Hectic Weekend

Friday started off with the 4th swim in 4 days, however it was an easy 4k swim to “rest” before the 6km Open Water race on Saturday. After that I was off to work, 1hr run at lunch, and 1hr bike ride in the afternoon. Before going to sleep I prepared all my race gear (I was happy that for a swim race you need to prepare way less things than for a tri) and went to bed. I woke up 9.5 hrs later, yes, I was that tired…

The alarm went off on Saturday at 6:30, just 2 hrs before the race. I had my usual pre race breakfast, just a little toned down considering that it was 2hrs before the race (not 3) and that I was going to be swimming 99.5% of the time (the 0.5% will consist of 4x20m runs around a marker on every lap and to the finish). Definitely did not want to overeat! 1hr before the race I got to Kits beach and found Patrice, my swimming buddy, with who I constantly battle every morning workout. I knew he was racing and it was going to be fun! 5 minutes later I see a familiar face walk on the beach, wait, is that Jeff? Yup, Jeff Symonds was in town and now the race became that much more interesting! It was going to be a 3 way battle…

8:30 am the gun goes off and Ian Young (a pure swimmer) takes off in the lead, he was way too fast and from then on was a race for second place. The first lap was controlled and strong, I was “leading” the pack in second place and I could not tell who was / was not in the pack. After 1.5km we come out of the water, I look back. Its only 2 of us, a rematch of the previous weekend (well, on the swim portion only…), however this time he (Jeff) was on my feet. 2nd lap goes in cruise control, there was much more swimming to do to start burning precious fuel… 3rd lap starts, only half of the race left, Jeff still on my feet. What are my options?
A) Slow down and let him lead
B) Keep things the same as lap 1 and 2
C) Try to get rid of him and make him work alone (which will hopefully tire him a bit more than seating on my feet)

I quickly decided not to go for Option A, it was weak, slowing down? What? Also, I could not really tell where 4th place was. What if we both slowed down and then got caught? What if he was about to break down and I just helped him out? Option B was not an option either. I was in a disadvantageous position and I had to do something to revert it. Option C became the name of the game. 3rd lap consisted of about 4 or 5 100-200m attacks to drop him. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful, I redline a couple of times, and now I was out of gas for the 4th lap.

4th lap starts and this time I could only slow down, I was not towing him to the finish! We swam side by side, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow bumping each other. I could tell we were both done, but none was going to give an inch. After 6000m of swimming, approximately 1hr 26minutes we stood up in the sand with water knee high at the same time and sprinted 20 m to the finish. The result was similar to cycling, we both got the same time, but he got the Green Jersey and the Sprinter points. Jeff: 1:26:03, Facundo: 1:26:03. This was a race for the books: I suffered, was exhausted, in pain, could not feel my triceps for a couple of minutes, got out sprinted, but loved it! (Thanks Jeff for the picture, I stole it from your blog)

So yeah, it was 10am, 15 minutes to eat at the food tent, home, change, and as if I didn’t have enough already at 10:45 I was in a 3hr ride including Cypress with the Leading Edge squad. I got home at 1:55pm, at 2:05 I was on my way to the airport to pick up my friend Christian from Switzerland. Get home at 4, do some stuff around the house, head to Patrices house where he and his wife Fred put out a great bbq. I was absolutely dead, exhausted, since 6:30am I did not stop for a minute, but hey, I had a great time and I would not have changed a single thing -except for the sprint finish =P.

8hr sleep and Sunday consisted of Gym and run in the morning. Lunch, Caribbean Festival at Longsdale Quay with Enej and Christian (it was so hot and sunny that I went through 1L of yoghurt icecream: literally). In the afternoon went for a 1hr TT, then had awesome BBQ brochettes made by my brother and chef Eze, and sleep time.

I said it was a hectic weekend… nonetheless it was FUN FUN FUN!

Facundo

World Master Games – Swimming

Yesterday I registered myself on the World Master Games. Swimming is one of the only sports where you can compete as being as “young” as 25 years old on the 25-29 age category. Most other sports, like running, start with the 30-34 age category.

The games start on October 10th, exactly one month after the World Championships. They take place in Sydney, about 800km south of the Gold Coast. It should be a fun fun event as I get to take place on the opening and closing ceremonies (same place as Sydney 2000) and will be swimming on the Olympic pool. How cool is that?

With your registration you are allowed 5 individual events + the 3K open water (the main reason I wanted to do the games). The decision was not easy, I knew I was doing the 800 and 400, but no idea what else. By process of elimination I got rid of all the backstroke and breaststroke events (which includes IM). Then I was left with 200, 100, 50 free, 200, 100, 50 fly. I went for the 100 free, I want so see if I can break a minute. 200 free was out as I will be doing 800 and 400, and in 50 free I would get my butt kicked. 50 fly I actually really like, and I am quite good at it (can almost swim 50 fly as fast as 50 free), so I went for it. Mmm… 100 fly or 200 fly…. Well, I would need to dope to last 200 fly, so I took the 100.

Goal Time and Pace:
800 free: 10:08, 1:16
400 free: 4:48, 1:12
100 free: 1:00
100 fly: 1:05
50 fly: 28
3K open water: 39:00, 1:18 (wetsuit-does not qualify for medal)/ 40:00, 1:20 (non wetsuit)

I am very excited about the games, its been a long time since I have been in a swimming competition. My start skills might be a quite a bit rusty, and the swim speed I had when I was 15-16 might not be there, but for sure I am going to take it easier and enjoy more than I did when I was younger. Good luck to me!

Hip Update: Its getting better SLOWLY, very slowly. Nationals being 4 weeks away I went to see another chiropractor today, and he seemed to have yet another different opinion. Lets try once again and see what happens... I am going back there on Tuesday and Friday next week for some adjustments. I also scrapped the Self Trascendence Tri in Victoria a week from now to be able to get 4 weeks of solid uninterrupted (injury free) training before Nationals...

Peach Classic Race Report – 19.07.09

[Rant deleted]

Choppy, Jeff and I left Vancouver on Friday at noon to avoid traveling Saturday morning, the day before the race. The trip was uneventful, the Motel turned out to be quite decent (AC, swimming pool, and full kitchen with new appliances).

Saturday morning we woke up and went for a ride in the morning on the race course, and a short run right after. This turned out to be a great idea because by noon the heat was already way past pleasant levels. Thanks to the AC we took a 1hr powernap and headed to the lake in the afternoon for a 30min swim. After that we went back to the motel, took Ryan in with us for the night, had 1.2kg of pasta amongst the 4 of us, and went to bed at 8pm to get the ideal 8hrs of sleep.

The night was longer than expected, and it was not because we over slept but because I was awake at least 1/1.5 hrs courtesy of the AC noise, being hot/cold, sleeping with another men in a double bed, 4 people constantly going to the washroom (staying hydrated has some downsides), and so on. Still, I was really looking forward to racing in the Okanagan, and when all the alarms went off at the same time, I was ready to give it a go.

Breakfast was as usual, with the small exception of having the cereal and the chocolate milk combined into one (we decided against of regular milk this weekend). Bagel with PB and banana, instant coffee, get in the car, get to transition by 5am (7am race start).

Warm up: 30 min bike ride on the run course (we had not seen yet the 2km hill everyone was scaring us about), 20 min jog with some pickups, 10 min swim. The warm up was anticipating how things were going to turn out, I was feeling good, but conditions were tough. It was windy, we water was very choppy, the race buoys were getting blown all over the place, the bike was going to have a headwind on the way out (which is mostly uphill/rollers), and tailwind on the way back (rollers and downhill into transition). At least it was not going to be THAT hot.

Swim: After warm up I found Jeff Symonds, Jordan Rapp and Jason Shortis and lined up with them at the start. I knew one of them was going to be out of the water in the top places so I wanted to stick with them. The swim start was rough, lots of hitting and swimming over people for the first 300m until we started dropping people. 600m into the swim I found myself in 3rd place and 1st guy was getting away, so I bridged the gap and identified Jeff. Conditions were tough, hard to keep a straight line, sighting meant drinking gulps of lake water, and therefore stuck behind him and followed the bubbles. We exited the swim together with a 20-30 seconds lead on 3rd place.
T1: Uneventful, exited transition 20m behind Jeff.

Bike: Quickly came to the realization that despite feeling good on the warm up it was not going to be my day on the bike. I usually feel good right away but today I was loosing ground quickly. A couple of km into the ride we hit the Vancouver Hill, and run out of gears. How could that happen? I did not run out of gears the day before, hmmm, maybe I just went too hard out of T1… Now past the hill we start hitting the rollers and the wind head on. 10km into the ride I hear Jordans disc FLY by, hmmm, maybe its because he is a rocket on the bike, nothing I can do… Turnaround comes around and I have lost 4 minutes on Jeff and 2 minutes on Jordan already, hmmm… maybe I am just having a shitty day on the bike! The ride back into transition was a little better thanks to the tailwind and downhills, but still every single uphill hurt, legs were burning and power was just not there.

T2: Uneventful, exited transition 5 minutes behind Jeff, 3 behind Jordan, and 50 seconds ahead of Jason.

Run: The day before the race we went to the Bike Barn to check it out, and I got a chance to chat with Jeff about the course. He warned me to take it easy on the uphill to avoid putting myself in a hole and have a decent last 5km, so I listened. Who else better than last years winner to give you advice? Out of transition I run strong, but holding back just a little bit. I heard Steve King announcing Jason out on the run course within my first 200m so I knew I was in “danger”. Still stuck to the plan and did not look back until the turnaround point. The climb was strong, smooth and very steady, I was feeling well. Still 50 seconds ahead, and with Jeff and Jordan way out of sight, it was a matter of holding on to 3rd place. 50 seconds in 5km are a lot of time, however I am not characteristic for having strong last 5km, neither for running downhill. The next 3km downhill I focused on turnover and stride length, and surprisingly found myself running well and feeling relatively fresh legs (thanks Jeff!). Into the flats, 1.5km straight to the finish I look back, and see Jason much closer than I remembered… not good, time to step on the gas. I was caught and quickly dopped by Olly about 2 weeks ago in Squamish, and that hurt psychologically, I was not going to let that happen again. I run hard, run for my life, wishing I had a HRM on to see what ridiculous number I was putting out. 200m to go, I look back again, he is as far as he was last time: I think I am safe.

This race was tough. The bike and run are tough every year, but wind made them a bit harder this year and complicated the swim as well. It was not too hot but still hot enough that I poured 6 cups of water on me during the run, and drank to full bottles on the bike. I was not pleased with my swim (technique felt very off), not pleased with my bike split (I know I can do much better), but very very pleased with my run. After a rough day I still pulled myself together and had a very good run to hold on to 3rd place, with a run split only 2 minutes slower than Jeff.

What is next? Kits challenge on Saturday, a 40km TTT on Sunday. I might skip the Self Transcendence Tri in 2 weeks in Victoria as my hip is still not 100% and Nationals are getting closer.

Pictures from the trip to come, thanks for reading!

PS: It was very nice to hang out with all the guys at some point on the weekend: Choppy, Jeff (tall), Ryan, Anthony, Jeff S, Justine, and Mark S amongst others

Off to Penticton

I knowI have not posted a race report for the race last weekend, but I am afraid it will never happen... (and somehow I knew it already Monday when I posted quickly how the race went)

This week was busy with work, training, preparing a presentation about myself and triathlons at work for sponsorhip purposes (more on that to come later), and preparing all stuff for the trip to Penticton.

I am about to leave work, in 2hrs we will be on the road. This should be a fun race however though. I hear the bike course is hard, the run is hard, and according to the canadian weather office today to monday will be between 30-34C... Looking forward to consuming lots of salt tablets hehe

Lots of people racing this weekend: Anthony, Ryan, Dave, Choppy and Jeff (tall) to name a few. Everyone have a safe trip and I shall see you in Penticton -you will find me under a tree eating peaches until I feel like exploding-.

Good luck to me!

Not much time today

Today I do not have much time to write a full post, but here is a quick weekend update:

Friday: Work, 4hrs of easy training

Saturday: 2hrs easy in the morning, set up race gear. Playland at the PNE with work at noon; Went with my brother, Brad, Laura and Gerrett. It was lots of fun! I also ate quite a bit (like 3 double chicken burgers and 2 smokies)... oooppss... In the afternoon did the bike drop off and went home to try to cool down with the air conditioning on. It was hot and very very sunny.

Sunday: Vancouver International Sprint Triathlon. Race went very well, shaved 5 minutes and a half from last year in an identical course and pretty similar conditions. I am very pleased with my bike performance. Happy with my run performance considering my hip imbalance (that is getting better slowly but still there). Quite unhappy with my swim (and I dont mean pace, I mean how it felt...). After the race Eze, Choppy, Clarke and myself rode to Iona. Lucky for us the temperature was dropping, however it was getting windy and 40kph headwinds in Iona were not fun. In the afternoon/night we headed to Vincents place for some BBQ meat, it was really fun and there was lots of familiar faces including Curtis and Barry.

Good job to all people that raced this weekend, half or sprint =)

Thanks Andra and Stefan for coming to watch! I know 7:45 am was an amazing feat on a Sunday morning

The race report to come when I get around it... Here are some pictures, 3 of them taken by my personal photographer ENEJ who followed us around and got like 300 pics! I cant wait to get them all, thanks!

SQUAMISH TRIATHLON Race Report – Olympic Distance – 05.07.09

Place Overall: 2nd
Place 25-29: 1/16
Total Time: 1:56:23

Note:
Swim: Most likely a little long, all paces/100m a few seconds above usual
Bike course: 1/3 flat, 1/3 downhill, 1/3 uphill
Run course: Trail run, minor hills

Saturday was busy busy busy, only went for 1hr on the bike, no run planned, no time for swimming, disgustingly full from AYCE sushi, and with very low expectations about Sundays race. The hip could go either way, either hold on and let me run at a decent pace, or get pissed and force me to DNF for the first time. A DNS (Did Not Start, for all people not in the sport =P) was not an option, I was fine to swim and to ride…

The weather was pretty good on Sunday, getting almost too hot at the end as race started quite late (9.30am) compared to other races.

On Sunday I woke up at 4:30am, had a bowl of cereal, grabbed bottles from fridge, pumped the tires, got ready and waited for Choppy to come and pick me up. Once he came we met up with Jeffrey Manson and left for Squamish. A couple of stops along the way for food (I had my toast with PB and chocolate milk with coffee in my bag) and powergels (Jeffreeeeyyyy ) and we were there. Setup of T1 and T2 was smooth and fast. Warmed up on the bike, 10min jog (hip little sore), and 10 min swim. For the race I really had very very low expectations. Although I knew that the fitness was there, It was going to hurt more than usual and feel a little off… The plan: Crush the swim and the bike, not save anything for the run, who knows what was going to happen.

The lake was calm, the adrenaline was already pumping, I was determined to go hard and the gun went off. Started fast, very fast, trying to get ahead and avoid getting kicked. 50m into the swim I found myself 1 body length ahead of everyone else and that got me going even harder. I swam alone the whole lap (1500m) feeling strong and relaxed, exiting the water more than 1 min ahead of 2nd and 3rd, and almost 2 minutes ahead of 4th. Mission accomplished, had a great swim...

T1: Excellent transition once again. Wetsuit came off quickly and easily, got glasses and helmet on and off I went. Getting into the shoes was a piece of cake, slipped them in as I supermaned on the bike, not sure how that happened but was great. Basically landed on my seat with both feet ½ way inside the shoes.

Bike: 4.5 laps ( T1 and T2 were in different locations) of the course, so first lap went hard and analyzed course, technical sections, max possible speed into sharp turns, etc. Following 3 laps went strong on the flats / downhills, and very hard on the Hwy 99 uphill keeping low gear and high cadence (80-90). At the top of the hill on every lap legs were absolutely shot, and needed 100m or so to get back up to speed. After 4 laps legs were crushed but I was still in the lead, mission accomplished. Last ½ lap went easier than previous laps, upped the cadence to flush legs and cruised into transition still in the lead.

T2: Very good T2. Removed shoes easily and dismounted without issues. Slipped on shoes little trouble, grabbed race belt and hat and off I went in search of the moment of truth.

Run: 2 x 5km laps on trails. Started fast, could feel the hip but the adrenaline was blocking most of the pain, also tightening the core and glutes helped barely feel it. I had no idea where the second place was, but I knew there was some fierce competition out there on the chase. As the leader I caught most marshals/volunteers distracted, so the first lap I did not get handed out any water/Gatorade and I went off course twice costing about 30 seconds in total. I was kind of pissed. About 4km into run I was caught by Olly Piggin, but had no answer. My hip was being kind enough to let me run at a high tempo pace with no pain, asking for more was asking for trouble. He dropped 200m after and I just let him go. Second lap went smoother in terms of marshalling and volunteers, I actually got handed out some water instead of being expected to grab it myself from a table with 200 glasses which most of them were empty =S. 30 min of running in 9 days finally showed up 6km into the run. I slowly started to die, it was getting quite hot as well, and the hip was being nice but not as nice as in the beginning. I was not leading anymore, but had a decent shot at 2nd place if I kept it going. Set the autopilot, let my hips dictate the fastest comfortable pace to the finish, and kept it going. 2km to go there was a small out and back section; I was still at least 2 min ahead of 3rd, relaxed and pushed to the line.

Looking at the results I don’t think I would have done any better on the swim and bike if the hip was in top shape, but the run was just awful. All tris this year I have been around 36 min 10km, yesterday was 39:15. Yes, the course might have been longer/tougher than usual, but looking at other people splits and knowing what the normally run, I should have run ~37:30 instead of 39:15. Overall, I can not complain. Yesterday and today the hip is as bad / as good as it was Saturday, so that’s sort of good I guess. This week is all about getting healthier…

After the race I chatted with the guys, had gigantic amounts of food in the food tent, waited for awards, back to Vancouver straight to Granville Island with Choppy and Jeffery for fish and chips (I did not get any as I was still disgustingly full still), laundry, dinner, and bed.

Once again, lots of friends racing this weekend (and some of them just dropping by on the way, It was an awesome suprise to see Andra and Stefan suddely appear out of the blue in Squamish) Hopefully everyone is pleased with their results.

Choppy: good job on the first Olympic! Cramps and all you made it! (and thanks for the ride)
Jeffrey: my bother told me it was also your first olympic, I did not know! Congrats!
Curtis: 2nd place in 20-24 man, nice work. (and I owe you $104, I don’t forget)
Dave: Payday! that was a good swim for you wasn’t it? Nice work!
Colin: your fitness is coming back quick after a year off... I might need a Mcarthur parachute soon ;)
Susanne: Payday! 1/3 of the espresso machine is paid =)
Rob and Ricardo: Nice work guys, Vancouver next? Come on Rob!

Its been a week (and I apologize for that)

Well... I ALMOST (caps, bold, italics anddd red) crushed it in Squamish. Actually, I was crushing it until T2, running for my life until 4km into the run, and in one-gear-best-average-speed autopilot until the finish line. Race Report to come in next post, but here is how the week went:

On Monday I went to the Chiropractor (Carla Cupido) and she worked on my arm and hip for about 20 minutes. The arm really felt better after, the hip felt really sore from all the digging in with the elbow and Graston tools. Tuesday I went to the sports doctor and right after to the Physio, both agreed that the arm pain seemed to be related to a nerve problem and not muscle sprain. My neck and upper back was really really tight, and the Physio (Jay) went right in there and loosened the cr..p out of everything. Clearly he got it right on, the arm was 80% better the following day. The sports doctor gave me some nerve relaxant to help with that as well, so I have been taking that for a week now. With lots of stretching (neck stretches) and some upper back work the arm is now 98%. I have to purposely work really really hard to feel the slightest remain of whatever I had. “Tricep Nerve” Case: CLOSED.

The hip is a whole different story. After Carla went in there Monday it was sore Tuesday (as expected). Tuesday afternoon I went to Physio and Jay also got in there and also told me that my hip alignment is off and glutes were weak again. I haven’t done my exercises in a while as the weather has been so nice, usually I never have problems in the winter as I spend lots of time in the gym avoiding the rain. Anyways, Wednesday I was sore to the point that I was not sure where the “injury” was hurting initially, as now that whole side of the hip felt like I got hit by a car or punched 100 times. “Hip Pain” Case: Hip alignment exercises + Glutes Strengthening.

The 3 days off (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) from everything became 4, and then the arm got better so swimming and gym were back on. Wednesday I went for a ride as the sports doctor said that it might help (and also the hip barely hurts when I ride) despite soreness. It did not make it worse so riding was back on schedule. The hip was better Thursday and Friday, but still sore. Friday was 1 week without running, and with the Squamish Triathlon in line for the weekend I decided to get in the treadmill and see how it went for 30 min. Aerobically speaking I felt surprisingly good, usually after a week I would feel a little more strained for air/uncomfortable. Leg turnover was good, technique was feeling smooth, shins 100%, but damn hip was still refusing to work properly… According to Carla my pain threshold is pretty high (and therefore I let her go in deep deep and am sore for 3 days after) so I set myself a limit. If it started hurting more than …. then I would stop. I never reached the “set” limit; the run started at 5:00/km and steadily increased speed to 3:40/km at the end. Ice ice ice after. Saturday I woke up no better but no worse. More hip alignment, therabands exercises, glutes, easy ride, AYCE sushi with Stefan and Andra (big mistake the day before a race, but we needed to prove the waiter wrong didn’t we??), prepare race package, no time for a swim, and off to bed.

Summary: The last 9 days leading to the Squamish Tri were much less than ideal … There were 4 days of rusting doing absolutely nothing. Swam 2 times after 6 days of no swimming, biked 4 times Wed to Sat, Run 30 min on Friday after a week, and spent a couple of hours working on the hip issue in the gym. Upside: Arm is 100%, I know what to do with the hip, and had a pretty decent race yesterday all things considered =)

Race report to come next post ~30min =P