if this doesn't get you fired up!!! (it's 9:30pm, pouring rain outside and I might just go run)..

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

by reidcoolsaet

Last summer at the World Championships a guy asked me for my autograph with my personal best.  Under my signature I wrote “27:56.92″.  He said “good luck in the 10km” in which I replied “I’m actually running the marathon.”  I explained to him how I wasn’t happy with my marathon PB (2:17:09) and that PB was going to be obsolete in a few days anyways.  A few days later in 22C heat I could only slightly improve upon my marathon PB and knew it was going to be at least a year before I could do anything about it.

The days leading up to the Scotiabank Toronto marathon I kept thinking that it had been three years since I had been this prepared for a race.  With my two big injuries through ’08 and ’09 I never had a proper build-up for a race until now.  The weather on Friday broke all kinds of heat records and it was pretty windy throughout Saturday but the marathon Gods blessed us with a perfect day on Sunday and I knew I had to make the most of it.

The gun went off and we flew down University Ave and I quickly got into my group of five which included a Kenyan pacemaker (Simon Tanui), my teammate, Rob Watson, who was also acting as my pacemaker, Dylan Wykes who was going to help with the pace as he was running the 1/2 marathon and Thomas Omwenga, a Kenyan who sometimes trains in Hamilton.  We went through the first 10km in 30:40 which was a little fast but I was feeling fine so that was good.

I still had my two pacemakers through the halfway mark (21.1km) which we hit in 1:05:03.  Mathematically, it looked as if the Canadian Record of 2:10:09 could be accomplished but I knew that I was already slowing down by that point and figured that sub 2:11 was now the goal.

Surprisingly, in the next 200 meters my Kenyan pacemaker dropped back which worried me because he was supposed to go to 30km.  So now it was just Rob and myself and I was hoping he could last until 25km.  However a couple hundred meters later... 

to read the rest go to http://reidcoolsaet.com/2010/09/27/while-im-here-id-like-to-thank/

Nike and www.runnerspace.com present Coach Jerry Schumacher and Simon Bairu

one day when I grow up...

I want to make short films like 'California is a place'


10 hours a day! Ping Pong Ping Pong Ping Pong Ping Pong.  For most of us, table tennis is a game.  But for the young Olympic hopefuls at the ICC in Milpitas, it's all business.  Except when it's just a game.  California is a place!

A film by ZCDC

Join Barrie Shepley in Caledon Ontario on Oct 2nd for the Kinetico Festival.

FORMER OLYMPIC COACH TRYING TO SET A NATIONAL RECORD FOR KIDS:




Former Olympic coach Barrie Shepley and a dozen of his best friends in
Caledon are trying to break a national record they set last year. The
Caledon Ontario based group, are working with Kinetico to give away 1100
free race entries to the Kinetico Kids 1 Mile Run. Last year organizers gave
away 1008 free entries to kids and this year are looking to surpass that
record. Every child (2 years of age up) will get a free race t-shrit, free
race medal, free poster and post-race meal. "We know that some families
cannot afford normal sport expenses so my friends at Kinetico are
under-writing the costs for up to 1100 kids to race free on Saturday Oct 2nd
in the 1 miler" said Shepley.

"Simon Whitfield knows the importance of giving kids a fun-low pressured
opportunity to participate and express their natural athletic talents" said
Shepley. The Kinetico Festival begins at 10am in Caledon with the K-Swiss
5k and 10k community runs then the day's highlight is the 11am Kids 1 Mile
Run. Shepley is hoping that people will register their kids (and perhaps
themselves) for the Oct 2nd events and help local organizers try to hit 1100
kids and a new national record. "Setting a record of this magnitude won't be
easy, but I am confident that parents, teachers and local GTA coaches will
get behind the great cause and fill up cars and vans with local kids for the
event" said Shepley. Shepley had a chance to watch Simon Whitfield when he
was only 11 years of age and knows the importance of allowing children the
opportunity to get started in low-pressured sport. The Kinetico Run

Festival is also focused on filling up the shelves of the FOOD BANK and are
asking families to consider bringing a bag of food to the race site on Oct
2nd. Everyone must pre-register to allow organizers time to plan for food
and race shirts. Details are at www.c3online.ca

a GUEST race report from Frank Ferrari (see previous post for family). photo from Worlds)

FROM FRANK FERRARI, reporting from Budapest. 

I will start this race report by giving a little background. Like a lot of Age Group athletes I am fortunate enough to have a lot of support in all aspects in my life. I try not to take it for granted.  When I qualified for the ITU World Champs I thought it would be a good opportunity to race as well as to provide my peeps with a great experience.  So with that in mind I signed up and booked tickets for my wife, 3 kids and my parents.  My mindset was to make sure the trip was not just about the race but was about the family.  We rented an apartment and stayed about 10 days and tried to immerse ourselves in the culture.  We tried to eat local foods, travel on public transit and not restrict our travels to only tourist destinations.  We enjoyed some of the Team Canada hospitality but not all. I admit that training in this environment was not easy, but I tried to get up earlier than the family and get my work done so it had less of an impact on our trip.  My two boys are avid swimmers so we made a point of going to the Olympic Swim Complex and I snuck my swimming in that way.

 

Leading up to the race I met a fellow Canadian Brian Kozak from Calgary, who had a great attitude and we chatted a fair bit in the days leading up to the event. Brian and I have a fair amount in common and he also brought his wife and twin daughters along for the experience. They were one of the few other family groups we met.  Which I think is an opportunity that a lot of folks missed out on.  We also got the chance to enjoy the Elite races and were eye witnesses to the Brownlee/Gomez battle

 

On to the event ....

 

Leading up to the race it poured rain for a day and a half and the long grass transition area was a mess.  The grass was more mud than anything else and i had a lot of concern with getting my bike out of the mud bowl without jamming it up with mud.

 

I woke up on race day to see the rain had stopped! Set up was quick, easy and well organized. The swim start was the classic age group wave start hanging on to the pier, with our wave making up about 125 of the Olympic Distance racers.  Prior to the start Brian and I joked about our poor relative swim ability, but we were both intent on solid performances.  

 

The swim was about as touch free as can be expected, I felt pretty good and I could feel the water well and I swam 24:25, probably my best of the season.  I kept thinking about Brian and his swim attitude and for some reason it drove me to catch and pull that much harder.

 

The transition was as expected and a muddy mess, I decided to put my bike on my shoulder, cross-bike style for part of the run out through the mud.  That appears to have been a decent decision as well, my T1 time was pretty good relatively speaking and my fancy bike was clean as could be.

 

The bike leg was an exercise in management and patience.  My riding has been limited the last 6 weeks since Ironman Lake Placid, due to back issues, work issues and travel.  I knew if I went at the 325 watts that I was doing earlier in the season I would probably blow up on the run.  I decided to target 290 - 300 watts and made a concerted effort to stay as aero as possible to get the most out of the power I had.  I averaged 40.18 km/hr and 299 watts for the bike leg.  I felt great the whole ride, nobody drafted off of me and I was never passed.  The only downside was the distance was only 35.5k not the the 40k Olympic bike.  I could have used that other 5 km!

 

T2 was OK - I had a long run in and again I went Cross style and passed several people in transition. 

 

I fell into about 4 min/k pace on the run with a fellow from AUS and clicked off the first 4 - 5 k by hanging on to him.  We were overtaken by another runner from South Africa and I decided to try to go with him. I ran hard yet he slowly gapped me but it got me out of the rut I had gotten myself into. Crossing the famous 'Chain Bridge' I got a great boost from the raucus cheering of the Team Ferrari contingent.   That helped to make my last few km of the run the best of the day, as I passed several racers in my age group and had a very strong finish.  I ran a 39.40 for the 10k off of the bike and I felt stronger and stronger through the run, I could not ask for any more than that.

 

Too sum up - I enjoyed a fantastic 10 days of site seeing in a fantastic city with the people I care about, I met other Canadians with shared interests and I had a great race.  I could not possibly have asked for anything more.

 

Frank

had to post this terrific picture of the Ferrari family at the Grand Final in Budapest.

thanks for sending me the pic Frank, you guys are looking great all decked out in your Canada kit!!!

Proud to be Canadian, representing the MapleLeaf in Ferrari red!!!!!

If you're headed to Kona for Ironman make sure you check out "Endurance Maximus" and please someone get me one of those tee shirts!!!!

and check out www.enduranceconspiracy.com 

not sure I expected my beautiful SL3 to look like this 1 week before the grand final.

the infamous "let me start by saying I'm ok" post.

well, I got side swiped by a car yesterday here in Saarbrucken Germany (west of Frankfurt where the German Olympic training center is).

very very very lucky.

landed on my back, lovely helmet oh my lovely helmet saved my small brain from a nasty introduction to mr. concrete. Elbow has a boohoo, ass road rash, nice little blemish on my back, hip is sore.

Helmet has skid marks on the top... not sure how and a nice crack inside.

Sheared the seat stay right off my beautiful bike, other then that barely a scratch.

Really a stupid accident, bike lane ended and 50meters later car tried to edge me off the road, I banged on the side passenger window to tell him I was there.... he made a sharp right and slammed on his brakes. I was riding aggressively though, still he was trying to run me off the road. I ALMOST made it damn it, jumped the curb but clipped electrical box and flipped over my handle bars.

We almost fought right there in the street after I bounced off the pavement and came at him. I caught myself just before being a complete idiot and just stood there thinking about my kids and wondering what mountain bikes Specialized makes and not saying a word, nothing, driver looked like he was going to actually exploded, I waited quietly for this to happen. It was surreal as he just kept going and going and going, screaming in German as Kyle and I just stood there, looking at each other and saying "man that was close"

and

"tone it down Chewbacca before my eardrum explodes".

Crowd gathered, mostly concerned, which was reassuring. A passerby named Felix spoke German and was clearly very compassionate to an injured person and tried to calm the still LOSING HIS BLOODY MIND driver. He eventually talked down the driver who at first was apparently yelling "I wanted to hit him and kill him, he smacked my car", a natural reaction when a human being touches your material goods and you are obviously in a hurry to get where you are going.... or park, or kill, because you're a driver and drivers must establish there rights even if it's at the cost of human life. Makes perfect sense if you've lost your mind.

Just to take it up a crazy notch a massive german dude pulled up on his motorbike a full 5 minutes later, in all his leathers and went ballistic at me. I managed to gather from his obscenities and hand gestures that he didn't want me standing 3 feet into his very large empty driveway. That was really nice of him. I moved and said very calmly while smiling "I'm ok, thanks for asking, get help, you're insane and your leather jacket makes my spandex look half cool, purple is not your colour". He didn't understand a word of English, which made it almost funny.

That took surreal to a whole other level.

Super guy Felix calmed down crazy driver dude when he finally stopped yelling "POLICE, POLICE, POLICE" at the top of his lungs. He hadn't yet asked me if I was ok. why would you.... he was expressing his "driver rights", because drivers never do anything wrong and they own the whole road, no matter what. I guess he was teaching his 13 year old daughter, who was in the car with him, how to wave the "drivers rights" flag.

She was crying hysterically because her dad was losing his mind while checking his car for scratches.

I don't think she got the finer points of his 'how to kill a cyclist' demonstration. 

Police arrived, took statements, Kyle became captain debater and did a great job by simply repeating "why is his car facing the houses?". The officer was terrific, listened to a now calm driver, super Felix and eventually me (while a random lady patched up my arm with gaux and some extremely painful spray). It looked like I was going to be charged for 'passing on the right', which was a little strange as I was only passing because he was slamming on his brakes and trying to run me off the road.  Eventual I said "can I just ask one thing, if I don't care about my bike, I'm just thankful I'm ok and his car doesn't even have a scratch, no matter how hard he searches for one, can we just shake hands and go home".

"are you saying it was 50/50"

"if he says so too"

"Er sagt, es war mit 50 Prozent seine Schuld war, wenn Sie es 50 Prozent sagen, deine Schuld "

"fine"

"cool"

then I asked the police officer "can I get a lift home"

"yes"

and 1hr later we went out for dinner, and I ate a small mountain of food. In fact since then all I've wanted is the 3 c's, Cookies, Chocolate and Coffee. and a hug from my kids who will learn to respect people, be patient and caring first, to have compassion for others, all that strange stuff.
 
Kyle is so hard core he made sure I was absolutely ok, there was no more police statements to make, that I had a ride home and went off to do the workout we were planning on, which pretty much sums up how awesome Kyle is.

My neck is sore but Jan Frodeno took me to the hospital, charmed the nurse and got me Xray'd and examined, 30mins in and out.

So.... my knee is sore, my neck is sore, I have a borrowed Cervelo s3 from Petzolds incredibly nice coach and my SL3 is a bit lighter and not quite as stiff.....






But I;m fine and I finally updated my blog.

oh and there's a massive motorcyclist out there who needs to get his head examined, the jackass.

S