Why did the chicken cross the road...

Good news. With the help of Maryka Sennema, I found out that I'm going to be in the 45 -49 age group next year, even though I'll only be 44 years old. I'll explain later. Maryka is a kick ass triathlete. This year she won the 35 -39 women's age group in Lake Placid with a blistering 10:41:52 and she even had problems that slowed her down along the way. Check the race report on her blog, I enjoyed it.

If you've ever read Malcom Gladwells New York best selling book, the "Outliers", you would have read that 92% of all professional hockey players and almost all the professional soccer players in the world are born between January and March. Chances are if your not born in one of those three months you'll never become a professional hockey or soccer player.

The reason is that the cutoff date to determine ages for the divisions is January 1st. Therefore, kids born closest to January 1st tend to be bigger, stronger, more mature than kids born closer to December 31st. As a kid, a 6 month difference in age makes a huge difference. January to March born kids typically get chosen for the elite teams and get the advantage of elite development, whereas the September to December kids rarely get chosen for elite development.

Why am I explaining this? Because the opposite is true for triathletes over 40 years old. A Triathletes appropriate age group, or division, is based on how old they are on December 31st of the year they are racing. For example, I'm turning 44 in this November and for all my triathlon races next year I will be 44 years old. But because on December 31st of next year I'll be 45 years old, I'm automatically put in the 45-49 year old age group, even though I'm only 44 year old. The benefit is that I'll be one of the youngest triathletes in my division and hopefully that age advantage will give me a speed advantage. At least that's the theory.

The Ironman qualifying times for the 45-49 age group are typically slower than the 40 - 44 age group and by being in the 45 - 49 year age group I'll have a better chance of qualifying for Kona than if I was in the 40-44 age group. It's the first time being a November born baby has paid off. Based on last years Ironman Lake Placid qualifying times for the 45-49 age group, if I had the race of my life, I could potentially qualify. If I did China, based on last years qualifiers times, I'd just need to have a good race to qualify. That's got me pumped and motivated. I really want to return to Kona with the family.

Training today was fairly uneventful, except for the chickens and the time travel. I was doing a tempo ride and I had to do a double take. There was three chickens in the middle of the road, it was like I was a third world Country. They weren't afraid of me and didn't move when I rode through them. Which is a good thing, I was worried one of them might panic and jump into my spokes. It was also the first hot weather evening ride of the year, it was over 30 C and humid, which made it feel like 36 C. Last year I had a LOT of my rides in this type of whether and I love riding in hot humid weather, it feels like the air is giving you a hug. Today's weather made it feel like I had time travelled back to last year.

Weights - 45:00

Tempo Bike - 1:03:38 / 33.87 km / 32.0 kph

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