I'll tell you one thing; I've been racking the miles in recently. Not just on the bike either; two trips to la belle province to officiate at triathlons. One trip was heroically completed by the Deer Killer (sensu strictu the "deer-maimer-and-let-it-run-off-into-the-woods-to-die-of-shock" but that doesn't trip off the tongue as nicely) and one in the Smart car. The Smart is the way to go; even loaded with bags for two, a tent and two bikes hanging off the rack, I don't think we spent more than $100 in diesel to get to Magog and back, a round trip of more than 2500 km. She does hold her own on the highway, even she gets an inferiority complex at gas-stations.
Perhaps to counter such inferior feelings, her shadow does have something of the Dalek about it; separated at birth? We need to know.
Exterminate!
The fuel-tank on the Smart is only ca. 15L and gets you about 350kms further down the road. Now I know that some cars are sold on the basis of being able to go long distances between fuelling stops but think about it. You stop and fill up with fuel and coffee and hit the road. There's now an inverse relationship between fuel-tank and bladder volume; the further you travel the emptier the tank and the fuller the bladder. After about three hours both need attention so you might as well stop. Who needs a 70L fuel tank? The human body can't possibly drive that long!
It took about 14 hrs to get to Magog; 12 hours on the road and two hours of stops. At least the Pig enjoyed it.
We used the car Garmin because as good type-A triathletes we know that if a run/bike/road-trip isn't on the Garmin then it never happened. Of course, waking up on Thursday morning in a totally French environment was pretty good evidence that I had in fact travelled 1200kms by car the day before but I clearly needed the Garmin to validate the reality in front of my own eyes (and ears).
We camped the first night before transfering to the semi-official hotel of Trimephremagog, the Fleur de Lys. One couldn't help but notice that a reasonably spacious three-person tent could also double as a garage for Smarty; good to know for the future.
Once we hit race-site it was pretty much 10-12 hrs a day action. The days before a triathlon can be a strange mix of activities as you all work together to make the race-site happen. As always, it was slightly surreal to go from fairly high-level triathlon stuff to slinging racks within five minutes.
They had a finish line gantry and a shed-load of racks trucked over from the Esprit Tri in Montreal. It was nice to have a gantry to hang signs off but to be honest I much preferred Paul Shaw's bike-racks (Oh yes, I'm now also "Bike Rack Snob", I think I need to get out more). I did get pylon envy though!
Not getting out for a ride didn't really matter as la belle and I both got extensive upper body workouts carrying barricades and racks. I asked what the barricades were called in Quebec; in English Canada we call them French Barricades - what are they called in French Canada? Les barricades Anglaises? No, apparently Barricade anti-emeute, or riot barrier. Given the reputation of English soccer fans, very much the same thing. Anyway, I got the guy in charge of building TZ calling them English Barricades by Thursday evening.
They also had some awesome signage which was in both official languages. This was the dismount sign.
RD Rene Pomerleau is shown to scale, and the guy is 6ft tall. It will not surprise you in the least that many triathletes still managed to ride through this sign!
Between racks, carpet, les barricades anglaises and stringing up 144 m of Tri Can scrim, we still got a chance to get out and see a little of Magog itself, if only to get food or hang out in bike shops. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose then. There was a nice bakery/charcuterie....
Hmm, bacon.
Of course, one couldn't eat in fancy charcuteries all week, that would be like eating exclusively at Pete's Frootique so it was off to Metro Plouffe. They were also one of the event's big sponsors so all the staff were wearing the race volunteer T-shirts. Perhaps bizarrely, they had this display, meant in all seriousness;
Waters of the word? I couldn't help but feel slightly skeptical.
I was on more familar ground in the produce section where another sponsor, Ski Velo, had a huge bike display above the fruits and veggies.
Is it just me, or is this $3000 Specialized Tarmac on sale for 99c?
To be honest, I wasn't impressed by that bike, price-tag of $3000 or not. It was hung with 105 throughout, but on a nice frame. If you were going for a Pro-Tour-ish frame, surely you'd want better than 105? It would be like putting a 2-stroke in a Jaguar. I'd take it for 99c though.
Undeterred, I pressed on to Ski-Velo. We may have been putting in 12 hour days but with up to 1200 triathletes passing through Magog, Ski-Velo were working even longer hours. Plus, they had one of my favorite words in the French language after fromagerie; solde.
There was some serious, hard-core bike-porn on offer in here. There was a road section, a cross section, an MTB section, a hybrid section not to mention all the goodies. I tried to take photos but my hands were shaking too much. It's not too far from the truth that I had to be carried from here kicking and screaming like a 5 year-old in a candy store. Several times.
There was this one from Time, 20% off I think. Looks like my size but (in her wisdom) la belle didn't let me throw my leg over it. Just in case, you understand.
Then there was this frame and forks from Time...
No danger of trying it on for size, missing wheels and all that, but it was on serious sale. It was also gone by Sunday night. Natch.
This perhaps?
None of this changing the sprocket on my fixie so we're riding the same gear so she can keep up (who says chivalry is dead?). She'll never get dropped on a tandem!
Unless I mean it!
If you couldn't afford the bike, how about a nice Campy wheel-bag?
Now all I need are Campy wheels.
As always with life, Velo-Ski also had it's share of skanks. As you would have guessed, I'm all about old-school and Italian bikes. So how about a Fondriest 'cross bike for the off-season. Sweet.
Sure, there's no room in/on/around the Smart Car but hey, I could get it now and pick it up before the Tri Can AGM in Quebec City just in time for the 'cross series. Makes sense to me.
Then I saw the Harry Potter themed art-work.
Perhaps not then. Obscuro! Obliviate!
Ahh, the fixies. What could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a bit. Take a look at the Specialized Langster Tokyo. At first sight, the art-work is a bit flowery, but I'm in touch with my feminine side so that's OK. Plus you never really know what that kanji script means. You think it's something Zen like "to know the road ahead, ask those coming back" when in reality it says "my other bike is a Huffy".
But then I saw the chain...
Faux gold-plated 1/8" chain? Arghh, my eyes!
Maybe an open letter to Specialized about these city-themed fixies; perhaps there's a reason Cyclesmith still have the Specialized Langster Monaco edition after two years whilst the Kona Paddy Wagons are flying off the shelf? It's nothing to do with "white frames after Labour Day"! And in a related open letter to Paul and Mark; I'll take that Langster off your hands, you need the space for Paddy Wagons, or maybe another Cervelo. Make me an offer!
I was feeling slightly soiled after the Ski-Velo skanks, but all was restored on race morning. One of the many and varied jobs I got for the day was bike-check, especially for Long Course and the Junior Nationals.
A lot of nice carbon passed under my hands. I had to pretty much condition myself to stop seeing bikes and just see handlebar configurations, handlebar plugs and wheel-depth. One Junior Elite had some home-made inspirational top-tube art that made me smile;
This advice is on a par with Bob Hobbs telling me at a Club 10 in 1989 to just "pedal harder". So much can be said for coaches, on-line coaching, fine-tuning your TT position in a wind-tunnel but sometimes the simplest advice is often the best....
I was just told that I should do a triathlon. No, this isn't from one of you wondering when, exactly was the last time you saw me swim (assumimg that I can actually swim of course). This was from a waitress (waitperson? I'm so hopellessly out of date on my PC gender-neutral job descriptions) on finding out various people around the table were cyclists or runners. Apparently her Mum does them, like, all the time and thinks they're, like, awesome.
This seems to be par for my course at the moment, being told to do what I'm already doing.
Of course this is just one up from my all time favorite, that of my opinion being less valid than than that of someone elses. You don't have to see the validity in my argument of course, but if I don't recognise the validity of yours then I'm a narrow-minded bigot. Nothing brings these feelings into such sharp relief as the Tour de France. There are other bike races you know, and ones with significantly less hype and more action. There is that feelinf of it being overly hyped, and to the extent that ASO are starting to believe their own press. If this is the world's biggest bike race and we own the world's biggest bike race, then who are the UCI and why do we need them? Rules that benefit only them? Sure. No problem. After all, we are the Tour.
So yes, all in all, I do feel slightly jaded come Tour time. This is a cycling heresy, especially in North America. How much of a heresy? Not liking the Tour means you like cancer.
You know, I thought long and hard about writing that last sentance and had originally decided not to put it in. Way too inflammatory, way too obviously about one person and one issue. However I really did see that line; if you don't like Lance then you like cancer, in a forum thread the other day on Cyclingnews.com. Talk about being blown away! People are stooping this low now? This retort doesn't have a coherent argument or even try to address the issue, it's just first-grade play-ground name calling yet it's passing for debate now! Who says logic is dead? I'm not a Lance-hater, but I have a healthy dose of skepticism. Put it this way, as a cycling fan I don't think Phil and Paul speak for me.
So, no. I don't think there isn't enough cancer in the world, I just think the Tour, and to a point, stage-race riders (all of them) are overhyped and accorded way too much precedence in the sport. Where-else will the World Champion, the Olympic Champion, fer goodness sakes, take a back-seat to the winner of a single race? Where-else will these champions be relegated to the back of the bus, have their acheivements downplayed 'cos like, it's not the Tour man.
So..... sure, I will allow myself some frisson of excitement about it, but in the proper time (late June) not when some cycling websites think I should be (October onwards). I'll follow the stages and debate you all night about minutae, but I'll also do that about the Giro and the Vuelta. For that matter, what do you think of the ladies' Giro, you think Abbott can hold on, do you think Pooley got screwed? The inclusion of the Stelvio for the first time should make tomorrow's stage interesting. No?
To be honest, if i was given the option to spend three weeks in Europe being a bike junkie, I'd choose April not July. See the Classics and semi-classics; the Ronde, Paris-Roubaix, Ghent-Wavelgem, La Doyenne, Amstel. Plenty of cobbles, plenty of sharp, steep bergs and cotes, and all raced in dead earnest. There's no sitting-in during the Classics, no waiting for a favorable, sunny moment to make a descive attack. This is all or nothing racing, and I'll take it over a Grand Tour any day.
Or maybe 'cross; there's Duvel, frites and mayonnaise at the 'cross.....
I do have photos from Coteau du Lac, which was a scream, and I promise I'll upload them sooner or later.
For now, I have to say I'm feeling a little displaced. It's the first Saturday night at home for a month (I think), and furthermore, I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry this morning, and neither do I have to be anywhere in a hurry tomorrow either.
Maybe I could have some of those beer and chips I was talking about the other day.
Took a two-day road trip to get here from Halifax, stayed overnight Wednesday in Riviere du Loup. It was raining so hard on Wednesday morning it was all Riviere and no Loup. Got to Coteau du Lac Thursday afternoon. Ran into the TD and HR (Technical Delegate and Head Referee) in the hotel lobby, got sucked into an impromptu meeting and been at it ever since.
Pretty much been keeping eyes open and mouth closed. There's something to be said to keeping schtum. The TD and HR have a shed-load of races under their belts, including a bunch of World Cups, World Champs and the Olympics, so it's unlikely I have anything particularly constructive or insightful to add to anything in particular.
In fact my job here is as much to be mentored as it is to do anything constructive (before race-day at least). In fact, I've been jokingly called a mentor-whore!
The lingua franca is, for now, English, which is good. I've been breaking out in French every now and then, and not for long. A measure of my success? Well, I've not starved to death yet and the swim-course has been accurately measured (to within 10m, which is the resolution +/- of a comercial wrist-mounted GPS). What more can you want?
Spent the morning mucking about on the swim-course and pontoon. Have a secondary assignment to the starts, and the start-pontoon is a bit tippy, and will be more-so when 71 guys all dive off en masse. So we (the officials) had a bit of a practice at not falling off the pontoon.
There is a better class of bike-porn here. Andrew Armstrong (HR) and I spent twenty minutes this morning fondling a couple of Dot Project bikes (including the pink one there) under the guise of familiarisation with the new wheel and tri-bar rules. Seriously though, there are new wheel and tri-bar rules. Be warned!
Race-briefing in an hour and then the officials' meeting. I think I'll be on Moto#1. Vroom vroom! Tee hee hee :)!!
It's interesting how the boys are broadening their cultural memes. These are often strange mash-ups of the world I expect is familar to them and a world I hope is not. For example, Lego (what 10 year old doesn't know Lego) and The Matrix. The Matrix is part of a pre-teen's zietgeist?
The very latest thing I had to see was "300 Penguins". As the blurb underneath the vid said "the raw, unadulterated masculinity of 300 forced upon the loveable and sweet Happy Feet" Again, I know they know Happy Feet (they saw it with me) but 300? I find the mash-up funny (and well done; even the lip/beak-synching is pretty good), but how do they even know it's funny?
I don't want to know!
Perhaps to counter this alarming increase in age-inappropriate sophistication in screen-time I've been getting the boys out to the races a little bit. As much as I would love to see them represent something (school, university, country) at the highest levels with their name on their shirts, I would rather that instead of burning out and fading away by the age of 25, as so often happens, they take a love for running, or cycling or competitive tiddly winks and will still be doing it when they are my age. Plus, of they are at the races, they aren't watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer on-line. Besides, when it comes to healthy life-style choices, this one sure beats passively interacting with sport instead from ones' couch on a Saturday afternoon armed with beer and chips.
Even so, sometimes I look at the amount of chips eaten and beer drunk by the average Canadian and the amount eaten and drunk by yours truly and feel aggrieved that someone, somewhere, is eating my chips and drinking my beer. Bastard. Joshua, I think as most of you know, has been running a storm in the local 5Ks recently. He doesn't do so well at the YRS and the recent Grade 6 track meet but part of this is the distance (only 1.5 k), partly because Grade 6 encompasses a wide range of physiologies (some of those boys are already into their PHV growth-spurts whilst Joshua can't spell PHV) and finally, he just isn't really aggressive. The term "race face" has no meaning for him. Like father like son though, he can be a bit of a basket-case before an event. Even so, the slightly more laid back nature of the local 5Ks suits him more, and in terms of setting a basis for an active lifestyle, probably better for him in the long run.
At Stacy Juckett's Benny Bulldog 5K he ran a 26 something, and that was a technical off road run with corners and hills. There's usually no point speculating the what-ifs but a 26 at the Lung run would have placed our hypothetical runner about half way down the field. So, instead of what-if-ing (which to be honest really irritates the crap of me) it was time for just what-ing, and sticking him in a road 5K and finding out.
So we hit the Enfield Penguin run. I put a fatherly arm around his shoulder and told him he'd grown out of YRS and it was time to do a proper race. He took that quite well. After some last-minute panic (I had to pull him out of the 1.5 K start corral where he was lined up with his younger brother), I got him correctly seeded in the the 10 mile/5K corral, gave him a good-luck pat on the shoulder and pushed my way to the front of the corrall where, as history and this blog shows, I ran myself stupid.
When I got back J told me he'd done a 24. Hey, that's good; 2 minutes faster than the Benny 5K and a personal best. When the results got posted we went over to have a look. I scoured the results and couldn't find him in the 24s. I widened my search and eventually looked down at him
"you didn't do a 24 Joshua" "Oh, that's OK" he said, a little despondently "You did a 22!"
Yup, 22:33. Pretty damned good for a not-quite-12 year old. Plus he missed out on 3rd place in his age-group by 30 seconds to a kid who was a lot bigger than he was.
Still, no more than 5K for him at the moment, LTAD and all of that. Plus, it's for enjoyment.
This leaves Dan, who really doesn't like running. Partly he just doesn't like it, and so he doesn't really try at it, and then he compares himself negatively to his brother's performance. It's not so much sibling rivalry as sibling envy. Understandable. So I took Dan to race#2 pf Cyclesmith's short-track mountain biking series to see if he'd like it. I figured that, as the prototypical second child, if anyone in the family was going to ride their bike off a rock without a second thought, it would be Dan.
Firstly, to make him feel the part, I put him in a real cycling jersey (with pockets!!) in a fetching fish pattern - what else?! Oh, and proper mountain-biking gloves too. After a helmet, probably the most useful piece of PPE for cyclists!
We pre-rode the course, it wasn't technical. The race started and he went off and I felt th usual pang you feel when your child rides off out of sight! He came around past me at regular intervals when I'd scan his face and general demeanor for any tell-tale signs he wasn't enjoying it, Dan will make a crappy poker-player later in life, so there was no danger I'd miss them! When it got to the end, no he didn't win it, that's a fairy-tale, but he held his own. He got the hang of the multi-loop course and seemed to be working hard to master the obstacles; he was nailing things on lap #5 that had him walking in lap 1. His flying mounts and dismounts are better than mine! He even got a hang for the etiquette calling "passing you" and letting faster riders through (something some age-groupers could learn).
More importantly, he finished it grinning and with pride. I think something may have "clicked". He didn't call it stupid, he didn't call himself stupid and useless for being passed. Normally he has a very low frustration threshold; not in mountain biking (apparently), well not yet at least.
We went back for race#3 and same thing. As we walked back to the car after race he quietly asked me which was more "athletic", running or riding. Ah, crunch time! I told him both were, but they were different. You can't directly compare Ussain Bolt or Lance Armstrong. Why would you, they are different athletes in different disciplines, but both very good at what they do. Same here. I think he bought it, and why not? It's the truth. I put a cherry on top, saying mountain biking requires bravery, which again is the truth, is it not? Everyone feels a slight tingle when their bike is on the edge of something loose or high, it's just how you deal with it!
Funny story; before Race#3 I thought we should both prepare his bike for the race. So many things just "happen" for a 10 year old, I wanted him to know a race-ready bike, even if that race is only the junior short-track series, doesn't race-ready itself. We were doing tyre pressures and I realised when I got to contact patches and pinch-flats I'd probably gone too far! Anyway, his tyres were rated for 40-65 psi. So I explained how if it was really muddy and sloppy he should probably run closer to 40 and if it was hard-baked (or, God help us, frozen) mud he should run 65. As it had been hot and sunny all day but it rained last night, he should probably run something in the middle. OK he said, let's run 52.5 psi!
Er, it's not calibrated to 0.5 psi; can be ball-park it to 50 instead?
He does have trouble with asthma and we diligently do the whole salbutamol thing before the race. After the race his cheeks were looking flushed and I asked him if his chest hurt. "No Dad" he said, "my legs hurt".
As the title may suggest, it has been a very busy two weeks, so my apologies (if only to myself) for not keeping up to speed. Four races; the Bluenose Full marathon, leg#9 of the Cabot Trail Relay (up North Mountain), the Enfield 10 miler and the Cyclesmith 24 duathlon. Whilst not up to Campbell standards, it's long enough for me. I know what you're thinking; "but surely you could have written during the week, these were all weekend races". Yes, that is true, but the deeper truth is that to do this, I had to spend the week asleep, only to wake up again at the weekend to race.
After the exertions of the previous fortnight, I was physically and physiologically ready for a rest. Nothing illustrates this better than my run last Thursday; after 9kms I was seeing bright orange and green splotches in front of my eyes. You don't need and expensive on-line coach to tell you that once this point has been reached, a break is a good idea. Still, ,last weekend wasn't entirely a rest, as I was TD for the Greenwood Tri/Du. As much as I enjoy the cut-'n-thrust of racing (the Enfield 10 miler was particularly satisfying) even if the race-director had comp'd me a free entry I would have demurred, saying my nut and bolt collection needed categorising. Actually it does, it's in a right state!
I think I left you (myself) at the half-way point of Bluenose; 21km in 1:29. Not a PB, in fact some 10 minutes off but as I was bunnying, this was not supposed to be a PB day. As in the previous year, I really shut it down after the first half, as you can see from the graph
I went from 4:15/km pace to 4:45/km pace to finish with a 4:30/km pace or a 3:09 for the full. A nice, solid run for me, sub-3:10. That's where I expect to be, none of this 3:14 Boston foolishness. You may remember that I said that during Boston I felt bored, " when will this be over"? I wonder of it wasn't actually ennui but panic? After all, if you've been running for two hours and it feels like you're still in Natick or Framingham, then you would start to feel a bit panickly too: where the hell is this finish? So I wonder if some part of the more typical ( for me) Bluenose result was the ability to chunk the course. After all, for Halifax-based runners, the BN course is a part of everyday life. So it was easy to think in terms of The North End. The MacDonald Bridge. Woodlawn. Mic Mac Mall. Shubie Park. Grahams Grove Superstore. Maple Street (sorry, Giv'er Hill). Home. If you look at lt like that, in three or four kilometer chumks, now doesn't it seem easy?
The Pocket Rocket also ran with me for most of the second half, getting a long and ultimately slow run in as she came back from injury. She certainly kept my spirits up, but not my pace. I had what I had, and she wasn't able to get any more speed out of me.
The week after this was the Cabot Trail Relay (CTR). I often think about the Cabot Trail in terms of legs of the relay, as this is how I have only ever seen, or not seen, the Trail. For example, I have yet to see MacKenzie Mountain in daylight. This year I realized, there was a new way to see it, and that is as a relay between bacon sandwiches.
Start in Baddeck at 06:00 with a bacon sandwich from the Highwheeler cafe; drive to the Gaelic College, the official start of the relay, and actually eat it. Two legs later, another bacon sandwich at the Clucking Hen. Three legs later, eat the Highwheeler packed lunch (no bacon but it was made in close proximity to bacon. Plus, it's still yummy). Four legs after that, ,bacon-cheeseburger at the Restaurant at the End Of The Universe at Pleasant Bay. Three legs after that, bagels at Timmies in Cheticamp (they don't served bacon breakfast sandwiches at midnight; why oh why?). Two legs after that, another bacon sandwich at The Lakes. Next leg, pancakes; no bacon but we can dream or hallucinate (after >24 hrs with no sleep, hallucination is not a problem). Then, merely four bacon sandwiches and 30 hrs after we started, we're back where we started, getting a bacon sandwich from the Highwheeler in Baddeck.
See, divided into easy chunks of bacony goodness! It's not rocket science. Thinking about it, it's not wise to mix bacon with rocket science. Don't take my word on it.....
(if you're not singing that song in your head all day now, we have failed. Epically).
Despite being on the Tech Crew for CTR again (my third) I broke a couple of my own rules at CTR. I slept at the end of leg 14 for at least 30 minutes and consequently missed most of the end of that leg. I was, however, in much better shape to cope with the final three. I also ran a leg. Cathy Carter, chief recruiting officer for the Eastern Z descendants gave me the choice of Leg#9 "be worshipped as a mountain-running God" or Leg#11 " practice for the first half of next years' Boston". I went for 9 as I don't intend to go back to Boston next year and, besides, the opportunity to be worshiped in my own lifetime? Who could say no! Then she sweetened the deal with a steak and kidney pie. Hell, for that, I'd run a mountain leg double. She she didn't hear me say that, and seeing the profile of just the one mountain leg that I ran, thank goodness for that.
Interesting pace graph; you can clearly see North Mountain, it's where the pace was nearly 6 minutes a kilometer!
I really enjoyed the uphill run and even did quite well, being 3rd or 4th over the top I think, ,even beating the Maine Road Hag, a 2:30 marathoner called Sheri Peirs. Here's the first, and only, time, you,'ll see me in front of a runner of this calibre.
It was Sheri, of course, who later in the relay had the distinction of being this years awesome parking job at The Lakes (leg 16 start).
I was worried beforehand; how would I climb, how would I cope with a sustained uphill effort? The answer? I felt very much at ease climbing the mountain. Sure it hurt (it's supposed to) but it felt as though I was in control and I had more than one speed as we went up. I wasn't just knocking out the rhythm, but I could respond to attacks too, or at least stay on peoples heels as they changed their pace. I wonder if cycling has anything do do with it? Then, there was the amazing sight of dusk over North, which I caught just as we topped out. Insomuch as I was totally on the rivet and unable to talk, I was (would have been) speechless.
The downhill was something else however; how do you train for a 6 km downhill run? Be damned if I know. I know the theory to run downhill, just as well as the next man or woman, but to put it into practice for 6km? The descent was, in my view, harder than the ascent. It strikes me that people usually over-exaggerate about their training runs, but when it comes to the CTR, people tend to under-exaggerate. I'd been told the descent was a bit "sporting", but nothing I'd been told remotely prepared me for how it actually was.
The final 6k into the finish were a bit of a fight. A fight to get my legs back into running order after the long downhill and a fight to reel in the four guys who'd passed me on the downhill. I got three of them but lost the sprint for 5th in the finishing chute. I'd been telling Mark Stein all day for three relays that the finishing chutes as he wanted them, with two 90 degree bends in the final 50 m were not fair should there be a sprint. Guess what, they weren't! Unless you are really lucky (or really, really good) the winner will always be the first person into the chute. And and so it was. I knew the sprint was lost when buddy got to the cones ahead of me but I still tried, after all, he could have slipped. he didn't.
Beating Sheri to the top of North, was a bit of a pyrrhic victory as she floated away from me as we descended, showing me that form and class triumphs over brute strength and ignorance every time. Boy, can she run. She ended up putting about 2.5 minutes into me from the top of North to by the finish. Yup, 150 seconds in 12 km. Oh, and that was her second leg of the relay. I am not worthy!
The Tech crew thing was, as usual a long, hard slog although ultimately highly satisfying. The crew always has a mass, prophylactic apology before the race starts, as tempers inevitably become frayed as the relay goes on. Interestingly, the tempers flared in the early part of the day and the night-legs were surprisingly tranquil. Wasn't expecting that. Something else about the night legs this year. It seemed the runners and back-up crews were a lot more polite this time. There were many thank-yous and a lot less grumbling from everyone around the relay that midnight. Maybe it's the shared experience. Maybe it's a feeling of spiritual oneness once we're immersed in the night. Or maybe they thought that by being nice to me I would be more highly inclined to interpose myself between their runner and a ravenous coyote come dawn. Either way, the politeness plus the short sleep (does 30 minutes sleep sitting in the drivers seat of a Jeep Cheroke count as sleep?) and the tranquility of the night-legs after the somewhat fractious day-legs made for the best night on the relay I've had yet
The downside to getting to run an awesome leg (as in the leg is great to run, not that my running of it was awesome), and for winning best mixed team was that, for reasons still to be fully explained to me me, I had to run in a small pink tiara. AND my steak-and-kidney pie hasn't turned up yet!
The week after this, I did the Enfield-Cyclesmith double. Did we ever luck out with the weather. Saturday morning was hot and sunny for the 10 miler, it rained all afternoon. Sunday morning was foggy but dry for the du, at it rained all afternoon!
The ten miler was a blast. The race was won by Soloman Azrat in a course-record 57 minutes and change. Soloman is the new distance guy in town with East African genetics. I'd heard many stories of him already but neer seen him. He was starting to become part apocryphal story, part boogeyman in my head. Now he's just a boogeyman and the reason I'll only get an age-group gong at an RNS event ever again. Me and every other age-group male that is. To give you a measure of how good he is, he did the first 1.5 miles with Rami Bardeesy at 5 min/mile pace, settled down after the 5k turn and knocked out the 57 and by all accounts was not happy with his time!
I got locked into a battle with Derek Estabrooks (again) for 4th. I started a bit too quickly and dropped him, but he was back on my heels by 2 miles. By this time I'd been long dropped by Soloman (that's overegging the pudding actually, I was never actually anywhere near him) as well as the Dal guy who would be second and Dave Holder who would end up third.
Derek and i paced each other every step of the remaining 8 miles with neither giving any ground. We worked well together, communicated when we needed to, took turns on the front, gave each other room at the water stops. You know, you may be racing, but there's no reason to be an asshole. The unwritten rule is "let's work together until be get close to the finish, ensure we have 1st Master wrapped up and then fight amongst ourselves for the placing". It's nice to run against someone who understands the rules and etiquette.
Exactly when it is you stop working and start fighting is not precise, it depends on how the race is developing. So, when we passed 8 miles, there was less chat (not that the pace was conducive to being highly voluable) and more sideways glances, ,assessing how the other was looking, ever watchful for the other taking off on the long flyer. This intensified at 9 miles as we started to give little digs, to test the other's legs and willingness (or not) to chase.
I knew there was a small uphill at about 750m and I planned to make my move then. Derek has long legs and is an ex-track runner so he has track-smarts and knows how to sprint. If I want to loose a race to him, and I haven't yet, I reckon all I have to do is enter the finish straight with him and he will surely out-kick me. So the plan was to take a bit of a flyer, not a hugely long one, but long enough to gap him. On the descent to final hill I opened my stride and hoped he would just think this was downhill running and not my final shot. This was it. I hit the up hill and didn't let up going up it. When I got to the top i had the gap; only a few seconds and there was still 500 m to go. I grimaced and grunted my way across the highway bridge and managed to keep the lead, and maybe even extend it a little. It was not pretty and if I'm unlucky Ray Moorehead will put those pictures on Facebook for the world to see. Needless to say, I decked out as soon as I crossed the mats and it took several minutes before I could sit or even stand. All of that for 4th overall and first master!
After the heat of Enfield, the du was cold and chilly. I decided to go on 72" fixed again; my experiences at Riverport and DIFS showing I could be reasonably competitive with it. Of course, I wouldn't win on fixed, but I wouldn't win if I had 30 gears and a personalised tailwind either. So I might as well have a little fun with it, and also a bit of a personal challenge, to race on fixed.
I totally caned it over the 5K R1, with a 17 minutes (but it might have been short). I led out from the gun and every time the road went uphill I piled on a bit more pressure and whittled the front group down to three, eventual winner Jamie Hynes and runner-up Tom Soehl. I don't know if Tom and Jamie meant to, but hey let me cross the mats first so I could post the fastest official time. Thanks guys.
I knew my overall competitive day was done as soon as we hit TZ, and predictably it all went downhill from there. I heard the beep of the mat as Jamie headed out of TZ whilst I still had my head down trying to sort the buckles of my cycling shoes. I only hit the road ahead of Tom because he forgot to take his running shoes off before heading out and passed me going out going in with his sneakers in hand! I was passed by a lot of guys, but them I always was, fixed or no. The fixed, as usual, behaved well and had her moments when she was just as good as bikes with significantly more TT about their pedigree.
I was, perhaps, under geared for the flats, but I managed to keep it over 20 mph for most of it. She climbed well and held her own on the rolling sections, especially on the way home when guys were getting tired. I think I had been overexaggerating how big, long and steep the " big hill" actually was as it didn't seem to be that big, long or steep. I fairly romped up it.
The flip side to climbing strongly on fixed is going down the other side. I hit 50.2 kph coming down one hill, which gives gives a cadence of 145.6 rpm. Someone asked me "can you control your bike when you're pedaling that fast". The trite answer is "well I didn't crash so yes", but a greater explanation is owed. Yes, you are bouncing around a lot at a cadence of anything over 130, and when I get that high I'll often wonder what will cause me to crash; bouncing myself off the bike or running out of revs? Good technique really helps you to minimize that. Pedalling circles, still shoulders and an ability to "decouple" your legs so they are kinda spinning in neutral really helps. I read somewhere the reason you can't linearly increase your speed on fixed with cadence is that as cadence increases, you use more and more energy in just accelerating your legs, and less and less to putting power down on the pedals. Finally, at events like C'smith with a lot of rolling hills, ,you are not doing >140 rpm for very long, which also helps.
R2 was not one of my best. I may have had a great R1 but something clearly went "ping" in my legs between leaving and returning to the beach. Maybe it was the length of the TT, but I had crampy legs for the first K of the run That didn't happen at R'port of DIFS, but then the TTs were shorter. I found my legs again just before the first water stop and normal service was resumed as i started ti reel guys in. The time was reasonable, but perhaps (surely) I was finally feeling the preceding 85kms in my legs from the previous two weeks.
The weekend "off" hasn't entirely revived me, but I'm feeling better than last week and less likely to bonk spectacularly during a 10k run! It looks like I will be back on the start-line at Johnny Miles, an event I have never done before, where I will do my first half-marathon in anger since before I was sick. I did, honestly, think "hmmmm full? Why not......?" before my vestige of common sense kicked in. Plus, four loops? I mean, seriously, four?
AD
Photos from Leah Jabour, Randall Hipson and Cyclesmith.
