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I did some online research on the Ironman Canada course and with what delight did my wondrous eyes find? 1 loop courses!

The swim is as it should be: go swim a mile or so, turn at the buoy, turn at the next buoy and swim a mile plus back the beach. No bullsh*t running back onto the beach and navigating scores of people all over again. Just you, a long swim and your bike waiting on the other side. Never quite understood the two-loop swim thing, seems overly cautious and an easy out for the race director as a few less kayaks and boats are required.

Same with the bike course: 1 long loop that includes 7,400' of climbing. I love to climb, even though at ~190lbs I am not exactly built for it. Nothing I would rather do in techno-wear then ride my bike up a hill. Where I live in Colorado a 1,200' climb is a good start and I'm told what goes up must come down. In Penticton it appears it comes down at a rapid rate. I can tuck with the best of them and let my weight do all the work. The best news part is I don't have to stay hunched in my aero-bars for 5 hours - my flexibility-challenged body is very appreciative of that. I really have no interest in riding a relatively flat bike course like the other late season IM races appear to be. This was paramount in my decision to sign up for this race.

The run course is out and back and apparently not so flat. Perfect, my legs need a downhill once in a while to stretch out a bit...

My friend Derek and I and our families headed to Steamboat Springs for the Tour de Steamboat, a ride to benefit the Sunshine Kids Foundation whose mission it is to add quality of life to children with cancer.

We arrived 10 minutes late to the start and after pushing to catch up with the group for 10 miles realized we had joined the back of the group embarking on the 56 mile Tour, which added 7 miles to our day which was already slated for 110 or so.

After about 55 miles and over Rabbit Ears Pass, I pushed hard up the second of the two big passes on the day, Gore Pass, which just may be the nicest climb I have ridden in Colorado: very scenic, nice variety of grade, never ridiculously steep, can’t see the top from the bottom and 6+ miles long. On the other side a group of four of us were pushing and it got quite windy up a long false flat.

The goal for the day was to practice pushing a fast pace when tired so I began a couple 15′ intervals 4 hours in. Later I dropped off the back to stay out of the other’s draft and within 10 minutes or so my gap from them had grown to a few hundred yards and I knew that they wouldn’t slow for me thinking I was just recovering around until my next interval. This was the first time this year I have hit a real low like that and had to dig hard to get myself out. I was happy to be able to do so and bridge back up to them. It was valuable experience knowing how to mentally suck it up and push past some physical issues, another great reason to ride often in a group - can’t replicate this by yourself. I felt fine after drinking a bit of plain water.

All day I tried to eat in excess of 500 calories per hour just to see how it would feel. It seemed like I was constantly either sucking the Infinit bottle or squeezing a one of my pocket full of GUs. Not a comfortable feeling and I was definitely tired of it toward the end.

All and all a good day: 121 miles, 7,100 elevation gain. IMCanada minus 42 days…

“we all need inspiration and if we choose to do anything with it we could inspire other people”

Fun event, great day, I didn’t crash and hurt myself. I actually felt pretty good swimming, the best I ever have. Chris noted I arrived at the beach 15-20 in my start wave, which was only half of my 35-39 age group. It still 5 minutes off what it would take to be competitive in my age group but a definite improvement.

The bike ride was a good one. Like the rest of the event, I didn’t feel particularly fast or have any low moments, just plugged along at a consistent 7 out of 10. Up Olde Stage grinding and wishing I had more than a 21 rear cassette, then down Olde Stage wishing I had more than a 53 chainring and 11 cassette, then approaching the turn onto highway 36 I encountered 2 state police troopers giving me the stop sign… Never been stopped by the police in a race to allow car traffic to pass. Makes sense, but bizarre. Seemed like forever in reality is probably was 45″ spent standing unclipped from my pedals waiting for the officer to wave us on. 1st overall had just passed me at the top of the hill and 4th overall would pass me shortly after I resumed. Had a fun time trading 40+ mph barely) draft-legal pulls down Nelson with CHowie. When we turned onto 63rd where the rolling hills started it was adios, Craig, have a great ride and he dropped me like a hot coal.

My bad running form on display. Been working on correcting this arm swing and loosening up my hamstrings so I can get more leg kick. Average and uneventful run, couple minutes slower than I had hoped. I slid into the top 10 AG for the first time of 201 entrants, 171 finishers. results. *thanks to Brightroom Event Photography for the images.

Only one more pinned-on-number-event before the big one…