BCC members in Attendance: Me, Emile, James, Jeff, Demetre
What a great event! Well Run and Really Muddy!
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More Pics and Results.
Showing posts with label 2008 Races. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Races. Show all posts
18.9.08
Muskoka Half...Recap by BCC Rider Quentin Broad
News from Quentin Broad:
Maximum Elevation - 395m
Minimum Elevation - 287m
Ascending - 359m
Descending - 363m
Tough day, the night was interrupted by a constant downpour making sleep in rented cottage a bit difficult. Got everyone up and at 530, but only got to the transition zone at 715 and they were clearing us out at 735. Again, travelling with families always make these difficult to prepare properly. Lesson here is to stay on site so they can sleep in and I can do my stuff. I also need to go through my check list in detail as I left my gel flask at home with my gels. While I bought a flask, I couldn't put the velcro on it so it sticks to my top bar. So I had to improvise, not something you want to do on these races.
The swim was done in waves with just over 300 swimmers in most waves. The swim was solid although not blindingly fast – water was about 67 degrees and there was only a very light chop, probably more chop from the swimmers. I was pleased with the sub 2:00/100 avg time. I started at the front and off to the right of the group and went out quickly, had good sighting all the way around, got on some feet at 300 or so and held them to the first turn, problem was a guy came from my right was squeezing into make the right turn and hoofed me in the chops. A rude awakening. The field didn't really thin so there was little in the way of open water. After the kick in the head I managed to get focused and just worked a good pace. Managed to catch a couple of feet here and there but nothing sustained. With 300m to go I had the second rough ride, this time from the group ahead who we had caught. I was dead on the exit buoy and all of a sudden this guy goes 90 degrees in front of me and hoofs my googles. I take on water in the goggles, tread water for a second but figure it is not worth clearing them out given the short way to the exit so I swim in with limited visibility. I got out and used the wetsuit strippers (definitely the way to go if it is available). My transition was probably a couple of minutes slow given I stopped and talked to maddie, corbin and dianne. The 300m climb to transition didn't help either but everyone faced the same issue. I exited the swim in 68th in my group, a decent position in my view.
I decided to ride with arm warmers and not a vest, hoping the temperature stayed constant at the 18 degrees. The good news was that it did and I didn’t get a chill. The bike was excellent when one considers the conditions. With a constant drizzle, it made attacks on very tough downhills very treacherous so I had to dial back the speed and increase the concentration. I will down load my times from the garmin but it looks like the splits were consistent despite a tough course in my mind. The wind was up in some spots and the climbs were pretty relentless, didn't give you the ability to settle in for long stretches. Of course throw in the constant rain and rooster tails spewing off the wheels - definitely needed windshied wipers on the glasses. From a nutrition perspective I got two gels into me and one bar and two gatorade. At the last station they only seemed to be giving out lime Gatorade and I couldn't bring myself to drink it fearing I was changing one more thing. I came off the bike in 19th position in the age group as I had moved up 50 places on the bike and feeling pretty good when I looked around and saw very few bikes in transition. By this time drizzle was a steady rain that would only get heavier on the run.
While I thought I made some very good progress this year with my running it is clearly the weak link and something that needs some material amount of work in order to allow me to be competitive at these longer distances. Like the bike, the hills are quite relentless including the start as we had to climb out of deerhurst for the first km. It was a bit of an eye opener as I am going out on my run, Craig Alexander is just hammering it coming back in on his run. I didn’t realize at the time, he still had almost 6km to go, but nonetheless, it put some real perspective on how good these guys really are. By 3km I started cramping and heart rate was running at high zone 3, low zone 4, which gave me pause for stopping. I couldn’t get myself to gut this thing out. My feet were turning over but it was very slow going, the hills were again relentless. It was rare on this course to run flat, we were going up or coming down all of the time. Even here with all of the rain I was cautious on the downhills. By km 6, I was walking for 45seconds at every km mark, it was just brutal. There is not much more to say on this run other than it was a slow wet grind – squish, squish, squish. This was a mix of running and walking, and proved to me that while I believe I can be competitive now in the first two aspects of this sport, my running needs to improve materially, to give me a shot at finishing these races in good form.
Overall time of sub 6 hours is heartening at 5:57 – 69th in my age group of 166 starters and 383rd out of 1289 total athletes, given my ironman time of 14:26:31. While ironman is more than twice the 70.3 in terms of effort, I think a focus on the run, could enable me to achieve a 12 hour ironman.
qb
Maximum Elevation - 395m
Minimum Elevation - 287m
Ascending - 359m
Descending - 363m
Tough day, the night was interrupted by a constant downpour making sleep in rented cottage a bit difficult. Got everyone up and at 530, but only got to the transition zone at 715 and they were clearing us out at 735. Again, travelling with families always make these difficult to prepare properly. Lesson here is to stay on site so they can sleep in and I can do my stuff. I also need to go through my check list in detail as I left my gel flask at home with my gels. While I bought a flask, I couldn't put the velcro on it so it sticks to my top bar. So I had to improvise, not something you want to do on these races.
The swim was done in waves with just over 300 swimmers in most waves. The swim was solid although not blindingly fast – water was about 67 degrees and there was only a very light chop, probably more chop from the swimmers. I was pleased with the sub 2:00/100 avg time. I started at the front and off to the right of the group and went out quickly, had good sighting all the way around, got on some feet at 300 or so and held them to the first turn, problem was a guy came from my right was squeezing into make the right turn and hoofed me in the chops. A rude awakening. The field didn't really thin so there was little in the way of open water. After the kick in the head I managed to get focused and just worked a good pace. Managed to catch a couple of feet here and there but nothing sustained. With 300m to go I had the second rough ride, this time from the group ahead who we had caught. I was dead on the exit buoy and all of a sudden this guy goes 90 degrees in front of me and hoofs my googles. I take on water in the goggles, tread water for a second but figure it is not worth clearing them out given the short way to the exit so I swim in with limited visibility. I got out and used the wetsuit strippers (definitely the way to go if it is available). My transition was probably a couple of minutes slow given I stopped and talked to maddie, corbin and dianne. The 300m climb to transition didn't help either but everyone faced the same issue. I exited the swim in 68th in my group, a decent position in my view.
I decided to ride with arm warmers and not a vest, hoping the temperature stayed constant at the 18 degrees. The good news was that it did and I didn’t get a chill. The bike was excellent when one considers the conditions. With a constant drizzle, it made attacks on very tough downhills very treacherous so I had to dial back the speed and increase the concentration. I will down load my times from the garmin but it looks like the splits were consistent despite a tough course in my mind. The wind was up in some spots and the climbs were pretty relentless, didn't give you the ability to settle in for long stretches. Of course throw in the constant rain and rooster tails spewing off the wheels - definitely needed windshied wipers on the glasses. From a nutrition perspective I got two gels into me and one bar and two gatorade. At the last station they only seemed to be giving out lime Gatorade and I couldn't bring myself to drink it fearing I was changing one more thing. I came off the bike in 19th position in the age group as I had moved up 50 places on the bike and feeling pretty good when I looked around and saw very few bikes in transition. By this time drizzle was a steady rain that would only get heavier on the run.
While I thought I made some very good progress this year with my running it is clearly the weak link and something that needs some material amount of work in order to allow me to be competitive at these longer distances. Like the bike, the hills are quite relentless including the start as we had to climb out of deerhurst for the first km. It was a bit of an eye opener as I am going out on my run, Craig Alexander is just hammering it coming back in on his run. I didn’t realize at the time, he still had almost 6km to go, but nonetheless, it put some real perspective on how good these guys really are. By 3km I started cramping and heart rate was running at high zone 3, low zone 4, which gave me pause for stopping. I couldn’t get myself to gut this thing out. My feet were turning over but it was very slow going, the hills were again relentless. It was rare on this course to run flat, we were going up or coming down all of the time. Even here with all of the rain I was cautious on the downhills. By km 6, I was walking for 45seconds at every km mark, it was just brutal. There is not much more to say on this run other than it was a slow wet grind – squish, squish, squish. This was a mix of running and walking, and proved to me that while I believe I can be competitive now in the first two aspects of this sport, my running needs to improve materially, to give me a shot at finishing these races in good form.
Overall time of sub 6 hours is heartening at 5:57 – 69th in my age group of 166 starters and 383rd out of 1289 total athletes, given my ironman time of 14:26:31. While ironman is more than twice the 70.3 in terms of effort, I think a focus on the run, could enable me to achieve a 12 hour ironman.
qb
30.5.08
Toronto Criterium Safely Completed!
SOME WORDS FROM QUENTIN BROAD....
What a great race, certainly the whole atomsphere made it something special
relative to the two other bike races i have been at. The crowd was amazing
and the racing was frantic.
You know it is going to be a tough night when there is a crash on the
practice lap!! A tight course with some tough corners when you are in the
peleton made for about 8-10 crashes that I saw.
The DH Flyers were a force to be rekoned with, as Edgars was leading the
charge for most of the race. DH had 3 riders in the top 30 of 105 starters,
which was quite respectable in my humble opinion given this was a race of
attrition. Amongst the Masters 2/3, Edgars was 10th, Gord was 13 and I was
19th.
The average speed for the group was 43.2km/h, stunningly fast from my
perspective given the turns and speed bumps. This compares reasonably well
to the 45.2km/h that the pros and elite 1/2 cycled in the 7:30 race.
My garmin suggested a max speed of 50.9km/h, an average heart rate of 166,
which was almost a flat line, and a max of 176 (at the finish line) and a
2,000 calorie burn.
A great team event given the cheering from the sidelines - thanks for all of
the encouragement - it makes a difference!!
Thanks in particular to Dan - "QB - ITS NOT THE BIKE, ITS NOT THE BIKE -
RIDE FASTER"
I would love to see a couple more of these where we get a good number of
riders from the team out to the same race. It certainly keeps you going when
you see a darkhorse shirt up ahead - thanks Edgar and Gord!
qb
Thanks to all that Raced and Came out to support!
It was definitely a fun time. All our Riders were safe and had fun.
Here are the Results
Cheers,
Dan.
What a great race, certainly the whole atomsphere made it something special
relative to the two other bike races i have been at. The crowd was amazing
and the racing was frantic.
You know it is going to be a tough night when there is a crash on the
practice lap!! A tight course with some tough corners when you are in the
peleton made for about 8-10 crashes that I saw.
The DH Flyers were a force to be rekoned with, as Edgars was leading the
charge for most of the race. DH had 3 riders in the top 30 of 105 starters,
which was quite respectable in my humble opinion given this was a race of
attrition. Amongst the Masters 2/3, Edgars was 10th, Gord was 13 and I was
19th.
The average speed for the group was 43.2km/h, stunningly fast from my
perspective given the turns and speed bumps. This compares reasonably well
to the 45.2km/h that the pros and elite 1/2 cycled in the 7:30 race.
My garmin suggested a max speed of 50.9km/h, an average heart rate of 166,
which was almost a flat line, and a max of 176 (at the finish line) and a
2,000 calorie burn.
A great team event given the cheering from the sidelines - thanks for all of
the encouragement - it makes a difference!!
Thanks in particular to Dan - "QB - ITS NOT THE BIKE, ITS NOT THE BIKE -
RIDE FASTER"
I would love to see a couple more of these where we get a good number of
riders from the team out to the same race. It certainly keeps you going when
you see a darkhorse shirt up ahead - thanks Edgar and Gord!
qb
Thanks to all that Raced and Came out to support!
It was definitely a fun time. All our Riders were safe and had fun.
Here are the Results
Cheers,
Dan.
28.5.08
Friday's Criterium Race Starts @ 6pm SHARP! Get there early for a good view....
Hey all,
Friday's Toronto Criterium Race Starts @ 6pm Sharp. Be there Just after 5pm to get good seating!
Here is the: Roster
Lots of our friends and riding buddies are going to be racing! Please try and make it.
It will be Fast to say the least! I anticipate the Group of 100 Splitting up fast and at least 50 riders getting pulled from the race. Lets hope we can all hang on......
BCC Spectators Group will meet @ the Flat Iron Building.
See you all there!
D.
Friday's Toronto Criterium Race Starts @ 6pm Sharp. Be there Just after 5pm to get good seating!
Here is the: Roster
Lots of our friends and riding buddies are going to be racing! Please try and make it.
It will be Fast to say the least! I anticipate the Group of 100 Splitting up fast and at least 50 riders getting pulled from the race. Lets hope we can all hang on......
BCC Spectators Group will meet @ the Flat Iron Building.
See you all there!
D.
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