How Flexible are you?

So this weekend being 5 weeks out tested my "flexibility".

• Friday Night I got in a great run session which totaled 90 mins trails and 90 mins of interval work (58 Min Hard Running). Normally after this it would be home to bed but decided to catch the end of a ball game and socialize with the non - tri crew who is coming up to drink and support me in Penticton. Made the decision this would be my last special occasion night and had a couple of beers and a few rums. Also watched the hangover and did some cross training while playing the Wii.
  
• Saturday I just took easy. Has been a hard couple weeks of training and work and rather than run myself into the ground caught up on sleep and some chores and then went for a 7km run to grab the car from where I had left it last night so I could have a few beers at the ball game. That night had to do some work for a release and after a couple hours online finished up some of my home office setup and set the alarm for an early wake up.
• Sunday 5:00am alarm goes :( plan was a couple hours of work max and then hit the road for a ride then a swim. Plans don't always shake out :(. 5am became 7am which became 9am and finally at about 1pm I was free. This is where flexibility comes in -definitely wanted to swim so got in 5 x 550m at Kits pool which was book ended by 1.5km runs. I then got on the bike a rode to the bbq for a group of friends, luckily they are from the tri world so they understood me turning up in Lycra. Chilled around that eating BBQ for a couple hours and then did a short 50km Hard ride before returning to the BBQ wrap up.
  

So all in all hit most of my objectives for the weekend. Are going to crash early and set out on a 5am ride to get the rest of the weekend bike mileage in that I had planned. In the end will have swum about 3km, Ran about 45km and biked about 160km (If I get in 100km in the am). Can't complain with that especially considering I also worked 11 hours, caught up on sleep, caught up with two groups of friends and organized the office.

Is there a lesson in this - not really. However the fact that most of us have lives with conflicting priorities at times it is still get stuff down if you have an upbeat flexible approach. I could have moped about because things didn't go as planned but instead rolled with it had some variety in my weekend and achieved my objectives.

Feeling nice and fresh now for a 4 to day training camp in Penticton beginning on Thursday. Will look to adjust my schedule a little to allow for a quality weekend.

Chores to do and sleep to be had - stay flexible out there!!!

5 Weeks to Go Time - IMC Awaits

A short post on the next 5 weeks. At the moment are a mixture of excited, nervous and ready for IMC. From a training perspective swim is slowly improving, have had some really good weekends on the bike and run is feeling strong although I suppose I will not know until race day.

Have gone through some big sessions that will prepare me well for race day and the focus for the next few weeks will be dialing in my nutrition. This coming week are heading to Penticton for 5 days and plan will be a mix of all 3 disciplines with a Race Day Simulation on the bike.

Some specifics on the last big workout for each discipline;

Swim - 10 x 550m at race pace (40 Laps of Kits Pool)
Bike - IMC Course Race Simulation
Run - 90 minutes easy + 90 minute progression run (45 minutes at marathon pace - 20 minutes :10 to :15/km faster than marathon pace - 10 minutes progressing gradually from threshold to 5k pace)

These above workouts will give me an idea of where my fitness is at and target times. From a racing strategy the following is the approach I will take into these workouts and hence race day;

• I will be looking to focus on technique in the swim
• Maintaining my target HR range on the bike using course time checks as a secondary indicator
• Focusing on form and cadence on the run and using any spikes or drops in HR as a warning indicator. Achieving my potential on the run is going to be about pushing hard but not hard a using the pain as energy.

That is the quick thoughts for today. Looking forward to the next few weeks and formulating the final race plan for IMC

Video Post of Epic Ride in Penticton

traditional Blog Post of this ride is located at


http://opensourcetriathlon.blogspot.com/2009/07/epic-riding-day-in-penticton.html

If you understand this behind accent and wind congratulations

Epic Riding Day in penticton!!!

Ok for something new a video post - Post Ride Re-Cap. For those Who can't be bothered watching a Vid, can't understand my accent, was too much background in the video a summary is below.

But wait...my video will nto upload to a slow connection so will post that as soon as I can get it on youtube!!!! Text Version of the report below.

So the objective of today's ride was to get some exposure to the Okanagon heat, stay away from the IMC course as much as possible, explore some new territory and climb as much as possible.

We are staying at the Lost Moose Lodge overlooking penticton and decended down to the town. head out along the IMc course and down McClean Creek Road as wanted to practice the decent whihc is not technical but has a few bloindish corners which are hard to attack if you do not have the confidence.

From tehre it was through OK Falls up Green Mountain Road to Whitelake Road and past the observatory. The scenery up here was very unique with a desert landscape and temperatures touched around 42 degrees in the open sun off the taramc according to my watch.

Hit up twin lakes golf course for a turkey bun and more gatorade before decending down from twin lakes towards keremeos and picking up Green Mountain Raod again toward APEX and down through the Indian Band Lands to Penticton.

At this point had covered about 105km in 4 hours and was only 7.75km from the campsite. Only issue those 7.75 km where up a 7.5% Average grade with multiple switch backs and sections definetely exceeding 10%. Pretty sure I bonked half way up and ran out of liquid making the last 4km and absolute brute. Did not break any records on this ascent and averaged around 8km/h (Lol). Dragged myself into camp rehydrated and looked at the crazy amount of salt caked on my jersey :) More sodium next time out.

In the end an epic ride where I had to push myself as was out solo and climbed around 600o feet over 110 or so km.

Total ride time was around 5 hours and average HR held at 146 (72% of MAx). Spent lots of time in zone, lots of time climbing, saw some new territory and had fun. Once agains proves that the best riding in Penticton is off the IMC course (did not get buzzed once by truck, camper etc!!!)

Nutrition summary was a lara bar, cliff bar, turkey bun with mustard, 2 Gatorade, 2 Powerade, 2 Water. Deifnetely needed more fluids and salt in retrospect but oh well....live and learn. Also if it is smoking on race day aero helmet may be left at home....was hot even under my cat like...whished I'd spent the extra $100 for the whisperlite.

I met pain and fatigue today and survived!!! Tommorow's agenda is long run, maybe one repeat up the hill then lunch with Family before a country wedding and reception. Sunday will be a long ride with the kiwis. Hoepfully I can sneak in a couple swims as well.

Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon - Half Iron Race Report

No real theme to to this race report. It was fun to race on home turf and in front of so much local support. Thanks all and the final stretch to IMC and beyond has now begun. The next few months have a bit of this in order....

Pain, Fatigue meet Jeremy

!!!!I believe you have met before but I sense you are going to become really good friends!!!!

Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon - Half Iron Race Report

Total Time - 4:38:47

23/211 Overall
19/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

The Lead In

So the Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon was a B Race on my calender and as a result although I did not give it on the bike the day before like Oliver, I did partake in a long run with an interval finish on the Thursday prior to the race so was feeling a little bit tired but more the normal feeling associated with training load.

In the days before the race I had a good shakeout swim on the Friday along with a shakeout ride on the Saturday. A big brunch at the cannery followed by some home style Mexican on race evening had me fueled up for Sunday.

Race Morning

After about 5 and half hours sleep the alarm went at 3:40am and I awoke to some home made espresso, toast and Vegemite and a little bit of the TDF preview show. The race site for the Half was about 3km from my house so after a short drive I parked and arrived at Transition about 1 hour 20 minutes before race start and proceeded to set up transtion.

Transition set up went smmothly and after a coule last minute things headed down to the swim start and did about a 100m warmup. As the race was being taped for TV this was a beach start which suits me to be honest and the gun went.

1.9km Swim 40:04
131/211 Overall
93/147 Male
6/12 M25-29

Although I had a slow swim I though I focussed well and kept working through out the swim. To increase speed will be down to technique improvements which is a focus before IMC. The first buoy was definetely one of the roughest I have been involved in and I felt a little bit lost between the 1st and second buoys.

Coming back in a felt like I was getting pushed a little to the right. After a beach exit my first lap time was 19:26. The second lap I thought I swam well and worked with another guy for the duration and was able to recover on feet for quite a bit. In the end my time was 20:38 for the second lap. It seems that most of the fields second lap was slightly longer due to the location of the start vs the beach exit.

Swim was definetely slower than target however I feel if I can do the technique work required should be able to get some key improvements for the rest of this season. It seems swim times were a little slower around the board here so are happy with how I worked the swim even though still not happy about giving up 7 to 9 minutes to most of my competition.

T1 - 2:09
34/211 Overall
21/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

T1 involved a sand run across the beach. Unfortunately most of this was "matted" as I would have been up for a early test of leg strength. I picked up 14 spots in T1 and although it wasn't super quick it was methodical and I was on to the bike course.

91km Bike - 2:33:50 (Avg 35.5km/h)
25/211 Overall
21/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

The biggest disadvantage about having a sub standard swim is that the bike leg is effectively and Individual Time Trial for myself with no one to really guage my effort off as I tend to be significantly faster than the people in front of me and do not have much pressure from behind.

For this ride I aimed to keep my heart rate just below red line for as much as possible. All in all I was happy with my ride, I know my workrate slackenned off in a couple sections but managed to pace the ride pretty even through out the four laps.

All in all I hit my target for this leg and although it looks like my Heart Rate dropped a little bit throughout the leg meaning I left a couple minutes on the course I was very happy with the bike. Add to this no mechanical issues and life was good.

T1 - 0:53
9/211 Overall
8/147 Male
1/12 M25-29

Went real smooth, had a slight hiccup in identifying my exact racking spot but only lost about a second due to hesitation. Also re racked bike to leave my neighbors enough room. My transition approach for bike to run seems to be working well so no need to change just perfect a couple of the small things.

20km Run - 1:21:51 (Avg 4:06 min per km)
13/211 Overall
11/147 Male
1/12 M25-29

Coming on to the run I figured I had about a 10 minutes to make up on Nick Gottfried who was running near the front in my age group. This being a b race I wanted to see what going out at open half marathon pace would be like and give the catch a chance. Nick's run at Victoria was pretty strong so I figured would have to nail the run to have a chance of a catch along with a bit of bad luck on Nicks side.

Out of the blocks I hit a 4 minute km at which point the bike for the lead male was approaching. I figured this was my best chance to push myself hard and see what pushing a hard pace on the run was like. Jordan Rapp had smoked the bike course and was in the lead so I just tried to pick up my pace to maintain the gap I had on him (Note I am 1 lap down). I was able to do this through the trails of Jericho and through about the 6km part of the run. At this point I felt my heart rate was beginning to spike a little bit (data corroborates) too much and decided to turn the pace down a notch at which time Jordan Rapp ran away to his victory in a smoking time of 3:53:17

From km's 6 to 10 I just tried to find a rythm and pick targets on the out and back. With 10km to go its essentially just a matter of continuing to work, around the 12km mark I passed Tony Buckingham and was holding 4:10 min km's. In the end I made a couple other passes and managed to hold off Cheryl Murphy over the last couple of km's who was charging through the womens field.

Splits for the run are in the data section of report, but in all was happy with my run. I did not negative split after my "attacking start" which covered 5km in 18 minutes. However it was a risk I needed to take make up places and I was happy how I was able to recover after having red lined early in the run. From a time lost perspective I do not think it cost me more than 1 minute in the overall scheme of things.

The run definetely was a hot one and I was happy with how I kept my core temperature down and kept hydrated. Having said this I may be tempted to go wioth a visor over a cap in future races but are still undecided (I could do a post on the pro's and cons as I see them)

I continued my record of not being passed on the run and in the end I had the 2nd Fastest Age Grouper run split on the day. My run is feeling good and considering I had my hardest run workout of the year 3 days prior are confident going into IMC I can put on a good show.

A Podium Finish and Key Highlights

• Quickly met a couple people form the blog world - Meyrick and Erin
• So my efforts today got me 2nd in the M25-29 Age Group finishing 4 minutes 38 behind the category winner Nick Gottfried.
• 13th Fastest Run Split and 2nd Fastest Age Grouper Run Split.
• 14th Fastest Bike/Run (4th in the age groupers) - !!!!!Swim Focus Needed!!!!!
  
• Bike under pre race target time
• Post Race BBQ ..... mmmm BBQ!!!!!
  

Goal Review

I hit my C Goal in terms of time for this race but given the comparative times of others at the race I am upgrading my result to a B.

The key thing that jumps out as always is the need to improve my swim while I think my bike is where it needs to be at for Ironman although a few weeks of intensity work will help push up that threshold. From a run perspective looking at the avg times across the fields I would have to say my goal was achieved and I learned a lot about how I can recover mid race.

Joe vs Pro Time

So today my times are compared against Jordan Rapp who absolutely destroyed the course record.

Overall
3:53:17 (Jordan) vs 4:38:47 (Jeremy)
19% slower

Swim
26:15 (Jordan) vs 40:04 (Jeremy) 52% slower

T1
1:42 (Jordan) vs 2:09 (Jeremy) 26% slower

Bike
2:13:03 (Jordan) vs 2:33:50 (Jeremy) 16% slower

T2
1:05 (Jordan) vs 0:53 (Jeremy) 18% Faster

Run
1:11:15 (Jordan) vs 1:21:51 (Jeremy) 15% slower

Shout Outs

• To Leslie for coming out and supporting as always
  
• To my Sponsors Foreunners and Newton.
  
• Harry once again took out his age group and was the third age grouper across the line in 4:30:12
• Vincent Lavalle who came second in his age group with a time of 4:32:52
• Rachel Kiers who backed up from 5th at IM CDA three weeks ago to come 6th Female in a time of 4:40:18
  
• Tony Buckingham came thrid in his age group with a time of 4:41:23 and won the draw prize - a trip to go watch Kona!!!!
• Andrew Powell who had a time of 5:21:38
  
• Paul Walker made his Half Iron debut with a time of 5:49:2 - Congrats
• Erin Lee broke her target time of 6 hours with a time of 5:53:35. was good to finally "meet" on the run course
• Jared who hit all his training goals for the race by staying in "Zone"
• Amy & Cyrus who were part of the winning mixed relay team.
  
• Calvin Gehlen and Jenny Cheung who raced up in the Desert Half in Oysoos. Looks like it may have been hot and windy up there.
  
• Meyrick Jones - Was good to finally meet face to face
• To all those in the Twitter/Email world who sent messages of support along with those out at the race who cheered me on.
• Everybody who dropeed by the impromptu post race/pre award bbq.
• To all the volunteers including Barb, Gerry Mike and Doug from Speed Theory (Who spent his whole weekend volunteering)
• Murray form Speed Theory who tweaked my drive train on Saturday
  
• Jerry Ziak from Foreunners who has been helping me with my running - I promise I will not over analyze my run splits
• Thanks to all those who follow my blog, twitter, paper notes left on the side of the road. One of the cool things about tri is the sense of community and I hope my blog helps add to that.
  

I don't want to but I will write this note

Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of littering on the bike course today with bottles, gel wrappers etc everywhere. Bottles I can understand if they launch but there is no excuse for gel wrappers and the like. If we want races in Vancouver it is up to athletes to keep the course clean.

Drafting - I am shocked that there were a sum total of ............. ZERO drafting penalties today. I saw and passed a couple of loosely formed pace lines today especially down marine and chancellor. I would rather see some people get hit with a drafting penalties that could be "considered harsh" in a zero tolerance model rather than this warning approach. If you need to warn somebody hit them with a 4 minute penalty end of story. The winds were up a little on marine today and there would have definitely been benefit for those sucking wheels.

Data Summary

Overall Bike/Run Heart Rate

Avg Hr = 170 (83% of Max)
Max HR = 191 (94% of Max)

Swim

Lap 1 = 19:26 (2:03 per 100m)
Lap 2 = 20:38 (2:10 per 100m)

Bike

Lap 1 - 24km Including Out - 39:42 (Avg 36.27 km/h)
Lap 2 - 21.5km - 36:36 (Avg 35.25km/h)
Lap 3 - 21.5km - 36:32 (Avg 35.31km/h)
Lap4 - 24km Including In (Avg 35.12km/h)

Avg Hr = 164 (80% of Max)
Max HR = 185 (91% of Max)

Run

Lap 1 (4.7 km) - 17:11 (3:36 min/km)
Lap 2 (5.3km) - 22:40 (4:17 min/km)
Lap 3 (4.7 km) - 19:54 (4:14 min/km)
Lap 4 (5.3 km) - 22:06 (4:10 min/km)

Avg Hr = 178 (87% of Max)
Max HR = 191 (94% of Max)

Splits (per km)

3:58, 4:00, 3:30, 3:42. 3:41, 4:20, 4:22, 4:22, 4:20, 4:23
4:28, 4:21, 4:24, 4:15, 4:15, 4:18, 4:20, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40

Flash Announcement - Post Vancouver Half iron BBQ

Have just packed my BBQ and Cooler, Esky, Chilli Bin. Will be grilling a selection of Meat and Non Meat options from around Noon (Depending on my arrival time (Hopefully around 11) and subsequent state :) until the Half Iron Awards at 1:30pm.

I havw a chunk of supplies so just drag yourslefs there after the finish to say hi.Will be located around the Finish Line and may have a Pacific Spirit Triathlon Club Banner or Aussie Flag to indicate our location.

Rock it big time to all those who are racing tommorow at the Vancouver Half Iron or the Desert Half Iron.

Chocolate Milk is in hand I am off to bed!!!!!

Vancouver Half Iron - Home Turf - Time to Rock It

Quick race Preview

Key Focus for this race
Focus. I am feeling quite pumped for this race and really want to bring my A Game to this race. If I focus on the process and my work rate life should be good.

Swim (1.9km) - Target is 36 Min
Theme is redemption - The swim is two loops and I am going to look at it as 2 x 950m sets with a a short sand run in between.

Bike (91km) - Target is 2 hours 36 Min (Avg Speed 35km/h)
Going to attack this hard, look to spin up Spanish banks a try and keep the Heart Rate just under the redline.

Run (20.5km) - Target is 1 hour 20 minutes (Avg Speed 3:54 per/km)
Time to execute a damn fast run in one of these races. This is were I run all the time and I know the course back to front. Will be going out hard and trying to hold the pace in the second 10km. Hope to average around 3:50 per km for the first 10km and make up ground on as many people as possible

A, B and C Goals

This is not a fast bike course so my goals need some adjustment compared to Victoria. As a result my goals are as follows

A Goal is sub 4:30
B Goal is sub 4:35
C Goal is Sub 4:40

Home Turf Baby
Go hard or go home. Home is only 2 km away so feel like I know this course backwards. Hoping it gets damn hot out there as that would be a good rehearsal for IMC. Time to finish packing then get some sleep.

A boring Post for the data junkies - a long run analyzed

This one is for the data junkies. This is what a workout looks like when downloaded from my Suunto T6C. Tonight's workout was a long run with a 90 minute warmup at easy pace around kits, jericho and spainish bank beaches (around 5 min km) then 8x 800m > Lactate Threshold with 800m float recovery.

I got my course a little wrong however was averaging around 3:56 per km for the interval which was slower than target and something I need to work on next time in terms of pushing harder. My float sessions averaged around 4:56 per km. From a heart rate perspective I would expect a faster than LT session to avg around 180 and peak above 185

Starting to see the value in a foot pod for data analysis but not sure if it would end up giving me too much data. Would be happy to test drive one for a month or so though :)

Surface for the intervals was hard packed trails around Jericho Beach (Likely lost about 8 sec a km as a result) and ran in my Newton Neutral Racers

Click on the images below to enlarge

Analyze My Position

I am riding the Dino Prehistoric

Tour to Hell and Back - Stage 1 complete

Stage 1 Report - Kits to Harrison Hot Springs

After a day of work, headed out about 1 hour behind schedule so was fighting daylight on my journey. As those from Vancouver will know riding through Vancouver can be a little bit of a struggle at times with traffic and all so I new I would be off to a slow start.

Being a point to point ride I brought a few more tools than normal and dropped into Speed Theory on the way out to grab a patch kit in case of more than two flats. For those interested for these rides I bring a full allen key set, boot, two tubes, 2c02, a c02 inflator, mini pump and red light along with a cygolite battery and the light mounted to the stem. Add to this I had my blackberry, camera, 6 gu's, credit cards & id and a second water bottle. The c02, inflator and tubes live on the bike along with the first water bottle and the rest is in my jersey pocket making me look like a super domestique :)

As always got stuck in traffic in Vancouver and given the traffic decided to head out along the Barnet Highway to try and gain some time. From this point on was able to pick up the pace and although I hit a few lights through Coquitlam was out in Pitt Meadows and working hard in the aero position. I rejoined the Lougheed near the Albion Ferry and refuelled with a couple bottles of Gatorade just outside of Mission.

Once getting past Mission the ride gets nice and rural with mountains to the left a right and the Fraser river remaining close by. I had tunes going in my non traffic ear and was singing along especially when a bit of Michael Jackson hit the play list. Just tried to get in a steady rhythm through this section and was averaging about 38km/h on the flats. Before I knew it I was into Harrison Mills and after a a little uphill section (Not as much as I had remembered from driving I was descending towards Harrison.

By this time it was 9:20pm and the sun was just setting just in time for me to hit the last 6km to Harrison Hot Springs before the twilight disappeared. All in all this was sweet ride and one of the most scenic I have enjoyed. Leslie had just arrived at the condo when I rolled in so my timing was perfect.

Tomorrow is the ride to Hell!!!!! Hell's Gate that is and a visit to Dinotown before a medium run.

Ride stats from today

Distance - 130km, Elapsed Time - 4:15 Ride Time - 4:05, Average Speed 32km/h, Avg HR 145, Max HR 174, Max Speed 70km/h, Ascent 713 metres (2339 Feet), Decent 711 metres (2333 Feet)

Some photos from today are embedded below;

Going to Hell and Back - Weekend Plans

So tonight my plan is to start a journey towards hell. After work I will be riding from Vancouver to Harrison Hot Springs via the number 7 Highway. This ride is about 137km door to door with a few nice little climbs interspersed. No super happy about having to ride with having to ride at rush hour but are taking the SFU hill to avoid Barnet highway madness. Hope to knock this ride of in about 4.5 hours

Ride to Harrison Hot Springs

View Larger Map


Tomorrow morning I will the get to ride to Hell!!!!! Hells Gate in the Fraser Canyon that is. From Harrison this is about a 90km sojourn which from what I can find goes through about 7 tunnels. The fudge factory may get destroyed depending on my energy levels.

Ride to Hell's Gate

View Larger Map


Leslie (My Wife) is going to drive out there at a more reasonable hour and we are going to go check this out then drive back and head to Dino Town in Chilliwack. Two grown adults at a dinosaur theme park should be the highlight of the trip with mini golf and paddle boats on the agenda. Add to this the awesome theme song on the website and you can't go wrong.

Upon this adventure I plan to run back to Harrison Hot Springs and go for a cool down dip in the lake

Run from Dinotown to Harrison Hot Springs

View Larger Map



Sunday I plan to hang out during the day, maybe go for a swim and then head off after lunch back to Vancovuer. Haven't decided on ride route yet but this one is under consideration

Ride Home via 0 avenue???

View Larger Map

Camera is a chargin and will try to put together a photo journal plus route report. Good times ahead with around 400km of cycling ahead this weekend.

Garbage Effort - VOWSA Canada Day Challenge 4km Swim Race Report

1:26:26101/124 Overall, 60/71 Males and 8/8 in M25-29.

I can handle racing bad but when I come out of a race questioning my work ethic for the journey I get pretty damn grumpy. So today was the Canada Day Swim at Sasamat Lake as hosted by VOWSA.

After a few days off due to a cold/virus that had me sleeping a lot I was still keen to put in a half decent performance at this event and was hoping to be able to maintain at least the pace I had put up in my recent tri's.

Begin a swim race I didn't do a huge amount of race planning and this may have been an issue. After getting into the suit I found a half decent spot and went at the gun. I tried to group myself with some feet and look to work of them. To some degree I think this was part of my issue as I do not think I attacked the first 200m hard enough and the feet I found turns out were reasonably slow. My main mistake here was not realizing this for about 800m and by this time all other feet had long gone.

I worked on the back section trying to keep stroke cues in my head and I think this was part of my issue as was thinking about to many things and not really executing any well. After this section and turning back for the end of the first lap I saw the feet I had been working of at the start and I think I had either dropped back due to poor work ethic or bad sighting. Through the first lap I was 41:45 which was behind target but I figured with a good second lap I could recover a 1:20 (C Goal).

On the second lap I seemed to be pulling away from my on and off companion for the first lap and rounding the second buoy I came across one of the female's who had started 5 minutes after. Figuring they must have more momentum I worked side by side with them for about 1km but in reflection once again they must have been fading as my effort level to do this was quite easy and at about the 3400m mark I made the decision to try and jump the gap to the next two set of feet. The fact I bridged this 70m gap in about 400m indicates that I should have been working harder all race.

Coming into the finish I had problems sighting the chute and when I got up to my dismay my second lap was even slower than the first at 44:40. Overall time was 1:26:26 coming 101/124 Overall, 60/71 Males and 8/8 in M25-29.

So the aftermath is as such

• Need to really get a good idea of my perceived effort swimming open water. I could have gone and swam at that pace for 4 more km's.
• Need to have a swim plan for triathlons and execute. I would nearly rather go out to hard and blow up than come in like this again. Had I planned this out I could have had time goals for each buoy as the distances where marked on the race map.
• Swim focus must continue. I do not think this was the issue here but still have huge technique gains to make.
• Just because you are on feet does not mean they are fast. Hung on feet really well for about half this race but turns out they were the wrong feet.

The upside of today!!!!!

• The equivalent IMC time (With no drafting) would be 1:22:07. This is 14 minutes faster than IMC last year and although nowhere near where I have been swimming in my races is still a 15% improvement on this. My IMC target in my head is 1:10:00 so it is still a long way off that and I have 8 weeks to make the requisite improvements.
  
• This is huge motivation. I am super angry about my race today (Have not been this angry about a sport in years) and need to harness this for motivation. Crap effort and poor race planning is something that I can not tolerate in Training let alone racing. To be honest if I can I am going to try and slip in 30 minutes at the pool tonight depending what my friends plans are for Canada Day eve. A repeat of today's performance will not happen and I will have specific swim goals for the Vancouver Half Iron.
  

Thanks for tolerating this grumpy race report. the times from his race I am going to print off for motivation to kick my @#$@ in the pool for the next few weeks with a big focus on drills.

FYI the VOWSA race was an awesome race and well run and I definitely plan to do more in their 2009 series.

Out!!!!!!

Sleep, Long Intervals and a Pre Race Preview

Sleep (63% - Yeah Baby)

So are well tapered for this as slept 53 hours in 84 hour period (63% vs a normal avg of 35%) since turning 29. Now I know getting old sometimes has an effect but never new that much. Anyway think I am over whatever I had today actually had an appetite and bar an evening nap energy levels were high.

Long Intervals - Back Running :)

From a good news perspective completed my first long interval workout since my hamstring strain and remembered how to hut again. There is something pure about doing a run workout on your own and just giving it to hit your targets knowing that no-one would really know if you eased off. This sense of discipline is something that I need to transfer over to the swim and bike a little bit more.

My run workout was a leg swings and balance board at home followed by a 10 minute warm up jog then 5 5 minute intervals with 5 minutes of a walking recovery. Did this as a pyramid with Intervals 1 and 5 and Half Marathon Pace, 2 and 4 at 10km Pace and Interval 3 at 5km pace. Felt slow but was within a second or three per km of these metrics so can't complain. Key part was no hamstring tightness so are happy with this aspect.

Pre Race Preview - VOWSA Canada 4km Swim at Sasamatt

About to powernap before heading out to volunteer, powernap, race and then do some riding around Sasamatt. This swim will give me an idea of where I am at for Ironman and given a pretty crappy lead in this past week any time I get out of this would be the "low benchmark".

My focus is going to be on a nice long stroke, good body roll and jkeeping focussed for the duration of the swim. Will definetely be multi-loop but not sure if it involves multiple entry and exits or just buoy turns. From a race goal perspective here goes;

A Goal - 1:15:00 - Would be shocked if I nailed this but A Goals aren't meant to be easy

B Goal 1:17:30 - This would be consistent with my Oliver Pacing

C Goal 1:20:00 - Holding 2 min 100m is at least a mental breakthrough for this loinger distance.