Bracebridge Half Iron

Surprised myself. Not only did i meet my personal goal for this race ; i set a PB for a half iron distance triathlon. Considering this is Muskoka country and thus hills and rough roads are a factor, I was is disbelief when i turned the corner to see the finish clock read 5 hrs 16 minutes. My previous best was at Benton Harbor, Mi. in 2007.
bracebridge is a great challenging course with a small field. The swim is in the river which allows you to swim both with and against the current. The bike course has a bit of everything is the best way to describe. The run is challenging with a few key steep hills. On this particular day it rain hard. coming into T2, I knew my gear would be absolutely drenched from the open skies.
I finished 4/16 in my age category.

Lap 2 during TT Aug 4th on my Basso Road bike

Bala Tri 2010

39th overall. 7 out of 42 in my age category. Most likely my best overall race this season. I put in my best swim, bike and run. T2 needs some modifying, but overall great race, great event and a must do for any triathlete. Bala is a tough little course. The run specifically is all hills from rolling to some short steep pitches. Although my bike & run were a tad slower than last year, I honestly felt faster. Extremely please with my swim, technique, pull, siting finally came together. Personally, I know i'm still very much capable of swimming a 1:55 pace. Patience is a virtue.

Gravenhurst ; Egads!

No use in crying over spilt milk. I'm truly happy for my fellow Baydogs who all had great races. Me? I was 14 minutes slower than last year. My goal was 2 hrs 23 minutes which I believe to be aggressive but achievable. I finished with 2 hrs 44 minutes.
I'm still scratching my head wondering how I sited the wrong rooftop or why I assumed i was going straight following a group of 20 or so swimmers. As we rounded the bend and were heading to the shoreline, I was siting frequently to maintain a nice tight line. At one point one of the volunteers in a kayak shouted at me," you off course, get back with the group". I looked up and saw to my immediate left a group swimming maybe 20 meters away. I thanked him for letting me know. Not a huge deal, I'll just adjust and get back on the direct line. Then, after what seem like about 4 to 5 minutes and still siting the rooftop and quite apparent a group of swimmers directly in front of me, an aluminum boat with outboard motor came up to our right and began shouting at the top of his lungs, "GUYS! you are way off course". He is frantically waving his arms motioning us to get back in the right friggin lake. Looking back it's kind of funny. How it happened still is a mystery. I look up and quickly can see the island is at the 11 o'clock position when the island should be more like at the 2 o'clock position from my vantage point in the water. There was a group of us essentially about to go down the wrong side of the island. Right away, I knew my day was over and kiss good bye my goal time as i was easily 250 meters off course and probably more. When you're not exactly the strongest swimmer to begin with these mistakes can destroy you. Frustrated, mad, upset with myself, i took an extra minute at T1. The first 5km of the bike was a sunday drive. My mind was still locked in "man, did you mess up or what mode". Then at 6km, on the bike, i spoke to myself, told myself to suck it up, 'push on ; finish strong". suddenly I got my legs going and was turning out 38kph. I'm sure on the first out & back, John Dow and Kevin White and the rest of the Baydogs saw me so far behind were wondering WTF [what the fudge]?? End result from that point on I had a descent race. Thanks to Marcus on the run, as we ran together for the majority of the race pushing one another.

PB last nite @ TT

following a PW a week ago i was able to redeem myself with a 32.46 min 19.5km TT. the old guy still has it.

Guelph Olympic this weekend

Gearing up for the Olympic distance Tri this coming Sunday. See you in Guelph .

Lesson # 36 Milton Tri (Swim)

Should you pretend that you are Michael Phelps? Should you ever treat the swim portion like it's a 25 m dash ? For the first 75 m I looked dam impressive. I must say. Record swim time coming up for Mr. N. It was from the 76th meter point to the finish where my right engine went. Ok, lesson learned. Swim within yourself. Treat the swim like a warm up.
Milton was a great race after all the rain it actually stopped and other than a little cool and dampness it was tolerable. Still having issues with my bike saddle moving during the race. I thought i had this fixed. Obviously I did not. Run was good. I think i scared the crap out of the others by yelling and chanting up the first major hill. God I love this sport.
fyi ~ the guy in the yellow swim cap is me, leading my age group..........for about 25 m.