balesTRI

Triathlons. Running. Trails.

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Downtown LA skyline from the top of #suicidehill #Pali #Palisades #xc #crosscountry #leaguemeets #hardasshill @__swaggyg__ @that.one_guy @tanakaflockaflame @edwardgriffingreen @kianabillot @nicolefig21 (at Kenneth Hahn Hiking Trails)

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First place! #fortiusracing #fortiuscoaching #Pali #Palisades #ironkid #nevada #henderson #running #1mile #ftw (at Henderson Pavillion)

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First cross country race and first race with no pain in 9 months! Plus, a 3 second PR on the course at 19:24. Thank you @gbarrio for the coached run workout and everyone who supported me. @cbalestra @l.o.l.a.b @tellebalestra @abalestra2 @that.one_guy @tanakaflockaflame @liam_taylor1549 @__swaggyg__ #seaside #crosscountry #fortiusracing #fortiuscoaching #PR #Palisades #Pali (at Seaside Cross Country Invitational)

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Fractures hurt...

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Time to bike! Again! #masi #fortiuscoaching #tri #trainingpeaks #triathlon #swimbikerun

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Feels great to be back after a 5 week injury. Easy 20 min spin on the trainer. #fortiuscoaching #cycle #910xt #tri #triathlon #fun #swimbikerun

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Past three weeks on my Training Peaks! 20/21 workouts completed! #fortiuscoaching #fortius #triathlon #trainingpeaks #fortiusracing #nofilter (at app.trainingpeaks.com)

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New Fortius Kit! #fortiuscoaching #fortius #fortiusracing #triathlon

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One Voice! @tanakaflockaflame @_prince_hunter @theasiangotspeed #onevoice (at Barker Hangar)

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Bowling at the Naughty Dog Christmas Party! W/ @cbalestra @lbalestra (at AMF Mar Vista)

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I had a great first league meet PRing many distances! 19:27 on a little more than a 5k! Go Pali! #palihigh #palisades (at Griffith Park)

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Malibu Nautica Triathlon

With training and the willingness to train, comes great performances and happiness. That is the theme of my experience at the Malibu Nautica Tri. It is an amazing race. A swim in the ocean, a scenic bike course with little hills and lots of fog, and to finish it all off a great, flat run course along the beach.

Just to get this straight, waking up at 3:30 a.m two days in a row for two different races, not pleasant at all. My dad raced the other distance the day before and we had to wake up early as well( He did great, PRing his Olympic distance at 2:28 and qualifying for Nationals!).

In front of the finish line before the swim start!

The Morning Of the Race

"Ou t'es papoutai?"

Those were the song lyrics that woke me up the morning of the race. My dad was blasting it downstairs. It was time to get ready.

I put on my tri suit, a jacket, and shoes. I went downstairs to find my dad making the batter for the pancakes. Those pancakes required 1 banana and 2 eggs. I poured myself a glass of milk and waited for the pancakes while talking to my dad about my goals for the race: 16 minute swim, 1 hour bike, 28 minute run. I felt ready. I ate my breakfast and went upstairs to go brush my teeth. I tried to go to the bathroom, but I had no luck(Uh oh). I checked that I had packed everything. It was all ready. All we needed to do was pack the car and go.

Arriving at the Race Venue

Arriving at the race venue was a pain in the butt. We left from my house at 5:00. Right when we reached Malibu, heavy traffic... So by the time we passed the traffic, parked, and got to the location of the race, it was already 6:00. There were some problems that we needed to fix. For some reason, I was put into the 35 - 39 age group. I don't know how that happened, but it did. Second of all, my USAT card was not inputted under my name. Luckily, the race was really well organized and they were able to change that in a matter of seconds.

We had to be OUT of the transition by 6:30. After getting my number and package, it was already 6:20. I started to become really stressed out, at a point that I was getting mad. I had to rush to the transition area, while maneuvering through the crowd of people getting out of transition area, find my rack, set everything up, and get out of the transition area, in less than five minutes. I quickly put my bike on the rack, threw everything out of my bag, and put it on the ground, attempting to put it in the right spot. I didn't even take the time to make sure I had everything. I thought to myself, "This is going to be one hell of a race."

  Coming out of the swim.

Swim - 13:44

Pace - 1:34 per 100yds

You hear a big BOOM and before you know it, everybody in front of you is running towards the ocean. At the beginning of the race, I personally prefer to be in the middle when you line up because I know that I am not the fastest person, nor am I the slowest person.

Right when I got in the ocean, I was being knocked down by all the waves rushing towards me. I had quite a hard time getting out of waves crashing point, but when I did, I took off. At the turn of the first of buoy, I was kicked in the face twice and elbowed twice. I decided to try several new techniques on the swim after carefully observing all the pro triathletes swim. I saw that they kick a lot more than I do. They also breath every two and sight every six. Turns out, testing that out during the race was one the best ideas. I swam much straighter than I usually do AND most important of all, my time was much better than usual.

T1 - 3:13

... I have no comment about my T1. It should've been MUCH faster than 3 minutes. I could've gone much faster than three minutes. I had trouble taking off my wetsuit. My bike shoes were hard to put on. My helmet was not set up properly. It was a disaster. I the fact of me not having the time to set up my transition correctly played a roll in that. 

Me on the bike.

Bike - 1:04:37

Speed - 16.7 MPH

  Like T1 my, bike could have been much faster. Exiting the transition area, everybody had to watch out for speed bumps. Luckily, I was in the first wave, so going around them was not such a big problem. The REST of the course was the problem for me.

Right after the swim, it usually takes me quite a bit of time to get adjusted on the bike. It took me way longer than it should have. After the first hill, which really was not that big, I was already panting like crazy. I knew there more hills to come, and I didn't know how I was going to handle those. I tried to tell myself positive thoughts to keep myself motivated, but that didn't work out to well. I had a song stuck in my head, the song that I had been woken up by the morning of the race. That was all I heard. It was almost as if my brain cells turned my brain into a disco party. I had no other thought. Although, I have to say that the song's beat did help me get a rhythm.

Right before the turn around point, my bike ability to keep a constant pace declined: I had to poop.... I was in a real "shitty" situation. I needed to come up with a plan B on the spot. I was going to push on the uphills, and let myself go on the downhill as I tried keeping it from coming out. At around mile 15, I had to poop so bad, I was at the verge of quitting. That is how badly I needed to go. I was able to talk myself out of it. I told myself if I still need to go after T2, I'll just go to the nearest bathroom. 

I finished up the bike ride pretty slow coming into transition, but I am still glad with my performance on the bike.

T2 - 2:14

  Going into T2, I had still had to poop.... When I arrived at my spot, I put my bike on the bike rack and took off my helmet and bike shoes. I put on my running shoes, which I struggled to do since my feet weren't still weren't dry enough (wierd right?). I picked up my bib and flew out of transition area. 

Me coming out of T2.

Finishing strong.

Run - 28:54

Pace - 7:14

Starting my run, my legs felt really heavy. I knew finding my rhythm as fast as I could was key if I wanted to place. I already knew I wasn't in the Top 5 of my age group at the start of the run. I had one guy who was just in front of me, and I saw another pass me on the bike. I was pretty close to the one in front of me, but I blew past him at mile 1. My goal was to past everybody who was in front of me. At mile 1.5, I passed my second big target, another person in my age group. I could tell he was struggling. I told him "Good job" and kept running as I passed him.

I only got into my rhythm at the turnaround point. I was going sub - 7 pace for my last two miles. I felt ALIVE! 

On the way back, nobody passed me. I was passing everybody I saw. At the last straight away, there was nobody in front of me. I couldn't see anybody, except the spectators and the finish line. I super happy finishing. I had a great run. All that cross country at school really helped!

Happy me!

Met both Chrissie Wellington and Chris McCormack in two days!

Age group awards.

Result - 1:52:44

Overall, I am really happy with my performance. I started off with a great swim, beating my target time by over 2 minutes. I went a bit slower than I expected on the bike, but that won't happen again because I know not to eat anything with eggs before a race. I finished off with a great run with negative splits at the end. I placed 4th in my age group, and 383rd overall.

Things I learned:

1. Eggs in the morning = bad

2. DON'T quit

3. When something goes bad, doesn't mean the whole race is going to be bad

I would like to thank all my Fortius teammates, my friends at school, my coach, Gerardo, and my family for all the support they gave me. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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I just PRed my 3 mile after my second cross country race! I had a great race with a time of 18:50! More PRs to come! :) #palihigh #palisades #woodbridge2013 #fortiusracing #fortiuscoaching #xc #crosscountry #medal (at Estencia High school)

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We met Chris McCormack at Malibu Nautica Tri today. :) (at Malibu Nautica Tri)

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#fortiuscoaching #cycling #climbing #triathlon #malibu #training (at Hollywood Sign)

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Training session w/ my coach Gerardo at Griffith Park.Tough ride especially after being sick for a week.

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“Winners make goals, losers make excuses”

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