Just over a month and a half off of Ironman, I’ve hit rock bottom. Coffee Crisps, Kit Kats, Smarties, Mars… you name them, I’ve been eating them (in large quantities). There are 3 costco sized boxes of chocolates in my office (used to fill a bowl I keep at the door to lure visitors in to chat) and its showing it’s effects already!!!
I can’t believe I broke my bed… sooooo sad.
Well, this is to report on one of the most spectacular failures of my racing career.
7:00 am race start! I positioned myself well this year, and only got pushed around a little it at the beginning. The swim went well this year. Definatly cruised the swim – with a 57min effort. Felt great comming out of the water
Got on the bike in good time and started the ride out of penticton. Not too eventful, held great speed with little effort. Criusing along towards Osoyoos at around 37kph. Not much effort involved in holding it. Spun up Richter and ripped down the other side. On the way to Keremeos to the out and back there was some head wind, but nothing major. Conditions were great! Hot, but not overly hot.
Comming out of the out and back I found out that the shifter cable for the front deraileur had snapped (or something happened). I had no front deraileur! 60k back to Penticton and my top speed was limited to 33-34 kph spinning at 96-100 cadence. So I had no choice but to spin my way to keep up the speed. Up till then I was on track to surpassing my bike goal of 5:30.
Out and Back Support courtesy of the Beggs (Thanks guys!)
Got into penticton, got off the bike and started the run. Felt good – started very conservativly. Shuffling my way twards OK Falls. Again, an easy run (VERY easy run) and holding 4:50 per km. Everything was looking great at that point. Caught two people in my age group and was chasing down the last one in the lead. After the turnaround, my IT band started to mess around with my knee. I forced my way through it for another 10k, hoping it would hold out till I got back. Apparently not. I was forced to hobble the last 10k of the marathon. (In hindsight I think that the super high cadence brought about by the end of the bike that had set my knee up for failure on the run. )
The final stretch
The physical pain of my knee was bearable. The hardest thing to deal with was the final 5km where the streets are lined with people cheering you on and screaming at you to finish strong! Everyone was picking up speed and ripping by me as I hobbled along toward the finish. It’s not an easy pill to swallow (seeing and hearing the usual sights and sound that would bring you to the fastest final miles of your race, but instead hearing “way to fight through it”, “just keep moving, you’ll make it”. Looking at my watch, I was only thinking – “yeah, I would be finished now” . What a miserable sight I was… There was absolutly nothing I could do as my left knee refused to bend without excruiating pain. And so, the final 2 miles which are supposed to be the most spectacular and exciting 2 miles you can run turned into the most miserable 2 miles I’ve ever covered. As everyone victoriously runs across the finish line, I’m hobbling.
I was on track to surpassing my goal of 10:00 this year (which would have earned me the trip). On the bike that had to be revised to just meeting my goal, and on the run, that had to be revised to just finishing. Hawaii was what I wanted, and it wasn’t what I got.
After some thought I’ve come to a few conclusions.
1) I’m very proud of myself for dealing with the mehanical problem on the bike so positivly. I never let that destroy my race, as I still held hope that my run would carry me throuh despite the set back.
2) I’m too proud of a person to throw in the towel and quit despite being in pain and my run failing me. (Besides, some people suffer 17 hours just to finish. It would be wrong of me to just call it quits)
3) My race was a situation of circumstance. I controlled everything I could control. Everything that went wrong was out of my control, and thus a bad day was just a bad day.
In the end, I’m disappointed (even though everyone I’ve talked to said I shouldn’t). I think that it’s a mark of a transition that took place over this season of me going from being a participant in the sport to being a performer. It’s not enough to just finish, but to finish fast and on the podium.
I guess there’ll always be those races where things just don’t line up. This was without a doubt, one of those races.
Bikes!
Bike’s on the rack. Swim and Run bags are set. Walked through the transition area, visualizing where to run, where to go. Bumped into a lot of friends at the expo. Some I haven’t seen for almost 2 years.
Swim Bags
Run Bags
It’s been good. I’m ready to go. Best of luck to everyone tomorrow.
Got my race package
I even saw the annual Ironman underwear run this year. I’ve never managed to join in because I always forget about it until last minute.
Underwear run through Penticton
Slowly getting my gear bags packed. Going to take the bike out in the morning to make sure everything is working properly. Bags and the bike are now all stickered up with the race numbers.
Gear bags - there are so many!
Going to put everything into transition in the afternoon and then veg out for a few hours. I ran into Kevin Watt at the dinner/meeting. He’s super excited about the race and his super cheap 404′s he recently bought. There’s a nervous energy floating around
Now it’s just a waiting game. 7:00 am sunday less than 24 hours away.
With only 1 week left before beginning my taper, I start to reflect back on the work I’ve done throughout the season. Have I done enough (and more importantly, enough of the right stuff)? My answer is always “I hope so…”. Not exactly screaming of confidence. This weekend, I was told to just trust in the training… it’s too late to ask those questions and do last minute work. Trust that you’ve done the work, and that everything will work itself out.
Ok. I’ll trust my training. Peak volume was this weekend, and I’m better for it:
174 km bike [6:ish, avg HR=132] , 38 km run [3:03, avg HR=138], with a small 2.5 km swim thrown in.
Totally lucked out with the weather holding out for the weekend! Got all this in before the downpour that’s happening as I type this out… There’s not much left to do other than maintain, and look foward to race day! 19 days!!
[:55 swim, 5:30 bike, 3:30 run, :05 total T1 and T2] = 10:00:00
Sunday was the Desert Half in Osoyoos. Went up Saturday afternoon, picked the race package, checked into the hotel and called it an early night.
Sunday morning went off without anything major. Getting ready in transition, met a guy who said he recognized me from IMC 08, but I couldn’t recall his name. Felt really bad since I saw him again at the lunch/awards. It was sort of weird since he wasn’t the only guy that talked to me like they knew me. I think I have a terrible memory..
Ended up 15th overall, with the age group victory. Apparently, with Oakley as the race sponsor, I scored myself a new pair of custom shades! I’ve been told it’s in the mail! On top, I got a nice New Balance bag, and wine glasses for the win. Looking at the breakdown of the splits: I know I have my work cut out for me on the bike, but the run surpassed anything I had imagined. The results say that I laid down the 5th fastest run time at 1:24, which is only 2 min off my best half marathon time. It leads me to wonder how fast I can actually run a half marathon. Sub 1:15 perhaps? Maybe I can get my NAIA qualifying time for next year… but it doesn’t look like I’ll be running for SFU anyways. Shame.
Swim went alright. Still slower than expected. I’m positive that my sighting is not all that great, since I was always way off the mark. 2 loop course made for some cheering half way. That was cool
Bike was nice. Got to race with the new helmet and wheels. I have to say that the new helmet is a bit warmer than the regular one. Got passed by a ton of people, not too surprising (it happens in EVERY race). Kept it cool, didn’t try to hammer knowing that the run was still comming.
Run was great. Felt great 1-2k into the run. Settled into a nice pace and started to pick off people infront of me. 2nd lap: picked up the pace some since I had a lot left in me. In hindsight, I could’ve ran a bit harder throughout the entire run. Sorta warm at a balmy 33 degrees. I’m looking sorta sweaty…
Left Osoyoos feeling great. Looking forward to a few days easy, before hitting the final stretch for Ironman.
I’m all set to race. Yay! Yes, I’m terribly excited to ride in Osoyoos this weekend!
A few months worth of saving every penny + a big gift from Christmas and my birthday!
I live my life by “Fake it ’till you make it”, but I feel this overwhelming pressure to perform well as not to look like a poser with a nice bike. Faking it doesn’t seem like a legit option anymore. Ah, welcome back to high school, where your selfworth is established through judgement from your peers.
Training is going great! Stepping up running for the last few weeks. This weekend was a nice 32k run @ 5:00 pace. Not too challenging. I’m surpised that my body is holding together so well. Maybe I’m not training half as hard as I shuold be.
Cycling has been getting there as well. Today I did the PoCo-UBC-Horseshoe Bay-Cypress-PoCo loop. Yeah, I was thinking… Osoyoos is comming up, better get a feel for that Richter Pass. Cypress is a mountian, must be pretty similar to Richter. No. Cypress Mtn is not Richter. Stupid me.
A little underestimation
A lot of other stuff’s been happening in the last couple weeks.
1) Masters is now outdoors – super excited for that. Canada Day swim went well for the group. Had 6 people come and race, all did fantastically (not a real word?). My time was a bit slower than I had hoped for. Perhaps due to my lack of swimming. Better get going on that after Osoyoos.
2) I see a lot of people that I know racing, and they’re all posting some VERY impressive results. I can’t wait to race. Waiting until July for my first race is the worst thing I’ve done. Oh the anticipation
3) Oh, and last but not least. I finally got an aero helmet and new racing wheels. Pictures to come soon. Very excited to try these new toys out!
Training’s going well. Swimming is holding steady, and feeling strong. Went for a lake swim about a week ago, and felt great.
Cycling is slowly comming together. My long rides are feeling way more comfortable. I’m able to hold 30+ finally for most of the time.
Running is going well too. This week I ran a 17k tempo holding 3:50/km. It was a bit of a push, but I finished it off well, and wasn’t majorly hurting afterwards. On thursdays, it was 3x2k holding 3:20′s/km. Still having issues holding that speed over distance though
With all this, I’m itching to race, but theres nothing big for me until July 12 in Osoyoos. It’d be great to go under 5:00 for that. 30/2:40/1:40
Canada Day Swim is comming up and I’m excited for that. My goal is to go sub 55 for the 4k. That should be a boost if I can do that!
Victoria Half is this weekend: Good luck to Trio (Kevin, Tom, Barry), Chris, Lisa, Nathan, and Vince
Hooch
Long weekend is here, and I finally got out for a long ride. I hadn’t broke the 100K barrier since last year, and I’ve been itching to do it (not because I’m unable to, but more for the confidence building).
Oh, and I was a total stalker too. On the way back from Mission, 5 guys in “Local Ride” jerseys passed me as they were pacelining back to Maple Ridge. By that time in my ride, I had started to slack a bit, thinking about things other than riding hard. After they passed me, I figured I’d just cruise behind them, giving them about 5 m of space so that I’m not drafting or entering their paceline, and just see how long I could keep up with them (just for kicks, you know…). Well, I ended up “stalking” them for the entire trip back. I think its about time I found a good group of people to ride with. I say this every year, but I miss group rides!
They probably think I’m the creepiest/weridest rider out there. Oh well, I was distracted for a while so I’m happy.
Surprise 1:
In addition to my awesome ride, my brother is home for the weekend! Picked him up from the airport on Saturday, and he’ll be flying out on Tuesday. My dad’s got friends over from Ontario too, so the house is busy busy with guests. Busy = me giving up my bedroom and sleeping downstairs for a few nights.
Surprise 2:
The race director from the Spring Classic 5k called me and said I had won some prizes from the race! Yay! I’ll be picking whatever it is I won on Tuesday. Mom, since I ran that race for you on mother’s day, you just got some more mother’s day gifts!
Surprise 3: (not really a surprise)
I didn’t win 40 million. Damn it
Happy Long Weekend!
