Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Happy 29th!!!!

I turned 29 on Saturday, August 6, 2011. I have made it known to my wife, parents and some other family members that I plan to cut my weight down to 170 before the tri training season kicks in (in Winnipeg that is at the beginning of November).

My wife and family think I am a little nutty for trying to get down to 170. I have been 190 for about eight months now, though I never really fealt the gains in my running; I hadn't been training all that hard this year. I have assured everyone that I am going to lose the weight in a healthy fashion; no more than 1.6 pound lost per week. I will cut calories, but no more than 600 per day. I will still maintain a light load of running and cycling to ensure that I don't lose too much muscle mass. And, just to clarify, I have a degree in Communications and not Sports Science or Kinetics. Everything I know about healthy weight loss and muscle maintenance during weight loss, I have learned from friends who have the appropriate education and by reading everything I can get my hands on. So please, don't expect to hear the science behind what I am doing. I will provide details of my methods and the results they produce. Oh, and if I am not 170 by November, when my training season starts, I will train at whatever weight I am at. A good friend who has his PHD in Sports Science advised to me to try to stay at the weight I enter the training season at through-out the training and race seasons at.

My family, knowing that I am usually very rational and very very stubborn, decided to throw me a birthday party. My aunts, uncles and cousins were all invited and told that they will get a meal and cake for a donation for the bike I bought. The party was great, everyone was eager to hear my plans for competing exclusively in triathalons; no more hockey, softball or marathons. I am exclussively a triathalete until I reach my goal or am told by the highest authorities that it won't happen.

Friday, August 5, 2011

One Week Away

My second tri is next Saturday in beautiful Riding Mountain National Park. Riding Mountain has many fond memories for me, and I am looking forward to making my sprint debut.

Since my last race, I have been doing lots of brick workouts, two a day workouts and absorbing as much tri information as I can. I feel realy prepared for next Saturday; I bought a road bike, have been swimming in open water at least once a week and doing some serious speed work (mostly hill and 800m repeats).

I won't touch too much on my preparation; my only focus is to race to the best of my current abilities. I am looking for my splits to be as follows:
  • 800m Swim - 15
  • 20km Bike - 35
  • 10km Run - 19
Give or take a few seconds here and there, add some time for my transition, but I feel really confident that I can throw down 1:10 to 1:16; that will be my baseline for next year.

Charles won't be joining me for this race; however, I will have the support of my beautiful wife (who is just getting into her second term with out first child), my parents, grandma and some friends.

So, I mentioned that I bought a new bike; it's a 2010 Cannondale Caad 8 with 105 components. Originally, I was planning on waiting till October to get a bike; that is when the liquidation sales are on. To get myself prepared, I wanted to ride as many bikes as I could, talk to as many people as I could and be ready to know exactly what I wanted.

After trying out a dozen or so bikes, it came down to the Trek 2.3 Triple and the Cannondale Caad 8; both had similar componentry and weight (19.5lbs), plus they were a comfortable fit for me and my bank account. Like I said, I planned to wait till October, but I found an offer I couldn't pass up. One of the shop owners (from Olympia on St. Mary's) emailed me to let me know about a clearance special Cannondale was having; the Caad 8 with 105 components was $1499 came down to $975. I jumped on the sale and am now the proud owner of a road bike.

My first couple rides on the Caad 8 were great!!! I didn't do much more than 15km, but holding 35kph was easy. I plan to do a 50km ride tomorrow to improve my comfort level on the bike.



So, I am ready as I am going to be for the race. Although, I am opting to not use my wet suit; I haven't had enough swims in it to really feel comfortable. Still, my confidence is high.

In the time that I have been taking to get ready for the race, I have done lots of reading, watched a schwag of ITU World Championship Series races and even more YouTube videos. Check out the YouTube video I found; it is 48 hours in the life of Tim Don.



I watched this video six or seven times in a row; I want what Tim has. I can't think of any other way to spend the next 13 years of my life. I am dead serious when I tell you all, I have made a commitment to myself; I am working towards a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. I have a long way to go, but I have formulated the plan. I won't reveal the plan, but it will elaborate on it over the course of my writing. Dare to Tri, from here on out, will be the chronicles of my attempt to qualify for the Olympics in  four years in a sport I have no experience in.

A Little Background Information

I was born in 1982, and have always been very active. My evenings as a youth were filled with hockey, volleyball, lacrosse, basketball and, well, any other sport I could get my hands on. Despite being as active as I was, I was always on the heavy side. Being heavy didn't really hold me back; I still managed to play junior hockey and compete in the national lacrosse program. But, while in university and college, my weight started to creep up to a dangerous level; before I knew what happend, I was tipping the scale at 265 pounds.

I hadn't noticed the weight pack on, but I did notice that my confidence was severely lacking and, I wasn't the first, second or third option for the opposite sex.

My drive to lose the weight was completely motivated by attracting the ladies. I cut carbs and calories and hit the weights hard. About a year later, I was down to 205; I was able to bench close to 300 pounds, curl 70s and leg press close to 1000. I still had some softness around the mid section, but for the most part I was solid.

My time in the gym reaquanted me with a bunch of guys I went to high school with; we were essentially a bunch of educated meat heads focused on having fun and meeting girls. By this time, I was 24, still hovering around a very strong 205 and feeling very lost. I had no challenge, nothing that was pushing me to change, grow, adapt and evolve into the man I was meant to be. So I cut the weight lifting; I realized it was out of pure vanity and had nothing to do with my long term life goals. I started running; my great addiction!!!

I don't know how I missed out on running competetively in high school; all the signs were there. The school track coach was always begging me to represent the school in the 3000 and 5000m runs. I never knew why he was so persistant, but looking back, I am sure it had to do with me smashing fittness test scores every year.

Anyway, its 2006, I am 24 and now running. Without doing as much as 20 miles a week, I decided to run in my first marathon; it was hell, but I managed a 3:57. Considering I really didn't train and still a meat headed 205 pounds, I look back now and realize that my time was respectable.

Over the next three years, I ran to maintain my health. I ran in the local marathon every year, but still was doing running half fast. In 2010, I decided to log some serious miles; by September, 2010, I was logging roughly 60 miles a week. My PRs were as follows:
  • 5k - 19:00
  • 10k - 40:15
  • 1/2 - 1:31:14
  • Full - 3:48
Prior to 2010, I had no clue what my fastest 5k, 10k or 1/2 were. The only comparison I have is the following:
  • Marathon - previous best time was 3:57 in 2007
  • 1/2 - First 1/2 that year I did in 1:37
  • 10k - First 10k of the year I did in 42:40
  • 5k - First 5k of the year I did in 21:45
So there were some gains, and I am sure that I could have improved my times, but just running was a drag for me. To get better at marathons, I had to throw down almost a 20 mile run a week. So I kind of let running go. Oh, and I was still hovering around 200 pounds.

Its now 2011, a friend (we'll call him Charles) and I are discussing triathlons. Charles is a former university swimmer trying to grow his business by networking. After a couple weeks of working on tempo runs with Charles, he does his first 10k race; he did well, and really enjoyed the atmosphere, but admits that any greater distance of races have no appeal to him.

A couple weeks after the 10k race, Charles became the proud owner of a vintage (1998) Specialized (I have no clue the model). With his bike, and my commuter Norco VSX (its definately not meant for racing), Charles and I half heartedly go out to a  local pak and do a mock sprint triathlon. The mock was a blast!!! It was tough, but not the same grind that straight running is. Charles did his first sprint a couple weeks later and finished with a 1:23. After looking over the splits from the race, we see plenty of areas to improve on.

Two weeks after the Sprint Charles did, we both enetered in a foilman race. Charles made significant improvements, while I came away with frustration. On each leg of the race, I had serious issues. On the swim, I found it very difficult to to keep a straight line; I probably added an extra 200m just from not spotting. So ontop of swimming a very innefficient line, I was swimming with pointed toes, which means flexed calf muscles. On the last leg of the swim I had planned to leave it all in the water; however, my calfs had another idea. A short while into my last leg my flexed calves started to severely cramp. The cramp in my right leg subsided, but I completely lost all use of my left leg for the remainder of the swim.

So I finally finished what should have been a 950m swim in 21 minutes and hobbled to my bike. To reduce my transition time, I decided to not wear socks. Just an FYI, I had been training with socks on.

I felt fresh on the bike, which was very encouraging. The first half of the bike distance was up a gradual 100m elevation into a 30kph wind. As I mentioned, I was using was a hybrid commuter bike. In training, I was able to hold down 30kph over 30km with ease. So, despite using a non-road bike, I managed to stay close to the top 20 pack. As we turned around for our glorious downhill ride with the wind at our backs, I shifted my gears only to hear a terrible grinding; my front deraileur wasn't pushing my chain to give me my top ring of gears. I did the best I could, but could only manage to hold 40kph; the top 20 pack left me in their dust.

When I arrived at the transition zone, I was determined to post a sub 44 minute 10.5km. The first three km were great; my pace was hovering around four minute per km. Shortly after the third km, the leg cramps came back with a vengence. I was left with the ability to hobble, and nothing more. After 54 minutes, I finished the run. My finish time for the foilman was 2:24.

I left the race with so much to think about, but not just that; I was hooked. From here on out, I was a triathalete. I wanted nothing more than to be the best, and, at the age of 28, I was starting from the back of the pack.