Ultraman Canada Day 1 Ride Report

Congratulating myself on eating, awesome, huh?


Day 1: 90-mile (145km) ride

Conditions: There is 4,000 feet of climbing in this stage, which is not bad at all. Weather Underground reports that the high for Penticton that day was 84F, but we were up and down and all around, so it may have been warmer in spots. Humidity was quite low compared to what I am used to at home! For me, it was perfect racing weather.

Goal: 6 hours, including feeding and assorted stops. This is a pathetic 15MPH, which I figured I could accomplish no matter the conditions, barring serious mechanical issues.

Actual: 6:18.29 Why? The time includes my transition out of the swim, which while I didn’t lollygag, probably was 10-15 minutes (crew help me out here, and crew for UMH please remember to time my transition for me!). Also, I did not ride hard because I didn’t want to be tanked for Day 2. Now I know I can ride a bit faster and clean up the nutrition intake time to get that below 6 hours, at least if I ever do the same course again! My actual riding time was 5:47, which is still pathetically slow for me, but I think I can comfortably ride 5:30 and perhaps do 5:45 including transition and stops. On the UMC course! UMH has more climbing, so I may not be any faster, and I might feel more seasick out of the swim there, which has an impact.

Gear/Clothes
I rode Skull Kingdom, my newest bike that was custom built by Elite. I got the bike about 4 weeks before UMC (wanted it sooner, but oh well) and put about 550 miles on it before the race, so my position was good. My reach and drop were set based on me doing an Ultraman, as I’m able to have a more aggressive aero position (which I have on my other tri bike) but aggressive is not needed for Ultraman. Originally I planned to put no tubes on the bike, but I ended up strapping a couple of tubes and put CO2 on there in case I flatted and was somehow out of contact with my crew, so I’d be able to get started on it at least. Skull Kingdom is very light, lighter than my Griffen, Bitchie, though, so weight of tubes and CO2 didn’t make a material difference. I also only planned on carrying 1 bottle on the bike at all times. I have a compact crank and got an 11-28 cassette, which was perfect! I spoke to some guys who used a 28 as well, and while I didn’t need it often on Day 1, I was glad to have it. In 2004 when I did Ironman Canada, I had a 53/39 up front and a 12-27 cassette, and that was fine, but my 3 good bikes all have compact cranks now, and my setup for UMC made Richter Pass feel nearly flat!

I used my Catlike Whisper helmet, which rocks, and I’m buying a new white one for UMH. The ventilation of it is incredible, plus it just looks cool. My red one is now 4 years old, so it’s time for a new one! In retrospect, I could have used an aero helmet. Conditions were perfectly suited for it—not too hot (for me, anyway) and not too windy. A disk wheel would have been nice, too, but I don’t have one that I can use on Skull Kingdom (yet—although it might be possible to put my solid Hed disk on provided the 10-speed cassette can be used on its hub). I used my new Sidi triathlon shoes. Well they were new since maybe June! I am using some New Balance insoles in them that have a metatarsal pad and the things mold to your feet and have a great arch support. They are DA BOMB! I am putting them in my other bike shoes. I got them to mimic the custom run orthotics (more on those in my Day 3 report) I have in order to try and prevent my usual hot spot on the ball of my right foot when I hit the earlier of 80 miles or 5 hours of riding. I have Morton’s Foot, and I have played around with many pads and insoles in my bike shoes, so finding something that I could ride in for hours was a godsend.

I wore tri shorts, as those are what I was fitted for the bike wearing—one time I tried riding with a regular maxi-pad and it made my knees and feet hurt! I had pre-lubed my bike shorts with Chamois Butter. I’d used that stuff during training on 4+ hour rides, and it is awesome. I wore a sleeveless white Iron Girl bike jersey with a bra top underneath that I had bought in Kona years ago and had worn during Ironman Hawaii in 2004. I chose it because the back of the top is ventilated and because, well, it’s lucky! I wore my usual Wigwam low cut lightweight Ironman socks. Those are the only socks I train and race in other than some cute ones given to me by my friend Lori. I had pre-lubed the inside of the socks with Body Glide. I did not wear gloves. I only wear them when I ride my road bike, La Gazza Ladra (she’s a Pinarello Dogma, and the frameset has magnesium, and LGL means “the thieving magpie” which is the name of an opera by Gioachino Rossini), early in the year and even then I wean myself off them. Even though I had put lots of Body Glide on before the swim, I redid the area under my armpits and swiped my feet out of habit. I did not use arm warmers, but had them in the van in case I wanted them later on, and I never did need them.

My crew (the girls Mona and Lee, since I was nekked in the transition tent) had slathered me with SPF 30 sunscreen. While planning for UMC, Lee had thought I should use SPF 50, but someone told me the difference in protection between the two is negligible, and besides I was already tan and have used the SPF 30 on really long rides, and despite getting hot, sweaty and piggy in blazing sunshine, it does the job just fine.

Nutrition Plan
My base nutrition was to be 1 serving of my custom Infinit mix (it’s HTFU-flavored!) per hour, mixed in 20 oz. of water. I tried explaining to my crew that the need for fluid was different than need for calories, because depending on the temperature I might need more fluid (i.e., water), but not more CALORIES. I also asked for many other foods to be available to me (same for Day 2) such as turkey sandwich on white bread (no fiber!) with low fat mayo, PB&J sandwich (with SEEDLESS jam—we had many laughs about how all my foods needed to be SEEDLESS) that I never wanted, deviled eggs (I like hardboiled eggs during 7+ hour rides; but it was Mona’s idea to make them deviled which makes them easier to swallow), Coke (I decided it didn’t need to be defizzed because the fizz can help settle my stomach during races, but I can’t carry fizzy stuff in training because it either escapes from bottles or explodes when you open the bottle), Gatorade (we settled on Blue and Lemon Lime which were both available in Canada. My #1 choice would have been Lemonade flavor, which tastes good in heat, #2 Glacier Freeze which is light blue, then Orange and Lemon Lime). Lee had also brought things from Japan that she thought I might like, and I did—red bean paste stuffed carb things, individual jello shots (super tasty when ice cold!) and maybe there was something else I ate that I don’t remember. At any rate, on Day 1 ride, I think I was pretty good about getting down most of my calories via Infinit.

Training Notes
The longest single ride I did this year in training was 94 miles. In years past training for Ironman, I usually did 5 or more 100+ mile rides. Why didn’t I do them this year? Because my total time spent training (and sleeping) was eating into my time available to travel to do the century rides, so instead of being concerned with distance of any one ride, I just worked to get in many hours of riding per week. My average cycling hours per week from September through end of March were 4.4. The number is quite low because I did very little in September and October (due to a run focus), and then the remaining months were winter and early spring, pretty much all on the trainer (and while I have done up to 5 hours on the trainer at a time, it’s not a regular occurrence), and then I had Goofy Challenge in there which cut out most biking for another 2-3 weeks.

From April until I began my taper, though, my average cycling hours per week were about 8.5. That is still not very high (according to my standards and what I “should” have done), but considering all the running and swimming I was doing and that I did take 2 weeks almost completely away from it, it was still a pretty good weekly volume. I would do a shorter ride on Tuesdays (usually about 1:30-1:45) with hard intervals, and then 2 long rides on Saturday and Sunday, many times getting in 8 hours total on the weekend. I also did several back-to-back 80+ mile rides, and since I had many biking miles on my legs (my 2008-2009 season was a new high for me, hitting 5,900 miles), I figured I’d be fine. Usually I also go up to Wisconsin and ride in the hilly area on or near the Ironman course, but I only did that once, in May. Still, I am used to working hard on the bike in training, so my MO is go out and ride as hard as I can for as long as I can after a suitable warm-up. It messed a bit with my head that I hadn’t done a single ride over 100 miles in training for UMC. But I have done several 8+ hour rides in prior years, so I know what it’s like to have lots of saddle time, and doing the back to back weekend rides (preceded by a long swim on Friday) would need to do.

On 12/26/2009, I did a 9100-yard swim followed by a 90-mile trainer ride, and just based on that (7hrs 50min moving time), I figured I was all good for Day 1 of Ultraman.

Race Notes
The Day 1 ride in Ultraman Canada goes over much of the Ironman Canada bike course. I did Ironman Canada in 2004, and remembered much of the course, especially the downhill at the end! I knew all about the 10km climb up Richter Pass and then the climb to Yellow Lake (PS It’s NOT yellow!), so I wasn’t worried at all--even if there had been winds or heat . I don’t recall feeling at all hot that day, at least not to the point where I needed to pour cold water on myself. I had pretty much zoned out during the pre-race meeting when they were discussing the Day 1 ride. I knew it wasn’t too hard except for maybe Richter Pass and Yellow Lake. I did not experience any chafing from either my wetsuit (thanks, Lee!) or in my shorts.

Something I forgot to mention in my swim report is that on really long training days or some races, I wear my black rubber HTFU (Harden The Fuck Up) bracelet that was given to me by my friend Mike L. a few years ago. When I look at my wrist with that on it, it reminds me to suck it up, work hard and get it done. When I went to register and get all my swag at UMC, they slapped a wristband on me that says ULTRAMAN CANADA. I took one look at it and remarked to Nick M. that “this is all the HTFU I need!” And, indeed, it was. I have all my Ironman wristbands, but had taken to wearing HTFU during Ironman races once I had it, but this was different. Once that ULTRAMAN CANADA thing was on me, I would look at it and think I had HTFU’ed by just getting to the start line, and that the race itself was just a continuation of an HTFU cycle. HTFU band remained in my fanny pack for the trip, but I’m still glad I had taken it with me.

I have a number of other amulet things that come with me to races that help me center myself and remember people who are special to me. I had some of my Dad’s ashes in my bike jersey, as since his death in November, 2007, I have taken him with me (and left part of him there) to some of my special training grounds (Fermilab and Waterfall Glen, both of which are nuclear research facilities) and each of my 4 subsequent Ironman races/NothingMans (NothingMan is self-supported Ironman, and I did my first one in 2007 before Dad died, and did another in 2008, then 2009 as part of Revenge of the PirateMan where I did double IM distance on my own over 4 days, and I am doing my 4th NothingMan in a few weeks). He got to go to Florida with me when I did Goofy Challenge for the third time this past January, and I will take him to Ironman Florida (I will be spectating and running the marathon), Ironman Sado in Japan and Ultraman Hawaii next year. Dad had wanted to travel the world in his later years and wanted me to go to Russia with him, but Mom’s health went way south about 15 years ago, and Dad took care of her until she passed in 2006, so he never did get in that world travel. I wanted him to move to Colorado with me in 2007, but he kept his own declining health a secret until he was hospitalized with kidney failure, then a diagnosis of liver cancer. He only saw me race a triathlon once, in 2006, the summer after Mom had died. It was a sprint, and when I found out I came second in my age group, he said, “Why didn’t you take first place?” It made me mad at myself that I wasn’t able to take first that day in front of him, but also made me feel so blessed that he was there with me, and I knew he “got” the joy I received from training and racing. He told me about watching the other racers and how fast I was in transition and how proud he was at how good I was (even though I sucked and only took 2nd). And I wasn’t even that good back then! So I figured the least I can do is take him with me to places he’s never been or we’ve never been to together. There always comes a time during a marathon (standalone or in Ironman) or very long ride, when I reach into a pocket and take his ashes out and hold them in my hand and feel his presence and love, and even though at first he didn’t understand my love of extreme endurance (I am a complete math/computer science nerd in remission, definitely my Dad’s daughter!), he came to realize how happy it made me and how hard I worked at it, and I remember how brave he was the last few days of his life considering all the pain he must have been in, and I think about that and that what I am doing is not anywhere near as hard! At Ironman Lake Placid in 2009 where I set a lifetime Ironman PR, I am holding his ashes up as I cross the finish line, and a few moments later, I once again left him in the transition area just as I had done in 2008. I don’t usually carry Dad while swimming, but I think at Ultraman Hawaii I will ask my kayaker to carry him and leave him in the coral reef.

When I started the ride after that rather long swim, I felt seasick, and I have never been seasick except if I had too much alcohol on a boat ;) Seasick in the sense that my balance mechanism was just a bit off, and I didn’t want anything to eat or drink for about ½ hour. But in my Ironman races I know better than to eat or drink for about that long into the ride anyway, so it didn’t bother me. Of course, they made us climb up a stupid hill right out of transition, and all I could think was WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE THAT THEY WOULD MAKE US DO THIS??? I always find it funny which things I can remember that bothered me during a race that always turn out to be so minor, considering all the crap I had put myself through in training. Plus I forget that nobody held a gun to my head when I applied for this race, right?

Still, I felt pretty good considering I’d just swum 10km, and didn’t think I needed to just rest in transition. The course takes us through the town of Oliver pretty quickly, and we went through it twice on Day 2, and for some reason it reminded me of the musical “Oliver,” so I began saying out loud to myself in my best British accent imitation, “OWL-EE-VAH,” over and over in a high pitch. This amused the hell out of me for many miles. Speaking of many miles, I can’t remember whether it was during the Day 1 or Day 2 ride where I came up with my description of Ultraman:

• Day 1: Swim many miles and bike many, many miles.
• Day 2: Bike many, many more miles.
• Day 3: Run many, many miles.

Whenever it was that I came up with this, I just had to tell my crew, expecting them to laugh hysterically with me for being so clever while pedaling a bicycle. And I had to tell them this several times, to be sure they understood me clearly.

The Day 1 ride is pretty flat for about the first 45km, and then you hit the Richter Pass climb. Just like during Ironman Canada in 2004, as soon as we started going in a general up direction, I asked someone else’s crew, “Are we on the Richter climb already?” And they replied, yes. For you see, I was only looking at elapsed time on my bike computer (even though it’s a PowerTap), and not even speed or distance. All I cared about was taking in my nutrition on schedule. I still remember in 2004 asking a friend, Steve C., who was also racing (and he is the person who got me to register for my first Ironman, Lake Placid, in 2001), where the Richter Pass climb was on the course. I had not even looked at the course map, but had heard about the 10km long climb. I vividly remember him saying to me, “You’ll know it when you’re on it.” And he was right then, and again now.

With the 28 on the back, that climb was really no big deal, plus I’ve done much harder climbing since 2004. Still, you want it to be over, so every crew vehicle I saw I’d ask how much longer until the crest. I had told my crew I needed to stop at the crest and leave some of Dad there, and we did, and I had a little cry but was happy to send him into the breeze over the edge.

As you begin the descent, you see Mt. Richter or whatever it’s called, and I remember during Ironman Canada thinking how beautiful it was, and it was still a beautiful sight to behold. And I remembered being a little more scared in 2004 at the descent, but not so much this time! There was a slight problem, though, and that was a patch of shattered glass on the shoulder. It was about 8 feet long and took up the entire shoulder, and by the time I figured out it was glass, I couldn’t just veer into the traffic lane, so I rode right through it, yelling, “OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK.” That’s about how long it took to ride through it. I saw another athlete up ahead stopped and their crew checking her tires, so I took advantage and stopped and asked if they’d check mine. And I had a pit crew! I stood over the top tube and they checked both tires really well, said they were fine, and I went on my way. This is an example of how you can just count on everyone at Ultraman as your family to help you out with anything!

For much time after that until we hit the out and back section, we had almost a slight tailwind, and that was quite tasty! And there was a good stretch of flatness, but I knew once we hit the out and back that we would be more into the wind and that there was a slight climb back there. In 2004, I remember the out and back for how crowded it was with racers and almost dangerous. This time around, I had plenty of room around me to really look around without fear of getting in a crash, and I noticed how beautiful the nearby mountain was as well as all the orchards. Much of the Day 1 course takes us past numerous orchards (Peaches! Cherries! Apples!) and vineyards (the Penticton area is like the Napa Valley of Canada). I would keep hearing this clicking/buzzing noise on the side of the road, and I pretended it was rattlesnakes when it was probably sprinkler systems or some local insects.

The out and back was shorter than I remembered it from 2004, but I do remember that in 2004, this is where our “special needs bike” bags were. In 2004 I had a big bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red, and I guess that was a novel nutritional supplement at the time, and someone asked me, “Won’t that make you belch?” My response was, “Yes—AND FART!” I laughed my ass off back then, and I had a good chuckle in UMC remembering that part of my 2004 race. So sorry that this sounds like a race report for 2004—I will have to go back and read my actual report for that year now. It was warm in there, and I was happy to get back out, even though I knew that it meant we were headed for Yellow Lake (it’s NOT yellow!).

The climb to Yellow Lake isn’t really bad unless you have big headwinds, and we did not. Plus then you know that once you are finished climbing, you get to GO DOWN REALLY, REALLY FAST! Once again when I saw the lake, I thought how pretty it is, but also WHY DO THEY CALL IT YELLOW LAKE ANYWAY??? It is stuff like this that amuses the shit out of me while I am riding, especially since in training I usually rode with my MP3 player (it’s not an actual iPod but I LOVE it and I blame my friend Susan for giving me something that made me ride harder more of the time!), and I think it is responsible for my increase in baseline cadence since I got it. Even with music, though, I have these thoughts that seem so hilarious to me and that if I were riding with someone else and telling them what is going through my mind they would think I was nuts. Ah, the pleasures of long distance training and racing!

We had been warned of possible crosswinds on the descent, but they were noticeably absent for the most part. I did catch a side gust or two, but they were nothing like what I experienced in Kona in 2004 going and up and down to/from Hawi. I get to do that Hawi thing again next year at Ultraman Kona, but wait there’s more! We only CLIMB it on the bike, but then we RUN THE FUCK DOWN on Day 3. That will be brutal indeed.

Anyway, it is such a pleasure to end a nice 90-mile ride with a big descent, and I know I was just smiling like the cat that ate the mouse the entire way. Plus it was so much more fun doing this in UMC than in the Ironman because, again, you don’t have a lot of squirrelly bikers around you. Even better, there was far less traffic than there is on Ironman day because you don’t have all these people out in their cars trying to spectate. As much as I enjoy spectators, I also enjoy LACK OF SPECTATORS for this very reason.

I finished Day 1 at 10:33, which was about ½ hour slower overall than I’d hoped to be, but it was all good. When I crossed the finish line, there was Steve King calling me in, and I had to stop and chat with him. He was sitting there with no shirt on, and this pretty much epitomizes part of what I love about this race. It is serious people doing serious stuff, but at the same time it is laid back, but then you are simultaneously surprised by things like timing clocks and an announcer! Anyway, I told Steve that he had called me in as an Ironman in 2004 and that I was glad he was here with us! He said, “Happy you made it back!” I found out at the awards banquet that we have something in common, besides the fact that he is an endurance athlete—no tattoos!

Next, I wanted to change my clothes. Well, my intrepid crew had taken my morning clothes that I had been wearing before the swim back to the hotel! This made me laugh, but I had no shoes to wear once I removed my bike shoes. Lee graciously gave up hers, and I made my way down to Skaha Lake to chill out my legs. While in there, I babbled endlessly to Dan Squiller, a fellow Ultraman. I was pretty hopped up on caffeine and just high from a respectable finish to Day 1. Dan was the lucky “winner” of a free entry to the new Ultraman in Wales next year. The look on his face at the awards banquet at winning such a prize was priceless! It was a combination of “This is great” and “Oh, FUCK!”

After the lake soak, I got some food—ramen noodles—and then I got my first post-race massage. Us athletes get one each day, and it is necessary, and they have like the best massage therapists you could ask for on hand for us. These people are willing to work on us sweaty, smelly, endorphin crazed people and they seem to enjoy it! When my therapist, Cathy, asked me if anything special was needed, I said hips, low back and maybe my delts. My delts were still slightly sore from the swim, but I think only from wearing the wetsuit that long. I never had sore arms in training. There were things she did to me that hurt, but I understand the difference between bad hurt and good hurt, and this was all good.

After the massage, it was back to the hotel for a shower, rinse out the wetsuit and bike clothes, recheck my gear and bags for Days 2 and 3 since we would be staying in a different town after Day 2. I asked Richard if he could please wipe down Skull Kingdom and clean up the chain a bit. Lee and I decided we wanted some sushi again, leaving Richard and Mona to get a reprieve from me and my neediness. I managed to eat quite a bit of food, definitely more than Lee, but there were a few pieces of sushi left that I put in the refrigerator, thinking I’d catch them in the future.

What I Did Well
I biked at a comfortable pace and never felt I was exerting myself too hard that would endanger my energy for Days 2 and 3. I executed my nutrition pretty well and did not chafe (woo-hoo Chamois Butter!). I only peed once during the ride, but the next time I peed, I could see that I had hydrated well, and the reason I hadn’t peed more during the bike was because of my sodium loading, I suspect. That will be a good thing to do at Ultraman Hawaii, too. I enjoyed myself, engaging in multiple silly thoughts. I remained in aero position except on steep parts of climbs, and I remembered to stand up periodically and stretch my legs, neck, wrists and back. I remembered to go into the lake after finishing (after asking whether I should do that before or after massage and the answer was before), and I remembered to put my compression tights on right after I showered, and that walking to get dinner was a good thing to do. I ate lots of calories for dinner, to the point of feeling nearly stuffed, and I managed to sleep pretty well. I don’t remember whether it was me talking that put Lee asleep or vice versa. I was probably babbling and noticed she wasn’t saying anything, so I quit talking and got to sleep.

What I Can Improve On
I can cut down on the number of foods I need available in addition to Infinit and stop less frequently, thereby going faster. I would like my entire Day 1 to end in about 9:15 total. I know that sounds ambitious, and Hawaii Day 1 is supposed to be harder, but I can ride a bit harder and stop less. I will also consider using my existing aero helmet or a new one since the blue one doesn’t match Skull Kingdom and I am all about fashion on the bike. Crew failed once or twice by giving me a Camelback bottle with the lever set to the “off” position. I pointed this out as “CREW FAIL.” But with a smile on my face! Everything else the crew did was spot on based on our pre-race discussions.

What Concerns me About Hawaii
Pretty much just heat. There is more climbing on Day 1 ride, I believe, and my guess is there will be more no-feed zones there because of the curvy roads and chicanes. I will want my crew to do the running bottle handoffs, which makes their job harder, but oh well, I never promised them a rose garden! I may also need a re-application of sunscreen, depending on humidity, and I may need to toss cold water over my head. These are just concerns, though, since if I get through the swim in under 5 hours, I still have plenty of time to finish the ride to make the 12 hour cutoff.