**I took the Triathlon Community Coaching course this weekend. I made some great new contacts/friends and took away some great practical tips about safety. On that note, I’m going to go buy myself a RoadID right now. If you don’t already have one, do the same!

Here’s what my Feb totals look like so far.

Bike for 182.1 km in 08:43
Run for 25.1 km in 02:22
Total Duration: 11:05

Day 1 – 1:02:19, 22km – nice ride, mild weather
Day 2 – 1:20:51, 27km – soggy bike in the am, nice in evening, also had a quality run session
Day 3 – 1:01:18, 17km – all over downtown

Wednesday night I was super tired, so went to bed early. Man it’s awesome when you actually get enough sleep. I so rarely feel well-rested. Tonight, is a bike commute home through the city. I’m going to meet up with a few of the other bike challenge ninnys for company.

1:43:17, 19km
Avg HR 143
link to route map

I felt great coming off the bike. I came in just behind one girl, and noticed that only one bike from my age group’s rack had returned. My head space was great – and I was feeling great. I wasn’t running hard, just steady. I definitely felt the extra effort on the bike, but was still running well. I passed a bunch of folks including one girl within the first 5km. At the first turn around, I could see some very strong racers behind me so I knew I was in a very good position. My headspace was awesome. The run hurt, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I’m not exactly sure where it all went wrong. But I definitely ran out of gas. Somewhere in the first loop I discovered that my stomach was saying, “No way, Jose to gatorade.” I tried to get a gel in me on the way back but had to spit about half of it out. I dropped my fuel belt at the 11km mark – since gatorade was a no go. The second loop was all about determination. Physically, I wasn’t doing well and started getting passed by racers. I don’t usually get passed on the run, so that was interesting. Amazingly, my headspace was still really positive. It was, however, taking a lot of energy to keep it there.

By 15km, it hurt. Hurt, like the IronMan run hurt. My mental energies had to focus on, “Keep on running – Do not walk!” I was passed by the final fast racer at 19km. In ~4km, she gained 4 minutes on me. This is bad. I know I can do better but I am really proud of myself. I did very well to keep positive and keep going. It was a very huge mental challenge… and I met the challenge. This is a first step. At IronMan I walked, here I kept running. I am proud of this. By the last kms, I was feeling the bouyant energy of a best ever finish – and my physical crash on the run melted away. The big personal best of 5:23:13 is 4 and a half minutes faster then the last time I raced… and this includes the extra 3 min+ transition that they’ve added to the course. You can see from the picture that I was really pleased with this finish.

Reflecting back, I can see that the extra effort on the bike plus not enough calories taken in on the bike hurt me on the run. I ran out of gas. But I’ll trade 15min faster on the bike for 5 min slower on the run. That’s a good trade. But, I know that I don’t need to make this trade. I think I can go the same pace on the bike, be smarter with my nutrition ie., eat more for the run, and pull of the 1:48 that I know I’m capable of. This race was really good for me. It made me realize how much more I have to experience in racing. I’m still really new to triathlon racing… and I’m still learning. As Calvin, says, “It’s like renovating a kitchen. You pull away a wall, and find out that you didn’t even know what was behind there. After your done with all the improvements, you’ve got totally new granite counters and fancy cupboards. It’s very exciting” Oliver helped me pull away one wall… the next wall will be breaking that 5h20 barrier. I’m really looking forward to ripping that one down.

On Friday, I did my own workout in the Penticton pool. OMG, it’s hot in that pool. I guess the old fogies won’t get in if they don’t keep it practically tropical.

Saturday the camp started with a time trial of the Oliver bike course. I drove down with “exactly on time” Calvin so we arrived just in time for my 9:24 start time and his 9:28 start time (riders were sent off every two minutes to simulate race situations). My goal was to ride hard – as close as possible to race effort. Before starting each rider had to weigh in. I have to admit it was a bit tense at the start (simulated race feel worked) so I’m glad that we didn’t spend much time hanging about.

On the course, I rode hard trying to keep the effort up to >155HR. I drank 3 full bottles of gatorade and ate 4 gels. My time was ~2:55 (exact ride details coming). 31km per hour average. I was pleased with that effort. It’s exactly what I’d like to pull off in Oliver. Directly after the ride, they racked our bikes in transition and then sent us off on a 20 min brick run. After the brick, I weighed back in at 2lbs lighter. So even with drinking every 5 min, I still lost 2lbs. I’m surprised by that but glad to know that my nutrition seems to be reasonable. Someone lost 9lbs (whoops!), I’m thinking they need to work on their nutrition.

After the weigh in they had us eating, eating, and more eating. Then ~45min later, we went for a 20min swim in the lake. Lake was cold, but I felt great. The feel of the catching water in the wetsuit is awesome. I’m feeling real strong with the swimming this year. After all that, I went home for ~1hr showered, quick hot-tub and then went back to the Impact Coaching offices for some triathlon school.

It was interesting to hear some of the points about Kevin’s coaching/training philosophy. One particular point about INTENSITY OF FOCUS resonated with me. I think that’s one thing I find really rewarding about training for triathlons… if you are filled with purpose every time you go out and train, the results will come. I like training with this focused intensity.

Ok, so that was just Saturday. Phewph! I was hungry and tired. Real tired, like training for IronMan tired. It’s been a while since I’ve been that beat… and hungry.

On Sunday, I got up early to see my mates start off on the Peach City Half Marathon then I headed off with Calvin, Doug, and the pros for a 2hr run. We ran up on the KVR trail up above Naramata and it’s a beautiful run. After running with the pros for a bit, I settled into my own pace and had a great run. It wasn’t so great physically (basically, my body felt tired, crappy, and achy) but mentally it was an awesome run. I did some great visualization of the running path at Oliver… and realized that my body will still run at it’s rhythm even when its really really tired. I’m in good shape for coming off that bike at Oliver. After the run, I enjoyed coffee and good company at Smith and Co. After eating, eating, and more eating, I biked back into Penticton to join the group for another quick ride out on the Crescent beach loop.

All in all, it was a great weekend of training. I feel ready to kick some serious arse at Oliver.

Check out this great picture of me during warm-up, wool socks and goggles = essential gear for any bike warmup.

and another one of me cruising in on the run.

The worst thing about the Delta triathlon was putting in a personal best race effort that should have placed me 5th place overall – and then getting DQ’d because an error. (A volunteer pulled me out of the swim 4 laps too early. I said “Are you sure?” and they said “Yes, Go!”) I had two ambitious goals for Delta, 1) beating the 1:10 mark and, 2) placing well in the overall standings.  Given the opportunity, I would have met my time goal.  So, I’m going to call it a PB.  As for standings, I will just have to wait to Oliver to prove that I can make an impact in the overall placings of these races.  I’m better at longer distances anyways, so watch out in Oliver everyone! I plan to, “Bring it on!”

swim 7:04 (475m)*
bike 36:08
run 21:33
overall 1:04:44 + ~5min* = 1:09:44
*extrapolated to 700m = 10:25 + 1.5 min to exit = ~12min

Here’s what I’ve learned from this gaff. I was confused, but I followed the instructions. That was the wrong choice in the end. But it’s hard to think fast on your feet when you are trying to put it all out there during a race. You’re on auto-pilot with not even enough time to put a shirt on or do up your laces. How are you supposed to have the presence of mind to stop and have a conversation with some random volunteer who is telling you to do the wrong thing? I’m not sure how you do it, but that’s what you’ve got to do. I guess this is just what you learn as you become a more experienced racer. I’m reminded of the pro-racers at Oliver who went off course on the run course a couple years back because the volunteers hadn’t put down the cone at the turn around point yet. Maybe it’s just that these things happen, and you can’t ever really be ready for them. I wonder what the pros would say? Me, I say we should all practice our clothes to pyjamas transitions more often. [chuckle]