Ready to start!

I think I’m all set.  Here’s the quick picture tour:

I went to the athletes banquet last night:

And then the subsequent officials briefing for the rules.

After which I walked across the street back to the hotel, but I did skip the Psychic Demo:

This morning I swam and then biked, and then following a nap I unfolded all my bags (Morning Dry Clothes Bag, Pre-Bike Bag, Pre-Run Bag,  Mid-Bike Bag, and Mid-Run Bag).

And then as usual I laid out everything I had for each section of the course, to ensure I had all the items covered.  Nutrition would come later…

After that I headed down to the transition area to drop off my bike and bags:

First up was finding my rack, which happened to be in just about the exact same place as last year:

After saying goodbye (well, really just goodnight) to the bike, I went on to drop off the bags.

First I dropped off my “Swim to Bike” bag, which contains my cycling shoes and helmet.  For this race they aren’t allowing non-pro’s to put their shoes or helmet on their bike.

Then I wandered over to look at the Bike to Run bags.  I decided against dropping off this bag today, and instead will ditch it tomorrow morning.  Too much to deal with nutrition wise that I didn’t want to have to juggle everything mentally in one day.

And finally, tonight after dinner I put together all my nutrition.  I’m using Infinit Nutrition (custom blends) on both the bike and the run.  And just in case on the run I also have backup with EFS gel (which I was using previously).

So with that, I’m ready to roll.  Coach Alan and I have put together a race plan that should result in a good day.  For me, it’ll all come down to the run.  And more specifically – miles 6-13.  Mentally those are the toughest for me.  It’s by the lake, quiet (no spectators allowed there), and you haven’t hit the turnaround yet.  Ironically my fastest miles last year were actually 15-26.2  Assuming I can keep running, then I’ll be in awesome shape time-wise.  While you can never control anyone else’s race and thus slots to the big dance, I’m obviously looking for a sub-10 race (by a fair bit).  I’ll avoid detailing out exact splits, as the only way to guarantee a slot is to be on the podium, so those are the times we’re shooting for.  It’ll just be a matter of executing a nice run.

Hope to see some of you out there!

I’m number 175, which you can track all day long on Ironman.com.  Swim starts at 7AM PST (three hours behind Eastern time).

See ya – and thanks for all the folks who have e-mailed, texted, or called!  And now…I’m off to bed.

Ironman Canada – Underwear Run

Well, technically it’s called the ‘Underpants Run’, but – essentially all the same.  For those of you who’ve been around the block a while on this blog, you might remember I stumbled into the back of this last year during my first Ironman.  This year though – I came prepared (translated: I read the sign on the Starbucks door the night before).

This annual tradition is simply a casual jog around the finishing region/streets here in Penticton, BC.  The distance is marked as a 3K run, but it basically includes a swing through the hotel to wave at all the people on their balconies, and then a stop at the lake’s edge to confuse the rest of the athletes getting in their swim workouts.

But first up though – is signup.  You pay $10 to get a special pair of undies, all benefiting charity.

After that, you stand around a bit (while wearing just a bit) as everyone else anxiously awaits the start.

Then…it’s time for the athlete’s oath.  This ceremony involves repeating a specific pledge covering a wide range of topics – all critical to the run, and life in general as a triathlete.  Because I’m all about covering the details, I captured the following video (you’ll have to likely visit this page if reading in an RSS reader).  Well worth it!

After that, it’s time to head on out!

Above we’re swinging through the hotel – if you look closely, you can see people out on the balcony.  One girl even ran right out the front of the hotel and pulled off her pants to run along in her underwear.  That’s getting into the spirit!

Then we rounded the corner to the front of the lake.  The tents you see are actually part of the transition area for the race.

Once there, we went through a number of stretches and other rituals.

After that we eventually would wander on back.  The whole thing is pretty short, but also fairly funny.  I bailed off the end at the beach as I had to get in my workouts in for the day, so my run was a bit short.  Though, if you combine my efforts last year, with my efforts things year – I think I’ve almost got the whole course covered. :)  No pun intended.

Btw, if you want to see all the Ironman Canada action from last year, here’s all the posts I did:

Ironman Canada – Day 1 – Travelling to Penticton & the 5K race
Ironman Canada – Day 2 – The expo, registration, driving the bike course, and the banquet
Ironman Canada – Day 3 – Registering for next (this) year, final preparations in transition area
Ironman Canada Race Report – Yup – the whole thing…one post.
Ironman Canada – When the clock strikes midnight – What happens at midnight at the finish line
Ironman Canada – The day after – All the ‘official’ things to do the next day while in pain

And…just for fun, the lead up to those two posts (written a year prior to that):

T-365 Days – My very first post to the blog, written one year from IMC
Ironman 2008 Registration Slumber Party – My second post, about sleeping in line to get registered

So with that, I’ve given you plenty of take-home reading material.  I’m going to take nap in preparation for this year’s athlete banquet this evening.  Tomorrow (Saturday) is filled with gear bag drop-off and transition goodness, along with another workout…which, btw – if the last two days are any indication – things are going darned pretty well!  Catch ya tomorrow!

A special message from The Girl

Yesterday after getting home from work, The Girl had a little present all wrapped up for me.  After I delicately opened (read: tore open without regard) the carefully wrapped package, I found myself a new t-shirt – designed and imported exclusively from The Girl’s own single-item clothing line (she actually makes really impressive dresses too…but I don’t generally wear them).  She had mentioned earlier in the summer that she was going to work on a t-shirt that I had to wear while up at IMC this year, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  But, after seeing presented it to me last night – it’s pretty kick-ass.

Thus, I give you – my official t-shirt:

On the front it features a moose, with the a maple leaf outline in red.  And on the back it features…well, it’s pretty obvious what it features…me (and 140.6 miles, the distance of the Ironman race).

On the two sleeves we’ve got more cool stuff.  First up – my right sleeve - offering a pictorial of all three sports:

And on my left sleeve, our Coach’s logo (we both have the same tri coach):

Awesome, huh?

HOWEVER!!!!!  THAT’S NOT ALL!

She also made a t-shirt for herself – and hers is pretty rockin’ too!  Here she is modeling it off this morning:

That’s my bib number on the front, traced in the outline of…well…a bib.  Along with the prerequisite Ironman Canada text.

And on the back:

Well, I’ll let ya read the text for yourself. :)

And the good news is she got the OK from work last night to be able to come along for the full trip. Woohoo – road trip! So her and I are bailing out to Seattle later this evening and then up to Penticton (the race site) early Thursday morning with the rest of the family.  Catch ya on the flip side!

The final stretch

With this past weekend in the books, everything ‘long’ is now over.  No more long runs, nor long Skyline rides.  Though, that didn’t mean things were all strawberries and peaches this past weekend in the workout world.

Saturday I had a relatively straightforward workout on the schedule:

Bike:
27 miles Z2
7 miles Z3/Z4A

Run:
15 mins Z2
15 mins Z3
15 mins Z4A
5 mins cool down

So with that, I set out on my bike into the wild blue yonder.

However, that ‘blue’ portion didn’t last too long.  It proceeded to monsoon.  Complete and total downpour.  Thunder, lightening and everything else opened up just overhead.  Even the deer and other wildlife I had seen earlier in the ride disappeared.

The good news though is that despite a few inches of water on the roadway at times, my avg speed and wattages were looking very nice, so that was good.

I then bailed off the bike and went for the run, where I was able to throw down some pretty descent numbers that are fairly promising for IMC.

However, when I got home to look at the data from the bike, I found my Garmin Edge 705 had crapped itself.  It took my over 45 minutes of (me) trying a gazillion troubleshooting steps just to try and get to thing to power on, only to finally succeed and see the following:

See that ‘0KB’?  That means empty file.  As a general rule of computers – an empty file is never really a good thing.  Ever.

Once again, another lost workout.  I try to be pretty understanding with technology – likely because I’m in the field myself – but I’m losing about a workout or so per month, and it’s incredibly frustrating.  While the 705 is an awesome device, the most common complaint amongst people who use it a ton is that it feels like we’re collectively beta-testing firmware (software) for the device – with basic quality control seemingly tossed out the window by Garmin at times.  I’m all up to date on firmware (I’m actually painfully familiar with the pro’s/con’s of each release for the device), but that doesn’t mean it fixes everything.

Unfortunately, the 310XT shares much of the same firmware code at the 705. :(  Though in this instance, at the 310XT did record my run quite successfully and without issue, so I’m still relatively happy with it at the moment. :)

Anyway, I figure at least if I had to lose a workout, I’d rather it be a 90 minute one as opposed to a 6 hour one.  I just hope I don’t lose next week’s Ironman Canada file…

Speaking of which, Sunday was a swim.  Woohoo!  And there’s nothing better than to have my ‘long swim’ be only 2,000y.  In a wetsuit no less.  Sweet!

I had a 1,000y of warm-up action to do, and then it was straight into a 1x1000y @ race pace set. For Ironman Canada next week, race pace will be 1,000y @ 14’, or basically 7 minute 500’s.  Though, that’s the target, it won’t be a hard and fast rule – perceived effort is far more important, especially on something like the swim in an Ironman.

Either way, if that pace is as easy as it was yesterday – on race day – then I’ll be in solid shape.  I ended up being 6:51 per 500 (or 13:41.99 for the 1,000), and in the wetsuit that was honestly not too hard at all.  I’d semi forgotten how much extra speed you get in a wetsuit (or the same speed for less effort) – and I’d say that my speed differences vs effort were on par with the usual number you hear of 5 minutes per mile saved in a wetsuit.

Along the way this weekend I also had the chance to walk through with Coach Alan the detailed race plan for next weekend.  I can say is it should make for an fun Sunday…that’s for sure.  I’m feeling much more confident on that swim pacing after yesterday’s swim.  The bike will be an interesting one – while we have a time target in mind, I’m somewhat fascinated to see how it turns out (hopefully more towards the side of “Holy crap, that was fast”).  As for the run…well, that’s where all the ‘fun’ is.  I’m feeling good about the run, but everything’s good about the run until you start the run.  That’s kinda the way that one works.

All in though, the race plan he’s constructed should put me well on the way to meeting my goals (actually, just one goal really), but it’ll take perfect nutrition by me, staying easy when required (again, by me), and then digging deep during the run (also again, by me).  Fun times…

With that, I’ve got a few more posts this week before the big dance.

Friday Tidbits

Without a doubt, the most important item to call out this morning, actually occurred this past Sunday morning.  As some of you will remember, my Mom’s been training for her first triathlon this summer.  And on Sunday, she officially became a triathlete.

She did an awesome job going from not having done any lap/open water swimming just a few months ago, to finishing her first tri – and came in the top half of all finishers!  Plus, her official race photos are pretty funny (see above) – I’ve never seen anyone smile so much during a race, heck – even exiting transition she was smiling away. :)

Congrats Mom!

Speaking of triathlon related things…a special something arrived from Garmin on Wednesday morning.

What would it be? A Garmin 310XT eval unit to complete a product review on.  It’s their successor to the Forerunner 305.  Since it arrived I’ve been taking a gazillion photos (from unpacking to configuration), and using it on virtually all my workouts. I have 30 days until it has to go back to the Garmin folks.

Look for a full detailed review in early to mid September after I’ve had time to really get a good grasp on it, like all my other detailed reviews (305/410/705).  Thus far though out of all the things I’m impressed with – perhaps the biggest is actually the HRM strap.  It’s a new fabric strap that’s way more comfortable than the old one.  Here’s the new one picture below.

You can see the comparison shot below, the new one is on top and the old one on the bottom.  The good news is the new style one also works with all of the other Garmin’s (305/405/705), the bad news is it’s a wee bit expensive.

And the 310XT pairs with the Quarq Cinqo power meter I’ve got (along with PowerTap and SRM units that I don’t have):

So with that, I’ll let you off the hook and avoid a long post so you can go forth and enjoy your Friday and weekend!

Weekend Part II – Just hanging around

Following a few days of triathlon related goodness in Luray, the Girl and I bailed back up into Shenandoah National Park to our mountainous hideaway for a few days away from it all.  We stayed at Skyland (within the park) - the same place I so often bike to on my long rides, and just rented out a small cabin that overlooks the valley below.

We spent a fair bit of the rest of Sunday just hanging out relaxing on a quilt the Girl made from old t-shirts (mostly running races), you can see it through the windows:

Ironically, it also overlooked the site of the Luray triathlon – that body of water there is actually Arrowhead Lake, where the tri was held.

Oh, as a random aside - some folks have asked along the way what cameras I use.  For all my bike rides I use a waterproof Optio W60.  It’s simply awesome.  No worries about dirt, sweat, or water.  And for all the ‘pretty pictures’ (race, above, etc…), I use a Canon Digital Rebel XTi with an assortment of both Canon lenses and Sigma lenses (most all of the photos from the tri were a Sigma 70-200 lens)…anyway…

On Monday we relaxed quite a bit, but we did at least do one little ‘hike’, I say ‘little’ because it was only about a mile round trip – purposefully short since Coach doesn’t want me doing much of anything except the prescribed workouts.

It actually crossed and then went along the Appalachian Trail for a bit, which runs along the ridgeline in Shenandoah National Park – right next to Skyline drive where I normally bike.

Though I didn’t see any bears this time, we did see evidence of them on the trash can near our cabin.

Following our mini-adventures on Skyline drive we left our cabin to go to Washington, Virginia.  No, that’s not a typo – but to the town of Washington…in the state of Virginia.

Our primary reason for coming to this little town was actually the food, but before we get to that, I want to mention where we stayed.

We had planned to stay at one B&B, but didn’t actually get a reservation given it was a Monday night, but upon swinging by we found out they were closed for renovation.  So after a bit of looking around at other places during the afternoon, we ended up choosing a small bed and breakfast just a few miles down the road from the restaurant – Caledonia Farms – which is an old (1812) farmhouse that overlooks lots of farmland and cows.  Here’s some pics:

The physical place/building itself is pretty nice (and the location incredible), though the interior could use some updating (not to change the historical nature, but rather to ‘tidy it up’ a bit).  The owner is a fairly interesting duck, Phil Irwin – who was host of Voice of America, apparently an international radio show way back in the 60’s (well pre-dating me).  While he was friendly, nice and cooked quite well, I think he…well, after 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to word it…I don’t know what I think.  Interesting duck, that’s all.

But the best part of the weekend was the FOOD!  See, there’s a place called the Inn at Little Washington, which is world renown (hey, The Queen (like The Girl, only not as cool or as good looking as The Girl) ate there, as have Presidents).  See, the Queen:

Ok…Queen aside…It’s consistently voted the best restaurant in the DC area (I say area as it’s 75 minutes away), and unlike most places, it’s been around 30+ years.  I’ve been wanting to go for quite a while, but the opportunity never presented itself.  So up until this point I was content with cooking things out of his cookbook – which is also awesome.

When we arrived, they welcomed us by our names (fairly impressive), and even had customized menu’s printed (damn impressive).  You could one of two preset menu’s, one that was more restricted and the second that had fewer overall courses, but lots more selection within each course.  We choose the second option.

All in I think we had about 6 or 7 different courses, some mentioned on the menu – and some freebies tossed in.  Here’s two dishes we had, The Beef Two ways – and the Seven Deadly Sins (for dessert), and below that, The Girl’s dessert selection – A Chocolate Ménage a Trios:

Unlike many trendy restaurants – we actually came away feeling full, which is good considering how much you pay for dinner.  And they even send you away a little box of cookies, chocolates and assorted goodness, all in a tiny little miniature of the Inn itself. Oh..as for the food?  Incredible.

Following dinner they took us on a tour of the kitchen – and to meet the Chef, both of which were pretty impressive.  The kitchen was unlike anything I imagined.  Designed to NOT look like a conventional commercial kitchen, it looked like a massive glorified (but very well polished) country kitchen.  Pretty cool.

After all this the following day we spent some time making our way through little towns back to DC, we swung briefly through a winery because we had gotten a free tasting card, but the wine in general kinda…sucked.  So, we just bought some chocolate sauce instead. :)

So with that…I’m back.  And it’s almost the weekend again…woohoo!