I inhaled a big piece of fluff

It has been two weeks since my last blog.  What can I say? It has been a great few weeks of training.  Lots of swimming and biking and running, unbelievable really.   I am preparing for a half iron distance triathlon in Stony Plain called the "Great White North Triathlon".  I registered last year and I rolled over my entry to this year because I was not ready to do the swim.
I now feel I am ready.
Yesterday there was a kids triathlon that I volunteered at where the kids would swim 50 meters then get on their bikes (some with training wheels) and run 100 meters.
It was outstanding!
After the kids race, a big group of the team went for a run through the river valley.  I ran with the team from the Kinsmen field house to Ft. Edmonton and back.  23kms with lots of up an downs. This time of year the poplar trees are seeding and they release a white fluff that can be very thick at time and collect along the sides of the trails. I was running along the trail when I inhaled, what seemed like, a giant bit of fluff.

Straight into the the wind pipe... yep sucked it straight in.  I was running back to the Kinsmen center about 14k into my run and as I am running along Keillor road and a big pice of fluff is lodged in my wind pipe.

The fluff was so thick at times it collected at the side of the trail and looked like snow.  Anyway, I learned a lesson about running this time of year. Keep your mouth shut! I hacked and wheezed for a while but eventually got it cleared so I had a great run back to my car.

As I head into a build week of training and I am feeling healthy and strong.

I am looking forward to it all.

Lake Summerside Triathlon

This is my first Olympic distance triathlon. It is in Edmonton at Lake Summerside and it involves a 1500 meter swim in the lake, 44Km run, 10km run. 

This was my first race in open water. The water was pretty cold. Earlier in the week the organizers had considered shortening the swim if the water temperature had not come up a few degrees.

Getting in was cold on the feet and I got a tip to wear two swim caps to keep my head warmer.  

 

The Race started and it was kind of fun. My wetsuit was great and kept me pretty warm. I put my head down and started to swim to the first buoy. Lots of people were trying to find their position so I just kept swimming and swimming and swimming. Before I knew it I was making the first turn. Everything seemed to be going OK. I thought I should do some sighting to make sure I was going the right direction. I swam the first of two laps and I did the crawl all the way. When I ran up on shore to start my second lap I saw Deb and Garnet and Karen standing on the beach cheering me on. I jumped back in and swam the next lap without too much trouble. It was longest swim I had ever done and as I found out later (by looking at my GPS watch that I zig zagged all over the course and ended up swimming an extra 500 meters. My swim time was 32:25.

 

The transition was pretty smooth and I rode out on the bike course without much trouble. It was a two loop out and back,  I had a gel snack at the turn around point and did the ride in 1:20:52

The run was 2.5k x four lap course. It was pretty flat and I ran a 55:07.

My total time was 2:48:22 and I finished 6 out of 11 in my age group and 52nd out of 93 overall.
This was not a big race in size, but it was a big race for me as I was able to complete the swim and this will give a lot of confidence and something to build on for my next race. 

Mike Cooper from my team finished first in his age group in the sprint race and Chris from next door placed first overall in the Duathlon. Thanks to Deb for these great pictures.

A lot of hill climbing

Last night I went hill climbing at Cloverdale road.  There was 6 of us from the team, going up and down, back and forth for over an hour. I felt a lot better than when I did this last year. I was able to stay seated and grind it up all the way. The IM Canada race is going to require a lot of hill climbing so I need to do this exercise as much as possible. I am also considering a new rear cassette that will give me a bit of better chance on the hills I currently have a 11-27 cassette and I can get a 12 - 28. Which means I will not be able to go as fast on the down hill, but it will be slightly easier to keep my rpms up on the climbs.

Ideally I would be spinning at 90 rpms. When the hills get too steep the rpms slow to 70 and that will burn out your legs.

Another race!

I found another race. I am now entered in the Summerside Olympic distance Triathlon that happens this Sunday June 6th. It take place at the Summerside lake in South Edmonton. It has a 1500m open water swim and a 40 km bike followed up with a 10km run. Should be fun if the weather warms the lake up a bit.

Shorter socks for a training run.

I thought that I would wear some shorter socks for a training run. While I was running a nice 15K run along a trail that takes me across the river over to Cameron Heights and back I started to feel a bit of an issue with my right foot. I was wearing some "Ironman" brand socks that I picked up at the running room and I thought these socks would be great because of the special design. I don't have anything else with this brand on it other than the pedals on my bike.  They are much shorter than most socks so they seemed to cause some friction between my shoe and my ankle. It was a good chance to see that this type of sock is not a good style for me to be wearing.

It is only 2c outside.

When I wake up Sunday morning it is still snowing. I get my gear together and head out to the race course to see what is going on . After I set up my bike and sorted out my gear in the transition area. I go and check in and get number 178 painted on my arm and leg.
A race official tells me that there is a delay and some concern about the swim to bike transition since it is only 2c outside.
It turns out that they canceled the bike portion of the event due to dangerous conditions so I decided it was more important to go to work and make some money instead of doing this race. I will race another day.