How to WIN a triathlon.

Those of you who follow my blog regularly know that I had post from June this year called “How NOT to win a triathlon”. This post will be a fitting counterpoint and end to the summer as it appears that I’ve got my health issues under control and finally put together a quality race effort. Of course the title gives away the drama of the post, but the details might still be interesting for you to read.

Yesterday was fourth annual Camp Kinser Reverse Triathlon. Many of the Marine Corps bases here on Okinawa host these ‘reverse’ triathlons. They all start with the run, then the bike, and finish in the swimming pool. The pool is the reason for the reverse aspect of the race because starting 200 athletes all at once in a single lane of a pool would be quite chaotic. By reversing the order, the racers are usually spread out quite a bit by the time they hit the pool and that alleviates the potential for crowding.

The race was a 5.2 k run, followed by a 15.5k bike, then 8 laps in a 50m pool (400m total). Kinser is a long skinny base with a section down on the ocean and a section up above on a higher level. The run and bike both climbed a short hill straight away, then the rest of the course was long straight stretches of road among warehouses with the occasional turn to another long straight stretch. The roads were open to traffic but most of the intersections had crossing guards. The run was one lap and the bike was two laps. The transition zone was ideal for the race. It was a long narrow parking lot that paralleled the race course so you entered and one end and exited out the other. The racks were clearly marked and there was plenty of room for gear between the bikes. Overall, this was the best organized MCCS Triathlon I had done.

The race started at 8:00 AM with dead calm air. Normally that would be a good thing, but when that air is 85 degrees and 80% humidity, a little breeze goes a long way for some comfort when running or spectating. That’s a heat index of 97% if you are wondering. Very uncomfortable, but typical August weather here. There were just over 200 racers this year, up quite a bit from previous years. Only the first 100 got tee shirts (I was 106).

My goal was to run as hard as possible, then do whatever I could on the bike. I had done a stand alone 5k two weeks ago at 19:45 without maxing out, but the conditions were less brutal when I ran it at 5:30 AM. At the race, my goal pace was 4:00 minutes per kilometer to end with a 20 minute 5k. My new Garmin 310xt allowed me to see my current pace at any time, and it recorded my pace for each kilometer as I ran. I strived for a negative split so I tried to take it easy at the start. My heart rate for 5k at race intensity is usually maxed out at 175. I was above that before 200m had gone by, but I felt fine so I kept going. My first split was 4:06 with the hill so I was pleased with that. The next three splits were all around 4:12, a little slow but my heart rate was at 178 so I knew that was all I should put in at that point. The people I had been pacing with started falling away after 3k. I was well behind a group of about 20 that pulled away from everyone early on, but I ended up running the last k at 4:05, so I accelerated to the end instead of fading. That was good. I usually fade hard on runs. My heart rate for the final k was 182 and I felt great. Normally 182 is above the redline for me. I finished at 21:22

I tried leaving my bike shoes clipped on to my pedals for the first time in this race. I did practice several mounts and dismounts last week and felt very comfortable doing it. During the race, it worked great. I didn’t have to run in my bike shoes and it was a snap to get my feet into the shoes after getting some speed on the bike. My total transition time was only 60 seconds. That’s a huge bonus in a short race like this to get through that quickly. I’ve since figured out a couple of ways to shave another 10 – 15 seconds off that time.

The bike went well. In the race simulations I had done leading up to the event, I found out that my cycling legs took a while to come around. My first 4 or 5 k typically felt awful, but after that I regained some strength as my legs adjusted. During the race I didn’t notice being heavy at the start of the ride though. I was able to power up the hill and catch up to some of the leaders pretty quickly on the first lap. I didn’t see anyone in front of me on the second lap so I knew that rest of the guys up there were keeping clear of me. I averaged a heart rate of 172 on the bike, which is great for after the run. I typically can’t get that high of a rate on the bike after a swim or run. The race director setup several water stations for the bike leg, but they were all in the middle of straight flat sections. I wasn’t interested in slowing down from 28 mph for a cup of water. They figured out throwing the water on you worked too. However, I found out that a cup of water in the face hurts like hell if you keep your eyes open. After that first one, I closed my eyes for each one after. I’m not sure what my split was because a software bug in the Garmin locked it up during this part of the race and corrupted the data file. Hopefully a firmware update will fix the problem. I know that I had good speed and I didn’t fade either. At the end, I took my feet out of the shoes about 500m before T2 and had a smooth jump off the bike and run back to the rack. I grabbed my goggles and ran to the pool to discover three guys all getting in the water right in front of me.  So much for being spread out at the pool.

In the pre race brief, they did tell us to stay to the left side of the lane and pass on the right in the pool. We had to swim 8 laps by going down in one lane, then moving over and coming back in the next. You end up zig zagging through the entire pool this way. The swim has historically been my weakest leg. It’s also the one that is easiest for me to redline on and get freaked out. When you can’t breath and you then can only breath when the stroke lets you, panic can set in quickly. I also have found that my steady, smooth, strong pull technique will often times be faster than when I try to sprint. Today, all my practice time in the pool paid off because I found that immediately I was faster than the three guys in front of me. That’s great, but passing in the pool is tricky; especially when two or three or four of you arrive at the wall together. I was able to rest a bit behind them after the first turn and sprinted around two of them before the second turn. I chased down and passed the next guy after the fourth turn. At the next turn, I looked around the pool to see that the next closest guy was two lanes away so I just settled into a steady rhythm to the finish. I couldn’t believe that I actually passed guys in the pool. I’ve never been faster than someone else in the water. That was exciting.

After finishing, I looked around and didn’t see very many guys in the finish area and it finally occurred to me that I might have had a high finish. Gina confirmed that she thought I was fifth and after looking at the pictures she took, I agreed. This morning I found out from the organizers that I was fifth overall, and first in my division. Regardless of my finish, I was pleased with the race because I finally got everything right. I maxed out my heart rate without blowing up and didn’t fade on any section of the race.

Oh yeah….and I didn’t feel like I was having a stroke during any section of the race. That’s always a bonus

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Anti American Demonstration at Camp Hansen

I live a few miles south of Camp Hansen on Okinawa. It is one of several Marine Corps bases on the island. From time to time some of the bases will be the object of local demonstrations objecting to the presence of the bases or complaining about the noise around the air base. Two days ago I rode my bike up to Camp Hansen to use the pool there for my swim workout. Everything was normal on the way in but when I left there were about 30 or so Okinawans lining either side of the driveway to the main gate with various signs that read:

“Go home marines!” or “No more War!” and other similar slogans. As usual with these demonstrations, the people were very courteous and polite. There was a TV news camera set up but they weren’t recording anything. I think they were there just in case something video worthy present itself like a foolish American getting out of his car to make a scene. I don’t think this ever happens though. We get emails from the command from time to time at work letting us know about these type of demonstrations and what their impact of traffic will be as well as any potential safety concerns there are about Americans being near the event. I would estimate that we get notification for about 10 or 15 of these demonstrations/rallies/parades per year and almost all of them are very peaceful and organized.

It does make me stop and think about my presence here though. I remember my first day on the island looking at the base with it’s high fence and guarded gates to keep people out thinking it odd that we possessed a piece of property in a foreign country for our own military uses (yeah I know, we are here for the Japanese defense too). Imagine if you had a foreign (truly foreign) military base sitting right next to your home in the USA. Would that strike you as a little odd? Well, there are some Okinawans who feel the same way. They consistently site that a majority of the US bases in Japan are all on Okinawa while the island itself only represents a very small portion of Japanese land. Over the last several years, many of the more valuable areas once occupied by bases have been returned to the Okinawans and a huge move of marines from here is supposed to occur in the next 5 – 10 years. This change should alleviate some of the tensions currently in place, but the bottom line is that the native people here have been putting up with either Japanese or American occupation for the last 400 years or so and they many of them likely long to go back to being an independent region doing nothing but farming and fishing. Things have changed significantly here in the last 50 years since the war though and that transition would likely be much more difficult than many people would be willing to undergo.

Back in the early 70′s, before the reversion of control want back to Japan, there were some fairly violent riots as evidenced by a recent photographic exposition Gina and I went to a few months ago. Scenes of car fires, angry mobs with Molotov Cocktails, and general unhappiness were photographed over and over again. The reversion from US control back to Japanese control appeared to cause some issues as well. The change in currency from dollars to yen created a huge vacuum for businesses that relied on US soldiers for a customer base and they suddenly saw that base disappear. There are business districts on the island that are still frozen in time from 1972 because that’s the day they stopped operating and the areas essentially dried up economically. Outside of Gate 2 of Kadena AB has some areas that show this effect as well as some areas right outside main gate of Hansen. There are also many areas that have shown amazing recent growth as well. The Okinawans have little hesitation in creating new land to make shopping malls, factories, or other business centers. There is a constant movement of earth from land to the ocean around here as the island grows little by little with each bucket of fill. I don’t think the EPA would allow us to do such work on the coast lines of the US.

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F22 Up Close

The base did an open house for a visiting group of F22′s from Virginia. We couldn’t get very close but the squad personel were all there to answer questions. It’s amazing just how large this airplane is. I’m guessing that my lifetime of income taxes may have paid for one bolt in the wheel…maybe.

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Far East Honor Band Auditions are done!

I’ve been neglecting entries in the blog again. It’s that crazy Facebook stuff combined with Far East Auditions, Japanese lessons and my first real training program for over a year combining to create little down time. Of course, when I do get downtime I rarely want to spend it front of a computer so the blog gets relegated to the bottom of the stack.

Far East Honor Band is an event that’s held the third week of April each year somewhere in the Pacific Region of DoDDS. It’s held in the same location for two consecutive years and then moves on to another school to host. Last year and this year it is at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. The 14 DoDDS high schools in the Pacific Region can send auditions via mp3 files to the regional arts director who then arranges to have the tapes sorted into a ranked order. Then, depending on the budget and the constraints of the host school, the size of the band, choir, string orchestra, and jazz band are determined and the top students that fit into that number are invited to participate. For our students, that means a flight off island to mainland Japan. Leaving the island for a week is a big deal. It’s cool that it’s in Tokyo, but we really don’t get any time to do anything off base. The week is filled with 8 hour rehearsals capped with a concert on Friday night and we return to Okinawa on Saturday morning. I’m usually wasted by the end of the week because of supervising students for 24 hours a day combined with running rehearsals and sectionals gets tiresome. We don’t hire outside adjudicators. We share the directing and rehearsing chores amongst the directors from the school. There are always more band teachers than pieces to perform so each year some teachers sit out. This year, I am helping with the jazz band. Last year was the first time they had a jazz band and I am looking forward to working with that group this year. I submitted 33 auditions and hope to have 18+ make it. Last year we had 16 make it with 10 more as alternates. Seoul American High School from Korea always has the most students attend, even though they are not necessarily the largest school. They have quality students and a quality music program there. Perhaps someday I’ll get as many students in as they do.

We host it the next two years starting in 2010. That’s a bummer for our students because they no longer have the chance to get “off island” for the week. It’s also a ton of work for the choir director and I to organize the event. I think it’s Guam or Korea’s turn to host. Guam never has and Korea hasn’t for over 20 years. Kadena (my school) hosted it five years ago.

I recorded all of my students doing the audition and this took many hours after school since the start of the new calendar year. My recording software showed over 670 individual takes for 68 auditions. From those, I pulled the best 33 that have a shot at making it. We’ll find out in a few weeks whether they make it in or not.

The entire thing is much like an All-State Band back in the states, except on a smaller scale so the level of musicianship isn’t as high. It’s more like a league honor band in that respect. It’s the best from 14 high schools.

I’m on my second week of coach driven training. I hired a coach and he is setting up my training via an on line calendar. It’s been really really good for me. He alternates the hard/easy workouts in such a way that I always feel fresh for the next workout. He also has taken the boredom out of swimming by breaking it down into interesting sets. My running has improved dramatically at lower hear rates and my endurance in the pool is coming up. I still have a long way to go to get to that 2:15:00 Olympic Distince finish though. I’m registered for the Ishigaki Tri at the end of spring break in April. That’s not quite enough time to be in top form, but I think I’ll be better than last year with training and experience I have now.

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Tom Arnold at the Kadena Special Olympics; True Lies II is coming!

My band combined with the Kubasaki High School Band last weekend to perform for the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics. There were over 800 athletes (mostly Japanese) invloved with over 3000 volunteers and support staff as well.I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to do the gig. We weren’t even allowed to meet at the band room that morning because the whole area was used for parking. My students had to take all their gear home the night before and meet the school bus at the USO on the other side of the base. Students weren’t even allowed to be dropped off near the facility because of the crush of people inolved.

The weather turned out to be very very warm, but it had rained hard the previous day (and the next day) so we lucked out on staying dry. However, the Okinawan heat can be unbearable and not all of the band fit under the tent they set up for us. We did get plenty of water to go around though.

I had heard that Tom Arnold would be around to help out with the event and had hoped to catch a glimpse of him. Turned out that he was eating breakfast with the genearl in the restaurant at the USO when I was there waiting for the buses. I didn’t even notice them even though they were the only people in the restaurant. One of my students got a signed autograph. I was kicking myself for not noticing because it would’ve been a great opportunity to let him know that he was the critical component in making True Lies my all time favorite movie (I suppose Jamie Lee Curtis had a important role as well, but Tom’s character made the movie).

Well, as we set up for the opening ceremonies at the field, someone pointed Tom out to me and he was approaching the band to say hi to the student who got his autograph. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and got a couple of pictures snapped off by his photographer (which I knew I’d never see), but also by one of my band parents.

Tom's got some jet lag

He was jet lagged but was a genuinely nice guy. He thanked us multiple times for volunteering to help out the event and I got the opportunity to let him know how much I appreciated his work in True Lies. I also asked him when the sequel was due out and he told me, “Two years, when Arnold is done as governor.” He then went on to say that he had been at the Breeder’s Cup recently with Governor Schwarzenegger and that he had indicated interest in doing two more movies after his run in office ends. Tom spent quite a while telling me the details of the story and was very enthusiastic about it. I have no idea if there is any truth to any of it, but it was very nice of him to spend the time talking to me about it.

He went on to officially present the opening of the Special Olympics and had several kind words to say about the organization and his involvement with it. All in all, it was a fund day and my band didn’t sound too bad either.

This weekend we will be marching in a parade just outside of the base. It will be interesting to see how we are recieved in an Okinawan parade. This particular event has many American representatives as it is a parade to celebration cross-cultural ties and help with community relations here between the Okinawans and the US Military establishment.

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Christmas in Vietnam? (or Homecoming Week at KDHS)

A big aqurium on Okinawa

This was homecoming week at Kadena High School and much like everything else here in this land of quasi-little America, it’s not quite the same as it would be in the USA. We had a short week including and early release on Tuesday for some inservice events and then no students on Wednesday for what they call “Educator Day”. Essentially this is a one day educator conference with sessions produced from within the district. All the teachers in the Okinawa DoDDS school district come to Kadena High School for the day and choose from a multitude of sessions to attend regarding various facets of education. Uniquely here, there are also sessions that have nothing to do with education. For example, my second session was with a vocational teacher from our building that likes to lead tours off island in his free time. His session was about going to Vietnam and Cambodia for 10 days over Winter break in December. It had nothing to do with teaching, learning, or student achievement but it was interesting and I signed up Gina and myself to go.

Christmas in Vietnam? I never thought I’d be saying those two words together in one sentence. It should be a unique experience to say the least and I’ll be sure to tell you all about it here.

At any rate, the students still put on a spirit week with dress up days (Wacky-Tacky Monday, Pajama Tuesday, Character Thursday, and Class Colors Friday) and the Pep

Gina walking out of the cave shrine

Rally on the field Friday afternoon with the homecoming game that night. We played Kubasaki, the only other football team on the island, for the third and final time. The best record of the three games gives the winner the ability to go to the Far East Championship which would be like a league championship in the states. We have 14 high schools in the Far East DoDDS area and that is divided into large schools and small schools to make two champions. Kadena is the reigning Far East Champion and won all three games against Kubasaki.

On Saturday, the students went to the Homecoming Dance at Camp Hansen, a Marine Corps base near where I live, but about 15 miles from Kadena High School. There is a curfew of 11:00 for all minors with American

Band students in action in the stands at Homecoming

families (SOFA status personel). So, all students need to be home by 11:00 PM. That means the dance ended at 10:00 and started at 7:00 PM. It was catered and had a very good dj according to my sources. I didn’t attend. I understand that many students do after hourse events at some parents’ homes after curfew and then remain there throughout the night until curfew ends at 6:00 AM or so. I don’t remember the exact time on that, but it allows the typical late night teenager to still have his evening entertainment and stay within the bounds of the curfew.

Small shrine in the cave at a temple. Click for detail

The band marched to the theme music from Halo for the half time show. This is the first time that Kadena HS has ever had a marching band. We bought some used uniforms this summer and cleaned them up and used them for the first time as well. Only two of my students had ever marched before so it took and extraordinarily long time to teach them how to field march. I had written the show for three songs (also from Video Games Live), but we simply didn’t have the time to get to those songs. I though the sound was okay and the marching okay for the time and experience that we had. More practice from the students would’ve helped, but that’s always going to be true. The critical review from our audience was awesome though. The intro to the song was without movement. When we started moving on the field, the crowd erupted in cheers and that was a huge positive vibe for my students. They soaked it all up and you could see it on their faces.

At the start of the year, my predominately freshman band was very anxious to not march. I did a survey today and 78% of my students indicated that marching was fun and should be done every year from now on.

Mission accomplished.

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High School Football, Okinawa Style & Nihon-go lessons

Two weeks of school have gone by and with the alternating day schedule we use here, I’ve seen my students five times. So after only five rehearsals we performed at the first home football game last Friday night. It sounded rough and weak, but we ended songs together and only had to restart one a couple of times. More importantly, all my students arrived on time, and only two stands were left out afterward. These two accomplishments are huge considering that most of my band are freshman and this is their first experience playing at a football game.

My freshman have very good fundatmental skills and I’m confident we will have a strong sounding band once we get a few rehearsals going. We have two more football games with the last one being homecoming. I hope to have the field show complete and ready to go by that time. It’ll be fund if we make it and stressful if we don’t.

Thai Goddess

Ferris Wheel

Gina and I went out for dinner to a place called ‘American Village” near Gate One of Kadena Air Base. It is a collection of restaurants and shops that cater mostly to Japanese tourists. The young and the hip also hang out there. It’s much like an American mall would be in a sub-tropical climate; many of the shops are outside and there is a very nice beach along one side of the area. We could eat at a different restaurant there once a week and take all year to hit them all. This time we picked a Thai restaurant that sits right under the gian “Coca Cola” ferris wheel. It sounded like we were on a ship with the motor for the ferris wheel grinding away in all the walls. The food was very good, and the Thai goddess cut out at the entrance was entertaining.

Gina and I started Japanese lessons with a wonderful little old lady who teaches out of her house. We meet with her twice a week for 90 minutes and she speaks very little English. The books we are using look to be at least 20 years old, but we are learning the fundamentals which is just what I want. Megumi-san looks as though she has lived in this house for decades. It reminds me of several older relative’s homes I’ve been in that have decades of stuff in stacks taking up most of the available space in the home. As is japanese custom, we remove our shoes when entering and she is insistant that we use the slippers by the door that are for guests. While this too is common, I suspect that a lot of folk have worn the slippers I use (the only ones big enough for me) and it’s more disconcerting that putting on bowling shoes because at least you one that something got sprayed in them to kill any germs that might be lingering.

From now on I remember to wear socks to Megumi’s house. Mistake made only once.

Our homework this week was to memorize the pronounciation of the 40 or so japanese letters in the Hiragana alphabet. Most are pretty easy, but the tough one is a cross between an L and an R which is why they mix them up in English…they only have one and it sounds like both.

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They don’t use pennies on base in Okinawa

I just occurred to me today that you might find this interesting: the businesses on base here don’t use pennies. Anything that ends with a 2 or less is rounded down to the nearest dime and 3 or more is rounded up to the nearest nickel. I’ve heard that it costs them more in shipping to deal with the pennies than it’s worth to use them. Register totals will still come out at penny level amounts ($4.23), but we pay the rounded amount ($4.25). It seems like balancing your til could be tricky at the end of the day.

So why does our bank even supply us with pennies when there is nowhere on the island to spend them?

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