- What's up Trainiacs?
Today, May 15th 2018, mark it on your calendars
as the day that Taren made a bad decision about
doing his first race of the year.
(upbeat music)
So every May, in Winnipeg we have what's called,
the Duathlon Series in the Park.
And these are, in my opinion,
some of the hardest races on the series.
They're hard for a few reasons.
Number one, it's early in the season.
So first time that I or really anyone
has got up to race pace.
Secondly, it's a short race.
Even the long version of the race is a 4K run,
a 24K bike and then a 4K run.
So it's, (hands clapping)
from the gun going off, blazing fast.
I did a video that I will link to right up there
about the hardest race that I've ever done.
It was actually the short version of this race
because it's so fast.
And all the high performance kids come out
and everyone's just rearing to go,
all full of piss and vinegar.
That everyone does stupid things
and they're not quite race fit.
But there's a few reasons that I'm doing it.
Number one is, Tuesday is supposed
to my intensity brick session.
Normally it's a group ride of about an hour
to hour 20 with sprints in it.
And then building up to about a 20-25 minute
hard run off the bike.
Essentially, what a Duathlon is.
So we might as well add some race speed.
Having those people next to you,
and actually having a time,
and a placing, that you gotta hang your hat on the next day,
there's nothing like that to (snapping fingers)
absolutely light a fire under your butt to get you to move.
And the second reason that I'm doing this is,
I just mapped out how long it is
until Coeur d'Alene happens, it is close.
And I need to (smacking)
dust the old race cobwebs off of these legs,
at least once, maybe twice.
So, we race.
Here, let me show you the setup.
So of course we're gonna go with the Ventom.
I'm not bringing any nutrition 'cause I'm expecting
this to last maybe around an hour 10 or so.
In here I've got, basically just a bottle,
a little bit less than a half of bottle
with some light electrolyte drink.
And I'll take what they've got on the course
when I get on to the course for the first run.
But very, very minimal.
Only thing that I've got that's a little bit
out of the ordinary is I'm taking all my tools.
Because this thing, has been quite finicky
as I'm trying to figure out the fit
and just getting everything aligned up quite right.
We have my Tri shoes, shoes.
I'm gonna go with socks because I'm not gonna lose
any time in transition because I will have
put on my socks before.
So socks, yes.
I'm gonna go Tri Shorts.
Of course in the Triathlon Taren gear,
we got the Scodi Belt, we're going Wahoo Heart Rate Monitor.
We are going with no sleeves because apparently
it's gonna be 29 degrees Celsius,
see upwards of 80 fahrenheit.
And then we're going with, the Goodr shades.
And instead of full Arrow helmet,
I'm going with the Road Arrow.
So that I can leave the shades on,
put the helmet on and then when I'm finished
getting into transition two, take the helmet off
and then I don't have to worry about putting shades on.
Now it's just before 2:00 right now.
I just ate a fairly large lunch.
Hopefully something that's gonna be cleared
from my stomach by the time the race happens at 7:00.
I am going to munch on just a small little bar
as a snack leading up to it.
And over the rest of the afternoon,
just sip a little bit of light electrolyte drink.
And then, 10-15 minutes before the race, I'll take a gel.
That's it.
(soft music)
Well, this doesn't look inviting.
(soft music)
Unfortunately it's 30 Celsius.
Hopefully okay.
All right let's go do this.
(soft music)
- [Woman] Also, if you're gonna take any videos,
GoPro's you need to get the permission
from the race-- (horn honking)
(gentle music)
I gotta put you away, it's race time.
That hurt, that hurt a lot.
(sighing)
So that was a win,
with an asterisk.
Allow me to explain.
Gun goes off, Mark Fournier multiple provincial
cycling champion, awesome triathlete,
basically since like 95' who is still at his age,
like I think he's 50-ish, awesome!
We're running neck and neck,
a running specialist who was a cross country guy
in high school, takes off in front of us,
but he was wearing Boardshorts.
So we're like, I don't think we gotta worry about him.
Mark and I, running side by side.
And there was a point at about 2K in,
that he put on the Afterburners,
dropped it down to about a three minute per kilometer.
I was like, holy geez Mark!
And I thought to myself, he's showin' off.
So I reel him back in.
We get on the bike, outta T1 together.
We go around what was supposed to be,
a two loop bike course.
We get to the end of the first loop
and I see Mark goes past doin' the second loop
just like we're intended.
But the officials are like, go in, go in, go in!
Canceled!
It's canceled because of rain!
I'm like, the race is canceled?
But Mark's up there.
And I actually thought to myself,
do I race the race, or do I race Mark?
'Cause racing Mark is fun.
I head out onto the run course with about a minute
and a half lead on the run specialist,
and about four or five other people in behind me.
And I'm running and running,
down around a three 55 per kilometer,
six 30, six 20, six 15, miles.
Get to the turnaround, still have
that minute and a half lead.
Coasted in an about four minute per kilometer.
Get to the finish line, see that I'm in first,
very, very happy, however Mark Fournier
did decide to do two loops of the bike course,
not just one because he didn't know
that the second loop was canceled.
So it's like a win, with an asterisk.
And at the bottom that asterisk says,
Mark Fournier did two laps, while Taren did one.
Only raced the people that are racing that day.
And talking with Mark after the race,
he was showing off at that point.
And he was like, I wonder what Taren's gonna do,
I hope it scared him.
It didn't.
So there we go Trainiacs.
Cobwebs officially successfully dusted off the old legs.
We'll do this again next week.
And hopefully Mark does the appropriate amount of laps.
And hello to all the Trainiacs that I met there.
I'm not gonna mention all of you because
I'm really bad with names, I'm very sorry.
But, like a good half dozen of you,
it was so very nice to meet ya.
Thank you for reaching out and saying hi.
And if you aren't yet subscribed,
hit the subscribe button below!
And if you are subscribed like those Trainiacs,
like the video!
Thank you so much for sayin' hi again.
Awesome racing with ya.