Pic Spocket

While I had to camera and the flash setup out to photograph the trophy, Newton fell asleep right beside me. I used the same lighting setup (a snoot on an off-camera flash to concentrate the light in a specific spot) to catch him in his sleep. Who would believe that sometimes he still is a little devil???

Last Wednesday, we headed to Brighton Michigan for my 3rd triathlon race, Pterodactyl 2009. It is part of the T-REX series organized by RunningFit. This is the same course than last June (Triceratops), which is very nice since you can measure your improvement.

This time, I was not alone: my Friend Craig also signed up for the event, and our wifes came for support and pictures: Awesome!! Our friend Sam also joined us over there. It was really nice to race with friends. There was a lot more of participants this time around: 334 finishers!

The whole day, it seemed like rain was about to fall, with some forecast for thunderstorms. The rain actually started just before the race for pretty much just the duration of it. I am glad I had a plastic bag with me that I used to cover my transition gear during the swim so everything kind of stayed dry. I was also very inspired to bring 2 pairs of socks: after the bike, my feet were soaking wet. It was nice to put dry socks before jumping in my running shoes. Besides that, the rain did not seem to bother me much during the race. I guess it was worst for the spectators (Corinne and Tracy…).

I’ll spare you the details of the race. You can check my race report on BeginnerTriathlete.com if you would like some details:

>>http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=171267

The link to the results is below (you need Internet Explorer or Opera). I finished in 48th position out of 334 participants.

>>http://www.tguertin.com/pub/blog/raceresults/090722_Ptero_extra_results.mht

Needless to say, I am ecstatic about the results. I shaved a good 6 minutes compared to the last race on the same track. My biking rank is most impressive with a 16th position over 334 people. That’s clearly where I am the strongest, somehow. I really need to work on the swim and on transitions though if I want to do better.

Also, I have recently developed a problem when running with a band of tissue called Iliotibial Band (ITB) that runs from the hip to the bottom of the knee. I have worked on it with exercises and stretches, and used a special strap for the run. I have to say that my ITB syndrome did not bother me at all this time. There is hope!

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Swim Start for my wave. I have my hands in the air in the first picture. The 2nd picture is after the gun.

All 3 of us during the bike leg…

The run… as tradition want, Craig does a few moves to impress the girls Pictures on the second row are taken a 100 m before the finish line.

There is always a good snack after the race.

More pictures in the album below.

Pterodactyl 2009

Up to the next race…

I just took delivery of my new wheels: a Kuota K-Factor Triathlon/Time Trial bike. It was not my first choice: I was looking at the very sexy Felt B12, but it was much more expensive, and I could not pass the deal I got on the K-Factor. I just could not justify spending about twice the money for marginal upgrades in components, especially for a first bike of this type.

The new bike will be a little bit better adapted for races than my Hybrid. One of the biggest change is weight: the K-Factor is a carbon fiber frame bike. It weights in at about 19.5 lbs compared to my 30 lbs hybrid. Also, the riding position is completely different, forcing you to take an aerodynamic position. I definitely need to get used to have the shifters and the brakes on 2 different locations.

Here are a couple of pictures of the racing machine:

access to larger pictures…

I took it out for a ride yesterday on Matchette Rd (see Fitness Log, ride dated 07/08). While I was faster than my previous practice rides in the area, it was not by much even though I did push. I was hoping for a larger difference. I was slower than my average speed during the Triceratops TRI race. Hopefully, I will get a bit more faster as I get more comfortable with the bike.

I finally received the photos from the Triceratops Triathlon in Michigan (my report here) from last june. These were taken by the event photographers. I have put them in our album. There is one pretty cool panning shot of me in the bike section, with the trees in motion blur in the background. here are a few pictures:

Click here so see more.

Just logged in my longest bike ride to date: 200 km! I was off last Friday for Independance day in the US and decided to go out on my bike for the day. I was planning for a long ride, so learning from previous experiences, I went out being careful to not push hard. My plan, which work good, was to stick with a high cadence (80-95 rpm) but low torque on the crank. I limited myself to 30 km/h for the first couple of hours to save myself for the end of the day.

I stopped every 2 hours for a quick break to eat something and strecth my leg muscles. As for the path followed, I basically covered the most part of the shores of Essex county. Here is a link to the interactive map below.

Click for interactive map

What was not soo funny was the wind. While it was not too strong, I had it on my back for the first 100 km, os it means I had to fight against it for the whole return trip. I have to say that the last 10 km were really a chore…  Few Statistics from the ride are listed below. We can see I really slowed down on the last section of the ride. The speed graph is available in the Fitness Log page.