Meet my new tri bike! =)

Shawnigan Lake Race Report

The much anticipated opening event of the Subaru Series kicked off at Shawnigan Lake late last month.

 Sun rise on race morning

Having already established two stellar pbs (from Sun Run and UBC Tri), I wanted to continue bringing my A-game for the swim, bike and run and not being too worried about my competition. Though I do welcome a friendly rival namely Andrew Wight. On the road/sea trip, he’d been humming tunes from Willy Wonka “A world is your imagination” just to get inside my head. I was thinking to myself, "Andrew, you really need a catchier tune if you want to get inside my head, seriously!", because I was still fixated on playing with my gps watch.

The race in Shawnigan marked an exciting battle between Andrew and I. However coming into this race, Andrew had only half the training I have in all three disciplines since January 2010. Recently having a new daughter, Andrew obviously had more important commitments. Last year Andrew peaked at the right moment in the Victoria Half and absolute dominated in his own backyard.

Andrew had crushed me in all of the three triathlons we competed in last year

Swim

We started the swim shoulder to shoulder.

The water was a little chilly but once I found some steady legs to draft, the open water swim was relatively smooth sailing. I was only metres back from Andrew walking towards T1 after the swim. Who knows, those steady legs could have very well been Andrew's.

T1

We sprinted out with our bikes and I mistakenly removed my chip while stripping my wetsuit. I figured I had to run back to retrieve it. 

Bike

I caught up to Andrew after losing a minute or two at T1 by the 10km bike mark. Eventually by our fourth and final lap, Andrew yelled out while passing me, “Com’on, Winstorm don’t you dare let me beat you!” His final two bike laps were negative splits, impressive!

Andrew’s words were motivating, however by this point I was just thinking about a pee break and I was so close to T2.

T2

I managed to bump into Andrew again while transitioning at T2. Andrew booked it out, and I booked it for a washroom break! Such a relief, now time for an epic run- time to hunt down the prey! At this point, Andrew had a 2 minute lead into the run course.

Interesting stat: both my T1 and T2 are ranked 71st place overall by time, at 4:52 and 3:45 respectively! Not sure if I should be depressed or impressed by this result.

Run

My initial goal was to run 4:30 min/km pace but slowly relaxed it to 4:40s. I caught up to Andrew by the 4km of the run course. We exchanged some words and I picked up the pace. By the 15km marker, a runner was challenging me and was about to pass me. By the tail end of the approximately 20.6km run course, it was difficult to pick up the pace since the next closest competitor was about a km ahead. I made a determined effort to hold him off and managing to keep this gap until the finish. Nobody but a lady on a relay team managed to pass me on the run course, which I’m quite pleased about.

Finish

To silent all my naysayers out there, my overall time was 5:07:46 going under my goal time of sub 5:10, and smashing my previous mark at last year’s Vancouver half (time of 5:21:01) by over 13 minutes!!

I’m so stoked about my killer time!

I finished 29th Overall and placed 2nd in my age group. Not too shabby, considering the last time I placed in any triathlon event was nearly 5 years ago. Those were certainly the glory years when I could cruise to a podium finish in the heavy-terrain mountain bike. Those were the days!

Man oh man, my finishing pose needs to look like this!

Andrew had a very respectable time 5:14:56, also finishing third in his age group. I am so happy for him!

Eric Suess was brilliant in keeping his bike a mystery until race day. All thanks to his handy bbq stove cover, which I’ll admit is a clever idea.

There must be a better backdrop

The gang

The bling

The canon

Possibly the UBC Tri Club best team showing at a Subaru series race occurred in Shawnigan Lake. Many fellow blue smurfs with the coveted snug UBC Tri-Club jumpers were absolutely rocking the tri at Shawnigan Lake.

 

From the left, Derrick Lee, Andrew Wight and I did our road trip together
From the right, Melanie Van Soeren, Vincent Lavallee, and Barry Claman

A fellow competitor, Scott Chris aka Eagle has made himself a clear force to be reckoned with all his secret rituals of barefoot running, yoga classes and rides up mountains of late! He is a swimmer turning into an all-rounder. It’s hard to forget that this is the same guy who had beaten me by a very slim 37 seconds last year in Vancouver Half IM last year after all. However, he signed up for the wrong event of the race – the Olympic distance managing to pull off a respectable 2:31:27 and placing 3rd in his age group.

Scott Chris and Celeste Pakstas smiling for the paparazzi.

Snoozing is part of Eagle’s big game plan to avoid big-league competition early in the tri-season.

Highlight of the trip: Vincent Lavallee gauges a leap to the trunk to temporary grab his jacket and to protect shotgun, not realizing Derrick had already dove into shotgun through the middle gap. Vince kindly lays the smackdown and poor Derrick is laying helplessly on the ground...

...and Vince gets robbed!

The half IM’ers including Ceilidh Curtis on the far right. Ceilidh is training for IM Canada!!

I have to thank Celeste and Andrew and their families for their generous hospitalities during this trip! Congrats to everyone who raced in Shawnigan! This adventure was so awesome!!!

Hint hint! =D

UBC Olympic Tri Race Report

My repertoire of spandex attire had increased dramatically this year, and so the ubc tri was a perfect opportunity to rock out the one-piece tri-suite for the very first time and man did I feel like a superhero!!!

the swim

and bike

Super cool action shot!

and finally the run!

I have to thank my dad for these great shots!

I managed to get a pb swim time 27:50 which is much faster than my 29 minutes goal time. Also, I managed improve on my bike time from last year on the same bike course, as well I pulled off one of my fastest runs in a triathlon. Going into this race my expectations were much lower than the sun run the week before. In the back of my mind, I was aiming for a 2.5 hours with a run pace of 4:20 min/km.

I managed to get just slightly over with a new pb time of 2:32:09 and clocked a 4:18 min/km pace on the run course. This beats last year's time of 2:45:48, also improvements in all of the three disciplines. This amazing result despite a 112km ride including a climb up to Seymour the day before, I really feel more fit this year unlike any other year. Haha jeez, I was only intending this race to be a build-up to my halfs. Pbs in this race is just gravy and creme mashed together!! YUMMY!!

Racing flats runners, gps watch pacing and quicker leg turnovers are a big part of my success this year. I no longer feel as much stiffness in the legs after the bike. It will be a very interesting test come this weekend for Shawnigan in the half iron distance.

A familiar face, Andrew Wight, the guy who encouraged me to do the Victoria Half with him last year and then ended up destroying me in all three swim/bike/run in his home turf, will be doing the Subaru series as well. He will be one to look out for.

A-Dubs rocking zee West Coast 

There will be many more familiar faces doing the olympic distance in Shawnigan including Scott Chris, the guy who barely held on to a 30 seconds lead on me in the Vancouver half last year. He opted not to do the half in Shawnigan due to undisclosed reasons. Rumours has it among members of the triathlon community that there will be too much competition for this Majestic Eagle to bear in the half distance.

Scott Chris, eyeing his competition, will he be able to pull off a stellar Olympic time?

Stay tuned for a very eventful weekend! =D

2010 Vancouver Sun Run Race Report

Results:
0:19:35 (5km split)
0:39:03 (Official Chip Time)!!!
Placed 32 Age group, 235 Overall

(previous pb 39:57 achieved in 2007 Richmond Flatlands 10K)



Check. Check. And Check!!! =)



As a recap, lately leading up to the Sun Run, I’d been engaging in feverish discussions with family, friends and even strangers about just how badly I wanted this goal of sub-40 minutes 10K time. The variables were stacked for me this year, and expectations were high especially after years of missing the mark. Being only nearly half a minute off last year, and equipped with new gadgets this time, such as racing flats and GPS watch, and not to mention more experience with the course and better racing weather in early May, I just couldn’t bear to let everyone down this year. That just wouldn’t be cool by my books.



I'm pleased to inform that the Sun Run this past Sunday went all according to the plan. The missing pieces to the puzzle came together on this great Mother’s Day. What a relief!



I achieved my goal time of sub-40 in smashing fashion with an official time of 39:03. In addition, due to the layout of the Sun Run course with the big hill approach to Burrard Bridge before the 5km mark, I registered a negative split but just barely by a few seconds. In addition, this is my first time pb-ing in the Sun Run, which is not an easy feat especially with the many people obstacles presented in the Sun Run.



Race Morning:

The run started with some minor jitters, but I managed to overcome them. The wait before the cold start got my legs twitching and I had fears that my right foot injury I had a month ago would come back to haunt me and cause more discomfort. Also my pacing partner failed to show up to our meeting spot, and I realized I had to do this alone. Jared Penner and Andrew Wight were also starting with me, but both of them had different goals in mind. Andrew offered a little piece of advice for cracking the prestigious  sub-40 mark by running a negative-split and booking it on the last kilometre when he did his with a blistering 3:40 last km.



As the time crept up to 9am start time, the gun was off and I tried keeping Jared within my sights. He accelerated so fast, I had no chance of keeping right behind his slipstream when I got boxed in by several runners. Instead it was amazing to see how many people you knew running through the first kilometre stretch. Marco Cusano was one of the many, and he was only seconds from breaking sub 40 last year in the Sun Run.



Jared was a great person to chase in the crowd with the awesome UBCTC tech tee. At one point, I received a very generous friendly elbow by a man. It didn’t feel good, but I just kept rolling.



All I was thinking to myself was BANKED TIME, how much time I had on breaking sub-40. Sub-40 is a nice number to work with since the numbers are multiples of 4. My concentration from 2 km onwards was just about racing my own race and was not being distracted by the masses of the crowd.



I felt good with my pace and when my watch instantaneous pace went over 4 min/km, I picked up the pace ever so slightly.



The dreaded uphill approach to Burrard Bridge felt great, as I was maintaining a 4-5minute climbing pace. Passing the 5km mark, I knew I could pick up the pace and booked down the bridge at 3:20s. Only metres after passing the 6km, Jared was starting to move backwards relative to the field and I tried cheering him on.



I ran with the feeling Jared was behind me the entire time and didn’t bother looking back. It’s a trick I learned from climbing uphills on the bike to bear the hurt factor. The run still felt great, as I was still continuing to reel more runners in at every kilometre. Usually I would fade at this point like in previous years.



By the last kilometre, I just emptied the tank and booked it. I realized my GPS watch was short by 20metres for every kilometre on the run course and knew that I still had a healthy amount of banked time to work with.



My last 1.2 km pace was averaging 3:38 min/km pace. I took a peek at the clock time and was under 40 minute gun time! Yipeee! This was definitely a fist pump worthy moment.

Split Times! 

Perhaps next year I should shoot for sub-38 blue qualifier, eh? Until then, UBC Tri is only a week away. I’m so stoked for it.




Big thanks for all the support, really appreciate it.


Big congratulations for all the sun runners and UBCTC team for winning yet another divison title! =D

Road Adventures

Funny story while riding home yesterday during epic ride no. 4 of this week!

I was going up a steady inclined on the way back home from UBC near the Macdonald area and out from nowhere I heard this persistent trickling noise behind me for a good 100m. I was curious to see what it was, but resisted not to look back in fear that I would show signs of weakness. The trickling noise continued, and I was thinking to myself, “Man, this person can sure keep pace.” I eased off my pace and pulled slightly to the side to let this noise pass by. This old lady on an electric assisted powered bike goes by me, and the old lady said to me in a high pitchy voice, “I was counting on your streamlines”. It gets better.

At a later stop, I asked her if she modified the bike herself. She answered in a funny sarcastic voice, while holding a cigarette in her left hand, as she accelerated away “You bet... Do I look Chinese to you? ...It’s made in China!” I thought she was hilarious.

SUB 40!

It’s time for a blog update. After weeks of stressing and nerding it up for endless hours, this week I have been finally able to rake in some decent running mileage in hopes of finally cracking the prestigious sub 40 minutes time at the Sun Run next weekend. And this year is definitely the year to do it. I say this because it’s been 3 years in the making and I have no more excuses. Anything over 40 minutes would just not give me any satisfaction!

My previous Sun Run times were as follows:

2006 45:53

2007 43:59 (1:54 improvement)

2008 41:49 (1:30 improvement)

2009 40:37 (1:12 improvement)

This past Wednesday’s interval run, most of us did 6 by 400m and 800m with 60 and 90 seconds rest in between on the track. My heart rate managed to reach a new known max at 194 bpm a few times, which is about 5% more than my normal max. I was averaging about low 170 bpm for the intervals. I hope this is a good sign of my fitness.

New Max HRT!!

I was holding paces in the 3:20s and under 3:30s with my very last 800m faster than my first 400m. Of course the pace times on the track is a little inflated than my road speed. I hope to do some more intervals tonight at the beer mile. We’ll see if I improved from last semester. =)