A Big Thanks

Just a few days away now from Ironman Canada. I arrived in Penticton yesterday evening and did a "quick" 2 km swim this morning in about 40 minutes, followed by a 40km bike ride. Its funny how your perceptions of short and long seem to change when you're doing an Ironman.

Anyways, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a few thanks to some huge supporters of mine over the past few months.

First and foremost, the team from Lululemon on 4th Street in Calgary has been incredibly generous to me and has been a great team to have on side. I became a Lululemon Ambassador this summer and its been an incredible experience thus far and I look forward to the next year of being a part of the Lululemon family. And a special thanks goes to Andrea, the rockstar who was the first to introduce me to the Lulu team!

Next is the Tri It Multisport crew. I've got to know and work with the Tri It team on a couple of projects through redlime marketing and I've had an awesome time. On top of that, the experience and knowledge of the sport that they've shared with me and all of their other customers has been top notch. I'm happy to call them my friends on a personal and professional level and would recommend anyone in Calgary visit them for anything and everything triathlon related.

My coach Todd Malcolm of No Limits Triathlon has been a great coach and mentor in triathlon for me. His knowledge of the sport, technical aptitude, generosity, and exceptional athleticism make him a great guy to have in your corner going into a triathlon of any distance.

Now of course my friends and family. You've all been incredibly supportive and patient with me over the past couple of months. Triathlon is an incredibly demanding sport, not only of one's self, but also of the relationships you have with others. I'm so greatful to have you all as my base of support and hope to do you all proud on August 28th. And for those of you out here in Penticton, after I finish the race, first round is on me!

Last but certainly not least, my wonderful and beautiful fiancee (as of last Friday), Shirley Blundell. Thank you so much for being my support crew, my biggest fan, my inspiration, and my best friend. I can't wait to give you a great big hug the moment I cross the finish line and I'm so happy to be with you.

A round up of some good IMC discussions

Internet forums are a great tool to communicate and learn from other individuals and athletes. Generally as a big race approaches, old discussions will be rehashed and new ones will come up about the best strategies and tactics for the big day.

Below is a roundup of some good discussions I've come across on slowtwitch with loads more information than I'd be able to summarize here. Happy Friday everyone!

For those of you heading to Penticton <-- Strongly recommend reading this one!

Advice for IMC - My First Ironman

IM Canada Bike Course

Cheers,

Raf

Ironman Canada Bike Course

So its not long until Ironman Canada now. I've just finished my last big weekend and it was a good learning experience. I rode the bike course a couple of days ago and found one thing I wasn't quite prepared for was the heat and really started to fade in the second half of the bike course.

For anyone who is doing Ironman Canada and won't have the luxury of riding the bike course before hand, I've come up with a few quick pointers based on my experience and the advice of others.

• If at any time during the ride you feel like you are going hard, you're going too hard
• Be sure to hydrate, I usually take in about 750ml of fluid per hour and I stuck to that plan this weekend. It wasn't enough, both times I reached my girlfriend Shirley who was supporting my ride I found myself chugging almost a litre of water even though I didn't feel thirsty. Remember, by the time you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated
• The ride down to Osoyoos is fast and a slight downhill, if you find yourself cruising along at 40kph and your HR is relatively low, consider taking advantage of that time to hydrate and relax. The work starts at Richter, and you can start to build there
• Take your time up Richter, its not as bad as people make it out to be if you have a plan. Be mentally strong here and be very patient. I'm a strong climber/cyclist but I made a point of sticking to my 200watt target race power even up Richter. For me this meant I was climbing at about 9-10kph. For my friend Keith, an average cyclist/triathlete who was trying to stick to 160 watts, this meant climbing at 6-7kph. If you're making the ascent any faster than either of these two respective ranges, you're going too hard
• Learn to descend comfortably, it may be a little late for this less than 3 weeks out, but a couple rides with some long descents will do good to prepare you for the IMC course. Even if you just do the climbs and descents of the IMC course in the weeks before the race, you could save a couple minutes on the ride
• On the rollers after Richter you may be tempted to try and take the momentum from the last descent and power over the crest of the hill to the next descent. Don't, these rollers are a little too long and too many to do this without burning up your legs
• Not long after the out and back, which is where you get your special needs, you'll approach the Seven Sisters. They start so gradually you may not even notice you're starting to climb. Here and all over the course you should always be mindful of your power/HR/perceived exertion. There are a lot of false flats and a lot of sections where the terrain will deceive you into thinking you aren't climbing when you actually are. Remember, if at any time you feel like you're going a little hard, you're going way too hard
• Save your energy for the run. At the end of the day, incremental power on the bike isn't as valuable as incremental power on the run simply because you're trying to overcome far more wind resistance riding at 35kph, than running at 10kph. Going 5% harder for 6 hours on the bike might mean you get off 10 minutes sooner, but end up shuffling for an extra hour on the run. Its not worth it, people rarely say "I wish I'd gone out harder on the bike", but often say "I had a great ride, but things fell apart on the run", its all legs, its all related, and on a course like IMC, your patience on the bike will be rewarded on the run.

Anyways, I'm assuming everyone racing IMC who reads this is now probably into their taper. So stay safe, and take it easy, we're into the home stretch here friends!

Tips for Ironman Calgary 70.3

I raced Calgary 70.3 last year but never wrote up a race report on it, so I thought I'd write up some tips for anyone racing it this weekend. And for anyone not racing, they're definitely still looking for volunteers.

Pre-Race

• Make sure you check out the IM expo at the Westin, lots of cool stuff, lots of volunteers, and a cool place to visit overall. Plus I'll be volunteering at the info desk on Friday from 10am-2pm
• You'll be racking your bike at transition the day before, probably early in the morning, make sure you're tires are below pressure since its going to warm up through the day and you don't need two flats at 5:00am the next morning when you're getting ready to start
• Run through you transitions several times when you pack your transition bags since it is a point to point

Swim/T1

• The water is cold so to be prepared for that, take a pre-race swim right after the wave before you starts
• Its a 6-7am start depending on the wave you're in meaning the air temperature will be a little cool, probably around 10C ish. But don't be tempted to overdress, it should warm up.
• Sight Sight Sight, the buoys are a little far apart here and you swim under a bridge so make sure you've got a good race line when you're in the water
• T1 has quite a bit of gravel since its not a paved lot, so be prepared for that. I wouldn't go as far as bringing sandals or anything since they lay carpet down, but you might want to think about it if your feet are fragile.
• Take advantage of the wetsuit strippers, get your wetsuit down to your waist once you're out of the water and the strippers will be waiting for you at the top of the ramp. Once you get to them, just lie down and let them do the rest.

Bike

• Like I mentioned, its going to be pretty cool that early in the morning, but for most people its arm warmer cool at worst. Last year was cold and cloudy with a high of only about 18C and most people were good with the standard tri tank and shorts
• Depending on your fluid intake and sweat rate, you might be able to get away with just two bottles for the entire course, more likely 3. But it won't be hot when you're riding in the AM, so don't worry about a 3 hour 26C degree ride in the blazing hot sun.
• Pace yourself, follow your race plan, and pay close attention to RPE and HR (power if you have it). There are a lot of rollers early on in the ride that can shut you down by the halfway if you aren't paying attention to your effort.
• Once you turn back south towards Cochrane (maybe halfway through the ride) there are going to be some long descents, take that time to drink and rest and descend carefully. Last year there was a crash here and a guy needed to be taken off in an ambulance. This is also where I lost my Oakleys at 70kph... so if you see them... uh nevermind.
• Coming out of Cochrane is the one real climb on the course (probably a Cat 4 or 5 climb in TdF terms), so just relax, sit up and spin up it.
• After the long climb is a long false flat. Again, pay attention to your HR or power not your speed.
• Remember the bike course is a couple km's longer than the standard 90km, so don't sweat it if you're a few minutes off your usual pace. The prevailing winds are generally out of the west though, and the net elevation change is descending, so that might be enough to make up the time difference.
• T2 is in a grassy field, and your transition bag should be at your rack.

Run

• The run course is absolutely beautiful, so for the first couple minutes use the scenery and the crowds to calm yourself down for the half mary ahead of you.
• You're going to run a few km east, then you loop back past the finish line before you run down into the Weaselhead Valley, the crowds should give you a nice boost.
• Its a steep run into the valley, and once you're down in there its flat and you'll have some good coverage from the trees to keep the heat from being a huge issue.
• Once you get to the other side of the valley you'll have to climb a steep hill, so be prepared for that, there should be an aid station at the top if I recall correctly.
• Once out of the valley you have a few km's before the turnaround. On the way out you'll think you were setting a great pace, on the way back you'll realize it was another false flat.
• Once you're back in the valley after the turnaround you've got about 7km's to go including the climb back out of the valley which is going to hurt but won't last too long.
• After the climb you'll pass by the finish once more before you actually get to the finish. Pay close attention to your pace, and get ready to dig deep. You're almost home.
• Smile for the camera as you cross the finish line! And don't step on the finish tape like I did! The timing mat is *before* the finish arch, so you can stop and make yourself look pretty before you get to the line.

Thats all and good luck this weekend! If you're from out of town and have any questions feel free to email me or ask away! And like I said, I'll be volunteering at the info desk Friday from 10am-2pm if you'd like to stop by and say hey!

Just a few quick updates

So I've gone about 2 or 3 weeks without a blog post! Super bad of me, I know.

Training for Ironman Canada has been coming along fairly well, as some of you know I don't really have a whole lot of races on the schedule as I'm been pretty focused on IMC. My swim has been consistent and my biking has been fairly strong. Been spending lots of time in the mountains and in the foothills with routes that have at least a few categorized climbs.

Running on the other hand has been tough. I've been having some IT band issues, so I took a whopping two weeks off running. Went out today though and the legs felt good, albeit a little tired from a 184km bike ride yesterday (in 5:30!).

Anyways, the most exciting news of late though is that I will be racing in the ITU Long Course Age Group World Championships in Vitoria-Gasteiz Spain next year! The Chinook Half IM was a qualifier for it and if you read my lengthy race report you'll know I faired quite well. Most of my family is from Spain so I'm hoping they can come out and watch it while I represent Canada on the world stage!

I'll have another blog post up later this week. Stay tuned!