Ironman Barrie Challenge for support of my journey to Swim Lake O

I have been thinking of ways to raise money for my journey to swim Lake Ontario 2013 in support of RVH and came up with this personal challenge. Saturday June 9, 2013 I will be doing the first Barrie Ironman challenge.

So I am in taper mode today checking out the expo at 2 Hook court Barrie,(my house) fueling and resting for the first Barrie Ironman Distance challenge tomorrow here in Barrie, starting with a 3.8k swim at Centennial beach at 8am, then riding from my home at 9:30am to Wasaga beach and back twice with a third shorter 20k loop to make up a distance of 180km total before I set off on a 42k marathon on a 7k out and back loop 6 times starting Approx 4-4:30 from my house.
I am doing this challenge in support of my Josef's journey continues, A swim for life 52km lake Ontario swim 2013 next year for RVH Cancer patient care.
Please come by and give me a shout of encouragement during my Marathon run/walk/waddle/shlog which will start from my house at 2 Hook court Approx 4-4:30pm down to Livingstone, running along Livingstone to Anne St. then north to Carson Rd and back for 6 loops. I will be collecting donation at my house or on route, or you can make a donation on line on my link to the right of this blog.

Thank you and wish me luck!

http://www.active.com/donate/52kmlakeontswim

Round the lake ride

This Saturday May 26th I'm getting ready to do my longest training ride of the year,....OK, OK,... ever! Besides my four Ironman's I have done, which the bike portion of the race is 180k I have never ridden this far in training. The most I have ridden in training for all my Ironman races was around 100k.

So where will I be riding? I'll be riding with a few friend around the perimeter of lake Simcoe starting in Barrie all the way around and back. --> Lake Simcoe route  and I think we have one support vehicle who will carry extra water and food.

Why? A friend of mine Nathan Brooks is getting ready for a 24hr bike race and needs to get in some long rides, so he set up this ride with him for support  and I and glad I can help him out. I don't know if I'll say the same after the ride!? lol

Wish me luck!

:)

First open water swim

What a weekend! temps in the high 80'sF, it feels like Mid July!

Well I thought since it's feeling like summer why not go down to the lake for a swim.
At first I was going to go for a ride and do 30k easy ride, but when I grabbed my bike the rear tire was flat! and i don't have any spare tubes to change it out. This being a long weekend and a holiday Monday no stores are open, .....so much for my ride?

Well instead I took down my steel raleigh road bike hanging in the garage, filled the tires up and decided to go down to Centennial beach and see if I can swim yet?

 As a rule Kempenfelt bay waters, which is part of Lake Simcoe the second biggest lake in Ontario takes until late June to warm up enough to swim, but being a mild winter and warm spring and now with the Hot weather this week I though I would give it a try.

I rode down to the beach and parked my bike along one of the trees at the beach and stripped down to my bathing suit I was wearing and put on my swim goggles from my back pack. I slowly walked into the water which felt cool but nice in this heat, and with no wetsuit on and just my speedo on I waded down to my mid section and dunked down to my shoulders and finally dunked my head!

The water temp was about 50F but on this hot day it felt refreshing! I sat there under the water to my neck to get used to the cold and after about 5 min I started out for my swim along the beach front at about 4 feet of depth so if I got to cold I could stand for safety.  I tried to swim head down but the water being so cold gave me brain freeze, the same feeling you get when you eat ice cream to fast! EEK!

I swam for about 200m front crawl lifeguard style with head up and felt good. My body was adjusting but my skin was tingling with pins and needles from the cold water. By the time I turned to swim back I started getting used to the water and was swimming head down back to where I started and had enough and got out because I didn't want to get hypodermic. I then sunned myself on the beach a while to dry of and rode back home.

Who would have thought I would be swimming on the May 2-4 weekend and specially in Kempenfelt bay! I remember once when I was little, 8-9 years old, being up at my cousins cottage on the May 2-4 weekend and swimming there in this kind of hot weather, but it was a smaller lake and not as cold being a smaller shallower lake.

Man if felt good to swim in the lake! I hope the weather keep up and stay warm so I can continue and eventually swim longer in the lake.


:)

First ride out to Wasaga

Saturday I rode out to Wasaga beach for  the first time this year, I couldn't ask for better weather! Clear blue skies little wind and balmy temps in the 80'sF.

The plan was to do a half iron distance training day, so I got up early, after only 6 hours sleep, remember i don't get home from work until 12 12:30am and don't go to bed until 1am usually.  So I set my alarm for 7am, the pool opens for lane swim from 7:15 to 8:15 so i figured I can grab a quick snack and get to the pool by 7:30 to do my 2000m swim.

I got up and looked around the kitchen for something to eat, i saw some mini tarts, one maple flavor and one lemon and downed them and off I went to the pool. I got lucky and there was an empty lane. I jumped in and started to swim....Bammm! 2000m in 35min, done!

I drove home and put my bike gear on and grabbed my bike and was off to Wasaga by 9am. As i was sailing along I'm saying to myself what a great day out! about half way out, not a cloud in the sky except for a X formed by two Jet planes jet stream and hanging over what looked like right over Wasaga beach. so i said to myself X marks the spot! lol

I reached Wasaga beach in 1:20 stopping at the beach front looking around for a few min and eating my stroopwaffles washing it down with the rest of my energy drink for the ride back.

The ride back was still smooth sailing with clear blue skies and a little wind, more like a breeze, but alas, the ride home was still against the wind, making my ride a little more difficult! But I still keep my pace up even with my hip hurting.

For most of the ride, Ok actually from the start of the ride my hip was hurting, I've been dealing with sciatica pain for over 5 months now and only recently have gone to a chiropractor to get it fixed, albeit, I've only had 3 sessions with the chiropractor, my hip and hamstring have been getting better, but it still hurts.

I reach my home and finished in a time of 2:50 over 85km, averaging 30kph,  I didn't do a full 90 k because that is all the road I had.? lol

In the end I had lots of energy and felt strong except for my hip hurting from my sciatica, so I decided I wasn't going to run any of the 7k loops I had planned to run for the 21k half distance, to do a full half ironman training day. Oh well! I still had a good training day!

:)

I witnessed a biker crash and was the first responder.

Today was interesting, I was coming home from my chiropractor and stopped at the lights of Anne and Livingstone in Barrie, I was behind a car who was making a right turn as I wanted to do also. The light was red and as i watched from behind, he engaged to make his right turn when a young 20 year old biker was crossing on his green light through the intersection at a nominal speed. the driver braked as the biker swerved just missing being hit! The driver then proceed to drive on passing the biker again as I stop at the corner then proceed to make my right turn onto Livingstone. As I accelerated and started to catch up to the biker who was in the curb lane with the driver of the van in front of him and I was on the inside lane, I was about to slow up beside the biker and roll down my passenger window to say something to him like what an A-hole the driver was! ...But instead as I caught up to the biker with the van driving  in front of him, I noticed the biker having words at the driver in front of him, like cussing him out! not that the driver could hear him, it looked to me a natural reaction of anger, talking out loud getting it out, if you know what I mean?

So I just drove by the two, but keeping an eye on them in my rear view mirror as I passed the van. I then noticed the driver was slowing with the biker still behind him riding pretty fast, I would estimate 30-35kph based on the speed I was driving by them. I didn't really notice but I think the driver was signaling to make a right turn into a driveway, his driveway!  But then it looked to me the driver stopped suddenly and the biker quickly puts his brakes on while swerving to try to avoid the van, but instead with a loud bang! he hits the back window and corner of the van with his bike and body with a loud thud, shattering the back window of the van to pieces and putting a dent in the rear of the van as well as smashing the left driver side tail light! His body crumbled down to the ground as his bike flung off to the side with one of his carbon aero bars snapping off his bike and dropped in the middle of the inside line. 

I then stopped, check for traffic and pull a u-turn around and pull up back behind the van and biker.  I jump out of my car and asked the biker if he was OK as he stood up grabbing his arm in pain. The driver got out of his car at the same time to access the damage, and looked bewildered! he said he was just turning into his driveway and the biker rammed into his van!  The biker, now standing wincing in pain shows me his right arm as he had his left  hand over a deep gash with blood pouring out. He asked if I had something to wrap around. I quickly went back to my car and grabbed a roll of paper towel I keep in the trunk and pull out a length of paper towel and fold it into a big square for a compression bandage to place over the wound and told him to hold and compress, then I grabbed more paper towel and placed over top of the blood soaked first compression towel to stop the bleeding which it seemed to be stopping.

 At this time a city worker in his recycle truck pulls up and stops to see if he can help. I yelled at him to call 911 as I don't have a cell. He called 911 and the ambulance fire and police came within 10min.

While waiting for the ambulance another man from one of the houses came by with a towel which he wrapped over top of the compressing towels that were in place and I proceeded to talk to the biker, which I found out his name , which was Brad I think? I'm bad with names, lol and his age, 20, and asked if he was hurt anywhere else? which he said his shoulder, which I could see was scrapped but not bleeding. I ask if he could move his fingers, which he showed me he could. Then he says to me while sitting on the curb, I have a race on Sunday! I said really which one? he said The Victoria Duathlon in Waterloo Ont,. I said yes I know that race as part of the Subaru series, and told him I was a triathlete myself. I then told him not to worry, a few stitches in your arm and you'll be good as new! ...but I said your bike is a different story!  I said i hope you have a back up bike, which he commented, yes!  The ambulance arrived and I stepped aside as they looked at him and then got him in the ambulance to take to the hospital. 

While the paramedics where accessing Brad one of the fireman say to me hey Joe! I look over and it's a friend and tri club member, Fire chief Kevin White, we start talking and i tell him what happened then we talked about biking ect. lol  Then I turned to the policeman and gave him my information as a witness in which he said he will call me later if need be.

Well, as I see it, and saw it! I say Brad was lucky with no serious injury, just some stitches in his forearm. but also I see it as Brad was destine to be in a bike accident today!  He is very lucky! because I think if he was hit at the intersection he would have been worse off!... and as fate would have it he lucked out there but was destined to get knocked down some time today no mater what!  which happened not one or two minutes later with less seriousness or even death!

As for who was at fault? I think the driver of the van was aware of  Brad behind him since he almost hit him at the corner while he was attempting to make a turn into his driveway, and being aware, I think he stopped rather then making the right turn into his driveway because I think he tough the biker brad was going to ride though along side of him along the curb, ....but at the same time I think Brad was thinking the van was turning right into the driveway so he would go around the outside of the van, but the van stopped suddenly and with Brad speed and the sudden stopping, Brad didn't have time to react slamming his brakes and enviably slamming into the back of the van as I saw it!

:)

Mississauga Marathon..Joanne Smoked me!!

Yes! it's true! Joanne Smoked me at the Mississauga half marathon on Sunday May 6, and finished 25min faster then me with a 2:33. Congrats to her, all her hard training paid off! ,,,Oh I finished with a 2:58.

Now how can that happen?   Well to start out with, I did no run training except for a couple of short 1-2k runs. Why? because I couldn't run without pain with my sciatica, so I didn't run to train for this race. All in all except for the pain I had the whole race, I think I did pretty good! :)

You can check out myYou Tube video ...enjoy!.... Video

Race day report.....

Joanne and I got up at 4:30 and got our gear and nutrition ready for the race which included my Go Jo Juice, you know the green stuff I concocted with a great taste and packed with lots of energy to carry us though the race, and of course my stroopwaffles! Joanne grabbed her energy bars and filled her fuel belt bottles with Go-Jo Juice because she like's the stuff! She also made and packed some oatmeal into a thermos to eat on the way down, I ate a couple of stroowaffles and was planning on getting an egg Mcmuffin and coffee at the drive threw for the drive down to Mississauga. When we got to McD's and I ordered my EggMcmuffin to my suprise they said there don't serve breakfast yet? I said WHAT!! It's morning!! The person said they don't serve Breakfast until 5am? I said WTF!! and ordered coffee and a muffin to go.

On the road now heading down to Mississauga, it was still dark and the moon was shining bright to the western horizon, Tonight was a full moon and tonight they were calling it the super moon because it was going to be in the closest orbit to earth making it look bigger then normal! I must say it was bright!.....This picture doesn't do it justus as I was driving trying to take the picture.

We got to the race sight parking lot were we caught the first shuttle bus that was organized to take the racers up to the race start about 10 mins away.  There was a chill in the air but as the morning light rose there was clear blue skies and the forcast for the day was going to be perfect for running with a high of 18C.  When we got to the starting area we met up with some friends and tried to stay warm until the race started.

Joanne staying warm beofre the race...

Me putting on a tencer for my bad knee

Joanne relaxing before the race

So far I haven't mentioned about my sore back and hamstring, but now I'll let you know. With every step while I jog I get a shooting pain radiating down my left leg, my left hamstring pulling and hurting at the same time and as I walk or jog I look like a penguin waddling about moving my body side to side to compensate for the pulling in my hamstring.

Before the race started they played the national anthem then the cannon went off! we are on are way!! Weeee! ...well so I thought? We didn't start moving for a few minutes as we seeded ourselves back at the 2:15-2:30hr finisher area of the start line, we then started to slowly walk up to the start line with the crowd of 10,000 participant in the race.  It took about 3 mins to get to the start line and off we were, we started to run keeping pace with the 2:30hr  pace bunny.

Start of the run as we crossed though and beyond the start line, Cool buildings behind Joanne

Joann and I ran together keeping pace with the 2:30hr pace bunny to the 8k mark where I had to slow down as my whole leg was radiating with pain, I told Joanne just keep up your pace and go on, I never saw her again! I continued on at my own pace walking and jogging and videoing the rest of the way I got to the 10 k make in ruffly 1:14 and was thinking maybe I can manage a 2:35-2:45hr race? but as the run continued I was getting slower and hurting more, even to the point Of quiting! But no I couldn't do that, so I pushed on, run 100 feet walk a hundred feet, and tried to amuse myself along the way to take the pain of my hip and hammy away.

I finally got to the lake shore and knew I had just a few more Km's to go, maybe 4k?  As I hobbled along, the lake, lake Ontario was as flat as a pancake and I thought to myself, next year I'll be swimming across here and I sure hope the lake will be this calm!! ...I continued on and in the distance I can here the announcer calling people in the finish with music blaring.  I only had a little way to go. With camera in hand video taping coming into the finish I hear my name being called and with a chukle I hear the announcer say, "Josef is even videoing his finish"  Which I did! lol

Done! 2:58 and change for a finish! I made it under three hours with no training and a cripple body! Is that amazing? or just stupid? I think most people would say it's stupid! lol But I don't care, I had fun pain and all, It's not like I would die or something!? and Joanne accomplished a great goal with her official first half marathon! and getting a PB of over 20 min on her un-official Half Mary I did with her last year of 2:49.....

Check out my left hand holding out my camera videoing my finish.

When I crossed the line I went straight to the med tent to get some work done on my leg to ease the pain a bit, then I collected my medal and met up with Joanne where I said to her "You smoked me!!" and she quickly replied, "YES I DID!! lol  We then met up with friends and took some pictures, said our byes and went home where I had some well deserved nutrition and hydration waiting for us.

 Our finisher pose....

Of course the finisher medal bite!

Some of my Barrie tri club friend after the race..

Joannes and my Running room clinic friends

You can check out my You Tube video I made of our day, enjoy ....Video





:)

I've just posted a new Donation link on my "Swim For Life" Blog for my 52km Lake Ontario swim  http://josefsjourneyswimacrosslakeontario.blogspot.ca/  On the right side of  the page titled  "Please make donations through link below."

All proceeds through this link will be going to Royal Victoria Hospital Cancer Patient Care with my goal to reach $20,000 which will be presented to RVH  after I complete my 52km Lake Ontario swim in August 2013. 

Or you can go directly to my Donation page   52km Lake Ontario Swim For Life

On that note, So far I have raised $70.00 for my cause, which you can see on the fund raising thermomitor I have posted on the right of my Swim for Life page when you scroll down.

So please give generously

Thank You.

Back to winter???

Spring has come and gone and we are back to winter!? We are having a blast of winter today with a snow storm dropping accumulation to my displeasure, but kaiya doesn't seem to mind......

Kaiya sniffed out her bone I gave her yesterday and started chomping down on it in the snow.

This was yesterday, Kaiya  in her dog house, she loved the treat I gave her, a beef knuckle.

As for me and training? still no running with less then two weeks to Mississauga half marathon, I guess my run training will be the day of the race where I will play it by ear, or should I say by the feeling of my back and hamstring. My plan now will be, I'll start out with Joanne staying with her at her pace for the first 10k and see how I feel, by that time I will be in either so much pain I'll walk or drop out? or push ahead if I can. In the mean time I'm just continuing on with keeping my fitness up with my swimming three days a week, give or take 2000m per swim.

...Ahhh the spoils of less is more training. lol

:)

Kaiya learning to fetch

Been busy with work, had to do a course in Mississauga for work on my own time on Saturday from 9 - 4 and for the next two Saturday's this month, all day without getting paid, just so that one day I might be able to post into a day position, as I have been working evenings for over 16 years with nine of those years at my current job, and it's about time I started living and working a normal life by working on days 7-4 Monday to Friday's

I'm only swimming 3 times a week and waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more so I can ride more! I've only been out on my bike about 4 - 5 times so far, and am eager to get back to my regual training of biking every day of at least 30 min with my long ride on the weekend of at least 3 hours.

I haven't been running except for a couple of 2k runs the last week, as that is all my back can take with the numbness running down my leg and tightness of my glute and hamstring, stoopid sciatica!!

He is Kaiya learning to fetch.....

New Puppy

Meet our new member of the family Kaiya, She was born Jan 13 2012 and we brought her home March 18 2012. She is an Alaskan malamute ( Sled dog ) and is a registered pure breed. Both her mom and dad are champion show dogs and come from a great bloodline which includes her Grandfather who was North American champion! She is registered as Spiritrun Snow Princess and is owned by my daughter Victoria, but Kaiya will be the family dog with everyone taking interest in her welfare. If she turns out like the breeder expects, she might be put in shows to up her pedigree and maybe win a few certificates and ribbons.

Besides puppies, my training has bee spuratic, but was able to get out on some nice 30km rides outside as we have had some nice summer like weather over the past two weeks, I even got out a couple of runs and of course my regular 1-2000m swims. But now we got a weather check and it's been cold the last few days but will be warming up again to normal temps of 10C-14C So hopefully Saturday I will get out on my bike again.

Sorry for the lack of post over the past while, I've just been lazy, and am still nursing my back, But I fully intend to get my ass in gear and start doing more training as my sciatica has been getting better and I've started to do a little running since I do have a half marathon in May to train for. lol

:)