Erich's Odyssey Part 3/5

Part 3

Training day 3.
1 hr bike, 8k run immediately after.
Days till half iron: 8

My hamstring is so tight you could string a bow with it... a mythical bow that shoots lethal arrows, piercing the hopes and dreams of any try-athlete who thinks they're gonna beat me a week from now.

Training Day 4.
3 hr recovery hike. 3km swim. 1 hr broken bike ride. 6k run immediately after.
One week till doomsday.

It's a scientifically proven fact that there's an inverse correlation between the amount of training you've done and the amount of trash you talk (American Journal of Science, Vol. 276, November 1976, P.1096-1119). So it's no surprise that I've been spewing competitive filth a mile a minute whilst my buddies/competitors, aka those I will soon CRUSH, have been relatively quiet. So at the moment, according to "science", it appears Derek is going to be the man to beat. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some garbage to type on other peoples' Fb walls...

Feeling GREAT! YEAH!

Today I went to the gym and did a solid hour of stretches. Its tough to say how my legs are feeling now because they are a little sore from rolling out my IT band (Note, if you don't have a foam roller, the small hard medicine balls will make you cry, good substitution), but I defintely feel loose and the pinching pain is gone.

I'm taking the rest of the day off from training and I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll be feeling GREAT! YEAH!

Erich's Odyssey Part 2/5

For details on who Erich is, check here.

Part 2

Day 2.
4 hour bike, 15 min run immediately after.

Days till race: 9

"In 12 days you won't be able to improve your existing fitness so no point in doing anything super hard..." -P Dub, 3 days ago

These words haunt me. I decide to reconnoitre the bike course today. From a triathletes perspective, swimming is a power based sprinting sport. My 4 minute race is considered a "distance" event in swimming. It will be 5-6 hours before I cross the finish line in this race.

30 km into my ride. I'm haulin' around corners at high speed, tucked into my aerobars. Laying the hammer down, feelin good. Although swim races are short, we train long hours (~5 hrs/day, the same time-wise as this race will take). But rarely is it in longer than 2 hour blocks and it's stop and go, sprint and rest. Not once in my tri training have I been close to V02 max, even on hill climbs. But this event uses a different energy system. So, just over 2 hours into my ride, I crash. Hit the wall. All systems down Capitaine! (Note to self: when going on a 4 hour bike ride, bring more than a water bottle and 1 granola bar). In swimming you don't really "crash". It can happen in workout, but usually it's almost done by then anyways. You can "die" due to lactate, but that's different. I text my colleagues the good news. "Get some sugar in you ASAP" says one. "Find a store and get something to eat" says the other. (Note to self: when going on a 4hr ride, bring some form of $). FML. I think I might be in over my head with this tri. Let me rephrase that: I know I'm in over my head. If 90km seemed as far on paper as it feels in RL I might've given my decisoin second thoughtsbeforehand.

I'm a long way from home. I feel like Armstrong in the 2000 Tour after Pantani broke him on the Col de Joux Plane. It's gonna be a long hour and a half getting back. I fantasize about anything edible/drinkable as I ride past the smell of backyard BBQ's. Although light for a swimmer, it's clear my upper body is too heavy/muscular for this sport, I need to shed 20 pounds to be legit. I stop for a break in the grass. My head pounds. Vision not 100%. Arms and legs tingle. Hands are cold in the afternoon heat. Guess my stingy body is saving the blood for places that need it more. Who rocks the hypoglycemia at the party? Apparently me.

I feel embarrassed, in my race gear, creeping along at a snails pace. I see a commuter up ahead. It seems like I'm barely making inroads. There is NO way I am stooping to the level of bike-commuter. Plus it's a chick, are you kidding me?! Man up. I blow past her at the bottom of 6-mile hill and don't look back till I get to the top. She isn't even in sight. At least I still have my pride.

Get home, quickly throw on shoes, grab some cash money and run down to the corner store. About the only thing keeping me going at this point is the knowledge that corner stores are full of sugary goodness. I scarf down Reeses, wagon wheels, a couple butter tarts, 5 cent candies and 1L of Gatorade faster than you can say "The ladies go crazy for my sugarlumps".

I read the label: glucose-fructose. Might as well say nectar of the gods.

Erich's Odyssey Part 1/5

In the spirit of the upcoming Vancouver Half Iron, I've decided to post the lead up training log of a friend of mine, Erich Schmitt. Exactly 10 days prior to the Victoria New Balance Half, he decided to sign up and compete on ZERO training. A little background on Erich. He is a Varsity Swimmer from UBC who now simply likes to talk smack. Here is how it went.

Day 1.
8k run, 4k swim, 1.5hr bike (might as well start with a bang).

Days till half ironman: 10

I am a serial hobbyist. It's not my fault, there's just too many awesome things to do. Surfing, guitar, stock trading are just a few, although with, ahem, varying degrees of proficiency. Even my swimming would fall under this category when you consider that I've only trained 20 out of the past 58 months (a 4:22 400im doesn't seem so bad when you look at it that way). Which brings me to my latest "hobby": long distance triathlons. Or perhaps I should change that to singular as it appears one is going to be enough.

"Why not do a triathlon this summer to stay in shape?" I thought. By the time thought became action, I found myself entered in the second longest race in the sport with exactly 10 days to do some sort of "training". Of course, my original intention was the much more reasonable Olympic distance, but since my buddies were all doing the half iron, I wasn't gonna be the one to miss out on all the fun. (Note to self: there is something to be said for being reasonable.)

60 seconds into my first training run and two things are obvious:
1) Despite sitting on my ass for the past 3 months, aerobically this will be no problem. 14 years of swimming will do that to you.
2) The real problem: I have no strength whatsoever in the muscle groups required for running. Did I mention the run is a half marathon? (21k)

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!