anti-social media guru

The purpose of last Sunday's race was to try and gauge whether I should register for the Muskoka half-ironman in September or not. Looks like I'm not going to be registering for this year. I could definitely finish it, but based on the Muskoka long course race on Sunday I don't think I'd be able to compete at the level I want to for it to be worth it.

The swim went well, but on the bike I started running into mechanical issues, and the run walk was a complete waste. Here's the full report and some pics.

On the bright side I've got some juicy GPS data from the swim.

The red line is my actual GPS track. My Edge was in my swim cap (it's pretty big), located on the back of my head. It was a cloudless day, so it looks like it actually got a pretty accurate reading. It reads as being 2170 metres. It's always a bit high.

Inside the red line is a white line I drew in Google Earth that averages out my GPS path. Since the GPS goes slightly underwater every stroke it really messes up the  paths. The line I drew should be very close to my actual path. There are a couple parts where I remember making sharp navigation errors that even show up in there. That reads as 2044 metres.

The odd little line is the 22 metre green one. That's the distance of the furthest point from where I diverged from the optimal line. I'm not sure if it makes sense after you look at the numbers.

2044m - (actual swam) subtract
2021m - (actual course) equals
23m extra swimming due to bad navigation

But if you look at my path, I went 22m off-course before the first turn, and then almost as much again by the second turn. Hrm. That doesn't really seem to make sense.

I measured from the start point to the first buoy only. Actual distance is 512m, and my averaged swim path is 524m, for a difference of 12m. How could I go 22m off-course and still only have swam 12m more than someone who went straight? I actually had to draw this out and measure.

Oh jeez. Pythagorean Theorum. Grade nine math. a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

If I would have had perfect navigation my time in the swim would have dropped from 48:18 to 47:45. That's 33 seconds, or about a 1% improvement. Theoretically at least. In reality if I would have been navigating better I would have been closer to the pack and had a few more options for drafting.

At least now I know that going off course isn't necessarily that bad, as long as you keep your lines straight. Zig zagging will just compound the problem. But if you're a few metres out from where you want to be, don't try to compensate for it and try to head toward the middle of the course because you're probably going to overshoot.

Keep looking ahead!

Had a quick scan through at work, and it sounds like the perfect windows down, tune cranking summer mix. I can't believe I've been listening to Jazzy Jeff for a quarter century and he still manages to put out such chill tunes and mixes.

• 1. Summertime Intro
• 2. Kool & The Gang: Summer Madness (Live Version)
• 3. Kool & The Gang: Summer Madness
• 4. Quincy Jones: Summer In The City
• 5. Ahmad: Back In The Day
• 6. Ice Cube: It Was A Good Day
• 7. Roy Ayers f/ Mary J Blige: Everybody Loves The Sunshine
• 8. Pharcyde: Passin’ Me By (Ffej Remix)
• 9. Jay-Z f/ Babyface: Sunshine
• 10. Ramsey Lewis: Sun Goddess
• 11. A Tribe Called Quest: Find A Way (Ffej String Edit)
• 12: Bush Babies f/ Mos Def: The Love Song
• 13. Jodeci: Get On Up
• 14. The Commodores: High On Sunshine
• 15. J Dilla f/ Dwele : Think Twice
• 16. Erick Sermon f/ Marvin Gaye: Music (Mick’s Marvapella Edit)
• 17. Bernard Wright: Who Do You Love
• 18. LL Cool J: Loungin’
• 19. A Tribe Called Quest: Hot Sex
• 20. Main Source: Live At The BBQ
• 21. Nuyorican Soul: Nautilus
• 22. Pharcyde & Sublime: Summertime
• 23. Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff: Summertime Remix
• 24. Michael Jackson: I Can’t Help It
• 25. De La Soul: Breakdawn
• 26. Musiq: Just Friends
• 27. Carl Thomas: Summer Rain
• 28. Faze-O: Riding High
• 29. Dionne Warwick: Walk On By
• 30. Skee-Lo: I Wish
• 31. Black Moon: Who Got The Props
• 32. Frankie Beverly and Maze: Before I Let Go
• 33. Nu Shooz: I Can’t Wait
• 34. Montell Jordan: This Is How We Do It
• 35: The Roots f/ George Benson: Breezin’
• 36: Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff: Time To Chill
• 37. Biggie: Can’t You See
• 38. James Brown: The Payback
• 39. En Vogue: My Lovin’
• 40. Bobby McFerrin: Sunshine Of My Life
• 41. Fifth Dimension: Let The Sun Shine In
• 42. Mos Def: Sunshine
• 43. Nine: Whatcha Want
• 44. Otis Redding: Sittin’ On The Dock
• 45. 2Pac: I Get Around (Mick’s String Edit)
• 46. Zapp: Computer Love (Terry’s Mirage On The Water Mix)
• 47. Seals And Croft: Summer Breeze
• 48. Jay-Z: Dear Summer
• 49. Weldon Irvine: Morning Sunrise

DOWNLOAD HERE     via Okayplayer.com

I was completely unprepared for this. I wanted to do an open water swim and a quick training run so I just impulsively entered. After Saturday's solo swim I figured it would be safer to have kayaks nearby anyway. I really like this race distance. It seemed like a far-fetched idea three weeks ago, but maybe it might actually be possible to do a half-iron this year! Wow.

The full detailed race report

The swim, T1, the bike, T2, and the run on garmin connect.

The results

Good news. I didn't drown, and had a good T1 transition! Bad news? It's all in the race report.

My very detailed race report

The track on Garmin Connect (for the ride and run)

The full race rankings

Crazy number coincidence – 2:22:30 is exactly 95 moments (the medieval unit of time). So I guess technically I got medieval on the race. Awesome.

Client: You suck for not sending me a proof in this fancy new format. It's less problematic on press.

Me: I wish we could use the fancy new format. However the printer does not support it, so we use the old one.

Client: You don't need to upgrade. Just select the "fancy new format" button when you export.

Me: [speechless]