Today's run is optional...did I do it or opt out?

I did not do it....yet. Just waiting for some turkey to digest and then I am heading down to the basement to get on the treadmill. It is only an easy 30-40 min run so its not a big deal. I had a great day with my family so I can feel better about not ignoring them on the holiday. Logan, at 13 months, just is not into the whole present opening just yet. The best part of the day was watching him running around the house with the new boxes and wrapping paper he got...forget the toys. Later in the day my wife cooked an awesome turkey dinner....I wished she cooked more she is great at it! And then lots of calls from both sides of the family, nice to hear from everyone!

We just put Logan to bed so I have some time to kill before I run. So why not try put a entry into my poor, neglected blog. Things on the training front have been awesome!!! I am feeling very strong and quite healthy. I have to admit that I am feeling good about running again. Its coming back, I really did need to tell myself to HTFU.

I am rocking what is essentially a new bike now. My old bike had a bit of an accident (its ok it was the bike and not me). It is amazing how carbon fiber splinters under pressure (insert sad face here). The only damage was the frame so all of my components were moved to teh new frame. I got a 2010 Kuota Kfactor racing edition. Luckily, Roy at Eurotech cycle, was able to get a portion covered under the crash replacement policy (even though it wasnt a crash). If anyone ever wants to know what happened I will tell you if I see you in person...I need to see the reaction when I tell you. But the good news it was only a few days until I was back in the saddle again...wheeewwww. I was going through withdrawal already.

My swim is coming along. I am just need to keep plugging away at it. I am feeling better about it everyday. Still swim just to get to my bike though, lol.

I am looking forward to my next race at this point. I am doing the Hypothermic Half in Feb. It will be my third time doing this one. I wish it was still at the Eau Claire start vs the Fort Calgary location but I will still run it. Races help keep me focused and the helps break up the winter.

Anyway I think it is time to get on the treadmill. I need to burn off some stuffing. And there are only 246 days until Ironman Canada ;).

I think I missed a few months....

Well I have been a little neglectful of this blog to sat the least. Keith made a comment a few weeks ago about my blog being lonely. Life is my only feeble excuse. It is still busy as ever trying to manage a family, work and get my training in. I don't think I need more hours in a day rather more days in a week.

In order to save some time and typing here is what I have been up to........

August - Volunteered at IMC in the medical tent. Lots of fun to see the race from that point of view.

Sept - Raced the Banff olympic distance tri....cold. Nothing like 11 deg water to almost stop your heart. Also ran the Melissa's 22km road race...not sure why it is so popular, kind of an average race. Went for broke and paid for it in the end...walked the majority for the last 2km. I knew it was a possibility that would happen but I wanted to go hard just to see.

Oct - Kind of took a little break after Melissa's for a couple or weeks. Mid month I started to get back into training and then got a nasty cold.....sidelined. Near the end of the month got news that my father in law had a chest xray and CT that was very suspicious of lung cancer. Lots of stress in the whole family meant lots of stress for me. Good news, first biopsy is non cancerous...bad news still do not know what it is. But I am convinced that my father in law taught Chuck Norris everything he knows.

Nov- My son's first birthday!!! I loved this little guy more and more each day. I smile just watching him sleep. One of the highlights of the day is when he is just about ready for bed and I get to sit down in the chair with him until he falls asleep.....awesome. Bad news.....hurt my back at work last week. I was walking around my patients bed and then had instant and severe pain in my lower back/butt/hip. Had to take a couple days off work and stop training for about 5 days. Good news....I am back to training and the back is about 95% better. It feel sore at times but no pain. I think today it might actually be "normal" now that I think of it. Funny how antsy I get when I cannot train.

But right now I am getting into a good routine. Hopefully things will be smooth sailing. Work is busy as always. I work 2 days, work 2 nights and then I am off for 5 days. My family time is pretty limited during my work stretch, my son is in bed when I get home from days, he is at the day home when I am sleeping when I work nights. I do manage to get some training in during my work stretch but the majority comes on my days off.

Here is a typical "day off"

04:00 - Feed my son a night bottle when he wakes up (usually around this time)
07:30 - Logan is up for the morning and so am I. Get him ready to take him to the day home
08:30 - Drop Logan off at the day home
08:45 - Breakfast
09:15 - Head to the gym for strength training
11:00 - Head home
11:30 - walk dogs
12:00 - Lunch, laundry, clean
13:00 - swim/bike/run depending on schedule
16:30 - pick up Logan from day home
17:00 - fed son, make dinner for wife, clean house
18:00 - eat dinner, play with Logan
19:00 - bath Logan
19:30 - Time for bedtime (Logan, not me)
20:00 - spend time with wife
21:00 - get Logan's things ready for the day home
22:00 - A little web surfing, reading or music to wind down
23:00 - bed time (for me)

Of course this is not set in stone and there are lots of other little things in there. But that is an average day. I have sat down many times to write blog update but just didnt have the energy at the end of the day. Maybe my time management will improve and in turn my blogging will?

For now I am doing what I can to keep this juggling act going. My next race is the hypothermic half marathon in Feb. For some reason I really like this one, it is a good off season run to keep me motivated. Other than that I am signed up for the Great White North half ironman and small race called Ironman Canada ;). Yeah....the next year is going to be just a bit crazy!

Tripolar disorder

No its not a mental disorder but it really is all in my head....I think. My personal view on triathletes is that we are "jack of all trades" individuals. We are good at all but master of none. If you put the best athlete of each individual discipline against the best in triathlon, chances are the triathlete would not come out on top. Put them all together and then the triathlete shines.

We all have our favorite/best area in the sport. My desire to swim is largely just to get to my bike. While I like swimming more now than ever, still so much to work on. The bike has become my love. I have so much fun when I get to hammer and just go. I still have so much to learn about cycling however. Descents tend to make my stomach knot...its the speed you see. I am sure in time that will change...or I hope it will. But what of the run?

I guess in a way I started out as a runner. I credit it as being a huge factor in my weight loss. I remember running my first continuous 5km...wow. I wanted to be able to run because I was never able to before. It also seemed to be a great example of endurance. I also remember the first time I ran a half marathon without stopping. But right now that is just a memory.

At this point I know I would have to stop/walk on a long run. I have really made big gains on the swim and bike. Maybe at a cost of a bit of the run. Here is where the Tripolar disorder comes into play. Trying to find time for 3 sports and not focusing on one. It does become a bit of a task to manage all three. The good part of having a coach is having someone to largely take care of that. But he one thing your coach can't do is make you like them all.

I am just not feeling the run love right now. I seem to go in cycles with this. Right now my running just seems so much harder than ever before. I did an 8km run yesterday and it felt horrible. I know that I am not even a week out from the Calgary 70.3 but I still didn't like the feeling. Running used to seem effortless.

But right now I can't tell if its some degree or running deconditioning or if its all in my head. Am I just giving up when I think I am having trouble or am I really not running well. I am having hard time selling myself that its deconditioning. I seem to be doing really well (for me) in the other areas.

So what am I going to do about it?!?!? Talked to my coach and we are going to add another run into my schedule. I am planning on doing some 10km/half marathon races in the fall/winter to work on some speed and to keep me racing while in the tri off season. And just a small more immediate thing....new playlist. Music usually is a good motivator for me. One of my new favorite songs is Debonaire by Dope. Definitely not a song for everyone but I like really like the sound.

Anyway...enough whining...I have a kick a@@ playlist to finish.

Calgary 70.3

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to race this one due to work but I managed to get a shift trade that helped me out. I worked the day before the race and was home by 8pm and in bed by 9:30. I almost had to literally drag my behind out of bed at 3:30am to make it to the Dalhousie bus at 4:15. When I got up and looked outside it was dry...get out of the shower....rain. The 60% chance of rain is now 100% I guess, lol. The bus ride out to the start was nice and quiet, but I didn't nap, lol.

It's still lightly raining as we arrive at Ghost lake. T1 is dark and muddy...awesome. I get set up and then run into a few friends and it seems like its go time, well, after the pro's are off. I can't believe how fast it seemed that countdown went! But now its time to get going.

THE SWIM

Right off the bat there is lots of contact in the water. Doesn't really bother me now, I actually think I am getting used to it and really expect it. I know right away that I made a mistake but grabbing my tinted goggles. What the hell was I thinking??? Had the sun been out and not so cloudy I think it would have been ok but that was not the case. And to top it all off the lenses were fogging big time. I had to stop a couple of time to defog them. Overall it definitely affected my sighting. I did find it hard to navigate around the boats in the water. Lesson learned for next time.

Swim time - 45:30

T1 - 4:50

Everything was wet and if it was previously dry it was now wet. My dry socks and bike shoes were soaked even before I made it out of transition. Wet grass and mud...damn you mother nature. The only "dryish" area is the carpets leading in/out of T1. As we are coming out of T1 to the mount line one not so considerate guy stops right in the middle of the carpet to turn on and adjust his bike computer and block everyone behind him..seriously dude, you could not wait?? Anyway now its time to ride.

THE BIKE

The plan was again to start off relatively easy and then ramp it up. Slick roads make me pretty nervous. Although cycling is my best discipline I am no Lance Armstrong. I am not super confident in my bike handling yet. I basically did what my comfort zone allowed me to do. I know that I was holding back on the bike. But I kept saying to myself...finish the race, don't let it finish you.

The course itself is not that hard. All the hills are fairly gentle and not really that long. On areas that were flat or dry I tried to hammer through those areas and it helped. At one point, I was pretty much hating the ride...I was getting wet, cold from the rain and then it really got enjoyable when we had some small stinging hail. I could barely see out of my sunglasses at times but I hate not riding with eye protection.

Throughout the bike I was feeling ok physically. My breathing was good and the legs were turning. No cramps so I was happy. Mentally I was not happy. I hated the weather and was severely disappointed by the last of drafting officials and the number of drafters/blockers. In a way I kind of expected it because it seems to be a common complaint with WTC/Ironman races. Not like the GWN where I swear there were more draft Marshall's than riders, lol.

One case that made me ticked was when I was passed by what was a pace line of 4 riders. They pulled ahead of me and then dropped in line about a wheel length ahead of me. I dropped back to the 7m distance so I was drafting and then they slowed down so I decided to pass. This went on 3 f'ing times. Finally I had enough I hammered down and called them out and asked how that drafting was working for them....no reply.

A few minutes later we were turning onto Glenmore so I slowed down to make the turn and take a quick last drink. Sure enough the draft pack passes me and one of the girls says...hey Dan how is your race going?? My reply was "I am having fun enjoying my race and not someone else's". If you want to cheat fine...just annoying when they are affecting your race....don't pass and then slow down(repeatedly). I was ok with my bike time at the course is a little long and I was not 100% with the conditions.

Bike Time - 2:59:31

T2 - 2:00

Kinda like at T1 everything was wet but not muddy here. I had actually put an extra pair of socks into my T2 bag but decided to to change socks as I thought the would just get wet during the change. I could have been a few seconds faster if I had not pondered the sock issue.

THE RUN

Unlike my last Half IM, I felt pretty good off the bike...and luckily no cramps! At about KM 1 I ended up talking to this one guy and that lasted 20 more Km's. We were both running at the same pace and it was good company. We were basically joking around and motivating each other. About 15km into the run he was hurting and told me to go ahead but I chose to stay and walk his issue out. It wasn't a long break and I welcomed it anyway. We both agreed that there was no way we were running the hills in Weaselhead, lol.

We made it back into North Glenmore and I was so happy to see my wife and son on the side of the run course. I ran up and gave my little boy a big kiss when brought out a big "AWWWWWWW" from all the ladies in the area. I told my wife later I was going to say she was my sister and ask for phone numbers...she laughed but boy did I get an eye roll from her, lol. Seeing them was a huge boost for me.

I was still feeling ok but then as Dexter says "my dark passenger" came out. I started to cramp in my hamstrings...usually its my quads but whatever, it hurt. It brought me to a walk a few times and I told Nathan (the guy I was running with) to keep going but he said there was no way he was going on without me. I totally wish this guy lived in Calgary (live in Saskatoon), I think he would be an awesome training partner.

Not long after we were back to running and the finish line was in sight. Just before the finishers shoot I told him I had another cramp and to keep going. I totally didn't and just wanted to give him a chance to cross the line and grab the banner alone. It was his first Half and the extra few seconds would not kill me, lol. The few seconds later that I crossed was some hand shakes and congrats. One of the girls at the finish was a trainer who works at the gym I used to go to. She bravely gave sweaty me a big hug and then took my chip.

Even though I found the run to be a hard one I enjoyed it. It was great seeing people I know racing and getting motivation from it. So many people on the run were telling each other , good run, looking great, keep going, we are almost done, etc... With names being on the bibs, alot of people were calling each other by name. Lots of love on the run today, lol.

Run Time - 2:22:31

FINAL TIME 6:14:22

Overall thoughts....

I definitely made a mistake with the goggles but it was a lesson learned. I am otherwise happy with the swim. The bike was frustrating to say the least. I wish I had more confidence to push as hard as I would like to. The weather conditions aren't something that you can order up for race day and you have to deal with what you are given. I just have to get better at doing that. Maybe I need to ride more in the rain, lol. The drafters will always be there and I have to accept that. The run was neutral I am not thrilled or unhappy. But I do think I need to get my run back to where I want it to be.

I am glad I got the chance to do this race. As for next year, I am not sure I will do it again. I enjoyed it more after the finish then I did during the race itself. Not sure why I feel this way, could be a combination of things I geuss. I am not disappointed in my time despite it being 25 mins slower than my GWN time. It's a different course under different conditions. Next year will be focused on IMC so my race schedule is going to be alot slower.

I am looking forward to ramping up the training again and voluntering at IMC. Hopefully I will ever get a few good training days in while out there. Still debating if I am going to race next weekend at Lake Chaparral, we will see how the recovery goes. I am feeling pretty good today (tuesday) and should be normal by tomorrow. No time to rest...IMC signup is less than a month away ;).

Great White North Race Report

It's funny how waiting for a certain event to happen it seems like forever and then before you know it, bamn its here. Thats what I felt like with the GWN half iron. I was glad when the day to race was finally here. I tried to get a good night sleep the night before, I think I managed 5-6 hrs but I felt fairly rested. I arrived at the transition area right at 6am and was very quickly set up and ready to go. I bumped into my friend Dave and then Dusty and Adrian who also train with my coach. Dave and I had been trash talking for months about this race and it was continuing on before the start, lol. I hopped in the water for a quick warmup and then it we were herded into the start area.

THE SWIM (46:51 512/627)

I seeded myself at the back of the first half. Right off the bat there was lots of contact. Triathlon swim can definately be a contact sport, lol. I can't say that it really bothered me, I am getting more used to it now. I did manage to get a nice kick in the ribs as I was passing someone but it was not something that affected me. The turn around the first bouy was what I expected...congested. People just doggy paddling around it. I made it through there fairly quickly on the outside. After the turn there was still a fair bit of contact but it was starting to thin out a bit. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. I was feeling good coming out of the water and was looking forward to getting on my bike. Exiting was pretty smooth, I had my wetsuit down to my hips as I crossed the mat and was stripped and on my way in quick order.

T1

I thought that my transition was on the slower side but my wife said I was in and out very quickly. I decided to put socks on here versus before the run to save some time later. I took a few extra seconds to towel my feet off and then get into my shoes. It did feel smooth but I felt slow.

THE BIKE (2:45:37 173/627)

I was soooo happy to get on my bike. The plan was to stay in the small chain ring for a little bit to give the legs a warm up. I did this for about 10 mins and then it was time to hammer. My legs were feeling warm and ready to go. Once I turned off highway 16 and headed towards Stoney Plain all I saw was a line of riders. I started to pass people left and right. It was easy to get a nice pace going considering how flat the course is. I had driven the course the day before and I knew what to expect. Heading out I could see some dark clouds in the distance. I was just hoping that we didnt get rained on and thankfully we didnt.

The little valley we had to cross over was nothing compared to what I have been doing on my training rides. I stood up a couple of times on the way up but that was more to stretch out the legs than out of necessity. I was 2km from the turn around when I saw my friend Dave..4km on me...I can make that up, lol. One not so fun moment was on the way back I was flying downhill and catching up to another rider. As I approached they moved over, for what I thought was to let me pass. Turns out they moved to avoid the rumble strips that I hit about 55km/h. I had a brief wobble but managed to keep it together. I hate those damn things.

I was still feeling pretty good so I decided to step it up a bit. With a bit of a tailwind and a slight down grade I was able to cruise at 40+ km/hr for a nice bit of time. Once we made the last turn back into town I had to turn it down a notch because of the crosswind and the road condition. I was leaning into the wind just to keep a straight course. But not much longer I was turning into the residential area and headed towards transition. I dropped into my small chain ring to spin my legs out.

T2

As I approached the transition area they volunteers were all ready to take me to my run gear. The voluteer took me to my bike and then asked me if I needed help. I was fine but talk about great volunteers. I felt like this transition was one of my best..nice and quick. I am not sure what my time was I forgot to hit my lap button.

THE RUN (2:17:02 470/627)

I was feeling quite good when I initially started the run. My coach was there to give some encouragement and to let me know my friend Dave was just ahead ;). I quickly caught up to my friend and we started some trash talk. But it wasnt long before I could feel some not so good feeling in my legs. My quads were feeling a little tight and that rapidly progressed to full on stop all forward motion cramps. I stopped to massage them out and was joined by a woman who was doing the same. The only thought that was going through my mind was "this is going to be a long 21k". I would have crawled if I had to but I was going to finish.

I started to run despite the cramps still being there and eventually they faded out a bit. Not much later I caught back up to my friend Dave. We joked that we should just run this together and I suggested that we don't try to out sprint each other near the finish (this is how I beat him last race). But as it turned out, we did run most of the 21k together. I must have been in my own little world because I missed seeing so many people on the run. I did manage to spot Keith on the run but his height stands out. Leana saw me on the run and I managed to get out a hi as she went by me. I had looked for her out there but there were quite a few TriLife jerseys out there! A few girls that I know and had passed on the bike (don't remember seeing them) passed me on the run course. They were smoking the run! I was so happy for them. My friend/coworker Daniel who trains with TriLife looked so good..I knew she would pass me on the run, lol.

I was feeling ok for most of the run, felt like I had lots of fuel in the tank but the legs were often on the verge of cramping again. Once we got to about 17km my friend Dave was hurting and told me to push it if I could. Well I did so I started to pick up the pace a bit. But around 19km the quads started to cramp again. I had to stop a few times and let them pass. But I knew I was almost home. I managed to get under my goal time of 6hrs and I beat my friend Dave by 2mins, lol.


Final Time 5:49:29 (359/627)

Overall thoughts...

I am quite happy with my time for my first half Ironman. Was it a perfect race??...hell no. My swim time was a touch longer than I had hoped for. I wanted to get closer to the 40min mark but I am not that disappointed. My bike I was quite pleased with...I wanted to be under 3 hours and I did that. I felt strong and didnt feel like I had pushed beyond what I wanted to do. My run was a bit slower than I wanted. My last 2 half marathons have been just about 2 hours on fresh legs so I expected a little bit longer. But I did hope to be a bit faster. Given the cramping issues I was ok with my run time.

The cramping issues have been ongoing for me. I am still trying to get to the root of them. I have tried longer warm ups, more eletrolytes different nutrition, etc... Very frustrating to say the least. I will one day conquer them!! I was fine after about an hour and to my wife's surprise I wanted to drive home, lol. The drive was nice but it was nice to get home and relax.

I am looking forward to the Calgary 70.3 at the end of the month. I am not expecting to best my GWN time as I think Calgary might be a bit of a tougher course. Regardless it will be a little more long course experience. It's now thursday and I feel pretty much back to normal. The first couple of days after the race were daytime walks and working nights. Yesterday was an easy swim and today was just 90 mins of biking. Loving the nice weather and looking forward to some good training days!!

Cold my @ss....bring on the race.

Getting a cold a 1 1/2 weeks before my first Half Iron was not exactly in the playbook. I was worried that I would be unable to race the Great White North on July 4th. But luckily I have been on the mend and each day I have been feeling a bit better. I may not be 100% on race day but I am hoping to be close. Given how much I was looking forward to this race I decided to not let this cold get me. I coughed until I hurt to the secretions out of my airways. I just keep thinking I had to keep it out of my chest. with some luck that was pretty much the case.

The past few days have been relatively good training/taper. Friday was my first day back at it and was an easy 1 hour bike ride. Lots of coughing and snot rockets and a high heart rate but at the end I felt OK. Sat was a 50 min run with sun race pace intervals with lots of coughing and snot rockets. Sunday was a brick with no coughing on the bike, some coughing on the run and snot rockets on both. Today was a swim and no coughing and lots of sno...haha you thought I was going to say snot rockets. No, no snot rockets in the pool.

So yeah, overall I am feeling much better. Still a bit of pressure in my head but my breathing is coming along. No rattle in my airways, easy breathing and somewhat clear nasal passages. And now I am looking forward to race day again.

On friday I will be heading up to Edmonton with my wife and son to stay at my sis/bro in law's house in Edmonton. I am oping to get out to Hubbles Lake to get an open water swim in. I am debating driving the bike course just for the hell of it. We'll see what time allows.


On another note I would like to say congrats to the guys from the may long training camp that raced IM CDA this weekend. From the sounds of it there were a few rough days in there but everyone finished (with some awesome times too). I spent a good portion of the day watching the feed and following peeps on the tracker. Its a good feeling cheering on guys that helped make my training weekend so great. I don't know how I would have done that weekend without them. So congrats to Darryl, Curtis, Trevor and Mark!

Looking forward to seeing some of you bloggers at GWN this weekend!

Seriously bad timing..

Last week my wife and son went to visit some family in Dawson Creek, BC. Shortly after arriving home my little boy started coughing and had a open tap for a nose. His "voice" was barely there. Yup he got a full on cold...his first one. Very shortly after his Dad got his not so first cold. Normally its not a problem but I am 2 weeks out from my first Half Iron.

Good thing is I have almost 2 weeks to kick it. Right now its mostly in my head, just really stuffed up and a bit of pressure. I get up in the morning, cough up some nastiness and then feel ok from a breathing perspective. I started taking Cold FX to see if that would help...I never take it but am willing to try anything.

Despite the cold I managed to get in a 100k ride and a 3km transition run yesterday. Besides being the king of snot rockets I felt ok yesterday. I really have to get used to running in the heat again...I was sweating tuns but felt ok. Later that night I felt pretty tired. But I was happy to get my brick done.

I am gonna just keep up some level of activty, get as much rest as possible and drink lots of fluids. My son is doing much better so thats some stress off my mind. My wife has unfortunately become the third victim of this cold in out household. Just hoping to feel better by July 4th!