Road rash again,

I am disappointed in the circumstances that lead to my shorter day than expected at IM LP last weekend; however, sometimes things can happen for which we have no (little) control over.  The day started with dark and rainy skies and I had a little slower than normal swim.  However, because of three separate blows to the right side I have had radiating intercostals pain in my chest and back pain for the past 2 months (ok almost 1 year).  It was re-instigated with an accident between my TTX and a motorcycle, two weeks after 08 IM LP.  Therefore, the past 8 weeks I have been only doing 2 easy swims per week, so I will take the chase pack swim including many of the podium contenders. 

I got out of transition and rode with a German named Bader for the first 45k; gently rolling through the men’s pro field with little extra effort.  Thanks to Trek (Madone) and Tristan for the fast bike!  However, just after getting into 4^th over the Wilmington hill my back wheel slid on the painted centre line on the 90 degree turn to the Hassleton out/ back.  Apparently, the 360 degree wipe-out looked better than it felt. I shook off the dirt and re-mounted my bike- back in the race.  I rode the out and back getting up into 4^th again, before stopping for medical, as blood was running on me and my bike.  I stopped where I fell, but now heading out of Hassleton.  I lost plenty of time in medical, as it seems that I was more geared up for speed than they were.  The medical support staff were very professional and I cannot imagine being able to continue without them.   

I only had a few gears working well for the last 135k and I was only able to put my left arm on the aero pad, as I crashed on my right arm, so aerodynamics were no longer my number one concern.  In the aid stations I was thinking about water to get the blood off me and my bike, rather than re-hydrating.  The second challenging loop had my bandage on my finger flapping along with a piece of paper stuck to front tire (a little frustrating).  I pulled off the bandage (not too smart) and my finger began spraying blood again.  Luckily Jimmy Riccatello called the next aid station for me to make another pit stop. This one slightly quicker and less painful, but more time lost.  I managed to finish the bike the best I could and got off in 8^th-10^th but I was not as mentally focused.  

My “run” now had a slight limp with my right hip I fell on and I felt that by continuing I could create more damage and problems.  I decided to call it a day after doing 1 loop and focus on IM Louisville in 5 weeks.  The diarrhea I had on the run made my decision even easier.

p.s. One of the athletes I coach (Graeme) was helping Laura get to the finish line- good karma.

Cheers, Dave

It was my mission to try and make sure that I blog on race reports right after each race, but alas, MOVING kind of took priority this time!   A couple of days after Desert Half in Osoyoos which was the Canadian Long Course Championships (which I’ll report on right after I feign my tardiness excuse!), Eric, my fiance and I, rented the good old BUDGET truck, and loaded our belongings from Calgary to Vernon and finally did ‘THE MOVE!’  We made the drive from Calgary to Vernon about two weeks ago and are still living among boxes…but we’re here – YAYYYY!!!  We were sad to leave our home in Calgary, which was just that – home, but otherwise, we are SOOOOO pumped about living in the Okanagan!!!  We’ll miss our friends including Rose, Brian, Richelle and friends at  my favorite Tri store in the entire world, TRI-IT, and BOW CYCLE (especially my most awesome mechanic/fitter – Blue,) But neither of us will miss the traffic, crazy weather, or hectic lifestyle that Calgary found us battling more often than not.  We have downsized considerably to help alleviate financial strain as I train/race full time as a professional triathlete (where the income is certainly somewhat elusive) and it’s great.  Less ‘things’ to cause clutter, and back down to basics…it’s refreshing and absolutely fabulous!

Okay..now for the race report…from what I can remember of it!

Weather was very good for the Desert Half 2009 with hot (as usual) temperatures, but a bit of cloud cover for the run which did help!  The swim went better for me than it did in Boise as the water was much more accomodating this time, but still proving that I need more work on my stroke, as well as experience in the open water (Kalamalka and Okanagan Lake will be stomping grounds for sure!) At 33 minutes and change for the 2 km swim (a little longer than the 1.9) it was much better than last year, but still not where I’d like it to be.  It’ll come.  Regardless, I came out of the water in a better position and didn’t have to chase down quite as hard, but I was still minute behind Heather Wurtele who, as an Ironman Champion, was definitely going in as a race favorite.  (It was great to meet Heather personally this weekend too…super nice…even if I did  have to look up, waaaayyyy up, to talk to her…sorry, no ‘Friendly Giant’ pun intended there!)

T1 was a bit of a gong show, as I finally got it together to use elastics to keep my shoes in place for the bike.  Newbie?  Yep.  But I am starting to realize that precious time is lost in transitions that can make the difference, so I practiced up for this one.  Problem was that when I went to clip in, for some reason my shoe clipped OUT of my pedal.  Totally one of those weird race moments, which was a bit of a problem, but as my coach, Scott, always says, ”Deal with the problem and get on with the task at hand.” 

After the little T1 fiasco I bolted out on the bike at a high pace, largely induced from a serious adrenalin rush!!!  Nothing like the unexpected to get the already pumping heart to pump even faster!!! Along the bike,  I ended up “Cat and Mousing” along the bike with my friend, Sam (Factor9) from Victoria for about half of the race.  It was very cool to pass, get passed, and pass again, and be able to shout encouraging words to one another the whole time.  Good mental boost, and fun to help pass the time on the bike and keep focused. It was also great to see my friends Jill Kirker and Scott Taylor at the top of Richter on the way back!  Always great to see friends along the course – it really helps to boost morale – thanks for cheerin’ guys!

 I felt strong for the whole bike, although I did have some wavering moments at about 2/3 in…not sure why….just started to feel some fatigue I guess.  I was in third position at this point having kept even with Heather on the bike for time, and with Rae Shaw from the States up in first who was posting a blistering bike pace….it kept things interesting.  I knew it would come down to the run….did I have it in me to take 5-6 minutes on them in the run?  Only one way to find out!  The bike went well having three of us breaking the bike course record (which was previously a 2:40) where I posted a 2:37.

Got to T2, and although sometimes you wonder how on earth you are going to run while you are on the bike….somehow you just do.  T2 is another adrenalin rush and it’s GO TIME!!!  I had two women up several minutes ahead of me and it was time to chase.  I chased hard for the first lap (of two) and was gaining with every km., but I was sure working for it!  Then into the second lap I passed Rae (who had the fastest bike split of the day…great job, Rae!) and was now racing in second overall.  I was 2.5 minutes down from Heather with 5 km. to go.  I chased as hard as I could but came up 1 minute and 23 seconds short for the overall Canadian Long Course Champion title….but it was a tremendous race, causing us to race hard and push all the way!  The chase allowed me to break the overall run course record with a 1:23 run off the bike which I am pleased with!  As well, Heather and I both broke the overall course record (previously a 4:40) with 4:38:03 and 4:36: 40 as our times.  So, it was quite a race, and amazing how you push your fitness level up when you are challenged to do so!  It was a tremendous race, and again, put on so well by Joe and Sarah Dixon with Outback Events.

For now, it’s training, training, and more training in preparation for Ironman Canada at the end of August.  I was tempted to do the Calgary 70.3, but my coach, Scott, advised that I focus instead on the big volume so that is what I’m doing.  I will, however, be racing the B.C. ITT Road Championships next weekend (August 9th) which should be an interesting affair of sorts, and a local 10 km. running race  in Salmon Arm for race prep (August 16th.)  ‘Till then….for all of you who are also training for IMC…you’re almost there!!!  Push on through, the taper is COMING!!!

Ahhh…the midwest..so full of oxygen!  I miss racing out there, but this past weekend at the Chisago Lakes Triathlon outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul, I got my fill.  My wife and I raced the 1/2 IM distance and my dad and sister raced the sprint.  It was such a great course and it helps doing all of my training at higher elevation and come to sea level to race.  The skinny of it was that I got a 1/2 Ironman PR at 3:54.20 and was thrilled, plus won a little prize $$.  I have always wanted to break 4 hours and this was the day.  At Ironman Kansas 70.3 Andrew Hodges told me that I could definetly do it, everything just had to line up properly and he was right.  It placed me 4th overall with 2 pros and 1 amateur placing ahead of me, but we started in the same wave so we were all racing pretty close together. 

Congrats to our own Timex team members Jackie Arendt who also placed 4th overall and Mike Lavery as well!  I got to race with Timex’s new Tap watch (a new watch where you “tap” the face of the watch to advance splits instead of pushing a button) and it went well.   Full results are here.

A pair of 4th place finishes!

I will start from the beginning. I had eggs and corn tortillas for breakfast. The swim went well. My good buddy Michael Lovato told me that my song of choice, “Black Betty” would be playing when I came out of the water. Unfortunately, I swam 5 minutes slower than expected, so I missed it. I swam less in the month leading up to the race in favor of running more. I probably wont make that mistake again, because that just leads to my Timex teammate, Denny, swimming my face off. Never good.
In my first two Ironmans, my plan for the bike was to ride as hard as I could for as long as I could. This time around I played it safe, possibly too safe now that I look back on it, but I got off the bike feeling like a million bucks. So, I was ready to run. My guts felt good, my legs felt good, my hair looked good, I was ready to roll. I ran a 6.35 first mile…I dont know, I just got excited. So, I used my banked time to stop at the loo, pee, and give myself a talking to. From there I ran a controlled first half, coming through in 1.45- perfect. My goal was to run 3.35, so I was on track despite the arch incident. Arch incident? you ask. I was running under a huge inflatable “FORD” arch at 9 miles when I saw an ambulance coming. The ambulance was too tall for the arch and hit the top of it. The arch popped and collapsed on me. Then I heard people shouting “get her out of there!” and I was like, “yeah, get me out of here!” I swam out of the collapsed arch and carried on. At mile 14 I picked up the pace, and for the next 7 miles I felt like I was flying. I came through 21 miles thinking it would be possible to run 3.20. Then, at 23 miles I remember looking at my watch and thinking “I could blow up and still run under 3.30″
And then…the lights went out. My stomach was so distended I wondered if I would be left with permanent stretch marks. I shuffled a mile, walked a mile, and then was given my very own volunteer to stumble the last mile with. That last mile took 40 minutes. 4-0. Actually it was more than a mile, because I turned around and walked backwards on the course in my disoriented state- that is how a person wins themself a volunteer escort, I suppose
I set all sorts of PRs after the race, a temp of 95 degrees, a blood pressure reading of 50/39 and 3 IVs…not exactly the PRs I was going for, but its Ironman, you take what it gives you. It was awesome to see my Timex teammate Tamara demolishing the women’s field, and our Team Manager Extraordinaire Tristan holding down the Timex biz.

This weekend I headed up to Nashville for the Music City Triathlon.  It was a good opportunity to hang out with Paulo while also getting in a solid effort with friends.  Because I was coming into the race off a pretty hard week of training, I wasnt sure how it was going to turn out. Regardless, I was still looking forward to it as after having only raced 70.3s this year, I was ready for the Olympic Distance.

Swim (20:34, 3rd): With the TT start I was the 4th to jump in the river and immediately tried to catch one of the two guys in front of me, as I knew catching teammate “First Out of the Water” Bruce Gennari (who started first) would be all but impossible. Unfortunately they both swam away from me pretty quickly initially but about a third of the way through I reeled one of them in.  Thanks to my new AquaSphere speedsuit (as Chris already noted… these things are FAST!) no one from behind caught me so I exited the swim in 3rd.

Bike (1:02:19 including T1 + T2, 2nd): I felt a little sluggish at the beginning but after passing the 2nd place guy around mile 4, I finally got into my grove around mile 8 or so. The bike was a two lap out and back course so after going through the first turnaround, I noticed Bruce was about a minute ahead of me. I had heard he was about 50 sec up out of the water, so I figured we were riding about the same speed. Coming back into transition, Paulo alerted me Bruce was about 50 sec ahead, so I figured we were riding about the same pace. I felt a lot better on the second lap and really tried to focus and lessen the time gap to Bruce. With about a mile to go, I sped past Bruce but as I went by I heard, “Got a flat.” After my experience in Clearwater last year, I felt his pain.

Run (34:45, 2nd): Heading out on the run, I felt fine but was still worried (due to the TT start) that maybe I wasnt actually in first place. I ran the first lap of the run alone and and then Paulo gave me time gaps to a couple of people.  Luckily the gaps were fairly substantial so at that point I was feeling pretty confident about the win, allowing me to I cruise the second lap.

Still a little worried, I was relieved when the RD finally announced the OA awards. All in all, this was a really cool race. The start and finish was at LP Field (where the Titans play) and the run course cut through downtown Nashville which provided an awesome urban setting.  So if you ever need an excuse to visit Nashville, this would be a good one!

Results can be found here