Brian McNitt’s Blog

San Francisco artist and triathlete, Tammy Stellanova, created a web comic strip documenting her experience swimming from Alcatraz on August 5th. The comic strip does an accurate job of describing what it’s like, the exception being the frame where she illustrates hitting something under water she can’t see (depicted as a small fish). This has happened to me a number of times while swimming in Aquatic Park but I always picture something closer to Jules Verne’s monster from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. (From the point of contact through the next thirty seconds I’m transformed into an olympic class swimmer.) View Tammy’s the complete web comic.

Some friends and I did the Alcatraz 100 Swim of the Centurions this year on September 2nd. Unlike Tammy’s experience, we were lucky to have clear skies and relatively calm water this time. A few pictures below.

Pre-race photo of the Balclutha at Aquatic Park. No fog and not a cloud in the sky.


Post Alcatraz 100 scene.

Fred suffers an excruciating Charlie horse; Nicole plays nurse. (Apparently, someone behind Fred on the boat landed on his leg, the result of a poorly executed jump. I didn’t say anything at the time but secretly suspected the sea monster.)

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stellanova, alcatraz, alcatraz 100, swim, comic, triathlon, ggtc, mcnitt

1. Marathon. Signed up and training for my first marathon (Dec. 2).
2. Veggie experiment. First two weeks eating vegetarian. What it’s like.
3. Learning Vipassana. (Meditation). Podcast-curious to first sitting.
4. No coffee, tea. Two weeks trading the bean for green tea.
5. Ironman in 2008. Yes, no, maybe?

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vegetarianism, marathon, coffee, tea, ironman, buddhism, vipassana, mcnitt

“The USDA grossly underfunds the healthiest foods while pouring billions into a farm bill that supports many of the foods its dietary recommendations warn against.”

An interesting perspective on the USDA 2007 Farm Bill by Scott Kahan of The Baltimore Sun. Read the complete article, “Why Americans Keep Getting Fatter”, at AlterNet.

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health, fitness, food, obesity, farming, triathlon, mcnitt

Ford Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Triathlon — June 2, 2007
1.2 mi. swim, 56 mi. bike, 13.1 mi. run

Overall, Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (Honu), my third half-ironman distance triathlon, was a mixed bag. On one hand, it was a 17 minute PR (compared to Wildflower this year, or an hour faster than my first half), mostly the result of a faster bike split. On the other hand, having no experience with the course, the mass-start and non-wetsuit swim, the split transition format, and Honu’s ninety plus degree heat and humidity made for a mentally and physically challenging race. The details…

Pre-race
Jaime and I arrived in Hawaii two days before the event. Besides a few “simulated heat” indoor bike trainer sessions — riding with the windows closed, no fan, and wearing a few extra layers of clothing — there was little opportunity acclimate to the Hawaii heat. Of course, most everyone in the race was in the same boat but I still worried about the course conditions. 70.3 Hawaii features a non-wetsuit, mass-start swim (1,150 athletes all start together) and a split transition format whereby the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run transition areas are in separate locations. Registration therefore required quite a bit of organization compared to a standard triathlon which added a bit to the pre-race stress. I had a sore throat before the race but didn’t think much of it assuming it was allergies, the air conditioning, or similar.

SWIM (37:26)
I am generally calm and relaxed the morning of an event but driving to the Honu swim start I definitely started to get the pre-race jitters. Perhaps it was because I marked Honu as an “A” race, perhaps it was all of the unknowns. For whatever reason, I was noticeably nervous. I warmed up in the water the best I could about fifteen minutes before race start. I decided to line up at the farthest end of the start line in the water thinking it might be a bit closer to the first buoy. It was difficult to hear the announcers on shore; everyone in the water near me simply waited for the cannon shot which would signal the start.

Suddenly, we saw a number of people running down the beach and people entering the water. Everyone in my area looked confused. Did they fire the cannon?! What’s going on?? Turns out that people running on the beach created a false start. There was nothing the race directors could do, so the race began in an unofficial, awkward fashion which only added to the pre-race stress.

Despite the mass-start, I felt like I spent a lot of time swimming alone. I certainly didn’t find many draft partners this time. I also found it difficult to sight the buoys in the sun. I eventually switched from trying to sight to keeping equal numbers of triathletes on either side hoping that the pack as a whole was swimming in a straight line.

One mistake I made was sprinting to what appeared to be the last buoy only several hundred yards from the finish. It turned out to be the second to last buoy, so it was a bit of a mental blow to have to recover and go hard a second time. Please let me have a decent bike split…

T1 (3:19)
T1 was relatively uneventful. Frustrated by the swim start and mistakes in the water and knowing that I had a long run to make with the bike since it was racked at the farthest point of the transition area, I avoided the niceties such as the fresh water showers, adding more sunscreen, etc., and simply focused on getting into my bike gear and heading out as quickly as possible.

BIKE (2:32:18, PR)
I have to say that I felt good on most of the bike route. After a ten minute warmup, I made the conscious decision to positive split the bike by starting out at the high end of power zone 3 (shooting for 265-270 watts) with peaks in upper zone 4-5a on the climbs (270-290 watts) verses attempting to ride a measured zone 3 effort throughout. I’m not sure if it was a good or bad strategy, but not counting on the simulated indoor heat training, I decided to ride harder while it was cooler. It also felt good to go a bit faster to release some of the nervous energy. I ended up with a PR bike split overall but I definitely faded, dropping to zone 2 power for most of the last ten miles of the ride. (Interesting to note the significant drop in power compared to the relatively stable heart rate. See graph.)

A special thanks to Fred Rzymek, and Val Tavanese of OutSpokin Family Bicycles & Pro Shop, who also raced at Honu and had a killer bike split, for outfitting me on the Cervelo P3C. The bike is a true godsend.

(You can view the bike route on MotionBased. Note: this file is from another user and is not my own.)

T2 (2:51)
T2 was like a swami walk on hot coals. I undid the shoes rolling into the transition and left them clipped in to the pedals and ran barefoot to the transition spot as usual. Like most, I wasn’t counting on the blacktop pavement being hot enough to fry an egg. As a result I spent quite a bit of time dancing around on my toes while trying to remove running gear from the transition bag. Eventually I sat down to put on my shoes to get my feet off of the pavement which cost more time. (If you do Honu, definitely run T2 in your bike shoes!) Oh, well. Live and burn… It was the agony of de-feet… (Insert your own bad pun here.)

RUN (2:03:43)
The run started out great and slowly went downhill. The run course was a mix of paved roads through residential areas, golf course fairways and paved golf cart paths, and one long stretch of road through a desolate, scorching lava field. Aid stations were placed at every mile. There were also mile markers on the course so it was easy to check your mile splits. (You can view the run route on MotionBased. Note: this file is from another user and is not my own.)

The first mile of the run was expectedly tough making the transition from cycling to running, but not as bad as Wildflower. I took enough salt on the bike and the days before the race so I experienced minimal leg cramping. The initial four miles seemed to go by quickly. My mile splits, while not fast, seemed reasonable for me (8:40, 8:47, 8:32, 9:05). I focused a bit less on heart rate and simply tried to keep pace with people running slightly faster than I wanted to go.

I had eaten three gels on the bike and had several with me for the run but the heat made eating anything unappealing. I ate one gel and stuck with gatorade and water (and coke later on) for the remainder of the run. I also took Coach Duane’s advice, cinching my race belt around my shirt and pouring ice down the front and back and under my hat to stay cool. While effective, I spent entirely too much time ensuring that I had ice on all parts of my body, often stopping completely before leaving each aid station. Of course, the ice probably saved my butt but most aid stations also had wet sponges you could put under your clothes and I found late in the race that one set of sponges under the hat and jersey worked almost as well and could be quickly rejuvenated with a splash of ice water when gathering ice was not practical.

I knew that I had a decent swim and bike since I saw Grant (one of my tri-heros) behind me at each out and back segment, and saw Andy Myers (another tri-hero friend) on some of the longer out and back segments. In spite of my slow run splits, the virtual hero sandwich I was in made me feel for once like I was in the race.

At one point during the run, the course goes through the host hotel grounds near the pool, restaurant, and beach cabanas. It was great to see lots of people out cheering — such a boost when you’re out there struggling just to keep moving. Jaime made a cool Hawaiian-style coral sign for me and cheered and took videos as I hobbled by. I said that I was having fun (yep, lied) and tried to look strong while passing.

Any good feelings ended at mile 9 when the route steered away from the relative comfort of the Mauna Lani hotel grounds and golf course and turned down a long, desolate road into the black lava fields (South Kaniku Drive). At this point the sun was at its hottest (94-96 degrees by my Polar) and the course headed downhill which meant a long uphill run to come. I soon saw Andy running in the opposite direction on his way out of the lava field. Obviously, he was way ahead approaching mile 12, but when before he looked happy and comfortable, now Andy simply looked like hell with sponges attached. The enthusiastic smile and wave was reduced to a mere lifting of the hand with a few fingers partly extended. I knew if tri-hero Andy looked like that, I was really in for it. Thus began the lava field run.

The last four miles were pure survival for me. My pace slowed (9:43, 10:21, 9:44, 9:56) and the aid stations seemed to get farther and farther apart. By the time I reached the end of the lava field road turnaround (mile 10.5), Grant was only seconds behind. This roasted tomato was quickly slipping off the hero sandwich, as it were. Of course Grant was very encouraging as he passed. He in-turn was focused on chasing another triathlete in his age-group to maintain his lead. A few positive words and he was gone.

Hot, sunburned, and tired, the last mile felt like an eternity (much like reading this report, if you’re still here). Swearing off triathlons at almost every point during the day, I tried to think positive and consider what I learned. (Thump, thump, thump… bird… tree… bush… ouch…) OK, nothing earth shattering came to mind. I just knew that I needed to spend less time walking, need to eat more on the run, and work on overall running speed.

The finish was a bit of a blur. Jaime took another movie and had a nice lei for me. Andy and Grant were there, and Sandy came in seconds later. Everyone was in better spirits at the finish line. Having my fill of the Hawaii sun, Jaime and I went straight to T2 to pick up the bike and back to the shade of the hotel. After an ice bath and long wait for burgers at the pool-side grill, I felt tired but started to rejuvenate.

OVERALL (5:19:37, PR)
If it doesn’t show in the race report, my head was not in the best place for this event, probably because so many aspects of the race were new. By comparison, it felt significantly more difficult than Wildflower. Perhaps I was starting to get sick; I had a full blown head cold two days after but I doubt it effected my race much. I calculated out my time based on Wildflower age-group rankings and expected to finish in approximately 5:12, so I was seven minutes slower at 36th place. Everyone seemed to think that the heat this year slowed most people down which may be partly true. 36th place in the 35-39 age-group last year was 4:44 minutes faster. BayAreaTri.com stats below.

Anyhow, these are details. Good or bad, it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I certainly have a new level of respect for the conditions and all those who race on the Big Island. Congratulations to our immediate gang (Andy, Sandy, Grant, Karen, Laura, Fernando, Danielle, and Marshall) and to everyone who raced. Aloha! Great job and see you at the next tri.

Next up…
San Jose International Triathlon, June 24, 2007.

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honu, triathlon, ford, ironman, 70.3, hawaii, ggtc, mcnitt

Just signed up for the Santa Barbara Long Course Triathlon on August 25, 2007. I haven’t done this triathlon before but hear that it’s well-organized, features a beautiful course, and is a great destination race. It’s a bit shorter than a standard half-ironman (only 1 mile swim, 34 mile bike, and 10 mile run), but apparently includes a fairly challenging bike and run. Anyone have advice or tips for racing at Santa Barbara?

Will spend a few days before and after the triathlon to spend time with family and friends. Can’t wait.

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santa barbara, triathlon, ggtc, swim, bike, run, 70.3, mcnitt

I added one more event to the 2007 race calendar — the Alcatraz 100 Swim of the Centurions on September 2. Come join me! It’s a 1.25 mile open water swim from Alcatraz Island to Aquatic Park in San Francisco. There are two divisions, wetsuit and non-wetsuit (aka - “the purists”/true crazies — I’ll be wearing a wetsuit). The first 50 swimmers in each division are honored on a plaque on permanent display on Alcatraz Island so bring your swimming arms. Friends and family can watch you close up ($20 includes boat ride and snacks).

The event is limited to 450 participants and sells out quickly, so if you are interested definitely signup ASAP. There is a discount for teams of 5 or more, so if you care to join me please say that you are part of team “Trifiniti”. If you wish to practice swimming in the bay before then, both GGTC and Water World Swim host weekly Aquatic Park swims.

(Alcatraz Island Photo ©San Francisco Visitors & Convention Bureau)

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triathlon, swim, alcatraz, san francisco, swimming, ggtc, trifiniti, mcnitt

Workout-wise, Wednesdays are tough since they generally include some form of tempo running, a run at near maximum sustainable effort. Today I had to do a one hour and fifteen minute run with fifty minutes at tempo. Oye. I was pretty sure that running back and forth along Chrissy Field wouldn’t provide enough of a distraction, so I decided to try running across the Golden Gate Bridge for part of the workout. Besides a bit more car exhaust and the need to leap around a few large groups of camera-happy tourists, running across the bridge was pretty nice. Very cool to live in a place where you can include one of the seven wonders of the world as part of your lunchtime run.

(Photo of running path and bridge available for purchase from Miriam Grebe Images.)

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Thanks to Andreas for finding this gem on YouTube.

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mr. bean, bicycle, bike, race, triathlon, humor, mcnitt

Wildflower Triathlon Long Course — May 5, 2007
1.2 mi. swim, 56 mi. bike, 13.1 mi. run

Overall, I had a great experience. For my second half-ironman in four years, I felt comfortable through almost the entire race, learned a ton, and took forty-five minutes off of my previous time. Not bad. The details…

Pre-race
Thanks to a decent taper week and camping at Motel 6 in King City, California, versus sleeping in a tent at the camp ground, I went into the race feeling well rested. For breakfast, I had yogurt with fruit and granola, half cliff bar, and coffee. Thirty minutes prior to the start I took one salt tab and one bottle of PowerBar Endurance.

Swim (36:50, PR)
I decided to try my luck starting on the front line versus somewhere off to the side or in the middle of the group. I thought, who cares if I get swum over by a few fast swimmers? I’ll draft as many people as I can, fall back as needed, but otherwise attempt to keep up with the pack versus swim and fight the water on my own like I have mostly done in the past. The strategy ended up working pretty well. I ended up lining up on the front line with Coach Neil, sprinted the first hundred yards, then settled in with a small group and stayed with them for most of the swim. (Jaime took a nice video below. I’m on the far right, silver on shoulders.;)

The pace was very comfortable and the draft was awesome, but the leader of our mini-group (about five swimmers) turned out to be a poor sighter. We ended up way off course at several points. Half way back on the return swim the leader paused to sight and the rest of us sat up to look as well. I was surprised to see the main pack and buoy line almost fifty yards away to the right. We all looked at each other and I yelled, “You have to be kidding me!”, (as if I could have lead the group any better…yeah sure) and we all turned and made a push back to the main group.

Despite the poor sighting, I stayed with the original mini-group because we had found a comfortable rhythm swimming together, so we zigzagged our way home for the remainder of the swim.

T1 (1:46)
Getting out of T1 was fairly uneventful. I found myself directly behind Coach Neil at the bike exit and saw Jaime taking a video and cheering. Of course, I had difficulty clipping into my pedals. After the fourth or fifth embarrassing pedal slip (who’s the newbie with the fancy bike??) I was finally riding.

Bike (2:52:29)
I tried to start on my PowerTap but noticed that the speed and power numbers weren’t reading. What the…? After pressing the buttons a few times the PowerTap computer head unclipped into my hand. Great, it wasn’t fully attached to the harness. The roads where bumpy so I had to wait for the first climb before I could safely reattach it. Thankfully the power numbers started reading.

The new time trial bike felt great but average watts were down. I only averaged 230 watts (the bottom of zone 3) for the ride where I should have been closer to 250 watts. I felt great out through the “Nasty Grade” climb, but started experiencing cramping in legs during the last ten miles of the ride and definitely lost power during the last five miles. I ended up drinking a bit more than Coach Duane recommended purely out of thirst and took a lot more salt tabs in an attempt to stave off leg cramping, but it seemed like the nutrition wasn’t too far off overall. In total, I had 3.5 CarBOOM gels, 3 large bottles of PowerBar Endurance, 1.5 bottles of water, and five salt tabs.

T2 (2:20)
I must have been pretty out of it after the ride because I lost close to a minute in T2 searching for my bike rack. (It turns out that my rack was flipped around so the numbers in the row where out of sequence. I knew this at the start but somehow forgot by the time I was done riding.) I ended up standing in one spot for what felt like forty-five seconds looking back and forth before finally spotting my area. I racked the bike and made the transition to running. Jaime and her friends made a nice sign (”Go Brian, Papichurro!” Don’t ask.) and were polite not to laugh too loud at my silly T2 fumbling.

Run (2:03:26)
Not that I’ve done many triathlons but for whatever reason I’ve never had a problem making the physical transition from cycling to running. This time was different. My legs cramped hard from the first step. I kept telling myself to just shuffle through the first mile and it’ll get get better. It eventually did. The flat and rolling sections were fine but I could definitely feel the onset of cramping on the uphill sections.

The run was enjoyable but I was somewhat disappointed in that I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) motivate myself to run faster. I ended up settling into a comfortable, easy zone 1/low zone 2 heart rate pace for the entire run. I remember thinking that pushing any harder would change the complexion of the entire day and would end the fun. I was content to go slow. It’s strange because every second I’m on a bike, irrespective of whether I’m having a good day or not, I’ll race. If I have to dig deep and hurt more, I’ll hurt. When the running shoes are on however, I’m happy to simply plod along. It’s as if I have no competitive drive as a runner and am happy to just settle in. Competitive running is something I definitely need to work on. For nutrition, I had 2.5 CarBOOM gels and a mix of water and gatorade at every aid station.

Finish (5:36:51)
Overall, I had a blast. For my second half ironman, I learned a lot and felt completely comfortable through the event. I owe 100% of the 45 minute/injury-free improvement to Coach Duane Franks/Trifiniti. A huge thanks, Duane!

Congratulations to everyone who raced Wildflower — especially to Jaime and members of the GGTC Tri & Give group for completing their first olympic distance triathlon (huge!), Andreas Wolf for finding his bike legs and taking eleven whopping minutes off his previous Wildflower time, to Grant Richards for a strong age group finish, to Nate Helming for second place in his age group (holy smokes!), Fred(nando) Mendez for finding a better race-day nutrition strategy and turning in a strong time without $5K of desperate person tri gear (who needs a wetsuit and aerobars?), Coach Duane who is competitive even with reduced training, and everyone from the Golden Gate Triathlon Club who pushed GGTC into the number one tri club spot at Wildflower this year. Sweet! Good times.

Next up…
Hawaii Ironman 70.3, June 2, 2007. (Now where did I put those running legs?)

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wildflower, triathlon, ggtc, mcnitt, ironman, 70.3

A great sign I saw on the bus today. “Turn OFF Your TV & Turn On a Healthy Lifestyle!” The San Francisco MUNI Community Health bus poster features three drawings, one by a Presidio Middle School 7th Grader, one by a Chinese Education Center 5th Grader, and one by an Ida B. Wells High School 11th Grader.

Yes, that’s the spirit!

Will see if I can get a better picture of it.

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san francisco, muni, health, tv, fitness, triathlon, mcnitt

This past weekend was the Golden Gate Triathlon Club (GGTC) Wildflower Training Weekend (WFTW). Members from GGTC and the Tri & Give and H.I.T. training programs meet at Lake San Antonio (approximately two hundred miles south of San Francisco) to practice swimming, biking, and running, attend triathlon related clinics, and generally socialize before the Wildflower Triathlon in May.

After a hard day of cycling the olympic and half-ironman bike courses but before the Saturday night BBQ, the club hosts a triathlon transition challenge. Select members from the club, coaches and pro triathletes go head-to-head to see who is the quickest to go from swimming to biking to running. The race starts at the Wildflower swim entry/exit boat ramp. Participants run to their bikes, chug a beer (uh, not a normal part of triathlon), ride a short lap, return to the transition area, change from cycling to running, then run a final lap to the finish line.

Congratulations to Scott Witthoff who beat Lara Brown by a hand, and good recovery to Matt Dixon whose seat post failed during the bike portion of transition. (Thankfully, Matt was OK!)

Special thanks to the GGTC board of directors for organizing the best WFTW yet, and to these great GGTC sponsors who donated their time, expertise, and/or products: Endurance PTC, Tri More Fitness, Zoom Multisport, Avanzare Sports Therapy, Galaxy Granola, Club Caffeine, PowerBar, Chalk Hill Wines, Attune Foodsm, Light Full Foods, KINeSYS Sun Care, Mack’s Ear Plugs.

Good times.

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ggtc, wftw, wildflower, triathlon, witthoff, mcnitt

Triathlon Transition Challenge at the GGTC WFTW

There is something great about riding during the Fall. The air is crisp, the roads are clear of summer tourist traffic, and the whole world seems to slow down as if resting from the busy summer or relaxing before the transition to colder months.

While most of the time I am wrapped up in concerns about work, bills, relationships, or the bottomless to-do list that continually scrolls through my mind, once in a great while a moment comes along when all of that disappears. A solitary moment on the bike. A precious moment. In this moment the pressure of the cranks simply disappears. The wind is at the back, the road stretches out flat and clear, and all that exists is beauty.

A few pictures from my Saturday bike ride. The rolling stretches of Chileno Valley Road (top), and California cows near a fence at Hicks Valley Road and Point Reyes Petaluma Road in Petaluma, CA (about one hour north of San Francisco).

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bike, cycling, california, petaluma, novato, fall, cows, mcnitt

Only 52 more days until Daylight Savings Time ends on Oct. 29 and we’re back to exercising at the gym. Get those outdoor runs in while you can. Some new treadmill moves for you when the time comes.

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okgo, exercise, running, fitness, triathlon, mcnitt

My soul mate lives in Japan! Thanks for the great find, Jojo.

When you are done laughing, be sure to check in on Levi, my buddy Andy’s dog, at www.levicam.com. I will be releasing a LeviCam Dashboard Widget for Mac OSX very soon.

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cycling, dogs, japan, levi, mcnitt

Yes, YouTube could be my downfall. I recently stumbled across this funny interview of Depeche Mode, then the 80’s concert video below. You have it all going on here — the real musician, Allen Wilder (in black) still in the band, Dave Gahan with the “People are People” two-tone flattop hairdo, up-tempo Vincent Clarke (Yazoo/Erasure) inspired disco beats, Martin Gore in leather, plus Dave’s signature whirling dervish dance move.

Depeche Mode used to be one of my favorite bands back in the day and fueled long winter indoor cycling workouts when I lived in Chicago during high school and college. Seeing the video again reminded me how important Depeche Mode was to me at the time and how closely music was and continues to be tied to exercise. I recently went to iTunes to find some Depeche Mode remixes I could add to my workout playlist. (Here is the playlist I created; a bit dark for everyday but great when the mood strikes.)

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