“You know what I like about Vermont? It has better sticks.” – Shark Boy
While I have my doubts that the sticks of Vermont are of higher quality than the sticks of Ontario, Shark Boy does have a point that we were able to spend our vacation in a beautiful (fairly) natural setting at Smuggler’s Notch Ski Resort. We try to alternate our spring break between hot places and ski vacations, so after last year’s trip to Mexico, it was going to be skiing, even if this was another brutally cold winter. Having been to Quebec twice, we wanted to switch it up this year. My wife did some research at the Toronto Snow Show, and while there was heavy competition, we decided on Smuggler’s Notch due to its reputation for families and the 20% discount deal that they offered us through the show.
Taxicab Selfie on the way to the airport
When I told people about the trip, most assumed we’d drive there from Toronto, but that would have taken longer than I generally like to spend time in a car, never mind with two bored kids in the back. Flying Porter from the Toronto Island is actually a reasonably comfortable experience with young ones; they get excited about all the various stages – taxi, ferry, air-plane. The line-ups aren’t as long as at Pearson International Airport and the waiting lounge has free coffee and cookies. Propeller planes are a little noisier and slower than jets, and they seem to have more turbulence (maybe due to a slower ascent into the more peaceful altitudes?) which is tough if you’re a nervous flyer like my wife. It was also a bit of a bumpy landing into Burlington, VT. Porter flights de-board in a weird satellite terminal which requires a shuttle ride to the main terminal. We’d been expecting a shuttle that we booked with Smuggler’s Notch; they were supposed to have a sign with our name on it, but we were unable to find them either at the first terminal or the main one. We did, however, get a lot of help and support from the driver of their regular inter-terminal shuttle buses, and we eventually found out that our driver had been told that our flight had been delayed when it actually hadn’t. The upshot was that I never felt genuinely worried that we wouldn’t get our ride to the resort, everyone we dealt with was courteous, knowledgeable and professional.
We got checked into the resort, and driven to our condo which was in the “Liftside” section, and as the name implies, very close to the lifts. If we hadn’t had a second story apartment we could have walked onto the hill from the back door of our room. It was also a very short walk to the main village which not only houses most of the resort’s restaurants, but the ski school, rental shop, and guest services so we were well off in terms of location.
We had our first dinner in the Pizzeria, Riga-Bello’s. Frankly, I found it a little confusing because it looked like the kind of joint where you walk up to the counter and order a slice, but when we were directed to take menus, it made me think it would be a sit-down-server-takes-your-order experience. My first instinct was correct, but we ended up having my wife run back and forth from the counter to our table to provide updates as to which pizzas were available by the slice versus whole pizzas – it just made dinner way more complicated than it had to be. The pizza was okay, but nothing special.
Our apartment was quite nice. We had our own kitchen, which we sometimes used to make breakfast (the rest of the time we fell prey to the lure of treating ourselves), and a living room area where the kids would watch TV while we prepared our (or more specifically their) equipment and outfits for the ski day. We were all in one bedroom which worked well, with Shark Boy on a higher bed (he’s a little more stable in his sleeping patterns) and the Lightning Kid on a low trundle bed which felt safe. One of the things we liked best, of course, was the en suite washer and dryer; which meant not only being able to have clean and dry clothes when we needed them, but kept our packing and luggage to a minimum (2 ski bags, 2 suitcases, a ski boot bag, one backpack, one laptop bag – the last 3 items were all carry-on).
Our first full day at Smuggler’s Notch started with a gorgeous breakfast at the Morse Mountain Grill. I had the stuffed waffles, which I can highly recommend. They have a great kids breakfast menu too.
Bringing the kids to the ski school involved some confusion for us. The package we had booked gave us ‘Discovery Camp’ tickets for both boys, and at the intake/registration, upon hearing that the Lightning Kid had been on skis before (albeit with our help) and was toilet-trained, said he’d be ahead of some of the other students in his class (named Discovery Dynamos while Shark Boy would be in Trail Blazers). This sounded promising, but we had envisioned him as being in more of a daycare situation with some one-on-one ski instruction. The instructor who was leading his proposed group had some directed questions about the Lightning Kid’s ability to follow instructions verbally, and in programs like his Little Kickers Soccer class, he’s done better by being able to follow the other kids. The instructor pushed the Adaptive Ski Program as an idea; Smuggler’s Notch is clearly very proud of their adaptive ski program for individuals of different abilities, as well they should be. It’s just that we’ve found that he does better when he’s surrounded by typical peers in an inclusive environment – ultimately we know what’s best for our son. We eventually opted for the Little Rascals on Snow program, which is run out of their Treasures daycare building.
The Treasures daycare is a short distance uphill, but once we had him registered (a process which was impressively thorough for the safety and security of the children), he seemed comfortable enough, and my wife and I were off for a day of skiing! The day before had brought some new snow so as we got higher and higher we were treated to some beautiful scenery; snow coated trees and branches. Smuggler’s Notch has 3 mountains: Morse, Madonna and Sterling. I guess we were still a little antsy about leaving the kids alone, and we weren’t too confident in our own legs: we had said that getting in even a few runs alone would have been good enough for us on this vacation! We stuck to Morse mountain (the closest to our home base) and only did Blue runs that day.
I found it a little strange that even with 3 mountains worth of ski runs, Smuggs only has old-fashioned (read: slow, not high speed), two person lifts over the entire resort. It seems quaint, and it didn’t bother me that much, but I think it’s something you’d want to know so you can manage your expectations.
The hillside cafeteria food was basically the kind of fare you might expect, but somehow it all tasted a little above average. There were a few novel treats too, like macaroni and cheese in a bread-bowl (carb city!).
Everyday at the Treasures daycare, they took the kids into their little backyard where they have what has to be the world’s smallest magic carpet and slope. Already on the first day, he had done a little skiing on his own. We’d pick him up in our ski boots, get him geared up, and I’d ski down the hill with him between my legs to the bottom, where we’d walk back into our condo and change for dinner. Skiing like that is a little tiring (it’s like holding a deep squat), but this was often my favourite part of the day.
Before dinner, we gave the kids a little bit of free play in the Fun Zone, which is an inflated dome full of play areas for kids of various ages and adults. There’s skee-ball like games, bouncy castles, inflated giant slides and obstacle courses as well as mini-golf. There’s a few rules for the larger structures that also keep little ones like the Lightning Kid off them, but there was enough smaller play structures to keep him happy. The Fun Zone was a daily highlight for both kids (even if there are no sticks in the Fun Zone).
We had dinner at the Morse Mountain Grille again. We were serenaded by Rockin’ Ron the Friendly Pirate. Ron has some corny pirate humour, but the songs were fun to sing along with and the kids were frankly entranced by him. Vermont cuisine, in which as far as I can tell always involves Maple, Bacon or Green Apples, was always featured and always desirable. I had the Maple Whiskey BBQ Steak Tips, which were tasty if a little tough, but what I really enjoyed was the local craft beer sampler, especially the ‘Sunshine and Hoppiness’ Ale.
On the second day, we dropped the kids off a little more efficiently after a breakfast of toast and peanut butter (supplied by items I bought at the General Store the night before), and we sampled Mount Madonna and Mount Sterling. I had been warned that crossing between the mountains involved flat stretches that needed a lot of skating to get through, but having been warned, I gathered up plenty of momentum each time, and I don’t think it was really that bad. One of our first priorities at Mount Madonna was to try one of their on-hill Waffle snacks. I could smell them from several hundred meters away. They were very tasty, but I’d decline the Nutella if I were you because cleaning up one’s face on the hill isn’t easy.
We got some good runs in, and I found plenty of Blues that still gave me a little kick with their twisty narrow turns. One complaint I had was I found that branches would crowd the fringes of many runs; I nearly got taken out by a branch on two occasions, once because I was looking uphill at a run we were merging with – just like the caution sign suggested. The morning weather was pleasantly mild, but it turned nasty and we spent most of the midday being drizzled on. Getting wet like that made us get cold faster. We knocked off a little early to pick up Shark Boy from his lesson and ski with him. Being the older brother means getting less attention much of the time, so it’s nice to address that with some two-on-one time; plus we wanted to see what he’d learned! He showed us some great linked turns and much better stopping than we’d seen from him before we came to Vermont.
We also picked up the Lightning Kid early. My wife wanted us to have a date night, and she found out about a kids’ Fun Feast that would have the kids being looked after and fed, with games, movies and interacting with Mogul Mouse and Billy Bob Bear. She figured we’d have a dinner for two at one of the restaurants, but the reservations desk upped the ante… they were running a snowshoe adventure that evening where we’d take a lift Mount Sterling, do a little snowshoeing, enjoy a candlelit gourmet dinner (catered by their Hearth and Candle restaurant, but on the mountain the location is called Top of the Notch. Then we’d snowshoe down the mountain; and to boot, we’d be able to drop the kids off earlier than other parents who’d signed up for the Fun Feast (another trip to the Fun Zone for our boys).
We took the shuttle from the village to the bottom of Mount Sterling. We were briefed on how we could pick up our snowshoes, board the lift, and disembark – which was going to be more challenging and tricky than it would have been on skis. Not being able to slide off the ramp meant having to turn away from the chair and letting it pass, then crossing the ramp without getting hit by the returning chair. We managed it on our first try. We moved inside to Top of the Notch, where the guides explained the course of the evening. We sat with two other couples who had kids in the same Fun Feast and ski school, and they were even from the West side of Toronto – unfortunately, we were too big dorks to get their contact info… Beth, Richard, Dave and Jenn, if you read this, you can contact me at one of the links on the right side of the page! The head guide/host explained that calls of nature would have to be answered… in nature with a secluded area for the ladies, and the men just about anywhere else. He also invited the whole group for what he called a ‘little hike’ – it ended up being a mostly uphill climb all the way to Stowe! Some of the scenery was lovely, but that was a tough hike, and I’m surprised everybody managed it. Apparently we were the first group that had been able to accomplish that trek this season! I later kicked myself for not wearing my Garmin to track it, especially because the Garmin was actually in the backpack I had brought along for the event – the dinner was BYOB with the exception of a hot chocolate with banana schnapps. We both had trouble with our snowshoes staying on, but the guides were really good and making fixes on the go.
A pond just off the peak of Mount Sterling
We made it! A view from the top of Stowe…
Obviously the way back down was easier, though the sun was getting low and the air got colder. For spring, it was pretty cold, especially with the wind cutting through you. We had a lovely dinner, my pork was a little dry, but the wild mushroom ravioli was heavenly. We heard good things about the Vermont chicken too. Suddenly, it was time to go if we wanted to be on time to pick up our children. The mountain hadn’t gotten any warmer in the dark, but it was a fun downhill hustle in snowshoes, and interesting to see some of the familiar runs of the daytime in the darkness, never mind going at a slower pace than on skis.
We picked up the kids and they were over excited, and over tired, never a good combination. It was St. Patrick’s Day and the Lightning Kid had his face painted green for the occasion. In the spirit of many other St. Patrick’s Day revellers, he also did a face plant in the village courtyard that left a nice little scrape on his nose.
Day 3 was our last full day at Smuggs; and I promised Shark Boy that we’d visit the pool after skiing. We’d been avoiding it since all winter long, every time we took the Lightning Kid skiing, he’d get a nasty cold – barking coughs, wheezy breathing, you name it. My wife booked a massage at the spa, and I wanted to get a few lengths in the pool; it was officially week 1 of my Half-Iron training program and besides the snowshoeing, skiing, lugging ski equipment and chasing the kids around the fun zone, I hadn’t had any real exercise. I found out to my delight that the pool used a salt water chlorination process, but it was only 20 yards long. Ah well, better than nothing.
After that my wife and I met up for more skiing, but the cold winds were blasting up the hill. We got too cold, too fast, and the wind had also cleaned the hills of snow to a large extent. We did the best we could to enjoy ourselves, but getting inside for lunch was a pleasure that I have to say we dragged out longer than we would have otherwise. We only did 2 runs on Mount Madonna before opting to make the ski trek back to Mount Morse and the Village to pick up the kids. While Shark Boy had been a little resistant to go to a “Ski School” – we shouldn’t have called it that because school means teachers which means rules and orders to follow – he didn’t want it to end and was sad when he found out it was his last day. The instructors were great, and they use a GPS tracking technology (called Flaik) which not only lets them track the kids in case of emergency, but summarizes their runs, you can even map it out from the Flaik website.
One of Shark Boy’s days on skis.
Swimming in the pool ended up being a lot of fun. I had Shark Boy do a swim test to prove he could handle the deep end, which I’m proud to say he passed with flying colours. The Lightning Kid has tubes in his ears, and we got custom earplugs to protect them; this was one of my first times working with them, and I lost them. Three times, but I found them every time, once in the drain filter, once floating nearby, and once in the middle of the pool where I did my best Hasselhoff impression with a daring aquatic rescue (Baywatch reference!).
We took the kids to the Fun Zone which was next to the indoor pool so their hair could dry a little before going the the Hearth and Candle. It’s a cozy restaurant which would have been nice for a romantic dinner in the basement where the fireplaces are, but the main floor accommodates families beautifully too. I got a chance to try the Vermont chicken which I had missed out on the night before and it was delicious. What I didn’t enjoy as much was the Maple Bacon Manhattan; I blame myself, because it didn’t taste any different than it should, I think I just expected to like it based on the fact that all the individual ingredients were things that I liked. On Day 4, we weren’t flying out till the afternoon, and Smuggs was nice enough to let us have a late checkout without any extra charges which meant being able to do a few runs as a family. And the Lightning Kid didn’t seem like swimming had caused him to catch a cold! Oddly enough, it was the first time we’d gotten a real look at the beginner’s runs and lifts. Apparently Shark Boy was able to ride the Mogul Mouse lift by himself, and he didn’t like me lifting him up to get on the Village lift; turns out it was a good idea though because those chairs are a little higher and it nearly knocked him down – I managed to snag him in the last second. He actually rode mostly with his mother, because it was my job to get the Lightning Kid on the chairlift. Both my wife and I were nervous at the prospect, but I resolved to simply keep a good hold on him. The lift staff didn’t bat an eyelash as I lined up for the lift.
I got a lift-selfie to mark the occasion
We moved over to make use of the magic carpet and were able to let Shark Boy ski independently while my wife and I got the Lightning Kid to ski unassisted. WHICH HE TOTALLY DID…. for about 6 feet, but still! I got him to put his hands on his knees which is something he’s learned in the soccer program I mentioned earlier. That made his stance perfect with a low centre of gravity. Any time he wasn’t being held up, he screamed, but he did ski independently which was a great moment for us. Another funny moment was when we convinced him to ski without being held, by distracting him and singing “LET IT GO!” (his all-time favourite song from the movie Frozen). We capped off our last day at Smuggler’s Notch as a family of four skiers, and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
Our shuttle back to Burlington airport had all the info he needed to make sure we were there in a timely fashion and he even gave us a little scenic tour so we could see some of the mountains and learn about what some of the local villages have to offer; Underhill and Jericho Corners are great for hiking, for example.
We had a fairly uneventful flight back, and I think this trip stands out as a good example of how family vacations don’t have to be stressful; there were hair-pulling moments of course, but altogether, we got what we wanted out of the trip.
In the past, I’ve used Yaktrax or another traction device that you strap onto the outside of your shoes to run safely in the snow and ice. Some of the feedback I’ve gotten from the review and asking around is that putting screws into the soles of an old pair is a way to make sure you don’t slip, without having to muck around with an extra piece of equipment, and it’s cheap too.
Skyrunner prescribes hexagonal sheet metal screws, and says 3/8″ isn’t too long for most shoes. I wasn’t able to find 1/2″ screws, so I figured I would have to gamble. I’d be putting them into my old Salomon’s which have served me well, and don’t owe me anything. Being a trail running shoe, they’re already well suited to more extreme conditions and they’re probably the best shoe I own for running in the snow, regardless of what kind of traction assistance I’m getting (if any). Still, the notion of these screws being in my shoes with the sharp ends pointing up made me nervous; one of the challenges I’ve found about winter running isn’t the snow or ice, per se, it’s the mixture of plowed sidewalk (running on cement) to sudden transition of ice and/or snow. With the Yaktrax I found running on the plowed sidewalk to be like getting light acupuncture… I was worried it wouldn’t be so “light” with the screws!
I’m glad I had a drill with the right attachments; I wasn’t afraid of using some muscle/elbow grease to get the screws in, but the rubber makes it hard to get a hole started. While the instructions mentioned having screws numbering upwards of 18, but that seemed like overkill. I put 12 into each shoe, and I managed to be almost symmetrical on each shoe, but not quite.
On Thursday, I took them out for a run. Or more accurately a “Runch” – when you run on your lunch break. Challenge #1: not wearing shoes with hard metal protrusions on the soles on any delicate surfaces like the change room floor (this goes double for my floors at home) on the way out. I waited till I was on a rug by the exit before I put the shoes on.
The first surface I ran/walked on was the plowed walkway near the office. To my surprise, the acupuncture feeling was less with the screws than I remember it being with the Yaktrax. I did notice when I progressed onto the sidewalk on my way to enter the Etobicoke Creek Trail that I was getting some poking on the side of my foot, right in the space between my big toe and the ball of my foot. Not stabby pain, but not comfortable either.
Once I was on the snowy trail, the discomfort went away entirely. I couldn’t feel the screws at all. That’s both the good news and the bad news. I started off slower, with the intention of really making sure I warmed up properly and slowly in addition to wanting a negative split on the run. On the way back, if I pushed the pace a little, my feet slipped backwards on each step. If the snow had been packed down unevenly, my feet could slide laterally to the edges of the cleared/tramped down space of the path. I made the final climb off the trail back out to the road without any extra traction at all. It wasn’t totally slippery, but on the other hand, the Salomons have a good enough tread that I don’t think I would have slipped any more than I did had I not installed the screws in the first place.
I can practically hear proponents of this method now: I didn’t put enough screws in, or by placing some of them in between treads, I minimized their impact. That may be true, but given that at least one screw was hurting my foot, I think I was right not to put too many in, and many of the screws were placed on the flatter areas of the sole, and did not provide any perceived improvement.
At least I got to do some of that winter outdoor Yoga all the cool kids are doing…
On the plus side, the screws stayed in place and I didn’t have to manage any extra bucking or unbuckling in the cold; when I was inside, I took off the shoes, and that’s it. The screws didn’t cost much, but they cost more than nothing, and nothing is seemingly the value I got out of them. Just my two cents. And now, I think I deserve a medal, because it’s really difficult to write ‘screws’ that many times without turning it into a dirty joke… I mean, it’s really hard (that’s what she said). *Whew*
Do you run in the snow with a little extra traction help? If so, what kind?
I typed the first part of this post on a Saturday night in a hotel business centre in Collingwood, Ontario. I was intending to finish writing about the entirety of the Saturday, but the slow net connection and my own exhaustion made it impossible. As I type this now with borderline frostbitten fingertips, I know I have to break the tale of our crazy Collingwood weekend up into more than one post. For now, you’ll have to settle for my contribution to the Lakeshore Runner Tri-ed It Tuesday linkup: a recap of our first snowshoe race.
I’ve wanted to take part in a snowshoe race for some time now. I’ve owned my own snowshoes for over a year, but I haven’t gotten many chances to get proficient with them. This year I missed two chances to take part in snowshoeing events run by Personal Best at Albion Hills. Not only was the venue close, but vendors were allowing you to try on snowshoes for demonstration purposes, and they had children’s sizes, so I ended up getting Shark Boy all psyched up to, only for us to miss our shot by a few minutes each time. As a family, we made cross-country skiing the top priority weekend outdoor activity, and snowshoeing kept getting punted.
Before we were married, my wife and I used to love coming up to Collingwood for both cross-country and downhill skiing, and even with two kids, we still try to make the effort. Knowing that we wanted to make such a weekend happen, and since I found the Romp To Stomp Snowshoe Race (benefitting the fight against Breast Cancer), I had a way to kill two birds with one stone. All I had to do was pack cross-country ski gear for four people, downhill gear for four people, the Chariot, my snowshoes, plus swimsuits and clothes for an overnight stay into my car…
We’ve had to deal with enough chaos in our life (e.g. the Lightning Kid getting sick in the last minute) that I was unwilling to pre-register; I just have to live with having every plan be tentative. I had packed the car the night before, but when I got outside on Saturday morning to pull the car out of the garage, I saw it was snowing. Heavily. This was going to impact the ideal schedule… not catastrophic, but chaotic as the norm. After a 2 hour drive, we were passing through Collingwood on the way to Scenic Caves, where the event was being held, and we saw that there was parking for the event in town with shuttles to Scenic Caves. This didn’t bode well, since we knew we wanted to park there so we’d have access to both the snowshoe event and cross-country ski trails afterwards. Luckily, the staff let us park in their lot, even though it was off-limits to race participants.
The building housing the registration desk was far from just about everything else, but luckily (again) Shark Boy and I made it in time. It was a bit of an ordeal filling out at least 3 different forms, and the network connection was too spotty to make a credit card authorization for my $42 (plus tax) registration fee. Somehow, we still got out with our race bibs pinned to our jackets and I got a demo pair of Tubbs (the main sponsor) snowshoes for Shark Boy, and I still had time to change into my Salomon trail runners and grab my own snowshoes.
The ‘Lil Rompers’ race took place first. It was a very short out and back of only a few hundred meters; a nice little sprint for the little ones to get their energy out and try out what it was like to run in snowshoes. Shark Boy did great, and took to snowshoes like a Shark to water (where do you think we get that nickname from?). He was actually last to cross the finish line, but he was one of the smallest/youngest kids, and there were several who gave up crying. He always puts on a brave face, but I found out later that he was actually a little upset at coming in ‘last’ and when I spoke to him about it on Sunday night, he also complained of getting snow kicked into his face (which I would also experience at the start of my own race). I explained about how his not giving up and crossing the finish line made him a hero to me, and it’s one of the things I love about him most. I hope that’s worth a gold medal to him…
Starting Line
Shark Boy is in the green jacket back there…
Look at the snow fly!
If you see a lot of pink in these pictures it’s because the Romp To Stomp Snowshoe series benefits the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. So in addition to being a lot of fun, they’re also helping out a great cause.
As I lined up for my own race, of course a few nerves kicked in. I asked some of my fellow participants if they knew what colour our trail (3 km race, there was also a 5 km race and 3 km walk available) was blazed. Someone pointed out to me that I was wearing a Walk bib as opposed to a race bib. I needn’t have worried, as there were pink and blue arrows spray painted into the snowbanks and marshals at every possible fork to keep anyone from getting lost. As we took off, I had only 3 people running in front of me, but their intensity was enough to kick up a good cloud of powder. As I settled into a pace I thought I could maintain, we got a little spaced out on the trail and I stayed firmly in fourth place. Scenic Caves is on the Niagara Escarpment, and as such the trails are made to start with a lot of climbing (which is better than ending with a lot of climbing). I’m familiar with the terrain from cross-country skiing here over the years, but I’m not as competent at pacing myself on snowshoes, and try as I might to climb slowly while still ‘running’ I found myself taking it back to a walk. I blame peer-pressure, as the other front runners were doing it too, so it only seemed sensible. The snowshoes have little teeth that make traction a non issue, so every step was efficient and meaningful.
What I noticed about the snowshoe trails (when they deviated from the ski trails) is that they can go into much denser vegetation since there’s less chance of quickly careening off trail into a tree.
Whoever was in first had left the rest behind, but I kept seeing racers 2 and 3 a little ahead, and some of the volunteers even egged me on to try and catch them. On uphills I felt like I was gaining ground, but on every descent they’d seem to disappear. I eventually learned that I can lean into a downhill on snowshoes much like when I run normally.
Another way I might have been losing ground was that I stopped to take pictures. When it came to crossing the big suspension bridge, I simply had to. It has a great view, and luckily I’m not afraid of heights…
The bridge is 25m above a stream below…
…and 300m above Georgian Bay.
On the final kilometre of the race, I finally began to gain ground on racers 2 and 3 who seemed to be sticking together, with one always a little ahead of the other. There was one last big climb that I managed to maintain enough intensity on to pass them both. I still needed to drop back into a walk before the top, but I figure my longer legs kept me ahead on a stride by stride basis. My only regret about this race was not wearing my heart rate monitor strap; I think it would have been interesting to know exactly how hard I was going.
Once I crossed the finish line, they let me know I came in second place! Not bad for someone racing in snowshoes for the first time! I think I heard them announcing some of the podium places for both 3km and 5km racers later on, but I was busy with the family at the time. We might have been chowing down on Maple Lodge Chicken Dogs which were available for nothing but a donation to Breast Cancer awareness. They were tasty! If it wasn’t the chicken dogs, then we were out continuing our adventures on the cross-country ski trails, which will be the first part of Chapter 2 of our Collingwood Adventure. So I’m leaving you with a bit of a cliff hanger… see you next time!
Disclosure: I was given a free pair of Saucony Triumph ISO for review purposes through Fitfluential LLC. All opinions are my own.
The last time I wore a pair of Saucony’s they were the Virratas, and we were in the throes of the minamalist shoe revolution. I, for one, am glad to be on the tail end of that dark time. I was excited to be trying out a more cushioning shoe… enter the Saucony Triumph ISO.
Saucony wanted to produce a shoe that would stun its users; making a WhoaFace, as they’ve dubbed it. I really liked the colours of the pair they sent me; too often shoes seem to be going for garish, loud colours (like the ones in some of their promotional shots which I’ll share below). These shoes, on the other hand let me put together outfits that make me feel like a superhero.
Even better than the look was how they felt. It reminded me of the shoes I’d buy in high school, when it seemed like running shoe brands first started caring about technology and the feeling and experience of running in their shoes.
They felt incredibly light to run in, considering what a soft ride I was getting. The topside (ISOFIT) must be very breathable, and will come in handy in hotter weather; unfortunately, the cold made me notice this feature very quickly. I should probably play around with the lacing, as I think I could have used a little more motion control, which is weird, because that’s not what my gait usually demands.
What I want the most out of a shoe is cushioning, and the Triumph delivers with its PWRGRID+ platform. Impacts simply feel soft, without feeling like you’ve got a pillow wedged under your heel. It was most noticeable running downhill; I could really let myself loose on any downward slope.
Disclaimer: Through Raynforest, I received free product in return for writing a review. All opinions are my own.
I’m participating in a link-up hosted by Sara of Lakeshore Runner, called Tried It Tuesday. Every Tuesday, people post about something new they tried, and for me this week, it’s going to be the nutrition bars by GoMacro. I don’t discuss food or nutrition that often on the blog, mostly because I’m not doing the cooking in our house, and I don’t find it that interesting a subject to write about. That doesn’t mean I’m immune to nutritional considerations – and if you remember this Friday Five post, I’ve not only put more thought, time and effort into strength training, but also considering my macro-nutrients especially protein (mostly to control my appetite between meals).
GoMacro is a company based on five principles:
Macrobiotic – a macrobiotic diet is the key to a long, healthy life.
Vegan – Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
Wholesome – If nature did not make it, they don’t use it.
Gives Back – Pay it forward. Give Back. Change the World.
Sourced Sustainably
Unlike these bars, I’m neither Gluten-free, nor Vegan, nor Macrobiotic, I just have some awareness of what is good and bad to put in our bodies, and going over the list of ingredients in the GoMacro bars is a relief compared to most times I do that. It actually takes longer, because the word “organic” precedes each and every ingredient. Compared to the granola bars and Greek yogurt snacks I pack (sometimes), they’re a little heavier on calories (somewhere upwards of 200 calories, varying from flavour to flavour), but I was really pleasantly surprised by how they tasted.
Starting from Top Left: protein pleasure, protein purity, morning harvest, sunny uplift, balanced goodness, prolonged power, protein replenishment, sweet revival, protein paradise, sweet rejuvenation, wholehearted heaven
Several of the bars are marked high-protein, and I’ve indicated those in my individual notes. Here’s how they struck me:
Protein Purity – sunflower butter+chocolate (HIGH PROTEIN); sunflower butter is the stronger flavour, chocolate is subtle. Nothing offensive, but not really that pleasing either.
Prolonged Power – banana+almond butter (HIGH PROTEIN); tastes just like it sounds. was hungry as my breakfast had no extra protein. Banana taste is subtle, almond butter is smooth. Didn’t completely satisfy instantly as I wanted more, but it kept me going until my lunch-time workout slot.
Protein Pleasure – peanut butter chocolate chip (HIGH PROTEIN); a little bland considering the ingredients.
Sunny Uplift – cherries + berries; I was feeling low, and I’m not that into fruit, but this was a nice pick-me-up.
Balanced Goodness – granola + coconut; close to a typical granola bar, tasted OK. Also included dates and raisins.
Protein Paradise – cashew caramel (HIGH PROTEIN); probably my favourite,not too sweet, but still a treat. Apparently the caramel substitute is mesquite-based!
wholehearted heaven – almond butter + carob; when people talk about health food in a negative way, this is probably the kind of taste they’re referring to.
morning harvest – apples + walnuts; this is a great combination, sweet in a breakfast-y kind of way.
sweet rejuvenation – sesame butter + dates; I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I don’t really like dates, but they must have been ground up pretty fine so the taste didn’t bother me and the sesame seed flavour isn’t overpowering either.
sweet rejuvenation – cashew butter; Can you tell by the picture that I was keen to eat this one? The cashew chunks give it a bit of a crunchiness, and it’s a little sweeter than straight peanut butter.
There they are! I think I’ll be stocking up on Protein Paradise and Sunny Uplift, though when I need to fuel for longer bike rides, having Prolonged Power might be a good idea. The website has a Store Locator, and US residents can order online.
Have you had GoMacro Bars before? What would be your favourite flavour? What are you looking to get out of a MacroBar? Energy? Recovery? Macronutrients?
Ever since smartwatches were announced (and yes, it was well before Apple announced theirs) I’ve wanted one. It would have to be waterproof and fitness oriented, though which narrowed down the selection somewhat. The Samsung Gear Fit would fit the bill (and work well with my phone the Galaxy S3 since they’re made by the same company), and when one went on sale, I couldn’t pass it up.
Once I got it out of the box, it was quick to pair with the phone. There is a Gear Fit Manager app to download, and the fitness features require a separate app. The first one (from here on, I’ll refer to it as the Manager) let me make some adjustments to the watch’s display and interface.
I didn’t like the default wallpaper (too colourful) and went with a purple one. The other default I ddidn’tlike was the orientation of the screen for data. It was perpendicular to the way I usually look at a watch.
Bluetooth pairing went seamlessly; there was hardly anything to do – the connection can be initiated from the phone’s app side or the watch. I think people who struggle with Bluetooth pairing won’t have any trouble.
As I started using the watch, there were things I liked right away. I loved getting notifications through the watch – I usually keep my phone on vibrate because I don’t like it making obtrusive noises, but sometimes I still miss notifications or calls. When your wrist buzzes, it’s hard to ignore. You can configure what kinds of notifications get sent to the watch: text messages are probably important, notifications from Google+ communities (for example), maybe not so much. The notifications don’t get sent to the watch when you’re using the phone, which is a very intelligent feature.
The watch has a pretty good range from the phone (I think I got as far as 50 feet from it), so it can be handy to leave the phone somewhere nearby yet safe and secure. Of course, that range gets decreased by walls or obstructions.
Beyond the convenience of having an interface to the phone on my wrist, the biggest benefit of the Gear Fit is as a fitness device. There’s an accelerometer inside which tracks arm movements and is used to drive the step counter, much like the Fitbit Flex. Unlike the Fitbit, however, you can look at your progress on the Gear Fit’s own screen. Making 10,000 steps a day is a great way to keep burning calories throughout the day, and better yet, you have proof of how tiring chasing kids around really is.
The Gear Fit has a Heart Rate sensor, which I was really excited about. It’s worth noting though, that you have to hold still to use it, so you can’t track your heart rate continuously while working out. It’s better for spot checks like seeing what your resting heart rate is; I tried taking measurements during a run, and even though I stood still it wouldn’t get a reading because I was too sweaty or something. The heart rate readings don’t interface into third party apps like Endomondo (see below). Heart rate aside, the Gear Fit has its own interface to apps like Endomondo and Strava, so that you can start and stop tracking your mileage through the watch. This is probably my favourite feature, since this kind of thing (starting/stopping, pausing) is always awkward. Now, I put the phone in a Spi-belt (or armband) and don’t fiddle with it once I’m out the door. The Gear Fit has an interface to the media player, so that you can start, stop the music (or even video) you may be listening to (or watching) or skip tracks. That’s a lot easier than mucking about with the phone that was nicely tucked away in a pocket. I did notice one time that when I used Endomondo to pick my music, there was a serious lag between when I’d hit a control on the smart watch and when the action (e.g. skipping tracks) took place. The accelerometer in the Gear Fit doesn’t just track your steps while walking, but you can put the smart watch into sleep mode to track the quality of your sleep, like the Fitbit. The screen makes it easier than the Fitbit to start tracking, but I didn’t like how the assessments were presented. It simply gives you a total amount of time, and a percentage that you were motionless. At least Fitbit tried to differentiate (and illustrate the occurrence of) restless sleep vs. waking, even if it got it wrong some of the time. The Gear Fit can be used for alarms, but it doesn’t store the alarms locally; the phone must be on and connected (via Bluetooth) to the watch for alarms to work. In my opinion, that makes the alarm feature next to useless. Staying connected to the Gear Fit drains the phone’s battery quite aggressively, and the Galaxy S3 didn’t have great battery life to begin with. Turning off Bluetooth occasionally (when you didn’t need them to be connected) was a good way to save a little battery life. The watch’s battery typically lasted about 2.5 days between charging. It charges with the regular charging cable that works for Samsung and Blackberry, but needs an adapter cradle. This cradle is roughly 1 square centimeter and black, so of course, I eventually lost it. I’ve ordered a new one from Amazon, and I’ve written this post from notes I’ve taken during my ownership of the Gear Fit. I’d probably have more details in this review if I was still using the watch (and rest assured, I will again), but I’d really like to get this review finished and move on to other posts. Overall, with smartphones getting bigger and bigger screens, the smartwatch form factor has a lot going for it, and a fitness oriented, waterproof model like the Gear Fit is close to perfect for the tech-savvy, connected fitness enthusiast. What do you think of smartwatches? Cool, or dorky?
There are an increasing amount of activity trackers on the market these days, including models from Jawbone, Polar and Samsung but I chose to get a Fitbit Flex. My reasons are that Fitbit syncs with Earndit and Pact, as well as I could get one for Air Miles (which I had racked up enough of). The Fitbit Flex came with two wristbands (one large and one small) as well as a USB cable for charging. Inserting the unit into the wristband of choice is easy enough – in fact, it seems to be fitted so that you can’t put in in wrong and have the lights/LEDs not display. Fastening the wristband is straightforward, but not easy to do one-handed, especially if you don’t want the band to be too loose on your wrist. With a little practice, this becomes a non-issue. In addition to the cable, there is a wireless adapter that you plug into your USB port so the Flex can sync its recorded data automatically when it’s within range. I honestly don’t use this feature, since I always sync to my Smartphone or iPad with the Fitbit app. I find I have to recharge the Flex every 3 days or so, possibly because I’m a little obsessed with seeing my data update and sync often during the day. If I’m not careful, the Flex won’t make contact in the little socket for the charging cable, and it won’t charge. Though the app gives you all kinds of things you can track (manually entering activities, food log, weight, body fat%), my main motivation for using this thing is steps taken and tracking sleep.
Tracking Activity (Steps)
Saturday
This is the Saturday before the Yonge St 10K. I took it easy, no workout, but I still had to take the kids outside, pick them up, a few light chores around the house. So I still burned well over my recommended 2100 calories. This is one of the things I like best about having the Fitbit Flex. I wanted to write a post about ‘The Calories I Can’t Count” for all those little things that tire, without being part of a workout or training plan. Now I have a rough measurement.
Sunday
Sunday was the race, so you can see how I racked up the steps, calories and ‘very active minutes’.
Monday
The day after the race, was one of those days where I would usually have to miss my slotted workout (which I usually do at lunch). I was on a training course all day, which usually makes for a very sedentary workday. Here’s where Fitbit (and GymPact) help; I parked far away from the office, took stairs and extra walks on every break I got, and managed to exceed 10,000 steps on a day where I was booked too heavily to make it to the gym. That training course lasted till Wednesday, and on Thursday I made it to an intense bootcamp class.
Before
After
The class had things like mountain climbers, lunges, and burpees, and I question how well the Fitbit Flex can track those movements since it’s only giving me credit for about 200 calories for the 40 minute class, and I’m pretty sure it’s worth than that (to say nothing of how the ‘active minutes’ didn’t increase much either). All in all, the Fitbit Flex let’s me feel good about days when I seem to be tired without having done a ‘workout’ and is helping me stay active during non-workout periods and burning more calories during the day. I’d say it helped me with my most recent DietBet.
Tracking Sleep
This feature is a little less interesting to me, since I know that my sleep is of poor quality; the Lightning Kid wakes us up a few times a night. Still I’m curious, and like the activity tracking, the Fitbit could do a job of ‘keeping me honest’ so that I know a little better how much/little sleep I got; if I feel tired, I might exaggerate – what feels like 4 hours might actually be closer to 6 for example.
My biggest problem is I think it underestimates my wake-ups. That night, the 3:00 wake-up (visible in red), was due to… um, a call of nature. But the Lightning Kid woke up at 4:30 and I had to rock him and put him back down. This involved some squirming on his part that often wakes him back up again, so I had to restrict his flailing – the point is that I was on my feet for 10-15 minutes and the Flex marked that as ‘Restless’ sleep. So I don’t put the most faith in this feature, but it’s better than nothing. Overall, I’m really happy with my Fitbit Flex and continue to use it daily. How do you feel about the activity tracker trend? If you have one, do you use it/like it?
I’m really behind on blog post topics. As the subject matter becomes less current (or even irrelevant), I’m left with either abandoning the topic, or going ahead with a ‘better late than never’ attitude. This one falls into the latter camp; I know you don’t want to hear about winter, but we had a good time, and maybe the information will be useful for next season.
Winter is tough. For everyone, but even worse for families with small children. If you’re a family with small children and want to lead active lifestyles, EVEN TOUGHER. We’ve done a good job of embracing the elements that a Canadian Winter gives us, but the snow in Southern Ontario is inconsistent at best, and really immersing yourself in the winter environment takes more time than than the average weekend allows (think packing, driving, herding the cats kids). Enter the ski vacation.
Two years ago, we shopped around at the Ski and Snowboard Show for ski resorts that could accommodate a family with a child less than 18 months. All the reps at the show acted like it would be no problem, since they simply wanted to make a sale, but the truth was, that the 18-month mark is a dividing line for daycare licensing and insurance and most resorts didn’t have that capability. Shark Boy was going to be 17 months old (close but no cigar) for the dates we were looking at, but Mont Ste Anne takes kids into it’s daycare from 6 months on! Staying inside Canada meant no customs/border hassles, avoiding invasive TSA screening procedures and dealing in Canadian currency. Long story short, we loved it and booked another trip this year, which we did in the end of March.
We flew to Quebec City with Porter Airlines from the Toronto Island Airport. That made for some excitement as the kids got to enjoy a taxi ride, a ferry ride and a plane trip… I made the pre-boarding a little more exciting by forgetting one of our suitcases, necessitating a panicked taxi-ride home and back (an extra hundred bucks, ouch), but we made our flight just fine.
The weather in Ontario had been iffy, sometimes cold, sometimes mild, but not very good with snow, but immediately before we left, Sainte Anne got a dump of fresh snow.
From what I could tell, this wasn’t powder of the very highest grade, but it was good enough for me. We were booked into the Chateau Mont Sainte Anne, and in one of their newer Studio (Nordik) rooms with a King bed. We had a crib for the Lightning Kid and Shark Boy slept on the pull-out couch.
The morning after arriving, we brought the boys to the daycare where they were welcomed with open arms. My theory on child-care givers is that experience brings an air of cool confidence that kids can read, and things tend to go smoother; the staff at Mont Sainte Anne has that air. We kept Shark Boy in for the whole day on Saturday which gave us the time to ski almost
all day.
Problem: I hadn’t downhill skied in two years at least. We took mostly Blue runs, but we found we had to take frequent breaks on the hills, and even on the Blue trails we found moguls we weren’t ready for. My theory is that downhill skiing is quite the opposite of most sports I do: rather than applying little to moderate force through a fairly large scale movement (like a running stride or cycling pedal stroke), you’re mostly pushing with a great deal of force through very little movement at all when you’re digging your edges in on turns. It’s dynamic versus static muscular strength and endurance.
We’d pick Shark Boy up after his second ski lesson, and had a few runs with us so we could see the progress he was making – it seems like he’s a natural. After that, we’d pick the Lighting Kid up (typically once he’d woken up from a nap) and take them for a ride up the gondola… and of course, back down.
He got frightened during a plane take-off but this didn’t bother him a bit.
Dead times before (and sometimes after) meals were spent in the kids room in the basement of the Chateau (there is also a video arcade, but our kids are too young for that kind of thing, and we weren’t going to encourage it – though later on, I got smoked at Dance Dance Revolution). The kids loved the toys in there and frequently played with other children – language barrier be darned.
I did have a little scare in the kids’ playroom. One morning, the Lightning Kid woke up around 5, and wouldn’t go back down. I had to dress quickly and hustle him out of the room before he could wake up his brother. I took him down to the playroom and let him go. I ended up finding a very large bug, which (to my surprise, since I was feeling sluggish as you can imagine) I was able to capture and bring to the front desk. Any parent wants their kids to be able to play in a fairly clean environment so my paranoia was going full tilt. When I followed up later, a member of the staff explained that they deemed it a grasshopper (rather than something more scary), and that these sorts of things could come in from all over the world in visitors suitcases. They take a lot of measure to prevent infestations like the kind my imagination was running wild with, and I had to admit, it didn’t really look like a cockroach or anything like that, so I was basically satisfied. There are a good variety of restaurants within the resort grounds, so we tried a new place every night. We also ended up packing up our food before we could complete a proper meal, because the kids wouldn’t behave properly (I think they were a little overstimulated by the new environment and/or activities). Quebecers are really laid-back and don’t bat an eyelid at kids’ behaviour; unfortunately, I’m not a Quebecer, I’m an uptight Ontarian and meal-times ended up stressing me out. The last gasp before bedtime was a swim in the pool (also in the basement of the pool). I was able to get Shark Boy to show me some of the skills he’s been learning in his swim lessons, and we’ve long since discovered that swimming is an excellent way to tucker them out so they’ll sleep. Once they were out one of us had to stay in the room with them, so we weren’t able to enjoy our evenings as a couple. We’d do a little solo (drinks, the aforementioned arcade) but conk out early from exhaustion. There were many wake-ups to deal with, so it was good to get all the rest we could. The next day, I felt so much stronger and more confident on my skis. We still stuck mostly to Blue hills, but it really felt like the best I’ve ever skied in terms of technique. We made sure this time to put in a stop at the Maple Syrup hut on the East side of the mountain. Here, they pour maple syrup into a trough of snow where it congeals, then you pick that up on a stick by rolling it all up (see below). Delicious!
In the trough
I got all the syrup… LIKE A BOSS!
The other thing we made time for is making sure we caught some of Shark Boy’s ski lesson. Then we took him for another run with his parents on “The Big Magic Carpet” as requested. On our third day, I actually opted to head back to the room and sleep rather than ski. Normally there’s a voice inside that makes me seize the day, and says:”You can only ski like this so often, but you can sleep anytime!” but that isn’t actually true anymore. A chance to sleep without being woken up by the kids (or a phone call or whatever) is about as rare as good powder, which I missed out on that morning by all reports. I did manage a couple of Black Diamond runs in the afternoon, though the snow had gotten granular. The vacation wound to an end… but they left me wanting more. There is an extensive network of cross-country skiing trails that we haven’t explored yet, and other winter activities like dog-sledding beckon too. My one gripe is that access to other services isn’t so great; two years ago I had to hail a taxi to get to a drug store for infant pain-killers because Shark Boy got an ear infection. There is also no shuttle to/from the Quebec City Airport making cab rides necessary. Even as the kids get older and the daycare requirements get lighter, easier and more flexible I could see us returning to Mont Ste Anne. For another view on this trip, please visit the Lightning Kid blog.
We live in awesome times. Information and mobile technologies enable us to get the most out of exercise, track the activities and help us stay motivated. Today I’m going to look at two apps that do the latter: Earndit and Pact.
Earndit is not precisely an app, more like a website that connects to various other apps. The premise is to reward you for working out, and of course that means some tracking. It awards points that can be accumulated for rewards; more of that in a bit.
There are two main ways that Earndit awards workout points: exercise that is tracked, and checking into exercise facilities like gyms, parks, community centres, ski resorts, and probably more that I haven’t discovered yet. The latter is accomplished through Foursquare.
The rewards tend to be discounts or gift cards (with spending minimums) to online retailers in the health/fitness/exercise space, though I’ve also been introduced to Cory Vines (Active Wear), Blank Label (Custom Shirts) and Hugh & Crye (Men’s Wear) through these rewards. (Full Disclosure: those links contain referral codes that award me extra credits for referral if you make purchases).
Cory Vines Top
The rewards available to Canadians are a little more limited, and though there’s a nice check box to limit rewards to those available in Canada, it’s best to double-check the fine print to see if they’ll ship there. Most rewards are one-time only, so the selection drops once you’ve used up a few. Except my favourite kind of rewards which are Charity Rewards. So far, through Earndit, I have:
These rewards seem to come and go randomly, but it’s always nice to be able to give.
Earndit links with Twitter, Facebook and Google+. You can ‘friend’ people within the system too, but I found it hard to find people I knew in general (exception: The Purple Giraffe!)
The other app I started using is Pact (formerly known as Gym-Pact). Using this app, you commit to working out a certain number of times per week, and any workouts you miss you pay a penalty for. The penalties for a given Pact go into a pot, which gets divided up and paid out amongst those that achieved their commitments. You get paid to workout. As in cash-money (it goes to PayPal or a credit card, but other than that, it’s money, not gift cards, or discounts or whatever).
I only just started using Pact. I signed up for my first one mid-week, and the default Pact was 3 times per week at $10.00 a workout. In hindsight, that seems a little steep (I think Fitness Cheerleader uses a $5.00 Pact, which seems more sensible). Still, I doubted I would have trouble making it to 3 workouts a week, all things considered… Not so fast! Not all things can be considered! Home workouts can’t be tracked; that just makes sense as money is at stake and people could fake it too easily. Still, when it comes to checking into a ‘gym’ the method they use seems a little…crude I guess. The geo-location function of your smartphone is activated and they take a satellite image of it, which gets verified by some person on their end before they will give you credit for it. My gym is at work which is a large corporate campus, so I wasn’t sure if I would get credit for it until it was verified; because I signed up mid-week, I had 10 days to accrue 3 workouts for the week’s pact. Not knowing whether or not I was going to be able to count that gym in was stressful, since the only way to play with these features is to commit to a pact. Partnering with another app like Foursquare or Yelp seems like a much more sensible way to go than inspecting satellite images to me. While those apps could theoretically be cheated too, any given location could be verified by seeing if other people are checking in to workout. A lot of gyms (like Crossfit boxes) are in industrial/warehouse areas and might not ‘look’ like a gym from a satellite image.
Of course, outdoor activities can be tracked too. Unfortunately, the only apps Pact syncs with are Runkeeper and MapMyFitness so no Endomondo for me (side bar: I’m shocked to not see Daily Mile on these lists as I thought that was an incredibly popular app). Activity tracker wristbands that sync with Pact are the Jawbone Up and Fitbit. The latter are good for tracking the over 10,000 steps you need to qualify as having worked out that day. For tracking runs (or bike rides or whatever) you need to rack up at least 30 minutes while moving an average of 2 Miles an Hour. That doesn’t seem too strict, but I was still disappointed to find that our weekend outing to go cross-country skiing didn’t count toward my pact, as we spent too much time waiting for Shark Boy (he’s doing great, but he’s only 4 years old!). When Sunday midnight rolled around, I had my 3 workouts approved, and I waited till Tuesday for the payout. Well, I should have been paid on Tuesday, but it took till Wednesday to rack up…. $1.11. A buck for 3 workouts that could have cost me up to $30 for missing them. I think that means that few people miss out on making their committed pack, which is a good thing, I suppose. We were going on our family vacation in the Mayan Riviera the next week so I put Pact on break (I was planning on getting exercise there, but wasn’t going to be messing around with the app) till I got back (review of the trip soon to come!) While there’s nothing preventing me from using both (and I probably will, hopefully the weekly winnings will rack up to something I can treat myself with) I really prefer Earndit’s ease of use, accessibility and no downside. Do you use Pact? Earndit? Some other motivational app?
After last year’s no-show, I was eager to sink my teeth into this course. I had an English muffin with Nutella for breakfast, and I decided to go with something a little extra: there was Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the kitchen counter and I had a bowl of that too.
I drove to Annie Williams Park with my wife, mother-in-law and the Lightning Kid in tow. I was a little surprised to see how small the transition and race area seeemed; the Sprint Triathlon had taken place the day before, so I guess it was only a fraction of the usual field of athletes I see at these events. I hadn’t gotten there much before the official start time, but everything was so nicely contained that I had lots of time to organize my transition area and get my wet-suit on after getting my bib and race kit yet before the pre-race briefing.
Swim
The swim was in the Muskoka river, and the water was quite warm and pleasant. It was my first time experiencing the time-trial start. Athletes lined up by bib number along the dock and started 5 seconds apart. The crew did a fantastic job calling bib number blocks (about 50 at a time) and getting them organized. It was a little anti-climactic realizing the race had already started when I saw about 20 swimmers in the water (I was #128), but it was such a smooth way to go to see the people in front of you take off one at a time and have a little space of your own to start your swim in.
The course started going with the current – apparently, I have to say the current seemed negligible to me, in fact, I had to look up which part was upriver and which one was downriver on the Multisport Canada website. I did end up with a little physical contact with other swimmers occasionally, especially on the turns, but it’s nothing compared to a normal mass swim. I honestly felt like I was keeping up a pretty good clip, and with a little sprint to the swim exit, I was out of the water in my fastest swim time for the Olympic distance.
Time: 28:07
Transition 1
Oof. This part was not the greatest. I like wearing my Garmin on the swim because I like knowing swim metrics, and I get little alerts for every 100 m I swim which helps keep me motivated, but I have to wear it on the outside of the wet-suit. That means I should remove it before trying to take off the wet-suit – that is not what I did. I ended up struggling with getting my right sleeve off.
Problem two: I didn’t wear a one piece tri-suit. I simply feel more comfortable in my tri-shirt, but it’s too loose to wear under the wet-suit without causing bunching and chafing on the back of my neck, so I have to put it on my wet torso in transition and that’s always another tangle. The gels I had put in the pockets fell out and I had to pick them up.
Last but not least, based on a good riding experience the week before, I had decided to put on compression socks. I should have gotten body-marked on the back of my knee, because the socks hid my age (not that I mind that much), and there’s no fast way to put on compression socks, at least not correctly. I simply had to eat that time cost.
The good news was I managed my Garmin correctly (although I hit the timers a little late in transition) and every leg got measured.
Time: 4:08
Bike
Exiting the park, I saw one fallen rider and one with mechanical problems, which should have been a bad omen, but wasn’t (at least for me). In spite of there being a construction problem with a bridge in the first kilometer or two of the course, triathletes were able to cross the bridge unimpeded thanks to great co-operation between the race organizers, the provincial police, the district of Muskoka and most importantly the drivers who had to wait held up at the bridge (my thanks to all of you!).
Muskoka is notoriously hilly in general, but I found this course to have a few really good flat sections where you could really work up a good head of steam. I was seeing speeds over 30 km/h a lot more often than I usually do. Which is not to say there weren’t leg-busting hills…. there were times where there was no choice but to stand on the pedals in the lowest possible gear. I had someone call my name on the bike, it was the guy from TriMuskoka (whose name I can’t recall – sorry buddy!). He told me he liked the blog posts – then passed me. Still, I get passed by lots of people without an attaboy for my writing, so I appreciated that.
I still struggle with maintaining focus and the right effort/pace in the middle parts of the course. I tried rolling through a few different mantras: Seek The Hard, Attah! I also thought about how much the Lightning Kid has grown and learned in spite of the fact that he’s been dealt a hand that makes such things a little harder… I don’t mind telling you I got a little misty on the bike course, but I tried to use that as a little inspiration.
I figured that it was my last triathlon of the season, and I should leave it all on the course and imagined completely destroying myself and being reborn from the ashes like a phoenix. That thought was a little melodramatic for my tastes and needed to be dialed back, but you get the idea.
There were some sharp 90 degree turns that made my teeth sweat a little, but if I’m honest I probably like a little excitement like that during the bike course. On the last 3 km or so, I made sure to really keep the effort level high, and after dismounting, I ran my bike into transition. I saw my family and started an ATTAH! chant which went over gang-busters with the crowd, but not with the Lightning Kid himself.
Here’s a sample of what I was looking for:
Time: 1:26:06
Transition 2
I wanted to make up any uneccessary time lost in T1 here; racked the bike, took off the helmet and bike shoes, slipped on my Zoot triathlon racing flats (no laces) and I was off. I put on my hat as I exited transition.
Time: 1:14
Run
I like a simple out-and-back; no keeping track of laps, and you get two cracks at every aid station. This course didn’t have that much to look at (for Muskoka), but it was pretty flat, and better yet, there was plenty of shade. I had so much more strength when it wasn’t being sapped by blistering heat. I really think it was the perfect weather that day; I had noticed headwinds on the bike sometimes, but it was worth it to get a cooling breeze on the run.
I got a chance to see a friend from high school on the run. He’s a marathoner who did his first Sprint Tri the day before and volunteered to hand out water on the run with his son. The volunteers were super on the race all around.
I did a lot of checking my Garmin on the run and my pace on the way out was looking good for maybe even a PB, but it kept spiking over 90% on the way back even at paces too slow to make that grade.
With a little over a kilometer left, I checked my overall time. 2:49… not enough to beat 2:53 (what I thought was my PB – it’s actually 2:52:38) – I wasn’t going to make a 4 minute kilometer at that stage, but getting under 3 hours (and thus better than my last 3 Olympic distance races) was nicely within reached. I took a little walk break to make sure I had my best for the finish line and went for it. When I could see the end I started another ATTAH chant, picked up the Lighting Kid and carried him (a little bewildered) across the finish line.
Time: 57:57
Overall
Overall Time: 2:57:29
My best time since 2010, and a smidgen better than Muskoka 5150 which I called a stepping stone to this one. I was hurting after the finish line and I knew I did what I set out to do in terms of nearly destroying myself… I had to lie down, and couldn’t really muster a good stretch.
I remember feeling similarly at Wasaga last time. The post race rewards of Hero Burgers and Chocolate Milk are a big draw for me, but I felt too lousy to really enjoy them… this time, after enough of a recovery break, I really savoured both, and the chocolate milk was one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted….
The Multisport Canada series races are always friendly and I found this locale especially good with local support and manageable terrain. I think I’d put in my Top 5 races.
