funny thing happened on the bike today

I'm stuck in Pemberton, but the one good thing is the riding here. Great trails for XC, good roads for riding. So I put my bike together and got ready for a 75min ride with 4x5min @20kTT pace, 5min recovery.

Got through my second 5 minute piece and had averaged 41.7 and 40.2. That's when things got interesting. Turns out that Sea to Sky Highway goes through a massive native reserve between Pemberton and Lillooet. So I was getting funny/dirty looks for a while, until I discovered that Sea to Sky also goes up a 13km, 4000 foot mountain pass as well.

Now at the time I didn't realize it was that massive, but once I started the climb I HAD to see how far it went. At every switchback I figured it would end around the corner. Nope. 48 minutes later I got to the summit at 1300 vertical meters. The best part is that - if you've watched the news at all this summer you know there's a massive forest fire in Lilloet - so the air was pretty yucky. But I managed to keep things aerobic spinning in my lowest gear on 12% grades.

Then it got really interesting. I got to the top and so now it was time to turn around and go back down, seeing as its the only road I know around here. Within 100 meters I was above 60, and holy crap was it a technical descent. I think there were 5 switchbacks with a number of sweepers that I took at 70+. Then right at the bottom there was one final switchback that I had to brake hard for (car signage said 20km/h around the turn, I took it at 45).

It was about then I could actually hear my carbon rims getting hot and starting to squeek, then my front tire blew. The glue had melted and the tire rolled off the rim, and I had to go into ninja mode to stay upright. So then I was 20km from my hotel with a flat tire. Long story short a truck driver stopped and loaded me up and was kind enough to drive me back (and was telling me the entire way how much he hates cyclists on the road). The good news is my ride actually only ended up being about 90 mins since it took me 10 minutes to descend then I got a ride back! Thus concludes my adventure today. Now I don't have a pool or a bike for tomorrow, and I need a new tubular tire before leaving for OZ on Wed night. Fun fun.

From biking mountains to mountain biking

So it turns out that I'm actually spending the next four days in Pemberton and not downtown Vancouver, which I'm not particularly thrilled about. I'm staying with my cousin who lives in Vancouver but she was called up here for work and I had to tag along. Its a pretty nice place but not the ideal location for trying to squeeze in my last few workouts before world champs...no pool within 30km, no track within 50. Like I said, not thrilled.

Today I needed to scope out some running trails so I tried mountain biking for the first time. I've ridden a mountain bike before, but today I actually mountain biked...on a mountain. And I must say, it sucks!!! I had the bright idea of putting my clipless pedals on to go ride up a freakin mountain. Luckily I only bit the dust on the way up and not going down, but in the 3 hours I was "riding" I think I was walking the bike half the time. The riding is so technical and I'm just not any good at it. I like riding my bike on smooth pavement without trees, rocks, glacial rivers and bears attempting to end me. It was still fun though. But I discovered that the trails would be impossible to run on, so I'm pretty much stuck running out and back on one of the two paved roads in town (one of which being Sea to Sky Highway). Not thrilled!!

I've learned on this trip that I need to be in one place, doing my own thing if I want to get into any sort of training routine while travelling. I've been doing as much as I can the past week but I'm getting really fidgety having to adjust my schedule, and not swimming as much as I should. I'm driving to Whistler tomorrow morning for the only pool around and I'll have to do the same Tuesday morning. I can't wait to get to Gold Coast simply so I can get myself in a routine again and focus for a few days before the race. Lesson learned I guess, hopefully I won't be fat and out of shape for the race.

couple pics from my ride

Glimpses of Kelowna

Ryan Smith, Steve Hewick and James Loaring kicking some ass and working together in the men's elite race. Great racing guys

Whitfield dominated from start to finish, and high fived just about every kid there after he finished. Class act.

Tich and Jones sprinting for second. Jones took it at the line.

Pre-race for me

Dismounting as race leader!

Simply put, I just hurt on the run...

...but I held it together for the win

Haha I look less than pleased here, but I promise I was the first person to shake their hands at the finish and here.

A crazy and wonderful day of racing all around. And people have started paying attention to me now that I've justified my hard work, and confidence, all summer. Now its time to search out a bike sponsor!

Nationals Race Report

This will probably be a pretty short report since I was seeing stars the entire way, and I really don't remember many details. My day started at 5am for the race I've been focusing on all year, and I felt good when I got to the race site this morning. I wasn't nervous at all, just focused.

It ended up being a wetsuit swim for age groupers by about half a degree, but the water was pretty choppy with a strong wind coming off the lake for our entire race (and died down just in time for me to finish). My race strategy today was "don't think - go faster" so that's exactly how the swim worked out. I had a good start and got clean water out in front of everyone. I felt strong throughout the swim and was second out of the water behind some guy who had lead out of the water in every race he's done this year. I came in at 10:47 in choppy conditions... pretty much the swim of my life.

I got on the bike 20 seconds down from the leader, I knew that it was just a matter of time before going by him so I relaxed the first time over the big hill and just bombed the descent. I took the lead about 4k into the bike and I just kept my head down and gave it everything. I was riding scared the second lap hoping that I wouldn't be passed, and I ended up riding pretty well. I didn't get a bike split but I think I had the top bike split or close to it, around 32 mins (edit: I had the top bike split at 32mins and change...never thought I would win a race with a strong swim/bike, rather than running guys down). The course ended up being pretty slow today as we had all the climbing with the tailwind, then the way back into town which was supposed to be fast was into a pretty good headwind. But I came off the bike 50 seconds up on 2nd.

When I hit the run I immediately knew it wasn't going to be easy, everything just hurt and nothing was clicking. I stayed relaxed and tried to get into a bit of a rhythm...since at that point it was my race to lose (I discovered today that its much easier to chase than to be chased on the run). I was only sure that I had it with about 800m left, and it turned out that I put another minute into second place by that point. I was still feeling terrible and was on the verge of throwing up, so I let off a little just to make sure I didn't blow up in the last km. I ran an 18:10 or something...pretty slow but enough to hold on. I probably pushed too hard on the bike for a better run split, but I won the race on a really good swim and strong bike, so I'm not going to sweat the run time.

So I'm age group national champion. I'll be doing my autograph signing/baby kissing tour when I come back from Australia in a few weeks. And yes I'm aware its not that big a deal, but it basically ensures that I'll get my elite card next spring and can come back next year to race elite nationals which was my goal for this season, and its my first race win. I decided that I should win more often, that was fun! I'll post a few pictures when I get around to it. I feel like sleeping now.

Nationals tomorrow!

Race prep has gone well for sprint nats tomorrow morning. I'm well rested but still feel sharp. I've been in the open water every day this week and I'm feeling pretty confident. It looks like its going to be a wetsuit swim for age groupers afterall.

Today I ran the run course with a few easy pickups, and did the swim course with a few starts again. Everyone was at the swim venue today...Paul Tichelaar flew by me in the water, and I did a start simulation beside Whitfield. COOL!

So now its time to remember all the ass kicking I went through this summer to get here. I read a quote from Craig Alexander today that said don't get to the race thinking about winning, just be confident in "expressing your fitness". So that's what I'm going to focus on tomorrow. And going through that monsoon at K-Town long course a few weeks back has given me something to draw on mentally when I'm hurting tomorrow, I'll be thinking about how much that sucked but came out alive. I'll update after I finish tomorrow, can't wait to race!

Kelowna!

I got here yesterday morning, no problems with travel at all. Swam 2k easy at the swim site, put my bike together and relaxed for the rest of the day. Its a very pretty city and I've been holding myself back from wanting to climb all the mountains. I've already eyed the mountain I'm doing after I finish my race on Sunday. Real switchbacks up a real mountain!! This is like a revelation to someone who rides in SW Ontario where people dread the Niagara Escarpment.

Today started with 2-3k open water with James, Tom and Ang with a little activation and start/exit practice. I'm feeling ok in the water, not great but not bad...which I guess is more than I could say for the majority of my summer. The big talk here is whether or not its going to be a wetsuit swim...well based on how it has felt the past two days I'm thinking its going to be wetsuit for the age groupers, and probably non-wetsuit for the elite race. I'm not sure whether or not a wetsuit swim will help me, I'll be one of the stronger age group swimmers so I don't know if it will make a difference. I've gone no wetsuit both swims just in case.

I also rode the bike course this afternoon, there's a significant hill within the first 3k which I knew about. Its about 1500m of steep climbing, but after that the rest of the course looks pretty fast. Technical, but fast. So it suits me very well. The key on the course will be to not blow up on the hill, and smash the rest of the 10k loop as its a slight down hill all the way back to the waterfront.

Ok I just have to tell someone this story. When I was doing the bike course I met up with the elite bike course tour, and I saw a female athlete riding a TT bike. So I asked her if she was racing elite, she said yes. I asked her if she had another bike, she said no. She had absolutely no idea that she was racing a draft-legal race, and that she needed a draft-legal bike. Her response was "This is a triathlon bike, why can't I use it?" I have no idea if she even has an elite card, clearly doesn't have a draft-legal ICC since she doesn't own a road bike (for those of you who don't know, draft-legal elite racing requires an international competition card, certifying that you can finish the swim with the pack, and ride road bikes in a pack without killing everyone). Even if they let her start, she'll have to find a new bike in about 36 hours. So, just like other humans, there are lots of stupid triathletes out there too.


Looking down on Lake Okanagan from the top of the climb

Sponsor Dealio

My sunglasses/helmet sponsor Rudy Project has some cool new stuff and they want me to give you a ridiculously amazing deal! Send me an email (leave a comment here if you don't know my email) and I'll hook you up. You can get a heavily discounted price on their 2010 new aero helmet, the fastest helmet ever tested in the wind tunnel and used my Team Milram in the Tour this year. Not available to the public until next spring. Or get the best cycling eyewear out there at 40% off through me!

K-Town Long Course Adventures

I couldn't wait to get to this race after blowing up in Belwood a few weeks ago. I haven't done a long course race since the Peterborough half in 07, and I only raced that to finish. So I was excited to actually race long course, as an elite no less because I registered for it when I assumed that I would get my elite card after Belwood.

Got to Kingston on Saturday and the place was buzzing with triathletes, very cool. Everywhere you walked downtown you couldn't get away from middle aged skinny dudes wearing race t-shirts and Oakleys. I checked out transition and found my spot on the elite rack...even cooler!! When I woke up on race morning I knew the weather was once again going to be the key factor in the race. I'm getting pretty sick of racing in rain, I literally have not seen the sun in a single race this year. 40 degrees and baking sun in Kelowna and Gold Coast sounds pretty appealing at this point. Warmup went well but I was still nervous about the race since I really haven't been training for long distance and I've only raced sprints so far this season.

The best way I can describe the swim is, it was a rollercoaster. A wet and evil one. The swim course was 1000m out, 1000m back and the entire way out was directly into the current and white caps. I've swum in rough water before but I've never been thrown around like this. In Vancouver last year it was ocean swells which you can get into a rhythm with to sight and breath, but the chop yesterday was completely unpredictable and the opening 1000m was horrible to say the least. My race strategy was to swim steady so I did my best not to drown until I got to the turn around, then I got into a rhythm and felt strong on the way back. I got out of the water and couldn't really believe my watch...34:55 (35:50 after T1). But rather than stress about an embarrassing swim time I relaxed through transition and realized that everyone's times were going to be slow today. Turned out that the leaders were 30 minutes and change, so the rough conditions affected everyone.

Race strategy on the bike was to once again go steady and get my nutrition right to feel good on the run. After a bit of a mechanical issue having to fiddle with my computer sensor between bladed spokes at 45km/h (I really need a new computer) I got into a good rhythm and felt great. I rode strong and averaged 37.8 to the turn around. The wind got progressively stronger on the way back, so we had a crosswind on the way out and a headwind on the way back. Of course. I went through 40k in 1:05 which I was very happy with but the last 15k was into the strongest wind so my average speed suffered. It rained lightly for the majority of the ride - just enough to make corners and the lift bridge crossing extremely dangerous - but it became a downpour with about 10k left. I still averaged 35.7 over 56.2km, probably my best ride of the year, and got off the bike feeling good despite knowing that a top 3 placing was out of the question. I need a time trial bike if I'm doing any long course next year.

I got off the bike in 24th, a little sucky but I knew I was saving the best for last. I had decided the day before that taking an extra ten seconds to put socks on in T2 would be worth it. I'll suck it up for 5 or 10k, but my racing flats are blister machines so I wanted to make 15k off the bike as comfortable as possible...considering the farthest I've run this year is 17k fresh (and Craig won't be happy when he sees I went that far). I knew that the run was where my race was going to unfold. The plan was to build throughout the run and finish strong with a negative split. It was after all a training race.

I got out on the run course and had made up 4 positions in the opening km and was running 3:50 k's pretty effortlessly. That downpour on the bike went to somewhere between torrential and Indian monsoon season. But I was running well. My building effort on the run ended up equating to even splitting the three 5k's, maybe that's to be expected since I had only decided about three weeks ago that I would do a long course race just for the hell of it. At the turnaround I was in 19th, and although my thoughts of going under 3 hours were out the window given the conditions, I couldn't complain with a top 20. I continued to build and ran through 10k in 38:40ish. I don't remember much about the last 5k because I was doing my very best to block out reality, but I made my way up to 15th and finished strong.

Between it being my first competitive long course race and having done no specific training for it I'm very pleased with the result. I was 5/5 in the elite division, but I was only a pretend elite so I don't really care. I love the challenge of long course races and I think I'm better suited to the physical and mental grind of long course than the maximal efforts of sprint racing. I'll stick with short course for the next couple seasons no matter what but chances are long course is where my future is in the sport. Maybe 70.3 pro?

PS that's not a question.