Powering down the ‘09 Season

Mark and I defended our Tin Man Josh title.  It hurt a lot more than I recall it hurting last season.  Again having to go out of my IM comfort zone on the bike really made me suffer.  I was having mouthfuls of acid coming up until I decided that for the sake of my run I should back off and ride more threshold.

Before the run was the canoe though, I sat in the back snacked and navigated while Mark steamed away up front.  Some clowns had over 4 minutes on us starting the 10 km run leg, but around the 7th km I could see a person running who looked like a fast canoe’r.  Just before the 1 mile climb to the line I passed him.  Damn, that was a tough last mile, and I’m feeling it now.

It was a relief to get a win, even if it was the last race of the season.  I also really liked to run into the win, after having had a few rough runs. Read more

Q: Nat why no blog updates?

When the races are going well, and training is going well then there is excitement, and I post up blog stories.  When they’re not then you get tweets.  I’ve never before had such a lack luster season, so rather than giving you foaming rants I bite my tongue.  I know that was out of character, sorry to disappoint (though the time could still come).

Training went great through the spring.  ~ a week before St Croix I had my first flat workout of the season, and everything seemed to go into a tail spin from there.

By the time IronMan Canada came around I couldn’t even get the power out on the bike.  A 18% power decrease to be exact, so I focused on being as efficient as possible was ended up being only 3 min slower.  I started the run thinking that I’d have a strong effort from my conservation. Read more

Crystal ball for 2010 Cycling

No doping positives this tour, so I thought that I would rant about it anyhow.

Lance Races – Clean Tour.  Lance is somewhat the Mafia Don of Cycling – he controls lots of things, through leverage payments, and IOU’s.  Cyclings Dope testing arm is somehow involved in this web.  Lance was reported to have made a known (how many other private bribes were there?) $100,000 payment to them (paying out of a +ve test?) I can no longer find the story, but he said at the time it was to help keep the sport cleaner.  Right.  And he also bitched about being tested so much. Read more

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-26

• http://twitpic.com/bd67a – Riding through the French-Swiss Boarder on the way to pre-ride stage 16 #
• The world stopped: logged myself out of the Macbook for 24h. Helpless. tried using payphone/ 411 for help no luck. #
• I was not forgotten http://bit.ly/wqHIu #
• the evolution of Bra Burning 50 years later, thong burning? http://www.gocommandos.com/index.htm #

IM France Pictures

In the press car the day before the race – Cyril is a great photographer, cool guy and sent me some pictures of the race.

You can find more of his work here:

www.photosgraph.canalblog.com

Nat Read more

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-19

• http://twitpic.com/artqa – Remembering Alton riding up Ventoux. keep on riding, smiling, and enjoying the hot springs. You are remembered. #
• "..last year was the first year since I was 16 that I didn’t win a bike race.” – G Obree, now age 43 & thinking of a comeback (power is on) #
• knock knock, n hello, p: you have $350, n eh? p your power bill is unpaid n electric is included in our rent, — We're in the dark here #
• Back in the Hammer. Long flight, and better quality sleep. Heard cows outside tent the other morning – was worried I would get stepped on #
• Happy Bastille Day – aka everything is closed; 2 nights ago camped on the Col du Tourmalet – happy to have showered and found clean clothes #

IM France

During the 1980s the Nice Long Distance triathlon (Swim 4 km, Bike 120 km, Run 30 km) was, alongside the World Championships in Kona, one of the two important races each year with prize money and media attention – Wiki

This is why I have always wanted to race Nice.  Last month I packed up my bike and headed over to Nice – a course that I have been watching since I was 12 on TV and on paper is ideal to my abilities; tough technical bike course with a flat run.  All set in the French Riviera.  Read more

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-05

• ps. on the suffer scale where RAAM was a 10 Nice was a 3.5 – I am already mostly recovered. #
• Je vais maintnant en les alpes O.T.G. pour fair du camping et des 200+ km jours au velo. Hasta la 17ieme #
• thanks for the supportive e-mails too. The medical tent people took my shoes away until my HR tripled (55 min) #
• Thanks to the people from the hostel who came to cheer as well as getting cheered by name by 6 people on the course. That was great. #
• then I got dizzy, then my hands lost feeling I went to the medical tent. New Low HR record by 8 bpm. Vomiting return @ 7 km to go so walk #
• found no rythm in the swim. BIke effort satsfacry. Started vomiting 15 km into the run. When my breakfast came up I felt better for a bit #
• euros don’t need aero wheels becuse they were peletoning on the bike.

  Only 12 of the top 14 and a small of handfull of riders rode solo #