First Brick of the season

I'm going to be heading out for my first brick of the season today after many hours of soul crushing work. The planned workout is 1 hr cyling @ moderate pace followed by 20 mins running @ moderate pace, but I'm going to meet up with my friend Phil for the run, who is a new runner, I'll I'll probably tack on another 30 mins at recovery pace at the end, just for fun.

My right IT band has been a little tender since running the half, so hopefully it won't get agrivated. If it does, I have my stick (www.thestick.ca) and my foam roller.

I will then celebrate this first brick with a slice of key lime pie

Not a good start, but a start...

Yestesday, was to be the start of my training plan for the Montreal half ironman, but it wasn't meant to be. I ended up still being a little sore from the half marathon on sunday, which kept me in bed after my alarm went off, and the Leonard Cohen concert last night occupied my evening.

Side note: if you can get tickets, Leonard Cohen is amazing in concert. 3 hours and 3 encores later, we left incredibly happy.

So after missing both my swim and bike yesterday, I decided to throw in a swim this morning, to complement the brick I planned on doing after work. It didn't go very well. The main set was 4x200 (on 3:20), 4 x 150 (on 2:30) and 3x100 (on 1:40) with each one per distance being 3 seconds faster than the previous. That didn't happen. I managed to stay at about a 1:30/100m pace, but couldn't go any faster. Felt really sluggish, and slow.

I'm not too concerned... I have 17 more weeks of training, and really, swimming is the least of my worries

Ottawa Half Marathon 2009 Race Report

I completed my first half marathon yesterday. In fact, it was my first running event ever. I came in feeling pretty prepared, but not really that excited. I have a small competitive problem with times. For some reason, a 2:00:05 would be completely unacceptable to me, but a 1:59:59 would be just fine. I'm not sure when it started, but it seems to be working for me.

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:58:50, about 6 to 10 minutes faster than I was expecting to finish. I contribute this to my complete abandonment of my game plan, and going out way too fast. This wasn't all bad in the beginning, since I ran a PB in the first 5k and 10k, which I found pretty exciting during the race.

All and all, it was a pretty poor run. I was happy with my time, but I didn't run smart. The training went well, with the exception of a peroneal injury about 4 weeks out, which sidelined me for a few days. I should have had faith in my training and gone with my game plan. I ended up finishing well, but I didn't finish strong, and it could have been a lot worse.

I think it was mostly the atmosphere which caused me to leave my plan at the starting line. I wasn't prepared to be packed in like a sardine, or have to "salmon" past slower runners for the first 40 minutes or so. I hope next time it will be different. I hope I'll be more prepared, and will forget what's going on around me and just run.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with the race, I guess I just like being critical. A lot of good things came out of the race. I found out that I can make it through 21k, which is good to know, now that I'm starting to train for a half ironman. I was able to keep my cadence up, even though I was suffering from heat exhaustion. Despite some pain in my right hip, I think my hip extension was pretty good (i have a tendency to bend at the waist a little).

Some details I remember from the race:

• I was planning on following the 2:00 pace bunny, but started minutes behind the 2:15 pace bunny.
• Took me 7 minutes from the time the gun went off to get to the starting line.
• Started running around 5:00/km, weaving left and right, trying to pass the slower runners to catch up with my pace bunny
• about 2km in, I started to feel that I had worn the wrong socks. Even though I had tested them in longer runs during training, something was up, and I could feel the blisters coming
• spotted my track coach about 3km in, who reminded me about my cadence. I didn't need the reminder (apparently I don't mind counting steps for 2 hours straight) but I appreciated the advice
• I felt really strong. Much better than I was expecting.
• at the 6km water station, I decided to fight the masses and get some water. Until this point I found it bizarre that people would wear fuel belts or carry water when it was available every 3km. The chaos of the water tables, made me thankful that lots of people had brought their own water.
• there were a few hills between 6km and 9km, but they were short, and the rest of the course was pretty much flat.
• spent from about 10km to 12km looking for my wife, who was there to cheer me on. I didn't see her, but she tells me she was there
• By the time I hit 14km, I was feeling a little rough. Blisters were in full force, and my right hip was hurting to the point, where my movement was a little restricted. This is where my performance really started to drop.
• Until this point, I was running between a 5:00/km and 5:30/km pace. The last 7km where between 5:45/km and 6:00/km. I was happy that I didn't fall below 6:00 at all though.
• It was this point where I was starting to get concerned I wasn't going to make it in under 2 hours. My pace was slowing every km or so, and i was really starting to feel the heat.
• With 3km to go, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. I had been running for 1:40, and was starting to get chills. I think I was starting to suffer from heat exhaustion. It also didn't help that I kept passing by people who were running marathon, collapsed on the side of the road, receiving aid. That was starting to look like a pretty good idea.
• The last km was pretty rough. I had slowed to 6:00/km, and was running on empty. I just kept thinking about the finish line, and my celebratory poutine (which I didn't end up getting this year, unfortunately).
• Getting closer to the finish line, I saw my good friends Dave and Natasha cheering me on. It's nice to have supporters.
• I crossed the finish line in 1:58:50, and wobbled to the recovery area.
  

Blog goals

The main purpose of this blog is to document my quest to an Ironman triathlon. Last year, a few months before i turned 30, I decided it was time to commit to something substantial. With the exception of a few years in university where I ballooned to about 210 lbs, I've always been in pretty good shape. I swam, and played soccer competitively when I was young. I did a fair amount of weight training, worked as a personal trainer with mostly sport conditioning, or functional training clients (I've let all that stuff expire after I started concentration more on myself).

Since I was young, though, I have never had any fitness goals, other than just staying competitive when it came to sports, and keeping in reasonable shape. This led to a lack of motivation, and desire to train. Enter the triathlon.

In 2000 when Simon Whitfield won gold at the Olympics, was the moment I started thinking about triathlons. It took me 8 years to finally get around to it though (I was serious when i said i lacked motivation) When the company I was working for got gobbled up by a bigger company, they paid me for the 8 weeks of vacation I had accumulated over the years. Though I would have rather had the two months off work, I decided I would actually do something with the cash, rather than, pay off student loans, or put it into savings.

So I bought a Felt F85 (and a big screen TV)

Armed with a bike and a sprint triathlon training plan downloaded from the internet, I was ready to go. 12 weeks later I completed the Meech Lake Triathlon in July 2008 (1200m swim, 25km bike, 7km run) in just under 2 hours. Sitting on my ass at the finishline was the moment I was hooked, and would continue to race for as long as my body would hold up. I completed an olympic distance tri later in the summer, and that was the end my first season.

I managed to damage my meniscus during training, and took the fall and most of the winter off running and cycling. This gave me time to focus on swimming, which I didn't really feel the need to focus on, since I was already finishing close to the top of the pack, but I didn't have much choice. I joined a masters club and where I learned a valuable lesson.

I was lazy. Even with my new found motivation, I had been limiting my swim workouts to somewhere between 1000m and 1500m. Masters taught me that I was capable of doing twice that, but on my own I would get tired and figured it was enough.

Long story short, I worked my ass off in the pool, got an MRI on my knee after 10 weeks of waiting, started running again with no pain, and started training for a half-marathon; my first step towards a half-ironman.

Yesterday I ran the Ottawa half Marathon in a time of 1:59:50 (ranked 3484 out of 9105). Tomorrow the fun begins, when I start training for the Demi-Esprit (half-ironman) in Montreal on September 12. It's only 17 weeks away.

New to this

This is a new experience for me. I've never been a blogger, and for the most part have just "existed" on the internet, without contributing too much. Not that I would consider a blog, that will probably never get many followers to be a contribution, but at least it's a start. Who knows... maybe I'll be a hit.