...just wondering what goes through someone's mind, when they do chin-ups in the water using the backstroke handles on the diving block. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's like no resistance.

Triathlon mojo has been fading big time for me for a while now. Until last week, I hadn't swum since closing the river in September. My last pool swim would have been in May. I've been having swim envy for a couple of weeks as Guylaine has joined the masters. Time for action.

Last Tuesday, I re-instated monster swim night. 3000 meters+. It was awesome. Strangely, I felt great. I followed it up again last night. Again... I felt great. Maybe I'll get back on my bike again soon?

The swims

Last Week:
400m warm up
3 x(100 Pull + 50 Kick)
2 x 200 @Med Pace
3 x 100 IM
50 Easy
4 x 100 (Fr-Bk-Fr-Bk)
50 Easy
4 x 100 (Ez-Md-Ez-Hd)
50 Eesy
6 x25 sprints on :30
350 Cool Down

Last Night:
400 W/U
100 Pull, 100 Kick, 100 Pull, 100 Kick, 100 Pull
100 Easy
4 x 25 on 0:30
100 Easy
4 x 50 on 1:00
100 Easy
4 x 75 on 1:30
200 Easy
4 x 100 on 2:00
200 Easy
2 x 100 IM
200 C/D

Held the Olympic torch. Baked some brownies. Did 'Hash House Harriers' Run. Watched Ironman Hawaii* with the Multisport club. Cheered local Ironman Dan Contant. Ended with some Turkey last night.

* I'm pretty sure, the main storyline for this year was Chrissie -- not just if she would win again, but by how big a margin, how much would she break the record by and how many pro-men would she 'chick'.

Imagine my surprise on Sunday, when I was cleaning leaves out of the pool... and this one started to swim. It's a giant water bug, and it's a freaky SOB. A google image search will pull up some nasty pics of them. Here's a nice heart warming story about Sam and her pet Giant Water Bug -- our bug enjoyed a much less warm welcome to the family and was sent packing down the storm drain. Apparently they bite - and leave a nasty sting.

Two years ago, I set a "pie-in-the-sky" goal of 45 minutes for a 10K. I never really trained for it, and I never really achieved it.

This year, I opened the "season" with back-to-back 10K Races. One, the MS Run, in lousy conditions and the next in Brockville, under better conditions. Truth is, I wasn't really "healed" from my bad foot, and wasn't anywhere in shape - although they were both pleasant experiences.

At the Cornwall Triathlon, I completely bonked on the last 5K of the 10K run, and since then, I had pretty much given up on training.

We had planned to do the Glengarry Run, if nothing else than to support a good local race, and a good cause. But it wasn't until this morning that I decided to go for the 10K. Partly out of some morbid curiosity to see how out-of-shape I really was after a good two months of personally stimulating the economies of the beer-producers of both North America and Europe.

I let it slip out in pre-race chatter that I'd like to go for 45 minutes. (What the heck was I thinking?) Deep down inside, I hoped for at least sub 50. We lined up and I seeded relatively far back; and then, we were off.

As usual, I took off with some kind of unreserved fury. I caught myself after 100 meters, and tried to "settle-in". The sub-40 guys were out far enough. I hit the 500 meter mark at 2:02 and I thought, "uh-oh". 1K was 4:06, and so I said to myself... "well, we've got a bit of time in the bank if we are going sub-45 today" (4:30 splits would give me the magical 45 minute time).

But then, things started to get hard. And I was breathing like a rabid dog. 2K came at 4:28. This was nuts, I couldn't keep that up. 2.5K and the turn around appeared for the '5': it was all I could do to not turn around and declare myself a 5K participant.

3K, 4K... things were on track. In fact, the race course was marked out in 500 meter increments, and every 500 meters was showing me that I was on target... and I still had some time in the bank. There was NO way I could keep this up though. I told myself to hold it until the turnaround; I'd toast myself for a fast 5K, and then jog it home. Somehow, my legs had another agenda...

6K and still on track. 6.5K and the wheels fell off! "Aha!" I knew it. "I'll just coast home from here". But darn it, if the heavy breathing of a fellow competitor behind me didn't keep me going. I was able to do something I'm never able to do - I found a small fibre of mental strength, and held on. 7K - Rik catches me. 7.5K and my splits are back on target. I was starting to get excited - 45 was a possibility.

9K at 40:23. I was dead tired, but still able to compute that a 5 minute last kilometer would give me 45:something. 9.5K and I was still on target for sub-45. I poured it on. I could see the clock. I was 20 meters away. 44:40 - no problem, I slowed down. I'll coast into the finish line with time to spare... but then somehow the seconds started going by FASTER than usual (so it seemed). At 7 meters to go, I had to sprint for it..... BEEP... I stopped my watch just shy of 45 minutes. Official gun time... 44:59.6.

Can I get a Hallelujah!

I even got a medal for 2nd in my age group.


Les Splits

All in all, a great day for the Barnes family. Andrew first boy in the 1K (5:05). Laura 3rd girl and 5th overall in the 1K (5:45). Guylaine a PB of 53:39 - for 2nd female overall - and a tough lesson on Chip time vs Gun Time. Lots of good times and medals for the CMC family too.

Labels: Race Report

A.K.A. Race Report: Waterfront Festival Preview Run
It was a cold fall evening. The ambulances and paramedics were on high alert. 17 or so crazy mofos lined up for a preview run of the 2010 Waterfront Festival Cross Country Race. In my infinite wisdom, I misread the invitation - I honestly thought, we'd be running through the odd creek or puddle. And that there was one deep crossing of 2.5 feet.

There was in fact one crossing of 2.5 feet deep. Well, 3 feet more accurately. The rest were, MUCH deeper. I was in over my head... LITERALLY.

There was an "out" though. If you didn't want to do the water crossings, you could run around them. This option would keep you dry, but would add an extra 1.5K to your distance. The pre-race chatter went something like this... "I'm not doin it-- are you doin it?" ... "I'll do it if you do it." ... "You guys are nuts!" As a gag, I had shown up wearing fluorescent orange water-wings, "What the hell! I'll do it."

We were off.

The pace was slow and relaxed. The anticipation built. Finally, we were at the first crossing: Rik dove in without hesitation. Michelle paused and then poof she was in. I stood there 99% ready to run the extra distance - but then somehow, I mustered the courage and before I knew it, I was in the water.

OH MY GOD It was FREEZING. So cold, it took my breath away. After what seemed like an eternity, I was on the other side. Soaking and freezing. Well, let's keep running! My thighs burned with the coldness - but the whole time I couldn't stop smiling. We must have looked a real crazy bunch to the rest of the people bundled up in fall jackets walking through the park that night.

The finish line couldn't have come any sooner. A personal victory maybe... Speedster Liam (having taken the longer but dry route) was running the hill to the finish, maybe I could edge him out. A final sprint... But the kid got me in the end. Argh!

Definitely a crazy experience. But certainly an experience to remember!


The first crossing. 120 feet. Yellow = Short, but VERY cold and VERY wet. Red = Long, but DRY!


Number two. 80 feet.


Number three. A measly 14 feet.


And finally, 150 feet.

Final time: 28:16. 4th overall! (out of not very many).

Labels: Race Report

I may be finding a new passion: Cross Country. The trails at work are getting soggy and muddy. I had my first wipe-out today (and sprained my finger!). I'm lovin' it. I've been hiding a heel/ankle injury/"strange sensation" for 6 weeks now, but it doesn't seem to bother me on the trails.

I had a nice cross-country run today. About 5K on the trails around the office. What a rush. My calfs are complaining right now, but I think I am going to make this a regular routine.

It's been dry lately, so the trail was pretty firm. I'm actually kind of looking forward to some mud though. Road running is so 2008.


No. Not me.

Labels: Cross Country

CMC Labour Day chase was the dress rehearsal for Andrew. Montreal was the The Big Dance. 5K in the streets of Montreal, ending inside the Big-O. Over 13,000 competitors in races from 1K to Marathon. 1800 alone in the 5K.

We had gone up to Montreal the night before and stayed at France's parents' house. We were 4 families. 8 adults, 8 kids: all racing.

Pre-race, Andrew was cool as a cucumber. I was nervous. I had to pee. 1800 other people had too pee too (it seemed). We jumped form one porta-potty line to another. "5-4-3-2-1-Go!" - we were finally inside, when the race started. "Don't worry, we'll be fine". And we were. We emerged just on time to join the slow-moving-starting grid about a minute behind the start. We approached the timing mat. "Beep" and we were off.

The first kilometer is uphill (aparently), but it didn't seem to phase us. We did just fine, getting our groove on. Andrew was weaving and bobbing through the traffic. Anytime someone passed him, he'd surge and re-pass. I started telling him not to worry about it. It wasn't having any effect, so I figured I'd let him do his thing. "Don't worry about me" I said, "I'll always be behind you. You do what you want to do."

"Dad, there's so many people in front of us" he said. "Turn around and take a look" I replied. There were hundreds of people behind us. "You're way in front of all those people!". I think the magnitude of that really hit him. "Cool!"

Our goal for the race was to beat last week's time (of 29:19). I wasn't too sure if that was possible. But I tried to keep him on pace. It was obvious he was running on heart from about 3.8 k on. That's when he saw the 4K banner and thought it was the finish line. "1 more K to go" I said. His response was heart-breaking, but he soldiered on. "OK, I can do this" he said.

We hit the downward slope to the Big-O. "Run down it, don't worry, you won't fall!" He took off, we passed about 30 people on the finish stretch. And then finally our faces on the big screen. The finish line.

We did it! I stopped my watch and couldn't believe it -- 28:30! Andrew smoked his PB by 49 seconds.


I missed the 2K split - but we kept on pace - you can see where he put the jets on for the grand finale

From SportStats (Funny thing is that they didn't have a category for anything under 18.):

Place	Name	City	Bib	Gun	Chip	Pace	Category	Division	Gender
770	ANDREW BARNES	Cornwall	13726	29:31.4	28:29.2	5:55	M18-24	296/410	512/852
771	PHIL BARNES	Cornwall	13725	29:31.7	28:30.4	5:55	M35-39	43/79	513/852

Andrew thought it was pretty cool that he was on Youtube

All in all, it was a great race day for everyone. Lot's of PB's: Laura for the 1K (beating 695 boys and 707 other girls) and Guylaine in the 10K (top 16% in her category).

And of course, Cupajoe going way-sub 40 on 10K DESPITE having extra cake the night before.

Labels: Race Report

Andrew ran 5 laps at the school track with the Garmin today. Chip of the ol' block!