Raja Lahti-McMahon

Never would I have imagined...

2011-09-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

That I was nuts enough to enter the Elite State Track Championships, but I did.

I've had my new track bike for less than a week. Ridden it twice. Picked up race wheels en route to the race. Never rode 'em.

Who said don't try something new at a race??!?

4th in the 3K pursuit & 3rd in the 500m Time-trial.

Suckered into going to whatever track races are around, I found myself actually entertaining the idea of racing against elite track racers in the state. "Elite" means: You are a female. You have a USAC license cat 1-4. You own a track bike. You are still upright and breathing. CHECK.

That being said, there are some very good racers in SoCal. With 3 velodromes within 2 hours, there are probably more track racers in SoCal than anywhere else in the country. It's just they're somewhere else on race day and with a little luck I may not actually be dfl. But against the elites, I have no problemo taking my share of the caboose at the back of the train. It's all about the experience, racing hard, and having FUN!

With a few less-than-ideal-but-it'll-do-in-a-pinch, including but not limited to not having the right gearing, a slipping seat post, and the mysterious rubbing sound (I used to blame it on the brakes. Not and excuse I could conjure up this time), I went out, busted a lung, or two, hit the hammer. Then hit the wall. And still, I had fun!

To all you ladies out there...get out on the track if you can, it's definitely worth it!

Many thanks to Matty at Ride Cyclery in Encinitas for working double-time to get me on a new bike!

Weee!

2011-06-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

I feel like a kid who just opened the cookie jar.

You know, that feeling of, "screw it, just do it!" I know I'm gonna like it. Why, I'm not sure. It's just pure pain, and how long can you really suffer?

Of course, I'm referring to Time trialing, short, long, and everything in between. I've been doing my fun Wednesday night workouts at the velodrome for 3 years now. By no means seasoned, but certainly not the rookie in class. The workout is great, and you can be sure of jelly legs at the end of a 2 hour workout.

I told myself that I was just going to have fun this year. Take a time out from being serious, and just learn to enjoy whatever I'm doing. So, when fellow trackies suckered me into racing my first 40K (24 miles) time trial, I said sure. So whatever if it's the state championships. Nothing like jumping in head first.

I've done plenty of 40K time trials. It just happened to be wedged between a swim and a run. My fastest time was at Nationals a couple of years ago on a fast course with a 1:06, respectable for a triathlon. For a time trial.... uh, I might be asked if I stopped to smell the flowers. So the question was, how fast could I really go? The goal was to break an hour.

So the end of May I drove the 3 hours out to BFE (really, it was) to a micro universe called Lake Los Angeles. No, there is no actual lake. No, it's not near Los Angeles. Where is it.... 20 minutes east of Palmdale, up the high desert ~ 4000', where all they have is dirt, weeds... and wind. Yep, severe wind. Gusts to 55 mph and a severe weather alert issued. Apparently that's just the way the tumbleweed rolls up here. I'll just tell you now, I thought I was doing to die on the cross winds. Death grip on the bullhorns. Aero, hell no. Water, hell no. Survival. I felt myself loosing time. "Just relax" I finally told myself. I'll say I could do with a little more confidence riding a disk in heavy cross winds. (As Kirstin Armstrong said, "Always run a disk. Always.") The good news, the first & last segments of the 23.5 mile course was downwind, so the rolling was fast. I crossed the finish line, looked at my watch... and tried not to fall off, 56:49. A respectable PR. Ended up placing me 3rd in the Masters 35-39. Had I raced Cat 4, I would have won. It would have placed 2nd in the Cat 3, and 4th in the Cat 1-2. There are some amazing athletes out there... and it was awesome to see them ride like the wind.

So then I come to today. It's Sunday. Yesterday, I got an email, "you racing the TT at the velodrome on Sunday?" Uh, what TT? So somehow, I manage to pull together the spare race wheels (Dave was racing this morning and was sporting the Zipp set), and get 'ol Roo Girl ready for her first track experience. Normally you can't ride a geared bike at the track, but today for the TT, it was an exception. I've always dreamed of letting Roo Girl rip on the track, and now was my chance.

So, off I went with what I considered to be an inordinate amount of stuff: 2 bikes, wind trainer, clothes for all seasons, water, some food.... First I nearly forgot my shoes. Then the trainer. Good lordy, would I ever make it out of the door this morning??!? Skipped breakfast and settled for Powerbar Bites in the car.

I arrive and check in. "What races would you like to enter?" I'm asked. "Uh, I've never actually raced at the track so I have no clue what I should enter," I reply. "Well then, I'll sign you up for all of them since it doesn't cost you any more," the official replies. My, twenty bucks gets you a looooong way on the track!
"Uh, kay...." I reply.

So first the Flying 200. For all you non-trackies, this is a sprint. You get a rolling start and get to wind yourself up to full speed by the time you start. 4 blinks of an eye and zero oxygen later, you're done. 200 meters is a hiccup of pure pain on the track bike. 14.8 seconds. Ouch.

Next up, the 500 meter TT. Again, short, sprint, pain with a standing start. I break out Roo Girl for this one, I'll actually have time to get into aero. 5-4-3-2-1, go. Now "go" does not mean attempt to pedal and weave aimlessly around the track until you get going. But, alas, need to work on those starts! Once up to speed the fun set in. 43.8. Not bad for a ridiculous start.

A break while the guys duke it out over the kilo (1000 meters). I'm next for the 2K. This time I manage to start in the right direction... forward. 3 laps in, I'm done, thinking I'm about to blow up. Just keep going.... halfway.... finally, 6 laps done. 3:00, not so bad! But how in the heck am I going to do a 3000 meter race when I could barely finish my 2k???

No time to think, I'm second up for the 3K (still hacking up a lung from the 2K). Settle, settle, just count Ks, not laps (total of 9 laps). 1k done. 2k done. I actually feel ok. I crank it up and by the last lap I'm on overdrive at 113 rpm. 4:38. Holy frijoles! That was fun!! I ended up winning every race, but alas there were only 3 of us, so it doesn't really count.

So, soon I'll have some photos.. and will post to prove I actually was there....

In the meantime, thanks to my trackie friends for showing me a whole new kind of fun! If you haven't tried riding on a track... it's a must!

Happy Riding,
Raja

Velodrome pics Copyright William Rohn 2011

Back to Bulldog

2011-03-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 years since me & 'ol Treky dusted off and headed to the races. At 24 lbs, she and I have a few lbs to loose. But that just makes you stronger :-P (so I'm told)

I've done Bulldog Road Race twice before, it's fun, fast and has a nasty hill right in the middle. It's steep and once you think you've gotten to the top, it goes up again. It flattens, and just after you're pretty sure you're done mini-puking, it goes up, again. They key with this race is hitting the hill as hard as you can. The top contenders will gap everyone else, and you'll typically never see them again. Two years ago I was able to recruit enough friends, including 2 other bellas (Jen & Christine), and we inched our way back to the podium with a 2nd & 3rd overall finish.

This year, wasn't expecting that kind of performance. I've only been back into workouts for about 6 weeks after my Budapest hamstring injury (still not 100%, but manageable). I've lost a good 8 lbs since Feb with 5 more to go before I feel like I can fit in my shorts. I'm not sure if my iPhone app MyFitnessPal has terrified me or empowered me. I never thought I'd be counting calories, but the reality is.... being conscientious of what I put in my mouth without "dieting" or restricting what I eat makes enough of a difference to shed pounds.

Team mates Madelyn, Cindy & Karen were all season Bulldog racers as well. Last year they battled it out in the pouring rain while I sat at home with my ankle injury. This year, the only difference was I didn't have an ankle injury. The rain however, was haunting me. So, we crawled in my car and turned on the heater to stay dry & warm. That's my kind of warm up.

The race started with a little apprehension. The roads were wet and by the first mile, there was no shortage of road-mud everywhere. We all stayed up front and out of trouble. After sitting in the first few rows on the way out, I attacked on the final small downhill before the left turn to the climb. With the wet roads, we wanted to stay up front around the tight left. Then the madness began.

As expected, the slighter riders, who looked like climbers, attacked. Madelyn & I hung in with the group. A few pukes later, my body informed me that I would in-fact, not, be staying with this group. Madelyn "The Climber", did and caught the break. At this point I was looking at survival and was delighted Madelyn was there to represent.

The lead group was a solid 5 strong, and they were pulling away. Me & another girl were left in neverneverland as chasers. As we were both time trialing home, I was hoping she's slow up just enough to let me catch her so we could work together. But she didn't. So I gathered friends and somehow managed to hang on and get pulled back up the last 5 miles of the race. We blew past her and came within a minute of the lead group.

Everyone did an amazing job. We all had to remind ourselves mid-race, we paid money to be here. We all also noticed the amazing support provided by the hosting Marines. The guy halfway up the hill had all the great lines "oh, you get that guy!" (all the men's waves started first), "don't you quit on me!" "uh hu, you go girl!" I'm going to blame oxygen debt, as I know he had a ton more to say. If you ever get the chance, go to a race run by Marines. The support doesn't get any better.

Congrats again to Madelyn who finished 4th overall & 2nd Divison, I placed 6th overall and 1st division, Karen placed 3rd in her division and Cindy was 4th in her division.

But the best part of the race.... the coffee & sun after the race with a group of very cool Bellas.

Happy Riding,
Raja

World Championships destination Budapest

2010-10-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

As I sit here on my 13 hours of flights heading home, I think about what was, what could have been & what will come. My adventure started well before September 2010, even before the start of this year. It’s been a hell of a year and to not recognize my journey without the beginning would be to read the last chapter first and think you know how it ends. Hell, I don’t even know where it ends.

I came to Budapest to race for Team USA, not to win, but to enjoy the final stretch running across the famous Chain Bridge. I wasn’t going to win, but I did have expectations to make the top 15. Last year I was 18th, this year I was better trained, better schooled, better disciplined, and better prepared. Having podiumed in all by 2 races this year (and still close), I was racing better than ever before. I learned new tricks to shave off precious seconds and was even schlepping my disk halfway across the world to really make it count. I had new swim coaching which was working. I had new speedy Zipp wheels whisking me about. I had gotten through a very trying period of physical exhaustion to feel a new kind of running. I had overcome a wrecked ankle, severe plantar fasciitis (muscle was so screwed I couldn’t curl my toes for 3 months), and my chronic sinus allergies (or whatever nightmare you want to call it) which made swimming & running a coughing mess.

But when I landed in Budapest, I threw on the running shoes and aimed for the Chain Bridge. I had spring and bounce, and could feel “it”. “It” is when your body is moving and at complete peace with what your mind is telling it to do. Go faster, ok. Turn over quicker, ok. Lengthen your stride, ok. It’s when your body says “let’s go, is that all you want?” All the typical aches and pains were still there. My lower back always a mess, my sinus on overdrive, my hamstring tweaky, but I had power. Coach Sergio Borges had been very positive about seeing me through the rough spots, and now I finally felt fit.

The days leading up to the race started posing some difficulties. First, there was the language. Hungarian is unlike anything we have heard in the states and from what I can understand, is not of Latin origins. If it is… well, it’s quite a few cousins down the road. They’ve got hyphens, dots, accents, hats & v’s over some of their letters. Sometimes all in one word. Heck, we even found a word with “jjj” in the middle. Really?? One J wasn’t enough, so how about 3??!? Our race course was situated in a man-made bay area off the Danube south of town center. Langyomanyosi bay. (No chance on swimming in the Danube, at 6 knots the current is a wee bit strong.) Try saying that to a taxi driver. We found that pointing to a map was the easiest means of communication. Hubby Dave is good with languages and the first thing he wanted to learn was “cheers” (and rightfully so since the first thing he wanted was Hungarian beer.) Sounds easy enough. Then he asked someone to write it down (because he hadn’t a clue what they were saying. So, here’s to you beer fans, Egészségedre!

After we learned our way around the town, we attempted a ride. Attempting a “workout” was nearly impossible. Picture the middle of Paris with more cobbles and bike paths on the sidewalks. The Hungarians are so incredibly nice, they will stop driving to politely advise you in Hungarian that you should be riding on the sidewalk, not the road as it’s too dangerous in the small, busy streets for silly bikers. (The pointing and gesturing lead the translating). They’re so bike friendly they have a designated bike path stretching a massive portion of the Danube. Now, there are some challenges on the bike path if you’re riding on a road bike, or better yet, a TT bike with fancy-smancy zipp wheels, but by golly, there’s a path and if I wanted to ride to Vienna, I could. In an attempt to get some kind of bike workout in during the week prior, hubby Dave & I decided to head outside of the city on said bike path to ride roads less traveled (by cars). Five & a half hours later we managed to get a measly 49 miles in. My intent was not to go out for a long ride, you just had to ride that far to get above 10mph!

The biggest challenge came in the form of weather. Last year’s reviews of temperatures & weather indicated a hot, semi-dry time of the year. Temps this past July were up to 40 degrees Celsius (aka, really hot). September rolled in and brought nothing but rain, wind & cold. In the 14 days we spent in the area, we got 2 days of sun. Not warm, but at least not raining. I packed all kinds of the wrong stuff. I wore my shorts once. I barely wore a T-shirt outdoors. Me and my Patagonia down sweater were inseparable. I didn’t bring a rain coat. I didn’t bring an umbrella. The only warm clothes I had were my jeans, my Team USA warm ups (although thin), and my down jacket. Thank goodness for trash bags! Clip a little hole out of the top, and two more holes for your arms, and viola, a rain-ish jacket-ish.

The morning of the race started somewhere about 3AM after deciding sleep was not going to happen and I could recite the line-up of songs from the club downstairs. No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, all good stuff, unless of course you’re trying to sleep. Gerry Foreman, fellow triathlete from San Diego (at 74!!) and flat mate was up too. The rain had been more on than off for the last 4 days and my spare running shoes were still wet from dropping the bikes off in transition the day before. The massive length of transition was on a grassy bank above the river. Already under 1-2” of water. ITU had indicated that disk wheels were not recommended in the conditions, so my precious disk would not even come out of its bag this trip. I had been in touch with Coach Sergio for advice on rainy conditions & logistics. Warming up? Shoes on the bike or off? Possible muddy conditions, and very very wet roads. “Stay warm” were his words of hope. I put on all my arm clothes and made sure me and my trash bag got a good 15-20 minute warm up run in the rain. My feet were beyond soaking and the trash bag, at that point (6AM), was maybe keeping me a bit warmer, but certainly I was already soaked through every layer of clothing I had on. I decided it was too risky to keep the shoes on the bike with the wet roads, and the grass didn’t seem too muddy so clipping in wasn’t going to be too big of an issue. I’d leave my shoes on the bike coming into T2, but alas, my well practiced flying dismounts were going to have to wait. It was too risky if brakes were questionable.

I had no idea what to expect with the swim. A festering sinus infection (massive thanks to Doc Stacy who called in an emergency short course of antibiotics) hit hard the morning I was flying out a week before the race. I had tried to outwit the impending infection but woke up to find I had most certainly failed. Team USA doc is fellow San Diegan Dr John Martinez, who also happened to be working with me on my sinus troubles for the nearly 2 years prior. Per docs orders, no warm up swims in the bay for me. Too many allergy issues already from those that had taken a dip in the bay. So race morning, it was a quick (~ 20 seconds) jump in the water and we were off. No warm up had been allowed. And it was cold. Not unbearably, but probably 57-58 degrees. I failed to find feet to draft from and had a hunch I was the draftor. The swim isn’t my strength and it never will be. I accept this. The bike however is my strength and I had no doubt that whomever was on my feet would not be there for long.
Transition was a continuous pool of water over a grassy field. I struggled to close my fingers and strip myself of my wetsuit, but it felt good to get my feet in bike shoes (love the toe warmers), even wet shoes. The bike was interesting. With 8 corners & 2 U-turns, there wasn’t much time to get up to speed before carefully negotiating a turn on wet roads with standing water. A section of unpaved road had been finished the night before so there wasn’t a chance to pre-ride the course. I passed a good number of girls but was not able to easily get into a rhythm. I have to say that the Mexican men don’t like getting chicked J. And as lovely as the Brits are….. PASS ON THE LEFT!!!!

All my new tricks were for not. No shoes on the bike, no flying dismounts, no speedy transitions. The goal became staying upright. I wasn’t concerned about me, concern came from not knowing if the rider behind you understood the dynamics of riding with wet brakes. Having successfully survived the bike, I joyously ran into T2 which was nearly entirely under water. After successfully negotiating 95% of transition, I somehow managed to practice baseball and found myself sliding on my ass to my bike rack. A few expletives and a gasp from someone (ref in transition?), I was in my soaking running flats and stomping puddles out of transition. Doc John brought the humor as I passed, “I got SUNSCREEN!” Haa… I would have loved to see the sun. The adrenaline was racing and the legs were turning. I tried to lengthen my stride and get into a power rhythm. My legs wouldn’t respond. Come on!! Move it girly! I knew I could go faster, my legs weren’t heavy, they just wouldn’t stride out. I noticed my hamstring, or shall I say, the knife in my ass. I was passed by an Aussie & SNG (Singapore??) racer with about 2K to go. I hooked on and kept pace. I had a good kick, so as long as I stayed close, I could finish it. Coming up to the Chain Bridge, my dream of this race, I gritted the teeth and passed the SNG racer and started closing the gap to the Aussie. The adrenaline was kicking in again and commanded my legs to go farther. But they wouldn’t listen. I finished in 26th. A far cry from the top 15 I was capable of doing. I left dejected and horrified when I noticed my run time was ~2 minutes off what it should have been. What the hell happened? The brain doesn’t work so well when racing. When the adrenaline fog released, I found myself unable to walk straight. My left hamstring was a mess and felt like it had a dagger through it. Lengthen the stride at the run? Hell, I couldn’t straighten my leg to lengthen my walk. Somehow that slip in T2 did more than I realized at the time. A few days after the race I watched the finish video and clear as day I was compensating by throwing my left leg out to avoid using my hamstring. When racing my brain had not wrapped around the idea of injury, just “stupid body, GO FASTER!!”.

The trek back to transition was slow, painful, cold & wet. Another downpour. I didn’t even bother to change out of my cold, soaked uniform. I put more wet clothes on top, and dragged 50 lbs of soaking transition crap back up river. Gerry walked with me back to the flat. A quiet, somber, gimpy trek. My season was now prematurely ended, and I was tired, soaking wet, very cold, hungry and upset. “Your limping” he said. All I could choke out was “I know.”

The race was the most miserable racing experience I had to date. I had realistic expectations and lived up to none of them. And I had a dagger in my ass to boot. I decided before I made any rash decisions I should probably shower, eat & sleep. In that order ASAP. Oh, and put a load of laundry in as I didn’t have a single piece of warm clothing that wasn’t dripping. I don’t remember much of the rest of the day.

The next day I felt better. Well, at least mentally. I had indeed pulled my hamstring and opted to taxi to the race finish to watch Sunday’s races as walking was not pleasant. The sun was out and the Sunday racers had it good. Dry roads and sun. Nobody asked for more. After watching fellow training buddy Marisa finish mere 2 seconds off 10th place and shooting shots of other Team USA racers, Dave & I headed out for a little R&R.

We drove to the southern wine region of Czech and stayed in a charming village of Mikulov and enjoyed the first warm afternoon of sun. Turns out, the CZ are serious about their beer… and Burcak (young wine). We arrive for the annual wine festival and begin our quest for the top Czech beers. The next day we ride through foggy vineyard and I am overcome with an amazing sense of peace. Yesterday my bikes shoes were soaking wet (and stinky I might add!) and I had no desire to jump on an go for a spin. After a good breakfast and a morning of blow-drying bike shoes, the feeling of riding through foggy grape vines, lakes & villages in complete quiet helped bring me back from the dead. Walking hurt. Running wasn’t possible, but I could ride ok.

We continued on to Prague where the first words out of my mouth were “oh my god!” It really is Robin Hood meets Lord of the Rings meets It’s a Small World. We stayed the first night in an affordable pension just outside of the Castle area. If you ever go to Prague, don’t stay here! The mosquito infestation was so bad both Dave & I slept with the blankets over our heads. We were too old to be playing Fort. We had planned a countryside ride the next day but instead opted to find new sleeping arrangements. Turns out, you can stay in a 4 star hotel for virtually the same cost as that stupid pension. We ate, drank, wandered and used our newly acquired umbrellas. Finally, the day before we were to leave Prague, a break in the rain. Since we couldn’t get the 2 rides we were hoping to do, we drove to Krivoklat Castle, parked the car & road a circle route to Karlstejn Castle. Just over 50 miles of complete CZ bliss. Forests, country farms, little villages, hills, river valleys & two very magnificent castles. A truly epic ride worth the journey and preceding challenges.

Now, it’s off to home to recover, heal a hamstring and whatever else has been slightly abused this season. We’ll see what next season brings. I started the year out with 6 weeks of injury, and it’s only fitting I end it with another 6 weeks of injury recovery. At least I’m well rounded J What happens next year we will see. I’m just so incredibly thankful for all the support I have received and words of encouragement that helped me get through a very rough year & final race.

Huge thanks to for your support to Worlds:

Sergio Borges X Training
Velo Bella
Tri Club San Diego
Gino Cinco & Function Smart Wellness
Sable Water Optics
Zealios Sunscreen by Personal Best Products

Budapest Days 1-3

2010-09-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, there's nothing like being in a country where you have no clue how to say anything. Dave & I arrived on Saturday afternoon, and by the time we tried to hit the market for basics on Day 3... we discovered we came home with sour cream, not yoghurt, fizzy water, not still and still have no idea how to say "thank you."

Day 1: the flight landing into Budapest was inspiring. You fly right over the city and I could see the race course below me. I imagined myself swimming in the bay, biking and then, took a deep breath when I saw the chain bridge from the air - the finish across the bridge is going to be epic. As soon as I got to our rented flat, I jumped into my running shoes and took off. I had to run the chain bridge immediately. My legs felt great. Amazing considering I've been tweaked, twisted & crammed into a middle seat for the past umpteen hours.

Day 2: It's Sunday, so no bike shops are open to buy CO2, and I wasn't smart enough to bring a hand pump... do I risk rolling out for a light ride to spin the legs with no way fixing a flat? So, instead of an AM ride, we decided to visit the thermal baths at Gellert. Amazing old pools & natural thermal spas, uber-relaxing. PM-we decide to risk the flat and go out for an easy hour spin.... er, sort of. No spinning, just dodging walkers, other transport bikers, cars & cobbles. One thing to note... it's freaking COLD! Is this summer??

Day 3: Attempt to find market to buy breakfast foods: milk, muesli, yoghurt & water. Came home with milk, sour cream, muesli & sparkling water. Did you know if you mix drink mix with slightly fizzy water... it foams??!? Find flat water & hit the bikes for a long ride. My compromise with Dave was to do a long ride and get in some rural riding. His Ironman training & my Sprint training aren't exactly similar. So today, we go out and see Hungarian countryside. Route: Our flat downtown Budapest across the Elizabeth bridge, north along the Danube to a town called Vac. Euro-bike route 6 meant there were designated bike paths nearly the entire way according to our map. Sounded great until the path turned into a gravel mess and led right into a swamp. A quick pic & we were covered in mosquitos. We jettisoned out of there and hit the roads until we reconnected with the path. The rural road riding was fantastic. The bike paths are for recreational use only... no speeds above 12 or 14 mph were possible due to mud, holes, debris, etc. We finally made it to the ferry crossing and had a pleasant lunch in Vac. We had already been out for 3 hours and the dark clouds were setting in. We hit the main road (instead of a path) and high tailed it as far as we could at 20-25mhp. We rode up to the rain, through it & out the other side of the storm (10 miles of wet riding) opting to stay away from cars and stay on the bike paths & sidewalks. My poor bike, I don' t mean to be abusing you riding up and down curbs, over cobbles and across ditches. Once we hit the Budapest city limits we were out of the rain and back on the sidewalks. City-tour-de-Budapest was completed and I can say that riding sidewalks is a great way to slowly discover the entire city. It only took 5.5 hrs! I'm glad we got the long ride in today. Rain is expected all week so who knows what workouts I can do in the next few days. TBD

Pre-Worlds Prep

2010-08-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wow….. the difference a few weeks brings. A month ago I was in a state of panic, depression, worry, fear, the list goes on. I couldn’t run to save my life. Really, if aliens were landing, I would have keeled over and died of heart failure trying to run a sub- 9 minute mile. I don’t yet have an explanation for why my running when from reasonable to garbage for about 6 weeks. Perhaps my body was fighting a cold, fatigue, stress, or a combo but it was beginning to scare me. Any intensity or incline would jack my heart rate up to uncomfortable, not-normal levels and it would feel like my legs were bricks and someone pulled the plug, draining the energy out of my body. It is at this time I was thankful to have a good coach, Sergio Borges. “Keep going, don’t worry about the intensity, just do the workout at whatever pace feels comfortable. The speed will come back” he’d tell me… day, after day, after day. I worked on my nutrition, began to take my multies again, broke out the fish oil, tried to get a nap in on weekends, get to bed earlier and drink more water.

I raced the Solana Beach Triathlon July 25th with complete trepidation. Would I be able to run? Being that I only had 2 more training races before Worlds, I wanted to be sure to make the most of my time racing and decided that since I screwed up my transitions in Iowa, I would concentrate on them here. I also decided to make some changes to my race routine. I changed my breakfast from yoghurt, honey & granola to a Nut Natural Powerbar in an attempt to reduce the puke fest. Sounds gross, but the sprint distance is so intense you’re on the limit for an entire race, which is a fine line when it comes to food. Maybe I just didn’t need as much. And I changed little tiny details which can be a huge time saver, like racing without sunglasses (which are a pain when you need to put a Giro aero helmet on in a hurry) and attempt a flying dismount (taught by fellow bella DeeAnn). Sounds kind of pathetic I’ve need had the balls to try it racing before. Oh well, always a first!

Stacy Dietrich was also racing, but unlike me, she was running really well. So, just as expected, halfway into the run she passed me. The question was, would I get ditched, or could I at least hang? Good news, I hung and the plug didn’t give out. I finished a mere 9 seconds behind Stacy. She deserved the 2nd place finish, only 8 months after her first child. I was delighted with 3rd.
Then it happened. A week later during a Tuesday morning workout, I began to run. Well. My training mates turned to me and asked, “and what’s up with you??!?” I don’t know, but it’s about time! I wasn’t just off before, I was minutes off. Now I was on and each breath felt like it put energy in my legs. So here’s my advice, when you feel like ass, trust your coach…

Then came today, the Camp Pendleton Triathlon, and no taper per coach. I love it when marines run events. The Hardcore race series is awesome. TC, race director extraordinaire, puts on races that rock. If you ever get the chance to race at Camp Pendleton.. it’s a must do. You get to race in areas you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get near and see machinery that only exists in movies. The marines park everyone with such order that each car is exactly 4 feet from each other, straight and perfect. You don’t even have to wait for a port-a-potty. And there’s a place to wash your hands. Setting up in T1 was a reminder at how many people join the sport with it being a lesson on how-to-rack-your-bike-and-set-up-transition. The beach start was scary as usual. Large sets rolled in and the strong north current sent you scurrying 50 meters south down the beach… just so you could reach the first buoy. The good news was I didn’t drown and while it still wasn’t pretty, it could have been uglier. I imagine I finished somewhere mid pack coming out of the water. The rough sea managed to easily remove my new age, technologically advanced, waterproof, idiot proof bandage covering the wound created when I tried to unsuccessfully remove my heel on a closet door the previous Sunday. (That was Sergio’s theory on why running had improved, the sore heel meant I had to stay on my forefoot while running.) Through the sand, into T1, a quick spritz of water on the heel to remove the sand from the wound and off I went on le biciclette. It felt ok, a nice 30K out & back, but not fresh. May have been due to the 2 hr ride I took yesterday in my non-taper race format. The run however…..

Felt like wings on a prayer. I ordered a new pair of bright pink Newton racers from Trisports.com and by golly, they arrived and have been partner to happy feet. I finished the run in a pinch over 21 minutes… minutes better than I had been doing in the past. The best part, I felt like there was more in there. The finish ended on a hover craft. You know, the ones you see in movies, and this wasn’t a set, or a toy.. it was real. I ended up winning my division and snapped a with race director TC. Congrats to coach Sergio who won his division & his many athletes that placed in the top in just about every division.

So the next step is Budapest. I’m beginning to get excited….

Article in the Examiner

2010-04-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Short & Sweet:

http://wwww.examiner.com/x-40890-San-Diego-Endurance-Sports-Examiner~y2010m4d11-Superfrog-and-seal-athlete-profiles-Dave-McMahon-and-Raja-Lahti

Finally starting my year!

2010-04-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

Triathlon is one of those great sports that leaves you guessing during your race. Where am I? Who's in front of me? Hell, who's actually racing? Am I being hunted? You start, swim, bike, run, finish and have no clue how you did. In that respect, it's rather an uneventful race. Not like a road race where you generally know who the heck just dropped you on your fanny and proceeds to pull away from your wrecked body. Nope... gotta wait. Go back to transition, deck change out of your wet "diapers" as I call the wet, cold, salty encrusted kit that was clung to your sweaty body. Put your bike away, come back, have a beer at the garden, eat a hot dog and then wedge your way back to the results board in hopes that they have listed the tentative results. It's always good news however, when your name is at the top of the list for your division. Even better when your BFF Stacy Dietrich (Velo Bella) placed 2nd right behind you. I actually expected her to run me down, but considering she just had a big, beautiful baby boy November 1st, I'd say she's ahead of schedule. Ladies, if you want to know the true definition of "pump and go"... ask Stacy!

I can say, I didn't expect to defend my win from last year. Mid January I wrecked my left ankle. (Yup, my clip in/out ankle). I sprained it. It was one of those injuries you just close your eyes and know it's not good. It was stupid too. Just not looking where I was going. I never had it x-rayed, but it wouldn't surprise me if a fracture was involved. On crutches & air cast for a month, and another month before I could run a simple 30 minutes. I dare not say easy, even that 30 minutes was hard. Under the watchful eye of Gino Cinco, my saviour ART physical therapist, my recovery progressed and each week felt better than the last. Turns out your toe flexors stop firing and little things like standing on one leg are frustratingly challenging. Doh! So hi ho, hi ho, it's off to pt I go. Or went...

Needless to say, it ended up being a good day. Stacy & I exited the water together. We grabbed our bikes together. We left transition together. From there, she always had me in sight. Nothing eventful on the bike, outside of the nasty head/cross wind on this straight forward 2 loop, flat bike course. I tried to keep slightly easier gears & higher cadence into the wind, and push the biggest gear possible downwind. That happened to be my 12 since I couldn't shift into my 11. And I was sooo proud of myself, I cleaned my bike, changed cassettes, changed brake pads (for carbon wheels), adjusted my brake cables for the wide Zipp rims, and slowly, and meticulously graced my TT bike with my new 404/808 Zipp wheelset. Next time I should probably make sure I have all my gears too.

Then I got to the run. It hurt. Slower than last year. Nothing to write home about, just good enough to hold off the field. I survived the sand thanks to the extra rain we've gotten this spring (a little extra vegetation over the sand kept most sections a bit more firm than last year). I've only started training again one month ago, and was lucky enough to be invited to train with Sergio Borges with X Training. I've had great experiences with coaches Lesley Paterson & Peter Clode, but this was an invite I couldn't turn down. Sergio is a very hands on coach with 3 coached workouts a week. After my ankle debacle, I needed all the support I could get. And just as promised, Sergio was there on the run course, "just stay focused" he advised. Oh, so true. By mile 4 I had the "puky" feeling. It stayed with me the rest of the run.

So, since you've read all the way to the bottom of my superseal-bellaventure, I must profess, I'm a dork. In my effort to "stay off my feet" the day before the race, I decided to march my not-so-suzy-homemaker rear to the fabric store and buy a yard of plush terry cloth. See, Vela, or "Princess Vela" as I call her, loves her doggie-baths. I think she rolls in the stinkiest crap on purpose. 'Cause after the bath she virtually runs into a towel to be dried off. So, I figured the task of hand sewing velcro on a yard of terry cloth to make her her very own robe would keep me seated for awhile. It did. Along with many many finger pricks. Note to self... not recommended. Stick to cycling. :-)

Umm...

2009-11-03T23:22:00.000-08:00

A little behind with things right now. 82 unread emails in my Gmail. Ouch. 2 Race reports to write (I know better than to wait to write them! ugh!) and a laundry list of "to-dos".

Soon... I will write something worth reading. About traveling across the world to race in a world of compression sock madness. About best friends ave beautiful babies. And about my dog.. who is the funniest creature that walks in this household... soon..

Live!

2009-09-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Click here for live results:
http://www.triathlon.org/?call=TVRnNQ==&keep=sh

ITU World Championships

2009-09-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

Check facebook for my latest updates on my adventure to Australia for the ITU Sprint World Championships. I have an app for that on my iphone.

Click HERE

Honey, Trouble and Kitty

2009-08-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Y’all can call me Honey.

That’s right, that sticky, gooey, sweet mess of a disaster that was discovered at 2AM upon arrival at the hotel. My Fage yoghurt/honey had punctured in my suitcase and spent the last 10 hours oozing through little holes in the plastic bag in which they were supposed to be contained. Ahhh man! Fage is my miracle workout food. Won’t race without it. With no Trader Joe’s in this side of the state, I was required to bring my own. And I brought it. All over my helmet, toiletries, clothes and shoes. I spent the next hour washing and cleaning honey from places honey doesn’t need to belong. Thursday, 3AM, lights out, finally.

Checking in for my return Southwest flight back to San Diego, the TSA agent asks me as he’s manually screening my disk wheel for explosives.
TSA: “What is it? A bike tye-rr?”
Me: “A special bike wheel for racing. I don’t trust the baggage monkeys with it.”
TSA: “Where it at?”
Me: “Tuscaloosa”
TSA: “What’d ya think of da Black Warrior River?”
Me: “Uh…. Before or after my 43 minutes of hell?”

Well, in all honesty, I don’t think BWR was going to be highlight of the day, before or after. My introduction to the river that flows through Tuscaloosa, AL (home of the Crimson Tide, University of Alabama) was, “its 85 degrees and home of water moccasins.” Sa-weet! Let’s jump in and go for a swim, why don’t we. As it turns out neither the temperature nor the snakes were really the problem. Before I get to the problem, let’s talk Crimson Tide.

If you asked me on Wednesday what I thought you meant when a woman said “crimson tide” I would’ve responded with “oh, sorry, you too??” Ask me on Thursday, I’d tell you it was a charming town of students wearing burgundy Nike running shorts. Yup, 8 out of 9 students in Tuscaloosa, AL wear Nike shorts. You see one group of girls wearing them. Then another group. And another. Soon you realize that they’re all wearing them. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Fascinating. Not that it really matters. I digress.

En route to Tuscaloosa I got the chance to witness two lighting storms that could probably power a small nation (one viewed from the plane and one from the ground), two days of rain, with said 2nd lightning storm letting loose a downpour of nearly 2 inches in less than 60 minutes. For a good ‘ol California girl, that was quite an experience. When we get rain, it lasts for days, not minutes, and we get a fraction of an inch, not several inches. Hell, they have grass in Alabama in the summer! This rain also caused a little flooding upstream. So Joe Waterboy opened the flood gates at the base of the Black Warrior River so the poor folk upstream could stop treading water. That’s fine and dandy…until you have to swim in it! I now know what my very own endless pool feels like. Just kinda blows when you’re actually supposed to be racing. You see, when racing, the intent is not to actually swim backwards.

Learn something new every day. I learned that on a day like August 22, 2009, not being a strong swimmer was going to cost dearly. I met up with fellow San Diegans Neily “Trouble” Mathias, Marisa “Kitty” Rastetter, Diana Black and Lesley Tomaich who were racing as well. I love these girls. They make a bad day fun. Oh boy did we have fun after the misery was over. More about that later. I am the weakest swimmer of the bunch and it was advertised like a neon billboard in the middle of an ocean. Instead of closing the flood gates to weaken the otherwise brisk current (as we were initially told would happen), the gates were opened to accommodate upstream flooding causing the current to strengthen. 1000 meters of our 1500 course was upstream. The top swimmers will usually swim a 1500 course in anywhere from 16-20 minutes. After the first wave went off and 16 minutes into the swim the leaders were only half way, we knew it was going to be a long day in the water. For top swimmers, times were 20-40% slower that normal. For average swimmers (me), it was more like 50-65% slower. For weak swimmers, well, some didn’t finish the swim.

I try to encourage new triathletes that the swim isn’t the hardest part of a race. The run is always the hardest because it’s last and you’re tired. The swim is usually the scariest, but not hardest. This day, it was the hardest. On top of a rip roaring current, it was muddy. So muddy in fact, you couldn’t see your hand enter the water right in front of your face. This meant that whoever was swimming up from behind you (later waves of swimmers) couldn’t see you, so they just swam over you. I have never been so beat up and repeatedly dunked (as their hand enters the water on your back and pushes you under) in a race, ever. And I let it get to my head. I wanted to cry. I wanted out. I’d already been in the water well beyond my normal 26 minute swim time and I was over it. I don’t get frustrated to the point of breaking too often, but this was one of those moments. I was not surprised to see my watch ticking beyond 44 minutes when I got in to T1. Frustration turned to anger. I was pissed. Everyone in T1 was pissed. You could see the frustration in the eyes of many. “What the F%@&!!??!?” were words uttered by more than a few. On a positive note, I did rescue someone timing chip while swimming. On one of my many dunkings, happen to swim into a chip that was floating, stuffed it in my swim skin and threw it at the volunteer at T1, "This ain't mine". You can see me holding the extra chip in my delirium on the way up to T1.

Once out on the bike, it occurred to me just how disastrous my swim had been. I was going to be in damage control mode. Marisa, Neily & Lesley were all out on the bike already. Their waves started upwards of 6-12 minutes behind me. I don’t expect to beat any of those women as they are all stellar athletes, but I do use them to gauge my performance. Marisa has rocked launchers attached to her quads and she was outta there & gone. I passed Neily & Lesley in the first half of the first bike lap. I would expect to see both those ladies run me down. They had a lot of time on me and I had to make up some time. Not to mention, I had all my pent up frustration to burn. So I hit it hard. The smooth, rolling course would lend itself to fast splits, but when I saw the 31/32 minute split for the first lap (20K) I knew I was either on fire, ortemporary numb & going to blow up on the run. I steadied the pace and finished in 1:06 (my computer registered 1:05:30). A new PR for a 40K triathlon course.

I had no clue what would happen on the run. My left foot has been troubling me for the last few weeks. Advil & ice was all therapy I’d had time for with my demanding work travel schedule. Talking with friends and Doc John via the phone, we concluded it’s most likely plantiar faciatis. Never had it before. Never care to have it again. Hurts like hell for the first 5 or 6 minutes of a run, then settles to a dull ache or goes away altogether. I expected the first 5 minutes of the run I may be limping. Hopefully I’d run out of it. I felt like typical poo for the first half of the run. The course was such that the 3 hills were all in the first half of the course. The last half was flat. The first hill, Library Hill, was a quarter mile of 8-10% grade out & back. Ouch. I saw Les & Neils on the way down. Neils & I gave each other a hi-5 which was all I needed to lift the spirits. My foot hurt. “Good, run till something else hurts more than your foot” I told myself. Second hill, mantra in rhythm to running steps, “I like this, I enjoy this, I like this.” Third hill, “you paid for this, you paid A LOT for this.” I laughed at myself. Silly Raja. Who’s the nutbag now? By the time I got down to the flat I was back to, “run till something hurts more than your foot.” Or until your legs turn to lead bricks.

I finished with something far from a PR for the Olympic distance. I finished with an understanding that sometimes you get lucky (like the swim being cancelled at Newport), and sometimes you get unlucky. As unhappy as I was about this swim, for once, the swimmers had a race they could win on their swim alone. That doesn’t happen often, so I just have to chalk it up to experience. I did however PR on the bike split as well as my 10K run time of 45 min n’change. I wanted to break 45, but having the foot to deal with, I thought I wasn’t going to get close. I came closer than expected. I also learned, that while I placed 20th in my age group (top 25 get chance for Worlds), I ended up being ranked 27th for World’s due to age ups from the 25-29 age group. I was bumped from my chance to go to Budapest in 2010. Can’t tell you how upsetting that was. Everyone who could swim in my group qualified. Marisa placed 7th, Neily 9th, Lesley 14th in their age groups and only got jostled a few spots from age-ups. I did not. I felt like a rug had been ripped from my feet. I got dealt a painful hand.

Then Craig Zelent from San Diego said something supportive to me and I can’t even tell you what it was, but it triggered a light in my dismal tunnel of failure. I’m here because I want to be. I’m bummed because I am competitive and I want to prove to myself that I am good enough to qualify. I am only here because 10 years ago I broke my back and couldn’t walk and made the decision at that point to try a triathlon. It seemed impossible at the time. But I was one of the few who overcame a challenge, and just to be here is good enough. There will always be girls better than me. I thank Marisa, Neils, Les & Diana for being so incredibly supportive and supplying never-ending streams of goodwill and fun.

For that night, after the award ceremony, we went out dancing and show’d them good’ol Crim’sen Al’bama boys how the girls from California can rip up a dance floor.

Top Ten Memorable Moments at USAT Nationals 2009

10. Crossing the finish line at a National Championship event. You don’t ever forget. Even more so, the feeling of rocking it on the bike.
9. The largest section of Grits I’ve ever seen. Not even sure what grits are…
8. Meeting new friends with names like “Spider”
7. Viewing a strobe light of a lightning storm from the plane. Can’t tell you how delighted I was to not be under that storm. Yikes! Enough energy to power a small continent.
6. Gino, my physical therapist commenting on the rather unsightly large bruise acquired during my swim battle.
5. Wanting to cry with my goggles on… while swimming backward.
4. The adventure at the market: “Butt Rub Makes Everything Better”
3. Showing them ‘Bama boys how the California girls like to have a good time
2. The blow to the side at award when I didn’t qualify for Worlds due to my swim time and the realization that if I want to do better, I’m going to have to spend a lot of time doing what I don’t enjoy most… swimming
1. Laughing till my stomach hurt, enjoying wine & dessert with friends post race and hanging out with a bunch of rad, wicked cool chicks nicked-named "Trouble" and "Kitty" who made everything better.

A Box of Chocolates

2009-07-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a tough year for me. After all, it is already the end of July and I feel like all I've done this year is work... cough. My physician, a sports med doc, a pulmonologist, now an allergist, and perhaps an ENT later... all I know is that my lungs are healthy and my sinuses are less than ideal. Why? who knows, check's in the mail.

So when I got clearance from the doc to work out again mid July, I felt like someone had released me from shackles. Like my dog Vela, when you take her off the leash... she goes crazy. Spins and whirls, wiggles and gyrates. It's pretty cool to imagine yourself so flexible your butt can touch your head. I imagine I would break if I tried, so I'll live vicariously through our not-so-little bounding joy of canine companion.

With 10 solid days of workouts, 3 swims, 3 trips to Gino (ART physical therapy) to work on a strained right hammy, Dave & I packed up for a fast & furious weekend. Friday started with an early 2 hr ride before work and ended with dinner with 25 of my Velo Bella teammates and host Alex Burgress. Lessons on what it means to be a Bella, and how the cross girls really do flair! Y'all are nuts! Good thing us tri girls are... errr... sane.

Saturday morning just dreamy. Sleek and slippery, that new Ellsworth CoEfficient stared at me and I couldn't help the drool. Sandra restrained herself, the thoughts of perhaps the first person to lick the bike would be able to claim it as their own. Then hunger struck and Tony cooked up a fabulous BBQ. To think all this time I've been riding Highland Valley... my precious CoEfficient has been sooo close.

DeeAnn, Amy, Vicky & myself take off for Newport Beach to check in for the Pacific Coast Triathlon, host of the USA Triathlon Sprint National Championships. This was the Hail-Mary pass to qualify for Worlds. I convinced Dave to go for a little swim, play in the surf a little since I hadn't yet been able to due to sinus infections. We walked down the steep bank and thought it best to check in with the lifeguard first. Surf had been labeled "hazardous" for the last couple of days and just around the corner at The Wedge, a body surfer was killed under the crushing surf.

"Nobody's getting in the water today, surf is too dangerous here" said the lifeguard. Ok, no swimmy for me. Tomorrow? We'd have to wait to find out in the morning. If we do swim with this surf.... I think I'm going to pull out the water wings. Dave & I take off and drive to a friend's for the night.

Later that night, reports were flying of 25' surf at the wedge earlier in the day.

Sunday morning arrived waaaay to early. I do have to remind myself at 4:30AM that I paid money to do this.

I rack my bike and realize I've forgotten my chip in the car. Oh goodness, everyday racing is a learning experience! I just back on the bike and wiz off back to the car for both my chip & swim cap. Ugg. Lucky for me, the girls in my wave were nice enough to save the rack spot for me. Then.. the bullhorn. Swim is cancelled, and we will instead run down the length of the beach, up the steep bluff walkway and to T1. Although I had not yet done a duathlon before, I was quite delighted not to have to challenge mother nature and her washing-machine wrath of 10' surf.

Off we go, running through the sand. I was smart enough to bring 2 pairs of running shoes (race flats & a dry pair for after) and chose to wear my training shoes for the short sand run and leave my race flats sand-free for the post bike 3 mile run.

Before you knew it, we were off on the bike. My mounts & dismounts blow. Gotta work on those.

The course was a short 13 mile rolling 2 lap course. I tried to hit the hills hard to make up for a soon-to-be sorry run. I just didn't really think about the lack of high-intensity training, and at the top of every hill I would adorne myself with a little extra "flair". Yeah, it was going to be one of those days. Not much was going to stay down. I clocked at 35 n'change bike for the 2nd fastest in my age group. The run was brutal. I'm not sure there's a race where the run isn't brutal. Just the nature of the beast. Lesley's Scottish voice chased me the entire run, "come on Rrrraa'ya!" Out, around and down to the sand... again. I hate sand, but geeze it looks good in the backdrop of a photo. Just when you're done running in the sand, you have to haul your poor lactic legs up the bluff. I probably could have walked up faster... but alas, I wouldn't have been able to pick up running again if I did. I felt like I was dragging a bowling ball and just throwing myself up the hill. I finish unchallenged and promptly drown myself in water.

I catch Marisa, Amy, Neily and DeeAnn finishing. They all looked better that I felt. My poor husband has now been finished for quite some time, has already changed and looks like he just jumped out of the shower. Not to mention he's starving. God knows, keep the man fed!

Amy & I walk over to the results - My results were posted, 5th in the division. Top 12 qualifiy for Worlds! I'm stunned. I wasn't supposed to qualify that easily. Turns out, we all qualified!

I will accept the invite to ITU Age Group Sprint World Championships in Australia Sept 13th. If I never qualify again, I would regret turning down the opportunity. So as retarted as it is to spend a rediculous amount of money to fly for 24 hrs to the other side of the world for a race that will maybe last an hour that you have no business racing (for lack of any quality training), it it an opportunity that may be once-in-a-lifetime. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Australia I go!

In the twisted words of hollywood, Triathlon is "like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get."

Special thanks to those around me who have kept my head above water at times I felt like I was drowing: Coach Peter Clode, Confindant Neily Mathias, Lesley "The Inspirer" Paterson, Sports Med doc John Martinez, Gino "The Thumb" Cinco, and of course, my hubby Dave, who was pretty sure I was going to drop dead from a chronic cough.

Happy Riding,

Raja

Road Trip!

2009-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

It was time to get out of town. My head was already spinning, not only from work, but from the sinus & chest congestion I'm been suffering from for the last 4 months. One week before my June race I just in the ocean for a nice ocean swim and come out with a nasty sinus infection. Yet another one. I called my local doc, Dr John Martinez of Coastal Sports & Wellness on a Sunday. I felt like a bug that had been lodged on the front of a Mac truck grill. Looking ahead I had a huge work week, 2 travel days with significant client meetings, 2 days training out in the field with corporate and a dinner meeting with 20 of my favorite clients. And I felt like absolute poo.

Hi ho, hi ho.. it's off to more antibiotics I go.... however sucky it may be to race on antibiotics, Doc John reassured me, my sinus infection would make me feel far worse than the meds. But I could go ahead and race, it wouldn't make me any worse.

I traveled. I worked. I suffered. And didn't workout if an effort to let my body recover as fast as possible. By Friday I was toast and more or less decided I wouldn't race. Saturday, felt better. Sunday? Ok, I'll race... it's not about winning, it's about the journey. I just wish the journey didn't involve a cough.

So I did. And it sucked. I swam open water with a nose plug. Nuff said. And that was the best part of the day. I certainly wouldn't have been in any shape to win even if I was healthy, but I was looking for a sub-2 hr race. I came in at 2:02. (Bike & swim are slightly short for an Olympic distance) Fellow Bella, Stacy Schockler raced well, ran herself silly and placed 3rd (a 43 min 10K!!!). Wicked cool! Go Stacy! Stacy also trains with ever peppy pro racer Lesley Paterson (aka Scottish Devil).

Now, time for a little vakay, rest & relaxation. Dave & I hopped in the car and drove to Sedona, AZ.

With a stop at the sand dunes in Yuma.

And lunch at the Saloon somewhere next to Horse Thief Canyon and a cactus.

A quick stop at Montezuma's Castle. (complete misnomer btw, but fascinating nonetheless)

and Ahhhh. Sedona the Beautiful.

Then Dave took me mountain biking. I think it's been years since I last went mountain biking. And concluded, I haven't gotten any better. It turned out to be a 3+ hr bike-hike. I was re-assured by the Bike & Bean that on a scale of 1-10, 10 being expert barely rideable, the ride we went on was an 8. Perhaps next time I should take the skull & cross bones on the trail map a little more seriously!

I should have know better than to ride on something called "Chicken Point".

Special note - they have a unique way of making sure you stay on the trail!

But alas... we made it to Chicken Point!

And the view en route wasn't too bad either.

After an amazing dinner at Elote Cafe (best southwest food I've ever had.) and a few days in Sedona we packed up and drove up to the Grand Canyon. Dave hadn't yet been there, and I have to say, even for me having been there before, it is magnificent.

Check out our lodging at the grand canyon! Our little adobe room on the left.. canyon on the right!

The next day we woke up for the sunrise (view is much better if you're on the north rim) and hopped on the Grand Canyon Airlines for a sky tour. We snaked across the canyon for ideal viewing from any spot on the plane.

Next we hopped in a Navajo jeep, toured the river beds until we got to a precious little narrow called Antelope Slot Canyon. The photo says it all. Unbelievable. I could spend a day there getting lost!

Next we hopped into a raft and smooth water rafted down the Colorado River through Glen Canyon.

Finally we wrapped up our canyon trip and headed down to La Posada, a uniquely special train lodge designed by Jane Colter. On the way a quick stop at a rather large hole in the ground.... Meteor Crater, how alien!

A wonderful dinner with my parents, whom we met there as they were on their way north to Ann Arbor, MI.

A fabulous trip, great sights, too much great food, and back to work!

In the meantime, I'm trying to get rested, now cleared to get back to workouts... so let's see what happens!

Happy Riding!

Raja

Pie Has Never Tasted SOOOO good!

2009-06-08T16:51:00.001-07:00

So why is it a big juicy slice of warm Julian apple pie is just NOT as good at the store as it is in that little Julian Apple Pie Co store?

I think everyone would agree, that first bite of pie removes all you pain, all your worries and sets you in a nice little pie heaven.

It didn't matter that the wind chill coming through Mt Laguna was 39 degrees.

It didn't matter that the 30+mph cross winds gusts tried to knock us off our bikes (but it didn't!).

It didn't matter that the make-shift garbage bad was flapping insistently in the wind and everyone could hear where you were.

It didn't matter that we had climbed so high we were descending down to 5000'.

It didn't matter that you may have gotten dropped for a time.

Or that a nice man got to escort you up a hill or two.

It didn't matter that the redneck in the old rusty red pickup liked his horn better than hot chicks on bikes.

All it mattered was that the pie was warm and it was headed directly into your mouth for pure bliss......

Thank you ALL to a fantastic ride! A great group of riders. Wicked fun.. and my a$$ still hurts!

Happy Riding,Raja

The Prince & the Frog

2009-06-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

This was on the USA Triathlon Facebook page, thought it was kinda cute:A man was out jogging in the forest one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket. Finally the frog asked, "What's the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The man replied, "Look, I'm a Triathlete. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

HAA!! love it..

Wildness

2009-05-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Wildflower is just wild. It's more than the flowers. Or that you're in the middle of nowhere. Or that there are 15,000 crazy nutcases, just like yourself, camping in club tent cities. Or that it's one heck of a wild race.

I was looking forward to a good aggressive race at Wildflower. Then I got sick. Then "allergies" took over. Knew I've had some sinus issues, especially when it comes to swimming.. but this??!? Four weeks later, I'm still coughing, sinus are still not in control. It's gotten better, but just not fast enough. A little over 2 weeks before the race I was out at the velodrome trying to get in a workout and I couldn't. I simply couldn't breath. I went home and sulked for while. All workouts between that moment & a few days before we left for Wildflower I did all workouts to keep my heart rate low. Swimming felt ok. Cycling was easy, just push a bigger gear. Running, well a little challenging to get a decent workout in when you can't get your HR up to get a workout. Finally the weekend before I go for a "hard" run with coach Peter where my respiratory condition was still evident. My advice from the coach, "you're going to have to race smart, because you don't have the condition to race hard."

My expectations coming into Wildflower were neutral. I wasn't sure what to expect. Perhaps the swim would be fine, haven't had too much of an issue being back in the pool the last couple of weeks. The bike would probably be decent. All the big gear work would surely carry over in strength. The run I was dreading. It's a hard run. Progressively uphill for the first 5 miles and straight downhill for the last mile. Ain't pretty. Luckily I was doing the Olympic (qualifying for Nationals). Long course was even worse.

There are always large age groups at Wildflower. There are also no "Elite" divisions, so elite racers race with age groupers which makes it as hard as any national level race. I don't know how many started, but in my age group 30-34... there were results for 231! Yikes. That's a lot of peeps. Two football field length racks of bikes for 1 age group. We were sent off in 2 waves, I got the first wave. As we were waiting in the last few minutes I hear the announcer call my name as a returning competitor. Last year I managed top 10. I wanted to better my result but could I do it? Last year I had a great swim here, a PR. I thought to myself, "this lake likes me".

The horn sounds and splish spash in we go. First 100 meters, feeling good. I round the first buoy and am nicely position on some one's feet. Drafting is the key. Another 100 meters and then a strange sensation envelopes my chest. I can't breath. I take a breath but just can't get enough air. I start to panic. This has never happened before. My sinuses are burning and my chest won't take in the air I want. I pop my head out of the water, stop swimming and gasp for air. "My race is over? No, get it together" I think. "Calm down, you're fine. Just start swimming again and stay relaxed" I tell myself. I start again. The feet I was following are long gone. Relax, nice calm breaths every stroke, get your rhythm back. Then it happens again. I can't breath! I stop again, yank on my wetsuit in the back (which is a strange place to be yanking, usually if you can't breath, you pull on the front). Now panic has turned into frustration. F&*%^!!!!! "What's wrong with me??!?". I calm down and start swimming. Yet again, a third time I have to stop and get air. All this before the second buoy. Now I'm pissed. Usually being pissed is a good thing for me and allows me to push harder. In this case, it was a bad thing. Pushing harder was tapping my lack of lungs. I calm down, start again and just try to keep my head in the game. "Just finish the swim". By the time I got out of the water my heart rate was pushing 190 and I'm 6 minutes down from last year. I exit the water in 87th place. Chances of making the top 10 are over. This sucks.

In transition I try to recover a bit. Once on the bike it's straight uphill for a mile so there is no recovery. My sinuses are burning (like you have to sneeze, but can't) and my HR is not recovering very quickly. Screw it, get on the bike and just go. I head out and start climbing. My heart rate is ~195 for the mile climb but I'm passing girls. A lot of girls.

Half way through the bike and I'm still cranking. There are 6-7 hills on the course and easily make it one of the hardest Olympic bike courses. One woman from a different age group passes me. I let her go. She's not important. I hit the hills and grind in my big chain ring. Save the cardio I don't have. I'm flying. I pass a lot of age groupers. I see coach Peter & his wife Neily as I make the turn back into the campground. That lifts my spirit. "You're going to have to race smart" I remember Peter saying. I let up off the gas. I need to recover before the run otherwise I'll be in big doo doo, especially since I wasn't considering the swim to be a problem and it was. Next was the run, and I was already expecting problems as I haven't been able to run hard in nearly a month. I cruise the last couple of miles into T2 and get a big spirit booster. I just took 10 minutes off my bike split from last year and finish with the 6th fastest bike split in the entire age group. Not bad for 40K.

In T2, I refuel, collect myself, wave at JT (owner of Moment Cycle Sport) and set out on the difficult run. Last year I did this run in just under 50 minutes. Normally that would be a horrid 10K split. At Wildflower... that's not to bad considering the fastest women will run it in 42-43 min (instead of 38 minutes for a flat 10K). I take longer strides than I normally would. I need to run smart. I get doused with water at every water station. I pass more girls in my age group. At mile 4 my heart rate is back up to 190+ and the road is getting steeper. I see Devin Riley from TCSD and he gives me a cheer and a few words of wisdom, "don't loose your form, stay focused, now's not the time to get sloppy, drive through!!!" He was right, dig. I somehow pick up the pace fueled by the madly cheering spectators and know that at mile 5 it's all downhill. I pass a lot more people, none of whom are in my age group. I finish strong and notice I matched my run time from last year (within a few seconds). I'm happy with that. I have to be. Drowning felt like an option earlier, so to finish strong is a successful finish.

All said and done, I managed to do ok and finished in 10th (or 11th?? they were still screwing with the messed-up timing weeks after the race so not sure what their final positions were). I'm thinking I was channeling a little Mine That Bird for a come back that wasn't expected. It wasn't a win, nor was it a podium. And to be honest, I'm not sure that I could podium here. But I did learn a lesson - even when you're "out", you're still "in", just keep your focus.

Huge congratulations to Lynne Branchflower (Velo Bella racing for Moment Cycle Sport) who not only recently got engaged (to JT), but had 3 solid performances and finished 2 places in front of me in 8th.

It's the pink shades

2009-04-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

I've gotten many inquiries on my wicked pink sunglasses. They're Rudy Project Sportsmask Girl frames. I love these sunglasses. They're surprisingly dark enough for super sunny days, and curiously light enough for night riding on the velodrome. Not to mention they're crazy light weight and feel like nothing when you're running. Go figure!

Many thanks to Rudy Project... page 2 of their 2009 catalog...

Photo by Steve Jones

Season (Eye) Opener

2009-04-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

So it's now nearly the end of April and my indeed season eyes-wide opener was back in March. The Superseal Olympic Distance triathlon is run in conjunction with the Superfrog Long Course triathlon. My husband had signed up for the long course - so a few of us thought we'd have fun with the early season race and do a relay. Not exactly a training race.. but one to just bring out some strengths and have fun. After all.. there was also prize money to be had...

So, Stacy Dietrich signed us up - Velo Bellas & Fella. Nick "The Dolphin" Abramson would swim the double loop beach entry/run swim course. His stellar 53 min Ironman Canada swim says it all. He has gills. I would do the bike. A 56 mile time trial of pure bella bellisma. The skin was going on, the aero helmet & the disk coming out to play. Of course Stacy did tell me I had to bike a sub 2:20 or she wasn't going to do the run.... 'cause of course she would have to run a sub 1:45 half marathon... in deep sand.

Then... she found out she was prego. As ridiculously excited as I am that one of my best buds is having offspring... it now left a whole in our plan. So.. 2 weeks before the showdown I signed up for the full olympic distance Superseal.

My swim had been behind par due to an annoying shoulder injury, so I would only hope for the best I could do for the day. My biking has been feeling good. After the great Velo Bella cycling camp in January up in San Luis Obispo I felt like I could push it harder & longer than I had before. My run is coming along. I'm not a fabulous runner, so learning to suffer has been, well.. painful!

Last year's race was cold, windy with ridiculous swells. This year, it was calm and overcast. I'd been told it was a fun race so I just figured I'd enjoy the adventure. Race reports are nice.. but the best part of the reports are the crazy thoughts that go through one's mind when wondering why they paid money to feel like a bag of poo.

So, I survived the swim. Not horrible. "Could have been worse" I thought. Of course, friend Neily Mathias racing for GoMichellie.com (also wife of coach Peter Clode), finished the swim over 6 minutes in front of me. I've love to tell ya I was swimming backwards with my hands tied behind my back - but reality strikes... I'm no fish. No gills. In fact, when I take my goggles off, it ooks like I've been hit by a train. Positively the nastiest site for a Bella to behold. I've included a visual for posterity. Now.. Where's my bike??!?

I had a good ride, but I must say, I liked my bike clock & my watch split better.... not sure where the 2 minutes went.. but both clocks posted a 1:07 n'change bike split. My official split 1:09:12. Needless to say, any sub 1:10 split at this time of year is a decent split. In any case, it felt pretty solid, so no real complaints.

I hadn't done much in the way of brick training this year. For non-tri-geeks, that's a workout where you bike, run, bike, run until your legs are mush. If aliens had landed during a brick workout.. I can only imagine they'd go home because clearly we're a self torturing species.

But when you hit sand on the run.. you're wishing you did more bricks. I opted instead to go off-road and run on top of the ice plant. Not something I've tried before... and not sure I'd recommend it either...

I've got just over a half mile to go, and I get run down. Shannon Harris pulls up along side of me and she's looking good. Good rhythm & pace and she's outpacing me big time. "Please tell me you're in a different age group" I said in whatever voice I had left. "33". "Oh shit". It went something like that.

I must say, Shannon gets the best sportsmanship award. She voluntarily carried me to the finish. She kept up her pace and I just tried to speed up to hang with her. "Let's work together" she said. That kind of sportsmanship - For a split second I wanted her to beat me. She deserved it.

Then I realized I was in fact racing.. and if she was going to out run me, she'd have to do it to the line. A little tactics came into action. If I could draft off her run, in the chute maybe I could out sprint her to the finish. I wasn't going to out run her. Not today at least. We rounded the nearly 180 degree turn with about 200 meters to go neck and neck. As the lane bottle-necked, I inadvertently bumped into the flying elbow of a man reaching for the finish as well. She went to his right, me to his left, nearly tripping over a land cone. And let's just say 3's a crowd. I hit it and hoped I had enough in the tank to fuel it to the end. I put 2 seconds on her. Once we crossed the finish line we congratulated each other on a good race. We finished 1st & 2nd. She just oozes Bella vibes.

So just as there are rock stars like Shannon Harris, there are also rotten bastards. After crossing the finish line another 10 seconds or so back, this man who I inadvertently bumped elbows while entering the chute, rams into me as I'm standing there drinking some needed water. "Dude, the race is over" I said. A lady walked up to me with her child and asked, "did he just do that on purpose?!?" Yes maam, he did.

I think the entire point of this race report is about sportsmanship. It's ok to be competitive, to challenge each other. Nobody is out here to "get you". It's your own race. As refreshing as it was to race with someone like Shannon, it was also as upsetting to know that there are jerks out there that feel they are more deserving than others by instigating physical contact. Not nice. He goes on the Bella poo list.

Race to the best you can do that day. I had a decent race, but it wasn't spectacular. I'm not a pro. I have a job that consumes more time than I'd like to admit. I have a husband and friends. I got a bit lucky all the really fast girls were not in my age group. Sometimes it's a bit of talent. Sometimes a bit of tactics. Sometimes a bit of luck. It is however all about who shows up on that day to race. Yourself included. Race to have fun, to accomplish something, to improve yourself. Otherwise, don't race. Nobody likes the attitude. After all.. you paid money to be here.. so you'd better get your monies worth of enjoyment.

In the meantime, train hard and race to have fun!

Happy riding,

Raja

A good start

2009-04-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick entry, it's late.. and if you're actually reading this, you're worthy of a full race report... coming soon!

Superseal Olympic Triathlon - 1st W30-34 (Got lucky all the really fast girls were in a different age group!). Huge props to Shannon Harris who ran me down in the last mile and nearly snatched the win. She gets the super-sportsmanship award for being to coolest competitor in the field...

Fiesta Island TT - 1st W30-39, 2nd overall. New PR... finally! 31:24. It's taken me 2 years. But I got it!

Galactic congratulations to the NINE Bellas racing at last weekend's Ironman California 70.3!

Weeeee! Bellaton Storms Bulldog

2009-02-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Our "little" local group of Velo Bellas has been growing in the last 2 years, and today, we rocked the house! And sooo close to a podium sweep.....

The Bulldog Road race is run by our local Camp Pendleton Marine base. I can't tell you how much I enjoy the Marine's running events. Shit gets done. Fast. Races are organized, on time, on schedule and the music is always on overdrive to get you pumped. Kudos to the race organizers. The best part though, are the Marines. The cheer section is AMAZING. Split down the middle, half will cheer you and get you energized. The other half... well, remember in the movies when the Marine is yelling at the top of his lungs, eyes like daggers, face as red as a tomato, veins bulging, and along with the projectile spittle, the vocal cords manage, "that all you GOT??!???" Yup, that'll get ya movin'.

The women's race had a whopping 96 riders to finish. Wow.... great turnout. Most racers hadn't ever done a road race before. And then there are the handful of crazy riders who know what pain they're about to endure. We were the last group to go off which means we're sifting through the men in front of us that aren't hanging. My husband also raced his first road race today with team Moment Cycle Sport. They had a group of 5-6 riders and managed to get the men's overall win! Go Moment!

I'm not an experienced road racer. I've done 5 road races in the last 3 years, nada mucho. That is however, an average of 4.5 races more than most of the field. To all the bellas around me I advised them to stay near the front to avoid any crashes, but not to pull. If someone wanted to pull 100 ladies down the street, sweet. I just believed it didn't have to be us. It isn't a race to get out there, it would be a race to get home.

So in a nice big group we stayed. No attacks. No madness. Yet. Then I attacked. We had about 800 meters to a downhill, then a sharp left turn, then "The Hill". There's only 1 major climb on the course, it's half way through, and guaranteed the top riders would make a move here. For the last 2 years I've climbing ok, but never even saw the lead group break away because I was already behind. This time I was going to be the leader up the hill and if someone was going to attack, they'd have to pass me. And I'd see them. Half way up Jen (Yake) Neuschwander & I were riding side by side in the front. Then comes Christine Silcox. This was now a Bellaton! 3 Bellas leading at the front up the climb. The followers were just marking us, so I yelled for a little help up front. Two other girls came up around us to take the lead. The thought was to get someone else to work a little when it flatten out so we weren't out in front the entire time. It was a good thought, but then the 2 of them took off (We'll call them Colnago girl & Girl 2) and just simply dropped all of us. Jen & I worked together to catch the 2 of them up front along the top & downhill, but they were hammering.

Once down the hill Jen & I had collected 3 more. We were now a group of 5, we could catch them. We organized, 30 second pulls. Annamarie (unattached) would simply rip our legs off when she hit the gas. She's now been recruited to Bellanation. Jen, Christine, Annamarie, myself and Tiny girl (don't know her name) worked and worked but just couldn't catch these 2 girls. Impossible. They've got to crack. They've been TTing for 10 miles! Finally on the final stretch we start to close in on them. Rapidly. But would we have enough real estate to make it in time?

I've screwed up the finish enough times to know better than let up even for a second. It's a complex left-right-left to the finish. Jen took the last pull before the first left. Just as she looked as she was going to pull off, I said to her "don't stop now! They're right there, we deserve this!" So she kept hammering. If she had slowed, she would have lost all power through the turns and there isn't enough straight chute to get real estate back. I launched around the right corner and took the risk and hit it as hard as I could. I passed Girl 2 entering the chute. I was closing on Colnago girl, but she hung on for the win. You go girl. Nice ride.

As I crossed the finish line - it occurred to me. I just placed 2nd overall! Not age group. Not top ten. PODIUM! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Looking back, the overall win would have been nice-but the teamwork we showed ROCKED and I couldn't ask for more. Even better was Christine placed 3rd overall & Jen 4th. Those two are a testament to hard time spent on the bike makes for massive improvements. We all did something today than we couldn't have done 2 years ago. Dave caught the final turn to the chute when I passed Girl 2 on his crackberry.

Thank you to ALL the Velo Bellas - you ladies ROCK! Not to mention the hardware... Oh la la!!

Raja Lahti (2nd Overall, 1st Age Group)
Christine Silcox (3rd Overall, 1st Age Group)
Jenn Neuschwander (4th Overall, 2nd Age Group)
Beth Callhan (3rd Age Group)
Erin Horan Gonzales
Sandra Fairchild
Madelyn Horton (3rd Age Group)
Vicki Jones
Lynn Scozzari
Sherry Mesman
Cindy O'Grady (1st Age Group)
Jackie Bickford (2nd Athena)
Whitney DeSpain (3rd Athena)

Tour of California MADNESS!

2009-02-26T18:58:00.002-08:00

OMG!

Yep... I know those Borat twins.... as it happens, it started with a fundraising dare. If the money was raised, there would be a facinating formation of Borats racing up Palomar with the pelaton. Needless to say, the camera man got the first taste...

Then the Pelaton gets a good laugh..

Fast Freddy Rodriguez from Rock Racing is more like Freaked Freddy!

Slide show of the Solvang TT:

Frozen Peas

2009-02-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

The love my family. Dave & I just recently bought our first home. Having a guest room has been nice - for the family. Both Dave's & my parents have taken the opportunity to come and visit which has been great.

One thing about parents coming into the house and making themselves at home (which is nothing but fantastic) is they're not necessarily familiar with the habits of athletics... and sports injury. I seem to be a pro.. at injuries. To clarify, not even in the same ballpark as pro athletes, but I think I could keep 'em all busy with my sports injuries.

Recently I've been back to see my hero, Gino Cinco at University City Physical Therapy on a mystery shoulder injury. Woke up one day and couldn't even brush my hair... oh boy. Off to see Gino. Back from Gino and out come the frozen peas. Long live frozen peas, God's gift to sports injuries. I'm not sure what I'd do without my faithful frozen peas. A little strain, a little tweak, a little pull, out come the peas.

So back to family. I love family. It's such a treat when mom comes to the house and makes us dinner. Mom.... great stir fry, where did you get these peas? ....

I'm thinking these peas look familiar....

Enjoy your peas,

Raja

"The Man"

2009-02-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

You know you're in deep when celebrity sightings no longer involve film or TV, but rather legends of sick & twisted endurance sports... like..

The Man

Dave "The Man" Scott. Ba-zillion time Ironman legend.

Did I mention he's wicked cool? Hubby Dave & I went out for a "moderate" 50 mile ride with friends of Nytro Multisport. Scott made a surprise appearance at our TCSD club meeting earlier in January and when the bets start to fly on when The Man is going to hit the hammer, I should have taken warning.

We started with 100+ riders, and ended with about 15. I think the theme was "Kill the Girl". The first 25 miles were moderate. The next 20.. were not. It was a white knuckled, girl on a wire ride, but I hung in there and even found myself sucking Scott's wheel at times. If I recall correctly, he was on mine at one point. Equal rights. How I survived, I have no clue. Fried & cooked, but not over done.

Hubby Dave had one of the most inspirational rides of his life. Pictured above Hubby Dave on left & Dave Scott on right leading the fractured group.

Thanks Dave Scott for a fantastic day!

Happy riding,

Raja

FITT to be dirty!

2009-02-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

That's right - another muddy buddy Fiesta Island Time Trial. Two years ago a persistent light rain turned an otherwise simple time trial into a mud bath. We were cleaning mud and sand out of cracks - on the bike too. This year we were looking at the same. Three days of solid rain slowed to on & off rain showers leaving the island road muddy and slick in a few spots. Nevertheless, the madness shall go on. Saturday I rode down to Fiesta and evaluated the conditions. Huge puddles crossing nearly the entire road. OK if you're in a car.. but racing a TT bike.. yikes. (On a funny note, I was riding in Tri Club San Diego kit and a fellow TCSD member driving home noticed me riding & pulled along side. After quick introductions he quickly smiled and said, "so you're the Indian Guy!") Race directors did a good job sweeping the course and reduced the massive puddles to mere muddy patches on the road.

More impressive when it comes to weather, was the absolutely abysmal conditions at Boulevard Road Race yesterday. While I haven't yet checked the numbers myself, rumor has it that a Pro/1/2 field had a 75% drop out rate. Snow. Last year I was so miserably cold I decided it wasn't worth it. I'm glad I did! I think even Landis froze his huevos.

Rumor had it Landis was being saved a spot at the time trial today. We did get some pro riders from Fly V Australia & Jelly Belly, but Landis was not among them.

The first sign the weather wasn't going to be ideal was the double rainbow. Pretty...pretty sucky more like it considering that was heading in our direction. My brilliant idea of bringing a little Murphy into the mix - if you don't bring an umbrella, it will 100% rain. If you bring an umbrella, it'll be sunny n'dry. So I called Stacy & picked up her tent... if a tiny little umbrella could spur a little Murphy action, then a tent... Iza wrong... it rained, so under the tent I went! I'm sooo pretty!

I had a friend come with me. Rie has been a long friend of mine from the horse competition days. We worked together for Olympic rider Charlotte Bredahl up in Solvang. She came down to San Diego for the weekend and wanted to see "this thing I do". Silly Raja. Get a car!

Ten minutes into my warm up, she says, "your steaming".

Last year I learned my lesson.. don't even think of cutting it close to start time. They indeed, will start without you. So I arrive 20 minutes early and begin to freeze my little **** off. Finally I'm off and riding. I told myself to take it easy the first lap. I have a tendency to bust out of the gate and see just how high my heart rate can go. Not necessarily the best of tactics. In fact, kinda stupid really. I just get sooo excited.. gotta go, gotta go!

Lap 1 felt good. Steady, but strong. Lap 2 ahead of target and feeling good, stronger than I remember feeling. Lap 3: Ka-BOOM! Legs were failing to turn over and feeling like rocks. So that's where I need more strength! I like to do these races as a test of conditioning. I can get a pretty good feel for my training. Today I was right were I wanted to be. Not a PR, but 1 minute ahead of last year's race and only 50 seconds off my PR. I placed 2nd (and 2nd overall) with 32:24 behind local crazy woman Anna Gerber. This girl is a fire ball of energy and loves to give those boys a little pinch in the butt as she whips past. I expecting a proper Gerber spanking, which I got, but I'm cool with that. Well, I'm not cool with it, but a little reality keeps me cool.

Happy Riding!

Raja

Food!

2009-01-25T19:17:00.001-08:00

So I don't usually write about food. But I love food. A lot. Probably more than I should for a triathlete... but I have to say, I REALLY enjoyed packing on a few pounds this holiday season. It wasn't the eating.. it was the cooking. During the racing season I'll limit my diet and remove the excess fat - butter, cream, cheese (yes.. giving up cheese for racing sucks!). During the holidays.. I enjoy it every bit I can get my hot little hands on... so here are some recipes which aren't exactly "race friendly", but easily top my list of the best ever...

I'm not a soup gal. I don't order them at restaurants, I don't make them at home, and I occasionally eat them when presented with soups at a meal. But this soup.... I could eat it breakfast, lunch & dinner....Here's a dinner menu for you.. guaranteed to add an extra pound, but a meal you won't forget!

Gingered Butternut Squash Soup
6 servings
1 large butternut squash, halved lengthwise & seeded
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pecans (1 ounce)
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 large onion (or 1 small onion), cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 fennel bulb (anise) - cored & cut into 1/2 inch dice
3/4 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled & finely chopped
3 cups chicken stock
7 ounce unsweetened coconut milk, shake/mix prior opening
3/4 cup chilled whipping cream
1/2 t hazelnut oil
pinch cayenne pepper
Kosher salt
3/4 t fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Rub cut sides of squash with olive oil and set them, cut side down, on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake for ~1 hr or until very tender. Remove from oven & let cool until you can handle the cooked squash. Once cool, spook the squash flesh into a large bowl & discard skins.
2. In a pie plate, toast pecans for about 5-8 minutes until lightly browned & fragrant. Set aside & let cool.
3. In a large pot, melt butter & add onion, fennel and ginger. Cook over moderate heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Add squash & chicken stock, cover & simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover the pot and continue cooking until the squash starts to fall apart, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat & stir in coconut milk.
4. While the squash is cooking, finely chop the pecans in a food processor. In a medium bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the shopped pecans, hazelnut oil & cayenne pepper and season with salt.
5. Working in batches, puree the squash soup in a blender until relatively smooth. Stir in the lemon juice & season with salt. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a dollup of pecan hazelnut cream and serve.
-Soup can be prepared up to 2 days ahead of time & stored in refrigerator. Reheat gently & add additional chicken stock to thin soup.
-Food & Wine, November 2007

The Perfect Tart to compliment your soup:
6 servings

Crust:
Do yourself a favor and buy uncooked pie crust (In the freezer section of Trader Joes or usually near the "doughs": cookie, cinnamon roll, pie doughs in the refrigerated section of your local market). Or search Epicurious.com and find yourself a pie crust recipe, just be prepared... crusts are time consuming and your kitchen post mortem will usually look like something in the flour factory exploded)
Filling:
5-6 thick-cut bacon slices
1 large onion thinly sliced
1 cup whipping cream (yep, more cream...)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon group black pepper
generous pinch of salt
generous pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 packed cup coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

1. Set 1 crust out, overnight if possible. It will unfold/unroll without breaking if warmed to room temperature. Press dough in a shallow 9 inch tart pan. Pie plates will be too deep & crust will have a tendency to burn. Preheat oven to 400F. Pierce crust all over with fork. Freeze 10 minutes (if you have time). Throw some pecans in bottom of tart pan & bake crust until crust is set (~20 minutes). The nuts will keep the bottom from bubbling too much. Remove form oven & set aside. Maintain oven temperature.
2. Saute bacon in skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels & drain. Let cool. Once cool, chop bacon into medium size pieces.
3. Using remaining bacon grease in pan, add onion & statue until onion is deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove onion from grease & set aside.
4. In the meantime whisk cream, egg, yolk, pepper, salt & nutmeg in small bowl.
5. Spread onion over bottom of baked crust. Sprinkle bacon, then cheese. Pour cream mixture over.
6. Bake until tart is puffed & filling is set, about 25 minutes. Cool ~ 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

And for dessert:
Coffee Cream Brulee
yup... total sin, complete pleasure...
4 cups whipping cream (cuz cream is sooo good!)
1 cup sugar
8 teaspoons sugar for caramelized top
2 tablespoons coarsely ground espresso coffee beans
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder or coffee powder (Turkish coffee power is exceptionally good with this)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg

1. Place eight 3/4-cup custard cups in large roasting pan.
2. Combine cream, 1 cup sugar, ground espresso beans, instant espresso powder and cinnamon stick in heavy large saucepan. Using small sharp knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar and espresso powder dissolve. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 30 minutes. Strain through fine sieve.
3. Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk egg yolks and egg in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in cream mixture.
4. Divide among custard cups in pan.
5. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of custard cups. Bake custards until center moves only slightly when cups are gently shaken, about 55 minutes. Remove custards from pan. Cool at least 1 hr prior to serving, refrigerate uncovered overnight if possible.
6. If you have a cooking torch, use it, it's easier than the broiler to make the caramelized sugar top. If not.. preheat broiler. Sprinkle sugar evenly over each custard covering surface. Place custard cups on baking sheet. Broil until sugar is brown and caramelized, rotating baking sheet to broil evenly and watching closely to avoid burning, 1 to 2 minutes. Chill & serve.

Enjoy!!

Velo Bella Camp!

2009-01-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

1/20:

Wow! I had an amazing weekend with 30 of my fellow Velo Bellas, hotties on bikes, up in San Luis Obispo. We had Bellas from all over California, even one from North Carolina! Some had just started riding in the last 6 months, others were seasoned racer chicks. Then there were the boyz... A local racing group provided escorts, sweeps, tire changers extraordinaire and last but not least.. some mighty fine calves for all viewing needs. :-P When suffering, a good pair of calves will do. :-)

We even had paparazzi! Huge thanks to Carson Blume for some making hurt look soooo good!

Daily rides ranged from 25 miles to 75 miles of amazing farm roads and a skills clinic run by Michael Hernandez ... a former San Diego triathlete now wicked cyclist in the Bay Area. Or AKA "Sabine's Boy Toy"... oh la la!

Our own Ryan Hostetter (Girl Ryan) provided most excellent organizing, routes and most importantly, INSPIRATION! And Sue.. well, she just likes spanking boys. I think they call her SueNami! Marian... Virgin Blood is Vegan Safe... Cathy from NC, the track guru turned mommy...if you ever thought you didn't want kids, have a little chatty chatty with Cathy "I'm a Mom" Boland. And the rest of the Bellaistic crew, what fun!

Laura and Sabine (pronounced like Sabina)...Mama Bellas (pictured above left)! They are the perfect personification of Velo Bella - pink hair, endless humor, killer smiles, giggles and energy & motivation that never ends.

If you've ever wanted motivation to do more, be more.... welcome to Bellaville, where going as sloooow as possible is talent and climbing like mad women never looked so goooood.

So next year... you don't want to miss it! Who's in? I can't even tell you how proud I am to be a Velo Bella! Huge thanks to all those who put it together.

Happy Riding!

Raja

1/18:

I'm up in San Luis Obispo, CA for the Velo Bella training camp. I came fully prepared. Not. I've been at work meetings in Florida for the last week, sitting, drinking & dancing. I haven't been riding much, longest ride yet has been 50 miles. But heck, we're all Bellas so it'll be a blast! And it has been! Ryan Hostetter has been leading the way with wicked rides (72 miles on Saturday) and a killer crit clinic with her fav JUMP drills.... yep, lungs'a'burn'n! More updates when I recover.... :-P

2009 Around the Corner

2008-12-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

I was so tired at the end of October, I didn't want to train and I certainly didn't want to race. My last race of the season, Pumpkinman, had this cute 5 mile climb to transition (Halfmax course had about 6500' climbing, the Olympic about 3100'), about 100 meters of flat and on to the run. The race wasn't flawless, but beyond that, I was done racing. I did ok, ended up 4th and scored points for TCSD for the team national championships. I was however happy to be done racing for the year. 2008 wasn't a great season for me, too much going on, work, life, moving, etc to allow the racing season I wanted, but overall, not a bad racing year.

After witnessing the tragic military plane crash last week in San Diego where a man, father, husband and son-in-law lost his entire family (his wife, 2 young children and mother-in-law) in an instant, I had to ask myself why. Why was I meant to witness this tragedy? My answer is - to live life and just go for it. You never know when a plane may crash into your house.

With that, I am thankful for my family, my friends, my teammates, my colleagues and the people that motivate me.

As it is that time of year - ready for a new one... on come the resolutions. As usual, I resolve to have a better year. Be a better person, race a better race, better my performance at work.

So what's on the agenda for 2009....

January:

1/17 - Velo Bella camp, SLO

February:

2/8 - Fiesta Island Time Trial (FITT), San Diego

2/28 - Bulldog Road Race, Oceanside

March:

3/8 - FITT, SD

3/22 - Palm Springs Triathlon, Palm Desert

April:

4/5 - FITT, SD

May:

5/3 - Wildflower, Paso Robles

5/10 - FITT, SD

5/17 - Encinitas Triathlon, Encinitas or Tempe International, Tempe AZ

June:

6/14 - Redondo Beach Triathlon, Redondo Beach

6/28 - San Diego International, SD or Ventura Breath of Life Triathlon USAT Regional Championships, Ventura, CA

July:

7/26 - Pacific Coast USAT Sprint National Championships, Newport Beach, CA

August:

8/22 - USAT Olympic National Championships, Tuscaloosa, AL

September:

9/12 - FITT, SD

9/13 - Big Kahuna Long Course Triathlon, Big Sur, CA

9/27 - OC Tri, Irvine, CA

October:

10/11 - FITT, CA

10/25 - Soma Long Course Triathlon, Tempe, AZ

I'm sure I'll add, subtract, substitute, tweak, fudge as necessary...

As for you - I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, give a stranger a smile, call a relative you haven't talked to recently and take a moment to be thankful for all the wonderful things.

In the meantime, happy riding!

Raja

Reflections

2008-11-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

2008 is coming to a close.. so many things to reflect on. So many things that happened. The biggest shocker of all was loosing Dave Martin. It wasn't supposed to happen. Not like that. Statistically speaking, we should be good for another 50 years. But nobody wants to test that number. Me neither. No need to test the waters, at least not for awhile. A lesson for us all, live life now. Don't worry about the past, or too much about the future. If you don't live it now, you may loose it forever.

The Greatest Club on Earth

2008-10-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

I just want to comment about what an amazing club TCSD (Triathlon Club of San Diego) is - for both sport, and support. Dave Martin was tragically killed by a 16' great white shark off the coast of Solana Beach in May of this year. A regular swim by TCSDers every Friday morning turned tragic beyond belief.

ESPN went beyond words, a touching article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=backinthewater

USA Triathlon Nationals 2008!

2008-09-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it's done and over.. so that's good news. No mechanicals, that's good news. It didn't rain, more good news (start temp was estimated at 45 degrees). And I did much better than last year, so that's good news. Last year I was plagued with the mystery leak in my disk (turned out to be the stem). This year, new disk, no problem! Not!

On Thursday before the race I got a good ride on the course and I would even say the course & I had a little pow wow, chatted up some issues I had on the mind, and by the end of the ride we became good friends. :o) I did my feel good brick after and jetted off to go jump in a hot shower at the hotel. Upon opening the back of the car the theme to a horror movie started to play in my head. I was cursed! Disk was flat as a pancake. Crap!!!!! Online store Team Estrogen came to my rescue. I called them up having ordered a ton of stuff from them in the past for some solid bike shop advice. They pointed the way to a local tri store called Athlete's Lounge, where tri bikes, leather couches and napping tri geeks come together. Their mechanic was a saint and was able to patch my teeny tiny hole without having to use one of my spares or start the stretching process all over again. PHEW!

During check in USAT had a "More Cowbell" giveaway - so yes, you can bet I will be ding-a-linging my sweet cowbell when the pro tour rolls into town next Feb (Tour of CA) for the march up to the Mt Palomar finish. Sweet! Always wanted a cowbell...

On race morning we were delighted to feel the weather warm up a bit (to the 60s). The lake, in the low 70s, was going to be a pleasure to jump in, it really is a beautiful lake.

We started from the dock the elite team dives off, except we got to be good little age groupers and sit on the dock, then dunk in to start. I'm not a natural swimmer. Being fishy doesn't come easy for me. All those great Phelpsian pheaturs that makes swimmers swim great - well, I don't have them! Except a little stubbornness and desire. I didn't start learning to swim correctly until I started triathlon 4 years ago so I'm pretty much playing catch up all the time. Once the horn went off indicating the start of my race, the swim felt pretty steady. I was on a mission for feet. Bubbles, find the feet, attempt to stay there. Loose the feet, find new bubbles, new feet, and try to stay there. Repeat. I figured if I could keep finding feet I would have a decent swim split. I exited the water at 26 minutes, which was good for me (one day I'll like swimming...). Last year at this race I achieved my first 26 min split ever, so it was nice to stay consistent at that split.

Once on the bike I felt great and let it go. According to hubby Dave, I was 25th out of the water, so I had a few spots to make up if I wanted to try to make Worlds. I finished the first lap in just over 34 min and was on a roll. Then the second lap hit and an all too familiar pain started to radiate down my left leg. Stupid sacrum! I had been feeling this over the last 3 months and was delighted to be pain free after my last visit to Dr. Crunch (Dr.Elleraas, my chiropractor) and Gino Cinco (UCPT ART), the Miracleman. Since the course is so hilly (~3000' climbing in 24ish miles) I backed off the big chain ring over the last couple of miles with the more pitchy climbs to give the legs a break before the dreaded run. Sacrificing some time on the bike would probably save me minutes on this run. I finished in 1:10, good. Marked improvement in my time from last year (1:13). (Picture right from 2007 Nationals)

Then the run... oh the run. The run from hell... and back. I forgot about these hills. I mean I remembered the hills, but I forgot how long & nasty they got. Coming round the half way point, my left leg was loosing power and push. I tried to latch on to some guys that were passing me and managed to keep my head on straight. Only 3 major climbs left on the run at this point, I could do this. I looked at the asphalt ('cause trust me, looking up at the hill was just depressing!) and tried to use the pain in my left leg as a distraction. Then I looked at my heart rate monitor. Approaching 200. Crap. I was at max and there was no avoiding the pain and lack of oxygen at that point. Coming in the final hill, I was gaining on the girl in front of me, but as we turned to go down a rather steep incline, she widened the gap. I just didn't have the coordination to turn my left leg over any faster. The last 200 was fairly flat and I ran as hard I could but couldn't quite catch her. At least I got to within 2 seconds. I finished the run in 46 min, a marked improvement from my 49 min run last year.

I finished in 21st place with a time of 2:26. I missed the chance to go to worlds by 1 spot. Yup, 2 seconds. You'd think that should be bad news, but really, it's good news. I'm that much closer to qualifying that last year! As frustrating as it can be to be that close and not get it, things happen for a reason, and with the crazy competition in this age group, I truly felt like I gave it everything I had for the day and didn't have any extra seconds I could have wrangled up from somewhere. That's all you can ask for when you're trying to sync all 3 events on one day. For a year that started slow and dismal with waning hope, I would say it was a success. If not, I can always wait until I'm 60 to qualify!

Many, many thanks to coach Peter Clode for loads of schedules that get better and better every year, Lesley Paterson for reminding me I can suffer longer and harder, Gino Cinco at UC Physical Therapy for un-tweaking me after all my muscle tweaking workouts, Chris Elleraas of Carmel Valley Chiropractic who was the first brave soul to straighten my broken body, Cassidy's Massage Clinic for reminding me that going injury free is an option, Tri Club San Diego for being the best tri club & training group on earth, and of course, my husband Dave, who was at the finish line with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

Now, you can bet I'll be calling all the above to figure out how to un-tweak my left leg so I can start training again.

Happy Riding!
Raja

P.S. I didn't believe there was so much climbing on the bike.. until I mapped it myself..... click here for a 1 loop elevation which skewed even higher! The race course is 2 loops....

Run for the border

2008-08-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Imperial Beach Triathlon

So you basically drive down the 5 south till, oh, the border. Take a right and go to the beach. Ta da! Imperial Beach! Now Tijuana is renowned for their pristine water - or sewage spills, so I'm glad that fence along the border keeps all the bad bugs out. I checked in for the race on Sat and immediately hear rumors that the swim could be cancelled due to bacteria counts being too high. Sweet! The race directors run a good race and wouldn't put us in harms way, so I would just have to take their word on the water quality. Personally I suck at beach entries/exits so I'm not sure that I would be too upset if the swim were to be cancelled. But alas.. it the water was fine and the swim would go on.

But it sucked in any case. I haven't seen the splits yet, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty. Just as my little toes hit semi-dry sand and stopped ('cause I was just about walking at that point), stripped out of my wetsuit and then ran into T1. One of my goals was to quicken up my transitions, so I'm glad I ran right past my bike in T1. I've always known that swimming provides me serious oxygen debt in the pool, but now I get an open water-demo of oxygen-debt-brain-loss. Goody!

Once on the bike things start to look good and blood once again returns to the gray-matter. The bike felt pretty good, even while viewing the Mexican houses on the other side of the hill.

Then comes the run. It always hurts, no matter how good you think you feel. I guess that's part of the "fun"... one day it won't hurt! Only a 5K run, but with an average heart rate of 188 on the run, at least I can say I gave her a good old fashion try! It wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked, not bad, but I was hoping for a little better, and not quite fast enough the close the gap to first on such a short distance.

I have to say, I'll take 2nd! If I counted correctly, I was 5th overall. I can't wait for a lake swim again!

After the race I was standing by the score board and I hear "damn, he beat me again!" from somewhere next to me. It just got me thinking - that's what brings us coming back... for yet another pain fest. That feeling that you can do better next time, it's like crack...

Next crack... Nationals..... wish me luck, I'll need it!

Happy riding!
Raja

Bella grooves & moves

2008-08-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is the first time I've had 20 unread emails in my email box! Haven't written much and already blew my rule of thumb when it comes to writing race reports... write them within the first couple days after racing to get the full effect. Oh well!

This morning I attended a meeting of new Velo Bella triathlete getting ready for the US Women's Triathlon series triathlon in October and it was so great to see so many new faces! Triathlon seems formidable at first, but then after you do your first race you realize it's a ton of fun and the sense of accomplishment when you finish will get you signed up for your next!

Since the Mouse Attack, I've been to Coeur D'Alene to watch Bella Stacy Dietrich (left) and my husband Dave McMahon (right) race at Ironman CDA. Dave came in at a fantastic 10:40ish, taking 20 minutes off his Ironman Canada time (even with a swim disaster!), and Stacy finished in an astonishing 11:28 and was sporting a HUGE smile the entire time... sick!

Then I went to Napa for my girlfriend Leticia's wedding... ahhh.. a beautiful bride and fine glass of wine are always a good thing.

Since I had been away for the previous few weeks, what's 2 more!.... Back to living in a hotel for a couple of weeks as part of training for work. Get up early, run, shower, change for work, work training from 7:30-5:30, then back to the hotel, change and jump on the trainer for a couple of hours.. or zip off to the pool for a swim. Luckily my work partner (Stacy D. above) is also a tri-geek bella so my cohorts were already prepared for the equipment I moved into my hotel room.. bikes, trainers, swim cords, too many shoes and a bag full of Power Bars.

Then I raced Pendleton International and hoped I'd be recovered enough from my work training "graduation" class.... I wasn't going to expect too much since I really haven't had time to put in the solid training I would have liked to. Since I didn't have too many opportunities to swim for the previous month (except for a 25 yard pool at about 80 degrees), it was no surprise the swim sucked. Or the quarter mile run through deep sand to T1. But alas, I survived. I finally felt good on the bike. While I was at training for work, I dropped my TT bike off at the shop with a suspicious noise coming from my cranks. Of course I had heard it for awhile, but never thought it was an issue. Turns out my bottom bracket had more or less disentegrated. Oops! So ya think that's why riding that bike has been soooo hard??

Needless to say, the bike felt MUCH better and I finished in 1:10, right where I should be. (T1 & T2 were in the bike time for a total of 1:13:49). Out of T2 I left the legs turn into rocks. The deep sand was coming to haunt me. I just tried to stay steady and see if the lactic acid would miraculously disappear. Coming around to the second lap I was at about 23 minutes, I took some salt tabs & a motivator and within a half mile I had found my legs. I could hear Lesley "come on Raaa-yaaaa" like she does in your workouts and tried to focus on what I would I if she were there staring at me... she's really the Scottish Devil that one! And I mean Devil in the fire & energy that she exudes. I set my sights on a local TCSD racer who has quite a good run and if I could catch her I knew it would be a good run. Every hundred meters I got closer, and closer and I knew if she heard me coming, she could possibly out sprint me to the finish, so I used a little stealth and a whole lot of surprise to edge her out in the last 100 meters. Unfortunately with triathlon, you never really know who's in your age group so you just have to aim for someone in front of you and chip away.. then cross your fingers there's not too many you didn't see. There always is!

I ended up 3rd and really was quite happy with that. As soon as I get my swim back on and perhaps attempt to trim up a bit more, I think Nationals will be a better show this year. At least I hope so! It would be oh soo nice to race in Australia next year.... we'll see. Not sure if it's possible this year with the career change taking so much of my time, but I know it will all work out for the better.

Next race.. Imperial Beach Triathlon... see you there!

Happy Riding!

Raja

(Stacy in her post-Ironman daze...)

Get the MOUSE!

2008-06-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since my last posting... oye!

I had a change of careers in April and pretty much everything else has had to sit on the back burner until I get settled.

In May I did Wildflower Olympic and had fun. Training this year has been hampered by one thing or another, illness, work, injury, you name it. The gods are holding me back! I didn't expect much out of Wildflower, and still came away bummed with my race. The good news, my swim was the best yet and I really was delighted with it. The bike & run, well, not so much. I ended up 9th out of about 200 or so that finished. The exciting part was the finish.. pics below in the previous post....

Then came Encinitas Sprint (pic). I was 3rd with what I consider a crappy bike portion of the race. It wasn't bad, but I know I should be doing better. The run was ok.. and the swim.. well, I'm not so hot for surf entry so I survived.

This past weekend was probably one of the most fun races I've ever done. It was the Danskin Disneyland Triathlon. That's right, Kingdom of the Mouse, or in this case, California Adventure. The swim was in the lagoon in CA Adventure, the bike was a 2 loop course around the entire part and the run was a windy route through the park. With over 1300 competitors (all women), this was a big race.

Why did I enter? Well, when else can you take a dip in Disneyland without them giving you a life ban?!??

On check-in before the race I heard one woman say, "the water is disgusting! It's a lagoon! There were ducks right there pooping." Uhhh.. this is Disneyland where everything is sterile, that taste is actually chlorine and that brown water is dye so you don't see the tracks for the boat. If only she knew what nasty water really tastes like... As you walked in the water, it was warm, you know, kinda like bath water. No wetsuits needed so I wore a tri-swim suit for the first time. Couldn't wear my Bella kit as it's a 2 piece. Instead a put a Bella tattoo on my arm and wore my signature hair flair. The swim was a ton of fun, but a bit of a faux-Ironman. With about 16 waves (me in wave 9)starting every 3 minutes, it was A LOT of swimming over or around people in previous waves. Next time I think I'll actually race Elite instead of Age Group so I can get in the first wave and not have to crawl between quite so many ladies. But where else can you stroke, stroke, breathe, look at the ferris wheel, stroke, stroke, breath, look rollercoaster, stroke, stroke, breath, look Mickey...

The bike was fun, and my bike created quite a bit of attention (aka The Hornet) as there were a number of first-timers racing. I really enjoyed being able to answer questions, even got to give a fix-a-flat demo. Newby: "What are these?" Me: "These are tire levers, you really should know what they are and how to use them..."

Back to the race... so the bike was ok, still feeling a bit lacking in strength and it showed as I was unable to loose the cute chick in red on the cervelo with the disk. I should have been able to smoke her, but instead she latched on and let me take her for a ride. We leap frogged around for a bit between swim, T1, the bike & T2, but then she spanked me on the run. At least she was nice & cute!

By the time I got off the bike I was still coughing up the drink mix I managed to inhale. Note to self: don't inhale your drink!!! The run started and I had the glugs. You know that sloshy feeling from drinking then trying to run?! After the first mile I felt better and began to relax. Unfortunately the run was almost over by that point so I just ran my way past the popcorn and cotton candy, past the store where you can flatten a penny, past the churros, around the fountain, through the western-shoot-out store front and to the finish. With one great leap for Velo Bella, I was done!

I finished 2nd in my age group behind that nice cute chick on the Cervelo, and 6th overall. Not too bad.. but I know I can do better next year. My coaches tell me it's a long season and I've still got time to recover from a dreadful season (so far), but I have to say.. it's tough when you know you can do better and when people who don't usually beat you are squeeking in front of you... oh well, the life of a crazy triathlete with a life!

Pic of me passing on the bike.... no Bella gear... a tiny VB tattoo on my right shoulder... and way wicked VB water bottle to represent!

We had a number of Bellas attend, I'll update this blog with a list, but CONGRATS to all, this was a fantastic race and HIGHLY recommended as a destination race.

Happy Riding!
Raja

WIldflower - Race Report Preview

2008-05-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Just a little summin' summin' to post before I get my delightfully charming (and funny) race report posted....

I had a couple of challengers down the final shoot... and the facial close ups take the cake... enjoy... cause I was suffering..

Inspiration!

2008-04-15T22:31:00.001-07:00

I can only tell how how amazing and motivating triathletes are. Fellow Velo Bella Whitney DeSpain and Shannon Werner finished their first Ironman races this weekend at Ironman Arizona this last weekend. Vic, another Bella made this video, and it just may bring you to tears... the next time I complain about the wind or the heat... please remind me it could be worse.. I could be doing an Ironman...

After her daughter watched the video.. her beautiful daughter Abby replied, "Mommy, I thought you were going to run"... (too funny!)

Run, walk or crawl, 25% of competitors at the 2008 Ironman Arizona didn't even finish.

A HUGE Congrats to Velo Bella Shannon Werner for a smashing debut at Ironman, placing 7th in her age group!

And another CONGRATS to VB Sandra Fairchild for finishing her first Olympic distance Triathlon at the Irongirl in Vegas!

We're not in Kansas any more

2008-04-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

So how wrong is it when you're in the middle of nowhere (about 40 miles from anything), the wind is gusting to 40 miles per hour, the thought "if it's like this all the way home, I'm going to cry" is circling through your head.. and the then you see it.... Saddle Sore Trail.

Dave, Stacy, Julie, Miller, Rice & myself drove out to Ocotillo, Ca to do the Stagecoach Century this morning. I had checked the weather courtesy of my iPhone... it was going to be a cool 88 degree F (down from the originally forecast 95 degrees, thank goodness!). There was a slight detail my precious iCrackPhone didn't tell me..... oh yeah.. little breezy today.

We open the car door in Ocotillo and nearly get our arms ripped off as the wind tears the door open. Oh crap. Uh Houston... this is going to SUCK! My concerns are belayed as the man inside the warm, comfy building states that the reports from the road state the wind settles about 10 miles down the road once you drop down into the canyon. Cool.. let's ride.

Yeah, it took 50 minutes to ride the first 10 miles. 6 of us, forming a nice eschelon, rotating & playing well with others.. just to try to maintain a whopping 10 mph. Ouch! Relentless head/cross wind from hell. Mother nature had a different plan from us.

With the exception of about 2 separate 1 miles stretches, the entire freaking 50 mile stretch was a battle of wills... the will not to turn around and go hide in the car. Even up the stupid climbs. Ugg.

But Bellas don't quit...

42 miles of battling ridiculous wind, we pass the lunch stop and still have 8 miles to go to the turn around. Stacy's pretty sure her mum would have washed her mouth out with soap by that point. That last 8 miles took about 45 minutes. It took six strong cyclist about 4:20 to travel the 50 miles.. and all we could think was "it better not be like this on the way back!"

We ate lunch, took a family picture, started off again for home, Julie pointed out the Saddle Sore Trail (just how wrong is that!), battled into 2 miles of headwind, and then flew home in a tick over 2 hours. I don't think I've ever maintained 35-42mph for such a distance ever. Even the 3 climbs we had to do coming home didn't slow us down too much.

So last week when I was whining and moaning in my blogventure over the wind at CA IM 70.3.... I had no idea what it could have been like! Oh my...

Thank goodness Shadow Tour provides such a well supplied century!

Bikes n' Cars

2008-04-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if it's the latest tragedies that have prompted the need for cyclist & driver education on how to be safe on the road, but whatever the cause, it's always good to keep safe riding in mind...

A fabulous video for DRIVERS: http://www.dothetest.co.uk

This email was sent to me from Velo Bella Cycling, and I think it's a solid reminder of what we're required to do, and have the right to do as a cyclist.. enjoy:
(now if only drivers would watch it too!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU4nKKq02BU
**********************************************************
You know how, as a child, you were taught never to bicycle in traffic and to stay out of the way of cars? Well, a new video on the rights and duties of bicyclists has just been posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU4nKKq02BU. Among other things, it shows bicyclists how to ride in traffic, including controlling the lane and using left turn lanes to turn left. An acquaintance of mine, Dan Gutierrez (an experienced bicyclist and a satellite engineer), posted this video in an attempt to counter those ideas you were taught as a child. Basically, he is teaching adult bicyclists that they should act as drivers of vehicles. If they are traveling slower than the prevailing speed of traffic, then they should ride to the right if they can do so safely. But if not, then they need to ride in the middle of the right lane. And when a bicyclist needs to turn left, he needs to change lanes and move to the left, just as the driver of a vehicle would. Dan's point is that if the lane is too narrow to safely share side by side, then it is better to ride in the middle of the lane. That way, the bicyclist avoids opening car doors, motorists who try to squeeze by without changing lanes, and right hook accidents. That's the way I ride, and that's the way that the League of American Bicyclists instructors teach their students. But I wonder how many motorists, people on bicycles, or, for that matter, bicycle advocates understand that. And if they understood, how many "bicycle facilities" would we really need?

Please take a look at the video and let me know what you think. I will pass any comments on to Dan.

Robert M Shanteau, PhD, PEConsulting Traffic Engineer
(you can post a comment if you'd like a comment to be passed to Dan)
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A little Q & A:

Ed wrote:
Raja,

I practice 95% of these techniques, but always wondered what the "protocol" was for the narrow lane situations where there are no shoulders, bike lanes, etc. So, "hogging" the right lane so to speak is safer until you can move over. This always seemed to be the right move and I've done it when the lane was extremely narrow, but now I'm empowered with the "law"/rules.

The only item I noticed the video left out was the situation of car sensors at traffic lights. It's true that some cities insert bicycle sensors too, but overall, if you do as the video suggests and you're first in line at a light either to go left or straight, chances are the car(s) behind you are not "tripping" the sensor so the traffic light system does not know anyone is present and may never change unless they're set on timers.

So, common logic may suggest (?) the cyclists should move forward/to either side/into the crosswalk (a bit) to allow the car to inch up onto/into sensor range, assuming they're paying attention and understand the technology. This is tricky however, because as you know (and I recognize), inching forward/sideways could put the cyclist in a less than safe situation. I think it's a gray area and unique to each situation, but I thought I'd ask if there's anyone weighing in on the subject.

Thanks. This was helpful,

Take care,
-ed

>>Dear Ed,

Good question! I forwarded your question to Dan... I'll let you know what the response is when it is received. When I'm out riding and am sitting at a light waiting for it to turn.. and waiting.. and waiting... I usually smile and get overjoyed a car has pulled up behind me. I usually just roll forward a bit, turn around, give the driver a great big smile, and wave them forward so they're triggering the light. They usually have kept a safe cushion behind me and don't want to crowd me, so it usually takes some coaxing to get them to move forward. If I point to the pad, then point to the light, they usually get it and pull forward. Then they get the big thumbs up and "Thanks!" from me... Always thank drivers who are courteous... they really don't know how much they are appreciated.

Cheers,
Raja

Ty wrote:
Raja,

Great video - thanks for sharing. I am new to cycling and I was wondering what you do if people honk at you? I've cycled down the 101 through Solana Beach and Leucadia and at times people honk if I'm controlling right the lane. Ignore them? Travel in groups only?

Regards,
Ty

>>Dear Ty,

Well, the natural reaction is not always the best (usually involving birdies and some french)... So I usually try to "kill em with kindness"... and just wave to them to acknowledge that I hear them. Your safety is the most important, so above and beyond what any laws state, do what you need to do to be SAFE. There are a TON of aggressive drivers out there who will do what they want to do in order to "own" the road. In this case, some of them really do try to get as close to you as possible to make their point (for some odd reason, they're usually driving pick up trucks or expensive cars) - which is HIGHLY illegal and VERY dangerous, so if you're confronted with one of these drivers, just move to the far right to get out of their way, your safety is more important than a bruised ego. I'm all for getting license plate numbers and reporting it to the police. These are the drivers that will one day accidentally come too close and injury or even kill a cyclist.

There are also a TON of clueless, oblivious drivers who have no clue how close they are to you, and don't understand that you really do need more than 6 inches clearance... I wrote on my blog about a women who honked at us and thought she was doing us a favor.... oh my...
There are also a TON of very considerate drivers, and I usually try to give them a thumbs up and smile so they know I am thankful for their respect.

Whatever you do, don't ignore drivers. Probably not the best idea to fly them a birdie, but at least let them know you've acknowledged their presence... and if you need the entire lane, take the entire lane, just be clear with your hand signals if you plan on turning, or what your intentions are. If I have to merge into traffic because a car is parked in the bike lane (often on PCH), I make merging gestures with my left hand advising drivers I will be merging left.

Please let me know if you have any questions... I'm not a pro, nor an authority on the law, but I can speak from experience...

Happy Safe Riding,
Raja

A Bumpy Ride through 70.3

2008-03-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd put a creative twist to the usual boring race report....let the journey begin!

I was given my instructions to take my spaceship to the planet Ocarina Fanil Minor. This is not my usual route. I was not looking forward to the flight as I knew my ship had been having some engine trouble lately. My test flights had hit some snags, and I knew at least 1, if not 2 of my 4 engines were already running on half steam. I unfortunately won't have time to get them full repaired, so I instructed the crew to throw a band aid on the engine failures, we were set to launch, so we'd just have to see what happens. At the very worst, we would coast in, but I knew for sure the overdrive propulsion system was going to be out of the questions. No lightspeed on this mission.

The journey would take us through 3 galaxies and was a total of 70.3 light years away. It was going to be a long haul. The first galaxy was the galaxy of Wims. A simple galaxy known for the abundance of liquid substances. Space was usually tight so it was critical not to get jammed up against the flow of traffic. Unbelievable that there is so much space in Wims, but everyone chooses the exact same vector so it ends up in a wing fight. This stretch usually gives me the heebeegeebees. Luckily I hitched some good rides and found that I was far more comfortable through this stretch than normal. I got through in better time that usual too. Since this has usually been an issue for me, having a successful journey though Wims was a victory.

The next stretch would put us through the galaxy of Kebi. Usually I'm not so concerned about about Kebi because I can keep out of trouble when the Kebitians try to slow you down, cut you off, or whatever tactic they use to keep you from exiting their universe. Torque up those boosters and just get out of there. This flight however, there would be no boosters to light and I would just have to depend on my ships aerodynamics to safely carry the precious cargo through. The good news was my transformer module was operational and my wings were easily tucked in for a more efficient flight. The bad news was... Kebi was expecting some weather to move in so I underestimated the ventosity vortex was sucking my fuel faster than anticipated. Engine #2 begins to fail.

The last leg was through Nur. Now Nur has historically been a challenge. With only 13.1 light years left to travel, it was still 13.1 light years away and typically something in the engine room quits on me through Nur. I hate this galaxy. No matter how well stocked I try.. I've learned it's just years of experience nursing your engines through this galaxy, as even the seasoned pilots remark that the engines tend to tank, it's just a matter of getting better engines. Damn. With 1 engine out to start, engine #2 failed, I'm wondering how 50% power will get me through this. So I enter the gateway to Nur. Systems check, 2 engines are still running. I'll back off power, try to get a steady economic velocity going and see how far it takes me. Half way through I smile, hey, both engines are still working! I speak to soon. A little turbulence and BANG! Engine #3 begins to fail. Crap, coast it, just coast it in. Can't turn up engine #4 until we're in the final leg through Nur, I need to make sure it last. Back on planet Earth, I would have birdied up the road like a blue-hair trying to drive in the left lane. Luckly the peaceful aliens at planet Love Stop were all gas and helped push my limping ship down the route. At 69.2 light years into the entire journey.... Engine #4 is now failing. My ship sputters, jolts, coughs and spits as I try to throw a little more juice in. I get nothin'. Ok, just be happy you get one of those 5 lbs "Mission Success" medallions.... I know I can coast it in, it's just not going to be a purty sight.

I see my point of docking. My journey has ended. My ship's a little burned and I have no fuel left to report of. It was a bumpy ride, but I made it, the cargo has been delivered, and yes.. they did give me my medallion for a successful journey.

But I do remind myself... I really like the shorter journeys. My ship will need some serious rebuilds if these endurance fests through galaxy after galaxy are to continue. So I think for now.... I'll stick to my favorite route.... to planet Plyocim.

Your Mission Captain,
Raja

Congrats to the Other Bellas who made it through the journey! Stacy D, Stacy S, Jess, Terri and Christine!
Dave had a rather bumpy ride as well, so while in the docking station, he captured this prime photo of me deck changing out of my flightsuit. Nothing like a wet flightsuit.... or "diapes" as I call 'em.

A Horrifying Tragedy

2008-03-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

I am stunned, horrified and saddened by the accident that killed Kristy Gough & Matt Peterson and critically injured a third rider.

By a police officer no less.

Police should be required to escort cyclists... just so they see what we have to endure every time we hit the road, what some drivers will do to own "their" road.

Just this last weekend while I was out with a group on a 65 mile training ride, a woman in a very nice Mercedes came up behind us, honked and yelled something through her window. At the red light she rolled her window down and told us she was doing that for "our safety". Yeah... if you want to keep us safe.. STAY AWAY FROM US! Her voice was sincere, and I'm sure she meant it.. but was this how she was trying to "protect" us?.. really, is that what she thinks "protecting" us really is??? How about staying as far from us as possible???

Drivers... please be careful. Yes, there are those righteous cyclists who think they own the road.. but I'll tell ya what.. it's probably because they've been buzzed one too many times by you drivers... we aren't really going to hold you up. You do have a gas pedal and you will get there in time.

And riders.. please be careful out there! These three riders were riding on the correct side of the road, on (as I've read) a road with a bike lane which is highly travelled by cyclists, in single file and they still got killed. Brutally killed I may add.

As least they died doing what they loved.

Please be safe out there...

Pics from the Tour of California

2008-02-27T11:03:00.001-08:00

Leipheimer

Gesink giving it his all...

Miller

More pics of Zabriski coming...

Pena

Boonen

Hincapie warming up....

Vogels??

Chipollini looking smashing in The Rock...even got to ride his own bike.

Tour of Cali!

2008-02-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a trip to Ojai with my husband Dave, and our friends Stacy & Ryan Dietrich, to watch the Tour of California. Other than being fairly sick, not being able to breath and on antibiotics the entire time, I had a blast! I got some wicked pics of the time trial in Solvang, but I will put you in suspense as the pictures, all 575 of them, are on my husband's computer, and he is now on a business trip (yep, he left Ojai at 4AM this morning to catch his flight out of LA.. ouch!), so alas, we all must wait to view the photographic masterpieces!

I mean, did you know that both Hincapie and Cancellera stick their tongue out of the right side of their mouth when time trialing? Did you know that Hincapie has rather significant varicose veins in his left calf? Did you know that Lion King Chipollini smiles when doing time trials? Did you know that Levi looks weally, weally, widdle on a TT bike?

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this Pic from Stage 6.... up to KOM #3.... Our race leader opting for his National Champ jersey rather than the yellow....

ESA Magic

2008-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, talk about getting inspired by the best. I was honored to represent the Triathlon Club of San Diego at the Competitor Magazine Endurance Sports Awards. TCSD had 3 tables of members whom attended the awards banquet, including Darrell & Denise, both of whom were recipients of the Jim McCann Tri Club Members of the Year. Denise was also the lucky winner of the Felt cruiser.. in flaming red! Congrats Denise!

Dave & I walk in to Sea World and I run into friend and former co-worker, Scott. It's funny to think that Scott's the one who taught me how to transition... amazing what you can learn at work. Back to ESA... I've met Macca previously, and just as I was going to say hello, Dave turns me around and says "Raja, you've got to meet Mark Allen." Uh yeah.. the real Mark Allen?? Since I'm still a relative newbie to the sport, Dave's been telling me about the legends of the sport. And Mark Allen, is a legend.

Next I proceed to play some carnival games, you know, the ones you played as a kid at the fair.. and I think any 7 year old could have beat me, I was pretty pathetic.. but it sure was fun being a kid again!

After the awards presentations I met the parents of Jon "The Blazeman" Blais and thanked them for their strength. If you've ever met anyone suffering from ALS, you understand just how tragic this disease is. When I was living in Los Angeles I worked at a small family run company in Westwood. When I interviewed with the owner of the company, I thought she was from the south as she spoke with a slight drawl. Her daughter, Julie, soon took over the business and as each month passed, we watched in horror as ALS took over. First she lost the ability to speak. Then eat. Then her body broke down and not long after, she passed away. It was truly horrible. One day may the progress in stem cell research bring hope and cures to those who needed it yesterday.

Before we left I got the biggest inspiration of all. Back in high school Dave was a star cross country runner. Running is in him, so he wanted to meet Ryan Hall and his beautiful wife Sara. Ryan gave an absolutely wonderful acceptance speech and really stressed the love and support he has with Sara to get him through the days that tug on your strings of doubt. Well, there is no doubt that Ryan is possibly the best American runner of all time. Sara herself is also one of this country's best as well. Truly incredible.

But I must say... after having my doubt strings tugged something fierce recently with my own confidence, meeting Ryan & Sara gave me more inspiration that I can tell you. Just to believe in yourself. It's normal to not feel on your game, you just have to keep pursuing. If you've never seen Ryan run.... then you've never seen a man run the song of grace and inspiration.

I had my best run today in quite some time.

The Sam and Saul Show

2008-01-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

More on this post later, it's getting late and I need to get up early... but, I have to say, I really like my life. That's not to say that I'm not constantly pushing myself because it isn't' good enough, or that I don't have enough time to do the things I enjoy, or that I don't make enough money, or that I'm jonesing for a bear claw.. but really, it's really a wonderful thing to be surrounded my such wonderful people in TCSD. That of course, would be the Triathlon Club of San Diego.

Today we had a club meeting with Samantha McGlone.. I'm sure I've written about her in my previous posts.... but it was great. She's a great speaker and I do have to say... I'm all for the Canadian humor. And she is one fast-red-headed-Irish-named-freckled-freak. And I say "freak" in only the best way. She's fast, like mad-fast, and (when not racing) is quite humble about it. When she's racing... watch out, her hair's red because it's on fire!

She made some really great points - stick to your plan when you race. You will feel like crap, that's part of the plan.. just push through it and keep going. Apparently feeling like poo is supposed to be ok...

One day I wish I to ride like Sam.... I'll never run like her.. but maybe one day I may be a decent rider....

And then there was Saul. That is of course, Saul Raisin. He didn't speak at the meeting as he was at a local bike shop, Nytro, yesterday and told his story. I was bummed I couldn't make it, but I did get a chance to speak to him for a few minutes after the meeting, and I have to say - he is one gentle, warm & friendly man. He's been through a lot, and I can't imagine being the one who is told your career as you've known it is over. You cannot ride for your team. But it's still early. Maybe after some time when he can prove his healed body is worthy of racing again will they let him back into the carbon gates. In any care, look for his cause - he'll be promoting the funding & research of brain trauma. A whole new world just opend for Saul. I wish him the best on his new adventure.

Ok, time for bed....

The Mortgage Freakshow

2008-01-23T15:36:00.000-08:00

Yep. A freakshow in the mortgage business right now. I work for Countrywide Bank and today alone we've seen the lowest rates for quite some time.. and rates changes I've never seen before... it's only 3:45PM and we've had 3 price changes today.. for the worse in response to all the market volatility. Those that got lucky this morning locked in to a 30 Yr Fixed rate in the low 5% range... fingers are crossed the rates come down as fast as they went up today.

No wonder I do triathlon! After days like these a little venting is required!

The Howard Experience

2007-12-31T09:17:00.000-08:00

"We're going to see JH tomorrow" my husbands says. You know when you can refer to someone via initals... you're talking about someone who has iron branded an industry. You know, like LA. Here's your clue.. has to do with cycling.

JH would, of course, be John Howard. Last year I was lucky enough to buy a barely used QR tri bike off a friend who absoutely dispised the geometry. Last year I was also luck enough to have Efrat Veidman in town and show me the ropes about this whole cycling bit. She also introduced me to John Howard and convinced me to do a fitting with both my Trek road bike & radical QR TT bike. So, hence, I met JH in Jan of 2007. He did his magic, repositioned just about everything on my road bike (including a dramatic hike in seat height... almost 3 cm!), took one look at the QR and said... "oh, now this is a radical bike" and left it a little more conservative. I can't complain, the bike's done me well.

This year... I'll have a side of fries with my radical. We hooked up the QR and did all the fitting based on the QR this year. I've been feeling like a big slug, so I wasn't looking to smash my testing results from last year. I gave my first baseline test a solid effort (on the QR unchanged) and crushed my results from last year. Oh... I don't know if I can repeat that for my 2nd test post adjustments. Had I done too big an effort?? Crap, I was going to look like the idiot who sprints out of the start gates for a long effort and fizzles after 100 meters.

John first measured key angles and distances. The plumb line from my knee at 3 o'clock position was 5.5 cms fore of the ball of my foot. He hiked the seat up a wee bit and did his thing and went radical with my arm positioning. Not quite the Praying Landis radical, but quite a change. More aero. Better angles. Better access to my core. He re-measured the line from my knee...and voila, now I was only ~1 cm fore.... amazing to thing he didn't really change the position of my seat. By moving my bars up to a better position, it set me back in my seat and gave me a better leg position too.

We re-tested. My average wattage went up by 20 watts... a hot & spicy 379 watt average...

Swing Batta!

(pics from my fitting in Jan of 07 with John & Efrat)

When did the Olympics become the Pro Championships??

2007-12-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've always been a fan of the Olympics. Since I was a kid I've had Olympic dreams. I was Olympic bound. I was going to ride that horse right into 5 rings of glory. Then I realized how ungodly expensive the equestrian sport is and came to my senses. Coughing up $25K to get you & your horse to the east coast for your US finals is just the start. To get to the finals will cost you nearly that much. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen! So, I decided I would ride horses for me, and perhaps a few lucky people who have me ride their horses.

Now I'm involved in Triathlon, another sport I love. I certainly don't have 5 ring dreams in Triathlon, in fact, not even in my wildest dreams. Heck, I don't have 5-ring talent in Triathlon! I never will and I certainly don't dream of it either. What it takes to make the Olympics is insane. You have to have rare natural talent & make training your profession. But, aren't the Olympics for Amateurs?

This is where I'm confused. In equestrian sports you need to have an amateur card to compete at amateur status. That means you can't receive ANY compensation for ANYTHING related to your riding for a solid year. I compete at the "Open" or pro level with horses because of this, even though it's not my profession.

I also understand that a country really does want to send it's most talented athletes to represent at the Olympics. That's big business.

But how many athletes at the Olympics are actually Amateurs? Even in the horse world, it's the top sponsored pros who make it to the 5-ring arena. When it comes to triathlon or cycling or whatever - it's the pros who go and compete for their country. I'm not really complaining as I do want my country to clean up and take as many medals as possible... but when did the Olympics turn into just another Pro Championship?

I was just pondering this thought and decided to share a little. I did grow up as a little girl with Olympic dreams, because the Olympics were for everyone, not just the athletes who already made a bundle on their sponsorship contracts...and as much as I hate to say it, the Olympics lost a little luster when I realized that it was just another Pro title to take home...

Oh well.. I'll still be pinned to the TV next summer. There's got to be a real amateur athlete in there... and I'll watch them podium!

In meantime... don't forget to smile when you're ripping your legs off... you're doing it for free :o)

Happy Training,
Raja

Swim, Bike Run, Eat, Recover, Repeat

2007-12-07T13:06:00.000-08:00

Written for Rachel Michelson www.fitnessformommies.wordpress.com

Before I did my first triathlon I though, "Gee, this would be fun. Triathletes are cool, motivated individuals that are a bit off-center."

Yeah, I rephrased that during my first triathlon. "What the hell did I sign up for??! Triathletes are idiots! I feel like crap. They do this because of why?".

Now I have a slightly better perspective. Why do I do this? Because I can.

Don't get me wrong, no matter how hard you train, and no matter how well prepared you are, be it for a Sprint or an Ironman, you will curse yourself. You will wonder what you signed up for. You will wonder if this qualifies you as insane. But.. you will also know that the sense of accomplishments that envelopes your entire body & being when you cross the finish line is so powerful it can bring you to tears. You have done it. No matter how crappy you feel when you cross the finish line, you will smile. It just may take you a minute or two.

I remember my first half Ironman in 2005. Training had not gone as planned with all sorts of new injuries I had never felt before. The race hurt and I hated the run. I hated myself for subjecting myself to such ridiculous torture. I wasn't ever doing this again. Ever. I crossed the finished line, "Ok, I'm done, phew, torture is over." Then I saw fellow Velo Bella Whitney DeSpain handing out medals at the finish line. She gave me a monstrous hug and then I proceeded to weep like a little baby. I had done IT!

For me, I race for personal reasons. I nearly lost the ability to walk after a nasty accident back in 1999. For me to race as hard as I can is the joy of being able to walk, run, cycle and race. I race because I can. Why do you race? My first suggestion for new triathletes is to know why you're racing and believe in it. 'Cause you're gonna need every last bit of belief to keep you going when everything hurts and your logical mind is asking what it did to deserve such torture. It's amazing what can make you smile when you feel like absolute poo. (I mean stinky poo that's been well embedded into the bottom of a pair of cleats)

The next step is to train. You'll be surprised when you can find time for a workout. You thought your schedule was busy before you started triathlon! I have a candle. It burns at all 3 ends. There are so many variables when it comes to multi-sport. It's not just a swim event. Nor a bike race. Nor a running race. It's all three and then some. You've got nutrition and the mental fitness as well. Will all this, I believe the toughest part is really to identify your weaknesses, strengths and then align all elements so swim, bike, run, nutrition and mental strength all converge and peak at exactly the same moment. For this, I've hired a coach. I've only been in the sport for 3 years, so this really is still a guessing game for me. You can do it without a coach, but personally, I wanted to learn how to do this sport right and I knew I needed someone to tell me what I needed to be doing. I have been training with Peter Clode for 2 years now and I'm excited about heading into my third year of coached racing.

Who do you choose for a coach? There are a ton of online programs you can download, some for free, some for payment for online coaches. If you're self disciplined enough not to have personal interaction with a coach, go for it. For me since I have fairly extensive old injuries, it was important to me that a coach know me personally and be able to coach around all my flaws. I wanted someone who saw more in me than I saw in myself and could push me beyond my known limits. I wanted a coach who wanted it for me as much as I wanted it for myself. I wanted a coach with experience and who could point me to the right physical therapists when I started to break so I wouldn't get injured. I wanted a coach who was reality based, yet positive and encouraging. I wanted a coach who gave me results. I found all of that in Peter and his wife Neily.

At the end of each year (ie, now), I pick my 1) goal race 2) secondary goal race 3) training races and 4) training events. For me, my 2008 goal race is USAT National Championships in Sept. I'd like to qualify for Worlds 09. Will I be upset if I don't qualify? No. Will I be upset if I don't race well? Yes. My secondary goal race is CA Ironman 70.3 in March. I hate this race. But... it allows me to get a good base started for the entire year, so it's worth it. Training races are important. These are races you use in training but do not train specifically for. You need to race to race well. Transitions should become smooth and effortless. You just do them without thinking about what you're doing. Racing should be a reaction, an instinct, not a thought process. At Nationals in 2007, while it wasn't my best race of the year, every second counts. I beat the athlete behind me by 2 seconds. If I had even taken a pause in transition, there went my 2 seconds. I'm not aggro, I'm just competitive. When to eat, how much to consume and what you're eating are all products of racings. You won't know how your body handles racing until you race. The next thing to do is find training events. These are events you use to help motivate your training. Usually they're century rides (or half centuries), or club races, or running races or open water swims. I try and train with friends because it helps my motivation when I really don't feel like training. Any trust me... you'll have lots of those days.

After you've determined if you want a coach and have picked out all your key events you have to train. It's kinda key... You don't train, you don't enjoy your race, that simple. In general, you need to swim, run & bike at least 3x week each. That does mean you'll have to do double days. Use the weekends/non-work days to do double training, that way you only need 1 workday to be a double. Three workdays will be a single, and one day will be a day off. For me, since I'm strong on the bike, ok with my run, and weak with my swimming, I try to weight my swim & run workouts, especially during the winter months. I have another little hitch with my training as I'm allergic to chlorine and if I swim 2 days back to back, I'll get a sinus infection. Another one of my little flaws. Because of this, I have to use stretch cords to help strengthen my swim without getting into the water every day. For the run, I try to run a minimum of 4 days a week. I'll have 1 long run, 1 medium length run and 2 shorter easier runs. If you need strength running, just getting out and running for 30 minutes a day will help you a ton. As far as bike workouts, I will always have 1 long ride on the weekend (your key ride) and at least 1-2 shorter rides during the week. I change between hill workouts & interval workouts depending on where I am in my training. I also like to fit in 1 turbo (wind trainer) workout during the week. Riding a wind trainer is far harder than riding on the road and can really simulate race situations. Turbo workouts aren't Spin classes at your local gyms. While Spin classes are good, the windtrainer workout is a far better workout, you're on your own bike riding intervals designed for endurance time-trialing. I do these at night after work since it's dark and riding on the streets is out of questions. These Turbo workouts also are great for learning pedal stroke and how to run off the bike. You actually have to train your body to be able to run off of the bike. Ye'ol wobble legs doesn't magically disappear by doing nothing. Do transition runs off the bike at least once a week, even if the run is only for 15 minutes. You'll thank yourself later.

With training there is recovery. Recovery is essential. You'll stress your muscles in workout and the only way you'll be able to build on that training is to let the muscle heal and recover. (This doesn't mean take a week off because you're a little sore. Expect to be sore.. a lot! You'll learn to love the ache!) Books are written about recovery, but in a nut shell, let your body recover. (A great book to have is the Training Bible. It's on every athlete's bookshelf as it's a fantastic reference book for all questions related to endurance sports.) Stretching is key. If you don't stretch your muscles, tendons & ligaments will shorten and become less flexible. Less flexibility means less access to your muscles to train and workout. I'm completely guilty of not stretching enough. I often use The Stick before and after runs which helps me a ton. John Howard also has a fantastic stretching & strength program you can do at home. While I don't spend nearly enough doing strength work by myself at home, I do make it a point and go through his stretching routine after hard workouts. I really do recover much faster when I do them. Sometimes after hard runs I get awful pains in my hips. For this, I actually have to see an ART therapist. I see Gino Cinco in La Jolla and I can easily say he's kept me going with all my old injuries. There are tendons & ligaments that run deep in your hips which are not easily accessed by regular stretching. Another good thing to do is get a sports massage. I see Cambria at Cassidy's Massage Clinic in La Jolla every 1-2 weeks when my training picks up and starts getting beyond my own stretching abilities. If your body is telling you something, listen to it and get help. If you have back pain, see a chiropractor. I call Dr. Elleraas, "Dr. Crunch", and I know every 1-2 months my body will tell me to go see Dr. Crunch. Don't be afraid to go get some physical therapy. Find a reputable ART specialist, massage therapist & chiropractor in your area and get help when you need it. If you don't, you'll get injured and be out of commission for longer periods of time.

Nutrition is also important. Train yourself to constantly take in fluids & calories. Always use a drink mix on the bike. Hydrate & fuel your body at all times. What your body needs during workout is completely individual. I use Hammer products because they give me good results without upsetting my sensitive stomach. I mix a combo of Heed & Sustained Energy in my bottles and carry gels with me on long rides & runs. I'm still training my body to take on solid food during workouts. Typically I'll gel every hour on the bike. What should you use? Try everything. You won't know what works until you've tried a lot of stuff. Also, after every hard workout, eat. I'm not talking about drive through at Taco Bell. I mean have a recovery shake (I use Hammer's Recoverite) or a small nutritious meal. Your body needs carbs & protein to regenerate. Don't not eat because you want to loose weight, you're just hurting your chance of recovering quickly, instead eat something small packed with nutrition after hard workouts. I'm not a nutrition expert so if you want details, there's tons of literature online about recovery meals.

If you've done your homework, picked your races strategically, planned your workouts using the aide of a coach or training program online, figured out your nutrition strategy and gotten in touch with good therapists for maintenance help, you're on your way to having the race of your life! And when you race and you cross that finish line, make sure your family is there to see you ball like a baby with a smile they've never seen before. They won't understand why... but you will.

Happy Training!
Raja

Back to the road

2007-11-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

So I've started training again. I got a few Italy pounds to shed... nothing like a little Italian wine & a whole lot of parmigiano reggiano...

Perhaps I may even learn to swim this winter :oP

In the meatime if you're ever in Ojai... don't forget to ride 150 to Carpenteria.. it's a keeper!

Happy Riding!

Welcome to Hell

2007-10-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

Ash Monday - October 22, 2008

I just got home from attempting to work.... after evacuating my office in Santaluz this morning and filling one car with office computers and files, when I got a call at about 6:30pm that preparations were being taken to evacuate the barn in Del Mar (across from the polo grounds). The head trainer lives in .. er.. well, in Ramona and was not able to get out. She called me, I had the only truck that could pull her trailer, so off I went. She would do what she could to get out... even running barricades.... but she did make it out.

Dave asked me "well don't they have an evacuation plan?"... well yes... we are the evacuation plan! Currently the facility is host to an additional 450 horses from evacuated areas. "Yes.. we're evacuating the evacuation center!". A fire broke out in Morgan Run, which is on the east side of the polo grounds. We're on the west.

So now I have one car full of work computers, and another full of horse stuff..... luckily the flame was put out and I was allowed to come home and sleep a little.... hopefully I won't get a call in the morning to move out the horses... cause ladies.. lemme tell you.. the plan is to basically turn 700 horses "loose" in the wetlands (although it's fenced in so they can't get to the roads)...... there's nowhere else for them to go.

Hopefully things will look up.. and the thought of Rancho Santa Fe going up like a Christmas Tree on Halloween will be a long distant nightmare...

Sleep tight..
Raja

Pictures... The Left: view from the beach 1 block from my house. Yep... that's real color. The Right: The road in front of the office & some massive sycamores that ripped up in the Sunday night wind storm. Amazing that at my house.. not even a breeze.

Geo!

2007-10-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

So my husband calls me "Geo" when I whip out the camera and start getting a little shutter crazy.

This time it paid off! My photo was picked by the editor of National Geographic as part of their best shots of the week!

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/yourshot/daily-dozen/august.html?fs=canyon

Wahoo!!

Raja "Geo" Lahti

Friday Palomar, Saturday Julian..again!

2007-10-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

Click Here for information on the ride.. again

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgwxpdcx_9fbf88w

Julian Pie Ride

2007-10-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

POO! That's the name of my fellow Bella who convinced me to ride to Julian for a slice of pie... but alas.... it was a seriously epic ride!

Bella Fella Tim enjoyed his ride so much, he sported a fancy pair of Bella armwarmers (either that or he gave his winter-wear to his freezing Bella, and toughed it out with fuzzy arm warmers)... he liked the arm warmers so much, he made sure he could read them the entire trip....

Having Fun with Triathlon

2007-10-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to say my dad rocks... I asked him to help me with a triathlon logo design (nothing to do with Michigan).. and this is what he came up with... a magnet he found:

And Yes.. he grew up in MI.

Peer Pressure

2007-10-02T17:10:00.000-07:00

My girlfriends are great. The amazing circle of friends down here in San Diego is great (thanks to the uber-social Tri Club of San Diego). But oooooh, someone's going to be on my poo list on March 29th.... (about 10:30am, expect some pre-scheduled cursing)

Yep... signed up for Ironman California 70.3

...again.

Yep - was one unhappy camper last year.... the run just wouldn't end...

Italia!

2007-08-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

I never knew I would have to one day enter a blog with directions in Italian... love this "Visualizza blog"... yep... I'm visualizing ;-P

Dave & I are starting to upload pictures to my picasa web album.

Click Here to visit the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/rvlahti

Check back to the site for more albums of Italy! Almost all albums are uploaded!

Ciao!
Raja & Dave

And yes.. this was a lightning storm I captured from the edge of San Marco Plaza... amazing!

Holy Folsom Athletes Batman! You can say FIT again....

2007-08-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Folsom International Triathlon

Let's first define "FIT": An athlete who is more than just a good or well prepared athlete. Being freakishly good. Having the ability to crush your competition into little bits. Being a Worlds athlete.

Or you can just say "Folsom International Triathlon"

Yeah. Pure Worlds here. I think the winners at nearly every age group were headed to World Championships at the end of the month..used this cute little race as a springboard for Worlds... and so the day went... very, very, quickly.

But before I get into the race and the more than spectacular selection of age group athletes that appeared.. let's talk travel.

You know, that travel with the "extra" luggage. The luggage that makes your fellow air-travelers rubber neck and ask you if you've got "your mother-in-law" in there (seriously, someone did ask me that!).. Yes, the bike coffin.

This thing is so big it makes the lady with 9 suitcases on her way to a 4 day vacation in the Bahamas seem like a light packer. (Picture from a trip to Victoria, B.C in 2005.. the only one I could find with the oversized beast)

And then there's the wheel you're carrying on with you for fear that the baggage gorillas will damage My Precious. My wheel bag is not very subtle. It's black with big white lettering "HED CYCLING". And yet, every trip to the airport people ask me.. "Now what is that?" It's a wheel. "Did you just get back from the Tour day France". Uh... no.... (have they noticed that there are no women in the race?? Or perhaps they think I'm a representative Podium Girl... uh, ok!)

And then there's the 4 rolls of duck tape, another roll of TSA "Inspected" tape, 6 "Fragile-Handle with Care" stickers and the multiple remaining fragments of old luggage tags that clearly define this over sized black case as mine. No two cases could possibly be alike. Just head to Oversize Luggage and see when my pet box is birthed from the extra-large baggage curtains. "That one can't possibly be mine... there's not enough duct tape."

So I located my patch-work-oversize-case, grab the little pull cord and walk myself over to the rental car counter. Just like a little pet, it follow me with surprising willingness. "Yes, I rented an gas guzzling, over sized SUV, for that," and then point to the big black thing on wheels. You know, the rental car companies must just cringe when they see "that". I recommend the Ford Escape.... it's small enough, yet all the seats fold down and give you more than plenty of room for your beast-box. It'll even fit in the back standing up! To boot, you can fit your bike, wheels and all fully assembled in the back when you head off to the race.

I spent the weekend with a friend of ours that we don't get to see that often. Fellow cyclists, she and he husband are crazy tandem mountain bikers. Yup, move out of their way.. their brake fluid is boiling..... We had a fantastic girls weekend doing nothing but talking about subjects boys really don't want to talk about, seeing movies that boys won't see.. and admiring the soothing affects of Beljium Budder.

Ok, back to the race. Outside of Nationals, this was the most talented group of Age Group athletes I've ever raced with. I don't say raced "against" because that's a whole different ball park... The course was fun, a chilly lake swim, rolling hills with some decent climbs on the bike and an undulating run down the twisty lake bike path.

Let's start with our own Ashley Erickson. She races for a local sponsor, Fluid, but she's a Bella. Really freakin' good bella at that. I wish I could swim & run like that... she crushed her age group with a 2:17 race, placed 5th overall and is off to worlds next week. Go Ashley!

I had the race of my year. I PR'd, had a decent swim (for me...), a super bike (fastest in my crazy age group and even faster than the women's Elite bike splits too), and my best run yet. I finished in 2:24 and was delighted (Swim:27:44, Bike 1:08:58, Run 45:06). After my mechanical issues at Nationals, all I wanted was a good race. And I got it. That race would have sent me to Worlds too if I had done that at Nationals. It felt good to know I was playing with the best, and doing fine. While I did expect that time to podium, I didn't and was 4th. The caliber of racers was incredible.

I did the math and was excited... This is my third year owning a bike and racing. From my first Olympic race to now, it's taken me 2 years to widdle down a measly 12 minutes. The first year I improved by 4 minutes. This year I sliced off an additional 8 minutes... so next year... hopefully I can do a sub 2:20.. now that would be nice. :-)

Now my husband and I are off to Italy for our 3 week honeymoon. I can't wait... it's been a long, hard year so far and the thought of renting bikes in Italy and sporting the Bella gear in the Land of the Gods is all I can think about these days. Well, that of course would be second to my dreams of Gelatto consumption...... um.. yum!

Happy Riding!
Raja

Click here for the full results: http://www.japroductions.com/fit/index.html

Hot! Hot! Hot Hornet!

2007-08-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

I mean what else are you going to name a bike that's black and yellow!

My QR Caliente:

Folsom International Triathlon - Lakes & Prisons

2007-08-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm off to Folsom International Triathlon (conveniently nicknamed "FIT") next weekend. Gotta go qualify for Nats 2008...

It's beautiful in Folsom and they've got this pretty lake there...

...
...
...

And a prison.. so no stopping on the bike to pick up hitch-hikers!

:-P

Cheers,

Raja

USA Triathlon National Championships

2007-07-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back...

...and I think I could sleep for week...

While I would love to report back that I came home as the W30-34 national champ.... you all would know I would be hallucinating and perhaps in some serious sleep deprivation. I didn't go to Nats to win. 'Cause of course, I'm already a winner. If I happened to qualify for Worlds, that would have been amazing, and very very scary. But I didn't. And I'm really ok with that! Let me explain...

Dave leaned over and looked at me with a little twinkle in his eyes, "Did you ever imagine that when you did that first Mission Bay triathlon on your mountain bike that you would be here two and a half years later?"

Actually no. It hadn't even occurred to me.

My road in triathlon to date has been short and fun. I've now had 1 year of coached training, so you won't hear me complaining about my perceived "lack" of performance at Nationals this year. I managed to miraculously slice 4 minutes of my swim time. I couldn't have been happier.

The bike didn't go as I'd hoped, but that was my own fault. A newbie error. I was hell bent on using the disk. Was it a head game? Having the disk gave me confidence? Setting up in transition prior to the start I had noticed the disk loosing tire pressure. Down from 130 PSI to 80 in about 10 minutes. No holes, tire looked good, I pumped it up again to give it another test. Pumped to 150 PSI. (Which takes a feat of strength for me since that's far more than I weigh!). In the rush to get everyone out to close transition, I felt the tire, maybe a little lower, but not nearly as bad as before, tightened all the valves and left. If I got out of the water and the pressure was significantly lower, I'd just change my wheel prior to leaving transition. If it felt pretty solid, the leak wasn't that bad.

In a nut shell, I think I shot myself when I didn't change the wheel. I'm usually very solid on the bike. Steady. Aggressive. Fast. This time the bike felt squirrelly on the downhills and squishy on the uphills. With about 1500' of climbing and almost continuous turns, my legs were toasted and my time was slower than it should have been. I asked someone on course if my bad wheel looked low, "no, well yes, but not flat" was the response I got. That's about how it felt. It definitely wasn't so low I couldn't ride. But I found I was riding very conservatively on the downhills & corners. No risks. Within the first 2 miles of the ride I passed the first crash victim. Even Nats isn't immune to crashes.

When I racked my bike and hit the first of 7 hills on the run, I knew my chances of qualifying for Worlds was done. I got kind of excited...

You see, Dave & I got married in May. Since then I have been training like a mad woman. Honeymoon? That would have to wait until after training. If I qualified for Worlds, that's an entire summer of training and the first week of our honeymoon spend racing in Europe. As exciting as that may have been.. I haven't really been in the sport long enough to know what I'm really doing. So now that Worlds wasn't going to be an option... all I can think about is how great Italy is going to be in the fall... and we can take the road bikes and ride where ever we want in Italy...

So while I was suffering like a beast on the run, it occurred I had a lot to be happy about. Breaking my back/pelvis 8 years ago had made me a stronger person. Who knows if I'd even be racing triathlon or cycling if it hadn't had been for that accident. I really was just excited to be doing something extraordinary.

Some things I learned:
1. Jim was right.
2. Starbucks coffee is better than their danishes.
3. Starbucks sandwiches are better than their coffee.
4. It doesn't pay to be stubborn.
5. Got a lot of training left to do!
6. Bellas ROCK! Ashley Erickson did GREAT! placing 10th in her age group. Nikki Shue also did great in her crazy age group!

Happy Racing!
Raja

San Diego Int'l Triathlon - Documented Suffering!

2007-06-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's not too often I get to watch a race from (almost) start to finish... here are the links to the Picasa web Albums. I went a little shutter-crazy! Jim would most definitely approve :o)

And no making poopy faces at the girl taking your photo! Thanks to all those who smiled, laughed, or went a little silly for the camera!

Parts 1 & 2 - http://picasaweb.google.com/rvlahti/SanDiegoIntLTriathlonPart12

Parts 3, 4 & 5 - http://picasaweb.google.com/rvlahti/SanDiegoInternationalTriathlonPart345

Edited Fun Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/rvlahti/SanDiegoInternationalTriathlonJune2007

Happy Racing!
Raja

The Exciting and The Sad

2007-06-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

I week before setting off to USAT Nationals, I'm excited, nervous, anxious and hopefully ..ready.

And Sad.

The triathlon community just lost an amazing man. Jim McCann, president of the Tri Club of San Diego died suddenly and unexpectedly on Wednesday June 20, 2007. According to an article in the Union Tribune, his wonderful wife Dee Dee came home from a meeting to find him motionless and without life. The cause is unknown, however speculation is his death was caused by an aneursym as he had been complaining of head aches earlier in the week. Jim was only 46.

Jim is an amazing person. I say that in present, because Jim's the kind of guy that will never leave you. Last Friday he showed up at the La Jolla Cove just to hang out with people who were swimming that evening. He smiled and said, "I haven't been here for awhile, just thought I'd come and check it out." Jim was like your tri club dad. He was everywhere doing everything for everyone. "Jim, I need to get a new wetsuit, what do you recommend?" I asked him last month. He was sure to make sure I was appropriately outfitted with the latest and greatest wetsuit at a super deal to make my debut at Nationals.

You asked Jim, he gave. With a smile. To see the glow on his face during the Aquathons that he, his wife & Sportsquest put on every month would make you too feel like a million bucks. "You know, I'll give you a tip," he'd say. "If you set up your transition over there," and he'd point a little farther up the beach, "you won't have to backtrack when you get out of the water." He wanted to help everyone.

I got to meet and interact with Jim through my coach, Peter Clode & his wife Neily Mathias. Jim would stop by the JCC and chat about ideas. "Hey, I need somebody to ......" Jim would casually ask. Whatever it was, write an article, help with an event, brainstorm about a new idea or business, you name it, everyone jumped to help Jim. He had such a way with people. Everyone was his friend. If you or I were to pass away tomorrow, would we have left our mark on this world like Jim?

I will miss Jim..... a lot....

Sincerely,
Raja

Triathlete Magazine: Article on Jim
Union Tribune: Article on Jim
Competitor: Article on Jim
Triathlon Club of San Diego: click here for link

Danskin & Redondo Bella Style!

2007-06-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

June 3, 2007

by Raja

I'll take that Oh La La with a side of Kona!

Swim till you're weazing

Ride till it burns

Run till you wanna puke

Don't forget to wipe the boogies before the photo op...

I think the phrases "You Go Girl!" and "Girl Power" took on a whole new meaning at the Danskin Women's Triathlon. If you've ever heard Sally Edwards speak - to too would be clamoring away powered and ready to race. I actually wanted to swim by the time she was done giving us the "You're Fabulous" cheer. Amazing...

Not that I did very well in the swim... but I know how to ride a bike.. and kinda know how to run up hills...kinda sorta...I just fake it really well ;o)

I won my age group at the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Los Angeles and was 4th overall out of nearly 700 women. I'm good with that. Is it ok to be completely and totally surprised when you've just done well??

REDONDO BEACH TRIATHLON - What a cute little tri-thingy!
June 10, 2007

It's a swimmer's race, so I just wanted to get the swim practice. It was actually one of the nicest ocean/ beach start swims I've been to. The water was crisp & refreshing.. and clean! The waves were coming, but at least after last year's Los Angeles Tri experience.. it was manageable.

The bike is a speed bump. 6 miles. Better hurry. Especially if you're a sucky swimmer like I am.

The run is 2 miles, winding in and around the Redondo Beach Pier. Basically it's a test of getting up to speed after every corner. It was fun though... (at least until you had to run past the greezy fish stand....blaaahhhhh ...)

I ended up winning my age group and placing 3rd or 4th overall. Neily Mathias, my coach's wife, won hers too! (Except she's a wicked swimmer) I'm pretty sure Neily won the entire race. Last time I checked, she was 2nd.. but I'm pretty sure the girl who "won" missed a bike lap... otherwise her bike split beat most of the men .... and that girl can ride. I'm suspicious.. . oh well.... I hope she had didn't miss a lap and kicked everyone's a$$ on the bike..... Both races were a ton of fun.. and I recommend them to both seasoned triathletes and newbies!

And Dude... you've been beat my a girl.. it's all good!

Now.. on to Nationals at the end of the month.... gulp....

Tempe International Triathlon

2007-06-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2007

I haven't written a race report lately, and a lovely note from Lillybella inspired me to write my latest and greatest. I guess people actually enjoy reading about pain and suffering!

So I've recently learned there's a new breed of humanoid that lives in the desert. They thrive on temperatures that are unnatural to be exercising in. (Is that proper English? I'd like to say English is my second language... Mumbo-jumbo is my first.) They swim in bathwater. They don't seem to be affected by the extreme dry weather. Cactus is their friend. They must be triathletes.

But before I get to the race.. let's talk clothing, more specifically, tri suits. I can't tell you how stoked I am to get the new Bella tri kit. I was forewarned that this race may be a non-wetsuit swim, so I searched behind the car seat for change, dug in my jersey pockets for any freshly washed 5 dollar bills, sold the cat, and bought a tri 1-piece. I've never bought one before, and this one happens to have a built in bra. "How cleaver" I thought!

Yeah.. not so much!

Clearly a man designed these things.

Have you ever tried to shimmy into a 1-piece with a built in bra? It takes an act of God to get into these things. Bra on first? Then how do I get my legs in? My butt is too big! Ok, legs in first, then wedgie that thing as high as it can go and wiggle one arm in, then over the head... choke choke.... stretch it over my other elbow... slip the arm out... phew, it's on!

Oh no... gotta go pee!

Now back to the humanoids. So are regular workouts in 100 degrees healthy?? Well, these racers out here don't seem to be slowed by a little 3 digit weather. I'll sum it up since the actual race wasn't any more interesting than the last, other than the tri suit, the heat, did I mention the heat, and the flight of stairs at mile 5.5 on the run. Yep, stairs. Recap: Swim was unimpressive as usual. Bike was pretty fast (go HED!). Run, painful. Did I mention the stairs?? I didn't train for that one. Oh yeah, the swim was wetsuit legal, at 77 degrees. Next time I want to train for this race, I'll go and go laps in the jacuzzi with my wetsuit on...

I placed 2nd. I was excited, really! It was just so hot (even after I went back to the hotel to shower & cool off) standing there looking at the results, I opted just to get back in the air conditioned car and start the 5 hr trek home. I couldn't even wait for awards. Freakin' hot! What can I say.. I live in San Diego. I'm a sensitive flower! ;-)

Happy Riding!

Raja Lahti-McMahon

P.S. On a side note... that Beljium Budder chamois cream - works like a charm!! Post-race Happy Raja! Not-so-sensitive flower! Wahoo!!

(and no animal was harmed during the making of this report!)

Ironman California 2007

2007-06-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2007

I have to say - there are an amazing bunch of girls here! It was so great to see everyone out on the run course supporting us idiots out there racing!

Every time I passed Jess she was smiling like she was on vacation.. I was envious! All I could do was give a thumbs up... I was in agony on the run! Everyone that was out there, I saw you and it helped a ton!!

Congrats to Stacy.. who tried to drag me to the finish.. but I didn't want to slow her down, she was rockin & a'rollin! I'm telling ya.. she feels no pain! Go Stacy!

And what a beautiful day! All I could think about was "What a Day!"

Congrats to all who raced! And thanks to Whitney who endlessly cheered for all us... and a special congrats to finishing with a nasty back injury!

Cheers,

Raja

A little crippled today.. just thought I'd throw it out there!

Fiesta Island Time Trial March 4

2007-06-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

March 4, 2007

Another beautiful morning in San Diego. Beautiful early morning that
is...

Congrats to all bellas who participated in Sunday's Fiesta Island TT:

Raja Lahti - 31:31 1st place W30-39, 2nd overall
Kathleen Farley - 34:03 W30-39
Jennifer Yake - 34:53 2nd place W19-29
Whiteny DeSpain - 36:08 W30-39
Laurel Prince - 40:51 3rd place W19-29

Pics coming soon...if I have any...

Cheers,
Raja

Bulldawg'n

2007-06-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

March 3, 2007

You ever have one of those weekends when one side of yourself says, "I really shouldn't be doing this. Really." And the other side say, "What the hell, do it. Really." During the week sometime I developed this cute little upper sinus/respiratory thang. You know the kind that makes your nose raw, your throat raw, and everyone takes a step back from you cause you may just have the plague. Needless to say it all looks & sounds much worse than I felt. I felt remarkably good. My sinus suck all the time.. now's no difference. Big deal... Sound like Ass..as I was reminded. Ok, I really do sound pretty bad.

Saturday morning I drive out to Oceanside for the Bulldog Road Race with fellow Bella, Stacy Bruner. "You ok?". "Let's go before I change my mind." I was stoked to see so many VBellas come to the race. A good group where everybody had somebody they could team-up with ability wise. Stacy Bruner, Whitney DeSpain, Jess Motyl, Helena Prieto, Stacy Schlocker....cough cough.. and me. I didnt' see any others.. but there may have been. I recognized some of the other women from Boulevard. Then we're approached by a woman with legs to my ears "One of you isn't by any chance Raa-jaa?". "Yes, that would be me." :-D So it turns out that all our Bellalicious-Velo-Happiness is spreading and one of the new galas inquiring into Velo Bella-Kona San Diego and I got to put a face to a new soon-to-be-or-already-is- member, Beth Callahan I'm telling you.. the kit's addicting!

Focus Raja.. back to racing.. just a little Bella-detour...

For everyone else in the group, this was their first Road Race.. most of the women I know from Triathlon.. so this was a great first road race for the newbies. The race started in usual fashion. Slow, easy, nice little group ride. A couple little surges up some small rollers. Then WHAAMO! We hit the one and only significant hill at 10.5% grade.. it instantly grabs your attention and rips your lungs out. The field goes nuts. Five girls get off the front, one of which is a multiple Bulldog winner, another is Amanda Felder. She looks like a bigger Samantha McGlone. (Sam's so small it doesn't take much to be bigger). For all those that have never heard of Sam.. she's Ironman 70.3 World Champion. So Amanda is one fit, beautiful.. and nice.. athlete. Gezeummm Raja.. focus!

So by the time we get down and head back the chase group is about 10 of us. At this point I'm finding it difficult to breath and the fire in my throat is not pacified by any of my drink mix. Just then Stacy comes to my rescue and joyfully says "Hello", turns to me with a smile and jumps in front of me and begins to pull the train. I've been trying to get Stacy to race with me but our timing has always been off. I learned that if Stacy gets pissed and the words "I'm done with this" come out of her mouth.. hold on to your hats & glasses.. 'cause she's about to rip everyones legs off.

A DeWalt Racing girl and I had been rotating, but now I was in need of help. So Stacy the Goddess shows up. Feeling good, she hammered it for as long as she could - for about 8 miles before she got some help from another team. There are some attacks and I have no idea how, but I managed to jump to the break. The DeWalt girl is just pounding it down. I hug her wheel as if death himself is chasing me down with his hands on my throat. Finally she signals she's done. I try to pull again and just have nothing left. Then at that moment Joe appears. He's passing us and somehow I muster the energy to find his wheel and the small group latches on. We pass a straggler from the lead group. DeWalt girl has recovered and in the last mile passes Joe and I jump on her wheel. We take the left to the finish area. Then out of nowhere.. confusion.

The man that was supposed to direct us to the finish shoot just stands there and watched us pass him.. instead of take the right. As this race is located in a military base, anyone who's ever been on a base knows that random acts of driveways is common.. so we didn't know where the finishing shoot was. "Uh, guys, COME BACK, TURN AROUND." comes the yell from behind. All 5 of us left in front yell a simultaneous F***!! and each us flips a U-ie and thus finish in reverse order... oh well... it was a fun race anyway. I was 8th overall and won my division. I was still happy.. it's just amazing the adrenaline that rushes around and captures you in a moment of competitive drive.

Yeah - and no pics.. none of us brought a camera.... and all the fellas that came were out racing as well... so I'll have to find links from the race photographer..

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the doc I go... get me some better meds... cause tomorra is Fiesta Island TT.. which I paid for.. so I'm racing!

Congrats to all the Bellas racing Bulldog!!

FEMALE 30-34 1 275 3593 RAJA LAHTI 30 5 1:21:57
FEMALE 30-34 2 295 3705 STACY BRUNER 30 5 1:22:51
FEMALE 30-34 4 319 3471 STACY SCHLOCKER 30 5 1:24:26
FEMALE ATHENA 1 368 3081 WHITNEY DESPAIN 5 1:27:14
FEMALE 30-34 5 401 3252 HELENA PRIETO 30 5 1:29:14
FEMALE 25-29 7 404 3788 JESSICA MOTYL 27 5 1:29:26
new bella to be:
FEMALE 35-39 4 365 3044 ELIZABETH J CALLAHAN 38 5 1:27:10

Cheers, Raja

Fiesta Island Time Trial

2007-06-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Fiesta Island TT
Feb 2007

by Kathleen

They’d been talking on the radio for days about the big storm heading our way: the system from northern California is moving south, we’re gonna get slammed. Now, I’ve only lived in San Diego for a few months, but I’ve realized that you only have to live here, oh say, a few days before you get kinda soft on the weather front, so I actually started wondering if I was going to go out and do this race.

But I woke up Sunday morning to just a little drizzle and figured I could live with that. Apparently, most of the other women signed up could not, since the women’s field shrunk considerably from the pre-registration list. But, the Bellas showed up!

I met up with Julia and Raja at registration, got our numbers and went off to set up the trainers. As we warmed up, we chatted with people who came by and got some stories from men who’d been among the early starters and were already done. We heard about some slippery corners and strong winds and I was thinking maybe Julia would still let me eat the post-race donuts she’d brought if I just sat on my trainer for another hour.

But our time got closer, we got warmer, and the drizzle eased up, so we headed off to the start line. The person before me didn’t show up, so I tried to talk the timers into letting me start early and pretending that I didn’t get the extra 30 seconds. I tried telling them that I could really use those seconds and if they gave them to me I promised I’d come to the next race in better shape…..to no avail.

They laughed – all except that one guy who thinks you might be serious despite the fact that you are clearly cracking yourself up (if no one else!) and gives you that stern look…..and you kind of want to smack him upside the head….but I digress.

Once out there, I found that the sand that had washed into the road was a much bigger problem than any slick corners (corners, as it turned out, were just fine). I could hear the sand in my gears every time I shifted and tried to stop thinking about the hours I’d spent cleaning my bike the day before! And, for Fiesta Island, which is one of those places that sometimes manages to have a headwind in all directions, the winds were pretty calm on most of the loop.

I passed a couple of women and a few geezers, got passed by plenty of boys and made my way around the loop a couple more times. I’d say my biggest problem on the day was my lack of concentration: spent some time thinking about a paper I need to write, followed by “Kathleen, pay attention!,” then some thinking about the donuts that were waiting at the end, followed by “Kathleen, would you f*&$ing concentrate,” then some time wondering if I’d actually get in some extra miles after this race despite being covered in sandy mud or if I’d pursue another favorite activity (drinking coffee and reading the New York Times), followed by “crap, I forgot to pay attention again.” You get the idea (for evidence, there is a photo of me smiling on the course – there is no way that I'd be smiling during a TT unless I was thinking about donuts!).

So, goal for next race in this series: focus. Other than the lack of concentration (or, more likely, because of it), I had fun out there. And now I am motivated to do the next one and do better. Julia and I had been bantering all week about taking this race as one to “establish our baselines” (entertaining ourselves with all kinds of ways to translate that phrase).....and I think I covered that.
I also established my flair baseline (I had none) and will have lots of room to improve for next time!

Bellas made a great showing: Julia got first in the 20-29 women and Raja got first in the 30-39 women (despite starting 2 minutes late!). And, I got to meet Whitney who I believe was the first San Diego Bella, so that was cool too. All in all, a fun morning and a good start to the series.

More Fiesta TT pics here

Boulevard and the Winds from Hell

2007-06-13T11:22:00.001-07:00

Boulevard and the Winds from Hell
Feb 2007

By Raja

NIPPILY!!!!

COLD & NIPPILY.

Bittie, nippily, dark winds from somewhere other than San Diego. We don't do cold. We don't do wind. Well unless of course you tell us we're racing and then you're talking bid-ness.

Headwinds, ok. Crosswinds, ok. But head-cross-flip-cross-headwinds?!? If the mens Pro field wasn't so beautifully decked in spandex.. I might not have been smiling so much. Gotta love men in tights. This is a notoriously nasty early season road race. This year, the hills were easy compared to the wind. Especially if you were caught by yourself. With just under 4000' of climbing... the chances of being caught by yourself or with a small group were high since the climbing tends to string out the field. But we had such a lovely bunch of Bellas, and so pretty!!!

The cast:
Julia "Uhlie la la" Uhlendorf
Rhonda "Rrrrrrrr" Geisler
"Happy Happy Joy" Joy Muehlenbein
Shannon "I'm Game" Werner
Julie "Goodie Got it" Goodwin
Raja "La-Hottie" Lahti

I have to say, these women ROCK. Rhonda and I had done the race last year, but for everyone else, this was their first road race. The night prior we all got together for some spaghetti dinner at Efrat Veidman's place for some confidence building and road racing chat. We're going to miss Efrat, she's moving back to Israel in 2 weeks. She's been an amazing cycling resource for us San Diego Bellas. I am a sad bella.... :-(

Registration/Check-In was a mess and by the time I got out of there I had just enough time to gather my flair and start stripping. Warming up on the trainers was going to take too long to set up, so we all hopped on and started riding in circles for a brief warm up. The race started and by mile 2 we were careening down the road at 30-40 mph. Holy-frijoles Batman!! I have wings! Juls (Uhlie) was perfectly placed up in the front of the peloton. Her technical skills and descending abilities are wicked and she worked her way up to perfection. 11 miles in, the fun's over and the hills start. I felt surprisingly good and was able to stay with the lead group when the pack split. At mile 19 the front pack split again and a group of women were able to rip our legs off and separate off the front. By this time I'm cursing myself and just trying to stay out of the wind. Gotta love those race wheels... freakin' kites! (They did however save my little rear on the wicked decent)

At the top of the final climb I hear from behind "Lets organize ladies!". Always nice to hear. We immediately grouped with as many we could find and rotated ourselves all over the next 13 miles or so to the start of the climbing on the 2nd loop. By now we had picked up some women left behind by our lead ladies. Our mini-peloton was looking good at about 8+ riders. We were descending as fast as our little 11 cogs could take us. My speedometer said 42mph. Once again when the climbing started the group fractured and 5 of us we left. On the second climb I looked behind and was surprised to see there were only 3 of us left. The wind was whipping around from all directions with gusts to 20-30 mph. The three of us worked together and rotated our way up the hill. With about 100 meters to go, I was at my turn in front and decided to test the 2 ladies I was with.

If I picked it up, would they stay with me? So I went. I had no explosive energy left so I figured if I was going to beat these women, I'd better out climb them. With everything I had left I finished the race in 16th place. I was stoked, last year I was 26th in perfect weather. This year I felt I had improved a ton and my strength was greatly improved from last year. I finally felt like I rode a smart, strong ride.

Juls and Rhonda were not too far behind and both looked and if their eyes were lasers... well, I'd have been toast! "That wind is f***** up!". Yup. Juls, you too said it girl. Not 30 seconds later.. "Wow, that was fun!" Joy came running up in her running shoes. Mechanical problems sidelined her to 1 lap where she just gathered the running shoes and ran to the finish. Behind Rhonda came Shannon & Julie, both finishing their first road race in tough conditions.

It was soooo great to have the Bellas there. Last year I was a lone bella. This year everyone had a great time, everyone rode safe, and most of the bellas (other than Rhonda & myself) were virgin road racers. Whitney, the UCSB rider who finished behind me, and some other women immediately started asking about Velo Bella-Kona. It's great to share the energy and to see that the people around us can tell - we're having fun!.

SWEET!!!

Happy Riding!!
Raja

Carpinteria Surprise

2007-06-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Carpinteria Surprise

Sept 2006

I guess there's always a first for everything.. and I'm still a little in shock and seem to go around pretending it didn't happen... just not used to it!

Last weekend my mum & I drove up to Santa Barbara County for the Carpinteria Triathlon USA Triathlon event. USAT events are, believe it or not, hard to find in So Cal... yet any triathlon with the slogan "100% California Grown" is probably a triathlon I need to be racing. They even included a nice avocado in our packets. Those nice Carpinteria folk! That's perhaps the first time real grown, non-nutritionally enhanced, processed food has ever been included in a race packet. Now... if only it would ripen....

Enough about fruits...

I had raced LA 2 weeks previous and had what I considered a "break-through" race. That race felt great and I could feel all benefits of training with coach Peter Clode all summer. All those great hours of having Dave motivate me to ride, run.. and yes, learn how to swim (already!). Now at Carpinteria 2 weeks later.. I knew in the back of my little noggin that my large effort in LA would not go unnoticed here... My original goal race was LA. After I found the Carpinteria race, I extended my season out to accommodate. My legs noticed and really were not too thrilled about the entire affair. Just before the race my legs were feeling ok... but I didn't exactly test them either.

The raging Day Fire burning out of control just over the hills was a big concern. The race director referred to the previous weekend as "Ash Sunday". Santa Ana winds were forecast and the Saturday before the race brought a huge smoke cloud which was beginning to block the sun. If it was raining ash in 12 hrs, the race would be cancelled. If it was smoky, the race director was going to leave it up to the competitior. Personally, I wanted to race. My body was beginning to fatigue.. or was that my mind..... from a pretty full year of training. I'm still new to this stuff. That night my mum & I visited our place in Ojai. The firemen had been there and prepared the property for the possibility of a fire storm. We turned on the sprinklers on the roof and visited some friends for dinner. It was raining ash in Ojai. We spend the night in Ventura to keep out of the smoke.

The morning of the race the weather was great. An onshore breeze was keeping the smoke at bay and it looked to be prime racing conditions. I warmed up, ran for a bit, did my cords and prepped for the race. The swim went well for me. I got slugged in the head pretty hard a couple of times by an aggro guy in our wave. They had combined men & women in waves... and the guys were sure to let you know they were there. As there was no place for me to go, people on top of people, I finally popped my head out of the water and screamed at the guy to "KNOCK IT OFF!" Hope I made him feel bad for hitting a girl. :-) I finished in under 30 min, which for most people is ungodly slow.. but for me.. it's wicked fast. I was movin' and groovin'. My mom called out I was 6th chick out of the water.

The bike kicked my a$$. This was a first for me. This is where LA did not go unnoticed. My legs were pooped. The second half of the course had 3 steep climbs. Guys with disks & tight cassettes were standing up and leaning into every pedal stroke. The first hill was ok. The second hill I derailed, twice, trying to change gears. Once I got going I floored it to make up lost time and probably pushed myself a bit to hard. The 3rd hill hurt like hell. The bike was slow for me... but I knew for sure nobody else in my age group had passed me. There were 4 other bikes on the racks when I got back.. ok I'm in 5th.

The run hurt even more than the bike. Again, legs noticed. The course was a nice rolling course through neighborhoods and nature parks. Every girl I passed was in a different age group. Where are these 4 chicks ahead of me?? I was passed up by a 40 year old woman like I was walking... she looked great. I was then passed by a 26 year old with a mile or so left to go... she looked great. My legs were fried. I lengthened my stride as much as I could.. and raced to be done with my season for the year.

I crossed the finish about 4 mins slower than what I really wanted. Well, since no other chicks passed me, perhaps I was 4th? Speedy officials put up the prelim results, I was shocked. I stared at the score board silent with my hand over my gaping mouth. Those were guy's bikes racked on our rack not anyone in my division... I had won my division. My first purely athletic win. I still don't believe it! There are always chicks faster than you and there are always chicks slower than you. My race hurt and perhaps didn't feel like it was a race worthy of a win.. but it was. Turns out my bike split wasn't awful, 5th fastest overall women time...(but still could have been better... )

I do recommend this race to everyone. It was well run, the volunteers were amazing... no chance of going off course, the scenery was great.. and NO SURF!

Thanks for Dave... for encouraging the madness. Thanks to Pete for kicking my rear in gear. Thanks to all my friends and training buddies. TCSD Rocks. This sport takes so much out of you.. it's great to see you're all as crazy as I am... or perhaps crazier. Nick. Thanks to Denise, my boss, for playing the "What's Crazy Raja Doing After Work Today?" Game. I have to say.. what a very, very cool bunch of people. I'm not going to name everyone.. you know who you are. Thanks for all the cheer.. I heard you in Carpinteria!

Hi Ho, hi ho.. it's off to Nationals I Go!

Cheers,Raja

Ironman California 70.3

2007-06-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ironman California 70.3 race report

March 2006

What a day!My parents had driven down for the day and I had just given my mom abig stinky hug. Then my dad reached over and gave me a big hug andkiss, "Congratulations, again!" he said. Little did I know my day was no where near over.

Dave & I got up at 4:30am and headed up to Oceanside for the FordIronman California 70.3. I was excited about the race, as I'd beenfor the last 6 months, but let me tell you, I was not looking forward to it. This was after all, my first Ironman event. Howexciting is that? In fact, bed, snuggled up with warm blankets andmy man was about the only place I wanted to be at that moment. Theweather was not exactly ideal for being outside, much less a triathlon. Raining and 43 degrees. Fun stuff. Even better was thewater temperature was between 52-55 degrees. It was cold enough thatIronman gave the option of a shorter swim for all those who did notfeel comfortable testing hypothermia. Sweet! "They can't have the swim" Dave says. "I've never had to swim in a race with water that cold." Me neither.

So out came the trash bags, extra socks, rain jackets and extra cycling kit. The members of Tri Club San Diego did a great job putting together a list of nasty weather tips and gear changes.Words like "uncontrollable shivering" and "hypothermia" and "the swim could be the warmest part of the day" made me wonder... what was I doing??? I've only been in triathlon for a year and a half but I have learned that triathletes are tough... and nuts. I'm one of them, I should know!

No warm up. Well, consider it a "cool down" standing there in your wet suit with bare feet on cold asphalt. The idea of running around in the rain to warm up just didn't seem like any smarter of an idea than jumping into my wetsuit asap and trying to warm up my core.

Four months of race preparations gave me a lot of time to learn new things about my body and it's mechanics. Or anti-mechanics if you will. I'm not a strong swimmer and it's traditionally been my weakest leg. The distance in a IM 70.3 is relatively short considering it's only 400 meters longer than an Olympic distance tri. No prob. It wouldn't be fast, but doing the distance wasn't a problem. No worries. Cycling has proved itself to be my far strongest leg. Six months earlier I had done my first (and only)Olympic distance tri at the Los Angeles International and unexpectedly nailed the bike portion and had the fastest time in the entire age group. I was looking forward to the bike. Get me on,let's go. And then there's the run. I've run my entire life, raced since I was 7. Not a spectacular athlete, but good enough to satisfy my competitive needs. The run was the portion I was not looking forward to. During training I ran into a whole host of issues in my right leg from old injuries. Chiropractic, ART physical therapy, sports message.. you name it. My boss was being to wonder why I was training for an event that required physical therapy 2-4 times a week. Me too. A month earlier I couldn't get through a 36 min run and my longest run during training was 1:45. And I barley made it through that before my knee gave out. So the run, simply survival was the goal. To make it to the end. Time, smime, whatever. Survival. The competitive animal in me would have to wait for another race.

So in the water we went, feet already numb so what the heck! "This sucks" I thought to myself. Oh well, it will be over soon. Two-thirds into the swim I lost the ability to control my fingers. I could feel my fingers were apart and was in essence "combing" the water instead of getting a good pull. Fingers numb, couldn't close the fingers. Oh well, it'll be done soon. Slowing didn't help me any either, just kept me in the water for longer. By the time I was helped out of the water I had no feeling left in my hands and feet.I already have an issue with cold extremities, so much my man haslabeled my toes "toe-cicles". The transition was a joke. I couldn't close my hands to grip anything so in reaching for the stack of goods for the bike portion, I just managed to knock everything onto the wet asphalt. And it's raining. Arm warmers.... I couldn't pull them up. I couldn't close my hands to grip them. Crap. Houston, I have a problem, I can't grip anything. Well - better get some circulation back, can't get on the bike until I can hold thehandlebars. Several minutes of smacking my hands together and on my thighs did the trick. Ok, back to arm warmers. Extra jersey, raincoat, full fingered gloves. Oh yeah, need shoes. My usual set up of keeping the shoes on the bike came to issues when I realized that that after I put my socks on my numb feet - running down wet carpet would pretty much ruin the idea of trying to keep warm - ok, rip the shoes off the bike and put them on now. Ok, check, ready to go have some fun on the bike.

Overall the bike portion felt good. I was so cold starting I wasnumb - hey, roll with this and just go... you're numb so pain,smain. I've felt pain on the bike during the Boulevard Road Race,and not one second of this bike portion was going to compare. I'm passing people, all's well, but I can't seem to ride hard enough toget my heart rate to where it should be over a long distance timetrial. Oh yeah, legs are numb and not working like they should. Ok,this pace will do. And then my stomach hurts, probably from the cold. Eat-Clif Bar bits, Gu, drink mix, water, get some systems circulating again. Ok, feeling a little better. Not great. But I'm riding, so I'm happy. I like this leg. I like the bike. Aero barsfeel good, first race in the bars and I'm liking it. Then I see my parents who have driven down to watch my big crazy day. Some how they found me on 2 spots during the bike portion, and seeing them and hearing them was so incredibly rewarding. Half way though ther ain stops and it looks like the weather is clearing. I stop to take off the rain coat and shove it in the jersey. As horrible as thefirst transition was, taking the time to warm up and put on extrakit was a saving grace. No hypothermia today! I finished a littleslower than I would have liked, but for my first IM 70.3 in wet rainy conservative conditions, no complaints.

Now the sun is out and it's looking like an ideal So Cal day. The transition to the run was far better and I'm in and out of therewith out too much delay. All the running off the bike with a coach has helped. Legs are a bit tired, but no wobble legs. Well, until Ihit the sand. The 2 loop course has a sand segment somewhere between50-100 meters long, which you hit 4 times. If you like running onsand, today is your lucky day. For me, between weak ankles and a IT band issue... let's just say it was one foot in front of the other. Thirty minutes in, the knee is starting to act up. Slap! I reach down again and slap the side of my leg around my knee and hip. Wakeup! Every 5 minutes. Slap! It gets the job done and I finish the run right where I wanted to finish. Members of tri club SD were everywhere on the run and wonderfully supportive. It helps to have people keeping you motivated. I even challenged 2 runners to a finish line sprint. Hell, if they want to beat me, they're going to have to work for it! I got the girl, the guy, well, he got me.. but he had to work for it. A spectator finish. Hell, I was done! "Let's be done!" I thought as I sprinted in. Hell, a good finish can make a crappy performance feel good.

I crossed the finish, got my finishers medal and saw a familiar face, Whitney, fellow Velo Bella. She gave me a huge congratulatory hug and I just cried. I did it! Seven years ago I was in a wheelchair recovering from an accident, and now I was here, at the finish of my first Ironman 70.3. I was so happy to be done. Overwhelmed infact. I made my way to the food tent and drank to my heart'scontent. Then I saw my man. He gave me a huge hug and I again turned into a gooball mess. Damn, I'm a sissy!

My parents were there. I gave my mom the stinky hug and my dad gavemy a big hug. "Congratulations, again" he said. Dave had finished the race some time earlier and managed to round up his friend Pat visiting from Canada and my folks. Ok, time for our IM massage...can't walk very well and my knee has decided it doesn't feel like bending any more today. We send them off for coffee while I gatherstuff and get a quick massage. "Hold on, I've got to show you what Pat did" Dave says to me. You've got to know Pat, he's a joker so he's always doing something funny. Dave walks out on the beachtoward a palm tree. "What'd Pat do to the palm tree?" I ask. "It's over here, I'll show you" he replies. Ok. He looks around, "this is about good," he says. What? Good for what? "Well" he says," you knowI love you...." before his knee hits the sand I'm a complete gooballmess, "oh, you're gonna" I manage to choke out... "yeah"....hesays.....and hence that is the story of my engagement!

So when my dad said "Congratulations, again"... "again" had nothing to do with finishing. Boy can my folks keep a good secret!

So today I'm bathed in ice packs and moving significantly slower than normal... but sometimes there are other things that are more important and exciting which make this the best pain of my life.

So, now on to the San Luis Rey Road Race in May.. anyone coming?

Cheers,Raja

Raja Lahti-McMahon

Never would I have imagined...

Weee!

Back to Bulldog

World Championships destination Budapest

Budapest Days 1-3

Pre-Worlds Prep

Article in the Examiner

Finally starting my year!

Umm...

Live!

ITU World Championships

Honey, Trouble and Kitty

A Box of Chocolates

Road Trip!

Pie Has Never Tasted SOOOO good!

The Prince & the Frog

Wildness

It's the pink shades

Season (Eye) Opener

A good start

Weeeee! Bellaton Storms Bulldog

Tour of California MADNESS!

Frozen Peas

"The Man"

FITT to be dirty!

Food!

Velo Bella Camp!

2009 Around the Corner

Reflections

The Greatest Club on Earth

USA Triathlon Nationals 2008!

Run for the border

Bella grooves & moves

Get the MOUSE!

WIldflower - Race Report Preview

Inspiration!

We're not in Kansas any more

Bikes n' Cars

A Bumpy Ride through 70.3

A Horrifying Tragedy

Pics from the Tour of California

Tour of Cali!

ESA Magic

The Sam and Saul Show

The Mortgage Freakshow

The Howard Experience

When did the Olympics become the Pro Championships??

Swim, Bike Run, Eat, Recover, Repeat

Back to the road

Welcome to Hell

Geo!

Friday Palomar, Saturday Julian..again!

Julian Pie Ride

Having Fun with Triathlon

Peer Pressure

Italia!

Holy Folsom Athletes Batman! You can say FIT again....

Hot! Hot! Hot Hornet!

Folsom International Triathlon - Lakes & Prisons

USA Triathlon National Championships

San Diego Int'l Triathlon - Documented Suffering!

The Exciting and The Sad

Danskin & Redondo Bella Style!

Tempe International Triathlon

Ironman California 2007

Fiesta Island Time Trial March 4

Bulldawg'n

Fiesta Island Time Trial

Fiesta Island TTFeb 2007

Boulevard and the Winds from Hell

Carpinteria Surprise

Ironman California 70.3

Fiesta Island TT
Feb 2007