Ironman Canada 2011

Talk about a nerve wracking experience leading up to IMC 2011, my training was going along absolutely perfect leading into this year's event; I was swimming better than ever, biking consistently and strong in terrible conditions, and running on par with some of my best years. Two weeks before the race I did a swim-bike workout with Amber and I wasn't feeling quite the same as I normally felt, I chalked it up to pre-race tapering fatigue but only did a 90 minute swim and a 60km bike and then pulled the plug. I wanted to try and get in 120km ride but there was no way I had the energy to get through it on that day. The next day I geared up for my long run and I couldn't believe how tired I was, normally a 25km run at this time of year is no problem. I should be able to bang it off in 90-100 minutes but I was struggling to hold a fairly slow pace and every 5kms got harder and harder. I told myself that it was good practice for an Ironman run and finished the 25kms in 1:40.

The next day I was SICK, body aches, weakness, stuffed head, the works! ARRRGGGGHHH, not now! Two weeks before the biggest race of the year and I was out, I spent the next two weeks resting, hydrating and doing everything I could think of to get back to normal. The Thursday before the race I was still feeling rough and I was certain I was going to have to pull the plug and not race this year. Finally my body started to come around on Friday, my energy started to return and by Saturday I felt normal again, other than a little sinus congestion. Early Sunday morning I was on the start line again with 2800 other athletes and so excited to return to Ironman racing after a year off.

The start of an Ironman is always a gong show, swimming with 2800 other people at the same time is a rough way to start your morning. You get kicked, punched, crawled over and anything else you can think of that you don't want to happen while swimming. However this year I was trying to be a little more strategic than in past. Previous races it was just a matter of pushing hard and getting through the swim without getting damaged in the chaos. This year I followed the same strategy I used in my half ironman races and I just looked for swimmers that were about the same pace and I stuck to their feet, in the draft. I got knocked around a little between a few people but for the most part it was a perfect swim for me, conserve as much as possible while still pushing to keep the heart rate within the 'race zone.' I got out of the water and was ecstatic to see that it was my best swim ever; 59:47! Sub-hour swim, wow I wasn't expecting that, awesome way to start the race.

The transition went fairly smooth other than the fact that I had my heart monitor on to make sure I didn't overdo it and when I grabbed my bike I was at 165bpm. Anyone who has trained with me knows that a 165bpm for me is a 400m sprint pace, not something you want to see in an Ironman, but I said that it's probably just due to the quick swim and run to the bike so I spent some time trying to get that down. The first 64kms of the IMC bike are awesome, incredibly fast and that day we had a huge tailwind that was pushing us all the way to Osoyoos. I was doing 45km splits and the first 45kms flew by in 1:08! Woah, somedays I have a hard time doing 40kms in that time but I'll take it. My heart race was under control (but still in the 140s), my perceived effort was good, I could talk and breathe normally, I was taking in over 300 calories every hour (Gu, Maltodextrin, and gels) and my stomach was cooperating for the moment.

The tough part for me in the ride is climbing up Richter Pass, I get passed by a lot of riders and it's difficult for my ego to take but this is Ironman and you have to put your ego aside and be smart all day. I kept telling myself that this is not your speciality and if I'm patient my time will come. I went through the rollers and the out and back without much of anything exciting happening but when I started to climb Yellow Lake I ran into my first problem of the day. I tried to stand up to climb a gentle slope and just flush out the legs a bit and immediately my quads started cramping badly. I thought it might just be a temporary issue so I spun for a while and tried again and OUCH! Yeah I can't stand up, okay I had a problem how was I going to fix it. It wasn't a calorie issue I was taking enough calories to keep me going and I didn't feel bonky, I didn't think it was a hydration issue I was drinking more water as the day got hotter and then I realized that it was probably a sodium issue. I looked at my clothes and sure enough I was covered in salt, I had two salt tabs in each bottle, about 12 grams for 180kms which normally is more than enough. However I was drinking a lot more water than I normally do so I was probably diluting the salt in my body. I immediately took 3 more grams I had as an emergency and I'm so glad I did, I had to struggle up the toughest part of Yellow Lake with cramping legs but fortunately I had Steve and Ross there running beside me yelling and they pushed me all the way up that hill. Without those guys I might have just stopped and waited for my legs to recover. I got to the top and my legs started to come around on the descent, by the time I was riding back into town they were tired but not cramping anymore. I finished the bike in a slower time than I wanted but still fairly good for the day; 5:21.24 beginning the marathon in under 6hrs and 30mins is a great way to set yourself up for a sub-10 hour race and I was under that mark.

I started the marathon at the hardest part of the day, around 1:30 and the heat was unbelievable!! It must have reached 33'-34'C that day but at least the humidity is not an issue in Penticton. I've done a race where the heat is bad and there is nothing you can do to cool yourself because of the humidity (Louisville) and it's aweful, you suffer through this death march on the marathon and what ever you try to do to get yourself going fails miserably. That day I was dumping ice in my hat, drinking coke and water, taking gels, making sure I was taking salt and my legs were holding together. I still had to stop and walk through the aid stations but I was running pretty well in-between them. I had a few guys pass me on the first half of the marathon but I stayed patient and I passed a lot of them on the second half. The final 10kms of the race were absolutely excrutating, I was hurting from every point in my body but I made sure I didn't give up before I was in the finish shute. I kept up with the coke and water and unlike 2009 I didn't bonk in the final mile, I actually picked up my pace on the final 800m and I passed one person. It wasn't a fantastic marathon time for me but on a day like that I'll take the 3:17.15 and final time of 9:44.32. I finished 5th in my age group and 29th overall, in 2009 I also placed 29th overall but with a better time so I know the day was tougher this year.

I needed two I.V. bags after the finish and I was completely spent, I had no idea where I was or what I was doing and it took me over half an hour to find our car afterwards. I qualified for Hawaii again and this year Amber didn't let me off the hook when I told her I didn't want to do another Ironman again in 6 weeks. I signed up and after some rest I'm sure I'll be excited to be going to Kona with Amber. It's such a beautiful place that it's great to have a reason to go back and being a part of the Ironman World Championships is going to be incredible! We spend all winter watching DVDs of Kona on our bikes in the basement and now I get an opportunity to be in the race, awesome I can't wait...

Mindset

I just finished Chris McCormak's new book, "I'm here to win" and I have to say whatever your opinion of Macca (good or bad) if you are a triathlete you need to read this book. I've never been a Macca fan, he comes across so arrogant and cocky that I just couldn't stand listening to him. Triathlon is a tough sport and Ironman is the toughest event in triathlon, you don't need to boast or brag and call people out, do your talking on the race course. However after reading his book I realized that Macca is really not like that, he's a confident guy that's for sure but he's a humble champion who loves his family and loves what he does for a living. His 'persona' when he's racing is totally different from who he actually is. At the professional level he understands that physically most pros are only separated by a 1-2% difference in physical ability so the mental game becomes much more important. By calling out an athlete or by making them race mad Macca is actually creating an environment where other athletes are thinking about him instead of thinking about what they need to do during the race, brilliant! He's one of the most successful athletes in the sport and his results speak volumes.

I'm not saying that I can use this strategy as an age group athlete but after being a triathlete for over ten years I thought I knew almost everything there was to know, not even close. There are some great insights and things to learn from this book, for example; most athletes will drink a lot of water for the week leading up to their goal race, smart right? Not if your training for an Ironman, if your doing an Olympic or Half Ironman race then you probably won't have a problem but during an Ironman, big problem! The thing is the body will hydrate itself in two ways, plasma hydration in the blood which comes from drinking a lot of water (and inevitably peeing a lot) and muscle hydration. Macca always cramped in the heat of Hawaii and he couldn't come up with a solution until he started learning more about the difference between the two. He found out about the difference not from sports physiologists or PHDs who were testing him relentlessly but from a French bodybuilder. He taught Macca about a well known process bodybuilders do before preparing for a competition, by drinking an element based water (water with zinc, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium) your body will store this in the muscles through osmosis for later use. That's great for a bodybuilder but how is it going to help me in an Ironman, I'm swimming, biking and running for hours. Well after a few hours of being dehydrated your blood plasma becomes thicker and the only place to draw from is the muscles, sure you can drink and try to re-hydrate and if you're a small athlete you may not have any issues, but for a big athlete training in the heat, cramping is inevitable. So prepare your muscles by drinking an element infused drink for the weeks leading up to the race. Once Macca started doing this, he never had an issue with cramping in Hawaii and he won two, placed fourth in one (because of a bad swim) and had a mechanical in the other.

There is also a lot of great info on an athlete's mindset and preparation before a race. I'm starting to realize how important getting yourself in the right frame of mind is. I always knew I felt very fit before before an Ironman but I just attributed that to all the training I was doing leading up to the race, and that does play an important factor. However I'm learning that training your mind to be in that place where you know you are about to complete one of the toughest events you will probably face in your life is even more important. I'm reminded of last year when I wasn't doing an Ironman and I went out for an open water swim with a buddy of mine who I usually don't have a problem swimming away from and how easily he pulled away from me. He had the 'mindset' of an Ironman athlete, he knew he was going to do an Ironman and his body responded in training. He said his arms were moving with little to no effort and I was doing everything I could just to stay close to him. I got out of the water after 45 minutes completely exhausted and he kept going for well over an hour. Mentally preparing yourself through training is so incredibly important and as much as we think we are preparing our bodies for the punishment to come, preparing your mind is even more important.

The training so far this month has been great, other than a terrible open water swim in Musreau on Monday (but I'm attributing that to the very cold water) I feel great. My running has been right on track, I've had a couple knee issues on the bike but after a bit of rest it seems to be getting better and in the pool I'm moving very, very well. Now I need to equate that to feeling great in the open water but I've still got a couple weeks to sharpen up that skill and it won't be a problem. Mentally I'm prepared for what's coming and I'm happy and relaxed about getting back into the Ironman ring again this year. Two more weeks and we'll see if all the hard work has paid off, I'm confident I'm going to have a terrific race.

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.

30 Hours of Biking in 7 Days

Well Amber and I didn't exactly live like bike pros but this was probably the hardest Tour BC both of us have ever been on. This is the 4th tour for both of us and every time we do it we both agree that it takes our biking to a whole new level. Unfortunately (or fortunately after this year) it is the last tour they are offering and we're going to have to look into other options in the future. Our week long bike vacation started off great, we spent Friday night in Jasper and woke up to sunny skies so I let Amber sleep a bit and hit the Pyramid Lake loop. It's about a 20km beautiful trail run up a mountain to the lake and back. I felt a little stiff and couldn't quite get going but I did just jump out of bed and put the runners on so I was probably still a little groggy. After the run and some breakfast we made our way to Kamloops and got there in enough time for the bike check and to get our 'dorm room' for the night. The start point was at Thompson Rivers University and we were assigned dorm rooms for the Saturday night before the tour, if you ever wanted to feel what it was like being a prisoner go to one of those dorms- 4 rooms connected with a common bathroom and prison white cinder block walls.


The first day everyone was excited to get going, the weather was beautiful, everyone was fresh and ready to go! A brief pep talk and we were on our way... Amber and I wanted to make this our bike focus training week of course and we planned on riding hard every day. I wanted to alternate 180k and 120k days every day for the entire week. That meant I should be able to get in 4-180k days and 3-120k days for a total of 1080kms for the week, that was the plan anyway. The first day everything went great and although some of the roads were a little rough and I was stung in the finger by something I managed to get in my 180k for the day and was completely spent by the time I got to the campsite. The rest of the afternoon and evening went well, we were eating like ravenous animals again, hung out with some friends from GP and that night everything changed. That's when the rains came, it start raining that night and was not letting up by morning.


One of the things I love about this tour is that you HAVE to bike every day, no matter what the weather, how sore or tired you feel you HAVE to get on your bike and get to the next destination. However there are some days you wish that you could just take a pass. Everything was muddy, cold, and miserable for most of the day until the afternoon when we got closer to Lumby and the skies started to clear. Finally the day turned around but the damage was done, my bike was running like an old mule and there was dirt and mud in everything. I managed to get in my 120k and even pulled out a 10k T-run, but the rest of the night I was very, very tired and sleeping on an air mattress was not proving to be the best recovery solution.


The third day was probably one of the hardest days of the tour, up the Monashee mountain range. The day started off alright even though it was extremely cold for July there was enough climbing that I warmed up fairly quick. After the water stop I hit the climb and I couldn't believe how steep a lot of the sections were, some near the top reaching 15%! That's when my knee started bugging me and I wish I had a couple extra gears to get me up those mountains, I was literally using the entire road going back and forth to do anything I could to get up to the top by the time I did get there I was done, my legs were cooked. My plan to get in 180k today was scrapped and I just wanted to limp in to the finish. Amber had her shifter break off the aerobar and she had to call it a day at the top. I'm glad she did because the next 20kms of descending were some of the most dangerous I've every been through. The rain started hammering everyone and I couldn't see a thing through foggy and wet sunglasses. I took it easy all the way down to the ferry and when I reached the bottom I heard that someone had crashed, it was bad and he had to go to hospital but after a few stitches he came back and rejoined the tour with a lot of road rash on his face, wow. That day and night were tough, I set up the tent in the rain (there were no hotels) and everything was wet, the suitcases, the tent, the chairs, the food, your clothes, everything. After that day most people decided to hotel it the rest of the way, including us. I still managed to get in 120kms for the day and considering what we went through I'd call it a successful day.


The next day was a short 60km jaunt to Nakusp and Amber and I were looking forward to some nicer weather and a hotel at the end of today. It was still cloudy and cold until we arrived in Nakusp but any thoughts of adding kms, swimming or running were out the window. We both just wanted a shower and a latte. The town was nice and we finally saw some sun that afternoon but we spent most of the day doing laundry and fueling up for the next day. Nakusp to Revelstoke is a beautiful ride with 4 good climbs and descents but the rain started again and at the half way mark we were all soaked to the bone. On top of that the luggage took hours to arrive after we got to the hotel so I was sitting in wet bike shorts and I knew that was not a good idea if I wanted to avoid saddle sores. Another tough 120km day in the books.


Finally by Friday the weather was supposed to clear up a little and the sun was going to come out but it started off cold again. At the first water stop the sun did show and I was shedding layers, I was determined to get in at least one more 180km day so I started doing 5km out and backs at every break. The day was scheduled for a 135kms so I'd have to add another 45kms but by the time we got to Armstrong we were cruising around town so much that I ended the day with my 180. We stayed in a nice B&B that Amber had found and spent the evening and early morning watching the final stages of the tour, that was fun.

The final day back to Kamloops was the best weather of the week but I could feel the 6 days of hard riding starting to take it's toll. For some reason my groin decided to act up and it made turning the pedals very tough, also my right knee was really hurting from pushing hard for 6 days straight. A nice easy cruise into Kamloops would be a great idea but unfortunately a strong headwind was making life difficult for everyone. After the water break a group of strong riders caught up to me and we all started working together in team time trial format to get through the next 30k, it was a lot of fun and exactly what I needed to push me a little harder than I wanted to go. After lunch I took off a little early and pushed as hard as I could for the final 60kms. I got back to Kamloops tired, sore, beaten, but satisfied with what I'd done for the week. I may never know what it's truly like to ride a bike for a living but after this week I'm not sure that I care. It was a challenging physically and mentally and I'm glad this part of the training is done. I have a couple more long rides planned before IMC but now I need to focus on my open water swimming and distance running. This weekend is a tough 180kms from Grande Cache to Grande Prairie something we've been planning and talking about all year and now it's go time!!

The Tour

No not the Tour de France, although I have been watching a lot of the coverage especially now that they are in the mountains, but I'm talking about something even bigger- Tour BC. Okay it may not be as big as the Tour de France but to Amber and I it's more exciting. It's a week of riding through the mountains in BC where you think of nothing but riding, a little swimming, a little running and relaxing. This year's tour starts in Kamloops which is awesome for us because it's only 900kms away, normally it's at least a 12-14hr drive to the start but this year it's only 8-9hrs. The longest day is the first day at 132kms from Kamloops to Salmon Arm and the shortest day is day four from Fauquier to Nakusp 58kms. I'm going to try to alternate between 180km rides and 120km rides every day so that should give me over 1000kms for the week. I'm not sure if there will be much energy left over for swimming or running but I'll try and get in a couple runs afterwards, short but IM pace and a couple open water swims.

This is the week I really start to feel like I'm prepared for IMC and I hope everything goes according to plan. Amber and I missed it last year and I didn't feel like I had the summer holiday I always look forward to. Not most people's idea of a great vacation but a lot of riding, camping and enjoying the sun, that's my idea of a great holiday.

Success!!

What a fantastic weekend in Stony Plain with some great friends, great results and time away with Amber. I think a lot of people who don't do triathlon really have a hard time understanding why Amber and I do this sport and honestly while I'm out there racing hard and really suffering badly I wonder that myself. However, I know the pain is always temporary and no one can take away the feeling of accomplishment you have after leaving every ounce of yourself out on the race course. I know Amber feels the same way, when your in the moment and going through all the physical turmoil you ask yourself if it's really worth it but it takes real mental toughness to not listen to those voices and to just keep pushing. A person that can do that is someone who is going to be successful, no matter what the day brings.

This week I tried to limit my workouts to very short and slow swims-bikes-and runs and I managed to keep my desire to push hard in training in check. Amber says that my success this year is all do to training a lot smarter, listening to my body when it needs a day off and focusing diligently on recovery, I have to agree. I don't worry anymore about not getting in my three swims, three bikes and three runs every week I know that if I have a week where I'm swimming a lot then I just won't have the energy to run and vise versa. So the plan this summer is to train smarter not harder and focus on a great peak of IMC in 8 weeks.

The build up to the race was a little nerve wracking because I put my race goal times out there and honestly if the day had been different anything could have happened. But it was an absolutely fantastic day for racing warm enough in the water not to freeze your face, hands and feet but cool enough not to over heat on the bike and run- and NO WIND! Wow I haven't had more that a few days on the bike in GP where the wind wasn't howling and there was no wind on the way out and a slight tailwind on the way back. People were saying that the wind picked up later in the bike but it was still a tailwind so it was an extremely fast bike for most racers. I started out in the water feeling a little beat up, it was my first open water swim in a long time and I forgot how brutal it can get in there. All I needed was a good elbow in the goggle and I was back into race mode. The first lap was tough, the turns at the buoys were brutal with people crawling all over you but it's all a part of the race experience I guess. The second lap things started to stretch out a bit and I was able to catch a few feet to draft for a while but it never lasts too long with people pushing you from every direction and swimming off course. Still I had a great swim for me, 30:58, a minute slower than I was hoping but I gave it everything I had and couldn't have swam faster. Also it's a 2k swim as opposed to the standard 1.9k most 1/2 IM's have.

I had a bit of difficulty in transition with my helmet strap (a Chris McCormack moment) but I kept it together and started riding fairly smooth right from the start. After the initial climb out of the lake I noticed I was passing A LOT of people in the first 10- 20kms I was pushing pretty hard but I wasn't expecting to be passing that many people. I finally caught up to a group of 4 other guys that were all riding about the same pace as I was. I would pass them and then they would pass me, mainly on the climbs- something I obviously need to work on before IMC. I was going a lot faster than I was expecting but bike training has been going so well that I just decided to go with it and if I blew up later I would figure it out then. I was surprised when I hit 80k because that's traditionally where I would fall apart on the bike but I was able to hold on right to the finish this year and completed the bike in 2:18.56 (including transitions) a minute faster than I was predicting and setting me up for a PR if I could have a good run. I was 12th place at the turn around and passed another 4 guys on the way back so was sitting in about 8th going into the run.

Bike Profile

I kept telling myself during the swim and bike that I just need to do my best and let the swimmers have their day and then let the bikers have their day and save something for the run, my speciality. By the time I got to the run I immediately thought I had screwed up everything, I went too hard on the bike and I didn't have any pep in my legs. It was a struggle to just keep my legs turning over especially in the first couple kms but everyone else was having an even tougher day because I passed two or three guys right off the start. I was trying to hold my regular run race pace but I felt like someone had been pounding on my quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves for 3 hours and now I had to try and run a half marathon. I my head I was so disappointed in myself for not being able to run as fast as I knew I could run but everyone who was cheering me on kept telling me how great I looked, I sure didn't feel great. I was just thinking of survival and had to walk a few seconds at some of the aid stations but I could see guys bearing down on me at the turn arounds and I just kept telling myself that you need to keep moving, just keep running even if it's slow.

The fourth place guy was so far in front of me at the start of the run I had absolutely no desire or will to try and catch him, I was just trying to stay within myself and keep the legs moving. Eventually I did catch him though and I must have been running just a couple seconds per kilometer faster because he didn't stay with me. Honestly if it had come down to a sprint finish I don't know if I had anything more to give but I did what I could to keep the negative voices away and to just keep moving. I had a much better run than I thought- 1:21.29 and it was the 2nd fastest on the day! That broke my longest standing PR (in 2008 I did a 4:16 on this course) and I was ecstatic to find out I placed 4th! I knew it was going to be a great battle between Kyle Marcotte, Paul Tichelaar, and Jeff Symonds but I didn't expect to be behind those three elite guys. 4th place and a 4:11.23 and $600 bucks to boot! That paid for our weekend in Stony and more importantly elevated my confidence going into Ironman training. I can't wait for Ironman this year I'm finally excited to be back in the game and racing well again.

6 Months Done

It's hard to believe we're half way through 2011, I just got used to writing 2011 instead of 2010 and now we're into the second half of the year. I'm not big on setting New Year's resolutions but I like to set New Year's goals and when I look back at the list I created for myself at the beginning of the year I have to say I've done a pretty good job so far. The biggest thing I wanted to change was to be healthier this year, 2010 was very difficult and I was getting the flu pretty much every month because of overtraining. This year has been great, I've managed to stay healthy and back off when I feel like something is coming on. I've trained more consistently and I can feel myself becoming a lot fitter because of it. There is something to be said about listening very carefully to what your body is telling you and responding to it appropriately.

The second half of the year is always a fantastic time, I'm kicking the summer of 2011 off with a return to Stony Plain and the Great White North 1/2 IM. It's where I set a PR in the 1/2 Ironman distance back in 2008 and it's my longest standing PR for any distance; 4:16.49. That year I went on to break 10 hours in IMC and I feel like I've been racing better and faster ever since. Based on how my training is going leading up to the race this year I'm confident I can break it if everything goes according to plan. I've been swimming more this year than any other and I feel really confident and strong in the water. I don't want to push too hard during the swim but if I can stay on-line and find someone's feet that I'm confortable drafting off of then I should be close to 30 minutes this year.

I'm really looking forward to the bike this year, I haven't really had a chance to test out the Trek on this course and I know I'm faster this year than previous years. In 2008 I did a 2:24.05, in 2009 I did a 2:27.35 and I know I can get that under 2:20 on this course. That should carry me into the run close to 2:50- 2:55 and I know I can run a sub- 1:20 half marathon on this course. So if all goes well I hope to set a new PR on Sunday and hopefully place in the top 5, it'll be a great battle between Kyle Marcotte, Geoff Symonds, and Paul Tichelaar this year and I'll have a front row seat.

That's the plan anyway, anything can happen on the day and I'm prepared to make adjustments as necessary but I want to go out and race as hard as I can and celebrate the fact that I'm healthly and active and doing what I love with Amber and some great friends. Hopefully see you out there on Sunday, happy Canada Day weekend!