SF Cable Car Route Llamas, Alpacas and Mutants Fall Colors Mardi Himal Trail Golden Gate Zabriskie Point Prayer Flags Sunset Chinchero at Sunset Annapurna South in the Early Morning Fish Market Cementerio de Trenes de Uyuni Night Cats Sunset From Moro Rock Very rare deserted street Half Dome at Sunset Machhapuchhre Sunset from Marshall Beach, SF Grafitti The Danube at Night Annapurna South Under the Stars Mardi Himal Trail Rolling Fog Prepping to FIght Boudhanath Stupa Sheepherders and Annapurna South Cumhuriyet Anıtı Phewa Boats Alamo Square Bluebird Skies Stars Over Annapurna South White Mountains Sunset Fog Rolling In Half Dome at Sunset Vocano Scarred Mountains The Golden Gate at Night Old Man in Siding Twilight Fog Market Flags Bodie Eastern Sierras Under Shadow Snow and Shadows Temple Statue Marin Headlands Sand Dunes Hong Kong from the Peak Bay Area Sunrise Yosemite Fall Leaves Monument Valley Green River Canyons at Sunrise The Blue Mosque Buildings and a Bridge Cropped Crosswalk Headfirst Pisac Hillside The Buttermilks Rooster Fights at Forest Camp Resting Zabriskie Point Photographers Annapurna South

Stinson Beach Trail Run

November 17, 2008 —

Over the weekend, I participated in my first Pacific Coast Trail Runs event. I did the Stinson Beach 12kwhich turned out to be a more difficult event than I expected. The trail has a pretty aggressive elevation gain with just about all of the gain at the start of the trail. Starting from Stinson State Beach, we ran 4.9 km uphill, going about 1600 feet before running along the side of the mountain for a short distance before turning pretty much straight downhill to go back to the beach. The total elevation gain on the course was 1850 feet.

This was the second time I'd run a 12k distance race, with this one being decidedly harder than the bridge to bridge run in San Francisco I did last time. In the 12k overall, I got 13th place, and got second place in the age group results. My time of 1:18:14 got me an average of a 10:43 minutes / mile pace. Seeing as how challenging the course was, I'm not disappointed in my results, but am confident that on my next run in December, I can turn it up a notch to 11.

2008 Treasure Island Olympic Triathlon

November 09, 2008 —

A couple months ago I heard about the San Francisco Triathlon on Treasure Island. At the time, I knew there was a sprint and an Olympic distance, but relegated myself to the sprint distance. However, after the last triathlon I did, I just decided to try for the Olympic distance. Last year, in 2007, I made a personal goal to do an Olympic distance tri in 2008, and the SF Triathlon seemed to be my last chance.

Well, I signed up for the event, which occurred yesterday morning. The race took place on Treasure Island in the San Francisco bay. Treasure Island is part of the island the Bay Bridge passes through. I woke up at the super early hour of 5am to make it to the island by 6am so I could check in and prepare my transition area before the early race start at 7:15am.

Since the island isn't very big, the course was a series of loops. The first event, swimming was 1.5km, where I swam twice around a triangle with 250m sides. From there I jumped on my bike for a 40km bike course. The 40km course consisted of 6 laps of a ~6.66km circuit. After biking was the run, 3 laps at ~3.33km each, for a total of 10k. The distance are the same as the ones used in the Olympics, making this an Olympic triathlon, and thus, much harder than the previous sprint triathlons I've done.

My initial estimate for the course was to complete it all in about 3 1/2 hours, broken down as follows: 30min for the swim, 2 hours for the bike, and 1 hour for the run. The estimate for the bike was taken from a recent 25.4 mile ride that I ...

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2008 Fight Gone Bad

September 30, 2008 —

On Saturday, my local CrossFit affiliate had our Fight Gone Bad day. This was my first official FGB, and having only done it one other time, I decided to forgo the official men's weight, and do the intermediate weight (which also happened to be the women's weight). I did the exercises in the following order with the modified weight in parentheses:

I ended up doing the following reps for each exercise:

RoundPush PressRowWall BallSDLHPBox JumpTotal
Round 1251115202394
Round 2201016182084
Round 220815182081

For a total score of 259. I tried to be as consistent as I could between subsequent rounds, and I think I accomplished that goal pretty well. I also set the bar pretty high for the next time I do a FGB with men's weight. Especially considering that I felt like I had energy left over at the end of the workout. I was tired, but not lie down on the ground for 5 minutes tired.

The Quicksilver Challenge 5k / 10k / Half-Marathon

September 30, 2008 —

Over the weekend, I did my second 10k in 3 weeks. A running club in San Jose holds an annual trail running event with different distances. I chose to do the 10k distance as that is right now the longest distance I'm comfortable running.

The course was located in the hills south west of San Jose and the start was in a little valley at the edge of the Quicksilver park. The course description mentioned that there were going to be hills along the route, but I was not prepared for what the course actually consisted of. At the start was a topo of the route, and, being the map lover I am, I spent time reading the course layout. The starting line was somewhere around 600 feet. From there, the course would wind up a road to a single track trail, where it would continue to ascend. The ascent continued until about the 10k half-way point, where it then began the descent. In all, I read that there was about 1000 feet of elevation gain. Most of which was continuous. So it was quite difficult.

I didn't feel particularly confident in my run up the mountain, and went slightly slower down the second half since I didn't want to injure my knees. Somewhere in the last kilometer, a guy passed me, and actually scared me when he came up. I didn't think about it, but it turned out I had been in the lead, and this guy just overtook me for the lead. I followed him closely to the finish, finishing 7 seconds behind him. This put me in second place overall for the 10k! I could have won! Despite that stupid mistake, I did get second place and finished in 56 minutes, 58 seconds ...

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15th Annual Tri For Real

September 21, 2008 —

This morning I did my second triathlon of 2008. It was the 15th Annual Tri For Real. This is the triathlon which the Tri for Fun series is supposed to prepare you for. The race was good, and I felt decently comfortable for the swim and bike. As usual, the bike seemed to be a weak spot, as a lot of people gained and passed me, after I did really well on the swim. For the run, my legs were really tired, and my right leg started getting almost tight. It wasn't a cramp, more that the area below the calf was just tight and sore.

I kept track of my splits and posted them here as a record for myself.

SplitDistanceTime (h:mm:ss.ms)Pace
Swim700m12:27.5528:37 min/mi
Swim to Bike Transition1:48.0
Bike19mi54:1221.03 mph
Bike to Run Transition1:01
Run4mi30:41.567:40 min/mi
Overall23.4mi1:40.11

Comparing these results to my results from the last Pleasanton tri, I can see that I swam only slightly slower, biked faster, and ran a bit slower. I am stoked about the results, as it shows I'm making progress. The run should have been faster, and by next time, I'll have worked out the tightness / cramp issue. Again, without any practice, my swim is pretty good. Unfortunately, this race didn't have a timing chip, so I won't be able to compare my split with those of others; I'd be interested to see how my splits match up with others. My transition times also got a lot better. Some of the things I tried this time definitely helped out it seems.

The ...

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Palo Alto Moonlight 10k

September 12, 2008 —

Tonight I completed my first competitive 10k. Two weeks ago, I did the Nike+ Human Race, though I don't really consider that in the same level, since it was by my self and there weren't others to get the same competitive drive.

So I did the Palo Alto Online Moonlight run in 46 minutes, 29 seconds. That is about a 7 minute 28 second average mile. Not the greatest, and I was hoping for better. But, on the plus side, I got a sweet shirt.

Update: The results got posted online and it looks like I got 99th overall. I was off on my time as well. I updated my time and pace above to reflect the official race results.

21st Annual Tri For Fun #3

August 16, 2008 —

This morning I did my first triathlon of 2008. It was the 21st Annual Tri For Fun #3, which is prep race for the 21st Annual Tri For Real. The race was good, and I felt pretty comfortable the whole time. So I just wanted to post my splits that I took on my watch as a record for myself.

SplitDistance (mi)Time (h:mm:ss.ms)Pace
Swim0.2276:52.030:15 min/mi
Swim to Bike Transition2:08.0
Bike1132:20.020.41mph
Bike to Run Transition1:59.0
Run3.122:36.07:17 min/mi
Overall14.3271:05:5413.04

So it is pretty clear that my transition times need a lot of work. I'm not at all surprised by the speed I was running at. I was passing other people, but I also felt that I was going really slow. I'd really like to see how I did in the swim compared to other people, as I think that the swim is still a strength. I definitely finished near the very beginning of the group. So either it is a strength, or I'm not as good at conserving energy as the other racers.

Some notes about things to bring for the next tri. I need a better way to wipe off my feet after the swim. Having a tupperware dish with water in it will be crucial as well as a towel for the sole purpose of wiping off the feet. Having a spare swim cap in case the one next time rips too. Having some sort of food for while I'm on the bike. I think that eating something will be a good way to keep ...

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Kings vs. Spurs

April 21, 2006 —

kings logoGo Kings! We're about to take the Spurs. I'm not going to say how many games it'll be in, but just that we're going to win.

One thing I do want to see, is for the Lakers and Clippers to win in the first round. How sick would it be to watch that series. Each game would be at the same arena, just with different floorboards and different colored jerseys. Of course, I want to see the Lakers lose that series so the Clips play the Kings in the Conference championships.

Kings Game 6

December 31, 2005 —

kings logo

Well, for the third year in a row, I got tickets to see them in the playoffs. And this is the second year I've seen a game six. With the Kings' win today, I have never... maybe I should fly to Minnesota for Wednesday... Anyways, here are pictures from the game.

Kings vs. Sonics - Game 3, Round 1

April 30, 2005 —

Last night, I was fortunate enough to once again get playoff tickets to see the Kings. This continues a trend that I started in High School, going to at least one game of the Kings' in the playoffs. Last night, the Kings played the Sonics, and began their home stay by remembering how to play. Bibby in particular, remembered that he is the tightest point guard in the NBA, and that he can shoot as well. From well in the first quarter, the Kings took the lead, and never looked back, except when Seattle got within 6 or 7 in the 4th. But the Kings won a decisive victory.

With the win, I've continued to never be at Arco when the Kings have lost. I've even seen them win at the Colosseum. So hopefully I'll get an invite from the Maloofs to join the team everywhere, preventing them from losing. I've put pictures up in the gallery.