The Iron Family

Goodbye 2011, looking forward to 2012

2011-12-30T08:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. Today I have some free time and I thought that instead of checking Facebook again a better use of it would be to update my blog.

The only major sport event that happened since my last update in August, was Ironman 70.3 Muskoka in September. Briefly put, I sucked while Miha had a PR by almost 30 minutes. She forgot her wetsuit at home and we had to rent one. This was for the best because she liked the rented wetsuit so much that she decided to buy it. And it was worth every penny because this was her first triathlon when she did not have a panic attack during the swim.

Dan, Miha and I after finishing Muskoka. This was Dan's first Half Ironman and he had a really great time.

2011 was an "easy" year for Miha and I, with modest training and modest results. Here are mines:
Feb 27 - Peterborough Half Marathon (1:43:23 4:55min/km - I sucked)
Apr 16 - WWF CN Tower Climb (14:47min PB)

May 15 - Mississauga Half Marathon (1:35:41 4:35min/km AG:22/198, 163/3430 overall)

Jun 05 - DVP Ride for Heart (50Km - 32.7Km/h - very crowded)

Jul 09 - Warrior Dash Barrie (31:41 6:12min/km AG:52/701, 451/4894 gender)

Jul 16 - Rattlesnake Point Trail Run (1:02:43 4:57min/km AG:26/79, 68/320 overall)

Aug 13 - Cobourg Olympic Triathlon (2:36:48 AG:15/29, 57/189 overall)

Aug 28 - Toronto Island Sprint Triathlon (1:52:55 AG:18/40, 103/385 overall)

Sep 11 - Muskoka Half Ironman (6:03:09 AG:58/112, 350/874 overall)

The kids, unlike us, had a very good year, triathlon-wise.. Maria finished first in her age group at East End Kids Of Steel and 5th overall. She also finished second in her age group at Toronto Beaches Kids of Steel Duathlon.

At Orillia Kids of Steel in August.

For 2012 we have bigger plans. We have already registered for Around the Bay 30k in March, Toronto Marathon in May and Ironman Mont Tremblant in August. This is going to be Miha's first full Ironman. She's a little bit scared and excited in the same time. It's going to be my second IM and I, too, am a little bit scared and excited in the same time. After an easy 2011 I look forward to a more challenging 2012.

Happy New Year everyone and I wish you all a great 2012!

House of Payne Beer Run

2011-08-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

The 4th edition of House of Payne Beer Run was a blast! Drinking, running, laughing, fooling around and then repeat. After a couple of beers I felt like a kid at Wonderland. And it's no wonder, considering that almost everybody was wearing a costume and was acting like a kid.

Bryan raised the bar this year, making the Beer Run a World Class event. He got a new banner, a major league trophy cup and had some professional voice over work done for the opening ceremonies. This year also there was a record turnout for the HOP Beer Run: 17 people.

People were stopping on the street to stare at us. And they had a good reason. Where else would you see Osama bin Laden (a.k.a. John B.) walking side by side with a 200 pounds baby girl (a.k.a. Matty-O), followed by two bunnies hand in hand (John and Fran).

And here's me, dressed as a beer bottle. Not very creative. Next year I'm surely going to do better.

The Beer Run is a prediction run, everyone writes down the time they think it will take to finish, then they run with no watches or timing devises. The winner is the one whose actual time comes closest to their predicted time. Last year I predicted 18 minutes and it took me 44 minutes. Running is the easy part, drinking fast is the really hard one. This year I chose a more realistic time: 36:59, thinking that if I drink slower from the beginning I can beat my last year's time. The first beer and the first Km were easy and fast. The second was still OK. By the third I was already trying not to puke. I had to slow down with the drinking otherwise I 'd have puked. Puking is considered a penalty and you have to drink one more beer and run one more km. So, I slowed down and slowed down and in the end I managed to finish the race in 45:38 min, worse than last year. At that time I did not care anyways. I was in the zone and I wasn't the only one. It seems that everyone else lost their inhibitions. Then is when the humping started. It was everywhere.

This year the winner was The Captain himself. He was ecstatic when he heard the results, as you can see from the picture:

After the race was done we moved inside, where we had more beers and wings. The beer was flowing from the kegarator and everybody had a very good time. Then is when Al took me on the trampoline for a wrestling match, or the Battle Royal as it was named last year. Al is twice my height and weight, not really, but that's how he looks like when is your adversary in a wrestling match. I did not stand a chance until Matty jumped in to help me. Together, (mostly Matty ha-ha), we managed to cripple Al. Then I had my revenge, sitting on Al and pulling his cheeks and just making fun of him. Al is very stubborn though and kept saying that he's not going to give up, no matter how hard Matty and I was trying to make him to tap out. It was then when Bob, who is a fireman, came in to help Al out. Matty and I were no match to Al and Bob together and we tapped out quickly. Luckily no one else jumped in, so this year I ended up only with a bloody knee, which is not bad considering the circumstances.

I had to leave the House of Payne at 10:00 PM because the next day I was doing the Toronto Island Sprint Triathlon and I knew that if I stay any longer than that I won't be able to wake up in the morning.

Here's the official 2011 House of Payne Beer Run video:

For more videos and pictures go to: http://houseofpaynebeerrun.blogspot.com/.

Some other participants HOP Beer Run posts, as they remember it:

Heather Oravec - http://heatheroravec.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-life-of-canadian.html

Matty Oravec - http://mattheworavec.blogspot.com/2011/08/house-of-payne-annual-5k-beer-run-race.html

Rodney Buike - http://tlog.dortoh.ca/2011/08/28/just-dont-puke/

Warrior Dash

2011-07-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at Warrior Dash, just as we expected. Three of our friends did the race as well and we liked it so much that we we all decided to come back next year. And next time we're definitely going to wear some crazy costumes.

Here are a few pictures:

Getting ready for the Warrior Dash

2011-07-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Miha and I and bunch of friends, some of whom I had to get drunk in order to get them to register, are going to do the Warrior Dash.

My plan was to choreograph this properly but I had a very busy week and did not have time for it. Our wave starts at 1:00 PM and hopefully I'll have enough time to come up with some good ideas about how make this experience even crazier than it already is.

Here are a few pictures from previous events. I'm so looking forward to it. Wooohooo, we are going to have a blast!!!

East End Kids of Steel

2011-06-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

On June 4th, Maria and Stefan participated to the East End Kids of Steel triathlon. They were very excited about it as it was their first triathlon this year. The night before we practiced the transition with them until we made sure that they knew exactly what they have to do the next day. Stefan is 5 1/2 years and Maria is 7 years old and they both were now in the same age group, 6-7 years. That's because Stefan is going to be 6 in November and they consider the age as of December 31st and not as on the race day.

Maria is very competitive and she was quite nervous before the race. Stefan, on the other hand, doesn't care that much about his finish time. He's the one who enjoys the race, smiling and waiving at the spectators.

Just before the race we were announced that the swimming is cancelled due to some problems with the pool. My kids are pretty good at cycling and running, but they are not good at swimming, just like their parents. So, this was actually a good news for them, especially for Maria who was kinda scared of the swim.

Getting ready for the race

They had wave starts, with the youngest kids starting first. Stefan was the first one to go. He kind of missed the start, probably because he did not pay much attention, so he was almost the last kid to start running.

But then, to our surprise, he picked up the pace and passed quite a few kids as the race progressed.

On the bike he passed some more kids, even though he learned how to ride his bike without the training wheels just a month before.

Usually he is a BOP (bottom of the pack) finisher but this time he tried harder than usual and finished in middle of the pack, 19 out of 32 kids, even though he was probably one of the youngest kids in his wave.

Maria, is exactly the opposite. She is really ambitious and tries very hard to finish as fast as she can. Because of this, she's usually quite nervous before every race.

She had a good start and by the time she got to the transition, she was the first in her wave.

Once she got into the transition, the problems begun. Because she was so nervous, she had major issues buckling up her helmet. I think that she spent about 3 minutes with that helmet. At some point I thought that she's going to start crying, as more and more kids were passing her.

Finally, she managed to put on her helmet and start the bike leg.

She is very good at cycling and I knew that she'll probably make up for the lost time in transition. She started in force, passing everyone in her sight.

After the first turnaround she was already in the front.

And after the second turnaround she was way up front.

She finished strong, being the first in her age group. She beat all the boys in her wave, too, but there were faster boys in the other waves so in the end she finished 5th overall.

It seems that both, Maria and Stefan, genuinely enjoy triathlon more and more. They keep asking us when is their next race. I am sure that in a few years they will probably kick my ass in a Sprint triathlon and I look forward to it :-).

Mississauga [Half] Marathon

2011-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Miha and I were supposed to do the Full Mississauga Marathon this weekend, but about a month ago we decided to switch to Half Marathon because of our lack of training. We knew that we were not in shape to finish a full marathon in a decent time.

Surprisingly, I had a very good race on Sunday, way better than expected, considering that I did not train much for it. My goal was to finish it in under 1:45 and I ended up finishing it in 1:35:41.

That's 8 minutes better than my time at Peterborough Half Marathon a month and half ago. This time though, I did not not get drunk the night before the race, which probably helped a little.

We were really lucky, weather wise. On our way to Mississauga it was pouring rain and windy, the kind of rain that makes you wish for faster windshield wipers in order to see where you're going. I was wondering how the heck are we going to race in this weather. But then the rain slowed down and by the time the race started, the rain almost stopped, which made it a pretty good weather for running.

My plan was to do this race based on HR and try to get a negative split. I kept my Max HR to 165 bpm for the first 5K and then I gradually raised it to 170 bpm and kept there for the next 11K. For the last 5K I did not care about HR anymore and I tried to run as fast as possible. I managed to finish strong, with a 4:13 min. time for the last Km. And I got a negative split, by 30 seconds or so, exactly how I wanted it.

Miha had knee issues and she had to run slower than usual. She finished in 2:10h, which is better than she expected, considering that the day before the race she had doubts about participating.

Our friend Dan, who is more and more into running and triathlons, participated as well. He had problems with his knees since the Around The Bay race. I saw him at the finish line and he looked like he went through a lot of pain. But he HTFU and managed to finish with a sprint, in a total time of 1:57:28h, which is not a PR, but it's a pretty good time for him, considering the conditions.

Here's a picture with all 3 of us, after the race:

All in all, this race went well for all three of us. I am planning to do it again in the future, even though it is scheduled now at the same time with Toronto Marathon. I like the route and the event is well organized.

On the training front, it's going a little bit better lately. I managed to train regularly for the last two weeks, even though it was only for short periods of time. My average weekly training time is only 3.5h. That's probably also because I managed to fell off the bike and damage my rear derailleur. Now I cannot ride my bike until I find the time to take it to Wheels of Bloor and have it fixed.

One thing that makes me happy lately is that Maria is now big enough to ride her bike while I am doing my 10K running sessions. She gets a good workout, especially from the hills, and I get to talk to her a lot and spend time with her, while training. It's pretty much a win-win-win situation.

Here's Maria and I. before heading out for our regular 10K biking/running session:

Another good thing is that I feel in a good shape, not as good as last year, but much better than how I felt two months ago. I started to enjoy training again and hopefully in a couple of months I'll manage to gain back the fitness that I lost during the winter.

I want to congratulate everyone who raced this weekend. Here are just a few blogs to check out for some really good and inspiring stories: Rodney, Q, Matty, Peter.

Maria's first CN Tower Climb

2011-04-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday we did the CN Tower Climb for WWF-Canada, which was a big day for Maria. She had been training for it for about 2 months. The alarm went off at 5:00AM and 1 minute later we heard Maria telling us to get up because we need to get ready for the CN Tower climb. We realized how excited she must have been, considering that she's not a morning person and usually she doesn't hear the alarm. We wanted to get there as early as possible in order to avoid the crowds. Another reason was that they were giving a free CN Tower ticket to all the participants who arrived before 7:00 AM. The tickets always come in handy when we have visitors who never went to CN Tower.

The registration process was swift and we were done in less than 10 minutes. The only problem was that we needed to walk in the rain for a couple of hundred meters, from where the registration took place to the CN Tower. And we had to do it wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. It was pouring rain and by the time we got into CN Tower we were all freezing cold and shivering. Inside was warm tough and 5 minutes later we were all OK.

Being only 6 years old, Maria was one of the youngest participants out there. According to the rules, she had to be accompanied by an adult and Miha decided to be her climbing mate and pacer. The climb was from the base of CN Tower to the "Glass Floor", which consists of 1,776 steps / 144 flights / 342m / 1,122ft. Based on the number of steps, that's equivalent with climbing 128 floors in our house. That's a lot of climbing for a 6 year old and my assumption was that she's going to climb it in somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes. I could not believe my eyes when I saw her and Miha coming out the door after only 22 minutes. Miha told me that they never stopped and Maria was climbing at a brisk pace most of the time.

Here are the official results. There were 4,437 climbers in total. The Rank in the Results page is misleading because they allocate the same rank for people who finished with the same time.

Here's Maria getting her t-shirt with the official finish time. She's very proud of it and showed it to everybody. She's also wearing it today at school.

I had a good climb, too. I managed to get a PR, finishing in 14:47min (14:40 according to my Garmin) and beat my previous time of 15:19 min.

The Lazy Triathlete

2011-04-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I should rename my blog to "The Lazy Triathlete" but the name has been already taken. I was briefly checking the current owner's blog and the first phrase I saw was: "So far this has been a good week of workouts. I have gotten in workouts every day and even some two-a-day workouts.". That's not fair! How is that lazy??

When it comes to being a lazy triathlete, I am the real deal. As I stated in my previous post, my plan was to start with baby steps and train for 6 hours per week. I started strong with three consecutive days of 10K of running and then my energy just fizzled out as the week progressed. I ended up with 7 hours of training for the last 2 weeks, 3.5 hours/week, almost half of my initial baby goal.

And speaking of lazy, I was checking my training log (see link on the top-left corner) for the 5 months leading to my 2010 Lake Placid Ironman. To my great surprise, here are the totals:

March: 17.6h, 253.8Km - 4.1h/week
April: 25.7h, 467Km - 6h/week
May: 28.8h, 513Km - 6.7h/week
June: 37h, 824.7Km - 8.64h/week
July: 32.6h, 663.8Km - 7.6h/week
Total: 141.7h, 2722.3Km

Training wise, these were the busiest months for me, ever. Here is the big surprise: the weekly average comes down to only: 6:45h / 130Km.

Yes, that is correct, during my 5 busiest training months I averaged only 6:45h per week of training, which is kind of half of what my triathlete pals put in, week after week. And during that time I managed to finish Mississauga Marathon in 3:18h and Ironman Lake Placid in 11:48h, results which I am very happy with.

For some reason, in my mind I had the impression that I was training between 9 and 12h a week during that time. To my surprise, I was training way less than that. Man, what a great relief. My 3.5h/week does not look that bad anymore. Having this new revelation, I decided to adjust my "baby win" goal for the next week to only 4h of training. And who knows, this time I might be able to accomplish it.

On a different note, this Saturday The Iron Family, minus the Iron Boy, is going to do the CN Tower Climb. According to CN Tower's website, "over 34 years the CN Tower is proud to have held the distinction as the World’s Tallest and according to the 2010 Book of Guinness World Records it remains the World’s Tallest Tower.".

The climb stops at the "Glass Floor", which means that we're going to climb 1,776 steps or 144 floors. Our Iron Girl, Maria, who is only 6 years old, is going to do the climb for the first time. Unlike her father, she has been training for the past month. She's hoping to finish the climb in under 40 minutes, which is very realistic, considering that right now she's climbing half the distance in about 15 minutes. Because she's not 12 yet, an adult has to accompany her at all times, and my wife agreed to do it. This way, I'm free to try to break my 2008 PR of 15:19 minutes. If I manage it, the result would place me on position 194 out of 4,193 climbers, according to the last year's results. Of course, the chances are not in my favor, considering how out of shape I am right now. The thing is that I didn't train in 2008 either, but I do not remember how much in shape I was at that time.

Disappointed

2011-03-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much how I feel about my training. I've even run out of excuses why I am not training. The weather has been pretty good in the last few weeks, I was not sick and I was not busier than usual. I guess the explanation is the fact that I do not have any self control and discipline, like my wife keeps telling me. Even if I don't like it, I have to admit that she's right :-).

Here it is what's going on since my last post, more than a month ago.

On Feb. 27th I did the Peterborough Half-Marathon. The kids ran the 1K race and had a really good time. Me, not so good. Besides the fact that I did not train for it, I also managed to get completely wasted the night before the race. I went to a birthday party on Saturday night, had a very good time and, as usual, got utterly drunk on beer and wine. I got home at 2:00 AM, spent half an hour in the bathroom throwing up and then went to sleep. Luckily the race was starting at 12:30 so I managed to get some decent sleep. The hangover that I had on Sunday was one of the worst. Just before the race was about to start, my head was throbbing with pain, my resting heart rate was in the high 90s and when I bent down to tie my shoelaces I felt so dizzy that I had to lie down. After the race started, I felt a little bit better but I still felt like puking most of the time. The first 10K were hard, really hard because of my headache and my unruly stomach. It also was cold and windy and the course was quite hilly. After about 10K I started feeling better and my headache went away. I picked up the pace and managed to finish the race in 1:43h, with a negative split. My average HR was 172, way higher then usual. In the end, considering the circumstances, I am happy with this result, even though it was 13 minutes over my PB.

This Sunday Miha and I were supposed to do the Around the Bay 30Km Road Race, but because our son got really sick, we had to cancel it. Luckily, the organizers allowed me to transfer my race entry to my friend Dan, so the money did not go wasted. Anyway, I was not trained for it, so it would have been another sufferfest and my time would have sucked regardless.
I'd like to congratulate all of my friends who participated in the ATB, some of whom I met only in the Blogger universe. John P. and Quinton J. had a great race and both set a nice PB.

My next big race is Mississauga Marathon, which is on May 15th, 47 days from now. When I registered for this race, the plan was to qualify to Boston Marathon. In order to BQ I need to finish it in under 3:15h, which would have been doable, had I trained like I did last year, when I finished it in 3:18h. Now all I hope for is to finish it with a decent time, hopefully in under 3:30h. That of course can happen only if I find my motivation and I actually start training.

The good news is that I am healthy and rested. I even managed to stay sober for the last month. All I need is a little bit of discipline and motivation to start my training. I know that once I get back into my routine it will get much easier. The plan is to start with baby steps and slowly build up my motivation. I am also going to update my blog weekly with my progress in order to keep me honest. The plan for this week is to run 30K, bike 60K and have one swim session. That's about 6 hours of training, which is not that much, but it's good enough for a baby win.

Disney World

2011-02-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

I’m writing this post on the airplane, on our way back home from Florida. We visited Disney World for the first time and had a great family vacation there.

We left Toronto on Monday evening for Buffalo. It was way cheaper to fly to Orlando through Buffalo than flying directly from Toronto. I paid $880 for 4 tickets, 2 adults and 2 kids and, if I remember correctly, the cost for flying from Toronto would have been around $1,500. Most of the hotels near the Buffalo airport offers a one week free parking if you stay for one night. So we decided to take advantage of this offer, especially that our flight was early in the morning and also because the cost for one week parking at the airport was $60, while the cost for one night at the hotel was only $89, with a complimentary breakfast included.

Everything went really smooth and we arrived in Orlando on Tuesday morning, on time. We even got lucky and got the seats in the airplane with the extra leg room at no additional cost.

At the airport we went directly to the Disney area and in less then 10 minutes got into the Disney Magical Express bus. 20 minutes later we were at the hotel. Because we stayed in a Disney resort hotel, the transportation from the airport to the hotel was included in the price. Also, Disney took care of our luggage, too. We did not have to wait for our cargo luggage; they took care of it and delivered it directly to our hotel room.

The Disney transportation service is amazing. Every 20 minutes, or less, there was a bus leaving from our hotel to any of the 4 parks and the Disney Downtown Area. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside hotel, which was pretty good. Because I made the reservations before Dec. 31^st and because this time of the year is considered low season, I got the room for $115/night. The regular price is about $190.

Our first visit was to the Magic Kingdom Park. The park was even better than I imagined it. The kids were like wow this and wow that most of the time. Magic Kingdom has 4 “lands”: Adventure Land, Frontier Land, Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land. This is the most popular Disney park and it has the Cinderella castle in the middle. Each section of the park is like a small city with a specific theme and everything from the buildings to the garbage bins are designed accordingly. It’s amazing the attention that they pay to the smallest detail. I did not have anything else to compare it, except for the Toronto Wonderland and the difference between the two is huge, even though the price difference is not. One day admission ticket to any of the Disney Parks is $70 while the same one-day admission to the Toronto Wonderland is about $55, if I remember correctly. We had 7-day tickets and I paid $950 for all four of them.

The other three parks are Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. I am not going to bore you with the details about each park, but I want to say that we enjoyed each of them. They are all different and well worth visiting if you plan to go to Disney. Like I said, Disney’s attention to each detail is just amazing. Also their customer service is by far the best I’ve ever seen. That includes everyone, from the bus driver to the security guard at the park. Even when they check your backpack at the park entrance, they try to make it as nice as possible. Most of the employees were jocking with the kids and gave them Mickey Mouse stickers. We felt like VIP customers all the time.

The only complain I have is about their room internet service. It was slow, extremely slow. But as my wife said, it was probably for the better because it kept me away from my laptop.

The kids had the time of their life. By visiting all four parks they got to see everything, from meeting Mickey Mouse in person or seeing the Fireworks Show, which was really impressive by the way, to live Safari at the Animal Kingdom or watching real movie stunts at the Hollywood Studios. Another ride that really impressed me was Soarin’ in the Epcot Park. On this ride you really have the impression of free-flying. Here’s how The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney describes it: “Soarin’ is a thrill ride for all ages, exhilarating as a hawk on the wing and as mellow as swinging in a hammock. If you are fortunate enough to have experienced flying dreams in your sleep, you’ll have a sense of how Soarin’ feels. Once you enter the main theater, you are secured in a seat not unlike those on inverted roller coasters (where the coaster is suspended from above). When everyone is in place, the rows of seats swing into position, making you feel as if the floor has dropped away, and you are suspended with your legs dangling. Thus hung out to dry, you embark on a simulated hang-glider tour with IMAX-quality images projected all around you, and with the flight simulator moving in sync with the movie. The IMAX images are well chosen and drop-dead beautiful. Special effects include wind, sound, and even olfactory stimulation. The ride itself is thrilling but perfectly smooth. We think Soarin’ is a must-experience for guests of any age who meet the height requirement. And yes, we interviewed senior citizens who tried the ride and were crazy about it.”

On the training front I did not do much latelly. Before leaving for Disney I was down with a cold and I did not have much energy left for training. Now I feel much better and my energy level is back to normal. I also feel anxious to start my training.

It's getting a tad better, but still not quite there

2011-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. My plan to get back on track is slowly moving forward. Kinda of too slow for my taste but as long as it is forward I am happy with the results. I've decided to adopt Bryan's baby-wins approach and so far it's working well for me.

The only training that I did in the last 3 weeks was in regards with the 100 push ups / 200 sit-ups / 200 squats challenges. I just completed my 3rd week of training and according to my last exhaustion test I am now at 50 push ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats. When I started doing this, just before Christmas, I was so out of shape that I only was able to do 25 push ups, 30 sit-ups and 40 squats.

Another thing that I'm happy with is that I did not drink much this year, except for the New Year's Eve party, which lasted for 2 days and it took me about 3 days to recover from it. I still drank the 2-3 beers one or two nights a week, but most of the days I did not drink at all. That's a big progress when compared with the months before.

And finally we have setup our family race calendar for 2011. This year we have decided to add a couple of non triathlon related events to our list in order to make it more fun. It's not 100% finished yet but we have already registered for some of the races. This way I know that at least we'll attend these ones:

Feb 27, 2011 - YMCA of Peterborough Half Marathon. The kids will do the 1K Fun Run.
Mar 27, 2011 - Around the Bay 30K Road Race
Apr 16, 2011 - WWF CN Tower Climb. Our daughter, Maria, who's 6, is going to join us. More details about it in another post.
May 15, 2011 - Mississauga Marathon
Jun 05, 2011 - DVP Ride for Heart. We're doing this one with some of my work colleagues.
Jul 09, 2011 - Warrior Dash Barrie. I just know that it's going to be a fun, fun event.
Jul 10, 2011 - Peterborough Half Ironman (we're going to register as soon as the registration opens).
Sep 11, 2011 - Muskoka Half Ironman (we're going to register as soon as the registration opens).
Oct 23, 2011 - Ajax Half Marathon. (we're going to register as soon as the registration opens).

My A races are going to be Mississauga Marathon and Muskoka Half Ironman. At Mississauga Marathon I'm going to try again to qualify to Boston Marathon, even though my chances right now are not as good as last year, when I was only 3 minutes short of BQ. Anyway, if it does not work out then there are other marathons in the fall and sooner or later I am going to BQ. There's no rush, Boston is not going anywhere.

Status update

2010-12-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

Five months ago, after finishing my first Ironman, I was in a great shape and I thought that it will only get better from there on.

I was dead wrong. Too much partying, almost zero training and it seems now like I finished the Ironman 5 years ago and not 5 months. I have never partied and drunk so much in my life as I did in the last 5 months. I had a very, very good time and good memories, and even though I lost most of my fitness, overall I am not sorry for what happened.

Had I done some minimal training, I would have actually been very proud of myself now.

But I did not do any training and I know that if I continue like this, sooner or later, I'll be sorry. It would be really nice if, like Bryan, I could party and train in the same time, but to my disappointment, I can't. When I get drunk I lose most of my self control and training is the last thing I'm thinking of. Then, the next couple of days, I usually have a hangover and again, training is the last thing I'm thinking of.

Another thing I've noticed is that, with so much partying, I haven't lost only my fitness, I've also lost my motivation and energy in general. I became a slacker at home and at work.

My plan for 2011 is to get back on track and start training again. My first goal is to qualify to Boston Marathon. For this, I need to finish a marathon in under 3:15 hours and the plan is to accomplish it at Mississauga Marathon, on May 15th. My next goal is to do 2 half-Ironmans in 2011 and finish them with a respectable time. One of them is going to be Muskoka in September 11. I haven't decided on the other one yet.

Another thing I need to do is to get myself together and pass some programming and financial certifications. In IT you are required to stay up to date by learning, learning and learning. I am an IT consultant and I am supposed to stay on top of what is new in my field. I have hardly spent any time on my career lately and I need to reverse this trend before it's too late.

I am going to have one more party on New Year's Eve and then training starts on January 2nd.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Tag, I am it!

2010-11-30T00:19:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by John Proc, the Lord of Chainrings himself. That was long time ago, but I am very lazy when it comes to updating my blog. In my defense, I was down with flu for quite a while and I did not have much energy left.

So, here are a few things about myself that you probably did not know about:

1. I grew up in a small village (500 houses) in Romania, during Ceausescu's communist regime. Contrary to what people think in North America, life in Romania during Ceausescu's communist regime was not that bad. We were poor, but we were not starving and the police would not make you any troubles unless you were directly confronting them. And as a kid, life was actually very good. I had probably over 20 good friends with whom I'd play soccer daily for many hours. I had free time in abundance, there were no schedules and not many rules to follow. In a way, my kids today do not have the freedom that I had when I was their age.

2. I met my future wife, Mihaela (Miha for short) in 1996, in university, when I was living in the campus. I have the fondest memories of that time. I was really skinny at that time and I was really frustrated by it. Miha, on the other hand, was, and still is, really good looking. For some unknown reason she took interest in me. She says that she appreciated my kindest at that time. It seems that I lost that kindest in the meanwhile, according to Miha. I am working on getting it back.

3. I've never had a problem gaining weight. On the contrary, when I was 23 years old and Miha met me, I had 57 Kg (125 pounds) and not because I was watching my diet, or because I was starving. I was skinny because of my metabolism. By the way, I was at that time (and still am) 5'10" (1,78 cm) tall. Now I weigh 73 Kg (160 pounds), which is the most I have ever weighed in my life. I used to hate being not able to gain weight. Now I am grateful for it.

4. I am a software developer and I love it. First time I saw a computer it was in high school and after 5 minutes looking at it I knew what I want to become when I grow up. Luckily, my profession was, and still is, in very high demand and it is quite well paid, especially if you are a consultant.

5. I am geek and I fit the profile. I really love Star Trek, Matrix and I wear glasses. I am 37 years old now (my birthday is in 2 weeks from now - Dec. 14) and to my disappointment I'm starting to lose interest in geek related things. I used to know all the hidden codes for the Nokia phones. Now all I I know about my cell phone is how to access its address book.

6. I love drinking. Actually, I love the effects of drinking more than drinking itself. And I hate the hangovers. That's probably because I usually pay dearly for my nights of debauchery with a really bad hangover the next day. I always say though that it was well worth the price.

7. I love people who are not "politically correct". I guess that's why Training Payne is my favorite blog of all times. I usually try not to offend people (contrary to what Miha thinks) but I find it very hard to talk to people who are easily offended. And somehow I end up offending them anyway. Maybe Miha is right. Hey, you can take the boy from the village but you cannot take the village from the boy.

Here are a couple of pictures from when I was young and restless.

That's me, on the right. 125 pounds. And that's Miha. And the other two guys are my room mates in the campus.

And here's our wedding, 11 years ago:

That's pretty much it. Have a good one folks and thanks for reading.

Ajax Waterfront Half Marathon - PR

2010-10-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

Miha and I raced the Ajax Half Marathon on Sunday. Ajax is a little town, located east of Toronto, where we live right now. We are doing this race every year, since we moved to Ajax 3 years ago. Coincidentally this race started 3 years ago so we can say that we are doing it since its day one. And we plan to do it for many years to come.

The route starts and ends at Rotary Park and it winds along the shores of Lake Ontario. The scenery is beautiful and the race has sold out for every year so far. It has that feeling of a little town race, which I like very much. Everybody is very friendly and nice. Plus it costs only $30, if you register in advance. Most of the big races charge double the price.

My first half marathon was Ajax Half Marathon, in 2008, and I did it with almost zero training. I finished then in 1:43:54h and I remember even now how hard that race was. My left knee was hurting for the last 5K but I sucked it up and kept running. At some point I was limping, but I kept running. I was really happy that in the end I managed to run for the entire race. The next year I managed to finish the same race in 1:34:55h, which was a PR at that time. And because in 2009 I trained properly, that race was much easier.

As you realized from the title, I got a PR on Sunday. Here are our results:

I finished in 1:30:48 h and beat my previous Half Marathon PR time by more than 4 minutes. And considering that my stomach bug is still bothering me, I am really happy with this result. For the first time I managed to get a negative split. My average pace in the second half was 2 seconds faster than in the first half. My primary goal was to get a negative split, regardless if I get a PR or not. That's because until now, at all my previous races, I always started too hard and then faded at the end. This time I raced by Heart Rate instead of racing by feeling. After failing a few times in the past, I realized that I do not have the experience to pace myself properly by feeling. So I decided to use my HR monitor as a pacing device. Regardless of how well I felt or how many other participants passed me, each time my HR spiked over 170 I slowed down and kept telling myself that my goal is to finish strong, with a negative split, even if I do not get a PR. In the end this strategy paid off. I felt strong all the way to the end and finished with a long sprint for the last 2K. My average HR was 170 and my max HR was 182.

Miha was aiming for 1:45h, but she did not feel too well and finished in 1:50:59, with one minute more than her PR. I am sure that in a good day she can get her PR down to 1:45h.

Also my friend Dan finished his first half marathon on Sunday. He finished in 1:46:21h and he was extremely happy with his result. He has every reason to be happy. It is a huge achievement for him considering that a few months ago he was afraid of running 5K.
Dan and I work downtown Toronto, in the same building, and get together during the lunch break almost every day. I guess that for a while I exasperated him with my triathlon talk and in the end he decided to give it a try. Now he exasperates me each time when he manages to improve his 5/10K time by 1 second :0). And lately he managed to get a PR every week. After finishing the half marathon with a 5:03 min/km pace he told me that a few months ago he could not run 1K at that pace. It is amazing how much you can achieve if you put your mind into it.
Dan bought a Garmin 305 GPS watch, after I lent him mine for a few days, and he's fascinated by it. I've never seen anyone so in love with a GPS watch. He keeps telling me that it was one of the best purchases he ever made.
He also decided to do the Muskoka Half Ironman next year. Actually, we'll do it together. I am not so sure about my performance in year from now, but I know that Dan will perform very well. It makes me happy knowing that he caught the triathlon bug from me.

Chasing that elusive BQ time

2010-10-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today Miha and I did the Toronto Marathon. As you probably deducted from the title, none of us qualified to Boston. It just wasn't our day. I was sick and I had to slow down after 21Km and then I bonked at Km 36. Miha was sick too, but at least she managed to get a PR, so she's happy with her result.

Here's how the day went. For more than a week, Miha and I got a cold or some sort of mild flu and we did not feel well. I also got some stomach bug that gave me heartburn feelings and bloating. Last night I was coughing for a couple hours until I managed to fell asleep. In the morning my stomach was making the rumblies and I had to throw up and use the washrooms three times. Not a good way to start your day, especially when you have a marathon later on.

We got to the start line, in the Mel Lastman square, just a few minutes before the race was about to start. Then I followed Bryan's advice: go to the front of the start line, so that you'll appear in the race start photo, the one they might use to promote the next year's race. As you can see from our Time vs. Chip Time, we managed to achieve this very well, we actually were in front of the elite runners, just next to the official mascot, a white and blue big bear.

Once the gun went off, I sprinted and then moved to the side so that I won't get in the way of the faster runners. I've decided to follow the 3:15h pacing bunny and in the beginning all went very well. My heart rate was between 160-165, which is OK for me and I felt in good shape. After 5K, my HR went above 170 and I started to feel a little bit tired. At that point I already knew that I won't BQ today. From there on my HR slowly went up to 172-175 and it kind of stayed there. 175 is quite high for me and I started feeling more tired. I managed to keep up with the 3:15 pacing bunny for the first half-marathon and once I passed the 21.1 Km sign I realized that my HR was above 180. At that point I knew that it was time to slow down if I still wanted to finish the race. Also my left knee started to bother me more and more. My half-marathon time was 1:35h - 4:30 min/km, which was very good but I knew that from there on it will only go up. So, I slowed down to 5:10 min/km and my HR dropped under 165 bpm. I managed to keep that pace up to Km 36 when my left knee started to bother me really, really bad. And then the walk of shame began. I walked for the next 4K. Once I got back to downtown Toronto, I saw my friends who came to cheer me up. They saw me walking and kept telling me to start running and that the finish line was close. Thank you Ildi and Levi! I started to slowly run and once I got on the University Avenue, there were hundreds of people cheering you up. Some of them were yelling my name (it was printed on my bib) and were telling me "Go Ironman, you can do it. This should be easy for you" (I had my Ironman t-shirt). For some reason my knee pain seemed to vanish and I was running faster. My pace for the last 2.2K was under 4:40 min/km and I finished strong with a long sprint, passing everyone in front of me.

I finished in 3:42 hours, 27 minutes above my goal and 24 minutes more than my PR. It was not a good race but it taught me a few lessons, number one being: "Qualifying to Boston is not as easy as you think".

Miha finished in 4:08h. Her A goal was to BQ and her B goal was to break 4 hours. She did not accomplish any of them, but she was sick and in the end she was happy that she got a PR. Her previous marathon time was 4:14h at Mississauga Marathon in May.

We both plan to do Boston Marathon in 2012 and we have a year to qualify for it. I learnt my lesson today and I won't say anymore that it's easy to BQ, but I still think that is an achievable goal if you train properly. I know that there are many of our blog friends who want to BQ for 2012 and it will be really nice to run with them the most famous marathon in the world. And then get together and celebrate!

Bucket List

2010-10-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading a post on SlowTwitch about What's Your Endurance Bucket List?. Skimming through the entries I found quite a few that were interesting and so I've decided to make my own Bucket List. This is work in progress and it will probably change quite a bit in time:

So, here it is, in a random order:

- Qualify and finish the 5 World Marathon Majors: Boston, New York, Chicago, London and Berlin

- Qualify to Ironman World Championship 70.3

- Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon

- American Zofingen Long Course

- Pikes Peak Marathon

- Antarctic Ice Marathon

- Athens Classic Marathon

- Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race a.k.a. Race Across The Sky

- Finish Savageman and get my brick in the wall

- Alpe d'Huez Long Course Triathlon

- Comrades Marathon

- Though Mudder

- Warrior Dash

- American Triple-T

- Qualify for and finish the Ironman World Championship in Kona

- Skydiving

- Take a ride on the highest roller coaster in the country

- Bungee Jumping

- Dog Sled ride in Alaska

- Marathon every year till I am still able to walk

Kids of Steel

2010-10-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

Enough about me (for the moment being). Today's post is about Maria and Stefan, our KOS (kids of steel) children. Maria is 6 1/2 years old and Stefan is going to be 5 next month. They could not be more different. If I were to describe them in 3 words, here's what I'd say:
Maria: competitive, smart, annoying
Stefan: charming, confident, laid-back

I guess that Maria is more like me and Stefan is more like the mail man, or one of our neighbors. Ha-ha. He's just different, in a good way. He'll probably not be very good at school, but he'll not have self-esteem problems like Miha and I had. Maria, on the other hand, might have self-esteem problems, but she will be the first in her class and probably be a podium triathlete.

As much as I'd like to take credit for our awesome kids (and if you know me, you know that I like to take all the credit all the time), there's not much that I did. If you ask Miha, she'd say that there's nothing that I did beside being there (our bedroom) 9 months before our kids were born. Hey, being there, is not as easy as you might think. It is actually easier. Ha-ha. Miha, one of the best mom there is, on the other hand, did a very good job raising our kids. But, mainly, we were just plain lucky.

Maria and Stefan participated in a few races in in the last 3 years. Below are a few pictures about these races. They say that a picture is worth 10,000 words, so I am adding a lots of pictures because I am not good with words.

The year of 2008

Maria - Orillia Kids of Steels- August 2008

The Iron Family - Orillia Kids of Steels- August 2008

The year of 2009

Peterborough YMCA Kids 1K Fun Run - February 2009

Maria - TriKids Mississauga - June 2009

The Iron Family - Tri Kids Oakville - July 2009

Stefan - KOS Beaches - September 2009

Tudor, Stefan, Andrea, Maria - KOS Beaches - September 2009

The year of 2010

East End Kids Of Steel Triathlon - June 2010

TRi KiDS Oakville - July 2010

Beaches KOS Duathlon - September 2010

Beaches KOS Duathlon - September 2010 - with friends

House of Payne 5Km Beer Run

2010-08-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

On August 28th, 2010 I attended the House of Payne 5Km Beer Run. It was a blast and I had a really, really good time, especially at the Payne-a-Poolza party that Bryan held at his house after the race.

The rules for the HOP 5K Beer Run are pretty simple: "At the start you drink one beer, then one beer every kilometre. If you "puke", you run an extra lap and have an extra beer."
More about the rules you can find on the houseofpaynebeerrun.blogspot.com.

The HOP Beer Run is a prediction run, everyone writes down the time they think it will take to finish, then they run with no watches or timing devises. The winner is the one whose actual time comes closest to their predicted time. Before the race I thought that drinking 6 beers fast is not a big deal. Then, during the race I realized that drinking beer fast can be really hard. It took me 20 seconds to drink the first one and probably more than 5 minutes to drink the 6th one, most of the time feeling on the verge of puking. I finished dead last, 12th out of 12 persons. My initial estimate was 24:59 and it took me 43:24 minutes to finish. Running was easy, but the drinking part was HARD.

What I found really interesting was to find out who were the people who participated in the Beer Run and the debauchery that followed after it. As Bryan said, the results will probably surprise. Of the twelve participants, all are married, none are divorced, eight have kids, eight are triathletes, three have 15 Ironman finishes between each of them, one is a Kona Qualifier and the most remarkable, is most are LEADERS in their chosen career path:
Sr. Sales Representative
Police Officer

Health Inspector

Accountant - Mergers and Acquisitions

Canadian Tire Dealer

Copy Writer

Business Development and Marketing Director

Lawyer - International Mergers and Acquisitions

NASA Research Scientist

Structural Engineer / Landscape Company Owner

Computer Programmer

Monitoring Centre Officer (Department of Corrections)

For more details about the race and the party that followed after, please read Bryan's blog. I am inserting here a few pictures and a video made by Bryan, where you can see how fun and crazy things got.

The rules: http://www.houseofpaynebeerrun.blogspot.com/

Race report: http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/2010/08/payne-booze-ola.html

Race report continued 1: http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/2010/08/post-party-black-and-blue.html

Race report continued 2: http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/2010/08/house-of-heavy-hitters.html

Video: http://houseofpaynebeerrun.blogspot.com/2010/09/2010-race-video.html

What's next

2010-08-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

It has been more that three weeks of debauchery since Ironman Lake Placid. The first two weeks were quilt-free because I was recovering and celebrating. The last week though I was supposed to start training but instead I continued partying. Not good. Today I finally managed to get my self out of the door and do my regular 10K run. It was just awful, especially because last night Miha and I stayed until 4:00 AM drinking wine, listening to music and drinking wine. The combination of good music and drinking takes me to another reality, where everything is just better. Of course that this morning when I woke up at 7:00 AM everything was just worse. Luckily, after I drank a strong coffee I was 100% recovered, or so I felt. One of the main reasons I started doing triathlons was to be able to drink and in the same time stay healthy. So far my plan is working exceptionally well.

Our next big goal is to qualify to Boston Marathon. In my case, all I need to do is to finish a marathon in under 3:15 hours. Miha needs to finish one in under 3:45 hours. We both plan to do it on October 17th at Toronto Marathon. In my case, it should not be too hard, considering that I did Mississauga Marathon in 3:18 hours. Of course that would actually work only if I start training, instead of drinking.

Our next big race is Ironman 70.3 Muskoka, on September 12th. We also did it last year, when I fell off the bike with only 2 Km left on the bike leg and ended up being taken to the hospital. Luckily, nothing was broken. Miha finished it in 8:02 hours. It was our first long triathlon and a tough experience for both of us. This year hopefully it will be an "easy" race, considering that we made a huge progress since last year.

I just realized that the next biggest race by far is the House of Payne 5KM Beer Run. How could I forget the event of year?! It is going to take place on Saturday, August 28, 2010, at Bryan Payne's house. This is my type of race: drink - run - drink. After the race there's going to be the Payne-a-poolza party, where I get to meet all the triathlon celebrities, some of whom I met before, like John Fortin and Carlos, and some I'll have the pleasure of meeting for the first time, like Matty O. Dr. Sesuss says that "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.".

Today's pictures are from Toronto Island Give-It-A-Tri, where I finished 5th overall (out of 343 participants) and first in my age group. Of course it helped that most of the participants were doing their first triathlon on a rusty mountain bike, while I was on my $3000 Cervelo bike. I did the race because 2 of my friends were doing it, both of them being beginners and I wanted to encourage them. Even though it was a Give-It-A-Tri (Swim 400m, Bike 10 Km, Run 2.5Km) it was a good feeling to finish for the first time on the podium. I did the same race in 2007, when I came 14th in my age group.

Ironman Lake Placid - Race Report

2010-08-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

After drinking one beer and two Smirnoff Ice (from my wife's stock), I have finally managed to completely relax and stop thinking about my first Ironman. I went to sleep around 10:30 PM and I slept like a baby. I actually slept so well that when the alarm clock went on at 4:15 AM I stopped it and I continued to sleep. I finally woke up half an hour later, completely rested and ready for the big day. After I ate a tuna sandwich I headed to the transition area. On my way there I realized that I forgot my wetsuit, so I went back to pick it up. I finally got to the transition area at 5:30. Then I realized that I forgot my water bottles at the hotel. I did not want to spend another 15 minutes going back to the hotel so I just went across the road at a gas station and bought 3 bottles of Gatorade.

The Swim
2.4 miles (3.86 Km) - 1:20:46 hours, 2:08min/100m
Place: 259/355 in my age group, 1671/2611 overall

At 6:20 I put on my wetsuit and I headed to the Mirror Lake to get ready for the race. On my way there I met with Miha and the kids. They were in a good mood and cheered me up.

Being a lousy swimmer, my strategy was to wait at the back of the pack so that I won't be passed by faster swimmers and get kicked as much as if I'd have started in the middle of the pack. So I waited exactly 1:39 minutes until most of the swimmers have crossed the starting line and then I started swimming slowly. Most of the swimmers at the back were slower than me and quite a few were swimming breast stroke, which made it difficult for me to pass them. Each time I saw a gap opening in front of me I sprinted and passed as many swimmers as I could. For the first 10 minutes I kept sprinting and passing probably close to 900 swimmers. At the first turnaround buoy I got kicked in the face for the first time. It was not too bad, but my goggles fell off and I had to stop to put them back on. For the rest of the swim I managed to find a pair of feet to draft off and keep a steady pace. I also managed to swim most of the time next to the underwater cable so sighting was not an issue this time. As I got out of the water after the first loop I could not believe that my watch showed 40:18 minutes. The second loop was uneventful, I just kept drafting off other swimmers. I finished the swim leg in 1:20. My goal was to finish it in 1:25 so I was really happy when I saw my time.

Transition 1

Time: 8:24 minutes

Once I got out of the water a volunteer helped me to strip off my wetsuit. The guy was really fast and he knew what he was doing. From Mirror Lake to the transition area it was a good 2-300 m walk and run combined. In my bike gear bag I had waiting for me a bottle of Chocolate Muscle Milk, which I slowly drank up. After that I put on my bike equipment, gave the bike gear bag to a volunteer and went to pick up my bike. My time of over 8 minutes was a really slow one. I really need to work on improving it.

The Bike

112 miles (180.24 Km) - 5:55:28 hours, 18.9mph (30.4Km/h)

Place: 112/355 in my age group, 548/2611 overall

The moment I got on the bike I felt really strong. I kept passing lots and lots of people. This always happens to me because I am a much better cyclist than swimmer. I guess for more than half of the bike leg I kept passing hundreds of people. I got passed a few times but in total I would say that less than 10 people passed me, while I probably passed close to 8-900 cyclists.

The weather was again just perfect. 22-23C, cloudy with a few drops here and there. I could not have wished for anything better.

As I passed by my hotel, Miha and kids were there waiting for me and cheering me up. It was so good seeing them.

My fastest speed was 75.8 Km/h, during the long descent into Keene. A year before when I came to Lake Placid for a training session, I was really scared of this descent and I remember that I applied the brakes a lot.

This time I barely applied the breaks a few times and for the entire descent I felt in control of the bike. I also passed quite a few people, who seemed to be scared and kept applying the brakes.

I finished the first loop of the bike leg at 31.4 Km/h. Just as I finished the first loop I started to feel a little bit tired and I realized that I'll need to slow down in order to have enough energy to climb the 3 downhills, Baby Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear, on my way back. Just before I reached the hills I opened my secret drink, a bottle of Red Bull, which gave me enough energy to pass quite a few people on the last 20 Km of the bike leg.

I got back into town feeling energized by the Red Bull and ready to start the run.

Transition 2

Time: 7:06 minutes

The moment I got back to the transition I was so happy that I was finally able to use the porta potty and pee. I guess that I spent close to 2 minutes in there enjoying the feeling of liberation and relief. Then I went to pick up my Run gear bag and found that the knot got really tight. It took me more than 2 minutes to get it loose enough and untie it. Hence the 7 minutes spent in T2 instead of 3 minutes like the other participants.

The Run

26.2 miles (42.2 Km) - 4:16:24 hours, 9.48 min/mile (6:02 min/Km)

Place: 126/355 in my age group, 767/2611 overall

I was off to a great start. I felt in very good shape. The first 1Km or so it's mostly downhill running. By the time I reached my hotel I was running really fast and felt good.

Miha and kids were waiting for me there. Miha said that she knew that I felt really good because I kept smiling while I was passing them.

For the first 5K I kept passing people and felt really well. Then, once I hit the hills my left knee started to hurt. At that point I had to make a decision, should I push through the pain or I should slow down? Then I remembered my first marathon from a year before when I pushed through the pain until my knee just gave up and I finished limping the last 10 Km. So, I decided to slow down. I realized that I have a very good chance to finish in under 12 hours at a slow pace and I said to myself that it is not worth taking any risks. I made a decision to walk any uphill, run on any downhill and run or walk on the flats, depending on how I felt. It was a very good decision. The moment I started walking the pain went away and I actually started to enjoy the run/walk combination. It felt effortless and I still managed to maintain a pretty good pace.

On my way back to town I passed again by the hotel, where my kids were waiting for me to give them high fives. Your family cheering you up never gets old and it kept motivating me to continue running strong.

The second loop of the run leg went well, too. My strategy to walk/run helped to stay in good shape and I just knew that I was going to finish in under 12 hours, which made feel really good. I kept smiling to the spectators and thanked them for cheering us up. All the time I had the feeling that I had the perfect race.

Once I got back into town I realized that if I start running for the last 2 Km I can even break 11:50. At that point I started running fast and kept monitoring my watch. Entering into the oval area was just awesome.

All those people cheering you up made me forget about the pain so I sprinted all the way to the finish line. Once I heard Mike Riley saying:"Doru Sandor, you are an Ironman" I felt so relived and just very, very happy, especially when I realized that I finished in 11:48 hours.

My goal was to finish in under 12:30 hours, hopping that if I have a very good day I might break 12:00 hours. At no point I thought that I'll be able to break 11:50 hours at my first Ironman.

Once I crossed the finish line, a volunteer came to help and guide me. She was a very nice lady, who kept asking me if I felt OK. I told her that I felt more than OK and she should not be worry about me. She joked that is her job to take care of me and she won't get paid if something happens to me.

I met Miha and the kids at the exit and we all went to the hotel. I took a shower, changed my clothes and we went to a restaurant nearby to celebrate. All I remember after that was that the beer never tasted so good. Best way to finish a perfect day!

Official results:

Ironman Lake Placid - the evening before the race

2010-07-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is going to be the big day: my first full Ironman. I have a feeling that I am going to have a good race. The weather channel says that is going be 23 degrees Celsius and scattered showers, which is not bad at all for Lake Placid.

Even though I haven’t trained as much as I’d have liked to, I am in the best shape of my life. I feel ready and eager to start, which is a good sign. I am a little bit scared of the mass swim start though. I am not a good swimmer but I was lucky enough to have my fastest swim time ever two days ago on the official swim course: 38:20 min for 1.2 miles, more than 2 minutes better than my previous record. The PR came at the perfect time to boost my confidence.

My main goal for tomorrow is to finish in one piece. Ideally I’d like to finish in under 12:30 hours, which should be doable: 1:25 h for the swim, 10 min for T1, 6 h for the bike leg, 5 min for T2 and 4:50 for the run leg. If I have a really, really good day I might even finish in just under 12 hours.

Here are a few stats about the 2010 Ironman Lake Placid:
- There are 2999 athletes registered for tomorrow's race. Of those athletes, 705 (23.5%) are women.
- The most-represented country is the United States, with 2,429. Canada is next with 507 athletes.
- There are 908 athletes doing their first Ironman on Sunday.
- The youngest competitor, Joe Benun, is celebrating his 18 years birthday today. The oldest competitor, Lyle Roberts, from Burlington, Iowa, is 79. He's doing his 18th Ironman on Sunday - his last Ironman was in Hawaii two years ago, when he finished in just over 16 hours.

That’s pretty much it. I am going to watch now Up in the Air movie that we just rented, drink a beer in order to relax and then go to sleep.

Ironman Lake Placid - the week before the race

2010-07-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

I am very late with this post. But with small kids, a busy job, but mostly laziness, it was a little difficult. So without further ado, here is my first Ironman Report.

We drove to Lake Placid on Tuesday. From Ajax, ON, it is a 500 Km ride, which took us approximately 6 hours. That was pretty good, considering that we have two small kids, a small dog and a small car.

We arrived at our motel - Prague Motor Inn - in the evening.

Lake Placid is a beautiful, little town. Kind of expensive though. Being surrounded my mountains, it brought me good memories of Poiana Brasov, Romania.

On Wednesday I went for a quick run to test my new Saucony Kinvara running shoes. These shoes are the best I have used so far. The only problem was that I bought them just before going to Lake Placid and I was a little bit afraid that I might have problems using new shoes for my first Ironman. After doing a quick 50 minute run I knew that I won't have any issues with them.
I also did a 1.2 mile swim in Mirror Lake. Swimming is my weakest leg, by far. So I was quite happy when I managed to finish the 1.2 mile swim in 40.36 minutes, which was pretty close to my PR.

In the evening we all went to the local cinema and watched "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with Nicolas Cage. It was a funny and entertaining movie and the good thing was that the kids enjoyed it as much as Miha and I did.

One good thing about our motel was that it was located on the bike and the run course and it was only 0.9 Km from the transition area. Another equally good thing was that it was located next to a Wine Store. So, almost every evening we stopped there and bought our customary bottle of Port wine. Both, my wife and I love this wine very much.

On Thursday we went to the Ironman check-in and expo. Right at the entrance there was a large tent full of signs that the spectators could use for encouraging their dearest ones in the race. My kids stopped there and used their creativity to design some awesome signs to help me finish the race faster.

On Friday I went for another swim in Mirror Lake. This time I managed to swim 1.2 miles in 38:20 minutes which was a personal best for me. There's nothing like PB before a major race to boost your confidence. After that PB I just knew it that I was going to have a good swim on Sunday. Until then I was really scared of the swimming leg. Most of my swim training was during lunch time, when I had only 35 minutes available, which translated into approx. 1.5 Km. I managed to swim 2.4 miles only 3 times before this race.

After the swim we all went to check-in my bike and my transition bags. I had never participated before in a race with transition bags and I was a little bit confused of how to use them. I went to the info kiosk an there was a nice lady who answered all my questions and told me to relax. I guess that I was quite stressed out considering that she noticed it.

Actually, I know I was very stressed out. Just ask Miha and the kids. You can actually see in the pictures above that there was no smile on my face and I usually try to smile when I am in a picture. Miha and the kids, but especially Miha, had to put up with me snapping out at them most of the time. At some point Miha said that we need to talk and from her face expression I knew what we were going to talk about. She told me that she understands that it is my first Ironman and it is normal to be a little bit stressed out but that does not give me the right to be a jerk. I knew she was right and I promised that I'll do my best to calm down and try to actually enjoy my time in Lake Placid. Once in a while Miha gives me"The Talk" and it helps, even though I do not like it at the time. After "The Talk" I kept repeating to myself that I need to relax and just enjoy my time in Lake Placid. It actually worked and even though there were a few times when I snapped out at the kids, those were the exceptions. After that I actually started to enjoy my time in Lake Placid and stop thinking about the race.

On Saturday it was Miha's turn to go swimming in Mirror Lake. She has registered for the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka on September and, as in my case, swimming is her weakest leg. She also panicked in every race that she participated so far and felt very constricted by the wetsuit, ending up swimming breast stroke. This time in Mirror Lake she managed to swim 1.2 miles in 51 minutes which is personal best for her by far. Last year at Ironman 70.3 Muskoka it took her 1:05 hours to swim the same distance. She was very, very excited by her record and I am sure that it will give her the confidence that she needs to not be scared of swimming in open waters anymore.

After Miha's swim, we registered the kids in the Ironman Kids Fun Run. I think it was 0.5 miles run for Stefan, who is 4 and 1 mile for Maria, who is 6. Stefan as usual, enjoyed his race, giving high five to everybody, without worrying about his performance. Maria, was exactly the opposite, she tried her best to run as fast as she could. This was a fun run with no time chips. Anyway, Maria treated it as a real race and finished with the first group, passing lots of 7 and 8 year old kids, including boys. She was barely able to breath after passing the finish line.
Both, Maria and Stefan, were very proud of their Ironman M-DOT medals. The kids fun race and the medals were another nice surprises from the organizers.

In the afternoon we went to the High Falls Gorge. It is a pretty nice place to visit, although kind of expensive. The kids enjoyed every minute of it and kept running up and down on the boardwalk.

That is pretty much it for my pre-race report. We had a very good time in Lake Placid, but it could have been even better. The lesson that I learned was that for my next Ironman I am going to take more time-off after the race and not before. Before the race I am too stressed out and mostly thinking about what can go wrong in the race, instead of enjoying my vacation. Lesson learned!

Mississauga Marathon

2010-05-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have finished successfully my second marathon. Total time: 3:18:49.5, only 3:50 minutes short of qualifying to Boston. Had I paced myself properly I'd have probably managed to finish in under 3:15 hours. My next marathon is going to be Toronto Marathon in October 17 and with a little bit of luck and some extra training I am going to qualify to Boston this time. If not, there's also going to be another time to do it.

Total time: 3:18:49.5
Pace: 4:43 min/km
Category place: 29/143 (20.27%)
Overall place: 118/1711 (6.89%)
Split at 21.1Km: 1:35:23

Bryan Payne ran side-by-side with me for the first half. His post about the race is better, longer and much more interesting. Here is the link: Beautiful run day ... and here are a few excerpts:

"Before the gun went off, I pulled Doru and Miha up to the very front of the start line. I wanted us to be in that "customary" race start photo, the one they usually use to promote next years race.

I'm sure it will be a funny picture. All these lean looking runners, including Kenyans, and then there's me, Doru and Miha. The only thing I forgot was my captains hat. I left the house without it. Wearing the hat would have made that "starting photo" funnier. It would be like finding "where's waldo, I mean, where's the captain".

I ran with Doru for about 15 km, up until the Marathon and half marathon split. He was running strong. For the most part we maintained about a 7:10 pace. It was a super hard course, if you don't like running completely downhill on a slight grade that makes you go faster.

Doru didn't know this, but as we ran side by side, I was debating if I should just do the entire marathon with him. At the last minute, I decided against it and it turned out to be a good decision. After I separated from Doru, around the 17 km mark, my legs started cramping and each foot started getting a blister from my new runners.

All and all, I was pleased with the race. It was fun and more importantly a good social event. It was good catching up with Doru and Miha, who both had great races. Doru ended up with a 3:18:50, his goal was to do a 3:15 and qualify for Boston. Miha did a 4:14:07 and Doru said she felt great after the race, unlike him. He thinks he went out to hard. I thought his time was great regardless, especially since it was only his 2nd marathon ever."

Getting ready for Mississauga marathon

2010-05-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today I had my last long run before the Mississauga marathon. I managed to keep 4:30 min/km for 18Km without using all my energy. Ideally, on Sunday I hope to finish the marathon in under 3:15 hours (4:37 min/km) and qualify to Boston Marathon. I know that I can keep this pace for 30 Km because I did it at Around the Bay race in March. The problem is that after 30Km I did not have any energy left in me. My worry is that the history will repeat itself and I’ll bonk during the second half of the race. That happened at my first, and only one so far, marathon – Toronto Marathon 2009. I did the first 21K in 1:49 hours, which was a good time for me at that time. Then, around 23Km into the race, my left knee started to hurt badly. I had to walk for about 10Km or so, until I decided that whatever it happens I am going to force myself and finish the last 9Km running. The first 2K were really painful and I thought that I’ll damage my knee, but I kept pushing and after that the pain went away and I managed to finish the race strong. My time for the second half of the race was 2:34 hours, 45 minutes longer then the first half.

My plan B for Sunday is to finish in under 3:30 hours. I got to admit that my plan A is more of a wishful thinking sort of thing. I’ll be very happy if I reach my plan B goal. I have plenty of time to qualify to Boston and I am sure that sooner rather than later I’ll be good enough to do it.

Swimming PR

2010-05-08T19:08:00.001-07:00

Today I had a fast swim. Now fast is a relative term, so don’t get your expectations high thinking about Olympic fast. Actually my swim is really slow even when it is fast. Back to my today’s swim. I managed to swim 20x100m, with 30 seconds breaks between laps, in 40:10 minutes. My fastest 100m lap was 1:52 min. That’s a big improvement for me. I usually swim 100 m in 2:10 – 2:15 minutes, but today for some reason I managed to swim it in 2 minutes.

At my first triathlon in 2007 – Bala Falls Give-it-a-tri Triathlon – I swam 400 meters in 13 minutes, with an average of 3:15 min / 100 m. Because I did not do any training in 2007 and 2008, at my next triathlons my pace was between 3:05 and 3:21 min/100m and all of them were give-it-a-tris, with only 400 meters of swimming.

In 2009 I slowly started training regularly. My first long swim consisted of one mile that I managed to finish in exactly one hour, which means an average pace of 3:44 min/100m. After that my left shoulder hurt for about two weeks. Until then I had never swum for more than 400 meters. I quickly started to improve my times with an all high record of 2 Km, with no stops, in 42:53 min – 2:06 min/100m. My best open water swim was at Muskoka Ironman 70.3 in September 2009, where I managed to finish the 1.2 miles in 43:38 min – 2:16 min /km. After Muskoka, I kind of stopped training. I started again in February and to my dismay my average lap time was around 2:20 min.

I still have more than two and a half months left until Ironman Lake Placid. My goal is to finish the 2.4 miles in 1:20 hours, which means that I have to keep a pace of 2:04 per 100 meters. My problem is that I have never swum longer than 2K so far and I have no clue what my time is for 4K or if I am able to swim continuously for 4K. Plus Lake Placid has a mass swim start, where about 2,300 athletes start swimming in the same time. That’s scary!!!

Making plans

2010-05-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

I am very lazy when it comes to writing, as you can see from my blog that it has so far only one very short entry. Actually, as Miha, i.e. my wife, would gladly confirm, I am very lazy when it comes to lots of things, with a few exceptions like drinking beer and playing computer games, which I can do for many, many hours without really getting tired.

Once in a while, especially when I am highly caffeinated, I like to make big plans, which I usually do not follow through. I recently gave up coffee, but I've just drank a cup of black tea, which seems that it set me into the "making plans" mode. So, I've decided that I am going to update my blog periodically. What "periodically" means I am not yet sure, but hopefully I'll manage to do it at least once a week. Especially, now that I just noticed that I have two followers: John F. and LHarp.

Today's post is going to be about what my next posts are going to be. Firstly, what gave me the idea of keeping a blog, was Bryan's blog - http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/. I love his blog and since I first started reading it, which was last summer, I dreamt of having a similar blog. Of course after taking into account my broken English and my laziness, I realized that I won't be able to write a similar blog so I did what I do best when I face an obstacle: I postponed my plans for later on.

Anyway, back to my planning. I am going to update my blog with my planned races for the year. Then after each race I am going to write a race report. I am also going to write about my training, or lack thereof. And I just remembered, I am going to get myself together and post all my previous race results since 2007, when I first started doing triathlons. Then, if I still have any energy left, I am going to write about my kids races and their results so far.

But lets not get carried away. It looks like the caffeine has worn off so I am going to stop here with making plans. Hopefully I'll be able to follow them through.

Official Training Start Day

2009-12-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

Today is my Official Training Start Day for the Ironman Lake Placid. I have decided to follow Mark Allen's training principle: Working your heart.