Ouch

Around The Bay race start in 1896!

On Sunday I ran in the Around the Bay Road Race down in Hamilton. 5,700 runners over 30K of roads, the last ten K quite rolling... I've done this race three times before but was feeling better prepared this year and hoped to get down from the low 2:20's to perhaps as fast as 2:15.

Didn't happen. Although the weather was decent (overcast, cool and dry) I actually fell back a minute or two finishing in 2:23:55. My girlfriend Janet ran too, she was treating it as a training run but still pulled off an impressive time of 2:40:20. How could this happen to me, a celebrated marathon clinic coach?

Well I spent Saturday modeling Tony Little's Easy Shaper Total Body Exerciser on The Shopping Channel. Three live shows, the last one at 11:00 PM. Roughly two and a half hours of "weight" training: curls, presses, squats. A pretty good gadget actually. I arrived at the starting line Sunday morning exhausted and sore! It did not bode well, although I managed to hold my planned pace until about 16K. Then my quads started tightening, and cramping a bit. I had to take lots of walking breaks and even stopped to stretch a few times.

10K split: 44:08 Pace: 4:25/km
15K split: 1:07:04 Pace: 4:28/km
20K split: 1:30:59 Pace: 4:32/km
Finish Time: 2:23:55 Pace: 4:47/km
Overall Place 691, 113/592 in M45-49

That evening I also took in the Australian Formula One race with my friend Brian. Walking down into his basement entertainment room was... painful. The season opener two weeks ago in Bahrain was a bit of a snooze, although it was interesting seeing the new strategies that came from needing to carry their full fuel load from the start and the shuffled driving partnerships. There were four new teams fighting it out at the back of the pack too.

Melbourne's first corner is always interesting!

Melbourne however was a real cracker of a race. Everyone started on rain tires, and racing incidents in the first corner mixed the field up. Jenson Button made early change to dries which seemed to put him out of contention, but it proved to be an excellent move. When the front left wheel of race leader Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull failed in the middle of the race, Jenson found himself in first place! There was a long battle for fifth place between Hamilton, Webber, Massa and Alonso. It looks like the teams to beat this year will be Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren.

Listening to: Red Heart by Hey Rosetta! from Into Your Lungs.

Boston-bound!

Last weekend I raced in the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon, doing well enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I'm still hobbling around the house... Racing was a bit of a last-minute decision as I only actually signed up six days ahead, but teaching a marathon clinic and my Ironman training gave me some confidence.

This year I got a ride to the starting line from a friend, so I was able to sleep in a bit instead of lining up for the shuttle busses. The forecast was pretty good; cold but calm and clear. It was a couple of degrees above zero before the start but rose to about 8°C by the finish. I wore a pair of Adidas running tights that gave a bit of "three-season" warmth and a new Running Room long-sleeve top that was also a tiny bit "fleecy" for warmth over a technical t-shirt. I wore a lightweight headband and knitted gloves too. My shoes were new Mizuno Wave Creation 10's. I was a bit unsure about them as my last pair had started to cut into the outside of my left foot during the Muskoka 70.3 race a month before. What was missing this time was my heart-rate monitor. I decided to race "old-school" using perceived effort this time. I did however clip my iPhone to my race-belt, so I could assess my performance afterwards. I regretted that though, as the phone bounced around too much and the Nike+ software didn't activate properly for some reason. It gave me a time but not a distance!

The start was pretty straight-forward, although there was a lot of crowding in the minutes leading up to the start. It took me about 45 seconds to get to the start line after the gun sounded, during which I joked about how I was "racing" but not even breathing hard. Almost immediately I caught up to a Toronto Triathlon Club friend who is usually faster than me. He was accompanying his brother-in-law on his first marathon, so I ran with them and chatted for a few kilometers but pulled away when I realised that I was not holding my intended pace. I had grabbed a 3:20 pace band from the race expo and really wanted to hold 4:44/km.

The race played out nicely from there. I held my pace well although the way the marathon and half marathon courses diverged and reconnected made the distance markers a bit confusing and gave me a moment of panic when they appeared to swap... I tucked away the headband and gloves around the 10K mark. It was great seeing friends (Paula and Jennifer seemed to be everywhere) along the course, working in the aid stations (Dan Rishworth from Enduro Sport gave me my first Gatorade) and at the finish line. I get a huge boost from that support. Up to about 30K I felt strong and passed a lot of people. But shortly after the turnaround point on the waterfront section my ankles started to get sore and my quads tightened up. I pushed on though, only taking three walking breaks.

Climbing up University Avenue I knew I was going to easily achieve my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon by coming in under 3:30:59. My 3:20 target would have also been met if I hadn't taken my walking breaks, but I still crossed the line at 3:24:22, giving me a Personal Best time by 6:34. My overall pace was a decent 4:51/km. Yeah me! No race photos yet, but here's a link to an interesting PDF that the organisers provide to each finisher. I finished 223 out of 1930.

Funny story: By random chance I reconnected with some friends from my days at Sick Kids; Dr. Brenda Gallie, a cancer researcher focusing on retinoblastoma, and her assistant Lucy. They had some fundraisers racing for their charity and had brought over a young Kenyan runner (David Kipsang). I spoke to him after the race and learned that he'd been delayed getting to the Half Marathon start line. He started a couple of minutes after everyone else and had to run through a field of 4900 runners, but still managed to finish a strong second! What if...

After spending the rest of Sunday curled up in a ball whimpering, I drove over to my friend Brian's on Monday to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix on the PVR. It was an eventful race with qualifying scrambled as a result of heavy rain. There was no rain on race day, but plenty of incidents. A three-car crash on the first lap nearly led to a trackside fist fight. During the ensuing safety car deployment McLaren's Kovalainen left the pit with the fuel hose still attached and Kimi Raikkonen had to drive through the resulting flames. Fortunately both were able to continue without consequence. Jenson Button managed a fifth-place finish giving him enough points to clinch the 2009 Driver's Championship in spite of starting 14th on the back of a gutsy drive. His teammate Rubens Barrichello was on course for a podium finish before an overaggressive passing move by Lewis Hamilton cut his left rear tire. Nick Heidfeld's BMW sputtered to a halt on lap 28, out of gas. One more race on the calendar; Abu Dhabi on November 1st.

Listening to: Day After Day by Inward Eye from Throwing Bricks Instead of Kisses.

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.

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.

Nose to the grindstone

In my last post I mentioned a new job. For the last six weeks I've been working in a friend's law office helping with their municipal tax appeal business. It's been a pretty hectic time as I came on-board just a few days before the deadline for requesting an appeal of the 2009 property valuations. The phones were ringing off the hook and I was learning the business on the fly! I did quite well though. Now we are just as busy entering data, a lot of data, and preparing for the actual appeals. It's going to take months, which means lots of paid work but also lots of repetition.

Today I got out of town with my triathlon club for a group ride. Excellent weather and good company for 60K. It was wonderful to feel the wind on my face and the road under my wheels. My next Ironman is less than three months away, it's kind of snuck up on me. I've got to get serious about my training! This is tempered by a need to restrict my swim training as I've managed to hurt my right shoulder rotator cuff. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my Marathon Clinic on a 33K long run, the final significant run before they head off for the Ottawa Marathon on May 24th. Last Sunday's 29K run went better than I expected, a comfortable pace that brought me home in 2:30.

Recent films: The Wrestler on DVD. An interesting character study, but the conclusion felt a bit forced. Mickey Rourke gave a great come-back performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Marissa Tomei's performance as the stripper Cassidy was brave as she spend a substantial chunk of screen time topless. I saw Safina Uberoi's documentary A Good Man at the Hot Docs film festival last night. The film is about a struggling Australian sheep farmer with a quadriplegic wife (he married her that way) who builds a brothel... You couldn't make that kind of thing up, could you? It was well made, but at times I was just shaking my head at the what they were going through. Perhaps an Australian farmer is the only kind of person on earth so inured to hard work and disaster that they'd be able to step up to a task like that.

Last weekend's sparsely-attended Bahrain Grand Prix did not feature rain. It was hot, hot, hot and looked like a set from the first Star Wars movie... Most of the action was in the first few laps and the rest of the race revolved around tires and pit stops. In the end Jenson Button of Brawn GP was back on top for his third victory in four races. Sebastien Vettel's Red Bull car was unable to challenge because of traffic in the early part of the race but did hold off Jarno Trulli's Toyota. Lewis Hamilton kept McLaren respectable by finishing fourth while Kimi Raikkonen earned Ferrari's first points of the season with a sixth place finish. Next stop, Barcelona.

Final thought: Is this Swine Flu thing really just another regular flu or a real new health risk? "Regular" flu kills about 500,000 people a year, but they're mostly health-compromised already.

Listening to: Don't Let Me Fall by Lenka from Lenka.

A Million Stories in the Naked City?

So the blogging motivation is dropping. What will my son have to read years from now when he tries to understand his self-absorbed father? No more getting sucked into climate change debates with pig-headed contrarians... I've also been working full-time lately and have a lot less spare time. More about that next post even though that is what the title is hinting at!

The day after my last post I ran in the Around the Bay race in Hamilton. 30K in a gentle but fairly steady cold rain. Comparing my time, 2:21:40, with the past two years I noticed with some disappointment that my times didn't show meaningful improvement. 2008 was 2:22:48, 2007 was 2:20:54. I'll never make it to the Olympics this way! I had a closer look though and found a silver lining. My finishing position in my age group rose over the three years - 82nd, 84th and 88th percentile. Poor weather has been a progressively bigger factor each year, so my similar times actually reflect a steady if modest improvement.

I also spent about half of the race this year "coaching" a runner I encountered on the course. We yo-yoed a bit around the 11K mark and I noticed her t-shirt said "32 Division". For a joke as I passed her I said that 32 Division was the worst precinct in the city and we struck up a conversation. Her police officer husband was running in a relay team but we never saw him. It turned out that she'd never raced further than 10K, hadn't done a training run longer than 18K and hadn't been planning to drink anything during the race! I kept her company for a little over 12K giving her advice (drink some damn Gatorade!) and a bit of moral support. Around the 25K mark as we hit the serious hills I gave her some final encouragement and hit the gas. Some of the runners I've been teaching in my marathon clinic were starting to pass me and it was making me itchy.

I felt pretty good the whole way, but when I "hit the gas" to make up for the slower middle segment I pretty much red-lined the old ticker. Remembering a radio documentary about an elite running friend of mine who had a heart attack during a race has made me promise myself to abolish finishing line sprints. That's the danger zone.

The Formula One season has also started and three races have been run. New regulations have effectively reset all the team standings. Brand-new team Brawn GP, created from the sold-off Honda factory team, stands head and shoulders above the rest with Red Bull and Toyota challenging. Former powerhouses Ferrari and McLaren are way down the rankings. The new leading teams all took an aggressive but defensible approach to a new aerodynamic regulation about the diffuser at the rear of Formula One cars. The other big change, KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), gives six seconds of extra power each lap but is proving troublesome. Only a few teams are using it right now. Slick tires and reduced aerodynamic downforce have also made handling and braking much more sensitive for some teams. The tech will even out in a few races, but it will still be an interesting new racing field.

The first race of the season in Melbourne saw Brawn GP's two cars, driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, start and finish at the front, with Toyota's two cars right behind. The second race in Malaysia started in dry conditions but ended in a torrential downpour. The race was stopped and couldn't be restarted before time expired. Jenson Button's Brawn GP car won the race standing still. The third race in Shanghai ran in steady and often heavy rain and started behind the safety car. Lots of drama. Red Bull got their act together in a big way qualifying well and finished 1-2 ahead of the two Brawn GP cars for their first race win. McLaren finally clawed their way back into the points finishing fifth and sixth, but Ferrari is having their worst year in decades with no points so far. Speaking as a fan the season is off to a great start with lots of passing and exciting performances throughout the field. I'm sure there is considerable angst in the slumping team's garages though.

Listening to: Getting Better (mono) by The Beatles from a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band bootleg. Who knew the mono mixes were so superior? Eye-opening.

What I did on my "winter vacation"

Wow, has it really been a month since I posted here? Funny that the last post should be a report from a winter half marathon and this post is the night before another race (the Around the Bay 30K race in Hamilton). I'm fighting a pretty bad head cold, so I'm not sure if I'll "race" or just "run"...

I've been writing during this intermission but mostly arguing with smug global warming denialists on a "scientific" web site. It's amazing how they can keep bringing up the same discredited arguments and flawed logic and think that they're clever. Every now and then I go through a phase of feeling obligated to point out their incorrect facts and falsehoods but as George Bernard Shaw advised, "never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

So what else is happening? I've seen a few films. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - an interesting film but left me a bit flat. Watchmen - good special effects and an interesting premise of "superheroes" as deeply flawed vigilantes. But poorly executed and I could have done with less time spent with a large glowing blue penis waving in my face...

Last weekend I was on set for three days straight, often pretending to read a prop book. Given the time I was facing I decided to read the damn thing cover to cover. Train by Pete Dexter. It was a quick read, luckily. Train is a "film noir" novel set in 1950's L.A., mainly about a black boy with a gift for golf. A bit racially stereotyped, but it kept me going.

This evening it Melbourne Australia will be the first race of the 2009 Formula One season. Big changes to the rules are in place and team financing is in turmoil because of the economic downturn. The rule changes, aimed at increasing the chances to overtake, are as follows: electrical energy boost allowed for six seconds per lap, slick tires again, restricted aerodynamic parts to reduce turbulence for following cars, two adjustments to the front wing allowed per lap. Other changes are aimed at reducing the cost of racing, they might show up as lower reliability or less chances to improve the car during the season. At the end of qualifying in Melbourne, Brawn GP Racing, a team cobbled together after Honda abruptly pulled out of F1 a few months ago, is going to have both their cars in the front row so this may be an interesting season!

Listening to: Wherefore And Why by Gordon Lightfoot from Gord's Gold.

Hitting the Streets

This morning saw the ninth running of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and simultaneously the first running of street circuit the new Singapore Grand Prix.

I ran down to City Hall with some friends to watch the race for a bit and to try to spot my friend Brian who was racing in the half marathon. I arrived just in time to catch him running the last 200m and got a couple of snaps. He was digging pretty deep... It was a great day for a race, dry and cool. After chatting with Brian for a minute and with other friends I ran into, I turned around and ran back home. Clicking out my run on gmap-pedometer.com I discovered that my run was just over the half marathon distance! So I ran one too and in about the same time...

Brian and I have a decades long tradition of watching Formula One races together. We've missed quite a few this summer, but got back on track this afternoon after we'd both recovered from our exertions. The new Singapore Grand Prix was run this morning, which meant a first-ever night race so the European TV audience could watch in their usual Sunday afternoon time slot. It was an eventful race, even though street circuits are hard to pass on.

The Ferrari's were up front again, with Massa on pole and Kimi in third. Between them was Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren, and notably in 15th place was Fernando Alonso who had been fast in practice but had technical problems during qualifying. The start was smooth, with Massa pulling slowly away from Hamilton. Kimi lost a place and struggled to stay in touch at first; he soon came right though and was closing in on Hamilton. But when mid-fielder Nelson Piquet crashed on lap 15 everything changed.

The safety car brought everyone back together. Several cars running out of fuel had to pit during the attendant pit lane closure, this meant that they had to later take a ten second stop and go penalty. When the pit lane reopened most of the remaining cars dove in to refuel while the safety car was still circulating. Massa pitted from the lead, but accidentally left before the fuel rig had been removed. It snapped off and was dragged like an enormous snake to the end of the pit lane where Massa had to wait for his pit crew to run up and remove it. This left him suddenly at the back of the entire field. Just when he seemed to have the race sewn up he went from hero to zero.

On the other side of the coin was Fernando Alonso, who had started in 15th. He was suddenly in the lead, with only the drivers who had to come back in for pit lane penalties ahead of him! He managed to stay comfortably out front for the rest of the race and had his first victory in over a year. Hamilton lost few places during the same safety car period, but was able to get back up to third by the finish. Kimi also recovered ground, but a brief loss of control in the closing stage of the race led him to bounce of the wall exiting turn ten and put him out.

Big week coming up: shooting two TV commercials and doing another day on The Shopping Channel. If only every week could be like that.

Listening to: Here's Where the Story Ends by The Sundays from Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

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.

When Birds Attack

Last Sunday was the Peterborough "Half Iron" triathlon... I had a better race than last year, where glute problems forced me to walk for 10 minutes on the bike course. I managed to improve my time by 13 minutes. We had "great" weather with the result that the run was pretty hot. Luckily the lake was close at hand afterwards for a cooling dunk. The highlight of the race was getting attacked by a Redwing Blackbird at about the 20K mark during the bike! I heard him swooping and screeching, but didn't realise how close he came until a rider behind me told me that he'd come within inches.

Once again I drove up the morning of the race, although this time I drove "down" as I was spending most of the weekend at a friend's cottage north of Orillia (we went to Casino Rama and I lost $25). It took about an hour and 40 minutes to drive to the race in the morning, starting shortly after 5:00 AM. Yuck! The drive was beautiful though as Google plotted a course along some fast back roads and there was a very pretty mist over the fields most of the trip.

Getting setup in Beavermead Park was straightforward and I ran into lots of friends. I managed to have a last-second problem though: trapped in the porta potty line with only minutes to the start! I managed to squeeze into my wet suit in record time and reached the water's edge literally as the horn sounded. I didn't even break stride! On the way to the start I also realised that my electronic car keys were still in a back pocket, so I partly unzipped and threw them to a race organiser to hold until after the race. Took me an hour to track them down after I finished...

The swim went fairly well, 33:16, 1:40/100m. 4/50 in M45-49, 52/469 overall. Lots of weeds though. I didn't do a very good job of sighting either, so I covered some extra ground and wasn't able to draft behind a faster swimmer. T1 went OK except for some trash talk from a friend as she waited for her relay swimmer to arrive. I'm always slow in T1, so a short corrective conversation gave me a chance to catch my breath anyway.

The bike was better than last year, 2:46:49, 32.4 kph. 19/50 in M45-49, 174/469 overall. I guesstimate that my heart rate averaged about 75% of max. Last year I had terrible glute problems, so I was watching for that. Sure enough at about the half way point they started firing. I slowed a bit and took every chance to get out of the saddle. That settled them down and I was able to push again. Being so fast out of the water does mean getting passed a lot on the bike though. The first 50K were all about staying to the right. As a faster Club member said though as he passed me, it was pretty "drafty" out there. Drafting is a no-no in triathlons... Riders were coming by in "pelotons" of 5 - 10. Then I had about 30K where it was basically just me and the road. The last 10K got interesting again as I started passing people who had gone out too hard, although a team mate did reel me in. T2 was quick, but I made the mistake of not applying fresh sunblock...

The run was mixed. 1:53:26, 5:23 min/k. 17/50 in M45-49, 142/469 overall. The run course returned to the old configuration this year; a short out and back loop, past the finish onto a long stretch of the bike course, then the same short loop at end. Fairly flat. No shade, so we all felt the heat. I started looking for sunblock as soon as I got onto the section that followed the bike course and after a few aid stations found a volunteer who had some in her car. That cost me a few minutes, but my skin thanked me. The first 8K went well, but then my left foot started developing a hot spot. I eventually stopped to check it. There was no visible problem but I put my sock back on with more care. It cropped up again at about the 15K mark so I stopped again and checked both feet. Conclusion: ditch the socks (after the race) I've been wearing the last few races. Not right for my feet. So some time lost to "technical issues" and I walked all the aid stations. I felt steady and strong the whole way, but just didn't have the pace. In training runs I have no problem maintaining a pace significantly under 5:00/K pace though so I have to figure out a way to keep that speed after hours on the bike. I probably averaged 80% of max heart rate.

At the finish line I discovered that my parents had come up from Cobourg, so I got a quick hug from them before they turned around and went right back. It turned out that my mother was trying to catch the rest of the epic Federer/Nadal final at Wimbledon. I had a nice long dip in the lake, hung out with friends for a bit, got a finish line massage (actually acupuncture with electrical stimulation...) and finally made my way to the food tent were I got something solid in me.

Final result: 5:17:15. 13/50 in M45-49, 135/469 overall.

When I got back into town I joined my friend Brian to watch the British Grand Prix, which we'd recorded. A very interesting race with rain playing a big part in the result. Lewis Hamilton did a great job of getting up from fourth to second by the first corner, and passed his team mate a few laps later. Smart tire choices kept him safely in the lead for the rest of the race although Kimi Raikkonen looked threatening until his team made a bad tire choice. There were plenty of incidents through out the race as the rain came and went. Kimi ended up fourth, behind Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen.

Now back to training for Ironman Canada... Six weeks to go!

Listening to: Blackbird by Sarah McLachlan from Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2.

Teach the Controversy!

If you've been a regular reader of my blog, which I can almost guarantee you aren't (that hit counter is getting to be an embarrassment), you know that I have a disgust for religious fundamentalists, especially those that deny evolution. Recently I came across a web site selling t-shirts that mock the "teach the controversy" approach of crypto-creationists. Tip: there's no credible controversy about the concept, but the details are constantly being refined or expanded. Maybe Satan buried fake dinosaur bones to confuse believers, eh? Or maybe we should seriously discuss astrology in science classes.

Recently there was an e-mail exchange between a prominent hard-core religious fundamentalist and a evolutionary biologist which resulted in, to use the language of today's youth, epic pwnage. Maybe someone deserves a t-shirt...

A different controversy with a sadly similar intellectual basis is taking place out in Alberta, amongst other places, where the Catholic bishops are opposing the immunisation of young girls against cervical cancer. When you strip away the arm waving it boils down to wanting to control the morals and sexuality of women rather than protect them from a preventable and sometimes fatal disease. The bishops equate protection from STDs with encouragement of pre-marital sex. This position is deeply hypocritical, medically harmful, and smugly paternalistic in the worse way.

In happier news, I enjoyed watching the French Grand Prix almost live on Sunday. The main developments revolved around Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. Lewis started in 13th after a ten place penalty for his pit lane crash in the last race and never really made any progress forward as he drove too aggressively and had a number of minor contacts. He was also given a drive-through penalty for a failed passing attempt. Kimi on the other hand started at the front and stayed there until his exhaust pipe broke off and began flapping around. He lost power and had to let his team mate Filipe Massa by until enough of the engine cover had burned off (!) to allow the exhaust gases to escape. Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen had a good fight for third in the closing laps, but Jarno held him off.

Two spinning classes planned for today, gotta get those "kilometers" in! Tomorrow is a swim and then a modeling job for Home Depot.

Listening to: Big Me by Foo Fighters from Foo Fighters.

D's. Whoo hoo!

So my son's Grade 9 exams are over and he has his "preliminary final" marks for all his courses. He went into exams with five failing subjects out of seven, but he managed to pull himself together enough to get to a passing grade in all of them! Who knew I'd be celebrating my gifted-program son not failing? Well there you go.

In other news, I finally watched the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday, eight days after the race. I'd managed to remain completely ignorant of the result until the following Saturday when a friend let some details slip before I could plug my ears. What an interesting race! Drivers complaining about the track surface, last minute track repairs, spin outs galore and race-changing drivers errors...

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Robert Kubica (BMW) were duking it out with Lewis having a reasonable gap at the front, but crashes that brought out the safety car bunched them back up. They all pitted together but Kimi and Kubica, who had quicker pit stops, were lined up at the pit lane exit waiting for a stoplight to let them back onto the track. Lewis Hamilton didn't notice them and plowed into the back of Kimi, ending both of their races. Kubica avoided damage and went on to win his and BMW's first race. His teammate Nick Heidfeld was second, making for a perfect race for BMW, while David Coulthard made an appearance on the podium for Red Bull. There were some great passing moves, particularly by Felipe Massa, through out the field. That's the upside of an unpredictably slippery track. Kubica is now narrowly in the lead of the driver's championship, with Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen close behind. Its great to have such a competitive season.

This week was another Ontario Tourism photo shoot, this time with "my wife" and another couple. We spent three days "shopping", dining, wine tasting and playing golf, all for the camera, down in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Ironically Sheryl and I were there just a month ago, but we weren't paid for doing it. I didn't know who else had been cast, but my "wife" turned out to be the same woman from the last shoot and the other wife was a friend from The Shopping Channel.

Turning to my crazy "nine weeks to Ironman Canada" training program, this morning I rode out of the city at 7:00 AM for a three and a half hour ride, where I encountered all kinds of triathlon club teammates out for their rides. This was followed immediately by a 48 minute "brick" run and then a long nap...

Earlier this evening Chris and I went with Sheryl to see Mike Meyers' new comedy The Love Guru. A friend of Sheryl's was on the production team and there were tonnes of Toronto locations. A paper-thin plot with lots of crude juvenile humour, but a few guilty chuckles. Not much more to say about it...

Listening to: Return to Innocence by Enigma from Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits.

Seven Hours of Weightlifting!

Yes, I've just finished spending seven hours lifting weights. So I'm a bit stiff. I spent all day Sunday, except for one brief excursion back into town, at The Shopping Channel demonstrating the Bowflex Extreme. Over the course of 24 hours we did seven live one hour shows. Guess what? We kept the resistance pretty damn low...

Our broadcasts started at midnight Saturday, but I had previously planned to spend the weekend at a training camp with my triathlon club up in Collingwood. So I drove up to Collingwood Friday afternoon, had a nice 60K ride that evening and followed up Saturday with a 100K ride and 9K run. There are plenty of challenging hills in the Collingwood area, I even tackled Scenic Caves Road with a team mate at the end of the day. After a serious three hour nap followed by dinner out with the gang I drove straight to the studio. I've posted some photos from the day on my Flickr page.

Nice to see some good news from Mars: the Phoenix Mars Lander touched down safely on Sunday night in the Martian Arctic, which looks more like our Arctic than I expected. Nice for Spirit and Opportunity to have some robotic company. Although Spirit and Opportunity have been operating for an undreamed of four years the Phoenix Lander faces "death" in a few short months. It's Arctic location means that when winter sets in the Lander will likely be buried in ice and run out of power.

I mentioned above that I left The Shopping Channel studio briefly on Sunday. I had just enough of a gap between two shows to whip into town to watch that morning's Monaco Formula One Grand Prix with my friend Brian on his PVR. With gas prices at a record high ($1.27/liter!) I had to pause for a moment, but tradition won out over penny-pinching.

Monaco is Formula One's most glamorous circuit, but also the slowest. It's a crazy twisty city street course, with almost no view ahead for the drivers. Sunday's race was further slowed by heavy rain, which meant that the race ended by reaching the two hour time-limit (they almost made the full distance...). Because I only had 90 minutes to watch the race in anyway we used the PVR's fast-forward option except for when there was an interesting development. But there were plenty of those. The wet conditions and lack of view led to lots of spin outs and collisions. Although the Ferrari's started on the front row there was a lot of back and forth as collisions, repairs, pit stops, safety cars and weather changes came heavily into play. Lewis Hamilton overcame an early error to ultimately win the day, Kimi struggled for grip but was holding third when he had to accept a drive-through penalty, he eventually lost grip near then end of the race and drove into the back of Adrian Sutil's Force India car, ending Adrian's best race ever and dropping Kimi back to ninth. Massa started on the pole but events lead him to a third place finish behind Lewis Hamilton and fifth-place starter Robert Kubica. Kimi's poor result and Lewis' strong one means that Lewis has taken the lead in the Driver's Championship.

This afternoon will be my "big acting break", I'm shooting a scene for a Discovery Channel documentary about the human body. I'll be portraying a sperm, swimming in my triathlon wetsuit toward the Ontario Place Cinesphere (standing in for a human egg)! The things we do for art...

Listening to: Pork and Beans by Weezer from Weezer (their albums are all called "Weezer", this one's got a red cover). This song's video is a great collection internet memes...

Where did I go?

Where did I go? To bed. I've been battle a nasty head cold and a bad cough for two weeks now! Yike. This photo is from a recent long run, which I've been trying to keep up in spite of my general illness. Now let's see if I can remember what's happened since my last post.

Sheryl's back from Australia with many entertaining anecdotes to impart, perhaps not so entertaining from her perspective... Overall she had a great trip, with lots of relations visited, her new granddaughter presented, and time spent with her daughter living in Sydney.

There have been two Formula One races, Spain and Turkey. In Spain the Ferrari's were one-two followed by Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. Hamilton's team mate Heikki Kovalainen had a massive high-speed crash that buried his car underneath the crash barrier, but he proved to be unharmed other than a minor concussion. In Turkey Massa's Ferrari triumphed, while Lewis Hamilton managed to stay just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Istanbul Park is a great track for overtaking, which made for a lot of great battles throughout the pack. A fun race.

Last weekend Chris and I went to see the new Hollywood blockbuster Iron Man. Kind of fun actually, which is a relief as these comic book properties can be terribly mishandled. I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr.'s performance a lot and the effects were excellent. Never mind that there's no way that funky metal suit could hold enough fuel to go more than ten meters...

Speaking of fantasy, I've finally come 'round on the Sci Fi TV series Battlestar Galactica. I wrote it off when it arrived, remembering the seventies version and linking "BSG" in my mind with the goofy Babylon Five series. But a friend's wife finally convinced me to give it a try, and I've used my recent downtime to watch the first two seasons almost back to back (thank you BitTorrent). Great writing, great performances. The effects are generally good, but I hate noisy space explosions and jet fighter-style spacecraft maneuvering. That part I just have to suck up. Lots of relevance to a post-9/11 Iraq War world too... I wonder if I'll catch up before the fourth and final season finishes.

So I'll close off, still hacking away, but planning a big cycling workout tomorrow followed by an overnight trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake with Sheryl.

Listening to: Again and Again by The Bird and the Bee from The Bird and the Bee. Check out the great viral Mac-lover's video for it on YouTube.

Flickering Flame

When I was a teenager in the seventies, swimming with one of Canada's top teams, the Olympics had a lot of relevance to me. I knew people who had qualified and there had even been a remote chance that I could make the cut myself. But the Olympics haven't aged very well...

The IOC has long struck me as largely a collection of corrupt self-interested politicians, in some cases "reformed" fascists, with every host city selection seeming to be a back-room deal. The IOC's decisions seem to be made in the interests of the bureaucracy, not the athletes, and are often breathtakingly hypocritical. The expense of hosting the Games is massive, frequently with serious and negative consequences for ordinary citizens.

Part of me thinks the whole mess should go back to naked men wrestling in the sand. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

When Beijing was "awarded" the 2008 Summer Games, my doubts were redoubled. China strikes me as a ruthless and deeply regimented society, the opposite of the alleged Olympic political and environmental ideals. Watching the latest round of political repression in Tibet and reading about China's attempt to momentarily reduce pollution during the coming Games brought home to me how the IOC had betrayed the athletes it professes to exalt. Now every ceremonial event has become a flash-point for protest, and the symbolic Olympic flame has actually been extinguished several times already along its route to Beijing.

The "Olympic ideal" is going to face six months of critical scrutiny and intense political protest. This is probably an excellent thing, but it leaves me thinking of the athletes who have dedicated years of their lives to compete at these Games. Personally, I'm torn over my own response. I want to boycott the entire business, but want to recognise and see the legitimate athletic competition, particularly the swimming and triathlon events. I may weaken and only refuse to watch the opening and closing ceremonies. I would also support the athletic events if the Canadian contingent refused to attend the ceremonies.

Moving on to other controversial international sports, I watched the Bahrain Grand Prix last night. A good result for Ferrari, starting second and fourth but finishing first and second. BMW did well, with Robert Kubica on his first ever pole position and a third place finish. McLaren struggled, with Hamilton nearly stalling at the start, dropping back from third to tenth. A collision with his past team mate Alonso dropped Hamilton even further back. An interesting race on an excellent track.

All that is a bit overshadowed by some off-track developments. Max Mosley, President of the FIA has been at the center of a sex scandal involving a "nazi-style orgy in a torture dungeon"! Max's position seems to be "none of your business" but I don't that's likely to stick...

Listening to: Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil from Blue Sky Mining.

Another Season Begins

Last night I watched the Malaysian Grand Prix with my friend Brian, a week ago we watched the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix. Only sixteen more to go! Brian and I have watched almost every race together for thirteen years now. A bit of a ritual...

Quick summary of the two races: No computerised traction control allowed this season, so there will be plenty of driving errors and greater speed differences at the start.

In Melbourne "my" driver, Kimi Raikkonen, managed to survive two serious braking errors and fought his way up from 16th (owing to a problem in qualifying) to third before his Ferrari coasted to a stop in the closing stages. The McLaren's ran strongly all day, Lewis Hamilton started at the front and stayed there comfortably. The Ferrari's were perhaps the fastest but that meant little as both cars failed to finish. The first race of the season is always a bit chaotic and this year was no exception. Lots of collisions and other incidents. Only 7 of the 22 cars finished!

In Malaysia the Ferrari's were on the pole and it was the McLaren's starting down the grid because of a penalty assessed during qualifying. Kimi and Massa were untouchable. Kimi got past Massa on pitstop strategy, but Massa was bitten by the lack of traction control late in the race anyway and spun out. Lewis Hamilton fought his way up from 9th to 5th, but was never really competitive. His teammate Heikki Kovalainen made it up from 8th to 3rd though, putting two Finns on the podium.

Otherwise last week was a busy one for me. I did a two day photo shoot for Ontario Tourism out in scenic Prince Edward County where my "wife" and I had a cooking class, went antiquing, visited an art gallery, a winery and a brewery, relaxed in a luxury suite, and browsed in a bookstore. With a production crew of ten following our every move. You should go there! :-)

I also did two days of fitness modeling on The Shopping Channel. Bowflex four times on Saturday and four different gadgets, five times each, on Sunday. All this while I was hoping, but failing, to get a solid long run in before resting up for the 30K "Around the Bay" race in Hamilton this coming Sunday (bib number 4270 if you want to check my results). I did manage to do a 15K workout before heading out to The Shopping Channel on Sunday morning.

Listening to: Where The Streets Have No Name by U2 from The Joshua Tree.

Kiss me, I'm not Irish!

St. Patrick's Day is upon us, and I invariably do my best to ignore the whole faux Celtic mess. But this year, because I've been teaching a 5K running clinic, I'll be down at the Steam Whistle Brewery with my students racing in the Achilles St. Patrick's Day 5K Run. There's a post-race beer and bowl of "Irish Chili" for all the runners, with an expected temperature of just above freezing I think the chili will be the preferred recovery technique.

I just got a mad idea; I'm going to ride down to the race on my street bike! It will be about 12K each way. I've been reading Simon Whitfield's blog, SQWRACING, and he's posted a lot of bike training video footage that has me aching to feel some pavement under my wheels again.

Here's a photo from my iPhone: On Thursday I helped a makeup student friend out by being the subject for her makeup effects exam. The final "look" was a vagrant after a fight... I kept the makeup on afterward so I could surprise my son, and didn't end up removing it until my 5K clinic so they could get a laugh too. Click on it to see it larger!

Earlier this evening Chris and I met up with Sheryl and her grandson. We had a nice quick dinner at Spring Rolls and then headed over to the movie-plex to see Horton Hears a Who!. Only problem was that little Oliver got a rare stomachache and really wanted to get back to his Mum. That left Chris and I with pre-paid tickets to a kid's movie... We sheepishly took our seats and sat through some imaginative animation and flashes of clever dialog, but sometimes a good little story just can't be stretched to feature length. Of course Oliver's stomach returned to normal about ten minutes later, while Sheryl was driving him home. "Can we go back to see the movie with Chris and Ben?"

In a few minutes the first Formula One race of the 2008 season will begin down in Melbourne Australia. Brian and I are taping it, we'll watch it together after dinner Sunday night. No spoiler e-mails please! Looks like another McLaren/Ferrari season with BMW lurking in the shadows. Last year's rookie sensation, Lewis Hamilton, is on the pole for this race. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, had a mechanical problem in qualifying and will be starting 16th. This season will have a night race in Singapore, and traction control has been eliminated. This promises to produce some hairy starts...

Listening to: Will It Go Round in Circles by Billy Preston from Ultimate Collection.

It Ain't Over 'Til Its Over

I watched the year's final Formula One race, in Brazil, on TV with my friend on Sunday. What a great finish to the season! Three drivers were in contention, with the rookie Lewis Hamilton having a solid lead. All the contenders were up at the front for the start. A poor start and an over-aggressive corner dropped Lewis back to eighth on the first lap. Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari was ahead of Lewis and Fernando Alonso's McLarens on the track, but still "behind" them in points if the race finished as they were lined up... Then a surprise, but brief, mechanical problem hit Lewis' car! He dropped back to last place. Lewis managed to claw his way back up to seventh, but it wasn't enough. Kimi won the race and the Driver's Championship by a single point!

This weekend's workouts were a bit abbreviated. Saturday's planned five hour ride was delayed by problems replacing a broken chain and then interrupted by two flats. And it was bloody windy. So the ride shrank to 2:40. I was keen to put in a 30K run on Sunday morning as my Ironman training plan wanted. Wiser heads in my running group convinced me to do 16K instead as I'm still technically recovering from my marathon last weekend. Only six weeks until my Ironman...

Listening to: Finally (f. Julie McKnight) by Kings of Tomorrow from Hed Kandi - Deeper.

Training, training and training

Last Friday night I took Chris and his friend to the taping of the Rick Mercer Report. Chris had managed to get free tickets to the season premier. It looked like we might not get there in time, but we just made it although Chris was berating me the whole way. Chris and his friend enjoyed the show, as did I. The taping went very smoothly, only taking 45 minutes. Afterwards Chris got Rick's autograph to complete the star treatment.

It was a busy weekend of training. Saturday morning started with a 4 1/2 hour 120K ride followed by a 6K run. I'd hoped to join up with some Club mates, but we never connected. I did encounter a couple of other triathletes out on solo training rides though so I had company for a small part of the day. Mainly just me and my iPod, and a sore bum. I think I should invest in a serious pair of cycling shorts as I start cranking up the distance.

Sunday got off to a slower start as Chris and I watched the Japanese Grand Prix with Brian. The race took place in the wet, with occasional torrential rain fall. It proved to be quite an interesting race with the slippery conditions with extremely poor visibility leading to lots of reversals of fortune. The race started behind the safety car and they weren't "released" until lap 18. In the end Lewis Hamilton finished where he started, as did Kimi Raikkonen (first and third). Poor Mark Weber crashed out of the race near the end when he had a lock on second place. Doubly hard because he had apparently been battling food poisoning and had thrown up in his full face helmet at the start! Bleah. His crash was the result of a collision with a team mate, who was later seen weeping in the team garage. They were both on track for sensational results.

After the race I returned home briefly before setting out on a 31K run, again running alone with only my iPod for company. Practice for my Ironman I guess. Funnily enough however I did encounter one of the triathletes I'd spoken to earlier on the bike. She was cycling home just as I was setting out to run!

Listening to: Dancing in Chains by Akido from Blink.