Up here in Boulder, CO was the 5th Annual 5430 Sprint Triathlon(www.5430sports.com) – a race directed by our very own Timex Team member, Barry Siff.  Boy, he sure does put on a great event!  With over 1100 finishers and many of them doing their first triathlon ever, the race was more than accommodating.  Complete with several hot air balloons, plenty of recycling bins and being very family friendly, the race did not disappoint.  Brian Schaning and myself were the other Timex Team athletes who raced the 1/2 mile swim, 17.2 mile bike and 5k run in and around the Boulder Reservoir.  For me it was a day where I put the speed work to the test and it paid off pretty good considering I raced a 70.3 last weekend.  I finished 7th overall and 1st in my age group winning a Timex watch ironically enough.  Basically, I pushed very hard the entire 1 hour, 11 minutes and 57 seconds of racing and it felt good.  Brian had a great finish winning his age group in 1:11.36 and scoring 5th overall!  Well Done Brian!  Next up is Ironman Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 on June 28 then a little break in racing.

Getting an award with my son Connor

Have fun and be safe–

Tim

I arrived in Boise a few days before the race, where I was picked up by my amazing homestay family.  I have always wanted to go to Boise, not sure why….I guess to watch the potatoes grow or something…so I was pumped to check it out!

After a few days of driving the course, getting registered, figuring out transitions (as these were in two separate places for this race, making things a bit more tedious), eating, sleeping, and doing short little workouts to keep spry….race morning finally arrived.

But this was a different KIND of race morning.  Instead of the normal early morning start, Boise started at 2:00 p.m.  My coach set up a plan for fuelling that morning, which consisted of some solid food, but largely copious caloric ingestion of maltodextrin, gatorade, and chocolate milk.  I had my last real food (a peanut butter sandwich) at 9 a.m. which was a bit strange for me to wrap my head around.  Beyond this, the morning was a lot of ‘hurry up and wait.’  We had to drop our run gear off at transition 2 between 10 and 11, and the air was buzzing with people who just wanted to ‘get this party started, yo!’  Seriously, it was tough to keep the energy level low in an attempt to conserve for the output that was hovering in the near future when you are just so JACKED to get going!  I was especially pumped as this was my first real pro race start.  I thought I would be more nervous, but I was just plain excited!

I then arrived at transition at about 11:45 and had the time to check, re-check, check again, and JUST IN CASE check my things again.  It was a bit ridiculous really.  Had a psychotherapist been monitoring the athletes waiting to get started at this time, I am sure we would have all been diagnosed with a severe form of obsessive compulsive disorder.  Seriously.

I was stoked to be racking my bike next to the likes of Sam McGlone, Linsey Corbin and the other big names.  Last year, when I raced amateur, all I wanted was to race pro….and here it was….the very first race!!  Nice.

Okay….as for the race….

Swim:  This was a complete disaster.  Living in Calgary I have had virtually no outdoor swim experience, this year, or even last year, which was my first year in this crazy sport.  I knew the start with the small pod of pro women would be daunting but it really went far worse than what I had deemed the worst possible situation.  I really don’t yet understand drafting or how to go about swimming a straight line in the open water and when the gun went off I found myself in a bit of a panic.  My goggles fogged, and this added to the already difficult sighting of the red buoys in the corner to begin with.  I found myself stopping at every buoy after the first corner to lift my goggles to see where the heck I was going.  At one point the safety kayaker was screaming at me that I was going the wrong way.  It was just awful.  I came out of the water a solid 4-5 minutes slower than I thought I would do if I had a bad day!  Not good. It was even more disappointing because I have worked very hard on the swim this winter and improved it….but I guess improved only in the pool….put me in the ‘real elements’ and I still have some work to do.  However, there was nothing I could do about it other than get moving on the bike and run to make up for the loss. 

Bike:  The knowledge that I had to get to work was obvious.  I was already 4-5 minutes behind where I wanted to be….so MOVE IT!  No sooner did I get moving than I took a wrong turn on the bike, realized it, and headed back.  Then it started to rain.  Actually, it POURED.  It rained so hard that it hurt….therefore causing me to bike right past the next turn as I literally could not see the black arrow on the white sign.  This was a full on downpour.  But the volunteers proceeded to yell at me, I heard them, and back I went.  Things were NOT going well.  I am though, a firm believer in never giving up….so I just kept fighting….and sure enough things turned around.  At the Birds of Prey Sanctuary climb I could see the women ahead of me, and I realized that there were many within striking distance…and that there were still several hours of racing where I could make up many places.  So I got out of the saddle and rode with all I had to the top of the climb. I started passing pros ahead of me, and I was back in the game.  BRING IT.  I was liking what my computer was telling me…..my pace was good….and I just might come in to T2 a good 5-10 minutes faster than I expected.  Yes.

Run:  Sure enough, my bike was strong and now it was just a matter of whether my legs would be there for me or not.  Still pouring rain, I threw on my Newtons and got moving.  I knew right away that my legs were there.  So, I went with it.  The course was dead flat and it was just a matter of maintaining pace.  The run was….the run.  I went into a zone of numbness where all I cared about was continuing to catch women.  It worked!  I ran into the finish with the numbers reading a total time of 4:35….good for 6th place and in the prize money.  Nice.  

I now have 5 more days of teaching full-time, we sold our house, and I will be moving to Vernon in two weeks, where I will finally and truly embark on the road of becoming a true professional triathlete.  It has been extremely challenging juggling training at this level and teaching full-time and enough is enough.  I am very pleased with the result of my first pro race considering I have not been able to give it my all and am UBER excited to now proceed to do this right.  Okanagan….here I come!!!  YES! 

AS WELLL….My friends from Calgary, Jill and Chris, were also at the race  and Jill won her age group (50-54) and Chris was third (50-54.)  They took their Clearwater spots and they’ll be ripping it up this November. I am trying to get their pics up here too….but I may have to write another post since I am getting the ‘overload picture’ message. Nice job, guys!  You completely rock!!!!

i bet Erin will be envy on how good i look aboard a mountain bike :P

a few photos of a 24h MTB race where i rode as long as there was daylight… i still finished 9th overall ;D

With the arrival of summer came my second year as a member of the Doe Run Farm CSA. (For more information about CSA programs or to find a farm near you, I highly recommend Local Harvest.) Already this year I’ve received a variety of goodies but the cabbage in my box last week inspired the following recipe for coleslaw. I’m not a big fan of the typical mayonnaise based variety but this vinegar based option is quite tasty.

A couple notes… All of the veggies used were from the CSA except the carrots… I used a couple of full green onions (bulb and “leaves”) because thats what I received but a single medium sized white onion is probably more traditional…. I realize this isnt quite up to the Kevin or Judy standard but its a start…

Hardware:

• Food processor
• Cutting board
• Knife
• Large, deep bowl
• Small saucepan
• Whisk

Software:

• 1 cabbage
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 green onions
• 1 cucumber
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 1 tsp mustard seed
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper

Method: Using knife and cutting board, finely dice onions, cucumber, and pepper before pouring them into the large bowl. Using the grating attachment on your food processor, grate the cabbage and carrots and add them to the other veggies in the large bowl.

For the dressing, pour all remaining ingredients except the oil in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once this happens, pour in oil while whisking. Pour this mixture over the diced veggies and mix thoroughly. (Note: You may not need all of the dressing.)

Refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve chilled with grilled chicken or pulled pork. Enjoy!

13th June, 2nd place overall

Saturday morning we drove down the A3 from London to the South Downs. It was early. So early that while I was pleased not to have forgotten my shoes, I had forgotten my race number, despite carefully packing a Nathan race belt and some pins just in case.

It didn’t matter, though. The race organisers were well prepared and exceptionally friendly. One new number later, and having watched the earlier wave depart at 9am, then the first leg of the relays go at 9:30, the faster runners toed the line at the 10am start.

The course was a full marathon, set along chalk, dirt and grass trails up and over part of the South Downs. Starting at Slindon Park and finishing near Petersfield, the route was a point to point – we had parked at the finish and taken a bus laid on by the organisers earlier that morning.

Feeling a little bit fatigued thanks to a long week of training, I don’t think I realised I was there to race. In truth it was in the schedule as a long training run – further early season prep for the Trans Rockies to come later in the year. But with a number on and runners nervously hanging around the start line, I figured I had better get near the front just in case my competitive streak kicked in.

Sure enough, it did. The first couple of miles were ticked off at quicker than 6:15/mile pace, and knowing the course had over 5,500 ft of climbing, a 2:40-2:45 marathon seemed a little aggressive for my training run. On the first real uphill I decided to let the four guys running with me go ahead and dropped back to the second group of runners. I nearly let them past too, explaining I was “just on a training run” but their pace seemed to match mine so I dropped into stride and started to chat with them. One of these guys was only 22 years old but was 57 (or thereabouts) marathons through towards his goal of the full 100 by next year. The other bloke, Stevo (Stephen jeffery, who eventually came in third), had a marathon PB in the 2:30s, and had fruit gums in a bag stuffed down his shorts, and gels tucked into the waist band. Innovative and low tech. Good work! Couldn’t help but think he might be in need of a Nathan race belt!

We carried on at a fair clip, and somewhere about halfway, and a few major climbs and descents into the race (we had hit 13 miles in 1:27), I stacked it, falling full onto my front at the side of the track. Just before this I had been feeling like I was going to bonk, and was thinking about backing off, but after the tumble, the adrenaline kicked in and I was rolling along nicely again.

Stevo and I ran together for a fair bit, reeling in some of the guys from the leading pack as the initial fast pace began to take its toll on them. Thankfully for me, given that I’ve managed to take a few detours and add on some extra mileage to a couple of other running races already this year, the earlier wave starts meant that there was a steady stream of runners all along the route. This made it difficult (but not impossible) to go off route… at one point I did have a quick turnaround to check the direction of the arrow – just to be sure! Not only is it easier to follow the route with other runners on it, but it also means that you see other people you know along the way, so I saw a few Serpies (my club) and Anna who I had come down with that morning. Anna was having some ITB issues when I passed her – she ended up nearly pulling out near mile 20. Very proud that she managed to carry on and finish!

The last few miles I was counting miles and clock watching. 3 hours was very close, and i was getting very hungry… a few BBQs in the last stretch had got me thinking about lunch. If only the last section wasn’t quite so hilly! I managed to put in the fastest last 10km of the day and had passed everyone ahead except the leader who was the only runner just to duck under 3 hours on the day. A couple of minutes behind, and in second, I had had a good run and not blown my legs off.

The race had an excellent finish, organised great weather and beautiful surrounds. A highly recommended race series.