Friday, May 25, 2012
Portland Rock and Roll Half Marathon
A couple months ago, I was asked if I wanted to do a half marathon and I said, sure, what the heck. Its only 13.1 miles, how hard could it be? I mean, I'm an Ironman, twice over, I should be able to knock out a few less miles, right? Unfortunately, I had been training for sprint distance triathlons so my run volume was a little lacking. I managed to slip in a few longer runs during my training week but the longest was 8 miles and that included many potty stops for my dog; he has a big bladder.
Race day came up quicker than I anticipated and before I knew it, I was picking up my race packet. I met with the folks from Team Refuel they gave me my running shirt....."What's your after?" was on the front. The first thing that comes to mind for after a race is a burger. My body craves protein after a hard effort and all the latest research has shown that chocolate milk is one of the best recovery foods out there and that is what Team Refuel is all about. I learned a little more about the combination of protein and carbohydrates that chocolate mile offers and how it helps to replenish the glycogen your body uses for energy. Sounds easy, its tasty and refreshing, so from my view point, its a slam dunk.
During my trek through the expo, I met another athlete wearing a similar brace to mine. I recognized her from the home page of my brace manufacturer, Allard USA. She has foot drop like I do but she runs a lot faster. Anyway, she was very excited to meet me as she is on a US tour of 20 Rock'n Roll Half Marathons to raise awareness for people with our disability. I immediately identified with her and her plight and offered to help in any way I can. Here is a link to her blog: http://getbackuptoday.blogspot.com/p/about-beth.html
Sunday at oh-dark-thirty, I was up and at 'em, ready to rock (and roll). I parked at Lloyd Center (joking I could always bail in the last two miles and drive to the finish) then rode the Max with a bunch of other athletes. I was wearing my Challenged Athletes Foundation sweatshirt and hat and with my massive blue brace, I had a few people looking at me. One guy asked what the brace was for and being the smart ass I am, I said it was a shin guard because people always kick me...... I did tell him the truth after the look on his face said he actually believed my answer. Sometimes explaining my injury gets old so I will just say I have an ankle injury or something simple. At the 9 mile mark, a guy asked if I had "bad shin splints" and I said, no, I'm disabled and the brace helps me from falling on my face. He said "you don't look disabled" to which I replied, "yeah, I get that a lot", then I upped my pace so I didn't have to answer more questions. At that point in the race, around the 2 hour mark, I had no desire to explain anymore. Its not that I was trying to be a jerk to him but sometimes I get emotional when I talk about it, particularly when I'm two hours into a race with a ways to go.
Things went very well. I was pacing myself to run at least 10K before I walked at all, however, the long, gradual hill on Hawthorne was a little much so I walked sooner than I wanted. I had a salt packet and foolishly (oxygen debt?) I ingested some before I got to the next water station. I won't do that again. I probably didn't need it but I did not want to cramp as I had a goal to meet. The bands along the way were great, although the DJ at the top of Hawthorne probably didn't need to have his music that loud, my ears still hurt. It was a great course and running along the Hawthorne and Steel Bridges was very cool. The finishing straight was LONG. I walked for a minute or so after getting off the bridge because I wanted to save some energy for running the final 1K. I looked at my watch and figured I had time to make my goal but I think the world starting spinning faster because before I knew it, my goal time was there. I upped my pace, ignoring the pain in my big toe and my shin (my AFO brace rubs on it), and crossed the line. I forgot to stop my watch right away but when I did, it read 2:47.
My goal for the race was 2:45. I was with the pace guy for the 2:30 group for 6 miles but with the long trek up Hawthorne, I lost him. I came in at 2:46.10 but I am going to say I had 2:44 and change due to the fact that I was stopped twice by the PD while they let some cars go across the course and the minute or so I talked to the paramedics, trying to get some Vaseline for my sensitive, chafed non-runner nipples. Either way, my time was a PR for me. Although I had never done the distance as a stand alone run, but I had done 3 half iron distance events in the past, the fastest 13.1 being 3:10, the slowest was 4:06 which was 2 years to the day after my injury, so I was very happy with the time.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Triathlon Canada High Performance Paratri Training Camp, 2012
I was lucky enough to be invited to the first training camp of its kind for Tri Canada, the winter paratriathlon training camp in Clermont FL. We were sent the schedule a couple of weeks prior to the camp and the volume was huge. Approximately 33 hours of training for me, over 7.5 days, including 30,000 yards of swimming, 15+ hours of riding, and 4.5 hours of running. I was very excited about attending the camp and spending my time doing all the training with no other distractions.
I arrived at the Orlando airport the night before camp was to start and after a night at the Kissimmee FL Ho Jo's, I was picked up by our coach Vince, and a representative from Tri Canada, Larry McMahon. Larry's son, Brent, is one of Canada's elite triathletes and may be representing Canada at the London games this year.
We stopped at Panda Express because the boys were hungry. We had a run scheduled later in the day and I needed some calories so I joined in. I shouldn't have. We stopped at Walmart, shopped for the basics of food, got to our rental, unloaded then suited up for a run.
We were only scheduled for 30-40 minutes easy but we got talking and I ended up going out a lot faster than I was used to and as I said earlier, I shouldn't have eaten at Panda. My gut started acting up about 2 miles in and I stopped a couple of times because I thought I was going to barf..... TMI? Anyway, our time was about 35 minutes but that included a little walking to shake the feeling I had.
After the run, we had dinner, talked a little about the camp, and then headed to bed. Another athlete came in later that night, Grant, an above the knee amputee, who I have known since my first World Championships in 2008.
Day 2 was a late start due to Grant's late arrival. We were on the slate to swim in the morning and ride in the afternoon. We checked into the National Training Center in Clermont and did a 3000m long course swim. I had not been in a 50m pool for many years and I was really looking forward to it. At least I was until mid way through the swim when I started getting very fatigued. My longest swim in a couple of years was 2000m and usually I do a main set of 3-4x250m with a warm up and cool down. This swim was 800m warm up, 800m drills (I learned a few things about my stroke that were very helpful), 8x100m, and 400m cool down. Arms were BEAT! Shoulders a little sore but nothing really bad.
After swim we had lunch, loaded up our bikes, and headed to Lake Lousia State park. The roads there are very quiet and we were able to do 45km doing 5 laps. It has a couple of hills but very short and not very steep but it was a good first time out for Grant and Vince, neither of who had an out door ride for a while.
We had a great dinner courtesy of Vince and a glass of wine to celebrate the first full day of camp. Afterwards I regretted having the wine because I did not sleep very well considering the workouts we had for the day.
Day 3 was an early start as we had 3 workouts scheduled. We were on our bikes at the NTC by 845am and headed to Lake Minneola. We had about 35 minutes on the road before we started our intervals. 10 x 1 minute with 1 minute rest. After that, we had about a 10 minute rest and did 6 more intervals. That took a lot out of me and we had a steady 5-7 minute climb to finish off to get back to the NTC. As soon as we were off the bikes, we headed in for another 3000m swim. This one was painful for me. It took the entire warm up for my shoulders to loosen up. I do not ever recall feeling this bad from swimming. Our swim set today, 800m warm up with 300m easy, 100m hard times 2. Our main set today, 40x50m. 16x50m on 55 seconds, 3 easy, 1 hard. 12x50m on 60 seconds, 2 easy, 1 hard. 8x50m 1 easy 1 hard. 4x50m all hard. Ouch. My 200m cool down was almost entirely on my back kicking as my arms had nothing left. After an extra long shower we went home for lunch and waited for the arrival of our last athlete, Jenny, from Ottawa. We had a couple hours off before our run which was an easy 40 min with 6x100m strides at the end.
I made it through day 3 and am looking forward to tomorrow: Swim in the morning, 3500m, a track run session for 55 minutes, then an hour on the bike to cool down. I have never done a track workout before so this should be fun.
As my boy Vince says, 'a demain'. Until tomorrow.
I arrived at the Orlando airport the night before camp was to start and after a night at the Kissimmee FL Ho Jo's, I was picked up by our coach Vince, and a representative from Tri Canada, Larry McMahon. Larry's son, Brent, is one of Canada's elite triathletes and may be representing Canada at the London games this year.
We stopped at Panda Express because the boys were hungry. We had a run scheduled later in the day and I needed some calories so I joined in. I shouldn't have. We stopped at Walmart, shopped for the basics of food, got to our rental, unloaded then suited up for a run.
We were only scheduled for 30-40 minutes easy but we got talking and I ended up going out a lot faster than I was used to and as I said earlier, I shouldn't have eaten at Panda. My gut started acting up about 2 miles in and I stopped a couple of times because I thought I was going to barf..... TMI? Anyway, our time was about 35 minutes but that included a little walking to shake the feeling I had.
After the run, we had dinner, talked a little about the camp, and then headed to bed. Another athlete came in later that night, Grant, an above the knee amputee, who I have known since my first World Championships in 2008.
Day 2 was a late start due to Grant's late arrival. We were on the slate to swim in the morning and ride in the afternoon. We checked into the National Training Center in Clermont and did a 3000m long course swim. I had not been in a 50m pool for many years and I was really looking forward to it. At least I was until mid way through the swim when I started getting very fatigued. My longest swim in a couple of years was 2000m and usually I do a main set of 3-4x250m with a warm up and cool down. This swim was 800m warm up, 800m drills (I learned a few things about my stroke that were very helpful), 8x100m, and 400m cool down. Arms were BEAT! Shoulders a little sore but nothing really bad.
After swim we had lunch, loaded up our bikes, and headed to Lake Lousia State park. The roads there are very quiet and we were able to do 45km doing 5 laps. It has a couple of hills but very short and not very steep but it was a good first time out for Grant and Vince, neither of who had an out door ride for a while.
We had a great dinner courtesy of Vince and a glass of wine to celebrate the first full day of camp. Afterwards I regretted having the wine because I did not sleep very well considering the workouts we had for the day.
Day 3 was an early start as we had 3 workouts scheduled. We were on our bikes at the NTC by 845am and headed to Lake Minneola. We had about 35 minutes on the road before we started our intervals. 10 x 1 minute with 1 minute rest. After that, we had about a 10 minute rest and did 6 more intervals. That took a lot out of me and we had a steady 5-7 minute climb to finish off to get back to the NTC. As soon as we were off the bikes, we headed in for another 3000m swim. This one was painful for me. It took the entire warm up for my shoulders to loosen up. I do not ever recall feeling this bad from swimming. Our swim set today, 800m warm up with 300m easy, 100m hard times 2. Our main set today, 40x50m. 16x50m on 55 seconds, 3 easy, 1 hard. 12x50m on 60 seconds, 2 easy, 1 hard. 8x50m 1 easy 1 hard. 4x50m all hard. Ouch. My 200m cool down was almost entirely on my back kicking as my arms had nothing left. After an extra long shower we went home for lunch and waited for the arrival of our last athlete, Jenny, from Ottawa. We had a couple hours off before our run which was an easy 40 min with 6x100m strides at the end.
I made it through day 3 and am looking forward to tomorrow: Swim in the morning, 3500m, a track run session for 55 minutes, then an hour on the bike to cool down. I have never done a track workout before so this should be fun.
As my boy Vince says, 'a demain'. Until tomorrow.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Canadian Para-Cycling Nationals 2011
Every year I say I will update more often.....It doesn't happen so here is one from last season.
My first experience in Paracycling at the national level was an eye opener. There are some very good cyclists out there with varying disabilities and it was an honour to compete with them.
The time trial was a new experience. I looked at the course before I registered and I knew I was in for a hilly course. I opted not to bring my TT bike and figured I would fair better with my road bike and clip on aero bars. I knew I was going to have a different seat position for the TT as there are UCI standards with regards to seat/bottom bracket measurements but I did not know about aero bar standards. Lesson number 1 was learning that the aero bars had to be lower than the saddle. When I arrived at the TT area, the CCA referees were available to do a bike check. My saddle was within the rules but my aero bars were quite far above the saddle level. They are the hockey stick bend type and stuck up at least 3 inches beyond the legal limit. Thankfully I had almost 2 hours before I was off so I tried flipping my stem and went back for another measurement. They were still about an inch above the legal limit. I was running out of time so I just yanked them off and did my warm up. I talked to Steve Burke, a coach out of Calgary, and he said with what I had, I should be about as aero as I could be in the drops versus the aero bars the way I had it set up anyway. I rolled up to the start line and found out I was going to have at least 20 minutes as they were behind. I could have used that time to work out the aero bar situation but I used it instead to warm up.
I felt good, I felt ready, I had an aero helmet, a disk, and an aero front wheel so I had all I needed minus the aero bars. They juggled the order and before I knew it I was off. They had a start house with a ramp. Something I had not used before but as a mountain biker, coming down a hill wasn’t a problem. Seconds before I started I realized I was in my small ring but it was too late. I hit the ramp, rubber met the road, and I was off. 10 meters from the ramp, a guy walked in front of me, looking up the road, and I screamed at him, “coming through, move, move”. He didn’t even flinch, just went about his business. I went past him and went about the task at hand.
After the start, it’s at least a 2km climb, stair stepping up between 2-4%. I saw my 1 minute guy and said, “That’s my carrot”. I hit a big bump in the road and felt the nose of my saddle tilt down. Since I was still climbing, it was not bad enough to distract me so I left it.
After the first climb, it was rolling downhill, not very steep but I managed to maintain a decent speed. I had to stop pedaling a couple of times to pull the front of the saddle up but each time I leaned forward to try and get more aero, it would tilt down again.. As I hit the first turn, I was concentrating on catching the next rider in front of me. Around half way to the next turn (it was a rectangle), I was passed by the guy that started a minute behind me. I tried to chase him down but on the rolling terrain, I was unable to maintain the same speed as him and he pulled away. I managed to catch and pass my minute guy just before the second turn. As soon as I made that turn, the course went up and seemed to go up for a long time.
I heard a disk wheel coming up behind me, nothing else that sounds like that. A Quebec rider went past me like I was standing still. I didn’t know him but he had all his limbs so I figured he was their one C5 rider, not in my category. The climb kicked up and my pace slowed down and the rider I had passed came around me. I upped my pace again and went to go around him but he seemed to speed up and I was unable to pass him on the climb. I didn’t want to get a drafting penalty so I backed off and settled in 5 meters behind, off to the side.
The saddle kept moving and seemed to be tilting down easier. I finally gave up on pulling it back to level. I wanted to up my cadence so I shifted from my big chain ring to the small on one of the steeper pitches and my chain locked up. I still had momentum so I was able to try and work the cranks but I quickly had to stop and unclick from the pedals and get my chain back on. When you’re in the middle of a race and you have stopped for a mechanical, time seems to go faster. I don’t know how much time I lost but at the end of the day/race, I don’t know that it would have moved me up to 3rd.
I got going again and up over the last part of the steepest section of the climb and spotted my carrot again. He was on a flat section and I upped my pace again to make the pass. With about 2 km to go, I went by and kept my speed high all the way through the finish line.
By the finish line, my saddle was pointing so far down I wasn’t able to sit on it. I heard the race announcer say my time, 28:55. I was pleased with it but knew I would have been faster without mechanicals but that’s racing. Anything can happen and well, to me, it did. No sense crying over spilled milk, I had another race to get ready for. The road race was two days away.
Road Race
The day after the TT I went out for a couple of laps on the road course and do some openers. The course was a rectangle like the TT course but flat for the most part. On the back straight it was a false flat but it was very slight.
On race day, I went out a couple of hours early and went for a few miles with some others from Team BC. We talked a little strategy since it was us three against the three from Quebec. No other provinces were represented. It was going to be tough. Two of the three QC riders were already on the national team and had done this dance before at World Cup events and the World Championships. We were supposed to get matching jersey’s for our BC riders but the jersey was too small for me so I was able to wear my Project London kit.
The race was started late because the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) hadn’t shown up yet. This seemed to be the way things were going with the event so far. I wondered if the elites and U23’s had issues the week before.
The tandems were off five minutes or so before us, then it was our turn to start our 72km. Right away, the pace was pretty high. One of my BC teammates was pushing the pace til he realized no one else was behind him then he slowed. About half way through the first lap, one of the QC riders tried a break but I think it was just a test to see the reaction. Each QC rider was sitting on one of us. If they saw no reaction, the rest would take off. This is how it went for about 20km.
Just before the start/finish line, the pace went up to the 27-28mph range. I tried to get on the last guy’s wheel but I wasn’t able to hold it and I got gapped. It wasn’t substantial at first but it was enough, into the headwind, that I slowly fell further behind. I waved the referee and neutral cars past me. When the neutral car got alongside, it was the CCA development coach, and he told me I would catch back on, so I tried to swing around behind him for a draft but he wasn’t having any of that, and I was again caught out in the wind.
We turned the corner and I could see them slowing. We rounded corner two, and I was sure I was going to get back on but luck was having a laugh that day and it was not meant to be. My steering felt kind of funny and I looked down to find a flat front tire. I got off, quickly removed the wheel and held it up (saw that on the Tour de France, I thought I was so pro) as the next set of riders, the men’s tandems, went by me. I didn’t even get a second look from their neutral support, they went flying by. The second group of tandems, the women’s field, went by and I got a shoulder shrug from their neutral support guy. Finally, at least 7 minutes after I had stopped, the C1-3 group went by and my old buddy, Steve Burke from Calgary went by as the neutral driver. He went by but realized it was me and he jammed on his brakes and reversed, ran out and got me a wheel. I looked at my watch and figured I was about 13 minutes down and I would get lapped within a short time and be pulled anyway, so I threw my bike in the back and got in the van.
Sure enough, after I was dropped at the start/finish, my group rolled through only a few minutes later. I felt lousy for my DNF but it was a learning experience. Yes, I could have taken the wheel and stayed out there, likely on my own for 53km but my reason for being there was to try and take home a win or at least podium and that wasn’t going to happen after my flat. I still have a lot to learn about bike racing. There are times when I think that if I had to swim before a bike race, I would do better (that’s the tri-geek in me). You can’t prevent mechanical problems and sometimes stuff just happens but I’m going to make sure I do all I can to ensure it happens less often or not at all in the future.
Thank you to Project London, Rubicon Orbea, Speedplay Pedals, Chamois Butt’r, First Endurance, 2XU, and Challenged Athletes Foundation, for helping me get to Toronto so I could compete at Nationals. Without you, this journey would be a whole lot tougher.
My first experience in Paracycling at the national level was an eye opener. There are some very good cyclists out there with varying disabilities and it was an honour to compete with them.
The time trial was a new experience. I looked at the course before I registered and I knew I was in for a hilly course. I opted not to bring my TT bike and figured I would fair better with my road bike and clip on aero bars. I knew I was going to have a different seat position for the TT as there are UCI standards with regards to seat/bottom bracket measurements but I did not know about aero bar standards. Lesson number 1 was learning that the aero bars had to be lower than the saddle. When I arrived at the TT area, the CCA referees were available to do a bike check. My saddle was within the rules but my aero bars were quite far above the saddle level. They are the hockey stick bend type and stuck up at least 3 inches beyond the legal limit. Thankfully I had almost 2 hours before I was off so I tried flipping my stem and went back for another measurement. They were still about an inch above the legal limit. I was running out of time so I just yanked them off and did my warm up. I talked to Steve Burke, a coach out of Calgary, and he said with what I had, I should be about as aero as I could be in the drops versus the aero bars the way I had it set up anyway. I rolled up to the start line and found out I was going to have at least 20 minutes as they were behind. I could have used that time to work out the aero bar situation but I used it instead to warm up.
I felt good, I felt ready, I had an aero helmet, a disk, and an aero front wheel so I had all I needed minus the aero bars. They juggled the order and before I knew it I was off. They had a start house with a ramp. Something I had not used before but as a mountain biker, coming down a hill wasn’t a problem. Seconds before I started I realized I was in my small ring but it was too late. I hit the ramp, rubber met the road, and I was off. 10 meters from the ramp, a guy walked in front of me, looking up the road, and I screamed at him, “coming through, move, move”. He didn’t even flinch, just went about his business. I went past him and went about the task at hand.
After the start, it’s at least a 2km climb, stair stepping up between 2-4%. I saw my 1 minute guy and said, “That’s my carrot”. I hit a big bump in the road and felt the nose of my saddle tilt down. Since I was still climbing, it was not bad enough to distract me so I left it.
After the first climb, it was rolling downhill, not very steep but I managed to maintain a decent speed. I had to stop pedaling a couple of times to pull the front of the saddle up but each time I leaned forward to try and get more aero, it would tilt down again.. As I hit the first turn, I was concentrating on catching the next rider in front of me. Around half way to the next turn (it was a rectangle), I was passed by the guy that started a minute behind me. I tried to chase him down but on the rolling terrain, I was unable to maintain the same speed as him and he pulled away. I managed to catch and pass my minute guy just before the second turn. As soon as I made that turn, the course went up and seemed to go up for a long time.
I heard a disk wheel coming up behind me, nothing else that sounds like that. A Quebec rider went past me like I was standing still. I didn’t know him but he had all his limbs so I figured he was their one C5 rider, not in my category. The climb kicked up and my pace slowed down and the rider I had passed came around me. I upped my pace again and went to go around him but he seemed to speed up and I was unable to pass him on the climb. I didn’t want to get a drafting penalty so I backed off and settled in 5 meters behind, off to the side.
The saddle kept moving and seemed to be tilting down easier. I finally gave up on pulling it back to level. I wanted to up my cadence so I shifted from my big chain ring to the small on one of the steeper pitches and my chain locked up. I still had momentum so I was able to try and work the cranks but I quickly had to stop and unclick from the pedals and get my chain back on. When you’re in the middle of a race and you have stopped for a mechanical, time seems to go faster. I don’t know how much time I lost but at the end of the day/race, I don’t know that it would have moved me up to 3rd.
I got going again and up over the last part of the steepest section of the climb and spotted my carrot again. He was on a flat section and I upped my pace again to make the pass. With about 2 km to go, I went by and kept my speed high all the way through the finish line.
By the finish line, my saddle was pointing so far down I wasn’t able to sit on it. I heard the race announcer say my time, 28:55. I was pleased with it but knew I would have been faster without mechanicals but that’s racing. Anything can happen and well, to me, it did. No sense crying over spilled milk, I had another race to get ready for. The road race was two days away.
Road Race
The day after the TT I went out for a couple of laps on the road course and do some openers. The course was a rectangle like the TT course but flat for the most part. On the back straight it was a false flat but it was very slight.
On race day, I went out a couple of hours early and went for a few miles with some others from Team BC. We talked a little strategy since it was us three against the three from Quebec. No other provinces were represented. It was going to be tough. Two of the three QC riders were already on the national team and had done this dance before at World Cup events and the World Championships. We were supposed to get matching jersey’s for our BC riders but the jersey was too small for me so I was able to wear my Project London kit.
The race was started late because the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) hadn’t shown up yet. This seemed to be the way things were going with the event so far. I wondered if the elites and U23’s had issues the week before.
The tandems were off five minutes or so before us, then it was our turn to start our 72km. Right away, the pace was pretty high. One of my BC teammates was pushing the pace til he realized no one else was behind him then he slowed. About half way through the first lap, one of the QC riders tried a break but I think it was just a test to see the reaction. Each QC rider was sitting on one of us. If they saw no reaction, the rest would take off. This is how it went for about 20km.
Just before the start/finish line, the pace went up to the 27-28mph range. I tried to get on the last guy’s wheel but I wasn’t able to hold it and I got gapped. It wasn’t substantial at first but it was enough, into the headwind, that I slowly fell further behind. I waved the referee and neutral cars past me. When the neutral car got alongside, it was the CCA development coach, and he told me I would catch back on, so I tried to swing around behind him for a draft but he wasn’t having any of that, and I was again caught out in the wind.
We turned the corner and I could see them slowing. We rounded corner two, and I was sure I was going to get back on but luck was having a laugh that day and it was not meant to be. My steering felt kind of funny and I looked down to find a flat front tire. I got off, quickly removed the wheel and held it up (saw that on the Tour de France, I thought I was so pro) as the next set of riders, the men’s tandems, went by me. I didn’t even get a second look from their neutral support, they went flying by. The second group of tandems, the women’s field, went by and I got a shoulder shrug from their neutral support guy. Finally, at least 7 minutes after I had stopped, the C1-3 group went by and my old buddy, Steve Burke from Calgary went by as the neutral driver. He went by but realized it was me and he jammed on his brakes and reversed, ran out and got me a wheel. I looked at my watch and figured I was about 13 minutes down and I would get lapped within a short time and be pulled anyway, so I threw my bike in the back and got in the van.
Sure enough, after I was dropped at the start/finish, my group rolled through only a few minutes later. I felt lousy for my DNF but it was a learning experience. Yes, I could have taken the wheel and stayed out there, likely on my own for 53km but my reason for being there was to try and take home a win or at least podium and that wasn’t going to happen after my flat. I still have a lot to learn about bike racing. There are times when I think that if I had to swim before a bike race, I would do better (that’s the tri-geek in me). You can’t prevent mechanical problems and sometimes stuff just happens but I’m going to make sure I do all I can to ensure it happens less often or not at all in the future.
Thank you to Project London, Rubicon Orbea, Speedplay Pedals, Chamois Butt’r, First Endurance, 2XU, and Challenged Athletes Foundation, for helping me get to Toronto so I could compete at Nationals. Without you, this journey would be a whole lot tougher.
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