Holy shit! Well, it looks like I remember how to update this thing! ha!
It's been about 9 (eventful) months since I last posted anything, so I figured I might as well write something. (just because I'm such a good author...)
So, quick recap of summer/fall of 2010: returned to racing tri's again, started coaching (officially) with the UNB Cross-Country (XC), and working... a lot...
The summer was probably the most fun I've ever had racing. Even though I wasn't as fit nor nearly as fast I would have liked to be. But, it was just a blast to go and compete with my best bud EP (Evan Pemberton) in every race! He ended up beating me in 4 races and I beat him in 3 - so it was close. :)
Oh, and side note: the worst part of the 2010 season was my new TT bike! It was so pretty, but just DID NOT fit me correctly, so I was not nearly as fast/comfortable as I need to be. It was incredibly frustrating.
Anyways, I was only really satisfied with one of my races and that's what I'm going to chose to take from the season (beside the fun rivalry with EP). It was the Chaleur Tri. And I didn't swim or bike (see above) very well, but I ran very tough. I haven't been that strong mentally in a while. I came off the bike in 3rd, right behind EP and right in front of another guy, who is a strong runner. When I started the run, I told myself to just go for it, and if I die, I die. But, I wasn't going to let anyone pass me. I was trying the "out of site, out of mind" tactic. Anyways, I wan well, got win ($200) and the fastest run split ($50). I was pleased. It was a great event - best of the year! (this pic is just after the race - I was just spent, but satisfied with myself, despite what it may look like).
So, that's about it. Lots of traveling for work, lots of time spent being an asst. coach for UNB XC, and lots of time trying to figure out how to balance everything and still have time/energy to train like I want. The latter is still a work in progress.
If you've been following my Tweets/FB Updates, you know I've been down here in SoCal following the riders in the final 3 stages of the Amgen Tour of California. It's been an incredible 3 days and I've loved it!
This is the view from the finish line of the final stage where Canadian Ryder Hesjedal wins the final sprint. The sound doesn't do justice to the excitement in the atmosphere! Was just amazing! more pics/vids to come (I have a ton).
It wasn't pretty, but I'm back racing after a 2 year hiatus and I'm LOVIN' it! If you just looked at the results, you'd see I had a decent swim, a good bike, and a terrible run. And that's true, but there's more to it.
Going strictly from a racing point-of-view, I had a solid swim - not great. Starting in the 20th wave meant there were literally thousands of racers ahead of me. That's means, I started to catch up to slower swimmer after only 5-6 minutes! Passing people when your swimming with hundreds of other racers, with limited visibility is not the easiest thing and it costs time. Other than that, it was a good swim. My PB for 2KM is 29 minutes, so 31:12 is not far off.
Coming out of T1, I made a silly mistake that cost me some more time. As I was jumping onto my bike and put my feet into my shoes (I keep the shoes attached and run barefoot through transition, then jump on the bike and put my feet into the shoes - it saves a lot of time). Anyway, as I did that, my left foot slipped and my shoe popped off and I had to jump off the bike, sit it down and run back to get my shoe. Silly, silly, silly.
OK, so to the bike. Well, again, starting at the back of the pack meant there were a lot of bikers to pass. There are pros and cons to that. Pro: It's fun to fly by a bunch of people and as you pass them, you can get a short draft, which helps a tiny bit each time you do it. Cons: sometimes, they are spread 3-4 wide across the road and it takes a lot of extra care and stress to pass safely.
There were 2 major things that I knew very early into the ride; 1: my legs felt really good and I was riding really well, but 2: I could feel very early on that I was NOT going to able to run well. That's a new feeling and one that I did not expect nor care for much! The past few months, the run was the only thing I was fairly confident in - the swim/bike were the unknowns... weird.
Anyway, so the bike course: the first 30km or so are nice and fast with lots of chicanes, so you really feel like you are flying! The best way to describe the feeling is to watch this video of Fabian Cancellara from the 2007 Tour de France Prologue - skip ahead to 0:50.
At around the 30km point the course gets considerably more difficult as it starts to head inland toward the hills and just to make it more fun this year, the next 40km were into a big head-wind. During this section, there are 3 major climbs and combined with the wind forced a lot of people get off and walk their bikes up! Luckily, thanks to all the "climbs" I do at my spin classes, I was able to stay out of the saddle and just climb up the left of the road, past nearly everyone on the climb - it was fun... in that "torturous" kind of way :)
Thankfully, the last 20km were back to the coast, flat and fast with a partial tail-wind. I did my best to recover as best I could, while at the same time, keeping my speed up (~45kph). I came into T2 in a good position, but I knew I had a tough 1/2 marathon ahead of me...
Oh! I forgot, there was 1 more thing that I'd never experienced on the bike before: a stitch! I've had plenty while running, but I can't remember that ever happening during a ride before! It started about halfway through and stuck with me right until I started the run... not a good way to try and START a 21.1km run!
Anyway, so I won't get into much detail about the 1 hour and 33 minute sufferfest that was the 1/2 marathon, other than to say it was probably the most I have ever suffered for that LONG a time AND while running that slowly! My plan was to try and run 6:30/mile pace, which would give me ~1 hour, 24 minutes - a time I've run 3 times before is 1/2 Ironmans. But, starting off, unable to take full breathes due to the stitch and feeling like garbage anyway, my first mile was 6:35. That quickly dropped to 6:54, then 6:55, then 7:07. I managed to get rid of the stitch around the 5 mile point, and tried to pick up the pace, but there was nothing in the tank. I actually felt like I was running better, but the times just kept getting slower: some up to 7:30/mile.
For the first time, I was getting passed by a bunch of people! Typically, in a tri, only a few people will pass me, if any at all (besides pro's)! I wanted to stop so bad, but would not let myself think about that or the finish, that would only make it worse. I managed to get to the last mile without falling over or completely blowing up and made myself pick it up to finish. The last mile was 6:41 and I passed 2 guys down the finishing chute (I hope there's a pick on the race website of it! haha). Jenn took this picture of me in the last 300m (zoom in and look closely for my Volkwagon symbol, haha).
Once I finished, I found Cliff and found some water in the "recovery" tent. Now, this was awful: they had a country band playing the worst music, super loud and were serving all the finishers the grossest pizza I've ever seen. The combination of the smell and noise was literally making me nauseous. I grabbed 2 water bottles and waddled back outside to find Jenn and my buddy Brian.
Anyway, it was a very rough day, but I after an hour or so, I was lovin' it! It was so nice to back racing again! Plus, I managed to get a sweet "jersey-tan-line"! err.. I mean "burn-line"!
I can take a few things/lessons from the day: 1. My biking legs are there! Spin/cycling classes have really done their job; 2. I need get a LOT more running miles in - I need more 'base'; 3. I need to get fitter; 4. I need to practice my race-day nutrition (I'm pretty sure the on-site Gatorade had something to do with the stitch); and 5. Most importantly, I do, in fact, enjoy doing this!
Cliff had an awesome race, finished 5th in his AG, and qualified for the World Ironman 70.3 Championships in Clearwater in November. I was there in 2007 and maybe I'll try to get back again this year. That's means I'll probably race another IM 70.3 in later summer to grab my qualifying slot.
Good to be back! I'll post some race pics once I get them. See y'all out training! Chris
This was the first (and probably last) time I attempted a 5000m track race on a 400m track... Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'll do one again, just a sucker for punishment I guess!
I'd only done 1 other 5000m on track before, but it was on a 200m banked track, not a flat, 400m track. Most runners would mush prefer 12.5 laps than 25, but I have to admit, I liked 25 laps much more. It gave me something to think about with 25 different lap splits, only ~40 seconds apart. Plus, there were banked corners which let you get a tiny bit of a downhill coming out of the corner, which broke up the monotony slightly.
So, the story goes: Early on a Friday morning, the UNB XC crew packed into 2 cars and headed up to Ottawa. In case you're wondering, yes, one of them was my baby - my '94 Subaru Legacy, aka the "Red Rocket"! And, yes, she made it all the way there and back, problem-free! Actually, she's running better now! :)
Anyway, so after a cramped 10-hour drive we arrived in Ottawa and relaxed in our swanky, 5-star hotel... OK, it was a 2-star dump... but it was cheap and it was downtown, so we explored around the "market" area a bit. It was really nice.
Saturday morning, we headed out to the "Dome". It's a big 'bubble' with a 400m indoor track inside. I believe it's the only one North America! There were 3 or 4 turf soccer fields inside the track, really cool! The 5000m was the first event at the meet, thankfully. I really didn't feel like sitting around all day thinking about running a 5km on a track!
Oddly enough, my buddy Cliff (the co-conspirator of the original LMS Adventure) now lives in Ottawa and he came out to join me in the "fun"! As you can see in the pics, we ran together for the first half of the race, until I fell off the pace slightly. I hit my watch every 200m, so you can see my pace. I didn't slow that much, so that's a good sign, but I didn't feel fresh at all. I think a big part of that was the 10-hr drive... I hope anyway.
My plan was to run 40-second 200's for as long as I could. If I did that, I would run 16:40. My PB is 16:37, when I had a similar plan and pulled it off and gained a few seconds with a little kick on the last lap.
Funny thing, before the race I said "I think I can run 17 mins". Maybe I should have said, "I think I can run 16:40"! haha. One more good thing I am taking from the race: the last time I did the California 1/2 Ironman and I raced a 5k a few before the race, I ran 17:02. So, that's a good sign!
To finish off the 5-week "base training" phase of my condensed 12-week 1/2 Ironman Training, I decided to throw in a 1500m "Time Trial Race". This is Indoor Track season, so, hey, when in Rome, eh? I'd never done one of these before, so I had no idea what to expect or how to pace myself. But, on the bright side, it was easy to set a PB!
So, after a great BRICK (Bike-Run) workout in the morning and a quick 8K treadmill run just before the race, I lined up with 2 other dudes for the "race". It was on a 166m track that is meant for walkers. Such a short track means very tight turns and a very hard surface means we rarely run there, if ever! Oh ya, and the air circulation is horrible... my lungs are still bugging me now, a week later!
Anyways, I started off easy and controlled, not wanting to blow-up. But, I felt better than I thought after a few laps, so started picking up the pace. I ran almost negative splits for all of the 9 laps for a total of 4:40... I know it's not very fast for real track guys, but for me, considering everything, I was happy with it. It really just felt like a hard workout, so I think I could go 10 seconds faster, which is good. Here's my splits for the 9 laps: 32.91 32.15 31.80 31.08 30.68 30.92 30.93 30.77 28.94 = 4:40.18
The next day (Superbowl Sunday), I did one last long run before celebrating my buddy Evan's B'day with some poker, football, rice chips, salsa, and far too much cider beer...that's the last beer 'til after my race in March... well, maybe the 2nd last ;)
