Jun 1, 2009

Just under the wire...

What wire, you ask? The surely-not-a-month-between-posts wire... Between working flat-out at the law office and teenage disputes with my son I've had hardly any energy for blogging. A bit of facebook and flickr juice, but not much there either... But there's been plenty to talk about. Maybe it's best to work backwards.

PlaceTime
Cat.Swim (750m)
Cat Ovr Time /100m
T1Bike (30K)
Cat Ovr Time km/hr
T2Run (7.5K)
Cat Ovr Time /km
1101:48:17M45-49, 12/675 69 12:49 1:433:0319 133 56:03 32.11:3015 143 34:53 4:39

Yesterday I had my first triathlon of the season, the Milton Sprint Triathlon. It was a cool and sunny day, but quite gusty. Everyone was chilly before the start, but the water proved to be tolerable (in a wetsuit). I'd assumed that conditions would be warmer so I bought yet another pair of arm-warmers as insurance. They were good to have on the bike, but I never felt cold at all. Lots of my teammates from the Toronto Triathlon Club were on hand, so we helped each other out and kept each other relaxed while waiting for our starting time.

The swim was a bit slow,12:49, because the lake was choppy and my left goggle was flooded for the whole swim. I was also protecting my right shoulder a bit because of an ongoing rotator cuff injury. I stayed to the outside for most of the swim which kept me out of the traffic until the last 200m. Starting in the fifth wave I had to swim through most of the two waves ahead of me! Transition was painfully slow, I fought for "hours" with my shoes and socks and then with the simple act of pulling on my arm-warmers.

The bike went well, 56:03, even though the wind was a frequent problem. Just as I crested the notorious Sixth Line hill I caught a particularly cruel blast. I had got off to a fast start on the bike but lost those gains almost right away as my new race belt came undone. I had to circle back to retrieve it and knot it around my waist. In hindsight it was a pretty funny moment; my race number lay there in the middle of the course with a veritable stampede of approaching riders behind it! I waved my hands wildly to signal that I needed to edge into their path and managed to retrieve it but I lost a couple of minutes and was probably re-passed by 50-75 bikes. Once I was up past Sixth Line hill I set to work. On the return leg Sixth Line hill was my friend. I topped 80 kph going down! Exhilarating. I felt so good getting back to transition that I didn't pay attention to the dismount line and had to backtrack a bit. :-)

The run was steady on trails, 34:53, although the wind was even a factor there. I had also forgotten how hilly the run course was! So overall a bit sloppy and unprepared, but great fun and that's what I was looking for.

My parents dropped in that afternoon on their way home from a friend's memorial service. We don't get together too often so it was nice to catch up and drag my son away from his Xbox for a while. Summer plans were discussed briefly, and a promise was made (by me) to get a medical check-up with a particular reference to daytime sleepiness. (Is it narcolepsy or cancer? Or just a mellow personality.)

Films: on Saturday I decided to stay home and ride indoors, which I generally hate to do. I wanted a sleep-in, and maybe to have some time with my son. That didn't pan out, he took his MacBook into his room for the three hour duration of my workout... We've had some tough times lately. I watched a couple of On-Demand films while riding in the living room. The Bucket List: Decent performance by Morgan Freeman, but I didn't care much for the script or Jack Nicholson. The next film was even worse: Shoot 'Em Up. Fun seeing the Toronto locations, but what a stupid film! Yeah, I know all about "graphic novel" sensibilities. The only reason I stuck them out was because I was desperate for distraction. The films were particularly hard to swallow after having seen Up last weekend. The early montage of the character Carl's life was blatant exposition that left some of the kids in my audience restless but it was also a rare moment of heart-felt cinematic reflection. They could have turned on the lights right then and I would have left satisfied. As always with Pixar, the art direction, script and voice work were outstanding, this time blending a more classical "cartoon" look and a bit of a claymation feel.

Spring Training WeekendMy first marathon clinic came to a close at the end of May with 15 of my students running the Ottawa Marathon. A wide range of times, some surprising results, and a few people sidelined by injuries... I wish I could have been there to cheer but I had a training weekend in Blue Mountain already booked with my triathlon club (great weather, great workouts) and I have to watch my racing in the lead up to Ironman USA this July. We gathered last week after the first session of the next Marathon Clinic for a celebration dinner. About a dozen more of them had run in the Mississauga Marathon a few weeks earlier. They were a good group, and a bunch of them are returning to prepare for a fall marathon.

Formula One: I think there have been two races since my last post, Spain and Monaco. Brawn Racing is continuing to dominate with two more wins by Jenson Button and Red Bull is a solid second, but it looks like Ferrari are back in the game with Kimi Raikkonen on the podium once more and Toyota starting to fade back. Last year's champions McLaren are still struggling to adapt to the new regulations. Monaco was an interesting race to watch this year, tire problems made handling unpredictable and also my friend Brian had recently taken his family there as part of a Mediterranean cruise and had walked parts of the race course. Neat to hear how the streets are used normally!

Oh yeah, I've done a couple of more little TV spots! One for a drink that contains glucosamine for sore joints and another for Polydent. Eeek! Am I old?

Listening to: Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics from You Gotta Go There to Come Back.

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