Spring is here!

which means many more glorious rides outdoors, a spring marathon, and maybe even some open water swims!

Unfortunately, it also means that there are a lot of drivers on the road, who - for some reason I can't figure out - are always 30 seconds late to where they need to be. And me and my bike are apparently in the way.

Today I took a nice spin out to Whytecliff Park, a ride that many who live and cycle in Vancouver are familiar with, and that I've ridden for some 7 years.

One Lexus near the park came out of a side road, blew through her stop sign, and continued her turn out of Horseshoe Bay. Meanwhile I got in touch with the back half of my saddle and was happy that I had installed new brake pads yesterday.

One Translink bus (I know!) cut me off in order to pick up his passengers. After being forced up on the sidewalk, I rolled by his open door and thanked him for the stop.

And 6 blocks from my front door, while stopped at a stop light, I heard behind me "ride on the sidewalk dumbass!" I think riding on the sidewalk is illegal, not sure though.

Now, I'll be honest: when I ride and when I drive, I don't always come to a complete stop at stop signs. But you can be sure that any liberties I take on the road are after your standard decelerations, blindspot checks, and gradual creeps to make sure that everythings good to go. And it's not like I'm out there "Critical Massing" the road - I'll usually wave drivers by after 20 or 30 second if I'm impeding their drive.

Unfortunately, if you're reading my blog, you're probably also the type of person who contends themselves if a similar manner on the road.

If you do, however, see yourself in any of the above motorists, perhaps you should take a bike out on the streets sometime. Who knows, you might become a better driver

Be careful out there

~ liquid

ps. if you haven't seen the news, one of triathlon's great athletes and one of my personal role models Jordan Rapp was in an accident yesterday. You can read about it here. My thought go out to Rappstar and Jill.

Back to black

So after a year and a half of having the most awesomeness coloured bike in Vancouver, an unfortunate series of events has put my Orca back to "normal" colours


1. My orange hudz wouldn't fit on my new Ultegra 6700 shifters (no, I didn't try)

2. Orange bar tape with black hood covers looked weird (yes, I did try)

3. Large gash in my tire made me replace my Vredesteins; intrigue led me to try Continental's this season

4. Orange demo Fizik saddle looked very strange without matching orange hoods, bar tape, and tires, so I put the black Fizik Arione back on

Okay, I admit, the bike's still very awesome, and I guess now my Speed Theory kits won't clash

note: pedals, bottle cages, seatpost, stem, bars maintain orange highlights

Love the Bike

~ Doug

Love the Run

Starting next Monday, January 18, I officially enter "Marathon training mode" where every workout is carefully executed, recorded, and evaluated in my leading to the BMO Vancouver race.

So that I can hit the ground running - so to speak - I figured that I should actually start running again after a long (but well deserved) break from the running grind.

New Year's Day I started with Run 1 - 2010


After last Saturday's Toonie spin at Speed Theory I ran down to see the folks at Forerunners with Nicole to buy some new shoes for the season

This is actually my 3rd pair of Saucony's Grid Fastwitch 3 shoe, and I really like the weight, last, and heel profile of the shoe. New Shoe Day happened Sunday January 11 with the great folks from the Steveston Athletic Association at Granville Island

Love the Run

~ liquid

A New Year Begins

At the risk of writing a cliche, here's my list of things for 2010

1. Update my blog more often (been busily on a training vacation)
2. Get back running
3. Life is more than swimming, biking, running
4. At home, at work, clean up as I go
5. Stop buying lunch at work all the time stupid, you're a pretty good cook
6. Figure out how insurance works and get some
7. Help Elizabeth plan a wedding. Maybe that way I'll be invited
8. Hit 1000 watts for 5 seconds

I didn't reach 10 things, but I'm okay with it

~ Doug

Phantom Run - FTW

Saturday November 14th I took the day off work to run the Phantom Trail Run in the Seymour Demonstration Forest.

It's been a long time since I've run a trail race, and I thought it would be good fun to strap my trail shoes and run in the woods around where I grew up. When I looked online and saw the 3 distances - 12k, 19k, and 24k - I thought "24k, that's just a little over a half-marathon - I can run that." Of course I really haven't been running since August ... nor did I take the time to look at the map and figure out the route

not quite the whole 24k route, but you get the idea.

So Gerry and I carpool up to the race site, I bring the Starbucks, and I get ready for the start. The race started with a quick loop around Rice Lake; I knew that I wanted to keep the effort pretty moderate, but I had no problem running with the front-runners right off the bat.

I take an early lead; the runner in the Fresh Air Experience vest (Dirk Hande) ran with me for the whole race.

Things I learned about trail racing very early in the race:

1). Train your power walk. Running up hills just isn't worth it - HR shoots up way too high. And walking fast is a lot faster than walking slow

2) Hydration is a good thing. Carry water (luckily I did)

3) In November, the weather can change quickly. Good thing to carry gloves and a toque in your vest pocket

4) Trail racing isn't as competitive as a road race (at least this one wasn't). Take the time to chat, point out sticks and call out drops - it'll pay off when you take a tumble or get lost.

5) Learn to enjoy technical descents - practice running on mountain bike routes for this (I regularly ride the section of Ned's and Bottletop that we raced, and it made it much easier.)

6) Trail racing is slow. 12k in 1:10 slow. Like, over 5 minute kilometers slow. Pace accordingly.

Anyway, once I got over the shock that getting back to the start was only the half way point, and we had to do another 12 k, the rest of the run went pretty well. The course took us up the Lynn Loop, which I had run several times last year training for the BMO Marathon. At this point is was just Dirk and I running, and we'd reached the "I don't care if my shoes get wet/muddy/torn, just let me finish the race."

After returning to the packed fire trails (just north of Rice Lake) I look to my competitor and tell him "if you want the win, go for it." You see, I actually don't like being in the 1st/2nd/3rd position during a race. I figure that if you can see the person in first place, then you have to race for it - and this is quite stressful. Anyway, we decided to just make it to the top of the hill (about 1 k from the finish) and see what happened. We started to pace, then tempo our way down the trail, and despite the pain I was able to pull out a pretty mean spring for the win!

Doug Giles 1 2:22:04
Dirk Hande 2 2:22:06
Scott Comeau 3 2:29:32

Pretty tired at the end of the race

Thanks to Dirk and Scott for their company on the race course. And congratulations to Shannon Back for breaking the women's course record, and finishing 4th overall!

This race has got me fired up for the Dirty Duo trail run/ride in March. Gotta keep riding!

[Insert witty swim-related title here]

Currently in the second week of my 50/50 swim challenge, sitting pretty at 9 swims in 9 days, so I thought that I'd write a post of some of the gear I've been (over)using at the pool.

I'm not normally one to write about different products, as I do sell a lot of swim gear at Speed Theory and don't want to come across as pushing product here on my blog. That said, this stuff is pretty cool ...

Speedo Aqua Socket Goggle
I've only been trying out the Aqua Socket goggle for a little over a week, and in honesty I probably wouldn't have tried them if not for a meeting with Speedo. I usually prefer a goggle with a bit of a softer (but solid) gasket, like the Speedo Sengar or Blue Seventy Element. The Aqua Socket is definitely made to be a racier goggle, but offer a surprising amount of periferal vision. In this way they're much like Swedish Goggles, which I tried once but failed. Maybe I needed Meyrick's sandpaper trick to make them work ...

Aqua Sphere Alpha Fins


Okay, another blatant review of a product now stocked at Speed Theory, but I wouldn't use the Alpha Fins if they didn't work. Unlike most swimming fins, these are made of a light foam, and they float while you swim. At first I thought that that would make for a great freestyle fin, but not so useful for fly and backstroke. So far they seem to work well for all strokes (well, not breaststroke ...) and they're actually really comfortable. In my old fins my feet would always cramp up after a few hundred metres, but the soft foam construction of these works better with the foot. And besides, they make you look like a Zora


and moving on ...


Finis Freestylers

I bought these paddles over the summer on the suggestion that I needed a paddle that would slip if I didn't reach properly with my catch. Unlike other paddles I've used that are bound securely to the hand with multiple bits of tubing, these paddles use a single tube around one finger, and can fall off easily if you're not catching right. Plus, they're not actually that big, so they don't slow down my stroke rate like bigger paddles, and are thus really useful for swimming without a pull buoy. Thanks to the guys at Team Aquatic Supplies for ordering these in for me.

Blue Seventy Transition Bag

Unlike everything else, this isn't a new acquisition for me; I've had my transition bag for well over three years now. What has always impressed me with this bag is the size of the main compartment; many times I drive to the pool straight from work, and need to store all my clothes, my winter jacket, towel, and all my swim gear to take onto the pool deck (I've never trusted the pool lockers). No problem. There are lots of exterior mesh pockets to store your slightly damp suits, goggles, swim caps etc. so they dry out over the course of the day too. And during the summer it's great for open water swimming, as my wetsuit can roll up and fit in the bottom compartment (which is waterproof, except for the zipper).

TriSwim

TriSwim has a complete line of products for the semi-competitive swimmer (hey, thats me!) Their main focus is making shower products that don't leave you smelling like chlorine all day after an early morning swim. And in that they're pretty sucessful. I remember when I first used the shampoo and could barely get my fingers through my hair afterwards, as the stuff strips your hair of all its oil as it's clearing the chloride (the label says "gently removes chlorine" - yeah right). So the one downside is that you do need to pair their products together: shampoo with conditioner, and body wash with lotion (though substitute your favourite body lotion as you will). And it leaves you smelling like Froot Loops, which is pretty cool.

Sugoi Piston 140 Compression Top

Okay, not technically a swim product, but let me explain. When you swim 2 or 3 times a week you might notice some upper-body discomfort for a day or two after the hardest of your workouts. When you attempt to swim 7 times a week, often doubling up swims on days, and are coming to swimming relatively late in life, well let's just say that I expect my shoulders to be mildly sore until December.

Enter Sugoi's new compression line. Following the massive success of their R&R Compression Socks (Elizabeth actually had a customer being fit for jeans at Hangers the other week who was wearing them) Sugoi has come out with full line of compression wear for next Spring. While they're relatively late to the scene with compression, the Piston fabric they use makes their shirt perfect for a swimmer's recovery piece to wear throughout the day. I got the one in black, and am seriously thinking about dressing up as "Compression Man" tomorrow for Hallowe'en.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say for now. Probably time to go get an easy 1000 metres in ...

~ Doug

Trying something new

Every off season I try to do something completely new to work, as Joe Friel might say, on my "limiters." Last year was the 50/50 swim challenge, which will be continued this year in T-5 days! One thing I've never done is a winter run focus. In fact, I can't recall a running race that I've done for it's own sake, not as training for an upcoming triathlon.

Yes, even the 2009 BMO Vancouver Marathon was raced all in preparation for Ironman Couer d'Alene - the Saturday before the race I rode near on 5 hours.

For the 2010 BMO Vancouver Marathon I'm going to actually see what I can do when I train and run more than 2-3 times a week. And all this started last Sunday when I took a new purchase out to the local track...

Okay, the photo is horrible, but man are these shoes pretty. Special thanks to Todd and Karen at Forerunners for helping me find these Adidas Titan Cross Country Spikes!

In preparation for some upcoming cross racing, and to pick up my running fitness in general after Ironman Canada, I needed some qualified, reliable information to help me train. [enter] Google.

A quick search for "Track Workouts" led me to this page by Running for Fitness. If you're a runner and you haven't seen it, I suggest that you do. Merely plug in your goal or actual time for a race of pretty much any distance, and you get not only reasonable pace times for your 5k, 10k, half and marathon races, but 15 track workouts custom timed to your goal pace.

Thus my first track session of the season consisted of 5 x 400m repeats, run @ 73 seconds (1:13) with 2:26 recovery (or thereabouts, it was early in the morning and I wasn't thinking too clearly). Nicole @nicaker.blogspot suggested that I take it easy on my first couple of sessions using spikes, as they strain the calf muscles moreso than running flats. Why I didn't listen, I don't really know (it's Thursday now, and I still am recovering).

Next up, the BC Cross Country Championships on October 31st.

(published by Doug, no matter what Blogger says!)