Ski 2 Sea Kelowna 2009

Well, it wasn't a BPR team that I raced for last weekend at Kelowna's Ski 2 Sea race, but I flew the blue, white and black with pride on the Fresh Air Concept Team. The Fresh Air team recruited me for the road bike because, well, I think because they couldn't find anyone faster! I was up against a monster Time Trialist in the form of Corey Forrest. There's those guys that toe the line believing that they can beat Lance Armstrong if he showed up. I'm not that guy, I'm a bit more realistic. I wanted to lose less than 3 minutes to Corey and I'd see that as a very positive outcome. We started warming up on our rollers, there were three of us "hard-core" enough to go through all that effort. I looked even sillier than the other two guys because I was at the start line huffing and puffing into my Spiro Tiger at 50 breaths per minute to warm up my respiratory system. For those of you unfamiliar with an ST - think really high-tech balloon that you keep blowing up over and over. Although we were 2 minutes behind after the downhill and cross country legs of the race, our mountain biker kicked some serious butt and came to the start of the road bike in first, sending me off 20 seconds in front of Corey. I hate being in front because I usually have way more adrenaline and I just put the pedal down. So I did that for a bit but was caught after about 10 minutes by Mr. Forrest. From that point on, I was just trying to keep him in sight, which only lasted about another 10 minutes. At the end of the bike I was only down 2:48, which I was very happy about. I think I'm a good TT'er for a triathlete, but there's a difference between that and a TT specialist like Corey. I think a big part of the successful ride was the stroke volume rides that Andrew, Joel and I have been doing lately. Basically, we pin it at LBP-5 for an hour or until our heart rate starts to really drift. They are challenging sessions but pay good dividends. I also took my brilliant coach Andrew's advice and lifted my front end almost 2 inches so that I'm less aero, but my heart rate stays lower when I go into aero position. Without a wind tunnel, it's tough to tell but I think the trade off was more than worth it. In the end and after the run and paddle, the Fresh Air Concept Team was down 1:16 to Total Restoration which took the honors again this year. We were close, but it wasn't quite enough. I'm hoping to get a chance for a rematch next year!!!