I decided to do a last minute registration to race at Summerside in the olympic distance triathlon… I figured that with a solid 215 km bike ride and my lsd run still comfortable somewhere around 2.5 hours I was in good enough shape to register and race purely for fun. My goals were:

1. Give the swim my best shot but stay aerobic
2. Cycle at approx anaerobic threshold minus 3-5 beats, perceieved exertion steady-plus-plus. I was aiming for above a 36 kph split, considering that the roads are brutal.
3. See how I would manage on the run, not particularily interested in aiming at the 43-45 minute range that I think I was capable of but making the bike split count and having a tough run. I hoped I would be challenged to keep it under 50 mins if I had the chance.
4. Have an enjoyable time at all costs, I love triathlon and that is the point.

I had a good swim… it was really cold and I opted not to warm up in the water because I didn’t want to stand around and get cold arms (sleeveless wetsuit) waiting to go. I crawled out of the pond after just less than 33 minutes which was pretty good considering the only swimming I had done that month was a little splash the wednesday before (even colder!). I got into transition and fumbled getting the arm warmers on due to a combination of cold hands and wet arms (well duh!) I was out on the bike and ready to get to work.

I averaged 37 kph through the first half (out and 2 laps. I was stoked and had really picked up a huge portion of the mens olympic field. I passed at least 28 guys, which in retrospect means that I had moved up to nearly 5th place.

Then things fell apart, summerside is a brutal course and there was construction and deep gravel on the road. Volunteers had swept gravel from the corners to give a bare patch to ride across. The corners (luckily only 4 on each lap) were a big bunching up spot for riders and I ended up going into one following someone around. I paid attention to just matching their line instead of getting through the gravel and I ended up in the gravel bank. My front wheel went out from below me and I landed on my side. Bleeding from the hands and knee I tried to get going again but I had bent my front derailleur. I stopped, caught my breath and decided that I would take it off the bike instead of trying to fix it, I only needed the big ring anyways. That worked alright and after 15 minutes of fiddling to make the bike ridable I got out of the ditch and headed “home” to T2. I had bottle cages hanging out of my bike shorts (littering is a DQ so I was careful) and looked an interesting sight, there was no flying dismount, I came to a complete stop and steped cautiously off of my bike.

After paying a visit to the paramedics to scoop the gravel out of my knee I headed out on the run and met up with my friend Jill who was doing a sprint distance race. I ran her 5 kms first and got her in to the finish in just over 28 minutes and then I headed out for my last 5 kms. I was aiming for a 21 minute run which would certainly be a stretch but I figured I should make it a challenge. I got my 2.5 km split correct and was starting to experience cramping in my left (bleeding) side. I didn’t feel like I slowed down but obviously did as I finished in 21:30, still inside 50 minutes for the run but outside 3 hours for the whole shebang.

All in all it was still a fun time and the most important goal was still realized. We had a great pasta lunch, I stopped bleeding and the sun came out; things turned out great!

The run went well this morning. Most of it is in the trees through the river valley on footpaths which is nice because it keeps you cool and gravel is alot easier on the knees than plain pavement on concrete. Whenever you get out on a bridge to cross the river though it was extremely hot, no shade and you get the reflection off of the water which seemed to make it worse. Briefly the route follows:

• Hawrelak Park, start at the shelter.
• Run clockwise around the park all the way to the north end
• Follow the “upper” path till you get till groat bridge and turn 180^o.
• Run back to the hawrelak bridge on the “lower” path.
• Cross to zoo side and run (up the hill) to Quesnel bridge.
• Follow whitemud creek trails up to rainbow valley campground.
• Turn around and follow back down whitemud creek, cross quesnel and go through Beuna Vista.
• Re-enter Hawrelak and run counterclockwise along edge back to the shelter.

I had calculated what time I needed to be at when I got to certain spots along the run if I hoped to finish in 100 minutes which was my goal. I started off well and was on track for the first half of the race (50 minutes) but there was a hill followed by a bridge and it was sweltering and I fell behind my “agenda” by about 45 seconds. I made up a minute as we ran through the trees in whitemud ravine but then needed to climb back over the bridge through the sun, I again fell behind my pace by about a minute. Then through the last bit I was able to latch on to a girl who was still running quite smoothly. I passed the 1 km to go needing do pull off about a 4:20 km to make it in time but speeding up wasn’t about to happen very easily. I did my best to hit a 4:20 km but had nothing left for a sprint to the finish and managed to finish in 100 minutes and 6 seconds (1:40:06) so I would consider it a big success, that is a personal record for me and considering the hot conditions it’s a time I am really quite proud of.

I was out for a run last night and decided to try and aim for around 2.5 hours. I also decided that I should try the notoriously muddy trail between the Hawrelak bridge and Mckinnon ravine because it’s been above 30 degrees for a few days here so I figured things would have dried up. I’d never tackled this trail before, it’s pretty up and down and was rather closer to a quick hike than a run but oh well that’s how it goes.

A map of the route shows the distance to be somewhere around 23.5 kms, I typically measure distances on this website to be about 5% below the actual distance so I’d say this was closer to a 24.5 or 25 km run. Not bad for a couple minutes water stop and some serious hiking along the muddy bank of the river.

My hip-flexors were absolutely trashed running up the shallow stairs out of the river valley with a km to go. I’m not certain but I would say that they might still be recovering from the thrashing I have them at the half-ironman 3 weeks ago. My knees didn’t give me any trouble but I can tell that I’ve been giving them a bit of stress they’re not used to with all the fixie riding in the past week.

I loaded up my bike with all the goods to head down to Calmar and come back via spruce grove… I was aiming in the 120-140 km round trip range. I got out onto the street and the wind was blowing something fierce, the humidity was round-about 99% and it was less than 10 degrees. I went for a lap of the block and headed back inside, my knuckles were freezing. I dropped off the helmet grabbed my bottle holder waist belt and headed out the door on foot, expecting that I’d be able to stay a heck of a lot warmer if I wasn’t on a rainy range road getting slammed by the elements.

Hold on before you throw around the word pansy because this didn’t turn into any short run. Starting out from near the High level bridge I ran through the river valley all the way down to Fort-Edmonton park, I then ran up the hill and crossed over to Brookside. I dropped down to the Equine center and then ran south down Whitemud ravine. Stopped at Rainbow valley to fill up the water and headed into the south-whitemud trails. I did all three prongs of the trail system there and headed back north, filling up water and making my way back past the equine center, up the hill into Belgravia and back to the house. Amounting to somewhere around 34 clicks with a grand-total time of 3 hours 13 minutes.