Tahoe Weekend / 10k Scramble

A fun weekend with the Kain family in Tahoe!!!

We drove down to Tahoe on a Friday and spend the weekend in "Eric and Beth Sterns Cabin" on Alpine Valley.

We had such a fun trip. With the Kain kids we had a 1yr old (Nikki) a 2 yr old (Jeremy) a 4yr old (Luke) and a 5 yr old (Jessica).

They had soo much fun around the cabin, there was a raft for them to play on, a beach, a forest where they could climb on rocks, bridges etc. The kids could make fire at night and just ran around the cabin chasing each other the whole time.

XTERRA
There was a racing event held at the same time where Sharoo competed and did an awesome job in the pro-field. The event location offered a lot of fun things for the kids to do.

There was a "Base Camp" where the kids could go crazy. Luke did super at rock-climbing and before we knew it he was half way up there already! Nikki , not to be outdone by her brother turned in some climbs as well. Both on the cargo net as well as on pappa's neck.

All in all a great weekend thanks to the Kain family for inviting us and the Stern family for sharing their property!

SENTINEL OLYMPIC TRI !!!!

SENTINAL RESULTS

Had another great race that took place right on the coast at Santa Cruz!!! Awesome location and it was another great enjoyable race as I now start to compete in these things. Man it still looks so far away though as the winners are 10-15 minutes faster. Nevertheless this race once again showed a significant improvement (7+min over 2 year).

(Y-o-Y)
Year ------- Swim-------- Bike -------- Run
2004 ------- 0:27:00 ----- 1:09:30 ---- 41:41
2006 ------ 0:23:26#---- 1:03:46 ---- 42:46*#
=============================
Total ---- Time ----- AG Rank
2004 ---- 2:21:19 --- 13th
2006 ---- 2:13:47* -- 5th

# Personal record
* Run course was 0.66 mi long (was revised by race director to a 38:36 10k, and a total of 2:09:36)

My run felt SOLID!!! I felt I had a EricV gallop...yeah!. The main step I have to take next is to get my swim 1-2 minutes faster, that is for the off-season. Thanks to Aron for taking the picture as I came out of transition and encouraging me on.

MESSY PAINT PARTYYYYYYYYY

Luke's 4th birthday was destined to become a MESSY PAINT PARTY!

We had setup paint-stations ... and some shaving cream. It was a great party and for sure there are too many great pics to pick ... here are some to give you an idea!

1990's - Trip to Indonesia

Where were we 15 yrs ago? Indonesia on a 7 week trip starting with a train ride from home to Zaventum Belgium. Great train ride but if you are carrying luggage for 7 weeks you get the picture. But okay a small hernia later we caught a flight to Singapore - where we stayed in a 3-star hotel feeling like we were doing a 5 star trip. This is where I learned that tipping someone who then carries your stuff is a win-win!!!!

We enjoyed my first Nasi Rames for breakfast in Jakarta where we stayed for 2 days with Maureens wonderful family. Then it was onto Bogor (Maureen's birth city) where it took Maureen 10 days to show the white guy around the family. Once everyone had seen 'blondie' we jumped on a 29 hrs bus ride to reach Bali, where we crawled out of the bus and were asking for mercy... no more long bus rides for us! In Bali we had a great time touring the tempels, beaches, and so on.

We followed this up with a snorkling tour to Lombok Sengigi beach. At this time we just wanted to eat hamburgers and be on the beach all the time. As we made our way back through Java we had no preparation anymore and just winged it as it came. We touched the Buddha's on Yogyakarta and toured the rice fields, we went from city to city using trains and busses seeing the cites, meeting friends wherever we went. The grand finale was a 5 day trip to Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands) where a boat dropped us off and we just snorkled for 5 days eating nothing but fish. For breakfast, for lunch and for dinner...

We now look back and think... what were we thinking to travel for 7 weeks at age 20/21 .. we could have been killed for $50!!!, or how the heck did we ever manage to get 7 weeks off from school and work???, who 'financed' this trip since I was in school then and Maureen had a minimal wage job???... I calculated it back and it seems we spend USD 4,500 for 7 weeks including the flights/hotels etc... how come it was so cheap??? and most of all... which lunatik convinced us to take a 29hr bus ride?

Anyway Indonesia is a great country and I hope that one day we can take our kids with us to enjoy the wonders the 6,000 islands has to offer.

Luke Turns Four

Some quick shots for our family in Netherlands - He is having an awesome time. He got cars cars and cars. We hope he has fun with it. He is really appreciative of the gift he gets!!










We gave Nikki some stuff I bought on a recent trip to Texas. She just left the house with Irene.

TRi-Training Tunes

My training tunes for this month can be now found on iTunes. Click on the logo for a link to.

EchoStar Satellite Earth Station

Many of my friends and family know that since the TTV acquistion I spend a lot of time with EchoStar located in Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The EchoStar Satellite Uplink is one of the worlds largest DTH Earth Station that uplinks to over 10 satellites from this facility. I recently took some pictures of the facility I want to share with you.

Link to DISH

EchoStar is a secure facility that does not allow pictures within the facility.
This is without a doubt the basis of my life in the US. Over the past years I have developed a "kind aan huis" relationship. Translated as "home to a child". Those who know me well will understand that relationships have been developed that I hope to cherish for the rest of my life.

FOLSOM Results -- Finally breaking 2:10!!

FINALLY! On June 13, 2004 my first Olympic Triahlon event was 2hr20m10sec (San Jose) and I finished 44th in my age group. I was shocked how painful the run was and I believed that with training I could start improving myself to get ... "up there" (a freaky way of saying compete for a top-10 slot).

Little did I know that it would take me over 2 years with a 10-15hr a week training effort to make even the slightest improvement on this distance: Sentinel-04/2:21, Folsom-05/2:16, Worlds-05/2:15.

BUT YIHAAAAAAAAA. Finally an improvement at this years Folsom Team Championship event!!! I am so happy and satisfied. It was a major target for the year and with the minute a race improvement I knew it would be very hard!

This race however was so super-relaxed. I really enjoyed it, had no jitters or anything just took things easy. I even got my best friend Jeff (who finally made it on the web-site) to join the race. So all in all a lot of fun.

FOLSOM RESULTS (Y-o-Y)
Year ------- Swim-------- Bike -------- Run
2004 ------- 0:24:12 ----- 1:07:34 ---- 41:13
2005 ------- 0:28:14 ----- 1:05:00 ---- 41:02
2006 ------- 0:24:26 ----- 1:03:43 ---- 39:42
==========================
Total ---- Time ----- AG Rank
2004 ---- 2:17:30 -- 17th
2005 ---- 2:16:49 -- 8th
2006 ---- 2:09:22 -- 4th (20 secs to #3)

TEAM CHAMPION 3RD YEAR IN A ROW
The Kain Perofrmance team won hands-down the team championship! With around 50 athletes in the Yellow/Blue competing, we won over 10+ podium spots in nearly all major age groups. It was pretty much a blow-out as a results of this giant team effort.

Vineman 2006 -- 6 places improved

The news of Vineman was the temperature. With an average temperature of 80F it was about 30F less than previous week when it hit 117F. But it turned out to be just fine.

It was a great race where I finally made some good progress on my swim, was able to fight on the bike and stay focussed and bring my run time down by 3 mins. The tempo runs and increase in swimming are really paying off. Focus for next event (WorldCup) is to increase biking while maintaining running/swimming.

VINEMAN RESULTS (Y-o-Y)
Year ------- Swim-------- Bike -------- Run
2004 -------- 0:34:51 ----- 2:35:35 ---- 1:36:56
2005 -------- 0:33:29 ----- 2:33:10 ---- 1:36:04
2006 -------- 0:31:08 ----- 2:39:18 ---- 1:32:51
==========================
Total ---- Time ----- AG Rank
2004 ---- 4:53:56 -- 79th
2005 ---- 4:47:22 -- 21st
2006 ---- 4:48:01** -- 15th

** The bike was approximately 2 miles longer due to a parcour change. The adjusted total time taking this into account would be 4:42:31 (bike would be 2:33:48)

More race results, Jungle Run, KPC, and CatFish

KP Challenge
This is the clubs time trial taking place every couple of months. It involves a 500 yard swim, a steady 7mi bike climb of 2000 ft, and a 1 mile run. Mostly based on a stronger bike (new PR of 34min55sec) I got a new PR of 47m29s (last one was 49:59).




JUNGLE RUN
This c-race I did got me the first podium ever! Yeah. The race is called the Jungle Run. To be fair it was more the lack of serious competition but I did manage to take 3rd overall at a local 10k race with 280 participants.

The time was 38:00.5 which is within a second of my PR, but since I raced the KPC challenge the day before I felt very good about it. The race uses the Los Gatos trail that I train regularly on.




CATFISH
Another tune-up race was the CatFish race. This was a 1.2 mile swim in the local reservoir. It was a superhot day (like 108F/42C).

The swim went well and I posted a 34:00min flat and was 27th out of 96. Last year it took me 35:47min and I was 69th so needless to say that I am happy with this improvement on my weakest sport!!!!

We followed this up with a stiff run in the heat that got a little sweaty but was necessary for the upcoming VINEMAN race on July 30th.

FINALLY THE HAWAII PICTURES ARE HERE

This year the family went to Hawaii - Kona coast on vacation. Actually I went there for a race (see earlier posting) but we could get a good deal on Expedia for the whole family and made a vacation out of it.

Kona is on the West-side of the Big Island. This is the island where all the volcano's are at and where the Big Daddy of all Triathlon's are held. It has great beaches that are hidden among these lava fields. It is one of the best Hawaiian islands as it is not as touristy as Maui or Oahu.



We stayed at the Sheraton - Keauhou. This hotel has a great swimming area for kids that included a shallow sandy pool, water fountains, slides etc.




To get the family to and from the airport AND bring my race stuff with me turned out to be quite an experience. The list of equipment to take was as follows: a stroller, 2 car seats, 1 bike box and 4 pieces of luggage of clothes, diapers, baby food etc. This would have not fitted in a regular cab so I had to call a limo... correction a stretched limo...

Honuhalf race results - minus 4:26

During our vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii I once again participated in the toughest 70.3 Ironman race there is.

The swim is a mass-start of 860 people and takes place at Hapuna Beach. This is by far the most incredible race venue ever where you can see the fish/turtles on the bottom 30 ft below. I swam a new alltime PR with 32m49s. In the picture I just come out of the water and am wearing my race outfit already.

The bikeride is tough as it goes up to windy Hawi where we have to bike leaning into the wind going 2000-3000 feet up. It was gorgeous weather coming down at lightning speeds under a blue sky while looking over a blue/green sea. In the picture you see the lava fields in the back ground. The bike was awesome and a couple of seconds short of an all-time race PR.

The run is the most brutal as you have to run in intense heat over a grassy golf course that never seems to end. I pretty much robbed each aid station of all the fluids/food. I concur with the coach who in a similar experience described it as 'so hot you can cook an egg on your head'.

With a finish time of 4:52:24 I took 4mins and 24 secs of last years time and that taking into account that this year the bike was tougher due to the higher winds. This ranked me 14th in my age group, and 50th overall (including 10 pro's). Note that #1-4 overall came out of my age-group. I can only wish to be a couple of months younger!!!!!

Next race is Vineman end of July and maybe I will take the plunge and do the World Championship in Lausanne/Switserland on September 3.

Going to the lighthouse and bunker

This weekend we took the kids out to visit Golden Gate park on the 'other' side of Golden Gate. We did a picnic on the bunkers that use to protect the Bay during WW-II and visited the light house from where you can watch over the endless Ocean. Compare the blue from the Ocean against the blue from the sky...

A day with the family

Just some pics to share with you all....

Nikki eating corn, Luke going to school on crazy hair day, and Maureen with Nikki.

Day at the beach!

We found several new beaches in Half Moon Bay where Pete Kain took me on a bike training ride recently. Next day I took the family there... Maureen and Nikki are posing whilst Luke and I dug a deep hole out on the beach.




It was a great day with the kids, blue water, warm weather and a beautiful wife by my side.

LUKE AND BEN PLAY SOCCER

Luke attended soccer classes on Tuesday mornings. Ben has taken him several times. Luke has his soccer shoes, brazilian shirt, and shin protectors. Ben was telling us how the favorite part of the training for Luke is to play with the cones.

During practice they are really focusing on listening to the coach/referee, such as stopping on a whistle and shooting at the right goal.