I hope that everyone who was running the marathon yesterday enjoyed it as much as I did last year. And for all the first timer, keep running, it is such an awesome sport :)
Monday, November 8, 2010
One year already
Yesterday was the 41th New York city marathon, one year ago I was there sitting at the starting line waiting for 10:20 so I could start my first marathon. It seems like it was yesterday, I can't believe how fast life goes by.
Since the marathon I completed my first half Ironman, and then a second one. I qualified for the world championship next year and I ran a couple of half marathon, triathlon, 15k, 10k etc. A year full with awesome races, and I am already looking froward 2011. I love the sport of triathlon so much, and I really hope that I will be able to keep at it for many years still!
Friday, November 5, 2010
October is over
October is over, a good running month, not bad swimming and sucky riding ...
I need to keep my running and swimming there, but I got to get back on that bike dammit. I know that spring is far but still I don't want to lose my bike fitness.
| October's totals: | ||
| Bike: | 7h 30m 11s - 189.45 KM | |
| Run: | 20h 48m 04s - 228.09 KM | |
| Swim: | 8h 50m - 21900 M | |
| Stretching: | 2h 00m | |
| Yoga: | 4h 30m | |
I need to keep my running and swimming there, but I got to get back on that bike dammit. I know that spring is far but still I don't want to lose my bike fitness.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
I am not dead ;)
I know I haven't post much lately. The training is going really well so far for fall, I am really happy with my running. Real life is taking a ton of times also, and decided to get involved with the triathlon club and the organisation of the triathlon next summer so I have a ton of things to do, which cut my free time to post.
I decided to go with a running focus winter, I will try to improve my half marathon as much as I can during the winter so that I can cut some time on my half Ironman next summer :) BUT I need to make sure to keep my bike speed, and I must try to get faster in the water too.
Overall a busy winter is in front of me, which is cool since I do not race anyway ;)
I decided to go with a running focus winter, I will try to improve my half marathon as much as I can during the winter so that I can cut some time on my half Ironman next summer :) BUT I need to make sure to keep my bike speed, and I must try to get faster in the water too.
Overall a busy winter is in front of me, which is cool since I do not race anyway ;)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
October Timex Global Trainer Giveaway
DC Rainmaker is giving away a Timex Global Trainer, I never had the chance to try one so I can't comment how good it is but I am pretty sure it is. Stop by his blog and enter the giveaway.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
How much of a race result is psychological?
While running with a friend a couple days ago we started talking about race result, trying to figure out a plan to get better result in our next race. At some point I told him that I thought that at least 50% of a race effort comes from the head, and the rest comes from the body.
I know that not everyone can get out there and run 2h05 marathon, but I still think that for most of us our head limits us more than our body.
When we go out there for lets say a half marathon and we start with the idea that we will run it in lets say 1h40, do we just convince ourself to not push harder than that? Is racing without a watch the solution? Or should we train more at high speed so our head gets used to run/bike/swim while suffering.
I wish I had the answer, maybe with more experience I will eventually find it. If you have an idea please leave a comment, I need to get faster for next season ;)
I know that not everyone can get out there and run 2h05 marathon, but I still think that for most of us our head limits us more than our body.
When we go out there for lets say a half marathon and we start with the idea that we will run it in lets say 1h40, do we just convince ourself to not push harder than that? Is racing without a watch the solution? Or should we train more at high speed so our head gets used to run/bike/swim while suffering.
I wish I had the answer, maybe with more experience I will eventually find it. If you have an idea please leave a comment, I need to get faster for next season ;)
Friday, October 1, 2010
Team Trakkers
Trakkers is what I call an amazing product, it is a real time GPS tracking device. An amazing tool when you go out on a training ride or run and you want your loved one to know where you are in real time. And an even more amazing tool for when you are out there racing and you want your friends and family to follow your race in real time. You can also use it to track you training and racing informations, and see them after the training/race.
If you want to see by your self here is there a link to their web site. Trakkers
For the third year now the application is up if you want to be part of there team. Here is the link to the application form
I will be trying for the third year to get into the team. Maybe 2011 will be my lucky year finally ;)
They have some amazing athletes on there team, one of them is Sonja who is heading to Kona soon. Stop by her blog and wish her luck :)
If you want to see by your self here is there a link to their web site. Trakkers
For the third year now the application is up if you want to be part of there team. Here is the link to the application form
I will be trying for the third year to get into the team. Maybe 2011 will be my lucky year finally ;)
They have some amazing athletes on there team, one of them is Sonja who is heading to Kona soon. Stop by her blog and wish her luck :)
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Some random pics from the Syracuse Half Ironman
I took the plunge and bought the photo gallery of my Half Ironman, it was a bit expensive but I figured that it would be cool to have a nice a souvenir for when I will get old ... well older ;)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Heading to the Long Course World Championship Triathlon in 2011!
Yep you read right, I qualified to represent the Canada at the 2011 Long Course World Championship.
It is still far away, but I am happy because it gives me a race to train for even if the season is over. 13 months or so from now, I can't say I won't have the time to train for it ;)
You know anyone who did Silverman? If so is it that hard? Since the World's will be on the same course, I figured I could ask.
It is still far away, but I am happy because it gives me a race to train for even if the season is over. 13 months or so from now, I can't say I won't have the time to train for it ;)
You know anyone who did Silverman? If so is it that hard? Since the World's will be on the same course, I figured I could ask.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Off season!
Off season is knocking at my door. At first I had the idea of running another half marathon before calling it done for 2010 but I decided otherwise finally.
2010 has been a good season for me overall. Here is my recap:
I ran 2 10k, PRed in the second one by a good margin. It was kinda downhill though, so I can't really count it as a PR ;)
I ran my first stand alone 5k ever, which gave me a nice PR.
I ran a stand alone 15k for the first time also, another PR ;)
I ran two half marathon, PRed in the first one and ran the second one as a training run.
I also did 4 triathlon, I PRed in the one in my backyard at Lac Beauport. I competed in the Drummondville Oly distance. I also completed my first half Ironman ever which gave me a spot for the world championship 2011 in long distance triathlon (4km swim, 120km bike and 30km run). I then completed my season with Syracuse 70.3 with a nice PR last week end.
Overall I am really happy with my season, and even if my running gave me some nice PR during the summer I need to work on it bad because I got disappointed by it in both my HIM.
So my goals for the winter are:
I will try to get my hands on the new LeMond Revolution Bike Trainer, it really seems like an awesome trainer from what I read so far. I will keep you posted about this as soon as I get some news.
2010 has been a good season for me overall. Here is my recap:
I ran 2 10k, PRed in the second one by a good margin. It was kinda downhill though, so I can't really count it as a PR ;)
I ran my first stand alone 5k ever, which gave me a nice PR.
I ran a stand alone 15k for the first time also, another PR ;)
I ran two half marathon, PRed in the first one and ran the second one as a training run.
I also did 4 triathlon, I PRed in the one in my backyard at Lac Beauport. I competed in the Drummondville Oly distance. I also completed my first half Ironman ever which gave me a spot for the world championship 2011 in long distance triathlon (4km swim, 120km bike and 30km run). I then completed my season with Syracuse 70.3 with a nice PR last week end.
Overall I am really happy with my season, and even if my running gave me some nice PR during the summer I need to work on it bad because I got disappointed by it in both my HIM.
So my goals for the winter are:
- Swimming at least 3 days a week, more would be better, we will see.
- Biking 3 days a week to work on my FTP
- Run more, and then even more. I will try a new program which will get me running 6 days a week.
- Lose 10 pounds, running like that should help ;)
I will try to get my hands on the new LeMond Revolution Bike Trainer, it really seems like an awesome trainer from what I read so far. I will keep you posted about this as soon as I get some news.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Syracuse Half Ironman
Last Sunday was the initial Syracuse Half Ironman. Me and my family headed there Friday. Saturday morning was family time so we headed to the zoo to visit a bit in the morning. Then in the afternoon I headed to the expo for pre race meeting, packet pickup, shopping etc.
After that we headed to the transition zone to drop the Speed Concept and then we drove the bike course to get a feel of what it would be on Sunday morning. The more I was driving on the course the more I was nervous about the ride. There was hills everywhere!!! One thing you can say about that bike course, it is far from being flat ;)
Sunday morning
On Sunday morning I woke up early, the hotel was at 20 minutes or so from the transition zone and I wanted to be sure to be there early. I had some oatmeal for breakfast and a coffee, then I woke up my wife and kids and we got ready.
I was REALLY happy that we left the room early because there was a ton of traffic on the way, I would say easy 30 minutes wait. When I finally got to the parking I was at like 10 minutes walk from the transition zone. I finally got there just to hear that it was closing in 5 minutes, I rushed through my routine to make sure everything was laid out for both transition. Finally they postponed the start by 15 minutes since there was too many people still jammed in the traffic.
The swim
I was in the second wave of the 40-44 men and I was hoping for a 40 minutes swim at best. I said to a friend that if I had a perfect day I could probably swim a 40 minutes 2k. We jumped in the water and started swimming, after what felt like 2 minutes we started passing green cap which was the from wave before us. At first I figured that it was someone having a bad day, but when I saw a second one then a third I knew I had a good day.
Then I saw a couple of yellow cap, and then some purple. At that point I almost thought I was a good swimmer for once. Now I know how it feels like to pass people on the swim.
When I reached the first yellow buoy I felt really good and thought that I just started to swim and I was already at the first turn. The turn was crowded, even if we had wave start it was still crowded. For the second part of the swim I still felt great and was drafting from a bunch of guys in front of me. We were still passing people left and right. When we finally got to the second yellow buoy there was a guy who was holding it. I hope everything was ok with him.
We then turned and started heading back to the beach, still I was feeling awesome and I could have swim all day long.
We finally reached the beach, when I got out my son yelled at me "Check your time" I was really happy to see that I was at 40 minutes or so for my swim, first of the three done with a time that made me happy, yeah :)
I then proceeded to the wetsuit stripper, dammit this is something I could get used to. When I started running after the stripper I lost my goggle, someone was kind enough to grab them for me and gave them to me. Then I restarted running and dropped my swim cap ... WTF was up with me at that point. Anyway, grabbed my swim cap and run to the transition zone which was a long way from the lake.
I am usually in the last 15% of the swim but today I got out of the water in the top 45% :)
Transition 1
I decided to put socks on for the ride, it was cold and I knew I would need them so I took the time to put them on. Running without the shoes but with the socks kinda ruined that purpose since when I jumped on the bike my socks were wet but still, they kept me for having frozen feet I guess.
The bike
When I got on the bike I didn't know what to expect, the day prior to the race I drove the entire bike course to see how it was and I was scared of all the hills. It seems like there was always a hill.
So when I jumped on the bike that morning I was really unsure of what kind of bike split I could come up with.
The first 3km or so were downhill which was nice, besides the railroad which was really dangerous. When we reached Jamesville we got to the start of the first hill, nothing too long but it had a good % still. I decided to not push too much while going up the hills and to keep my energy to push on the flat/downhill instead so I just cruised up the hill. Then when we got up it was flat for maybe a km, I hammered it down to pass as many people as I could pass.
Since my wave was the 19th of 21 so I had a ton of people to pass on the bike which was really cool. Then we got to the hill, it was around 10km(6 mile) long so once again I cruised my way up. When we finally reached the top of the hill it was really cold and we were in the fog which was really special to ride. It was a little bit more dangerous, but so much fun to ride.
I knew that my family would be at the hill where we were crossing the 20 and I was happy to see them there. My son ran by me for a while yelling, I almost fell like the riders in the Tour de France going up a hill ;)
After that I was all by myself for a long while, I knew I wouldn't see them again before at least 60km. I tried to get into my best racing bubble and passed as many people as I could.
It was the first time that I was in a triathlon with that many people, and it was really cool because I always had someone to pass :) There was a couple of riders which I pass and they re pass me over and over. I remember Liam, Steve and Lucy for sure. Also a guy with a nice Cervello whom I couldn't see his name and another one with a black Trek TTX.
After maybe 60km or so I decided to check my average, I was pretty sure I would have an ok average but nothing great. To my biggest surprise I was at almost 31km/h which made me really happy since I knew that he last 15km was mostly downhill and that it should help me get that average up.
When we passed the 20 again I was hoping to see my family there but I didn't, I wondered what happened since my wife told me she would be there. Maybe they went for food or something and missed me who knew. Anyway I just kept going knowing I would see them at the finish line.
Even if that was the downhill part of the course it was still hilly. Most of that course was rolling, with some HUGE hills to go up here and there.
They said that this race had the most challenging bike course of the Ironman 70.3 series, since I haven't done them all I can't confirm this but it was not the easiest course for sure.
We finished the last kilometers with some rolling again and once I got to the top of the last hill my family was there waiting for me. Then it was time to remove the shoes and head to transition again. I felt great for the entire bike course and I could have kept going without any problem which was a really nice feeling on race day :)
Transition 2
Once again I decided to get some dry socks on, I had three pair of socks with me. At that point I had the weirdest idea of putting on my compression socks. I tried for maybe 30 seconds before deciding that it would take me an hour to get those things on with my feet all wet. So I grabbed my other socks, but them on then my running shoes and off I went. I had to go pee, but the porta potty were all full with people waiting in line. So I started running instead.
The run
Accoring to the profile of the run it was mostly downhill for the first 7-8km then mostly flat up till the finish. So my plan was to try to get some nice split on the downhill while not pushing too hard and then settle into a pace when we would hit the flat section.
As they said the first section was downhill but with some uphill here and there which was more than enough to make those splits harder than I thought that they would be.
During the first km I stopped to pee. Then I started getting the km in. There was people all the way from jamesville to Syracuse, not a ton but alwayssome people here and there who were cheering for us which was cool.
Every time I hit an aid station I grabbed water, I had two gels with me and decided to get one in after 3km or so, thinking that I would have the other one after 12km. The run was tough, I wanted to hit a 5:15/km pace for the entire run but there was no way I could hold onto that pace sadly. I tried to convince myself to run faster at almost every split, but I had a hard time.
At some point around the 5th mile I wanted to walk the aid station, but told myself I was not allowed to walk a damn aid station before mile 10, which I did. At mile 10.5 or so I walked the aid station and I stopped to pee once again. I guess that the fact that the weather was colder than usual didn't help since I was probably sweating less than usual.
From mile 7 or so to 11 we were on Erie blvd which is as straight as you can have a straight street and it was tough on the mental to see that long in front of us.
Around mile 11 we finally turned on another street, the nicest part of changing the scenary came with a false flat going up for a mile and a half maybe. Then we turned left with maybe 1 mile to go and it was downhill and then flat to the finish chute.
My son was waiting for me maybe 250 meters from the finish line and he ran with me behind the other spectators since WTC doesn't allow family member to run with us anymore.
I finally crossed the finish line in 5:34:38 with a huge smile on my face.
I just love this sport :)
Every time I do a long event like this one I always think how long even if they like that, those days must be for the families coming to cheer on us. I am really happy that my family was there with me, and for that I thank them :)
Swim : 40:43 (97/276 AG 852/2098 OA)
T1 : 3:52
Bike : 2:49:13 (62/276 AG 458/2098 OA)
T2 : 3:19
Run : 1:57:31 (102/276 AG 812/2098 OA)
Total : 5:34:38 (77/276 AG 581/2098 OA)
After that we headed to the transition zone to drop the Speed Concept and then we drove the bike course to get a feel of what it would be on Sunday morning. The more I was driving on the course the more I was nervous about the ride. There was hills everywhere!!! One thing you can say about that bike course, it is far from being flat ;)
Sunday morning
On Sunday morning I woke up early, the hotel was at 20 minutes or so from the transition zone and I wanted to be sure to be there early. I had some oatmeal for breakfast and a coffee, then I woke up my wife and kids and we got ready.
I was REALLY happy that we left the room early because there was a ton of traffic on the way, I would say easy 30 minutes wait. When I finally got to the parking I was at like 10 minutes walk from the transition zone. I finally got there just to hear that it was closing in 5 minutes, I rushed through my routine to make sure everything was laid out for both transition. Finally they postponed the start by 15 minutes since there was too many people still jammed in the traffic.
The swim
I was in the second wave of the 40-44 men and I was hoping for a 40 minutes swim at best. I said to a friend that if I had a perfect day I could probably swim a 40 minutes 2k. We jumped in the water and started swimming, after what felt like 2 minutes we started passing green cap which was the from wave before us. At first I figured that it was someone having a bad day, but when I saw a second one then a third I knew I had a good day.
Then I saw a couple of yellow cap, and then some purple. At that point I almost thought I was a good swimmer for once. Now I know how it feels like to pass people on the swim.
When I reached the first yellow buoy I felt really good and thought that I just started to swim and I was already at the first turn. The turn was crowded, even if we had wave start it was still crowded. For the second part of the swim I still felt great and was drafting from a bunch of guys in front of me. We were still passing people left and right. When we finally got to the second yellow buoy there was a guy who was holding it. I hope everything was ok with him.
We then turned and started heading back to the beach, still I was feeling awesome and I could have swim all day long.
We finally reached the beach, when I got out my son yelled at me "Check your time" I was really happy to see that I was at 40 minutes or so for my swim, first of the three done with a time that made me happy, yeah :)
I then proceeded to the wetsuit stripper, dammit this is something I could get used to. When I started running after the stripper I lost my goggle, someone was kind enough to grab them for me and gave them to me. Then I restarted running and dropped my swim cap ... WTF was up with me at that point. Anyway, grabbed my swim cap and run to the transition zone which was a long way from the lake.
I am usually in the last 15% of the swim but today I got out of the water in the top 45% :)
Transition 1
I decided to put socks on for the ride, it was cold and I knew I would need them so I took the time to put them on. Running without the shoes but with the socks kinda ruined that purpose since when I jumped on the bike my socks were wet but still, they kept me for having frozen feet I guess.
The bike
When I got on the bike I didn't know what to expect, the day prior to the race I drove the entire bike course to see how it was and I was scared of all the hills. It seems like there was always a hill.
So when I jumped on the bike that morning I was really unsure of what kind of bike split I could come up with.
The first 3km or so were downhill which was nice, besides the railroad which was really dangerous. When we reached Jamesville we got to the start of the first hill, nothing too long but it had a good % still. I decided to not push too much while going up the hills and to keep my energy to push on the flat/downhill instead so I just cruised up the hill. Then when we got up it was flat for maybe a km, I hammered it down to pass as many people as I could pass.
Since my wave was the 19th of 21 so I had a ton of people to pass on the bike which was really cool. Then we got to the hill, it was around 10km(6 mile) long so once again I cruised my way up. When we finally reached the top of the hill it was really cold and we were in the fog which was really special to ride. It was a little bit more dangerous, but so much fun to ride.
I knew that my family would be at the hill where we were crossing the 20 and I was happy to see them there. My son ran by me for a while yelling, I almost fell like the riders in the Tour de France going up a hill ;)
After that I was all by myself for a long while, I knew I wouldn't see them again before at least 60km. I tried to get into my best racing bubble and passed as many people as I could.
It was the first time that I was in a triathlon with that many people, and it was really cool because I always had someone to pass :) There was a couple of riders which I pass and they re pass me over and over. I remember Liam, Steve and Lucy for sure. Also a guy with a nice Cervello whom I couldn't see his name and another one with a black Trek TTX.
After maybe 60km or so I decided to check my average, I was pretty sure I would have an ok average but nothing great. To my biggest surprise I was at almost 31km/h which made me really happy since I knew that he last 15km was mostly downhill and that it should help me get that average up.
When we passed the 20 again I was hoping to see my family there but I didn't, I wondered what happened since my wife told me she would be there. Maybe they went for food or something and missed me who knew. Anyway I just kept going knowing I would see them at the finish line.
Even if that was the downhill part of the course it was still hilly. Most of that course was rolling, with some HUGE hills to go up here and there.
They said that this race had the most challenging bike course of the Ironman 70.3 series, since I haven't done them all I can't confirm this but it was not the easiest course for sure.
We finished the last kilometers with some rolling again and once I got to the top of the last hill my family was there waiting for me. Then it was time to remove the shoes and head to transition again. I felt great for the entire bike course and I could have kept going without any problem which was a really nice feeling on race day :)
Transition 2
Once again I decided to get some dry socks on, I had three pair of socks with me. At that point I had the weirdest idea of putting on my compression socks. I tried for maybe 30 seconds before deciding that it would take me an hour to get those things on with my feet all wet. So I grabbed my other socks, but them on then my running shoes and off I went. I had to go pee, but the porta potty were all full with people waiting in line. So I started running instead.
The run
Accoring to the profile of the run it was mostly downhill for the first 7-8km then mostly flat up till the finish. So my plan was to try to get some nice split on the downhill while not pushing too hard and then settle into a pace when we would hit the flat section.
As they said the first section was downhill but with some uphill here and there which was more than enough to make those splits harder than I thought that they would be.
During the first km I stopped to pee. Then I started getting the km in. There was people all the way from jamesville to Syracuse, not a ton but alwayssome people here and there who were cheering for us which was cool.
Every time I hit an aid station I grabbed water, I had two gels with me and decided to get one in after 3km or so, thinking that I would have the other one after 12km. The run was tough, I wanted to hit a 5:15/km pace for the entire run but there was no way I could hold onto that pace sadly. I tried to convince myself to run faster at almost every split, but I had a hard time.
At some point around the 5th mile I wanted to walk the aid station, but told myself I was not allowed to walk a damn aid station before mile 10, which I did. At mile 10.5 or so I walked the aid station and I stopped to pee once again. I guess that the fact that the weather was colder than usual didn't help since I was probably sweating less than usual.
From mile 7 or so to 11 we were on Erie blvd which is as straight as you can have a straight street and it was tough on the mental to see that long in front of us.
Around mile 11 we finally turned on another street, the nicest part of changing the scenary came with a false flat going up for a mile and a half maybe. Then we turned left with maybe 1 mile to go and it was downhill and then flat to the finish chute.
My son was waiting for me maybe 250 meters from the finish line and he ran with me behind the other spectators since WTC doesn't allow family member to run with us anymore.
I finally crossed the finish line in 5:34:38 with a huge smile on my face.
I just love this sport :)
Every time I do a long event like this one I always think how long even if they like that, those days must be for the families coming to cheer on us. I am really happy that my family was there with me, and for that I thank them :)
Swim : 40:43 (97/276 AG 852/2098 OA)
T1 : 3:52
Bike : 2:49:13 (62/276 AG 458/2098 OA)
T2 : 3:19
Run : 1:57:31 (102/276 AG 812/2098 OA)
Total : 5:34:38 (77/276 AG 581/2098 OA)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Getting ready for Sunday
I am getting ready for Sunday, this is my A race of the season, the race for which I trained for the last 6 months. Yesterday I installed my new Renn disk on the bike, I will have to get out tonight and test it out, just to make sure everything is working fine before the race. Then tomorrow will be the last day at work. After that it will be packing all my stuff, putting everything into the car with the bike and heading to Syracuse on Friday.
If I said I am not getting nervous I would lie, so I won't say it!
This will be my second half Ironman, but my first official one since the other one was not the official distance. I am aiming for a sub 6hours, but the bike course seems to be a tough one. I will try to not push too much on the bike and make sure I still have a lot of energy for the run. I also need to eat more this time around, last time I didn`t focus on that and I lacked energy at the end of the half marathon.
Here is how the bike will looks like for the race :)
My bib number for the race on Sunday is #1727 in case you want to follow me on the Ironman.com website
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Marathon des deux rives - Half marathon
Last Sunday was the Quebec city marathon. I decided to run it as part of my training for Syracuse 70.3 which is in less then three weeks now.
I woke up early on Sunday morning, got my coffee and had a good breakfast, the start was at 8h30 and it was a 20 minutes car ride or so so no stress. My friend Patrick, who was running his first half marathon ever, picked me up in the morning and we headed to the start.
Once there we walked around and chatted with some friends. I saw Genevieve who was also running her first half marathon. I think it is really cool to see people getting into the sport, and I really hope that even more of my friends will get into this wonderful life style :)
Twenty minutes or so before the start Patrick had to go to the porta potty, so I told him I would wait for him. But we never had the chance to meet before the start, so I headed to the starting line. At that point I still had no idea how hard I would run that half mary. But I knew it was a training run and that there was no way I would PR since I swam 2.5km and rode 75km the day before.
I was way in the back at the start which was cool, instead of starting with all the speedy I was with the people who were there to enjoy the day. When I, finally, crossed the starting line I decided to push a bit and see how the legs were feeling. For the first 4km or so I had a PR`pace, and it made me wonder "Can I really PR today?"
By the time we crossed the bridge I saw Patrick in front of me. I joined him and we chatted a bit, his pace was ok so I decided to stick with him for a while. Around the 8th km or so Patrick tried to pass behind me to reach the aid station and he kicked me or something. I almost fell and I told him that was the reason why I wouldn't run a 1h30 half today. We had a laugh about it and kept running. At the 11th km or so Patrick told me he couldn't keep up with me at that speed and that he would just slow down a bit.
At that point I had a decision to make, pushing hard and try to make a time not too bad even if I knew I wouldn't beat my east or stay with him and just enjoy a really nice day. I decided to stay with him and try to push him so he would finish with a good time.
For the next 5km or so we had a slower pace by still not too bad. But at the 16th it started to be really tough for him. He told me that if I was not there he would probably just sit and relax a bit. My daughter was at the 5km aid station volunteering, so I stopped to talk with her for a couple of seconds and drink some water. When I looked at Patrick at that point I knew I would have to push him to get the last 5km at a not too bad pace.
By that time the sun was really hot, the wind was not that strong and there was no shade at all on the course. So we had to suffer our way through the last km. His longest run was 18km which was correct to make sure he would complete the run, but still he had a hard time with the last couple of km. I pushed him through them, and tried to push him so he would sprint by the end. But he had nothing left in the tank, he did a mini sprint of maybe 25 feet, and that almost made him puke. At that point I knew I pushed him at his limit ;)
I completed the half with a time of 1:51:30, which was 8 minutes slower than my PR. But I was happy to run it with Patrick for his first!
Overall I had a really good day, and an awesome training run!
I woke up early on Sunday morning, got my coffee and had a good breakfast, the start was at 8h30 and it was a 20 minutes car ride or so so no stress. My friend Patrick, who was running his first half marathon ever, picked me up in the morning and we headed to the start.
Once there we walked around and chatted with some friends. I saw Genevieve who was also running her first half marathon. I think it is really cool to see people getting into the sport, and I really hope that even more of my friends will get into this wonderful life style :)
Twenty minutes or so before the start Patrick had to go to the porta potty, so I told him I would wait for him. But we never had the chance to meet before the start, so I headed to the starting line. At that point I still had no idea how hard I would run that half mary. But I knew it was a training run and that there was no way I would PR since I swam 2.5km and rode 75km the day before.
I was way in the back at the start which was cool, instead of starting with all the speedy I was with the people who were there to enjoy the day. When I, finally, crossed the starting line I decided to push a bit and see how the legs were feeling. For the first 4km or so I had a PR`pace, and it made me wonder "Can I really PR today?"
By the time we crossed the bridge I saw Patrick in front of me. I joined him and we chatted a bit, his pace was ok so I decided to stick with him for a while. Around the 8th km or so Patrick tried to pass behind me to reach the aid station and he kicked me or something. I almost fell and I told him that was the reason why I wouldn't run a 1h30 half today. We had a laugh about it and kept running. At the 11th km or so Patrick told me he couldn't keep up with me at that speed and that he would just slow down a bit.
At that point I had a decision to make, pushing hard and try to make a time not too bad even if I knew I wouldn't beat my east or stay with him and just enjoy a really nice day. I decided to stay with him and try to push him so he would finish with a good time.
For the next 5km or so we had a slower pace by still not too bad. But at the 16th it started to be really tough for him. He told me that if I was not there he would probably just sit and relax a bit. My daughter was at the 5km aid station volunteering, so I stopped to talk with her for a couple of seconds and drink some water. When I looked at Patrick at that point I knew I would have to push him to get the last 5km at a not too bad pace.
By that time the sun was really hot, the wind was not that strong and there was no shade at all on the course. So we had to suffer our way through the last km. His longest run was 18km which was correct to make sure he would complete the run, but still he had a hard time with the last couple of km. I pushed him through them, and tried to push him so he would sprint by the end. But he had nothing left in the tank, he did a mini sprint of maybe 25 feet, and that almost made him puke. At that point I knew I pushed him at his limit ;)
I completed the half with a time of 1:51:30, which was 8 minutes slower than my PR. But I was happy to run it with Patrick for his first!
Overall I had a really good day, and an awesome training run!
Monday, August 23, 2010
The ProBar - Yummy :)
Last month my local bike store started selling those bars, I grabbed a couple to try them out as I am always looking for stuff to eat while I am out there on the bike.
So far I tried the Fruition Cran-Raspberry and the Blueberry flavor. All I can say is that I fell in love with those bars. They are just right, easy to eat while riding and small enough that you can pack a lot in your back pocket ;)
Sadly my LBS don't sell all the flavors, so I tried to find an online retailer who sells them in Canada, or who ships to Canada. Not a ton of luck on that side yet, but Mountain Equipment Coop sells some of them too so I ordered from them (damn they do not ship fast BTW)
I wish they had more peanut free products, with my intolerance it is sometimes hard to find good bar without any peanuts. I ordered myself some Whole Berry Blast, 370 calories in one single bar and no peanuts should be nice. Anyway as soon as I will have tested some more flavors I will let you know.
Anyway, I am planning to feed myself on The ProBar for my incoming Half Ironman in Syracuse in less than four weeks ... dammit in it getting close ;)
Here is a link to their web site if you want to check it out http://theprobar.com/
Enjoy :)
So far I tried the Fruition Cran-Raspberry and the Blueberry flavor. All I can say is that I fell in love with those bars. They are just right, easy to eat while riding and small enough that you can pack a lot in your back pocket ;)
Sadly my LBS don't sell all the flavors, so I tried to find an online retailer who sells them in Canada, or who ships to Canada. Not a ton of luck on that side yet, but Mountain Equipment Coop sells some of them too so I ordered from them (damn they do not ship fast BTW)
I wish they had more peanut free products, with my intolerance it is sometimes hard to find good bar without any peanuts. I ordered myself some Whole Berry Blast, 370 calories in one single bar and no peanuts should be nice. Anyway as soon as I will have tested some more flavors I will let you know.
Anyway, I am planning to feed myself on The ProBar for my incoming Half Ironman in Syracuse in less than four weeks ... dammit in it getting close ;)
Here is a link to their web site if you want to check it out http://theprobar.com/
Enjoy :)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Race report - Triathlon Drummondville
Since the start was at 11:25 and the triathlon was at maybe 1h30 or so drive from my place, I woke up as usual, had breakfast then packed the car and drove there.
Once there I got to packet pickup and Steve was there, guess that the decided to arrive around the same time. I got into the tent, grabbed my stuff and then went to the t-shirt table. Once again they didn't have all the size left when I arrived, and their t-shirt where huge. I grabbed a medium and it looks like I have a large. I guess they tough that triathlon was a sport where everyone is oversize.
After that I headed into the transition zone and prepare my spot, we had a rack just for us the old people ;) Once my spot was ready I headed out for a little run to warm up. I wanted to bike too but I got squeezed in time and figured it would be better not to be late at the start.
My friend Steve was starting 10 minutes after me and I knew he had a good chance to pass me before I finish my swim, so I tried to push as hard as I could to not make it happened.
At first I was with some people and I tried to stay with them. It worked for most of the first loop, but when we were coming back in the current I lost them and after the buoy there was no way to get back to them. So I finished my swim all by myself.
By the end of the second loop I started seeing people from the wave behind me and I was scared that Steve would pass me, I got passed by maybe 10 people from what I count see. And I knew that he was a good enough swimmer to get out of the water in the top 10.
I just tried to swim as fast as I could to get out of the water. Once I approached the exit I heard a volunteer yelling that it was slippery, and slippery it was dammit. I almost fell while getting out of the water.
I really need to improve my swim, this is usually what kills my race. I can make up some time on the bike and run but the swim always put me so much in the back of the pack that it is hard to have a good time overall.
Once I reached my bike I put my helmet on and started feeling dizzy a little bit. I took a couple of seconds to let it pass, then I headed out of the transition zone. A transition without a wetsuit is always so fast, but there is no way I gain much than when I swim with a wetsuit.
I jumped on the bike with one thing on my mind, get back some time on the faster swimmer. At first I got pass by a coupe of guy from the wave after me and I tried to stay with them. It worked for a while but they were fast and at some point I lost them. I was not drafting of them, but trying to stay in range.
I tried to cheer on everyone from the club as I was seeing them on the course, and besides that I just push hard and tried to keep a good average.
When I got off the bike I was disappointed with my bike split, I had no idea what was my avg or exact time since I didn't want to check but I felt like I had not much power during that leg.
I need to rethink my training, I feel like I do not have power on the bike this year and I can't say why.
Transition 2 went as smoothly as the first one, I loved my Zoot Ultra Race, as easy as it gets to put them on.
I tried to get into that 10km with a sub 45 min time in mind. I wish I could have push to get it but sadly I didn't have enough juice left in the tank to get it.
This course is mostly flat so it is an easy one to get a good run, which I did but not as fast as I expected. The only problem with it is that it is a 4 loop course, and every time you have to turn 180 degrees you lose some speed.
Not much to say about the run itself, it went as smoothly as it could with what I had left in the tank. I cheered on my friend from the club as much as I could, thanks the volunteer on my last lap and finished the race with a nice last split ... guess I still had some juice finally because I pushed the pace for that last split ;)
Here are my results from last year sprint on the same course.
Swim - 20:15
T1 - 1:31
Bike - 33:02
T2 - 1:34
Run - 23:21
And here are my results from this year Oly, same course but twice as long. 2 loop of the swim course, 4 of the bike course and 4 of the run course.
Swim - 36:39
T1 - 1:38
Bike - 1:06:15
T2 - 1:36
Run - 45:38
I finished with a time of 2:31:52
Overall - 65/104
Age group (40-44) - 13/18
My time was 5 min or so slower than my best Oly, but this one was not wetsuit legal which cost me probably that 5 minutes. Overall a good race for me, but I really need to find a way to get faster in the water.
Once there I got to packet pickup and Steve was there, guess that the decided to arrive around the same time. I got into the tent, grabbed my stuff and then went to the t-shirt table. Once again they didn't have all the size left when I arrived, and their t-shirt where huge. I grabbed a medium and it looks like I have a large. I guess they tough that triathlon was a sport where everyone is oversize.
After that I headed into the transition zone and prepare my spot, we had a rack just for us the old people ;) Once my spot was ready I headed out for a little run to warm up. I wanted to bike too but I got squeezed in time and figured it would be better not to be late at the start.
My friend Steve was starting 10 minutes after me and I knew he had a good chance to pass me before I finish my swim, so I tried to push as hard as I could to not make it happened.
At first I was with some people and I tried to stay with them. It worked for most of the first loop, but when we were coming back in the current I lost them and after the buoy there was no way to get back to them. So I finished my swim all by myself.
By the end of the second loop I started seeing people from the wave behind me and I was scared that Steve would pass me, I got passed by maybe 10 people from what I count see. And I knew that he was a good enough swimmer to get out of the water in the top 10.
I just tried to swim as fast as I could to get out of the water. Once I approached the exit I heard a volunteer yelling that it was slippery, and slippery it was dammit. I almost fell while getting out of the water.
I really need to improve my swim, this is usually what kills my race. I can make up some time on the bike and run but the swim always put me so much in the back of the pack that it is hard to have a good time overall.
Once I reached my bike I put my helmet on and started feeling dizzy a little bit. I took a couple of seconds to let it pass, then I headed out of the transition zone. A transition without a wetsuit is always so fast, but there is no way I gain much than when I swim with a wetsuit.
I jumped on the bike with one thing on my mind, get back some time on the faster swimmer. At first I got pass by a coupe of guy from the wave after me and I tried to stay with them. It worked for a while but they were fast and at some point I lost them. I was not drafting of them, but trying to stay in range.
I tried to cheer on everyone from the club as I was seeing them on the course, and besides that I just push hard and tried to keep a good average.
When I got off the bike I was disappointed with my bike split, I had no idea what was my avg or exact time since I didn't want to check but I felt like I had not much power during that leg.
I need to rethink my training, I feel like I do not have power on the bike this year and I can't say why.
Transition 2 went as smoothly as the first one, I loved my Zoot Ultra Race, as easy as it gets to put them on.
I tried to get into that 10km with a sub 45 min time in mind. I wish I could have push to get it but sadly I didn't have enough juice left in the tank to get it.
This course is mostly flat so it is an easy one to get a good run, which I did but not as fast as I expected. The only problem with it is that it is a 4 loop course, and every time you have to turn 180 degrees you lose some speed.
Not much to say about the run itself, it went as smoothly as it could with what I had left in the tank. I cheered on my friend from the club as much as I could, thanks the volunteer on my last lap and finished the race with a nice last split ... guess I still had some juice finally because I pushed the pace for that last split ;)
Here are my results from last year sprint on the same course.
Swim - 20:15
T1 - 1:31
Bike - 33:02
T2 - 1:34
Run - 23:21
And here are my results from this year Oly, same course but twice as long. 2 loop of the swim course, 4 of the bike course and 4 of the run course.
Swim - 36:39
T1 - 1:38
Bike - 1:06:15
T2 - 1:36
Run - 45:38
I finished with a time of 2:31:52
Overall - 65/104
Age group (40-44) - 13/18
My time was 5 min or so slower than my best Oly, but this one was not wetsuit legal which cost me probably that 5 minutes. Overall a good race for me, but I really need to find a way to get faster in the water.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Today is giveaway day :)
DC Rainmaker is giving away what I should call the best GPS device out there for triathletes, stop by his blog and enter the giveaway.
DC Rainmaker
Good luck everyone!
DC Rainmaker
Good luck everyone!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Post HIM thoughts
My first HIM is in the books, I have another one in September and I want to get there as ready as possible.
Last week end I was hoping to finish under 6 hours, sadly I didn't, not by much but still. Now I am sitting here wondering what I can change in my training, what I should adjust to make sure I will get under 6 in September.
Do I need more long ride, or more long run. Or do I need both. During the last months I tried to do bricks as much as I could, now I am wondering if it was the best idea.
When I knew I was to run after a bike ride I was going a little bit easier on the bike. And then my run after was not as fast as usual. Was it the best way to train for the HIM, I wonder now.
I still think that I should have been faster a bit, and since the last 10km of the run was tough I wonder if it could be because my bike training was not good enough. I didn't finish the bike ride with the feeling that I was looking for, I was hoping to get off the bike as fresh as I am after a 40km ride usually. But it didn't quite went that way, when I got off the bike I was feeling good but tired.
Anyway, enough with my rambling, I need to fix my plan and my training to get ready for a sub 6 in Syracuse :)
Last week end I was hoping to finish under 6 hours, sadly I didn't, not by much but still. Now I am sitting here wondering what I can change in my training, what I should adjust to make sure I will get under 6 in September.
Do I need more long ride, or more long run. Or do I need both. During the last months I tried to do bricks as much as I could, now I am wondering if it was the best idea.
When I knew I was to run after a bike ride I was going a little bit easier on the bike. And then my run after was not as fast as usual. Was it the best way to train for the HIM, I wonder now.
I still think that I should have been faster a bit, and since the last 10km of the run was tough I wonder if it could be because my bike training was not good enough. I didn't finish the bike ride with the feeling that I was looking for, I was hoping to get off the bike as fresh as I am after a 40km ride usually. But it didn't quite went that way, when I got off the bike I was feeling good but tired.
Anyway, enough with my rambling, I need to fix my plan and my training to get ready for a sub 6 in Syracuse :)
Monday, July 26, 2010
First Half Ironman - In the books!
It is done! Yesterday I completed my first half Ironman ever. Atually it was not a real half Ironman, the distance were off a bit. The swim was 2.3km, the bike 90km and the run 21km. But it was close enough to the real thing for me to consider that my first HIM is done :)
Since this was my first Half Ironman I tried to give me all the chances so we slept at the hotel the night before. My start was at 7h10 and it is almost a three hours drive from my place. I woke up around 5am, got ready and tried to eat a bit but the nerves were killing me at that point and the food didn't want to get in much. Anyway I forced an oatmeal and a yogurt down and figured it would be ok for now. After that we packed the car and went to the site.
I grabbed a gel before the swim start, trying to get some more calories in.
At the beginning I knew that the swim portion was not where I could gain time so I just went in there with one thing on my mind. I wanted to swim the best that I could without pushing too hard and burn too much energy for the rest of the day. I knew it would be a long day and that I had to keep as much as energy as I could.
The start was a beach start, I let the fast swimmer outrun me at the beginning and jump behind them. The swim course was not really intuitive, we had two loop to do but it was two different loop. Something like a 800 meters loop and a 1500 meters loop.
Heading out the winds was mostly head wind and we had a lot of big waves on the lake. At some point I couldn't see the buoys because the waves were too high. I guess that all those waves didn't help my already awesome form in the water ;)
Anyway, I tried to find some feet but no luck in there, everyone was either too fast or too slow for me. Mostly too fast though!
After maybe 1800 meters or so I heard someone yell while I was swimming. I stopped and saw that women next to me. I asked her if she was alright and she told me that she had a cramp. There was no kayak close by so I stayed with her a little bit waiting for her cramp to pass. When she told me that sh was ok I restarted swimming and completed my swim.
We got out of the water together and she thanked me to stop by her in the water. I told her that I was happy that she was ok and then proceeded to the transition zone. I saw my wife and my daughter and smiled to them while running out of the water.
I can't explain why I was that slow. I am not usually a fast swimming but I never swam slower than 2:30 during training for the same kind of distance so it is hard for me to explain why I was that slow today.
I knew from the start that the bike course was not perfect for me, a lot of hills which is not really my strength on the bike. But whatever I chose this race to be my first HIM and I had to deal with the course.
My plan on the bike was to keep the HR at 140 AVG, and I did exactly that. I wanted to get a bike split faster than 30km/h but I knew that if I pushed too hard then I would pay for it on the run. So I kept my HR at 140 and tried to push as much as could with that.
At the 30th km I saw the race leader, that meant he had 30km on me at that point. This is a lot mid race if you know what I mean :p I wanted to get back to my friend Jacques on the bike so we could run together but I never made it back to him. He was 10 minutes faster than me on the swim and we basically had the same ride so it was a no go for that goal.
I had an avg of 29.2km/h at the turn around which didn't quite make me happy, I was too slow. So I tried to push it on the way back. At first it went ok but around km 60 or so I was mostly alone with no one to pass and I got into an easier pace for a while. when I got to the 70th km it was the turn around of the Oly and there was a ton of bikes around me on the road which gave me some strength in the legs. I had people that I could try to pass again.
At one point Steve passed me, we talked a little bit and I told him it was tough. He then went away trying to complete his Oly as fast as possible. This guy is damn fast so I was not unhappy when I saw he just left me there like I was sitting on the side of the road ;)
The rest of the ride was ok, legs were tired but I knew it was about to end, well for that part.
When I saw the transition line I saw my wife and my daughter on the side of the road cheering on me and taking picture. I got out of my shoes and got ready to jump off the bike and run into transition. I then realized that maybe the legs wouldn't be too happy about it so I got a little bit slower than usual to make sure.
1900 feet of climbing sure are not easy ;)
I can't say if it was my run training, my bike training or both but my run didn't go as planned.
I was hoping to run a 1h50 or sub half mary but the legs didn't feel the
same way.
I got out of the transition zone and I had some good speed so I pushed a bit, after 1km I got a cramp in both quad which stuck with me for maybe 500 meters. That made me realize that running too fast was not a good idea at that point.
I can't say if this was because I didn't drink enough on the bike but those cramps were not welcome at the start of the run for sure.
My run was mostly at the speed I wanted it for the first 5km or so, but after that it started to fade slowly. The first two loop were not too bad, at the start of the third one though it started to be harder and harder.
At least on the third loop the cloud were back and it gave us a nice shade, because up to there I was getting hot. I ran the third loop, with some walking break at the aid station but nothing too long.
Then the fourth loop came, I knew it was my last and that I should push through it to get some time back. But at that point it was really tough on the body.
For the first time since the beginning I walked the hill on the last loop. I didn't had much left and even if I didn't want to I did it.
Then I was in the final stretch, a little bit over 1km to go to cross the finish line. I then had another cramp in my left quad, at that point there was no way I could run on it though, so I stooped and figured I needed to stretch it. Grabbed my feet and started the movement to stretch the quad. It seems that this really PISSED my hamstring because it decided to cramps too.
I that point I was there standing on that stop sign, trying to find a way to get ride of both cramps. I started massaging my leg and hoped that I had some massaging talents. After a little while the cramps left me alone, and I restarted running, if we can call that running at that point. I was mostly running with my right leg and jumping on the left one because the cramps were still hurting.
I did that for 200-300 meters maybe then it seems like it was better because I was able to run to the finish line. I crossed the line with a huge smile, well I think I was smiling ;)
Half Ironman done
Finish time 6:11:41
Swim 1:05:26
Transition 1 2:20
Bike 3:00:32
Transition 2 1:45
Run 2:01:26
Since this was my first Half Ironman I tried to give me all the chances so we slept at the hotel the night before. My start was at 7h10 and it is almost a three hours drive from my place. I woke up around 5am, got ready and tried to eat a bit but the nerves were killing me at that point and the food didn't want to get in much. Anyway I forced an oatmeal and a yogurt down and figured it would be ok for now. After that we packed the car and went to the site.
I grabbed a gel before the swim start, trying to get some more calories in.
At the beginning I knew that the swim portion was not where I could gain time so I just went in there with one thing on my mind. I wanted to swim the best that I could without pushing too hard and burn too much energy for the rest of the day. I knew it would be a long day and that I had to keep as much as energy as I could.
The start was a beach start, I let the fast swimmer outrun me at the beginning and jump behind them. The swim course was not really intuitive, we had two loop to do but it was two different loop. Something like a 800 meters loop and a 1500 meters loop.
Heading out the winds was mostly head wind and we had a lot of big waves on the lake. At some point I couldn't see the buoys because the waves were too high. I guess that all those waves didn't help my already awesome form in the water ;)
Anyway, I tried to find some feet but no luck in there, everyone was either too fast or too slow for me. Mostly too fast though!
After maybe 1800 meters or so I heard someone yell while I was swimming. I stopped and saw that women next to me. I asked her if she was alright and she told me that she had a cramp. There was no kayak close by so I stayed with her a little bit waiting for her cramp to pass. When she told me that sh was ok I restarted swimming and completed my swim.
We got out of the water together and she thanked me to stop by her in the water. I told her that I was happy that she was ok and then proceeded to the transition zone. I saw my wife and my daughter and smiled to them while running out of the water.
I can't explain why I was that slow. I am not usually a fast swimming but I never swam slower than 2:30 during training for the same kind of distance so it is hard for me to explain why I was that slow today.
I knew from the start that the bike course was not perfect for me, a lot of hills which is not really my strength on the bike. But whatever I chose this race to be my first HIM and I had to deal with the course.
My plan on the bike was to keep the HR at 140 AVG, and I did exactly that. I wanted to get a bike split faster than 30km/h but I knew that if I pushed too hard then I would pay for it on the run. So I kept my HR at 140 and tried to push as much as could with that.
At the 30th km I saw the race leader, that meant he had 30km on me at that point. This is a lot mid race if you know what I mean :p I wanted to get back to my friend Jacques on the bike so we could run together but I never made it back to him. He was 10 minutes faster than me on the swim and we basically had the same ride so it was a no go for that goal.
I had an avg of 29.2km/h at the turn around which didn't quite make me happy, I was too slow. So I tried to push it on the way back. At first it went ok but around km 60 or so I was mostly alone with no one to pass and I got into an easier pace for a while. when I got to the 70th km it was the turn around of the Oly and there was a ton of bikes around me on the road which gave me some strength in the legs. I had people that I could try to pass again.
At one point Steve passed me, we talked a little bit and I told him it was tough. He then went away trying to complete his Oly as fast as possible. This guy is damn fast so I was not unhappy when I saw he just left me there like I was sitting on the side of the road ;)
The rest of the ride was ok, legs were tired but I knew it was about to end, well for that part.
When I saw the transition line I saw my wife and my daughter on the side of the road cheering on me and taking picture. I got out of my shoes and got ready to jump off the bike and run into transition. I then realized that maybe the legs wouldn't be too happy about it so I got a little bit slower than usual to make sure.
1900 feet of climbing sure are not easy ;)
I can't say if it was my run training, my bike training or both but my run didn't go as planned.
I was hoping to run a 1h50 or sub half mary but the legs didn't feel the
same way.
I got out of the transition zone and I had some good speed so I pushed a bit, after 1km I got a cramp in both quad which stuck with me for maybe 500 meters. That made me realize that running too fast was not a good idea at that point.
I can't say if this was because I didn't drink enough on the bike but those cramps were not welcome at the start of the run for sure.
My run was mostly at the speed I wanted it for the first 5km or so, but after that it started to fade slowly. The first two loop were not too bad, at the start of the third one though it started to be harder and harder.
At least on the third loop the cloud were back and it gave us a nice shade, because up to there I was getting hot. I ran the third loop, with some walking break at the aid station but nothing too long.
Then the fourth loop came, I knew it was my last and that I should push through it to get some time back. But at that point it was really tough on the body.
For the first time since the beginning I walked the hill on the last loop. I didn't had much left and even if I didn't want to I did it.
Then I was in the final stretch, a little bit over 1km to go to cross the finish line. I then had another cramp in my left quad, at that point there was no way I could run on it though, so I stooped and figured I needed to stretch it. Grabbed my feet and started the movement to stretch the quad. It seems that this really PISSED my hamstring because it decided to cramps too.
I that point I was there standing on that stop sign, trying to find a way to get ride of both cramps. I started massaging my leg and hoped that I had some massaging talents. After a little while the cramps left me alone, and I restarted running, if we can call that running at that point. I was mostly running with my right leg and jumping on the left one because the cramps were still hurting.
I did that for 200-300 meters maybe then it seems like it was better because I was able to run to the finish line. I crossed the line with a huge smile, well I think I was smiling ;)
Half Ironman done
Finish time 6:11:41
Swim 1:05:26
Transition 1 2:20
Bike 3:00:32
Transition 2 1:45
Run 2:01:26
Friday, July 9, 2010
Can you say Half Ironman?
Yeah I finally made the decision. I signed up for a half ironman in July and for my A race on September 19th.
The plan is to use the July 25th one as a preparation for my A race in September. In between I will run a couple of Oly and a half marathon as part of the training.
I would lie if I said I am not nervous about going into longer distance, but it is a good nervous feeling. I did some longer ride lately. The longest being up to 140km, one long brick and a lot of 16-20km run. This week end will be my last long workout week end, but I might have to work both days so I am not too sure what kind of workouts I will get done. Then next week I will try to squeeze in something kinda long and then go on taper for the entire week before the half. Lets just hope that a week is enough of a taper for an half ironman :)
The plan is to use the July 25th one as a preparation for my A race in September. In between I will run a couple of Oly and a half marathon as part of the training.
I would lie if I said I am not nervous about going into longer distance, but it is a good nervous feeling. I did some longer ride lately. The longest being up to 140km, one long brick and a lot of 16-20km run. This week end will be my last long workout week end, but I might have to work both days so I am not too sure what kind of workouts I will get done. Then next week I will try to squeeze in something kinda long and then go on taper for the entire week before the half. Lets just hope that a week is enough of a taper for an half ironman :)
Monday, July 5, 2010
Forerunner 110 giveaway
Stop by DC Rainmaker's blog, he is having a great giveaway. A brand new Garmin Forerunner 110 :)
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/07/garmin-forerunner-110-giveaway.html
Good luck :)
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/07/garmin-forerunner-110-giveaway.html
Good luck :)
Monday, June 28, 2010
Long run and ride
Saturday morning me and some friends from the triathlon club got together for a nice swim at the lake. Water temperature was really nice once again. We swam 2.2km or so in 45 minutes, nothing fast but I never said I was a fast swimmer so ;)
After that I had planned to go for a long run, so I headed back home put my running gear on and went for a 20km run before lunch. The legs were a bit tired from Friday's brick and the plan was to run an easy Z1/2 run, so that is exactly what I did.
Yesterday was the long ride of the week end, once again with some friends from the triathlon club. We went for a 100km ride easy once again.
Here are some pictures of our ride.
I always love riding next to the rivers, it feels like vacation every time :)
After that I had planned to go for a long run, so I headed back home put my running gear on and went for a 20km run before lunch. The legs were a bit tired from Friday's brick and the plan was to run an easy Z1/2 run, so that is exactly what I did.
Yesterday was the long ride of the week end, once again with some friends from the triathlon club. We went for a 100km ride easy once again.
Here are some pictures of our ride.
I always love riding next to the rivers, it feels like vacation every time :)
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Ramping the km for my HIM in July
Yesterday was a longish brick, nothing huge but still. I had a 70km ride in the mountain with a 2000 feet of climbing followed by a 10km run.
Overall it went pretty well, which is giving me confidence for July 25th :)
Here is a picture of the view at some point while I was riding.
Today I had a long run, and tomorrow is long ride day. I guess that going back to work on Monday will be good to get some rest :P
Overall it went pretty well, which is giving me confidence for July 25th :)
Here is a picture of the view at some point while I was riding.
Today I had a long run, and tomorrow is long ride day. I guess that going back to work on Monday will be good to get some rest :P
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Triathlon Lac Beauport - Race report
Yesterday was the first triathlon of the season, the Lac Beauport triathlon.
Since the lake is 15 minutes or so from my place I arrived there early and grabbed a nice spot in transition. Then I chatted with people from the triathlon club and with friends who were doing the race. At some point I went and rode 5km or so with Steve, then we went for a 2-3km run and after I finally got my wetsuit on I jumped in the water for a couple of 100 meters swim.
My plan for the swim was to do everything possible to beat last year's time. I placed myself in a way that I would be into the traffic at the beginning, and it worked ;) I got kicked, punched and grabbed in place that you wouldn't believe.
Sighting went pretty well, I have the feeling that I swam pretty straight versus last year. Since there was a lot of waves I swam with people from the start to the end. Trying to find a pair of feet to hold to, but no luck with that. I basically had to swim the entire km alone, oh well life is not always easy ;)
I got out of the water, and hit my watch when I reached the beach. Not a bad time, but not as fast as I expected. I thought that maybe today I would finally swim my km under 20, but no way. I still have to work on my swimming to reach that goal.
Then it was into transition one, I had some problems with my suit, it got stuck on my heels. Didn't lose much time on that though. I then grabbed the bike, ran to the exit and jumped on it. New bike and not a lot of practice this year made it a tough one. I lost times trying to get my feet on the pedals/shoes and then getting up to speed.
I had no idea how my biking would go today, and I had my new bike on which I rode a total of 35km before this race. I was a little anxious, not too sure how it would go. I was pretty sure that the bike wouldn't be where I would gain time this year, but I almost finish with a split 3 minutes faster than last year, which made me really happy!
I gave everything that I had on the bike, I couldn't see my speed since I didn't put my watch in the quick release (I was scared to lose it during the swim so I used the bracelet without the quick release) So I just push hard, and harder. At some point during the bike I got a cramp in my right calf, happened twice to be exact. Both time while going up a hill standing on the bike mashing the pedals as hard as I could.
It worked fine, bike felt really good. My legs were not at 100% though, I guess that 2 days is not enough I could still feel that they were tired. I got a peak of 65km/h which was not too bad :) The bike handled really good in the wind, and in the turn also.
Transition two went almost flawlessly, I jumped off the bike and passed like 10 person while entering the transition zone. When I got to my transition spot there was a bike in my spot, which made me lose a couple of seconds but not much. Put my shoes on, grabbed my race belt and there I went for the race.
Going into the run my plan was to get a faster run split since my running has been really good so far this year. WRONG!!
Dammit when I got out of transition my legs were sooooo dead, I couldn't get any speed. I tried to convince myself that it was only 8km, that it wouldn't be too long. I honestly wanted to stop and walk a couple of times but I just kicked myself in the butt and kept running.
Eventually I saw the first km sign, then the second and the third. At that point I was going up a hill and I was suffering. I tried to keep a good pace, 4th km was better, going down a hill helps ;) Then the last 4 were just survival, trying to stay with a not too bad pace to finish with a good time. I finally finished the run a little bit more than a minute faster than last year. I will take this with the legs that I had ;)
Swim Time = 20:34 (2:04/100 meter)
Transition 1 = 0:56
Bike Time = 42:36 (32.4 km/h)
Transition 2 = 0:49
Run Time = 37:17 (4:50/km)
Total Time = 1h 42m 23s (1:47:48 last year)
Overall Rank = 102/218
Age Group Rank = 14/28
Since the lake is 15 minutes or so from my place I arrived there early and grabbed a nice spot in transition. Then I chatted with people from the triathlon club and with friends who were doing the race. At some point I went and rode 5km or so with Steve, then we went for a 2-3km run and after I finally got my wetsuit on I jumped in the water for a couple of 100 meters swim.
My plan for the swim was to do everything possible to beat last year's time. I placed myself in a way that I would be into the traffic at the beginning, and it worked ;) I got kicked, punched and grabbed in place that you wouldn't believe.
Sighting went pretty well, I have the feeling that I swam pretty straight versus last year. Since there was a lot of waves I swam with people from the start to the end. Trying to find a pair of feet to hold to, but no luck with that. I basically had to swim the entire km alone, oh well life is not always easy ;)
I got out of the water, and hit my watch when I reached the beach. Not a bad time, but not as fast as I expected. I thought that maybe today I would finally swim my km under 20, but no way. I still have to work on my swimming to reach that goal.
Then it was into transition one, I had some problems with my suit, it got stuck on my heels. Didn't lose much time on that though. I then grabbed the bike, ran to the exit and jumped on it. New bike and not a lot of practice this year made it a tough one. I lost times trying to get my feet on the pedals/shoes and then getting up to speed.
I had no idea how my biking would go today, and I had my new bike on which I rode a total of 35km before this race. I was a little anxious, not too sure how it would go. I was pretty sure that the bike wouldn't be where I would gain time this year, but I almost finish with a split 3 minutes faster than last year, which made me really happy!
I gave everything that I had on the bike, I couldn't see my speed since I didn't put my watch in the quick release (I was scared to lose it during the swim so I used the bracelet without the quick release) So I just push hard, and harder. At some point during the bike I got a cramp in my right calf, happened twice to be exact. Both time while going up a hill standing on the bike mashing the pedals as hard as I could.
It worked fine, bike felt really good. My legs were not at 100% though, I guess that 2 days is not enough I could still feel that they were tired. I got a peak of 65km/h which was not too bad :) The bike handled really good in the wind, and in the turn also.
Transition two went almost flawlessly, I jumped off the bike and passed like 10 person while entering the transition zone. When I got to my transition spot there was a bike in my spot, which made me lose a couple of seconds but not much. Put my shoes on, grabbed my race belt and there I went for the race.
Going into the run my plan was to get a faster run split since my running has been really good so far this year. WRONG!!
Dammit when I got out of transition my legs were sooooo dead, I couldn't get any speed. I tried to convince myself that it was only 8km, that it wouldn't be too long. I honestly wanted to stop and walk a couple of times but I just kicked myself in the butt and kept running.
Eventually I saw the first km sign, then the second and the third. At that point I was going up a hill and I was suffering. I tried to keep a good pace, 4th km was better, going down a hill helps ;) Then the last 4 were just survival, trying to stay with a not too bad pace to finish with a good time. I finally finished the run a little bit more than a minute faster than last year. I will take this with the legs that I had ;)
Swim Time = 20:34 (2:04/100 meter)
Transition 1 = 0:56
Bike Time = 42:36 (32.4 km/h)
Transition 2 = 0:49
Run Time = 37:17 (4:50/km)
Total Time = 1h 42m 23s (1:47:48 last year)
Overall Rank = 102/218
Age Group Rank = 14/28
Saturday, June 12, 2010
My new baby has arrived!!
Here he is, waiting to be finished in the LBS yesterday. I will go get him today and we will ride together for the first time :) I just can't wait. The new Trek Speed Concept 9.9
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Descente Royale - 10k race
This course is a really easy one, everyone always told me how easy it was to PR on it. I never really thought that it would be that easy though. Don't get me wrong, I pushed hard and at the end I was out of everything. But still, I don't think that I can hold that kind of pace on a normal course.
Going down a false flat for 10k is great ;)
Last Friday, I had a chat with a friend from work who is a speedy. I told him that his 43:12 time would fall this Sunday. So today's secret plan was to beat Alex's time. I honestly was not sure that I would be able to do it though. I analysed my 10k that I ran in May and decided that I didn't push hard enough, so today's plan was to push as hard as I could push.
As soon as the race started I went almost all out, I was actually way too fast the first 500 meters and I slowed on purpose to not go too fast and run out of legs by the end.
The first 4 splits were fast, 4:09, 4:10, 4:09, 4:06. Then the 5th was like 4:21. I got scared at that point because I thought that my legs decided to stayed at the 4km mark.
The first 5k was still damn fast, actually faster than my faster 5k ever. At that point I knew that I only had to run 4:20 splits or so to beat Alex. So I tried my best to stay on that pace. 4:20, 4:19, 4:20, 4:17 and 4:03 to toped it off :) Second 5k was a bit slower, but I was just trying to find the energy to keep pushing that kind of pace at that point.
At the speed at which I ran that first 5k I was not really sure what would happen on the rest of the race.
For once when I actually saw the finish line I had nothing left in the tank, I tried as hard as I could to sprint the finish line, but my body told me to go f... myself ;)
Finish time : 42:43
Age group : 34/176
Overall : 142/1015
Going down a false flat for 10k is great ;)
Last Friday, I had a chat with a friend from work who is a speedy. I told him that his 43:12 time would fall this Sunday. So today's secret plan was to beat Alex's time. I honestly was not sure that I would be able to do it though. I analysed my 10k that I ran in May and decided that I didn't push hard enough, so today's plan was to push as hard as I could push.
As soon as the race started I went almost all out, I was actually way too fast the first 500 meters and I slowed on purpose to not go too fast and run out of legs by the end.
The first 4 splits were fast, 4:09, 4:10, 4:09, 4:06. Then the 5th was like 4:21. I got scared at that point because I thought that my legs decided to stayed at the 4km mark.
The first 5k was still damn fast, actually faster than my faster 5k ever. At that point I knew that I only had to run 4:20 splits or so to beat Alex. So I tried my best to stay on that pace. 4:20, 4:19, 4:20, 4:17 and 4:03 to toped it off :) Second 5k was a bit slower, but I was just trying to find the energy to keep pushing that kind of pace at that point.
At the speed at which I ran that first 5k I was not really sure what would happen on the rest of the race.
For once when I actually saw the finish line I had nothing left in the tank, I tried as hard as I could to sprint the finish line, but my body told me to go f... myself ;)
Finish time : 42:43
Age group : 34/176
Overall : 142/1015
Monday, May 31, 2010
Ottawa half marathon
Yesterday was the Ottawa Half Marathon, what a wonderful race it is! If you never did this race please do so, there was around 40k runners there who ran one of the week end race. From the kid marathon, which was so cute to watch, to the Ottawa marathon. Here's how my race looked like.
Sunday morning I woke up early, walked around the hotel and grabbed a coffee and a sandwich at Tim Horton's. I then met with some friends who were running the full mary and chatted with them a bit. Then back to the hotel to get ready and headed to the race starting line.
My plan was to stay at 5:00/km or so to finish the race in 1h45. I was pretty sure that I could keep this up if everything went good and that I had good legs that day.
Martine, a friend of mine who is in the tri club, was doing the half too. But with 9-10k people on the starting line there was no way I could have find her.
And there we go, I wave to my wife and daughter and start running, making sure to get into my pace and not too fast and then I hear "BOB" It was Martine just behind me, how funny that she saw me in the middle of all those runners.
So we started running together, that was cool to have someone to chat with instead of being all by myself. Around the 5km she told me to go, she had a knot in her stomach and she didn't want to slow me down. I stayed with her to see if it would pass and it seemed to so we kept running together. I told her we already had a quarter of the race done so nothing to worry about.
By the 8km or so we were crossing back to Ottawa and while we were on the bridge I saw that the 1:45 rabbit was slowly getting away from me and I didn't like that. So I pushed a bit while crossing the bridge to try to keep her in sight at least. When we got on the other side of the bridge I realized that I had lost Martine. At that moment I decided to go for my own run and just pushed the pace to get back to the rabbit. I stayed with the 1:45 group for a while, always keeping them close by.
It was weird because my Garmin was giving me the km split earlier than they were on the course. At that point I realized that I couldn't trust the Garmin on that particular course because it was probably longer. So I started counting my overall time versus the km on the course to make sure I was on pace to PR.
By the 15th km or so I knew I had everything to get a PR, I was faster than my planned pace of 5:00/km and even if the course was a bit longer there was no problem at all beating that score.
At the 16th I decided to lose the rabbit and I started pushing. For the next two km I pushed a 4:48 and a 4:41 km, honestly in my mind and my body it felt more like two 3:00/km split but what can I do :P At that point I knew in my mind I was wayyy ahead of the bunny and then I heard someone yell , "lets go 3km to go, we can run that in our sleep". Yeah you are right, that was her like 0 feet behind me.
I laugh a little bit at that point, I pushed so hard to get away from that pack just to realize that they were behind me the whole time :P
At that point I just gave what I had left in me to get to the finish line as fast as possible. My friend Patrick told me he would be waiting for me on the left side of the road at the 500 meters mark. So I started checking when I got there, saw him slapped his hand and yelled "PR Baby!!"
I then ran everything I had left to get to the finish line with a really big happy smile on my face :)
My wife and daughter were by the finish line but I couldn't see them sadly. But I got that PR, even if my training for that half mary was far from being perfect.
Now I got to get faster, because I would like to run a half mary at least that fast to finish my half Iron in Sept ;)
I don't think I could have run faster with the training I had. My injury last winter didn't help but not much I can do about it. Now I got to train harder in the next month to get faster for the next one in August.
Total - 1:43:50
Age group : 151/574
Overall : 1207/9207
Sunday morning I woke up early, walked around the hotel and grabbed a coffee and a sandwich at Tim Horton's. I then met with some friends who were running the full mary and chatted with them a bit. Then back to the hotel to get ready and headed to the race starting line.
My plan was to stay at 5:00/km or so to finish the race in 1h45. I was pretty sure that I could keep this up if everything went good and that I had good legs that day.
Martine, a friend of mine who is in the tri club, was doing the half too. But with 9-10k people on the starting line there was no way I could have find her.
And there we go, I wave to my wife and daughter and start running, making sure to get into my pace and not too fast and then I hear "BOB" It was Martine just behind me, how funny that she saw me in the middle of all those runners.
So we started running together, that was cool to have someone to chat with instead of being all by myself. Around the 5km she told me to go, she had a knot in her stomach and she didn't want to slow me down. I stayed with her to see if it would pass and it seemed to so we kept running together. I told her we already had a quarter of the race done so nothing to worry about.
By the 8km or so we were crossing back to Ottawa and while we were on the bridge I saw that the 1:45 rabbit was slowly getting away from me and I didn't like that. So I pushed a bit while crossing the bridge to try to keep her in sight at least. When we got on the other side of the bridge I realized that I had lost Martine. At that moment I decided to go for my own run and just pushed the pace to get back to the rabbit. I stayed with the 1:45 group for a while, always keeping them close by.
It was weird because my Garmin was giving me the km split earlier than they were on the course. At that point I realized that I couldn't trust the Garmin on that particular course because it was probably longer. So I started counting my overall time versus the km on the course to make sure I was on pace to PR.
By the 15th km or so I knew I had everything to get a PR, I was faster than my planned pace of 5:00/km and even if the course was a bit longer there was no problem at all beating that score.
At the 16th I decided to lose the rabbit and I started pushing. For the next two km I pushed a 4:48 and a 4:41 km, honestly in my mind and my body it felt more like two 3:00/km split but what can I do :P At that point I knew in my mind I was wayyy ahead of the bunny and then I heard someone yell , "lets go 3km to go, we can run that in our sleep". Yeah you are right, that was her like 0 feet behind me.
I laugh a little bit at that point, I pushed so hard to get away from that pack just to realize that they were behind me the whole time :P
At that point I just gave what I had left in me to get to the finish line as fast as possible. My friend Patrick told me he would be waiting for me on the left side of the road at the 500 meters mark. So I started checking when I got there, saw him slapped his hand and yelled "PR Baby!!"
I then ran everything I had left to get to the finish line with a really big happy smile on my face :)
My wife and daughter were by the finish line but I couldn't see them sadly. But I got that PR, even if my training for that half mary was far from being perfect.
Now I got to get faster, because I would like to run a half mary at least that fast to finish my half Iron in Sept ;)
I don't think I could have run faster with the training I had. My injury last winter didn't help but not much I can do about it. Now I got to train harder in the next month to get faster for the next one in August.
Total - 1:43:50
Age group : 151/574
Overall : 1207/9207
Saturday, May 8, 2010
It's been a while
It's been a while since I post here. I got busy with life, and really busy with work. I also got injured and had to stop running during the winter, which got me into a non posting mood. I mean not much to say about riding in the basement and running 1 minute walk and 1 minute run for 15 minutes ;)
By the end of February I finally got the go to restart pushing a little bit. So I did, and last week I ran a 10k to start the season. I am not as fast as I was last season, if I can call me fast that is ;), but I am still happy with my 47:14 finish time.
Now the season is restarting, I have a 5k next week. Then I will be in Ottawa to run the half marathon. After that another 10k and then the triathlon season will kick in. 1 sprint and 3 oly for sure, maybe a forth one I will see. Then back to another half mary and to complete this summer I will race the Syracuse Half Ironman on September 19th.
I am off to train a bit now ;)
By the end of February I finally got the go to restart pushing a little bit. So I did, and last week I ran a 10k to start the season. I am not as fast as I was last season, if I can call me fast that is ;), but I am still happy with my 47:14 finish time.
Now the season is restarting, I have a 5k next week. Then I will be in Ottawa to run the half marathon. After that another 10k and then the triathlon season will kick in. 1 sprint and 3 oly for sure, maybe a forth one I will see. Then back to another half mary and to complete this summer I will race the Syracuse Half Ironman on September 19th.
I am off to train a bit now ;)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
2009 is in the book
First of all, my apologies for being away from almost two months. After New York I took a semi break from training. While I kept running, swimming and biking I just did the minimum to make sure I don't forget how to ;)
Now I need to get back at it, the Triathlon season will be here in a little bit more than four months, so time to get back in shape.
As far as 2009, here are my totals.
I am pretty happy with what I accomplished on my second year, lot of improvement versus 2008 which is good :) Now I need to start 2010 as soon as possible to make sure I have another great year. As of now I have a small injury which stops me from running sadly. But I should be able to restart pretty soon.
Here's a recap of 2009
1 Half marathon
1 Marathon
1 Century (metric)
1 Sprint Dduathlon
1 Duathlon Plus Relay (biked 90km)
7 Sprint Triathlon
1 Olympique Triathlon
During this year I completed my first triathlon and my first marathon, and I am really happy about it!
Have a Happy New Year 2010 :)
Now I need to get back at it, the Triathlon season will be here in a little bit more than four months, so time to get back in shape.
As far as 2009, here are my totals.
| 2009 totals | ||
| Bike: | 186h 18m 57s - 5084.52 KM | |
| Run: | 167h 08m 01s - 1749.78 KM | |
| Swim: | 80h 44m 29s - 149680 M | |
| 2008 totals | ||
| Bike: | 129h 32m 03s - 3284.61 KM | |
| Run: | 53h 00m 42s - 482.64 KM | |
| Swim: | 27h 47m 53s - 33450 M | |
I am pretty happy with what I accomplished on my second year, lot of improvement versus 2008 which is good :) Now I need to start 2010 as soon as possible to make sure I have another great year. As of now I have a small injury which stops me from running sadly. But I should be able to restart pretty soon.
Here's a recap of 2009
1 Half marathon
1 Marathon
1 Century (metric)
1 Sprint Dduathlon
1 Duathlon Plus Relay (biked 90km)
7 Sprint Triathlon
1 Olympique Triathlon
During this year I completed my first triathlon and my first marathon, and I am really happy about it!
Have a Happy New Year 2010 :)
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