IMC 2009

Here we are, home safe and sound again, with Amelia the cat only moderately annoyed at us.

I decided at almost the last minute not to take Estela with us. Originally the plan was to ride part of the course before the race. Then I found out the mandatory volunteer orientation was Sat at 2pm. So much for a long ride that day. Then I was figuring how how many K it was from Osoyoos to Penticton via Richter and Yellow Lakes. It turns out to be about 90, just for the record. Then I started thinking about it. I just had the bike fit done, and it radically changes how it feels. Sat was about 31C. I've never been up that road, and I'd be riding alone. I'd be getting done about sunset. I'd have a really long day on Sunday, what with seeing people off in the morning, and my volunteer shift ending at midnight, to say nothing of an early am line up the next day. Once I put it all in a line like that, not going for the ride turned into a sensible decision. Call me a weenie if you must. There will be camps next year for me to discover the course.

We stayed at a wonderful B&B in Summerland, about 15 or 20 minutes from the finish line, plus time to find parking. We had a relaxed drive out on Friday, plus lots of construction. Saturday we scoped out Penticton to get the lay of the land, since I'd never been there before. I think maybe once I drove through, many years ago. Nice place. Reminds me a bit of the Fraser Valley during my childhood.

Sunday I was there to see people off, and was close enough to the ramp I could see a few people finish. I hadn't known Katie F was there, and what super day she had! Darryl was by in a blur almost hiding behind other people. Julie came out of the water with a huge smile on her face. Susi looked determined.

I hung around to watch the last two people out of the water. Sad there was at least another swimmer churning away that was not allowed to continue. A little bit later I met up with Jenna for coffee, then Alan and Dwayne (sorry if I didn't spell that right.) Linda had slept in, so I went back to get her, and had a very nice nap.

Walking in we saw Darryl heading out for the run, looking strong. We found a great shady spot just before the last left turn on the bike course going into dismount. Once settled we saw Julie in and out, and I'm sorry if I broke her concentration. She actually looked over her shoulder and smiled, but that could be just a reflex. Heather had a huge grin. Susi had had a tough bike, and we were beginning to worry about her. She chatted for a second heading out for the run. She'll put the detail she thinks is appropriate in her blog, but it's fair to say she wasn't having the day she hoped for. It's kind of tough to watch for riders coming from the right, and runners from the left, all in time to cheer. Us spectators have such a hard life.

We both enjoyed watching it. You can tell some people are counting the seconds to get off the bike. Some are just coasting in, others are pushing it till the last second. Some are getting in the last bits of nutrition. One guy nearly crashed trying to get his shoes off. The running is fascinating. Some gaits I don't know how they do that for a marathon. Some looked like they were floating along. One guy I fear is me, pounding nails into the pavement with every step and he's bigger than me. I could see quads and calves rippling with every step. Ouch. I watched one guy find his stride and relax, all in the space of a few steps; it was almost like looking at two different runners. One girl was headed out like her ass was on fire, and I'd love to know how long she kept that up. Linda didn't want to stay till midnight, so I took her back to the B&B, then came back. Since I was there, and couldn't get a better view, I started my finish line duties early. All you can eat pizza, and I was hungry. Turns out that Grant that taught Chi Running, and Brian from Tri-it were also catchers. I met and chatted with lots of interesting people during the evening.

Catching was fun, in a strange sort of way. For readers new to triathlon, the athletes have just spent all day and part of the evening involved in intense activity, and are covered in a variety of bodily fluids and lotions. They gave us rubber gloves. Catchers are there because some people get across the line on will power alone, and a few steps across the line it's like someone cut the puppet's strings. There are all sorts of reactions as people cross the line. Most have a huge grin, and rightly so. Some are in great shape and look like they could go dancing. Others haven't collapsed, but they aren't far from it. We make sure they get their medal, finisher T shirt and cap, some fluids to drink, and get the timing chip off them. Then it depends on what the person wants. Some people go straight to the med tent no matter what they say they want. Others want their photo. Some want food, or don't want food. One guy said nothing but a very sincere "thank you, massage tent please". About 6 times. One guy wanted to go into transition to get his bags so he could towel off. We take them where they want to go and make sure they will be ok.

Most of my 'catchee's' were in great shape. There were a few that were disappointed with their time, or were in rough shape. For all of these it was their third Ironman. My guess is that they did the first one, then did the second to show the first wasn't a fluke, then tried to race the third. I saw a few people carted away in a wheelchair. One of my catchees got all the way to the food tent when her legs started going wonky.

This was my first triathlon volunteer experience, and I'm going to have to do it again. Maybe not catching next time, but something that needs doing. We all need to remember, and I've said this before, without the volunteers the race wouldn't happen. My goal is to volunteer a race for every one that I'm in.

I somehow missed Julie, Chuck, and Heather, even though I was working the finish line when they crossed. I was probably already helping someone else. What was important to me is that I caught Susi, and didn't even have to trample anyone to get to the front of our line. I just happened to be there. This was a tough run for her. What amazing grit she has! I am in awe. I took her into transition for her bags, and Sherpa'ed for her. While I was there I heard my name and it turned out to be Kelly R that I've raced with a few times! I was confused, thinking it was Kelly B, but thinking I'd have heard if she was going to be there. We got Susi's stuff and I handed her off to a buddy that would take her to her parental unit. She was firmly clutching a tin of special cookies Linda made for her, and I hope they have the same effect as at Chinook.

Sometime later in the evening I sat and chatted briefly with Katie and then Verna showed up. Katie's such a humble girl, I only found out just a few minutes ago just what an awesome day she had. Can you say first in her very competitive age group??? Way to go Katie!!!!!

One of the high points of the night was watching Sister Madonna Buder cross the line just before the cut off time. The crowd went crazy. A 79 year old nun, running an Ironman triathlon. For about the 36th time. What an inspiration!

This parking in a bunch of different places is for the birds; I nearly got lost after my shift. After not enough sleep, I was back down to the Expo first thing in the morning. The line up is out the gate, but that's for finisher swag. Looked for Julie in particular, since I was pretty sure that Susi was still in bed. Ran into Verna there. Then there was a long line for people wanting to sign up for next year. Then, at last, (deep breath!) the much shorter line for volunteers to sign up for next year. Chatted with one of the guys from spin class, and I'm sorry I've forgotten his name, and since it was pre-coffee it took a bunch of time to clue in that this familiar looking dude really was familiar.

I have to admit the IM corporation is very efficient at extracting money from your credit card.
$603.50 later, and I AM SIGNED UP FOR IMC 2010!

There is no doubt the next year will be amazing. I'm looking forward to the training, and from what every other triathlon blog or triathlong buddy has said, there are sure to be some adventures along the way. Stay tuned.

Easy relaxing swim

It's been a while since I was in the pool. I haven't particularly wanted to swim the last little while. It's been a good mental health break. I had a lane to myself, nice! Swam 45 minutes at an easy relaxed pace, never breathing too hard. Paid a lot of attention to how I was feeling, how my stroke was doing. The only real muscle complaint was down the inside of my forearm. For a while I was trailing a stream of rust behind me, but after about 20 minutes I settled in and things smoothed out. Played with the stroke a bit, and counted strokes per lap a bunch of times. It was mostly 20 or 21 per length. The swim was a bit slow, but I didn't care, since I wasn't counting lengths.

After the floaties in the dive tank cleared out I did core work for 30 minutes. All is good.

Sneaking up on 120

No, not Kph, I think that will be a while yet. And no, not rpm either, at least not for more than about a minute or two. I'm talking about heart rate. Now, I realize some of you pass 120 bpm just thinking the word exercise, or workout. But somewhere around 120 bpm, maybe as much as 130 bpm is where I cross the line between easy and starting to work and beginning to breath harder.

So the theory was to try the new bike fit out on the road, AND stay around 120 bpm, certainly no more than 125. That's tougher than it sounds, given the wind and hills. I thought about how far and how long, not knowing how the bike would fit, or how my legs would feel. I figured play it by ear, heading out 22X, then down 22. These are fairly moderate hills that I figured were appropriate.

The fit felt a little strange at first, especially in the legs. The saddle is much higher, and tilted a little more forward. My back is straighter, and I can see better. I was riding cautiously and a bit slower, trying to see where my heart rate was going, and I wasn't caring about speed or pace at all. At first it didn't seem to take much to get to 120, and then I'd back off. As expected my breathing was really easy. I was trying to relate how my legs felt, with how my breathing was doing, with what my heart rate was.

The first hour was feeling things out. My legs were still getting used to the new motion and I couldn't spin very well, though it gradually got better. I was able to keep my heart rate where I wanted it or even a bit lower. I turned around at Plummer's Road, which is a hair over 25 K from the house. It's right at the bottom of a hill of course. I was able to ride on my drops for quite a while, and could have kept on, where as before it was just too uncomfortable to do for more than a few minutes. My legs started to feel stronger, and I could push a bit harder while keeping my heart rate the same.

In fact, for a good part of the way back I was well below the target heart rate. However, I was getting some numb bum, since my sit bones were taking more of the weight than they used to. At the 1.5 hour mark I was feeling like I normally do at the 3.5 hr mark. I'm not sure how to describe how my legs were feeling; it was sort of odd. They felt like they were on the verge of actually working, but not quite there yet. It might have been the new motion, but they didn't feel particularly strong. It felt like warm up, I guess. Toward the end I was spinning a bit better, even though I didn't really want to be sitting anymore. My legs weren't tired, but it was like they wanted to take the next step and either go harder or get off.

All in all the fit seems like a big step forward. I need to be aware of my posture a bit more to make sure I don't slouch back into a hunchback position. I'll give the legs a few more trips to get used to it, and continue to work out the tightness in my calves. I rode nice and easy spin for a hair over 50 K in 2.25 hrs, with a max heart rate of 126 when I got a bit carried away making a left turn in highway traffic. The average heart rate was 112, though I'm not sure how accurate that is given my very slow start.

There are lots of people taking a deep breath and getting packed up to travel to IM Canada or Louisville. It's a huge day to be looking forward to, and I hope it meets or exceeds all your expectations. I'll be spectating and volunteering at the finish line between 7:30 and midnight, so I won't be able to follow you on athlete tracker. However, I'll be cheering you on in person or in spirit.

Bike fit

Today was the day. I was pretty much a slug yesterday, just did an easy walk around the block. My calves are feeling better. In fact my left leg is now feeling better than the right. Two firm massage sessions in a week sure helped. Today was a longer, brisker walk, 40 minutes around the block. In the last 10 minutes the heat hit me and I came in all sweaty.

I got both a bike fit and a lactate balance point test. Luke did a bunch of measurements. Both of us were mildly astonished to find out my legs are only a mm away from being the same length. It's more typical for most people to be more like 5 to 10 mm different. He tweaked the cleat fit on one shoe. After a short ride on the bike he moved the saddle way up, and fiddled with the positioning a bit. A bit more time on the bike, and he replaced the stem. The difference in position was amazing. I'd never realized I'd been riding hunchbacked. No wonder my neck hurt sometimes and I was always looking out of the top of my eyeballs. This will also open up my lungs, and change the weight distribution between my butt and hands. Now I get to ride a bit to see how it feels. I may need to get the bones in my butt measured to see if I need a different saddle.

For a while I was spinning while looking at the compu-trainer graph that shows power output at each point of the pedal stroke. This was very very cool. A perfect graph is a circle. When I first got on the bike, before any adjustments the graph was like a figure 8 like the kids draw in grade one. Two perfect balls balanced on top of each other. I had to work to just start to even it out. After the adjustments it was much easier to get a circle-oid. Not quite round, but much better. I really enjoyed tweaking the pedal stroke and watching the graph change. I wouldn't need to put a movie on if I had that in front of me.

Then the lactate balance test. In short, I tried to keep the cadence steady against slowly increasing resistance. He tracked heart rate, my respiration, something measured by a clip on my finger, and stabbed another finger for blood that went into a little gizmo. At the end of an hour (I think, things were kind of blurry by then) I was done, bathed in sweat, with tired legs that were ready to fold. For a little while right at peak effort I was actually beginning to feel a bit queasy, but that passed.

There are numbers and graphs! Fascinating. It was very interesting looking at the graph comparing watts against heart rate. I did ok for a while, then started to lose it at 200 watts, and made it up to 240 bpm before having to back off. This is a good baseline to measure future improvements against. My LBPwatts/Bodywt ratio is 1.6. At the moment this is just a number, but I shudder to think of what it might have been had we run that test two years ago. The testing confirmed my hunch that somewhere around 130 bpm is where I start breathing harder and enter effort levels where the clock is ticking on sustainability. My heart rate recovers fairly quickly, but I'm not good at getting the lactate dealt with. It has become very clear that once I get even a little past an aerobic state the effective end of my race is coming quickly.

He's given me stuff to work on over the next 6 to 8 weeks. Spend lots of time on the bike, some swim, and easy on the run for now. It's a year till next IMC, after all. We talked about coaching philosophy and training for IMC. All in all an excellent way to spend the afternoon.

Cam, Lisa, and the elusive Mike

Between now and last Wed is the longest I've been without updating my blog in a long time. It's been an exciting few days. Firstly, the title is somewhat untrue, since Mike has nothing to do with Cam and Lisa. Oh, there's a Mike that does, but he's not elusive. Well, actually, for me he has been since he's been friends with Lisa for 30 years, and I've been friends with Lisa only about 16, and yet somehow we've never come to the same party till now. Where was I?

Thursday I was feeling a bit out of sorts, and took a quiet day, not doing much, just puttering around the house getting ready for our trip. I've been driving by the Rothney Observatory for nearly 30 years now, and have been intending to drop in almost that long, since they have regular open nights. Yet somehow the timing never works out. It turned out to be a beautiful clear night, though the wind was cool. There was someone using a laser pointer to to show where various stars and constellations are. There was a replica of Galileo's telescope to look at Jupiter with, and right beside it a modern telescope of the same resolution. Even the replica gave a good image, but the modern was much better. I was surprised at how much detail there was. Lots of other telescopes to look through, and some really interesting displays. We'll have to do that again.

Friday we finished packing and we got ourselves out of the house by 11am. It's two hours to Julie's house, and she was kind enough to let us drop in. We finally met the elusive Mike! I've spoken with him once on the phone, but hadn't met him yet. Thanks for the coffee and cookies! As you might imagine it was wall to wall chatchatchat! We'll have to do that again too.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Island Lake Lodge, just north of Fernie, after a bit of a detour through Fernie itself. The road up to the lodge is a bit of a fright, but the lodge itself and the scenery around it are stunning. We got checked in just in time to make it down to the spa for our appointments. I got a deep tissue massage on my legs, and it was wonderful in a 'hurts so good' sort of way. Then we explored the grounds a bit, and hung out with our buddies waiting for dinner. The food was drool. Totally completely drool. Amazing. My steak was melt in your mouth perfect. Then we hung out on the deck and mingled and chatted. There were some people that we knew already, and a bunch of people from both families that it was nice to meet. A great mix.

The next morning, after a drool breakfast, Linda and I walked down the Old Growth Forest trail. Just a nice stroll for a couple hours, listening to a nice stream while walking through an old growth cedar forest. Very peaceful and calming. My thought was after that I'd go for a swim in the lake. I had been assured the staff swim in it daily and it's cool but not cold. So I didn't bring my wet suit. Pardon me, but it was effing COLD!! Much colder than Ghost Lake! I stood mid thigh depth, and rationalized that this was at least as good as an ice bath. I did get all wet, and swam for a few minutes. Just barely. My fingers were going numb, so I got out again, and dried off in the sun. Lunch was drool.

We had some time to ourselves during the early afternoon, so I mostly camped out in a comfy chair and watched the world go by. The view is incredible. Cam and Lisa had chosen to get married down by the lake. Here's what it looks like.


It's slightly overexposed so you can't really see the peaks in the background. If you want to see wedding shots of people you don't know, send me an email and I'll give you the link. After some more formal shots we all went back to the lodge to drink and eat little drool treats. There were about 4 or 5 different kinds and they were all drooling good. Then dinner; most people had the duck breast. We had to wait, as everybody but one person at our table got their plate, and we had to wait briefly till the last person was served. I don't think I was the only person who's tummy was growling with eagerness.

The toasts were short and sweet, with no boring wedding stories taking up valuable drinking time. Then the dancing started and a good time was had by all. We hit the hot tubs by 11:30 or midnight and called it a night. Other's closed the dance floor and the party moved to the hot tub till about 2:30.

Today was breakfast and goodbyes or see you laters. This is a seriously nice place to stay, and with the wedding package it was a really good deal for what you got. We'll be looking for an excuse to go there again. (Mike, if you're looking for a nice place to take Julie, hint, hint. Come to think of it Jase, same goes for you too. No, not Julie, Cath.)

Home again, waving at Julie's house on the way through. Nice to be home. Amelia wasn't even too choked at us. BBQ steak, corn, and fresh blueberry cobbler for supper. Life is good.

I was given a bug shower

I rode my hybrid to the Chi Running class, up the 37 St path and through the Weaselhead to North Glenmore park. It takes about 25 minutes nice and easy one way. I probably couldn't drive there that fast. Class starts at 7 and ends at 8:30. Or so. Today went a little long so I was riding home in twilight. When the bugs are out. One of the bits of advice is to breath through your nose when riding and running at a training pace. I had to on the way home or I would have blown my diet on bug protein. It was a constant stream of bug impacts. So we'll say 45 minutes easy spin.

The main part of class was running back and forth, working on all the fine points. Charles offered feedback while Grant had us run in a semi circle to video us. It turns out that much about my run is good - nice mid sole strike, pretty good posture, heels coming up well, good hand and arm position. The main thing is that I lead with my chin, leading me to arch my back, then my arms start going up and forward, and my posture goes to hell. I need to be sure that I'm aligning my column, not just bending forward and poking out my butt.

There were several times when I could feel myself in the sweet spot, running with soft legs, quiet impact, feeling relaxed, elbows hitting the buttons behind, head aligned with chin tucked. For about 6 steps. Much practice needed.

My next book is The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, by Colleen McCullough. It's the sequel to Pride and Prejudice.

The big adventure today was reinstalling a glass pane in a screen door. Of course, it was the stationary pane that broke. Somehow. There is a surprising amount of fiddling to get everything back together. The wind trying to blow the door open, or closed didn't help. I ended up propping it open by dorsiflexing my foot, which stresses sore muscles. What puzzles me is that all the screw holes are filled, everything works, and I have two screws left over.

Lastly, I'm signed up for a bike fit next Tues done by a guy recommended by both Katie and Cath. Thanks guys!

Not too hard, not too far.

But not as far as I thought would be ok.

Once it warmed up I headed out 22X, trying to spin nice and easy. I got settled in ok, but there was some weird stuff happening in my left leg. There was an odd pulling sensation in my calf, just at the widest part on the inside. As well, whichever thigh muscle connects to the top inside corner of the knee was feeling really sore. It was ok for the ride but had the feeling it could get worse if I went too far.

The odd thing is that I had put off the running to give my calves more time to recover, and the run yesterday doesn't seem to have bothered them. They actually have been feeling a bit looser since. However, I could feel the bike ride today stressing some of those muscles. So I think a bit more recovery is indicated. I also think I need to get my bike fit checked sooner rather than later.

I rode for an hour, and just about 2 K from the house I flatted. Of course it's the back tire. Since I didn't really feel like changing a tire just then, I decided to practice pushing my bike by the saddle and walk home. I also walked barefoot rather than in the bike shoes. I even (gasp) ran a bit. That all felt good and was a good cool down.

Once home again I put my legs up for a while and stretched carefully. Things are still twitchy.