30K Around the Bay - Race Report

Well I finished the race, not as good as I had hoped for, but given the amount of training (not much) and the weather conditions I shouldn't have expected any different.
The timing chip failed to register at any of the interval points along the way, the only one it registered on was the start, all the other points along the way including the finish didn't register. Looking at the results page when I got home it looks like a lot of others had the same problem too.
The weather wasn't very nice, the day began with light rain and cool temperatures, about 5C to 6C ~ 41F. Before the start a moderate rain began, I waited inside for a while hoping it would break. Thankfully as I walked to the start line it lightened and as I stood in the fray it subsided to a light drizzle. The race started right on the dot at 9:30am. I started out a bit fast but eased off after the first 2km. At about the 5km mark the rain began again, by the time i hit the 10km mark I was quite wet. Then it was onto the causeway between Lake Ontario and Hamilton Harbour, the wind began picking up and the wet cloths began to feel cold. By 15km my legs began to get sore and started to stiffen up, by the 20km mark I was pretty much reduced to walking. Between the wind biting into me, and the undulating hills I began to have second thoughts about finishing, but then I thought, your not a quitter no matter what you can finish this. Heck I made it 2/3 of the way around so I may as well finish it now.
At about the 25km mark I meet up with a tough old 75 year old man who has been running this race for years. He had entered as a walker this year, we walked together and chatted for most of the way. Great guy and really enthusiastic, boy I hope I am in as great shape as he is when I hit 75. Made me realize there is still hope for me yet. In the last 2km I finally sucked it up and ran as best I could to the finish.
Ended up finishing in 4:07:20 by my watch. The HRM was acting up most of the way, it wasn't until I had finally dried out somewhere past the 20km mark that it began to consistently register my HR again.

Around the Bay 30k

Once again I have entered the 30K Around the Bay race in Hamilton ON. The last time I ran it was 2 years ago.

Race Report - Guelph Lake II

Finally posting a race report, heck finally posting anything. It has been a very busy summer at work, I hardly had time to train and I had an achilles tendon that has been bothering me all summer long.
Anyway back to the race report:
About 4 days before the race the race organizers send out a reminder e-mail, I didn't bother to look at it properly until 2 days before, that's when I found out that there had been a slight chage to the venue. They moved the event to another part of the park because the bacteria count at the beach they had been using was high. This caused a slight alteration to the bike and run courses as well, it also caused lots of confusion at the race start.
I left a bit late from the house, not a good thing all things concidered, as I got close to the conservation area the lineup to get in was huge. It was just after 8:00am and the race had a 9:00am start and here I was over a 1km from the entrance stuck in traffic. Some people who had friends with them were taking there bikes of their cars and riding in, Yikes!!
By 8:40am, I could finally see the entrance about 100 meters ahead, but I still had to park, unload, register setup transition... Oh man this is going to be tight. Still I figured and hoped that with such a hugh line behind me the race start must be delayed, thankfully I was right.
Despite the croweded parking, lack of clear directions as to where to park, etc. I was able to park, unload the car setup transition and get registered all by 9:00am. The start was only delayed by about 15 minutes, and since I was in one of the later waves I ended up having lots of time.
Since my training had been minimal this summer I decided it was best to just take my time and not push to hard, let the times fall where they may and just enjoy the day.
The water was refreshing not too cold but not warm the lake is very calm so the change in venue had little effect on the swim portion other than reducing the long run into transition.
I started the swim quite well but ended up swing a good portion on my back, (still can't do freestyle for very far). I didn't feel as tired getting out of the water as I had in past Tris so that was good. Got out of the wetsuit quickly and put on my helmet and shirt, had a bit of trouble pulling the shirt on. I made the mistake of clipping the shoes into the pedals, not a good idea if you haven't practiced it much. I got out of transition quickly but I ended up having to stop and take them of the pedals and put them on properly.
I started eating right away on the bike and drinking my water. By midway I had finished my power bar and a bit more than half my water. Me and another rider kept playing cat and mouse for a good portion of the ride, we chatted a bit during the ride. The weather was beautiful, warm sunny light breeze couldn't ask for much better.
Got into transition cleanly and got my runners on and off I went, legs were feeling it by now. The run was nice but I just couldn't keep a steady pace, so I decided to take it easy and just enjoy the day, kept pace with differnt runners at various points along the way and chatted with a few of them. All in all one of my most enjoyable races, no pressure to try and beat the clock, just took it easy and drank in the experience.
As I came to the end of the run I could see the clock and I knew I was near my previous time, maybe even a bit better. Crossed under at about 2:32 and with starting in one of the later waves I knew it was shorter than that.
I didn't hang around as long post race as in previous events, it was a bit crowded and I knew leaving was going to be a nightmare so I packed up my gear and headed back to the car.


Now for the times:

Section	This Year	Last Year
Swim :	29:51	33:28
T1 :	N/A	3:42
Bike :	1:03:56	1:03:28
T2 :	1:08	2:21
Run :	48:19	44:51
Overall:	2:23:13	2:27:47

Race Report

Pre-Race

My sleep was not as restful as I would have liked. I woke up at bout 3:15 am, lay in bed trying to get back to sleep. By 4 am I was still awake, went to the bathroom then went to the kitchen to get a light snack to fill my empty stomach, tried again to get back to sleep. By 5 am I gave up trying to sleep in my bed, took a blanket and went to the couch, ironically it was more comfortable, then at 5:55 my son wakes up. What ensued was a small fits of sleep in between his jabbering and others slowly waking up.
All in all I figure I got about 4 1/2 to 5 hours of sleep.

As 4:00 am the weather report said it was a balmy 2.5C ~ 36.5F, the forecast for race time was 7-8C ~ 44.6-46.4F winds W 25-30 km/h ~ 15.5-18.6 MPH. What fun this is going to be. As of 9:00 am the forecast is unchanged with the exception of the winds which are now 30 km/h ~ 18 MPH with gusts to 44 km/h ~ 27 MPH.

It is going to be a cold blustery day, at least with the winds out of the west it will be headwinds to start and tail winds on the return, better than the other way round. The next entries will be the on location report and the final race report.

I arrived at just before 10:00 in a mini convoy of 5 cars all heading to the same race, registration ran from 9:30 - 10:30. Walked the bike to transition and set everything up. About halfway to the race I realized I had left my water bottle and gatorade at home in the fridge, oh well it's a cold day and not a long race so I don't think hydration or nutrition will play a big roll.

Registration went smoothly, got my bid number, and walked around the indoor complex to keep warm. It started to rain about 15-20 minutes before race start but it was short lived and didn't make things very wet. Forecast seemed to have been accurate windy and cold just as predicted.

About 10 minutes before the first wave I walked back out to transition to double check the setup and pick up my cap and gloves for the run before they closed the transition area. My start was either the 4th or 5th wave, can't recall now.

The start was good, kept an easy pace, had a couple of minutes of freezing rain after the 1st km but that ended quickly and no more precipitation fell for the rest of the day.

Got back from the run and got through transition cleanly. The bike portion started out well, got a good pace going and didn't have to struggle to hard on the first set of hills. The long straight heading west was a real battle against the head winds. Got blown over the center line by a sudden gust of wind while trying to launch a snot rocket, but recovered quickly. The final westward stretch was quite hard, all out in the open so the wind was really strong, but as soon as I made the turn around everything changed. I was flying back down the road, 30, 35, 40, 45km/h. I was able to maintain between about 35 - 40km/h. The downhills were even better, up to 61km/h on one hill. Toes were getting rather numb, I could barely feel them when I got of the bike. Transition went smooth again and the final run wasn't to bad, about 1 minute longer per km this time.

Finished the entire race in 1:51:00 well under my target of 2:00:00 flat. Not bad for my first race and given the amount of training I have done so far.

Anyway here are the race stats:

Overall
Time : 1:51:00
Place: 436/511
Cat : 64/70

4km
Time : 00:24:06
Place: 482/511
Cat : 66/70

T1 : 00:02:03

Bike
Time : 00:54:47
Place: 311/511
Cat : 52/70

T2 : 00:02:12

4km
Time : 00:27:53
Place: 480/511
Cat : 66/70

PSYCHED UP!

Well I just got back from a terrific ride. I went out and did a 24 km loop, some of it on the very rollers I am going to be tackling on Monday.
They weren't nearly the hard slogging I was expecting, granted my legs were fresher than they will be after the 4km run but still I had about an 8 km warm up ride to get to the starting point. Anyway I tried not to push too hard, I just wanted to get a feel for the ride, had a bit of a head wind to contend with on the outward leg but it was a nice tail wind on the return.
I finished the 24km loop in 00:51:23 for an average of 28 km/h and I still had lots in me. I think I have a fairly good chance of doing this race in just under 2:00:00, that's my goal anyway.

PR'd my ride home!!! Wooohooo!!! Granted the tail wind helped but I'll take just the same. 00:30:03 for 15.26 km makes 30.4 km/h. Yess!! Had few good sprints in there and managed to keep a good pace after them while recovering.
Max HR 180, Avg 164.

time to psych myself up.

Had the car yesterday so I drove the course I will be riding on Monday for the duathlon, man is it hilly (for me anyway). I took the bike to work today and I plan to use my lunch hour to give it a test run and see how I do, just going to go easy and see how it feels. I don't anticipate having enough time to complete the full loop since I figure it will take me an hour at least on race day.

Even though I averaged 28.7 km/h today on the ride in to work I am sure that I won't have that kind of average over the rollers on race day, and certainly not this afternoon. The next two days are total rest to let the legs recover before the big day on Monday.

Here is the course route.

Commuting again

Well I am back on the bike, some mornings are a bit cool (3 - 4 C) (37 - 41 F) but most days the afternoon warms up to between (13 - 20 C) (55 - 68 F). Yesterday was a wet ride home, actually kinda nice riding in the rain. I was flying down one road right on the tail of the cars keeping pace with them (44 km/h - 27 mph) had to hang back a bit so I could see the potholes in time.

Although my weight is up right now (79 kg ~ 174lbs) I am able to keep the same pace I did in the middle of the summer when I was 10lbs lighter, (74 kg ~ 164lbs). Once I drop the pounds I should be able to increase my average speed. I am hoping to top 30km/h (18.6 mph) for a 2 hour ride. Having not had a 2+ hr ride yet I would estimate my pace at about 26 km/h (16 mph) based on my 40-50 minute commute rides at 28 km/h (17.4 mph).

Duathlon coming up this long weekend, could be a little cool and maybe wet too. Then again the coolness and rain might be welcome too. The forecast as of today is: winds 20km/h ~ 12mph, light rain, temp of 13c ~ 55F.

Bike & Hike

I am now looking for sponsors for the Bike & Hike I have entered. The money is going St. Mary's Regional Cardiac Care Centre here in Kitchener, Ontario Canada. Any donations would be greatly appreciated, this is the 3rd year I have entered the Bike & Hike, each year I have ridden the 25km loop. Usually takes me just under 1 hour to complete. There is a link to the sponsor page on the right or you can click on this link.
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1809240