Around The Bay 2009

There is not enough swimming and biking in this road racing game for me.

So, I somewhat randomly picked 2:15 as a good goal for myself. I figured I could come close to that. It wasn't until near the start that I was told that I would get a shiny silver metal if I did it under 2:15. I like silver.

Training up to the race was somewhat sporadic. Got some good long runs in, but nothing at any sort of hard pace. Felt ok coming into the race though.

We caught a ride with the 'running maniacs' from bomanville on their bus which was awesome. They had arranged that we could get our race packages the morning of as a group. That was fantastic. They were a fun bunch to hang out with on the ride down. Got to Copps and checked out the finish line. I did the relay here a few years ago, and ran the finishing leg. I really think it is one of the neatest finishing lines I have ever crossed.

The Start. So, I turned on my GPS and waited for it to aquire a signal. It was taking a while. I didn't realize until the start that it had completely frozen. It wouldn't even let me turn it off and restart.

So as the gun sounded and I tried to start my stopwatch, it wouldn't go. I was running on instinct alone. (apprently my instinct sucks)I got into a comfortable stride which I was hoping was near the 4:30 pace I wanted to start at. As I came accross the 10km mat I was almost 2min. ahead of that. Oops.

Over the next few km my quads started to tighten up due to the cold. Nothing serious at the time, but I knew that I would be hurting by the end. I had caught up with Jon very early on. I knew what his goal was and had thought that I should hang out with him. For some reason I decided to pass him and keep up with my pace. In hindsight I should've stuck with him. My normal conservative start went out the window.

I tried to ease off a bit, but with no reference I was a little in the dark. I asked a few people around me what the splits were at a few points, but it was kind of hard to really get much from that.

Around 16km, my quads really started to hurt. It wasn't affecting my pace or stride too much at that point, but at only the half way point I was hurting too much to be good.

Through 20km I was still ahead of the pace I was hoping for, but at this point, I thought that the buffer was going to be important if I still wanted to get sub 2:15.The rollers came as a bit of relief. I am really good at running down hill, and can usually recover pretty well. So I held my pace comfortably throughout. Even the big hills didn't really bother me.

Jon came flying by at some point in here looking super strong. He had paced himself well. I tried to pick it up to go with him, but it didn't happen.

Around 24km I really was starting to hurt. It was a big mental game from that point on. Cresting the last hill, I was hoping to be able to turn it up a notch on the way back home. It didn't happen. It was more survival. I couldn't lengthen my stride out at all as my quads were on fire. I uped my cadence as much as I could, but I was getting passed a lot!I was just hoping not to see the bunny catch up to me.

If I had had a watch, I would've realized I had enough time but I didn't.At pretty much exactly 1km to go a small group caught me. My heart sunk as I saw rabbit ears. At that point I committed to absolutely burying myself to beat him in. I was this close to that shiny silver medal that I wasn't going to let it slip away. I just pushed with all I had. It was probably the hardest 1km I have done in my life. I put some distance on him and held it. Turns out that he was about 30sec. ahead of 2:15 on the gun. So I had a little leeway.

2:14:29 on the gun and a shiny silver medal. I was toast. After the race my knee locked up as a result of my muscles being so tight in my quads. I ripped the hell out of them in the cold. I am still gimping around today.

So there you have it. It was my first Around the Bay, and the longest running race I have done (outside of Ironman). I honestly am in more pain than after Ironman. If I had paced better I would probably not have hurt myself so bad. I'm not sure if a funcitoning watch would've helped.

I am happy with the time, just not how I got there. Good mental exercise though. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger right?

Allright, I am going to gimp off to the gym now, and do some stretching and light upper body work. I probably won't be able to run for a few more days yet.

It is now biking season. No more long runs for a while!

S

In the Gym

So I have been hitting the gym regularly lately.  The benefits of teaching a fitness for life class.  I get to workout out with the kids, actually am encouraged to.  

So I have structured myself a little triathlon weights program.  I have done this in the past, but my laziness and dislike of most gyms has resulted in me not going very often.  Since I have to be there now, I might as well workout!

So, What am I doing there?

Monday's:  Upper Body

Chin-ups (3 sets of 15) this is fantastic for swimming.

        Tri-ceps (free weights)

Abs (decline bench with 20pds 35 reps)

        Pull downs (machine)

        tricep (machine)

        Abs on pilates ball 

        Push Ups (leaving the ground at the top of push)

        Back raises w. 20pd. weight     

        Seated rows (machine)  

        Chin ups until failure

Tuesday: Lower Body

Squats 

        Calf Raises

        Leaps over bench

        Abs (decline bench)

        Leg Press (machine)

        Calf press (machine)

       4 squares (leaping on toes folling 4 tiles on the floor, this hurts!)

        On bike, 6 reps of tension at max that I can turn over for 30 right pedal strokes.

Wednesday: Brick

On spinner

HIT session 10 times max effort for 30sec on 2:30 rest

        20 min. run off bike at high tempo building to sprint.

Thursday: Mix of stuff

         Chin-ups until failure

         Abs Decline bench

         Run 20min 5 hard efforts

         Squash until tired.

This has been fun.  Since I am getting paid to be there!

My general fitness has increased substantially.  It will be interesting to see if this transfers to triathlon.  I can already feel some improvement in my swimming.  I can pull a lot stronger.

That being said, I am exhausted a lot of the time.  Trying to maintain my normal training and doing this as well is tough.  The body is getting used to it, but it is taking some time.

Next week will be an off week from this training because we will be in FLA.  I will be training super hard, but only on normal tri related stuff.  Lots of biking running swimming.

Port Perry Multisport Club

We are starting up a Multisport Club in Port Perry, Ontario. We currently have 3 NCCP certified coaches who will be leading training sessions for the group this year.

We will be starting to join members hopefully early in the new year.

I will post the membership fee when we determine one.Included in the fee will be:

-one on one coaching from NCCP certified coaches.

-a PPM multisport tech shirt

-your OAT membership for the year.

-access to a one day training camp in port in the summer.

-TT sessions once a week.

-One coached swim session at Uxpool per week (pool fee not included)

-One coached run and bike session per week.

-A year end celebration!

-Ability to participate in the 2009 club championships

-Access to coaches through the different web interfaces.

Facebook, www.canadiantriathletes.com forum, http://www.portperrymultisport.blogspot.com/

If you have and Q's you can e-mail me (Syd) at canadiantriathletes@hotmail.com

Train hard!

Ironman SlideShow

Ironman Florida 2008

This year was an experiment (somewhat forced) in what I can versus need to do to perform well. Life got in the way of what I wanted to do training wise, and what I could do. Heading down to Florida I was anything but confident in what the result would be. Granted I had a great race at peterborough half earlier this year, but I wasn’t feeling confident that I could meet or beat last years time.

That being said, I did make sure I got all of my ‘key’ workouts in this year. So could I do better on less hours? How would the fact that I was already at a higher fitness level affect things.

Got down to PCB on Tuesday. Took the day to get settled. Went for a quick 30min run to shake off the travel. Settled into my parents condo, and had the first of many amazing meals that my mom cooked up. It cannot be over stressed how amazing this is to have such healthy and perfect food during race week.

Wednesday. Slept in a bit. Went and picked up my race wheels (http://www.racedaywheels.com/) and registered. Got all of this done early. Went back to the condo and put the Zipp’s on the bike. The orbea looks unbelievable with a disk on the back. Awesome! That is truly inspiring. Took it out for a test, and felt great. I swear those wheels add 3kph.

After the bike I gathered up my wetsuit and headed out to the gatorade swim course with my wife. We bobbed around in the ocean for a bit before calling it a day. (Managed to make it out to the 3rd buoy which is ,by far, the farthest she has been out in the ocean.) I think I will be able to talk Jenn into this Ironman thing someday!;> Headed home to another awesome meal and sleep.

Woke up on thrusday and headed out to the swim early. Met up with Alex. Swam with Alex and Brandon until about the 2nd buoy where they made their way back. I wanted to swim the full course so I kept going. I allways do this once as more of a way to ease the mind. I love ocean swimming, but it takes a bit to ease the little naysaying voices in the head. Had a great swim and was stoked to get too race day.

Headed out with Alex later to ride the run course since he had yet to see it. After we went out for a short run ’strutting’, as Alex put it, by running by the expo and all of the crazy IM people. The atmosphere at any of these events is second to none. I recomend it to everybody!

Thursday night was the athlete banquet/ meeting. I didn’t show up until later (skipped the crappy pasta) and just went the the athletes meeting. Really not much different from last year. Be safe, don’t draft and have fun etc . . .

Friday was a true rest day. Fiddled with the bike getting it ready and just ate. I love eating!
Dropped the bike and gear in transition and went for a walk on the beach to calm the nerves. Not nearly as bad as 2007. Felt pretty good about things actually.

4am on Saturday morning. Woke up to eat as much as I could shove in my face. I think I got to my 1000 calorie goal. Couple of cups of coffee to get things going. Headed out at around 5am to get sorted in transition. Pumped the tires, dropped the special needs, left my nutrition and then waited. It was probably only around 10 degrees in the morning so a bit chilly.

6:30. Got my westuit on and headed into the water. Short warm up and back out to watch the pro’s go.

7:00am. No nerves. Positioned myself right on the front. Same as last year. Gun went, and we sprinted for the first buoy. I was able to ease off a bit earlier than last year as I found some open space. The biggest benefit I find with getting off the front early is that you are swimming with good swimmers who can go in a straight line. Very little banging around. I stayed about 10m off of the main line until the first turn just to avoid any crazyness. Went a little wide around both buoys and took the inside line back. It was pretty easy sighting this year. There was a bit of a cross current coming in but not too bad. First lap was in 26 min. Super fast!

Once we got back in the water we had to wade pretty far as there was a substantial sand bar.
It took a while to get my HR down after the wading. The second loop was pretty easy (I don’t remember much!) I was out of the water in around 56min. A little slower than last year, but I think that is mostly to do with the sand bar.

Out of the water and to the strippers!! The first of many unbelievable volunteers whipped my suit off and I was on my way. I handed my suit to Jenn and was off to T1.

I got my bag really quickly and headed into the tent. I sat down and had a volunteer helping me. I threw my compression socks on (get them, they are unbelievable. If you want more on them just ask me, I will probably do a gear review soon!) and the volunteer actually put my shoes on for me while I put my arm warmers on!!! I was out of the tent fast and was handed my bike. I managed to take almost 2min. off of my T1 time last year. I looked at my watch as I hit the mat. 1hr right on. Great stuff!!

The bike.Last year I really eased into the bike for the first 30km. I was trying to get my HR down. This year I wasn’t racing with my HR monitor and was going by feel. I took it fairly easy for the first 10km and then started pushing. We had a pretty steady head wind from 10 -40km. I was still able to stay above 30kph the whole time. I pushed pretty hard in this section because there was a pack forming and I didn’t want to get caught up in it, and didn’t want to end up pulling them along.

Made the turn at Ebro and things got easier. I was riding mostly with a pair of Beligium twins (who eventually won my AG with 3hr marathons!!!) and we were around eachother for most of the bike. At about 70km I looked back and saw a big pack riding behind us. I eased off and let them pass. At this point I talked breifly to one of the Belguim dudes and we decided that we would try and get away from the pack after the special needs station at 80km. At about 75km I passed the whole pack and lead by about 200m into special needs. I didn’t get my bag and made the turn onto 231. There was a good tail wind and I was able to stay around 48kph (on flat ground) for most of this section. The twins caught me around the turn off of 231. We rode together(legally) for most of the rest of the bike. At the turn around we saw that we had put around 2km on the pack who were riding two abreast!! I hope they got some penatlies!

The rest of the bike was steady pacing. I was feeling pretty good, but honestly was concerned that I had pushed too hard. I thought I was going to go sub 5 on the bike! (only missed it by 22secs!) I knew I was faster than last year for sure. The last 10km were into a head/cross wind. I took it real easy for the last 5km and eased into T2 feeling a little torched but alright.

T2. Another super transition, and another super volunteer! Quick stop at the porta potty and I was off.

The run.The first few steps were tenative, but ok! I quickly got up to my distance crunching pace (the one I feel like I can keep forever). The first 10.5km went fast. Lots of people on course and lots of great volunteers at all of the aid stations. I hit the turnaround in just under 50min (too fast!) and hoped that wasn’t a mistake.

Finished off the first loop in around 1:43. At this point I knew I had over 2hrs to finish sub 10! I knew if I was smart I should be able to do it. After the turn around I started to feel like absolute crap. Popped another Gu and thought that maybe I had used up all I had. I forced myself to keep running and kept telling myself that it would turn around. It did. The Gu kicked in (along with a banana and some coke) and I started to feel good again(relatively:> )

About 2km before the turnaround I felt my inner thigh starting to cramp again like last year. This had forced me to walk quite a bit. This year I was going to be pro-active. I decided I would start walking the aid stations until it got better to prevent it from cramping. This really seemed to work well. It would start tightening up until around each aid station. I kept this up for about 6km. At this point the adrenaline started to kick in as I knew that I was going to be under 10. I kicked it up a notch. I wanted to leave it all out there this year to see what I could do. The cramp left me alone and I was able to run pretty quickly for the last 4km. Coming into the shute I noticed that I was at 149:00

I wanted to keep it under 9:50 ( an 4 is better than a 5!) So I sprinted it in. 9:49:XX!!!!!! I was unbelievably stoked at this point. I didn’t think I had this time in me today. It was awesome. So rewarding and satisfying.

Met Jenn and my parents at the line! It was great!.
Got my medal/hat/shirt and went off for some Pizza. I was torched! Really had nothing left. I was starving and thirsty. The greasy Pizza was perfect!
So it was an unbelievable day for me. Honestly, this hurt more than last year. I pushed a lot harder.

It is going to be a few years before I do and IM again. I just can’t dedicate the time at this point to training (if you are going to do it, do it right!!).Thanks to everybody for their words of encouragment and support. It means the world to me.
Keep the rubber side down!

Where I am at.

Well, for the few of you that pass by here I guess I have been neglecting this.

Things are good. One week out from IMFLA, I feel a little underprepared this year. Training has been ok, but not nearly where I was hoping to be at. The inspiration to train hard has just not been there.

I have revised my goals for this year. I would be very happy with a repeat of last year. Realistically I think 10:30 is more reasonable, but we will see. I think the running is a little stronger, but I just haven't done the bike miles that I did last year. I was usually only getting in my long ride and maybe a short one during the week. Just no time.

This is why I know for sure I am not signing up for IMFLA.

Jenn and I are thinking of doing the trans rockies MTB race next. I also hope to do my first marathon and some enduro mtb races. If things are going well at the end of the summer I will think about doing the Canadian, but on a much more relaxed training schedule.

I will definetely still do a bunch of early season tri's. Milton, Peterborough, Muskoka Long are all in for sure.

So that is me for now. Just sent the bike and gear off with my parents as they drive down. Jenn and I fly out on Tues. 28th.

Got another decent bib number this year #380. I've been told that it is very lucky in China? So I will take that.

I will update when I get back.

Cheers

Orbea Ora (my new bike!!!)

Her she finally is. Awesome. 2 rides on her, and one 160km. The full carbon really takes the bite out of the rough roads. Definitely notice the lack of fatigue after the long ride.