Ironman 70.3 Calgary detailed results

There will be a race report coming soon after I have had a rest and a need to think on it.

Gordon Laqua

BIB	AGE	STATE/COUNTRY	PROFESSION
976	47	CALGARY AB CAN

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
1:02:36	3:14:32	2:01:03	6:29:41	547	48

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM	1.2 mi. (1:02:36)	3:17/100m	792	62
BIKE SPLIT 1: 28 mi	28 mi. (1:37:34)	17.22 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2: 56 mi	28 mi. (1:36:58)	17.33 mph
TOTAL BIKE	56 mi. (3:14:32)	17.27 mph	683	54
RUN SPLIT 1: 6.6 mi	6.6 mi (57:27)	6.89 mph
RUN SPLIT 2: 13.1 mi	6.5 mi (1:03:36)	6.13 mph
TOTAL RUN	13.1 mi. (2:01:03)	9:14/mile	547	48
TRANSITION				TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE				8:42
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN				2:48

24 Hours of Adrenalin

We raced the 24 hours of Adrenalin race in Canmore this weekend, July 24/25 2010 in Canmore.

The team "Committed or should be" ended up consisting of 4 riders:
Steve Mathezer
Geoff Harding
Nathan Paisley
Myself :-)

After all kinds of panic and scrambling to fill out the team came to nought, we decided to do the best we could with three riders, and I would debate the wisdom of riding with a half ironman only one week in my future.

Joanne was designated as the den-mother for this team, and Nathan, Joanne and myself met in Canmore on friday night, and put together a great setup for our base. I spent the first night tuning up Nathans ride, and he was quite happy with the results. And I am happy to report that the truing stand got used this year, and that Nathans wheel was more true after I finished with it than when I started. I have only trued one other wheel, so I was happy with the results as well.

Steve arrived in the morning, and got setup himself. We sent Joanne down to pick up Geoff, and they got somewhat stuck in traffic. The rest of the team had already Volun-told Geoff that he would ride the first lap, and therefore also get to do the Lemans start. We had to rush to get Geoff, because he had little warning that he was going first as well.

The order of rides was
Geoff - starting at 12:00
Steve - 13:45ish to 15:00
Nathan - 15:00 - 17:00
Geoff - 17:00ish-18:30
Steve - 2 laps until 22:00
Nathan - 22:00ish to midnight

I did my volunteer stint, keeping the transtition handoff area clear. I had a number of times where I was telling teams that they could not hang around in this area, ie "You can't be in here", only to realize they were handing off the Baton and I was delaying them, so I pat them on the back, and say GO GO GO.

Joanne came in before Geoff was to go out next, and informed me of the "Den Mother" decision that she had made. Doing a hard second lap in the heat, with not enough recovery time before, had really wiped him out. He was still wrecked when Joanne told him that he was not going out, and came and informed me of decision. I agreed, and Geoff called it a night.

Nathan did a good lap, and the team called it a night. I slept in the Zero Gravity chair, hard to get comfy at first, but a good nights sleep after all that.

We did three more laps in the morning, with Geoff leading, Steve did the next, and I did the ceremonial last lap, after I could not convince Nathan that he wanted to do one more lap.

So I start out, and the first thing that happens is that my contacts dry out, and I am blinking like crazy to get them moistened. That first set of long uphills really takes it out of my, and I stop for a breather at the top. Then we are into the single track, and the fun begins. The first downhill I have to do, there is a tricky drop and the end, I lock up the front brakes, and do a low speed crash, nice knee scrape. Smart. Straighten the seat out and readjust, go about another 100m, and dump the bike on the other side. Smarter still Gord!

OK, now that we have that over, we can get on with the real riding. I find that I was still having real trouble with the downhills, nerves really I think. I found that the uphills were much easier in the past, I was picking the right routes, and powering my way up. It had to be all the resistance training over the winter that did it.

I had one reall exciting downhill to speak of. On my way up the hill, I passed a fellow who had crashed and I heard swearing. Asking if he was Ok, he stated that he broke his front brake lever, but no worries, he would just take the downhills faster, and therefore didn't need it anyway. So now I am in front, going down what turns out to be long section of single track, with no chance to pull off to the side, with a guy with no brakes behind me, when we hear the call of another rider coming fast behind us. OK, no stopping here, and turns out I dont need brakes either. We booggied down this hill, bouncing like crazy and thinking Dont Crash Dont Crash Dont Crash. Finally got to the bottom, and let both guys fly past me.

I recognized the area as we got to the end, and had power left to crank it up. I passed several people in the chute, and as it is now 12:00, and the end of the race, the crowd cheered like crazy as I raced down the chute, locked up the brakes in the dirt and ran through to the timing tent to drop off my baton. I surprised the team with my time, as I met them on my way back to the campsite, they were heading up to cheer me in, but just a few minutes late.

All in all, a very intense and fun weekend!


I asked Nathan to provide me with his thoughts about the race, as this was the first time he had done anything like this, and he sent the following:

I would love to do this again next year and the year after and...

As for rider experience for your blog:

Having realized, after I went for my first lap, that this was the first time I had ever really mountain biked, I think I did well for having winged it. The uphills were long and plentiful but lead to the most entertaining trails I have ever ridden. The joy of roaring down a hill, bike bouncing around like mad, was enhanced even more during the night time lap as I no longer really knew where I was going. I am extremely excited for next year as I hope to be on the trail more and be go uphill and enjoy it as much as I enjoyed going downhill.

This was probably the most fun, self exploratory, and physically intensive thing I have ever done.

-~Nathan

Pictures and video to come when we get them processed

Splash, Pedal and Gasp Sprint triathlon Race Report- May 9, 2010

"Apeture"
Artwork at the University of Lethbridge campus

2010 edition of Splash, Pedal, and Gasp.
30 LAQUA, GORDON 377 SPR40-49M 00:15:50.00 79 00:48:14.90 16 00:29:17.90 25 01:33:22.80 CALGARY

2009 for comparison
30 LAQUA, GORDON 274 SPR40-49M 00:17:42.88 86 00:43:11.07 23 00:28:05.20 13 01:28:59.15 CALGARY

Full results can be found here.

Morning.
- kinda crappy weather, although the precipitation is over. Overcast, big clouds. When the sun did peak through, it felt warm. Adjust clothing from there
- Discussing flat tires with Lorna, do the last minute pump up, and her front tire flats. It was actually cut right at the stem, from trying to pull off the pump. We wait until after the poolside meeting, and then I showed Lorna how to fix a flat.
- Have really minimal setup in transition this year. No socks. I am wearing the Zoot tri shirt during the swim. so my transition bag has
- road shoes
- Asics running hat
- racing flats with speed laces (The orange Saucony Fastwitch 3's)
- Biking jacket (its windy)
- Helmet
- Sunglasses
- Full Fingered Gloves (and its not warm)
- Towel to stand on

It felt lighter, and a lot off the mind to not worry about shirt and socks. Never got my heart rate monitor on, because I did not want to fight with the wet shirt to get it placed. Probably should have, so we could see what it spiked to later.

Swim like a frog!

Swim - 15:50
Improved from last years time of 17:42. Swim felt easier than last, must be getting some results. Started 5th in the lane, Lorna started 6th, she passes me in the first 25m. I went 250m without taking a break, but had to start because the lanes got crowded, but I could not get going fast enough to past, so I was stuck doing a too-slow breast stroke. Ended up doing the last 50m as side stroke, because my breathing was getting too hard, and had to keep may face out of the water. Should have done backstroke.

Nice Bike.
Nice Legs, Shame about the Face.

Bike 00:48:14.90
Quite a bit slower than last years time at 00:43:11.07. The headwind slowed the pace outbound, and couldn't go fast enough on the way back to make up for it.
- According to Mr Garmin, Max speed was 29Kph, and looked like I averaged around 25Kph.
- on the way out, my nose was stuffy and running, wanted to blow a snot rocket, but didn't want it to spray back at me in the wind. Right after the turnaround, I turn and finally blow the snot rocket, just as a women racer was passing me. I think I only hit her front wheel. I must have said sorry 5 times as she passed, and whe went from disgusted to smiling ( I think ).
- On the way back, max speed of 44kph, average speed closer to 35kph.
- Almost T-boned a van at the 15K mark. Bugger was second in line, and decided to follow the first car out into intersection. I was luckily up on the brakes, braked hard, and turned left with the Van. He stopped, I swerved around him, up the left side of the two lane, past a car with open windows, loudly cursing all the way through. I heard the car I passed swearing back at me, but theres no gesture you can make to apologize, so I rode hard. The only comment is that I had plenty of horseshoes hidden somewhere in the spandex. Good thing that split front seat makes it more comfortable.
- using lobster gloves and biking jacket was good, never got too hot, and hands didn't feel sweaty until into T2

Running hard to the finish

Run 00:29:17.90
this was 50 seconds slower than last years 00:28:05.20. I think I wasn't thinking about running hard, still thinking about almost hitting that Van.
- took walk breaks at first two water stations on the way out.
- after first 1k, I ran a fairly consistent 4:45 pace, which was pretty good for me
- walked the last 20m up the hill, cause that was faster than what I was running, then ran hard to the finish
- wore the bike jacket for the run, but warmed up and tied it around waist at the halfway point. I should know better. Ran Vegas marathon in compression shirt and shorts at 4 degrees celcius, and felt great.

Seriously happy to be finished

All-in-all, good race day. My sister Lorna had a great race, was a little frustrated in the pool but put in a good 13:41, really enjoyed the bike ride, as it was finally setup properly (I am not going to call it fitted :-)), didn't have to stretch for the hoods, and I lowered the seat more than last time, so teh pedal length felt comfortable. And her run was what it was, which is what I am usually seeing so far. Did it in just under 2 hours.

She could have had many different reactions, so I was hoping it was not "Never gonna do that again". She almoost immediately began making comments about things she would do differently next year. Too Cool!

More swim pictures

Backstroke

Sidestroke