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.

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.

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.

Evacuation Zone

I went out for my last long run before Ironman Canada on Sunday morning. I do these Sunday morning runs from The Running Room's Yonge St. store because there's always a big turnout and the selected routes vary quite a lot, which helps keeps things interesting. This time the 29K route we were going to follow headed off to the northwest.

The run proved eventful... First as we crossed the 401 freeway, Canada's busiest, I noticed that there were no cars on it. That was a bit odd. After my run I learned that there had been a massive propane depot explosion in the area. 12,000 people had been evacuated in the middle of the night and as many as 50 homes are apparently unlivable. It appears that there were two fatalities, one during the initial blast and another during the containment effort. Our route actually skirted the evacuation zone!

During the course of our run we were also detoured several times due to minor flooding on the parkland paths we were partially following. The first one we hit, a "drowned" bridge, looked modest enough so I waded across barefoot (after chasing a heron off the path). But the rest were too big and we had to detour around them. Between that and the usual minor map mis-readings we turned our 29K route into a 33K one! Still a good solid run, completed in 2:38.

Saturday was spent getting vibrated on The Shopping Channel. I managed to get back home for a two hour bike ride on my trainer, and in the evening dropped in on Sheryl's Bollywood party. The ride was great, averaging 32kph, but the party was a disappointment as a lot of guests didn't show up because of heavy rain. My assorted tray of Indian sweets was well received though!

Today was supposed to be my training day for the Toronto International Film Festival, where I'll be working as a Box Office Line Supervisor, but Chris developed an earache over the weekend that kept him awake all night. So we spend several hours at the doctor's waiting for a missed appointment. The doctor thinks it's transient but we have a prescription as a backup.

Listening to: Every Day Is Exactly the Same (Sam Fog vs. Carlos D Mix) by Nine Inch Nails from Every Day Is Exactly The Same (Remixes).

Release the Hounds!

I had a physio session this morning on my aching legs that brought tears to my eyes. Thanks Cindy... I feel much better now though and have just finished a spinning class. I'm about to bike 15K down to an outdoor Olympic pool for a long swim.

I am so eager for the sound of the starting gun at Ironman Canada. Let me at it!

Listening to: Thank You World by World Party from Goodbye Jumbo.

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.

Bring It On!

Wow, last weekend was a big one for me. Saturday's ride was planned to be "big" but some missed turns out in the countryside resulted in me realising that I was a long way from home when I began approaching my target distance, a full Ironman bike leg of 180K. I ended up doing 200K in just under 7 hours! I cursed myself a bit, but was very pleased to get home tired but undefeated. I even got a solid little run immediately afterwards. It was damn cold though, I had to delay my start over an hour to wait for the temperature to rise above freezing. Winter running pants, cycling "booties" (best money I ever spent...), two cycling shirts and a vest, and winter riding gloves were all in use. I was also wearing my Nike winter running cap underneath my helmet.

The late start and detours left me a bit short of time though and I had to scramble to meet up with Sheryl and Adrian. We'd all been invited by Adrian's friend Sean to his in-laws country potluck and Guy Fawkes Night celebration. I dealt that buffet table a mighty blow after my day's training. They put on a pretty serious fireworks show too and lit a satisfyingly dangerous bonfire.

Sunday's run was a reasonable 25K in just under 2 hours. Combined with the ramped up swimming I've been doing at the 50m pool up in North York, including full race distance swims (3.8K) in under an hour, I feel like I'm well prepared for my Ironman race on December 2nd. Now to pay some attention to the travel/sightseeing agenda!

Sheryl and I watched After the Wedding (the Danish film Efter brylluppet) Sunday night on pay-per-view, we both enjoyed it but differed in our opinion of the character Jorgen. Sheryl thought that his deceptions were justified, I was of the opinion that he was a self-serving, manipulative son-of-a-bitch... The film developed slowly, but was very rewarding. Excellent performances across the board, edgy editing, and a heart-breaking ending.

Listening to: Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters from There is Nothing Left to Lose.