Thursday 25 July 2013

Taking over downtown Toronto (TTF Olympic Distance Triathlon)

Ever had the feeling like everything is going downhill in a domino effect???? Well, this was the sort of feeling that I was getting during the Toronto Triathlon Festival held last weekend.

For starters, Parichit and I went for one of our friend's wedding the day before the race. We had a great time and the food was yummyy.....which didnt help the next day in my race. I overate food that my tummy wasn't used to digest while im doing a triathlon. Well that was mistake no 1

Later, Parichit found a cut in my front tire the night before the race. We tried (painfully) to put on the new tire, succeeded only to find out the next morning (race day!!!) that the tube was punctured. Oh poor Parichit, bloodied his hands trying to take off the tyre and out it back on. In light of the quickly diminishing time, we decided to put back the old tire and hope to god it would last the race.

I arrived the transition area just in time, set myself up within the tiny space allotted to me and started looking for my sis and Parichit. Once the swim portion started (man the water was freezing.... ok maybe not freezing but very cold.... and Im not a cold water person), I realized how much I was sucking in the swim leg. The sun directly in front of us, we couldnt see the buoys ahead of us and it was a blind leading blind situation. Eventually I made it back to terra firma with record breaking slow time! Ran up to my bike, got out of my wetsuite (with some struggle) and ran off to the bike course. The head wind was nasty and demotivating but I kept my spirit up and tried to do my best. Every bump on the road would make my heart stop with fear of puncturing my tube...(luckily the tire was loyal to me!). My food from lat night was starting to make me uncomfortable (lets just say there we some burps involved)....my bladder was shouting and hating every road bump...basically a very uncomfortable ride. On the way back on the bike, I noticed both my ankles empty....holy shit...I lost my timing chip. I started thinking back and realized I must have dropped it during my struggle with the wetsuit. Ok...so no official bike time..great! And to make things even better, I seemed to be going much slower than usual...something was unsettling...do I have a puncture...who knows.

I made my way back to the transition......looked for a porter potty only to realize the long lineup there was (thanks to the next race's participants!). Ok..so no washroom break for me....I gotta run with a full bladder (bad idea!). I searched and searched for my timing chip and eventually found it. The run as you all can imagine was not very comfortable...  every step was hurting my bladder and my digestive system was not being helpful. I felt like there was no blood going to my legs....its was the easiest and yet the hardest run I have ever had during a race. I was running at a slower pace not because of my legs/ heart...but thanks to my discomfort. I had blisters on my feet from wearing the heels in the wedding (girls...this is a very bad idea!)...man I am just full of complaints today! I was glad to have Parichit around me with words of encouragement that fueled me during the run. My sister was a great sport and a greater photographer..who captured my crazy race!

Finally I reached the finish line, and the first thing I did was run to the washroom ....lol

My results as you guys can guess were not great: 25th in my AG 2hrs 55 min

PS: When I went back to the transition area, I realized that my rear brakes were hitting the rim....which partially explains my slower bike speed. Oh welll....what can you do, life goes on :D





      

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Peterborough Half Iron Du 2013


I've had my eyes on this race for the past 2 years and had always chickened out or found some excuse not to do it both times! Why? Its hilly. And I suck at hills.

But with all the hill repeats in biking and running, and out of curiosity of just how vain my efforts have been, I signed up. *Gulp*

Got my disco wheelcover on and a 12-30T cassette in the back and I was game! Prayed for cool weather since historically this race has been a scorcher/dehydration pool with some sunburn thrown in.

Thankfully, my brown skin got me covered from sunburn! hah! The rest, though...


Run 1:

Short and sweet. All on grass. Kind of short for 2k, i think. Passed by with the usual mess of everyone around me starting wayy too fast. I tried to keep my pace calm while I heard everybody already heaving and hoofing before they reached T1. Why do they do this?

Anyway, 4th place after Run 1. 2k done in 6:42. Wut wut!


 Bike:

So my iPod that i had been using as my computer during bike rides died on me after the Welland race so I had to go back to using my watch mounted on my handlebars for this race. After fumbling around forever in T1 and having nearly the slowest transition, I exited for the start of the bike ride in 7th place! Lost a good 30-40s there. Ah well, 1st world problems.

From then on, the drama began shortly. The first 5km were sort of bumpy with railroad crossings and I was mindful of my nutrition bottles getting torpedoed off my aerobars. After surviving one particularly nasty railroad crossing, I got back into my tuck and *boom*, nice big pothole. I saw my special concoction of carefully mixed salt tablets+sugar+water fly down the road into the ditch.

I began re-thinking my hydration for the 87 kms remaining of the 90km ride. Then my HRM stopped working for 10km...showing either 80 BPM or 180BPM. Then my disc sticker fell apart in the wet roads that I was riding through...which then proceeded to roll around my chainstay and rub with every wheel rotation.

I did the best French impression of "Je m'en fous", shrugged my head and carried on.

All of this definitely threw me off mentally and suddenly I found myself out of touch with my legs and unable to focus on the hard rolling climbs until about 35 kms. I got on top of my hydration after the first bottle exchange at 30km and felt better.
Dripping sweat in the humidity despite light rain in the beginning!
On the way back after halfway, I felt much more smooth and in control. The only thing that pissed me off was that all the damn hills that I dragged my sorry rear up in the first part, were completely bumpy on the way down. I had to routinely get off my aerobars and sit up to avoid potholes and cracks....so bad that I was nearly on the middle of the road for extended times and being afraid of getting a penalty for blocking!! Lost speed, trying to bomb down the hills trying to speed up was utterly useless.

7 kms from the end of the bike, there was a tricky 90 degree turn that I saw some guy overshoot and completely ignore the turn! "Poor guy", I thought: "...wasn't there supposed to be a policeman directing racers/controlling traffic here? Where are they?" Then I saw the policeman, he was nursing another racer who slipped and fell badly on that turn. Then I saw who it was: Etienne Filion...I'd been chasing him for most of the bike ride after he overtook me in T1. I also competed with him in 2012 in Welland, where he my outbiked my slow ass and stayed ahead of me till the finish!

He looked pretty scratched up, but looked to be moving back towards his bike. Tough. I moved on and finished the ride going back and forth with another guy I recognized from the UofT Triathlon Club. We passed a lot of people in this section.

I had just got my first ever bike fit from Endurosport which had significantly changed my saddle height and overall set up. It felt too compact in the front and felt like I was going to fall off the front end! However, to my surprise, I averaged 201W! Because of the hilly course and messing up the downhills, I should have gone at about 36 km/hr at that power, but ended up only doing 34.0 km/hr.

First ever side pic for the bike ride! Still getting used to the new bike fit....

The bike ride was good for 2nd in the Duathlon and 45th out of ~300 people on the day. Still some work to do, but after 2500 ft of rolling hills, I'll take it.

Run 2:

Honestly, I was scared of this run. I had read stories about a long rolling 15 km out and back section where the rollers magically turn into mountains after the bike ride. So I was apprehensive. Given the poor form I felt on the bike ride, I just told myself save it for the run, on the bike, and to stay calm...let it unfold.

"Stay calm, don't blow up!"
My problems didnt stop at the end of the bike, though! In the chaotic T2, I had too many things to do (thanks to taking my watch off the bike again..) that I forgot my nutrition bottle for the run that I had prepared (more of the same salty/sugary stuff!). After another re-thinking of strategy, I found myself at the 5 km mark, having thoroughly blown off-pace at a fast 4:07 min/km average. That's almost a 20 minute 5 km after biking 90 kms! This part was flat but included 3 kms on the grass (=slow), too, so it was pretty surprising. Maybe the course markers were wrong?

After I convinced my legs to slow down, I soldiered on to the rolling hills awaiting the dreaded meltdown that usually ensues such horrible pacing. Then I remembered: "..hold on, this is the same road that I began the bike ride on....hold on once again, wasn't this were I dropped my first bottle during the bike ride?" So I started watching the sidelines for some stranded bottles. There were plenty...guess I wasnt the only one who lost their nutrition because of these bumps. Then soon enough, I saw my bottle lying on the side of the road in the ditch.

Found my bottle of salt+water! Sweeeeeet!
Bent down, picked it up: still full, took a sip, re-adjusted my headspace and got ready to pick off some competitors! The miles just ticked by as I carried my nutrition bottle and stayed on top of my hydration. I stopped counting after I passed at least 30 people. On my way back to the finish, I crossed my fingers not to get calf cramps so I didnt really push myself in the last 5 kms. Like clockwork, I felt some inkling of calf spasms around 19.0 kms. 1.5 miles left, one last big uphill. Take it easy.

Dug deep for that last hill and before I knew it, it was 200m to the finish. There were lots of turns in the last km,so I didnt want to miss one! Sprinted to the end and knew I was in 2nd place...probably 10 mins behind the duathlon leader (...he was just in a different league!)


This run turned out to be the fastest half marathon I've done after a 90km bike ride in a half Iron duathlon, even faster than the flat course 2 weeks ago in Welland (which was HOT!)...and to do that on a rolling course with nearly 1000 ft of climbing, i'm confident that I can get to the 1:30 mark next year.

Time: 1:33:58 (1:34:11 official time) | 13.5 km/hr |  4:27 min/km pace.
Rank: 3/18 in the Duathlon, and 23 out of ~300 people doing the race.

Total time: 4:16
Overall Duathlon position: 2nd

They took my pic after I made an awesome finish pose! Drats...by this time I was about to fall over..that's the time for the Triathlon people, BTW...

Post-race:

I had some freebies and lunch offered by the race and at least 3 cokes. Changed up, put my bike back in the car and went back for the awards.

Then I bumped into Etienne,who had crashed on the bike. Not only did he finish the bike ride, he went and ran the half marathon in 1:37. Pretty badass. Had he not crashed, it would've been a very close battle. He had like 3 bandages on his biceps/elbows and lots of road rash. I chatted with him for a while and made some small talk. Nice guy...

On the way back home, the drive was horrible. I got stuck in traffic for 2 hours, then spent another hour driving in MAD monsoon-like rain to get home. That whole week was a new level of rain for the GTA area anyway.

Next up was the Gravenhurst ITU format Duathlon + trip to Garima's cousins' cottage in Owen Sound! Stay tuned, that was a fun weekend!

Keep pedaling!



Thursday 18 July 2013

Back to indoor training and hill repeats...

Now that the intense racing period is over (more Race Reports coming soon!)....its back to the 'ol Indoor Trainer workouts and brick runs.

This week's workout was particularly nasty. Not "that" long compared with what I'm used to, but trying to build some muscle to handle all those hills in Switzerland, I set out to do a hard 3.0 hour indoor trainer workout followed by some "easy" pace hill repeats for an hour.

The bike workout went OK. Not too hard actually. Motivation was kinda low after a crazy past few days at work, so I started at around 6:20 pm. Watched TdF videos on Youtube to keep me entertained, but for the most part, this Trainer Road workout keeps you mentally engaged. Especially with those godforsaken 30s sprints thrown in after 2 hours 50 mins  of intervals and drills. 
Some PM dropouts in the middle, but a good consistent effort overall. If only the weather and terrain outside was this predictable....



Now, by "easy" hill repeats, I mean, dont hammer up the hills, just cruise along...even if I haven't gotten better at hills at all, this is the one thing I've learnt. Pacing on the uphills so I don't fall on my face coming down the other side if I cant feel my legs! :D

Must say though, its kinda hard to try and cruise along when the gradient in each repeat averages 6.5%, with the middle part at 8.5%. At least I'm not scared of this damn Poplar Plains Road anymore! Yayaya!


Reached back home around 11pm and just finished  eating my pizza at midnight! :D


The only downside to doing these hills is that the World ITU Distance AG Duathlon championships in Ottawa are only 3 weeks away, and I'm really losing some speed in the flat course, since that is a different type of suffering altogether!

Ah well, Powerman Zofingen isnt that far away, either! Shit.

No racing for me till the Ottawa World's, but Garima has her eyes set on her first triathlon of this year for Sunday (too much focus on duathlons this year, she says..). Its an Olympic Distance Tri and right in our backyard, literally. The 10k run is flat on a bike path by the lake, the bike is on the DVP (think Ride for Heart...) for 40k, and the 1500m swim, arguably the nastiest part, is in the murky waters of Toronto Harbourfront docks. Wish her luck!

Keep pedaling.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Parents trip to Toronto

...finally, you say! A non-race related post! :D

About time I posted about my parents visit to Canada in the last 2 weeks of May. It was already a month ago. Wow!

With races every weekend, time just flies.

Well, my parents visited me in Toronto for 10 days. Too short, its a shame really...a longer trip wouldn't have fit in either of our schedules, though.

They managed to visit several places, actually! Given that we really only had 1 weekend together:

- St. Jacobs/Elmira/Waterloo/Kitchener
- Niagara Falls
- Niagara on-the Lake
- Malls: Eaton Centre, Yorkdale, Square One, Heartland
- Maple, Vaughan, other local Toronto neighbourhoods.


Downtown Toronto - City Hall / Nathan Philips Square

Fountains/splash pool at Nathan Philips Square


Mom next to the old city hall in downtown Toronto

I declare that I am standing in front of the City Hall!
Awesome weather at the Farmer's Market in St. Jacobs!!

Piggy piggy!

Getting to know the nitty gritty on the types of Quinoa!

Too many choices, too little decision-making...

Good bakery deals!

Lets just walk past the fudge section, shall we?

Mom at our cousin's place in Maple
Riding the rocket!
I cant seem to find any pics of our Niagara trip, so I'll have to hunt those down. We also visited our cousins in Mississauga for a dinner in the same 1 weekend!


It was pretty hectic! But I managed to squeeze in a little 29 minute trip to visit my ol' Carleton buddy, Mikhail and his family on the way back from Niagara!



With Mikhail & sons ;-)