Du Days

Every year I manage to somehow at the end of the school year find little time to keep up with my running and yet getting out on my bike does not seem to be a chore. The last two weeks of the school year had me involved in graduation, playday, track and field, and also a trip to Ottawa to begin to get my certification to teach RPM at Goodlife.

So getting out for a jog was a little hard. So I entered the Sprint Du in Peterborough knowing that my running would be my weak point. Watching the weather forcast for the morning of the race also had a huge impact on how I was going to approach the race and also knowing that the bike and run courses have very little shade, I realized that I would need to get at least two full waterbottles into my system before I got off the bike at the last transition. I have been using eload heat endurance as my main drink during all of my summer races. I find that it has a mild taste and also that it seems to help with me not cramping.

The first run being only 2 km in length around the park is always a little crazy. You have the speed freaks who just blow by everyone, the people who want to be speed freaks and really shouldn’t be at the front and also the average age groupers all mixed in together. This year I decided to push a little to really see where my running form/fitness was. I have to say that I was really happy with the result. The two people who I knew racing as well are both excellent and talented runners so I knew that I would be playing catch up on the bike.

Coming out of the first transition I can not understand why people feel that once the get to the bike mount/dismount line, the reason they need to get on their bikes right there. I always try to go at least 6 or 7 meters past the line to make sure that I am out of the way of others.

I caught the first person I knew after about a km into the ride. I was just starting to push harder and really wanted to make the ride the best part of my race. At about the 3 km mark in the ride I was gaining on someone who looked like the other racer I knew, as I got closer I saw the familiar tattoo and knew that I wanted to blow by him and get as much distance as possible between the two of us. Him being a much better runner I hoped that a lead on the bike would last me a litle onger on the run.

I really like the bike course for the race. The rollers are challenging yet if you get in a good groove you can stay aero for most of them. I was having a back and forth kind of battle with a guy with a disc wheel on the back of his bike. I don’t understand the benefits for such a short race but this may be more mind games than anything. With about 5 km left in the ride I realized that I still had about 3/4 of a water bottle left to ingest before getting abck to the park. I got a few mouthfuls in before hitting the last 500 m to the park and then I just downed the rest while riding one handed. I managed to pass two people going into the park.

Transition 2 was fine not the fastest but I wanted to make sure that everything was working. I was happy with how good my legs felt. I immediately focussed on my breathing and just relaxing on the run. This is my low priority race for the summer so I wanted to jsut get the legs moving and maintain form to the finish. I was surprized to see that I still had about an 800 m gap on one of the guys I knew. With about a km to go I was finally passed.

I finished with a strong kick and found out that I was only 15 seconds behind the runner. For me this is a great mental victory. I know that he was not happy with his result but I could not have been happier. My fitness is good, so now it is down to about 3 weeks of really quality and quantity build up before my next race.

I am hoping to get about 19 workouts in over the next 3 weeks with some serious speed and endurance training.

Wish me luck!

The end of the school year is always a struggle as a student or teacher. The weather gets better and this year is no exception. The heat is always a factor in old school building and also while training. This time of year on the bike or out for a run is a matter of timing. The cycling club has switched to its second time trial course of the season(rumours are we will make another switch shortly). The course is a steady climb out to the turn around at 7.5 km and then a fast descent back down to the start finish line. The problem with an uphill time trial is that it gets extremely hard to get into a groove on your bike. You go out too hard and you risk burning yourself out or too slow and you have to over power to the end. The first few times on the course during the time trials I wanted to work on figuring out how to race this course smartly. On my computer I would use speed and cadence (usually trying to stay in the 90 plus to low 100’s), then I tried using speed and time. I haven’t been on the course long enough to figure out what my splits should be like to get to the top and back. The last few I have used speed and distance on the computer. I am more interested in the speed function (to see where my speed just drops off on the bike). The last time trial of May and the first of June, have been my two best efforts so far this year. I am working hard on finding that groove where my effort is not an all out struggle and maintaining my form and head up to help improve my breathing. With just a little over three weeks of school left I am hoping to maintain my training. Then it will be the summer and a whole new list of challenges to my training.

The cycling club that I belong to has started their Tuesday night time trial back on April 13th. I have to say that I was really looking forward to getting off of the trainer and getting in some quick rides to see how my winter of training helped or impaired me. Also having the crazy mild spring with little rain allowed me the other luxury of riding my time trial bike to school a few days a week to get some more km’s into my legs. The time trials at the beginning of the year are always unpredictable because of weather, numbers of people attending and also traffic. I have to say that for the most part my times have been progressively faster than the previous year. I think that I am riding smarter, in better shape and also the fact that mentally I feel better prepared this year.

I enjoy racing on Tuesday nights and seeing how much I can push myself. Also the club members are a really nice bunch of men and women who I think share my love of riding and pushing themselves.

My running has sort of taken a back seat to riding so far this spring, but I am still managing to get two or three runs in a week, usually during lunch hours at school. I have a nice 35 minute route down to the lake and back with a killer hill at the end.

May 16th was the Runner’s LIfe Duathlon. This is my third year entering this event. I really enjoy the course and also the atmosphere of this little race. No large crowds, and very quiet roads for the cycle. I enjoy this race not only as a tune up race but also to see how badly I have neglected my run. The 2009 race was a prime example, I had an okay first run and a pretty decent ride, then I got off the bike and had a major hamstring pull in the right leg. I told myself this year that I would drink more on the bike and also that I would listen to my body throughout the race.

The first runners ( a group of 3 went out hard) , then another runner in front of me and I settled into 5th place. The guy in front of me spent alot of time looking at his watch. I understanding checking splits for pacing but we can almost become to reliant on technology. Don’t get me wrong I wear a heart rate monitor when I train and race but I look only at the finishing numbers. I really feel taht my body will let me know when to push or relax a bit. Finished the first run in 4th place and had a pretty good transition I got out before the 3rd place guy so only two people ahead of me. I knew the second place guy was a fast runner but I thought that I could probably catch him on the bike.  3 km into the race and I passed the guy and was now sitting in second place. The first place guy was about a km in front of me but I closed the gap at the turn around at 10 km and just continued to work on my cadence and breathing. I got into transition only about 30 seconds behind the guy. I really felt pretty good but my lack of running was going totest me on this final 5 km out and back especially with the killer hill up to the turn around. I decided taht I was not going to push too hard but just maintain my form and feel good about the race. I finish about a minute back of teh first place guy but I was more than a minute and a half faster than the previous year and I also managed to post the fastest bike split. All good signs leading into the summer season.

The time trials are still going well we have switched courses and are now on a killer. It is a 7.5 km climb out to the turn around and then a pretty quick ride back to the finish. We rode this course only a couple of times last year but already my times are faster and I feel that I have a better sense on how to conserve some energy for the return trip after the turn around.  My goal for this course is see how many seconds I can go below 23 minutes so far I have shaved off two seconds and I feel that I still have more room to improve.

Well March Break has come and is nearly finished. It is hard to believe that it is still only March. I can’t remember ever being out on my racing bike so early in the year. I have managed over the past two weeks to average about 3 rides per week outside with an average time in the saddle of an hour to an hour and a half. The problem with riding this time of year is that the wind can turn any ride into an epic battle just to finish it.

At the beginning of each ride I have checked the skies for any signs of dark clouds because the last thing I want to do is get caught in a snow/rain/sleet storm….. I have decided that it is time to start riding back out to work. So I need to make sure that I have all of my emergeny food and clothing well stocked at school.

The weekly Tuesday night time trials are only a short 3 weeks away and hopefully with all of this early season riding my bike fitness will be a little higher than last year. I am itching to see if my winter of training has paid off. I have already had my spring bike fitting. I know it might seem a little bit like I am out of my mind but I do belive that my stretching and flexibility have improved over the winter so I really want to make sure that my bike fits me. Thanks to Phil at Wildrock in Peterborough for looking after the fitting. He has sort of been my go to guy over the past three years for advice and also to get his ideas and opinions about anything bike/training related.

I hope to get out again this afternoon for one last spin before school begins tomorrow so I will have to hope for sunny skies and no wind.

It has been a while since my last post which was after the Kingston Du this past August. I did also race the Cobourg Sprint Du, the RunnersLife Dirty Du, and the Fat Ass trail run to end off my season.

Starting at a new school and grade always means more setup, organization and other important things that need to happen.  So with these needs and also family commitments I had to rely on my summer fitness to keep me in shape with my limited training in the fall.

I was still managing two to three workouts a week but they were whenever I could squeeze them in. 

With the arrival of December it was time to get back down to a normal routine of training. I am currently riding 3 days a week on the trainer, I have one indoor speed workout on the treadmill at Goodlife and a cardio class jsut to shake things up.

I am feeling fit and healthy so far this winter with only two missed workouts since the start of december.  I am looking forward to the spring already to test out my winter fitness. 

In terms of my goals that I have they are very high this year and I am hoping that I can live up to them.

After looking at my results from last years Kingston Duathlon, I felt that a couple of things needed to happen this year. The first being we were really rushed the morning of the race due to having to check out by 11 a.m. which meant immediately after the race having to rush back to the hotel. The second was my slow time on the bike course, this was a still a little up in the air but with my weekly time trials I was hopeful of improving my bike portion of the race.

We arrive in Kingston on Friday July 31st shortly after lunchtime and immediately drove to the local grocery store to pack up on what would be out breakfast and lunch staples for the next three days. Then it was back to the hotel, unpack the car and organize our room and then down to the hotel pool for some splash pad and water slide fun.  The advantage of adding an extra day to our schedule is that we did not feel overly rushed. Saturday afternoon was the prerace bike check in. So with my kids and wife still enjoying the pool, I jumped on my bike and rode the short 15 minutes down to the bike check. Last year I arrived early at the bike check and had to wait in line for almost an hour. This year I arrived around 4:30 and was through the bike check in 10 minutes then the ride back to the hotel for dinner. 

I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain on the hotel window. I was not looking forward to the warm up ride in the rain and the the thought of racing in the rain. The runs would be fine but rain on the road always ends up causing  a few people some problems, hopefully not me.

I got my bike into transition and found a tree to sit under until the long course swimmers took to the water, the waves were crazy and the rain at this point had turned to a fine mist. I was hoping for a complete stop by duathlon start time.

By 9 a.m. the rain had stopped so the first run was dry. The start/finish is a little deceptive as the street it is on has a little rise to it so you are actually running uphill. The lead runners took off at  a pretty fast pace. I settled in with a line of 4 or 5 runners and waited to see how the pace would hold up. Got to the park trail and noticed that a couple of age groupers were a little in front so decided to catch up to them. At this point a couple of athletes were whistling and hollering at the lead runners to turn around it appears that they missed the turn around due to no sign. Luckily, the kingston boys I was with knew exactly where the turn was. Got back into transition and had a pretty good change of shoes. The rain was still holding off so I was feeling pretty stoked for the bike ride. Got onto the bike and began to do a little spin just to get the legs moving. Got to the boat bridge and was waved down, a rider had gone down hard and looked pretty bad. I coasted across the bridge and then began to think about my race plan. I have been working hard on my hills and also trying to get a smoother pedal stroke. The bike course had a few rollers with a couple of steep climbs which were good. About 5 k into the ride one of the age groupers went by so I decided to just keep him in sight. Got to the turn around at 15k and felt really good, so I just kept on working hard. With about 2 km left on the ride the rain began but I was not too worried and just kept spinning to the transition for run number two.

Good transition and started the last run 7.2 km. I was a little worried about not having enough fluids in my system so I took eload at every  aid station. The last 2kms before the turn around are basically uphill. I was still feeling very relaxed and finally noticed the age grouper from the bike. He was about 500 m in front of me, so I was not sure if I could catch him. I decided to just keep my pace and see what would happen. Got down the hill and onto the flat trail and could still see the age grouper, he was a little closer than at the turn around. I continued to run my own pace, go the the last water station and noticed I was still gaining. At this point I just decided to see what would happen when I got on the final street to the finish. I turned onto the street and noticed that the age grouper was just a few strides in front. So I ran up behind him and decided to watch for a couple of steps. I noticed that he appeared to be sruggling a little so decided to pull up beside him and do a little burst of 10 strides to see if he was going to come with me. He didn’t so I decided to throw in another burst of 10 strides and again he did not come. At this point it was only 3 blocks to the finish line so I decide with 2 blocks left to start my acceleration to the finish. Got to the finish line and immediately heard my family yelling . Greeting by the second place finisher who told me I was third. After the wards we headed back to the hotel and back for more splash pad and water slide action.

I was happy with my placing and result. My training this year especailly on the bike has really paid off.

Immediately after the Peterborough Sprint Du , I spent a few hours thinking over the race and what I was hoping to improve on for the remainder of the summer training season. Two things really stuck out from my results the first was the improvements that I have made this season on the bike and the second being how well I placed with limited running. So with my riding going well , it was time to focus a little more energy into my running. So for the past few weeks I have been working hard on the run part of my training. I am all about the tempo and also throwing a couple of brick workouts into my routine. The bricks are usually a ride 20 to 30 kms followed by a 20 to 30 minute run. These have been killer workouts and I can tell that they are going to help down the road.

In terms of the cycling, I am still have my Tuesday night time trials with the Cobourg cycling club, we have been forced to change our course from our original route to a second route and now we are on our third route which I love. It has a lot of rollers and a couple of long decents. Basically it doesn’t allow you to get into too much of a groove because of the way the course is mapped out. Saturday mornings I am still doing my spinning class because I really think that you cannot go wrong working on your technique which the spinning allows me to do while working on my pacing.

I am in the last part of my hard work before I begin my mini taper to get ready for Kingston.  I have a 3 more workouts planned for this week and then next week will be the same. I have two race simulation pieces next week both on the bike and a little run just to keep the engine working.

I will post about my thought going into the Kingston race next week.

The Cobourg Cycling club last fall at the end of the season had a 5km hill time trial that was a success so the club decided to hold one 5 km hill time trial every month this year.

The name basically says it all a 5k that incorportates all kinds of hills of various sizes and grades.

I arrived for the time trial early in order to give myself alot of warm up time. I was still feeling the effects of the RunnersLife Du from Monday so I wanted to really let my legs warm up for this.

Peter H rode up behind me as I just got to the meeting area and I asked him exactly where the climb was. He explained the course to me and also rode with me to the starting line.  I was thinking of riding the course to see what it was like but decided not too.

13 people show ed up for the climb so nimbers were drawn ans I received number 12. Second last, in some cases I really don’t mind being at the end but when I don’t know the course I would rather be in the middle.

I do not think I am a great climber I tend to use alot of energy pulling on my bars and do not use my whole pedal stroke the best I can.

When my turn came to start I knew that I had to take advantage of the flats so I immediately dropped into my aero position and just plowed forward. I have to admit that I had a hard time relaxing knowing that I had to attck the hills. The first two were good not to steep or long.  The fourth hill was a grinder you came flying down a hill into a little tunnel almost of trees then a grind up with a turn to the left. Luckily one of the rider’s family came out and were ringing cow bells for everyone. Made it to the top of this hill thinking that I must almost be done and then saw off in the distance the final hill.

It was a steep roller with the first section forcing you out of the saddle and then for some reason the second half was not as steep so I was able to sit back down and just dig in and go for the finish.

I felt terrible at the finish, I had a hard time getting my breath back and my legs were burning….. so as I waited for the results I did some stretching beside my bike.  The times are read out only by number without a name attached which I like.

The first few time were impressive showing that everyone really worked hard. The times continued to impress and as they announced my time I was shocked. I thought the ride was decent for me but my time put me in first. Everyone was trying to figure out who rider 12 was, of course I was not saying a thing. Finally, a few people figured it out and after a couple of handshakes and slaps on the back we were on our way down.

I am glad that I joined the cycling club. On the way down I was asked how long I had been riding. I said not that long but that I was learning how to ride by watching all the club members.

I hope the rest of my time trials are as successful but if not I am riding with a good group of people.

Arrived in Duoro with a little over an hour before race time. My wife and myself decided that two and a half hours would be too long for Em and El to stick around to see daddy race. So I was dropped off at the race and the family headed into Peterborough to play and visit family.

Registered and set up my tea towel for transition. Immediately threw on the cycling shoes and helmet and off I went.  I learned from last summer that a proper warmup is important especially when you are going to work your muscles hard.  I got into a rally comfortable gear and did a little spinning.

I have to admit that I didn’t remember much about last years race other than the sprint finish against Dave Dame, but then I remembered, “THE HILLS”…….. I could not believe how different each one was. The first one just after the 3k marker was a steady but not steep incline. I rode it sitting up but realized that come race time I could probably stay in the aerobars and power up it. The next few k I started to get a little side breeze hitting the bike and when I turned around at the 6 k mark the headwind hit. So it was clear that the first 10 k of the bike would be fast and the headwind would be a killer on the way back in.

Got back to the transition area, racked my bike , put my helmet into my bars and threw on my running shoes and went for a 15 minute jog to get things loose.

I have been doing alot of brick workout but most of my running has been on a treadmill. I am doing 30 plus minutes per workout at about 6 mph but I was really curious to see what this race would be like for me.

 The gun went off and the race was off. The leader sprinted out to the front along with a couple of fast runners I have seen at other runnerslife races. I saw Dave Dame and decided that I would run beside or jsut behind him. I didn’t really feel comfortable on the run but Dave looked really smooth so why not just try to tag along. I was hoping for about 20 minutes for the first 5 k so getting in under 20 minutes to transition was good.

Transition 1 was about 30 seconds which is not the quickest time but I wanted to get everything on. Dave D beat me out of transition and had a 10 second lead on me. I decided that with all my time trial work that my bike would be stronger than last year so I decided to ride the course hard. At the first hill I dug in and went by Dave D and just kept on going. After getting up the 10 k turn around hill I felt the wind at my face and knew that I would just need to dig in and work hard. I really tried on the way back to keep my spinning strong and not tense up. I have heard people talk about gearing down and maintaining cadence into a headwind. I would have to say it worked.

I got into tranisiton two and as I racked my bike I felt a slight cramp in my right leg. I realized too late that i had not taken enough fluid in. I grabbed a quick drink and started out on the run. The person in second was never out of my sight so I just wanted to see if my legs would loosen up. At a bout the 2 k mark I tried to push a little harder but immediately got another cramp. So I made the decision to get alot of fluid at the water stations and to just stay where I was.

I was really happy to finish in third place and my training is going really well. I am looking forward to the summer season and I think that my training is right on track.

My next race is not until the beginning of July so I have a lot of time to work on my brick workouts and that second run off of the bike.

Legs and body were really tired on Monday night after the race but I have managed to get in a recovery run of 45 minutes on Tuesday and a nice easy spin on the bike today.

It is funny how you sometimes forget about the little things when you are training or even exercising. Having now been training for almost a year and a half I have noticed some changes to my body.  Ultimately you want to become fitter and feel better about yourself but in my case I have noticed that my flexibility has improved significantly.  For the last month or so I just didn’t feel as comfortable as I could on my bike.

Well I am lucky enough that Wildrock in Peterborough has been really good to me and my bikes. After my car accident they refitted me to my second bike with only a days notice. Kieran was nice enough to help me get back on my bike quickly with only a few minor changes. So when I went back for a refitting I was so happy to see that Kieran would be doing the refitting.  After some initial background onformation and discussion about my goals and the type of riding/racing that I would be doing this summer we started.  The first thing Kieran noticed was that as I increased speed my body came to the front of my seat. So we decided that my seat was to long and I was forced to the front. Secondly my position on my aerobars was not allowing me to get into the best “aero” position so with a few minor adjustments to the bars I was in a much better position.

My first time trial after the adjustments was a get to know my bike again ride. I felt more comfortable and relaxed down on the bars.  My time also improved by a few seconds over the previous week. This past Tuesday nights time trial showed me that all of my work and Kiernan’s tinkering has really paid off I posted my fastest time of the year so far and finished second beating two of the regulars at the time trials.

So far my times for the 15 time trails have been 27:47, 25:24, 25:19, and 23:28.

I was asked why I think my times have gone down so much, I now know the course, my training is going well, and my bike now fits me better.  I am curious to see how much more time I can shave off.

 This weekend is Runnerslife Du so I will blog my results.