Vancouver Half Iron - finish

Truth be told. I was running hard to get under 4:42 and it appeared that I had accomplished this objective but my finish time was 4:42:01.

The lean - well, it was unintentional really. I was running hard for the line, of that there was no doubt. But I also stumbled because of a bump in the carpet.

The end result was a great finishing photo and a new strategy to lean across a few more lines!

Craig Alexander

Check out the latest issue of Impact Magazine for a story written by Margreet on the World Champ.

A real gentleman and sportsman.

http://www.impactmagazine.ca/profiles/2009/ironman.html

Peloton denied

This morning it was back to the Titans time trial course for a fourth effort, and I couldn't be happier with the result.

Dingo was going to sit on my wheel as he continues to recover from running into a tree branch at last week's race.

The course is on Squamish Valley Road starting about the 2km mark (there's a sign) and it runs down for almost 10km. Just before the 'bridge' you turnaround and head back to the start.

I was in good spirits and as often is the case looked to push myself.

For the first half, I rode 15.29 and clocked 15.48 on the return. I believe that's the narrowest gap so far.

As I struggled to keep my pace on the return, Dingo was 'encouraging' me with reports of a fast approaching peloton, in particular that Cavendish guy. And it helped spur me forward.

I had a bike revelation of sorts: lower the gear, speed the cadence and go faster. I was pushing gears up and down in part to refresh my legs, and it seemed to work.

The stats:

Today

time 31.18 .. avg speed 37.1 .. avg cad 90 .. distance 19.8km

July 3rd

32.37 .. avg sp 33.5 .. avg cad 79 .. dis 19.6km

June 11th

31.40 .. avg sp 33.7 .. avg cad 76 .. dis 19.5km

May 28th

31.44 .. avg sp 35.9 .. avg cad 79 .. dis 19.6km

Ah yes .. We were too fast for the peloton today. Stage win for me. A good way to start the day.

Vancouver Half Iron - bike

Race nutrition

Deciding exactly what to consume on race day is a long-term process.

For this race, I opted for two cans/bottles of Ensure Plus (355 cals each) and one chocolate Powerbar sport bar.

I had a cup of tea on the drive from home to the start.

Ahead of the swim (15 mins) I had one scoop of Gatorade with 100ml of water. Right down the hatch.

I felt strong through the swim, consistently so. I also felt good on the bike.

On the bike, I had mixed three Powerbar caf gels (50mg caf each) with water in two 500ml (small) bidons. I had some water with a light Gatorade mix in my jetstream. And I had a 750ml water/gatorade mix on the downtube.

I sipped the jetstream initially but then got onto the caf/water mix at about the 20 min mark and kept drip feeding myself at that point.

On the fourth lap I dumped the fluid from the bottle on the downtube .. I didn't need and I didn't want to carry it anymore either.

Onto the run, more diluted caf gels. I had two caf gels with water in two gel flasks. I used those to drip feed myself through the two laps, and took some water cups along the way too.

Post race .. a Vera burger and homestyle fries! Ah!!

Vancouver Half Iron

Perfect conditions. Dry, clear and no rain for the previous two days. Much better than the forecast earlier in the week.

It was another 3.30am alarm.

But when you're keen to race, it's not too hard to get going. Though I almost fell asleep during the drive to the start line (I was a passenger).

It was a PB performance for the distance for me ... and until I do some background checking, I believe I knocked at least 20 minutes off my previous best half time.

I crossed the line in 4:42.01 for 1.9km, 91km and 20km. That put me in second place. A superb day.

The stats:

my swim 33.37 (several people post race suggested the course was long. hard to know. always hard to swim as directly as one does in a pool.)

T1 1.56 (decent distance from beach to bikes)

my bike (91k) .. 2:35:15 .. avg sp 35.2 .. an awesome ride .. felt great

T2 1.23 (and that includes going to the wrong rack for my shoes! still a few cobwebs to clear but getting better.)

my run 1.29.53 or 4.30 pace

I achieved everything that I wanted on the day.

Dingo arrives

My younger, faster training partner has cleared Customs. It will be good to have someone to chase in the water and on the bike, in particular.