2015 Ironman Whistler race report

Warning - The content could be too graphical and NSFW, you have been warned!! LOL...
Also, this is long, I tried to keep it as short as possible, I tried =)

Time Summary:
Overall: 14:04:32
2013 time: 13:23:40

Swim time: 1:30:52
2013 time: 1:31:12

T1 time: 4:06
2013 time: 6:14

Bike time: 6:55:47
2013 time: 6:31:13

T2 time: 2:18
2013 time: 5:32

Run time: 5:31:29
2013 time: 5:09:29

Background:
The year of 2014 was all about getting fat, I didn't have any big race, I had no goals and no motivation, I got lazy, and I got fat. I hit 200 lbs in the summer and it was a warning sign!

During a family trip last summer,  I was going through Facebook as usual and I saw Ellie's race report. I started following Ellie after 2013 Ironman Whistler and I got really inspired by him. I got really motivated reading Ellie's race report, it's when he worked hard and won his age group, also earning his spot to Kona, such an inspiration. I decided to reach out to him, maybe learn a thing or two or just making more friends. Long story short, he's been my coach even since.

I used all that negative energy from last year, set my goals and started training for Ironman Canada 2015.

It hasn't been an easy journey, without getting into too much details, besides IM training I also  started a new job in September which requires me to work night shifts, and long hours (10 hours and 12 hours), and weekends, and travels (Dallas in May and Morocco in April). One of the darkest moments was biking on a stationary bike for 3 hours at Hyatt Casablanca, that's almost as painful as it could get.

In additional, I hurt my back at the beginning of the year from lifting luggage, and had also hurt my neck from lifting furniture. There were days that I couldn't turn my neck at all, and I had been swimming with a snorkel for couple weeks because of that, not fun at all; in fact, it was full of frustration and very painful, literally.

However, I got through all that, I always tell myself that, "If it's easy, everybody will be doing it!"

Fast forward to 10 days before the race, I started to get sick, I thought it was my mind, it started to mess with me early this year, but it was as much physical also, I was coughing and sore throat, etc.

I swapped around my work schedule so I got to take some time off before the race, which was a great idea. Mabel and I drove up to Vancouver on Thursday night, and up to Whistler on Friday morning. Since I did this race in 2013, I planned not to get too caught up with all the excitement at the expo, my plan was to finish all the check in and mandatory things, then just eat, relax and do nothing as much as possible.

Having lunch with Mabel at our fav crepe place

After athlete checked in, we walked around the expo even I am not planning to get anything but somehow stopped at a booth that had some helmet deals. Without much thinking and just looking at the discount price, I got a Giro Air Attack helmet. :)

Mabel signed up for yoga and she headed to her class and I went back to hotel start thinking what to pack. The backpack this year is pretty cool, also, and they have gotten a beer sponsor this year. :)

 

And packing was definitely one of the hardest part of doing Ironman.

The after and before

Same plan for Saturday, just got up and eat, checked in bike and transition bags, then back to hotel and do nothing! I was able to take a nap in the afternoon which was very nice, I knew that I probably won't be able to get much quality sleep that night.

@ Rainbow Park, after checking the bike in.

Just as expected, I couldn't sleep much the whole night, I set my alarm clock at 3:45 and 4, and I was already awake before the first alarm went off. I woke up, washed up, ate and tried to pooped, but couldn't.

Got ready before 4:30 and headed out to the parking lot 4, It was pretty cold in the morning, I thought about wearing two jackets and a pair of shorts over my tri kit, but I only took one jacket, which was a mistake. But it's ok, I wasn't freezing cold, just colder than I'd liked. I dropped off my special need bags (which I didn't use) and lined up for the shuttle bus. Talked to this guy from Texas during bus ride and that helped to take my mind away from the race.

Arrived Rainbow Park very early, i think I had like 2 hours of spare time. I checked my bike and was walking towards the T1 bag area and I spotted Robert. It was like the best thing happened at that moment, we just talked and talked and talked the whole time, it helped to clam me down before the race, and it's very nice to catch up also.

The time has came, we started walking out to the beach and got ready by 6:45 ish, tons of people were already out there. We started swimming out to the starting line right after the female pro took off at 6:55. The short swim out was pretty crowded, and the short wait felt like forever, all these waiting was driving me nuts.

Swim:
At 7:00, there's the gun shot and off we go!
My plan for the swim is to always get comfortable, settle down and try to conserve energy and be as efficient as I can. The first couple hundred meters was like a human washing machine, as they call it, i kept on getting sandwiched, for some reason people just love me and kept on swimming towards me from left and right, it's all about the love from Ironman athletes. I got kicked couple times, slapped couple times, nothing serious, nothing out of the ordinary. I got into my rhythm and I just kept moving forward, one stroke at a time. I checked my watched right before the first lap, i think it was 40 min ish, right on schedule.
The second loop was also uneventful, and that's exactly what I wanted! During the swim, i felt the rain was coming down hard, but at that point, there's nothing to worry about except to finish the swim.
Getting close to the coast and saw the IM arch, I just kept swimming until my hands hit the bottom, then I got up and started 'running'. I saw a wetsuit stripper right in front and I just laid down and I got stripped, don't you love the stripper at the Ironman race, lol...

Swim time: 1:30:52
2013 time: 1:31:12
Pretty consistent, I will take the 20 seconds improvement =)

Transition:
I grabbed my transition bag and just kept walking forward. There were like thousands people in the tent and no space at all, I just kept moving and exited the tent and saw this little spot on the side, I put on my bike shoes, sunglasses and helmet and off I go.

*Lesson learn from previous race, there's no reason to slow, nor sit and relax and chill at an ironman transition, it's still a race and every second counts.

T1 time: 4:06
2013 time: 6:14

Bike:
While in transition, I hit the lap button one too many time by accident and I thought it said 1:40, so mentally I was discouraged a little bit. It is what it is, the swim is done and i can't changed the history I let that thought go and just focus on the bike.

My plan for the bike leg was NOT to push at all and stay in zone 2 as much as possible.  I would definitely want to settle down before arriving Callahan, that was my game plan and my main focus. Being at the moment and that was the hardest thing to do, you felt all that energy and people started to pass you and you just need to hold back and let them go. Be patience Bruce, Be patience!

Anyhow, I stuck with my plan and heart rate was slowly dropping from 170ish to 150ish and around 145 before starting the Callahan climb, success! I'd take any success over the long and brutal day of an Ironman race. As hard as it felt like, it was all in my mind, I found that I wasn't going much slower even though I wasn't pushing at all, that's a good lesson learn.

Lesson Learn - There's a good reason why these are called endurance races. it's supposed to be endurance zone of 2 instead of hammering zone of 4-5.

The climb up to Callahan wasn't bad at all, it actually felt easy, heart rate was low, I felt that I was slacking off and it was suppose to be like that! After the turn around point it was all downhill and it was fun. The downhill and steady climb back to Whistler was also uneventful, the rain was coming down pretty hard on us and I was only wearing the tri kit, I guess I was kinna lucky that I didn't feel too cold on the bike.

Lesson Learn - Always prepare clothing for ALL weather. Even if you end up not using it, at least it's there if you need them.

Riding down to Pemberton was also relatively uneventful and it's mostly downhill. According to Garmin, I hit 49.3 mph at some point.
Then, I noticed that something was hitting my left heel, I looked down and it was my crank. the middle screw part was coming out slowly, I tried to turn my heel outward while pedaling, it helped a bit but if that part kept coming out, it would still hit my heel. Also, I started to worry that it may came all the way out and my crank may fall out?? that was the last thing i want, so I decided to stop and check it and tried to fix it. Luckily, I could just use my finger and turn it back in. This mechanical issue ended up causing my three stops, or four, I don't remember exactly.

Lesson Learn - Things like this can be avoided as much as possible by having your bike cleaned and checked out before the race, which I did. However, it still happened, I guess you just hope for the best while preparing for the worst.

Before the race, coach and I talked about peeing on the bike/run, and I was planning to do that. However, the problem is I have never tried it before. While heading out to Pemberton, it was all flats with a tail wind and I was keeping a good pace. I started to feel I need to pee, but at that point I didn't feel bad enough so I let that feeling go.
After a while, I felt that I needed to go again so I started trying, I tried and I tried and I tried, and I found that it's almost impossible to go on the bike! I kept trying, I moved around, I tried to speed up a bit and stopped pedaling and just focus to pee, it happened! That feeling was so great it's like you have accomplished something amazing, lol.... But then you realized that it was just a tiny bit. After that, I tried a couple more times, but the urge to pee is so much greater than my ability to do it on the bike. I arrived the turn around point and was heading back from Pemberton, there was a head wind coming back, plus I wasn't able to stay aero position because I needed to pee so bad.  so the pace was much slower.  At that point, I really really had to go so I gave up on the bike and decided to go at a water station.

Lesson Learn:
Never ever try something new on your race day. I knew this before, and I have always been telling people NOT to do that, but I made the mistake.  I should have trained for it if I am going to do it during the race, or forget about it.

Eventually I stopped at a water station and I peed! Omg, it was like the longest pee I have ever had and it's probably at least 20 times more than on the bike, volume wise, it was such a relieve!

After that, I got back to my plan, just steady climb back to Whistler. It was a long long climb back, it was cold and gloomy and rain was on my face, but I did this in 2013, and I also rode the course last year, so I knew exactly what to expect, I just put my head down and climb, one stroke at a time. now that after the race, I don't remember it was extraordinary bad, so the fact that I was saving energy at the beginning of the bike, having a game plan, knowing what to expect and prepare my mind, all these has paid off.

Climbing back to Whistler wasn't all that bad, I think it could call that a success.

The last highlight of the bike leg was I saw Mabel cheering for me right before the bike in, with thousands other spectator yelling and cheering, it just gave you so much energy to finish the bike and continue. I was so ready to get off the bike at that point.

Big thanks to the volunteer who takes our bike, I promised I only peed a little bit, not too much. lol...

Bike time: 6:55:47
2013 time: 6:31:13
not the time I wanted, but that wasn't my focus. I successfully stayed in zone 2 as much as I can, and I successfully peed on the bike, I called it success =)

Again, over the years, I focus too much only on time and be too harsh on myself. The fact that every single race is different, it's never really apple to apple comparison. I also learn from the experience and set small goals along the way is equally important.

Transition 2:
T2 was relatively quick and fast, I just grabbed my bag, found a spot, took my bike stuff off, wore my socks and shoes, grabbed my visor, racing belt and sunglasses and go. I started put stuff on after I started running so I can save some time.

T2 time: 2:18
2013 time: 5:32
This is a big success. 2 min ish is as good as any distance that I did, and that's less than half of 2013.

Run:
The big focus for the run is the same as the bike, settle and stay in zone 2 as much as I can, be conservative and hold back for at least the first lap.

Lesson learn -
I always know that keeping a low heart rate is super hard at the beginning. However, during this race, I found that reaching high to zone 2 is even harder in latter part of the race. There's so much more to learn about heart rate and racing.

Everything was working fine for the first half, heart rate was around 147 to 151 and i was holding around 11 min pace. Then everything started to fall apart.
It felt like every single muscle in your body was screaming and wanted me to stop, and here's come the worst problem. The fact that I was wearing the tri shorts from the very beginning of the race, it has became a big piece of sand paper and it's been cutting me raw. I did put cream in the morning, but after the swim, pouring rain, pee, and sweat, it was cutting my inner thighs, butt crack, and the worst, my balls. (sorry for TMI, but you've been warned at the beginning of the post, lol...)

Being a profuse sweater, I get cut on legs and different places all the time, but my balls is the first time. I could deal with the pain from muscle, my legs, and the soreness and pain from everywhere else, I have been there, I have dealt with it, I have expected the 'dark place', what I didn't expect was the balls pain. It was hellish, I couldn't even walk, not even pee. I did went to honey bucket twice, and it was burning like crazy.

at that time, looking at my watch, and considered my condition, I was doing the math and i knew that my race was done, I wasn't going to beat 2013, and I definitely wasn't able to stay in zone 2 anymore. However, I wasn't totally done, there was no giving up and I haven't even considered a DNF, I just keep walking and run whenever I can, one step at a time, every single step bring me closer to the finish line and that's the only option I had.

Run time: 5:31:29
2013 time: 5:09:29

Overall: 14:04:32
2013 time: 13:23:40

Thoughts:
Passing the finish line was awesome, there's something unique about finishing an Ironman race. I am proud of myself to just make it to starting line, and also finishing. Honestly speaking, I am also disappointed after the results, but it's ok, it's always a learning experience, learning from my mistake and make sure it doesn't happen again.

After this race, I can say that doing an Ironman is not the most painful experience, taking a shower afterwards is definitely way worse.

2015 Victoria Half Ironman Race Report

Summary:
Despite being the most unluckiest race I have done, got kicked on the head during the swim; dropped a water bottle, bent water bottle cage, and chain came off twice on the bike; tripped and fell on the run, I actually did better. I am so proud of myself.

Official time: 5:43:13
Swim: 43:38
T1: 1:52
Bike: 2:55:19
T2:1:49
Run: 2:00:35

This medal did NOT come easy at all!

So, where should I start?
Victoria is so hard to go! Planning all the logistic, the hotel, driving up to Canada, and decide which ferry route to go, just kill me already. By the way, we had to wake up at 4 something Saturday to drive up to Vancouver to catch the ferry. Thanks to Mabel, because she did all these for me!

ok, back to the race.

This is another race with BAD check in process. You basically have to drive/bike/shuttle back and forth between Hamsterly Beach and Elk beach to check in, pick up package, and drop off the bike. However, what was confusing is, if I don't pick up the package, and number taped my bike, how do I drop the bike off? Let's say if I dropped it off, how does the staff know which bike belongs to who? So, even if I have dropped the bike off, but I wasn't suppose to set my transition up, I was supposed to go park my car at Elk Beach, take the shuttle back to Hamsterly Beach to set it up, then shuttle back to the car? Really??  So should I go and pick up my package first, drive and go park my car, take the shuttle back to Hamsterly, what about my bike?? OMG, what a nightmare. Actually, I am gonna stop right here.

Long story short, I successfully did all that and I felt that was the hardest part of the race, I was already so proud of myself. Lol

Then, we checked in hotel, ate, and tried to relax as much as I could for the rest of the evening. Enjoying Victoria, food, and spending time with Mabel.

Race morning
The next challenge for me was, on the athlete guide it says shuttle bus runs from 4 to 4:30 on race morning. Really?? So early and only a 30 min window!? I am not even gonna start complaining anymore.
I ended up waking up before 3:30, 

washed and changed up, ate my breakfast and drove over to the park. I got lucky and parked somewhere close to the transition, so I didn't have to deal with all the shuttle bus.

I set everything up at my spot. By the way, Ironman really cramp way too many people for this race, we can barely fit our bike on the rack, don't even think about the shoes, bottle, towel, etc.
After I set up, I talked to people to relax, saw cycle U teammate Chuck and April, talked to more people and it's time to put on the wet suite and headed to the start line.

Not until I get into the water that I remember why i love the Victoria race so much, the water is so nice, warm water that we don't have in Seattle. I swam out to warm up, swam back and waited for the start.

Swim:
I was in the 2nd wave with start time at 6:03am, waited waited and waited, finally the first wave started and we walked out to the water, and waited a little bit more. Finally it's our turn and there we go.

Swimming is always my weakest leg, I always set a goal to be efficient, save energy and just finish the swim. It was relatively uneventful swimming out, I just kind of took my time, trying to glide and relax as much as I can, one stroke at a time.

On the way back, the sun was on our face! it's ok, I am not gonna do anything different because of that, I just kept swimming. Then all of a sudden, bam! I got kicked on the head, it just happened out of nowhere, lucky it wasn't bad at all, i collected myself and resumed. I kept moving forward and towards the end of the swim, it got super crowded and I got 'sandwiched' couple times, it got a little chaotic.

finally finished the swim and running towards transition.

Swim official time: 43:38

running towards the bike, taking off the wet suite and all that was relatively uneventful, and I saw my bike felt so lonely at the rack, and that's very normal. (I would have taken a picture to show as it looks pretty funny awesome!) I just did my own thing, I felt that I was slower than usual, I felt my orientation was still bad, I also took longer to take my wet suite off. Finally got the bike and started running towards the bike out, there were lots of people in transition so it wasn't easy going around them. Finally I got out of transition and there were like 10 people at the bike mount line, more traffic jam! When I mount on the bike, I kicked my water bottle and it came off, sh!t, I picked it up and I thought I also bent the cage a little bit. I continued.

Transition 1 official time: 1:52
*I was surprised that it was actually under 2 minutes with all those happened, I am happy with that!

I started biking, and about 2 minutes into the bike, I looked at my watch and I think I messed up! (things started to pile up, and you see a trend here) I think i saw the swimming figure, so I thought I forgot to press the lap button or something, I got frustrated, but collected myself once again and just continued. I told myself that there's no point to get more frustrated given the situation, just keep moving forward!

And then about 15 minutes in, my chain came off the "first" time! (NOT another thing!) I think I was down shifting and then the chain just came off. I forgot what I did trying to fix that, I stopped, put the chain back on. And I also found that my water bottle that I mentioned earlier, was gone! It didn't bother me that much as I still have a bottle of nuun and the water in the aero bottle up front, again, just keep moving forward.

In general, I think all these years I learn how to take it very easy on the bike, don't try to kill myself on the bike because I will always pay for it later on the run. My main goal is to be very efficient, pace myself, try to spin up and easy on the up hills, and take advantage of the flats and down.

Oh by the way, due to my chaotic job and schedule, i haven't got a lot of chances to ride the tri bike outside this season, i think I only rode it outside ONCE! sigh.... Also, I got a back disc for Whistler and i haven't got a chance to ride it outside before this race, so it's the first time it's hitting the road. It's kinna crazy just thinking about it. But, I love it, I totally love it. I think I was going faster, whether it's mental or not, I think I was going faster with the disc, it's very nice! I also brought my bike for tune up before this race, the mechanic did a great job and it's super smooth.

I love my bike, so sexy 😁

so where was I? yeah, back on the bike course.
I was taking it easy on the up hills, and hammer a little bit on down and being very efficient and aero on the flats. first lap was relatively uneventful after the chain and bottle event. I finished the first lap and felt relatively fresh and i told myself it's time to push a little bit.

Surprisingly, about 1.5 hours in, on the second lap, around exactly the same location, my stupid chain came off again! I was like WTF?? what's going on? Again, I think i was trying to down shift, it's the wind, or the hill, or the trees, or something, there you go, the chain came off again. without thinking too much this time, i stopped, put the chain back and got going again. With all these events, i was feeling that my 'race' is over, I was doing pretty bad, and I just needed to finish.

Hydration and nutrition was ok on the bike, I keep hydrating, and took a GU even 30 - 45 minutes. The rest of the bike leg went ok, given what have already happened in the race.

bike official time: 2:55:19

As I approached the dismount line, it's like another traffic jam, I needed to watch out for people and go around them very carefully. The last thing I wanted was crash, in front of all the spectator.

When i found my spot at the rack, as usual there's no more space, almost everyone else in my age group were back and already gone. I then saw this guy who I met in the morning, I think his name is David, from Colorado, he told me that he crashed on the bike. We said encourage words to each other and wished each other luck, he took off for the run and I needed to focus on my own race. Transition 2 was relatively smooth except trying to squeeze the bike into the rack. I changed shoes, grabbed my racing belt and visor and off I go.

official Transition 2 time: 1:49
Not the best, but my normal average transition 2 time, 1:xx.

One of the other things that I love about this race is the run course, the whole run is around Lake Elk, on the trail and under the shade, it's very nice.

I started training with cadence since I got the 920XT, it's been helping me a lot.  It helps me to stay focus and keeps my turnover high. Usually when I get tired, the legs get very heavy (you know that feeling) and the cadence gets slower and slower and running gets harder and harder. With the 920 beeping, when I feel miserable I just need to focus on cadence, i'd ignore about pace and speed and just focus on the quick turn and eventually it helps me to get over the pain and misery and back on 'running'.

Back to Victoria, so I ran and ran and towards the end of the first lap, it was somewhere uphill, I was following a lady trying to draft and bam! I kicked some root, a split second and couple steps later, there I go on the ground, I tripped and felt. I quickly got up, the lady turned around and apologized, I told her it's not her and don't worry about me. I checked myself, checked where I was hurt, oh and the watch, checked my watch and made sure it's not broken, LOL... seriously, I checked that and made sure because i tripped and fell and broke my watch before.

I thought about quitting, I had all the excuses I needed to quit,  given how the race been going for me so far, but I didn't, I kept going. There's no way that I am paying all these money, all these effort, training, gears, I can go on and go, and I dealt with all these logistic nightmare, came to Victoria and get a DNF, NO freaken way!

For those of you who like pictures, lol...

I got back to the run, right knee was hurting and it was bleeding, some scratches on both hands and some more on the right arm, I was also partially covered with dirt, it didn't matter, I just keep moving. I was asking myself why the heck I was doing this, I wasn't going to let this to slow me down, and definitely not going to let it to stop me! Surprisingly and magically, out of nowhere I started feeling the energy boost and I was running faster and faster, focus on my cadence, pain was going away, I told myself that I am going to make everyone proud of me!
*After the race, or even during the rest of the run, this reminded me that a big portion of this whole endurance thing is all about mental toughness, and I am slowly and surely still learning.

I was focusing on my quick turnover and cadence and just kept on moving forward. At some point I was scrolling the watch and I saw that I was 4.5 hours in! What?? I was surprised, and that actually gave me more energy. so I just kept going, said encouraging words to others, draft off people, took short breaks at water station and poured water over my right knee, and just kept on running.

As I was getting close to the finish line, I pushed harder and harder, make the last right turn and slightly up hill and I finished! I didn't quit, I kept fighting and I finished! I was so proud of myself, one of my best race ever!

Official run time: 2:00:35
Not my best but one of my better half marathon time, and definitely my best HIM run split. I did a 9:39 pace two years ago, when it's shorter. and this time, I did 9:12 pace.

Official overall time: 5:43:13

After race
I looked for the medical tent and get cleaned up. it was kind of funny, but not really that 4 out of 5 people in there tripped on the run course. One guy event tripped and hit the corner of his eye on a stone, but he also finished! This one lady dropped one of her contacts during the swim, and then tripped on the run, she's such a fighter. I also saw David from Colorado again, he continued and finished and we were both in the medical, haha... I better go look him up or something.

This has got to be my 'best' race ever, along with my first half marathon finish 10 years ago, and my first Ironman finish in 2012. I am going to remember this forever and this will definitely help push me in the future. I love this sport

2014 Seattle half marathon race report

2014 Seattle half marathon race report

This year is my 10th anniversary for half marathon, it all started 10 years ago from a dare with Stephen Wong, and now I'm helpless and became an addict, the good type.

How aim gonna celebrate?  I was gonna run it again and PR it!

My previous PR was last year at Portland Rock 'n' Roll half marathon, finished at 1:49:15 at 8:19 pace. 

Today, I haven't checked the official time yet, the watch says 8:17 pace for 13.23 miles, I was going about 2 second faster which comes does to about 30 second PR, it's not much, but I'll take it.

Had a good night of sleep last night, woke up, got changed and ate breakfast. I exited the freeway at 6:45 and thought I had a lot of time because the race started at 7:30, I was wrong! South lake union was a mess, by the time I got close to the start line and parked the car, I had about 10 minutes spare. I parked about 5 blocks away so I ran over as the warmup and the run was about to start.

Heart rate was crazy as normal, so I didn't even bother to look at it; in fact, I totally ignored HR today, it was a distraction to me in previous races.

After the start, I was looking at the watch and it didn't look right, was messing with the watch because it wasn't set to running mode.

Pacing wasn't consistent, I was going anywhere between 9 something to sub 8. I was happy that the fastest 3 miles or so happened at the end, the fact that I struggled so much about pacing and mental game before, I need to pad myself on the back for the negative split today.

Mental game was good as mentioned above, the last 1/3 started to struggle and wanted to slow down so many times, but I didn't for a single time, I even dragged myself up all the hills.

When I turned into the stadium and couldn't sprint anymore, I think I did a good job throughout the run and squeeze everything out of myself.

The last 3 miles or so was sub 8.

Very satisfied with the result, especially the condition was way worse than Portland. It was low 20s in the morning, my hands started to hurt a bit at the beginning, then they get really painful and eventually I didn't feel them anymore. Also, the Gatorade at the water stations had ice in them, and the GU jel was more like toffee candy than jel. There was ice throughout the course, it's good that the sun was out. Very nice running weather despite of the freezing cold temperature.

I'm very excited about the next race and next year, I know that my training is paying off! Yeah!!

Thanks for reading

2014/10/26 - Vancouver Rock 'n' Roll half marathon race report

2014 Vancouver Rock n Roll Race half marathon race report:

This is one of the bigger race milestone since I started training again in August, so I had relatively high expectation to perform at Vancouver. Leading up to the race, I was doing my long runs the last couple weekends. All of those runs, except one, was dissatisfied, but I was feeling I was improving, perceived exertion wise, heart rate, pace, etc. 

My biggest goal was to PR at this race; honestly speaking, I wasn't too confident heading to the race. The main reason being that my half marathon PR was set last year at Portland RnR at 1:49, a 8:16 pace. I couldn't even coming close to that pace, for the distance, for the last couple weeks of training.... oh well, it is what it is, I was just giving myself unnecessary pressure.

I wasn't all that nervous the week of the race, or I have learn not to. We drove up to Vancouver late Saturday morning, picked up the pakcage at the expo, walked around the booths and there wasn't any surprised or goodies, then we went for lunch, checked in hotel and just tried to relax a bit before dinner. Our hotel is right across the street from the finish line, so I got to see the park from our room and they were finishing up the setup for the finish line concert stage.

race morning:

woke up at 6:30am, ate breakfast at the hotel and walked over to the start line, which is 10-15 minutes away. The walk was a bit cold but I decided to wear only one long sleeve top instead of adding a jacket, which was a good decision because I knew I would get overheat if I had the jacket with me during the run.

After I got to the start line, there were already hundreds, if not thousands of people there. I got there about 15-20 minutes before the start, so I ran around the block to check out the area and warm up. Did a bit stretching and some dynamic warm up also and get ready for the start. Lessons learned from history that my heart rate would go absolutely crazy before any races, so I tried to warm up until my HR calmed down to a stable level, then I just stayed calm. However, HR was still jumping around quite a bit. I got into my corral and waited and tried to calm down and get ready, HR did went down to 90 ish so I was ready.

However, once the people from first corral took off, my HR jumped back to 120 ish instantly, surprise surprise... I was in 4th corral so it wasn't the time to worry about HR anymore, I just got ready and run.

Almost every single run races that I did, I started way too fast and ended up blowing up. for this race, after I started, I kept on reminding myself to slow down. Also, I knew that the sweet spot for HR is about 170 ish, and I was slowly pushing up to that point.

In about 4 minutes according to Garmin, HR settled around low 170s, that was good.

The first couple miles went fine, I was only able to keep pace around 8:30 ish for at least the first 9 miles. Inside of me, I was kinna disappointed and discourage that I was not going to PR, it wasn't my day.

(that was a reminder, I had no idea how was able to ran the whole Portland RnR at 8:15 1.5 years ago, but I was pushing pretty hard and I am still 15 seconds short,)

It's ok, I knew that I can't always PR every single time I race anytime, so it's ok.

The next 4-5 miles was painful, I was already semi blew up, but I needed to push harder, at least it felt that way but the pace is saying otherwise. I slowed way down to 9:15-9:45 pace from mile 9 to mile 13. All bad things had happened within that couple miles, I started to cramp, I have choked on jel, my bib came off the race belt as I was adjusting it, etc etc.. and I just kept moving forward.
I was doing math along the way, since I wasn't going to PR, I was aiming to finish inside of 2 hours.

I kept on moving forward until i see, hear and feel the finish line, then all of a sudden I got this energy out of nowhere and I picked it up and start sprinting to the finish line. According to Garmin, I was able to run at 6:50/m pace for the last quarter mile. it was painful passing that finish line, I felt that my lung was going to explode, I took a break on the side, got my water and Gatorade and found Mabel waiting for me at the finish line.

finish time: 1:55:47

average pace: 8:45 min/mi

average HR: 177bpm

lesson learn:
*HR is still crazy for races, unpredictable, and usually at least 20 bpm higher than training.

*I wasn't prepared mentally to break my PR at  this race. For some reason, I've been thinking that my PR was at low 1:40s, in fact, it was 1:49. If I knew that I was only short of 6 min of PR, instead of more than 10 minutes, or focusing going from 8:45 pace to 8:15 pace, I may have a better chance of making it. 5 min is easier to swallow for some weird reason.

*Bad pacing - still running way too fast at the beginning of the race, so the second half was more painful, and slow. Need to focus and train at better pacing.

*mental game, I have too many excuses to slow down when I am hurting.

*continue from the last points, if I was ok after passing the finish line without puking and falling to the ground, I didn't push myself hard enough! Needs to be painful!!

My First Marathon, EVER..... Victoria

My first full distance marathon... ever - Victoria full.

After IM Whistler
it's been about 6 weeks after Whistler IM, of course I have managed to lose fitness, gain weight, and eat tons of ice cream. For the past 2 years, it's always been the same, I would jump start my fat-gaining process right after my A-race of the season. To be honest, the best I could do is damage control, try to shorten my rest/recovery period after the A-race, start my training as early as possible, work out as much as I can and eat the least amount of junk.

Mini Victoria getaway
Besides running the full marathon myself, Mabel is also running her fourth half marathon on her birthday! I am very proud of her, most people party and pig out on their birthday, who would run on their birthday, let along a half marathon! That was the main reason she signed up for the Victoria run. The other reason is because they have nice runner shirt! take a look below.

However, I just want to ask, how come the women's colors are always better? Men colors are so boring!

On the drive to Canada, of course we stopped by the Nike outlet and saw this bright neon green/yellow shows, for $35. Too bad it's not comfortable at all, NOT AT ALL. I would've just bought every single last pair of them if they are just borderline comfortable.

This is the before picture, I look terrible. We woke up early in the morning, had breakfast and got ready for the run. The nice thing about staying at a hotel right next to the starting line. I walked Mabel to the start line, waited for couple minutes and off she go!

I watched a couple more minutes and decided to go back to the room, I turned around and realized that the runners running on the other side. So, I decided to watch and cheer for a little bit and 'hope' that I would see Mabel. Before I realized she's right there and waved at me. I yelled 加油 to encourage her.













Food, food, food, food, and food.... and food

After the run, we went back to the hotel and showered, took a break and started to look online for food. We found this place there seems to be a lot of good brunch places around victoria. 

This is the corn beef harsh that Mabel ordered, a side order and it's HUGE. I think she ate it all, lol.

And waffle

And I ordered the 222 Special (I think that's the name), two eggs, sausage and two HUGE pancakes. that's way too much food that I could even imagine, I think I ate 1/4 of one pancage, lol...

This is the before picture, we were too full after eating and wasn't able to take a picture after that cause we were holding our tummy.

Did I mention that it was Mabel's big day? And we ran a full and half marathon that morning? yeah, i think I did, so we were too sore and painful to walk or even drive anywhere, we ended up eating at the hotel
I would want to say this is our best meal while in Victoria.

Mabel ordered Foie Gras for appetizer and I got the oysters. The oysters were just ok, nothing special. However, Mabel's Foie Gras was super delicious.

The duck breast was very good too. On the other hand, my lamb rack was just so so, it's still good, but it's just average good.

The best part of dinner is the dessert. They have this chocolate ball with some berry (i forgot if it was strawberry or raspberry) chocolate inside. When it came, it was whole ball and you didn't know what's i there. The server poured chocolate syrup on top of it, and 10~15 seconds later, the top part opened up and you see inside, pretty fancy! one of the most beautiful dessert i have had. 

The server was nice, but forgetful, haha..... When we made reservation, I told them that it's my wife birthday but nothing different special happened during dinner. Only after we got back to our room, somebody knocked on the door and there you go the birthday cake/dessert. 

The next morning is about more eating. We had breakfast at the hotel. My Benedict is fancy, they use cream puff for the bread and there's crab cake for the usual ham, pretty good.

Before we head back to Seattle, we booked massage at the hotel that morning. I would it's average given the price, but I love how I got the whole place to myself! Mabel and I used the mineral pool, sauna and steam room, not bad... not bad...

When we were looking for dinner on Saturday night, we randomly found this place. It was so packed and people were lining up outside the restaurant. Later we found out that they don't take reservation and we were just trying our luck on Monday before driving back to Seattle. Luckily, the wait wasn't bad at all and we got to try this place. 

I don't think I tried Mabel's lunch, or did I? Mine was just spaghetti with meatball and it was really good.

And out final meal, late night 'snack's at Jack in the box before really heading back to Seattle.

That's it for now, i know it's getting way too long and I am having a hard time staying focus.

Until next time.

2013 Ironman Canada Whistler Race Report

Pre-Race
People talk about feeling ‘different’ for tapering, and my taper was bad. While I was cutting training volume (but not raising intensity), my hamstrings were tight and sore. Mentally, I was burnt out after months of training; I was so ready to race and get it over with!! Somebody mentioned that I may have peaked too early. Whatever the case was, that was going on for about 2 weeks before the race.
I am the type that would get super nervous and excited about races, so I tried to minimize the time being at the race venue before the race. We drove up on Friday, had a packed schedule, which helped me to keep my mind busy. Checked in, meet up with friends and cycle U, then attended the welcome ceremony and the mandatory meeting, fun and busy day!
While I was packing, I decided to put my heart rate monitor in T1 bag, instead of wearing it to the start, which I normally do. I am not sure if it has any significant to my race, but something ‘new’ that I did for the race. More about this in T1 below.
Also, lesson learned from last year. Last year, I was so nervous the day before the race, I also told myself I couldn’t go sleep in the afternoon because I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Big mistake! I ended up not getting any sleep at all.
This year, I took a nap here and there, stayed relax on Saturday and I actually had a good couple hours of sleep. I woke up around 1am, went back to sleep and had another 2~3 ok hours of sleep.

Race Morning
Again, I tried to minimize idle time but I woke up a bit too early. However, it was relatively uneventful that everything went pretty smoothly. Checked in the specialty bags, took the shuttle bus to the lake, pumped tires, wiped the bikes, unwrapped all the food, eat, drink, switched to low gear, checked brakes, put on my wet suit and ready to go. Was going to take a look at my T1 bag, but I figured it was ready and I was running out of time, so didn’t do that. Managed to get a short ~5 min warm up and I was ready to go.

Swim
The swim was a floating start; I planned to start at the beach, or somewhere I didn’t have to tread water. But thanks to Moses, we swam out and started by the start-line. It was a good decision because treading water wasn’t that bad at all, and there was a lot more space than expected, a lot of people did start on the beach. I was relatively calm and not nervous before the start.
My main goal for all swims is to stay calm, get into a pace and just keep on moving forward, which I did. I used to swim all over the place due to bad sighting, looking at the GPS data, seems like I did good this time, but I still ended up swimming ~2.6 miles I swam the whole thing relatively on course, I didn’t get punched or kicked or anything, I had a good swim! I am happy with my swim.
Note: The only bad thing was foggy goggle; I did stop couple times at the beginning and tried to clear it up. But then I gave up, it just kept on happening. I still yet to find a solution for this problem.

Garmin: 1:31:13 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366331198
Official: 1:31:12
Last year CDA: 1:38:49

T1  
I got out of water quickly, I was running to the wetsuit stripper and they were amazing! Saw Mandy and Elly, thanks for the cheering and volunteering, I got too excited and ran pass my T1 bag, probably lost some time there. Went in the tent, stayed calm (my memory from last year was ‘war zone’ and ‘panic’). It was busy, packed; I just keep moving forward and found a chair. Tried to stay relaxed and do my own stuff. Out of the tent and went to the rack, and my bike is lonely there, it was the ONLY BIKE at the rack! Depressing…Oh well… Not a great transition, but it’s ok.
I decided not to put on my heart rate monitor strap, I knew that I won’t be looking at HR during the race, and it would be too much work (time) to put it on in T1, so I decided not to use it.
Note: Practice transition! Don’t sit, there’s no need to sit. And practice to use your watch. At one point I looked at my watch and I thought I stopped it but it wasn’t, so I was wasting time worrying about the watch instead of the race. Again, practice everything for transition.

Garmin: 5:53 (probably I paused it for a bit) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366331201
Official: 6:14
Last year CDA: 8:15

Bike
With last year’s experience, and also everything I read and heard about the bike course, or just ironman bike leg in general, I was going to be patient and held back most of the bike if not all of the bike leg so that I can run afterwards. My strategy was to find a comfortable pace, then just stick to it, or even switch to one lower gear. However, when it came with all the spectator, flats, down hills, it was tempting to go faster.
I brought two bottles of carbo-pro (8 scopes) + 2 nuun, one more bottle at specialty bag. Eating jelly bean and honey stinger waffles throughout the course, have no issue at all. Saw Mabel and Moses’ family heading back to Whistler; it is always great to have that!
Everything was working well until mile ~90, that’s when I rode back from Permerton to Whistler, got hit with the heat and the wall! ALL my legs muscle started to cramp up, I had the dilemma because I was having so much pain that I couldn’t pedal any harder (I was at my lowest gear for the last ~20 miles), at the same time I couldn’t stop moving neither, I basically had to find my ‘sweet spot’ so that cramping/pain is kept at its minimal, at the same time I could keep moving forward. GPS data shows that my speed basically average ~20mph for the first 90 miles then it drop to like 10mph. At one point I rode 35 minutes for 5 miles!!! (painful! Mostly mental and disappointed) And I had to stop twice with so much pain, with the intention to stretch my muscle but getting stuck with the bike standing by the side of the road because my quads and hamstrings were all cramping at the same time, so I just couldn’t bend my legs and stuck for a while. I drank lots of water, carbo-pro with nuun, salt pills, aleve, nothing seemed to work, and I pretty much had to deal with that for the rest of the race.
Tough bike course to say the least, could’ve been better, but it is what it is and I kept moving forward.
Note: started having minor cramps at mile 10. Still a mystery why this is happening, I only have had this 3 times, once during CDA last year, second time during Victoria HIM this year, and this was the third time. I think a high intensity swim before the bike is causing it. Never happen in training.
Should find out what is causing it.

Garmin: 6:31:07 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366331202
Official: 6:31:13
Last year CDA: 6:51:43

T2
Got off the bike, limping through transition. T2 was uneventful. There was a lot of space when I got there. Everything went smoothly as expected.
Note: again, practice transition. Don’t need to sit just because there are chairs lying around. I should just keep moving.

Run
Right out of transition I was taking in all the energy from all the cheering, people were yelling “go Bruce!”, “Good job Bruce!”, I started to look around thinking maybe Mable, cycle U people, or friends are there, then I kept on hearing people cheering for me but I don’t see anybody!?!? Then I realized that my name was on the bib, lol… silly me.

Run was painful to start. I had to walk a lot so that I could keep moving; I made agreement with myself that I can only walk for a certain ratio, like .05 miles, then run for the rest of each mile. My cramping/pain would build up when I run, and I was basically finding my redline and tried to find that sweet spot where I could keep moving/running without stopping. Basically do that for the rest of the race but then the ratio kept getting bigger. I knew that stopping wasn’t an option, and I was consistently monitoring my watch to check my progress. I had a goal to finish before sun set, but my mistake was, I didn’t check what time is sun set! Haha..
I kept moving forward and used all the cheering as my energy that pushed me forward. Heading back to village and I asked one of the volunteers how far am I? he said 500 meter!!!! So I picked my pace way up and after couple turns I realized that he lied to me! Haha… but it’s all good, that helped me quite a bit at that moment. 
I love the final stretch which is down hill, and the set up let many people to cheer. Love the finish, love the energy and there’s still day light!

Garmin: 5:09:33 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366331213
Official: 5:09:29
Last year CDA: 5:41:49

I wonder if the crazy cramping didn’t happen, or wasn’t as bad, how would I do. I am happy with my time, great venue, great energy, great course. Did better across the board in all legs, I am happy with my race.

2013 Whistler 13:23:40
2012 CDA 15:09:56