I think out of all the Monday night duathlons, this was the hardest for me. My hamstrings were tight like a tiger. Really threw off my stride. Then on the bike I couldn’t keep up my power. I’d get it up to speed and then couldn’t hold it.
Finished in 53 min. when I usally come in around 48-49 min.
Oh well. It is still fun to come out and see everyone. I even got to school someone on how to adjust their rear derailleur.
Time to hit the weights and build up my strength for the rest of the season.
It finially happens. You medal in your race and all the hard work over the past months has paid off. You proudly accept your medal at the post race ceremony and maybe even wear it during the drive home.
Once you get home what do you do with it? Hang it on a hook of some sort, keep it on a coffee table as a conversation piece (why not, at the cost to enter a race now days, you earned it) or throw it in a drawer, never to be seen again.
Now you can display your well earned hardware in a sleek case that looks great on a self, desk or nightstand. The highly polished acrylic case is designed to allow a quick change when you bring home your latest award.
You can customize the colour of the case or add a graphic background to compliment the medal.
Now you can make your medal more that just a medal. Make it your marquee.
I have always been fascinated with bike fit. When I got into bike racing I remember reading the Greg Lemond method and following it to tee to try and achieve the perfect fit. It served me well for many years and I rode happily knowing that the person who developed the method of fitting I had used was a three time tour de France champion and multiple world champion.
That was good enough for me.
When someone asked me advice on bike fit, I would always refer to that method and use the formula and “rules of thumb” that came with it.
Then came aero bars. These devices threw that method out the window and finding the perfect fit was now a mystery.
I rode for many years just clamping on my aero bars and not changing anything else about my position. That was all there was to it (or so I thought).
Fast forward to the present and now triathlon/time trial bikes are the norm if you are serious about your training and racing. Having an optimal position on your bike is a must if you want to avoid injury and be an efficient rider.
Now fitting a person is a matter of angles and power output. It is a matter of compromise between comfort and speed.
Bike Fit Physio Certificate
I now know how to find that comprimise. I took a seminar this weekend offered by Bike Fit Physio to be trained as a bike fitter. Murray Tough is a physio therapist and certified F.I.S.T and Serotta fitter. He offers these one day seminars to pass on his knowledge to other physios and health professionals.
The day was broken up into two segments, a presentation followed by a hands on segment. I learned a lot of new information and now know it is not such a mystery to help a cyclist find their perfect balance.
I’m pretty eager to try out my new skills. If anyone in the local area would like to be a fitted on their bike, let me know.
I live in the magical area of Eastern Ontario near Cornwall. Living in this geographic area has many advantages but I will save them for a later post.
One that I will point out is that Cornwall has a border crossing into the United States of America. This allows for quick trips into the States to pick up the bounty that I sometimes purchase on eBay or other U.S. based e-commerce sites. There is a store in Massena, N.Y. that will accept your parcel and hold it for you, all for a small fee of $3-$5. Now before you say “This sounds wrong”, I do claim my purchase as the customs upon returning to the homeland.
All this was going great until recently. The Canadian government decided to give border guards guns. The Canadian customs for this crossing just happens to be on Native soil and they do not like the idea of a Canadian with a gun (kinda sounds funny now that I typed it). So they have taken over the border and will not let anyone through unless you are of Native heritage.
Now, if you want to pick up your loot, it is a three hour drive at the next border crossing in Johnstown, Ontario. Kinda sucks.
There is another option that some of the local runners and triathletes might resort to. See below.
Sunday, May 31 was my first triathlon this year. I picked the Oka Triathlon put on by Sportriple. They run a Quebec based triathlon and duathlon series. I’ve always wanted to do one of their races and last year I just happened to be in Oka Park when the race was finishing. It looked like a great venue for a race so I made a mental note to do it this year.
To prepare for this race I used a 12 week training program from beginnertriathlete.com. It was the first time I followed a program for a tri and thought it would give me some focus and help me with my weakest part, the swim. The program I followed was an intermediate sprint tri program with emphasis on the swim. I stuck to the program as close as possible and in the end I as completely prepared for this race. In fact I don’t think I have ever been so prepared for a race as I was for this triathlon. I would recommend using a beginner triathlete program to anyone that wants to be sure that they are prepared for a race.
The Race
They call me Flipper.
Upon arrival to the race site, I picked up my swag bag and got numbered. Not much in the bag. A yellow cotton t-shirt with orange graphics and my number. A note to race directors, tech-t’s are the way to go. Nobody wants cotton t-shirts!
The race course maps were printed on letter sized sheets and stuck to a sandwich board near the registration tents. Talk about hard to read. Larger maps placed at eye level would have been more welcome. Once I familiarized myself with the routes, I set up in transition right on the end of a rack in the middle of transition.
As the water was 13° C (55° F), wetsuits were mandatory. I was glad I choose the Desoto T1 wetsuit (thanks Rob A. for the advice) as it added a bit of warmth due to the two piece design. That and it is easy to get in and out of. At the start we were given three minutes to go in the water and “warm up”. After that, it was 3-2-1 GO! I have to admit the water was a shock to the system. it took a good 300 m before I was completly comfortable. The waves were a factor too. Strong winds were causing white caps on the water and sighting the markers was difficult.
I came out of the swim mid pack and transitioned to the bike. I choose to go with a vest/jersey and arm warmers to warm myself from the swim. The mount line was a good 100 m from the transition zone so experience running in your cycling shoes was an asset (unless you are one of those hard core triathletes that put there shoes in the pedals and slip their feet in on the bike).
The long run to the mount line.
The bike started on a beautiful road through the wooded park. It had a few curves and a slight rise which made it easy to get my GURU crono up to speed. This was the connecting section to the main course that we would do two loops of. Upon reaching the main course the marshal sent me in what I think was the wrong direction and I did the last part of the main loop before starting the two loops of the course. Cyclists were crossing paths and some were riding on the bike path and others on the road. Somehow a recreational cyclist that was not in the race made it onto the course. It made it a little dicey and in the end the course was longer that the 20 km expected, measuring closer to 25 km. I made up a bunch of spots during the bike but I knew that I still had some guys to catch on the run.
Flying through the trees.
I flew through T2 and hit the run in full stride. I have never felt so good coming off the bike. My legs were turning over at a quick pace and I passed two guys in the first kilometer. The run was through the same beautiful woods and started on an asphalt bike path and turned onto a soft packed trail.
I finished in a time of 1:20:01 in 13th place out of 63 and placed 6th out of 14 in my age group but I was most proud of my 5 k time of 19:45.
Bottoms up!
The best part was the apre race snacks included bannanas, watermelon and BEER! There’s nothing like having a beer at 10:30 in the morning after a triathlon.
Thanks to my wife, France for being my crew and photographer for the day.
