Fork in the road...

It's been 9days since IM Canada. Still with the nasty cold/cough. ugh.

The part of me that is used to the constant state of fatigue from training is asking "Where is the familiar stimulus, dude?" The part of me that looks at the calendar and realizes the up-n-down season has been pretty long asks "What's my motivation, dude?" So, here we are, at a fork in the road. The road to the right leads to the offseason, the road to the left leads to Arizona, one more big event. Time to put the blinker on...

Post Ironman Thoughts

It's been 8days since IM Canada. I've had a nasty cold/cough since the less-than-stellar race day. I've been trying to get my health back, spend time with Theresa and Donovan and take care of some home chores. It's been great so far, and has helped me not dwell too much about last week.

Here are some of my reflections from 8days ago:

*My swim is improving. I'm happy with my 59min swim, as I swam half of it on my own. It was just like long-swim training day. I need to be more assertive on race day so I stay in the right pack for better times. Keep working on it.

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*Take time in T1 to dress according to the weather. Full finger gloves, arm warmers and vest kept me at a nice operating temperature most of the day. I don't care if I looked like a fashion train-wreck.

*Difficult to say if I was already sick on race morning. Bottomline is, my engine shut down 2hrs into the ride. This requires some investigative work....

Green=power, Red=Heart Rate, Pink=Speed, Purple=Air Temperature

*No matter how crappy your race is going, keep pushing. Be grateful you are able to be out there, and when things aren't going well, learn what you can to have a better show next time.

*No matter how crappy your race is going, keep pushing. DNFs leave big empty holes, and Donovan loves all finisher's hats and/or medals you give him.

JC

Ironman Canada--25th MPro

The tall scruffy fellow (below) had a great day, pushed thru pain and got his picture on the front page of the local paper.
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The short scruffy one ran out of power at ~3hrs into the bike, and jogged a dissapointing marathon on zapped legs.

Pictures and more story soon. Time for beers, thanks for reading.

Mexico & Ukraine invade Canada

This pair of shaddy, scruffy-looking characters will take on the winds, the mountain climbs, the rollers and whatever else IM Canada dishes out tomorrow. Don't mess with them.

the calm b4 the storm

Another lovely day in beautiful in the Okanagan. Except the winds have shifted and are blowing from the north, which is not a welcome sign for tomorrow.

2/3 of Team Ramirez is now under the weather, so it will make for a long(er) day for everyone. The remaining 1/3 of the team (me) is ready to go.

The push for the summit is on...

Shifty weather

Today we woke up to some milder temperatures for this time of the year in the Okanagan Valley. I went for an early morning swim in Skaha Lake, a beautiful deep body of water. A 5min walk down from our homestay sure beats the driving time and logistics to get up to Lake Okanagan.

Do you not understand how pretty this place is???

Afterwards, I walked the 5minutes home to some awesome pre-made hotcakes, thanks to the awesome planning by the savvy team management. I then got a ride in the team car down to Keremeos, and rode my way back up Yellow/Twin Lakes. It was a tad chilly when the sun would hide, and gusty at times, and it gives me something to think about for Sunday, forecasted to be at 10C when we get out of the water.

The rest of the day included some grocery shopping, some good relaxing by Skaha Lake (before it got cloudy and sprinkled on us) and some more chilling with our great hosts. Mike and Su are super cool and we get along great, and that makes coming back to Penticton so nice. Donovan and their daughter, Anja, make each other laugh and have a ton of fun together.

Check it, Mike- This is how you play this thing... C'mon Anja, press the 'X'

Even though the Team Director is under the weather, the rest of the team is pulling together and making the best of it. See you tomorrow, T-32hrs. All systems are go...

Oh Canada...

We made it! A speedy border crossing and we are back in awesome Kaleden, on Lake Skaha and just south of Penticton.

Thanks to some awesome planning by the Team Director, we got off the the van and right unto an awesome meal of noodles, chicken, veggies and fruit!

More tomorrow...

Lk Stevens Redux

I was asked if I could quantify the impact the water temperature had on my race. Being a data-driven enginerd, here's my analysis-

Swim- No ergometer in the water, but the horrible swim time says it all. I did all I could and all it got me was really cold.

Bike- Ah, the beauty of power data...
0-10mi, AvePower=199w, NormPower=209w
0-16mi, AvePower=205w, NormPower=212w
0-28mi, AvePower=213w, NormPower=223w, 1:19
28-56mi, AvePower=231w, NormPower=245w, 1:14

the numbers don't lie... I was hurtin'

16mi was about the point where I stopped shivering, and my HR started becoming 'normal.'

Taper switch is ON.