Ironman Canada Swim-Bike

My alarm went off at 3:55AM. I quickly drank 2 bottles of nutrition and swallowed a bunch of pills. I went back to sleep for a few minutes. We were out the door just before 5AM. Monica dropped us off a few blocks away from the start. That's what we thought until we tried to walk toward transition. It felt like we walked over a mile just to get to our gear. I set up the bike and headed over to a nice grassy area to relax and listen to some tunes. I don my XTERRA VENDETTA with 40 minutes to race start.

SWIM - 56:40 (1:29 per/100m)
I lined up slightly to the left. We were off. I tried to swim with Karen, but her pace was a little to aggressive for me. She ended up swimming over 3 minutes faster and was one of the top female swimmers. After 500 meters I started converging over to the buoys. I went around the first boat then the second boat a few minutes later. The trip back to shore was fast. We had the waves driving us back to land. The water started to get very shallow 100 meters out from shore then a little bit deeper. I  hope no one stood up there. I continue swimming. I start with a few dolphin dives and start running with high knees.

T1 - 2:09
I start stripping off the upper part of my XTERRA and let the wetsuit strippers pull it off. I ran into to transition. I put on my shoes, OAKLEY's, and start running with my SPIUK on my head. I had a slight disadvantage on bike placement. I guess my bribe wasn't good enough. I ended up having to run all the way into my rack then out and to the mount line.

BIKE - 5:13-16 (21.45mph)
I jump on the LYNSKEY and ride down Main Street. There were throngs of people cheering. It was a good feeling. I rode the first 40 miles in control. Once I hit Richter Pass, several people started to pass me. Luckily I am a good descender. I caught up to most of the people that passed me on the the downhill. I peaked at 50.9mph. I had shifting issues a few times during the seven hills. (On Friday, the mechanic from Bike Barn said it was the frame. UGH!!! Nothing I could do about it for the race, except suck it up and cross my fingers.) I caught the rest on the out and back section. I felt great. The best and worst part of the ride started near Yellow Lake. It started to rain a little. On the first climb up there were people lined up on both sides of the road. I felt like I was riding in the Tour de France. It was awesome. I probably even biked a little harder just because of all the positive energy from the spectators. At the peak it started to rain harder. The decent was scary. I think I used up a few of my nine lives on the downhill and ride back into Penticton. Combine rain, wet roads, disc rear, 808 front, 20-30mph cross winds. What do you get? The wobble. Have you ever watched a motorcycle wobble uncontrollably and then crash? That was me except for the crashing part. This is the first time I thought my chances of crashing were 99%. I'm not sure how I stayed upright, but I did. I passed a racer with 4 miles to go. He mumbled, "That was so f...in scary!!!"

I rolled into T-2 turned in my chip and changed clothes. I quickly met up with Monica and we cheered on Guy at the start and turn around. I found out I was in 50th when I came off the bike and 9th in my age group. My goal was to swim 56-59 and bike 5:05-5:15. I achieved both with only 2 days of rest. It would've been nice to see where I could have finished, but it's all good. Kona here I come!!!

Pre Ironman Canada

Monica headed out for a ride at 7AM. She came back after 15 minutes. The temp was in the upper 40s. We headed to Starbucks. I jumped into the Lake for a short swim. The water was rough and choppy. It was a complete turn around from Thursday. Once back to the hotel, I went for a short ride and run. There was a crazy tailwind going south on HWY 97. It took me 3 minutes longer to ride back. I felt good on the run. We watched a good movie with Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia. We dropped our bikes off 30 minutes late. We were the only athletes in the transition area. We were definitely a little worried. We grabbed some food for dinner and headed back to the Condo.

Chillin in Penticton, Canada

It's day 3 in Canada. The first day the weather was in the mid 90s. It has cooled since. Yesterday we swam some, biked a bit, then ran a lot. In between all that, we squeezed a small drive around the course. The day ended with some ice cream from Tickleberries. It's a must!!! They had over 40 flavors. It was delicious!!!

Today will be a relaxing day. We'll head up to the race and pick up packets. It will be a good day.

Making progress

Sunday morning I swam just under 1k. I threw in a few fast 100s before staff training. After training, I took the dogs for a run. I felt great. I made the entire run on rolling terrain. Fina was dragging after 5 miles. I think that is her magic number. As the miles continued, she drifted farther and farther back. I had to wait for her at all major turns to make sure she was still back there. I dropped the dogs off at 8.5 miles and finished up my 90 minute run. I felt really like I could hold this pace for an entire marathon. My breathing was so relaxed.

Yesterday, I swam 4.5k. My legs were a little tired from the weekend. I came up with a tough swim. The main set was a longer swim followed by 2 shorter distance swims on faster send-offs several times through. The pace I was swimming my 1000 back in the early part of the year was now my send-off for the longer swim. I guess I am making some progress.

CUJO

A little bit of swimming, biking, and running has been good all week.

It was a little chilly today at the start of the ride. I rode the Johnson Creek Loop. There is a yellow house with a black poodle. The dog barks a lot and runs up real close. I always have my water bottle in hand just in case. This time he had a friend with him, CUJO. If you haven't watched the movie, the dog is vicious. I start to see my life flash before me. I stop and try to calm them down. They look at me and bark. I guess they decided there wasn't enough meat on my bodies for them to share. I averaged 22+ mph for the entire ride. Once home, I transitioned out and grabbed the dogs for a quick run.

sonic boom

I was throwing the ball with the dogs yesterday. Out of no where there were 2 loud bomb sounding explosions. Fina and Kona were completely spooked. Less than a minute later, it happened again. Fina and Kona took off, scared to death. I tried to recall them. They must have thought the world was coming to an end. At one point, I did not know where Kona went. I found Kona standing by a tree. Fina crossed a street and ended up under a laurel bush. She would not come out. I had to crawl in after her. She was still scared, so I had to walk with her for almost 600 meters holding her collar. My back was not happy with the angle. I later found out there was an unauthorized plane in the area while the President was visiting. They dispatched a couple of F-15s.

All screwed up

I took my bike out of the car yesterday and noticed the seat post was 2cm low. I guess the crunch I heard was my big butt pushing the seat post down. This morning I was getting the bike ready for a short ride. I found out that I was missing 1 of 4 screws for the seat post. One of the other screws was loose and about to fall out. Maybe I am just all screwed up.