Splash, Pedal, Shiver
Just sent this report to the coach:
The weather was cool and rainy.. but was looking to clear by race time. So I made the call on what I was going to wear over my kit on the bike and went in to the pool for race meeting and warmup.
Got a solid warmup, felt REALLY GOOD in the water. Looked at the lane sheet.... I was in the lane with all the fastest swimmers... seeded 10 of 12. The 1500m (LCM) went by easy... I kept a steady, but never pushing it too much pace. Exited in ~23min?. I think I could have pushed a bit more... the swim felt just too easy!
Ran out to transition and the dark clouds had returned with some light rain. I left transition with another guy who was going at a good clip, so I settled in behind him and waited for my legs to warm up before I wound it up a bit faster. As I approached the turnaround at 20km I was VERY cold, and getting colder. I was in 9th place.. we were all within 2-3mins of each other. I think I was making time on the leaders as they had swam around 19mins. I hit the turn-around and it was full on into a headwind and driving rain... I went completely numb. I found a car at 25km and pulled the plug. I was hypothermic, and uncontrollably shivering for about 15mins.
I think I was so keen on racing fast... that I forgot to race for the conditions. 40 seconds extra in transition putting on warm clothing would have saved my day.
Now to clean the mud off my new bike. Joy.
Ready to race
Tomorrow is the first real race of the season for me.... the Splash, Pedal, Gasp triathlon in Lethbridge. It's an Olympic distance race with a 50m pool swim, screaming fast and flat out n' back bike, and a run that has a steep descent into the valley, and a climb out of the valley to finish. If I recall... this was the first triathlon I ever did.
Since the Police 1/2 marathon I've been nursing a foot injury, and have had to back off my run sessions a bit. On my short run today, my foot was still a bit sore.. so I'm hoping I don't injure it further on the race tomorrow. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good, have the new bike setup and ready to go... and am going to give it my all.
At the moment, I'm in Calgary at Tanya and Ryan's place. Naomi and them all rode out to Bragg Creek today... and I wish I could have gone with. The riding in Calgary is so outstanding, I miss it a lot. I drove out to Bragg for fun... since I didn't feel like sitting around all day. Ran into Carson and Mike at the coffee shop out there and sat around for 30mins and chatted.
Well... will post a race report tomorrow if I find the time...
My new ride
I ended up taking an extra long lunch hour today to head down to
Element to pick up my brand new Felt B2! Cam dialed it in almost exactly to the position on my old P3. It's setuup a tiny bit steeper (a tad over 82 degrees), and I'll probably tweak the position just slightly in the next couple of weeks.
I opted to replace the default Vision bars and crappy brake levers, with the Easton Attack TT bars, and the high end Vision brake levers. The only other mod from the original spec was the aero Q-rings. The big ring is in position 5 and the small ring in position 3. Cam had to shave a wee bit off the dérailleur mount to get the ring to fit! Unfortunately, due to the length of the chainstays, I'll also not be able to run my two easiest gears while in the big ring... but that's not necessary for TT'ing anyways.
A fine weekend
A great weekend here in Edmonton, some good training and some entertainment watching the Velocity stage cycling race. Congrats to the Speed Theory guys who seemed to be having a good weekend... and to Frank... the TT specialist? I better watch out as he's taken up triathlon this year! You can read the fine details of our weekend on Naomi's blog...
On Friday I dropped in to Element to check out my new bike. I have a bit of mixed emotions.. I can't wait to try out the new machine.. but I've put so many miles on my P3.. I'm going to miss it. I just couldn't find time to get it fitted up and out of the shop this weekend... so hopefully Tuesday I'll pick it up. I should be able to get it all dialed in and ready for the Lethbridge race this weekend. It's hard to believe triathlon season is here already!
Notice the new date for the Sandy Beach Duathlon in myraces. I'll keep that one on the schedule too. Marc advised me to go and complete my 2 hour brutality session later that race day... that will be interesting.... but a good prep for Oliver 1/2 in 4 weeks time.
No news on the wedding yet. We're so busy with a million other things. I don't want to hear any complaining about the Wednesday date! It's the only day that works for Naomi and I so we're not changing it!
QOTD
From Marc (da coach):
"Keeping it simple means less bullshit. Less bullshit in Triathlon means we've made a difference."
WOO!
New blog look
Yep... got bored of the old blog look. Chose this from the template gallery. Am hoping to get the WordPress blogging software installed in the next month and tweak things a bit further.
Police 1/2 - a great result for me. Calgary was fun. Naomi ghosted for a PB.
Wedding info - Yes, you can come (maybe) :-). No, it won't be fancy. Life is pricey, our wedding can't be! Summerland... maybe.
I need sleep.
