New York Marathon coming up

There is just over a week and a half until I toe up the starting line of the ING NY Marathon! Strangely, I'm not as nervous as I think I maybe should be. I think that having recently ran the Montreal marathon helped me really get a sense for the kind of pain that I can expect. Yes, there will be pain. Since Montreal,  I will admit that I've taken a little break from training seriously. Not that I stopped exercising, but I may not have been going the distances that maybe I should have.

As the big race approaches, I've been trying to get my longer training run sessions to match up with my training plan, but have admittedly fallen a bit short. My biggest hope at this point is that I will be able to pull off the race using the always famous "muscle memory". I had wanted to have Montreal be my so-called training marathon, followed up by a slightly faster race in New York. As it stands, I find it entirely likely that I will be able to match my 4:07 finish, or finish not too far behind.

In other news, my role as assistant coach to the Montreal Team in Training triathlon team will be starting soon! Training officially kicks off on November 3 (I'll be starting when I get back from New York). Pre-training has already been underway for about a month, and I have met a nice handful of the participants at  the group Wednesday swims. Having a chance to swim again has been really nice, since I haven't swam since the Cornwall triathlon.

I'll hopefully have another post very soon. I've been using the Zombies, Run! app for a little while, and also tried out some of The Sufferfest videos, and will be writing my thoughts on them.

Thanks for reading, and keep Tri-ing!

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Rock 'n' Roll Montreal Marathon Race Report

Welcome back internet! It's been a while since I've made a post, but now is as good a time as any to get back into it. Since my last post, there has been some news. Firstly, Triathlon season is mostly finished for me for the season, and I have been focusing on my running in order to prepare for the Montreal and New York marathons. Also, I am officially one of the coaches for the upcoming Team in Training Triathlon team! I'll be training new heroes for the Hawaii Lavaman Triathlon in April.

On to the main focus of this post; my race report for the Montreal Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. This was the first year that race fell under the umbrella of the RnR race series, and in my opinion it was for the better. The first and most significant change was that they changed the race course. In addition to making the course easier to block off from traffic, it was also more interesting for participants. There were fewer long stretches of mostly-empty roads to run, not to mention more entertainment along the course. Every few kilometers there was a stage set up with a live band, playing a mix of cover and original rock songs to pump up runners. Since I don't generally listen to music during races anymore, it was nice to mentally sing along to familiar songs as I passed the stage.

Race morning was familiar enough and fairly organized, well as organized as you can be when you have thousands of people converging on one location. In all, there were 2759 marathoners, and another 8700 runners who all met at the Jacques Cartier bridge at 8:30 in the morning to start the run. It was a cold morning, and many people were huddled together against the wind to keep warm for the start. Corrals were staggered, and the starts were released every few minutes to prevent congestion.

My race started quite strong. I kept a solid starting pace, and I mostly followed up on any TNT participants I could fine, running alongside them for a few seconds to see how they were doing. For about an hour I actually ended up running with a friendly Montreal participant. His pace was slightly faster than mine, so rather than push myself too hard, I let him go ahead of me. My 21k split time was 54:30.

The next 10k went pretty much the same, but after that it got harder. A lot harder. It wasn't just an issue of cramping, or running out of gas, but it just got hard. By the time I hit 32k, I knew I had exactly an hour to run the last 10k if I wanted to break 4 hours. Unfortunately I knew that wasn't going to happen. I pushed, and walked a whole lot. I've seen videos and pictures of people crying when they cross the finish lines of races, and for the first time I really understood why. I crossed the finish line after a 4:07 run, and headed straight for the medical tent for a much needed massage.

That's all for now. Stay posted for training updates as I get ready for the New York ING Marathon.

Thanks for reading, and keep Tri-ing!

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Race Recap, Graham Beasley Triathlon

The Technical Stuff

The GB Triathlon is set in Carleton Place, about 40 minutes away from Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. It’s an easy, drive, and parking is easy to find. It is part of the Somersault sporting events, which is a series of marathon, triathlon, and other athletic events, mostly in Ontario. The somersault events are usually very relaxed and casual, which was reflected in this event. One nice thing about the GB Tri is that it actually offers a range of events, including super-sprint distance, swim/cycle, duathlon, relay, try-a-tri, Sprint, and Olympic distance races.

Transition zone was in a first-come basis, so the earlier the you got there, the better position you could choose for yourself. Once set up, there were a few boutique boothsarranged where you could browse sunglasses, and various tri-wear. It wasn't an expo by any stretch, but still nice to see what's out on the market.

Swim

The swim starts are done as a mass start for each event. Because the event is really pretty intimate, having gender/age-group specific waves wouldn’t make sense. The swim was in a calm section of the Mississippi  river. There were 3 buoys set up in the water, and the various distances used them as markers.   For the Olympic tri distance, the swim had to do 3 full loops of 500M each.

Bike

The bike route followed a mostly straight out-and-back in Carleton Place with fairly rolling hills. Traffic was not entirely blocked off, but was very light anyway so was not of any concern. The road was at time bumpy, and a small stretch near the beginning seemed to be made of packed gravel, which was less than ideal to bike in. However, thanks to the simplicity of the route, few  volunteers were needed and let you keep your speed. Unfortunately. There was also no bottle exchange available,  so athletes had to know to fill their bottles before the race and pace their drinking.

Run

The run was also an out and back, with the Olympic distance running two 5k loops. A lot of the course was loose gravel, which is never the best to run on. There was one water station set up about halfway along the course. My personal observation was that there was a lack of sufficient volunteers at street corners, and at one point I actually ran off course for a few hundred meters before realising.

My Race

Some citizens had thankfully set up sprinklers!

Being my second ever Olympic distance race, I still found it difficult but enjoyable. My swim pace was about even with my first at about 40 minutes. I was pretty winded when I got out so I just walked over to transition and got going on my bike. Not sure if it’s a pacing or nutrition issue, but I just couldn’t get into my groove on the bike, and though my HR wasn’t very high, I found it difficult to catch my breath.  The uphills were challenging for me, since I primarily train on flats, and I could have sworn that I was riding uphill both out and back. I know I know, impossible, but I m gonna have to go over my Timex results before I’m convinced I’m wrong. I cant really say much about the run. Out of the three sports, I have the most experience with running, so I was looking forward to having the chance to maybe catch up some ground. Unfortunately I was way too far behind at this point, but I ran a decent pace.  As I mentioned earlier though, there weren’t enough volunteers, and I did run off course briefly. 

Overall, I do recommend this race, particularly to new triathletes since there are various distance races, and the smaller community feel isn’t as intimidating as some of the bigger event series like the 5i50.

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Lake Placid Half Marathon Race Recap

Outside of Lake Placid. The Olympics seems to be the town's only claim to fame.

Some race mornings are warm, some are cold, some loud, others quiet, but somehow they are always perfect. This morning, I found myself in Lake Placid, New York, at just after 6:30 in the morning. Packet pickup was quick and painless, since most participants had picked it up the day before. The morning air was still chilly, so I stayed in the sun as I went through everything I would need for the race; gels and bib on my race belt, changed into my race jersey, and applied sport sunscreen. The race was only set to start at 8AM, so I had a bit of time to wait. I walked around the race setup area, stretching lightly, sipping on water, and generally taking it easy.

Wearing my Team in Training Tri-tank, I was easily recognised by current TNT as an alumni, so chatted with athletes from various chapters, mostly from the New York and Northern PA region. The race directors did a good job of herding athletes to the starting line with about 15 minutes to go, and had great music pumping to keep everyone energised. We were treated to a wonderful rendition of God Bless America, with Pro Triathlete Caitlin Snow holding the US flag.

The race started at exactly 8, and we were off! The course itself was fairly hilly, with the Half-Marathon comprising of a 7 mile switchback. Long downhill stretched on the run out were met with scepticism, since we all realised we would be running back up before too long.  "What goes down, must come up" seemed to be the joke of the race.

With all the TNT'ers, and other friendly racers, there was plenty of words of encouragement and the occasional chit-chat. I actually pulled alongside a TNT alumni and ran with him for what must have been at least half of the race. It was great for me, since he pushed me a bit, forcing my pace up a bit from what I would have probably otherwise ran.

The temperate was fairly hot, and breaks from the direct heat were welcomed, as the forested shade was easily a few degrees cooler than when exposed. Aid stations were spread out every mile or so, and the friendly volunteers handed up an assortment of gels, water, Gatorade, and the occasional orange wedge or halved banana.

The last mile or two of the race were the hardest, with long uphills to get back to the Olympic Oval. Honestly whoever designed the race must be a sadist, because the uphill stretches were cruel, long, and torturous. Nonetheless, the hills crested, and we finished the race by running a lap around the Olympic Oval inner track.

My final time was 1:49:13, a personal best for me by over 20 minutes. I came 27/89 in my division, and 191/1250 overall. I guess triathlon training helps!
I'll add race photos as they come up, and also post the GPS data from my watch shortly, so check back.

Thanks for reading,and keep Tri-ing!

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Swimming Drills

As I was browsing the twitter universe this week, I noticed a freind was asking for advice for swimming drills that would be useful, and make his swimming sessions more interesting and more effective. While long straight-swim sessions are important and useful for building endurance, they do little for building proper technique, and can get quite boring ater a while. I typically try to get into the water 3 times a week, and the way I like to split up my sessions is to make one a continuos long-swim, one will be focused on drills, and the other a combination.


So here are some of the drills that I like to use in my training. I'll try to update this occasionally in case I forgot anything or find good new drills.

Catch-up - This drill has two purposes; to teach you to not let your arm drop during recovey; and to help establish a long "stride" with your arms.
Do freestyle as normal, but after your hand enters the water, keep it extended far in front instead of falling into the usual drop and catch. Keep your arm extended until your other arm "catches up" and your hands touch. Then drop the first arm down to propel you further. Stay focused on making long gliding strides with each push.

Finger-drag - Swim regular freestyle technique, but when your arm comes out of the water to reach forward, do not raise it as high as you would normally. Instead, try to just barely touch the surface of the water with the back of your fingers, so that they are somewhat dragging along the water as you extend your arm forward and enter the water for the catch.

Fists - When I was introduced to this drill, my coach actually had me hold tennis balls, but making a fist will work just fine. Quite simply, swim freestyle but keep your fists clenched the entire time. Though this sounds easy, you will notice that your catch becomes a lot less pwerfl, and you may find it difficult to stay high enough in the water to draw a proper breath. The purpose of this drill is to learn how to use different parts of your arms to push you through the water. When you combine this with the regular hands-open stroke, you will ultimately have a stronger stroke that incorporates your whole arm to generate force, instead just your hands.

Speed Sets - Much like running with intervals, it is important to incorporate speed-work into your swimming sessions. Depending on you personal swimming skill, feel free to half or double the distance, but I like to use 50Metres for this drill. Essentially, do four sets of 50M dashes at 90% effort level, allowing yourself 45 seconds rest between sets. Make sure to not too strong on the earlier sets, or you will find yourself just trudging through the later ones. Instead, I find it helpful to sort of think about negative splitting my time between the first and last 2 sets. Also, because I swim in a 25M pool, I'll allow myself a little more effort in the the last 25M of each set. Keep track of your time for each set, and see if your time is improving from month to month.

Paddle - For this drill, you will need to channel your inner surfboarder. Imagine that you are belly-down on plank of wood, and are paddeling out into the water. Instead of making the regular stroke motions, keep your arms somewhat stiff at 90 degree angles, and swim making a "paddle" motion. The purpose of this drill is to get used to keeping your arms farther apart. Too many swimmers end up crossing their arms over their bodies as they swim, and this will help prevent that.

Hand-to-Hip - Swimming is all about bieng efficient, and one area that efficiency is often sacrificed is at the end of the pull. This drill is to help focus on pulling for the entire time that your arm is in the water. As your arm is pulled through the water and begins to raise up, make sure to brush the side of your leg with your hand. Make sure to keep your hand face-down the entire time. Doing this will make it more natural to continue pushing for the entire stroke.

I hope these are helpful.
Have a great swim, and keep Tri-ing!

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T+2 weeks, new running shoes, and news

It's been 2 weeks since my big race, and now it's time to start planning for the next one. It seems like June will be a quiet month for triathlons, as there aren't all that many around. Also, I will be running the Lake Placid Half Marathon mid-June, and hope to volunteer at IM 70.3 Mont Tremblant June 24. Trying to find nearby tri's is actually proving to be more challenging that I had hoped, but I discovered http://trimapper.com , which is an awesome site. You can visually see where races are, on a map, and filter by month. The one issue I have is that you generally can't see the exact date without going to a specific race website.

I also picked up a new pair of running shoes (you can never have too many). I got the Saucony ProGrid Guide 5. It is a light cushioning shoe, with an 8mm heel-toe drop. It lets me have a pretty good feel with the road, but has just enough support to be used for heavy-duty training. I ran in them for the first time last week on a 10K and feel great. They only weigh 10.1 ounces, and are super comfortable. My only issue, and probably nothing to do with the shoe, is that towards the end of the run and the days after, my calves are killing. I think this is caused more by my running primarily on the forefoot without the muscles being strong enough to support long runs in that technique. I'm starting to get very annoyed with my calf injuries, so I'm going to try to take it easier going forward and really focus on technique

In other news...I'm going to be a Mentor with Team in Training Montreal!!! I'm going to be helping new triathletes fundraise and train to compete in the Nation's Tri in Washington! I'm super excited at this opportunity to giver back and help others have the same amazing experience that I did for the past 6 months or so.

That's all for now, enjoy the summer heat and keep Tri-ing!

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St. Anthony's Triathlon 2012 Race Recap

THE RACE IS OVER!!!

This past weekend, I went to St. Petersburg, Florida with my team and had an amazing race weekend. St. Pete's is a cute town just outside of Tampa, and although doesn't really have any beaches to speak of, is just a 30-45 minute drive to Clearwater, which has beaches that lives up to its name.

Fitness Expo

The Fitness Expo for the event took place in Vinoy Park, just a short walk away from the transition area. A nice touch that I haven't experienced before was that the whole expo was outdoors, including registration and packet pick up. The staff and volunteers for the race were quick and helpful, and packet pick-up was all-together pretty painless. The one issue I had was that being a member of Team in Training, I was expecting to be racing with the rest of the charity waves, which went last, but was originally scheduled in my age group. Nonetheless, the staff quickly switched me, gave me a different colored swim-cap, and I was on my way.

There were also many triathlon related  retail booths set up throughout the expo. These little stores were selling everything from race chip-holders to full bikes, and everything in between. Prices were generally what one could expect anywhere else, but the sheer volume and range of products made the expo a great one-stop-shop for everything a triathlete might need. I myself picked up this beautiful Zoot Tri Bag.  Also, because we weren't allowed to bring any CO2 cartridges on the flight over, most of us grabbed a couple cartridges, which mostly went unused and were later thrown out.

Body Marking & Transition

Body marking was efficient and early as it usually is. My team got marked up at about 5:30AM, and had everything set up and out before the required 6:30 transition closing. Space was a little tight, but everything fit, and because the area was fenced off, we were allowed to move our bags and non-necessary gear to lean against the fence, out of the way of any athletes during the race.

Swim

The Pros  had the first wave, with elite, age groups, and finally novice/charity waves starting every few minutes after. The course itself had apparently changed from previous years, and basically followed 3 sides of a rectangle. The water was a few degrees under the wetsuit legal limit, and between my full body wetsuit and the seriously salted ocean water, I floated pretty well. Honestly I don't think I could have drowned if I wanted to. I'm going to chalk it up to my inexperience with open-water swimming, but I swear the marker buoys were moving. Every time I looked up to sight, I ended up facing the wrong direction. By the end of the swim, I must have swam at least 2000 meters instead of the usual 1500. I finished the swim in just over 40 minutes. I had been hoping to finish about 10 minutes faster than that, so now I know Ill need to practice sighting a bit more before my next race.

Bike

The bike course for the race wound through the streets of downtown St. Petersburg. Probably in order to  minimize the total area of the course, the bike route had several out-and-backs. Police presence was heavy. and they did a great job of keeping local traffic off the bike course. The course was very flat, but technical with many turns. Also, because my wave started at nearly 9AM, it was beginning to get pretty warm by the end of my ride. Unfortunately, I had some pretty severe abdominal cramping throughout my bike ride, which slowed me down a little bit, and so I finished with a segment time of 1:32.

Run

The run course was another out-and-back through some nice residential neighborhoods. Though the route was mostly flat, the 90 degree Florida heat made the run very difficult, especially with fairly limited shade cover. The aid stations that were set up every mile or so were a godsend, with water and Gatorade. Many local residents were also out on their lawns or sidewalks with water hoses, party beads, and even some cups of ice-water. Having trained almost exclusively in the cold Canadian winter, I found the heat very hard, and was reduced to walking a few times. Still though, I finished the run at just over an hour. Not exactly a PR, but with that heat and after 2 hours of exercise, I'll take it.

So that's it, my first Olympic distance triathlon. I finished with a total time of 3:17:28 (I spent just over 2 minutes in both transitions). I had been hoping to go under 3 hours, but I'm going to keep that as my seasonal goal, and with many races ahead for this summer, I am determined to hit that mark.

Thanks for reading this rather long post, I hope you have enjoyed it and are getting ready for the race season. 

Happy racing, and keep Tri-ing!

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