Gregtay's Triathlon Blog

So I came up with something new this year to help me in stay in shape during the off season… which is usually when I gain too much weight and really don’t even want to look at my bike or my running shoes.  So… I went off to Mr. Crampy’s and come home with the new Redline Conquest Team.. yummy!  I am still getting use to a cross bike and hope to do my first race soon(finding time with the new baby adds to the challenge.)  Riding the cross bike is certainly a different feeling… for the last five years anything but asphalt under my tires meant that really bad things were about to happen.  I will post back after my first cyclecross race (which likely means my first few crashes.)

October 2nd, 2011 Here’s a fun little race to finish out the race season… and strangely it was my first “run only” 10K.  My son Kayson was born two weeks before this race and our new little addition to the Taylor family has been consuming all my time… so this race was purely a “wake up and go do it without much thinking” kind of event… my favorite!  The Issaquah 10K course is mostly flat (at least they compared to some of the other course around here) and is part of the big Issaquah Salmon Day’s festival… celebrating the return of the amazing Salmon.  Anyway… on with the race… Typical breakfast then met up with my teammate James to carpool to the race.  Registered, then sat around chatting with teammates and then a little warm up.  Didn’t feel great after the warm up… blah.. oh well.  Race time finally comes and James and I are up front… Gun goes off and we are running… and I can tell I am running WAY too fast but didn’t really do anything to slow down....

1 mile swim | 20 mile bike  |  6.4ish mile run July 24 th , 2011 Olympic distance races have always been a bit of challenge for me… I just have a difficult time figuring out how to pace this distance.  This race was exactly 4 weeks after IMCdA so it seemed like a good step back as a prep for Lake Stevens 70.3 next month and I couldn’t get over to Chelanman this year… so the seafair oly fit the schedule.  I hadn’t raced the Seafair sprint course and the oly was new this year… so lots of unknowns.. but sounded like fun.  Not a ton of goals going into the race other than putting together a solid race and crossing the finish line with nothing left (something I admittedly didn’t do at IMCdA.) Wake up 3:45a, eat, and head out to Seward park.  Got a close parking spot 1 block from transition (really not sure where people park that show up at 6a!), let someone scribble some numbers on my legs and then set up transition which only took a few minutes.  ...

.25m swim / 13mi bike / 4.3mi run Aug 21 st , 2010 The return to the BLT … in 2007 Kevin talked me into doing this race… with no training… and I mean NO training… I signed up the morning of the race and I had never done a triathlon… didn’t even really know how it all worked. I couldn’t swim freestyle, hadn’t put on a pair of running shoes in 2 years… all I knew how to do was bike… so I figured why not!  Three years later it finally worked out to put this race back on the schedule.. this time I showed up with a fancy red bike, fancy red running shoes, aero helmet, aero wheels, a power meter, a wetsuit and many other “tri geek” toys… let’s just say it’s been an expensive 3 years.   I didn’t spend much time training for BLT this year, after the Chelan ½IM I got busy and didn’t get in much training but that was okay, I wanted to take a very relaxed fun attitude into BLT.. this one was for fun, no expectations… well.. okay… I had a few… beat my 2007 time by A LOT!  Go sub 40:...

Sprint – 1/4 swim / 14 mile bike / 5k run This is our first Triathlon every year and it’s something I always look forward to. The course isn’t great, but it still a lot of fun. Just like last year, Angela decided to join me for the Duathlon… s he does the same race as me, but she skips the swim. This year was a bit different… Seattle hasn’t seem much of the sun this year… in fact it’s been cold and rainy and the days leading up to the race flooded Sammamish State park… so this was the first time I raced in the mud… and a mud fest it was!!! Pre Race: We woke up and headed out to the park. I had two pop-tarts pre-race and sipped on some Gatorade. I forgot to take my Gu 30 min before the race and I think I really could have used the extra energy. We set everything up, waded through the mud and puddles, and managed to find the new JFT2 team tent. I went for a warm up run, then tried to swim… just couldn’t stay in the water. I have a sleeveless wetsuit and my arms were just frozen.. ...

Sprint – 1/4 swim / 14 mile bike / 5k run Saturday May 30th, 2009 I really look forward to this race every year.. maybe because it signals the beginning of triathlon season in Seattle or maybe because it’s a course i ride on almost every week.  This years race was made even more special because my beautiful wife decided to race along side me:)… Angela signed up for the  Duathlon.. so she was doing the same race minus the swim.  We couldn't have asked for better weather!  Alarm went off at 4am, eat pop tarts, throw gear in  car, throw wife in car, start driving.  We arrived at the park nice and early (i like being there EARLY) and managed to be the first few people into  transition. Everything was set up, went on a warm up run, then a warm up swim… everything was looking good.  I had a bit of time to socialize with my teammates ( www.fjt2.com ) and talked Angela through the next 90 mins one more time… i knew she was going to do great! ...

2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run November 23rd, 2008, Tempe, Arizona http://www.ironmanarizona.com/ My brief thoughts on the day: Around 8:25pm on Sunday November 23rd I heard the most  wonderful words ring out across the dark Arizona sky.  This was all after a day in which I watched the sun light up the dark horizon over the lake while I swam chasing the sunrise, later I was on my wind cheating leg powered  rocket ship and the sun had moved higher into the sky, now beating down heating up the Arizona desert, soon I left the speedy bike behind and relied on my exhausted legs to carry my into the sunset, the sun had done it’s job today but my challenge was far from over.  Into the darkness I ran, but I was far from alone and any time the fatigue or pain overcame my thoughts I would find myself surrounded by people who I had never met, people who didn’t know my personal challenge of the moment, but they would call out my name with encouragement and al...