Adventures in Oz

lost momentum

2007-09-29T14:34:00.000+10:00

g'day folks.

yeah, lost some momentum somewhere along the way with the blog. got a couple pictures emailed to us this week that i thought are worth sharing.

here we are atop the eureka tower.

and, as lynn mentioned in her blog, we attended a friend's baby's christening. Afterwards at the bbq, we got a chance to entertain the guest of honour (Charlie). or, maybe he entertained us:

karekare

2007-04-24T20:07:00.000+10:00

had a conference over in christchurch, on the south island of new zealand in late january. so i figured since i was in the country that i'd head up to auckland for the weekend after the conference and hang out with jay and gesa 'at the beach'. they live a bit west of auckland, in a rainforest on the west coast, literally a couple metres from the beach. a very beautiful spot. was quite a shock coming from australia where it only rains once every couple of months. the grass was green! the waterfalls have water. its a whole other world over there.

mades for some difficult cycling too, because you have a 10k climb to start your ride. needless to say, i wasn't eager to get up in the morning for that. jay was in heavy ironman training mode when i visited, so we ended doing a 6.5hr 155k ride. he's got it tough, i must say. hills everywhere. we averaged about 25kph, which is ~10kph slower that our beach rd. great workout though, very scenic.

couple photos below ...

rubbing the belly. very nice. i believe we are looking at the waterfall that is about 50 metres from their house.

after a 10 minute hike, we are treated to these views. one of those house's below is when hamster lives. the beach is just off camera on the left.

fantastic area of the world.

the near death experience

2007-04-24T19:53:00.000+10:00

ok, well, it wasn't really near-death. but it freaked me out pretty good. with all the publicity of steve irwin's death-by-stingray, it was quite a shock when i jumped in for a quick swim and first thing i see was a stingray scooting away from me. i jumped up pretty quick and back to shore. lynn had a good chuckle at me.

while in tasmania, we spent a couple days on the freycinet peninsula at coles bay. hiked over to see the infamous 'wineglass bay' ... named that not because it is shaped like a wineglass (though it is), but because there was a lot of whaling when the bay was discovered .... the water was coloured red from the blood. or, at least that's the (wives?) tale we were told.

Here are some pictures of us sea kayaking around coles bay.

tassie!

2007-04-24T19:32:00.000+10:00

Sorry folks. Been a bag blogger lately. My plan is to get up-to-date, especially on the major things like Ironman Oz 07, a wee trip over to new zealand, but let's do this in chronological order, shall we?

Back in January (which seems so long ago), Lynn and I went to Tassie for a week. We did a half ironman race down there, and then travelled around for a few days.

What do you think of when you think 'Tasmania'? Untouched wilderness. Very laid back friendly folks. Seafood. Tasmanian Devils ... Yep, all that and more. Here are a few photos of our expedition.

The gorge in Launceston.

Burger joint in Hobart.

Looking up to Mt Wellington from Hobart.

Lynn up at the lookout on Mt Wellington.

Look down at the city of Hobart.

Funky rocks at Mt Wellington.

Tesselated Pavement on the east coast.

The former convict settlement at Port Arthur.

stacked it ...

2007-03-05T13:56:00.000+11:00

well, after 2 years of cycling 200-450km per week, I was involved in my first stack (stack is australian for a crash). It was 'dumb driver day' on the roads in melbourne this weekend ... had a number of close calls, both on the bike and in the car. some people here have little regard for other's safety, or such minimal skill in driving to be aware of their surroundings.

it was days like this, that lower my desire to stay in this country long term. too many cowboys.

it happened pretty quick. one second, 7 of us were travelling along 2 abreast as normal in the bike lane around 40kph near Rosebud, 80km south of melbourne, and the next second my tailbone was kissing the pavement.

i'm thankful it wasn't worse as the guy beside me went over the handlebars, cracked his full carbon Orbea along the top tube, broke his helmet as his cheek and face rubbed pavement and probably also broke a finger.

some old guy, who evidently could barely see let alone drive, rolled past us and then 5 seconds later turned into a driveway directly in front of us. I was second wheel on the left side, the guys in the front managed to react well enough but trying to avoid them I veered left towards the truck, slowed a bit, ran out of real estate and hit the deck no-hands and onto my tailbone.

it could've been worse. the bike is ok and i was able to ride the 130k home, though with some pain.

major bummer. pun intended.

one of those days

2007-03-01T17:23:00.000+11:00

It has been one of those days where I ask myself: why am I here? is my research *important* to anyone?

Maybe some light reading will do me good.
Example: Are doctorates worthwhile?

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day. A nice 90 minute run ought to put the mind (and body) at ease.

swimmin in the bay

2007-02-27T20:52:00.000+11:00

here we are (me, ian, george) about to get tossed around in the bay. it doesn't look all that inviting, does it? this was taken over the christmas holidays.

and now, because the water is warmer than in past years and there has been prevailing southerly winds, the north part of the bay where we swim is chocked full of jelly fish. now these aren't the super stingers e.g. box jellies that can kill you (those are up in queensland), but they do give a slight sting and are a real nuisance. i personally get freaked out by coming across wildlife in the sea. much prefer fresh water swimming.

thanks to lavinia (ian's wife) for taking the picture of us (and for being our onshore lifeguard on a rather unpleasant day).

finally did it

2007-02-27T20:37:00.000+11:00

Well, it happened. I won my age group in a half-ironman triathlon. Obviously, this depends on who shows up on the day, and the 25-29 group was much tougher. Good thing I'm 30! Finished in 18th place overall in a time of 4.22.31 (~29 swim, 2.27 bike, 1.25 run), 6th amateur.

I pretty much put together the best possible race I could and finally ran to my potential. Actually, I think I had a really good race back in Shepparton in December, it just happened to be 38 degrees that day.

So, all is coming along well for the big show, Ironman Australia in 4.5 weeks. Hope to have some heart rate data posted shortly, in addition to some pictures from Tassie.

here is lynn cruising through the run.

here she is hammering down the finish chute.

the name on the board at the awards ceremony.

the 'G' on the calf.

the great australian pastime

2007-02-13T12:19:00.000+11:00

Aussie youth drinking till they drop

I've certainly seen some evidence of this. Of course, it may well exist back home, just that I was never awake to see it. Here, before 7am on a Saturday/Sunday, there is always a good number of young folks either passed out in the street or randomly meandering through the streets (presumably to their homes?).

heart rate data

2007-02-07T08:32:00.000+11:00

i find this stuff very interesting. plotted below is my heart rate, taken every 15 seconds, for ironman uk last august and the half ironman in shepp in december. swim plotted in black, bike in blue, run in red.

you can right click on it and 'view image' to get a larger view.

ironman uk (august 2006)

the major thing to notice for ironman uk is that i had a really tough time after about 7 hours. notice the hr dropped considerably on the run and never returned. my run speed also dropped. if i can find a way to keep that up for longer, i should be able to go faster, even if that means going slower earlier in the race.

shepparton half ironman

in shepp, i deliberately went conservative on the bike, with the occasional 'lazy' period.

my new favourite sport (to watch) ... cricket

2007-02-06T20:44:00.000+11:00

it took a long time, but i've discovered cricket. since i don't care much for most of what television has to offer these days, cricket is a reasonable alternative, as there is a fair amount of it on in the summer time. there is the 'ashes', played every year between australia and england, which is 5 test matches, each test match lasting up to 5 days (and even after 5 days, it can sometimes end in a draw). and now, there is a tri-nations series (australia, new zealand, england) and later on is the world cup.

i don't think lynn is really into it, but i forced her to go see day 2 of the ashes match held at the melbourne cricket ground (MCG or just the 'G').

from our original 'cheap' seats.

a friend of ours scored us seats for the 2nd session of the day, 3 rows from the field.

cricket is strictly a spectator sport for me. you'd think with a background in baseball, some of the hand-eye coordination would carry over. it doesn't seem to for me. bowling is also suprising difficult.

shepparton half ironman -- hot and smoky

2007-02-05T20:46:00.000+11:00

Skinny:

Swim: ~30min
Ride: 2h 24min (pb)
Run: 1h 31min

Total: 4h 25min (pb)

Click here to find out when the hottest day of December was in Shepparton, a town about 1.5 hours north of Melbourne.

That just happened to coincide with the day Lynn and I were doing a triathlon, me a half ironman and Lynn a sprint distance race. I did this race last year, when it was scheduled in mid-November. December in Shepparton can be very hot, and we drew the short stick for this one.

A couple of weeks before the race, I had high hopes, felt I was in good form and thought, given a good day and a good effort, I could smash my last year's performance. Once we got the forecast about 6 days out, all bets were off. A top of 42 degrees! I had done some long runs in the heat of the day, but expecting a temperature of ~38 degrees for the run was far beyond my tested limits.

Thanks to the forest fires in the northeast (... still burning to this day ...), there was reasonably thick haze and a strong scent of smoke. This would affect the ashmatics more than I, so I felt pretty lucky. Its the same for everybody. Actually, the good thing about the smoky haze was that it blocked the intense early morning sun, already 25 degrees at race start.

So, off we went, into muddy lake. For the first time, I wasn't in the first swim wave. Now being the ripe old age of 30, the young guns got a 3 minute lead. This has some benefits of course, as there are more people to chase. The swim was average, went back and forth from feeling good to feeling average. Pretty uneventful.

Onto the bike, the plan was always to be conservative, especially with the heat. Aimed to have a solid ride, but not too hard. Went through 5 bottles of sport drink/water in the 2.5 hours. That's about twice the regular intake. In the past, I've hammered the bike (mostly because its enjoyable) and suffered on the run. My plan here was to be conservative on the bike and save something for the run. The bike was good fun. Roughly hit 48 minutes for every 30k lap.

The good thing about the run course in Shepp was that it was 3 loops of ~7km and in each loop, there were 4 aid stations, 3 of which you passed in both directions. So, 7 opportunities per 7k to dump water on your head. Playing it conservative worked out ok, as I managed to have solid run and a personal best time for the distance. Finished 7th place in the 30-34 category, so there was good competition on the day. It was enough to secure my spot for Ironman Australia.

I felt for the older competitors, some of them finishing in the heat of the day. Most went straight to the medical tent.

bustin' a move

2007-01-31T21:01:00.000+11:00

a little slow on the update here, but wehi (that's the institute where i work) had a ball back in november. for the most part, its a major pissup for the aussie folk. i very optimistically woke up at 6.30am to go cycling the next morning. back in bed by 6.35, who was i kidding.

new shoes. very good for dancing, as you can see in the next photo.

me attempting to dance, taking lynn and silke down with me. does it look like i'm running? i have marian (the picture taker), a fellow phd student at wehi, to thank for recording this embarassing moment in history.

lynn and i.

it has indeed been a long time

2007-01-29T16:52:00.000+11:00

yep. not to worry, some blog stories will be up soon. its been a little lite recently.

lots to blog about ... we moved house, been training, been racing, been travelling, been working here and there.

and, we even have internet at home.

all amazing stuff, I know.

there will be pictures also.

hopefully this week sometime.

a new personal record

2006-11-28T08:49:00.000+11:00

well ... i think i've always been a morning person and am certainly not adverse to early morning bike rides ... but this past saturday i set a new record though ... on the bike at 5.15am ... i wanted to be back home to be able to attend a few house inspections (as we are 'moving house' as they call it here) ... pretty good feeling arriving home at 10.00am having 153k in the bank. it was a clear morning ... great watching the sunrise riding along the bay with no traffic, bike or car. awesome.

shepparton half ironman in 12 days. my training mates are doing ironman western oz in 5 days ... summer is on the way!

grampians

2006-11-02T21:17:00.000+11:00

lynn treated me to a ironman-training-free weekend away to grampians national park for my birthday. its a great spot (... except for some of the unsealed roads that our rental car didn't appreciate ...).

a major bush fire went through the grampians in january of this year and it took out a huge chunk of the park's forest (~45%) ...

here are some pictures. hope you enjoy.

lynn speeding through the mountains.

lookout over mt difficult range.

lynn with tough-girl look.

post-fire growth.

me + waterfall.

double thumbs up from lynn on they way up mt stapylton.

rock ducky.

view down to mt zero.

me on the edge. mt stapylton.

run like the wind

2006-11-02T21:01:00.000+11:00

this happened about a month ago. my friend suzanne took this picture of me near the finish on St. Kilda road in Melbourne. thanks to a very serious tailwind, i managed to match my half marathon PB (81.5 minutes) after laying low from training for the 2-3 weeks prior.

back on the wagon now ... tentative but probable race schedule is as follows:

10 dec - shepparton half ironman
14 jan - tasmanian half ironman
27 jan - bloody big swim (?)
18 feb - surfcoast long course tri (relay with lynn?)
01 apr - ironman oz

mango

2006-11-02T20:52:00.000+11:00

who knew that it would take me 30+ years to discover mango ... do mangos even make it as far as cobourg, ontario?

i had never heard of them (well, i had, but it never stuck on my very local radar) until eating at 'curry in a hurry' in guelph (ca 1996), where i tasted lynn's mango juice. hated it. never tried it again until we ate them at lynn's uncle's place in sydney last year. i was indifferent at that time.

on sunday, i cut my first mango. today, my second, and i did a pretty lousy job. i have the stains on my sock and pants to prove it. it's not as easy as people make it look.

more importantly, it's now my new favourite fruit. yumm.

the volcano system

2006-09-25T20:39:00.000+10:00

my ph.d. co-supervisor describes my workspace management "system" as the volcano approach. this all started when lynn was pointing out to my supervisor how messy my desk was. still, a pretty good analogy ... things bubbling over and papers/notes landing randomly around the epicentre (in this case, my computer).

so that inspired me to organize my desk a bit. unfortunately, the next eruption is already under way.

yeah, we clean up ok

2006-09-15T17:33:00.000+10:00

here are some pictures of lynn and i from the APS awards dinner. APS is a winter running series that we participated in (well, lynn more than me). it turns out that our team won the division 2 trophy ... meaning we're the best of the lower-grade-but-still-half-decent runners. The division 1 winners are basically professionals. All they do is run.

now, we're not leaning. it's the camera man (philgoode)

acting as if i'm drinking from the cup

actually drinking from the cup?

the gang. well, most of them.

us with goofy looks on our faces.

at least you can't see my shoes in the picture. i guess dress shoes didn't make the trip from Canada.

the progression of pain

2006-09-03T20:49:00.000+10:00

transitions, kona, notes

2006-08-23T01:14:00.000+10:00

Hah, I've decided my specialty in triathlon is transitioning. If you check the results, I had a total transition time of 3min 47seconds, which is 2nd place among all amateurs (and by 1 second!) and I must admit I didn't have the smoothest T1 -- I ran right by my bag and had to backtrack 5 metres. At least I know how to answer the Aussies when they ask what my specialty is (Aussies are always sizing you up, you see). Why is there no award for fastest transitions?

1st and 2nd place in my category took the Kona slots and well, lets be honest, they were very deserving (9.21 and 9.36). If I had paced a little better, I might've got on the podium (9.58), but hey there is always room for improvement, you don't get too much practice at these. Very encouraging result altogether and some more (another year?) development ought to get me to kona. Very stiff yesterday but already feeling improvement today.

Had a very quick drive from Sherborne to Heathrow yesterday (not that i was anywhere near the fastest on the road), dropped my bike at the left luggage and am now in Dublin visiting a colleague at the Conway Institute.

imuk - skinny

2006-08-21T08:55:00.000+10:00

hmm, ironmanlive.com has some strange results.

if you want to see an accurate table of results, goto here and open it in Excel.

Here is the skinny:
swim 54:49
bike 5:20:19
run 3:41:48

total: 10:00:47

good for 4th place in 25-29, 43rd overall (including 14 pros).

i'll give a full report later on.

imuk update no. 2

2006-08-20T01:31:00.000+10:00

well, looks a like big thunderstorm is about to hit, but it should clear up for tomorrow. they're calling for light rain in the morning, clearing later and a high around 20 degrees. that's ideal.

well, been laying pretty low, trying to stay out of trouble. biked a bit of the run course (some of it is on dirt trails), ran a bit of the run course. it's hilly also (including a run up stairs for a pedestrian bridge!), and also very scenic as it passes by both castles, and right through the centre of town by the famous abbey.

the pasta party was unspectacular and not very well attended, suprisingly. it was hard to make a show of the oldest and youngest male and female competitors as not a single one was in attendance! i'd say there were only about 300-400 of us, which was rather bizarre. there was a guy that has done 81 ironmans and is on track to hit 100 by 2008.

heard some chatter to say the course will be easier than last year's (1 pro sub 9 and 1 pro sub 5 on the bike last year). they had a hawaii video and a video of last year's race to pass the time.

bike and bags are all checked in. it's go time.

imuk update no. 1

2006-08-17T22:53:00.000+10:00

well, after a mind-numbing 23 hour flight, i'm here in britain, and now settled down with my homestay family in sherborne. getting through heathrow was efficient. drove into london, that was scary and challenging. spent a night with lynn's friend josette and her husband mike and their almost 2-year-old max. max is a born entertainer. will post pictures at some point, very cute.

brits drive fast. unless i'm mistaken, there are no posted speed limits on the dual carriageways and big A roads, so fast just works. that made the trip fairly speedy and should hopefully allow me to get back to heathrow for the big waits for my monday flight.

sherborne is beautiful. roads are very small, mostly old buildings. it's not uncommon to have roads where only one vehicle can get by. and, everybody is patient. imagine that.

went for a quick 30min swim in sherborne lake, adjacent to the 'new' castle. water temperature is posted at 60 degrees (thats about 16), but it was very comfortable. no need for a double swim cap. transition is literally 50 metres from the swim exit, so transition times should be pretty good. drove the bike course and it appears VERY hilly, as the posted profile would suggest. but, the good thing is that you are either climbing or descending so it may in fact be possible to get in a good rhythm. not gonna be a mind-blower, time-wise though. definitely very beautiful countryside.

time to go bike the run course. more later.

It's all in the bank ...

2006-08-06T19:10:00.000+10:00

Well, here we go again. 13 days to Ironman UK. Just finished the last long ride and long run this past weekend. A few more sessions this week but generally it is winding down.

Had a very good training campaign in the last 12 weeks. Running faster than ever (10k and half mara PBs during high volume weeks), not getting dropped in the hills from the fast dudes on the bike. Not swimming any faster than usual, but feeling strong and finding the distance much more manageable this time around. So, looking forward to seein what the body can do on what looks like a fairly challenging course in Dorset, England. Weather looks quite ideal there right now -- lows of 13, highs of 23.

Been really lucky with weather this winter in Melbourne. Only got drenched on a couple of occasions. Managed to be injury-free, illness-free (except for 1 small cold at beginning of June) and I haven't been kicked out of school (actually things are going reasonably well). Lynn has pointed out that I get very focused when Ironman training ... will have to work on that one.

burger n fries == PB

2006-07-27T15:35:00.000+10:00

Well, this is my theory, anyways.

Of course, I'm referring to the night-before-meal as the prospect of an early morning burger and fries is not a pleasant one.

I think people are catching on, though not everybody is on board. Lynn, for example, ran a PB in her 10k race, but remains a little unconvinced. We'll have to up the sample size a bit.

Anyways, here is Lynn struttin out her 10k:

And, myself running a pretty good half marathon. It wasn't the target my coach put in my training program (sub 81 mins), but considering it's a PB during a very high volume part of my ironman campaign, I'm quite happy with the result.

How cute is this?

2006-07-19T17:26:00.000+10:00

Here is Lynn, with the new WEHI jersey and knicks .... someone sign her up for modelling!

the pre-race meal.

2006-06-05T23:35:00.002+10:00

in my last two races, i've had a burger and fries the night before. and, i've had personal bests. i'm almost convinced there is something to this.

managed to get a 3rd place for my most recent effort ... and a nasty week-long cold .... tho, to put this in perspective, i regularly get 30th-40th place in the APS series of runs we have been doing ... so it's fair to say this doesn't represent melbourne's best runners. nonetheless, it's hardware, it's a PB and i'll take it.

don't let this picture fool you ... i was thrilled to get my trophy ... almost as thrilled as getting my 5th serving of home made apple crumble ...

... and i bet the guy on the left didn't ride 210k the day before ... but who's counting.

that san fran thing.

2006-06-05T23:25:00.000+10:00

Was hanging out with all the cool kids at Pier 39 ... as you do in San Fran (actually, it's highly touristy so i'd give it a miss if i were you) ... you know, watching the seals ... thinking about swimming to the ROCK ...

... here is a photo of the sun setting over the golden gate ...

... or how about the curviest street in the world ... argh, i hate taking pictures of other people taking pictures ... but i did it anyways ...

... ahh ... UC-Berkeley ...

one additional observation

2006-05-13T21:33:00.000+10:00

11. pre-race nutrition: at my brother's recommendation, we went out for a burger and fries the night before the race. and, what can i say, it didn't hurt! great burger too ... i've definitely added "moderne burger" (broadway avenue in kits) to my list of vancouver's "cheap eats". compares quite favourably to our local BurgeRepublic here in Melbourne.

12. sha-lin noodle house, also on broadway was delightful, as it always was. thanks to ryan and lee for taking me there.

a few observations from my trip to san francisco / berkeley / vancouver

2006-05-12T14:37:00.000+10:00

(may 1st - may 5th, san fran / berkeley, workshop)
(may 5th - may 8th, vancouver, visit)

1. san francisco is well and truly a big and typically american city. somehow i had this impression that san fran was different. it's very beautiful, but still typically american. and with that, it has all the usual pluses and minuses.

2. the bay area does have a lot of science going on ... let's see, ucsf, uc-berkeley, stanford ...

3. university of california really knows how to build a campus (unfortunately, they don't know how to manage their finances -- the president has been recently asked to step down). of all the UCs i've been to, berkeley is perhaps my favourite. i think it's partly due to the city of berkeley. small, quaint, laid-back.

4. my supervisor spends half his time at the stats department of UC-berkeley. ironically, all these legendary mathematicians and statisticians are in perhaps the most run-down of public buildings i have ever seen. there are no staff (resources) to clean offices. from what i hear, garbage pickup is bi-weekly at best. you'd think that in one of the most prestigious stats departments in the world, you'd be able to at least take care of the place.

5. my supervisor is equally responsive on email as he is at a conference. he blew me off several times until i eventually got about 20 minutes at lunch (though with several interupptions). i guess i should be thankful for the 20 minutes. but, it's a little exhausting.

6. lombard st (you know the curviest street in the world) is over-rated. nonetheless, i got suckered into going there and taking pictures of it. just down the street from lombard, however, is an excellent view of alcatraz and the north part of the bay.

7. there is no place like home. not that i can really call vancouver home at this point, but there is a certain calm and warmth i feel when i walk on canadian soil. i'm look forward to the day where i can call vancouver (or somewhere in canada) home again.

8. even in heavy rain, vancouver is amazing.

9. i think i enjoy running hard. not 5k pace sorta hard, but 21.1k pace hard. of all the half marathons i've done, this one was quite enjoyable. i managed a personal best of just over 82 minutes, which is >3 minutes better than my previous best and good for 22nd overall out of >2500 men!

10. my brother is a fast swimmer. not that this is news to anyone really, but i went for a short swim with him on monday ... and well, i got dropped in a hurry.

race schedule, more updates later

2006-04-12T09:29:00.000+10:00

Well, I've been blog-free for the past month. And, it looks like blog traffic in general has been low for my short list of fellow bloggers. So, to kick things off again, and to continue my dedication to the sports of running/triathlon, following is my race schedule for the next little while ...

16 April - Aussie Tri Champs (Olympic Distance), Geelong
22 April - Jamieson 5k Run, Melbourne
7 May - Vancouver Half Marathon
17 June - Team Relay (5.7k Run each member), Geelong
(... a couple other duathlons/running races ...)
20 August - Ironman UK, Sherborne, UK

And, I will try and post some pictures of the recent Commonwealth Games. That might be of interest to some people.

A photo my dad took at "Ironman" New Zealand

2006-04-12T09:09:00.000+10:00

I thought this was a pretty good one.

"Ironman Compressed": Taupo 2006 Race Report.

2006-03-07T20:18:00.000+11:00

I must admit, I stole the title from Mike Coughlin [blog], a fellow Canadian who, like myself, discovered triathlon in Ontario and now lives in Oceania, arguably a somewhat easier climate for all this training stuff.

The day started at 4.30am. Actually, I was awoken several times earlier in the morning by the weather. Coming from our apartment in Melbourne, our apartment in Taupo was generally VERY quiet, except on this night. We woke up with no power so finding and turning off my alarm was a considerable challenge (come on, it's 4.30am!). From the fact that I could hear the weather, I knew we were in for quite an adventure. But, I couldn't wait to get out there.

All the usual pre-race stuff. Get body marked, organize your bags, hydrate, pump tires, etc. But, this morning was noticably different. It was cold and VERY windy. Because the wind was so bad, we were told that there would be an announcement shortly about the safety of the water. This went on for a couple hours until they announced an 8.15am briefing. So, we hung out in the tent to stay warm. Ran into Kevin MacKinnon ... hence the photo of Lynn and I on Ironmanlive. That 8.15 meeting eventually happened just before 9am, outside the tent since support poles were dropping out every couple of minutes. Some guy killed time by proposing to his girlfriend. She said yes. Lynn and I got a call from some guy in Indiana, USA who insisted I was cursed. Must have been a wrong number.

Looks to me like a good day for a swim

To our disappointment, a bike-run of half the distance (90k-21k) was the best they could do under the circumstances. Take it or leave it. Pros first, each seperated by 30 seconds. Then age groupers, locals, then males, then females in alphabetical order seperated by 5 seconds. Cam Brown went at 11.00am. Robinsons would go off at roughly 12.30pm, 8 hours after waking up, which required some on-the-spot nutrition modifications. My brother would be 5 seconds in front. I informed him that he would be the first one I would pass. In retrospect, this probably wasn't the nicest thing to say to a guy in his first "Ironman compressed" event. As if the day wasn't already enough of a mental roller coaster, getting heckled by your little brother was a little uncalled for. Sorry dude.

So, scratch the Ironman plan. Insert half Ironman plan.

Here is Jay, myself with a goofy look on my face and another Robinson. Some fashion sense, that guy in the middle has.

So off we went and Jay happened to be the first one I passed, about 300 metres down the road (again, sorry dude). Right after I passed him, I got a couple of serious cross breezes off the lake, some near misses in front of me with cyclists all over the road. I made the call to ease up and stay out of aero until I turned up the hill, 2.5k away. A very nervous 2.5k in fact, as my 70kg and the aero wheels below me got thrown around at random. Survived to the hill and with the wind at my back, I began the ~10k climb out of Taupo. Not a tough climb really, just long and gradual. In the excitement of being able to race, my heart rate was out-of-sight, so I backed off and just rolled up. Turning on to Broadlands Road, I was amazed to be climbing at 38kph. Yay for the tailwind! Stick to the plan ... keep the heart rate at 165, regardless of speed.

Speedy it was. Cruised down one hill at 73kph, roughly the wind speed back at the lake. Was going so fast that it was hard to avoid roadkill ... it just came so fast. Got a chuckle out of this and thought that Quarantine back in Oz would have a few things to say ... "excuse me sir, you have animal carcass residue on your bike wheels" ... anyways, cruising along at a blistering pace, knowing full well that this would not be the case coming back. Saw some pros go by and they were struggling. Ein Alar had just caught Cam Brown when I passed by.

With ~800 athletes in front of me, there wasn't a minute without passing somebody. It certainly wasn't lonely. Only got passed 3 times out towards the turn around in Reporoa, two of which were by Cervelo P3 Carbons ... it's hard to compete with that. Made it to the turn-around in 1.04 (and to compare, it would take me 1.34 to get back -- that's some wind!).

What can I say. This was the worst wind I have ever biked in. It was tough, but we all knew it was going to be. It started out as a cross-head breeze, but as we climbed the hill back into town, it was straight on. Climbing at 14kph was a real confidence booster. Not a fast return leg, but passing people at roughly the same rate as going out, so I was happy with my effort. As you can imagine, this 94 minutes felt like eternity.

Back into town, people were everywhere, some with little concern for all these bikes flying by. I got a complement on my dismount techique. Oh yah. I love transitions. I had the 36th fastest transition on the day (59 seconds), a mere 7 seconds behind Cam Brown (too bad he put 27 minutes into me on the ride and another 20 on the run).

Feet out of shoes, ready for the dismount. Try to imagine the trees dancing wildly in the background ... 'cause they were!

Onto the run, out of laziness (and in an effort to keep my transition time down), I kept on the arm warmers. By my rough guess, I still had about 500 athletes (including John G, Mike C, Greg S, Philgoode, Ian G) in front of me, so there was a lot of traffic, especially for a rather small running path.

That guy has funky hair.

Oh yah. This guy is fashionable.

Fought a stitch for the first 3k of the run. Ran through it. Heading out into a big head wind was tough going. Saw John around 6k out. He's in a world of hurt, but is moving along quite briskly. Gave the thumbs up to Philgoode around 9k. Gave Ian a high-5 around 10k ... crap, that hurt. Hit the turnaround and was drinking Coke. Mmm. Not feeling peppy but had the wind at my back now. Saw Jay and then George in quick succession.

Funny little section where there were 3 or 4 Marks in the vicinity. This seemed to excite the nearby crowds and they yelled something funny at us.

Over my heart rate limit for a good section coming back. Starting to pop and looking forward to this being over. For the last 2k, it was quite difficult to run with such a cross wind. Couldn't run in a straight line and my one leg kept blowing into my other leg. Really annoying.

I'm guessing the run was long, based on the times people put in.

That's basically it. The mental output of an Ironman in tough conditions, but none of the benefits on an Ironman finish. I left it all out there, so I'm quite pleased with my result. Kona will be there next year. Dunno whats next, maybe a couple olympic distance races, but, I'll be back at Ironman and hungrier than ever.

Finish T-113th overall, T-18th in 25-29, 6th Canadian.

Thanks to Lynn for all her support and sacrifice ... I owe you large. Georgie, Ian, Rimmer, Philgoode for all the Portsea, Boulie and Beach Rd rides, Mitch for the program, Dave Chambers for the pool sets (maybe I'll get to swim next time!), Antho at CBD for the constant great work, a bunch of people at WEHI that think I'm a total freakshow but wished me all the best, friends and family who were constantly checkin in on this little obsession.

I agree with Cam.

2006-03-07T11:34:00.000+11:00

Well, I'm not the only one to feel the race director let us down. See Cam Brown's report here.

Ironman New Zealand: A total sham ...

2006-03-06T23:01:00.000+11:00

Wow, what an experience. I must say, I think the race organizers royally botched the race. And, for that reason, I have zero incentive to go back to IM NZ. It's too bad because Taupo is such a beautiful place. It reminds me somewhat of the atmosphere in Penticton. They had discussed contingencies at the race briefing (specifically, a 180k bike-42k run), but it appeared as though they weren't able to invoke any of them. The weather was the same at 6am as it was at 4pm, yet they waited and waited. I still don't know why. The explanations were poor. Almost half of the field were first-timers. Especially disappointing for them.

After returning our car to the car rental shop, the lady shuttling us to the airport pretty much floored us by saying, "Oh wow, did you guys train for months and months and spend thousands of dollars to be here?" ... umm ... yep, that's us.

But, we are not the only triathletes to be affected by inclement weather this weekend. At least we got to race ... the Canadian Commonwealth Games team did not this past weekend: click here.

For what its worth, I'll post a race report sometime in the near future.

Check me out on Ironmanlive ...

2006-02-27T11:16:00.000+11:00

Our old coach Kevin MacKinnon was in Malaysia for the Ironman there this weekend. I'm wondering if he'll make the "short" trip down to Taupo for next week. It'd be great to see him. If I do see him, I'll ask him to make a post about how bad I look when I make it to the run. Anyways, failing that, you can look me up in the "Athlete Finder" from IMNZ at Ironman Live. Also, check out my brother Jason and the my training mates from Melb. Uni training group: Michael Goode, George Skoufis, Cameron Smith, Ian Gordon and John Gestakovski, Greg Steinberg (Canadian!).

Assuming all goes to plan, here are my hoped finishing times, converted to various select locations. Of course, this all depends on a lot of things falling together.

Swim:
8.00am SATURDAY Taupo, NZ
6.00am SATURDAY Melbourne
2.00pm FRIDAY Toronto/Bloomington/Sarnia
11.00am FRIDAY Vancouver/Portland

Bike:
1.30pm SATURDAY Taupo, NZ
11.30am SATURDAY Melbourne
7.30pm FRIDAY Toronto/Bloomington/Sarnia
4.30pm FRIDAY Vancouver/Portland

Run:
5.00pm SATURDAY Taupo, NZ
3.00pm SATURDAY Melbourne
11.00pm FRIDAY Toronto/Bloomington/Sarnia
8.00pm FRIDAY Vancouver/Portland

Also, it would be great if some or all of you can shoot a text to Lynn (I have an NZ mobile SIM card when I was over there which I will give to her ... email me or Lynn for the number) as she'll have a pretty long day watching the race (and picking up the pieces at the end).

Taking votes for race suit

2006-02-25T19:25:00.000+11:00

OK, below are the options. Lynn thinks I'm a loser for actually taking these pictures and posting them. I decide not to model them since I was afraid of what Hetti might do with the photos.

1. Team Canada suit
2. Sugoi singlet with CBD shorts
3. CBD suit that Mitch gave me (since he no longer rides Cervelo)

The race setup

2006-02-25T19:16:00.000+11:00

8 sleeps to Ironman New Zealand.

Here are the new wheels ... Gravity Zero, an Aussie brand that is well known for the X-One hubs, which claim to have considerably quicker engagement. Lynn wasn't convinced. She would've rathered I got Zipp 404s. I bought the wheels from my bike store CBD Cycles as "used" ... they had been raced for 80km at Torquay last weekend. Nonetheless, for the ~10k that I've rode on them, they feel great .... light, aero and they make a cool whoosh sound.

Texting to North America ...

2006-02-19T20:38:00.000+11:00

So, it appears that I can send a text (SMS, that is) to Canada for $0.25 ... actually I can probably text to anywhere in the world for 25 cents, since Lynn has sent them to India and I to NZ. That's pretty good value. I wonder how long the delivery takes. I don't remember anyone using the SMS service when I was back in Canada, but then our household was anti-cell phones at that point (well, *I* was anti-cell and Lynn was adversely influenced by me). Anyways, if anyone actually uses SMS back home, let me know and I'll add you to my phonebook. In Australia, the person calling/texting always pays (i.e. costs nothing to receive). I don't remember that being true back home. Is it?

Pissing your pants.

2006-02-19T19:14:00.000+11:00

So, is there any other sport besides triathlon where pissing your pants is considered good practice? I can't think of any. Marathoning/Cycling doesn't count since its basically the same thing.

Training update

2006-02-14T12:10:00.000+11:00

18 more sleeps to ironman.

Haven't made many posts lately. That's because not much has been going on, other than some massive weeks of training. So, for the most part, it has been a struggle just to get all the training in, sleep, make it to work, buy groceries, cook dinner, see the odd movie, etc. That last three weeks, especially, have been quite large, with 3 swims, 4 bikes and 5 runs ... getting in roughly 11k, 400k and 65k, respectively each week. It's all in the bank now! I'm into the first stage of the taper now. This week is only slighly less, next week is considerably less and the final week will involve a lot of sitting around. Looking quite forward to it all. Should be a fun time in NZ, with a good crew from our tri club racing, brother J racing, mom and dad and lynn and a bunch of other friends of friends cheering us on. Anyone else in NA fancy a long weekend in New Zealand?

Becalmed ...

2006-02-13T11:47:00.000+11:00

My supervisor, who is now about 1.5 months into his 6 month stint in California (he does this every year), does not disappoint. He has a way with words, that's for sure. Had a conversation with him yesterday. He says "Mark, you sound becalmed ... (long pause) ... like a sail that has lost it's wind" ... and I agreed. No momentum. No direction. Basically, I'm spinning my wheels, thinking "is this going anywhere? am I wasting my time? is anything I'm doing useful for anybody?"

It doesn't help that the two projects I'm working on are going slowly because 1) my collaborators totally botched an experiment, saying they were being "selective" in the samples they run yet I can only use 26 of the 126 that they ran to look for things they want to look for ... 2) trying every type of analysis imaginable on another data set that is just too noisy to get anything out of. The other curious thing about my projects is that I do not collaborate with anyone at our institute. I do most of my work for a group that is on the other side of the city.

Not sure what I need. I could certainly use someone in the field to chat about stuff to. With supervisor #1 in Berkeley (read: very busy with about 100 other projects) and supervisor #2 seriously stressed out (and not really interested in my project), I'm not sure who that would be. Lynn suggested I try and get a third project, which'll give some motivation while the others are not working out. I can see now that I've been sort of spoiled with previous work places (U of T especially but also MDSP) having lots of people to talk things through with. But, this is not unlike what Lynn went through in her degree: not having anybody on a similar project to chat with. At least I don't have to teach postdocs like she did.

hawaii moved.

2006-02-06T15:37:00.000+11:00

Not that this is really of any consequence at this point ... but ... Ironman Hawaii has been moved to after my 30th birthday. So, IF (and it's capitalized because it's a big IF) I qualify for Kona, I'd have to race in the 30-34 category, arguably among the hardest of all age group categories. Though, I guess I should be thankful that I can still qualify in 25-29.

Mango is sold.

2006-02-02T20:39:00.000+11:00

My mango cervelo is gone. Sold it on eBay. It went for a pretty sweet price, considering I sold it with the race wheels. It was collecting dust in our apartment. So, now I'm done to 2 bikes.

Another update later. I'm in the middle of a mammoth (by my standards, at least) week, training wise.

In the ultimate display of geekiness ...

2006-01-22T17:32:00.000+11:00

Here is a plot of times people recorded in the Taupo Half Ironman in 2004 compared against the times they (assuming there aren't 2 seperate people having the same name each doing one of the races ...) recorded in the full Ironman 2.5 months later.

Basically, it looks like, for these 2 races, full ironman time is approximately 2.2 times the half ironman time, which puts me just over 10 hours. That's an AVERAGE of course.

Hot, Hot, Hot

2006-01-22T13:19:00.000+11:00

It's bloody hot here. Yesterday, they were calling for 33 degrees. Somehow, it made it up over 40 (Bureau of Meteorology is HOPELESS here!). They even had to invoke the "stadium-under-cover" rule at the Australian Open and suspend play on those courts not under cover.

For myself, it made for a struggle finishing off Portsea ride #2 (3 to go!) as the hot weather is generally accompanied by a strong northerly wind (or more like the hot weather is a result of the northerly). I went for my long run at 5.45am and at 6.10am, I passed a posted temperature of 27 degrees. Fairly comfortable, but wouldn't have wanted to start much later.

It's funny to see how many people are at work today to avoid the heat. Or maybe there are always this many people working weekends ... I'm rarely ever here.

Long day in the saddle.

2006-01-14T17:17:00.000+11:00

Well, in the ramp up to Ironman, Aussies - as they do - do some overdistance rides. I've done some long rides before, but NOTHING like this. I happened to leave my heart rate monitor at work so I added an extra 4-5k to go pick that up before leaving for the ride. Left my house at 5.50am, returned at about 1.30pm ... and today was a good day with favourable winds ... door to door *219k* ... no, that is not a typo -- two hundred nineteen. Crikey, I am TIRED.

Thankfully, we had a good group out ... anywhere from 6 to 16, depending on where we were ... so there was ample opportunity to sit in the bunch.

5 more long rides to go before Taupo.

In case you're interested, click this link. North Melbourne to Portsea and back. It's the status quo for Ironman training rides here.

Do we need a "how to be australian and live to tell about it" handbook?

2006-01-09T09:56:00.000+11:00

It seems like you can't go a week or two in Australia without hearing about stories of someone dying from a shark attack or jellyfish or getting swept off some rocks, not to mention the number of people killed in car accidents.

For example, here are some recent stories:

No sign of shark pack after Qld death

Swimmer's 'shark' scream ignored as joke

Lifesavers sound warning after jellyfish death

And, especially for us who didn't grow up living with such natural "crisis waiting to happen" areas (well, bears maybe? but not in southern Ontario), there should really be a manual describing where you should and shouldn't go. I mean, what's up with Australia? New Zealand has none of these poisonous snakes and spiders that Oz has ...

Just a thought.

Sydney fireworks !

2006-01-03T14:35:00.000+11:00

As some of you may know, Lynn and I visited Lynn's Uncle in Sydney this past weekend. A great way to spend New Year's Eve (i.e. with ~1 million other people for the fireworks) plus a couple days hanging out in and around Sydney ...

Here is a link to a ~1 minute video taken from just a few metres away from the Opera House, looking towards the Harbour Bridge. Might be best to right click the link and save it somewhere and enlarge it a bit ... you can see that beating heart, which is at the middle of the bridge ... then, about 15 seconds into the video a series of lights approach the middle, then some fireworks ... and at this point, you can actually see the outline of the bridge ... not an amazing video by any means, but thought it might be entertaining to some. Careful, it's 7 Mebabytes ... not advisable if yer on dial-up.

Taupo Half Ironman Race Report

2005-12-21T21:33:00.000+11:00

The Lake Taupo Half Ironman ... first and foremost, the race was for reconnaissance. Most of the course shares parts of the full Ironman course. Race day greeted us with rain and there was a lot more to come.

Swim. The course was a straight line swim, starting roughly where the turnaround of the out-and-back swim for Ironman will be. 2k all strung out in a line looks very long. The water was cold, but not brain-freezing so it was alright. Once we got started, all seemed fine. There was only one buoy and that was at the end. So, it was hard to really go in a straight line. The field split out into two lines, seperated by probably 20 metres. I followed one line for awhile and wasn't happy with them, so I slowly switched to the other line. Not sure if that was wise. I felt pretty good but my time didn't really reflect how fast I had been swimming recently.

Bike. After a fairly long transition of running on really rough pavement, I was majorly happy just to have my feet in cycling shoes. It was pretty wet now but at least it was reasonably mild (Taupo is known for it's cool mornings). The plan, as before, was quite simple. Don't eat or drink until the heart rate settles in under 165, take 2-3 drink bottles and 3 gels. And, take some caffeine at about 30k into the bike. Heart rate settled quite quickly, which is a bit suprising since you immediately get into an approx 10k climb out of town. Was moving along reasonably well, passing a few people going up the hill. After reaching the top and beginning the decent, a dude on a Cervelo P3 Carbon w/ Zipp 404 fronts and disc rear blew by me (I noticed this guy in transition. He was wearing Team Canada tri suit). I figure if he was willing to spend that amount of money (~$13k AUD, at least) on equipment, then I'm happy to let him pass. There was a really rough section of pavement about 30k out from the town, but I knew it was there (from last week's ride) and was expecting it. As I approached the turnaround, I figured I would count what position I'm in just to pass the time. The two leaders were way out in front. I was 19th overall. Heading back into town, I was slowly (and I mean slowly) catching a group of 3 guys. About 15k later, I had finally passed them. 16th, great! Some heavy sessions of rain. Off in the distance, I could see Cervelo dude, I was slowly catching him and that made me feel pretty good. There is a fairly long and gradual climb back to the 10k descent into town and that is where I passed Mr. P3C (I later found out that he was in the Master's category -- 40+ -- damn). Passed another guy coming down the hill at 60kph. Came into transition in 14th (12th fastest bike split -- not bad for no race wheels). Another painful run on the hard pavement and off on the run.

Finishing off the 90k ride.

Run. For once, felt reasonably fresh at the beginning of a triathlon run. No cramping in the medialis -- great! Pretty stoked about running in 14th place, I figured if I could hold off a few people and stay in the top 20, I'd be quite happy with that. To my surprise, it took a long time before I heard any footsteps. One dude passed me around the 9k mark. I managed to pee while running! Yes, I know it is one of those things few try to achieve, but I did it. On my second lap, I got into a running battle with some guy on his first lap, but that helped me move along. With less than 2k to go, Brandon (an American guy I had met the night before) blew by me. I saw later that his run split was no less than 10 minutes faster than me and I was really suffering by this point. The differential in speed was truly amazing. Still, I managed to break 90 minutes on the run, a nice psycological barrier and a 2 minute improvement over Shepp.

Reasonably fresh at the beginning of the run.

As always, happy to be finished.

Lake Taupo

2005-12-21T21:06:00.000+11:00

The pronunciation of Taupo seems to be a moving target. Some say to-po, touh-po, taw-po ... call it what you will. My co-workers constantly wonder what planet i'm on when it comes to pronouncing english words, so maybe i'm just phonetically disfunctional.

Reminds me somewhat of Penticton, partly because it's host to one of these silly events called 'Ironman', but also because it's a small town on a large freshwater lake, with nearby mountains, and it serves as jumping point to a lot of outdoor activities.

I'll be back there in 10 weeks. Let's get this straight: so, I'm going to train 20+ hours per week swimming, biking, running for the next 2 months ... then cutoff most fruit/veggies, fibre, caffeine for a week ... wake up at 4:30 in the morning ... go and abuse myself for 10 or more hours on race course ... eating out of tiny packages of sugary goo ... all in the hope of joining 1500 other freaks like myself who want to do the same thing all over again ... but in the heat, humidity, wind of Hawaii ...

Sounds pretty good to me!

Parts of both the swim course and run course ... the cool thing about the swim course is that the water tastes like water from a spring water bottle ...

The start of the only 'real' climb on the bike course ...

The middle of the same climb ... a little geothermal activity happenin there on the left ... mmm, sulfur.

Near the top of that climb ... it is about 8km long ...

After the climb, the start of a nice long 20k of very slight descent ... meaning of course a minor ascent on the way back to town ... let's hope for a head wind going out, tail wind coming back ....

Heading back to town, you can see the lake in the distance ... the 8k descent is going to be fast ... like 60kph fast. Hopefully the roads will be dry.

JAFA city

2005-12-21T20:33:00.000+11:00

New Zealanders that don't live in Auckland have a certain unconditional "love" of Aucklanders ... so much so that Aucklanders are commonly referred to as JAFAs, JAFA meaning Just Another F---ing Aucklander. If you drive an hour south of the city, you see warning signs like "J-ust A-nother F-atal A-ccident" or "J-ust A-nother F-oolish A-ccident", playing on the acronym to shock you into better driving! Roughly equivalent to Australia's "Tired? Take a powernap now" signs that are ubiquitous on the freeways here.

That said, Auckland is beautiful place. Though shockingly reminiscent of Seattle. The tower, the coffee, the bay. Fewer SUVs of course, thankfully.

My brother lives in an area that is under a lot of development. In one direction, you have an abandoned train station. In another direction you have an abandoned stadium. Kinda weird, I'm thinking. Though in another direction, you have a very scenic drive along the Bay overlooking Rangitoto Island (equivalent to Melbourne's Beach Road, Vancouver's Marine Drive, ... umm, yeah, that's right, Toronto has no equivalent). 5 minutes beyond the train station, you have the heart of downtown Auckland. I suspect this will all change in the next few years.

Check these out ...

Auckland from Devonport, attached by land but much quicker to get to by ferry.

Volcanic 'Rangitoto Island' ... what hill in Auckland wasn't previously a volcano? Umm, none.

The crater at the top of Mt. Eden ... surprise, surprise, formerly a volcano.

The view of downtown from Mt. Eden

Devonport and North Head, from Mission Bay

Cool place.

Part 2 of the 'A-NZ Capital Conference Tour'

2005-12-21T17:52:00.000+11:00

Recently attended a conference in Wellington, New Zealand's capital. It was quite a different conference than I'm used to, since most people had no clue of what bioinformatics was, so it was quite different standing up in front of some serious statisticians and being the 'expert' on biology. Talk went surprisingly well. There were more questions at my talk than any other. Though, partly that was due to the fact that I had only 20 minutes to talk about it all, and I gave the talk in a 'memento' version (like the film 'Memento', where the plot is shown in reverse) -- so I talked about the data analysis first (since the audience were experts in the type of model I used), then talked about the data, then talked about how it was generated. I did this as an experiment to see if it could work. I'd say it was reasonably successful.

So .... Wellington is a strange but interesting place -- rains a lot, generally very windy. Very hilly, most houses are built into the side of a mountain. Some excellent cycling, if you're into either steep climbs or roads along the bay ... both of which I'm a fan of.

A shot of downtown Welly.

Some artwork along the bay.

A seaside suburb, very good spot to do some 1k intervals!

Hah, a cattery! I've never heard of one of these before, but they are everywhere!

Multisport in NZ

2005-12-19T07:26:00.000+11:00

Did my first half ironman in New Zealand, on roughly the same course as the full ironman in less than 10 weeks. Triathlon is really taking off in this country, as they have some excellent elite-level capability around.

Here's the skinny ...

Swim 2k (w/ trans): ~34
Bike 90k: 2.27
Run 21k (w/ trans): 1.31
Total: 4.33 (16th overall, 2nd Canadian, 2nd CBDer)

Few minutes slower than Shepp, but longer swim, longer transition and tougher course, so I'm quite happy with the result. Most of all, I like the course! Very wet day. Brother J had a very solid performance, coming in easily under the 5 hour barrier. The training is paying off.

Full race report and a whole wack of pictures of NZ once I get back to Melbourne (tomorrow).

Australian "tolerance"

2005-12-12T07:47:00.000+11:00

I actually saw this one on Canadian news first ... pretty shocking stuff.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/12/11/australia-violence051211.html

http://au.news.yahoo.com/051130/2/x0r0.html

NZ

2005-12-11T20:56:00.000+11:00

So, I've been in New Zealand for about a week now. Had a conference in Wellington, completing my two week conference tour of A-NZ capitals. Here are a few notes:

1. It takes a long time to get anywhere in this country. Even though Auckland and Wellington are only 650k apart, it took us > 9.5 hours to drive there.

2. NZ is beautiful. It's like Cape Breton Island, Rocky Mountains and interior BC all wrapped in this compact package. And, I haven't been to the south island even!

3. Wellington is especially beautiful. Lots of hills, lots of wind, lots of rain, lots of politicians.

4. The roads are rough, which is very noticeable when cycling.

5. Kiwis are very friendly. The atmosphere is much less subdued than Australia. My brother describes it as Australia is the bully next door, much like the USA is the bully next door to Canada. Much like Canadians prefer to distinguish themselves from Americans, Kiwis like to distinguish themselves from Aussies. And, rightfully so.

6. Taupo, the site of the my race next week and the ironman next year has a very Penticton feel to it.

7. A lot of the town names are Mauri names, which can be phonetically challenging for a rookie like myself.

8. Auckland has a lot of abandoned areas very near the city centre, like old train stations, stadiums, etc.

Photos later.

Canberra

2005-12-11T20:31:00.000+11:00

So, Canberra is Australia's capital and is well known to Australians as being a sleepy town. It certainly does emit this aura of boredom. Even the pub closed at 10pm.
Nonetheless, I blew off one morning of my conference there to walk around the city. The "polies" (politicians) were sitting this week, but I was unable to attend the question time, which apparently is quite entertaining.

Here are some photos:

Lake Burley Griffin, Parliament House in the distance.

Parliament House

One angle from Parliament House

Another angle from Parliament House (Falun Gong protest in the front, Mt. Ainslie in the back)

And, yet another angle from PH:

Who knew that the Senate President's CHAIR was donated from Canada?!

The "Tent Embassy" (indigenous people claiming rights to land) just below the grounds of Old PH.

Yay for crackhouses

2005-12-11T20:24:00.000+11:00

Hmm. So, in the span of 4 days, people in neighbouring crackhouses have driven their car into the fence of our house in Toronto, broken in to our's tenants car (among several others on the street) and scared our tenants to move out.

Good times.

My coach just won an Ironman.

2005-11-27T18:16:00.000+11:00

Wow, that's huge.

My coach just won Ironman Western Australia ... in a time of 8:27, his first IM win. He had a big year, finishing 3rd, 3rd and 14th at IM Oz, IM Switz and IM Hawaii. And, I believe this is his first sub 3hr marathon in an IM ... the monkey is off his back.

Hopefully the training philosophy will rub off on me in the next couple of years.

cheating

2005-11-23T22:28:00.000+11:00

So, the question is, does taking caffeine pills during a race constitute cheating? Caffeine is a drug but a legal one. At one time, the World Anti-Doping Association classified caffeine as a banned substance, assuming you were over what equates to approximately 8 cups of coffee. They've since removed this restriction (2004).

hypocrit

2005-11-22T09:05:00.000+11:00

Yep, I'm a hypocrit. Way back when, I swore I would never own a cell phone. But, not only do I now own one, I even send the odd text message and sometimes, I take it with me when I leave home (i do take it with me cycling at all times though).

I guess it was inevitable.

can swim/bike/run, need tan

2005-11-21T10:53:00.000+11:00

A couple more shots of me from a week ago ... from Sparky Pics.

(notice, goggle straps under the swim cap)

(feet out of the shoes, oh yeah ... steve, you can see the new fizik saddle here)

glad i don't put my eggs in that basket.

2005-11-17T10:23:00.000+11:00

Ironman China 2006 has been cancelled!

merry christmas ... tax cuts

2005-11-15T14:37:00.000+11:00

You've got to respect the Liberals for having absolutely no shame whatsoever in their annoucement of tax cuts ... they have a surplus, might as well buy some votes with it.

Liberals hand out tax gifts ahead of looming Christmas election

Sadly, it works for me ... umm, does anyone know how to vote from overseas?

HIM Shepparton, 13 November 2005

2005-11-14T18:49:00.000+11:00

The long version ...

Preliminaries: First off, a big thanks to Lynn for putting up with me getting up at 6am most days, for tagging along all day in the sun, for taking some great pictures (spectating IS seriously hard work), driving home (with a lead foot!), and being the best all-round support crew a guy could ask for. I owe you big time at your next race.

Thanks also to Mitch for putting together a great program. A tough program, but it did me well.

So, a half ironman ... swim 1.9k, bike 90k, run 21.1k ... do that as fast as you can. Let's just say I've trained more for this race, than any other previous race. Probably even more than for Ironman Canada a little over a year ago. On average, I'm swimming 9-10k, biking 200-250k and running 45-55k per week. I consider that to be a lot. But, it's all relative and I'm in Australia. Here, 200k rides and 20 hour training weeks are not unheard of.

The nutrition plan: 2 Up N Go's (like Boost) for breakfast, 2-3 bottles of sport drink on the bike, gels every 45 min, take whatever you can for the run. Note: liquid diet, a new thing for me at this distance.

The heart rate plan: On the bike, go easy and don't eat/drink anything until the HR settles in the 155-165 range, keep it there for the rest of the race.

Here is how it all went ....

The swim was rather uneventful ... I got in a good pack of about 5 or 6 guys and I sat pretty much at the back for the whole thing. Wetsuit felt great. One of the dudes in the pack had a habit of stopping to sight, so I ran into him about 30 times. Only got kicked in the head once but the goggles stayed on. Out of the water under 30 minutes, so quite happy.

(me on left)

Onto the bike ... 3 laps of 30k. Heart was screaming in the mid-170s so I knew I just needed to be patient. It took quite a while for it to come down, probably 15k. Very little wind, flat course, so it was a pretty quick pace throughout (well, quick by my standards, not the Aussie standard). Few rough patches of pavement, but generally pretty low stress. Had this weird pain in my left leg along the hamstring for the first lap, tried to stretch it out to no avail but it wasn't slowing me down. It went away after about an hour. Second lap the heart rate had settled so I pushed it to the limit (165) as much as I could. There was one section of the course where it felt like there was a head wind, but the leaves in the trees weren't moving. Starting to tire a bit at the end of the 3rd lap, but moving along alright ... race wheels will be a welcome edition. Got my money's worth in free High5 water bottles ... oh yeah. The P3 is very comfy.

(could i be more white?)

(excellent cornering skills)

(fun for all ages)

(where ARE my shoes?)

Off the bike ... 3 laps of 7k. Looked at my watch, it had been 2h 57m total, so I was ahead of what I expected. Right off the bat, I met up with a friend named PAIN. My friend would stay with me for the next 92 minutes. My vastus medialis (inside upper leg) was killing me. My stride felt awful. But, I couldn't bring myself to stop. After about 5k, it loosened up a bit, but not much. It was getting warm, but not hot. Dumped several cups of water on my head, grabbed the odd sports drink and coke when my stomach felt up to it. After the first lap, there were people everywhere and there was no telling who was in what age category or even what lap they were on. First lap, probably got passed as many times as I passed people. Second, passing more, but most were on the first lap. As I was nearing the end of the second lap, I could hear the commentator saying the lead male was in sight. I managed to hold him off and finish my second lap about 30 seconds before he finished. Had a minor celebration, and focused on getting done. The last lap was a struggle (see picture below) and I lost a couple minutes over my previous laps. But, all good. Very pleased with the result.

End result:
(4:28:23, 5th place in M25-29, 39th overall, top Canadian!)
Swim 28:47
Bike+transitions 2:27:26
Run 1:32:10

(nice helmet head)

(who's that behind the tree?)

(looking oh-so-fresh)

(looking strong in the finish chute)

(on closer inspection, maybe not)

5 weeks to do it all again.

16 weeks until ironman.

the skinny

2005-11-14T09:51:00.000+11:00

Had a great race in Shepparton!

The short version:

Total Time: 4h 28m 23s

swim 28:47,
bike+transitions 2:27:26,
run 1:32:10
(all personal bests)

5th place 25-29
39th overall
(note that I finished 39th overall and 5th place in age category at the P'boro HIM about 16 months ago ... though a difference in time of 21m 30s! Pretty tough competition here in Australia)

Pictures and such later.

triathlon update

2005-11-10T15:04:00.000+11:00

it's official. just registered for ironman new zealand, march 4th, 2006 ... $625 NZD (which is actually much cheaper than im oz given the currency exchange) ... so, here we go again. 16 more weeks to prepare.

luckily, i'm going to make an appearance in taupo for a half ironman in 7 weeks time, after a stop in wellington for a conference and a visit to my brother in auckland. jason is also doing the race. hopefully, lynn can pop by and watch us in our self-induced misery.

and, 3 more sleeps until my first triathlon in australia. should be a fun event, easy flat course, should be the fastest for the distance, with many of melbourne's finest athletes in attendance.

Why John Howard couldn't wait ...

2005-11-08T14:37:00.000+11:00

So, here we go. John Howard was very adamant about getting some anti-terror legislation passed and really fast. (read: allowing the police to detain without arrest and all kinds of other powers given to police and authorities). It's a fine line between preventing terrorism and protecting civil liberties.

To be honest, I don't know all the details ... though I did attend a "left of left" anti-terror-law rally a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't that impresssed really. The crowd seemed more interested in bashing Howard simply for the sake of it, then listening to some of the better speakers make decent remarks.

Anyways, here is the reason why the new laws were passed so quickly. BIG (and I mean BIG) shakedown in both Melbourne and Sydney this morning that these laws facilitated.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/051107/2/woy9.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1500149.htm

I'm going to wait for the dust to settle on this one. I hope they have justification for all this, that's all I can say.

On the Juice

2005-11-08T13:52:00.000+11:00

Are any pro cyclists clean? Now, I don't want to jump to conclusions on this year's Vuelta champion, but it looks like Roberto Heras is at least getting dragged down in alleged EPO use. I don't know the science of these tests. Are these guys just super duper hematocrit producers ... or is everyone on the juice?

Here is the link:
Heras Vuelta sample positive

It seems like the defense of denying everything and paying a lawyer has been successful so far (e.g. Rutger Beke).

yuck, salt water

2005-11-01T12:02:00.000+11:00

did an open water swim (probably ~2km) in the bay this morning. I certainly appreciate the extra buoyancy of salt water, but man, it tastes aweful.

"entirely satisfactory"

2005-10-21T11:30:00.000+10:00

So, I gave a talk the other day about my research work -- mass spectrometry data analysis. And, since this is an exercise for students to present their work to both biological and statistical audiences (which is a real challenge and i didn't quite pull it off), I asked my supervisors and other lab heads for some sort of feedback. My main supervisor (Terry) described my talk as "entirely satisfactory". Not exactly flattering, but maybe that's the closest I'll ever get to a complement from him. Not sure. It's one of those statements that is so vague that it really doesn't say anything positive or negative. And, from what I can tell, Terry is very deliberate in everything he says and does, so I'm not sure what to take away from it. Thankfully, I got some constructive criticism from the other lab heads, most of which was a repeat what Lynn had already told me. I credit Lynn with the overall organization of my talk. We spent a "romantic" Sunday night at work going through it.

In case anyone is interested in what I do for a living, which can roughly be described as "making pretty pictures of experimental data", a rather large PDF can be downloaded from here.

Ouch.

2005-10-20T10:32:00.000+10:00

Wow, you gotta love what Canadian news makes it to Yahoo Australia ... check out this story:

Haze of bad behaviour hits Canadian amateur sports

46 a day

2005-10-19T22:25:00.000+10:00

Check out this site for a TV commercial that we just saw here 46. It's pretty shocking.

here is lynn!

2005-10-14T17:18:00.000+10:00

in a world of hurt

2005-10-14T16:59:00.000+10:00

check me out ...

i think i look more like my brother in this photo.

yep, that's me though. do i look like i'm about to cry?

ok, well, despite how it looks, i had a pretty good day in the melbourne half marathon. had a tough final 4k but basically gave it an honest full effort the whole way. the result was a pb:

Time: 1:25:49 (4:05/k, 20/227 M25-29, 88/1617 Male)

The Shape of Speed

2005-10-10T11:27:00.000+10:00

well, folks. it's been a long time coming. a big thank you to lynn for having patience for me through the gross amount of time it took me to get my dream bike.

here it is. it's a 2003 cervelo P3, with dura-ace 9 speeds ... was a pretty good deal compared to whats going. i've already replaced the saddle and tires (not shown), since they were both crap. will give it a good test on saturday as the training gets stepped up a bit with a looming half ironman 5 weeks out ...

Barossa Valley and Adelaide.

2005-10-05T19:12:00.000+10:00

My apologies for the lack of posts here. Seems like I go a week or two without posting and then give updates all at once.

So, last week, after surviving a sudden cold, I took off to Adelaide (1 hour flight east) and then north to the Barossa Valley, very famous for it's wine. I was there to attend a microarray conference, not because I had anything to present on my project, but because there were several talks about my possible eventual project and it was nice to see what other people in the field were doing.

Lynn joined me on the weekend after the conference and we toured around a bit. Here are some photos.

Here is the view from my hotel room ...

The visitor centre at the Wolf Blass winery (the Wolf Blass yellow and red label wines you get in North America are not available here ... they have gold label here, which is supposed to be a higher grade. Also, we learned that screw caps are the way of the future and not only for the cheaper wines)

The view from Mengler's Hill lookout ...

This is what grape vines look like at high speed:

We spotted a Kangaroo in the wild! What a joyous occasion.

The whispering wall (as the names suggest, you can talk at one side and hear it clearly 150 metres away) ...

Some rather large trees in Adelaide's Botanic Park ...

The "hollywood" view of the Adelaide hills:

Some artwork behind the Art Gallery in downtown Adelaide:

Geez, I'm feeling patriotic all of a sudden

2005-10-05T19:07:00.000+10:00

Project Caribou has been successful!

Special thanks to Steve and Cathy for sending along some red and white goodies and of course, treating us to some Tim Horton's coffee grinds and some darn large sized Tim Horton's mugs ... it was a bit of a shock how big these mugs really are ... I guess we are a little out of touch with North American beverage sizing. And the coffee grinds, how did you know?

Snags

2005-10-05T18:29:00.000+10:00

So, I used the proceeds of winning the footy tipping pool to host a bbq for the Footy GRAND FINAL. Here are some pictures of the festivities ...

Some "snags" on the BBQ:

umm, people, you *can* eat the vegetables, you know:

It was actually a great game, as you can tell here:

And, it's amazing to see who the big fans are ... not always who you'd expect.

ok, well maybe not every minute of the game:

Footy, footy and more footy

2005-10-05T18:19:00.000+10:00

So, as Lynn mentioned on her blog, I tried my luck playing footy. In the following picture, I think Ken (co-worker in Bioinformatics) is pointing out that I actually *do* have mud on my shirt, obviously due to my determined efforts on the field.

Needless to say, I just don't think I have an agressive enough demeanor to play footy. At our level, kicking and marking skills don't really come into play ... it's mostly about tackling guys on the other team, irrespective of whether they actually have the ball.

Bush and Howard: Political bedfellows

2005-09-19T11:20:00.000+10:00

Thought this article was kind of interesting:

Australia is too close to US: Latham

This guy Latham is really on a tear lately. I don't know all the history, he is the former leader of the opposition Labor party. He has just recently released a much anticipated "diary" of his account on the behind-the-scenes goings-on of the party over the last little while. Just like in the US, the opposition has been unable to put together a pallatable alternative to the Bush/Howard administrations.

Hardware!

2005-09-12T13:32:00.000+10:00

Had my first multisport race in Australia yesterday. Going in with 13 weeks of base training and hardly ever seeing a heart rate above 150bpm and having not done any real intensity efforts for a long time (Monday night cycling sessions excluded), I didn't really know what to expect. But, the course was dead flat, there was very little wind and the temperature was cool (~10 degrees?). I managed to put in a good effort for just over an hour and ended up with PBs in all categories, including breaking 40kph on the bike (including both transitions) and being 3:40 per kilometre pace and below on both runs ... resulting in 3rd place in my age category, which brought home some hardware.

These paces are all unchartered territory for me, so I'm quite pleased. So, maybe this high volume, low intensity thing really works.

Full Results (29th!)

Click on the following links for some photos ...

First Run -- ouch (the guy in red finished in 4th, 7 seconds back)

Bike -- grunting it out

Bike -- almost there

Awards ceremony (2nd place Jarratt -- spent some time training with D'Ornellas in TO)

Signage

2005-09-11T18:28:00.000+10:00

Lynn and I find some of the signs in Australia rather entertaining ... and some you wouldn't expect to see in North America ... for example ...

Submerged Rocks ... very dramatic:

A prime minister was once lost in these waters:

Comparable to a sign for moose in Canada?:

My apologies for my inability to centre the camera on this one ... I think the major take-home here is to "take care":

The "Great Ocean Road" ... and 2 years of marriage.

2005-09-11T16:50:00.000+10:00

To celebrate our 2nd anniversary, Lynn and I travelled to Lorne ... approximately 150kms from Melbourne and in the heart of the Great Ocean Road ... here are some select photos and videos ...

Driving at night on the G.O.R. ... Aussies are crazy drivers as apparently I am way too cautious:

A koala in the wild, just steps from the highway:

Whats left of the 12 Apostles (the closest one just fell over a couple of months ago)

Not bad a photo taken by a fellow tourist (into the sun!):

Ahh, some peace from the tourists:

The most exercise I did all weekend:

Much of Great Ocean Road is just like this:

and this:

Surfers at the famous Bell's Beach (sadly, the beach itself isn't that spectacular, but aparently the surf is pretty good):

Some videos of driving on the left (thought somebody might get a kick out of these) ... can you guess who is driving in either of these?

Koalas, Wallabies and Dingos, oh my

2005-09-11T16:33:00.000+10:00

Oh yah, and the wombats, tasmanian devils, platypus, birds of prey and penguins deserve special mention too ...

As you may have seen on Lynn's blog, we had our first visitor ... Lynn's high school friend and jazz pianist / singer / songwriter / etc Brenda.

So ... tourists flock to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin parade. It's rather surreal. A few hundred humans sit around in stadium seating with lights on the beach to watch short penguins (just over a foot tall) gather themselves and march in big groups (say 20-50) along the beach and into nests that they've dug on land. In possibly the worst possible weather conditions for the island (5 degrees and rainy), there was still a solid turnout of tourists. Strangely enough, we paid an extra $10 ($27 altogether) to get an even closer look ... though we had a much smaller group of people (tourists here are generally obnoxious) and it was well worth the extra money.

The next day, we made our way through the Yarra Valley to the town of Healesville ... to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes the newly built Platypusary.

Here are some shots from either Philip Island or the Healesville Sanctuary ...

The Knobbies:

The south coast of Philip Island:

The funky looking trees in the town of Cowes on the island:

A penguin under the boardwalk:

A Tasmanian devil:

A wombat:

A wallaby, not to be confused with a kangaroo:

A postcard-quality shot of a koala:

Cheers!

Well this sorta spells it out ...

2005-09-02T11:52:00.000+10:00

A rather shocking article ... and a reminder of the current state of the world:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050804/2/vd4b.html

I find David Davis' comments blatantly hypocritical though. And, just so we all don't think extremism is an attribute of one religion, one doesn't have to look too far to find:

http://www.thememoryhole.org/terror/tyler-terror.htm

This stuff blows me away.

Let's just hope this is an isolated freak event ...

2005-08-26T09:55:00.000+10:00

My co-worker came across this shocking report:

Man stabbed to death for his bike: report

... considering I ride through Collingwood every Monday evening. Let's hope that there is more to the story, at least ... hopefully that this wasn't just a random guy walking his bike.

Lance already at work ...

2005-08-22T12:18:00.000+10:00

So, Lance denies that he'll enroll for a post as Governor (at least for now) ... but he is definitely getting into lobbying for cancer research:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050821/2/vlp0.html

Could you imagine if 1% of the Iraq war budget was set aside for cancer research (or for anything else, really)? That is a lot of funds.

The hilly hundred ... Aussie style!

2005-08-15T13:07:00.000+10:00

Check out this link:

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~audaxoz/alpine.html

Hetti, I can pick up a pair of socks for you, if you want.

Ironman training hours ...

2005-08-14T22:03:00.000+10:00

Hmm, so I had a brief discussion with one of the dudes doing Hawaii this October about training hours (and I must add that it was a brief discussion simply because he was warming up and waiting for the other dudes to show up on the Boulevard for the cycling session ... about 10 minutes after our discussion, I was appropriately placed at the back of the bunch doing my best just to hang on ....)

Anyways, he was just telling me that he had just done one of his big training weeks, coming in with just over 21 hours of training, including a 7 hour 230k long ride. He also mentioned he has no days off ... his biggest junk of time off is from 8am Friday morning after swimming to the 6:30am ride Saturday morning. I told him how crazy he was and that I had felt like I'd done pretty well with about 14 hours that week. He told me that a week of 12-13 hours was "just tickin' it over" for him ... but then, he's had a few years to adapt himself to this (he recently did a 4:14 HIM, he did Hawaii in 2002 and hopes to do around 9:30 there this year ... not exactly in my league).

Just did a tally of my training journal for this week. It was a 'bike' week, which means I go long (150k) on the long ride and add an extra 50k mid-week ride. And, I just happened to switch my Monday night ride (tomorrow's) for a Sunday "recovery" ride in order to get an entire calendar day off, so it was 315k in the saddle altogether. My butt hurts.

That said, I totalled 17hrs (3:30 swim, 9:00 bike, 4:30 run), not including today's afternoon ride, which is technically part of next week's tally.

What a crazy sport this is.

Cold!

2005-08-11T14:16:00.000+10:00

Well, we've had our coldest week here in Melbourne. Yesterday, the high was only 11. Cool on the bike, but still comfortable. And, this morning for my run, I'd guess it was about 5 degrees.

And, Hobart (which is the capital of Tasmania, a couple hundred kilometres south of mainland Australia) got snow ... it's pretty big news:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050810/2/vg0z.html

Some quick updates ...

2005-08-11T09:43:00.000+10:00

Wow, been really lazy with the updates ... so here goes:

1. Training is going well ... I'm starting to feel fit again. Just about everything for the past 9 weeks has been low intensity so I'm looking forward to some mental stimulation (i.e. intervals). Been getting some lingering knee pain, which got me down for a couple days last week (hence the quote from Teddy). But, I've realized that it is that lingering patellofemoral pain syndrome (runner's knee) that I've had previously ... which i imagine is partly due to my skiing accident in 1998 where I lost some of that interior muscle on the right leg (it's always the right knee) ... so hopefully it's just a matter of doing some exercises to keep it in good shape. Also, a foot injury ... I dropped a shampoo bottle on it in the shower the other day and it still hurts.

2. Lynn and I have discovered (well, on TV) that Aussies have some bizarre sporting events here. First of all, there is NETBALL. It's like basketball, though you can't run with the ball, and there is no backboard, just the hoop. It's most often played by women and they wear skirts, which Lynn thinks is the only reason why any men would watch. They even have a national league. Then there is LAWN BOWLS ... try to put your ball close to the 'jack', which is a ball layed out in the field ... I would've thought this sport would attract those a little older ... but no, there was a championship b/w England and Australia and the Aussie was 32 ... in his prime, I guess. FIELD HOCKEY is played more often by men. Unlike in Canada, hockey has to be qualified by either 'ice' or 'field' so that one knows what you are talking about. And, of course, Melbournians are obsessed by FOOTY. And so am I, since I lead the footy tipping pool by 3 points and there are only 4 weeks left.

3. Big shakedown in North Melbourne last night. On our way back from the grocery store, they closed off parts of Curzon St right near the church. In excess of 5 police cars .... generally, it's a pretty sleepy inner suburb, so this was pretty exciting. Dunno what it was all about though.

4. We are thinking of breaking down and buying a car. It somewhat saddens me ... but there are lots of neat places within a couple hours drive of Melbourne that aren't easily accessible by long bike rides. I'm hoping for a HOLDEN, which is Australia's national car manufacturer .... though most of the parts are made by the Japanese now .... and just for reference, gas was at $1.18 per litre yesterday.

My non-attempt at poetry

2005-08-03T09:34:00.000+10:00

I'll leave poetry to the pros, like Thom Ringer for example.

Though, I did find a quote that helped me somehow personally justify this whole "enterprise" called Ironman training (it's been a rough week motivation-wise ... i'm probably overdoing things a bit ... better take it easier for the next week)

So, here goes:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." --- Theodore Roosevelt April 23rd, 1910.

"poor etiquette" day

2005-07-22T09:04:00.000+10:00

We dunno what happened ... but in both my lane and Lynn's lane this morning, people somehow lost their minds and we doing all kinds of boneheaded things.

So, here are some tips to absolutely infuriate your lanemates:

4. If the person in front of you is doing backstroke and you are doing freestyle and want to pass, be sure to swim right over top of them as they are pushing off the wall on their back. They'll appreciate the surprise.

3. Don't worry about giving a little tap on the person's foot you want to pass. Just go storming by them. And, do it with an aggressive look on your face, just to add to the atmosphere of the sport.

2. Just to make it a little interesting, swim in the middle of the lane for the whole time. That way you can give a little nudge to everybody as they pass by. They'll surely enjoy that.

1. Best of all, grab the person's leg you want to pass. They'll like that. And, if that doesn't work, just casually tell them to "stop there" until you get by.

Nothing like a little sport-rage to start your day ...

the humbler ...

2005-07-16T17:10:00.000+10:00

just finished my first "bike specific" training week ... meaning i do an extra ride during the week and a long long ride (150k in this case).

tough day on the bike though ... 75k in the pack, nice and easy ... followed by 75k into the wind by myself ... the rest were either doing 100k or 180k ... was in a world of hurt (to use gideon's terminology) for the last 50k of it. there was lots of other "carnage" on beach road coming back into the city ... lots of people in the same boat. ouch.

at least it was dry though, the past 4 weeks have been rainy and cold. i'll take wind over rain any day.

Google stalking ...

2005-07-15T13:44:00.000+10:00

I wonder if they counted Google stalking ... and if so, how many men Hetti would have accounted for ...

1 in 10 Canadians stalked in last 5 years, feared for safety: StatsCan

Actually, I don't mean to make light of this. It's pretty serious stuff.

Predicting cancer prognosis ...

2005-07-15T09:16:00.000+10:00

(It's been awhile since my last post, so I'd thought get a little techho here)

My Ph.D. project ...

In short, the goal is to figure out how to get a better handle on disease prognosis (i.e. predict outcome -- survival or death, remission or recurrence, how long someone might expect to be in remission, etc.). Specifically, I'm collaborating with a group that are experts in gastric (stomach) cancer, though we would hope our methods could be applied in other illnesses.

In the clinic, once it has been established that a patient has cancer, there are a number of indicators of how far the cancer has progressed. These indicators give doctors some idea of what treatment (or how harsh of a treatment) to use. But, these indicators are not very good for some cancers. It is unknown what patients respond to what treatments. And, gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.

From a panel of tumours collected over the last decade or so, for which clinical information is also collected, we are trying to find molecular "markers" (roughly speaking, gene or protein expression levels) of disease progression or of response to treatment. Of course, my angle is from the data analysis side, where we get the data, apply an appropriate statistical method and feed back candidate molecular markers back to the collaborators. They do further validation to determine whether what we find could make biological sense or eventually be used in a clinical setting.

There are a lot of challenges simply in processing and interpreting the data (some of which are fairly abstract), not to mention the challenges involved in validating a marker well enough to be used routinely in the course of treatment. The added potential benefit is that we can identify some interesting biology that also may lead to increased understanding and better treatments.

Should be challenging, fun, and hopefully useful some day.

P3: 650s or 700s?

2005-07-06T12:40:00.000+10:00

OK, can anybody give some comments on whether I should salvage a bunch of 650 parts from my old Cervelo ... or entirely bail on that and go to 700s?

Any comments, concerns, novel points of view welcome.

Yeah, CSC is looking good. Too bad about Zabriskie ... that hurts in just about every possible way.