Sisterly Love

I dont think I ever introduced you all to my sister properly in my previous post....so here we go....*drum rolls* *curtain lifts*

Meet my sister - Riddhi Takyar, a 19 yr architecture student in Delhi, avid photographer, India enjoying (read sleepless nights on her course projects) her life in college. She is a very hard working student, truly passionate about architecture and thanking every moment in her life for not taking up engineering in college.
You can read more about her and her adventures in her blog: http://tapdancingfingers.wordpress.com/ (yes looks like we both are into writing our thoughts/about our lives out for the world to read)

She recently visited me here in Toronto for a month and we both had the time of our lives. Some days we were fighting like cats, with Parichit becoming the mediator and then there were days when we both combined forces to annoy the hell out of Parichit.

The three of use went on numerour road trips, day trips alot of being to our race destinations. Just to name a few : the inevitable trip to Niagara falls where Parichit plunked ice cream on me, Welland, Niagara on the Lake, Blue Mountain, Gravenhurst etc. She was an amazing cheerer and somehow managed to sit through and cheer for all our races.

Now it is a known fact how much Parichit and I are into sports/fitness/being active...so it should not be a surprise that we dragged Riddhi to the gym with us (she probably hated us for that!). But the end result of this torture on her were her two great accomplishments: she accepted the challenge of running in a 5K race and was also able to climb up the blue mountain hill. You guys have no idea, but things like this is truly against her usual habits/nature/

Inspite of our different habits we share alot of things in our personality: mood swings, goofy behaviour specially in public, constant need of attention etc etc

This trip created lasting memories of joy, laughter, tears and mood swings. I am so glad that she was able to come and visit me, be a part of my life in Canada and cant wait to see her again in Sept (vacations time baby!!!).

She is truly one of the people I know I can count upon during my low times and enjoy my good times with her.  love ya Rddhi!!!!

ITU AG Duathlon World Championship - Garima's version

So, you all may have read Parichit's blog on this race with his usual talk about numbers (read "boring"), but here is my fun take on the race.

For some background, Parichit and I qualified for the Age Group Duathlon World Championships last year (2012) to represent Canada and boy did things get real for me. I mean....first of all I didn't really do duathlons and second of all I didn't take my results very seriously. But when you are representing a country, you start to take things more seriously, and of course continue to have fun!

For me, this was my goal race for 2013 and I started training more like a duathlete (instead of triathlete), lesser swimming sessions, more running sessions. My running got better, biking improved and I stopped making fun of Parichit for not doing any triathlons...lol! This involved some torture sessions (like sprinting for 800 m right after 50 min of bike intervals), but in the end it just made us stronger. The thing that makes me smile the most about our training sessions is that Parichit couldn't say the following things any more:
- "Why dont you do some sprints on the track and I will run easy with you"
- "Its my easy bike day so I will go on my low front gear and spin on high cadence while you try to bike hard behind me"

OK, I may have made him sound like a mean guy, but he really isn't! In fact he has been a wonderful boyfriend, coach and partner.

Now back to the race- the highlight of the race was to meet athletes from all over the world and getting any opportunity to compete with them with the Canadian colors on our uniform and Canadians cheering all around us! This experience involved meeting up with fellow Canadian team members and participating in the "Parade of Nations" in downtown Ottawa.

We had a team photo shoot in front of the parliament :

You guys may not know, but Parichit and I completed our Bachelors of Engineering in Ottawa, so we were able to walk down memory lane in the city and meet some of our university friends. Our specials thanks to Cindy and Stephanie who watched us race, hung out with us pre and post race and were able to spend quality time with us!

Race morning was exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time, so we decided to take some goofy pictures to ease our nerves and have some fun. I started much earlier than Parichit and so was fortunate to be able to see him cheer for me during my first run segment of the race

The ladies in my age group were extremely fast runners, I couldn't believe how fast they took off! I looked back to make sure I wasn't last and was a little relieved to see I wasn't!. The first run segment was over soon enough and went smoothly, minus the missing km markers (you can see Parichit's blog where he is complaining about this too!). I did my personnel best on this run, mostly due to missing markers and was quite pleased with it.

The supposedly fast and furious bike course was more like slow and furiously windy course. I realized the wind was going to be my enemy on my way out on the bike and was hoping to gain some time on the way back with some tail wind, but boy was I wrong! I felt head wind on majority of the way back too....
(question for your wind scientists out there - can wind be blowing in two opposite directions at the same time????). Biking being my favorite part of a race was a big disappointment.

Now back to running- this time I was more prepared for the missing markers and happy that I will be done soon! Don't get me wrong, this race was a amazingly great experience but it is more fun once you finish the race and not while you are actually racing...hehehe.

So dear readers, I may have mentioned my fear of coming last in my age group was very real, it was becoming even more real in the last part of the race when I wasn't able to see any female in my age group within sight. I was preparing myself mentally to cross the finish line and the announcer saying "and here is the last female 25-29 age group athlete across the finish"...lol But fortunately when I did finish I found out I wasn't last!!!! yays.....relief!!! It was amazing to see the number of spectators who had come out and were cheering for the us all, it was almost like a energy boost every time someone cheered for me, who needs energy gels?!

I met up with some fellow female Canadian athletes, ate, drank and went on to the finish line to cheer for the remaining athletes close to finishing. We were waiting for our respective friends/boyfriends etc to finish and in the meantime were cheering at the top of our lungs for other Canadian athletes ....... cheering them to sprint (man, we were loud...very very loud...if only I was able to utilize all this energy during the bike, wouldn't that have been great?). I would like to believe that we were able to push some Canadians up in the ranking with our cheering and almost forcing them to out-sprint their competition. Then we saw Parichit (I recognized him from his cap)....and we started yelling when he was just within sight! We were shouting so hard for his to sprint that he almost thought that someone was catching up behind him. He finished with a strong sprint...mission accomplished.

Post race activities (drinks and dinner) was even more fun. We were all done, we could eat or drink whatever we wanted. There was no more competitiveness which meant a lot more flirting amongst athletes from different countries lol.

Final note - I am so grateful to be a part of this experience and would cherish those moments for the rest of my life!

My race results:
22nd in my age group (F 25-29yrs)
Run 1: 10 km -  49m 39s
Bike: 40 km - 1 hr 17m
Run 2: 5 km - 25m 14 s

Ottawa ITU AG Duathlon World Champs - PB's race by the numbers...

Garima is currently too lazy to write her version, so here's mine:

The course mainly takes place on the roads adjacent to the Ottawa River heading West from downtown. I know these roads. This is where I first learnt to enjoy cycling in my days as a co-op student commuting to work on my bike. Good times.

Shot of the transition set up

There were a few hiccups with the transition setup one day before race day, and it was generally frustrating, but the organizers did everything to make sure everything got set up properly on the morning of the race, and the race itself was flawlessly organized and executed. 

Anyway, the bike course is flat except for a bit of a hill/flyover heading out in the first km. Like a bit of false flats here and there, but no change in elevation to speak of. This course was all geared up to be faaast and set a Personal Record (PR) for everyone.

Chilly before the storm...

 The men over 35 started 10 mins ahead of us, and I was in the last wave to start. Garima was almost done with her first 20k loop of the bike by this time. Men 18-39 lined up at 8:45 am for the start and exchanged words of encouragement. Then the air horn blared the start of the race...

Run 1

I stayed calm and was not surprised by the usual flurry of athletes starting off way too fast. I told myself to let them go and they’d come back to me in a mile or so.

1 km done in 3:45, slightly too fast, I thought. Then, the 2-4 people I was running with sped a few seconds away from me. Suddenly, out of the 100 people under 35 that started with me, I was alone. A simple thought entered my head: .”..OK, I know a lot of people passed me in this first km, but I’m still going at ~16 km/hr, surely, I can’t be the last one. Can I?” I was genuinely afraid to look back, but I did and only saw a handful of athletes behind me. I just shook my head in surprise at how fast everyone else was going at this point.

The first curveball came after the turnaround ....I noticed there weren’t any km markers. We were told they’d be present. Nope, not a sight of them. I had to borrow a watch from a co-worker this week since my GPS watch died a few days ago, so I was unfamiliar with its functions and generally just went by feel.

I spotted a couple of familiar faces: Erik Box, Florian Ong, Adam Foley and one or two more guys who I compete against in local events. Erik is a monster on the bike but I generally beat him in the runs, Florian is faster than me at running (and cycling!) by roughly 2 mins and Adam is slower than me by the same amount. So I just told myself to trust my judgement and land myself somewhere between Florian and Erik.

After the first of two loops, I was heading back out into the headwind when I was hit by a nasty gust and my cap flew away. I just carried on and settled into a rhythm and passed about 5-10 people on the way into T1.

My goal was to do the run under 40 mins and I saw a 39:XX as I crossed into transition and felt pleased.

After the first loop of the run...(Thanks to our Team Manager/Physio David Frake)

(After the race, everyone agreed that the course was not in fact shorter than 10k (9.9 km was promised), but it was actually close to 10.4 km. Well, that explains my high HR!)

Distance: 10.39 km

Time: 39:52

Pace: 3:49 min/km (15.66 km/hr)

This means I did the 10.0 kms in 38:21!! Whoa! You know what that means for the bike ride..

Bike

Remember I mentioned that this is a flat and fast course? In everyone’s opinion: “This is a PR course”. Well, I was wrong...and so was everyone else. On the day of the race, the roads/course didn’t change, but what did change was the wind. Anyone who’s biked with some effort on a windy day knows that wind is the main enemy of speed. And damn, its frustrating.

1 km in: Erik zooms by me at > 42 km/hr like I'm a toddler on a bike with training wheels.

The wind itself wasn’t that strong, maybe 20-30 km/hr or so, and we knew it was going to be a headwind on the way out. We do 2 loops  of a 20km course, so we get two sections of headwind (on the way out) and 2 sections of tailwind (on the way back). Right? Wrong again. As soon as I reached the turnaround after averaging 33 km/hr in the headwind, I thought “OK! Time to relax a bit in the tailwind”, fully expecting to do >40-42 km/hr on the way back, there was tailwind for maybe 5 mins on the way back and cross-wind/headwind that just sapped up all my effort. The way back ended up only at 36.5 km/hr and after the first loop, I began shaking my head as my hopes of having a competitive time (1:05) for the 40k turned to dust!

Then, a familiar thing happened. My disc cover sticker fell apart on one side. I remembered this happened in the Peterborough race. At first, its just annoying as the paper flaps about and hits the frame, so i thought “OK, its going to tear up and fly away in a bit, don’t worry”. But it didn’t, it proceded to knock my speed sensor out of the way and I was left with no speed readings. Still, no big deal...then it completely fell apart and rolled itself at the hub rubbing against the wheel. Did it provide additional resistance? Did it slow me down? For sure...but how much? Who knows. 

Before the sticker fell apart and things went pear shaped...

After 25 kms, I noticed my bike computer had paused on its own. Ah crap..the perils of relying on technology.  I had the “Auto Pause” on..which means my computer stops automatically if it doesn’t sense any speed from the wheel...and there was no way to adjust it unless i reset the workout. More mental frustration. It kept turning on and off spontaneously every time it sensed any sort of speed from my out-of-whack speed sensor.

Coupled with the headwind both ways, I lost touch with my legs between 25-35 kms.

Before...

After....

 Lesson learnt: No more fancy wheel cover stickers for me. Unless they’re professionally done!

Mentally, i was a bit ticked off, but it didn’t bother me much, actually. What did bother me was that my power goal was 220W, and I was struggling to maintain 205W. My legs didn’t feel good in general, and I began to think whether I screwed up the first run and went too hard. Something which I never do. Still, during the bike ride, i didn’t know that the first run was actually 10.4 km, so i didn’t think much of it and got my mind ready for the run.

(In reality, I hadn’t come under my 40min goal on the run by just 8 seconds, it  was 8 seconds + the time it took to cover the extra 0.4 km = 100 seconds!!)

My actual riding time was 1:09:20, in headwind, an average of 34.6 km/hr, which is pretty pathetic considering I put out 205W (i.e. power is independant of wind). For reference, I went at 35.2 km/hr in a similar Welland 90km flat course on just 191W. In a “short” race like this, seconds matter and losing ~2-3 mins on just the bike leg is huge!

Distance: 39.5 kms

Time: 1:10:25 official time (1:09:13 moving time including mount/dismount run)

Moving Speed: 34.6 km/hr

My biking sucks! :(

Run 2

Racked my bike, changed my shoes and shot out of transition eager to make up some time. My legs felt ready to put down some hurt. Finally.

Onto the familiar first 1k uphill in headwind, I told myself to keep it in control and drop the hammer after 2.5 km. HR in check, I passed about 3-4 people here, and generally I looked in good shape compared to everyone around me. 

Just like Peterborough where I dropped my water bottle on the bike and picked it up on the run, I started looking at the side of the road for any indications of my cap that blew away in the first run. Yep, found it at the 1 km mark. Funny how this works!

Then I saw some random girl in black glasses cheering for me....took me a double-take to recognise it was Steph! “HI STEPH!”. Stephanie is my only connection to my high school life in Paris, and the only other person that made the trip to Carleton University from the cobbled streets of Paris. We’ve come a long way! Thanks, Steph!

Anyway, back to the race, at the little turnaround, the wind in my back and the slight downhill propelled me forward and I picked off 2 more people. After the aid station on the way back, I gulped some water –the-wrong-way and nearly choked on myself. I gave a low-five to spur on Adam Foley (a partner-in-crime) and set my sights on a particularly stocky and long-strided athlete from USA. It was tough but I caught him just before the last uphill with about 1 mile to go. On the uphill though, he managed to hold on to me and we picked off at least 5 more people here. Suddenly I was aware of a lot of huffing and puffing behind me. I snuck a look back to see me leading all these 6 people (mostly US athletes, and 1 from GB) trying their best to hang tight and reel me in.

Downhill time. This is where I win. I opened the taps and covered the next 1 km in 3:35 mins. And thoroughly crushed all ~4-6 people behind me. The crowds were deafening as I heard cheers from supporting Canadians:  “CATCH THEM, BAGGA!”. I saw 2 more Americans up ahead. One more surge. Success.

By now I was 150m from the finish and about to dry heave and coast home, then I hear this roaring cheer from 3-4 Team Canada girls (who had already finished their race), one of them being Garima! She recruited a cheering squad!! I surged one last time just not to disappoint them and crossed the mat with my hands in the air.

This last mile was the best part of the race, seriously. The reason I love this sport. To dig deep and come out of a dark place after nearly redlining for 2 hours is awesome. Even though none of the people I passed in that last mile were in my AG, we’re competing nonetheless.

We were warned that the last run loop was a bit longer than the first run loop due to the added length of the finishing chute, so it worked out to be 5.25 km. No big deal.

Distance: 5.25 kms

Time: 20:37 mins

Pace: 3:55 min/km (15.3 km/hr)

Overall Time:

Overall Place: 157 of 496

AG Place: 17 of 22 in (M25-29).

This was a crazy fast category. My 3:49 min/km pace in the first 10.4 km run only netted me 18/22 in my AG by the time I got on the bike. The wind hurt everyone, and I redeemed a couple of places in the last run . Humbing experience, for sure. Seriously...can’t you freakishly fast guys just turn pro and leave us “slow-pokes” alone so we can win SOMETHING?

Post-Race:

Met up with Adam, Susie (his wife), Garima, and Garima’s cheering squad friend: Gill...and we shared our disappointment with the bike ride and exchanged our tales like war-time stories!

Then we took our bikes, went home to get refreshed and headed out to meet Steph and Kayla for a yummy Italian lunch (PIZZA, what else can you expect from me?! :D)

No matter how the race turned out, how well we placed in ranking, how fast or slow we did the race, this was an epic experience. Now hopefully I can convince Garima to write something up about her race...!

Keep pedaling.

Ottawa ITU World AG Duathlon Championships - Pre and post race!

Whoa! This was some crazy extended weekend!

The hype to the World Championships lived up to expectations for sure!

Think: Mingling with world class athletes, Canada's capital in the background, downtown parade, photo shoots and lots of catching up with school friends! Oh, and the race itself! All in 4 days!

 I'll post a separate blog entry for the race itself, so here I just wanted to show what we both were upto for these days.

Thursday

Our weekend started early on Thursday as both of us took two days off work to make the drive to Ottawa for kicking off the race festivities.

Friday

 

2013 Team Canada at World ITU Duathlon AG Championships - Parliament Hill, Ottawa

 Saturday - RACE DAY!

Race:
Coming soon...!
It works better this way for people who just enjoy reading and don't need to go through our boring details of the race, numbers, etc!

Post-race:
After both of us were done, we knew we hadnt won any medals, so we waited around and chatted up some friends. Then we took our bikes and biked the odd 5km back to our hotel on tired legs.

At this point, both of us were ready to take a nice nap, but we had a busy day ahead and it was just noon!

First off, I went to a local bike shop to redeem the $100 gift certificate I had won the last time I was here in Ottawa (September 2012 - Iron Distance 226 Duathlon). After some mumbling and grumbling at the shop, we met up with Steph and Kayla for lunch. Yay!

Then we headed back to the race site to watch the World Duathlon Elite Juniors (Under 23) Championships. Man, these guys are stupid fast. And stupid young, too!

 

His half stride at > 19 km/hr is more than what most people look like sprinting...

After we were done, we met up with an old Carleton friend: Rohit, who went to school with Garima and lives/works in Ottawa.

 

Super cool guy. He keeps fit, but is more into the lazy type of biking though, he uses a motor! :P

Sunday 

After a rock solid 8 hour sleep, we woke up and quickly packed up all our stuff for checking out of the hotel.

We were supposed to meet up more friends for brunch/breakfast. But we bumped into the Canada Moose on the way:

Walking around Ottawa in Team Canada uniforms was pretty cool. We felt a tiiny bit special and it was good to have home town support during the race....

Race report coming soon! Keep pedaling...