Archive for the ‘Race’ Category
First off congratulations to GWA clients Rich Osborn and Greg Mackie for finishing Ironman Canada–Rich’s first and Greg’s second. All of our times can be found here. None of us managed the pro’s top times of 8:28 (men) and 9:03 (women), in fact I was just starting the marathon when the winning male was running into the finish!! The day started with 3000 revved up …Continue reading »
One of the final training rides in Squamish. Did an easy 5 hour ride that day…
With all the long miles put in I feel the only thing really left is to watch as many Canucks games as I can before I leave on Monday. I’m tapering this week which means instead of my regular 16 hours of riding I’m only doing 8 or so… The race begins Saturday April 29th with a ’short’ 142 km and a ’small’ 3800m of climbing. Talk about throwing us in the fire right away. I will be trying to give daily updates on the race so stay tuned.
GWA’s Jon Bula has signed up for the 2011 Trans Portugal Race starting April 29th. The 9 day stage race covers 1150km of riding through beautiful Portugal. Having just purchased a new bike for the race you will be able to find him in the trails of the North Shore and Squamish over the next six months.
Well what a day!! Here we go (lots pictures and video at the end of the post):
3:30 am The alarm is set for 4:30am but I am awake…..4:45am Get out of bed, eat, drink, shoot the before video….5:15am Drive to the start, get marked, drop off special needs bags, pump bike tires, relax ….6:15am Put on HR monitor, wetsuit….6:30am Warm up swim, then stay warm….6:45am Watch the pro’s start, fight the nerves…..7:00am START the race with 3000 other swimmers
On Sunday Jon and I competed in the Subaru Half Ironman in preparation for the Ironman. It was an overcast day and a 6:30am start into the ocean at Jehrico Sailing Club for two loops of 1000m…let me tell you it wasn’t warm. After that is was 90km on our bikes in the form of 4 loops with a climb up UBC hill in each one followed by a half marathon (21km) down Spanish Banks. Jon had an amazing race at 4:42, knocking almost 30 min off his time from 2 years ago. Troy did 5:01 and would have broken 5 hours if he didn’t have trouble putting on his shirt. Try it: purchase a skin tight Under Armour shirt, step in the shower, step out and try and pull it on hahaha.
A number of Groundwork Athletics staff participated in a few different events this passed weekend. Alan Winterflood and Warren Hatch competed in the Fall Classic run at UBC on Sunday. Warren was competing in the 5k while Alan competed in the 10k.
Jon and Troy are joining 18 other adventure racers to compete in the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race in Cumberland on Saturday. www.mindovermountain.com/momar/ As mentioned our group consists of 20 experienced adventure racers and 10 minutes before the start we are drawing names to create teams of 4. Should make for an interesting day!! The race is approx 60km of kayaking, mountaing biking, trail running and orienteering–we expect to finish in 5-6 hours. Check out the blog post race to see how we did.
Finishing
Jon’s One Cut
One of Many Cuts for Troy…
best looking team in the race
support + Ben.
Done! Day 7 was listed at 30 km around Creekside in Whistler–the hardest 30 k I’ve ever done!! We had some wicked climbs beginning with 7.5 km right off the start, then later a loose gravel climb that kept going up around each corner, and finally 2km on a road 20 minutes before the finish. We hammered it again– I particularily have now found my riding legs–in 2 hours 42 minutes. The pro’s did it an hour quicker than us. To summarize our race:
Pre Day 6
Post Race Repairs
Pre Race–troy looks bigger
Today was a great day, we hammered it. 50 km around Squamish which took us 4 hours 15 minutes. In races like these you tend to spend each day riding with similar people of equal skills and fitness. Today we dropped our ‘group’ with most of them coming in 3o minutes behind us! I (troy) felt like I had Tour de France legs today and could climb forever–for once I wasn’t chasing Jon which I have been doing this whole damn race!! It was your standard Squamish trails today-the Test of Metal start, Rob’s Corners, Powerhouse Plunge and Far Side. What weather 30+ degree’s here today. Highlights were Troy getting stung by a hornet while descending a very technical portion of the course, nobody passing us on any climbs, Troy getting a flat 2km out from the finish (we just rode it in!!), and 50 guest riders joining the race today–all sponsors who were fresh! Tomorrow is a short 30km day finishing in Whistler Creekside and followed by the afterparty……the next blog could be later Sunday afternoon!!
Today was a 60 km loop leaving and returning from Cumberland. It was another tough day, but not as hard as day 2!! We had a strong ride, finishing in 4:45 making our total time for three days of racing approx imately 12 hours 15 min. If anyone has ever rode alot you will be familiar with the sore ass feeling, I’d say for me it hit about hour 5 day two. Today included a big hill right in the middle of the day that we thought was 15km and turned out to be 8km, feels good when …Continue reading »
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