Tri-ing to stay young!

I’m developing a Foot Fetish!!!

Bill — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:08:11 +0000

Swimming, especially over a longer distance can be quite boring so I usually spend my time thinking about some odd thing or another. My thoughts for this race were about feet, something that I had never noticed in the past, probably because I always spent my time at the back of the pack. But this time …. as I MOVED UP in the pack, I found that I would be hitting peoples feet, so … I began counting feet as I raced +1 for every person that I touched as I moved up and -1 for every time someone touched my feet as they passed me. I was up a bunch on the out leg but got beat up pretty badly (passed often) on the return leg (so I quit counting!) Anyway, from here on in, I will be judging my swim pace by feet.
Now on to the serious topic of Ironman:
The water was smooth as glass for the race. Ed and I got to the venue at about 5:30 so we had plenty of time to sit around and second guess ourselves - which we did several times; did I pack everything? - go through the bike bag - go through the run bag - go through the bike bag again. We all hit the water about 10 minutes before start, swim about 200 metres to the start line and treaded water waiting for the start. It was an incredible experience being one of about 2700 people treading enmass. The water is definitely brown. I could not see my hand in front of me and certainly couldn’t see any swimmers after the start. My sighting was a bit off again. I figure that I completed about 4Km during the race as I went from the canoes at one side of the course to the sea wall on the other side 3 times. The width of the course was about 75m. I finished the swim in 1:46. Another interesting thought; I find it difficult to keep track f time during a race. It seems to go so slow during the swim and so fast during the run.
Arizona is definitely a bikers dream course. It is straight and wide with loads of room to pass 2 and even 3 wide. Other than for the turnarounds, there was no place on the curse where you could not pass. Because it was 3 laps, you got to see just how fast a pro can go and I’m here to tell you that they do go fast. A down side to the bike course is the constant wind. The first 2 laps saw a fairly brisk head wind on the one leg with a welcoming tail wind on the home leg. The wind changed direction on the final leg so many of us had to endure a head wind both ways. As for the pros speed, there was one point in the home leg where I got up to 50kph when a series of pros passed me like I was standing still (I estimate that they were going 65 to 70kph or more) .. and that is on a near flat! Any way I finished the bike sometime around 4:30, or 9.5 hours into the race. I didn’t feel bad but I almost collapsed when I got off the bike, something that has never happened before. My brother Ed was waiting for me in the change tent and helped to re-orient me and get me out for the run. I’ll tell you his story later in the article.
The run was a 3-loop affair through town. The course was slightly hilly (and all hills seem huge to me after 9 hours) it is very spectator friendly with both volunteers and fans lining almost the entire race route. As for the volunteers - They were incredible. I was impressed with IMC but the Tempe people really get into the race; most of the aide station were themed. My favorite was one at mile 3 of the second loop where they dressed in a western theme; their Penalty Tent was a hangman’s scaffold complete with noose! My run time with a 15:11 finish was slow, which expected due to the lack of training, but I was ticked with myself as I know that I had had the 11minutes in me to finish under 15 hours.
Now back to Ed. He had whiplash from the bike crash but decided to compete. His swim was 2:03 and timed out on the bike. The most incredible part of his race was that he had no strength in his neck muscles and had to ride holding his head up with one hand while riding with the other. That is a true competitor! Ed missed the 3rd loop cut-off by 5 minutes.
I’m off the catch the plane home so I’ll write more about the race and Tempe tomorrow fro Victoria.
Bye for now; Bill
The run

13 hours to go!!

Bill — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Just a quick note before an early dinner and quiet evening.
The day went well (for me). I blew the wad and invested in a pair of Newton shoes for the race. They seem to be a good median between regular runners and Vibrams. They are cushioning my sore left foot and that is the most import thing tomorrow.
Our swim was great. Very little wind and about 6 to 9 inch waves. I wonder which water will show up tomorrow?
Brother Ed, who I will be racing with, has his excuse for tomorrow. We were going for a short ride this afternoon when he did a header on the pavement!! He ws dazed, his head was cut and bruised through his helmut, both shoulders, centre of his back and hands were scraped. Thank goodness for helmuts or I would be spending tomorrow at the hospital or even worse. He is still a bit woozie but will be competing tomorrow. A real tropper - I’m not sure that I would be doing the race. He will be the genuine Ironman when he finishes tomorrow. Oh yeh - He just got his repaired bike into transition because a good hearted gaurd felt sorry for him. Cut off for putting bikes in transition was 3:00. He got his bike back from the cycle shop at 3:05.
Talk to you tomorrow;
Bill

2 Days to GO!

Bill — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:20:28 +0000

I went for an early swim this morning. Guess what – They have 2 foot swells (and chop) in an Arizona Canal! There were times when the swell raised my body out of the water to the waist. After more mouth-fulls of “brown” water than I care to think about, I started to unilateral breath to the lea side. I have to say that the swim in was much nicer! A second interesting situation is you swim the out leg into a rising sun. Now I don’t see well without my glases at the best of times so I may have to buy a pair of tinted goggles to see on raceday. I’m glad I went for a swim today as it gave me a chance to get used to timing my stroke with the swells. As for the brown water, Ed and I swam in much worse water in Lake Mackenzie, Calgary. At least they don’t have the 6-foot algae strings that Ed and I pulled with us in our May swims. I’m definitely going out for another training swim tomorrow. I’ll get there right at 8:00 to see if the wind situation is better earlier in the morning.
Hopefully I will get out to do a loop of the bike loop course this afternoon. I pick Ed up at the airport at 11:30, back to the Hotel to put his bike together, register and then on to the road for a gentle 30-mile ride.
Talk to you tomorrow after my swim.
Bill

Woulda, Coulda and SHOULDA!

Bill — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:41:48 +0000

7 sleeps till showtime in Arizona! I’m starting to worry and thought that a blog to my tri friends would take my mind off all of the training that I didn’t do. I did a quick calculation today - On average, I have trained 5 hours per week since IMC. I did complete the Victoria Marathon, which was supposed to be the start of my ramp up to Arizona. I ran the whole marathon, something that I have never done before, and was sure that this was going to be the start of a great 4 weeks of training. My Arizona training plan was to rest (slack off) till after Victoria and then concentrate on running with a goal of getting my run time to less than 5 hours.
What I didn’t count on was injuring my foot two days after Victoria. I was doing a 1.5 hour run with my friend Tom when, for some inexplicable reason, I decided that I would experiment with a new stride. The new stride was an exaggerated “prance” combining a short stride with a quick lift as the foot passed dead centre. In my mind, this new stride resembled a bull pawing at the ground when it is getting ready to charge. My thought was that if I were able to maintain positive motion in each stride, I would be more efficient and be able to run with less effort. The pain started at an hour, but not being the brightest bulb on the tree, I decided to continue and see if I could run through it. You may ask why I would try something like this late in the season. I’d like to know too, so please let me know if you can figure out what would make me do it. The result of my folly - I have either bruised or strained something in my left foot. The pain starts between the toes and extends through to the bottom and top with every step, especially when wearing a soft bottom shoe. After 3 sessions with Reisa, my hellerwork therapist some of the pain has gone and I now can run for an hour in running shoes without too much pain. On the positive side, during last Friday’s session, she worked on my left shoulder. The result - I was finally able to keep up with the slow swimmers during our Saturday swim class. Prior to Saturday there was only one slow swimmer in our tri group.
The long and the short is that I will be doing Arizona in running shoes, which I find exhausting to run in after a year in Vibrams. I expect that there will be a lot of walking well into the Arizona evening. My original goal was sub 14 hours, which will be next to impossible unless someone else volunteers to carry my chip. My new goal; finish the swim, go like hell on the bike, crawl (if necessary) on the run and finish the event!
Think of me next Sunday. My race # is 2007. I’ll be doing the race with my brother Ed. This will be his first race. His number is 1964.
I feel better now that I’ve down loaded all of my problems on you.
It’s now time to hit the bottle of wine!
Talk to you all soon;
Bill

A Week after Victoria Marathon

Bill — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:46:01 +0000

Time seems to fly when you are procrastinating writing a blog entry.
The Marathon went great however, 2 days before the marathon, I was walking around with two knee braces and more knee, leg and lower back pain than I had experienced in a long time. So … I went to see Reisa, a Hellerwork Therapist as a last resort. She was successful beyond all expectations! I went, expecting a slight improvement in my lower back, hamstring and glute pains and walked away virtually pain free. Having said that, the session itself was anything but pain free! She worked through several layers of tissue and managed to find trigger points that I didn’t even know I had. I have thrown away all of my massage therapists cards and will only use Reisa from here on in.
After two days of rest, I completed the entire race at a run, something I had always dreamed of doing but never done before! My time wasn’t as good as hoped at 4:56 but now that my body knows what is expected of it to complete 26.2 miles at a run, I expect nothing less than that of it in the future! As an aside, did you read about that incredible 80 year old lady from Vancouver who set a new World Marathon Age Group Record of 4:36 in Victoria. Absolutely Incredible!!!
So much for the marathon. On Tuesday, I went for a run with my friend Tom and managed to injure my left foot. I was experimenting with a new way of landing and pushing off on each step and I now have extreme pain over my big toe and the one next to it (The pain is similar to the pain I experienced many years ago when I broke those toes.) I tried an hour run on the treadmill this evening to see if the pain would go away - no luck, I had to give up at 50 minutes. An interesting thing about this pain is that it only seems to flair up with the pounding of running. There is virtually no pain when walking. I’m sure that Reisa will be able to fix this too. But, between now and Arizona Ironman, I’ll restrict my cardio to Bike and Swim only and I won’t experiment with new running techniques until after the race.
Speaking of swimming, I went to the first swim session in several months at the Y on Saturday. It was HELL! I forgot how much harder it was to swim when you didn’t have a wet suit to help you afloat.
Enough for tonight. I’ll let you know how Reisa does with my foot next blog.
Talk to you soon;
Bill

Hurtn’

Bill — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:53:56 +0000

Well the timing seems right for another entry. It’s been a month since Ironman and a week until the Victoria Marathon. True to form, my training has been lacking, averaging 2 to 3 hour per week. My 2-hour run on Monday went very well. My goal was to keep my average HR in the 120 to 125 range. I did this and averaged 5.9 MPH, which I thought was surprisingly fast. Based on Coach Grant’s Marathon Chart, this should equate to an approx 4:30 marathon. I sure hope that he’s right!
How time flies; we’re having the first organizing meeting for next year’s Y Tri group tonight. It is going to suck having to start pool swimming again!
Oct 10, 2008: Well, here’s the latest!! I went for a long run last Sunday. I felt great for the first 12 or so miles and blew up after that. I’m now the proud(?) owner of two sore knees, very tight hamstring string, lower bank pain and two sore glutes; And that’s after a week of rest! Sunday morning will be interesting. I expect to hurt all the way and my anticipated time of 4:??, Well?
Talk to you after the Marathon;
Bill

2 Weeks Later - OOps, Forgot to post this one!

Bill — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:53:14 +0000

Well, it’s 2 weeks after the race and I’m back training again. I managed 5 hours this week; a bit of weight training, speed training on the treadmill, 2 hours on the bike and an hour at Thetis Lake. I’m finding myself very blasé about Arizona. I’m not sure if it is because it’s 2 months away or if I’m thinking that this is old hat after completing Penticton. Whatever the reason, I’ll have to slap myself silly to re-gain training focus if I hope to do a sub-14 hour race.
I have to say that I found our mid-ride coffee at Matticks Farm more enjoyable now that I am one of the group and have the tattoo to show for it.
My goals for the next month are to work on my run roll over rate and speed and to work on my leg strength.
I’m now officially back at work so please email me if any of you are in need of a good Victoria Realtor!
Talk to you soon;
Bill

Dissecting Ironman Canada

Bill — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:04:42 +0000

My morning started at 4:00AM. 2 fried eggs and toast for breakie and I was off to the transition area. As I mentioned yesterday, there were hundreds of spectators around transition by the time I arrived at 5:15 AM. After a quiet prayer for courage and strength, I was ready for the day.
SWIM: 1h45m. As per Coach Grant’s suggestion, I started my day with a 30-minute run to get rid of jitters and level off the heart rate. Then, the mandatory lonnnnng porta-pottie wait. After what seemed an eternity and with only 15 minutes to start time, I ran over to the medical area to find 10 or more of those beautiful blue buildings unoccupied. Another quick dash back to the water and I was ready to go. Knowing exactly how fast I was, I seeded myself at the back of the pack. (It took me 1m11s to cross the start line) At about 200m I started to wonder where my jitters were. At 600m I was wondering why I was still going in a straight line and at 3000m I was wondering why I wasn’t last and why I was actually passing people on the swim. I have to say that it is wonderful to swim next to and bump into other swimmers. I left the water at 1h45m which was 10 minutes faster than I had ever swum this distance. Only Difficulty: After 2000m I didn’t have the strength in my left hand to hold my fingers together. If anyone knows how to strengthen wrists and forearms injured from bike vibrations, please email me. Heart Rate at start: 83, Heart Rate at end of Swim: 87. Needless to say I was elated!!
BIKE: 7h25m. The volunteers at transition were incredible!!!! There seemed to be two for every athlete by the time that I got in. I don’t know what my transition time was but I know it was the fastest to date. The ride out of transition was incredible. Buoyed by my swim, and then the sight and sounds of hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cheering spectators, I floated down Main Street at speeds of 30 to 35kph. Perhaps I was a little too buoyed and too hasty as I raced down East Lake towards McLean Creek. I passed dozens of bikes; all the time thinking of what Jan, a training friend from the Y Tri group, told me about coming out too soon and regretting it at Yellow Lake. I checked my pulse, which was steady at approx 127 to 130 and figured that I was good to go. We faced a steady head wind from McLean Creek to Osoyoos. The 11Km Richters climb came and went fairly effortlessly with my heart rate at a max of 135. The major bike disappointment of the day came at the top of Richters; facing a strong headwind, I had to peddle like crazy to maintain a 60kph speed going down the other side. This compares to having to brake heavily to keep below 90kph in traffic during my training ride. The wind Gods were definitely looking after us that day with a rare tail wind helping us all the way from Richters to Yellow Lake. And then there was Yellow Lake; at about 5 minutes into the climb, I knew exactly what Jan had meant about using your energy in bursts at the start of the race to pass people only to gain a few feet with each burst. I am sure that those early bursts that maybe gained me a kilometer (+/-3 to 4 minutes) over the first 60Km cost me at least 20 or 30 minutes over the last 60Km. There was just no gas left in the tank! My Bike HR was fairly constant in the 125 to 135 range. I thought this was good thing until Kerry, a Calgary Tri-friend, mentioned he had read how a low heart rate could be an indication of fatigue. My legs were definitely jelly-like by the time that I was entering Penticton. A smarter ride would have reduced my ride time by at least 30 minutes.
RUN: 5h20m. The first 3 miles through town were hell. I wanted to walk but didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of facing all the spectators who were cheering us on. My legs returned at about mile 3. I did not expect to see them again until the next day. I managed to do a walk-run routine for the rest of the race. Unlike past marathon experiences where I always hit the wall pretty hard at 20 miles, I surprised myself with a strong finish and managed to run the last mile or so to beat the 15-hour clock by 5 minutes.
CONCLUSIONS: I have at least 1 hour of improvement in me. My bike would have been sub 7 hour had I heeded Jan’s sage advice. My run should improve quickly with hill and speed training. I’ll also do a bit of weight training to build up my quads, gluts and pecs to increase strength and endurance. And, if I were smart, I would also give up the wine and lose a few pounds. Hummm, I’m beginning to sound like a Tri-geek. Not good for a 61 year old trying not to act his age.
THE FUTURE: I will do the Victoria Marathon in October (Goal Time: 4h45m) and then the Arizona Ironman (Goal Time: sub 14 hours) on Nov. 23, 2008. Yesterday I was convinced that Arizona would be my last Ironman. But … today is a new day and I’m suffering from Ironman withdrawal pains already. I think that my long-suffering wife Cheryl may just end up being an Iron widow for a few years?! Or …. Maybe, she will enjoy her swimming so much that she will try a Tri too!
Talk to you soon;
Bill

Hi from Penticton

Bill — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:41:10 +0000

For starters, I should have written this blog last night when I was stoked from the energy of the day and my strong finish. My apologies for this rant sounding clinical but 24 hours has a habit of dulling the excitement and yes, I am now the proud wearer of an Ironman tattoo. While at the Tattoo parlor, I met Suzanne, the lady who saved me from disqualification at the Shawnigan Lake ½ Iron. She came up to me and asked, “Are you my Bill”. During part of the conversation, she mentioned that her boat had been getting calls from race officials telling her to D.Q. me, as they didn’t think that I could finish. It was only her persistence that kept me in the race. I can never thank her enough. (Isn’t amazing how some people just keep showing up in you life.)
My race went better than I had ever expected. My swim was 10 minutes faster than my best training swim. My bike, although not quite as fast as some training rides, was smooth with no cramps. My run, once again not nearly as quick as I might have liked, was uneventful and I was able to finish strong running the last kilometer or so to finish at 14h55m. I expected, under ideal circumstances, to finish at 15 hours and was prepared to accept 16 hours+ in the likely situation that something went wrong.
My Penticton stay started Thursday evening with dinner at the Sumac Winery with swimming friends from Calgary. The camaraderie was great … unfortunately, the food was not! Dry chicken at $43.00 per plate; I won’t be going back.
Friday night was the Welcoming Dinner with several special presentations. I left pumped and ready to tackle Sunday. On Saturday I registered, took my bike and transition items to lock-up and spent several hours visualizing my race. I think that this was when I realized the significance of the event.
Sunday morning started at 4:00AM with breakfast of 2 fried eggs, toast and juice. I was at transition by 5:30. Unbelievably, there were hundreds of spectators there already to greet us. A friend from the Y Tri group called me over to wish me well; I started to talk and got caught up in the emotion of the event and had to walk away.
I’ll dissect the race for you tomorrow. I’m sure that I can cut at least an hour off the time with a bit of strategic training.
Talk to you tomorrow from the ferry;
Bill

10 hours to go!

Bill — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:54:23 +0000

It’s 8:30PM and I’m lying in bed getting ready for a good(?) nights sleep. I bought an alarm clock this afternoon to make sure that I don’t sleep in. I did an hour run this morning and followed it up with a 50-minute swim. Both went well. If only Ironman Distances were that short. The rest of the day was spent organizing and re-organizing my transition bags.
My swim still scares me. I’m hoping for 3min 100’s, which will put me in at just under 2 hours. A decent swim will definitely set up the whole day and give me the confidence to finish in a reasonable time.
Time for beddie-bye.
Talk to you tomorrow after the race;
Bill