the run course but obviously this is directly proportional to your hydration and your sweat rate. I find it a bit gross to pee on myself so I wouldn't even try it.

I'm extremely impressed with your consistency Mark, I'm really looking forward to your race and I would like to race the same race with you in the future. Same as you, today I tried out the Ironman Texas bike course and I finished feeling I could have done it twice. I hope I'm still the same way on race day!