quick(long) update

Hey,

Well I'm done, and I believe the C man is too. There musta been some prayers sent up too as both Curtis and I had some mishaps, glad we were both safe, well somewhat safe. For me the swim was a nightmare, it was the worst IM swim I've ever been in. I can't even explain how bad that first corner was, at one point I put my head up and it looked like 50 people all with their heads up, no one could move, and the people from behind kept running into us. Anyways I inhaled some water then drank a bunch more. Then eventually I started to panic, oh btw the waves were pretty big if you hadn't figured that out yet. Anyways I'd had enough on the second lap, I was ready to pull out. I swam out to the first kayak I saw and hung on and sat there. I tried to swim several times, 4 kayaks later and twice I said to the guy "I'm out" but both times they didn't listen to me just let me hang on and the one guy even offered to to paddle with me. I can't explain all the range of emotions that went through me, I was so petrified of swallowing more water and the cluster F$%&ck at the corners. I hated every minute of it. So I eventually kept going and made it through the swim, 33.5 min. for the first lap 1:15 total. Please be gentle on me, I know you guys will think I'm stupid for being so disappointed. It's more the panic that I felt, I'm gonna really think long and hard whether or not I'll ever do a Mdot race again. That saddens me, I should be happy, but w/e on to the rest of the "quick" report don't worry it gets better.

So I got out eventually really unhappy and got on the bike. I had a really solid bike ride, I felt strong and I passed probably over a thousand people. I guess I felt some urgency, there was a small part of me that thought well if I have an amazing bike and run I still have a shot. It's really true what they say, "you can't win an IM with a good swim, but you can certainly loose it with a bad one." So had a really strong bike, never really went through a weak point. I passed Sonia eventually, I drew energy from that. She had a solid race, I'm betting she'll get her slot.

The run started off really strong, the first lap was smokin. But then I'm not sure what went wrong, or maybe nothing?? I still ran really well 3:34 is awesome, but I slowed down a lot for the second lap. I started walking aid stations at about 18 miles and my pace slowed. But I hung on and I was proud of that. I finished and actually managed to shave off 3 minutes off my PB so all is not lost. I just don't know how to over come the swim thing, I guess IMC start isn't as bad as this one. I hope WTC realizes they need to stop extended the fields, but doubt that'll happen.

I appreciate all your well wishes, I thought of every one of you while racing, I really did. And part of what kept me going in the water, was the fact that I know all of you would be disappointed if I quit. Well plus they wouldn't let me drop out. lol

Curtis had a tough day, I haven't talked to him yet. He can give you the details, all I know right now is he crashed because of a flat and was pretty banged up. BUT he still finished, what a tough bugger, I tip my hat off to him. I always knew he was tough, but now I got a whole new level of respect for him. He can give you more details. K, this isn't as short as I thought. I know some of you will give me heck for being disappointed, that's what I get for having such high expectations. Oh well fire away. Cheers,

DP

update #1

Aloha!!

We're here in cda chillin watching tv after a super dinner at Mongolian BBQ. Yesterday we arrived in sunny cda/spokane around 5ish. It was a beautiful drive and came out with Curtis, his family is coming out on friday. His kids have school stuff to do so they couldn't come for the entire time. Later on that evening Curtis and I went for a run along the Spokane river. It was super humid!! I haven't ran in that kinda humidity since living in Manitoba.

Today we woke up around 8 and drove to Curtis's hotel(he's staying in a Best Western in Liberty lake which is between Spokane and CDA) we left the bikes for now and headed to cda to register, got that done and went for a quick dip. The water was pretty much perrrrrfect, I even took off my cap eventually. I think it's 17-18 degrees, but I got that from a web page where the temp was taken near some river that enters cda lake. After the swim we headed back to our hotels. This time we took the bikes and drove back to cda to see about race wheels for me. I rented wheels from racedaywheels.com, they set them up and then we went and rode the run course. It was a beautiful day!! I did a few pickups to race pace, nothing hard(IM pace isn't hard for minutes at a time right??). The wheels feel really good, I was a bit apprehensive at first about usin a disc, never rode with one before. I'm quite stable with it, although there wasn't much wind to really test them out with. Then back to the hotels and off for dinner. As I mentioned we went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner and I had two big bowls of stirfry with a ton of veggies, it was yummmmmyy.

That's pretty much it for now, tomorrow will be a really relaxed day. We've done really all the necessary stuff till Saturday, we just have a couple workouts to do. Can't really call these short easy things workouts can you???? Anywho all we got is maybe a short dip, jog, then later we'll go to the pasta thing in the evening on site. Sorry Cam we're takin a few pictures here and there but I forgot the cord to upload the pics onto this laptop so unfortunately I can't get any pics off the camera. Sorry bout that. :( Only my descriptions for posts. Pictures would be much better boooo. Over,

DP

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMUgmU_Hsjc

Thanks Cam, I hope it's ok I post this again. It still very much applies.

Patience

When will it be here??? I want to hear the gun, I want to get going. I want to know the outcome!!!! It's like the last week before the final exam.

Long update

Heya!

No not the ironman itself, but the training. At least the last hard workout was yesterday. I'll have a few short hard ones, but not difficult overall, just to keep the legs sharp. I have 2 more days of work left, monday and tuesday. We're gonna head south on wednesday morning, I think I'll have a laptop with so I can update the blog(for the couple readers I do have lol).

Lets back up to last weekend a bit, 2 weeks before race day. The saturday plan was to hurt, more specifically 5 hours hard. Greg, Trevor, Curtis, and myself went out and did exactly that. We headed out on springbank road and probably 30-40minutes in I upped the tempo to a nice brisk pace. I had decided before hand that I wasn't drafting today so I kept it at that. Man it's hard to keep out of the draft zone and since Trevor, Greg and myself(although Curtis wasn't far back at all) are so close in ability we constantly pass each other. Gotta back off immediatly to stay away from the sweet spot. Maybe I should do this more often?? Anyways I won't get into the ride specifically except that we pushed it, a lot harder than I could on my own. Did a short transition run after too.

Then Sunday Curtis and I headed to the track. My legs were so heavy from the hard bike effort the day before. At the start we met an old friend from when I first moved to Calgary. Curtis and I met at the Running Room club on Sunday mornings and this guy Rob Beerkins was there. I never recognized him till I heard his name, WOW hadn't seen this guy in like 8-9 years!! Man how time flies. It was really sweet to catch up. It didn't sound and look like Rob had done much training lately, in fact he admitted that this was going to be his first run in years. Curtis and I tried to encourage and started our workout. 6 miles at 150bpm for me and then a pyrmid of intervals. The sun was out too, what a rare treat, I forgot to mention we had sun on saturday too. I got some block on, but apparently missed a few spots so I shall be wearing a few tan lines for cda. Those who know me won't be surprised, just take a look at my cda 07 pics. I still have burn marks from that. Anyways the track workout got done, another weekend in the tank and the last hard one. WOOT!!

Yesterday I went for a massage and once again yikes my massage therapist hurt me. HURT ME BAD!! You know on that hard long ride I apparently hurt my back some. Nothing serious just some knots that need to be taken care of. She does an amazing job on my knots, holy cow I had knots all over not just my back. If any of you need a good massage therapist in the Inglewood area, give her a shout. http://www.ifhc.ca Lexis is her name. My back is a lot better now thanks to her. I might just go for a 30min rub down on tuesday before we leave.

Another news item, my mom is coming with us to CDA. Yep that's right mommy is flying into Calgary to drive with us out to cda and watch her baby(I'm the youngest in the fam) race!!! She's also bringing some special treats from Manitoba. Home made perogies, and some Manitoba farmer sausage mmmmmmmmmmm they are absolutely the BEST!!! (Don't worry Chuckie that's all for post race celebrations). We also signed up Lisa and my mom to volunteer at the race. My mom is tickled pink to help out with the race, she is so pumped to help out. I suggested it to Lisa two days ago since last year they couldn't come into the finish area to see me after the race(in the medical tent) So this way they're at the transition/finish, will be done so they can watch most of the race(5:30-10:30am is their shift) and will also have access to the finish area. WOOT

Anyways that's probably it for now, I've written my longest post ever I think. Like I said hopefully I can post in cda every day. Race day as usual you can check out www.ironmanlive.com for race coverage, you just have to go to the race Ironman couer d' alene and punch in the number 646 and or the last name Penner and voila my race splits. K, over and out.

DP

# 646

A little more reality always sets in when the race numbers are posted. Am I really racing Ironman in 12 days??? I'm fit and ready to go, all systems CHECK!!!!

Some Penticton(Anarchist) pictures.

Maybe about half way up? On my own now.

Near the top where the grade is probably only 3-4%

Our standard picture around the eagle, it's right near the finish.

Took this pic on the way down. You can see Osoyoos down below and if you look closely across the valley you can see the first section of Richter pass.

Summerside Oly RR

Hey,

I did the Summerside Oly on the weekend. Did really well, it was a good indicator of my fitness and I good chance to test the open water swimming. I didn't want to stay there for the night so I got up at 3:30am to drive to Edmonton to get there at 7am to register. The parking was awesome, I actually got there early and got a spot literally right across from transition. Got all ready and had a chance to talk with Dan, actually set up right beside him. He had an awesome race, he's really improving.

The water was chilly, but not too bad(I'd swam in worse). They did an awesome job of organizing and even made sure everyone got enough of a warmup, before the pre race meeting. It seems you feel better going into the water for the second time, even with a wetsuit on. So the horn blasted after all that and away we went. I picked a wicked good line, man I've been having really good luck lately going on the inside. It seems everyone always goes outside, sure this was only about 100 people, but I don't think I got touched AT ALL at the start. I went pretty hard at first. I knew I was swim fit, not necessarily swim fast(although I find out different later), but I knew I could at least giver to the first bouy to get ahead of some of the others. Slowed after a bit and got into my groove. I could still see the lead pack yayyyy, man that felt good!! Came out inbetween laps and noticed that the lead pack was actually just ahead of me. Could this be right??? There's gotta be more further up. I spotted one guy wayyyy out there, and a second inbetween, but nope I was swimming at the most 50m behind what looked like a grp of about 6. This is where I stayed for the second lap, I think I gained on them a bit and actually considered bridging, but I was just fine swimming on my own behind so I stayed there and prepared for the bike.

Got out of the water and had to run along the beach and then onto the pier to get to the transition entrance where my watch read 21:52 crossing the mat! Well since Wasa's short swim last year I just assumed the swim was short. But later on talking to others most didn't think it was short and I was actually 10th out of the water, holy shit!!!! I still swim slow in the pool, somebody hit a switch when I enter the lake. I really hope I do the same thing at cda, I neeeeeed that fast swim. So the transition was a bit slower then I woulda liked, but eventually out on the bike. Man my gluts hurt from the previous days rides. So I pushed as hard as I could. There was very little wind so that was nice. It was sunny out so I could test my new one piece that I plan to wear for cda. DAmn it's comfy, only annoying thing is the race belt seems to defy gravity and actually crawl up as I run. WEird!! The bike was extremely bumpy, I let out a few curses as my bike jittered and bounced around on the ashalt like it was having a seizure. Two out and backs and we rolled back into transition. I totally rocked the transition!!! I came in maybe 30 secs behind a guy and I made it out ahead of him. Bike overall was ok, but I def. was sore from training. 1:07 with transitions and they say 44k, but I don't think it was that far.

The run went super, I felt strong and fast. It was a 4 loop/lap/outandback course, no major hills just a long false flat. I cruised through it, not hurting myself really bad, but still pushing. It was nice to get more people on the course once more starting coming off the bike. Even thought they were on dif. laps it would give me somthing to focus on. I saw Dan and his buddy a few times on the run, that helped. About half way through I got a bad side stitch, just under the ribs. Youch that hurt, I had to slow down a bit till it went away and then I could push the pace again. Had one guy pass me on the run, he ended up having the fastest run split. I pushed a bit more on the last lap to try and get under 2:10, but I couldn't quite do it. I ended up just seconds over, good enough for a pb. The highlight of the race was def. coming out of the water still in the mix. The main reason I did this race so close to cda was the open water swim practice. Got a PB to boot, and some wicked confidence in my fitness. Next stop Ironman Coeur d' Alene!!!

http://www.resultscanada.com/results2010/2010_MSC_Summerside_Triathlon/2010_LakeSummerside_Olympic_Overall.txt

DP

Couple Calgary half pics

OUCH!!!!

OUCH!!!! that hurt. No not the latest and greatest workout, although those hurt. But no the massage I had today at noon. My calves are so knotted up, why am I so merciless with my calves???? I had her work on my calves almost the entire 45 min, I gotta get in there a couple more times before IM. I had her go as deep as I could handle, I was wimpering and still made her keep the pressure on. The first time she ran her hands down my left calf and got to the knot. You know how the hands will kinda slip/jump over the knot, well her hands actually slipped off my leg completely. We couldn't get them completely as after awhile of working the legs they just get too aggravated and will tighten up. So she'd go to the other leg for awhile and then come back to the bad one. Yeesh I just know my head will hurt later. I'm happy though, she's good, she's close to work, she gets me in on short notice, and she knows how to really hurt me.

One thing that I've noticed as I moved from running to triathlon is that I've moved from a heel striker to a toe/forefoot runner. At least that's what I think happened because I went from a chronic knee injurer(yes that's a word) to a tight calf problematic guy. It makes sense right? Heel striking seems to be more of a knee jaring thing, then moving to landing on the toes your calves are constantly tightened. Maybe it's the cycling that has made this change to my running. Although it's def. the running that causes it, so I think the cycling may have changed my running form. I'm not complaining though, I'd rather deal with a sore/tight calf than a knee injury any day. Oh btw it's the same leg too, could be that that leg is shorter too which causes problems, or the other one is so this one has to work harder. Anyways what do you guys think? Anyone else noticed a similar thing?

Over and out,

DP