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.