Words in the CiTi

Go be with someone you love, or with someone you don’t.

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Now.

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This is the first race of the year for me. I think it’s probably the best race to get your feet wet in. For one, it’s a shortened sprint with only the swim being a standard distance. The bike and the run are 6 miles and 2 miles respectively.

The Tri was put together very well. I picked up my race packet the day before at Triathlab. There was music playing and they had an excellent questions and answers for all the beginners lime myself. They even had a guy perform the entire triath Lon (in the same place) so we could see what was involved in the ever scary transition area.

Evening before Race Day:
I really watched too many movies on pre-race eating and for some reason I decided that I should carb load the night before. I know I read it somewhere. I stuffed myself. Here is the problem with that, first, I had to go to the bath room A LOT so that did not do much for my rest. Secondly, I was so wired I didn’t sleep all that well. I finally managed to fall sleep around 1ish.

Race Day:
I woke up on time and nervous. My wife wanted to go with me but it was really early and that would mean waking up the 3 year old. No thanks. I was still stuffed from the night before. Note to self, don’t do that again. I pushed down a peanut butter bagel and left the house. It took about 45 minutes to get there.

I arrived on time but I probably should have been there at least a half hour earlier. By the time I hit the transition area, my wave was full, so I had to setup in the under 20 group. No big deal but it can effect you. After setting up, it only left me about 10 minutes to warm up. Really not enough time to have a proper warm-up.

We all headed to the starting line. The 800 yards looks much longer than I remembered it. I started to get a l title nervous but I ran into a guy that calmed my nerves. One the horn wen t off I jumped in, I decided to take my time going in, which in hind sight was probably a bad idea. I went in slow, trying to allow for the fast swimmers to get out first. The problem was that I myself was faster than some of the people I let go ahead of me. This meant a lot of unnecessary bobbing and weaving around people. Once I hit the buoy I was finally able to pick a lane away from people. I felt pretty good in the water. I was tired but not exhausted. The worst part of e swim is looking at the shoreline and realizing how far you are away from land. I shut that out of my mind and pushed on focusing on my breathing and stroke extension.

I hit the sand and decided to walk up the path to catch my breathe. This was a mistake because you’re swim is not over once you leave the water, it is over once you cross the mat. It effected my time and made my swim appear slower than it really was. (always run to the mat).

Once in the transition area I removed my wetsuit, put my bike shoes on a began jogging out for the ride. I was still tired when i left transition so it took a while to get my legs moving. Its only 6 miles so you really need to get moving fast. Mistake 3: I immediately when into a higher gear than i should have to try to get speed up. Bad Idea. I ended up wearing myself out because I was working too hard.

T3:
This was my fasted transition and I actually finally felt good leaving the area, well, at least my lungs did. My legs decided to punish me for not warming up. About 2 minutes after leaving T3 I developed not one, but Two cramps. One in my calf, the other in my groin. Do you know how frustrating it is to get cramps when you feel great? Guess i should’ve haas a sweet potato instead of the pasta the night before. I decided to push on and the cramp was manageable, only if I did not push it. I was forced to slow down to keep them at bay. I finished with a respectable time of 1:00:29. My goal was 1:00 so I had to be happy with it, but I wasn’t loving it. I have more in me…next time.

Tags: endurance sports, redondo beach triathlon, triathlon, what to expect
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I have not updated my blog in forever. I have been cheating on it with girls like Twitter and Facebook, or as my dry cleaner calls it, The Facebook. A lot has happened over the course of a year, but strangely enough, as i look back on my previous posts, a lot of them still apply.

1. I had another birthday and it was great.
2. I did start training for my Triathlon, however it took a little break…for like a…year. I will get into that later.
3. I started my own DJ company that is actually going very well.

I’m too tired to talk about them now but I will post very soon.

Go Lakers!

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It’s an interesting question because for me, the question always implied that you did something spectacular. You were whisked away to some mysterious place, totally unexpected. Well the truth is, sometimes the best birthday can be the one that you don’t do anything on.

It is really hard to get some time to just do nothing. I have a job, a quickly growing company, a family, music, to do items, yard work, etc. I don’t know about you, but for me the hours in the day disappear very quickly. So when my wife asked, “What do you want to do?”. I flashback to being in Fresno for 2 days, working on websites and songlists, preparing for the party Saturday night, training a new DJ…

I replied, nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, we went out to brunch as a family, had a wonderful breakfast on Sunset and then we went home. I watched the first NFL championship game, grabbed my two year old, laid him on my chest and then we took a nap. 2 blissful hours of sleeping on the couch. I awoke and went to the store and bought the things necessary to make my homemade Beef wontons and chicken fried rice. I make everything from scratch by the way. We had a great dinner and then we relaxed with a little wine.

That’s it…nothing spectacular in the traditional sense. No running around, no gathering people for a dinner only to have to wait for them because they will undoubtedly be late. Just a very peaceful day with the family.

This was probably the best birthday I have had in a long time…

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We hope your year was a great as ours!  Here to next year!!

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Why did I start this again??? Oh yes, personal goal…???

Well, it was a pretty good week, I got in 3 days of training, but it was so hot that it was hard.  I may be a black man, but I’m not from Kenya. I can’t take all of this heat!  It was kind of a busy week so I really had to squeeze it in.  I got in 4 miles of running and then 2 days of weight training.  The weight training is apart of my normal week and I don’t plan to stop that just because I added some more intense cardio.  I typically don’t run more than 2 miles so even adding the 1 additional mile feels like someone is on my back, yelling at me, why pouring hot cocoa down my shorts.  I have not even attempted to swim or get on my bike, although, the 2 flat tires may have something to do with that.  Slow and steady. That’s how I roll, or walk… (more…)

Tags: achievement, cycling, personal goal, running, sprint, triathalon, weight loss
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I have had a suicidal dream for the past couple of months to subject myself to enormous amounts of pain and suffering all for nothing. I have watched these crazy people jump in a 50 degree ocean and swim a mile, just to come back to land an get on a bike and do what??? Ride 25 miles…but wait there’s more.  Once you get off the bike, don’t stop…keep RUNNING another 8-10 miles…

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Tags: achievement, cycling, personal goal, running, sprint, triathalon, weight loss
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I was reading through my good friend Linda Latta’s blog the other day where she had written a very insightful piece about acknowledging signs. It got me thinking about fate and divine intervention. Being of Jewish faith, we have always had a pessimistic outlook on signs. Signs can be ambiguous in nature, easily misinterpreted, or just plain wrong. Out of all the practices of the faith, there is one idea that I believe is something all should live by.

DON’T WAIT FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, MAKE IT HAPPEN.
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Tags: God, Linda Latta, lindalatta.com/blog, procrascination, Signs
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Are we done yet? What a week I’ve had. If not the show, than the newly updated Check One Two Website (It’s almost done), and of course, Hanukkah. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hanukkah. Before I converted, it was the only Jewish Holiday I knew of, which is funny because as Jewish holidays go, this is literally at the bottom of the list.

More importantly though, it’s a time for family, and because of the distance between Christmas and Hanukkah this year, it has really allowed us to focus on “our week”. It doesn’t hurt that all of the stores are fully stocked with product too. See, there are benefits to being Jewish. (more…)

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