2010 Season
We begin again! 2010 is the 23nd year of competing in triathlons for Sunny, 24th for Mark.
This year is very different. Sunny is training for Ironman Switzerland on July 25 (also her 61st birthday!!) and Mark has very happily agreed to be a great support and training partner in the big adventure. Neither of us have ever done an Ironman Triathlon, to be clear, an Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and finishes with a 26.2 mile run. Needless to say it is a long day for even the fastest athletes. Because of the longer distances in the race we will be doing much more training and several different races than our normal ones.
Our training began in earnest in January. By March we were ready for our first trial event with the Wildflower Training weekend. The weekend is a trial run for the Wildflower Triathlon which is held on the 1st weekend in May, but the training weekend it is done over 2 days instead of a few hours. The swim bike is on Saturday and then the run is done on Sunday. It is great preparation for the event in May.
In April Sunny and Rebecca (friend, training partner and also IM Switzerland 2010 participant) signed up for the 100 mile Primavera Bicycle Tour. Mark, Vince and Ed (friends and training partners) joined us but decided to do the 60 mile ride instead of the 100 mile ride. The course was wonderful with really great roads and beautiful scenery. We were on roads where the windmills are and it was spectacular. Up to mile 65 it was perfect, but alas, it began to rain. Rain is ok, but it got really cold too and it rained harder. By mile 80, many riders had abandoned and took the SAG home, but Sunny and Rebecca endured and finished the ride, frozen, wet but mission accomplished! We were deep into adversity training! 
In May our race season began in earnest with the Tri-California Wildflower Long Course on May 1st. It was a test of endurance, as usual for this challenging course. It is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike (4000' of climbing) and a 13.1 mile run (1500' of climbing). The weather was warm but for Wildflower standards it was very nice. Mark finished in 19th place in 5:54:23 and Sunny finished in 1st place in 7:08:36,,, a great start to the season!
May 16th took us to Morgan Hill for a sprint triathlon to work on speed. This event was a 3/4 mile swim, 16 mile bike and a 5 mile run. It was a great bike course and a very fun race. Mark finished in 6th place in 1:48:44 and Sunny finished in 3rd place in 2:13:56.
Mark decided to make the week of May 16 a good cycling week to go along with the Tour of California. On Monday he went up to Napa and did a long ride in the rain to prime him for Tuesday's ride (organized by Michael McCormack) which followed the TOC route from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. May 23rd was the Echelon Napa Gran Fondo century which Sunny and Rebecca used for their Ironman training and Mark did for fun. After the 100 mile ride Sunny and Rebecca took off for a 30 minute brick run. Wow, how fun is that after riding 100 miles! 
This was a much better day that hopefully will be closer to how we feel in Switzerland! The weather was great and the course was beautiful.
Next on our agenda in June is the Boise 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run). For Sunny and Rebecca it will be a training weekend that happens to be a race. It is good practice for fueling and transitions and also pushing yourself harder than you normally do when you are out on your own. For Mark it will be an A race, meaning he will give it all he has. Later in June, Mark is signed up for the Envirosports Escape from the Rock Triathlon. Sunny will not be doing the race because her focus will be on the last few training weekends before IM Switzerland.
July 25th - Zurich, Switzerland - Ironman Switzerland - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
Stay tuned for updates and what comes after July because there are still 3 months left in our season after July 25!