First triathlon since November 2013

This past weekend there was a triathlon here in La Paz. It was a regional championship race, an ITU- distance sprint 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. The swim was a pool swim in a really nice 50 meter pool at an an altitude of about 3450m/11,300ft. That's over 400 meters lower than where I live and mostly train, and I could feel the difference. The bike was 8 laps and run was 2 laps on a course with plenty of curves, and a u-turn at both ends. The first half of the lap was very easy and mostly downhill, and then the second half was hard going up. People watching the competition could see the racers two times each lap, which was nice too.
  My race was supposed to start at about 12.15, and I think it was about 1pm when it finally started. Not bad for Bolivia. I was glad we didn't race at 8am when it's cold outside. There were three others on my lane and they were younger and two of them quite slow. I don't think I was able to push as hard in the swim as I wanted, and while getting out of the pool I was told there were three people ahead of me. It was warm and sunny outside, and I didn't notice any wind that day. The leader during the first lap was really far ahead, maybe 1.5 minutes. He was an Argentinian. I don't even remember passing the two others because I was focused on going really hard and chasing the leader. After 4.5 laps I reached him, and for two minutes we took it easy and chatted. He was visiting from the city of Salta which is at moderate altitude, but really not much compared to La Paz. Some people were cheering for me, and as the race progressed, more and more people learned my name from them and the support was really good! Apparently they wanted me to beat the Argentinian. Also, just before the race when there is the speech (I can't remember how it's called) I was officially "welcomed back to Bolivia" hehe.
 I accelerated two times in an uphill and dropped my competitor (it was a draft legal race). During the last three laps I kept going pretty hard, and had a pretty good lead when the run started. It was around 1 minute, or close at least.
  The run went really well too, a lot better than I expected, just like cycling. Nice cruising. The Argentinian didn't run very fast, and I couldn't keep track of others because there were so many people on different laps.I was given a 15 second penalty for having left something on the ground in the first transition, so I had to stop 50 meters before the finish line. This was my second triathlon ever in Bolivia, second win, and both times were a first triathlon after about 1.5 years of not competing. There is a good triathlete in La Paz who has won several national championships, but didn't compete now. There have been no results available though, which is a real problem here. After the race I rode 42 minutes uphill to get home. Then in the evening I went back in a car to participate in the awards ceremony.

Cycling race

On March 15th there was a cycling race in El Alto, at over 4000 meters/ 13,100ft. It was a version of a criterium: 20 laps on an out and back course, totaling about 45km/28miles. I had never raced a criterium before, but I assumed it was going to be harder than a regular road race, and I was right. After every turn there was a severe acceleration, racers trying to break the pack and drop people. After just 4 minutes I saw my heart rate reaching anaerobic levels and I was trying to hang on to the leaders at every turn. I knew there were a bunch of really good riders, but while suffering, I was sure that not many would last until the end. As the race wore on there were less and less people trying to be at the front. Many times a few riders broke away for maybe a minute or less, but didn't get away. Then at some point, I think just after the half way point, I didn't really even see 2 getting away because I was a few places back. They got far away, but after maybe 15 minutes one of them dropped the other and rode away solo, until the finish. I would have been impressed, but I was busy still chasing him taking turns with basically just one other racer, pulling 2-4 others behind us. Luckily those 2-4 were not being "smart" by not taking any pulls, but they were more like dying. At the last turn I was quick and had only one guy ahead of me, then I sprinted away for a moment, but soon the dude who was in the breakaway with the eventual winner but got dropped, easily passed me and kept that 5 meter lead until the finish. So I got 3rd overall. Pretty good. Cycling has been my priority but I'm running and swimming too. After the last turn I peaked 866 watts and averaged 398 watts for one minute. When doing a normal or an easy ride, the wattage is not so different from sea level, but when doing hard intervals, everything seems to be about 50-60 watts lower here at these crazy altitudes. It also looks like that when going hard, the heart rate is lower than at sea level. It's very different riding, running, and swimming here.

Charquini "attempt"

On Thursday, March 12th I wanted to climb a mountain named Charquini. It's almost 5400meters/17,700ft high. Like one week before, I drove to La Cumbre Pass, but it was snowing really hard. I had to stop driving for 10 minutes because I couldn't see anything. It was still dark, too. My plan was to follow the small dirt road that went higher than the pass, and closer to the mountain I was going to climb. I did that and it was the bumpiest drive ever. However, I was not able to drive as far as I wanted to, because when the path got steeper I kinda got stuck in the snow. I knew it would melt by the time I'd be back so I was not worried and started the walk. I moved really quickly for a little over an hour, going past the mountain I had climbed the week before. This time it was not completely cloudy or foggy, so I was able to see the mountains. I saw that there had been an avalanche very recently, most likely that morning:

Just like my last climb, I didn't have a very good idea of what it was going to be like, but I "knew" the mountain Charquini would have an easy glacier route and a more difficult and steeper route. I figured that the avalanche had happened on a quite similar, steep slope that I was going to climb. I also thought I wouldn't want to climb the easy route, so I decided not to climb that day. Maybe I would not have died, but anyway it looked like the probability of an avalanche was higher than most days because of the snow storm that morning. So instead, I got in a 3.5 hour trek at a decent heart rate, reaching over 5000 meters. After that, I put on my running shoes and did a 30 minute run at 4650 meters/15,250ft. 

Climbing Wila Manquilizani

On Thursday March 5th I did a smaller climb. The mountain is called Wila Manquilizani and it's the closest mountain with permanent snow/glacier from where I live. It is located in the La Cumbre area which I know "really well" because I have been riding mountain bike there a lot. It took about 35 minutes to drive up to the paved highway pass at 4650 meters/ 15,250ft. There is a small dirt road that goes higher, but I thought it wold be better to leave the car to a place where there is more traffic, and where tourists begin their mountain bike descent adventure down the Death Road. Anyway it's not very likely that anyone would be able to steal my car because I use a lock or a tool that makes it impossible to turn the steering wheel. And the gas tank has a lock too so that no one can siphon the gas out.
I walked up to a mountain ridge and tried to follow it as it got higher, but at some point it got too difficult and I decided to descent a few hundred meters. From there on it was really difficult to walk because the terrain was so rough and rocky. So, it took almost 3 hours to get to the base of the actual climb (snow) at 4990 meters/16,370ft. The snow was really wet and the visibility was really bad. In the picture the low end of the snow line is barely visible because the mountain was covered by fog and at times it was snowing. The last time I had seen the snow slope was in 2012 so I didn't have a very good idea how long the climb would be.

I started climbing the left side of the snow slope which limits to a rock face. I heard pieces of rock falling down from really high up, and moved a little bit to the right. It's pretty steep!

Looking up:

It took 1.5 hours to get to a point where it was not as steep, and I saw a little gully. After that there was a little mixed section up to a high point. My gps showed 5252 meters/17,230ft. I thought it was probably not the highest peak of the mountain, but being there without seeing much, I had no desire to look for a way to get higher on bad rock, or alternatively on questionable snow. I wanted to get down fast, but in the snow gully I took a little fall and slid down some meters. Thankfully it was just before the not-so-steep high part of the mountain face. After that I made the decision to down climb rest of the way down, really carefully, and it took 1.5 hours to get down. Once I cleared the terrible scree slope below the snow slope, it was a really neat walk back to the road on some interesting rock:

Huayna Potosí Solo Climb February 2015

In Bolivia, the "real" mountain climbing season is from May to September. And for a good reason; during that period, almost every day is a sunny day with clear skies. I have spent that time of the year two times in La Paz, and it's an accurate description. Days are quite warm, but night are very cold, and this makes the snow very firm and great for climbers. December-February (March), on the other hand, is the rainy season, and the mountains get a lot of snow during those months. Nights are not very cold, and the snow stays soft.

But anyway, I had been here 2 months already and it was time to go to a mountain. I decided to go to the 6088 meter, or 19,974 ft mountain named Huayna Potosí. Easy choice because I'd be going alone, in the off-season, and I'd been on the same mountain two times in 2012. It's also the closest big peak, and most popular in the country (La Paz is the center of mountain climbing in Bolivia).

I left home just before 3am on Friday the 13th. It was pretty nice driving through the empty, normally absolutely congested city. I could write more about the traffic here, but I would probably start crying, so I'm not going to. So, while mountain biking, I had discovered this new "road" that would take me to the high plateau and the mountains in a more direct way. I was really happy that I didn't have to go through the city of El Alto, which is the most dangerous city in Bolivia. Not a good place to in the middle of the night, even in a car. The new route was, however, a pretty steep gravel path with a decent drop on my right hand side. And as I got higher there was some fog, so it was a little bit spooky and very slow ride. At 4.30 I got to the police checkpoint at Milluni and had to wake up the two officials so they could take my information and ask me their questions. I got to the base camp (4750m) just before 5 am. The drive was barely 20 miles, but took almost 2 hours because the roads are terrible in the countryside and I don't want to ruin my car. I had some breakfast in the car, arranged my stuff, and put on all my clothes. I really felt cold because it was windy, and there was this really dense fog, which I actually think was a cloud, because it was kind of like rain but it didn't make me too wet. I thought maybe I'm not going to make it to the top, but at least I'd be on the mountain, which is still cool.

At 5.26 I started the walk. I tried to move fast. Because of the cloud, visibility was really limited and my headlight didn't help much. I just kept walking, and luckily every now and then I felt like I had been there before. At around 6 there was no need for the headlight anymore. Soon the weather got better. Getting higher, the rocks had like an icy transparent icing, and it was better to climb on the snow. I reached the high camp, where there is a hut for sleeping, really fast after just 1 hour 25 minutes including a few stops. In 2012 it took about 2 hours. The altitude here is around 5150m. I tried the door but it didn't open. I put on my mountaineering boots and crampons, ate some more bread, and headed up the steep snowy slope. I really thought there was nobody up on the mountain because the hut's door was closed and it was the carnival weekend, so there was a great sense of freedom: alone on a big mountain!

There was definitely a lot more show than I had seen before, and it was soft snow. In some places the landscape was truly different from July views. I could see that much fewer climbers go to the mountain in February. Then the fog took over again, but occasionally it was sunny for a moment. Sometimes all I could see was 50 meters (photo from the descent):

After some time I saw 3 people coming down. A guide and 2 westerners. As usual, they had started the climb super early, maybe at 2 am from the high camp.The guide told me there is deep snow and it's foggy up, and that if it snows it's better to turn around. Later two more guides told me the same. So there were a handful of people climbing, but nothing compared to July, and I had the high part of the mountain to myself.
There are some steep sections, including one that's maybe 20 vertical meters at up to 70 degrees.
Quite surprisingly it got hotter as I climbed higher. In a strange way, in addition to the sun and heat reflecting back from the snow, it felt like the fog also made it more intense. I never thought it could be so hot at that altitude. I left my backpack on the snow well before the summit and when I got back, it was hot to the touch! I got sunburn on my lips, which was the first and the last time. Because there was so much snow, instead of the final ridge, it was better to climb a nice 250 vertical meter/750ft mountain face at 45-50 degrees to the summit.
In 2012 the climb from high camp took me 7 hours, but now it took only 3 hours and 19 minutes including a few quick stops. And the snow conditions now were "slower". Maybe it was my unconscious mind wanting me to get fast up and down because I was by myself. Also, I had done multiple hill walks on steep slopes at home for training, which must have helped. I drank a lot of Tampico juice and ate chocolate during the climb.
Indeed, when I realized how fast I had been going up, I wanted to go down fast as well. So when I got back to my car, my Garmin showed average heart rate 125 for total moving time of 6 hours 13 minutes in less than 8 hours. Pretty good exercise!

It's been close to a year since I wrote anything on here, so a quick look back to 2014: In January and February I was a complete couch potato because I got tired of my leg injuries. In March I started training again, slowly. It was really horrible. I was barely able to run 4 miles or swim 30 minutes easy. It felt so weird, but from zero fitness it's pretty quick to get back to having "some fitness". In May I was already in decent shape, but I didn't have any plans to compete in the summer because we the family took a two- month long trip to Europe and I didn't want to complicate it with competitions. I wanted to take it easy.

Those 2 months included a perfect 4 weeks in Switzerland hosted by a very generous relative. I brought my cycling shoes and kit with me and bought a mountain bike in Switzerland but it turned out to be a completely wrong choice because all the roads were paved (and there were small roads everywhere), but it was the cheapest way to go. First couple of rides actually felt quite difficult, because there were small towns about every mile almost, the roads were narrow and had a lot curves and hills to reduce visibility, it was weekend and there was a lot of traffic, and it was like I had to make a decision where to go next every 5 minutes, and I got lost a lot. It was not like in Oklahoma where almost all roads go straight north, east, south or west.  After a few rides I got adjusted and knew where to go for better riding. Switzerland indeed is a great place to ride. There are cyclists and bike lanes everywhere, and drivers are used to them. Not to mention the natural beauty and being able to choose flat rides or mountains everywhere, at least in the Bern area where I was. On my first ride I was sure I saw Fabian Cancellara, who lives in the area. Can't really mistake his face. Having the cycling bug, I had to drive the Giro d'Italia's famous Passo Dello Stelvio and Passo Gavia on a rental car trip to Italy. It was definitely worth it: you can't really appreciate a place unless you've been there. I also got to see two stages of the Tour of Switzerland; a mountain stage and a time trial, which was quite a spirit booster.
After Italy and Switzerland, driving in Finland felt like a vacation because there was barely any traffic.
So in the summer I rode a lot, ran sometimes, and did no swimming.

Back in Oklahoma, I continued with a slight cycling focus and joined intense group rides two times a week. Lawton does not have nearly as many competitive cyclists than Tyler in Texas, for example, but it was still hard enough to drop everybody : )
At the end of August my throat got really, really sore for 10 days. Then I wanted to race a local triathlon, but the alarm didn't go off that morning. Two weeks later I wanted to race time trial state championships, but got really sick the day before, and again throat hurt for a week, but I also had fever and threw up. I was again healthy for about 3 weeks, and got really sick again for a week. It was just really hard being sick so much. I had never really been very sick while being in the U.S.

In December it was time to leave Oklahoma and move back to the city in the sky, La Paz. Currently living at 12,700ft or 3870m. I was a little sick for the first days. On December 31st I got a message at 1pm that there would be a 5k run at 3pm on the main street of the city. The race eventually started at about 4.15 with the traffic still going strong, but after the first 1k lap the police stopped the traffic : )  This was my only race in 2014. I don't know how exact the distance was, but my time was 19.34 and I got 3rd place. Soon after that I got another flu but it was not very bad.

On January 17th there was a 10k race in the neighboring city El Alto, at 13.350ft or 4050m. From the registration a few days earlier, I got a little map explaining the course. Before the race I was a little worried about getting to the front at the start because I knew it would be a very big race with a lot of people. Anyway, I was warming up away from the crowds, and when the start came closer I approached the start line from the front, from the direction where the runners would be  heading as they start. I was happy I would be at the front starting the race, but soon realized that I was actually the very last: the direction of the race had been changed! I had about 10.000 people in front of me...the first third of the race I was not even able to run fast because there were so many people there. My time eventually was about 44.40. Oh, and the next day my throat got really sore and I needed to rest for a week.

8 week total break

I haven’t done any training since January 6^th hoping to get rid of knee and also tibia problems that have been haunting me for a few years. I am positive that at least the tibia has healed. But if nothing else, this is also a mental break after 6 or 7 years doing endurance sports. Life as a couch potato is so easy and time goes by a lot faster than when in training. I think tomorrow, March 1^st I will start being active again.

 

Also it’s worth mentioning that I haven’t been eating meat or breakfast cereals for about 2 months. That’s because I never liked shopping for meat in the first place, and slowly the dirty things about the(especially American) meat industry made me not want to eat meat. I won’t be vegetarian but I’m taking a break from meat, maybe until I’m in another country I don’t know