Nathan Veldhoen

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After nearly 10 months of training, the last big week ended on Sunday.  Timing was pretty much bang on, I was hoping I could surprise myself with a better bike ride but 4 pee stops, (haven’t figured out how to pee on the bike yet;) a pretty ugly little storm and a blown spoke made it pretty tough.  I was happy with the swim and was really surprised how smooth it went.  I got myself to the front and didn’t have to jockey at all.  Once the swim was over, the honeymoon was short lived.  Jumped on the bike and felt really good til about 80km when the bikes didn’t stop passing me.  Over and over the groups of bike went by, even once I got to my run all the coaches on their bikes kept giving me flashbacks of the ride.  I was so happy once that bike got passed to the person racking it for me and got my running bag.  I bounced out on the course feeling ready to tackle the last hurdle, one that I have done more then a few times.  First 10km was quick timing it at 45 and slowly went down hill, finishing up with just under 3:40 with a total time of 10:42.  Pretty happy with the end result and looking froward to getting my running going for Boston, mixed with some off season bike training.  Already looking ahead for 2012 for my second go around.

coming out of the swim

I had huge support from all my family and friends, and would like to thank them.   I would also like to thank everyone for their support for the Heart and Stroke foundation as well, I will get a final number once it all shuts down.

Here are the last few minutes of the final cut--17 hours!…I came in right went the bike cut off was happening and it was amazing to hear the crowd getting these guys going.

It’s been a great build up to race day that will be bright and early Sunday Morning @ 7am.  All the hours of training, trips, and bike repairs has been an experience that I can’t really put into words.  I can’t image the feeling after competing the race, finishing the biggest training day to date.  The only thing I can really say is if you think you might want to go for an Ironman, do it, it will be something you will always remember.

With the big day within reach I would like to thank everyone along the way for the support for Dan and I, and the huge amount of money raised.  Online we are very close to 3,000 dollars with another 500 dollars not included in the online total.  Just in the last year a number people in my core of friends have been directly effected by someone with a heart condition or stroke and I feel it was the correct  charity to help out.  A big thanks to my Calgary people for getting me very very close to my goal.  Hope race day will go as good or better then the money raising. I believe that my online page shuts down on Sunday so if you’re still wanting to donate go to ironmanfund.com soon!

I am looking to beat the 11 hour mark and hopefully better with a top 100-150 overall finish.  A lot of things need to go right with nothing going wrong to get me to the finish line in that time.  Weather is looking good and so it looks like it’s up to me and my bike.  I will be number 283 and we will be starting at 7:00am Sunday morning.  I am not sure if they have live tracking for the race but checkout ironman.ca for any info.

Just over a week left til Ironman Canada in Penticton goes down on the 29th.  This also means just over a week to try and reach the goal of 5,000 for the Heart and Stroke foundation.  After a huge weekend with two fundraisers one in Calgary and other out here in Langley, I am so pumped with the total close to 3,0 00 dollars ( 2,400 showing online.)   I am so thankful for everyone’s help so far and looking forward to the big race.

I am feeling pretty tired but I can tell the body is starting to feel strong and healed up.  Swimming is getting easy and smooth, biking isn’t as slow as it was two months ago, and when I’m running it doesn’t feel like I’m 200 pounds.  Going to start tracking the weather and read up on race day tricks and food hints.  Heading up next Thursday and might have to do the float 5-6 times just to stop me from running or biking too much while I’m up there.

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Gearing up literally for a big Friday night with proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.   Willboughby Hall in Langley 6:30 start til late.

Show Poster

Some of the treats that will be seen tomorrow.  These two original works will be a part of our silent auction plus much more.  Just can’t thanks these two enough.  I was left speechless last night when I went into Vancouver to pick these up.

One of the true Master Pieces from Phil Kwan. A one off made just for this show.

Amazing... created by Jay Leblanc from Leblanctattoo.com. Another one off made just for this show.

Sunday morning I headed out to Lake Samish for my first open water only swim race that was 5k long.  I have done two previous open water races in the half ironmans at shorter distances but I wanted to make sure that my swimming was ready for the end of August.  A two loop course and a gel stop half way.

I got up at about 5:30 with a bit of a stomach flu but made it out there for 6:40.  Race pick up was from 6:30-7:30 with the race starting a 8:00.  They had a pre-race meeting 10 minutes before that I wish I would have paid a little more attention to.

Race went well until the two people I was behind were only doing the  1.5mile race.  I was now the leader without a clue on what markers to swim to.  I ended up getting cut off by a race kayak to go back around one of the cans and after that he ghosted me the whole way.  I ended up get caught by a little rocket by the end of the race to grab 2 second, she was joking with me after about how she wouldn’t have caught me if I didn’t swim off course…oh well.  Fun swim that I might have to try and get over for next year.  Finished up with a 1 hour 13 minutes which should set me up with a good 4k time in a few more weeks.

race website: http://www.lakesamishswim.com

swim was two loops around the small section on the left

Weekend in Washington. Fresh routes and fresher photos.

Down at the docks Anacortes, Wash

The long ride on Saturday was good with cool temps. Fun day out on the bike, I headed out early so the traffic wasn’t too bad, but it didn’t seem to matter because the shoulders were so nice and wide. Hit the ocean and turned around and came back. After the ride, threw on the shoes and ran into town and back for a good little brick run.  Then finally finished up with a short swim in the ocean.

The longer run Sunday that was pretty scenic then jumped on the bike and did a similar ride to the run but lengthened it out a bit longer, few more loops and riding around town.

Super huge gas plant just across the bay

The light in this photo make it one of my favorites from the weekend

Road goes straight to the campsite

Trailer of the week

This last weekend was the longest/hardest ride out of the whole training period. Set it up for a ride up to the top of Mount Baker Ski resort. Ended up being the best ride to date, with about another 100-150 people doing the same ride. We started from my front door and headed south, while the rest headed from a little village on the way called Glacier. The road took you right to the top of the resort in the summer which was news to me, I was used to the winter full of snow!. There was group doing some summer ski touring and sledding. So much snow still, it was just amazing to see all the action. Really cool experience, totally ride was about 165km and took us 6:45 with a few stops along the way.

Grindin up

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Good thing Dan brought his camera!

here is the route :

Been a busy/expensive, got a new rear rim, after blowing two spokes on a week day ride as well as finally buying new wetsuit. Picked it up @ trigeeks in Surrey.  Heading out to Deception Pass in Washington for some fresh training routes and new scenery.  Looking forward to it and I’ll try to take more pictures.

please donate ironmanfund.com -heart and stroke til the 29th of August.

i'll be trying it out this weekend.

Another busy weekend with the big days getting longer and a bit tougher after a 20 hours this week…  I’ve been trying to come up with new and fresh training routes to keep me motivated and interested.  After last  weekends trip to Penticton I needed a bit more then an Abbotsford training session.  Ended up spending a lot of time up around Harrison and Bridal Falls.

Bike route below.  Started in Abbotsford met up with my folks for Breakfeast in Bridal Falls and then rode home.  Ended up hitting 125km.  Little windy on the way home but all around solid ride.

Here is the map of my Run Sunday morning. Roughly 24km with a interesting bridge crossing…no side walk. Then did a quick swim in Harrison to round off the weekend. Amazing weather made this weekend a great and enjoyable training session and already looking forward to the next few weeks ahead.

Future plans, include a ride up Mount Baker, a training camp in Deception Pass in Washington, and then a 5km open water race on the 8th. Feeling good and kinda enjoying the beating.

guy on twitter had this bad boy up…old lance is in the white shirt.

Some photos from this week, I didn’t take any in Penticton this last weekend and feeling a little guilty.  Its going to be a grind here for the next three to four weeks with peaking out next weekend.  I’m in the process of getting a big night together on the 13th of August. Ironmanfund.com is ramping up.

Going to ride to this guy next weekend. 75km to the top, it will be interesting!

The home base. Late night track session. Little cooler and quiet.

Had a good track session-this last thursday

No images yet-sorry...

4:00am start to the Sunday morning with a 6:30am gun time for the beginning of what would be a pretty solid day. Hit most of my targets for the swim and run but I’m still fighting the bike.  Swim came in pretty fast despite it feeling slow but I think the current had a huge effect on results…good and bad.  Came out with a 26:00 swim in pretty good position with a little bit of a better time in transition then  Oliver but still slower then most by quite a bit.  Bike course was 4 loops 26km course that felt as if each loop was getting shorter and shorter.  32.1 km average which needs to be faster but still felt solid.   (2:50 total bike time)  Run felt strong after the first 8km and was happy with the 4:51 final time. (1:28 total run time)  Would have really like to be under the 4:50 range but under 5 was the big target.  41th out 261

I will have to say that those folks up in Oliver put on a better race and basically beat the Vancouver Tri in all aspects.  I will credit the Vancouver’s organizers and say it still was a solid event, but Oliver is a few levels higher.  More people, more volunteers, more stations, more variety, better swim and better organized. Booom!  Training Camp number 4 this weekend in Penticton.

ironmanfund.com!  please donate and if you have any connection of auction items contact me

I had to rip off an idea that i had, with all this training the mind gets pretty busy on those long rides.  Haven’t done much creative lately.  Ready, go.

Frabicland, yes...I think I was the only guy. Maybe the only person in their 30's male or female.

frames with lights mounted

wrappppin

New switch

Final One

Final two. Made a second one for the other side of the bed, but no light.

ironmanfund.com--- please donate to the heart and stroke.

Vancouver Half Iron this Sunday with a 6:30am start.  Hopefully get my time down and attack it with a little more fight after completing my first one in early June.  Pretty familiar with the course , and have done a lot of training on the run section and a few rides on the the road course.  The two laps in the the ocean will be the one that I will not be too stoked about.  I will be trying out a new blue seventy wetsuit so the news isn’t all bad.

There will be two of us sporting the ironmanfund.com colors,  look for us if you are down watching and if you haven’t donated yet please do so.  Big thanks to those who have so far.    Its just warming up and currently sitting at 140 bux.  I am currently on the hunt for a party spot for the big fundraiser night.  I am also look for donations/ items for raffle and auction for the fundraiser.  email me if you have something or ideas/ contacts for me  nate@ironmanfund.com

This race will be updated live via their twitter feed, as well as checking out this link.

Course Map can be seen here, if you are coming down to watch!

Pretty solid week.  Finished some pretty big jobs with work, headed to Salt Spring, watched the Scotia Half, did some training downtown to get ready for July 4th half iron in Vancouver.  Most importantly getting pieces together for a big night of fundraisin hopefully in August.

Some shots this last week,

Big pool deck we finished up--this is just a small peice.

Sundays run

Think is guy was rolling in 3rd or 4th on Sundays run. Looking solid.

Notice the Chile hat?...don't have too many words for this one.

keepin warm

Bombed out to to the Kananaskis country for some leg burn and a change in scenery.   Had to battle some pretty  crappy weather the first day so we spent some serious time in the kreeper after a nice up and down run thru the bike path @ Peter Lougheed area of the park .  After the rolly  run on the first day of the mini camp,  day two the bikes where ready to tackle the freshly swept and opened hwy 40.  Our daily average was really down on this ride, but it was probably one of the better ones I have done.  We reach about 2200m at peak with about 2-5 inch on snow on the ground when we reached the top.

First Day of riding after two days of rain.

Second day of riding,  Thnx Cam for the kick in the ass.