First of June

not the official beginning of summer, but here in Toronto June 1st sure feels like it.

what a day today...the kind that makes you glad to be alive. it was sunny, hot, windy, and just downright summer-like.

it also felt like the true beginning of my ironman ramp up. my first really long triple session outside. i hadn't realized how much i both loathe and miss those. they are lonely. they are long, dusty, windy, tiring, and mentally challenging, but punctuated, almost always, by epiphanies of sensation that make them as addictive as crack.

started in lake wilcox; the legendary, singular macca and nexus of toronto area triathletes. i started late so it was quite windy and choppy today. it is one of the most serene and beautiful places to swim...

when your bike loop takes you between two lakes, past panoramic vistas, gorgeous houses, sunbathers, horse farms, golf courses, and small hamlets with elderly chinese ladies selling water in ancient, singular variety stores, then you know you have a nice loop.

i rode to jackson point.

need i say more?

well, there was also this:

and this:

a very very nice bike ride. the scenery more than made up for my sore ass and sunburnt shoulders.

the run was hot, windy, on dirt roads and looked like this:

the best part of my day, was when i got home and went to the park with my daughter and blew dandelions on the grass and watched her laugh with delight on a swing.

 what else good could happen? BBQ? sitting outside on the deck sipping wine? massage? chocolate with chili? a good bowel movement?
no comment.

 just a good day on the road to penticton.

WHY I HATE VIRUSES

things were going well during last week's rest week, until sunday morning. overnight, my throat was sore, i felt sneezy. nothing too bad. frustrating. how can this happen? i felt fine. it was a frickin rest week for G-d's sake.

i tried to see if i could run through it. i had a great run, but the weekend was too busy, i was under-rested, and that little bugger of a virus took hold and started to proliferate in my nose and my head.

what this meant, was some quick decisions. i am (i think) getting smarter. i skipped monday entirely. stayed at home tuesday and slept as much as i could.

it is hard not to play a numbers game at this stage. "i missed four hours, this week will be short a couple of hours" etc. it is hard not the chase numbers. ironman is not very far away and numbers do matter. the most important ones are 140.6, and 2011/8/28. neither of these is negotiable. and to some exetent, neither are the numbers that come before in training. unless i want to be caught with my spandex down, that is.  but feel is important also. seeing the overall picture is important. and so is tolerating the frustration of inactivity and over-eating (ok that part was optional) sometimes, in the cause of a greater good.

i imagine that being successful in ironman requires lots of seeing the big picture and tolerating frustration. as in training, so in race day. and there is a certain amount of gambling. more rest? try a workout? what will result in greater fitness in the bank?, less time off? it is like deciding whether to take the collector or express lanes when you see a traffic jam ahead. it is a gamble.

so maybe this little virus wasn't too bad if it taught me some  good lessons?

but viruses piss me off because they emphasize the uncertainty that is life. one day fine. the next, sick.
so i was told, it might have been one little prick of a virus that probably caused my hodgkin's disease by altering my dna.

viruses are the most abundant biological entity on earth, yet they are not quite alive. apparently they play a role in evolution by faciliatating horizontal gene transfer, which increases genetic diversity. so what is bad for the individual may be good for the population. this is an interesting thing to ponder...but i still hate viruses.


.

IRONMAN RAPTURE

according to some, the world will end on May 21st.
or at least it will be the beginning of the end. THE RAPTURE.

i have seen much about this on the net and most people don't seem to realize that the rapture and the end of the world are not the same thing. the rapture is actually a gathering of good souls into the sky to escape the imminent suffering which is coming below. the tribulation before the end.

it is also a great song by blondie...

on May 21st there are also two ironman races: texas and lanzarote. there is also a 70.3 race in austria. this would signify that there are a number of people who don't seem to think it will be the end of the world that day. just another day of torture in ironman purgatory; and throw in some  tribulation too. anyone who has even been in a mass swim start knows what these terms mean first hand.

lanzarote is famed to be be one of the toughest ironman's on the planet. it is the ultimate form of ironman suffering  yet people go back, year after year. not one of these people want to escape the suffering. they crave it. no rapture seekers there. in fact, i think alot of ironman contenders would be a bit put off if all of their training came to nothing and they were suddenly lifted into the sky (or to the finish line, or the finish line in the sky, as it were).

according to one source, only 0.03% of the christian population believe that the rapture is tomorrow. that would be 6 930 000 people. alot more people than those doing ironman races tomorrow, which would be somewhere around 5000.it seems alot more people are hoping for a release from suffering and tribulation tomorrow than immersion in it. alot more people believe they will ascend into the sky and escape all evil, than those who will voluntarily suffer in the depths of their bodies and souls in the furnace(s) of texas and lanzarote tomorrow.

and what if the rapture is just symbolic? what if it is a metaphor for being saved from suffering because you believed?, what if it is just about being free from the tribulations of evil, in your head? what if the same thing can be achieved by going head first into the eye of the storm? what if bhudda was right and all life is suffering? only suffering can lead you to freedom from suffering. if this is true,  then ironman can be a rapture in itself.


there is one consolation in all of this for me. according to most, the actual end of the world may not come for as long as 7 years after the rapture, so ironman canada this year is still safe. all of my suffering can still lead to the ultimate suffering/joy on august 28th in the okanagan. whew!

i am glad i bought gels for my long ride on monday...

HALF WAY THERE

in terms of time, i am now just over half way along this road to penticton.
18 weeks behind me, 16 to go.
if i was on a literal road, it would be the I-94 and i would be passing by Bismark North Dakota.

as it turns out, i was once about three hours due south during another road trip, at Al's Oasis, in south Dakota and it looked like this.

  this is the gateway to the west. frontier-land. home of dances with wolves and grazing bison. it is a flat, barren countryside that is both austere and beautiful. by this time in a road trip, you are immersed in the road. you are humbled by what you are doing (driving across north america), and you feel simultaneously trapped and liberated by the process (at least i did).  this is the part of a road trip where things get philosophical. it is where you see demons, angels, and buddhas on the roadside and realize that they are all really with-in you.

in other words, at this point on the real road to penticton, it would be a good time and place for reflection. the same is true for this virtual road i have been documenting. even if i am still here in toronto, i am in bismark in my head in ironman terms. i have come pretty far, but there is still lots of road ahead. and that is both daunting and exciting. i have entered into the frontier and the wild west lays ahead, full of beautiful vistas, red rock canyons, rattlesnakes and sandstorms.

 training is stepping up. in the past 36 hours, i have trained as much as i slept . i am learning that there are doorways to worlds of energy beyond fatigue and there are holes that offer nothing but weight on your head. find the doors, avoid the holes.

life seems more balanced. training fits somehow, silently asserting itself. but not that important. my daughter is walking. she is pointing. her laughs, her steps, her smiles, make everything else seem very very very small.

fund-raising is a dog from hell.  it is very hard to get people to part with money. you have to forget about not being a pain in the ass. you have to swallow pride. there is a kind of zen to it, you really can't care what people think. and i can't claim any great success so far. and thanks to everyone who has donated to the LLS.

ironman is about keeping moving. it is about momentum. pacing. balance. it is feeding yourself, just enough and with the right stuff. it is about your ego and how not to let it get in the way. it is about doing things you really did not think were possible,  but not by being grandiose. you have to be realistic. if you dream too hard, you will lose. if you dream just enough, and you have one foot solidly in the reality of who and what you are at the most basic of levels, and you know what you can ask of yourself and what you cannot, then you might succeed.

and here i am, halfway along the road...and it still seems daunting, not quite possible and i wonder to myself how i am going to do this??? i don't know...but i am far enough along the road that going back is not possible, yet going further is still quite frightening. and there are quite a few demons, angels and buddhas on the horizon

Eva's Story

watching this short video about this brave little girl i was moved to tears. i have a daughter. it activated some of my worst fears in life, and also some of my most noble ideals about what it means to be human. it centered me. it reminded me of what i have been through and what it means to battle through cancer. in some ways, it made me regret moments on this blog when i have been less than perfect, when i have used profanity, been negative. but then again, i don't regret those moments, they are honest depictions of who i am and what i am going through along this road. 

my road to penticton is, for sure, narrow, steep, challenging, and full of myself. eva's story lifts my spirits with the hope that my road can mean something more. 

please donate generously to the leukemia and lymphoma society of canada

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1047857&langPref=en-CA

the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services

May the Forza be With You: Desoto's Miracle Fabric

 for a conservative guy, i have worn more than my fair share of tight fitting, tiny, colorful, spandex in public places.  this is the part of being a triathlete that, in my experience, makes non-triathletes snicker most. grown men, husbands, daddies even,  prancing about in tight spandex and even tighter rubber products, greasing themselves up with lube...is this triathlon or life on the down low?

and, i think, if we were honest, most triathletes would admit that they have had their moments of  self-doubt and embarassment, upon donning their race kit. these are those moments where we realize that we are not craig alexander, we are not chris mccormack, not only do we not run and bike like them, but we don't look like them in spandex either. and we have all had moments when our packages felt just a bit too much out there. or else we felt just too squeeezed. or our kit was just not designed for the mesomorphs among us. not enough fabric holding things in. too thin. too tight. too flimsy. too see-thru where you don't want it to be. 

well, along came desoto, this cool looking triathlon company with extremely attractive models of both sexes on their website, posing on glorious, cliff lined beaches. the models look like triathletes, but somewhat less cachectic than our kona heroes. they have bicep bulges, nice delts, defintion, butts, pecs. wow, these look like clothes made for people with some muscle on them. i thought i would give them a try and i have never looked back.

 wow, these people look great. gimme forza!, that miracle fabric invented by emilio desoto, savior of my pride, my quads and my gonads!

what is this miracle fabric, manufactured by desoto, a small but visionary triathlon garment company based out of san diego? the simple answer, is that, like secret sauce or like kfc batter, we will never know. it is secret. proprietary.  desoto does claim however, to be the first to make compression wear. and apparently the fabric has been studied in university athletic departments and shown to actually increase athletic performance. they also allude to their own proprietary articulating stitch secrets,which bind the forza together in ways which maximize comfort and performance. having worn a number of forza products over the past four years, i can say, first hand, that all of this is true.

the forza line of triathlon garments are my first choice for training and racing. they are comfortable, supportive, attractive, and i don't feel the least bit ridiculous in them. i have worn the tri-suit, the riviera shorts and top, the low-rise forza shorts, the four hundered mile bike shorts, the skin cooler top and loved all of them. they each have their own characteristics and qualities that makes me reach for one or the other on a given day. i may, in fact,  review each of them on this blog on their own. but i thought i would start with a general commentary on what makes the forza line so different, and focus today's blog on the riviera race kit i wore last weekend in New Olreans.



my race kit for  IM 70.3 NOLA

 let's start with bottoms, because this is where i have felt the benefits of forza most. i have worn most other major labels of tri shorts available to me in Canada. i have several major criticisms that are relevant to all of them. 1. they don't support my family jewels at all. 2. they provide very little if any compression. i might as well wear a short cut speedo. 3. they fit way too high in the waist and i either have to wear them like charlie chaplin, pulled all high up my waist, or else fold them over. 4. the inseam is never quite the right length, most often, too short for my tastes. not as long as my bike shorts.

forza compressor fabric does what is advertised. it has a firm, supportive feel on your legs and it really does feel like my compression tights, but i would say, less flimsy and even more supportive. they feel great for running and for biking and the support is really helpful as the miles pile up. in fact,  i have taken to wearing forza shorts as my undergarment for all of my running, whether off the bike or not. there is a distinctive pinstripe running through the fabric, which i rather like. it almost makes the garments look dressy.  the stitching is unobtrusive and provides attractive accents. the cut and the panels allow a great range of motion. the fabric is doubled in strategic places, and it is thick enough not to become sloppy or see-thru when wet.

drying time is fast also. the inseams are just right. not too short. just like my bike shorts.

for me, one area of struggle with tri-shorts, and bike shorts, is the crotch. too much padding can be as uncomfortable as too little. if everything gets pushed up too far, that is just as bad as if things are hanging too low. every pair of desotos i own shines in this department. i don't get chaffing from the pad rubbing me. my privates are tucked away nicely, but comfortably. i have learned from these shorts that support is in many ways more important than padding.

last weekend i raced IM New Orleans 70.3 wearing the riviera shorts and top. i have worn the low waist forza shorts for all my other 70.3 races. i must say, that the heavier pad in the riviera shorts was not invasive, as i had worried about, and it did make a difference for my rear. anyone who has ever ridden in the 400 mile bike short will know the type of comfort that provides. this is basically the same pad, a bit thinner, and comfortable to run in.  i have ordered pair number two, and will likely be wearing these when i do full ironman. they are slightly shorter than the regular forza's, and the waist, while higher, is still a manageable height for me compared to other brands. i wear medium in the regular forza's but ordered large in these. they are a tighter, smaller design overall.

the top is something quite unique in triathlon clothing. it has a firm, even tight fitting, waist, which uses forza fabric to provide lumbar and waist support. i must admit that at first, it seemed weird pulling my shirt on like a full suit, but i quickly got used to that. the top was great to race in. three large pockets, so more like a traditional bike jersey than most tri tops in back! it was fitted, cool, and i didn't notice it at all, which is probably the best sign.  the overall effect of this kit is like wearing a tri-suit, but with less pull in the middle. you get the firm feel of a full suit, but have the added flex of having two pieces of clothing on instead of one. i really liked it. people who like to pull their top up to expose their six pack may prefer another jersey.

finally, i have to add that first on my wife's list of deserted island garments are her 3 pairs of forza capri pants. she says they are the most comfortable things she has ever worn. she looks great in them. they are both sexy and functional for those days when you don't want to show too much skin.

the focus of this review has been on the forza products as a whole. they are all fantastic and it is really the compressor fabric that makes them so amazing to work out in. i may follow up with individual reviews of products over the next few months, discussing in a bit more detail the features that appeal to me in different conditions.

Ironman New Orleans Race Report

Mardi Gras, Not the Race Finish, but Close

Just got back from what turned out to be the Ironman 69.1 New Orleans (the 1.2 mile swim was canceled due to high winds), my first race of the year and a good chance to judge my fitness so far.

I was looking forward to being in New Orleans again, having spent a year there in my late teens on an athletic scholarship at Tulane. That was just long enough ago to be more than  a bit sobering and for me not to disclose how long ago that was...but some things never change, and the Big Easy is just the same way I left it many years ago; drive thru daquiri's, take out drinks, gorgeous latin archetecture, jazz everywhere, parties, drunks on the sidewalk, strip bars, palm trees, lazy moorish courtyards,  18th century antiques, fantastic food (although a bit hard to find healthy choices pre-race and definitely the home of fried, fatty, spicy food and simple carbs; case in point, the waiter at Luke's assuring me there is no butter or cream in the grits and bingo, the grits arrive and they are cream of heart disease on a plate, but really, really good)...New Orleans is a fantastic combination of what is best and most profane about life, and a place that everyone who can should visit. It is probably not the best race destination for those prone to austerity or over-seriousness about anything.

beignetes: not your usual pre-race meal

We stayed downtown in what was a converted masonic hall, a beautiful old and quaint building.they played old style jazz in the elevators, which particularly tickled my daughter's fancy. we never felt unsafe. people were friendly and helpful. Favorites for this trip were: Luke's restaurant, the Food court at Riverwalk, the Royal Street cafe (which had a couch for my one year old daughter to laze about on while we had lunch and eclectic music played on the original juke box on the wall), Jackson Square, Rousse's Grocery, red wine in bed , the coffee at Antoine's and that fantastic combination of rich humidity, wind, fine spicy food, and just the right amount of garbage, cigarette smoke and stale alcohol in the air. Not your usual setting for a triathlon.

Stone Masonry in the Lobby of the Hilton St. Charles

The trip started with some stress making our flight and then my bike did not make it there with us. We spent 90 minutes in the airport entertaining my daughter (not actually that hard) waiting for the baggage person just to show up. In the end, the bike did come, 36 hours, and a few millimeters of diastolic pressure increase later ( air canada should apologize to my arteries). All of this made race prep alot more lax than usual. Two runs by feel alone (i kept forgetting to wear my watch, blame it on NOLA!), and a short bike ride. I suppose you count several miles of walking in the French Quarter carrying my daughter on my shoulders  as race warm up also... but that was to much fun. I really did not feel like I was at a race, and that was good in most ways.

the most inconvenient part of the race was the fact that transition was a 20 minute drive from downtown which made dropping and picking up the bike a pain, and also complicated getting to the race site in the morning. this would not stop me from going back though. 

Race day: everyone was talking about the water and how it would make us all vomit. well, race morning was windy windy windy and cold.  i caught a ride up to the race with a really nice couple from indianapoulos (thanks randy) and we were a little let down to be greeted by various athletes telling us the swim had been canceled.

what ensued was a long wait, several pees, a few short jogs, and a headache waiting for the time trial start of the now half ironman duathlon. lots of good tunes though. sabbath. free. zeppelin. squeeze. saw lots of pros also; dibens, bozzone, bockel, mckenzie, rhoads...kept things interesting.

Bike: a little cold at first. quickly warmed up. it was windy as hell. the course was quite beautiful to start, riding beside lake ponchartrain, which is more like an ocean in appearance. the scenery quickly gets quite ugly, industrial, even slummy, before heading onto a highway (yes, a dream of mine come true, biking on an actual freeway, past a derelict amusement park, cool).
the first half was full of brutal headwinds. the second half was like flying.  the course is mostly flat with several small bridges in the first part and at the end. not the most beautiful bike course. the roads are quite bumpy and not the best quality for most of the course. it was not swept and there were plenty of opportunities to flat, although i did not see too many people pulled over.  not the most rewarding for personal best times, given the wind this year. i put out my best watts ever at this distance but was still two minutes slower than my best bike time.

me on the pretty part of the bike

Run: what the bike lacks in terms of scenery, the run makes up for. it starts beside the lake and then meanders past million dollar homes, and beside a waterway before going into a long sojourn through audobon park.  i was running like hermes for the first 7k, my shoes were wings and then reality set in and i started to suffer a bit. no negative split here. i held on pretty strong with a couple brutal splits in the last 3rd, but still was able to PR for the distance in a half ironman...not bad.


there were plenty of aid stations along the way and they were all well stocked with sponges, water, gatorade, food, ice etc. there were also lots of people cheering most of the way.
the best part of the run was coming into the old city and turning a corner and there is the french quarter there in front of you. suddenly you are running past centuries old buildings on cobbly roads and there are hundred of people cheering you on, police on every corner, horses, jazz music, a melange of color, sound and excitement. definitely the most exciting finishing chute i have ever run.

high energy finishing chute

overall: a great experience. new orleans is loads of fun. it does take some discipline to remind yourself you are there to race and not to party! at least for me it did. the race was well organized. it was a bit inconvenient getting to the race site but other than that, everything went real smooth. expect high winds and so even though the course is mostly flat you may not get your best bike time. i would recommend this race to anyone. would i go back? yes...but there are so many other places to race!

 not a fanstastic day for me, but a solid first out fitness test. the least serious i have ever felt at a race, but the most fun i have had, and also a fair scoup of suffering on the run to remind me it was half ironman race. my best combined bike/run time, top 15% overall out of 2200 people and top 15% in my age group (which had over 300 men), so not too bad for a start to the year.

"LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULEZ"