Around the Bay 30K Post Mortem

So the 119th running of the Around the Bay 30K was this past Sunday. The ATB is the oldest race in North America and is exactly as it sounds. The course goes around Hamilton Bay. The course is also flat for 18k, then lots of hills for the next 8k then flat for 2k and finally slight downhill for the final 2k leading to the finish line at center ice at Copps Coliseum (see pic above).

Training was suboptimal for this race for many reasons. Work travel was frequent, weather was largely crappy and Sara's Dad had a heart attack. With family commitments rightfully taking priority I lost a couple of weeks of key long, hilly runs. I did go to Florida for a week and did some good training but it was all pancake flat and I needed hills!

I knew I was in for a long day when by the third km I was dreading the race and wishing it over - way too early for these sorts of thoughts. I was off my usual pace but thought if I could get through the first 10k in around 48 minutes I'd be happy. I completed the 10k in 48:30 and thought it was okay. One kilometre later, however, I got my first warning sign as my left hamstring started to tighten up. I thought this odd this early and feared this was not going to be fun. By 14k my left calf joined the cramp party and the negative thoughts poured in. I slowed my pace and tried to concentrate on technique but I just felt depleted and I hadn't even hit the hills yet. By 18k when the hills started I began to contemplate bailing on this race because I now started to question if injury was a possibility by continuing. I saw our friend Susan at 20k where I thought of bailing and with her cheering me on I decided to suck it up and take whatever pace my body would allow. It wasn't pretty and included probably 8-9 short walk breaks but I got it done.

I was completely trashed post race. My time of 2:35.40 was 9:40 slower than the last time I did this race in 2011. This course definitely exposes those who haven't put in the work and I paid for it! The positive is I gutted it out however ugly it was. It also gave me the wake up call I needed as I build towards Ironman Lake Placid. I will be back!!

Cheers!

Ahh Panama (City Beach)!

Logan, Sara and I escaped Winter and headed to Panama City Beach over March Break. The Durango was packed to the hilt - as evidenced by Logan in his "space" in the back seat.

The drive down was dry the entire way. I took a pic of my favourite sign on the I-75. Always makes me giggle like I'm in grade 3.

Upon arrival we got unpacked, had dinner and a good night's sleep. The next morning was cool but you could feel that the afternoon would be nice. We went for a run with Logan on his trusty steed. After dinner the night before, we found a Toys R Us and we found an awesome bike helmet.

Check it out!

From there it was to the beach! Although it was cloudy it was probably the right day for our pasty white skin. Because it is Spring Break for the US University crowd there is plenty of advertising geared to that demographic - as evidenced by the plane towing this gem!

The sand here is absolutely amazing. Most of the Gulf side of Florida is littered with beautiful beaches.

Even with the temperatures around 17C and breezy, our Sport Umbrella was awesome in blocking the wind and keeping us warm.

We set up shop and turned the channel to our favourite "reality" show - Spring Break! Just to the left of this pic behind the blue beach chairs is one fallen soldier who wandered up and passed out asleep - he clearly peaked too early!

We decided to keep watch over him and make sure he was okay. He stayed there for about 45 minutes. Once he woke up we gave him some water and helped him back to his condo. He was originally trying to get there before but, in his drunken state, could not find it. Turns out he "missed it" by 100 feet! He thanked us and went on his merry way.

For the trip I brought my Zoot Ultra TTs. I am getting them broken in for the upcoming Around the Bay 30K race on March 24th. I like these shows - lighweight, minimal and very comfortable.

Dork and a palm tree.

Sara and I went for a run and made sure half was on the beach. With the tide out it produced a nice surface.

We also went to the recreation park where they had an extensive bike lane system, approximately 30km worth. It was nice to get back out on the bikes outside.

 Doing the "see through" test on my new Orca trishorts. Sara is looking for cracks!

More beach time!

With Logan I was able to get some strength sessions in as he wanted me to dig big and deep holes in the sand - good workout.

Our last day here. The temp with humidity got up to 26C - awesome!

Big Ass beer!

The boys at the construction site.

Finally a panoramic shot of the state park in PCB. The state park is the turnaround point on the marathon loops for Ironman Florida which I'm doing this year. I'm glad the run has many turns as a straight flat run would make me mental. Overall I did 3 swims (longest 2000m), 3 bikes (longest 52k), and 4 runs (longest 17 miles). Overall a good trip, good training week (much needed!!!). Next up is the Around the Bay!

Cheers!

Winter Broke Me!

I was determined to not escape winter this year but after a stressful February that ended with a horrible long run I decided to surrender and am heading to Florida for Spring Break.

Tired of things like winter storms, wind chill. We've been spoiled the last couple of winters which were quite mild.

I'm heading to the Emerald Coast and Panama City Beach.

I plan on doing some scouting of the Ironman Florida course - a race I will be competing in for the first time in November.

I plan on getting 4-5 swims in, 4 runs (with my last long run before the Around the Bay 30K) and 3 rides (I will have my tri bike in tow). The pic to the left is the facility in Panama City Beach. It has 8 lanes of 50m in the mornings and after lunch switches to 20 lanes of 25m. I love outdoor pools like this - wish we had the climate for this! I hope to have lots of pics to show.

Cheers!

Motivation Monday!

Truth! Yes it's the start of a new week and I'm feeling a little trashed. Last week we moved Sara's folks into a new house and then a major health scare happened in her family. Good news is everything is working out but the accumulative physical, mental and emotional stress takes its toll. Needless to say training took a backseat to the more important things in life and I've found myself playing a little catchup this week.

I got 2 swims, 3 bikes and 5 runs this week along with 2 strength workouts. A good week but yesterday I hit the wall. With the time off and stress from the previous week and the work travel and training from this week I was exhausted. I went out for my long run on the Bay course yesterday after dropping my daughter off at work for 6am -arrgghh!! I normally don't run this early and I know why - my body just does not like it! The other challenge was the footing. It had been wet then a light covering of snow caused icing. The problem was you couldn't see it and after 10+ almost-falling-down wipeouts with attempted pulled groins I was officially frustrated. I ended up doing 17K of hills over the slippery run and it was all I could do on this day. Every step was an effort it seemed. I thought I might get a second wind and start finding my rhythm but it never came. While this sort of day is never fun I always commit it to memory especially for moments in racing when things either start going badly or fatigue is setting in. Character building as they say right?!

Truth!!

The rest of this is for getting pumped for the next block of training.

Cheers!

WTC Tri Club Info

More Tri Club info...............


Hi Everyone – the IRONMAN TriClub program is off to an amazing start!


As many of you know (if you attended a webinar in December and January) one of the benefits of being a partner club with IRONMAN is what we can do to help you brand your club and build your club roster. Based on your feedback on our survey (yes we actually read every one of them and listened to you!) we developed three strategies to help you brand your team.

First- we are using our CRM and Active.com registration reports to connect athletes (who have agreed to receive emails form us) with clubs located in their areas. We have had several successful matches so far so we think this program will be particularly impactful to you.

Secondly, we are about ready to post our first Club Spotlight in a race athlete guide for IRONMAN 70.3 California. The final draft of the spotlight is not completed but I wanted you to see what a great opportunity these guides will be for driving membership to your club. How do you get in the athlete guide? You either let us know which races your club is attending OR you ask your club members to fill out this survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tribluprogram

We have only 12 -14 spots so we make a decision on who gets in based on the total number of athletes (that we know of) racing as a percentage of the overall club roster. Preference is also given to “local” clubs in the area. BTW if your members fill out the survey we can get them tied to your club in our system before race week – when they race they earn you points towards the IRONMAN TriClub Podium award (and great prizes!)

Finally, each week Kevin MacKinnon will be spotlighting a club on IRONMAN.com. We are doing a variety of fun little contests to see who gets focus on IRONMAN.com. Some of these contests include a Facebook Photo Gallery game J! The link to the first spotlight is included here: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon-news/articles/2013/02/trilavie.aspx#axzz2Kuj6bc8V

If you were unable to jump on a webinar and are interested in learning more about our program and how your club can be part of it, please reach out to me directly and we will schedule some time on the phone.

Looking forward to working with you in 2013!!


Liz


Elizabeth Kollar
Director of Athlete Development and Communications
World Triathlon Corporation
Ironman World Headquarters
2701 N Rocky Point Drive
Suite 1250
Tampa, Florida 33607
Tel: 813.868.5940 extension 3747
Fax: 813.868.5930
Cell: 310-923-0586
elizabeth.kollar@ironman.com
www.ironman.com

Dude! Where You Been?!

I noticed my last entry was February 3rd - it's been a while! But for good reason. I've had a lot of work commitments lately which has kept me on the road. I say "work" but it has been fun work. It started off in Ottawa. I took customers to the Ottawa Senators vs Washington Capitals game. The great thing about seeing a game in Ottawa is the low price of tickets. I use Stubhub for my ticket purchases and I paid less than face value for my seats. The pic above and below were taken from my seat. Yes that's Alexander Ovechkin in the penalty box in front of me. I also usually stay at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata. This is where the visiting NHL teams stay and I saw the Capitals board the bus to head to the rink. If ever in Kanata, check it out, and book through Hotwire - it's the only 4-Star hotel in Ottawa West.

I came back home briefly and on Sunday headed to downtown Toronto for the Canadian Hospital Pharmacists Conference. I stayed at the Sheraton which has a nice gym and 25m pool that is half indoor, half outdoor. I was meeting customers for a Super Bowl event and managed to get 1600m in beforehand, Then it was off to Real Sports Bar and Grill next to the Air Canada Center for the Super Bowel. This place only has 199 TVs! Lebron James and some of the Carolina Hurricanes players were there as well. My conference ended Tuesday at 2:00pm and I caught a flight to Montreal for a sales meeting at 3:15pm - just barely made the flight. I was in Montreal til Thursday afternoon. The hotel had a gym and I got up at 6:00am both mornings to get a workout in but it wasn't that great. Meetings include sitting all day and evenings are filled with company meals - good caloric accumulation! I managed to get out of Montreal before the storm hit. It was just starting to build as I landed.

The next morning I saw this!! I last looked out the window around 1:00am and it was still clear. Funny how much snow can fall in a short time. We stayed put as we saw lots of cars in the neighbourhood get stuck.

My street corner. The main street through our subdivision was manageable but sidestreets - forget it!

In a matter of 2 days we went from huge snowfall to mild temps so the roads were completely clear. On this past Sunday I was up early to head to Windsor and then Detroit for the Detroit Red Wings vs LA Kings game with customers. Here's the sunrise in Hannon as I left.

With the complete shift in temperature we got this beautiful ice coating on all the trees. Roads were dry fortunately.

Check this out - amazing scenery.

Here I am during the anthem at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The game was unbelieveable! The Detroit goalie stopped 45 of 47 shots and Detroit won with 4.5 seconds left in the game. My customers had a blast.

Unfortunately my diet for the week looked a lot like this!!! I weighed myself the next day and it wasn't pretty. As punishment I went on a 20K run on the Around the Bay course. I definitely felt the week's festivities on the run - not good times!

Back to the workload for me - time to drop some lbs for the 30K Around the Bay Race for the end of March.

Cheers!