Category Archives: Race Recap

Race Recap: Crystal Beach 5k – Oct 8, 2011

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First official race in 4 months, first being this heavy also.  But in the end, I’m a fat, fit guy.

As predicted the weather couldn’t have been better.  Sunny and warm typical of a summer day, not beginning of October, but I’ll take it.

The start was scheduled for 11 AM.  I was up at my usually 6 AM had my usual breakfast, and ran some errands for a few hours.  Then got ready and left home around 9:40 AM.  Got to the race site approx. 10 AM.  Checked in, and got some water and walked around for 10 mins enjoying the sites & sounds.  At 10:30 I deciced it was time to warmup a little.  So I did about 10 mins of slow running with a few race pace strides in there to wake the legs ups.  Everything felt good, heart rate was in check….lets rock & roll.

My planned pace for this race was a 5:15 min/km (8:27 min/mile) which would give me a finish time of 26:15.  Where did I get that number?  Well, just based on a small interval workout I did earlier in the week, I felt I could maintain that pace for the 5k.  But ultimately, I use my heart rate on race day to determine my pace, and that was the plan.  For a 5k race, the goal is to be at least at 100% of your lactate threshold heart rate as the average (LTHR) which in my case is about 168-170 BPM.

Start line. I'm #111 in red.

I decided to start at the front (sorry fast guys) so I could get a clean line of sight.  At 11 AM, we’re off and I move over to the left side to get out of the way of the fast guys.  At first I was in the 4:50 to 5:00 pace which was fine as there’s a small down grade at the beginning.  Once I passed that, I slowed down a little to 5:05-5:10 pace and stayed there until I could see what my HR was doing.  The first 2k were “easy” and I was maintaining a better pace than planned so I just kept it.  HR was were I wanted it and I enjoyed the scenery. – Great course by the way.  Shady, flat, and there was even 2 separate live bands planning on the side of the road. – By the half way point, I could feel my cardio starting to get a little tired & HR was at LT of 170, but legs still felt great.  I kept going with the 5:10 pace.

The last km was a beast.  Although my legs still felt great, my cardio was maxed out and then my head started rebelling.  At this point I’m at 104% of LTHR and it sure felt that way also.  I just kept telling myself “only 1000m left, only 500m left”.  I could see the finish line and then I was focused and actually managed a little kick at the end.  That little “down grade” at the beginning, well, it was now an up grade.  This help peg my HR to 180 which is pretty much max for me.

I crossed the finish line with a 25:54 (25:51 chip time) and couldn’t have been happier.  That was almost 25 secs faster than I had planned.  I grabbed some water & a banana and walked around for 5-10 mins.  Did a little stretching and downed a G2 Gatorade.

All in all, I was very happy with my performance.  I paced myself perfectly and got a great result.  That result?  I got 2nd place in my group…the Clydesdale (aka fat) group which is for people over 225 lbs.  If I would of ran in my 40-44 age group, I would have been 6th.

About the Crystal Beach 5k: This race is really nice.  Great course, great atmosphere, great people, very laid back environment, and everything ran smooth and on time, goodie back actually had some good stuff in it, and the T-shirt is nice also.  Heck, the post race party was at a local bar near the race, and your bib gave you 2 glasses of beer.  What else can you expect for a $20 entry fee.  I’ll be doing the Crystal Beach 5k race again next year.

Results Summary:

Official Chip Time: 25m 51s
Overall: 96th of 274 (35%)
Group (Clydesdale): 2nd of 4 (50%)
Age Group (40-44): 6th of 8 (75%)
Race Weight: 238 lbs
Official Results: CLICK HERE

Here’s some GARMIN DATA from the race.

Next race on the schedule is the Casablanca Classic 8k on November 12th.  This is another “stepping stone” race to help keep me focused on my run training, and also to determine my current level of fitness.  Till then, my weekly run mileage will continue to increase, and with a little luck, my weight will slowly come down.

To all a good run!

 

Failure – an understatement!

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Wow, where do I begin?  OK how about some race reports for the last 2-3 weeks?

June 19th Lake 2 Lake Classic 50k MTB Race – DNS – I wasn’t feeling it and some reports indicated the trails were crap so I lamed out.  Post-race reports from others say it turned out to be a great race, and I remember the weather was perfect.  I also learned this was the last year for this race.  Oh well, I missed out.  Add it to another regret.

June 25th Welland Sprint Triathlon – DNF – That’s right DID NOT FINISH.  I barely finished the swim (3rd from last overall), where I found myself not being able to catch my breath.  Even on the bike my breathing & heart rate were off the charts and I was barely moving, kept getting coughing fits probably from inhaling too much Welland canal water during the swim, and hyperventilating to entire swim.  Lets see what probably led up

Welland-Swim Exit

to this:

  • My swimming is simply not up to snuff – as in I almost drowned in this race.  Although I did progress since I started last January, it simply wasn’t getting better quick enough, not to mention lack of open water practice.  Once again, I just seems I’m not cut out to be a swimmer and you know what, I have no regrets about ditching the swim.
  • Mentally I was simply not feeling it as seen by my shitty / lack of training in June.  A combination of things simply left me unwilling to put in the time or control myself.  This also led to a very bad diet, including pizza, beer, chinese food, etc. etc.  Simply atrocious and one of those embarrassing setbacks.  Well, there’s consequences to a bad diet and lack of exercise….weight gain, and plenty of it.

    Welland-Bike Start

Well that covers the race reports, or whatever you wanna call those.

So with what happen at the Welland race, I officially pulled the plug on swimming, again, and like I said, I have no regrets.  I tried – tried hard, but it just isn’t working out.  Not to mention I don’t really enjoy swimming anyhow.  With that said, any multisport I do in the future will be duathlons – run, bike, run.  I’ve adjusted the race schedule to reflect this revisited direction.

Now regarding the diet; I knew I was on a bad path but I didn’t think it was that bad until I jumped on the scale this morning – 222.6 lbs - Yeah that’s right, last year at this time I was low 190s.  I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it – all that hard work evaporating away and I have no one to blame but myself. I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this eating issue for the last few months – what’s changed? I’m still not 100% sure. All I can do is set goals, be accountable, and forge ahead.

Now that all that is out of the way, my main focus is to bring the weight back down, and any racing participating I do this year is only to have fun. Trying to be competitive at over 220 lbs is simply not going to happen.  Hence the reason all the races are basically shorter distances while I drop some weight and build up my fitness again.  Since I’ve dropped going to the pool, I’ve also restarted my strength training routine 2-3 times a week to hopefully gain some of the muscle mass I’ve loss this year.

Speaking of goals, here are a few milestones I’m shooting for:

  • Aug 1st – 212 lbs
  • Sep 1st – 205 lbs
  • Oct 1st – 197 lbs
  • Nov 1st – 192 lbs

Those weight targets are while maintaining or even gaining some lean muscle mass, hence the slower drops.

And finally, I had to have a new look for the site to go with the new direction, something a little more simple and clean. Hope everyone likes it.

Final Message:

Setbacks and challenges will happen throughout life.  You can choose to dwell on them or you can pick yourself and push through them.

 

Race Recap: Woodstock Give-It-A-Tri Triathlon

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I’m just going to start off by saying, it’s a miracle I even pulled this off given my training has been non-existent for the last 2 weeks, in some part, it was out of my control due to life circumstances….by I digress.

I’ve done 3 duathlons(run, bike, run) to date, but no triathlons(swim, bike, run), until yesterday that is and I’m happy to report that I did not drown.  :roll:   :lol:

Full breakdown of the race is available HERE but I’ll elaborate more in the post here.

The race was put on my Multisport Canada, a.k.a. Recharge with Milk Triathlon Series.  It was pretty well organized with a nice atmosphere and everyone was friendly, except for the weather.  It was a chilly day sitting around 14-15C and a strong NW wind.

I had a big cheering committee for this event; Mrs. Fat Guy and my sister & brother in-laws.  Thanks guys!

We arrived around 10:05 AM and with a scheduled race start of 11 AM, I had to hustle.  I ran to get my bib number, my registration package, timing chip, and got body marked.  I also squeezed in a pitstop at the port-a-potty before the lineups started.  Ran back to the car and got all my stuff together.  Then, ran to transition to setup.  There was no room left on the rack that I was suppose to be in (went by bib number) and I looked at the next rack for the 526+ bib numbers and there was 2 bikes on it so I just racked there as I knew at this point, it wouldn’t fill up anyhow.

As I was unpacking, I heard an announcement about a mandatory pre-race meeting which really messed me up to get ready.  I went to the meeting till about 10:50 at which point I bailed to finish my setup and put on my wetsuit.  I got to the start area a couple minutes before the start, swam a 20-30m out and back, and that was my warmup.  The water was warmer than the outside air which was kinda of interesting for the middle of June.

The race length for this “try-a-tri” race was suppose to be 300m swim, 10k bike, and 2k run.  Well, just before the start of the swim, the first buoy decided to go for a little swim.  In the end, the swim course was closer to 425m which is why the swim pace for everyone seems really slow in the results.  That extra length REALLY killed me.

THE SWIM

I’m going to focus more on the swim in this report as biking and running is pretty straight forward and really have nothing to add other than what’s in the post link breakdown above.

Let me first start by saying, this was only my 2nd open water swim (now known as OWS).  The first was the day before, Sat, in the Welland canal as a test for the wetsuit and how it was.  From my experiment on Saturday, I learned that sighting (checking to see you’re going in the right direction) was going to be my big draw back as I almost swam in a circle at my first attempt.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the other bunch of people swimming around me, into me, up me, down me, etc that I encountered on race day.  I mean, I knew about it from the reading I’ve done, and also this funny Clif Bar commercial, but it’s still surprises the crap out of you and it’s something that needs to be dealt with….while your swimming and trying to breath at the same time.

When the horn sounded I pointed myself in the direction of the first buoy and told myself to just “take your time” and focus on trying to swim left.  That was until I felt someone trying to swim over me, so I picked up the pace a little only to almost get kicked in the face from someone ahead of me, then someone t-boned me on my left side.  When I looked up, I was already too far to the right and had to correct.  This went on for the first 2-3 mins until the pack thinned out a little.  It seemed like it took forever to get to that 1st buoy.

Once I got to the first buoy, there was someone treading water at the buoy and everyone is trying to get around him.  Interesting.  Just passed the 1st buoy I also tread water for 5 seconds to see where the next buoy was, then proceeded.  At this point I was already tired and gasping for air every time I took a breath.  Once again I told myself to slow down, take long strokes and relax.  That was working for about 30 seconds until someone else decided to t-bone my right side.  I looked to sight and I was right on target so this person was heading in the wrong direction.

Once I passed the 2nd buoy I knew I was on the home stretch and couldn’t wait to get on terra firma.  Then it happen….I saw the bottom of the mirky water…some land.  I stood up and started walking out of the water like a drenched swamp monster, trying to catch my breath.

It took 12m:43s for the swim, but it might as well had been an hour.  It was done…the dreaded swim was done.  Off to the bike.

Bike & run were uneventful.  Based on my HR, I was at the redline for both…that’s all I had.

Official Results HERE.

Results Summary

Official Time: 48m 25s
Overall: 21st of 113 (19%)
Age Group:
(M40-44) 		3rd of 9 (33%)
Gender: 18th of 51 (35%)

 

Garmin Data:
Bike (10k) | Run (2k)

Here are a few pics of the event:

Woodstock Triathlon 2011

 

Next on the schedule is suppose to be the Lake 2 Lake 50k Mountain Bike race, next Sunday on June 19th, but I’m not 100% committed to do this race yet.  Some preliminary reports indicate that the proposed trail for the race is in questionable condition and could be a disaster waiting to happen.  Following that is the Welland Sprint Triathlon on June 25th.  This is a 750m swim, 30k bike, and 7.5k run.  That swim scares me.  8-O

 

Race Recap: Victoria’s Duathlon – May 23, 2011

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It’s done, and it wasn’t pretty.  Disappointing actually and I’m the only one to blame.  Self-sabotage would be the best way to explain it.  End result…I was 3 mins slower this year than last year.

Here’s the race report with all the details on the Beginner Triathlete website, and I’ll break it down further here with my theories.

Theory #1 – Bad diet.  The couple days leading up to race day, my diet suffered….GREATLY.  I ate pretty much what I wanted and food I should have avoided, including salty popcorn less than 12 hrs before the race.  This theory is HIGHLY PLAUSIBLE.  Your body will only perform as good as it’s fuel, like trying to run regular gas in a car that was built to run premium.  It’ll work, just not at it’s peak.

Theory #2 – Poor hydration.  The day before the race (Sunday), I should have been drinking plenty of water all day, but for some reason, didn’t.  I tried to cram some in Sunday evening, but it wasn’t enough as I didn’t have to even get up during the night to go to the bathroom.  Usually when I’m properly hydrated, I have to get up at least once.  This theory is PLAUSIBLE, but probably not as great a factor as I also hydrated well in the morning leading to the race, and the weather was not that hot for the race.

Theory #3 – Too fat.  Yes I’ve gained some weight over the winter, and no to this date haven’t lost any.  That meant that on this race I was actually about 25 lbs heavier than last year for the same race.  This theory is HIGHLY PLAUSIBLE.  Although 25 lbs doesn’t sound like much, strap it to your back and go running and hill climbing on a bike, then do it without the 25 lbs.  You’ll see a big difference.

Theory #4 – Lack of proper nutrition heading into the 2nd run.  Something happen in that 2nd run and I can only describe it as BONKING although it shouldn’t happen on a short race like this.  I had my usual breakfast 3 hrs before the race, had a PowerBar Gel 30 mins before the race, and drank 150 cals throughout the bike ride via 26 oz of Infinit Nutrition.  But this could also be tied into theory #1.

Theory #5 – Weather.  Although it was a little cooler this year, the winds were not.  Gusts hit the 30 kph with steady winds 12-14 kph, and it was from the south, meaning only a short south t0 north section of the bike course was easy with a tailwind.  The remainder of the course was either in crosswind or headwind.  That being said, I had a better bike this year so at the most, I should have equaled last years time, but I was actually 2 mins slower.  This theory is SOMEWHAT PLAUSIBLE.

Here’s the data from the Garmin for the 3 legs:
RUN #1 (4k) |  BIKE (30k) |  RUN #2 (4k)

Official results HERE.

RESULTS SUMMARY

2011 2010 DIFFERENCE
OFFICIAL TIME 1:42:34 1:39:36 +00:02:58
OVERALL 226 of 454 (50%) 216 of 519 (42%) +8%
AGE GROUP 35 of 48 (73%) 24 of 51 (47%) +26%
1st RUN SPLIT 20:34(5:09/km) 21:01(5:16/km) -0:27
BIKE SPLIT 56:31(31.8 kph) 54:31(33.0 kph) +2:00
2nd RUN SPLIT 22:50(5:43/km) 21:31(5:23/km) +1:19

 

Next on the schedule is a short Woodstock Try-A-Tri (triathlon) on June 12th.  This consist of a 300m swim, 10k bike, and 2k run.  This serves as a practice for the bigger races.

With that said, I need to get my diet in order.  Discipline is what’s lacking at the moment.  I also need to bring back my run fitness up, and practice more transitions.

Click on image below to see other pics.

Victoria’s Duathlon 2011

Race Recap: Sudbury Rock 10k

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Another easy recap….it didn’t happen.

This time it was sort of out of my control.  Friday morning without warning I woke up around 4:30 AM and felt like a I had a big chunk of something sitting in my stomach, along with plenty of unsettledness in the area.  I had this exact same feeling  a few weeks ago (Jan 18th to be exact);  EXACTLY the same feeling which is really starting to make me wonder what is causing this.  Sure enough, 6:55 AM I made a call to the porcelain god, and again at 8:15 AM.  No answer in both calls.  For the remainder of the day I simply laid on the Laz-boy and watched TV, drank Gatorade once in awhile.  Temperature spike at 101.5F around 2 PM.  It gradually came down to a dull 99F for the remainder of the evening.  I made the call to skip the 6-7 hr trip up north for the race.

Skip to today, Sunday, race day.  Although I do feel better, I’m still not 100% and I definitely wouldn’t be putting out all I could if I would have ran the race, and possibly could delay my recoup from this bug.  It’s unfortunate that this is the 2nd time this year I have a DNS for a race, not to mention the loss of entry fees.

Oh well, back to my regularly scheduled training this coming week.  Next race is May 23rd – The Victoria’s Duathlon.