Need some polishing

Race report: Stanford Treeathlon

As a coach, I attempt to push my athletes beyond their perceived limits of their abilities. At the suggestion of a team parent, I tried to round up some swimmers to do the Stanford Treeathlon, a sprint triathlon that is held about 45 minutes away. In terms of a triathlon, it is almost as easy as they come: a ~500 meter swim through a marina, a pancake flat 20 km ride, and a flat 5km run. I managed to get one girl, and then a relay team of boys, plus three parents to do the race.

For them, the race was a complete success. The relay team placed well in their category, the individual girl was the second high schooler to finish, and the two parents had a blast and vowed to do more. As for me? The race was solid. I finished third for the age groupers, fourth including collegiate athletes. Their performance will get their own post.

Here is my race report:

I got down there early, and tried to pick up my packet. Key word-try. The race was set up and run by the Stanford Triathlon team, and of course there were hiccups. They got most of it sorted out quickly, but they didn’t have pins for the bib numbers, which was an issue for the swimmers and parents, who didn’t own a race belt, and had no way of attaching the bib to their clothes. We simply made a point of marking their legs and arms more clearly with their race numbers.

After helping them get their transition area set up and going through little nuances with them, I went out for a quick spin. The week before, a piece of glass had shredded the front wheel on my bike (the streets of Oakland go hard), and I had just put on new tires. I had been riding Michelin Pro 3, which I had liked a lot, but at the suggestion of my friend Greg, I tried out the Continental GP4000s. They looked pretty slick, and felt pretty good on the ride out.

Another reason why I wanted to ride the course was to get comfortable on the turns. The course is a lollipop shape, where you have an out and back, and then looped around a business park. The 180 on the out and back hadn’t been swept so there was gravel and dirt at the turn, and one of the turns in the business park was cobble, so I would not be flying through the turns-mental notes made. I made it back to transition, and then headed down to the water for the race to start.

What the course looks like from above-just ride the perimeter of the lollipop. Also, hands down, the best type of lollipop, and the best kind of tootsie roll pop.

The race went through a marina. The athletes were lined up on a dock, and then allowed to jump in for the race to start. While stretching on the dock waiting for permission to jump in, I heard a voice behind me-it was the speedo man (Jacob) from HITS Napa-the guy who had trounced me on the run. We exchanged pleasantries, but in my mind, I was off my game. I hadn’t been feeling 100% from the rough week of training a week ago, and I am going through lifeguard training again with East Bay Regional Park District, so the day before I had to do around 200 pushups, so I knew that I would be stressed on the race. Having him in the race was just another thing for me to think about.

I hopped in the water and tried to stretch out. In the water, I was recognized by another competitor as being a swimmer because I was wearing swedes. 

The universal sign of a swimmer-cheap goggles. They used to cost $1.25, now they are an outrageous $3.95. All for a strap, plastic, and string.

I laughed and we talked for a bit about how we were going to get passed on the bike and run. I knew it to be true, and thought about altering my game plan with Jacob here. I had wanted to try to throw down as hard as I can on the swim and bike, and hold on the run, but with Jacob here, I changed it: hold the swim constant, and then hammer the bike and run and pray that it would be enough. (Changing game plans is generally a bad idea, but hey… I don’t actually have an excuse for doing this).

With the start of the swim, I took off aggressively for the first 50 yards to see if anyone would go with me. Two others were even with me. I slipped right on the heels of one, and eased up. One guy gapped us, but it was just about 10 seconds. My arms felt heavy, and my stroke felt sloppy. Hopefully next weekend, the other life guards will learn their stuff and we won’t have to do so many pushups.  I also need to do more speed work in my swims, but also probably fewer pushups would have helped.

In the last 100 yards, I moved past the guy I had been drafting off of, and slid over to get on the ladder to get out. Getting out on a dock is harder than you think when your arms hurt. I lost a couple seconds on the leader, but put some distance on the second place guy, and started the ~.25 mile run into transition. I stripped my wetsuit down to my….WTF SPEEDO MAN JUST PASSED ME.

Jacob passed me on the run into transition. Dude can run like a gazelle, and also swim pretty solidly. I picked up my turnover to try and limit the damage, but it was mentally difficult to have him pass me this early.

He left transition with roughly a 30 second lead on me. I left transition with another guy, and we had to weave in and out of the collegiate competitors who were already on the course, having started 20 minutes in front of us. I could see Jacob clearly, and started making the effort to pull him back. Just past the first turn around, I had caught him with the guy who left transition with me. My heart rate was high, my arms were heavy, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep up this pace for the rest of the race.

On the way back on lap 1, I sat up a little, trying to control my heart rate. The guy who I left t1 with slid past me. I let him go, and tried to keep track of how far in front he got. The rest of the ride became about controlling my heart rate, maintaining pace, and doing what I could to put distance on Jacob.

With some controlled breathing, the heart rate came down, and I started to focus on racing. The course was becoming more crowded, and I had to yell out to some of the athletes to stay on the right. They were all over the road, and taking the 180 slowly. Usually acceptable, but not when I am trying to create a gap and catch someone.  I rolled the rest of the way through the course, averaging 24.5mph. Not too shabby given the three 180s I had to go through. A pace that I would like to hold for a full Olympic.

I knew that I hadn’t put any distance on Jacob, because at the last turn around, he was only ~15 seconds behind me, and the first place guy was about 45 seconds in front of me. The run was going to be the decider. Jacob and I hit transition at roughly the same time, and he left about 10 seconds in front of me. And away he went.

I knew that I didn’t have the legs to go with him, and my focus went to trying to pull back the first place guy. I had no idea what his advantage was on me, but I knew that I could only try and hope that I could pull him back. About a minute for me from the turnaround, I saw Jacob, and then the now second place guy running back. With a two minute gap on me and only half a 5k left, I realized that it was unlikely that I was going to catch him.

I powered as best I could through the last half. I had made a friend on the aid station on the way out by asking the name of the woman who handed me water, so I made it a point to give her a shout on the way back. She made a point of throwing water on me while she handed me a cup. If you wanted a moment that summed up my experience with women, that would be it.

I finished the race in 3^rd among the age group athletes, and with the collegiate athletes included, I placed 4th. I had no chance of catching the Jacob and the other guy. I ended up averaging ~24.5 mph on the bike, and ran a 18:28 5k, which is just under 6 minute pace. I found out that the second place finisher was a former pro triathlete. Such is life. 

There are a lot of takeaways from this race. Despite a rough week, and no rest, I went fast. My transitions were cleaner than they have been. I think that I need to do more track workouts, and maybe start lifting again. I know I can be faster on the bike and run. My swim can be cleaner. There is always room to improve. 

If you can't stand the heat

Earlier this week, I was sitting in the science staff room grading with my TA during my prep period when another teacher walked in. The first words out of her mouth were, “Really! I can’t believe you”. I looked at her, and asked why, but she didn’t say anything else, and I could tell by the look on her face that she was going to tell me later when the TA was not around. The tone of the teacher was that of surprise, and was not harsh, but I could tell that I might have done something that the teacher was disappointed in.

My brain racked itself for what it could have done-last week was spring break, I had gone out a couple times, maybe she heard about that? I hadn’t made any bad decisions…maybe talking to these two questionable girls for a bit out at a bar…what had I done to draw such a judgment?

This is not how I spent my spring break. 

At the end of the period, I had shooed my TA away, and the same teacher walked in, and again made the same exclamation. I inquired again-what’s up? What did I do? “You voted for McCain didn’t you!”

She must have seen my car. My car has a McCain sticker on it, and if they had come in the mail, I would also have a Romney sticker on it. As a teacher, it must have been impossible for her to believe that there was a conservative in her ranks.

I responded to her accusation with “Yes, I did. And I also voted for Romney. Would you like to discuss why?”

She was taken aback. Not only had a voted for one republican, but I had voted twice against President Obama. MIND BLOWN. A teacher in California is a conservative? HOW DARE THIS HAPPEN. When I asked if she wanted to know why, she just said she couldn’t believe me. The same refrain came back "I can't believe you." My response to this was, “It is really none of your business who I voted for, and most people don’t start a conversation with ‘I can’t believe you’, but if you want to know why I voted a particular way on any issue/politician, I am happy to share.”

Oops. Wrong thing to say. I was told that she would start her conversations any way she wanted to, and that she was disappointed in me for being a conservative, and she didn’t care why. This picture is how I felt about the whole interaction (caution, foul language).

Now my secret is out. A republican is in the flock. Now what? Since this incident happened, another teacher came up to me and said that she heard about a teacher owning a red jeep with a McCain sticker on it and it took her all of 15 seconds to figure out it was me.

I have always been open to talk about my politics, but I usually keep my mouth shut at work-politics rarely come up anyways; we are too busy talking about what is going on in our classroom, or with our families, what parent is making our lives interesting, etc.

Will there be greater implications from this interaction? We shall see. 

In case you were wondering what I believe on certain issues, they can be loosely classified as being fiscally conservative, and socially liberal. That doesn't tell you a whole lot, but if you want to know more, you can ask. Pick any issue, and I am happy to discuss my viewpoint on it with you, and I am happy to listen to your side. But please don’t start with “Really! I can’t believe you.” Let’s just have a conversation about whatever subject you choose.

Quality family time

So this past week, I saw this going up a hill:

Now, some things to notice about the bike and the riders-Full kit on the dad, which probably means he is pretty serious. Second, the girl in the middle is wearing pink crocs, which is awesome. Also, the dad has had a crank extender put on (not sure if that is the technical term for it), but obviously he is making an effort to get the daughter on the bike. The son is rocking the tie dye and the daughter has an awesome floral helmet.

Score on my awesomemeter? 9.23/10.

Now, about the dad. Time for a multiple choice test. Is he...:
A) Spending quality time with his kids
B) Getting some training in
C) Indoctrinating his kids at a young age
D) Crazy.

If you answered all of the above, then you would be correct.

But this draws a bigger question and implications for the kids-are they going to grow up to be cyclists? Why? Because of their early exposure? Because the dad pushed them into it? I know that a fair number of swimmers get burnt out from competing at an early age. That might happen to these kids. There are a ton of issues surrounding it. Hopefully they will fall in love with a sport/hobby and dominate.

In complete disregard of that last paragraph-when I get married, I expect to have four kids in four years, hopefully two sets of twins, so I can have my own relay team. I will train all of them to be breaststrokers, and once I have one, the rest will be given another stroke. In the words of Arnold, we will crush our enemies/other swim teams.

Just kidding. Kind of.

Also, this is how I feel when I have a day off from training.

Till I collapse

17 hours of training this week. Song of the week:

How much would you pay a babysitter?

How much are you willing to pay a babysitter? Teaching is sometimes compared to babysitting, so let’s run with this thought experiment. $7/hour? $10/hour? Let’s go with $5/hr, because there will be other kids around too. So the babysitter is going to have your kid from 8am to 3pm, but they get 30 minutes off for lunch and an hour of personal time, so the babysitter is only really watching your kid for 6.5 hours. That comes out to be… $32.50/day. Assuming that the babysitter is watching a total of 25 kids (about the average size of the class), then that number becomes $812.50/day. And the baby sitter is only going to work for 180 days of the year, so total amount of money that the babysitter would make in a year would be…$146,250. Now, since the baby sitter has had some extra training, and your kid might actually learn something while in the care of the babysitter, let’s pay the babysitter minimum wage in California, which is $8/hr. With 25 kids, working only 6.5 hours a day, and only 180 days a year, the “babysitter” is making $234,000/year! Hot damn, everyone should become a babysitter!

That number could easily be inflated using the logic espoused above. I easily work more than 6.5 hours a day, I usually have more than 25 kids in the room, and I most certainly work more than 180 days a year.

This was an argument, with slightly different numbers, that was posted by many of my teacher friends and others to Facebook, attempting to show that teachers should be paid more. I agree that teachers should be paid more, but not for the reasons they describe.

Let’s break down the argument, and then I will explain why I think teachers should be paid more.

The posting does not take into account the pay for the principal, the assistant principal, the office staff, the counselors, the security guards, the coaches, the janitors, etc. It doesn’t include the costs of maintaining the campus, the technology at the school, paying for electricity/water/waste, classroom supplies (yes, there is usually a little money stored away for these, but rarely enough). Including the pay for these individuals and upkeep of the campus takes a big chunk of that salary away.

Also rarely mentioned by these postings are the benefits that teachers receive. As a teacher, the school district will pay a certain percentage into your retirement, health and dental insurance, etc. These benefits are ridiculously good for a teacher. I won’t put out any specific numbers, but private pay insurance can cost from $100-$400+/month. I don’t pay anything close to that.

Taking into account that many other people need to be paid to support the babysitter, and that the babysitter has negotiated ridiculous benefits, that original $146,250 salary takes a big hit. How big? I will leave that to the accountants out there.

So how much should teachers be paid? Should there be incentive based pay? As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, almost everyone believes that they should get paid more.  Teachers almost always work more than the 180 days a year, more than the 8 hour days, and have more than 25 kids in the room. The real reason that teachers should be paid more is that the impact on students a good teacher can have is difficult to measure in monetary terms. Teachers influence, guide and mentor students and can impact students far beyond the classroom. You can probably remember your favorite teacher(s) and the words that they said to you that made you think and act differently. Those teachers are paid the same as all the other teachers. That begs the question about whether or not teachers should be paid differently, and what to do about bad teachers. A touchy subject that I will opine on later.

As for my pay? At the moment, to paraphrase Jack Johnson-I have everything I need, and everything I need is enough. I am grateful for my job, to be able to have an apartment (with a roommate-a good one), and not have to worry about my next meal.