Turbo Sprint Triathlon 2015

0.75K - 20K - 5K

Riviera Golf and Country Club

August 16, 2015

After dropping my daughter at ADMU for her guidance counseling session I headed down to my teammate Reggie at BF Homes to get my team's tri kit, cycling kit, singlet, and tech shirt just in time for the Turbo Sprint Triathlon. 

Nice quality shirt

As the sun started to set I said good bye and departed from the metro and on towards Silang, Cavite. I checked in at a hotel near the race venue for a stress free travel on race day.

It's been quite a while since I joined a small race, something unusual since I love small races with its simple procedures. What's not to like in it where race packet pick up, bike check in, transition set up were easy and most importantly there's always an available seat at the toilet :).

Race packet claiming, body marking, timing chip distribution

I wasn't too early but I was the first in line (no line yet) to get my race number. Riviera Country Club was a nice venue except for the road humps, four actually. Everything was happening in one place. Registration, body marking, transition, race briefing and later on finishing and awarding were all done inside a multi purpose building. You can see it from the photo below.

Everything under one roof

Talk about spectator friendly race course: 6 loops in a 25 meter pool, 4 loops of a technical course and a 1 loop run on the same bike route. The ladies went first and you wouldn't suspect that most of them were newbies what with those game faces on. I guess that's what racing give every aspiring athlete; a somewhat tenacious look and you know they're not there to just finish it but finish ahead of someone else.

As the first female was out of the water we were called to position ourselves for the start of our wave. This was the only time I couldn't remember how they got us started, there were no horns or guns that I've heard and guys behind me were still saying 'is it a go?, do we have to start swimming?', it was a time to laugh hard but you gotta swim when you gotta swim.

The swim course was the one thing I missed the most with this kind of race. The maneuvering and the jumping in and out of the pool reminded me of Ayala Alabang Days.

Transition Area

The bike course was a 5 kilometer loop made technical by the U turns, curves, inclines and humps. You'll definitely stop to check on your tires when you hit those humps... promise! And because I am the slowest biker in all of triathlon I got to enjoy the route a little bit more I guess. 

Riviera's other swimming pool area

Since the run route was the same as the bike course with only one loop in it I already knew what to expect. At that point I was wondering how I missed badly on my goal time. Even the worst biker in me couldn't be that slow but of course we all know I was that slow ;(. Well we still have a run to tend to, do we?, and I started running quite good I might say up until a kilometer out where I couldn't hold my form and resorted to using smaller steps and hip movement (it's been happening quite a lot lately and this was the third race I abandoned my usual running form with those long strides).

Turbo Sprint was short and it was over in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Because of my earlier wave start than most triathletes I was the first one to cross the finish line.  Gotta love small races!

Sunday Gym Workout

Here are some photos from my gym workout last weekend. The gym has a lapping pool but I didn't get to swim.

Good morning workout :)

The toilet and bath

The small gym

The treadmill workout summary

The selfie ;P

Strengths and Weaknesses

In triathlon they say you have to work on the sport you're least proficient at and remain strong on the ones you're fast at. If you're good at the three disciplines, good for you, you're one of the few who can swim, bike and run strong. For the rest of us there's always this one or two things we really need to improve upon.

On my first ever bike ride - the mtb wasn't mine and look at them badminton shoes :)

I've been doing this swim bike run thing for quite some time now to know my own strengths and weaknesses in endurance sports. It's easy for me to say that in triathlon I am an average swimmer, an average runner and a slow biker. I did work on my cycling but unfortunately I didn't improve much. Caring for my past knee injury prevented me from going hard on my cycling workouts. For an in depth look of my own weaknesses here are some things I've considered.

My first 10K Run - I trained for 4 weeks and finished in 60 minutes

Training - Strength: structured 

Weakness: workouts are short and I tend to have long lay offs every now and then sometimes it could last for a couple of months. 

Acclimation - Strength: I'm accustomed to heat and there were times temperature on the race course gave me reason to quit but I didn't and learned to love it at times.

Weakness: Rain and cold weather is always a problem for me.

Mental Toughness - I admire people who could endure the sport in different places, terrains, time and conditions; something which I can't simply do. I can't sign up for a mountain run not because I'm uncomfortable with trails, I'm more than uncomfortable - afraid is more accurate. Night gives me the creeps as proven in my last Audax ride which led me to pass up on Audax 600.

Execution - Strength: I've been to some races and finished them all, I can also go pretty hard on short distances... who doesn't?

Weakness: Inconsistency and my own porta potty issue - always.

Swim - I'm an average swimmer, on a 1.9K course I could finish in 34 to 39 minutes depending on course conditions.

Bike - By now most of you probably know how slow I could go on the bike so definitely this is my Achilles Heel. My last 90K ride on a very easy course was 3:01.

Run - Depending on the distance I could go from average to horrendous. On standard distance triathlon I'm your average runner always hoping for a 43 to 50 split but anything longer than that and I'm seriously a crawler at times, I had a 2:32 run split where I just couldn't fathom how I finished that one but my last run off the bike was 2:01 though.

Note: Since I started triathlon I swore I would only devote much time in running if ever I become a strong biker. But for some reason I never even reached a point where I could consider myself average in cycling. In hindsight I could have concentrated in running and probably become a better runner by now BLEH!

The Grind by Nico Serrano

This is a piece I received from Mr. Nico Serrano from the Facebook page.

The Grind by Nico Serrano: 

Everyday we work towards our ultimate goal, for runners the goal is to finish each race with a better time, beating their previous best at all cost. These individuals put in hard work to get better and get stronger. Behind the grandeur of all the medals and accomplishments is where they build their foundation, what people don’t see are the hundreds if not thousands of kilometers these athletes go through every training day so that they could be better. 

What these individuals have is the understanding of the bigger picture, building habits that lead to becoming a more well rounded athlete and individual. They understand that a 100% commitment to whatever you invest your time into is something important and should be taken seriously.

The idea of creating habits and laying the foundation for the future is something that can be taken and borrowed from these runners. The dedication to better oneself and their vision is a trait that should be paralleled, however most people often neglect it. The habits and the ability see the bigger picture can be adapted to financial planning.
Financial planning and preparation is often ignored by young professionals who start earning, they often don’t see beyond their next paycheck because of the you only live once or YOLO mentality that they often see in the media. Thus, planting the seeds now for a better future isn’t a top of mind ideology but is essential to the future of young professionals.

Though financial planning and running might seem like two totally contrasting behaviors, the drive and commitment needed to succeed in both are more paralleled and intertwined than most people realize. The ideology of building habits, such as waking up everyday at 5:00 am to run 5 kilometers might seem like an absurd and unrelated reality to someone who will start financial planning and saving. However, the all-in commitment of sacrificing now because it will be better in the future is present in both.

The underlining truth is, both undertakings don’t get results overnight. Reaching your goal of finishing a marathon isn’t just a mindset, but an investment of both time and action; a runner has to think of small goals before finishing a full 42-kilometer marathon. Financial planning is an action plan centric activity, where starting with small increments of savings and executable action plans is a key step to achieving the ultimate goal of financial freedom.

All the sacrifice that is put in to bettering yourself will translate to every endeavor that each and every individual will do. Planning for the future might not be as sexy as buying that new phone or that trendy leather jacket, but if you think about it, these items are want items and are not essential items. Sacrificing now for your financial future is making sure that you’ll never go back and say I should have started earlier.

The reality is, financial planning for young professionals is challenging because of the world that we live in now. The world of social media always keeps us connected and when we scroll through it our friends seem to always be having fun, frequently going on trips, partying, and just generally enjoying the now. Nonetheless, undertaking the challenge of financial planning is a must because if you don’t start planning now then when. In the end, running and financial planning both involves giving up some comforts now so that you’ll have a great foundation for the future and win at whatever you choose to do. For runners this involves getting faster, which would result in getting more medals, for young professionals saving some now so that they will have a financially secured future.

Deja Vu

Last Sunday, July 12, I went to a 10K fun run. It was my first 10K run of this year, one where I can guesstimate my current running fitness. The route was an all too familiar up and down, out and back 5K stretch with 90 meters of elevation gain going to the turnaround point. I had run this course more than any other race routes. 

Waiting for Zaldy to cross the finish line

The weather was ideal for running, cloudy that is. The runners were few and familiar. The organizers were the usual running club. The warm up leader was the same person as my first fun run back in 2011. Even the race briefing was done by the same person as my last try here. It was deja vu!

At the Start/Finish line

When it started I jumped like a rabbit, my first kilometer was over in just 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I knew it wasn't my pace so I had to back off significantly.  Before the turnaround point at close to the 5K mark I saw the top four runners were already way ahead of me. Well that's what runners do, they leave me in their dusts. The fun and suffering lasted for 45 minutes.

Hamdesal and Pancake for Breakfast

Around this time of the year in 2014 I ran an easier 10K course in 46 minutes so I guess I'm in a better shape right now but still a long way to go before becoming marathon ready.

Challenge Camsur 2015

The last time I was here at Camsur Watersports Complex I watched the Cobra Ironman 70.3 back in 2011. I wasn't running yet at that time but was already borrowing my daughter's bike to ride with my friends, in fact we rode for about an hour on the bike route the day before Cobra IM 70.3. Challenge Camsur promised to bring back the memories of the start of the triathlon boom in the country by staging the event in the same place where the IM brand started.

The thing I'm most concerned about during race day is the availability of toilet rooms or porta potties, luckily the rooms were enough and the line was short on that morning.

It was a sunny weather but it wasn't hot HOT, just a regular sunny day with a chance of clouds. One thing I noticed was that we're kind of few for such a big event.

When my wave was called, I took off my long sleeved shirt and flip flops, and gave it to my companion before proceeding to the starting line. I splashed some water on my face and made my goggles wet before putting it on.

A medal with a pendant

Swim 1.9K

I started my stop watch before the horn sounded to be assured that my clock was running. It was a two loop swim and I went pretty hard on the first 350 meters or so. The water was delightfully not cold but the visibility was poor. My goggles was displaced a couple of times due to the chaos of us athletes. I was out in 39 minutes though.

Goal - Swim plus T1: 40:00 minutes

Reality: 41:29

In T1 I put on the shoes before my cycling shorts... :P

Bike 90K

I was excited to ride the route with its famed flat surface. I was always calculating my time to correspond with my goal time. I was down by more than two minutes on the first few kilometers so I tried harder than usual to inch closer to my target. After 30 kilometers I was about even with my goal but I lost my chocolate bars on a bump on a train track. Lots of bikers were passing me and every time someone passed me, I would try to counter by riding harder but all of them would fade farther and farther in front of me until I would lose sight of them. There was even an unexpected small peloton that passed by, I tried to chase them to no avail. By kilometer 60 I was pleased to see that I was about 5 minutes ahead of schedule but the road at that moment changed to a not oh so smooth one. The asphalt was gone and my wheels seem to float instead of just roll. The speed dropped for about 15 kilometers before it picked up again heading back to CWC. By the time I exited T2, I was more than 11 minutes behind my target. :(

Goal - Bike plus T2: 2:55

Reality: 3:04:45

The only way I could feel fresh for the run is to change clothes and brush my teeth ;)

Run 21K

After changing clothes on T2, I posed for the camera before going for the run route. There's something I forgot, it's not the bottle, not the face towel... uh oh... it's my chocolate bar! I had no choice but to drink Coca Cola on hydration stations and miraculously I didn't get a side stitch by doing so. Just before the halfway point when my shoes were already soaked in water, I thought my left big toe was bleeding. It was painful but manageable and the good thing was I was actually gaining time on my target. 

Goal - Run: 2:05

Reality: 2:01:07

The FINISH

Challenge Camsur probably had the best finish layout I've ever seen. Approximately a kilometer from the finish line the village huts provided for an interesting scene, one that can't be replicated elsewhere. The run on the side of the lagoon where the swim took place reminded everyone how every athlete hoped at the starting line. And the final push around the wake park lake made us all thankful for what we would eventually accomplish after an awesome day that was Challenge Camsur.

Goal - Total: 5:40

Reality: 5:47

All In A Day Before Race Day - Challenge Camsur 2015

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Depart from House at 4:41 a.m.

Arrive in Naga City, Late breakfst at Bigg's Diner

Registration at CWC Convention Hall

Inspect the swim venue

Late lunch at Yellow Cab Pizza

Back to CWC for bike check in

Visit to the basilica in Naga City

After going to SM Supermarket for my nutrition needs, we had dinner here

Goals and Race Course - Challenge Camsur 2015

Challenge Triathlon advertised the Camsur course as the fastest in the land. Starting with a color coded seeded waves for the swim, the course offers a higher probability to beat your Personal Record. The bike course is almost flat with only 23 meters of elevation gain and the run route is a fast mix surface that'll be kind to the legs (they say ;)). Coupled with an assortment of nutrition needs along the race course, everything is set up to get that two letters - P.R.

I wrapped up my training yesterday with a short swim bike run workouts and although I didn't have a long ride going into Challenge Camsur my weekly mileage was pretty good. So now comes the part where I try to guess my finishing time. In the past I always get this wrong big time. Unlike in a standard distance race, where I would be near 2:30 and miss by a couple of minutes, the difference between my goal and reality was disappointingly huge. But you know, a guess is a guess and this time would be no different.

With an easier route than my last IM 70.3 race in Subic where I finished in 6:07, Challenge Camsur should be at least twenty minutes faster. My goal is to finish in.... 5:40. Here is the breakdown:

Swim and Transition 1 - 40 minutes

Bike and Transition 2 - 2 hours and 55 minutes

Run - 2 hours and 5 minutes

Total = 5:40

Of course I could totally miss by miles and finish nowhere near 5:40 but hopefully I'll enjoy the experience as I enjoyed the training. 

Getting Stronger For Challenge Camsur

Time goes by so fast, it seems unfair that two weeks have come and gone like a nap at lunchtime. It wasn't as if I didn't do anything, to the contrary, I did everything my mortal body can handle in such a short notice. I logged ridiculous amounts of time in training by skipping the gradual in gradual progression. I did thirteen hours on my first week alone but one thing is still amiss - the all important long ride. I'm entering race week now and I think it wouldn't be wise to get some crazy miles on a single ride this close to the event. 

Hoping these shoes will never fail me on #challengecamsur

I enjoyed the past two weeks of training; the planning, the finding of the right mixture of workouts, the huffing and puffing to achieve the best that I can be on Challenge Camsur made me appreciate my date on June 14. Now with only seven days left, barring injuries, I'm gonna be on the starting line and hopefully finish the race where it all began.

In a way Camsur is also where it all began for me. Some years back I went there with my friends to see how Cobra IM 70.3 was staged. I saw a lot of guys with bodies that don't typically scream triathlon and older women who seem to have no worries finishing that particular race. And to my shock and enlightenment, the race was just half of an Ironman race, Ironman distance is not the only distance of a triathlon... Toinks!

No wonder so many participants were lining up to have a shot at Camsur in those days when triathlon was just starting to creep into the consciousness of Philippine culture - it was just half the distance. Then later on with some researching I understood that triathlon is just a term for a swim bike run competition in any distance an organizer might come up with and this led me to think that my daughter would be delighted to do it. She did some races but eventually quit and somehow I just continued what she started.

Today here I am with all the necessary workouts almost done, the remaining days will be reserved for recovery and conditioning, feeling positively stronger but not necessarily faster ;) Brimming with a new found false confidence hehe, I will tell you my goals for Challenge Camsur with its fast course on my next entry.

Happy races everyone! ;P