2010 Year End Review

Reflecting on a Year of WIN!

So here is my year end review. This is a good opportunity for those just showing up to the party to get a sense of where I am coming from now that I'm headed to Ironman Lake Placid.

So this blog started halfway through the year, which coincides with a successful registration to Ironman Lake Placid. Obviously some of these events didn't make it to the blog at the time.

2010 OVERVIEW:

I got registered for Ironman Muskoka 70.3 in late 2009. Having NEVER done a triathlon before, nor even seeing one in real life, this was all alien to me. I searched and studied all the material I could get my hands on and I had a plan. I spent the begining part of the year with good intentions, on my bike trainer and barely making 5km runs. I came out of the gates too hard, I quickly found myself layed up with an IT Band injury. It took forever for the injury to heal and by the time it felt better it was spring and I was on the bike enjoying the outdoors. I was so fixated with riding that this whole 'running thing' was getting in the way of cycling. Thus I did no running.

Paris to Ancaster MTB 60Km, April 18th, 2010

I Then Got Distracted from My Training...

Here in the spring I was enjoying the traditional kickoff to cycling season. It was cold and wet and in honest truth, miserable. This is a tradition to do this event, however in 2011 I will face reality and scratch this less than stellar event from my list. By this time I had already given up on running, not because it was hard - but because it would be easy. Right? My plan was simple: Ride hard on the bike, transfer the built-up cardio to running. Suck it up on the rest.

Milton Sprint Triathlon, June 6, 2010

So here is where that not-so-genious plan reveals itself. I did just bareley enough swimming to survive the swim. The bike was 'ok' albeit the fact I froze my ass off. I don't cope well with cold and who in their right fricken mind wears a skimpy tri-outfit into freezing water and hits a windy bike immediately after? That was a shock to the system. Oh the run? Yeh, I think I ran less than 10% of it. My back seized up from the cold and running was 1000 times harder than it looked. I enjoyed the experience nonetheless, I seen this as an awesome challenge. Why suck at 1 sport when I could suck at 3 at the same time? I was hooked!

Ride to Conquer Cancer 200Miles June 12-13, 2010

The biggest shocker to this event was the other people doing it. 100 Miles back to back. I thought I was cool being able to comfortably finish a Century on my own but here at this event they had little old ladies on hybrid bikes knocking off the 200Mile route. Damn, I was blown away by the human spirit. A century is not just reserved for the elite. It really wasn't all the tough. Nonetheless, an awesome event and I spent the latter of the 2nd day taking lead for some buddies which made it a blast. I would do it all over again if it wasn't for the difficulty of raising such a large sum of money to get entry. It was more stressful than I would have liked. I will pass on this one in 2011 in favour of TBN TNT 200 Mile ride.

24hrs Solstisce MTB, June 26-27, 2010

By now, I forgot about that running thing. Back to mountain biking some more and the odd swim. This event was simply a fun one, namely we had the awesomest team EVAR - we had 2 hand-cyclists!! These guys were superstars, they were the first parapalegic mountain bike hand cyclists to take on the 24hr mountain bike race. Amazing. The fun around the campsite made it all worth while, the cycling was nothing to write home about. I think the previous year's mudfest sucked the fun out of 24hrs racing. The repeated wet events have taken there toll.

Peterborough Sprint Triathlon, July 4, 2010
Ahhh yes. Have you ever raced intoxicated? In 35 Celsius and blazing sun? Well this is the event for you. A weekend at Brian's cottage is a guaranteed 10 pounds gained, Loosen your belt a good 5 notches and you get to experience a week long hangover. It was THAT good.

As far as the race goes, I don't remember much. I know that we would have blown well over the limit at the start line. I remember the heat beating on my face as it reflected off the pavement. I remember I stopped sweating early in the run. I was beyond dehydrated and overheating. The run was the toughest run in my life, I would do IM Muskoka's run before I did this short little 8.5km Drunk Oven 'sprint'.

So again, my run appeared weak. I was itchin' to get another race in since this was not a fair assesment of my running progress. The conditions were less than legal stellar. The weekend at the cottage was epic though, one of those ones you pay for remember forever.

---------August 2010 Blog Starts Here, ALSO read the Race Reports for more detail--------

Element Offroad MTB Triathlon, August 22, 2010 RACE REPORT
Rainy, foggy, muddy, cold and it's an offroad triathlon - the first in Ontario in like 12 years or something like that. Yeh baby! This was pure awesome. Read the race report for details. My run came together on this one, I really look forward to doing this again. I managed to run the whole thing, albeit extremely slow, but the key was that my legs shuffled in a running-like fashion which was a big improvement to date. I think about it all the time. I just wish there were more of these events around.

24hrs Hot August Nights MTB, August 28-29, 2010 RACE REPORT

The team bailed last minute for a variety of good reasons. This left an opportunity to have my kids to a lap at the race. Again, this was all about fun. I barely got 1 lap in as this was more of a camping trip than anything. I forsee not signing up for 24hr races in the future. People are tired of the bad weather.





Ironman Muskoka 70.3, September 12, 2010 RACE REPORT

Longest, toughest race of my life. I survived, nothing more, nothing less. My biggest take away from this event - I don't cope well with the cold. It was so cold it was unbareable. To my surprise, the best part was the running. I dreaded the run, expected to walk the whole thing but it was the 'warmest' part of the race. I started to feel my limbs again and it felt good. I pushed to hold pace with an experience runner and I RAN THE WHOLE DARN THING! A sad pace, but nonetheless I didn't walk it! That was a huge sense of accomplishment for me, especially after doing so miserable on the bike. I was borderline hypothermic on the bike. The other big take away from this event - I got my ass handed to me. I was really hoping to beat Rodney but I wasn't even in the same zip code as him by the time he finished. Simply put - he put the training time in, I didn't. I did not give the run the respect it deserved and I rely'd too much on my natural athletic ability. He did awesome, I look forward to crushing him in Lake Placid. I never lose, thus this bitter sweet defeat will fuel me for the training days to come. We all finished, Brian included, which is the biggest WIN of us all - the guy drank more alcohol and bad foods than Rodney and I combined. He had a respectable finish, and managed an unbalanced lifestyle. I'm jealous as we all got the same shirt and medal in the end. He just had a ton more fun along the way lol!

Rides of Note: 200 Mile Road Ride

So in August 2009 I completed a 200 Mile road ride, all in the same day. I figured I would try to make this an annual event but bump up the date to July-ish because I ran out of daylight the first time. This ride stared out great, but chosing a day where it was 40 Celsius was not a very good decision. I love the heat, but by about the 100 Mile mark I was beginning to fade. I never stopped sweating, I concentrated on staying hydrated but I felt a sickening wrenching in my stomach everytime a heat wave blew up onto me from the scorching ashphalt. Eventually, around the 259km-ish mark I turned into a wicked headwind along the lake. If I was only going to be out for another couple hours, I would have kept going. But the wind had me down to a crawl and I'll be damned if I'm out in that heat for yet another 5 hours. I threw in the towel. Wrestled the Fail-Demons for a short time but then regretted not quitting sooner. For after that ride, I coward away from heat which threw a wrench in my training/riding. Even the slightest days that were hot made me want to vomit stepping into the heat. I plan to do this again next year, except on a cooler day.

Vacations of Note: Gravenhurst Porcupine Ridge, Buckwallow, Torrance Barrens MTB Extravaganza
RIDE REPORT PORC  RIDE REPORT BUCK-TORRANCE  

Greatest mountain bike trip EVAR! And I got to spend it with my wife!! I look forward to do this as many times as I possibly can next year. These are the most fun technical trails I have ever been on!

2010 Wrap-Up

So to wrap up the year, I spent a couple months after IM Muskoka 70.3 doing absolutley nothing. Not even cycling, especially cycling since I had such a miserable time freezing on the bike I didn't even want to think about riding. I can honestly say I was fully recovered both physically and mentally by November and started peicing together the training plan and base maintenance for Ironman Lake Placid. Here I am 9 weeks into the maintenance plan and I'm in way better shape than when I started Muskoka. The difference here is that I am actually training serious, which includes a ton of running.



IMLP Training - BRING IT!!





LESSONS LEARNED

Rezpekt teh Rawn! -  It is harder than it looks, do it often, you can't cheat it.

Spring is Dangerous - The nice weather will call me out to play on the Mountain bike. Stick the the plan, dont stop your running & swimming or it will hurt later.

Event Overload - reduce the number of events. I had no time for relaxation, I was overwhelmed.

Losing Sucks Ass - Lick my wounds, Savour the taste of bitter defeat, Come back with a Vengence

Slipped these numbers in after the fact to just have something to look back on. I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't properly train for the Ironman Muskoka 70.3. Although, this does not include the beginning of my training program which started a little over a year ago. The Cycling is 90% mountain bike by the way.

2010 Training Totals:

Swim: 26.5hrs   77Km
Bike:  258hrs   4355Km (I do not count Km's on a trainer, only hrs)
Run: 44hrs    432Km
Total: 342 hrs (Includes category 'other')