Author: gfox (old content)

Transition Dismount

fast like the wind

Today there was another triathlon, the Tri of Compassion. Sox has done this race many times, under its different names. When the alarm went off at 5:30, I began to question if these races were really necessary. We got ready, and headed to the course, but were a little late in meeting up with KaptainK. Oh, no pictures from the event since I was part of it. I was on a team with KaptainK and JJ (I did the bike leg). Team muddylaces. Wonder where that name came from eh?

The race organization was a bit of a gong show. When I arrived, I couldn’t find the rack I was supposed to put my bike in, and the volunteers I asked had no idea since htey just go there a bit of walking around, and I found that the racks were numbered, but the numbers were only on one side. Since I came in from the wrong direction, I couldn’t see the numbers.

I realized I had forgotten JJ’s number for the run, so thankfully Sox was able to zip home and get it for me. Meeitng up with K and JJ, we got hting sfigured out, and got body marked. The race meeting was supposed to be next, bu I couldn’t find my way in there. The lady at the front desk said it was through the mens changing area, but when I went to find it, I got lost. I knew it was through the showers, but I there was only one door there that said the steam room was closed. One other competitor told me it was actually through that door, but that I probably shouldn’t go that way with my bike shoes on. Making my way back to the front desk the lady said I should just use the door the swimmers run out of. When I got there I was blocked by a volunteer saying she wouldn’t let me through unless I took my shoes off. I wasn’t about to take my shoes and socks off and get my feet wet ride before my ride, so we were at an impasse. Next time I hope the organizers hold the prerace meeting in a location that all team members can access. That was very frustrating, and I got a little snippy with the volunteer. I am sorry about that. It really wasn’t with her, since I am sure she was just doing her job.

JJ and K gave the low down on the meeting, and in retrospect I didn’t really need to be there. Weird.

I made my way back to transition, only to find that my bike was sandwiched between two others. Since I had no equipment on the ground, the other competitors left me no space to get my bike in and out of the rack. While K swam, I waited in transition. Very specific rules in transition. I couldn’t unrack my bike, unless my helmet was fully fastened. I couldn’t unrack my bike until after K and I had tagged off. After my ride I had to fully rack my bike before I could tag off.

I saw K round the corner after her swim, so I mentally prepared myself. Tag then unrack. Run, but not too fast. K passed a few people while running down the hill, and the announcer said “and the first woman out of hte swim is … K”. Haha, she wasn’t actually the first woman out of the swim, but she was the first down the hill. Tag, I was it. I grabbed my bike, and took off. I got to the road was told I could mount, I jumped on and took a couple pedal strokes. I then went to clip in, and discovered my shoes were clogged with grass. I smacked my pedals a couple times to fre the grass, got clipped in, and started to power away. I realized I was pushing a little too hard for the beginning of the race, so I settled down a bit. Turning onto Esquimalt Ave I had a long straightaway.

While fully up to speed I caught a bus that was at the side of the road letting people off. When I got close he turned his signal on and pulled out. I had to hit the brakes and downshift to avoid hitting him. Shaking that off I spun up to my previous speed and kept going. It was a fun bike course, and I passed lots of people. I felt a little bad since I was passing them with quite a difference in speed. I wanted to tell them that I was part of a team, but I couldn’t get the words out. As I passed the lap marker Sox and Lisa were there cheering for me. I was working hard, and didn’t want to break concentration too much, but it was appreciated. Finishing lap one I felt good. I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t out of breath. I felt strong, so I kept pushing.

On lap two I passed more people, but I had a bit of a surprise. Ahead of me on Gore street was a large tanker truck. Thankfully he turned left off the course before I got to him. At I made the turn at the base I could hear a whine approaching me from behind. I knew Todd was working the race as a marshal carrier, and sure enough it was him. He sailed past me at the crest of a hill while I was standing on the pedals giving a good effort. Lap two finished without issue, so I was on to my thrid and final lap.

I could feel myself slowing down a little. I checked my pace, and it was certainly slower than the first two laps, so I chided myself and sped up. The third lap I wanted to be my fastest. I thanked each of the many volunteers as I went past them, but I kept up my pace. Down Head street, on the biggest hill, I spun out my top gear. I got up to 58 KM/H down there. Past our house for the third time, back towards the base for the last time. While I was cresting the second to last hill, someone started to pass me on my left. I hadn’t intended this, but when the hill turned downward, I continued my pace, and geared up. I dropped them, and felt a little bad about it. I glanced behind me, saw they were a good distance back, so I moved over so I could turn back into the base.

The last hill I sped down knowing I was almost done. I clipped out, rested my feet on the pedals, and saw the marshals and aimed for them. They were frantically waving for me to slow down. D was there point to the (imaginary) dismount line. I think I gave the marshalls alittle scare since I came in so fast. I stopped easily though, jumped off, lifted my bike over the curb, and jogged to my spot in the rack. Jogging felt weird after riding like I had. Racking my bike I turned, tagged JJ and he was off.

I was out of breath at this point, and feeling the strain of a hard ride. I grabbed my water and walked it off. A couple people mentioned that my ride time was pretty fast, but I still am not sure how I did with that.

JJ was fast on the run though. His 5KM run, which is very hilly, took 21 minutes. Overall our time was 1:12 and we held the fastest time for a bit. There was some confusion on the announcer as JJ crossed the line though. K had signed up our team, so our team number had her name beside it. He was confused seeing JJ cross the line and reading K’s name. My ride time on my bike computer said 41 minutes 8 seconds, an average speed of 27.9 KM/H, max speed 58 KM/H, and a distance of 19.16 KM’s. I am pretty happy with my ride. I don’t think I could have pushed any harder than I did. It was pretty fun too, but I really can’t imagine having to do a run after that ride. Yeuck. I will stick with biking only thankyouverymuch. 🙂

Triathlon Coffee

KaptainK mounting her trusty steed

Thanks Todd for reminding me to put up my pictures from the Cowichan Challenge last weekend. Sox has done this race a few times before, but KaptainK was doing it for the first time. Actually, this was KaptainK’s first triathlon ever! Way to go K.

I wasn’t sure what the weather was going to be like for the race so I dressed conservatively. Turned out I was way overdressed. Before the race JJ and I stopped in Chemainus for some coffee and yummy breakfast burritos. Now that is the way to watch a triathlon. Good coffee, good breakfast, sun shining, dogs panting. It was fun.

There were actually quite a few people that I knew doing the race, so I was able to cheer lots.

I am just rambling now, and I guess that is about it. Results from the race are here. My pics are here.

Buzzing Cat

Things that kept me from sleeping last night/this morning:

  1. 10:00 – 11:00 mosquitos buzzing around me head
  2. 2:30 am loud teens yelling while walking up and down the street
  3. 4:00 am Yoshi wandering around upstairs bashing into things and scraping his cone on the walls
  4. 5:00 am cat wandering around the bed meowing because she can’t get downstairs because of the dogs outside the bedroom door.
  5. 6:15 am my alarm clock

I am a little out of it this morning. :O

Whipped Pies

Got a little ripped off tonight. Sox and I were looking for a post dinner snack so on our way home we stopped at White Spot. Mmmm, pie. I got my usual, the lemon meringue pie, while Sox opted for the fresh blueberry pie. We go them to go so they were packaged to us.

While driving home Sox opened hers to take a peek and was quite disappointed to find there was no whipped cream on her slice like there was in the picture. My pie didn’t have any normal like it usually comes with.

In the end it worked out fine though, both pies were quite tasty. We each had half of each slice. The blueberries were quite yummy and the lemon very tangy.

Steroid Cone

poor, poor Yoshi

Poor Yoshi. Poor us. We are looking after Sheba for a couple weeks, and normally this is great fun for Yoshi.

Unfortunately for Yoshi, this past Tuesday night, his nuts looked a little funny. Upon closer inspection he had scabby nuts. We had to take him into the vet on Thursday and they think he has some kind of infection on his scrotum. The treatment is a steroid cream that needs to be applied twice daily, and that Yoshi cannot ingest it. This means he needs a cone, and since he has never worn one, and is always a little neurotic anyway, this next week will be a little tough.

This weekend we are going to Cowichan lake with Sheba, Digger, and Chutney. It should be a fun play weekend, but Yoshi will be wearing a cone. Poor guy.

So far he is taking it well, but he certainly doesn’t seem comfortable.

Milestone Juice

I passed a nice milestone today, and I didn’t even know I was that close. Actually, I didn’t even really know I had this as a milestone.

Tonight I donated blood for the 25th time. Wahoo.

I was kind of dreading going in tonight. My back was sore, I have been really tired lately, and I was a little hungry since I hadn’t eaten yet. That all changed when I foundout it was my 25th though.

It is a fun place to go for me. Much of the staff recognizes me, so we can joke around. I can zip through most of the questions since nothing has changed, and I read fast.

Once in the chair I was feeling great. The chairs they have are extremely comfortable. Sometimes I have to remind myself to stay awake.

When the donation was all over and done I was on to the juice and cookies. Yum. Slap on my sticker, and I was on my way.

I feel really good about myself everytime I donate blood. It really is something that I enjoy doing, and I know it benefits society. There are so many charities out there right now gathering funds, and it makes me sad that I can’t donate to help out. Sox and I are working real hard on paying off our debt, so anything extra we have generally goes towards that. Besides, you never know how much of a donation to a charity goes to helping versus helping run the charity.

Blood helps anyone that needs it. It is what I do to help society.

Stone Handlers

running, running, running, and jumping

Had another Ulti game last night. It was super windy out so that made the game quite a challenge. You never knew what the disc was going to do once it was in the air. Sometimes it would drop from the sky like a stone, other times it would carry forever.

On our team I am one of the handlers. This means I get the disc a lot, and am responsible for getting to others who are open. This is a bit of a different position for me. I am used to being further away from the disc, and popping from the stack to the handlers. I am learning a lot this season, but still making some silly mistakes.

One thing I have done a few times is when we are on the zone D, and the cup gets broken. As a mid, I tend to chase the disc to the catcher, instead of falling back like I should so I can cut off other passes. It happened a couple times last night, and at least I recognized what I was doing. Next time I need to recognize it before I run in.

One play we were on the offense, and the other team was zoning us. We started on our own goal line, and dropped back into our own end zone. It was tight for a bit, but slowly we marched the disc to the oppositions end zone. Then, the toss to the end zone went off. I held my breath, the disc flew straight to one of my team players, their hands were open, the disc flew in, and it hit the ground. They dropped it. Crud. The other team got it, gave it a huge huck that wasn’t caught, and it was down in our end zone again. For a second time we marched it up the field, slowly but surely. This time we were able to capitalize and scored.

Another point where I was a handler, and we were zoned I mad some really stupid, high risk passes that I totally telegraphed. One made it to the popper, but the second was horrible. I actually hit the person who was checking in the ribs with the disc. I was that far off my mark. Yeesh.

My final point on the night wasn’t the last point in the game. I was chasing my check, who was chasing the disc. We both got under it at around the same time, and we both jumped up. I managed to tap the disc, but a third person (someone from the other team), crashed into me while I was in the air. I hit the ground hard, and something felt weird. I tweaked something in my back. I found it slightly more difficult to breathe. At the end of that point I sat off for a bit. When I next went to rejoin the game I felt a spasm in my back. I never went back in.

This leads to today. My back has been sore all day. It was so bad at work that I left a little early so I could lay on the couch for a bit. That helped but then I had to get up and do some running around. I hate back issues. It makes life almost unbearable at times.