IronTour Ottawa-Kanata June 22-24th 7K swim-280K bike-35K run-10,000 ft climbing

Triathlon Forum
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IronTour Ottawa-Kanata June 22-24

Hey folks,

My original plan was to organize a high volume training camp weekend in Lake Placid from Jun 22-24, like we did over the past few years. However, I have just been traveling and away from home way too much, so I decided that I’ll do this training camp at home. Right after this I am on the road for work again for the following week, so it will be nice to train around home! For those that were planning to go to LP, there will likely still be a whole whack of other athletes to play with. For those from Ottawa or nearby, (or who want to make the trip), here is your
chance to do all my stealth solo workouts, and participate on my “home courses”. Many of you are 4 weeks away from Iromman Lake Placid, and some have just bagged IMLP slots at Muskoka, so no better time than this coming weekend to really pile it on.

This is a training endurance challenge…not a race. It is free and self supported. Just show up and participate. You’ll end up doing in the range of 14 hours over the weekend, so it is not for the faint of heart… Ideally you are targeting a sub 13 hour time, however the course is designed so that if you get ‘dropped” at some point, you can latch on to the group as there are many out and backs or hill repeats.

Stage 1: Friday 7 am: Shirley’s Bay 3.8K swim….3x11 min out, 11 min back. If you are slower than this pace, don’t worry, the goal is to just cover a bit over an hour of swimming. Latch on and off the group.

Stage 2: Satuday 6 am: Shirley’s Bay “Ironsprint” 50 min swim-180K bike-30 min run….well, it is not really a sprint…you’ll pretty well do all of the Ironman swim and bike and just a “sprint” 30 min transition run.

The swim will be 15 min out 15 min back, 10 min out, 10 min back. Everyone transition in 10 minutes and on the bikes READY TO RIDE at 7 am (those who did Epicman know that the train does not wait).

The bike course will take you from Shirley’s Bay up to Gatineau Park via Carling Ave, Ottawa River Parkway , Champlain bridge, Tache and St Raymond. The first loop will be a forward loop up Fortune…once you complete the loop, you’ll turn back from the T junction and do a 10K out, 10K back section to Champlain and back. Then all the way back to the gate and to Shirley’s Bay. This will bring us to 4 hours. Then from there, an out and back west of the city via Carling to March, to Dunrobin to 6th Line, left on Thomas Dolan to the top of Carp Ridge (or turnaround 5 hours into your ride, whichever you reach first). Return the same way. Everyone finishes the bike in 6 hours this way.

After the bike, 30 min run on Shirley’s Bay trails.

Stage 3: Sunday 6 am: Zofingen in Ottawa 2 hour run-100K bike-15 min run.

Start location is Beaverpond at the end of Walden Drive in Kanata Lakes…I promised that you get to visit my “stealth training locations”. This run will be quite hilly. It will be a 2x1 hour loop run with 6XRichardson Side Road repeats. This is the steepest hill in Ottawa….steeper than Blair Road, Pinks Lake or Fortune Parkway…a bit shorter than each but your legs will feel it. Because we are doing hill repeats, there will be a chance for the studs to fire things up at their own “pace” but the group stays together!

The bike will be a ride up to Gatineau Park from Kanata with one loop +5xPinks Lake Repeats on the way back (total 6XPinks to match the 6xRichardson). Ride back to Kanata Lakes and finish with a short 15 min run loop around the Beaverpond trail system.

Directions to Shirley’ Bay:

417 W from downtown, exit Moodie North to Carling Ave T Junction, turn left (West) on Carling, drive ~1.5K to Rifle Road, turn North on Rifle Road and drive ~1K all the way to the boat launch.

Directions to Kanata Lakes Beaverpond

417W from downtown, exit Kanata Ave North, go through three traffic lights and then turn right onto Walden when you reach the third stop sign. You will see an Old folks home a the corner and Whalen Park on your left on the West side of the street. If you see all Saints Catholic High school, you went too far and need to turn around and come back to Walden

Follow Walden till it ends (~2K) and park at the Beaverpond Parking Lot.

Logistics:

There is no water or nutrition at either location. You have to bring your entire nutrition supply for the day. On both days for the bike ride, you have to be able to carry enough nutrition to survive 4 hours. There IS a water fountain at the entrance of Gatineau Park, 1 hour into the ride (and 1 hour from the end of the ride) each day to Gatineau Park…you can carry powder and mix with water, which allows you to survive 4 hours with only 2 bottle holders.

Please note, all replenishment stops are 5 minutes. If you are late, the train leaves J

Please post if you plan to attend. I’ll have few more details over the next few days.

Dev

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6x up Richardson side road? OUCH.

The only time I go near that hill is to ride down it!

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Like I said, the campers will get visibility into my solo stealth workouts…every long run always has at least 5xRichardson Side Road repeats. Also on the bike rides, all climbs up Fortune will be out of the saddle standing (~8-9 min) and we will also ride from T junction to Champlain on day 1 “AEROBARS ONLY”. For those worried about keeping up, all courses are designed so the studs can do the full compliment of repeats/out and backs, while mere mortals can reattach themselves and “leave together”.

Dev

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It looked like you solo workouts were paying off yesterday.

I think you passed me around the 4km point on the run, you running with me trying to keep an even pace and just finish.

It looked like you had a strong finish over all…congrats!

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Dev,
I am in. I will be here Friday and Saturday for sure. & I plan on being there Sunday as well (depening how much “partying” that evening since I have something plan).

Cheers,
Fred.

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Hey guys, if there is enough demand, I will arrange for a buffet dinner/event briefing at one of the local restaurants on Friday nite.

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Dev,
I think that could be fun… I am in…
Cheers,
Fred.

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I’m in. See you at the swim on Friday morning.

I plan on doing 13 miles on the trails in Gat Parc (up Penquin along Ridge…etc) on Friday after the swim. Maybe 3 or 4 loops of the Parkways in the afternoon. If anyone is up for it.

T

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Trevor, where was the Rochester A team in Muskoka?

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I don’t know. CJ won a race in the Finger Lakes the other weekend and Erik is probably gearing up for the Rochester Twilight Crit. Haven’t really talked to the two in a while. However a future A-team member finished a few spots below you. He’s blazing fast short course and just has to get his long course legs and he’ll be really dangerous.

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Trevor, I thought YOU were the future A team member :slight_smile: After this coming weekend you should be down 20 lbs if I can keep you away from the buffet!

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Well I already have a reservation at the Mahal buffet on Lauier for both Friday and Saturday nights. :slight_smile:

I’m perma “D” Team maybe down to “E” this year.

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Oh well, I’m trying to keep you away from the buffet. I am trying to import “Epicman winner and Muskoka stud” Alex “quads” Albuquerque for a celebrity appearance at this Irontour. He is going to have to work those quads after bagging an Ironman LP slot in Muskoka if he is going to end up with an elusive Kona slot!

http://www.triathletesonline.com/user_images/DSCF0426.JPG

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I’m lucky that my wife doesn’t read much english because she would kill me just knowing that I got a slot for IMLP. As I told Dev, I don’t know how I’m going to announce her that I’m doing the race. We had an agreement that I could go for that weekend watch the race to cheer up some friends…She would take care of our son.

I have to find a way to get some “Family Air Miles” in order to show up this weekend in Ottawa. I already use a bunch of them just to get to Muskoka. I sure would like to join all of you up there… need to wait how this week will unfold.

I’m looking forward to do IMLP, but certainly not for trying to get a Kona slot. I would like to be a 5th time Ironman Lake Placid finisher for me it sounds exactly, the same as “Heather Fuhr 5 time IMLP winner”. I’m like 90% of the field, I don’t have the training volume to be able to race an Ironman, so it’s just about finishing.

By the way the Stud here is not me, it’s Dev. He’s the one posting the same splits has me but I’m younger. So if we use comparaison age/performance chart he’s way ahead of me. Don’t be fool, Dev is too humble.

Alex

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Alex, I will cook Indian food for you and Trevor S on Saturday nite. This alone should be a reason to come up. All the guys in the Desertdude house who ate my cooking had awesome races!

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I don’t know I didn’t see a tandoor the last time I was at your house. And I love naan bread. :slight_smile:

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Hey guys, I got a few emails offline asking if you can participate in a “subset” of this Tour. The answer is YES…absolutely, please come for any part that you want and bring your friends. You don’t have to do the entire thing.

The only thing that I ask is that those that show up for a subset do not go to the front and push the pace with fresh legs and ride the “Full IronTour athletes” into the ground. If you show up for a subset, you need to announce that to me first and then you head to the back. You can go balls to the walls on any section when we are doing “repeats” and the IronTour provides ample opportunity for that.

Also if you do “PUSH THE PACE” and croak and die, either on that day or don’t finish the tour, you will be perpetually harassed for having achieved “ONE LOOP WONDER, TRAINING STUD, RACING DUD” status…and there is no worse punishment than being relegated to the “Training Hero” group…

Dev

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Interresting, I usually need to be online to get emails!!! is some new technology coming up soon? :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Fred.

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WiMAX :slight_smile:

I meant offline from ST.

Dev

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Hey guys, thanks for an awesome training weekend. I have to give you guys big kudos for respecting the distance. What Konaexpress and I have found out running these camps in the past is that guys go way too hard early on the Saturday and then they croak later that day and can’t complete the tough day 3 workouts! You guys were the first group that respected the distance and it showed in strong legs closing off the day on Sunday.

Though the weather did not cooperate on Fri and Sat with mega wind and whitecaps in both swims, the company certainly made up for it. I’ll post a full report shortly. Fred and Randy along with myself were the only official finishers, completing all workouts! While the turnout was small (we only had ~6-9 on each day), it was all good…and thanks to you guys, I got my first ever 30+ Hellriegel approved training week during which I was actually at work for 5 days…no vacation days. Just Fri-Sun alone added up to 17.5 hours…killer (yes, I added 45 K of not so stealth bike commuting, 9K run on Friday, and 2500m extra swim with my son this afternoon… in addition to the workout from the IronTour)!

The best part is that I actually feel reasonably good and not fried…I guess the 3x24 hour training weeks that I put in during the month of April, in anticipation of missing ~12 days off the bike in May are really paying off now…either that, or I will crash and burn shortly!

Finally, we nicknamed the Saturday ride the buffet ride…we kept riding past a variety of Chinese and Indian buffet places…you take a bunch of bonking guys on bikes and the temptation to pull in was STRONG…anyway, we saved it for the end…I’m heading to the local chinese buffet with my family in a couple of hours…THIS IS THE BEST PART OF THE WEEKEND…or to quote Andypants…“Working out is just a warmup for eating!!!”…screw the Jonnyo diet…I’m going for the full doughboy consumption tonite!

Dev

PS. Trevor, I hope you are feeling better…no excuses…you better sign up for the Canadian Half in Ottawa now that Halifax 101 is toast. You’ll have to go sub 4:25 of Konaexpress will be all over you for slacking off…). Hopefully we’ll have more guys out for next year’s camp…whether we do it here in Ottawa or in LP!