Courtenay and I went into a bike shop in Waialua last week (Sugar Mill Bikes)  to fix a sliced tire. The proprietor of the shop told us about a private road he likes to ride through the cane fields of Oahu’s North Shore. So the next day we rode to a locked gate with the intent of riding up a cane haul road – mostly dirt, rough roads – to get away from the dangerous holiday traffic.

My Garmin Edge 705 actually showed where the cane haul roads go, so it was easy to pick an entry point and plan a route. Just as we were hopping the gate (which we assumed was to keep motor vehicles out) a big van pulled up and a big Hawaiian guy started yelling at us, threatening us with a $500 fine if we didn’t leave right away. So we rode a few miles down and entered a cane haul road that didn’t have any locked gate across it. We rode for miles up past farmlands – some abandoned, some with coffee, some with pineapples. We did see about a dozen cars, and a couple farmers, but they just waved and smiled, so we were pretty sure we weren’t bothering anyone. The roads were certainly not ideal for a road bike, but focusing on bike handling was a welcome change from focusing on not getting killed on the narrow highway.

Eventually we did reach a big “no trespassing” sign, which is where we turned around, but my Edge 705 claimed that the road would continue up the hill, wind through a few valleys, and eventually come back down the hill and exit where we were yelled at earlier in the ride. We decided that we should find a way onto those roads, and the very next day we did. I took video of that experience, and Courtenay edited it (because she has the fancy MacBook Pro). It was an awesome ride, and we even found a newly paved road through the hills with zero cars on it. It was among the most adventurous rides I’ve had, but I’ll let the video do the talking:

We headed to the North Shore of Oahu just before Christmas. I was hoping for a week in the “country” with some nice cycling and running through the woods, but by December 26th I was nearly in tears with frustration over poor training opportunities. It seemed to me that, contrary to what one would expect, the kelly-green bumper stickers pleading “keep the country country” and the black and white ones claiming “HE>I” were sure signs of people who would gladly commit vehicular homicide just to chase cyclists off their precious, traffic-ridden, pothole-speckled, shoulder-less highway. The park and cane haul roads I used to run on when I was living at my uncle’s house are now cluttered with “no trespassing” signs and some jerk in a big van drives around threatening people with $500 fines if they pass the gates. And lastly, the pool was closed for lap swim for the entire four day weekend while the ocean was plagued with 40ft waves. For a guy who likes to train all day, life sucked.

[above: My K-Swiss Keahou’s started off sparkling clean before this run…]

In my last post, I mentioned a run… I spent Christmas Day with my cousin 11 miles down the road from Sunset Beach and decided to ignore a few “no trespassing” signs (which became increasingly threatening - “trespassers will be prosecuted” to “Explosives, stay away”, to “if you come in, we’ll shoot you.” – but who would kill me on Christmas?). Shortly after that last sign the road curved into thick Hawaiian jungle with flora so thick I could only see 10 meters max in any direction. All around me were the sounds of a living forest: birds, bugs, wild pigs, and all the delicate rustling of millions of plants dancing in the breeze.

I found a dirt bike trail that wound its way up the side of a mountain, and I figured it would be nice to get away from civilization and let myself relax for a bit. It was a Christmas present to myself. I ran up, and up, and up, and then up some more – stopping at every opening in the thick green jungle to admire the breathtaking views. My Garmin 310xt told me that I was around 1000 ft above sea level, climbing up a ridge into the Hauula Forest Reserve. At one point I was on a portion of the ridge with cliffs on both sides and no trees nearby when a helicopter came right towards me. “Oh man, if they sent a helicopter I must be in really deep trouble,” I thought. It went right over the top of me, then turned around and came right back to me before flying off into the distance. Figuring that if they were looking for me I was already screwed, I kept climbing, unsure of how far the ridge would take me. I was covered in mud from scrambling up dirt cliffs, and slipping down a few gnarly sections of “trail”, and my legs were scratched from pushing through some knee high shrubs, but for the most part it looked like someone had actually cleaned the trail quite recently. Just when I thought there was no possible way for a dirt bike to get through the technical section behind me I saw fresh motorcycle tracks cut into the red dirt. I kept running, and scrambling upwards until the trail suddenly disappeared. A few more strides and I found out why – there was a 200ft vertical drop directly in front of me and on both sides. The next ridge over had a path that kept going into the forest, but there was no way to get to the next ridge without going all the way back down. I was 3.5 miles in, and it had taken me 45 hard minutes to get there – this would have to be the end of my journey.

The helicopter must have been an island tour, because I never saw a single person during my run. Also, on the way out I was determined to find a route to the forest that didn’t involve disobeying so many signs. I took a few random turns, and used the GPS “bread-crumb” feature of my Garmin Forerunner 310xt to make sure I was headed in the right direction (a few times I got completely turned around – it’s really hard to find your way through thick rain-forest like that). Eventually I succeeded. I ended up coming out of a the trail right behind a Mormon church just a couple miles down from my cousin’s house. I immediately downloaded the route to Garmin Connect to show my cousin, then spent a while trying figure out how to embed the Google map into my blog. Apparently that feature will be in the February update of Garmin Connect, which is probably good because posting a map of where I was trespassing onto the internet is not necessarily a great idea.

With this little adventure under my belt, I headed back to the North Shore with a new determination to find my way off the beaten path – those adventures will be the subject of my next few posts.

For Christmas this year I agreed (with myself) not to do gifts (the video below shows my one exception). I may have muttered this to a few people around me, but was secretly hoping that someone wouldn’t get the memo and would send me something awesome. Karma, however, was quick to bite me for that strategy because on Wednesday the 23rd I found out that I need a root canal and I have no dental insurance. Calling my mom to beg for a rather unusual Christmas present made me feel particularly bad about not having a “real job”.

When Friday rolled around I headed to my cousin’s house to watch his 6 year old open her gifts. It was really interesting. She took longer to open the gifts than any child anywhere. She would open a present, then read about it, open it, show it to everyone, inspect it from every angle, maybe play with it for a few minutes, then ask if someone else wanted to open a gift next. I found myself questioning if she was really six, or if there’s an older soul trapped in her body.

I was given a snail shell and a gift certificate to the restaurant and Turtle Bay Resort, which I intend to spend in full on Monday when Courtenay and I go to dinner with my cousin and his wife. So in a way I got my wish of the unreciprocated presents.

After the tree was empty, my cousin played his new Wii game and I went for a run . It was truly epic – to where I feel obligated to devote a full blog entry to that particular run.

Courtenay’s family is all on Oahu for Christmas. It’s exciting!  Sunday I met Courtenay’s mom, Sally, for the first time, then Monday she took us to the Honolulu Zoo. Sally’s best friend from 1st grade, who she didn’t see for almost half a century before reuniting 5 years ago, works at the zoo and was able to give us the super special awesome tour, which involved feeding the elephants and getting to pet their trunks!! It was SO cool!

The Honolulu Zoo was amazing, and I can’t believe that it was my first time there after living within a mile of it for over a year. Wow! I saw tigers, and a rhinoceros, and giraffes and a toucan, and two turtles trying to mate (interestingly, this was the only thing Courtenay took a picture of during our visit), which is something hard to imagine until you see and hear it (groaning, loud shell cracking, and very slow hip thrusts) I say “trying” because we found out that Zoos can’t just let their animals breed whenever they want, there’s an organization that determines when and what animals need to breed based on where and how the new animals can be cared for. So they implant birth control into the animals.

Did I mention the orangutans? (I ask as I try to steer my writing away from from animal sex.) The male, Rusti, had super long dreadlocks and looked a lot like some Seattle kids I grew up with ;). Sally’s friend told us that Rusti can be “quite romantic” with his girlfriend and exhibition-mate, Violet, but fortunately we didn’t see that or I would feel obliged to add a picture of it.

I’m in Honolulu! Courtenay and I are staying with her brother for the next few weeks, and training in the warmth and sunshine of not-Seattle. I’ve been trying to get Courtenay to document our trip by filming it, but so far all we have are a bunch of images of her trying to get away from the camera. Soon I’ll resort to the self-filming technique popularized on YouTube by those without friends.

When we arrived we realized that I won an unplanned contest. She brought 6 pairs of shoes (running shoes, bike shoes, walking around shoes, and 3 pair of flip-flops) while I brought 7 pair (All K-Swiss: 2 Keahous, 3 pair of K’onas – one old pair for walking around in, one pair for track workouts, and one Brazil Flag pair for making myself popular when I head to Rio next month – bike shoes and a pair of K-Ruuz for racing in). See? I win.

Perhaps situations like this are why I find this video so funny.

This weekend is going to be exhausting. I leave on Tuesday for Hawaii, and really won’t be back in Seattle much for the rest of the year. That leaves me three days to clean up the gigantic mess of unsorted stuff I’ve collected from the past 40 races I’ve done. Basically I’ve taken over a good portion of my parent’s house and if I don’t get rid of a bunch of stuff I’ll have to listen to my mother nagging me over the phone for the next year, “Ben, what do you want me to do with the box of stuff you left by the dining room? And did you need this stack of papers on the desk in the hallway?”

I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. Maybe I should go run to calm down.

Yesterday I heard from the USAT Lords that I have been approved for residency at the Olympic training center. This means that I can live permanently on campus in Colorado Springs. There are OTC campuses elsewhere that hold quite a bit more appeal to me, but Beggers should not be choosers, right? Apparently USAT doesn’t have any beds in Chula Vista (San Diego), which is where I would prefer to live, but they will let me go there for a few months this spring! I’m a little bubbly with excitement, as much as I love my home in Seattle, I also love the adventure that comes from moving and learning a new place. So my latest plan for the next 4 months is this:

December 15th to January 13th: Honolulu with Courtenay
January 17th: Fast Triathlon in Brasil with Chris Foster* and Matt Chrabot.
End of January: come back to Seattle, pack my stuff into the Honda Element and drive south.
Feb-may: training in California!

I’m not so keen on driving straight through to Chula, so I will definitely be looking for some people to stay with (and possibly train with) along the way.

I’m goin to miss my friends and family, but I think this move is going to be really fun.

*Courtenay would like to point out that she suggested that Chris would be a good teammate for the fast triathlon AGES ago. Thanks for the good idea CB.

My pool is closing on December 31st. This is inexcusable given the state of recreational swimming pools in the Seattle area, and the growing interest in the sport of swimming (thank you Michael Phelps). In general, the Seattle area has very few public pools, and the pools we do have are old, antiquated and short (the lone 50m pool within 20 miles of Seattle is only open from June to August). Forty miles south of Seattle we have the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center – a state of the art facility designed for high level competition – which has helped raise the quality of swimming in Washington State tremendously. Aside from KCAC, however, we have too few pools, almost all of which are old, poorly managed, and have  too many people trying to use them. The Seattle Public Pool closest to my house has lap swim in the mornings from 5:45-7:15. During that time there are two single lanes and two double-wide lanes. To swim in that 90 minute opening you will most likely share a lane with 5-10 other swimmers of varying ability. The next closest Seattle Public Pool has no morning lap swim times because there are two high school teams and a club team that have to coordinate practice space – the first group gets in at 4:30am, and the last group finishes at 7:30 in time for school.

And yet the State of Washington believes that there is no demand for more pools, and more pool time at each facility.

Six months ago the St. Edward State Park Carole Ann Wald Memorial Swimming Pool was reopened by new management after a 6 month closure when the State Parks Department cut funding for pools. West Aquatics won the bid and the pool appeared to be running much more smoothly than before. The pool offered all-day lap swim, so even during synchronized swimming and water aerobics there were lanes available for lap swim. I found that I could swim later, get more sleep, and have a less crowded lane thanks to the flexibility of the pool schedule. And I wasn’t the only one; the regulars from the area who I know from doing the lap swim scavenger hunt (where we scout our way through a dozen pool websites to find a lap swim time that fits with our changing schedules) were all switching to St. Edwards Pool so we could have a reliable place for lap swim, without the danger and hustle of sharing a lane with 10 people.

Additionally, the staff at St. Edwards Pool are wonderful. They know the names of the regulars, they listen to suggestions, and work really hard to improve the facilities (after sitting empty for so long the pool had a few odd smells and needed a mild makeover – which the staff willingly gave it). Swimming at St. Edwards is the first time in Washington State that I’ve felt like I was part a community at my pool. I wasn’t told to swim someplace else because I was too fast (that has happened at several Seattle Public Pools, and at University of Washington) and I wasn’t forced to wake up hours before dawn to swim in a hot bath with dozens of other desperate swimmers.

Even with such success at creating a great swimming destination, I was only mildly surprised when a couple of weeks ago this notice showed up on the pools door. It basically says that the economy is bad and West Aquatics is worried that they will not make any money off the pool. As such, they gave 30 days notice to the state and will close the pool on December 31st. I say mildly surprised because the pool management did nothing (literally nothing) to market their pool. No signs, no ads in the local Competitor magazine or the town newspaper, no posters on the bulletin boards of the overly crowded pools nearby, no new-member specials, no free-swim days, no community pool parties, no promotions of any kind to let the community know about this little gem of a pool in their own back yards. For the health of the pool and flexibility of schedule, I have not problem sharing a lane with a couple other people. The area clearly has enough patrons to demand the facilities, they just don’t know the pool is there, and West Aquatics never even took the time to update their website with a reliable pool schedule.

A reliable source told me that over the past 5.5 months, West Aquatics has lost only $3,000 – a pretty small number for the first six months of any business. Furthermore, swim lesson registrations have been increasing rapidly, the new year promises to bring resolution swimmers, and triathlon season is just around the corner. A little marketing could go a long way to turn that $3000 around. The maintenance required is inescapable. The quote to fix the pools heating system was $8500, which is a lot for a small organization like West Coast Aquatics. But the State of Washington has agreed in contract to pay any maintenance fees over $2500 – meaning the organization knew the limit of their maintenance responsibility going into this agreement. The fact that West Aquatics now claims that the maintenance fees were much greater than expected is preposterous and, basically, a lie.

West Aquatics’ motives for pulling out of the St. Edward management are rather unclear. The notice provides little honest or useful information, and the ultimatum of definitive closure gives the community no way to help the situation. We need a new management group to take over, one that actually cares about the outcome of this community pool (the way the current lifeguards do), and we need the State to put money behind a desperately needed public resource.

As if West Aquatics hadn’t created enough disdain among the pool’s patrons, they changed the pool hours so that there is no more morning swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was no prior notice. The only way I know this from a sign beside the locked door this morning announcing the pool’s limited hours from now until its imminent closure on December 31st. Had the friendly lifeguards known this, they likely would have told me when I bought my December pool pass, but since they were laid off last weekend, my guess is they didn’t know.

With the pool closing, I’m not sure that West Aquatics cares that I and many of the other St. Edwards Patrons have very negative feelings toward their organization for its lack of communication skills and terrible handling of our community pool, but I would encourage those who feel strongly about public health, and the benefits of public pools to contact the Washington State Parks Department* and tell them that swimming pools are good for the community, they are in demand, and they are worth supporting. Especially if the State can find a group to manage the pool who can do it honestly and with true investment in the future of the facility. Step 1 for the next group to take on facility management: put out a suggestions box – my suggestion? The pool is in the middle of a 316 acre state park and has been closed for six months, nobody will know it’s there if you don’t tell anyone.

*The Chairman of the State Parks Commission, Eliot Scull, can be reached by email at eliot.scull@parks.wa.gov Just a quick email letting him know that pools are important is enough to let him know that we care. Thanks.

I leave for Hawaii in 10 days for a month of winter training before I head to Brazil for my third Fast Triathlon (or Triatlo Rapido as the natives call it). Matt Chrabot and I are finalizing our team and looking to upset the Brazilian team, which has thwarted our valiant attempts for the past two years. But more about that as it gets closer.

Yesterday I went in for my first massage in a while. When I’m not training at my limit it seems silly to pay lots of money for massage therapy, but now I wish I had gotten more massages during my off-season. It’s those times when you aren’t training at your max that you can make the most progress on breaking up your tight muscles and improving flexibility and biomechanics. Plus, after skiing, traveling and trail running for the past few weeks, that massage hurt way more than I thought it would.

While I was laying on the table, I started wondering what exactly makes a good massage therapist. There are a handful I’ve been to that I will recommend to anyone, and will pay a premium for – but everyone of the people on that list has a different style of massage. Today I went to Liam, who works out of Inewmed and a has crazy strong fingers from rock climbing. Jenny in south Seattle has a more classic method, but great intuition and responds well to requests. Then there’s a woman in Kent (way south of Seattle) who does Shiatsu massage with her feet! All three of these people have sent me off in much better shape than I came, and yet – other digging in to the key areas: hips, legs, and back – I can’t single out any specific techniques that set my favorite massage therapists apart from the other 99% that I won’t return to.

So ten more days of standard fare – chores, meetings, season planning, and some training – and then I’m off to O’ahu for blue skies and ocean swimming with Courtenay. I wonder if I’ll miss the indoor pool or the sting of running in 33 and rainy. Just in case, I’d better get off my computer and make the most of this weekend!

This is week #1 of training for the 2010 season. I have 48 weeks left until my last race, 16 until the first World Cup of the season, 16 until I race my first World Championship Series triathlon in Sydney… I look at these numbers and start to wonder why I’m sitting on my trainer in Seattle, where it’s 30 degrees outside. Am I crazy? This season I plan to run around 3000 miles, ride my bike for nearly 15,000 miles, and swim a cool thousand miles. Suddenly 48 weeks  doesn’t seem like nearly enough time! Can I put in extra now and earn vacation time this summer? (Ironically, yes, but the “vacation” will come in the form of rehab.)

I’m excited for what lies ahead, and feel privileged to even have the opportunity to attempt the summit.