The End of Season One

So it seems that it has finally come. It's the end of August, all of my planned races have passed and I'm on my last of 2 rest days before training for my November marathon begins.

Six months ago Kristi dragged me into this crazy sport after she learned about the tri clinic at our local YMCA and I don't know it I could ever thank her enough. Not only has the past six months given me a glimpse of what is possible, but has woken me up to what it is to really live. Triathlon has done more then enabled me to swim, bike and run for a long distance, it has opened me up to the endless possibilities. I'm beginning to see that life really is what you make of it and that any goal is attainable if you are willing to work for it.

This time last year I told Kristi that there was no way I could enter a try-a-tri with her because I couldn't swim 300m let alone bike 15k and run 3 after. Being the amazing person that she is she got me sign up for a swimming lesson and then the tri clinic. Now a year later we have both completed multiple triathlons and road races and are on the way to Ironman.

I'm proud of myself, I'm proud of her and I'm amazed what we have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. It's made me realize that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey along the way.

Well I guess that’s enough sappy reflection for one day. Its 11pm, I've got to get up early because I've got a marathon to train for, and I couldn't be happier.

Kelowna Apple Race Report

Kelowna Apple Triathlon - Olympic
2006-08-20
Kelowna, British Columbia
Canada

Total Time = 2h 36m 54s
Overall Rank = 188/446
Age Group = M2529
Age Group Rank = 13/19

Pre-race routine

Kristi and I got up at around 5am. Basicaly just ate a few bagels, drank some water and headed off to the race at around 6am. My heat didn't start until 8:30 but transition closed at 7:15, so I had to get there to set everything up and get ready a while before my heat started. This race was the Canadian National age group championships and as I expected the field was really strong. I beat my PB by over a 1.5 min which would have put me in the top half of my age group in the olympic I did 2 weeks ago, but today that time put me 13/19 in my age group. The top 6 in each age group qualified to be on team Canada and got to enter for the world age group championships in Hamberg, Germany next year.

Event warmup

I did about a 400m swim 15 min before the race start, with a few sprints.

Swim (1500m - 28:29, 1:54 min/100m)

This swim went much better then my race 2 weeks ago. I still swam a bit off course, but all in all it went much better :) In my wave were the M2529 and the M4045 age groups. It was a run into the water from the beach for the start which was new to me. I was just hoping not to get mauled in the sprint to the first bouy. Luckly I think I made it through quite well. The first loop I was with a pack of swimmers and I got to draft a bit but for the most part I think I was being drafted off of. I had hands hitting my feet for the whole first loop. At the end of the first loop we had to get out of the water and run on the beach to start the second loop. I was expecting chaos at that point because the turn around on the beach was pretty small but it actually wasn't too bad. The 2nd loop was not as good as the first. The pack had thined out and I had less people to follow. As a result had to rely on my own sighting skills (which are pretty poor :)). I got to the first two bouys alright and then as I was rounding the second bouy looking for the next one to sight I saw 3! In the chaos of the race I couldn't figure out which way to go. I just kinda tread water for about 30 seconds trying to get my bearings. Eventually I saw a few people up ahead swimming towards a bouy in the distance and decided to just follow them and hope for the best. Luckly they were right. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful with the exception of this one guy who kept trying to swim over me even though it seemed like there wasn't really anyone else around us.

T1 (2:23)

The transition area was a bit of a jog away from the beach and took a little longer then I hoped.

Bike (40k - 1:16:01, 31.6 KPH)

The bike course was 4 loops and was changed from the course last year becuase of construction. So to change it they had to add in a pretty big hill which we had to climb 4 times. That kinda sucked. Beyond that hill this course was pretty fast. There was one guy that was playing cat and mouse with me. We seriously passed each other about 7 or 8 times. It was jsut back and forth and we would pass each other at the exact same points on each loop. I actually really liked this bike course and my parents we out spectating so I had a chance to see them 4 times on the bike which was a bit of a boost. They keep hearing about this crazy triathlon stuff I got into this year and they finaly got a chance to see what all the months of training are for. I also ended up catching Kristi on the last loop of the bike course and it was great to see her. She looked pretty strong and was climbing the hills really well. She ended up taking over 7.5 min off her Oly time from 2 weeks ago in this race!
T2 (0:52)

Good fast transition. I did take my feet out of my shoes a little early though.

Run (10k - 49:10, 4:55 min/km)

It was HOT! I knew it was going to be really hot so I expected that my run time would be quite slow today. It actually turned out to be faster then I expected. I thought I would be over 50 min for sure in this heat. The run started off pretty well and I saw my coach along the course cheering me on. It's always great to see people you know on the course. The run course was really flat but I didn't really like it all that much. It seemed like they didn't have enough room for a decent 5k course so they had us doing out and backs down steets and even run around a track to tack on some distance. My parents were out again on the run course so it was good to see them. I was really happy with my run preformance though. I was passing a lot of the women who were in the swim heat that started about 15 min before me. Every aid station I would try and take in a bit of water and throw 2 cups of water over my head to keep the body cool. There wasn't really any shelter from the sun on this course so the heat was getting to me a bit. The first loop indicated that I was on course for about a 48:00 - 48:30 min 10k, but it looks like I slowed down a bit on the last 5k.

Post race

Walked around a bit, ate 2 banana's and drank 4 cups of gatorade.

Shoes?!?

Since James got to talk about shoes, I think I should get to as well. So, here are some beauties that are on my wish list. Too bad they're only available in the US. That's probably the most annoying thing about living on an island -- the utter lack of good shopping! Seriously, every woman I talk to organizes shopping-centric trips to the mainland or to the US or at least includes shopping time in her vacation plans. It's a wonder there's no Vancouver Island uniform given the lack of options.

What does this have to do with Ironman? It's marginally related, I suppose. The point is that, where we live, if you want a triathlon wetsuit, there are probably 20 different kinds to choose from and 10 different stores that carry them. But if you want a pointy-toed red leather flat, you're out of luck.

New shoes :)

Sadly nothing in my life any more seems to be more exciting then getting a brand spanking new pair of running shoes (other then waking up next to my wife every morning. Yes Kristi it's you then new shoes :)). This is what triathlon has done to me and being a woman must feel like. I used to be excited about so many things, now it's shoes and bikes. However a pair of shoes is a little cheaper then a new bike so they bring me more joy on a day to day basis.

Why all of this talk about shoes you ask? Well I just picked up a new pair that I didn't exactly need. However they look fast and hopefully I will be faster by association. Now I'm sure you're saying James, I could really care less about your shoes, but it's my blog and chances are if you are reading this you have nothing better to do and will continue to read about me and my shoes.

I picked up a pair of Brooks Axiom 2. They are light, sleek, provide a moderate amount of support and more importantly look fast. I've worn many different Brooks starting with the ever so stable Trance, then moved down to Adrenaline because a shoe expert said the trance was too much shoe for me. I've been working a lot on my running form lately and now that I primarily am striking on my mid foot I thought I would try something lighter and a little less stable for tempo runs and speed work.

Yes I know, that was a pretty crappy blog entry, but it's going to be a long year and I assure you there will be worse :)

You look like killer whales!

Today like almost every other Tuesday Kristi and I normally head out to the lake for a swim. Today neither of us wanted to go, but neither of us wanted to have an empty space in our training log either. So we eventually headed out, got suited up and jumped in the lake. Once we were in the water it was great and I was happy to be out there, which is typically the case.

Today was pretty easy, we just had to do a 1500m loop. Well I wont bore you with the details of the workout, but we did get a pretty interesting comment once we were finishing up and got back to the beach.

There was a man with his wife and three kids who told us "we looked awesome... Like 2 killer whales". After he said that I immediately looked at Kristi to see how she would take being called shamu... I know he meant it in a good way, but you would think if he was married he would know NEVER to call a woman a whale or any other large mammal. I've been married for just over a year and I learned that one long ago! Luckly Kristi took it well and the man got to leave the park with all vital organs attached. Oh ya and he asked us if we were marathoners, which was an odd question given what we were at the lake for.

Anyways, another day and another swim. Only 4 more sleeps till our goal race. I looked at the weather today and it's supposed to be sunny and 35C (~95F for any American readers :)). Not ideal by any means...

Race Photos!!!

So we just got our race photos in the mail from the Self transcendence Triathlon we raced in last weekend. As usual it seems Kristi's looks great and I look about as attractive as Quasimodo. For some reason every race photo that has ever been taken of me looks terrible! I've heard that there may be others posted on the race website so I'll have to see if anyone caught me on film in some good light during the race :). Here are the pics...

This weeks training (Aug 14th - 20th)

At the end of this week we'll be racing our goal race of the season which is the Kelowna Apple. So our coach has us on a bit of a taper.

Mon: 5k Race Pace
Tues: 1.5k Swim
Wed: 20k Bike 5k Brick Run
Thur: 1.5k Swim
Fri: Travel to Kelowna
Sat: 20min swim / 20 min bike / 20 min run
Sun: Kelowna Apple Olympic Distance Triathlon!

191 Pounds!

I thought to start things off I would post a pic of my body (which at this point is quite unflattering) after each month and hopefully see the positive changes this year will bring on. I just weighed myself and to my surprise I checked in at my heaviest in quite a while. 191 Pounds! I knew that my diet had been pretty bad lately but I didn't expect that I had put on this much weight. In the interest of documenting my experience I will post a few pics that I'm not overly happy with...

Who are we and what are we doing?

I'm a Civil Engineer working for a construction company in Victoria B.C. I graduated about 2 years ago and moved out to Victoria seeking a job and hoping to accompanied by my long time girl friend and at the time fiancee who was finishing her masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Kristi is a Biomedical Engineer and my beautiful wife. Originally from Dallas, Texas she moved up to Victoria to marry me and some how sucker me into agreeing to adopt a little yorkie we named Disco.

We meet 5 years ago on a study abroad program in Paris organized between my former university (University of Saskachewan) and her's (Texas A&M). Now just months after celebrating our 1st anniversary we have decided to take on another challenge together. We have decided to attempt Ironman Canada 2007.