Jonathan Caron's Orbea Ora

With my decision to do IMC in 2009 came the decision whether to stick with my awesome Specialized Tarmac road bike or make the move to an official 'triathlon bike'. After deciding that my road bike was going to work just fine, I was alterted to a resonalbly priced tri bike for sale the TriBC classified. I have never been one to buy used so I was sceptical. On closer look, I was very intriqued. This was not just some age grouper selling well used tri bike this was Jonathan Caron selling his Orbea Ora. The Jonathan Caron who finished 2nd at IMC in 2007 and who is featured in the July/August 2008 edition of Triathlon Canada Magazine is selling his bike on the TriBC classfieds? Yes it was true!

After a few days of e-mails I was hooked. I headed down to Speed Theory to see if they had the same bike in the same size to make sure it fit. Victory! The size Jonathan was selling fit. A few more e-mails and the arrangments were made.

Jonathan is living in Penticton currently training for IMC 2008 so getting the bike from Penticton to Vancouver was going to be a bit of challenge. I wanted the bike asap and I am not going to Penticton until the IM weekend at the end of August. Luckily, the crazy people that I am friends with are also doing IMC 2008 and were heading up to Penticton for a training session this weekend! Now I only have to wait until tomorrow to see my new bike.

On some other positive notes, I came 1st in my age group for the 1.5km swim with VOWSA and I took 5 minutes off my bike time at The Diva's Sprint triathlon last weekend.

I had planned to go to Bellingham for a 2.5km swim race at Lake Padden, WA but was defeated by the border line up on this August long weekend. I arrived at the truck border at 7am and was still not even close by the time 8am rolled around. With the race starting at 9am, I was not going to make it. I cut my losses and turned around and returned home.

All in all, it was a great training weekend though. 60 minute run on Friday night, 90 minute bike yesterday and a 110 minute run this morning. All with my new Garmin 405 GPS. So much data! Love it!

April Fools 1/2 Marathon Plus 15km cool down

After my minor breakdown at work on Friday, I set off on Saturday for Sechelt. I have run the April Fool's Half Marathon two times and this was my third time. It never fails to be hilly and hard. Sunday morning I started off at in Gibsons ready to run to Mission Point Park. I took it very conservatively knowing that I would be adding another 15kms on at the end of the 'race'. I crossed the finish line, collected my medal, filled my water bottles, ate a piece of bagel and a bite of banana and kept running west. I do not recommend running your longest run before a marathon in Sechelt if you are not used to hills. That place is full of 12-15% grades both up and down. At the end of the day, I ran from 9:17am - 2pm with a few quick breaks to refill bottles, eat gels and take few rocks out of my shoes. After a shower and some real food, I was back on the ferry to North Vancouver. Reward: Whit...

Today I Cried at Work

Proof that my marathon training is effective. I cried at work today. I am emotionally and physically worn down.

Fully Cooked

With one week of high volume running before my marathon on April 28th, I am feeling fully cooked. After a rest day on Monday, I switched up my track workout day and my trainer ride day. We secured tickets to the second to last Canucks home game on Tuesday night so I couldn't do my track workout. I did my trainer ride in the morning on Tuesday and my track workout on Wednesday. Instead of going solo at the track last night I created a workout in Garmin and downloaded it to my Garmin 920XT. 10 min warm up 8 x 1 mile with 90 seconds rest 10 min cool down Let me tell you, this workout completely exhausted me. I came home after the run, showered and ate but I felt so drained. After a bit of rest on the sofa, I was able to feel better and went straight to bed. Today I skipped my 6am swim in favour of an extra hour of sleep. My mantra for the week is 'just one more week'. Just one more week of heavy volume ...

Elements of Erin 337

Search This Blog