Youniquecycles.ca Grand Opening

After 3 years of running the business from his house, my friend, bike fitter, fitness tester, and coach held the Grand Opening of his new Bike Store/Bike Fit/Fitness Testing location this past weekend in Milton.

The slick new place is located on 511 Main St East (Milton). Along with being one of the best FIST certified bike fitters around (I've never felt better on my bikes), Ian carries wicked lineup of products like Guru bikes, HED, Shimano, Selle SMP, etc.

Personally, it quite awesome to see Ian's business grow to the point it is today and hopefully there is more to come. I just hope that he doesn't get too big that I can't afford to see him anymore :)

Ian really is great and I recommend him highly for his bike fitting and fitness testing (and coaching services if you so require it). Now that he sells Guru, he can get your measurement and have Guru produce a custom made bike for you. No more messing around with trying to find a bike on sale, and trying to make that bike work for you. You will only spend more time in the long run because you will likely end up buying another bike after toiling in trying to find a comfortable position.

Check out Ian Maclean and his services at:

http://www.youniquecycles.ca/home.html

http://www.imfit.ca/home.html

It is worth the drive to Milton.

Ironman Hawaii

What a wicked day of racing!

The online coverage was awesome. Lots of great interviews, insight, and camera shots.
Having Macca stop by to provide commentary of the race was truly a treat. Great stuff. Today was like Christmas for me.

The racing was incredible. The bikers (Sinballe, Stadler and Lieto to name a few) took it out hard and went for it on the run. They got caught by the runners but at least they laid it out there. Hats off to them. Macca snapped a cable on his bike which would have taken 20 minutes to fix so he unfortunately had to drop out of the race.

As I said, Craig Alexander was going to tear up the run and he sure did. He plunked down a blazing 2:45 marathon and cruised to victory. When he was interviewed this morning (530am) I could tell that he was there to crush the competition. He looked super lean, intense and ready to rock n' roll. Well done Craig!! You are wickedly fast.

Men
1. Craig Alexander 8:17:45
2. Eneko Llanos Burguera 8:20:50
3. Rutger Beke 8:21:23
4. Ronnie Schildknecht 8:24:46
5. Timo Bracht 8:23:04
6. Cameron Brown 8:26:17
7. Patrick Vernay 8:30:23
8. Andy Potts 8:33:50
9. Mathias Hecht 8:34:02
10. Michael Lovato 8:38:47

Now for scary fast. If it were not for a flat tire (which killed 7-10 minutes) we surely would have seen the women's course record be broken today. Chrissy Wellington is a pure phenom. I just hope she keeps on racing and doesn't get bored of demolishing the women's field (and many pro men too). She did set the new women's marathon record in Hawaii by running 2:57.

Women
1. Chrissie Wellington 9:06:23
2. Yvonne Van Vlerken 9:21:20
3. Sandra Wallenhorst 9:22:52
4. Erika Csomor 9:24:49
5. Linsey Corbin 9:28:51
6. Virginia Berasategui 9:29:15
7. Bella Comerford 9:34:08
8. Gina Ferguson 9:36:53
9. Gina Kehr 9:37:06
10. Dede Griesbauer 9:39:53

I got so inspired by the coverage today that after the big players made the bike turnaround in Hawi, I got dressed and headed out on my first "real" outdoor bike ride. I don't remember loving riding so much. It felt great to be outdoors again and enjoying the great weather. Not to mention being on my fave ride---Siena. I did a quick 40 km on a hilly route and my Achilles felt strong. I hammered all the hills and my heart rate went through the roof. It was good to be back. With 2 more days of awesome weather here I'll be sure to head out again.

Brian Bennett, a local massage therapist and acquaintance, had the good fortune to take part in today's race in Hawaii and is still on the course as of this post. In fact, he has raced for 10 hrs and 18 minutes and has 21 miles left to go on the run. He should cruise home easily and finish his first race in Hawaii. Way to go Brian.

Ironman World Championships this Saturday

The biggest sport event of the year is about to happen in a few days. That's right, the Ironman World Championships.

Lots of great coverage can be found at http://www.ironman.com/ every day up until the actual race.

My picks:

Women
1. Chrissie Wellington
- Can anyone touch her? If they let her get away on the bike forget about it. She has never lost an Ironman race and it will be very tough on the field to make this her first. Too bad Samantha McGlone has been suffering from Achilles (another one bites the dust, welcome to the club Sam) and has not been running for 2 months. She is supposed to be getting married in November so she will rest up and come back with a vengence in 2009. Like me!! :)

You need to keep an eye out for Yvonne van Vlerken who set the new Ironman world record at Roth this summer (8:45:48) and Erika Csomor who was only less than two minutes behind that (also breaking the previous record held by the great Paula Newby-Fraser).

Men
1. Chris McCormack
- Macca better have some kind of lead off the bike or Craig Alexander might run him down with that scary run leg of his. Watch out for Andy Potts, Normann Stadler and Faris Al-Sultan too.

This should be a very interesting race. There are a ton of fast gals and guys who can do some serous damage if they are at 100%.

I'll be glued to my computer screen all day watching all the live streaming footage.