XTerra Tahoe City 2011

First time I get to race the same event in my Tri-Life (2010 and 2011), what a perfect occasion to have fun, get some offroad training/experience with friends and Daddy-O ( Dario ), benchmark myself and finally try my 29er on the field.

For the non-Xterra fans, this was an offroad Triathlon 1.5Km swim in Lake Tahoe, 32sh Km mountain bike, 10Km run.

Quick recap

5am
After spending having an awesome dinner and sharing the night with Nate, Erin and Tommy we all wake up at 5am... the plan was to leave the hotel at 6.15 but apparently everybody apart me seemed way too fast on getting ready and too anxious to get to the transition area. It is 5.40am and they all left me ... Dario and I are taking our "italian" time and try to get those 20+ minutes of extra lazy rest.

6.30am
Transition area full of the most amazing Mountain Bikes ... I try to get my stuff in place before the usual "nerv d*mp" time occurs.
I do find this sweet coffee place on the main street and when they see me enter for the 3rd time in 30 minutes.. they probably know I am not very much interested on their coffees but to that little magic black door in the back :-))

7.40am
Dario and I are almost ready to go. Wetsuit half the way on. The race organizer is telling us how could the water is and how important is to warm up in it...... DUDE... 49F-51F water temperature... this is the coldest water I have ever swam into. My feet freeze at first touch and I am really considering to not even start. Nate and Erin seem pretty concerned too but I can see from their face "this aint gonna stop me" :-)... Dario and I on the other side are in a state of tension mixed to hilarious-freezing humor...

8am the SWIM starts
It is a mass start ( less than 200 people ) but this time I dont feel like rushing in the first line and I decide to start a little later... BOOM people are rushing into the coldest water on earth while Dario and I keep talking and laughing... this must be the most relaxing start of my life. After 20-30secs we look back and YES we are the last ones... maybe we should jump.... GOOOOO.

8.16am first swim lap is gone
750mt are gone .... it took me that long to warm up but the initial "I am about to die" feel is finally gone and my mood is starting to kick in... from take it easy it is a fun event to let's if I can actually race this.

8.26am Swim done in my usual 26 minutes

Running barefoot (with dumb feet) to the transition area is surprisingly effortless and I am happy to hear I am 20th overall out of the water.

8.30am Starting the MTB ride

I took it easy during transition, put socks and most importantly gloves on. I am not comfortable on the Mountain Bike ( just 2 weeks of experience with it ) and too afraid of falling. The ride starts with a crazy climb the last for about 5 miles.... it is grueling but nonetheless I paid for this ... and like my father would say ( You bought the bike... now you got to pedal ) :-). I am pushing enough to pass 1-2 guys every mile and that keeps me going... I am almost on top of the hill now there are 2 loops of technical, muddy, rolling terrain... and here it comes... mud everywhere.. I cant see my number anymore... the race is becoming frantic, fast, dirty and super dangerous... I feel so unstable on my 29er...Mile 10, Mile 15,....Mile 15.2... CATABOOM I am down ... lol thank God I fell on a huge mass of snow, I still need to learn how to jump or at least avoid big logs....

Back on my bike ... no scars, I actually feel pretty good, now I do not have to perform anymore... I got myself a little excuse in case the race goes bad :-).

Mile 20... from now on it is all down hill to the transition area.... dude....TR TR TR TR ... dude.... TR TR TR TR.... I am going so fast, rocks everywhere... I got to trust my bike or I will die... TR TR TR TR TR TR... I cant hear much.. just rocks jumping left and right and my bike magically flying down the mountain....yayyyy asphalt... last 500yds and I am ready to change in my running shoes.

10am the Run

I feel better than a week ago in Italy, legs are still strong after the bike and I can try to challenge myself on the running portion. As usual I start off too fast but the 3 miles vertical hill is devouring energy from all the athletes in the field... including me.... I can only settle in my climbing pace... umh nice It seems like I am passing people... .....I want this hill to be over... cmon push push.... push... and my legs seem reacting just fine.... push... I am on top... now flat and 3 miles down to the END...... the trail up here is gorgeous, I run in between snow, mud, rocks and plants of any type....... ole' I am passing another guy... I must be doing well.. I dont see many contenders in front of me.... going down now..... I feel like my legs are still ok.. this means I can push downhill and maybe catch up on some top finishers....

10.30am the last mile

I am running downhill at 5.20min/mile pace.... I love it... it hurts.... but it is a pace that all the other athletes cant sustain right now... I passed 8-9 guys so far and I got 2 more in front of me.... done ...... and done.... nice I see the end... cmon one last push...

2h45 minutes and change.

6th overall ... few minutes from my coach that finished 3rd and satisfied like never before.

What did I learn today..... Italy 70.3 did not go as well as it should have... I do have the fitness.... I might have just messed up the nutrition on that race... today I proved myself I can run strong.

Pescara IM 70.3 a recap

For what is worth it I want to recap this experience and try to fix it in my head... got to learn from mistakes and remember the good overall performance.

The original plan was to get to Vasto ( 1 hour south of Pescara ) to acclimatize, eat healthily, shave few pounds and taper properly following the coach guidance.... as usual the plan changed a bit and the eating/shaving weight combo did not work out as expected... but Sun, Beach, Italian food and super Kimmy were too much to handle.... I did follow one thing my coach told me "go have fun" :-)))

Here it goes the chronicle of this race:

7am
I woke like any other day... way more relaxed than I should be before such an important race. Too bad that the starting will be at 12.10pm... now I need to keep my mind busy and my body relaxed for 5 hours. The goal is to fuel up, avoid de-hydration and hopefully get all the "heavy duty unloading" ( :-P ) done before 11am.

11am
I am off with my whole family to the transition area. My dad is already filming, My mom is so interested in this whole craziness around her... she finally found out there are at least 2000 more weird people like me out there ready to go. Kimmy and my friends kinda know the drill and they are waiting patiently under a palm tree. On my side, I keep checking if everything is in place in the transition area. ( The look of my parents is priceless ).

11.45am
The beach is already packed.... 2000+ athletes, XXXXXX amount of spectators.... YYYYYY amount of random beach people (that are still, as of today, trying to figure out what happened on that Sunday 12th ). I am putting my wetsuit on and this time with the help of K, friends and family ... lol we look like a team :-).

I am a little nervous ... I need to rush in the water and warm up... ( the temperature had been 90F+ since 9am ).

12pm

The PROs are starting ..., I am warm, I need to get quickly to the front of my age group wave ( 400ppl ) to avoid the mass start madness.....It is super hard to even get to the starting line... tons of spectators... and I am burning inside the wetsuit.
Here it comes.... way too many people in front of me... I need to find a way to get in front of the pack... nice I spot a shortcut on the side... I jump a little fence... and here I come, I am in first line. OOps now I will have to outsprint the whole group and make sure to swim the fastes 200yds of my life :-).

12.10pm... Italian anthem .... BOOOOM start... time to eat s*it ( Copyright Chasing Legends movie ).

12.11pm THE SWIM
Swimming in the Adriatico is weird, water is shallow for the first 100yds and waves are pretty ugly when you try to keep a decent body position. I am going as hard as I can to avoid the war behind me... after few minutes the fastest guy are already in front of me and I can't really catch my breath... every time I try to relax my style... I get people jumping on me, grabbing me... oh wait DUDE... you can't just pull my feet like that... LOL... cool you want the war... and war it is... I literally start bumping this guys for 50/100yds.... now let me see if I am still on track.... OOOPS I am way off the swim line I should follow... damn let me let this guy go by and keep racing my own thing.

12.20pm
Uff the swim feels so hard... I want it to be over... I am sweating inside the wetsuit, the water is hot and I am swimming way too hard than usual. Time to relax and get a normal stroke in. Thank God these last minutes are easier, the waves are pushing me to the end.

12.32pm
Swim is done :-), I am running "hella" fast toward my bike and I hear people cheering for me... Kimmy ...YAY... my mom, my friends.... finally I get to my bike and my dad is right there.... I feel so happy to have everybody around. I am in heaven and now on the bike is time to deliver. ( off the swim I am 187th :( ).

12.34pm-3.12pm BIKE
After carrying the bike across the whole transition area ( I was positioned at the very end ) I am ready to start pushing but first I need to be able to put my feet inside the pre-clipped shoes. First time I try this and it is not as easy as I thought... after 2 miles I decide to stop and put my feet inside the shoes without risking a stupid accident.
The ride is awesome, people cheering everywhere, every single little village that we cross has family, kids, bikers and random tourists spectacting along the way. The uphills are long but mellow and my goal of pacing and avoid cramps is working so far. I am going 80% and I keep passing my age groupers... I LIKE.
Here we go, 60Km are gone... 30 to go but now I know that there are no more hills, time to show off what the power house can do on the flat.
I wish I could have done this ride before... there are so many curves, downhills and sudden changes in direction, few riders are passing me downhill... I dont like this... I will see you on the flats.
....Push... Push.... Push... the last 10km coming back to Pescara are flat, super hot and way longer than I thought.... Push Push Push... I see the end. 2h38 minutes I do not have any idea if my pace was right or not but I am definitely happy to be back.

3.12pm T2
I am transitioning to the run and I see my brother and friends with this big banner for me... too bad I am so busy changing clothes that I cant focus on what's written on it.... ( later I read: DAJE VIRGO PORTACE A LAS VEGAS (Go Virgo take us to Las Vegas )).

3.14pm Running through Transition area

I am off with my mom screaming "Vai Virgilio che ce l'hai fatta" (Go V you made it), I would not call being 21km of running from the arrival as "MADE IT".. but I am happy to hear her.

I dont see my father but I am 100% he is filming somewhere and commenting the in his own videos.

3.15pm the RUN

My first 2-3Km are going way to fast... my pace is a little over my expectations and I feel great. Hot, sweaty, salty and smelly as usual ...but great..

second lap ( out of 4 )... and my running is starting to fade, so many people screaming my name ( it was written on my Bib ) too bad my legs cannot react anymore. I hear Alessia, Francesco and friends that I totally did not expect to show up at the race.

Third lap and I see Kimmy... with her astonishing beauty, trying to take pictures while screaming "Cigliaaaa".

These 2 laps are a weird cocktail of emotions, totally miserable on the outside, super happy in the inside. I hit my LOW moment towards the beginning of the 4th lap... I am only 5Km from the end but I need to walk... my hearth is going crazy... ( way too much Coke )...10-20meters and I am back into a slow run... finally back to a 7min pace trying to hang on.

Last 2Km... as usual ... they are sooo damn long... I can barely hear my friends and family... oh here it comes I see the end... the blue carpet

I am done.

30th overall.... 21st among the italians ( including PROs ). 4h47 minutes after a 1h30 half marathon that felt like an ultra.

My mom's hug, my dad's eyes are indescribable... and I feel guilty to not be able to appreciate the moment as much as I would but the low level of sugar in my blood is making me dizzy....

For whomever made it to the end of this eternal post here it comes the Video my dad realized.

Italian comments :-).

Vasto (Italy) -3 to IM 70.3 Italy

I set this goal just about 8 months ago and here I am 3 days from this race that drove most of my training inspiration for so many weeks.

I promised myself I would have gotten a little faster on the pool ( DONE ), faster on the bike ( MAYBE ), faster on the run ( MAYBE )... I also convinced myself I could have gone from 175pounds rusty and heavy machine to a light 160pounds blazing fast aeroplane.... mission failed.

I guess I accomplished a mix of it.... (72hours from the race) I am an heavy 178pounds rusty fast aeroplane with a good layer of extra cushioning in case of emergency landing.

Well, it is what it is, I am ready to deliver pain to myself, as long as I still fit in the wetsuit, the cervelo will not collapse under my b*tt and the heat will not stress me much I am set for a good performance.

On a different note... if vacation means relax.... this vacation is just PERFECT. Vasto is a little cute town with enough restaurants, views, gelato places, beach resorts and peaceful afternoons ( yes everything is closed here between 1pm and 4pm for nap time! ).

The food is just irresistible, Kimmy and I are trying to alternate some light runs and walks between our eating festivals. While temperature and humidity are way much higher than SF, the Sun lately has not been that strong yet... I am hoping for the next days.

Now I am off for a little swim+run and a chill afternoon at Punta Aderici!

Big hug

V.

June is the month of changes (IM 70.3 Italy -7)

After almost 5 years at Logitech I am on the move, what an amazing adventure with them... from College to decently skilled software engineer. I will never stop thanking the different mentors, colleagues and managers I had the please to work with. Fremont (US), Toronto (CA), Hsinchu (TW), Lausanne (CH)....amazing. Now I need to be back to my original roots and give a second chance to the Web Application world and I do believe I found an amazing next step in my life.

:-)

This means a lot to learn, a lot to read, a lot to think about and I do believe a lot of fun. Thrilled.

Few updates on my life are due....

Only 7 days to Ironman 70.3 Italy, I am already in Rome waiting for my tremendously expensive TT bike that somehow did not make it to the airport yet.... the anxiety is killing me.

If anyone sees

stuck in some international airport.... please dont steel it and send it over here ... grrr I cannot believe it. Now they charge 300$ to carry (actually lose) a bike for you.... next time I will ship with Fedex ( hopefully a sponsor will take care of it ).

I will have 7 days to get used to the 80+ weather here and most importantly try to lose few pounds here and there ( waxing shaved 0.5 pounds at least :-P ).

My Kimmy seems happy here... still need to figure out if she loves me or Italy ... ( jk babe!! ) and somehow managed to run 2 days out of 2 with me so far... congrats Puzza!

My family is ready for big changes too.... Sara Pigliucci will become a new addition soon in few weeks and I bummed I won't be here to see my brother becoming a father!

5.48pm now... at 6pm ...in theory I should get a call about my lost bike.... I will kill the next 12mins with some good leisure reading enjoying my vacation with the new mid-year resolution :-)

and yes check how cool is this:

Ciao

V.