Posted on Apr 10, 2012 under etc... |
You’ve probably heard me yelling it from the building tops (via twitter, facebook, etc.) but in case you, somehow, missed it.
I’m riding the 75k route in the 2012 Ride for Heart. I’ve set a personal fundraising goal of $5000.00 and a time goal of sub 2:00:00. I’d really appreciate anything you can offer to help fund this amazing cause. Every 7 minutes a Canadian suffers from heart attack or stroke. 1 in 3 Canadians will be impacted by heart attack or stroke in their lives (either themselves or a loved one). These are crazy stats! The Heart and Stroke foundation uses the funds raised by the Ride to fund research and education.
Please give generously. Click on the image below. Thanks in advance!
Posted on May 18, 2012 under Curiosities, etc..., Pre/Post Race, Raves |
OH.. MY.. GOD! An Ironman race in Baja California!!! In March!!
I’ve been drawn to Baja for years, for no reason that I’m aware of, just a strong desire to go there. A pull. Undefined but so real. Sort of like Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind with is draw to the bute. No I haven’t sculpted Baja out of mashed potatoes, but close 
Ironman adds Ironman Los Cabos to Global Series » IRONMAN.com.
I may just have to do this!
Posted on May 17, 2012 under Raves |
I’ve already raved (a few times) about how much I absolutely LOVE my Sportiiiis from 4iiii.com.
Well good news! They’ve dropped the price on Sportiiiis to $149!!
4iiii Innovations – makers of Sportiiiis Heads-up Display system for Athletes.
I’m in the beta program for Sportiiiis and I can tell you that some amazing stuff is coming down the pipe to add to this already amazing product.
I cannot imagine training or racing without my Sportiiiis. Try them and you’ll be hooked too!
Posted on May 11, 2012 under Pre/Post Race |
Last Sunday was the event of the popping of my marathon cherry. Yup, it was my 1st 26.2, my first 43.666… km, my 1st 4 hour run and without any specific marathon training, and just coming off IM NOLA, I felt I did pretty darned well. My (unofficial time – by my Garmin) 4:08:13. No course record, but a good baseline for things to come. I didn’t even really view it as a race, just a training run. No specific taper, no carb loading, nothing really special leading up: just got up Sunday morning for a 4hr training run, with support and a LOT of other people 
The weather forecast for the day was perfect: not too hot, not too cool, partly cloudy, no wind, no rain. How awesome is that! The forecast high was 15C, so I went with long sleeve technical shirt, tights and a technical baseball cap. I started the day in a garbage bag and wearing disposable ($5/doz) cotton gloves. As the day progressed, I’d find that I was over dressed – short sleeves and shorts (or at least lighter leggings) would have been better choices. I didn’t overheat, but could have been a bit cooler in the last 10k of the run.
The Goodlife Marathon is about 50% downhill, 40% flat and 10% climb. It’s a fast course and until the 25-30k mark I thought I may actually finish in about 3:30.. but then I was also entering unknown territory and that soon became apparent. I had been maintaining a sub 5min/km pace but sometime around 2:30-3:00 into the run fatigue caught up with me. My pace dropped closer to 6 min/km pace and I started to talk walk breaks (not long ones, but they were there). I figured I had nothing to prove and there was no point killing myself in a distance training run, so I took it easy. Fuelled and hydrated and just kept going.
Was absolutely a fun day. My body was tired for a day or 2 but generally sprung back pretty quickly with no long-term adverse affects. Now that I have my 4hr marathon baseline, I have something to improve on. I’d like to get my single-sport marathon time down to 3-3.5 hrs. I know that with the swim and bike in the full Iron’ that pace will drop, but I’d like to do my IM marathon in sub-4.
Fun times!
Posted on May 03, 2012 under fitness |
Minimalist Running Video: Dr. Mark Cucuzzellas Principles of Natural Running.
This is an awesome vid! Gotta watch it a few times because it’s so packed with info.
Enjoy!
Posted on Apr 23, 2012 under Pre/Post Race |
What an emotional, suspense-filled week I’ve had down here in New Orleans!
From the time I arrived last Wednesday, the forecast for Sunday’s race went from implying there’d be no race, to clear, to crazy high winds, no calm, and pretty much everything in between. I did my best to resign myself to accepting whatever Mother Nature threw at us and rolling with the punches. Really, there is/was very little else one could do.
On Saturday it became clear that there’d be no swim on Sunday. The winds were so high that they couldn’t set the swim course and they were forecast to be stronger on Sunday. The race organizers, wizely, changed the format of the race and the routes to accommodate the crazy weather and insuing road washout conditions to provide for a good and challenging, while still safe, day.
The format for the day was changed to a duathlon: 2 mile run, 52 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. I’d been aiming for a 5:15 time for the tri’ and would have been ok with a 5:30. My time for the duathlon? 4:50:13!!! Now, if I add a few minutes ato the start run for the difference in swim time, and a few minutes to the bike to make it 56 miles, not 52, I’m pretty confident that I would have still beaten my 5:15 target. So even with the “triathlon time approximation”, I’m still happy with the result.
As always the staff and volunteers were AWESOME! Y’all (sorry NOLA creeping in there) make the event work and make racing so much fun. Thanks!
Generally, especially considering the rapidly changing conditions and routes, the event was pretty flawless. There are two things I’d call out for the organizers to try to improve upon for subsequent races:
- swim location, obvious and I know they’re already thinking about this one :This is the 2nd year of no swim, and while you can’t control the weather, you can put the swim in more sheltered waters where springtime variable conditions are less likely to impact the day
- road hazard marking: the roads around New Orleans are some of the poorest I’ve ever raced on! Poured concrete slabs with bumps every 2 seconds, and big sections or roads with longitudinal, tire eating cracks made for challenging riding and several crashes. In many cases these hazards were not marked adequately, if at all. A little extra here would go a long way to rider safety.
Looking at the overall results last night, the saying “The ride is for show,the run is for dough” kept springing to mind. I continually,race after race, close in on the leader’s time on the bike, only to lose that advantage in the run. It’s clear that I need to work on my run speed. I have the fitness to run and run and run (provided I’m fuelled) but my pace needs to get from 5:30/km to closer to 3:00/km if I want to be competative for a podium spot in my age group.
A few shout-outs for my sponsors: your equipment and support made this race truly amazing for me. Blacksmith cycles: Gertie (my Storck Aero2is) was a champ! I pushed a 200w average over the bike course and she worked flawlessly! Invisciddesign for shipping me a Speedfil A2 to replace my (yucky) Torhans system: the A2 is amazing, thank you so much! 4iiii.com for the Sportiiiis heads up display: these are a great training and racing device, keep up the great work! FirstEndurance for all my race nutrition needs: Kona Mocha flavour EFS Liquid Shot is AMAZING! Yum! And last but certainly not least, big thanks to my support team: Coach Ian MacLean, for his amazing coaching and my wonderful wife, Kim, for her understanding and support (even when she doesnt’t really understand why I’m doing this, she’s always in my corner cheering me on)!
Posted on Apr 20, 2012 under Chuckles, Geek Out! |
Gertie is, as you well know, my new bike. I’ve never raced her before and as such, never had to put a race number on.
This evening while prepping to put her into the bike check tomorrow, I started pondering where to put the number… this proved to be an issue.
There’s nowhere on the frame that a big race number fits well… So off to the dollar store I went and I have to say, I’m pretty happy with my MacGyver-ing™
- 2 flexible gel rulers (I was looking for hacksaw blades, but these work and have no risk of marring the frame or seatpost)
- some black electric tape
- a few zip ties
This will do for this event, but it has a few issues:
- the rulers, even taped together, are still a bit flexible
- the rulers are too wide (tall?) and impinge on the Di2 battery release track
I was thinking that the frame has a hole for a traditional brake set and so utilizing that and maybe a plexiglass sheet could make for a better and less flimsy solution. For Sunday though, this will definitely do
Posted on Apr 20, 2012 under Pre/Post Race |
Just got an email from the New Orleans race organizers. Due to impending questionable weather changes to the swim, bike and run portions of the race have been made. The “bad news” is that the race may become a duathlon if the lake is too crappy for the swim, the “good news” is that it looks like we’ll have a race in any event. Phew! That’s a relief.
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Ochsner Ironman 70.3 Course Update
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COURSE MAP CHANGES FOR THE 2012 OCHSNER IRONMAN 70.3 NEW ORLEANS
PLEASE READ! PLEASE READ! PLEASE READ!
Due to weather and wind concerns for this weekend’s Ochsner Ironman 70.3 New Orleans, race management has made several changes that will go into affect for this weekends event.
- The entire swim course—if possible—will be held on the beach front behind the UNO Research and Technology Park. With a forecast of high winds out of the north for Saturday night and Sunday morning, we have decided to bring both swim start and swim exit to one location. This move also allows us to hold a duathlon format with the event if the swim has to be canceled because of wind conditions.
DOWNLOAD THE REVISED SWIM MAP (PDF)
- If the swim is canceled, then all athletes will be racing a two-mile run before the bike portion of the event. Athletes will be sent off in their swim start wave order on the run course, with professional men starting first followed five minutes later by professional women. Age group athletes will also be starting in their swim wave start order beginning five minutes after the professional women with waves going off every 3 minutes.
- The bike course has been altered to avoid storm debris on the far western section of Lakeshore Drive. To avoid this debris, the bike course has been shorten to 52 miles in length.
DOWNLOAD THE REVISED BIKE MAP (PDF)
- The storm debris on the bike course has also affected the run course on the far western edge of the half-marathon course. Race management has moved the event to a double loop run course that brings athletes on every lap back towards the finish line area, so friends and family members can cheer you on during this section of the run. Note: Timing mats will be placed on the run course to ensure that two loops have been completed.
DOWNLOAD THE REVISED RUN MAP (PDF)
- On both the bike course and run course water stops and portable restroom facilities will still be in locations to assist you at each stop along both courses.
- None of these changes in course design or distance will affect your qualifying for the 2012 Ironman 70.3 World Championships or the Professional Points System set up by World Triathlon Corporation.
Premier Event Management and its entire team would like to thank each and every athlete, volunteer and race official for their support as we head into this weekend’s event.
Bill Burke
Race Organizer/Owner
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