I think it’s important for as many people to read the following article as is possible so I’m posting it to my blog. If you’ve already read it consider passing it along to a few people. It represents to me not only the continually pressing issue of womens’ rights but also the kind of attitude that can make improvements. Our world needs people who are brave, really brave. It is no longer bravery to agree that women should have a vote, it is no longer bravery to suggest that black people should have lesser rights. In essence it is not bravery to align your opinion with outspoken groups working towards change in our society and gaining momentum. Real bravery is being one of the few to start trying to create momentum where there is none, and to be loud when there is silence. While the issue at hand in Carter’s article is not one cloaked in silence around the world I think it is one that here at home (wherever the heck you think that means) is losing momentum. Progress still needs to be made and it seems to me that because making corrections and bringing restoration to broken aspects of our culture’s past is something we’ve seen happening it is treated as though it is fixed. It’s a long way from fixed, but not many people are still saying that. Anyhow, read on, this Carter guy keeps making positive impacts on our planet and I’m grateful that “we’ve” got him.

Published on Sunday, July 12, 2009 by The Sunday Observer/UK

The Words of God Do Not Justify Cruelty to Women

Discrimination and abuse wrongly backed by doctrine are damaging society, argues the former US president

by Jimmy Carter

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status …” (Article 2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

I have been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief – confirmed in the holy scriptures – that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries. The male interpretations of religious texts and the way they interact with, and reinforce, traditional practices justify some of the most pervasive, persistent, flagrant and damaging examples of human rights abuses.

At their most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in Britain and the United States. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for everyone in society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and out-dated attitudes and practices – as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive area to challenge.

But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy – and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights. We have recently published a statement that declares: “The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable.”

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.

Although not having training in religion or theology, I understand that the carefully selected verses found in the holy scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place – and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence – than eternal truths. Similar Biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

At the same time, I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn’t until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted holy scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

I know, too, that Billy Graham, one of the most widely respected and revered Christians during my lifetime, did not understand why women were prevented from being priests and preachers. He said: “Women preach all over the world. It doesn’t bother me from my study of the scriptures.”

The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions – all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Jimmy Carter was US president from 1977-81. The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

This weekend trip has been in the planning for about 6 months. Not a lot of planning happens for sports 6 months in advance of the actual dates except for important things, signing up for races that tend to sell out, setting plans for biking across the entire continent of North America in 9 weeks, deciding to race the cyclocross season and starting to look for a bike… and planning the Icefields Parkway double traverse.

The plan was to ride the entire length of the Icefields parkway in a day, stay overnight at the other end, and then hop back on the bikes the next day and try to do the whole thing again. All total the distance for the weekend would be about 470 kilometers and the climbing would be around 12000 feet, split 5150-6850 between days 1 and 2. Neither day would break my personal records for single day total mileage nor elevation gained but placed back to back it was going to be a challenge. Scheduled at the end of my peaking for the season’s A race this would be a good way to put in some solid hours and good effort in time for the training effect of them to be absorbed in time for race day. It was also going to be an event unto itself, riding 235 kilometers through the mountains is no joke and then doing it all over again the second day made for a plan that was going to be fun. Three brave souls took the bait on this adventure, Ben Adam, Stefan Schreiber and myself. We would meet up overnight with some other friends staying in Jasper for a mountain biking weekend and they could shuttle some clean clothes and extra food for us to recharge and refresh at the halfway point of the adventure.

Saturday morning we set out at 8:25 am with blue skies and cruised up the beginning of the parkway towards Bow Summit, reaching the top with an average speed slightly below 30 kph, 1700 feet had already been gained and as it was still relatively early in the morning our slight headwind wasn’t much to be concerned with. After cresting the pass it was a straight shot down the north slopes of Bow Pass the wind had shifted and we enjoyed a tailwind down to Saskatchewan River crossing. The pass runs about 8% for the first 6 kilometers of descending and with the tailwind I was able to run my speedometer into the low eighties, 84 to be exact. No speed record yet. The tailwind continued along waterfowl lake and all the way down to the river, we averaged 45 kilometers per hour for the 35 kilometer descent. Continuing north our tailwind began to die down as we started the rolling climb towards Sunwapta Pass. The sky was blue and it was here that it really started to heat up. Climbing began well enough here as both Stefan and Ben escaped off ahead, the wind was picking up again as it flowed down the valley away from the glaciers like it normally does meaning that we were cruising straight into a headwind. Reaching the big bend Ben had gapped Stefan by 100m and both were beginning the climb as I was already about 800m back. Off up the second steeper pitch we turned briefly with the tailwind and I opted to pick up some speed to take into the hill. I must have shifted into my big ring here because 4 kilometers of 8% grade climbing later I looked down and noticed I had been running the big ring up the climb, all the lovely 53 teeth of it. A rather stupid mistake on my part but I still somehow managed to generate a climbing rhythm standing in my 53×23 ring and did ascend the hill. Ben and Stefan were literally lying in the ditch waiting for me, we were all pretty happy with having completed the challenge. Another 10 kilometers of riding through the rolling meadow up top to the visitor center and we took another break to recharge our water supplies while Stefan was fraternizing with the tourists.

The descent away from the glaciers meant that the wind was again to our advantage and probably stronger than normal due to the hot day. The descent past Tangle falls is rather exposed to the valley meaning the wind could really blow right on the road. Off down the hill I went, gunning to put that speedometer above 90 kph for the first time. I hardly pedaled into the hill and soon enough was cruising along at 80 kph with a huge smile on. The road straightened out for a stretch and I let things fly and picked up speed quickly maxing out at 94 kph before shooting into the corners. I got up out of my aerobars through a few corners as I didn’t know what was up ahead and slowed back down to a relatively slow and safe 80 kph or so before getting back on the aerobars and scooting out the bottom stretch of the hill regaining speed up to 85 again. The wind continued across the gravel flats and rolling descent all the way to the Poboktan Ranger station. The wind stopped being strictly amazing and started to play games with us for the final 60 kilometers. The generally rolling descent was fun, Stefan and Ben would escape me on the uphills and I would catch them on the downhills and then drag them across the flats. Long stretches were ridden in excess of 40 kph and soon enough we were in Jasper, before 4pm!

We soon enough learned that our friends expected our haggard arrival around 7pm and had surprised them all, we had anticipated an average speed of 30 kph but with the stronger than anticipated tailwind on our two descents of the day we had made up quite a bit of time. I rolled in with an average speed of 33.5 kph, Stefan and Ben being closer to 34 with their earlier arrivals at the tops of some hills. We ate a pre-dinner meal at the local bakery and then a double meal at dinner along with some excellent beers at the Jasper Brewing Company. The rain poured down outside while we sat indoors and tried to consume as many calories as we could instead of burning any more.

Sunday morning’s departure was at 8:00am sharp and while the rest of our friends were still asleep we cruised off to the south while the puddles from last night were drying out. The generally rolling descent to finish the day was a generally rolling ascent now and the balance of climbing to flats was tipped too far to Ben and Stefan’s advantage now. I couldn’t stay with them and needed to set my own pace. It was a frustrating one as I’d reel them in to within a few hundred meters on the flats, just in time to start another climb and then watch them slowly pull away. I was going to have to earn every kilometer of the climb. Again the early morning meant that the wind wasn’t really blowing that strong and as we cruised towards Sunwapta Pass. The views were spectacular and we passed a rather skinny looking black bear on the road. The guys waited for me near the Poboktan Ranger station and I stuck with them across the relative flats towards the base of the Tangle Falls climb. That was until Stefan decided he needed to freshen up his legs before the ascent and started a huge sprint leadout across the gravel flats by Beauty Creek. I was sure that effort would come back to kick him in the back of the head but it proved not to be so. I paused a the bottom of the climb to make sure that the other two got out of sight so I didn’t have to think about them and squeezed a bunch of water out of my camel back, I could refill up top and didn’t need to carry any extra weight. Off I went and the climb was quite enjoyable with the use of all of my gears. At about the halfway point a 10 passenger van was pulled off the road and the people were taking pictures down into the valley, when they saw me coming they all turned around and started taking pictures of me. “Allez Allez!” I had my own little cheering squad on the climb. Arriving to the Icefields Center Dad was on the side of the road, camera in hand to cheer and say hi and give us some food. Expecting him to meet us about 100 kilometers later at the top of Bow Pass, this was a welcome surprise.

Ben first

Stefan second


Josh third

We loaded up on water and ate an entire box of oreos between the four of us and because it was chilly and windy up top we got out of there relatively quickly. A quick ride across the alpine meadow got us nicely warmed up before diving off the side of the mountain down the descent. The first half of the hill towards the big corner wasn’t super fast with a side wind and then headwind and I got trapped behind a minivan and then had to pass an RV. After the corner though the wind was with us as we crossed the bridge and shot off to the south. Stefan came by me and I latched on his draft falling through it and overtaking Stefan and then basically at the same time Ben came by. We were three wide screaming down the hill at 82 kph.

The tailwind continued all the way to Saskatchewan river crossing and I towed the other two for a good portion of the trip down to the bridge. Average speed from the visitor Center to the Highway 11 turnoff: 41.3 kph! Our tailwind ended abruptly as we began the long approach to Bow Pass. I stuck with the guys for far more than I would have imagined possible on the long gentle climb. The day did finally start to get warm during this section just when the effort level was beginning to rise as well.

The final assault on the pass’s summit sent off the lead breakaway of Ben and Stefan into the distance with a lone man in the peloton (I am not the groupetto, if they attack then I didn’t get dropped they just broke away) and I managed well enough on the 8% climb 3-4 cogs down in the back. I’m quite obviously stronger this year than last when you stick me on a hill. If you measure fitness by teeth, I’ve got 6 teeth better form this year than I did last year at about this time when we crossed the Colorado Rockies and I took in more than a few climbs at 8%. In terms of strength that’s a whole 20%. The results of the Polka Dot Jersey points on our 4th categorized climb of the weekend were distributed just the same as every other climb:

Ben first

Stefan second


Josh third

Victory was celebrated at the top with a little feast from the cooler in the back of Dad’s car and I was getting excited for a bombing descent towards Lake Louise. With 40 kilometers of rolling descent to go we could probably do it in under an hour if we had it in us to keep the effort high, We’re nearly at 200 kilometers on the day and I’m setting out with hopes of cruising through that last hour in the 53×12. Can Ben stay in the draft? One group photo from the top and we’re off for a fun rolling descent. We had averaged more than 29 kph up the hill yesterday morning into the wind so it’s not unbelievably steep but it’s steep enough that having some mass is a huge advantage.

All told Day 2 would total about 20 minutes more riding than Day 1 (average speed 32.2 kph) but with a day of fatigue and a net gain of 1700 feet that was probably to be expected. The wind was probably more favorable both days than we should have anticipated and so if we were to try it again next weekend I’d probably still bet on riding around a 30 kph average speed and completing the ride in around 9 hours. It probably also helped that our group included some guys go quick on the uphills and give me motivation to climb the hills quickly and then someone (me) with more weight to push the big gears on the descents and provide a good draft for the climbers.

Complete photo gallery 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.

During the build towards Chinook Half in June I consciously made a decision not to go for broke during the buildup with training. I could meet my target volumes etc and hit key workouts without having to really go to any limits of what I was capable of doing. I got close a few times, holding on to the lead at the Pigeon Lake road race was a serious effort, one of my 20 km runs following a full day volunteering out in the sun finished with somewhat sore hip flexors and the final 60 kms of my century ride with Ben and Stefan south of Calgary the day after the 30km Time Trial all brought me close to reaching the limit of how much I was capable of doing. During the buildup for the Calgary 70.3 race I made the decision to let myself go a little harder, be ambitious with my paces (especially on the run, big guys running fast can be hard on knees so lighting it up on the run is rare.) and hopefully reap the benefits. Staying conservative in training prior to the Chinook Half was necessary for two reasons; first, I didn’t want to peak too early in the summer, and second, I could not risk getting injured as time off would be far more detrimental to the early buildup than it would be to take it too easy.

Going all the way to one’s limits usually makes for an interesting story, and they usually let you learn a few things about yourself while you’re at it. The past two weekends I certainly did take things to the limits of my ability. I had and still have no guarantees that this is going to pay off significantly better than staying slightly below my maximal limit but I feel like I’ve got one opportunity to try it this season and can really try to take advantage of it. The ability to do a maximal capacity workout during training is not terribly more difficult that getting calculatedly close to the limit, in fact it might even be easier. Knowing how far and how fast I can run or bike and then getting awfully close to that ceiling requires a rather calculated approach. Deciding to run into the ceiling can be done in one of two ways when the training goal is an endurance event. The first has probably less training benefit, go out at a half-hour intensity and try to hold on for two hours. That will run you very rapidly into notifying yourself that you reached your limit. The second is the method that I wanted to try and do and is a bit more philosophical, especially when I’m building these workouts into a weekly structure. The idea is to set yourself up to lower the ceiling of what you should be able to do by stacking in workouts so that you arrive at the key workout in an already somewhat fatigued state. Then try to perform that two hour workout at a two hour intensity as if you were not tired. What would have brought me close to that upper ceiling now puts me past what I’m actually able to do and I have to deal with the consequences of it, hopefully safely and hopefully not totally catastrophically.

This second concept could be based on reaching that ceiling by one of two limiters. The first is based on a plan of putting muscle fatigue into your legs to enhance your ability to reach a muscular endurance challenge without straining your cardio or nutrition to the same extent. This ‘fresh body, tired legs’ should enhance the mental ability to suffer through the tired and sore legs. It should be important while doing this sort of workout to make sure that when things start to get really sore, which the training plan was designing to happen, that it is muscle soreness and not joint pain that you’re pushing through. The second version of reaching the maximal capacity ceiling is a trickier one to do. The idea would be to try to erode some of your (cardio) fitness without at the same time running into a muscular strength/endurance limiter at least to some extent. This means that the key workout for this little game has got to be a rather intense one, that you should be pushing your fitness limit and ultimately wind up in a situation where you cannot maintain your heart rate. Mental fortitude in my experience seems tied to the state of non-muscular training stress so it makes sense (to me at least) that this is going to be among the hardest workouts to motivate yourself through. Having a calculated reasoning that motivation may be low seems to be good enough for myself to make up for that motivation, it’s mostly a matter of saying ’sure I don’t really want to right now but that’s the point’. Getting through that last workout becomes a philosophical challenge. ‘I don’t want to do this right now, but I need to finish this training block’. It takes some serious work to get there before you start the key workout so by then it’s just a matter of following through, and it feels good afterwards.

I have three such ‘ceiling workouts’ planned on three consecutive weeks during my final peak. Due to the fact that they’re scheduled during my final training block I have got to make sure that this stuff isn’t done at speeds that are just tired and slow. These workouts should be done fast as right now is when I have built the base for the last 8 months so that now I can add speed. Two of them are done and one remains, I also managed to get in a bonus unintentional brush with my (cardiac) fitness maximum while trying to prepare for the first muscular endurance ceiling workout. Running is clearly weaker for me than cycling and I am pretty sure that my (cardio) fitness is in better form than my muscular endurance so I wanted to get two muscular endurance maximal efforts and one fitness maximal effort, all on the run.

• The first workout was to be a muscular endurance focused run on a Sunday following a long and quick ride on the Saturday. I wanted to do the run without running into a fitness barrier to continue and hoped to crack 25 kms before my legs really called it quits and I slowed down. Saturday I headed out with Stefan from the Triathlon club with 200+ kms planned and we started out fast. We had a bit of a tailwind and Stefan really wanted to make the most of it. I notified him that I knew I couldn’t go that fast for 200kms and didn’t want to run into trouble on the way into town. That is something I know I can’t do, it’s like trying to reach the ceiling by the aiming way past it, a method I do not believe has proper training benefits. I had planned the route to be mostly flat on the way out and include some hills between 100 and 160 kms on the way back. We flew through the first 94 kms averaging 40.8 kph including my request to slow down. The return into the headwind was of course difficult, I had overcooked it on the way out and the hills and headwind on the return trip were too much. I told Stefan to go off ahead and I would take a break but he didn’t know really where we were so I forced myself to continue after a 3 minute eating break at 150 kms. Once back on familiar roads after another half hour I could convince him to go on ahead and I stopped. I really stopped, sat in the ditch and put my head on my knees and closed my eyes. Half an hour later I had recouped enough to get going again. An unintentional encounter with reaching the fitness maximum. Suffice to say the next day I had put enough muscle fatigue into my legs that it wasn’t terribly difficult to run myself into an muscle endurance limited ceiling. I did it split between two runs to ensure I wasn’t going to be at a fitness maximum during the run workouts. The first I ran about 10 kms and did it fast to ensure that I was maxing out the legs, approximately race pace or maybe a bit quicker (best case scenario race pace I guess). The second run I did after a solid rest and another 2 meals. That one was relatively slow but I did manage to keep on trucking through the sore legs. Keeping the pace up demanded a ton of focus and was really the eye opener of the workout. When you’re focused on something it’s not all that difficult to complete it despite the difficulty in actually doing it.

• The fitness limiter workout would prove to be more eventful. I was hoping to load together a bunch of high intensity work without blitzing myself on duration and then complete a long run at the end of it, ideally I’d run out of fitness during the final run of the block. I knew how to run out of fitness thanks to Stefan’s outrageous pace on the bike the previous week, but I wanted to do it on the run and knew that I had to do most of the lead-up workouts on the bike so as to prevent injury. I back-end loaded my week to put 4 days of intensity together: Wednesday 1.5 hours on the bike including 1 hour at threshold, with a 10km brick run. Thursday I followed my swim with a 10 mile run at race pace. Friday I did two one hour rides building to threshold intensity at the end of each (split up with an open water swim of 1/2 hour). Saturday I still needed to fit in my long ride so opted to do a significantly harder effort on the return than on the way out. 100 miles: check! Sunday I did a mountain bike race of 1:20 duration with a good 1/2 hour warmup. I decided all the power spikes from a MTB race would actually probably help me with this fitness push concept so did race after a decent amount of deliberation. Sunday evening I set out to try my hand at what I knew was going to be a tough run, I wanted 20 kms if I could. Turns out it was a very tough run.

  I set out hoping to run a tad slower than my planned HIM run pace because I knew I would fail too soon if I tried to hold race pace. The first 8 kms took some effort, but I was content with the pace I was managing. My breathing started to get out of control when I headed up a long gradual hill during the sixth mile but I was able to recover or so I thought on the downhill. Once I hit the flats though, I found myself in trouble. In my head I was starting to question my ability to make it home. I started to ache in my stomach. I started to pick up the effort level but I could not raise my heartrate and I could not speed up back to my original pace. Things started to nosedive as I really started to slow down and I was working harder and harder despite my falling heartrate. Two miles from home I got some water from a fountain and it started to slosh around in my stomach, I could really tell I was in survival mode and my breathing was going about the rate I would expect for a 170 BPM effort but looking at my HRM I was only going about 125. About a mile from home I decided I was done, the final hill up to my house defeated me and I walked it in to the finish. For the first time since early during my marathon training (Jan) I was able to reach a fitness limiter on the run. It took 4 days of solid efforts to get me there and I’m pretty confident that it can’t happen during any one day race if I prep for it properly. Here’s the pace/HR/RPE plots for the run.

  

• This coming weekend I’ll be riding 220 kms on Saturday and 220 kms on Sunday, there is a monstrous amount of climbing to do on the bike which should help generate muscle fatigue. I have an almost guarantee that I’ll be doing it fast by the nature of the two guys who I’m going with (Stefan again! and Ben Adam (2:16 half ironman bike split two weeks ago)). Monday is my final workout prior to the taper and fully expect that it will be a muscular limited cruise through the river valley. Depending on my capabilities following the two strenuous days on the bike I plan to try and keep it flat and fast to keep strain off my breathing as climbing is more of a fitness stressor than a flat cruising speed.