Putting the boxes on the bike for the Greyhound
Amazing job
Rolling down Granville in Van
Taking the bus to the ferry
Why I did Not Eat my Father (2015)
9 years ago
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Kelowna Apple- Part 2
After the race we headed off to the hotel to shower and change, and then back to the course. I was hoping for a top 5 at this race, but it didn't happen. 6th in my age group. I made the goal of top 5 however, based on last year's results, which I would have made. This year had a strong M20 field.
I relaxed with my buddies in the beer gardens for a bit, and then it was time to head home. My buddy Steve was driving, and the rest of us started to fall into a nice relaxing sleep for the long ride home. About an hour in to the ride, Steve woke me up to tell me something is wrong with the car. I saw that a few warning lights were on, but I wasn't too worried, that is until Steve pointed out that the engine temperature gauge was in the "engine is about to explode" range.
We pulled over in the middle of nowhere and popped the hood. The engine was smoking pretty bad. One of the tubes that connects the radiator to the coolant pump had come off, spewing coolant everywhere. We knew we were going to have to get a tow. Luckily we hitched a ride with a guy heading to Merritt, as a tow truck can only take two guys. The tow into Merritt (26km away) was $200.00! Ouch. Being guys, we assumed that when we got to Merritt we could do a little repair on the blown tube and be off to Vancouver in an hour.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Looking stoked to be in Merritt
The coolant tube was but a small symptom of a much larger problem. We slowly began to figure out that the engine blew something that created a massive oil leak. In a matter of minutes the car was running on NO oil. Like none. This created so much heat that the coolant couldn't take the pressure and blew, creating even more heat. We had to wait until the next day to get the final verdict from the mechanic in Merritt, but we were pretty sure the engine was toast.
Let me tell you, Merritt on a Sunday night is not that fun. Me and the boys made the best of it, getting some Captain Morgans and yucking it up, but we knew tomorrow was going to be a long day. To add to all of this, two of us had no battery for our cell phones, and another had somehow lost his altogether.
I got up early the next day to talk to the mechanic who informed me the car was toast. He was sure that the incredible overheating had melted the inside of the engine, causing it to warp. You could hear the starter motor turning, but there was just no compression in the pistons. AWESOME. This was my mom's car which I decided to take instead of mine so that we wouldn't break down and be stranded. Ironic.
It was hard to leave such a nice car there, but we had to get home. I couldn't stay another night in Merritt, and it would likely take a lot longer than that to figure out what to do with the car. So we ditched it and took a Greyhound bus to Vancouver.
I took apart my bike as best I could and had two bags on my back, my wheels in one hand, and my bike in the other. It was rough. Two minutes before leaving on the bus, the driver informs me that he won't take my bike because it's not in a box. WTF? So we asked for some old boxes out back and just started taping them around my bike. We somehow got like 4 old crappy old boxes over my bike, and just taped two half boxes around my wheels. So butch.
After 5 long hours we made it to Vancouver. Then the hard part began. We had to take public transit from downtown to the ferry. Two bags, wheels, and my bike on the skytrain and bus. OMG. I will post pictures of it I promise. I don't know how my bike made it without any mishaps. After the second bus we had a little time so I put the bike back together and put it on the bike rack outside, which was a little nicer.
We finally get to the ferry and walk on. I bring my bike upstairs because I had no lock for it and hell, I just didn't want to leave it anywhere. Of course the cheif steward has a big problem with this, but my buddies pull the "he is a big triathlete guy that just came back from national championships and his car broke down" story, so the guy lets us keep the bike upstairs.
10.5 hours after leaving Merritt, we are back in Victoria. All of the travelling has basically ruined my legs (little or no stretching plus a greyhound equals pain).
I have to laugh because I was thinking to myself "I never want to travel again," except I am leaving for Australia in like 7 days for 3 months! I'm gonna bike out to the Sidney TT tonight just to loosen up the legs.
I relaxed with my buddies in the beer gardens for a bit, and then it was time to head home. My buddy Steve was driving, and the rest of us started to fall into a nice relaxing sleep for the long ride home. About an hour in to the ride, Steve woke me up to tell me something is wrong with the car. I saw that a few warning lights were on, but I wasn't too worried, that is until Steve pointed out that the engine temperature gauge was in the "engine is about to explode" range.
We pulled over in the middle of nowhere and popped the hood. The engine was smoking pretty bad. One of the tubes that connects the radiator to the coolant pump had come off, spewing coolant everywhere. We knew we were going to have to get a tow. Luckily we hitched a ride with a guy heading to Merritt, as a tow truck can only take two guys. The tow into Merritt (26km away) was $200.00! Ouch. Being guys, we assumed that when we got to Merritt we could do a little repair on the blown tube and be off to Vancouver in an hour.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Us working on the car
Steve providing the music for our troubles
Looking stoked to be in Merritt
Let me tell you, Merritt on a Sunday night is not that fun. Me and the boys made the best of it, getting some Captain Morgans and yucking it up, but we knew tomorrow was going to be a long day. To add to all of this, two of us had no battery for our cell phones, and another had somehow lost his altogether.
I got up early the next day to talk to the mechanic who informed me the car was toast. He was sure that the incredible overheating had melted the inside of the engine, causing it to warp. You could hear the starter motor turning, but there was just no compression in the pistons. AWESOME. This was my mom's car which I decided to take instead of mine so that we wouldn't break down and be stranded. Ironic.
It was hard to leave such a nice car there, but we had to get home. I couldn't stay another night in Merritt, and it would likely take a lot longer than that to figure out what to do with the car. So we ditched it and took a Greyhound bus to Vancouver.
The long walk home
I took apart my bike as best I could and had two bags on my back, my wheels in one hand, and my bike in the other. It was rough. Two minutes before leaving on the bus, the driver informs me that he won't take my bike because it's not in a box. WTF? So we asked for some old boxes out back and just started taping them around my bike. We somehow got like 4 old crappy old boxes over my bike, and just taped two half boxes around my wheels. So butch.
After 5 long hours we made it to Vancouver. Then the hard part began. We had to take public transit from downtown to the ferry. Two bags, wheels, and my bike on the skytrain and bus. OMG. I will post pictures of it I promise. I don't know how my bike made it without any mishaps. After the second bus we had a little time so I put the bike back together and put it on the bike rack outside, which was a little nicer.
We finally get to the ferry and walk on. I bring my bike upstairs because I had no lock for it and hell, I just didn't want to leave it anywhere. Of course the cheif steward has a big problem with this, but my buddies pull the "he is a big triathlete guy that just came back from national championships and his car broke down" story, so the guy lets us keep the bike upstairs.
10.5 hours after leaving Merritt, we are back in Victoria. All of the travelling has basically ruined my legs (little or no stretching plus a greyhound equals pain).
I have to laugh because I was thinking to myself "I never want to travel again," except I am leaving for Australia in like 7 days for 3 months! I'm gonna bike out to the Sidney TT tonight just to loosen up the legs.
This post will have to be in parts!
Wow I have never had so much stuff happen in a span of 3 days. I don't even know where to start? A road trip with my three best buds, a very important triathlon, and an unplanned sojourn in Merritt are just some of the highlights. OK here it goes.
Me and three of my buds left Vic on Friday afternoon. I was pretty excited that I was going to Nationals with some non-triathlon people. I didn't want to be overly anxious for the race too far in advance. These guys would help me relax until it was time to focus on the entire reason for the trip, the triathlon.
After accidentally missing the turnoff to Hope and hitting the US border, we were one our way to Kelowna! We sang old songs at the top of our lungs the whole way up, and got into our crummy motel around 12:00 am in good spirits. The next morning I got up early (compared to four regular guys ha) and headed down to the race site. The juniors were racing and it was fun to watch. I could feel the nervous tension building up in me. I was excited! The weather was so different from last year. It was still really hot in the day (around 30), but the mornings were strikingly cooler. I also saw wetsuits so I knew that they would most likely be legal the next day as well.
After coming back to the hotel we all went for a wine tour / tasting at Mission Hill Winery. It was amazing!
Me and three of my buds left Vic on Friday afternoon. I was pretty excited that I was going to Nationals with some non-triathlon people. I didn't want to be overly anxious for the race too far in advance. These guys would help me relax until it was time to focus on the entire reason for the trip, the triathlon.
After accidentally missing the turnoff to Hope and hitting the US border, we were one our way to Kelowna! We sang old songs at the top of our lungs the whole way up, and got into our crummy motel around 12:00 am in good spirits. The next morning I got up early (compared to four regular guys ha) and headed down to the race site. The juniors were racing and it was fun to watch. I could feel the nervous tension building up in me. I was excited! The weather was so different from last year. It was still really hot in the day (around 30), but the mornings were strikingly cooler. I also saw wetsuits so I knew that they would most likely be legal the next day as well.
After coming back to the hotel we all went for a wine tour / tasting at Mission Hill Winery. It was amazing!
Us acting stupid at the wine tour!
Us getting our somellier on
I of course only had a few small glasses of wine, and was chugging the water on the hot day. I was the guy on the tour that had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes!
After the tour we headed out for lunch, and then back to the hotel where I got ready to pack my tri stuff up and drop my bike off at the site. I remember one fatal error last year was being outside around the triathlon site waaaay too long under the hot sun. This year I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was in bed early.
I kicked the boys out to go partying around 9:00 pm and got a nice 5 hour head start on them for sleep!
Race morning was the usualy race morning. I made sure that I had eaten a good brekkie, and had my usualy double espresso (something I forgot last race). I found Sam Mazer in transition and we hung out for the better part of 2 hours, doing a small warmup together. I was pumped. The swim course was two loops, so it looked pretty short. I got a great warmup in and was ready to go when all of the male 20-29s were corralled together for the start. I was so scared! I have never been really scared before a race, but I didn't want to fail twice in a row, and I knew today was going to be painful. Kelowna is a hard course! I knew I would be basically sprinting in at least 25 degree heat for the next two hours! The probabilility of cramping on this course is pretty high for a big guy like me!
The gun went off, and the start was crazy! I mean stupid crazy. There were so many fist flying. Some people were so intent on hurting others that for about 100 meters we were barely moving forward! We actually came to a complete stop at one point. Tactically, it was a slow swim for me. Physically, I was pushing hard and trying to grab some feet. But sometimes it just doesn't happen. There was nobody around me that was going my pace. I swam along for most of the swim. Some guy punched me so hard in the first 100m that my left goggle filled up with water, so I couldn't see anything. I managed to fix it when we came out of the water for the second lap, but it for sure had cost me some time. I came out of the water in 23:48, which I am really happy with considering the conditions.
T1 was painful! I just didn't have the usual jump out of the water. I hopped on the bike and rode off like the wind hoping to make up some time.
I attacked Knox hill aggressively. I could tell my biking was strong today. I rode with a guy for a lap and a half, but he died soon after. I was hitting 45-47 k/hr on the stretch back into Kelowna. I knew I was faster than last year, because I had written on a peice of paper my lap splits from last year, and I was faster. I also knew that it would be very tight to get into T2 around the 1:30.00 mark, which would set me up for a 2:10.00 goal race time. My bike time was 1:05.41, almost two minutes faster than last year (which was the bike of my life). I was out of T2 in 1:31.54, so I knew my goal of 2:10.00 might not happen. Still, I was really happy with my race so far and I wanted to finish strong.
I set a solid pace on the run early. Unfortunatly, there are no km markers on the run course. This automatically makes you slower, because you can't see when you start to slack off how fast you are going and speed up! I saw on one of the turnarounds that I was a minute back of one of my fellow age groupers. I reeled him in around 4km, just in time to pass my cheering squad of three guys yelling like idiots for me! It was awesome!
When he saw me catch up, he definitely sped up, which was fine for me. I was starting to feel the heat and could definitely use a running partner! He dragged me through the next few kms, and we started talking to eachother, encouraging eachother to keep pushing hard. Around 7 km I started to get tactical with this guy. I was listening to his breathing. It was much more laboured than mine. I could tell he was working harder than me. Still, every time we accelerated, he hung on. At around 9km, there was a water station, and he pulled in behind me to get some gatoraid. That was the moment I decided to go. I went balls out and the guy just couldn't respond. In about 300m I had made a 50m gap. My cheering squad went nuts when they saw this! I finished with a 39:35 run, which I am really happy with for not having km markers. My total time was 2:11.29. which is basically a minute away from my ultimate goal in worlds. I am sooo happy about this race. I was two minutes faster in the swim, 2 minutes faster in the bike, and 4 minutes faster in the run than last year, for a total of 8 minutes faster!
I am really happy because mentally and physically, I executed this race to plan. Without the crazy head bashing start in the swim, and with km markers, I am pretty sure I would have been in the 2:10.00 range.
Most of the story starts after this race, but I just can't bring myself to start it now.
More entry later...
After the tour we headed out for lunch, and then back to the hotel where I got ready to pack my tri stuff up and drop my bike off at the site. I remember one fatal error last year was being outside around the triathlon site waaaay too long under the hot sun. This year I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was in bed early.
I kicked the boys out to go partying around 9:00 pm and got a nice 5 hour head start on them for sleep!
Race morning was the usualy race morning. I made sure that I had eaten a good brekkie, and had my usualy double espresso (something I forgot last race). I found Sam Mazer in transition and we hung out for the better part of 2 hours, doing a small warmup together. I was pumped. The swim course was two loops, so it looked pretty short. I got a great warmup in and was ready to go when all of the male 20-29s were corralled together for the start. I was so scared! I have never been really scared before a race, but I didn't want to fail twice in a row, and I knew today was going to be painful. Kelowna is a hard course! I knew I would be basically sprinting in at least 25 degree heat for the next two hours! The probabilility of cramping on this course is pretty high for a big guy like me!
The gun went off, and the start was crazy! I mean stupid crazy. There were so many fist flying. Some people were so intent on hurting others that for about 100 meters we were barely moving forward! We actually came to a complete stop at one point. Tactically, it was a slow swim for me. Physically, I was pushing hard and trying to grab some feet. But sometimes it just doesn't happen. There was nobody around me that was going my pace. I swam along for most of the swim. Some guy punched me so hard in the first 100m that my left goggle filled up with water, so I couldn't see anything. I managed to fix it when we came out of the water for the second lap, but it for sure had cost me some time. I came out of the water in 23:48, which I am really happy with considering the conditions.
T1 was painful! I just didn't have the usual jump out of the water. I hopped on the bike and rode off like the wind hoping to make up some time.
I attacked Knox hill aggressively. I could tell my biking was strong today. I rode with a guy for a lap and a half, but he died soon after. I was hitting 45-47 k/hr on the stretch back into Kelowna. I knew I was faster than last year, because I had written on a peice of paper my lap splits from last year, and I was faster. I also knew that it would be very tight to get into T2 around the 1:30.00 mark, which would set me up for a 2:10.00 goal race time. My bike time was 1:05.41, almost two minutes faster than last year (which was the bike of my life). I was out of T2 in 1:31.54, so I knew my goal of 2:10.00 might not happen. Still, I was really happy with my race so far and I wanted to finish strong.
I set a solid pace on the run early. Unfortunatly, there are no km markers on the run course. This automatically makes you slower, because you can't see when you start to slack off how fast you are going and speed up! I saw on one of the turnarounds that I was a minute back of one of my fellow age groupers. I reeled him in around 4km, just in time to pass my cheering squad of three guys yelling like idiots for me! It was awesome!
Me and the guy
When he saw me catch up, he definitely sped up, which was fine for me. I was starting to feel the heat and could definitely use a running partner! He dragged me through the next few kms, and we started talking to eachother, encouraging eachother to keep pushing hard. Around 7 km I started to get tactical with this guy. I was listening to his breathing. It was much more laboured than mine. I could tell he was working harder than me. Still, every time we accelerated, he hung on. At around 9km, there was a water station, and he pulled in behind me to get some gatoraid. That was the moment I decided to go. I went balls out and the guy just couldn't respond. In about 300m I had made a 50m gap. My cheering squad went nuts when they saw this! I finished with a 39:35 run, which I am really happy with for not having km markers. My total time was 2:11.29. which is basically a minute away from my ultimate goal in worlds. I am sooo happy about this race. I was two minutes faster in the swim, 2 minutes faster in the bike, and 4 minutes faster in the run than last year, for a total of 8 minutes faster!
I am really happy because mentally and physically, I executed this race to plan. Without the crazy head bashing start in the swim, and with km markers, I am pretty sure I would have been in the 2:10.00 range.
Most of the story starts after this race, but I just can't bring myself to start it now.
More entry later...
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Out of The BLUE!!
Wow I have to write a quick post on this. Yesterday I took my Team Canada tri suit to Out of the Blue, so that they could repair the CAN that is falling off the front. They told me it would be ready the next day and would probably cost like $10.
I get there today and they give me my suit and when I ask how much the lady says "no charge, good luck at Nationals." Wow, what a company! I said no that I wanted to pay her, but she wouldn't let me, saying "we only fixed the lettering, it wasn't a big deal."
This would never happen on the mainland, or anywhere else for that matter. I was so touched. That is what a local company is all about. If anyone is having problems with their Team Canada tri suit, or would like their name printed on their suit, I would strongly suggest you go to Out of the Blue. I will be a customer for life.
I get there today and they give me my suit and when I ask how much the lady says "no charge, good luck at Nationals." Wow, what a company! I said no that I wanted to pay her, but she wouldn't let me, saying "we only fixed the lettering, it wasn't a big deal."
This would never happen on the mainland, or anywhere else for that matter. I was so touched. That is what a local company is all about. If anyone is having problems with their Team Canada tri suit, or would like their name printed on their suit, I would strongly suggest you go to Out of the Blue. I will be a customer for life.
Monday, August 17, 2009
1 week
Just under 1 week 'till Nationals! I'm getting pretty excited. I took in my Team Canada tri suit to get the CAN fixed on it today. I can't believe the quality of the suit that Tri Can gave us for Worlds! I've worn it two times and most of the lettering has fallen off! Luckily there's a great shop in Vic that does tri-suits for the naitonal and junior teams, so they know what to do!
My week of great workouts ended strong. I had a solid run with the Lifesport group on Saturday morning. We did 10 x 2 minutes hard. We did 5 of them out and 5 back, so you had to be at least back to the same spot you started at or better. I felt a little sloppy on the way out, but turned it on on the way back, negative splitting! I followed that up with a 1 hour easy bike.
Sunday had a 2 hour brick on the sched. I was a little worried that this workout might not go well, since I had a wedding to work on Satuday night and we didn't get home 'till around 1:30am. My legs were a little sluggish on the two TT efforts on the bike, but the 5 km TT run off the bike went great. Nothing like running on a track for a TT! Although somewhat monotonous, you know that the kms are the same length, so you can see exactly when you are losing ground. I threw down an 18:31 5km, with a steadily rising hr from 156 to 188 on the last km. It was interesting to note that my second km was quite a bit better than my first km. I guess it really does take a little bit for the muscles to stretch out and activate after the bike.
Today was the start of my taper week. We had a little shorter main set today in the pool (1800m), but it was hard! Some drills, 4 x 50 sprints, followed up immediately by a 200, 3 times. I held 38 seconds for the 50s, and around 2:55 for the 200s, which I was happy with. My arms were demolished from each set of 50s. I also completed my goal of not letting Magali lap me on the 200, which I barely made each time!
Time for a nap and then the last of my 6 straight days of working yeaaaaah!
My week of great workouts ended strong. I had a solid run with the Lifesport group on Saturday morning. We did 10 x 2 minutes hard. We did 5 of them out and 5 back, so you had to be at least back to the same spot you started at or better. I felt a little sloppy on the way out, but turned it on on the way back, negative splitting! I followed that up with a 1 hour easy bike.
Sunday had a 2 hour brick on the sched. I was a little worried that this workout might not go well, since I had a wedding to work on Satuday night and we didn't get home 'till around 1:30am. My legs were a little sluggish on the two TT efforts on the bike, but the 5 km TT run off the bike went great. Nothing like running on a track for a TT! Although somewhat monotonous, you know that the kms are the same length, so you can see exactly when you are losing ground. I threw down an 18:31 5km, with a steadily rising hr from 156 to 188 on the last km. It was interesting to note that my second km was quite a bit better than my first km. I guess it really does take a little bit for the muscles to stretch out and activate after the bike.
Today was the start of my taper week. We had a little shorter main set today in the pool (1800m), but it was hard! Some drills, 4 x 50 sprints, followed up immediately by a 200, 3 times. I held 38 seconds for the 50s, and around 2:55 for the 200s, which I was happy with. My arms were demolished from each set of 50s. I also completed my goal of not letting Magali lap me on the 200, which I barely made each time!
Time for a nap and then the last of my 6 straight days of working yeaaaaah!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
It's on
This week has been a great week of workouts. It's funny...I didn't even feel that great after my recovery week last week. I was sort of thinking to myself "do I need another week or something???". But apparently that is all I needed. After another good long bike on Sunday, I had my best swim practice of my life on Monday. We were going 400s, 200s, and 100s. Throughout the 2400m main set, I held 1:28 on the 400s, 1:26 on the 200s, and sub 1:23 on the 100s. By far the fastest I have ever swam. I even got down to 1:20 on my last 100! Thanks to Janet for pacing with me for the first while, before accelerating away! I couldn't even hide how stoked I was at this pace. It was one of those days were I didn't want to leave the pool.
Tuesday brought another great day of workouts. I had a great run in the morning, where I was building by 1/3rds from recovery to tempo. For some reason I decided to try and run sub 40 minutes at elk lake, even though the first 6km would be at a really low hr. I missed it by about 1 minute, but I was giving it a pretty good effort by the end to try and make it!
After some rest, which involved painting my bathroom, I had the Sidney TT in the evening. There was a big contigent of Lifesport peeps there which is always fun! I was about 10 seconds off my PB (for my third fastest time of the year), which I am pretty happy with for having tired legs from running and painting, as well as the course was really slow today. One of those days where you go around 37km/hr on the way out, and 45 km/hr on the way back, thanks to the winds. I finished off the day with a nice cooldown in the squash courts! Legs were pretty tired when I got home at 9:30 pm!
Wednesday brought another great day of workouts. It started early, with a 7 am jaunt to the Observatory to do 6 hill repeats. It was one of the workouts where I thought to myself "wow I would never have done this last year." The repeats went really smooth, with each ascent feeling better than the last.
After the bike it was off for another workout in the pool. Although it is tough to take away too much from a long set of 50s, I just feel like I have a better attitude in the pool and can stay strong throughout the w/o.
I think that my last race has been a blessing in disguise. I hate being embarassed, and I feel like I am totally dialed in mentally to training right now. I want to kill it in Kelowna. I feel like more of an athlete than ever before. Triathlon is my job right now, while bartending is a distant second! I have a bit of a cold right now, so I'm crossing my fingers that it's just a passing thing.
Ciao
Tuesday brought another great day of workouts. I had a great run in the morning, where I was building by 1/3rds from recovery to tempo. For some reason I decided to try and run sub 40 minutes at elk lake, even though the first 6km would be at a really low hr. I missed it by about 1 minute, but I was giving it a pretty good effort by the end to try and make it!
After some rest, which involved painting my bathroom, I had the Sidney TT in the evening. There was a big contigent of Lifesport peeps there which is always fun! I was about 10 seconds off my PB (for my third fastest time of the year), which I am pretty happy with for having tired legs from running and painting, as well as the course was really slow today. One of those days where you go around 37km/hr on the way out, and 45 km/hr on the way back, thanks to the winds. I finished off the day with a nice cooldown in the squash courts! Legs were pretty tired when I got home at 9:30 pm!
Wednesday brought another great day of workouts. It started early, with a 7 am jaunt to the Observatory to do 6 hill repeats. It was one of the workouts where I thought to myself "wow I would never have done this last year." The repeats went really smooth, with each ascent feeling better than the last.
After the bike it was off for another workout in the pool. Although it is tough to take away too much from a long set of 50s, I just feel like I have a better attitude in the pool and can stay strong throughout the w/o.
I think that my last race has been a blessing in disguise. I hate being embarassed, and I feel like I am totally dialed in mentally to training right now. I want to kill it in Kelowna. I feel like more of an athlete than ever before. Triathlon is my job right now, while bartending is a distant second! I have a bit of a cold right now, so I'm crossing my fingers that it's just a passing thing.
Ciao
Saturday, August 8, 2009
5:07
Although I had a bad race last week, the feedback from training lately has been constantly reminding me that I am in a good place physically. I am the fastest I have ever been right now.
Last Tuesday I broke my PB in the Sidney Time Trial. That tells me that I am biking faster than I have ever done.
Friday in our open water session I swam one of the 400m sections in under 6 minutes. Again, faster than I have ever done.
Today at our run workout I ran a 5:07 mile, faster by far than I have ever done. Sure, there is a story behind it. We were only doing three mile repeats instead of our usual six, and I accidentally went out too hard on the first one and slowed a little too much on the last one. But my previous best on the mile was 5:15. Last month I wouldn't even dream of doing a 5:07 mile, regardless of how I did the rest of the workout (which, although not well paced, was also a PB for me on best average). For all the metrics out there, a 5:07 mile corresponds to a 3:11 km, only better because you hold it for longer than a km.
I need to get past my bad race and look at my entire body of work this year, in which I have shown quite an improvement.
The run this morning was followed up by a pleasant 2 hour ride in the rain. Did 6 repeats up Observatory, which felt good. My legs were smashed from the run, but I didn't care.
One interesting note is that I had 1 powerbar before the ride (after the run) and one before my hill repeats, but my energy didn't show up until I was riding home, where I got a sudden burst of energy, accelerating up hills even though my legs were so tired. I will keep that in mind for my race day nutrition.
Happy training!
Last Tuesday I broke my PB in the Sidney Time Trial. That tells me that I am biking faster than I have ever done.
Friday in our open water session I swam one of the 400m sections in under 6 minutes. Again, faster than I have ever done.
Today at our run workout I ran a 5:07 mile, faster by far than I have ever done. Sure, there is a story behind it. We were only doing three mile repeats instead of our usual six, and I accidentally went out too hard on the first one and slowed a little too much on the last one. But my previous best on the mile was 5:15. Last month I wouldn't even dream of doing a 5:07 mile, regardless of how I did the rest of the workout (which, although not well paced, was also a PB for me on best average). For all the metrics out there, a 5:07 mile corresponds to a 3:11 km, only better because you hold it for longer than a km.
I need to get past my bad race and look at my entire body of work this year, in which I have shown quite an improvement.
The run this morning was followed up by a pleasant 2 hour ride in the rain. Did 6 repeats up Observatory, which felt good. My legs were smashed from the run, but I didn't care.
One interesting note is that I had 1 powerbar before the ride (after the run) and one before my hill repeats, but my energy didn't show up until I was riding home, where I got a sudden burst of energy, accelerating up hills even though my legs were so tired. I will keep that in mind for my race day nutrition.
Happy training!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Reset
This week has been a reset for me. After a good chat with Coach Dan, we have decided to take this week super easy. I am really only doing the Masters swims on Mon, Wed, and Fri (open water). I had an easy bike on Tues and an easy run on Weds. It has been strange taking so much time off! The strangest part is that I have had Tues and Thurs off work. Usually when I have days off work, it is a no brainer to do my heaviest workloads. Today though, I am doing NOTHING! Crazy. But I know I need it.
In fact, since this week has been easier, I actually had my first great swim workout in a while. We were doing descending 100s and 75s. I was descending from 1:35 to 1:25, and I could feel that my form was a lot better. Dan was basically hovering over me the whole time, which was great. I'm sure I was doing just as well on the 75s, but since it is kind of a strange distance I was getting confused on pace times and leading my lane a little astray!
Slowly I am starting to come around. I am starting to get some bursts of energy, which is great! Lots of naps and down time!
In fact, since this week has been easier, I actually had my first great swim workout in a while. We were doing descending 100s and 75s. I was descending from 1:35 to 1:25, and I could feel that my form was a lot better. Dan was basically hovering over me the whole time, which was great. I'm sure I was doing just as well on the 75s, but since it is kind of a strange distance I was getting confused on pace times and leading my lane a little astray!
Slowly I am starting to come around. I am starting to get some bursts of energy, which is great! Lots of naps and down time!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Worst Triathlon Ever - Race Report
I have always wondered about the "bad race" when I read about it on some of the other triathlete blogs. Before Sunday I had never experienced a "bad race" in the sense of grossly underachieving what I had expected for myself. Now I have, and I am struggling mentally with what it means. I have already begun the thousand questions of why. I don't really mind having a bad race, but having a bad race two weeks before nationals and four weeks before Australia doesn't exactly put my mind at ease.
Pre-Race. I did everything that I usually do pre-race. Up early with a meal-replacement shake, banana, powerbar, and sports drink. Got to the race site nice and early, had a pretty good warmup, and was ready to go.
Swim: The swim started pretty frantically, with lots of fists flying. I got hit pretty hard in the right goggle, and I ended up losing vision on that side do to the extreme suction on my face! The funniest part about this is that it was probably my coach, as I noticed he was beside me about 100m later. After that I just concentrated on high turnover and never slowing down. I missed the draft of the first pack, but hung around in the line of other triathletes. I went off course a few times, but nothing too serious. I was feeling good, and although I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked, I felt like I as in for a good swim time.
When I got into T1 I quickly checked my watch and couldn't believe the time I saw. 27 minutes! What! I doubled checked my watch. Yep 27 minutes. Yep somehow I swam slower than last year, even though I am at least four times faster than last year. I told myself that the course must have been long, and to not worry about it. So I hopped on my bike and set off.
About 1 km into the bike Richard Knowlton passed me. #$%@. That means that I actually did have a ridiculously slow swim. Richard is an amazing triathlete, but we both have our different strengths, and this year the swim is mine. I was hoping to build up at least 3 minutes on him in the swim. That burst my bubble a little bit. He just zoomed ahead of me and I thought "ok you gotta go with him," but my legs thought otherwise. What the hell was wrong with me? Richard just kept getting farther and farther away. We have had basically the same bike splits in all of the tris this year so I didn't know what was going on. Trying to keep some sort of positivity in this race, I told myself that he was having an amazing bike, and I should be happy for him and just try and do my own race. I $%^&ed up the swim, but I shouldn't give up. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful. I didn't have much to give. The rollers on Old West Saanich drained me before I even started. Last month the bike course was similar, but I felt 100 times more powerful. At the 20k mark Dan passed me. He must have had a lack lustre swim as well, as I expected him to be already ahead of me. He looked like a machine on the bike. I tried to follow him for 500m but gave up on that, knowing there was nothing in the my legs.
I did the bike in 1:09.07, about 4 minutes slower than I would have liked. I just caught Janet Neilson before T2. Realistically I should have caught her before. That was going to be the theme for the run.
Out of T1 in 1:37.26, about 0.07.26 slower than I expected. That's when it got pretty emotional. My mom was there cheering for me, and I put on a happy face as I ran by, knowing that if I didn't have a solid run, I would not beat my time from last year. Thousands of dollars and hours in training to not beat my time. I was pretty down. I tried to salvage the run into some sort of building training run. It reminded me of years past when I was a really bad swimmer and a good runner. I passed a lot of people on the run, which usually would make me happy. Today however, it was more like "how the $%#@ is this person still ahead of me????" Or "how the #$%@ was this person ever ahead of me?" I didn't care if there were relay teams or not.
At the start of the run there were clearly laid out km markers. After about 4 of those I didn't see any more. Maybe I was just in a fog. I should have just timed myself between the km markers that are at Elk Lake, but I wasn't thinking straight. I just kept putting one leg in front of the other, passing people one after the other. I just wanted this one done. As I headed for home and into the finishing shoot I could hear people cheering and I looked behind me and saw nothing. I crossed the finish line and saw Janet run through right after me. Great run Janet! I guess she put the burners on in the last little bit to catch me. Good thing the finish was where it was, because she would have.
I finished the run in 39:57, for a total time of 2:17:59. Exactly 1 minute faster than last year. 1 minute.
After the race I quickly packed my stuff up and left. I was slightly embarrassed to be wearing a Team Canada uniform. I am not trying to be pompous, as I respect everyone of all ages that wears that uniform, but at my age wearing that uniform says that you are serious and a contender. Well that wasn't me today.
The scariest thing about the swim was that I have no answer for it. The course may have been slow/long, but not that long. Maybe 5 seconds/ 100 long. I was 20 seconds per 100m slower. 20 seconds! That doesn't make sense. Did I go around a different buoy? I am still trying to figure that one out. And how could I have felt in any way that I was having a decent swim, when I was having the worst swim of my life? I didn't feel the usual crazy amount of energy at the start, but 20 Seconds!!!!!!!! It kept me up all night.
I am actually happy that my bike was so poor. It tells me that there was something wrong with me yesterday, which may explain a bit of the swim. It might have been the Time Trial I did on Tuesday, but with little biking since it shouldn't have been an issue. I do know that my legs burned more than usual on the hills. Also, whenever I tried to knock some dust off my legs with a 50m sprint, nothing happened. Usually I get a mini burst of energy, but not today.
The one decent thing that was not decent at all was the run. I am proud that I mentally didn't give up, and broke 40 mins in a triathlon for the first time. Yeah, I was expecting to smash the 40 minute mark, but for the circumstances, I will try and find a positive out of this. It could have been easy to just give up and jog it in, but I didn't. I put a solid effort in the run, but seeing that Janet had a faster run than me only solidifies the point that I wasn't able to compete today.
One thing I would like to say is that when I mention peoples names to compare to, I don't mean any harm at all. Janet had a fabulous race! To track down Lysanne was pretty amazing. Janet is the ultimate competitor, and seems to always show up for races. Richard had a great race too! To be so close to Travis Chater and Jairus Streight is amazing. I'm sure he would have liked a few more seconds off on the run, but I know he has not been running as much as he would like. Still, ballsy effort man! Great race for Coach Dan too! He bowed out before the run due to an injury, but would have finished really high in the race. If he wanted to run, he would have been top 15 for sure! Also a shout out to Sam Mazer, who also had a tough race. She gave me a few good knocks on the head in the swim for cutting her out of the draft, which I apologize for! You should have just climbed on top of me! It couldn't have made me any slower.
The new plan is to sit down with Coach Dan and discuss my planned taper around Nationals and Worlds. Although this race wasn't my goal race of the year, I didn't feel rested and bouncing off the walls ready to go on Sunday. I want to make sure I feel that for Nationals and Worlds. Yesterday I really never wanted to train again. Today I feel much better, and am ready to get back at it. The beauty of sports is that there are good times and bad, and the best athletes persevere.
Thanks to my peeps for all the best wishes, I really appreciate it.
Pre-Race. I did everything that I usually do pre-race. Up early with a meal-replacement shake, banana, powerbar, and sports drink. Got to the race site nice and early, had a pretty good warmup, and was ready to go.
Swim: The swim started pretty frantically, with lots of fists flying. I got hit pretty hard in the right goggle, and I ended up losing vision on that side do to the extreme suction on my face! The funniest part about this is that it was probably my coach, as I noticed he was beside me about 100m later. After that I just concentrated on high turnover and never slowing down. I missed the draft of the first pack, but hung around in the line of other triathletes. I went off course a few times, but nothing too serious. I was feeling good, and although I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked, I felt like I as in for a good swim time.
When I got into T1 I quickly checked my watch and couldn't believe the time I saw. 27 minutes! What! I doubled checked my watch. Yep 27 minutes. Yep somehow I swam slower than last year, even though I am at least four times faster than last year. I told myself that the course must have been long, and to not worry about it. So I hopped on my bike and set off.
About 1 km into the bike Richard Knowlton passed me. #$%@. That means that I actually did have a ridiculously slow swim. Richard is an amazing triathlete, but we both have our different strengths, and this year the swim is mine. I was hoping to build up at least 3 minutes on him in the swim. That burst my bubble a little bit. He just zoomed ahead of me and I thought "ok you gotta go with him," but my legs thought otherwise. What the hell was wrong with me? Richard just kept getting farther and farther away. We have had basically the same bike splits in all of the tris this year so I didn't know what was going on. Trying to keep some sort of positivity in this race, I told myself that he was having an amazing bike, and I should be happy for him and just try and do my own race. I $%^&ed up the swim, but I shouldn't give up. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful. I didn't have much to give. The rollers on Old West Saanich drained me before I even started. Last month the bike course was similar, but I felt 100 times more powerful. At the 20k mark Dan passed me. He must have had a lack lustre swim as well, as I expected him to be already ahead of me. He looked like a machine on the bike. I tried to follow him for 500m but gave up on that, knowing there was nothing in the my legs.
I did the bike in 1:09.07, about 4 minutes slower than I would have liked. I just caught Janet Neilson before T2. Realistically I should have caught her before. That was going to be the theme for the run.
Out of T1 in 1:37.26, about 0.07.26 slower than I expected. That's when it got pretty emotional. My mom was there cheering for me, and I put on a happy face as I ran by, knowing that if I didn't have a solid run, I would not beat my time from last year. Thousands of dollars and hours in training to not beat my time. I was pretty down. I tried to salvage the run into some sort of building training run. It reminded me of years past when I was a really bad swimmer and a good runner. I passed a lot of people on the run, which usually would make me happy. Today however, it was more like "how the $%#@ is this person still ahead of me????" Or "how the #$%@ was this person ever ahead of me?" I didn't care if there were relay teams or not.
At the start of the run there were clearly laid out km markers. After about 4 of those I didn't see any more. Maybe I was just in a fog. I should have just timed myself between the km markers that are at Elk Lake, but I wasn't thinking straight. I just kept putting one leg in front of the other, passing people one after the other. I just wanted this one done. As I headed for home and into the finishing shoot I could hear people cheering and I looked behind me and saw nothing. I crossed the finish line and saw Janet run through right after me. Great run Janet! I guess she put the burners on in the last little bit to catch me. Good thing the finish was where it was, because she would have.
I finished the run in 39:57, for a total time of 2:17:59. Exactly 1 minute faster than last year. 1 minute.
After the race I quickly packed my stuff up and left. I was slightly embarrassed to be wearing a Team Canada uniform. I am not trying to be pompous, as I respect everyone of all ages that wears that uniform, but at my age wearing that uniform says that you are serious and a contender. Well that wasn't me today.
The scariest thing about the swim was that I have no answer for it. The course may have been slow/long, but not that long. Maybe 5 seconds/ 100 long. I was 20 seconds per 100m slower. 20 seconds! That doesn't make sense. Did I go around a different buoy? I am still trying to figure that one out. And how could I have felt in any way that I was having a decent swim, when I was having the worst swim of my life? I didn't feel the usual crazy amount of energy at the start, but 20 Seconds!!!!!!!! It kept me up all night.
I am actually happy that my bike was so poor. It tells me that there was something wrong with me yesterday, which may explain a bit of the swim. It might have been the Time Trial I did on Tuesday, but with little biking since it shouldn't have been an issue. I do know that my legs burned more than usual on the hills. Also, whenever I tried to knock some dust off my legs with a 50m sprint, nothing happened. Usually I get a mini burst of energy, but not today.
The one decent thing that was not decent at all was the run. I am proud that I mentally didn't give up, and broke 40 mins in a triathlon for the first time. Yeah, I was expecting to smash the 40 minute mark, but for the circumstances, I will try and find a positive out of this. It could have been easy to just give up and jog it in, but I didn't. I put a solid effort in the run, but seeing that Janet had a faster run than me only solidifies the point that I wasn't able to compete today.
One thing I would like to say is that when I mention peoples names to compare to, I don't mean any harm at all. Janet had a fabulous race! To track down Lysanne was pretty amazing. Janet is the ultimate competitor, and seems to always show up for races. Richard had a great race too! To be so close to Travis Chater and Jairus Streight is amazing. I'm sure he would have liked a few more seconds off on the run, but I know he has not been running as much as he would like. Still, ballsy effort man! Great race for Coach Dan too! He bowed out before the run due to an injury, but would have finished really high in the race. If he wanted to run, he would have been top 15 for sure! Also a shout out to Sam Mazer, who also had a tough race. She gave me a few good knocks on the head in the swim for cutting her out of the draft, which I apologize for! You should have just climbed on top of me! It couldn't have made me any slower.
The new plan is to sit down with Coach Dan and discuss my planned taper around Nationals and Worlds. Although this race wasn't my goal race of the year, I didn't feel rested and bouncing off the walls ready to go on Sunday. I want to make sure I feel that for Nationals and Worlds. Yesterday I really never wanted to train again. Today I feel much better, and am ready to get back at it. The beauty of sports is that there are good times and bad, and the best athletes persevere.
Thanks to my peeps for all the best wishes, I really appreciate it.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Worst Triathlon Ever
I think I will wait a few days to write a report on this one, since I don't want to use too many swear words. I just committed carbocide at Tim Hortons.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Pre Race Thoughts
It's the day before the Sri Triathlon at Elk Lake. Where has the last three weeks gone???? I have had some great training, and have had a few days lately to relax and get a mental breather before this race.
Speaking of this race, it is basically the first big tune-up for the Worlds. It is the second Olympic distance race of the year, after Shawnigan. Shawnigan was pretty early in the season though, so this should be a better picture of what I can do in Kelowna and Australia. I plan to be very observant during this triathlon of how I am feeling, so that I can use the info to plan better for the next few. That being said, this is what I am hoping to do tomorrow.
Swim: 22:30-23:00. Pace / 100m: 1:30-1:33. I don't think the swim will be a wetsuit swim, which I am ok with. I keep my hips pretty high, so I probably have an advantage over some. Time-wise, I'm not really sure where I'm at these days. I have had some good and bad feedback on the swim in training, but I am usually very good at sucking it up for a race and going balls out. I swam 24:14 at Shawnigan,but it wasn't my best work.
Bike: 1:06.00 Avg Speed: 36.4. My last few races were sprints, but I was averaging over 39 kph, so I should be able to hold at least 36. I have been holding above 40kph on the time trials. I don't wanna kill myself too bad on the bike, so this is a very reachable goal.
Run: 39.00. Pace: 3:55. This should also be pretty attainable. I have been doing 10 x 1 km repeats at the lake holding sub 3:30. Not saying that 10 x 1 km is at all the same as running off of the bike for 10 straight, but 3:55 is pretty pedestrian for me, so I should be able to hold at least this pace.
Total Time: 2:09:30. That is with a 1 minute T1 and 30 second T2. I would really love to go sub 2:10.00 on this one. I probably have a better chance on doing this tomorrow rather than in Kelowna, which is a tougher course.
Out do to a little race prep on the bike!
Good luck to everyone!
Speaking of this race, it is basically the first big tune-up for the Worlds. It is the second Olympic distance race of the year, after Shawnigan. Shawnigan was pretty early in the season though, so this should be a better picture of what I can do in Kelowna and Australia. I plan to be very observant during this triathlon of how I am feeling, so that I can use the info to plan better for the next few. That being said, this is what I am hoping to do tomorrow.
Swim: 22:30-23:00. Pace / 100m: 1:30-1:33. I don't think the swim will be a wetsuit swim, which I am ok with. I keep my hips pretty high, so I probably have an advantage over some. Time-wise, I'm not really sure where I'm at these days. I have had some good and bad feedback on the swim in training, but I am usually very good at sucking it up for a race and going balls out. I swam 24:14 at Shawnigan,but it wasn't my best work.
Bike: 1:06.00 Avg Speed: 36.4. My last few races were sprints, but I was averaging over 39 kph, so I should be able to hold at least 36. I have been holding above 40kph on the time trials. I don't wanna kill myself too bad on the bike, so this is a very reachable goal.
Run: 39.00. Pace: 3:55. This should also be pretty attainable. I have been doing 10 x 1 km repeats at the lake holding sub 3:30. Not saying that 10 x 1 km is at all the same as running off of the bike for 10 straight, but 3:55 is pretty pedestrian for me, so I should be able to hold at least this pace.
Total Time: 2:09:30. That is with a 1 minute T1 and 30 second T2. I would really love to go sub 2:10.00 on this one. I probably have a better chance on doing this tomorrow rather than in Kelowna, which is a tougher course.
Out do to a little race prep on the bike!
Good luck to everyone!
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