Archive for June, 2007
June 21, 2007 at 11:16 · Filed under sport
This race report brought to you by, me.
I woke up this past Sunday morning to perfect race conditions — 20 degrees C, and not a cloud in the sky.
Slept… nnnnn..ok considering the lack of AC in the building, and the six of us who were crammed in the same room at the youth hostel. By 6:20, I had eaten and by 7:15 was out the door, picking up my race number and getting settled in the tiny slots they give us age-groupers to hold our bikes etc.
I warmed up fine and jetted over towards the swim start. On my way, I stopped at the toilets for a final pre-racer, and for some reason, there were a few bone-heads who got stuck in there… long story short — by the time I got to the start, and was just putting on my goggles, the gun went off. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to jump in the water… but hey.
SWIM
I wasn’t gonna break any swim speed records so I jumped in and swam up the inside avoiding the blender of slow swimmers. The race had us go 500m straight out, then around a second buoy 35m away, and then straight back in again. Then we swam close to the shoreline for abt 320m and this a final 100 or so into the transition area. My first 500 was good, the second 500 was not as goo, simply because the sun was right in our eyes, and, along with foggy goggles, made for a fair bit of zig-zagging in the open water, despite my open-swim practicing these past three weeks!
I kept a solid rhythm throughout the entire distance and climbed out of the water having expended the minimum amount of energy possible over the 1.5km swim.
Note: I went into this race looking to test myself and see how efficiently I could race. This is my first Olympic distance race since 2001.
OK, I was really slow on the swim, but considering I haven’t been in the pool but maybe once a week, I was happy –hr average around 160; out of the water in 26:48.
BIKE
After a mediocre transition, I tried to get my legs on the bike, which unfortunately took a good 10km. Here are my bike splits -
0-5km in 8:10
6-10km in 7:59
11-15km in 7:36
16-20km in 9:10 (hill!)
21-25km in 7:12
26-40km in 21:50
total bike time — 1:01:59 (according to my watch)
*A brief note — i got swept up by a massive pack of 12-15 riders (each with a bike costing 6 months my salary) as I finished going up the steepest hill in the race around km 22 - and got sucked in with them.*
I did make a big effort to stick outside of the major drafting zone, but there is only so much one can do to get out of the zone without crossing over to the other side of the road. Consequently, I tried to stay among the front few riders and helped pull a good bit moving out to the middle of the lane. It definitely was a help to my legs come the run. The bike course was for the most part flat and definitely the type of course to PR on.
RUN
I had a great transition onto the run and trotted out onto the course, making sure I didn’t go out too fast, and also nervously wondering how my legs would react to my new nutrition plan and bike setup. I moved along at a OK pace, trying to get my breathing under control, which was, as usual, going crazy, huffing and puffing like an overheated dog. (I personify my breathing, because it feels almost like another person inside of me)
Now, for a mystery - can you help solve it?
My half-marathon race heart rate is between 166 and 172. — That’s for 21km of running.
My 10km race heart rate should be between 178 and 185.
My 10km run heart rate at Zug started at 161… moved its way up to 165 by the 5th km and only on the final 2km did I get my heart rate up to 170. Any ideas why? I don’t mind hurting on the run… just tell me how.
On the third and then especially on the fourth kms, I had big-time stomach cramping. I don’t know what it was. I will have to talk with some veteran racers. I drank 1 litre of Isostar and had 2 Goos on the bike, all with no problems at all. Perceived exertion during the bike was less and with an average heart rate of 155-160, perhaps it did make a difference. At any rate, my stomach was so tight on the fourth km that I had to stop and walk for about 10 seconds. I tried beating my stomach with my fists, yelling, burping (couldn’t). Anyhow. it hurt - lots! After km 4, we turned around and went back “down” towards the lake again. At this point, my mind turned its focus on the raw rubbing feeling of huge blisters being formed on the insides of both my feet. Consequently, I tried to run on the outsides of my feet to avoid a hug blood fest and a possible DNF if it got bad!
As my times below show, km 4 is where I had my stomach cramps and then as I got over the trauma of the start, I felt better as the race went on.
4:13
4:02
3:56
4:18
3:49
4:01
4:01
4:06
3:47
3:45
Swim - 26:48
T1 - 1:49 (28:37)
Bike - 1:01:59 (1:30:36)
T2 - 0:46 (1:31:23)
Run - 39:58
—————————
Total time: 2:11:21
(Placed 106 out of 286 men) (6 women had better times.. I blame it all on the swim!!)
results
Again - this race was really a testing ground - where do I stand — and what am I capable of??! Some brief thoughts -
1. Swimming: Although I did swim a horrible time of 26:48, I am sure with 3-4 good swim practices a week I could easily make my way down to into the 23s. (Down from the 24s where I was back in 2001) If I really went for it and swam the required 30km a week of a committed triathlete, I bet in a few years I could be down in the low 20s.
2. Transitions: My T1 stinks because I am generally very out of breath after the swimming, and I have trouble getting the wetsuit off. Answer — get some of that slippery gel stuff on my legs for easy exits.
3. Bike: Wes Hobson in his book “Swim, Bike, Run” recommends upping your kicking cadence the last minute or two of your swim to get blood circulating in your legs again before the bike. It was clear that I had absolutely nothing the first fifteen minutes on the bike. I couldn’t stay with any of the guys who passed me. I will have to try out this “Wes remedy” more frequently.
4. Run: From the looks of things heart rate wise, I can easily run 37’s for the 10km, and possibly quicker depending on the running I do from now through next season. One of the big areas I need to understand better is how to get breathing under control, and get into my rhythm early on. After that, its just being gutsy enough to push through pain (like cramps, blisters lactic acid etc… I am definitely going to test out some recommended insoles from a local sports store)
Goals for Zug 2008 —
swim - 24:00
bike - 1:00:00
run - 37:00
total time - 2:03:00 (a top 40 placement compared with this year’s times)
doable? yes.
Powered by ScribeFire.
June 18, 2007 at 12:51 · Filed under sport
No time to write, but am putting up photos from the race. Harriet did an amazing job taking pictures, despite the massive temptation to visit some of the trendy coffee shops which Zug has. She did get a start on a great tan, and got to visit the deer farm and the bird farms again.
Enjoy!
Powered by ScribeFire.
June 16, 2007 at 15:01 · Filed under life
The Triathlon de Zug is tomorrow.
I’m kinda nervous because it’s my first Olympic distance triathlon since 2002. When I left Olympic distance racing, I was in great form, and even left unwillingly, having gotten sick with a blood disease which effectively ended my season!
Now, 5 years later, a bit smarter, perhaps a bit more fit on the running end, not so on the bike and swim fronts, but still with the same excitement and passion, I head up to Zug to attempt to pick up where I left off in 2002.
Swam in Lake Geneva today, doing 2×330m laps in approx 5:00-5:15mns per lap. I practiced my open-water sighting once again, motivating myself that I can swim 1500 meters without destroying the rest of my race. Tomorrow, i the race takes us 515m out, then straight 515m back, then parallel to the shore 320m, then 150m in to the transition area.
The 40km bike will take us around the Lac de Zug, and then a fairly flat 10km 1 loop course. It’s gonna be fun and fast.
www.zytturmtriathlon.ch
Speak soon — S.
Température de l’eau aujourd’hui pour Lac de Zoug:
19°C
Température de l’eau demain pour Lac de Zoug:
20°C
Prévision pour Lac de Zoug:
Aujourd’hui (Samedi), partiellement ensoleillé
Températures à l’aube de 9 et l’après-midi de 23 degrés.
Vent faible de secteur NW.
Powered by ScribeFire.
June 12, 2007 at 12:57 · Filed under things to share
Perhaps the most amazing story of the year —
from joshuacase.net
June 12, 2007 at 12:45 · Filed under sport
Harriet finally cracked and let me get a bike. After 7 amazing seasons with my first owned adult bike ever (Javelin) I have changed from a tri-bike to a road bike — a 2007 Trek 5000 Carbon. Check out specs here.
So far, I really like it and will love it much more if I am able to race this weekend without cramps. (*I have decided that me having too big a bike and the tri-position accounted for the cramps on the run) This bike is a 54″ compared with the 57″ behemoth I was riding. Now a new set of Bontrager Race XXX Lite wheels and I will be ready for the Olympics!
I also changed the seat, and had a set of 3T mini-sub8 draft legal aerobars put on.
What did a new carbon Trek with 105/Ultegra all over cost me? Not much — thanks to our club’s local bike shop Hubacher and their sexy team discount!
Here are some quick snaps of my baby:
June 11, 2007 at 22:55 · Filed under sport
My 2007 duathlon/triathlon season has started! It is pretty ridiculous, actually, to think about how much training goes into having a half-decent race. Good thing that the training is also a fun time for me!
So my first race was a short duathlon in Ecublens, outside of Lausanne. The Duathlon du Cancer, is a 3,8 - 20 - 3,8 run-bike-run. (www.association-destiny.ch) The weather was nice, about 23 or so, and the rain decided to stick out of the way, making the technical bike course safer.
I started out the first 3,8 conservatively, averaging 3:45kms despite an annoying run course, which seemed to always be going gently uphill.
On the 20km bike, I got to test out my new Trek 5000 in race conditions. It is fairly obvious, the new position means that I will have to put in a lot of kms to get back to the speed I was at before I changed bikes. The switch from a tri frame to a road frame was difficult. Despite that, I still averaged almost 36km/h. I had a lot of trouble with the sharp turns, and was surprised that the non-draft race had many little groups moving along swiftly. I asked several racers if we were allowed to draft, and finally, a teammate said it was “allowed” in the race. The big problem with my bike, was the wrong turn I made 2/3 of the way through the first loop. I took a right instead of left. I didn’t do my homework well enough on the course, and no one was in front that I could see, as well as there not being an official to direct the athletes.
I lost about 2:10 along with some pep in my step as I had to come back up a fairly large hill to get back on track.
Onto the final run, I focused on getting my breathing under control in the changing area. My legs felt really good and not tight as in past years. I really hope that is the case from now on! I focused on getting into a rhythm and then picking off people one by one. I passed three guys in the first two and a half kilometers, trying to keep up good leg speed. I kicked it in around the track and finished the second run faster than my first one. (13:36 — 3:36/km)
If my bike had gone according to plan, I was looking at 10th or 11th place. I am happy. Here are the results.
June 6, 2007 at 11:13 · Filed under sport
One of the big achievements of the first half of 2007 for both Harriet and I was the successful completion of the Geneva half-marathon on 6 May 2007. I will write from my experience and Harriet will write from hers.
I went into this race confident that I could run 1:30:00 without too much of a problem, especially as the course was pretty much flat. We arrived in good time, the temperature was not hot, but not too cool either. The clouds helped as it kept the temperature at an acceptable level, a very good thing for me. We got our race gear and put our bags in the race container which had been organised for entrants. With 20mns left before the start of the race, I ran to the porta-pottie for the pre-race relief, stretching whilst in line. I then got a 5mns warm-up and about 8 strides in. then 5mns before the start of the race, some more stretching. Before I knew it, the gun shot, my heart rate was already pumping with nerves, and we were off.
It took me about 10 seconds to get past the start line, which isn’t too bad considering the amount of ppl. Many people shot by me, some of them I guess hoping it really wasn’t a 20km race. It was. I went through the first three km in 11:25 (avg of 3:48 per km). This worried me a bit, and my heart rate showed it, as I was quickly (from the first seconds of the race) up to 162, right below my marathon target heart rate. Somehow, I think the first few km were short. Assuming not, we then fell into groups, and continued on around the lake at a more manageable pace (4:10, 4:08, 4:09, 4:07, 4:07, 4:12 [water break], 4:05, 4:02 etc…)
It was exciting coming back after the first 5.5km because you got to see who was in front of you, by how much, and the masses of people behind you. We also got to see the first few pros fly by at the end of their second loop of the marathon. Wow. A few guys I had been running with took a little distance on me before the water stop, as did the number 2 woman in the race. I focused on my breathing, my form and my rhythm as I chugged through the center of the old town. Zig-zagging across bridges and around buildings was not my favorite part of the race by any means, and it was tough on the psyche.
Coming up on km 14 I took a second Goo and checked my time. My heart rate had moved up to 170 on a small incline leading to the 14km water point. At this point in the race (57mns) I ate as much of the Goo as possible and refocused on my breathing. It was not easy to ingest water/Goo while trying to keep that pace. The last 7km were harder, with my HR staying at 170-173 as I moved back towards the Jardin Anglais and finally, across the Pont du Mt Blanc again and up the Rive drive towards the OCM.
With 3km to go, I passed an old friend of mine (he is a machine!) who was doing the race as a training run, after having biked 50km into Geneva from his house. With 1.5km to go, and a v slight downhill, I passed the number 2 girl in the race, now well above my VO2 Max. I probably sounded like a buffalo running full thottle. At that point, I really didn’t care. The heels of my feet were both burning, apparently having managed to rub through the skin by 16km or so. lovely. I kicked it into the finish grateful the race was over and super excited that I had managed to keep such a good pace. I was overjoyed to find out I had run 1:26:32, 1.5mns faster than I had though I was capable of, and a full 3.5mns faster than I was expecting to run, having only started training for the race 10 weeks prior!
Final Time: 1:26:32
Place: 114 overall
Pace: 4:06/km
Heart Rate: 167 bpm
Below are some great pics my bro Dave took.
June 6, 2007 at 10:41 · Filed under life
This is an interesting look at one photojournalist’s experience in difficult situations.
June 2, 2007 at 15:27 · Filed under life
I realise we have been out of touch for quite a while now. After Palanza, we were coming off of a period where it seemed as though each day was a sprint. Consequently, we took time to focus on ‘us’, leaving the blog and other things to suffer the pain of being ignored. This is the first of several posts which will hopefully get everyone back up to speed with the major Kibbe happenings. Anyhow, apologies for all our loyal readers. 
