Thursday, November 16, 2006
GymSkinZ Triathlon Sortswear November Newsletter
Current mood: accomplished
In This Issue:
November Newsletter !
I'm E X P A N D I N G!
Quality Control!
Just-Tri.Com
New GymSkinZ Triathlon Designs!
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1. November Newsletter !
Welcome to yet another installment of the GymSkinZ Inc. official newsletter! If you're receiving this, it means the lights are still on here at GymSkinZ and you've either sent me your contact info via my website or paid me a visit at my MySpace page - so thank you for dropping by!
Here in Vancouver, I'm gearing up for hibernation mode and high-intensity "OFF-SEASON" relaxation... Well, not really, but the thought of it sure is nice! GymSkinZ will be taking the show on the road in a few weeks as I head down to sunny California (again) to race in the California International Marathon in Sacramento. I use the term "race" very loosely as my business and preparation for the Xmas season has taken priority over this silly thing called "training". Oh well, all in good fun right?! I did however get a *bit* of running in when I was at the Chicago Marathon a few weeks ago which was an amazing weekend and experience. At any rate, I hope you are all enjoying your November and are winding down a very successful 2006 race season - unless you have a few more races before Christmas of course! 2007 is just around the corner and it's absolutely frightening how quick the time has flown by!
I want to thank everyone for their great support and patience over the last 8 months (!) as I continue to build this company called GymSkinZ - I have now surpassed 1000 shirts sold (!!) in over 30 countries (how cool is this, someone in BARBADOS is wearing my stuff)... Anyway, BIG things are in store for 2007 folks, so hold on to your hats!!
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com
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2. I'm E X P A N D I N G!
Almost literally! My arse has been planted on this fitness ball for the last few months after Ironman with a whole lot of "NO TRAINING" so I'm quite certain my derriere has expanded beyond the limits of my Team CSC cycling shorts. However, I am extremely pleased to announce I am joining forces with Jet Sportswear here in Vancouver to launch a larger selection of technical fiber apparel. We'll be releasing mens and ladies styles of various technical fiber tops, nifty running shorts, compression fit apparel, and even youth/kids sized technical gear! Hopefully all in time for Christmas so you can pick something up for that multisports geek on your Xmas shopping list. Stay tuned as I'll be announcing the release of our new products soon!
GymSkinZ & LA Triathlon Club!
I'm also proud to announce my affiliation with the Los Angeles Triathlon club and it's 18 million members... ok, not 18 million, but a whole lot of very cool people who know how to do it right when it comes to having fun with this thing called "triathlon". I had the pleasure of attending their year end party down in LA this past weekend and it was fabulous! Special thanx to Liz Oakes for helping me with my last promo to the club, as well as all the great members who took the time to say hello while I was there. Extra big thanx to Stella, Jen, & Dara of the club who have been instrumental in marketing my gear at the various races and events they attended this season!
I'm also oh-so-happy to be promoting GymSkinZ gear within the Phoenix Triathlon club as well! Thanx to Judy Kamella for her support and help spreading the GymSkinZ gospel. Pretty much any club with fun people is fair game - and GymSkinZ will be aggressively marketing into many different markets around the globe!
Other GymSkinZ Partners!
If that wasn't enough to keep me busy, GymSkinZ has also started cross promoting some related products that are complimentary to the "GymSkinZ Philosphy" of good health and good fun. Check out the following companies and products that I'm pleased to be associated with:
GymSoap.Com - Embrace good hygiene and use gymsoap!
It destroys harmful germs, bacteria and fungus
fights lord knows what else that is lurking in the gym you train at or on the equipment you use!!
Order from GymSoap Today and mention you heard about it from GymSkinz!
FRS Plus - AntiOxidant Energy Formula - Increase your energy levels by getting rid of toxins!
Boosts energy and mental focus for more productive workouts
Antioxidant protection reduces muscle fatigue & soreness for faster recovery
Enhance performance safely & legally
Click HERE and get a FREE 7 day trial of FRS Plus today!
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3. Quality Control!
I am still using the services of Cafepress to produce most of my designs so most of you are receiving your items direct from them. I don't actually get to see or touch the product before you get it, so please let me know if you have any shipping or sizing issues or anything else about your purchasing experience. All purchases are backed by a 30day 100% money-back guarantee so if you need a different size or the shirt wasn't what you expected and you'd like to exchange it for another style, I (and cafepress) will be glad to resolve the problem!
Link: http://www.cafepress.com/gymskinz
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4. Just-Tri.Com
In concert with my sportswear business, I will be launching a brand new free website devoted to this wonderful world of endurance sports. A LOT of my current business as well as some great new friendships have been forged via this phenomenon known as "mySpace". As great as it is, the 123,000,000 members on the site are a little fragmented so just-tri.com is aiming to weed out the riff-raff so to speak, and create a a more focussed virtual community catering to endurance multi-sporters where you can hang out, collaborate, and share your training and race experiences with other like minded people - for FREE. There will be a few other VERY cool components to the site which will be announced soon, but the mere fact you are getting this newsletter means YOU will be part of this exciting new multisports online community whether you like it or not... just kidding! It's totally optional, but I would love it for you to join and mingle with fellow GymSkinZ customers and fans. You'll get to follow my road to Ironman Canada 2007 as well as a few of my other great training partners and best friends, fitness tips and coaching by The Peak Center for Human Performance, general "Triathlon Lifestyle commentary" by various contributing writers and friends of GymSkinZ. What makes Just-Tri different than other existing online "sports community sites" out there? You'll just have to join and find out for yourself!!
In the meantime, feel free to tune into my "You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI" PodCast". To date, I've had over 23,000 downloads to my various cast episodes - I can't believe that many people out there want to hear me complain about how out of shape I am ;)
In any case, tune in and stay in the loop!
Link: GymSkinZ PodCast!
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5. New Designs !
TONS of new GymSkinZ Triathlon Shirt designs are still in the works! With a larger selection of apparel, the same hillarious GymSkinZ designs will be available on a wider variety of products. Just drop by the news section on my site often, or browse the catalog for any new updates! Stay tuned! Now that we're in the "offseason", there will be a few designs in honour of "getting lazy while sitting on the couch", as well as the release of my NerdSkinZ line which have absolutely nothing to do with sports, but are still just as hillarious ;)
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com/news.html
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AGAIN, thank you EVERYONE for your continued support and help to spread the word about GymSkinZ! Remember Christmas is coming so what better way to treat that "Super-Athlete" on your list than with a fun item from GymSkinZ!
Take care and catch up with you soon!
cheers!
Tav.
Humble Sausage Maker
http://www.gymskinz.com
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Weekend in LA
Weekend in LA!
Hey folks!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend, and for all you Canadians out there - I trust you are enjoying your day off for Rememberance Day.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the LA Tri Club's year end (urine) party this past weekend and it was a blast! Got to finally meet some LA Tri mySpacers that I've corresponded with for the last while, and met a ton of other great peeps - the club truly has a great bunch of members, and LOTS of 'em! Big shout out to Stella, Jen, Dara, Liz, Paul, Konrad, Brian, Jenna, Cody, (list goes on and on) and everyone else that I had the pleasure of meeting & hanging with during the gala event. Considering I had run 3.5 hours earlier that afternoon (a BEAUTIFUL day to be running on the beach I might add), I'm surprised I made it to the end of the night without curling up in the corner and taking a nap ;) Congrats to Stella, Jen and Dara (the 3 gals you see on my gymskinz site) for being nominated in various categories for the LA Tri Club's awards - tis an honour to have them as friends and associated with my "silly little t-shirt biz". Speaking of which, I'll be sending out my official GymSkinZ November newsletter in the next couple days with more news and developments about what's been going on, and what you can expect from GymSkinZ next year - exciting stuff and I can't thank ALL of you enough for your continued support and well wishes. Just having you mention my gear to your friends at races or wherever means a lot to me - so thank you thank you!
Stay tuned to my podcast as I'll be posting our commentary of our H2H 100km relay race from a couple weeks ago! fun stuff!
Also, I'll be releasing even MORE gymskinz designs, as well as a larger selection of technical fiber gear in both mens', ladies' styles as well as for kids! Lastly, keep your eyes and ears peeled for the pending launch of "just-tri.com" in early 2007! If you thought mySpace was cool, wait till you see what I have in development ;)
Tons of stuff happening throughout the remainder of the year and I'm frantically trying to keep on top of everything. Hang on to your hats folks, 2007 is gonna be a wild ride!
Cheers folks and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!
Tav.
www.gymskinz.com
Hey folks!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend, and for all you Canadians out there - I trust you are enjoying your day off for Rememberance Day.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the LA Tri Club's year end (urine) party this past weekend and it was a blast! Got to finally meet some LA Tri mySpacers that I've corresponded with for the last while, and met a ton of other great peeps - the club truly has a great bunch of members, and LOTS of 'em! Big shout out to Stella, Jen, Dara, Liz, Paul, Konrad, Brian, Jenna, Cody, (list goes on and on) and everyone else that I had the pleasure of meeting & hanging with during the gala event. Considering I had run 3.5 hours earlier that afternoon (a BEAUTIFUL day to be running on the beach I might add), I'm surprised I made it to the end of the night without curling up in the corner and taking a nap ;) Congrats to Stella, Jen and Dara (the 3 gals you see on my gymskinz site) for being nominated in various categories for the LA Tri Club's awards - tis an honour to have them as friends and associated with my "silly little t-shirt biz". Speaking of which, I'll be sending out my official GymSkinZ November newsletter in the next couple days with more news and developments about what's been going on, and what you can expect from GymSkinZ next year - exciting stuff and I can't thank ALL of you enough for your continued support and well wishes. Just having you mention my gear to your friends at races or wherever means a lot to me - so thank you thank you!
Stay tuned to my podcast as I'll be posting our commentary of our H2H 100km relay race from a couple weeks ago! fun stuff!
Also, I'll be releasing even MORE gymskinz designs, as well as a larger selection of technical fiber gear in both mens', ladies' styles as well as for kids! Lastly, keep your eyes and ears peeled for the pending launch of "just-tri.com" in early 2007! If you thought mySpace was cool, wait till you see what I have in development ;)
Tons of stuff happening throughout the remainder of the year and I'm frantically trying to keep on top of everything. Hang on to your hats folks, 2007 is gonna be a wild ride!
Cheers folks and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!
Tav.
www.gymskinz.com
The "OFF Season"
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The OFF SEASON
Category: Sports
So it's official – it's Fall. The leaves are falling, it's pitch black in the mornings and pitch black when you leave the office to head home. It's cold, it's windy, and that crap that keeps accumulating on your windows as you stare off into the distance is called RAIN – something that I haven't seen in ages, and I live in Vancouver for Gawd sakes. Swimming? Are you nuts?! Do you know how cold it is in there?! I'm not one for the polar bear swim training program so I'll stick to the hot-tub thank you very much. Biking? Where the hell IS my bike? I think I stuffed it back into the closet somewhere; cast away like some poor summer jacket that won't see the light of day until who knows when. The spokes on my ZIPPS are probably bent into oblivion now with junk piled up against them. And running? Better get used to the idea of putting in a LOT of mindless miles on the dreadmill, cuz the thought of running in constantly wet running shoes (even when rotating between 4 pairs of 'em) just doesn't seem appealing. Yup, it's the off-season - for ME at least.
Ok, so having said that - what the hell is the off-season anyway? When you're a triathlete, Ironman or beginner "sprint specialist" – is there even such a thing?. We aren't like hockey players where we get to hit the links and work on our putting skills, and I'm sure not lucky enough to be living in Phoenix or Miami where I can sit in the sun and sip fruity beverages with those little umbrellas. For many of us, I guess this is the time to work on all those things you couldn't work on when you were triaining 6 days a week and trying to pound out 5 hour rides and 20 mile runs – not *necessarily* in the same day. Some would argue it's time to work on core strength, flexibility, mental focus skills – all the things I haven't done a single bit of in the last 2 months since Ironman – and boy it sure feels FANTASTIC…. Well, in the "lazy-ass / where the hell did all of my fitness go" kind of way. Get on your bike trainer and work on that pedal stroke with those one-legged drills – you know you love em. I haven't ridden my bike more than once since Ironman, and that was only for about 35 minutes at the Peak Center's booth during the Royal Victoria Marathon's race expo while I was their guinea pig to demonstrate the Computrainer. Man my spin-scan sucked…I had so many flat-spots in my pedal stroke, It looked like I was cross-country skiing for crying out loud.
Speaking of the Peak Center, I made the mistake of getting my VO2 max and lactate threshold tests done last night – and not only did I suck the donkey, it made me realize just how much fitness you can lose when you sit on the couch and eat cream-puffs for 6 weeks. Don't try that at home folks, I am a seasoned professional at that. But seriously, when you don't use it, you definitely lose it so I trust all of you have some sort of "plan" to stay on track for an even better performance next year. Work on your flexibility while sitting in front of the TV. Get in the gym and do some core strength workouts – get re-acquainted with that dusty fitness ball that you have stuffed into the corner. If you're really brave, get in the pool and work on your swimming stroke. Get a lactate threshold / V02max test done to establish your baseline so you can train in your proper aerobic zone this winter and BUILD BUILD BUILD that aerobic base for next season. Speed sessions will come and you can "turn the hurt on" when you've got some races to do. No need to do that now unless you've got a race this winter – like the California marathon in December that we're doing. Am I in sub 3:30 shape right now? Probably not but I don't really care – I'm just going to have some fun. Hoz on the other hand is in sub 2:45 shape which is crazy… Comforting to know that he'll be done around 45 mins quicker than me. However I've heard that Slow is apparently the new Fast ;) So I'm all over that.
The off-season is a great time to recharge your batteries. Now that you aren't training 6 days a week (or maybe you still are you crazy nutbars living in California or other sunny parts of the world), you can catch up on all those things you couldn't do during the summer – like take a non-training holiday! I just got back from Chicago and it was one of the best weekends I've ever had – due completely to the efforts of Kathy whom I had the pleasure of hanging out with during the La Salle Bank / Chicago Marathon weekend. We checked out a Bulls game (they lost by 2 points), and then discovered that it is completely impossible to get a cab from the United Center after a sporting event- BIZARRE. We ended up going to some hole in the wall sports bar in the middle of butt-screw nowhere and waited over an hour and a half after calling the cab company – still no cab. The bartender felt sorry for us (actually, they had to go home as the place was closing) so he managed to get one of his workers drive us back into the downtown core… thank gawd. Somehow wandering around the skids of Chicago as a tourist is not a good idea.
Anyway, the marathon was great – I spent most of it running around chasing Kathy and trying to locate Larry – to no avail. However, besides running various bits of the course, managed to run with Kathy for the last 10km right up to the last turn where I peeled off and ended up running another 5km to circumnavigate all the barricades and police to get to the friends and family area. What a gong-show. And I thought Boston was nutty! In any case, so proud of Kathy for shaving about 20 minutes off her previous PB. Awesome – and she looked damn good doing it too ;)
If there's ONE thing you do before the end of the year, it is this – read Mitch Thrower's book – "The Attention Deficit Workplace – Winning Strategies for Success in Today's Fast Paced Business Environment". If you don't know who Mitch Thrower is, just think of the last time you registered for a race via Active.com. Yup, he's the founder of the "ticketmaster for participatory sports". Look him up on Google, you'll find that he's an amazing entrepreneur and 14 time ironman finisher (he also did Ironman Canada this year as well). I'll be down in LA in a couple weeks hanging with my pals Stella, Jen and Dara from the LA Tri Club at the club's year end bash, and I'm going to try and hook up with Mitch to bang some ideas around if he can spare his precious time. I've been emailing back and forth with him in the last couple days so I hope to connect with him at least on the phone while I'm down there – he's like the Bill Gates of multisports and definitely someone I'd like to learn from. Check out his myspace page on here, he's on my first page of friends using the ID of "Gatsby". Mitch, if you're reading this, I take no responsibility for any stalkers that may come your way and wish I could come to your Hallowe'en party ;)
So that's MY off-season so far. Lots of stuff happening with GymSkinZ so that's going to keep me buzzing along for the remainder of the year. Big plans coming down the pipe so I look forward to sharing it with you all when the time comes. Be sure to keep tuning into my podcast as I'll be updating it with the frivolity of our next couple races and trips (the Cali marathon and then Vegas – oh man, gonna be a gong-show for sure).
Hope everyone is enjoying their own version of their "off season" and feel free to drop me a note to let me know what YOU'RE up to!
Thanx for reading this and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!
Cheers,
Tav!
www.gymskinz.com
The OFF SEASON
Category: Sports
So it's official – it's Fall. The leaves are falling, it's pitch black in the mornings and pitch black when you leave the office to head home. It's cold, it's windy, and that crap that keeps accumulating on your windows as you stare off into the distance is called RAIN – something that I haven't seen in ages, and I live in Vancouver for Gawd sakes. Swimming? Are you nuts?! Do you know how cold it is in there?! I'm not one for the polar bear swim training program so I'll stick to the hot-tub thank you very much. Biking? Where the hell IS my bike? I think I stuffed it back into the closet somewhere; cast away like some poor summer jacket that won't see the light of day until who knows when. The spokes on my ZIPPS are probably bent into oblivion now with junk piled up against them. And running? Better get used to the idea of putting in a LOT of mindless miles on the dreadmill, cuz the thought of running in constantly wet running shoes (even when rotating between 4 pairs of 'em) just doesn't seem appealing. Yup, it's the off-season - for ME at least.
Ok, so having said that - what the hell is the off-season anyway? When you're a triathlete, Ironman or beginner "sprint specialist" – is there even such a thing?. We aren't like hockey players where we get to hit the links and work on our putting skills, and I'm sure not lucky enough to be living in Phoenix or Miami where I can sit in the sun and sip fruity beverages with those little umbrellas. For many of us, I guess this is the time to work on all those things you couldn't work on when you were triaining 6 days a week and trying to pound out 5 hour rides and 20 mile runs – not *necessarily* in the same day. Some would argue it's time to work on core strength, flexibility, mental focus skills – all the things I haven't done a single bit of in the last 2 months since Ironman – and boy it sure feels FANTASTIC…. Well, in the "lazy-ass / where the hell did all of my fitness go" kind of way. Get on your bike trainer and work on that pedal stroke with those one-legged drills – you know you love em. I haven't ridden my bike more than once since Ironman, and that was only for about 35 minutes at the Peak Center's booth during the Royal Victoria Marathon's race expo while I was their guinea pig to demonstrate the Computrainer. Man my spin-scan sucked…I had so many flat-spots in my pedal stroke, It looked like I was cross-country skiing for crying out loud.
Speaking of the Peak Center, I made the mistake of getting my VO2 max and lactate threshold tests done last night – and not only did I suck the donkey, it made me realize just how much fitness you can lose when you sit on the couch and eat cream-puffs for 6 weeks. Don't try that at home folks, I am a seasoned professional at that. But seriously, when you don't use it, you definitely lose it so I trust all of you have some sort of "plan" to stay on track for an even better performance next year. Work on your flexibility while sitting in front of the TV. Get in the gym and do some core strength workouts – get re-acquainted with that dusty fitness ball that you have stuffed into the corner. If you're really brave, get in the pool and work on your swimming stroke. Get a lactate threshold / V02max test done to establish your baseline so you can train in your proper aerobic zone this winter and BUILD BUILD BUILD that aerobic base for next season. Speed sessions will come and you can "turn the hurt on" when you've got some races to do. No need to do that now unless you've got a race this winter – like the California marathon in December that we're doing. Am I in sub 3:30 shape right now? Probably not but I don't really care – I'm just going to have some fun. Hoz on the other hand is in sub 2:45 shape which is crazy… Comforting to know that he'll be done around 45 mins quicker than me. However I've heard that Slow is apparently the new Fast ;) So I'm all over that.
The off-season is a great time to recharge your batteries. Now that you aren't training 6 days a week (or maybe you still are you crazy nutbars living in California or other sunny parts of the world), you can catch up on all those things you couldn't do during the summer – like take a non-training holiday! I just got back from Chicago and it was one of the best weekends I've ever had – due completely to the efforts of Kathy whom I had the pleasure of hanging out with during the La Salle Bank / Chicago Marathon weekend. We checked out a Bulls game (they lost by 2 points), and then discovered that it is completely impossible to get a cab from the United Center after a sporting event- BIZARRE. We ended up going to some hole in the wall sports bar in the middle of butt-screw nowhere and waited over an hour and a half after calling the cab company – still no cab. The bartender felt sorry for us (actually, they had to go home as the place was closing) so he managed to get one of his workers drive us back into the downtown core… thank gawd. Somehow wandering around the skids of Chicago as a tourist is not a good idea.
Anyway, the marathon was great – I spent most of it running around chasing Kathy and trying to locate Larry – to no avail. However, besides running various bits of the course, managed to run with Kathy for the last 10km right up to the last turn where I peeled off and ended up running another 5km to circumnavigate all the barricades and police to get to the friends and family area. What a gong-show. And I thought Boston was nutty! In any case, so proud of Kathy for shaving about 20 minutes off her previous PB. Awesome – and she looked damn good doing it too ;)
If there's ONE thing you do before the end of the year, it is this – read Mitch Thrower's book – "The Attention Deficit Workplace – Winning Strategies for Success in Today's Fast Paced Business Environment". If you don't know who Mitch Thrower is, just think of the last time you registered for a race via Active.com. Yup, he's the founder of the "ticketmaster for participatory sports". Look him up on Google, you'll find that he's an amazing entrepreneur and 14 time ironman finisher (he also did Ironman Canada this year as well). I'll be down in LA in a couple weeks hanging with my pals Stella, Jen and Dara from the LA Tri Club at the club's year end bash, and I'm going to try and hook up with Mitch to bang some ideas around if he can spare his precious time. I've been emailing back and forth with him in the last couple days so I hope to connect with him at least on the phone while I'm down there – he's like the Bill Gates of multisports and definitely someone I'd like to learn from. Check out his myspace page on here, he's on my first page of friends using the ID of "Gatsby". Mitch, if you're reading this, I take no responsibility for any stalkers that may come your way and wish I could come to your Hallowe'en party ;)
So that's MY off-season so far. Lots of stuff happening with GymSkinZ so that's going to keep me buzzing along for the remainder of the year. Big plans coming down the pipe so I look forward to sharing it with you all when the time comes. Be sure to keep tuning into my podcast as I'll be updating it with the frivolity of our next couple races and trips (the Cali marathon and then Vegas – oh man, gonna be a gong-show for sure).
Hope everyone is enjoying their own version of their "off season" and feel free to drop me a note to let me know what YOU'RE up to!
Thanx for reading this and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!
Cheers,
Tav!
www.gymskinz.com
Oh For Crying Out LOUD
Friday, October 13, 2006
Oh for CRYING OUT LOUD!
I JUST discovered that my podcast feed has been acting completely flaky as of late... To add insult to injury, my Ironman podcast episode from last month was only a PORTION of what I intended to post!
Anyway, I've re-uploaded the whole episode if any of you are so inclined to check out the FULL version of what I originally wanted to post.
My PodCast! & The Revised Ironman Episode:
You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI PodCast
Tons of stuff going on in the next couple months to finish off the year - Headin to Chicago for the marathon next week, then down to LA in November for the LA Triathlon Club's year end party, then Sacramento for the California marathon and then FINALLY blowing out the year in Vegas! Stay tuned!!!
cheers!
Tav.
Oh for CRYING OUT LOUD!
I JUST discovered that my podcast feed has been acting completely flaky as of late... To add insult to injury, my Ironman podcast episode from last month was only a PORTION of what I intended to post!
Anyway, I've re-uploaded the whole episode if any of you are so inclined to check out the FULL version of what I originally wanted to post.
My PodCast! & The Revised Ironman Episode:
You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI PodCast
Tons of stuff going on in the next couple months to finish off the year - Headin to Chicago for the marathon next week, then down to LA in November for the LA Triathlon Club's year end party, then Sacramento for the California marathon and then FINALLY blowing out the year in Vegas! Stay tuned!!!
cheers!
Tav.
Getting Antsy!
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Gettin Antsy....
Ok, so it's been ONE MONTH since Ironman already... holy shiznit time flies! I remember when I first contemplated doing Ironman Canada and I had 86 weeks before the race - that went by in a blink of an eye and it seemed like yesterday when I was saying to myself - I have so much bloody time to prepare, it'll be no problem! Of course, that was back in January of this year and before I knew it, there was 8.6 weeks left and I still hadn't figured out my swimming... If you ever want to have your perception of time completely skewed, start training for an Ironman!
Anyway, I've done a whole lot of fack all the last 3 weeks which is supposed to be a GOOD thing. It's the "transition" phase of training before starting the build for the next event, and in my case, I have 5 more races before the end of the year.. yes FIVE. Mind you, they are only 5, 8 and 10km running races, then a half marathon in November, and finally the California Marathon down in Sacramento followed immediately by a BLOW-OUT year end celebration in Vegas, so suffice to say it's going to be a complete gong-show fall & winter! All this will then roll into 2007 when my block 1 of Ironman 2007 training will begin and I have to get all serious again... or something like that.
After taking some time off, it's given me a chance to reflect on the past year and it's really nice having that feeling of accomplishing something other than "just making it through another year". Beating my "buoyancy problem", well, at least getting some control of it cuz I still sink like a brick, but overcoming my fear and lack of confidence for swimming in open water was HUGE for me - as much of a challenge as Ironman itself and the challenge was sure a LOT longer - like literally a whole year of utter frustration and disappointment. Now, I LOVE swimming despite the fact that I'm still slow as hell (76 year old sister Madonna Buder beat me out of the water by almost a minute - she's one of the gals you saw on the Ironman 2005 special last year.) In any case, that will change this coming year - I guarantee you ;) Regardless, the last 9 months have been pretty great and the completion of Ironman was a great way to end off the summer. Here's hoping to an equally as exciting and fun-filled 2007, and look forward to sharing the experience with all 'yalls
Having said that, although this is typically something saved for the end of the year, to date, here are my top 10 highlights of 2006 - and more to come I'm sure. Not necessarily in order of importance.
10> Starting GymSkinZ.com. What started as a mere "joke project on the side" because my training buddies and I had a couple funny sayings that I thought would be great on a t-shirt, my shirts have now been spotted all around the globe in over 30 countries and between my blog and podcast have had over 6,000 visits and downloads. Mostly because many of you have helped me spread the word - so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Tell your friends about GymSkinZ, and if they pick up a shirt and mention your name, you'll probably get an email from me asking for your shipping address cuz I'll send you a freebie! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!
9> Getting on MySpace (Thanks Tom) to market my company which in turn allowed me to re-connect with some great friends I haven't seen since high-school (Stella, Linda, Kellee) as well as introduced me to SO MANY other great people around the world (the list is way too long, but here's a few - Kathy, Dara, Jen, Paige, Sean, Michael, Scott, Liz, Sarah, Nathan, Lindsay, Amy, Dan, Becky, Robert, Perry, Corbin, (the list goes on and on and on) as well as EVERYONE else I correspond with via my group and ALL OF YOU other peeps I didn't mention that take time out of your busy lives to email me to say hello, or to comment on this blog or my "You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI" Triathlon PodCast. EVERYONE on here has been so great.
8> Getting a few races under my belt - like completing the Oliver Half-Iron despite completely panicking during the swim and coming out 6th last out of the water, then finishing 2nd overall in Squamish Triathlon Relay (obviously, I didn't do the swim ha ha) w/ Tara and Hoz, doing the Penticton Peach Classic and crashing on the ride, doing the run concussed. Then only a week after Ironman, doing the Vancouver Triathlon and placing 3rd in the men's relay division with Jeff and Hoz - two of the finest athletes I know.
7> Watching a few of my best buds do the Boston Marathon. Now if I could only shave about 20 minutes off my own time, maybe I'll get to run it myself... sheeez.... maybe when I'm 50.
6> The birth of one my best buddy's son - Way to go Jim! Uncle Tav will be getting baby Tai into the pool and on a bike as soon as possible
5> Having another one of my best buds - Dave Heel, singing Eye of the Tiger on my voicemail the day before Ironman, and then having him run with me out on the course during the race before I became completely crippled. He has been such a great friend and supporter along with folks like Hoz, Ron and Linda and the entire crew at Rackets and Runners and my run club - but none of them have ever serenaded me on the phone before. That's brotherly love ya'all.
4> The GymSkinz PubCrawls / Runs - coming to a city near you! and all the crazy weekend training trips or training camps I did. We sure got up to some nutty group outings which broke the monotony of training and made it fun the whole way. Even crazier stuff planned for 2007 as the Ironman participants crew has grown
3> Seeing the entire IronFan crew ALLLLL over the course supporting Tara, Larry, Harry, Mike and myself on race day - especially with Hoz and Ron in the wigs and getting emails from tons of people saying - "I remember the afro guys on the course!". Then, seeing ALL of my other friends (old and newfound friends during the race itself) cross that finish line - I couldn't be more proud of each of them. Sometimes I forget that *I* even did the race because so many elements of the journey to Ironman involved being with my friends and dragging them through the whole process even though they weren't racing at all - the race itself was just icing on the cake and I felt like I was doing it to thank them for all the support along the way. They made this whole process that much more enjoyable and it was amazing to share the experience with each and every one of them. The sendoff party the crew held for Larry, Tara, Harry, Mike and Me was just fantastic - just an amazing group of supporters this whole year (couple pics below and in the GymSkinZ Nation photo album). The IronFan crew will definitely be a force to reckon with in 2007 - who wants to join in on the fun?!
2> Running with my Dad down the home stretch at Ironman, and then seeing my Mom just before crossing the finish line. Out of the tens of thousands of people lining the course, even though she's a mere 4'11" and 95 pounds and I could probably put her in my back pocket, I saw and heard my Mom like she was the only one cheering... it was absolutely one of the best things I've ever felt having them both there to see me participate that day & something I will never ever forget.
1> I'm going to leave this one blank cuz I think there's still many more great things in store for the remainder of the year. Just wait till 2007
Lastly, don't forget to drop by the GymSkinZ Nation group and read the latest bulletin for my October Free Shwag Promo!!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Tav.
www.GymSkinZ.com
Gettin Antsy....
Ok, so it's been ONE MONTH since Ironman already... holy shiznit time flies! I remember when I first contemplated doing Ironman Canada and I had 86 weeks before the race - that went by in a blink of an eye and it seemed like yesterday when I was saying to myself - I have so much bloody time to prepare, it'll be no problem! Of course, that was back in January of this year and before I knew it, there was 8.6 weeks left and I still hadn't figured out my swimming... If you ever want to have your perception of time completely skewed, start training for an Ironman!
Anyway, I've done a whole lot of fack all the last 3 weeks which is supposed to be a GOOD thing. It's the "transition" phase of training before starting the build for the next event, and in my case, I have 5 more races before the end of the year.. yes FIVE. Mind you, they are only 5, 8 and 10km running races, then a half marathon in November, and finally the California Marathon down in Sacramento followed immediately by a BLOW-OUT year end celebration in Vegas, so suffice to say it's going to be a complete gong-show fall & winter! All this will then roll into 2007 when my block 1 of Ironman 2007 training will begin and I have to get all serious again... or something like that.
After taking some time off, it's given me a chance to reflect on the past year and it's really nice having that feeling of accomplishing something other than "just making it through another year". Beating my "buoyancy problem", well, at least getting some control of it cuz I still sink like a brick, but overcoming my fear and lack of confidence for swimming in open water was HUGE for me - as much of a challenge as Ironman itself and the challenge was sure a LOT longer - like literally a whole year of utter frustration and disappointment. Now, I LOVE swimming despite the fact that I'm still slow as hell (76 year old sister Madonna Buder beat me out of the water by almost a minute - she's one of the gals you saw on the Ironman 2005 special last year.) In any case, that will change this coming year - I guarantee you ;) Regardless, the last 9 months have been pretty great and the completion of Ironman was a great way to end off the summer. Here's hoping to an equally as exciting and fun-filled 2007, and look forward to sharing the experience with all 'yalls
Having said that, although this is typically something saved for the end of the year, to date, here are my top 10 highlights of 2006 - and more to come I'm sure. Not necessarily in order of importance.
10> Starting GymSkinZ.com. What started as a mere "joke project on the side" because my training buddies and I had a couple funny sayings that I thought would be great on a t-shirt, my shirts have now been spotted all around the globe in over 30 countries and between my blog and podcast have had over 6,000 visits and downloads. Mostly because many of you have helped me spread the word - so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Tell your friends about GymSkinZ, and if they pick up a shirt and mention your name, you'll probably get an email from me asking for your shipping address cuz I'll send you a freebie! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!
9> Getting on MySpace (Thanks Tom) to market my company which in turn allowed me to re-connect with some great friends I haven't seen since high-school (Stella, Linda, Kellee) as well as introduced me to SO MANY other great people around the world (the list is way too long, but here's a few - Kathy, Dara, Jen, Paige, Sean, Michael, Scott, Liz, Sarah, Nathan, Lindsay, Amy, Dan, Becky, Robert, Perry, Corbin, (the list goes on and on and on) as well as EVERYONE else I correspond with via my group and ALL OF YOU other peeps I didn't mention that take time out of your busy lives to email me to say hello, or to comment on this blog or my "You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI" Triathlon PodCast. EVERYONE on here has been so great.
8> Getting a few races under my belt - like completing the Oliver Half-Iron despite completely panicking during the swim and coming out 6th last out of the water, then finishing 2nd overall in Squamish Triathlon Relay (obviously, I didn't do the swim ha ha) w/ Tara and Hoz, doing the Penticton Peach Classic and crashing on the ride, doing the run concussed. Then only a week after Ironman, doing the Vancouver Triathlon and placing 3rd in the men's relay division with Jeff and Hoz - two of the finest athletes I know.
7> Watching a few of my best buds do the Boston Marathon. Now if I could only shave about 20 minutes off my own time, maybe I'll get to run it myself... sheeez.... maybe when I'm 50.
6> The birth of one my best buddy's son - Way to go Jim! Uncle Tav will be getting baby Tai into the pool and on a bike as soon as possible
5> Having another one of my best buds - Dave Heel, singing Eye of the Tiger on my voicemail the day before Ironman, and then having him run with me out on the course during the race before I became completely crippled. He has been such a great friend and supporter along with folks like Hoz, Ron and Linda and the entire crew at Rackets and Runners and my run club - but none of them have ever serenaded me on the phone before. That's brotherly love ya'all.
4> The GymSkinz PubCrawls / Runs - coming to a city near you! and all the crazy weekend training trips or training camps I did. We sure got up to some nutty group outings which broke the monotony of training and made it fun the whole way. Even crazier stuff planned for 2007 as the Ironman participants crew has grown
3> Seeing the entire IronFan crew ALLLLL over the course supporting Tara, Larry, Harry, Mike and myself on race day - especially with Hoz and Ron in the wigs and getting emails from tons of people saying - "I remember the afro guys on the course!". Then, seeing ALL of my other friends (old and newfound friends during the race itself) cross that finish line - I couldn't be more proud of each of them. Sometimes I forget that *I* even did the race because so many elements of the journey to Ironman involved being with my friends and dragging them through the whole process even though they weren't racing at all - the race itself was just icing on the cake and I felt like I was doing it to thank them for all the support along the way. They made this whole process that much more enjoyable and it was amazing to share the experience with each and every one of them. The sendoff party the crew held for Larry, Tara, Harry, Mike and Me was just fantastic - just an amazing group of supporters this whole year (couple pics below and in the GymSkinZ Nation photo album). The IronFan crew will definitely be a force to reckon with in 2007 - who wants to join in on the fun?!
2> Running with my Dad down the home stretch at Ironman, and then seeing my Mom just before crossing the finish line. Out of the tens of thousands of people lining the course, even though she's a mere 4'11" and 95 pounds and I could probably put her in my back pocket, I saw and heard my Mom like she was the only one cheering... it was absolutely one of the best things I've ever felt having them both there to see me participate that day & something I will never ever forget.
1> I'm going to leave this one blank cuz I think there's still many more great things in store for the remainder of the year. Just wait till 2007
Lastly, don't forget to drop by the GymSkinZ Nation group and read the latest bulletin for my October Free Shwag Promo!!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Tav.
www.GymSkinZ.com
GymSkinZ Triathlon Apparel Newsletter - September 2006
Official GymSkinZ Newsletter - September issue
Vol. 3 - September 12, 2006
In This Issue:
September Newsletter !
Ironman Canada 2006 !
Dri-Fit / Technical Fiber Series !
Quality Control !
New Designs !
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. September Newsletter !
Welcome to another installment of the GymSkinZ Inc. official newsletter! If you are receiving this, it means you sent me your contact info via my website so thank you for dropping by!
The last 6 months were a complete and utter circus act while getting prepared to race at Ironman Canada. However, now that it's FINALLY over, I can focus on continuing to build GymSkinZ and riding the momentum from this summer into the fall. The off-season will bring many big changes and I want to thank everyone for their great support and patience over the last 6 months as I struggled to get this little project off the ground - and it's still just hovering a few inches off the ground as far as I'm concerned. Now that I think about it, GymSkinZ is already 6 months old?!? In that blink of an eye, I've got my gear in over 25 different countries, and I'm closing in on my 1000th shirt sold! Like I said, big things are in the works, so hang on for the ride ;)
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Ironman Canada 2006 !
So the whole reason I started this little t-shirt thing was to "celebrate" the fun of being a weekend-warrior triathlete. I am fortunate enough to train and associate with some of the coolest and fun people you could ever meet, so our antics inspired many - if not all - of my GymSkinZ designs.
The road to Ironman Canada was a looong and somewhat painful one, but after completing the race a couple weeks ago, albeit BARELY, I can look back and say it was one of THE MOST AMAZING and life-altering experiences I've ever had. In that long journey to the proverbial finish line, I met so many great people along the way and can not express how proud I am of my fellow "Iron-People" for their accomplishment. I'd like to acknowledge the following friends and fellow athletes whom I had the pleasure of training / dog-paddling / panicking / encouraging / corresponding / supporting / laughing / racing / crawling / puking / finishing & celebrating with over the past year: In no particular order of importance : Hoz, Ron, Tara, Harry, DH, Larry, Matthew, Jenny, Sheryl, Shannon, Linda, Lara, Kristina, Charles, Michelle, Heather, all the Mikes, Johns & and Daves, Anita, Dominque, Patty, Jordan, Anthony, Lucy, Lis, Dean, Steve, Kathie, Bill, Michaella, Gerry, Ben, Kev, Jenny, Stella, Jen, Dara, Kathy, my Mom & Dad and family, all the mySpacers and PodCast Subscribers, customers, and ALL other friends - old and new, that made this crazy adventure so amazing, and so much FUN! The journey continues as we have many other races slated throughout the next year - GymSkinZ takes this travelling circus act on the road to Chicago in October, the California marathon in December, and we'll blow out the year down in Vegas right after. God knows what may happen next year in L.A., and perhaps even Austin?!? In any case, all roads will lead to the 25th Anniversary of Ironman Canada next August 2007 when Ron, Matthew, Tara, Larry, Harry and I (along with a few more of the crew) plan for another round of punishment.
For my full 2006 Ironman Canada race report and podcast from last week, please visit the following link - enjoy! and speaking of podcasts, check out PodFitness. Have personalized training plans and audio coaching right on your iPod! Visit PodFitness today!
Link: http://blog.myspace.com/gymskinz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Dri-Fit / Technical Fiber Series !
The new and improved GymSkinZ Performance line of technical tops are finally in! These are my own custom design and are made from "Chitosante Interlock" dri-fit material - like butta! They are also designed in a separate mens and ladies fit. A few selected GymSkinZ designs will be released using these tops in the next couple week in addition to the two-tone unisex versions I have in production. Stay tuned!
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com/techfiber.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Quality Control !
I am still using the services of Cafepress to produce most of my designs so most of you are receiving your items direct from them. I don't actually get to see or touch the product before you get it, so please let me know if you have any shipping or sizing issues or anything else about your purchasing experience. All purchases are backed by a 30day 100% money-back guarantee so if you need a different size or the shirt wasn't what you expected and you'd like to exchange it for another style, I (and cafepress) will be glad to resolve the problem!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. New Designs !
TONS of new designs are in the works! Now that Ironman is over, I have a little more time to devote to my little t-shirt biz so please stay tuned! Just drop by the news section on my site often, or browse the catalog for any new updates. With the upcoming offseason, there will be a few designs in honour of "getting lazy while sitting on the couch", as well as the release of my NerdSkinZ line which have absolutely nothing to do with sports, but are still just as hillarious ;)
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com/news.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AGAIN, thank you EVERYONE for your continued support and helping spread the word about GymSkinZ!
Take care and catch up with you soon!
Tav.
www.gymskinz.com
Vol. 3 - September 12, 2006
In This Issue:
September Newsletter !
Ironman Canada 2006 !
Dri-Fit / Technical Fiber Series !
Quality Control !
New Designs !
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. September Newsletter !
Welcome to another installment of the GymSkinZ Inc. official newsletter! If you are receiving this, it means you sent me your contact info via my website so thank you for dropping by!
The last 6 months were a complete and utter circus act while getting prepared to race at Ironman Canada. However, now that it's FINALLY over, I can focus on continuing to build GymSkinZ and riding the momentum from this summer into the fall. The off-season will bring many big changes and I want to thank everyone for their great support and patience over the last 6 months as I struggled to get this little project off the ground - and it's still just hovering a few inches off the ground as far as I'm concerned. Now that I think about it, GymSkinZ is already 6 months old?!? In that blink of an eye, I've got my gear in over 25 different countries, and I'm closing in on my 1000th shirt sold! Like I said, big things are in the works, so hang on for the ride ;)
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Ironman Canada 2006 !
So the whole reason I started this little t-shirt thing was to "celebrate" the fun of being a weekend-warrior triathlete. I am fortunate enough to train and associate with some of the coolest and fun people you could ever meet, so our antics inspired many - if not all - of my GymSkinZ designs.
The road to Ironman Canada was a looong and somewhat painful one, but after completing the race a couple weeks ago, albeit BARELY, I can look back and say it was one of THE MOST AMAZING and life-altering experiences I've ever had. In that long journey to the proverbial finish line, I met so many great people along the way and can not express how proud I am of my fellow "Iron-People" for their accomplishment. I'd like to acknowledge the following friends and fellow athletes whom I had the pleasure of training / dog-paddling / panicking / encouraging / corresponding / supporting / laughing / racing / crawling / puking / finishing & celebrating with over the past year: In no particular order of importance : Hoz, Ron, Tara, Harry, DH, Larry, Matthew, Jenny, Sheryl, Shannon, Linda, Lara, Kristina, Charles, Michelle, Heather, all the Mikes, Johns & and Daves, Anita, Dominque, Patty, Jordan, Anthony, Lucy, Lis, Dean, Steve, Kathie, Bill, Michaella, Gerry, Ben, Kev, Jenny, Stella, Jen, Dara, Kathy, my Mom & Dad and family, all the mySpacers and PodCast Subscribers, customers, and ALL other friends - old and new, that made this crazy adventure so amazing, and so much FUN! The journey continues as we have many other races slated throughout the next year - GymSkinZ takes this travelling circus act on the road to Chicago in October, the California marathon in December, and we'll blow out the year down in Vegas right after. God knows what may happen next year in L.A., and perhaps even Austin?!? In any case, all roads will lead to the 25th Anniversary of Ironman Canada next August 2007 when Ron, Matthew, Tara, Larry, Harry and I (along with a few more of the crew) plan for another round of punishment.
For my full 2006 Ironman Canada race report and podcast from last week, please visit the following link - enjoy! and speaking of podcasts, check out PodFitness. Have personalized training plans and audio coaching right on your iPod! Visit PodFitness today!
Link: http://blog.myspace.com/gymskinz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Dri-Fit / Technical Fiber Series !
The new and improved GymSkinZ Performance line of technical tops are finally in! These are my own custom design and are made from "Chitosante Interlock" dri-fit material - like butta! They are also designed in a separate mens and ladies fit. A few selected GymSkinZ designs will be released using these tops in the next couple week in addition to the two-tone unisex versions I have in production. Stay tuned!
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com/techfiber.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Quality Control !
I am still using the services of Cafepress to produce most of my designs so most of you are receiving your items direct from them. I don't actually get to see or touch the product before you get it, so please let me know if you have any shipping or sizing issues or anything else about your purchasing experience. All purchases are backed by a 30day 100% money-back guarantee so if you need a different size or the shirt wasn't what you expected and you'd like to exchange it for another style, I (and cafepress) will be glad to resolve the problem!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. New Designs !
TONS of new designs are in the works! Now that Ironman is over, I have a little more time to devote to my little t-shirt biz so please stay tuned! Just drop by the news section on my site often, or browse the catalog for any new updates. With the upcoming offseason, there will be a few designs in honour of "getting lazy while sitting on the couch", as well as the release of my NerdSkinZ line which have absolutely nothing to do with sports, but are still just as hillarious ;)
Link: http://www.gymskinz.com/news.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AGAIN, thank you EVERYONE for your continued support and helping spread the word about GymSkinZ!
Take care and catch up with you soon!
Tav.
www.gymskinz.com
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Funny Triathlon T-Shirt Designs by www.gymskinz.com !
Funny Triathlon T-Shirts have invaded the often oh-so-serious world of Multisports! Welcome to the official blog of GymSkinz Corp. - the home of hillarious Triathlon T-Shirts relating to triathlon, multisports and LIFE! In our Blog and GymSkinZ Podcast - "You Don't Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI!", you'll find all sorts of information and news (some useful, some not so useful ;) regarding multisports, the triathlon lifestyle, funny stories, our crazy gag t-shirts and of course stuff about me - Tavis - the guy that started GymSkinZ!
What is GymSkinZ? Our mandate is to simply put some fun (back) into the typically monotonous and often gruelling act of training for triathlons, marathons, or whatever it is you do to get you off your ass and outside to play!
We'll also use this as a way to update people on the PLETHORA of new designs we'll be releasing, featured designs, exciting corporate developments and everything else under the sun.
Get it? Have fun out there folks and look forward to catching up with you soon!
Tav
Ironman Canada 2006
drop me a note anytime!
tav@gymskinz.com
My Odeo Channel (odeo/72ebee326496c445)
What is GymSkinZ? Our mandate is to simply put some fun (back) into the typically monotonous and often gruelling act of training for triathlons, marathons, or whatever it is you do to get you off your ass and outside to play!
We'll also use this as a way to update people on the PLETHORA of new designs we'll be releasing, featured designs, exciting corporate developments and everything else under the sun.
Get it? Have fun out there folks and look forward to catching up with you soon!
Tav
Ironman Canada 2006
drop me a note anytime!
tav@gymskinz.com
My Odeo Channel (odeo/72ebee326496c445)
Sunday, September 10, 2006
GymSkinZ Ironman Canada Race Report
GymSkinZ.com Ironman Podcast - You Dont Have To Win, You Just Have To TRI
Tavis Yeung, You... Are...An... Ironman!
There are two types of endurance athletes.... those who have bonked, and those who are going to.
Ok folks, with slight apprehension and almost a feeling of embarassment, I present to you my OFFICIAL Ironman Canada blog entry, one week after the horrific event otherwise known as my first Ironman.
I was hoping to include a pic of me staggering across the finish line, but of course they haven't posted the pics yet so just imagine a real dejected, sweaty, and tired asian dude crossing a finish line in the dark, with barely enough strength to break the tape held up by a couple of 12 year olds....
So for those who have alread listened to my Ironman podcast, this won't be much different. For those who haven't, and are looking for a good laugh and a way to kill 40 minutes, check it out here.
So Saturday August 26th, 2006 - The night before the "big day". You could almost feel the nervousness in the air, the anxiety, the panic, the je ne sais quoi that permeated the atmosphere throughout the city. However the pre-race jitters weren't that apparent amongst our camp, consisting of Harry "The Princess" Woo, Tara "There's no Crying in Ironman" Gill, Mike "This is my 7th Ironman and I just did Ironman Germany 5 weeks before" Shaw, and myself - "can't think of an appropriate tag-line right now". We had a nice casual dinner with the entire IRONFAN support crew, over 20 strong with all family members, groupies, children, etc etc. My parents made the trek to watch us race which was awesome, considering the last time they saw me undertake any athletic endeavor was probably over 20 years ago when I played my last tennis match as a junior for Canada Games qualifying - I told them and my coaches that if I didn't win Gold that day, I was going to quit tennis... So I won Silver, and quit....planned? maybe...
Anyway, we all said our "good lucks, get a good rest, and don't forget to freeze your Carbo-pro" well wishes and off to our respective hotels we went. Thankfully, I was staying at the Ramada in downtown Penticton which was about 5 minutes from the chaos of the race start, and where we had dinner. If there is one thing I can suggest to anyone doing Ironman Canada, BOOK YOUR HOTEL EARLY, I'm talking a YEAR in advance. The first thing you should do after you get your registration form, is wander to the nearest hotel in sight and book a room - no joke (hear me Stella? Jen? Dara?)
Up in my room, it literally looked like war-torn Iraq. Transition bags, wet-suits, bikes, wheels, paperwork, water-bottles, everything you can imagine strewn all over the place. If you can imagine Wal-Mart being hit by a scud missile, this was it. It was about 7:30pm and I still had to prepare all my "race-fuel" for the next days event. From the moment I cracked that first water-bottle, I think my fate was sealed right then and there....
So I dunno about all of you long-course triathletes out there, but you should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS race using the fuel / drink mixture / gels / food that you train with - simple right? Having said that, I started my home-made chemistry experiment and started preparing my usual concoction of grape Cytomax, Carbo-Pro and emptied e-Load capsules into 6 water bottles. Typical of what I'd consume for any of my long 5 hour plus rides. Basically one bottle an hour, carefully measured, just under 500 calories per bottle and about 200grams of carbs - perfect for my body composition and tweaked to perfection based on my summer of training. Everybody has different requirements, so please keep that in mind if you are reading this and saying "what the f?!". Anyway, by the end of ordeal, I had all my bike fuel, and run fuel prepared and loaded into the freezer... almost 12 bottles of custom prepared stuff in varying sizes and configurations plus a half a dozen Boosts which would be loaded onto my bike, into my special needs bags, and consumed while standing around in the morning.... all good, and I was set for a good night sleep..... yah right.
Sunday, August 27th - 4:00am - Thanx to the Husqvarna chain-saw that was sawing logs in my room throughout the night - also known as Harry "the Princess" Woo. I had one of my crappier sleeps that I can recall. I actually have another hillarious story about the Royal Victoria Marathon last year where Hoz and I were also unfortunate enough to share the same room but I'll save that for another day. Anyway, so the alarm goes off at 4am, I fall out of bed certain that I've slept in and somehow convinced that my bike was stolen. It was apparently a beautiful morning, well as beautiful as it can get when you're up at 4am and its pitch black, but according to the TV, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was going to be in the mid 30's Celsius, or 90's F - toasty... First order of business, application of as much Body-Glide to the nether-regions as humanly possible. I swear I slathered on enough in my tri-shorts that if I wasn't careful coming out of the water heading into T1, I'd fly right out of my shorts and give the wet-suit strippers the scare of their lives. Speaking of Body-Glide: Tav's tri-tip - roll your socks inside out, and liberally apply Body-Glide to the insides of your socks (or even your tri-shorts if you're changing). Once you've done that, flip them back the right way, and then roll them up like a condom and leave them in your runners so when you gotta stick your wet feet into them, it's basically like... well, rolling on a condom and you'll also be sufficiently lubricated... ahem.... haven't had a blister on any marathons / races since.
4:30am - Ok, so I'm all lubed up, and ready to eat something - anything, bark-mulch, the nearest plant, whatever was in sight. Thankfully, didn't have to resort to being a neanderthal and I prepared a gourmet pre-race breakfast - scrambled eggs, an ice cold Boost and a bagel with peanut butter. All of which I would normally eat before a long training day or race. Go with what you know and your queasy stomach shouldn't be anymore queasy than necessary. I felt really good at this point... psyched and ready to tackle the task at hand - of course I really had no idea what I was in for, but I wsa psyched nonetheless. Having done various olympic tri's and marathons, how much different could it be? (queue ominous music)
5:30am - After about a 5 minute drive and walk, we were approaching the buzz of the race start-area. Hundreds of volunteers setting up bleachers, music was already playing, the announcer was on the PA directing athletes, the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon - a beautiful sight really. Not to mention a couple thousand bright-eyed athletes ready to rock - for the most part. En route to bodymarking, ran into tons of other friends competing and was nice to bid our final farewells before the race start. After getting inked up with the ole Jiffy Marker by two volunteers (one of them even hand-wrote my number in a really cool digital like font), #888 was off to transition.
6:00am - As I walked down the rows of thousands upon thousands of bikes, I noticed in the first couple rows were the pros' bikes - folks like Lisa Bentley, Belinda Grainger, Jasper Blake, all the really FAST folks. Just awesome. Of course, walking to where MY bike was, on the far END of transition was a little humbling, but then I had to remind myself that I WAS afterall #888 and there were a LOT of athletes - just cuz I was waaaaaay back in the corner by the porta-potties didn't necessarily mean anything... ;)
6:15am - Already?!?!.... An hour had gone by in the blink of an eye, you could sense people starting to get a little tense as they frantically looked to borrow bike pumps and find water because they forgot to fill their aero-bottles (Tav's tip #2, remember to bring water to put in your aero-bottle!)
I met a nice fella who came all the way from Ireland who was racked beside me, his first Ironman as well, and of course he needed water. I gave him half of mine and wished him luck - told him not to pants me during the run if he recognized me on the way in. Was good for a chuckle. I passed him about 5 hours into the ride and never saw him again... but at least he had a smile on his face.
6:30am - time to get into our wetsuits and gather near the start. All I could remember was almost a years worth of counting down was now down to a mere 30 minutes. Wow...
6:45am - Neoprene clad and gathered with Harry, Mike and Tara, we stood amongst the crowd, got a final pic taken, and headed towards the swim start. The grass along the way was FREEEEEZING. We crossed the timing mats to register our chip and confirm we were in fact going to start the race, and the high-pitched squelching rang through the morning air. By the time I got to the sand at the water's edge, my feet were completely numb - but I didn't care, so was the rest of my body. It was truly amazing standing there looking in every direction and seeing nothing but THOUSANDS of athletes, and THOUSANDS of spectators. It was just AWESOME. Just standing there and taking it all in gave me that tingly feeling down my neck and it was really something I wish I could describe. After watching the last 4 Ironman Canada races, it was TOTALLY different being a participant vs. being a spectator. As a spectator, you have that feeling of nervousness and awe for the friends that you're supporting, and even for the other athletes when you see them shedding tears as they hug their loved ones before the race start - it was SO emotional seeing that the last 4 years and now I was on the other side of the fence.
6:50 - the bagpipes started playing and we were just 10 minutes away from GO-time.....We waded into the water, a bunch of us that trained together managed to find each other amongst the chaos. There was Harry, Tara, John, Dominique, Lisa, Corey, Haley, myself, all first-timers and it was great spending those last few minutes together before the race start. We also searched around for our IronFan supporters. Took us a while to spot them since there were thousands upon thousands of people up along the shore but we saw Ron who took off his red IronFan shirt that I made up for the crew and held it up so we could see the print "IronFan - Spectating isn't as Easy As it Looks!" He was waving it around like a madman. When we started waving in that direction, he started waving more frantically to acknowledge the crew saw us. That's when I really started getting emotional - it was so awesome having some of my closest friends and parents up in Penticton that day. Tara, Harry and I gave our last group hug and wished each other the best race day of our lives - we did the training, did the suffering, and this was just the icing on the cake. Luckily I had my goggles on cuz I was getting weepy.
7:00am - BOOOOOM, the starting canon known as "Maranatha" goes off. Holy shiznit, we've started... About 2,400 athletes dive into the lake, and I go with them. Although we were almost on the faaaar left side of the pack, we were forward enough in the crowd so it was in a nut-shell - ViOLENT. Sheeez, I was really hoping to swim alongside Tara and Harry for a bit but within 10 strokes, I had climbed over a couple people, kicked at least two more and got elbowed a half-dozen times. If you've never experienced a mass-start swim with a couple thousand people, it is something else! Now it know what my laundry feels like! I have no idea how long it took before I had my own space to actually *swim* in, but it seemed like an eternity. In all of the olympic races I've done, there was nobody around within a couple minutes (mainly attributed to the fact I waited to go in near the back and everyone was faster than me anyway), but it was a loooooooooooong time before I actually had some space to get into any sort of a rhythm. I spent a LOT of time kicking weirdly just for the sake of self-defense when people kept hitting my legs or trying to climb over me - GO AROUND people... sheeez. Anyway, the swim felt really good and despite the gong-show, I was surprisingly relaxed and didn't let the chaos rattle me at all. That was KEY. I just took it easy the whole way - especially until the first turn - 1,700 meters away and kinda zoned out, the race isn't won in the swim folks, use it as a warm-up. I probably swam an extra 500 meters that day as I was allll over the course like a sewing machine, along with all the other idiots I was following / drafting off of. I went to sight a couple times and I swear we were headed 45 degrees in the opposite direction of where we needed to go. (Tav's Tri tip #3 - practice swimming straight and sighting, DO NOT depend on others to sight for you). In most of my training swims, I swam with Tara and the gang, and they swim nice and straight so it was great cuz I would just swim alongside them. Definitely didn't work during the race since there was just SOOOO many people all going in slightly different directions... chaos really - but from where I was a year ago in terms of my swimming ability (where I could barely make it 100 meters), it was a great day for a leisurely swim with 2,400 friends ;)
8:35am - Well whaddya know?, I made it! 1 hour 35 mins when I hit the timing mat. Not too bad, but I wanted to be on my bike MOVING by 1 hour 30. No big deal, I felt good, didn't expend a lot of energy on the swim at all and was ready to get on my bike and hammer... or so I thought. (queue ominous music yet again)
8:40am - I fly outta transition after a quick T1 (the volunteer even said - "great transition" since he was the one that handed me my bag). Luckily all that body glide didn't allow my shorts to fly off when the wet-suit strippers yanked my wet-suit off! As I mounted my bike, I was amongst the HORDES of other racers and crazy cheering of the crowds that lined Main street - was definitely pumped! Downed an Enervit Gel and a Boost, and I was flying down Main. Pulled out my voice recorder and got a little snippet in - luckily didn't crash in the process! ;)
So my bike is typically my "weapon", I've done that course almost 5 times this summer and had a couple excursions in the 5hour 45minute mark. However, the plan started to unravel REALLY early on when my left hammy started cramping unexpectedly within 20 minutes of the ride. WHAT THE FFFFF??!?!?! I was PISSED! All sorts of things started going through my mind, all negative and it wasn't good. These are the times you have to compose yourself, deal with what's going on and react accordingly. Unfortunately, my first reaction was to think of how to get more sodium into my body in order to battle the cramps early. When I got to the first aid station about 10 miles into the race, I dumped ALL my carbo-pro / cytomax and replaced all my bottles with Gatorade... Why? Cuz I'm a total moron that's why. I sucked down that bottle of Gatorade like nobody's business and prayed that my cramping would subside - miraculously, it actually DID. So, I naturally thought - Gatorade is good, more Gatorade! That was basically the beginning of the end of my race. STICK TO YOUR RACE PLAN, adjust in SMALL amounts if need be, don't do a wholesale change like I did.
About an hour into the ride, I finally caught up to Tara who exited the water about 8 minutes before me. I patted her on the ass in honour of Hozumi as I passed her cuz I'm sure he wouldn't mind, and wished her a good race. The cramps were manageable now, I would get that occasional "twinge" every now and then if I tried to push it, so if anything, it kept me from blowing up early in the race. My heart rate was averaging about 145 bpm which is 20 beats lower then my race pace - so that was REALLY frustrating. Doing 18mp/h instead of 23mp/h was totally unnerving for me as I wanted to hammer off the ride of my life, but what can ya do - it simply wasn't my day.
All along the way, I made a point of saying hello to as many friends as I could, as well as people from the LA Tri Club (recorded that a couple times too). To note, although I exited the water roughly 2,150th out of 2,400 people. I managed to pass almost 800 people during the bike leg and I wasn't having a very good ride - and managed to pass a mere 97 during the run and I WALKED most of it. Moral of the story is, save yourself during the swim, and reel them in during the bike ride because people will suffer to shave 5 or 10 minutes off their swim, only to pay a dear price later on in the race - EVERYBODY walks during Ironman.
So at the end of the ride, I was 6:09 for the 112 miles with both transitions... crappy as far as I'm concerned, but still mid pack in terms of ranking so not that bad I guess. The crowd support along the course was phenomenal, I saw Team IronFan numerous times and it always gave me that little boost to see a familiar crowd / or face. Crappy time, but amazing experience.
As I was riding in, I saw Mike on his way out on the run course, he's a kickass swimmer and was done the swim in an hour - almost 35 minutes faster than me... sheeeez.... Anyway, gave him the hang-loose as I flew by and was about to hang-on for dear life when I started the run. I think I mentioned during the podcast I was going to be in for an 8 hour marathon, but I didn't think I was being serious when I said it.... (more ominous music)
At this point, I was 7 hours and 44mins into the race, about half an hour off my projection but that's ok. I figured I was good for a 12 hour 15 minute finish time if I could somehow pull off a 4:30 marathon. I'm a 3:30 marathoner so I figured an hour extra would have been plenty! That would equate to a pace that was almost 1 minute 30 seconds per mile slower and that was my zone1 EASY training pace where I felt I could run for days. Well, things went TOTALLY SIDEWAYS during my marathon. Since I had completely screwed myself in terms of nutrition during the bike and threw my nutrition plan out the window, the consequences were VERY apparent during the initial stages of the run. I was SO bloated on Gatorade that by the time I hit the run course (I took in almost 9 bottles of Gatorade during the ride and didn't pee once - basically 1.5 bottles an hour), my eyeballs were SWIMMING. I started out the run doing a 10 minute mile for the first 2 miles to get my legs moving and had no cramping which was good. I recorded a little bit when I first exited the transition but I was so delirious and/or drunk on Gatorade I didn't say too much. I saw a bunch of friends heading out in the same group which was great so I offered my best wishes and carried on (all of them kicked my ass on the swim). Just as I was heading out of downtown, I ran into my good buddy Dave Heel and his girlfriend Sandi which was just awesome. He ran with me for a bit and told me how proud he was - thanx Dave. Things like that really make the pain and suffering worth while when you see your buds out there cheering you on - that was a memorable moment and we did a couple high-fives before I carried on. After that point, the light started to gradually dim... slowly at first and then it was like the Sandman jumped out from behind the grassy knoll and mugged, no.. bludgeoned me with an sledgehammer. I got to mile 6 feeling like I had been run over by an 18 wheeler.. the same one that drove into the ditch and took along half of Ron's car with it during the weekend's "incident" during Ron and Hoz's training ride (listen to podcast)... sheeesh. I was bonking, and bonking HARD. 9:30 miles diminished to 10.. then 11... then a walk. I heard Steve King announcing as I was dragging along and managed to muster enough strength to run through that aid station to put on a good show, but that ended pretty quick. I started getting dizzy, and then the cold-sweats started. My fingers started cramping and tingling and it felt like a cloak of death was being wrapped around me. I limped to mile 8 completely demolished, totally nauseous and had to find a nice quiet place behind the medical tent to sit down and proceeded to wretch my guts out for almost half an hour. NOT FUN. Like my preliminary race report mentioned, I came within a hair of pulling out of the race right there because I was F*CKED - it probably looked like I had cerebral palsey considering some of the crazy body and facial contortions I was doing while at that aid station. I couldn't take in anything without yakking, I was totally cross eyed and every muscle in my body was in a state of seizure. I had to basically sit absolutely still for almost half an hour and all I could do was suck on ice-cubes to pass the time. Looking at my watch, I was just getting more and more angry as the seconds ticked away. Just when I was about to pack it in and hitch a ride back to town in the next ambulance that drove by - cuz there was a LOT of them picking up the carnage off the course, John Duffield from the North Shore Tri Club shuffled by. He was literally my saviour as I told him what was happening and he offered up some TUMS. I knocked a few of those back and it settled my stomach enough to at least stand up and walk on. That was about the gist of my marathon, a walk, jog for 5 minutes, walk for 10 more. Everybody was walk/jogging at this point. My stomach wasn't doing backflips anymore, but I sure felt like hell. I had no power at all and it was taking all my concentration to just put one foot in front of the other. After what seemed like an eternity - 3 hours as a matter of fact, I got to mile 13.1 - the half-way turnaround.. Yes, after THREE FREAKING HOURS. I went through my special needs bag, and all I took out was a wet-face cloth, and a fruit-to-go bar. I thought I could at least stomach that, but nope.... went to the washroom facility at the half-way, stuck my head in the stainless steel sink and yakked up what was left in my gut. lovely I tell ya. So now, I had just done the last 13 miles on barely any fuel, and had to do another 13 more without the ability to take in any food... it was going to be a long day back... dammit.... as I dragged my ass up the first incline after the turnaround, there was Ron, Matthew, Hoz, Shannon and a bunch of other IronFans. I stopped and yapped with them for about 5 minutes to share my horrible day thus far. Ron even recorded it without me knowing since I was so delirious. After what I thought was going to be my last farewell before I died on that course, I told them to have a nice life and divide my worldly posessions as they wished. I came upon another friend, Bill Weymark who was shuffling along. Stuck with him and another great guy from Miami - Mark. We said we'd make it together and it would be death before DNF. Mark gave me a couple pepto-bismol tablets after I told him about my yakking episode and I figured it couldn't hurt. Besides, if I hurled those, it would only be two little pills anyway so why the hell not. I sucked those down with the cup of water I had been carrying for the last God knows how long and started to think - I might actually make it, just 12 more miles to go.
We started rounding up more and more people as we crawled along Skaha Lake - it looked like a death march from some bad horror movie where the entire town has risen from the dead. I mean literally EVERYONE was walking. People that were coming OUT were even walking and they were still 5 miles to get to where I was standing. I saw Tara coming out with her Dad riding beside her. I gave her a hug and told her she was looking great and I'd see her at the finish line. I also saw Lisa Hall, Larry Billings, Lucy Ryan, I hugged all of them - we all laughed, and said how shitty we felt but I was so proud of all of them - we were ALL doing it and they were well within the cutoff if they just kept moving. DON'T EVER STOP - KEEP YOUR ASS MOVING. I made the mistake of sitting down (granted I had to puke) and it was nearly the end of me. We passed Anthony Epp, another friend who was part of Team Cops for Cancer , he was walking with another gal from Oregon. All along the way, we made new friends and shared stories of our day - if only for a few minutes before one of us started going again - or at least tried.
Mark and I started picking up the pace by mile 17, we started picking targets to run to - the next telephone pole, the next concrete median, that tree....see that crack in the road? how bout where those fans are sitting.... I feel good, let's keep going.... let's pick off that person, catch up to them... keep moving buddy... we're gonna make it....it was awesome and I thank Mark for that stretch of "brotherly suffering" as we headed back into town. I lost him at about mile 19 as something came over me where I could actually start RUNNNG again. I thanked him and said I'll be there at the finish when he comes across... I downed a sip of Coke and ice-water at each aid station that I came to, just a mouthful, but it was enough to keep me going. Mile 20, it's getting dark, but I'm feeling human again... come on Tav, pick up those feet. There's Mike!! Chased him down and told him to get goin' with me - nothing left so I'd see him at the finish...
The crowds at this point were starting to thicken again as we approached downtown Penticton. Likely all these people were waiting for their friends and family still out on the course as the majority of others were already down the home stretch lining the finish line - including the IronFan crew. Mile 22, I'm gonna make it! I really started to pick up the pace... I glanced at my watch and I was doing 8:30 miles... some quick mathematizing and I figured I could salvage 13hours 30 mins if I could hold this pace - although a full 1.5 hours longer than what I wanted to do.. you never know what Ironman is going to hand you on race day.
Mile 24... 2 miles to go and I feel like a rockstar.... people are screaming, you can just FEEL the energy draw you closer to the finish - it was just UNBELIEVABLE. At this point, EVERYTHING was numb.. my body, my mind, my lips, my eyeballs, my family jewels... oh wait a sec, those were numb 5 hours ago........ It was like running on air, nothing really "hurt" - well, in hindsight EVERY PART of me hurt but I didn't want those thousands of people to see the pain.... Mile 25, my Dad ran out out of the crowd in that oh-so-familiar red IronFan shirt - that was probably the biggest highlight of the day for me and I'll remember that for the rest of my life. Me and my Dad running along as he patted me on the back and congratulated me - "Congratulations Tavis, you did it!" He also mentioned Harry was just around the corner so I thanked him, and I dropped the hammer - it might have been a Tonka Toy plastic hammer - but I dropped it. If you ever have the misfortune of training with us, we use the term "drop the hammer" more often than I'd like to admit... sometimes you have nothing left in the "colloquial toolbelt" except a pencil and maybe a screwdriver when you're really spent, but I'm certain these were hammers I was dropping. As I turned onto Lakeshore Blvd, and headed out to the final turnaround at the SS Sicamous, Hozumi ran out and cruised along with me for a bit - he yelled a few words of encouragement over the crowd-noise which I can't even remember now, and all I could say was "I'm chasing Harry down". I saw Harry coming back on the out-and back, he was with Terence, his eldest son and a crowd of supporters walking along with him. I don't think he noticed when I ran by, but I was giving it everything I had - and I mean EVERYTHING. I made that turnaround and knew I was less than 500 meters from the finish.... people screaming, music blaring, metal halide lights turning the night into day... just go to the light Tav.. go to the light! I blew by Harry with about 400 meters to go and yelled at him to come with me..."Let's go buddy, we're right there!!". Now, he had Timothy his youngest son alongside as well as Terence. I wanted to drag them ALL in, but he was done - and I knew that if he wouldn't even try running the remaining 400 meters, he was REALLY done. There was the IronFan Crew.... all of them.. screaming as I high-fived them all as I passed by. There was my Mom...my aunt... hanging over the fence as they tried to take pics while I sprinted by.... 50 meters to go... I'm on the carpet... holy shit it's bright along here.. and LOUD...... just a little more... hold up that fnishers tape dammit cuz here I come...
13 hours, 27 minutes, 47 secs.
"Tavis Yeung, you... are... an Ironman!"
Tavis Yeung, You... Are...An... Ironman!
There are two types of endurance athletes.... those who have bonked, and those who are going to.
Ok folks, with slight apprehension and almost a feeling of embarassment, I present to you my OFFICIAL Ironman Canada blog entry, one week after the horrific event otherwise known as my first Ironman.
I was hoping to include a pic of me staggering across the finish line, but of course they haven't posted the pics yet so just imagine a real dejected, sweaty, and tired asian dude crossing a finish line in the dark, with barely enough strength to break the tape held up by a couple of 12 year olds....
So for those who have alread listened to my Ironman podcast, this won't be much different. For those who haven't, and are looking for a good laugh and a way to kill 40 minutes, check it out here.
So Saturday August 26th, 2006 - The night before the "big day". You could almost feel the nervousness in the air, the anxiety, the panic, the je ne sais quoi that permeated the atmosphere throughout the city. However the pre-race jitters weren't that apparent amongst our camp, consisting of Harry "The Princess" Woo, Tara "There's no Crying in Ironman" Gill, Mike "This is my 7th Ironman and I just did Ironman Germany 5 weeks before" Shaw, and myself - "can't think of an appropriate tag-line right now". We had a nice casual dinner with the entire IRONFAN support crew, over 20 strong with all family members, groupies, children, etc etc. My parents made the trek to watch us race which was awesome, considering the last time they saw me undertake any athletic endeavor was probably over 20 years ago when I played my last tennis match as a junior for Canada Games qualifying - I told them and my coaches that if I didn't win Gold that day, I was going to quit tennis... So I won Silver, and quit....planned? maybe...
Anyway, we all said our "good lucks, get a good rest, and don't forget to freeze your Carbo-pro" well wishes and off to our respective hotels we went. Thankfully, I was staying at the Ramada in downtown Penticton which was about 5 minutes from the chaos of the race start, and where we had dinner. If there is one thing I can suggest to anyone doing Ironman Canada, BOOK YOUR HOTEL EARLY, I'm talking a YEAR in advance. The first thing you should do after you get your registration form, is wander to the nearest hotel in sight and book a room - no joke (hear me Stella? Jen? Dara?)
Up in my room, it literally looked like war-torn Iraq. Transition bags, wet-suits, bikes, wheels, paperwork, water-bottles, everything you can imagine strewn all over the place. If you can imagine Wal-Mart being hit by a scud missile, this was it. It was about 7:30pm and I still had to prepare all my "race-fuel" for the next days event. From the moment I cracked that first water-bottle, I think my fate was sealed right then and there....
So I dunno about all of you long-course triathletes out there, but you should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS race using the fuel / drink mixture / gels / food that you train with - simple right? Having said that, I started my home-made chemistry experiment and started preparing my usual concoction of grape Cytomax, Carbo-Pro and emptied e-Load capsules into 6 water bottles. Typical of what I'd consume for any of my long 5 hour plus rides. Basically one bottle an hour, carefully measured, just under 500 calories per bottle and about 200grams of carbs - perfect for my body composition and tweaked to perfection based on my summer of training. Everybody has different requirements, so please keep that in mind if you are reading this and saying "what the f?!". Anyway, by the end of ordeal, I had all my bike fuel, and run fuel prepared and loaded into the freezer... almost 12 bottles of custom prepared stuff in varying sizes and configurations plus a half a dozen Boosts which would be loaded onto my bike, into my special needs bags, and consumed while standing around in the morning.... all good, and I was set for a good night sleep..... yah right.
Sunday, August 27th - 4:00am - Thanx to the Husqvarna chain-saw that was sawing logs in my room throughout the night - also known as Harry "the Princess" Woo. I had one of my crappier sleeps that I can recall. I actually have another hillarious story about the Royal Victoria Marathon last year where Hoz and I were also unfortunate enough to share the same room but I'll save that for another day. Anyway, so the alarm goes off at 4am, I fall out of bed certain that I've slept in and somehow convinced that my bike was stolen. It was apparently a beautiful morning, well as beautiful as it can get when you're up at 4am and its pitch black, but according to the TV, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was going to be in the mid 30's Celsius, or 90's F - toasty... First order of business, application of as much Body-Glide to the nether-regions as humanly possible. I swear I slathered on enough in my tri-shorts that if I wasn't careful coming out of the water heading into T1, I'd fly right out of my shorts and give the wet-suit strippers the scare of their lives. Speaking of Body-Glide: Tav's tri-tip - roll your socks inside out, and liberally apply Body-Glide to the insides of your socks (or even your tri-shorts if you're changing). Once you've done that, flip them back the right way, and then roll them up like a condom and leave them in your runners so when you gotta stick your wet feet into them, it's basically like... well, rolling on a condom and you'll also be sufficiently lubricated... ahem.... haven't had a blister on any marathons / races since.
4:30am - Ok, so I'm all lubed up, and ready to eat something - anything, bark-mulch, the nearest plant, whatever was in sight. Thankfully, didn't have to resort to being a neanderthal and I prepared a gourmet pre-race breakfast - scrambled eggs, an ice cold Boost and a bagel with peanut butter. All of which I would normally eat before a long training day or race. Go with what you know and your queasy stomach shouldn't be anymore queasy than necessary. I felt really good at this point... psyched and ready to tackle the task at hand - of course I really had no idea what I was in for, but I wsa psyched nonetheless. Having done various olympic tri's and marathons, how much different could it be? (queue ominous music)
5:30am - After about a 5 minute drive and walk, we were approaching the buzz of the race start-area. Hundreds of volunteers setting up bleachers, music was already playing, the announcer was on the PA directing athletes, the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon - a beautiful sight really. Not to mention a couple thousand bright-eyed athletes ready to rock - for the most part. En route to bodymarking, ran into tons of other friends competing and was nice to bid our final farewells before the race start. After getting inked up with the ole Jiffy Marker by two volunteers (one of them even hand-wrote my number in a really cool digital like font), #888 was off to transition.
6:00am - As I walked down the rows of thousands upon thousands of bikes, I noticed in the first couple rows were the pros' bikes - folks like Lisa Bentley, Belinda Grainger, Jasper Blake, all the really FAST folks. Just awesome. Of course, walking to where MY bike was, on the far END of transition was a little humbling, but then I had to remind myself that I WAS afterall #888 and there were a LOT of athletes - just cuz I was waaaaaay back in the corner by the porta-potties didn't necessarily mean anything... ;)
6:15am - Already?!?!.... An hour had gone by in the blink of an eye, you could sense people starting to get a little tense as they frantically looked to borrow bike pumps and find water because they forgot to fill their aero-bottles (Tav's tip #2, remember to bring water to put in your aero-bottle!)
I met a nice fella who came all the way from Ireland who was racked beside me, his first Ironman as well, and of course he needed water. I gave him half of mine and wished him luck - told him not to pants me during the run if he recognized me on the way in. Was good for a chuckle. I passed him about 5 hours into the ride and never saw him again... but at least he had a smile on his face.
6:30am - time to get into our wetsuits and gather near the start. All I could remember was almost a years worth of counting down was now down to a mere 30 minutes. Wow...
6:45am - Neoprene clad and gathered with Harry, Mike and Tara, we stood amongst the crowd, got a final pic taken, and headed towards the swim start. The grass along the way was FREEEEEZING. We crossed the timing mats to register our chip and confirm we were in fact going to start the race, and the high-pitched squelching rang through the morning air. By the time I got to the sand at the water's edge, my feet were completely numb - but I didn't care, so was the rest of my body. It was truly amazing standing there looking in every direction and seeing nothing but THOUSANDS of athletes, and THOUSANDS of spectators. It was just AWESOME. Just standing there and taking it all in gave me that tingly feeling down my neck and it was really something I wish I could describe. After watching the last 4 Ironman Canada races, it was TOTALLY different being a participant vs. being a spectator. As a spectator, you have that feeling of nervousness and awe for the friends that you're supporting, and even for the other athletes when you see them shedding tears as they hug their loved ones before the race start - it was SO emotional seeing that the last 4 years and now I was on the other side of the fence.
6:50 - the bagpipes started playing and we were just 10 minutes away from GO-time.....We waded into the water, a bunch of us that trained together managed to find each other amongst the chaos. There was Harry, Tara, John, Dominique, Lisa, Corey, Haley, myself, all first-timers and it was great spending those last few minutes together before the race start. We also searched around for our IronFan supporters. Took us a while to spot them since there were thousands upon thousands of people up along the shore but we saw Ron who took off his red IronFan shirt that I made up for the crew and held it up so we could see the print "IronFan - Spectating isn't as Easy As it Looks!" He was waving it around like a madman. When we started waving in that direction, he started waving more frantically to acknowledge the crew saw us. That's when I really started getting emotional - it was so awesome having some of my closest friends and parents up in Penticton that day. Tara, Harry and I gave our last group hug and wished each other the best race day of our lives - we did the training, did the suffering, and this was just the icing on the cake. Luckily I had my goggles on cuz I was getting weepy.
7:00am - BOOOOOM, the starting canon known as "Maranatha" goes off. Holy shiznit, we've started... About 2,400 athletes dive into the lake, and I go with them. Although we were almost on the faaaar left side of the pack, we were forward enough in the crowd so it was in a nut-shell - ViOLENT. Sheeez, I was really hoping to swim alongside Tara and Harry for a bit but within 10 strokes, I had climbed over a couple people, kicked at least two more and got elbowed a half-dozen times. If you've never experienced a mass-start swim with a couple thousand people, it is something else! Now it know what my laundry feels like! I have no idea how long it took before I had my own space to actually *swim* in, but it seemed like an eternity. In all of the olympic races I've done, there was nobody around within a couple minutes (mainly attributed to the fact I waited to go in near the back and everyone was faster than me anyway), but it was a loooooooooooong time before I actually had some space to get into any sort of a rhythm. I spent a LOT of time kicking weirdly just for the sake of self-defense when people kept hitting my legs or trying to climb over me - GO AROUND people... sheeez. Anyway, the swim felt really good and despite the gong-show, I was surprisingly relaxed and didn't let the chaos rattle me at all. That was KEY. I just took it easy the whole way - especially until the first turn - 1,700 meters away and kinda zoned out, the race isn't won in the swim folks, use it as a warm-up. I probably swam an extra 500 meters that day as I was allll over the course like a sewing machine, along with all the other idiots I was following / drafting off of. I went to sight a couple times and I swear we were headed 45 degrees in the opposite direction of where we needed to go. (Tav's Tri tip #3 - practice swimming straight and sighting, DO NOT depend on others to sight for you). In most of my training swims, I swam with Tara and the gang, and they swim nice and straight so it was great cuz I would just swim alongside them. Definitely didn't work during the race since there was just SOOOO many people all going in slightly different directions... chaos really - but from where I was a year ago in terms of my swimming ability (where I could barely make it 100 meters), it was a great day for a leisurely swim with 2,400 friends ;)
8:35am - Well whaddya know?, I made it! 1 hour 35 mins when I hit the timing mat. Not too bad, but I wanted to be on my bike MOVING by 1 hour 30. No big deal, I felt good, didn't expend a lot of energy on the swim at all and was ready to get on my bike and hammer... or so I thought. (queue ominous music yet again)
8:40am - I fly outta transition after a quick T1 (the volunteer even said - "great transition" since he was the one that handed me my bag). Luckily all that body glide didn't allow my shorts to fly off when the wet-suit strippers yanked my wet-suit off! As I mounted my bike, I was amongst the HORDES of other racers and crazy cheering of the crowds that lined Main street - was definitely pumped! Downed an Enervit Gel and a Boost, and I was flying down Main. Pulled out my voice recorder and got a little snippet in - luckily didn't crash in the process! ;)
So my bike is typically my "weapon", I've done that course almost 5 times this summer and had a couple excursions in the 5hour 45minute mark. However, the plan started to unravel REALLY early on when my left hammy started cramping unexpectedly within 20 minutes of the ride. WHAT THE FFFFF??!?!?! I was PISSED! All sorts of things started going through my mind, all negative and it wasn't good. These are the times you have to compose yourself, deal with what's going on and react accordingly. Unfortunately, my first reaction was to think of how to get more sodium into my body in order to battle the cramps early. When I got to the first aid station about 10 miles into the race, I dumped ALL my carbo-pro / cytomax and replaced all my bottles with Gatorade... Why? Cuz I'm a total moron that's why. I sucked down that bottle of Gatorade like nobody's business and prayed that my cramping would subside - miraculously, it actually DID. So, I naturally thought - Gatorade is good, more Gatorade! That was basically the beginning of the end of my race. STICK TO YOUR RACE PLAN, adjust in SMALL amounts if need be, don't do a wholesale change like I did.
About an hour into the ride, I finally caught up to Tara who exited the water about 8 minutes before me. I patted her on the ass in honour of Hozumi as I passed her cuz I'm sure he wouldn't mind, and wished her a good race. The cramps were manageable now, I would get that occasional "twinge" every now and then if I tried to push it, so if anything, it kept me from blowing up early in the race. My heart rate was averaging about 145 bpm which is 20 beats lower then my race pace - so that was REALLY frustrating. Doing 18mp/h instead of 23mp/h was totally unnerving for me as I wanted to hammer off the ride of my life, but what can ya do - it simply wasn't my day.
All along the way, I made a point of saying hello to as many friends as I could, as well as people from the LA Tri Club (recorded that a couple times too). To note, although I exited the water roughly 2,150th out of 2,400 people. I managed to pass almost 800 people during the bike leg and I wasn't having a very good ride - and managed to pass a mere 97 during the run and I WALKED most of it. Moral of the story is, save yourself during the swim, and reel them in during the bike ride because people will suffer to shave 5 or 10 minutes off their swim, only to pay a dear price later on in the race - EVERYBODY walks during Ironman.
So at the end of the ride, I was 6:09 for the 112 miles with both transitions... crappy as far as I'm concerned, but still mid pack in terms of ranking so not that bad I guess. The crowd support along the course was phenomenal, I saw Team IronFan numerous times and it always gave me that little boost to see a familiar crowd / or face. Crappy time, but amazing experience.
As I was riding in, I saw Mike on his way out on the run course, he's a kickass swimmer and was done the swim in an hour - almost 35 minutes faster than me... sheeeez.... Anyway, gave him the hang-loose as I flew by and was about to hang-on for dear life when I started the run. I think I mentioned during the podcast I was going to be in for an 8 hour marathon, but I didn't think I was being serious when I said it.... (more ominous music)
At this point, I was 7 hours and 44mins into the race, about half an hour off my projection but that's ok. I figured I was good for a 12 hour 15 minute finish time if I could somehow pull off a 4:30 marathon. I'm a 3:30 marathoner so I figured an hour extra would have been plenty! That would equate to a pace that was almost 1 minute 30 seconds per mile slower and that was my zone1 EASY training pace where I felt I could run for days. Well, things went TOTALLY SIDEWAYS during my marathon. Since I had completely screwed myself in terms of nutrition during the bike and threw my nutrition plan out the window, the consequences were VERY apparent during the initial stages of the run. I was SO bloated on Gatorade that by the time I hit the run course (I took in almost 9 bottles of Gatorade during the ride and didn't pee once - basically 1.5 bottles an hour), my eyeballs were SWIMMING. I started out the run doing a 10 minute mile for the first 2 miles to get my legs moving and had no cramping which was good. I recorded a little bit when I first exited the transition but I was so delirious and/or drunk on Gatorade I didn't say too much. I saw a bunch of friends heading out in the same group which was great so I offered my best wishes and carried on (all of them kicked my ass on the swim). Just as I was heading out of downtown, I ran into my good buddy Dave Heel and his girlfriend Sandi which was just awesome. He ran with me for a bit and told me how proud he was - thanx Dave. Things like that really make the pain and suffering worth while when you see your buds out there cheering you on - that was a memorable moment and we did a couple high-fives before I carried on. After that point, the light started to gradually dim... slowly at first and then it was like the Sandman jumped out from behind the grassy knoll and mugged, no.. bludgeoned me with an sledgehammer. I got to mile 6 feeling like I had been run over by an 18 wheeler.. the same one that drove into the ditch and took along half of Ron's car with it during the weekend's "incident" during Ron and Hoz's training ride (listen to podcast)... sheeesh. I was bonking, and bonking HARD. 9:30 miles diminished to 10.. then 11... then a walk. I heard Steve King announcing as I was dragging along and managed to muster enough strength to run through that aid station to put on a good show, but that ended pretty quick. I started getting dizzy, and then the cold-sweats started. My fingers started cramping and tingling and it felt like a cloak of death was being wrapped around me. I limped to mile 8 completely demolished, totally nauseous and had to find a nice quiet place behind the medical tent to sit down and proceeded to wretch my guts out for almost half an hour. NOT FUN. Like my preliminary race report mentioned, I came within a hair of pulling out of the race right there because I was F*CKED - it probably looked like I had cerebral palsey considering some of the crazy body and facial contortions I was doing while at that aid station. I couldn't take in anything without yakking, I was totally cross eyed and every muscle in my body was in a state of seizure. I had to basically sit absolutely still for almost half an hour and all I could do was suck on ice-cubes to pass the time. Looking at my watch, I was just getting more and more angry as the seconds ticked away. Just when I was about to pack it in and hitch a ride back to town in the next ambulance that drove by - cuz there was a LOT of them picking up the carnage off the course, John Duffield from the North Shore Tri Club shuffled by. He was literally my saviour as I told him what was happening and he offered up some TUMS. I knocked a few of those back and it settled my stomach enough to at least stand up and walk on. That was about the gist of my marathon, a walk, jog for 5 minutes, walk for 10 more. Everybody was walk/jogging at this point. My stomach wasn't doing backflips anymore, but I sure felt like hell. I had no power at all and it was taking all my concentration to just put one foot in front of the other. After what seemed like an eternity - 3 hours as a matter of fact, I got to mile 13.1 - the half-way turnaround.. Yes, after THREE FREAKING HOURS. I went through my special needs bag, and all I took out was a wet-face cloth, and a fruit-to-go bar. I thought I could at least stomach that, but nope.... went to the washroom facility at the half-way, stuck my head in the stainless steel sink and yakked up what was left in my gut. lovely I tell ya. So now, I had just done the last 13 miles on barely any fuel, and had to do another 13 more without the ability to take in any food... it was going to be a long day back... dammit.... as I dragged my ass up the first incline after the turnaround, there was Ron, Matthew, Hoz, Shannon and a bunch of other IronFans. I stopped and yapped with them for about 5 minutes to share my horrible day thus far. Ron even recorded it without me knowing since I was so delirious. After what I thought was going to be my last farewell before I died on that course, I told them to have a nice life and divide my worldly posessions as they wished. I came upon another friend, Bill Weymark who was shuffling along. Stuck with him and another great guy from Miami - Mark. We said we'd make it together and it would be death before DNF. Mark gave me a couple pepto-bismol tablets after I told him about my yakking episode and I figured it couldn't hurt. Besides, if I hurled those, it would only be two little pills anyway so why the hell not. I sucked those down with the cup of water I had been carrying for the last God knows how long and started to think - I might actually make it, just 12 more miles to go.
We started rounding up more and more people as we crawled along Skaha Lake - it looked like a death march from some bad horror movie where the entire town has risen from the dead. I mean literally EVERYONE was walking. People that were coming OUT were even walking and they were still 5 miles to get to where I was standing. I saw Tara coming out with her Dad riding beside her. I gave her a hug and told her she was looking great and I'd see her at the finish line. I also saw Lisa Hall, Larry Billings, Lucy Ryan, I hugged all of them - we all laughed, and said how shitty we felt but I was so proud of all of them - we were ALL doing it and they were well within the cutoff if they just kept moving. DON'T EVER STOP - KEEP YOUR ASS MOVING. I made the mistake of sitting down (granted I had to puke) and it was nearly the end of me. We passed Anthony Epp, another friend who was part of Team Cops for Cancer , he was walking with another gal from Oregon. All along the way, we made new friends and shared stories of our day - if only for a few minutes before one of us started going again - or at least tried.
Mark and I started picking up the pace by mile 17, we started picking targets to run to - the next telephone pole, the next concrete median, that tree....see that crack in the road? how bout where those fans are sitting.... I feel good, let's keep going.... let's pick off that person, catch up to them... keep moving buddy... we're gonna make it....it was awesome and I thank Mark for that stretch of "brotherly suffering" as we headed back into town. I lost him at about mile 19 as something came over me where I could actually start RUNNNG again. I thanked him and said I'll be there at the finish when he comes across... I downed a sip of Coke and ice-water at each aid station that I came to, just a mouthful, but it was enough to keep me going. Mile 20, it's getting dark, but I'm feeling human again... come on Tav, pick up those feet. There's Mike!! Chased him down and told him to get goin' with me - nothing left so I'd see him at the finish...
The crowds at this point were starting to thicken again as we approached downtown Penticton. Likely all these people were waiting for their friends and family still out on the course as the majority of others were already down the home stretch lining the finish line - including the IronFan crew. Mile 22, I'm gonna make it! I really started to pick up the pace... I glanced at my watch and I was doing 8:30 miles... some quick mathematizing and I figured I could salvage 13hours 30 mins if I could hold this pace - although a full 1.5 hours longer than what I wanted to do.. you never know what Ironman is going to hand you on race day.
Mile 24... 2 miles to go and I feel like a rockstar.... people are screaming, you can just FEEL the energy draw you closer to the finish - it was just UNBELIEVABLE. At this point, EVERYTHING was numb.. my body, my mind, my lips, my eyeballs, my family jewels... oh wait a sec, those were numb 5 hours ago........ It was like running on air, nothing really "hurt" - well, in hindsight EVERY PART of me hurt but I didn't want those thousands of people to see the pain.... Mile 25, my Dad ran out out of the crowd in that oh-so-familiar red IronFan shirt - that was probably the biggest highlight of the day for me and I'll remember that for the rest of my life. Me and my Dad running along as he patted me on the back and congratulated me - "Congratulations Tavis, you did it!" He also mentioned Harry was just around the corner so I thanked him, and I dropped the hammer - it might have been a Tonka Toy plastic hammer - but I dropped it. If you ever have the misfortune of training with us, we use the term "drop the hammer" more often than I'd like to admit... sometimes you have nothing left in the "colloquial toolbelt" except a pencil and maybe a screwdriver when you're really spent, but I'm certain these were hammers I was dropping. As I turned onto Lakeshore Blvd, and headed out to the final turnaround at the SS Sicamous, Hozumi ran out and cruised along with me for a bit - he yelled a few words of encouragement over the crowd-noise which I can't even remember now, and all I could say was "I'm chasing Harry down". I saw Harry coming back on the out-and back, he was with Terence, his eldest son and a crowd of supporters walking along with him. I don't think he noticed when I ran by, but I was giving it everything I had - and I mean EVERYTHING. I made that turnaround and knew I was less than 500 meters from the finish.... people screaming, music blaring, metal halide lights turning the night into day... just go to the light Tav.. go to the light! I blew by Harry with about 400 meters to go and yelled at him to come with me..."Let's go buddy, we're right there!!". Now, he had Timothy his youngest son alongside as well as Terence. I wanted to drag them ALL in, but he was done - and I knew that if he wouldn't even try running the remaining 400 meters, he was REALLY done. There was the IronFan Crew.... all of them.. screaming as I high-fived them all as I passed by. There was my Mom...my aunt... hanging over the fence as they tried to take pics while I sprinted by.... 50 meters to go... I'm on the carpet... holy shit it's bright along here.. and LOUD...... just a little more... hold up that fnishers tape dammit cuz here I come...
13 hours, 27 minutes, 47 secs.
"Tavis Yeung, you... are... an Ironman!"
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
GymSkinZ Inspirational Post - Tribute to Ironman Canada
gymskinz.com
GymSkinZ Triathlon / Multisports PodCast
GymSkinZ Triathlon / Multisports PodCast
Time for the questions
Right now you've all entered the taper. Perhaps you've been at this a few
months, perhaps you've been at this a few years. For some of you this is
your first IM, for others, a long-overdue welcome back to a race that few
can match.
You've been following your schedule to the letter. You've been piling on
the mileage, piling up the laundry, and getting a set of tan lines that will
take until November to erase. Long rides were followed by long runs, which both were preceded by long swims, all of which were followed by recovery naps that were longer than you slept for any given night during college.
You ran in the snow.
You rode in the rain.
You ran in the heat.
You ran in the cold.
You went out when others stayed home.
You rode the trainer when others pulled the covers over their heads.
You have survived the Darwinian progression that is an Ironman summer, and now the hardest days are behind you. Like a climber in the Tour de France coming over the summit of the penultimate climb on an alpine stage, you've already covered so much ground...there's just one more climb to go. You shift up, you take a drink, you zip up the jersey; the descent lays before you...and it will be a fast one.
Time that used to be filled with never-ending work will now be filling with
silent muscles, taking their final, well-earned rest. While this taper is
something your body desperately needs, Your mind, cast off to the background for so very long, will start to speak to you.
It won't be pretty.
It will bring up thoughts of doubt, pain, hunger, thirst, failure, and loss.
It will give you reasons why you aren't ready. It will try and make one
last stand to stop you, because your brain doesn't know what the body
already does. Your body knows the truth:
You are ready.
Your brain won't believe it. It will use the taper to convince you that
this is foolish - that there is too much that can go wrong.
You are ready.
Finishing an Ironman is never an accident. It's the result of dedication,
focus, hard work, and belief that all the long runs in January, long rides
in April, and long swims every damn weekend will be worth it.
It comes from getting on the bike, day in, day out.
It comes from long, solo runs. From that first long run where you wondered, "How will I ever be ready?" to the last long run where you smiled to yourself with one mile to go...knowing that you'd found the answer.
It is worth it. Now that you're at the taper, you know it will be worth it.
The workload becomes less. The body winds up and prepares, and you just need to quiet your worried mind. Not easy, but you can do it.
You are ready.
You will walk into the lagoon on August 27th with 2200 other wide-open sets of eyes. You will look upon the sea of humanity, and know that you belong. You'll feel the chill of the water crawl into your wetsuit, and shiver like everyone else, but smile because the day you have waited for, for so VERY long is finally here.
The bagpipers will walk across the beach. Steve King will ask you to sing
along. You will.
You will tear up in your goggles. Everyone does.
The helicopters will roar overhead.
The splashing will surround you.
The starting horn will go off...
You'll stop thinking about Ironman, because you're now racing one.
The swim will be long - it's long for everyone, but you'll make it. You'll
watch as the Penticton Lakeside Hotel grows and grows, and soon you'll hear the end. You'll come up the beach and head for the wetsuit strippers.
Three people will get that sucker off before you know what's happening, then you'll head for the bike.
In the shadows on Main Street you'll spin out of town - the voices, the
cowbells, and the curb-to-curb chalk giving you a hero's sendoff. You won't wipe the smile off your face for miles as you whisk along the lakeside, past fully stocked, silent aid stations for the run to come.
You'll spin up McLean Creak Road. You'll roll down towards Osoyoos, past the vineyards glowing in the morning sun. You'll settle down to your race. The crowds will spread out on the road. You'll soon be on your bike, eating your food on your schedule, controlling your Ironman.
Richter Pass will come. Everyone talks about it, but it's really nothing.
You'll know this halfway up, as you're breathing easy and climbing smoothly. Look to your right. Look how high you're climbing. Look at all the bikes below, still making their way there. You're ahead of them. All of them. You'll climb over Richter, and descend to the valley below. You'll ride the rollers, one at a time. You'll start to feel that morning sun turn to
afternoon sun. It's warmer now. Maybe it's hot. Maybe you're not feeling
so good now. You'll keep riding. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep moving.
After all, this is just a long training day with valet parking and catering,
right?
You'll put the rollers behind you. You'll head into the Cawston out and
back. You'll put on your game face, fighting the urge to feel down as you
ride the wrong way for what seems like hours. 10 miles in, you reach
special needs, fuel up, and head out.
By now it'll be hot. You'll be tired. Doubts will fight for your focus.
Everyone struggles here. You've been on that bike for a few hours, and
stopping would be nice, but you won't - not here. Not today. You'll ride
on leaving Cawston behind you and head for the final showdown at Yellow
Lake.
You'll grind the false flats to the climb. You'll know you're almost there.
You'll fight for every inch of road. You'll make the turn towards the
summit as the valley walls close in for the kill, and put your head down.
The crowd will come back to you here - the cars are always waiting to cross the summit, and you'll soon be surrounded in the glorious noise that is the final climb of Ironman Canada. Let their energy push you. Let them see
your eyes. Smile when they cheer for you
- your body will get just that little bit lighter.
Grind.
Fight.
Suffer.
Persevere.
Summit.
Just like that, you'll be descending. 12 miles to go, and no climbing left.
You'll plunge down the road, swooping from corner to corner, chaining
together the turns, tucking on the straights, letting your legs recover for
the run to come - soon! You'll roll back into town - you'll see people
running out. You'll think to yourself, "Wasn't I just here?" The noise
will grow. The chalk dust will hang in the air - you're back in Penticton,
with only 26.2 miles to go. You'll relax a little bit, knowing that even if
you get a flat tire or something breaks here, you can run the damn bike into
T2.
You'll roll into transition. 100 volunteers will fight for your bike.
You'll give it up and not look back. You'll have your bag handed to you,
and into the tent you'll go. You'll change. You'll load up your pockets,
and open the door to the last long run of your Ironman summer - the one that counts.
You'll take that first step of a thousand...and you'll smile. You'll know
that the bike won't let you down now - the race is down to your own two
feet. The same crowd that cheered for you in the shadows of the morning
will cheer for you in the brilliant sunshine of a Penticton summer Sunday.
High-five people on the way out. Smile. Enjoy it. This is what you've
worked for all year long. That first mile will feel great. So will the second.
By mile 3, you probably won't feel so good.
That's okay. You knew it couldn't all be that easy. You'll settle down
just like you did on the bike, and get down to your pace. You'll see the
leaders coming back the other way. Some will look great - some won't. You might feel great, you might not. No matter how you feel, don't panic - this is the part of the day where whatever you're feeling, you can be sure it
won't last.
You'll keep moving. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep eating. Maybe
you'll be right on plan - maybe you won't. If you're ahead of schedule,
don't worry - believe. If you're behind, don't panic - roll with it.
Everyone comes up with a brilliant race plan for Ironman, and then everyone has to deal with the reality that planning for something like Ironman is like trying to land a man on the moon. By remote control. Blindfolded.
How you react to the changes in your plan will dictate your day. Don't
waste energy worrying about things - just do what you have to when you have to, and keep moving. Keep eating. Keep drinking. Just don't sit down - don't EVER sit down.
You'll make it to halfway at OK Falls. You'll load up on special needs.
Some of what you packed will look good, some won't. Eat what looks good, toss the rest. Keep moving. Start looking for people you know. Cheer for people you don't. You're headed in - they're not. They want to be where you are, just like you wanted to be when you saw all those fast people headed into town. Share some energy - you'll get it right back.
Run if you can.
Walk if you have to.
Just keep moving.
The miles will drag on. The brilliant Penticton sunshine will yawn, and
head for the mountains behind the bike course...behind that last downhill
you flew down all those hours ago. You'll be coming up to those aid
stations you passed when you started the bike...fully alive with people,
music, and chicken soup. TAKE THE SOUP. Keep moving.
You'll soon only have a few miles to go. You'll start to believe that
you're going to make it. You'll start to imagine how good it's going to
feel when you get there. Let those feelings drive you on. When your legs
just don't want to move anymore, think about what it's going to be like when someone catches you...puts a medal over your head...
...all you have to do is get there.
You'll start to hear town. People you can't see in the twilight will cheer
for you. They'll call out your name. Smile and thank them. They were
there when you left on the bike, and when you came back, when you left on
the run, and now when you've come back.
You'll enter town. You'll start to realize that the day is almost over.
You'll be exhausted, wiped out, barely able to run a 10-minute mile (if
you're lucky), but you'll ask yourself, "Where did the whole day go?"
You'll be standing on the edge of two feelings - the desire to finally stop,
and the desire to take these last moments and make them last as long as
possible.
You'll hit mile 25. You'll turn onto Lakeside Drive. Your Ironman Canada
will have 1.2 miles - just 2KM left in it.
You'll run. You'll find your legs. You'll fly. You won't know how, but
you will run. You'll make the turn in front of the Sicamous in the dark,
and head for home. The lights will grow brighter, brighter, and brighter.
Soon you'll be able to hear the music again. This time, it'll be for keeps.
You'll listen for Steve King. Soon they'll see you. Soon, everyone will see you.
You'll run towards the lights, between the fences, and into the nightsun made just for you.
They'll say your name.
You'll keep running.
Nothing will hurt.
The moment will be yours - for one moment, the entire world will be looking at you and only you.
You'll break the tape. The flash will go off.
You'll stop. You'll finally stop. Your legs will wobble their last, and
suddenly...be capable of nothing more.
Someone will catch you.
You'll lean into them.
It will suddenly hit you.
You will be an Ironman.
You are ready.
*Subaru Ironman Canada is the oldest Ironman event in continental North America and will take place for the 24th time in Penticton, B.C. on Sunday, August 27, 2006. Athletes will be competing for 80 qualifying spots to the 2006 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii as well as a $75,000 (Cdn.) pro prize purse. For more information, log onto www.ironman.ca.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Cheating is nothing new in the Tour
Cheating is nothing new in the Tour
gymskinz.com
podcast:
http://www.switchpod.com/p3354.html
iTunes:
itpc://switchpod.com/users/gymskinz/feed.xml
All of the furore surrounding cheating in the Tour de France is nothing new. In the early days, riders were involved in devious practices that make today's Tour stars seem like choirboys. The first winner of the event, Maurice Garin, was disqualified the following year trying to defend his title for catching a train instead of riding his bike. Les Woodland puts the 2006 Landis affair into some sort of historical context.
50 years after the first Tour
There's a historical irony in this Floyd Landis business. He'll be remembered, unless his lawyers can persuade us otherwise, as the biggest cheat in Tour history, the only man to have had his yellow jersey torn from his back.
But history will be wrong. The first big Tour cheat, Maurice Garin, would not only have failed any modern dope test but he also extended the concept of cycle-racing to include catching a train.
Nobody knows for certain that Maurice Garin waited at an out-of-the-way railway platform back in 1904. He wasn't caught with the ticket stubs in his pocket. But a while back I met a man, a gravedigger in Garin's home town of Lens in northern France, who knew him. The gravedigger was just a boy then and Garin an old man, but there was no doubt in the gravedigger's memory that Garin had admitted catching a train to skip round some tricky or boring bits of the course.
"He was amused by it," Maurice Vernaldé told me. "Not embarrassed, not after all those years, and he used to laugh and say 'Well, I was young…' and admit it. Maybe at the time he said he didn't, but when he got older and it no longer mattered so much…."
The first Tour winner
Garin was disqualified from the 1904 Tour, probably for catching a train when he should have been cycling. Why 'probably'? Because the French federation had grown alarmed at the uproar, enthusiasm and even anger that the Tour had created. This was the race, after all, in which riders were knocked off their bikes and even beaten up. Officials weren't going to do anything to make things worse and that included not publishing the findings of their inquiry. Just like what may happen to Floyd Landis in 2006, he was disqualified after the Tour was over.
Maybe the officials intended to say much later about what had happened but in time the filing cabinet full of papers disappeared. The original French federation vanished with the First World War and so, incidentally, did all the Tour's own records. They were placed in a van to be sent south to escape the invading Germans and were never seen again.
Paris-Roubaix winner 1898
Maurice Vernaldé wishes now that he had spent more time talking to Garin. But he was just a child at the time and he wasn't always happy to be sent to buy paraffin at the garage that Garin had on the edge of town. Garin was like many old men and couldn't - in the eyes of a young boy like Vernaldé - be stopped from rambling on and on with his memories.
More than that, Garin in his old age grew increasingly senile and towards the end of his life wandered through Lens reliving the Tours of years before. In the early Tours, riders were given route sheets and were told to sign register books in each big town to prove they had kept to the course. Garin would walk, mumbling, through the streets of Lens, growing ever more distressed, until finally he ended up at the police station to ask for directions for the 'contrôle'. He'd be patiently escorted back home again.
Remembered in 2003
Garin won the 1903 Tour and would have won the next year as well had he and a handful of others not been thrown out. Cheating was nothing novel to anyone in the field because, even if they didn't do it themselves, they were well aware that others were taking short cuts, being towed by cars (a wire fixed to a wing mirror and held between the teeth by a cork was a favourite trick) or even sitting inside them. Taking a train has to be seen in that context. And the fact that the Tour back then wasn't the Tour de France but just a Tour de France, a new race that nobody knew would grow into something special.
The alcohol they downed wasn't for cheating - not 'proper' cheating, anyway - even if it would have them thrown out of any modern Tour and into a modern jail had they been driving a car. Many an early bikie would have looked for the controls in a state as befuddled as Garin's. The only way they had to numb the pain and hunger of long hours in the saddle on unmade roads was to get themselves half-drunk on wine.
Italian-born Garin
When the excitingly-named Hippolyte Aucouturier was described as vulnerable in races, "because he drank too much", it wasn't because he rode with a bidon of water in his hand like Landis in his miracle stage of 2006. It was because he gurgled down more wine than his stomach could handle.
It did make some sense. Wine was the everyday drink of agricultural workers for whom the water supply was less than pure and alcoholism remained a problem in France right into the late 1950s. It was to combat excessive drinking that France led the way in banning sports sponsorship by drinks firms and the reason that teams like St-Raphaël (an apéritif) and Pelforth (beer) vanished so suddenly.
You can see pictures of old-time riders with wine bottles in their racks. In the absence of food stations or team cars, there are pictures of riders breaking into their 10-hour stages by sitting in a restaurant with a plate of food and yet another bottle of plonk. It was just the way it was.
After winning Paris-Brest-Paris
And it was the way it stayed until the 1960s. The Tour's organisers limited the water that riders could accept on the move. Anything they wanted above the limit had to be obtained from village pumps, springs or from helpful spectators. Or it had to be stolen from bars.
The chasse à la canette - the romantic name for jumping off your bike and running into a bar to steal any drink that could be picked up - was a shameful if colourful episode of Tour history that made for good pictures but a poor image. The big stars didn't do it but their domestiques did and they were expected to race back to the bunch to hand out whatever they had plundered.
Maurice Garin
Vin Denson, when he was a domestique for Rik van Looy, spoke English but only elementary Dutch and French. When van Looy bellowed "Denson… café!" in French, Denson knew his leader wanted a drink. Come the next bar, Denson brought van Looy a bidon. Van Looy, puzzled he hadn't been presented with a glass bottle, sniffed the contents and, with a wrinkled nose of contempt, poured the whole lot on the road.
"It was that day", Denson recalled, "that I learned that café meant not only 'coffee' but 'bar'."
gymskinz.com
podcast:
http://www.switchpod.com/p3354.html
iTunes:
itpc://switchpod.com/users/gymskinz/feed.xml
All of the furore surrounding cheating in the Tour de France is nothing new. In the early days, riders were involved in devious practices that make today's Tour stars seem like choirboys. The first winner of the event, Maurice Garin, was disqualified the following year trying to defend his title for catching a train instead of riding his bike. Les Woodland puts the 2006 Landis affair into some sort of historical context.
50 years after the first Tour
There's a historical irony in this Floyd Landis business. He'll be remembered, unless his lawyers can persuade us otherwise, as the biggest cheat in Tour history, the only man to have had his yellow jersey torn from his back.
But history will be wrong. The first big Tour cheat, Maurice Garin, would not only have failed any modern dope test but he also extended the concept of cycle-racing to include catching a train.
Nobody knows for certain that Maurice Garin waited at an out-of-the-way railway platform back in 1904. He wasn't caught with the ticket stubs in his pocket. But a while back I met a man, a gravedigger in Garin's home town of Lens in northern France, who knew him. The gravedigger was just a boy then and Garin an old man, but there was no doubt in the gravedigger's memory that Garin had admitted catching a train to skip round some tricky or boring bits of the course.
"He was amused by it," Maurice Vernaldé told me. "Not embarrassed, not after all those years, and he used to laugh and say 'Well, I was young…' and admit it. Maybe at the time he said he didn't, but when he got older and it no longer mattered so much…."
The first Tour winner
Garin was disqualified from the 1904 Tour, probably for catching a train when he should have been cycling. Why 'probably'? Because the French federation had grown alarmed at the uproar, enthusiasm and even anger that the Tour had created. This was the race, after all, in which riders were knocked off their bikes and even beaten up. Officials weren't going to do anything to make things worse and that included not publishing the findings of their inquiry. Just like what may happen to Floyd Landis in 2006, he was disqualified after the Tour was over.
Maybe the officials intended to say much later about what had happened but in time the filing cabinet full of papers disappeared. The original French federation vanished with the First World War and so, incidentally, did all the Tour's own records. They were placed in a van to be sent south to escape the invading Germans and were never seen again.
Paris-Roubaix winner 1898
Maurice Vernaldé wishes now that he had spent more time talking to Garin. But he was just a child at the time and he wasn't always happy to be sent to buy paraffin at the garage that Garin had on the edge of town. Garin was like many old men and couldn't - in the eyes of a young boy like Vernaldé - be stopped from rambling on and on with his memories.
More than that, Garin in his old age grew increasingly senile and towards the end of his life wandered through Lens reliving the Tours of years before. In the early Tours, riders were given route sheets and were told to sign register books in each big town to prove they had kept to the course. Garin would walk, mumbling, through the streets of Lens, growing ever more distressed, until finally he ended up at the police station to ask for directions for the 'contrôle'. He'd be patiently escorted back home again.
Remembered in 2003
Garin won the 1903 Tour and would have won the next year as well had he and a handful of others not been thrown out. Cheating was nothing novel to anyone in the field because, even if they didn't do it themselves, they were well aware that others were taking short cuts, being towed by cars (a wire fixed to a wing mirror and held between the teeth by a cork was a favourite trick) or even sitting inside them. Taking a train has to be seen in that context. And the fact that the Tour back then wasn't the Tour de France but just a Tour de France, a new race that nobody knew would grow into something special.
The alcohol they downed wasn't for cheating - not 'proper' cheating, anyway - even if it would have them thrown out of any modern Tour and into a modern jail had they been driving a car. Many an early bikie would have looked for the controls in a state as befuddled as Garin's. The only way they had to numb the pain and hunger of long hours in the saddle on unmade roads was to get themselves half-drunk on wine.
Italian-born Garin
When the excitingly-named Hippolyte Aucouturier was described as vulnerable in races, "because he drank too much", it wasn't because he rode with a bidon of water in his hand like Landis in his miracle stage of 2006. It was because he gurgled down more wine than his stomach could handle.
It did make some sense. Wine was the everyday drink of agricultural workers for whom the water supply was less than pure and alcoholism remained a problem in France right into the late 1950s. It was to combat excessive drinking that France led the way in banning sports sponsorship by drinks firms and the reason that teams like St-Raphaël (an apéritif) and Pelforth (beer) vanished so suddenly.
You can see pictures of old-time riders with wine bottles in their racks. In the absence of food stations or team cars, there are pictures of riders breaking into their 10-hour stages by sitting in a restaurant with a plate of food and yet another bottle of plonk. It was just the way it was.
After winning Paris-Brest-Paris
And it was the way it stayed until the 1960s. The Tour's organisers limited the water that riders could accept on the move. Anything they wanted above the limit had to be obtained from village pumps, springs or from helpful spectators. Or it had to be stolen from bars.
The chasse à la canette - the romantic name for jumping off your bike and running into a bar to steal any drink that could be picked up - was a shameful if colourful episode of Tour history that made for good pictures but a poor image. The big stars didn't do it but their domestiques did and they were expected to race back to the bunch to hand out whatever they had plundered.
Maurice Garin
Vin Denson, when he was a domestique for Rik van Looy, spoke English but only elementary Dutch and French. When van Looy bellowed "Denson… café!" in French, Denson knew his leader wanted a drink. Come the next bar, Denson brought van Looy a bidon. Van Looy, puzzled he hadn't been presented with a glass bottle, sniffed the contents and, with a wrinkled nose of contempt, poured the whole lot on the road.
"It was that day", Denson recalled, "that I learned that café meant not only 'coffee' but 'bar'."
Thursday, August 10, 2006
If this doesn't inspire you...
...I dunno what will! 17 (!) more days until Ironman Canada so need all the motivation / inspiration I can get!
check it out - the last GymSkinZ Triathlon Training podcast feed on my mySpace! remember to stop the music - or you can get to it from here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/YouDontHaveToWinYouJustHaveToTri
or for iTunes / iPod users, copy and paste this into your browser:
itpc://switchpod.com/users/gymskinz/feed.xml
cheers!
Tav.
check it out - the last GymSkinZ Triathlon Training podcast feed on my mySpace! remember to stop the music - or you can get to it from here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/YouDontHaveToWinYouJustHaveToTri
or for iTunes / iPod users, copy and paste this into your browser:
itpc://switchpod.com/users/gymskinz/feed.xml
cheers!
Tav.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Landis' 'B' test results come out positive
Landis' 'B' test results come out positive
PARIS - The Tour de France no longer calls him champion. His cycling team cut him loose.
About the only chance Floyd Landis has of keeping his prized yellow jersey will now likely be decided by an appeals process that could drag on for months.
Landis was discredited and disowned in short order Saturday when elevated levels of testosterone showed up in his "B" or second doping sample - as it did in the initial "A" sample released last week.
The samples also contained synthetic testosterone, indicating that it came from an outside source.
If stripped of the title, Landis would become the first winner in the 103-year history of cycling's premier race to lose his Tour crown over doping allegations.
Landis again denied cheating.
"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone," he said in a statement. "I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion.
"I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing. It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve."
The International Cycling Union, the sport's governing body, said it would ask USA Cycling to open disciplinary proceedings. Documentation from the positive tests will be forwarded to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which will turn it over to a review panel. USADA will ultimately decide if a penalty - likely a two-year ban - is appropriate. Landis can accept the decision or begin an appeals process, which can take up to six months and involve the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest said Landis would officially remain Tour champion pending that process. The decision to strip him of his title rests with UCI.
"Until he is found guilty or admits guilt, he will keep the yellow jersey," he said. "This is normal. You are not sanctioned before you are found guilty."
But the Tour itself wasted no time in distancing itself from the American.
"It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France," race director Christian Prudhomme told The Associated Press.
Prudhomme said runner-up Oscar Pereiro likely would be declared the new winner.
"We can't imagine a different outcome," he said.
Reached in his hometown of Vigo, Spain, Pereiro saw it shaping up that way, too.
"Now I consider myself the winner," he said, while acknowledging that the final decision was up to the UCI and subject to a legal challenge by Landis.
Pereiro said he regretted not being able to celebrate properly - in Paris, wearing the winner's yellow jersey.
"I would have liked to have lived that day, it would have been the best day of my life, as a sportsman," he said.
Pereiro also felt badly for Landis.
"I consider him my friend, it surprised me and hurt me to hear what had happened to him," he said.
The results of the second test come just two weeks after Landis, a 30-year-old former mountain biker, proudly stood atop the winner's podium on the Champs-Elysees, waving to thousands who cheered him on.
Within 45 minutes of the "B" sample announcement, the Swiss-based team Phonak fired its captain for "violating the team's internal Code of Ethics."
Phonak stood by Tyler Hamilton throughout his blood-doping case two years ago; Landis, however, is getting no support.
"This will be his personal affair, and the Phonak team will no longer be involved," a statement said.
Testosterone, a male sex hormone, helps build muscle and improve stamina. The urine tests were done July 20 after Landis' Stage 17 victory during a grueling Alpine leg, when he regained nearly eight minutes against then-leader Pereiro - and went on to win the three-week race.
Both of Landis' "A" and "B" samples turned up a testosterone/epitestosterone ratio of 11:1 - far in excess of the 4:1 limit.
Jacques De Ceaurriz, the Chatenay-Malabray chief, said the synthetic testosterone was found in isotope testing.
"It's foolproof. This analysis tells the difference between endogenous and exogenous," he told the AP. "No error is possible in isotopic readings."
Landis spokesman Michael Henson disputed that, and the cyclist's attorney, Spanish lawyer Jose Maria Buxeda, said, "It doesn't end here."
Landis and his defense team have offered various explanations for the high testosterone reading - including cortisone shots taken for pain in Landis' degenerating hip; drinking beer and whiskey the night before; thyroid medication; and his natural metabolism.
Another theory - dehydration - was rebuffed by anti-doping experts.
"It's incredibly disappointing," three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond said by phone from the starting line at the Pan Mass Challenge in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. "I don't think he has much chance at all to try to prove his innocence.
"When I heard it was synthetic hormone, it is almost impossible to be caused by natural events. It's kind of a downer," said LeMond, the first American to win the Tour. "I feel for Floyd's family. I hope Floyd will come clean on it and help the sport. We need to figure out how to clean the sport up, and we need the help of Floyd."
In Murrieta, California, where Landis lives, an AP reporter was asked by police to leave the gated community when she attempted to approach his house. Several cars were parked in front, and the blinds were drawn.
A man who said he was a friend of the family, but didn't want his name used, answered the phone at the Landis' house and confirmed the cyclist was there.
Despite the latest test results, a sign at a nearby freeway exit said, "Welcome Home Floyd Landis, 2006 Tour de France Winner."
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where Landis was raised in a conservative Mennonite home, neighbors vowed their support.
"All he has accomplished, he has attained through his hard work and discipline. We are very confident he will prove his innocence," said Tammy Martin, a longtime family friend.
Paul and Arlene Landis, who have supported their son since the doping scandal began, were out of town on a previously scheduled vacation.
A sign posted on their front yard said, "God Bless, Went Camping."
PARIS - The Tour de France no longer calls him champion. His cycling team cut him loose.
About the only chance Floyd Landis has of keeping his prized yellow jersey will now likely be decided by an appeals process that could drag on for months.
Landis was discredited and disowned in short order Saturday when elevated levels of testosterone showed up in his "B" or second doping sample - as it did in the initial "A" sample released last week.
The samples also contained synthetic testosterone, indicating that it came from an outside source.
If stripped of the title, Landis would become the first winner in the 103-year history of cycling's premier race to lose his Tour crown over doping allegations.
Landis again denied cheating.
"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone," he said in a statement. "I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion.
"I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing. It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve."
The International Cycling Union, the sport's governing body, said it would ask USA Cycling to open disciplinary proceedings. Documentation from the positive tests will be forwarded to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which will turn it over to a review panel. USADA will ultimately decide if a penalty - likely a two-year ban - is appropriate. Landis can accept the decision or begin an appeals process, which can take up to six months and involve the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest said Landis would officially remain Tour champion pending that process. The decision to strip him of his title rests with UCI.
"Until he is found guilty or admits guilt, he will keep the yellow jersey," he said. "This is normal. You are not sanctioned before you are found guilty."
But the Tour itself wasted no time in distancing itself from the American.
"It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France," race director Christian Prudhomme told The Associated Press.
Prudhomme said runner-up Oscar Pereiro likely would be declared the new winner.
"We can't imagine a different outcome," he said.
Reached in his hometown of Vigo, Spain, Pereiro saw it shaping up that way, too.
"Now I consider myself the winner," he said, while acknowledging that the final decision was up to the UCI and subject to a legal challenge by Landis.
Pereiro said he regretted not being able to celebrate properly - in Paris, wearing the winner's yellow jersey.
"I would have liked to have lived that day, it would have been the best day of my life, as a sportsman," he said.
Pereiro also felt badly for Landis.
"I consider him my friend, it surprised me and hurt me to hear what had happened to him," he said.
The results of the second test come just two weeks after Landis, a 30-year-old former mountain biker, proudly stood atop the winner's podium on the Champs-Elysees, waving to thousands who cheered him on.
Within 45 minutes of the "B" sample announcement, the Swiss-based team Phonak fired its captain for "violating the team's internal Code of Ethics."
Phonak stood by Tyler Hamilton throughout his blood-doping case two years ago; Landis, however, is getting no support.
"This will be his personal affair, and the Phonak team will no longer be involved," a statement said.
Testosterone, a male sex hormone, helps build muscle and improve stamina. The urine tests were done July 20 after Landis' Stage 17 victory during a grueling Alpine leg, when he regained nearly eight minutes against then-leader Pereiro - and went on to win the three-week race.
Both of Landis' "A" and "B" samples turned up a testosterone/epitestosterone ratio of 11:1 - far in excess of the 4:1 limit.
Jacques De Ceaurriz, the Chatenay-Malabray chief, said the synthetic testosterone was found in isotope testing.
"It's foolproof. This analysis tells the difference between endogenous and exogenous," he told the AP. "No error is possible in isotopic readings."
Landis spokesman Michael Henson disputed that, and the cyclist's attorney, Spanish lawyer Jose Maria Buxeda, said, "It doesn't end here."
Landis and his defense team have offered various explanations for the high testosterone reading - including cortisone shots taken for pain in Landis' degenerating hip; drinking beer and whiskey the night before; thyroid medication; and his natural metabolism.
Another theory - dehydration - was rebuffed by anti-doping experts.
"It's incredibly disappointing," three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond said by phone from the starting line at the Pan Mass Challenge in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. "I don't think he has much chance at all to try to prove his innocence.
"When I heard it was synthetic hormone, it is almost impossible to be caused by natural events. It's kind of a downer," said LeMond, the first American to win the Tour. "I feel for Floyd's family. I hope Floyd will come clean on it and help the sport. We need to figure out how to clean the sport up, and we need the help of Floyd."
In Murrieta, California, where Landis lives, an AP reporter was asked by police to leave the gated community when she attempted to approach his house. Several cars were parked in front, and the blinds were drawn.
A man who said he was a friend of the family, but didn't want his name used, answered the phone at the Landis' house and confirmed the cyclist was there.
Despite the latest test results, a sign at a nearby freeway exit said, "Welcome Home Floyd Landis, 2006 Tour de France Winner."
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where Landis was raised in a conservative Mennonite home, neighbors vowed their support.
"All he has accomplished, he has attained through his hard work and discipline. We are very confident he will prove his innocence," said Tammy Martin, a longtime family friend.
Paul and Arlene Landis, who have supported their son since the doping scandal began, were out of town on a previously scheduled vacation.
A sign posted on their front yard said, "God Bless, Went Camping."
Monday, July 31, 2006
Time Flies when you're training for Ironman!
4 weeks out from Ironman Canada 2006 and the unveiling of GymSkinZ Gear at Ironman!
Well I survived the weeklong training camp and even had a swimming break-through to boot! Needless to say, heading into the final 4 weeks and taper phase before Ironman has been EAGERLY awaited for quite some time! It's literally been almost 2 years since this whole "airy-fairy" dream of doing Ironman started - especially since I couldn't swim worth a damn!
In any case, looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone via my website at gymskinz.com and my newly released "You don't have to win, you just have to TRI" podcast! Check it out! - subscribe to it and listen to my follies on your iPod!
Hope everyone is having a great start to their August and I'll catch up with you soon!
Be sure to drop by www.gymskinz.com!
cheers
Tavis
Well I survived the weeklong training camp and even had a swimming break-through to boot! Needless to say, heading into the final 4 weeks and taper phase before Ironman has been EAGERLY awaited for quite some time! It's literally been almost 2 years since this whole "airy-fairy" dream of doing Ironman started - especially since I couldn't swim worth a damn!
In any case, looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone via my website at gymskinz.com and my newly released "You don't have to win, you just have to TRI" podcast! Check it out! - subscribe to it and listen to my follies on your iPod!
Hope everyone is having a great start to their August and I'll catch up with you soon!
Be sure to drop by www.gymskinz.com!
cheers
Tavis
Thursday, July 20, 2006
GymSkinZ at Ironman Training Camp
GymSkinZ at Ironman Training Camp!
Hey folks!
So I'm still up here in Penticton at the halfway mark of this training camp. Suffice to say I now know what it's like to be a pro-athlete and have nothing to really worry about except training / eating / recovering / repeating. It's amazing and what your body is capable of doing (concussed or not) when you decide to push it and not have the daily chores (like work and domestic duties) to worry about - at least not as much as "normal".
The camp has consisted of early morning swims in the lake where Ironman Canada is taking place in - not the exact same course due to all the boats and pleasure-craft out there, but a good 1 mile loop incorporating one of the lengths of the actual swim route (more or less). A great way to practice what to sight off of for the race and to get used to where the sun is going to be at that time of morning and figure out what to look at when it's blinding us. Was also nice (I can't believe I'm saying this) to have a really choppy day yesterday just to practice swimming in crappy / windy / choppy conditions.
After each swim session, we've rode various parts of the bike course, discussed key points along the course to consider in terms of where it's good to drop the hammer, and where to hold back to prepare for a nasty climb. I rode about 120km yesterday with one of the other guys and did basically 2/3 of the course whilst the others skipped one of the biggest hill climbs since it wasn't part of the schedule. We're all doing the entire thing as a group and it will be a good test of nutrition and dealing with the heat (95-97 degrees or so).
I also had the pleasure and honour of doing a run with the legendary Steve King who has been the race announcer for Ironman Canada and many other prestigious races for the last 23 years. He has an uncanny ability to remember teeny weeny details of people he's met and he has been such a source of inspiration and motivation for tens of thousands of athletes over the years. He is an accomplished triathlete / and ultra-marathoner and picking up tips from him for this race was an invaluable experience. Unfortunately, he won't be announcing at this year's Ironman as he's decided to step away from this event, but I'm looking forward to him announcing for the Vancouver International Triathlon this fall as he'll likely remember some quirky thing about me and what we talked about during our run - and likely blast it over the PA as I finish that race. He is truly a gentleman and will be sorely missed by all the Ironman participants this year who have come to associate his voice to Ironman Canada for all these years.
Aside from the swim/bike/run sessions, we've had great group meetings / discussions about everything to do with the race - from nutrition, to stretching, to mental training, race strategies when things go sideways, etc etc. With 3 remaining days of the camp, I have to say I've gained a little more confidence with each session - not only on the physical side, but the mental side which is very important in these long course events. I never thought I'd EVER say this - but I'm actually looking forward to the open water swims in the morning and especially the 4km swim we're doing on Sunday. At the start of the race last Sunday, the LAST place I wanted to be was in that very same lake....
In any case, stay tuned for some exciting developments on the business side of GymSkinZ as it relates to some of the stuff I've just talked about. I have some pretty cool things planned for the rest of the year and it's got nothing to do with funny t-shirts ;) (although I like doing those too! =)
Cheers everyone and thanx for tuning in... Catch up with ya soon and please help me spread the word about GymSkinZ!
Thanx!
Tavis
Hey folks!
So I'm still up here in Penticton at the halfway mark of this training camp. Suffice to say I now know what it's like to be a pro-athlete and have nothing to really worry about except training / eating / recovering / repeating. It's amazing and what your body is capable of doing (concussed or not) when you decide to push it and not have the daily chores (like work and domestic duties) to worry about - at least not as much as "normal".
The camp has consisted of early morning swims in the lake where Ironman Canada is taking place in - not the exact same course due to all the boats and pleasure-craft out there, but a good 1 mile loop incorporating one of the lengths of the actual swim route (more or less). A great way to practice what to sight off of for the race and to get used to where the sun is going to be at that time of morning and figure out what to look at when it's blinding us. Was also nice (I can't believe I'm saying this) to have a really choppy day yesterday just to practice swimming in crappy / windy / choppy conditions.
After each swim session, we've rode various parts of the bike course, discussed key points along the course to consider in terms of where it's good to drop the hammer, and where to hold back to prepare for a nasty climb. I rode about 120km yesterday with one of the other guys and did basically 2/3 of the course whilst the others skipped one of the biggest hill climbs since it wasn't part of the schedule. We're all doing the entire thing as a group and it will be a good test of nutrition and dealing with the heat (95-97 degrees or so).
I also had the pleasure and honour of doing a run with the legendary Steve King who has been the race announcer for Ironman Canada and many other prestigious races for the last 23 years. He has an uncanny ability to remember teeny weeny details of people he's met and he has been such a source of inspiration and motivation for tens of thousands of athletes over the years. He is an accomplished triathlete / and ultra-marathoner and picking up tips from him for this race was an invaluable experience. Unfortunately, he won't be announcing at this year's Ironman as he's decided to step away from this event, but I'm looking forward to him announcing for the Vancouver International Triathlon this fall as he'll likely remember some quirky thing about me and what we talked about during our run - and likely blast it over the PA as I finish that race. He is truly a gentleman and will be sorely missed by all the Ironman participants this year who have come to associate his voice to Ironman Canada for all these years.
Aside from the swim/bike/run sessions, we've had great group meetings / discussions about everything to do with the race - from nutrition, to stretching, to mental training, race strategies when things go sideways, etc etc. With 3 remaining days of the camp, I have to say I've gained a little more confidence with each session - not only on the physical side, but the mental side which is very important in these long course events. I never thought I'd EVER say this - but I'm actually looking forward to the open water swims in the morning and especially the 4km swim we're doing on Sunday. At the start of the race last Sunday, the LAST place I wanted to be was in that very same lake....
In any case, stay tuned for some exciting developments on the business side of GymSkinZ as it relates to some of the stuff I've just talked about. I have some pretty cool things planned for the rest of the year and it's got nothing to do with funny t-shirts ;) (although I like doing those too! =)
Cheers everyone and thanx for tuning in... Catch up with ya soon and please help me spread the word about GymSkinZ!
Thanx!
Tavis
Sunday, July 16, 2006
GymSkinZ at Peach Classic Triathlon
GymSkinZ at Peach Classic Triathlon
Hey Folks!
Tav and GymSkinZ reporting from sunny and scorching Penticton BC.
So I participated in the Investors Group Peach Classic Olympic Triathlon today - note how I said "PARTICIPATED" as opposed to "RACED". Here's my report...
So I arrived here yesterday afternoon after a rough week trying to get everything squared away on the home-front, at my real job, and with GymSkinZ stuff - 5 hours of sleep in the last couple nights was definitely not a good way to start the race weekend. Upon arriving, hit the race package pickup and pre-race meeting and I knew the planets weren't in aligment when I got my race number - 333.... Hmmm, so did that mean things were only going to be HALF as evil as they should be? To add more anxiety and undue stress to the day, the first thing Steve King mentioned to start off the meeting was "Do NOT expect to do a PB on this race course!!" Oh great, that's a way to instill confidence in the 400 or so people in the room. I looked down at my race-bib in my hand and thought, well how bad could it be ? Since I usually have a pretty laid-back and positive attitude towards this kind of stuff (after all, racing is supposed to be fun right?) I thought at least the swim is gonna be flat ;)
Well, that's as positive as it got. Suffice to say I ABSOLUTELY sucked the donkey today... and that's being pretty generous. First off, I swim like a brick - I could barely swim 25 meters at this time last year and today I may as well have been towing an anchor. I knew things were gonna be bad as soon as I got in the water this morning - Despite the water conditions being absolutely fantastic, I felt TOTALLY out of my element - and I feel out of my element at the best of times when I'm in a nice warm pool where I can see a line, and I know there's a wall nearby. All I wanted to do was float around on my back and sleep, not have to swim out that little fleck on the horizon which was supposed turnaround buoy... Anyway, starting gun went, and off I went... never got into any comfortable rhymthm and basically did my own thing waaaay off to the side, but at least I made it back and didn't come out of the water last... I did that on my very first olympic tri about a year ago and I vowed I would never do that again (what kind of an idiot-stick does an olympic tri as their first attempt when they can't swim 100M?! oh yah, that was me me July 2005....) Today was damn close to that experience... Once again, noticed the number painted on my arm and realized that the dark lord and all that is evil was going to be my pace-buddy today....
In any event, I dragged my arse out of the water and high-fived my buddy for making it out alive... at least I CAN ride a bike (or so I thought - that's foreshadowing BTW) so I was happy to strap on my helmet and hop on my bike hoping to get into my happy place nice and quick. Well, the bike course may as well have been taken right out of Stage 15 of the Tour de France - just when I got my legs spinning and feeling good, I was faced with this 4km climb which could have been a Category 1 climb and felt like I was ascending from the depths of hell for crying out loud - at least I was passing people but whoever came up with the term "mildly undulating" and applied it to this course needs a good swift kick in the beets as there wasn't ANYTHING resembling a flat spot on this damn course. Things went from bad to worse when I went to take a drink and lo and behold - not my water bottle.... My buddy grabbed the wrong bottle this morning!!! The ride concoction that I use is a combination of Cytomax / Carbo-Power and dissolved E-Caps which is like the nectar of the Gods - I ended up with some watered down Gu2O mixture that I could have used as cleaning solvent for my bike. AGGGHH... So at this point, I decided I was gonna go and chase down my buddy and retrieve my water-bottle (and my buddy was out of the water 12 minutes ahead of me - yes, I am THAT slow in the water). At least I had a focus now, so I dropped the hammer and off I went. I managed to catch up just before the turnaround and as I rode up from behind I said "Hey, you notice something different about your water bottle"..... We made the exchange after some cursing and back to town I went. Of course, at this point, I had gone out WAAAAY too quick to catch up and I didn't exactly back off on the way back into town, so I would definitely pay the price on the run (if I made it.... more fore-shadowing).
Ok, so now it gets interesting.... I managed a pretty half-decent time back to town and I *would have been* in the top 25 or 30 overall for bike splits... BUT.... remember that colossal climb I mentioned at the beginning? well we obviously had to come DOWN that so I came SCREAMING into the stretch leading into transition at some gong-show speed, and as I was coming to the dismount line, I prepared to do my regular "running dismount" where I unclip my right foot, swing my leg over from behind, slow down enough to unclip my left foot at the same time and run off the bike - sound simple right?! I've done it a bazillion times, but since I was riding with the mark of Satan's half brother - it wasn't going to happen today! As I tried to unclip my left foot, my hammy decided to cramp JUST at that moment which didn't allow my foot to turn far enough to unclip, I took that first step with my left foot still attached which resulted in a cirque-du-soleil style cartwheel with a half-twist while driving my head into the 120degree concrete in a spectacular display of splintered carbon fiber and composite materials as my bike pin-wheeled into the crowd and probably killed some poor innocent spectator and his two kids.... Of course, I also took out the poor guy behind me as he didn't expect carnage while he was dismounting and ended up piling into me... As I lay there staring at that bright light which I thought for sure was the portal to heaven (I later realized it was the sun I was staring at), I swore I saw vultures circling above ready to swoop down and start pecking at my jugular, I could also kinda of hear Steve King announcing (and pronouncing my name wrong of course like he always does at every race) - "Rider 333 is down, Tavis Yeung from Vancouver has crashed coming into transition!". I recall a bunch of volunteers gathering and as I got up to assess the damage, at least was coherent enough to ass if the other guy was ok - Thankfully he had already picked himself up and was long gone into transition. My head was throbbing, I was bleeding, and everything was a nice shade of blue (which was kinda cool) and when the spectator wheeled my bike back to me from about 50 yards away, I thought to myself this sure is FUN!! Well, I figured I better suck it up and dragged myself into transition whilst overhearing volunteers and spectators yell "Are you ok?!" and "Hey man, you're bleeding!"
After about 10 minutes in transition trying to figure out how to tie my shoes (which is kinda funny since I have speedlaces), and thinking how nice it would be to just lie on my towel and go to sleep, I told myself to suck it up and headed out onto the run course concussed, bleeding, tired, generally pissed off and feeling as if a small leprechaun was standing on my shoulders with a jack-hammer. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, the run course was just as bad as the bike course - after 2 km of a nice and flat stretch out along the lake, say hello to a 3km climb complete with switchbacks all the way to the turnaround. Did I mention whoever designed this course needs a kick in the beets? Thank God coming back consisted of that downhill but I barely noticed considering my legs were like lead and I did most of the run with my eyes closed since my head was pounding and my vision was blurry and everything being blue was really tripping me out. Perhaps the only saving grace to this whole race was as I was coming down the final stretch, I managed to run down the poor guy I took out coming into transition and as I passed him, apologized again which he probably didn't appreciate too much ;) I knew it was him cuz he was about 7 feet tall and looked like a mutant smurf in blue running gear - oh wait minute, I think that might have been my weird bluish vision...
In any event, chalk this one up to a "character building" race. I now get to look forward to a weeklong training camp for the rest of this week which is gonna be interesting since all I wanna do is crawl under a rock and die.
Anyway, for all those doing Ironman Lake Placid next week, best of luck and keep your head off the pavement!
cheers and catch up with ya'all soon!
Tav@my.head.freakin.hurts.com
Hey Folks!
Tav and GymSkinZ reporting from sunny and scorching Penticton BC.
So I participated in the Investors Group Peach Classic Olympic Triathlon today - note how I said "PARTICIPATED" as opposed to "RACED". Here's my report...
So I arrived here yesterday afternoon after a rough week trying to get everything squared away on the home-front, at my real job, and with GymSkinZ stuff - 5 hours of sleep in the last couple nights was definitely not a good way to start the race weekend. Upon arriving, hit the race package pickup and pre-race meeting and I knew the planets weren't in aligment when I got my race number - 333.... Hmmm, so did that mean things were only going to be HALF as evil as they should be? To add more anxiety and undue stress to the day, the first thing Steve King mentioned to start off the meeting was "Do NOT expect to do a PB on this race course!!" Oh great, that's a way to instill confidence in the 400 or so people in the room. I looked down at my race-bib in my hand and thought, well how bad could it be ? Since I usually have a pretty laid-back and positive attitude towards this kind of stuff (after all, racing is supposed to be fun right?) I thought at least the swim is gonna be flat ;)
Well, that's as positive as it got. Suffice to say I ABSOLUTELY sucked the donkey today... and that's being pretty generous. First off, I swim like a brick - I could barely swim 25 meters at this time last year and today I may as well have been towing an anchor. I knew things were gonna be bad as soon as I got in the water this morning - Despite the water conditions being absolutely fantastic, I felt TOTALLY out of my element - and I feel out of my element at the best of times when I'm in a nice warm pool where I can see a line, and I know there's a wall nearby. All I wanted to do was float around on my back and sleep, not have to swim out that little fleck on the horizon which was supposed turnaround buoy... Anyway, starting gun went, and off I went... never got into any comfortable rhymthm and basically did my own thing waaaay off to the side, but at least I made it back and didn't come out of the water last... I did that on my very first olympic tri about a year ago and I vowed I would never do that again (what kind of an idiot-stick does an olympic tri as their first attempt when they can't swim 100M?! oh yah, that was me me July 2005....) Today was damn close to that experience... Once again, noticed the number painted on my arm and realized that the dark lord and all that is evil was going to be my pace-buddy today....
In any event, I dragged my arse out of the water and high-fived my buddy for making it out alive... at least I CAN ride a bike (or so I thought - that's foreshadowing BTW) so I was happy to strap on my helmet and hop on my bike hoping to get into my happy place nice and quick. Well, the bike course may as well have been taken right out of Stage 15 of the Tour de France - just when I got my legs spinning and feeling good, I was faced with this 4km climb which could have been a Category 1 climb and felt like I was ascending from the depths of hell for crying out loud - at least I was passing people but whoever came up with the term "mildly undulating" and applied it to this course needs a good swift kick in the beets as there wasn't ANYTHING resembling a flat spot on this damn course. Things went from bad to worse when I went to take a drink and lo and behold - not my water bottle.... My buddy grabbed the wrong bottle this morning!!! The ride concoction that I use is a combination of Cytomax / Carbo-Power and dissolved E-Caps which is like the nectar of the Gods - I ended up with some watered down Gu2O mixture that I could have used as cleaning solvent for my bike. AGGGHH... So at this point, I decided I was gonna go and chase down my buddy and retrieve my water-bottle (and my buddy was out of the water 12 minutes ahead of me - yes, I am THAT slow in the water). At least I had a focus now, so I dropped the hammer and off I went. I managed to catch up just before the turnaround and as I rode up from behind I said "Hey, you notice something different about your water bottle"..... We made the exchange after some cursing and back to town I went. Of course, at this point, I had gone out WAAAAY too quick to catch up and I didn't exactly back off on the way back into town, so I would definitely pay the price on the run (if I made it.... more fore-shadowing).
Ok, so now it gets interesting.... I managed a pretty half-decent time back to town and I *would have been* in the top 25 or 30 overall for bike splits... BUT.... remember that colossal climb I mentioned at the beginning? well we obviously had to come DOWN that so I came SCREAMING into the stretch leading into transition at some gong-show speed, and as I was coming to the dismount line, I prepared to do my regular "running dismount" where I unclip my right foot, swing my leg over from behind, slow down enough to unclip my left foot at the same time and run off the bike - sound simple right?! I've done it a bazillion times, but since I was riding with the mark of Satan's half brother - it wasn't going to happen today! As I tried to unclip my left foot, my hammy decided to cramp JUST at that moment which didn't allow my foot to turn far enough to unclip, I took that first step with my left foot still attached which resulted in a cirque-du-soleil style cartwheel with a half-twist while driving my head into the 120degree concrete in a spectacular display of splintered carbon fiber and composite materials as my bike pin-wheeled into the crowd and probably killed some poor innocent spectator and his two kids.... Of course, I also took out the poor guy behind me as he didn't expect carnage while he was dismounting and ended up piling into me... As I lay there staring at that bright light which I thought for sure was the portal to heaven (I later realized it was the sun I was staring at), I swore I saw vultures circling above ready to swoop down and start pecking at my jugular, I could also kinda of hear Steve King announcing (and pronouncing my name wrong of course like he always does at every race) - "Rider 333 is down, Tavis Yeung from Vancouver has crashed coming into transition!". I recall a bunch of volunteers gathering and as I got up to assess the damage, at least was coherent enough to ass if the other guy was ok - Thankfully he had already picked himself up and was long gone into transition. My head was throbbing, I was bleeding, and everything was a nice shade of blue (which was kinda cool) and when the spectator wheeled my bike back to me from about 50 yards away, I thought to myself this sure is FUN!! Well, I figured I better suck it up and dragged myself into transition whilst overhearing volunteers and spectators yell "Are you ok?!" and "Hey man, you're bleeding!"
After about 10 minutes in transition trying to figure out how to tie my shoes (which is kinda funny since I have speedlaces), and thinking how nice it would be to just lie on my towel and go to sleep, I told myself to suck it up and headed out onto the run course concussed, bleeding, tired, generally pissed off and feeling as if a small leprechaun was standing on my shoulders with a jack-hammer. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, the run course was just as bad as the bike course - after 2 km of a nice and flat stretch out along the lake, say hello to a 3km climb complete with switchbacks all the way to the turnaround. Did I mention whoever designed this course needs a kick in the beets? Thank God coming back consisted of that downhill but I barely noticed considering my legs were like lead and I did most of the run with my eyes closed since my head was pounding and my vision was blurry and everything being blue was really tripping me out. Perhaps the only saving grace to this whole race was as I was coming down the final stretch, I managed to run down the poor guy I took out coming into transition and as I passed him, apologized again which he probably didn't appreciate too much ;) I knew it was him cuz he was about 7 feet tall and looked like a mutant smurf in blue running gear - oh wait minute, I think that might have been my weird bluish vision...
In any event, chalk this one up to a "character building" race. I now get to look forward to a weeklong training camp for the rest of this week which is gonna be interesting since all I wanna do is crawl under a rock and die.
Anyway, for all those doing Ironman Lake Placid next week, best of luck and keep your head off the pavement!
cheers and catch up with ya'all soon!
Tav@my.head.freakin.hurts.com
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