Cycling Intervals

Pulled out a workout from last year's triathlon coaching. Headed out onto the Waterfront Trail pretty late, so lots of walkers and slow bikers on this beautiful hot day.

Warm-up: 15mins

Workout should have been:
3x 3mins on 15, 1min rest
3x 2min on 13, 1min rest
3x 1min on 12, 1min rest

Many of the rest sessions were extended and active sessions disrupted and also extended because of either traffic or the need to turn around at the end of the trail. But I did practise turning around a lot! I just forgot to not do the regular u-turn.

--Distance: 20km
--Duration: 65mins

Cycling

Almost arrived on time to start with the club's first season opening ride. Struck out on my own, but it was only a 42km ride scheduled, so I didn't mind. Super baking hot weather; beautiful. We start at Angus Glen now, and the plan was a simple out and back on Warden to Davis. Having only ever gotten onto Warden at Bloomington, I was not aware that Warden has a massive fucking hill just south of Bloomington. 50m. Oy. After that, smooth sailing, and a heckuva joyride on the way back down.

Spent probably not more than 20% of the time in my bars. Finally got comfy and relaxed with a few kms left. Made good time, though. Under 90mins for the 40. I lost about 3:30 on traffic stops. So probably closer to 1:25 for an oly.

Food: nothing!
Water: just the profile design front bottle - ran out after 30kms. Bumped into NN on the road and asked her about her great water set-up from last year: Speedfil, available at Wheels of Bloor - getting it!

-- Distance: 42.6km
-- Duration: 1:35:55 (minus 3:30 = 1:32:25)

Road Cycling

After the clinic, I felt I needed a bit more time on the bike, so instead of heading back down the highway, drove to Wilcox to do a short loop around the block. I was reminded of how much I hate Bloomington, with its jackhammer grooves across the road. Thudunk, thudunk, thudunk, thudunk... ugh. It was also kind of torn up because I guess they will resurface it soon.

Didn't have the energy or the sustenance to go up Warden, so turned down Woodbine back to Stouffville Road, neither of which I'd ever ridden on. It was smooth and nice. Even though I had driven on this stretch of Stouffville a bunch of times, including not 30mins earlier, I had never realized how hilly it is until I had to conquer it on the bike. Tough stuff for an out-of-shape rider. I went into my bars a few times, but overall was too jittery with the traffic.

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5907459

--Distance: 16.8km
--Duration: ~45mins

Cycling Clinic

First outdoor clinic with Andrew Randell!

Given our beginner level, he scaled back this class from a full ride to a parking lot handling clinic with a shorter ride around the neighbourhood at the end.

We did a bunch of loops around the lot:

• Riding in a straight line
• Slalom around water bottles, getting ever tighter
• Turning within two parking spaces, then trying to get down to one space

Points of interest:

• Try not to ride in gears with the chain pulled crosswise
• When changing the front gears, do so when there isn't much pressure on the pedals, that is, before you go into a hill
• When turning, keep the inside pedal up
• You can apply pressure on the handlebars on the side going into the turn
• Break before a turn, not during, as this will pull you out of the turn
• When going over an obstacle, ease up on the front, then the rear of the bike
• Turn-arounds in races: instead of a perfect U, go in wide, then cut across while turning and come back out close to the pylon

Then we took an easy ride, single-file. We were supposed to stick together, but you know triathletes. Maybe Andrew can reign us is a bit more next time.

Route: www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5907449

--Distance: 13.6km
--Duration: 75mins + 45mins

Winter Ride

Since the weather is quite tropical this weekend and all the snow has melted, I decided to grab my bike and join the tri club's monthly winter ride through the city. I didn't have a pump though, so by the time I made it into the city and my tri shop, bought the pump, and was taught how to use it (I have deflated my tires the last time I tried to inflate them), it was quite late, so I rode the planned route backwards to try to catch the group on the way back.

It's a good thing I was late, because I'm told the group was really burning up Don Mills on the way out, and after four months off my bike, I needed some me-time to get reacquainted with my cleats and aero bars. I also still can't make left turns, which turned out to be a boon as it slowed me down even more. I crossed Yonge Street to take Yonge Blvd. up to Wilson, but just as I was going to take off, I saw a group of four cyclists coming down on an adjacent street. I waited for them on a hunch, and it was our group! They were taking a slightly different street back. Had I been more expedient, I would have missed them.

Since they were almost done, we stopped at a cafe for a chat, which was really nice. I was a bit more confident on the final ride back. I'm really glad I let myself have an easy ride on my own terms.

JH, my original tri bike mentor and winter ride leader, commented on how pleased he was that I was finally dressed for winter biking. Winter bib, booties, penguin gloves. I'm learning!

--Distance: 19km, don't laugh
--Duration: with or without stopping for coffee??

Spinning

I got invited to a Halloween costume spinning class at CYKL, where I'd done one class for free leading up to the Ride for Heart. Since I'd dressed up as Lance Armstrong on Saturday, how could I say no to this opportunity? I just asked permission to wear my controversial costume, but it was very well received by the studio owner!

Le Tour de Science

So here I was in my Le Tour de Science Livestrong t-shirt, syringe stuck in my heart, helmet and shoes, I climbed onto the bike I'd reserved and couldn't get my cleats to lock in! When was the last time Lance couldn't clip into his pedals? When he was three? On his first tricycle? hahaha They had to get me onto another bike with some house shoes. How embarrassing.

I missed a bunch of the warm-up and first set because of this, so then I spent a while trying to catch up. Thankfully they put me up in the front so I could mimic what the instructor was doing. I don't know their lingo yet.

I know we did some climbs, in and out of the saddle, and with turns. I know we did a few tabata sets of sprints. There were some rollers in between. But all in all, I was just trying to mirror the instructor, down to seeing how many times she'd turned the crank on her tension thingy. This whole spinning thing is harder than real biking!

I had a really hard time breathing, and my legs were on fire. No biking fitness whatsoever. I'm kind of hoping I'll win one of the 5-pack class prizes for best costume. Although as my roommate pointed out, if they award me the prize, they should then take it away.

--Duration: 45mins

Great Toronto Rogaine

Format: Rogaine (10hr Score-O)
Terrain: parks, muddy ravines, streets
Weather: warm but drizzly in the morning, then just overcast

I was so excited when I heard about my orienteering club's inaugural city-wide urban park rogaine, I immediately ditched my entry into the Waterfront 1/2 marathon taking place on the same day. A rogaine is a multi-hour orienteering event with controls you can visit in any order, accumulating more points for the outlying ones. They usually take place out in the woods, but this one was set in the many parks our club has maps for, and also incorporated a lot of scavenger hunt-style photo-based controls in the regular urban areas. The time limit would be 10hrs for the long course, my new longest event to date.

Marking the big points down before the start

Having either raced in all of our club parks or set courses in them myself, I predicted which areas of the city would be part of the race and which would probably hold the most points, so I was able to sketch out a general route ahead of time. We were allowed to use any human-powered transportation plus public transit. It turns out that virtually all Toronto bus routes now have bike racks, so I opted to use my sturdy commuter in conjunction with hopping on buses where it would be faster.

I guessed that I could probably average 15kph on that bike overall, and that I could put out about 75km, plus however far I could get by transit. I opted for an eastbound route to Scarborough, then northwest to hit some parks along Steeles, and then back southeast towards the finish at Riverdale Park. My assumptions about the course were right on the money, so other than slotting in some photo controls along my general route, I didn't have to think too much before the start. The master map was the city cycling trail map with the photo controls marked in - an excellent choice, as it made choosing bike routes very easy. We also had about 12 park O-maps and a transit guide. New record for most maps in one race??

I knew each of the parks quite well, except for Warden Woods, Morningside and Bestview, which I hadn't raced in for quite a while. The other parks: Taylor Creek, L'Amoreaux, G. Ross Lord, Earl Bales, Sunnybrook and ET Seton, I essentially know like the back of my hand. For a few, I could probably produce a reasonable O-map just from memory! I was confident that I could make decent decisions on the fly during the race.

Highlights:

• Stopping at my house on the way out to dump extra gear and clothing and finish my coffee - not my fault it was on my way!
• Being soaked inside of 10 minutes. I remember how shocked I was when that one ray of sunlight hit me in the face at some point during the day. But being soaked by rain means you don't mind wading through marshes and crossing creeks.
• Being super nervous the first time I dumped my bike in the bushes unlocked at Taylor Creek to wade into a marsh - I quickly realized I was one of very few people out in the drizzle and that my bike was always out of sight in places no sane person goes into anyway - I ended up never using my lock.
• Going down a sheer and muddy hillside in Warden Woods with the bike where there should have been a trail - put the bike sideways in front of me and used it like a granny walker.
• Using the mapped buildings and property edges visible above the ravines as landmarks - a fave trick of mine, I did this at four different parks.

Confucius - a photo control

• Pulling and tugging at the "defective" bus bike rack for the first time before realizing I just had to read the printed instructions.
• Remembering one of my cardinal rules of checking precisely which side of a river the centre of the control circle is at - after approaching from the other side.
• Finally eating some breakfast 3hrs into the race all the way out in Guildwood. I finished the race on a Timmy's bagel belt, 3 gels, 1.5L of water, and a lot of adrenaline.
• Topping out at about 40kph on the empty stretches of Scarborough roads. I'd have thought my commuter would start to shear itself to pieces at speeds like that.
• Finally pulling out my compass 3.5hrs into the race to check the direction of a trail at Morningside - another one of my cardinal rules.
• Constantly emerging from thick bushes covered in mud, soaked by rain and sweat, and inexplicably carrying a bike - much to the surprise of dog walkers and other decent people out on the trails.
• Having other bus passengers move away from my muddy, smelly self, and the driver opening the window. I felt really bad for that one lady in a bright white jacket trying to squeeze past me when it got really crowded.

Fall colours at Bestview

• Using my poor commuter as a bit of a mountain bike in Bestview when I got flat-out tired of carrying it around. My bike skills leave a lot to be desired, but I didn't slide into the river once.
• Ducking into my own private short cut at G. Ross Lord park, across a small marsh and up a secret trail. Helps that I've set courses here for quite a few years. I got all three high-point controls in this park in 20 minutes - easy money!
• Finally catching a glimpse of one other Rogainer as I was leaving this park - I didn't know for sure he was in the race until we both got back, but a guy on a bike with a ski-O map board, backpack and mud in all kinds of places - who else could it be?
• Climbing the Himalayan peaks of Earl Bales park, clinging to nothing but mud and ripping out dying trees on the way up, just to show the organizers that their questionable choice in control location was not in vain.
• Seeing a big furry dog rolling in the mud like crazy and running madly through a creek, much to the chagrin of its grimacing owner - only to take a good look at my own clothes caked in mud and then to jump in to run down the creek myself. That dog and I had a bond that will never be broken.
• Letting the official Toronto bicycle routes carry me diagonally through totally new territory from Bathurst and Wilson all the way to Bayview and Eglinton. I rode like the wind. Smelly, smelly wind.
• Emerging from one of these bike trails totally turned around and with no idea what street I was on. I put on my orienteering hat, took out my compass for the second time and started theorizing based on contours and directions. Then I turned around and saw the street sign.
• Feeling like home-sweet-home when I finally entered Sunnybrook park, my favourite stomping grounds. Maybe not the best choice for the final set of points, but I know every rock and shrub, and I just wanted to take advantage of that.
• Because of construction (which I knew about!), having to detour up Li'l Bastard, a huge hill leading out from ET Seton to Thornecliffe, named thus by some members of my triathlon club who do hill repeats there. 9hrs15 into the race, I managed about 3 revolutions on my bike and got off to push.
• Having accumulated more than 3,500 points and with 15 minutes to spare, I briefly considered carrying my bike up the Riverdale stairs and over the river to get 5 more points at the Riverdale Farm. Very, very briefly.
• Being the first one back on the long course to smiles and cheers from the sleepy organizers!

This was my first ever rogaine and one of the most fun events I've ever done. It was exhilarating to ride as far as I did, and then to constantly duck into the woods to find those lovable orange and white flags in nearly every park in the city. I really don't know how MJ, AW, CB and all the control-setting and -retrieving gnomes managed to put on this course, but I'm very grateful they did. We all had these huge smiles on our faces at the finish.

Route Link (hand-drawn, precise)

I ended up doing 80km on the bike (and on foot), and 20km by bus. So my estimate of 75km of riding was right on the money, and I was able to execute my pre-imagined plan perfectly. Once we all got back, it was pretty clear that everyone on the long course did more-or-less the same loop via Scarborough to get the big 200-point controls and then up to Steeles for the ~150+. People used all combinations of running, biking, busing, taking the subway. For me, the bike and bus combo was really optimal, as I could cover a big distance but also get to specific places quickly, and then ditch the bike to burrow through the bush.

Where I did lose time was re-checking my routes too many times, when I should have committed them to memory - some of the guys had map boards (on the chest or on the bike) - that probably would have been great! I also could have eaten a bit more, doncha think? Should have been eating on the bus rides, although I did take those times to plan ahead. I'm also not sure I was right to skip some controls in the parks where I thought they were a bit too out of the way (wrong side of a river, too deep in the bush to deal with the bike) - I had gone out far after all, so maybe should have banked those points while I was there. I would have had to skip the parks at the end, but would have had more points. I think in my heart of hearts, I went with having an enjoyable experience rather than maxing out the race - kind of unusual for me!

Photo by CL

I will definitely be back next year, and hope to see a lot more people out there, making it more worthwhile for the organizers to have lost sleep putting up controls in the dark and hand-marking maps for us to use. I'm really in awe of their effort. Congrats to team of MS and RT who ran away with 4,500+ points and a clear overall win. It was easy for me to "win" the women's category as the only female out there, haha. But I think I did quite well overall too.

--Distance: 102km
--Duration: 9hrs 45mins
--Garmin track (imprecise): 101.22km
--Points: 3,530
--O-Controls: 21
--Photo controls: 7

Fall Bicycle Blow-out

I was deputized by my biking friend ML to buy him a trainer at the Fall Bike Show, and as a veteran of two bike shows, including the maddening blow-out last year, I felt totally up to the task. I knew I'd have to show up about 90mins early to wait at the front of the extremely long line to be able to run in at 10am and do a whirlwind survey of available equipment before the crowd rushed in. I spent that time researching the stuff I would want to buy too.

I did a great job assessing the scene and reporting to ML over email - but all the trainers were way more expensive this year than last year - some blowout! He eventually decided that it was all no good. He also wanted a powertap hub, but the Fall Show is not really the sort of place for fancy gear - it looks less like a pro expo and more like a junk yard sale! So onward to my own needs.

My priority #1 was a pair of winter riding pants - good luck finding that at the show where most stores try to sell off only their ugliest summer garments. I nearly bought just a pair of fairly lightly insulated leg warmers, but glad I didn't.

I also wanted more hydration - either the rear mounted saddle cage (which I don't actually want to use) or what my tri club buddy NN uses, the Speedfil aero bottle with feeder straws that come up to the handlebars. It's a similar hands-free solution to the ProfileDesign Aerodrink I currently have, but would offer even more liquid - 1.2L. But the bike shows aren't very triathlete-friendly either, so no go on that.

A few other items on my list were: an actual bike jersey, as I had always been turned off by their sheer ugliness and could never settle on one; a presta bike pump; maybe a multi-tool? I ended up thinking this was too much of a zoo to really choose the right thing.

But at the last second, I finally found one rack with really great winter gear! They had a very well-made women's bib from Bicycle Line that fit me perfectly and was really nicely insulated, especially in the knees, but was also well ventilated in the back. A quick consultation with a friend, and I took it. That alone made the trip worth it. It would take me through tomorrow's Rogaine very comfortably.

And as the last thing, I bought my roomie a birthday present: a bike maintenance stand. It was very nice and on a great sale as well. And I'll get to use it, haha.

Open Water Swim + Bike Transition Skills

I'd been mildly feverish for days, and finally succumbed to a cold, but the Huronia Sprint Triathlon was ahead, so having rested all week, I went out to Cherry beach at the end of the day to get in a short swim and practise my mount/dismount skills.

The water was warm, and because I didn't anticipate using my wetsuit at the sprint, I didn't bother practising in it either. Just swam once there-and-back along the buoys, partly to cool down my fever! About 650m total. Felt pretty good. Only screwed up sighting once.

Then went out onto the Martin Goodman Trail to practise the shoeless skills. The trail from Cherry winds a lot, so I just used it as a warm-up and ended up doing the skills out on Unwin closer to Leslie. I was really jittery. Probably a combination of being out of practise and sluggish from my cold. I kept riding back and forth and not wanting to dismount! Eventually I did, and it was pretty smooth. Mounted and dismounted a bunch of times, but was really worried about doing it during the race. I told myself I'd make the call at the race site.

Got some elastics, but not sure if they're flimsy enough to break...

Cycling with Power Bike Clinic

Power. Wattage. Yet another metric I apparently have to get acquainted with if I am to get better at cycling. I hadn't heard of it at all until a time trial on an Absolute Endurance CompuTrainer in January, and I waved it off as too much to think about. But it's supposed to be the best measure of your cycling fitness and performance ahead of speed, cadence and heart rate.

The clinic was presented by Mr. Absolute Endurance, Alan Chud. I missed most of the classroom talk he gave being late from work, so still don't quite understand how they measure power output on your bike. But it happens in watts, so I wonder what calibre of athlete could power up a lightbulb...

The stuff I did catch was that it's best to maintain the same wattage regardless of the terrain, and that your wattage should be determined by a lactate threshold test and applied a bit differently to different distances. The winner of last year's Lake Placid had an exceptionally flat wattage graph, despite the hilly course. Adjusting your gears to avoid working too hard uphill and not going fast enough downhill is key.

Al then took us to the CompuTrainers and demo'ed the two ways you can use wattage for training: I'd already ridden a couple of their virtual courses, where you influence your wattage; the other way to train is to fix a specific wattage regardless of what gear you're in. Riders will do an entire workout essentially on a "fixie," but modulating their wattage on the computer according to the coach's instructions. I would have a very hard time sitting through that, but apparently it makes you fast.

We got to throw our bikes on the trainers and try maintaining wattage on a course. Al asked us to anticipate having to change gears, not doing it too late. I ended up changing gears as much or a bit more than I do out on the road, which is supposed to be great! I actually did something right on a bike! The wattage was a bit erratic, but mostly 100-120, and spiked a few times when even fast gearing-down couldn't catch up to the change in incline.

One more thing I asked was about wattage and getting up out of the saddle. I know there are various opinions on this one, but Al recommends always staying seated and just using your gears. You can get up as a last resort, but it's very tiring, and most people get into a really awkward forward/downward position that obscures their view and shuts down the power because of an improper hip angle. If you must stand up, do it with chest and head up, and butt just off the seat - like a sprinter at the ready.

He also mentioned a pedal stroke analysis he offers, which shows you imbalances between your left and right side as well as efficiency on the full pedal stroke circle. I'm strongly considering this.

If I try to absorb too much more technique for triathlon this year, I might burst.

Bike Intervals

One last workout assigned by my awesomely supportive and highly informative temporary coach.

Of course being a bike noob, I could not understand the interval progression at all. He called for 3 interval sets, in 15, 13, and 12, at increasing zones, and going from faster cadence to slower, to whatever I could pump out. My question was: "You can get 15 gears on your bike?? I only have 10 - what a rip-off!!" LOL I assumed that 15 was the hardest gear, and that I'd have to translate it to about 10, 9, and 8 on my bike - which didn't make sense because based on the other metrics, I should be working harder as I went along.

Well, duh. It's not the number of gears, it's the number of cogs in the gears. He educated me that a typical cassette on my bike would have 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, and 25 cogs from smallest to largest. So I really would be increasing difficulty as I went along.

With that out of the way, I rolled down to my fave local section of the waterfront trail and did this:

Warm-up: 15mins easy

3x 3mins on 15, zone 2, 90rpm, 1min rest
5mins easy
3x 2mins on 13, zone 3, 85rpm, 1min rest
5mins easy
3x 1min on 12, zone 3(?), as high as possible, 1min rest

Cool-down: easy spin w/ transition skillz

The hardest set was the second one because it was a bigger jump in gears, but still had to hold for 2mins. But I really love intervals, so this is super-fun. I actually did the last recovery reps in the same gear as the first work set.

For the cool-down, I threw in trying to dismount off my shoes. I wanted to try this tired, as at the end of a race. I didn't totally crash, but it was a very awkward dismount, and not race-worthy at all. I remounted, and veered sharply to the left, which would also be dangerous at the mount line. So these need practise before the next sprint.

--Distance: 17.8km
--Duration: 60mins

Bike Transition Clinic

This clinic was put on by Ayesha Rollinson and Mike Medeiros of the Tri Trek pro Team, and it was exactly what I'd been looking to add to my repertoire: the flying mount and running dismount! A number of weeks ago, I'd practised all the skills involved in between the jumping on and off part, so I felt quite confident going into this, but I still thought it would take forever and a lot of crashing to figure out these acrobatics!

Our venue was the quiet and serene Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which gets a lot of use from cyclists on its maze of paths. Ayesha and Mike got us right into tying our shoes onto the bike with elastics, careful to avoid the drivetrain and quick release. The flying mount is done by softly hopping onto the seat without putting pressure on the pedals until after you're actually seated.

At first, my seat seemed way too high for me to jump on, as it goes all the way up to my hip. But I trusted our coaches, took a running start, and managed to jump on quite easily! The elastics actually took a few turns to break, but apparently it's not a big deal. I spent the rest of this part of the session jumping on without the elastics, just to get the momentum right. I'd also continue practising putting the shoes on and taking them off, especially without looking.

Very quickly, it was time to try the running dismount. This is the part that really freaked me out in the videos I'd seen. First, Ayesha showed us the simplest (though not fastest) way to dismount, which is to swing the right leg back over the seat - but this essentially causes you to put the breaks on with that foot rather than keep running forward. It's best to get that foot in the front instead.

And how is that done? Well, some people step their right leg through between their left and the bike. But Ayesha has a flexibility advantage! She demonstrated essentially folding your leg in a kind of half-lotus over the crossbar, and stepping down in front into a run. What?? I was already nervous about just putting all my weight on one side of the bike, let alone being in a cross-legged position in the air! But again, one attempt, and I did it without crashing, hurray!

This was yet another awesome clinic by the Tri Trek Team (I'd done an open water swim skills clinic with them last August before my try-tri). They are so nice and supportive, and genuinely care to professionalize people's skills.

Some tips I picked up:
- Assess the course to see if an uphill start will make clipped-in mounting detrimental
- Use a gear that is easy enough to start, but hard enough that you can get some initial speed while fiddling with the shoes
- Run quite a bit forward of the mount line to avoid the crowds of people trying to clip in
- It's okay to pedal on your shoes for a while if no safe opportunity to put them on comes up
- Step down hard on the opposite shoe to avoid having the one you're getting into drag on the ground

I was so excited, that after we left the cemetery and I got back to my car, I continued getting on and off the bike on the side street for a good 30mins. Only had one shaky dismount. Otherwise, I felt awesome!

Next things to practise are optimal speed for getting underway and putting on the shoes, and optimal distance, at which I should take the shoes off and prep to jump off - especially with all these other people in the mix.

Hills of Caledon Bike Ride

Got up even later than usual, but happy to tackle the hilly roads of Caledon again, after I really struggled here in December when I first got the bike. Since I had already recced this area then, I didn't give myself a fixed route - just thought I'd choose to ride on different roads based on conditions and timing. Just needed to get back to the homestead for the day's Euro matches, hee hee.

Started out on Duffy's Lane again and climbed the substantial rollies up to Old Church Road. This road is well-traversed as it links to Caledon East, but it's a dream to bike on. Fresh asphalt and a wide clean shoulder; totally safe. Took it all the way into town and turned around at Airport.

Route Link

For extra mileage, I turned down Innis Lake, which was more deep rollies, then a quick jump across Castlederg, which looked rough after the next road, so went back up Centreville Creek to Old Church. That road has zero traffic and some great downhills!

I liked this lap, so decided to repeat it, and was faster. Actually my 5km lap times went down each time over the whole ride, yay! Finally came back up to Old Church and took it back to Duffy's and down to the car. I enjoyed the ride more and more as I went along, especially after I broke through the first 20km or so. I think I hit about 45kph as my top speed several times, and usually it was from slight downhills going into uphills!

--Distance: 40km
--Duration: 1:29:00
--Average Speed: 27.0kph
--Max Speed: ~45kph

(Thank goodness I remembered these numbers, as El Satellite Dish is now drowned in pool water.)

Biking the Hospital + Victory Hills

It turns out that my hills workout from last week was partly done on the wrong hill - should have been on the one that SOF used to call Victory Hill, heading up to the upper flats. This week I was to get it right, haha. Was supposed to be 6x each hill.

I did a warm-up ride through the park, dodging tons of cars and speed bumps.
Took on the long hill first, and I think I managed ~1:47 or so. Then went up Victory, and got up out of my seat half-way, as instructed. I started to feel crampy, and was very quickly in tons of pain. Managed to struggle up Hospital Hill once more, and the difficulty of the hill kind of numbed the pain a bit, but once I started coming back down, it was unbearable. All I wanted to do was ditch the bike somewhere and curl up and die. I partly did that at the bottom for a few minutes. Then I picked myself up and rolled slowly back across the park to the car in search of pain killers. It's too bad; I really wanted to kill these hills.

Since the Garmin is now dead, I'm not sure exactly what the three splits were like, but they seemed faster than the week before.

--Distance: 6.4km
--Duration: 30-40mins

Biking the Hospital Hills

Bum is achy today, so no running for me. My assigned workout instead was hill repeats in Sunnybrook Park. Bonus was that I'd get to see my XSNRG friends, as they were doing the same repeats on foot.

Warm-up: easy spin through the park, then chatting forever with friends, and waiting for the cars to go up the long hill so I wouldn't get run over.

5x long gradual hill, 5x short steep hill, alternating with recovery down and across.
Distances: ~600m and ~300m + ~950m in between
Elevations: I don't trust the Garmin readout. Inconsistent/faulty.

Uphill splits:

1:57 - 1:15

1:46 - 1:12

1:52 - 1:12

1:46 - 1:17

1:47 - 1:17

The recovery rides in between were ~3:15 on average.

I hit my max speed on the second steep uphill (30.1kph) and all the highest speeds were set on the uphills, not the recoveries. Who knew? Probably because of the short running starts I'd get. Very short, though.

I sometimes couldn't hit the lap button in time as I passed my landmarks going into the hills, so some of the laps may be showing short, but overall they were very consistent. This is surprising because I was already leg-tired after the first 2 sets, and after 4, I didn't think I'd finish the 5. But pulled it off somehow.

Cool-down: a breezy aero ride through the park, ~4km.

--Distance: 18.2km
--Duration: 1:07 (excluding 19mins of sitting around after the warm-up)

Ride for Heart

This event had been on my radar for two years, as some friends regularly attend for a fun ride on two of the city's major highways! I didn't consider doing it until this year, now that I have a bike that can take me a long way, and I can finally take it up a hill or two! I'd been practising a lot these past few months, and I can honestly say that I had honed all the skills I'd need to have a great Ride. I was really excited for weeks leading up to it - that's what confidence brings!

Technically, the max route available is 75km - start at the Exhibition, across the Gardiner, up the DVP to York Mills, down to the Bayview extension, back up to York Mills, back down and over to the Ex, then an extra jump west to Humber and finally back. My friend CM managed to do 100km last year by adding an extra loop up to YM. Well if he could do it, so would I! Same goes for our other friend ML - we were all in for a 100km time trial on our aero bikes. My other perennial Rider friends EW and JD were gonna go for the 75, one on a city road bike, the other on his heavier commuter. I would not have the courage. I still don't really enjoy cycling, so I wanted this to be over in as little time as possible. Plus I just wanted to fly!

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Since this is largely a family event and fundraiser, anyone expecting to speed through this needs to start as early as possible to avoid the crowds of pleasure-riders. I put myself on the start line at 6:05am, but looks like I could have started even before 6. A short ride through the Ex, and I found myself getting marshalled onto a Gardiner on-ramp! I was giddy as I slipped onto the empty highway. What a feeling.

I started passing any riders in front of me, and I didn't get caught by a roadie until after going through downtown. Before I knew it, I was gliding down the ramp onto the DVP, and this is where I recorded my top speed for the Ride, 50.8kph. This was also where I rode past some baby geese - waddling in the left lane! Very cute, but I hope they got outta there fast.

I finally got passed by a small group of roadies somewhere in Riverdale.

--Distance: 100km
--Duration: 3:27:00

Hospital Hills Bike Recce

Tonight was to be my triumphant return to running with my beloved club XSNRG. Turned out I forgot to pack my running shoes! Realized it in the parking lot at the park. So I decided not to waste the evening, pulled the bike out of the trunk and went out to recce a hill workout that my temporary AE Coach had suggested.

Sunnybrook Park has a few paved hills, but two of them are close enough together that you can go up one, coast down, recover in between, and go back up the other, over and over again. Distances: 680m with 15m climb (2%), 300m across the bottom, 400m with 7m climb (1.7%) - hmm... I find it hard to believe the second climb is only 7m, as it's much steeper than the first one. But that is what MapMyRun tells me.

I managed to do the longer gradual hill all well within the big ring, except maxing it out at the very top, which is steeper. The shorter steeper hill was also all big ring, but maxed it out a bit sooner. I loved both. Never got up out of my seat either. I could do these over and over, except I had my running club's annual membership dinner to catch. I decided to do the hills one more time so that I could really say that I could do them.

Then I hammered back up what we in SOF used to call Victory Hill back up to the upper fields. This one is about 350m with 10m climb (2.8%) and a nice smooth surface. I stayed in my seat the whole time again, but I heard another cyclist coming up behind me - a roadie out of his saddle. I decided not to race him because I felt that I could win this mentally by staying seated like a gentleman. He just edged me out at the top - good for him and special needs, haha.

--Distance: 8.7km
--Elevation Gain: 73m
--Duration: ~30mins, wasn't counting

Road Surfaces:
- the flat park road is okay but has endless speed bumps, so impossible to really ride it
- the gradual hill is mostly okay, but has some very rough asphalt at the bottom
- the steep hill is totally cool
- Victory hill is smooth and nice

Bike Transition Skills

After my debacle at the mount line of not being able to get on my pedals and clip in, I am starting to take very seriously my buddy ML's admonition that jumping onto shoes that are already attached to the pedals is the way to go. I know there is some trick with elastic bands that hold your shoes level on the bike, but I will have to do a session with him to get through that.

Tonight I took my bike down the street to the Waterfront Trail, the 1.1km site of my ultra-short try-tri brick workouts last year, just to practise handling the bike safely while reaching down to my shoes with my hands, etc.

Dude reaching for his shoes. (those are my exact bike and shoes!)

New Skillz practised, mostly did each over and over for the 1.1km length or more:

• reaching down with hand to shoe loop
• reaching down and holding loop for a few seconds
• pulling strap off
• pulling strap back across
• nice tight turns at the turn-arounds
• pulling feet out of shoes (I lost a shoe a couple of times, and it dragged on the ground)
• pedalling on top of shoes
• running while holding the bike's saddle
• steering the bike by pulling the saddle in and pushing it away
• getting onto bike with the right foot in the shoe
• reaching down and pulling the loop up, re-strapping shoe
• kicking into the other shoe, which was extremely difficult with it hanging upside-down! (this is where the stupid elastics come in)

Other Skillz I threw in:

• checking over my shoulders while in aero
• making turns on a slight downhill in aero
• going over rough ground in aero

Wow, all this took probably an hour, but I got so confident so quickly! At the start, I didn't think I could reach all the way to my foot at all without falling over, especially on the left side, as for some reason I've grown accustomed to doing stuff with my right and holding the bike with my left - right down to switching the left gears with my right hand! (Don't mock me.) But I took to this constant reaching down very quickly. I could even do it from aero safely at the end.

I read that while you're doing each of the skills for each shoe, you should break up each action by pedalling for 15secs or so,  to keep a decent speed up so you can be more stable. So the above skills were done by taking a few pedal strokes in between each, but I'll have to pedal more IRL.

At the end, I did one more out-and-back ride at full speed, just cause I wanted to fly on the straight-away. (:

--Distance: ~20K, but lost count of the back-and-forths
--Duration: ~60mins, dunno

When I got back home, I went for a ~1K running loop around the block to shake out my legs. I realized from the race photos that I'd basically forgotten how to run. Gah. So I focused heavily on skills - midfoot striking, abducting my knees, more bounding strides. I didn't feel pain, but I did have a kind of tightness through the left hamstring, like I still can't open up my stride. Baby steps.

MultiSport Canada Sprint Triathlon - Woodstock

The Woodstock Sprint was my first triathlon of the season, first open water swim, first race for my Cervélo P2, and first race since the Yonge Street 10K, which had put me out of running commission for the past 5 weeks. Also my first race with my tri buddy ML, who's been encouraging me and "coaching" me ever since we met by chance standing waist-deep in Lake Ontario at a swim clinic last summer. I was considering switching to the Swim/Bike race, but as I felt better closer to the race, I thought I'd start in the Tri and see what happens.

The official water temperature was 22°, and since I loathe putting on and taking off my wetsuit, I decided to dip a foot in the pond-like Pittock reservoir to test it out. It felt warm like pool water. I hesitated a bit, and looking around, realized that basically everyone was donning their wetsuits. I mulled it over a bit more, but finally decided that this would be a "naked" swim for me. It would be only 500m, so I figured that any time I would gain along that distance would be annihilated in T1 when I'd get stuck in my wetsuit. I jumped in for a few hundred meters of warm-up, and I felt amazing. My new Aquasphere Kaiman goggles were great - I got the bad-ass mirrored lenses this time, way cool. I was also wearing my new Garmin 910XT watch (a.k.a. The Satellite Dish), and it was in Multisport Mode, so I was able to track each discipline plus transitions separately (although couldn't figure out the read-out, so all I'd get is periodic lap reminders, haha).

ML was starting 2 waves and 8mins ahead, so I cheered him off. I did some running ABCs and felt okay. Once we started, it was quite a frenzy in the murky waters, but that's the way I like it. ML had reminded me to pick some sighting points ahead of time, as the bright buoys are hard to see - thank goodness, because I immediately picked out a huge tree in the distance, and that would carry me perfectly straight to the first turn - best sighting ever! I was sprinting this swim, and all I could think was how long can I keep this up before I run out of breath? My strokes felt amazing, but I had no idea how I was doing, as I couldn't really see my competition over the splashing and thrashing. Turns out I finished way back in 8th out of 11.

On the exit, I used my friend CM's advice not to run out of the water, but to let my heart rate calm a bit. I still had a fun time getting my bike shoes on (noob!), but without the dreaded wetsuit, I moved up two spots to 6th on the way out of T1. Shoulda seen me try to get on my bike though - could not click my left pedal, how embarrassing!

The bike course was 20K of what seemed like light rollers, although looking at the elevation profile, it was uphill-rolling-downhill-rolling-uphill-downhill. I'm realizing more and more how much of a misconception I have of elevation on the bike! I decided to hammer this ride as much as I did the swim. I was only passed by two people along the course, one of whom I thought I was racing (she was just out of my AG), so I kept up with her just in case. Positive points developed at training camp: confidence in aero, confidence at high speed, going into rollers at good cadence, being able to check behind me in aero before passing. The ride was thrilling because of how fast this bike can fly. It's like I was cheating. I moved up another two spots into 4th off the bike.

The run was only 4K, but it was so hot at this point. Having not done any brick workouts like last year, I was dragging my legs. I was a bit worried that I'd killed them on the bike, but I also knew that in a field of triathletes, I can always pull a decent run out of my butt regardless of energy. It was a nice course through a park and I passed a bunch of people, but also got passed. I finally started to accelerate with about 500m to go, and I realized I was getting chased by one woman. I know I can out-sprint pretty much anyone at the finish, and that is what I did. Thank goodness - I hung onto 3rd place by 5secs!!

I can't believe I actually placed; I think it was a combination of concerted training in the past few months and sheer luck as to who showed up to my AG. I'd been dreaming of standing on a podium at the MSC series ever since my sprint last year, when I realized I can outrun many other triathletes. It seemed like an impossible dream to catch up in swimming, and especially in biking (and transitions!), but here it is. I'm gonna like this sport.

Official times for 500m / 20K / 4K

12:03 / 1:13 / 41:17 / 0:58 / 19:52

= 1:15:20

I have to pull my actual swim time off my Garmin, sans run-in to T1. I have a feeling I was faster than that in the actual water!
I am quite impressed with my ride time, but I think my bike did most of the work, haha.
A slow run time (should have been closer to 18:00), but with 5 weeks off, I'll take it. Watch out, triathletes - my running legs are making a comeback!

	S	T1	B	T2	R	F
Place in Discipline	8	3	3	3	3	3
Place in Real Time	8	6	4	4	3	3

So looks like other than the naked swim, I was consistently 3rd through the rest of the race.
And if I extrapolate to normal sprint distances and compare to my sprint last year, I would have been 3rd in that race too (as opposed to 12th), despite a much slower swim and run as well. But the racing bike obviously beat the pants off my commuter, haha. Until the next real sprint in July, I'm gonna chalk the slow times up to not using the wetsuit and to being off running.

Toronto Triathlon Club Training Camp - Day 3

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