Namaste!

Pretty fun day today. After a solid 9.5 hour sleep last night. AWESOME. I woke up and strolled into lab. Surprisingly I was one of the first ones there (must have been a lazy Monday because I wasn't early), and managed to get in a solid days work in. Today just flew by, I was running HPLC for anyone who knows that, which meant I got a lot of breaks which I filled with running around chatting with people. Good times.

Wrapping up the day managed to make it to the VOWSA swim and wow was this an experience. Typically Vancouver waters are calm and kinda boring to swim in. Not tonight. I was just tossed around going over sometimes 4-5 foot swells. It was fantastic. I'm guessing my arms will be feeling it tomorrow. It was funny though, people that I can't normally keep up with on calm days I was actually leading today. I guess its my lack of technique and bank on power strokes that got me through it. I kinda hope its like this for the Vancouver Half in two weeks. Although it will mean slower times. I feel it will really spread out the field a lot more and I'll have the advantage over the weaker swimmers strong bike/runners.

To follow this up. Lululemon puts on free yoga sessions on Monday nights at 8. Perfect timing to go from the open water swim, 6:30-7:30 and change and walk up the street to yoga.

My friend Kendra has been trying to get me to go for a while now, and tonight decided I would take her up on it. All around it was a good time. It wasn't the best stretching I could have done in an hour, but was definitely more than I WOULD have done otherwise. I think I'll keep going week after week. The hardest part was that I was so hungry after the swim. I'll have to bring food next time.

That it, heading to bed and hoping to get another big day in tomorrow before having Wednesday off for Canada Day. WOO!

How to turn 70$ into 450.

Fun times, and I'll lay it out right now, this isn't a gain of 380$, its the opposite.

Two weeks ago I brought my bike in for a simple 70$ tune up. And as I've mentioned before the shifter broke. Along with that included in the tune up was according to the sign new cables and housing.

Sure enough, I get there today and he starts adding stuff up.

70 tune up

35 cables housing (Hey wait! I would have thought that was in the 70$ my bad).

35 new bearings for my headtube (this I don't really have a problem with, but still seems expensive).

270 for new shifter

25 to replace the shifter (after all this they charge me for that, balls!)

And then add the tax and you've got 454$. And on top of that they got grease all over my white bar tape. I wasn't too impressed with this place. I don't think I'll be going back.

Nice little expenditure for a bike I will barely be using anymore.

Victoria International New Balance Half Iron Race Report

Wow what a lengthy title. Hopefully the report isn't the same.  My lead up to the race was a little different than normal. As a result of the bike fiasco we went over to the island Friday night and stayed at Dereks place again. Waking up Saturday I need to send a bike thanks towards Noa for doing the emergency bike fit for me. Without her help the race would have been a disaster! 

After the bike fit we went for some lunch then set up at the race site. Was really nice seeing everyone at the race, so many people out this weekend. Did a quick ride on the bike, felt weird but wasn't straining anything so after a monstrous 8km ride went back to pack it in to transition. Here I discovered my first little snag with the new bike. The rear brakes are hidden under/behind the bottom bracket. As a result to change the brakes, you can't simply use a Hex key on the chainring side because the pad is hidden by the chainring. Instead I needed a really small wrench. See this photo for what I mean.

Changing the fourth brake would have to wait till the morning once I got the right tools from Dereks.

After the pre race meeting, we drove the course (from memory) without problems and headed to Dereks for an awesome dinner prepared by his mom. Thanks!

I mentioned before that I was going to do things differently race morning. After a pretty decent 5 hours of sleep with only a minor interruption from a phone call at 1 Am (thanks Suz), I woke up and got ready for the race. The change I made was basic food instead of this high tech sport nutrition. I had a bagel with jam and some juice. Thats it. I didn't want to get an upset stomach again, and since I eat that probably 6 days a week, I figured it was a safe bet.

Arriving to the race 75 minutes before the gun the only challenge was the bathroom. The brakes took no time to fix but already 45 minutes before there was a 20 minute line up. Yikes. 

I managed to get into the water 5-10 minutes early and swam over to the start line (~150 m away). No sooner did I get there than the gun went off. This is twice now I've missed the countdown and I know I wasn't the only one. Amy was mid sentence when we head the cannon go off. Fortunately its loud and hard to miss. 

HUGE CANNON!

The swim was uneventful. Got into a good pack, followed an old man who kicked a whole lot which made it easy to follow him. I tried a few times to gap to the next group but it never proved successful, anytime I pulled away I got reeled back in, so I decided since we were doing a good pace to just sit there. Downside, he had really gross cracked feet. Every time I touched them it made me cringe. 

D-Rock was first out of the water in spectacular fashion once again. 

Followed shortly after by Pat

On Pats toes was Erich who was doing his first Half Iron on 10 days training. More on that later. 

Then about 90 seconds later, I came out. Now this is fun, at the last race Nick Gottfried was just behind me, to gauge how well I had swam I looked around for him. Figuring if he was nearby then I had done a pretty good swim. Sure enough I look to my left and the person I had been pumping into for the last 100 meters was Nick (not the guy with the gross feet). My swim time was WAY fast. 25:44 for 1:22/100m. Significantly faster than I've ever gone. So was most everyone else though, so the course was for sure short. But by how much I have no idea. I'll take it as a good swim either way. 

I don't think I have ever looked so cheerful out of the water. Too bad Nick got cut in two. 

Nick running out of the water

After the swim I had a fairly smooth T1 and was onto the bike about to ride my first km on the new bike (excluding the 8 easy km the day before). To say I was worried was somewhat of an understatement. I don't know if I've ever been in the water thinking to myself I hope this last longer! For the first 15 minutes on the bike I got into a really good groove. The bike felt good and I wasn't feeling sick (which I often do out of the water). I pass Erich and Pat on one of the first climbs and Sheldon shortly after. At around 10k unfortunately Nathan Killam and I make a wrong turn. Not critical, but cost us probably 15-30 seconds. More disturbing than anything else. We quickly catch back up to Lance Watson and Nick and the 4 of us leapfrog each other for the next 60k. 

Nick looking like a machine on the bike. He had a minor 10k slump in the middle but clearly rallied and put the hammer down at 70k dropping me pretty hard. 

Me looking aero and dorky! I don't think my glasses match.

Derek was pretty sick all week, hacking up some lovely green stuff. He probably shouldn't have started the race but competitiveness wins over in the end. I caught up to him about 25k in to the bike, considering how sick he was, he put out a really impressive effort. 

Derek demonstrating mind over matter on the bike

Sheldon after a few chain problems getting things going.

Amy in her first half iron pushing through in 2nd place overall female!

Andrew in his first half iron

Erich Riding on guts, because we all know he had no training

I was feeling really good on the bike, despite two missed turns on the first lap, I still went through 43k in 1:12 (36kph). I made it about 70km into the bike feeling great, thinking to myself building confidence that I could cary this through to the run. My confidence was so high that I was actually thinking of dropping the guys I had been leap frogging with all day. 

Unfortunately this didn't last long. Right around the 70km mark my legs just gave out on me. My guess is all the little stabilizer muscles that weren't used to the bike fit finally just had it. It was a funny experience. Although I felt fine energy wise, I just couldn't push. I must have slowed down to 30kph (I didn't have a speedometer so this is all based on feel). People really started passing me at this point. Over the period of 16k, I lost 3-4 minutes on the people I had been riding with. YIKES!

Oh well. On to the transition, my energy was still high and I knew I had hydrated well. I drank nearly 3 bottles on the bike, 1 gatoraide, and 2 water. 

While in transition Scott took this fantastic photo of me. Quite possibly the dorkiest I have ever looked!

Look at that, crooked aerohelmet! Dorky face. AMAZING!

Getting on the run, I was surprised at how good my legs felt. I was expecting them to be crushed after the bike, but I was getting a pretty good turnover going. I started off fairly slow. 23:30 for my first 5k but then pick it up for the second 5. Unfortunately at km ~8 my left knee started to hurt. I never get knee pains so I figured this must have been a consequence of the bike. Oh well, lets see what I can salvage. I go through the 10k in 43:29 (Pretty good km 5-10!). At 12k it really picks up and by 15k my knee forces me to slow down drastically. I come in the last 5km in 24 minutes for a 45:12 second 10k and a run split of 1:28:40. I was slower than last year but considering my last km this year was nearly on 5 minutes and last year it was on 3:43, I'm not too upset. This means I ran faster over the first 19k and simply didn't have the pep to match last years result based on my knee. Talking with Noa after she said that this result was no surprise based on the new bike and that she was actually shocked that this was all that bothered me. 

Nick stormed off on the run. Having an amazing run split 40:47/40:43 for a 1:21:30. WOW! Even if I had of had the best run of my life there was no catching him. Incredible! He really showed me the work I've got to do between now and our next meeting in Vancouver 3 weeks from now. 

Nick Coming in to the finish

Me coming in to the finish, 4:27:22, almost 3 minutes faster than last year

Is my calf thicker than my quad?

Jeremy having to guard a potentially injured hamstring pushing hard to the finish.

Sheldon had a pretty awesome finish. He had to sprint it out with some guy. Those cross country running days really kicked in. Check out these next slew of photos. 

VICTORY!

Derek pushing through the sick amazingly coming in only minutes behind me. He followed by a lengthy stay in the medical tent. Hats off to you Derek. You definitely showed me what it means to hurt on Sunday. 

Amy in her first half iron coming in 3rd overall female! 1:26:50 20k run!

Andrew Squeaking in under 5 hours in his first half!

Erich finishing in an amazing time of 5:07. 10 days of training... Including taper

Stupid? Yes, awesome? Also YES!

Winston with a new half PB

Here is a fun story, Ceilidh told his parents that he thought he would be finished around 1pm so thats when they should come watch him finish. While racing he realized that he was going too fast and they wouldn't see him finish. So what did he do? He slowed down for his second lap to make sure they would see him. Mom, Dad, I can honestly say I probably wouldn't do this for you.

We had a few sprint distance racers as well. Unfortunately I can only find photos of Choppy (Sorry Claire and Scott). I don't know many details of their races, but I know Chops had the best finish so far of his triathlon career with a 9th overall and seconds out of 7th. Check out this sprint finish photos.

Coming off the bike into transition, I think Choppy works out.

A for effort

All round a great day for racing. I finished 2nd in my age group. I know, sadly my first defeat since moving to BC. oh well, Five 1st and one 2nd is good enough for me. Like I said, just have my work cut out for me next time. 

Big congrats to our first time Halfers, Amy, Erich, Andrew.

Here is the breakdown.

Full results

Nick Gottfried 4:18:15 1st AG (25-29)

Vince Lavallee 4:27:22 2nd AG (20-24)

Jeremy Hopwood 4:30:26 4th AG (25-29)

Sheldon Clark 4:35:43 3rd AG (20-24)

Derek Westra-Luney 4:36:10 4th AG (20-24)

Amy Kirkham 4:42:24 3rd Elite Female 3rd Overall

Andrew Wight 4:58:57 7th AG (25-29)

Erich Schmitt 5:07:04 8th AG (20-24)

Winston Guo 5:33:00 9th AG (20-24)

Ceilidh Curtis 6:14:25 12th AG (20-24)

Patrick Waters 

Unfortunately DNF, vomit all over the bike followed by a flu. Hope your feeling better now buddy. 

Choppy Somjee 1:09:06 6th AG (20-29)

Scott Chris 1:13:54 12th AG (20-29)

Claire Toffelmire 1:48:50 16th AG (20-29)

Now to steal something I saw on Jeremys blog, a breakdown of my time compared to the winner, in this case Jasper Blake. 

Overall

3:54:59 (Jasper) vs 4:27:22 (Vince)

12% slower

Swim

23:48 (Jasper) vs 25:44 (Vince) 

8% slower

T1

0:44 (Jasper) vs 1:01 (Vince) 

27% slower

Bike

2:18:34 (Jasper) vs 2:30:59 (Vince)

8% slower

T2

0:39 (Jasper) vs 1:01 (Vince)

36% slower

Run

1:10:57 (Jasper) vs 1:28:40 (Vince)

20% slower

Can't wait till Vancouver!

Victoria Half Iron Pre Race Report

First of all, I would like to say I love Yaletown.Turns out in Yaletown, FREE WIRELESS EVERYWHERE! No one has a password, its great. We are leaving for Victoria tonight, however, before we leave Choppy needed to teach (coach?) a bootcamp class which is in Yaletown. Choppy is a personal trainer for Survivor Bootcamp and by the looks of things a pretty good one too. Since we will be rushed making the last ferry, we met up before the class and I'm just chilling out waiting for it to end.

I never knew this, but its pretty funny, there are bootcamps all over the place here all over the grass.

Anyways, on to the pre race thoughts.

Since I will be riding my new bike, I have a lot of concerns about the potential for injury. I'm sure I will be able to push out a lot of power, but I don't know if my stabilizer muscles will be able to handle it. That being said, I am putting my main focus of this race into having a great Swim/Run combo and whatever happens on the bike happens.

For the swim, I'm really going to give it that little extra, I usually push fairly hard on the swim, but if I find myself in a good pack, typically I will just sit back, enjoy the draft and save energy. Sunday I'm going to try and not let that happen. I'll really have to motivate myself to push through the gaps in the water, but I think I should be able to do that.

For the bike, like I said, I'm going to go out pushing, but if anything hurts while out there I will ease up. There is no point getting injured out of pride when I could just use this as a build race and really put in a strong showing in Vancouver.

That being said, I could have a very interesting run. If my bike ends up being a flop and I have to "cruise" it, I'm going to go all out on the run. I know that on fresh legs I can run 4 minute pace. So if the bike doesn't crush me, this will be my goal. If the bike goes off without a hitch, then I will aim for a more conservative run pace of 4:15, same time goals as Shawnigan.

Now for the splits.

Swim 28:00

If the swim goes well, I'll have a time in the 28:00 range. In reviewing my Kits beach Aquathon swim I did last week, I was able to hold 1:32/100m pace, this works out to 29:08. Considering that was without a wetsuit and pretty much no drafting, I figure I could cut that down a little bit. My swimming has been feeling strong and as a result I am hoping for something big.

Bike 2:28:00

I originally was going to have my bike split be 2:24:## which would mean 36kph. An improvement on the last race from 35.2kph. I remember really liking the Victoria course last year, and it was my fastest bike split. But not I've changed my goal and just want to match my last pace. In reality anything under 2:30:00 will make me happy. The big change from the last race will be I am consciously going to force feed myself liquids. In the last race I only went through 1.75 bottles of water. I really want to drink at least 3 this time. I stop to pee after the bike everytime anyways, so I might as well fill up first.

Run A) 1:20:00 B 1:25:00

Depending on the bike, this will determine what I can do on the run. The run course in Victoria is amazing. Mostly sheltered by tree's and flat packed dirt to run on. Last year my run time was 1:27 and change and I figure I should be able to go faster than that because I still had a lot in the tank left to sprint with Doug. Hopefully I can get more even splits this year. I obviously had a lot of punch left at the end of Shawnigan, the main thing slowing me down there was the upset stomach. I hope that more liquids on the bike will work those problems out allowing me to really push my body instead of simply running controlled.

Add all these up along with 2:30 for transitions gives me a total time of 4:18:30 - 4:23:30. My new watch leaks water and sometimes choses not to work, so I may be racing this blind. Already I know I will be doing that on the bike as I don't have a speedometer set up yet.

FUN

Very ambitious once again. But hey, reach for the stars.

I decided to make a few changes to my diet after the last race. I got to Triathlete for my own good, going with Cliff Bars and Gatoraide for breakfast. This weekend I will kick it oldschool with bagels, peanut butter and juice.

I'm really excited about this race regardless of how well it goes. There are a whole bunch of us racing which should make it a LOT of fun.

From UBCTC we have

ME!

Andrew

Winston

Derek

Amy

Claire T.

Then there is Nick, Jeremy, Choppy, Sheldon, Erich and loads others racing. Should be a great time.

Hopefully the weather will hold out. Keep your fingers crossed for no rain.

Choppy is still giving his boot camp students a workout, I can hear him grilling them through a tough core workout. He asked if I wanted to take part, I quickly politely declined. I could just imagine the ridicule. I still remember what the first core workout was like.

Wish me luck

SON OF A B#%$@!

So I've got some bad news pertaining to my biggest race of the year, the Victoria International Half Ironman taking place this weekend.

I brought in my bike to get a tune up on Tuesday, expecting to get it back Thursday or worst case scenario Friday. Well, last night I got a call from the shop telling me that my shifter for my rear derailer wasn't working. Apparently it would shift up but not down. Strange, it worked fine when I brought it in. So that sucks, then they take no blame for any of it and tell me it will be 300$ to fix. So much for a 60$ tune up. I still have to go in and talk with the owner. I won't go on a rant until the whole process is over and done with to judge how they handled it. 

Bad news being, even if they fix the shifter, the bike won't be functional until next Tuesday. SHIOOT!

This isn't good, seeing as how I have a race Sunday. 

FORTUNATELY, I have a new toy that may come in handy. Check it out, I made a little video about it. Make sure your sound is on. 

Its SO PRETTY! I just got it last night. Mike and Chris brought it down for me from Kelowna!!! MJ, after much deliberation, I finally decided on a bike! 

I'll have more photos and details of how it rides after the weekend. The crummy news it that, I have so far ridden a total of 0km! Whats that saying about never try anything new on race day?

My main concern isn't so much for my performance, I'm sure I'll be able to do fine on the new bike, probably even better than fine. Its just I'm worried about injury. Since I haven't gotten used to the bike, there will be a lot of little stabilizer muscles that could get tweaked and very unhappy with me. 

Thankfully, Noa Deutsch has come to the rescue. She did a bike fit for me earlier this season (which I just realized I haven't written about but thought I had), and it was fantastic. So she is giving me an emergency bike fit Saturday morning before the race. 

Hopefully all goes to plan.

Pre race thoughts to be posted tomorrow. There may be a lot of mistakes in this post but my computer battery is nearly dead and I have lent the plug to a friend for the night.

Adios!

Blood Donation

At school, I work in the Life Science Institute at UBC, sharing the 4th floor with me is the Center for Blood Research. As a consequence of this domestic arrangement, we often are invited to talks put on by the CBR. The allure to these talks is typically the free wraps and pizza, however, once in a while you get a very interesting talk which makes you think.

Typically the talks are research based, however, a few weeks ago we had a talk by Dr. Dana Devine on the past, present and future of the Canadian Blood Services. 

What I learned from this talk.

In Canada there are roughly 33,654,000 people. Of those, there are something like 12 million eligible donors. How many do? Somewhere in the range of 600 000. That works out to only 5% of eligible donors, and even those are not donating to their full potential. 

Some more fun statistics. If there was a world crisis and we ran out of needles to extract blood. The reserves would last only 4 days! Ok, that doesn't mean all blood would be gone that fast, AB positive would last weeks, but the O negative would be gone almost instantly. There is a major shortage. 

Another interesting factoid. When asked, 78% of Canadians agree that there is a blood shortage, however, when that same population was asked if ever they were in an accident, would they expect to get blood, 84% said they would. 

That math doesn't work out. Somehow we assume that we are important enough to get the blood, but not donate.

Yikes, this is quite the guilt trip here. You would think I donate all the time. However, my shame is now being exposed. How often have I donated. Sadly,

ZERO!

I'm terrified of needles, and pass out any time I have to give blood. Most blood test I've taken however, have had to be on an empty stomach. Low blood sugar is supposed to make you lightheaded when giving blood, so I think that with some juice boxes in hand I should be able to do it. 

With that statement, I'm declaring that I will by the end of 2009 give blood! I will wait until the end of race season (Sometime in September unless I do another marathon), and then will take my 2 weeks recovery and then donate. 

As it stands today that would mean I am going to donate by the 27th of September. YIKES!

With a little research done, I discovered that there are alternatives for people as wimpy as me. Whole blood is hard on the system. Leaves you feeling drained. However, you can also donate platelets, and plasma. When you donate plasma they even supplement you so you don't get a low blood pressure reaction. 

So I think I will start with one of these before taking the plunge.  

For more information on the types of donations, check this page out.

But just a recap of what is says.

Whole Blood donation every 9 weeks

Platelet donation every 14 days

And can donate plasma every 6 days, 

And Finally, I know there are going to be some of you telling me, I can't donate blood, I've been blocked by Canadian Blood Services. I lived in the UK, or I've been to Africa in the last 90 days. Well, today is your lucky day. Its true, you cannot donate for blood transfusions, HOWEVER, you can donate for research purposes. There are hundreds of diseases which require more blood research. And to do that they need blood samples. And surprise surprise, there is a shortage there as well. Many labs have their friends come in and donate so they can do their work. 

Donating for research purposes is not as easy, for that you need to contact your local Canadian Blood Services and find out the location of a clinic. They are usually near Universities. Dr Dana Devine is the person to contact if you wish to locate you local clinic.

To contact Dana, send an e-mail to dana.devine@blood.ca 

Now that I've declared it to the Interweb, I guess there is no backing down now. 

I encourage you to copy this post and put it on your blogs. Try and get as many people out there.

Big Talk

Erich, Nick, Pat,  Derek. This message is going out to you.



Most specifically from 47 seconds on. Don't mess with me man. This Sunday, its going down.

Watch your children boys

White Rock 10k and Weekend Update

Yikes, way behind!

I'll start by recapping last weekend I guess. After the long ride Saturday (142k) I had a pretty relaxing afternoon. Went to the beach for a BBQ nearly entirely filled with meat and watched Facundo consume something in the range of 5000 calories worth of cookies. Following this went to see the movie The Hangover, really funny! And then got started on packing. I was leaving the next day for a biochem retreat (SUPER COOL!) in the afternoon but had to trop off my stuff early the next morning because I was going to bike there. 

To mix things up I decided to run a 10k down in White Rock Sunday morning with Claire from the UBCTC.

The course profile shows it being a net downhill, however, don't be fooled, the fact that it went downhill was countered by the fact that it had a few quite steep pitches which slowed you down a bunch.

Without knowing how my legs were going to feel after Saturday I decided to throw caution to the wind and just run.

Without further ado, here are the splits.

3:38

3:38

3:33

3:47

3:44

3:54

4:13

3:54

3:56

3:16

Total 37:36 (9 seconds off PB) Good for 2nd in my Age Group.

I'll take that. It has me really motivated to show up to a 10k on fresh legs and see what I could do.

After the race I went home and puttered for far too long and then suddenly realized I had 56km of city riding, a shower and get changed and just about 2 hours of city riding to do it before the first talk. Oops. Off I went hammering as hard as I could. Somehow, I managed to get to the retreat with 15 minutes to spare and just needed to get cleaned up. But then the last route to the camp was on deep gravel road and I was stuck waiting at the gate. Believe me, I wasn't too happy. These details weren't in the instructions, and after running a hard 10k the last thing I wanted was to ride a hard 56k. 

I was a little frustrated with myself. I called all my friends who should have already been there. No one had service. This wasn't good because I was stranded at the gate. The first speaker at the retreat (keynote speaker) was a Professor who works right across the hall from me. Great, showing up to his talk God knows how late. 

Well to my surprise up he drove in a station wagon and pulls up asking me if I need a lift. I asked him "weren't you supposed to be talking?" he simply replied that every year on the way he gets lost.

I managed to get changed and in to the talk before he even began talking.

After 2 days,  lots of science talks and far too much drinking and late nights I started riding back. This time significantly slower than on the way out. The ride was fairly uneventful except for the large bird who decided to deposit a nice little gift on my forearm (gross) but fortunately I was next to a gas station so just cleaned it up. 

My little sister was then in town visiting, however, she decided to stay in White Rock at her friends for the night. Since that meant I had a free Tuesday night, what did I get to do? GO INTO LAB! I feel asleep many times at my desk but did save myself a lot of time on Wednesday.

Thats about it. After that my sister was in town but that will be another post.

Hopefully one of these days I'll catch up.

Away from blogging

Hey world. I was away last weekend at a Biochem retreat with school (COOL!), and now that I'm back, I'm trying to catch up on work missed and my little sister is in town as well. So there will be a little hiatus until things settle down next week.

All for now!

Excruciating Saturday Ride

Long ride today. Started early this morning leaving my place at 8 after a late night celebrating a birthday on my way to meet people at McDonald and 4th. 

Swearing to myself as I rode along coming up with excuses for why I was late after having giving everyone such a hard time to ensure they were on time. Just repeating the words in my head, "If your not there by 8:15 we are leaving without you!"

As I roll up to the gas station there is no one to be seen. Surely someone must have waited, I'm only 3 minutes late. Teaches me. I decide despite my tardiness to give a few members of the group ride a call.

Rider 1... no answer. shoot! Must already be on the ride.

Rider 2... answers! But is feeling sick and isn't coming on the ride. 

Rider 1... no answer once again, hmmm. Rider 3 (whose number I don't have) was meeting rider 1 so no way of reaching him.

I decided to try and catch up if I can. Off I go, hammering around English Bay to Stanley Park. Finally reach the Lions Gate and cross and hear my phone ringing, Rider 1. STILL IN BED! oh Geez. thanks guys. At least Rider 1 was getting on his bike and going to try and catch up and meet me. 

So I embark on a long solo ride decided no problem. Off to Deep Cove. I had a few new routes I had read about from MJ and Jeremy, so decided a solo discovery mission was in the cards. There was a brutal headwind the whole way out do Deep Cove. After 50km and a few adventures rider 1 meets up with me and I show him Indian River rd and I do it for the second time.

Rider 1 (Andrew), and I ride another 30k and he splits off heading back to UBC. He only wanted an 80k ride and I pushed him up to 100. I on the other hand was doing 140-150k. He takes off and heads over the bridge and I continue on to Horseshoe Bay. This is where trouble begins. Tailwind the whole way out. I turn around and feel the pressure. 

I'm now 110km into my ride. The pain is building. Should I stop? Nah, its just a nagging pain, I can push through it and make it home. 

Every little roller is building. Its becoming unbearable. I reach Stanley park, only 15km to go. The pain passes, and now I'm in the city. Every bump on the road just killing me. I'm trying to block the pain out of my mind but its all I can think about. Cornwall street with all the cracks is just torture. 

Finally get rolling well, I'm only a 1500m hill away from home. The urge to pull over is unbelievable. Green light go, go, go... NO! Red light. I have to stop, can I keep going. I need to. Push push push, 140... 141... FINALLY 142 km up the hill. No more lights no more stops, no more cracks. Now just to find my keys. Fumbling in my pockets. Enter my house and finally the pain that has been haunting me for the last 30km in relieved.

I REALLY HAD TO PEE!

Food Love/Hate Relationship

This is why I love/hate being a triathlete. Yesterday after 3.5 hours of training (1.25 hour swim/2.5 hour ride) I got home and was obviously very hungry. So I threw together some pasta, mixed with alfredo sauce and some broccoli and was good to go. 

Now although it looks like two place settings, no I am not seeing anyone. I simply laid out my food on two plates to demonstrate the sheer volume. It takes me 30 minutes to eat and when I'm finished, an hour later I notice myself roaming around the house searching for more snacks. 

In these photos there is a full large head of broccoli, a full jar of alfredo sauce, and 1 pound of dry pasta. YUM! Add to that 1L of milk and we have ourselves an awesome meal.

Hey D-Rock, thats you in the background!

You might think this is fantastic being able to eat all this without worrying about my weight and all, but think of it the other way. If I don't get this much in. I'm just constantly hungry all day.

Weekends are even worse 5-6 hour ride mixed with some swimming or running. Leads to 3500-4000 calories burned during the day. Means you have a 6000 calorie day to make up in food. Try it one day. I guarantee you'll find it hard, especially when eating semi healthy.

On that note, off to lunch!

The ride of her life

I came across this the other day. A guy drew comics of all the spam titles he had in his inbox. This is just one of many. Made me laugh

New Baby?

Could this be my new baby? 

I need to try one out on the road, unfortunately I didn't have time to in Kelowna while I was there. Does anyone know of a shop that has a small and medium in stock? I feel faster already.

A full weekend update will be up later in the week.