August Long Weekend 2011

August long weekend holds a lot of great memories for Amber and I, many, many great summers are spent on our bikes or on the trails. A couple of years after we met we planned a bike trip from Calgary to Banff and when we reached Canmore I asked Amber to marry me. She was having a horrible ride but seemed to perk right up after I asked her this weekend four years ago. She's the perfect partner for me and she understands my motivation and drive to continue to do this crazy sport of Ironman. There is a lot of suffering that goes into not only completing an Ironman but preparing for one. Weekends are not spent drinking on the deck with friends and lounging at the lake with family but pushing yourself beyond what you thought you were capable of on your bike, in the pool or running the trails and pathways. Many hours are dedicated to one day at the end of August when you are swimming, biking and running for 9-12 hours.

Why do I do this sport? The only answer I can come up with to that question is that after an Ironman (including preparing for an Ironman) everything else in life is easy. Ironman teaches you discipline, patience, planning, preparation, and how to break down a HUGE accomplishment into manageable parts, all things that have helped me tremendously in my life. When most people who don't understand the sport first hear about it they can't fathom doing something like that all day long. The truth is that anyone can do it with the proper preparation and race discipline the problems happen when you change your discipline or you don't adapt to changes in your conditions, just like in life.

This weekend was filled with fun things, Saturday Amber, Robert, Annette and I planned to ride from Grande Cache to Grande Prairie; 180kms over some tough, tough climbs. Unfortunately Amber woke up not feeling well so she had to take a day off but the three of us loaded up and went out to practice our Ironman ride. The first 95kms to our drop box went fairly well, I was keeping my heart rate under control on the climbs and although my legs could tell they have been pushing for 2 hours and 40 minutes I was ready to keep going for another 85kms. By the time Robert and I hit the 140km point we were both hurting but we kept each other honest and pushed the remaining 40kms to finish in 5:31. We even jumped off our bikes and did a 20 minute run just get that start of the Ironman run feeling.


Sunday Amber was feeling better so we headed to the pool and put in a solid 3kms with some 500m sets and I felt pretty good. After lunch we did a little family run for an hour and I didn't give myself enough time to digest so I was having a tough time but held on for 15kms.

Today Amber was determined to get in her 180km ride but the wind was absolutely screaming!!! It was a 40km/hr wind with gusts up to 70kms/hr! It was not a safe day to ride but she did not want to call it off so we planned for her to head east with a tailwind most of the way. I would drive out and do my run every 40 or 50 kms and provide her with a refueling stops. Things were going along pretty well until I saw how much construction there was on the highway, I didn't realize she had about 20kms of chipseal riding with loose gravel everywhere but by the time I reached her she was through it. In the end she had a fantastic ride doing 180kms in 5:24! and I managed to run 38kms in 2:38. I went through some tough periods when I decided it was a good idea to eat a couple pieces of pizza after running 21kms... bad idea. I felt like I was going to throw up for the next 8-9kms, lesson learned.



All in all it was a great weekend with friends and family and after 180kms riding, 3kms swimming and 58kms running I feel closer to being ready for Ironman. Bring it on.