Thursday, July 31, 2008

Sneezy

Getting closer and closer. Just got to hang in there for a week till we start to taper. Maybe some of you are already into taper mode. I'm sittin here thinking of today's proposed 5 Cochrane hills. Will I sand bag it? Or will I kick ass, I honestly don't know. I'm feeling very strong, but tired. Let me start off with monday.

Monday is an easy swim day. After work I got home and felt really tired so I figured I'd have a nap. The plan was for a swim, possibly sneak in a run(short/easy) since I'd missed a few the week before. I napped for like 2 hours and it felt great, but as you all know after that length of time the grogginess starts to set in so it was hard getting going. I went to the Talisman(hadn't been there for awhile) maybe Leslie would be swimming too. I'd prefer to do more chatting than swimming. Hey what ever gets me to the pool right? Got there for the cheap cheap last 1.5 hours, it's only 5 bucks to get in. I haven't swam in a pool in quite some time so I figured I would just go, if I felt crappy I would use the pull bouy. But I just needed to get a few more swims in then I have been in the last couple weeks. I think I did maybe 200m and grabbed the pull bouy. I noticed a chick swimming in the lane beside me, hmmmm is that Leslie??? Who knows, never seen her without the rubber covering we call a wetsuit. So I got into my 150s that Greg prescribed, it took almost the whole workout before she stopped and yep, it was her. She swims really well, flip turns, non stop. Like a champ!! So we chatted a bit then, I finished my measely 1700m I think? Then chatting more in the hot tub before home time. I wanted to run later, but I sat on my ass in front of the comp too long at home. You know, crossing that line or moment in time when you know there is no way you're gonna get out for a workout. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was 11:30 or 12, I love running at night.

Tuesday was more tempo riding. This time we had a good turn out and some short lived good weather. The dark clouds were looming towards the west, but we managed to miss it. Weird, someone else with better karma than I musta been in the grp. This time I stuck it, I managed to stick with the big boys. I was so proud, even taking my turns pulling the Trev,Greg, Darryl train. Wooo hoooooo The rest of the grp were all not far back, everyone's doing so well and improving, it is truely a pleasure to be part of it. Andrea flatted 3 times, ouch!! As Greg mentioned we were all attacking each other like mad. I managed to stay on till the last climb, stony trail, Greg announced there would be KOM points and he attacked really hard, Trevor answered, I flailed around desparately trying to stay in contact. But it wasn't to be, they slowly pulled away, they had maybe 20 yards? When all of a sudden I started to feel that squirrely feeling in the back. Oh my, that could only be one thing, I look down and watch to my dismay as my tire empties itself rapidly, not blow out style, but in about 20-30 secs till I feel the familiar thump thump thump. DAMN!! and I was making my come back, hee hee j/k there was no catching up. I was hurting so bad I almost thanked the tire, this meant I didn't need to push anymore, I had an excuse to stop with the pain. So there I was, maybe a couple k up the hill and a short lil ride down Crowchild till the church. I had a spare, but I decided it was close enough to roll it in on the rim. I thought everyone would have been there by then, it took awhile. Maybe I should have fixed it, anyways Andrea had gotten her 3rd flat by then and needed a ride back since her tire went kaplooie. Greg and I had a nice transition run, I figured the roll in would help me recover for the run, but it didn't help much. We ran up the hill easy but my legs were hurting, hurting even more when the pace went up to 7 min/mile although after maybe 15 min they warmed up and I settled into a decent rhythm despite the rollers we were running over. It was good and ended it off with a good downhill to the church, ahhhh the reward, what goes up must come down eh???

Yesterday (Wednesday) another open water swim with Kelsey. Woo hooooo, Al pointed it out that it was a bit windy but had calmed down later in the day. I corrected his way of thinking saying that we need as much wind as possible to whip up some decent training waves, so stop that "hoping for a calm swim" attitude. We don't want any of it, hee hee. He did his usual rowing around the lake after us, snapping some pics of us(although I'm starting to wonder if they are all of Kelsey cause I haven't seen one of me yet, hint hint lol j/k Kelsey no pressure) Greg came out to swim with us, I think mostly to draft off my white feet. He came around me at one point thinking he'd help pull a bit and I promptly attacked him dunking him all the way under. I figure he needs some practice with that too, plus I enjoy dishing it out. Anyone else need some practice getting dunked??? I'm happy to help, :) Anyone who's ever swam with me knows my feet literally shine in the water. Later on Curtis and I went for a long run and at one point he mentioned he was having trouble seeing through a tree covered area. I usually can see better than him so I led the way saying he should follow my voice. His answer was oh I can see your legs just fine, they shine as clear as day. So there you have it, in water or on land, they shine!!!! I won't say much about our run since my coach reads my blog and may get mad when he finds out how far we ran. To sum it up, we ran pretty far, the bugs pissed us off to no end at the start of the run when it was still day light. We had turn back for a washroom break. My legs were sooooo tired I didn't even know if I could run at all, thankfully they warmed up and got going. I ran the big hill near the golf course that I was convinced my legs would not want to do.

That is all, oh and the title. I have super white legs/feet, but I also have another unique feature that I think is the most bizarre ever. Almost every day I go for lunch with work buddies or my fiance, and I'd say about 80-90% of the time after getting lunch, sitting down, I sneeze. One sneeze never more than one, probably a few bites in, but it almost always happens no matter what the meal is. It makes no difference, I don't do this at dinner time, just lunch. It's to the point where I almost wait for it, like it's part of my daily routine. Once in awhile especially if we purposely wait for it, I can miss it, but usually like clock work Kaaaa chooooooo. So if you ever go for lunch with me, make sure I have a napkin handy. Thank you,

Darryl

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Very Tired

Yes that's me, super duper tired. Another tough weekend done and carefully stashed away in the bank. Yesterday Curtis and I went out for our regular Saturday long ride. The weather was calling for sunshine so we met at C.O.P. again and headed up stony trail. Crossing the bridge Curtis got another flat. Yes he did tape the front wheel, /shrug this time he says he hit a stone or somthing when it pops so I'm gonna just say this one was a fluke. It turns out he was right, we had no more problems after this. So we fix it and head on up to Cochrane. I love this downhill, the pavement is sooo smooth. Yes I still go onto the road even after my run in with the angry motorist. Hey, I'm going speed limit or over, catching cars why not? Oh I forgot to mention my energy level has been really low even after friday's rest day. I did nothing for training, but obviously haven't quite recovered from all the riding last week. It was 500k plus, not sure on the exact number and that included 3 hard rides. So ya, I was cooked to begin with. Curtis took it easy on me and we made it to Bragg Creek no problem. There was the rodeo going on near Bragg Creek, that was kinda cool to see. Lots of people, lots of horses, lots of booze, etc.

I half expected my legs to come around, they usually do. It's not like they were really hurting that bad, I just had no zip like I usually get an hour or two into my rides. Oh well, today's ride was all about distance, not speed so I didn't let it bother me too much. From Bragg Creek we headed south to 22X and then right aways south again on highway 762 to Millarville. If you've never ridden this highway you SHOULD. It's georgeous!!! Although I still wasn't feeling very zippy yet, at least my legs weren't complaining. I made a deal with them, if they let me make it through the ride, I wouldn't be hurting them anymore than absolutely necessary. That means, no tempo riding, no intervals or any pushing. So I kept it steady and only did what was needed to get me up the hills(the way south was hilly).

As we rode south the rain clouds were looming around us. We even got a really good lightning hit somewhere behind us. No rain for the trip to Millarville, however comin back after a brief visit to the General store we got a little bit of moisture. Nothing major, barely enough to soak the pavement. Coming into Bragg Creek again I was hurting. The lack of energy was also compounded with a wicked hunger brought on by the crappy gaterade that I was drinking. You see I was out of infinit and had to resort to a "normal" sport drink. Gaterade is fine for short rides, but man after 3-4 hours I gotta have something else. I convinced Curtis that we needed some real food so we stopped at subway and each got a 6 inch sub. It helped the hunger, but I wasn't feeling too good. Curtis asked if I was gonna throw up, I guess I didn't look too good either. With the damp jersey's it was chilly leaving Bragg Creek, I shivered as we rode. Curtis even pulled me for a ways, it was nice to sit on his wheel and relax, warm up, and let the body digest the food.

We got to Cochrane ok, by this time I was starting to recover and we made the climb up the Cochrane hill. That was at about the 160-170k mark. Yes we both had thoughts of hitting the covetted 2 0 0 number today. I was calculating and figured we'd be short if we didn't do anything extra. So I suggested after hitting the top to go north on Retreat Road or somthing? I forget what it's called, it's the road north just on top of the hill going to the super smooth road. Man I love that road, we could ride side by side on super smooth road and cruise up and down the hills with not a care in the world. Well except for the aching in my neck, legs, crotch, etc. No pain no gain right?? Eventually we got back to Crowchild right before entering the city limits and with a tail wind we made short work of the down hill Crow Child, then Stony Trail. After hitting the C.O.P parking lot Curtis's computer read 199. Well you could probably guess what we did, yes thats right we had to ride a couple loops around the parking lot to put it over 200.

So it's official 200km in one day. I'd only done that once before in my life time. Today it was really hard getting motivated. Kelsey had booked Sundance for an open water swim at 10am. I dreaded getting up in the moring. I'm not a morning person to begin with and plus I'm tired, grrrrrrrr. Oh well I managed to make it 10 minutes late. Curtis called me to ensure that I was in fact showing up. He had already introduced himself to Kelsey they were chattting it up as I drove up. Woo hooo swim time. It looked to be a beautiful day. Wetsuits on, and in we went!! I think we were all a lil tired,..... or hung over. I'll let you guess who was what. lol The swimming was fine, we did a full loop of the lake and then some. My kind of swimming, with long breaks, plenty of socializing, and some horse play to keep it fun.

After the swim I went home. Generally I get a quick ride in, then hang out with Lisa for the rest of the day. She wasn't feeling good so that meant more workout, what else am I to do right? I took my time getting the bike ready, taking in food and plenty of fluid. It felt like it would be another hot ride. Boy was I wrong, as I left Calgary on highway #1 the dark clouds looked to be chasing me. As I rode out I looked to be making time on the clouds. Do I dare go much further? Those clouds don't look too happy. I really don't feel like getting caught in another storm. Yesterday's little rain was refreshing, this looked kinda nasty. I decided to do the bare min IG workout of 2 hours, I think it was 2 hours??? Surprisingly I felt really good. I always feel good the day after a long ride, why is that??? I find it really hard to get going, but once I'm warmed up the workout seems easy. I did the 15tempo/5 easy with out a problem. After hitting the 1 hour mark I really wanted to keep riding. Boy it would be nice to keep going in the sunshine, then get a ride through the rain back home, hee hee. Oh well Lisa's sick, that would be mean even asking. So I turned at one hour, the legs felt good, but I knew they were still unhappy about the 200k yesterday. Back I went, now riding towards all the unhappiness in the sky, or at least underneath it all. As I rode back I realized the clouds were traveling NE, hmmmmm there was one cloud headed my SW of me but she won't get me. The big blue ones more towards Calgary though will I hit them? I continued to ride and wonder and watch and wonder some more. Most of it was already on the north side of the trans can already. I hit Chestermere now directly in front of the cloud. I even considered stopping and letting it cross the highway in front of me. The hazy stuff floating down that we all know as rain didn't look too too dense so I thought maybe a little sprinkle would be ok? Wow was I wrong, riding through nearly in Calgary I got dumped on big time, then the hail hit too. YOUCH that hurts, especially on the nose, face. I tryed to keep my head/face down so most of it would hit the helmet. It even hurt on my back. There was clear blue sky on the other side of the rain/hail so that kept me going. Just a little further, keep going. Evenually it stopped just as I entered calgary and we had clear blue sky again. I was soaking wet, but with the sun, not cold anymore. Still a little cranky, but it's always nice to ride back into town after a tough ride in the saddle.

I got home and got ready for a transition run. I've missed a few of these so I made sure to get out there. My lower level neighbors think I'm a rock star. They think I am crazy for riding all these miles. As I walk out to go for the run, he asks, "You're going for a run after the ride???" Today they got on their bikes and actually got caught in the rain too, hmmmm am I rubbing off on them??? We quickly shared our stories of the rain, me with the hail and I went off on my run. It was tough, my legs complained, but I kept a good pace up. I was surprised, I haven't been riding that much, but I felt solid. Well except when I hit the big hills. I guess that's where the cyling legs come in and that's where I walked, hee hee the quads/calves/hamstrings would have none of it. :P So I walked the steeper hills and ran the rest. I'll be concentrating a bit more on my runs the next couple weeks. I've def. neglected the running legs a bit lately. The funniest thing happened to me while running along the bow. So I'm runing along minding my own business, I see some people pulling in their rubber raft out of the bow. Kinda dangerous so close to the slew, or what ever it's called. But oh well I think nothing of it and suddently this chick jumps up right ahead of me beside the path screaming and running into the long grass. She had her shorts half way down and was trying to pull them up while running. I was kinda out of it, only realized later she was peeing in the long grass beside the path. Anyway I'm laughing my ass off and she's screaming and laughing(I'm guessing too drunk to be embarrassed). With out a doubt the funniest thing I've ever seen. I didn't actually see much, half her butt. It was pretty intertaining though watching her run trying to pull up the shorts. She probably thinks I saw everything, but w/e shit happens. I also saw a snake sunning himself on the path, once again I'm so out of it I nearly stepped on the poor sucker. Managed to jump over him and woke him up, how rude!! So that was my run, naked chick, sun tanning snake(just a garter) Back home I hit up the fluids and relaxed, got some pizza and pretty much sat around all evening. Another solid training day in the bank, mmmmmmm I love it. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. I love the adventures of training for IMC. Cheers,

Darryl

Friday, July 25, 2008

"Get off the F#$%&ing ROAD!!"

Heya,

I trust everyone's final prep is going well. At least if you're doing IMC, we're nearly on 4 weeks to go. Ohhhhhhhhh so scary, if you're just starting your training welllll there's always next year. hee hee j/k.

Tuesday my legs were hurting, but I thought with a really good warmup I could still go do the tuesday IG workout. As I drove across the city I could see the clouds rolling in. Hopefully we don't get any rain. Oh well as long as we get to start with no rain we'll be fine. The wind was picking up and in the time I drove across the city I'm betting the temp dropped some 10 degrees? I got to the church where we start early so I hung out and wondered if anyone would show up. I had my running shoes along so I was prepping myself for an alternate workout if no one shows. Well Andrea dashed that idea when she promptly drove up and unloaded her bike. I guess we're riding, she is one tough cookie and if she can do it, so can I. Besides it's much easier doing the prescribed workout with someone else. Misery loves company? There were a few others that showed up too, Iona, Darren, annnd I think that was it. The warmup went well, no rain yet, but there was a stiff cross wind(from the north). As soon as we hit Cochrane and headed north and to a smooth highway parallel to the Crowchild trail heading back to Calgary. I think I initiated the first interval and my legs were not happy at first. After like 5 minutes of the first 10min tempo I wondered if I could finish this. Maybe I should just ride easy with the rest of them. But as I was hammering Darren pulled up with me. It was nice, he's really strong and pushed me really hard for 2 out of the 4 times 10 minutes. We rode the second one back towards Cochrane. Then back to Calgary for the final 2. It rained a bit when we turned around to ride back to Calgary, but were able to ride out of it. I worried a bit about crashing, cause I was leaning quite a bit with the cross wind. During the last one I started it and Darren came hammering by me. I don't like to back down from a challenge so I pushed so hard to get on his wheel. It's soooooo hard to do when someone gets the jump and goes by you fast, you have to react really quickly and stomp down on the pedals as hard as you can. Once you're in the slipstream you can recover. And recover I did, then later passed him back and we see sawed for the remainder of the tempo portion.

Wednesday was rainy as well, but it held off till after the open water swim. Kelsey's friend once again got us into the Sundance lake, very nice of him!! I'm currently swimming twice a week in some kind of a lake, which I think will help me a lot come race day. The wetsuit problems are almost nil and I'm swimming(sighting) like a pro. :) Not as fast as one though. :P That'll never happen. Kelsey had invited the tri cops grp which was awesome cause none of IG's grp even showed. YOU BASTARDS!!! j/k So I got to meet some people, thankfully I didn't embarrass myself this time with the introductions. Course it didn't involve a 160km ride in the heat. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So we swam a full loop of the lake. I followed this lady(I forget her name already) and pretty much stuck with her no problem till my asthma started bugging me. Maybe the pace was faster than I thought, I'm not sure, all I know is my breathing was gaspy and I wasn't getting the air I needed. Oh well I got distracted by all the minnows, wowzers there was a lot of them. I'd be swimming along, looking down and all of a sudden I'm swimming through a school of little minnows, thousands of them. It felt like my entering arm/hand would brush against them, but they kept clear of the big rubber dying "fish".

After the swim I killed a little time in the south, got somthing to eat, then met Curtis for a longer run at the res. That's about when the rain started, at times it poured. Thankfully it didn't rain too much on us, only poured once that I remember. We did a full loop of the resevoir(however you spell that) and did a little extra. My legs felt like lead after the days of cycling, I also had some stomach problems. But when it felt bad, we'd just cut back on the pace a bit. Then promptly pick it up. We noticed we both pick up the pace when we start talking about Ironman or work. LOL go figure, any type of emotions, excitement-->IM, or work--->hate(we both hate our jobs and really get worked up talking about it. :P) The run ended and we were cold and wet, 1:45 run in the rain will do that to you. Oh well another confidence builder, being able to run on tired legs.

Yesterday's ride rocked. We again met at the church on crowchild. The warm up consisted of riding to Cochrane and chatting it up with Andrea, Iona, Leslie, Pam, and hmmm roadie type guy I forget his name. I love talking triathlon and could talk for hours, but alas we arrived in Cochrane and needed to do some actual work(workout that is). The plan was 3-4 hills. Greg wanted us to do 4-5, hmmmm and I secretly wanted to do 4. I love hills, but I still thought about the workout all day. It's soooo gonna hurt and I was secretly hoping that IG/Trevor, or anyone else just faster than me wouldn't show. LOL don't tell them, but I knew if they showed, I'd absolutely crush myself trying to keep up, ha ha. Andrea was there, and she's a rock star so we pretty much stuck together. I still worked hard, very hard. Especially on the 3rd and 4th. It takes me like one or two hills to really get warmed up and in a grove. After the third one we descended into town and this guy was honking behind me(although he had plenty of room to get by). He then proceeds to roll down the window and scream at the top of his lungs repeatedly to "Get the F#$^%& off the road". I never really know what to say, these tards usually come out of no where and I had already done 2 hills, I"m not exactly prepared for a reply. Just where were we supposed to ride if we can't go on the road hmmmm??? I asked if he would prefer if we just rode in the ditch? He stopped the car and I'm pretty sure he started to get out of the car. Oh boy now I'm going to get beat up, just great. I kinda turned away, still riding and I think he thought I was leaving so he decided against it and once again repeated his first shreak. I guess I do wander onto the road, but I'm going over the speed limit of 80 and catching up to cars as I go. I even passed a car on the 3rd hill coming down. Go figure, there's just no reasoning with some people and not worth getting into a scuffle with someone like that. I'm glad I didn't really respond, I also told Andrea(although the advice was more for me) that we were NOT going to let this ruin our ride. I'm sure he has some pent up anger from years of commuting back to Cochrane and with always having to deal with cyclists, I guess it must be frustrating for him. Anyways back to the ride, the 3rd hill was fantastic, maybe the adrenaline from that incident helped??? And I had really managed to purge it from my memory. Coming up the 3rd time I was debating, do I go for 4? I was really pushing all I had and at the top my legs confirmed, with a unanimous YEP, WE ARE DONE!! I still wasn't convinced though, then when I saw Leslie going down for her third, it was settled I'm going down for one more. I can do this!! So I shouted to Andrea, egging her on to join me for one more. The Target = Leslie. I hope you don't mind Leslie but I totally marked you climbing up the last time, it helps to have someone to chase. Good job leaving your grp to continue the workout, if everyone had left I'm not sure I woulda stayed for another. I should have timed the climbs, cause I think the 3rd and maybe even 4th were the fastest. I was amazed at how the body can come around. My legs will be completely baked, and somehow I can find some way to make them respond just one more time, and one more time, and again, etc. I think we all felt great on the ride home, having conquered the mini demons. Yes there are demons, even in training rides. Every time you feel like stopping, or feel like quitting early, or not going as hard as you can. Each and every time you lay waste to those negative thoughts your mental strength improves. Bring on the IMC demons I AM READY!!!!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Please don't be mad, it won't happen again!

Hey,

This last weekend was a lot better for training. I pretty much got the IG prescribed workouts in. My swims are kinda sparatic cause I don't have a regular swim class. It's bad cause I don't get a regular 3 swims a week when they aren't pre-planned. Oh well the open water swimming is going well, my shoulders are getting used to the wetsuit. I still feel I've lost some speed, but oh well nothing I can do about it so I won't let it bother me.

Saturday's long ride went well. The plan was for 180k this time a lil more hilly including the cochrane hill at aprox 150-160k into the ride. The hills don't really bother me that much, it's just the time in the saddle. So we started at COP and headed up stony trail towards CrowChild and then down Crow Child to Cochrane. From there south across the trans can to Bragg Creek and to Elbow falls. Then all the way back. I upped the tempo a lil coming into Bragg Creek from both directions. Two stops along the way, both in Bragg Creek to refill bottles. Curtis had re-taped his rear rim so he had no flats..... at least on THAT tire. Yes we found out that the reason he was having so many flats was the thin and narrow rim tape that was used on the rim. Grrrrrrrrrrr, anyways he's happy problem solved. He'd only gotten one roll which covered one rim, the front hadn't been flatting so you'd think we'd be ok for this ride right?? WRONG

Coming down the hill again into Cochrane I stop at the traffic light to wait for Curtis, hmmm what's taking him? He can't be having a flat again can he? My legs were starting to complain I really didn't want to climb that hill again. Oh well I reminded myself that it was extra training, extra hill climbing. So I headed back, hoooooping that it wasn't a crash. I'd just come speeding down the big hill and there was a bit of debree on the shoulder, that would be a nasty crash at that speed. I made it up about 3/4 of the way and here he is. He did flat, but as I had hinted earlier it was the front this time. Weird how that works, I swear someone has a voodoo doll of his bike and is poking holes in his tires. The problem tire was fixed, it can't flat anymore so the front starts. So we continued down into Cochrane and started the climb on the other side. My legs were complaining, I'm pretty sure it was from the faster parts earlier on. The neck was also in a world of hurt after the hill. I could barely look up while down on the aero bars. This section went quick though and we made it back to COP in no time. Well except for his front tire flatting again, but he was so close we just rolled in on the rim. I was really tired and didn't feel like running after, but Curtis wanted to so I sucked it up(buttercup) and got my running shoes on. Funny thing is I started off feeling terrible, but when 20 minutes was up I actually wanted to run more. We stopped anyways. Curtis will get another roll of tape and once he's taped the front wheel he'll be good to go. :)

Sunday came and we went for a open water swim at Lake McKenzie? Somthing like that anyways. We've been cutting back on the rest stops and today there were even fewer stops. Keeping along the shoreline, including the small bays we did one huge loop. I got to chase a few ducks. They'd swim just ahead of me, 5-10 feet and I'd chase after them. There was a blue herring or some huge bird with long legs. There was even a baptism happening when we first got there. Curtis and I were gonna swim through peeing as we go. We're so evil. :P As I first mentioned my shoulders feel better and I'm able to relax. Maybe it's partly due to the warmer water, I'm not sure. I hope it's not just that as the water at IMC will be colder. When I got home I went for a short hard ride. It felt great once the warmup was done. The workout was 10min tempo / 5 min recovery. 2 hours was all that I had time for and I couldn't get the run in.

Yesterday's ride was interesting. I didn't have my workouts yet from IG so it was my choice. Woo hooooo It was soo nice and with hardly any wind, my legs felt fine too so on the bike I went. It should have probably been a run, my running has been lacking a bit, but oh well. The wind seemed to calm down as I got further out so I kept going. The time and the sun position told me I needed to turn around, but I really wanted to make it past Strathmore and to the southern turn that the trans can makes. At that time I was pretty sure that it was a 120k ride, there and back. I had skipped my usual pit stop(Strathmore) thinking I'd have enough fluid to make it back from the turn around. I was wrong though, by the time I hit the turn around there was maybe 1/3 of a bottle left. Bad bad Darryl, it was warm and no fluid, bad bad bad. Easing off the pace I managed to survive and eventually made it back to Strathmore. 90k in and this was the first stop, woooo hoooo. I purchased a large gaterade and 2 red bull. I needed the extra boost so I could make it home before dark. It would be close, very close, .... if I only knew. :P Made it by the construction area still in the light so that was good, but as soon as I hit Chestermere I flatted. :( What bad timing, the sun was just peeking over the horizon on it's way down and with the long grass in the ditch I knew I'd get eaten alive. Those damn'd Mysquitos(spelling?) were biking me all over!!! Then when I put the chain on with oil/dirt on my hands I started getting it all over as I swatted. It was not pretty, I had some choice words for those pesky things. Eventually though the tire got fixed and I sped on away. I was just overjoyed to leave those things behind. The legs now felt fine at least, but it was nearly dark. The last 5k I'm ashamed to say I spent riding in the dark. I was super careful though and looked behind for each oncoming car to make sure they weren't coming at me. Still bad though, I won't be cutting it this close next time. :P It ended up being about 135k, with the flat fix I felt great coming home. The legs don't hate me too much. Soooooo itchy though, oh I found the flat cause too. It was kind of a after thought, but I checked the tire and found a tiny, super thin piece of metal sticking into the tire. I had to remove it with my teeth, it was too fine for the fingers. So that is my adventure from last night, I know some of you will frown disapprovingly. I know it was bad riding home in the dark with no lights. It won't happen again. I promise.

Friday, July 18, 2008

bloggin slump

Hey,

Sorry I haven't posted much of anything lately. Sometimes I try, but then quit promptly when I feel I can't put my thoughts into words. I've tryed the not worrying about spelling, grammer, etc. but it's not even that what bothers me. I want to say somthing but I just can't put it into words. Oh well enough about that.

Training has been crappy this last week. I've been fighting the last bit of a cold. I never really got it bad, but the last part has been hanging on a little longer then I would like(duhh). I've also missed a few workouts cause of timing and a lack of planning on my part. It seems I need the whole day wide open just to make sure I get the workouts in and done. I admire some of you, well I guess it's a lot of you that have families and or very busy lives. You guys are so awesome, being able to get all the regular family stuff done and then train for an IM, or w/e.

Well IMC is coming up and at times I'm starting to freak out a bit. I always do that so do not be alarmed, I'm used to it. Maybe that's why I don't race that often, I love the training, love the results, just don't like the race mornings and the stress that they bring. I do however have some tricks that I use to try to take the edge off so to speak. Here they are in no particular order, they are my tricks, you may use them, but you have to give me the credit, even though I may have stole them from someone else. :P

1. Tell myself the race doesn't matter. I may have hopes, goals, big dreams, but I will tell myself that it's just a training race, or that all I want to do is finish, maybe I'll even tell myself that this year doesn't matter, next year I'll really give it a go. This works for me cause it takes the importance of the performance away. You'd think that if I was convincing enough that I wouldn't push myself as hard I was able during the race. This is not the case, the moment the gun goes off all of that convincing goes out the window, I"M RACING!!

2. Realize that as I enter the water, or toe the line all of the work is done. There is nothing that I can do now that will change the speed that I will race at in the water, on the road, and on foot. That being said don't shut off the brain completely there's still things to think about, transition, pacing, nutrition, etc.

3. This is related to #1 and #2, the race is the icing on the cake. I am as fit as I can be and that is good. It's all about the journey to this point and I feel gooooooooooood. Sorry I'm not explaining this well. Lets try this, This is a celebration of fitness and I belong here, the numbers on the clock as I cross the line won't change that. I will simply enjoy doing this, why? CAUSE I CAN! and I WAS MEANT TO DO THIS!!

4. I will worry about me and my box(taken from the eating paste article) nothing outside the box matters. How fast my friends go, or my friends/coach's expectations. It all doesn't matter, I will listen to my own body and pace myself accordingly. That being said I'm gonna scoop a super big helping of Paste and fill up Curtis's bento box. HE CAN HAVE IT ALL!! muah ha ha ha

5. Tell myself I will find a way to enjoy parts of each leg. There may be parts that I dislike, but I will enjoy other parts. In fact for the bike I tell myself that I WILL enjoy the first 100-150km, this will also help keep the pace down.

6. Now that I'm an IM vet(I'm not being conceited remember this is what I tell myself) I have done this before. It'll happen I just have to keep it a constant easy effort and my body will remember how to do it.

7. I have done the training, I have done rides 180k, maybe even longer by race day. I have climbed hills tougher then Richter and Yellow lake. The swim is flat, exactly like cda, been there done that. The run, well the run is tougher then cda, but I do like to run hills, I'm a hill runner at heart.

8. We can't go out too slow in the Swim/bike that a solid run performance can't fix. :) Keep it relaxed, bring my C game and strap it to my bike frame no matter how bulky and un-aero it is. :P

K there's gotta be more that will help. Anyone else have mental tricks you use to calm the butterflies? Cheers,

Darryl

Monday, July 7, 2008

Long Race Report










Hey all,

I had an awesome race in Stony this weekend. The night before and the morning were a little nerve wracking. Lisa will tell you I was quite worried about the weather. When I was packing for the race I managed to forget any type of cold weather racing clothing. We had scattered showers, and the tv told me that we'd get more of it the morning of the event. Which is basically how it played out, I woke up after a rough night of sleep to the sound of rain on the hotel parking lot. Grrrrrrrrrrreat, I even comtemplated going to get my bike from transition and just leaving. With no bento box(forgotten at home with the warm clothing) there was no way of toting the spare tube, c02,adapter. Sooooo I had one more thing to worry about. I put one of each in my helmet, to put in my singlet after the swim. If I use more then one, well I'd be done early I guess... Another small issue I had was that I had no way of bringing nutrition along, just one cage with the cervelos that have the wheel cut out. It's not a big deal in training as I wear a jersey with pockets and make pit stops when I need infinit. Today however, I'll have to use what's on the course.

Swim;

It was nice meeting some fellow athletes of Greg's, Cam and other friends. It helps to take the edge off. Kelsey said I looked way to calm to be racing, if only she knew the butterflies in my stomach. I joke around to cover it up, or maybe she was being sarcastic and it was showing. /shrug Jenna, Kelly, and I hung out and started in the same place. We joked around some more not really paying attention to where we were. Suddenly we notice we're right at the front and the gun goes off before we can make the adjustment. The actual start wasn't too bad, I was expecting worst cause the start area was kinda narrow for 600+. So we started out and I kicked up the Susi gerbil type thing in my head. STAY CALM, Breathe in breathe out, relax, easyyyyyyyyyyyy pace. I kept repeating that all to myself, reminding myself of how arbour lake went and the horrible time I had at the end of the swim. Well that really seemed to help, plus the pulling up of the wetsuit(I pull it up higher now so I think it's helping my shoulders) and probably the warmer water. It was toasty warm, perfect actually cause I didn't over heat either. No major contact till the first bouy, WOW that was nearly as bad as Ironman, it was head up, push fight, bump(thankfully none of the talisman training pool grinding till later). Although from reading Jenna's report already I doubt I got it as bad as her. I'm pretty good at defending my space. The worst ones are the ones that zig zag. Cause they're swimming the same speed as you in reality, you can see them in the water going back and forth like they're carving down a ski hill and swimming so much more distance. And just like on a ski hill you have to time it right to make the pass, if you don't you start to move ahead, he notices he needs to go more to the left and BAM swims right into your side. I also noticed I can kick to the side too if I need to. One person kept bumping(or humping I'm not sure which) into the side of me, I don't know where they were going cause I was swimming straight as an arrow. so I swam at the bouy and I kept feeling bump... bump.... bump. WTF?!?! so I started kicking more to that side(no major injury intent or anything just lettin em know it's MY space, kinda like MY PRECIOUS!!!). Eventually when I got the knees into the kick the bumping stopped. Lap one down with out too much problems, bit of sighting problems coming in, so I'd pause a bit at times to sight then continue to swim. Lap2 was much the same, except for less people which was nice, I was able to relax more although caught myself pushing the pace a bit on the back side. So coming out of the water I was really pumped, I didn't fall apart and I had a good feeling about the swim time. :)
T1;

It was slow since I had to take a bit of time to wipe the sand off my feet, the transition was really crowded too. I had a bit of a scare too, when I got to transition my heart leapt into my throat and I couldn't breathe. MY ASTHMA!! no inhaler(I hardly use em and they don't help me much) so I stood there for a few seconds(in transition terms a second = eternity) and got my breath back quite quickly. I'm surprised cause the first thought that popped into my head was oh no my race is done.
Bike;
My mount was terrible, slick roads, people all around, sharp uphill, etc, but who cares I got 90k to correct it. Time to make up some time!!! There's a sharp climb out of transition, then out onto the main highway then a long down hill. It was really nice sailing down that, time to get the legs going. I didn't pass too many at the start, but grandually my legs started to get warmed up and I started to feel good. Just after Stony(the actual town area) the rain poured down over us. I was riding along nicely but was sure that if that kept up I would freeze. The rain was short though and gradually went down to a drizzle and eventually stopped. Phew and the course has very few turns so as long as I'm careful and don't hit the shoulder I'm good. So coming up to the first aid station I noticed that they only had small bottles of gateraide and water with no tops on. Perfect for a aero drink up front, bad for anyone using bottle cages. Oh well the ride was going well my legs were feeling strong, I wasn't going to let it bother me. As soon as the Infinit was gone I grabbed the first bottle and replaced it. the aid stations were placed every 10k, who woulda thought I'd actually need fluid that often, ha ha. Yep I had to replace the bottle almost every station. Oh I didn't drink all of it, some splashed onto my bike, some onto the road or into my shoes. The course is really fast and there wasn't too much wind, only a little in various places on the way back. Also the second half of the out section had new pavement on it, very smoothhhhh and fast. :) By 45k my gluts started acting up, they were both hurting a lot. I'm not sure why that happened, I've never had any glut problems on training rides. Go figure I've also never ridden a hard 90k like that. So I had to back off the pace a bit. The valley wasn't too bad, I enjoyed the break to sit up and look around enjoy the country scenery. I passed one girl on the hill and she noticeably wasn't enjoying the climb. Mean while I'm thinkin to myself, "Girl this isn't even a hill, I haven't even shifted to the granny gear on the front" At that point I kinda had to remind myself that I was still in a race, keep pushing, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THIS THAT MUCH!! On the way back I saw them loading up some poor guy, it wasn't a corner or anything, I suspect he lost concentration, or reaching for a bottle and hit the shoulder. :( I don't like seeing that, I felt bad for him ending his day like that. 20-10k I had fun with a fellow rider, he'd pass me on the flats, then we'd hit a hill and I'd try to drop him on the climb. I joked to him that there weren't enough hills. ha ha yeah right like Stony has any hills worth mentioning. Oh well it helped pass the time, I can't remember what happened I think eventually he dropped off before the last corner. I passed a few more riders, then came the 5 k marker and back into town for T2. I remember thinking wow, that ride was short! I wanna keep going, the last half IM that I did I blew up big time and ended up crawling in from the bike.

T2;

A little bit confusing, the part where I fail at was I couldn't remember my damn'd number. They ask it of you as you run in so they can direct you to your transition bag that they have so neatly placed under the racks. There are two dif. transitions so at the start of the race you put your T2 stuff in a bag and onto a truck so they can set up your transition for you in another location(t2, make sense???) Takes a bit more time, ripping the bag open, taking your shoes, socks, etc. out and putting it on. I also still had some sand on my wet feet so I tryed to wipe that off and prayed that as I put my socks on that it wouldn't be too bad in the shoes. :P As I was running out I threw away my spare tube and c02. If anyone found them please return them back to me. j/k
Run;

I had no idea what my splits were, I like racing on perceived effort. The temp was good, but there was soo much humidity. Not sure if anyone felt it, but when we ran through the heavily tree'd area it felt like the air was soo heavy. Then the sun did come out for a bit and it was hot. Here's where I had a problem. I had to take a piss really really badly. Do I stop, loose time and the running partners that were helping push the pace(we had a pretty good thing happening), or keep going and hope that it goes away? The only thing is if I keep going, I can't be taking in too much more liquid, but I still need to hydrate right? All I'd had till that point was gateraide and one bottle of infinit after the swim so I knew I needed somthing. Oh well I pondered this and ran, I'd take a water or gateraide and take sips then dump the rest on myself or the course. I even thought about pissing myself while running. I know this sounds gross but I had a really good pace and running stride for stride with this guy, if I loose him I'm DONE! So we kept going while I was thinking about this, eventually I forgot about it at times. hmmm is it going away? What happens here, does your body obsorb it?? Does it think to itself, "you know, we're not getting enough liquid/electrolytes here do you suppose we could sift through that stuff again?" Oh well as that feeling went away I took more fluid in, I also felt stronger as I took my first sip of coke and dropped buddy I had been running with. It was soo much fun seeing people and catching them. I reverted to Susi's Mantra system, thinking I AM A RUNNER, THIS IS MY ELEMENT, THIS IS WHAT YOU DO BEST, PUSH PUSH PUSH. This is what I kept thinking, then on the long return I got to look for friends in the race. I use this to motivate me, I don't think I said much to each one of them, but I tryed to. At times it was a mumble, or forgetting their name, or they'd say mine and I'd just turn and kinda raise my hand. It still helped immensely and I really do hope I helped motivate them. It's kinda selfish but for me cheering others on somhow motivates/insipires me to keep going. I'm sure you know what I mean. So onward to the finish 7k to go, 6k to go, 5k to go, check the watch, hmmmm did we start on time? I got some 30-40 minutes to run 5k(to go under 5 hours), I can do that in my sleep!!! hmmm did we start on time? oh I thought that already, do yourself a favor, don't think, there's a runner, catch him!! 4k, oh damn I'm gonna make it under 5 hours!! Calm down you're not done yet, you're starting to hyperventilate. Good job, don't EFF this up, you nearly started puking. We don't want that. 3k, caught a runner, ohhh he passed me back, he didn't like that. On the next little up hill I pass him back, he waits longer and passes me and picks it up. 2k to go. I pass a spectator, he yells "Put your head down and you can go under 4:45!!" I'm like WHAT?? He's gotta be on crack, there's no way we're comin in that fast. Fans are somtimes way off with their course measurements, timings, etc. Oh well with 2k to go I'm thinkin I can do this, buddy was up the road and was putting time into me. I didn't care too much about that, I just didn't want to crack. Then we get back into town and I see the 1k marker. Can this really be happening?? I felt strong the whole run, am I still a runner?? Then down the last street to what I thought must be the last corner. I was hoping please be the finish, please be the finish, did I mention my legs were hurting? and lots!!! I still couldn't hear Steve King till I rounded the corner and then I saw it, the finish, the fans, Lisa, the clock said 4:4somthing.
Results;
55 32/142 M3039 595 Darryl Penner Calgary AB 134 36:00 1:48 48 83 2:34:44 34.9 34 1:33:16 4:26 4:43:59


Reflection;
I was really worried about the weather, but that turned out really good. We had one down pour and wet roads for a bunch of it, but I didn't mind. The cloud cover for the run made the soaked bike ride bearable. I also worried about the swim, my goal was just to feel good the whole time, get my confidence back. I did that. I was hoping to break 5 hours and have a chance at a Personal best, but taking 12 minutes off my time!!! I'm speachless, it was unbelievable. I've heard some race reports already and I hope to hear some more and maybe some pics? Some people finished their first half, others smashed prs, and still others had a good solid training day. Which ever it is, I'm proud of you all. Cheers,
Darryl