Gyro Swim Loop

2.5 weeks post-Ironman and things are starting to come back to normal.  We’ve put in a respectable week of training, still with plenty of caution to ensure proper recovery from Ironman Coeur d’Alene.  Heather’s got a bit of time to rest up and re-focus for Hawaii.  I, on the other hand, am staring Ironman Canada in the face so can’t let things slide too far.  We’re both confident we’ll be bringing some decent legs to this weekend’s Desert Half Iron – the Canadian Long Course Champs in Osoyoos.

One of the best things about the Okanagan valley is all the lake swimming.  So many beautiful lakes for swimming!!  Vernon has countless beaches where you can swim in some of the most beautiful water imaginable – our favorite swim being from Jade and Juniper Bay to Cousins Bay on Kalamalka Lake. But we’ve discovered that  Kelowna isn’t too shabby either! (We’re both from Vernon originally so we’ve had to let go of some anti-Kelowna prejudge).  Kelowna has an amazing open water swimming communtiy, complete with open water swim courses, marked every 50 meters with a swim buoys.  We’ve been frequenting the Giro swim course since we first were introduced to it at an open water group swim on Saturday.  There are regular Saturday morning time trials at the Gyro Swim loop, with some great swimmers and super friendly people. So cool. Last weekend was a mass start, but I believe they’ll be sending each of us individually this coming Saturday.  You can choose from a 1 lap 800m TT or a 2 lap 1600m race.  Such a great way to get some opemn water training in!

The Okanagan also has some awesome open water swim events, a few of which we’re going to do.  July 18th is the Kelowna Across the Lake Swim – which we did last year as well.  August 8th there’s a 7km swim from Peachland, around Rattlesnake Island and back.  If you take a look at Peachland on Google maps and switch it to Sattelite view, you can zoom in and see the island on the other side of the lake.  We’re looking forward to that one, though I think we’ll need to get Jonnyo to fix our GPS device.  And one final swim race we’ll hopefully do is the ‘Downhill Swim’ in the channel from Okanagan Lake to Skaha Lake – through Penticton – the week before Ironma Canada.  The distane is 6km, but I’m not sure what the flowing water does to shorten the times for that.  They should throw in a couple rapids to make it interesting.

Fun times!!

Who’s the chubby guy??

So, a few months ago we were down in California watching the Tour of California Stage Time Trial.  Heather, myself, Chuckie V, another of CV’s athletes was there along with the thousands of other spectators all clamoring to get a glimpse of the world’s best cyclists.

We were watching all the teams warm up next to their team busses and eventually made our way around to the Columbia Highroad team where we saw Big George and a few other riders gearing up for their effort an hour or so later.  Chuckie immediately picked out a short stocky guy in green shorts and rather loudly said “Who’s that fat guy?  He can’t be racing.  These riders must just be the amateurs who test out the equipment while the real guys are still inside the bus.”  We moved on to our chosen viewing locale on the first big climb of the day.  Well, about 20 minutes later ‘chubs’ comes flying by us on the course – Chuckie smiles slightly and glances down at his race program to see who the name was.  Yep, you guessed it, the fastest road sprinter in the world – Mark Cavendish.  Needless to say Chuckie was a bit embarrassed and we all had a good laugh.

So the next time someone calls you fat, just tell them your gearing up for the Tour de France a few months down the road.  Cavendish  just won his 5th Tour de France stage, and probably generated about 1700 watts in the process.

Hill Climb

Heather at the Silver Start Hill Climb

Trevor here… What endurance sports activity is more painful than an Ironman?  A 1 hour hill climb bike race is what.  A completely different type of pain, however.  Instead of the leg withering fatigue you experience in an Ironman, you get the lung burning muscle shredding heart pounding pain of a max effort suffer fest (Dramatic, I know).  Despite the knowledge of said pain, Heather and I jumped at the chance to race a local bike race up Silver Star mountain in Vernon, BC.  As a Junior cyclist (14 years ago!!) I did this race when it first started up so wanted to give it a go again.  Unfortunately I don’t remember my time from back then, but I do know the guy that won 14 years ago won again yesterday – Olav Stana.  If you’re a cyclist in Canada, particularly the west coast of Canada, you’ll know who Olav is.  I’ll have to look and see, but I know he’s won the Masters World championships for cycling at least once.  Probably more than once, actually.  The guy is impressive, he’s over 50 years old now and annihilated us all by over 3 minutes on a 53 minute climb.  I managed to hang on for second after going out a bit too hard in a lame pursuit of Olaf.  Heather won the women’s race and made a few of the manly men on full carbon 13 pound climbing steeds angry by passing them on her Blue T16 Triathlon Bike (everyone loved the bikes, but couldn’t believe we entered a hill climb road race with them).  I’m assuming they didn’t know who Heather was and to get ‘chicked’ by a chick on a bike with aero bars and two bottle cages hanging off the back of her seat wasn’t fun for their egos.  Suck it up boys, heehee.

It was a good jump start to the post Ironman training.  Energy systems are feeling really good and we’re keen to get back into the real training.  We’re both going to hit up the Osoyoos Desert Half Iron on the 12th of July.  Not sure how that’ll shake up but we’re both feeling decent so I would hope we’ll be feeling ready to race.  From there it’s Ironman Canada prep for me, and Heather will be gearing up solely for the World Champs in Hawaii.  Perhaps another Ironman 70.3 before October to keep the racing mentality fresh and ready to go.

Heather’s IM CdA race report

I normally don’t lack motivation but the week after an Ironman is a real doozy!  Both Trev and I are acting like chicks with really bad PMS (Post  M-dot  Syndrome) swinging from happy and pumped to train, to cranky and hungry and tired at the drop of a hat. Gotta love how extreme exertion for 9+ hours messes with your hormones!

Anyway, I am supposed to write race reports (we promised Chuckie, and I guess people find it interesting), but as you know if you follow this blog regularly, I tend to drop the ball on that one!  I spend a lot of time analyzing the race in my head and writing notes on what I did well, and what I need to improve, so I get a little sick of even thinking about it.

But without further ado, here it is:

My bib number was #1, which was pretty cool. Usually the pro men get the low numbers but I was the only returning champ so I got to look at the super-motivating numero uno stuck to my stem the the whole ride!  It was funny having #1 on the run, though, when I wasn’t in first position. People would cheer “way to go number one!!” and then someone would correct them saying “she’s not first, she’s second/third”… and then “but she’s wearing #1″, “oh she won last year!?”. Ha ha. It’s not like we switch numbers mid race people!

The swim  – twas rough. I stayed super conservative at the start to save energy and ended up swimming slower than I felt I could the whole time just sticking on feet and staying with Kate Major. Trev was on my feet first lap, I was on his the second.

The bike – felt good. I didn’t don arm warmers in the thrill of transition which was a mistake because I was very cold.  I also had a mechanical that wouldn’t allow me to get into my biggest gears – the bottom two rings randomly popped loose on my cog set – so I couldn’t ride hard down any hills so I definitely lost a lot of time there. Took some major mental re-focusing to get over that, keep riding strong, and re-pass Kate Major. I was glad to have put some time into her before the run, and it was interesting to have another competitor around on the bike. Usually my Ironman rides are long, lonely endeavors and pacing is different when you have others to gauge your effort off of.

The run – was ok when I wasn’t solely focused on trying not to shit myself. It was so cold that I underhydrated on the bike and the stomach was NOT happy. I was gaining consistently on Tyler the first lap, and staying ahead of Kate, but I had to make several porta potty stops and I couldn’t really eat anything so I was losing time, catching back up, losing time, catching up…
I was pretty happy with how strong I was able to run all things considered. I really wanted to hit 3:15 or faster and it I think it would have been doable w/o the GI stuff.
A bit of a mystery there… perhaps a lot of lake water swallowed, inadequate hydration… magical new sensitivity to the race foods that have worked well in the past…

Drug testing – very important to do because I want to compete in a sport where the athletes are clean, but still, not pleasant at the time when you are cold and exhausted and all you want to do is to shower and lie down.

Here’s how it works: you have to select a sterile cup and lid (sealed in plastic), wash your hands without soap, and then be exposed from your midriff to your thighs and the official has to watch you pee in a cup. If, say, you have really bad diarrhea, the official has to watch this too and you can’t even remove yourself from her sight to clean up.  The officials are really cool about it and they do all they can to make you as comfortable as possible, but it is still highly unpleasant. I tend to suffer from stage fright and it doesn’t help when you are dehydrated. I only got a partial sample the first try – you need 90 ml – so I had to drink more and wait around to pee yet again. In the meantime there were lots of forms to fill out and write down every supplement – protein powder etc – that you’ve take within 3 days of the race. It is all very secure and official, with locking-lid lab bottles and codes to trace your particular sample.
I would never take a performance enhancing drug, but you still get all paranoid – like what if my veggie greens, electrolytes, protein powders were somehow contaminated? What if was so dehydrated and in such a state of muscle breakdown that there were high levels of proteins in my urine which could lead to a false positive (as per an article in Inside Triathlon a few issues ago)?  A few months ago I put cortisol cream on a bad rash that I got on my hand from touching poison oak – cortisol is a steroid right? oh my god…
It’s all very draining really.

So too, perhaps, is reading this long blog entry that wasn’t intended to be so… sheesh.

Ciao for now. Happy recovery.

Trevor’s Ironman Coeur d’Alene Race Report

Straight to the point – that swim was rough! I rank it as my most stressful swim ever.  Boise 70.3 from 2008 comes a close second.  There were a couple times where I went to bring my arm out of the water only to find a wave pushing it back down.  You’d then break through the other side of the wave only to crash in to the trough and plow right in to the next wave without a chance for a breath.  Thankfully though, only one major panic, a few motion sickness burps and one annoying chick that wouldn’t get off my shoulder.  Guy from Blueseventy hooked us up with some wicked new goggles the day before the race.  The Hydra-Vision’s.  Despite the chaos of the water, athletes, waves and wind I could always spot a swim buoy with these puppies.

I took my sweet time in transition and dressed for cold weather.  I almost didn’t bother, but coming out of the water I could feel a nip in the air and see some clouds coming in.  Given the wet nights and cold thundershowers we had been having the few days before, I didn’t want to take any chances.  It ended up staying dry, but I certainly didn’t overheat so was happy to have the extra layer.  Heather said she was getting pretty cold, so I would I have been in trouble were it not for the long sleeves.

I’m satisfied with my bike split even though it was slower than both of my Ironman splits from last year.  It’s a deceptively tough course and one that can wreck your legs quickly if you try to muscle it over the rollers.  I made the decision to take it a bit easier on the bike so as to really give myself a good chance at cracking 3 hours on the marathon.  It’s a fine line really, and one that’s tough tread.  I even-splitted the course – perhaps 2 minutes faster on the second lap and had plenty left in the tank, a good sign.  Chance and Chris from Blue were at the race this year and they really got our bikes going well.  Some new ceramic bearings in the bottom bracket, a tweak to the brakes, drive-train and the ‘Triad’ was flying.  “If you love it – Lube it”

Getting on to the run I felt good right away.  I think I may have been 10th going into T2 and 9th coming out.  Going sub three as per my goal requires an average pace of about 6:55 per mile.  I figured if I could just keep it sub 6:50 for 13 miles that should give me a really good shot at cracking that time.  I know I have it in me to run that fast this year but it didn’t come out on Sunday.  My first two miles were awesome, and easy – both looking at 6:35 pace (perhaps a bit too fast, it’s hard to run slow when the crowd is cheering out of transition).  From there I lost track of a few of the mile markers but got on them again at mile 6 where I hit a couple 6:58’s…not inspiring for my 3hr goal.  A few more mile splits and I was still hitting around 7’s at the effort I wanted to put out, so decided to forget the mile split focus and just get on with figuring out how to get up to 5th place.  You see, 5th place had one of those wicked bikers with the “5th place male” sign on it…and I wanted that.
With about 10 miles to go, still sitting in 8th after being passed by one guy and passing a few others, I started to really feel my pace drop off badly.  A mile after that I was happy to simply tuck in behind couple age groupers on their first lap for shelter from the freezing wind.  I started thinking about how I was going to manage to run or even move through the remaining 9 miles.  The wind and cold really started to hit me once I couldn’t push the pace, my engine was shutting down and the heat that comes with that engine was disappearing fast.  Along the lake it seemed like a headwind both ways, I must have been moving at a sluggish 9 minute mile pace about to resign myself to walking.  Then came dizziness, my definite sign of low sodium.  I hadn’t even thought to continue popping my electrolyte pills because I wasn’t even close to warm enough to sweat.  As soon as I got to the next aid station I stopped, grabbed warm chicken soup broth, downed two electrolyte pills, slammed a coke, a gel, and a cup of water -15 seconds later, no exaggeration, I started feeling like a new man.
At the far turn around with six miles to go I saw 5th, 6th, and 7th were all within half a mile of me.  With my new found legs I managed to start closing the gap on 7th, and he was closing the gap on 6th, who was also closing the gap on 5th.   I could tell Scott Curry( in 7th ) was trying to real in 6th so I didn’t know if he’d be paying attention to me coming up on him.  Once I got within a few seconds, Scott was also right behind 6th place about to make a pass.  Scott knows my name so I was hoping nobody would yell out ‘Go Trevor’.  I prefer the sneak attack, haha.  But they did, and they also yelled ‘There’s three of you together with only two miles to go’.  I love racing, and was stoked to be RACING in the last few miles of an Ironman.  It’s so often just survival and willing the finish line to come so the pain can end.  Having two other guys around, all fighting for money spots was pretty uplifting.  Thankfully I had really good legs and was able to go from 8th to 6th in one blow.  Even with a mile to go Chance and Chris from Blue were screaming at me to catch 5th.   I think they thought we had more than a mile to go but I kept running hard even with the guy out of site hoping he was walking a snails pace down the last few corners. I came into the finish about a minute down from that lead ‘5th place male’ biker that I wanted so badly.  Had I held it together through miles 16-18 maybe I could have got it.

A solid day in some less than optimal conditions, perhaps they played in my favor though, it’s hard to say.  It’s somewhat ironic that Heather and I spent the last 4 months seeking out warm weather only to have race day dawn with the coldest day we’ve had since March.  Fun times.  The more Ironmans I do the better my recovery seems to be.  Good thing on this one ’cause next up is Ironman Canada only 10 weeks away.

Thanks so much for all the support from you folks reading and cheering out on the course.  Heather and I love the triathlon world, everyone is so freaking cool.  Jasper Blake is still the coolest, though.  I hope some of you got chance to come up and check out the Blue Bike Demo at Cyclemetrix.  Blue is making a huge entry in the world of triathlon.  Brent McMahon has already won a 70.3 on their Triad, Adreas Raelart (Ironman Arizona 2008 Champion and 70.3 world championship silver medalist) is slated to kick some ass at Ironman Germany and Hawaii, Heather has her Ironman win from last year and two Ironman podium finishes on Blue Bikes, and well…hopefully you see my name as an Ironman winner within the next couple years too.

AVIA – you guys rock.  This is the one shoe company that I’ve never had blister problems with.  They’re putting a lot of focus on the triathlon world and making some sweet shoes.

And of course I have to thank Coach ChuckieV.  He’s helped us learn how to train as full time athletes.  It’s only been 4 months and we’re already looking at 2 years from now.  ‘You’re training to train’ is our mantra for this year.  Meaning, you train hard and smart now, so you can eventually train hard enough to be in contention for the wins.

3 and 6 in CdA

We have race reports and photos on the way – it is difficult to get your act together the day after an Ironman. I think a tornado may have struck the inside of the RV (they seem drawn to mobile homes).

We are both pretty happy. The race was tough this year, but we still improved – if not in placing (me) or total PR time (Trev), in several aspects of our performance.
 
In my unbiased, humble opinion as his wife, Trev ROCKED!! He broke into the top 10 in a big way and he isn’t even hobbling around like I am today. In fact, he is rubbing it in a bit too much – jumping up stairs and the like. Everyone was commenting on his form and how strong he looked during the run. He is going to be unstoppable in a couple of years!
I got really cold at the finish b/c there were too many interviews in too few clothes and then I had to go to drug testing for 2 hrs so my legs are SUPER sore today. Like a new post Ironman record soreness. Unless there is a serious hand rail, stairs are not happening.  Don’t worry Chuckie, we are going to go flop in the pool and loosen up this afternoon!
 
I got a Hawaii spot, but Trev just missed out. Not sure how our racing plans will shape up now, but we will keep you posted. I will likely just focus on Hawaii and do some half irons, but Trev may still do Ironman Canada.
 
We have to give a huge shout out to all the awesome people that we have met during our time in Coeur d’Alene.  The Kozaks are our amazingly wonderful adopted family and we feel really embraced by the community here. We are so fortunate to be able to do what we do and to get to know so many inspiring people!

While, at the moment, even walking is an issue I am already looking forward to getting back into a solid training routine up in the Okanagan Valley in BC – the land of lakes and 50m pools.  It will be nice to be close to our families again, and Kalamalka lake is one of my favorite swim spots in the whole world.

More soon… H

Some people just gotta hate

I got this mail from a “Mr.  Someone who has since apologized” this morning.  (In fact, someone used someone else’s email so if anyone remembers the guys name – please forget it.)
==
Not impressed at all with the way you handled Lisa Bentley’s attempted pass on the bike in 2008.  She’s a fellow Canadian for goodness sake!  Maybe your one and probably only Ironman win has got to your head?  Emma Snowsill doesn’t even have her own website – now that’s a true humble athlete….one to respect.  I’ve never seen her give attitude to other athletes out on the course.
I love Canadian athletes….Heather Fuhr, Lori Bowden, Peter Reid…..sorry, but you just don’t cut it in the respect category.
==
Though it isn’t even worth my time and energy to reply, I felt the need to write something. It is my first hate mail, so it is a special occasion.

First of all, thinking that you actually know anything about anyone’s true personality from watching a 30 second video clip is ridiculous.

Secondly, thinking that athletes who are trying to make their living through the sport of triathlon shouldn’t have websites, for modesty’s sake, is idiotic.

I will clarify the Lisa Bentley “screaming match” for those who are curious. In the first 10k on the bike at IM Canada last year, I passed Lisa Bentley. She came up to re-pass me moments later and I didn’t slow down quick enough for her liking so she turned to me and screamed, angrily, that I needed to drop back out of the draft zone. At the time, I wasn’t aware that I sped up when she came up – but it sure looks that way on the video. Fair enough. I was shocked by her outburst, just sort of in my own zone riding, and so I yelled back “Lisa, I’m hardly even peddling!”. I then dropped back the required 10 m, re-passed her, and that was the last I saw her for the rest of the race.
The camera guys were right there and they got it all on tape. Pretty exciting footage – Ironman bikes aren’t always the most thrilling of spectator events and so this little clip is shown in the race-recap. They showed it at the awards, and the audience laughed. We were all up on stage at the time and Lisa and I were jovial and joking about it. I apologized that I didn’t realize I wasn’t backing out of the zone fast enough, and she laughed saying she was just mad because she had to work so hard to pass me.

Mark is right. Canadian athletes are awesome. Anyone who knows Lisa Bentley knows that she is a smiling amiable person outside the performance area, but that she is an extremely fierce competitor.  She was mad and she screamed at me, I got mad and yelled back. That is racing, the eye of the tiger. Your competition is your competition.  It doesn’t make you a bad person.

Getting angry in the heat of competition is part of the game, writing a hateful email directly to someone you’ve never met and know nothing about speaks a lot more to the quality of your character.

PS. In case you didn’t catch the link above – here’s Emma Snowsill’s website for you.

Defending my title

This time around in Coeur d’Alene things are a little different.

Instead of being an up-and-comer who no one had really heard of, I am here as the defending champ (who no one has really heard of!)
I liked my anonymity – being an unknown and just showing up and cleaning house, but getting a little attention is okay too. Lord knows we need it to get more sponsors and keep our Ironman dreams financially solvent! Trevor and I have had a few interviews with newspapers, and last night the folks from the local ABC station came out to do an interview with us for the 6 o’clock news.
You can check that out here (click on the caption under the photo for the video).

What I wanted to write about, though, is the perceived pressure of being here as the defending champ. A lot of people have been asking me if I feel more stressed this year – now that I am training full time and a lot more is supposedly at stake. The answer is no, and some wise words paraphrased from Terry Orlick’s “In pursuit of excellence: how to win in sport and life through mental training” sum it up nicely:

If you take some sportscasters seriously, you might begin to believe that stress is external and inescapable, like rain pouring down from a dark cloud: “You can almost hear the tension out there…. this is it… do or die… the world is watching…there’s real pressure on these athletes here today.” But stress or anxiety doesn’t float around out there waiting to pounce on the athlete like some kind of bogeyman. Stress is strictly internal; it does not exist outside the person’s mind. What triggers your emotional reaction to an event is the way that you perceive the event, or what you say to yourself in relation to it – the event itself is neutral. Situations do not become anxious, people do. We are anxious when we accept a situation as stressful or when we become too concerned with outcomes or consequences of failing or falling short of our goals. Performers who enter the performance arena feeling excited and fully focused on the right things, remain in control. They repaint the anxiety-filled picture that others may have painted for them. Successful performers create a picture that is positive, focused and filled with opportunity.

You cannot control other competitors performances, but you can control your own focus. If you focus on your strengths you are strong. If you focus on why you can and how you will, your confidence grows. If you focus on the doing the doing will become your reality.
In the last few days leading up to Ironman it is important to deflect the stress that others may try to project upon you by having some positive focus reminders. Here are some that I like:
- I am fully capable of achieving the goals that I set for myself. They are within my control
- I am a good, valued person in my own right, regardless of any athletic achievement
- I am fully capable of focusing through adversity and staying on a positive path
- I choose to live my life fully
- I choose to excel
- What I decide, I become

I am physically and mentally ready for this race. I’ve got a job to do; I’m capable of doing it; I’ll focus fully on doing the best I can – step by step. Beyond that, I’m not going to worry about it.

Getting close to race week

For some reason the internet connection is not doing me any favors tonight so I’ve only uploaded two photos.  Perhaps I’ll put some more up tomorrow. 

Hard to believe we’ve been in Coeur d’Alene for a week already.  Heather and I have been enjoying ourselves.  There are two lakes to choose from – Coeur d’Alene and Hayden lakes – and some amazing riding with very little traffic.  Then of course you’ve got your typical US High School with million dollar track and field facilities just down the road.
Our homestay family was generous enough to let us use their truck so we could drive our bikes out the 30 miles along hwy 90 to the ‘Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s’ last Friday.  It’s an old abandoned rail line (much like the Galloping Goose in Victoria) but this one is paved for 73 miles along the Coeur d’Alene River, through wetlands and along the south end of the lake.  We started in the middle, at mile 42 and rode to mile 0 and back.  All of it dead-pan-flat with perfect asphalt and a slight 3% ‘climb’ at the far end.  Akin to riding a virtual reality computrainer with no need to stop for traffic.  It was an awesome, scenic ride.
Lake swimming has been wicked too.  We’ve ventured into CDA lake twice, both times starting down in the river where the water has got to be 5 degrees colder.  Even down at that end it’s tolerable if you can suck up a couple minutes of face pain.  It is fun to start out against a current and once you’re in the lake proper the water definitely warms up. It’s going to be perfect on race day provided some freak storm doesn’t chop up the water.  Another great lake option is Hayden lake at the North end of town.  Waaaay warmer, but you’ve got a few more boats to contend with (A non-issue with Jonnyo’s GPS device though!).
Aside from training we’ve got a great place to hang out.  Jim Kozak owns a small bike shop called Cyclemetrix.  We get the free run of the place.  I’ve never had the opportunity to look in a bike shop to my hearts content without that feeling of needing to buy something or get out.  I go in there every evening and check out the products.
Then comes the relaxation end of things.  The Kozak’s have two kids who drag us on to the trampoline every chance they get. It’s a fun place to get your mind off the race and keep things loose.  Heather and I are both amazed at how hard bouncing on a trampoline can be – we’ve been left winded on more than one occasion.  Unfortunately now that race day is pretty close we may have to back off on the tramp sessions.  We did get to go out and watch their daughters, Kestrelle and Sierra, race in a kids duathlon yesterday.  That was a great way to spend the morning; cheering a bunch of kids going flat out, 110%, sprinting the whole race, regardless of the distance.  Check out the run stride of Kestrelle and the bike power of Sierra – no wonder they cleaned house in their respective age divisions.
Things are about to get busy for Heather.  She’s already had a couple newspaper interviews, has a quick little photo shoot to do today for Fred’s Team (the folks raffling off a Blue Triad with front and rear 404’s – and a free hour in the wind tunnel).  Come Thursday there’s the Blue Bike Demo at Cyclemetrix, Friday is the Pro press conference, hopefully Saturday will be the lay low day prior to race day on Sunday.
All in all things are looking good.  We’ll see what 4 months of training full time can do for an Ironman result pretty quickly here.  In looking at the times from last year you can tell it’s a tough course so I may not even start a watch till the run.  I like not knowing what’s going on till the Marathon on a course that I’ve never done.  The most satisfying part of an Ironman for me is passing people in the last 10 km of the run.  I get such an energy boost from that.  Although – having a 15 minute lead like Heather did last year wouldn’t exactly be morally deflating!! We’re both so much fitter than at any point last year.  It’ll really comes down to putting it all together and sticking to the plan on race day.  Having fun and racing against herself was Heather’s golden ticket last year.  You’d be amazed how your frame of mind can affect your day – so enjoy it y’all.

Jonnyo GPS Swim Device

Jonnyo posted an open water swim tip on his blog the other day.  Heather and I purchased his nifty little GPS swim device and gave it a go – check it out below.  You may want to watch Jonnyo’s video first so you know how AWESOME the thing is.