Milestones

A couple of minor milestones. One is relating to winter. You see, psychologically, I break winter down into two major milestones. The first one is the winter solstice, which just passed on Dec 22. Daylight has been increasing for the last 5 days! The next major winter milestone for me isn't until March 1, when it's so close to the end of the tunnel and you can taste spring. Jan/Feb can be a tough stretch, but once March is here, it's game on!

2006 is winding down real fast. As I reflect on the year, specifically relating to triathlon, I think of the top 3 things I've learned. 1) speed is icing on the cake and I don't have cake yet. Off the top of my head, I can't recall who said that, so I can't give proper credit, but it was someone wiser than me! It really is all about building a bigger engine. 2) It really is all about the run. Which is kind of a trick statement. It should be: it's all about arriving at the run with enough endurance to actually run." I thought I was working on the run in '06, but truthfully I did not end up doing what is required. I believe you have train like a runner to become a better runner. Also, just as importantly, do the bike miles to arrive at the run in reasonable shape. Lastly, nutrition really is king. I've found that 'nailing' my nutritional needs for the longer events quite difficult and even though I've learned alot, I still have a ways to go. Such is life.

Another milestone... 101 running K's last week. Yea! A nice Christmas present to myself - a mileage PR. Here's the belated stats for last week:
run: 101 k
spin 4 hr
Plus the usual 2 hours dedicated to stretching and core work.

Ok, well I was a little reluctant to post this, but I did promise I'd post my new bike position, so here it is. Constructive criticism always welcome.. note, I did stay constructive. :)











The only real adjustments over last year is that now there are no spacers in the stem. I played with angling the aerobars down a bit, but after some research decided against it. I was able to achieve a nice flat scapula area and have so far found this position to be comfortable, so for the time being this is the position I'll go with.

The camera did point out some technical flaws in my pedal stroke, just some minor things to work on while logging the spinning hours.

Speaking of spinning, I better stop typing and start logging some miles in front of the TV. Cheers!

It's crunch time..

It's crunch time at the North Pole. I'd imagine those poor elves must be 'in the weeds'. <-- bartending lingo for when your busier than hell. I hope Santa is good to everyone.

The week is progressing well, I'm on track for 100 running K's, just have to do a couple 22k runs this weekend. Monday was off, Tuesday: run 17, spin 1hr, Wed: run 12, spin 1hr, Thur: run 17, spin 1 and today was run 9 in the nice cold rain and spin 1. At least the weather looks decent, so I shouldn't have a problem finishing the week out strong.

POGO news:
I finally got the 50/50 off the ground at work- yea 2 weeks later than I orginally thought... office politics, ya gotta love it. The good news is for the inaugural draw $120.00 was collected. Let's just hope it lasts. So current collected total is $220.00, with almost $200.00 in pledges to be collected. Hey, it's a start.

Hmm.. not much else is happening. I'm still waiting on my Computrainer, though with things pretty much shutting down next week, I probably won't receive it until January. Waiting, it's the hardest part.

That's all for now. Don't forget what Christmas is really about, give a loved 0ne a hug and raise a glass for everything we have to be thankful for. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Picture this. It's December 17th (yesterday), one hour north of Toronto, a mere 4 days before the official start of winter... it's a gorgeous sunny day with temperature just shy of 10C. If that's not shorts weather I don't what is. Yup, smart money says it'll be a green Christmas. The 'angel' on the right shoulder says "global warming = bad!" The 'devil' on the left shoulder says "get outside and enjoy that global warming!" I kinda feel guilty for running shorts in the second half of December.

The tally for last week:
Run: 87.5 k
Spin: 5 hrs
Weight: 163
Met my goals for the week - all is good. This week I'm thinking of giving myself a Christmas present - a running mileage PR. Yup, going for triple digits next week and maintain the same amount of time on the bike. I figure go for 100 running K's next week, then take the last week of the year real easy, with January 2/07 bringing in a new training phase. So there ya have it. Cheers!

LT test and getting clocked.

Standard warning: Do not attempt this test without the consent of a physician. I'm being serious, the last thing I want on my concious is being responsible for someone else's heart attack.

So what is an LT test? LT stands for lactate threshold which is the level of exercise intensity when lactate starts to accumulate in the blood and you change from a primarly fat burning to a glycogen (carbs) burning metabolism.
Methodology: Get yourself good and warmed up ending with a few stride repeats to jack up the heart rate. Once warmed up run a 30 minute time trial. At the 10 minute mark, hit the lap button on your heartrate monitor, your LT will be your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes. You should give the time trial 100 percent effort and be pretty well spent at the end of it. Ideally, you want a hard, but consistent pace throughout the whole time trial.

Ok, so that's the nuts and bolts of the matter. Tuesday seemed like a good time for a LT test, my prep work for next year is almost done, I've logged some decent running K's, and the roads were fairly dry (well the paved ones were, the dirt roads were pretty muddy). Might as well embrace some pain and get this test done. Here's the numbers:

0-10 minute mark: distance: 2.51k heartrate: 181 bpm
10-20 minutes: distance 2.54k heartrate: 183bpm
20-30 minutes: distance: 2.49k heartrate: 183 bpm
Average heartrate for last 2o minutes: 183 bpm.

So my LT is 183 bpm. I was able to maintain pretty much the same pace throughout and by the end I was sucking wind pretty hard. I believe I got an accurate reading, which is what matters. So what does this number mean? Well from my LT we can determine correct trainings 'zones', (using Joe Friel's method)

Zone 1: easy / recovery workout: <155
Zone 2: endurance training: 155-164
Zone 3: 'intensive' endurance training: 165-173
Zone 4: Threshold training: 174- 180
Zone 5 Threshold training 181-184

Personally I think these values are a little on the high side, maybe 5 beats. I'll experiment during my 'build phase' and zone in on what I think is appropriate - but at least it gives me a starting point.

So yesterday I ran through a speed trap and the officer clocked me at 13kph. Now I 'know' I was only at a max of 12 kph, my internal speedometer is quite accurate I assured him. However, he'd have none of that as his laser thingy clearly clocked me at 13kph. Fortuneately, it was a 40 zone, so I didn't get a ticket. Luckily I was just 'warming up' and he'd didn't catch me during Tuesday's LT test. :)
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Today, I'm a kid. Why? Just ordered a new Computrainer, through Mike Plumb at Tripower Multisports. Mike, is doing a large bulk deal and is able to get a substantial discount which he graciously passes on to us. So, if you are in market for a Computrainer, do yourself a favour and contact Mike asap. I think he's wrapping things up in about 1 week.

It will probably take 2-3 weeks until I actually receive it and naturally when I get it up and running I'll want to ride the snot out of it. I better be getting my cycling legs back in a hurry. So the plan for this week is to increase my spinning time by an hour and get about 80 running K's in. This week's outline is: Tues: run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Wed: run 40min, spin 1 hr. Thurs. Run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Fri: run 40, spin 1hr. Sat run 1.5 hrs. Sun run 2.0 hrs.

The weekend saw the last of my cold go bye-bye and I was operating at a respectable 90%. I did an 18k run on Sat and a 22k run on Sun. The weekly totals are:
Run: 63.5k
Spin: 4 hours.
Weight: 163 (down a pound)
Running K's are low due to the fact I bailed on two runs - for which I blame my cold. On the other hand, I'm happy I got >60k's in 4 runs. I'd love about 2 more months of consistent 80k weeks.. but I know Jan/Feb will be particularly challenging in the mileage department. Which brings me to swimming...

Swimming is still very much on the back burner, at least for another month, maybe two. I'm not looking forward to going back to the pool - just yet. Although watching NBC's coverage Kona on Saturday gave me goosebumps - it made me at least start to think about swimming. Hey, thinking about it is the first step, now I just have to move to the 'doing' part... Cheers!

Cough... cough..

Had a bit of a cold this week, I should have know something was up last weekend - during my run my heartrate was higher than normal and I wasn't just feeling 'right'. Turns out it's a bit of cold, it's been so long since I've had one, I almost forgot what it's like. It wasn't too bad, a couple of restless nights and a stuffed nose - at least the bugger didn't migrate to my lungs.

I erred on the side of caution and ditched two of my runs this week and opted for additonal zzzz's instead. Focus on getting back to 100% health then focus on training. I still did my bike workouts, so I wasn't in 100% slacker mode - just semi-slacker.
The good news is, I had a great sleep last night and was able to get a run and bike workout in today. Hey, if cold only buggers up two runs, I sure the hell won't complain.

As you know, I'm still in a pre-season/base phase. ie: during all workouts, heartrate is not allowed over 145 and is usually kept between 140 - 142. The one thing I have been working on is my run cadence. My natural cadence seems to be dialed in at 88 strides/min (176 steps). The goal is to increased that to 92. In order to do that, every so often during a run, I'll do real quick increase in cadence for 20 to 30 sec. The theory being, that eventually running at 92 strides will feel natural.
Anyway, this got me a thinking. (yea it happens every so often). Increasing cadence from 88 to 92 = 8 an extra 8 steps per minute. Big deal you say. Well extrapolate that over the course of a marathon. 1 step =1.25m (it's propably more), so that's 10 extra meters travelled in 1 minute. For arguments sake, let's say you run a 3 hour marathon. That's 180 minutes, at 10 extra meters/ minute, that's 1800 meters, or 1.8k. A 3 hour marathon requires a 4:16/k pace, so by merely increasing your cadence, in this case you could shave over 7.5 minutes. Points to ponder. Now all I have to do is break that elusive 3 hour barrier for a marathon - something that is at least a year away...

Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

The i's are dotted, the t's are crossed... my sponsorship proposal for Canada Post is officially completed. Now just have to wait a month or two until I receive word back. Fingers are crossed. I understand HED Cycling sponsors amatuers, so some inquiries are in order, hey I have nothing to lose, right? As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Let see, what else is happening.. oh right, I should update you on my fundraising for POGO. Good news. In conjunction with the Brampton Post Office, a regularly scheduled 50/50 draw should generate a good $400.00 /month towards this worthy cause. The first draw is scheduled to start this coming Friday -woo hoo! Between, Debbie (a co-worker helping me) and myself, we've already got the ball rolling with over $200.00 in pledges. I'll update the total on the left after I actually receive the pledge and send it in. So things are starting to roll in that department, which is good news indeed.

On to training news... Last week was a scheduled easy week. (ya gotta love those..) Here's the totals:
Run: 44k
Spin: 4 hrs
Weight: 164
The plan for this week is log between 70 and 75 running K's and maintain the spinning time.

In an effort to get into a more aero position I'm currently tweaking my bike setup. Every month, I'm taking a small spacer out of the stem of my bike and thus getting a little bit more aero. So last week I did this and much to my suprise I was quite comfortable. I'm doing very minute adjustments every 2 to 4 weeks and I'm hoping by February I'll be 'dialed in'. I'll get Sally to take a pic and I'll show you my progress.
Cheers!

Monthly mileage report

Well I guess shorts weather is officially over. The mild spell officially left us yesterday and while our weather is not as bad as those poor folks on the west coast, it has turned to a mixed bag of freezing rain, rain and sleet. Oh joy. Fortuneately, I've lucked out as this is my easy week and I can blow off a run workout without feeling too much guilt. However, the cost of missing a run equals increased spinning time, so it's not like I'm being a total lazy ass. So, here's the numbers November:
Run: 310k
Spin: 8 hrs
A gold star to me for busting the 300k in November. I really hope I can maintain a few more months of solid mileage and that I'll live up to my vow of actually trying to becoming a runner.
The running plan for December, starting Monday (rest day), is to do a 3 week build followed by a week of rest. So I'm putting my order in for some decent weather for December now. As for cycling/spinning, the plan is to increase frequency. I'll be starting to do alot more double workout days of 1) running as soon as I get home for work and 2) spinning for an hour later in the day. That's the plan.
This weekend, the low pressure system bringing us this slew of wet weather is moving out, so Sat/Sun is shaping up to be OK. I'm going to run for an hour tomorrow and run for 1:30 or so Sunday. Then it's officially bye-bye easy week.

Lastly, a thanks to Mark. I've pretty much let everyone know that I've been lusting after a Computrainer, and Mark was kind enough to point out a Slowtwitch post that I actually missed! That simple act of kindness of emailing could save me a quite few bucks and it certainly is appreciated. Just goes show you, us tri-wienies watch each others back!
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

So... how about that weather? Whenever it's nice like it has been for the last few days, I always feel I have to go out and run because I know the nice weather isn't going to last forever - so I better bank a few extra K's when I can. That being said, even though today was a damned fine day, it was a scheduled off day. Sometimes it's difficult to force myself to take a day off - but it must be done.
Last week was a good week:
Run: 85k
Spin: 2 hours
Weight: 164
Add my usual 2 hours of stretching and core work and November's mileage is shaping up rather nicely. The last 4 weeks of run totals look like this: 75k, 77k, 80k and 85k. A very gradual increase in mileage and I'm feeling great. I'm happy I'm comfortably over the 80k/week mileage mark and the body seems to be soaking up the miles without any problems. So, since it did what I wanted, it's time to reward it with an easy week. The plan for this week is to run no more than 50k and spin 3 hours.

QOTD:
"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln

Sunny happy Friday

Not a heck of alot to report, except that today was absolutely beautiful. To commemorate such a great day I went for a run - in my shorts. Yes, it's November 24 in Canada and it's shorts weather. To cap it off, this weekend is looking even better. Hopefully I'll get some extra running K's in. The week so far:
Mon: off
Tues: run 7.5k spin 1 hour
Wed: run 13.5k
Thur: run 12k, spin 1 hour
Fri: run 14.5k

I'm keeping all my run heartrate efforts in the low 140's. The one thing I've noticed, is that's more difficult to maintain a 140 heartrate on the bike. Aerobically it's no big deal, but the cycling legs just aren't there. So typically, I'm averaging 5 beats less while spinning.

There is a Computrainer on Ebay that's going for 1200 bucks. I talked it over she-who-must-obeyed (Sally) and we figure if used ones are selling that high, might as well get a new one. So I'm working the finances and with any luck I'll score one by Christmas. Yay! I'm excited at the prospect of getting a new toy. I'm such a kid.
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

I've pretty much slid back into a workout routine, which is good. I find whenever I start to train, there is about a 6 week time frame that goes from "ug, I don't want to do this" to "hmmmm, I want to more." I've past the 6 week hump, so now it's a question of finding an early season balance of pushing a bit more and getting lots of rest.

The running is coming along. Last week I did 80k, which is OK because I'm keeping my longest run to only 1:30 -1:45. Yesterday, I capped off a 13 day in a row run-fest with an 18k'er. I actually dusted off my Garmin and verified my pace, speed and distance. Here's the low down: 18k in 1:33 for a 5:10/km pace and an average heartrate of 143. On one hand I'm happy I can run 5 minute K's with a low heartrate, on the other hand I ask myself why can't I run that fast for the marathon portion of an Ironman? I know, I know.. I need a bigger aerobic engine and running a marathon after you've biked 180k and swam 3.8k is an entirely different animal. But I find running at this pace so easy in training and so frikin hard during an IM.

I'm currently lusting after a computrainer. I've done some minor modifications to the 'boy cave' and I could set one up quite nicely. Now it's just a matter of selling it to Sally (I need this..) and finding a good deal on the used market. This year I've logged about 120 hours on the bike trainer, so I think a computrainer would add some much needed fun to spinning. Hey, it's fun and it's functional! Sally, you're reading this, right? :)

To recap the week:
Run: 80k
Spin: 1 hr
Weight: 164.
Plus my usual 2 hours per week of stretching and core work. That's all for now, happy Monday everyone!

Tardy mileage report, hike-n-run

Hey!
Sorry for the delay, I usually post my mileage reports on Monday, but life got in the way. Hey, it happens.
Last weeks mileage was 77 running K's and 1 hour of spinning. The high point of the week came on Sunday when a good friend of mine made the journey north and we hiked/ran a 24k section of the Bruce Trail. It wasn't the length of the run that made it challenging, it was the elevation. After 24k and a couple of thousand feet of elevation, we were pooched. A good tired though - at least in my mind.. I've yet to hear from Ian, perhaps he's avoiding me now! :)

I had Monday off work and it was a scheduled off day. However, since I didn't have to walk my regular 9-10k on the beat (I'm a letter carrier) and my legs were actually feeling pretty good from Sunday. I went for a short recovery run of 7.5k. Yesterday was 12.5k on the road and today was 12+k on the trails.

This latest running block is going to consist of 13 days of running in a row - I may not be logging huge K's but at least I'm adapting to running frequency. I believe the main reasons why I'm adapting well to the increased frequency is 1) 50% or more of my runs have been on trails. 2) average heartrate has consistently been 140-142. So, by keeping the impact and the intensity low, getting 8+hrs of zzzz's a night = good recovery.
4 days to go....
Cheers!

HRM tales & going batty

Ever since I started to train more 'serious', I generally used 'perceived effort' to gauge a workout level. I didn't want to become one of 'those guys' who if their heart rate monitor broke down in a race, they'd go off the rails. I just didn't want to become too reliant on technology - I'd rather rely on myself first. As time went by, I succumbed and bought a Garmin GPS unit. A geeky toy that keeps track of pace, miles logged etc.. Even though I shunned alot of the gadgets available, the geek inside of me still thinks some of them are cool. I've had the Garmin for a couple of years and now I rarely use it. I just know how far and how fast I've run. Yes, it still has it uses, especially for long runs, lap times or tempo runs but it's by no means a necessity.

Which brings me to the HRM. Each year I learn a little more and vow to train more/better/smarter the following year. Enter the heart rate monitor. I figure if I'm going to set out and build a bigger/better aerobic engine, I should try to be smart about it. Perceived effort and knowing myself has taken me far, but I want to take it to another to the next level. So this week was my first week training with a HRM.
Two major things I noticed. 1) my perceived effort was pretty much spot on. That shoudn't have suprised me, but it did. Well, by spot on, I mean maybe 90% of the time. 2) Even minor hills can cause substantial HR spikes. Ok, this suprised me. Sure I should know this intuitively, but it suprise me on how fast my HR spikes and how small of a grade can actually cause it.

FYI, I'm using the maximum aerobic power calculation to determine my optimal heartrate. If it's good enough for Mark Allen and Gordo, it's certainly good enough for me. :) More on MAP can be read here. The vast majority of my workouts this year, will be solidly in the aerobic/fat burning zone. The HRM is great tool for making me have the discipline to slow down. Whenever heartrate is over 145 bpm, I back off, walk if necessary. I now understand why the HRM could be considered the most important gadget. I'm also looking forward to doing some testing to see at what heart rate I experience 'stomach shut down'. Yea, that sounds like a fun test, doesn't it?

Workout update: Mon: off Tues: run 12.5k Wed: run 11k Thur: run 12k /spin 1 hour Fri: run 10.5k

As I mentioned before, a good chunk of my runs is on the trails. Fairly often I'll see wildlife, which I always think is cool. Hehe, I always feel like nature is opening a window and letting me peek in every so often. I like that. Earlier this week, during a mid-day run, I saw a bat. Odd. I've rarely seen bats even at night, yet here was one fluttering around in the middle of the afternoon. Neat. Two days later, I get to see him again. Same spot and roughly the same time of day. I'm going batty...

Weekly mileage report, Lance, 10 Ironmans in 10 days.

If October was a 4/10 on the workout scale of difficulty, November will be a 5/10. My motto is 'just run'. Get home from work, peel off the work clothes, immediately put on my run gear and head out the door. I was able to do that all week and logged 75k, of which 80% was done on trails. Throw in an hour on the spinner and the week is done. I feel good, I feel healthy.

Tomorrow is a scheduled off day, but the weather is looking very nice, so I may make Tuesday an off day. If I run Monday, that will 8 consecutive days of running - for me, a milestone of sorts. Either way, some very easy workouts are in the schedule for the week ahead.

The Sunday morning running crew met up this morning, this time we ran in Heart Lake park. Dana, who has plantar faciitis, wasn't able to run with us, so she mountain biked instead and was our support crew. Good on her. Next weekend could be fun, something a little more epic is in the works - a trail run/hike - nothing too crazy, a good 25 or 30k jaunt near Hockley Valley or a point A to point B run is on the works. As usual, email me for details..

I see Lance did a sub 3 hour marathon in New York City. Good on him. He sure does raise the 'event profile'. It's good for Lance, his charities and in this case, marathon running. However it does take away from the real marathoners - all the sports casters are worried about is how Lance is doing or following the 'Lance cam'. Oh yea, and the winner was..... umm, you get my drift.
I'd still love to see him do an Ironman though..

Now a moment for the truely insane.. Starting tomorrow, there is an event down in Mexico that is known as 'The Deca'. Participants have the option of competing in 2 Ironman Triathlons in two days, all the way up to the gargantuan, incredibly insane 10 Ironmans in 10 days. That's not a misprint. You know what? I'm just going to leave it at that, I don't know what to say. Oh yea! I almost forgot, it's a closed loop course and each bike portion is 93(!) laps and each run portion is a mere 22 laps.
I'm getting dizzy..

Monthly mileage report..

September was the month of sloth. I ate, slept and did absolutely nada in the training department. An entire of month of zero's. (well I ran twice, hardly enough to count for anything.) So after a month of laziness and an extra 5 pounds of weight, I decided to slowly get back to the grind. This brings us to October, which was primarily dedicated to what I call 'loose training' -not structured, very slow running and multiple days off throughout the week. I logged maybe 200k as a conservative rough guess, of which about 70% was done on trails. The goal for October is to slowly acclimatize my body to some serious running that will happen later in the year. So now that October is all but finished, what's the plan for November?
More of the same with the addition of a little more structure a few more running K's and some trainer time. Workouts from Tues to Sunday with Monday's off. Nothing too crazy. Here is a basic outline of my current training 'plan'.
Oct, Nov and Dec: running focused. The goal being to increase my tolerance to muscle fatigue, and build a bigger aerobic engine. Spinning time will be kept to a max of 2 hours/week.
Jan, Feb: add spinning time on the bike in increasing volume, still primarily running focused but shifting to more of a balanced approach between spinning and running. Add a few swim sessions.
March, April. First races - a half marathon in early March and a 10k in April. March is a transition month, drop a weekly run or two and add lots of spinning time. The end of March is a big bike week. The beginning of April is marked by a very easy week, followed by a 3 week build. By now, my swim should be 'normal'.
May- another half marathon race and another 3 week build block.
June- rest a week. Three week build block, with one being big bike week number 2. Probable races are Muskoka and/or Milton triathlons.
July - taper for IMLP. I really want to do Peterborough Half IM, but it's only 2 weeks out from IMLP, so I probably won't.
August- rest and ease back into running.
Sept- a 3 week running build.
Oct- Toronto marathon.
So there you have it, the plan for the next 12 months.. now the hard part begins, the 'execution'. :)
*Cheers*

The holy grail, run club inaguaral run

The holy grail of Ironman racing came and went on Saturday. The live web coverage from Kona was fantastic this year. Full screen, picture in picture, decent commentary, all in all it was very well done. I got back from my run and the swim was already about 20 minutes underway, needless to say, with coverage that good, the rest of my day was largely spent in front of the computer. Of the many highlights, I rather enjoyed watching Caledon's Lisa Bentley run her way from 11th to 3rd, damn that girl can run. Good stuff.

The inaguaral run of the Sunday morning 'run club' took place in rather medicore weather. (sidebar: ok, what is with our weather?? - six weeks of crap and counting..) It was a great social run, it really helps to run with other people, try different routes and run for the sake of the enjoyment and not worrying about 'training'. The next run is scheduled for Nov 5.

My own running schedule since the last update looks like this:
Fri: off, Sat: run 1:10, Sun run 1:20, Mon: run 1hr Tues: run 1hr. Nice, easy, slow paced runs.
That's all for now. Cheers.

Random Kona thoughts

So it's Sat a.m. and I'm procrastinating the day's workout and household chores (as per usual). I'm pondering about the Ironman World Championships that are about to get underway in Kona, Hawaii. The best of the best are there, ya I'm talking about those people who have achieved such high degree of fitness and mental discipline that they can actually race an Ironman. Last year there were 368 people who went sub-10 hours! Awesome. Like every Ironman around the world it's filled with inspiring stories and not just from the pro-level athletes. Stories from the 'ordinary' age-groupers and physically challenged are amongst the most inspiring around. Remember Blazeman? If you aren't part of the scene, you probably have no idea who he is, which is a shame.The sad thing is if you can't shoot a puck or throw a fast ball, you get very little coverage in mainstream media. It's too bad because the real action has always been amateur sport - people who love sport for the sake of sport. I have to admit, there is a part of me that is bitter about the masses who sit like a vegetable and would rather get fat and watch a sport being played on the boob tube, which actually contributes to the disasterous current state of pro sports. Personally, I made the choice to boycott them all. Eep, sorry for the tangent.. back on topic..
Would I do Kona?
Dunno. Get back to me in a couple of years. I'd consider it, if I was in the very best shape of my life and in top form. That won't be for another couple years, so I have lots of time. Kona has alot going for it, afterall it is the world championships. The atmosphere, competing with some of the fittest people on the planet. And it's the frikin Ironman World Championship.
However...
It's ridiculasly expensive. I imagine Sally and I would drop an easy 5++ grand. I guess the best way to sell it to her would be to think of it as a vacation and not 'let's drop 5 G's so Darren can do a race.' I don't know - get back to me in a couple of years. I still have to exact retribution in Lake Placid and want to do IMC again.. so Kona is still a long ways off...
Ok, enough procratinating, I have work to do. Cheers!

Going slow to get fast.

I'm slowly but surely re-entering the grind. Since last Friday, the workouts have been: Sat: off Sun: run 1:10 Mon: run 1hr Tues spin 1hr, Wed: run 1:10.

I'm solidly in the "to get fast, I first must go slow phase'. It's humbling at times, to see a monster hill and purposely walk up it instead of tearing up it like a mad man. This engine is going to be a lean mean fat burning machine and in order to do that, I must be disciplined enough to go slow.

I've been doing lots of trail running and have really noticed how much easier it is on body. This is great as it doesn't leave me feeling beat up the next day. The goal over the next few months is to build to 5 one hour, 2 20-30min, and 1 two hour run per week. If I can get my body to adapt to that, it should help my running next season.

Ok, I confess. I'm in the market for a heart rate monitor. You say "what? you don't use a hrm??" Ya, you got me. In the past I've used a strictly old school approach, training by feel and listening/deciphering what my body tells me. I know when I hit my lactate threshold becuase I can feel it. I think I've taken this approach as far as is useful and will now use a HRM as a new tool. Technology, it's a beautiful thing. Cheers.

Re working site & good news.

Hey all, happy Friday. A few things to touch base on. Number 1, I'm starting to re-do the site for 2007. If you haven't noticed yet, '07 will be a charity fundraising year. This year's recipient is POGO -a charity designed for helping children with cancer. Don't worry, I won't hound you, for donations, I really hate doing that... well I may umm.. gently remind you to throw a couple bucks towards the kids. But that's it - I promise. This blog will still be triathlon / triathlon training focused.

I got some good news in regards to fundraising. My boss at work is 100 percent behind the initiative. We did some brainstorming and thought that regular 50/50 draws and the occasional gift basket draw might be a good way to go. I mentioned this to Sally and she said 'hey, I could do one too'. Talk about the snowball effect. I believe most people want to get involved in one way or another - sometimes all it takes is a little spark.

In regards to training. I'm officially in a 'loose training phase'. The primary goal during the next few months is to bring up the running mileage/frequency. The only other 'soft' goal is to spin twice a week during this period. This is not structured, if I feel like taking a couple days off, then so be it.

This week I ran 5 times for a total of ~40k. Distances are approximate because I'm not using my gps and my all running this week was done on trails. See? Nice easy, 'loose' training. Oh yea, I also got on my bike for the first time since IMC. I spun for an hour, which actually felt pretty good. Cheers!

Cancer fundraiser, 4 runs & a swim.

Sure has been quiet around here lately. I noticed the last update was over a week ago, so I figured I better do some catching up. Last week I set the absolutely insane goal of running 3 times this week, well I'm happy to report that I completely overshot that goal. The week isn't even over and I'm already at 4! Four very easy runs for a grand total of ~30k. Good stuff.

On Friday Cliff, made the big trek to Orangeville and we did some stroke work in the pool. It's been a long time since I've taught swimming, abstract phrases like 'the catch phase is critical to your stroke', and 'think smooth' sound fine and dandy, but trying to teach someone these things is a another matter. I'm a big fan of mental visualization, think about somone who can swim really well. Now meditate on it. Slow their stroke down, examine each part, visualize it, emulate it, repeat. Feel the water. Be smooth. So to help facilitate this, Cliff and I took turns examining each others stroke from above the water and from below. We also did some drill work and then called it day.

When Cliff and I were at the pool, we met up with Richard Pady. Rich is a former pro triathlete who has initiated a fundraiser for children with cancer. This hits close to home as Cliff, is a cancer survivor and Richard's own daughter, Elizabeth, is currently under going cancer treatment. She was diagnosed at the age two.
The fundraiser is pretty awesome. Rich managed to secure 40 Ironman Lake Placid spots for which anyone can apply for. In return, over the next 9 months, he asks you raise $2500. ALL proceeds go to POGO. If you are interested in a spot, or want to donate, please check out his fundraising site at:
Race4kids.

The first meeting of the run club takes place in just over two weeks. The weather is gorgeous, so you have no excuse to not run right now. Get out there and log a few miles. Even though these are going to very easy runs, you'll still be expected to log ~10k to start. As it stands, I'm expecting at least four people for our inaugural run, lots of space still available. Drop me an email for details.

Canadian Thanksgiving is today and it's one of the few days I stuff myself stupid. I should probably go for a pre-turkey run, just so I don't feel so guilty. Cheers!

Yup, it's true. I did two runs this week. Count'em 1... 2. I know that doesn't sound significant, but it is. The main reason being I've never started training for 'next season' so early. But I crave to train and taking a full month off after IMC was great, however I'm looking to start getting back into the grind. I'm not talking 25 hour weeks or anything - just a slow methodical return to insanity.

Earlier this week I put a couple of feelers out to guage interest for a run club. Very casual, no-one gets dropped type of stuff. I got some positive responses, so I figured what the hell, let's do it. We'll be doing runs around Caledon and Brampton, probably on Sunday mornings. For some people, it will be their 'long run', for others it will be a recovery run. The point of the run, is just to get out there, help each other out, have fun and to mix up training a bit. Email me for more information.

I'm off work next week - so I set the very realistic goal of running 3 times. The insanity! Have a fantastic weekend.. cheers!

De-tri-ing, plan formulation.

Hey hey hey! Happy Friday!

It's been almost a month since IMC and I'm pretty much 'de-tried'. I take my off season very seriously! No workouts, lots of relaxing, catching up on things around the house and pursueing other non-tri related stuff. It's a good process to go through as I find this will keep me 'fresh' for when I starting ramping up again. It's odd, even though I'm not training or anything at the moment, I still think about triathlon pretty much every day. It's always there, maybe not in the forefront but defineately there.

So here are some of my thoughts for the upcoming season.. 2007 is going to be a run year. My long term goal is to make '07 a serious run year. I'll start slow, I'm thinking in October, real easy, running maybe 3 times a week. Then build long and slow to 8 times a week. I'd like to be at the 8 times a week by March.
Cycling will begin nice and light in January and I predict by the end of March I'll need a week off, just to avoid burn out. As for swimming, no real plan.. yet. Possible join Master's just to be social and meet up with other area tri-wienies.

In order to facilitate me becoming a better runner, I'm very seriously thinking of getting a treadmill. In order to do this I've had to re-allocate some of my toys and as a result I'm selling my mountain bike! I do this with a heavy heart, but I just wasn't getting the use out of it since I've become addicted to this tri thing. Go jack up the price and bid for it on Ebay.

As for racing. My plan for '07 in triathlon is to race shorter and race more often. Something like: Muskoka long course, Guelph Olympic, Peterborugh Half IM, Parry Sound Half IM ?, or if a 70.3 race comes to Ontario next year - I'll defineately do that, plus maybe Belwood triathlon and/or Collingwood. In regards to running races: Around the Bay (30k in March.. maybe), Mississagua Half marathon and Toronto Waterfront full marathon. Which, coincidently is this weekend and was my very first race 3 years ago. I wouldn't mind doing a 10k too - I've never done one before.

What? No Ironman next year? As it stands right now - no. However, if I somehow score a sponsorship for '07 and they want me to do an IM, the above schedule is toast and will have to be re-worked.
Cheers!

Yes.. I'm alive. Food.

Hi everyone. Yea, I'm still here. As part of my 'de-tri-ing' process, I won't be blogging as much, but there are a few topics I'll discuss. Today's topic is one of my favorites. Food.
I'm not going to get into the why I eat certain things or quote studies or anything. I'm just going to share my philosophies and run through my diet when I train. It works for me, so take what you will from it.

First, a quick word variety and moderation. One, I love to try 'new and different' things. Every have quinoa? Couscous? Don't knock it until you try it, who knows you may really enjoy something new. Moderation. We all have food weeknesses, one of mine is the potato chip. Even though chips may not be the best for you, would I cut them out? Hell no. It's ok to indulge in moderation.

Vitamins and minerals. Defineatly one of the pillars of anyone's diet. With soil levels containing 30% less minerals then 25-30 years ago and the average person eating considerably less than then the recommended 10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, it can be hard to get all the necessary nutrients. So, on occasion I'll pop a quality vitamin, just to top up the stores.

Grazing. I love this part. Eat many times throughout the day, but much smaller portions. Try to eat slow. It takes 10 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain, 'I've had enough', if you spend that 10 minutes horfing, you will just end up feeling like bloated pig. Slow it down, enjoy and savour.

I try to make my last meal at least 3 hrs before bed and my first mini breakfast is usually a smoothie that's approx 300 cals. Here's a typical day when I'm training:
First thing in the am. A homemade smoothie. I have a large jug of pre-made smoothie in the fridge that usually lasts 5 or 6 days. If anytime I need a 'quick shot' it right there. Nice, easy and convenient. Approx 300 cals per serving, consisting of soy protein, 2 or 3 kinds of berries, yogurt, milk, honey and juice.

Second breakfast is usually 2 hours later and consists of a large bowl of cereal. My cereal is homemade concoction of several different cereals, usually granola type stuff with some puffed wheat, added nuts and seeds, raisins, dried fruit, maybe some flax or hemp hearts. Good stuff. ~ 600 cals

First lunch. Peanut butter and honey sandwhich. ~350 cals
Second lunch. Usually post workout. Leftovers from the previous night's dinner is a favorite. The goal for this meal is primarily carbs to refuel from last workout and provide energy for next. Add juice and a serving or two of fruit. ~750 cals

Pre dinner, post second workout. Get a serving protein and carbs in the system. Snacky type stuff, nuts, granola bar or maybe a couple of eggs on toast. Just to take the edge off. ~350 cals.

Dinner. Usually a full meal. Looking for some good protein here to help muscles recover from the days training. Also looking for some good carbs to replenish energy stores. Always a large salad is included. ~ 1000 cals.

Post dinner.. maybe a 'treat'. A handful of chocolate chips or some frozen yogurt and a fruit. -200 cals.

Add 2-300 miscellaneous calories and I estimate my daily intake is around the 3500 mark. So far this approach seems to keep illness at bay and gives my body the tools it needs to get through the day. Cheers!

Final Iron pics, where am I? Did you win?

Two more pics from IMC..



Hehe.. check the hands. This is called the 'praying mantis'. I wonder if there is any aero benefit? :)
Speaking of aero, I'll be removing more spacers next year.









Ironman number 2, done! Sooo, what's next? Good question. I have no idea. I'm still decompressing, relaxing, getting fat and pondering the future. I have a couple of scenarios going through my head for next year. 1)IM Canada again or IM Wisconsin for something new. 2) Do shorter triathlons, focus on running and put togethor a wicked marathon in Sept 07. 3) the least likely scenario is the Canadian Death race - 125k in 24 hrs jaunt through the Rockies. This is on my to do list, but I doubt it will be next year. Maybe in '08, when I turn 40.

The smart money says door number 2. But I frequently do things that aren't smart, so the jury is out. For now, I'm 'purging the system' of triathlon and slowly but surely formulating some sort of plan for next year. I'm hoping to start training in November, although there is a very real chance I'll procrastinate until December.

The most annoyingly funny question I get about competing in triathlons is: "Did you win?" It's annoying in the respect that anyone who asks it invariably has no idea what they are asking. IMC had 2352 competitors, does that mean 2351 of the them 'lost'? It's funny because it's such a clueless question. Yea, I just won an Ironman after my 2nd year of competing against an International elite field of competitors that have been doing this for 10+ years. Yea, ok. I suppose I could just tell them 'yea, I won', and they'd say 'congratulations' and that would be the end of it.

I can't believe it hasn't even been 2 weeks since the race, it seems so long ago.. Oh yea, for the record, I've done squat, nada, a big fat zilch as far as workouts go... and I'm loving it.

Pics of Iron

A view from our B&B in Naramata facing south towards Penticton.

Heading towards my race crew about 15 minutes before start.

Like latex?








Nice aerial. See me? I'm the one in the black.






Got me fist in the air. Why? Dunno.




Start of the run. Looking good and feeling strong.









End of the run. Not looking so good and not feeling so strong.

IMC Race Report

Sorry for the slacking. Got back from BC on Wednesday, caught up on household chores on Thursday and I'm only now getting around to my race report.

Pre Race
My wife and parents were my race crew for IMC. We arrived in Naramata (about 15 min from Penticton) on the Thursday before the race, I took care of registering and the rest of the day was dedicated to un-packing, bike setup, eating and a short workout. Friday and Saturday consisted of short workouts, carbo loading, chilling in Penticton and the athlete expo. The highpoint was after the pro athlete Q & A, I went over to talk to Gordo Bryn. Basically I just went over to thank him on behalf of myself and many other triathletes. Gordo is a down to earth guy, who freely gives advice and shares his philosophies on training and expects nothing in return - a great ambassador to triathlon.

Physically, going into this race I was in great shape. I forumulated a 'master plan' back in January and stuck to it. So on that side of the equation I held up my end of the bargain. My mental state could be summed up as: "this is no big deal." This is a little game I play with myself by making a big task seem not so bad. I'm not sure if it's a good thing but I was going into the race with what felt like a certain amount of low-keyed laziness. I sort of wanted this approach, as this tempers my excitement, but it was also concerning because there was a lack of an 'edge'.

Race Day
Eight months of training - done. Just like that. And now it's race day. Time sure does fly. With 2350 people racing, a zillion spectators and a small army of volunteers, there is a decided buzz in the air. I'm still not caught up in the excitement, which I'm hoping is a good thing. I've gone into races like this before and pulled off a PB, so I'm hoping I'll do the same this time around.

The Swim (3.84k) Goal time: 56m. Actual: 55:55. Overall placing: 52/2352 Age group placing: 7/357.
BOOM. The cannon goes off and just like that we're underway. I'm a front of the pack swimmer, so luckily I get to avoid much of the middle area, which is just basically a giant washing machine. So after about 500m, I've left the 'mosh pit' and have already settled into a nice easy pace. Pacing and nutrition. My mantras. I was with the lead pack for the first 1.6k and somehow lost them. So for the remainder of the swim I was leading the 2nd group of swimmers. This made me chuckle, if they only knew how little actual triathlon experience I had, they probably wouldn't be following me. However, I was navigating pretty good and no one else wanted to take lead, so I let them draft and held my comfortable pace. A group of 6 of us exit the water and I'm actually walking to the transition zone going over my checklist: breathing is good - check, heart rate is good - check, feeling good and relaxed- check. OK, we are good to go. I'm through transition 1 and on the bike in less then 1 hour. Perfect.

Bike 180k Goal time: 5:22 Actual time: 5:31:07 Overall placing: 290/2352 Age group placing: 65/357.
Mental note - pacing and nutrition, start bike computer. Go. Wow. I heard about how the whole town gets into the race, but to experience it - all I can say is wow. Upon starting the bike and going through town, people are lined up 6+ deep and cheering like crazy. Hehehe makes you feel like a star.
10 minutes into the bike is gut check, heart rate and effort check. All systems nominal. Repeat pacing and nutrition mantra and carry on. I do this every 10 minutes while taking in liquid nutrition for duration of the ride. Supplement with additional water as necessary. For the first 60k (1/3 of the bike already done!), all is going according to plan. The first real test is coming up (Richter's Pass), I'm biking with alot of smart guys, almost no one hammers the climb, we are all in easy gears and spinning up the hill. I'm about 11 minutes into the climb, with less than 1 minute to the top - tire blow out. The good news is that due to climbing, I was going slow. The bad news is the tire casing is shredded and is useless. This is more than a simple tube fix, I need a whole new tire. Bummer. Hmmm.. what to do, what to do... I did put some duct tape in my repair kit, I suppose I could duct tape the inside of the tire and hope it holds. I'm in a bind and this is the best solution I could come with it. I could see it now, "Thanks to Duct Tape, Man Finishes Ironman." It was a little demoralizing having to watch a hundred or so people pass by while I tried to fix my bike with a hunk of duct tape. Halfway through my homemade repair, a tech van came to my rescue with a spare tire and got me up and rolling. Phew. The duct tape probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Total downtime was 12+ minutes.
Back up and rolling. I must resist the urge to 'catch up to myself' and stick to the plan. If I go too hard now, the reprucussions would be disasterous. So I stick my plan and tell myself "12 minutes is nothing in a race this long, I'll get it back."
The 120k mark. I'm at the special needs station and they can't find my bag. Hmm.. this could a long day if I don't get my nutrition needs. I stop, go for a pee and luckily they found it.
The 130k mark. A bee flies in my helmet and stings me. Ok, THIS might get interesting. I had a bad reaction to a sting earlier in the summer- fortunately there was an ambulance about 5k back, if things get bad, help is close. I monitor the situation - all seems OK, I carry on.
The 150k mark. The biggest test of the bike - Yellow Lake climb. I've heard one or two horror stories about this puppy. I expected the worst and what I got wasn't so bad. People made it sound worse than it is. I was starting to fight some minor nausea issues at this point and the heat of day was really starting to kick in. Luckily the last 30k is primarily down hill, so lots of coasting back into town. Time to settle the tummy and mentally gear up for the run.

The Run (42.2k): Goal: 3:42 - 3:50. Actual: 4:27. Overall placing: 440/2352 Age Group placing: 85/357.
My run can be summed up in three words: hot, hilly and windy. This is the real test as I've already been racing for 6.5 hours and now I've got to run a marathon. Mentally, I break this into 10k sections, with the primary goal trying to conserve as much as possible to the halfway mark. Walk the aid stations, walk the hills, conserve, conserve, conserve.
I set my Garmin to a 5:15 m/km pace and settled right in. After 180k on the bike, most people are just so damned grateful to be off the bike, they start their run too fast. I did not want to make this mistake. So I started out on what I thought would be a very conservative pace. It felt pretty good for the first 15k, but the heat was wearing me down and the hills seemed much too large. Legs were starting to get heavy.
They say in an Ironman the race doesn't start until you've finished half the marathon. Well, I was pretty much toast at the halfway mark and prospect of shuffling through another half marathon wasn't really too appealing. Halfway time check: 2 hrs. Not too bad, only 10 minutes off pace, but the suffering was starting to kick in. This next half was going to be tough.
Sigh. More walking. Battling nausea. It's toasty. (33C) I'm losing too much salt and I'm down on myself for walking too much. I start playing 'run to that tree game', or 'try to run (I mean shuffle), to the next mile marker. My steps seems so small.
I remember seeing the 23 mile marker and I was walking at the time, I thought "jeez, 3 miles to go - man that's FAR. If I walk the rest at 15 min/mile, I'll be done in 45 minutes. The HELL with that, I'm not going to be out here for 45 more @#$! minutes." So I try to 'run' the rest of race. Finish line finally in sight. Bam, done. Just like that. No great epiphany, I'm just happy I'm done, I'm happy to see my wife and I'm happy my parents were there to see everything an Ironman offers.
Time: 11:03. Overall placing: 265/2352 Age Group placing: 63/357.

Post Race
Well I guess I got more long winded than I intended too, but I'm down to the last final thoughts. They say it takes a good 5++ years to fully train your endurance system. I'm in year 2, so all things considered I'm pretty happy with where I am on that level. I really enjoy racing, however, the journey to the race is equally as awesome or even more so. Maybe you train, maybe you are a couch potato, maybe you think "I could do that", maybe you want to run 5k, whatever the case may be, take a step in that direction. Then another. You only live once, go out with no regrets.
Cheers!

Quick and dirty IRON update

I'm back at home at the folks house, just chilling and relaxing. Already had a big bag of Lay's potato chips. (only my second bag in 8 months!) I'm not too sore, just more tired than anything. So all in all, I'm feeling pretty good. Here is the quick and dirty IMC 2006 update:

swim: nailed it. Wanted 56:00, swam it in 56. Nice and easy, pacing was spot on.

bike: 5:31. Very solid. Small bummer about the bike was when I hit the top of Richter's Pass, I had a very bad tire puncture, totally tore the casing on my front my tire. I was S.O.L., but a tech van was fairly close and they got me up and rolling with a new tire. Cost me a good 12 - 15 min.

run: 4:2? Yup. Still my nemesis. It was hot. It was hilly. It was windy. Settled into a comfortable pace for the first 10 miles, then slowly faded from there. Legs just got heavier and heavier. Had to slow due to tummy issues numerous times. Hey if it was easy, they'd call it FluffyMan or something. :)

That's it for now, I'll get a more extensive race report up later in the week - as for now, I think there is glass of wine nearby with my name on. :) Cheers!

Last post.

Hey everyone.
This will most likely be my last post until post race and it will be a lengthy one, got lots of stuff to cover.
Let's start off with a funny story. I went for my last bike ride and got my first flat of the season. I seem to get one flat a year and it figures it would be on my very last ride. No biggie, might as well get it out of the way now instead of during the race. I pull out a brand new spare and lo and behold it has a busted seam. Great. Two tubes, both with holes. Murphy's law is kicking in. I rumage around in my emergency kit and find some old patches, fortuneately the patch held until I got home. Phew.

'06 Mileage
Mileage report from Jan 2 - Aug 21.
Run: 1582 km- A 13% increase over last year.
Spin: 104 hrs 30 min- A 45% (!) increase over last year.
Bike: 3429 km- A 5% increase over last year.
Swim: 187.7 km- The same as last year.
Dryland: ~50 hrs of stretching, weights and core work.
Starting weight: 168
Ending weight: 159
Comments: A large part of the early part of the season was 'running focused', a 13% increase over last year is nothing to sneeze at, but I know it needs more work if I'm going to continue to make gains in that department. Looks like next year will be running focused again.
The large part of my biking gains was time spent on the spinner. 104 frikin hours - zoinks. That's basically the same amount of time that I actually spent outside on the bike. So if you do the math you are looking at ~ 6700 km on the bike. An almost 25% increase in time spent on the bike compared to last year.
Umm.. ya this year was running focused.. riiiiiight.
About swimming. The mileage is virtually identical to last year. The only thing I did different this year was log some big swim weeks later in the season.

Goal
In all seriousness this isn't super important. Yes, I have some time goals I would like to meet, but I fully realize that long endurance type activities can take years to learn and do well at. I'm only now starting to understand my specific nutrition needs and all the little physical cues my body tells me during an event.
That being said, I'm still going to tell you what I'd like to do and if the weather cooperates and if I can pace well and if I can 'nail' my nutrion and if I can race smart. Notice the ifs.
Swim: ~56 min. I can go faster, but I won't. I must control myself and take it easy.
T1: roughly 4 min. Puts me on the bike 1 hr into the race.
Bike: ~5:20. I took a recent half Ironman bike time of 2:30, doubled it and added 20 minutes. I hope that's reasonable.
T2: 4 min.
Run: the hardest one to judge. They say if you take your best stand-a-lone marathon time and add 30 minutes, you've nailed the run. All my long runs are roughly at a 5:00 /km pace. Is it reasonable to run at that pace after the bike? Doubt it. But my recent half Ironman pace was 4:36 /km. So maybe it is. So I'm going to take the 5:00 /km pace and add 10 extra minutes. Run time: 3:40. I feel like I'm going out on a limb on that one.
Total: 10:04.
You just know I really want to find that 4 minutes and 1 sec somewhere to break the 10 hr mark. Ya that would be the holy grail. Honestly, I think I have a 25% of chance of acheiving that. But it's on the mind.

Thank you's
Obviously first and foremost is my wife, Sally. Could not have got this far without her. Yea, she's my rock.
Canada Post Was awesome enough to come on board as a sponsor. This is a rather expensive sport and working for a company that has an employee sponsorship program and having the powers that be recommend me for it - is rather cool. This would have been a very tough year if they didn't come on board. A big thanks to them.
My family and friends for being understanding. I know some of you don't get "it", but you put up with my eccentricities and that alone deserves thanks. (My folks are going to be at the race!)
My fellow tri-wienies. With special mention to Cliff, and Sheila.
Thanks to the lurkers who read the blog, the people who have taken the time to drop me a line or an email. It's appreciated.

Before I forget, tune your browser to Ironman Live , this Sunday to get live updates of the race throughout the day. You can even plug my number in (754) and get a status report. (send some positive vibes too, will ya?) The race starts 7am Pacific time which is 10am EST.

Eep, it's getting late and I need some quality zzz's. Next update will be post race! Cheers!

Lucky number, brick, swim, details.

And my lucky number for Ironman Canada is..... ... 754! Can't say it really does anything for me, it's just a number. However, on race day, you can just punch in my number on Ironman Live and you will get a progress report on me. It's kinda neat, you can share in my suffering. :)

Workout update:
Wednesday: bike 75k, run 4.5k (my last brick)
Thursday: swim 3.3k (my last pool swim for awhile) The main set was 2(4X400) descending. The fast 400's were 5:13 and 5:09. Felt good. Felt strong.

Some little details to take care of in the next few days: tune & clean bike, get bike box rental, start 'pre packing', goto bike store, get a run in, pick up tux and go to one of my bestest buds wedding, party.. but not too hard, get a ride in on Sun - final bike check, visit sis & neice, pack a zillion little things knowing full well I'll forget something, get an open water swim in, final run and pack up car on Tues, go over list one more time, catch flight on Wed. I have no idea how the pros do this for a living. It's crazy.

Will power > lethargy

Ug. Feeling very lethargic today. Went to the pool for a my last scheduled 4k swim, did 3k and called it. (2k straight, 1k drills). Later I did a short 7k run and it took a supreme amount of effort to get my sorry ass out the door. Well at least I didn't bail. Phew.

I figure a good night sleep will set me straight. My problem is that's it harder for me to sleep due to reduced training volumes, so now when I go to bed I keep going through race scenarios and questioning my season's master training plan. Intellectually, I know there is nothing I can do now, I truly believe I trained better and smarter this year and I know I'm ready. I just can't help questioning all the prep work.
Back to basics:
-race smart
-pace well
-follow nutrition plan
-the race will take care of itself.

Monday weigh in

The 'official' leg taper began last week, here's the mileage report:
Run: 46.5k
Bike: 230k
Swim: 13.5k
Dryland: 1.5 hrs
Weight: 160

I've adopted what I call a 'staggered taper'. The theory is that since running punishes the body the most, I need to recover the longest for that particular sport. My running miles have slowly been decreasing for the last 2 weeks and last week's decrease was ~25%.
I had a big cycle week 2 weeks ago and overall mileage since the big week has been cut in half.
The swim taper is now officially started. I did an extra swim session last week, but this week the swim mileage will be cut in half. So mileage totals for the coming week should be something like this: run: 30-35k bike:180k swim: 7k
My weight jumped 2 pounds? I find it hard to believe I gained 2 pounds in just one week of tapering. I'm not sure if that's an anomoly or what. Some weight gain is to be expected as I'm reducing the workout load but still eating like a pig. :)

Still no race number yet...

Still numberless, open water swim, cherries.

T-minus 14 days.

So it's Sunday afternoon, my long run was done long ago, all my chores around the house are done and I'm sitting here eating a bowl of cherries and updating my blog. My usual routine involves an afternoon nap, but I don't need one of those today as I only ran for 1:15. (15k) As far as training goes for the next two weeks I'll be using a 'less is more' philosophy. Here's the workout update for the past few days:
Fri: swim 3.2k: 2k straight, 1.2k drills. Run: 13k
Sat: swim 2.4k. An open water swim with the C3 triathlon club. Gosh, I've been missing out. The swim was in nice clear and clean water. All the people were super friendly and I got a chance to break in my new wetsuit. Gotta hang out with those guys more often. Afterwards, I did 100k on the bike.
Sun: run 15k

Race numbers for Ironman Canada were suppose to be out on Friday - they still aren't out yet. It's no biggie, Ijust want to know what my lucky number is. :) Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Cheers!

13:10, Brick Thursday.

Not a heck of a lot to report, all is still going according to plan. At the end of this week, I'll have reduced 'leg miles', by 25% over last week. Swim miles will be up this week, but come next week all 3 sports go into hardcore taper mode. Here's the mileage report to yesterday and today:

Wednesday's workouts:
Run: 11k (trails)
Swim: 3,000m. 1k warmup, 1k time trial, 1k of drills. The 1k time trial came in at 13:10 for a 1:19/m pace. This tells me a couple of things: 1) my 400m 'hard' sets are not hard enough. I maintain the same pace (1:19/100m) during a 400m 'hard effort'. Should be faster. 2) my swimming endurance has improved. I was winded after the 1k time trial, but not blown out.

Today was brick day. A 75k hilly ride followed by a 7.5k run. Physically felt strong, but mentally was not 100% 'into it'. Lol, taper is already messing with my head. :) Cheers.

Tuesday weigh in

Ok, so I missed yesterday's weigh in, however it was an off day - so I decided to take the day off blogging too. :) Actually yesterday was pretty sweet off day, Sally and I both had the day off work and we both took advantage of it by being lazy bums.

The stats for last week:
Run:59.5k
Bike: 150k
Spin: 5 hrs
Swim: 9.7k
Dryland: 1.5hr
Weight: 158
About the only thing of note was the spike in spinning time. Due to weather I had to do two bike sessions on the trainer. I'd equate 5hrs of spinning to the rough equivalent of 160k of road work.
Everything else is pretty solid, run and swim k's are good and weight has seem to settle in at 158.

This is my first week of tapering. The plan is start decreasing the 'leg mileage' and add an extra swim session. I recover fast from swimming and I just want to tweak the swim mileage a bit. If you've noticed I upped the overall swim mileage over the last 8 weeks, the theory being, this will put me in a better physical state for the bike. I've already done all my big bike and run mileage and I can't absorb any more fitness in those departments, however I do feel I'll benefit from a few extra swim k's even though I'm tapering. That's my theory.

So that being said, I did a nice 4.9k workout in the pool today. My current favorite long distance set:
4X400, 2(4X200), 4(4X100). Each set of 4 was 1 pull followed by 3 descending. Oh yea, and 100 cooldown.
Afterwards I did 60k on the bike. See? Only 60k - I really am tapering! Cheers.

Taper time, T-minus 21 days

Exactly 3 weeks from now, it will be 1:36pm (BC time). In theory, I should be just starting out on the run, I'll have wobbly legs and I'm sure I'll be asking myself 'why?' or saying something like: ' ahh crap, I still have to run a $%#@! marathon.' Whatever the case, I just hope I have the mental fortitude to pace correctly and stick to my nutrition plan. If I can just do those two things, the race should look after itself.

Upon looking back, I say to the tri gods: I held up my part of the bargain. I trained better and more importantly I trained smarter. (or so I believe). I've learned much and will undoubtedly learn more, but I am ready. I am excited. I am scared. I can't wait.

Yesterday was the official start of the taper, I went out did a nice 150k ride with Cliff. Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful, perfect riding weather and nothing but miles of deserted country roads to ride. A pretty sweet way to start a taper. The other cool thing was that there was a re-broadcast of the '05 Ironman World Championship in Kona on Saturday afternoon. Watching it gave me the spine tinglies, a shot of inspiration and a tear to two for Blazeman.

Today was long run day. I ran about 6k less than my last long run. Total distance was 22.5k. Pretty uneventful.

I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself as I forgot to mention Friday's workouts; heres the scoop for Friday:
swim 3.7k 1k warmup, 5(5X100m) on 1:30. First 100 was pull, then descend the next 4. The fast ones were coming in 1:12 to 1:15.
run: 11k. Just a steady run, always thinking of form and cadence.

That closes out week number 32. As usual, I'll give you the hard numbers in tomorrow's weigh in. Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Cheers.

115F, EZ(er) Wed, lollygag Thurs.

Ok, it's official, Tuesday wasn't just hot, it was Africa hot. The thermometer on the back porch read 36C, but the humidity was stifling, adding another 10C to the 'humidex'. Yea, that's right it felt like 46C /115F. Whimper. I can deal with the heat and humidity, just hydrate well and dial down the intensity, but when you throw smog in the equation... let's just say instead of the 100k bike ride I had planned I ended up doing 3 hours on the trainer.. in the air conditioning. :) Three hours on the trainer is a tough workout, easily worth the 100k I wanted for the bike. Done deal.

Yesterday I did an easy 11k trail run and a 3.7k swim. The swim set was: 3(3X400) pull, moderate effort, hard effort. The hard ones were 5:15's. They felt strong, but I should have been faster. Cooldown was 100 easy.

For today, I'm in between workouts. I'm sort of dreading my second workout because it's raining out with a chance of thundershowers and I have a bike workout planned. Sigh, trainer time.... again. My first workout today was a 15k run with 10 hill repeats. The legs were lethargic and I had real trouble hitting my usual time goal, so to punish my legs for acting up like that, I gave them 15 sec less rest for the last 4 repeats. There. That'll learn em. Naturally, those last 4 were more inline with my regular times. Go figure, I give them less rest, THEN they perform.

Sigh, I guess I should go hop on the trainer now, can't really put it off much longer. I think I'll go do 2 hours of time trial work. Running hill work + cycling time trial = good sleep tonight. Cya.

Monthy & weekly mileage report.

The last 7 months have gone pretty much according to plan. I wanted to do at least 1 more big bike week in July, but the Peterborough half Ironman ended up taking precedence. This was a tactical decision that actually paid off. It was in Peterborough that I really started to understand the feel of a race, the nutrition and pacing components. So in hindsight, doing that race was probably the best decision I've made all year. Here are the July numbers:
Run: 206.5k
Bike: 1389k
Swim: 41.6k
Dryland 7 hrs
Mileage wise, a pretty good month considering there were 2 easy weeks sandwhiched before and after Peterborough.

Here is the breakdown for last week:
Run: 63k
Bike: 446k
Swim: 5k
Dryland 1.5k
Weight 158
Last week was a hard week. I had to nuke a swim session to get the extra bike time in and I ended up doing those 446k in 4 days. I would have thought my legs were going to be fried, but you know what? They held up pretty good and I was still able to get some decent run mileage in. A good week.

Today is my off day, I went to the pool and did an easy 2.6k and that's it. Slacked off, read my book and listened to tunes for the remainder of the day. I like Mondays.

Float like a butterfly, hard week, T-minus 28 days

I know, I know, I usually update more frequent than this, but I did say that this was going to be tough week and unfortuneately something had to give, so let's get caught up.

I mentioned in Wednesday's post that this was going to be a bike focused week. After playing chicken with the weatherman (and winning!), I was successful in logging some good saddle time. Here's the workout break down for that last few days:
Wed: bike 88k (hills) run 4.5k (brick workout)
Thurs: bike 102k ( mostly flat), run 4.5k (brick)
Fri: bike 70k, run 11k (trails)
Sat: bike 186k
Sun: run 29k

Some good work done in the last few days. Friday's workouts kinda sucked, here's why: During Thursday's ride I was cruising home at a pretty good clip, when all a of sudden it felt like something just punched me in the stomach. I'm like 'what the hell??' I pull over, lift up my shirt and sure enough I have to pull a bee stinger out. Damn thing flew down my shirt and got me good. By Thursday night, the whole left side of my abdomen was swollen, red and itchy as hell. It kinda looked like that scene from Alien. Needless to say I slept like absolute crap on Thursday, which made Friday's workouts a bit of an ordeal. Right now I'm taking quadruple doses of Reactine just to keep the itching at bay and I think my little 'alien friend' is starting to subside.

A good ride on Saturday, pretty much the same ride as last week minus 10k. I met a guy in the last 10k of my ride who is doing Ironman Canada and we are leaving on the same flight out. How cool is that?

Today's long run was suprisingly good. The legs were a little cranky but they got the job done and I felt OK. I just told myself 'hey, this is the last 2.5 hr run you will have to do for awhile, let's just get it done.'

T-minus 28 days. Wow. I have a couple of hard workouts planned this week, then taper officially begins next Saturday. I'm excited.

Eat, work, eat, train, eat, train, eat, eat. Sleep. Repeat.

That title about sums up my life at the moment. A few years ago I would have looked at someone doing that and walked away scratching my head. I suppose I still have the ardour of the newly converted - but I really do find it fulfilling.

I train 98% alone, not necessarily by choice, but it's difficult to get schedules to jive and it's difficult to train with people of similar abilities and attitude. Oh sure, I really enjoy meeting up with Cliff for a long ride, or having Doug share my lane at the pool. But the day to day training is primarily solo - this has both it's good and bad points. It's good from the aspect that you rely on yourself to get the job the done. If you have a tough workout planned and you bail, no one to blame but yourself. But I must admit, there are times when having a training partner or crew would be nice - just to push each other when the going gets tough.

I was talking with Richard Pady of Healthy Results at the pool the other day, (RP is a former pro triathlete ) and he's thinking of putting togethor a sub 10 hr Ironman crew for Lake Placid next year. What an opportunity, I'd be all over that in a heartbeat. I don't quite think I'm at that level yet, but who knows, by next year, maybe.

Ok enough ramblings, here is the workout update:
Tues: swim 5k: 4X400 (descending, last one was 5:15), 2(4X200) first one is pull, then descending, last 200's were ~2:25. 4(4X100) same as the 200's, the last 100's were ~1:10. 200 cool down.
That workout pretty much pooched my energy stores. I went home ate and rested. Then did a 14k run.
Wed: a hilly/windy 88k's on the bike, followed by a short 4.5k run. A good brick workout.

The plan for Thursday is to get 100k done on the bike. I'll throw in another short transition run too. Hopefully the thundershowers won't show. Friday is a short bike/longer run day. I'll let you know how it goes. Cheers.

Monday weigh in

I'm starting to get a little nostalgic. The fact that I'm down to my last week and half of hard training got me thinking about just how fast the last 7 months have gone by. I've blogged every training session, the ups, the downs, the good and the bad. It's been a fun ride and I'm really digging the journey. I don't know if it's the endorphin addiction or what, but hard training certainly does seem to open so many doors. Physical, mental and spiritual doors seem to be opening all the time - it's so cool. And it true, YOU really can do anything you set your mind to. Nothing is impossible.

Rumour has it that Ironman Lake Placid for 2007 sold out in 30 minutes today. So you see, there are plenty of us 'crazy folk' out there. Actually when an IM sells out in 30 minutes I'd say it's turning into a phenomenon. Everyday more and more people are waking up to the fact: 'hmm... you know what? I can do this'. A good example is Cliff - he secured his spot this morning. (huge congrats Cliffy!)

And now the weekly mileage report:
Last week was suppose to be a moderate week, well it sort of got kicked up a notch and went to more the moderate/hard side of the scale. Here are the numbers:
Run: 54k
Bike: 366k
Swim: 10.3k
Dryland: 2 hrs
Weight: 159

The plan for this week is to kick it up another notch. Tomorrow is long swim day and a ~14k run. Bike week starts on Wednesday. That's the current plan - always subject to change. Cheers.

Weekend update

I did some quality saddle time on the Spirit of Koo on Saturday. Actually, I figured out that if I started at the CN tower in downtown Toronto and road directly up Younge St (which turns into Hwy 11), I would have ended up 20k short of Huntsville. Zoinks. A 196k ride in total. This was easily my toughest ride of the year, quite hilly with the hardest climbs starting at the 154k mark. (Hockley Valley Ski hill, Forks of the credit switchback and Mississauga road -by the ski hill) The good news is that I felt pretty good for the whole ride. I probably should have rode the extra 4k just to make it an even 200, but I was out of water, sports drink and food. :)
Oh yea, broke a speed record too - I hit 82kph descending down Heart Lake road. I'm still looking for a decent hill where I can break into the triple digit territory.

So the big question for today was how well are the legs going to hold up for the long run. Well they were a little cranky for the first 5k, but once they realized I wasn't going to let them off the hook, they got the job done just fine. Actually, today's 29k long run felt better than fine, I'd say closer to very good.

This concludes my 3rd Ironman-in-a-weekend and it was by far my best. I think a large part was due to the weather, cloudy and not too hot= perfect training/racing weather. The thing that is scaring the crap out of me is that Penticton BC (where IMC is held) is currently in a heatwave - today's temperature is a mere 39C (that's 102F). I really hope it's not that bad come race day - or I'm toast.

Lastly happy anniversary to me! Ironman Lake Placid is going on as I write this update. I can't believe it's already been one year since my first IM and I'm having a hard time believing I'm doing another one in just over a month. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

The weather network, inspiration and more

You would think that the Weather Network with all their dopler radars, satellite imagery and electro-ionsphere scanners could get a frickin four hour forcast correct. Isn't it funny, they'll have predictions for the next 7 days, give you broad generalizations on entire seasons yet they can't even nail down a 4 hour forcast. (sorry for the WN bashing, Mark).
Yea, I'm bitter I got caught in the rain yesterday. I busted my butt to get home so I could log a quick 100k on the bike and maybe get a run in. Instead, at the 40k mark, it started to thunder and lightning. So I had to hightail all the way home and try to outrun the oncoming T-showers. Fun stuff.
Ok, so I managed 80k in total and instead of a run, I did a full body weight routine, so all was not lost.

Today, I did 4k in the pool. They only give us an hour for lane swim and in order to get my whole 4k in I can't really dilly dally around. The main set was the same as Tuesdays.. 10X400m @ 5:45. After the swim I was talking to this older gentlemen (by older, I mean he's 80), he wanted to know about flip turns. (!)
(flip turns are those fancy schmancy turns that swimmers do) So, I explained to him how it was basically a half sommer sault near the wall. What struck me most during our conversation was a number of things 1) his joie do vie (hanging out the pool, being active and asking about flip turns at 80 - yea he has a zest for life) 2) he's 80, looks fitter than most 50 year olds 3) an excellent listener. (such a rare commodity these days) We all could learn a lesson or two from Bill.
In addition to the swim, I did a 14k run.

Lastly I just wanted to mention an inspirational story that happened a couple of days ago. Jenna Lambert completed a 32k swim across lake Ontario. Jenna is 15. Jenna also has cerebral palsy. Talk about heart. You can read the CBC story here.

Sometimes it's tough to 'dial it down'. This is a moderate week, with the idea of building into to the next two weeks, which will be in the 'hard' category. Note to self, stick to the plan.

Yesterday, I did 90k on the bike. This was my hilly ride, 3 tough climbs and multiple rollers. I entertained going for run afterwards, but had to remind myself to reign it in.

Today, I did a 11k trail run. My second workout was a 10 X 400m on 5:45 set at the pool. My swim has come up a notch, each 400m was consistently around the 5:30 mark. By about the 7th one, I was really starting to feel it, but I toughed it out and got it done. This was a harder than Ironman effort and I must remind myself to dial down the intensity at IMC. The goal for the swim at IMC is to get to the bike while expending the least amount calories as possible. I certainly don't want a repeat of what I did last year at IMLP!

Monday weigh in

Last week, being a recovery week, the mileage was cut way back. Here's the stats:
Run: 25k
Bike: 230k
Swim: 10k
Dryland: 2 hrs
Weight: 159
Recovery has gone well and I'm hoping by Thursday or Friday I'll be back to 100%. The plan throughout this week is to up the mileage to the 'moderate' level and hopefully by the weekend I'll be able to go nuts.

Today was slacker Monday, so I just went to the pool and did an easy 2.3k, mostly pull work. Tomorrow I have a long swim planned and either a bike or a run, I haven't decided which.

If you want a quick laugh, check this video. It's true, cheaters never prosper!

Weekend update..

I scored a new wetsuit! I picked up an Orca Pflex through Ebay and it arrived yesterday. It's sweeet. Perhaps I'll model it for you. :) Now I just have to find a local lake to get some open water swimming in..
Yesterday I got a decent 3.8k swim in. I was pretty happy with that because the pool was actually crowded for a change and they only give us an hour. My second workout yesterday was to stack a half bush cord of wood. This took much longer than anticipated and I had to blow off my easy run. It's OK, I'm allowed, after all it is an easy week.

Today was long ride day. Had 100k on the schedule, but did 120k. It was a fairly flat course I road today, about the only item of note was the wind. One of the strongest headwinds I've experienced this year. However on the way back it was also one of the strongest tailwinds I've experienced this year. Grin. The last 50k, I averaged 40kph! Zoom Zoom Zoom. Did the whole ride in sub 3:40, way too fast for an easy day, but I just felt good so I went with it.

Tomorrow is the day that will tell me how well recovered I am from Peterborough. It's long run day. However, I'm only running for 90 minutes tomorrow, so it won't be too bad. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Cheers.

Recovery

Recovery since Peterborough is going quite well. No residual soreness or muscle fatigue. So right now I'm just trying to balance between the mind, which tells me: 'you must take it easy' and the heart, which tells me: 'hey, you feel good, go go go!'

Yesterday I did an easy 8k run and a good 1 hour pool session in which I did a 10X400m set. It's cool that I can up my weekly swim mileage during this recovery week - it makes feel like I'm not slacking. :)

Today I did just over 70k on the bike. Just focused on technique and recovery and chose a flat route. I followed that up with a good 30 minutes of stretching and some upper body weights and core work.

And the recovery continues...

More pics, weekly weigh in & karma

A couple more pics from Peterborough..




Yours truly exiting the water.. I have no idea what I'm looking at.









Yes, this is the chicken dance. Actually I was just hamming with the crowd just before the finish line. (I think they were clearly unimpressed.)


Weekly totals:
The goal last week was to rest the legs for Peterborough, but up the swim mileage. Here's the totals:
Run: 36k
Bike: 167k
Swim: 14k
Dryland: 1.5hrs
Weight: 159

This week, the plan is to 'listen to the legs', if they are feeling tired, I'll pick up an extra swim session, but the over goal is get some quality rest so I can do a couple of hard weeks at the end of the month because when August comes - it's taper time babay!

Yesterday was an easy 2k in the pool - technique and recovery. Today I did 40k on the bike, again focusing on technique and recovery. I also squeezed in a quick upper body workout along with some core work.

A quick karma story. Last week I found a wallet, tracked down the owner and returned it to him. No big deal. At Peterborough, I managed to lose my bike helmet. Kinda of a bummer, it was new this year and cost me 150 bucks. Well, someone was kind enough to give it to an official and when I contacted the race director today, he said he had it and would Fed Ex it to me a.s.a.p. Booya! Karma in action. Hehehe, usually this stuff can take a lifetime or two to come back around, the turn around time for this one was less than a week!
You GET what you GIVE. Cheers.

Peterborough Tin-Man Report

Two years ago this was my first triathlon. (for the time curious, it was a 5:13) So it was kind of cool to come back and do this course again after 2 years. (by the way, I do not recommend doing a half Ironman as your first triathlon)
For those that regularly follow this blog, you'll know that I can suffer from tummy issues. This has been an on-going learning process and I'm happy to say that after my 6th triathlon, I've made some headway in that department. This, more than anything makes me a happy camper. I probably learned more this race than all my previous races put togethor. It was a good day. So without further adieu, here's the low down..

Short version:
Swim 2k: 27:40
Bike: 90k: 2:31:40
Run: 21k: 1:37:36
Total: 4:39:51 (3rd in age group, 10th overall)

Long version:
Nutrition, pacing, increased water consumption. I knew if I could make progress in these 3 things, I'd do ok. What can I say? Mission accomplished. I won't get into too much detail about them (cuz it's boring), but I'll touch upon all 3 within the report.

I'm waking up earlier and getting calories into my gut sooner. The main goal being getting to the start line with as little as possible in the GI tract, but with my energy stores at their max. Thanks to Sheila, for pointing out that I might be a slow digester. (thanks Sheila!)

Sally and I arrive a little later than I would have liked, so I ended up with a very crappy transition spot in an unusually overcrowded bike rack. On the way to registration, I'm lucky enough to run into Cliff, who actually has his own professional photographer. Cliff is doing his first half iron distance race and I have a feeling of what he's going through. However, I'm running late, so I wish him the best and make my way to registration and the swim start.
Swim 2k: Relax, keep heart rate down, focus. The swim is a mass start, which I like. The gun goes off, I let the elites get a 2 second head start and then I dive in and follow their feet. The plan actually worked, I had a nice pair of feet to follow for 3/4 of the swim. Out of the water in 27:40 for a fairly quick pace of 1:23/100m.(7th overall) It felt quite good and my heart rate wasn't too crazy upon exiting the water.

Bike 90k: Relax, keep heart rate down, focus. Stay in easy gears. Spin. At the 10 minute mark on the bike (and every 10 min thereafter), I begin consuming liquids. The first bottle is half strength sports drink, the next 2 bottles are regular strength. For the most part, the bike part is kind of lonely. The first 45k I pass a couple of people and a couple of people pass me. I hit the turn around point at 1:12, a full 3 minutes ahead of shedule. Upon turning around, I realize why I'm ahead of schedule, I had a tailwind. Now that tailwind has magically turned into a headwind. I'm enjoying the ride, it's hilly at times but it's a nice bike course. Every time I feel lactic acid in the legs, I ease off, nice steady biking, lots of liquids and relax - my mantras. I grab a bottle of water at an aid station and by the end of the bike I consumed that too. Four bottles for a 90k ride and the tummy feels good. I'm happy. Total bike time 2:31. Average speed 35.6kph, good for 27th overall.

Run 21k: I hit the run course running side by side with Paolina Allen (the woman's pro winner). Naturally the crowd cheers like crazy for her, so I soak up some of that free spirit. Actually I'm thinking to myself: 'hey she's a 4:40 is half IM'er, if I can stay with her, I'll have a wicked race!' So I shadow her for the first 2 or 3k, but she's seems to be fading... or maybe just correctly pacing, I'm not sure. So I make a bold move and pass her. At the 7k mark, I'm feeling good, actually make that very good. The run is 1/3 done, I'm taking it easy on the hills and maintaining a steady pace. At the turnaround, I see Paolina is less than 500m behind me, I tell her to catch me. She chuckles.
The run is my weakest link, I'm used to people passing me. But this time I'm not getting passed (as often), so I know I'm on track for a solid PB. My pace is good, I'm relaxed - just keep running. The last 7k is gut check time, some minor nausea is creeping in and I'm playing the "just 1 more km game". Just don't walk, keep running, 1 more km, relax, steady pace, good cadence, 1 more km, don't walk... you get the idea. The last 2k I get passed by a guy in my age group, I tell him to giver, because I'm going to be on his ass the rest of the way in. ( a blatant lie) He later waited for me at the finish line and said: "jeez you looked so strong I thought you were going to kick my ass!" The compliment made me feel good (me? a strong runner??), I told him " looks can be decieving!"
I finish the run in 1:37 (35th overall) - and I'm very happy with that split. Total time: 4:39:51 a full 9 seconds under my A+ goal. So in the end I was 10th overall and 3rd in my age group. And yea, I'm happy with the way the day turned out.

Sunday quickie

Ya know, for a 'B' race, I'm pretty damned happy. :) Today was the Peterborough Half Ironman and I had a good race. My pacing was good, my nutrition was pretty good and nailed a solid PB. Can't really ask for more than that. Total time was: 4:39:xx, I'll give you a more detailed report tomorrow. Cheers!

Whoa dude..

It kind of dawned on me: 'jeez guy, you have a half Ironman this weekend, better wake the hell up!' It's like part of me was saying 'hey, it's just half, the distance isn't that bad - it'll be good for training..' and the other half was saying: ' dude, respect the frikin distance and get some extra rest this week - you are gonna need it.'
Fortuneately, I listened to the latter - I did manage to rest the legs this week, while upping the swim mileage. So I'll be going into this race with legs at 80% and arms at 70% - definately a 'B' race.
The main goal for Sunday is to run this as my Ironman simulation. I've got my Saturday diet planned out and my race morning food as well as my strategy for fueling/hydrating on the bike. Try to stay cool, keep the intensity down and up the water intake. Really, it's pretty simple.
As for time, it's totally a secondary goal, hey if I do a good time - great, I'm trying to make that less of a 'goal'. It's all about the journey.
Now that being said, I'm still willing to make an ass myself and try to give you a rough idea on what would be 'nice':
swim 2k: <29:00 Could be iffy, already logged 11k in the pool this week.
bike 90k: ~2:30 Have to maintain 35kph - shouldn't be too much of a problem. But have to remind myself that I'm really not fully rested - so we'll see how it goes.
run 21k: 1:40. The only thing I really want is to nail my nutrition and put in a decent run.

Happy Friday everyone! I'm off to do an hour easy ride and probably won't update to Sunday. Cheers!

Update on the fly..

Hey everyone... just a quickie update. I'm in the midst of computer trouble shooting and progress is slow.

On the training front:
Tuesday: swim: ~5.5k It was a long swim and then it got crowded and I was losing count. I wanted 6k, but with all the distractions, I'm only logging 5.5k. Which is still alot of frikin laps.
Bike: 47k. Hilly and windy were the themes of the day. A good hard effort and still managed just over 32kph. Funny story: During my ride I actually got stuck behind a car. You know the type, nervous, tapping their breaks every 2 seconds and literally having trouble breaking the 30kph barrier. After a few K of this, I pulled up beside the driver and said: 'either speed up or pull over!' I passed the car, glanced back and he pulled over. :) That was a first for me, actually passing a car... on my BIKE.

Today: Run: 10.5k Did 3X1k at race pace, the rest of the run was at a steady pace.
Swim: 3.4k: 4X400m descending. 2X(4X200) descending. Not a bad set considering the arms were pooched from yesterday's swim.

Plan for the rest of the week:
Thurs: bike. Fri: short run and swim. Sat: stretch. Sun: race.

Hopefully I can my computer back to some sort of normalacy, if not, I'll be looking at the dreaded reformat. Grrr...