August 29, 2010

...is next year's target date. If all goes well, and even if it doesn't I'll be treading water at the start line of Ironman Canada, where it all started (continentally speaking, of course). This will be the second iron distance race of my life.

Right now I'm easing my way into building the base. A longish easy run yesterday, a long swim today followed hopefully by an easy December spin tonight. A little too much to start, you might say? Well, here's the thing. For the next three months I'm on assignment at work on the continental shift (yet another use for that word). This week is the "two working days" week so I'm piling it on a bit. Next week will be made up of five twelve-hour work days, leaving very little time for training. This is going to be a bit of a funky training cycle.

Anyway, I'm looking for training partners in the GTA or so. Targeting IMC would be ideal although Louisville, Lake Placid or Wisconsin would work as well. Drop me a comment with a reply address and hopefully we can set something up.

Peace.

Back in the saddle again

Well, it's been a while, but I'm back in the saddle again. I took some (unscheduled) time off after limping through a rather disappointing half-iron in Muskoka this year. Two months of physio to repair the damage as a result of taking on the distance when significantly undertrained to do so. Live and learn.

Now, it's time to start up the base build again. Went out this morning for an easy 90-minute run and put in just over 19km. Just building the base back up. It's time to start laying the foundation for next year's big enchilada - Ironman Canada in August. Woo-hoo!

More to come.

Peace.

Muskoka 70.3, the second time.

This is a little late in coming out, partly because I've been busy and partly because I didn't really want to relive the results.

I took a beating. The course absolutely beat me up in all three phases of the race. That's what happens when you're seriously undertrained and you try to fake your way through a very, very tough course.

Swim - 41:03. Terrible, and the strange thing was, it didn't really feel that bad. I had some sense that it was slow and seemed to be taking a while, but I was surprised by this. Again, this is what happens when one is underprepared.

Bike - 2:59:18. Again, just couldn't get it going - didn't have the strength or the endurance to put up a better showing. I also had my left IT band start to complain mid-way through the bike and I had to carefully make my way through. It did subside though and I thought I was through the bad stuff. Big mistake.

Run - 2:07:06. And herein it all fell apart. At the 4k mark on the run my left calf seized up - the end result of the whole ITB thing. I tried to massage it and stretch it and nurse it carefully but I basically couldn't run uphill without stabbing pain. If you're familiar with the course, you might understand that this would be a big problem. I spent the rest of the afternoon stopping to stretch and massage the knot in my calf every 10-15 minutes and walking up all the hills.

Overall, 5:53:54, a very disappointing time, but I have nobody to blame for this but myself. I want revenge on this course but this is where it gets a little tricky. I managed to get myself entered in IM Canada for next summer (online!) and these two are two weeks apart. This will need some serious thought over the off-season.

Now, the off-season. Actually, I went for a nice easy spin through the countryside today which was okay. Only two hours, but that felt about right. No aches or pains and hopefully in a couple more weeks all the rest of the aches and pains from M70.3 and the physio resulting from it will be over.

Peace.

Epic camping weekend!

Fish. Rain. Hail. Rain. Frogs. More rain. Canoes. And yet more rain.

If I told you that you could go camping with your friends, their wives and kids numbering twenty-four in all, and you'd have to drive over four hours to get there including an hour deep into Algonquin Park, AND it would rain every day AND you'd go fishing for your kids, who would throw one line in the water then give it all up to catch frogs, how'd you like to take that trip?

Epic. Camping. Weekend.

We didn't see anything exciting like this - at least not while we were there. I was told however that the early arrivers (night before) did have one trample through the campsite "next door". That seems to really be the "wildlife" spot, and not in a "go clubbing until 2 a.m." wildlife spot. Last year we were informed that the rangers had set up a bear trap on that very spot in hopes of catching and moving a pesky black bear. The bear never returned, but apparently Junior the Moose came back to say hello this year again.

I had plans for some open-water swimming and a trail run while up in the park. The rain and the temperature scotched those plans - it rained steadily, including hailstones (!!) on the first day and was eight degrees C (47F) when I woke up the next day. Couldn't convince anyone to canoe out and "ride shotgun" on the lake in the rain. Made for a great euchre tournament, however.

Fishing is not really my thing but I did catch the only thing anyone caught - a clam! I've never heard of anyone hooking a clam before.

All in all, not exactly the weekend you would draw up in the planning stage, but memorable nonetheless.

Peace.

Peterborough race report '09....

Or, some things you just can't explain.

I can't explain this result. Rather than breaking it down by sport I'll just throw it down on the board and try to figure it out afterward.

Total - 4:56:05, 81st overall (of 459)

Swim 36:36 (35/63 ag) @ 1:50/100m

Bike 2:36:00 (20/63 ag) @ 32.7 km/h

Run 1:40:35 (18/63 ag) @ 4:47 km/h

I really have no explanation for this time. I understood at the start that the run course was going to be officially shorter than 90km due to roadwork (THAT wasn't in the pre-race newsletter!) but a reputable source of mine had it on his computer at 88km, so it wasn't that much shorter - "official" race distance listed it at 85 km.

Due to the training I had put in before this day (that is to say, not much) I really thought I'd be well over 5:30, in the area of the 5:45 range. My only goal was to keep it reined in and to get through the day alive. I think keeping the power output controlled on the day was a big factor - I didn't try to gun it at any time, just kept it even and consistent. The temperature on the day was also cool and the mega wind that was threatened never really materialized.

Not sure what I was doing licking the fingers?

I knew something was up after the first lap of the swim - PBO is two 1km laps - when I came out of the water in 17:37. I was shooting for a 20-minute 1km and had "seeded" myself in that pack. I remember thinking that time was ridiculous and also that I felt great - relaxed, not over-exerted or anything. Coming out of the water 2-3 minutes ahead of where I thought I would be was to be an omen for the rest of the day.

Heading out, almost missed the cameras...went by too soon!

The bike course, with the exception of one monster 3km climb at the 28km mark (and really, who needs that partway through the day?!?) actually seemed easier to me than the original course. The traditional course had a lot more rolling sections that really interrupted the overall flow. Also I'm sure that keeping the climbs under control and spinning up the hills rather than mashing had a lot to do with it this year. I also managed to finish the ride with dropping my chain like a moron or launching any bottles.

I did learn a couple of things on the run. #1 - the race, that is to say the work, really starts at 16km on the run. At that point I was trying to keep moving, and to stop thinking about the second thing I learned, which was: #2 - I can run about 16km sockless with no problems. After that I have one blister per km to prove that I still need to work on that, and that I'll never be running a sockless marathon.

A big shout-out to my peeps: Tyler, Darren, Cliff, Francisco and Stephen, who also kicked it at PBO on Sunday and again to Francisco who's heading on to Lake Placid in less than two weeks.

After the race Team Ironhead went directly into vacation mode, driving four hours from PBO to the beach house for a well-deserved va-cay. Once again, thanks to the team, who made the day possible. Oi!

Peace.

Guelph Lake race report - life lessons

Did you ever have a day when you felt like Ben Stiller? Not the dorky one in Meet the Fockers, or the mildly androgynous one in Zoolander. Thank the lord, definitely not the "franks and beans" Ben Stiller in There's something about Mary.

No, I mean the security guard in A Night at the Museum, the one referred to as "Dum-Dum". That more or less describes how my day went at Guelph Lake this weekend, but let's get on to the race report.

The day opened cold and raining. It wasn't very cold, and the rain was intermittent, but it was definitely enough to affect your thinking on the bike course. It was essential to slow down on the turns and the corners to stay vertical and keep the rubber on the road. I didn't have any big plans for the day. I wanted to pay specific attention to my transitions to try and get some free time back there.

Swim - 750m - 15:40 (2:06/100m)
The first clue here should be this - 14th in age group and 90th overall at that snail-like pace. The sprint was on Saturday - the "headliner", the Olympic distance was on Sunday. And I was out of the water in 14 minutes flat - still not fast but better than 15:40 - the difference is in running up the hill and all the way around the transition area to the timing mat at the back (?!) but a 1:19 in T1 is not bad at all, for me.

Bike - 20km - 33:52 (33.7 km/hr) 6th ag, 29th overall
Here's where the weather definitely slowed this race down. First of all Guelph Lake is a short course with a switchback out of the park and a bike course that is a three-sided square after that. With all the cornering in that weather the times really drop as taking a corner too fast can result in a nasty spill. I know - I saw one, and was very nearly involved in it. The guy in front of me slowed down (I thought appropriately) at the 10k turnaround and went horizontal. Now, you'd be thinking a scuffed leg and maybe a forearm, but it wasn't just that. He shredded his back all the way across both shoulders. I know this because he rode mad after that and we leap-frogged each other most of the way back to T2, until he dropped me when I made noob mistake #2 - shifting to the small chainring on an uphill. Drop goes the chain, costing me probably a minute of chain repair and ramp back up time. Didn't help at all that I had to restart on an uphill. 0:46 in T2, though. I will definitely take that.

Run - 21:12 (4:15/km) 5th in ag, 24th overall.
Again with most of the big guns holding out for the better weather on Sunday this wasn't bad. I got out on the run, felt good and proceeded to pick people off including Mr. Road Rash (#37 Andrew Appleton, whose hand I shook afterward for gutting it out). Here's where noob mistake #1, the key mistake of the day bit me in the butt. I got passed by exactly one guy on the run at about the 4k mark. I decided to let him go. After all, I had plenty of time to reel him in. I was feeling good and I had another 3.5km to go get him, only here's the thing. I didn't have another 3.5km. I had one more km. The run course was 5km. I had some thought that this was a 7.5km run, or at least that I had to hold something back. I do remember running this course one year where the run used to pass transition and the finishing chute going the other way, then loop around another little footpath down in the valley. That year I came up the hill going full guns, then saw the run kept on going. That year I blew up early, so deep down my memory didn't want to let me do that again. So when this guy went by, I let him go - he happened to be the guy who finished 5th in my age group, a scant 20 seconds ahead. Hence, dum-dum.

Final: 1:12:46, 6/44 ag, 24th overall - missed the podium by 20 seconds.

I had no vision of making a podium beforehand so no worries there. And the transition times look much better so at least that's progress. Due to the couple of noob mistakes, I probably left 60-90 seconds out on the course.

Here's the worrying part: there's this nagging little problem in my right calf. It started a couple weeks ago running hills in Neyagawa (I blame Tyler for this :) ). I thought it had quieted down, but it came back with a vengeance on the weekend, to the point where a flight of stairs was an adventure. It's better today, but I think I'm going to have to go get it checked out. Peterborough is two weeks away and I'm not looking to set any records, least of all a "personal worst".

PS. I still love this game. Even in the rain, cold and mud there's something about hanging around transition, or the finish line and watching the long-timers and first-timers come rolling in- soaked to the skin, covered in mud (or blood) but grinning from ear to ear and their cheering sections go nuts. Just something about that.

Peace.

Wouldn't you rather...

This weekend is/was the world famous Muskoka Chase. It's a long-course triathlon where the hook is that the pros race each other, women vs. men. The women get a head-start, based on the winning times from last year. If the women win, the head start gets shorter - if the men win, longer.

It's a short drive up the road from here and it's always also attended by an enormous number of "regular folk" age-groupers hoping for qualifying spots for an Ironman, this year Ironman Canada.

I've always wanted to do the Chase, also known as the long course - 2km swim, 55 km bike, 15 km run.

This weekend was way more fun. I got to pull out the old dishwasher and install a new one. Didn't flood the kitchen or anything.

Now tell me, who had more fun today? Huh? Huh?