Bringing up a lung

So the votes from the "How Many Races Do You Think You'll Do This Year" poll are in. Voting hours were extended due to a last minute surge in voting, making this one of the most voted-on polls we've ever posted; this and the Norwegian Trousers poll. What this says about triathletes we're not sure; we'll let you make your minds up on this one.

The numbers look like this.....

We're not going to call this one normally distributed, albeit skewed (just like us). We're going to call it biphasic (just like us). Just under 75% of you are planning on doing between 1-10 races this year; ca. 20% in the 1-5 and 45% in the 6-10 bracket. We are going to call a secondary peak however centered at 16-20.

This seems to agree with reality, or at leaast the slightly twisted version of reality we experience here at the TA. Doing up to ten events allows for two, maybe three "A" races in a year, with a couple of "B" races in the run-up to each, just to let us know we're on track, to get a bit of race-intensity in before race-day or just to try out TZ for real. Then there are always a couple of events that we have an emotional soft-spot for; maybe it's one you've always done, maybe it was the first race you ever did, the first one you ever got a prize in or maybe you've always run Cabot Trail for that team and you just have to spend the weekend with the guys.

Tot that lot up and that gets you your 5-10 events a year. As triathletes there is another wrinkle in this formula, and that is that at least one of those 'A' races is likely to be long, as in starting-before-breakfast or finishing-after-dark long (or possibly both). It takes a few weeks to get over that kind of effort, not to mention the training beforehand and that cuts down on the amount of racing we can do.

Then there are the nutters who just seem to race every week. The TA confesses to falling into this category. We love racing, we get a kick out of it. Not winning, ha, as if, but we do get a peverse pleasure from doing it well. From a well-taken corner, from a nice bit of running, from going that little bit further over our limit, from something we weren't quite sure we could do when we got out of bed that morning, from a particularly bloody battle emerged victorious, for the shaken hand and quiet words of encouragement and congratulation at the end of the event. Anyway, that's what put us on the start line many, many times last season. What drives Ron MacDougall nobody knows. The MacDougall Tartan Tally already stands at three for the season. We'll keep you posted as to how it ends out.

If you need a fast-twitch fix soon, then try on the Credit Union Atlantic Lung Run this Saturday (April 10th). Ron's registered (you can sponsor him, or any other runner here)! This, the fourth Lung Run, has moved forward in the calendar this year from last years August spot, and please, please note it is Saturday afternoon (not any combination of Sunday and Morning; turn up Sunday morning and it'll just be you, a couple of sea-gulls and perhaps a wharf-rat). The event has already secured a reputation for being fast; last years winner, Robert Kitz, posted a sub-15 5K, the fastest 5K on the road in Nova Scotia for eighteen years. The lead bike was in danger of getting run over and passed by the guy. Imagine the ignominy; the bike getting beaten by a runner in a foot-race!

Now granted, a 2:59/km pace may be a bit much to ask this early in the season, but why don't you come down and give it a bit of the old zoom-zoom try and have a crack at that PB? We know that Saturday often means putting the miles in on the bike, so why don't you turn it into a brick with some real intensity thrown in at the end, not to mention a water table (@ 2.5K if you were wondering).

The TA clapped eyes on the circuit earlier and can confirm it really is flat. The start is at Pier 21, run out of the car-park and turn left down Marginal Road for a mile (1.6km), where you do a 180-turn at HalTerm. Back the way you came, past Pier 21 (3K) and do a right onto the boardwalk just after Bishops Landing (4K). Then it's a straight burn (and we use our words advisedly) back to Pier 21. We're talking Holland flat here, so flat in fact we nearly started speaking Dutch and ordering Hoegaarden. OK, we were already drinking Hoegaarden, but you get our drift? Ja? Proost!

In fact Denise Robson is probably getting more elevation in this picture than from the rest of the course combined!

Before the adult event, which is at 16:30, there is a 1.5 km kids run at 16:00. The kids are no slouches, the event being won in under six minutes last year.

Yes, they're all wearing the event T-shirt in the event (the most pas of race-day fashion faux-pas) but when you're ten getting a free T-shirt is a bit of a big deal! And it was Technical (no word on if they'll be technical this year though)! We also once overheard a 9 year old say that technical t-shirts were great because "you don't sweat in them". Ahhh, so cute! There's a Healthy Lungs workshop for the kids right afterwards too where even if they won't be enlightened of the miracle of wicking polyester, they will be enlightened of the notion of smoking!

OK, so, Saturday, that's Saturday April 10th (which is nowhere near Sunday morning) down at Pier 21. Yes, it probably is going to hurt, but it won't last long (sigh). Oh, and if it does hurt a little too much, Garrison Brewery is right there on-course. See you there....

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