Total Pageviews

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Weekend stuff…

Lots of interesting observations this past weekend, not so surprising when you have characters like my friends!  At a trail race, my client / friend Steve is wondering if he should wear his spikes for the 8+km challenge ahead of us:

Steve - “Do you know anything about this course?”

Yours Truly - “Yes, I ran this last fall, and I think you can pretty much cover the entire course rock and gravel free”

Steve – “I’m not that fit at the moment – I don’t think I can crack the top ten”

Yours Truly – “I don’t think you’ll really need them, and if they aren’t going to help you reach the podium….”

Steve – “Good idea, I would look pretty silly wearing spikes and finishing out of the top 10…”

(:



Looking good is important, and performing at one’s best is always a great strategy, but, like the Triathlete with the $10,000 bike who finishes last….see below…


Now I am riding the next morning, 5+ hours, and meet up with another friend / client, Kari, we’ve been trying to catch up on many topics for months, so now we have two hours together on the back-end of the “donut ride” to compare notes.  Kari has done Ironman Hawaii, so by osmosis I like to hang around with him!

Yours Truly: “So, I really don’t think I should be doing my first Ironman on this 8 year-old steel bike of mine (Little Gerry the Cervelo Prodigy).”

Kari: “It’s okay, if you’re fit and having fun it will feel great to pass the guys on the $10,000 bikes…”

Yours Truly: “Yes, like you kicking my butt right now on your Cyclocross Bike with mud-flaps and the cute little basket on the back”…

Kari: “At the end of the day, the best bike will never compare to doing the mileage and




Beverage Choices

This is NOT a paid advertisement for the various name-brand beverages you are about to read….(:

I was watching the t.v. recently, which runs counter to the bumper sticker on my mini-van, “T.V. Sucks, Ride Your Bike”…but after a 5 hour bike ride, I needed to de-compress, eat anything I could get my hands on, and do some stretching.  The NHL playoffs were about to start, the Penguins and Rangers had some cameras in the locker room, so we get a close-up of Rangers’ goalie ________________ putting his pads on and getting ready.  Scattered on a little table beside him was a bunch of Gatorade bottles (official sponsor), Red Bull (he was actually drinking this while the camera rolled) and some bottled water..

Interesting….

Reminded me of the ex-roommate I had, briefly, a professional figure skating coach who was regularly top-ranked in Canada, unfortunately being #3 in Canada in Figure Skating is like being among the top 100 fastest Kenyan runners!  Room-mate in question mentioned drinking 5-6 cups of coffee immediately preceeding his major skate to nail down the tough jumps.  Wow I thought, imagine the adrenaline going thur his body and the alertness and mental clarity with that jolt of energy…

I also remember vividly a tough cross-country race I was fortunate to compete in many years ago (1997), in Whistler of all places, a Nike-Sponsored race that was by-invitation only.  My “insider” friend helped me gain entry to not only the local Toronto race (on a golf course), but I was in B.C. on business at the same time as the west-coast edition.  I was in super shape, and ended up 16th out of approx. 75 runners, with 11 ahead of me past or present Olympians!  Warming up before the race, my fast friend from Toronto whipped into a coffee shop just 20 minutes before the race start, and came out with an empty capuucino cup.

“What was that all about?” I had to ask, curiously…

“I always get a shot of caffeine before a short-distance race, it gets me “going” and ensures I draw upon all my fast-twitch muscles!”

“Oh, so I guess I have no chance with this water bottle then…”


Is this a new phenomenon?  Unlikely…

Did you know that in the 1970’s, long-before Gatorade was available, elite distance athletes drank flat coke to get some sugar beyond the 90-minute point in races.  Did these factors leave an impression with me?  Of course, like Spongebob Squarepants I tried everything once, including the flat coke experiement at the 1996 Okanagan Marathon ( p.b. run at the time).  Much later, not being a coffee drinker, I tried two LARGE cups of coffee 60 minutes before a very important 10km run, not really understanding what that would do to me at approximately the 15-minute mark of the race!