BFIT Challenge, Donation Request, Races

Wow, thank you to everyone who voted for me on the BFIT challenge. I won, and this week recieved my lovely new Rudy TT Helmet.

So far its had one outing and that was on the trainer :-), not sure it made me any faster on the trainer, but I sure felt faster! (Note the serious look :-)

Looking forward to being able to use it in a race and see if it has any effect.

If anyone has a few spare dollars Gemma has entered the Susan G. Komen - Race for the cure. When she completed this last year in a time of 37mins for the 5K it was the first race she had ever completed (this time last year she did not believe that she could run 5k!). This year she hopes to improve upon that time. (even though she has just recovered from twin birth and c-section). If you can sponsor her it would be much appreciated.

This weekend is a postponed 2 mile swim race on Saturday and Muddy Buddy on Sunday. Training as expected has been a bit hit and miss, but did get 5 hours of cycling done over the weekend and 2 hours of running.

Lake in the Hills Tri Race, Running In California

Last weekend I had another sprint tri race, to say it rained would not be doing it justice, it absolutely hammered it down. You know that feeling its 5am, you've had 2 hours sleep and when you step out of the car, you are soaked in seconds and you really wonder what the hell am I doing here" Well I totally had that feeling before the race. There was still thunder and lightning in the air when I arrived so it looked like the swim would be cancelled, however that passed and the swim start was only delayed 15mins.

Lake in the hills sprint tri is a point to point race, so dropped off my running shoes (wrapped in multiple plastic bags) in T2 and cycled the mile to T1, getting wetter and wetter in the process. Setup T2, again putting everything in multiple plastic bags. This season I have started wearing my cycle kit under my wetsuit (they couldn't get any wetter) so only my cycle shoes in T1.

I was off in wave 2 as I predicted 15-17 mins for the half mile swim, started nicely and now I am alot more confident in my swim I pushed myself harder and stayed with the leaders. As in my last race why do people seem so incapable of estimating their swim times? To go in wave one you would of estimated a swim time of faster than 15mins. With each wave going off at 3 min intervals I couldn't believe it when I caught people doing breastroke in the first half of the swim. Swim went well despite getting weed caught in my braces (very off putting!).

Finished without expending much energy in a time of 15.55, 3rd in my age group.
Into T2 and it was still raining heavily, and quickly headed out (well it felt like quickly but 2.36 T1 is not that quick!)

It was a 16 mile rolling bike course, and seemed to suit me, I really enjoyed it, maybe it was because I was actually having to fight the conditions as well. For the first time I felt like I was actually racing rather than just surviving. Throughout the cycle I was pushing myself, trying to catch each person in front of me, and not letting people catch me. Few hairy moments on the standing water but overall a great ride. Finished with a time of 48.31 (again 3rd overall in my age group and at this point 3rd overall in my age group in the race).

A fairly quick change over in T2 and out on the run, finally it had stopped raining and was brightning up. Felt really good out of T2 and got quickly into what felt like a nice stride. The 3.5 miles came and went pretty quickly and I finished the run with a 34.18. This slow run dropped me in the overall standings from a 3rd place overall to a 5th. This was way better than I ever expected anyway so was really happy.

overall place:	70 out of 272
division place:	5 out of 19
gender place:	62 out of 167
time:	1:42:58
swim:	15:55
trans 1:	2:36
bike:	48:31
trans 2:	1:40
run:	34:18

This week I am in Sunnyvale california, and went running at the Sunnyvale Baylands Salt Planes. It was really beautiful, lovely scenary and perfect temperatures. Ended up running 7.5 miles and really enjoyed it. This is a real change to most business trips of mine where I take sports kit to run etc while I am away but end up, just going out for dinner and not getting back until late.

Gemma has a friend helping us with baby duty while I am away, and I am making the most of catching up on some sleep.

This was my view on the run. (Picture on the left not the right! :-) )

Not much of an update on the babies this week, since I have gone away I am told they are sleeping longer, see when I get a good nights sleep they get a good nights sleep. I will be suggesting I go away more!

First Tri of the Season, Baby Update and BFIT Contest

Last week was my first triathlon - Twin Lakes Sprint Tri.
I completed this race last year so wanted to gauge myself compared to last year, and as its my local race I wanted to give it my support.

I didn't really have any goals for this race, it was a just see how I am doing. Due to babies and far less training in the first half of the year compared to last year, I wanted to see how my fitness was holding up.

My time from last year..
Swim (0.5 miles) 11:29 , Bike (16 miles) 47:23 , Run (5 miles) 43:26
Overall time - 1:42:18

The night before the sky opened up and dumped a ton of rain down, so I was half expecting the event to get cancelled, but infact the morning ended up being fantastic.

Swim went well (wetsuit still fit, last time it got an outing was IM FL), felt like I was gliding through the water, also I was in a slower wave of swimmers so it was really nice to be able to lead everyone. (Rarely happens with me!, yep thats me at front!)

Finished nicely in a time of 11.42 (just a few seconds slower than last year, and with far less swim training this year).

Also had an enjoyable bike, didn't push too hard just stayed within a comfortable range. Fell off as I dismounted on the wet road, but no injuries. Bike time of 48.19 (1 min slower than last year)

The run as well was enjoyable, little cramp towards the end but that was my own fault for not taking enough GUs. Run time was 47.36 (4 mins slower)

Finished in an overall time of 1hr 47. 5 mins slower than last year. I was really happy with this. Having not trained anywhere near as much as last year I expected this to be far slower.

By the way if you get a chance please vote for me in the B-FIT-BDay Contest . I am Tim Davies. I completed this in honour of my twin babies birthday completing 3 miles swim, 30 mile ride, and a 10 mile run all in 4 days around their birth. My story is here..
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Babies are doing well, if there goal is to keep mummy and daddy up at all hours of night! J/K we are all having some really wonderful times. I am managing to keep up about 70% of my training. If it wasn't for the fact I got very sweaty on the bike trainer I am sure I would have fed them while cycling.


This weekend I have a 2 mile open water swim race, and the girls might get to attend their first event.