27 T-Shirts to Ironman

So... its be a while. In fact, its been a whole year since I last wrote a blog about my journey about becoming an Ironman. For those of you who don't know, it didn't happen as planned. Last year, about 3 weeks before I was scheduled to compete in the 2011 Ironman Canada, an unfortunate injury resulted in me having to postpone my race for a year. As it would turn out, I got a stress fracture in my right tibia, near the ball of my Ankle. The injury was painful enough that I could not run even a mile, which made the marathon portion of the race an unrealizable task.

12 months later, and I believe I have made a full recovery, both physical and physiological. Missing my goal last year was probably harder on me emotionally than it was on my bones. This was the first race I had missed in my 4 year triathlon journey, and it was the biggest race I had planed to be in. A visit from my dad during the 2 weeks I had scheduled to take off for the race for a much needed vacation put me back in perspective. Him showing up helped me more than I ever realized until just a few weeks ago, and is probably one of the only reasons I have been able to train as hard as I have this past year to get back to where I was. This is something that I will never be able to thank him enough for. If you are a Dad or planning to be one, take notes. If your my dad and reading this. Thank you for everything, you truly are the best.

Last year however isn't what this post is about. This post is about this year, and the next 27 days. Over the last 4 years, I have competed in 27 races that have all been in someway training for what is about to happen on August 26th, and I am about to relive each and every one of them on this blog. Some of the races have only been raced once, and one of them raced for 5 years straight. Each one has a separate story and learning experience that has helped me improve my performance and mental strength, to help me complete 140.6 miles of endurance racing. Oh, and each one comes with a t-shirt too.* So for the next 27 days, I will wear the accompanied swag to each race and write about it, reflecting on my experience while sharing it with you at the same time. If all goes to plan, on the 28th day, I will be sharing a new race story with you as well.

Links:

Ironman Canada website: www.ironman.ca
Stress Fractures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_fracture

Footnotes:

*All races but 1 had t-shirts, and the one that didn't had socks.

Day 119: Eaten up, spit out, pulled apart and torn down, but not defeated

The weekend of April 30 - May 1st was the 29th annual Wildflower triathlon. Known as the "Woodstock of triathlons", this festival has 3 different triathlon distances; Sunday's Olympic (and collegiate national championship) race, the sprint mountain bike which I have done for the past 3 years, and the long course triathlon, which consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run. This is my first year doing the long course, and my second time attempting a race of this length.

6:30 Saturday morning I woke up in my tent after an unusually cold night that made any actual sleep hard to come by. After deciding that next year I was going to rent a hotel room in near by Bradly, California, I got my bike and triathlon bag and headed down to the transition area to get ready for my 8:15 start time.

While setting up my transition area, I met with a few other athletes setting up around my area. For most of us, it was our first time taking on this specific triathlon. We talked about different things we heard about the race, the difficulty level, and what our goal times were. Looking back, I don't think any of us had any idea what we were in for.

The swim started just like any other race. Water temp was 63 degrees, which was a little cool for this specific venue, but not that cold considering I was wearing a wet suit. There wasn't very much chop in the water, which made navigating the buoys easier than usual. Knowing what was waiting for me on shore, I took the swim at a pretty easy pace, and exited the water just under 45 minutes.

The bike was any thing but normal. Early into the race is a 1 mile climb that gains over 200 feet of elevation. After a quick set of rolling hills, the course takes me outside the park where I end up spending 15 minutes changing a flat tire, which is never fun during a race. The punishment continued with a 10 mile ride on a slight but constant up hill ride into a strong head wind, which made it feel like I was riding my bike though mud. I pushed really hard to keep up my speed though this section and make up for the time lost with my flat. This would haunt me later in the race, and was the first of my mistakes.

Miles 40 - 44 were the ones I've heard stories about, none of which does this difficult hill climb any justice. After spending a ton of energy battling the wind, I'm now required to climb over 700 feet up a grueling hill that never seemed to end. After reaching the top and riding down (reaching some frighteningly fast top speeds I might add) I'm welcomed only with a few more rolling hills before riding back into camp and getting myself ready to tackle the half marathon run.

As some of you may already know, running is my strength. It's what always saves my times in triathlons, and what I pride myself on. While I'm no professional marathon runner, I do like to finish above average for my age group. This however was not going to be my best running performance.

This 13.1 miles was the most difficult run I have ever faced. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that I would not have been able to beat 2 hours on this if I was running it with fresh legs, let alone after a soul crushing 56 mile bike ride and 1.2 mile swim. Many of the up hill climbs I ended up walking (the main one taking me up 500 feet in elevation over 2 miles), the whole time counting down the miles and just hoping to finish this race.

In the last few miles of the race, I must have been starting to visibly project how I was feeling. I only know this because a vulture circled around my head during the last mile of the race. (I'm dead serious, it was a vulture. I looked up a picture of one after the race to make sure). I had to glare at it to let it know that today wasn't my day before it flew off look for a racer is worse condition.

Finally, after 7 hours 26 minutes and 54 seconds of racing, I crossed the finish line. I felt incredibly tired exhausted, excited and accomplished all at the same time. I received my finishers medal, and quickly went to find some where to sit down. I was eaten up, spit out, pulled apart and torn down, but not defeated. I am officially a 2011 wildflower long course finisher.

Links:

Wildflower: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/WildFlower2011-main.htm
Vulture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture

Day 187: Night running becomes a thing of the past

In years past, I usually spent the winter months avoiding weekly running with excuses such as rain, cold weather, and short day light hours. Exercise was gained with indoor bike rides, swimming in a heated pool, and weekly hockey games. This is a luxury I can no longer afford. With under 200 days left until IM Canada, my work out schedule forces me outside after sunset. Armed with my iPod and a head lamp, I crank out the miles and hope the raccoons and other wild animals that live along the los gatos creek trail leave me alone!

Although it sounds like I'm complaining about running at night, I've actually come to enjoy it. The weather here doesn't drop below freezing, so a cool start is quickly over come by my own generated body heat. There are also fewer pedestrians on the trail, meaning less time spent dodging careless teenagers and young children learning to ride a 2 wheeled bicycle, and more time working on my form and heart rate.

These days are, however, slowly coming to an end. The sun sets at 6 pm, allowing for some light during the start of my run, and every day that sun goes down one minute later. In less than a month, daylight savings time will end (or begin?) and I will be blessed with one more hour of daylight, pretty much eliminating the idea of night runs until next winter. Although my night runs will surly be missed, I also can't wait for the warmer weather, and for triathlon season to finally be upon me!

Speaking of triathlon season, I'm pretty sure I know my race schedule for 2011, and when I confirm all the races and dates, I'll update my blog with that information so you can follow me along this season! Arn't you excited? I know I am!

Day 252: Heavy Rain for the Hardcore

Winter training is always a challenge in the northern hemisphere. Days are shorter, weather is colder, and with out any races coming up its hard to get motivated. Today, however, was more challenging than most.

Early this morning, thunderstorms caused a 1 hour power outage in my apartment until around 12:30. After power was restored, I had my lunch, did some cleaning and headed out around 2:30 to begin my 90 minute Sunday run. Although the sky was still offering a little rain and the ground was littered with leaves and small branches from the earlier storms, it was going to take more than a little water and sticks to stop me from getting in my scheduled run.

Turning onto the running path along side the Los Gatos Creek trail, I was shocked to see as many people running and riding my bike as I did. This may have been caused by the brief break in the rain that happened 30 minutes before, providing a small window to possibly get in a dry run. Most of them disappeared as I got further into my run, as I'm assuming they got tired of getting wet.

The rain was constant and the path had many puddles, some of which grew to the width of the trail itself making it impossible to avoid. 25 minutes and 5km in, the path is completely washed out forcing me to run a short segment along the street. Shortly after I hit the 30 minute milestone and take in my first GU. I'm feeling good and keeping a good pace at around 5 minutes per kilometer (8 minutes per mile).

The entire first half of my run had drizzling rain, and my running hat was dripping from the brim. This was very manageable and my running jacket kept me pretty comfortable. This was when the weather took a turn for the worst. Winds began to pick up and the rain became harder and cold. My jacket is water resistant, but my pants and shoes are not, not to mention my face is exposed. Around 1 hour I start to get a little cold, and the jacket and shoes are soaked with rain water and beginning to feel heavy. Not to be deterred, I continue my run though the rain and finish with a final distance of 18.1 km and a pace of 4:59 per km. One of my faster long distance runs I've had in a while.

This run completes week 7 of my 26 week work out plan before the wildflower half ironman. I'm pretty much on schedule, and everything is feeling good. Next week end will prove to be a challenge to my dedication though, as I will be vising my hometown of Mississauga for the holidays for 11 days. The cold weather and vising friends and family will surely get in the way of my regular schedule, but hopefully I can get myself out of bed early enough and get in the work outs I have planned.

Day 280: The pain of wildflower

Over a month has passed since Scott Tinley's Adventures, and my 26 week training plan is scheduled, but there is only one problem. What I thought at one time was a groin pull, must be something worse. 4 weeks of icing and resting, and the pain still has not gone away. After checking in with my doctor, he schedules me for an MRI to see what is causing the stiffness in my hip. One hour in the most confined space in my life later, I'm informed that what I have is tendonitis in my left hip.

At first, I'm pretty bummed out, but I'm later informed that this is actually good news. Although a groin pull would have been the injury of choice, tendonitis is a close second to have. It's going to limit how far I can run short term, but will eventually heal in a few months and I can continue to train and play hockey.

That being said, I am three weeks into my training program. The first week was pretty much a wash, as I still didn't have the results from my MRI yet, but weeks 2 and 3 went pretty well, with an exception to this weekend as I'm feeling a little under the weather with a cold. I've been working at about half capactity but getting stronger every weekend.

Some other off season related news, Tri California Events has released its 2011 schedule. Events include Triathlon at Treasure Island, Scott Tinley's Adventures, and my first and favorite event, Wildflower triathlon.

For 3 years now, I have participated in the Wildflower triathlon mountain bike triathlon, a quick quarter mile swim, 9.7 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. However, this year is going to be a little more challenging.In order to prepare for the August Ironman, I will be competing in the Wildlflower long course triathlon, which is a half Ironman distance race consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 64 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. The course is as challenging as it is long and is known as one of the hardest half Ironmans in the world. This will be a true test of how my training is coming, and if I am on my way to being able to complete the Ironman. I'm excited to be completing in this event, and am looking forward to a challenging start to 2011.

Links:
Tendonitis: http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sportsmedicine/a/tendonitis.htm
Wildflower Triathlon: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/WildFlower2011-main.htm