Everything is done and set for tomorrow morning. Will be heading down to the start line in about 13 hours - race starts in a little less than 15 hours... both of us are a bit nervous, but that will be far behind us once that gun goes off in the morning.
Everything is clear in our heads now - just the blood sweat and tears left (mostly sweat ;)
Thanks again to everyone for your support leading up to the race - be sure to keep an eye out on the ironmanlive website for our progress as we go.
Race starts at 7:00 AM local or 2:00 PM Mountain. If you live elsewhere, check this link for your local start time.
Post-race report to follow!!
Clinton and Alli
Friday, March 31, 2006
The day of reckoning approaches...
Well, it's Friday night (and the post that follows took a very long time to get up).
Did the carb load dinner and listened to all sorts... from the 18 year old who is doing his first Ironman on Sunday (just decided it would be cool to do) to the 71 year old man who will be completing his eleventh Ironman... some crazy and inspiring stories.
Lisa Bentley got up and gave us a chat about her brush with a burst appendix in Kona... what an incredible story. I don't know how she lasted as long as she did (and she was more than willing to finish the race).
Anyways... much inspiration, two more sleeps...
Hope all is well back in Canada!!
G'nite for Friday!!
Did the carb load dinner and listened to all sorts... from the 18 year old who is doing his first Ironman on Sunday (just decided it would be cool to do) to the 71 year old man who will be completing his eleventh Ironman... some crazy and inspiring stories.
Lisa Bentley got up and gave us a chat about her brush with a burst appendix in Kona... what an incredible story. I don't know how she lasted as long as she did (and she was more than willing to finish the race).
Anyways... much inspiration, two more sleeps...
Hope all is well back in Canada!!
G'nite for Friday!!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Hello from Port Macquarie
Hello everyone, it has been a while since I posted – a fact that I can attribute to our almost non-stop travel up the coast (bouncing from town to town) and infrequent access to the internet. We have now landed in Port Macqaurie, home of Ironman Australia and have settled into our campervan site. We have a neat little home here…
So, to bring everyone up to speed, I will skip most of the travel up to the past weekend and give you the goods from there…
On Sunday we went for a ride on the coast, near a small town named Ottsford. Rode off into one of Australia’s many national parks. The ride was great - nice ups and downs, and a little bit of flat in there for good measure. The road was windy and narrow, and as I rode along, I got to thinking again about motorists – I had slagged them in a previous post, but I failed to really speak to the good drivers, of which there are more than plenty. So I had decided early on in the ride that this was what my next post was to be about.
While driving that winding, and often slow road, many motorists (including motorcyclists) would wait patiently behind you until there was a decent flat/open stretch to pass. This is something that we, as cyclists appreciate. Nothing is worse than someone ramming past you on a blind corner, in a rush. In fact, I don’t know if we had a single bad motorist pass us on that ride (at least I certainly did not see one).
After a little more than an hour into the ride (it was a super-easy ride) I stopped to wait for Alli. From where I was stopped, I could see Sydney in the distance. Where I pulled over, I found a dollar coin on the side of the road… I took this to be a sign of good luck. I picked that dollar up, put it into my back jersey pocket and when Alli came up, we turned around for the second part of the journey.
I began to enjoy the ride back… easy on the hills up, hard on the way back down… the bends were a lot of fun (akin to driving a sports car in the mountains – though these were hardly mountainous roads ;) I took a particularly long steep and windy stretch hard, enjoying the curves – gaining speed as I went… and had a motorcycle right behind me doing the same (could hear him, but wasn’t looking back). As I came around the final tight turn of that descent, I was going somewhere around 50-60 km/h – and as I hit that turn, I realized I was pulling it too wide. With a car oncoming, and a motorcycle behind me, I lost my nerve and flinched. I do not even know what happened, but I went down. I missed the car in the far lane and the guy on the motorcycle behind me went down and bumped me from behind (this was an inconsequential “tap” after he had nearly come to a complete stop. I stopped very effectively with my body (and bike unfortunately).
Once I had come to a complete stop, I remember dragging my bike with one foot still attached to a pedal to the far side of the road… like a wounded animal.
Now if I had thought the motorists were good up to this point, you really should have seen the show after I crashed. The fellow on the Ducati behind me was unconcerned about anything but my well-being. This, despite the fact that he had just gotten his motorcycle back from being repaired… and the damage to his motorcycle was not pretty.
The next to stop was a couple in an SUV who helped the guy move his motorcycle off the road (I was in a bit of a state of shock still, and couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he could not easily lift the bike on his own). Once they got his bike off the road, we assessed the damage (no pun intended). I really cannot get a good view of my own ass, save for in the mirror (which was not readily available) so I had to take their word for it when they said it looked pretty bad. It certainly did smart – and my Speedo tri shorts were never to be the same again…
Alli came along, and it was sort of funny – she didn’t even realize what had gone on at first from the other side of the road things looked well – though she could not quite understand why everyone had decided to accumulate right on the bend at the bottom of a relatively steep decline. She was pretty upset when she saw the damage (probably more upset than me).
We exchanged details, and the couple that had stopped in the SUV were extremely generous in offering my bleeding butt a ride back to our van… and then subsequently offered us a place to stay. Did I mention that these people were FANTASTIC?? Wow… such super people. The guy on the bike… his attitude was “don’t worry about the bike, that’s what insurance is for – I am just glad you are all right.” Hmm… could I have had a better guy following me? And I have made no mention of his torn pants and scraped knee (though seemingly inconsequential to my injuries, they were incurred as a result of my poor judgment on that hill/corner).
Once I got back to the van, I surveyed the damage and pulled out the first aid kit. Cleaned off the two worn knuckles (ouch) and put band-aids on where possible.
Then I remembered my lucky dollar – checked in my back pocket, and it was still there.
Now, for the uninitiated, you might not have noticed, but despite all the damage done it was still a very lucky day. The damage done to bike and rider are insignificant to death, and I cheated death that day. If that car had been a couple seconds later, or had there been another car behind the first, I would have been in serious trouble. Ditto for the guy on the motorcycle – he very well could have ridden right overtop of me, and that would not have been a pretty picture.
Ah well – went down to the local lifesaving club and had the lifeguards check and clean my wounds (well, Alli did most of the cleaning actually, and they covered up the damage for me).
The bike had certainly seen better days – I shaved a significant amount of carbon from the front handlebars, but I think it will hold together. A few other scapes, and somehow scratched up the fork a bit, but I think all is well there as far as structural integrity goes.
All of this just seven days out from the race – this was a hard pill to swallow, but training came to a literal screeching halt after that. On Tuesday I visited a doctor’s office in Shoal Bay, where they promptly (minus the two hour wait in the lobby to get in) cleaned my butt up, patched it up, fired a tetanus shot into my left arm (ouch) and sent me on my way with a prescription for antibiotics to save me from any infection that might crop up.
Things have been sore, but by yesterday (Wednesday here) things have almost returned to good working order. My butt still hurts to sit on, and I am constantly aware of the missing skin, but it is not that big of a deal. Diversity in training is what I call that.
So… that was Sunday, and today is Friday. Just a few short days until race day. You should see this place – triathletes everywhere. At around 6:30 I woke up and went to the washroom, and an older fellow – probably mid sixties was coming out of the “amenities building” wearing dark blue spandex running tights and long white socks over top. Not something you would traditionally see at a caravan park (or at least not something that I would expect to see here when Ironman was not on).
I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but not too sure – the local tourist bureau started up an “adopt an athlete program” where businesses or individuals/families could adopt an out of town athlete to cheer on come Sunday (after all, most out of the athletes competing will be from out of town – out of 1,500 people competing, 24 countries are represented, and there are only 11 locals doing the Ironman – needless to say, those 11 locals will be well represented in the crowd).
Anyhow, I was lucky enough to get adopted by the local visitors center. The visitors center is staffed by a bunch of fantastic ladies, who were all very pleased to learn that they were sponsoring a “professional triathlete”. Oops… now who told them that?? I had to correct them, or else they would only serve to be disappointed, especially with my recent run-in with the road… well, that AND the very competitive nature of Ironman here in Australia. These Aussies are plain nuts… or at least their times have been incredible in years past.
The town has literally come alive with Ironman athletes… the caravan park is nearly full and it is mid-week. I am sure that the net impact on this small town will be substantial… probably the largest single even in the entire year. What is fascinating to watch, however, is the varying craziness of these athletes. It is clearly the time to slow down, yet on an easy jog that Alli and I did last night, this guy goes wizzing past us like he was on the way to a fire… but there is a lot of assuming going on here, so I will stop ;)
Final note – some of you are interested in watching our progress this weekend, and so I though I would share with you how to follow our progress – or at least how I believe that you will be able to follow our progress. You can go to http://www.ironmanlive.com on race day and look for a link to Ironman Australia (it should be pretty big and/or obvious on the day). Once you get the option to track an athlete, you will be able to search us out. Should you require our bib numbers they are: Alli – 318 and I am 1492. I do not think that those are subject to any change, but we don’t have our bibs yet.
Alli has not had much of a chance to access the internet either, and has not posted a blog entry for a while, but she will be on that shortly. Until then, she says HELLO to everyone that might be reading!
Until the next post, from Port Macquarie… Clinton and Alli
So, to bring everyone up to speed, I will skip most of the travel up to the past weekend and give you the goods from there…
On Sunday we went for a ride on the coast, near a small town named Ottsford. Rode off into one of Australia’s many national parks. The ride was great - nice ups and downs, and a little bit of flat in there for good measure. The road was windy and narrow, and as I rode along, I got to thinking again about motorists – I had slagged them in a previous post, but I failed to really speak to the good drivers, of which there are more than plenty. So I had decided early on in the ride that this was what my next post was to be about.
While driving that winding, and often slow road, many motorists (including motorcyclists) would wait patiently behind you until there was a decent flat/open stretch to pass. This is something that we, as cyclists appreciate. Nothing is worse than someone ramming past you on a blind corner, in a rush. In fact, I don’t know if we had a single bad motorist pass us on that ride (at least I certainly did not see one).
After a little more than an hour into the ride (it was a super-easy ride) I stopped to wait for Alli. From where I was stopped, I could see Sydney in the distance. Where I pulled over, I found a dollar coin on the side of the road… I took this to be a sign of good luck. I picked that dollar up, put it into my back jersey pocket and when Alli came up, we turned around for the second part of the journey.
I began to enjoy the ride back… easy on the hills up, hard on the way back down… the bends were a lot of fun (akin to driving a sports car in the mountains – though these were hardly mountainous roads ;) I took a particularly long steep and windy stretch hard, enjoying the curves – gaining speed as I went… and had a motorcycle right behind me doing the same (could hear him, but wasn’t looking back). As I came around the final tight turn of that descent, I was going somewhere around 50-60 km/h – and as I hit that turn, I realized I was pulling it too wide. With a car oncoming, and a motorcycle behind me, I lost my nerve and flinched. I do not even know what happened, but I went down. I missed the car in the far lane and the guy on the motorcycle behind me went down and bumped me from behind (this was an inconsequential “tap” after he had nearly come to a complete stop. I stopped very effectively with my body (and bike unfortunately).
Once I had come to a complete stop, I remember dragging my bike with one foot still attached to a pedal to the far side of the road… like a wounded animal.
Now if I had thought the motorists were good up to this point, you really should have seen the show after I crashed. The fellow on the Ducati behind me was unconcerned about anything but my well-being. This, despite the fact that he had just gotten his motorcycle back from being repaired… and the damage to his motorcycle was not pretty.
The next to stop was a couple in an SUV who helped the guy move his motorcycle off the road (I was in a bit of a state of shock still, and couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he could not easily lift the bike on his own). Once they got his bike off the road, we assessed the damage (no pun intended). I really cannot get a good view of my own ass, save for in the mirror (which was not readily available) so I had to take their word for it when they said it looked pretty bad. It certainly did smart – and my Speedo tri shorts were never to be the same again…
Alli came along, and it was sort of funny – she didn’t even realize what had gone on at first from the other side of the road things looked well – though she could not quite understand why everyone had decided to accumulate right on the bend at the bottom of a relatively steep decline. She was pretty upset when she saw the damage (probably more upset than me).
We exchanged details, and the couple that had stopped in the SUV were extremely generous in offering my bleeding butt a ride back to our van… and then subsequently offered us a place to stay. Did I mention that these people were FANTASTIC?? Wow… such super people. The guy on the bike… his attitude was “don’t worry about the bike, that’s what insurance is for – I am just glad you are all right.” Hmm… could I have had a better guy following me? And I have made no mention of his torn pants and scraped knee (though seemingly inconsequential to my injuries, they were incurred as a result of my poor judgment on that hill/corner).
Once I got back to the van, I surveyed the damage and pulled out the first aid kit. Cleaned off the two worn knuckles (ouch) and put band-aids on where possible.
Then I remembered my lucky dollar – checked in my back pocket, and it was still there.
Now, for the uninitiated, you might not have noticed, but despite all the damage done it was still a very lucky day. The damage done to bike and rider are insignificant to death, and I cheated death that day. If that car had been a couple seconds later, or had there been another car behind the first, I would have been in serious trouble. Ditto for the guy on the motorcycle – he very well could have ridden right overtop of me, and that would not have been a pretty picture.
Ah well – went down to the local lifesaving club and had the lifeguards check and clean my wounds (well, Alli did most of the cleaning actually, and they covered up the damage for me).
The bike had certainly seen better days – I shaved a significant amount of carbon from the front handlebars, but I think it will hold together. A few other scapes, and somehow scratched up the fork a bit, but I think all is well there as far as structural integrity goes.
All of this just seven days out from the race – this was a hard pill to swallow, but training came to a literal screeching halt after that. On Tuesday I visited a doctor’s office in Shoal Bay, where they promptly (minus the two hour wait in the lobby to get in) cleaned my butt up, patched it up, fired a tetanus shot into my left arm (ouch) and sent me on my way with a prescription for antibiotics to save me from any infection that might crop up.
Things have been sore, but by yesterday (Wednesday here) things have almost returned to good working order. My butt still hurts to sit on, and I am constantly aware of the missing skin, but it is not that big of a deal. Diversity in training is what I call that.
So… that was Sunday, and today is Friday. Just a few short days until race day. You should see this place – triathletes everywhere. At around 6:30 I woke up and went to the washroom, and an older fellow – probably mid sixties was coming out of the “amenities building” wearing dark blue spandex running tights and long white socks over top. Not something you would traditionally see at a caravan park (or at least not something that I would expect to see here when Ironman was not on).
I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but not too sure – the local tourist bureau started up an “adopt an athlete program” where businesses or individuals/families could adopt an out of town athlete to cheer on come Sunday (after all, most out of the athletes competing will be from out of town – out of 1,500 people competing, 24 countries are represented, and there are only 11 locals doing the Ironman – needless to say, those 11 locals will be well represented in the crowd).
Anyhow, I was lucky enough to get adopted by the local visitors center. The visitors center is staffed by a bunch of fantastic ladies, who were all very pleased to learn that they were sponsoring a “professional triathlete”. Oops… now who told them that?? I had to correct them, or else they would only serve to be disappointed, especially with my recent run-in with the road… well, that AND the very competitive nature of Ironman here in Australia. These Aussies are plain nuts… or at least their times have been incredible in years past.
The town has literally come alive with Ironman athletes… the caravan park is nearly full and it is mid-week. I am sure that the net impact on this small town will be substantial… probably the largest single even in the entire year. What is fascinating to watch, however, is the varying craziness of these athletes. It is clearly the time to slow down, yet on an easy jog that Alli and I did last night, this guy goes wizzing past us like he was on the way to a fire… but there is a lot of assuming going on here, so I will stop ;)
Final note – some of you are interested in watching our progress this weekend, and so I though I would share with you how to follow our progress – or at least how I believe that you will be able to follow our progress. You can go to http://www.ironmanlive.com on race day and look for a link to Ironman Australia (it should be pretty big and/or obvious on the day). Once you get the option to track an athlete, you will be able to search us out. Should you require our bib numbers they are: Alli – 318 and I am 1492. I do not think that those are subject to any change, but we don’t have our bibs yet.
Alli has not had much of a chance to access the internet either, and has not posted a blog entry for a while, but she will be on that shortly. Until then, she says HELLO to everyone that might be reading!
Until the next post, from Port Macquarie… Clinton and Alli
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Hello from Canberra...
Just a quick note to say hello from Canberra. We are making our way slowly up the coast, enjoying a few of the sights and experiences :)
Training continues, albeit in taper mode... slowly winding down to almost nothing. Today is a day off, then back on again tomorrow.
All is well (and sunny) here.
Hope everyone is well, more as we find time and access.
Clinton and Alli
Training continues, albeit in taper mode... slowly winding down to almost nothing. Today is a day off, then back on again tomorrow.
All is well (and sunny) here.
Hope everyone is well, more as we find time and access.
Clinton and Alli
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
No news is good news :)
Just a very quick note... on the clock here, and time is nearly up!
We are headed up the coast towards the race venue - have moved about 1,000km since we left last Thursday. Currently in a small city called Batemans Bay. Nice little town.
Tomorrow we will be heading into Canberra for a day or two. Canberra is the capital of Australia, and home of the Australian Institute of Sport (Alli is really keen on visiting the AIS so we will be making a stop there).
More soon... maybe even a few pictures at our next stop!!
Oh yeah - we are nowhere near that cyclone, so fear thee not - it is considerably North of us.
Miss you all... more soon!
Clinton & Alli
We are headed up the coast towards the race venue - have moved about 1,000km since we left last Thursday. Currently in a small city called Batemans Bay. Nice little town.
Tomorrow we will be heading into Canberra for a day or two. Canberra is the capital of Australia, and home of the Australian Institute of Sport (Alli is really keen on visiting the AIS so we will be making a stop there).
More soon... maybe even a few pictures at our next stop!!
Oh yeah - we are nowhere near that cyclone, so fear thee not - it is considerably North of us.
Miss you all... more soon!
Clinton & Alli
Monday, March 06, 2006
Fat - the good, the bad and the ugly
Now, we all know that midsection fat is ugly... but that's not what I'm talking about here :)
I ran across an interesting article on ironmanlive.com about fat in the diet. This is an often misunderstood item - over the years many people have been misled about the role of fat in the diet.
This article is not quite complete, but it is good reference... so take a peek.
A bit common sense, but so is eating (in my humble opinion :)
Bottom line - don't forget the fat!!!
I ran across an interesting article on ironmanlive.com about fat in the diet. This is an often misunderstood item - over the years many people have been misled about the role of fat in the diet.
This article is not quite complete, but it is good reference... so take a peek.
A bit common sense, but so is eating (in my humble opinion :)
Bottom line - don't forget the fat!!!
Karma.
We got into a discussion the other day about karma, and Alli and I got to talking about it further (nevermind the fact that my sister mentions the word daily it seems).
The reason that the conversation started was a discussion about why a child, perhaps only just barely born, might end up with a terminal illness. The thought was that perhaps that child was affected by "bad karma".
I tried to discuss karma with Alli then realized that I was well and truly in over my head. It seems that karma is largely misunderstood and incorrectly used by the western world... in that most of us don't even believe in past or future lives, so karma is largely not relevant.
I found a good explanation of karma, for those that are interested, here.
Seems that our interpretation of 'bad karma' is a bit misled.
What does this have to do with Ironman or my adventure? Read it and decide for yourself, essentially everything :)
The reason that the conversation started was a discussion about why a child, perhaps only just barely born, might end up with a terminal illness. The thought was that perhaps that child was affected by "bad karma".
I tried to discuss karma with Alli then realized that I was well and truly in over my head. It seems that karma is largely misunderstood and incorrectly used by the western world... in that most of us don't even believe in past or future lives, so karma is largely not relevant.
I found a good explanation of karma, for those that are interested, here.
Seems that our interpretation of 'bad karma' is a bit misled.
What does this have to do with Ironman or my adventure? Read it and decide for yourself, essentially everything :)
Sunday, March 05, 2006
A truly inspiring video...
The news is full of all sorts of, well, bad news. It sometimes takes a bit of sifting to find a real gem in the news.
So I figured I would save you all some time searching, and let you have a peek at this video.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!
So I figured I would save you all some time searching, and let you have a peek at this video.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Roadkill report...
So, time to focus on the training for a minute :)
Yesterday we got out nice and early for our long ride - ok, it wasn't so early at all. Alli was up like clockwork at 7:00, and probably ready to go by 8:00 easily, but it took me until after 9:00 to be rolling out the door (referring back to my Polar heart rate monitor, I left at 9:19 AM - Alli got the 10-15 minute headstart on me.
Anyhow, we cycled out to Phillip Island again - if for no other reason than there is a sum total of about five traffic lights the entire way. Beat that with a stick will ya :) The ride out was good, with a very light headwind - which I was looking forward to returning with at my backside.
By the time that we arrived at Phillip Island (85km - 2:45, average speed 30.7 km/h) the temperature approached or possibly exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. I decided after a short break that an ice cold Coke was in order, so we stopped by the store and I bought a 1.5L bottle of Coke (couldn't help it, the 600ml bottle was only a dollar less - it's all about the value ;) Alli and I shared the bottle, meaning that I drank about 1.3L and she drank about 200ml. Teehee... actually, thought it would be too much, and that I would need to stop for a pee five minutes out, but it turned out NOT to be the case.
The ride back began with a vicious headwind - what? Where did my tailwind go? Dammit anyways... the coke kicked in about 15 minutes into the ride, and I was very glad that I drank as much of it as I had. Frankly, I was extremely unimpressed with my hot Ultima (like gatorade, but less garbage) and almost boiling water (note to self - take tea bags next time to make tea in water bottles ;)
Well, despite headwinds most of the way, I kept things on pace, and made it back to the 7-11 with 30 minutes to spare, and so I decided it was time for another treat... this time a Slurpee was in order. I had it half downed by the time that Alli caught up with me (actually wasn't that long at all - I was a thirsty bugger :)
Here was the summary of the food and drink consumption for those interested:
2L plus of Ultima
over 2L of water
1L of staminade
1L of coke at turnaround (paid extra for ice cold coke, full sugar ;)
800ml of slurpee at 7-11 30 minutes from home, before run
Around 8 thermolyte caplets
Misc foodstuffs
Total ride time was 5:40 and total distance was roughly 171km followed by a brief 30 minute run... drank my entire bottle on the run, then litres and litres of water thereafter. Seems that I came up a bit short, despite having drank so much (or seemingly so much) on the bike.
As far as roadkill goes (doesn't seem right using it as a title then not mentioning it :) saw one fox, many birds, a couple of snakes (including one alive) and one dead roo in the ditch (nasty smelly in the heat, ewwww).
So begins my Sunday morning. We are four weeks out from raceday, so it's crunch time now.
Less than two weeks until we depart, and test my driving skills once again (I haven't driven anything, save for a bike, for the last four or more months).
More to follow :)
Yesterday we got out nice and early for our long ride - ok, it wasn't so early at all. Alli was up like clockwork at 7:00, and probably ready to go by 8:00 easily, but it took me until after 9:00 to be rolling out the door (referring back to my Polar heart rate monitor, I left at 9:19 AM - Alli got the 10-15 minute headstart on me.
Anyhow, we cycled out to Phillip Island again - if for no other reason than there is a sum total of about five traffic lights the entire way. Beat that with a stick will ya :) The ride out was good, with a very light headwind - which I was looking forward to returning with at my backside.
By the time that we arrived at Phillip Island (85km - 2:45, average speed 30.7 km/h) the temperature approached or possibly exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. I decided after a short break that an ice cold Coke was in order, so we stopped by the store and I bought a 1.5L bottle of Coke (couldn't help it, the 600ml bottle was only a dollar less - it's all about the value ;) Alli and I shared the bottle, meaning that I drank about 1.3L and she drank about 200ml. Teehee... actually, thought it would be too much, and that I would need to stop for a pee five minutes out, but it turned out NOT to be the case.
The ride back began with a vicious headwind - what? Where did my tailwind go? Dammit anyways... the coke kicked in about 15 minutes into the ride, and I was very glad that I drank as much of it as I had. Frankly, I was extremely unimpressed with my hot Ultima (like gatorade, but less garbage) and almost boiling water (note to self - take tea bags next time to make tea in water bottles ;)
Well, despite headwinds most of the way, I kept things on pace, and made it back to the 7-11 with 30 minutes to spare, and so I decided it was time for another treat... this time a Slurpee was in order. I had it half downed by the time that Alli caught up with me (actually wasn't that long at all - I was a thirsty bugger :)
Here was the summary of the food and drink consumption for those interested:
2L plus of Ultima
over 2L of water
1L of staminade
1L of coke at turnaround (paid extra for ice cold coke, full sugar ;)
800ml of slurpee at 7-11 30 minutes from home, before run
Around 8 thermolyte caplets
Misc foodstuffs
Total ride time was 5:40 and total distance was roughly 171km followed by a brief 30 minute run... drank my entire bottle on the run, then litres and litres of water thereafter. Seems that I came up a bit short, despite having drank so much (or seemingly so much) on the bike.
As far as roadkill goes (doesn't seem right using it as a title then not mentioning it :) saw one fox, many birds, a couple of snakes (including one alive) and one dead roo in the ditch (nasty smelly in the heat, ewwww).
So begins my Sunday morning. We are four weeks out from raceday, so it's crunch time now.
Less than two weeks until we depart, and test my driving skills once again (I haven't driven anything, save for a bike, for the last four or more months).
More to follow :)
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Funny (but true) story...
I forgot about this, but it deserves its own entry anyways.
Alli was chatting with a triathlete the other day, and he quite seriously asked her about wind trainers (for those that aren't quite initiated - these are the devices that we setup in our livingroom to turn our $4,000 road bikes into stationary bikes ;)
He says... "I once heard of a guy from Canada that rode for SIX HOURS STRAIGHT on his wind trainer - could this be true?"
It's funny, but unless you live in a climate where it snows, and gets to be a solid 40 degrees below zero, you would never fathom training that long indoors... in fact, this fellow has only used an indoor trainer a couple of times in his entire life.
Yeah... life is funny.
Alli was chatting with a triathlete the other day, and he quite seriously asked her about wind trainers (for those that aren't quite initiated - these are the devices that we setup in our livingroom to turn our $4,000 road bikes into stationary bikes ;)
He says... "I once heard of a guy from Canada that rode for SIX HOURS STRAIGHT on his wind trainer - could this be true?"
It's funny, but unless you live in a climate where it snows, and gets to be a solid 40 degrees below zero, you would never fathom training that long indoors... in fact, this fellow has only used an indoor trainer a couple of times in his entire life.
Yeah... life is funny.
Along the way...
I called this blog "The Journey to Ironman" and a journey it is... if I look beyond this sidetrip, life is a journey and my friend Bob reminded me of this the other day:
You can win or lose a race, or do better or worse than you wanted or expected; the real value lies in the things you learn along the way, the people you meet and friends you make. They will be the ones remembering you, not your time in a triathlon.
How true.
If you are reading this, you are part of my journey, and very likely a part of my life somehow. Some of you know me, others may not, but let me say this... welcome to the journey, and thank you for being a part of it!!
On training - yesterday was a bittersweet day.
First things first - rode my crap bike to the pool, and the rear tire (or tyre as they call it here) blew out yet again. I had tried to repair the tire the day before, but it seems that while I did an OK job on the tube, the tire just couldn't be salvaged. So this meant a long walk to the bike shop, then a bunch of messing around to fix things up (no quick release on this baby). The guys at the bike store were somewhat amazed that I could actually change my own tire. Little do they know that I blow a tube every other week on average on my road bike ;) With that out of the way... I rode on to the pool.
I got into the pool yesterday morning, and my shoulder has been bugging me again. Thursday's workout is 15 by 200m of pull, with hand paddles on 20s rest. After the first two 200's I figured it wasn't going to happen, was ready to "throw in the towel" for the workout, but instead I dropped the paddles and carried on. It was a good workout, made it through all 3900m of the workout then got out to do my long run for the day.
So... my left ankle has been bothering me for about a week now, and yesterday was no exception. The Thursday long run is two hours easy these days, should be no problem... but between the ankle, the heat, and my lack of water after one hour, I bailed on the run at 1:25. I do not know what the temperature was, but we were running at about 2:00 and I figure it was pushing 40 degrees in the heat, so it wasn't easy (but no-one said it would be easy ;) It certainly was a two-bottle kindof day out there though, and I only had one... and nowhere to fill it up partway. Ah well. At least one more long run to go before we start to taper.
Yes, this old man might just be starting to fall apart, with just FOUR weeks to go ;)
And speaking of tapering, we have a plan!!
Our taper starts on March 16 - two days off. On the 16th we will be picking up a campervan and will begin our journey northward to Sydney, then onto Port Macquarie, where the Ironman will be held. We will be carrying out the balance of our training as we move northward, and then come to rest in Port Macquarie... well, come to rest is an exageration, as we will be tapering things off right up to raceday.
Suffice it to say - the day following Ironman will be our "day of rest".
Following Ironman, we will squeeze a month's worth of touring into one week, then pack our belongings, and head for the airport. Departure date is April 10.
Anyone with bets on spring conditions for when we return? We really want to hit the road running when we get back :)
Ok, that's my update for today... more to come!
You can win or lose a race, or do better or worse than you wanted or expected; the real value lies in the things you learn along the way, the people you meet and friends you make. They will be the ones remembering you, not your time in a triathlon.
How true.
If you are reading this, you are part of my journey, and very likely a part of my life somehow. Some of you know me, others may not, but let me say this... welcome to the journey, and thank you for being a part of it!!
On training - yesterday was a bittersweet day.
First things first - rode my crap bike to the pool, and the rear tire (or tyre as they call it here) blew out yet again. I had tried to repair the tire the day before, but it seems that while I did an OK job on the tube, the tire just couldn't be salvaged. So this meant a long walk to the bike shop, then a bunch of messing around to fix things up (no quick release on this baby). The guys at the bike store were somewhat amazed that I could actually change my own tire. Little do they know that I blow a tube every other week on average on my road bike ;) With that out of the way... I rode on to the pool.
I got into the pool yesterday morning, and my shoulder has been bugging me again. Thursday's workout is 15 by 200m of pull, with hand paddles on 20s rest. After the first two 200's I figured it wasn't going to happen, was ready to "throw in the towel" for the workout, but instead I dropped the paddles and carried on. It was a good workout, made it through all 3900m of the workout then got out to do my long run for the day.
So... my left ankle has been bothering me for about a week now, and yesterday was no exception. The Thursday long run is two hours easy these days, should be no problem... but between the ankle, the heat, and my lack of water after one hour, I bailed on the run at 1:25. I do not know what the temperature was, but we were running at about 2:00 and I figure it was pushing 40 degrees in the heat, so it wasn't easy (but no-one said it would be easy ;) It certainly was a two-bottle kindof day out there though, and I only had one... and nowhere to fill it up partway. Ah well. At least one more long run to go before we start to taper.
Yes, this old man might just be starting to fall apart, with just FOUR weeks to go ;)
And speaking of tapering, we have a plan!!
Our taper starts on March 16 - two days off. On the 16th we will be picking up a campervan and will begin our journey northward to Sydney, then onto Port Macquarie, where the Ironman will be held. We will be carrying out the balance of our training as we move northward, and then come to rest in Port Macquarie... well, come to rest is an exageration, as we will be tapering things off right up to raceday.
Suffice it to say - the day following Ironman will be our "day of rest".
Following Ironman, we will squeeze a month's worth of touring into one week, then pack our belongings, and head for the airport. Departure date is April 10.
Anyone with bets on spring conditions for when we return? We really want to hit the road running when we get back :)
Ok, that's my update for today... more to come!
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