The new bike was every bit as evil as I expected it to be. My bike split this year was 11 minutes slower than last year! Swim was about the same as last year and my run was a little bit better. I ended up with 4:47:58. I’m finally getting some feeling back into my hands and feet… I got passed by everyone and his brother on that downhill. I was terrified there.
Thanks Mike…a tough day out there with torrential rains for most of the bike. I think I probably should have worked the climbs more than I did given the amount of recovery time there was on the downs. Oh yeah, and learn how to swim…but that’s a given.
My “smokin” 1:25 pales considerably compared to Joe’s 1:19. 1 more lap on the run and he woulda had me…
And the bike split for the OA winner Maksym Kriat…2:17? I’d have to check the math, but I’m not sure if that is physically possible in those conditions.
I think Dev was coasting a bit so he can give you both barrels on WF Thursday evening…
Thanks Mike…a tough day out there with torrential rains for most of the bike. I think I probably should have worked the climbs more than I did given the amount of recovery time there was on the downs. Oh yeah, and learn how to swim…but that’s a given.
My “smokin” 1:25 pales considerably compared to Joe’s 1:19. 1 more lap on the run and he woulda had me…
And the bike split for the OA winner Maksym Kriat…2:17? I’d have to check the math, but I’m not sure if that is physically possible in those conditions.
I think Dev was coasting a bit so he can give you both barrels on WF Thursday evening…
Holy crap - 1:19 is insane for an AG’er, on any run course, but on that one!!! JoeO, you killed it.
That was Crowie-esque on your part today. Consider me awed and amazed.
Maksym Kriat is how you say “Bjorn” in what language?
It’s a given that Dev was saving something for E.dot - it’s everybody’s A-race in June. Moosey was just a tune-up for him, and IM France will be for fun, but E.dot is all about the bragging rights.
Fortunately it’s a pretty easy run course. Anyway I pretty much had to run fast. My bike split was so slow compared to the people I finished near. I think I’m the first guy in the standings who averaged under 20 miles per hour, a dubious distinction…
I was about to feel bad about the fact that the my bike split was 11 minutes slower than last year but then I took a look at last years results and I can see that I wasn’t the only one who was affected by the new course like that. Tim Tapply was 12 minutes slower on the bike than last year. Tim Snow was 11 minutes slower, and even our own kdw was 11 minutes slower than last year. So I am going to go out on a limb and call this course 11 minutes slower. That allows me to tell myself I basically did the same quality bike as last year
How’d the weather turn out? The international had the swim axed and the bike course went from 27 to 17 miles (hopefully this is the only time my bike split in a race will ever be quicker than the run split…).
Before the race people were predicting doom for tomorrow, easy to do when its storming and transition is flooded.
Just got back to Ottawa after a post race 6 hour drive. This race was basically a half Ironman version of the IMLP 2008 10:37 in 2.5 inches of continuous rain from the moment I entered the water.
Here at Mooseman with the cold rain in high “volume”, my race basically ended on the first descent of the big climb when I instantly froze. After that it was a question of whether I would make it to the run without DNFing or not. I had to use every uphill to try to heat up my body. It was that or end up in the med tent like an icicle.
So every uphill, I needed to go 270-320W just to get some semblance of warmth and then instantly freeze as soon as I started to go downhill. With the cold, my quads were cramping all day. I was just praying that I would not flat cause no way my frozen hands would remove a tubular. Once I got to the run, trust me, I did try to run, but there was nothing in the tank despite taking in 900 cals on the bike and taking in 5 gels on the run. The pace on the uphills just killed the run. I ran 1;22 in a half marathon last week…so 1:36 is a pretty lame run split.
Today was a race about just trying to get to the finish line and not slow down more than the other 45-49 guys. Turns out I slowed down the least and won the age group. Must have been a bit soft to take it in 4:55.
I love the new course and really hope Keith keeps it the way it is. This is a classic in the making the same vein as Wildflower, St. Croix or American Zofingen.
It is certainly “dev favourable” with lots of climbing and technical descending. I have to say that the speed limit was pissing me off cause every time I had to sit up to slow down I froze. At least I had some chance to stay warm with my helmet buried between my aerobars in an aero tuck. Those climbs and descents in 90 degree heat and the course would be fantastic. But you know if you race in the North East in May or June, you’re likely to get miserable weather…that’s why I head to St. Croix and Wildflower early in the year! The topography of the course is perfect prep for IM France
Big props to JoeO and Kdw with smokin races today…and let’s not forget STer Bushpilot who ripped up day with a 4:35 or so with a world beating 2:31 bike. The guy is the real deal and beat many pros!
Now time to recover for Whiteface in 4 days…why do I do this to myself? I go from being smacked by the Ottawa studss, to being smacked by the New England STers, and then the next weekend being smacked by the New York STers…the only common variable is that I keep showing up to get slapped around, but the rest fo the guys come with their A game for only one of 3 weekends…and if I wind back 5 weeks, I get a good thumping from Tim Sheeper and the NorCal 45-49 crowd at Wildflower!
Nice comeback for me after a crash in flames in St Croix. Congrats to everybody who did it and a special thanks to the volunteers who did a great job despite the bad weather.
Are you joking? Torrential rains, no place to get shelter, no beer…I don’t think you can blame anyone for not hanging around until 4 pm. I got back to my car at 1pm (after hanging out for an hour post race) to change, and after sitting there dry and in the heat for 10 minutes, the choice between standing around in the mud soaked for 3 hours to get my 5th place AG vial of syrup or getting back home to my family by 3pm wasn’t a tough one.
I’ve never understood why they wait so long to have the awards ceremony.
I guess some people have different priorities than you.
If they wanted everyone to stay for the awards, they would have them at 2pm. Imagine for a second that your wife and 2 kids were there cheering you on in the rain all day, you finish, and then get to tell her “OK honey, only 3 more hours of standing here with our blue-lipped kids before the awards, and then we can go home!” or if you think taking your muddy kids to a restaurant for 3 hours is a good option I’m assuming you don’t have kids of your own. The difference for Dev between getting home at 7pm and getting home at 11pm is huge when you are up at 4:30 AM.
Lastly, I guess the theory is that they are waiting until everyone finishes before having the awards. Thing is, the MOP/BOP’ers they are waiting for don’t go to the awards, they finish, hang out for a bit, then leave, so the only people at the awards are people actually getting awards themselves and the people depending on them for a ride.
Dropping a 1:25 (and that awesome 1:19!) is amazing with the temperatures as cold as Dev said. I need to grab some of that mental toughness/excess testosterone that you guys dropped on the course!
Alex, I fully understand about the awards thing and normally I like to go to chear on the guys that won when I don’t get an award.
The reality is that my buddy and I parked our car 8 K away from the start line and rode in before the race to get a warmup in and avoid the traffic. My buddy DNF’d AND we had a 6 hour drrive AND he had to get up at 3:30 am this morning (Monday) to get to the airport by 4:30 am to clear customs to catch a flight to go to a trade show in New Orleans. Given that we was down in the dumps about DNFing (let’s say that he has not had a great year to date in his life outside athletics), the last thing I wanted to do was make him hang out till awards.
The ladies at Clearwater registration were actually nice enough to give me my little plaque. I had volunteered to actually work the Clearater registration and help there, but the ladies had the entire place under control and one of them told me to go ahead and start heading home.
So that’s my story, as lame as it is, it was reality. The guys who know well, would realize that I was having a reasonable amount of difficulty re-heating myself, until I got into a dry car and blasted the heater.
Anyway, the performance of the day belongs to our man bushpilot…literally went from couch potatoe doughboy to truly elite age grouper peformance in 2 years. That 2;31 bike split for a big guy on that course is simply unreal…and Joe O"leary with that 1:19. The thing I love about this sport is that you’re surrounded by a bunch of overachievers who push hard in training and kill it in racing and are all around really good guys.
Joe, thanks so much for the hotel transfer. It worked perfectly.
Now I have 5 months to sort out my run before Clearwater! I got the Canadian Half Ironman in Ottawa, Esprit Half IM in Montreal and the Army run half marathon in Ottawa on 3 weekends in Sep as the next big block of racing…all pancake flat.
There’s a detour to tour the IM France course in 3 weeks, but to some extent, I never feel like an IM is racing…more like tour with a clock, where you’re working on not slowing down, vs actually going fast at your limit of speed. I’ll spend the summer close to home and likely do the odd Sprint or Olympic tri as there seems to be one every weekend from mid July to end of August.
It was just an pretty sad ceremony award… When only one person on five show up for the ceremony award, not sure everybody get an good reason like you… Even worst for clearwater spot.
Dev I’m glad the hotel worked out for you. Sorry we didn’t see you guys at the italian restaurant (the one I mentioned) the night before. It was excellent, once again.
Very sorry that the cold got to you. I was feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t feel my hands but as cold as I was, it didn’t affect my core temperature or slow down my bike at all. My slow bike is due purely to me. It must really have sucked being forced to put out high watts just to heat up.
I can say one thing. My experience with short cranks is now starting to mirror yours. I figure I did basically the same bike performance this year as last and my legs did feel a little better on the run. (Yes the actual bike split was 11 minutes slower than on the old course but as 3 other guys ahead of me had the exact same or higher bike deficit compared to last year, I feel justified in calling my bike roughtly the same quality as last year. Either that or I’m really good at rationalizations. Perhaps both)
I just looked at my SRM. Average power 209W over 2:46, 2059 KCals. As a point of refence I did 215W ave over 2:46 with 2200 KCal consumed for Wildflower last month. Also, I looked at my age group results and the ONLY reason why I won is because I actually swam OK (for the 45-49 group) and out transitioned everyone, with combined transition time of 2.5 minutes, where others were taking 5 minutes total.
Sorry we did not hook up for dinner. By the time we got in from Ottawa, and went back to the hotel it was pretty late, and I had not yet tried the 27 cassette on my race wheel set up, so I wanted to make sure that the chain would actually stay in the 34-27 under tension and not skip down to the 24 or end up in the spokes, which I believe was a worthwhile investment. Like before the race had gotten in the way of getting this done.
Again, congrats on an awesome 1:19 run. That’s amazing and prozone…and you did it being a 40 something year old, which is even more amazing.
I just weighed in this morning and came in at 146.5, up 5 lbs since Friday…must be retaining a ton of water from the race, or perhaps it was the McDonald’s stop on the drive home. ML will be happy that I am currently no threat on whiteface given the trashed legs and extra weight. I am going on hunger strike the next couple of days!
I really need all you studs from New England, New York and Quebec to come up to Ottawa and do the Canadian Half Iron distance. Its an awesome race with a class field: http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=45455 on labour day weekend. It’s flat, and mass start. The bike tends to be a bit slow due to all the 180 degree turns and it’s more like 91.5K.
to hold on for the win.