Slurp the ‘Nog… and don’t burp on the Jog

Rules:
You must drink 2 liters of full fat egg nog. The calorie count for the carton must exceed 2500 calories. Light egg nog therefore will not be permitted. The full carton must be brought unopened and un-tampered with to the start of the race. It must then be completely consumed, you may pour your egg nog into glasses or cups if you prefer but you must provide your own cups. Drinking from the carton is also permitted. Straws are not permitted.

When you complete your carton of egg nog you must exit the house, put on your shoes (no shoes inside) and run around the entire block that our house is on. The length of the run is approximately 720 meters. Running on the sidewalk or the road is permitted. Running will be completed in a counter-clockwise fashion, this permits maximal visibility during the finishing straightaway. It also provides an empty alleyway only one lot down the road for individuals who wish to remove themselves from formal competition after the first 10 steps of the run.

The winner will be selected as follows:
The first person to consume all egg-nog and run around the block with all of the egg nog in their stomach wins.

In the (extremely unlikely) event that no-one can complete the run with all of the egg-nog in their stomach, there will not be a winner, but the person who leaves the house first may be considered to have beat all of his/her competition.

Lore:

• The first running of the ‘Nog Jog occurred following a mandarin orange swallowing contest. The result of the race proved that Reuben had indeed swallowed multiple segments of the orange without chewing.
• The second running of the ‘Nog Jog resulted in egg-nog being ejected from a nose within the first five seconds.
• Despite failing to complete the ‘Nog Jog in it’s proper format, all competitors of all previous years have continued on to pay their dues by encircling the block with a partial stomach of ‘Nog. If there is any etiquette in this tradition it is to respect the race, and making your way to the finish line is an honorable form of paying respect.

This year’s race occurred on the evening of December 23. 16 individuals arrived with their egg-nog in hand and competed in the race. The kitchen was more than full, as more spectators arrived than competitors. Racing began at 10:37pm. The first complete 2 liters was consumed 63 seconds later and the first egg-nog was ejected from a stomach less than a minute after that. The race was completed by only 4 individuals of the 16 competing.

Results:

1. Josh*
2. Reuben
3. Jacob**

*Fastest chug (1:03) and fastest run (3:03) of the evening.
**Jacob was making his ‘Nog Jog debut, as was 4th place Trenton. Andrew was awarded an honorable mention for fastest unofficial finisher, completing with less than two liters contained in his stomach.

The footage follows:

I raced Winterstart this evening and it went pretty well considering the lame amount of running I’ve been doing during cyclocross season and then with swine flu and all. The race marks the end of the road racing season for southern Alberta and it seemed like a good chunk of the Calgary running community was out in Banff this evening to run. There weren’t a whole ton of really fast people out if you ask me, and I know that because I was listed on the first page of results out of 1200 runners (give or take). I placed 7th in the 40-49 age group which I have to admit is a personal best for the age group. I would have been 4th amongst the 20-29 crew if I had registered under my own name and age (My Dad acquired a racing bib from an injured colleague/friend on my behalf)

The route leaves the edge of the town of Banff and heads north/east along Banff Avenue towards Minnewanka and is pretty flat for 1.5 miles, it then turns up Tunnel Mountain road for 1 mile which is all climbing, some serious and some not, before turning around and retracing the route back to the start. The hill in the middle makes for an interesting course and an almost guaranteed negative split for everyone (~30 sec for myself). The temperatures were cool but not cold at the start and all was dry but the snow started to fall just as I was ascending the hill which made for a spectacularly beautiful run through the dark fresh mountain air. I ran 33:24 for the 5 miles (4:09 km pace) which my Garmin recorded as 8.2kms. It’s an out-and-back course so I presume they got the turn-around exact and the Garmin is wrong by 150 meters in this case, that’s typical if you ask me, it’s never as long as the Garmin says. The race is followed up by an all-you-can-drink party in the parkade of the host-hotel sponsored by Big Rock. What a deal!

I set off on Saturday evening in the Hardcore van for Canmore with Peter Knight, Andre Sutton and Steve Martins from the club. Good conversation and fun times all the way to the mountains which had fresh snow on the peaks. The stay in Canmore was planned to allow for a significantly later wake-up at a rather reasonable 7 am instead of the 5am alternative for those commuting from Edmonton.

Arrival at the race start was greeted with spitting rain which quit for the most part in time for the race and people went about their pre-race commotion. The mess that a team of guys can make getting things sorted before the start is a wonder to behold, but by quarter to ten we set off down the road to check out the approach to the finish and get in a few accelerations to ready the legs for some racing. The conditions warranted knee-warmers arm-warmers and full fingered gloves but no jackets, the guys with jackets ended up complaining later on, always be chilly at the start!

The Cat2 race was an open event for anyone interested in trying to contest the provincial championship and Steve and Andre were convinced to give that a shot with Jon from Hardcore who is normally the only Hardcore rider who should be competing in that category. That put Peter Knight in Cat 3 with Mark Rumsey, myself alone in the Cat 4 race and Albert alone in Cat 5.

My race went well enough for the start, we rolled out for a 5 km neutral start because the temperatures were cool and the organizer probably preferred us not rounding the very first corner at the bottom of a hill with any speed. After the neutral start we got on the main road for racing on which we would complete two laps of uphill with headwind and downhill with tailwind. No-one was interested in doing much work at the start and no-one was about to attack to form a break into the headwind up the hill. The pack would just have too much advantage in such a situation. We had a few surges up some hills and ripped across a few sections with sidewind where inevitably one of the riders would decide it was necessary to make everyone do some work. At the north end of the road we dove down a giant hill before doing a U-turn, climbing back up the hill and heading south generally downhill with the wind at our backs. I ensured I started the climb at the front of the pack and slowly drifted back to the back of the pack by the time I reached the top, still breathing rather hard. I was convinced that the average guy must be hurting quite a bit even though we hadn’t splintered on the climb and went to the front to push the pace. Out of the saddle I put in a gap of 20 yards and got down to hammer. I was soon joined by one other guy from Speed-Theory and after looking back it was evident that no-one else was trying to come across. A quick discussion and we agreed to pulls of ~45 seconds. After my first the gap had been stretched to 100 meters and after my second, my fellow escapee pulled around sitting up on his hoods and said ‘we’re caught’. A quick shoulder check confirmed that the catch was inevitable and I drifted back to riding in the first third of the group.

We were cruising along quite quickly with the wind at our backs and around one of the corners I felt a bit of a wobble in my rear tyre only to look down and confirm that it was indeed flat. Off to the side of the road, I had the wheel off before the wheel car pulled up. I only have one wheel with a 9 speed cassette and thus with no spare in the car he couldn’t give me one. A quick change was in order, and with four hands and a floor pump I was back and rolling with less than a three minute gap to the group ahead. I told the driver I wanted to get back on and he did his best to help, from a push start to providing an excellent draft at 65 kph I made up quite a bit of time and had the group within sight (~1 km) with 5 kms to the next turnaround, then I lost the car. I was working extremely hard, and knew I needed to catch them soon or I’d be toast. Heartrates at 185 can’t last more than about 20 minutes but I had to try. I rolled by a few others who had been spit out the back but they couldn’t stick with me, let alone co-operate. By the turnaround the gap was 400 yards and I was almost convinced I had made it back.

I learned later that there had been a sprint out of the corner and co-operation at the front of the group to temporarily keep the pace high back into the headwind up the hill. My little gap to the peloton exploded back to more than a kilometer by the time I was 5 kms up the road although I could see that two others had been dropped by the pack. There certainly wasn’t the easy paced roll up the hill that we’d had on the first lap when no-one wanted to work. Having caught those two I did get a bit of co-operation but rather quickly had to decide that the chase was over. I had expended all of my hard effort for the day already and had to just watch as our peloton cruised by again at the next turnaround about 600m ahead of us. Getting back on wasn’t in the cards.

My rear tyre went flat again, probably due to not cleaning out the debris properly the first time. One of the guys who had also been dropped offered a spare tube if I’d ride with him to the finish, he didn’t want to quit and I agreed. There was less rush in this spare tyre change and afterwards our pace was rather casual as we set off to finish off the final 20 kms and watch the final stages of other category races play out around us. Thanks to Joel from Speed Theory for the tube and company for the ride in to the finish.

Peter Knight was able to win the Cat 3 race for Hardcore and Jon Benskin finished the Cat 2 race relatively high up the standings, especially considering that there was no peloton left at the end of it. That giant hill at the north end had splintered groups on every lap.

Thanks to Nicole Burnham for the photos included here.

Convinced that the Calgary 70.3 swim course was longer than the advertised 1900m I figured I should compare to the results from the Steelhead 70.3 that occurred the same day over in Michigan. Of course, this is presuming that their swim course wasn’t short or long or had a massive current. I chose Steelhead because the swim is unidirectional and perfectly straight. If there is any course in triathlon that has an exact swim course length this is it. There has occasionally been a current flowing in lake Michigan and the organizers will swap the direction of the swim to ensure that athletes don’t have to swim against the current if it exists. I believe this is normally not an issue unless there have been storms on the lake… in any case I heard nothing about current this year and therefore presume there was none. I also made the decision to not include the pro field in the data. It probably messes with the average more than it should because the depth of the pro field is a marker of how much it affects the average.

I simply calculated the average age group swim time and adjusted all the results appropriately. This is not precise, nor perfect, but all I had time for during lunch. The result is that the swim course was approximately 2116 meters long. With 1600 people competing in each race this average time should be a pretty accurate marker of the course length, and to confirm I checked that the histograms also matched well, indicating that it’s not some extraneous times that influenced the results unfairly.

In any case, Stefan likely could have swum below 30 minutes (29:47) and I basically swam exactly my anticipated swim pace with a suggested swim time of 33:16… almost swimming 1:45 / 100meters exactly. Hopefully they get this right for next year.

My triathlon season has come to an end for 2009, and the final race was fun but the result has a mixed bag of emotions associated with it. Following my last triathlon in June I put a big focus on improving my run speed, endurance, and confidence. My swimming had been going well and I was pretty sure that I had selected bike workouts for this final prep period that would maintain my speed and power but would still allow me to focus on the run. I did exactly what I had prescribed for myself in training. Finishing those three hard weeks of training I began a 12 day taper towards this race full of confidence that I had brought my running to a new level and I was ready to take a reasonably safe shot at what I would consider an impressive run split for myself, somewhere below 1:35.

The race weekend arrived, 9 members of the University of Alberta Triathlon Club would be racing and 9 more friends from Edmonton would be alongside the road on race day to add their cheers to the mix. Race morning began for myself at 3:45 when I woke up before my alarm set for 4:00 am. Simmon and myself chowed down on breakfast in the early morning darkness and then made our way over to the casino parking lot and hopped aboard a school bus for a ride out of Calgary to the race start at Ghost Reservoir. Off the bus we came bleary eyed but excited and I prepped my bike for the race with drinks, food and air in the tyres. I stashed the other gear in appropriate places and skipped the 800 person lineup for the toilets and watered a tree instead.

All that was done before the sunrise came over the horizon, and a beautiful sunrise it certainly was. The professionals got going at 10 minutes before 7am to the cheers of a lot less other athletes than you might have guessed, they were all standing in line for the toilets. Every 10 minutes another set of age groups would set off into the lake. I waited around on the grass trying to stay off my feet and not get too excited for the next hour before hopping into my wetsuit and giving up on staying calm, some more spectator friends arrived at the lake and helped with getting into wetsuits but did not help with keeping the adrenaline down. Finally it was time to go, an hour and a half after the pros had begun I hit the water and bobbed around waiting for the start. Things started rather smoothly and I along with about 100 others in my wave start made our way onto the swim course and the stunningly blue waters of Ghost lake.

Despite all the hype about how cold the glacial fed lake was going to be it was rather warm and the course took us down a sheltered arm of the lake away from the waves (for the most part) and under a bridge jam packed with spectators. I felt like I was swimming exceptionally well for the first 1.5 kilometers at which point things started to feel like a motor boat was driving circles around me. As we had moved to less sheltered water the waves had picked up and would remain as such for the remainder of the swim. I may have swum further than necessary due to tough sighting for the finish line but in the end it wasn’t totally outrageous, I started sighting off the wrong sailboat for maybe 50 yard but it was generally in the right direction. Out of the water Pat shouted “Stefan is 5 minutes ahead”. I was still confident that I’d had a good swim and Stefan must have had a great one, still feeling good I headed for my bike with a smile on my face. The numbers I’d receive later suggested my swim wasn’t stellar but everyone’s times were a bit longer than I might have guessed so either the waves made a difference or the course was a bit long, or some of each.

A fair transition for 1700 athletes requires more running than a fair transition for 200 athletes, it also means that it’s a good chance to make up time on the competition if you move quickly. I did well but got caught running on the carpet behind a rather large lady, it gave me a chance to give Pat a thumbs up as I went by.

Onto the bike the gentle wind that had begun to bring up those waves was about 3/4 of a tailwind and I moved quickly, passing dozens and dozens of athletes. The first 11 kms was pancake flat and I cruised along at 58 kms per hour in my highest gear. Next year I’ll need a cassette with an 11 tooth ring for racing! We turned left and began a long gentle climb and what felt like I was passing dozens of athletes turned into passing busloads. I saw Simmon in the distance and gradually reeled him in, we had a brief chat and I moved on. Before reaching the top of this long gradual climb there were two steep rollers to add to the mix. 26 kms were done and it was time for and aid station. I took on a bottle of powerade, a bottle of water which I drank half of and dropped and a banana. Out of the aid station I was passed by my first person as I ate my banana. I stayed near him and as soon as we turned south again (and downhill) I took advantage of my mass and took back the pass. The downhill was exceptionally fast on great pavement and I kept things totally controlled effort wise while pulling in many more people. The handling skills of the average triathlete in the aerobars at 50kph is not very impressive and on more than one occasion I was a bit scared by the weaving and wobbling of someone I was passing; luckily there were no incidents. Another person I passed (Pete Dean – would go on to win my AG) re-passed me on the downhill but he looked to be expending a lot of effort for a downhill section so I let him go. Off of Horse Creek Road I made my way through some narrow sections of shoulder on the way through Cochrane and onto ‘The Hill’. The grade out of Cochrane heading south is nothing spectacular but it is the biggest hill on the course. It doesn’t end, it just moves onto a false-flat after a short drop so I was careful to not overdo it and need to slow down on the long gradual climb that followed. Nonetheless I wound up passing another bus load of people on the ascent planted in my aerobars while people spun their easiest gears with some false assumption that this hill was steep and difficult just because it was the biggest one. Off of the main climb I put in a solid effort along the false flat and reeled Pete Dean back in and took over what I would later discover was the lead of my race.

I reached the second summit of the course and made a hard left at 60 kph through a traffic jam onto the springbank airport road. I recognized Mom, Dad and Karen all cheering there and set off over two short and steep rollers before a bombing downhill to the second aid station.

Whoever put the aid station at the bottom of the hill made a mistake, I came upon it doing 65 kph and had to really hit the brakes because I wanted a water bottle. After letting off the brakes I coasted as I regained speed and squeezed through a tight hole next to one other athlete and the centerline. I then realized they had bananas but I didn’t want to scrub off any more speed so I just shouted ‘BANANA’ and reached out my hand at 50 kph and grabbed what was held out. I managed to get a two halves and got down in the aero position and tried to keep my speed up as I flew down the rest of the hill and ate.

The rest of the bike course was nothing special, my focus was to stay aerodynamic and keep the effort level up. The route was generally flat with only minor rises and descents and I tried to stay comfortable and was successful at that. Compared to Stefan I rode the first 55 kms 2 minutes faster than him and the last 55 kms 2 minutes slower so I likely did fade back a bit during this section of the ride ‘effort wise’ even though my speed was still very high. Previous races I have chosen to go easier on the first half and harder on the second, presuming that this leads to a more evenly paced and efficient ride. This course however seemed like it would be dangerous to try that strategy because missing effort on the first long gradual uphill would really detrimentally affect my overall time. I opted to try and distribute effort evenly, I don’t know what Stefan’s strategy was.

Entering transition I hopped off my bike and scooted down the aisle to see only two or three other bikes racked at places with higher numbers than mine (I was almost the lowest number in my wave start). I didn’t look closely but knew Stefan was one of them and I presumed one was probably from my AG so I was running in second place (I was actually first). I was happy with that and set off through Glenmore Park capitalizing on the very gradual downhill. The first kilometer was done in 4:15 and I felt a million times better than the beginning of my run at the Chinook Half race where I had suffered from serious cramping in my vastus medialis on both legs. I watched Lisa Bentley run by going the other direction in her last kilometer and gave a big cheer. The great feeling lasted one more kilometer (4:15 again) and then the gradual uphill began and I remembered that this was going to be hard work. This realization reminded me to get some salt in and I cruised up the gradual incline posting two more kilometers at 4:25 each. I was really working and could feel that I was getting hot here and at the next aid station I decided to slow to a quick walk to give me more time to drink and pour water down my racing top. I would walk every aid station after that. Down Weaslehead hill I went and set off across the bottom. I was still unpassed since the swim start at this point but the crowd of SMTs was thinning out. There were basically only quick people left out ahead of me and it felt like I had rather abruptly reached the ‘front’ of the race. I don’t know exactly what the reason was that this occurred here but regular checks with my watch ensured me that I had not yet split any kilometer slower than 4:30 by the time I had hit 9 kms including one with a quick pee and the ascent of the hill on the south side of weaslehead. The trees were now gone and it was getting hot. I now faced two short out and back sections before re-entering the trees and retracing my steps back to the start. Stefan came by in the other direction and I gave him a cheer at the top of my lungs with both hands in the air “Go Schreiber!”. Stefan might have smiled a bit but he looked like he meant business and all I got was a low five. Bridget followed closely at this point and gave a little cheer and a big smile. My entertainment was soon over though as I faced a gradual climb and was baking hot. I could tell I was slowing down but my effort level was not fading, it was hovering around threshold considering I wasn’t yet halfway. The turnaround came and was followed by an aid station serving hot water and hot powerade… mmm mmm.

The run back down the gradual incline I let myself push a little harder trying to stay on pace. I saw Dad on the side of the path and Bridget came by again in the other direction, Stefan was long gone ahead. The next turnaround was followed by some lukewarm water to drink and hot powerade. I did get a cold sponge with water in it but I wasn’t about to squeeze a sponge that had been soaking in a garbage can into my mouth. Onto the head and down my shirt instead.

I continued along and was passed by the first guy who I wouldn’t later re-pass. He was 40 and had started well ahead of me but it meant I was slowing and I knew it. Soon there was another pass, another aid station and a downhill that finally hurt the quads but I was still running. My legs felt fine, I was getting the feeling that my fitness was actually what was limiting me from keeping the pace not my muscles. I started wondering if that was possible, and as I wondered I started to be able to feel my pulse in my temples because I was thinking about it. My heart was absolutely flying. I think this is when I realized I was not doing so well. I came down into the weaslehead and had 6 kilometers to go, the flat running let me zone out a bit and I had someone right in front of me to chase down. I got to the 5 km to go mark and checked my watch. I needed to run 4:10 kilometers and I could still make it in for a 1:35 half marathon (21.5 minutes remained!). That was going to be hard, but I knew I had biked 2:20 and at this point I still presumed I had had a fast swim which I thought was about 33 minutes. All added up I thought I was still in striking range for a 4:30 race time (I wasn’t actually in striking range, my swim had been 37 minutes and I had underestimated the time for T1 even though I had a fast one relative to the field). My run pace thus far I calculated was somewhere between 4:35 and 4:40 but If I really really dug deep I could make it. I was at the bottom of weaslehead hill and I decided I was going to give it a shot. I ran my next kilometer including weaslehead hill in 4:20, my fastest kilometer in the last 10. I got to the top, poured three cups of water on myself, drank two and got running again. Mom was at the side of the path and cheering, I felt miserable.

The next two kilometers were downhill but I started having little shivers in my legs and arms. I was absolutely boiling hot after running up the hill as fast as I did and basically switched from trying to run that 4:10 pace to trying to keep running. My legs felt fine but I was done. I got to the last aid station and poured warm water on myself, drank two cups of hot powerade and tried to get moving again. It wasn’t much of a run but at least it felt like a run and not a jog. Turns out I would average more than 6:30 per kilometer for the last 4 kilometers after my attack on the hill on my way to the finish. I don’t regret doing it because it probably didn’t slow me down all that much. I was going to come out into full sunshine anyways and waswell on my way to heatstroke before the hill anyways. It was my opportunity to put everything on the line for this season and I didn’t hold back and because of that I’m happy.

The kilometer 20 marker came and went and then I was passed by Pete. I recognized his tri suit from our little exchange coming down Horse Creek Road on the bike. He was in my age group but I couldn’t race him to the finish, I was trying to just keep running. Soon enough another guy came through, UCLA on his tri-top, and age category 18-24 on his calf. I couldn’t follow him either.

The run down the finish chute probably would have been exciting if I was a bit more coherent. I saw Pat and gave him a thumbs up, I heard Mom but couldn’t see her and then as I rounded the bend I saw 6:14:XX on the clock, I was close to going under some increment of 5 minutes but I didn’t know which one. I got a bit of a boost and ensured I made it and then suddenly I was done and sitting on a chair and Stefan was offering me a banana and a water. I poured the water on my head and a lady came over and put ice on my neck. They asked me how I felt and I was honest and said not very good so they took me into the medical tent. They got me to lay down on a bed but I was too heavy and ripped a hole in it and was laying on the asphalt. The lady took my blood pressure (106/60 FYI) and another one was putting ice down my shirt and trying to dry me off with a towel because I felt so cold (heatstroke – now I know the symptoms!). They gave me one of those foil blankets and after a while I started to feel better.

Having put together the training to have a fast run and then have that taken away by the unfavorable conditions on race day with the heat was a disappointment. One of the reasons I love the sport is that it is largely a contest against your own personal limitations and not as much a race against everyone else. Whether that put me at 47th place overall or 347 place overall I wasn’t all that concerned, but I had confidence in my running abilities. I even had confidence in my running abilities in warm temperatures, I had done lots of work in the mid to high twenties but when the thermometer was over 30 the story was different. The extra energy that I need to burn to move my larger body makes it just that little bit less able to stay cool when on the run. What this means for training for Penticton next August requires some research.

All told I wound up third place in my AG by 1:15, both of the guys passed me after 20 kms in the run. Originally there was only one slot designated for our AG to qualify for the world championships and it went to 2nd place after Pete declined it. Following reallocation another slot was given to our AG and I declined, it would roll down all the way to 8th place. Stefan finished second in his AG and qualified for Clearwater. Bridget placed third in her AG and after a slot reallocation also qualified for Clearwater. Dave Roberts also declined a slot to the World Championships.

The other results from the club included Simmon sticking it out on a tough run with bleeding feet after putting together a very solid swim-bike combo. Laura Whitehead finished her first ever Half-Iron distance with a consistent showing in all three disciplines, probably only her, Bridget and Stefan can say that of their race. Pete cruised in with a smile on his face after a tough run following his excellent bike ride. Tara put together a similar race to her GWN north result on a significantly hotter and hillier run course. Dave Roberts had a good swim, fast bike ride and painful run… but after all the talk of the dodgey IT band was happy to be able to run at all and probably was happy to finish the run in under 2 hours just so he didn’t have to be out there any longer than that. Bridget, racing her second triathlon ever and first half iron was a mark of consistency and set herself up with a probably safer and less testosterone charged bike leg to have a good showing on the run course. Jan also completed his first ever half with a good swim, bike and determined run. Stefan was the huge success story of the day though for the UofA Tri club, nearly swimming as fast as Simmon and then posting the fastest bike split at more than 40 kph and blistering run at slightly more than 4:30 per kilometer pace. Holding things together like that in the heat bodes well for success at IM Canada in four weeks and with any luck he’ll recover well and be able to put in some speed focused sessions before lighting things up at the world championships in Clearwater in November.

Histograms of my performance relative to the AG field: SWIM | BIKE | RUN

Full gallery of the day is here.

The Mountain Bike Race this past weekend was alluded to in my last post but I was able to steal photos from the internets today so figured I should post them to my website along with a thanks to Chris Slowinski for shooting them. The other guy only shot the fast guys in the afternoon race.

My overall result was 5th in the Novice category out of 27 starts and 25 finishers which I think is respectable considering I rode on a ‘cross bike. I was the only person to finish the race on a cross bike as Pepper Harlton had to DNF due to mechanical failure. Take that Provincial Champ! My speed was put to shame by plenty of people who rode way more laps. I did three laps with an average lap time of 27.2 minutes. The novice winner finished his three laps with an average lap time of 24.8. The Sport winner did his 4 laps on an average of 24.3 minutes. Expert winner on 5 laps managed 23.5 minutes per lap, Tim Heemskerk the provincial champ showed us all how it’s done finishing 6 laps on an average of 20.5 minutes. As the race was also Single Speed provincial Championships some guys tackled the rather challenging course on bikes with only one gear and the winner did 5 laps on a 23.2min/lap average. Not bad!

It was REALLY FUN and I think I’ll probably have to get a cross country racing bike for next summer. I’m looking at a 29er hardtail but don’t really know anything about components etc so haven’t really figured out much of anything at all, just that MTB is fun… but I pretty much already knew that anyways.

One of the highlights of the post race dinner was the Race Director admitting that he named his race the Chinook 119.1 mostly to make fun of the World Triathlon Corporation. You have to be pretty brave to name the entire event that you plan something that you think is a joke. He has to hope that people either understand his sense of humour or is thick skinned enough to not care that people think it’s a silly name who don’t understand the jab at the world’s leading long course triathlon corporation.

I mention that because I think it gives a good idea of what kind of people run the race… they are there to put on a very high quality event and have a fun time doing so. That’s what it’s all about to them and it really sets the tone for a fun day for the rest of the athletes, myself included. Today was one of my funnest days of racing ever. I don’t think I’ve really had a race day that in general I didn’t find fun but pretty much all of today was a good time except for a tiny stretch of the run course… but I’ll get there soon enough.

I like to start out my race reports with a brief description of the taper. My last blog entry included a description of my final days of high volume. From there on out I dropped back primarily the training volume but kept the intensity up. I realized that there was a possibility that during my taper for the Yakima River Valley Marathon that my intensity actually went up during the taper instead of maintaining it as that was a full 20 day taper. My training stress wouldn’t actually be dropping off very much if I cut volume and boosted intensity and the recovery wouldn’t occur. I did my best not to ramp up the intensity too much… okay onto the description. Wednesday I did my typical interval session on the bike and then brick run of about a half hour. Thursday I went hard in the pool and Friday I did an easy 50 minute open water swim with some friends from the club. Saturday I did a sustained ~threshold on the bike for 30 minutes into a brick run of 50 minutes. I did this during the heat of the day and did the ride on my rollers on the patio in the backyard in 32 weather with no wind or breeze. I wanted to prove to myself that I could function in the heat to give myself some confidence if it turned out to be hot on race day. I didn’t fall apart in the heat nor did I thrive but felt okay about racing in hot weather if that turned out to be the situation. Sunday was off except for some pretty crazy dancing at a wedding reception. Monday I did an abridged version of my pre-swim run and then swam for an hour. I did my last run on Tuesday composed of 10 short hill repeats which I capped at about my running threshold effort. Wednesday I was coaching the bike workout and did a rolling hill simulation to get my mind in game for the rolling hills of the chinook half course and skipped my brick run. Thursday I took it silly easy in the pool and Friday was also off. I tried to make sure I didn’t go anaerobic anywhere during my last week and was successful with that although I did push the intensity up close to threhold in all three sports’ final workout not including the lazy swim on Thursday. I got to Friday evening feeling physically alright, no muscles were still tired from training but I wasn’t feeling super fresh and charged up like I have been during some tapers (I have other times cut even more volume than this)

On to race day. I didn’t try to do breakfast a full two hours before the race because my stomach would be growling so finished my meal at 6:30 for an 8:00 am start and ate a banana while setting up transition. This was my first time decking out the new bike for a long course race so had the spare tubular and CO₂ behind the seat, gatorade on my new cage on the aerobars a la Steve Larsen and a couple gels and 2 packages of shot blocks behind the steer tube. It took a long time to prep everything compared to any other horsing around training or other little races, kind of a surprise. I don’t want to imagine sorting out special needs bags and all that jazz for IM on top of this.

I was a bit rushed with putting on the wetsuit (decided to put in on at the 5 minute warning for the start!) but because I am fast at that compared to some of the others from Triathlon club *cough* Lesley & Becky *cough* I got it done in time and joined the masses on the sand. I didn’t really warm up so to speak but loosened up my shoulders. My first 200 yards swimming is always my easiest and fastest so why not include that in the race right?

We got to the countdown and soon enough we were off, I looked around for some feet that were kicking well to follow but the first pair I got on weren’t going in a very straight line so I left them and ended up going alone most of the way to the first buoy which is weird because this is the portion of the race where the pack is at it’s thickest. I picked up some feet as we turned directly into the sun after 400m and was happy to follow them as I couldn’t really see anything sighting anyways. He seemed to be going straight so I trusted him. I know it was a guy because he wasn’t kicking… most guys don’t kick in triathlon swimming that I know of anyways. I still felt like it was a bit of a drafting feeling but going around the next buoy I lost him. Sighting was alright again and I finished the first km solo. Out of the water my watch said 17:40 which was pretty good, on track for approximately the goal time of 35 minutes. If I got some good feet to follow I might still make it… but I couldn’t find the feet once back into the water after the on-beach turnaround.

Off I went alone again, someone picked up my feet at the buoy. I could tell because he was climbing up my calves all the way to hitting me in the backs of the knees. I pulled away with my arms and gave him a warning splash with my feet, I think he took the hint and left me alone. I tried to keep it steady and smooth as I was heading back into the sunrise and probably didn’t do it as straight as I could have but got there eventually. The final stretch to the finish seemed to go by really quickly and off I went up the beach. I wasn’t particularly speedy through transition and did an odd hopping along strategy down the carpet along the side of the row so I didn’t have to run on the pavement but did have to jump over all of the shoes splayed out on the carpet. Helmet on, race belt on, go! I’m sure I passed a dozen people through transition which is great and put me in a good mood for the start of the bike. I did mount with the shoes on the pedals which included a bit of a weave but there was a whole road to use and I’m convinced this is faster as long as you don’t screw it up. People say the only reason to do it is because the pros do it, I say the pros do it because it’s faster and I haven’t screwed it up yet.

I got going on the road and was up to 40 kph before I really realized it, I hit my highest average speed after about a kilometer, 44 kph! The gradual downhill probably helped but soon enough we merged onto Highway 22X and the quick bit was over and the hard work began. I could tell the story as I experienced it or as actually happened here. I had my aero helmet on and because it howls in my ears in any wind condition I wasn’t convinced that we had much of a headwind, the grass wasn’t moving all that much when I looked in the ditch. In reality we had a pretty serious headwind on the way out which starts out basically with a 20 km slightly rolling climb heading west. The kind that makes you wonder if you’re working hard enough or not when the average speed is falling. After that the hills are more distinct you’re either riding along mostly flat or going up or going down. Less of this gradual stuff which in my opinion is harder to do. I can ride along at a bit more than 20 miles per hour on the gradual climbs which is fast enough to warrant staying on the aerobars for the climb… but it’s tempting to stand up and hammer. I’m getting to the end of the gradual climb and the drafting police motorbike comes up beside me and pulls in ahead to watch the group of three riders who are up ahead of me. I watch them trade positions a bit as I slowly gain on them. Climbing our first steep hill I catch them and just as we’re cresting the hill I decide to make my move and push past them. I try to move by with enough speed that they don’t start pacing off of me which is obviously what they’re doing which has aroused the suspicions of the drafting police.

I roll through the place where the first aid station is supposed to be but there is nothing there other than a car with a few people sitting in it. I wonder what is going on and quickly decide that with my extra water bottle and the gatorade that I’m not quite done yet I can make it to the turnaround no problem just hoping that there is indeed an aid station there. Dad comes past in the car and I’m starting to realize that there is a truck driving half on the shoulder half on the road just a ways ahead of me. Dad stops in a driveway to take a picture and I ask “what’s this truck doing?”. The aero helmet prevents hearing an answer but I eventually figure it out. This is the lead vehicle. I’m leading the race!

I come bombing down the big hill with the truck just ahead of me, I get quite a bit of dust in my face and have to spit some dirt out. Here I come to a roadside pullout and there is a Budget rental truck in the ditch. There’s a guy with gatorade, great. I have my own personal aid station and he passes me a bottle as I have just finished my first. Off I go, wondering what exactly is going on until I am almost at the turnaround. The Budget rental truck passes me again within a kilometer of the turnaround and I watch as they leap out and the same guy who handed me the gatorade 15 kms back hands me another. Quite deluxe service! He also nicely tucks a banana in my back pocket for me and I make the turn and head back. It’s a bit downhill but only barely, it’s here that I realize how hard of a headwind we’ve been battling on the way out because I’m quite quickly cruising along at 55 along the flats. The gap to second place is longer than I would have guessed but I feel like I’m sticking to my race strategy so I don’t get too concerned about going to hard. I was to try and take it easy on the way out and give myself the liberty to pick it up a few notches for the ride back into town on the condition that a) my nutrition was on schedule (need to get in 1200 calories by the end of the bike) and b) that I was able to do so without compromising any aerodynamic position later on. (not allowed to get an achy back by pushing too hard). My nutrition was ahead of schedule by 100 calories already so I really cruised here, trying to capitalize on the tailwind as much as possible. I don’t want to go too fast that the Budget rental truck doesn’t catch up to me again to set up the course aid stations ahead of me as we drive but I’m lucky that I have the big hill to climb which takes a while and the truck does get ahead. Unfortunately I do the next three kilometers coming down from the hill and onto the flats at 65-70 kph and the truck never gets out of sight. He pulls off the road and as they’re setting up the table I come through. They have a gatorade to hand to me and I take it and keep cruising. The foil cap under the cap hadn’t been removed so as I cruise along at 60kph I’m undoing the screw top and peeling the foil off with my teeth and screwing it back on so I can get a drink. I’m having a really fun time now and get it in my head that I’m chasing this truck. Faris Al-Sultan in an interview after Kona a few years ago commented about chasing the video helicopter all the way to Hawi, I had my own little version here except this was a truck.

The long course merges here with traffic from the Olympic distance triathlon and I think I entered their field about 4/5 of the way back through the pack. That meant that absolutely no-one else was doing more than 50 kph and so I was hauling along and passing loads of people which became a bit nerve wracking at times because one person going 36 kph down the hill passing someone going 35.9 kph down the hill quite rapidly forces me to go 3 people wide down the shoulder. This is back on the long gradual descent into the city that I had described and at no point does my speed drop below 45 kph here. The police are doing an excellent job with traffic and I’m very rapidly into the community again and heading for T2. I finish the bike in 2:31 and change which is pretty good, about the fastest I anticipated I could go, 10 minutes faster than I though I would go, and fast enough by about a minute to set a new bike course record. I’m also 100 calories over my 1200 calorie goal which I’m happy with.

My T2 isn’t super fast but I try to limit the time as much as possible because I know it’s counted as part of my bike leg time. I’m wearing socks which is never a fast choice but for a half marathon it’s a necessary choice for me. I’m off for the run. The first 200m go splendidly and I’m happy and thinking that this will go well. Then I very rapidly start to feel cramps coming on in my quads (Vastus Medalis for those of you who are interested – that’s an aero-position cycling specific muscle also if you are interested in that too). I’m wondering if this is going to mean a very painful run or a very painful walk, I’m actually kind of hoping to negotiate with the muscle for a third alternative of a pain free walk versus a painful run. Hopefully things can correct themselves I think. I get out my e-load and take 4 little pills, that’s half the batch. If it’s going to help it will take a while I tell myself, motivation to keep running for the time being. I try to focus on my breathing instead of my legs. I’m actually breathing corresponding to an appropriate effort and that’s encouraging even though I feel like I’m going super slow. I remind myself of the race plan, I’ve allotted the entire first 5 kilometers to focus on getting my running legs together. This isn’t what I had anticipated meaning by that statement but that’s what it means now. I’ve done a pretty good job of distracting myself for the first 10 minutes until I head down the hill into the park and the muscles start to feel like they’re going to leave the verge of cramping and enter the realms of serious cramping up. Okay, I tell myself, this isn’t 5 kilometers yet it’ll come around before 5 kms is done and I do pause for a 5 second stretch of my right hamstring (actually it’s higher up, maybe bicep femoris?). I get some gatorade in me and keep going. Kilometer marker three is arrived at just under 15 minutes and I’m actually pretty surprised. I have to pee and this is the only washroom on the course except for maybe being able to find one back in transition so I take the opportunity. The little standing still break actually does me some good and by the time I’m back out on the path I’m feeling better. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to cramp up in a ball and start crawling. I don’t worry about selecting an appropriate pace until the 5 km marker, I’m just running as I feel comfortable to do so. Kilometer 5 comes at 23 minutes and I’m obviously starting to move efficiently at last.

The gameplan is to try and take it easy for the second half of this first loop, open it up on the first half of the second loop and then try to hold on as well as I can for the last 5 kilometers. I do back off the pace a bit at the 5 km marker but all is well and I try to run as smoothly and evenly as possible, the sudden movements are more likely to cause trouble than the steady and repeatable ones.

I’m off to the out and back stretch here and will get my first look at what my gap is like back to second place. I hit the turnaround and awaken the people who are sitting there to check my name off the list. “Wow, I guess our job starts now” is the sentiment of their statement even though those aren’t quite the right words. I’m congratulated and off on my way back. I keep watching for white numbers (red numbers are the Olympic distance athletes) and none seem to be arriving. I’m just about to complete the 1 km out and back section when Kyle comes by (I would learn his name later). He’s surprised to see how far off I am and I’m even more surprised to see how far ahead I am, this is weird. It’s hard to gauge the speed of someone going the other direction but I’m not convinced he’s going to catch me but I’m also not convinced that he won’t. I don’t really have any way of knowing anything about the gap so just keep trucking. Up the heartbreak hill and I don’t want to try any stunts so grab my water and gatorade at the bottom and walk up the steep pitch. Once on the gradual pitch I start running again, it feels pretty good and I head on back to transition to start lap 2. Transition is supposed to be an aid station but no-one expects whoever is in first place so there is nothing there for me. I don’t even really know where to look for water so I just keep going.

I am wary of the cramping coming back when I go through the same section of path (not because it’s bad path, it’s just because it’s been 50 minutes since my last dose of electrolytes) and I decide to take three more caplets. Off I go down into the park and I realize that it’s starting to heat up, it’s actually hot, certainly not the 19 degrees that was forecast. I slow down at the next aid station and pick up gatorade and water from the table so that none gets spilled. I need to get as much in me as I can. The last bit of water gets poured inside the front of my tri-top which can now evaporate kind of like a second skin to sweat from. The chill helps and it’s about here I realize that this is where I’m supposed to be speeding up. The missing water had me distracted but now I’m in the shade for 2 kms and I pick it up a few notches. I do at least 3 kms at around a 4:20 pace which for me is at the end of feeling like I’m running fast. It’s a good feeling and the cramps in the muscles have decided to depart for good. I get a cheer from Dad and head off to do the out and back, getting a chance to see my split back to the next guy again, is he gaining or fading, is there a new guy hunting me down or not?

It seems like the kilometer goes by pretty quickly to the turnaround and I get two volunteers to cycle with me in to the finish from here. It takes quite a while to see Kyle again who is indeed still in second place. He’s about 100 meters further up the path than last time so maybe 200 meters gained… but I’ve got more than a kilometer on him and am feeling alright. Gatorade and water at the last aid station and I’m walking up the steep section of the hill. No last minute cramping allowed. Off I go up to the finish, it’s fun to have some people along the way cheering and the announcer gets peoples attention. When you’re the winner people actually pay attention to the announcer and turn around and watch. It’s kinda weird, that never happened for 19th place.

I’m pretty happy to stop running and I don’t fall over which is some sort of success. I just want to lay down right away but there’s nowhere to lay so I have to keep walking which is probably good for me. My total time was 4:46:11 which is pretty good. The bike course and swim course are longer than the official half ironman distance so based on the paces completed today my comparable time for other half ironman races would be 33:58 / 2:21:17 / 1:38:59 = 4:34:14. That’s reasonably quick considering the relative difficulty of this bike course to some of the other ones out there like GWN or the Calgary 70.3 race I’ll be doing in August. Hopefully I’ll be able to ride close to 2:20 which I guess I showed today isn’t completely outrageous and then if my training progresses in direction I’m going to try to bend it I could run closer to 1:34:XX (ie sub 1:35). Who knows about the swim, 1700 people might be a washing machine that I don’t deal well with or maybe it’ll just be far easier to stay on people’s feet and I’ll wind up swimming a bit faster. I’ll hopefully also figure out this cramping stuff and not deal with it in a race again. I haven’t had it in training to the same degree so maybe it’ll be tough to figure out in detail, who knows exactly, giving this a trial run was the purpose of racing prior to tbe big show in August.

Oh, and the stat streak that I’m proud to continue. No one who has ever swam slower than me has finished ahead of me in any triathlon to date.

Complete Gallery of the day thanks to Reuben Krabbe is available here

Calgary is currently building a new ring road around the city. A section that is currently under construction north east of the airport is connected on one end to some useful roads but the other end currently leads to a dead end, there’s a 20 km gap until it will join up with the rest of the ring road sometime in the course of the next year. One of the bike shops in Calgary made a request with the contractor building this road to close down construction on a portion of it and allow us to have a bike race there. The request was granted and on June 6 people came from all over Alberta to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to “Race the Ring”. How often do you get the chance to ride your bike on a six lane superhighway that is closed to traffic?

I traveled down with four others from the Triathlon club to take in the race… packing up and leaving a chilly and damp friday afternoon in Edmonton to arrive to a downright cold and soaking wet evening in Calgary. There was snow overnight but the race wasn’t canceled only postponed by two hours to let the pavement dry off a bit. We arrived and scoped things out, this was one sweet stretch of highway but everything else was complete mud! I swapped my carbon fiber wheels onto the bike and Stefan did the same. Pat and my Dad rolled their eyes at how long it takes to change wheels (and a cassette for me, and brake pads for Stefan) while they can just unload their bikes from the rack and ride. We did a little preview of the turnaround and practiced a few 180 degree turns on the morning of the event just to make sure I was feeling confident. I’ve practiced this before but it always takes a few tries to get in the groove so I made sure to get the motion correctly in my head because I only had to do 5 during the race and didn’t want to screw up and overshoot or go wide or shift incorrectly while the clock was running.

The cyclists were sent out in approximately reverse fastest order with the quickest guys going last, because the groupings at the bottom end are wide I was still pretty late in the group even though I’m just starting out in my quest for the acquisition of points. I wasn’t to start for 1:42 after the first rider so took my time and watched for the first hour and walked around and chatted while we sent off Lindsay, then Glenn, then Pat then my Dad and finally Stefan. I hopped on my rollers for a half hour warm-up prior to the race. Things went well and the weather was slowly improving. Warmup was fine with short sleeves and no gloves even though I was wearing a toque. After 30 minutes spinning the legs I felt pretty good and ready to go so hopped off the bike, elected to go without arm warmers and fingerless gloves and made my way over to the start line.

Soon enough it was finally my turn and I balanced with the extra hand of Mr. Adam in the start gate before setting off (and not tipping over unlike many of the first-timers). Up out of the saddle the goal is to get up to race pace as quickly as possible and not waste time during the acceleration. I am very quickly cruising along at 45 kilometers per hour up the gradual hill (0.5-1.0% grade) and then under the bridge and down a similar grade at 50 kph The wind feels to be straight on from the east as I head south for the first of 3 laps. I’m 5 kilometers in and at my first corner already before I can dial back the effort level a tad, I’m feeling really fresh and ready to go so I’m not worried about over-pacing it just a little bit out of the start. I nail the corner, correct gear choice on the exit and am quite pleased as I start heading north and realize I may have had a slight tailwind assisting me on the ride down. No problem I tell myself, just stay aerodynamic. The next two lengths of the road go smoothly and I’m already halfway but at the third corner the rain/snow mix has started again and the wind has picked up. My forearms feel like they’re burning from the chill with no covering although my legs feel fine so I try to ignore the arms. The snow turns to hail and I’m getting to the point where the race really hurts. I look down to see the hail bouncing across the road with the wind and scattering off the trispoke I’m running up front. It’s a kind of mesmerizing pattern but I am strict with the aerodynamics and put my head back again with the eyes down the road. I make my way out of the hailstorm by the fourth corner and know that I’m about to head directly back into it. I’m leaning way over, just like the photos show from Kona on really windy years and imagine for a while that it’s 35-40 degrees out and this is the Queen Ka’ahumanu but it lasts maybe 30 seconds before I’m trying to keep my lips curled into my mouth because the hailstones really hurt when they hit them. Down the road I really fly but take the last corner extra slow as the water is starting to flow on the road which means there is a chance of hydroplaning. Unlikely with a 21 and 19mm tyre I suppose but none-the-less I’m not going to crash. I try to use up all of my effort during the final 5 kms and am cruising up the ‘hill’ at 45 and once I crest the peak it’s only 2 kilometers to the finish and I pick up the pace to 55 and finally 60 kms per hour as I cruise through the finish an head directly for my hoodie to warm up my forearms. As I stop I realize I am completely soaked to the bone with a saturated chamois. It was a chilly ride. I have a rough estimate of my time being 42:20 which I’m pretty happy with at this point but there has been talk of a few guys planning to go sub 40 and maybe getting close to 39 so I’m not all that impressed with myself.

The Cat 1/2 guys head off and they’re all looking speedy in their skinsuits and it’s pretty fun to watch. Surprisingly a few make mistakes through the corner as we watch and one guy has his whole backend slide out and needs to put out a tripod leg like an out of control MTB downhill even though it wasn’t even wet at the north turnaround. They all eventually come back and we start to pack up the bikes. The hail begins to fall again as we’re loading bikes and just as the race announcements are being made we’re all trying to load bikes and get going. Stefan places third in Cat 5 (where he should have been in Cat 4) and I come first, total time 42:07.2 with an average speed of 42.735 kilometers per hour. I’m pleased with another paycheque but am now out of the category and will have to work much harder for my next win.

The rest of the gallery from the day is here.Thanks to: Satnam Sidhu, Torin Segstro and Nicole Burnham for volunteering to shoot photos at the event!

The pigeon lake road race was to be my first road race of the season and my first road race ever. I purchased a racing license from the Alberta Bicycling association this spring to register me to race cyclocross in the fall and then potentially allow me to fit in a couple road races along the way this season for training. Cyclocross season does not conflict with triathlon season in Alberta, the lakes are just too cold by the time ‘cross season starts for anyone to race triathlon. I decided to give the road racing a shot only to the extent that it benefits me in training and experience. Success here was not to be measured by results, but rather by having fun and hopefully putting in a solid training day of race effort.

The past year has found me finding it harder and harder to do race simulation efforts during training because either 1) they are too long or 2) I go too fast to be safe. The former relates specifically to run workouts where the recovery necessitated by hard and long runs begins to jeopardize my ability to train the next day at an acceptable level. If I’m racing I feel a bit more justified to give it a go at race effort, namely the Calgary Police Half Marathon in late April and then take the necessary recovery protocols to get back on-board following a day or two with delayed onset muscle soreness. The ‘to fast’ is measured mostly on the bike, ripping around town at 40-45 kph in the aero position is impossible. I need to get out of town onto sections of road that have good shoulders to really do quality work on the bike or I need to show up to indoor workouts during the summer and crank out some intervals at our Wednesday evening suffer-fest.

The cross country race season mixed in some running race efforts to the spring training and I am certain that these race efforts benefitted my top end speed, more importantly they boosted my confidence to run at aerobic threshold. I haven’t been doing that. The winter is too slippery outside or the intervals inside on the track end up being too short to get the heart rate up and then hold it there for any measurable amount of time (for me, that’s got to be 10 minutes or more to seem important).

Back to the bike race. I’m racing category five with all of the other cyclists new to road racing and have one teammate in the category with me. Stefan is the triathlon club’s head coach for the 2009-2010 season and brings a bit of European racing experience to the table even though the ABA mandates he start in Cat 5. His goal this season is Ironman Canada at the end of August and certainly has a bike strength although his swim splits put lots of the club to shame and he runs a mean run. His plan is to break off the front, and go for gold. If he’s caught he plans to break away again. In pre race discussions we establish a gameplan of getting both of us into the breakaway and will not be concerned if it also includes a few more guys to help us put time on the peloton. He’s got the big power to win a drag race to the line and I’m pretty sure that I’m better off in a breakaway than dukeing it out in a category 5 bunch sprint. Remember the second goal is to benefit training and a crash is pretty much the worst plan for benefiting training.

We’re racing 65 people in our category and the speed theory team makes up 15 of them. So far as we know they’re the only team that has been doing race strategy practice workouts and we’re sure they’ve got something up their sleeves. At the line-up they’ve got 14 people at the back row and 1 dude perched nicely on stefan’s wheel. We roll out of the community center and out through town, I’m working to sit in the 5th row approximately and want to stick near Stefan’s rear wheel. The roll out starts out fine and we roll along but I quickly realize that maintaining position in the pack is trickier than it might seem. I’m sticking with the guys around me but riders are continuously scooting up the sides of the pack. That makes for a net-drift back through the pack. I loose stefan’s wheel just as we’re getting to the first corner and the motorbike that we’re following goes off down the road meaning that the neutral start has ended. Stefan immediately goes on the breakaway from the start and a couple people give chase but no-one with enough gusto to actually close the gap which is at perhaps 50 meters.

We roll along through some of the first rolling hills basically directly into a headwind and Stefan’s lead grows to about 100 meters at the largest before they reel him in on a downhill back to about 50m and it seems like he’s going to be caught. I’ve started to figure out how to maintain position in the pack and am making basically zero effort with my legs, lots of thinking though and watching all of the people move around through the group. The Speed Theory guy who was set up in the front to follow Stefan makes a few attempts at a break but is always drawn in by a Bicisport rider who counterattacks on a few occasions. The headwind is keeping the group packed quite closely together and I stick myself two or three rows deep, about a dozen guys up in front.

We reel in Stefan at the corner turning north onto a slightly bigger road. The speed theory team arrives at the front of the pack together suddenly. Their dedication to sticking at the back of the pack is over and I suppose their practice at group riding strategy pays off as they’re quite quickly all there, it’s not a trickle of black and red, they all come together. Stefan merges with the front of the pack and chats a bit with some of the guys right in front of me but so far as I know he has no idea where I am. One thing it’s impossible to do in a pack of riders like this is really to look over your shoulder, you can be a master handler and ride no hands on your rollers while taking off your shirt and eating a banana but it’s not a matter of staying in a straight line while looking over your shoulder to see who’s behind. It’s a matter of knowing exactly where the people ahead of you are so you don’t run into anyone. Stefan doesn’t know where I’m at as we cruise down a hill and around the corner into our first stretch of tailwind for the day. “The hill” looms ahead even though it’s not very steep nor is it very long. It is the only real hill of note on the course and the group splinters a bit as we climb it. It’s not like the hill splits things up rather it just spreads them out slightly allowing people to move around a bit. I’m free to move and come up over the crest in good shape, heart rate totally controlled and not having lost any position within the group. Some really little guys think it’s their job to show off how light they are and make an attack on the hill but their show ends at the crest when people who took the hill conservatively blow right by them. Onto the downhill I’m pushing 53×12 (biggest gear) and it makes a couple clicks, I don’t want any funny stuff with my gears so I back off to 53×13 and cruise off down the hill tucked in behind one of the Bicisport guys who also has some mass. We’re doing mid sixties and things are spreading out a bit. An ERTC rider makes an attack and is matched by Stefan, the Bicisport guy and one from Pedalhead Roadworks. I follow Stefan as the five of us snap the elastic with the rest of the group. Stefan pulls over to the side to see who else will pull through and I look over to see a huge smile on his face to see that I’m right there. We’re really pushing here for a minute or two as I take a turn and then Stefan is back on the front. We take the corner and it’s clear that we’ve got a solid gap on the group. The other three don’t seem to want to pull through when there are two guys from the same team out front with them. Stefan gestures to the ERTC guy to take a turn and when he declines I take it out hard ensuring Stefan is second wheel and push for a few minutes. As I begin to fade Stefan cruises by and I’m in the draft trying to recover as fast as I can. As soon as I sense him fading I come around and together we really push hard alternating for about 10 kms as we start the second lap again. Once into the curvy section of the road we’re out of sight and Stefan suggests that we back it off a bit, that we don’t need to overdo it into the headwind. We stay away and I’m focusing on keeping myself relatively aerodynamic when pulling as well as getting my bottle of Gatorade down. Those two tasks are about all I’ve got.

As we turn north again there is no-one in sight and Stefan says he can’t wait to read the speed theory blog about the race. I laugh a little but I’m working pretty hard to stay with him here. Back into the tailwind and up the hill. Off we go again, things are a lot calmer without 65 guys baring down on us and we’re free to use the whole road and move freely. The drafting is efficient and we really do our best to take advantage of the tailwind while we’ve got it.

We roll south and off of the lap. I mention to Stefan that I can taste blood and he laughs, ‘it means you’re going hard enough’ he says and we’re onto the home stretch. We’re following the lead motorcycle and come to a junction where he signals a right hand turn that looks like he’s trying to question the intersection volunteers for directions. The volunteers probably see his signal and then don’t think for themselves and point us south. We’re supposed to go straight and I mention this to Stefan but we can’t very well argue with both the volunteers and the motorcycle driver who is maintaining a 50 yard lead on us. We take the long route around the last block of the race into the finish and nearly beat the peloton to the finish line after covering about 2.5 kms extra. We pull around the finish line and discuss the problem with the comissaire who hears the story from the motorcycle driver. Stefan is going to be upgraded from Cat 5 based on either result so we decide that he’ll get the money for first place and points for second place ($140 and 20 pts) and I will get the points for first place ($80 and 25 pts). That’s a pretty good deal considering if it were to amount to a sprint he would have won with probably 80% certainty even though he probably did 60% of the work for the breakaway and I contributed 40%. That puts me in a good position to hopefully upgrade next weekend at the racing the ring ITT if I can place in the top 5 and get more than 5 pts otherwise I would only upgrade if I place top three… who knows, that might be enough either way or it might be enough neither way. If the difference actually helps it would be totally worth it as that would put me into the Cat4 team in time for the Devon Grand Prix and I could then race with Stefan, Dave and Mike from Hardcore with a bit more a complete team for the road race. I’ll otherwise be relegated to riding Cat 5 along with Jon Clark and maybe Albert if he comes out to do another race which wouldn’t be all bad, but Cat4 would be more fun.

The UofA Triathlon Club’s annual Spring Thaw triathlon came and went this past weekend. The club puts on the race as an effort to expose people to the sport of triathlon and get people out to try the multi-sport experience. Our club even received a few thousand dollars to subsidize race entry fees for UofA students towards this end… making this the cheapest triathlon in the province for UofA students. It was even cheaper for members of the Triathlon club who all raced for free once again this year. It also happens to be a great opportunity to RACE!

Lots of the club’s big guns spent their morning volunteering so it wasn’t quite the showdown of Triathlon club skills that it could have been but non the less members of the club had an excellent showing… taking the top four spots for men and top two spots for women at the Sprint distance.

My race day started with a 4:30 am wakeup and first breakfast prior to arriving at the race site prior to 5am to help set up the transition area and some of the course. Heavy lifting before 6am! I then had to try and figure out for the first time in my racing career how to do a pre-race meal and then do another one all before my swim heat hit the water soon after 10:00 am. It was a bit tricky and I don’t think I did it exactly right. I ate a full breakfast (got rid of the overnight hunger) at 4:30 and then proceeded to try and also eat a normal meal at around 8:30 am like I would have done anyways. I wasn’t hungry enough to really eat but kind of ate anyways and drifted a bit close to the race in terms of time prior to racing that I was still eating. Ooops.

I cited a swim time of 13:30 and hopped in a lane with some likeminded people and one dude who was insistent on swimming 13:00 flat. He was very concerned about being able to pass up during the swim and so we all agreed to hit people on the feet when we wanted to get past and then to wait up and let those people past. That’s standard fare for faster swimmers getting by, no big deal. Into the water we go, I’m the first one out and cruise along at about pace for a 13:30 swim. Our friend the 13:00 swimmer has made up his 20 second deficit in swim start by the time I’m at 75 meters (Hmmm… sounds like he’s trying to swim about an 11 minute time?) and goes ahead. We’re all enjoying the draft for the next couple hundred meters and then some more passing starts to occur. Some people need to go by me and I go by a few people. It’s probably the case that no-one is strong enough to lead the line at the speed we’re swimming but everyone in the draft line would like to pick up the pace just a tad. As some people pass one another and wait up at the end one swimmer gets crammed into the little space where there previously was no swimmer before and now has no option but to hit people on the feet, now not trying to elicit the “wait up and let me pass you” response. Frustration and confusion ensues. We get to 600 meters and I want to pick it up for the last three laps. No-one else must be counting I think to myself and cruise out of the line down the middle of the lane… No one will believe a foot tap anymore. I pass three people down the middle and the heartrate is picked up a bit. It’s a tight squeeze and there had been some shoulder bumping but I pass the 13 minute dude during my last fifty and climb out at exactly 13:30 minutes. I suppose it’s a form of success?

Into T1, I’ve got a shammy towel and try to soak up some of the water in my shorts and from my thighs so they’re less likely to be chilly on the ride and cruise into the transition zone. Helmet on, number on, go!. My transition cannot be any faster as I run down towards the mount line and hop aboard the P2. I’m running my HED3 up front and aero-helmet and get some cheers and jeers from the tri-club members who are volunteering. You’re not allowed to be slow if you’ve got the gear to go fast.

I crank out the first lap including the emily murphy hill with an average speed of 40.5 km per hour. As I settle in to ride the next lap I’ve got a knot in my upper stomach, I try to ignore it and keep pushing… the second time up the hill isn’t quite as fast and I deal with a bit more traffic. By the time I’m up top my average speed has dropped to 39.8 kph… I get aero off the top of the hill and keep cruising, I chug down about a third of a bottle of gatorade. I brought 2/3 of a small bottle thinking I might drink twice but elect to just stick with drinking once. The nose of my seat starts to rotate down a little bit from level, argh! that’s not supposed to happen. There’s nothing I can do though, I’ve been riding hard out on the tip of it trying to be as aerodynamic and powerful as possible, now my seat is effectively a tad too low. I continue through the third lap and just as I summit Ben Adam is arriving off the next swim heat. He’s quick and I’m determined to stay with him for the lap. I have no problem doing so until I climb the hill the last time and don’t want to go anaerobic. I did for the first three laps but stay seated and make an effort to stay aero on the last lap so I’m not in the midst of recovery when I arrive in transition. It’s a good choice and cruise back into transition. I take the dismount a bit too quick as I leap barefoot from the bike and the pavement kind of hurts my feet. Oh well. Into T2 I come, rack the bike and helmet off. I’ve elected to wear socks even for 5km because I haven’t trained without. They probably add two seconds per foot, I’m relatively successful I decide as I stand upright again and Andy is yelling at me to show my number as I leave T2. The race belt is on inside out and the side displayed is just white! The draft marshals apparently couldn’t have given me a penalty even if they wanted. (Not that there was anyone nearly fast enough for me to draft).

The first 100 meters is quick but the subsequent 500 meters are slow. I’m frustrated as I feel like I just can’t pick up the speed. It takes probably the whole first kilometer before I feel like I’m actually pushing the pace on the run and am breathing hard. I crank out the first half and come to the turnaround. I’m far ahead of everyone else from my heat so until now the only people I’ve seen on the run course are barely moving people from the previous heat. Once on the return I feel like I can let it fly and feel pretty good. I’m running about as fast as I think I can run but not getting tired out. I’ve only got a kilometer and a half left I think to myself when I go past Cory and Simmon volunteering and they shoot my photo. I can’t run fast enough through the final stretch it seems even though the pace isn’t terribly fast. A few hundred meters to go and I switch from run to sprint and finish a bit wobbly on my legs. Once the heartrate drops back from the sprint finish I feel pretty good, I probably could run another 5 km and not be too much slower I think to myself. That’s frustrating, I couldn’t have run any faster. Serves me right I suppose, marathon training doesn’t translate to top end 5km speed.

There’s not too much time for me to to wait after finishing until Ben cruises in off his bike is out onto the run. Next off the bike is Lindsay and she’s got a pretty good gap on both Stefan and Pat who come in off the bike together. Pat flies through transition and Stefan has to tie his shoes, he’s just racing for fun today, he won his category at a bike road race the day before and has nothing to prove. Pat is off to hunt down Lindsay and record the fastest run split of the day.

Total results for myself include almost a 40 kph bike split and reasonable run at 20.5 minutes for 4.8 km. My swim time is a whole minute faster than last year when I believe I was told I was finished swimming after only 700m. In total that translates to the equivalent of about 2 minutes improvement on the swim (reality only 1 minute faster) and I cut a minute on the run as well as a bit more than 4 minutes off my bike time. I’ll attribute 5 seconds of that to the helmet, 5 seconds to the race wheel, 5 second to the new bike aerodynamics, 5 second to the new bike’s weight and 10 seconds to my better aerodynamic bike body position. That leaves me 3:30 seconds of raw ‘effort’ improvement on the bike from last year. All in all the improvement of my swim as what was my limiting factor didn’t make as much difference as the improvement to my bike top end speed which was refinement of my strength. That’s not terribly encouraging to make me keep working on the swim… but that’s where the deficit to the competition still lies. The beginner lane at triathlon club pool swims has been eliminated and I will be taking that bull by the horns next winter. Swim improvements from here on out for the 2009 season are likely to be minimal. I’m content to swim about a 35 minute half ironman pace (equivalent to this swim speed) as I feel like anything more is going to tax my ability to run a fast 21.1 km.

The annual showdown with the Spring Thaw Triathlon will come to an end in 2010 as I’ll be race director for this event which precludes me from competing unfortunately. It should still be a rocking race and I’ll likely pick up one other short course race next season just for fun to test out the speed, probably more likely to be Olympic distance than sprint though, a one hour effort is relatively rather unsatisfying once you’re tapered for it.