More diet thoughts

 Your body does not multitask well.   Neither do you.

A lot of the processes around nutrition (if not all) are driven by hormones.  Leptin is a hormone that tells you that you are not hungry, or satisfied.  Ghrelin  tells your body that you are hungry.   Insulin is a hormone that tells your liver and body to get busy storing glucose.  Glucagon tells your liver to pull stored glucose and release it in the bloodstream.  Since the same organ is responsible for release the paired hormones, you will never get insulin and glucagon at the same time.   You are either telling your body to store glucose, or release glucose, never at the same time.  You are either hungry or satisfied, but not both.

There was a diet trend, that said you should eat small amounts, every few hours, and avoid being hungry and over-eating.  The actual effect is that you constantly release insulin, and rarely release glucagon, and your body is always in the mode of storing glucose.   Also, the 100 calorie snacks sold for this purpose tended to be ultra-processed carbs, which just fuels the carb craving cycle.

You can burn carbs, with any exercise, but I think if your body is busy storing carbs, your exercise will burn the carbs in your bloodstream, but will not burn any stored fat.  To actually get at the stored fat, you need to fast.

Diet thoughts

There is so much discussion of diet, and how it affects your health.  I have been thinking about my own diet rules, and figuring out how to distill them and make them simple, easy to follow, harder not to follow.

My first diet rule, no processed food.  Nothing that comes out of a box. No coerced oils.

One of the bits of evidence coming out now, regarding the obesity epidemic in North America, is that the sharp increase in obesity matches the increases in processed foods, and seed oils in our diet.  If we want to control our weight, and control our health, we have to remove these processed foods from our diets.  The evidence is starting to show us that they do bad things to our long-term health, and it is not justified by the low cost.

We were kinda forced to follow this rule after my wife first started having symptoms of celiacs disease.  Once you eliminate gluten from your diet, that almost removes all processed foods, as they all seem to use wheat or barley as a binding agent or coating in the foods.  After spending hours googling in the supermarket aisles, we just decided to stop buying all processed foods.   There are exceptions, of course, rules are made to be broken.  We still buy gluten-free pasta, its good every one and a while.  I guess the message here is to be aware of why you have the rule, and why it might be occasionally ok to bend it.

No coerced oils.  This means no seed oils mainly.  By coerced, i mean that they had to torture that seed to get the oil it out if.  They didn't just squeezed it, they used heat and chemicals to make the oil come out, and maybe that oil was just not meant to be eaten that way.  We don't exactly know how the chemicals and heat may have changed that oil, but we do know that these oils cause inflammation.  Think of a sunburn as inflammation, but that it's inside your blood vessels.   THat can't be be good for you.  Instead, oils that can be just pressed out are best, and olive oil is the king.here.  We also use avocado oil, and camelina oil (because it says its pressed).

I don't have any advice yet on the process to get rid of processed food from your diet, just go at it a step at a time, like almost all other health and fitness goals.

The formula for optimum progress

the formula is "optimum stress + optimum recovery = optimum progress"

Optimum stress means putting the right amount of "stress" on your body, be it through high heart rate, high intensity interval training, strength training, speedwork, or zone 2 long slow distance.  the right stress at the right time.  Apply too much stress, and you risk needing many days for recovery, with visits to physio and chiro.

Optimum recovery means not only allowing time to heal, but not doing too many hard workouts too many days in succession, aiding healing through yoga, stretch and roll, massage, and getting lots of sleep.

The workout is what tears you down, wears you down, it actually makes you weaker.  The recovery is where you adapt and become stronger.  Therefore the recovery is as important as the workout.

How long has it been since you've played around?

A Rich man shipwrecked his yacht on a small desert isle,  He spent many years waiting for rescue, but to no avail.

One day, a beautiful woman, dressed in a wetsuit, googles, snorkel and fins, comes out of the surf, and approaches the man.

He exclaims that it has been many years since he has seen anyone, and is so happy to have a human conversation.  She asks "How long has it been since you have had a drink of scotch?", he answers "many", and she proceeds to pull out a flask of scotch from somewhere in her wetsuit and offers it to him.

"This is absolutely amazing" he says, and she asks "How long since you have had a cigar?", and after a slight pause, pulls out a cigar case, cuts and lights the cigar and hands it over to him.

"Outstanding" he smiles, she sways her hips and bats her eyelashes, and asks "How long since you've played around?" and smiles seductively...

"Good Lord" he exclaims, "Don't tell me you have a set of golf clubs in there!'

-------------------------------------------------

The joke of the long run.  Comedy requires that you throw a lot out there, and sometimes something works.   And if I am still telling jokes, I am still having fun.  I often seriously collect a joke list for races, just so I can remember them when it comes time to tell one at the 32k mark.

Had a friend catch up to me around 25k mark of the race, I was very happy to see him, and told a few jokes :-)  My friend casually mentions to his pacing partner "If we hang with him, he will keep telling jokes", and they smiled and dropped me.  Good times....

90% of the long run is physical.  The other half is mental.  And one thing that we spent a lot of time talking about was mental strategies to get through the long run, get through the race.  Standard form checklists, like pull your belly button to your spine, squeeze that quarter, maintain your cadence, shoulders back, head high, proud to be a runner.

We also finding your way, your way to keep pushing.  Pain is inevitable, but the suffering is optional.  Identifying what is pain of effort, and what is pain of injury. This makes it sounds like our run was a sufferfest, but it was not that, just the pain of effort, and the longest run of the year so far.

Ironman Arizona Transition 1

To help prepare for Ironman Arizona in November 2017, I have put together some notes and diagrams to explain how the transition area in Tempe Beach Park works.

First, a picture of the transition areas in Tempe Beach Park

Overhead view of Tempe Beach Park, from Google Maps

Layout of the area

The Bleachers, Upper left corner, is where the swim starts and exits Tempe Town Lake.   It will be a rolling start, and we will line up in the area noted as "Swim Lineup Area".    More on that in another post.

In the upper right, you see "Special Needs Dropoff", this is where you will drop off your bags for Bike Special Needs and Run Special Needs before the race begins.

In the middle is the Bike Racks.  There is a central Pathway through the bike area, noted by the thin lines.

At the middle right, you will see The Women's Tent, and the Mens Tent, Change tents for both transitions.  In the open area to the right of the tents, there will be chairs set up outside.

In the bottom right corner is where the T1 and T2 bags will be setup, in several long rows running in the direction indicated.

How I did it in 2016

Now for a picture of how the transition actually worked during IMAZ 2016, green arrow to start, red box to finish.

I note that the satelite view is different, ignore all the tents in both pictures.

Swim Exit

After exiting from the Swim via the bleachers, there will be Wetsuit strippers.  You get to them quickly, so get started on getting upzipped, and getting your arms out of the wetsuit as soon as you get off the bleachers,   The green arrow is approximately at the end of the strippers.  From there, you proceed around back through the Swim Start area, going behind the change tents, and heading to the T1 bags.

T1 Bags

The T1 Bags will be laid out in rows, with signs at the end and through the row with the range of bags in that row.   You will get stickers to place on your bags.  It is also a good idea to write your bib number on the bag with a Sharpie, in order to catch it better.  You will need to memorize the row and approximate location of your bag, so that you don't spend too much time looking for it.  You will likely also be a bit punchy after coming out of the water, so the less thinking, the better.  In the picture above, you might note that I go back and forth in the T1 bag area.  In my rush, I grabbed the wrong bag, and had to go back and exchange.

Change Tent (or not)

After collecting your bag, you head to the change area.   Remember that there is no public nudity allowed, so if you are going to do a full outfit change, you must do that inside the change tent.  If you wear Tri-shorts, and top under your wetsuit, you can stay outside the tents, which gives some advantage.

First, you will be coming out of the water in the middle of the pack, and with the majority of the competitors.  Seats inside the tent are at a premium, and you may have to wait.  Always ask a volunteer for help in finding a seat.  The ground will be muddy by this time, as everyone will be putting away their wetsuit and getting water everywhere.   And it never smells good in the tent.

So if you can avoid it,  do your transition outside the tents in the open area.

Dump the contents of your T1 bag on the ground, and put your wetsuit, cap, goggle, earplugs in the bag.  If you get lucky, you can get a volunteer to do this for you, and they will take care of your bag after you have filled it.  Note that you are going to want to have a towel to clean your feet before putting socks on, and perhaps to dry off a bit.

You have to go through the tent to get to your bike.

There will be porta potties close to the exit of the change tents, so this is your last change to pit stop before starting the bike leg.

Bike Storage

Now you will head into the bike storage area.  It is important to memorize the row and location of your bike.  You are not allowed to hang flags, fly balloons, or any other such trick.  We typically count the rows (from the right hand side of the picture).  Once you have your bike, you can then head out the far side of the bike storage area, enter the mount zone, and get started on the bike leg.

Challenge Penticton ITU LD Canadian Championship 2016

Finish line, the time in the clock is for
the Pro mens start, 25 minutes ahead.

So I did Challenge Penticton ITU LD Canadian Championships a few weeks ago, with interesting results.  Let me say going into this race, I was sufficiently tapered, and felt fairly fit, although I was experimenting with a trimmed down training schedule.  For example, I only did one long ride of 120k before this race.  I did do sufficient long swims in open water, with training partner Bruce, so that felt fine.


Swim 1:07:55

T1          6:06

Bike    4:06:39

T2           5:20

Run     3:20:40

Finish  8:46:40

Med Tent 2:00:00 ish

Comments on Swim:  Even splits, I was 33 minutes at the turn.  Swells made it a bit fun.  Don't breath while sighting.

Comments on Bike:  Scraped pedal on first turn onto highway.  Chill buddy, its a long race.  Averaged over 30kmh until second MacLean Creek climb.  Saying 'It Doesn't hurt' worked for as long I needed it to.

Comments on Run.  Was not uncomfortable with heat, needed to focus on the ground ahead, otherwise I spent too much time looking for friends going the other way.

The biggest part of the discussion will be about the Med Tent aftermath.

It was a warm day, temp peaked at about 30 degrees.  Fueling and hydration went well, but I took no where near enough electrolytes (only about 8 salt caps, the rest got wet and broke).  For the last few K, I had this weird feeling like I was running on someone elses legs.

After the race, my arms, shoulder to fingertips started tingling, and my tongue tingled and felt like it was swelling, and I was talking with a distinct lisp.  Ally Johnson got me over to the med tent, and first measure had my heart rate at 35, and BP something like 96/56 ( a wee bit low).  So I spent 2 hours wrapped in blankets, drinking as much chicken broth as I could stomach.   Eventually the tingling went away, I started talking somewhat normal.  The lisp kept coming back and going away, and it took until midnight before I was anywhere close to being properly hydrated.

From what I understand now, this is signs of hyponatremia.  The exact definition is as follows:  Normal serum sodium levels are 135 - 145 mEq/liter (135 - 145 mmol/L), mine was 146 the last time my doctor checked it. Hyponatremia is generally defined as a serum sodium level of less than 135 mEq/L and is considered severe when the level is below 120 mEq/L.

Most interesting is that I found paresthesia of the arms and tongue to be symptoms of low electrolytes or low sodium, but paresthesia is not listed as a sign of hyponatremia.  This could be because they really only list the severe symptoms, coma and death being among them.  I have had this happen before, but not combined.  After the Berlin Marathon, in which I ran the last 10k for the first time, only my arms tingled for around 30 minutes after the race.  After all my marathons in the past few years, I have had the tongue tingle/lisp thing going on.   I had always assumed that this was simply dehydration.

It makes sense in this race, in that I trained for heat, and did heat acclimatization in the steam room, building up to 15 minutes at a time, twice a week.  I sweat more quickly and with more volume, which I wanted to stay cool in the heat.   I have always lost a lot of salt in my sweat.  So not taking any salt or electrolytes for the majority of the run would get me low on electrolytes.  I also continued with the same hydration plan after my salt caps broke.  The proper thing to do would have been to drink much less, use the Ph.D drink they were serving, and allow myself to get dehydrated.

Haddon Hustle KOM, or The Last ride of Jake The Snake

https://www.strava.com/activities/645705501

I finally grabbed the KOM for Haddon Hustle, on my trusty steed, Jake the Snake.  I hurt a lot to do this, but really only for the last minute.   It was awesome!

After this ride, Jake the Snake got stolen, reported to the police and insurance, appraised and paid out by adjuster, found and recovered by police 2 days later, and cheque returned in the week.

Need to replace Garmin Sensor, and the front brakes, for some odd reason.

Glad its back, I love riding this bike.

Swimming Lake Bonavista - with Bruce and Nathalie Hagel

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1246055849

Good and weird swim tonight.  We swam 3800m, so we have now done an Ironman distance swim.  The rest of the swim training to the race is gravy, We know we can do the distance, now just to make it wreck us less before going for a bike ride.

Bruce was much faster than I was tonight.  It made me wonder what I was doing wrong, but the garmin indicates that my swim time was not outside of normal.  I think the moving time on the garmin is wrong, and our actual moving time (swimming time) was more like 1:25.  That is a fast ironman swim for us, probably because of the rest breaks, where you get no rest in the actual race.

Being slower than Bruce today really made me focus on my technique, stroke to stroke, trying to keep it perfect (heh) or getting closer to it.  I was tired by the last leg, and glad to be done.

Tomorrow is a long bike ride, which will really test my recover.

Haddon Hustle - yeah, I am not recovered

https://www.strava.com/activities/632744326/segments/15454646308

I was 32 seconds slower than my PR.  I help fairly good speed on the first half, although slightly slower than the record.  Then just died after about a minute, and had a hard time even keeping 30kmh.

So I am still fatigued.  I took it a bit easier during weights, and on the ride home, and an easy evening social run to keep from stiffening up.

Swim tomorrow, we are doing the distance.

Longest swim this training cycle, 3.2k with Bruce Hagel

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1243270184

We have been having Tornado warnings and thunderstorm for several days now, and today looked like it was going to cancel our swim.  Bruce texted to say that he was going to run instead, because the weather was still ugly in the afternoon.  at 5pm, he  He texted to invite for a swim RFN, so I got repacked (equipment still spread out from GWN), and got to the lake in 20 minutes.

Nathalie Hagel accompanied us in a kayak, nice to have the backup.

Our plan was for a 3k swim, and its now 2 days after GWN.  The first leg to the island felt comfortably hard.  leg north didn't feel as good, couldn't decide what, if anything was wrong.  After recovering, we headed out on the first 1k leg,  It started to feel relaxed and comfortable about half way through this lap.  Bruce was still way faster.

On the last leg, Nathalie headed in to get on with the evening, and Bruce and I headed out.  At the beginning, this felt very easy and strong, and I really wanted to know what I was doing right. we ended up at the next three checkpoints (north, island, shore) at about the same time.

I did start to feel some fatigue at the last leg of the swim, but it was not significant.

It appears that I needed to swim just over 1000m, with breaks, in order to shake off the fatigue of the weekend.  What it really did was take that long to get everything properly firing, and getting my technique back sort of in order.  My brain was being hard on me, doubting my swimming ability and question whether I really had maintained or improved my technique in the off-season.

In trying to measure my recovery, I would say that I am comfortably tired, as after a good days training, but not feeling any deeper fatigue.  The bike ride in the morning will be the real test, with the Strava segment "Haddon Hustle", a 2 minute time trial after about 5-10 minutes of warmup.  2 minutes of effort is not enough to hamper recovery if I am still fatigued.

My progression for open water swims this year has been

1 - 800m
2 - 1600m
3 - 1900m  (GWN)
4 - 3200m

and 5 will be 4200m.   We will try to get 4 swims of at least this distance in before I go to Calgary 70.3 and Bruce goes to Ironman Canada - Whistler.

New workout schedule, monday workout - Apr 11

Lots of rolling, work with softball, work with laCross ball.
Worlds Greatest stretch
Angels, which Ian converted to 10lb dumbell single leg deadlifts, with the roller on your toe.  This forced you to move your hips backwards, and put the weight on your heal.
Grace Jones
Core activation, Bear Crawl, back and forth.  Ian wanted roller on hips, but I steadied it out
Down to Gym
Skipping, forward arms across, backward arms on the way back.
Single Leg Explosive Jumping, soft deep landing
Fast Feet, CNS activation.  One foot up, second up, first back, second back fast as you can

Single Leg Hamstring Curl on TRX, 2 seconds in, 1 hold, 4 out
Decline pushups, 4 seconds down, hold 1, 2 up

TRX 'X', Holding palms up, lean away holding TRX, shoulder blades down ,pull up with hands wide-ish, at hip level.
Single Leg step up, with 2x25lb kettlebells

Planks, 10 each arm extensions, 120 seconds
planks, 10 each leg raises, 120 seconds
Planks, 5 x opposites

Stretch and hot tub

Ironman Arizona 2015 - Nov 16, 2015

It's been a few months since IMAZ 2015, so it will be fun to remember it

A year in the making, so to speak.  We started a year ago, volunteering at IMAZ 2014.

Recovery and Training.

Since Challenge Penticton, I have had good training, but nothing compared to in the summer.  It felt really hard to get out for long rides, so the biggest we did was 90km.  Training partner Norm Duval and I rode HIghway 22X to Bragg Creek, then north on 22 to the traffic circle and back.  It is exactly 90k, and makes for a great ride.

For swim training, Bruce Hagel and I did one really cold swim in Lake Bonavista, 2 weeks after challenge.  It was good, but hardly swim training.  I did a weekly swim of between 1500m and 2200m.

For running, I did short runs of 10-16k a couple times a week, no hills, no speedwork.

I continued the twice weekly Triathlon Resistance training at Eau Claire YMCA, and our trainer, Ian Colburn kept the focus on endurance.

Travel to Phoenix

Pre-Race, and writing on the arms.

Race

Setup

There Early, apparently I am a morning person.  Oatmeal for Breakfast, 2x coffee.  Rob cooked me a couple of eggs and toast.

Travel to site OK,  Found a farther out parkade, after getting worried about parking.  Look further into parking for next year.

All filled up bike tires and were able to pass the pump to Helen outside.  Well executed
Setup was good, but forget water for wetsuit.  No warmup means I had to get ready for cold water early.  Found some water for wetsuit, want to try cold water on face before swim.

Swim

Water was cold. Crowded. kept bumping into people.  pretty ungainly getting into the water off the bleachers.  Had trouble breathing, despite like 6 hits of Ventolin.  Was getting negative thoughts, and then thought, What would I do to make it better.  Decided to focus on form and technique. After a few minutes, sure enough, it got better.

Thought I was way behind the swim, thought what if I donèt make the cutoff, oh well, we would be OK, we tried.  Followed this guy with copper armed wetsuit, then realized that it was a sleeveless, his arms were copper. 

Got out of the water in 1:34.   only 4 minutes longer than average

Transition 1

Slow.  Cold. Long. Met Stephen Achilles in the change tent, Only time I saw him all day.

Bike

Got to learn how to pee on the bike.  Seriously.  Had to go like a racehorse after first lap, could not do it. Stopped at first aid station, only small lineup.  From Erin and Helen, I understand that the trick is to get a bottle of water, and spray it on your junk.  You will pee whether you wanted to or not.

Didn;t like the taste of the nutrition in the cold, not fueling well.  Too cold to drink a lot of water.  Worried about dehydration even in the cold.  Lots of salt tablets.  Switched to Gatorade for fuel.  At each aid station, I took a Gatorade, and drank as much of it as I could get down by the throw away zone.   Got enough hydration and fuel, but had to pee lots,

Not bad, faster than Penticton, not the 6 hours I wanted.  It rained for the last lap, so 2 hours of rain and cold

T2

Cold Cold Cold, and slow.   No place in the tent, I asked a volunteer to find me a seat.   Lots of Joking.  Cold.   Hypothermic.

At exit.  They were making rain ponchos out of garbage bags, The volunteer who helped me yelled to get running, get my core warmed up. 

Run

Ran for First three miles. 

Stopped to eat at each aid station.  At the exit, I looked at my arm, said "You came here to run". and started running.  

My quads and hamstrings were shot.  I ran with Glutes and Calfs and did well

I remember giving a guy an earfull.   As I went past on second lap. Told him he was doing well, and he said, no I'm done.  I turned back to him, told him he was not done. He had to just keep walking like he had somewhere to go, and just keep going.  He would get it done.

Back to running, 4:54 run  Wow

Finish

Cold, didn;t get warmed up on massage.  Got clothes on and started to warm up.  Had a pizza sandwich.  It was awesome. I loved having Norm and Rob there, and Helen and Erin.

Results

Swim: 1:34:13

Bike: 6:21:37

Run: 4:54:50

Overall: 13:22:50

T1:  16:16

T2: 15:54

Challenge Penticton 2015 Race Report

I particiated in the 2015 edition of Challenge Penticton.  This race proved out to me that you will do well at the things that you practice, and perhaps not as well at the ones that you don't.  I have to remind myself that I was supposed to treat this race as a "B" race, and then be able to race IMAZ as an "A" race.

To summarize my race, I had a great swim, 4-5 minutes faster than last year, perhaps with a bit better sighting, and definitely with better form.  My bike ride has hard, headwind all the way, but I did very well at the climbs.  Richters Pass felt no where near as hard, and Yellow Lake felt easier than last as well.   And, even with better climbing, there is no shame in walking an 18% grade.

I did not do as much work on staying in aero,  and this cost me in the first 60k, I could not get comfortable, and therefore sat up and put up my huge sail in the headwind.  And sore legs after the bike made me walk 3/4 of the marathon.  This last problem was caused by not being totally familiar with my equipment setup Sigh.

Thoughts from the day:

Swim

In the water, waiting for the start, I did a practice swim, and then swam over and hung off one of the kayaks, saying "I thought I would get this over early".

When we went back to shallower water, I went up to people and said "I've lost my friend, have you seen him?   He is wearing a black wetsuit and yellow cap".

Swim was good, but I tended to zig and zag a little.  Hopefully the garmin gives me some insight.

It was nicer with no merge lane with those competing in the half.

On the exit, I went too far left, and had to swim one part that was probably only 2 feet deep with rocks, but it didn't last for long.  When I stood up, the watch said 1:24,  I was hoping for 1:20, but had the thought during the swim that the sighting issues would knock it down to 1:24.  Good guess.

T1

Good transition, but still slow.  Peanut butter sandwich was much better this year.   I gave an extra shot of chamois butter, missed the chamois a bit, so I had a white layer on the outside of the front of my cycling shorts for the first 60k of the ride.  I packed my heavier rain jacket in my T1 bag, and chose to wear it.  I was cool/cold/rainy when I came out of the water, so I chose to wear it.  My thought was that I had trained for heat, having the jacket in this weather, even if it got nice, would be no worse than a training ride.

Bike

On the Maclean Creek descent, I came very close to crossing the center line, while remembering that it's a DQ offense.  Lean and trust the bike.  I passed two people on the right, as they were side by side on the descent, one near the center line, the other in the lane near the line.  Didn't want to split them or cross center, so I took the shoulder.

Kept passing or being passed by Gabi, she wore the bib on the bike.  We introduced ourselves about 1k before the courses split.

Every time I did the mental math on my progress, I came up with 7:30 for the bike time.  I was 2:30 to Richters at 60k, and it didn't get any better.

On one climb, HWY 97 north of Osoyoos, I excitedly ask the people I am passing "Is this Richters, Is this Richters?".   Many didn't get the joke.

At the bottom of Richters, I passed a woman competitor, standing over her bike, having a last pee before the climb.   Yikes.

Only sang one verse of "I Conquered Richters" on the way down the other side.  Took a while to gear-out with the headwind.

While pushing hard though the rollers, I had the thought that I was burning matches faster than I thought I was, and I should probably save some.

Almost smoked a couple of teenagers on MTB bikes at the Hwy 3 to 3A turn in Keremeos.  I yelled "Heads Up" as they swerved in front of me.

Bike - Special Needs

The out and back was far less soul sucking.  I mean, it still sucked, but it was only about 4k out, not long enough to apply full vacumn.  I spoke with Legend #7, Stephen Grady,  asking "As a legend, how many different bikes had he ridden this course on?", Answer was 2, he thought is should have been more but he really liked the bike he was on.  The peanut butter sandwich and Mars bar in special needs was good.  Perpetuem bottle was thawed but still cold, so chucked the old, and forgot to take the post-it note label off the bottle.  Chamois Butter in a baggie was quick and real nice feeling.

One fellow that I passed on the hills stopped and asked me "What did do you do that lets you blast pass me like that on hills?".  I passed him one last time on the Yellow Lake climb, with him stopped on the side.  "You are not making this a fair race if you are going to wait for me", he replies "Anything to keep you happy man!".

As I leave the out-and-back, I am trying to come up with jokes.  The thing that comes to mind is that it is less soul sucking, and I had some left.  Therefore, wanted Barry White and Aretha Franklin songs.  But when I actually left, the song that came to mind was Willy Nelson, "On The Road Again", I just can't wait to get on the road again....

Bike 

On the way up Yellow Lake, the sun came out.  I regretted wearing the jacket.  Had a good sweat going, everywhere, at the top of the climb.   The legs did not burn anywhere as much as last year.  Happy about that.

Make the turn past twin lakes knowing the climb is coming.  The climb in a hill about 50m long, that peaks at an 18% grade. You cannot build up much speed into it, as there is a slight grade all the way.  I made it about a third of the way up before I decided to just walk it.  I joked that I put new cleats on before the race, so I could walk this hill without wearing them out.   The 18% part is in the last third, so kudos to those who climbed it.

New section was neat and fun, and I want to ride it again.  It has lots of twists and turns, and good descents.   If I knew it better, I would race it harder.   I did get on the brakes for most of the hill, while trying to keep the brakes from overheating.

The plywood and carpet over the cattle gate was nice, and easy.   Then we get back on Hwy 97 South into Okanagan Falls.  Getting the headwind back, you had to keep pedaling on the downhill to keep any speed.

Leaving OK falls, it all looks familiar, as we are on the old marathon course.   After getting through the first climbs, I start cranking it up, using the downhill and tailwind to pick it up, I was going 35-40 for good portions of the 20k back in.

T2

Leaisurely transition,  Changed out of bike shorts after I had put runners on.   Funny.   Volunteer very helpful.  Sandwich not as good, no water.   Mars bars still tasty.

Run

Running felt OK leaving transition.  I know that hamstrings and glutes are sore, but OK so far.  Do short runs and walks to bring them back to life and stretch them out.  Wife Helen, Cousin Irene, and the In-Laws are there.  Hugs and kisses on the outbound.  Once we cross the canal, there is pathway south.  At a short rise to the top of the berm, I whine to the volunteers, "Oh man, they told me the Run course was flat!".  I latch onto people to get running, and eventually meet Carmen, and Physio from Kelowna doing her first marathon on a relay team, and we chat for the first 10K.

While we are running, we pass a fellow, and shortly hear a yelp, and turned back to see him on the ground.  Go back and give him a hand, and meet Stephen Achilles, Steve.   His knee gave out.  We helped him up and got him going.  The volunteers that were running up commented to us "great sportsmanship".   I told Carmen the story of Rob at the 2008 Calgary marathon, helping a fellow with an ironman tattoo after he fell.

Carmen and I run together, I tell occaisonal jokes, we talk about kids and family and training committments.   She has her kids in Hockey (boy) and Swimming (daughter).  Daughter was faster than Dad at swimming (Dad did swim leg).

At 10k mark, I say goodbye to Carmen as I have to walk.  High hamstring is really sore, as are glutes.  I am thinking that a Tylenol would help, and I have some in my special needs bag.    I shortly get picked up by Steve,  We would "run" the rest of the race together.  I introduce him to family, get more hugs, and warn Helen that the rest of the race would be much slower for me.

Steve and I keep doing some running and walking, pushing each other and picking targets.  Special needs was a long way away it turned out.  At special needs, I look into the special needs bag.  There are gels and Mars bars.  No Tylenol.  Crap.  I took a gel and bar, and put the gel in my pouch.   When I unzipped, I found the tylenol, with me the whole time.  Crap.   I was out to the aid station buy this time, so I dry swallowed the tylenol.

I see Rob coming the other direction.   Big smile as he says "You met a new friend didn't you?  So did I!"  we introduced our new friends, lots of smiles and laughs, and carried on.

Saw Bruce, he looks like he is doing great, and says that he is finding it really tough.  Couldn't tell by looking, he was hiding it well.

As it was starting to work, legs feeling less sore, I got a pain near top of stomach, that kept me from running.   Getting water at the next station didn't make it go away.  Kept walking with that.

We passed a house, with timing mats and a bowl of ice and beer.  Rules question. We are not allowed to receive outside assistance, but if someone leaves something on the road, and then you pick it up because it is abandoned, is this a violation of the rules?   we pass on the chance, we are still outbound, but said we would say hi on our way back.

By the time the pains go away, I have some good blisters going on my feet, which are going to preclude the running.

Shortly after the turn-around, we met a couple of runners, girl had cornrows.  As we joked going past, the guy says "Hey, I think I ran with you last year",  "Jim!!!!!"  Awesome!

Steve and I decide that once we are on the downhill into the finish, about last 4k, we were going to do some running, and get this done.   About that time, we meet Helen, and she has to run with us.  We decide that we will run to targets instead of time, and walk to the next target.  First target.  Traffic lights, and we pick another target to walk to.

During one stretch of running, I feel one blister open up a new area under my foot.  Ouch, stop running for a bit.

Once we get to the grass in the park, we run all the way across it.  I tell Steve that I am going to let him go first, and he should get a good finish line pic, and I will then run across with Helen.   On the way around the hotel, the finish line song changes to Neil Diamond, Sweet Caroline.   I sing it as "I hate this song, bump bump baaa".

The finish line are is wild, and a party.  Awesome.   Helen and I picked up a random drunk woman, and run across the finish.  Bruce is right there as well, and lots of hugs for having got it done.  Great medal.

Finished

Food after was good, great company.  Walking the bike home was slow with the blisters.

Race Report - Magrath 'I Swam The Dam' Triathlon

I competed in the Magrath 'I Swam The Dam' triathlon this past weekend. My results were as follows:
53 place overall
Bib #462
Category OLY40-49M
Swim: 00:44:34.00 was 73 overall and 10th in category
Bike: 01:18:27.45 was 39 overall and 8th in category
Run: 00:55:24.40 was 41 overall and 8th in category
Overall: 02:58:25.85, and 9 / 10 in category

The swim was both better and worse than last year. I am showing some progress, and that makes me happy. My friend Gina helped with supervising my only open water swim before the race. we discussed what was making me get wound up and panicy during the swim, and discussed ways for me to handle the swim. What we came up with was a longer warmup, lots of time in the water blowing bubbles before the race starts. Do at least one sprint, so that I can get my heart rate up, then bring it down again. After 20 minutes in the practice swim, I was fine.

So, I made it to 500m doing a combo of front crawl and breast stroke. Was feeling really good. then I got hit by three swells in a row, where I was breathing water instead. I had practiced not getting excited, but just waiting for the next chance when I had a splash in the pool. but the three in a row did me in. I tried to switch to breast stroke, and couldn't do it without getting water in my mouth. Tried backstroke, same thing. I was panicing. I was ready to say 'I'll take the DQ thanks, come get me'. waved a kayak over. They gave me a kickboard. 'I am allowed to use this?' I ask. 'Sure' comes the response. Not like I was in any danger of winning.

So I finished the swim with a kick board. Its not easy to swim this way, so the fact that I beat last years time by 2 minutes tells me that I was doing really good on the swim before I cratered. One other thing I did differently was using both neoprene cap and ear plugs. I felt good, tired but good when I finally came out of the water. No dizzyness like last year.

Finished 73rd of 75 for the swim, keeping alive my triathlon streak, never last in the swim, but 2nd or 3rd last every time. I think I was talking to 74 (Niki Kearl) and 75 (Jacquie Brezovski) at the start, we were the ones hanging out in the back, being nervous about the swim.

Through T1 was fairly quick I thought. Body-glide on socks works like a hot damn. Had minimal T1 anyway. My T1 equipment list is Bike, shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, mesh cap, race bib, and garmin. Stowed 1 package of Shot Chomps in the tri-suit, f0r 180 calories on bike.

The bike ride was great. There was a little bit of a breeze from the west, so we had a little headwind on the outbound 7k. This was fine by me, as I was not in the mood, or shape for that matter, to want to crank it up anyway. Had to stop once on th eoutbound, because I could hear the speed sensor magnet making contact with the sensor itself. These sensors dont have a good way to hold position on this bike, so shit happens.

So after the turn-around, I was ready to crank it up. This was first ride of the year on the TT bike, and I love it even more. I had tuned it up a little, to correct 2 problems from last year. First was that I dropped the chain twice when shifting to big ring, and I had some trouble with the Speedo, more on that later. Now, on big ring shifts, you have to just slightly slow the cadence to get it to grab, and had no problem with that adjustment. Now I could go to big ring with confidence, and I did so many times. On two downhills, I hit peak speeds of 60 kmh. I briefly remember thinking that if anything went wrong, I was likely a dead man. but it felt great, and not at all scary. I also removed the bento box, and did not have it bumping my knees, so there was nothing annoying about the bike. Other than some saddle soreness, as I did not have enough time in this saddle before the race.

I also had one 5k segment where I averaged 45kmh. I had a smoking ride, and fun too.

The run was what it was. I knew when I was cranking it on the bike that it would affect the run. My hamstrings were sore, and I was spotted by someone I knew when I was stretching. Funny how those moments catch your brain and say 'hope that doesn't happen to me', and 'been there done that'. Anyway, I was able to keep a reasonable pace, with some walk breaks to stretch it out. I had to pee when I started the run, and decided that I would need it later. Was I ever right. It was Hot Hot Hot. I did not drink anywhere near enough on the bike, and had a constantly dry mouth on the run. Still ran a 55 minute 10k, which is OK by me. I saw Debbie Scott somewhere before the turn-around on the run, and made a valiant effort to catch up to her on the run. Finished a mere 3 seconds behind her. Kudos to her, she had a great race.

So, all in all, I am happy with the results, given the non-specific nature of my training, and knowing that the swim still has my number. I have the following take-aways:

• neoprene cap + ear plugs are excellent accessories
• spending time with the bike, and fixing problems was nice
• need to practice open-water swimming, and also some strategies for handling swells.
  
• my minimal transitions worked fine
• need to hydrate more on the bike. way more. Did not finish 1/4 of my areo bottle, and its only 750ml-ish. Drank most of a dose of e-load heat formula.
• e-load heat formula, despite the name, tastes gross when its warm.
• Electing to not use sunscreen resulted in some painful radiation burns on my shoulder and arms.
  

The bike computer worked this time. Last year, the sensor magnet slipped, and then the computer didn't register speed. Since there was no speed, it decided every 5 minutes to stop showing cadence. Annoying, and fixed for this year.

Still have to look at the garmin traces, and I will update if I find anything interesting.
Update: I walked for between 15 seconds and 1 minute each kilometer.

Coaching philsophy.

Had an interesting chat while swimming with Debbie, in our Tri/SwimFit group.

She ran the Red Deer marathon on May 22, and had what she felt was a terrible race. I asked her what feedback she got from her coach, and the reply was "Nothing". Her coach had given her workouts, and little else, unfortunately.

As I am building my personal philosophy for coaching (and my focus is the late onset athlete, like myself), I think this this is an important point. I believe that a coach should guide you to the best race possible. and you can't start by making assumptions, like the most common, Lack of Fitness is the problem. Workouts is the solution.

A coach/athlete relationship should begin with a discussion and examination of the athletes goals, including examinations of past goals, and achivements or failures, and some quick evaluation of the potential causes.

Then you start with inventive goal setting.

One thing I found to work well for me is inventive Goal Setting. For example, when I started running marathons I had no specific goal, other than upright and smiling, and perhaps more injury free. As I got faster, I starting setting goal times, that ultimately were not based on my fitness level. Then I got a little inventive, and starting making the goal "run a good last 10k".

First time I succeded at this, I ran a huge PB, and near boston qualifier.

The larger point to be made is that coaching the late onset athlete requires you to look at fixing specific problems, that are keeping the athlete from reaching the goals. Look at all the areas. Diet and nutrition should be discussed, if a problem the athlete is dealing with is Gastric Distress, and Bonking. Sloshy Stomach is not caused by having the wrong fitness level, but it will make the athlete run slower.

Race Report - Scotiabank Calgary Marathon 2011

I ran the Calgary Marathon yesterday, and now that I have had a day to think about the results, here is my race report.


- Getting to the start line on the day

Yikes, another boondoggle with getting to the start line. By the time to were getting to the zoo parking lot, it was closed off for the race! After looping around a few times, we finally drove downtown, parked at a hotel, hopped a cab, and had him drop us off at the memorial drive LRT overpass.

- the start

Not the best start. I usually have this routine that I go through, chatting up the fellow competitors, and then having the pre-race Gas-X, 2 Advil and a Gel. well, we started, and I was getting to the bridge over memorial, past first K before I realized that I had not done that yet. So the process of getting a Gas-X opened while wearing cloth mitties was fun. Finally had to take them off to get it done. This was a good thing, as I had to do the 2 advil and the gel, and they would have been tough with gloves. Way to get your mind into the race.

no sign of the pace bunny, probably a good thing, after my experiences with last years.

- First 10k

Not a lot of chatty people this year. Tried to strike up a few conversations, but nothing coming back. Shut up and run.

Saw a homeless guy with a bag of bottles try to cross the race route in front of me. He actually did quite a good job of dodging runners, and altering his path to keep out of their way, until he found the guy who was running and looking at his feet. Heard a single swearword behind me, so I pretty much knew what happened.

Had my water bottle with e-load. That stuff does not actually taste good, I decided during this race. I did not finish it all by the 10K mark, and actually was still drinking it up to the Shaganappi hill, finally pitched it at the last aid station before the hill. The nice thing was that it let me skip the water stations for the first almost 15k of the run. They are always chaotic and crowded, and once you get rid of the rabble of the halfers, they become much more civilized.

- Shaganappi Hill

I think I managed the hill very well again this year, slowed down so that my heart rate did not climb more than 10 BPM, and I think I saw a peak of 156 BPM, well below threshold of 165.

- Fun in Varsity

The up and down of the little hills did not seem to bother me much this year. I will say that by this time, I was not paying so much attention to the Garmin, and I distinctly remember one steeply banked curve in the residential area, thinking that any velodrome worth visiting would be proud to have banked turns that steep. Luckily, there was only one that silly, and it was not that long, so didn't cause too much bother.

There is one part where the road goes through a golf course, and we ran past several golfers coming across the road. I yelled "thats what I should have done this morning, gone golfing instead of running." They laughed, and asked our pace, which was now headed for a 3:30. They seemed impressed.

I chatted with a fellow runner after this, as he confirmed that we were about on pace for a 3:30. My real concern at this point was whether I had to pick up the pace at all in order to get that 3:30, as I was starting to get more pains than I should have in this area. This was leading back to the 31K mark and the Shaganappi hill.

- Down the hill, and the last 10K

No bonkage!!!! I was wondering if I would feel any bonking, or symptoms during this race, and none were to be seen. Of course, this is when my weird knee pain started, and I think it was starting before the downhill, so I can't really blame it on that. My pace down the hill really didn't get better than 4:50, which surprised me, being downhill and all.


- Happy to be finished

Seriously thought about picking up the pace to a tempo run at the bottom of the hill. Really. The engine was fine. but the various pains would not let me go any faster. Kept saying to re-evaluate at 7k and 5k, and got the same answers from my body. Not Today.

Yikes, that last 3k was hard. I had lots of pains showing up everywhere, the knee was feeling weak rather than painful, as if it would give out if I landed wrong. Pushing the pace was difficult, and I did the best I felt that everything would put up with, which was luckily about my 5 minute pace to get me in for the 3:30.

I managed to get my water and keep running through the last aid station. surprised me, but then only a little went in my mouth, and the rest on my head.

Got my medal from Shawn DeFo :-) gave him a big hug for the honor. Geoff and Helen were at the finish line screaming for me. But first, I had to stand in the mist for more than a little while.


Quote of the day, courtesy of Rob Mott: "You can't fake a marathon. You can fake a 10k, and perhaps even a half marathon, but not the marathon."

Oh yeah, and his other quote. Response to 'How was the race'?

"Ouchy"

- Final thoughts

Eh, it was good and bad. Ran only 2 minutes slower than my PR, so thats good. But the whole race felt like work, as I never found that easy stride that I usually have.

Las Vegas Marathon - 2010 - Rock and Roll Baby

This is going to be a short race report.

I had the pleasure of running part of the race with Scott Jurek, ultra-endurance runner extraordinaire. I had seen him the day before at the fitness fair, and had read an article about him in Runners World, so I recognized him. I had made a few comments about the race to him, and chatted a bit. I then said that it was rare that, running the pace we were running, the he wanted to talk at all, and that everyone was so focused. He immediately apologized for sucking up my oxygen! My response, oh no not at all, and if he would let me, I would talk his ear off during the race.

What was nice about talking to him is that we kept the pace up. Usually when I get to talking, the pace falls off, and then when I recognize it, i really have to make up time. So that made the first half just seem to fly past.

I believe that my time for the first half was 1:40, so I am right on track to my 3:20. Then the second have hit. When you round the corner, you see the first hill, which is the freeway overpass. Its not a bad hill, its just psychological. but it looks big. and it feels hard. I slow down.

The second half was tough. lots of trying to keep pushing, but not keeping it up for long.

I finished in 3:28:27, so in reality, I ran the second half in 1:48, which is a decent half-marathon time. I had higher hopes. It is only 13 seconds slower than my PR, a race in which I ran the last 7K at threshold pace. There was no threshold pace to finish off this race.

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