Some data

Well I finally got a new battery for my HR monitor to see how my heart is doing compared to my legs. The data was pretty shocking! I've used it on 2 runs and 1 ride so far, and I've realized how out of shape my heart is compared to my legs. The two runs that I have used it on were with Nick Best (32 min 10k cross country this year). He invites me out for his second run of he day, which is usually just a slow tempo for him. I wad amazed to see that my heart rate never dropped below 175, even on downhills. To have a HR of 175 in the summer would mean a pretty painful interval effort that couldn't be sustained for longer than 5 minutes. On one uphill I even hit the 190s!

The crazy thing is that for such a high HR, I don't feel that bad. I can carry on a conversation with nick ( although it's easier for him) and my legs don't burn at all. I have also noticed that my HR never recovers, which I guess is why I die in the middle of workouts these days. The same thing happens on the bike. I usually have a higher HR when running compared to biking, but now it's the same. Just increasing my cadence to 110 will get my HR up to 160, something I could rarely do this summer if I tried my hardest.

What this basically tells me is that when you decrease your training, your heart is the first to go. I'm sure a lot of people already knew that, but I really thought my legs would be holding my comeback in check, not my heart.
Tonight was a beautiful twilight run with nick in the snow. Something just felt peaceful about tonights run. I've been going through intervews and cuts for jobs lately so it's nice to get out and clear my head.
A dopo,
mj

Rocky Road

This is the first time I have ever been out of shape, in the sense that I am not physically where I am mentally. Mentally I think I should be able to lead the two groups that I run with (when there aren't Kenyans or Pros), but physically it is a different story.

I finally understand why professional athletes don't come back from injury by re-joining their teammates right away. In most pro sports, the guy will workout by himself for a few weeks before joining the group. This is mentally really important I think. I wanted to re-join both the Lifesport and PIH groups right when I got back from AUS. I underestimated how out of shape I was (after all, I felt pretty good running in AUS), and it has been mentally hard for me.

I'm not trying to say that I have it hard or anything, but it is mentally tough to not be able to finish a hard workout because of nausea, or feel good for 1km and then exponentially fall apart after that. The last PIH workout saw me feel great for 4/12 450m reps, before imploding with nausea and dragging some serious ass. I felt like I was some loser that went out way to hard beyond his abiliy.

Mentally, it's pretty discouraging to see all of your peers ahead of you, when you have stumbled a bit. This discouragement has made me less "excited" to head out and workout in general. After all, most athletes like to go and workout because they are good at it, and it's fun to do something your good at.

This is why other pro athletes don't join their teams after injuries. They take really small steps and enjoy the progress.

The problem is, I am on the fence of whether I should take the slow route, or just suck it up and get the crap kicked out of me for a month or so and get in shape faster.

That being said, I had a fun bike ride today in the frozen world we call Canada. One of these days I'll get in the pool, but I will definitely be swimming by myself for a bit!

Getting my sh*t together

Well I have been home for two weeks already! I am finally getting used to the ridiculous weather that we have here on the west coast. I think it was amazing timing that I came home and had 12 days straight of rain.

I can't believe how much you get used to the sun when you are out of this climate. I never realized how depressing it is here when you don't even know the sun exists for a week.

Training wise, I am building in to it slowly. I am starting at a basic running 2 days a week, although it could be less due to a sore groin and more to do with the rain. My bike is getting put together one piece at a time. I am picking up my trainer today so I hope to hop on some indoor workouts soon. Swimming is not happening. I might jump in on a few Lifesport swims, but I can't even justify paying for swimming when I am currently unemployed.

Regarding jobs, I have applied at a LOT of jobs lately. It's pretty strange applying for real jobs. Just the fact that you "pound the pavement" electronically these days is pretty strange. The stupidest thing is that you put so much work into a resume and cover letter, and then after you upload these, the company takes you to a separate web page and basically makes you fill in forms that ask all of the same questions. It's pretty clear that they just use the questionnaire answers to find candidates.

Anyhow I am still taking it easy triathlon wise. I really do plan to have a great year next year. I just think that having a solid background like a good job and nice weekly routine are key ingredients for a good training program. I have neither right now, so I have to be patient.

Good luck at the Seattle Marathon this weekend peeps!
Mj

My New Favourite Run

Well folks I have not run that much in the last two months. I haven't swam too much either. My first ride in two months was today, when I rode a rented bike for 1.5 km to the beach. It was actually pretty scary. The front wheel didn't even look like it was connected to the bike. I would guess the bike age at at least 15 years old.

But one thing has changed.... I can't stop thinking about triathlon. I miss it. I miss the training with the Lifesport group. I miss running with the PIH. I miss the pain.

Anywase, I had the best two runs of my life in Noosa. I have been to Noosa before and ran in the national park, but I took a different trail this time that went along the ocean. It was amazing!!! Although challenging, it took you along the ocean from sea level to jagged cliffs every 400m. On the first day, I was running at full speed when I saw something on the trail in front of me. It didn't look like a dog, and the closer I got I realized that it was a Koala on the trail. It was so amazing. For all the people that have been to Aus, you know how hard it is to spot a koala in the wild. I have only seen one before this. Anyhow, I followed him along the trail for at least 200m. He was in no hurrey, stopping every 5m and taking a look around. At one point I was only 6 inches from him. Finally he found the tree he was looking for and we parted ways. Amazing!!!!

Anywase I have so many plans for the upcoming season. Core needs work for sure! Also endurance. I realize that the strongest I was at biking was coming off the trainer sessions with Lifesport at the pool. I need to start that again!

Before I go I want to say good luck to Sam at Clearwater!
Ciao for now!

Reflections

I've had a lot of time to think about my tri season this year, that had as many firsts and pbs as dissapointments. After the worlds I kind of just put off thinking about the season. However, I have had ample time to look back on the season that was, and see what I did well and didn't.

First off, my training was waaay better this year. A lot more intense, and my training partners were incredible (ironman and olympic champs).

However I think I went against one of the main principles in endurance sport training, the cycle.

At the beginning of the year before I joined Lifesport, I was doing tons of low intensity mileage. Half Marathons, long bike rides, and longer swims. Even at the beginning of my Lifesport training, we were in base mode. After that the training started to get more into build mode, where we did good trainer sessions in hard gears and spin ups. Finally, we started to get into racing mode, with great elk lake runs and time trials on the bike.

At this stage, I was on top of the world. I was crushing my last year's times. 6 minutes faster on a sprint was pretty good! Mentally, I was obsessed with the goals I put forward this year. It was a good time. I had 4 really good races, winning my age group and coming in the top 3 OA in all the races. That's when I lost site of the bigger cycle.

This was still early in the season. May and June were a long way to go from September. My coach even warned me not to go too hard in April, because the guy that is still impoving in May is dangerous in August.

The rest of the season there was no base training. All intense training, that brought me to the best shape of my life. The only problem was I completely lost my endurance. I didn't think it was that big of a deal for Olympic distance racing, but it was. I could compete in the pool on 100s and 200s, but would get killed in open water swimming or 500s in the pool. Running was fine, since I had the biggest base to go off of from winter, but biking was the same. In fact, the second best 1500m time of the year was in May, after Nationals.

All summer I didn't do the long endurance stuff that makes you able to compete for longer. I didn't do a bike ride longer than 2.5 hrs, and didn't do swimming intervals longer than 600m at a time. All of this caught up to me at the end of the season, where I would feel ok at the beginning of the swim, bike, and run, but die out later.

It's amazing how much you learn every year in this sport. Here I thought that my training couldn't get any better, but I was neglecting one of the most important rules of triathlon, building the year around two cycles.

I tried to make it one cycle, and paid the consequences. At least I had a good performance at Nationals, due to my first real taper of the year. I am pretty happy that I had a good performance there, since Worlds as we know was a pretty crazy triathlon.

Next year I have to be not as greedy. I cannot try and be in tip top shape for every triathlon I compete in, which is hard, because I am so competitive. I have to be patient at the behginning of the year, which I never am. So much to look forward to next year!!!!!

The pics from castle hill

These are the pics from Castle hill, that I took with Jasmine when we drove up it before. Pretty cool rock.

OMG a day of training!!!

Today was a great day. For starters, we are now in Townsville, which isn't that special but it is where you catch the ferry to Magnetic Island, which is apparently amazing. We do that in 2 days.

A little bit of backround on today. Yesterday a South African dude at our hostel offered to drive us up to a lookout just out of town and we readily accepted, knowing these opportunities don't come often.

Castle hill is about 2.5 km out of the city centre, but it looks like it belongs in the outback. It is 300m tall, and the road is about 2.9km. What makes it cool is that it is steep and look likes a desert wasteland. As we were driving up there were tons of people apparently running to the top, even thought it looked pretty tough. I knew at once that I was going to tackle this mountain.

So this morning I headed to the pool, which I have also been wanting to do, and put the run off until dusk, when it is only around 27 degrees out.

I headed to the beautiful Tobruk memorial pool, which is steeped in history. It is where the Aus Olympic team trained until 1965 when they invented heated pools. There were over 40 world records broken there, and it was neat to do a laidback 2km straight set in the morning sun.

At dusk, I prepared to do the Castle hill. OMG!

I don't even know where to start on this climb. I know the grouse grind has a hell of a lot of more elevation gain in the same distance, but it was 27 degrees and the sun was still strong enough to kick my ass.

First 3rd.
I felt pretty good. The lungs haven't been used much in a while, but I was ok. I noticed I was the only one running up. Lots of walkers, but no runners.

Second 3rd.
Wow I am dying. There were SOME little flat sections on the first part, but it is now incredible uphill, and I am going pretty slow with a 190+ hr.

Third 3rd
OMG I am going to puke. Still noone else running. Lots of people running DOWN. O man I had t opull it together badly on this last section. Only a few more switchbacks. There was two huge ass Parrots squaking at me, sounding like death was near. BUT I MADE IT!

16.5 of the longest minutes of my life. Totaled in with the run there and back it was over 50 minutes to cover 7 km.

The decent was possibly the worst part. I decided to head down an alternative dirt path, that turned out to be all steps, except they were steps that were to long to jump in one jump, and were so deep that I landed on my toes every time. After 1000 of these my feet felt like the arches had been beaten with a 2 x 4. I was so happy to get home. I wasn't ok though ha ha. Jas was worried. When the temp is still like 27, you can't cool down. Two hours after my shower I was still sweating a rediculous amount and felt light headed. But I did it! Take that out of shape body!!!!!!!

Pictures to come, but google Castle hill in Townsville

Update

Not much to say here folks.

Currently I am at Mission Beach, a small one road town 2 hours south of Cairns. It is so hot here day and night, and the only thing to do is either skydive, or lay on the 14km of uninhabited beach. It is an amazing place. It feels like you are on a deserted tropical island. The beaches are perfect and wide, lined with palm trees. Today we noticed a lizard chillin about 5m away from us. He was about 1.5m in length and about 30 cm wide. Pretty wild.


Training is great!!!! I run like once every three days and swim in the ocean recreationally! I tried running barefoot in the sand and I am really sore! It's a great feeling. I can feel every muscle in my foot working when I run barefoot, like we are supposed to have before big ass shoes came in the market. My achillies tendon is a little sore as well, but I have heard that this is pretty normal when you aren't used to it.

If Nick reads this good luck at RVM!

Quick Update

It feels like a million year since my last post on the race. Post race I took a week completely off, and just enjoyed Australia. I have travelled up the Gold Coast, to Sydney, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, and now Cairns. It has been a lot of travelling but I have enjoyed it a lot. I have still yet to find a swimming pool in my travels, which I am not really worried about. I did my first run in a week in Noosa National Park, which is home to tons of Koalas, Roos and Snakes/Spiders. Needless to say I did a half run, half spotting wildlife!

After that 50 minute run of almost complete hills I was wiped out! It is around 35 degrees on the Sunshine Coast in midday, and very humid. Right now in Cairns (really north for all that don't know), it is 30 degrees in the shade, and the humidity is almost unbarable. My eating and drinking have definitly taken a turn for the unhealthy, but I am not too worried.

We headed to Cairns yesterday but were stuck in Brisbane because of the worst dust storm in 75 years! It was intense, like the end of the world. 12,000 tons of top soil was blown from the outback at 100+km/hr towards the coast. Every flight from Sydney was diverted to Brisbane, and then Brisbane got hit with it so it was slow going!

Now that we have reached Cairns, we plan to slow down and possibly find an apartment and settle in. That means finding the local pool and running along the beautiful water front.

Cairns is where you to go hit the Great Barrier Reef, which we hope to do in a few days. Right now we are enjoying the beautiful weather, along with the cheap hostels that have dinner and beer included in their rates. Most hostels offer a bed for 15 bucks including a meal!

World Triathlon Championships - Race Report

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all of the great support and comments (here and on FB). I wanna start by saying I had an AMAZING day. For those who already saw my result, it wasn't a fast day, but I had an awesome experience.

I'll start this race report with a quick recap of the last few weeks. I have basically been in a taper since nationals. I had an amazing race there and was hoping to keep the momentum going here in Australia. That being said, I told my coach that success in Nationals was important to me, since that is a race that I have done before, and it doesn't involve 8000 people and a 16hr time change. I figured that once I got here, anything could happen and I shouldn't worry about it too much.

This whole week has been crazy. I have been laying low like I should, but I knew something was amiss when I would do a 20 minute run or ride and be really sore after. In fact, during a run where I was supposed to do 10 minutes steady effort, I found it almost unbearable to hold a pace that wouldn't even make me sweat at home. Swimming was similar, in that I was struggling to hold 1:30 for 6 hundreds. 6! Never mind the 20 that we do at home at 1:27. Any who, you know where this post is going ha ha ha.

Race day

I get up really early. No point in trying to sleep any more. I got on the bus at 5:19, just as most of the party goers were going home from the bar. Pretty scary ha ha. Got to the site nice and early and set up transition. Followed my successful pre-race plan exactly (even the shot of espresso 1 hr before). I caught up with Richard and we walked the 1.5km to the swim start, as it was a point to point swim. The swim ended up being wetsuit legal. The water temperature would swing a couple of degrees each way every day. Today it was 20.0, two days before it was 22.0. This whole course was fast. If you were on your game today, you would smash your PB. The water was incredible buoyant. With a wetsuit and the salt water, I could literally just lay in the water and float. We were also apparently swimming with the current, but that was negligible.

In the moment before the start, I have never been so nervous. I wanted to do well for everyone supporting me here and back home.

The gun went off, and we all jumped in the water to kick and pull each other for a few hundred meters. Unfortunately, there weren't many guys that were 22-24 minute swimmers like I was, so I found myself alone pretty quick. It was a lonely swim. The other waves started 7 minutes apart, so there wasn't anybody else out there to draft. I just concentrated on swimming as hard as I could, even following the Bree Wee strategy of going hard for 20 strokes at a time ha.

I got out of the water in what must have been close to last in my heat. 25 minutes or something. I wasn't like at the Sri when I felt I had a good swim and was shocked by my time. I was pretty sure it was going to be like that. My arms were like lead. O well, off to the bike to potentially make up some time.

I must make a quick note about transition. It was HUGE! Imagine Kelowna Apple transition times three. Upon exiting the water, it was a 25m run straight up a thick sand dune (so painful!) and then a 50m run to the right of transition, a 50m run back to the left side, and a 100m run with your bike to the road. Pretty vicious. I managed to get out on the course without too many problems, but I knew my time was pretty slow.

The bike was not as well as planned either. It wasn't horrible, but I now know the feeling of my legs when they are on. You know the feeling when you are going up a small hill and you just accelerate into it, feeling so strong? Yeah that wasn't here today. In nationals, it was. Can you say DRAFTING? OMG. I was warned there was some drafting, but it was a bit ridiculous. We are talking close packs of 15-20 riders blowing by you. Not "pretty close" to each other. We are talking tucked into the person in front of them. There were 10 officials on the course, and to their credit they did pull a lot of people over for penalties.

When someone passed me and just sat in front of me, I didn't worry about it too much. The officials had more blatant offences to take care of. But I never really latched on to any packs. Not trying to preach the gospel here, because I had good friends that rode in packs. I don't blame them in the least. It was part of the day. You did what you could. If I was in contention I wouldn't be too happy seeing a group of M20-24 guys blast by me in a pack either.

There was lots of crashes. A bit of sweet justice to a pack of drafters that passed me and then ate the pavement. It was also getting hot. I started to have stomach issues on the bike. Uh-oh. I have never had issues on the bike before. I can usually eat a steak dinner on the bike and be fine. Not today. Still you couldn't help but enjoy the beautiful course that went along the ocean for 10k and looped back. The temperature was now around 25 degrees out and hot. The sun was direct.

I got off the bike and headed out for the run, still hoping to post a great time. As soon as I got out on the course, I got a really bad stomach cramp. I could barely move. I contemplated stopping for a second to double over and regroup, but screw that! The run course was lined 2 deep with people cheering "go Canada" and "go Janes" . It was an amazing moment. I had so much fun. Around 3km I decided to not worry about my time at all and enjoy the fact that I am doing a triathlon on the other side of the world! Let's just say that it was an experience I will always remember. I was hitting high fives and enjoying every minute of it. People were dropping like flies, with ambulances all around.

It sounds corny, but the entire run I contemplated my season and the successes I have had. All of the amazing workouts with amazing people, the highs and lows, the 4 top three OA results, and Nationals where I shaved almost 9 minutes off last year's time.

I finished running through the finish line in the obligatory sprint, beaming ear to ear. Jasmine could tell on the run that it wasn't my day. She saw how tired I was. Still, she was there for me right at the finish line with my mom and Lisa to congratulate me.

Looking at what happened, I don't really know or care. Maybe it was too much to ask to taper for nationals and then keep it going for worlds. Maybe I peaked a little too early in the year. All I know is that I am at peace with my result, am happy for my teammates and their amazing results, and am ready for a break from working out.

You know we went out hard last night. Although I had been up since 4am, we hit the Bundaberg rum, as well as some other Aussie beer and hit the town. It's 7:30 am the next day ( a sleep in for me), and I just had my first coffee of the day and am ready to go to the beach. More partying tonight and then time to travel this amazing country.


I know this is a long post, but I want to say some thank-you's

To my coach Dan. Thank you so much for all of the support and great advice over the year. There is no way I would have seen this improvement without you. I look forward to getting back to it in January.

To all of the other Lifesport peeps, thanks for the amazing year of training. I still think of Cooper telling me to go "faster by smoother" when I race.

To my friends and family. You have put up with a lot this year, and have supported me every step of the way. Thanks doesn't even cut it.

To Jasmine. I can't even start this without a little tear ha. Wouldn't be here without you. A boyfriend that works out for 3 hours a day isn't much fun. Can't wait for the next 3 months!


I will post pictures as the come.

Thanks for reading,

Mj

Getting close....

We are getting down to the wire folks! Training has been going well. I was reminded by my coach to try not to get sucked into doing too much. He tells me it's exactly what people do in Hawaii as well before the IM.

Yesterday was a little much. Since our hotel is located about 6km from the race site it is just easier to bike there and back than take a bus. Yesterday we had a swim at 8 am at the pool (see pics below). Swimming at 8 am here is a lot different than back home. The sun has been up for three hours already, and the temp is around 24 degrees. It is impossible to sleep past 7. It is kinda strange that the sun rises so early, but sets around 6pm. The swim felt good in our 35m pool (yeah, it was the dive pool). After that Sam, Ruichard and I biked the course to see it. Not much to see ha ha. It is flat as a pancake and right along the ocean. The only thing that could be an issue is the wind. Sans wind I can easily hit 40km/hr, but with the headwind I am going 33km/hr with a good effort.

After that hour long bike, I biked home, got my passport, and biked back to the site to register. After another hour in the sun and biking back to the hotel, I was pooped! I am definitly taking it easy the next two days.

Today I had a beautiful 45 minute run with a 10 minute hard tempo along the beach. I jumped in the ocean after (which is 20 degrees) to cool off. I just got thrashed by the surf ha ha.

Today is also the team meal, parade of nations, and opening ceremony. Should be fun!

Here are some pics of Surfer's and surrounding areas, as well as the pool area

Most Eastern point in Aus

Pool at the Race Site (Salt Water)

View from our hotel room

OK a little more time to post!

Wow the past few days have been incredible! Surfer's Paradise is pretty amazing. Pair that with 30 nations competing in a triathlon and you have heaven!

I went to my first Team Canada practice today at the pool. WOW it was so much fun. The workout was pretty basic (5 x 100, 10 x 50 MS), but the atmosphere was electric. Team Canada, NZ, Mexico, Italia, and Australia were there! The pool was an amazing 50m outdoor pool, that was salt water! Pretty crazy! I couldn't zone out and take in some water in that badboy! Of course I swam my ass off trying to hold my own with the other young guns ha ha!

The course and pool are about 6 km North of our hotel. At first I was a little sad that our hotel was that far from the course, but now I am really happy about it. We are allowed to take our bikes onto the pool deck, so it's not a big deal to bike there. And I would much rather bike six km to practice than bike 6 km to party! Our hotel is right smack in the middle of the main drag. It's like vegas here!

Biking and running have been going great. Swimming was a kick in the ass after not swimming for almost a week due to travelling. It is SO HARD not to do like 5 workouts a day here. Everyone is a triathlete, and group runs and rides are going three times a day. Today is a schduled day off, so I am going to try and stay off my feet, but good luck. I will probably mozy on down to the beach and ride the surf for hours!

This is definity the most amazing experience!

Quick post

I have 48 seconds left on my internet! Brisbane was amazing! Could definitly live there! Surfurs is even better! Did a run with Paul and Cathy from the elite squad yesterday, and rode with some NZers today!

Cleaning Sucks

This is the first time in about a week that I have had a minute to spare to write a blog post. All week Jas and I have been moving stuff out of our place and cleaning. We did the final clean yesterday, and are officially ready for Aus tomorrow! So excited! Training has been a mix of easy and fun. The fitness is there. Dan has laid out a nice taper for me, which looks like it centers around feeling nice and fast for the next 10 days.

I am definitly a lot more relaxed these days since Nationals. I feel like I proved all the hard work this year has paid off with my 8 minute PB in Kelowna, so a little of the pressure is off for Worlds. I really want to go 2:10.00 or under in Aus, but I am really there to enjoy the experience!

More posting when I get down under!

Mj

A Few More Classic Pics

Putting the boxes on the bike for the Greyhound

Amazing job

Rolling down Granville in Van

Taking the bus to the ferry

Kelowna Apple- Part 2

After the race we headed off to the hotel to shower and change, and then back to the course. I was hoping for a top 5 at this race, but it didn't happen. 6th in my age group. I made the goal of top 5 however, based on last year's results, which I would have made. This year had a strong M20 field.

I relaxed with my buddies in the beer gardens for a bit, and then it was time to head home. My buddy Steve was driving, and the rest of us started to fall into a nice relaxing sleep for the long ride home. About an hour in to the ride, Steve woke me up to tell me something is wrong with the car. I saw that a few warning lights were on, but I wasn't too worried, that is until Steve pointed out that the engine temperature gauge was in the "engine is about to explode" range.

We pulled over in the middle of nowhere and popped the hood. The engine was smoking pretty bad. One of the tubes that connects the radiator to the coolant pump had come off, spewing coolant everywhere. We knew we were going to have to get a tow. Luckily we hitched a ride with a guy heading to Merritt, as a tow truck can only take two guys. The tow into Merritt (26km away) was $200.00! Ouch. Being guys, we assumed that when we got to Merritt we could do a little repair on the blown tube and be off to Vancouver in an hour.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

Us working on the car

Steve providing the music for our troubles

Looking stoked to be in Merritt

The coolant tube was but a small symptom of a much larger problem. We slowly began to figure out that the engine blew something that created a massive oil leak. In a matter of minutes the car was running on NO oil. Like none. This created so much heat that the coolant couldn't take the pressure and blew, creating even more heat. We had to wait until the next day to get the final verdict from the mechanic in Merritt, but we were pretty sure the engine was toast.

Let me tell you, Merritt on a Sunday night is not that fun. Me and the boys made the best of it, getting some Captain Morgans and yucking it up, but we knew tomorrow was going to be a long day. To add to all of this, two of us had no battery for our cell phones, and another had somehow lost his altogether.

I got up early the next day to talk to the mechanic who informed me the car was toast. He was sure that the incredible overheating had melted the inside of the engine, causing it to warp. You could hear the starter motor turning, but there was just no compression in the pistons. AWESOME. This was my mom's car which I decided to take instead of mine so that we wouldn't break down and be stranded. Ironic.

It was hard to leave such a nice car there, but we had to get home. I couldn't stay another night in Merritt, and it would likely take a lot longer than that to figure out what to do with the car. So we ditched it and took a Greyhound bus to Vancouver.

The long walk home

I took apart my bike as best I could and had two bags on my back, my wheels in one hand, and my bike in the other. It was rough. Two minutes before leaving on the bus, the driver informs me that he won't take my bike because it's not in a box. WTF? So we asked for some old boxes out back and just started taping them around my bike. We somehow got like 4 old crappy old boxes over my bike, and just taped two half boxes around my wheels. So butch.

After 5 long hours we made it to Vancouver. Then the hard part began. We had to take public transit from downtown to the ferry. Two bags, wheels, and my bike on the skytrain and bus. OMG. I will post pictures of it I promise. I don't know how my bike made it without any mishaps. After the second bus we had a little time so I put the bike back together and put it on the bike rack outside, which was a little nicer.

We finally get to the ferry and walk on. I bring my bike upstairs because I had no lock for it and hell, I just didn't want to leave it anywhere. Of course the cheif steward has a big problem with this, but my buddies pull the "he is a big triathlete guy that just came back from national championships and his car broke down" story, so the guy lets us keep the bike upstairs.

10.5 hours after leaving Merritt, we are back in Victoria. All of the travelling has basically ruined my legs (little or no stretching plus a greyhound equals pain).

I have to laugh because I was thinking to myself "I never want to travel again," except I am leaving for Australia in like 7 days for 3 months! I'm gonna bike out to the Sidney TT tonight just to loosen up the legs.

This post will have to be in parts!

Wow I have never had so much stuff happen in a span of 3 days. I don't even know where to start? A road trip with my three best buds, a very important triathlon, and an unplanned sojourn in Merritt are just some of the highlights. OK here it goes.

Me and three of my buds left Vic on Friday afternoon. I was pretty excited that I was going to Nationals with some non-triathlon people. I didn't want to be overly anxious for the race too far in advance. These guys would help me relax until it was time to focus on the entire reason for the trip, the triathlon.

After accidentally missing the turnoff to Hope and hitting the US border, we were one our way to Kelowna! We sang old songs at the top of our lungs the whole way up, and got into our crummy motel around 12:00 am in good spirits. The next morning I got up early (compared to four regular guys ha) and headed down to the race site. The juniors were racing and it was fun to watch. I could feel the nervous tension building up in me. I was excited! The weather was so different from last year. It was still really hot in the day (around 30), but the mornings were strikingly cooler. I also saw wetsuits so I knew that they would most likely be legal the next day as well.

After coming back to the hotel we all went for a wine tour / tasting at Mission Hill Winery. It was amazing!

Us acting stupid at the wine tour!

Us getting our somellier on

I of course only had a few small glasses of wine, and was chugging the water on the hot day. I was the guy on the tour that had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes!

After the tour we headed out for lunch, and then back to the hotel where I got ready to pack my tri stuff up and drop my bike off at the site. I remember one fatal error last year was being outside around the triathlon site waaaay too long under the hot sun. This year I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was in bed early.

I kicked the boys out to go partying around 9:00 pm and got a nice 5 hour head start on them for sleep!

Race morning was the usualy race morning. I made sure that I had eaten a good brekkie, and had my usualy double espresso (something I forgot last race). I found Sam Mazer in transition and we hung out for the better part of 2 hours, doing a small warmup together. I was pumped. The swim course was two loops, so it looked pretty short. I got a great warmup in and was ready to go when all of the male 20-29s were corralled together for the start. I was so scared! I have never been really scared before a race, but I didn't want to fail twice in a row, and I knew today was going to be painful. Kelowna is a hard course! I knew I would be basically sprinting in at least 25 degree heat for the next two hours! The probabilility of cramping on this course is pretty high for a big guy like me!

The gun went off, and the start was crazy! I mean stupid crazy. There were so many fist flying. Some people were so intent on hurting others that for about 100 meters we were barely moving forward! We actually came to a complete stop at one point. Tactically, it was a slow swim for me. Physically, I was pushing hard and trying to grab some feet. But sometimes it just doesn't happen. There was nobody around me that was going my pace. I swam along for most of the swim. Some guy punched me so hard in the first 100m that my left goggle filled up with water, so I couldn't see anything. I managed to fix it when we came out of the water for the second lap, but it for sure had cost me some time. I came out of the water in 23:48, which I am really happy with considering the conditions.

T1 was painful! I just didn't have the usual jump out of the water. I hopped on the bike and rode off like the wind hoping to make up some time.

I attacked Knox hill aggressively. I could tell my biking was strong today. I rode with a guy for a lap and a half, but he died soon after. I was hitting 45-47 k/hr on the stretch back into Kelowna. I knew I was faster than last year, because I had written on a peice of paper my lap splits from last year, and I was faster. I also knew that it would be very tight to get into T2 around the 1:30.00 mark, which would set me up for a 2:10.00 goal race time. My bike time was 1:05.41, almost two minutes faster than last year (which was the bike of my life). I was out of T2 in 1:31.54, so I knew my goal of 2:10.00 might not happen. Still, I was really happy with my race so far and I wanted to finish strong.

I set a solid pace on the run early. Unfortunatly, there are no km markers on the run course. This automatically makes you slower, because you can't see when you start to slack off how fast you are going and speed up! I saw on one of the turnarounds that I was a minute back of one of my fellow age groupers. I reeled him in around 4km, just in time to pass my cheering squad of three guys yelling like idiots for me! It was awesome!

Me and the guy

When he saw me catch up, he definitely sped up, which was fine for me. I was starting to feel the heat and could definitely use a running partner! He dragged me through the next few kms, and we started talking to eachother, encouraging eachother to keep pushing hard. Around 7 km I started to get tactical with this guy. I was listening to his breathing. It was much more laboured than mine. I could tell he was working harder than me. Still, every time we accelerated, he hung on. At around 9km, there was a water station, and he pulled in behind me to get some gatoraid. That was the moment I decided to go. I went balls out and the guy just couldn't respond. In about 300m I had made a 50m gap. My cheering squad went nuts when they saw this! I finished with a 39:35 run, which I am really happy with for not having km markers. My total time was 2:11.29. which is basically a minute away from my ultimate goal in worlds. I am sooo happy about this race. I was two minutes faster in the swim, 2 minutes faster in the bike, and 4 minutes faster in the run than last year, for a total of 8 minutes faster!

I am really happy because mentally and physically, I executed this race to plan. Without the crazy head bashing start in the swim, and with km markers, I am pretty sure I would have been in the 2:10.00 range.

Most of the story starts after this race, but I just can't bring myself to start it now.

More entry later...

Out of The BLUE!!

Wow I have to write a quick post on this. Yesterday I took my Team Canada tri suit to Out of the Blue, so that they could repair the CAN that is falling off the front. They told me it would be ready the next day and would probably cost like $10.

I get there today and they give me my suit and when I ask how much the lady says "no charge, good luck at Nationals." Wow, what a company! I said no that I wanted to pay her, but she wouldn't let me, saying "we only fixed the lettering, it wasn't a big deal."

This would never happen on the mainland, or anywhere else for that matter. I was so touched. That is what a local company is all about. If anyone is having problems with their Team Canada tri suit, or would like their name printed on their suit, I would strongly suggest you go to Out of the Blue. I will be a customer for life.

1 week

Just under 1 week 'till Nationals! I'm getting pretty excited. I took in my Team Canada tri suit to get the CAN fixed on it today. I can't believe the quality of the suit that Tri Can gave us for Worlds! I've worn it two times and most of the lettering has fallen off! Luckily there's a great shop in Vic that does tri-suits for the naitonal and junior teams, so they know what to do!

My week of great workouts ended strong. I had a solid run with the Lifesport group on Saturday morning. We did 10 x 2 minutes hard. We did 5 of them out and 5 back, so you had to be at least back to the same spot you started at or better. I felt a little sloppy on the way out, but turned it on on the way back, negative splitting! I followed that up with a 1 hour easy bike.

Sunday had a 2 hour brick on the sched. I was a little worried that this workout might not go well, since I had a wedding to work on Satuday night and we didn't get home 'till around 1:30am. My legs were a little sluggish on the two TT efforts on the bike, but the 5 km TT run off the bike went great. Nothing like running on a track for a TT! Although somewhat monotonous, you know that the kms are the same length, so you can see exactly when you are losing ground. I threw down an 18:31 5km, with a steadily rising hr from 156 to 188 on the last km. It was interesting to note that my second km was quite a bit better than my first km. I guess it really does take a little bit for the muscles to stretch out and activate after the bike.

Today was the start of my taper week. We had a little shorter main set today in the pool (1800m), but it was hard! Some drills, 4 x 50 sprints, followed up immediately by a 200, 3 times. I held 38 seconds for the 50s, and around 2:55 for the 200s, which I was happy with. My arms were demolished from each set of 50s. I also completed my goal of not letting Magali lap me on the 200, which I barely made each time!

Time for a nap and then the last of my 6 straight days of working yeaaaaah!

It's on

This week has been a great week of workouts. It's funny...I didn't even feel that great after my recovery week last week. I was sort of thinking to myself "do I need another week or something???". But apparently that is all I needed. After another good long bike on Sunday, I had my best swim practice of my life on Monday. We were going 400s, 200s, and 100s. Throughout the 2400m main set, I held 1:28 on the 400s, 1:26 on the 200s, and sub 1:23 on the 100s. By far the fastest I have ever swam. I even got down to 1:20 on my last 100! Thanks to Janet for pacing with me for the first while, before accelerating away! I couldn't even hide how stoked I was at this pace. It was one of those days were I didn't want to leave the pool.


Tuesday brought another great day of workouts. I had a great run in the morning, where I was building by 1/3rds from recovery to tempo. For some reason I decided to try and run sub 40 minutes at elk lake, even though the first 6km would be at a really low hr. I missed it by about 1 minute, but I was giving it a pretty good effort by the end to try and make it!

After some rest, which involved painting my bathroom, I had the Sidney TT in the evening. There was a big contigent of Lifesport peeps there which is always fun! I was about 10 seconds off my PB (for my third fastest time of the year), which I am pretty happy with for having tired legs from running and painting, as well as the course was really slow today. One of those days where you go around 37km/hr on the way out, and 45 km/hr on the way back, thanks to the winds. I finished off the day with a nice cooldown in the squash courts! Legs were pretty tired when I got home at 9:30 pm!

Wednesday brought another great day of workouts. It started early, with a 7 am jaunt to the Observatory to do 6 hill repeats. It was one of the workouts where I thought to myself "wow I would never have done this last year." The repeats went really smooth, with each ascent feeling better than the last.

After the bike it was off for another workout in the pool. Although it is tough to take away too much from a long set of 50s, I just feel like I have a better attitude in the pool and can stay strong throughout the w/o.

I think that my last race has been a blessing in disguise. I hate being embarassed, and I feel like I am totally dialed in mentally to training right now. I want to kill it in Kelowna. I feel like more of an athlete than ever before. Triathlon is my job right now, while bartending is a distant second! I have a bit of a cold right now, so I'm crossing my fingers that it's just a passing thing.

Ciao

5:07

Although I had a bad race last week, the feedback from training lately has been constantly reminding me that I am in a good place physically. I am the fastest I have ever been right now.

Last Tuesday I broke my PB in the Sidney Time Trial. That tells me that I am biking faster than I have ever done.

Friday in our open water session I swam one of the 400m sections in under 6 minutes. Again, faster than I have ever done.

Today at our run workout I ran a 5:07 mile, faster by far than I have ever done. Sure, there is a story behind it. We were only doing three mile repeats instead of our usual six, and I accidentally went out too hard on the first one and slowed a little too much on the last one. But my previous best on the mile was 5:15. Last month I wouldn't even dream of doing a 5:07 mile, regardless of how I did the rest of the workout (which, although not well paced, was also a PB for me on best average). For all the metrics out there, a 5:07 mile corresponds to a 3:11 km, only better because you hold it for longer than a km.

I need to get past my bad race and look at my entire body of work this year, in which I have shown quite an improvement.

The run this morning was followed up by a pleasant 2 hour ride in the rain. Did 6 repeats up Observatory, which felt good. My legs were smashed from the run, but I didn't care.
One interesting note is that I had 1 powerbar before the ride (after the run) and one before my hill repeats, but my energy didn't show up until I was riding home, where I got a sudden burst of energy, accelerating up hills even though my legs were so tired. I will keep that in mind for my race day nutrition.

Happy training!

Reset

This week has been a reset for me. After a good chat with Coach Dan, we have decided to take this week super easy. I am really only doing the Masters swims on Mon, Wed, and Fri (open water). I had an easy bike on Tues and an easy run on Weds. It has been strange taking so much time off! The strangest part is that I have had Tues and Thurs off work. Usually when I have days off work, it is a no brainer to do my heaviest workloads. Today though, I am doing NOTHING! Crazy. But I know I need it.

In fact, since this week has been easier, I actually had my first great swim workout in a while. We were doing descending 100s and 75s. I was descending from 1:35 to 1:25, and I could feel that my form was a lot better. Dan was basically hovering over me the whole time, which was great. I'm sure I was doing just as well on the 75s, but since it is kind of a strange distance I was getting confused on pace times and leading my lane a little astray!

Slowly I am starting to come around. I am starting to get some bursts of energy, which is great! Lots of naps and down time!

Worst Triathlon Ever - Race Report

I have always wondered about the "bad race" when I read about it on some of the other triathlete blogs. Before Sunday I had never experienced a "bad race" in the sense of grossly underachieving what I had expected for myself. Now I have, and I am struggling mentally with what it means. I have already begun the thousand questions of why. I don't really mind having a bad race, but having a bad race two weeks before nationals and four weeks before Australia doesn't exactly put my mind at ease.

Pre-Race. I did everything that I usually do pre-race. Up early with a meal-replacement shake, banana, powerbar, and sports drink. Got to the race site nice and early, had a pretty good warmup, and was ready to go.

Swim: The swim started pretty frantically, with lots of fists flying. I got hit pretty hard in the right goggle, and I ended up losing vision on that side do to the extreme suction on my face! The funniest part about this is that it was probably my coach, as I noticed he was beside me about 100m later. After that I just concentrated on high turnover and never slowing down. I missed the draft of the first pack, but hung around in the line of other triathletes. I went off course a few times, but nothing too serious. I was feeling good, and although I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked, I felt like I as in for a good swim time.

When I got into T1 I quickly checked my watch and couldn't believe the time I saw. 27 minutes! What! I doubled checked my watch. Yep 27 minutes. Yep somehow I swam slower than last year, even though I am at least four times faster than last year. I told myself that the course must have been long, and to not worry about it. So I hopped on my bike and set off.

About 1 km into the bike Richard Knowlton passed me. #$%@. That means that I actually did have a ridiculously slow swim. Richard is an amazing triathlete, but we both have our different strengths, and this year the swim is mine. I was hoping to build up at least 3 minutes on him in the swim. That burst my bubble a little bit. He just zoomed ahead of me and I thought "ok you gotta go with him," but my legs thought otherwise. What the hell was wrong with me? Richard just kept getting farther and farther away. We have had basically the same bike splits in all of the tris this year so I didn't know what was going on. Trying to keep some sort of positivity in this race, I told myself that he was having an amazing bike, and I should be happy for him and just try and do my own race. I $%^&ed up the swim, but I shouldn't give up. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful. I didn't have much to give. The rollers on Old West Saanich drained me before I even started. Last month the bike course was similar, but I felt 100 times more powerful. At the 20k mark Dan passed me. He must have had a lack lustre swim as well, as I expected him to be already ahead of me. He looked like a machine on the bike. I tried to follow him for 500m but gave up on that, knowing there was nothing in the my legs.

I did the bike in 1:09.07, about 4 minutes slower than I would have liked. I just caught Janet Neilson before T2. Realistically I should have caught her before. That was going to be the theme for the run.

Out of T1 in 1:37.26, about 0.07.26 slower than I expected. That's when it got pretty emotional. My mom was there cheering for me, and I put on a happy face as I ran by, knowing that if I didn't have a solid run, I would not beat my time from last year. Thousands of dollars and hours in training to not beat my time. I was pretty down. I tried to salvage the run into some sort of building training run. It reminded me of years past when I was a really bad swimmer and a good runner. I passed a lot of people on the run, which usually would make me happy. Today however, it was more like "how the $%#@ is this person still ahead of me????" Or "how the #$%@ was this person ever ahead of me?" I didn't care if there were relay teams or not.

At the start of the run there were clearly laid out km markers. After about 4 of those I didn't see any more. Maybe I was just in a fog. I should have just timed myself between the km markers that are at Elk Lake, but I wasn't thinking straight. I just kept putting one leg in front of the other, passing people one after the other. I just wanted this one done. As I headed for home and into the finishing shoot I could hear people cheering and I looked behind me and saw nothing. I crossed the finish line and saw Janet run through right after me. Great run Janet! I guess she put the burners on in the last little bit to catch me. Good thing the finish was where it was, because she would have.

I finished the run in 39:57, for a total time of 2:17:59. Exactly 1 minute faster than last year. 1 minute.

After the race I quickly packed my stuff up and left. I was slightly embarrassed to be wearing a Team Canada uniform. I am not trying to be pompous, as I respect everyone of all ages that wears that uniform, but at my age wearing that uniform says that you are serious and a contender. Well that wasn't me today.

The scariest thing about the swim was that I have no answer for it. The course may have been slow/long, but not that long. Maybe 5 seconds/ 100 long. I was 20 seconds per 100m slower. 20 seconds! That doesn't make sense. Did I go around a different buoy? I am still trying to figure that one out. And how could I have felt in any way that I was having a decent swim, when I was having the worst swim of my life? I didn't feel the usual crazy amount of energy at the start, but 20 Seconds!!!!!!!! It kept me up all night.

I am actually happy that my bike was so poor. It tells me that there was something wrong with me yesterday, which may explain a bit of the swim. It might have been the Time Trial I did on Tuesday, but with little biking since it shouldn't have been an issue. I do know that my legs burned more than usual on the hills. Also, whenever I tried to knock some dust off my legs with a 50m sprint, nothing happened. Usually I get a mini burst of energy, but not today.

The one decent thing that was not decent at all was the run. I am proud that I mentally didn't give up, and broke 40 mins in a triathlon for the first time. Yeah, I was expecting to smash the 40 minute mark, but for the circumstances, I will try and find a positive out of this. It could have been easy to just give up and jog it in, but I didn't. I put a solid effort in the run, but seeing that Janet had a faster run than me only solidifies the point that I wasn't able to compete today.

One thing I would like to say is that when I mention peoples names to compare to, I don't mean any harm at all. Janet had a fabulous race! To track down Lysanne was pretty amazing. Janet is the ultimate competitor, and seems to always show up for races. Richard had a great race too! To be so close to Travis Chater and Jairus Streight is amazing. I'm sure he would have liked a few more seconds off on the run, but I know he has not been running as much as he would like. Still, ballsy effort man! Great race for Coach Dan too! He bowed out before the run due to an injury, but would have finished really high in the race. If he wanted to run, he would have been top 15 for sure! Also a shout out to Sam Mazer, who also had a tough race. She gave me a few good knocks on the head in the swim for cutting her out of the draft, which I apologize for! You should have just climbed on top of me! It couldn't have made me any slower.

The new plan is to sit down with Coach Dan and discuss my planned taper around Nationals and Worlds. Although this race wasn't my goal race of the year, I didn't feel rested and bouncing off the walls ready to go on Sunday. I want to make sure I feel that for Nationals and Worlds. Yesterday I really never wanted to train again. Today I feel much better, and am ready to get back at it. The beauty of sports is that there are good times and bad, and the best athletes persevere.

Thanks to my peeps for all the best wishes, I really appreciate it.

Worst Triathlon Ever

I think I will wait a few days to write a report on this one, since I don't want to use too many swear words. I just committed carbocide at Tim Hortons.

Pre Race Thoughts

It's the day before the Sri Triathlon at Elk Lake. Where has the last three weeks gone???? I have had some great training, and have had a few days lately to relax and get a mental breather before this race.

Speaking of this race, it is basically the first big tune-up for the Worlds. It is the second Olympic distance race of the year, after Shawnigan. Shawnigan was pretty early in the season though, so this should be a better picture of what I can do in Kelowna and Australia. I plan to be very observant during this triathlon of how I am feeling, so that I can use the info to plan better for the next few. That being said, this is what I am hoping to do tomorrow.

Swim: 22:30-23:00. Pace / 100m: 1:30-1:33. I don't think the swim will be a wetsuit swim, which I am ok with. I keep my hips pretty high, so I probably have an advantage over some. Time-wise, I'm not really sure where I'm at these days. I have had some good and bad feedback on the swim in training, but I am usually very good at sucking it up for a race and going balls out. I swam 24:14 at Shawnigan,but it wasn't my best work.

Bike: 1:06.00 Avg Speed: 36.4. My last few races were sprints, but I was averaging over 39 kph, so I should be able to hold at least 36. I have been holding above 40kph on the time trials. I don't wanna kill myself too bad on the bike, so this is a very reachable goal.

Run: 39.00. Pace: 3:55. This should also be pretty attainable. I have been doing 10 x 1 km repeats at the lake holding sub 3:30. Not saying that 10 x 1 km is at all the same as running off of the bike for 10 straight, but 3:55 is pretty pedestrian for me, so I should be able to hold at least this pace.

Total Time: 2:09:30. That is with a 1 minute T1 and 30 second T2. I would really love to go sub 2:10.00 on this one. I probably have a better chance on doing this tomorrow rather than in Kelowna, which is a tougher course.

Out do to a little race prep on the bike!

Good luck to everyone!

Training, Training and a Race Report

Training training training. That's what I do. I look like a slob at work, coming off of a 3+ hour training day with just enough time to hop in the shower before showing up to slog it for another 6-8 hours at night. Training has been hard to describe. So much good but not without the bad. I don't know what has happened to my swimming. I am definitely not getting slower, but I feel like I am worse. Probably because I have been doing so much open water lately. I have definitely lost confidence that I am an OK swimmer. These days I dread jumping into the pool, where I meet training partners like Lindsey, who can miss like 2 weeks of Masters and still jump in and push me to my utmost limit. While I gasp for air on the wall just trying to hold her back, she sighs lightly and says "woo tough one today." ha ha. I have a lot of respect for that girl. It would be the easiest swim or one that is torture and she still has the same attitude. I wish I could say that I do the same.

Coach D and I have been trying to figure out why I suck so much in the open water. We have been trying different things, and now sometimes in the water I'm not sure where I started! How did I swim two months ago? Today in the pool Sabrina told me that I have the largest spray from my kick in the pool. That's cool. I wonder where all that power is going, since I am the worst kicker in the group!

Anyhow, frustrations aside, biking and running have been going great. I did a lot of running last week, including two hard interval sessions. Biking has taken a back seat this week, after about 2 months of bike specific work. I had another amazing run session going at Elk this Saturday where I attempted to stay with Magali and Kerry for the km repeats. OMG it was hard. They were running around 3:20-3:38 kms. Coach Lance and Paul say that the km is about 10 seconds slow. That was probably the first time I have ever ran 3:10-3:15 kms. Every time we started, the girls would shoot off like a cannon, while I would struggle to close the gap in the first km. I bowed out after 6/10 repeats, since my hamstring was crying for mercy in that scary "i'm gonna snap any time" way. I also thought that I should waste the $30 entry fee for the Esquimalt 8k the next day, and actually run half decent. On to the race.....

Although I bowed out early from my workout the day before, I was still really tight. I took a nice light warmup with some A,B,Cs and then headed up to the start line. My goal for the race was to run consistently and smoothly, preparing for the run leg of my next tri. I went with my new racing flats, sans socks, to get used to them. This would be my longest run in these flats. I had done two 5km run legs in sprint triathlons with them, and am eager to see how they will hold up in longer distances. I am not the most agile runner, so I was slightly worried about running hard in flats.

The race started and I kept it pretty chill. It always amazes me how fast some people go at the beginning of the race. These people are in every race, and know who is going to and not going to beat them, yet they still insist on sprinting ahead of the leaders like they belong there ha! To the dude that momentarily passed Marilyn Arsenault doing 3 minute kms before fading into the dust, that was just silly!

Anyhow, I settled into a rhythm after a 3:35 1st km, knocking off 3:40s for a few kms. Jeff Hunt was around me, and that was nice to key off of. I thought he may hold a little back for his second race of the day, so I decided to not pace off him. There was nobody else to go with, so I just ran by myself the whole way. 3:40, 3:40, 3:40. It was getting a little strange. I just kept the same pace the whole way.

At km 6, things started to unravel. It was hot out. I was sweating. My feet were sweating. For the last few kms I was reeling a PIHer in that went out waay to fast and was fading fast. I swear he was hitting 3:15 kms at the start, and was now hitting around 3:45. Unfortunately, I could feel the blisters starting under my feet. I could actually feel the liquid shifting under my weight. I held steady for the second to last km at 3:40, but the pain became too much by the last km. I just wanted to finish. To his credit, the PIH guy held it together long enough and had a great race. I finished with a 4 minute km for a time of 29:59.995. I actually saw the official results and that's what it said ha!

I probably would have run slightly faster at the end had I known I was even close to 30 minutes. O well. I just wanted to get that damn show off. Surveying the damage, I had three blisters, each bigger that the size of a quarter. Another blister was on my heel. Not cool. How am I supposed to run a 10km leg in a tri, if I can't even deal with 8k? Unfortunately, I think these shoes are done. Either I'm not a racing flat guy, or not a Saucony guy. I'm going back to my ol' Nike's.

After a post race brekky with my family, I headed out for a bike ride in the 30 degree heat. Damn it was hot. It was so hot that I ditched my usually jersey and put on a racing top. I decided not to bring my extra tube and stuff, since I haven't had a flat in a while and it was to be a short ride. You know what happened. I got stuck on the highway with no phone, no money and a 3 km walk in my socks to the nearest gas station. With all of the blisters, it was pretty hellish. A $36 (honestly it was like $2/ km!!!) cab ride later, I was home and grumpy! Had to work in the night, which I barely managed with a heavily taped up foot.

Today was an ugly swim that I will not talk about. I'm over it. I just want a solid week of training before the Self Transcendence tri this weekend. Swim and Bike tomorrow. Happy training.

Mj

Quick Pick

Here's a cool pic from this Saturday's pro workout from Kerry Spearing's blog. That's us leading the women's pack, before getting reeled in on the final two!

Awesome!

The past few training sessions can only be described as awesome.


In my last post I talked about how excited I was to finally get to run with some of the pros. Well, Saturday morning I shot out of bed 2 minutes before my alarm went off (after working late), and was rearing to go to Elk Lake. I grabbed my usual granola and double espresso and headed to the lake. I was excited to see the whole Lifesport Pro camp there, with some extra people sprinkled on top such as Simon Whitfield and Andrew McCartney. I am always star struck when I am around such greatness. It really is like golfing with Tiger Woods. You get to see up close the best the sport has to offer!


Anyhow, for the workout we were doing 6 x 1 mile repeats. Dan had a sore knee so he wasn't running. I was hoping that he was, since I wanted to gage my pace off of him, to prevent me from going out too fast. I was slated to go with the main Women's pack. With multiple Ironman titles in the group, I was obviously stoked to be there!


After a solid warmup we started our first interval. I noticed that the group was taking it pretty conservative the first mile, so I headed to the front to lead. Lucy Smith and Magali Tisseyre shot off the front, and were out of sight pretty quick. Lucy was looking sooo good today! Magali stuck with her for the first mile, which ended up being 5:16, and suffered a bit after that. I got a little gap on the rest of the girls, but I wasn't trying to extend it or anything. I wasn't about to go out and try and show up these girls! They know what they are doing! Did the first one around 5:28. After the first mile Kerry Spearing, who was just ahead of me, asked if I wanted to run with her. I knew it was a bit of a stretch for me, but I wasn't going to say no! We did the second mile in 5:21 or something. It was fast!


Kerry obviously thought it was fast as well, as she slowed down a bit on the next mile. By this time though Bree Wee decided that she was gonna take charge and set the pace with me for the next two reps. It was so fun to run with her. It was all positive and all strong! I was really having a great day! We were doing mid twenty's for the repeats. Reps 5 and 6 were pretty tough for me. Bree just has so much more endurance than me. She grabbed about a 3 second gap on rep number five, and never looked back. It was pretty funny having Coach Paul riding beside Bree yelling at her, and Coach Dan riding behind me yelling at me to go hard! I gave it everything I had to catch her, getting my heart rate up to 191 (100%), but Bree was too strong!


It was an amazing day, with Simon running 4:25 miles, and me and the girls following. It's too bad the pros aren't here every week! When I got home I was pretty sore, so I hopped on the bike for an hour and a half to flush the legs out! All in all a pretty amazing day. I think there are some more pictures to come, but I snagged these ones from Bree's Blog (Thanks Bree!)

The pep talk before the workout

The most intense practice run start I have ever experienced ha! Look at Simon leaning on the right!

Fun in the sun

A few days since my last post. I am over my beating by the pros, especially since I was beaten again this morning at Thetis lake. But who am I kidding? It's the best

One thing that is different about the pros being in town is the length and difficulty of the workouts. They are just on another level. This morning at Thetis we had a 4k swim that had a 1000m segment, two 150m hard segments, and 2 400m segments. Being incredibly slow compared to the rest of the group, I only got about 10 seconds to regroup before the next effort. On the last rep, we were doing a pair race, where you went off in pairs and had to work together to win. I got all of about 15 seconds of rest before Coach Paul put me with Lance, who has been swimming amazing these days. I thought "o my god here we go." ha ha.

Lance was really nice to put up with me on this one. He did everything short of a tow rope to keep me going. I think I even saw him at one point doing backstroke to watch me! Sad I know!

What it did do was force me to go the hardest on the last rep of the day, which is good.

I did the swim today without a wetsuit. I have now figured out that I don't swim bad in a wetsuit, and I don't swim bad in open water, I just swim bad on longer intervals ha ha!. The lack of wetsuit did nothing to help my dragging ass. I just do not have the endurance in longer interval swims. It's crazy. O well, I can only improve so much in one year. I am happy with knocking off 4 minutes on my 1.5k swim time.

After the swim I couldn't help but get a few picks with some of the pros that I admire most. I snapped one with Magali and one with Bree. I swear Magali is the next big deal. I love that after we took the pick she said "thanks" to me. So nice ha ha! Those pics are to come. But Bree snapped the awesome pic of the group that is on her blog.

Look at me in the middle like I'm some bigshot ha ha!

I'm really excited for tomorrow 'cause it is my first chance to run with them (I think). I think it will be a lot more enjoyable to do one of my better disciplines with the group!

Happy training!

Humble Pie

I'm not gonna lie. Yesterday I was dominated. I was ok about it at the time, but upon further reflection I am a little embarrassed.

Sure, there's nothing to be embarrassed about when you are competing against some of the top athletes in the world. But I could have, should have done better! I was pretty amazed to show up to our usual Wednesday swim practice at Durrance Lake and see Linsey Corbin, Magali Tisseyre, Brent Poulson, and Bree Wee among the throng of other pros in town for the week. I was especially star struck to see Linsey and Magali. Linsey is one of the top Ironman athletes, and Magali has posted the fastest 70.3 time for a woman this year.

Needless to say, the swim was pretty fast paced. I am not usually in the front pack on the swim, but I couldn't believe that after about 20 meters, I was at least 15 meters behind already! In fact, I was so far behind at some points that they started the next segment without me. It was crazy. At one point we were doing an out and back, and I turned around before the "turnaround" to latch on to the back of the pack to see what it was like. Well that lasted for a solid 10 seconds ha ha ha. I couldn't even bear to do the last segment of the workout. It was just too much for me. Even Coach Dan sat one rep out. As I got out of the water Coach Lance seemed to read my face perfectly, saying "makes you feel pretty average huh?" ha ha.

I'm really not that upset about it. I only wish that I could have done a run or bike with them, instead of my weakest discipline. It would be amazing to be a little more competitive with them. It did shoot me into reality though of how far I am from being a pro. Not that I thought I was. These athletes are long course, so technically they should be a little slower than short coursers. Believe me they aren't! It will make me think twice next time I put myself as an "elite" in a race that's for sure!

Other than that training has been going well. I damn near killed myself on a run this morning in order to make up for yesterday's swim! I was up all night thinking about it!

Happy training!

Update

The Numbers

Actual Time 13:40
Planned Time 13:40
Hours from ATP 0:00
Swim Distance 9300 m
Bike Distance 145.85 km
Run Distance 40.87 km
Brick Distance 35 km


First a quick comment on my numbs for this week. 145k of bike intervals, 40k of running intervals, and a brick. I'm pretty stoked! Swimming was a little light this week, but it was still good work. It's pretty amazing that my planned time and actual time are the exact same, as I was under time on some workouts and over time on others! Although the hours are not overly amazing, almost every minute of that time is used to do something productive. I don't think I could handle any more training in my life!


Training has been going great since the Tri of Compassion. I have stepped my running mileage up quite a bit, so my legs have been constantly sore this week. I have also been doing lots of speed work in running and biking, which has taken its toll as well. I don't mind though. I know the benefits of recovery for endurance athletes, but I can't help but be a little smug when my legs burn from going up a flight of stairs at night. I'm working hard, and getting faster. Swimming has been going good too. I only had three swim w/os this week. The first one I already described. The second one was a 10 x 50 followed by a 6 x 200, which absolutely demolished me. It was a classic blow up in the pool. I always forget that a set of 50s followed by longer intervals always kills me, and this time was no different. The 3rd and 4th 200s were the worst, but I managed to salvage a somewhat respectable time for the 5th and 6th. The third swim was the usual Thetis Lake swim, where I was pretty competitive right from the start. I usually take a few intervals to get going, so I was happy. I still have to work on my form in a wetsuit. I don't know why I can't swim the same as the pool!

I also had some monster shifts at work, and since I do not wear very good shoes, it has taken a toll on the legs as well. To be honest, I am really proud of myself that I have finished all of my workouts this week. This next week of training is going to be tough. I have a wedding on Saturday and golfing on Sunday, so I will have to bank a lot of workouts during the week in between work! One day I will sleep in.

Mj

Tri of Compassion - Race Report

First of all, I want to say that I love this race. As long as I am in town, I will always do this one. My family lives on one of the streets that the run goes down, so I feel like it's a hometown race. Everyone including my grandma stands out on the lawn shouting encouragement!

I stated to my coach that depending on the field, one of my goals for this year was to win this race. When I got to race package pickup and saw names like Travis Chater and Allan Boos, I knew that my hopes of first were probably too high. That being said, I was really excited to race against these guys. I thought I might be able to give them a run early, or at least take away some positives. As of a year ago, these guys were completely on another planet regarding triathlon fitness. Now, I feel like I am closer than ever to being on the same step as them.

The triathlon itself cannot be any more athlete friendly. The swim is in a pool, the bike is 3 laps of a pretty flat course, and the run is along the beautiful shoreline of Esquimalt. Another nice thing that was changed this year was the start times. Last year the top triathletes started at 12:30, which is way too late if it is hot. This year, the first heat went off at 6:00 am (I feel bad for those guys!), so that we could go off at 9:30 am.

I found myself in a lane with Christopher Sundby, who is a great young triathlete. I knew he would have a good swim so my goal was to stick right on his toes for the swim. For possibly the first time in a pool swim tri, we were given a nice amount of time to warmup. I probably got in around 500m of solid warmup before we lined up to start.

The swim felt good. I had tons of energy. I caught up to Christopher after 1 lap (we went off in 5 second intervals), and stick with him for the entire swim. The other two people in our lane were either not feeling good that day, or thought they were better swimmers! We passed both after about 7 laps. It was funny because for both swimmers Chris was able to pass them on the wall, while I had to pass both mid lane. It wasn't a big deal though, since the lanes were nice and wide, and 3 people could fit easily. Because of this, I didn't try to overdo it when passing. I just slowly climbed up to the swimmer until be both hit the end wall more or less even. The second swimmer however, didn't see me (I don't know how), and as we both came up to the wall she suddenly turned right into me. I didn't really mind at all, since I am used to contact from open water practice and races, but I'm sure she wasn't too thrilled to get a foot in the face! I felt kinda bad. I finished the swim in 7:01. That is 25 seconds faster than last year. For a 500m swim, that's pretty sweet! Last year's swim was considered the swim of my life. I jumped out right behind Christopher. To show how different my wetsuit swimming is to my pool swimming, I came out of the water over half a minute behind Chris 2 weeks ago at the New Balance Sprint.

T1 was as smooth as it gets. Superman onto my bike, with my elastics perfectly placing my shoes, and I was off.

The bike was good. Last year on the bike, I duelled it out with a guy the entire way, and it really helped my time. This year I was all on my own. I came out of the water right behind Allan Boos (another positive for the day), and I knew Travis Chater was out way before me, so I figured I was in third. Riding solo is definitely harder. You think more about the pain. My first lap went by in 11.12.28, which is slower than I wanted but it included all of the transition time and putting my shoes on, so I wasn't worried. Second lap was done in 9:31. I passed Don from Fort Street Cycle on this lap, who was the bike part of the FSC relay team that had Kirsten Sweetland as the swimmer. After passing him I was almost certain that I was third. The final lap was done in 10.42.95 (again with some transition stuff in there), and I was done the bike in 31.28.00 (31.55.00 including transitions).

T2 was completely the opposite of T1. It was my first real "ordeal" of the year. I come off the bike feeling good, and go to slip on my new racing flats. These flats are a little tricky to get into. There is an elastic band near the toe of the shoe that sometimes catches my pinkie toe in it. At the New Balance race, I just ignored it. At this race though, it got caught in an awkward angle and after about 20 steps I knew I wasn't going to be able to continue with it. I stopped and pulled my foot out of the shoe. Unfortunately, the in-sole came out with it. Well I have played with these in-soles before and I know they are not easy to get back in, so I just decided to forget about it and run without it. I was running with an in-sole in my hand! One of the volunteers kindly took it for me.

After about 100 meters I started to feel the pain. It was like a knife stabbing the arch of my foot. Although there is not a lot in a racing flat, those flimsy in-soles make a world of difference! There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to fight through the pain. My family was waiting along the route, and I would continute with a broken leg if it meant running by them! I started to run on the outside of my shoe. It sounds dumb, but in the moment you just do whatever the hell you can! The pain started to subside somewhat, though I think it was more me getting used to it. That's when another problem started, my nutrition.

I wanted to change it up a little bit this race. I hate eating gels. I can barely get them down before a race. I always feel better in training with a little bit of solid food in my stomach. So today, I tried eating a powerbar 20 minutes before the race. This combined with half a water bottle of gatoraid was a bad combo. Too many carbs for such an intense race. I think the powerbar thing could work, but only in an Olympic distance race or longer. This race was just too intense for it.

So here I am 200 m in on the run, with a sharp pain in my foot and I am trying not to puke. I family's house is coming up, and I am already planning where to puke when I turn the corner after seeing them. It felt bad. I could feed the jostling in my stomach. Thank god the first 500m of the course are basically a slight downhill. Without that, I don't know what would have happened. After about 900m, I started to feel slightly better. By slightly better, I mean I wasn't going to immediately puke, but the feeling was still there. It is the feeling when I am sprinting with Dan on the last of 10- km repeats at Elk Lake.

But there were also positives that I was taking note of during the run. First, my legs felt great. I went to get a bike fit earlier in the year, because I was having a hard time on the run with sore legs around my ankles. We switched things up, and now I feel much better off the bike! If my stomach was feeling better, I could have pushed it a lot harder. Also, my form felt really good. Since I couldn't go as hard as I wanted to, I concentrated on good form and high knees. This really helped me keep my speed during the tougher sections of the course. At the turn-around there was someone about a minute behind me looking strong, so I picked it up as hard as I could and headed for home. I crossed the line in 57:26 with an 18:30 run time. Good for 3rd place overall. Let the analysis begin.

I read an article by Mark Allan a while back talking about his trials in Kona. He couldn't understand why he was consistently having a sub par run, when running was his strength. He said he finally realized that he wasn't running well because his swimming and biking were not strong enough, which didn't leave him as much energy on the run compared to others. This is exactly how I feel I have improved. Looking at last year's time, I was over a minute and a half faster, which is pretty good on such a short course, where time is hard to find. My swim was obviously better than last year,but my bike was only 15 seconds faster than last year.

Let me tell you, I am ten times better at cycling than I was last year. But I remember that last year, I had the ride of my life. And last year, when I got on the run, I had a terrible go at it. This year, due to the increased fitness on the bike and swim, I had a run that was almost a minute faster than last year. This decrease in run time is not due to me being that much better at running. In fact, I have been doing fairly low mileage for a while now compared to cycling and swimming. It is due to me being a better all around triathlete compared to last year. So this I am happy about! This is including my debacle with my shoes and nutrition! I am also fairly certain that I could have run a second 5 km faster if we were doing an Olympic distance event. I take a while to get settled on the run, so the Sprint distance does not suite me as well. All in all I think it was a great day shared by family and friends. It was also my first time ever winning prize money! $50 bucks goes a long way these days, so I am extremely pleased!

I cannot wait to do a solid block of training before the Self Transcendence Tri in August. I started today with a 20 x 100 main set in the pool, where I was consistently under 1:25, and dropped to 1:21 on the last few. I wanted the pain. It felt so good!

Happy training!