A "dousy" update, Alton Half Iron race report..

A Half Ironman..
in January..
in Canada.

Gosh, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I came up with the idea last October. Back then, Jan 26th seemed like an eternity away. Well Jan 26th is now two days ago...

The inaugural Alton Half Ironman took place on Saturday. The event is currently capped at 5 participants, of which 3 actually took part. Very cosy, and at least this way everyone who participated is gauranteed at the very least a bronze medal. Now if only there was hardware available... Bah! Who needs a medal? Swag .. now that's something I'll have to work on for next year.

Moving right along. Aaron (who is quite the bad ass blogger - go read is his race report!) and hardcore Cliff were the only ones who actually thought this idea merit. Doh, they called my bluff.

The transition zone opened at 7:30am and naturally Aaron arrived exactly on time and Cliff arrived exactly when he was suppose to. (8am). We do a quick setup of the bikes in from the of TV. (HAHA.. you thought we were going to bike outside? -ok we maybe Canadian, but we aren't THAT stupid). We grab our swim gear and head to the pool. (nice deal on the pool, we get our very own swim lane and it only cost us 18 bucks - score!)

The swim.
10X 200 on 5 minutes. Lots of rest.. well cause we need it. This was my first swim since IMLP .. a mere 6 months ago and Cliff and Aaron aren't in any better swim shape. So this was clearly about ' just git er done'.
T1
~35 min. A bit long, I know. But by the time we changed, drove back to my house and got on our bikes, 35 min elapsed. Oh well. I guess no sub 4:30 HIM for me today.
The bike.
3 hours of Coach Troy. We were doing his "Tough Love" video and I had completely forgot how much he likes us out of the saddle. Felt like a bunny rabbit, up out of the saddle, down in the aerobars .. repeat... repeat. Well after two hours quad frying saddle jumping, we toasted Coach Troy and instead watched the 2007 Ironman World Championships, which was, as usual, highly entertaining AND allowed us to do some 'steady' work.
T2
~10 min. The 3 of us, 'dry out', as in towel off the sweat that 3 hours of indoor riding will do to you, eat and get dressed for the run.
The Run.
Muahahaha.. The evil imp that sits on my left shoulder took over and make a 'challenging' run. Challenging as in hilly. It was SO hilly, that Cliff actually got a nosebleed!! (true story!) Luckily, my beautiful wife, Sally, was driving the 'sag' wagon and came to Cliff's rescue. Naturally, he soldiered on.. tough guy.
Aaron was running well. I'd stop for 10 sec to talk to Sally and get a drink and it would take me 15 min to catch him.

In the end, I ground out the required 21+k and the legs are hardly complaining - some residual soreness, but that's OK, because this week is a scheduled EASY week.
Yes!

In other news...
(my God, is this guy going to ever shut up??)
Race Sched is now set.
Sporting Life 10k
Mississauga Half Marathon
Muskoka Long Course Tri
Peterborough Half Ironman
Owen Sound Olympic Tri
Guelph Lake Tri
Musokoka 70.3 Ironman
All registered and ready to go. Yiiihaaa

Last weeks mileage
swim 2k (yes! 1st swim of the year!)
bike 8+ hours
run: 57k.

Ok, I'm done. Cya.

Uncomfortable is only a state of mind.

Ya, that was my mantra. Anyone who did some sort of extended outdoor activitity on the weekend knows first hand how uncomfortable it was. The temp was on the chilly side, but in truth, it was the wind. I'm guessing with the wind we were flirting with -20 to -25C windchills. Uncomfortable. My long run was in these conditions and I'm sure most people who saw me were shaking their heads.

Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.

Oh sure, you can resign yourself to grumbling about how bad you got it and woe you are, or how the world owes you and to being miserable. But that's your choice. If you choose that direction, it so shall be.

Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.

So that obviously ended up being my mantra during my long run. Crazy enough it worked. I ended up having one of my BEST long runs...
ever. (24.5k in <1hr 53min with an avg HR of 146.) The mind is powerful thing.

The rest of the stats for the week:
Swim: goose egg!
Bike: 7 hrs
Run 66.5k

The plan. Basic structure:
Mon: off/or easy swim
Tue: run 1 hr// hard bike. (LT work)
Wed: swim// easy run
Thu: run 1hr (Zone 2) // bike (strength work)
Fri: swim// easy run
Sat: long bike// easy run
Sun: long run.

Currenlty I'm substituting the swimming with extra biking and running. I did this plan last week and it seems to work well. The one major difference of this plan over last year's plan is the extra speed work. I will NOT be afraid to occasionally go into higher heartrate zones. The last couple of years I was primarily concerned with going long as much as I could handle, which meant ALOT of zone 1 work. The foundation has been laid, the cake is baked, going to put some icing at that bad boy this year. Let's see what happens.

FIVE days until the Alton Half Ironman...
Next weeks update should be a dousy.

Cheers,
Darren

Pen to paper

Weekly recap:
Run: 66.5k
Spin: 6.5 hrs
Yea babay, back in a solid groove and feeling good. Highlights: Tuesday: LT test on the bike. 30 minutes max effort. It really is a hellish experience.. I think the "One more minute" game started at about 4 minutes in. Went out a tad hard and faded at the end - not exactly what your suppose to do. Ended up averaging 291 watts for the duration. Heartrate was 174 from start to finish, so I did get good data there. Completely and totally fried my legs and almost needed a bucket. Haha.

Highlight number 2: Ran with Aaron on Saturday. Anytime you get to train with a partner, it's gravy. Just knowing someone is right there beside you always seems to lift your spirits. Before you know it we banged off 23k. (although I bet if you looked in his log, I bet he wrote down 24k..)

Highlight number 3: Zoinks. Three training highlights in ONE week. Yesterday I did 2.5 hours on the bike. Yup, it's that time of the year.. Lord of the Rings. So I stuck in LOTRO, put the computrainer in Erg mode and pedalled away. I kept going back and forth between 220w and 240w, 15 min in at each wattage. Awesome ride! The really cool thing about putting your Computrainer in erg mode is that no matter what gear you are in or what cadence you pedal, you HAVE to do the watts. There is no cheating. There is no coasting. You always always always gotta push the watts. Defineately a premium work out.


In the vain of Slowtwitch, critique my trainer dungeon!





I've been doing a bit of research on cycling and increasing functional threshold power (FTP). As usual, the more research you do, the more you begin to realize there is no ONE way. However, the one thing you have to do to become a faster cyclist is push the watts. Some do it by the tried and true 2X 20 Zone 4 workout and others do it by low cadence/high watt drills. Personally, I'm thinking of adapting both and alternating each week between the two.

So the plan is starting to come togethor, once I've actually committed pen to paper, you'll be the first to know.

Cheers!

Upside down pyramid.

I truely think that when you 'seriously' start to pursue triathlon, there is no 'correct' way. Each individual is basically human guinea pig that struggles to find out what works best for them. Some are more successful than others and having a coach to help you navigate those waters would be a big asset. I actually enjoy being self coached, there is a personal satisfaction in researching, following a protocol, laying out and following plan and having a modicum of success in doing so. A couch would tell you "Do this" and you'd do it. Personally, I want to know the why's - it's only through exploring the why we something - is when I believe or not it will work for me.

An example is the pyramid approach to training. Many athletes approach their training in a typical pyramid fashion. Big base building hours in the early season, followed by some shorter more intense session as the season progresses. In my mind, this makes most the sense. The base period helps establish an aerobic engine in which the body has time to adapt and strengthen. This will put in you a much better physical state for when the time comes to do the harder/intense sessions.

The upside pyramid approach basically flips this idea around. ie: Do your more intense/interval training early in the year and your longer type stuff in the mid/late season. From a northern climate perspective this can make alot of sense, the reduced day light hours and dealing with lousy weather can put a damper on the hours one wants to train. However, from a physical stand point, I tend to agree with the standard pyramid approach to training. Always be working on the aerobic engine, but do the fine tuning later in the season. You can always incorporate some 'steady' state stuff to help alleviate the boredom, but save the interval training for racing season.

No one approach is 'best'. It's a matter of figuring what works best for you. The one universal truth that matters is consistency. Be consistent in your training and make sure you get enough rest. Ok, I guess that's two truths.

Last weeks hours:
Run 61k ( must... run... more...)
Bike 7.5 hrs (nice!)
Cap it off with two wieghts/core session and my regular stretching and you have the makings of a decent week.

Cheers!

Hello '08!

Just like that.. '07 is out the door and big hello goes out to '08! As a bonus, it's an Olympic year, love the Olympics, love the motivation and inspiration it provides.

Lots of catching up, so here the abbreviated version of the last 2 weeks of training.
- injured on Dec 18th. Had a fall work.. (people PLEASE shovel and salt your driveway and walkways!!) Fortuneatly, it wasn't too bad, but just to err on the safe side, I only ran twice for that week.
- mileage total for week of Dec 17-23: run: 23k spin: 4.5 hrs.
- mileage total for week of Dec 24-30: run: 59k spin: 6.25 hrs. The knee is back to 100% and I'm feeling good.
- consistently stretching for 20 minutes a day and doing two sessions of weights and core work every week. Yup, the addiction is back.

Speaking of addictions, I suppose a few of you may have made a New Year's resolution to get fit, lose weight etc.. Here's a little trick that worked for me. Tell yourself you just have to workout for the next 6 weeks. Weeks 1 and 2 are easy, you are all gung-ho and ready to rock. Weeks 3 and 4 are more challenging, the gung-ho-ness is gone and it's much more of a challenge. Weeks 5 and 6 are make or break time, tough it out - it's only 2 weeks. After week 6, things will get alot easier. Why? Because you just made a habit. Go ahead, give it a shot, see what happens, afterall it's only 6 weeks - you can do *anything* for 6 weeks.

The January agenda.
-very similar to my last week of December. Looking to get 12 hours of aerobic activity in each week. Basically half running and half biking. Mondays are still my off day.
-the Alton Half Iron is scheduled for Sat the 26th. Space is limited and is selling it out very fast. I have a feeling the people that have been invited are beginning to have second thoughts about the wisdom of doing a half ironman in January. To them I say: muaahahahaha... :)

I feel the urge to soemthing sorta epic today... I'm thinking the ErgVideo Lake Placid loop... I guess that means it's time to
HTFU.

Cheers gang and Happy New Year!

Technique.
Anyone who remotely follows this blog, knows that I always go on about technique. I know first hand how important good technique is. Sometime ago I swam fairly seriously. Occasionally, I'd get my butt kicked in a race by someone who was smaller and not as strong. They simply had better form. I vowed to become better by attaining better technique. I watched videos of Olympians, I practice mental imagery and most importanly I listened to what my coaches told me. It took awhile, but it worked. Today, the muscle memory that I had from 20 years ago is still alive and well and that I'm still a decent swimmer despite hardly training it. It's all due to technique.

I bring this up because I've dedicated all my riding in December to soley focusing on technique. For that I'm using spinscan that comes with Computrainer. See previous post if you're curious about spinscan or click here:
http://www.racermateinc.com/spinscan.asp
Last week my spinscan high for a mere 30 minutes on the bike was 77. This week it's 86! A 9 point improvement! Might not sound like much to you, but I was shocked. If I really concentrate while spinning, I can actually feel how I'm suppose to spin. ie: slightly changing when a muscle fires or changing my maximum torque angle. It takes alot of concentration and when my attention wonders, the numbers go down. I'll be routinely incorporating technique sessions throughout my winter training.

I'm an idiot. Wanted to do the Chili half marathon at the beginning of March. I procrastinated to the point that now the race is sold out. On the waiting list.

Last weeks totals:
Run 5 times: 60.5k
Spin 5 times: 3+ hrs.
The highlight was doing a 20k'er with Cliff on the Trans Canada Trail at 9 am on Saturday morning when it's -15 degrees. Afterwards, I bought myself and Sally snowshoes from Caledon Hills Cycling, who've recently branched out into winter sports. It was good timing as we almost got a foot of snow yesterday. So Sally got an early Christmas present and we snowshoeing in the middle of a blizzard yesterday. Might not be your idea of fun, but we had a blast!

Cheers!

Spinscan numbers

Ran 6 times this week for a total distance of 73.5k. Ran disciplined, ran smart. Discpline in the sense I kept my heartrate down to the magic number of 145 and smart in the sense that the effort was low intensity followed by excellent stretching afterwards. Paying particular attention to my IT and hip flexors. I'm feeling pretty good and just trying to be hyper aware of any 'bad' pain. Even massaging the IT band is not ringing any warning bells, so I must be doing something right!

Also got in 4 short sessions on the bike for a total of just over 2hours. Really focusing on technique. Computrainer has a program that analyzes your pedal stroke, as it analyzes, it assigns you a number for each leg. The higher the number, the more efficient you are pedaling. A number of 100 is the highest you can go and is really only attainable by a motor. It would signify complete and uniform force through the entire 360 degree pedal stroke. Pro level cyclists routinely hit 80 for their spinscan. It's a tough thing to toy with, you start to play with the numbers as you spin and eventually you start to get 'it'. If I'm not paying attention and just pedaling away, my spinscan number is routinely about 67. I want to get the number up, so I'll sit on the computrainer, run the program and just concentrate on getting high spinscan numbers and pedalling as efficient as possible. I set my new record on Friday with a spinscan of 77!
Now I'm only doing this for 30 minutes at a time, but it's a good start. Got to burn that perfect technique into muscle memory.

Cheers!

Cheater hours

Wah, wah, wah..
Yes winter is here. Big time. We have snow. We have white-out conditions. We have freezing rain. We have more snow.
Despite the inclimate weather I still squeaked out 4 runs for the week. (3X 60min, 1 X 90min) and actually *doubled* my bike trainer hours to ....
Two!
I'm sort of forcing myself to only workout once a day and keep the weekly training hour to a minimum. Going too hard now will must make me all burnt out by July - not a good thing.
I also managed to do 3 X 15 minutes of weights and core. This got me to thinking, when I think of training hours, I think of 'aerobic' training hours. Stretching (and I stretch alot), core work and weights don't count as part of my training hours. If you include these, you're just padding your hours. Hence, cheater hours. Gosh, I probably could have padded my hours by +20% this week if I included the extra stuff. Aerobic hours - that's where the money is at.

December is here. Just like that. This time last year, I was definately more fit. Just interesting to note that. I'm still hoping to train smarter this year and by the time racing starts - I will be faster. So what's the plan for December? Pretty much more of the same, still keeping the aerobic hours fairly low. I'm offically keeping track of mileage and getting much more disciplined in keeping my heartrate in check. I'll be getting on my bike more frequently. A slow, methodical increase in hours is the plan. The last week of December will be super easy, just in time for Jan '08 - when things start to get interesting.

A broken wing test

So, I'm out running on Saturday and when I'm not concentrating on form, cadence or breathing, I was trying to come up with something to post this week. Training wise it's been pretty uneventful, so there was nothing of interest to post in that department. So as I'm pondering this, out of the corner of my eye I see movement. It was a morning dove on it's back. Not being a bird expert, I assumed the poor thing had a broken wing. Sigh. What to do, what to do...
This is a test..
Whenever I'm put into a situation that involves some sort of action on my part, I think of it as a test. Not a test from the Almighty (I'm actually quite non-religious, at least in the conventional sense, spiritual - yes, but that's a topic for another day); this test is more like "ok, here is a situation, what's the BEST course of action?"
What to do.. what to do..
Find a rock? Put it out of it's misery? I'm a confessed softie, especially when it comes to animals, I've had to put an animal out of misery and I can't say I pariculary enjoy it. But if it has to be done, it has to be done. So I look for a rock to do the job. Well everything is snow covered and no large rocks are presenting themselves. Hmm...
What to do.. what to do..
Pace. Hmmm.. Ok, let's examine this little guy. So I pick up the bird, I can't tell if it's wing is broken or not, but there is a small and fresh wound on it.
What to do. what to do..
Smash it on the ground? As barbaric as that sounds, it would end its' suffering - quickly. Mercy is a good thing.
What do do.. what to do..
I swear at this point the little guy looked at me and said 'what now boss?" Sigh, in for a penny in for pound. So I run home (about 5k away) with a morning dove in my hand wrapped in kleenex. I get home, put him in a box in a darkened area of the basement. Well, I'm in deep now.
What to do.. what to do..
Google knows all. Look up on Google on how to fix a broken wing and think that I could probably pull it off. Call my vet, who refer me to the Wildlife rescue guys.. who are conviently located a good hour away! No pick up service of course. Ahh crap, I've gone this far, can't turn back now (sort of like an Ironman!). Sally and I were heading in the direction of the Wildlife rescue guys to attend a party, so if we left a little earlier we could drive a little extra and at least give the little guy to the pros, at least that way he'd have a chance. So that's what we ended up doing.
Two FREE lessons learned. 1) *Always* try to do the *best* course of action, regardless whether it's easy or not. 2) Sometimes you just can't go back. Yup, now that I think of it, I got alot more out of trying to save a bird then meets the eye. Life, ya gotta love it.

As for actual training..
Run 5 times. Shortest 52 min. Longest 70min (X2)
Bike 1 time. For an hour. On the trainer. Yes the bike is offically on the trainer.
Weights & core: 3 X 15 min sessions.

Cheers!

Bruce Trail, Wierdness

Quite often when I think of 'fun' things to do, others think I'm just plain wierd. I look at the Bruce Trail, all 768km of it, and I think it would 'fun' hike the whole thing. I look at a map of this beautiful country that I love so much and I think it would 'fun' to cycle from coast to coast. I look at the epic wilderness of the Arctic and I think it would be 'fun' to go camping on Ellesmere Island. Maybe I am an odd duck, perhaps people do think I'm 'wierd'. Then again, I think many people are wierd for wanting to sit and watch TV for 5 hours a day.

On Saturday, I went for a challenging hike-n-run along the Bruce Trail with Cliff. A fairly rugged 23k looped section of the Bruce with some pretty good elevation gains. It took us 3.5 hours (exactly the same as last year!), so we weren't blazing the trail or anything, but with the all the elevation gains and losses, by the time we got back to the car, we knew we had a great workout.
During the hike-n-run we'd talk tri stuff, training philosophies etc.. At one point I said I'd like to do this loop twice, make a day of it. (ok, THAT would be a tough workout) You know what? Cliff didn't look at me wierd, I could see the glint in his eye - yea I could probably talk him into doing it. Smile.
He mentioned he'd like to do a back to back 200k destination ride. Two words: "I'm in." I guess we are both wierd.
It was a great day and I felt like a million bucks afterwards. We agreed, we would try to do it once more before snowfall. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Ran 6 times last week. Good stuff. Running legs are at about 80% and climbing steadily. Brought the bike inside, probably for good. Still *thinking* about swimming.

Cheers!

Sick no more

Been a relatively crappy week. Finally caught that bug that was floating around, pretty much knocked out any will to work-out for a week. Got back up on the horse on Friday and got a decent run in for both Fri and Sat. So this week I'll attempt something a bit more 'normal'.

Next Saturday, I have a planned 25k hike-n-run, which I'm terribly out of shape for. Am I backing out? Hell no. Sorry guys, you don't get off that easy. I have one confirmed buddy joining me, hopefully I can grab a couple more and make a party out of it.

Earlier in the week I was pondering about how triathlon has made such a positive change within me. No one ever asked 'why or what is tri'fusion?' Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Tri-fusion isn't about triathlon. The title actually means the fusion of mind, body and spirit through triathlon. A bit of a play on words. I experience such a peace within myself when things are going well training wise. I try to share that with others.. I feel it's a positive thing. However, I wasn't able to do this until I made the positive changes from within first.. only then was I able to share with others. It could anything from urging a coworker to quit smoking to picking up a piece of garbage on the street. It's all positive change and if I can be some small part of it - that's a good thing. Hey, we all of that power, might as well use it.

Cheers,
Darren

Holding steady

As most of you know, October, for me, is pretty much dedicated to slowly acclimatizing my body to the rigours that will applied to it in future training. So to that end, I've very slowly upping my running frequency, doing some weights and the odd bike ride. In a nutshell, that's it.

This week, I'm planning on running 5X, 40min will be the shortest and the longest will 75min. Hopefully get a ride in next weekend and do weights 3 times. I'm not a big fan of weight training, so I only focus on a few exercises (leg extensions for the quads and leg curls for the hammies), core work and pushups. This short session I can bang off in 10 to 15 min. Currently I'm only doing 1 circuit of the above 2 times a week. By the end of the Nov, I'll be doing the circuit twice, 3 times a week. That's it. I think weight training is good tool, but if it cuts into any other swim, bike, run training then it's a no go. That's why the sessions are pretty short.

It's a no go for the masters swim team. Actually, I'm on the list, so the only way I'll get in is if someone drops out. The fact that there is no space available caught me by suprise. I'm thinking about doing a masters swim meet (as an independent) in the spring -just for the heck of it. So for now, I guess when I pick up swimming, I'll be doing it solo again. :/

Went for a ride with Aaron last weekend. We're both in early season, not really caring phase of our training, but before we went, we both agreed that we are not into training if it's crazy cold and raining out. This is a time for fun, not a time for trying to toughen yourself up.
So I setup a ride with half an eye on the weather and things are looking good. Saturday roles around and what do you know, it's cold, it's raining. Damn you Weather Network! The unwritten rule is, if you setup the ride you simply can't not show, that would be very bad form.
Naturally, Aaron shows, remember, this is the guy with who I agreed with NOT to train in cold crappy weather; yet here we are riding in..
cold..
crappy..
weather.
As usual, the tough part was getting going. As usual, I was glad we rode. Typical.

Cheers!

"Darren, we are riding this Sat.. "

are you in? What the hell, I'm in! Let's not even mention the fact that my bike still had race wheels left on from IMLP - 2.5 months ago! I met up with Aaron and Cliff and rode for 2 hours on Saturday. I'll say two things: 1) I'm glad I left my HRM strap at home (by accident) 2) What is it about group riding that throws every bit of caution out the window? First, we warmed up for about 30 minutes and before you know it I (like an idiot) am out front hammering. (well it felt like I was hammering, average speed says otherwise) I can't shake Aaron, so we mellow the pace for a bit, then what do you know? Aaron is up front hammering - well naturally I must try to keep up - and thus went the ride. Screw heart rate just go out and have FUN. I'm glad I went.

So no Ironman next year. Why? The short answer is: too many eggs in one basket. I tend to be pretty self analytical and pragmatic, so in the end I think it's a case of just not having enough years of training under my belt to effectively do the distance the way I believe I'm capable of. So next year, I'll be racing more often and stick to the half iron distance and under. The juices are already starting to flow and I'm looking forward to next season.

The big show at Kona was last Saturday. Was looking forward to the epic Stadler, Macca showdown in the final few K's, but it didn't happen. Stadler bailed on the bike and in the end Macca won. Props to him. Un-frikin believable how fast/ good these guys are. Kept half an eye on the women's race, but lost interest when hometown favorite Lisa Bentley was having troubles. She's is as tough as they come, but doing IMC and Kona is just too close togethor, in my humble opinion.

Last week mileage: run 4 times, 40-45 minutes each. Bike for 2 hours. :)

Cheers!

2 Month hiatus is over..

Hard to figure out what to say after 2 months of 'laying low'. Basically, I went through a 'triathlon system purge.' Two months of doing anything BUT triathlon. I used the time to rest, catch up on household chores that I somehow managed to put off over the course of the summer, hike, play videogames and log some quality time with Sally. It was a good rest session and my body and mind needed it.

So now I'm back and I'm sure my readership has dwindled from a mere few people to .. oh I don't know.. maybe 3?? Yes, I did get the odd email wondering where the hell I've been - and I believe I'm caught up in that department. As the mind and body are slowly shifting into gear, I'll be blogging and checking my email much more frequently. Promise!

Shh!! SECRIT TRAINING!
Well not really. But it did begin just over 2 weeks ago. Very light, occasional running. Nothing more than 45 minutes, keeping the HR down (very hard to do!), just slowly and methodically increasing frequency of runs per week, stretching and core work. My mind and body are slowly waking up to the fact that off season is over, easy season is in session and regular training will be starting up soon.

Basic highlights for the '08 season: NO IRONMAN (I'll save the whys for a future post), 'A' races will be the Peterborough half and the Muskoka 70.3 and aging up! Yup, I'm at the top of the hill next year at the ripe age of 40.

Other training stuff. I haven't yet, but I think I'll pull the trigger and train with the local masters swim team. Again, running will be a priority this year. Going to do more 'focused weeks' and will try a few months of 1)bike week 2)easier week working on the all 3 sports, 3)run week, 4) very easy week. Slightly different from the build for 3 weeks and rest for 1 week protocol. I'll be introducing speed training, instead of periodizing, I'll be doing a more consistent (but infrequent) speed training - starting in April. Also, throughout the off season I'll be doing wieghts. Hey, gotta face the facts that at age 40 I'm losing muscle mass.

Alrighty, I'm off. It's good to be back!

Cheers!

2.5 weeks, off season?, ITB, Muskoka

Ya I know, it's been a long time between posts. I can hardly believe it's been only 2 and half weeks since IMLP. It seems like a lifetime ago. I don't suffer PIDS (a phrase brought to you by Crackhead)- Post Ironman Depression Syndrome. At least I don't think I do. I'm actually relishing my current lazy state -getting fat and playing video games.

I managed 3 runs last week, each of a 40 minute duration. And each run was a short sufferfest due to some crazy tightness in my IT band. So I've backed off on the running. As for swimming and cycling, I currently have no desire to start them back up, especially since the season is almost over. My initial plan was to try to put togethor a decent marathon on October, but with my current IT issues and my dubious mental-end-of-season-state, I'm leaning to taking an early off season and starting back up in the fall. I take the off season very serious - 4 to 8 weeks of chilling out, I relish the thought of it.

It looks like Muskoka is getting an official 70.3 (half Ironman) in September of next year. Tough decision, IMC, or stay local and do Muskoka in '08? Points to ponder..

Ok, you HAVE to see this video. This is the swim start of IMLP '07. My god, if you are a MOP swimmer (middle of the pack), this, is incentive to train your ass off to be a FOP'er! I now get why the swim freaks so many people out! My hats off to you guys.
Video of '07 IMLP swim.

Lastly, just a quick kudos to the guys at the Brampton Post Office. Funds for this years charity drive for POGO now stands at $2625.00. Just awesome.

Cheers!

IMLP'07 Report

Family, friends, 2200 athletes, 3500+ volunteers(!), countless spectators, beautiful scenery and top notch organization. Just take a sec and try to imagine the type of atmosphere that will generate. It's electric. Even if you have absolutely no desire to do an Ironman, I would highly recommend to spectate one - it really is an experience like no other.

Not much preamble this time, going straight to the main course.
Swim 3.8k:
Estimate: 56 min. Actual: 55:10 Agegroup placing: 7/419. Overall: 35/2208

This is a fast swim course. There is an under water cable that connects the bouys about 5 feet below the water, so everyone tries to get into position so they can see the cable. This saves you from lifting your head and 'sighting'. Basically, just follow the cable and you're set. At the start, I'm positioned very close the front and ask the people around me if they are all around 55 min swimmmers - they are. Cannon goes off and I follow their feet, as it turns out, it's the lead crew. This is just fine with me as I've secured a nice draft within 400m of the start and have settled in really quick. Pretty much a perfect start from my perspective.

The first loop of the swim goes by and as I start the second loop, my goggles literally snapped off. Brand new goggles that I only use for racing - busted. Now I can't see shit. In seconds I lose the draft and lead crew, can't see the cable and start swimming rather crooked. Even though it's fresh water, it's tough to keep my eyes open, so I just shut them and open them to sight and keep on course. I think to myself "if this is the only setback I have today I'll be laughing."

Despite the 2nd loop challenges, I pull off a good swim time. As I exit the water, my vision is very clouded over and I'm blinking alot to try and clear the eyes. My run to the transition tent was at a leisurely pace as my eyes slowly start to refocus.

T1: 5:30 min.
Hehe.. terrible time. Could have gone for a shower and a bite to eat, it was so slow. Cloudy eyes and picking up a bunch of gravel on the bottom of my feet didn't help the situation. But I was on the bike at the 1 hour mark of the race - which was exactly what I wanted. So despite the minor setbacks, I'm happy.

Bike 180k:
Estimate: 5:30 Actual: 5:50 Agegroup placing: 64/415 Overall: 296/2208
This is a tough bike course. 1800 feet of elevation per loop and it's a two loop affair. My bike fitness is better than ever, I train on hills, I've logged many 400+k weeks and even hit a 600k week - so, as usual, I'm expecting alot out of myself. My estimate is sub 5:30 - I did a 5:31 at IMC last year with a 12 minute flat - so taking into consideration my superior bike fitness, plus race wheels and no flat tires, I think doing close to 5:30 is a reasonable /attainable goal.

First loop: ~2:48. Really just concentrated on taking it slow and keeping heartrate down. I knew I was going to get passed alot on the first loop, I wasn't worried. The split was a little slower than I was aiming for as I was looking for a 2:40.

Second loop: ~3:00. Kept effort in check for the first 60min of the 2nd loop and started reeling in guys who went out too fast on the first lap. Perfect. All is going according to plan. With about 90 minutes until the end of the bike, I started to get tummy issues. I have no choice back to back off. I'm bummed beacause I thought I had my nutrition figured out and yet here I was experiencing nausea - again. I'm about halfway through the race and I knew that having stomach issues this early was going to have nasty reprucussions later - and I was right!
I 'slow play', the last 90 min on the bike, losing an additional 12 min over my 1st loop time. I get into T2, happy as clam to be off my bike and knowing all I have to do now is run a marathon. :)

T2: 3:08
Nice T2 time.

Run 42.2k
Estimate: sub 4hrs. Actual: 4:07 Agegroup placing: 76/415 Overall: 354/2208

It's been 2 years since I've last run a standalone marathon. My best guess is that I'm currently about a 3:10 marathoner. (did a 1:25 for a half earlier this year). So I figure add 45 minutes to 3:10 and I'll slide in under the 4hr mark for an IM marathon.

My mantra for the run from the very beginning is simple. "Just run". Do NOT walk, however shitty I feel, just do. not. walk. God I want to walk so bad. My steps are so small, yet I'm still 'running'. The miles go by. I'm half done the marathon with no walking. How the hell am I going to do the last half without walking? I make a deal with myself, run just 3 more miles and walk then. I get to the 15 mile mark without walking. "Ok, run 1 more mile." Still no walking. I play this game to mile 20, when all hell breaks loose. I finally 'lose it' and barf my guts out. See? I told you the nausea I experienced on the bike would have reprucussions later. Hehe - I was right. I walk 100 yards and dry heave for a bit. Brought back memories as this was very near the exact same spot where I barfed on this course 2 years ago. Ahh good times.
After the last round of dry heaves - I run some more. A part of me is happy that I was 'tough' / stupid enough to keep running. I guess that the masochistic part coming out.
So I finish off the last 10k 'running' and as I'm coming into the finishers shoot, I'm sort swearing to myself - mostly because I'm so damned glad to actually have it in sight and be done. Anyway, I think Mr. Announcer guy sees me swearing to myself and says something like: "Give it up for Darren Walton from Alton, it looks like he needs your support!" Then as I cross the line, the 'catchers' grab each side of me and say 'don't worry we got ya'. I say 5 words:
"Thanks guys, med tent please."
Final time: 11 hrs 2 min.

Med Tent
Ahhh, you didn't know of the secret 4th leg of a triathlon. The med tent! Upon entering, they weigh me. I'm down 13 pounds. I say "13?, sheesh that's not so bad, I've been over 20 before!" (The nurse's eyes bug out at this) They hook me up to an IV, I barf, I get some anti nausea meds, blood pressure is low, I fall asleep. About an hour later, I'm good to go. It's like someone flicked a switch, I'm walking, talking, eating and drinking and looking forward to a good nights sleep!

A quick "HI!" to Cliff, Sheila, Shelley, Aaron and Stu - altough our meeting was too short, it was really great meeting with you guys. Please stay in touch!

A BIG congrats to Shelley. Her 7 time Ironman finishers wisdom really shone with her guess of 10:48 for my finishing time. Congrats Shelley! You are now the proud owner of official IMLP running socks! Woo Hoo!!

Tough day at the office..

Just a quickie!
I'm back. All is good. Here's a really short race report..

swim: highpoint: made goal time. lowpoint: lost my goggles halfway through. Swimming without them was tough on the eyes.
bike: highpoint: 1st loop doing 'Keane descent' at 80kph. lowpoint: really backing off 2nd loop due to nausea.
run: highpoint: I ran the whole thing except for 100 yards.
lowpoint: puking at 20miles, walking 100 yards and puking again.

A great report for those who like em short and sweet, give me a day or two for the full version. Cheers guys!

Lucky Rocketship Underpants

You got yours? I wish I could say I have mine. Rocketship underpants would be *awesome*. Or even cooler - lucky rocketship cycling shorts! Heck, I'd love a lucky rocketship running hat - that'd be cool. If you can find me either one of those, I'd pay large for it.
So, where does the phrase ' lucky rocketship underpants' come from? It's pretty easy, I'm sure someone will post the answer in the comments section.

Taper has gone well. Since the last update I rode for 2 hrs on Sun, swam 1.7k on Monday and went for a 7.5k run today. It was really difficult keeping my effort in check today - the legs were just begging to go. Tomorrow I'll ride for an hour, pack and other than that just concentrate on staying off my feet. Thursday is up bright and early and is travel day.

It's still early, but the weather is looking..umm.. perfect? Cloudy with a high in the 70's. Dare I hope?

Not sure if I'll get to update between now and post race, if not on Sunday goto Ironmanlive
type in my race number (1006), check my progress and send a positive vibe or two. I know at some point I'll need them!

Don't forget to post a finishing time mentioned in the last post. Hey, who knows? You may just score some unbelievable loot! Official IMLP socks - pretty damned sweet.

Cheers!

Slacker Saturday, 10:06??!! Predict my time and WIN!

1006
How did they do that? My number is the same as my finishing time! How cool is that?? 10:06! Oh man that would sweet indeed, but realistically it's not going to happen. For fun, let's crunch the numbers to do a 10:06..
Swim: 56
T1: 4
Bike: 5:20
T2: 4
Run: 3:42
You know, when I write it down like that, it actually seems doable. But if you throw in the obligatory +20 min fudge factor, the projected finishing time weighs in at 10:26. So this is what's floating in the back of mind, however time is of less importance than ever this year. This year the mantras are race smart, finish strong. It should be noted that I've yet to come close to a projected finishing time at the IM distance - the classic overestimating fitness applies here, BUT and this is a big but, I've made huge strides in the 4th discipline of triathlon. Nutrition. I'm not saying I have it nailed, but this will a huge test and I think it's dialed in pretty good.

Here is my overall strategy:
Swim: mantras: "long, easy strokes" Grab a set feet from the 2nd lead pack and take it easy. Time: 56 min.
Bike: mantra: "slow down!" Negative split? Get and keep heartrate < 135 for first loop, add 5 beats for 2nd loop. Start fueling @ 20 minutes and on the 10's thereafter. Eat half a power bar on the 30's followed by H2O. Estimated calorie intake: min:2000 max 2600. Time: 5:25
Run: mantra: "just run." Hold heartrate to 140 and see what happens. Nutrition: 800 cals of dextrose based Infinit. Time: 3:50

The good: my training went really well this year. Spent extra time on the bike to help increase overall endurance. Training started last October, with consistent and more structured training beginning in November - it went well.
The bad: nothing really. Caught 2 bugs, one in Feb and another in April. April was a downer month and missed a bike focus week. Other than that, all is/was good.
The "X" factor: weather. Hot, humid conditions will slow me down. Can't control that, so not worried about it.

In the "What the Hell?" category..
There are 488 in my age category. Yes, that's right, 488. What the hell? In a race where there will be between 2000 and 2200 particpants, there are 488 in the M35-39 division. We are clearly a most troubled demographic and undoubtedly need some sort of professional help.

Taper Udpate:
Mon: swim 2k. Tues: 1 hour message, 1:20 on the Computrainer Zone 2 workout. Wed: swim 3.7k (last long swim), run 7.5k. Thurs: Bike 55 (race setup), run 4k. Fri: run 10.5k (last 'long' run). Sat: open water swim 2.4k (done), pm: run and for tomorrow: ride, max 2 hrs.

Heading to the race?
If you want to meet up, drop me an email, we can exchange cell numbers. My schedule looks like this: Thurs: travel and register. Fri: am swim in Mirror Lake, pm: run. Sat am: ride. pm: bike check in, swim. Sun: all booked up. :)

Predict my time and win a..
Predict my time without going over and win a prize! A sock? A pair of socks? A pair of official IMLP socks? Yes, that's right! Predict my time without going over and I'll send you an official pair of IMLP socks! No emails, you have to post here so all can see.

Cheers!

LB, PB1/2IM, Serious TM engaged.

What an odd title for a post. Starting with LB..

Saturday's workout consisted of: a 3.6k open water swim, 100k bike and a 7.5k run. The highlight: I was out riding on a beautiful day, the kind of day when it's just awesome being out there and riding. I'm passing the cow fields saying Hi to the cows and otherwise just enjoying myself and logging a few K's. Whoa.. what's this? Someone ahead about 700m? Bogey in sight, target aquired. He/she is moving at a decent pace but I'm slowly making gains all the while trying to keep HR in check. It's all a game for me, even though the person ahead has no idea I'm there or that they are even in my little game. For me, it's just fun to try and catch someone ahead of me, hopefully have a little chat and ride some miles togethor.

So I pull within a few meters of the person and say 'hi', just to let them know I'm there. I pull up beside my fellow tri-wienie, do a double take and realize I just reigned in Lisa Bentley. Inside my head I'm going "ohmygodijustreignedinLisaBentely!" On the outside, I'm my usual calm cool collected self. (ya right) Seriously, we just chatted for a bit and soon after went our separate ways, no big deal. But it was damned cool to run a 10X Ironwoman champion a mere 2 weeks away from IMLP!

Fast forward to today. I just got back from an easy 2k swim, (sidebar, I did a couple 'fast' 100m's and was hitting 1:06's -schwing!) and was eating (what else is new) when TSN was showing Ironman Australia 2006. What woman one that race? Yup, you guessed it - Lisa Bentley. Gee, you think I'm in Ironman racing mode yet??

Peterborough 1/2 Ironman was yesterday. I had scheduled to do this race, but backed out, it's just too close too Lake Placid. I probably could have done it and recovered OK, but 'probably' just doesn't cut it, I'm just focusing on the prize and that's a mere 13 days away..
PB1/2IM, gets me nostalgic, three years ago it was my first triathlon, so you know it's a 'must do' for next year!

Taper Mode is pretty much in full swing. Last week I had the luxury of taking 2 days completely off. Pure craziness I know. The mileage looked like this: swim: 7.6k (bailed on a swim) bike 305k and run 35k (bailed on a run). On Friday I wasn't feeling quite 100%, so erred on the side of caution and got some extra zzzz's. All is good now, so no worries.

The plan for this week is to swim ~8k, bike <200k and run about 25k.
Cheers!