Tour de France 2008

This year I’m not blogging the stages of the Tour de France. I’m still watching, a little, every night. It started July 5th and continues til the 27th. At the moment there is four seconds’ difference separating the top three riders. But between work and exercise I don’t have the time to watch all of every stage. As usual, I’d like to record every stage in the hope of watching them later, perhaps even during the winter while pedaling on an indoor bike. But we’re only using one tape: if I don’t watch it in the evening, it’s wiped out in the morning. It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes. I have to admit that I might never watch it, so why clutter up my life with the possibility?

Wetsuits

I want a new, larger wetsuit as I am 20 pounds over the stated size range of the one I have. It’s a nice suit, a Nineteen made by Enduro Sports in Toronto. But it was the largest they had… It takes about 15 minutes to put it on and it’s tight, tight, tight and drags everywhere.

Yesterday we went to D’Ornella’s on Lawrence Avenue and looked at their wetsuits. But their XL offered only 5 pounds more in its range. So I think we’ll be ordering one of the DeSoto Sports two-piece T1 suits online.

wetsuit from DeSoto

Welland Triathlon

Apparently Welland had a triathlon and a duathlon while I wasn’t looking.

After taking a break in 2006 after 21 years, the Welland Triathlon returned in 2007 with a New Venue, New Race Courses and a Time-Trial Start format. Just 1.5km south of the former race site, the new race site offers more space, more parking and the post-race food & awards inside the cool confines of the Welland Arena!! The swim course will again be a rectangular-shaped in the calm waters of the Welland Recreational Waterway. The bike course is Flat, Flat, Flat and travels south along the canal before heading southwest towards the Town of Wainfleet. The run course travels along the fitness paths along the canal. The Time Trial Start will return for 2008 as will the finish at centre ice in the Welland Arena!!

Open water swim, July 18

It was another day of heat & smog alerts. We wanted to get to swimming early so we packed up from our respective workplaces at 17:30 and were on the road to the beach shortly after that. The water was warmer than ever (75 F.). Maybe next week some of the others will shuck their wetsuits. There were long, low rollers coming in, which made swimming more interesting.

I warmed up in advance of the lesson by swimming out around of our temporary buoys and back. We practised swimming into the waves and back. More swimmers arrived The second time, I went almost as far as the other swimmers. Then we swam down the beach to another spot where we could practice triathlon starts. Last week we practised water starts, from treading water; this time we practised running starts from the beach with shallow-water swimming; and “dolphin-diving” in slightly less shallow water.

I got into the water about 18:15 and swam until 19:00. I don’t know how far I swam; I just enjoyed the water and took it easy. I’m getting more confident and more consistent, which is good. Here’s everybody except for Mirtha and forLaura, who is taking the picture: Arthur, Coach Kelvin, Lynda, Richard, me, Lisa.

See Kelvin’s swim diary.
And now I need to get to sleep. You wouldn’t think that we need haircuts? But we’re getting up early to get our hair cut nice and short for swimming.

Open-water swim, July 14

We had a bit of rain on Friday but the water quality was good again by Sunday so swimming was on for tonight. We got to the beach by 6:15 p.m. and the first thing I did was to test the water temperature. Our instructor was there already and told me that the water was 70 degrees F. So I decided I could do without the wetsuit.

This is training for triathlons, so the lessons are progressive. We concentrated on greater distances and on getting a fast start from stopped and treading water. I’m still not as fast as the others, so I did smaller loops and shorter distances. I still covered about a thousand yards. It wasn’t all front crawl: I switched off with resting strokes like breast stroke and side stroke.

Nissan Ten-miler

Results, comments, pictures: Nissan ten-mile road race.

Third open-water swim

Today after work I headed to Cherry Beach for the triathletes’ open-water swim practice with Coach Kelvin of Oannes Swims. I was a little late because I couldn’t find my cell phone when I went to leave work. At the beach, I tried going into the water without a wetsuit but it was colder than last week - cold enough to hurt at first, so I went back and struggled into my wetsuit. Think of putting on compression stockings or a girdle—all over. Our extra lifeguard helped me to get the sleeves up to my shoulders and zipped up the back.

I got into the water and started to practice. Coach Kelvin gave me an orange bathing cap so I’d be more visible in the water. The extra lifeguard kept an eye on our bags.

Open-water swim: Phil, Nick, Kelvin, Anthony, Lynda, Laura, Arthur

The water was only about 62 F. or 15 C. It took a while to get used to the water and I found myself pulling down the wetsuit sleeves to cover my hands more. I suppose there are swimming gloves, too. And when I put my face into it I started to get an “ice-cream headache.” But these things pass. Cold or not, I had to let some water in at the ankles, wrists, and neck so the suit would loosen up and move more easily.

Open-water swim: Phil, Nick, Kelvin, Anthony, Lynda, Laura, Arthur

The other swimmers (Anthony, Arthur, Laura, Lynda, Phil, and a few others) were warmed up and stepping up the intensity but I just tried to keep them in sight. I made a shorter loop than the others. Even so, I swam too fast and got out of breath. I stopped to breathe. This time I was careful not to hyperventilate and I kept moving slowly so as not to get seasick. I got frustrated with my frequent stops and lack of progress. So I switched to other strokes: side stroke and breast stroke, even back stroke. The suit is so tight that it’s hard to do well any stroke that calls for bending the legs.

Open-water swim: Kelvin, Anthony, Lynda, Laura

Then I did a slower lap around the temporary buoys that we use for markers while the experienced swimmers made a much larger loop. That was better so I got a little farther and felt smoother. I did maybe 300 yards altogether.

Arthur brought his underwater camera and took some pictures of the swimmers… so these pictures of me swimming are thanks to Arthur. You can see more of his pictures here: “Swimmmmin’.”

Then I had only half an hour to get out of the water, get dressed, and dash up to the vet’s to pick up my cat Marlowe. At home, I found my cell phone on the kitchen table.

Bike shirt from Etsy

Etsy is an online store dedicated to hand-made merchandise. One of their offerings is the “old bike” shirt.

First open-water swim

I took my new wetsuit to Musselman’s Lake for a lesson in open-water swimming with Coach Kelvin (right). We covered how to put it on, how buoyant we are in wetsuits, and how to let in a little water so it won’t drag so much. Then I swam a little and get accustomed to the pull and drag of neoprene. It was… interesting. I tended to get seasick when not swimming because, I guess, I was bobbing around without any feedback from the water. I also tended to veer off course—a lot. I don’t think it’s exactly because I’m more buoyant; I think it’s because I can’t feel the water directly. So I’m not evening out my strokes or something.

On the first leg of our swim, I felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere, that a current was carrying me back almost as fast as I swam. That feeling was less when I swam across the lake instead of along the shore: I was able to just swim along without worrying too much about progress. I stopped often and changed strokes; but I was able to swim and breathe and eventually to get to the far shore. I began to see fish near the farther shore. I think they were pumpkin-seed sunfish, an introduced species.

After a rest, we reversed our course and returned to the beach, then back along the shore to our starting point. Later, I found out that it seemed to take so long because it’s farther than I thought it was: about 300 yards from the start to the beach and perhaps 400 yards across our end of the lake (which is really a large pond).

There’s already noticeable seaweed groves in the shallow water and it wasn’t really cold enough to need a wetsuit. it will be choked with weed and warm as tea as the summer goes on.

Workout: approximately 1400 yards, all strokes.

The larger body of water is Musselman’s Lake. The road at the top is Aurora Side Road; and Ninth Line curves around the east end of the lake, which is where we started our swim. The light-coloured patch where Ninth Line meets the north side of the lake is the beach.

Liveblogging the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Game 4

This is the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins, in Pittsburgh. Detroit won the first two games, Pittsburgh the third.

20:15 Eastern Time: a moment of silence for Luc Bourdon, who died in a single-motorcycle accident a few days ago. He had got his learner’s permit six weeks ago and had had the motorcycle for only two days.

Game starts: the first of three 20-minute periods.

• Face-off. I was washing dishes and did not see who got the puck in the first scramble.

• A penalty against Detroit: they will play short-handed for two minutes. Pittsburgh scores on the power-play, ending the penalty. Score 1-0 for Pittsburgh.

• Five minutes. Another power play, this time for the Red Wings. Detroit’s Eric Lindstrom fires in a beautiful long shot and scores at the end of the power play. Score, 1 - 1.

• Eight minutes. The Pittsburgh goal is knocked off its position; play stops. Someone got a stick in the face but the referees didn’t notice.

• Penalty against Detroit for roughing up another player (plus a bit of high-sticking): power play to the Penguins for two minutes or until they score. The Penguins are all around the Red Wing goal. Then the Red Wings shoot the puck to the other end of the arena (clearing it down the ice).
• The puck gets tossed into the crowd, stopping play. Play starts again with a new puck; the Penguins fire on goal but Detroit’s goalie Osborne stops the puck. Red Wings clear it down the ice.

• Eleven minutes: Pittsburgh players are slowing down. Another couple of close shaves. Penalty is over.

• Twelve minutes: Wide-open play courses from end to end of the ice, repeatedly.

At this point I have to go out. Back later with results.

… I got back in time to see the last 50 seconds of the second period. The score is still 1 - 1.

Third period:

• The Wings swarm the Pittsburgh goal, looking energetic and determined.

• Two minutes, 30 seconds: Detroit scores scores a goal on a slow backhand shot. The Wings are even more energetic.

• Pittsburgh goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, gets a penalty for batting the puck out of the playing area after he makes a save. That’s for deliberately delaying the game. The goalie doesn’t go off the ice; someone else serves his penalty. The Wings go on a power play and swarm the Penguin’s goal again.

• 5′ 30″: Puck is shot over the boards again. This time it is deemed an accident.

• Penalty is over. Intense end-to-end play. Detroit’s net is off the posts. One of the Pittsburgh players, Evgeni Malkin, a victim of almost constant interference in this game, was propelled right into the goal.

• The Red Wings are beating the Penguins to the puck. Wide-open, skating game.

• A Red Wing tripped a Pittsburgh player with his stick and got a hooking penalty. It’s a chance for Pittsburgh to score. THEN another Red Wing got an interference penalty. There will be five Penguins on the ice against three Red Wings for almost two minutes.

• A Penguin shot and missed the goal! Henrik Zetterberg kept the Penguins guessing. The puck was cleared down the ice. There’s another face-off in the Wings’ end. The Penguins may have got the puck, but Zetterberg stole it and fired on the Penguins’ goal. Fleury made a save.

• The puck is down at the Red Wings’ end again but the first penalty is over. The second penalty is over. The Penguins couldn’t make a goal.

• Two minutes left to go. Pittsburgh needs to make a goal.
• Last minute. Detroit pulls their goalie to put another active player on the ice. Pittsburgh gets a shot at the empty net and misses! Detroit gets the puck back to the Pittsburgh goal end and hangs on for the win.

The Red Wings now lead the series three games to 1 and are going back to Detroit, where they will be the ones being cheered. Pittsburgh seldom loses a home game, so t his is a tough loss for them.

Now I have to get to bed because there’s the 25-km Ride for Heart bike-a-thon.