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!