A lovely spring day...

Nothing like a brisk morning constitutional to get the blood blowing, er, flowing....

So this picture was taken in Buffalo at Rich Stadium on the weekend, illustrating the wind conditions on the weekend. The only relevance is that my Sunday morning run group is about an hour or so across the border and up the highway (depending on your driving habits) from Buffalo. Yep, it was a little windy this weekend. The wind was enough that the guy running next to me ran into me once or twice. I don't know which one of us couldn't hold a straight line. At least we had a tailwind for the "return" part of the loop. And one of these hardcore guys actually wore shorts!

Spent the rest of the weekend assembling more toys and architectural projects, which brings me to this question: why aren't there any B batteries? (be patient...it's worth it......ladies :)).

Peace.

Frank Lloyd Wright - baby

That's my baby on the left - note the construction is bigger than the child.

Peace.

Best laid plans...

...can be waylaid by the cutest, cuddliest little six-year old that you ever did meet. Let me explain.



This morning I went out with my new running group for a solid 16km. Last week we went 15k on a morning that had to be, no exaggeration, -20 C with the wind chill. There were multiple complaints about frostbite in the, ahem, "nether regions". Today was nothing like that. The roads were a little icy but the temperature was comfortable, around -2C, just about the right conditions for 16km of hills.




After that I got home in time to head out for the boy's hockey game (robbed again). The announced plan beforehand was to get back from hockey, swap hockey bag for swimming bag and head to the pool.




It has been said, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy" and this is no more true than at home. Upon returning home it was "suggested" that I could spend the morning putting together the dollhouse that arrived in last week's birthday festivities




Upon opening the box we all discovered there was no instruction manual or even picture to refer to. Yippee! Have you ever tried to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the finished production should look like?







This is her majesty sitting in her queendom surrounded by some of the pieces of the architecture. The stick drawing on the big white box on the left is the only reference we had to figure out how it was supposed to look. There would be no swimming today o captain my captain.


On the positive side the off-season training is going well. I'm getting runs in, have sprinkled in a ride or two, and am going swimming tomorrow, by gar!


Starting tomorrow I'll be jumping onboard the 12-hr offseason plan - the details of which are here. A big thanks out to Chuckie V for giving this up for free. Now if he could just do dollhouses....



Peace.



Oh, by the way, I'll post a picture of the "finished product" when there is an actual finished product. Just kidding - it's done, the kids are just already in bed.

Patience, consistency, frequency

...are not the answer to the question, "what are the three things I don't have?", so thanks very much. They are however the trifecta required to lay the foundation in this off-season for next season's results (whatever the plan may be). There's a good discussion of the topic here. The bottom line: time and mileage are the critical ingredients, are not negotiable and cannot be substituted. To be fair, I have demonstrated both consistency and frequency. For the last nineteen years (until last month) I got my hair cut monthly by the same guy in the same shop until he up and disappeared last month. Now that's consistent. And actually since I just waited seventeen years for a follow-up album/disc (I guess these days it would be a disc and not so much an album) that would be a demonstration of patience as well.


In following the "no blank days" decree of the last post inspired by Olympian Cliff, I must admit I am net one day down. I do resolve, however to make it up this week. Getting back to the pool and I've also hooked up with a run group that gets me out the door regularly on the weekend mornings. These guys for the most part are dedicated runners listing among their accomplished marathons NYC, Scranton (hey any location is a distance) Rome, Budapest, Marine Corps, Toronto - downtown and Waterfront and multiple Bostons. There are probably many more than that. One might be my future Comrades comrade. If possible at least one of these guys complains more than me.





Finally in response to a "comment" from an infrequent reader, but frequent commenter here's another shot of Team Ironhead, full entourage intact:

Peace.

Off-season?!?

Hmmph to that, I say. My off-season has been on since about June, well over the suggested two week off-season. Today was day eleven of activity. Haven't gotten to the point yet where my "run legs" are back, but we're getting into the area where they (the legs) are starting to think this might be serious, and that they're going to have to step it up a notch.

I went out for a solid run this morning - an hour, over some nice little rolling hills on the North Shore. For those familiar with Around the Bay this stretch makes up kms 20 to ~26 on the course, just before the Grim Reaper where you've nearly lost your will to live. We didn't run the whole hilly section - just an out-and-back for 12km. I also joined up with a crew that I was introduced to by an acquaintance I made in the spring this year, when we were both underemployed.

This is new for me. I've been a 90% solo trainer for my whole career (with the exception of a few rides and last year's memorable Alton Half and follow-up Oakville Half) in this sport which comes with its pluses and minuses. Pluses - no discussion of what route to take today, in any sport. No argument over what to play on the iPod. No negotiation (or at least less negotiation) of start times. Minuses - much easier to hit the snooze button and put it off to later. Heck, somedays it's easier to blow it off altogether.

Not today. I was out the door this morning in plenty of time to make the five-minute start rule. The group is fairly diverse, with the one constant that they're all pretty serious runners. At least one has just qualified for the fifth consecutive year for Boston. Another is hoping to make it ths spring via the Ottawa Marathon. Still another just returned from a 30km road race in Budapest. This is definitely "stepping it up".

In other news, the next new job starts tomorrow. I'll be moving on to another company in the consumer goods industry with the responsibility of managing production in two facilities. This should be good. It's also a lot closer to home cutting a good hour and a half out of the daily commute.

On with the off-season.

Peace.

Here we are...so where are we?

So, what's new? Been quiet for a while. First the good news. Preliminarily, my mother's test results have come back positive. There are no other negative signs or indicators at this time. Does that mean she's cured? I don't think anyone says that at this stage of the game - it's way too early to be using that word. I guess testing and monitoring continues for some time before that "c" word - the good one - comes up in conversation.

The rest of the news really kind of pales in comparison. Humbled by my near-complete lack of training at the end of last season and inspired by Cliff (yet again) I'm now up to day 7 of base-building. Something gets done every day. A couple of rides, a lot of runs and tonight may just be another dip in the pool.

I'm working on the 2009 race schedule. The Chilly Half, an annual tradition, is in for sure. After that many decisions need to be made. The training schedule will have more structure and focus this year - how could it have less? - with the not-yet-confirmed goal of another Ironman this year - location TBD. The location is what makes the race schedule still TBD. For most North American locales the options at this point are to enter through the community fund, if spots are still open (and many still are as of this publication), or to go to Muskoka in June for the long course and try to qualify for one of three - Lake Placid, Canada or Florida. Given my historic speed, or lack thereof, leaving it up to qualification comes with some risk.

And oh yeah, to top it all off I'm starting another new job this month. Just when you think things were getting predictable - new changes, story of this year.

This however is a topic for another day...



Peace.

And another thing...

I almost forgot...the results of the raffle!

For those who entered the "guess the finish time" raffle it's time to let the secret out. The guesses were:



3:20:00
3:28:28
3:32:00
3:38:46
4:00:00

For the longest time, I thought that 3:28 was the winner. Oh well, the mind was willing but the body was weak. I kept going to the well, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry...you get the picture.



So, the swag? I went to the expo and looked around. Everybody has a white race t-shirt, and the "signature" race shirts, although "technical fabric" this year are an unattractive baby poo green (I think a couple are visible in the background of the picture of me flying in yesterday's post). So I thought something a little different, yet practical and perhaps stylish, and I came up with this.....

Ta-da! (Baby not included). And who doesn't love a race toque? Congrats to Nancy, who threw darts at the wall and came in at 3:38.

Peace.

Toronto Marathon Race Report

First off, a big thank you to all of you who broke open your piggy banks and gave to support the Princess Margaret Hospital. We've raised over $2500 and still going!! Thanks to all of you!

Team Ironhead clutching the hot chocolate at the start line.

Now, onto the grumpy section of the post:


3:41:19.8. 449th overall, 72/214 in AG.


Hmmpph.


Many things have been said by many others, several spikier than I am about pace, or about endurance - not speed, but endurance. Speed comes from endurance, and endurance comes from the trifecta - PCF - patience, consistency and freqency. Endurance is the ability to keep moving, just keep moving. Clearly, I have lacked many of these things this year and my results to close out the year reflect that. On marathon morning (I can't really refer to it as "race" morning) I thought I could hold on to a 5 minute km pace to finish in the ballpark of 3:30:xx, give or take a minute or two. I had lined up A, B and C goals for the day. Sub-3:30 for the "A", sub-PR (3:40:14) for the "B" and to finish for the "C".

This is about the last time I was "flying" on the course.

I started out with the 3:30 pace bunny and decided to stay with him, but here's the thing. It's difficult to judge pace from a bunny that's making multiple bathroom stops. I later found out that the bunny had intentionally gone out at a faster pace in order to put a couple of minutes in the bank for the finish. I also was passed before the finish by the 3:45 bunny who must have crossed at least four minutes early.

In this, the year of re-education, what did I learn on this day?


You can't cheat the basework for a marathon. There's no faking it in a race this distance. One 16 miler and one 20 miler in training is not enough. You must respect the distance. Going out too fast always burns you in the end. And it takes twenty minutes to eat a bagel if you're too dehydrated to work up enough spit to chew.


I am now almost obliged to run this course again at a later date, so as to not have to go to my grave with this finish time. Still faster than Oprah, and it is a very pretty course with some very nice tree-lined sections (and a castle!) but it is a "read the fine print" course, or more like "look at the course elevation". They do sell it as a net "downhill" course, and it technically is. There's a first uphill at about 5k. That's no big deal. The nasty little truth is the fact that the last 3k is a long slow leg-sucking uphill that makes you question your will to live.



The end:



So there it is. Let the offseason begin.

Peace.

Toronto Update!

85% of the target has been achieved! We're almost done the "easy" part, with over three weeks to go!

There's still plenty of time (and room) for those who want to join in - hit the link to help the cause here.

And if you do, don't forget your finish time guess to enter into the raffle for fab-o Toronto Marathon swag. There are only four guesses entered at this time, so there's a very good chance you could win! Closest finishing time, without going over, wins the swag.

Peace.

Muskoka race report

You know, life is a continuing journey of education and rediscovery. In fact the only time you stop learning should be when, as someone so eloquently put it, "when you pedal off to that great transition area in the sky".

I've been at this sport for a few years now and even still, every event provides an opportunity to gain experience and to learn new things. Sometimes, if you're as thick-headed as I am, you get to learn old things over again. Things like, "don't try anything new on race day", like adding a new gear bag that rubs against your leg with every pedal cycle until you can't stand it after 2km and have to pull off the side of the road to remove it. Things like, "don't carry the extra weight of multiple bottles of fluid when it's so cold you'll hardly drink more than one an hour". Also things like, "don't forget to lubricate the chafing spot between your wetsuit and your neck to avoid rubbing your neck to a bloody raw mass".

Now, on to the race report.

Swim: 41:34. 699th overall, 130th in AG.

Okay, I know. I'm not fast in the water. Even at my peak I would have to speed up considerably to be classified as "slow". This is what you get when your training basically ends in July. I knew 10 minutes in that the swim was going to be a chore on the day. Domino #1. The base just wasn't there. Being a BOP'er (I'm not even a middle-of-packer anymore) I actually don't mind the wave starts, but I do understand why my compadre Darren dislikes them so intensely - he has to spend his time and energy navigating around roadblocks like me. SIDE NOTE: if you haven't read his blog/race report, I'd recommend it. His props: dude finished 17th overall!! Won his age group.

T1 - 4:58 (no I did not have a bowl of soup!) Bike: 2:58:29, (188th overall, 48th AG)

Not a particularly impressive split. The stop to remove the gear bag didn't help. I had hoped that this would have turned out better, but this is a dang tough course. There were also a couple of stretches (on Hwy 35 and along the shore of Long Line Lake) where the wind really did pick up. And of course this is where domino #2 fell. Undertraining in the swim led to me being unable to really get my heart rate under control on the bike. I knew I was going to pay for it later, and I did. But at the end of the bike course I did see the first bright spot of the day:

Team Ironhead!

Okay, so my daughter's actually looking in the bush for squirrels or frogs or something, and my brother and his wife look very serious, but I don't blame them. They'd already been out there for over four hours in the rain with three kids, waiting for me to make an appearance. Little did they know how much longer they'd be out there....

T2 - 2:06. Run: 1:59:20. (408th overall, 79th AG).

Buoyed by the spotting of Team Ironhead, I whipped back out of T2, gave a high-five to the cheering section, and headed off down the road. I felt good, everything seemed to be clicking and I was really hoping to make up some ground on the run. I thought I had the base. If I hadn't been putting in the swimtime or enough bike mileage, at least I thought I had the run to fall back on.

Not today.

At about 7 km into the run, I saw Darren heading back in to the finish laps around the golf course, looking strong. Shortly after that domino #3 fell and the rest of the house came crashing down. Mere minutes later my back locked up. I started running from km marker to marker and stopping at each marker to massage, rub and otherwise try to warm up my back. Nothing really seemed to work. The lack of base on the swim sucked the energy out of the bike and the lowered energy level on the bike sapped the run. Shortly after this, the rain really started to come down. I have a whole new appreciation for those who gutted out Lake Placid this year, where the rain started at 7:00 a.m. and didn't let up all day/night long. The run at Muskoka (for me) turned into 14km of slogfest that was brightened up by Team Ironhead at one more point:

One hug to recharge at the 16km point and I was (briefly) back in business. The last 5k of the run winds through a golf course and passes by the finish line. The cruelest part of this is I spent the last 5k listening to other people being announced crossing the finish line as I kept winding up and down, left and right, forward and back through the golf course. Finally the finish line was upon me, in 5:46:22. One last eyebrow-raised comment: I crossed the finish line in 278th place. Nearly 1700 people registered, and 1300 showed up at the starting line. So, knowing that the forecast called for rain and cold temperatures all weekend long, how could the medical crew be out of those funky "space blankets" before 300 people had crossed the line? Just asking....

After all this grumbling, it was a very good day on a course that could be great. Weather can't be blamed on the organizers. But the 4-5km of tarry, gravelly non-pavement at about 70-75km on the bike made for a rather hair-raising section of the ride.

Will I come back to this race? Undoubtedly at some point in the future. I can't go to my grave being this slow, but maybe not next year. Next year is tentatively a "full monty" year - back up to the full distance. Mrs. Ironhead has given the okay. We just haven't decided where.

Last props go out, one more time to Team Ironhead! Not only were they out in the rain for nearly six hours, they had to wait nearly another hour near the car as I collected my sopping belongings from transition (there was so much water coming down and flowing through transition my shoes had actually floated away) and made my way back to the car. Are they the best or what?

Peace.

Quick update on PMH, and the weekend to come

For those following along, here's the status report on the PMHF charity drive - check the association link at the top of this page, and if you're interested in supporting the cause, please feel free to contribute at this site. Two weeks in (with about five weeks to go) and we're already two-thirds of the way there. A big thanks to everyone who's already contributed - there are too many to list today, but I'll give 'em all the big public cheer later.

Starting to pack up for the trip north - Muskoka is in two days and - happy day! - it looks like the rain might just be backing off for the weekend. I may have just jinxed it, however.

Race report to follow.

Peace.

Not posting much

PMH update: check here. Avoid the rush, and get in on the raffle before all the good pool spots are taken. If you don't know what this is, check the post below this one. Forty-four days to go, 31% done.

Been just too busy doing other stuff. Had a massive ride last weekend - broke the century mark again, and almost got a speeding ticket on the bike. I was bombing down the hill on Cedar Springs Rd. from Kilbride (like, everyone knows where that is, right?). I took a peek at my speedometer and saw that I hit 64.8 km/h. As I looked up I saw a posted limit sign of 50km/h and then what to my wondering eyes did appear, but the long arm of the law, Officer Friendly, Smokey. Attached to the end of his long arm was a radar gun, pointed right at me. With headphones on, I blew right past him and saw his lips moving saying, "Too fast!!!" About 100m further on up the road the descent becomes a nasty little switch-backing, blind cornered ascent where he could have caught me on foot to issue the speeding ticket. I guess he figured that catching up to a speeding vehicle on foot defeated the purpose.

More running and riding this weekend - hopefully posting updates.

Peace.

Refocus

Every once in a while events conspire to change focus, change priorities and force reexamination of the natural order of things.

Earlier this spring, while I was still on "sabbatical" from full-time employment I got a call at home from my mother. In her usual direct way, the conversation went something like this:

Mom: "Hi".

Me: "Hi".

Mom: "Are you sitting down?"

Me: "Yes".

Mom: "I have cancer".

As you might expect, that can be a bit of a conversation stopper. She explained that she had been feeling sluggish and tired for most of the winter, and after a vacation trip with the family and grandkids in which she just couldn't keep her energy level up she decided to go to the doctor.

Bad news indicator #1: my mother decided to go to the doctor. She is the strongest, most self-sufficient woman I've ever met, and the fact that she went of her own free will to the doctor was bad news enough.

Bad news indicator #2: when the doctor's office calls you back the next day and refers you to the "specialists" downtown. Also, never a good sign. Either they can't diagnose the problem, or the problem is too large for the regular family doctor to address. Neither is good.

So, my mother has spent the summer undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy for squamous metastatic carcinoma (Fair warning: there are some nasty pictures in this link). My mother is a woman who loves to cook and regularly makes giant meals for the family, the grandchildren and as many relatives as she can fit in the house. In fact last year she moved out of her "no-maintenance" condo into an aged, fully detached house which had two selling points.

1) A dining room big enough to fit seventeen people (all kids, spouses and grandchildren).
2) An inground swimming pool - the grandchild magnet.

Now, the cooking, eating and family visits are paused. Eight weeks of daily blasting of one form of treatment or another has her in a place now where three sips of diet cola, kept down, is a success.

A while back, for those who may have been following along, I mentioned that I might be interested in tacking on an end of season marathon. Well, now I have a cause and a goal - the Toronto Marathon, October 19. One of the principal charitable partner of the Toronto Marathon is the Princess Margaret Hospital, a place where I've spent several days this summer with my mother, so there's a natural confluence of events here.

So here's the goal - to raise $2000 for the Head and Neck Cancer Team of the Princess Margaret Hospital. The link to the page is here. As an added incentive (inspired some time back by Darren) I'm also going to run a raffle alongside this, with all proceeds going to the charity, of course. For every $10 donated, you get to guess my finishing time in the marathon (without going over of course). Closest finishing time will receive a genuine piece of Toronto Marathon swag, exact identity of which as yet to be determined, and all shipping and handling to be covered by me.

It's now on.

Peace.

Whitfield!

The short version - after all, a picture is worth a thousand words....

This makes the whole Olympics worthwhile. More to follow, after I actually watch the race tape.

Peace.

One one-hundredth of a second

Michael Phelps is a monster. Okay, I know I'm a little late to the game here, but I only watched his last two events. I imagine I can get caught up on YouTube, if I was so inclined. The relay was really rather anti-climactic, but the 100m fly was an actual one-minute spectacle. And for the dude from Serbia who lost by coasting the last one metre - he'll feel that for the rest of his life. Just goes to show that a casual swim fan (extremely casual) can't even remember his name three days later - that's the price of a one-hundredth-of-a-second coast. I can't fathom how short an interval of time that is. It's unbelievable (by the way that sentence is seventy-nine one-hundredths of a second long) to believe that one could be within reach of the wall and to not win. Equally unbelievable that Phelps was seventh at the turn, in a field of eight. Talk about turning on the jets, indeed. I've heard the phrase "Michael Phelps is the Tiger Woods of swimming". Hmm, I think that might be a little backward - more like "Tiger Woods is the Michael Phelps of golf".



And hats off to the rest of the Canadian medallers - better late than never. Yes, they started late, but if you go back and think about it, nobody who lost out in the first week was a real upset.

More to come.

Peace.

Definitions and the agony of defeat

So I email my part-time training buddy Darren on the weekend and say, "F the rain - let's ride!!" After sitting on the fence about it for an agonizingly long time (for him, about 20 seconds) he says, "let's roll!" We went out for an A-one ride, over 100km, on nearly deserted streets - and for a bonus the rain stayed away.

Having said all that, here's the kicker: we were both born and raised in this country, and both allegedly speak English as our "mother tongue"; however, there is a clear, obvious difference in our definition of at least one adjective: "flat".

My definition of flat: pancakes, Saskatchewan, a calm quiet lake, you know, like this:

Darren's definition of flat: cactus, Colorado, rolling waves - like this.

Mind you, he'd still look at the grain elevator in the middle of a flat field of wheat and say, "cool, let's ride the elevator!" Note to self: when a 8% ascent shows up two minutes into your easy, flat ride you should maybe know that there is a miscommunication of definitions. That was later followed by riding up a skihill.

Overall, great ride, great day.

***********************************

Here's the real agony of defeat. The agony of defeat is when your kid's baseball team loses the first game in the round-robin playoffs and are told, "win your last two games to make the semifinals". The kid's team then improbably goes ahead and wins those games (17-16 and then 9-8) over two teams that had beaten them in the regular season, only to find out that going 2-1 wasn't good enough. Two other teams in the "division"went 3-0 and that the kid's game only mattered to the "other" team, whose season also ended with the loss.

To see their little faces crumble when they found out after the game (they were told after the game, after going in thinking all they had to do was win) was as heartbreaking to the parents and coaches as it was to the kids. The kids (the team logo was Red Sox, and that was bad enough) hit well enough to win and played unbelievable infield defence - just in time for the season to end. Oh well - hockey tryouts are less than a month away.

Peace.

And now for something nearly completely different...

This is everything else we did this weekend.

First, a little boost from Daddy.

Then the training wheels are off for good.

After a hard ride, gotta cool down in the splash pad...


...with my brother, who's a bit of a ham.

The next day we went to the zoo where the elephants were really stinky.

the end.

Weekend report - T-minus 41 days...

Hey, first of all, props to my occasional training partners Darren and Cliff. Darren rocked the Owen Sound Olympic course this weekend, earning himself a qualifying trip to Australia for the world championships next year. He gracefully declined, no doubt worried about being upside-down for that length of time. And that result? - very nice. Just goes to show what a little focus, and 8-12 weekly repeats riding up a ski hill, can result in.


Not to be outdone, Cliff is on the verge of becoming an Olympian himself, and we're not the only ones who have noticed - check this out.


And for all those who had to "du"instead of "tri"this weekend at Steelhead, my condolences. I've never had the displeasure myself, so can only imagine the disappointment. I have to think, however that after saddling up for the ride, the grumpiness from the "first run"would float on away like a cloud.


Training-wise for me, nothing spectacular this weekend. 18k run, followed by a solid metric century ride this morning. Built in some good climbs - both Guelph Line and Appleby Line - as well as some good stretches of rollers to just bust the legs. Today's lesson was that, while a banana may be a good source of ride-time nutrition, it's not the best choice to carry in a back pocket. It still looked mostly like a banana when I got to it, but only about half.

Given where my training has been this year it's a relief to be putting in those kinds of hours again. Let's just not talk about the swim. I've also been considering stretching the season out a bit by adding an end-0f-season marathon in October or November, but that's still on the drawing board. I'll keep you posted.

All in all an excellent long weekend, topped off by taking the training wheels off my daughter's bike and watching my son turn a Jeter-esque ground-ball-scoop-spin-and-throw-on-to-the-base move playing in the park this afternoon. Successes all around.

Peace.

It's all about the moose

Lived through a fried motherboard, and now back to rant away. I had been saving up a bunch of things to bitch about, but time just got away, and besides there will soon enough be other dumb things to rant on.

Spending less time now blogging and more time trying to get the training back on track for Muskoka, only six weeks away.

I was going to rant about Lake Placid and the new policy which basically eliminates online registration. I was going to rant about Chinese Olympic athletes and "fair play". I was going to rant about police and cyclists or about the risk of death in our chosen sport. I was going to rant about the Tour de France and how I'm so sick and tired of the lying, cheating and stealing that it passed this year and I really didn't even care.

Never mind all that. Check out the moose - twenty feet down the road from the car when we went camping last weekend, just calmly eating leaves (the moose was, not me) as dozens of people stood across the street taking pictures.

You don't see that every day.

Peace.

PBO Road trip, race report

First up: big cheers to the folks at Endurosport, specifically Jared and Brian, who saved my bacon and let me get my race on this weekend. Broken aerobars are not something you can patch together with duct tape and prayer, and when you can do it in 45 minutes on the way to the race site...well, good on them.


Now, on to the road trip and race report. I went up to the race site on Saturday afternoon with my sometime training partner Cliff. Even though the drive itself is reasonably short - less than two hours where we were leaving from, it's important to be able to coexist. Even more so when in sharing a hotel room. Cliff can be quite the conversationalist, so here are seven things I learned about Cliff on the trip to Peterborough:

1. Even though it was listed on his Ironman profile, Cliff is not actually a spandex model. He is in internet marketing.

2. In the months leading up to a race (PBO was an A-list race for Cliff) he will swear off coffee and beer. I don't know if I could find the strength to carry on.

3. The Canadian Death Race is on Cliff's list of life events to complete. He will also be competing in the Transplant Olympics in August.

4. Next week Cliff is making his (annual) pilgrimmage to Boston, most likely with nine other friends in a rented van. Talk about needing some entertainment.

5. Cliff wants a DVD player to watch all seasons of Arrested Development. Necessary for #4.

6. For race nutrition, Cliff will sometimes stock his pockets with frozen grapes. Great idea, but I don't know how he keeps them frozen.

7. Cliff is a champion sleeper. He slept in the car on the way to PBO, pounded down a solid two-hour nap once we arrived, fell asleep as soon as the lights went out after dinner, and slept over half the way back after the race on Sunday. I don't ever sleep well in hotels, and especially not the night before a race.

RACE DAY

Transition on race morning is always barely controlled chaos. Fortunately I managed to not forget anything this year and threw everything together in about ten minutes. The funniest part of transition? Skipping the lineup to the portapotties, and trying to find somewhere, in the middle of a park field surrounded by ~1000 of my closest friends, to apply body glide to the, ahem, necessary locations without threatening indecency and arrest. That done, I sausaged myself into the wetsuit and headed on down to the beach. Actually found Cliff right before the start and wished him luck. I never did see Darren until well out onto the course - read his account of the day to find out why.

Swim: 39:55 (2006 - 37:23)

Yep, this time is crap but it was no surprise. As a frame of reference, both laps of last year's Lake Placid swim were faster than this. What can I say - the yardage (metreage?) just hasn't been there this year. This is going to have to be a focus going forward, but I don't know what can be done to "fix it" in the time left this season. Only metreage will tell.

As an observation, the open water "spin cycle" at PBO is in many ways worse than a full IM. In an IM it's 100% beat-down from start to finish, speaking as a MOP'er. You know what you're going to get and at least can prepare mentally for it. In a half-IM with a smaller crowd, there are brief occasions where the water opens up. But, they're brief - usually less than seconds, and just as a rhythm starts to get a stroke or two, another intermittent beating starts. The taunting false promise of rhythm in the water is much more difficult (to me) to get used to.


Bike: 2:42:15 (2006 2:48:33)


RECANT: in the last race post (WellandQ) I admit that I slagged the race organizers for shorting me on the bike course. Strangely enough my bike computer says I was shorted again at PBO, again coincidentally by about 10% - 81km of 90 paid for. I do believe I owe the Welland organizers an apology, so this is it.



The bike course is not particularly tough, but it is the dictionary definition of "rolling hills". There really aren't any long flat stretches to unwind and let fly. Again, due to the shortage of quality training this ride was tougher for me than it should have been. The PB in the split owes entirely to the gains from the TT bike and the dorky helmet, over the road bike - traditional helmet combo of 2006. I made a real effort to keep the HR reined in - 150's in the, ahem, "flats" and no more than 160 on the climbs.



Run: the moment of truth - no spoilers here. Read on!



This is always where the truth is told. If you've not trained well (which I hadn't), hammered on the bike (which I tried not to) or not eaten properly (read on) then you pay the piper. There's no getting around it. My goal here, once I took stock getting off the bike was to knock off 5 min km's. Nothing flashy nor earth-shattering, but something I thought that would be achievable given the training inconsistency and the state I felt I was in off the bike. And to be honest, everything went well for about 14km. From 14-17 km it started to become work, and after 18km the wheels came off. Note: a cola-type beverage at an aid station really, REALLY needs to be degassed, or "flat". If not, the gas stays in and leads to vicious cramps. Lesson of the day. By the time I made the last turn around the soccer field I was waving the crowd to louder noise and grinning like a cat eating onions. I had brief thoughts of rolling across the finish line, a la Blazeman, but wasn't sure I'd be able to get up off the ground, so decided not to. The final run time of 1:47:32 was nearly nine minutes better than the last time I was at Peterborough, 1:56:31 in 2006.

A total finish time of 5:14:22 for a solid 12-minute PB. 119th overall, 27/66 in the age group. Congrats go out to Darren, who rocked the course in 4:26 and change, 8th overall and handily winning his age group, and to Cliff who also PB'd, on an afternoon that got very warm toward the end of the day. And a final round of applause for Trisport Canada who always manage to put on a great race.

10 weeks to go to Muskoka. Ten weeks to refocus, to put in time in the water and to refind the bike and run endurance that took the spring off. Is ten weeks enough time to find another 14 minutes? Let's see.

Peace.

WellanDQ

A couple of days late, but here's the report from the Welland Sprint Triathlon Sunday June 29.


Lessons learned, lessons learned. The day broke warm, but not too warm, wind-free and sunny. I rolled into the parking lot with plenty of time to get to transition and also go through the process of race morning registration. Lesson #1: if you can avoid race-day registration, do so. Not that it was overly terrible - in fact the young women in charge were very helpful. It's just one more thing on the list of things to organize that's not required on the day. Lesson #2: race wheels cannot be inflated with Schrader valve adapters. A big thanks to the dude (racer #143) who saved my bacon that morning. Just goes to show that even when anarchy, disorganization and chaos reign, there remain small islands of civilization, hope and good favour.


The Welland tri goes off in a time-trial format, in bib number order and at five-second intervals. Owing to the fact that I registered on race morning I was bib #429, which meant that factoring in five seconds for every starter beginning with #1 (really, where else would you start?) at 8:30 a.m. or thereabouts, I would be going off just before lunch. Okay, I'm slightly exaggerating, but you get the general idea. Lined up in wetsuits like sausages on a grill, waiting to start the race a great number of swimmers had already started and finished the swim before I managed to get in the water.


I had no expectations for this race. My training has been sporadic this spring and I really just wanted to work on some things in transition and so forth to work out the bugs before PBO this weekend. It was therefore with great surprise that I found I chopped nearly 3 minutes off my 750m time from last year - 13:30 this year vs. 16:24 last year. This makes no sense, so I went back and read my race report from last year. Aha - managed to not get my goggles kicked off this year - that'll certainly shorten the time in the water. Also I made a conscious effort to sight early, sight often and sight repeatedly, as I have often found myself well off-course, swimming on my own. Not this year. I laid down some pretty straight lines from buoy-to-buoy and it looks like it shows. Now I understand that 13:30 is not blazing fast, but I've never claimed to be fast in the water, and a 1:48/100m is more than respectable for me.

Rant point #1: there's just no need for a 400m or longer run from the water to transition. I do understand the attraction for a paved transition area (i.e. in a closed parking lot). I just don't understand why I have to run barefoot across gravel, cinders and then circle the parking lot before I'm allowed in. On to the bike...

...where I got the second surprise of the day. If you've been following along, you know of course there's a new ride in town for this season. It definitely showed in this year's bike split, and I'm sure the dorky teardrop helmet didn't hurt either. The only downer on the bike was that I managed to launch my water bottle, out there in the gloamin' somewhere. This comes into play later on...
Last year's bike split for 30km: 51.42 min (avg. 34.8 km/h)
This year's bike split for 30(?)km: 48:05 (avg. 37.4 km/h) KABOOM!

Last year this race was three weeks before Lake Placid, when I was fully trained to the teeth (in fact, sick and tired of training as I recall). This year, of course, not so much training. One can only wonder, "if I had just put in the kilometrage...."The "?" is only because my bike computer measured the course at 27.12 km. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

The run: this is where it all started to unravel. How so? Follow along, young Jedi, and ye shall see...
Lesson #3: a morning with only a bagel and a coffee for breakfast is a sign of bad things to come. There are not enough matches in the matchbook. Lesson #4: wearing last year's race shoes, because they have the speed laces is a risk that might be better to avoid. Lesson #5: added to lesson #4, wearing old shoes with no socks, even for a short (and in this case, shorter than advertised) run is well, the technical term would be, stupid. I'm currently wearing the height of band-aid fashion - three different blisters and a pair of shoes so bloody as to be unworthy for even a future in lawn-mowing.

By now, you've probably assumed that the run did not go so well. Even with two short stops (for minor dizzy spells) I was on pace to be within shouting distance of last year's finish time. And then, I missed the last loop of the pretzel.

This year's run course circles the Welland canal on what was referred to as a "double out and back". This is not the same run course as last year. The course went out past the swim over the bridge, around the canal, crosses over another bridge and turns around to recircle once again before running "in" back down the "out" trail, across the bridge one more time and finishing in the arena. Confusing? Yep, even more so on the course, with no km markers after 2 km (none that I saw), and a grand total of one run course marshal issuing instructions out loud to duathletes, triathletes on the first lap and triathletes on the second lap.

To make a long story short, I missed the second loop of the run, so my 7.5 km run was more in the neighbourhood of 5 km. The one marshal was shouting instruction as I passed through what (in retrospect) must have been the turnaround, but I didn't hear him clearly - the aforementioned dizziness probably didn't help.

2007 run - 7.5 km (est. - my raised eyebrow wrt this claim is well-documented... 32:27 (4:20/km)
2008 run - 5.0 km (again, est.) - 29:59 (6:00/km).

Clearly, I over-hammered the bike and under-fueled for the day, in addition to missing the sparse run directions.

Race results show me finishing in 8th place overall (and 4th in the AG). Clearly, that's a load of hooey. If I had been able to find a race official afterward I would have voluntarily DQ'd myself (and we're not talking Dairy Queen). I spoke to several other people at the finish who had the same confusion with run course markings.

Overall, although the end result was not A-one there were good positive learning experiences to take from this course. The swim sighting clearly assisted in putting together a better swim. I've probably also found the upper limit beyond which hammering on the bike has a significantly detrimental effect on the run.

All good things to "get out of my system" before gran-daddy #1: Peterborough in four days!

Peace.

Eleven days to go...

...and I am woefully underprepared. The last little while has been so disorganized that I'm going to go to PBO hoping to survive. New goal: just to take stock, and see where that weekend is going to end up. No spoken objectives, except for this one: hoping to at least match the last finish time for PBO: 5:26 and change.

Big props to Darren, who kicked it at the Muskoka Chase and to Wedgie who survived the popsicle swim to conquer CDA - I guess #879 was a lucky number after all.

RIP George Carlin.

Peace.

Flexibility or something like that

This is related to nothing (even though I can hear Darren going on about the benefits of stretching already) but I bet even he's not this flexible.

Freaky.

The honey-do list, mental hurdles

And we're not talking about melons here.


Everybody knows about this. Everybody has had one. Everybody has been on one. And everybody has, at one time or another watched in suprise, shock and awe and it grew to heretofore unmeasurable lengths and proportions.


I am speaking, of course about the "honey-do" list (this blog is PG-rated - what did you think I was talking about?!?)


As mentioned in previous posts I'm going back to work again, starting next week. Given my newfound stable state of mind (well, relatively speaking) I had planned one big bang of a week of workouts to celebrate and to get back into the routine of routine training after a month of uncertainty.

So far this week I've traded tried to repair and ultimately had to replace one broken deadbolt. I've painted baseboards throughout the house and completely repainted the deck in the backyard. I figure I'm about halfway through the list. The trade-off: to date one swim, one ride (albeit a hillacious one) and two runs.

The mental hurdles arise when contemplating whether I've been off the training for so long that it may all be lost. After getting back after it today, it doesn't appear to be completely gone. Relief.

Now, less talk. More train.

Peace.

Revised summer plan and a minor rant

So here's the deal: next week begins job #3 for this year. Yes, that's right friends and neighbours. After not so long ago espousing the joy and happiness of being gainfully employed once again, I have kicked that avocation for yet another, this one now job #3. I have also changed industries, from pharmaceutical to now something more along the lines of health and beauty, although I confess I am not a spandex model or anything like that.

So, here's the deal: the PBO half-iron, now only 4 weeks away (!!!) is back in play. Realistically the priority level has been reassigned. I'm planning to "train through it", putting in only a minor taper and racing the race as a "measuring stick" and not full-out. To be fair, I don't know if I know how to race anything less than full-out (finishing times notwithstanding), but that's the plan from here on out. Hopefully a minor tune-up between now and then at Guelph Lake. Down the calendar, Muskoka 70.3 remains the A lister for this year, with hopefully a full marathon to end out the year in style (or pain) or both.

With the new job, of course, comes the need to rejig the whole family-life-work balance. Gotta put those chainsaws back in the air...

And now for the minor rant: tonight my son was scheduled to be the team captain for his rookie league baseball game at 6:15. Full disclosure: at 5:30 it rained for about three minutes. Darkish clouds swirled through the sky and the humidity was oppressive, but nothing storm-like happened. We arrived at the park at about 6:14 (okay, cutting it a little close) to find a nearly empty diamond, and coaches from both our team and the other team milling about in the parking lot. Allegedly, one parent arrived at about 5:50 and heard a roll of thunder far off in the distance. This parent then proclaimed, "there's no way my son is playing in that!!" The 12-year old umpire proceeded to call the game on account of impending rain.

It's now past 9:30. Still waiting for the rain, thunder, lightning and storm of biblical proportions to wipe us all away. Please. Give me a, ahem, freaking break.

Here are a couple of baseball pictures, just because.

Peace.

Counting down to Beijing

Good news and congrats for Paul Tichelaar, I suppose, but it's kind of like being promoted to first mate of the Titanic. I'm a huge Simon Whitfield fan, but can anybody catch Javier Gomez? Results at the Worlds in Vancouver (find them here) would lead one to believe, not so much.


***

Canadian men's Olympic triathlon team is set
JAMES CHRISTIE
Globe and Mail Update
June 9, 2008 at 11:15 AM EDT
Canada's top-rated triathlete of 2008, Paul Tichelaar of Edmonton, will join forces with two-time Olympian and 2000 gold medallist Simon Whitfield of Victoria and Olympic rookie Colin Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., for the 2008 Games in Beijing.
The team selections were announced Monday by Triathlon Canada.
Tichelaar, 25, sits sixth in the world rankings after top-eight performances in the South Pacific section of the triathlon world circuit at the Mooloolaba, New Plymouth and Tongyeong World Cup events.
He underlined those performances when he came in ninth at the world championships in Vancouver this past weekend.
"Our men's team in Beijing will be among the strongest of any country," said Triathlon Canada's executive director Alan Trivett.
"The addition of Jenkins and Tichelaar adds the opportunity to race as a team with Whitfield; however Tichelaar has been very consistent on the World Cup Circuit over the past year and is equally capable of producing a top result for Canada on his own."
Jenkins, also 25, had four top-20 World Cup finishes in 2007, including in Vancouver where he finished in seventh place. Ranked 47th in the World Cup rankings after the 2007 season, Jenkins is a strong swimmer and cyclist and has been cast in the role of a pace-setting domestique. The Triathlon Canada statement says he was named to the team to help Whitfield's efforts to the podium.
Whitfield qualified for the team based on 2007 results of a top-8 finish at both a World Cup event and the World Championships, while Tichelaar and Jenkins were nominated to the team for submission to the Canadian Olympic Committee late Sunday night by Triathlon Canada's selection committee.
Tichelaar's breakthrough year came in 2006 when he notched his first World Cup top-8 finish (in Edmonton) and came in eighth at the Commonwealth Games. Tichelaar didn't slow down in 2007, posting three top-eight World Cup performances including a silver medal in Cancun, Mexico.
Whitfield, the No.3 Canadian in the World Cup rankings in 12th spot, won the gold medal at the Ishigaki BG Triathlon World Cup in 2008 — the only World Cup race he has competed in this year.
At age 33, the veteran completed eight World Cup races in 2007 and ended the year ranked second in the World Cup rankings. Whitfield finished 11th at the 2004 Athens Olympics. At the World Championships in Hamburg last year, he finished fourth, following that up with a sixth place finish in Vancouver on the weekend.
The women's Olympic triathlon team will be named within the next two weeks.

2007 IMLP race report

Warning: this has been posted elsewhere, but without the pictures. It's here now just to have it "in my files". Enjoy. On a related note, out of the blue I told the family some time back that I wanted to register for IMLP for next year. They said, "okay" without missing a beat. On another related note, I never did find out who that "Caroline" was. Hallucination?

Peace.

IRONMAN LAKE PLACID - Sunday July 22, 2007.

Sunday morning - up before the alarm at 4:30. Spent at least an hour and a half the night before "organizing" my stuff, to the point where my wife yelled at me to "just sit down and stop obsessing". Out the door at 4:45 a.m.

We stayed right in town so I had decided to walk down to transition in the morning. Our hotel was about 100 ft down the street from Placid Planet, where I saw the first shuttle bus stop I walked past. Walked about 3 more minutes before I realized it was too cold in bike shorts and a longsleeve shirt to walk the whole way, so....I put on my wetsuit. No more cold problems after that.

Stopped in on Main St. for a coffee and a bagel, then bodymarking, then just lollygagged around transition for another 45 minutes or so.

Watched the pro women start, and before you knew it, it was time to go...

Swim ("the battle royale")
Time: 1.15:34
My only objective in the water was to get out alive. The beatings started as soon as the cannon went off. I took a couple of smacks, but nothing too serious and eventually gave up on trying to sight "the line" or buoys. I was sighting off the 20-25 people between me and the line of buoys, and that worked. Took another couple of good whacks going around the corners, but made it out alive. In my (brief) experience open-water swimming, anytime you're in "open water", you're off-course. I had to check a couple of times but I more or less managed to hold something of a line.

According to both results on the website and the results book I came out of the water in 1115th place - about half-way, which is about where I always come out of the water, regardless of distance.

Lesson #1: bring shoes or flipflops or something throwaway (if your cheering section is still in bed) - it's really cold in Lake Placid downtown and on the beach in the morning.
Lesson #2: put on sunscreen after the swim, not before. My neck looks like a cross between an alligator purse and a rattlesnake shedding its skin.

T1 - 7:16 (hey, it's a loooong run from the beach)
Bike - 6.12:01

As soon as you roll out of town, the climbing starts, but I was feeling pretty good so the first climb (pre-Keene) actually felt pretty good. About a half-hour out I thought it was time to have something to eat, so I proceeded to get one bite out of my energy bar, before I dropped it. Much cursing followed, but I snagged a banana and gel at the aid station. The 9km descent into Keene is awesome!!! I broke 76 km/h on the downhill, and I couldn't wait to get back there again.
The scenery on the course is just amazing. We were told at the athlete's meeting to make sure to take the time to look up while on the course, and it really is unbelievable. That, and the costumed monkeys in Black Brook.
The first bike lap finished under three hours - the second, not so much. The wind picked up throughout the morning, and according to the paper the next day the temperature changed 40 degrees F (~22 degrees C) through the day), so the second lap was hotter and windier. The second lap climb, from Wilmington back into Lake Placid (this is where I saw the "Go Cliff Tam #280" sign twice) was not nearly as much fun as the first.
The results book had me at #685 after the bike, which means I had to pass almost 500 people (!) on the bike. I didn't notice it - maybe they were all in the transition tent

Lesson #3: don't follow the breakaway. When someone wants to gun past you on the bike, let him/her go. Don't follow the breakaway. It's long day (don't follow the breakaway) with a long way to go. Did I mention not to follow the breakaway??

Side note: holy pelotons, Batman. I know this is a non-drafting sport, but were they ever out there.

T2 - 5:51 (with sunscreen !!)
Run - 4.28:43 (still faster than Oprah)

Not much excitement here. I caught myself thinking, out of T2, that I was around 7:40, and if I could hold together a 4:20 marathon I could break 12 hours. I managed to hold the pace for the first lap, and part of the second (saw Skee twice here - coming in while I was going out, and coming back in while I was going out for lap #2), but the food at the rest stops just got too good to pass up. I walked a few hills (okay, all the hills) on the second lap. The run course is actually broken up nicely, so that if you know where the turnarounds are (would have been really helpful to drive/ride the course) then you can trick yourself into thinking it's all just a bunch of shorter races. The two killer hills on the way back in, at 9/22 miles (over the bridge) and 11/24 miles (into town) are just nasty.

Overall: 12.09:23
616th overall, 143/415 M35-39

I have no idea where this time came from. My only goals were to finish vertical, and hopefully before dark. Will I do this again? Absolutely. The hook is in, pretty deep. I actually found myself thinking about "the next race" while on the run, and my wife actually asked me "so, where are we going next?" on Monday.

Like the academy, I have some people to thank.

Two people, Jane #2485 from Windsor and Caroline, #2166. Caroline, I ran a few miles with on the second lap. Jane, I leapfrogged all day long on the bike and through most of the run, until I passed her for good around mile 23.

Cliff (ckct) and Darren (skeezix) for the swim and strategy Friday a.m. I think I only needed to be told about sixteen more times to "go easy on the first lap".

Finally, my cheering section - my wife and two kids, who made and put up the signs (still have them in my garage) and posted messages on the "inspiration board". They let me go through all this, and never complained (okay, not very much) and actually sound like they want to do it all over again.

Thanks.

First Annual Oakville Half

The plan:

An hour in the water, then back home to hit the road for three hours (or so) of bike, with some tasty hill climbs built in, and finished off with a solid two-hour jaunt through the valley running trails. Seeing as how this was the first annual it would have been surprising for the event to sell out; however I expect that word of mouth will cause registration to be much busier for the next incarnation.

Transition was full, but spirits were high.

It's not the Lucky Lobster, but it's not bad.

The day opened cloudy and cold. As usual on “race days” I woke before the alarm at 6:15 a.m. The goal was to get downstairs, get in some calories (and coffee) and get transition set up, all without waking up the rest of the family. That lasted about half an hour. The “cheering section” was awake and roaming about the house by 6:45.

Darren showed up exactly on time for the opening of the transition area at 7:00 a.m. We set up, spent a few minutes chatting with Bella who insisted on showing off her jump rope skills and headed off to the pool. We arrived ahead of schedule and right on time for the open at 7:30.

Part One: The Swim

Now, let me add a word of explanation. My training has been a little hit-and-miss in the last few weeks as I’ve adjusted to the new job schedule. This swim was my first in two weeks. In fact there had been only two or three swims in the month of May prior to that. To make a long story short, there was a thick layer of rust/struggle, and it showed. The usual Sunday morning participants were in the pool, Flipper Lady and Lane Barge. Flipper Lady just recently became Flipper Lady; previously she was Black Bikini. The flippers haven’t made her any faster and look in fact like they’ve become something of a crutch because now she doesn’t swim without them (at least on Sundays). Is this a pool story? Not quite, but it’s the closest I have.

Darren, as usual, knocked off his 2000 in about ten minutes and waited patiently as I struggled through 1800m before finally calling it after 45 minutes. Honestly, I could have put in more mileage, but started to feel a little guilty watching him alternate between standing around waiting and trying to figure out how to pass Breast Stroke Boy. One more pool tip: the fast lane is not the place to be working on your breast stroke, unless you’re a championship breast stroker. This guy was not.

On the way back from the pool we stopped briefly so that I could pick up my race entry fee for the Social Director.

Part Two: The Bike

The bike course planned for today topped out at ~93km (58 miles for you southerners) with three nice “climbs of note” at 22, 42 and 65 km. The bike route was also last-minute diverted, as Darren pointed out that the original route had us going up Sixth Line at almost the exact same time as the Milton Triathlon. A good observation and it occurred to me that I had missed again the annual race that is almost literally in my backyard. Because this race is so early in the year I think it’s actually the trigger that makes me realize that the season is on. By that time of course it’s too late to get in on the action. It’s also possible that in future years the soon-to-be-wildly-successful Oakville Half will conflict on this date.

Went hard-core on the bike today – one bottle of fluid and a couple of bars. The course had us in the neighbourhood of at least one store where we could have stopped to reload if necessary. This was also the first “real” ride on the new bike, so I had no idea how it was going to go – new saddle, new fit, new position.

Like earlier in the day, the ride start was cool (13C or 56F) and very windy. Winds were 25-35km/hour and right in our face all the way out. The ride also started out inauspiciously – I lost Darren at the first traffic light out of town – oops. We got that sorted out and carried on.

The climb at Guelph Line in the curiously-named town of Lowville was the first real test for the new bike, and it smoothed right on up that hill like it wasn’t even there. I was impressed. The second climb at Appleby Line (up the escarpment to the entrance at Rattlesnake Point) isn’t a fair test – it’s a killer on any ride.

Other ride notes:

At one stretch we rode past a massive peloton whipping by in the opposite direction – we later found out from another rider that the pack was training for RAAM – yet another wacko event. We also passed quite a bunch of riders in a “moveathon”, whatever that is. They were well-prepared – had at least two aid stations that I saw.

We did actually cross part of the bike course for Milton – must have been the duathlon course.

We also missed the last turn-off into Kilbride for the last Cedar Springs climb – I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

The headwind out became a tailwind back into transition, so we absolutely smoked back into town at one point averaging 50km/h. Again, going hard-core I hadn’t even moved my computer from Donkey to the new bike. Total ride time 3:10.04.

Part Three: The Run

A fuel stop before heading out on the trails was necessary – banana and a giant bottle of Gatorade. The run, in theory was to be two hours out and about the valley trails. There is overhead construction at one point (bridge-widening) and so part of the park is closed to traffic, which just means a little fence-dodging. There were also a couple of washouts on the path, alongside signs that say, “WARNING: Poison Ivy – Stay on the Path”. Adventurous. It all just reminds me why trail running is so much better than road running. Sure you give up the exact distance measure for the training log – you can’t Google Map the trails, and the tree cover is thick enough to make GPS signals irregular and unreliable – but no cars, no noise, no wind. Nothing but the crunch of gravel underfoot and the wheezing (of me) trying to keep up after a previous month of extremely sparse training. And of course, I forgot my gels and Shot Bloks before going out, so I ran hardcore with no fuel. There was a hydration stop just after an hour in. We must have done okay, because we ran out of trail at 1h 40, not quite the estimated two hour run. Hmm – route change for next year’s trail portion.

Overall, I would describe it as an excellent day’s work. The trick now is following it up and getting back into the routine. I think I have the base in place for Peterborough, but haven’t registered. I’m not sure I’d be happy with the outcome with my fitness at its current level. I know they say the swim part is easy to get back (whoever “they” are). The bike is okay and the run endurance needs some work. Still have time to decide, but it would sure add some purpose to the training to have a target to shoot at, before Muskoka. Maybe another shorter tune-up this summer as well.

Peace.

Baby pictures, speed dating

Yes, I'm that kind of father. Here are pictures.

Went out with the "baby" for a 30 minute speed date this morning. Don't know if I believe in love at first sight, but we certainly seem to like each other. Still working on a name for the "baby" - any ideas?

White shoes - funky!

Peace.

Donkey, amputation, Floripa

Remember at the end of last week that the plan for this week added up to nearly thirteen hours of training? The total this week was nearly eleven hours. See if you can spot where the plan fells short:

Swimming: ZERO m, ZERO minutes!!!!

Bike: 206.4 km

Run: 47km, with a long run of 19km yesterday.

Hmm, notice any weak spots in the training plan? Yep, still having trouble working the swim into the schedule with the new job schedule. Need to work out an alternate arrangement this week to get some pool time in. On the bright side both the ride and run schedules went well, although the run was a tiny bit light. Yesterday's long run convinced me - the run portion of the First Annual Oakville Half brought to you by nobody, scheduled for June 1 will in all likelihood have at least a 75% trail run course. It's way better than road running and sucking exhaust. Course maps still to follow, although I imagine they'll be finalized by about Wednesday.

This weekend was IronMan Brazil - has always been one of my "wishlist" destination races. Results and race reports from Ironmanlive.com are available here. Once again, Fernanda Keller, the 43-year old "Wonder Woman" of Brazil won the women's race, celebrating her 25th year as a professional triathlete. To persevere in this sport for that long is pretty impressive.

Today might have been one of the last long rides on Donkey, my "noble steed". Yep, tomorrow the new baby is due and the pre-deed is done. A new parking space is set up in the garage and the Donkey was amputated - pedals removed.

Editor's note: remember the other mention last week about the "other" new baby that was due to join the family last week? My cousin and her husband were convinced they were having a son (and his name was Luke). They had their fourth daughter on Friday - baby is doing fine, mother and father are a little confused, but otherwise fine.

In remembrance of the contribution Donkey made to my, ahem "career" in this hobby, a few profiles have been attached. I'll be observing a moment of silence, although undoubtedly Donkey will remain in the rotation for the occasional mercy weekend ride, or to shuttle the kids to school once in awhile.

The last one is of course just a candid shot of the two of us chillaxing together.

Peace.

Ironman Brasil - one day, my friends, one day

The 2008 version ran today - race report will follow later. I've been watching these videos for two days, and I'm getting hyped up. This video is from a couple years back, but it's not bad. This race has always been on my "to-do" list, but cycling over cobblestones?!? Why not? Bring 'em on!

One day - maybe not next year, but one day. I'll be there.

Peace.

Quick post...new baby coming, after all!!

Next week!

"Sometime in May" now officially means that I'll meet my new baby next Monday - they're building her now to be ready tomorrow, but are so jammed up with fittings I can't get in until Monday.

Ed. Note: if my cousing Ally is reading this, I'm not talking about you, so don't get freaked out. (She's having a baby, literally tomorrow. Scheduled and everything). And if you're up at this time of night reading this with all you have planned for tomorrow, shame on you. Get some rest.

Bike fitting on Monday. Hmmm - need to get a few rides in before the 1st Annual Oakville Half next weekend. The three amigos - myself, Darren and Cliff - together again. Of course invitations are open to anyone else who may be in the neighbourhood next weekend. Fire off a comment or an email and I'll open up the transition area, er, garage.

Bike course and run course to follow.

Peace!

Lost week

So there's good news and there's bad news from last week.

First the bad news. From a training perspective last week was a complete and utter write-off. I managed to get in a grand total of 2-1/4 hours of training - one 45 minute run and a 90 minute ride (roundtrip, from the doctor's office). Fortunately it was a scheduled "rest" week anyway, but it certainly wasn't intended at the outset to drop off quite so much.

The drop off had two sources. One, from Tuesday on I fought a nasty case of the spring flu, which is not yet gone, but seems to be on the decline. Very little breathing and even less sleeping, but after this week I could tell you everything you needed to know and some things you don't about expectoration, rockets, boogies, mocos and the like.

The second source, and this is where the bad news takes a hike and the good news comes strolling down the laneway. The new job started on Monday. Now, the on-the-job training takes place on the afternoon shift (2:00 pm - 10:00 pm) which is tough. The even "gooder" news is that it looks as though this is going to work out just fine.

The other piece of good news? After making a trip to the doctor it was determined that my achilles injury is not yet serious enough to be called tendonitis. It's a noninsertional tendonopathy (try dropping that into your next dinner conversation) that's on the verge of becoming a tendonitis that could take 2-3 months to rehab. Fortunately some stretching (yes Darren, I know) and light-to-moderate rehab, with no prescribed reduction in training, should clear it up.

The real challenge now is fitting the training into the new working schedule, which is a bit of a challenge. Afternoon swims now become morning swims and morning runs now must move to other days. All part of that great circle of life, Simba.

So, this upcoming week calls for ~13 hours training - three swims, four rides and three runs. I can hardly wait to see how this turns out.

Stay tuned.