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

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!

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 :)

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.

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!

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 :)

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