Extending the Weekend!! #PacificGroveTri

A day after racing twice (qualifiers and finals) in Vegas, we hit the road again, driving practically the whole day to get to Monterey, central California. With a couple stops, it took us about 11 hours on the road.

The trip wasn't as beautiful as driving through Utah and Colorado like we did two weeks before, but it was really interesting seeing that number of different machines along the way, to explore nature's energy.

Arriving in the hotel, I first did some core workouts, trying to loose the muscles. Specially the core, that can get pretty stiff after long time sitting. After that, we could get some food and tried to relax, as I would be lining up again to race on the next day, Saturday.

This time it was an olympic distance race. The ocean was really cold, so most of us used a wetsuit. The race venue was really beautiful. I was sore but ended up in a good race, finishing the 51.5k in 2:01:41 and placing 7th.

Afterwards we explored a bit of Monterey Bay, we both really wished we had more time to spend in such a beautiful place. But I was really tired from so many races and we had a long drive ahead. In time though, we made some native cute friends before heading back to LA...

That was a long and delightful weekend. There was yet another triathlon happening at Malibu on that Sunday, and we almost did it! Nah, I wouldn't be racing, but I was planning to be by Florencia's side cheering friends on! Unfortunately, we both were so smashed from traveling, that we both got a flu and now I was running against the clock trying to heal before the LA Triathlon, to happen one week from that Sunday. (to come in the next post!)

LA, Las Vegas and the Super Spring Triathlon!

On the next days we hung out in Los Angeles, met dear friends and I could show a little bit of the city to Florencia. We also headed to Malibu Beach and The Getty Museum. (pics below). 

Los Angeles is one of my favorites cities to be, visit, workout, see friends and get a nice tan, as rain is something very unusual there! So we really had a blast, while I kept my workouts up to date and had run most of my favorite courses, getting ready for the next challenges. 10 days later, we were on the road again for another 290 miles in the Isuzu . . . 

Viva Las Vegas!!

Thursday, September 11th, the race was the Super Sprint Triathlon Grand Prix!

In a giant parking lot it was built a huge triathlon arena, with a 10 lanes, 25m swimming pool, and a 1k track circuit for bike and run.  

The qualifiers happened in the morning. It was 3 heats of 10 athletes, selected and divided by the World Triathlon ITU Ranking. My start was in the 3rd one, close to 11am, Vegas was almost 100°F baby!! Lol

The race had the distances of: 200m swim, 3k bike, 1k run, 200m swim, 3k bike and 1k run. Yep! The race had 5 transitions and it was praticaly two triathlons at once!! 

I had a bad first swim, and pushing all out for 23 minutes, my race was all about catching up. Placed 5th and qualified to the finals. So since them I was doing everything I could to recover as fast as possible. I would be lining up for another race at 7pm on that day!!

("final b" pics and with my coach Grant Holicky)

Still very sore, but it was time to warm up for another race! This time with a little extra distance, we did twice 300m swim, 5k bike and 2k run. I did a much better swim and the race was well fought with a big pack of contestants together. I finished 5th place again, feeling like I had raced for four times on that day!!

Entire results link

Link to the video of my race, filmed by Florencia . . . (Gracia amor!!)

Afterwards I was really done, and our night ended up just spending a couple hours in the casino of our hotel. A shame not taking more advantage of being in Las Vegas with Florencia, but on the next day morning we were on the road again heading Pacific Grove, to be told on the next post!!

Final Destination, Arriving in Los Angeles!

I knew it would be a hot day in Kingman, as we were in the middle of the Mojave desert, only about a 100 miles from Las Vegas. 

So I went for a bike ride relatively early in that morning, and the route was nothing less then the Mother Road, or the U.S. Route 66! 

One of the most famous, if not "the most" famous route in the world!

Historically, it was a very important way since it's construction in 1926, served as a major path for those who migrated west. The US 66 Route used to connect Chicago to Los Angeles, as in the following map.

I did a really small section of it and it was pretty cool to see some of the old buildings restored in that old fashion way. Not to forget that over that route was built the first motel and the first McDonald's of the world!

Also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the route 66 had it's apex on the fifties and sixties, where many movies have shown the young people driving their Cadillacs and Harleys towards the California sunny weather! (They didn't know how cool it would be driving an Isuzu!! hahaha)

The route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, becoming officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985. Nowadays, as Historic Route 66, a few sections were adopted and maintained by several states, like this stretch at Kingman.

A nice part of my wkout was to ride very close to a huge train, I was getting excited to race against it, but on this time I held myself back! haha

Ciclismo: 37km - 1h22min

The Isuzu was in charge of the long stretch of the day, and we drove 320 miles to get to my friend Bobby's house. Who was really kind of hosting us during our stay in LA.

So with no lazyness we made the trip in about 6 hours, just stopping once to eat, and another time for fuel. We missed the Colorado and Utah's mountains, as this part of trip was very of monotonous, plus it was very hot. We knew we were getting in LA as we approched palm trees and a big jammed traffic!! hahaha

Reaching the end of our 1340 miles journey, passing through rain, deserts, mountains, parks and more parks, all the way with not stopping to workout!! Stated on the posts I did another 4.3 miles swimming, 71 miles biking and 13 miles running, no that bad for a recovering week!

On Monday the training routine went back to it normal volume, and soon I will be posting about the races that followed in the next weeks!

Click here to go to the first post of this trip from Boulder to LA!

Monument Valley - Kingman

In the morning I could have a better idea of where we were, as the area was explored by my running shoes and a camera!

Running: 10k - 42 min

The "Ratón" from yesterday was never seen again, and Florencia and I were delighted of being in that beautiful place, so we checked out the later we could, taking advantage of the confy cabin! 

Back in the Isuzu we decided to head straight to the Grand Canyon, seeing only by far the famous sculptures of the Monument Valley National Park.

During this drive we also have decided not to go through Las Vegas (originally in our plans), because we would go there anyway in a couple of weeks for a triathlon race. This choice saved us a day or two to get to our final destination, Los Angeles.

We had 177 miles to the Grand Canyon, but we didn't do it in a straight shot. On the way we streched legs at the Najavo National Monument, where indians used to live in this hole in the wall, literally! #veryinteresting!

Next stop was in Tuna City, where we filled the tanks, food or fuel respectively, before heading down to another sightseeing. On the top of the Little Colorado River, this was not a national or a state park, instead it was a Native American owned area, where they encourage visitors to leave donations as an entrance fee.

There is also a beautiful variety of native artcraft. Enchanted by the colors, Florencia got two bracelets. It was totally worth a 30 minutes stop!

A few more miles and we were there . . .  The Grand Canyon!

Just one pic say it all!! #Hugeness

The Grand Canyon was the #1 on our trip list. When we started the drive we weren't sure about doing the South or the North Rim. We ended up choosing the South one, as it has a much more convenient route.

We were worried about the crowd, and as everybody warned, it really had tons of people in there. But with an adventurous spirit, you can find some pretty empty and amazing spots to get great views and pics! 

Can't remmeber why, but we both got in a bad mood right after leaving the park! This was the most boring part of the trip... another 170 miles with no rest!

Late in the night we stopped to sleep in Kingman, close to the border with California.

Click here to go to our final day on this Journey . . . 

Still in Monument Valley . . .

Oh! I have forgotten to tell you about what have happened in that hotel we found in the middle of the night, somewhere at Monument Valley . . .

Desertic area and in the dark we found this mini city called Gouldings Lodge, everything is named the same: Goulding's Hotel, Goulding's Restaurant, Goulding's Gas Station, Goulding's Museum, Gouding's Souvenir Store, Goulding's Camping, Goulding's Tour, in the end it was only missing Gounding's Police Department! Lol

The recepcionist offered the most economic room at 130 dollars, and when we hesitated about leave, he offered a cabin for 80 bucks. We got it  right away!

We were celebrating in the Isuzu while following a truck that was showing us the way, as our Goulding's cabin was located 2 miles from the entrance. 

In a total darkness, we saw our room lighted only by the two vehicles lights. It seemed a small duplex, encircled by a metal fence my height and it was three foot raised, maybe to protect against coyotes!?  

Scary! We hesitated while still in the Isuzu, but it was so late, and it was so hard to find a hotel in that road, that we decided to take a look on the inside. 

I stepped in ahead and did a disappointment face. It was just to scare Florencia, as the room was awesome! It was not a duplex, but a whole unit, a big room for both of us, it had a huge living room with three couches and a big TV screen, besides big kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

Happy, we stayed, and made sure all windowns and doors were locked! 

Rooms explored, we prepared a fast snack on the kitchen, unpacked some stuff and I went to the bathroom ready for a relaxing shower. Suddenly Florencia screamed and I heard her fast steps into the bedroom. Damn! Chilled to the bone I threw my towel on the floor and put my shorts on as fast as I could.

The intruder was in the kitchen she screamed from the bed: UN RATÓN, UN RATÓN EN NUESTRA HABITACIÓN!!

It was so late, I called the front desk, just to calm Florencia down, I did the complain, and received two mouse traps that instead of cheese were filled with peanut butter! Flor was afraid to find myself trapped in there before the mouse! Lol We locked ourselves in the bedroom and Flor could only sleep after closing the gap under the door using a big towel...  

Next post then, we continue our trip until Kingman, AZ!!

Click here to go to the 5th day of our Journey . . . 

Moab - Monument Valley

In the early morning I discovered the best bike path ever!!

Very true! With no crossing roads, the path goes close to The Arches National Park and pass nearby the canions,  revealing fantastic views!

It was an easy workout, with only twice 10 minutes on a faster pace, just to stimulate legs a little bit.

Bike: 38km - 1h12min

On the GPS, there was no more swimming pools on the way until Los Angeles, so I hopped in the pool while in Moab, before getting behind the wheels again . . . 

The swim was really easy, so I focused on technic exercises. I also did some under water shots to have an idea of my stroke efficiency . . .  Lots to improve!! 

400y warm up, 4x100y drill, 200y kicking, 8x25y building, 4x100y drill, 400y pull, 4x100y aerobic @1'40", 200y warm down.

Swim: 2.600y - 50min 

With no monster training during this trip, the only scary stuff we saw, was at the Dinossaur museum at Blanding, UT!! Lol

It was very cool to see the exhibition, specially the idea generated by some fossils that would suggest dinossaurs had not scaly skin, but they were actually covered by feathers, like giant birds!

Back to the Isuzussaur, we kept in big steps towards the south. The next stop was another national park, it was actually the first national park of Utah, founded in 1908: The Natural Bridges National Monument.

It is featured by three natural bridges, carved by time by the action of the Colorado river. We did a hiking that took about 1 hour to the base of the first one, called Sipacu, named in Navajo's language, the indians who used to live in this area. The greatness of this rocks are impressive, and we took hours imagining the river action around this million years. It was the river who went down or the rocks that went up!?? Lol

Not far from there, it was time for the Isuzu to get into the trail again, and we went down Moki Dugway, a tiny rustic trail road with about 3 miles plenty of switch backs and amazing views.  

During the trip, we also saw two other formations:

Gooseneck State Park (imagine a river that has decided to make a turn!)

Shaped while it was a plain surface, the San Juan river, with no rush, molded by the years more than goose necks, one of the world's most famous meanders.

And the Mexican Hat (how come that rock ended up in that top!?)

Shaped by nature miracle, or it could be Medusa that seducted a Mexican fellow with his hat! Lol

With the sun close to the horizon, and fulfilled with awesomeness, we decided to go forward. We were too late to visit the "Monument Valley" (central right pic) so we left futher expeditions to the next day!

A little hard to find hotel in that county, we ended up almost on the Arizona's border, a few miles after the park, but still in that region called Monument Valley.

Click here to read more about this night at Monument  Valley . . . 

Grand Junction - Moab

Woke up early in the morning in Grand Junction, and started the day with a "Running & Shooting"!!

The city is very cool, with a great artistic look on the main streeth, and pretty mountains in the background, so it was really a pleasant run. I was forced to stop couple times to make sure I got a nice pic, like in the sculpture of a dinosaur riding a bike above!

Run: 10km - 45min

Breakfast in the hotel, time to relax a bit and read emails, before a quick stop to swim at Orchad Mesa Pool.

600m warm up, 3x200m drills, 200m kick, 400m pull, 10x100m @1'30" (building 1-3), 200m easy. 

Swim: 3km - 1hour
(Not to count the time in the trampolim!)

I was feeling very tired, was even thinking that Grand Junction could be like 10.000ft high, but afterwards checking in the map, I realized there was nothing wrong, just I was really smashed! Lol

Work done, time to hit the road!

We passed by Fruita, a very cute city, where we had burritos for lunch followed by a quick city tour drive.

Back to the road, for sure one of the most incredible ones we have drove. Always following the Colorado River, which carved in thousands of years, beautiful views in the mountains around. 

As fantastic, as tricky! As at one time we have decided to explore a way that says innofensively "Onion Creek". But later at Google Maps, we discover the real name of the road was "Rose Garden Hill Safari Route".

A super cool way! We drove through creeks and wear the Isuzu 4x4, it was pretty fun at the beginning but afterwards on a attempt to do the loop, we spent more than two hours, to find the way back. 

How nice it was to be in the pavement again! The Isuzu was already very colorful, from the red dust.

Past this adventure, we didn't want to explore anything anymore. Lol So we drove nonstop until Moab.

We got there before the sunset, so we decided to stretch the drive into "The Arches Nacional Park", another rocky wonder.

From the park we looked for a hotel and rested until next day.

Click here to go to the 4th day of our Journey...