weather

Start of new program by ff_jeff at Garmin Connect - Details

Start of new program by ff_jeff at Garmin Connect - Details

Race Report; Leamington Edition!

 To start off, I did not blow my times out of the water lol. I did however "improve" some of them ... but not the swim.  I did win 3rd in my age group and qualified for the Championships in New Zealand , anyone got the $ so I can fly there :)


Pre race : Woke up early, made my usual pre race smoothie ( 1 apple, 1 banana, a small sweet potato and  8oz of water all mixed up in the Vita mix )
 Then I made my "sports drink" (Coconut water, 4 dates, agave nectar coconut oil, cacao powder, mint leaves, and agar flakes Vita mixed)

Got signed in, took my bike for a test ride (this time making sure the gears were changed and pedaled into position so my chain would not fall off in transition) Racked it, placed my running stuff in an orderly fashion and put my wetsuit on.


Swim warm up consisted of about 300 meters of easy swimming, and chatting with people about getting tangled in the seaweed lol.

The Swim:   Good times ! I kept myself out of the washing machine, just enough to the outside to not swim too much extra. I did bump into a few people near the first turn buoy and got Malachi crunched so I just slowed a bit and let the crazies go by!
 Overall felt comfortable the whole time, gave about an 85% effort which bagged me  about a 15 minute swim, which if I didn't feel so comfortable I would be really upset with.

What would I do differently?  Spend more time in the pool and train faster. I was in top shape "for me" last year and heading to Masters 3X a week .. not so much this year. I have made my swimming practice this year but nothing as hardcore as last year. Also I have to make some hard efforts in my OWS swims... I have been just "comfortable swimming" and need to  push the pace.



T1:  I am really happy I decided to wear the spandex wrestling outfit, it really saved time in the transition. I got my wetsuit off lickity split put my sunglasses and helmet on and  was off.

The Bike;   Ok I really have to practice if I am going to leave my shoes attached to the bike! I stumbled a few times getting those suckers on, but only lost like 10 seconds (which would have meant me only getting chicked by < 3 minutes instead of 3:01 and 3:02 lol)
   So the ride was great. Felt strong out there even into the wind. Passed a bunch of people and was only passed by a few. I had no Idea of my pace because I set my watch up incorrectly, but judging by my gear and rpm I was boogying, especially on the way back with the tail wind. I was in top gear and pedaling at about 86 rpm, which is fast! Although my results don't show a "great bike ride" It was still better than last year!

What would I do differently ?: More Hard core workouts lol ... I have to remember I am in "Base training" for Ironman Florida and have suffered in the "speed" category. There will be plenty of time for speed in the next couple of months. Ohh yeah, put my watch on b4 leaving transition.

T2: Nothing to tell here, it was awesome. I dismounted my bike like a pro (at least in my eyes) and had my helmet off, shoes and hat on in no time flat.  I love my Zoot shoes no socks, no laces.. basically running slippers!

The Run:  Felt good coming out of transition, eased into my pace (which I really didn't know cause I set my watch up wrong lol) Definitely had a negative split! My pace picked up slowly through to the end of the run and I had a great kick at the end. 

What would I do differently ?:  A bit more speed work, maybe a bit less talking through the run, and focus my energy on running. Set up my garmin properly so I can see my pace??

Overall; Felt great through the whole race.. maybe kick up a couple more notches @ the Tecumseh Tri!


Results to come!











   
   

Leamington tri

Looking back can't help but to think of the improvements I have made since 2009.

leamington tri 2009/2010 results

   2009 Swim; 21:13  2:50/100m

   2010 Swim; 14:14  1:54/100m

   2009 Bike; 42:19  28.4kph 

   2010 Bike; 38:26  31.2kph

   2009 Run;  29:25  5:53/km

   2010 Run;  24:45  4:57/km

This year I plan on blowing these times out of the water! 

Unfortunately my swim in Belle River this year was cursed once again the rest 

of my race was just ok. Anyone who has had a miserable swim could tell you the 

energy that you use struggling in the water just makes for a crappy result overall.

Plus I realized my flaw in BR was the lack of speed work I had been doing leading

up to the race because of the long moderate base training I have been doing for 

IMFLA and not changing it up before Belle River. I changed that in the last 2 weeks

 and did a lot of short hard efforts in preparation for leamington. 

I also got out in the open water a lot more and I am feeling more comfortable than

ever now.

It will take a much harder effort for me to place in my age group this time around

(got 2nd in my AG in Belle River)I am as ready as I can be. Going to take today off 

from a busy week of training and make sure I don't get myself dehydrated! 

If I am lucky 2011 will look like this 

  Swim 13:00 1:44/100m

  Bike 32:55 36.5kph

  Run  21:30 4:18/km

Fat guy swimming

If you want to analyze my swimming go ahead! Just remember this swim is at the end of a workout and I wasn't moving too fast :)

I love running when it snows!

Only when it just starts snowing. Today I rode for and hour on my rollers and then was pleasantly suprised to see it snowing when I headed outside for my run. I really enjoy the big flakes of snow and how quiet everything seems. It also takes my mind off the run. I was running very comfortably and was suprised to see that it was at 8 minute miles. I did slow down near the end but I wasn't going for speed or distance just 35 minutes. It is nice just to be "putting in the miles"

The rollers are crazy. I averaged 20kph today at a moderate effort spinning at about 90rpm. I feel that I will be a much better/ stronger cyclist when I hit the road in the spring with the rollers. I think it really mimics road conditions but at a bit higher level than I ride right now... I would describe it a riding into a constant, strong  head wind. 

I did my usual end my run at Tim Horton's routine.  It was nice to walk home with my coffee, plus I stopped by the local sports shop and chatted with my friend there (I think he might buy a set of rollers himself). I am feeling good after this workout and I am impressed by my run after spending an hour on the rollers. I'd like to keep this up. I am trying for a ride every second day and run at least 5days a week.

My swimming is coming along well. The pool is almost a place of relaxation for me. I am building myself back up to swimming super fast again and I am taking it a bit easy. Alot of the time I put myself behind the other swimmers in my lane, when I am out front I always push myself too hard.

I am trying to get my nutrition under control again. I have been pretty lax about what I have been eating lately. The toughest time I am having is at work. They have been eating a lot of red and dead lately. The portion sizes are wacked! For example our last meal we had 1lbs tbone steaks with roasted potatoes, and a salad. When I say salad it was just romain lettuce with dressing on it. I know it is the holiday season and we are going to be eating more and more crap, so I am going to have to limit myself.

New training tool :)

For Christmas this year I got myself a set of rollers for my bike. So far I really like them, much better than riding on the trainer plus much more of a workout. I got the 2.25" rollers which are hard to ride.

I have done a few workouts on them and have found alot of good info including this chart; http://www.kreitler.com/wattage_chart.pdf

My wattage SUCKS right now but I'm sure with training I'll get better.

New PB... of sorts

It's been a long time since I have run a 5km race stand alone, that is without running with my 11 year old son. This time however I ran on my own and hit a PB of 22:48 for a 5km. Although I have run faster than this is training many times, it is the only "official" 5km time I have. So there it stands! If you have read my blog at all you'll see that my times I have wanted to get a sub 20 5km in and I'm thinking that this will be the year (my year runs from November 21st to November 21st!).

So like every race I will do a race report!

The night before the race I worked. We had Chicken Delights from the penatly box for dinner. We had a quiet night at work so I was well rested. I made sure to drink lots of water and was well Hydrated.

The morning of the race I got up at 6:15am. I had a piece of toast and a banana. Not really the meal I would have chosen, but that's what I had. The guy that came into cover me brought me a coffee from Mc Donalds. I was out the door at 6:45am. It was cold and raining, I called Mike and asked him if he would rather go drink instead but he insisted that he run his 10km (his time for the 10km was 1:02:00) so we me at the bus terminal. My friend Jeff and his Wife Rebecca were there to come over with us since they had the day off also. Off we went to the City of Detroit MI via the tunnel bus.

It was crazy down there. You would have thought the Marathon was taking place, they had close to 18,000 people in the race (1mile, 5km and 10km) They had people in corrals just like the marathon and they actually had a "fast and fit" group ( 8 minute miles and less) that went off first and a "fun" group that went off 15 minutes later. I was in the fast group. We hung around for a bit, I handed my I.D and stuff off to my friends and was off to the corrals. It had stopped raining but was stil a bit chilly. It was tough to figure out what to keep on. Of course I made the wrong decision and kept all my layers on. I knew I should have taken off my coat, but decided against it, in retrospect I should have worn shorts too considering how much I heat up.

The race started. I had myself about 30 seconds behind the starting line. Again I should have placed myself up closer to the start (damn retrospect) I felt good. I was running at a talking pace to start and had to constantly go by people that should have started further back. At the same time there were those fools who start too fast and was being bumped and cut off a bit for the first 500 meters. I did not bring my watch so I can't give splits or anything and I totally missed the 1 mile marker and had know clue how far I was until I hit the 2 mile marker. At the 2 mile marker I had picked up the pace a bit and started to overheat. I didn't feel tired, just too hot so I didn't push the pace and faster. At this point I thought I was running at about 7:45 to 8:00 minute miles. I was a bit deflated because I felt it took alot of time weaving in and out of the slower people at the start and I really thought I would finish at around 24:30ish. It was at about the 2.5 mile mark where I picked the person I was going to pass (it ws a guy that passed me a while back) I slowly picked up the pace and slowly reeled him in, once I hit the 3 mile mark I just gave it to the finish and passed him with no effort. I was suprised to see the clock at sub 23:00 coming up to it.

Overall I felt really good about the time. Considering I walked in to it with nothing special in mind. I did some pretty good workouts in the days before the race so I was a bit tired. Like I told the customs official my goal was 23 minutes. I felt great after the race took about 15 minutes to cool down.

What can I do to improve my performance? Eat better, train for a 5km and actually be ready to race!



 





me right after the race...crazy eyes!



Feels so fine

It is great to be able to get out on my tri bike at this time of year. It is Sunny 43 degrees with the wind howling at about 31mph from  West South West (mostly west). I rode for an hour and a half today, I was only going to ride for an hour but I loved that wind so much I kept going. Actually I was heading mostly South on my way out and the wind was whipping so hard across my face a few times it took my breath away. When I got to the end of that the southern stretch I turned east to see how hard the wind was blowing without pedaling I was going 13kph (8 mph). I turned around and began my struggle into the wind. It was only about 5 miles straight into the wind, but it was a long 5 miles straight into the wind :) Felt good for the whole ride. I had a hammer gel about half way through and sipped water throughout the ride.
Checkout my bike route.

I got home and changed into my running gear. It only took me about 5 minutes and I was off running. I took another hammer gel and drank some water. I took it easy on this run. I calculated a route in which I would end up at Tim Hortons to get a coffee for the walk home. I had to do an extra little loop to make it exactly 30 minutes but I was very close I passed by at 28 minutes. I felt drained during the run although I was taking it very easy. I should learn to make a sports drink to sip on during the bike ride. Next brick workout I will incorporate that.

It was a nice walk home. I put myself in a great position for the walk home. The last part of my run I ran due West and had the wind to my back for the walk home. I enjoyed my coffee and it felt great with sun on my back. I always like to walk the mile back home from Tim Hortons, it gets my heart rate down and I think it is good for my legs.

Ironman Florida here I come

Three words OMG! I signed up for an Ironman. Well, stay here and stay up to date on my training. This has been a goal of mine every since I started this triathlon business and hey why not do one in my 40th year on this planet. I put alot of thought into doing this and with the patience and support of my Wife and Kids and the rest of my friends and family I am going to race it, not just finish (although just finishing will be a great accomplishment) :)

Turning left!

It's been a crazy week. Just got back for Huntsville, Ontario. What a beautiful place that is. We stayed at a friends cottage which is right on Camp Lake. It is a 25km trip off of the major highway right into bush country. You can go across the lake and actuially enter the Algonquin Park boundary.

The first morning there Jack and I woke up early so I went for a swim across the lake and back, Jack followed in the paddle boat.

When it came to running there was seems like a mountain outside the door of the cottage called "Heart Attack Hill" a section about 800m that is at about 15-20% grade. I ran twice while I was there, the first run was 4 miles, which in Essex County terms would have been running in the mountains. The second run was 1.5 hours in the rain, it was great though I really had to work.
Coming home I have had a couple of runs, one on the tradmill Monday. Tuesday I took the day off due to being overtired and just needing a day off.


Lastnight I needed to get 11 miles in at about a 9 minute pace. Being a late run I decided to stick to home a bit so I decided to take every left hand turn I could. The only rule was having to stay in the boudries of the CP rail tracks, the Belle River, Lake St. Clair (easy one), and Duck creek. Actually part way through the run I decided to make another rule and that was I had to sprint on the way back from dead ends and cul de sacs. I can believe how far you can run doing this, I almost made the whole 11 miles by the time I got back to my house.

I have got to get a run in today, I have a Friday free of running and then resume Saturday morning. Since we are heading to Ottawa Saturday, I will be yet again doing some vacation running. It is really nice to have new scenery, helps pass the miles!

Dreadmill run!

After putting it off all day I finally jumped on the uninspiring dreadmill, and hobbled along last night. After warming up for 10 minutes I did 3 "hill climbs" at a quickish pace. I then cooled down and that was that. Wish I was more excited about treadmill running :)

I did get to watch wipeout while I ran, wish my brother would have made it to the show...here is his audition video;

Monday, Monday

4 mile easy breezy! Ran em all at a nice 8:45 pace, was supposed to be 9:00/m but decided to throw a little race pace section near the end to feel the turnover.

A weekend of training

Exciting to say the least. Had to fit my runs in at funny times due to time restraints and actualy cut my Saturday run down to instead of 6miles.

Just to Share some information my Boston Qualifying time is 3:15:59. So in terms of miles that is 7:26 per mile for 26.2 miles. That is my race pace.

When I refer to my "Base" pace that is my average just getting in the miles pace that I run at(8:15/mile). I guess you could call them conditioning miles. When I refer to recovery miles that is a run I would do after a hard effort to get ready for my next hard effort run (9:00/mile) . Tempo runs are a hard effort usually at about my 10km race pace (6:46/mile)

So Saturday my run was supposed to be 6 miles 3 recovery pace and 3 race pace. I ended up doing it a little shorter (5.25miles) but got my 3 miles in at race pace.

Tonight (Sunday) I did 1:20 60minutes recovery and the last 20minutes at race pace. It was hard to get it done and I did end up a bit slower than race pace, but close. I think as the temperature drops towards the fall it will be alot easier to run these runs properly. Also I did this run at 10:30pm after a long day, a shitty dinner (but yummy) and a couple of drinks so I say "Bravo"

EDIt: ohh yeah I saw a shooting star tonight...I am running at this time everyday..I love shooting stars..maybe I should run naked>?

Boston Qualifier Race

Here we go again. Although my Steelhead race time doesn't show it, my running is coming along well. Well enough to qualify for Boston remains to be seen!

85 days and counting, I am going to stay true and blog all of my training!

http://www.hamiltonmarathon.ca/

Wish me luck...training starts (kinda in the process already) tomorrow!