The Forty-Year Punchline

I never realised until last night that the title of the comic strip Andy Capp was a pun on the word "handicap"! I just took it as a simple reference to the main character's omnipresent headgear... I present this as a public service to others in similar need of enlightenment. This long-delayed revelation is the funniest part of that comic for me.

Not much to else to report. I'm ending a de facto vacation from triathlon. I haven't swum or cycled since my last race back in September. This week I've returned to the pool and started spinning again. I'll also add a few trainer rides or CompuTrainer workouts into the weekly mix. I've got a lot of ground to cover again.

I've been nursing a pinched nerve in my neck since Christmas Day, which has made training a bit unpredictable lately. It's also made my Shopping Channel appearances using various fitness equipment a bit dicey. Thank god for back pain medicine!

I took time off this Fall partially to refresh my mind but mainly to spend more time with my 16 year-old son Chris. Unfortunately that part of the plan didn't work out as he's been fairly distant and moderately hostile, choosing to spend large periods of time at his mother's house rather than live by the rules here. Frustrating and quite sad for me, but perhaps this is part of his search for independence. I hope we find a way to enjoy time together again.

Listening to: Fireflies by Owl City from Ocean Eyes.

Boston-unbound...

Argh. After qualifying for the Boston Marathon in October I was nursing tender Achilles tendons. I took a wait-and-see approach to registering for Boston. You snooze, you lose; the Boston Marathon sold out earlier than ever this year! So it looks like my trip, and Chariots of Fire re-enactment, will be postponed to April of 2011...

Other events in the life of this mildly-mannered blogger: I was elected President of the Toronto Triathlon Club a few weeks ago, which was expected but slightly dreaded. Tomorrow evening will be the first Board Meeting I chair, but it will be an easy go as it's also the Board's Christmas dinner. I put together a DVD slideshow of the 2009 season for our AGM back in November, when I rework it for uploading to Youtube I'll post a link.

A little over a week ago I went down to the U of T campus to hear a presentation on climate change by George Monbiot. The presentation was co-sponsored by a Canadian web site called DeSmogBlog.com that focusses on the political and corporate interests behind resistance to climate change regulation. I've been fairly active lately on their site responding to dishonest critics in the comments. I haven't had any real world interaction with people on this subject though, so it was an interesting experience meeting some of them. George Monbiot was eloquent and convincing, Richard Littlemore of DeSmogBlog gave an excellent look at the funding and motivations of the denialists. George Monbiot also took part a few days later in a Munk Debate about climate change with a couple of slippery-tongued denialists.

Turning to my carbon-releasing vice, Formula One, the last race of the season was held just over a month ago in Abu Dhabi. It had no impact on the season result but was quite entertaining with some great wheel-to-wheel racing and some pit lane oddities. There's been a bushel of surprising developments already in the post-season but I try to ignore it all until the dust settles in January...

Listening to: Noisemaker by Two Hours Traffic from Territory.

TIFF '09 Day Ten

So the Toronto International Film Festival is winding down... I worked six nights at Roy Thomson Hall and saw just three films, all at other venues and the last two of them today. The Invention of Lying, Max Manus, and The Young Victoria. "Lying" was Ricky Gervais' entertaining new comedy that will be in theatres any day now. Max Manus was a conventional WWII drama with great performances and a true-to-life plot. "Victoria" was a fairly standard high quality Brit period piece about the early life of Queen Victoria, starring Emily Blunt. All worth the time and all last-minute "rush line" screenings. The essence of Festival attendance!

I have to say that this year was tough though. I worked at my real job most days and at TIFF I found myself coping with a heavy workload as a Volunteer Captain. The two Co-Captains I usually worked with basically abandoned their posts to spend time "helping" in the section of the theater that the talent were seated in. When I reluctantly raised the issue with the Volunteer Coordinators I found myself the target of "revenge" complaints. Yuck. Earlier this evening I realised that I had forgotten to pickup my ticket for Sunday night's Staff/Volunteer party, but when I called to see if there was any way to still get it the answer was "No." Double yuck.

I officiated another kid's "triathlon" race this morning, the local Beaches Best Kids of Steel duathlon. That was a much more enjoyable experience, so I'll get some rest and reflect on my TIFF experience when I've got a bit more emotional energy.

Last weekend I took a few days off from volunteering at TIFF to rest and travel up to Huntsville for the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka race. Last year's 5:58:25 result has been soundly crushed by this year's 5:35:06 time. Very satisfactory, but it means that I now owe myself two race reports...

Listening to: Like a Stone by Audioslave from Audioslave.

TIFF '09 Day One

I was volunteering at the Toronto International Film Festival last night, working as Volunteer Captain at Roy Thomson Hall. The Opening Gala was Creation, a biopic about Charles Darwin starring real-life husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly ("English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the [his] relationship with [his] religious wife, whose faith contradicts his work." according to imdb.com). Jennifer looked great in a towering pair of heels, which came off the moment she got to the Green Room :-). The film seemed well received by the audience and the evening went smoothly from my perspective. I'll be back at RTH all next week, so I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Through the evening I circulated around helping where needed and making sure the volunteers were in position at the right times. The big change this year was the move of the Red Carpet from the normal east entrance to the west side of the building, which opens onto a pedestrian park. This resulted in a lot less congestion during admission, but the Red Carpet team had to deal with a much more spread-out environment and they had tons of communication problems due to balky walkie-talkies and incomplete talent schedules. It looked great to the casual eye though... There was even an excellent high definition video feed from the Red Carpet into the theatre as well as the internet and a few other Festival locations.

Now I have a bit of down-time before my Ironman 70.3 race up in Huntsville on Sunday. I'm going to try to take it easy so I can get to the starting line with better energy reserves than I had at Ironman USA back in July. (Yes, I will post that race report soon!)

Listening to: A Day in the Life (in glorious mono!) by The Beatles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Countdown to the Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival starts on Thursday night... I've been involved in some of the training and orientation sessions over the pasts few months and during TIFF (Sept. 10 - 19) I'll be volunteering at Roy Thomson Hall most evenings. This grainy snap is from inside the auditorium at RTH, a few minutes before the theatre volunteers arrived for their orientation.

Today I drove up to Wilcox Lake for a short ride (60K). Along with the start of TIFF I also have my last triathlon of the season on Sunday, the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka race up in Huntsville.

Listening to: Was a Time (Favretto Remix) by Whigfield from David Rocco's Dolce Vita.

Ironman USA Preparation

So "Lake Placid", aka Ironman USA, has come and gone. I had a great time, but didn't get the result I wanted. I've been thinking about that, and I guess it's time to "put pen to paper." Here's the lead up.

On the Tuesday evening before the race I drove to my parent's place in Cobourg for a short visit and the obligatory computer consultation. On Wednesday I continued on to Lake Placid. My bike was stuffed in the trunk of my Mazda 3, and in the glovebox I had a new component: a nine-speed 12-27 cassette. This is the gears that turn the rear wheel, and 12-27 refers to the number of teeth on the smallest and largest gear rings. A 12-27 is optimised for hilly terrain. I hadn't been able to get it installed before leaving Toronto, so I was a bit hesitant about racing with it. You never know how new or different equipment will behave! New shirts can rub in unexpected places, different shoe models can cause blisters, new gears can be misaligned... In the end a confident housemate installed it for me and I got two good rides around Lake Placid before race day. The only concern I had was a bit of stickiness when shifting and a worry that my chain might now be a bit too long in some gears.

My friend Paula had arranged a rented townhouse. I found it easily, thank you Garmin. We were nice and close to the race venue. Being the last to join I got the last available bed, a fold-out in the basement. It was perfect though. Paula and her husband Johnny were also in the basement, Ed and Elaine were upstairs, and so was Roger. I have to say we had a great time together. I didn't know Ed or Elaine before and only knew Roger a bit, but we all had the same attitude, same sense of humour, and perhaps most importantly the same sleep habits. Three new friends and two old friendships strengthened.

Each day we went for an easy "taper" workout, riding, swimming or running. Most mornings were started with a swim on the race course, with hundreds of other athletes doing the same thing. I did a one loop Thursday morning swim in about 29 minutes so I felt totally ready for that leg of the race. On Friday I tested some different brands of wetsuits on two shorter swims. My second swim was particularly short as I spent most of it reassuring a nervous swimmer and keeping her company as we swam a few hundred metres together. A lot of triathletes have a tough time with open-water swimming. Can't see the bottom, there are weeds that will grab you, etc. I think she got past the worst of it that morning.

I biked on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but only ran on Friday. My achilles tendons were feeling a bit tight and I wanted to give them a rest from running. On Wednesday we rode the run course together, adding the last series of hills of the bike course. On Thursday I did a break-in ride for my new gears on the bike course heading out of town and up the first big climb. Everything worked fine, and when I rode the run course route again on Friday with my new gearing I knew I would have no problem with the hills.

Friday night was the Athlete's Dinner. Image a tent so big that it can hold and feed 3,000 people. Now imagine rain coming down in biblical quantities... We stayed dry, but looking out at the downpour my friends who had raced last year in the rain looked a bit glum.

From that point on it was time to relax and try to stay off my feet. The race Expo was tempting though, I bought a few bits of clothing but managed to talk myself out of buying a new Cervelo P2C. Through out my stay I kept running into friends and team mates all over town. I couldn't go a hundred feet without bumping into someone! My favourite new "friends" were the Active Release Technique therapists in the massage tent. I got a treatment each day, and I think it helped my heels and shoulders a lot.

On Saturday afternoon we all took our bikes and bags down to the transition area to drop them off. While waiting for the others to get back to the car I spoke to vendor who was testing a product called "Trakkers". It was a GPS/cellular device that gives continuous location and speed information to people who want to follow your race through a web site. It sounded better that the four or five updates available through the official timing system, so we all signed up for the beta test (and to get free hats).

So there I was on the night before the race: well rested, confident, "feeling the love".

Listening to: Galvanize by The Chemical Brothers from Push the Button.

The Usual Suspects

So I'm less than a week out from my next Ironman race, down in Lake Placid... If anyone cares to follow me online, here's the link. My race number is 1555.

Training has gone well although I didn't always meet my training volume goals. On Saturday I was up at Wilcox Lake for a 2K swim, two hour ride and 5K run. The weather was great and it seemed like everyone I knew was there. All my Pro friends were doing their own workouts, Club members were circulating up and down Warden Avenue, even friends from various gyms I've been to were there!

I got a late start because I've been looking after Sheryl's little dog while she's on vacation with her family in the Turks and Cacos. He's now diabetic and a bit of a revenge pee-er so I had to give him his insulin and a good walk before I could safely leave the house. When I leave for Lake Placid on Tuesday I'll be transferring him to a mutual friend.

I helped run an Open Water Swimming clinic again this year, down at Cherry Beach (see photo above). Ayesha Rollinson was the leader this time, she's an ITU racer and ran us through all sorts of gung-ho drills. The water was nasty cold, which was good (?) because I could feel two spots in my wetsuit where icy water was trickling in. One spot is now repaired, the other might not be fixable.

All the "good luck" nights of drinking are done with, nothing left to do but drive down and see what I've got in the tank!

Listening to: Ready, Steady, Go by Oakenfold from Bunkka.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Today was an epic training day. Up at 6:00 and on the go until 2:00 PM! Fabulous weather, sunny and hitting 30C, and I got in a great workout for all three sports: 2.1K, 33 minute open water swim. The City strike has closed all the pools that I usually swim in, so it seemed like a good day to get up early and add a swim as you can't lock the doors on a lake. 127K, 4:12 long ride (all the way up to Jackson Point). A short 20 minute quick 4K run. The bike ride was beautiful, especially along the shore of Lake Simcoe. I rode almost the entire distance solo but kept crossing paths with friends.

When I got back I just dumped everything into the house and joined Sheryl, Tamara and their family at their Club's pool. Nice to float in the cool water... Tamara took advantage of my dehydration to buy me a couple pints of Stella Artois and watch me get loopy. Her toddler daughter thought I had become her new best friend forever!

Other triathlon news: last weekend I helped officiate at the Guelph Lake Triathlon. Steady rain during both races (a Give-It-A-Try and a Sprint), no rain between races... The transition area, where I was working, and the parking lot were both grassy fields which became absolute mud pits! Strangely, it was good fun. I kind of fell into the officiating thing when I saw in interesting e-mail from OAT (Ontario Association of Triathletes). Nice to give back. This race was my first training session.

The week before was my own race, the Muskoka Long Course triathlon. 2K swim, 55K bike, 15K run. The swim and run are disproportionately long at this event. I enjoyed myself and saw lots of friends before, during and after the race. Here are the numbers:

3:41:16. 230/672 overall, 30/76 in my age group.
Swim 32:29 1:38/100m. 64/672 overall, 6/76 in age group
Bike 1:48:29 30.4kph. 297/672 overall, 43/76 in age group
Run 1:15:12, 4:01/km. 297/672 overall, 41/76 in age group

I felt good at the end of it but my time was almost exactly the same as last year's. I want progress! I had good fun with Paula, a fellow Toronto Triathlon Club member, on the run. I passed her just after the run turn-around and about a kilometer later came to an aid station that a grade school-er was staffing. The girl had left a tray of water cups on the ground to do something else for a moment, so I stopped to pick up a cup and ended up handing out water for a few seconds to the runners behind me, including Paula. Then I gunned past her again! As seems to be the pre-race theme this year, as we were all floating around waiting for the start I grabbed her feet and threatened to suck on her toes. My winning ways seem to have worked though, she's letting me stay in the townhouse she and some friends have rented for Ironman USA. Paula has been dealing with a recurring brain tumor; she races to raise funds for Leukemia and Lymphoma research through Team in Training.

Last week's Formula One excitement was over the major team's determination to start a rival schedule because of the arbitrary and dictatorial manner of the FIA President Max Mosley. I was rooting for them, but it looks like Max has blinked and will step down next year. Next race will be at the Nurburgring in Germany in two weeks.

Time to collapse into bed! I have to lead my marathon clinic on an 18K run tomorrow morning, with an extra 8K thrown in just for me...

Listening to: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage The Elephant from Cage The Elephant.

Tracing

I'm "tracing" up in Huntsville tomorrow. That's a "training race". The Muskoka Long Course race is an oddity; long swim (2K), short ride (54K), long run (15K). It was a world championship race back in the 90's and still draws a small pro field for the Chase (women pros get a head-start, there is a single prize pool). I earned an Ironman Canada slot in this race last year. I didn't know until a few days ago whether I'd be able to go up because my son's time with me has been all screwed up due to a combination of teenage resentment and exam studies. But I'm heading up in an hour or so, and I've even arranged a "home-stay" like to pros often do! One of my marathon clinic students offered to put me up at her parent's cottage a few minutes north of town.

The water promises to be pretty durn cold, probably 61°F. I'm planning on a double swim cap and on pre-filling my wetsuit with warm water. Because of the long stony walk to the swim start I'll also be adding a disposable pair of sandals to my gear. The transition area is totally changed this year because they are in the midst of construction of accommodate next year's G8 Summit on the same site. Fingers crossed.

I'm about six weeks out from Ironman USA and a bit behind schedule in my training program. I've been training pretty steadily, but at a relatively constant volume and have also been pre-occupied with my marathon clinic student's own schedules. A couple of weeks ago I finally glanced at my own training program, which I'd printed out and was just sitting around waiting for me. I was supposed to be six weeks into it already! So I've pretty much jumped in close to the volume I should have been building up to...

That's why this weekend's race isn't going to be all-out.

Perhaps my training isn't as far off schedule as it looks though. I've been cycling in to work quite often, adding about 80K a week of un-logged "bike intervals" to my routine. I missed a week of bike commuting because of a flat though, which cost me about $100. I destroyed three tubes, two sets of cheap tire irons, a crappy pump and replaced the rim tape in vain trying to fix it! Initially I though my son had deflated the tire as it went flat overnight, which shows you where things stand with him these days. Then the inner tube seemed to suggest a spoke puncture, so I replaced the rim tape. Finally I spotted the chunk of glass that was the root of the problem. Between pinch flats and re-punctures I managed to use all my spare tubes and break my pump. With no functioning bike pump I swallowed my pride and took the wheel down to a bike shop and begged them to do it for me. I have no trouble changing my tri bike's tires, but my commuter bike tires have a wicked bead. The mechanic turned the air blue trying to change it himself, and ended up using a different sized inner tube as well. So I bought a new better-quality pump and left feeling mechanically adequate again.

I watched the Turkish Grand Prix with my friend Brian last weekend. Jenson Button got his Brawn-Mercedes past Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull before the end of lap one and cruised to his sixth victory in seven races. Mark Webber and Vettel's Red Bull cars filled out the podium. Ferrari is slowly returning to form while McLaren is still back in the weeds. The most interesting drive of the day was Rubens Barrichello in the other Brawn car. He had a terrible start but fought his way forward heroically before having to retire with gearbox problems on lap 48. Track temperature was in the high 40's C! Tire wear was a big factor.

I also saw the new Star Trek film last weekend. I've always enjoyed the franchise, but have never been a nerd about it. I enjoyed the new take on the old characters. The acting was good and effects were, as always these days, spectacular. Funny how the 'tech' in science fiction films always gets cooler even if they're set in earlier times than the previous film! The best stuff was, of course, in the trailer... I glad they respected the redshirt principle though. Some things are just sacred.

Listening to: Typical by Mute Math from Mute Math.

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.

Place	Time	Cat.	Swim (750m) Cat Ovr Time /100m	T1	Bike (30K) Cat Ovr Time km/hr	T2	Run (7.5K) Cat Ovr Time /km
110	1:48:17	M45-49, 12/67	5 69 12:49 1:43	3:03	19 133 56:03 32.1	1:30	15 143 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.

My 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.

Damn You, Tube!

I created a DVD slideshow last month for my triathlon club's end-of-season dinner. Thinking it would be nice to post it online for everyone else to see I tried to convert the iDVD project into a movie file. This turned out to be not too easy as it's kind of the reverse of the normal creation process. I actually ended up having to "play" the DVD with video capture software (Snapz Pro X) making a movie from the screen! Next year I'll start in iMovie and then finish it in iDVD...

The issues didn't stop there though. I had a 21 minute video that was about 160 MB in size. Big. I logged into YouTube and uploaded it, but it turns out that YouTube has a 10 minute limit on video length so not even I could play it. I didn't want to have to do too much chopping and soundtrack fiddling to get it uploaded, so I put it on facebook instead where the limits are 20 minutes and 1024 MB. I did a bit of fiddling, added some title page-type stuff, and got the whole thing down to 19:19 and about 134 MB.

I guess facebook will get the pageviews and ad hits instead of YouTube.

And here it is, squished a bit to fit into the Blogger frames, for your viewing pleasure! Click on it to see a full-size version.

Listening to: I Feel It All by Feist from The Reminder.

A Bridge Too Far?

I ran in the Toronto Marathon today, in spite of a bad chest cold... I was on pace for an excellent 3:20 finish at the halfway mark but faded badly, owning to sore feet and hips, to finish in 3:52. Maybe I've taken on a few too many big races this year. In the last twelve months I've completed two Ironman races, two "Half Ironman" races, and two marathons along with a number of other smaller races. Too much, I think! Still the weather was great (cool and sunny), the race well organised, and there were plenty of friends along the way to give me a boost. And both a massage and chocolate milk was waiting at the finish line!

Yesterday there was an event at my local triathlon shop, Enduro Sport. Simon Whitfield, who won a triathlon silver at the Beijing Olympics and gold at the Sydney Olympics, dropped in to talk about his races and his sport. A great moment, with lots of fans showing up. I took a ton of photos for friends. Simon brought both of his medals with him and passed them through the crowd. I'm not sure I would have been so easy-going with them. Click on the photo to see a few of other photos from the day, including Canada's first hands-on look at Cervelo's new state-of-the-art triathlon bike, the P4. Simon also brought along a friend, Adam van Koeverden, also a silver medalist at the Beijing Olympics. But Adam just thought that he was going out with Simon for a coffee!

Listening to: Do It Again by Steely Dan from Can't Buy a Thrill.

Muskoka 70.3 Report

So I came to Huntsville only three weeks after my Ironman Canada race out in Penticton... When the race was first announced I was excited to sign up and plan my season around it, but my last-minute qualification for IMC dropped the Muskoka 70.3 race from "A" to "B". I was also struggling to recover from two weeks steady work at the Toronto International Film Festival, where I had been helping people at the main Box Office from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM every day while standing under a powerful air conditioning vent! I was definitely in a "participate" frame of mind rather than a competitive one, and I arrived directly from the Box Office with a heavy cough and sore throat.

I stayed with my friend Annette at her uncle's new cottage just around the corner from the Deerhurst Inn. She and Judy kept myself and two other racers well looked after all weekend. Also staying with us were several cyclists who would be acting as bike course marshals. I did my best to ingratiate myself with them!

Sunday morning I discarded my plans to wear a raincoat, bib shorts, winter gloves, cycling booties, etc. It still promised to be wet, but seemed like it was going to be warm enough. Not a repeat of Lake Placid... Getting to transition shortly after 6:00 AM was easy as we were staying behind the "iron curtain" of closed off roads and could get a quick ride down. I got my gear laid out beside my bike and covered what I could with plastic before heading down to the lake to check out the course for the first time... I was surprised how long and steep the run was from the swim exit to the transition area! Officially 300 m, but it seemed longer. After wandering around for a while chatting and scoping out the area I headed back up to finish my set up and grab my wetsuit. I decided to bring my running shoes along and put them beside the swim exit so I could pull them on as soon as I got out of the water for the long run.

I started in the seventh wave so I had almost forty minutes to wait for my turn. I got a good start though, placing myself at the front toward the left side. There were some sharp rocks at the start that I managed to identify and avoid, but the swim was pretty straight forward. I took it fairly easy because of my heavy cough. I started catching the previous wave of racers by the time I reached the first turn and had to maneuver through probably three different waves before I finally hit the shore again. The water was a bit choppy and the last stretch was quite weedy. Climbing up the swim exit stairs was an interesting moment, and there was a moment of anxiety when I couldn't spot my carefully placed running shoes! They'd just been moved a bit, but that would have been a race ender. I trotted up the hill to avoid a heart rate spike. 32:56 for the swim averaging 1:44/100m, and 6:25 for T1, which included that loooooong run up the hill from the lake.

The bike course was pretty tough. Lots of short sharp hills, a bad gritty section, a couple of unexpected sharp corners, frequent light rain. I managed to maintain a pretty steady if not stellar pace over the distance, averaging 30.56 km/h. I could have done without the extra 4K though, the course was over-distance because of the road arrangements. There was some bad drafting out there, but I was surprised to hear of the penalties meted out on climbs. That was not where the problem was. There seemed to be a lot of flat tires on the course too. One guy at about the 85K mark was wobbling forward on a very soft tubular. Some of the spectating pros I knew were at the side of the road on the final stretch cheering us all on and again on the start of the run. Big crowds along there, with a number of friends I didn't know had come up calling out my name. 3:04:35 for the bike, 3:13 for T2.

The run. This is where it got really tough! I wasn't feeling very healthy so I decided to speed-walk all the hills. There were a lot of hills... The rain came down pretty hard several times during the run too. There were two out-and-back legs on the course, they gave me a chance to see who else was out there ahead or behind me. I saw a lot of my Tri Club members and enjoyed the boost we were able to give each other. The last 4K of the run was sadistic hill repeats we had to traverse while within sight of the finish line. I didn't have much energy left at the end, and was walking more and more to favour an aching hip and sore feet. I effectively even split my run, averaging 6:13/km and turning in a time of 2:11:16.

Crossing the finish line at 5:58:25 was very satisfying and I sang along to the P.A. music while the finish line volunteers took my timing chip and gave me my new running cap and tee. It was great to see Annette right after the finish and so many other friends in the last 500 m. The spectators and volunteers were great everywhere and I enjoyed saluting and thanking them all day long. I was amazed that they hung in there all day through the rain.

After returning to the transition area in front of the Deerhurst Inn I had an agonizingly fabulous ART session from Cindy in my Tri Club's tent and then gobbled some food while watching the awards ceremony (at which I was once again not recognised for my accomplishments. Grin). I got a lift back to Annette's cottage and had a warm shower and a short nap. Finally in the early evening I retrieved my lonely Cervelo P2K from the nearly empty transition area and drove home through torrential rain. Good thing we didn't see rain that hard during the race.

But the day wasn't over yet! When I got home I changed and headed down to the Berkeley Church for the TIFF Staff and Volunteer Appreciation Party...

So is my season finally over? Can I at last relax and slowly sink into a pile of doughnuts? No! I've just realised that back in the spring I actually did register for the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon next month back! Argh. Time to return to the grind. Is there anything left to grind?

Listening to: Everyday Is Like Sunday by Morrissey from Viva Hate.

Winding Down

TIFF is over now for 2008. I only managed to get to three films, all of which were enjoyable. The last film I saw was a Press & Industry screening of Cooper's Camera, which was a demented comic short that would have fit perfectly on the old Canadian TV satire SCTV. Too bad it was really feature length! My son had wanted to see it too, but he never got himself organised enough to join me. The People's Choice Award winner, Slumdog Millionaire, was a film I tried to get to several times but the final free screening took place Saturday night when I was already up in Huntsville for my final triathlon of the season.

Here's how that last day played out... Up at 5:00 AM as usual for the last two weeks, back standing under the cold blast of an air conditioning outlet. I had started the Festival in t-shirt and shorts, by the last day I was wearing fairly heavy pants and a thick sweater. Didn't stop me getting a pretty solid chest cold though! I finished work at 1:00 PM, hurried back home to throw my race gear into the car. The forecast for race day was rain, and lots of it. So I threw in rain jackets, cycling booties, arm warmers, cold weather riding gloves, etc.

I headed north and two and a half hours later I was at the Deerhurst Inn in Huntsville registering for the race and setting up my bike. Just in time! There was only 40 minutes left to access the transition area. I connected with my friends and made my way to their nearby cottage and tried to spend the evening quietly getting healthy. It was so nice to be with friends, lots of emotional and practical support was on hand.

The TIFF "marathon" was over, the next one started in about eight hours.

Listening to: (Far From) Home by Tiga from Sexor.

Ironman Canada Race Report

OK, here's the belated story of my day at Ironman Canada. (Note: I'll update this post with better photos when I finally get access to a damn scanner.)

Up at 5:00 AM for a breakfast of oatmeal and scrambled eggs on toast. Very dark... Nothing much to bring with me other than my wet suit and some dry clothes to change into after the race. I drove down alone with Amy and Jill following in their car. If we couldn't get a good parking spot Jill was going to drop us both close to the transition area. As it turned out we both grabbed a spot quite close so Amy and I headed in. It was still quite dark and chilly when we got to the body marking area. Numbers and ages were inscribed and we headed over to our bikes to check tire pressures. In a fine pre-race performance I managed to get through the porta-potty line three times. Met a few friends and acquaintances, made some new ones. Went over to the PowerBar tent and had a few cups of Gatorade and a gel. I had decided to wear full cycling shorts on the bike course, so I pulled my wet suit on over a swimsuit. The Pros started shortly before I got to the beach, so I only had time to let the layer of leaked water warm up before it was time to await my start time in the chest-deep water at the front edge.

At 7:00 AM the gun went off and we dove forward. I held my ground fairly well and didn't have any significant contacts. It was a bit tight heading out for the first 5oo m, but I just focussed on staying on the tail of the person ahead of me. At the first turn things got a bit tight again, but by the time I was heading back toward the beach things had opened up pretty well. I was still feeling strong, but my mind started to wander and I managed to swim significantly off course twice. As I came ashore the last 50 m of shallow lake bed was covered in small boulders. Ouch! The water's edge proper was sandy though. Swim - 1:00:49, 12/246 in M45-49, 138 overall, avg. pace 1:37 / 100 m.

I spent 5:32 in transition, a bit longer than usual because I had to strip off my swimsuit and pull on cycling shorts. I took care putting my new left foot/right foot cycling socks on properly (more about them later) and then grabbed my bike and ran to the mount point. The one thing I forgot was to get some sunblock. I worried for the whole ride that I would burn and pay the price for that forgetfulness later in the race.

I was looking forward to the bike course with great interest. It had been an inspiring drive two days before. The first several kilometers out of town were lined with cheering spectators, which was nice. Although it was moderately uphill I was really pumped and kept a fast pace. I settled down once we hit the shores of Skaha Lake because I knew I had a long day ahead of me. The first half of the ride was fairly uneventful but beautiful; moderately rolling hills and open mountain valleys. But a lot of slower swimmers rode past me in pace groups, drafting each other. This gives a big advantage in saving effort, but is against the rules. Sigh. I knew it would happen, but it was disheartening to be passed by so many cheaters.

At a few points throughout the ride I felt like I was losing power, or perhaps tire pressure. I kept scrutinizing my tires as I rode, but it boiled down to "false flats", which aren't related to tires but rather a description of a section of road that looks flat but is actually a gentle rise. I finally realised that I just had to keep the effort fairly steady and let the speed take care of itself.

Immediately after Osoyoos the climb up and over Richter Pass began. Eleven kilometers of steady upward road! Never too steep though and even more beautiful. I got through it fine and really enjoyed the descents. There were lots of spectators along the climb, it felt a bit like the Tour de France. I cheered them back and hand-slapped lots of kids as I chugged upwards. My feet were starting to get sore though.

This is where the new socks crop up in the story... I discovered upon arrival in Penticton that I had left a sock behind and needed to purchase an extra pair. I decided it was safer to ride in new socks than run in them, so I bought the only kind of thin cycling socks I could find. These socks were "asymmetric" Sugoi socks, with left and right foot construction. They were slightly thicker on the side at the base of the big and little toes. This thickness unfortunately made my cycling shoes too tight and after about 80K both feet started to feel painfully hot on the outer side of my little toes. I ended up stopping twice during the bike, once at about 120K and again at about 150K, to restore the circulation. Lost about 15 minutes of time in total, but got a bit of a chance to recover.

My final stop was just after the crest of Yellow Lake. Yes, a mountain pass can have the name of a lake. I didn't have much trouble on this pass either and loved the vibe from crowds again. I stopped because my feet were still killing me and I knew there was a big descent just around the corner. There was a first aid station there too, so I got my first splash of sunblock on at about 1:00 PM. Luckily the skies had begun to cloud over in the late morning. The descent was fantastic! I felt like a god roaring down the sweeping highway roads. Amazing speed and I never had to touch the brakes. Coming back into town there was one last gentle hill and then a final descent to the transition area. Big crowds again and I was super excited. I was waving and shouting and the crowd responded, which pumped me up even more. Bike - 6:03:11, 87/248 in M45-49, 786 overall, avg. pace 18.5 mph.

My second transition was 4:21. I changed shorts again, pulling on my compression running shorts and walked out over the timing mats getting my legs ready to run.

The run started well with a short out-and-back along the shore before heading back alongside the bike course on a longer out-and-back course. Big encouraging crowds again, but I had to focus on keeping my heart rate down. As I reached the edge of town I began to have trouble. At first the ball of my left foot felt hot. After a few kilometers I stopped to check my socks, but I think this recurring problem is a muscle tightness issue. I was back underway pretty quickly, but a much more serious problem cropped up a few kilometers later. Stomach cramps! I felt worse and worse, and began taking walking breaks even though my legs felt pretty good. Once I was out of town we also faced a strong headwind.

I ended up walking a good five or six kilometer section of the course where it follows the shore of Lake Shaka and stopped in three aid stations for about ten minutes each waiting for the cramps to subside and drinking chicken broth. At the last stop I chatted with a South African nurse and as I left she told me that I had looked pretty pale when I had arrived. So what happened? I figure I had drunk too much Gatorade on the bike and nothing was getting digested. A heavy stomach was bouncing around, causing cramps. After my last recovery stop I pretty much returned to form. I had spotted a team mate, Trevor, go by during one of my stops and I wondered if I would be able to catch him. The first half of my marathon took 2:51:24, the second half 2:11:27. That's a serious negative split! I caught Trevor after the turnaround. It began to rain gently around then, which actually felt pretty good. I ran well until about the final five K when heel blisters started to slow me down and my legs started getting cold from the rain. But there were big crowds again, and I got a boost from that and from chatting with other racers. My aching feet were forgotten in the finishing stretch and I crossed the line strongly, soaking in the cheering crowd. Run - 5:02:51, 142/248 in M45-49, 1243 overall, avg. pace 11:34/mile.

After the race it all came home to roost. I had a pretty emotional hour talking to other finishers and getting a post-race massage. When I came out of the massage tent though I started to shiver uncontrollably, so I stumbled over to the med tent where I got some more of the magical warm chicken broth and wrapped myself in warm blankets (instead of a wet mylar film). The volunteers brought all my race bags to me so I could finally get into some dry clothes. I sat there in the war zone for about twenty minutes.

When I emerged from the med tent I dropped my bags at my car, returned to the transition area to get my bike, bought a bottle of champagne for Amy, Jill and I to celebrate with, and got back to our cottage around 10:00 PM. I never made it back to the finish line to watch anyone else cross. After a quick shower I lay down for a nap and stayed there...

Listening to: King of the Mountain by Midnight Oil from Blue Sky Mining.

Penticton Perspective

I'm back from Ironman Canada, more or less in one piece. It was simultaneously a fabulous experience and a disappointment, so I'm still processing it. This is complicated by the fact that I've dived straight in to working at the Toronto International Film Festival box office and have only had about two hours sleep since I returned to Toronto...

So here's the short version of my race: I loved the Okanagan Valley, I loved the challenge and beauty of the race course and I loved the spirit the community showed hosting the race. But bad stomach cramps in the first 12 miles of the marathon added over an hour to my race and meant that I didn't meet my race expectations. My final time was 12:16:48, about 90 minutes behind my goal. Tantalizingly, it looks like my goal time could have earned me a spot at the World Championships in Hawaii! I was 91/246 in my age group, 10:48:00 would have got me the last slot...

Full report to come later.

Listening to: I Just Want To Celebrate (Mocean Worker Remix) by Rare Earth from Motown Remixed.

The Kindness of Strangers

So here I am in Penticton, B.C., the night before Ironman Canada...

I'm staying in a lovely little cottage in Naramata, just northeast of Penticton, called Quail Hollow (yes, there are lots of quails here). I'm sharing it with Amy from Toronto who is also racing tomorrow and her friend Jill from Calgary who is here supporting her. We'd never met, but a pro athlete who is a mutual friend put my need for a place to stay together with Amy's empty second bedroom. We're getting along very well and Amy and I may see a lot of each other on the course as we have similar time expectations.

Yesterday I drove the bike course. Wow! Very scenic. It's a single 180K loop with at least three significant series of hills. It's going to be challenging (is that an understatement?), but also rewarding. I'm really excited to be riding it tomorrow.

Today as I was buying some groceries for our dinner, a woman ripped open her pack of chocolate mints and gave me one to have during the race. Not on my nutrition plan, but I think I'll carry it with me.

Dinner was a delicious "beer can chicken" barbecued by Jill, who has some serious kitchen talents. Yum. We were joined by Sylvie, another pro mutual friend, who has been struggling with accommodation problems here. We'd offered to let her stay with us, but dinner proved to be the best support we could offer.

Of course this race wouldn't be possible without the 3000+ local volunteers who are making it happen. Kindness of strangers indeed...

F-F-F-Fashion!

Last Friday I had my first "fashion" modeling gig on The Shopping Channel wearing Olympic 2010 clothing, displayed here on Kellie, my first and dearest screen wife. This is as close as I'll ever get to "The Games"! I was a bit nervous doing semi-runway stuff for the first time, especially with the cameras broadcasting it all across the nation, but it worked out. The clothes were a bit big on me though, everything was XL while I'm really a Large. The following day I had a few shows with the irrepressible Rosalie Brown (Hi Rosalie!) demonstrating Leg Magic. Always tough doing a 15 minute workout of a product intended to be used for a minute at a time...

Now I'm on full taper mode. Just a few short easy workouts left in the final few days leading up to Ironman Canada. I leave Thursday morning and race on Sunday. My bike is packed up and my other gear gathered together. I've been inspired by some of the performances I've seen at the Olympics, particularly the men's 8 rowing, marathon and triathlon (natch).

Listening to: Starry Eyed Suprise by Oakenfold from Bunkka.

On the road again

So... two weeks of massive activity and nothing to show for it on the old blog. Catchup time again!

I spent a week on the road, dragging Chris and Sheryl along, beginning a on the 18th. We drove to Lake Placid to watch Ironman USA. I also wanted to ride on the course and sign up for the 2009 race. Poor Sheryl and Chris spent most of the weekend hanging around the country inn I found for us to stay in. I had a great ride on Saturday with a dozen team mates on the Ironman USA course. It was a good workout and gave me confidence about the hills I'll be facing in Ironman Canada in four weeks.

Race day was terrible though! Torrential cold rain almost all day, with the racers unprepared for the conditions. Most of the spectators (i.e. me) were similarly unprepared. I had to abandon the sidelines a few times to warm up and buy dry clothes. Because of road closures I was effectively trapped in Lake Placid while Sheryl and Chris, and the car, were back at the inn. It was inspiring and affecting watching the racers cope with the weather, especially all my friends. I shouted encouragement to one and all and nearly wore out my cowbell. Not many pictures from the day though, as I was worried about damaging my camera. I kept running into Tara Norton, a top ranked Canadian pro athlete on the sidelines. After the race she put me in touch with a friend with a spare room in Penticton, so now I know where I'll be staying during Ironman Canada.

Although the race was still underway most of the roads were re-opened in the early evening. Sheryl and Chris came into town and we had a nice warm restaurant meal, watched The Dark Knight at the local Bijoux and then headed back to the course to watch some of the last few racers reach the finish line. Mini-review of The Dark Knight: interesting final performance from Heath Ledger, everything else about it was crap.

Monday was when the enticing part of the trip began for Sheryl and Chris. We drove into New York City, stopping briefly at my brother's house near Woodstock to drop off my bicycle. We spent three nights in Brooklyn at the funky new Nu Hotel. Lots of shopping, gallery visits, and general tourism. We visited, as I always do, my brother's old neighbourhood of Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn Pier. Subways were ridden, tour boats were traveled upon, streets were walked. We even took a bicycle cab one evening. Sheryl loved the shopping and exploring the Meatpacking District, I loved the ambience and MoMA, Chris loved the food and the NBC Studio tour. Chris hated the shopping (although he seems pleased with the summer shirt I bought him) and hated the MoMA (hardly anything's modern or art!). Incidentally, the MoMA has a great web site for iPhone users that gave commentary as we wandered the galleries!

The big buy of the trip was the Garmin GPS I picked up toward the end. I was getting sick of losing my way... It worked great and Sheryl bought herself one the next day.

Heading back toward home we stopped overnight at my brother's house to visit his family. Nice to see Maya and their girls looking well. Sadly my brother was in Mexico an assignment for Rolling Stone. Maya blew us away, as she always does, with her gourmet Indian cooking.

Since getting home I've been training like mad trying to make up for the lost week. On Saturday I rode 140K solo, on Sunday I put in a 24K run. My calves are sore as hell now! I've been massaging them with my "Stick" which has helped quite a bit, but I have a physio session scheduled for Friday morning. I spent an evening watching my recording of the German Grand Prix and rubbing my calves. An interesting race, with Lewis Hamilton setting a pace that Ferrari weren't able to match. A big shunt by Timo Glock's Toyota (see photo on the right, he was fine) bunched everyone up and Lewis had to overcome a bit of poor team strategy to win. He's back in the lead of the driver's championship now. Neither Kimi or Massa were very competitive this weekend, Ferrari has some ground to regain.

Listening to: One Horse Town by The Rembrandts from untitled.

Mountain Stage

I've spent several hours this morning riding my bike trainer while watching Stage 10 of the Tour de France. It was a mountain stage, which inspired me to push myself a bit. My upcoming Ironman race out in B.C. will have some significant climbs and I need to get some equivalent training under my belt. My son slouched on the sofa beside me playing Flash web games until he could return to his Xbox 360...

Earlier this evening I helped lead an open water swimming clinic for my triathlon club. We swam down at Balmy Beach in Lake Ontario. Seventeen members turned up for it, and the water temperature was actually pretty good. Nice workout too.

This weekend (actually tomorrow evening) I'll be driving down to Lake Placid for three purposes: get some big hills under my belt on a massive training ride, cheer on team mates that are racing in Ironman USA this Sunday, and sign up for next year's race... Sheryl and Chris will be coming along, we'll also be visiting my brother and his family north of New York City and spending a few days in New York as well. Its going to be a hectic week!

Listening to: I Love to Move In Here (Holy Ghost! Remix) by Moby from I Love To Move In Here.