Race report: Subaru Banff Olympic

Date/Time: September 11, 2010, 9:15 am
Weather: 5 to 10ish, water temperature freakishly cold at low 10ish, rain and pockets of sunshine
Distance: Olympic (shortened swim)
Gun time: 2:16:37
Swim: 13:08 (1:46 per 100m pace)
T1: 8:21
Bike: 1:10:32 (32.3 km/hr)
T2: 1:36
Run: 43:02 (4:19 min/km pace)
Age Group: 2/8
Overall: 54/343

This past weekend, the much anticipated showdown emerged at the Subaru Banff International Triathlon. There were many humbling surprises and stories to tell in this great expedition to Banff National Park.

First surprise came when the team learned that one big name and gglg opted to not bring his TT bike due to the trivial inconveniences such as changing the brakes and putting on race wheels. Weaksauce was brought!

This meant my TT bike would be the obvious choice for a grand theft auto. I was having second thoughts.

As the evening grew darker, we crash the night for our beauty sleep in the area of Sicamous plus or minus a town – ninja camping style.

Ghost train. Or what looks like the light at the end of a tunnel.

The next morning, we hastily packed up our tents and booked it to our neighbourly province to the east.

Welcome to Albertaville!

Cool guys don’t need to watch where they are going, apparently. Watch and learn kids!

Don’t be fooled, the turquoisesie colour water at Lake Louise owes much of its look to the fine particles suspended in glacier waters. This is a kind way of mothernature giving you the visual warning sign for things to come for the swim at Two Jack Lake.

Cold feet anyone? Zeeeee feet izZz freezing!

The pioneer effort of hosting a first ever triathlon in a national park with a glacier fed lake is not without its share of controversies. The day before the race, the race director announced that the swim would be cut in half after ‘consultation’ with none other than mothernature. We realized this was no joke, the swim and the subsequent air temperature for biking will be crazy cold.

Hypothermia was a threat.

We stayed at the designated camping grounds at Two Jack Lake. What a beauty.

The night before the race, my primal instincts kicked in during a dream. I realized the only way to stay warm for this tiny 135 lb physique is to layer up – the superhero way. I should survive this adventure by keeping all the sensitive areas warm, such as head, toes, hands, and the tighty whities area of course. Now I understand the underwear layer method, it’s all about speed. Get out of the swim and your only choice without butchering minutes for what seems like hours in the transition area is to layer up with your preferred choice of undies.

Now theory to practice...

Race

The swim.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG the swim was chilly. Despite the reduced distance, this was truly a MAN test, an exploration to the unknown! I had no trouble weeing in my wetsuit in the water after doing a warm up lap (above ground). I broke the swim into three survival stages as each stage was a side of the triangle. My chin got so cold, the skin in that area no longer feels as smooth as what it used to be. I did the two swim caps method and even opted to swim with a white cap indicating I was a distressed swimmer. I’m still a terrified swimmer, but I passed so many swimmers, backstrokers, breast strokers and even freestylers. Nobody had great technique because their head were held way above the surface to avoid the bone chilling slap in the face. It felt great!

T1.

Not very often I can laugh and say 8:21 was the time it took me to t1. The guy next to my transition with bright neon orange cycling shoes had enough time to exchange at least 3 jokes before we left transition. I was in survival mode, doing everything necessary to enter the bike leg as warm as possible. Arm warmers, inner tri top, outer shirt, and rain jacket and...

Top right: swim cap

Top left: black briefs

Bottom right: gloves 

Bottom left: toe covers 

The Bike.

The bike course was a little wet. I felt great for the bike, not much can be said other than watching out for sheep and elks on the course and riding gingerly over the Texas cattle gates. I was super stoked I got to race on my Cervelo, but my puffy yellow rain jacket probably screamed DRAG but oh well. This was a sweet deal, mountains in the background and racing on the outskirts of civilization.

T2.

Trying to jump out from your cycling tri shoes was a difficult matter, especially if soaked I’ve learned. There was a suction issue and I couldn’t yank my foot out in time, losing some precious seconds.

The Run.

The 3 apex very ITU run course meant that I got to see my Subaru series rival Andrew Wight nearly six times in 10k. I have learned that for the first time in the race that he was within 2 minutes ahead; however despite this gap, and running 3:50 to 4 minutes pace, I couldn’t hold it for the second lap. Typically I can settle in the half iron distance and catch him at my comfortable pace (2 minutes would have been an easy catch in the half marathon). It could have been due to shortness of breath from the elevation gain and the super flat run course.

Andrew is learning quickly and using my own classic Winstorm secret race tactics to beat me this time (gradually getting faster as the race proceeds on). I knew by the 4th apex, I wasn’t going to close the gap. It was a great race though; I was beat fair and square. Scott and Vince finished less than 10 minutes ahead, so it was a pretty close race all around. Hey, no more double digits spanking, guys! I like this!

Also congrats to a youngstar of the future, Eddy for finishing strong in his Olympic.

It’s all about consistency. Bridesmaid position again! Congrats to Eagle for taking the 20-24 age group.

I didn’t win the blue triad frame, but who’s to say I can’t say this weekend was a huge success. A great Canadian rockies adventure for sure, and overall what a great road trip with the UBCTC team. Congrats to all who raced. Also a big thanks goes to the entire team for keeping my Cervelo in such good shape, I really appreciated it. =D

Mike used to be a ballin’ ballerina, I suspect (or still is judging from this photographic evidence). =P

Live obstacles: A male elk along the bike course.

Vince gives two thumbs up.

Trash talk from Ceilidh? Looks like he will be trouble, he already copied my killer smile.

The 2 Cool Club which consists of Celeste, Me, and Eddy for having such awesome numbers

 (blogger won't let me rotate this picture, it's kinda uncool!).





OERW

Operation Enter Real World.

My triathlon season is officially done for the year, and Banff was such an incredible experience to cap off my 2010 breakthrough year. Stayed tuned for Banff Race Report!

Banff was the perfect escape from the norms of city life.

Now, I can focus more on job hunting, otherwise every near future family dinner gatherings will become quite awkward once they realize my goal is global domination. I also haven’t forgotten that marathon creeping up in Victoria. Boston Qualifier is patiently waiting for me to figure out how to get my sorry act together.

I need to steer off some resumes and cover letters in the meantime. Wish me luck! =)

Subaru Banff International Triathlon - Showdown!!

Banff National Park - Two Jack Lake

Source: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/Canada/Prairies/Alberta/Banff_National_Park/photo951258.htm



If swimming, biking, and running in “one of the most picturesque races in the world” hold little appeal, then the big showdown definitely should garner the attention of the world!

The Subaru Banff International Triathlon will mark the fifth and final playground at Banff National Park, as the race debuts this year in the Subaru Western Triathlon series. Although only Olympic and Sprint distances are offered in this race, this hasn’t even deterred Ironman 70.3 Female Champion, Magali Tisseyre, from coming.

According to Impact Magazine July/August 2010 issue, she has 10 planned races for the season; all of them in the Ironman 70.3 distance except her only Olympic distance being at Banff. It seems only fitting that all big showdowns occur in the races she attends in the Subaru series, with the last one being the BIGGER showdown in Vancouver.

Many big names from the UBCTC will be racing at Banff.

Andrew, (pic taken from last year)

Andrew, a familiar face in all the half ironman distance races in the series, is unquestionably out for lunch meat this time around the final bend on the run course – i.e. the Winstorm variety. His latest effort in Sooke is starting to remind us of his pure greatness from last year.

Eagle

Scott, AKA Eagle, is an Olympian specialist after already dominating in a few this year. Despite being the only one among the big names to not race in the BIGGER showdown in Vancouver, he will be out for prize money/blingware for sure! This race also marks the first meeting this season between Eagle and I, since neither one of us is volunteering/racing-in-a-different-distance this time.

JP

Secret Ninja JP is so clever at holding a poker face. Rumours indicate that he secretly signed up for Banff, trains in the dark, and tells nobody (perhaps not even family members)! He also occasionally tends to organize group rides under an alias name and then not show up for them.

Big Man on Campus

Michael Duncan is the big man on campus with the guts of steel! There’s no telling him what he can or cannot do. IMC 2011 baby!

Vince

Vince easily spanked yours truly by 14 minutes 25 seconds at our last Olympic Distance meeting. He is in a league of his own.

As for my chances? - As good as Andy Schleck winning the tour!

My Declaration – Three Hundred Sixty One

I’ve been feverously talking about it for some time now.

What I am about to say may not mean much to the casual spectator (the ones who think I'm crazy already), and it won't stop me from saying it.  But I definitely believe this is the one step that will cannon bolt me to the big leagues!

I started the sport of triathlon from scratch only six years ago, back in first year; those were the days of swimming with bulky board shorts, riding a ridiculous hulking mountain bike onto the streets, and running with heavily worn-down sneakers without any proper sense of pacing. Back in those dino-years, I thought to myself, how cool would it be to swim in open waters, bike along mountain sides with spectacular views, and run with the crowds cheering you on the entire way.

Having taken as many baby steps as I did to get to today, I believe the only next logical step is coming baby!

OMG! OMG! OMG! Yep, it’s official! OMG! OMG! OMG! 

Volunteered for 2010, camped out, entered 7th in line, had credit card and driver’s licence in hand, signed the next year of my life away...and secured my spot for the 2011 Ironman Canada!

On August 28th, 2011, three hundred and sixty one days from today, I vow to cross that finish line for the very first time and say “I freaking did it!” That is all.

How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 11: believe in yourself.

100 years of Fun at the Fair at the PNE

As a little kid, I loved going to the fair at the PNE every year. The popular annual fair only comes during the last two weeks of summer and did I mention it’s near my backyard?


For those who are still clueless, (ehem man with a million names), the Fair at the PNE is basically your last chance to complete all your summer’s to do list before school starts again. For adults, it was a chance to “WIN A HOUSE! WIN A CAR!” It was a pretty big deal for my dad over the years.

Hard to forget those little yummy (but dangerous for waistlines) donuts!

Yepzers, those ones! A summer’s must do.

Slowly as the years wandered by, the fair and I grew apart – tears T.T. As buildings were being torn down, the park was being restored into greener space. At one point, threats even came for moving the fair elsewhere, maybe Surrey? And despite key attractions getting smaller in scale by each year, the fair has still managed to survive all 100 years of it in a little piece of land known as Hastings Park.

I guess this is one of main reasons I felt so compelled as my civic duty to crash its 100th year anniversary. What I soon realized is that it was a lot of fun, you’ll see why in a moment. No regrets.



Of course this is a training blog, so opinions expressed on this post may have an unusual high-level of favouritism towards anything-cardio related (there, you are forewarned). =)



There was a lot to see and do, like watching heated track competitions especially. Racing, although its most basic form is in the form of distance running, can be quite a popular (entertainment attractions for people) fitness lifestyle for many farm animals too as witnessed at the park.



I was quite impressed with the calibre of competition, and could learn a few tricks from our furry friends. How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 6 take in the spectacle.



First item on the list was Superdogs at Pacific Coliseum. They even had a very fitting titled sponsor, President’s Choice. I was just connecting the dots, i.e. the real Canadian SUPERstore sports the no-name brand PC, so hence SUPERdogs.

This show was called “BFF-LOL-WOW”, no joke. The show started with a few dancing routines and groovy theatrics before the exciting team grand prix event.

Apologies for the less-than-amazing action shots. These dogs were flying like superheroes out there. They never seemed to fail at impressing me.

They were graceful speed demons ripping up the fake grass. A greyhound’s top speed is 39mph, or better known as 0:57 min/km pace! A Whippet isn’t far behind at 35mph, 1:05 min/km pace. Great leg turnover speeds, and excellent stride lengths and superb cardio!

WHOLY SMOKES, if only I can run like that!

Next up was the duck and pig races at the Farm Country barn.

My guessimate the ducks were probably going at 8min/km pace.

These undeniably adorable ducks were all show as they take the plunge. 

The pink squeaking oinking herd was next up. They hug the final bend without any sign of slowing down at about 10mph, at 3:30 min/km pace (my kind of pace bunny).

The final event featured live horse racing at the Hasting Racecourse. Despite the potential dangers for both jockey and horse, doping, and gambling in this sport, a casual viewer like me was certainly impressed by the utter speeds these horses can generate. I’ve learned the track length is 6-1/2 furlongs (8 furlongs is equivalent to a mile). I can certainly appreciate the top speed of a horse – 47.5 mph or 76 kph and this works out to be a ridiculous 0:47 min/km pace. That’s faster than what I can bike going downhill with a tail wind!

Another must see event is the Peking Acrobats, very impressive and actioned packed. I'll try not to give any spoilers, but this one takes the cake. ^^

Ten on a bicycle!

Running is cheaper than therapy!

You know that reaction, patting your loose pockets to make sure your wallet is still hanging there? Well, reality really hits hard when you pat again, only realizing it’s not hanging there anymore.

Aw dangit. Not cool Winstorm! Instantly, I knew my helpless wallet was stranded on the 135 bus while heading westbound towards the sketchiest part of town – the downtown eastside. Like a true roadrunner, I was calculating the pace of the bus and even flirted with the idea of chasing the bus down.

Instead my better judgement took over; I tried asking every bus driver heading in the opposite direction if they had seen anything, but nothing. Eventually a kind lady bus driver helped me to get the message out to dispatch. I spent most of the remaining Friday making frantic phone calls and creating new duplicates and unfortunately having to bail on a run with Eddy.

Yep, let bygones be bygones. I try to remind myself that I can still do amazing things without my wallet.

No ID, no money, no problem! How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 12: Stay humble.

That doesn’t necessary mean no fun. No need to dwell on the pain of my own stupidity!

So, running is cheaper than my therapy. Having no wallet, my decision was a no brainer. I accepted Scott’s invitation to do some late afternoon track intervals. We held 3 by mile + recovery lap @ 90sec rest at under 4 min/km pace in the heat. It ended up being a solid 11km run, surely a good way to let off some steam.

EPIC therapy session No. 1 - Friday 11k interval run

I didn’t stop there. Due to a combination of convenience and perfect timing, I got in an equivalent Ironman distance in 4 days.

EPIC therapy session No. 2 – Saturday 3.9k swim

Next morning, we hit up Allouette Lake at Golden Ears park for our traditional Guo family big bbq boating trip. The seven of us had to share 26 lbs of bbq meat. If you mix the summer heat with the weekend, the lake was infested with all sorts of boating vessels making it somewhat sketchy to swim in. Nevertheless, I swam across with the constant fear of getting run over by a sea-doo (canoes, I can handle) to the other shore near the earth-dam 3 times. Scott’s Garmin said it was about 650m-700m each way.

EPIC therapy session No.3 – Sunday 184k ride

Next morning, I had trouble getting up 6am for the 8am ride as originally organized by Vince. Truth be told, the thing that allured me to this ride was the thought of seeing Matt’s brand new Argon 18 E-112 TT bike. It ended being a pretty fun, chilled ride; we explored a lot of new territory in Delta and Richmond.

GoogleEarth was delighted with giddiness.

EPIC therapy session No. 4 – Monday 32k long run

It’s week 2 to my 10 week marathon program. That means I must run 25k. Realizing the inconveniences of not having a credit card and bus pass, I started from home. I took it easy at 5:30ish pace for the first 25k. Had a chilled break, and then sluggishly survived the remaining 7k home.

GoogleEarth realizing what a nut job I was.

EPIC therapy session No. 5 – Tuesday 11k recovery run

I enjoyed my long run so much, I felt the need to go for a recovery run. Maybe my better judgement would have consulted my training log first, but I didn’t. Ekk, I’ve done 97km of running in the past 14 days! Crazy, miles sure fly by when you're enjoying so much therapy!

There you have it, the M-Dot challenge in 4 days and in sequence (guess that officially makes me an Ironman wannabee),

“Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life,”

claims the now registered trademark of Ironman.



I made an effort to check the lost and found today. After a short wait, the guy at the counter asked for my middle name, and I figured it had to be good news! Just like my “bolt” moment in Victoria on race morning!

Found! Guess all that therapy paid off.

Massive sigh of relief!! Despite a missing twenty dollar bill which I will gladly give up, all my personal items, including three (two expired) TriBC cards, were still there. I was impressed, the person whom found my wallet must had handled it with great care to not drop any of the loose change inside (a buck fifty worth in coins). I wasn’t expecting any of these items back! But thanks world, I really appreciated it. =)

Race report: Subaru Sooke Half-Iron

Date/Time: August 8, 2010, 7:30 am
Weather: 10ish partly sunny and slight winds
Distance: Half IM
Gun time: 5:04:53
Swim: 40:39 (2:09 per 100m pace)
T1: 1:59
Bike: 2:45:32 (31.2km/hr)

T2: 1:08

Run: 1:35:37 (4:34 per km pace)

Age Group: 2/4

Overall: 17/88

Recently, as many already know, I purchased a noble human-pedaling machine that can turn even the flabbiest page into a knight or dame of regal conditioning.

However, before formally introducing this spiffy-aero-sexy carbon-fibre engineering masterpiece onto the regular racing scene (and hence absolutely pulverizing the competition as previously witnessed), I’ve decided to not risk scratching it up just for the time being and put some adequate effort to see what kind of damage my old mechanical monstrosity ‘baby-blue opus’ could still do at Sooke Triathlon this past weekend.

Of course this sparked outrage. Minutes in and hatemail/fanmail were already burgeoning on Facebook.


All superstars receive their fair share of fanmail and hatemail. No need to discriminate here, I embrace all comments. Everybody matters to me, because we are all connected on this tiny world.

I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say some weren’t as pretty and involved a question of man-cards.

There weren’t as many of us competing in Sooke. Ceilidh tried the sprint in prep for IM Canada, Melanie and Derrick geared up for the Olympic distance, while Vince, Andrew and I suited up for the half-iron distance.

So, no pb this time as anticipated with the hillier bike and longer run courses, but it was surprisingly a blazing flash of fun and excitement with both the run and bike courses in the heart of the community of Sooke.

This race was my first race with two different locations for the transition zones. This would be a great dry run for the race in Banff in less than 5 weeks also with two transitions and dubbed the tri-season ending showdown among the big contenders from the club. More on this race later!

Hopping onto the shuttle with Andrew, I had a short moment. Did I forget anything, my tri-top? [Looked inside blue bag] okay thank goodness [phew]. I bet this was going on for many others on the bus shuttle into the T1 area.

We didn’t have much time setting up. Vince hurried down the green carpet near the start, as Andrew and I followed a few steps further back as the last ones getting to the lake.



Canon started. I swam as hard as I could, but my lean runner’s arms started to give per usual. Realizing that my swim wasn’t going to improve for this race which was a bummer, I soon made it my mission to catch everyone that passed me on the swim. Similar to the race in Vancouver, this became a game of real-life PacMan.

T1 was uneventful, however I did somehow managed to get the fastest half-iron split on the record at least.

The bike was a fascinating 4-1/3 loop system. I made most of my ground on the competition climbing up the hills between kilometre 15 and 20 of the course. It did feel like I was soft-pedaling on top gear going downhill at times. I had my nutrition shortly before the climbs and recovered my heart rate shortly after summiting. This proved to be a good strategy. Not bad, baby-blue opus fought well with the big guns.

Lap 6 (4th lap on the bike) also includes T2 time.

T2 was a little bit more hectic than T1. Everybody had their stuff strategically scattered in my way (courtesy of my rack neighbours Vince and Sheldon) and I had to gingerly make room for my MECHANICAL MONSTROSITY. Yep you heard me, I said those words again, haha LOVE it. =)

The run was the reason why we compete in triathlons. The community support was unreal, kids with “GO GO” signs and trying to give you the high fives, and aid stations well distributed and packed with dozens of fans cheering phrases like “you’re our favourite”. The hilliness of the run course was distracted by the people cheering me on, heck even random runners on route were cheering my number and said “You’re flying no. 1-3-2-9!!” Thank you, you guys are awesome! I felt like I was Craig Alexander in Kona out there.

Winstorming away! (Blue gust added for dramatization)

I was trying to chase down my companion Andrew during the entire day who at this point converted more than 8 minutes up on me. He had about 7 minutes on me from the swim and about another minute from the bike. Andrew had a solid first 5km and was up 10 minutes by the time I got to kilometre 6.

Mark Shorter, a respected veteran in the sport of triathlon (now a lifesport coach) and my formal intervals coach at NSA, was looking really strong and cheering me on. I guess it’s the beauty of our sport, great to see older guys can still handily beat younger guys like me.

Half marathon run splits

My final run time was 1:35:37 (7th fastest run split of the day, only beaten by two fellow age-groupies!). I’m pretty stoked about the steadiness of my run pace, which will bold well for my current marathon training.

It ended up being a really close race; I didn’t catch Andrew until the 18km mark, even though he humbly claims he wasn’t racing me. This was his best race of the season, great to see Andrew earning himself a spot on the podium with less than a minute advantage over 4th place in his AG.

Vince had a solid race too, despite destroying his goggles before the start, and then smoothly recovering to finish on top of the podium with the 8th fastest run split.

UBCTC takes 1st and 3rd. Congrats guys!

 2nd in my AG!

Despite competing in a competitive 10 year category age group, both Derrick and Mel had very solid times in the Olympic distance. I’ll need to keep an eagle-eye out for them in Banff, with all the extra practice they have on me over the shorter distances.