Getting Ready for Ironman Canada- Part I

With Ironman Canada just a few weeks away I a lot of you are starting to wind down your training and enter the taper period.  If this is your first Ironman, this will probably be the time for an anxious sort of calm.  After months of long rides, recovery runs, technique swims, more long rides, and maybe even a rest day somewhere in there, you're finally in the home stretch.

Here in Part I of my Ironman Canada Prep series of blogs I'll give you a few things to do and to keep in mind over the next few weeks as you get into your taper.

Tranquilo

Tranquilo is the Spanish word for calm, or relax.  If you listen in on the peleton in a pro tour you might hear it between teammates or from a coach when its time to ease the tempo a little bit and save your energy for later.  That's probably the best word to describe what you should be doing between now and August 26.  Right about now you've done about all the work you can do before Ironman so now its time to grip the bars a little looser and change your focus from physical preparation to mental preparation.

In the days leading up to the race you're invariably going to start building up the nervous energy and anxiety that hopefully gives you an edge on the big day.  The problem is that in those final days leading up to the race you get so caught up in the complicated logistics of triathlon that you may not have time to focus in on what you need to do on the day of.

The best way to prepare for a day as big as Ironman is to have done the race a hundred times in your head, and now is the time to start doing that.  Imagine yourself moving calmly and smoothly through transition oblivious to the panic of the hundreds of athletes around you, or climbing Richter with the steady cool professionalism of a mountain climber scaling a vertical wall, or hitting kilometer thirty of the run knowing that your heart and mind is going to have to get you across the line when your legs say they can't.  Last but not least visualize the feeling of crossing the finish line as the sun slowly approaches the horizon in Penticton and thousands of people reel you in with their cheers.

Play though every moment of the race in your mind, even moments that you hope to avoid like getting a flat tire.  Changing a tire is a routine, boring sort of affair that we've all done many times before, if you get one on race day its just a few minutes out of a day that'll last over 12 hours for the vast majority of finishers.  Play through every good and bad scenario in your head and you'll have the confidence necessary to execute a perfect race on the day of.

Say Thanks

You've been preparing for this day for months.  You've sacrificed time from your family, your friends, and yourself.  Now that you've got more time on your hands and the tempo of your workouts is easing up a little bit, show your thanks to your support team by inviting them out for a coffee, or maybe even a recovery bike ride or short run.  Tell them what has given you the drive to come so far towards reaching this goal.  Share your fears and hopes with them and bring them into the sport that you've given so much to, and hopefully will soon give you something in return.

Its also important to look at how far you've come and be thankful and grateful for what you've done.  In less than three weeks you'll be racing through the course and you'll no doubt have some tough moments.  On the Ironman marathon, in the baking heat of Southern BC, and after covering 183.8km on the swim and bike, you're going to hit some very tough moments.  Every step you take on the run becomes a decision to keep moving forward and you'll need a special level of grit to have the will to push the pace a little and give it your everything.  You have to be thankful and grateful to the you that got you there on those long training rides, the you that was in the pool at 5:00am before work, the you finished your workouts exhausted and empty when you knew the only satisfaction would be months away.  When you're thankful to that person, you'll realize owe it to yourself to grit your teeth and push a little harder and dig a little deeper to get across that line to hear that you are an Ironman.

Give a little

You may not realize it, but if you've come this far, you've become a source of inspiration to those around you.  I know that sounds a little far from modest, but its true.  People look at the sacrifices and long days that athletes give with a little bit of wonder and that's why its important that you recognize that you now have an opportunity to share what you've done with others.  When you tell someone about what you're training for and they say "I could never do that", tell them that they can.  By sharing you love of sport and encouraging others to push themselves and step a little beyond their comfort zone, you can give so much more than you could possible imagine.

With that I'll leave you with some words that inspired me before my first Ironman.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Marianne Williamson

On a personal note, its been a whirlwind few weeks for me and in less than three weeks I've found myself waking up in four different time zones,  in five different cities, and through seven different airports.  Going from a weekend of rest and relaxation in BC, to London and Spain for the Olympics and triathlon world champs, to a long weekend of partying in Las Vegas has certainly left my head spinning but has made it a summer to remember, and I've still got so much more to do!

Thank you everyone for all the well wishes in Spain!

Venga! Venga! Venga!

Racing at the ITU Long Course World Championships last weekend in Vitoria Gasteiz was one of the most amazing experiences of my triathlon career.  For many triathletes the ITU Long Course Worlds are probably seen as a consolation race for the real triathlon dream of Kona, but I have to say, racing for your country offers a little something special that you're not going to find elsewhere.  Travelling through London to Europe during the Olympics probably added a little something extra, but it was a truly amazing experience I'd encourage others to pursue.

So here's my race report.  Its going to be long, so maybe grab a coffee before you sit down.

Pre-Race

Arriving at the airport I actually wore my Team Canada jacket, which I knew would draw some curious stares and smiles with my giant bike box (I packed my bike in a BikeND case that was kindly lent to me by Rose Serpico of Tri It Multisport).  Checking in for a flight to London, in Team Canada kit, with uniquely large luggage, two days before the start of the Olympics somehow gives people the impression that you're an Olympian. Go figure!

But the flight over to Spain was good, we stopped in London for a few hours to take in the pre-Olympic atmosphere, and then went on to Bilbao and our final destination Vitoria Gasteiz.

We didn't arrive at the hotel until late at night but I still managed to find the energy to put my bike together late that night.  Sadly though I was so bagged that I slept right through the team ride out to the lake for the swim course familiarization.

All of team Canada stayed together in a team hotel, which was pretty cool.  One thing that you miss a little bit in triathlon is the comraderie of actually being on a team.  But seeing all the other Canadians there provided a welcoming and warm feeling.

The Friday before the race we went down and had our own opening ceremonies in the city's main plaza.  We saw plenty of other athletes from the 34 other countries represented at the long course worlds.  Much of the field was from a few well represented nations, including; Spain, USA, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Denmark, and a few others.  After the opening ceremonies we went back to the hotel and watched our fellow countryman and fellow triathlete Simon Whitfield carry the Canadian flag into the Olympics.

The Saturday was race check in, a day when time is divided between the complicated logistics of a point to point race, and the urgency of doing as little as possible.  So when you aren't standing in line with your bicycle or having numbers drawn on you, you're sitting and eating.

That night I definitely had trouble getting to sleep, a combination of nerves and jet lag kept me up until about 1:00am.  It reminded me of last year when I met Ironman Canada's founder Ron Zalko, who told me you never sleep the night before the big race, this was really the first time I had really dealt with the phenomena.

Race Day

We took a shuttle from the hotel at 6:50am.  It was a cool morning with the faintest traces of precipitation in the air mixing with the quiet collective tension of athletes mentally calibrating themselves for the day ahead.

We arrived at T1 half an hour later and hundreds of athletes from around the world seemed to all become a familiar mosaic of talent and athletic professionalism.  Athletes from each of the 34 countries seemed to settle into the same routines that you'd see at your local community triathlon.  You could certainly sense that everyone here meant business, and as an athlete it was a pretty special feeling to be counted among the global talent.

As I readied my swim gear I noticed my swim cap colour was different than those around me.  Rather than red I had an orange swim cap.  I notified one of the officials about this and after about twenty minutes they assured me it would be fine.  Of course when I went to the start area this wasn't the case and I was prohibited from entering the beach.  After a few minutes of arguing with the clock ticking down to the start, they realized that they were in error and rushed me to the beach.  As I put the swim cap on and ran to shore, the horn went off and my wave started.  I was already playing catch up and the race had barely begun.

The Swim

I'm not a great swimmer.  In fact I'm a pretty mediocre swimmer, and in contrast to that field I was actually a pretty bad swimmer.  In the rush to shore I hadn't set my goggles properly so when I put my face in the water they instantly filled up with water.  In frustration I stood up to empty them out only to watch about 60 guys in my age group put more distance on me.


I tried to mentally reset myself but I'd become a bit frustrated.  The buoys were blue and probably about 500m apart which made sighting very difficult.  I felt a bit spoiled by the bright orange buoys every 300m we get at races like Ironman Canada.  The mental game was just getting the best of me.

I eventually reached the first buoy at 1500m out and looked at my watch to see how bad the damage was.  I was at little over 30minutes which was actually pretty good for me.  That definitely helped ease my tension.  I carried on the swim and gradually wave after wave would catch me until I was simply swimming with all the other back of the pack swimmers that in any other race would be just average.

Sighting was a major issue through the race.  Every once in a while you'd notice the field actually swimming an arc to the next buoy since they'd sight for something that wasn't quite lined up with the buoy.  This definitely added distance and my suspicion that the swim course was a bit long was confirmed a couple days ago on slowtwitch when some other people said the course was over the stated for 4km.

In the end I swam what seemed to be a dismal 1hr40min swim.  A full 13 minutes longer than what I swam at Ironman Canada last year which was only 200m shorter.  But upon further examination I actually swam about 4600m putting me at a swim pace of 2:08/100m.  Not half bad, but still the combination of bad sighting and a long course made my swim the length of a feature film.


The Bike

The bike is my specialty.  I pride myself on being the stronger cyclist in most races but on this day I knew that in a field that had earned their way to be here the same way I did, I'd probably simply be on par with the rest of the field.  But I hit the course knowing that there's no way the bike could be as mediocre as the swim. About 45 minutes later I was really questioning that belief.

Things were going fairly smoothly until I realized I actually had my race number on backwards.  I figured I'd keep riding like this until someone told me to pull over.  For about half an hour I made my way up the field until one of the course refs on a motor bike told me to pull over and turn the number around.  I complied and watch about a dozen riders I'd passed make their way by.

I kept rolling along and about half an hour after that I rode over a piece of tape with a rock attached.  I affixed itself to my rear wheel and despite my best efforts to get rid of it with my hand, then my foot in a dangerous cycling maneuver I had to pull over again and remove it.  In total the number and the tape probably only cost me a minute, but the frustration simply mounted.

Soon after though I was able to hit the reset button.  I enjoyed the rolling foothills of northern Spain which weren't unlike the foothills of Southern Alberta.  The Pyrenees are fairly close to the area of the bike course so while the ride wasn't through the mountains, it was never really flat.

As you'd roll through each town there would be many spectators and fans cheering you along making you feel like a rider in Spain's prized grand tour, the Vuelta de España.  Having people cheer you on in a foreign country on as "Canadiense" was pretty special.

I knew going into the race that I probably wouldn't have the same legs I have back home.  I'd arrived in Spain only three nights, two days, before the race.  A long flight, lots of walking, coupled with the jet lag were sure to have an effect on my performance.  Knowing this I paced myself by heart rate and perceived exhertion (RPE) rather than power or watts.  In a 120km bike ride followed by a 30km run I knew that going out too hard would cost me later so I definitely backed off a bit more than I maybe would have had I been on home turf.  I simply listened carefully to my body and replenished my calories with a steady stream of gels and fluids (less one bottle of gatorade that I dropped while trying to refill my aero drink at about 95km).

After 120km we entered Vitoria-Gasteiz to the thunderous cheers of thousands of spectators and dozens of police officers and traffic controllers keeping an open road for us.  People held up in traffic because of the road closures we'd caused were cheering out their window pushing us along to the city centre.  The energy that had depleted over the past three and a half hours was starting to come back up and seeing all those people on the streets I knew I was in for something special on the run.



The Run

Hitting the run I had the freshest legs I'd ever had getting off of the bike.  That was a welcome feeling considering how carefully managed my bike ride had been.  Maybe it was the steady pacing, or maybe it was the thousands of people yelling "Lopez, Canadiense!" but I felt strong and ready to run my 30km and cross the line proudly representing my country.  I could sense that some Spaniards were puzzled by my Spanish name and Canadian jersey which I think got me some extra cheers along the way.

I can't express in words how much energy the crows were creating on that 7.5km loop.  If you've ever watched the Tour de France and seen the electric and unbridled enthusiasm of the crowds as the stage nears the top of a mountain peak reaching into sky you'd have some sense of the amazing ability for Europeans to transfer their energy to an athlete.  Children would be looking for high fives, strangers would be yelling your name, volunteers would be taking care of you.  Every step you took you'd hear Spaniards yelling "VENGA! VENGA! VENGA!" meaning "Come on! Come on! Come on!" This was mixed with the occasional yell "¡Animo!", which while it sounds like "Animal" which might loosely apply as a cheer, it actually means something along the lines of "Head up!", "Cheer up", or "Have heart".

Only on the backside of the run course would you have a quiet moment to yourself to dig a little deeper and push a little harder on your own and maybe reflect on how far you'd come.

Each time I'd get through the backside and near the start/finish area I'd be warmly greeted by my wonderful fiancee Shirley who had a different sign each loop to welcome me back to the crowds.  At Ironman Canada last year when I hit a rough mental patch on the run I wanted nothing but to shut everyone out.  Today I just wanted to reflect back all the positive energy I was receiving, and seeing her there definitely helped.

I kept a steady pace and only walked the aid stations, which was exactly my plan.  With them spaced about 3 or 4km apart I knew I could take measured breaks at them and still put down a good pace.  Having a bit of a chip on my shoulder from my last race, Chinook Half Ironman, where I blew up on the run, I knew it would take a bit more confidence and belief in my ability to stay in a strong mental space.

I'm not sure what other athletes think about in the final laps of a race.  Sometimes I think about my pace and a bunch of other technical physiological details, sometimes I think about my friends and family and the people who help me along the way.  Today I thought about my family, all the well wishes I was sent on Facebook and Twitter, the card from my awesome friends and the team at Lululemon, all the  triathletes at Tri It Multisport and No Limits, my buddies Jon, Dave, and Shayne all racing Calgary 70.3 on the other side of the globe at that moment, of course my sister who has provided me with so much support and positive energy and who I sadly didn't have time to visit while I was in Spain, and last but not least my amazing fiancee Shirley who has been my biggest fan and a pillar of strength for me and who has inspired me so many times to pursue sport with passion and dedication.

I finished the run in 2hr40min.  Keeping a pace of roughly 5:20/km for 30km.  A result I can be proud of and that got me across the line at around the 8hr mark.  I believe you can always be faster and stronger, and this race was no exception.  Its been a busy year and I've kept things balanced and while I've been focused on training, I know that there's still plenty of untapped potential for me to go after next year.  But on that day I know I gave it my all and executed a good race.



Done for the Season

It was an honour to represent Canada and race with the maple leaf on my uniform.  I'm now looking forward to cheering on our athletes in London and taking a couple months off from training.  I may do some run races in the fall, and you'll be able to catch me on the highways enjoying my road bike, and on the tennis court rediscovering a sport I've been looking forward to playing all season.  I'll keep the blog posts coming, and with IMC around the corner I'll post some pointers on that in the coming weeks.

Chinook Half Ironman... Can't win 'em all

Its been a little over a week now since the Chinook Half.  A few of you close to me will know that it wasn't really my day and I wasn't too happy with my result.  I've had some time to think about it now and have broken down a few of the things that went wrong.  I figure its good to share a few of these items so none of you make the same mistakes as me.

• First and foremost, I wasn't race ready for the water.  Chinook was my first open water swim of the season, and the first time I'd put my wetsuit on since IMC last year.  My swim split was still okay, especially by my marginal standards, but not great. 
• Secondly, I wasn't race ready for the bike.  Its not that my bike fitness was lacking, on the contrary, over the past few months I've been quite strong on the bike, and I was at Chinook as well.  But I hadn't been taking a whole lot of calories in training on the bike so between that and last year when I took to many calories too late in the bike, I ended up taking on too few calories on the bike leg at Chinook.  I wasn't taking on as many calories as I needed, and of the calories I was taking in, it wasn't digesting.  The first sign that something was amiss was when I had a bit of a headache late on the ride... Some foreshadowing here.
• In contrast to the first two, I was actually very well prepared for the run.  I'd been having some knee issues the week before the race, but it was all cleared up before the race.  When I got off the bike I was comfortably running between 4:30/km and 4:45/km.  But after the first run lap, the sun came out and as it started to warm up, my nutritional issues on the bike started to haunt me and I began to shut off.  I knew I was cooked when near the end of the first lap I was feeling chilly and light headed.  My options at that point were to manage whatever energy I had left and walk-run the remainder, keep pushing knowing that I could bonk hard, or DNF.  I chose the first of those options and managed to run a 2:01 half marathon, the slowest I've ever finished a run of that distance.

In the end my finish time was about 15 minutes slower than last year, and about 30 minutes off my target, and the entirety of that 30 minutes came in the last 10km of the run.  A tough pill to swallow, and I could hear from some of the comments at one of the checkpoints that I wasn't looking good.

After the NBA finals, I watched Mark Cuban rip Skip Bayless a new one on ESPN.  Cuban tore into Bayless for saying the Thunder didn't want the championship was much as the Heat and that Kevin Durant didn't play hard enough.  He said "Thats ridiculous, when you are at the close out game, nobody wants it more.  Its just a question of who executes better".

That basically sums up what it all comes down to in sport and what happened to me at Chinook.  Success in sport is the result of hard work, dedication, and commitment.  Losing, or not making the cut, or not hitting your time, isn't the result of not wanting it bad enough, its the simple result of not being prepared to execute as well as the guy or girl who bests you.  Of course there are exceptions in racing, you can get a mechanical on the bike, aid stations can run out of water, you can get smoked in the swim.  But on day when things just don't go your way even though all the external variables were right on, its just that you weren't fast enough.  

When the Queen of Kona, Paula Newby Fraser hit the wall in Kona in 1995, winning wasn't a question of wanting. It was a question of preparation.  But the images of her shutting down 400 yards from the finish and eventually getting back up to finish the race are part of what has inspired so many to pursue triathlon.  Its getting to the finish through struggle and adversity that we can find greatness.

And that's the beauty of sport, it has ups, and it has downs.  We measure our athletes by their wins, by their championships, and their records.  What we often forget is how many times they've lost to get there.  The athletes we look up to aren't great because of how many times they've won, they're great because of how many times they've lost, and came back to the next day to win.  You can't win every race, so you have to be prepared to hurt a little and learn some lessons before you can reach your fullest.

With that, I'm going to leave you with a little ad for Powerade....

Lance Armstrong and the USADA Allegations

To be clear, I am not one hundred percent sure whether Lance Armstrong raced to his TdF victories clean or not.  There are very few people in the world who definitively know the truth behind that question.  But I do believe that the case against him is a ship that has already sailed, and that USADA is appropriating US taxpayer dollars to carry out a vendetta and a witch hunt.

Dan Empfield from Slowtwitch wrote an excellent article sharing his thoughts on the investigation and the latest actions towards Armstrong here.  One of the most telling things he had to say, I'll paste here;

"Still, I think the onus is on USADA to lay out the case. I’d like to express here some things that bother me. Travis Tygart, who is USADA’s front man and someone who we’ve interviewed here, is a lawyer by trade. Therefore, he knows the difference between evidence and rumor. According to today’s Post article referenced above, the 15-page letter sent to Armstrong by USADA informing him of his ban contains the allegation by “Martial Saugy, the director of an anti-doping lab in Switzerland, [who] stated that Armstrong’s urine sample results from the 2001 Tour of Switzerland indicated EPO use.” But the Post article further recounts an interview it conducted with Saugy last year, in which Saugy stated that the sample was merely “suspicious," and that “We did not do the additional analysis. It will never be sufficient to say, in fact, it was positive… I will never go in front of a court with that type of thing.” 

Three or four urban myths and phantom rumors does not equal one piece of admissible, actionable evidence. Tygart knows this or, if he’s forgotten, he needs to go back and audit that course in law school. In fact, I did not read anything in the Post article that constitutes evidence. The Post article references blood samples taken in 2009 and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” I’m left with this question: Were these samples found, by a WADA accredited lab, to be an adverse finding? Or, were these samples indicative of a bio passport anomaly? If so, that’s righteous evidence. But, this is 2012. Why are we hearing this now, rather than back when the violation took place?"

Like Dan said, the onus is certainly on USADA to make their case, and therein lies part of the problem.  USADA annual budget is approximately $13 million per a year, much of that coming through the US Government in the form of a grant.  Though USADA believes its pursuit of Lance Armstrong is an effective use of taxpayer dollars, I just can't reconcile how retroactively stripping an American icon and seven time Tour winner of his titles will help clean up a sport that has already committed itself towards getting ahead of the use of banned or illicit substances.

Edit: Information about USADA funding and budget can be found on this press kit available on their website.

The Department of Justice spent two years and untold millions of dollars preparing their case against Armstrong, and now USADA would like to take up the torch and pursue Armstrong.  With their thin budget its hard to believe that they aren't inadvertently choosing to turn a blind eye to controlled substance use in a number of other amateur and professional sports.  Moreover, that appropriation of resources is to carry out what seems to be a spiteful and personal vendetta against an individual who was for many years the most tested athlete in the world.

There are some very legitimate questions around the strength of USADA's adjudication and review process, that should be understood by anyone who believes it is an agency whose methods are beyond reproach.  For one , the board does not assess the quality of the evidence; it merely muses over whether there is enough evidence to merit an adjudication process. In other words, this being a “non-analytical” case, they aren’t looking for a smoking gun, but rather a place in the sky in which smoke might reasonably be visible. (The samples in question for 2010 have not tested positive, but show “inconsistencies”. There is precedent for suspension and prosecution for non-analytical case: none other than Marion Jones, who presumably ran out of money to keep paying her law bills, and caved. No chance of that happening with Lance.) USADA will rely on outside testimony on Armstrong’s alleged improper conduct going back more than a decade to buttress whatever the lab results from 2010 might show.

What’s more, the Board is only assessing written submissions, all of which will have the names of the submitters redacted. When Armstrong calls the review board process a “witch hunt”, he is making a specific historical illusion: nameless shadows coming forth to denounce a member of the community without showing their faces.  Presumably, some of these individuals would include Floyd Landis, and Tyler Hamilton, among others.  But if the testimony and allegations of these individuals are so strong, why remove your name from the submission?  I know that Lance Armstrong has a reputation for taking swift and decisive action against those who have spoken (or raced) against him, but fear of reproach from a man you seek to indite just doesn't do it for me.

I've said this before and I'll say it again.  If Lance was doping, he was doping and beat a field of athletes who were doping.  If he was clean, he was clean and beat a field of athletes who were doping.  Either he spent nearly a decade doping and cheating and never got caught, and never told the wrong person or failed the wrong (or right) test, or he spent nearly a decade beating a field of athletes who ultimately were the rightful subjects of reproach in international sport.

Its not hard to find either alternative unbelievable.  I believe in innocence until proven guilty so unless USADA has some previously unheard, irrefutable evidence that proves beyond the shadow of doubt that Lance used banned substances, I believe they should let their case rest.

Six weeks ahead of the 2012 Olympics, ensuring the integrity of amateur and professional athletes in sport today is far more crucial towards maintaining fairness, equality, and excellence than pursuing an individual who has done so much for cycling, sport, and the world through the Livestrong Foundation.

Its time to move beyond these allegations, and look forward to the future of sport.  Its time that cycling teams followed the example and standards set by teams such as Garmin Slipstream, which through Ryder Hesjedal's recent Giro win demonstrated that there is no substitute for hard work when it comes to winning titles.

Ultimately, the clouds and uncertainty surrounding Lance are an accurate metaphor for the history and nature of professional cycling going back decades.  I believe we should continue to respect the successes and history of the sport and the achievements of its athletes, while learning from where it has fallen short.  But today the focus should be on guaranteeing the future of integrity and fair competition in sport while celebrating the achievements of today's athletes.

Race Strategy for the Chinook Half IM

So I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging, and for that I apologize!  But we're back in the midst of race season now and I thought I'd impart some strategy tips for some of the races that I've done.  Kind of a race review, but before the race, so that a few of you know what you're stepping into.

I'll do this one for Chinook, and I'll do one in a month for Ironman Canada.  So here it goes....

The Swim

The swim

The swim at the Chinook Half is a two lap swim of Lake Midnapore.  The water temp this time of year is about 16C degrees which is cold, but not Ironman Calgary 70.3 or Subaru Banff Triathlon cold.  Its a smaller body of water so it does warm up pretty quickly.

Its a small field of about 200 for the half, so seeding isn't quite as important as a larger race. The trick here is just to sight the buoys and pace yourself well.  At the end of the first lap you have to get out of the water, run across the beach, and get back in for your second lap.  The luxury of a two lap swim is that you know when you're onto the back of the swim and when you can push a little bit harder.

General Tip; Towards the end of the swim, kick a bit more so that you can get blood flowing back into your legs before you get out of the water.  Also, don't stand up until you can touch the bottom of the lake with your hand.

The Bike


The Chinook Half bike course, and olympic bike course for that matter, is pretty hilly, and probably the most technical bike course of any race of that distance in Alberta.  The prevailing winds always come out of the west, and since you're riding towards the west (the mountains), the ride out to Kananaskis is going to be a lot slower than the ride back home.

Last year it took me about 1:39 to get to the turnaround, and about 1:13 to get back, and that was keeping power pretty even.

Chinook Bike Course Elevation Profile

The advice that I would give to most triathletes on this bike course is to go super easy on the hills. There are far too many climbs to push and if you aren't careful you could hit the run having burned too many matches to put down a solid run split.  In a 39/26 gear ratio (biggest gear in the back, smallest ring in the front, usually the smallest gear a TT/Tri bike has), even a decent cyclist would be dancing out of the saddle at about 70-80rpm to try and keep from going past their lactate threshold.

On these hills, if you need to get out of the saddle, focus on rocking the bike from side to side and letting gravity do the work and try to keep your effort to a minimum.  If you find yourself getting short of breath on the climbs on near the turnoff to Bragg Creek, back off, you can make the time up later.

The nice thing about an out and back like this is that you do most of the work on the way out.  On the way back in, gravity and then wind should allow you to take a break, recovery, and get some calories back in before the run.

General tip:  I say this to runners and cyclists when they're in an endurance race, unless you're fighting for a podium position, you have to pace your race on effort, not speed.  So when you hit a hill, focus on keeping your effort constant, and just ignore your speed.  If you're on a 90km bike ride in Zone 2, unless you're an exceptionally strong cyclist, or a seasoned triathlete, do the hills in Zone 2.  You should be able to talk to someone without too much labour even as you climb the hill.

The Run

My homeboy Keith on the run

Ride for show and run for dough.  This is where you put it all on the line.  The Chinook run course is a two lap run course that's actually pretty flat with one major hill each lap when you come out of the Fish Creek Valley.  Its a pretty scenic run course so you should be able to take your mind off things once in a while.  And with such a small field, the runners really get stretched out at this point, so be mentally prepared to be in some pretty quiet sections in the run course.  This may not sound like a big deal, but just know that you'll be on your own in some spots, and find a way to use that to your advantage.

The temperature for the race is never really crazy hot like Ironman Calgary 70.3 can get in late July, but you'll still want to listen to your body very closely.  With lower temperatures you may find yourself not needing as much water if you usually take in lots of fluids be sure not to over hydrate.  On the flip side, if you're used to working in heat, the cooler temperatures may throw you off and you may not pick up on your thirst.  So get dialled in with what your whole body is signalling (too much fluid in your stomach? Back off the water.  Getting a little thirsty, drink water. Starting to feel spaced out and a little light, back off the pace for 10 minutes and get some calories and fluid in you asap).

General tip: Your legs will feel wonky after the bike.  That's a fact of triathlon, pay careful attention to your pace for the first couple kilometers and don't push too hard.  Your stomach can't handle fluids as well when you're running vs biking, and after 90km on the bike your legs will want to turnover at a higher rate than you probably run at.  Stick to your target pace and make sure your legs aren't writing cheques your ass can't cash.


Lastly...


Chinook is a phenomenal race put on by Mike Bock who does so much for Calgary's local athletes.  Mike is a top notch guy so if you see him be sure to thank him for putting on such a phenomenal race is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Also be sure to thank each and every one of the volunteers on the course.  Without them these races wouldn't be possible.  A little thank you goes a very long way.  They know you're tired and that you're pushing your hardest, which is why those two words really do mean so much.

Have a great race out there everyone and I'll see you at the start line!