The Invitation: First thing back after Christmas (well at least close to first thing) is a good time to lay some plans for the next season. This is partly because everyone is highly motivated at this time of year and full of the ‘New Years Resolutions’ vibe. This week, we’d like to have a club […]
Continue ReadingThe day started with fried eggs and a liter of yogurt. Many great days in the past four or five years have begun that way. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. With my blood sugar controlled and some fat and protein in my stomach I made my way out to the lake for the start […]
Continue ReadingThe above shows my performance statistics from Oliver Half in 2011 and 2012. 2012 is green because it is the faster of the two rides, and red is the slower of the two rides. The average power in 2012 was lower, so to fairly compare the pacing strategies I am displaying a graded power (mean matched dataset) instead of the raw values. I had computer trouble in 2011 for the first kilometer and am consequently only displaying a subset of the full ride of 93 kms (starting from a bit past the first mile marker onwards). Discussion of the contributing factors to faster speed on less watts are detailed in my 2012 Race Report. In summary, a lighter bike (almost 700g down) and a collection of improved aerodynamic factors made that possible. This post details the strategy, which is as we will see, a major contributor.
Continue ReadingI raced the Oliver half this past weekend. Preparation was essentially negligible with regards to triathlon in the prior three months. I have placed a focus on racing bikes and my limited training time has been focused on reaching the next level in road-racing rather than doing anything to prepare for racing a long course […]
Continue ReadingThe recurring post-triathlon question:How Long was the swim…the Oliver Half 2012 edition We have to presume that the swim course is on-average the length that is advertised (2km). We also presume that the distribution of swimmers is equivalent from year to year. There is a confounding factor in that the prize money for this race […]
Continue ReadingPower Data from Drayton Valley Sprint Tri: Mean Watts: 297 (=3.4 Watts/Kg – unimpressive) Normalized Watts: 311 VI: 1.047 – very proud, kept aggression in check! Fourth Place: Swim Split First Place: Bike Split Third Place: Run Split Second Place: Overall Fun Race. I may add more comments later. For now I’m just posting my […]
Continue ReadingIronman began with my arrival in Penticton about quarter past 5 in the morning. This was about 15 minutes ahead of last year and it made all the difference. I walked right through the lineup for body-marking, got myself marked. Got the tyres on my bike pumped and headed over to the toilets before it […]
Continue ReadingRaceday arrived at 4:25 which harkens back to Ironman, the only other race I’ve done that started at 7:00am. We weren’t the first to transition by any means but we did get there early enough to pump tyres and get in the line for toilets before the bulk of the other athletes. Travis and I […]
Continue ReadingI’d raced the Spring Thaw Triathlon at the University of Alberta 4 times before and been the Race Director once. I’ve improved every single time I took on the course, and 2011 was my best effort here both in terms of physical preparation as well as strategic and mental preparation. I did few things wrong […]
Continue ReadingI finally generated a power curve… The workout was a warmup to get the legs going and then 20min at ~250 Watts, then a set of 3x10min at 345 Watts on 5 minutes rest, and then another 20 min at ~250 Watts before a short cool-down. Many more of these will follow on the blog. […]
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