(no subject)
Vancouver International Half IronMan: 1.9 k swim, 91k bike, 20k run
Woke up at 4am, drank some water and some carb fluid (approx 350 calories), got the last of my stuff ready. (The majority was prepped the night before as to ensure I wouldn't forget anything if I ended up in a rush for whatever reason.) Got picked up by my dad around 5am, and driven down to Locarno beach (Jericho sailing club). He made a point of going down some of the older areas he used to live and point out what used to be where and how everything is far worse now, so it took a bit longer than necessary.. but we got there at 5:30 leaving an hour to get body marked, pick up my timing chip, set up transition, put on my wetsuit and warm up for the swim. Unlike Shawnigan lake, there were more bikes with less room in the transition area, so we were fairly crammed, otherwise everything went fairly well. Got my wetsuit on in not too long (getting better at it!) and popped in the water around 6:15. Didn't do much, swam 50-100m, looked around, swam back, hopped out of the water and did some arm warm ups (you know the drill, rolling them forward (allegedly bad? Not entirely sure about that), backward, side to side. The key to pre exercise warm ups is to do dynamic movements instead of the traditional static stretches. It's a fairly new idea, but they've definitely studied it a lot over the last 10 or 15 years. Dynamic stretches get a light stretch, but more importantly get the blood flowing, get the joints 'oiled up', etc... what you would like out of a warmup, whereas the static stretches (do both the aforementioned) also relax the muscle, leaving less power for whatever activity you're doing (beit a triathlon, hiking, track and field, rock climbing, hockey, etc...) which is less than desired. What's worse, stretching used to be done because it was believed a good warm up can help prevent injury (which is true) but the static stretches have been shown to possibly increase the risk of injury, due to the relaxed state of the muscle. This is somewhat controvertial and has not been studied terribly well, but in the end, the drop in power is already reason enough to skip it.
Moving on, the swim was (unlike Shawnigan) a beach start. We had to line up inbetween to Subaru flags, and when it was time to go, we had to run to the water (5m at most) and go from there. There was a slight lesson about how to do a beach start for beginners, and basically once you're waist deep you want to dolphin dive, and remain roughly at the surface of the water. No matter how you look at it, in the water, swimming's faster than running. Amid the chaos I definitely got a few boots to the head, some 'punches' down my sides, and all the good fun loving stuff. I started near the front of the group, half by choice, half by... others just staying behind me. This is good for me, bad for them. Huzzah! Quite a few people passed me on the first stretch, as I couldn't really find my stroke, and was somewhat inefficient as a biproduct. I couldn't even see the buoy we were to turn around. There were two yellow buoys, and we swam counter-clockwise triangles. Good idea, put enough buoys to let the participants sight and know where they're supposed to go. Bad idea, use a cost effective minimal number of buoys. Oi. I got a little off track on the first stretch, but about halfway along the far stretch (hypotenuse? What's the far side of an equilateral triangle 0_o) I found a good rythym and got the body rotation, the pop and pull, and a bit of decent force out of my pulls. Went around the second buoy and thankfully on the beach was a massive inflatable Powerbar gate (for us to run through after the swim) so I could site that from way out. This stretch was odd. I figured I'd get a little help from the current going towards the beach, and while it wasn't as bad as the first stretch, I never really felt like I was being carried by the waves. Got back to the beach, ran up and around a buoy, and back in to the water. YAY! Another point brought up at the open water swim clinic on Saturday was that, no matter what, if you go swim to run to swim for the swim course, you're going to feel AWFUL when getting into the water the second time. This was not an overstatement. The advice was to ignore everything and simply count 40 strokes and reassess how you feel. Great idea, and while I was more like 50 strokes to feeling better, it's a really good strategy. We were in the ocean at Locarno and while the first lap went alright, the second lap had some sizable waves. On one breath I could see a wave about to hit and I over rotated (normal is 90 degrees, I was probably 120+) and I was almost airborne off that one. Eek. Other than not being able to see the buoys again, the second lap went fairly well, and in the end I was getting some really strong pulls, which is great for the end of the course! Unfortunately the choppy water on the second lap meant I didn't negative split the swim laps. (Negative splitting means if you do laps around whatever, any of the sports, your later ones are quicker than the earlier ones. This is the ideal way to hit a course.) Got to the beach, ran up to transition (sand...) and the first part was complete. Just over 40 minutes, which was just over my goal (of 40) but my last swim was in a calm lake, so I'm happy with this.
Got the wetsuit off without too much trouble (skill and lube. Lots of lube, on the calves). Got my vest on (I put all the stuff I want on the bike course in the vest so that I can pop the vest on instead of having to load up things individually in the tri suit. Helmet has to be on when your bike is unracked, at all times. If not, you will be disqualified if seen by an official. Took the bike out to the course and decided to start easy. I read recently going out too hard is a killer on the longer events, and I think things went fairly well this way. The first lap went alright, we went from the beach to north west marine, and along north west marine to south west marine to 41st, turned around and headed back to 4th, along a ways and another turn around then back to north west marine, down the hill and right at the bottom of the hill was the loop point (4 laps of this loop, then back to the beach). The first lap I didn't know where the turnaround on 4th was, and I kept seeing u-turns spots that looked good, so I slowed down, people passed me, and then I realized it wasn't the turnaround. This happened a couple times, then I decided not to slow down at all until I was sure. The second lap involved my chain falling off on north west marine as I was flying down the hill (60 kph?) and I unclipped my right shoe, kept kicking at the chain trying to jump it back on, all the while keeping an eye on the road as it's fairly windy and has a few nasty bumps. Long story short, I got the chain on before the bottom of the hill, and pretty much realized I was unstoppable at that point. Seriously, how epic is that?! This victory was sadly, very short lived, as coming up the hill on the third lap I grabbed a water bottle (only aid station on the bike course was here) and proceeded to drop it while trying to put it in my bottle holder. If you've never been dehydrated on a 6 hour event, I suggest you give it a try to fully understand how devastating this moment was. I thankfully had half a water bottle of gatorade left from the second lap, so I made it last as best I could. I got water on the last lap and made sure not to drop it, but the damage was done and dehydration set in. I downed the bottle on the lap, but by the end my legs simply didn't want to push any more and I was doing whatever damage control I could. Made it back to transition decently hydrated, all things considered.
Racked the bike and popped on my runners, drank the water from the first 3 stations and felt somewhat rehydrated at that point. Started out easy like on the bike course, and had a fairly strong run from the third to the twelth kilometer. Unfortunately dehydration kicked in again (running and drinking is surprisingly difficult! I wasn't getting all the water at each aid station). Pretty much the most suffering for the entire event, I actually walked a few aid stations at the 15th and 16th kilometer, just to make sure I got all the water, and like with the swim/run/swim idea, if you run/walk/run, the second run will suck balls to start. I counted out 100 strides ignoring the brutal pain and it worked again. I did everything I could to focus on getting from marker to marker (each km is marked, though very poorly at this race) and finally got to the finish, with a whopping 5:45. I was hoping for under 6, but the later portion of the run felt so rough I honestly thought I'd slowed down like crazy and missed it. Apparently I hadn't lost any speed the entire time. Along the run I had numerous compliments on my shoes.
Crossing the finish was fun, though someone unorganized as with every event like this. The WORST thing you can do after long hours using your leg muscles is stop dead in your tracks. The muscle contractions have been going on for hours, and stopping all of a sudden can induce collapsing. I've never really understood why they stop participants at all these events (every event I've been in, except for the sun run I suppose). Got my fancy pants medal, went to the athlete recovery area, and downed a bagel, some fruit and most importantly some chocolate milk. In short, chocolate milk is just about the most amazing drink ever, within 15-20 minutes of endurance activities. Far more cost effective than recovery products too. Fluids absorb better too. The benefits go on....
I'm amazed at how good I feel today, given
(a) how stiff/sore I felt yesterday
(b) how much training I've missed in the last month (scary amount!)
(c) how I ran 20k with only two short stops for water, having not run more than 12 in the last 12 months!
Next stop, IMC. This week is an easy spin out week from the race effort, then I have 4 weeks to build whatever I can, then 3 weeks tapering for the big day. IMC is 3.8k swim, followed by 180k on the bike (including two mountain passes, Richter and Yellow Lake), finishing off with a marathon up some bluffs. The IMC course is tougher than that of Vancouver, so we'll see how much of a predicter my 5:45 may be for a sub 12 IMC (my current goal).
Woke up at 4am, drank some water and some carb fluid (approx 350 calories), got the last of my stuff ready. (The majority was prepped the night before as to ensure I wouldn't forget anything if I ended up in a rush for whatever reason.) Got picked up by my dad around 5am, and driven down to Locarno beach (Jericho sailing club). He made a point of going down some of the older areas he used to live and point out what used to be where and how everything is far worse now, so it took a bit longer than necessary.. but we got there at 5:30 leaving an hour to get body marked, pick up my timing chip, set up transition, put on my wetsuit and warm up for the swim. Unlike Shawnigan lake, there were more bikes with less room in the transition area, so we were fairly crammed, otherwise everything went fairly well. Got my wetsuit on in not too long (getting better at it!) and popped in the water around 6:15. Didn't do much, swam 50-100m, looked around, swam back, hopped out of the water and did some arm warm ups (you know the drill, rolling them forward (allegedly bad? Not entirely sure about that), backward, side to side. The key to pre exercise warm ups is to do dynamic movements instead of the traditional static stretches. It's a fairly new idea, but they've definitely studied it a lot over the last 10 or 15 years. Dynamic stretches get a light stretch, but more importantly get the blood flowing, get the joints 'oiled up', etc... what you would like out of a warmup, whereas the static stretches (do both the aforementioned) also relax the muscle, leaving less power for whatever activity you're doing (beit a triathlon, hiking, track and field, rock climbing, hockey, etc...) which is less than desired. What's worse, stretching used to be done because it was believed a good warm up can help prevent injury (which is true) but the static stretches have been shown to possibly increase the risk of injury, due to the relaxed state of the muscle. This is somewhat controvertial and has not been studied terribly well, but in the end, the drop in power is already reason enough to skip it.
Moving on, the swim was (unlike Shawnigan) a beach start. We had to line up inbetween to Subaru flags, and when it was time to go, we had to run to the water (5m at most) and go from there. There was a slight lesson about how to do a beach start for beginners, and basically once you're waist deep you want to dolphin dive, and remain roughly at the surface of the water. No matter how you look at it, in the water, swimming's faster than running. Amid the chaos I definitely got a few boots to the head, some 'punches' down my sides, and all the good fun loving stuff. I started near the front of the group, half by choice, half by... others just staying behind me. This is good for me, bad for them. Huzzah! Quite a few people passed me on the first stretch, as I couldn't really find my stroke, and was somewhat inefficient as a biproduct. I couldn't even see the buoy we were to turn around. There were two yellow buoys, and we swam counter-clockwise triangles. Good idea, put enough buoys to let the participants sight and know where they're supposed to go. Bad idea, use a cost effective minimal number of buoys. Oi. I got a little off track on the first stretch, but about halfway along the far stretch (hypotenuse? What's the far side of an equilateral triangle 0_o) I found a good rythym and got the body rotation, the pop and pull, and a bit of decent force out of my pulls. Went around the second buoy and thankfully on the beach was a massive inflatable Powerbar gate (for us to run through after the swim) so I could site that from way out. This stretch was odd. I figured I'd get a little help from the current going towards the beach, and while it wasn't as bad as the first stretch, I never really felt like I was being carried by the waves. Got back to the beach, ran up and around a buoy, and back in to the water. YAY! Another point brought up at the open water swim clinic on Saturday was that, no matter what, if you go swim to run to swim for the swim course, you're going to feel AWFUL when getting into the water the second time. This was not an overstatement. The advice was to ignore everything and simply count 40 strokes and reassess how you feel. Great idea, and while I was more like 50 strokes to feeling better, it's a really good strategy. We were in the ocean at Locarno and while the first lap went alright, the second lap had some sizable waves. On one breath I could see a wave about to hit and I over rotated (normal is 90 degrees, I was probably 120+) and I was almost airborne off that one. Eek. Other than not being able to see the buoys again, the second lap went fairly well, and in the end I was getting some really strong pulls, which is great for the end of the course! Unfortunately the choppy water on the second lap meant I didn't negative split the swim laps. (Negative splitting means if you do laps around whatever, any of the sports, your later ones are quicker than the earlier ones. This is the ideal way to hit a course.) Got to the beach, ran up to transition (sand...) and the first part was complete. Just over 40 minutes, which was just over my goal (of 40) but my last swim was in a calm lake, so I'm happy with this.
Got the wetsuit off without too much trouble (skill and lube. Lots of lube, on the calves). Got my vest on (I put all the stuff I want on the bike course in the vest so that I can pop the vest on instead of having to load up things individually in the tri suit. Helmet has to be on when your bike is unracked, at all times. If not, you will be disqualified if seen by an official. Took the bike out to the course and decided to start easy. I read recently going out too hard is a killer on the longer events, and I think things went fairly well this way. The first lap went alright, we went from the beach to north west marine, and along north west marine to south west marine to 41st, turned around and headed back to 4th, along a ways and another turn around then back to north west marine, down the hill and right at the bottom of the hill was the loop point (4 laps of this loop, then back to the beach). The first lap I didn't know where the turnaround on 4th was, and I kept seeing u-turns spots that looked good, so I slowed down, people passed me, and then I realized it wasn't the turnaround. This happened a couple times, then I decided not to slow down at all until I was sure. The second lap involved my chain falling off on north west marine as I was flying down the hill (60 kph?) and I unclipped my right shoe, kept kicking at the chain trying to jump it back on, all the while keeping an eye on the road as it's fairly windy and has a few nasty bumps. Long story short, I got the chain on before the bottom of the hill, and pretty much realized I was unstoppable at that point. Seriously, how epic is that?! This victory was sadly, very short lived, as coming up the hill on the third lap I grabbed a water bottle (only aid station on the bike course was here) and proceeded to drop it while trying to put it in my bottle holder. If you've never been dehydrated on a 6 hour event, I suggest you give it a try to fully understand how devastating this moment was. I thankfully had half a water bottle of gatorade left from the second lap, so I made it last as best I could. I got water on the last lap and made sure not to drop it, but the damage was done and dehydration set in. I downed the bottle on the lap, but by the end my legs simply didn't want to push any more and I was doing whatever damage control I could. Made it back to transition decently hydrated, all things considered.
Racked the bike and popped on my runners, drank the water from the first 3 stations and felt somewhat rehydrated at that point. Started out easy like on the bike course, and had a fairly strong run from the third to the twelth kilometer. Unfortunately dehydration kicked in again (running and drinking is surprisingly difficult! I wasn't getting all the water at each aid station). Pretty much the most suffering for the entire event, I actually walked a few aid stations at the 15th and 16th kilometer, just to make sure I got all the water, and like with the swim/run/swim idea, if you run/walk/run, the second run will suck balls to start. I counted out 100 strides ignoring the brutal pain and it worked again. I did everything I could to focus on getting from marker to marker (each km is marked, though very poorly at this race) and finally got to the finish, with a whopping 5:45. I was hoping for under 6, but the later portion of the run felt so rough I honestly thought I'd slowed down like crazy and missed it. Apparently I hadn't lost any speed the entire time. Along the run I had numerous compliments on my shoes.
Crossing the finish was fun, though someone unorganized as with every event like this. The WORST thing you can do after long hours using your leg muscles is stop dead in your tracks. The muscle contractions have been going on for hours, and stopping all of a sudden can induce collapsing. I've never really understood why they stop participants at all these events (every event I've been in, except for the sun run I suppose). Got my fancy pants medal, went to the athlete recovery area, and downed a bagel, some fruit and most importantly some chocolate milk. In short, chocolate milk is just about the most amazing drink ever, within 15-20 minutes of endurance activities. Far more cost effective than recovery products too. Fluids absorb better too. The benefits go on....
I'm amazed at how good I feel today, given
(a) how stiff/sore I felt yesterday
(b) how much training I've missed in the last month (scary amount!)
(c) how I ran 20k with only two short stops for water, having not run more than 12 in the last 12 months!
Next stop, IMC. This week is an easy spin out week from the race effort, then I have 4 weeks to build whatever I can, then 3 weeks tapering for the big day. IMC is 3.8k swim, followed by 180k on the bike (including two mountain passes, Richter and Yellow Lake), finishing off with a marathon up some bluffs. The IMC course is tougher than that of Vancouver, so we'll see how much of a predicter my 5:45 may be for a sub 12 IMC (my current goal).