Earning the Cake in this One - IM CDA RR

Well...another one is in the books. Coeur D'Alene m-dot course is no-doubt one of the most scenic races I've done. Clear waters to swim and scenic run. This was my 6th iron-distance and probably the toughest to date. It was a fun race and well supported. The community really embraces this event. 

I don't think I could have done it without all my training partners, especially since this race is so early in the season. Tyler, Jamie and I stayed a bit out of the downtown area about 10km outside in Post Falls. We enjoyed the quietness away from the expo. Here's some random highlights.

During drive back in Washington near the Columbia River along the drive from CDA. Some very scenic volcanic rocks. 

Team Cervelo at Post Falls

The Cedar floating restaurant...we had to had to go....right? (that wasn't a question)

Race morning smiles

Post race slurpee + relaxing

The swim was a beach self check-in start within a 20 minute period much like a marathon run start. I started with the 1hr - 1:15 group about 3 minutes after from the first AG start at 6:40am....super early I know! Tyler started near the front and Jamie about 40 seconds back. The plus side I had plenty of space to swim. It was nice not worrying about the ensuring blood bath that was to occur. It was actually enjoyable minus the choppy swells generated by the winds. It turned out that these winds will be met again on the bike.

The swim split was the only PB on this day. Squeaked in a sub 1:15 :)

Legs needed some HTFU but no luck.

The winds were getting stronger as the day went on. There were parts where I was averaging 20km/hr for a 30km stretch. It wasn't pretty to say the least. The 30kph winds made the two climbs felt like one long continuous one. Hindsight is a bit 20/20 but I think more mountains climbing is required to master this course. Nice smooth steady continuous brute force.

After that tough bike leg, the run felt a lot easier in comparison. Shaded and along the lake. There's one stubborn hill that we do 2 times with a front and back side. I didn't push the pace too much because my knee had been hurting all week in the leadup. I saw both Jamie and Tyler on the run course a few times both exchanging leads. It was fun to watch them go strong into the finish as I started my second lap. It was fun running along the neighbourhood. One house had a microphone and someone would say encouragements along with your name. Another house pumped loud music and felt like a dorm house filled with so many people. 

What a relief. What a day of suffering. A face of a lot of hurt.

Overall, it was a great race. A tough course keeps the competition fair and I definitely got my monies worth. Still ranked into the top 10% of the field. Hopefully next time I can come better prepared for the tough hills on the bike. No more early season excuses. :)

 Can you see my age still on the calf? This is just a taste of the horrible tan-lines awesome souvenirs I got from this one day. :/

Poor Knees - Victoria 70.3 RR

It's always fun coming to Victoria for this race. Great race support, friends to go with and visit, and fast course. Thanks again to Theresa for hosting us.

Well this year was no different on the fast time department, however no longer can I make ground on the run. I guess my right knee has been acting up ever since the marathon in Toronto last month. So my strategy coming in was to do the "damage" on the bike and then "cruise" in the run.



There were also some slight changes with the new wave start for the swim instead of the mass start in previous years.

The swim start was a bit comical for my group, the first wave after the pros start. The horn went slightly two or three minutes after the pros start; however there wasn't adequate warning in anticipation for the horn. We kinda looked at each other and probably thought, "seriously was that the start??" The horn sounded a few more times a few seconds after to ensure we heard it I guess and we were told by the announcer to indeed start. Go along now...children. Past the point of no-return...shucks.

Me looking stunned at the clock. There was no freaking chance that my swim was that fast, must had been short by a hundred metres or so. :)

Well the bike was a huge improvement this year. It felt like this.

Here's the times breakdown, but what's more "kewl" (or super nerdy) is the graph that follows comparing the rank to the entire field. You'll notice my swim is craptastic as per usual but in the top 50% striking range for once (hey I'll take it)! But the run and bike are pretty comparable, where as in contrast in previous the run was always stronger than the bike. Poor knees!

Also the run course was slightly upgraded to the legit 21 km distance from 20km in previous years (haha it's a bit cruel to make the extra out and back stretch uphill).

Blue - pre 2014 route, Red - 2014 version

Ted Car, someone I recognized from racing the Subaru series was quickly running me down. We encouraged each other the entire way, luckily he wasn't in my AG...yet. :)

Interesting the ferry back, a bus load of tourists (including me) were taking pics of our bikes. 

A Tale of 6 years - Oliver RR

Flashback to exactly 6 years ago on another June 1^st, I completed my very first half-ironman in Oliver. 

Just re-reading the race report, I said,  "It sure felt like a million bucks finishing in that form. I was ecstatic about my time. 5 hours 46 minutes and 42 seconds. This race was an eye-opener and something I would definitely try improve upon in the future years."

Yep the retro days...proof that it is okay to rock the jammer shorts in the half iron! I know I know, my colours coordination was pretty phenomenal back in those days. :)

Man has a lot have changed since then. I went on to complete 16 more half iron distance events. So it was nice to finally return to Oliver to do this well organized race again in the wine country. 

Fun road trip and great hospitality, we stayed near the beautiful Gallagher Lake 

Overall, I guess despite the differences in the race course and conditions, I noticed a rough 10-20-10 minutes improvement on the swim-bike-run. I think despite my nutrition mishaps on a hot day, it was interesting to compare yourself to an earlier retro-version.

Swim - was a confidence booster, first time hitting the 35 minutes marker.
Bike - felt good as I was more committed on the bike with the benefit of all the trainer rides we did in the winter. It's amazing what steady pedaling can do.
Run - was just death. Of course my nutrition on the bike was a bit lacking, so the run kinda took a hit. I had my garmin on auto-split per km and it was one of those races where you didn't want to see those splits.

Overall, maybe 'feeling like a million bucks' in this race was a far thing from the truth. I finished in 5 hours 3 minutes and 37 seconds. Great lesson in nutrition.

Speaking of which, some wine tasting was in stored.

Trestle Challenge - Shawnigan Lake RR

WTF is a trestle challenge you might kindly inquire? Good question! :)

My interpretation is it’s basically an option to do more running over the Olympic Distance and I figured since I could use more run fitness anyways, might as well, right? Turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking this way…

It seems like almost all the people who wanted more running were up to the same no good logic. This made for a strong running field. I was chased down by runners instead of passing them after T2. It was weird but a fun atmosphere. The guy who was chasing me down yelled out “make me earn it!” meaning to go faster you slow poke! ;) Luckily I was able to hold him off just barely and finishing the last kilometre with a 4 minute per km split. Another detail I should add, of course there was a porta-potty at the final turn-a-round and I would have loved to occupy it at the time, but having a small glimpse of a guy running you down called for moments on relying on your trusty steel bladder, which worked out nicely. 

A little bit of rain kinda dampened the bike portion. It felt fast considering we only had to do two loops, I was still used to the 4-loops half iron course.

The swim also felt fast and was definitely a good first test in the wetsuit for the season.


PS - Job pursuit is still on. Little did I know, I managed to chat with someone interested in hiring marine engineers of all people at the race. It's a small world and nice to do some networking at these chilled races.  

Click here to read the team's UBCTC recap.

GF Toronto Marathon RR

Kids, let me tell you a story on how not to run a marathon.

Drum roll please...and here come's all of Winston's weak excuses from the Toronto Marathon broken into 4 simple steps:

Step 1: Take a red-eye flight a few days before race day.

Step 2: Visit your sister and join her Korean BBQ party until 1am two nights before race day.

Step 3: Under-estimate the net downhill course. Note to self: "net downhill" doesn't mean there won't be any killer rolling hills along the way. The latter half of the course near the waterfront also had strong headwinds.

Step 4: Have blindly optimistic expectations that you will be racing at a much faster pace than your training runs on an familiar course. 

And here's the proper way: :P

 

The nerdy breakdown of the destruction can be found on the race site: click here for RunPix info.

While I was in Toronto, it was nice catching up with a couple of UBCTC friends Matt Reeve and Kyuwon. I still had two weeks to kill while visiting my sister, so I decided to take up the CityPass and checkout some of the other attractions. The marathon was just a tact on...obviously. :) 

Sub Thirty-Nine! Sun Run RR

It wasn't pretty but I got to say it's nice to finally break the sub 39 barrier and new PB. Looking back on it, of course I was aiming for sub 39 and was satisfied with the result despite being only a second or two off from not making it. Yes yes I need to do more track workouts...sigh but at least the running gods and goddesses are fair to me.  :)

What was my strategy this time?

Simply brute force as hard as you can from the start line and then let the stronger runners do the heavy lifting and carry you to the finish (approved by a trusted friend Mike McMillan). Pacing was not important, this wasn't a marathon. And besides my weak excuse was my lungs were the bottleneck point anyways. This was a good test for the Toronto Marathon the week after.

How did it unfold?

It was nice bumping into a good friend, Chris Yee. He asked me at the start line what was my goal, and I blurred out sub 39 even though this was really a B-race for me. Chris has improved his fitness greatly and I was happy to keep up for the first few km (he's behind the Ryan Kesler look-alike in the picture below).

At around km 5 just before the Burrard bridge crossing before the elevation gain, I was breathing heavily and I started slowing down.

It was a small pack to run with because the main pack of "heavy lifters" were already gone and started 6 minutes earlier gun time (see same picture below).

In the remainder kilometres I was yo-yoing so to speak with a few runners. I was on pace for sub 38 minutes but saw that bank time evaporating quickly. It was a very positively heavy split (hey I warned it wasn't pretty already).

At the Cambie bridge crossing, I thought I had this guy (in green top in same picture below, last reference I promised) at 9km as I passed him. But I was wrong, he opened a few seconds gap to bring it home. I was happy he beat me because he truly earned it. I apologize in advance for the graphic imagery but will share anyways...I wanted to express my gratitude to this stranger for a great race but had to awkwardly walked away because his "breakfast was also all over the road", so to speak. I'm a terrible person.

A great find from a couple friends, courtesy of the Vancouver Sun website. 

 Another nerdy chart for your viewing pleasure...:).

Keeping Positive + Quick UBC Tri/Du RR

You might think that all I do lately is mope around and feel sorry about myself. Not true friends, I also make massage appointments and do yoga and have to put up with crappy soap operas on TV. Joking aside (although the last sentence may or may not be completely true), I’m definitely staying positive about it and not going let the job layoff bother me. Now that I begin to think more clearly, I’m stronger than that. Fact is these things unfortunately happen a bit too common in my industry and it can definitely hit the best of us, even when we least expect it.

Something I hear constantly from people when I tell them I was let go from my previous company not based on performance is: “You may have some pretty awesome opportunities ahead. Keep your chin up.” My network is amazing and is not going leave me on the side of the road it seems. I’m currently pursuing a couple great opportunities with the help of some friends and words of mouth. Even if these opportunities don’t pan out in the near future, I remain hopeful that more will eventually surface. I am very humbled to be surrounded by a network of really bright and great people, whether it is work/school-related, triathlon, and family. I am really enjoying my time off to reconnect with people and just chat and catch up on a personal basis. So thank you!

My sister is studying her masters in an Occupational Therapy program and although this really didn’t click to me at the time she started her program, but I can see a need for someone to go see an OT. She doesn’t believe that I have any major mental-illness or other barriers and need to go see an OT anytime soon but we’ll see. :)

As for triathlon related news, the good old UBC Tri was a great early test last month. Although only a “B” race, I was happy to see the results on the bike pan through from the 17 or so trainer spins already this year. A huge PB for me. It mostly came from the bike ~ 6 minute faster and a bit from the run ~ 1 minute faster). I never got rid of the "brickiness" feeling in the legs until this year. It should be an exciting season with positive results on the bike-run. Now I just need to do the actual training and increase my run fitness. No more "working-man" excuses. :)

PS - here's a nerdy breakdown over the years of doing this event. Without going too much in depth, I seem to have a bad year after every good year and vice versa. :)