OK, that hurt!

I'm back from Louisville, finished in 13:23:11. I had a good swim, a great bike and a bad run. Will post all the details for anyone that wants to hear all the nasty details in a few days.

2 days to go!

We were up early and down for a huge breakfast again today, they have a great buffet here.We talked with some other tri people about the race, they are usually very interested when they ask how many times I’ve done it and answer that this will be my 4th time. The hotel is full now of athletes. Later we walked over to the race hotel to pick up the banquet tickets. There were tons of people checking in today, big line up. Glad I did it yesterday! Looked around at the expo again,

Later we were off to Walgreens for some bull frog sunscreen, it’s the best and it's going to be wicked hot and sunny on Sunday.The Girls needed to get in some quality shopping time so we headed to the mall and they did some dress shopping at Dillards and got some great deals on dresses. We headed back so I could do a 30min ride and 30min run. Athletes are everywhere now biking and running in every direction.

We attended the welcome banquet. Lots of emotion and it certainly got everyone hyped up. Ages in the race are from 18 to 80 and the biggest loser was a girl that lost 145lbs training for the Ironman. This year’s Ford Everyday Hero was a guy that is doing the race and has MS!

Tomorrow is the practice swim, to be honest I’m not sure if I'll go or not, we'll see. Then the bike check in from 12 to 5pm. Then…time to get really nervous!

In Louisville!

We arrived in Louisville about 4:30pm yesterday afternoon. We made good time and other than one short traffic jam just past Cincinnati, had no trouble at all. We were able to get a suite on the 5th floor at the back of the hotel, which means it will be nice and quiet for sleeping. We stocked up on groceries and necessities after a stop at the Golden Corral for a huge meal. No wonder Americans are overweight, for $9.99 all the steak, shrimp, roast beef, chicken and everything else you can imagine, plus deserts! Maybe we should have saved that one fro after the race, but I’ve worked hard over the past 10 months, I deserve it! Or at least that’s what I told myself!

This hotel has a great breakfast buffet, lots of fresh fruit, waffles, bagels, anything you could want. Registration opened at 9am this morning, so we took a walk down to the Galt House Hotel after breakfast and got that taken care of. They are very well organized and it took less than 10 minutes. Afterwards we walked down from the hotel to the riverside and back along the river to our hotel. The water looks so dirty, I didn’t even want to stick my hand in it to feel it. I’ll wait until Saturday morning’s practice swim to see what it like.

We packed up the bike and took a drive out on the bike course to the out and back section on 42. I rode it back and forth 3 times for a total of 45mins. After, I ran the opposite way through a neighborhood of huge homes and horse farms for about 20mins.

The weather is hot and not humid, for a change and brilliant sunshine. The forecast for Sunday is sunny and 92, perfect!

We had a great visit with the Salvo family on Saturday night. Cathy told the kids why we are raising money and they cleaned out their piggy banks and brought all their money over to donate it to our MS fund raising. It was heartwarming to see their generosity and it’s great to see that in this day an age when so many parents get it wrong or just don’t care, that these kids are being raised with such strong moral values of compassion, empathy and generosity. Great kids!

On Saturday Nick and Justin and I rode 90k today in 3hrs. I was scheduled for a 2hr ride 1hr run workout, so I decided to do a 3hr ride instead. I really enjoy riding with the guys and my justification for that change was that the extra hour of cycling would have a lower “cost” than an hour of running. At least I convinced myself of that. The ride went well, I let Nick and Justin lead the way to that Justin could set the pace at where he wanted to ride at. We made it up to Uxbridge and as we headed through town I noticed Nick swatting at his ear in front of me. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I thought it might be a bee. It was and he was stung, right in the ear. We stopped and had a look and it was already turning red and looked like it was really sore. Luckily he’s not allergic.

Sunday morning I went for a short swim and then spent the rest of the day either tuning up the P3 or sleeping on the couch. I replaced the front derailleur cable because back in the spring, I cut the cable housing a bit short and it’s bothered me ever since. At the same time I installed a chain catcher on the front derailleur. There are a ton of gear changes in Louisville and lots of big ring to small ring changes and the chain catcher ensure the chain can’t fall off the small ring and onto the bottom bracket.

Tapering!

I’m enjoying the reduction in training volume during the taper and I’ll surely benefit from the added rest. A common mistake people make is to go into an Ironmen over-trained. The old saying is better 10% under-trained than 1% over-trained and it can't be stated enough that rest is one of the most important parts of the equation when it comes to preparing for an Ironman.

It makes little difference how much you train leading up to the race if you do not allow your body time to rest and recover and especially in the crucial final month leading up to the race. There is really nothing you can do in that last month that is going to increase your endurance or make you better prepared for the race, besides rest.

You are basically stuck with whatever preparation you have managed over the course of your training once you are a month or so away from your race. At that point it's imperative that you begin to taper down your training so your body can recover for the big effort.

It's is really counter-productive to go out and swim the entire Ironman course or head out on the bike course for a 90k ride when you are just a week away from the race.. When it is that close to your race, all you are really doing is using up valuable energy that you will need on race day. By all means go out and test the waters of at the race site, but a 30 minute easy swim is fine. Easy pace runs of 30 minutes and bikes of 45 minutes are more than enough. Dave Scott's suggestion is to cut the amount of your training down, but keep the intensity the same as it has been for most of your training over the year for the first three weeks of your taper. On that final week there should be no high intensity or distance training of any sort.

Next week I’ll take three full rest days and will do very short bikes and runs in the early morning when the heat of the day is not a factor. Friday is the key day to rest completely, and to also get your best night’s sleep as it can be tough to sleep soundly the eve of the race.

Tuesday Night Ride

Nick and Justin and I got out for our Tuesday night ride. Justin had his brand new ride out for the first time. He just bought a P2, same colour scheme as mine and had it decked out with Nick’s spare set of H3’s on it, it looked great! And very familiar, as my P2 was exactly the same. He hadn’t had time to set it up and adjust it so we decided that we’d do it on the fly. Right away we saw that the seat height was way too high and Justin wanted to move the seat forward so instead of taking the chance of hurting his knees, we stopped and spent a few minutes getting him squared away. Moving the seat to the forward hole is not an easy job and it took us a lot of fiddling around to get it on right.

Once we got going we headed up 30 to Bloomington and then west over to McCowan, it was getting dark so we decided to beat it back home and head down McCowan. It’s a nice downhill ride from Bloomington and Nick and I opened it up and hammered at 40kph plus all the way to Stouffville Side Road. I thought that maybe I was able to open up a gap on Nick, no way! I took a quick look and he was right on my tail the whole way. We joked with Nick that now he’s going to have to get a Cervelo. Those exposed cables on the Orbea and just too hard for Justin and I to look at!

So true!

I almost got my ass kicked at Tim Horton's!

So I’m standing in line at Tim Horton’s this morning, to get my coffee and as I get up to the front, this red neck truck driver is giving the Sri Lankan or East Indian woman behind the counter a hard time. He’s being really rude and saying things to her like, to her “do I need an interpreter here” and “you people should learn how to speak English”.

He finally moves off and now it’s my turn to order. As I’m giving the woman my order, she has tears in her eyes now because the jerk has really upset her. To even further insult the woman, the guy wanders back over and starts pretending he’s talking to her in a gibberish language. I turned around and said to him, “Are you finished being a jerk, I’d like to place my order”. He says to me “What are you some sort of paki lover”. Unbelievable, no one deserves to be disrespected like that.

Now he’s looking at me like he’s about to either punch me in the head or eat me and I’m thinking to myself well if I run out of here right now I can make it to work and walk back later for the car. After what seems like an eternity of me starring at him and him looking at me like I’m a bug on his red neck pickup truck windshield, the woman next in line behind me chimes in and tells him he should be ashamed of himself for speaking to her like that. Then finally some guy in the back of the line, shouts out “Keep movin jerk, there’s a line up here”. Fortunately that got his attention off me and he wandered away with his coffee and out the door. We all just shook our heads in disbelief as he drove away.

Catching Up

On Saturday I headed out for my last long ride before Louisville. I headed up 30 past Bloomington and went up to David Drive. I went over to the 2nd and headed up to Zephyr. There was a nice tail wind to I was able to cook along pretty well at about 34/35kph. From Zephyr I headed over to Udora and yes I took the hard road. On Zephyr Road over toward Udora there are 3 tough hills, but I figured, hey Louisville is hills, so get on with it. Went up to Udora, refueled and headed a bit more north to add a few more km and then turned around and headed for home. I decided to give myself a break and take Ravenshoe Road back to Zephyr instead of retracing my steps and climbing those hills again. The ride home was a tough. Battling that wind (with the H3’s) and the hills on the 2nd were more than enough to provide a good workout.

When I arrived back home Nick had just been there so I called him and we headed out for a run together. He wanted to get in 15k and I was looking for about the same. He headed out across 16th and then up 10th to Elgin Mills and back. It was great to run with him and it made the time pass much quicker. All we needed was a water station out there, unfortunately there is no place to fuel up unless you run all the way to Stouffville.


On the schedule tonight, a swim and tomorrow, a run during the day and then back out on the roads with Nick and maybe Justin if he’s finished his exams. Last week Nick almost did me in on our ride on Thursday, the man rode like he was possessed. Holy smokes, good thing for the traffic lights on Bloomington or I don’t think I would have seen him until we were back on 16th. I think we averaged 32kph for the 55k ride!

Swimming with Yvon in Stouffville

So last night I went for a swim. I’m still trying to get my swim back to where it was back in July before Lake Placid. I didn’t swim as much as I should have in PEI and then with the LP taper and recovery, it has slipped. Last night I paced myself swimming by watching Yvon in the next lane. Yvon is a legend at the Stouffville pool. He’s a great swimmer. He’s fast and you can usually see him at the pool 5 or 6 times a week. I know at one point he was probably swimming close to 16k or 18k a week! Unbelievable.

Cathy joins the cause!

Two years ago after traveling to Lake Placid to sign up for the 2009 race we were driving home and had just turned onto our street when we met Cathy Salvo. Cathy saw my bike on the roof of the van and stopped her van in the middle of the road. “Hey, were you guys in Lake Placid?” she shouted out. I got out of the van and had a conversation with her right there in the middle of the road. Turns out that Cathy and Paul had just bought a house on our street and she was an Ironman Canada and Ironman Florida veteran. I couldn’t believe it, finally…another Ironman in the neighborhood!


Cathy will be tackling Ironman Canada on Aug 29, the same day I’ll be taking on Ironman Louisville. Two people on the same street, doing two different Ironman races on the same day. Cathy called me other night and had generously offered her support in my MS fund raising and has sent the follow email to her contacts. This is a very gracious offer and I’m very thankful for such a wonderful friend.

To all my family and friends,

As many of you know, on August 29th 2010 I will be embarking on my fifth journey through Ironman Canada. In years past, I have done the race for myself. A personal test. Ironman teaches you so much about yourself. It teaches you that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible. This year, I have decided to give back to those who are not as fortunate as I to experience something so wonderful - the feeling you get when you cross the finish line after a long day. It is a feeling that cannot be put into words, only felt. For those of you who have accomplished similar goals be it Ironman or a running race or a personal journey, you understand what I mean.

When we moved 2 years ago, we met a family that lived down the street, The MacMillans. We discovered quickly that Chris Macmillan was also an Ironman triathlete. That is how our friendship developed. Training, sharing stories and encouraging each other to keep going. Chris has been raising money to help find a cure for MS the last 4 years. This is a special cause for him as it is close to home.

This year I have joined Chris on his quest to find a cure for MS. To race for all of those that cannot and for his sister Barb. We will both be starting our Ironman races on the same day. Chris will be in Louisville and I will be in Penticton. We will be racing together in spirit. Racing for a cause.

I am reaching out to you, my family and friends for help. Please go to the link below to help Chris and I find a cure for all of those who can’t cross that finish line.

http://msofs.mssociety.ca/2010bike/Sponsor.aspx?PID=1171725&L=2

Thank you for helping us cross that finish line for MS

New bottom bracket for the P3

Last night Nick and I changed the bottom bracket in my P3 with another FSA one I had. After we removed the old one, we stood it up beside the new one and the new one was a couple of mm’s higher. So we went ahead and installed it and the lateral play is gone and it seems to shift fine. We’re riding tonight, so we’ll see how it is out on the road.

I went for a 9mi run at lunch today and to get in some heat acclimatization and wow, it was hot. It took a lot of effort to keep running in that heat and humidity. I kept telling myself that Louisville will be far worse and suck it up and keep going. It took me a long time to cool off after that. I didn’t get back to work until 2pm, sorry guys!

Last night I was at the pool for out Monday night tri swim. It was great to see Adam, Ross and Jason. We got a chance to catch up on Lake Placid and Jason promised to send me his race report. I’ll enjoy reading that and hearing about the race from his perspective.

Yesterday, I did nothing, well almost nothing.

After the success of my 160k/20k brick workout yesterday I took it easy for a day. I went up to Stouffville for a swim first thing in the morning. Upon arrival I was notified that there was no hot water in the building. Hmm, I thought, is this a good enough excuse not to swim? Maybe, I decided to stick my foot in the water and see how it felt, it wasn’t bad, seemed like the pool had retained most of its warmth overnight. So swimming I went, just 2k and then headed for home. I had planned on a short ride just to help the legs recover from the yesterday’s beating, but it was raining so I found myself doing some couch recovery instead.

A couple of thoughts after yesterday’s ride. The seatpost on the P3 slipped down again. I had it looked at by the bike techs in Lake Placid, they fixed it and it didn’t slip for the race there. I wonder if the rough road we took on Saturday hammered it down. I’m not sure what I’ll try now, I’ve heard that applying both hairspray and toothpaste to the seatpost and tightening it are options that have worked for some people. Also just before the ride I noticed a bit of lateral play in the crank, I showed it to Nick, that shouldn’t be there, he said. I’ll take it apart again and see if I’ve left a spacer out somewhere.

Something was working right yesterday!

Yesterday Nick, Justin and I headed out for a ride. I was planning on doing a 5hr ride and they were looking to do a shorter ride of around 100k. We decided that if I wanted to go faster, I’d speed up and go at my own pace. We headed up the long climb on 30 up to Bloomington and then since the traffic didn’t seem too bad, we continued up 30 right to Zephyr. It was a perfect day, the sun was shining and there was no noticeable wind, for a change. Nick joked that Justin is out good luck charm, whenever he’s out with us, it doesn’t seem to be windy.

After Aurora Side Road, 30 tends to flatten out a bit and I got settled in to a pace of just over 30kph. Each time I got the chance to have a look behind me, the boys were right there and I really wasn’t making much time on them. We made it up the Ravenshoe Shoe Road and I suggested that we turn East and head over to Udora. Nick and Justin could turn from there and head back home. We stopped for a pit stop in Udora, fueled up and headed our separate ways.

I headed back over to Zephyr and turned North, went up and along the bottom of the lake, over to Woodbine and South to Bloomington and back to 30 and south to 16th. I eventually worked my average up to 30kph and in spite of a bit of a wind coming up after 11am, I was riding consistently at 32kph to 36kph on the flats. I don’t know if that’s what made the difference, or if chasing Nick and be pushed by Nick all over the north country has finally made a difference, but I was definitely riding at a different level. I ended up doing 160k at 31kph average.

My good luck continued on my transition run, I ran 12 miles in 1”53, a pace of 9:25 per mile, a great run. I felt great and it was one of those runs that felt like I could have gone all day. Overall, pretty happy with that workout!

Hammer Time

At this point in my schedule the focus of the workouts shifts from quantity to quality. Meaning the duration is shorter, but the intensity is cranked up. So on Wednesday I did a 8mi run at 8:30mi pace, fast for me and last night Nick and I did a 55km ride in 1:46, an average of 31.4kph. We rode north and then west into the wind and we pushed it hard, at some points 35kph into the wind. I knew that the return trip would be a blast and it was. It’s great to have the wind at your back, for a change. This weekend is the last chance to go long on the bike, so I think I’ll head up to Beaverton and back on Saturday. Lots of hills on that route, just like Louisville and I’ll follow that up with a 90 minute run.

It wasn’t pretty but it had to be done.

I was disappointed in my run at Lake Placid. One reason was that I didn’t get my last long run completed and I just don’t think I had the long run fitness going into the race that I would need to last to the end. So I decided that this weekend I’d go out and get a 20mi run under my belt. Before that, on Saturday Nick and I had a thoroughly enjoyable ride up to Zephyr on a beautiful day. The ride was great until he turned us down Concession 3 for the trip home.

I headed for the run on Sunday after a 2k swim. It was hot and I took my 2 bottle fuel belt with me. Running along 16th, I saw Nick turn out of the neighborhood and start heading in the same direction. I sped up to catch him and finally yelled out at him to let me catch up, we ran together up 10th Line until he reached his turn around point. I continued on to 19th and went west over to 30 and up to Stouffville. I stopped in Stouffville and drank 710ml of water and 710ml of Gatorade, but I was already dehydrated, it was hot. I turned for home and was doing a 9:30/9:40 per mile pace until I hit about 16 and then slowed considerable. I ended up with a 10:00/mi pace overall.

2010 Lake Placid