Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Tomorrow, July 4th, marks the 91st annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest from Coney Island NY. The event will be broadcast live on ESPN starting at 12 noon EST. In 2006, over 30,000 spectators attended the event, and an additional 1.5 million households watched it live on ESPN.

The two heavy-weights going into the contest are the 6 time defending Coney Island Champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi (53 3/4 hot dogs last year) and the new World Record holder Joey "Jaws" Chestnut (59 1/2 hot dogs earlier this year). It should be quite the battle, assuming Kobayashi is able to compete, as he's been battling a jaw injury.

Last years Champ Takeru Kabayashi who ate 53 3/4 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes

The Rules:
During the event, the field of about 20 contestants stands on a raised platform behind a 30-foot-long table with drinks and Nathan's Famous hot dogs in buns. Most contestants drink water, but other kinds of drinks can and have been used. Condiments are allowed, but are usually not used. The hot dogs themselves are allowed to cool slightly after grilling to prevent possible mouth burns. Whomever consumes (and keeps down) the most hot dogs and buns ("HDBs") in twelve minutes is declared the winner. A designated scorekeeper is paired with each contestant who flips a number board counting the hot dogs consumed. Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a length. Hot dogs still in the mouth at the end of the 12 minutes count only if they are swallowed. There can be deductions in score for excess HDB debris. Both hands may be used. After the winner is declared, a plate with the number of hot dogs eaten by the winner is brought out.

Prizes:
For the first time this year, there is actual cold hard cash for the top 5 eaters:
1st: $10,000
2nd: $5,000
3rd: $2,500
4th: $1,500
5th: $1,000

2006 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Tuesday July 4, 2006
No.	Name	Hot Dogs
1	Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi (World Record)	53¾
2	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut (U.S. Record)	52
3	Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (Women's Record)	37
4	Patrick Bertoletti	34¼
5	Tim "Eater X" Janus	34
6	Chip "The Phenom" Simpson	33
7	"Humble" Bob Shoudt	30
8	Rich "The Locust" LeFevre	28
9	Eric "Badlands" Booker	24
10	Patrick "from Moonachie" Philbin	23
11	Eric Denmark	22
12	Seaver Miller	22
13	Brian Subich	22
14	Crazy Legs Conti	21⅓
15	Allen Davis	20½
16	Robert Andersson	20
17	Hall Hunt	19
18	Kamil "The Camel" Hamersky	18
19	Kenji Oguni	16
20	Jed Donahue	1

A short highlight of Joey "Jaws" Chestnut breaking the World Record earlier this year

Back to Training...

The last week or so has been a recovery week following the race in Edmonton. We arrived back in Vic on Monday morning, unpacked, did some laundry and a bit of light training. The week was generally aerobic activity, with a few more efforts towards the end of the week.

Thursday was a 2.5 hr ride through some hills, and the legs didn't like that much at all. To top it off, it rained pretty hard on the back half of the ride.

Saturday we did a 13km SS effort in a group, followed by 6 climbs up the observatory. We did a similar workout two weeks ago, and the effort was there today, but the legs just weren't quite there. The rest of the guys rode really well today, lots of good climbs up the observatory. We had a group BBQ at Coach Joel's later on that night, which was good times.

On Sunday, Andrew, Jordan and I headed just north of Victoria to run the Sidney Days 5km road race. It was going to be an opportunity to get in a good solid run, not expecting fast times.

Remarkably I felt great on Sunday, running a PB of 15:55 (2:56, 3:14, 3:15, 3:15, 3:11) Jordan and Andrew both ran strong races as well, all of us finishing at 16:30 or faster.

We're back to some solid training this week, and then I'm racing again the weekend after in Geneva NY. Hopefully I can translate my straight up 5km into a solid run off the bike. I know it's there, I just have to pull it out on race day.

Happy Canada Day!

Edmonton World Cup Race Report

Well, that didn't go quite as planned.
Great swim, struggled a bit on the bike, no legs on the run.

I was the 2nd last guy out to the start line, so I got the 2nd last choice for starting spot. I ended up being about the 6th or 7th guy in from the right side, which was a bit longer than the left side (as the course curved to the left a bit at the start). I had a pretty clean start, swimming right beside Andrew McCartney for about 100m. We had some clean water, and I moved around him and started bridging over to the group coming on the left. Brukhankov was leading, Jenkins was on his feet, and I tucked in on Jenkins feet around the first turn buoy. I passed Brukhankov at roughly 600m or so, leading into shore to end lap 1 (and take the swim prime). I lead the whole 2nd loop, leading a long string of athletes out of the water and up to the transition zone.

The bike was tougher on me than I thought it would be. I managed to stay in contact with the front group of roughly 18 the first time up the hill, though I didn't have much pop in the legs for the climb. We had 35" or so on the chase group after the first loop, but that would be the last I'd see of the front of the race, as halfway up the hill on loop 2 I got popped out the back of the group. I had positioned myself approx. midway in the group for the climb, but quickly went backwards as there was a slight attack at the front, and I just couldn't match the acceleration. Once I rounded the corner at the top, I was 60m back of the group at least, and had no way of bridging back into the group. Zvonko Cubric and I ended up riding the rest of the 2nd loop together, though in hindsight, I should have just let up and waited for the chase pack, as Joel feels I left myself out there on my own a bit too long after getting dropped.

Once in the chase group (including two Canadians Kyle Jones and Brent McMahon) we lost a bit more time to the leaders, coming off the bike 2:30 down. Once in the chase group, I was able to hang in more easily on the climbs, which was a bit frustrating that I couldn't hang in earlier on.

Off the bike and into the flats, I just couldn't get the running legs going. My legs felt flat. I was unable to move up at all, having a bunch of guys from the third pack run through me. I ended up crossing the line in 43rd place, not quite the race that I was hoping for.

I've learned a couple things from the race: I need to work on increasing my peak power output for those surges on the hills, corners, etc... and I also need to limit the number of those efforts on the bike (position in the pack is a crucial component). Time to regroup for the Geneva Continental Cup on July 14th.

Edmonton World Cup Results:

6 min Video Clip of Race (click on the men's race):

The start of the men's race, I'm the 2nd face you can see on the left (black leg)

Hurting on the Emily Murphy Climb (#64)

Pre Race Report - Edmonton World Cup

I feel this day has been a long time coming. Since making my first Canadian U20 team in 1997, I never figured that it would be 10 years until I was able to get my first World Cup start. I'm very grateful for the starting spot here in Edmonton, now I just have to go out and race to my abilities.

We left Victoria Friday morning, arriving in Edmonton around 1pm. Kyle and I are staying at the Coast Edmonton Plaza, just a short walk from the race hotel. Kirsten and I got our run workout finished with, then we all headed to the pre-race meeting and the dinner that followed.

Swim and Run Map
Bike Map

The swim takes place in Hawrelak Park. The water temperature is on the borderline of either being a wetsuit swim or not. If it is 20.0 C or warmer, then no wetsuits (good thing!). Any cooler, and it means everyone in wetsuits (bad thing for me!)

I am the penultimate ranked athlete, which means I will most likely be on the far right side of the field, as the swim curves to the left at the beginning, and thus the left side will be slightly shorter. Luckily for me, Andrew McCartney will be starting right beside me, so hopefully we will have a nice train flying up the right hand side at the start of the swim!

The bike course is pretty interesting, and is pretty much as I remember it from Nationals here in 1999. Out of the park, and we are greeted by Emily Murphy Hill, a short climb, before traveling along Saskatchewan Dr, then flying down Groat Rd. After crossing the bridge, we take the off ramp, come under the highway, take the on-ramp back on, and head back towards transition zone. 6 loops in total makes up the bike.

The run looks to be fairly flat, with a short incline to the turn-around point out of the park. Three loops in total for the run.

Today we did some pre-race training on the course, but otherwise kept off the feet in the hotel room. A group dinner at Boston Pizza, and we caught a funny movie afterwards - Knocked up.

Well, that's the race in a nutshell, time for bed. Hopefully I can get a decent sleep tonite, that usually doesn't happen the night before a race! I have no real expectations placed on myself here, I just want to have a solid race, and most importantly have a solid run split.

I'll have a race report early in the week, once we get back to Victoria.

Catching Up

Well, I figured it was about time that I updated the blog.

Sunday, we wanted to get our workouts done in the morning, so we could hustle back and start watching the World Cup races that started at 11:30am our time.

We started out with a great hill workout, warm-up, then 6 times up the Observatory climb (2.2km) and a warm-down ride back to our place, followed by 5' hard run right off the bike and then 25' easy to finish up.

#1: 8:27 (303 W) stopped when AP threw his chain
#2: 7:16 (317 W)
#3: 7:12 (316 W)
#4: 7:12 (317 W)
#5: 6:43 (347 W)
#6: 6:29 (365 W)

The Des Moines race was such a tough race, very windy, very hot, and very humid. Only about half the field in each race finished. AP, Jordan, Andrew and I finished off the day with 3000m over at Commonwealth after the races.

Monday we swam 5000 in the morning, mainly all aerobic with the main set being 15 X 300 (5 pull w. paddles, 5 PB only, 5 swim) and finished off the day with a 60' easy spin.

Today (Tues) I swam 4400 in the pool:

400/200 warm-up
10 X 50 as 25 fast/25 ez
100 ez
3 X (4 X 100 mid race pace on 1:40, 200 ez) (Held 1:08's)
3 X 400 Pull (1-3) on 5:20 (5:13, 4:53, 4:43)
100 ez


A 50' run with some strides thrown in, a massage with Gibson, and a dip in the ocean.

I also found out today that I got a spot into the Edmonton World Cup this weekend. I'm pumped to race this weekend, I fly out Friday morning, and race Sunday at 3:45 MST (5:45 pm EST). There will be live audio and timing on the ITU website - www.triathlon.org

What Could be Better?

Online coverage of Des Moines, and the US Open side by side

Still sore

Well... it's Friday now, and the legs are still feeling the effort from the weekend. Guess the run took a bit more out of me than I had figured.

Thursday was a bit of an easy regeneration day again, 3000m in the morning in the pool, with a few mid-race pace 100's with Simon who's getting ready for Des Moines (more on that race later)

I headed over to Commonwealth for a 50' run on the treadmill, with 5 x 15" accelerations. A quick jaunt in the steam room, then back home and down to the ocean to ice the legs.

Today's workouts ended up feeling a lot harder than the watch showed.
4500 in the pool, with 2 main sets:

4 x 50 (1-3, #4 ez) on 60"
4 x 100 on 1:40 mid race pace
200 ez
(repeat 2 times)

Then we went into 40 x 50 on 50" as (4 mid race pace, 1 ez)

Later we headed down to Beacon Hill for a run workout. 20' warm-up, followed by 3 X 1 loop of the figure 8 course (w. 4' rest). The effort was there, the legs just weren't.

9:40, 9:15, and 9:40 for the three intervals. A 10' cool-down jog, then back home an easy 60' spin, and another dip in the ocean. Hopefully the legs get out of this funk.

If any of you happen to be in front of your computer's come Sunday afternoon, the Des Moines World Cup is being broadcast live on the internet (www.triathlon.org)

There is a HUGE prize purse for this race, with the winner taking home $200,000 plus a new Hummer H3.

Back to it

After a late arrival back to Victoria Sunday night (9 pm ferry, back home 11:30), it was a bit of a sleep in on Monday morning. We met as a group at commonwealth to swim 3000m easy. A bunch of unpacking, and an easy 60' ride to flush the legs out finished off the day.

Tuesday's training was another recovery day. 3200 m in the morning at the pool as follows.

1000 SKIDS warm-up (swim, kick, IM, drill, swim)
3 X 300 Pull (1-3) w. 30" rest
200 easy
3 X 300 swim (1-3) w. 30" rest
200 easy

AP and I headed out for a 90' easy ride along the waterfront, and met up with Kyle and Terrenzo Bozzone (training in Victoria between Vancouver and Des Moines WC's). I was able to get a 30' massage with Gibson on short notice which was great! The massage is a great aide in the recovery process.

Which brings us around to today's training. Half the group (Colin, Kyle, Simon, Kirsten) head off tomorrow to Des Moines for the richest World Cup race ever this weekend. We swam open water at Thetis, with a big island loop for warm-up, some accelerations, then a small loop moderate. Those of us who aren't racing this weekend continued on with another small loop moderate (though the pace was ratcheted up quite a bit on the second go round)

Andrew, AP and I headed up to the Waddling Dog for some moto pacing with Steve. I can say that my legs still haven't fully recovered, as they felt completely trashed on the workout today.

48' continuous
32km
280 W avg power

A short 20' run off the bike was all that my legs could handle afterwards, followed by a soak in the ocean. Hopefully the legs rebound for tomorrow.

Some photo's from Vancouver on the weekend...Simon came through in the clutch with the win in the last kilometer, and Canada placed 3 men in the Top 7, including World Cup best finishes for Paul Tichelaar (5th) and Colin Jenkins (7th).

3 Canadians in the front group of 7 (Simon, Colin, Paul) that would have over a 2' lead off the bike

AP rocking it on the run (17th fastest run) to finish a WC best 35th

Jenkins running to his 7th place finish

Simon makes the decisive move to break Andy Potts in the last kilometer.

Colin is all smiles with his moolah for 7th place.

The week that was..

I've been a bit negligent this past week, but I'm back at it now.
This past week was a taper week leading into the Vancouver World Cup. I raced the age group race, as I didn't get into the World Cup. A week of resting up, some light key workouts, and then the ferry over to Vancouver for the race.

The bike had to be in transition on Saturday night, and it was just pouring all day in Vancouver. I had to cover the bike up when I left it there.


My race went off at 7:50 in the morning, and transition closed at 6:45. I came back to the hotel and hung out for a half hour then headed down for my start. I didn't do a swim warm-up as the water in English Bay was roughly 15 C and I didn't want to get chilled before the start.

I had a solid swim, coming out in 17:33. I had a tight fitting shirt underneath my race suit for the cold, and I threw some gloves on for the bike as well. I'm glad I did, as it started to rain a bit on the bike, but I was a tad warm for the bike. Now for the run. It was LONG. from what I've heard afterwards, our run ended up being roughly 14.5km. I ran 50:50 which is pretty good I guess, running without much competition.

Results for our race are on Sportstats.

The men's and women's World Cup races finished off the day, with solid results from Canada.

The Weekend of Training

Not a lot of volume this weekend, but a key run workout on Saturday.

We met at Thetis Lake, then did the 5km loop for warm-up, before attacking a loop at tempo pace.
Simon took down the old group record by over 20" clocking 15:25 or so. I was happy with the effort, 17:15 which was 40" faster than when we ran the workout before. We then jogged down to the Galloping Goose trail for the rest of the workout...10 X 400 with 60" rest in between. Wow, did those 400's ever hurt.

Colin and I met up later at Commonwealth for an easy 2000m swim to loosen up. I went to head down to the ocean for an ice, but the tide was at its lowest level I'd seen, and the weeds prevented me from getting an ice in.

Sunday:

Easy group ride this morning from Starbucks. We've got a couple of Aussies training with us leading into the Vancouver World Cup next weekend (Emma Moffatt, and Matt Hopper). The waterfront loop, really busy today, lots of people out enjoying the great weather we've had this weekend.
4500m in the pool to finish the day off, some race pace efforts was the main set....didn't feel the greatest in the workout, but got through it.

New Hot Dog Champ... 59.5 Hot Dogs in 12 mins

I thought that Kobayashi was the man....but this guy crushed him!

First Day of Hurricane Season....Tropical Storm Barry

In North America, they're called hurricanes: mammoth tropical cyclones that can stretch 300 to 1000km across and 15km high and that that each year kill up to 15,000 people globally and cause billions of dollars in damage. Their average lifespan is 9 days, but can vary from 2 to 3 hrs to 2 to 3 weeks. Recently the North Atlantic experienced its most active decade, averaging yearly: 15 tropical storms and 8 hurricanes (4 major).

Tropical Storms often begin as thunderstorms that pull in warm, moist air off the ocean surface, remove its energy, and then push the spent air through their tops. As long as sea water is above 27 C for a considerable depth and winds co-operate, the disturbances continue to grow. Within a few days, a cluster of storms and thunderstorms unite into an enormous weather machine. A hurricane is a spiralling mass of cloud converging into an area about 30km across, a world of calm, sinking air, sunshine, and dryness, known as the "eye". The eye is surrounded by the "eyewall", a ring of thunderstorms containing the most violent winds and drenching rains. The huge waves and storm surge - the monstrous wall of water that crashes ashore - produced by hurricanes are often their most destructive elements.

*****************************************************************


"Tropical Storm Barry emerged on Friday afternoon, appropriately enough on the first day of hurricane season. A hurricane hunter aircraft found the system had winds greater than 39 mph, although its structure remains disorganized, the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County said."

More on Barry can be found here.
The order of names for named storms this year is as follows:

Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy

Runnin on the Tready

6 X 5' at 10km Tri Pace w. 90" easy

That was the main workout for Wednesday.

We hit Thetis again this morning for some open water swimming. Big Loop warm-up, then a big loop solid (15:18), a small loop solid (10:20) and a half small loop solid. Done and done. Water seemed a bit warmer this morning.

Kyle and Kirsten walking on water at Thetis

At noon we hit Commonwealth for the Tready workout.
20' warm-up and strides to get ready. Set treadmill at 2%. Begin to sweat like a pig.

6 X (5' @ 11.0, with 90" easy running in between (7.0)).
Solid workout, good confidence booster, as the pace I was running is 34:00 pace. Now all I have to do is be able to carry that running confidence out onto the race course next time!

An easy 60' ride later in the day to flush the legs out, followed by a soak in the ocean and we were done. AP and I went over to Colin's to help him construct his altitude tent he just got. I figured we'd be there 45' MAX. Well, 3 hrs later, AP and I got back in the car to head home....but we got that damn tent set up!

Thursday brought about a long ride. Colin and I had the morning off from the pool, so we headed out at 8am to get the ride in. 3hrs, 87km touring around Victoria. A 30' run off the bike completed the workouts for the day.

Today was a hard day.

5000m this morning in the pool, and we re-visited a set we last did in March...

600 warm-up
8 X 100 on 1:30 (1:12's)
7 X 100 on 1:30 (1:10-11's)
6 X 100 on 1:30 (1:09's)
5 X 100 on 1:30 (1:09's)
4 X 100 on 1:30 (1:08's)
3 X 100 on 1:30 (1:08's)
2 X 100 on 1:30 (1:07's)

In between each round was a set of 2 X 50 easy on 1:00. Jenkins and I were pushing the pace on the last three rounds....It felt like we were swimming a lot faster than the times indicated...but oh well.

We headed up to the Waddling Dog for some moto pacing .

2 loops moto pacing: 23:12, 45.2 km/hr, 323 W avg
2 loops solo TT effort: 27:13, 38.6 km/hr, 262 W avg

I had no legs whatsoever on the TT efforts...as a result I blew-up. That was a rough 2 loops, as the legs just wouldn't go.

We ran 30' off the bike once we got back... 10' solid, then 20' easy. Headed down to the ocean to ice the legs...now it's time to get ready for the season finale of House.

Weekend of Training....

A solid weekend of training is in the books.

Friday ended up being a legs off day essentially...just some easy riding and running.
A 40' trot in the morning from our place to wake up the body, and then we headed out to Thetis Lake for my first open water swim of the season (some of the group swam there while we were in Honolulu).

A big island loop to warm up and see the course, then we got down to a bit of fast swimming. A big island hard, Simon and I led out to the island, then Colin came up and pushed the pace on the way back. We went roughly 15:20, my arms were starting to feel heavy from the first wetsuit swim since September. We then did a small island loop hard, not sure on the time, but I was hurting a bit at this point.

An easy hour spin on the bike ended off the day.

Saturday:

A big workout at U Vic. The main effort for the bike was 3 X 5 loops (3 loops as a group, then 2 loops TT effort). I felt really strong on the bike today, which was nice to see. Each loop is 2km.

Round 1: 13:43, 340 W, 42.0 km/hr
Round 2: 13:52, 320 W, 41.5 km/hr
Round 3: 13:47, 329 W, 41.5 km/hr

Then it was onto the track for some hard running. A short warm-up then:

4 X 1km on 6:00 (3:07, 3:08, 3:06, 3:00)
Then into a 3 loop'er outside the track, building effort (4:41, 4:30, 4:25) 13:36 (3.8km)

An easy 30' treadmill run later on in the day, and a couple soaks in the ocean finished off the day.

Sunday:
Today we had a long run which we went to Elk/Beaver Lake to do. It's a 10km loop around the lake (give or take 100m). The goal was to build the run, running the second half faster than the first. Ran with Simon and Kyle, those guys were on fire today. We went through the first loop in 39:45, then they dropped me, and I ran the last loop in 38:15 (Simon and Kyle were sub 35:00)
I felt really good running today, hopefully I can build off of this feeling.

An easy 60' spin on the trainer to flush the legs out, and then a 5500m swim to end the day.

600 warm-up
3 X 500 Pull w. 30" rest
5 X 300 (2 PB low, 2 PB only, 1 swim)
100 easy
16 x 100 (3 on 1:20, 1 on 1L15)
200 easy

Race Photo's

Here are some race photo's taken by the race photographers, Brightroom Event Photography (brightroom.com)

Rockin the headband...ala Mr SQW

Hurricane Season Starts Soon....

For some strange reason, I just love the hurricane season (I'm a weather junkie)

Hurricane season start officially one week from today, and it looks like it's going to be an above average season.

"For the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, NOAA scientists predict 13 to 17 named storms, with seven to 10 becoming hurricanes, of which three to five could become major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. An average Atlantic hurricane season brings 11 named storms, with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes."

The full article can be found here.

Pearl Harbor

I'm standing in front of the shrine listing all those who perished

A list showing the names of all those on the various ships, and their ranks

The USS Missouri, which was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of WWII

A story about how/why the ships were aligned in the port as they were

The USS Arizona's Gun Turret Mount that protrudes from the water

A map of how Pearl Harbor was set up

The names of survivor's who have since died, and have had their ashes returned to join their comrades who never made it out of the USS Arizona

A schematic map of the island of Oahu. The Japanese planes came into Pearl Harbor from the north, starting at marker #3

The USS Arizona Memorial

I have more photos if anyone is interested...

Back to Training

We landed early Tuesday morning, got unpacked, did a bit of light training and got to bed early (tired from the overnight flight). Wednesday was one more easy day for us who raced, then back at it on Thursday.

Wednesday was 4800m in the pool, the main set being 10 X 200 on 3:00 (5 pull, 5 swim) followed by 16 X 50 on 45" every 4th fast, 12 X 50 on 50" every 3rd fast, 8 X 50 on 55" every other fast, 4 X 50 on 60" all fast. We followed up the swim with an easy hour spin, and a 60" neg split run.

Thursday's main workout was a tough moto pace workout.

The workout was 2.5 loops of the Waddling Dog loop moto-pacing behind the motorcycle today, immediately into a half a loop TT effort. We then had 5' recovery, and finished off with a hard TT effort loop. Andrew and I rode back after that, and then it was a 40" run off the bike as (15' easy, 15' hard, 10' easy). My legs are pretty trashed right now...luckily I've got a massage tomorrow with Gibson!

We also swam 4000m this morning, nothing really special.

Bike Stats:

2.5 lap moto, 0.5 lap TT
26.2 km, 35:44, 313 W avg, 44.0 km/hr, 95 Cadence

1 lap TT effort
8.5 km, 12:32, 311 W avg, 40.5 km/hr, 89 Cadence

This is a sweet pic I found hanging on the wall at a shop in Waikiki, I just had to take a picture of it!!
It's based off of Hawai'i 5-0 for those of you who don't know

Honolulu Continental Cup Race Report

I'm now back in Victoria after my first race of the year, the Honolulu Continental Cup. I'm a little bummed at the final result, as I thought that I would run faster than I actually did.

Race day began nice and early, with wake-up at 3:45am for the 6:00am start.
A light breakfast, make sure I have everything, then I headed out in the dark at 4:40 to ride down to the race site.

I had #27, and as a result I was a ways back being called out to choose a starting spot. All the spots on the right side were taken, so I decided to head to the far left, and try to get some cleaner water out there. Let's just say the right side was much faster on the start. The beach curved that way, and those on the right were able to run on the beach a bit longer, and longer in shallow water. After diving in and taking 10 strokes, I looked up and noticed that I was already 4-5 body lengths behind those on the right. I got on Andrew's feet for a bit, but then decided to try and get over and join the group on the right. Bad move. I should have stayed on Andrew's feet, swam straight for the far end, and ended up making it to the front group with Andy Potts and Brian Fleischmann. I wasn't able to bridge up at that point, and instead settled in with a group and sat on some feet for the swim. Our group of 9 guys came out of the water 25 sec down on Potts.

Felt good on the bike, our group (including Matt Reed, Jarrod Shoemaker, and others) went hard trying to close the gap to Potts and Fleischmann who went off the front. The first couple of km's on the bike were on a rough section of road, and I ended up losing my glasses that were tucked up in the front of my helmet. Not a good way to start. Our group on the bike was 10 guys, with 4-5 guys doing a lot of work. I took my fair share of pulls, sitting out every other pull basically. We ended up coming off the bike 1:40 down on the lead two, and 1:00 up on the next chase pack behind us.

Coming out of T2 starting the run, we had to make a 180 degree turn once over the timing mats. I stepped on the mat and attempted to turn at the same time. Wham...down to the ground I went, landing on my left side. I popped up quickly and starting running. For some reason my legs (calves) were tight at the beginning of the run, and I loosened up after 2 km or so. The last km of the run was tough, as I fell off a bit, and was caught by a couple athletes.

I ended up finishing in 18th place, just missing out on scoring some ITU points by 16 seconds.
Results for the race can be found here.

We had Sunday and Monday to relax in Honolulu before heading back to Victoria. I went out for some beers with some of the American guys after the race...we went to a place called the Yard House, which had over 100 beers on tap! What a place, lots of local brews as well.

Monday morning I headed out to Pearl Harbor with another American triathlete to visit Pearl Harbor. We took a shuttle at 6am, arriving at 6:30, an hour before the doors opened. By 7:30 the line-up behind us was huge...so it's a good thing we got there early. Pearl Harbor was quite the experience, I'll post some pictures from there in the next blog entry.

The transition zone (taken after the race)

The swim exit, one big loop down and back

AP and I after the race.

Beach on Sun afternoon

Waikiki Beach

Book Em Dano!

Well, it’s time for the first race of the season. I’m looking forward to a great year of racing, I believe I’m in the best triathlon shape ever, and hopefully everything comes together on race day.

We’ve been in Honolulu now for a full day now, and I’m loving the place. We’re in the Aqua Coconut Plaza, nice and close to the host hotel, and only a 5km ride at the most to the race site. We swam on the course today, the water’s pretty salty (it leaves a nasty bite in my throat) but it’s in a protected bay. The beach is spectacular. There is a corral reef wall that breaks the waves further out, giving us our protected bay.

We went out to ride on the course…looks really flat, so it’s gonna be fast. I never thought that the island of Honolulu could have so many cars!! Our ride today was pretty congested, but all the roads will be closed on race morning. A fair portion of the bike is conducted under a highway overpass, think of riding along Lakeshore Blvd in downtown Toronto.

Our tiny room...

McCartney in his corner...

We (Andrew, AP and I) had a brief chat with Joel prior to leaving. Since it’s the first race of the season, Joel wanted us to just go out and race; no expectations placed on ourselves. He makes a great point. We are fit, but regardless of what happens, he wants us to race hard the whole way, especially on the run. That is the hardest part, to keep pushing when the going gets tough late in the race. No excuses for whatever happens (good or bad), just race, and then determine/realize what work still needs to be done. And there is a lot of work still to come this year!!

I’m going to have to try and remember to just race, and not worry about what is happening in the race, which will be tough as I’ve got expectations in the back of my mind as to how I think I should be able to do. I’m going to go into the race with the mindset of the fact that I am much more fit than this time last year, race hard, and run like hell. And if things don’t go as I had hoped, well, hopefully I can learn why.

Aloha,

Dano

The steed ready for action

McCartney couldn't keep the women off him in the Seattle airport

Honolulu Bound

Sitting in the Seattle airport right now...killing time until our connecting flight to Honolulu.

We're stealing free internet here, so it'll help pass the time.

Unfortunately I put my camera cord in my checked luggage, otherwise I'd have a sweet photo of McCartney posted here right now.

Next stop...warm weather in Honolulu.

Racing this weekend

Today was an easy recovery day, just a 3000m easy swim, nothing exciting at all.

My race season finally begins this weekend with the Honolulu Continental Cup triathlon on Sunday. It looks to be a pretty solid race, as it is doubling as US Elite Nationals as well. There will be a lot of good Americans on the line, as well as athletes from Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and New Zealand.

The weather looks to be great...lows of 73F, highs of 84F. The race goes nice and early on Sunday, with us dashing into the ocean at 6am, just as the sun is coming up.

Info on the race can be found here at the race web site.

We don't leave until Monday night at 9pm, so it leaves some time to catch some rays, and do some sightseeing. I'm really pumped to get out to Pearl Harbor to check out the USS Arizona memorial, as seen below.

Simply Amazing

What can I say. I woke up this morning and turned on the computer to get the ITU live coverage from South Africa. The women's race went a bit early for me (2 am) and the men started at 5:30 am PST. I got up at 6 and tuned in to the men's race.

Well Damn! I wish I would have caught the women's race....as Kirsten Sweetland put out a BAMF effort and won her first World Cup event!! What an amazing result, as she could still be racing Junior and doing sprint distance races, as she's not even 19 yet! It's great to see fellow training mates doing great...it makes for great motivation for me when I race next weekend!

Today was a hill workout on the bike for Andrew and I.

We did 3 full climbs up Durrance Lake Rd, then 3 Half Hills, finished off my some moto pacing efforts on the flats. A solid workout today, the legs were heavy from the run yesterday, and the body was generally a bit fatigued as well.

A 30' easy trot off the bike, and a 5000m swim later in the afternoon. Felt sluggish in the pool.

Now I'm going to sit down and watch the 2 hr Season Finale of Survivor!!

Tough Tough Treadmill Workout

Today we re-visited the tough 20/20/20 treadmill set, except Joel bumped the speed up today.

Andrew and I met Joel at commonwealth then got down to business.

treadmill at 2%
20' @ 9.3 mph
20' @ 9.9 mph
20' @ 10.5 mph

10 miles in total of tough running. Last week when we ran this set, we ran at speeds of 8.7, 9.3, 9.9 (with the last 5' at 10.2)
I'm really happy with being able to hold on and finish the set, hopefully this bodes well for Honolulu next weekend.

An easy 60' spin on the trainer at night....I was hoping to watch the NASCAR race tonite, but it was rained out and instead will be run tomorrow....so tomorrow there will be great golf on TV, as well as NASCAR!

Thurs and Fri

Thursday....(as you might have guessed by now if you've been reading my blog) was my double run day. No swimming. A 40' run in the morning, and then a 60' run later on in the day, building speed as I went through it. Legs were a bit sore from the motor pacing yesterday...and as a result Joel moved our tough treadmill workout that was supposed to be today to Saturday instead.

I had a massage later in the afternoon from Gibson, a great guy here in Vic who has been doing massage for over 40 years. He treats a lot of triathletes.

Friday:

This morning there was a twist to our swim workout at the pool. We (Andrew, AP and I) brought our bikes and trainers to the pool, and set them up in the mezzanine. The purpose of the workout today was to get in some hard swimming, then hop immediately onto the bike to simulate race day conditions. After a 500m warm-up, it was into the main set:

3 X 100 on 1:40 (1-3)
200 moderate on 3:15
500 fast
straight onto the bike and hammer for 4'

We did the set three times. The legs really burn for those 4 minutes on the bike, but it's all good, because those are the types of workouts that I really need, as the hardest part for me is the first 5-10 min of the bike as I try to get my legs going.

A 90' easy ride in the afternoon completed the day of training.

On a side note.....I'm starting to get pissed at the price of gas out here. When AP and I arrived towards the end of March, the price of gas was $1.10.5 then it went up to $1.14.5 then $1.18.5 then $1.22.5 and it is now at $1.25.9!!!! Gas prices don't fluctuate like they do in Ontario, it's a set price all the time. OK, I'm better now.

Moto Pace Day

Another 5000m this morning in the pool.

400 mix, 200 Kick warm-up
15 x 100 Pull with Paddles on 1:25, 100 ez
15 x 100 pull buoy only on 1:25, 100 ez
10 x 100 swim on 1:20, 200 ez

Then it was on to the moto pacing. AP, Andrew and I met Joel at the Waddling Dog for the workout. The workout was 2 X 17 km with 5' ez in between sets. Joel set the pace on the front with the scooter, while we rolled through behind him. The easiest part is when you are directly behind the scooter, while the hardest part is when you have to accelerate to get onto the back of the group as we're rolling through.

Interval #1: 24:25, 296 W avg, 42.4 km/hr
Interval #2: 24:17, 306 W avg, 42.7 km/hr

Back to my "home"

Well, Joel returned last night from Lisbon, and thus I am now back at my place. It's nice to be in my own bed (and have a TV!)

Our group is still small, as Simon was the only one to return after Lisbon. Everyone else is continuing on to Richard's Bay South Africa for the World Cup this weekend.

The swim this morning was 5000m, broken down as:
1000 SKIDS
2 X 500 Pull, 4 X 50 (25 fast, 25ez)
2 X 400 Pull, 4 X 50 (25 fast, 25ez)
2 X 300 Swim on 4:00, 4 X 50 (25 fast, 25ez)
2 X 200 Swim on 2:40, 4 X 50 (25 fast, 25ez)
2 X 100 Swim on 1:20, 200 ez

An easy 60' ride mid-day helped to loosen the legs for the tough run workout that we had in the afternoon on the Lochside Trail

30' warm-up followed by some drills and strides, then it was into the fun stuff

2 km (6:25) on 9:00
5 X 1 km on 4:30 (3:07, 3:04, 2:59, 3:13, 3:06)

The 2:59 interval was slightly short, but it balances out with another interval, as Joel told us one of them is roughly 20m longer than 1km. I'm really happy with the times I was able to run today, the last one hurt a lot, I moved to the front and was running 2:54 pace to the 500m mark (Joel was riding along beside us) but fell off on the back half of that interval. Need to be able to hold on in situations like that, or optimally, run the back half faster than the front. This will come though. These workouts will be getting longer....

It was nice to be back at my place, as I was able to walk down to the ocean to soak the legs once we got back from the workout. I will miss having the bathtub at Joel's where I was able to have Epsom Salt baths.

Couple Photos from the Brick workout

Sunday Brick

This morning's key workout was a brick over at U Vic. The weather didn't seem to be quite on our side, as we had some light rain essentially throughout the whole workout. Nothing heavy, just light mist like rain, but enough to be a nuisance.

After warming up on the bike and run, it was into the workout:

4 X <3>

Ended up feeling pretty strong on the bike and run as the workout progressed, which was good, as the legs felt heavy while warming up. On the third round, Carolyn, Steve-O, Scotty and I almost got sideswiped by a jack-ass behind the wheel who decided to pass us, then make a left hand turn from the right lane. Scotty and Steve-O just got by him, while I thought that Carolyn and I were gonna go right into the side of him. Luckily, neither Carolyn nor I ran into him, we just bumped off each other as we slipped around him. Let's just say that's a good way to raise the heart rate...I thought for sure we were going down.

Pat wanted us to build into the workout and increase the effort as we got into it. The 4 run loops
ended up being 3:35, 3:32, 3:25, 3:20 which I'm pretty happy with all things considered.
As it was raining a bit more at the end of the workout and we still had 90' worth of riding to get in, I headed home and rode the trainer while watching the end of NASCAR.

A short, easy 3000m in the pool later on, followed by a hot/cold contrast bath finished off the day.

Fri-Sat Recap

Friday:

An early morning at the pool, as Synchro Nationals are still going on. In the water at 5:30, we did about 5500 or so....lost count, with a bunch of different stuff we did. I remember I didn't like the main part of the workout 8 X 300 (half swim, half kick essentially). I HATE kick. End of story.

Next up was a scheduled 2hr ride with 3 X 15' steady state efforts. When time came for the first one, I started going, and just had no legs whatsoever. So I made a decision and decided to just get in 2hr of base riding...that's all my legs could handle.

A 40' run on the treadmill later that afternoon at Commonwealth ended the workouts, followed by a 10' steam, and a dip in the hot tub.

Sat:

We were supposed to swim open water today, but the lake was still a bit chilly (13 C) so we were limited to Crystal pool, where we had 2 SCM lanes for 11 of us. That made for some tight swimming. Hard part of the workout was 20' timed swim. I was swimming pretty solid, hitting some good splits as I rolled through the set (400m 4:31, 1500m 17:15). Ended up covering 1750m, a little over where I figured I'd end up (I was thinking 1700m).

I ran on the treadmill before the swim, to do my long run. I used the treadmills at Crystal Pool, as they are up top in the mezzanine, so it was a bit warmer up there...
11 miles in the books, then a quick stretch and some food before swimming.

A 20' ez jog on the treadmills ended the workouts.

I also watched a couple good events on TV...The 134th running of the Kentucky Derby, as well as the Floyd Mayweather Vs. Oscar De La Hoya fight. The fight wasn't as good as I thought it would be....I thought Mayweather should have won by unanimous decision, not a split.

Wed/Thurs

Wed:

We got to the pool in the morning for the 5500m workout, and we did warm-up, and then we had a 100m TT from a dive. Felt alright on the TT, McCartney got me by a second and a bit, but the time was pretty decent for me (59.3) The rest of the workout consisted of a main set of 3 X (8 X 50 w band on 50", 400 Fr with fins)

I had a 40' easy run to do during the day, and then we had a tough bike workout later in the afternoon. That might have been the worst I have felt on the bike in a while. I had no legs whatsoever. I got dropped on then couldn't even hang on as other groups of two went by me. Oh well, I got through the pain of the workout. I don't have the SRM file downloaded yet, so no numbers, but the power wasn't that great today.

Thurs:

Today was once again my no swim, double run day.
40' this morning on the treadmill here at Joel's place. I took Napoleon out for his walk this morning...nothing too interesting...I love how quick his little legs have to move to walk! He must piss about once a minute as were walking....maybe just marking territory!

I headed over to the gym for 1:30 to meet AP for our tough treadmill workout. It was going to be 60' of some tough running on the treadmill. Here's the workout:

- Set treadmill at 2% incline
- 20' @ 8.7 mph
- 20' @ 9.3 mph
- 15' @ 9.9 mph
- 5' @ 10.2 mph

I was sweating up a storm on the treadmill! But it's a good workout to do, 60' of some solid running, good strength running once you get tired towards the end. May have to bump the speed's up a bit next time...

A 60' easy spin ended the day...and another walk with Napoleon. It's an early morning in the pool tomorrow...as Synchro Nationals are here in Vic...so only pool time for us is early!!

A busy Tuesday

Well, today ended up being a pretty busy day. An early morning airport ride for Kyle, so he could catch his flight to Toronto (and then on to Lisbon), and then it was off to the pool for swimming.

4400m this morning with the main set being as follows:

3 rounds of (4 X 100 mid race effort on 1:40, 200 ez)

Felt pretty good on the 100's, was going 1:08's for the most part of the set. From there we then went 2 X 600m (1st Pull neg split, 2nd swim strong). the good feeling carried through to the 600's which was nice to see.

Home for a quick breakfast, get organized a lil bit, and then off to Kirsten's place to give her a lift to the airport for her flight to Lisbon. Next up was a tough run workout in the afternoon on the Lochside Trail.

6 X 1 km on 4:30 (neg split in groups of 2). This turned out to be a pretty good workout, aside from the gastrointestinal problems I was suffering from during the workout. We ran 1km down the trail, and then 1km coming back. The way out was slightly faster across the board for everyone who ran.

3:13, 3:15, 3:08, 3:16, 3:31*, 3:17

The * was a really bad interval, as my stomach was really gurgling and bouncing around, and I was forced halfway through the km to slow down or else I was going to soil my shorts. I had to make an emergency pit stop on the side of the trail before starting the 6th and final interval. I felt a lot better on the 6th one!! The stomach problems hit me again later during the warm-down, where it was another quick jaunt into the bushes....

Oh yeah, I've moved out of my place just for this week, and into Joel's place. I'm dog and house sitting for him while he is over in Lisbon for the World Cup. Napoleon is a lil Chihuahua, I'll have to make sure and get a photo up of him. Joel's place is amazing....maybe I'll house sit for a little bit longer!