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Showing posts from July 28, 2019

IMCA Race Recap: 112 mile bike

The first few miles of the Ironman Canada bike were a little technical as there were speed bumps, bumpy roads and a few twists and turns. I didn't want to do anything silly in these early miles so I treated it as a warm-up, especially since my body was still adjusting to the bike position after the swim and I was finding myself a bit cold from being so wet from the swim. Once I got on the main road (Sea to Sky hwy) I started to ride into my Ironman event. The layout of this course was rather simple as there were four main segments. To Callaghan Climb, Callaghan Climb, to the far turn around, riding back to town and then you repeat. This allowed me to break the course up into small segments so that I could focus on executing each segment to the best of my ability. Although I didn't have any metrics to abide to, I lapped my computer at each segment so that I could check in with my metrics just to see how my numbers (specifically lap normalized power) was correlating to my ...

IMCA Race Recap: Pre race + 2.4 mile Swim

Photo: David McColm Saturday was a smooth day. I woke up around 5am after a solid 8 hours of sleep. Since arriving to Whistler, I've been going to bed around 7:30pm PST (asleep by 8-8:30pm PST) and waking up without an alarm around 4:45-5am. After my normal 2 waffles + syrup + peanut butter pre-workout snack, I headed out on my bike around 7:30am for an easy spin on the race course. I used the first 45 minutes to include a few efforts to wake-up the legs and then finished off the ride with a recon of some of the run course (easy spinning). Karel went out shortly after me and did his own thing but we unexpectedly saw each other on the run course (biking). I attempted a jog off the bike but I was still feeling some tugging in my adductor/groin so I didn't try to run through it. It left me a little sad with less than 24 hours before race day but I also reminded myself that I can't waste energy on something out of my control. After our morning workout, we each had a ...

Ironman Canada - Quick Recap

Ironman Canada has been on our racing bucket-list for the past few years. We were immediately drawn to the challenging bike course. We find that the more difficult the race course, the more satisfaction we feel when crossing the finish line. It's also a lot easier to reflect on the race as a whole when there's more to think about than just a finishing time. Although Karel and I "race" the Ironman distance, the real race is always with ourselves - overcoming physical and mental obstacles, pushing through fatigue and self-doubts, exploring our limits and finding reasons and meaning to get to the finish line. With this being my 15th Ironman, I have a lot of experience knowing what it takes to get to the finish line and a big part of that battle is arriving with a strong and healthy body and a positive attitude. Whistler exceeded our expectations. The community was exceptional nice, the Ironman volunteers were wonderful, the Ironman staff put on a great race and th...