European Duathlon Championships

 

The weather in Scotland sucked. It was raining, windy, cold, and humid.
The run course was good. Very hilly. For each lap 2.5km, about 700m was
spent running through a dark, smelly, underground tunnel. The bike course was
wicked. It was 6 laps around this huge mountain. At the top it was so foggy
that I could only see about 75-100m in front of me. The decent was super
fast and curvy. The climb was steep and made those less fit cyclist
suffer.The course was super slow. The hills and the weather made the
run/bike/run times look like we ran and cycled backwards. My times look very slow,
but if you compare them to others, you realize that there were fairly decent.
Anyway, that is exactly what happened in the first 10km in the race. on
the bike I made up a 1min gap to catch a group within 10min, so I'm fairly
fit on the bike. Just as fit as the best riders. Anyway, I caught up with a
group, however, they didn't want to take turns pulling to catch the
other group that was about 1.5min ahead.  I pulled the group for a bit but
decided that I wouldn't be able to catch the group ahead of me by myself...so
the pace of the group slowed dramatically - low tempo - but still some
riders were dropped on the hills that circled the mountain.  I was feeling
really good and was prepared for a fast last 5km run. However, at the beginning
of the last lap when we were riding around the traffic circle, the Canadian
in front of me crashed from slipping on the wet pavement (it was
windy,cold, and raining throughout the whole race). Since I was right behind him
drafting in the last position of the group, I crashed on top of him. 
Immediately, about 7 spectators run towards us try to pry our bikes
apart. My wheel being tangled in his seat was one of the many problems. I
watched the other riders climb the hill and disappear around the mountain while
people were untangling the bikes. Finally, my bike was free and I chased
the riders ahead of me. I slowly caught up to them by the end of the lap but
was still nowhere near them. I had a decent second run, almost catching one
racer in front of me but managed to fall about 15 seconds or so short. I
would have most definitely finished ahead of the people in my bike group
if not for the crash. I finished 35th overall. To see how my times compare click on the link.
So with the race being over, I'm feeling very confident and pumped and
know what I need to improve on for Nationals in Ontario on Sept. 15 -- that
speed for the first 3-4km of the first 10km. That way I'm already with a bike
group - drafting or catching another group ahead.

The whole trip except for the bike training went smooth. All my luggage
showed up on time, which was awesome. Five minutes into my first biking
session, I discovered I had an inch needle stuck in my tire. The next
morning my front tire was flat. Since I have tubeless tires I had to get
them fixed the next day and wait the entire day for the bike store to
glue the tires back on. The running around Scotland was great. There are tons
of parks and trails everywhere, yet the weather was constantly crappy.

Good race overall!

I was fortunate enough to attend the 2007 World Duathlon Championships in Gyor Hungary this year.  Quite a different atmosphere from Australia. While my dad and I were there we saw some very interesting buildings and some very different people.  We took a train ride to Budapest to see the river and some of the 700 year old buildings.  In one section of the town the buildings were covered with bullet holes. There was some sort of protest going on.

 

The race itself was a great success.  I was at the front of the starting line with 451 people behind me. My goal was to take off and sprint the first 200m to get away from everyone else and not get tangled up or have my shoe stepped on.  Luckily, about 20 other people did this with me, so I didn't look like a moron out of nowhere.  The 10km was fast....30:10 (it was short by about 1.1km) and I was in 11th position. The transition went very smoothly, and I came out with a few guys. For the entire 40km bike portion people were drafting off one another all over the place (drafting is illegal) and it seemed like the motorcycle that was following us was handing out yellow cards and five minute penalties to everyone. I was lucky enough not to get a card. Even though I wasn't drafting, there were times when the pack of us were so tight, I thought the motorcycle guy was going to hand me one.  I made up one spot on the bike and came into the second transition with an American.  My transition from the bike to the run was flawless and I got out before he did.  About 1km into the 5km race, he caught up to me and was starting to pass, I decided to hang on to see if I could keep up.  Not only did I manage to match his pace, he ended up slowing down and I ended up beating him quite easily in the end for 9th/16 in my age category and 40th/451 overall.  Although my placing was further behind that it was last year, I had a personal best in all 3 portions of the race.  So I pleased with the result and hopefully I can take a bigger step up for the European Duathlon Championships in Scotland on June 16 where I'll be racing in the elite category. Wish me luck.

 

And one another note... in my race bag they gave me a large can on Hungarian beer.  A little odd to be handing out to all the athletes don't you think.

Hello Everyone,

Since Brys added me to the Untied Cycle webpage I've been getting tons of views so I figure it's time for another written report. Tim has been giving me some high intensity intervals lately as I prepare for the 2007 World Duathlon Championships in Gyor, Hungary on May 20th. I've also got my tickets booked for the European Duathlon Championships in Scotland for June 16 - that should also be a big one.

As for the weather here: today was the first day that I was able to go outside with a t-shirt on.  We still have lots of snow, but it's slowly melting away. I'm hoping by next week I'll be able to take my 'cross bike out for some riding. Yeah, I know all you Edmontonions have been riding outside for quite some time now.

For all those reading in Edmonton, give me an email or a comment and let me know how the training and riding is going there.

Thanks guys.

Brys, how's the police thing going?

The days are starting to get a little longer here is Simpson. The sun now rises around 9:00am instead of 10:30am like it did in December. It's still really cold though.  The other day is was -42C with the windchill which makes running and riding outside impossible.

In other news, I bought myself a small house in town. It needs a lot of renovation work, but it will fun to work on and I get to decide how things will be done. I'll put some pictures up tomorrow.

Later

Check out this kid. He's my brother's friend doing all these jumps in Fort Simpson. Wicked.

 

Tomorrow I'll be home and will no longer have to see this old-run-down unbelievable nasty house again.  I also get to see my girlfriend who I haven't seen in two months. My goodness, we have been doing this long distance relationship thing for a year and a half and now, finally, we don't have to do it anymore....at least for a long time. She's pissing her pants with excitement to see...I think I'm doing the same.haha

I'm still working on foundation training.  I'm just finishing a recovery week and will start to rack up the hours in the next 3 weeks.  Sometime in January I'll be having a fitness test to see where I'm at. I'm also lifting a lot of weights lately...hopefully it shows.haha

My next blog will be sometime next week and hopefully I'll have pictures up of my family, girlfriend (jenny), and of course the ice-road and all the other cool things that people have been wanting to see.

I finsihed the last of the last university exams today. I'm finished school for good and will be home on Sunday. On Monday I start my job with the village of Fort Simpson and then four months later I start my permanent job working for the Government.

I got my powertap in today.  Finally after three weeks of waiting for a part to come in it's here.

My goodness I'm tired.

After going to the vet for a check-up, I found out that mickey had a fever.  This explained his laziness from the onset. I've been giving him some pills and now he is very active and playful.  He is a super cool dog.

Training is going well.  Tim (my coach) has got the rhythm and the understanding now of how my body is adapting to the training.  The weather has been warm here in Edmonton and everything is melting, which is wicked for running.  Mickey can keep up with me for my cool-downs so I take him whenever I can.  Hopefully he'll be strong enough in the next couple of months to run with me during the foundation/easy runs.

I finished all of my university classes today. I will never have to listen to another lecture regarding school ever again.  I also got my first dog from the animal shelter today.  His name is Mickey, he is a boarder collie, and is 2.5months old.  I've only been with the dog for a few hours now so it is still very shy and quiet.  Hopefully he'll break out of his shell soon. However, most importantly I hope he will be house trained very soon.

Only 20 more days until I'm home and done school. Man, I excited to finish.

I just started foundation/base training today after a 2 week transition period so it's great to put in some good quality hours running/cycling.

Ahhh and I just got my grad photos the other day so the end is coming.haha

For all those who haven't heard (old news) Lance ran a marathon 2 weeks ago barely breaking 3hrs.  There was speculation that he might be able to run just over 2hrs (a winning time) but was about A WHOLE HOUR slower than expected. That's pretty lame. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWybyZuYY4

 

After a complete week of rest I start my transition period and get to start training again.  Not only running and cycling but it's that time of year for hitting the weight room.  Hopefully my tree-trunk legs will be 2x the size after the strength period haha.

As for school, Midterms and assignments are done.  Classes end on Dec. 6 and I'll be writing final exams from the 11th to the 18th. Really looking forward to finishing.

Here is a picture I just found on the internet of the scholarship I won (Great White North) through the Alberta Triathlon Association.

This is a video I've had trouble adding to my page, but just click the link and the video will show you what my job is like...

Up this morning at 6:30am and in Peter Knight's car at 7:00am.

The Expert Men started at 12:00 and had about 20 racers at the start line.  After the countdown to start, I found myself in 4th place for the first half-lap of the course.  My biggest competitor in the race was a guy from pedal head, who had a great start  leading the pack around the corner and around the first hill.  While I was stuck in 4th and not able to pass anyone, the guy from Pedalhead was increasing his first place lead more and more.  Final I decided enough was enough and make some risky moves to pass the people in front of me and eventually catch up to the Pedalhead guy.  Together we put a huge gap on the rest of the field and were lapping people on the 3rd lap of a 7-8lap course.  With about 4 laps to go, I took the lead from him and held a 15 second gap for about 2.5laps.  However, he eventually caught me and passed me with 2 laps to go.  I tried to hang on but I didn't have any gas left in the tank. 

I finished in 2nd place which gave me 15 points (I only needed 2 to get out of Expert and into Elite).  So I am now an Elite Cycle-cross racer.  This was my main goal of the season and I can cross it off my list.  I decided not to race on Sunday because Cyclo-cross provincials are next week and I want to be 100% ready for that race.  The only way I was racing on Sunday was if I had to DNF as a result of a bike mechanical.

I was told my some of the other Expert racers that there were quite a bit of crashes in the back of the field on the first lap.  If I had been back there it would have been a long and extremely hard effort to get back up to the front.

So I'm out and preparing to Provincials this coming weekend and Nationals on Novemeber 18-19.

 

During a training ride today I managed to hit another dog.  This fat ass dog didn't see me coming around the corner and got a good beating from my front tire.  The dog was okay because it was pretty fat but took a solid hit to the stomach.

Anyway, I need two more points to get into the Elite Category and hopefully I get them in Calgary this weekend.  I think I only need to finish in the top ten of my race, so as long as nothing happens to my bike, it looks like I'll get into the Elite group.  It's a double-header race this weekend.  I don't think I'll race on Sunday because provincials are the next weekend and I want to well prepared for that race as well as Nationals in Victoria BC, 2 weeks after that.

I was up this morning at 6:00 feeling pretty good with only 5hrs of sleep because I had racing on my mind.  At 7:00am I was the last person at United Cycle to load up the van and trailer with bikes.  The van could only take 5 people so someone else took people to Canmore in their SUV.  Tim, John, Bruce and I were in the van.  Trevor, Roger, and Stew were in the other vehicle.  For the 4hr ride to Canmore Bruce and I listened to Tim and John talk endlessly the whole way down about the dumbest stuff.  Conversations that were so funny and derogatory that I can't write them down.

The Expert Men started at 2:00pm so the van made it to Canmore with lots of time to spare.  After a decent warm up I waited at the start line and the front.  I was more concerned at being at the front of the start than having a good warm up because after about 100m of pavement, there was a sharp left turn and I wanted to be one of the first people around that corner and not get stuck behind people.

The start went very well.  I took the lead from the start and held it until a quarter way around the first lap.  The pace of the race was so fast and it dropped the boys from the men really quickly.  After the first 2 laps there were about 6-7 of us chasing down the leader who was about 50m ahead of us.  With each lap people in the chase group were getting dropped until there were 3 of us chasing down the leader.  Without about 4 laps to go (0.5hr left) we caught the leader.  The pace continued to be extremely fast and the 4 of us were lapping people more and more people with each lap (laps were about 3-4km).  I made sure I was at the front of the pack when we headed down the trails but gave up my lead and drafted when we hit the pavement.  After each section of pavement there were two short, but steep hills which I had the energy to power up because of the earlier drafting.  With 2 laps to go, one of the guys couldn't stick with us.  Since the race starting becoming so tactical he couldn't keep up when the pace increased, but caught back on again when the pace slowed down.  The last two laps were very fast at times and very slow at others. The forth place guy got a flat with 1.5laps to go which left me with two other guys. 

After dismounting and running up a short hill on the bridge we had to climb a steep short hill.  I was drafting and in third at the time so when we started climbing the hill, the 3 of us separated.  First place was hammering to get away from second, second was hammering to catch 1st and stay away from me who was desperately trying to catch second.  However, the gap didn't change between the 3 of us and I ended up taking third, racking up 15 points for myself.   If I had placed second at the race, I would have been in the Elite Category for the race in Calgary this weekend.  I now need 2 points to get into Elite.  If I was able to finish in Red Deer last weekend, I would have been in Elite in Calgary also.

Prize money for third was 50 bucks.  Not too bad.

 

Because John DNF'd once again (2nd time in a row) Tim, Bruce and I ripped him apart with jokes and made fun of him the whole way back.  4hrs of making fun of John.  His self-esteem must be at an all-time low.  After a mix up of how far we could go with only so much gas in the tank, and John being so such about his gas-calculations, the reserve light came on when we were 35km out of Leduc.  Luckily we made it into town with 1 liter left in the tank.  John would have been the one biking into town if we ran out of gas on the highway.

 

It was a wicked trip and hopefully next weekend I can get my 2 fricken points and be in the Elite Category.  John has a lot of pressure on him to not DNF or he will never hear the end of it.  If he DNF's he might even quit because we will never stop joking about it.