Category: race

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Building my 2012 Race Calendar

It’s probably already getting to be too late to be plotting out my race calendar, as the training plan will follow from that – even one of my loosely structured ‘plans’ is in danger of never truly forming.  I have some favourite races, but I don’t want this year to be ‘Been There, Done That’ so there will be a lot of new and novel races for me this year.

Month
Race Name and Date
Quick Note
April
Primary Goal
May
NO RACES FOUND!
I may be supporting my wife in her race endeavours this month so…
June
Met Con Blue. June 2nd
Secondary Goal; Obstacle Course Race
Spartan Race Toronto (Oro); June 24th
Primary Goal; Obstacle Course Race
July
Muskoka 5150; July 22nd
Primary Goal; Olympic Distance Tri
August
Muskoka Grind; August 5th
Secondary Goal; Off-Road Tri
Primary Goal; Olympic Distance Tri
September
Logs Rocks and Steel; September 8th
Secondary Goal; Multi-sport Adventure

5 Peaks Trail run at Rattlesnake Point: I like running on trails and always have.  Still I don’t know that I can be considered a trail runner – I’m not sure if my usual routes are as technical or challenging as they would be if I were an ‘official’ trail runner.  Still, I’d like to try an official race and the races in this series come highly recommended.  This one is early in the season and as it’s my first one, I’ll stick to the shorter ‘Sport’ Course which is 4.5km.

MET CON BLUE: Obstacle races are blowing up as a trend, and what I like about this one is that it’s a Canadian Homegrown effort – I’m hoping that means less overcrowding than the Warrior Dash I did last year.  Collingwood and Blue Mountain have been like a  home away from home for my family in past years, so it would be fun to head up there for this.  It takes place the same weekend as the Milton Triathlon, but it looks like I might give that one a miss this year. I didn’t get much interest from friends when I tried to get a group going, unlike…

Spartan Race Toronto: This one is closer to where I live, and it looks like we have a strong contingent of people from the Jiu-Jitsu club going, so I’ll join in on the fun.

Muskoka 5150: Gone is the old Muskoka Chase triathlon; I guess I have mixed emotions.  It was a long standing race and one of my first.  The long course was always ‘neither-here-nor-there’: longer than Olympic distance but shorter than Half-Iron.  The Olympic Distance (51.5km total swim-bike-run) is probably my favourite distance so I’m jumping at the chance at doing this on my old stomping grounds in what is still technically a ‘new’ race.

Muskoka Grind: Every year I think I’m going to be able to try an off-road triathlon, and every year I don’t knuckle down and buy myself a mountain bike to accomplish it with.  So far, there’s been a dearth of these events in Ontario, but with this addition to the calendar maybe this is the year I get myself a mountain bike.  If only I knew anything about mountain bikes.  This will be promoted to primary race status once I have one…

Bracebridge Triathlon: The Recharge with Milk Series has become my favourite, but I seem to have trouble lining up their races with my schedule (at least last year).  Bracebridge used to have a Half-Iron but now they’ve gone down to the Olympic Distance, which suits me fine.

Logs, Rocks and Steel: In the same vein as trying an off-road triathlon, I wouldn’t mind dipping my feet into adventure racing without that pesky navigation or teamwork (I’m a loner, Dottie, a rebel).  This fits the bill! The Pine Crest Course is 4km of paddling (kayak for solos like me), 22km of mountain biking, then a 5km trail run.  Overall, it’s a lot for me to work up to… good thing it’s late in the season.  Still need that Mountain Bike though.

That’s the plan (so far).  Always subject to change as conflicts and chaos can arrive.  I’ll probably keep updating the table on a separate page of the blog as the year progresses.

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LinkoRama

Just checking in with a few interesting links I found over the week.

Caitlin over at Healthy Tipping Point is doing a series for people looking into triathlon.  Where I did a single post in a similar vein, a whole series is that more comprehensive and awesome.  No wonder that blog is so popular.

Meanwhile, Meghann at Meals and Miles drew my attention to an awesome relay that goes from Miami to Key West; a beautiful and fun part of the world to understate things.  It looks logistically difficult to put together, and that’s before you consider the mayhem and TSA blues it would take to get me and my family to Florida.  Still, maybe it’s one for the the Race Bucket List.

Finally, this guy had to go and ruin everything I thought I was doing right in my swim training.  I’ll probably mix in his advice with what I was already doing for some Frankenstein hybrid; that’s how I roll.

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Grab/Santa’s Bag of Stuff from the Web

With End-of-Year crunch and Christmas time gatherings, I don’t seem to have time for training or proper blog posts, but here’s a couple of discoveries from the web that I love and wanted to highlight with more than just a tweet.

My favourite triathlon blogger is Swim Bike Mom; a ‘regular jane’ with a job and family who also happens to be a half Ironman.  Her posts are always heartfelt and funny, but this one took the cake (I was actually jealous that I didn’t come up with the idea myself): Triathletes Are Babies.

My other big find was TriMuskoka:  a newly developed advocacy club for endurance athletes and endurance sport tourism in Huntsville and Lake of Bays, Muskoka. We are committed to athlete development and support for both local and visiting athletes. Our priority is to ensure that every club member achieves his or her goals.  

This area has been home to multiple triathlons in recent years, and I’ve noticed a steep increase in the number of people running and biking out on the roads (I’m sure people are swimming in the lakes too, I just haven’t spotted as many).  I’m really excited to see a formal club/community spring up from all the local enthusiasm, and the icing is that not only is the old Muskoka Chase Triathlon converting to an official WTC 5150 race, but Element Racing is putting on an off-road Triathlon called ‘The Grind’.

A final note: I’ve added an ‘About’ Page for quicker way to introduce myself to new readers.  I’m looking at making some more cosmetic changes on the blog (can’t wait till Blogger’s Dynamic Views allows widgets), I hope they aren’t detrimental.

Happy Holidays and/or Merry Christmas! 

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Race Bucket List

Bucket lists seem to be all the rage these days, but I’ve always found the idea daunting – how could I list everything I ever wanted to do?  My list would be something like: 1.) Live Forever and do everything.  Yet, if I focus on the idea that there are endurance/athletic events I would like to participate in, then maybe I can come up with something.

These races will be in the ‘Bucket List’/Pipe Dream category for one or more of the following reasons (in increasing order of likelihood):

  1. Conditioning.  I’m too far out of the shape I’d need to be in to complete
  2. Skill/Equipment.  One or more of the disciplines involves a skill I don’t know how to do
  3. Geography/Logistics:  Getting there with equipment won’t work while taking care of my family at the same time

All of these are fixable or will change with time, and so will the list as I find out new possibilities and opportunities… so let’s get started!

    • Pentathlon Des Neiges.  I was going to put the Ottawa Winterlude Triathlon here but I just happened to stumble across this event in IMPACT magazine. Both events include skating, cross-country skiing, and running, but the Pentathlon des Neiges adds snow-shoeing and cycling.  The latter discipline can be done with mountain or cyclo-cross bikes and actually takes place first (followed by a run, then ski, then skate, then snow-shoe).  There are short (9+4+6+6+4=29km) and long (15+6+9+9+6=45) distance races and it all takes place on the historic Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.

    • Men’s Health Urbanathlon What I like about this obstacle course is it seems focused on the fitness aspects needed to complete while leaving out the fear factor/bravado and quite frankly, mud involved in mud runs, Warrior Dashes and Spartan Races and the like.  If they bring one to the Toronto area, I’m as good as signed up, but I wouldn’t mind travelling to one of the fine cities that are currently offered when my schedule would allow it.
      • Ski 2 Sea what if a race included even more of the Canadian Multi-sport experience, enough to span all seasons?  And what if it was a journey with an end destination that was far away from the start?  What if you started on top of a mountain, downhill skied 2km, switched to cross-county skis for another 8km, jumped on a mountain bike and rode 28km out of the mountains only to hit the road with your road bike for 36km.  Now jump off the bike and run for nearly 15km and get in your canoe/kayak so you don’t get wet because there’s another 8km before the finish line.  It’s a lot of distance to cover, and the logistics are quite intimidating so people often do this as a team relay, but it seems like such a dream journey (and it is a net downhill, after all) that I can’t help but be tempted by this one.

        • Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket Thailand  I’m a little wary of iron or half-iron distance racing and it’s not only the daunting training schedule and training volume.  Races with the Ironman brand don’t exist in everybody’s back yard, and most people who have done one turn it into a trip with overnight accomodation, meals and maybe a little vacation time… if you’re going to drop that kind of cash and time, why not make it a more once-in-a-lifetime experience?  I love Thailand (from having honeymooned there) and I can’t picture a better destination for a ‘destination race’ than the land of smiles.  So far, you don’t even have to qualify!  This race took place this past Sunday, in fact.

        • Berlin Marathon   My wife and I both have a lot of friends and family in Germany, and Berlin has become a bit of a home away from home for us.  The Berlin marathon is also considered the fastest course there is so there’s my motivation to beat my previous, pitiful marathon time.  What really put this marathon into my dream file was a conversation I had with a gentleman who had done more than 50 marathons all over the world, but when I asked him his favourite, he said it was the Berlin Marathon, during the year of German re-unification.  He had run through part of the city that were inaccessible to him growing up, and attempting to leave those parts in the East had gotten people shot and killed over the course of the Cold War.  By the time he ran through the Brandenburg Gate (below), he was blind with tears in his eyes and needed the guidance of a friend simply to find his way through the pillars.  So many Big City Marathons have a lot of historical draw, but none like this, at least not to me.
        Runners going through the Brandenburg Gate
        • XTERRA Canada (Canadian Open Championship) I already like taking my running “off-road”,  and it’s my honest intention to get a mountain-bike for cross-training purposes and to participate in some non-navigational adventure races (like Logs, Rocks and Steel) and off-road triathlons.  From the latter category, XTERRA is pretty much the biggest and baddest.  This race takes place in beautiful Whistler, BC which only adds to the draw.  Until that time, maybe I’ll get to do the Mine Over Matter as my introduction to off-road tris…

        This list is long enough for now, but I’m always up for recommendations… dream big!

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          Orillia Sprint Triathlon Race Report

          I usually find other people’s race reports to be a little boring, so I’ll try to keep this short and succinct. This was my first time doing this particular race, and I only found out that the distances 3 weeks beforehand; a busy summer had me dropping from last year’s Olympic distance training levels to ‘Sprint’ levels (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) but Orillia upped the bike-run distance by 60% (33km bike, 7km)! I was under-trained, and being underprepared is going to be a bit of a theme in this story.


          An 8AM start time meant getting up a 4:45AM, and this doesn’t lead to a sharp mind by the time you’re at the race site; I hadn’t filled my water bottles, and been unable to get my bib pinned – but I had a saviour (via his mom): Trevor Clark. This young man finished 3rd in Junior Men, he’s friendly and incredibly polite, and obviously has a great future ahead of him. Most important to me, he had an extra race belt!


          To calm my pre-race nerves and fears, my wife gave me the following advice: “This is something you enjoy; go out there, and take your time, you’ll be sure to finish, and have fun doing it.” Words to live by, for sure. I hit the water with barely a minute to spare, and though Lake Couchiching is big enough to have some chop, the swim was smooth and simple, and sure enough, I was enjoying myself! The swim was over all too soon.  


          I found the bike course to have a lot of nice variety; country houses, farmer’s fields, shady treed lanes. There were a couple of times where I saw a turn coming, and rather than try to pass shortly before the bottleneck that would result, I kept my gear light, my cadence high and simply enjoyed the ride. It probably made my ride more efficient. There were some riders whose *bike budget clearly overpowers their swim ability* who passed me at the 8k, 15k and 25k (!) mark, but I was pleased to see an overall mix of athletes who were able to hang together (alternately passing and being passed) with bikes of various qualities and fitness levels of which to be proud. Climbing over Highway 11 near the 28km mark was nasty, as the hill was steep, and fatigue was starting to set in.


          Both of my transitions were not the fastest, but it didn’t bother me since I was treating this race with more of a ‘smell the roses’ attitude anyway. The run course was all road, so I opted for my cushioned Salomons rather than my Zoot racing flats, and suffered no problems. It felt like I had a conservative start with a strong finish for a negative split, but after reviewing the statistics that doesn’t seem to be the case. The course was nice and flat, and the final half kilometer was through the park, allowing for lots of cheering (Spectator tip: “Way to go” and “great job” are always welcome but “All downhill from here” is like music to my ears).


          Post race food is plentiful, and some of those snacks are right up my alley (the key ingredient is chocolate, people). World Endurance Canada still knows how to run an event (maybe more rack space though guys?).